Gustav Hoiland

By: Gustav Hoiland

Nov 03 2010

Category: china

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Christ that was an inspiring movie. Perhaps not the movie itself, but the general idea that genius strikes, often in the form of simple ideas or general hard work, and can grow into vastly larger entities. While the focus of the film is clearly the tech startup gone to billions, the concept is striking at much smaller scales. There’s a fair (overwhelming) fantasy element to it, but it’s still most enticing. Also my freshmen year I lived in the dorm one building over from the dorm that the Napster founder lived in when he went to Northeastern University in ’00 or sometime.

And this photo. Having finally compiled all of the portfolio worthy images from my time in China, I decided to give it a quick once over to see if I could find anything to post tonight. This one stuck with me. I’m still not entirely sure why. It’s kind of this late night scene. A quadrillion quintillion hextillion stories could be cast onto it, and that may be part of the draw, but mostly I just like the darkness of it all.

And the tile sidewalks. I really liked those in Shanghai. Maybe this photo is really most about that which I remember fondly from the great Chinese gangbusterslyhuge city. The cute taxis. The fine tree-lined streets, kept ever so clean by the barrage of street sweepers employed by the government. The blinding fluorescent brightness of convenience shops regardless of the hour.

The scene set for a night of exploration.