Wednesday, April 27, 2011

The Frog Princess - A Russian Fairy Tale


Many years ago a tsar had three sons. When they came of age he sent for them and said:
"My sons, before I am too old I want you to marry, and I would like to see my grandchildren."
The sons replied:
"In that case, father, give us your blessing. But whom are we to marry?"
"My sons," the tsar said, "take your bows, go out into the open field, and shoot an arrow. Wherever it falls, there you will find your wife."
    The sons bowed to their father, took their bows, went into the fields, drew them and shot their arrows. The eldest son's arrow fell into a nobleman's courtyard, where it was picked up by his daughter. The second son's arrow fell into a merchant's courtyard, and it was picked up by his daughter. But the arrow shot by the youngest son, Prince Ivan, rose so high and flew so far that he didn't know where to look for it. So he started to walk, and at last he came to a marsh. In the marsh he saw a frog with his arrow in its mouth. He said to the frog:
"Frog, give me back my arrow."
But the frog replied:
"Then take me for your wife."
"Oh, come now," the prince said, "how can I have a frog as my wife?"
"But you must, for it is the tsar's will." First the prince tried to avoid it, but eventually he had to accept his fate and carry the frog home. 
More at http://www.artrusse.ca/fairytales/frog-princess.htm

The Frog Princess - ЦАРЕВНА-ЛЯГУШКА (Part 1 of 4)

Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome





From the 1974 film Swallows and Amazons


More on the life and writing of Arthur Ransome at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Ransome

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Eric Rohmer - Clips from Three Films



from Ma nuit chez Maud (My Night At Maud's)

from Le Rayon Vert  (The Green Ray/Summer)


from Conte d'ete (A Tale of Summer)


from the making of A Tale of Summer - Miscellaneous behind-the-scenes clips

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Furniture Design of George Nakashima




"A tree is our most intimate contact with nature."

George Nakashima was born in Spokane, Washington and started out as a student of Forestry and Architecture at the University of Washington in the 1920s. He made architecture his main focus, studying at the École Américaine des Beaux Arts outside of Paris, and graduating from M.I.T. with an MA in Architecture in 1930.

On his own, however, he devoted his time to learning from traditional woodworkers in India and Japan and, while at an internment camp with his family during the Second World War, he was trained on salvaged wood by a master Japanese carpenter. He found an immense well of inspiration in unfinished natural wood, writing that, "in dealing with solid wood almost each piece becomes a personal problem and the nature of each slab is used to its fullest capacity." The furniture and installations that Nakashima designed hearken back to early American furniture in their economy of means and their respect for the unique qualities of each wood. (From the Online Design Dictionary)

More at: http://www.nakashimawoodworker.com/









Scene from The Verdict - Directed by Sidney Lumet and staring Paul Newman, James Mason, and Charlotte Rampling


Sidney Lumet




Friday, April 22, 2011

David de Rothschild and the Voyage of the Plastiki


In March 2010 de Rothschild and a crew of 5 began an expedition to sail across the Pacific on a catamaran partially made from reclaimed post-consumer plastic bottles called the Plastiki. The Plastiki successfully completed its journey to Sydney on the 26th July 2010.


For more on the adventure go to the Plastiki website http://www.theplastiki.com/
More on building the Plastiki on Vimeo

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Interviews with Film Directors - Hitchcock, Renoir, Bresson, Fellini, Almodovar, Bergman, Godard, and Rivette

Alfred Hitchcock

Jean Renoir


Robert Bresson


Federico Fellini


Pedro Almodovar


Ingmar Bergman (Parts 1 & 2)




Jean-Luc Godard


Jacques Rivette (Parts 1 & 2)





Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Quotes by Alan Watts


- The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.

- And the attitude of faith is the very opposite of clinging to belief, of holding on.

- But I'll tell you what hermits realize. If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you'll come to understand that you're connected with everything.

- The reason we want to go on and on is because we live in an impoverished present.

- But we try to pretend, you see, that the external world exists altogether independently of us.

- But at any rate, the point is that God is what nobody admits to being, and everybody really is.

- Reality is only a Rorschach ink-blot, you know.

- You are that vast thing that you see far, far off with great telescopes.

- Never pretend to a love which you do not actually feel, for love is not ours to command.

Monday, April 18, 2011

The Art of Howard Hodgkin

"I want my pictures to be things. I want them to be made up of marks that are physically and individually self-sufficient."


After Corot


None But the Brave


Day Dreams


Joanne Shenandoah with Peter Kater - Circle of Friendship





Saturday, April 16, 2011

The Blues Style of Jimmy Reed

Get Some Insurance

You Got Me Dizzy


Big Boss Man


Laura Nyro - Five Songs


Save the Country

It's Gonna Take a Miracle

Woman of the World

Time and Love


Stoned Soul Picnic

Two Classical Organ Works - Widor and Bach


The Widor Toccata


Bach Fugue in G Major ("Gigue")

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Gene Clark and Sandy Denny - Two Inspirational Singer/Songwriters

Gypsy Rider
Crank Her Over Once Again
Put Your Face Into The Wind
Find Another Road Where You've Never Been.
Sing That two-Wheeled Melody
The Highway Symphony
You Know She'll Never Understand.

Gypsy Rider Sing
Your two-Wheeled Symphony
You Know There's Nothing To Explain.
She Should Have Known By Now
You're Just A Vagabond
You May Never Pass This Way Again.

All The Writings On The Wall
The Paper All Must Fall
You're Only As Good As Your Word Remains
You Can Take It Out If You
Decide To Follow Through
Just Take What You Earn And Leave What Remains.

Gypsy Rider Sing
Your two-Wheeled Symphony
You Know There's Nothing To Explain.
She Should Have Known By Now
You're Just A Vagabond
You May Never Pass This Way Again.




By The Time It Gets Dark
Baby, every cloud has a silver lining

Baby every dog really has his day
And it matters to me to see you smiling
Why don't we blow all your cares away ?

Yesterday is gone and will be forgotten
And today is where every new day starts
Got to be free like the leaves in autumn
You may be sad but it never lasts.

And maybe, by the evening we'll be laughing
Just wait and see
All the changes there'll be
By the time it gets dark.

We could go walking out in the sunshine
Look at all the people out in the street
Hurrying away to a business luncheon
Waiting for a taxi for aching feet.

Light up your face, baby, let's get going
Want to see a change in those weary eyes
We'll have some fun, take a boat out rowing
Why on earth should life be so serious?

And maybe, by the evening we'll be laughing
Just wait and see
All the changes there'll be
By the time it gets dark.

Maybe,
by the evening we'll be
laughing
Just wait and see
All the changes there'll be
By the time it gets dark.

By the time it gets dark.
By the time it gets dark.
By the time it gets dark.



One In a Hundred
Don't you come down
Don't you feel bad

Even though your dreams are of
The things you've never had

Close to the earth
Near to the sun
Reflecting your own life
You can see that you
Can be more than one

Hear the bells ring, morning has come
Over the town the morning star fades in the dawn
Voices of time bringing surprise
Voices that sing in waking moments
To look into life's eye

Aren't you glad it's another day
Look and tell
So you thought you would run away
But you know that way too well

Rhythms of rhyme
Seasons shall say
To look at a longer life now
A longer yesterday
Don't you come down
You know you're the one
Looking at tomorrow
Let your your troubles
Fade and fly into the sun



Who Know Where the Time Goes

Across the purple sky, all the birds are leaving
But how can they know it's time for them to go?
Before the winter fire, I will still be dreaming
I have no thought of time
For who knows where the time goes?
Who knows where the time goes?
Sad, deserted shore, your fickle friends are leaving
Ah, but then you know it's time for them to go
But I will still be here, I have no thought of leaving
I do not count the time
For who knows where the time goes?
Who knows where the time goes?
And I am not alone while my love is near me
I know it will be so until it's time to go
So come the storms of winter and then the birds in spring again
I have no fear of time
For who knows how my love grows?
And who knows where the time goes?


Here Without You

Daytime just makes me feel lonely
At night I can only dream about you
Girl, you're on my mind nearly all of the time
It's so hard being here without you

Words in my head keep repeating things that you said
When I was with you
And I wonder is it true do you feel the same way too
It's so hard being here without you, being here without you

Though I know it won't last I'll see you some day
It seems as though that the day will come never
But there's one thing I'll swear though you're far away
I'll be thinking about you forever

The streets that I walk on depress me
The ones that were happy when I was with you
Still with all the friends I know and with all the things I do
It's so hard being here without you being here without you




Late November
The wine it was drunk
The ship it was sunk
The shot it was dead
All the sorrows were drowned
The birds they were clouds
The brides and the shrouds
And as we drew south
The mist it came down
The wooded ravine
To the wandering stream
The serpent he moved
But no one would say
The depths of the waters
The bridge which distraught us
And brought to me thoughts
Of the ill-fated day
The temples were filled
With the strangest of creatures
One played it by ear
On the banks of the sea
That one was found
But the others they went under
Oh, the tears which are shed
They won't come from me
The pilot he flew
All across the sky and woke me
He flew so low
On the mercury sea
The dream it came back
All about the tall brown people
The sacred young herd
On the phosphorus sand


For A Spanish Guitar

The dissonant bells of the sea 
Who are ringing the rhymes of the deep
As they sing of the ages asleep 
Not so near or so far

And the old masters wind of the waves
Sped forth for the free men and slaves
Whispers of secrets it saves
And about whom they are

And the workings of sunshine and rain 
And the visions they paint that remain 
Pulsate from my soul through my brain 
In a spanish guitar

The beggar whom sits in the street
On his miserable throne of defeat
Envisions no wealth there to meet
Thinking nowhere is far

And the laughter of children employed
By the fantasies not yet destroyed
By the dogmas of those they avoid
Knowing not what they are

And the right and the wrong and insane
And the answers they cannot explain
Pulsate from my soul through my brain
In a spanish guitar

To play on a spanish guitar
With the sun shining down where you are
Skipping and singing a bar
From the music around

Just to laugh through the columns of trees
To soar like a seagull in breeze
To stand in the rain if you please
Or to never be found




Listen, Listen

The young man rose his pretty face,
All for to feel the salty spray.
When storms are mustering they say
I'll come and take you all away.

I am a traveller by trade,
I only have what I have made.
A fortune teller too they say,
And I can take you all away.

Listen, listen to him do,
He is the one who is for you.
Listen, they say,
He'll come and take us all away.

And over there the young man stayed,
Upon on the rocks so rough and grey.
Watching the boy. Watching the day.
Thinking of how he came to be.

A young man he, he is so real,
And never more to go astray.
He is of value now they say,
And he can take himself away.

Listen, listen to him do,
He is the one who is for you.
Listen, they say,
He'll come and take us all away

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Sunday, April 3, 2011

The Perfume Bottles of Rene Lalique

In 1908 Rene Lalique designed the first perfume bottles for Francois Coty. Prior to this time perfume bottles were just plain flasks that held expensive perfumes. But with the invention of synthetic oils that could be used to mass produce perfume, Rene Lalique saw the potential to take a plain everyday object and turn it into an art object.