shamash says...

Good Morning, Vietnam!

Dear Readers:

I'm off today to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, for a teacher's conference at  EARCOS, East Asia Regional Council of Overseas Schools. I'll be out of contact for a while, but will be back next week.

Transparent Screen

“It took me forever to get the .doc out of my teeth with a toothpick.”

-Ben Seese from Guardian Unlimited

Banksy Hits New York's Most Famous Museums (All of them)

"Dressed as a British pensioner, over the last few days Banksy entered each of the galleries and attached one of his own works, complete with authorative name plaque and explanation." - Wooster Collective: A Celebration of Street Art

And then, from Ben Sisario's "Who Pocketed 3 Hunks of Bronze?" in 26 March New York Times:

"Here's what we know: It's really big, it's bronze and most of it is not where it should be. Here's what we don't know: Who took it, when or how. Especially how... The four pieces range from 6 to 10 feet in height and together weigh about 3,000 pounds; the three missing pieces were about 600 pounds apiece."

I find it ironic that the title of the work was the "Ides of March" (March 15, for those of you who don't beware the soothsayer in Shakespeare's  Julius Caesar), and that during the week of March 15, something this immense, this bulky could disappear without anyone taking notice. Could someone out there have a big, bronze sense of humor? I'm not condoning theft, by any means. However, the heist deserves a chuckle.

In other art links of interest, Pirate recently introduced me to the works of Henry Darger. The artist's story, more than his art, is what amazes me. After his death in 1973, "Amid a thick accumulation of debris- including hundreds of Pepto-Bismol bottles, nearly a thousand balls of string, old newspapers, magazines and comic books, religious kitsch and much more- his landlord, the photographer Nathan Lerner, found a creative life's work: an enormous literary and pictorial production." - Hammer Gallery

The Number Three

Three torsos: December, 04, Las Vegas, Nevada (click to enlarge)

Three water cups: March, 05, at the orphanage that students and I visit each week.

Three piles of rocks: January, 05, the remains of a student sculpture exhibition at my school.

There are three ways to become immortal says Neruda: plant a tree, write a book, have a child.

There are three questions, according to Pavarotti, you should ask yourself before you marry someone: how’s the sex, how’s the conversation, and how are the silences?

There are three books that Only Child purchased at Miss Penelope and Cricket’s used book sale this weekend. He bought “…one because it’s Asian, one because it’s good, and one because it’s weird.” These three adjectives precisely describe my current life.

Three is my favorite number, and it seems to be showing up everywhere lately.

Three eggs in the fridge door.

Three water jugs by the road on a stand for the monks.

Three clusters of bananas hanging at the fruit stand.

Three. Three. Three.

So, in honor of the number three, I’m posting these three photos I took that involve the number… you guessed it… three.

Catch Monkey

Slow, slow, catch monkey

Quick, quick, tear trousers

(Via Cameroon, via The Legend of Y. comes this adage.)

Top Ten Favorite Films

Except for the films that we’ve seen, the places we’ve been, the people we’ve met, and the books we’ve read, each of us are the same person we were last year. I’ve already shared my top ten favorite film scenes, but in honor of film and my friend Carlitos of the dancing shoes, here’s the list of my top ten films:

                        Shamash’s Top Ten Favorite films:

Blue (dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski)

The Matrix (dir. The Wachowski Brothers)

Moonstruck (dir. Norman Jewison)

Bagdad Café (dir. Percy Adlon)

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (dir. Ang Lee)

Amalie (dir.Jean-Pierre Jeunet)

Fight Club (dir. David Fincher)

Eat, Drink, Man, Woman (dir. Ang Lee)

Wings of Desire (dir. Win Wenders)

Pulp Fiction (dir. Quentin Tarantino)

Miss Taos County

I love Taos County, New Mexico. And for some reason, I love this photo (click to enlarge) by Greg Kreller from the 14 March, 2005 online edition of The Taos News.  "Amanda Marinez Crowned Miss Taos County."

Monsoon Rains: a Preview

"It was lovely indeed to sit in a Monday afternoon faculty meeting and listen to that all-too-familiar sound of the rain hitting the tin roof. It drowned out the droning voices and the circulating ceiling fans in that florescent-lighted classroom. By the time it all ended, the streets were flooded with brown water snaking through the city in swollen rivers." (This was taken from my balcony. Click to enlarge.)

Gratitude to My Favorite Bloggers

This posting is dedicated to my favorite bloggers who have found a way to make me smile, even on the most dismal of days. Look below the fold.

13 Ways of Looking at Words

"I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after."

–Wallace Stevens

Image from Carl Hammer Gallery