Month: July 2016

Arch de Triumph

Arch de Triumph, Details, Paris, France

The Arc is located on the right bank of the Seine at the centre of a dodecagonal configuration of twelve radiating avenues. It was commissioned in 1806 after the victory at Austerlitz by Emperor Napoleon at the peak of his fortunes. Laying the foundations alone took two years and, in 1810, when Napoleon entered Paris from the west with his bride Archduchess Marie-Louise of Austria, he had a wooden mock-up of the completed arch constructed. The architect, Jean Chalgrin, died in 1811 and the work was taken over by Jean-Nicolas Huyot.

During the Bourbon Restoration, construction was halted and it would not be completed until the reign of King Louis-Philippe, between 1833 and 1836, by the architects Goust, then Huyot, under the direction of Héricart de Thury. On 15 December 1840, brought back to France from Saint Helena, Napoleon’s remains passed under it on their way to the Emperor’s final resting place at the Invalides. Prior to burial in the Panthéon, the body of Victor Hugo was displayed under the Arc during the night of 22 May 1885.

Jack Kerouac: “The Golden Eternities of Past Childhood”

Photographer Unknown,

“I felt like lying down by the side of the trail and remembering it all. The woods do that to you, they always look familiar, long lost, like the face of a long-dead relative, like an old dream, like a piece of forgotten song drifting across the water, most of all like golden eternities of past childhood or past manhood and all the living and the dying and the heartbreak that went on a million years ago and the clouds as they pass overhead seem to testify (by their own lonesome familiarity) to this feeling.”

—-Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums

Tom Robbins: “The Mystery Smell of the River”

Photographer Unknown, (A Handful of Gators)

“Louisiana in September was like an obscene phone call from nature. The air–moist, sultry, secretive, and far from fresh–felt as if it were being exhaled into one’s face. Sometimes it even sounded like heavy breathing. Honeysuckle, swamp flowers, magnolia, and the mystery smell of the river scented the atmosphere, amplifying the intrusion of organic sleaze. It was aphrodisiac and repressive, soft and violent at the same time. In New Orleans, in the French Quarter, miles from the barking lungs of alligators, the air maintained this quality of breath, although here it acquired a tinge of metallic halitosis, due to fumes expelled by tourist buses, trucks delivering Dixie beer, and, on Decatur Street, a mass-transit motor coach named Desire.”

― Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume

Matthew Lucas

Four Endless Loop Animation Gifs by Matthew Lucas

Some of the great looping gif animations bY Matthew Lucas.  “The original version of the GIF format was called 87a. In 1989, CompuServe devised an enhanced version, called 89a, which added support for animation delays (multiple images in a stream were already supported in 87a), transparent background colors, and storage of application-specific metadata.“

Many thanks to Andrew Davidson at http://littlelimpstiff14u2.tumblr.com

Matthew Lucas’s site:  http://mathewlucasdesign.tumblr.com

Joseph Conrad: “I Am Trying to Tell You a Dream”

Photographer Unknown, (Heart of Darkness)

“It seems to me I am trying to tell you a dream–making a vain attempt, because no relation of a dream can convey the dream-sensation, that commingling of absurdity, surprise, and bewilderment in a tremor of struggling revolt, that notion of being captured by the incredible which is of the very essence of dreams…No, it is impossible; it is impossible to convey the life-sensation of any given epoch of one’s existence–that which makes its truth, its meaning–its subtle and penetrating essence. It is impossible. We live, as we dream-alone…”

― Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

 

Studio Ghibli

Images from “The Red Turtle”, 2016, Written and Directed by animator Michaël Dudok de Wit, Co-produced by Wild Bunch and Studio Ghibli in association with Why Not Productions

Studio Ghibli: A Retrospective

A massive retrospective of legendary Studio Ghibli’s most recognizable creations, including a massive model of the airship from 1986 classic, “Castle in the Sky”, opened on July 8, 2016, on the observation deck of the Roppongi Hills Tokyo City View. Stationed 52 stories above the Tokyo skyline, the Studio Ghibli Expo is a must-visit for any fan fascinated by the depth of these animated worlds.

While the centerpiece is a massive display of flying machines—a career-long obssession for the master animator, Miyazaki—there are also three decades of posters, advertisements, movie stills, t-shirts, toys, lunchboxes, and puzzling creations, including a massive Ghibli-themed vase, all crammed onto the walls. Stills from classic Miyazaki films are displayed along Ghibli’s modern endeavors, like Cannes darling “The Red Turtle”. The show offers Ghibli-themed treats for all the senses. There’s a bar manned by a life-sized Totoro mannequin, and decorated with massive acorns worthy of Totoro’s home in the camphor tree. A café called The Sun offers 11 Ghibli-themed food items, like a soot sprite-inspired burger colored charcoal black, and an egg and toast dish reminiscent of Pazu’s specialty in Castle in the Sky.