something in the air

so i saw on sabine's blog something she had seen on scrappy's blog: a 'pay it forward' game. I decided to participate and so can you! Anyone can play, but the rules are:

I will send a handmade gift to the first three people who leave a comment here requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

princess haiku asked about accordions, so i went and found examples of some of my favorites.

astor piazzolla, argentina:



french musette, written by gus viseur:



music from lesotho in africa:



some wonderfuyl old irish:



eastern european (bulgarian):



some rockin' cumbia (from columbia):



forro from brazil:



and of course flaco jimenez and guy klucevsek--i couldn't find a great video for either of them but i did find this great klucevsek sampler.

unforgettable video

is this not so incredibly great??!
check out harlequinpan, a wonderfully
versatile artist in taiwan.

periodical magick

artmagick bulletin board


i'm completely addicted

miles to go before i sleep

inspired by: .............................................(via)

goose

i am so taken with this.





(via)

lotus

lotus

part of an amazing set of photographs of china.

while they were seen, by some, in a gallery, i saw them in a book called CHINA. they are very big. the scale cannot be grasped by this page.

but of course i love the lotus ones the most.









(reference)

a flame in my heart

I DON'T WANT TO SET THE WORLD ON FIRE

- words and music by Eddie Seiler, Sol Marcus,
Bennie Benjamin and Eddie Durham

I don't want to set the world on fire
I just want to start
A flame in your heart

In my heart I have but one desire
And that one is you
No other will do

I've lost all ambition for worldly acclaim
I just want to be the one you love
And with your admission that you feel the same
I'll have reached the goal I'm dreaming of

Believe me!
I don't want to set the world on fire
I just want to start
A flame in your heart. 1


(listen to 30 seconds)

(learn way more)

(okay, i lied)

the purr-loined letters

a collection, growing constantly, of popular american magazine covers from more than a century.

this is clearly not only not kitsch, nor nostalgia, nor even a form of commerce. this is the fine art of our daily lives.

(and some of it is gratefully purloined here.)

the awakening conscience?

if it had not been for the sight of his left hand on the keyboard, i would be certain that it was not exactly her conscience being awakened.

from another russian blog of which i know nothing that is going on other than that it is something like a novel being created by the community that visits it?

in any case, this woman also has the ability to find wondrous imagery, from which i occasionally borrow, as in the top image here.


Суровые вампирские будни

shades of grey

flowerville. always like fine wine. or maybe absinthe.












all pens are broken (after a long working life), except the one on the left and the wooden one.

from ukraine with love

as a gleaner of images, real funny lady is a master, following her own stream of consciousness, image follows thought follows image... and so on. the internet was made for souls like hers.

while her taste runs to the late 1900s, so does mine, so she finds much that i find beautiful. and as she says, pictures do not speak russian. nor do they speak english, or french, or japanese. and nobody cares.

what i do care about is that just yesterday she devoted a whole post to david lance goines, just as i had been thinking of doing another post on him myself. thanks for the reminder!

some day my prints will come

far from being a simple sales site, this website is filled with stories, images looked at in un-typical ways, humor, and interaction with the viewing audience.

i never fail to be charmed. and educated

PRINTS OF JAPAN


.......................not to mention:

booksellers

i would like to point out in the three larger prints above two booksellers: he has a square- shaped brown hat and a white beard; she has a cape, an orange skirt, and a scarf on her head which we see as at least partly white.

in the images on the left we see him, again and again. in the images on the right, we see her.

they, together or individually, are shown as being in different spots in relation to the church each time. i don't know what to make of that, but i find these recurring characters, unnamed, and, perhaps, till now unremembered, fascinating. little did they know that over 100 years later, they would still be being talked about.

are there any other repeat characters? the man with the funny hat? do you see any more?


(continued from here)

limitless wonders

bibliOdyssey started in 2005, if a 'best new blog' award posted towards the bottom of the page can be believed. since then pk has created a treasure, and a kind of mind-blowing one, at that.

with images from storybooks, anatomy charts, peruvian seashells (or was that japan?), magical weapons, and ancient travels, you are not only entertained: you are taught. though i doubt this was ever his intention, bibliOdyssey offers up fascination and delight, but then suggests you have just learned to research on your own, and you have glimpsed the wealth of resources that are increasingly at our fingertips.


(plus pk turned me on to florizel!)

the clarity of poppies

poems can be made regularly through selection, order, intuition, beauty, always, and, sometimes, words.

i know this because florizel does this every day, assorting color and movement and line in a manner of mystery, and i leave her blog not ever having understood a thing and yet now, all is clear.

muguet

i have been meaning to do that post on lilies of the valley since i found that one on the mfa's website. but then when i saw delphine's newest offering it was the extra push i needed. she also does ginkgo leaves, so somehow she seems on a similar wavelength to us, or at least to those who preceded her in france.

outtakes

some of the images that didn't make it into the other blog's post tonight.

dispatch deux

princess haiku's blog somehow seamlessly insists that you slow down to take it in, in its flowers (often chrysanthemums), its poetry, its music, its dance.

yes, this blog dances, and plays you special songs.

and once in a while will remind you (well, maybe once every day) of something that is really important, and you'll be grateful to be reminded.

the first dispatch

rachel at fade theory is always fascinating. i want to mention her but rarely is her blog directly related to japonisme. so here's a new blog for just such referrals (and an occasional personal comment!).

her blog's topic is books, generally. but as you can see.... her interest is quite broad.

she says of this, "Abelardo Morell’s work is seriously beautiful. The air I’m breathing catches in my throat when I look at his photographs of books."