tiger barn.

a fun track i recently recorded. enjoy!

tiger barn by facile

best of 2010.

my three émigré heroes.

vladimir nabokov

The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.

nabokov was a writer foremost, born at the turn of the 19th century to a russian émigré who took his family to england and subsequently germany. nabokov himself went on to america where he continued his passions - writing, entomology and chess. his writing style is characterised by an unusual pairing of sensory detail with ideas, objects and actions. his books rarely involve complex plots or significant character development, but instead an aesthetic appreciation for the world as the mind’s eye would see it. his most famous book, lolita, about a lonely man’s total, sexualised obsession with a teenage girl is seen by many as nabokov at the peak of his powers. his autobiography, speak, memory, has also achieved wide readership. nabokov points out here that he is a synesthete, or someone whose senses ‘short-circuit’ in predictable but unusual ways. for example, the number 5 is associated with the colour red. however, it is not just that when he thinks of 5, he sees red; all 5’s are red in his world. nabokov managed to tap into this curious ability and focus it into creating odd but delightful expressions that seemed wholly appropriate and particularly vivid. to this end, nabokov was a purveyor of the aesthetic - he cared almost exclusively for the style and language of a piece of literature and in doing so, suggested somewhat radically (as a literature professor at cornell) that great works should not thus be studied solely (or even very much) through the characters and concepts that are often taken as key. 

nikola tesla

The scientific man does not aim at an immediate result. He does not expect that his advanced ideas will be readily taken up. His work is like that of the planter — for the future. His duty is to lay the foundation for those who are to come, and point the way. He lives and labors and hopes.

  nikola tesla, an émigré (serbian by ethinicity, born on croatian land under the austrian empire), was an electrical engineer and inventor whose work underpinned the widespread use of electricity and the second industrial revolution. a contemporary and competitor to thomas edison, nikola tesla was a prolific inventor who formulated, constructed and tweaked his ideas in his head (as he has suggested numerous times) before even constructing anything. this, he said, was to ensure the most efficient and scientific approach and was something that, anyway, was entirely natural for a man of his abilities. tesla, a polyglot, spoke seven languages fluently. 

tesla was renowned for beating marconi to the invention of wireless transmission (to whom he subsequently lost the patent to) and for getting his alternating current system to be accepted in the mainstream over edison’s direct current (ironically, for which he was much later on presented the edison medal by the american institute of electrical engineers - its highest award). despite his numerous patents and contributions, his social reclusivity, odd habits, obsessive-compulsive disorder (as yet undiscovered at the time) and wild ideas and predictions made his a mad scientist figure in academic and eventually social circles, and tesla, despite the potential of some of his ideas and blueprints (wireless transmission of electricity, a weapon that shoots concentrated energy, an aeroplane capable of vertical take-off, a flying saucer powered remotely by electricity transmitters, etc), tesla never truly found the support and funding that his genius deserved. not one to care about finances or romances, he died alone and a pauper. 

 alphonse mucha

It was midnight, and there I was all alone in my studio in the rue du Val-de-Grace among my pictures, posters and panels.  I became very excited.  I saw my work adorning the salons of the highest society or flattering people of the great world with smiling and ennobled portraits.  I saw the books full of legendary scenes, floral garlands and drawings glorifying the beauty and tenderness of women.  This was what my time, my precious time, was being spent on, when my nation … was left to quench its thirst on ditch water.  And in my spirit I saw myself sinfully misappropriating what belonged to my people… .  I was midnight and, as I stood there looking at all these things, I swore a solemn promise that the remainder of my life would be filled exclusively with work for the nation. 

mucha, born in  moravia (part of which is now the czech republic) in the mid-19th-century, was a prolific artist renowned for his art nouveau work and iconic posters made in this style. primarily working with lithographs, mucha started off in paris creating posters for sarah bernhardt, the most famous parisian actress of the time. he branched out into advertisements, product and jewellery design and painting as well, and was credited for bringing art nouveau to the forefront of the french public’s consciousness. not a stranger to his own homeland, when czechoslovakia won its independence, mucha offered to design anything and everything he could for the new government - stamps, publicity materials, banknotes. having found a mentor and a bankroller in america, mucha revelled in slavic nationalism and saw it as his life purpose to capture the beauty and majesty of his people. he set about creating the slav epic, 20 huge paintings (approximately 18 by 24 feet) that celebrated significant moments from slavic history while subtly embedding legend, folklore, and political commentary into each scape. he finally, shortly before his death, completed this epic work that sought to put on a deserving pedestal (as he felt since childhood) his people, his homeland and their heritage in a style that truly captured the essence of czech art and culture. 

this, then, was his struggle - art nouveau was what made mucha famous and able to live comfortably, but it was his desire to communicate a higher message through his art that made him struggle for so long to break away from his reputation (as a proponent of the art nouveau to the world, and as a ‘western sell-out’ to the czech people), and allow his final masterpieces to stand on their own as a worthy pieces of art and not the grandiose indulgences of an old, disillusioned artist whose time has passed and identity had been fully dissolved.  mucha had mixed success in this, but ultimately, the people he sought so long to connect his art with have received it the way he wanted them to and he is hailed as a hero of the slavic people and one who has had a lasting impact in capturing and so, preserving, the heritage of his people. a museum dedicated to him in prague is the most visited sight there (after the prague castle and the old square/astronomical clock), and is testament to how synonymous he is with czech history and culture. it must be said though, that his art and his life would remain a mystery to most of us if not for the tireless efforts of his son, jiri, who wrote and campaigned relentlessly for this father to not be forgotten by the world, not least the czechs he longed for to be readopted by.

the cartoons of my youth.

i was just thinking of the cartoons that defined my youth. it’s amazing how so much about them have stuck with me over the years - the characters, the oft-used expressions, the theme songs and more. i sometimes wish that the simple aesthetic and production values never left television, but then i suppose that’s why we have reruns on tv and thankfully, youtube. here are 15 of my favourite cartoons of all time, with their respective intros. 

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vancouver.

the winter olympics came to an end last night and i’m pleased to say that i somewhat gave a damn. many have probably already waxed lyrical on their blogs about how much this olympics has opened their eyes to the beauty of winter sports and while i don’t begrudge them their sentiments, my reasons for enjoying the winter olympics are far simpler: i got to kick some ass myself.

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essential communication.

i just got out from a mandatory class on essential communication and it was terrible. i was wondering what i could write about today and this has to be it, because i believe there needs to be a footnote to this experience, one most people will go through at some point in their lives or careers (mandatory or otherwise).

i’ll start by saying that i’m far from a formidable communicator. i sometimes don’t listen when i ought to and at times i am unable to muster an authentic conversation with joe bloggs (as the generic man is called here in england) because i probably ask too many closed questions. this isn’t a rant on what a good course on communication should be like but to point out that courses like these just don’t work in their present format.

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