The Dissonance of Colors

Colors and shapes mimic the desert

dissonance |ˈdisənəns|• a tension or clash resulting from the combination of two disharmonious or unsuitableelements: dissonance between campaign rhetoric and personal behavior.• unsuitable or unusual in combination; clashing: Jackson employs both harmonious and dissonant color choices
After decades of trying to get the colors "right" I have finally realized that mother nature rarely follows the rules of man. The other day while walking my dog, I was watching all the landscaping that is going on along Ramon Road in Palm Springs. Grass is slowly disappearing as the rush to plant desert landscaping to save water during the California drought proceeds. It hit me that the landscapers, taking their cue from the desert, were using different rules as well.To be granted, some of these plants are not native to California or even the American desert but all are known to tolerate heat and lack of water ... or less than the amount of water grass needs to survive. I noticed that they were putting in some kind of drip irrigation to help the new plants survive and hopefully thrive. Yet look at these colors ... yellow, magenta, a red bordering on vermillion, as well as a variety of greens, tan dirt. A painter might faithfully record such a scene but to western, northern eyes they appear a bit discordant.

Buddhist Shrine

Not all cultures view colors this way. Visiting Hong Kong recently I was struck over and over again by their use of colors. Red is used everywhere! My case is point is this Buddhist Shrine we happened on. Can you imagine something like this is a Christian Church? Christian Churches tend to be monochromatic unless you have stain glass windows. This seems to be the only allowable way you can add a bit of color. However, not only are the shrines vibrant they also seem to violate Western views of the color wheel. Green and red, splashes of blue and orange, gold and a variety of greens.
I remember in one of my first advertising classes in college. Our director was also our teacher and he gave us a quick review of the color wheel ... what would work and what wouldn't. He was especially disparaging of red and green used together unless it was for Christmas. Always a kind of closet rebel I took that as a challenge. My ad, in those days we had to literally draw the headline typefaces, was for a line of women's clothing. I used red and an avocado green with tints of both of them for contrast. Black ink was a given so we were told to pick two more colors for a two-color ad. When I walked in with my masterpiece, I spent the entire day Sunday creating this, there were stares and a few gasps. I sat down and when he walked in, had us stand up one by one and show the class our creations. Most of the ads were pleasant enough but nothing really stood out until I showed my ad. The red literally popped off the page whereas the green became a foil, much like leaves on a tree filled with flowers, better than black even. He looked at it, then at me, shook his head and muttered, "I knew it. You took this as a challenge." I nodded and got an A.

Hand blown vase

We may not always like what we see when rules are disobeyed.This vase is a case in point. I didn't like its use of color yet it attracted me enough to take a picture of it. It is striking and would surely create comments. I began to wonder as I stared at it are we too used to playing it too safe? Then when an item uses colors in a new and challenging way we dismiss it ... at first? Is this what Van Gogh did? Not only was his brushwork unrefined, he used stark brilliant colors, usually, colors that in many cases vibrant off the canvas. Once seen who can ever forget the moon and stars in "Starry Night?"The clash of similar colors in his "Sunflower" series.
Expressionists and many abstract artists were especially eager to use colors in this new way. After the Germans and especially Kandinsky, Russian born but German living, saw their first Van Gogh, German art turned upside down. They never did like the dreamy landscapes of the French Impressionists. They wanted the brute force of color and shapes. Then they created their own.

Hong Kong Street at night

They would have loved the far east. Doesn't this normal street scene seem like something ripped right out of a Van Gogh painting? Its colorful and its colors vie with each other reaching out to passersby to stop and look! On one hand they are very discordant ... blues and purples and reds, yellow and shocking greens all mixed together in a jumble of color. I was so struck I had to record this with my iPhone that luckily recorded exactly what I saw.
The most popular blog I wrote here had to do with color. We all want to be sure that we use color "correctly." Yet, I ask, what is the correct use of color? Sure, we know that one color doesn't go with another ... or can it? We can look at a color wheel to get an idea of what is and IS NOT acceptable. Again, these rules seem to apply to western eyes only. Anyone that has ever been in the Orient or India knows that their use of color

literally boggles the mind. I say that is a good thing. I think artists should be working with color, colors, finding new ways to express feelings and emotions with color than some of the shocking, bordering on pornographic images they create. In temples I saw in Hong Kong, the detail work on temples had no problem mixing beautiful blues with bluish green separated with white stripes. Looking at the color wheel we see clearly the relationships between primary, secondary and tertiary colors. Yet how many times have you seen adjacent colors used and often to great effect. Some fast food restaurants use orange and red together as it stimulates you to eat more and faster. Muted tones are more conducive to a slower, calmer pace of eating, resting or sleeping depending on the room. Just think of the last hotel room you stayed in. It almost put you to sleep before you were ready to go to bed.
I

Even the lowly cactus is colorful

urge you to look at natural color more carefully around you. See how it is used. Is it boring? Is your art boring? Now I'm not saying to just slap any old paint on the walls of your house, the canvas you're painting or flowers you are planting. However, you need to be aware of how color(s) can be used to spice things up ... remove the boring and make lives more interesting. This cactus sure did!
As a kid growing up in the 50's color was all the rage in cars. Turquoise, vermillion and white, black, pink and white cars, even yellow and white. Cars were a showplace of your good and colorful taste. Then cars became white, silver and black. You could look down a parking lot and realize they just about all looked alike. Red made a comeback as did candy apple red. However, it was the Fiat 500 and Mini Cooper using a variety of 50's pastel colors that seemed to turn the trick. Now we are seeing blues, rusty reds, shocking greens, yellows, gorgeous metallic browns alongside the

1955 Ford Fairlane

white, silver and black cars that still dominate but are slowly being replaced. Will we ever see the return of that era? Who knows but for me it IS nice to see color on the roads again. However, I doubt we will ever see a Ford like the one at right. Can you believe you could buy this gem right off the showroom floor?
Yes, you need to learn more than the basics of color. You might want to read my blog FUN WITH COLOR written in Oct. 12, 2013 for the basics. Maybe its time to review it again. Life can be colorful or dull. It is up to you. However, the choice remains and will remain yours, and yours alone. My suggestion? Get some color in your life.
Thank you for reading my blog. I cover the way design affects our lives and urge you to check out my earlier blogs.

Setting Up A Studio ... At Last!

The studio at the beginning ... once the most dangerous room in the house!

They say that parting is such with sorrow but after 30 years of living in the same place, to me moving is such with sorrow. To see what you have, all of it at one time in one place is well, it's overwhelming!

When I moved to Palm Springs I pretty much segregated the bags and boxes to the rooms they would ultimately go in. As you can see the studio (the smaller, second bedroom) was packed to the gills. Boxes teetered on either side of the narrow path through and you took your life in your own hands when you entered. The washer and dryer was in this bedroom's closet so it was always an adventure. What would fall on you next? Trust me, they did too.

I left this room for last. The master bedroom saw the creation of a new computer work station, the living room saw its boxes slowly disappear as things were put away, new shelves and furniture added so that finally everything had a home. It was a time consuming, tedious task, one that has taken more than two months.

Last but not least I needed to tackle the studio. I was feeling creative and needed to create! Such incentive!!! It was such a mess, there were so many boxes I truly didn't know where to begin. I bought two more freestanding metal shelves, assembled those and then just put things on them all as I emptied box after box. Where did this all come from? This is truly mine? Tubs of unfinished items followed tubs of completed items.  Trips to the small storage room helped create more space ... but I realized that at some point they would have to be dealt with as well. For now, just getting in the room was a priority.

At least you can see the floor!

I toyed with the idea of adding another table, one that could be used for projects that needed to be assembled, put aside for the meantime or to be used for shipping IF I ever opened my Etsy store again. Shopping with a friend at COSTCO we found a folding outdoor table that was the right size and if necessary could be put away. I demurred buying instead helping him load his purchase in the car.

Not having the cabinets or shelves I had before, I jumped at the chance to relieve a friend of a 4-drawer filing cabinet and take a drafting table off his hands. Imagine my surprise and delight when I discovered that the distance between the file cabinet and the wall would take that drafting table top perfectly. Since It had no base I wondered exactly how I could prop it up when I got a flyer from Harbor Freight Tools with a sale on sturdy plastic saw horses. Measuring them in the store I found they were 22" wide and would support the 36" deep top with a minimal overhang, one that would not be unstable! For $20 I had my base.

The studio ready at last. While never pretty, everything has a home!

That done, the worst task of all began. Organizing the mess on the shelves. Magazines, books, paints and an assortment of parts and pieces let alone finished paintings, some framed, many not, needed homes if only to just get them off the floor. Some paintings were taken to the living room to be hung while others, not all, just needed to be put away. It took several days of shifting before I felt that it all made sense with the most used items around me ... back and side with other items clearly visible on the shelves that lined one long wall.

The drafting table sits in front of a window that has sun all day long hence the curtains that contain a great deal of the heat and the easel sits on the side but is easily moved if necessary. Printer, radio and craft books are all within easy reach while canvases and other craft items sit on the tops of shelves out of the way but easily accessible when needed.

Paints, extra brushes, printer and radio are to my left. The
books of inspiration are behind me. The perfect niche!

My paints are all on my left side in either a turntable or on shelves especially designed to hold the paints. Tubs are also on shelves with an assortment of items I add to my birdhouses ... fences, feet, trees and whatever else I've managed to accumulate over the years. Each item I create is usually embellished in some way making it distinctive from the items you buy off the shelf. It goes without saying that each piece I create is either a Rosemaling, Pennsylvania Dutch or whimsical design that I come up with. Finally, after many years, I have the work space I have always dreamed about! It probably isn't perfect but it sure beats what I had for many, many years!

Paintings and crafts now grace the walls and window sills of my new home. And, it really feels like home, my home.

If you have a space as I now have, you might want to rethink it like I did. The stuff was all there but how it was arranged and set up, for me at least, makes all the difference in the world. If nothing else take everything out, measure and then slowly add things back in. The shelving was less that $50 at Target for an easy to assemble 5-shelf metal shelving. The work station was a gift but I have seen them for about $100 at Dick Blick or online at Amazon. Mine has a central tray and four smaller ones on the side. The glass top tips and there are plastic trays on either side to put paints, glue and whatever else you might use regularly. It need not be expensive. Michaels, JoAnn's, A.C. Moore, even Walmart has items you can use. Wait for the sales or coupons to save even more! You can, like me, design a space that suits the way you work.

Thank you for reading my blog. Please check out some of my previous blogs. All of them relate to design in some way and how design affects our lives.

Pedestrians Be Damned!

Living in California, Southern California especially, we and everyone else hears about "our" healthy lifestyle. We promoted the seat belt, smog abatement leading first the nation and then the world into finding ways to make the air we breathe better and ultimately healthy. (This lesson apparently slipped by the Chinese who now have the most unhealthy and possibly the deadliest air on the planet). Then there was the push for walking though many sidewalks in Los Angeles are the worst in the county, bike paths, coastal protection that we are now seeing is still up for sale and the recent sacking of the Chairman of the AQMD (air quality metro district) in Southern California that sets the guidelines of permissible pollution. They just passed a bill in the Assembly that says you have to be 21 to legally smoke a cigarette yet waffles on medical marijuana. It is a conundrum.

Walkers are encouraged to walk until they work!

Do these things work? Well, yes and no. The day my son was born in October 1981 the smog was so bad you couldn't see across the street. Since that day and that event we have never had anything like that happen again. The smog hasn't disappeared but what there is we barely see. To be fair to the Los Angeles basin, the Native Americans called it the "valley of the smokes" because it was so prone to being foggy, dusty and smoggy before "civilization" came to make the situation worse.

The transition from the anything goes mentality has not been easy and every interest group has put up roadblocks to delay or in some cases stop laws aimed at preventing additional pollution. Many cities and counties across the nation have added walking, bike paths and mass transit to encourage this type of exercise. However, when they want or need to work on the sidewalk or shut down the subway as in Washington, D.C., you are left to your own devices.

Having just come from an hours walk with my dog, something I do just about every day because of health reasons and she wants and demands it, I was struck by the fact that no matter where I have gone in Southern California how little thought and care is given to pedestrians. If there is a sidewalk people riding bikes use them and think you are intruding for being there even though there are signs that warn you NOT to ride on the sidewalk and stating a fine if caught. In fact today, in Palm Springs, there are bike paths with that name and arrow painted on them where us walkers are not allowed to be. However, there is one small catch ... there is no where else for a walker to walk!

When you walk a dog you must pick up your dogs droppings. There are signs everywhere with a minimum fine stating this but not a trash can for miles! I see many dogs on my walks ... do the owners just leave their gifts behind? Am I the only fool carrying a little blue or grocery plastic bag around looking for a place to deposit it? You hope to find a bus stop where there is always a trash receptacle but evidently the streets I walked on today do not have that. I never saw one.

Woe be to the poor pedestrian if there's an accident. We waited and waited
to cross. Evidently cars are more important and well, we just crossed!

When I lived in Alhambra and had no vehicle I walked everywhere within a 2 mile radius. Luckily everything that I might need was there but it was not a pleasant walk. You had to plan which side of the street you needed the most things on because signals were so looooong that you could die and be buried before they turned to let you cross. I'm discovering the same thing in Palm Springs. The big gripe is that it signals walk and about three seconds later, often before you are even off the curb, the hand comes up telling you not to cross. The other wrinkle out here is the talking signal. Its says "wait, wait" "wait" until it finally says walk then counts down the seconds you have to cross. Talk about getting a hitch in your get-along ... no dawdling is allowed! The frustration level is so high people J-walk with several fatalities here recently, like last week!

Not only was one corner closed, ALL four corners were. 

This lack of respect? for pedestrians is also shown with street construction people. We passed block after block of torn out corners that had yellow tape around them with signs that said, "Sidewalk Closed." What are you supposed to do? The poor walkers become billy goats as they struggle up and down hills fighting their way through cactus and desert landscaping as they cross the street to continue their walk. To make matters worse both sides of the street are torn up. My dog could have cared less and probably welcomed the adventure of fighting through the landscaping. At 70 I was not so easily won over and have a few scratches to prove it.

The design is this, at least to me, if you want a healthy, happy citizenry, do what it takes to promote healthy citizens. Instead, we get that make do with what you get. City, state, county state and the Federal Government need to speak to us with a unified voice. Either they encourage us and create the ways we can lead a healthier lifestyle or not.

On a visit to Amsterdam we were stunned at the number of bikes ... they even have their own lane! It turned out that the Dutch had gotten lazy like Americans and would drive their cars, despite gasoline prices that would cause riots in the states, down the block to the store. Noting the increased weight of its citizens the mayor of Amsterdam began riding his bike to work. Within months the streets were once again filled with bikes! This was a design that worked. Hopefully many more American urban centers can learn from this and treat pedestrians and bike riders with the respect and good health they deserve.

Thank you for reading my blog! Please check out earlier blogs that talk about life ... lives that are always designed, whether we realize it or not!

Visions of Color In The Desert

Sunrise in Palm Springs, CA

My real first memories of my surroundings growing up were those in Oregon. We lived in Portland but had frequent trips to the coast through green valleys and hills covered with evergreens. It was, in retrospect rather boring. Lots of green and since it rains about 60" or so a year, grey. I can remember the lights being on when I left for school in the winter and them being on around 3 pm when I returned home. Grey, green, rain and gloom! The flashes of color, the roses, the rhododendrons and azaleas and peonies provided a slash of color against the omnipresent greens.

The first time I saw what I guess you would call a desert was on a trip to Grand Coulee Dam in eastern Washington. After miles of the Columbia River with green hills nearly tumbling into the  river, it was a shock reaching the high plain where the dam was located. I mean there wasn't a green thing in sight during the summer. Miles and miles of dusty brown and weird trees and bushes as far as the eye could see. It was a shock. Looking at the dam rising up to nearly impossible heights in this dun colored scene was shocking. Below, an emerald green ribbon of water cut through the desert heading to the parts I knew, not this desperate, deserted scene.

It was hot, cars didn't have A/C like we do today and all my sister and I could think of was get out of there. You have to understand that to western Oregonians any temperature over about 80º was a heat wave! My mother used to make us play in the basement that was always cool!

When I was in college my mother, recently widowed, decided to move to Albuquerque, NM. She got tired of the rain and indeed the previous summer it rained just about every day. I know, I was trying to paint a house and had more down days than painting days.

New Mexico was a revelation not only because of its ancient culture but because of its landscape. For the first time I got to study the hills and valleys. After a morning Sociology Class we would head out to explore. When summer school was out we even explored more. Santa Fe, Taos, Farmington, Las Vegas, Roswell to look for aliens, Los Alamos with it secret labs, Bandelier National Monument, White Sands, Carlsbad with its caves and Las Cruces. It was like discovering the world again. Rather than brown or tan, the world took on colors that played with your eyes. At sunrise or sunset colors became pinks and deep rose, the shadows were purple just like the in Early Sunset magazine covers. The Sandia Mountains behind Albuquerque would turn a vibrant pink with luminous purple shadows almost defying every art technique we had been taught.

The biggest surprise was how the desert turned to color, literally overnight from the summer monsoons. Suddenly the flowers bloomed leaving you stunned. What is this you ask? How can such a drought stricken place have this much color. Yet, dry for months at a time or from an overnight rain, there are colors there; certainly not the ones we have been trained to use or even think of but just as beautiful and amazing as anything else we will ever see.

I can remember my first trip to the hills west of Lancaster, CA to see the wild poppies. Not

only were there poppies, there was a whole collection of wildflowers vying for your attention. It was amazing. When I moved there in November of 1970 there was no preserve and only a few came. Now its a stampede and the joy of those early days are just about wiped out. However, faithfully, rain or shine, they reappear each year delighting audiences that travel from far and wide to see them. I ask you, does that look dull? Have you ever seen anything like it unless you've been there?

Moving to Pallm Springs, CA, literally a desert, I have again become surprised at the color around me. The first morning I was in my rental condo drinking coffee in living room I was startled to see the scene unfolding in front of me. The windows face west and look at Mt. Jacinto, about 10,000 ft. above the desert floor. It is pretty much a dull tan all day, a blue shadow at night. However, this morning when the sun was just right the entire mountain turned pink. I sat there stunned. To be honest, I usually sit and watch the scene unfold with a cup of coffee. It doesn't last long but to see the colors appear puts to rest that the desert is dull and boring.

During a recent storm, yes we DO get rain, a rainbow graced us for at least an hour.

Going outside to walk my dog, drivers pulled over to snap a photo of the sight. As you can see in the photo right, the clouds had already started to cover the mountains and it rained later that afternoon and evening. However, it still provided a wonderful contrast in colors, something that is just never seen when the grass is always green. 

Even the city of Palm Springs is embracing the drought by removing water hungry grass and trees and replacing them with more desert friendly plants. Just because they are desert friendly, it doesn't mean that they are dull and boring. In fact, they are anything but! Walking my dog and watching the process, I am surprised by how pretty and colorful desert tolerant plants

really are.

One of the big surprises to me was how popular and how the bougainvillea thrived in this desert climate. Used to seeing them in tropical Liberia, they seem equally at home here. They are everywhere in vibrant magentas, reds, blends along with a whole host of other desert friendly plants that add color all year round. That is certainly different than what most plants can offer and makes living here so wonderful.

Since I haven't been here a summer yet, we will see how this all fares. Some of the things will not change ... the blue, almost blinding skies, the shadows, the morning sunrises, the occasional clouds that change colors whenever the sun breaks through. colorful flowers and even more amazing colored cactus.

I urge you all to pay closer attention to the colors that surround you. See just what mother nature has done ... what colors has she used, if the effect is harmonious or jolting. I might add that just because its jolting, that doesn't necessarily make it bad. Study how colors blend, what colors are dissonant, what are complementary. Don't be afraid to use these combinations in your own work. If nature can do it, why can't we? Let the exploring begin!!!

Thank you for reading my blog. Please check some of the others. They cover a wide variety of topics but all with an eye on design.

View From Hong Kong

Hong Kong iPhone panorama at night from Kowloon

Your blogger returned alive and well from Hong Kong this week after visiting for two weeks! And what a trip it was too! Of course the greatest advantage is that I had a local guide that could get me all around. My reason for going was Qiang’s invitation to see the city before he was transferred back to Tianjin, sooner rather than later. 

Bamboo scaffolding wouldn't pass any
US codes that's for sure

If there ever was a city that was designed for people or had a passing kiss at trying it, it is Hong Kong! Like NYC there is always construction going on ... old torn down for new. Everywhere!

I flew to HK on Cathay Pacific Airlines, a Chinese airline delayed 6 ½ hours in San Francisco. The reason was they were waiting for a flight crew. You would think with a flight that left everyday at the same time AND flight number they would have a new crew ready and waiting. The passengers, all 300+ of us, and the jet sat all day at the gate awaiting them.

So we left at 6:30 pm Wednesday night, instead of 10:30 am in the morning and arrived at 1:30 am Friday morning, Hong Kong time. Qiang and I texted each other and when he realized how late I would arrive said he would meet me, as the train from the airport to Hong Kong Station would have shut down.

You know, being in a tube in the sky for 15 hours seems almost a crime against the creator. Even birds can’t do that!!! Somehow we survived but barely.

Crowded Gage Street

We landed a weary bedraggled lot, shuffled through immigration, baggage inspections and finally released to fend for ourselves in the middle of the night. The airport is immense! I was never so happy to see a person in my life than seeing Qiang, (pronounced Chong), patiently waiting for me. We found the bus and were shortly underway. Still, we didn’t get to bed until 3 am and he had to get up and work that morning.

Butcher shop down the street!

Friday I was a zombie and just sat around his apartment, showering, making breakfast and coffee and napping. He works just a few minutes from the apartment and he came back around lunchtime. We ate at one of the numerous stands in the alleys and I went back to sleep. We walked about that evening but both of us were tired. However, our lunch outing showed me just how vibrant HK was. Even his street teamed with vendors and shops. You could buy just about anything within a stones throw from the front door!

Weekends were ours and he crammed in as much sightseeing as he could. It may be a small town land wise (with about 8 million people) but we spent hours on buses, boats, subways and the world’s longest tram seeing amazing things.

That Saturday was hot, I mean sweaty hot. I had only brought warm clothing but nothing for that day. So, after spending the day sightseeing we hunted down some shorts. Finally we found some at Mark & Spencer’s, an amazing English department store and while pricey for me (no Target or even Wal-Mart’s there), I bought them figuring I would get plenty of use out of them in Palm Springs where it was already edging 90º.  We ate Chinese, of course, food and went back to the apartment.

The Big Buddha

As luck would have it, the weather changed Sunday so in shorts and a t-shirt it turned cold on the way to the Big Buddha temple complex but that didn’t slow me down. We rode a bus after crossing on a ferry in one of the scariest rides of my life. As you can imagine the roads are narrow and the concept of straight is maybe for the condos that rise up like toothpicks everywhere. ALL the buses are double decker’s and of course the front row upper seats are at a premium. We snagged one on the shotgun side with the driver below. These things are powerful and we roared, literally, up the hills on the wrong side of the road. When we met the first bus coming down on one of many, MANY curves, it looked like we were going to hit. I screamed, jumped into Qiang’s lap awaiting the impact when the other bus just whizzed by. It had to be just inches away. Everyone laughed at the poor white devil. Of course we got there and it appears bus accidents are quite rare. Fooled me.

One of many huge malls decorated
for Chinese New Years

The complex is amazing and the Buddha huge and made of 200+ pieces of cast bronze. We poked around looking at all the shops. You have to understand, shopping seems to be the #1 activity in Hong Kong; there is no place shopping opportunities don’t exist. I have never seen so many malls, HUGE things, in my life. Nothing is cheap and every designer label on earth is here … over and over again.

Coming down we took the world’s longest tram ride and what a sight. We could see the new airport built on new landfill, the mountains, the Kowloon side of Hong Kong and the China Sea as far as they eye could see. It was a hazy day and getting colder by the minute. Once we were off that we took the MTR, their subway, and scooted under the bay back to Hong Kong. What a day! At least is was warmer down below!

Gift heaven on Gage Street

Monday Qiang had to work of course and he encouraged me to go out. I ate, got dressed and ventured outdoors. It was another hazy day and I wandered map in hand. Well … wandered is the operative word here. I got lost, SO lost I thought I might become a homeless person that night. Suddenly I turned and saw a shop I recognized, found my street then walked right past the apartment. 

Home away from home!

You have to realize fronts are small. I could look up and see the apartment but finding the door well. Also, you never ever take both eyes off your feet. Streets are treacherous. I tripped or missed a step and fell several times. The code enforcement troops of LA would have a field day. Huge glorious buildings rise up from twisted, tortured sidewalks. Gage Street was a street lined with shops and cars, dump trucks, construction workers and the like. It was an adventure walking anywhere.

Each day I got better finding my way down to the wharf, the huge new Ferris wheel, a circus, a local craft brewery and restaurant that was quite good, the wonderful antique shops just a few blocks above us, the glittering malls below, Man Mo Temple where everyone was burning incense, giving fruit as offerings

Man Mo Temple

and buying prayer materials as this was still during the Chinese New Year festivities. We saw lion and dragon dances and I was invited to a banquet hosted by Qiang’s company and several others. Everyone was friendly and the food outstanding. Other than the first course of pig with LED Valentine eyes, I ate but never asked what I was eating. It was all-good but I had to laugh when someone had told me earlier “if the sun can shine on it’s back, the Chinese will eat it.” It was interesting as the locals speak Cantonese, while Qiang and many others speak Mandarin … same written characters but totally different spoken words so English was used a lot that night.

Banquet Pig

During the week we went over to Kowloon to see the lights of Hong Kong taking the Star Ferry over. There are two huge skyscrapers taller than anything we have with the largest one having monkeys (it’s the Year of the Monkey) scampering up and down it with an amazing light show. Then back just before it rained to visit the night market. It only opens at 6 pm till around midnight and because the weather was dicey not many patrons. We bought a few things ever on the lookout for interesting gifts. I even found some short cords to sync my iPhone and iPad with on my iMac.

Saturday was a mostly sunny but cool day. I brought my jacket this time. We took a long bus ride to Stanley through Repulse Bay and poked around there enjoying the view of beautiful beaches and some of the shops in Stanley, temples, the ever present shopping, another temple for sailors and sun! It was a wonderful sunny day and everyone was taking advantage of it.

Then back to take a bus up to the Peak with an amazing overlook of all of Hong Kong. We saw it in the sunlight then waited for nighttime and the lights. It was beautiful. We came down to Des Voeux Road and then hunted for someplace to eat. He had in mind a French restaurant but it was closed so back to Chinese. I never had a bad meal and never got sick.

Monastery and nunnery in the heart of HK

My last Sunday we poked around looking at gardens and ended up in a monastery and nunnery in the heart of the city. It was very Japanese inspired and created an amazing peace as you wandered the grounds. I think I could become a Buddhist. It is so peaceful.

Buddha

The vultures at lunch

Monday was packing day but Qiang came home for lunch. We went to a soup place in a convenient alley and well … since the crowds had already started we waited. Only, like vultures, everyone stands behind someone waiting for them to finish up. Really! So you check everyone out and then stand behind the most likely candidate. Because I was white, an unusual addition to the mix, my guy ate fast. LOL! Believe me, I would have NEVER tried this on my own but never got sick either. Taking my seat I had one of the best tomato soups with ham that I have ever eaten anywhere! The food is cheap and very, very delicious.

   

Lion Dance Masks

My last stop before he had to go back to work was at a shoe shop I had seen my first day. It had some navy blue wingtips with vibrant orange interior leather I really, really liked. I know, I can hear what you’re thinking … just the thing for in Palm Springs, right? In fact dark blue shoes were everywhere and even a dark grey now and then besides black and a variety of browns. Anyway, we went in and I asked if they had that style in size 45, my equivalent for whompin’ stomper size 11 ½. No. They only had 44’s. Luckily I said let me try them. I have never had shoes that fit like this. I have a bunion on my right foot I guess from years of running and if right side hurts I don’t even bother with the left. Because they looked narrow I really expected the worst but they fit like a glove. I was startled. Walking around in it I said, let me try the left. Heaven. They were my one extravagance. The salesman said they were all hand crafted and I believed someone had me in mind. I wanted to purchase more but was already leaving behind old 10-year old Docker slip-ons to fit these in my suitcase. They were not cheap but they weighed about half as much as the ones I was leaving.

That night we ate Japanese and then just wandered the city. It had turned cool again and a light rain fell. I am always nervous on the hills because the cabbies are extremely aggressive and I wondered about their tires on slick, hilly streets. We checked out some of the shops but I was packed, literally to the gills with my carryon suitcase and would have to pack any new purchases in my backpack. Qiang had convinced me to check the bag in with the airline and then only have to worry about my backpack.

I will say Cathay Pacific is generous with their luggage allowance. You can take two bags each weighing 50 pounds with you and there is no charge! With money tight with all the costs of moving and setting my own place I resisted buying very much. I hear that Chinese tourists by the busload go to the Cabazon outlets near Palm Springs, will buy a suitcase there and pack it up with designer clothes to take home. My Canadian neighbor said she could make a fortune selling empty suitcases out in the parking lot!

The irony of course is that the Mainland Chinese come to Hong Kong to buy designer brands that are nearly all made in China. However, Hong Kong is cheaper. The greater irony is that they come here and buy in droves because even though things are made in China prices are even cheaper here! 

Queen's Road - hub of the financial district

They are extremely brand conscious. If the average Chinese lives like Qiang in his tiny apartment, they don’t have much room so I would guess they buy judiciously. People dress well there or at least the types that look like they are in banking, investing, merchandising and such. It is nice to see men that wear clothes that fit … pants actually sit on their hips and break at the tops of their shoes. Suits are more English cut and fitted. Women are all over the map. There are beautiful women’s clothes and then others that well; working on the street at night would be fitting.

You see great wealth and great poverty. I have never seen more BMW 7 series in my life, even in LA. $100,000 Tesla S models with right hand drive are like fleas. They are energetic and the alleyways are filled with small entrepreneurs selling just about everything you can imagine.

Going home was a kind of anti-climax. Qiang went to work to print out my boarding tickets after a tense night of the airlines web site crashing, we had a leisurely big breakfast as we made plans for him to visit me. We then took my suitcase over to Hong Kong Station to check in and he helped me board the train to the airport. We became fast friends and hated to part. He told me he hated the cold of Tianjin and I told him in Palm Springs, cold is NOT a problem. Come in July and get roasted!

The flight made it to San Francisco 30 minutes early because of the trade winds. SFO was a sunny place after days of misty fogs and clouds. However, SFO had 6 international flights using the same carousel, typical of them, and a place I’m telling everyone to avoid. I had given up hope for my suitcase when it finally arrived. I then dragged the bag around the airport until flight time.

We boarded the Alaska Airlines flight on time checking the bag in at the gate for free (that’s the secret) and I literally crashed. When I woke up the passenger next to me asked if I had a good nap. I told her I had just come in from Hong Kong and was dead. Turns out she had lived there for 10 years so we traded war stories.

I walked literally home from the airport, a short 10-minute walk. I had a wonderful time and I am so glad I went. If you ever get the chance GO! HK is an amazing blend of modern and tradition ... I stumbled into so many secluded parks that were only moments away from the hustle and bustle of the city. And you know, it WAS designed to be that way.

Thank you for reading my blog. Please check out earlier blogs as I muse over how are lives are designed ... sometimes well and well, sometimes not so well.

Doesn't Anything Come Assembled Anymore?

Right off, I have to admit that I am not the handiest man around. I understand the mechanics of putting things together, hell, I went to a polytechnic high school where we had to learn about a whole bunch of things - automotive, electricity, machine shop among other things I thought useless as the time but with what little experience I had, has helped me as an adult. Well, until yesterday.

A few years back I purchased a new computer work station / desk complete with a hutch all boxed up. I never got around to assembling it which in retrospect was a good thing. After moving to Palm Springs and digging myself somewhat out of the piles of boxes that literally filled my rental condo, my two neighbors and I labored all day to get it assembled. When my iMac wouldn't fit in the opening of the hutch we had to move the hutch!

Attempt 2 - it had been opened too!

A few days later, my neighbor came over to help me assemble a 5-shelf bookcase that was to go alongside the workstation. I had forgotten I had bought it at Target, not Staples where the workstation came from. He looked at the box and said, "Its been opened and taped back up. Did you do that?" " No. I never got around to opening it," I replied. And sure enough, my three year old Target bookshelf, still in the box, had no instructions. After assembling the workstation we were not going to try assembling this without instructions. I knew Target would never give me a refund so I looked first in the store and then online and found a bookcase that looked exactly like the one with no instructions. I ordered it online and it came a few days later.

When I decided to put it together yesterday this is what I found. ALL of the parts, screws, wooden dowels were either laying around of the bottom of the box or jammed into slots in the styrofoam. The packet that had originally held them had been opened and just dumped back in the box. See photo on the left.

The assembled bookcase after I attempted to move it.

I was two for two. Target appears to just take their returns, tape them up again and sells them. If you are a Target shopper I would urge you to be aware.

I spent hours by myself trying to put the bookcase together. While the boxes were mostly gone or stored, there were piles of books lining the walls. I wanted them up and out of the way. Right off the bat I put two of the pins in backwards. The instructions have little wording and illustrations so tiny that you are never quite sure which end was what. So a trip to Harbor Freight Tools to get an electric drill and bits to make the hole a bit bigger so it would fit the backwards pin.

That as I discovered was the least of my problems. Even when put in correctly the pins and their locking screw wouldn't always work. The pin would go too far into the pre-drilled hole the nut couldn't go around it. Somehow I did manage to get the bookcase upright and while wobbly figured with enough books it would stay in place. There were gaps everywhere so I decided it could stay in the bedroom next to the workstation. With hardly a touch to lift it to move it, it suddenly fell sideways completely coming apart.

Yup, you guessed it. The next stop was the dumpster. It took about that long to make that decision. There was my money down the drain. Several friends have said I should take it back but ... well, have YOU ever tried to repack something in the box it came in? It is next to impossible. All the particle board pieces are very heavy and even if packed would be impossible to return.

Is anything assembled today when you buy it? I even had to assemble my Shark Vacuum. It seems that the only thing you can buy today that IS assembled in your car, well you hope, and maybe your home ... assuming its new and not a fixer upper like just about every home you will buy today. Companies have passed on their labor costs to you, the often unskilled not on the clock public that may or may not have the skills to complete the tasks. When we complain they say, "Well, you wanted cheaper prices." I don't remember saying that. All I see is that their profits are often huge and our skills, or at least mine, are minimal.

What to do. There are many consignment shops here in the Coachella Valley and I will start looking there, or Staples and Office Depot to see if they have bookshelves that are already assembled. I have a pickup! Then there is always the tried and true from my college days; decorative concrete blocks with planks. Everyone looks at me when I say that. Why? Some of those blocks are pretty nice looking. I can tell you one of the things I will not do ... visit Target.

Thank you for reading my blog. Our lives are designed for us. Its our job to make the best choices of whose designs we are going to use! Please check out my other postings.