Seek another land

Click image to enlarge

If You Forget Me - Pablo Neruda

I want you to know
one thing.

You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.

But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine.

 

Pinball machine art

Click any image to enlarge

Pinballs are machines that are loud and bombastic, with steel balls bouncing around, lights flashing and flippers flipping. For a modest amount of money they provide a hit of dopamine. Naturally their artwork is over the top as well, bright backlit colors, exaggerated graphics and plenty of blinking lights. Here is a small sample of that artwork. 

Down Under

Get ready for an antipodean weekend with Colin Hay.

 

And you think you had a bad day...

A statistical analysis of human DNA has suggested that some 900,000 years ago something caused the human race to lose 98% of its population and dwindle down to around 1,300 individuals. This persisted for about 100,000 years before the population fully rebounded. There are researchers who question the legitimacy of the theory, still, it is an interesting proposition.   

 

Jan Minarik paintings

Click any image to enlarge

Jan Minarik (1862-1937) was a Czechoslovakian artist who is best remembered for his cityscapes featuring Prague. There is not much information about him, aside from the fact that he started by painting on porcelain before moving on to landscapes. I find his use of color to frequently be very vibrate. 

Jan Minarik

Harleys In Hawaii

Get ready for a motor sickling weekend with IMY2.

 

Walking in Surabaya

A Ukrainian fellow takes a walk in the old city district of Surabaya on Java. Good video. There is a festival going on, and as a result a lot of chaos. Noise, shows, people milling about, and lot of cosplay. The people are also very friendly, a lot of them smile at the camera man, wave, and greet him.  

At one point a group people taking a picture with a banner called him over to be in the photo. That reminded me of a story from my sailor days. We were on a port visit to Keelung in Taiwan. For a joke somebody called the captain and trolled him by claiming they were planning a race riot that night. That got the wardroom worked up and so they decided they had to do something to head off the mayhem.

I was on duty, so they assigned me to shore patrol with a black guy. I guess us harmoniously being together would snap everybody out of their prejudiced frenzy, or something. Well, we didn't want to do anything -- either get in the midst of a race riot or bother our shipmates at all -- so we basically hid the entire night. 

At one point we were wandering around a hotel and opened a door to their meeting room. To our surprise a Chinese wedding reception was taking place in the room. Embarrassed, we tried to back out, but they were delighted to see us and rushed over to invite us in. They ended up stuffing us with food and drink. Yea, that wasn't exactly part of our shore patrol duties, but we were building rapport with the locals, right? 

At any rate, at one point we ended up flanking the bride and groom as they took wedding pictures with us in them. To this day it amuses me that somewhere in Taiwan there is a wedding photo album with me inside of it. I wonder what stories they tell about that?