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Hello from Beautiful Seoul!

Sorry i haven’t been posting in awhile with all things going on its been a bit hard to have the time to sit down and collect my thoughts. All thoughts that Ive posted online goes on to the USC AAU blog So if you have time, check it out and check out my classmates stuff too! They’re really great essays on the things we have been experiencing/collecting/learning while here in Asia. So far Seoul has been the only place that I haven’t gone to amongst all the places that i’ve listed and its been pretty great taking a break from translating and falling back into the routine of discovering new things like I was in Europe. The culture here is just so amazing- and compared to China I can definitely say that Korea’s a bit cleaner, safer, and even fashion sense is in my opinion a bit better. Maybe I’m being biased because Seoul for the past week has had California weather. Regardless I am definitely adding Seoul to my places to live list. (Amongt which include Brussels, Barcelona, Berlin, and Manhattan. ) I will be posting pictures soon so please watch for them! But for now OMA has been a lingering presence in our stay here in Asia. Seems like everywhere we go OMA seems to have made an impression. So this only makes me marvel Rem even more! My friend showed me today OMA’s Prada catwalk SS 2012. I literally got the heeby jeebies from the first glance. Take a look and see what you think.

OMA just has a way of designing the most complicated situations with the most simple structures don’t they? Power in simplicity people. Its all about the simplicity of things.

Prada’s spring/summer men’s catwalk show, designed by AMO, took place on June 19th 2011 at Milan fashion week. AMO’s concept for the show is to organise the audience as a “perfect field”: 600 visitors sit on individual blue foam blocks distributed over a 1.5 x 1.5 meter grid spread through the entire hall.

Models flow through the highly-organized audience, following multiple choreographed routes that allow maximum visibility.

The field is a commentary on the audience: from indeterminate crowd to regimented, possibly anxious, isolated individuals. Each guest becomes a challenge for the new fashion; each confrontation becomes highly personal…

The field is based on a zero degree approach: a spatial system as opposed to an elaborated design.

Artificial grass covers the floor.

Light is provided by 16 panels of 30 PAR lights each, vaguely resembling stadium lighting systems.

The set up refers to the imagery of a geometric outdoors; the audience participates in a perfectly organized picnic.

AMO’s concept for the show is to organise the audience as a “perfect field”: 600 visitors sit on individual blue foam blocks distributed over a 1.5 x 1.5 meter grid spread through the entire hall.

Models flow through the highly-organized audience, following multiple choreographed routes that allow maximum visibility.

The field is a commentary on the audience: from indeterminate crowd to regimented, possibly anxious, isolated individuals. Each guest becomes a challenge for the new fashion; each confrontation becomes highly personal…

The field is based on a zero degree approach: a spatial system as opposed to an elaborated design.

Artificial grass covers the floor.

Light is provided by 16 panels of 30 PAR lights each, vaguely resembling stadium lighting systems.

The set up refers to the imagery of a geometric outdoors; the audience participates in a perfectly organized picnic…

A

 

Beginnings of AAU

Ni Hao Readers and welcome to the Asia portion of this blog. About three weeks ago I arrived in Hong kong for the USC Asia Architecture & Urbanism Study abroad program and since then I’ve visited places like Guangzhou, ZhuHai, ZhongShan, Shenzhen, and the list goes on. Its only been about 3 weeks but its seems like its been forever.

Here is the AAU itinerary

AAU Schedule
HK: Aug. 30th – Sept. 2nd
Shenzhen: Sept. 3rd – Sept. 6th
Dongguan, Guangzhou, Foshan, Zhonshan, Zhuhai, Macau: Sept. 7th – Sept. 16
HK: Sept. 17th – Sept. 18th.
Seoul: Sept. 19th – Sept. 30th
Taiwan: Oct. 1st – Oct. 7th
Beijing: Oct. 8th, 9th – Oct. 15th
Shanghai: Oct. 16th – Dec. 7th
Tokyo: Dec. 8th – Dec. 10th
Kyoto: Dec. 11th – Dec. 14th

I haven’t quite edited my photos because we’ve been traveling so much and China is super annoying with the whole blog/facebook deal that its been hard to blog. But please check out our posts on the USC AAU wordpress site

http://uscaau.wordpress.com/

My entry is on there too (Urban Schizophrenia)

Enjoy! Will be posting soon

A

and i’m back

Hey guys

Sorry for being a bit MIA lately I’ve been busy with the fashion show and I’m really glad to say that it was a success! As soon as i gather up all the photos I will be posting them. And as soon as we see our interviews up I’ll post those as well.

SO the trip to Europe is rolling around, in fact its  in 5 weeks and counting- so from there on I’ll begin posting on my trip in Europe and all the awesome people/ foods I’ll be seeing there.

Here are photos of the latest fashion styles I’ve been into. I love the minimalistic look! i seriously cannot get enough. enjoy!

a

Formative’s Spring 2011 show!

Hey guys!!

So the show is inching closer and I have been actively posting on our blog (formative.tumblr.com) – so please go on and please vote for your favorite song for our show!!!

 

 

Also check out

http://stylesc.blogspot.com/

they just did an interview on us!

A

memoirs

Thousands of Japanese filled evacuation shelters or joined foreigners seeking a way out of the country Thursday in the aftermath of last week’s devastating earthquake, tsunami and resulting nuclear crisis at stricken reactors.

Cold, snowy weather further heightened the hardship of a nation facing what its leaders call its biggest disaster since World War II.

~CNN

That thursday night, the night that the tsunami happened, I was out with some friends enjoying the beginnings of my Spring Break. When I came home and walked through the door, my roommate said to me “Have you called her yet?”. Baffled I asked- ‘called who?’ Looking up at his TV in bold white letters read- 9.0 earthquake hits Japan. ‘An earthquake just struck Japan- I think you need to call Leona immediately.’ For those who don’t know Leona, she’s is my cousin and one of the closest people to me on the face of this earth and she recently started working in Tokyo. Immediately I sprang for room and called her google phone. No response. Called it again. Again no response. I popped open my laptop and almost right away about 3-4 people messaged me on Facebook and asked how she was. I don’t even know how many messages I left on her email or her facebook. And most of the messages weren’t even really english- more like a blurb of panicked words. I messaged everyone and everyone I could and so far- word was good. All those that were in Tokyo seemed to be slowly coming through and eventually she messaged me that she was fine. The power was out and her emergency bag was packed- but she seemed to be fine. And now days after the incident the nuclear power plant, just a short way from Tokyo- she’s packed her bags- taken a 2 week leave from her job and taken a plane to Hong Kong, where her parents and our grandmother are.

I just video chatted with her yesterday and knowing our family- they are definitely in a super state of panic considering all the radiation news going around. We joke saying that she should call her dad saying that she’s starting to get a rash or she’s starting to get a really massive headache- just to freak them out a bit. Anything to lighten the mood I guess. But she’s honestly fine and in fact all her coworkers are still going to work.

All things considered Japan is truly handling this crisis really well. It’s entirely in their culture to help each other out in times of need. And how honorable and heroic those people are to help each other find their loved ones as well as keep the nuclear plant going through all the warnings and dangers. Makes me wonder if going to Japan is really my calling. I mean i came to college to do humanitarian architecture. Seems like everything is falling into place.

Here are some graphics that were all made for the recent crisis. enjoy.

a

adventures

latest adventures and exploration in san diego! we of course we had to see the Salk Institute. Amazing!

more to come later. see you soon

a

 

 

 

Food in Motion

Hosted on a hot sat. afternoon, the first annual LA food fest, was located just a few blocks from the fashion district at the parking lot of theLA design studios. After going to the event, i never knew that eating could be so exhausting.

First and foremost, the line wrapped around the block, around the parking structure, and back out onto the street again leaving us to wait about an hour and a half just to get in. And JUST when we thought all the waiting in the scorching sun was over, each truck had an hour and a half line wait. It was like getting in line at Disneyland. Wait forever, then experience the ride for about 10 minutes. The only ones we got to were India Jones (Indian cuisine), Savor De Bahia (brazillian food), and of course the beer line for Fat Tire – I didn’t’ even get to try out the one that i really wanted to try out- CoolHaus (www.eatcoolhaus.com) The architecture+ice cream truck. What drove me crazy was that the next day, the majority of those food trucks were parked right outside of USC- no line. It was sad but at least it will be an experience i certainly will never forget.

but notes for next food fest:

1. bring cash - i had to wait in line for 3 atms because they were all broken

2. bring something that you can do standing - reading, knitting, drawing, painting your nails, mastering a game on your iphone- anything really will be good – starring at hungry and pissed off people will make YOU more pissed off and angry

3. Bring a stool that you can fold back into your purse

4. bring a camera- There you will find LA fashion at its best and probably meet every food blogger in LA. Plus, even though you don’t actually get to eat the food, at least you can ask someone to take a picture of their dish so you at least know what you’re missing out on.

5. Bring Friends – Plan then divide and conquer: Like sun tzu said- “The general who wins the battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought.” In a case like this. the more the merrier and the fuller

Perhaps their success was their greatest downfall. – hmm… live and learn i guess

But isn’t it such a great concept? MOBILE FOOD?

the evolution of mobile food

the best and worst thing about LA its diversity. Its bad  because we don’t necessarily have a urban identity like San Francisco does because we are comprised of so many ‘clusters’ like Little Tokyo, Downtown, Hollywood, Chinatown, West LA etc. – the boundary and identity of Los Angeles is really a blurred line. But the Great thing about it is that you get a sense of every culture in it. You have your areas where you can get your good Mexican food and other areas where you can find the best Korean tofu soup. But what if YOU didn’t have to get in your car and drive over to the other side of town for that dish that you’re craving anymore? Or what if you’re just doing your daily routine and just simply want to try something new? Suddenly the diet of the LA urban consumers become a little more ‘well rounded’. Plus, global street food has been an incredible response to the recent recession. Now chefs and entrepreneurs no longer need a brick and mortar space to have a restaurant anymore- and also with such limited space, you no longer need to hire waiters or hosts. Its just you vs. the kitchen.

Roy Choi of Kogi BBQ Truck in Los Angeles says “for us it was really cheap…We opened Kogi for $1,500. We rented the truck, went to the Korean market and got sesame leaves and short ribs and we started our business that way.” Now Kogi is one of the models for people around the country looking to start a successful street food business.

We are now defining a generation by this Street Food Movement- pushing casual dining out of the way and bringing forth- well, casual dining! But note that owning a food truck isn’t the easiest thing to come around. My mom and dad used to own one right when they got to America and when I asked my mom what her hardest occupation was, it was working this food truck. (This is speaking over that fact that shes a trained nurse, CFO, and a mother)

But hey, for all those who didn’t get a chance to get over that food fest, look them up at http://www.findlafoodtrucks.com/. – this way you’ll never have to wait in line for them.

India Jones – http://www.indiajoneschowtruck.blogspot.com

Dogzilla – http://www.dogzillahotdogs.com

Our food from India Jones and Sabor de Bahia-

sorry i couldn’t take the photo of the food uneaten. The hunger was too much to bear.

Louks Greek gourmet – http://www.loukstogo.com

Phamish Vietnamese cuisine: http://www.eatphamish.com

wish i remembered what truck this is- but YES- they served Foie Gras Fries.

the Sweets Truck- http://www.thesweetstruck.com

Shops at the Food Fest

Food Fest Fashion

note: I know some of these aren’t frontal views of them but hey, they were the best i could capture from line. i was NOT about to give that up.

this is making me hungry- see you soon