Franz Kafka (via losed)
(Source: 13neighbors)
In the Clouds
“ And I would hide my face in you and you would hide your face in me, and nobody would ever see us any more. ”
This is going to read like a diary entry of some sort.. I can’t find the read more link so sorry for lengthening your scroll.
I didn’t write about my trip to Matsumoto at the end of March. I was too much of a mixed bag of emotions that I didn’t even dare open, let alone try to sort it all out with words. Trust me to start now, with an overdue essay yet to be finished and a million other more ‘productive’ things to do.. Here’s to getting it off the chest and out into some open.
The photos above are of Matsumoto Performing Arts Centre. This was the destination that I had to make my own way to after arriving at Narita Airport one day later than expected, with no grasp of Japanese except two phrases that a kind Japanese linguist taught me on the plane, and no phone reception after finding that I didn’t have enough cash to rent a sim card. All I had was frantically printed maps of multiple googled routes, temperamental free airport wifi to tell someone why I was a day late, and about 6 hours of confused navigation from Tokyo train station to Matsumoto. I was stressed, out of my depth, freezing, so tired, and darn did I feel alone.
Stepping off the train to the booming, politely musical sound of a woman bellowing ‘Matsumoto’ was a relief. Someone had told me about this very moment at my brother’s class picnic about a week earlier. That faintest hint of familiarity was definitely welcome.
A hotel room selfie and brisk walk later, I arrived at this spectacular building and rushed through staircases and concert halls to a room with Mr Takahashi. Still reeling from the contrast between complete isolation to seeing people I know, I actually didn’t realise it was the famed founder of Suzuki Method flute school that was speaking until he started telling the story of how he fell in love with the flute. Eyes closed, ducts welling, taking in Marcel Moyse playing Hungarian Pastoral Fantasy, I felt that same shiver up my spine, sound waves reverberating internally, that the man with a didgeridoo during yoga at Peats Ridge made me feel.
The masterclass in the studio overlooking the rooftop grass in the second photo was by far the most daunting experience. Stumbling through Polonaise while standing beside the world’s best Suzuki flute teachers was such a waste of an opportunity. I just melted from internal embarrassment and regret that I didn’t review the repertoire with more discipline.
But the view from within that studio was breathtaking. It was a dance studio, fitted with full length mirrors that reflected the bright grass in the minimalist rooftop garden with looming distant mountains that surround the whole city. Being in that space, listening to the very same crackling tape recordings of Pablo Cassals that Dr Suzuki listened to almost religiously, with Takahashi singing phrases with ‘musical rhythm’..
I think I got my money’s worth.
“So my amazing daughter, Emma, turned 5 last month, and I had been searching everywhere for new-creative inspiration for her 5yr pictures. I noticed quite a pattern of so many young girls dressing up as beautiful Disney Princesses, no matter where I looked 95% of the “ideas” were the “How to’s” of how to dress your little girl like a Disney Princess…We chose 5 women (five amazing and strong women), as it was her 5th birthday but there are thousands of unbelievable women (and girls) who have beat the odds and fought (and still fight) for their equal rights all over the world”
- Jaime Moore, Not Just a GirlThis is awesome!
:)))))))
These are beautiful! They look much healthier than my mini me micro planty things that went through a battering when I put them next to an open window on a windy day
(Source: 92x)
getting obsessed with Say The Same Thing and Grand Designs during a massive assessment bloc was a very bad bad bad idea
“ A person of color may have race prejudice, but until most of Congress, state, provincial, and local governments, the Pentagon, the FBI, CIA, all major industries, the Stock Exchange, Fortune 500 members, the educational system, health care system, the International Monetary Fund, the armed forces, and the police force are all operated and controlled by people of color and their cultural values, we do not have the kind of power that it takes to be racist toward anyone. Similarly, ‘reverse racism,’ within the context of present society, is a contradiction in terms. ”
Amoja Three Rivers
I stumbled across this in the comments section of this fantastic article, ‘Why Reverse Racism isn’t Real’
Possibly the coolest animal out, the Muriqui, otherwise known as the woolly spider monkey, is “an unusually peaceful primate: Instead of fighting over females, the male wooly spider monkeys patiently wait to mate, allowing females to choose partners without the violence other female primates risk.” The males also spend heaps of time with each other without getting antsy and aggressive over feeling the need to prove who is alpha. Annnd they are also polygamous. How cool.
It can be spotted in Brazil, nodding along to the Return of the Space Cowboy. Sadly it is also pretty endangered. (via Take Part)
Chinese farmer Yang Chuanye makes a charcoal portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong, in Jishan county, Shanxi province. Yang, 62, started making charcoal paintings when he was 20. Apart from painting portraits of former and current Chinese leaders, Yang also paints portraits of deceased people from his county.
(via Guardian, Photograph: REUTERS)
“ Despite the fact that privileged people have benefited from an unfair advantage in society, they are often preoccupied with being treated “fairly” in the context of reconciliation work. They believe that they have a right to be heard. They also believe they have the right to a clean slate; they don’t want past injustices (either individual or societal) to negatively affect the current reconciliation work. In addition, they believe that they have a right to be treated graciously; in other words, the oppressed person must refrain from sounding angry when expressing him or herself and must communicate in a way that is comforting to the privileged person[ii]. If any of these “rights” are violated, privileged people often bolt from the reconciliation context. ”
By way of paleoillustration:
The Pinhole Eye of the Nautilus, by Marc Gosselin:
“The Nautilus is the only animal on the planet with pinhole eyes.”
The Nautilus has been such a source of inspiration that a new science magazine was named after it. Nautilus “weaves leading-edge science, culture and philosophy into a single story told by the world’s leading thinkers and writers.” [KSJ]
The mighty Nautilus, it’s a beauty that continues to inspire.
