Selfridge Xmas Window 2015
Hand is a body parts which got second highest concentration of
the nerve after the eyes. And especially we human got our hands
best developed among the any animal, we have best and the most
delicate control of them. So that, not only its dexterity and the
function, its acquired the mean of expression as well.
We can read the meaning of what the hand is telling or symbolizes,
and the eyes tend to follow what the hand is expressing.
(I mean not only F**K or Peace sign but also more delicate mood
of its operator as well.) 🙂
In old days, Selfridge’s decoration was based on the Children’s Tales
— though children themselves are not the shopper, and the Xmas
itself has changed its character too = Religious to Kid’ and to the
Grownup’s Shopping event. 🙂
= So, the window decorations now are, Grownup’s fantasy !
(often, bizarre one) —– and they are fun to watch ! 🙂
The lens used for those shootings were either Canon Fish-eye 8~15mm or
homemade, so-called Gaudy Lens and the Camera was Canon 5D Mk-III.
[]
Ai Weiwei Exhibition
Actuary, I went to the Fortnum & Mason again with different
lens (or hole ?) — Then, I just crossed the street to other side,
to the Royal Academy = where happen to have an exhibition
of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.
Academy’s courtyard having trees or re-assembled dead wood.
It was an utterly odd view. Those trees were not in the original
shape nor well composed big “Ikebana” but the standing mess.
I wondered what’s going on the inside.
(Photo above = tons of building steel rod were piled up on the floor
=Ai Weiwei is not good to make the things by himself but to
organize the workers to do the job.)
I’m not a fun of Ai Weiwei.
I can see he is trying hard to MAKE something “looks like an ART”.
= in other words, he was not a born artist = so that, to squeeze the
brain to manufacture the piece, not spontaneously creates a shape.
Hence, the piece wouldn’t hit our emotion but just boggle the mind.
= So, the art critics needs to write about those “Boggle” = keeping
them busy and the art-media flourish. — The good art will hit the
viewer’s subconscious direct = no need of explanation nor critics’
blah blah. 😀
So, those were the pieces made out of the pretext of the earthquake
= the list of the dead (Left) and the debris (right).
— did such big disaster inspire him only those ? If I were him, I
would have put a school text book or a bunch of hair between the
debris = bad taste but such straight visual signal will hit the
subconscious of the viewers direct, without needs of blah blah.
Photo left showing “a chair IS a part of a tree” = I know,
a chair used to be a tree. = So what ?
And the photo right = nicely made cabinet having holes =
spoiling the effort and saying a twist = again So, what =
What a cheap idea. Can’t you conceive anything better ?
Yet again like the words of a second class art school
teacher = “Make a thing out of norm/Break a stereotype”.
TV camera (or that kind of shape) was made by plastic.
Chinese has been making so many utterly inconceivable
products such as fake eggs, fake protein (melamine) in
the milk etc etc = Ai Weiwei should learn from them if he
want to impress us with the eye-opening incredible idea !
Something scribble ? — or repeated print covering whole wall.
He might have thought = highly technical idea — a piece using
the reflection of acril plastic. = Yes I can see its funny reflection.
So, what ? A bit strange doesn’t mean “Impressive” 🙂
Everyday’s objects made out expensive jade.
Handcuffs made out of plastic. Useless and out of norm again.
(Chinese kid’s toy Handcuffs were all made by plastic ) ?
Fabricated trees in the room — not impressive though, they
still showed a kind of fun-full free structure he must have
enjoyed like a game. So, I liked this piece.
Thousands white plastic pieces covering the floor and one
baby buggy (= somewhat impressive fine work)
— is this related to the Chinese Scandal / billion of forcibly
aborted fetus by the “one child policy” ? (I only guess =
I didn’t get any information or bought an exhibition catalog.
= In my policy, I SEE the piece, not study it by the words.)
In this room, and the confined small box explaining what
Ai Weiwei himself has been subjected by the So-Called
Authority’s tenacious interrogation = kind of torture/
intimidation/suppression.
This is not an art but just an indictment.= may have a
political meaning still, visually boring exhibit. Not impressed.
So far, this must be the most impressive piece in this exhibition.
May be it was just a coincidence = still, how bizarre.
On this occasion, I had only Concentric-Double-Dencity Pinhole
intended to use for F&M Window shooting, which was not best
suits for this subject still, I think it wasn’t too bad.
—– If you want to see more info’ or clear images please
search in the net or go to the exhibition yourself. = don’t ask me.
[]
Cult Party
My friend’s Immersible Cult got 2 years anniversary and had
an end of the year party. Especially they organized “Tokyo Dream”
party this year which was even featured in the Evening Standard
ES magazine, the party got quite few Japanese guests as well.
Free meals and drinks — though, they were completely vegetarian
= boiled alive potatoes, skinned alive carrot etc etc.
= not much mercy for them. 🙂
In fact the guests are the staffs or the freelance artists who has been
involved into those projects etc = worked together, familiar faces.
Still, I do necessary know every faces neither who was doing what.
(In this time, those fuzzy photos were taken by a homemade
So-called Gaudy Lens — though some of them were out of focus)
Then the attraction started = Japanese singing/performing group
Frank Chickens. (Started here as the female Ninja !)
But, I’m not sure what are they doing. 🙂
The singers group Frank Chickens started 70s —–
and now having some new and young members.
(and even Irish and Polish men as well)
They sound something Rockefeller Building — ?
Don’t ask me what. 🙂
Then the party went into a dancing conclusion.
And so on, so on ~ ~ ~ till early morning.
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F&M Xmas Window 2015 (A)
Yes it’s the season to see one of my favorite subject = Xmas
show-windows. And they are the Xmas window of the
Fortnum & Masons. (It’s an annual customs. Sir.) 🙂
(And for me, to shoot them, it’s the annual custom too.)
And on this post, they are rather ordinary kind of the photos.
(In my standard) 😀
I mean ordinary = By widely available Lens in normal shot.
= no artificial lighting or stage up = Just clicked straight photos.
If you think it’s looks a bit strange — don’t blame me.
Blame F&M for their crazy decoration. And if you click,
a fish-eye lens, it naturally produces this kind of image
= It’s normal nothing special.
I think I took the pictures of the same man on the door so
many times = every year he is in the same place.
(And he might be thinking too, Gosh, that photographer again.) 😀
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New Year’s Card 2016
So, It’s the season again. 🙂 2016 is a year of Monkey !
The card samples here are from Japan Post and they are free to
download for personal use.
In their original site you can see lots lots more design though, you need
Japanese reading still, you can try click and find what’s there.
Some of the cards showed the pattern of 申 it is in fact the
letter of monkey. Normally, we (Japanese) use the letter 猿
for the monkey, but Chinese use the 猴 for the monkey.
Still, only to say the Year of Monkey we use 申 for monkey.
Don’t ask me why, it’s the ancient 4000 years tradition.
🙂 🙂 🙂
Those Links also provide Free Design Templates.
They are reputed, trouble-free good site. = Worth visiting. 🙂
http://cp.c-ij.com/en/categories/CAT-ST01-0016/index.html — (Canon)
http://www.designbank-nenga.com/
http://nengarank.com/html/index.html
http://www.wanpagu.com/top_illustration.html
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8150 — Ha-I-Go-Rey 背後霊(?) again!
To renew my passport, I went to the Japanese Consulate and
obtained an application form. — M m m m ! Gosh, 8150 again.
This number is like Big Brother, where ever I go, it’s follows me,
or stalks me. = It might be Guardian Angel
or the Guardian Spirit Behind as the word Haigorey mean.
Maybe, that’s why I don’t get ill or accident.
But, I couldn’t see a point for this = why for this time, what for ?
My Guardian may telling me “Be careful with this business” or
gave me an alert “It would have a heavy implication”.
Otherwise just reminded me “I’m still here, watching you”.
(Expecting to give me a piece of mind — or irritation ? ? ? )
—– the Consulate’s staff just picked a form and gave it to me =
so the serial number happen to be 518A6 must be purely random.
— Still the Question or problem is, why always this number comes ?
Who choreographed those coincidences = who is “WHO” Is it the
Karma or the Heaven/Dharma. ( —– otherwise, who could able to
foresee where I go next or what I pick-up next.)
— It’s definitely there, such as this IS actuary happening. Same as
the existence of Gravity. You can see it exists but nobody know WHY ?
Or is it still in my imagination ? = See, what happen next.
(So far nothing serious happened to myself (= nothing mean
good news ) but in somewhere, without me seeing (I noticed it
much later), such as someone was bankrupted or suddenly died
though whether it was because of the trouble with me or was it
just their own fate — I could only speculate.) Anyway, I can’t test
it — What IF the course was different. = If the man didn’t betrayed
me, could he still be alive? Or he died anyway with his own fate ?
Life is only once = never able to repeat it in different way.
And when mistake was made, has to pick-up its fruits. = no escape.
This is what the Cause and the Consequence really mean.
And, I don’t know how to ask “Stop 8150” to the Karma !
(So, I can’t test without it’s intervention = IF not —)
I’m doing what I need to do — and the Karma might be just
removing the obstacle on my pathway. I should be Grateful,
Lord Buddha IS walking with me. ( — I dare say. If I may.)
___/\___
PS : You might think it is a
very special heavy occurrence
though, in fact it is casually
happening almost everyday.
Photo left was a number on the
letter I received few days ago.
PPS : Now I became aware why there was a warning on the passport
business = it seems heckle a lot of trouble ahead = to receive my family
registration certificate from Japan, there is no way to send its fee,
because the International Reply Coupon is no longer available in UK.
— still,they insists it is the only mean we have to use.
— how can we ? It’s no longer exists here.
So, I needed to make a lots of Email exchange with Japanese officials
of which even a received time of the Email was 0815 ! 😦
[]
Fate and the Mentality
Few days ago in Japan, one of the busy commuter train breakdown due to
the safety mechanism in their over-head power cable. Stranded passengers
in the trains were lead to a nearby station, 20 minutes walk on the rail track.
(Japanese train takes the electric power from the over-head cable, not from
the side track, so that, without a danger of electrocution, it is safe to walk
on the track.) = All 5000 passengers were just walked in orderly manner and
no trouble was ever occurred.
When this news was reported on the Chinese News Paper, the Net users in
China responded with their astonishment saying such as “If this was happened
in China, within 5 minutes passengers started riot, smashing the windows etc”
“How 5000 Japanese could keep calm and quietly walk for 20 minutes long
without showing any anger or frustration !”
—– And the Japanese Net users responded to those Chinese thread saying
“It’s no point to make a riot and break the train because it would only cause
even more delay” “When all the people having the same fate, making trouble
wouldn’t get any situation better” “Anyhow, the company or school where
people will be late wouldn’t accuse them because it was like an act of God =
It was the fate anybody has to accept”.
[]
They are the two contrasting mentalities = in my view, each mentality
originated from the Chinese Taoism and the Japanese Buddhism.
I quite doubt, in China how many people ever read the Book of Taoism =
Tao Te Ching, still, most of them seemed to visit the temple to read their
fortune = by throwing two wooden sticks six times to find Yin and Yan’s
combination (It is in fact the Ai-Ching). The funny things were, they keep
doing it again and again until they receive good prediction. (=they would
not accept bad prediction !) In other words, Chinese doesn’t follow even
the will of God (or Heaven) or vend it by their Ego). (China has Confucius
and Buddhism as well though in mentality, they all got the same.)
—– in contrast, Japanese Buddhist is far more cool, or even cold,(may
be even Cynical) for not to have a passion for riot. 🙂 = since they know
the situation, what sort of the process would be needed to repair the
breakdown system etc well. They are far more rational to know
what they can do —– in fact, the situation IS telling them,
Just Walk. = So, they did.
This is the Mentality to accept and follow Dharma and the Karma (or Fate)
and the Wisdom or the Belief, that the end result would be better with this.
[]
Toys (Are Us) Exhibition Opening
Last night, there was an opening of
the Exhibition titled Toys (Are Us)
at the Crypt Gallery, Euston, London.
It was organized by Kosha Hussain,
and my old friend, Wayne Chisnall
brought his sculpture, Magnet as a
major piece. And I joined the party
wearing Rotating LED Disco Costume
which was created out of £0.5 Chinese Toy.
(So, it was in line with the concept of the Exhibition) 🙂
(Kosha Hussain, a Kurdish Artist who organized Exhibition address )
Some more information about the Exhibition, please see this.
Mind you, I joined the party to see old friend, as a
photographer, not to show you a journalistic report
of each piece and the artist.
(The photo above was taken by Concentric-Double-Density Pinhole
— for my fun)
This was the Wayne’s piece, Magnet (in normal view ) 🙂
(It seems, Wayne is giving a lecture. = make a jaw of the people drop) 🙂
As a Crypt of the Church, they got quite a collection of Grave stones,
though I have no idea what those white staffs were and doing what.
Well well. Some good staff, some not so staffs. Still, the exhibition
open till 21st (two more days) it must be interesting to pop in and
see the exhibits.
They got one of the most unusual atmosphere among art galleries.
(By the way, photo above was taken by 5 seconds exposure,with
Canon Fish-eye 8~15mm, on 5D-MkIII —– if the image was not
fuzzy DD Pinhole, the lest were all by the same Fish-eye Lens)
[]
What is MUSHIN ?
May be I’ve talked about this ten of the times if not hundred.
—– Still, I was asked the same question.
So, this is the most up-to-dated straight answer.
[]
It is a well known medical symptom among the Alzheimer patients
who lost the nerval connection to the Emotional region in the Brain
lost the recognition related to the SELF such as to recognize own
possessions even to distinguish the face of the own family.
So, Emotion judge the interest of OWN — in other words, this is the
center of EGO, Greed, Well being, Safety, Security, all those Instincts.
Of course, they are the key to the survival though, the total amount
of the signal/Data the brain has to deal is burst, so that there is a
rationalized economical saving was designed = coming data was
selected according to its importance.
The harmless insignificant data or repeating same data, are ignored.
We wouldn’t pay any attention to the same boring TV CM etc. and when
we do the repeating same work, we do automatic without Emotion. = In
deed, in such a case, the Motor Region of the brain would be programed
to do such routine work automatic, involving no Emotion at all.
[]
So, if we block the data/signal reaching Emotional region, we can do
the job automatic, without the Emotion. (= With highest efficiency !)
Without Emotion mean without the feeling of “Mine” = SELF —
because of no feeling of Ego, Self interest (mean, no envy, jealousy to
others), Own Greed, even No Cling to own Life, be free from the SELF.
This state of Mind mean, no need to cling the past, nor need to imagine
a dream= in other words, just see the world on front of the eyes as it is
Now, without having any Thinking.—– This eyes IS clear eyes.
And this state of Mind IS the “Mind of No-Mind” = Mushin.
[]
In order to acquire “block the Emotional process” Buddhists use
the long repeating practice for the brain to learn “How to
Opt-out the signal process” and DO the job (or Life) automatic.
(Like, you can branding “The matter” same as to the boring TV CM
and make it no longer recognized to be exists —
we know it’s still there though, it became a remote landscape.)
In certain extent, Zen Buddhism is very cool, even cold.
But, use this to live the life very hot is the other stage of Zen.
___/\___
PS : The Related Readings :
Clear the Deck for 2013 Reverse Engineering of Zen
Emotion / Meditation —– they are good to read. = It’s amazing
how Google Algorithm worked out to see the contents !
[]
Crèche in the Zen Buddhism
There are quite few Crèche in the Zen Buddhism.
Such as Mindfulness, Middle way, to live in Now,Selfless etc etc
and indeed, I did talked about those topics in the early posts.
Yet still, funnily enough, in the Agama Sutra, there was no word of
Lord Buddha for about those topics. And I realized that, the talking
of those Crèche started to appear in the Mahayana scriptures,
typically like Middle way.
—– as a matter of fact, I too wrote in somewhere, the Middle way is
not in the both extreme, somewhere in the Middle.
Though, think about the extreme — in the Nature/Dharma, if it was
too little, we may not noticed it was existing. And if it was too much,
there is no such things in nature. It was only a product of imagination.
In other words, if we follow the Nature/Dharma, we are
naturally live in the Middle way. Likewise, to live in Now, if we don’t
cling Past, neither indulge imagined Future, we only deal with Now.
In the same way, Mindfulness is not a special notion, it was the state
of Mind, when there was no other imagined matter / things, but seeing
the subject on front = what else can you think of ?
— in short, there wouldn’t be any of those issues exists in the Mushin.
= Mushin mean, live Selflessly. So, it became to clear / too clear that
the script writer of the Mahayana has written those Crèche from an
overheard rumor “That the Enlightened said to live in Middle way,
live in Now and facing the life in Mindfulness”etc etc = and started
mimicking the antic = pretending of “Middle way” “Mindfulness”
“Live in Now”etc. and talked a lot blah blah — While not knowing
what the “Middle way” was = because he hasn’t even experienced the
Mushin, there was no way to know what the real “Middle way” was.
The people who doesn’t know, talk a lot, to pretend !
Still, the matter IS very simple. = once you vacated (emptied) your
Mind, what you can see is only the matter on front (= no memory
of the past, neither imagined future) = when the matter only on
front exists, what else to think about = this is Mindfulness.
And when you follow what you instantly conceived (on that Moment
= so-called intuitive perception) is the way of the Dharma.(what else ?)
(Because the Dharma is rational and harmonious as a whole system,
inherently, there is no extreme = this IS the very Middle way)
—– You see, it’s so simple in real (practical) life.
But, “talk about” the misconceived concept is much more complicated.
Because, such concept (=Crèche) is in the intellectual thinking, BUT
Zen Buddhism is a matter in the state of Mind (the way to handle the
data in the Brain) so, try to find the meaning by way of thinking is like
“To THINK HOW to ride a bicycle” instead to make own body to
“LEARN it”. 😀
___/\___
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