Monday, April 30, 2012

№ 77. Beach Hives

Even if  the skin were lathered with thick, titanium sunscreen, 36 degrees sizzles it to a crispy, caramel hue fit for a fiesta centerpiece: our beloved lechon.

So we find enough excuses and leaves to kick off the dry season (aka summer) and dash to the nearest waterhole.

El Nido, check. Boracay, check. Palaui, Pagudpud and Panglao, check, check, check. But Siargao and Bantayan. Here we come.

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"Picking a favorite beach in the Philippines is like trying to pick a favorite child. 

Challenging, but not impossible. With more than 7,000 islands edged by white sand buffering turquoise waters filled with some of the world's most diverse marine life, not everyone will agree on which one is best. Disagree with our picks? Share your favorite Filipino island or beach in the comments box below.

 1. El Nido, Palawan

 

more fromcnngo.com

Thursday, April 5, 2012

№ 76. Waking Up to Binary Dreams 2


The VR Glasses actually look minimalist. They don't appear too android-like or,
if you wish, Borg-like. No matter, I like their by-line: "We believe technology should work for you---
to be there when you need it and to get out of your way when you don't." This humanistic bent is 
similar to the one advertised by Nokia some ten years ago about connecting people and about 
having rounded edges instead of sharp ones. Photos from googlepalace.


Cellphones, those hand-carried metal or plastic bricks we see, touch and hear everyday will soon be obsolete. That is, if "evil" Google (insert maniacal laugh track here) and its team of engineers will have their machinations fleshed out. Again, another augmented reality or Flesh + Machine specie. The Borg-like reality isn't really that far out or implausible anymore.



Seven of Nine with remnants of the Borg implants after she was
disconnected from the hive mind. startrekdesktopwallpaper.com

№ 75. Marking Time

Andy Goldsworthy is an "innovative British artist whose collaborations with nature produce uniquely personal and intense artworks. Using a seemingly endless range of natural materials—snow, ice, leaves, bark, rock, clay, stones, feathers petals, twigs—he creates outdoor sculpture that manifests, however fleeting, a sympathetic contact with the natural world. Before they disappear, or as they disappear, Goldsworthy, records his work in suburb color photographs.

Goldsworthy deliberately explores the tension of working in the area where he finds his materials, and is undeterred by changes by changes in the weather which may melt a spectacular ice arch or wash away a delicate structure of grasses. The intention is not to “make his mark” on the landscape, but rather to work with it instinctively, so that a delicate scene of bamboo or massive snow rings or a circle of leaves floating in a pool create a new perception and an ever growing understanding of the land." (from Goldsworthy/biography)





He says about his works:

"Movement, change, light growth and decay are the lifeblood of nature, the energies that I try to tap through my work. I need the shock of touch, the resistance of place, materials and weather, the earth as my source. I want to get under the surface. When I work with a leaf, rock, stick, it is not just that material itself, it is an opening into the processes of life within and around it. When I leave it, these processes continue....

My approach to photograph is kept simple, almost routine. All work, good and bad, is documented. I use standard film, a standard lens and no filters. Each work grows, strays, decays—integral parts of a cycle which the photograph shows at its height, marking the moment when the work is most alive. There is an intensity about a work at its peak that I hope is expresses in the image. Process and decay are implicit." (quoted from Brain Pickings)


Wednesday, April 4, 2012

№ 74. Comedy Has Color

I wish I could've said or even thought a bit of this piece. Comedy does refract into a continent of colors.

Unforgivably wise!

I like this obnoxious Brit.

"I’m not one of those people who think that comedy is your conscience taking a day off. My conscience never takes a day off and I can justify everything I do. There’s no line to be drawn in comedy in the sense that there are things you should never joke about. There’s nothing that you should never joke about, but it depends what that joke is. Comedy comes from a good or a bad place. The subject of a joke isn’t necessarily the target of the joke. You can make jokes about race without any race being the butt of the joke. Racism itself can be the butt, for example. When dealing with a so-called taboo subject, the angst and discomfort of the audience is what’s under the microscope. Our own preconceptions and prejudices are often what are being challenged. I don’t like racist jokes. Not because they are offensive. I don’t like them because they’re not funny. And they’re not funny because they’re not true. They are almost always based on a falsehood somewhere along the way, which ruins the gag for me. Comedy is an intellectual pursuit. Not a platform." (The Difference Between American & British Humour)


demilked