Montréal, jour 1

Today's subject is Montréal! I was accepted to a Masters program at McGill University and decided that I couldn't make an educated decision of accepting the offer unless I spent at least a week exploring the city and the university. Thus, I arrived this afternoon, ready to experience the city's attractions and fuse myself with its urban pulse for a few days.

After only one afternoon of roaming around, I can already tell that I will leave this trip enchanted. My very first walk was along the Rue Saint-Denis, full of little French cafés and unique restaurants that served as a flavorful first impression. Apart from bringing me great memories of my childhood summers spent in France, I could instantly smell something that differentiates this city from Vancouver: Montréal has a lot of character.

Character? What in the world does he mean by "character", you might ask. Well, it's simple. To the newcomer, the city of Montréal feels authentic; if feels like it has been here for ages, and that traditions have stuck and created a true Montréal identity. Vancouver, on the other hand, feels like a city in constant transition, where every building is new or recently restored, and where most people are passengers waiting for the next reshuffle. (says he who might contribute to this)

Adding to my initial awe, my hostess Charlotte had the brilliant idea of taking me to the famous Schwartz's for an indescribably delicious smoked meat sandwich. We then walked along the Boulevard Saint Laurent, peeking into the dozens of carefully designed restaurants, and microbreweries... and I had an epiphany: 

Vancouver bores me to death sometimes because its evening entertainment relies (sadly) on an ever growing network of chotchy chain restaurants! As you all know, once you've been to one Earl's, you've been to EVERY Earl's...or Cactus Club, or Joey's, or Milestone's, etc. (granted that Gastown has some fantastic places...but it's only 6 blocks long). Instead, Montréal is full of original bistros and pubs where instead of watching hockey until their eyes bleed (and drinking themselves to a coma), people are actually having conversations! Ahhh the marvels of the Latin culture! 

À demain!

Film day: Pasqualino Settebellezze

Sundays in Vancouver fall under two opposite categories: phenomenal and depressing. Obviously, the weather is the factor that determines which category applies. Today is one of the depressing ones, with deep grey skies and non-stop rain. The bike will have to stay inside; the frisbee locked in a closet. 

However, these grey Sundays also provide an ideal opportunity to unleash my movie buff persona. Therefore, I hereby establish Sundays as the official film recommendation day in this blog. 

Today's film is Lina Wertmuller's Pasqualino Settebellezze (or Seven Beauties): 

And if you feel like leaving your house this evening, Pacific Cinematheque is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Fellini's La Dolce Vita. Don't miss this great opportunity to see a 35mm copy of the film projected in a movie theatre! Details here. Also, Wong Kar-Wai's Ashes of Time Redux is playing at 5pm at Pacific Cinematheque).

Ting Tings vs. Los Campesinos

What to do, what to do?? Both bands are playing tonight in Vancouver and I'm torn... I have them both in my iPod, they're both playing at Coachella, they're both B+ bands in my book, and they will both attract similar scenester crowds. 

Given that I have no preference for either show, I suppose I'll have to resort to the good ol' principles of rational choice theory and go to whichever show is a little cheaper. My Econ profs would be proud. 

What would Lennon do?

The weather (or e-Small talk)

For centuries, the weather has been the primary subject of banal conversation between individuals that meet on the street and have no desire to share any deep or personal thoughts. More recently, with the dawn of the taxi, the weather has become the theme of choice for passengers that want to avoid the awkward silence that occurs when riding alone in the back seat of someone else's car.

Today, as the internet becomes the medium of choice for communication within the human species, it is only normal to expect that the weather will soon take over as the main source of inspiration for armies of bloggers trying desperately to publish their voice to an anonymous crowd of readers. So today, dear blogfans, I feel it is my duty to engage in some small talk and tell you about the weather:

OMG this weather is crazy. I can't believe it was snowing on April 1st and yesterday it was 15 degrees (Celsius)! Just last week, I was walking around with a winter coat and a scarf and today I'm considering wearing flip flops and a t-shirt. Jeeez! Gotta love Vancouver.

(Yes, unfortunately, it is rather difficult to talk about the weather using formal language, for fear of sounding like a television weather man. i.e. "a low pressure system entering the province from the north will disperse the cold air and bring springlike temperatures and clear skies on Sunday.")

Junos!

Apologies to all my readers for this long absence. I have no excuse except for a bad case of writer's block that was aggravated by the rain. In any case, I have now found a great reason to post again! 

As you all probably know, the Juno Awards are happening this weekend in Vancouver, and there are a number of festivities around the city. There's even a Juno Fest. I must warn you that of the more than 100 bands playing in this fair city this weekend, there are no more than 10 that deserve your attention. And by your attention, I mean the attention of people that have musical tastes similar to mine and enjoy the music I share in this blog and the tales of concerts and musical adventures published here. 

I personally think that the credibility of the Juno Awards as a measure of high quality music suffers tremendously from the fact that Nickelback (or the worst band in the world) is nominated for five awards. One of my top ten favorite moments in Vancouver happened yesterday as I was doing some grocery shopping: Nickelback was playing in the background and I walked next to a man that said "every time that Nickelback sings, the Lord weeps." Hahaha. There's even a Facebook group called "Every time Nickelback is played, God kills a Llama". As for the term Nickelback, here is a precise definition.

Having said that, here are the bands that I wish I had seen yesterday night at the Media Club:

Said the Whale

Hey Rosetta!

And these are the bands that I'm excited to see tonight at the Railway Club:

Eldorado

Deep Dark Woods

Plants and Animals

p.s. hoorray for all the "green" band names.

Spike & Mike's Animation Festival

For all of you fans of animation, this week the Rio Theatre is hosting Spike & Mike's Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation. Commonly known as the Kings of Tasteless Toons, Spike & Mike are famous for being the world's greatest promoters of adult animation art. Some of the past contributors to the festival include Tim Burton, Eric Fogel (creator of Celebrity Deathmatch) and Kenn Navarro (Happy Tree Friends). Also, the now super famous Beavis and Butthead cartoon was "discovered" at Spike & Mike's festival!

I went to the festival last Saturday and I must confess that it was quite a different experience to be in a theatre surrounded by a crowd of adult animation fans. For instance, there were constant shouts and loud comments. The crowd was unforgiving to the animations that they didn't like, and like strict judges, they would loudly dismiss or laugh at any faux pas in the stories. But regardless of what each animation was about, the loud clapping and whistling between clips made it clear that this crowd was alive and thirsty for high quality animation! The festival ends this weekend, so don't miss it!

These were my favorite animations:


"Animal Instincts" by Cameron Edser (clay animation rules!)


"Yellow Sticky Notes" by Jeff Chiba Stearns (from the Vancouver Film School!)



"2 minute itch" by Eric Favala (I laughed so hard my stomach hurt)



The famous "Lapsus" Juan Pablo Zaramella


"Frog" by Christopher Conforti (got a full minute of applause)


"2 in the AM PM" by J G Quintel (a true acid trip!)


"Dr. Tran's Quiet Log Time" by Breehn Burns & Jason Johnson (Spike & Mike called it "one of the coolest films in years!")


This one is more like a music video, but still hilarious:



And last but not least, this was Spike's favorite animation:

The incredible "Ghost of Stephen Foster" by Raymond S. Persi (so retro!)

David Byrne in Van!!

I'm simply speechless. This seldom happens to me... but I can't even begin to describe the magic of David Byrne's show last night at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. And given that David Byrne needs no explanation or introduction from your blogger, I'm not even going to try.

Suffice it to say that David Byrne managed to get a Vancouver audience out of their seats!! The first six or seven songs were mainly from the new album and from My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, which kept the audience sitting down at their most polite. But then, after this delicious appetizer, he suddenly reached into his bag of tricks and pulled out "Once in a Lifetime" followed by "What a Day That Was"...what an entrée! Then, when our mouths were asking for dessert, David Byrne gave us a tasty "Take Me to The River" followed by the finest rendition ever of "Burning Down the House". He finished with the beautiful new "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today", followed by a good seven minutes of handbreaking applause.

As a sidenote, David Byrne's posse included not only incredibly talented musicians (Redray Frazier, Jenni Muldaur, Kaissa, Forro in the Dark), but also a trio of dancers that kept the visuals interesting.

For another opinion (and a photo and a video) see BunkleLife.

Or read the more thorough review by Ken Eisner.

Contrail

Hipsters, bike fans, riders, lend me your ears! How would you like to not just ride your single speeds, but leave a mark while doing it? And I'm not talking about leaving a mark in a metaphorical sense (like riding for cancer or something of the sort). I'm talking about literally leaving a trail of chalk when you ride your bike on the streets of downtown Vancouver!

If you're a little intrigued/excited, take a look at Contrail.











(And yes, it's environmentally friendly and no animals were hurt during the production of the chalk)

This weekend in Van

If you are not one of the fortunate few that will be going to David Byrne tonight, don't jump off the Burrard Bridge.

Tonight, Steve Aoki is playing at Celebrities. But if you don't feel like going to a club, tonight is the opening night of Spike & Mike Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation at the Rio Theatre on Broadway and Commercial.

And tomorrow night, 6S Marketing is hosting a light show/block party called Illuminate Yaletown.

Enjoy!

Monopoly!

This is the post where you learn about Mike Daisey.

As part of the Push Festival volunteer staff, I had the opportunity to see the monologue "Monopoly!". Any description I might give you of this show would be insufficient to correctly transmit the show's magic, its thought provoking message, and Mike's energy. I confess that before the show, I wasn't too thrilled about the idea of sitting through a 90 minute monologue...but it only took the performer a few seconds to turn my skepticism into awe.

Mike Daisey delivers his monologue with such strength that you literally put off blinking for the entire show. "Monopoly!" navigates perfectly through different true stories of corporate abuse, weaving bits of Daisey's personal life into a plot that suddenly becomes everyone's daily confrontation with rapacious private interests. From a strong commentary on big box store suburbia to an enlightening critique of the intellectual property system, "Monopoly!" serves as an urgent call against the abuses of unchecked corporate power.

I don't remember excatly when it happened, but somewhere between the stories of I suddenly felt a lump of coal in my throat. If you simply read the story of Nicola Tesla, or read how Parker Brothers bought the rights to Monopoly from its true inventor, you probably won't feel a thing. But after hearing Mike Daisey tell you the story and seeing how he develops the characters and turns their lives into passionate accounts of injustice, it is impossible not to feel a hole in your chest. And if you already have even a slightly negative opinion of Wal Mart, this show's poetic message might turn you into a full time activist.

Needless to say, if you have the chance, go see a show by Mike Daisey.

Here is the description of "Monopoly!" on the show's website:

In this devastating monologue about monopoly and its discontents, Mike Daisey explores the warped genius of inventor Nikola Tesla and his war with Thomas Edison over electricity—alternating current versus direct current—a battle that etched itself into the streets of New York City itself. This thread loops and whorls around Microsoft’s historic antitrust lawsuit, the secret history of the board game Monopoly, and ultimately the story of Daisey’s hometown and its one remaining retailer: Wal-Mart. As subversive as it is hilarious, Monopoly! illuminates the issues we confront under corporate rule, and explores the choices and struggles individuals face living in a system that recognizes only profit and loss.

Live From a Bush of Ghosts

Ahhhh the beauty of fresh, innovative and significant theatre! Yesterday I had the privilege of attending Live From a Bush of Ghosts, a superb show presented by Theatre Conspiracy. The set ressembles a live DJ set with a dance floor, where the only actress plays an array of intimately tied stories about technology, while two DJ's and a video artist create virtual worlds for her characters. The stories are frighening and contemporary, and the actress uses impressive body language to haunt the spectators' imagination. I particularly enjoyed a part about a stock broker who is fatally tied to her cellphone and begins to breakdown as the market literally crashes all around her.

The show was especially significant to me because the music is inspired by David Byrne and Brian Eno (and I'm going to their concert in a few days!), and the initial part about a Third World electronic trash dump echoed last Thursday's talk by Edward Burtynsky's (his images of these dumps are the most frighteningly beautiful examples of our daily complicity in the Earth's destruction).

This show is playing at Studio 16 (1555 W. 7th Av), at 7pm tonight and 4pm tomorrow (Sunday). Don't miss this!!!

Here is the description on their site:

Spirits arise from the toxic smoke of First World electronic trash dumped in the developing world. A boy lured by an internet predator, a suicidal stockbroker, a heavy metal televangelist — these are a few of the ghosts haunting a woman who melts down computer components to retrieve precious metals for pennies a day.

With music inspired by Brian Eno and David Byrne’s seminal recording My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, Theatre Conspiracy delves into the fallout of digital culture. Electronic band No Luck Club performs along with live video mixes by Candelario Andrade as dancer/actor Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg creates multiple roles to conjure a ghostworld that is a physical, visual, sonic feast for the senses.

Guitar Hero

Like many kids of my generation, I used to be a video game addict. From Mario Bros. to Contra, to Final Fantasy, and Grand Theft Auto, my addiction touched every genre and console. However, for various reasons, I stopped gaming about 4 years ago. This means that I felt completely untouched by the wave of Guitar Hero madness that has swept over the world...until now.

Last Thursday, I volunteered to give a guitar lesson to inner city kids in an East side elementary school in Vancouver. I spent about two days preparing for the lesson, thinking of simple chord progressions to teach to the kids, or easy riffs to keep them entertained. Memories of my first guitar lessons flashed through my mind and I thought about teaching them an easy Beatles song to get them excited about learning a full song in a single class ("Obla di obla da" was obviously the first choice). But one thing I never thought about was studying the songs in the game "Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock"!

As I walked into the class and introduced myself to the kids (fifth graders), I tried to begin a conversation about their taste in music. A teacher has to find some common cultural referents, so I tried namedropping some bands...to no avail. The kids stared back at me as if I were speaking in tongues! I namedropped some more, even began to play the intro of Wish You Were Here...but the result was the same. I stopped and realized that I was staring down into a deep and authentic generational gap.

And then a hand shot up in the air. It was a twelve year old with an awesome mohawk that made me and my knit scarf look like a Backstreet Boy. He looked at me in the eyes and delivered the magic words: "dude, don't you know any song from the new Guitar Hero??" Ha! Suddenly the whole class was talking of the songs, and of the levels, and if Slash was the hardest to beat, or if Jimmy Hendrix was faster. I was taken by surprise...shocked. It suddenly dawned on me that the musical tastes of a whole new generation are being shaped by the playlists in Guitar Hero! Elementary kids everywhere are connecting with long foregone music legends through the colored buttons of their plastic guitars. This, more than anything, more than its record breaking sales, is the true success of the game.

And, of course, as the lesson proceeded, I did NOT mention the Beatles song.

Get off the couch!

It takes a unique event to inspire most people to sacrifice their perfect evening on a soft couch, watching a TV comedy on prime time while indulging on some comfort food. Every city, however cosmopolitan, experiences some idle weeks in the year, the kind where nothing poses a serious threat to the couch plan. However, this is NOT the time to stay at home in Vancouver!

Or paraphrasing some Zoolander male model, "Vancouver, it's so hot right now".

Here are my top 5 reasons to leave the couch:

1. (Jan. 14-Feb. 1st) Vancouverites can experience the best culinary marvels of the city by going to Dine-Out Vanouver 2009. For those of you haven't heard, the best restaurants in the city are offering three course meal menus for cheap, fixed prices. Restaurants are divided into three price categories, $18, $28, and $38, and their Dine-Out menus are all available online.

(My favorites: if you feel like going to a cozy bistro and eating a stout and cheddar foundue, a ratatouille provençale, and a chocolate banana bread pudding for only $18, visit Burgoo! If Asian flavors excite your pallate, try the salt spring island mussels, a Vietnamense nuoc cham sablefish or pulled duck confit crepes, and a coconut sticky rice for just $28. Or if you have a fancy date and would like to impress him/her with an albacore tuna tataki, a Kurobota pork roasted for 24 hours, and a key lime cheesecake by Frank Pabst (best chef 2008), visit Blue Water Café for a modest $38. Dine-Out Vancouver is certainly the best excuse to leave your comfort food in the fridge and gain some good winter pounds!)

2. Concerts, concerts, concerts at the Biltmore Cabaret! Metronomy plays on Saturday 24, Matt & Kim play on Wednesday 28, and The Album Leaf play on Saturday 31.

3. (Jan. 16-Feb. 16) For all you film buffs, Pacific Cinematheque is playing a retrospective of films by Japanese director Nagisa Oshima. The retrospective is called In the Realm of Oshima, and it was called "the international film retrospective of the year" by Liam Lacey of the Globe and Mail. I'm dying to watch Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, starring David Bowie.

4. (Jan. 20-Feb. 8) Thespians be aware! The Push Festival is here! It's probably the most important performing arts festival of the year, and a perfect excuse to miss an episode of Heroes. Some highlights are the amazing show Billy Twinkle by the world's most famous puppet theatre artist Ronnie Burkett, and the Japanese show Five Days in March by the renowned Chelftisch Theatre Company.

5. Gallery openings! Yesterday, Catriona Jeffries Gallery opened a show by Gareth Moore (Jan. 15-Feb. 14). Then, the Cineworks Independent Filmmakers Society opened the screeing of The Soft Revolution at the Interurban Gallery (located at 1 East Hastings). Both are a must see! I went to the The Soft Revolution yesterday and it's an impressive project that breaches the boundaries of linear narrative in cinema by allowing the viewers to interact with the film. There are three screens and two control panels where users can press buttons to select which character comes into play, giving the viewer a feeling of control over the story.

6. (Feb. 1-Mar. 21) If you don't mind going all the way to Surrey, the Surrey Art Gallery is opening Uneasy Beauty, an amazing Edward Burtynsky show! You should NOT miss this exhibit! Apart from the awe inspiring beauty of his work, Burtynsky has become such an important voice for sustainability that in 2005 he earned the TED Prize (click to see his profile and his acceptance speech). This led to the release of his documentary Manufactured Landscapes, which was shown at the Sundance and Toronto film festivals. He is also involved in Worldchanging, the foremost online sustainability community. Did I convince you?

Enjoy.

I heart Vancouver

This city is covered in fog and I'm ecstatic! Although most people wish it went away, I can't help but love the way it turns the whole city into a David Lynch movie set. And although I once said "don't photograph landscapes", this fog is the perfect excuse for a photo aficionado like myself to put on my tights and wander around the city in my bike shooting this:

Fog

And tonight we live in heavy fog.

















Rumor says, the fog is to blame for that incessant ship's horn in the harbor.

Arrrggghhhh!

It's been three days now and I'm still boiling inside. Every time I think about it, my skin dries up and my little stomach releases...well, stomach juice of course. "What on God's name are you blathering about?" Well, I'll tell you what I'm blathering about.

I missed the Yeasayer concert last Thursday...

...because I had to write a term paper. Arrrghhh. At the moment I thought it was the right choice, the responsible one (considering my final countdown). But then, at midnight that same night, I got a 5 day extension. Arrrghhh!

Anyway, the symptoms of my post-ImissedYeasayer stress disorder have only increased because now I can't stop listening to their music. AND, almost every music review that I've read compares them to David Byrne! So double arrrgggggh. (I'm tempted to call it "divine punishment")

So please join me in my frustration by pressing play and realizing what you also missed:





And yes, we should all listen to Rodrigo more often.

Everything That Happens Will Happen Today

I'm proud to share that today I pulled a "fan from hell." Well, kind of. I didn't wait for hours in the rain outside a backstage door, nor did I buy a coffee and doughnut for a limo driver just to extract the hotel info of a visiting rockstar. But I did set a couple of alarms, one at 9.00am, another at 9.45, to remind me about the 10am pre-sale of tickets for the David Byrne & Brian Eno Tour!! (the venue for Vancouver will be the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, which should give you an idea of the importance of this renewed collaboration)

And for your hearing pleasure, the entire album:

Thanksgiving!

How to explain the beauty of my first Thanksgiving dinner without turning this into the corniest, cliché ridden post you've ever read? You see, I'm very excited by my new found love for this holiday. It's not only the fact that there was an obscene amount of delicious carbohydrates on the table, coupled with turkey and a vast selection of cheese. It's also not just the fact that it was a great excuse to sit around a table with friends to fool around and laugh until our faces hurt.

No...Thanksgiving really amazed me because it seemed more spontaneous than other holidays. You don't have to dress up like Dracula. You don't need to buy a ton of gifts. You don't have to belong to a particular religion or have some medieval spiritual beliefs. You don't need even need to decorate your house in any particular way. For this holiday, you only need to bring your appetite (and a modest donation in the form of a wine bottle to whoever volunteered to cook the turkey).

Tokyo!

Today I woke up at 9am to the sound of my phone ringing. It was my dad. He said he was in Tokyo. It was raining, and he had decided to test the infinite powers of Skype by calling me.

At 1.30 pm, I headed downtown to watch Michel Gondry's "Tokyo!", following my VIFF plans. The film opens with a scene from inside a car on a street of Tokyo. It is also raining.

At 2.30, the main character realizes she forgot to move her car from where she parked it. She runs only to find that it has been towed.

At 2.31, I try to quietly recharge my parkmeter via cell phone, but I get the infamous robot voice that says "parking is not allowed after 3 at this location".

I step on a full row of toes, run out of the theatre, and arrive just in time to move my car.

I drove home thinking about the beautiful improbability of the day's coincidences. I thought about my dad, and imagined him riding a taxi on a rainy morning in Tokyo.

Don't Photograph Landscapes

Here is the article that I wrote following Herzog's talk last week. The Ubyssey newspaper published an edited version in last Friday's culture section...but it's Sunday and I've decided to privilege my blogfans with the original version. Enjoy!


Don't Photograph Landscapes

“I’m not here to show my work, I’m here to start a dialogue” said Fred Herzog, as he introduced himself to the eager crowd of aspiring photographers that attended UBC Photosociety’s first annual general meeting at the SUB on September 25. “I hope I can be interrupted often, and I hope you get used to my accent.” At that moment, a projector was fired up, marking the beginning of a memorable evening with the renowned Vancouver photographer.

Herzog’s work needed no introduction. After forty years of photographing street scenes in this city, his images of Vancouver have become as common to photographers as the totem poles in Stanley Park. Yet, it was the photographer’s presence, his own voice explaining his photographs that filled the evening with magic. The kind of magic that exudes from Herzog’s lively, colorful prints.

Born in Germany, Herzog moved to Vancouver in the 1950s and soon began capturing the life of the city with his camera. He separated himself from other photographers by shooting mostly in Kodachrome, a color slide film that was hard to turn into prints. This limited his ability to exhibit because “Making cibachrome prints was not feasible. It was almost impossible for me to make a profit selling the prints.” Thus, although his collection of slides continued to grow, his work remained in the dark for decades.

In a way, however, this initial marginalization helped to turn Herzog into a living legend. His images were taken decades before the were finally shown in galleries, turning his exhibitions into colorful odes to nostalgia. It takes only a minute or two of glancing at the impressive colors and contrast in his photographs to understand the power of images that bring back to life an era that is generally remembered in black and white.

Moreover, anyone that attended Herzog’s fantastic retrospective at the Vancouver Art Gallery last year understands that there is something very personal about his work. His images occur in the most public spaces, yet they remain deeply intimate. As spectators, it feels as if Herzog has suddenly allowed us to take a glimpse into the private life of his subjects, making us all voyeurs of life in an epoch that is foregone but never forgotten.

As a projector showed us some of Herzog’s famous images, Herzog explained that photography is about looking, about waiting. He mocked people who carry a bag full of expensive lenses saying “the picture has to be in your head, not in your camera bag” and underlined the importance of concentrating on a moment, on a sudden detail that makes an otherwise irrelevant scene unique. With this, Herzog revealed his place in the long tradition of documentary photographers who, like Cartier Bresson, causally roamed the streets waiting for the instant précis to capture a unique event forever.

Considering the inherent difficulty of shooting people on the streets, Herzog was quick to explain that it is imperative to look for body language, which includes clothing. Stopping the projector at a picture of a woman with a cigarette in her hand, he said that first impressions matter because humans automatically make judgments of the people they see, and thus, a photograph has to capture a gesture or a detail that gives a strong first impression. He then added, that “if you look long enough, you can find vitality anywhere.”

When asked about the risks of photographing strangers, Herzog first shared that “people have shouted at me, people have told me to get away, people have told me to get off their property, and people have threatened me with calling the police.” Thus, he suggested that we “shoot first, and ask questions later!” However, he confessed that in his particular case it has been easier since by the time he started exhibiting, most of the subjects in his pictures were too old to care. Almost jokingly, he suggested to wait thirty years before publishing a picture of a stranger because “a dead person will not take you to court!”

As the evening came to an end, Herzog delivered his most poetic moment. “To me, the city is a stage and the people on the streets are all actors.” In this sense, Herzog stressed that “We need to record how people look in their natural state…it’s the reality of how we look.” He explained that if photographers don’t accept the task of showing people with no interference, without staging them, then we will lose any visual evidence of the way we really were.

As a closing remark, Herzog comically reminded us for the twentieth time that in order to succeed as photographers, “don’t photograph landscapes, everybody does it, and nobody cares.”