Very entertaining, witty,insightful book about mysteries of the human mind.Written by renowed Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert.
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Stumbling on Happiness, by Daniel Gilbert
Very entertaining, witty,insightful book about mysteries of the human mind.Written by renowed Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert.
Thursday, May 03, 2007
The Magic Mountain, by Thomas Mann
One of my friend's favourite novel...Alas, not mine.
I am on page 90 and giving up. Too boring :-(
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Don't go far off
Don't go far off, not even for a day, because --
because -- I don't know how to say it: a day is long
and I will be waiting for you, as in an empty station
when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep.
Don't leave me, even for an hour, because
then the little drops of anguish will all run together,
the smoke that roams looking for a home will drift
into me, choking my lost heart.
Oh, may your silhouette never dissolve on the beach;
may your eyelids never flutter into the empty distance.
Don't leave me for a second, my dearest,
because in that moment you'll have gone so far
I'll wander mazily over all the earth, asking,
Will you come back? Will you leave me here, dying?
Pablo Neruda
because -- I don't know how to say it: a day is long
and I will be waiting for you, as in an empty station
when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep.
Don't leave me, even for an hour, because
then the little drops of anguish will all run together,
the smoke that roams looking for a home will drift
into me, choking my lost heart.
Oh, may your silhouette never dissolve on the beach;
may your eyelids never flutter into the empty distance.
Don't leave me for a second, my dearest,
because in that moment you'll have gone so far
I'll wander mazily over all the earth, asking,
Will you come back? Will you leave me here, dying?
Pablo Neruda
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius
"Nothing can happen to any man that nature has not fitted him to endure."
"Try to move men by persuasion; yet act against their will if the principles of justice so direct. But if someone uses force to obstruct you, then take a different line;resign yourself without a pang, and turn the obstacle into an opportunity for the exercise of some other virtue. Your attempt was always subject to reservations, remember; you were not aiming at the impossible. At what then? Simply at making the attempt itself."
"Love nothing but that which comes to you woven in the pattern of your destiny."
"The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing..."
"Never go beyond the sense of your original impressions....Supply no additions of your own, and you are safe..."
"There is a type of person who, if he renders you a service, has no hesitation in claiming the credit for it. Another, though not prepared to go so far as that, will nevertherless secretly regard you as in his debt and be fully conscious of what he has done. But there is also the man who, one might almost say, has no consciousness at all of what he has done, like the vine which produces a cluster of grapes and then, having yielded its rightful fruit, looks for no more thanks than a horse that has run his race, a hound that has tracked his quarry, or a bee that has hived her honey. Like them, the man who has done one good action, as the vine passes on to the bearing of another summer's grapes."
"Try to move men by persuasion; yet act against their will if the principles of justice so direct. But if someone uses force to obstruct you, then take a different line;resign yourself without a pang, and turn the obstacle into an opportunity for the exercise of some other virtue. Your attempt was always subject to reservations, remember; you were not aiming at the impossible. At what then? Simply at making the attempt itself."
"Love nothing but that which comes to you woven in the pattern of your destiny."
"The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing..."
"Never go beyond the sense of your original impressions....Supply no additions of your own, and you are safe..."
"There is a type of person who, if he renders you a service, has no hesitation in claiming the credit for it. Another, though not prepared to go so far as that, will nevertherless secretly regard you as in his debt and be fully conscious of what he has done. But there is also the man who, one might almost say, has no consciousness at all of what he has done, like the vine which produces a cluster of grapes and then, having yielded its rightful fruit, looks for no more thanks than a horse that has run his race, a hound that has tracked his quarry, or a bee that has hived her honey. Like them, the man who has done one good action, as the vine passes on to the bearing of another summer's grapes."
The Alchemist, by Paolo Cuelho
"... like Santiago the shepherd boy, we all need to be aware of our personal calling. What is a personal calling? It is a God's blessing, it is the path that God chose for you here on Earth. Whenever we do something that fills us with enthusiasm, we are following our legend...."
"...'Well, there is only one piece of advice I can give you,' said the wisest of wise men. 'The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon'."
"There is only one way to learn," the alchemist answered. "It's through action. Everything you need to know you have learned through your journey..."
"That night, the boy slept deeply, and, when he awoke, his heart began to tell him things that came from the Soul of the World. It is said that all people who are happy have God within them. And that happiness could be found in a grain of sand from the desert, as the alchemist had said...."Everyone on earth has a treasure that awaits him," his heart said. We, people's hearts, seldom say much about those treasures, because people no longer want to go in search of them. We speak of them only to children. Later, we simply let life proceed, in its own direction, toward its own fate. But, unfortunately, very few follow the path laid out for them - the path to their Personal Legends, and to happiness. Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do so, the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place..."
"Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time."
"Where your treasure is, there also will be your heart"
"...'Well, there is only one piece of advice I can give you,' said the wisest of wise men. 'The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon'."
"There is only one way to learn," the alchemist answered. "It's through action. Everything you need to know you have learned through your journey..."
"That night, the boy slept deeply, and, when he awoke, his heart began to tell him things that came from the Soul of the World. It is said that all people who are happy have God within them. And that happiness could be found in a grain of sand from the desert, as the alchemist had said...."Everyone on earth has a treasure that awaits him," his heart said. We, people's hearts, seldom say much about those treasures, because people no longer want to go in search of them. We speak of them only to children. Later, we simply let life proceed, in its own direction, toward its own fate. But, unfortunately, very few follow the path laid out for them - the path to their Personal Legends, and to happiness. Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do so, the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place..."
"Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time."
"Where your treasure is, there also will be your heart"
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Being an Artist, by L. Lehrman
Twenty two artists share their stories in this book, questions they have asked themselves, the problems they've faced and overcome.
Gerry Metz
- Why do you think some artists make it, while others never quite succeed?
- It's that extra something that, for lack of a better word, I call "heart". I've tried to analyze that quality over the years. You see it in some paintings. It makes them stand a foot off the wall. It goes well beyond what;s on the canvas. Impossible to define, it's what can make a painting a fascinating, vital entity that will always hold interest for the viewer. And it's what makes that painting sell. Often, you, the artist, can;t even tell whether it's there. I do believe, though, that if you're creating art only for the money, that elusive quality will never quite develop.
Frank Webb
...Beginners watching a demo...will be pretty much absorbed in technical matters, and there's nothing wrong with that. They need that information until they are able to express themselves in paint. Later they will be concerned with developing their conceptual powers, because what ultimately separates one artist from another is the power to formulate concept...a unique aesthetic concept that will make this artist's work something that has never been seen or felt before.
-Do you think it's possible for the artist to do that? Hasn't everything been said, to some extent, before?
- Every work of art ought to be new. All the books have not yet been written, nor all the plays.And all the pictures have not been painted. It seems to me the world is crying out more than ever now for the quality of uniqueness. We live in an age when our culture tend to routinize, almost brutilize our everyday lives. The sameness of mass communication ( we all get the same messages every day), of products, have left it to art to lift us, give us a vision, a glimpse of what might be, more than mass communication and pass production can.
- How should the artist of today make him...ready to be a professional?
-The answer is very simple. You learn to draw by drawing. You learn to draw and paint by drawing and painting. In "the Shape of Content" , Ben Shann, the artist, wrote on the education of a painter:" To become an artist, you get a job on a farm and draw and paint and draw and paint.You get a job in a factory and draw and paint and draw and paint.....Art is not so much "knowledge about." It's hand-on knowledge.
Austin Deuel
-What does make a painting sell?
- There things have to be in every painting:
One: Tell a story. Like that Andrew Wyeth painting. A water pump, a board, and an old bucket. That bucket is a story. Because that puts the human touch to it. They'd been there, left something. Smoke out of a chimney, light in a window. That kind of things.
Two: Create a dramatic mood. Fog. Snow. Rain. Sunset. Even the heat of the day with all the shadows burned out.
Three: Dramatic composition. Every painting has to have a strong vertical in it. It's what draws you across the room, and it has nothing to do with style or subject.
On value of promotion
- Every artists says:" I've got to be promoted!" So when he goes into a gallery, he does not ask what they sell. He asks:"How are you going to promote me?" He wants an ad. He wants to be in the art magazines. And that;s nonsense! He should be asking, how many paintings the gallery sells. If they are paying you for 12 paintings they sell for you every month, that means a lot more than having a big ad, while they only sell three. I had tons of publicity. I hired one of the best media artists in the business. ...And there were absolutely no results! What supported my gallery was my painting. A painting on a wall in somebody's house does you more sales good than a ton of promotion or an ad in Southwest Art.That's your best advertisement. Word of mouth.
-What would you say is most important for a beginning professional?- Express your own experience. Take Poe and Hemingway. Poe was a sickly person, and wrote of the experience in his mind. Hemingway lived his art.
Gerry Metz
- Why do you think some artists make it, while others never quite succeed?
- It's that extra something that, for lack of a better word, I call "heart". I've tried to analyze that quality over the years. You see it in some paintings. It makes them stand a foot off the wall. It goes well beyond what;s on the canvas. Impossible to define, it's what can make a painting a fascinating, vital entity that will always hold interest for the viewer. And it's what makes that painting sell. Often, you, the artist, can;t even tell whether it's there. I do believe, though, that if you're creating art only for the money, that elusive quality will never quite develop.
Frank Webb
...Beginners watching a demo...will be pretty much absorbed in technical matters, and there's nothing wrong with that. They need that information until they are able to express themselves in paint. Later they will be concerned with developing their conceptual powers, because what ultimately separates one artist from another is the power to formulate concept...a unique aesthetic concept that will make this artist's work something that has never been seen or felt before.
-Do you think it's possible for the artist to do that? Hasn't everything been said, to some extent, before?
- Every work of art ought to be new. All the books have not yet been written, nor all the plays.And all the pictures have not been painted. It seems to me the world is crying out more than ever now for the quality of uniqueness. We live in an age when our culture tend to routinize, almost brutilize our everyday lives. The sameness of mass communication ( we all get the same messages every day), of products, have left it to art to lift us, give us a vision, a glimpse of what might be, more than mass communication and pass production can.
- How should the artist of today make him...ready to be a professional?
-The answer is very simple. You learn to draw by drawing. You learn to draw and paint by drawing and painting. In "the Shape of Content" , Ben Shann, the artist, wrote on the education of a painter:" To become an artist, you get a job on a farm and draw and paint and draw and paint.You get a job in a factory and draw and paint and draw and paint.....Art is not so much "knowledge about." It's hand-on knowledge.
Austin Deuel
-What does make a painting sell?
- There things have to be in every painting:
One: Tell a story. Like that Andrew Wyeth painting. A water pump, a board, and an old bucket. That bucket is a story. Because that puts the human touch to it. They'd been there, left something. Smoke out of a chimney, light in a window. That kind of things.
Two: Create a dramatic mood. Fog. Snow. Rain. Sunset. Even the heat of the day with all the shadows burned out.
Three: Dramatic composition. Every painting has to have a strong vertical in it. It's what draws you across the room, and it has nothing to do with style or subject.
On value of promotion
- Every artists says:" I've got to be promoted!" So when he goes into a gallery, he does not ask what they sell. He asks:"How are you going to promote me?" He wants an ad. He wants to be in the art magazines. And that;s nonsense! He should be asking, how many paintings the gallery sells. If they are paying you for 12 paintings they sell for you every month, that means a lot more than having a big ad, while they only sell three. I had tons of publicity. I hired one of the best media artists in the business. ...And there were absolutely no results! What supported my gallery was my painting. A painting on a wall in somebody's house does you more sales good than a ton of promotion or an ad in Southwest Art.That's your best advertisement. Word of mouth.
-What would you say is most important for a beginning professional?- Express your own experience. Take Poe and Hemingway. Poe was a sickly person, and wrote of the experience in his mind. Hemingway lived his art.
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