Self-portrait.

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and you, you bitch
with your prison guard keys
you followed me home
and you spat demands
in my face

and all i can think is
i am so out of focus
i am so out of focus

Don’t miss the Martin Parr exhibitions at the Baltic Gateshead – on until Jan 17th 2010

source – artnews

I have visited the Martin Parr exhibitions at the Baltic, Gateshead twice – and am still trying to work out what the feeling is that his work gives me.

The new exhibition is called Luxury – and includes the above shot and a whole range of others of the rich indulging in different parts of the world.  Could he (should he) also re-present the noveau-poor and make it as hard-hitting as Bill Brandt’s views of the upper and lower classes?  Or is his gently-satirical and affectionate voice too accepting of the foibles of all classes?

The Parrworld exhibition is just plain interesting – on many counts.  His collections enrich the way we receive his work – we get  better idea about the mind that selects this shot, and that and that.

The collection of his photo-books (on which he is an expert and has published) is a fine display.  The one that got me most was the beautiful inscription from Cartier-Bresson.  It was also great to see prints from world masters and from fine North-East photographers.

But I don’t think you can really get into the man, or let him into your sensibility without including his films Martin Parr’s Moving Pictures especially Part One: Modern Times – Think of England.  Modern Times – think of England shows his sympathy and a kind, gentle inquiry voice as they camera records the food,and holidays, and recreation of (mainly) the English.  It’s not a pretty picture – it is not pastoral or elegiac, or sanitized. The racism is there along with the disgusting food.  But above all there is bemusement and acceptance – and not, as with Louis Theroux, with a sense of superiority.  I don’t suppose for one moment that Parr shares the values embedded in most of what he photographs or films but Parr is accepting of the diversity of people – and he enables us to look without our habitual judgementalism – or at least provides a space in which to look before we make judgement.  The photographs are a re-arrangement of elements that hold back judgment.

I am starting to focus the feeling – and some of its main elements are;

A satire that is more kind than vicious – though it is unflinching about the mores of his subjects.

For me – a fellow-Englander and a fellow Brit.

A document-provider and celebrator of ‘low’ culture

A celebrator of foibles – gentle and satirical.

Photographs that seem like snap-shots write large.

Photographs that make us look and see – before we judge and en-box.

His work is historical, but largely nostalgia-free.

Martin Parr holds up a pretty straight mirror – and he frames in a largely kind and accepting frame.

Aside from the main issues – such as the economy, unemployment, the war in Afghanistan and the environment – it looks as if one of the policies that the Tories will be standing on is the raising of the Inheritance Tax threshold from £325 000 to £2 000 000.

Labour, on the other hand, are promising a more modest rise to £700 000.

It’s interesting, if somewhat predictable, to see that two pieces of low rent bog paper august journalistic organs – the Mirror and the New Statesman – are attacking the Tory proposals as some sort of attempt to feather the nests of the members of a future Tory cabinet.

Of course, this has Labour supporters up in arms as the ‘Tory toffs’ look after their own, but if anyone with half a fucking brain cell looks at the Labour proposals, they’re pretty inadequate.

A fairly modest semi-detached house in Wembley, like the one above for example, sells for something in the region of £450 000. It’s not exactly Buckingham Palace and it may be how someone’s parents have decided to provide a family home and invest for the future. They could have bought it 25 years ago for £100 000 or so and, in common with many people, seen its value steadily rise over the years, before seeing a bit of a decline recently.

So, let’s say that the widowed father in this family dies and leaves his house and the rest of his estate to his two children.

It’s not impossible that he’s made some investments and accrued a nice little nest egg of £300 000 or so as well.

Under Labour plans his children would pay Inheritance Tax. Not much, but why should they pay any at all?

That house represents the efforts of someone to provide for their family through some sort of effort – work, investment, whatever – for which they have been taxed already.

Why should the government get any more?

Now that that person is dead after contributing to Society in taxes then why not just leave them the FUCK alone and allow their children to benefit?

The Tories’ £2 000 000 threshold is more sensible, but even then, I can see no moral justification for taxing the assets of a dead person.

It’s impossible to finish this post without this quote on the subject:

Unite general secretary Derek Simpson said: “The Mirror’s investigation shows just how self-serving the Tories really are. They want to feather their own nests but slash our public services and make hard-working families work for longer and for less.

“Working families should fear the Tories – they are not on their side. A Tory government would wreck Britain’s economy and public services.”

Never before, in the field of human hypocrisy, has so much arse gravy been spewed out from the rancid lips of such an utter and total cunt.

Let me remind you, Simpson was the fucking stoat-felching shit stain that ran up huge hotel bills on Union money – as detailed here in an earlier post of mine.

In short, this staunch Labour ally spends £400 a night on hotel rooms when he’s on ‘union business’.

And he’s on your side, all you small-minded, envious Labour drones.

Thank FUCK he isn’t on mine.

And remember, when Daddy dies and you get buttfucked by the taxman when you sell his house, Derek’s on your side – so everything will be all right.

For him, you fucking mugs, for him.

Sono passati 18 lunghi anni da quel lontano 24 novembre del 1991…

“Non voglio cambiare il mondo, lascio che le canzoni che scrivo esprimano le mie sensazioni e i miei sentimenti. Per me la felicità è la cosa più importante e se sono felice il mio lavoro lo dimostra. Alla fine tutti gli errori e tutte le scuse sono da imputare solo a me. Mi piace pensare di essere stato solo me stesso e ora voglio soltanto avere la maggior quantità possibile di gioia e serenità, e immagazzinare quanta più vita riesco, per tutto il poco tempo che mi resta da vivere.”(Ultima intervista di Freddie Mercury, 1991)

Queen — These Are The Days Of Our Lives

Sometimes I get to feelin

I was back in the old days – long ago

When we were kids when we were young

Thing seemed so perfect – you know

The days were endless we were crazy we were young

The sun was always shinin – we just lived for fun

Sometimes it seems like lately – I just don’t know

The rest of my lifes been just a show

Those were the days of our lives

The bad things in life were so few

Those days are all gone now but one thing is true

When I look and I find I still love you

You can’t turn back the clock you can’t turn back the tide

Aint that a shame

Id like to go back one time on a roller coaster ride

When life was just a game

No use in sitting and thinkin on what you did

When you can lay back and enjoy it through your kids

Sometimes it seems like lately – I just don’t know

Better sit back and go with the flow

Cos these are the days of our lives

They’ve flown in the swiftness of time

These days are all gone now but some things remain

When I look and I find no change

Those were the days of our lives – yeah

The bad things in life were so few

Those days are all gone now but one things still true

When I look and I find

I still love you

This tunic is a light blue hand printed fabric. It is  a very fine cotton,ideal for summer wear. The color was perfect for jeans .but later on ,this also took the avatar of salwar top[Indian tunic].I made a  square pattern around  the mirror and repeated it as  a border design.-

Light blue cotton tunicFor the central motif, I just extended the basic pattern. the sleeve border design-sleeves of blue tunic

Secercah keoptimisan itu hilang, hilang dalam beberapa hari ini, hilang seiring aku meninggalkan Tuhan, mulai merasa meragukan Tuhan. Merasa bahwa hidup ini tidak adil untukku, merasa aku tidak sanggup menjalaninya, merasa semua rencanaku tidak berjalan sempurna. Mengutuki semua kegagalan dalam hidupku.

Kadangkala aku berpikir apakah aku yang terlalu menuntut, menuntuk kesempurnaan dari Sang Pencipta. Tidak pernah bersyukur. Padahal nafas, denyut nadi, udara yang aku hirup ini adalah sekelumit hal kecil yang patut aku syukuri. Oh, sedemikian banyak buku motivasi dan religi tetap saja membuat hati mengalahkan logikaku, lagi-lagi kubiarkan SETAN menguasai hatiku, mengaduk-aduk pikiraknku. Ya Allah jauhkanlah aku dari setan, iblis, goadaan terkutuk itu, dekatkanlah aku pada-MU, ajarilah ingatkanlah aku untuk selalu mensyukuri nikmatmu bukannya malah menyalahkan keadaan ini, yang secara langsung berarti menyalahkan-MU….forgive me Allah SWT.

Ya, aku mengutuki keadaan ini karena aku merasa sendirian. Aku merasa lemah dan dianggap lemah jika harus mengungkapkan masalahku pada orang lain. So i keep it by myself, aku tidak mau orang muak akan semua kelemahan yang aku utarakan. Ya, aku mengutuki ini karena aku jauh dari suamiku, jauh dari orang tuaku. Ya aku ingin salah satu dari mereka ada di sampingku, bahkan keduanya ada, sungguh aku sangat mengharapkan itu.

Tetapi inilah hidup, tidak hanya manis yang ku kecap, pahit pun harus aku telan. Tidak ada pahit yang akan selalu pahit, kepahitan akan berbuah manis, tapi aku sulit percaya itu. Tidak ada gunanya mulut berbusa-busa berusaha berbagi pada orang lain, air mata basah membanjiri sangatlah percuma, hal itu tidak akan merubah keadaan.

Yang kubutuhkan hanya , coba yakin pada diriku sendiri, coba berpikir bahwa aku bisa, coba menghapus segala kerugian, coba mengusir segala kecemasan, karena kita hanya hidup hari ini, masa lalu adalah usang bila perlu kuburlah, masa depan masihlah misterius. Jangan coba-coba buang waktu kita hanya tenggelam dalam ketakutan akan detik, menit, jam, bahkan hari ke depan.

Find your own solution, be sure of that, mantapkan langkah kaki ke depan tanpa memberi waktu bagi otak untuk berpikir yang tidak-tidak. Terkadang kita justru lebih kuat daripada pikiran kita sendiri. Just like my mom always says, what you are thinking/ believing  is what you are doing.

“She left the web, she left the loom,
She made three paces through the room,
She saw the water-lily bloom,
She saw the helmet and the plume,
She look’d down to Camelot.
Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack’d from side to side;
“The curse is come upon me,” cried
The Lady of Shalott.”

Tuesday November 24, 2009 By Kevin Morrow

Now social conditioning to me merely means how the mind sees reality. How you grow up and the environment you live in determines the values put inside of your mind. It does this until you decide to be in charge. Social conditioning structures things like how we view marriage, sex, relationships, and boundaries of what is acceptable and not acceptable.

The difference between a girl that is your friend and a “girlfriend” is a social label. It’s a conditioning of the mind to recognize the difference between a casual and a not so casual “friend.” What I’m getting at is these things get downloaded into our mental programs of reality.

One of my girlfriends and I got along way better after the energy of a “label” was taken away in our interactions. The label puts the mind into separation, which is a separation from love. Think about this, if you have a conversation with a married person you may automatically close of doors to certain forms of love because you feel that persons love is reserved for one person.

I’m not talking about sex here, or intimate things of that nature. I’m talking about closing the doors to potential mind healing because you hear the label married, and assume that you have to close yourself of to certain types of love.

This is not the case, people in perfect love are responsible for their actions and would be open to all forms of love instead of closing them self off to the possibility. Again I’m not talking about sex, I’m talking about communication.

It’s just been socially conditioned into the minds and it takes an element of freedom away. When freedom is no longer free, things become uncomfortable. You can still talk to a married person and share energy, but that doesn’t mean you have to sleep with them. Sex is not love anyway. Sex is to reproduce, and that’s it. It is viewed as fun because it is the representation of union. Love separated and then combined. It’s an attempt to reconnect with perfect love through the body.

Ever notice though that sex is more mental? Love is not sex, but sex can be love. It’s the separation of mind that creates the labels and creates illusion through its “perceived” separation from love.

Do you know why sex is one of the most dominant urges of the human experience? The reason is it’s a material attempt to reconnect with G-D and perfect love. Separation and union, separation and union, just like the mind has done with LOVE.

WHY DO PEOPLE GET HURT OVER BREAKUPS?

People get hurt over breakups because they don’t understand love. They are trying to make something perfect that cannot be if it’s not perfect love. In order to have perfect love your mind cannot have separation from love.

The mind is creating a social conditioning image of love through the eyes of the EGO. So you build up all these expectations of how “”PERFECT” something should be, and then when it’s not “PERFECT” your expectations are shattered. When expectations don’t live to what you see, your EGO get’s pissed. The only way to support a separation from perfect love is to make you see it through foggy classes.

So you chase something you can’t really see, and you keep chasing because you really think your seeing it. Like a cat chases the light of a flashlight across the floor. The cat can never actually catch the light, because what it is actually seeing is not what it thinks it’s seeing.

When you label yourself as only giving your love to one person, you severely restrict yourself. Once again I’m not talking about sex. The spirit which is PERFECT LOVE doesn’t need sex, and probably experiences orgasmic energy all the time because it’s not separated from reality.

Now if you flip the script and dedicate yourself to be intimately in love with yourself, out of perfect love, then situations of perfect love will be yours to experience. EXACTLY how you believe them to be possible.

Now back to social conditioning

If you look to the outside world to figure out what love is, all you will see is fear. Things in the world pass away, therefore fear will be in the outside world. When you get married you say “Till death do us part.” Strong statement, but death can be of the mind as well. But death can only be of the mind that isn’t real.

Anything real will last, anything not real will pass away. Real love has no boundaries. You see this sometimes in mother child interactions. There are mothers that have unconditional love for their children no matter what they do in life. They see them through perfect love vision.
Nothing can destroy perfect love, but illusions can make it seem that way.

The thing that ego fears worth is death. All EGO is, is the separation from perfect love. So when you fear love, you are fearing the death of love, not love itself. Just remember that love cannot die.

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Isn’t it great that we can look through a camera lens and immediately identify if the subject we are looking at is in focus or blurry and make any necessary corrections before capturing the shot.  And photographers are so great at making sure the subject is centered in the frame and is in the most flattering pose…not one with eyes closed and a double chin that shouldn’t be there.  And, isn’t it interesting that we have a hard time doing that if we turn the camera around, hold it at arm’s length and take it of ourselves.   What others see when they look at us through the camera lens does not seem to match up with the built-in camera in our head.

I think some of this begins when we were little and we were taught not to be stuck on ourselves.  Little comments that were made by well-intentioned adults cautioning us against being vain and liking what we see when we look in the mirror.  While I agree that we shouldn’t encourage narcissism, we also shouldn’t encourage false modesty or feeling bad for feeling good!  I also think there are adults, who when little girls and little boys, liked how they looked or simply liked themselves, until someone came along, who was jealous or spiteful or foolish, and told them that they had something wrong with their person.  Usually it’s a physical feature that is attacked, but it can also be intelligence or ability.  Such as: You’re really not that smart; There are better ball players than you; Too bad you didn’t get first place like me; Hahahaha, you got a C on the test!  Wow, it wasn’t that hard.

These are the things that cause the camera in our head to become out of focus.  We no longer see ourselves for what is true, we see ourselves through the pain in our heart.  We no longer see ourselves as a focused camera sees:  “You are the same person you were before that person hurt you.”  Instead we see ourselves as if we are looking through a carnival mirror, one of those wavy ones that is both convex and concave…it makes us look distorted.  Lies make us look distorted and when this is how we see ourselves it is that much harder to see ourselves as a person  God could or would love or use in His Kingdom.

At some point, each of us needs to step back from the carnival mirror, and replace it with one that speaks truth.  We need to reach up into our mind and take out the camera that is up there and adjust the lens back to how it was before someone knocked it out of focus with their hurtful words.  We need to go to the Lord and ask Him to help us adjust the lens to the correct setting. The setting that He intended it to be; the setting that is how He sees us.  Whether man or woman, older or younger, if you don’t see the beauty or abilities in yourself that others see, you need your inner lens adjusted.  Let God show you the truth, for He knows you completely.

1 Cor. 13: ¹² Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

A massive flood of junk has inundated Cindy’s magical world, and she needs your help to save the Flooded Kingdom! Cindy has found the Miracle Mirror in the castle, and will travel throughout the land using this mysterious item to clean up the mess. Help bring Cindy’s world back to its former beauty! Addicting Match 3 gameplay, impressive power-ups, and clever minigames await in Cindy’s Travels: Flooded Kingdom!

Addicting gameplay

Cute graphics

Help Cindy save the day!

System Requirements:

OS: Windows XP/Vista

CPU: 1.0 GHz

RAM: 256 MB

DirectX: 7.0

Hard Drive: 86 MB

It Takes Just A second To Say Thanks,

It Takes Longer To The Work On This.

Cindy’s Travels: Flooded Kingdom

I look in the mirror, and I see me

Unless you stand beside me, then I will probably see you, too

If you have a lot of mirrors stacked on top of each other and you look in the first one, is your image on all of them? How do you know?

Only mirrors from the medieval times can capture your soul. Them made them differently. If you look into one, prepare for your soul to be sucked. If you even have one.

They say that light travels in a straight line. They prove it with mirrors. What if every ruler and measuring device in the world was made crooked? They make mirrors with those crooked rulers. They make other rulers with them. The mirrors could be bent and warped, and light only seems to be in a straight line.

A colour absorbs every colour except the colour of itself. An apple absorbs every colour thrown at it except red. You could say that red are apples least favourite colour, because they don’t absorb it. What colour do mirrors absorb? Do they even absorb colours?

Are we upside down? Our eyes see things upside down, and our brain fixes them. What if our brains are wrong? What if if simply turns the image upside down, because it’s been tricked into doing that. Our whole world could be upside down. Gravity could pull things up.

Every thing’s different if you just think about it.

So this weekend, I decided to play around with my camera and try new things. Ha but of course, I always go back to my good ole’ mirror picture by the end.  And I after I took this, I just then noticed that my chipped nails would be captured as well. I have an extreme issue with peeling and scraping off my freshly pained nails.  I need help with that but otherwise, I like how the picture came out.

by Vivian Maier

Another wish-I-had-found-it-while-flea-marketing moment - the work of  street photographer Vivian Maier.

A street photographer as well, John Maloof found Vivian’s negatives at a furniture and art auction in Chicago. Her private life is still somewhat of a mystery, but what little of it John has gathered can be found on his Vivian-dedicated blog.

He is compiling her work into a book, but has been kind enough to share some of her images via the Internet. The Independent recently did a write-up on the discovery of her work.

I am in love with these photos, especially her reflection images. Looking through her photographs is like peeking into her visual diary. Maier was primarily a nanny, but as evidence of the 40,000 negatives found after her death, photography was her creative outlet, her true work. It is evidence of how the joys of photography can be had in just taking the photograph, not worrying about the end result.

layers of reflection

subtle reflections

self portrait of Vivian

[ Spiegelkabinett ]

- Canon EOS 400D – f:3,5 – 1/13sek -

Manchmal zeigen Bilder mehr als die Wirklichkeit.

f3.5  1/30  ISO 400

November 22, 2009 By Kevin Morrow 6:57 Am

Before I talk about the subject at I hand, I have to post a link to “Man in the Mirror” by Micheal Jackson.

Listen to the lyrics of this song and you will realize how it relates to this post.

Forgiveness is something that heals all fears. Consider what happens when you make a mistake as a child and your parents forgive you, did you not feel better? Did you not learn from the situation?

Consider this, perhaps our minds have created a misconception of love. Love should not rise the distortion of hate, unless real love is not being accepted.

If I think I love my car then of course I will hate it if it is taken away, but I must look deeper at the situation. The car will eventually cease to exist, as will your body and all material things, so where is the love placed.

Perhaps the spirit is the eternal flame that is love. Love in it truest form cannot be anything else. Therefore anything else is not love.

If the mind is ill and in pain it is not in love. So the way to heal the mind is to forgive it for believing in illusion. Just like the only way to realize there is no Santa is to come to truth. As far as little kids are concerned.

I’ll give you an example of where forgiveness heals the mind.

Say I’m on the 91 freeway in sunny southern California and a motorist decides to cut me off, or doesn’t see me or whatever the case may be. I can look at this event from one solid foundation.

I believe that there is only perfect love, and anything else is a calling out for love. If I were completely absorbed in love someone would not be able to cut me off, because I wouldn’t be aware of something like that.

If I am aware and this happens to me I can see it in two ways. An opportunity for me to heal my mind, or an opportunity to express a lack of love has arisen.

If I come from the point of view of lack of love or fear, I will think the person did it do me on purpose, that the person is wrong, and that I have just become a victim. The victim mindset gets me nowhere. The rest of the day I can be brooding in illusion of pain that wasn’t really there. I know this to be possible because I have done it plenty of times. I have also accidentally cut people off and witnessed their reactions towards me.

Being on both ends of the stick I realized what was going on here. I am only in control of my reactions. Now if I decide to heal my mind, I would say to myself that I forgive that person for what they don’t know, and I forgive myself for believing in something that doesn’t matter.

Now, ponder on this, internalize it, this WILL heal your mind. It will disintegrated the spider web foundation of illusion.

Listen to the “Man in the Mirror” song one more time before you leave this post.

by Tamoha Siddique

I welcome you to my mind.

I have tightly shut both doors leading to it, locking each door thrice. No one can find us here, so you may relax. Let me show you around…

As you can see, there is nothing much here—just a dimly lit space. No high voltage stadium lights as you might have found in Einstein’s mind—just a few flickers of light here and there. The walls used to be painted bright red, but turned grey gradually. The large bed you see over there—that’s where I spend most of my time. It’s very messy and strewn over with dreams. Sometimes the dreams take so much space I have to sleep on the floor…

You hear that voice? It’s coming from that tape recorder over there.  It never stops. The voice keeps talking, sometimes there are more than one. They drive me crazy…

This, here, is the largest bookshelf in the world, but as you can see, there are no books in it. I plan to fill it up with hard bounds from all over the world. That rack over there in the corner is full of DVDs. Some of the best horror flicks ever. I am the lead actress in all of them…

Do you see that empty photoframe? It contains the picture of the person I love…

Look at this! This is my most favourite doll from my childhood. But someone stole her clothes and painted her face black…

Hey! Watch out! You almost stepped on this caterpillar on the floor. It’s been here for as long as I can remember. I’m hoping it would turn into a butterfly and fly away, but it’s taking too long…

I don’t know if you can see it from here, but there is a tunnel at that dark corner. The tunnel seems to be very deep, but I am too scared to explore it, so I just leave it alone…

And here is the grandest mirror of all times, but it doesn’t work properly. When I stand before it, I only see the background behind me, but no me! It’s as if I am invisible, or as if I don’t exist…

Knock! Knock!

Oh! No! They found us! We have to get out of here right now! I hope you will come see me here some other time! Bye!