Welcome to Art~Love~Music
I hope to find things to entice, inspire, amuse and illuminate...mostly for me but things have a way finding you.
Sadly, my favorite music link has gone the way of the lawyers. "Pandora" of the Music Genome Project is now no longer available to anyone outside the continental US. This is due to licensing arguments having to do with lack of purchased licenses from music distributors outside the US.
While I understand that folks want to make money and protect their property, the bulk of the people who benefited from "Pandora" were the unrepresented, independantly produced musicians who gained new audiences and interest.
Shame.
"And I think that even more so than religion, art plays a spiritual role in human life. It's a way to get in touch with your deeper self. It's a way to get in touch with how you feel in your relationship to existence and to other people, and to yourself. I think that art has a very profound spiritual significance for humans — and I mean spirituality in the sense of pulling together your thoughts, your emotions, your senses, and your role in the universe. That is the way I look at art, and that is also the way I enjoy art. I want to make contact with other artists' artworks so I can get a sense of my place in the world, so as to feel balanced and to get an equilibrium — and to be inspired."
from an interview with Michael Newberry, 2003
Interesting note in the latest tragedy in Kenya and Cameroon.
On May 5, a Boeing airplane left Kenya but crashed in Cameroon so the investigation has become somewhat international. The US has sent folks to help investigate and here is what was requested of Canada:
"The flight data recorder was recovered, and Kenya subsequently requested that the "black box" be analyzed in Canada, not the US or Europe. The reason stated was the ongoing "conflict" between Boeing vs. Airbus in the global airliner marketplace. Kenya also stressed that Canada's bilingual nature would ease communications between it, French-speaking Cameroon, and English-speaking Kenya."
I found that terribly interesting.
Sad about the crash, I just read about it on Wikipedia. I don't mind not having television, but I miss hearing about things and I guess I didn't catch CBC radio that day...
{I have just realized that I have a strange addiction to the "...", also known as an ellipsis (I just looked it up). I like the look of the dots and it feels...literally, I think it 'evokes' in this cold world of text, and I think that's important.}
The links I am posting here are more important than the content of my posts...(see!) I am finding lovely things to inspire and to start with, I'd like to bring attention to a couple of them:
These are in the 'See...' section
1. Christian Stalley Art Photography
Photography as an artform is established but not yet widely accepted as formal art which one may purchase, or more importantly collect. It is still viewed as a poor cousin to a painting or artist sketch as something of value and worthy of insuring. Sad, really, and wrong. Take a look at Christian's stuff - she is utterly marvelous!
2. Zakariya Islamic Calligraphy
Another art form of rare beauty, often relegated to the 'craft' section in art collectors minds. In particular, Islamic calligraphy is beautiful for its elegant graphic and wild use of colour. Eye and soul candy.
3. Hundertwasser
Ok, this guy was extremely weird - perhaps due to the boatload of drugs he experimented with, but in Vienna there is a place called Kunsthauswien which he designed. For those who never let their feet get beyond pavement, one HAS to experience the undulating floor in this apartment building/gallery/cafe. One does not realize just how 'not-square' we are until your feet walk all over the sidewalk and interior floors that are gently sloping, hilly and soothing. We are designed to walk on this kind of terrain...think grassy fields, forest paths and beaches. Every joint from the waist down ceases to ache when you start running around the front of this place like a 5-year old...ok, maybe it was just me.
The very fact that this was a revelation made me realize this guy's point: square and flat is made for the convenience of machines not humans. I ran screaming into the nearest forest, lamenting our concrete prison.
Check out Hundertwasser's other design philosophies...it's all about making humans part of the equation again. And, this guy loves colour.
Here I am, writing about things that make me not want to blink and miss them. Beautiful things people do, art, music, humour...
I have to give anyone happening upon this blog fair warning that I am not a writer, nor do I have aspirations in that direction. So my apologies if any of this is tedious...I'll play you a song instead! Hear me here: www.celebrationduo.com
Why am I even bothering? Everyone else seems to have a blog and I thought I'd try it out. Ok, so I'm a lemming.
I am keeping this as a central place to remind me of the beautiful things I find...some of which will not have a web presence, but then, that's where I have to do things like write about them. Supposedly, writing is good therapy...I'll let you know.
