Skinny Love

I'm sure I need not re-iterate the greatness of Bon Iver's album For Emma, Forever Ago as the band has received much media (indie?) attention last year and the album has been on many lists of 'best albums of 2008'. What I particularly love about Bon Iver is the great sense of loneliness and remoteness that the music exudes. I remember there was a time when I became quite emotional while listening to Skinny Love.

Today I learned to play the song and tried to sing along. The singing is pretty terrible but because of the unique guitar tuning, the guitar part sounds beautiful. Try it and tune to CGEGCC.

Nighthawks

Edward Hopper's Nighthawks is one of my favourite paintings. Certainly it has influenced my photography. It has all my favourite photographic ingredients: cinematic mood and viewpoint, construction of shapes and diagonals, lonesome figures, light/dark contrast... Apparently the restaurant depicted was inspired by one in Greenwich Village - one of my favourite part of town in NYC.

Looking at this painting now reminds me of a beautiful French film I saw recently: 35 Shots of Rum. It's a film about a functional family, instead of a dysfunctional one. The film doesn't have much of a storyline and has very little dialogue. It has however, an excellent cast, a beautiful score and cinematography. The film captures the love between a father and daughter in some very ordinary but beautiful moments, such as riding together on a motorbike, having dinner together, the daughter smiling on hearing her father entering the apartment... The film is tender, warm, and as a reviewer noted, 'smooth like rum'. The film contains several shots of the Paris train tracks, from the viewpoint of the father, a train driver. There is also a scene of the family at a small Parisian bar/restaurant on a rainy night. These lonesome moments (of unknown/complex emotions) echo the mood created in Hooper's painting.

From somewhere hot, humid, strange and yet familiar. Another Beginning.

It's been long overdue. I'm back, again. This time writing from a different continent. And this time, I hope to return to post everyday (at least a few times a week!) Writing will do me good, and perhaps, provide someone out there with some random information about something interesting. I don't know what to focus on writing yet, but I'll figure it out once I writing a couple of posts.

This past Sunday we went to the Peak as it is customary for us to go there every Sunday morning. This time though, it was pouring on the way up the mountain and visibility was about 0.5. Luckily it stopped raining when we got there. It was still extremely misty and wet; but it created a beautiful atmosphere. Plus there was hardly anyone around! Here are two photos that show that magnificent mood. I wish I carried a proper camera - I would have spent hours photographing that morning.