life (maintenance)

New York, USA

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Good bye China

Last Lunch in Guangzhou, just before leaving for the airport.

The airport of Guangzhou, a city that almost no one ever heard of in the west, is built to serve 80 million passengers per year, making it the busiest airport in the world. Seeing all these people in the airport, people from Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia etc. It is hard to imagine the world has another side.

From Thai fishermen pans and flip flops to a buttoned up shirt and shiny black shoes. One week, three continents, six countries, eight planes and boom! I found my self, working in a "cubical" office in front of a computer on the 6th floor of an office building down town on Greenwich street, in Manhattan, NY.

New York New York

My first impressions already on the AirTrain from JFK International Airport to Brooklyn was similar to the feeling I had when I arrived from China to Milan in April. Poor people and beggers on the street. From China it seems that everybody in the west is rich and happy. The public facilities, the roads, the trains, the signs etc. all looked old, dirty and broken. The noisy rough subway system was incomparable with the silent, clean and perfectly organized metro system of Guangzhou.

I arrived on Saturday June 3rd to the house of the nicest people in the world, the Magnes family. With them I stayed for the first ten days. They live just on the edge of Brooklyn, right on the port, and this creates an incredible view of an industrial zone with a panorama view of the big apple. From their roof they could see the entire events of 9/11 unfold.

Their daughters, Dina, Tamar and Yael just started their own design business. For now they design and manufacture ladies hand bags, and they manufacture it here in NYC. Later they plan to start doing it in China so we had some nice conversations about my experience there, and for me it was interesting to see this stage of a business, the stage before China. You can view some of their bags on their home page.

With Yael and her boyfriend, Yonatan Shpira, as you can see, he is a serious guy. He is one of the "Refusnik" movement leaders, They are the famous military pilots in Israel who refused to continue serving because of ideological reasons. It becomes a bit of a downer when he represents himself as a former terrorist. At this point he is working on his thesis, as part of his MA in Peace studies in an interesting Austrian Academy.

Two days after my arrival, on Monday morning I had my first day of work at the Times. At the introduction meeting I told about my background, Israel, The Academy, India and China. The department where I work in is the unit that is in charge of the international business and communication of the NYTimes.

They are selling content of the Times to other news papers around the world, and on top of that, they have a few other sources, so in fact they are operating as a content agency. The Syndication department has also a few other products that are not related to the main paper. During my three months here I will be working on a few different projects, As of now I am assigned to two:

Times Digest is a web based product. It is a summarized edition of the Newspaper which is sent to the customers through E-mail as an attachment of a PDF file of eight letter size pages. The customers print it for themselves at home. The digest is sent as soon as the main newspaper is ready for printing, so the end customers get it at midnight, on the night before it arrives at the news stands. Most of the customers of the Digest are hotels in far away countries and cruise ships. They are printing it for their customers as part of their service. The flag customers of the TimesDigest are the astronauts of the N.A.S.A space shuttle. My job on the project is to join the development team, and come up with new marketing strategies and new features for the product both concept wise and design wise.

The New York Times Executives Trip to China, Japan and Korea Summer 2006. On this project I work directly under Gloria B. Anderson. She is vice president of the International and Editorial Development Department at The New York Times News Services Division. Just like almost any other business in the world, The NYTimes is also interested in stepping in to the rapidly growing market of China. One thing that makes China different from other countries in that area, is that foreigners are not allowed to own companies in China. Therefor if you want to do business in China you must have a Chinese partner. My job is to go through old contacts of the Times in China, research for new companies and make contact with all of them, schedule meetings with their equivalent departments and plan the whole trip for the end of this summer. I am working five days a week. Three days are dedicated to the China trip and two for the Times Digest. So here I am in New York City, and most of what I do is related to China.

This brought me to understand that the few Chinese lessons I took In China where a good step, So I registered to a "summer school" program of evening classes at the China Institute of New York.

Finding a place to live in Manhattan is not an easy task. The best thing I found until now was a room of 9 square meters in a shared apartment, with a door that can only open 30 per cent before banging into the bed, and a window sealed with bricks - all for only 800 dollars per month!, In China you can rent a whole apartment of 150sqare meters, on the 20th floor, in a luxurious building for about 600 dollars.
So at the moment I am staying in a room of a friend of a friend, a very kind man, an artist called Steven Watson. He went for two weeks to Korea and kindly let me stay in his apartment, on 111 sreet and Broadway, It is just on top of the famous restaurant from Seinfeld!. In the short meeting I had with him he showed me some of the video art work he had made. Some short portrait films of different people. He also made other movies including one about Andy Warhol.

On Tuesday he will be back and I will head to my next temporary solution, Roy, an Israeli designer, working as the Accessories Designer for the fashion brand Elie Tahari I hope that by the beginning of July I will find a proper place to live in, generally I am looking for a place in a Chinese environment, China Town or something similar, that way I will be surrounded with Chinese people, and hopefully it will help with the language studies.

Last week I took part in a project of my department back in the academy. The assignment was to design a new flag for The Netherlands. This was my design:

"Drive Through"

For me Holland is a place where you go through. It is a linking spot for all the countries around it. Holland was always known for being the strongest nation in the world shipping goods and connecting countries. You go through Holland, you leave some trace behind you, you takes some "Dutchness" with you and slowly slowly, with all the people who are coming and going, it's characteristics, it's colors, are fading and becoming more.... EUropean.

Luckily I had the chance to meet my aunt Miriam and
uncle Thierry from Switzerland, who came to New York
for three days, Together we went with a friend, Ron, to see his
exhibition at the National Design Museum. ( designfenzider )

With Rem in the United Nude shop in Elizabeth street, East Village, Manhattan.

Sunny Sunday in Central Park

Broadway's yearly support event for the war against AIDS.
The donations went straight into the strip-teaser’s underwear,
both men and women. In the photo,
a guy is trying to donate with a credit card.

A local pizzeria. As you can see, in American's king size culture,
a slice of pizza, sometimes, could be bigger then your head.

Sunday, July 30, 2006

Peace and Communication

The best thing that could ever happen to me here in New York was meeting Barbara and her dog Moishe. Barbara is a very distant family relative of mine, and I met her coincidentally one day while walking in the street with my second cousin Eve. Luckily, Barbara had a spare room for the summer, and she invited me to stay there for the rest of it. Her apartment is located in the most fantastic location one could ever dream of:
5th Avenue, just on the corner of Washington Square.

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Barbara's apartment is in the left building

In the morning it takes me about four minutes to ride on my bike to work, less then one song on the Ipod and I am already sitting in front of my desk in Greenwich Street. Barbra's dog, Moishe is an amazing dog. People call him "The Bouncing Dog" and that is because this dog is jumping all the time.

Moishe in the Air

Press play to see jumping Moishe in action

This miracle that brought me here gives me the the possibility to experience NYC, not as a tourist but as a local, coming home, walking the dog, getting to know the surrounding etc. Barbara is a cool, easy going lady. Once, I took her to the local hummus place. We had some good Israeli Goldstar beer and Hummus with real spicy "schug". When we walked out of the restaurant, I asked her where should we go, right or left? She asked me if I have a coin, and suggested we flip it, to decide where to go.
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Barbara and Moishe

On one of the weekends I went to visit some good friends in upstate New York. On Sunday, we went for a beautiful drive in this beautiful '53 Studebaker Starliner.

The good old days, three people could seat in the front.

I am now almost half way through my second internship here at The NewYork Times. In the coming weeks I will keep working on their development projects in China, Korea and Japan, and the email version of the Times:" TimesDigest". Two weeks ago I had a fruitful meeting with the head art director of the Times, Mr. Tom Bodkin, who showed me his department and told me that they are now starting to work with Adobe InDesign. When I told him that I know how to work with it, he invited me to spend three days per week in the graphic department working with the designers. He also showed me the prototype of their new development with Microsoft - "The Digital Newspaper". It is a fascinating project that I really hope some how to take a part in.

For now, I will work with Steve Heller who is doing the Book Review, and Fred Norgaard who is doing the Business section, helping them to change from Quark to InDesign. So, on Mondays and Tuesdays I am working in the syndication department on Greenwich Street, and on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays I am working in the main building in Times Square. Working in the main building, together with the other 1,500 people who work there, I am exposed to all the different departments of the newspaper. Last week I joined a general design meeting. People from the main newspaper, the website and from the magazine, met to discuss the typography, the fonts, and the new layout that will take place two years from now. Like many other newspapers, the Times will narrow it's pages and refresh the design of it's different sections.

I also had the privilege of being a guest at an editorial meeting. In this meeting all the main editors and art and photo editors are sitting around one big table, on the phone, people from different locations are connected on a conference call, and they all build tomorrow's newspaper. In this meeting, they choose the titles for the first page, the photos, and the whole construction of the newspaper. This week Danny Rubinstein of the Ha'aretz newspaper was here for few days. I joined him at a lecture he gave at the "Conference of Presidents", and at a meeting I arranged for him with the international editors at the Times, Ethan Bronner and Susan Chira. During these days we got the chance to visit the Guggenheim Museum and see the solo exhibition of Zaha Hadid. I think, after these days with him, I have just enough material to write a book: "Conversations with Rubinstein, New York 2006".

With Danny Rubinstein, overwhelmed by the shocking
temperature difference between the air conditioned building
to the out side sauna.

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Due to the latest developments in the region,
Danny's lecture was mostly about the situation in Lebanon
and not so much about the Palestinian issue as first planed
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Moishe in a rare position, four feet on the ground.

These days I am starting to think about ideas for my graduation project. As you might have read earlier on my weblog, I met in New York, a former Israeli air force captain who wrote the famous "Pilot's Letter" in Israel, and became one of the leaders of a movement called "Combatants for Peace". They are a group of Israeli and Palestinian individuals who were actively involved in the cycle of violence in the area. The Israelis served as combat soldiers in the 'Israel Defense Forces' and the Palestinians were involved in acts of violence in the name of Palestinian liberation. They all used weapons against one another, and looked at each other only through weapon sights. However today they cooperate and commit themselves to peace.
In October, representatives of their organization, both Israelis and Palestinians, will go on a two week tour of the United States, lecturing to students in various colleges about their operation, trying to spread their peaceful word.

The events of the last weeks in the Middle East, the great feeling of hopelessness around, and the perfect timing of their trip brought me to offer them the idea of me joining them and making a documentary of their trip. I am thinking that it could be a great direction for my graduation project. I will be able to work on planing and developing it until October. Then, during these two weeks, film it, and have just enough time for the editing and post production process.

During the coming month, I will try to find the funds for this production. I hope to find at least one person who will be able to travel with me. This will allow us to have both a camera man and a sound man. During the last weeks I have been spending a lot of time with Yonatan, the former Israeli air force pilot. Once, I joined him at the house of Miriam Said. She was the wife of late Edward Said. In her house was a meeting of a group of people who are trying to support the theater of the Palestinian city Jenin. The theater is run by Juliano Mer Khamis who made the film Arna's Children. In this meeting I met Yoav Elinevsky who is a member of the FFIPP, an organization of professors and students from all over the world who are active in order to find ways for peace in the middle east. FFIPP is also the organization that is organizing the tour of the "Combatants for Peace" representatives.

Yonatan also introduced me to Nadia Saah, a Palestinian American who grew up here in the States. Her parents lived in Jerusalem until 1948. Last Thursday I met Nadia in a small cafe called 'Crossroads' in Brooklyn. We spoke for about five hours. I showed her my projects, including a short documentary I made called "Politics Is Not Kosher", filmed on both sides of the separation wall in Jerusalem. At some point I asked the guy who sat at the table next to us if "my sister" and I look alike. He said that he could see the resemblance. Then Nadia told him that we are not brother and sister, but one of us is Jewish. She asked him which one of us it was. He said to Nadia "You must be the Jewish one". Then she told him that she is Palestinian and that I am Israeli. He smiled, and we moved on. Nadia later told me that she has some experience in film, and at the end of the evening I invited her to join the project. I think it will be interesting if we will have an Israeli man and a Palestinian woman filming Palestinian and Israeli ex-fighters on their trip across the United States.

Steve Heller, the art director of the Book Review of the Times, introduced me to Martin Kase, who is a teacher at the SVA, and also has a non-profit organization called EMPAX. His organization is branding other non-profit organizations. Their slogan is "We are branding the good guys". It is a fascinating field that is applying methods used in the commercial world for humanitarian non economic causes. I wrote to Martin about my project and he invited me for a meeting. Last Friday I went to their studio and sat for two hours with him and two members of his stuff. During the meeting I showed them my work and we discussed the different possibilities for cooperation. At the end of the meeting Martin told me that he believes in the project, and, if I want, I could use their studio as the base for my project. I will be able to use their computers, and hopefully their film equipment, and they will try to help in other ways as well. I will also be able to transfer the money I will raise through them so it will be registered as a non-profit project and will give tax benefits for the donors.

A local New Yorker, dealing with the heat.

Today I went to an introduction meeting at Google. It was an event for possible future jobs in one of their available positions. There were about 50 people there, 49 of them were 20 years old Chinese and Indian "computer freaks".
Except the fancy food and drinks, the whole evening was very technically oriented, there were three different presentations of some of the 100 projects they are developing at the moment. I can tell you about each of them, but unfortunately, then I will have to kill you. (I had to sign on a long confidentiality agreement. :) the speakers were: Craig Nevill Manning, Tim Dierks and Jonathan Rochelle. After these three hours, in their building in Times Square, I left with a goody bag, a Google T Shirt and a strong feeling that Google is about to conquer the whole world.

The computer system that Google's search engine was
first working on. The colorful LEGO improvised structure
on top of the computer in the center, later became
the inspiration for the company's logo.

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New York is different from Eindhoven. I am busy here from 08:00AM to 02:00AM every day of the week. It feels like this place is just working on a different time table. Instead of two or three things I manged to do every day in Eindhoven, I am doing twenty here in NY. When I go to sleep at night I find it hard to remember what happened earlier on the same day. My conclusion is that "busyness" keeps depression away.

Print

The last thing I wanted to do before leaving New York was to visit the printing plant
of the New York Times. Gloria Anderson, whom I worked with during my internship, made it happen.
The Collage Point printing Plant facility is the New York Times's main printing house. It is located in Queens, NY, about a 40 minutes drive from the city. They were kind enough to assign a worker to take me on a two hours tour. In this printing plant they have huge web presses, each one the size of approximately eight passenger buses.

The whole building is a machine. It feels a bit like walking into a huge computer printer. Tracks download the rolls of paper on one side of the building, and the printed end product is coming out of the other side straight into blue New York Times trucks. The files of the designed pages are being sent from the editorial departments over at the main building in Times Square at about 4:00pm. Everything, except the front page section, is already printed during the evening. At about 10:30 pm the first edition of section one , the front page, is sent and printed. It takes about three hours to print one million copies!

After all the sections are printed, a computerized system puts all the section together, packs them and puts them on trucks. I was impressed to see how much of the process is being done by computers and robots. Next year all the production from their other print house in New Jersey, will move to that one facility in ueens, in order to cut down the expenses. This is part of a general plan of cutting down costs, including moving all the departments into one new building in Manhattan, firing about 250 workers of the New Jersey factory and narrowing the pages of the paper almost to a Berliner size. Walking in the printing plant, I didn't feel as if the end of the printed newspapers is upon us. it seemed to me that they are working on developing plans for a long, long future.

Interesting.