Shining all over Athens

After enslaving me for such a long time, the corporation allowed me to take a vacation.

As you all know, vacation is a great time to shine. 

So we went to Athens and walked around time until we found the Colosseum. It was cold and windy but for some reason people kept going there.

Afterwards my wife made me go to the National Archaeological Museum, which was extremely boring but I managed to take 2 nice photos. The statue is Artemision Bronze

Shining All Over The Oakland Bay Bridge

Its the second time in this Blog's history that we receive photo from someone to post and the first shining in the U.S.A.

I'd like to remind you all that we are always happy to receive your own shinings so we could upload them to the blog.

In the background is apparently the Oakland Bay Bridge. I've never been there so I can't argue on that.

Shining all over Nuremberg

The visit in Nuremberg was, as expected, dedicated to Nazis. 

On the first day I went to the Nazi party rally grounds. It is the same place where Leni Riefenstahl filmed the famous Nuremberg Rally in 1934. 

Anyone who saw the movie would've expected to find a glamorous Nazi spot as impressive as the sights of Rome. In reality it is a run down mountain of concrete that reminded me of the Stalin buildings in east Berlin. 

Most the site was destroyed during the war and now whats left is the grandstand where Hitler gave his speeches. 

Climbing up the crumbling concrete stairs a man at his 70's passed me and said in German: "They promised us a 1000 years Reich, for god's sake. And it didn't even lasted a 100"

As I reached the top I saw that the grandstand was occupied by a father and his daughters, the man was imitating Hitler and taking photos with his daughters posing as a soldier.

We took the photos and went further. I was a little bit depressed by now by the whole scene.

The next photo is taken from the back side of the Kongreshalle. A Colosseum like Building.

On the next day we went to see the Court house of the Nuremberg trials.

Shining all over Warsaw - Palace of Culture and Science

Before I start I must confess, Shining is not as it used to be. I guess I got a little bored of it. If in the past I used to walk around looking for shining material, now I pass places without shining on them in the excuse that they are not monumental enough. 

This time I went to Poland to see some shows in the Krakow Jewish festival and then travelled north to Warsaw to see if the Pierogy there is any better.

And then, while coming out of the train station, my eyes fell upon a building that gave me back the passion for shining. 

Warsaw's Palace of Culture and Science is the embodiment of Stalin's cock, and I could have told you that even before reading this interesting Wikipedia article

Shining All Over The Roaring Lion at Tel Hai

I know , you’ll find it hard to believe, but 90 years ago there were still wars going on in peaceful Israel. In those days lived people who had actually believed that it is good (!) to die for your country!! that if you do , you’d might become a saint and go to heaven and will have there 70 virgin girls!!!

isn’t it ridiculous?

I think it is and I wish these days had had passed and would have never returned, because I love my life, and I don't want them to be in danger because of some  arrogant, coward, greedy fuckers.

The story about The Battle Of Tel Hai and The Myth Of Joseph Trumpeldor has been pumped into our young minds, since we were at kindergarten, and might have something to do with the fact that people in Israel, still think its hip to die for their country.

Lately, there were some doubts, suggesting that, Trumpeldor (who never spoke Hebrew or English)instead of saying "it is good to die for one's country", actually blurted out a Russian curse. Other swear they can hear him say “I buried Paul”

Anyway, wars are bad, O.K?!

Shining all over Mt. Fuji

When we thought about the shining protocol we never included any natural phenomenon. nevertheless, Mt. Fuji is more than just a mountain. This is one of the most famous symbols of Japan. It was considered sacred and was off-limits to women until the Meiji Era, Fuji-San is one of the biggest achievements in my shining career.

Shining all over Osaka - Tsūtenkaku Tower, Osaka Castle and Billiken

 Osaka was fun! Unfortunately we only had 2 days there, but I could really pick up a vibe which is much wilder and fun than in Tokyo. 

In the 1st picture you can see behind me the Tsūtenkaku Tower which is located in the Shinsekai district. Here we also took the 2nd Picture near the sweet figure of Billiken.

The 3rd one is a proper Shining, behind me is the Osaka castle, built by the asshole Samurai Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who murdered a bit too much for my taste and is now remembered as a great Japanese leader. He also managed to apear in some PC and Video games.

Shining all over Hiroshima - Peace Memorial Park

The A-Bomb Dome.

In retrospect, shining all over Hiroshima was like shining all over the Holocaust Denkmal in Berlin.  I did these photos before entering the peace museum, so i actually wasn't so much aware of the magnitude of this event.  Walking through the museum was pretty shocking, I wasn't so much shocked from the description of the bomb and its aftermath as I was from the American documents issued prior to the bombing. Basically the Americans wanted to test two new models of bombs and they didn't really give a fuck about who they've dropped it on. Knowing a bit of history, maybe being shocked from this fact is pretty naive.

This whole area near where the bomb dropped is now called Peace Memorial Park.

ground zero

children's peace memorial

 Memorial Tower to the Mobilized Students

Shining All Over Tokyo Part II - Shinjuku and Godzilla

Shining all over Tokyo Part II was a hard post to produce, the reason for that is I really really hated doing sight seeing in Tokyo. Even though I found some great things in Tokyo like crazy record shops, amazing food and above all some really beautiful people, every time i had to go out to face the streets I became stressed. I was constantly blinded by the neon lights and every machine, commercial or traffic lights spoke to me in a screechy high voice as I got near it. Add to all this that my wife is a really fast-walking person that was under a tight schedule, and you get a disaster. Nevertheless, i was thrilled to find this Godzilla statue and deep down in my heart i hoped it would come into life and consume this crazy city around me.  Who knows, maybe the people who made Godzilla felt at some point the same?

The next picture was taken in the Shinjuku station. I don't consider it to be a pretty Shining but its the world  busiest train station so it deserves to be shined upon.
Better and more optimistic shining post from Osaka and Hiroshima coming soon!

Shining all over Tokyo Part 1 - Hachikō and Shibuya Crossing

 This post im writing on behalf of my brother, who is now in Tokyo and is so busy with Teder Tokyo that he could neither find the time to find out what he was shining on, nor to write a post. But with a lot of luck he found this really nice statue of a dog and thanks to him I discovered a heartwarming Disney-style tale behind it.

Although animals have most times much bigger dicks than humans, animals are not dicks, nor assholes. Thats why we love them. 

Hachikō the dog was a specially nice dog, so nice they made a movie about him and erected a statue.

read about him. he is nicer than Hitler or Stalin or Bibi Netanyahu, he was a real pal.

The 2nd photo is from Shibuya junction, which we can see in most movies about Tokyo and is so full with people it was just cool to shine there.

Shining All Over The Guggenheim Museum at Bilbao

This one is from my third spanish tour, dates March 2012.

Bilbao is a beautiful city, and I tell you THIS BUILDING IS SHINING NATURALLY!

still I wanted to add my small contribution. to show I could make it shine without spending those billions of  $$$

It is not easy to take a good photo of this building. it has so many angles and shapes,and almost like the Taj Mahal, it worth looking both during sunset and during sunrise

about the art: art (except this blog) is boring, but inside Richard Serra's  sculptors, you can shout and scream, and listen to the amazing acoustic character of each item

Shining all over The Royal Pavilion in Brighton

Im happy to post this Shiny happy post after the depressing post of last week. This post captures everything that shining is supposed to be, we love life, we love touring the world and we love shining!

Brighton's Royal Pavilion was built by a king who built the place to look like the Taj Mahal and decorated it with chinese-like imitations. really tasteful your majesty!

Shining all over Sachsenhausen

I had my doubts about posting this as Shining. I thought it lacked the joy that all the other Shining earlier posts share. Honestly Sachsenhausen concentration camp is a dark gloomy place, and i really didnt felt im doing anything fun or funny. Another point that makes this place different from all the other shining locations is that it wasnt built to glorify some asshole's prick, on the contrary, it was built to make people disapear and to suffer.
While walking in the camp I started thinking about the suffering of man, today. while i was walking in a place where suffering happend 60 years ago, people were suffering all over the world, i specifically thought of the people in Syria and of the african kids that still every day have to go through their own modern day holocaust, but other places where people suffer are not so hard to find.
I hope one day we can see a more balanced world where suffering will only be a memory and people could take their Shining pictures over places that makes them feel they are lucky to have survived.

Shining all over Basel

I was very excited toward my visit in Basel. as an Israeli boy, i grew up brainwashed about Zionism and the mythological story of Theodor Herzl. now, grown up and clear-eyed, I think that Zionism is just as stupid as any -ISM. I can almost say -as stupid as a religion. but nothing is as stupid as a religion. anyway, don’t get me wrong, Herzl was a great man, a true visionary man, crazy, possessed by his idea, unstoppable. when he just started everybody laughed at him. now he is semi-god. almost like Jesus Christ or Elvis Presley.

That is why I wanted to take this tribute picture. It was taken In the same hotel where Herzl made his iconic picture in 1902 - The Three Kings Hotel in Basel only one floor under-at the balcony of the Hotel’s Cafe. I actually shined also in the exact place - room no 117, but the pictures was not as good as this.

Herzl in Wikipedia

The shining that will never happen - Shining at the World Trade Center

Too bad i wont be able to take a real picture there.
the only political opinion i have on this subject is bla bla bla Al Qaida bla bla bla Iraq bla bla bla Oil bla bla CIA bla bla Bush bla bla bla America. And to quote The Monks at Black Monk time: "stop it! stop it! i dont like it! its too loud for my ears!"
Peace in the middle east

Shining all over Abbey Road

Wise man once said: ask not what Shining can do for you — ask what you can do for Shining.

well, in my 9 visits to London, I was too proud to go and sight-see the holy crosswalk of Abbey Road, but this time I had a a higher cause. I’m happy I’ve waited so long because the experience was as mind blowing as listening to the Innumerable classic albums that were recorded in this very street. And I’m not talking just about the iconic Beatles’ Abbey road album cover that was an Inevitable reference for this shot. so many great albums were made in this studio: The rattles, Golden guitar, all of Syd Barret’s work and much more.

The situation in this corner of Grove End Rd and the famous Abbey Rd. is very funny. in the hour we spent there, hundreds of Beatles fans were interrupting the heavy traffic just to get their own picture on the legendary crosswalk. Luckily most of the drivers were patient enough.

Shining all over London

 Unlucky as a man can be, I arrived with The Apples to London on august 8th. It was the 3rd day of what will be remembered in history as the 2011 England riots. the following day we were suppose to play a gig at a club in Shoreditch. the sad news hit us on the way out of the Old Street tube station - the gig was canceled due to the situation.

As the cliche says - The rich get richer while the poor get poorer. so while all the clubs in east and north London were not allowed to open and Camden market’s merchants had to close in 15:00, the City Of Westminster was still swinging with street artists and other tourists attractions. the sun was shining and i was in a perfect mood for Shining.
Our holy grail for the mission was The Big Ben. We arrived early evening with beautiful dimmed sunlight coloring the tower in orange. We found a nice frame, and had much joy comparing Big Ben to my small penis.

Shining all over the Slutwalk

this post of shining is special for two reasons.
First of all its the first shining post that actively supports a cause. i dont know if any of you are aware to the slutwalk or the reasons behind it.
The Slutwalk is an anti sexist and anti chauvinist demonstration (and a nice place to watch cute girls half naked)
its started as a response to things said by Constable Michael Sanguinetti, a toronto police officer that said that to remain safe, "women should avoid dressing like sluts".
WHAT AN ASSHOLE!!!  
I hope women will not listen to the cop, or to any other man trying to put them down. continue dressing like sluts, and feel (and be) safe about it.

And men, remember, no means no (yes means yes).

the second special thing is the new member of the shining community, please welcome Little Ms. Shining!

sign say: "no means no"

Shining all over Wroclaw

Its been a long time since we posted, thats because we still havent got a sponsor to send us to places around the world.
anyway, we were lucky enough to get the opportunity the go to poland for free.
unfortunately for you guys we didnt have much tíme to shine, so we did it only when we could, but Wroclaw girls are amazing so we sure will come back there to finish the job.
in Wroclaw we only had a chance to go to the New Jewish Synagogue, a temple that was built in 1829 and was destroyed in the kristalnacht.

the front of the synagogue

inside the synagogue theres an exhibition about the story of the jewish community in Wroclaw, i found it to be a bit boring but i did find this great mirror to take a picture with. if i was to build a jewish theme park somewhere, i would steal this mirror idea.

another thing we were lucky to see in Wroclaw is some kind of weird fire department ceremony. they had a big band, they walked like soldiers, they wore uniforms. im sure their mother's were proud.

Israel Part II - The Dead Sea

                         

Well ive been thinking about it, and though a "true" shining will always be taken near some recognizable object that represent the evil History of Humanity, and here its a natural thing, since both shining brothers are here they are actually shining on one another and that is fine.
I take this opportunity to call on you all potential shiners to go on and take your pictures and grow our community.
The Dead sea on Wikipedia 

Holy Shit Part II - Shining over Al Aqsa

Well not exactly over Al Aqsa, but thats the closest we could get. let call it shining in the vicinity of Al Aqsa.
I would like to say here i have only love and respect to all people.
Im a bit dissapointed that we didnt get to the church of nativity, im calling YOU to go there and do it for me
Al Aqsa in wikipedia
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Holy Shit pt 1 - Shining at the The Western Wall

This was by far the scariest place to shine upon, full of cameras, orthodox jews, police and army, but what can i do? god told me to do it :)
some info in wikipedia
come back soon to see more of Jerusalem holly places

Israel Part I Tel Aviv Jaffa

Tel Aviv

So i started my trip in Tel Aviv, the first jewish city after 2000 years of exile. this view can be seen from Jaffa 

Tel Aviv in Wikipedia

Other than being the most laid back city in this country, Tel Aviv also offers massive amount of very cheap anise Alcohol called Arak, and some nice bars where one can consume it. Combining this with the natural tendency of showing our dicks me and my brother made some funny photos, even though they do not exactly fit with the shining concept.

The Dangers of Arak

This is an important picture, its the first shining photo of the two of us together!

 Shining in the Shesek

The Shesek Bar is a super cool and shining friendly place. here i shine with Mixmonster, one of Israel's Top DJ's and a member of The Apples. I call on you good people to go to Israel and shine at the Shesek, who knows you might also get lucky and find yourself doing something nasty in the toilets!