Flock of Oksana Baiuls on Guzheng

the Hard One from Macedonia & next door Raçenitsa

You think the film is slow motion but the lead dancer twirls his kerchief.

Wan Bros Studios

A higher quality excerpt can be found here.

New Year Garden Window

Use cyan-red (rather than green-red) glasses and click the right-hand image to get a closer view of the 4th dimension.

Ingredients:
Shikishi board, Art paper, Anaglyph Lattice Art with Colored Pencil, Paper and Cellophane Glasses with Seaweed, Braided String
Made for the JACCC Doizaki Gallery.

Animation Against Naturalist Writers' Block!

Collage fashion show I made about a month ago. Still can't get some of the effects to upload well, but.

Love,
Agent P

Muzik: Oi Va Voi vs. Taraf de Haidouks

Returneth Thy Vomit to the Earth

"Sure, of course you can post a description of the vomit experience...The trailer one was a different time (I was alone)- when both Neba and I succumbed to heat exhaustion we were hiking in Big Sur...leaning over the trail puking with the redwoods..."

This is research for a painting, titled "There Tapped a Deeper Root" for E.S.C.M.N. Colt, regarding Trials and Redemption and earth, which heals all. Two images above were found on a wonderful site about whippets in art history.

Take Heed: If you Must, Do It Out-of-Doors!

Dear Santa,

2.5 Horas Art Challenge, Assignment Exchange

At approx 20:32 on Sunday, November 9, 2008, Señor Oliveras delivered upon me the task of Creation for some kind of dubious "zine" he's in charge of. Nevertheless, the prompts given titillated in my memory a reference to the Erya, and I embarked at once upon the race to the 11pm deadline. I also caused him to make something for my own purposes, by way of reciprocation. I would perhaps be proud of the result posted here, but due to constraints of time and Photoshop not having any free Chinese fonts for Mac...I didn't have time to do real handiwork to give it balance. Let the critique begin!

Oh, and some haunting Albanian poliphony. I love the track Qerpiku.

o r a c l e

oracle
Originally uploaded by mutikonka1

Yeah Flickr!

Treats for Tricks!

[On a UFO]

In the Chia-yü period [1056-1063], a "pearl" appeared in Yang-chou. It was very large and frequently appeared at night. At first it emerged from the swamps of T'ien-ch'ang county; later it moved to Pi-she Lake; and finally it was at Hsin-k'ai Lake. For more than ten years, residents and travelers would constantly see it.
My friend had a study by the lakeside and one night saw that the "pearl" was very near. At first it opened its door very slightly, and a light shot out from the crack like a golden ray. After a moment, it opened wider to the space of half a mat; within there was white light like silver. The "pearl" was as big as a fist and so bright you couldn't look at it directly. For over ten tricents, the trees cast shadows, exactly as when the sun has just come up. In the distance you saw only a sky reddened as if by a forest fire. All of a sudden it went far off, moving as if in flight, floating over the waves, shining like the sun.
In the past there was a "moongem," but its color was unlike th e moon' shimmering with sharp flames, it rather resembled the sun. Ts'ui Po-yi once wrote a "Rhapsody on the Bright Gem." Ts'ui was from Kao-yin and so must have seen it often.
In recent years, it hasn't appeared again; no one knows where it has gone. Fan-liang-chen is where the "pearl" used to appear, and when travelers reach there, they usually tie up their boats for a few nights to watch for its appearance. The pavilion there is called "The Playful Pearl."
Translated by Richard W. Bodman

Footnote: In Chinese folklore, pearls are endowed with the magic power to give off their own light, to protect their owner from sickness, and to repel water (when their owner is swimming).

Taken from The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature.

NOW FOR MY NEXT TRICK:



Click on the comment link to leave me the treats you now owe!

The Aeronautic Spiders

It is usually, but not invariably, very young spiders that exhibit the aeronautic habit; and exhibitions of it are most often observed in warm and comparatively still autumn days. At this time great numbers of young spiders, of many different species, climb each to the top of some object. This may be a fence post, the top of a twig, the upper part of some herb, or merely the summit of a clod of earth.

"


Here the spider lifts up its abdomen and spins out a thread, which if there is a mild upward current of air is carried away by it. Occasionally the spider will attach a small flocculent mass to this thread which will increase the force of the current of air upon it. This spinning process is continued until the friction of the air upon the silk is sufficient to buoy up the spider. It then lets go its hold with its feet and is carried off by the wind.

Diffrint Maps

Dear Paula,

Thanks so much for the kind words. The audience was terrific, I really enjoyed the discussion and was sorry there wasn't more time.

On Oct 3, 2008, at 11:30 PM, pele28 wrote:

> Hi Barbara,
>
> I really enjoyed your talk last night with Margaret. I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to question you, but hope you'll respond when it's convenient. Please see below!
>
> Best,
> Paula
>

> 1. I missed the name of the fellow who collected the Native American drawings in the 18th Century. I think I have seen that book, but I can't find the title now. That was such a beautiful drawing/map.


THIS IS NOT THE IMAGE I'M TALKING ABOUT, BUT IT WAS WHAT I COULD FIND.

Mallery, G. (1893/1972). Picture writing of the American Indians. (Originally published by Government Printing Office). NY: Dover.
> 2. The discussion about the cultures which don't have Left and Right in the language reminded me that in Bulgaria, they don't nod and shake their heads as we do, but instead they have other head motions that appear almost the exact reverse of what the rest of the world knows as a nod for "yes" and a shake for "no." I wanted to know if she's come across something like this in her studies of body language. Is there a collection of information on how different cultures use non-verbal communication, and perhaps how geographic and other forms of space have defined body language?
Interesting, There's a similar yes/no horizontal/vertical switched mapping in India, even harder to read because their heads continuously bob, and it's contagious.



There is at least one book that maps gestures across cultures, and others on body language. I'm sorry I can't recommend any in particular. Much has been written on iconicity and metaphoric iconicity in gestures, and this is closer to my interests as those gestures convey meaning in more direct ways than words. Susan Goldin-Meadow wrote a wonderful and accessible book on gesture, though she doesn't go into cross-cultural work. Researchers make a distinction between emblems, like the OK sign, which are quite culture bound, and iconic, metaphoric, and beat gestures which seem to be universal, and related to expressing meaning or structuring the discourse (beats, like, first, second, etc. raising and lowering the hand).

All the best,

Barbara


Sticks are sea currents; Pebbles are islands




Floatable Inuit Coastal Map

Butterfly Heels

This woman must be possessed. The last minute is impossible. Does she go through a pair of shoes every time? Who was responsible for this costume?

A much-matured Marisol. And Nouveau animation.

Tang Ao's Mystical Fart

Sketches for an illustration project. I haven't quite got it right, yet. You'll see.

But I smell something fragrant....
Tang Ao followed the scent through the forest toward a precipice, and found a lovely vermilion plant of about two feet high growing from a crack in a rock on the roadside. After scrutinizing it, Tang Ao remembered a passage from an ancient book of nutrition which said, 'The vermilion plant resembles a dwarf mulberry bush. It has a coral coloured stalk with blood-red juice in it. Gold or jade, upon coming into contact with it, will dissolve into paste, called "gold paste" or "jade paste" depending on which is used. He who takes of this paste will leave the worldly existence and enter the region of Immortals.'
...He took a very small piece of jade from his head-scarf, and plucked the plant up...Laying it carefully between his palm and the piece of jade, he rubbed them together. Sure enough, it all melted into a brightly coloured red paste. He put this in his mouth, and immediately felt a fragrance permeate his brain, and was at once extremely invigorated....
'Well, you'll soon become an Immortal,' said Lin. "But why are you looking so miserable? Is it because you cannot bear the thought of leaving your family, or you quaver at the thought of joining the spirits?'
'I have a stomach-ache,' said Tang Ao. 'I don't know why.'
He had hardly finished speaking when there was a rumble in his stomach, a loud explosion, followed by an an appalling smell.

Clapping his hand over his nose, Lin cried, "Good! The vermilion plant has purged the impurities from your system! I wonder what else you have lost!'
Tang Ao kept saying, 'Strange! Strange! Just now, I could remember even the verses I composed as a child. Now I can remember only a tenth of it.'
'That is strange indeed,' said Old Tuo.
'Doubtless nine-tenths of your learning went out with that break of wind,' said Lin. 'The one-tenth you retain must be the inoffensive part. If you put it down on paper it will all be good....'

Forecast in Six Acts

This post was saved for a rainy day a back in March, but now that SNL has taken my idea and aired a skit along the same lines, it's past due. "Never-the-less!"

Щpak! Shak-Shak! Ch-Chick. Street Studio

HABERSIZ SINAZ! Ne şarkı var?

Oh Djab! These Idle Hands o'Mine

Electric Gurdy and More, More Inventive Than We

'dea!