PopPhoto has put up a really nice gallery of 44 user submitted landscape black and white shots here.
Check out my favorite from the collection – number 8: Ivan Galic’s Mountain.
Things Fall Apart: The Death of Chinua Achebe
I read Things Fall Apart many years ago and remember Achebe’s first novel as strong message against colonialism (published in 1958) and cultural imperialism. The role of christianity in the destruction of traditional societies is a common motif throughout Achebe’s work and he became a symbol for anti-colonial literature around the world, including indigenous peoples here in Canada. Achebe died this morning in Boston at the age of 82.
I suggest, if you have the desire and the time, to read this book in conjunction with Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1899) to see the opposing visions of sub-Saharan Africa, one through the eyes of the colonizer, the other, the eyes of the colonized.
Peace.
Happy Birthday Kurosawa!
Yes, the great director passed in 1998 but he would be 103 today. To celebrate, all of his films are being streamed for free this weekend!
Graffiti of Speed – awesome long exposure images!
Check out these incredible symmetrical long exposure images from Shinichi Higashi.
Here is an example:
82nd & Fifth
The Metropolitan Museum on Art has a great video clip collection of 100 curators from around the world talking about pieces of art that they feel have changed the way that they view the world. Sort of TED for art lovers.
Click here for more.
Vintage images: Paris flood of 1910
Some incredible images here of the Great Flood of 1910 in Paris where the Seine rose approximately 20 feet higher than normal!
Here is a sample: the Pont Alexandre III at the height of the flood.
Cute animal photos
okay… long week… not much to say except that if you, like me, are sick and tired of the snow and the cold, click here and prepare to smile at the adorable animal photos! 🙂
Movie of the Night: none
It is snowing and still -10 so we decided that tonight is a good time to go to the Nordik Spa. If you haven’t been, go. That’s it, nothing to see here. Carry on. Unless you want me to run down my day in the Corporate Planning world? Didn’t think so.
🙂
In The Flesh: BBC3
BBC3 has joined the zombie er, partially dead, movement with In The Flesh. Kieren Walker was once afflicted with Partial Death Syndrome. That’s right, once. The undead are de-undeaded, meaning that with proper medication, these former zombies are about to be re-integrated into society. Walker lives in a rural area and quickly confronts the spectre of prejudice: full blown armed gangs (religiously motivated… always rational and level headed mobs) that are willing to defy the central governments attempt at re-integration. I’m hoping for pitch forks and burnings. Walker also has to deal with recurring flashback from when he used to eat brains. Great first episode! Only two more episodes and I’m certain to watch them all!
More info here, with the trailer.
iOS storyboards
I am loving learning Xcode! Really different from Actionscript but does share a lot of common object-oriented best practices.
I started with a great book from Apress called Beginning iOS Storyboarding here.