Day of Skulls

This combination of photos shows skulls that believers take to the church to be blessed during the Day of Skulls at the General Cemetery in La Paz November 8, 2009. Bolivians who keep close relatives' skulls at home as a macabre talisman flock to the cemetery chapel once a year to have the craniums blessed and to bring themselves good luck in the future.

(yoinked from Reuters.com)

Chen Kuan-yu

Taiwanese pianist Chen Kuan-yu performs during a concert in the middle of a rice paddy in Chishang Township, Taitung County November 7, 2009.

(yoinked from Reuters.com)

AICHA

One of my favorite songs from Algerian singer Sheb Khaled, here he is performing in Casablanca in 2007. The song is a beautiful love song with a forward-thinking message. Here is the lyrics and its English translation.

As if I don't exist
She was passing by me
With no regard, the Queen of Sheeba
I said, Aisha, take this, all of it is for you

Here, the pearls, the jewels,
also the gold around your neck
The fruits, well ripe with the taste of honey
And my life, Aisha if you love me!

I will go where your breath leads me,
In the countries of ivory and ebony
I will erase your tears, your sorrows
Nothing is too beautifull for a girl so beautiful

Aisha, Aisha listen to me
Aisha, Aisha don't go
Aisha, Aisha look at me
Aisha, Aisha answer me

I would say the words, the poems
I would play the music of the sky
I would take the rays of the sun
to light up your dreamy eyes

Ooh! Aisha, Aisha listen to me
Aisha, Aisha don't go

She said: "Keep your treasures,
Me, I'm worth more than that.
Bars are still bars even if made of gold.
I want the same rights as you
and respect for each day,
Me I want only love."

(In Arabic)
I want you Aisha and I love you to death
You are master of my life and my love
You are my years and my life
I hope to live with you, only you

خالد - عائشة

Comme si je n'existais pas,
elle est passée à côté de moi
Sans un regard, reine de Saba,
j'ai dit, Aïcha, prends, tout est pour toi

Voici, les perles, les bijoux,
aussi l'or autour de ton cou
Les fruits, biens mûrs au goût de miel,
ma vie, Aicha si tu m'aimes!

J'irai où ton souffle nous mène,
dans les pays d'ivoire et d’ébène
J'effacerais tes larmes, tes peines,
rien n'est trop beau pour une si belle

Aïcha, Aïcha écoute-moi,
Aïcha, Aïcha t'en vas pas,
Aïcha, Aïcha regarde moi,
Aïcha, Aïcha reponds-moi

Je dirais les mots les poèmes,
je jouerais les musiques du ciel,
je prendrais les rayons du soleil,
pour élairer tes yeux de rêves

Oooh! Aïcha, Aïcha écoute-moi,
Aïcha, Aïcha t'en vas pas

Elle a dit: "Garde tes trésors,
moi, je vaux mieux que tout ça.
Des barreaux sont des barreaux même en or
Je veux les mêmes droits que toi
Et du respect pour chaque jour,
moi je ne veux que l'amour"

نبغيك عايشة ونموت عليك
هادي سيدة حياتي وحبي
انت عمري وانت حياتي
تمنيت نعيش معك غير انت

LA MEMORIA DELLA FORESTA

I found this book in a bookshop at the Roma Termini train station today. It contains my two biggest interests; trees and history, so I decided to get it. I've been frustrated at my lack of progress with the Italian language in almost 4 months of living in Firenze. I am hoping that this will be the first book I read entirely in Italian. It took me over an hour but I've read the first four pages and I can understand a fair amount before needing to pull out the dictionary, so I consider it a successful project so far. A favorite line I've come across;

Un giorno mio padre mi disse che la nostra storia è come una forza alle nostre spalle, che ci incalza senza farsi riconoscere, ma che detta il modo in cui viviamo la nostra vita.

which roughly translates to...

One day my father told me that our history is like a force behind us, that is pressing without being recognized, which dictates the way we live our lives.



(thank you Google Translator)

BEYOND WHAT

Beyond What
Alice Walker

We reach for destinies beyond
what we have come to know
and in the romantic hush
of promises
perceive each
the other's life
as known mystery.
Shared. But inviolate.
No melting. No squeezing
into One.
We swing our eyes around
as well as side to side
to see the world.

To choose, renounce,
this, or that --
call it a council between equals
call it love.

THE LITTLE RASCALS

I feel like all my interactions with boys have gone like this;

Courtesy of Kenneth J Melville at Obama's speech at University Of Maryland

LINGUISTICALLY SPEAKING

In Chinese-Cantonese language there's a word that sounds something like din. It means electric and is used to describe many things which make for amusing translations.

phone is din wa or electric voice
and
computer is din lo or electric brain

but what i really love, is that if you slightly mispronounce the word for computer and say deen lo it means crazy guy.
electric brain = crazy.

THIS PLACE IN THE WAYS

Having come to this place
I set out once again
on the dark and marvelous way
from where I began:
belief in the love of the world
woman, spirit, and man.

Having failed in all things
I enter a new age
seeing the old ways as toys,
the houses of a stage
painted and long forgot;
and I find love and rage.

Rage for the world as it is
but for what it may be
more love now than last year
and always less self-pity
since I know in a clearer light
the strength of the mystery.

And at this place in the ways
I wait for song.
My poem-hand still, on the paper,
all night long.
Poems in throat and hand, asleep,
and my storm beating strong!

-Muriel Rukeyser

LAURA ZINDEL CERAMICS

Beautiful ceramics inspired by victorian cabinets of curiosities by RISD alum Laura Zindel. I especially love the insect themed pieces. See www.zindelceramics.com

PARIS JE T'AIME from directors Walter Salles & Daniela Thomas

UNDERWATER SCULPTURE

Underwater sculpture park in Grenada created by artist Jason de Caires Taylor. His sculptures create a surreal underwater landscape, visible to scuba divers and snorkelers. The sculptures double as artificial reefs, aiding the marine life. I want to go to there.

ALL WE OWN, AT LEAST FOR THE SHORT TIME WE HAVE IT, IS OUR LIFE. WITH IT WE WRITE WHAT WE COME TO KNOW OF THE WORLD. (Alice Walker)

CABINET OF CURIOSITIES

in january i will be moving back into my apartment after 7 months overseas. inspired by cabinets of curiosities, the sir john soane museum, my love of trees, and the egyptian museum... and also owing to my habit of collecting things i pick up (sea glass, interesting rocks, leaves...) i have decided to make my room look like an old natural history museum of sorts. a museum of me, i suppose. here's a few images that are currently getting me excited. i'll have to post photos when the project is complete.


hopefully i'll be able to find an old glass display case like this one. i will keep my eyes peeled.



from albertus seba's cabinet of natural curiosities

sir john soane museum in london. my favorite place.

i want to collect leaf samples from different trees and create framed leaf pressings with bark rubbings and descriptions.

ETSY ETSY

I desperately want a maple seed necklace. This one is by seller PatrickIrlaJewelry.


I love these shirts from seller Timberps on etsy, wish I could buy them all.


beautiful accessories made from skeleton keys by seller UrbanHeirlooms on etsy. I especially love the brown leather wallet.

VINTAGE TRAVEL POSTERS

my favorite ^

MY EVERYTHING

MINDLESS MENACE OF VIOLENCE

CAIXA FORUM

Caixa Forum in Madrid by architects Herzog & de Meuron. Adaptive reuse of an 1899 power station transformed into a museum and community art space.

The power station was gutted and the ground floor removed. The new structure cantilevers over the entrance. A gas station was demolished to create a piazza and a green wall was added to an existing neighbor building.




Images of the power station before reconstruction.

ornamentation by Louis Sullivan for the Carson Pirie Scott store, and soon to be my half sleeve!

RIVERS AND TIDES

Trees, 1

This makes me unbelievably happy.

artist Chiharu Shiota, from Walking in my Mind exhibit at the Hayward Gallery in London

Angel Oak, a live oak on John's Island, South Carolina
artist Li Wei

"THE PALMS MURMURED NOISILY OF SEASONS AND CENTURIES, MATING AND BIRTH, AND THE TRANSPLANTING OF LIFE. NATURE KNOWS NOTHING OF DEATH."

(Zora Neale Hurston)

FOR ALL

10-year old boy from Arkansas protests inequality for the GLBT community by refusing to stand for the pledge of allegiance until there truly is "liberty and justice for all"

ANYTHING WE LOVE CAN BE SAVED

By pure chance I saw this book on a shelf in the library. The title appealed to me. The single most influential book I have ever read.

"All we own, at least for the short time we have it, is our life. With it we write what we come to know of the world."