So I’m typing this on my brand new iPad while sitting on a Cathay Pacific flight to Vancouver, from there I’m off to Hong Kong, then straight on to Bangkok. In Bangkok I’ll be meeting up with a good friend Christine and the agenda is pretty much unwritten. I just need to be back in Bangkok on the 12th so I can fly to Tokyo for a grand total of 26 hours.

So you’re probably wondering, what is the reason for the trip? My answer of course is the trip is the reason for the trip. I’m planning on continuing the photography and social media adventures that I’ve grown to love so much.

I was hoping to be able to post my photos nightly throughout the trip but unfortunately the iPad camera adaptor wasn’t available in time and since we’ll be backpacking most of the time I decided to leave at home the 7 lbs of computing power that is my MacBook Pro. I did however pay for the international data plan on my iPhone so I’ll probably snap a few photos on there and post them to Flickr as I go as a preview of the final images to come when I arrive home.

For this trip I’ve packed extremely light, since my days on the government watch list (explanation to come…) I’ve learned how to pack lighter and lighter and only bring what I can carry.

On this trip for example I have one bag, my camera bag/backpack. Which contains:

– Canon 5D mk II with 24-105mm f4.0 kit lens
– 4 Canon 5D mk II batteries
– 4 Compact Flash cards. (1 32gb and 3 16gb)
– Canon 50mm f1.4
– Canon 28mm f2.8
– Apple iPad 64gb WiFi
– 6 pairs of socks
– 6 pairs of underwear
– 5 shirts
– 1 pair of jeans
– 1 bathing suit
– 2 field notes, 2 pens
– 1 deck of cards
– assorted wires and chargers

Aside from a few sparse things I’m bringing one way to Christine, the clothes on my back and my iPhone in my pocket, that’s it. As I mentioned before I’ve paid for 50mb of international data but I’ve also paid for 50 outgoing text messages (Incoming are apparently free) and I plan to buy a prepaid phone over there to be able to stay in touch with Christine.

I’ll be active on Twitter, FourSquare, Flickr and Facebook throughout the week as well as hopefully blogging every night assuming I can find WiFi to post from so please follow me.

Actually, I plan to take it one step further than that… As it stands right now, I have no agenda for Tokyo, only a few suggestions. Like my day in Paris before this I know no one in Japan and I don’t speak a word of Japanese. My plan is to crowdsource my day… I’ve got 26 hours there… Where should I go, what should I do? Reply to me on Twitter and let me know how you think. I should spend my day, I’ll go do it, photograph it and write about it right here!

Stay tuned dear readers!

There have been a bunch of really intelligent comments on this today but I’d like to beg one question:

If Cory Doctorow is so against closed systems owned by big corporations with enormous budgets, why does Boing Boing use Flash for it’s ads and video?

He’ll criticize others for their use of proprietary tech meanwhile profiting from another?

Internet is down at 78 again. Although we can pick up an unsecured wireless in the big kitchen on the 2nd floor. Not sure when i’ll be able to post this.

Last night was interesting, we went to Fischladen and found the street to be swarming with Politzei. There were full riot vans filled with cops waiting for a reason to jump out. No one was quite sure as to why this was going on but as you can imagine it made things a bit tense. The cops came to the door of the bar on more than one occaision and then backed away. It’s like they were anticipating something that the community didn’t know was going to happen. Either way it ended peacefull with the cops eventually leaving as mysteriously as they had arrived.

Many members of the collective are hard at work here in the house. On Mouse’s floor alone they are installing a large kitchen and a bathroom. They both look to be the nicest in the house, I’m sad I won’t be here to see them. Downstairs they are building a bar into the front of the building. Mouse took us through it the other night, it looks to have a lot of potential as well. I’m not quite sure how or if this will compete with Fischladen which is just down the street. Mouse insists their community is large enough to sustain both.

Despite what I may have said in yesterday’s post regarding technology, this movement is strong and far from in danger of dying out anytime soon. They have built a place for themselves both figuratively and literally through hard work and dedication. There is definitely something there to be respected and admired.

Mouse is tending bar at Fischladen, we spent the afternoon lounging around there. He has mixed up Chocolate Martini’s for people with Hershey’s syrup that Aki brought back from the states for him. Apparently you can’t find that here at all.

Going to a cookout tonight at another house. Should be interesting. Tomorrow is my last day in Berlin and it looks like I have have picked up a last minute photo job as well. More details on that if it happens. That’s all for now.

oh yeah… pictures.

Berlin is an interesting place. We spent all of last night at Fischladen where I left off last night. When we left it was morning. While Aki worked furiously on her work for Johnson Creek; Vanessa, Mouse and I discussed the merits of Wi-Fi, Twitter and technology in general in political movements, in particular the leftist “Anarchist” movement here in Berlin.

The German leftist movement has a fear and misunderstanding of technology. Wi-Fi in many places is not allowed and approached angrily. While 78 is legally owned and inhabited many individuals here are very much afraid of being identified for their political actions. Their fears, of course, are justified, many could and would be arrested if identified. However the group fails to mobilize and grow beyond it’s existing circles from what I can tell, most don’t even have cell phones either because they can’t afford them, or they believe them to be the tools of the establishment. Their numbers, while supported internationally are not as strong as they were right after the wall fell, and they likely won’t be again unless this group embraces technology. Aki and I cited examples of Mumbai and Iran to explain the values of it but the consensus is that it will fall on deaf ears.

Now please, do not interpret this as an endorsement of the actions of this movement or their beliefs, nor do I mean disrespect to their beliefs either. I am merely a guest here and these people are putting me up and treating me as one of their own. I believe that nearly any political movement has merits and from what I can tell, these are good people who want to life their lives free of political oppression and generally mind their own business, I cannot speak for all of their beliefs, only that I can say they feel very justified in them and truly believe themselves to be doing good to help society, as they see it. It’s sad to me to see their message and beliefs get lost or downed out because they refuse to adapt to modern technology.

An interesting side note, you’ll see that most of my photos from this trip do not contain people… weird seeing as I tend to focus on portraits quite often. This is because the men and women of “78″ refuse to be photographed and the ones who don’t know me react angrily to me walking about with my camera at all. While I respect and understand this concern it saddens me as many of them are amazing, beautiful, interesting people who should have their voices heard and choose to hide their face so that they can fight another day, a concern that I’m not entirely sure how realistic it is.

New photos are up, check them out…

Until tomorrow.

We actually woke up at a sane hour today… If you call 2:30 pm a sane hour. Aki and I decided to venture put and explore, we started with the Alexanderplatz and took the U-Bahn (underground train) from there in a few different areas. Eventually we found ourselves resting in a park by the German history museum. In this area there were a ton of photo opportunities and many historic buildings, which of course I know nothing about. From there we walked west towards the setting sun and on to the Brandenburg Gate. As we got there the sub was hiring it perfectly and I was able to take some phenomenal pictures that really excited me. Also by the gate where a group of protestors putting on a hunger strike. All of their signs and fliers were in German so we were unable to follow their message. Aki pushed further until we found one of the representatives who spoke English.

He told us of a group of Iranian exiles living in Iraq who previously were recieving protection from the American government in Iraq, but as the turnover of power has progressed they have found themselves at the mercy of the an Iraqi government increasingly bowing to Iranian pressure to turn them over. This to them means certain doom. I haven’t had time to read over the necessary info as of yet but it sounds pretty legit. These people and their supporters hunger striking for the same protection from the Iraqi government that they recieved from the Americans. Interesting to say the least and not the kind of thing you find out about in the US. More info can be found at http://www.ncr-iran.org. Please take this with caution, this is not an endorsement or a reccomendation at this point, merely linked for curiousity. I have not been to the site myself yet.

So if you read my Twitter account today you might know that 78 is without internet at the moment and this post has been delayed because of it. Well I am writing this from Fischladen (translates to Fish Store but it’s bar that Mouse works at… no they don’t serve fish.) we managed to get in tonight to use the internet with Mouse’s keys. We’ve set up my MacBook Air as an ad-hoc wireless network so that Aki and I can both do our respective work. We are hoping the situation is remedied tomorrow.

We went to a party at another collective tonight, 84 Boxhagnerstraße, not much to discuss, biers were drank, franks were eaten, jokes were told & good times were had. I met some good people who hopefully will remember me next June when I plan to return. Anyway, I’m going to go, I’m being rude, the three of us are sitting in Fischladen drinking Tyskie and Vanessa just arrived to hang out with us. Tschüss!

Tonight I got the chance to have all access for photos for the Lollapalooza Weekend Kick Off Party at the Apple Store North Michigan Avenue. You can find my final pick photos from the event on my Flickr account.