1. Zoom in and out on your subject in your mind. 2. Take up the perspective of an ant and a bird. 3. Look at your subject as if you were a priest/astronaut/prostitute. 4. Examine your subject wearing pink glasses. 5. Lie down on the floor. 6. Hold your breath for 30 seconds. 7. Put the company name behind bars. 8. Write the company name SMS style. 9. Curl up in your chair. 10. Hyperventilate. 11. Put the company name under-water. 12. Imagine your subject glowing / radiating heat. 13. Talk like Luke Skywalker. 14. Write the company name on a bun. 15. Write down 21 objects that the company’s name remind you. 16. Draw for 60 seconds without lifting your pencil from the paper. 17. Try not to blink for 60 seconds. 18. Imagine shaving your eyebrows. 19. Look at the ground for 60 seconds. 20. Embrace yourself. 21. Talk like a baby. 22. Put something in your mouth and say the company name. 23. Drink 2 glasses of water in one go. 24. Write the company name on a tissue and wet it. 25. Come up with 10 ideas in 10 minutes over a white sheet of paper. 26. Turn on the music to the max. 27. Take a leak / shower. 28. Do 10 pushups (or at least try). 29. Scream: “I’m hungry!”. 30. Pretend you’re Neil French. 31. Act like Marilyn Monroe. 32. Open the dictionary on a random page and read the first entry. 33. Pet your dog or something. 34. Take a picture of yourself. 35. Put earplugs in your ear. 36. Sharpen your pencils. 37. Take off your shoes. 38. Look at the sky for 60 seconds. 39. Pinch your nose and talk. 40. Take off your socks and walk. 41. Imagine your subject matter frozen if you can hold something cold. 42. Count your money in your valet. 43. Kick back and daydream. 44. Play with a kid, a dog or a toy. 45. Eat sweets. 46. Browse the net with StumbleUpon. 47. Act gay (or straight if you’re gay). 48. Tidy up your office. 49. Smell a flower or tea leafs. 50. Wet your hair. 51. Floss your teeth. 52. Pinch yourself. 53. Put something over yourself. 54. Take off your shirt. 55. Pretend playing golf. 56. Pretend playing basketball. 57. Kiss a lucky symbol. 58. Blow soap bubbles or bubble gum. 59. Make a prank call. 60. Borrow an inexpensive object without asking. 61. Draw a face on your finger. 62. Wear something strange. 63. Look at clouds and imagine there is a message. 64. Count back from 27. 65. Raise your both arms for 60 seconds. 66. Do an air guitar solo or pretend playing the piano. 67. Put chocolate to your mouth and resist the temptation to eat it. 68. Shake your head. 69. Pray like a ninja. 70. Look out of the window and stare at one object for 30 seconds. 71. Make a paper plane. 72. Think about your subject as if it was made for the super rich. 73. Type random characters and read it as if it was a secret code. 74. Come up with 5 ridiculously lousy ideas. 75. Think of a matching car for your product or service. 76. Draw your client Dilbert style. 77. Just close your eyes and relax.
Set an alarm to 05:00, take a taxi to the train station, get onto the train, switch in Hangzhou, and get off in Tonglu (桐庐), take another taxi — to arrive 4 hours and 330 kilometers away from home. For a hike. Maybe it’s crazy, but the alternative is to stay home. You’ll have plenty […]
We’re in Qibao (七宝古镇) — an old water town swallowed by the city of Shanghai, now turned into a tourist attraction. In the center stands a moon bridge, surrounded by heavily renovated buildings that now house shops selling fridge magnets or bites such as tangyuan, scallion pancakes, red bean cake, and parts of pork or […]
If you squint your eyes, you can still see a busy little street here. The shops on Wangxin Road (王新街店铺) near Gaoqiao (高桥) in Pudong, were built in the late Qing Dynasty but now face an uncertain future. They’re not labeled for demolition (the character 拆 isn’t shown), but there are many tags of landlords […]
I saw this message from Curt about how difficult it is to love Shanghai, and there’s some truth in that. Maybe it’s too big a city to love, and I just love some specific locations of Shanghai. Let me have a go. Ye Garden Ye Garden (叶家花园), a ~100-year-old park in Yangpu, hidden behind a […]