A fine art, film, history and literature site oriented to, but not exclusively for, the gay community. Please be aware that there is mature content on this blog. Information on images and links to sources will be provided if known. Enjoy your visit and please subscribe.
Rodrigo Braga was born in Manaus (Amazon, Brazil) in 1976 and raised in Recife, where he pursued a degree in Visual Arts at the Federal University of Pernambuco (2002).
In 2012 Braga won PIPA Popular Vote Exhibition category, during the Finalists Exhibition at MAM-Rio, and donated the work ‘Biólito’ to the permanent collection of the Museum. In 2013, the artist won the Emerging Talent Prize of Art Museum of São Paulo – MASP.
Some of his works can be found in private and public collections in Brazil and abroad, such as Maisón Européene de La Photographie, Paris, Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro and Modern Art Museum of São Paulo.
Represented by: Galeria Vermelho and Amparo Sessenta Galeria.
In Romania, there is the Christmas carol which involves carolers dressed as bears. In the past, a real bear was also included in the dance. The tradition, called Ursul, is mostly kept in Bucovina and Moldova on New Year’s Eve. The tradition aims to purify and fertilize the soil for the next year. The bear cult is of Geto-Dacian origins when the bear was a sacred animal.
The photos were taken as Romanian dancers performed the “bear” dance during a traditional parade in Comanesti. In pre-Christian rural traditions, dancers used to tour from house to house in villages while singing and dancing to ward off evil.
Nouvelle Vague, “In a Manner of Speaking”, Live in Lisbon
Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!
I started this blog in February and have passed 500 followers with many more people visiting and even more liking my posts. My thanks to all. I will try my best to keep it interesting and filled with images, songs and art to enjoy. My thanks also to all those blogs which I visited and those from which I reblogged posts. You have added new things to my life. My best wishes to you.
River: “The Eye of the Cockatrice”, Music by Harry Escott
River is a six-part British television drama series, created and written by Abi Morgan and starring Stellan Skarsgård and Nicola Walker. It premiered on BBC One on 13 October 2015, and internationally on Netflix on 18 November 2015. The series was commissioned by Charlotte Moore and Ben Stephenson. The executive producers are Jane Featherstone, Manda Levin, Abi Morgan and Lucy Richer. Filming began in London in October 2014. The series was made by Kudos and will be distributed globally by Shine International.
Vicki Power of The Daily Express reported Skarsgård saying of his role as DI River, “There’s not much research you can do because his condition doesn’t really exist as we know it. […] It’s a combination of problems, because he’s not like people who hear voices – they’re usually schizophrenic and lack empathy and he does not. But it doesn’t make it less truthful. What attracted me to the script is that it didn’t look like any other script I’ve ever read.”
Finding River to be “Kinda Wallander meets Sixth Sense”, Wollaston of The Guardian said, “It’s more than just crime drama – it’s about personal tragedy, demons; it’s a study of loss and grief (which it shares with the greatest Nordic noir of them all: the first series of The Killing). It’s also a study of that – killing – and why people do it. And why they did it – Mr Cream brings a historical perspective to it. And Abi Morgan, the creator of the series, brings a characteristic humanness to it all; it’s as much about who the people are as about what they do to each other. Good enough for me”.
Note: I just finished watching River; actually I was so riveted that I watched the entire series in one sitting. I am a big Wallander fan and never thought any show would be as intense. I highly recommend River. This is a must-see, particularly if you are into this genre. The music score by Harry Escott is one of his best.
“I ended up attending Williams College where I majored in Studio Art and Psychology. Within the art department, I was naturally drawn to the three-dimensional media of architecture and sculpture. What ensued was a sort of cross-pollination between the two media that led me to my current style and process.
Process is central to my work. Each project begins with a period of sketching followed by careful phases of planning, calculation and construction. While this process reflects my architectural interests, the forms I generate need not adhere to the rules of architecture. In this way, I employ a controlled method as a means of generating and exploring a variety of three-dimensional forms.
In my most recent work I generate architectural and organic forms, often with a hint of the fantastical or whimsical, that examine the role of tension in the storing and release of energy. With wood and wire as my primary materials, I have played with the suggestion of pent up energy held in check by opposing forces. Each piece maintains a state of potential energy that, if released, would result in a transformation of the work.” – Robby Cuthbert
Five Paintings by Charles Doan from His Show “Little Bar Stories”
Charles Doan is a visual artist living in Tampa, Florida. He received an Associate of Arts degree in Fine Arts from Hillsborough Community College. After graduating, eighteen months were spent researching, studying and producing paintings with the “Encaustic” painting technique in order to immerse himself in the potency of surface, depth and texture produced by the method. Since 1991, he has produced commission pieces, participated in exhibitions and produced self-directed works in welded steel, mixed-paint, drawing and photography.
The paintings of” Little Bar Stories” by Charles Doan were from the last 10 years of Ybor City’s West End. Ybor City is a historical neighborhood in Tampa, Florida located just northeast of downtown. It was founded in the 1880′s by cigar manufacturers and populated by immigrants from Cuba, Spain and Italy, The exhibition highlighted pieces documenting a career spanning 30 years on the west end of Ybor including Rough Riders and Oak Barrel in Ybor Square to Fuma Bella.
During the Opening Reception, national voice-over artist and local raconteur, David A. Waterman, told stories provided by long-time Ybor habitues and bon-vivants while a soundscape of ambient bar recordings played in the background. The exhibit ran in December 2015 at the Silver Meteor Gallery in Tampa, Florida.
Artist Unknown, (Six in a Row), Computer Graphics, Film Gifs
“We feel cold, but we don’t mind it, because we will not come to harm. And if we wrapped up against the cold, we wouldn’t feel other things, like the bright tingle of the stars, or the music of the aurora, or best of all the silky feeling of moonlight on our skin. It’s worth being cold for that.”
