Sunday, August 17, 2008
DROPPING THE BARBELL and other weightless victories: allowed to bring camera into the venue!, scored interview with korean world champion!, filmed magical tea ceremony and tons of other rich beautiful stuff with the hero of my film and her family; for those who are wondering- Cheryl placed 6th, still and again the highest ranking of any team usa lifter.. Tomorrow the great wall...
Friday, August 15, 2008
Does a picture weigh more than a thousand words?
The girl at the internet bar has informed me, via a conversation with no words understood by either of us, that I cannot plug in my USB card reader to share some photos with you, so I will have to opt for descriptions...
(but first, the internet bar: worth describing in its own right: pardon this digression: a dark, smoky set of about 5 rooms filled with about 200 computers total. Young teen and early 20's kids sit at more than half of them, wearing headphones, smoking. They seem to be watching tv online, chat via webcams, and other secret operations. Technoculture indeed.
Two pictures - which might be augmented by uploaded images in the future:
1. Interview with umbrella
After a series of sign ins, clearances, and disorienting van-rides through the treelined alleyways of America's own training center in Beijing (in which my DP Anne happened to accidentally send a giant switchback knife through the x-ray machine. Oops.), we arrive to a spot where we are allowed to meet up with and film Cheryl two days before her competition. The weather is sticky and hot, but we are not cleared to film indoors, so we position Cheryl's chair directly outside the open double doors where refeshing American Coldness (A/C) rushes outside plentifully. (Spreading the green lifestyle over here...)
After our usual painstaking setup, this time with the additions of - I'm not kidding - Kobe Bryant and his team walking by and saluting Ms. Haworth, as well as an appearance by a famous soccer player (Julie Foudy) and an even more famous football star (sorry I don't know his name, but perhaps one of my avid readers can supply this info?), we begin the interview.
And, just as Cheryl is telling us that she's doing well and moving into the Zone in preparation for her moment on Saturday, it begins raining.
The picture, taken by our FANTASTIC young helper/ interpretter/ guide whose name is, I'm not kidding, "Fairy," depicts us conducting the interview anyway. (this is, of course, well before the incredible deluge that happened shortly after we finished our interview.
Interjection before the next pictures:
Cabs here are:
a. amazingly cheap (30 minute ride costs about $3)
b. very interestingly scented: every single one is very distinctive and mostly good, but intensely fragrant. I should do a post about the smells of the cabs I've been in.
c. driven by a wide range of people: from the kindest you can imagine to one who was verging on insanity because I put a raindrenched bag down on his seat. Avoid that cabbie.
2. The spectacular spectators
We are filming location shots in the midst of the busy street and it turns out that we are very interesting to the onlookers we're looking at, which is a situation that raises many issues of privacy all at once. The image depicts Anne at work and at least a few men standing around her, craning their necks to get a look in the monitor. It's a bit too close for comfort at times, but then perhaps so is our presence...
Upcoming pictures: What I am learning about Chinese business people, turning myself into the authorities, the Birdsnest in person and the athletic performance of tourism and why world domination could come to pass.
Tomorrow is August 16th: why I'm here. And Cheryl competes at 7 pm!! People around the world: ROOT!!!
(but first, the internet bar: worth describing in its own right: pardon this digression: a dark, smoky set of about 5 rooms filled with about 200 computers total. Young teen and early 20's kids sit at more than half of them, wearing headphones, smoking. They seem to be watching tv online, chat via webcams, and other secret operations. Technoculture indeed.
Two pictures - which might be augmented by uploaded images in the future:
1. Interview with umbrella
After a series of sign ins, clearances, and disorienting van-rides through the treelined alleyways of America's own training center in Beijing (in which my DP Anne happened to accidentally send a giant switchback knife through the x-ray machine. Oops.), we arrive to a spot where we are allowed to meet up with and film Cheryl two days before her competition. The weather is sticky and hot, but we are not cleared to film indoors, so we position Cheryl's chair directly outside the open double doors where refeshing American Coldness (A/C) rushes outside plentifully. (Spreading the green lifestyle over here...)
After our usual painstaking setup, this time with the additions of - I'm not kidding - Kobe Bryant and his team walking by and saluting Ms. Haworth, as well as an appearance by a famous soccer player (Julie Foudy) and an even more famous football star (sorry I don't know his name, but perhaps one of my avid readers can supply this info?), we begin the interview.
And, just as Cheryl is telling us that she's doing well and moving into the Zone in preparation for her moment on Saturday, it begins raining.
The picture, taken by our FANTASTIC young helper/ interpretter/ guide whose name is, I'm not kidding, "Fairy," depicts us conducting the interview anyway. (this is, of course, well before the incredible deluge that happened shortly after we finished our interview.
Interjection before the next pictures:
Cabs here are:
a. amazingly cheap (30 minute ride costs about $3)
b. very interestingly scented: every single one is very distinctive and mostly good, but intensely fragrant. I should do a post about the smells of the cabs I've been in.
c. driven by a wide range of people: from the kindest you can imagine to one who was verging on insanity because I put a raindrenched bag down on his seat. Avoid that cabbie.
2. The spectacular spectators
We are filming location shots in the midst of the busy street and it turns out that we are very interesting to the onlookers we're looking at, which is a situation that raises many issues of privacy all at once. The image depicts Anne at work and at least a few men standing around her, craning their necks to get a look in the monitor. It's a bit too close for comfort at times, but then perhaps so is our presence...
Upcoming pictures: What I am learning about Chinese business people, turning myself into the authorities, the Birdsnest in person and the athletic performance of tourism and why world domination could come to pass.
Tomorrow is August 16th: why I'm here. And Cheryl competes at 7 pm!! People around the world: ROOT!!!
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Hitting the Ground
not exactly running... time is passing quite slowly since Anne and I got off the plane and entered into a world of being passed off among a total of 4 different translator/ assistant people from the company that's renting us our apartment.
Amidst it all - an adventure at a gigantic seafood restaurant where turtles, eels, and other things swam live awaiting the kill alongside baskets of fresh veggies and dumplings, also offering themselves up for the slaughter at reasonable rates.
We chose some tofu that ended up to be amazing and both fluffy and custardlike at the same time but crispy on the outside and bok choi (which is not referred to as such in chinese, fyi) and a huge plate of these amazing dumplings.
first things first: of course my first post must detail the food experience.
Oh, one more thing: as we were eating our table was attended by about 3 people, one of whom kept making subtle rearrangements in the location of our various serving dishes on the table... Not sure exactly whether she was going for symettry or something else... but it added to the sense of being somewhere new...
now in a crazy smokey internet cafe (nice addition to the campfire smell of the air here...) waiting for firefox to download so that I can read my mobile me mail. Mobile me unless you're in China or somewhere that still uses internet explorer... oy.
signing off - one world one dream!
julie
Amidst it all - an adventure at a gigantic seafood restaurant where turtles, eels, and other things swam live awaiting the kill alongside baskets of fresh veggies and dumplings, also offering themselves up for the slaughter at reasonable rates.
We chose some tofu that ended up to be amazing and both fluffy and custardlike at the same time but crispy on the outside and bok choi (which is not referred to as such in chinese, fyi) and a huge plate of these amazing dumplings.
first things first: of course my first post must detail the food experience.
Oh, one more thing: as we were eating our table was attended by about 3 people, one of whom kept making subtle rearrangements in the location of our various serving dishes on the table... Not sure exactly whether she was going for symettry or something else... but it added to the sense of being somewhere new...
now in a crazy smokey internet cafe (nice addition to the campfire smell of the air here...) waiting for firefox to download so that I can read my mobile me mail. Mobile me unless you're in China or somewhere that still uses internet explorer... oy.
signing off - one world one dream!
julie
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Strong! and the Cyclorama: a bit of background
Strong!
(working title)
is my documentary-in-progress about weightlifter Cheryl Haworth and the past four years of her life. The film looks at a lot of themes: life as an athlete, as a weightlifter, and as a big, strong woman. These are a few images from my shoot with Cheryl and Director of Photography Anne Etheridge in Colorado Springs this March.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
7 Days Before Beijing
Gravity is pulling me around the world.
A particular form of gravity, that is...
Not the usual force that holds things like refrigerators, and sofas, and people and dogs in their usual grounded position,
The force that's making me leave town next week is the gravity of a story of an unusual (and awesome) athlete who will soon step onto the international platform.
I'm going to Beijing to follow the life of USA superheavyweight weightlifter Cheryl Haworth: one of history's masters in the practice of outwitting gravity.
This blog will record my experience of traveling, documenting, and engaging with forces, places, (and sometimes people) larger than myself...
I leave on August 12 - arriving Beijing on the 13th.

A particular form of gravity, that is...
Not the usual force that holds things like refrigerators, and sofas, and people and dogs in their usual grounded position,
The force that's making me leave town next week is the gravity of a story of an unusual (and awesome) athlete who will soon step onto the international platform.
I'm going to Beijing to follow the life of USA superheavyweight weightlifter Cheryl Haworth: one of history's masters in the practice of outwitting gravity.
This blog will record my experience of traveling, documenting, and engaging with forces, places, (and sometimes people) larger than myself...
I leave on August 12 - arriving Beijing on the 13th.

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