MAY 8, 2009

"I've done the portrait of M. Gachet with a melancholy expression, which might well seem like a grimace to those who see it. And yet I had to paint it like that to convey how much expression and passion there is in our present-day heads in comparision with the old calm portraits, and how much longing and crying out. Sad but gentle, yet clear and intelligent, that is how many portraits ought to be done. At times it might well make some impression on people."

(page 496, from THE LETTERS OF VINCENT VAN GOGH, translated by Arnold Pomerans. This is from a letter of June 1890, written to his sister, Wil)

Blog Queen at Sunny beach in a Hot summer + Dare to try Dancer and Game girls?

One week is over, Sat is holiday, but becomes off-in-liew.... too bad, no long weekend... so what are the juiciest post.... just search a few... been so busy with works......

Do you dare to try? In the shop? Because they ask you to try......

Hot Summer and Hot Wife, check out wha the hot wife gives her husband as birthday gift.

Dancer in green short take photos + Part 2

Girls from game come true + many parts... (I don't find the links, go and find yourself)

Most revealing wedding gown, this one is really.......

And check out what this boss says: 杀价时，请撒娇

She is Queen - Queen of blog

And the Queen introduces you - Sunny Beach at Australia - in her bikini


Videos:

Hong Kong Cheung Chau Bun Festival : HD video, you feel like yourself be part of the video.

Horny couple at McD : Quite lengthy..... the fun part is listen to the camera man speaking

Model falls down on run way : Gosh... unlucky girl.....

Miss USA runner up Carrie Prejean lose her crown : I thought USA is more open minded, and Miss California got so many news, last time the judge critise a girl on her disagreement on gay marriage.....

Click here for more Juiciest Posts of the Week

WASHING-TAIN / BOX OF RAIN

It was after hearing that Robert Hunter, lyricist for the Grateful Dead, co-wrote eight of the new songs on Bob Dylan's "Together Through Life," that I was prompted to see if my memory served me well with the recollection that the last vinyl album I bought was "Dylan & the Dead." Yep.

Previous to this week, when I bought a vinyl copy of Bob Dylan's "Together Through Life," the last vinyl album I bought was "Dylan & the Dead," a live album from Grateful Dead Productions, Inc, released in 1989. I only listened to it one or two times, as I was not much of a Grateful Dead fan after 1971 and wasn't impressed with Dylan on that live album. A few days ago, I listened to "Dylan & the Dead" again. It sounds much better than I had remembered. We're all so much older, that's for sure. Many of us have died. Those who were born in 1989 are as old today as Dylan was in 1961.

When I look at the tracks on that old live album, recorded in 1987, I see that two of its seven songs are from "Slow Train Coming" (Bob Dylan's Christian years of the early 1980s), and the final song is "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" from the soundtrack of "Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid" from 1973.

On the new album is a song titled "Forgetful Heart." It ends with:

"The door has closed forevermore
If indeed there ever was a door."

So twenty years went by, just like that. Albums were replaced by cassette tapes, cassette tapes replaced by CDs, CDs replaced by iTunes. Not to mention years of war, terrorist attacks and more war. And Barack Obama is President of the United States today.

As with all except the first of the Bob Dylan albums, I can't say that I like all the songs on this new album. They hurt where I hurt. They are hard to listen to. There is anger, sorrow, loneliness, grief,and dark humor here. The old songs couldn't touch where we hadn't been hurt yet. The new songs don't touch where we haven't been healed yet. Still, as always, I am moved in unexpected ways.

Robert Hunter's "Box of Rain"

SUNSHINE AT WHATCOM CREEK

"And if you should conclude from these remarks that I meant to suggest your advice was worthy of a quack, then you have completely misunderstood me, as I have no such thoughts or opinions about you. If, on the other hand, you believe that I would do well to follow your advice literally to become an engraver of invoice headings & visiting cards or a bookkeeper or factotum -- or the advice of my very dear sister Anna to devote myself to the baker's trade or many other suchlike things, curiously at odds and hardly compatible -- you would be making another mistake."

(page 63, from THE LETTERS OF VINCENT VAN GOGH, translated by Arnold Pomerans. This is from a letter of August 1879, written to his brother, Theo. Vincent did his first painting in November of 1881, after spending several years learning to draw rather than taking a job "at odds and hardly compatible."

Although I don't think of Vincent van Gogh as someone who walked in the woods or painted woodlands, I found this from 1882 when he was still living in the north. His woods look oppressive, unlike the vibrant paintings he did in the south of France.

Last night I dreamed that I saw an ad for a job as a medical transcriptionist in the hospital where I used to work. The ad had been placed in a comic strip. I jumped up in excitement at the thought of being employed again. Then I stopped and said to myself, "Hey, wait a minute. Why would I want that job again, much less in a comic strip world?"

"At odds and hardly compatible," as Vincent said to Theo.

Hot webcam babe Ann - my new webcam snapshots

WHAT VINCENT SAID

"Someone who has been wandering about for a long time, tossed to and fro on a stormy sea, will in the end reach his destination. Someone who has seemed to be good for nothing, unable to fill any job, any appointment, will find one in the end and, energetic and capable, will prove himself quite different from what he seemed at first."

(page 73, from THE LETTERS OF VINCENT VAN GOGH, translated by Arnold Pomerans. This is from a letter of July 1880, written to his brother, Theo.)

This morning I took a 1-1/2 hour walk in the city park in my neighborhood. That's Whatcom Falls in the morning light as I was returning home. The black and white and shades of grey photographed truer than any color I could photograph.

SUN SHINING THROUGH THE CLOUDS

"For look: people used to think that the earth was flat. That was true, and still is today, of, say, Paris to Asnieres.

But that does not alter the fact that science demonstrates that the earth as a whole is round, something nobody nowadays disputes.

For all that, people still persist in thinking that life is flat and runs from birth to death.

But life, too, is probably round, and much greater in scope and possibilities than the hemisphere we now know."

(page 370, from THE LETTERS OF VINCENT VAN GOGH, translated by Arnold Pomerans. This is from a letter of June 1888, written to his brother, Theo.)

Dear blog friends, new and old,

With my limited energy, it's all I can do to post on my blog recently. I am grateful for your comments and grateful for your blogs with their beauty, insight and humor. I don't mean to be rude when I don't respond directly to comments recently. Am trying to pace myself. When I had more time and energy, I was spending from 6 to 8 hours each day responding to comments and making comments on other blogs after posting on my blog. I loved doing that! For the time being, I need to work on my book and go back to school so that I can find a job again. Hope your day is a good one!

Kind wishes always,
am