oh whatever, sipho. shut your blog face.

so let's do some christmas!

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:09:34 GMT

Tomorrow I fly home to Trondheim to spend Christmas with my family and friends there. I'll bring my laptop, but I'm never really sure what internet situation awaits in that house. I'm sure I will make at least one or two updates.

Let's enjoy! \o/

(p.s. can you tell i had a fun morning?)

so here is the year in review, image edition

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:56:01 GMT

I had such a nice and cozy day. Snow outside and me hiding inside doing this and that.

Posts don't get much more egocentric than this I suppose. As all the photos on here are usually by myself, you don't see many with me in them. Just as well, right? :P

Anyways, it's my blog! So I'm putting up a bunch of photos my friends have taken of me during 2009. Check them out below if you want, won't blame you if you don't ;)

Good friends, good year!

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

MARCH

APRIL

MAY

JULY

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

so i have a few more shots of coma

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:17:41 GMT

I went to see Where the Wild Things Are today, and I loved it. I don't think I ever saw a movie that made me remember how it felt to be a kid in this way. The images were beautiful, and the main actor was great.

These photos should really be viewed on a dark background, but this will have to do for now :)

so we have a real xmas tree this year!

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:12:48 GMT

I like it! And then we finally got a purpose for all those Swarovski crystals lying around. They look really nice in between the lights, especially when they move.

Yesterday I went with Lolo, Miki and her husband to see Madame Oshima in the Marais. She had invited us for tea at her workshop there. I had seen photos of her dolls online before, but wow they are amazing. Especially the portraits of her daughter (who was there as well). She makes these incredibly detailed puppets from fabric. Last time we saw her she said the larger ones take 6 months to complete! And she is so sweet as well. There's an article about her here if you want to know more: Kayuzo Oshima

&& here are a few more snaps of our wonderful tree :)

so here is coma again

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:36:12 GMT

I downloaded Google Chrome for mac, and it really is faster. I miss instantly being able to search in different search engines, but the keyword system in Chrome is not bad either I suppose :)

I took these shots a few weeks ago when Coma was here in Paris. Hope you like!

so regarding xmas cards n such

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:10:34 GMT

Look how blond I was! Not anymore...

Anyway, I realised I forgot to do this even though a couple of people asked, and I usually do it every year anyway. If you are one of those people who are happy to send Christmas cards, I will put my address below ^_^. My friend says I am not nice to write this as I never send any myself, but every year I receive some and that is reason enough for me!

Markus Bollingmo
51 Quai de Grenelle
75015 Paris
FRANCE

so it's the last one!

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:42:21 GMT

It's my last set of photos from Japan, and it's not really a spectacular one either sorry. Just a few images. The last three days in Tokyo I only really took photos on the tuesday.

Monday the weather was rainy, and I can't really remember what we did. Maybe Shibuya again? I really don't remember. We ended up going out again at night though, as the day after was a national holiday in Japan. It's ridiculous, because I never go out to bars and clubs here in Paris. We didn't stay all night, but it was fun.

Then the next day is where these photos are from. I went by myself to Harajuku to meet up with my mixed Japanese/Swiss friend from flickr, Dennis, who was also visiting Tokyo while we were there. Really nice guy! We ended up going back to the Yoyogi park again, just hanging out. There was this funny moment when two Japanese girls appeared with some question sheets they had made for foreigners in their English class. Half was about what I thought about Japan and Tokyo, but then the last half was all about what kind of girls I like and "Do you tell your girlfriend you love her?" lol. It was a bit confusing at first, but Dennis is fluent in Japanese so he explained them how it was difficult to answer for me :P After that we met up with Jun and Mina by Takeshita Street. Dennis left then, but I hung out with Jun & Mina for a good few hours, eating at Yoshinoya and just sitting around in a coffee shop thing in Shibuya. She's a dancer too, and she was in Paris before, but she is back in Tokyo now with a company there. Then around....10(?)...we met up with Sam, Lolo, Hugo, and also Thomas, the French guy from the other day, and another Japanese girl. Thomas took us to this super cool place hidden in a Shibuya alley. Tiny tiny, and filled with random cool stuff. So nice! AND when exiting it turned out the ground floor was filled with Norwegian guys lol. That was so bizarre... We stopped by an arcade for a while after that, doing the purikura photo booth thing and playing some games, but then everybody went home.

Oh my god, I never type this much.

Sorry!

The last day was pretty uneventful. We went again to Omotesando, and I walked with Sam from there to Roppongi, stopping at the Aoyama cemetary. We wanted to check out the view from the Mori building, but it was so expensive and there was not much money left, so we skipped it and went back to pack. Later at night we met up with Jun for one last dinner, and said goodbye to him. I feel like we are always saying goodbye to him :(

So yes, that was it. The travel back home was long and boring. Sorry for all these entries with overly detailed descriptions of what we were doing. "And then, and then, and then...". It's so I can remember when I look back as well.

so it was sunday

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 17:05:22 GMT

Sunday is Yoyogi day! It's the huge park near Harajuku, and there is always a lot of people there then. It was a little bit challenging to get up after being out all night (i'm really not used to that lol), but we managed to be there by 2 I think. We met Jun there and we did a little picnic in the park. I slept in the grass :P

After that we met up with Thomas, a French friend living in Tokyo, and went to eat with him. We walked together to Shibya, and hung out in one of the arcades for a while. Jun had the great idea that we should go out clubbing again, as one of the places had this free drink happy hour think on sundays. I was half dead, but why not :P Hugo and Lolo went back home though, so it was just me, Sam and Jun. Sam doesn't drink alcohol, but I do, and Jun does, and...err...maybe a little too much that night! It was fun though, and we ended up staying all night again. Sam fell for a boy called Sho, but he already had a boyfriend and he didn't speak English at all :P But I agree, he was cute!

so it was halloween

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:03:21 GMT

I don't have that many photos for you now. That saturday we slept very long and then slowly made our way to Odaiba in the afternoon. It's an artificial island in the bay, with many cool shops, a beach, a big arcade amusement park thing and there is more too. There was this big gathering of dancers when we arrived, but we couldn't figure out what kind of dancing it was. Looked kindof Chinese...

Later at night we met up with Jun in Roppongi and went to a big halloween party at a club there. It was fun! We didn't dress up at all though. Sam, Lolo and Hugo left early, but I stayed the whole night with Jun. I remember thinking it was really bizarre when we finally exited in the morning. Roppongi is an area with many clubs, and a lot of gaijin (foreigners). I usually don't like much to go there because there are always these aggressive black guys trying to get you to enter into the strip clubs, and the feeling of the area is generally really different from the rest of Tokyo. Japanese people get super drunk, but they don't get aggressive the same way a lot of Westerners do, so the area always feels different and...like i said, more aggressive. Anyway, the atmosphere in the streets that morning before the metro started running was really bizarre. There were people in funny halloween costumes hanging out/passed out/running about everywhere. I felt like I was somewhere not real. Wish I would have had my camera there, but I don't bring that to party...

so here are some proper ones

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:16:26 GMT

Well "proper"...they are obviously very casual, but still compared to the ones I posted yesteday they are.

Miss you! Jun-kun! ♥

so i went to jun's place

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 17:56:59 GMT

That friday I went by myself to see Jun, while the other guys did I don't know what. I think maybe they returned to Ginza. I met him at the Takadanobaba station and then we went together to his place just a couple more stations from there. It was actually my first time in a Japanese home. Such a big event :P We just hung out there all day doing this and that, taking photos and waiting for his mailorder items to arrive. It was very nice ^__^. I miss having him here in Paris.

I did more photos with him that day, but I will post those later. Just these for now :)

This is the manga that the other girl we met the weekend before is doing. It's cool!

It's the banana things I have hanging on my phone :P

so its almost december already

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:29:02 GMT

Shit shit. Where is all the time going? I'm not even doing anything... I am not ready for Christmas!

Anyway, that day in Tokyo we wanted to go to MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art. It turned out to be closed when we arrived though, so we just got some food and drinks and did a little picnic by a local soccer field. And and and there were these little Japanese 4 year olds having soccer practice right there. They were SO CUTE. Oh my god >_<. After that we went to Asakusa and the big temple there, as we always do. They were renovating this time though, and all the temple was hidden in a plastic box. It was OK as I already went 2 times before, but maybe not so fun if it's the first time :P

Last we went to Ueno, which is close to Asakusa. Yamashiroya! ^__^

so i was unable to resist

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:51:09 GMT

Something I didn't write about yesterday was that later at night that day we were walking in Harajuku, and these two really cute Japanese boys came up to me. They didn't speak much English, but basically they wanted me and Sam to be hair models/practice subjects for them at their beauty school the next day. I really had no desire to do this, but they were so sweet and adorable and I didn't know how to say no lol. So the next day I went with Sam to their school, which was on the other side of Harajuku. I was nervous before because I never really like being styled by hairdressers, but everyone was so sweet and it was nice. They were really impressed that I cut my own hair, but I'm sceptical about how genuine they were about that :P

Sam and I hung out in Harajuku for a while before we met up with Lolo & Hugo. We walked to the temple in Meiji-Jingu and did a picnic in the park until it closed. Later we went to Shinjuku, where I got the little banana thing that currently hangs on my phone ^^

lol

so let's get back to japan

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:32:22 GMT

I didn't even finish the first week yet, so there is a lot more to come :P

This particular day we somehow ended up walking a lot. We walked from our hotel in Akasaka, to Ebisu, and then to Shibuya. I love the cozy little streets that are practically everywhere. One of the things I love most about Japan is this clean messiness that they have. Things can be so random and cluttery, but it is almost never dirty or filthy. Sam commented, that you almost never see people cleaning either, which is true. Almost all the cars are clean and shiny, even the ones you wouldn't expect to be, like trucks. It is very different from Paris :P

so sorry for throwing nsfw things out on to your screens :p

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:29:30 GMT

I did some photos with my friend Coma who is in Paris for the weekend. I'll get back to them once I finish with the Japan photos I think, I still have a lot of those. For now, there's just this one :)

Oh and I managed to hurt my foot again. I'm too fragile! :P

so this is the last one before the weekend

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:35:22 GMT

It was raining a lot this day, so we went to this big indoors shopping area on the Tozai line. I think it was called Nakano Broadway. We had never been there before, but Miki recommended it to us and it turned to be really cool. There is this cool little shop in a Shibuya basement called Mandrake that we always go to, but the Mandrake at Broadway was woah so big, with many different parts. It was cool. Oh the way home we actually ran into Jun at Takadanobaba metro station. I'm not sure how to explain the impropability of running into one person randomly like this in the Tokyo subway system :P. You can click here for a map of all the metro lines there, and then maybe you can imagine...

Oh and in the photos, check out the machine with all the buttons. In some restaurants they have this system where you press the button for whatever meal you want to order, then pay the machine. Then you just bring a note from the machine to the people at the restaurant and they get it ready for you, everything already paid for. I like it!

By the way, my friend is coming to Paris this weekend so this might be the last update until he's left again.

so we went to ginza

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:01:03 GMT

Ginza is this kindof chic shopping district with mostly bourgeois housewives. We always come there though, because of Hakuhinkan and the big department stores. Sunday they close the streets for cars, and open them for pedestrians, so it was a good day to go. I bought some xmas presents there, and I got to spend a while with the wifi at the apple store as well :P The hotel we were staying at didn't have any wifi, so I was always happy to use it when I could.

so i finished the gathering storm

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:21:07 GMT

It was sooooooo gooooood. Oh my god. For those who don't know, it's the latest book in the Wheel of Time series. I've been obsessed with it since I started reading it almost 10 years ago, and this time it had been several years since the last book. So exciting! I can't wait for the next one :P

I've been catching up on Mad Men and One Piece episodes too ^_^

I don't have that many Japan photos today. As we stayed all night clubbing we were pretty beat the next day. I'm not used to party much :P Also it started raining that day, and that makes me keep my camera bagged more. Anyway, we went to Shibuya, which is another place we always return to many times. Always a lot of young people, really cool energy. The Shibuya crossing is what they usually show when you see a million Japanese people crossing the street at once.

so today is a little bit more image heavy

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:46:10 GMT

First full day in Tokyo! We went to Omotesando and Harajuku in the morning just to stop by UT Uniqlo and Kiddy Land. We always come back several times to both :P Then later we went to Akihabara, which is where most of the gadget shops are. I had forgotten to bring a camera cable, so we figured we might as well go there first day. It's a big center for anime and video game geeks too, with many cool shops and things happening, so we spent hours and hours as always.

Later in the evening we met up with Jun, who lives in Tokyo now. We went with him and a friend of his to a couple bars in the gay district, and we ended up staying out all night. I already forgot the name of his friend, but she was really sweet. She is a manga writer, and she has her own manga that she illustrates and writes. So cool! And so nice to see Jun-kun again, I love that boy very much.

so it begins! (sorry for the delay :p)

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 20:23:53 GMT

I'm back! :P It's been a little while actually, but then there was London and then I got sick. Also I had to really reorganise my harddrives to make room for all these new gigabytes of photos. Bla bla, I'm sure you don't care :P Hope you're ready for many days of Japan photos, because I have a lot like always. That place is so inspiring!

I figured I'd do it day by day again, so I'll start with the ones from the trip to go there and the first day. We went with SAS by Copenhagen. Traveling far is always boring, but it was alright. Hugo had to step out of the plane at CDG for a moment because his suitcase was vibrating lol. It was just his electric razor though, at least that's what he told us :P Our hotel was in Akasaka, not far from where we have been staying before. This time we did the cheaper weekly mansion thing, where there is no room service. The room was nice and big, but there was no lux hi tech japanese toilet, just regular boring one :( We didn't really do much the first day, as we were tired from the trip. Basically just exploring the nearby area a bit.

(these are my absolute favorites! i always eat so many while i'm there)

so i went to germany!

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 03:42:55 GMT

Cologne was so cold! But really nice, I loved my little trip there. I have a little cold now, but totally worth it. Putting some more photos below :)

In a little more than 24 hours we will be on our way to Tokyo! I'm so excited to be in Japan again, with the people and the food and the houses and everything. And Jun is there! I think my monster camera will probably either make me a cripple or a muscle man during this trip, but I have promised myself to bring it along as much as possible so hopefully there will be many photos in the end :)

We're staying there until the 5th, but I'll actually be going to London for a few days almost straight after that. MAybe I'll be fed up with traveling by then, but if that's the time then that's the time! :) My friend who is traveling Europe wanted me to come hang with him there for a little while, so that's what I'll do.

Oh and I'm bringing my iphone, so I should be able to get on wifi to check mails n such.

(this one is not really taken by me, but i'm putting it anyway :p)

so PRINCE WAS THERE

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 16:47:50 GMT

I went with Sam to the John Galliano show a couple of days ago. The concept was a little bit the same thing as last time with the lasers, only this time it was smoke filled bubbles falling down on the runway. It was cool, but no way no way as cool as last time. I always have fun though ^_^.

And we were right by the celebrities :P There was Dita Von Teese, Katy Perry, that MTV boyfriend she has and...PRINCE! My dad would have gone crazy, Prince was his big hero. I took photos of them, but they all came out shit so go look in the gossip blogs or something.

Actually a lot of my photos from the runway came out shit. I'm not happy with the lens I used for that (=zoom far away lens) so I have to come up with something if I want to do these kinds of photos in the future. We'll see...

I'll put a video from the show too:

so i be travelin

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:49:51 GMT

I'm going to Germany this next week! And Japan the week after that! \o/

I am actually completely broke so I will have a shopping budget of zero, but it's my own fault for not working these last months. I'm sure I will enjoy it anyway, despite the terrible temptations. I know I will!

Because I love Japan! ^__^

Next week in Köln is just for a few days to see a friend of mine there. I've never been there before, so it should be cool. And I'm happy to see my friend.

And then two weeks in Tokyo :D

so i forgot to post these

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 19:10:23 GMT

Oops! The shots are from August when Sam and Lolo came with me to my family's cabin in Norway. I don't really have all that many, as it was getting repetitive. I've been posting photos from there previous years as well.

Oh and there's this magazine called Try State who features a couple of my photos this month. I'm pretty sure it's only out in America though. Maybe even only New York? Haha I don't know. But there you go :)

It's fashion week here again. My friend Kim came to stay for a couple of days. He's Norwegian, but he lives in London now. It had been a while so it was cool to see him again. And I finally met Bryanboy too, at a party for Gareth Pugh. I'm not really sure how famous he is, he has this fashion blog. I'm sure the fashion gays of you know who he is at least. Anyway, he's really sweet and it was fun to hang out. Maybe we'll meet up again before the end of the week. \o/

edit: seems you can order a copy of the mag here

so i have updated my website :)

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:39:46 GMT

WWW.MARKUSBOLLINGMO.COM
WWW.MARKUSBOLLINGMO.COM
WWW.MARKUSBOLLINGMO.COM
WWW.MARKUSBOLLINGMO.COM

Go check it out! The splash page is mostly the same, but there are a lot more photos now and they are organised a little bit more sensibly. Let me know what you think :)

&& thank you so much to Laurent who helped me out again. He's the one who is putting all this together for me.

He is also the one who took the photo above. Ikuko wanted me to model some of the hats that her mother in Osaka made, so there I am :P

\o/