The Magic of the Cities.

Zen promotes the rediscovery of the obvious, which is so often lost in its familiarity and simplicity. It sees the miraculous in the common and magic in our everyday surroundings. When we are not rushed, and our minds are unclouded by conceptualizations, a veil will sometimes drop, introducing the viewer to a world unseen since childhood. ~ John Greer

Friday, November 30, 2012

The Inner Thoughts of Tenth Ave



“We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”

“You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul”

~George Bernard Shaw

THE CURRENT CHALLENGE
Fri Nov 30, 2012
This week's challenge:
'Orderly'.


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Thursday, November 29, 2012

Wheels

High Line Rink. NYC

Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro and James Corner Field Operations, in partnership with HWKN, the High Line Rink comprises 8,000 square feet within The Lot, a temporary public plaza below the High Line at West 30th Street and 10th Avenue. The High Line Rink expands the existing public amenities at The Lot, which include a rotating series of food trucks, a beer and wine bar, and an ongoing series of free public events.

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Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Robert Brady Museum II







Robert Brady Museum
House - Museum : Cultural Center

In the shadow of the Cathedral of Cuernavaca the Casa de la Torre houses a unique collection of fine and decorative arts from all over the world. The visitor will enjoy a house-museum created in a portion of a massive adobe and stone XVI century Franciscan Monastery.

This collection (more than 1,300 pieces) was assembled by Robert Brady (1928-1986). Born in Iowa with a career in the fine arts at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Tyler Arts Center of Temple University and the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania, he established residence in Venice, Italy for five years before settling in Cuernavaca, Mexico in 1962.  [Brady Museum]

More images in previous post here.


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Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Coras Series III






Semana Santa Cora  /  Cora Holy Week
The Cora Indians, or Na'ayarij how they call themselves, is a small indigenous group of about 20,000 people that live in the rugged mountain and deep canyon country of Sierra del Nayar in the Mexican state of Nayarit. Since the early 16th century, the Coras have for decades fearlessly resisted several attempts at conquest and religious conversion by Spanish conquistadors. In 1722, the Cora military leader was captured and executed and Spaniards destroyed all Cora temples. Jesuits and then Franciscans established their missions in the Cora territory and began converting the Indians to Catholicism. The long process of evangelization of the Coras has, among other things, given rise to a complex syncretic ritual called “La Judea”, the weeklong Semana Santa (Holy Week) celebration that merges indigenous beliefs, shamanism and animism with Christianity.

Each year during the Holy Week all the Cora villages are taken over by hundreds of wildly running men, who have decorated themselves firstly with ashes and later with shiny colors. Painted all over their semi-naked bodies, wearing horned masks and holding wooden swords, these Judios (literally, Jews) or Borrados (“erased ones”) represent night demons or the evil itself. Reflecting the never-ending cosmic struggle, wild-eyed Judios run around in groups, they dance, often comically with lots of sexual imagery, they fight with wooden sabres in ritual duels and primarily, they seek Jesus Christ to capture him. During this phase of celebration, “evil” endangers cosmic harmony. On the Good Friday, after several attempts “Jews” finally find a little boy (Cristo Niño), an effigy of Jesus Christ, and they kill him symbolically. The next day, on Holy Saturday, the situation changes. Jesus Christ resurrects and painted demons return metaphorically to the river, washing off their colors in its water. The balance of the cosmos is restored and peace comes back to the Cora towns.

According to the various anthropology investigations, La Judea, with all its intricate symbols, seems to be originally linked to the agricultural cycle, together with the rain season arrival and the regeneration of life. Hence the fertility symbols, animal images and reproduction acts are featured throughout the spectacle, yet everything is mixed with elements of the Roman Catholic dogma. All Judios, participating in La Judea, run around for a couple of days, with almost no clothes and virtually without a break, and moreover, they are not allowed to eat and drink the whole day until the sunset. Due to those characteristics, it is supposed that the ancient Cora warrior initiation rituals were also incorporated into the Holy week celebration.

La Judea, the Cora Holy week celebration, remains the most truthful expression of the Coras' culture, religiosity and identity. Although this annual festival unites all the Coras (children, teenagers, adults and elders) into a spectacular commemoration of their roots, forming the basic element of community cohesion, many young people leave and never come back. The drug cultivation and trafficking, propably the most growing industry in Mexico within the last decades, followed by violence, have reached the world of Cora and have dramatically changed their traditional society.
Jan Sochor

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Monday, November 26, 2012

Lazy Afternoon


Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift. - Albert Einstein

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Sunday, November 25, 2012

Performance

(iPhoneography)
9th Cultural Corridor Roma Condesa
In the mid-1990s a number of contemporary art galleries located in the Roma neighborhood came together to make a joint project, in addition to increasing its convening power, managed to recover public spaces, rehabilitation tissue social networks and coexistence in the area. In the last decade the Roma and Condesa colonies have become important centers of artistic production, leading to the proliferation of countless new cultural expressions.

In order to relocate these territories on the map and in the minds of the inhabitants of Mexico City, this event aims to revive this corridor, this time with a renewed spirit for disseminating valuable projects and initiatives that rotate on two highly topical aspects: contemporary art and design.

Because we live in when you need to generate projects, and promote contemporary culture help restore the social fabric, to restore confidence in city life and foster networks achieve coexistence. Contemporary culture, involving a variety of genres such as art, design, music and fashion has been an effective means of social networking in addition to promoting the education and training of informed individuals who can best meet your context condition.

It is done this event twice a year: the last weekend of May and the last weekend of November.


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Friday, November 23, 2012

West Village

Charles St. West Village. NYC
THE CURRENT CHALLENGE
Fri Nov 23, 2012
This week's challenge:
'Women'.

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