Category: Culture

  • Justice My Foot and Flirting Scholar

    周星馳 Stephen Chow is a wonderful proponent of intelligent self ironic madhouse Chinese cinema humor.

    Links: Stephen Chow wikipedia.org

  • last.fm – super cool social music

    Last.fm has existed for some time on the Internet as an Internet radio station with lots of cool radio stations for any imaginal taste, but now something super cool as happened to Last.fmLast.fm as trancended into something entirely new – a hassle free super cool social music player. Last.fm scrubbles your favorite music from your iTunes or MP3 player (Scrobbling a song means that when you listen to it, the name of the song is sent to Last.fm and added to your music profile), learns about your music preferences from you, so you can share and receive preferences from others as you wish. Last.fm off curse integrates with your iPod and iPhone. And Last.fm integrates Firefox through the fire plugin. The design is simple, strict and slick in red, white and black – like the designers abc – exactly the way I like it. 

    Check it out.. its super cool – and companies like Apple should learn from, integrate or even buy Last.fm

    Links:
    Last.fm
    Fire.fm 1.1.3 Firefox plugin

  • The Road Not Taken

    Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

    I’m sorry I could not travel both
    And be one traveler, long I stood
    And looked down one as far as I could
    To where it bent in the undergrowth;

    Then took the other, as just as fair,
    And having perhaps the better claim,
    Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
    Though as for that the passing there
    Had worn them really about the same,

    And both that morning equally lay
    In leaves no step had trodden back.
    Oh, I kept the first for another day!
    Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
    I doubted if I should ever come back.

    I shall be telling this with a sigh
    Somewhere ages and ages hence:
    Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
    I took the one less traveled by,
    And that has made all the difference.

    Robert Frost

  • Wanderlust

    I am leaving this harbour,
    giving urban a farewell.
    Its habitants seem too keen on God
    I cannot stomach their rights and wrong.
    I have lost my origin,
    and I don’t want to find it again
    Rather sailing into nature’s laws
    and be held by ocean’s paws

    Wanderlust!
    relentlessly craving
    Wanderlust
    peel off the layers until you get to the core.
    Did i imagine it would be like this?
    Was it something like this i wished for,
    or will i want more?

    Lust for comfort suffocates the soul
    this relentless, restlessness
    liberates me.
    I feel at home whenever
    the unknown surrounds me.
    I receive its embrace
    aboard my floating home.

    Wanderlust!
    Relentlessy craving wanderlust.
    Peel off the layers until you get to the core.
    Did I imagine it would be like this?
    Was it something like this I wished for,
    or will I want more?

    Bjoerk
    http://media.ghostrobot.net/7020_wanderlust.html

  • Shake that Bird!

    I received this video from Olaf with this remark: “for me, this is evidence for musicality and ego (wait for the end!) in certain other species…” This parrot sings for itself. I would like to know of similar cases of animal musical disorder! And here is the original longer version with our new born star:

  • The king is dead Long live the King

    bobbyfisherage14A hero of mine returned home on January the 17.th. of 2008. The legendary king of Chess and undefeated world champion Bobby Fisher died in a hospital in Reykjavik, Island. In 1958 he became the youngest Grandmaster of Chess. Through the times Bobby Fisher was exceptionally eccentric both in and out of the chess game. I am a true admire of his genius. Bobby Fisher won the world championship against Boris Spassky in Island in 1972.

    magnuscarlsen2004

    In the end of January 2008 the Norwegian prince of Chess, Magnus Carlsen, won the prestigious Wijk an Zee Chess Tournament against the worlds best players including Radjabov, Kamnik and the current world champion Anand. By winning Magnus Carlsen achieved the highest rating in the world, an astonishing 2830. He is young! Magus Carlsen became a Chess Grand Master in 2004 at the age of 13. He is only 17 years old now! I have followed Magnus Carlsens fabulous ascend to the world top of Chess. A new king of mine and of the Chess world is born.

    Links:
    Bobby Fischer
    wikipedia.org
    Legendary World Champion Bobby Fischer died in Iceland fide.com
    Magnus Carlsen wikipedia.org
    Report of round 13
    coruschess.com
    THE WEEK IN CHESS 690 28th January 2008 by Mark Crowther
    chesscenter.com

  • The inner depths

    Inwardly alert, open, calm.
    Outwardly upright, extended, filled with spirit.
    This is the foundation of stillness.
    Add the hard and the soft, the powerful and the relaxed,
    Motion and stillness, contraction and extension:
    In the instant these converge, there is power.

    Grand Master Wang Xiang Zhai

    Reference:
    The Way of Power: Reaching Full Strength in Body and Mind
    Lam Kam Chuen
    ISBN: 9781856751988

    p. 18

    Links:
    Search Lam Kam Chuen at neigong.net

  • Transformations of a Spiritual Dragon

    A dragon, as spiritual luminosity, can be large or small, can rise or descend, can disappear or appear, can penetrate rocks and mountains, can leap in the clouds and travel with the rain. How can it do all this? Its done by the activity of the spirit.

    What I realize as I observe this is the Tao of inconceivable spiritual transmutation. The reason humans can be humans is because of the spirit. As long as the spirit is there, they live. When the spirit leaves, they die.

    The spirit penetrates heaven and earth, knows the past and present, enters into every subtlety, exist in every place. It enters water without drowning, enters fire without burning, penetrates metal and rock without a hindrance. It so large that it fills the universe, so small that it fits into a hairtip. It is imperceptible, ungraspable, inexplicable, indescribable.

    One who can use the spirit skillfully changes in accordance with time, and therefore can share the qualities of heaven and earth, share the light of sun and moon, share the order of the four seasons, command nature in the primordial state, and serve nature in the temporal state. This is like the transformations of the spiritual dragon, which cannot be seen in the traces of form.

    Reference:
    Awakening to the Tao
    by Liu I-Ming translated by Thomas Cleary
    ISBN: 159030344X

    P. 23-24

  • The Song of All the Chakras

    FEET IN THE SAND

    What is sand?
    Mountains and time
    The ongoing meeting of
    Matter and weather

    Now, for the lapse of a moment
    I am the king of the mountain
    Standing ever so relatively still
    On what’s left of forgotten giants

    Enjoying the caressing warmth of the sun
    Before we are washed to the sea

    LAVA

    A big bang and a seed was planted
    An explosion followed by implosion
    The first chapter of my story of creation
    Took place in a volcano’s seat
    So my source is liquid
    Melted, melting stone in motion
    Dependent on the burning fire
    Not to turn into concrete
    I try to keep the air channels open
    I fight to keep the wood supply sufficient
    I dance to enjoy the abundance
    Of lust and trembling heat

    YAWN AT DAWN

    The sun breaks the horizon
    In an overwhelming moment of light
    The tiger stretches its’ body out
    To wipe off the dull of the night
    Prepared for whatever the day will bring
    Of pleasures, of patience and fight

    So soft a being
    And still so tense
    Aware and awake in every sense
    No stress, no hurry, no worry, no strive
    But ready to do
    What it takes to survive

    BIRD

    I carry a precious bird in a cage
    And the bird is carrying me
    Both safe and protected by the ribs
    And capable of being free
    The more at home it feels within
    The further it’s able to fly away
    ´Cause happiness makes my little bird sing
    Tunes that caress what they meet on their way
    And for every soul that is able to listen
    The air is humming with songs from the hearts
    No need to feel lonely in the midst of creation
    Inside your chest
    Is where freedom starts

    FROM THE THROAT

    Hey, hey
    Here I am
    Here I stand

    Drinking of the wholly grail
    Singing without fear to fail
    From my centre reaching out
    Free to cry, to scream and shout
    Express anger and sorrow without being violent
    Or choose to remain receptive and silent

    Let my lips run over with joysparkling laughter
    By oration and song praise the world as it is
    My hands give wings and support, and everything’s merging
    As my love for life is shared in a kiss

    DIAMOND-TINGLE

    The water’s surface
    Clear as a mirror
    Quiet and still. Then a drop breaks the spell
    Rings in the water. A moment of movement
    A tone as crisp as a silverbell
    Mist dissolves, curtains are lifted
    Clouds drift away and the moon appears
    The air is so clean that I find myself listening
    To transparent harp sounds and angels’ tears
    The way pointed out by a star so bright
    A crystal ball beam-glowing in the night
    Images come, and images go
    Points of views in eternity flow

    ZENIT

    The energy source that once said ‘be light’
    Can never be grasped or defined
    All I can do is try to be open
    For the golden bliss of the divine

    The universe, so vast and endless
    Is loaded with power and light
    Stars and planets, and the space between them
    Float shimmering on through the night

    Through a soft spot in a solid skull grace gave me
    Access to this abundance of love
    When connection is made and the tunnel is open
    It floats steadily in from above

    Note:
    This was a present from a friend – what a nice present! 🙂

  • Soleil et Chair

    Le Soleil, le foyer de tendresse et de vie,
    Verse l’amour brûlant à la terre ravie,
    Et, quand on est couché sur la vallée, on sent
    Que la terre est nubile et déborde de sang ;
    Que son immense sein, soulevé par une âme,
    Est d’amour comme Dieu, de chair comme la femme,
    Et qu’il renferme, gros de sève et de rayons,
    Le grand fourmillement de tous les embryons !

    Et tout croît, et tout monte !

    From Arthur Rimbaud “Soleil et Chair”