Cult o' SAoS

You are like a flower,
so sweet, and pretty, and pure.
I look at you, and sorrow
steals into my heart.

I feel that I ought to lay
my hands upon your head,
Praying that God should keep you
so pure, and pretty, and sweet.

translation to "Du Bist Wie Eine Blume", by Heinrich Heine, in his "Book of Ballads" (1825)
Has to be one of the most austere of poems.
The lines rhyme in German, imagine its beauty and the genius.

This universe that we live in is a creation. We're living in expressions of total field of universal creativity.
As expressions or little nodes of that colossal cosmic creativity, there's almost a responsibility of pressing or expressing what we stand for in the world.
An artist takes on the burden of manifesting the sort of unconscious world dream that is lying beneath the surface and maybe happens in people's visions or dreams or thoughts or reflections like that.
But artists find a way to make it into icons. Expressing it in the spirit of the times. By presenting what's latent but unexpressed it gives them another benchmark to succeed and to progress themselves.
This evolutionary sweep of consciousness is training itself back to spirit, even through the atrocities and tragedies of human histories.
The Ecological movement, the women's movement, the civil rights movement - these are things that we recognise as common good.
These are to me signals that humanity is gaining a conscience, and that things are moving forward.

Vannevar Bush - "As We May Think" (1945)

It has been quite some time that I had postponed a reading of this article. Even after being aware of the repeated references and a plethora of adjectives associated with it, I had been delaying it at my own leisurely pace. And now that I have read it, it feels almost like an epiphany. It is awe-inspiring in every aspect - the sheer foresight of Vannevar Bush, his suggested implementations and his proposed foundation for the way we might be able to record and access information. He pens his thoughts so vividly that you sometimes feel like he had access to a time capsule.


Alongside, he mentions of "Memex", an intelligent device of the future which would allow us to access all human knowledge. It has striking similarity to some of the computers of today - a Ninetendo DS seems a distant hand-held representation - but much of its suggested features are yet to be completely realised.

Leave this ugly website right now, and jump to the article which, I promise, would be one of your most fulfilling reads if you've got an aptitude for technology.

"Happy Birthday to you", the default birthday song across the planet, not to forget the most well-known, is a copyright work! That's right: you use it commercially without prior permissions and you get the stick.
Wikipedia, Kuro5hin and Snopes provide more information on this little known fact. Its genesis dates back to 1893, when two sisters in Kentucky collaborated to create a small melody for wishing their kindergarten students a goodmorning. Through adaptations, the lyrics changed to ones that we know of today, and through a lucky court ruling, the copyrights went to the sisters. Warner Chappell Records currently holds the rights to the song, so beware of the big label scare next time you use it. The rights expire in 2030.
Have fun watching Ms. Marilyn Monroe performing this song on JFK's birthday in '62.

Snopes.com lists an urban legend that seems too good to be true. But it actually did happen! For once, it makes missing college seem revolutionary :)

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I tried to look into the Guinness World Records but didn't find any mention. A quick google search returned no exact matches. This (mis)leads me to believe that what I saw today was definitely something exciting.

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Wired magazine is carrying a very intersting article on Joshua Davis, seemingly one of the progenitors to - don't get scared - "generative composition machines", which use lots of scripting and my favorite tool, Macromedia Flash to create some avant-garde art. His work has been showcased accross the planet, and his experiements in the past decade have brought some big media campaigns in his kitty. He makes it all look so easy, its almost insulting to those art school graduates toiling with the brush :)

Apart from the article, you should definitely visit Joshua Davis' website and his awesome project archive. "Once Upon A Forest" is another of his experimental creations.
The dosage of genius is promised to keep one on a high for quite some time.

This blog entry has been certified: ETC (Extensively Time Consuming)

Most chances are that the name "Kim Keever" won't garner any reactions among the crowd. First thing, he's an artist/photographer - landscapes being his forte. "Huh! whats so different about that?", you might say. Have a look at the links below, and once you become familiar to his method of work, you're bound to end up mesmerised. Not only does he photograph those surreal worlds, he creates them too.

The Online Photographer weblog that led me to him.
Kim Keever's works - his official website.

Throw a pebble into a shallow waterhole, and the rising clouds of mud make for a hypnotic experience. I guess that is enough of an hint about his works...now follow the links to know more.

Let me start off with the links first:

Blytons, Noddies and Denoddification Centres: the changing constructions of a cultural icon
The Gollywog Caricature
The Picaninny Caricature
More links on everthing2.com


My interest in the topic grew as a result of coming accross a torrent of "Black Little Sambo" video short. I learnt that it was banned because of being "racist", same as Noddy. Further delving revealed that it all was a part of bigger scene.

all have been victims of "political corretness" revolutions in positive or negative sense.
Gollywogs are grotesque dark creatures with jet black skin, large eyes, clown lips and disorderly hair.
Picaninny remains the most controversial representation of black people. Detailed as greedy slobbers, who had unkempt hair, bulging eyes, red lips and large mouths to stuff melons in.
I also found about controversy regarding Uncle Remus, a black story-telling character in "Song of the South". The movie was slowly phased out for being racist.
In a stew over Brer Rabbit

peekaboom.org

This has been one of the most engrossing websites i have come accross lately.
Its a very simple game online game, which connects you to another person accross the globe, as it has to be played in pairs.

At a time, one acts the "Peeker" while other is the "Boomer". The objective is to identify an object located somewhere in the image. The Boomer clicks on a part of the image to reveal it to the Peeker. As the Boomer keeps revealing the image with time, the Peeker has to guess the thing being pointed to. Then you play the Boomer and your partner plays the Seeker.
The more correct answers, the more points. Simple.

Give it a try, though I must warn you that it might become seriously addictive if you are not in a hurry.