Liquid Crystal Vision Finale - Fire Dance

My favourite part of old friend Torsten's video about the trance dance scene, Liquid Crystal Vision, well worth watching in its entirety. I wish I knew the name of the track the beautiful firedancer is synched with....

Watch the entire documentary
 

Alice in Wonderland Seeks Guy DeBord

An amusing intro to the Situationist Guy DeBord's  ideas about the world as Spectacle,  which anticipated the virtual world in which so many live today...

ANDRE KERTESZ' PHOTOS

Andre Kertesz has always been one of my favourite photographers, and my own photography was greatly influenced by his sensibility and style of composition.  Some time ago I made a gallery of his pictures,  and now have made a video slide show of them:

Harinie Jeevitha Kathak Dancing

Only 13 years old!

The Omo People

Serpentine Dance

filmed in 1896 by the Lumiere Brothers (Auguste Lumière (1862-1954) and Louis Lumière (1864-1948)

Inspired by dancer Loie Fuller's famed skirt dances, in which colored lights projected onto her billowing garments, this film (and others like it) was hand-tinted to achieve similar affects. Fuller's solo was mesmerizing, and her copycat film subjects no less so.

A TORD GUSTAVSEN TRIO Playlist

All About Jazz reviewer John Kelman put the trio's distinctive character beautifully: "As silence can sometimes speak as loudly as thunder, and insofar as careful elaboration of melody can be just as compelling as more vivid expansion, Gustavsen's trio makes a clear case for the elusive power of restraint."

Gustavsen phrases it romantically, that his music is "about loving every note". It is this very tendency of playing what you like, rather than what you ought to play between passages, together with the elaborated yet elegant lyrics of the tunes, that creates this unique aesthetic and the kind of feeling you will not have very often in reality, but in dreams."

Here's a playlist of his three albums so far, not including the several in which he collaborated with Silje Nergaard. Like the best ambient music, this can be a marvellous accompaniment to a relaxed evening, rarely insisting on attention, but truly rewarding it if given.

It's not all contemplative; check out track 009 to see how funky he can be..

DANCES from ENTHEOGEN

Here's a clip of the dance sequences from the film ENTHEOGEN: AWAKENING THE DIVINE WITHIN

Roshan Kumari's Famous Dance from "Jalsaghar"

The famous Kathak dancer Roshan Kumari in an early appearance in Satyajit Ray's "Jalsaghar" (The Music Room). It just gets better and better as it progresses. Note how the bells on her ankles provide part of the rhythm...

(I made this clip by stringing together the dance scenes, removing other shots that are interspersed through the dance, so there are a few jerky splices.)

Bernarda Fink SIngs Bach's "Schlafe, Mein Liebster"

I find it hard to imagine a performance of this aria with more beauty of voice or performer...