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Understanding rules

Matisyahu…yet another post about music

The first song that got me was “One day”

The music is nice but this time it was purely the words that caught my attention and whenever I listen to the song my soul sings along:

…
sometimes in my tears I drown
but I never let it get me down
so when negativity surrounds
I know some day it’ll all turn around
because
all my life I’ve been waiting for
I’ve been praying for
for the people to say
that we don’t wanna fight no more
there’ll be no more wars
and our children will play
…

Another one

And a part of the lyrics:

…
There is a place in the bottom of the soul,
It’s no bread of restitution
Hearts smashed flat like dough
Where there is no pollution

Mute with no words to hold
Hopes, questions or solutions
Bedrock of a river that flowed
No past, present or future

We are men of nature
We are made from the earth
At the end of my eighty, I’ll return to the dirt
Just sand, just rock, dry land, fast and silent
Only bein’ only breathin’
…

I like the spiritual touch. It inspires me to create. We will see what comes out if it =)

Ok and one more =)

Enjoy the way he plays with words

…
With ease and grace we stay laced
As we move through the space dancing on a blade
Of grass at twilight a firefly fly free through the night
I shine bright from the ground to the sky
…

 

 

Laleh and sharing music impressions

I have been listening to Laleh recently and her new album makes me happy. There are so many instruments, so many sounds, I would say that every single note is thought-through. When I notice a new sound, my heart jumps, because it makes total sense to me in her song. Laleh is a story teller – through her lyrics and music.

When I listen to her songs I want to share with someone all the time. “Have you heard that sound? Have you heard that subtile melody? Have you..?”  And then I think back to my teenage years to especially one summer holiday when me and my friend had a walkman each and we listened to the same songs while walking somewhere together and then we would share what we liked. There I felt I could share and also that someone understood exactly what I liked about a song. Was wonderful time =)

She is good Laleh. She is a story teller. Anyone wants to listen to her with me?

Banksy

I have been looking at some street art recently and today I felt for some classics so I visited Banksy’s web. I love the work, his thoughts and the playful criticism. And the “shop” part of the webpage made me smile, so I share the content here in the case you are lazy to click around.

SHOP
Banksy does not make photo canvases, mugs, wall stickers, greeting cards or T shirts.

Please feel free to:

– Copy any Banksy imagery in any way for any kind of personal amusement

– Make your own Banksy marchandise for non commercial purpose

– Pretend you drew it yourself for art homework

Please do not:
– Put up signs saying “strictly no photographs”when all you do is sell photographs of my graffiti
– Write ‘Banksy’ next to an image of a panda waving hand guns (not mine, don’t know whose it is)
– Take images off my website and ‘license’ them for a huge fee to a fucking German calendar company

The piano keys are black and white, but they sound like a million colours in your mind

Recently I have been blogging/drawing in the other blog I share with Maik and is our common project: prajna vanguard but I feel that this one belongs here. This song brings me back to 2006 and Active seminar about prejudice and stereotypes. I have heard it just recently again and consider it still wonderful. Here we go:

“Spider’s Web” (Katie Melua)

If a black man is racist, is it okay?
If it’s the white man’s racism that made him that way,
Because the bully’s the victim they say,
By some sense they’re all the same.Because the line between,
Wrong and right,
Is the width of a thread,
From a spider’s web.
The piano keys are black and white,
But they sound like a million colours in your mind.

I could tell you to go to war,
Or I could march for peace and fighting no more,
How do I know which is right,
And I hope he does when he sends you to fight.

Because the line between wrong and right,
Is the width of a thread from a spider’s web,
The piano keys are black and white,
But they sound like a million colours in your mind.

Should we act on a blame?
Or should we chase the moments away?
Should we live?
Should we give?
Remember forever the guns and the feathers in time.
Because the line between wrong and right,
Is the width of a thread from a spider’s web,
The piano keys are black and white,
But they sound like a million colours in your mind.
The piano keys are black and white,
But they sound like a million colours in your mind,
But they sound like a million colours in your mind

How much would you pay me so I won’t get corrupted?

I have been thinking and planning to write this blog for some weeks now since I saw a FB status discussing “prevention” of corruption. The author asked whether a ceratain sum of money as salary politicians (or judges – I do not remember now) should get would be enough so they are not “corruptable”. The interesting thing that happened in my mind then was that I started thinking about the sum – whether that’s enough or not but then I reflected again and came to another conclusions:

1. Salaries should value people’s work – meaning what people do and not what they do not do. Politicians are supposed to do their job and be paid for it and not to be paid for not cheating on their states. Teachers are not paid for NOT teaching wrong facts. They are paid to do their job – passing on correct information. I could continue like this with all the occupations. If a builder builds wrong  – s/he gets fired and does not get even higher salary to start building correctly. That would be a kind of blackmailing (“I will do good job only if you pay me more”)

2. If I understand the argument to pay politicians more so they do not tend/need to take money from other sources correctly, then it means to me, that the amount of the money they receive is exactly the amount of money that makes the life good and prevents all the other craving for more. This is actually a message that all the salaries that are under that amount do NOT provide this standard of living – are not sufficient for providing a good life for people which leads to MANY underpaid people.

3. Resistance to corruption is not about the salary. I was in Slovakia for some days recently and I got to hear every single evening in the TV news that someone from “high circles” got corrupted regardless how much money they already have. To get corrupted is about moral and not about the height of the salary. If a person does not have a moral, then none will prevent him/her from getting involved in “private” businesses with the intention for personal profit (More money is always better than less). And if a person has principles that do not support corruption, the salary does not matter. Mostly if the salary covers food and living (which when it comes to the salary of politicians, usually does)

To make things clear, I am not against politicians getting good salaries. In the ideal situation, they carry lots of responsibility and make decisions that carry their country and fellow citizens and for that they deserve life worth living exactly as teachers, doctors, cleaning ladies/gentlemen, builders, architects, bus drivers etc.

Little bit about 2011…via TED talks

When I think about my 2011, I think of various moments, situations, songs, movies, people who were dominating those 12 month. This blog is about TED talks that I listened to and went back to several times as after listening to them I felt inspired, rich, motivated, amazed, impressed, challenged – and those feelings are the ones that drive me forward.

First of all: Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity. I love that woman. I like her opinions and I enjoy her narration – the choice of words, her wit and of course – the message. I have heard this TED talk long time ago, but I returned to it several times during 2011 and her words in the last part of the talk guided me several times. If I want to create, whether I feel inspired or not, “it’s just to pop up for my part of the job and the inspiration will come (or not)” It’s in a way a cool thought that makes me independent from inspiration thus I do not end up frustrated that I am not inspired. I had a use of it several times in 2011 when I wanted to go out and photograph or wanted to illustrated something but I actually did not know what. I just knew I like doing it but I did not have anything concrete that drove me. But then I went out/took a pencil and just started shooting/drawing. Usual stuff. Nothing revoutionary. But in the end of the process I was on a completely different level than in the beginning. The “vision” came – just because I had my mind open and alert for creating something new and I was there – ready (having the camera or the pencil) to transform it into something concrete.

The next one that really got under my skin is the one with the title: “Use art to turn the world inside out”. I watched it several times. It inspired me even so long that I wrote a project for Active and we carried out 8 months long campaign driven by the idea from this talk. I was focused a lot on photography during 2011, I was reading about it much more than I used to, I took some courses, I listened to podcasts about it and in this talk I also got to see the beauty of it in practice when it (photography/art) serves a higher purpose.

The next TED talk I saw for the first time somewhen in the end of November. It came to me at the time when I really needed to see it. It partially inspired the content of my workshop I held in Thailand and it made me feel better about the world. I think it brings hope but at the same time it is a bit scary to realize that the human race knows everything to be able to live worthy life, friendly to the planet and to our human fellows BUT we still go for the worse solutions served to us by the industry.

Yet another older TED talk that I stumbled upon again in 2011. It moves me to tears and moves me forward at my work and in my life.

Little bit about 2011..warm up!

I am going around summing up my 2011 and I will soon share it here as well. Just to warm up, I can mention one thing already: 2011 was the year of drawing and graphics. 2011 was also a year of my 30th birthday which means it was 30th birthday of several of my friends who I have known since kindergarten. I did not organize a birthday party to celebrate my day but when I was in Slovakia in the end of the year, me and my friends met to celebrate our friendship and the tradition we used to have as teenagers – celebrating birthdays together. Knowing I will meet incredible important people to me, my need for drawing just grew as drawing and art are my way of dealing with emotions. So I sat down and made a collage of words that bring back our history. It was a great exercise that felt almost like meditation. One memory brought another and I was back in time watching all situations I remembered, with distance and possibility to reflect and understand what and who made me the person I am now.

memories

The best medicine

This miracle will save my day and help me get rid of the cold I brought from Berlin…

Journey home

On the way home to Slovakia having too many bags (old clothes to give away, some presents, dog stuff and the camera equipment) but with wonderful feeling from the year that has passed, looking forward to some days off that will be filled with my hobbies. exclusively.

The medium for the journey is the train this time. The wish to spend the Xmas with Dante in Slovakia did not give many other options so we are on the way ready to reach the final destination in 30 hours. The length is not a problem as 30 hours can be filled with really cool stuff I usually don’t have time to do. But SJ keeps it’s standard and tells us somewhere in the middle of the journey Stockholm – Copenhagen that their trains are from this point and on cancelled and that we have exactly 5 minutes to pack everything what we unpacked for 5 hours long train trip and run to another platform just to see the train leaving.

Little bit of adrenaline, plans to complain and claim back money and dignity and we are sitting on a new train little bit behind the original plan but still all good.

…to be continued…