06.25.2006 Greetings,
Just tweaked the site color theme. Cleaner, easier on the eyes. Enjoy.
"noitulovE" is evolution in reverse. The AMV BBDO advertising team created this ad directed by Daniel Kleinman. Released last fall, it received the advertising industry Oscar in Cannes yesterday. Patience pays off when it comes to enjoying good things in life.
Funny, bizarre and cool 3D animation and visuals. From sublime to slime in 50 seconds flat.
Peace.
06.24.2006 Greetings,
We completed freshman oral exams yesterday. Everybody passed, some scraped through. Class participation was worth 20% and many increased their score by seizing the initiative. A huge positive step considering they are Business majors, not English majors.
The final allowed them to speak about a) the most important lesson - life or school - learned this year and b) best advice they'd offer incoming freshmen.
A sample of their sharing: "Practice good manners, join associations, manage your time, use the library and bookstore. Be honest. Don't be afraid to ask for help. Get to know your brothers and sisters. 'I can do it,' attitude with confidence. Keep your passion alive. Develop teamwork. Practice self-reliance. Express your love to others. Carpe Diem. This reality offers you many choices, it's up to you to either avoid it or face it. What you experience is up to you."
They taught me so much this term. It was an honor and joy. I wished them a safe and peaceful summer, thanking them for trusting me to help them.
Peace.
06.22.2006 Greetings,
Ah, the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. May you dance and sing in the light.
Pre-dawn orange light glows over the mountains. Hearing piano concerto by Bach, The English Suites, Nos. 1,2,& 3 performed by Gould. Lovely.
Twilight teachers gather to discuss their summer plans. Wishes, hopes and dreams personified. We roam a distant perimeter locating a shadow realm and play chess with a strong freshman. She is a tiger on the board. Her play improves, her middle-end game skill is manifested with subtle ingenuity.
"What I do today is important because I am paying a day of my life for it. What I accomplish must be worthwhile because the price is high."
Peace.
06.19.2006 Greetings,
Happy art to one and all. Here's an excerpt and link to an article in the NYT by Leslie Camhi on a new exhibition opening this week at the Phillips Collection in Washington; "When We Were Young: New Perspectives on the Art of the Child."
"It's not about skill," Mr. Fineberg said. "It's about unique qualities of seeing. That's what makes Picasso a better artist than Andrew Wyeth. Art is about a novel way of looking at the world."
You never hear a child say, "Let's take the day off and be creative."
Middle Kingdom podcast #24 is up for your listening pleasure.
Peace.
06.16.2006 Wassily Kandinsky, the painter, had the ability to see sound and hear color.
This is an excerpt and link to The Daily Telegraph, U.K. article. It also mentions other artists with synaesthesia. In 1911 he founded "The Blue Rider" school in Munich, taking abstract painting to another level. Magic.
'Kandinsky: The Path to Abstraction 1908-1922' is at the Tate Modern Gallery in London June 22-Oct 1.
..."Synaesthesia is a blend of the Greek words for together (syn) and sensation (aesthesis). The earliest recorded case comes from the Oxford academic and philosopher John Locke in 1690, who was bemused by "a studious blind man" claiming to experience the colour scarlet when he heard the sound of a trumpet."
..."If Kandinsky had a favourite colour, it must have been blue: "The deeper the blue becomes, the more strongly it calls man towards the infinite, awakening in him a desire for the pure and, finally, for the supernatural… The brighter it becomes, the more it loses its sound, until it turns into silent stillness and becomes white."
..."Despite his theories that the universe was in thrall to supernatural vibrations, auras and "thought-forms", many of which came from arcane, quasi-religious movements such as theosophy, Kandinsky's belief in the emotional potential of art is still convincing today. Our response to his work should mirror our appreciation of music and should come from within, not from its likenesses to the visible world: "Colour is the keyboard. The eye is the hammer. The soul is the piano with its many strings."
Peace.
