Partly presented very long before, some compositions that’s highly inspirational to me, the Ravi Shankar and Philip Glass album: Passages. I particularly like the Meetings along the edge and Ragas in minor scale pieces. It’s a real pleasure to enjoy the profound sounds of the Indian sitar, sarod, tabla… in conjunction with the Western instruments violin, viola, cello… For so long, my mind has been too dull and monotonous… for such a delicate and elegant music.
Monthly Archives: September 2014
a watery saigon – 3
Móc ngang sông phau phau làn trắng,
Nước in trời loang loáng vẻ xanh.
Buông theo chiếc lá lênh đênh,
Đè muôn đợt sóng mông mênh cõi ngoài.
Some more updates for the A – Watery – Saigon photo album, some miscellaneous thoughts. I’m no real photographer to say anything insight about photography, most of the time, I have the camera in automatic mode and make quite random shots just to show I’ve been there, done that… For the last few years, I’ve been watching many young Vietnamese ‘professional photographers’ who made great efforts in capturing landscape pictures, e.g: waiting for multiple days on a mountain top to catch the right moment, etc…
And they showed me their photos, ‘really beautiful’ I must say (compared to my well – under – average images, and I do wish my pictures could be like that, technically): perfect color and arrangement, unique point of view, etc… But let me get this straight, and don’t get me wrong on the topic: they lack a spirit, a sense of movement, a sense of selfness, they are just plain boring! In order to become great photographer, you should stop taking photos and do something else, see the world through your eyes first, before seeing it through those expensively distortional lenses!
marquetry
Xác vờ gởi mặc kiền khôn,
Tẻo teo hạt thóc trong cồn bể xanh.
Thoáng một chốc kiếp sinh là mấy?
Khen con sông nước chảy khôn cùng!
Don’t expect myself to become a marquetry craftsman & artist, but decided to try anyhow. The first reason: to decorate my upcoming boat with some mother – of – pearl inlays, the second reason: to train myself the patience and detail – oriented characters which I apparently quite lack of, the third reason: just for the beauty of the extremely fine art of wood marquetry. It’s too early to say at the moment if I can produce good results, but let just try and see!
First, some preparations need to be made, tools and materials. Image 1: metal working files, compasses, and the thickness gauges. Image 2: some woodworking chisels and carving tools. Image 3: the extremely sharp Tamiya knives. Image 4: the jewelry jig saw, with 4 blade sizes, the smallest being as thin as a thread of hair. Image 5: three different types of mother – of – pearl, or the like, with 3 shades of color: white, reddish and jade. Image 6: my marquetry workbench.