Walking in Bukit Bintang

Bukit Bintang is an upscale shopping district located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Compared to many of the areas we've walked through in this series, it is very nice looking. The place is lively, with a lot of shops, restaurants, cafes, and food stalls.

 

Paintings of windows

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Windows are a transparent division between the inside and the outside. You can view things from either side of a window, looking into privacy or out to the fragment of the public world outside. Of course, they can be metaphorical -- windows into the soul and whatnot -- but mainly they let in light and generally you really just look through them to enjoy the view.

Oh! Susanna

Get ready for an orientalized minstrel weekend with Musk Ming.

 

Baking bread in the sand

For some reason I have oddly large number of Mongolian posts on this blog, at least more than you would expect. This one is from Inner Mongolia, which is within Chinese territory. It starts with a video of some nomads baking bread in the sand. They heat up the sand with dung and then bury the dough and leave it to cook. The dunes are amazing, a very desolate looking place. 

The next video is of a Mongolian family having breakfast. What is particularly interesting about the video, to me at least, it is the furnishings and decor of their home. We end by touring a ranch which ends in some sort of incomprehensible 'fire ceremony' at the end of the day.

I have featured Artger's videos before -- a meal with a Mongolian opera singer, a hot pot delivery, and the Mongolian versions of hamburgers and hotdogs.  

 

Memorial Day remembrance

His Bunkie by William James Aylward

The Death of a Soldier - Wallace Stevens

Life contracts and death is expected,

As in a season of autumn.

The soldier falls.

He does not become a three-days personage,

Imposing his separation,

Calling for pomp.

Death is absolute and without memorial,

As in a season of autumn,

When the wind stops,

When the wind stops and, over the heavens,

The clouds go, nevertheless,

In their direction.

 

Jan Steen paintings

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Jan Steen (1626-1679) was a Dutch baroque painter known for his genre (everyday household) paintings. His scenes were often very chaotic, with a lot of humor built into them. While many of his jokes are obscure to us today, there is still a Dutch saying "Jan Steen household" to describe a chaotic home.

While his works were popular in his day, he was a poor money manager and left a lot of debt when he died. His work is still highly regarded. 

Jan Steen self-portrait

Pennies from Heaven

Get ready for a collecting extinct coins weekend with The Vintage Explosion.