Beautiful Dreamer

Get ready for a bestirring weekend with Richie Branco.

 

Manufacturing tea strainers

Once again, we visit a small factory on the sub-continent, this time one in Pakistan. As I've said before, I like these videos because, while Western industrial videos annoy you with a soundtrack of elevator music and chipper marketing blather, these just show the factories and their processes with no comments. 

These strainers are used when using loose tea to make the drink. I couldn't find the M Naseem brand on-line, so I have no idea what they cost, but I'm guessing not much. I did find the site Magic Hour that sells some rather expensive tea strainers. I guess they're needed if you are having a fancy tea party.

 

Sanzo Wada's Sketches of Occupations in the Showa Era

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Sanzo Wada was a 20th century Japanese artist. He was a painter (I previously featured his painting South Wind as the second image in the series of Sailor paintings), worked on color theory, and was an educator. After the war he eventually also did set and costume design, winning an Academy Award for his work on the film Gates of Hell.

He is best known for his Showa Shokugyo E-zukushi (Sketches of Occupations in the Showa Era), a series of wood block prints which show both modern and traditional occupations. These images are from that series.

Sanzo Wada

Perfume do Invisível

Get ready for a limpid weekend with Céu.

 

Small garage restaurant

This is a small restaurant in Japan that is ran by a single woman. Apparently, they have a lot of small shops like this. It reminded me of my youth; I grew up in an Eastern European immigrant neighborhood and there were a lot of these sort of places. However, instead of using the garage, it would be the first-floor front room of a two-story house. I have fond memories of them.

  

Visions of the Garden of Eden

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The story of the Garden of Eden is a well-known tale and so it has appeared in art. When God created the world, he then created Adam, the first man. He decided Adam needed a companion, so he created all of the animals, but none were suitable companions for Adam. God then yanked a bone out of Adam and created Eve, the first woman, to be his companion. 

They moved into the Garden of Eden which was a veritable paradise on Earth. The only rule was that they couldn't eat fruit from the Tree of Knowledge or the Tree of Life. However, one day a snake approached Eve and told her, I guess snakes could talk back then, that if she ate the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge that she would attain God-like wisdom. She then nagged (I assume it was the first historical example of wifey nagging) Adam into munching on the fruit as well.

Well, it turns out that didn't go according to plan because the knowledge they got was the knowledge of misery and death. Plus, their breaking of the rules pissed God off and he booted them out of the Garden and consigned them to a life of toil, hardship and death. Thanks a lot Eve, who knew that listening to a snake instead of the Creator would be a bad decision.

However, I'm a glass half full sort of a fellow and so, aside from the disease and poverty that Eve's snack unleashed, I'll try to highlight the positives from it. For example, in perusing the pictures of the Garden of Eden I noticed that all of the animals, hunter and hunted alike, frolicked about with each other implying that, as well as being paradise on earth, the Garden was also a hellhole of veganism. So, we can thank Eve for steaks, fried chicken and bacon. Bacon alone excuses a lot, right? 

Jambalaya (On the Bayou)

Get ready for a jollification weekend with
Betsy Chen, Leon Wong, Eric Shi, and Jing Ding.