Saturday, September 29, 2012

Fw: [MC74 and Friends] Entries for MOOD







Dear All

A few moody photos for our theme.

Have a great happy (moody) WE, everybody.  :)

KPN


Mood






Dear MC, BT and friends
Some "moody " pictures
Tuan

Friday, September 28, 2012

Fw: [MC74 and Friends] Mood




Love is touch, touch is love ... mood.



"I did it" mood.

TNS

Fw: [MC74 and Friends] MOOD





DEAR  MAI  CHAU , BAO  TRAM  AND  FRIENDS
SOME  PICTURES  FOR  DIFFERENT  MOODS  :
 1/  JE  N ' AI  JAMAIS  VU  UN  REGARD  AUSSI  TRISTE ....
 2/ ... PARESSER  SOUS  LE  SOLEIL , AU  BORD  DE  LA  SEINE ....
 3/ ...  ATTENDRE .. .  QUELQUE  CHOSE ..... OU  QUELQU ' UN ........
    BIZ   HL

_

Thursday, September 27, 2012

[MC74 and Friends] Photos and stories



Dear Em Ci Twin and friends,

 Here's my last entry for photos w/ stories.  I hope they'll give you a bit of pre-WE entertainment :-)
They are all from Montpellier which the NY Times named as one of the 42 cities to visit in 2012.
I prefer the medieval villages in the 'neighborhood' but still this cite' universitaire has its charms.


1. The first photo is of the uber-stylish Tram 'habille' by Christian Lacroix lui-meme.
Some info gleaned from the www:
 Le célèbre couturier arlésien M. Christian Lacroix (société XCLX) a imaginé les lignes 3 et 4.
Ligne 3Le design de la ligne 3 est placé sous le signe de l'eau. Le couturier a souhaité rappeler la proximité de la ville aux rivages méditerranéens. La robe de la ligne 3 a été conçue tel ''un gentil monstre marin''. Ses poissons répondent aux oiseaux de la ligne 1, ses étoiles renvoient aux fleurs de la ligne 2. Ce design sur-mesure est décliné sur toute la rame grâce à un dégradé de couleurs froides aux couleurs chaudes, évoquant le trajet Nord-Sud. M. Christian Lacroix s'est inspiré de planches naturalistes du XVIIIe siècle pour créer son oeuvre comme une''enluminure'', parsemée de paillettes, broderies et pierres.
L'intérieur de la ligne 3 évoque, lui aussi la mer avec un plafond et des parois en dégradé de bleu, des barres de maintien arrondies, de couleur orangée symbolisant le corail. Les sièges sont conçus d'après un motif languedocien, alternant vert et violet.
Le nez du tramway, quant à lui, est équipé d'une large baie dont la forme ressemble à un masque de plongée, transparent et ouvert. Il a une forme suffisament ronde pour confirmer le ''côté gentil de ce monstre marin''.





2. The second photo is of  one of the trompe l'oeil murailles the city has to offer and
there are more to keep you in wonderment.  For a ' before/after' look of this muraille,
Isn't it amazing how they transform a flat front and give it a 'corner' shape? The 
Pharmacy and the lady w/ the cell phone look like they are part of the trompe l'oeil
aren' they? and if you zoomed in the 3rd photo-collage, you'll see Nostradamus
 taking notes from his 'chambre de bonne' (he graduated from Montpellier 
faculte' de medecine).  






3. More 'trompe l'oeil', this time on 'bornes/ chasse-roue/boute-roue' in photo 4 and
5 They are quite whimsical and more fun than the usual plain ugly ones I think. 
A fun write-up on them at:



 And lastly, another interesting historical architectural feature from Mtpellier in the final photo.
Can you guess why the corner of the building is designed so?  I couldn't :-)

Good day,
BT


Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Fw: [MC74 and Friends] Photo with (His)Story





Cher(e)s hai ba chu blog et ami(e)s PNEH ,
 
Vous avez sans doute déjà eu l'occasion de la voir , voici la gigantesque cloche de la pagode Thien Mu .
Située sur la rive gauche de la rivière de Parfums, à quelque cinq kilomètres du centre-ville, la pagode de Thien Mu domine la colline de Ha` Khe^ . Selon la légende, les paysans virent apparaître comme dans un songe, une vieille femme habillée d'une robe rouge et un pantalon vert. Elle annonça qu'un seigneur édifierait un jour, plus tard, une pagode à cet emplacement, puis s'évanouit. Le seigneur Nguyên Hoa`ng entendant l'histoire colportée, décida de faire ériger la pagode, qu'il baptisa pagode de "Thien Mu" .  Construite en 1601, puis restaurée en 1665 ,  elle fut complétée d'une énorme cloche en 1710, à la demande du seigneur Nguyên Phu'c Chu, appelée Da.i Ho^`ng Chung , 2,50m de hauteur située  a gauche de la tour Thien Mu dans un pavillon hexagonal , l'autre pavillon a droite abrite une gigantesque tortue de marbre . Sur la cloche est inscrite «  chu' nguye^.n mu*a thua^.n gio' hoa` , quo^'c tha'i da^n an «  , on dit qu'elle s'entend a 10km a la ronde . 
Gio' du*a ca`nh tru'c la da`,
Tie^'ng chuo^ng Thien Mu , canh ga`Tho. Xuong
 
 
Amities ,
THg


Monday, September 24, 2012

my entries for PHOTOS with (HI)STORY








Dear BiTwin, fellow PNEHs, painters, poets, Mai Quang and Forum friends,

Unlike my twin, Caro and HL, I don't have anything interesting or exotic to
show and tell :-).
Specially for my fellow New Yorker Quang, this is going to be very boring,
but I got to submit something and this is all I got, so here it goes:

The blue building in the collage is the main building of the headquarters
of the United Nations Secretariat in NY. The domed building connected to
the left side of the blue building is where the General Assembly Hall,
conference rooms, visitors center are situated. This is where the affairs
of the world are discussed and agreed (or disagreed :-)) upon by the
countries members of the United Nations.
Designed by Le Corbusier and Niemeyer and built from 1947 to 1952, the UN
buildings are located on a sprawling area of 17 acres going from 42nd to
48th street, between 1st Avenue and Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive and
overlooking the East River. More recently, due to asbestos problem, the
buildings had to undergo a major renovation that started in 2009 and
projected to be completed in 2013.
On the beautiful blue glass of the main building, one could see the
reflections of buildings from across the street and further, including the
top of the Chrysler building (picture in the center), or clouds.
Flags of all the member states countries, currently 193, are raised in
alphabetical order in front of the buildings, each morning. The UN flag is
blue (color of peace) and has two olive branches as symbol of peace and the
world map as symbol of all the people of the world.

There are many sculptures donated to the UN that adorn the UN lawns and
garden and many artwork and paintings inside the buildings. They are worth
a visit.
Among the sculptures, there is one donated by the former Soviet Union in
1990, representing St George slaying the two-headed dragon, entitled Good
defeats Evil. The sculpture was created by sculptor Zurab Tsereli, out of
fragments of US and former Soviet Union ballistic missiles.

In the rose garden, one can see the Japanese Peace Bell which was donated
in 1954 to the UN by the UN association of Japan. It was cast from coins
collected by people from 60 different countries. The bell is under a
Japanese style structure that resemble a Shinto shrine and made out of
cypress wood. It is rung twice a year, on the first day of spring and on
the International Day of Peace which is September 21. I wanted to take
pictures of the Peace Bell ceremony on Friday for my story, but got there
20 minutes late, so I missed it, and could only take a picture of the kids
who played the violin for the concert at the ceremony. May be next year if
the theme repeats, I will try to be on time for the news story.

Here are a few links in case you would like to check the accuracy of what I
said (I hope I did not make any mistake when I copied the facts from those
links :-)) or want to know more about the UN and the UN buildings.

http://www.un.org/en/aboutun/history/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Headquarters
http://www.un.org/en/aboutun/index.shtml
http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/maplib/flag.htm


I am so glad I am done with my terribly boring story.
Goodnight and have a wonderful week next week everyone
from Be^n Bo*\ So^ng
MC

Sunday, September 23, 2012

More Pictures and stories







Dear Em Ci Twin and PNEH friends.

As promised :-) here are some totally different 'sceneries' from Alaska
with accompanying stories

Given that Alaska was purchased from Russia, I would have thought
there would be more Russian things but no ... I lived in Texas for close
to a decade, and where did I get to see a 'saloon' ? in Juneau, Alaska !!
It's pretty awsome, look and feel pretty authentic (at least from what
I saw in movies hi hi), the floor was even covered with sawdust ... and the
beer was great as you can see in the first pic

Then in Skagway,  we saw the first ever ... Brothel Museum (pic 2), as you can
see gentlemen, it's only $15 for 5 minutes ... of viewing :-)  The 'hostesses'
dressed in antique garb will graciously take you upstairs after you pay at
the 'caisse' :-)

Then on the way to White Pass gorgeous summit, you might want to stop at
the cemetery ( are you crazy ? ... so I thought ... when the tour guide told us)
but it turned out to be very different ... I'll let you guess the 'story' behind 
the little fences around the graves that make them look like little craddles)
Pic 3 ... who can guess what the fences are for?  

I hope you enjoyed the photo-stories :-), have a nice Sunday evening,
BT