Saturday, May 08, 2004

Hoje esta' aqui um calor de rachar...

O verao ainda vem longe, mas neste momento os termometros registam 31 C, com o factor 'humidade' a sensação e' de 37 C...

Flash do Extremo Oriente

Pensamentos
"A diferenca entre insanidade e criacao artistica, e’ a vontade e capacidade de voltar ao lado de ca’ para explicar aos outros o que foi sentido no lado de la."

Thoughts
"The difference between insanity and artistic endeavor is the will and the ability to come back to tell others what you experienced on the other side."
Published @ bc magazine – hong kong


Coreia vs Coreia
A Coreia do Norte aceita ajuda humanitaria da Coreia do Sul.

South Korean workers from the Korean Red Cross wave to 20 South Korean trucks leaving for North Korea at the Demilitarized Zone in Paju city yesterday. PHOTO: AP


Vietnam
O Vietnam celebrou ontem o 50 aniversario da batalha de Dien Bien Phu, situada a cerca de 500 km a noroeste da capital, Hanoi. Esta batalha pos fim a 100 anos de colonizacao Francesa no Vietnam.

A Ha Nhi ethnic minority militiawoman gets ready for a parade during a ceremony yesterday to mark the 50th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu battle. The ceremony and parade were held at the site of the battle of Dien Bien Phu, some 500km northwest of Hanoi. Fifty years ago on May 7, the Vietnamese army defeated French troops at their stronghold in the valley. The battle of Dien Bien Phu ended 100 years of French colonial rule in Vietnam. PHOTO: AFP


Life is a jorney... or maybe, cinema...
Aquilo que a Anika Tokarchuk suponha ser apenas uma viagem de trabalho iniciada em 1998, a partir do Canada, atraves da Europa, India e finalmente Taiwan, a fim de realizar um documentario sobre o filme “The Cup” de Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche (Tibetan Budista Lama que realizou o filme “The Cup”), acabou por se transformar numa experiencia espiritualmente rica. ‘A medida que ia registando as imagens na fita colocada no interior da maquina de filmar, outras marcas invisiveis iao-se registando no interior da sua alma.

"The experience that I've gone through has been my version of living through the themes in Life as Cinema. It really has been this experience of living in this amazing reality."
Anika Tokarchuk


Life as Cinema by Anika Tokarchuk is a 56-minute documentary about the making of The Cup (1999) (高山上的足球盃), the debut feature film of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche (aka Khyentse Norbu).
Stills from Anika Tokarchuk's documentary “Life as Cinema” - Photo by Anika Tokarchuk, Image Lantern Pictures Ltd.
Read more here and here.


Triangulo Dourado... ou pedrado?
Na antiga Birmania, actual Myanmar, mais precisamente na regiao autonoma de Wa, ainda se comercializa opio legalmente ate Junho proximo, altura em que entra em vigor uma lei local que vai proibir este tipo de transacao.
A titulo de curiosidade o preco do opio, tem estado nestes mercados, 'a volta de 215 US$ por Kg.... caso para dizer "esta' pela hora da morte".

PHOTO: EPA A tribal woman and her child wait as the ball of opium they are selling is examined by a Chinese trader in the Mong Pawk market in the Wa autonomous region in northeastern Myanmar. Wa leaders have set a ban on opium to start in June next year in the Golden Triangle region to try and kick their people's addiction and dependence on the crop. A kilogram of opium nets the seller US$214.75.


Why "V"?
Porque sera que nestas bandas, as pessoas (desde miudos a graudos) fazem quase sempre o “V” de vitoria, quando posam para uma fotografia??!!…
Sera que estam a fazer publicidade a esta empresa de telecomunicacoes ou foi esta empresa que se aproveitou desta mania local, para ter essa publicidade gratuita?
Nao e' o caso desta foto pois este senhor foi muito bem pago para fazer o que quase todos por aqui fazem, quase por instinto.

PHOTO: AP Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou gives a victory sign during the opening of a new shop in Hong Kong yesterday by the Hong Kong mobile-phone company Hong Kong CSL Limited.

Wednesday, May 05, 2004

Para as cacaoccin@s...



O fim de semana passado fui tomar cafe a um espaco novo em Taipei e pedi um cafe com leite...
Quando o serviram, lembrei-me d@s cacaoccin@s.
Sera coincidencia ou a Rita esteve em Taipei no fim de semana passado?



Obrigado FC Porto, parabens Portugal!


FC Porto, a equipa de Portugal no Euro!


Corunha-F.C. Porto, 0-1

Tuesday, May 04, 2004

Painting with light

This expression came into my mind the first time when I was learning how to print black and white (b&w) photos.
Printing b&w photos is in fact painting with light.
The teacher was describing several techniques, to be used during the printing process, in order to highlight or contrast certain isolated spots of a print or even make them brighter or darker. These results are simply achieved with very simple tools and it’s all about the amount of light and time of exposure, you allow the spot to be exposed to.
I believe that this metaphor is shared by most of the photography lovers such as:
- Miuda often refers to photos as “pinceledas de luz” (sweeps of light). She is able to capture the soul of small details. You can see how she does it at blogdamiuda.
- David, who is constantly guiding us to other photography web sites, also calls his blog “pinceledas de luz” and shares with us his spectacular sweeps of light at “Diafragma”.
- F.Castelo calls his excellent site “escrita com luz” (writing with light). I took the liberty to borrow from F.Castelo, an example of a piece written with light:

Sevilhanas from F.Castelo. Fore more "escrita com luz" click here.

The progress in technology makes traditional techniques outdated and printing in b&w is less and less used.
Today the technology is rapidly replacing the SLR film cameras with SLR digital cameras. All we did one day in the dark room, can now be easily done in PC.
I am still using my SLR film camera or at digital level, a simple Sony snap shot camera.
My advisers about SLR digital cameras were:
- Alaska girl who does a great job in capturing the texture and beauty of flowers. Alaska Girl is using a Canon EOS Rebel (digital SLR).
- Ze Antonio who has a great ability to register art created by mother nature and invented by his own eyes. Ze Antonio suggested me to go Nikon, which I believe is also used by Miuda.
So technology does remove a bit of the romantism involved in the traditional photography techniques. But as we can see and if you take a look at the mentioned above sites, in spite of the technological progress, people are still sensitive, their souls still capture the beauty of life and they still paint, some how, with light:


Ephemeral Instant
A photo borrowed from Nikon’s site, taken with a Nikon D70.

Monday, May 03, 2004

tEcHnIkArT





Este fim de semana encontrei uma revista francesa pouco convencional, com excelentes artigos da actualidade, sobre: Sociedade, Cultura, Sexo, e Media.
Se nao conhecem ainda, aconselho uma vista d'olhos 'a Technikart.