LIVE

2012/02/22 //
0

Two weeks ago, I had the excellent opportunity to hear The Variety Hour in concert at the Hells Kitchen in Tacoma and create some photographs of their set. Concert photography inherently challenges the photographer with its variable lighting, venue regulations, variable stage designs, and crowds. Mostly, though, the challenge has been coordinating the photography with the lighting and hoping the shutter synchronizes with any light changes. Also, the venue’s lighting schemes have given me some ideas about planned light schemes. For example, I really love the cool blue light falling on the bassist, Bryan Michel, the backlit images of the lead guitar and singer, Rob Olsen, and the slightly grainy but intense images of the drummer, Robert Lomax.

Really, though, check out their release Transmissives. It’s a great, solid, enjoyable first album.

 

Tags , , , , , ,
Categories bands, music, photography

image-a-week: ice

2012/01/30 //
0

The big ice and snow storm, that beset the Great Pacific Northwest this month, provided for some very lovely, quiet days. Unfortunately, grey, grey, and more grey blanketed those days leaving everything poorly illuminated while the snow, to a camera, remained blindingly bright. However, the beauty and oddity of the ice storm overcame that as it froze large amounts of water around anything sticking out of the ground. Crystal balls floated atop dead flowers, and ice snakes wound down and around stems and blackish leaves.

Tags , , ,
Categories image-a-week, photo-a-week, photography, plants

where’s the sunshine?

2012/01/27 //
0

Right here. It just popped into my head this morning as I gazed out the window into the beautiful, blue sky. There was the sunshine.

 

Tags , , , , ,
Categories music

proust and presence

2012/01/24 //
0
(Simulpost with bigyogalove.wordpress.com, my yoga blog.)

Being smack in the center of learning to be more present and aware, practice loving kindness, and stretch my comfort levels, I’m bound to connect with this more in other areas such as reading. About four years ago, it was suggested to me to read Remembrance of Things Past1 by Marcel Proust. I had no opinion about the book(s), but found that many people did and much to the negative. Per the “book(s),” it can be inferred that this is a many volumes long book, and, when I read long books, I tend to take a very long time to read them. It seems exponentially longer, and I take breaks, sometimes months long, from the reading. I don’t know why. This leaves me in book 2 of volume 1, Within a Budding Grove.

The narrator’s name, if it was ever presented, does not come to memory, and we hear the story, firsthand, from him. He is very present in his memories and, in his memories, very present in the moment. The first book describes some very lovely effects of light and flowers and food. The second book, it seems, delves a little into the fragile nature of our emotional selves, but it also sees the narrator develop the idea of how his own actions affect others. In this passage he refers directly to “loving-kindness” as he relates the turmoil he experienced in deciding to go to the theatre

…, I wondered whether it was desirable, whether there were not other reasons than my parents’ prohibition which should have made me abandon it. In the first place, whereas I had hated them for their cruelty, their consent made them now so dear to me that the thought of causing them pain through which the purpose of life now appeared to me as the pursuit not of truth but of loving-kindness, and life itself seemed good or evil only in so far as my parents were happy or sad.

Further along in the story, the narrator observes M. Swann during a lapse into past jealousies.

But this memory was not pleasing to him, and rather than plumbing the depths of shame that he felt in it he preferred to indulge in a little grimace, twisting up the corners of his mouth and adding, if need be, a shake of the head which signified “What do I care about it?”

There arises the concept of sitting with the emotion or being with it from an observational, non-judgmental position. Proust, perhaps, suggests that if M. Swann were to explore the shame, there might be a resolution to it, a reason not to dwell on it. That shame, however, becomes a theme in Swann’s life.

RoTP‘s narrator is an interesting paradox of experiences because he explores the ideas of loving-kindness and mindful presence while he himself becomes embroiled in his own emotions, anxieties, and obsessions, which, in turn, remove him from the experience. I just find it interesting that these minor themes come up and that fiction continues to be a great place to expand our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

1Proust, Marcel. Translated by C.K. Scott Montcrief and Terence Kilmartin. Volume I: Swann’s Way, Within a Budding Grove, Remembrance of Things Past. (I’d have more information, but the terrible binding gave cause to remove the book’s first book as I finished it.)

Tags , , ,
Categories awareness, literature, self reflection, Uncategorized

drawing, drawing, and more drawing

2012/01/22 //
0

With all the extra time due to Snow Panic 2012, I’ve been spending hours drawing. Hours. It is really hard to draw for hours. Really. It doesn’t seem like it would take a lot of muscle to hold one’s arm out for half an hour while making a contour line drawing, but I keep thinking that I’m really out of shape. The shoulder muscles burn under the few, measly ounces of pencil at the end of my arm.

I’ve dedicated the drawing time to drawing exercises, specifically contour and gesture line drawings. Each is very useful for beginning to understand that which sits in front of you and aids the artist in confronting the lack in perception. For example, if we imagine a tree something specific comes to mind whether that be shape, color, proportion, or perspective. If we then go outside and observe the tree as if for the first time, it could be a very different experience. Art making requires presence, openness, and deep concentration. The contour line drawing exercise requires the student to look solely upon the subject matter while drawing the line as if the pencil touched the model at the same speed the eye moves over that line. It’s a very intimate experience. Compare that to gesture drawing where the poses last seconds or minutes, and the pen or pencil never leaves the paper. An energetic line evokes the figure’s movement and weight. Each practice requires the student to let go of control and expectations.

Rembrandt made beautiful drawings as studies for larger paintings. Many are founded in the concept of gesture drawing. These lovely, finished drawings by Hans Holbein the Younger depend on contour line drawing. Below are some of my drawings from the week.

 

Tags , , , ,
Categories art, cats, drawing, image-a-week

image occasional:

2012/01/09 //
0

Octopus’s Garden

Someone asked me to create a sketch for a video set – for which I am very honored. Here’s one of the sketches.

Tags , ,
Categories art, image-a-week

punk punk punk

2012/01/09 //
0

I love this and tweeted about it, but I’ve go to share. She engenders that sense of freedom, seriousness, and playfulness we need in our creativity. It’s what my art students give me every time I walk into the classroom. They reminded me that, more than anything, it’s the act of creating and uninhibited effort that matters most. Thanks to all my students, yogic and artistic.

Tags ,
Categories music, Uncategorized

juniper

2012/01/01 //
0

I can smell it. I can see the yellow of its sap. Soft tendrils of bark hanging off of branches and trunk.

Tags
Categories photography

A Christmas Carol

2011/12/25 //
0

(For the Jewish out there, you’ll have to follow this link to Hannukah in Santa Monica.)

by Tom Lehrer

Merry, merry Christmas! (Please don’t forget to laugh.)

Tags , , ,
Categories holiday, music

OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies, 2006

2011/12/23 //
0

Larmina and Hubert at the SCEP

The last few movies have been…oh…ho hum. I’m a closet cinephile, so a long list of so-so plots and characters that may have had potential before they made it to script were killed upon scripting, directing, and editing. The list includes: Seraphim Falls, Bottleshocked, and a few others that left me drooling, feeling strangely empty, and violated. Then, we finally watched The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Exceptionally entertaining. Well done. Exactly what I want from a pop culture thriller, but this isn’t about that.

Do you remember the younger Sean Connery or Roger Moore in their handsome, dashing, ne’erdowell portrayals of the sociopath and mysogynist Agent 007 James Bond? Perhaps the mood you seek is more akin to the work of Peter Sellers as Jacques Clouseau in The Pink Panther fumbling for villains and breasts alike? Hm? Do you miss the jaunty fonts and graphics of 1960′s spy movies and book jackets or the gogo boot, bum shaking rock and roll? Or, maybe you yearn for the tongue in cheek of Woody Allen’s Bananas? Maybe a dash of homoeroticism (don’t worry, the children won’t understand) thrown in? Oh, it’s all there in the comedy OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies.

Jean Dujardin portrays OSS 117 Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath, a not entirely stupid French agent and infrequent seducer of women. He is The Agent: handsome, well coiffed, at ease with the ladies, wins every fight, and a smile so bright with teeth so straight it’s hard to imagine there isn’t a little sparkle there. Berenice Bejo plays the intelligent, enchanting, Muslim idealist Larmina El Akbar Betouche. Together they romp through the Cairo of 1955 dodging chickens while piecing together the disappearance of OSS 283 Jack Jefferson, Hubert’s supposed dead partner and friend.

As Hubert and Larmina travel through Cairo disguised SCEP employees, several attempts are made on Hubert’s life including buxom beauties bearing knives, brawls, assassin flung chickens, torture ala masseuse, and drowning. Hubert’s character is deliciously clumsy in worldly ways. He insults Larmina’s Muslim and Egyptian heritage as well as complaining about morning prayers. Then, there are the two spectacular musical scenes that titillated me; during one, Hubert demonstrates a spectacular and surprising talent for playing the oud.

It wouldn’t work in the least if any of it were off. Not one bit. The musical score supports the scenes rather than drowning them. The introductory and expository text, animation and cuts rely just enough on the basic shapes and takes of mid- to late 50′s spy movies (circles, lines, triangles, high contrast, jaunty font, friendly asides from characters) to begin and end OSS 117. The brilliant lighting is somewhat influenced by film noir and exudes rich, pleasant colors. Costumes range from well cut men’s suits, fitted and sleek to match the not too short haircuts and shiny shoes, to women’s shorter skirts and darted, fitted tops that complement the rounder hairstyles of the period. And, the humor speaks for itself. Hubert has no knowledge of Arabic or Islam, thinking one is difficult to read and understand while the other is merely a trend soon to die, and this, of course, wins no affection from Larmina. OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies is a delightfully entertaining spoof on spy films, a parody of modern prejudices, and the end of a dry run of movies for me.

I am looking forward to the next one, OSS 117: Lost in Rio.

Tags , ,
Categories movies
« Older Entries