Vermeer: "The Love Letter" comparing reproductions

Comparing reproductions of any work of art makes us wanting to get a plane and do a quick flight to see the original.

You are excused from the two last posts if you

are the iconic illiterate described at Monday's post. You just have to know "The Girl with the pearl earing".

Keep it in your memory that I'll give you some more important works of art you have to know. Maybe ten will do. Take it easy!

Vermeer Van Delft: "You've got a letter" theme

In Vermeer's, Delft is his city, universe the letter being received or written is usual and treated in a very direct way: letter received, some thoughts and answer.

The titles are explanatories:

"A Lady Writing a Letter", 1666, (left)

"The Love Letter"(right and detail)

There are more paintings with women receiving and writing letters and it is striking that there are no dramas and the expressions of the faces show  control of emotions and no doubts about what to do with the envelop that has just arrived. In the left painting the woman is staring at the public and I can even listen: "Calm down, I know what to do and I'm so happy!" But this is me.

"Girl with a pearl earring" must be known iconic illiterate people!

I'm sure you were exposed to the right painting whether you know it or not. "The girl with the pearl earing", painted in 1665 by Vermeer, is everywhere and she must be almost next to Mona lisa in popularity. Ok, if you don't know Mona lisa. The Last Supper? No? You are in serious trouble. You are an iconic illiterate and knowing Madonna or Lady Gaga will not help you.

Some paintings are used by designers, advertisers, artists and all of those who work with images because they take for granted that everybody knows them for they are part of the western cultural patrimony just like Bart Simpson is.

You may not like art but it is a shame, a shame not to know some works of art and still, some people claim: "I don't like paintings or anything of this kind" as if they were saying "I don't like running, I rather walk."

And they start laughing!

I wonder if in the scientific era anyone would dare to say: "I don't know how the four operations." without feeling ashamed.

Or I'm wrong and not knowing is the new black. "I don't know, and I don't wanna know."

I will try to find this memo I didn't receive to see if I have to continue or stop here. brb

Award day! The Reader Appreciation Award

This one is from Missy and I will do the way she did. I'll choose only six of all the bloggers I like and those who are not at the list but feel connected to this blog can snag it.
These are the six I did choose:

Balqis at Part and Parcel of Life:
Cookingvarieties at Cokking-Varieties;

José at The Art Inquirer;

Mark at Psychsurvivor2.;

Moonomo at Moonstruck on Earth;

Susan at If you're going through hell keep going;

These are old and new blogfriends and as I can't list all I like, snag it!

Happy Easter: Chocolates and democracy for each and everyone

'Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people.'* Abraham Lincoln*

'Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.' Aristotle

'Those wanting to improve democracy in their countries should not wait for permission.' Bulent Ecevit

'Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if  you want to test a man's character, give him  power.' Abraham Lincoln

'As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.' Abraham Lincoln

Chocolates are not forever and if our children want more they'll have to buy tomorrow. My nephew is here and this is the page he is playing for free, of course I'll never pay for such a thing. Have a Great Easter and let's hope and act to improve democratic institutions all over the world because the word people is being forgotten in almost all nations. "...by the people."
*(reminder: he said this in his Gettysburg address in 1863 during American civil war. The photography is a transcription at the Capitol that is behind Abrahan Lincoln's famous sculpture)

Free flying eagles on a billboard

St. Paul eagles

Flying eagles billboard on the West side (Plato Boulevard & Starkey Street) St. Paul, MN. by Dan Anderson..

When we first look we see two eagles free flying only to discover that they are pictures in a photography. How ironic the name of one of the streets is Plato.

Great shot!

The insect we all love

Ladybug! Ladybug!
Fly away home.
Your house is on fire.
 And your children all gone.
All except one,
And that's Ann,
For she has crept under
The frying pan.               
                        
This is a nursery rhyme as you may remember. It's good to have an adult telling them and saying that everything is fine. It's a little scary since it's time to bed. But I believe when we are children we pay attention on the melody not the meaning of it all. At least it was like that with me. Or we are all "Anns". Have a great Saturday!
This is the fun and relaxing week. Nothing serious for a while.

Fun, humor and relaxing week

I'm thinking about a week of posts for fun, humor and relaxing. I can't share the real aquarium that is known to calm us down but virtual reality is here to unite us.
The right feeding fish is very known and Disney's Ariel princess too. You can arrange her house or call that girl if you want. Have a great weekend!
Ariel makeover is here in a bigger version. Don't put the jelly-fish next to Ariel!

Life is a bitch... fill in the blanks

These are just some ideas to warm up. It is up to you now! The word bitch is so popular nowadays and there are so many people claiming to be proud to be one that we are running out of curse words. Motherfucker is also in a high position but let's wait for it's time. Now it is Bitch:
So, if you have any idea fill in the blanks: "Life is a bitch .................................. ."

Snow flavored from the tropics

Once again enchanted by Mari after visiting her blog.

The pleasure of collecting tiny berries in winter, without the glamor of the snow here at the tropics, and flavoring them was a child discovery.

I could not sit at many chairs along my life but never because of a thick layer of snow.

Thank you Mari for your great pictures.

All rights reserved by Mari

A literary depiction of the moebius-strip and Sisyphus myth

 LOOP
 © Ben White 2002

"You mean it goes around in a loop?" 
"Exactly right, a loop, yes."
"I looked around the room. It was very small and very bare."
"There's no way out."
"None at all. We're stuck doing the same thing over and over again."
"You mean it goes around in a loop?"


The moebius-strip, joining the ends of the strip to form a loop, is very known and has already been at two posts at this blog.I loved this micro-fiction because it is a literary depiction of a moebius-strip and it also reminds me Camus's Sisyphus myth: "One must imagine Sisyphus happy" even tho he is condemned to repeat the same action for eternity.
Cheat: if you didn't get it compare the first and last sentence of the dialog.
I want to thank again Wilson Voight for introducing me another good text.  

Fun: Converting written text into spoken words

Write your text at the blue box and click the"Play" bottom. There are lots of these softwares now and I'm testing some of them and I'm having a lot of fun using this natural reader that you can download a free version here. I'm not being payed to advertise it. 
Just found it interesting and as an English no native speaker it is funny to compare the accents of each voice. Clicking at the language it's possible to choose German, French, Spanish, Italian, Swedish and Arabic. 
It is also possible to change the voices.
I think it's a good tool when we want to know how a word is pronounced in other languages, or, let's face it, once in a year in our own.
It is really really funny to write something in English and choose another language to pronounce it. Try it! 

Julio Cortázar: what is success all about?

Two years of blog and I didn't write a single post about Julio Cortázar? This is amazing, quite an accomplishment since he is in that strange and restrictive category we call favorites authors. 

From where to begin talking about someone whose work deals with so many issues and has numerous attributes ?

I just came across with this interview and I believe it's great start. The interviewer, a writer himself, Jason Weiss focused on Cortázar's process of writing that also reveals biographical and ideological views of a man who was deeply concerned with what was happening around him without losing the passion for literature, art, philosophy, music, architecture, practically all the fields that the word humanities have. Excerpts:

Cortázar: "When my characters are children and adolescents, I have a lot of tenderness for them. I think they are very alive in my novels and in my stories; I treat them with a lot of love. When I write a story where the character is an adolescent, I am the adolescent while I am writing it. With the adult characters, it’s something else."

Jason Weiss: Are many of your characters based on people that you’ve known?

Cortázar: "I wouldn’t say many, but there are a few. Very often there are characters who are a mixture of two or three people. I have put together a female character, for example, from two women I have known. That gives the character in the story or the book a personality that’s more complex, more difficult."

Jason Weiss: Do you mean that when you feel the need to thicken a character, you combine two together?

Cortázar: "Things don’t work like that. It’s the characters who direct me. That is, I see a character, he’s there, and I recognize someone I knew, or occasionally two who are a bit mixed together, but then that stops. Afterwards, the character acts on his own account. He says things . . . I never know what any of them are going to say when I’m writing dialogue. Really, it’s up to them. Me, I’m just typing out what they’re saying. Sometimes I burst out laughing, or I throw out a page and say, “There, there you’ve said silly things. Out!” And I put in another page and start over again with their dialog."

Jason Weiss: So it’s not the characters you’ve known that impel you to write?

Cortázar: "No, not at all. Often, I have an idea for a story, but there aren’t any characters yet. I’ll have a strange idea: something’s going to happen in a house in the country, I see . . . I’m very visual when I write, I see it all, I see everything. So, I see..."

(read the interview here) you will not regret. He is quite a genius and has a lot to say. At the end he tells a story to explain his views on success. I didn't full you with such a title for this post.)

Flawless: "Oh yeah? Well life's a bitch, so I became one, honey!"

This is a Rusty Zimmerman's quotation from Philip Seymour Hoffman's drag-queen character at the movie Flawless. Dialogging with Robert de Niro both actors did a great movie directed by Joel Schumacher who also wrote the screenplay.

It approaches many issues but the most important is creating friendship with people whose universe are so apart.

There are some great quotations and I chose this one:

Rusty Zimmerman: "Oh yeah? Well life's a bitch, so I became one, honey!"

What do you think about that?

Afghanistan by Trill Zapatero: RAWA "Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan"

  This is another project done at Second Life. Trill Zapatero did this amazing work to tell the story of RAWA, Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, created in 1977 to fight for human rights and social justice in their country, and give some news about what is happening in Afghanistan. Hope you like it and can read some of what is written because I did it some time ago with Picasa when I still didn't know that it is not a good slide-show. Sorry, I don't have time to do it again. I want to share it. So... Projects like this one and the one at the post below are done without any incentive of Linden Labs, Second Life's owners. People ask for donations or pay with their own money to have amazing creations. Very often they disappear or change to something different in order to make money. Second Life is not that different and it's ironic to be part at a game that has it's own currency, the Linden dollars, and that some few people are there to make money in real life. And they do, they really make a lot of money especially at the housing market. If you want to know more about Trill Zapatero visit Plot's site here.

Update: May 10th

I just talked to Trill and this is the address of the site for RAWA. I'll write about it in another post.

The Night Cafe by Van Gogh in a 3D virtual World

This is the painting at the post below that was reproduced at Second life by Mudpuddle Cleaslate.

He did seven reproductions of Van Gogh's painting at his "Van Gogh's Arles" venue. As you know Arles is the city Vincent lived in France and he did many paintings depicting places and people of the city being the most famous "The Bedroom", that I visited in September 2009, this post, but could not fully understand and enjoy.

I love going to this place and see my avatar walking at "Arles" and entering the paintings. I took some pictures that I want to share but I spent more than one hour at Voicethread editing but they don't offer the embedding code.I will try to edit a slide-show.

Click at the pictures to enlarge.

Van Gogh's The night cafe: watercolor and oil versions

Van Gogh used to repeat his paintings with some differences but here we have the Night Cafe painted with oil, right, and a watercolor, left. You can see how it the two mediums a different result is achieved. The watercolor seems more quiet while in the oil version the thickness of the paintbrushes and the brightness of the yellow makes the atmosphere more electric.

These works were done out of memory and imagination and these are Vincent's words about the oil version:

"I have tried to express the terrible passions of humanity by means of red and green. The room is blood red and dark yellow with a green billiard table in the middle; there are four lemon-yellow lamps with a glow of orange and green. Everywhere there is a clash and contrast of the most alien reds and greens, in the figures of little sleeping hooligans, in the empty dreary room, in violet and blue. The blood-red and the yellow-green of the billiard table, for instance, contrast with the soft tender Louis XV green of the counter, on which there is a rose nosegay. The white clothes of the landlord, watchful in a corner of that furnace, turn lemon-yellow, or pale luminous green."

Vincent Van Gogh

Tomorrow I will be back on this painting but in a different way.

Steve Mills hyper-realistic paintings

Right: Leaning Left, 2010

Left: Midas touch, 2002

It is amazing how realistic paintings affect us. We stare at them and 'I can't believe it is a painting' is in our minds.

Steve Mills has created a great universe and the title sometimes has an ironic or critical connotation. I chose these two paintings but you can see some great of hype-realistic paintings here.

Click to enlarge.

What your government wants you to do with your money: the answer

Athletes for Citizenship: the active citizens the mainstream media forgets

I don't understand why the mainstream media never has in it's agenda what people have been doing of good. When we watch the news today there's only room for blood, sweat and tears.

Without exception the TV channels worldwide broadcast not only the wars, conflicts, people in pain no matter what the reason, and even an accident that has not made victims or hurt people are detailed described.

It has some results being one of them keep the status quo alive and kicking since people feel overwhelmed and paralyzed in fear of such an evil world.

I try doing the opposite here showing the bright side of the vast majority of people in this world.

"Atletas pela Cidadania, 'Athletes for citizenship', is one of this projects that makes the flame alive. It is a non-profit organization that unites athletes and former athletes of diferent generations to raise awareness and mobilize people to support important national issues to promote a fair social development.

The strategy is simple: "the popularity and credibility of athletes makes it possible to call attention and mobilize Brazilians informing and acting for a better society." (from their site)

Here you can find the Brazilian athletes that are at the project.

Don't give up on human beings. There is also the "Instituto Guga Kuerten"/ "Guga Kuerten's Institute" that the tennis player Guga Kuerten created and other athletes who have done the same. I'll do another post about them.