Last event on Stubnitz

While I’m putting this post, the Ship Stubnitz is leaving  Canary Wharf and taking

a voyage to Normandy, France.

So, the last night, there was a kind of noisy farewell party on the ship.

(I went there with my Sound-reactive Flushing Pendant. = one of my disco regalia.   🙂 )

It was called  Algorave.  And the Info’ here was copied from their web site.

[ Featuring Cursor Miner making dance music in the frequency domain, Ardisson augmenting his tb303

and tr606 acid house with gamelan, Alo Allik twisting his audio/visual algomusic into beat-driven techno,

Alexandra Cárdenas live coding minimal techno from supercollider impulses, Martin Klang making

Euclidean acid with hybrid digital/analogue algorithms, Shelly and some Mandelbrots uniting

Birmingham and Karlsruhe with three-way live coded house, and Meta-eX leading us into the night by

live hacking an extended build up with code and controllers..

plus algorave residents Slub (with guest Elvi$ Ca$h) and Sick Lincoln. ]

Some of their music creation were quite experimental  (hence, not necessary natural to

a body to dance, or even impossible to follow.)  😀   and some were quite aggressive, still

good to dance.  (Loud drumming doesn’t necessary mean strong beat.  The matter is the

syncopation and minute gap, which gives instantaneous tension to the body movement.)

Live means,  lots of adjustments, conjuring, connecting / disconnecting cable,  

moment to moment on the spot, etc. etc.  —– looks messy business.   😀

Any how, it was a very enjoyable vibrant evening. 

(May be I was the one, dancing most.)   😀  

Good luck to Algorave and the ship Stubnitz.

Orange Blossom

This is a common garden plant / shrub, [ Choisya ternata].  

Commonly known as Mexican Orange Blossom or just Orange blossom.

I don’t think I saw this in Japan when I was a kids —– seemed to came

there in the 70s and I have no idea when this plant came to England.

When I saw this flower first time, I wondered why this one got a name  “Orange”  ? ? ?  

—– Flower looks similar to other Citrus plants though, I haven’t seen its “Orange” like fruits,

not only that, the leaf is completely different. ( Citrus has single leaf, not compound leaf).

Then, I remembered what Professor said = “To distinguish Citrus family is, whether the leaf

has oil-spot or not”,  when I needed to take picture of Japanese [Sanshou] and not mistake it 

with looks very similar plant [Inu-sanshou] (only genuine [Sanshou] has oil-spot on its leaf)  

= like the yellowish small dots on the leaf = on the photo right. 

[]

The oil-spot in Citrus family ( Rutaceae, in exact )  contain typically smelled chemical,

hence they has been used as a seasoning or flavouring  in many countries.   (On this occasion

I looked into Wiki and found that amazing spread of this “Spice” in many many region in the

world but very little in the west ! )

[]

Even in the same [Rutaceae] family, [Sanshou] or more commonly known [Szechuan pepper]

is completely different looks plant ( I never seen it in this country hence, no photo.  — Wiki

got only a photo of the seeds ) — any how, in Japan, [Sanshou] is strangely exclusively used to

serve with eel ( Wu-nagi no Kabayaki  🙂 )  and such as in Thai cooking,  I think their

“Tom-yam” and its distinctive flavour were given by this spice.

[]

The insects, especially the butterflies, their larvae eat exclusively one plant.  

In Japan, Yellow Swallow-tailed Butterfly only eats this [Sanshou] leaves.  

(And when those larvae of Butterfly was disterbed, they push-out a kind of tentacles out of

their body to spread the concentrated chemical they accumulated from eating the leaves

(and its oil-spot) to repel the attacker.  (The smell is diabolical. It’s a chemical weapon.  😀 )

So that, when I saw Yellow Swallow-tailed Butterfly in this country  (though, only once),

I astonished  ” What a hell,  where the [Sanshou] plant grow in this country ? ? ?”  

—– I wonder is there any Butterfly who eat this  Orange Blossom leaves in this country ? ? ?

[]  

Cherry = Double-Exposure and Double-focus, Soft Images

Those photos are, what I’ve mentioned in the previous post =  Soft image of the same

Cherry blossom which were done by the Double Exposures, of which one of exposure

was completely out of focus.

—– (Please click the photo to be enlarged, and click again to see it  in full screen ! )

In fact, the weather was not what I wanted = rather windy, therefore the movement of

the subjects might have affected the results though, it was not too obvious.  

Because of the operation, while changing Focus, Zooming position, F-aperture and

shutter-speed, I only made 5 photos from the same set-up on a tripod.

Despite a quite messy operation, let alone need to use tripod, the effect is somewhat

comparable to the dedicated soft-focus lens  which I did last year using Fuji Soft focus Lens.

[]

PS :  Those two photos are for a comparison, as they were taken by a  simple Pinhole. 

How soft and how much the core of sharp image was retained is all about the

soft focus photography. = It’s a matter of one’s taste and the type of the subject. 

Though the Cherry blossom may not be the best subject for Pinhole photo, as

they become just messy blob.  😀 

(This image is the the best so far among the photos what I’ve created by pinhole .  🙂 )

[]

Perpetual Cherry in Full-Bloom !

This is the same Cherry tree appeared 4 times before in this blog  ! —– because of her

very unusual character = flowering all through the year ! 

(Obviously, her internal clock is also working normal.)

As in the real season, she is now in full bloom, and I’m so glad to see her full dress-up.

So, I guess this might be the same feeling of seeing a daughter in her wedding dress.  🙂

(Though, I have no child, it is only a guess.)

When the nature is in its full bloom, that is where their beauty lies. 

We may not need to add any further decoration. =

straight shot, which shows just what it is, might be all we need to do.   —– still, I’m

thinking to make yet another attempt of pinhole photo or double-exposure kind.

(Before flower finish, and a calm, no wind weather permitted ! )

It is not for the sake of the beauty of the flower but the sake of soft-focus photography.  

It’s my Ego, Sir.     Ha ha ha   😀

[]

Still Blooming = Perpetual Cherry

This is the same Cherry tree,  I’ve shown you three times before, but always out of season.

Last time, it was a month ago.   And since then it kept blooming without a brake.

In order to highlight the flowers,  this time I photographed her with flashlight.   🙂

But for the reference, the photo above, center is without flash.  And right photo is another

ordinary cherry tree which shows no sign of flower yet — may be takes another 2 weeks ?.

This tree never in full bloom still,  always some (20% ?) = so far, continuously blooming

since last October,  November.  —– Now, the end of March, its mean even Kan-zakura

(Winter Cherry) is in the end of the season.  = in other words, this tree is different from

any other variety = This is the Perpetual Type ?  🙂  — Beyond this time, I should keep

watch how this tree does in the Summer. (I should have done it in the last Summer.) 

As you might noticed,  I was totally fascinated by this Cherry tree.  😀

What caused her to keep blooming continuously ?  (It’s not weather or sunlight.  So, What ? )

[]

PS:  Now in the middle of April, this Cherry is in full bloom.  🙂

More photos and the comment on this post.

[]

What is Natural or Not-Natural

The photo here was the Pears sold in a supermarket in Beijing, China.

In a Chinese myth, there said to be a fruits shaped in a human baby which

takes ten thousands years to ripe, and anybody lucky enough to eat it

acquire 50 thousands years of life.

(This story appear in that well known “Monkey story” (西遊記) as well 🙂 )

—– So, a clever Chinese farmer created this to sell them with premium price. 🙂

[]

Of cause it is not natural at all.

In fact pear fruits were made to grow in a baby-shaped cast.

In an old days, Chinese had a custom to restrict the growth of the girl’s foot with tiny

shoes to make her foot small —– so, it was not a new idea in their culture.

In comparison to recover the oil from the sewerage, an idea to make money

out of cast pear is not too outrageous nor dangerous to human health.

(if we don’t question the mentality itself)

[]

In fact, there are many strange unnatural agricultural products exists in the world.

—– You might have seen a Pear in a bottle of alcoholic drink. = You must be

wondered how the pear was inserted in the bottle.

It was produced by a way, inserting a fruiting branch of pear-tree to

a bottle, and made a fruit to grow inside.   At least those fancy products

having novelty value. = it must be nice and a fun for a Birthday party. 😀

———- ( Banana with Seeds / Photo from Wikipedia )

Human has been created many new products in the history.

Seedless banana is the one name but few. Banana used to have a lots of seeds inside.

I’ve seen them only once in my life though, the species itself is still existing.

Seedless banana, huge Maze seeds (in comparison to such as rice, corn, Maze is huge) 

and Wild-rice which doesn’t drop to the water when harvesting, were said to

be the top three great leap in the human agricultural history which had been

achieved thousands of years ago.

[]

Most of those products, the creation of new variety was done by natural mutation and

the human has been selectively breeding them and they become common.

Hence, the fruits and the vegetables were becoming larger and sweeter etc.etc.

Though, with the advancement of the science,  we human is resorting many new

technique to produce a mutation of the species in artificial ways.

= many seedless varieties were created by multiplying the number of the chromosome

by use of a chemical called Colchcine from a Liliaceae Colchcum plant. = because of the

abnormality of the chromosome they become infertile = seed couldn’t be produced, so,

we no longer need to bother the seeds in the grape kind.

In fact, Broccoli, Cauliflower are a kind of cancer in the vegetable body.

[]

—– So, how natural you want to eat ?   As the campaigner is shouting, you might

be conscious about the manipulation of the gene = GM foods.

Yet, we have been eating many products of which gene or chromosome has been altered.

With loud campaign or obvious strangeness, we may react with emotion though, the most

unnatural phenomena is that the over-grown human population keep exploiting this planet.

This must be the trickiest and the hardest question we have to face.

(Soon or later)

[]

Our Perpetual Life ? ? ?

I’m in a mess of clearing and sorting out the mountain of junks piled-up in the past ten years

or so. (Not a clean Zennist’s like situation. 😀 —– I’m doing too many things hence people

keep asking my help or advice, since my help is free  😀 = there is no time to let them go. 

And I’m getting a help from others too = I don’t think I should isolate myself from this world.)

—– Only the trouble was, when I was busy making something for an art event kind, it was

always in a hurry, and soon after, another project might start = therefore, the  materials used

etc has been just piled-up. What makes situation even worse was, I buy “Could be useful,

one day” kind of things, or picking up them from the street.

They are in a shallow box etc, though, box on top of box has built mountains. Ideally, I should

have line of shelves in a warehouse with multi-indexed stock management system though, it’s

a far fetched dream for a humble poor man.  😀

No doubt, in a clean-up process, something unexpected item coming-out between

a pile which I’ve been looking for, or completely forgotten.  A ha, it’s here.  🙂

[]

What annoying trouble I found was, after years, a cleaning blush kind of cheap

plastic product and particularly the Tesco bags has been disintegrating.

I don’t think the manufacturer expected the people would use their products more than a

year, hence they used cheap material to make-up the item. —– So, I shouldn’t be surprised.

And the Tesco is Proudly announcing that in consideration for the environmental issue,

their bag is biodegradable.

It’s mean, me to left those things under the pile was solely my fault. —– still, I feel annoying

was = may be I still expecting the same must be there intact = my Ego and the greed.

The real trouble is, once I touch them, those disintegrating materials in deed

disintegrates and the small flakes scatter all over, literally spreading a mess.

It’s not funny.

[]

Even though we know nothing is permanent, still the system has to work in an

assumption of every components stays the same in a same condition.

In order to keep the same condition, our body is keeping the same body-temperature and the

same constitution such as the same salinity of the blood (well, more or less) and so on.

To keep the body in the same condition, the parts which is naturally worn-out will be

replenished and renewed constantly = And to make it same as the original, DNA template was

used though, to keep copying again and again, mistake would occur.

It’s the same to a Chinese whisper, once mistaken, the same wrong-pattern will be copied.

Wrong pattern of Gene could create cancerous cell. On the end, our body became no longer able

to keep its function.  It’s a system bleak-down. —– This is how we get old and die on the end.

[]

Against this situation, many researches are tackling those problems.

Only a week ago, one Japanese institute announced that they found a chemical which would

prevents the brain cell deteriorates and prevents Alzheimer developed = disease would be

prevented by just an injection.

Another institute succeeded to continuously clone the mouse, over 5 years, 27 generations

so far, and made more than 580 cloned mouse = while preventing the deterioration of

the genes and their futility.   Life science is really advancing in amazing speed.

[]

So, we human could gain the perpetual life in foreseeable future while

leaving other life form and biodegradable plastic to disintegrate.  —– ? ? ?     

Is it anything to welcome ?

Because, the matter is not just our internal system. We have to see the implication to the

external system as well.   Those systems are closely intertwined as a total system called

Dharma in the Buddhist’s term, which has been refined throughout the time, in past billion

of years.  We may not able or allowed to tinker one corner without affecting the other part.

Our perpetual life could be detrimental to the planet’s Ecosystem.   😀

—– Well, I should talk about this serious subject in the near future.

___/\___

[]

Plum (?) Flower

Well,  whether this one is Plum or Apricot is a difficult question.   Never the less, to my eyes,

this flower is the closest to the Japanese Ume 梅.    Cherry,  Plum,  Apricot,  Peach are all in the

same  Rosaseae family.  And as  Plum, Apricot, Peach belong to the same genus  Prunus, so they

are very close and easy to cross between.  Adding to this,  many more garden varieties exists.

So, here, I just call this flower as plum.  (Ume 梅 said to be called  Japanese Apricot  though  🙂 )

What makes this flower distinctive  (against  Cherry or Peach) is,  not only it blooms earliest

(in February) among the Prunus,  when flower opens,  the leaves starts to shoots as well. 

And something notable about  Ume is,  despite Cherry is the National flower,  when Japanese

select  Tree of Distinction,  they are 松,竹,梅 = Pine, Bamboo and Ume, Ume was regarded above  

Cherry. (I haven’t found the reason why)  In comparison to the Cherry,  Ume is giving rather

sombre impression,  so, if we say the Cherry is Yang,  Ume is Yin and influences where to plant.

Like Sakura (Cherry) spot,  there are many places to see Ume = Kitano Tenman-gu in Kyoto is

the most famous place to visit.  (In there,  Pink  variety as well, which called Kou-bai / 紅梅)

— (This close-up was taken by Canon Fish-eye Lens, while lens was held away from the mount)

Japanese makes Ume fruits to a notorious pickles = Ume-boshi (梅干し) which is only edible to

the Japanese because of its almost poisonously sour and salty taste．（I don’t miss it at all  😀 )

So that, if you put it in Onigiri (おにぎり = Sea-weed wrapped rice ball) it wouldn’t go bad for days. 

(I’m sure,  no germ could survive in such environment  😀 ) 

What I’m wondering more is,  why no genuine Ume was imported and planted in this country ?    

In comparison to have many types of Cherry here,  Ume-like tree is only this type. 

I don’t know why. —– So,  if  anybody knowledgeable there,  please let me know.

[]

Orchids Photos of Sing Lee

I received beautiful photos of Orchids from my friend,  Sing Lee of China.

Sing Lee  used to be a quite unique Chinese Blogger who showed impressive photos of

their Shang-tang mountain and many beautiful flowers there until his blog/ WordPress

altogether were blocked by their authority.

So, on behalf of him,  I put his photos here,  for the people of the world to see.

As he wrote before, those Orchids were found deep in the Shang-tang mountain,  and

brought to the city,  they could be very rare  new variety or even new species though, 

I don’t have the eyes to tell its name.  —– So,  just enjoy its beauty ! 

And I hope his well-being away from the suffocating air pollution. 

[]

Hut Albireo in YASHIGA-MINE

Gosh, I found the Web-site and a photo of the Hut Albireo （八子ヶ峰ヒュッテ，アルビレオ）

(When I searched in English before, I couldn’t find —– I got Japanese typing program only few years ago )

Hut Albireo (its name from a star in the Cygnus )  was a sister Hut of a mountain shelter Takami-ishi Goya (高見石小屋) in Kita-Yatsu-ga-take（北八ヶ岳）, in japan.

—– (Until now I didn’t reveal the name of the mountain shelter I talked, because of my stories often goes too far, I thought, unless the people can verify it with the first-hand independent source, I didn’t like to do name-dropping).

[]Both Takami-ishi Goya and Hut Albireo were originally built by Mr. Satta but later they were taken over by the another hotel, Honzawa-Onsen.  And the Hut Albireo was bought by one of keeper, Mr.Kaji who was the chief volunteer of us.  In fact it was in a financial mess  we keepers were involved in a nightmare as Mr.Satta lost a lots of money in betting.   (Not very mountain like peaceful stories  🙂 )

( So, I learned a man’s life’s up and down entwined with a silly money affair, rather early stages of my life, fortunately or unfortunately. —– Since I hate money and gamble  :-D)

[] To build the Hut Albireo, we keepers were also worked hard from digging the ground works, to carry-up the building materials  (all worked for free though  😀 )  —– coming to the age of stock takings of the life, and looking back to those life I spent in the mountain (from 15 years to 27 years), I convinced that it formed my base of  Zen Buddhism.

In fact, I’ve learned the Buddhism in hardest way in the harshest condition   😀 After all, the matter is just do the work regardless even if it is for others. =  No Ego required.  So, I’m very grateful I did it.  Ha ha ha  😀  —– (Such as a work in a building site in Okinawa while I was a drifter, the work in 30 m high was not too high for a rock climber, and the work was paid ! = In comparison to the unpaid work, such as carrying  the 50 kg of fire log 20 times everyday (its mean one ton everyday and continued one week ) any other work is easier =  who complains =only thankful to be alive = this must be the best lesson and the contemplation for one’s life.  Ha ha ha  😀 )

[] So that, to find the Hut Albireo is still there, and the same owner Mr.Kaji is still alive, was the greatest news to me.  (He was the keeper who carried 15 ton of log together every year. — the question is whether he became a Zen Buddhist or not  ? ) = I need to phone him ! —– Since then, what I found through phone was a bit spooky story that the volunteers, worked together with us (me and Mr.Kaji) around the same time, me and Mr.Kaji are the only surviving member now = rest of 5 were all dead.  What ? ? ? —– (I don’t miss them. Any how they didn’t work for cutting log, or carrying up the food staff = all the heavy work. — They did just disappeared.  😀 )

( Incidentally, when I had my wedding, the Ceremony was conducted in the Shinto Shirline  Suwa-taisha (諏訪大社) and we had wedding party in this very Hut = it was my biggest folly of my whole life.   😀 ) 

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