The Viewing List 5

New Orleans: A Living Museum of Music (2010, 57 minutes)

Narrated by Wendell Pierce, this CINE Golden Eagle award-winner is an intimate look at the fantastic music that emanates from New Orleans - "America's music," namely jazz.

Learn about the work of local musicians like Irvin Mayfield and educators who mentor young talent; museum curators who care for musical treasures such as Fats Domino's Steinway piano, ruined by the Katrina floods; historians and archivists who research and document the stories, including the Louisiana State Museum's Greg Lambousy who shares Louis Armstrong's first cornet; activists working to protect, heal and inspire the many musicians whose livelihoods were taken away by Katrina, such as the New Orleans Musicians' Clinic.

"The living museum is a manifestation of participation," proclaims Ellis Marsalis, revered jazz pianist, patriarch of the Marsalis family jazz dynasty, and one of the many artists featured in A Living Museum of Music, which you can watch below. Make sure you click on the Full Screen icon at the bottom right of the video for optimal viewing.

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Cecelia Webber Photograph

Take a closer look at the picture on the right. What do you see?

- A couple of flowers.
Well, yes, but look closer.

Los Angeles based artist Cecelia Webber creates flower and butterfly assemblages using hundreds of nude human form photographs. That’s right, every stem and petal in the image is composed of naked human bodies! Although Cecelia’s photographic compositions can take up to two months to produce due to the complexity of finding the right pieces, the results – as you can see – can be quite stunning.

You can see more of Cecelia’s, and purchase images from her site at Cecelia Webber Photography…

Thanks to AmO Life for bringing Cecelia’s work to our attention.

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And finally, something to leave you with a smile on your dial, and joy in your heart: an amazing ‘surfing’, skiing, and skateboarding bulldog. Enjoy.

The Reading List 5

This week the Reading List looks at the street photography of Henri Cartier-Bresson, twenty free London attractions, and the importance of saying "Thank You".

10 Things Henri Cartier-Bresson Can Teach You About Street Photography

Eric Kim, at Eric Kim Photography has put together a great photo essay outlining 10 Things Henri Cartier-Bresson Can Teach You About Street Photography.

Among Eric's suggestions: Focus on geometry, Be patient, Travel, Stick to one lens, Take photos of children (see image), Be unobtrusive, See the world like a painter, Don’t crop,  Don’t worry about processing, and Always strive for more. 

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Twenty free attractions in London (by Robert Reid)

There’s an excellent article over in the travel section of the BBC.COM website, outlining 20 free attractions in London. As the article, by Robert Reid states: No city in the world has more free stuff to do. In addition to admission-free world-class museums, there are parks, canal walks, supermarkets (Portobello Road Market at Notting Hill Gate, Camden Market at Chalk Farm Road, Columbia Road Flower Market in East London) and maybe even some royal-spotting to pass the time. The possibilities are endless.

As you would expect, all the heavyweights are here including the British Museum, Houses of Parliament, National Gallery, Natural History Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, and National Portrait Gallery. But among Robert’s recommendations are some less well known sites like the British Film Institute's Mediatheque, which features four cinemas (not free) and the fun Mediatheque, where you can peruse the DTV/film archives and watch items for free.

The there is the Museum of London, of which Robert writes, “Off the radar to most visitors, yet one of the city's great attractions, this museum offers a walk through London's various incarnations - from Thames Valley geological history, to Anglo-Saxons and 21st-Century bankers.”

He also offers the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, the Photographers' Gallery, Serpentine Gallery (in Kensington Gardens), and others. All in all, it is a great list to get you started if you are planning a visit to London at any time.

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Uncornered Market on The Importance of Saying Thank You

Daniel Noll over at the Uncornered Market has been musing on the importance of saying Thank You as you travel the world. He begins…

This is about saying thank you: why we do it, the ways we do it, the cheapening of it, the deepening of it. And why, when you’re traveling, it’s one of the most important words to know in the local language.

Thank you. For travelers, it’s no wonder those words are among the first our guidebooks suggest we learn. With such a simple expression, satisfaction is affirmed, respect is underscored, roads of goodwill are paved and we are bound to one another just a little bit more than we otherwise might have been. Read full article here...

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New York City Ghost Bike

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In Greece, roadside memorials to accident victims take the form of miniature churches, which tend to be adorned with candles, an image of the deceased, and other small mementos. In Australia, roadside memorials to accident victims have also been commonplace over the past 20 years or so, although these tend to be small and generally unobtrusive – often no more than bunches of flowers tied to a lamp post or left on the verge of a highway where an accident took place.

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I don’t know if ‘Ghost Bikes’, as they are called, are unique to New York City, but sadly more and more of these distinctive roadside memorials are being set up at the site of fatal collisions between bike riders and motor vehicles.

I discovered the ghost bike pictured here while walking through the Brooklyn suburb of Greenpoint during my 2008 visit to New York City. Unfortunately, I didn’t make a note of exactly where the bike was located, but I often wonder if it is still there.

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