Ser Sociavel

Cada um será tanto mais sociável quanto mais pobre for de espírito, e, em geral, mais vulgar (o que torna o homem sociável é justamente a sua pobreza interior). Pois, no mundo, não se tem muito além da escolha entre a solidão e a vulgaridade.
Fonte: "Aforismos sobre a Sabedoria da Vida"
Autor: Schopenhauer , Arthur

The Story of Stuff

I love this video. It shows such a complex and cruel reality in such a simple way.
In fact, it's so simple to understand, that I'm amazed in how hard it is to really take action based in this
knowledge.

How tempting it is to buy something for 2€ or $2 or whatever currency you have, when we know deep inside that
the value is completely unfair and someone, somewhere had to pay it for us, in the hard way.

We really need to know, were are the things coming from, how are they done, and were do they go after we use them.

And what makes me nuts is, we all know this! Common... we do, we know we do. But why is it so difficult to make the
right choice? I'm speaking for my self here. This questions are rolling on my mind for years, and I've reduced A LOT on
my bad choices. But even so, now and then, I do the wrong choice.

Maybe that's just being human. Maybe that's just me excusing myself.

All I Need ( Radiohead )

Today I was remembered by a friend and ex teacher, Suzana, about this song and video.
I saw it once on the TV and it stayed dormant in the back of my head, and today booom,
all the lights ignited once more.

It's incredible how such a mundane gesture, that is, to buy something from someone, can have
such a huge impact ( negative or positive ) in so many lives.

In our en raised culture, were we must have so much more, and the always new and shinny, we forget that
a huge impact is being made behind the scenes.

Even food for crying out loud! Food is a subject that hurts me bad, because, it's something so basic in our existence
and we just can't seem to make right decisions on it.

Just some pointers

"More than a third of all raw materials and fossil fuels consumed in the U.S. are used in animal production. Beef production alone uses more water than is consumed in growing the nation’s entire fruit and vegetable crop."

"As Eric Schlosser noted in his best-selling book Fast Food Nation, “Americans now spend more money on fast food—$110 billion a year—than they do on higher education."

"In his book The Food Revolution, author John Robbins estimates that “you’d save more water by not eating a pound of California beef than you would by not showering for an entire year.”

"Harvard nutritionist Jean Mayer estimates that reducing meat production by just 10 percent in the U.S. would free enough grain to feed 60 million people."

The full article:
http://www.emagazine.com/view/?142

I'm at the moment trying to put a volunteer network together ( http://migos.org ) and I hope to get a group of people dedicated to social awareness programs in that area.

I've mentioned that we can also take positive impact buying things, and that's true. If we buy less, but buy products that are made taking in consideration the people instead of the profit. That can be food, cloth, or even computers. Research how stuff is done and you will make the right decision. And this just gave me an idea for my next post... The story of stuff.

Amanhã será um novo dia…

Amanhã será um novo dia…
O vento soprará na face dos mais incrédulos…
O sol brilhará sobre a mente de quem já perdeu a esperança…
O hoje será apenas uma simples lembrança remota…"

Ana Gisela, 2008

------------
Familia, para sempre :)

Morre Lentamente, Pablo Neruda

Morre lentamente de Pablo Neruda

Morre lentamente quem não viaja
Quem não lê,
Quem não ouve música,
Quem não encontra graça em si mesmo.

Morre lentamente,
Quem destrói seu amor próprio,
Quem não se deixa ajudar.

Morre lentamente,
Quem se transforma em escravo do hábito,
Repetindo todos os dias os mesmos trajectos,
Quem não muda de marca,
Não se arrisca a vestir uma nova cor,
Ou não conversa com quem não conhece.

Morre lentamente,
Quem evita uma paixão e seu redemoinho de emoções,
Justamente as que resgatam o brilho dos olhos,
E os corações aos tropeços.

Morre lentamente,
Quem não vira a mesa quando está infeliz,
Com o seu trabalho, ou amor,
Quem não arrisca o certo pelo incerto,
Para ir atrás de um sonho,
Quem não se permite,
Pelo menos uma vez na vida,
Fugir dos conselhos sensatos…


---------------
Um beijinho grande para ti Sónia, que sempre
me soubeste mostrar dar uma palavra amiga quando precisei.

IF - Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

--Rudyard Kipling

Six Feet Under

Much as been written about this television series.
In short words, I will say that i agree with the ones that say, it is a master piece.

But, once again, the purpose of this forum, isn’t to make pure reviews on the subject, but express what it made me feel. Why is it inspiring to me.

We live emerged in a chaotic cloud of noise. The world has become a place full of antagonic messages, that can cause severe blindness of what we are and what we want to be. It can make us feel confusing and frustrated with our most precious gift, our own life.

In six feet under we are confronted with situations, and characters that expose some of our darkest fears. Who am I ? What should I say or do ? What is wright and wrong? 
The oh so many crossroads of our lives.

Has time passes, decisions get harder and harder to take. Because you know that the time for going back and try another path, if at all possible, is shorter and shorter.

Seeing this beautifully written stories, gave me strength and understanding that it is OK to fell bad, fell sorry, do mistakes, ask forgiveness, and above all, get back on our feet and keep going no matter what.

Life is short, we ear so much.

But we only really understand the true meaning of that, when we know that each breath of ours can be the last.

Everybody's Free to Wear Sunscreen!

I just love this music and video clip. I'm sure it's not new for most of the people, but it's always good to remember.

I wish that it was easy to change our life's in that way...

The lyrics is written by Mary Schmich and was published in the Chicago Tribune as a column in 1997, the music was a single by Baz Luhrmann.

Michael Muller

Michael Muller has an extensive body of work, ranging in a lot of themes and styles.
From portrait, to fashion, to movie posters. From monochromatic to a full hypnotic color range. He also has the boldness of drawing a $63K car to make a shot, and to dive with white sharks.



Bottom line, he does it because he loves it, and that show’s in is work.


I love to wander on his site and dwell over the images, so many that it feels I’m always finding something new.

There is a great small video on youtube were we can see is wonderful personality:

QBN Sessions Presents Michael Muller

To learn more about him, there is also a great podcast that interviews him, check it out.
http://www.studiolighting.net/lightsource-photography-podcast-e032-michael-muller/

Gregory Colbert - Ashes and Snow

Animal Copyright Launch Speech

Gregory Colbert dedicated ten years filming and photographing in a very poetic way the relation of humans and animals across places like India, Burma, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Dominica, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tonga, Namibia, and Antarctica.
This work culminated on a film and a group of pictures with the name of Ashes and Snow, that is gathered on a nomadic museum that travels the world,
He is also engaged in a project , the animal copyright , that tries to make corporations pay a fee for using animals on their commercials, like any actor would charge.

I have bought one of the hand made books of this work, and I've seen the movie, and i can say that it is a soul engaging experience. I recommend to everyone that at least one time in life to have this experience.

David Carson - L'Enfant Terrible

Hillman Curtis Interview

The End of Print

I met David Carson work last year, on the occasion of doing an essay on it for a class at the university.
It was mind blowing. Not just the work by it self, but the concept, the ideas behind it.
Is work is very raw, full of expression and experimentalism.
It started by accident, when he was art director of the Beach Culture Magazine, he had no academic knowledge on design, so he just started experimenting. The result was something that broke almost every rule set by design academists. The magazine only lasted for tree years but it made is first impact on the world. It was a new form os designing layouts, if building and applying typography. The next big hit, was a the Ray Gun magazine. It was hard to read, it needed exploration by the reader just to find the sequence of an article, since sometimes the page numbers were all out of order.
The idea, is that the presentation by it self is a message, and not just the words or the meaning of the words that are present.
Completely the opposite of the idea that the layout must be invisible to let the message on the text's flow.
After I’ve bought one of is books, the “David Carson trek” my mind suddenly felt a lot more free and relaxed, it was that feeling that sometimes there isn’t right’s and wrongs, and we can break barriers and explore without fear of looking “bad” or “stupid”.

David Carson Website: http://www.davidcarsondesign.com/

Romeo ✝ Juliet

This is one of my old time friends, if a movie can be called a friend. I think so, because friends are the ones that give good advices, advices that makes you smile, hurt, and even cry.
Eleven years have past, and it still touches me every time I see it.

This is one of the most told story, for years and years it as echoed in books, theaters, cinemas and TV’s, and I hope, in lovers lips.

Shakespeare really was a fantastic writer, not just by this tale I know, there are others as good or even better, but this one has a lot of charisma.
This movie captures that well. The story told in a world so close to ours, so familiar in is actions, in it's love and in it’s hate.
The scenes are presented with a beautiful photography, expression, colors and camera angles, and the music... the music wraps it all up in a sweet&bitter taste on the tip of the tongue that's impossible to forget at any time soon after seeing the movie.

This story is also intense in symbols, in hidden messages that foretell the dramatic ending, that makes a joy to see, and review many times the movie to capture them all. 
To not only ear, but to feel the words, to dive in there true meaning and make use of them in our own life. To me, it's like a little bright and colorful paint that I use to color my sometimes gray world.

I think it's never to late, or to old, to live a few moments of fairy tale.


Movie Trailer


Movie Musics and Slideshow

Jan Saudek

Jan Saudek is a Czech Art Photographer, with decades of work.
Is life surpassed nightmares with the nazi and the russian invasion, he saw death and hunger like we may never (hopefully) imagine.

Is biography is by it self very inspiring to me, and even so I may never ( I hope ) see the horrors that he saw, there are some fears that we have in common.
The photographs, that start in the 50’s, are amazing. They reflect raw feelings, in a strange and surrealist world. It's not a easy work to see, but for me, one that makes me feel and makes me think, and that's the most important aspect of any art work.

He also conveys a very personal and expressive touch to is images, by painting and doing some photomontage, that are pretty amazing to see, if we think all the intense labour that must have been, and the dedication needed to do it year after year.

Is site is: http://www.saudek.com/en/jan/uvod.html

Is book:

Perfume - Book and Movie

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, is a literary master piece written in 1985 by Patrick Süskind, and latter (2006) became a movie, a very very good one.
I've always loved the story, since I've read it in my 18's ( that was 9 years ago ( gezz) ), I think the story has a very global feeling, not meaning, but feeling. And I say this, because, I think the meaning depends of the one that gets to know the story, but everyone that as some kind of sensibility will feel something strong.
I recommend everyone to read and then see the movie, and if possible the making off cause it's wonderful. The soundtrack is also amazing!

But since this is a personal blog, I will try to put in words what I feel about this story, but it won't be easy.
For me, the strongest issue, is the brutal quest of trying to grab and posses something that it's ungrabable and unpossessful, something ephemerous and at the edge of reality. And that is something that everyone does in life. For Grenouille it's the Perfume/scent, but I see it not just trying to capture a smell, but to capture the true nature of a person, that little something that makes a person unique, that is my quest.
I sometimes try to do that in photography, when I'm not in a commercial mind wave, because photography is the language I like to use the most, and that I know to use better than the others.I think I never got it, or if I did I can't steel see it.
But I feel the need, and the pain to do so. It's like when I'm with some I love, and in a particular moment, it seems that everything stops, and I really look to that person, deep in the eyes, in the skin, the tinny gestures, the smell, the sound, and fully realize that that experience is so delicate, so fragile, because, one day, I will remember that second, and that person will not be there, forever.

Another thing this story makes me wonder, is probably one of the oldest questions of mankind, what is our role in life, our meaning. Why do we, in a very personal and singular way, exist?
That's another thing that makes Grenouille suffer, he as no smell, no identity in the world he knows the best, and that also makes him invisible for everyone else, including animals has we can see in the story. And even when he gets the power to dominate everything, for him it doesn't matter, because it's not him, but something external to him, a scent that it's not his, but something he produced.
That seems to be one of the basics of our well being, to know that we have a place in the world, in someone's world at least.


  

Andreas Bitesnich

This is a one all time favorite for me. Andreas Bitesnich is a fantastic nude photographer, that is able to compose amazing human sculptures very well lit.
The bodies them self's are amazing, but the overall feeling of the images is for me very powerful.
Many of is pictures are used in commercial campaigns exactly because of that.
Another thing I like about him, is that he only started photography at the age of 25, and that didn't stop him to reach so far.


Check is site on: http://www.bitesnich.com/

   
 

Dave Hill

Dave Hill is a kick ass commercial photographer, with a wonderful style in is images. The pictures usually have a wonderful production, and a really nice focused light setup, and then they get a post production that makes them look like illustrations.
The result is really cool, and very inspiring.

I'm training that post process look my self to see if i can come up with some nice images.

Check is site: http://davehillphoto.com/

Dies Irae - Giuseppe Verdi

Dies Irae is a part of the "Messa da Requien", a Funeral Mass, and today, I feel like this music!
In Wrath!



Dies irae
dies illa
Solvet saeclum in favilla:
Teste David cum Sybilla.
Quantus tremor est futurus
Quando judex est venturus
Cuncta stricte discussurus!
Dies irae
dies illa
Solvet saeclum in favilla:
Teste David cum Sybilla
Quantus tremor est futurus
Quatdo judex est venturus
Cuncta stricte discussurus!
Quantus tremor est futurus
Dies irae, dies illa
Quantus tremor est futurus
Dies irae, dies illa
Quantus tremor est futurus
Quantus tremor est futurus
Quando judex est venturus
Cuncta stricte discussurus
Cuncta stricte
Cuncta stricte
Stricte discussurus
Cuncta stricte
Cuncta stricte
Stricte discussurus!


English:

Day of wrath and doom impending,
Heaven and earth in ashes ending
David's word with Sibyl's blending
Day of wrath and doom impending
Oh, what fear man's bosom rendeth
When from heaven the judge descendeth
On whose sentence all dependeth.

(http://www.nomorelyrics.net/song/175758.html)

Yanni - One Man's Dream

Yanni is a greek pianist and composer, with a very sucessful career world wide. I will not talk extensibly about this, but if you feel curious about it, you can read about in his site http://www.yanni.com/biography.asp.

I will say however that one of the things that I like in him ( besides the wonderful music he does ), is that he was self thought pianist. And with this and don’t what to be negative to the fact of others have classes and tutors, but that being self thought in something, and reach such perfection is something that I admire very much, because I understand how hard that battle can be, a battle of self determination, self esteem, and willpower.

Another artist I also admire for that and for the amazing work is Andreas Bitesnich. But that, I will talk on another post.

Jacques-Louis David

Marat Assassinated (1794)

I'm not a huge fan of Neoclassic painting,( in that particular moment in art history I prefer the romanticism, that was a parallel art movement ) but I do like some of the paintings.
This one, makes my eyes travel silently trough the image, grasping the details, the mood, the light, the meaning.
Marat and David, were close friends, and both were active performers in the French Revolution. Marat was seen like a cruel man. He was one of the leaders of the Jacobins, a faction of the French Revolution, that had part on the blood bath that was the period called “Reign of Terror ( la Terreur ) “, a period of 10 months of mutual radicalization between opposing factions, with mass executions by the guillotine.

This was in the end of XVIII century, and was a sign of what totalitarianism and tyrannism could do, and how the power of words ( the power that Marat used so well ) can be so effective on both good and bad things.

Yet in the end, David portrayed is last moment, with a good attention to detail following the police report, in a heroic and beautiful moment, a man that gave everything for is beliefs.

Klimt, Gustav

The Kiss ( 1907/8 )

Gustav Klimt was a lover of the women figure, and made some beautiful portraits of women, some heavily charged with erotic meaning.
But this one, "The Kiss - 1907/8" is the one that makes me tremble. Me and thousands of others. But I think that we always put a bit of us in the things we see, so I feel I have a personal attachment to this picture.
I have a huge poster of it on my bedroom, because of the way it makes me feel.