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This picture is part of my "Best of Japan"-album, check it out here: flic.kr/s/aHsjBHeaBb

 

Japan-Kyoto.de

Facebook: fb.me/Japan.Kyoto.de

 

Copyright: ©2014, Christian Kaden

Licence: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0

ID: 20140424-IMG_3495

 

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-- About sharing -----------------

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IT'S ALL ABOUT TRUST

It's really ok to use this photo as e.g. your wallpaper and in any non-commercial(!) project, but if you reuse it on the web or other public spaces, please give credits to the creator as stated below and don't give the impression that you took the photo yourself. A lot of work was done creating it, so please be respectful and help build some 'internet trust', thanks!

 

Please use credits as follow:

# Anywhere on the internet: ©Christian Kaden on Flickr

# Want to use it in a commercial or monetized project? Leave me a message.

 

Thank you for your understanding.

  

GPS data available, check out the link:

www.google.de/maps/place/33.670994+135.888919

In-depth article: japan-kyoto.de/kotoin-subtempel-daitokuji-kyoto/

  

Japan-Kyoto.de

Facebook: fb.me/Japan.Kyoto.de

 

Copyright: ©2015, Christian Kaden

Licence: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0

ID: IMG_5556

 

-----------------------------------------

-- About sharing -----------------

-----------------------------------------

IT'S ALL ABOUT TRUST

It's really ok to use this photo as your wallpaper etc., but if you reuse it on the web or other public spaces, please read following lines carefully and don't give the impression that you took the photo yourself. A lot of work was done creating it, so please be respectful and help build some 'internet trust', thanks!

Credits as stated below are mandatory, not optional!

# If you want to use this photo under the given Creative-Commons-Licence, please credit it with:

©Christian Kaden / www.Japan-Kyoto.de

# If sharing or reuploading to Facebook, in addition to the above mentioned credits please add a link to the Facebook-Page of Japan-Kyoto as well. Either directly linked via @Japan-Kyoto (preferred) or fb.me/Japan.Kyoto.de (if @Japan-Kyoto is not possible).

# Want to use it in a commercial or monetized project? Leave me a message.

 

Examples

In general: ©Christian Kaden - www.Japan-Kyoto.de

On Facebook: ©Christian Kaden - www.Japan-Kyoto.de - @Japan-Kyoto (linked)

 

Thank you for your understanding.

 

GPS data available, check out the link:

www.google.de/maps/place/35.043100+135.743350

   

www.Japan-Kyoto.de

Facebook: fb.me/Japan.Kyoto.de

 

Copyright: ©2016, Christian Kaden

Licence: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0

ID: IMG_7100

 

- About sharing ------------------

 

IT'S ALL ABOUT TRUST

It's really ok to use this photo as your wallpaper etc., but if you reuse it on the web or other public spaces, please read following lines carefully and don't give the impression that you took the photo yourself. A lot of work was done creating it, so please be respectful and help build some 'internet trust', thanks!

Credits as stated below are mandatory, not optional!

# If you want to use this photo under the given Creative-Commons-Licence, please credit it with:

©Christian Kaden / www.Japan-Kyoto.de

# If sharing or reuploading to Facebook, in addition to the above mentioned credits please add a link to the Facebook-Page of Japan-Kyoto as well. Either directly linked via @Japan-Kyoto (preferred) or fb.me/Japan.Kyoto.de (if @Japan-Kyoto is not possible).

# Want to use it in a commercial or monetized project? Leave me a message.

 

Examples

In general: ©Christian Kaden - www.Japan-Kyoto.de

On Facebook: ©Christian Kaden - www.Japan-Kyoto.de - @Japan-Kyoto (linked)

 

Thank you for your understanding.

 

GPS data available, check out the link:

www.google.de/maps/place/34.791177+135.894418

   

www.Japan-Kyoto.de

Facebook: fb.me/Japan.Kyoto.de

 

Copyright: ©2015, Christian Kaden

Licence: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0

ID: IMG_5359

 

- About sharing ------------------

 

IT'S ALL ABOUT TRUST

It's really ok to use this photo as your wallpaper etc., but if you reuse it on the web or other public spaces, please read following lines carefully and don't give the impression that you took the photo yourself. A lot of work was done creating it, so please be respectful and help build some 'internet trust', thanks!

Credits as stated below are mandatory, not optional!

# If you want to use this photo under the given Creative-Commons-Licence, please credit it with:

©Christian Kaden / www.Japan-Kyoto.de

# If sharing or reuploading to Facebook, in addition to the above mentioned credits please add a link to the Facebook-Page of Japan-Kyoto as well. Either directly linked via @Japan-Kyoto (preferred) or fb.me/Japan.Kyoto.de (if @Japan-Kyoto is not possible).

# Want to use it in a commercial or monetized project? Leave me a message.

 

Examples

In general: ©Christian Kaden - www.Japan-Kyoto.de

On Facebook: ©Christian Kaden - www.Japan-Kyoto.de - @Japan-Kyoto (linked)

 

Thank you for your understanding.

 

GPS data available, check out the link:

www.google.de/maps/place/34.977450+135.774872

Wikipedia (Wiki) Type References

 

Not updated since 2012 and not sure if I can find the time to update it ;-;

 

Speaking appointments

  

Cool Japan Conference at Chokaigi (speaking with Yukio Edano the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry)

Cool Japan Conference by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (Speaker)

2012 Winter Good Smile Broadcast (Presenter)

Tokyo International Anime Festival (panelist)

Nagaoka University (Nagaoka, Japan) (2011/10) (Speaker on my career)

Wonder Festival 2011 Summer (Tokyo) (Speaker at Kotobukiya stage)

MIKUNOPOLIS (Hatsune Miku Concert) (MC)

Anime Expo 2011 (Los Angeles) (Speaker and MC)

Cannes International Advertising Festival (Speaker for Dentsu on Anime Culture)

C3Hong Kong ( speaker on my TV production Culture Japan)

Japanese Media Culture Conference (Tokyo) (Panelist)

Cool Japan and Japanese Industries Seminar (Tokyo) (Ote News College)(Panelist)

Anime Festival Asia 2010 (Singapore) (speaker on my TV production Culture Japan)

Cool Japan Forum 2010 (Singapore) (host and speaker on "My Cool Japan")

Anime Festival Asia 2010 (Singapore) (MC for voice actress Kana Hanazawa and Milky Holmes)

Cool Japan Tokyo Conference (Tokyo) Organized by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Panelist.

Anime Expo 2010 (first day panel) (second day panel) (Los Angeles)

Digital Hollywood University (Tokyo) (Lecture on Creative Industries in Japan)

University of London - (Speaker on Creative Industries in Japan)

Animation Asia Conference (official site) (Singapore) (Speaker and panelist on Japanese Pop Culture)

Anime Festival Asia 2009 (Singapore) (official site) (Performer and speaker on dannychoo.com)

Good Ideas Salons Tokyo (Tokyo) (official site) (Panelist on Pure Living)

Nihon University (Tokyo) (Speaker on my career and dannychoo.com)

Apple Store Ginza (Tokyo) (Speaker on Consumer Generated Media)

Remix Tokyo (Tokyo) (Speaker at Remix 2006 for Microsoft on "Windows Live Gadgets")

Imprint Culture Lab (Los Angeles) (Speaker at Imprint Culture Lab on "dannychoo.com & Blog Culture")

Trend Day 2008 (Germany) (Speaker on Otaku Culture and dannychoo.com)

Promax BDA Asia 2008 (Singapore) (Speaker on Otaku culture and dannychoo.com)

Animax Blogging Workshop (Singapore) (Speaker on history of dannychoo.com, monetization and userbility)

Pecha Kucha Night (Tokyo) (Speaker on Tokyo Trooper)

  

Radio, TV, Commercials, Movie

Channel NewsAsia (Singapore) guest on the morning Primetime Morning to talk the anime industry and monetary aspects.

Culture Japan (Tokyo MX TV / ANIMAX Asia) Presenter and Director.

Nikon Commercial

 

CNN (Feature on Danny Choo)

The People vs George Lucas (Theatrical movie)

Kira Kira Asia (BS11 / Shanghai / Taiwan) Presenter.

A is ASIA (NHK World) Feature on Danny Choo.

Fantastico (Brazil nationwide broadcast) (video here)

TBS Radio

 

O-Japan Senryaku (Tokyo MX TV)

La Chaîne Info (France TV Broadcast)

iPhone 3GS Launch (Nationwide press coverage)

BBC News at 10PM (Otaku Subculture)

BBC World Fast Track

 

Google My Fave Places

 

Firefox 3.5 Welcome Video

 

CNN (iPhone 3G Tokyo Launch)

G4TV (Attack of the Show)

G4TV (Ninja Fest 3)

Lily Allen and Friends (UK BBC)

Won Hobby 5

 

Boing Boing TV

 

Blog TV (Tokyo MX TV)

News Zero (Nippon TV)

Akiba Report part1 (Tokyo MX TV)

Akiba Report part2 (Tokyo MX TV)

Asamade Nama WonHobby (Good Smile Nico Nico Broadcast)

  

Magazine/Newspaper/Books

  

The Star (Malaysian newspaper 2010/05/17)

Japan Times (Japan) Feature on Danny Choo.

Weekly Ascii

 

BMW Magazine (Worldwide) Trends in Japan

Otacool 1,2,3 (a collaboration publication with Kotobukiya)

Otaku Encyclopedia (featured under "C" ^^;)

La Repubblica XL (Italy) (feature on Danny Choo)

Mac Fan (feature on Danny Choo and Mirai Inc)

Weekly Ascii (100 famous folks gadgets)

Game Axis (Malaysian game magazine)

Tokyo Sports Newspaper (Feature on Otacool)

Nikkei Sangyo Newspaper (Talking about dannychoo.com and online monetization)

Weekly Ascii (Japanese Internet publication)

Windows 100% (Japanese computing publication)

Freesouls (a book by Joi Ito)

Monoqlo

 

Yahoo Internet Guide (Japanese publication)

Windows 100% May 2006 (Japanese publication)

Metropolis (Magazine for gaijin folks in Japan)

Weekly SPA Jan 15th 2008 (Japanese publication speaking on Second Life)

Weekly SPA Aug 15th 2007 (Japanese publication speaking on dannychoo.com and online affiliating)

Monoqlo 2 (Japanese publication)

Giant Robot Magazine 51 (Asian culture publication)

  

Online publications

Boing Boing (Guest blogger)

Best Japan Blog (Forbes)

Yahoo.com top page (my Akiba dance trooper vid was featured)

Gyao Trend (interview/Japanese)

Ascii (interview/Japanese)

Wired Magazine (my otaku guide)

Ameba News

  

Contact and Connect

 

I get quite a bit of spam that gets through the filters and another 1653 mails a day asking me everything from "can you buy me x" to "could you translate this for me."

I would love to answer all mails but if I did so then all I would be doing is answering mails all my life - and life is too short too do that. Please don't hate me if I cant reply ;-)

I tend to skip the long mails due to lack of time - short mails are usually read. If you don't get an answer, please resend mail again after 2 weeks. If I manage to make a clone of myself I promise to read and reply to all mails ;-)

Please contact me through my FaceBook or mail which is [support at mirai dot fm]

 

Folks who are interested may want to hook up on the following communities which I participate in - feel free to add or follow.

  

LINE (@DannyChoo)

Twitter

 

FaceBook

 

Tumblr

 

YouTube

 

Flickr

 

Mixi - the Japanese Social Networking Service.

PlayStation 3 ID = "dannychoodotcom"

  

View more at www.dannychoo.com/en/post/25018/Danny+Choo.html

   

www.Japan-Kyoto.de

Facebook: fb.me/Japan.Kyoto.de

 

Copyright: ©2016, Christian Kaden

Licence: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0

ID: IMG_5853

 

- About sharing ------------------

 

IT'S ALL ABOUT TRUST

It's really ok to use this photo as your wallpaper etc., but if you reuse it on the web or other public spaces, please read following lines carefully and don't give the impression that you took the photo yourself. A lot of work was done creating it, so please be respectful and help build some 'internet trust', thanks!

Credits as stated below are mandatory, not optional!

# If you want to use this photo under the given Creative-Commons-Licence, please credit it with:

©Christian Kaden / www.Japan-Kyoto.de

# If sharing or reuploading to Facebook, in addition to the above mentioned credits please add a link to the Facebook-Page of Japan-Kyoto as well. Either directly linked via @Japan-Kyoto (preferred) or fb.me/Japan.Kyoto.de (if @Japan-Kyoto is not possible).

# Want to use it in a commercial or monetized project? Leave me a message.

 

Examples

In general: ©Christian Kaden - www.Japan-Kyoto.de

On Facebook: ©Christian Kaden - www.Japan-Kyoto.de - @Japan-Kyoto (linked)

 

Thank you for your understanding.

 

GPS data available, check out the link:

www.google.de/maps/place/35.044911+135.797064

Well, here we go! Flickr's management has been tasked with monetizing the platform further, and the free ride for those of us who won't put in any effort is coming to an end. I can't say I have much sympathy for the complainers; the majority of them post pix that can only be categorized as "tasteless."

 

Yes, it's a challenge to make erotic art, but too many trannies here simply show off their privates and call it "sexy." Only if you're one of the mass of simple minds for whom media provides ten-second sound-bites - body parts, hairy men in panties, and crude sexual imagery are BORING. No, I'm not at all offended or feeling "moral" over this sort of action; I simply scroll on and appreciate photos where the t-girl is nicely posed in a well-lit set, naturally gorgeous, well-dressed, or impeccably elegant - as in Samantha Duvall.

 

You know who you are, but I must mention some others I do follow, because I admire you: Carole Jones, Stefanie, Klarissa Krass, Chicle Barrage, Gillian, Elsa Collant, Monica Talbot, Tessie Wood, Ashley Ann, the amazing Julia Panther, and folks like my pals Zoë, Pamela Joanna, Helen Turrner, Rachel Cole, Rebecca George, Pamela Lennon, Davina Wayne, Gillian Beale, Kaila Rae, Kassi Shea, Killa Bella, Simone, and Saskatchewan's Teri Robertson and Kim McCallum...

 

You want pervery? How about putting some thought, humour, eroticism and/or art into the mix? I totally enjoy what I see from Tessa Moore, Tara Roberts, Gina, Cheryl, Amee, the inestimably funny and creative Diane Cummings, and that wonderful exhibitionist lady perv, Suzie! Pro Accounts, all! And yes, I too post rude, revealing, and graphic sexual content of me at my submissive best, but only photos that pass muster, and there are darn few of them - for friends.

 

If I didn't mention you, it's because I'm getting tired of writing HTML code, and there's a limit of how much of that you can do here. 😉

 

Please, read my profile, or visit my website!

SVP, lire mon profil, ou visiter mon page sur Web!

   

www.Japan-Kyoto.de

Facebook: fb.me/Japan.Kyoto.de

 

Copyright: ©2016, Christian Kaden

Licence: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0

ID: IMG_5948

 

- About sharing ------------------

 

IT'S ALL ABOUT TRUST

It's really ok to use this photo as your wallpaper etc., but if you reuse it on the web or other public spaces, please read following lines carefully and don't give the impression that you took the photo yourself. A lot of work was done creating it, so please be respectful and help build some 'internet trust', thanks!

Credits as stated below are mandatory, not optional!

# If you want to use this photo under the given Creative-Commons-Licence, please credit it with:

©Christian Kaden / www.Japan-Kyoto.de

# If sharing or reuploading to Facebook, in addition to the above mentioned credits please add a link to the Facebook-Page of Japan-Kyoto as well. Either directly linked via @Japan-Kyoto (preferred) or fb.me/Japan.Kyoto.de (if @Japan-Kyoto is not possible).

# Want to use it in a commercial or monetized project? Leave me a message.

 

Examples

In general: ©Christian Kaden - www.Japan-Kyoto.de

On Facebook: ©Christian Kaden - www.Japan-Kyoto.de - @Japan-Kyoto (linked)

 

Thank you for your understanding.

 

GPS data available, check out the link:

www.google.de/maps/place/35.044911+135.797064

   

www.Japan-Kyoto.de

Facebook: fb.me/Japan.Kyoto.de

 

Copyright: ©2016, Christian Kaden

Licence: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0

ID: IMG_7089

 

- About sharing ------------------

 

IT'S ALL ABOUT TRUST

It's really ok to use this photo as your wallpaper etc., but if you reuse it on the web or other public spaces, please read following lines carefully and don't give the impression that you took the photo yourself. A lot of work was done creating it, so please be respectful and help build some 'internet trust', thanks!

Credits as stated below are mandatory, not optional!

# If you want to use this photo under the given Creative-Commons-Licence, please credit it with:

©Christian Kaden / www.Japan-Kyoto.de

# If sharing or reuploading to Facebook, in addition to the above mentioned credits please add a link to the Facebook-Page of Japan-Kyoto as well. Either directly linked via @Japan-Kyoto (preferred) or fb.me/Japan.Kyoto.de (if @Japan-Kyoto is not possible).

# Want to use it in a commercial or monetized project? Leave me a message.

 

Examples

In general: ©Christian Kaden - www.Japan-Kyoto.de

On Facebook: ©Christian Kaden - www.Japan-Kyoto.de - @Japan-Kyoto (linked)

 

Thank you for your understanding.

 

GPS data available, check out the link:

www.google.de/maps/place/34.814022+135.910579

9.4.09

The flight arrived on time; and the twelve hours while on board passed quickly and without incident. To be sure, the quality of the Cathay Pacific service was exemplary once again.

 

Heathrow reminds me of Newark International. The décor comes straight out of the sterile 80's and is less an eyesore than an insipid background to the rhythm of human activity, such hustle and bustle, at the fore. There certainly are faces from all races present, creating a rich mosaic of humanity which is refreshing if not completely revitalizing after swimming for so long in a sea of Chinese faces in Hong Kong.

 

Internet access is sealed in England, it seems. Nothing is free; everything is egregiously monetized from the wireless hotspots down to the desktop terminals. I guess Hong Kong has spoiled me with its abundant, free access to the information superhighway.

  

11.4.09

Despite staying in a room with five other backpackers, I have been sleeping well. The mattress and pillow are firm; my earplugs keep the noise out; and the sleeping quarters are as dark as a cave when the lights are out, and only as bright as, perhaps, a dreary rainy day when on. All in all, St. Paul's is a excellent place to stay for the gregarious, adventurous, and penurious city explorer - couchsurfing may be a tenable alternative; I'll test for next time.

 

Yesterday Connie and I gorged ourselves at the borough market where there were all sorts of delectable, savory victuals. There was definitely a European flavor to the food fair: simmering sausages were to be found everywhere; and much as the meat was plentiful, and genuine, so were the dairy delicacies, in the form of myriad rounds of cheese, stacked high behind checkered tabletops. Of course, we washed these tasty morsels down with copious amounts of alcohol that flowed from cups as though amber waterfalls. For the first time I tried mulled wine, which tasted like warm, rancid fruit punch - the ideal tonic for a drizzling London day, I suppose. We later killed the afternoon at the pub, shooting the breeze while imbibing several diminutive half-pints in the process. Getting smashed at four in the afternoon doesn't seem like such a bad thing anymore, especially when you are having fun in the company of friends; I can more appreciate why the English do it so much!

 

Earlier in the day, we visited the Tate Modern. Its turbine room lived up to its prominent billing what with a giant spider, complete with bulbous egg sac, anchoring the retrospective exhibit. The permanent galleries, too, were a delight upon which to feast one's eyes. Picasso, Warhol and Pollock ruled the chambers of the upper floors with the products of their lithe wrists; and I ended up becoming a huge fan of cubism, while developing a disdain for abstract art and its vacuous images, which, I feel, are devoid of both motivation and emotion.

 

My first trip yesterday morning was to Emirates Stadium, home of the Arsenal Gunners. It towers imperiously over the surrounding neighborhood; yet for all its majesty, the place sure was quiet! Business did pick up later, however, once the armory shop opened, and dozens of fans descended on it like bees to a hive. I, too, swooped in on a gift-buying mission, and wound up purchasing a book for Godfrey, a scarf for a student, and a jersey - on sale, of course - for good measure.

 

I'm sitting in the Westminster Abbey Museum now, resting my weary legs and burdened back. So far, I've been verily impressed with what I've seen, such a confluence of splendor and history before me that it would require days to absorb it all, when regretfully I can spare only a few hours. My favorite part of the abbey is the poets corner where no less a literary luminary than Samuel Johnson rests in peace - his bust confirms his homely presence, which was so vividly captured in his biography.

 

For lunch I had a steak and ale pie, served with mash, taken alongside a Guinness, extra cold - 2 degrees centigrade colder, the bartender explained. It went down well, like all the other delicious meals I've had in England; and no doubt by now I have grown accustomed to inebriation at half past two. Besides, Liverpool were playing inspired football against Blackburn; and my lunch was complete.

 

Having had my fill of football, I decided to skip my ticket scalping endeavor at Stamford Bridge and instead wandered over to the British Museum to inspect their extensive collections. Along the way, my eye caught a theater, its doors wide open and admitting customers. With much rapidity, I subsequently checked the show times, saw that a performance was set to begin, and at last rushed to the box office to purchase a discounted ticket - if you call a 40 pound ticket a deal, that is. That's how I grabbed a seat to watch Hairspray in the West End.

 

The show was worth forty pounds. The music was addictive; and the stage design and effects were not so much kitschy as delightfully stimulating - the pulsating background lights were at once scintillating and penetrating. The actors as well were vivacious, oozing charisma while they danced and delivered lines dripping in humor. Hairspray is a quality production and most definitely recommended.

  

12.4.09

At breakfast I sat across from a man who asked me to which country Hong Kong had been returned - China or Japan. That was pretty funny. Then he started spitting on my food as he spoke, completely oblivious to my breakfast becoming the receptacle in which the fruit of his inner churl was being placed. I guess I understand the convention nowadays of covering one's mouth whilst speaking and masticating at the same time!

 

We actually conversed on London life in general, and I praised London for its racial integration, the act of which is a prodigious leap of faith for any society, trying to be inclusive, accepting all sorts of people. It wasn't as though the Brits were trying in vain to be all things to all men, using Spanish with the visitors from Spain, German with the Germans and, even, Hindi with the Indians, regardless of whether or not Hindi was their native language; not even considering the absurd idea of encouraging the international adoption of their language; thereby completely keeping English in English hands and allowing its proud polyglots to "practice" their languages. Indeed, the attempt of the Londoners to avail themselves of the rich mosaic of ethnic knowledge, and to seek a common understanding with a ubiquitous English accent is an exemplar, and the bedrock for any world city.

 

I celebrated Jesus' resurrection at the St. Andrew's Street Church in Cambridge. The parishioners of this Baptist church were warm and affable, and I met several of them, including one visiting (Halliday) linguistics scholar from Zhongshan university in Guangzhou, who in fact had visited my tiny City University of Hong Kong in 2003. The service itself was more traditional and the believers fewer in number than the "progressive" services at any of the charismatic, evangelical churches in HK; yet that's what makes this part of the body of Christ unique; besides, the message was as brief as a powerpoint slide, and informative no less; the power word which spoke into my life being a question from John 21:22 - what is that to you?

 

Big trees; exquisite lawns; and old, pointy colleges; that's Cambridge in a nutshell. Sitting here, sipping on a half-pint of Woodforde's Wherry, I've had a leisurely, if not languorous, day so far; my sole duty consisting of walking around while absorbing the verdant environment as though a sponge, camera in tow.

 

I am back at the sublime beer, savoring a pint of Sharp's DoomBar before my fish and chips arrive; the drinking age is 18, but anyone whose visage even hints of youthful brilliance is likely to get carded these days, the bartender told me. The youth drinking culture here is almost as twisted as the university drinking culture in America.

 

My stay in Cambridge, relaxing and desultory as it may be, is about to end after this late lunch. I an not sure if there is anything left to see, save for the American graveyard which rests an impossible two miles away. I have had a wonderful time in this town; and am thankful for the access into its living history - the residents here must demonstrate remarkable patience and tolerance what with so many tourists ambling on the streets, peering - and photographing - into every nook and cranny.

 

13.4.09

There are no rubbish bins, yet I've seen on the streets many mixed race couples in which the men tend to be white - the women also belonging to a light colored ethnicity, usually some sort of Asian; as well saw some black dudes and Indian dudes with white chicks.

 

People here hold doors, even at the entrance to the toilet. Sometimes it appears as though they are going out on a limb, just waiting for the one who will take the responsibility for the door from them, at which point I rush out to relieve them of such a fortuitous burden.

 

I visited the British Museum this morning. The two hours I spent there did neither myself nor the exhibits any justice because there really is too much to survey, enough captivating stuff to last an entire day, I think. The bottomless well of artifacts from antiquity, drawing from sources as diverse as Korea, and Mesopotamia, is a credit to the British empire, without whose looting most of this amazing booty would be unavailable for our purview; better, I think, for these priceless treasures to be open to all in the grandest supermarket of history than away from human eyes, and worst yet, in the hands of unscrupulous collectors or in the rubbish bin, possibly.

 

Irene and I took in the ballet Giselle at The Royal Opera House in the afternoon. The building is a plush marvel, and a testament to this city's love for the arts. The ballet itself was satisfying, the first half being superior to the second, in which the nimble dancers demonstrated their phenomenal dexterity in, of all places, a graveyard covered in a cloak of smoke and darkness. I admit, their dance of the dead, in such a gloomy necropolis, did strike me as, strange.

 

Two amicable ladies from Kent convinced me to visit their hometown tomorrow, where, they told me, the authentic, "working" Leeds Castle and the mighty interesting home of Charles Darwin await.

 

I'm nursing a pint of Green King Ruddles and wondering about the profusion of British ales and lagers; the British have done a great deed for the world by creating an interminable line of low-alcohol session beers that can be enjoyed at breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner; and their disservice is this: besides this inexhaustible supply of cheap beer ensnaring my inner alcoholic, I feel myself putting on my freshman fifteen, almost ten years after the fact; I am going to have to run a bit harder back in Hong Kong if I want to burn all this malty fuel off.

 

Irene suggested I stop by the National Art Gallery since we were in the area; and it was an hour well spent. The gallery currently presents a special exhibit on Picasso, the non-ticketed section of which features several seductive renderings, including David spying on Bathsheba - repeated in clever variants - and parodies of other masters' works. Furthermore, the main gallery houses two fabulous portraits by Joshua Reynolds, who happens to be favorite of mine, he in life being a close friend of Samuel Johnson - I passed by Boswells, where its namesake first met Johnson, on my way to the opera house.

 

14.4.09

I prayed last night, and went through my list, lifting everyone on it up to the Lord. That felt good; that God is alive now, and ever present in my life and in the lives of my brothers and sisters.

 

Doubtless, then, I have felt quite wistful, as though a specter in the land of the living, being in a place where religious fervor, it seems, is a thing of the past, a trifling for many, to be hidden away in the opaque corners of centuries-old cathedrals that are more expensive tourist destinations than liberating homes of worship these days. Indeed, I have yet to see anyone pray, outside of the Easter service which I attended in Cambridge - for such an ecstatic moment in verily a grand church, would you believe that it was only attended by at most three dozen spirited ones. The people of England, and Europe in general, have, it is my hope, only locked away the Word, relegating it to the quiet vault of their hearts. May it be taken out in the sudden pause before mealtimes and in the still crisp mornings and cool, silent nights. There is still hope for a revival in this place, for faith to rise like that splendid sun every morning. God would love to rescue them, to deliver them in this day, it is certain.

 

I wonder what Londoners think, if anything at all, about their police state which, like a vine in the shadows, has taken root in all corners of daily life, from the terrorist notifications in the underground, which implore Londoners to report all things suspicious, to the pair of dogs which eagerly stroll through Euston. What makes this all the more incredible is the fact that even the United States, the indomitable nemesis of the fledgling, rebel order, doesn't dare bombard its citizens with such fear mongering these days, especially with Obama in office; maybe we've grown wise in these past few years to the dubious returns of surrendering civil liberties to the state, of having our bags checked everywhere - London Eye; Hairspray; and The Royal Opera House check bags in London while the museums do not; somehow, that doesn't add up for me.

 

I'm in a majestic bookshop on New Street in Birmingham, and certainly to confirm my suspicions, there are just as many books on the death of Christianity in Britain as there are books which attempt to murder Christianity everywhere. I did find, however, a nice biography on John Wesley by Roy Hattersley and The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. I may pick up the former.

 

Lunch with Sally was pleasant and mirthful. We dined at a French restaurant nearby New Street - yes, Birmingham is a cultural capitol! Sally and I both tried their omelette, while her boyfriend had the fish, without chips. Conversation was light, the levity was there and so was our reminiscing about those fleeting moments during our first year in Hong Kong; it is amazing how friendships can resume so suddenly with a smile. On their recommendation, I am on my way to Warwick Castle - they also suggested that I visit Cadbury World, but they cannot take on additional visitors at the moment, the tourist office staff informed me, much to my disappointment!

 

Visiting Warwick Castle really made for a great day out. The castle, parts of which were established by William the Conquerer in 1068, is as much a kitschy tourist trap as a meticulous preservation of history, at times a sillier version of Ocean Park while at others a dignified dedication to a most glorious, inexorably English past. The castle caters to all visitors; and not surprisingly, that which delighted all audiences was a giant trebuchet siege engine, which for the five p.m. performance hurled a fireball high and far into the air - fantastic! Taliban beware!

 

15.4.09

I'm leaving on a jet plane this evening; don't know when I'll be back in England again. I'll miss this quirky, yet endearing place; and that I shall miss Irene and Tom who so generously welcomed me into their home, fed me, and suffered my use of their toilet and shower goes without saying. I'm grateful for God's many blessings on this trip.

 

On the itinerary today is a trip to John Wesley's home, followed by a visit to the Imperial War Museum. Already this morning I picked up a tube of Oilatum, a week late perhaps, which Teri recommended I use to treat this obstinate, dermal weakness of mine - I'm happy to report that my skin has stopped crying.

 

John Wesley's home is alive and well. Services are still held in the chapel everyday; and its crypt, so far from being a cellar for the dead, is a bright, spacious museum in which all things Wesley are on display - I never realized how much of an iconic figure he became in England; at the height of this idol frenzy, ironic in itself, he must have been as popular as the Beatles were at their apex. The house itself is a multi-story edifice with narrow, precipitous staircases and spacious rooms decorated in an 18th century fashion.

 

I found Samuel Johnson's house within a maze of red brick hidden alongside Fleet Street. To be in the home of the man who wrote the English dictionary, and whose indefatigable love for obscure words became the inspiration for my own lexical obsession, this, by far, is the climax of my visit to England! The best certainly has been saved for last.

 

There are a multitude of portraits hanging around the house like ornaments on a tree. Every likeness has its own story, meticulously retold on the crib sheets in each room. Celebrities abound, including David Garrick and Sir Joshua Reynolds, who painted several of the finer images in the house. I have developed a particular affinity for Oliver Goldsmith, of whom Boswell writes, "His person was short, his countenance coarse and vulgar, his deportment that of a scholar awkwardly affecting the easy gentleman. It appears as though I, too, could use a more flattering description of myself!

 

I regretfully couldn't stop to try the curry in England; I guess the CityU canteen's take on the dish will have to do. I did, however, have the opportune task of flirting with the cute Cathay Pacific counter staff who checked me in. She was gorgeous in red, light powder on her cheeks, with real diamond earrings, she said; and her small, delicate face, commanded by a posh British accent rendered her positively irresistible, electrifying. Not only did she grant me an aisle seat but she had the gumption to return my fawning with zest; she must be a pro at this by now.

 

I saw her again as she was pulling double-duty, collecting tickets prior to boarding. She remembered my quest for curry; and in the fog of infatuation, where nary a man has been made, I fumbled my words like the sloppy kid who has had too much punch. I am just an amateur, alas, an "Oliver Goldsmith" with the ladies - I got no game - booyah!

 

Some final, consequential bits: because of the chavs, Burberry no longer sells those fashionable baseball caps; because of the IRA, rubbish bins are no longer a commodity on the streets of London, and as a result, the streets and the Underground of the city are a soiled mess; and because of other terrorists from distant, more arid lands, going through a Western airport has taken on the tedium of perfunctory procedure that doesn't make me feel any safer from my invisible enemies.

 

At last, I saw so many Indians working at Heathrow that I could have easily mistaken the place for Mumbai. Their presence surprised me because their portion of the general population surely must be less than their portion of Heathrow staff, indicating some mysterious hiring bias. Regardless, they do a superb job with cursory airport checks, and in general are absurdly funny and witty when not tactless.

 

That's all for England!

   

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I really like this picture. The maiko looks like a cute child because her legs don't reach competely to the floor and at the time I hit the shot button, she was eating that sweet.

 

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A tunnel of which many people are afraid of, as it is quite narrow (only one line) and long. Yes, it's quite unsettling to drive through.

  

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During Cherry Blossom time. Read more at: www.japan-kyoto.de/ginkakuji-tempel-kyoto/

 

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9.4.09

The flight arrived on time; and the twelve hours while on board passed quickly and without incident. To be sure, the quality of the Cathay Pacific service was exemplary once again.

 

Heathrow reminds me of Newark International. The décor comes straight out of the sterile 80's and is less an eyesore than an insipid background to the rhythm of human activity, such hustle and bustle, at the fore. There certainly are faces from all races present, creating a rich mosaic of humanity which is refreshing if not completely revitalizing after swimming for so long in a sea of Chinese faces in Hong Kong.

 

Internet access is sealed in England, it seems. Nothing is free; everything is egregiously monetized from the wireless hotspots down to the desktop terminals. I guess Hong Kong has spoiled me with its abundant, free access to the information superhighway.

  

11.4.09

Despite staying in a room with five other backpackers, I have been sleeping well. The mattress and pillow are firm; my earplugs keep the noise out; and the sleeping quarters are as dark as a cave when the lights are out, and only as bright as, perhaps, a dreary rainy day when on. All in all, St. Paul's is a excellent place to stay for the gregarious, adventurous, and penurious city explorer - couchsurfing may be a tenable alternative; I'll test for next time.

 

Yesterday Connie and I gorged ourselves at the borough market where there were all sorts of delectable, savory victuals. There was definitely a European flavor to the food fair: simmering sausages were to be found everywhere; and much as the meat was plentiful, and genuine, so were the dairy delicacies, in the form of myriad rounds of cheese, stacked high behind checkered tabletops. Of course, we washed these tasty morsels down with copious amounts of alcohol that flowed from cups as though amber waterfalls. For the first time I tried mulled wine, which tasted like warm, rancid fruit punch - the ideal tonic for a drizzling London day, I suppose. We later killed the afternoon at the pub, shooting the breeze while imbibing several diminutive half-pints in the process. Getting smashed at four in the afternoon doesn't seem like such a bad thing anymore, especially when you are having fun in the company of friends; I can more appreciate why the English do it so much!

 

Earlier in the day, we visited the Tate Modern. Its turbine room lived up to its prominent billing what with a giant spider, complete with bulbous egg sac, anchoring the retrospective exhibit. The permanent galleries, too, were a delight upon which to feast one's eyes. Picasso, Warhol and Pollock ruled the chambers of the upper floors with the products of their lithe wrists; and I ended up becoming a huge fan of cubism, while developing a disdain for abstract art and its vacuous images, which, I feel, are devoid of both motivation and emotion.

 

My first trip yesterday morning was to Emirates Stadium, home of the Arsenal Gunners. It towers imperiously over the surrounding neighborhood; yet for all its majesty, the place sure was quiet! Business did pick up later, however, once the armory shop opened, and dozens of fans descended on it like bees to a hive. I, too, swooped in on a gift-buying mission, and wound up purchasing a book for Godfrey, a scarf for a student, and a jersey - on sale, of course - for good measure.

 

I'm sitting in the Westminster Abbey Museum now, resting my weary legs and burdened back. So far, I've been verily impressed with what I've seen, such a confluence of splendor and history before me that it would require days to absorb it all, when regretfully I can spare only a few hours. My favorite part of the abbey is the poets corner where no less a literary luminary than Samuel Johnson rests in peace - his bust confirms his homely presence, which was so vividly captured in his biography.

 

For lunch I had a steak and ale pie, served with mash, taken alongside a Guinness, extra cold - 2 degrees centigrade colder, the bartender explained. It went down well, like all the other delicious meals I've had in England; and no doubt by now I have grown accustomed to inebriation at half past two. Besides, Liverpool were playing inspired football against Blackburn; and my lunch was complete.

 

Having had my fill of football, I decided to skip my ticket scalping endeavor at Stamford Bridge and instead wandered over to the British Museum to inspect their extensive collections. Along the way, my eye caught a theater, its doors wide open and admitting customers. With much rapidity, I subsequently checked the show times, saw that a performance was set to begin, and at last rushed to the box office to purchase a discounted ticket - if you call a 40 pound ticket a deal, that is. That's how I grabbed a seat to watch Hairspray in the West End.

 

The show was worth forty pounds. The music was addictive; and the stage design and effects were not so much kitschy as delightfully stimulating - the pulsating background lights were at once scintillating and penetrating. The actors as well were vivacious, oozing charisma while they danced and delivered lines dripping in humor. Hairspray is a quality production and most definitely recommended.

  

12.4.09

At breakfast I sat across from a man who asked me to which country Hong Kong had been returned - China or Japan. That was pretty funny. Then he started spitting on my food as he spoke, completely oblivious to my breakfast becoming the receptacle in which the fruit of his inner churl was being placed. I guess I understand the convention nowadays of covering one's mouth whilst speaking and masticating at the same time!

 

We actually conversed on London life in general, and I praised London for its racial integration, the act of which is a prodigious leap of faith for any society, trying to be inclusive, accepting all sorts of people. It wasn't as though the Brits were trying in vain to be all things to all men, using Spanish with the visitors from Spain, German with the Germans and, even, Hindi with the Indians, regardless of whether or not Hindi was their native language; not even considering the absurd idea of encouraging the international adoption of their language; thereby completely keeping English in English hands and allowing its proud polyglots to "practice" their languages. Indeed, the attempt of the Londoners to avail themselves of the rich mosaic of ethnic knowledge, and to seek a common understanding with a ubiquitous English accent is an exemplar, and the bedrock for any world city.

 

I celebrated Jesus' resurrection at the St. Andrew's Street Church in Cambridge. The parishioners of this Baptist church were warm and affable, and I met several of them, including one visiting (Halliday) linguistics scholar from Zhongshan university in Guangzhou, who in fact had visited my tiny City University of Hong Kong in 2003. The service itself was more traditional and the believers fewer in number than the "progressive" services at any of the charismatic, evangelical churches in HK; yet that's what makes this part of the body of Christ unique; besides, the message was as brief as a powerpoint slide, and informative no less; the power word which spoke into my life being a question from John 21:22 - what is that to you?

 

Big trees; exquisite lawns; and old, pointy colleges; that's Cambridge in a nutshell. Sitting here, sipping on a half-pint of Woodforde's Wherry, I've had a leisurely, if not languorous, day so far; my sole duty consisting of walking around while absorbing the verdant environment as though a sponge, camera in tow.

 

I am back at the sublime beer, savoring a pint of Sharp's DoomBar before my fish and chips arrive; the drinking age is 18, but anyone whose visage even hints of youthful brilliance is likely to get carded these days, the bartender told me. The youth drinking culture here is almost as twisted as the university drinking culture in America.

 

My stay in Cambridge, relaxing and desultory as it may be, is about to end after this late lunch. I an not sure if there is anything left to see, save for the American graveyard which rests an impossible two miles away. I have had a wonderful time in this town; and am thankful for the access into its living history - the residents here must demonstrate remarkable patience and tolerance what with so many tourists ambling on the streets, peering - and photographing - into every nook and cranny.

 

13.4.09

There are no rubbish bins, yet I've seen on the streets many mixed race couples in which the men tend to be white - the women also belonging to a light colored ethnicity, usually some sort of Asian; as well saw some black dudes and Indian dudes with white chicks.

 

People here hold doors, even at the entrance to the toilet. Sometimes it appears as though they are going out on a limb, just waiting for the one who will take the responsibility for the door from them, at which point I rush out to relieve them of such a fortuitous burden.

 

I visited the British Museum this morning. The two hours I spent there did neither myself nor the exhibits any justice because there really is too much to survey, enough captivating stuff to last an entire day, I think. The bottomless well of artifacts from antiquity, drawing from sources as diverse as Korea, and Mesopotamia, is a credit to the British empire, without whose looting most of this amazing booty would be unavailable for our purview; better, I think, for these priceless treasures to be open to all in the grandest supermarket of history than away from human eyes, and worst yet, in the hands of unscrupulous collectors or in the rubbish bin, possibly.

 

Irene and I took in the ballet Giselle at The Royal Opera House in the afternoon. The building is a plush marvel, and a testament to this city's love for the arts. The ballet itself was satisfying, the first half being superior to the second, in which the nimble dancers demonstrated their phenomenal dexterity in, of all places, a graveyard covered in a cloak of smoke and darkness. I admit, their dance of the dead, in such a gloomy necropolis, did strike me as, strange.

 

Two amicable ladies from Kent convinced me to visit their hometown tomorrow, where, they told me, the authentic, "working" Leeds Castle and the mighty interesting home of Charles Darwin await.

 

I'm nursing a pint of Green King Ruddles and wondering about the profusion of British ales and lagers; the British have done a great deed for the world by creating an interminable line of low-alcohol session beers that can be enjoyed at breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner; and their disservice is this: besides this inexhaustible supply of cheap beer ensnaring my inner alcoholic, I feel myself putting on my freshman fifteen, almost ten years after the fact; I am going to have to run a bit harder back in Hong Kong if I want to burn all this malty fuel off.

 

Irene suggested I stop by the National Art Gallery since we were in the area; and it was an hour well spent. The gallery currently presents a special exhibit on Picasso, the non-ticketed section of which features several seductive renderings, including David spying on Bathsheba - repeated in clever variants - and parodies of other masters' works. Furthermore, the main gallery houses two fabulous portraits by Joshua Reynolds, who happens to be favorite of mine, he in life being a close friend of Samuel Johnson - I passed by Boswells, where its namesake first met Johnson, on my way to the opera house.

 

14.4.09

I prayed last night, and went through my list, lifting everyone on it up to the Lord. That felt good; that God is alive now, and ever present in my life and in the lives of my brothers and sisters.

 

Doubtless, then, I have felt quite wistful, as though a specter in the land of the living, being in a place where religious fervor, it seems, is a thing of the past, a trifling for many, to be hidden away in the opaque corners of centuries-old cathedrals that are more expensive tourist destinations than liberating homes of worship these days. Indeed, I have yet to see anyone pray, outside of the Easter service which I attended in Cambridge - for such an ecstatic moment in verily a grand church, would you believe that it was only attended by at most three dozen spirited ones. The people of England, and Europe in general, have, it is my hope, only locked away the Word, relegating it to the quiet vault of their hearts. May it be taken out in the sudden pause before mealtimes and in the still crisp mornings and cool, silent nights. There is still hope for a revival in this place, for faith to rise like that splendid sun every morning. God would love to rescue them, to deliver them in this day, it is certain.

 

I wonder what Londoners think, if anything at all, about their police state which, like a vine in the shadows, has taken root in all corners of daily life, from the terrorist notifications in the underground, which implore Londoners to report all things suspicious, to the pair of dogs which eagerly stroll through Euston. What makes this all the more incredible is the fact that even the United States, the indomitable nemesis of the fledgling, rebel order, doesn't dare bombard its citizens with such fear mongering these days, especially with Obama in office; maybe we've grown wise in these past few years to the dubious returns of surrendering civil liberties to the state, of having our bags checked everywhere - London Eye; Hairspray; and The Royal Opera House check bags in London while the museums do not; somehow, that doesn't add up for me.

 

I'm in a majestic bookshop on New Street in Birmingham, and certainly to confirm my suspicions, there are just as many books on the death of Christianity in Britain as there are books which attempt to murder Christianity everywhere. I did find, however, a nice biography on John Wesley by Roy Hattersley and The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. I may pick up the former.

 

Lunch with Sally was pleasant and mirthful. We dined at a French restaurant nearby New Street - yes, Birmingham is a cultural capitol! Sally and I both tried their omelette, while her boyfriend had the fish, without chips. Conversation was light, the levity was there and so was our reminiscing about those fleeting moments during our first year in Hong Kong; it is amazing how friendships can resume so suddenly with a smile. On their recommendation, I am on my way to Warwick Castle - they also suggested that I visit Cadbury World, but they cannot take on additional visitors at the moment, the tourist office staff informed me, much to my disappointment!

 

Visiting Warwick Castle really made for a great day out. The castle, parts of which were established by William the Conquerer in 1068, is as much a kitschy tourist trap as a meticulous preservation of history, at times a sillier version of Ocean Park while at others a dignified dedication to a most glorious, inexorably English past. The castle caters to all visitors; and not surprisingly, that which delighted all audiences was a giant trebuchet siege engine, which for the five p.m. performance hurled a fireball high and far into the air - fantastic! Taliban beware!

 

15.4.09

I'm leaving on a jet plane this evening; don't know when I'll be back in England again. I'll miss this quirky, yet endearing place; and that I shall miss Irene and Tom who so generously welcomed me into their home, fed me, and suffered my use of their toilet and shower goes without saying. I'm grateful for God's many blessings on this trip.

 

On the itinerary today is a trip to John Wesley's home, followed by a visit to the Imperial War Museum. Already this morning I picked up a tube of Oilatum, a week late perhaps, which Teri recommended I use to treat this obstinate, dermal weakness of mine - I'm happy to report that my skin has stopped crying.

 

John Wesley's home is alive and well. Services are still held in the chapel everyday; and its crypt, so far from being a cellar for the dead, is a bright, spacious museum in which all things Wesley are on display - I never realized how much of an iconic figure he became in England; at the height of this idol frenzy, ironic in itself, he must have been as popular as the Beatles were at their apex. The house itself is a multi-story edifice with narrow, precipitous staircases and spacious rooms decorated in an 18th century fashion.

 

I found Samuel Johnson's house within a maze of red brick hidden alongside Fleet Street. To be in the home of the man who wrote the English dictionary, and whose indefatigable love for obscure words became the inspiration for my own lexical obsession, this, by far, is the climax of my visit to England! The best certainly has been saved for last.

 

There are a multitude of portraits hanging around the house like ornaments on a tree. Every likeness has its own story, meticulously retold on the crib sheets in each room. Celebrities abound, including David Garrick and Sir Joshua Reynolds, who painted several of the finer images in the house. I have developed a particular affinity for Oliver Goldsmith, of whom Boswell writes, "His person was short, his countenance coarse and vulgar, his deportment that of a scholar awkwardly affecting the easy gentleman. It appears as though I, too, could use a more flattering description of myself!

 

I regretfully couldn't stop to try the curry in England; I guess the CityU canteen's take on the dish will have to do. I did, however, have the opportune task of flirting with the cute Cathay Pacific counter staff who checked me in. She was gorgeous in red, light powder on her cheeks, with real diamond earrings, she said; and her small, delicate face, commanded by a posh British accent rendered her positively irresistible, electrifying. Not only did she grant me an aisle seat but she had the gumption to return my fawning with zest; she must be a pro at this by now.

 

I saw her again as she was pulling double-duty, collecting tickets prior to boarding. She remembered my quest for curry; and in the fog of infatuation, where nary a man has been made, I fumbled my words like the sloppy kid who has had too much punch. I am just an amateur, alas, an "Oliver Goldsmith" with the ladies - I got no game - booyah!

 

Some final, consequential bits: because of the chavs, Burberry no longer sells those fashionable baseball caps; because of the IRA, rubbish bins are no longer a commodity on the streets of London, and as a result, the streets and the Underground of the city are a soiled mess; and because of other terrorists from distant, more arid lands, going through a Western airport has taken on the tedium of perfunctory procedure that doesn't make me feel any safer from my invisible enemies.

 

At last, I saw so many Indians working at Heathrow that I could have easily mistaken the place for Mumbai. Their presence surprised me because their portion of the general population surely must be less than their portion of Heathrow staff, indicating some mysterious hiring bias. Regardless, they do a superb job with cursory airport checks, and in general are absurdly funny and witty when not tactless.

 

That's all for England!

I know a lot of my flickr peeps have already subbed me, but if you haven't PLEEEEAAAASEEEE do!! My goal is to hit 1,000 by the end of the year. I only have 878 at the moment >.<

Why do I need to hit 1k? Well, if we're friends on facebook, then you know that I'm technically already a partner. But the catch is, my account isn't a FULL partner. I do get money from ad revenue (y'all should totally click the ads that pop up - just sayin') but I can't enjoy all the perks of partnership like profile banners, and cool stuff like that.

I've read that if you have under 1,000 subscribers, YouTube most likely won't even consider your account :S

SO please subscribe to www.youtube.com/user/alexbabs12345 and spread the word ;D Thanks!

   

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IT'S ALL ABOUT TRUST

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The Internet Archives of the original text

Viral Marketing phenomenon explained.

 

(Original version published in the Netscape M-Files, May 1, 1997. Edited Version published in Business 2.0, November 1998)

 

A lot of the energy behind the Internet is the ability for everyone to be a publisher. Consequently, we are in a land grab for precious spectrum - people's attention. Attention is finite. Rising above the noise of a thousand voices requires creativity. Shouting is not very creative. Just hanging up a web shingle and hoping for visitors is not very creative. Rather, new companies can structure their businesses in a way that allows them to grow like a virus and lock out the existing bricks and mortar competitors through innovative pricing and exploitation of these competitors' legacy distribution channel conflict.

 

In 1996, Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith pioneered a great new product category -- free web-based email. But many great ideas and great products have withered on the vine. The special catalyst for Hotmail's torrid growth is what we at Draper Fisher Jurvetson have come to call "Viral Marketing" -- not because any traditional viruses are involved, but because of the pattern of rapid adoption through word-of-mouth networks. Viral Marketing powerfully compounds the benefits of a first-mover advantage. And it's something we eagerly look for when evaluating any Internet startup company. As a founding investor in Hotmail and a member of their board of directors, we think Hotmail is a great case study on the impact of the Viral Marketing strategy over its full life cycle.

 

Hotmail's Amazing Growth:

 

Hotmail grew a subscriber base more rapidly than any company in the history of the world ...faster than any new online, Internet, or print publication ever.

Hotmail is the largest email provider in the world.

In its first 1.5 years, Hotmail signed up over 12 million subscribers.

A traditional print publication would hope to reach a total of 100,000 subscribers within a few years of launch. Hotmail signs up more than 150,000 subscribers every day, seven days a week.

Every Hotmail subscriber, without exception, has filled out a detailed demographic and psychographic profile including occupation and salary. This is an unprecedented supply of personal information.

Yet, from company launch to 12 million users, Hotmail spent less than $500K on marketing, advertising and promotion. This compares to over $20 million spent on advertising and brand promotion by Juno, Hotmail's closest competitor with a fraction of the users.

Other companies may have distributed more unit volume of product than Hotmail did in their first year - especially when releasing upgrades or brand extensions to an established franchise. But for a new entrant with a new product, the challenge is more daunting. "Subscriptions" have their own challenges as well. Users face a trust decision in deciding to share their private information and email with an online entity. And the user may not be certain that the end product is worth the effort. These are barriers to adoption in the subscription model. How did Hotmail overcome these barriers as an undercapitalized startup? Viral Marketing.

 

Hotmail originally approached us as JavaSoft, Inc., a web database tools company, and, as Business Week recounted: Sabeer and Jack went to see "Draper Fisher Jurvetson, but the investor was unimpressed by their idea for database software for the Net. As they were packing up to leave, [the VCs] asked: 'Do you have any other ideas?' Sabeer said they'd noodled over a scheme to offer free, advertising-supported E-mail over the Web. A week and a half later, the venture capitalists ponied up $300,000, and Hotmail was born." (BW, August 25, 1997)

 

In our next meeting, Tim Draper suggested that they should append an advertising message to every outbound email: "P.S. Get your free email at Hotmail. It was very contentious at the time. Would users balk at having this automatic addition to the content of their private messages? Hotmail tempered the idea by clearly demarcating the promotional plug, and removing the "P.S." Nevertheless, every outbound message still conveyed an advertisement and a subtle implied endorsement by the sender - the recipient knew that the sender was a Hotmail user, and that this new free email thing seemed to work for them. Each new user becomes a company salesperson, and the message spreads organically.

 

Hotmail's business model maps well to the medium. By contrast, Juno does not map well to the medium, and they have already spent $20 million in advertising. Hotmail did not spend the money, yet gained over three times as many users in half the time.

 

Elements of Viral Marketing:

The Hotmail adoption pattern is that of a virus - with spatial and network locality. People typically send e-mails to their associates and friends; many of them are geographically close, and others are scattered around with clusters in areas of high Internet connectivity. We would notice the first user from a university town or from India, and then the number of subscribers from that region would rapidly proliferate. The beauty of it is that none of this required any marketing dollars. Customers do the selling.

 

Digital viruses can spread internationally more rapidly than biological viruses that rely on the physical proximity of hosts for their spread - via a sneeze or handshake. Hotmail is the largest email provider in Sweden and India despite the fact that they have done no marketing of any sort in these countries. It's a happy day when you discover your business has displaced several entrenched competitors to become the market share leader in a country you have never visited. What's more, Hotmail is used in over 220 countries, despite the limitation that it is only available in English.

 

Viral Marketing captures the essence of multi-level-marketing and applies it to all customers - the "word-of-mouth" spread of the Hotmail message is involuntary. And it's more powerful than many other marketing techniques that lack the implied endorsement from a friend. Hotmail had "Free Email" buttons on several other highly-trafficked web sites, but they generated comparatively negligible numbers of subscriptions. Juno has shown that advertising is relatively cost-ineffective. It is hard to spend your way to Hotmail-like growth. The snowball effect is a mechanism to greatly leverage a first-mover advantage. Whenever a product involves people other than the purchaser, then there is an opportunity to market to potential new customers. It is no surprise that Amazon encourages its customers to send a book as a gift to a friend. When the recipient receives the gift book, the packaging contains a flyer for the amazon.com service. Similarly, whenever someone uses iShip.com to send a package, the recipient will learn about how iShip.com can save them money on their shipping needs.

 

As more Internet and Intranet applications move beyond computation to embrace communication, the Viral Marketing strategy has wide applicability. E-commerce, groupware, community, messaging and promotions businesses can all use these techniques to further the Internet explosion.

 

In addition to Hotmail, we have seen a similar viral communications approach taken by Mirabilis, an Israeli-based company that signed up twelve million instant messaging subscribers to its ICQ service before its acquisition by AOL for almost $300 million. To use ICQ, both parties need to download the client software. So each subscriber ends up emailing their friends to solicit them to engage in this new communication channel. The friends in turn, experience the product first hand, and may repeat the pattern. It's like the old shampoo commercial refrain "they told two friends who told two friends, and so on." While powerful, these dyadic communication products recruit new customers one by one.

 

Viral Broadcasts:

A sneeze releases two million aerosol particles. In the digital domain, this can get very interesting. For example, Tumbleweed Software enables secure e-mail delivery of documents or newsletters to a huge numbers of recipients. Every recipient also gets a web link to the enabling Tumbleweed service. So when a single new customer starts to use Tumbleweed, thousands of potential new customers receive the Tumbleweed pitch.

 

This viral broadcast model can be creatively applied to a variety of products, such as web-hosted address books, calendars, list servers and news group readers. Homestead enables families, sports teams, alumni organizations, and other affinity groups to create rich and private "community" web sites. When someone builds a Homestead, the system facilitates them to broadcast an invitation to the members they would like to recruit to participate in their Homestead. A new recruit may belong to several affinity groups, and may find the service compelling enough to replicate in these other circles - thus proliferating the Homestead platform.

 

The power of this approach has been demonstrated in the junk email domain. Have you ever gotten one of those email chain letters that urge you to forward it to as many people as possible? Often shrouded with a bogus virus warning or a charitable cause, these messages rapidly spread throughout the globe until people have received multiple copies.

 

These junk e-mails are like digital graffiti in that the people that create them want their "tag" or message to be seen by as many people as possible. Traditional graffiti "artists" choose targets like trains and buses to maximize their exposure. Similarly, many computer virus authors are seeking to promote their name, and they seek maximum exposure - on the PC. You don't see many viruses on niche computer platforms (as the Macintosh market share has dwindled, so too have the number of new Mac viruses). This personal quest for fame, while annoying, is not too different from the desire of many businesses for brand awareness.

 

New businesses also want to let the world know their name, but they do not want to be annoying, and thus, they must provide a compelling reason for customers to help spread the word. In all of these viral businesses, the balance between the customer value provided by the network and the concerns surrounding privacy will be a delicate one.

 

For many network applications - from ICQ to the traditional fax machine - the value of the network, and the value that each member realizes increases disproportionately as more people join the network. The first fax machine customers were delighted to see more people buy compatible machines. A company that can provide a strong enough incentive for customers to share their massive lists of personal contacts - whether for communications or community - will have a powerful viral opportunity at their disposal. A good virus will look for prolific hosts (such as students) and tie to their high-frequency social interactions (such as email and messaging). Viral Marketing is most powerful when it taps into the breadth of its customers' weak connections to others. Tapping the customer's entire address book is more valuable than just reaching their best friend.

 

Viral Marketing Strategies:

The typical viral entry strategy is to minimize the friction of market entry and proliferation with an eye to building in hooks and barriers to switching for customers. If the service is trying to blatantly monetize its subscriber base in every way imaginable, new users will be reluctant to spread the word. Therefore, many of these services are free and light on the revenue generation in the early days of their rapid proliferation. When we first invested in Four11 and Hotmail, we could not say with certainty how they would ultimately monetize their subscribers. We brainstormed several possible scenarios for how they might eventually exploit their large audience and market position as a communications hub. But in the viral growth phase, the simple banner ad seemed the most innocuous.

 

In an extreme example, prior to their acquisition by America OnLine, ICQ's CEO took delight in the fact that they not only had no revenue, but had no current plan for revenue. This is not to say that businesses without revenue prospects are necessarily attractive - just that people's attention (or "eyeballs") have proven to be monetizable in every media.

 

A company that can choose to delay revenue maximization (e.g., by not burdening their service's clarity of purpose and speed of download with excessive ads and promotions) may find that they can exploit a first mover advantage in the Internet land grab to gain a dominant market position. This is one of the reasons so much VC money flows into these Internet start-ups.

 

The Internet is a wonderful substrate or petri dish for the proliferation and replication of intellectual property. A good idea can spread more quickly over the Internet than had ever been possible before in the physical world, where manufacturing and distribution fundamentally limit the rate of product adoption. Especially in the Internet era, a company's competitiveness seems to depend on its velocity of thought and action. Companies can grow more rapidly than ever before, but so too may they suddenly die from obsolescence. The critical differentiator is whether the company has built in switching barriers for its customers and barriers to entry for its competitors. Rapid growth is of no value without customer retention.

 

Whenever we consider an investment in an Internet startup company, we strategize about customer switching barriers, and the impact of the inevitable arrival of competitive imitators. We have witnessed a particular entrepreneur that has used an offshore development team to quickly copy one of our portfolio companies' lead into a new market - three times in a row! First they copied Four11's directory services, then Hotmail's free email, and now Kana Communications' wildly successful email-based customer support software. The Internet supports an ecology of organisms, and the "fast follower" is a classic form.

 

The ability to rapidly recruit subscribers creates market value - but only if a company can retain these customers over multiple visits to their site. In the public markets, many of these consumer Internet companies are being valued at $20 to $100 per subscriber. Investors and bankers are approximating the lifetime economic value of these subscribers discounted back to the present day. How many ad dollars will they generate over lifetime? How much will they buy? A huge variable in this economic equation will be the customer retention rate.

 

Are you like a subway station with banner ads flying by the commuters who are just trying to get to their destination, or are you like a cafe where customers mingle and feel like they belong? Web communities, e-mail, personalization, contact lists, calendars, personal web pages - these are all "sticky" applications that help retain customers. This is where most of Yahoo and the other portals' energy has gone in the last two years. That's why Yahoo bought Four11 for its RocketMail service and Microsoft bought Hotmail.

 

Hyper-Growth:

An interesting side effect of geometric growth is that by the time a virus spreads to the point of being an epidemic, its growth curve relative to a new entrant is somewhat daunting. Hotmail was doubling in size each month, but it took several months to reach one million users. Until then, they were under the radar screen of many potential competitors and acquirers. By the time the industry came to realize that free web-based email was indeed a hot idea, Hotmail was adding one million new subscribers per month, and that growth rate was accelerating. A new fast follower would start small and have to grow for several months to reach one million subscribers. But in that same time, Hotmail would have grown to 10 million subscribers. So although Hotmail's followers grew geometrically as well, the absolute difference in subscriber bases widened every month (while the ratio remained approximately constant).

 

Absolute size matters. One significant effect of Hotmail's absolute size is that their efficiencies of scale allowed them to be the lowest-cost e-mail provider on the planet. Server utilization and bandwidth pricing improved with growth. Also, the perceived gorilla in a category tends to get the dominant share of the business and financial partnerships. Many advertisers and media companies do not want to spend time with sub-scale properties. All of this makes it tougher for the smaller new entrant. It also skews the make vs. buy decision toward "buy" for the large portal companies, which realized en masse that they wanted an email solution with proven scalability. A similar buying frenzy is currently underway for "community-building" web sites, such as Tripod, PlanetAll and Homestead.

 

A challenge for the hyper-growth gorilla is scalability. On a technology level, server scalability is a critical concern. Fortunately, companies like Hotmail are turning software into a service. What was sold as email servers and clients is now offered as a web-based service where the customer need only have a standard web browser. This makes product upgrades a lot easier; Hotmail can upgrade its server software several times a month without involving or in many cases, even notifying its large customer base. The customer still uses the same browser.

 

But once one problem is solved, hyper-growth tends to uncover new scalability bottlenecks. Often the young Internet company finds that its growth is constrained by its ability to hire good people. This is why many of these companies try to engineer around people-intensive elements of their business.

 

New Distribution Channels:

New companies are often the primary beneficiaries of new distribution channels, as Dell has shown in the PC industry. Dell just passed Compaq to become #1 in desktop PC shipments. Compaq's legacy channel partners prevent it from entering the lower-cost mail order channel. For many businesses, the Internet is a still lower cost channel of distribution.

 

By lowering prices or offering free products, and employing a "market shrink" strategy, the new entrant can make it very painful for established companies with established distribution relationships to follow them. Although the new market size may be smaller, driven by Internet price efficiencies, the new entrant can gain significant share by restructuring the basis of competition. There may be less revenue in a free email market, but it's tough for Eudora and companies based on selling client software to follow Hotmail's lead.

 

Viral Marketing provides a new distribution channel for almost any Internet application. Although it naturally lends itself to free "communications" or network applications, Viral Marketing could also be applied to traditional stand-alone software to accelerate the word-of-mouth spread of good software. How might this work? Release Software can embed in just about any software application an e-commerce engine for electronic software distribution and "try before you buy" purchasing. When a customer gives the application to a friend, it triggers the embedded sales agent to offer a 30-day trial period, after which the new user has to pay for the software. It turns software piracy into a sales opportunity.

 

Release can also credit multiple distribution partners involved in the sale with a percentage of the transaction. To engage viral marketing, the customer would be treated like a distribution partner. So, in the ultimate pyramid scheme, if a software company were willing to pay a two percent sales commission, a customer could be credited 1% of the sales price for a copy she gives to friend when they buy, and 0.5% for her friend's friends, and 0.25% for three levels down, and so on - thereby spending no more than 2% of sales on "word-of-mouth" promotions. Netcentives, a web currency innovator, could be added to this equation to allow users to accumulate frequent flyer miles for spreading a software application to colleagues and friends.

 

This could lead to some interesting consumer behavior. Customers would have an incentive to post software to their favorite download sites or other distribution outlets to maximize the total sales of their copy of the application. Not only would the customers help resell product directly, they would innovate and discover new distribution networks. Perhaps these should be called "self-organizing viral distribution networks." Established companies are unlikely to experiment with them, because of channel conflict with their legacy partners.

 

Where might this all lead? We are still looking for the emergent intelligence of the hive. An ant colony exhibits a higher order of intelligence than that of its individual members. We don't look at a neuron and think of it as being very smart. In many ways, we are the neurons on the Net, and the network applications that take advantage of that collective intelligence have not been developed yet. The Santa Fe Institute argues that computer viruses are a form of artificial life. Perhaps viral marketing can also find an evolutionary form.

 

But in the meantime, the Hotmail juggernaut just keeps on growing - quietly, and consistently on its own momentum. Hotmail now has over 30 million subscribers. As a technological dislocation, we believe that the Internet provides an unfair competitive advantage to nimble startup companies. A good idea can spread like wildfire if its business model maps to the medium. Viral Marketing adds fuel to the fire.

   

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Each week of this Year of Dreaming Dangerously:Awakening the Phoenix project I publish a summary of my interpretation of the dreams, what was happening in my life that I think influened each dream. If you have seen each of these images when they were posted you probably recognize them in the above collage. If you do not-just scroll to your left in this photostream and you will see them along with their interpretive poem for that day. Thank you all for your engagement! M

 

Sea Glass – I dreamed of seeing lovely sea glass rolling in the push and pull of the surf where you collect shells. I don’t know what that part of a wave is called but the part that is an inch or two deep that you can for the most part see through. We are taught to be careful of glass yet these lovely tumbled objects were no longer shards but rocks. Their intense color faded as well. I felt like this dream was reminding me that I should not be afraid of the words of others. I remember most words people say to me but I am learning to let those words fade too.

 

Anywhere – We have a trip to Europe coming up. We will be visiting family and friends as we usually do at least once a year. In this dream we were in lounge chairs by the pool in the backyard of a home of a lifelong friend here in Southern California. She has not lived in this house for more than 20 years but it was that house, that backyard and that pool in my dream. I love my friend, I loved every moment I spent at her house, swimming in that pool. So many adventures took place with her at that house. In my dream my husband was in the lounge chair next to mine on my right. He handed me a map of what I can only assume was Europe. Each country was outlined in burgundy and some countries were completed shaded in solid and some were white and some had diagonal lines through them. The shading seemed to be indicating places we had been. My husband was asking me where I wanted to go. We always have such a lovely time together everywhere doing the simplest things in life that as I looked at this map and tried to figure out where to go I realized that it didn’t matter where because I knew we would have a lovely time.

 

Timeless Beauty – We had been helping a dear friend through a challenging circumstance. We both had been sharing our observations separately and offering advice. Our friend was ready to make some decisions and changes and we were really just a sounding board for the process. In this dream, we were standing in the hall of what had to have been a very large old stately building. The impression I got was that we were in an Ivy League University. The feeling was that of deep sense of respect went with this place we found ourselves. It was just understood. We were holding a priceless painting. It was wrapped carefully but I knew it was the Mona Lisa. We were supposed to meet someone who was to take custody of the painting as it seemed we were donating it to the university. We were met by a man who extended his hands to take the painting but something didn’t feel right. It was not a strong feeling but we knew it wasn’t right to hand the painting over and instead we engaged in conversation. He didn’t notice our concern as we chatted absent mindedly about nothing when another man came who had the presence of honor as if he were the Dean of the University or an art curator. We knew that he was whom we were supposed to meet to give the painting to. He then hung the painting in a prominent place in the building. We felt relief knowing we had waited and that the painting was where it should be. The first man in the dream I think was compared to one of two decisions that we had been helping or friend with. The second man had to be the other decision that felt obvious and the right choice for the painting. I think the painting symbolized our friend.

 

Don’t Walk – My dreams do seem to be blatantly similar to my waking life in that the symbols mirror my life so clearly. In this dream my husband and I were walking and came to a stop light at an intersection. The light was red and the Don’t Walk (red man) symbol was flashing. While we waited two doors appeared in the middle of what had been the street. We could take the crosswalk to both doors but we would have to choose a door to get elsewhere. It was unclear where the doors would take us. The sign continued to flash Don’t Walk. We stood waiting, watching the sign. The sign just flashed and we didn’t move. I woke up.

 

Tides of Sunset – I dreamed of looking through the waves and seeing the reflection on top of the waves at the same time. I saw the color of the intense sunset as if it were shining on the bottom of the ocean, in the shallow waters at the edge of the waves. Of course it is impossible to see anything through the turbulence of the crashing waves but I could see everything. I think this dream was reminiscent of decisions that are presented to us where we can see the obvious answer through murky and chaotic circumstances.

 

Cloudy Skies – I dreamed of the way the clouds line up across the sky in London. The clouds were passing by when they became crows. The crows made no sound they just flew past. I was very pleased that they did not disturb my sleep as I dreamed. Somehow I knew I was dreaming and still did not want to be disturbed by their unpleasant sounds. This dream is a recurring dream that I first experienced when recovering from jetlag in London. What I love about this dream is that the crows were silent, the crows from my childhood mornings that did wake me up every day where for once quiet in this dream. Respecting my need for sleep.

 

Om – It is not uncommon for me to hear sounds in my dreams. A ringing doorbell or knock at the door. Someone calling my name. None of these sounds are uncommon for me to hear. I woke upon hearing the sound OM. It was very real, it was very warm and resonating in my head. In researching the symbolism of sounds in our dreams I found that sounds may be interpreted as messages alerting us to something that is coming for example if we hear a knock at the door it may symbolize a delivery of some sort or an upcoming change. With the sound of OM I think it was meant to tell me that I am on the right path as it felt pleasant. Sometimes I doubt myself with regard to figuring out how to monetize my artwork. I know this is a question every artists asks themselves but the night before this particular dream I was feeling more anxious about this than usual. I felt reassured upon waking after feeling this sound vibrate inside myself.

  

   

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Edwin B. Henderson, center holding ball, poses with the black YMCA team in September 1910 that played at True Reformers Hall on U Street NW.

 

Henderson learned the game basketball when he attended Harvard and introduced the game to the black community in Washington, D.C. and staged the first all-black basketball game in the city in 1907 when a team of high school students beat Howard University 12-5.

 

He raised money from the black community to match a $25,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to build a black YMCA in the city. In 1912, the 12th Street YMCA was completed and the game exploded in popularity.

 

Henderson had a long and colorful career as a civil rights activist--the man who established black basketball, led the building of the black 12th Street YMCA, led integration of the Uline Arena and AAU boxing, among many other achievements. He established an NAACP branch in what was then rural Falls Church and headed the Virginia state NAACP. He was not only a target of white supremacist legislators, but of the Ku Klux Klan.

 

The following is written by Dave Ungrady and appeared in the Washington Post September 8, 2013:

 

When E.B. Henderson stopped by the District's whites-only Central YMCA one night in 1907 to watch a basketball game, he was familiar with the sport. Henderson had studied basketball while attending Harvard's Dudley Sargent School of Physical Training, which was affiliated with the Springfield, Mass.,YMCA, site of the first basketball game in 1891.

 

After Henderson and a future brother-in-law, Benjamin Brownley, sat down, the athletic director asked them to leave. White members were concerned that allowing blacks could cause other white members to avoid the club. Henderson felt humiliated.

 

But that December, he staged the first known blacks-only basketball game in Washington. It was at True Reformers Hall on U Street - a team of high-schoolers beat Howard University 12-5. And then he started raising money for the District's first YMCA building for blacks.

 

The Rockefeller Foundation pledged $25,000 to the national YMCA if the black community could raise matching funds. Henderson chaired the committee and brought in the largest amount. He was awarded a $10 gold piece for his efforts.

 

In 1912, the 12th Street Branch of the Metropolitan YMCA opened in Northwest.

 

Henderson is being inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Sept. 8 for his vision to develop basketball for African Americans, who today command a presence in the sport unlike that of any other race.

 

"He took the approach that sports was extraordinarily important to African Americans," says David Wiggins, a sports historian and a professor at George Mason University. "Sports was one of the ways African Americans could prove themselves, to compete and achieve excellence. It gave them a great deal of satisfaction and respect."

 

Susan Rayl, associate professor of sports history at the State University of New York College at Cortland, says Henderson, more than anyone else, used basketball as an educational tool for blacks.

 

"Without E.B. Henderson you would have had a much slower introduction of basketball to African Americans," she says. "He was the catalyst. He was a root, and the tree sprang from the root in D.C. for African Americans. His induction into the Hall of Fame is not just a good thing; it's absolutely necessary if you want to tell the true history of the game."

 

Edwin Bancroft Henderson was born in 1883 in his grandmother's house in Southwest Washington. The family moved to Pittsburgh in 1888 so his father, William, could earn better wages as a day laborer. His mother, Louisa, taught him how to read at an early age, and he monetized the skill, earning a quarter from an elementary school teacher each time he read to her class.

 

Henderson's family returned to Washington in 1894. He attended the Bell School, near the Capitol, and enjoyed the access to books in the Library of Congress and to the galleries in the U.S. House and Senate. Henderson credited those books and the time spent watching Congress with teaching him what he called the "perplexing social, economic and political problems of the day."

 

Henderson was an honor roll student at M Street High School, a pitcher on the baseball team and an offensive lineman on the football team; he also ran track. He was the top-ranked graduate in 1904 from Washington’s Miner Normal School, which prepared students to teach in Washington's black public schools.

 

At Harvard he became the first black man certified to teach physical education in public schools in the United States. He borrowed money to pay the $50 tuition and transportation costs, and he worked as a waiter at his boarding house to pay for meals.

 

In 1904 Henderson also started teaching physical education at Bowen Elementary School in Washington and exercise classes twice a week at M Street High School and Armstrong Tech. At that time, Henderson believed that the more restricted space and a lack of leisure time associated with urban life prevented blacks from engaging in consistent exercise, making them more prone than whites to disease.

 

"It is unfortunately true that the vitality of the Negro youth is seriously undermined by the crowded city," he wrote in 1910. "Many young men leave our secondary schools and colleges to engage in strenuous work, amidst varying conditions with bodies unsound and but few, if any, hygienic habits formed for life. ... it is necessary that we build up a strong and virile youth."

 

Pushing for better exercise facilities for blacks became a mission for Henderson. He asked the District's superintendent of black schools to include a gymnasium as part of plans for an addition to Armstrong. He remembered the superintendent's laughing response. "My boy, they may build gymnasiums in your school in your lifetime, but not mine."

 

White athletes dominated then, mostly in baseball, but a number of black athletes had gained prominence in football, track and field and especially boxing. Peter Jackson, at 6-1 and 212 pounds, was considered the best heavyweight boxer in the late 1800s and was known as the "Black Prince." Jack Johnson was the first African American to win a heavyweight title, in 1908.

 

But blacks were behind whites in developing fitness programs. Of the 1,749 YMCAs in the United States in 1904, 32 were for blacks but had significantly fewer resources.

  

Washington's thriving black middle class, with its strong school system and vibrant social club scene, framed a prime area to develop an equally dynamic sports environment for the black community. All it needed was someone to spearhead the movement.

 

Henderson formed the D.C.-based Basket Ball League, which started play in January 1908 with eight teams. It played games through early May on Saturday nights at True Reformers in a room that was also used as a concert hall.

 

The games were far from elegant. A balcony surrounded three-quarters of the court, which was set up inside a metal cage on a floor that featured four narrow pillars planted near the corners. Teams relied on prolonged periods of passing that could last several minutes. Jump balls took place after each score. And players' skills were far from refined. Bob Kuska, author of the book "Hot Potato: How Washington and New York Gave Birth to Black Basketball and Changed America's Game Forever," writes that "defenders spared no pain in halting [a player's] path to the basket."

 

The next year Henderson formed and was captain of the 12th Street YMCA team, which won all its games. By then Henderson was considered a top talent. New York Age Magazine called Henderson, the team's 5-foot, 10-inch center (centers were considered playmakers then), the best center in black basketball.

 

In 1910 Henderson made an agreement with Spalding Sporting Goods to write the "Inter-Scholastic Athletic Association of the Mid-Atlantic States," a manual about his athletic work with African Americans in the District. It included articles on training tips and sports ethics, as well as results for track and field meets. He consulted black coaches and directors in the South and published records and pictures from Southern schools. The book sold for 10 cents a copy and is considered the first written by an African American that documented black athletics in black schools.

 

That same year, intercity matches between black basketball clubs grew more common. Henderson played his last organized basketball game with the team at 27, on Christmas Day 1910, in a tournament against the Alpha Club at the Manhattan Casino in New York. The previous day, he had married Mary Ellen Meriwether, who asked her husband to stop playing competitive games out of concern for his safety.

 

With his playing career over, Henderson concentrated on coaching, promoting fitness and athletics for blacks, and sports administration. He formed the Public Schools Athletic League to establish competition in track and field, soccer, basketball and baseball among black schools in the District. It was the first public school league for blacks in the country. "I believe that Washington will be the greatest competing center for athletics among Negroes," Henderson said in 1914.

 

To help league coaches learn basketball, Henderson wrote a weekly bulletin offering tips on training, sportsmanship and diet. The league assigned players from Howard University's basketball team to teach the game to elementary school players and coaches, stressing teamwork and aggressive defense.

 

Henderson also worked as an official and founded the Eastern Board of Officials, the first organization to train black officials. For more than two decades Henderson worked as an official for football, basketball and track and field and served as the group's first president. But he struggled to recruit and keep officials, due in part to blacks being paid less than whites. Sometimes black officials worked games for no money or, on occasions, two free game tickets.

 

In 1912 Henderson had moved to Falls Church, where the challenges facing blacks were even greater than in the District. When he asked a white superintendent to help black children, he was told the concerns of white children had to be met first. "The implication was that the colored children were ours to provide the buses for and buy land for schools, but that only the white children belonged to the county and were to be provided for by tax money," he said.

 

In 1915, Falls Church's all-white town council ordered all blacks to live within a restricted area. Henderson was among the blacks who owned property outside the area, and he helped form the Colored Citizens Protection League to fight the order. They filed a suit preventing enforcement, and the Town Council rescinded the order after a court ruled it was unconstitutional.

 

Henderson formed the first rural branch of the NAACP, there in Falls Church, in 1918. But Henderson's actions also brought unwanted attention. In the 1920s, he received a letter signed by the Ku Klux Klan that referred to blacks as "baboons" and threatened that he would be "borne to a tree nearby, tied stripped and given thirty lashes. ..."

 

In 1938, Dr. Carter Woodson, who was Harvard-educated and had founded the District-based Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915, asked Henderson to write a book about athletic history for blacks. Henderson's research for "The Negro in Sports" took him back to the Library of Congress, where he'd first discovered his passion for the written word.

 

Shirley Povich, a Washington Post sports columnist, addressed in 1950 the book's social impact: "Henderson resists what might have been the high temptation to gloat at the sensational successes of the Negro boys when finally they got their chance to play in big leagues. Instead, he pays tribute to the American sportsmanship that sufficed, finally, to provide equal opportunity."

 

After Miguel Uline opened the Uline arena in the District, he banned blacks from attending Ice Capades events, Henderson claimed, because Uline opposed blacks viewing entertainers in revealing attire in a social environment. In the 1940s, Henderson started a picketing campaign, prompting Uline to lift the ban.

 

At Henderson's urging, Washington Post president Eugene Meyer helped prompt the District to integrate professional boxing. The local branch of boxing's governing body at the time, the Amateur Athletic Union, declared that promoters would be denied permits and athletes would be suspended if they allowed mixed boxing. Meyer threatened to withdraw support of boxing tournaments that excluded blacks, and Henderson organized protests and helped file a lawsuit in 1945. The AAU agreed to lift the sanctions in exchange for withdrawing the suit.

 

"These results made it possible for our boys to measure their abilities against any and all, and did a lot to raise the level of respect of all citizens in our community," Henderson told Leon Coursey, who wrote his dissertation on Henderson.

 

While fighting against unequal treatment of blacks, Henderson commuted daily to his job teaching physical education in Washington. His afternoons were more idle, though, and he passed the time writing sports articles, including some for the Washington Star about football games he worked as a referee. Henderson had begun his sports writing career before high school, compiling results of games in which he participated. "I walked a couple of miles to the office of the Washington Star to have it published for one penny a line," he told Coursey.

 

Henderson practiced advocacy journalism in remarkable volumes, claiming to have published 3,000 letters to editors in more than a dozen newspapers. In those letters he tried to discredit discrimination and promote a sense of awareness and dignity for African Americans. In a letter published in The Post on June 26, 1951, Henderson refers to a lawsuit seeking a ban on segregated schools:

 

"The current suits ... are causing turmoil in the minds of politicians, racial bigots, whites and Negroes who profit by or exploit segregation. ... In those social areas where sudden elimination of segregation has come about, almost nowhere have any of the fears materialized. For example, Negroes who have for a long time been conditioned to accept second-class citizenship and denied free access to public offerings, do not rush in when the gates open. Some are so thoroughly indoctrinated with inferior status that they will never seek to be where formerly unwanted."

 

Henderson drew the admiration of Robert F. Kennedy, who invited Henderson and his wife to the Kennedy house in McLean. Henderson told Coursey that Kennedy said he wished "more Negroes would answer the people in opposition to our views." Henderson's advocacy came at a price early on, though. For safety, the D.C. police commissioner encouraged him to carry a gun, and his phone number went unlisted for 50 years.

 

A Washington Star clipping from October 1965 shows an op-ed recognizing Henderson's strong civic spirit as he planned to move to Tennessee, at 82, to live with his son. The story, headlined "Citizen Henderson," said: "E.B. has been a good citizen in the pure sense of the term. This community will miss him."

 

Despite a lifetime devoted to exercise and a healthful diet, Henderson developed colon cancer and prostate cancer late in life and died in 1977 at 93.

 

The festivities for the Naismith Hall of Fame induction began in April, at the NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four in Atlanta. Broadcaster Jim Nantz announced the 2013 inductees. Then he handed to Edwin Henderson II, E.B.'s grandson who lives in the Falls Church home E.B. built, a basketball jersey emblazoned with "Henderson" on the back and "Hall of Fame" on the front. It was Edwin and his wife, Nikki, who had begun the campaign to get E.B. inducted, in 2005. Edwin called Nikki "the point guard who distributed the ball" in the effort to earn E.B. the induction.

 

"When I learned who he was," Nikki said, "I thought, 'Gee, he should be in the basketball hall of fame.' I thought, 'Gee, we should just write a letter.' "

 

Like E.B. Henderson himself, they both understood the power of a letter.

 

For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsmJoDRBw

 

The photographer is unknown. The image is courtesy of the Black Fives Foundation.

 

All my life on the internet since 2004 I have never used a water mark on my pictures I will never use it ,, as it is an insult to my creativity ,, my picture does not need my name ,,my picture is me I am the picture .

I have seen my Hijra pictures videos stolen by others but I kept my silence because those who steal are not capable of shooting what I shoot..

I dont shoot for money and photography has never been my source of income ,, thankfully .

However I have used this image as GIf on my You Tube timeline as a digital brand ,,,

My You Tube Channel has crossed over 15 million views and what I will earn from monetization of my videos ,,that money will go to the children of prostitutes at Peela House Redlight Area Cages thanks to a friend out there .

I have not recovered from my leg injury and so I am cooped up in bed converting my old Flickr picture sets into slide shows at You Tube for a larger audience ,, and in all humility I have shot a lot of unusual stuff all these years ,,

My Khamakhya pictures I have not downloaded from my camera as yet...

I got a bad cold running nose ,,,Assam is not willing to let me go...

Happy Morning From Bandra Reclamation...

 

   

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...some little footsteps into the black & white domain.

 

This picture is part of my "Best of Japan"-album, check it out here: flic.kr/s/aHsjBHeaBb

 

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I fell in love with photography a long time ago. I was maybe 18 when I first started taking photos. I captured everything.

 

As I aged, I began to take photography a little more seriously. But never serious enough to pursue it as an occupation. Monetize photography and the pleasure of photography soon disappears

 

~ I took this photo of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Asheville, NC this past October

   

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# If you want to use this photo under the given Creative-Commons-Licence, please credit it with:

©Christian Kaden / www.Japan-Kyoto.de

# If sharing or reuploading to Facebook, in addition to the above mentioned credits please add a link to the Facebook-Page of Japan-Kyoto as well. Either directly linked via @Japan-Kyoto (preferred) or fb.me/Japan.Kyoto.de (if @Japan-Kyoto is not possible).

# Want to use it in a commercial or monetized project? Leave me a message.

 

Examples

In general: ©Christian Kaden - www.Japan-Kyoto.de

On Facebook: ©Christian Kaden - www.Japan-Kyoto.de - @Japan-Kyoto (linked)

 

Thank you for your understanding.

 

GPS data available, check out the link:

www.google.de/maps/place/35.044911+135.797064

   

www.Japan-Kyoto.de

Facebook: fb.me/Japan.Kyoto.de

 

Copyright: ©2016, Christian Kaden

Licence: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0

ID: IMG_7082

 

- About sharing ------------------

 

IT'S ALL ABOUT TRUST

It's really ok to use this photo as your wallpaper etc., but if you reuse it on the web or other public spaces, please read following lines carefully and don't give the impression that you took the photo yourself. A lot of work was done creating it, so please be respectful and help build some 'internet trust', thanks!

Credits as stated below are mandatory, not optional!

# If you want to use this photo under the given Creative-Commons-Licence, please credit it with:

©Christian Kaden / www.Japan-Kyoto.de

# If sharing or reuploading to Facebook, in addition to the above mentioned credits please add a link to the Facebook-Page of Japan-Kyoto as well. Either directly linked via @Japan-Kyoto (preferred) or fb.me/Japan.Kyoto.de (if @Japan-Kyoto is not possible).

# Want to use it in a commercial or monetized project? Leave me a message.

 

Examples

In general: ©Christian Kaden - www.Japan-Kyoto.de

On Facebook: ©Christian Kaden - www.Japan-Kyoto.de - @Japan-Kyoto (linked)

 

Thank you for your understanding.

 

GPS data available, check out the link:

www.google.de/maps/place/34.814589+135.910768

In-depth article: japan-kyoto.de/manshuin-tempel-kyoto/

  

Japan-Kyoto.de

Facebook: fb.me/Japan.Kyoto.de

 

Copyright: ©2016, Christian Kaden

Licence: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0

ID: IMG_6044

 

-----------------------------------------

-- About sharing -----------------

-----------------------------------------

IT'S ALL ABOUT TRUST

It's really ok to use this photo as your wallpaper etc., but if you reuse it on the web or other public spaces, please read following lines carefully and don't give the impression that you took the photo yourself. A lot of work was done creating it, so please be respectful and help build some 'internet trust', thanks!

Credits as stated below are mandatory, not optional!

# If you want to use this photo under the given Creative-Commons-Licence, please credit it with:

©Christian Kaden / www.Japan-Kyoto.de

# If sharing or reuploading to Facebook, in addition to the above mentioned credits please add a link to the Facebook-Page of Japan-Kyoto as well. Either directly linked via @Japan-Kyoto (preferred) or fb.me/Japan.Kyoto.de (if @Japan-Kyoto is not possible).

# Want to use it in a commercial or monetized project? Leave me a message.

 

Examples

In general: ©Christian Kaden - www.Japan-Kyoto.de

On Facebook: ©Christian Kaden - www.Japan-Kyoto.de - @Japan-Kyoto (linked)

 

Thank you for your understanding.

 

GPS data available, check out the link:

www.google.de/maps/place/35.048947+135.803008

   

www.Japan-Kyoto.de

Facebook: fb.me/Japan.Kyoto.de

 

Copyright: ©2016, Christian Kaden

Licence: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0

ID: IMG_5755

 

# If you want to use this photo under the given Creative-Commons-Licence, please credit it with

' ©Christian Kaden / www.Japan-Kyoto.de '

If sharing or reuploading to Facebook, in addition to the above mentioned credits please add a link to the Facebook-Page of Japan-Kyoto as well. Either with @Japan-Kyoto or fb.me/Japan.Kyoto.de

# Want to use it in a commercial or monetized project? Leave me a message.

 

GPS data available, check out the link:

www.google.de/maps/place/35.062328+135.736981

Not exactly sure who she is, some say she's called Matsumoto from Gion Kobu.

 

This picture is part of my "Best of Japan"-album, check it out here: flic.kr/s/aHsjBHeaBb

 

Japan-Kyoto.de

Facebook: fb.me/Japan.Kyoto.de

 

Copyright: ©2012, Christian Kaden

Licence: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0

ID: 20120408-IMG_6497

 

-----------------------------------------

-- About sharing -----------------

-----------------------------------------

IT'S ALL ABOUT TRUST

It's really ok to use this photo as e.g. your wallpaper and in any non-commercial(!) project, but if you reuse it on the web or other public spaces, please give credits to the creator as stated below and don't give the impression that you took the photo yourself. A lot of work was done creating it, so please be respectful and help build some 'internet trust', thanks!

 

Please use credits as follow:

# Anywhere on the internet: ©Christian Kaden on Flickr

# Want to use it in a commercial or monetized project? Leave me a message.

 

Thank you for your understanding.

  

GPS data available, check out the link:

www.google.de/maps/place/35.004397+135.774280

   

www.Japan-Kyoto.de

Facebook: fb.me/Japan.Kyoto.de

 

Copyright: ©2016, Christian Kaden

Licence: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0

ID: IMG_5947

 

- About sharing ------------------

 

IT'S ALL ABOUT TRUST

It's really ok to use this photo as your wallpaper etc., but if you reuse it on the web or other public spaces, please read following lines carefully and don't give the impression that you took the photo yourself. A lot of work was done creating it, so please be respectful and help build some 'internet trust', thanks!

Credits as stated below are mandatory, not optional!

# If you want to use this photo under the given Creative-Commons-Licence, please credit it with:

©Christian Kaden / www.Japan-Kyoto.de

# If sharing or reuploading to Facebook, in addition to the above mentioned credits please add a link to the Facebook-Page of Japan-Kyoto as well. Either directly linked via @Japan-Kyoto (preferred) or fb.me/Japan.Kyoto.de (if @Japan-Kyoto is not possible).

# Want to use it in a commercial or monetized project? Leave me a message.

 

Examples

In general: ©Christian Kaden - www.Japan-Kyoto.de

On Facebook: ©Christian Kaden - www.Japan-Kyoto.de - @Japan-Kyoto (linked)

 

Thank you for your understanding.

 

GPS data available, check out the link:

www.google.de/maps/place/35.044911+135.797064

The swim up bar has roots in Las Vegas, and its beginnings had much to do with incorporating gambling into regular vacations, particularly post 1950s, when swimming pools rocketed into popularity at hotels around the world. In 1952, The Sands was on a mission to monetize guests who preferred to spend their day in the pool, instead of in the casino. They created a world where people could partake in their favorite casino games while hanging in the pool, introducing poolside Blackjack tables, Craps, and even slot machines. To keep up, the Tropicana started introducing floating gambling tables, accompanied by a tiki bar.

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