Vitro Nasu

Wang Ningde

Oct 10 1945 – The Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomintang signed a principle agreement in Chongqing about the future of post-war China

National Day in China (see more Wang Ningde here, don’t click on dead links.)

Message from Chinese activists and academics in support of Occupy Wall Street

This letter of solidarity, signed over by 50 intellectuals and activists in China, was posted to Utopia yesterday. Thanks to everyone for the translation and editing work!

Zizek Speaks to Occupy Wall Street

He steered the discussion away from the Cold War debate between communism and capitalism, noting that former communists, particularly in China, “are today the most efficient, brutal capitalists.”
The communist revolution “failed absolutely,” he said, suggesting that “the only way we are communist is that we care about the commons,” citing the environment as an example.

Apart from that Oct 10 birthday links

Harold Pinter

Julius Schulman

Theloneous Monk

Oscar Brown Jr.

Claude Simon

<> <> <>
Merrill Lynch Wall Street Waltz (Digital photo collage by Fung Lin Hall)

Occupy wall street org.

Noam Chomsky on Occupy Wall street

Occupy Together (check the listings for your local headquarters).

I support these protests (Rootaction.com)

Take a Whiz on Wall Street: Danish Artists Move JPMorgan’s Executive Bathroom to a Lower East Side Diner

<> <> <>
The Market is open (Digital photo collage by Fung Lin Hall)

<> <> <> Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Previous Post)

Occupy Wall St

Wall street Anti- Captitalist Protest Picture Gallery slideshow (Guardian)

LiveStream Global Revolution

Wall Street Occupation continues (see a clip of Lawyers back protesters + more)

A line from Salvador Allende

Balancing between abstract
expressionism & futurism
the calm metal instrument
of my voice tweaks the once-

sacred double-helix to create
pyramids in bold colors &
textures. Exquisite tropes. The
great avenues will open again.

Mark Young Sept 19 2011 (gamma way from Australia)

“One does not meet oneself until one catches the reflection from an eye other than human.”

“If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.”

“There is no logical reason for the existence of a snowflake any more than there is for evolution. It is an apparition from that mysterious shadow world beyond nature, that final world which contains—if anything contains—the explanation of men and catfish and green leaves.”

Loren Eiseley September 3, 1907
(anthropologist, philosopher, and natural science writer)

Immense Journey (a book review)
Starfish Story

The Starfish and the Spider The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations is a 2006 book by Ori Brafman (Is this a good book? )

(Bored surf-board) – Fung Lin Hall)

R.I P Samuel Menashe
“We think not in words but in shadows of words,”

There is never an end to loss, or hope
I give up the ghost for which I grope
Over and over again saying Amen
To all that does or does not happen—
The eternal event is now, not when -
Samuel Menashe

Happy birthday Michael Cacoyannis.. found this film, Women in Black, I have not seen.
Life is Trouble, Death is Not from Zorba the Greek (this many of us have seen).

Previous post (Michael Cacoyannis with Jacques Cousteau)

Richard Strauss birthday too. (June 11) – ( A Space Odyssey 2001)

Burleske is not a Burka.

THE WOMAN WHO LIVED . – AND DIED – BY THE GUN.

Malalai is one of the only police women in Kandahar. Unlike other women in the region, Malalai works alongside men, apprehending criminals and restoring justice in one of the most dangerous cities in the nation. When working outside her home and office she is always armed beneath her burka.

Jurgen Trautwein Trashmyart

Time by Paul Moakley

Today, the devastating news arrived that Tim Hetherington had been killed in Misratah, Libya. He was many things: a journalist, a photographer, a filmmaker, an artist and friend. He recently won popular acclaim after the documentary Restrepo, which he directed, was nominated for an Oscar.

New Yorker with photo -slideshow

“The media landscape is in flux, and so am I,” said Hetherington. “Who knows what the future holds.”

The Documentary Blog Recommends: Diary by Tim Hetherington
Diary

His homepage

Mohammed Kgarbo
Milton Margai School for the Blind. Sierra Leone. (Photograph by Tim Hetherington)

Restrepo trailer

R.I.P Chris Hondros

Earlier today, April 20, photojournalist Chris Hondros was killed on assignment in Misrata, Libya. He was 41 and recently engaged to be married.
His long list of awards — from being nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for breaking-news photography (2004), to winning the Robert Capa Gold Medal (2005) for “best published photographic reporting from abroad requiring exceptional courage and enterprise” — attest to Chris’s skill and legacy as a photographer

Asia Sympathy

In Japan No Time Yet for Grief

Fukushima TEPCO (Pasaudela)

Takashi Miike is not attending.. Japan Society..

. But, from this adversity – on our lives – we will all rise up without fail. As a start, I would be grateful if you could enjoy Japan from this film.
Sincerely,
Miike Takashi”

To be or not to be

Tokyo Times Blog here (See a wonderful photo)

And, for a city that can certainly be very frosty, it’s noticeably more friendly. Nods, smiles and the odd konichi-wa are suddenly commonplace, with a definite feeling of, ‘we are all in this together’, now prominent.

and here

Being There and Earthquake Graphics
(After quake reports from Andrew Pothecary who lives in Tokyo)

Fast Facts about Japan (Scientific America)

Auguste Mariette (seated, far left) and Emperor Pedro II of Brazil (seated, far right) with others during the monarch’s visit to the Giza Necropolis at the end of 1871. ( via)

Auguste Marietta February 11, 1821 – was a French scholar, archaeologist and Egyptologist.

* gaining government funds to set up the museum in Cairo (aka the Bula Museum or Bulak Museum) in 1863 in order to take the pressure off the sites and stop the trade in illicit antiquities[2].
* the pyramid-fields of Memphis and (exploiting his previous success to find a cache of c.2000BC painted wooden statues such as the Seated Scribe, and the decorated tomb of Khafra) the tombs of Saqqara
* the necropolis of Meidum, and those of Abydos and Thebes
* the great temples of Dendera and Edfu were disinterred
* important excavations were carried out at Karnak (marking the first full Egyptian use of the stratigraphic methods first developed by Karl Richard Lepsius and of photographing every object prior to its excavation), Medinet-Habu and Deir el-Bahri
* Tanis (the Egyptian capital in the Late Period) was partially explored in the Delta
* even Gebel Barkal in Sudan was explored
* He cleared the sands around the Sphinx down to the bare rock, and in the process discovered the famous granite and alabaster monument, the “Temple of the Sphinx”.

<>
Edfu was not a terribly important place of ancient Egypt, but according to the Egyptian myths it was the place where the falcon-headed god Horus avenged the murder of his father Osiris by killing Seth.

Aida performed at giza

Aida is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette (although there are scholars who argue that the scenario was really written by Temistocle Solera).

It was first performed at the Khedivial Opera House in Cairo on December 24, 1871 under the baton of Giovanni Bottesini.

Aida National Opera of Cairo

Happy birthday Peter Gabriel (Feb 13 updated)

Update: Arab wordl – Protests on wiki
18 pieces missing from Egyptian museum
Egypt’s Future from Matt (Pasaudela)
Mr Fish goes to Egypt

The Rabbit knows how to relax.

Mona Lisa
How to Draw a Bunny – Ray Johnson

Pool Bunny Fung Lin Hall

Rabbit Moon by Kenneth Anger who was also a Rabbit (February 3, 1927)

The Rabbit Author – John Updike here.

Rabbit from Korea – Choi Book(1712~1786?)
(Thanks to Heejae Lee)

The Rabbit is the symbol of longevity.
Their fundamental nature and strength is drawn from the moon. The Chinese believe a person born in this year is very fortunate! Soft spoken rabbits find happiness and contentment. Rabbits are gracious with excellent manners. There is no great inner struggle in their heart. They believe in their own judgment and ability to survive.
Rabbits need trust and tenderness in a relationship. Like the rabbit they hop over obstacles, and always land on their feet! year.
The rabbit’s soft, vulnerable looking exterior is protected by an armor of cautiousness. Hares are very lucky in business and combined with their excellent bargaining wisdom will go far. They find it hard to work under pressure. Hares are the peace makers and good scholars. They may look easy going, but they are actually quite cunning! Being a strong willed person, they go quietly, yet determinedly towards their goals. Rabbits are considerate, understanding, warm, friendly, and easy to be with. They know how to relax!

Most famous Hollywood couple Jolie-Pitt is missing from this list and Henry Miller is missing too..see famous Rabbit people and a collection of rabbit stamp from all over the world. Year of the Rabbit (Hopper home)

Johnny Depp, Germaine Greer, Neil Sedaka, Francis Ford Coppola, Michael Jordan and Drew Barrymore. Harry Belafonte, Ingrid Bergman, Lewis Carroll, John Cleese, Peter Falk, Peter Fonda, James Fox, David Frost,Cary Grant, , Bob Hope, Whitney Houston, John Hurt, Michael Keaton, John Keats, Julian Lennon, Arthur Miller, Roger Moore, Tatum O’Neal, George Orwell, Neil Simon, Jane Seymour, Dusty Springfield, Sting, Orson Welles

In Vietnam it’s a Purr-fect Cat

Happy birthday Charlie Rose!

Past memorable interviews on Charlie Rose:
Harold Pinter <> <> David Foster Wallace I <> <> David Foster Wallace II March 27

Stephen Colbert <> <> Richard Serra, Chuck Close, Oliver Sacks (Brain series)

Sean Penn on Marlon Brando

Elizabeth Warren <> <> Muhammad Yunus (His Nobel Peace Prize)

Tim Wu (Monopolies & Information Technology)

Arundhati Roy -interviewed by Guernica

I was invited to be on The Charlie Rose Show. He said, “Tell me, Arundhati Roy, do you believe that India should have nuclear weapons?” So I said, “I don’t think India should have nuclear weapons. I don’t think Israel should have nuclear weapons. I don’t think the United States should have nuclear weapons.” “No, I asked you do you believe that India should have nuclear weapons.” I answered exactly the same thing. About four times… They never aired it!

Stephen Colbert! Shakers and Movers (Previous posts)

Denis Dutton of Aldaily passed away.
(9 February 1944 – 28 December 2010)

LA tmes obit

Denis Dutton, the author, academic and philosopher who saw the Web as a place where intelligent ideas could flourish, has died in New Zealand at the age of 66, according to New Zealand news sources. Dutton was raised in Los Angeles and was the brother of booksellers Doug and Dave Dutton of the legendary Dutton’s Bookstores in Los Angeles.

His homepage

He was a master of tweets and an Universal Connoisseur

Cartoon via

Denis Dutton is a philosophy professor and the editor of Arts & Letters Daily. In his book The Art Instinct, he suggests that humans are hard-wired to seek beauty. (Ted)

Ted talk

Edge

He has defended a universal definition of art—something that many theorists assumed was simply impossible. And he has advanced a theory that aesthetics have a universal basis in human psychology, ultimately to be illuminated by the processes of evolution. His ideas in this area are not meant to be the last word, but they lay out testable hypotheses, and point to many fields that can be brought to bear on our understanding of art.

‎”He saw that pompous and empty prose in the humanities had become an impediment to thinking, and initiated the Bad Academic Writing contest to expose it. ”
Steven Pinker from Edge.

Update: Slate obit

Denis was a very sly, very funny, supereducated, and widely allusive lunch companion. He struck me as a natural bon viveur, someone who delighted in talking smack about those not present. His eye gleamed differently from other humanities professors I’d known, his shoulders lacked the obligatory apologetic slump.

What I love—Heidegger, organic food, government overreach—Denis clearly detested. I don’t care. What I learned from Denis, and at exactly the most precarious moment, is the lesson that’s on display every day at ALDaily.com: that one can be precise and brisk, and nuanced and weird, at no cost to either camp; and that the distinction, between the ivory tower and the real world is not only a false, but a callow one. To a new technology, Denis Dutton brought an ancient and enduring grace—the belief in a free and contentious marketplace in ideas. He is sorely missed.

Martin Wong

Did you look up the sky? and in two years we will have 2012 Phenomenon.

The 2012 phenomenon comprises a range of eschatological beliefs that cataclysmic or transformative events will occur on December 21, 2012

The SUn DIRECTED & PHOTOGRAPHED BY ALEXANDER SOKUROV (Filmforum)

J G Ballard applauds Alexander Sokurov’s remarkable film portrait of Hirohito. But why did the war ever begin? Ballard asked. (Secrets of the emperor’s bunker – Guardian)

Ostrov part I (youtube)

The Island

The film’s director Pavel Lungin, speaking of the central character’s self-awareness, said he doesn’t regard him as being clever or spiritual, but blessed “in the sense that he is an exposed nerve, which connects to the pains of this world. His absolute power is a reaction to the pain of those people who come to it;” while “typically, when the miracle happens, the lay people asking for a miracle are always dissatisfied” because “the world does not tolerate domestic miracles.”

Ostrov.

Previous post JG Ballard

From Name these children album : Costume and Sand <> <> Three Kings