China Day Three, Part III - Shanghai, Renmin Park

Sunday, April 6th, 2008





At one of the ends of Nanjing Road was an underpass that led to RENMIN PARK, a.k.a., THE PEOPLE'S PARK. We followed the crowd down and emerged at the outskirts of the park:





We saw this HUGE sculpture. It looked like 3-D graffiti...but it was probably some sort of chinese character:





We tried to take a photo in front of this Futurist/Cubist-looking statue, but there was too many people posing with it. An old Chinese man who was by himself asked us to take a picture of him with his camera...he didn't speak a word of english, but we understood that he needed our help...I should have took his picture instead of the statue...



We crossed the street to access a different part of the park...



We found this pretty garden...and then a little lake. A lot of people were hanging out around the lake - some were even fishing...







Wandering around, we managed to discover the Museum Of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Shanghai...since we had time to kill, we decided to go in and check out the exhibition they had for famous "Shoemaker To The Stars", SALVATORE FERRAGAMO...















One part of the exhibit had these cool little display rooms shaped like handbags and shoes...







We ran into a group tour and saw a bunch of people lounging on shoe-shaped chairs while the tour guide did her spiel:





They had a paint-splattered Ferragamo shoe that used to belong to ANDY WARHOL...





After stopping at the museum gift shop, we headed back out into the wilds of Renmin Park...





We found the children's area of the park, which was awesome! They had all these kiddie amusment park rides, including this crazy high-rise merry-go-round with funky monkey and monchichi motifs...











...they even had a little area where little kids could draw and craft...how cool is that?



Missy and I were drawn to a section of the park where a group of people were gathering across from a rocket ride...







Turns out they were gathered around this little pool and they were fishing for GOLDFISH! Everytime someone caught one (on a real hook!), they'd pull it off and place it in a bucket. It was a very different take on a popular midway-style game...







After consulting our map, we decided to head back down Nanjing Road on our way to visit THE BUND...on the way there we stopped in to another mall and Missy bought some clothes...the mall was set up so that if you wanted to make a credit card purchase, there was one desk per floor that handled credit card transactions for all the stores on that level...we had trouble at one desk, then had to move to the next floor, had trouble at THAT DESK, then had to move to another level...we kept riding the escalator until we found a desk that could process Missy's card...



(Missy chuckling at her misfortune while following the salesgirl who rang her up, from floor to floor)



We worked our way back up to the top floor of the mall so we could take these photos of Nanjing Road, out of a dirty window...





There were some discarded window display props near by and Missy chose to pose with an "M" (no "R" for me, boo)...

Weekend Wind-Down #5

Better late than never, right?

We got so busy this weekend that we plum forgot to post a Weekend Wind-Down...I intended to do it last night, but I fell asleep super early. By 8:30pm I was down and out for the count and didn't wake up once until my alarm sounded off this morning. Like I said, we had a busy weekend and - hate to sound like a broken record, but - we still have not had a chance to catch up on sleep/rest since coming back home from our business trip...

Last night, Trevor, a photographer from our local newspaper, THE ATHENS BANNER-HERALD, came by our house to take photos of us in our "workspace". It's for an article that they are doing about crafting and local crafters. We spent all weekend (when we weren't out and about) cleaning up our house, especially our "craft room". We ended up taking pictures in our "woodland room", lying on the floor, surrounded by all the stuffed toys characters that we had made and had on hand. A sampling of the mess can be seen above...

Also, Missy has entered another photo contest. This one is being hosted by THIS IS BLYTHE. In the contest, Blythe Doll collectors are asked to submit photos of their dolls dressed-up and styled after different "heroes". The top winners get brand new Blythe Dolls courtesy of This Is Blythe, as well as other fabulous prizes. Missy decided to style her doll after a famous photo of AMY SEDARIS covered in whipped cream and sprinkles. The photo is from Amy's book, "I LIKE YOU"...Amy, who is talented as all get out (actress, comedienne, author, crafter, cook, hostess extraordinaire, etc.) is one of our all-time favorite people in the world and a true inspiration...so, how could we NOT choose her as a hero?

(my sister, Cynthia, posing with Amy Sedaris, at a signing for her book, "I Like You"...LUCKY!)



So, Sunday afternoon, we ran up to the local Kroger supermarket to get whipped cream and sprinkles for the photo shoot. We cleared off our dining room table and set up our little photo studio. Our goal - re-create this photo using one of Missy's Blythe dolls:



Missy started by stripping down one of her dolls (in this case, "Bunbun McElroy") and posing her. Afterwards, she started applying whipped cream with a paintbrush...







...and then came the sprinkles...









Missy changed the color of the background in Photoshop...this is her final version of the photo:



Then afterwards, we cleaned up all the yummy unused props:



YAY!

OK...so finally...two days late... here's our WEEKEND WIND-DOWN:

FAVORITE MOMENT OF LAST WEEK?
MISSY: Getting my new Blythe Doll (a surprise from a pen pal!) and entering another of my dolls into the photo contest as Amy Sedaris.
RAOUL: I guess it would be going to the Twilight Criterium.

WORST MOMENT OF LAST WEEK?
MISSY: Discovering that I might have a mouse hiding under my sink.
RAOUL: Anytime I didn't get enough sleep.

WORD OR PHRASE OF LAST WEEK?
MISSY: don't have any
RAOUL: "jet lag"

WHAT'S ONE THING ON YOUR "MUST DO" LIST FOR THIS WEEK?
MISSY: Do two more Blythe photo shoots for the contest (you're allowed up to three entries)
RAOUL: Sleep.

FAVORITE FLAVOR OF LAST WEEK?
MISSY: Turtle.
RAOUL: Coolwhip.

NAME ONE THING ON YOUR GROCERY LIST FOR THIS WEEK:
MISSY: Australian yogurt
RAOUL: Burrito

NAME ONE PLACE YOU'D LIKE TO VACATION TO AT THIS VERY MOMENT:
MISSY: Kate's Lazy Meadow (in up-state New York)
RAOUL: Actually, I wouldn't mind going back to Hong Kong at this moment...

PERSONAL SOUNDTRACK FROM LAST WEEK?
MISSY: The crappy satelite radio station at work (because I kept forgetting to bring my iPod)
RAOUL: Mahjong, Gnarls Barkley, The Rapture, Belle & Sebastian, Komeda, Shellshag, Delgados