Arts & Crafts

Beijing, the City of Skyscrapers

Author: Cux | Category: Around the world, Arts & Crafts, China, Food, Gardens, Landmarks, Parks, Travel, World's greatest

Never forget the time when I stepped into Beijing with the hope of exploring a foreign land and found a wondrous and modern city. So industrial-looking yet so entrenched in culture and tradition. It truly felt like a home away from home. Perhaps, due to my experience there or thanks to the many friends I made or the delicious food I got to eat while being introduced to one of my favorite dishes, the Beijing Hotpot, I don’t know what but Beijing and the Chinese culture will always remain very dear to me.

Much for my experience climbing the Great Wall of China, there were also other awe-filled moments that made me fall in love with the city. Hiking up Fragrant Hills or Xiangshan Park to see the Fall colors (even my Chinese friends envy me for this!) was one rare expedition to an exotic scenic location which is now an exquisite memory. In the awesome company of my friends, I could see the whole of Beijing city from the top of the hills. It is an “imperial garden at the foot of the Western Mountains covering 395 acres” and a natural pine-cypress forest with maple trees and other beautiful trees.

If you manage to go all the way up to the fortress on the peak, you become a hero and win a medal (from your friend!) 🙂 Nature was sure at its splendid best there! And yes! Another awe-inspiring experience was attending the Beijing Opera. It is traditional Chinese musical theatre where the actors are great performers. Donning colorful costumes of the Chinese kings and queens of yesteryears, they usually enact out legends and fables. The men wear painted masks with long beards and the women are nymphlike with painted faces. Enjoyed watching the performance at the Chang’an Grand Theatre while relaxing with a cup of green tea.

Of course, I also did the usual touristy stuff like checking out Tiananmen Square, going to the Forbidden City (an erstwhile palace!), strolling around the verdant summer palace, be treated to a spectacular acrobatics show (where the performers were as young as five years old!) hogging on the myriad varieties of dim sums, noodles, and congee, taking a ride along a Hutong (a type of residential locality that has narrow streets and courtyard houses; now more of a heritage structure), bargaining crazy at the innumerable flea markets like Hongqiao pearl market, Silk market, and gaping at the fancy malls at Wangfujing (Seriously, those are Some Fancy buildings!)

Now I yearn to return someday to re-explore the city and meet my old friends! 🙂

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05 Aug 2014

The Joys of Storytelling

Author: Ria | Category: Arts & Crafts, Communications, New York | Tags: National Storytelling Network, StoryCorps, Storytelling, The Moth, Traditions

The crickets in the bushes have started their chirping, though the last red glow of the setting sun is still lingering in the western sky. Dinner is already over, and the womenfolk are in a hurry cleaning up. The children, impatient as ever, have already ran off towards the village center, not waiting for mother or grandmother. Groups emerge from the houses along the street and move off, excited voices filling the air. The torches lighting their path in the swiftly darkening night all appear to be converging on one point… the village center. This is one night nobody wants to be away from there… yes, the story teller is visiting the village!

This is a scene repeated a million times over in a million villages around the world. The languages will be different, the stories will be different, the people listening will be different… but the enchantment of stories is universal. Every one of the ancient cultures has a story telling tradition, where good fairies and bad witches and folk heroes and sweet damsels all make appearances to charm an enthralled audience for hours together. Many of the classical dance and song forms actually follow the storytelling traditions.

As stories and storytelling largely moved over to printed books and later, to celluloid, the human interaction of the community storytelling is one of the sacrifices we made to the modern life. However, have you noticed the interesting new efforts to revive the storytelling traditions in the modern context?

Foremost among these is The Moth. Anyone listening to NPR even infrequently, will be familiar with The Moth Story Hour, where the stories from Moth stages are repeated on the radio. The Moth is a not-profit organisation dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling. Events are held at various parts of the country and abroad. Anyone can pitch a tale and selected stories are narrated in front of a live audience. People from various walks and stages of life participate in the event. The stories are as varied as the people who tell them, and of course they are very interesting.

Interesting in the sense that they will make you laugh, think, sympathise… even teach you something new, often all at the same time. I listen to them on the radio and have been thinking of attending one of The Moth StorySlams, an open-mic storytelling competition held in New York every week. One of these days… maybe even participate. 🙂

Another storytelling effort is StoryCorps, an oral history project, run by an independent non-profit organisation. Participants – there has to be two, as it is recorded as interviews – go to the StoryCorps booths and record the conversation. These conversations are preserved at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Since 2003, StoryCorps has recorded and archived 45,000 conversations. You can listen to a sampling of these conversations here.

Did you know that a National Storytelling Festival takes place in Jonesborough, Tennessee every year, during the first full weekend of October? It is conducted by the National Storytelling Network, dedicated to advancing the art of storytelling. It is a three day outdoor festival, with storytellers from all over the world participating and an estimated audience of over 10,000.

The National Storytelling Network conducts events all over the country, showcasing storytelling. Here is a calendar of events, in case you want to check them out.

Happy storytelling/ listening!

~Ria

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29 Jul 2014

Worldpride Toronto…I’m Impressed!

Author: Cux | Category: Arts & Crafts, Canada, Downtown, Events, Parade, Summer, Toronto | Tags: Bisexual, Celebration, Downtown, Drag Queens, Equality, Fun, Gay, Human Rights, Lesbian, LGBT, Pride Parade, Queer, Toronto, Transgender, Worldpride

June 29, 2014. Never expected the day to turn into such a big party. It was an experience of a lifetime. A celebration of life, love, and liberty as I have never seen before. Yes, I am talking of the final pride march, the concluding event at the ten-day Worldpride festival that took place in the last week of June in Toronto. As an ally and supporter, standing by the railings, cheering on, I felt truly proud. It was a spectacle of openness, doing what you like, and not caring a damn. Strong emphasis on the last point.

This was the event I have been waiting for since I heard of its popularity from my friends who had attended the pride parade the previous years. But the parade this year exceeded even their expectations. Way grander and bigger with a huge audience. And not just the marchers but the spectators were also an interesting crowd. I was walking around in open-mouthed wonder most of the time.

It was sheer excitement to see people, most exotically dressed in all imaginable costumes, performing for us. The drag queens looked drop-dead gorgeous. There was representation from human rights groups, affiliated with the Worldpride ideologies, as well as major Canadian for-profit organizations. I must admit though, the corporates do not make good entertainment material. It was slightly boring to watch them. Not so much the other groups who put in some thought into their costumes and exhibits in order to provide the most appealing display of their group’s mission and values.

The LGBT communities from different universities and sports clubs also put up a great show. It was interesting to note the firm statement put forth by communities originating in restrictive cultures like the (gaysi) The Gayi Desi and the Ismaili Queers. It was the spirit of solidarity that bound us all. Our cultural backgrounds, faiths, opinions, and orientation mattered no more. What mattered was that we were all there personifying unity in diversity and most importantly, having fun.

The authorities including the politicians and the police were there in tow providing their support. An estimated 12,000 people marched in the parade while more than a million supporters (I think!) grooved to the music played on the vans and vehicles carrying the floats and the people. The parade spanned across downtown Toronto, culminating at Yonge-Dundas Square, the most popular entertainment spot, for a musical evening of some great rock and pop music. This has been the best event I have attended in Toronto till date.

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01 Jul 2014

A Street with an Identity

Author: Cux | Category: Around the world, Arts & Crafts, Canada, Landmarks, Museums, Toronto, World's greatest | Tags: Bata Shoe Museum, Bellair Street, Bloor Street, Bloor Street East, Bloor Street West, Bloor-Yorkville, Cumberland Street, Joseph Bloor, ROM, Royal Ontario Museum, Yorkville Avenue

It was to Bloor-Yorkville, the so-called swanky neighborhood that I took my friend to show her the fashionable areas in Toronto. “Well, this looks pretty usual!” was her response; my friend didn’t seem very impressed.

I agreed with her as, unfortunately, that day, even the streets were crowded, with the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) plying shuttle buses from Bloor further south to downtown Toronto. So, the extra load of subway people on the streets along with the construction work obstructing the roads (related to the condos and the sidewalks) added to the chaos.

The high-end shopping malls and the big branded stores located in Bloor-Yorkville makes it known as ‘the shopping district of Toronto.’ According to the Fortune Magazine, it is ‘the seventh most expensive shopping street in the world.’

Bloor Street spans 25 kms and is an important arterial road in Toronto, the other being Yonge Street. Beginning at Prince Edward Viaduct in the east of Toronto, the road extends till Mississauga in the west. I could not find the exact year when Bloor Street was built but it was in the nineteenth century that the street got its name from Joseph Bloor, an industrialist, who established the Village of Yorkville in 1830, courtesy Wikipedia.

Gradually, the region grew into a major residential and commercial hub. 2008 data reveal that the shops in Yorkville earn a rent of 300$ per square foot and the condos are priced from 1mn$ upwards.

A section of Yorkville Avenue enclosed by Cumberland Street and Bellair Street looks hip and resembles a European town, with cobblestoned roads lined with cafes, pubs, sushi bars, posh restaurants, salons, and designer boutiques. Facing the opposite side of the street is an artistic park strewn with stone and metal sculptures and branded shops. For a change, my friend was charmed by the elegant surroundings there.

Cumberland Street is that part of Bloor Street where people love to be seen drinking, eating, and shopping.

Hemingway’s is a popular pub there and Trattoria Nervosa serves awesome-tasting Italian food, moderately priced. Definitely worthy of multiple visits!

Bloor Street has a unique historical appeal as it houses many old buildings embodying European style architecture and design. The intersection of Yonge and Bloor divides Bloor into east and west zones. Yorkville is situated on the west side while the east side mostly has tall corporate buildings and is more recently developed. The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) with the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, world-renowned as an architectural splendor, and the Bata Shoe Museum are two significant places to visit.

The ROM is a wonderful treat for art lovers with five floors of beautiful art and sculpture from cultures around the world, depicted through the ages. The natural history sections are also very informative whilst no kid can ever forget the huge dinosaur exhibits that they were delighted to see and which still remain as their fond childhood memories.

I have made a custom of visiting the ROM once every six months. Or so it happens! With each visit, it seems like there is more and more to see and I come away regretfully with the feeling of not having spent adequate time.

My friend was more interested in the Bata Shoe Museum that showcased the evolution of footwear for different societies along with shoes worn by prominent celebrities. I loved the intricately designed and beaded moccasins of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada the best.

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10 Jun 2014

Norman Rockwell, the Artist

Author: Ria | Category: Arts & Crafts | Tags: Illustrator, Newark Museum, Norman Rockwell, Paintings

I knew there was a show of Norman Rockwell paintings going on at Newark Museum. And it is something I definitely wanted to go and see. But you know how it is… oh, the show is going to be there for a long while… I can go anytime. Then, I get this email from Newark Museum that it is the last three days of the show. No more postponing… I have to go right away. And that is what I did. Boy, am I glad I went! It is such an awesome show.

Norman Rockwell was an artist who captured the best in American life, through his paintings of everyday scenes. According to him, the commonplaces of America are the richest subjects in art. Starting his artistic career at the age 19 as the art editor for Boys’ Life, the official magazine of the Boy Scouts of America, he has worked for publications like The Saturday Evening Post, Look, Ladies’ Home Journal, Literary Digest, and Life.

What is so endearing about the Rockwell works is the innocence of the characters depicted. Be it the boys indulging in very boy-like games or the young girl preening herself in front of the mirror, or the young soldier trying the few French words he knows on a little girl in France, they all show a guileless side of humanity. Looking at his paintings, viewers will be tempted to reaffirm their faith in humanity, overcoming all cynicism. All you see in those paintings are the small joys and celebrations of life, every day scenes that bring a smile to your face.

These are not works that you look at and move on; these painting will hold you to the spot, wondering at what you are seeing. Each of them has a story to tell, that too in minute detail. There is so much to see in the paintings that you could see them again and again, and keep noticing new details.

And these are the stories of everyday American life. So much so, that one tends to think of a day to day idyllic scene as a ‘Norman Rockwell moment’! That is how much he has become a part of the American art scene.

This painting, titled, ‘The Discovery’, appeared on the Saturday Evening Post cover in 1956. The interpretation was that it shows the boy’s horror on discovering that Santa does not exist. In my personal opinion, that’s not it at all… I can almost read his mind… ‘Oh my god, what did these people do with Santa? Did they kill him?’ 🙂

For such a prolific artist whose concentration on his work was all-absorbing, he was also very organised. He will take multiple photos with models – often people from his own circle, including family members – and prepare meticulously to capture the exact scenes and emotions he wanted. He was also extremely careful in keeping his studio clean to the point of fastidiousness; his studio was swept and the paint brushes cleaned with ivory soap four to six times a day!

Movie legends George Lucas and Steven Spielberg are big time fans and collectors of Norman Rockwell’s art. The Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C had held an exhibition, ‘Telling Stories Norman Rockwell from the Collections of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg’ in 2010-11.

Norman Rockwell was a very unassuming person. He claimed to be an illustrator rather than an artist. And when asked how much he was being paid for the covers he did for Saturday Evening Post, he response was, ‘twice what they are worth’! In that connection, it is worth mentioning that one of his paintings titled, ‘Saying Grace’ sold for 46 million in an auction in New York City in December 2013. I wonder what he would have said to that!

~Ria

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23 May 2014