Long, long time ago, shortly after I joined deviantart.com community, I played around with kimono designs a little. At that time, I did those funny "tribute to Studio Ghibli" designs:
Totoro kimono and obi by *Margotka on deviantART
Mononoke Hime kimono and obi by *Margotka on deviantART
Kao-nashi kimono and obi by *Margotka on deviantART
Kiki kimono and obi by *Margotka on deviantART
Susuwatari kimono and obi by *Margotka on deviantART
Ohmu kimono and obi by *Margotka on deviantART
OK, I have no idea why the one above does not load (or maybe I do, but don't want to offend DA web developers...), but once you click on the link, you can see this one too.
As you can see, at that time google graphics was my little helper. Today however, I have decided to use my drawing tablet in order to create something genuinely mine. I have been given this thing for my 26th b-day and used it very few times since, but now I'm willing to work with it more. So, after 2 BSOD, 3 attempts to install drivers and googling how to make GIMP cooperate with it, I finally made my itty bitty Wacom Bamboo draw! And brought to the world this idea that had been growing in my mind for the last few days.
Voilà:
Kitty kimono by *Margotka on deviantART
Saturday 6 March 2010
Tuesday 23 February 2010
That classic sensation, sentimental confusion
I used to hate his music. I was always putting it next to smug guys in white ties, children tight up to their pianos by ambitious parents and Poles bragging about rises and independence while doing nothing. Someone somewhere once said, that jazz is like wine and olives - it just takies time to grow up enought to appreciate it. I think it's pretty much the same with Chopin.
What's more, I'm sure I wouldn't be able to appreciate Chopin without knowing jazz inside out first (don't think too big of me, I meant just listening, not playing). It seems almost like a natural path throught the imaginarium of music: jazz->electronics->Chopin...
If Freddie lived nowadays, he wouldn't give a damn about white ties, he'd play jazz (of course, he'd perform in high class clubs in NYC, this guy was all about posh and loved high class grouppies). I simply cannot believe that this spirit would be able to stand the filharmony's smug. His all pieces sound like one big improvisation to me and I can imagine it must have been an unbearable torture for Freddie to write it all down. Nowadays he'd just sell records, instead of letting his music to be deadly assasinated during chic soirees by some snobs whi bought the notes.
More "Hollywood" version of Chopin - Hugh Grant starring in great British movie "Impromptu". I wonder if Chopin was as hot as Grant. I've always had a thing for pianists... ;)
Another common thing about jazz and Chopin occurred to me quite recently, while listening to a lot of various interpretations of his pieces on youtube. The problem with YT is that there are loads of videos (which is also it's greatest advantage), with various level of performers in them. However, when considering only the good ones, one can easily conclude this one thing: the older musician gets, the better they play. Young performers are always in such a rush, as if they were organizing some sort of race between each other, who'll play faster. Older, mature pianists, on the other hand, have this right feeling and know how to take things easy. I guess that's just the way it is - one has to live with music for many years, so that they could stop freaking out before every single date and wear bathrobe in her presence.
Every jazz standard can be interpreted in many ways. Those who cannot listen to "Summertime" by Gershwin any more know perfectly well what I'm talking about. While everybody got used to white-tie-sweaty-hands interpretation of Chopin, there was a great Polish band, who broke the taboo. Novi Singers - three guys and a gal, who, despite of their formal education in music, didn't mind confessing that their main inspiration are Duke Ellington, Beethoven and The Beatles - made an album called "Novi sing Chopin". I fell for this album from the very first hearing.
Since it is mainly due to this album that I fell in love with Chopin's music, they seem perfect to open the list of my favourite pieces.
Waltz op. 64 nr 1 ("minute waltz")
Charming and much too short.
Polonaise A major
In PL a lot of people call it "radio polonaise", because it's first few bars were some sort of sound logo of Polish Radio for many years. One of the very few pieces of music that I like to play out loud, without doing anything, just getting high on it's atmosphere and beauty. Performed by Janusz Olejniczak.
Funeral march
...in contemporary interpretation arranged by Jerzy Satanowski. This piece comes from an OST "Day of wacko" ("Dzień Świra", film by Marek Koterski).
Etude revolutionary
Great, passionate piece. Performer's name is Jessica Chang - 15-year-old musical prodigy from Taiwan, who started composing her strongly inspired by Chopin works at the age of 13. Check out her youtube channel, she rocks! (I know, interesting choice od words)
She's young and very technical, but this specific piece sound best when played by young, strong and fast fingers. After all, a revolution is made for young ones, right?
Nocturn E flat major, np. 9 no. 2
Suprise, surprise - not on piano this time! Funny, on a guitar it sounds almost like a composition of Sor or Tarrega. Instrument really matters... Performer is not that brilliant, just stumbled upon this clip while looking for some interesting version on this piece. It's just to spicy things up a little.
Mazurka F major op. 68 no. 4
...and Novi Singers again.
Polonaise A flat major
My perfect musical drug no. 2. I like listening to this and polonaise A major together to get double high.
So much for my private Chopin toplist. Of course, there's a lot more, but those are pieces that I distinguish the easiest.
I hate romantic literature (if you're not Polish, you won't understand why, just believe me I have good reasons for it), but romantic music is my cup of tea. For a dessert - nice piece by genuine, 100% French composer, Debussy - "Claire de lune". Clip has been taken from a movie "Tokyo Sonata", which is, btw, really worth seeing.
Quoting my long lost friend to me, all classical pieces have one common title "a gang wearing white ties", therefore I deeply apologize if I made a mistake in any title put above. The truth is, I hardly ever pay attention to the titles - whether it's fado, electro, Chopin... it's just too difficult to remember.
PS. The title of this note comes from an absolutely dreadful song "I like Chopin" by Gazebo. Google it if you want to check it out, I won't be responsible for this aesthetic rape you could experience.
Happy birthday, Freddie!
Tuesday 2 February 2010
Catnippoting
Our couch is old and awful, the fabric is dirty and torn in few places. However, I am letting this apartment and this piece of furniture, and I must do my best to keep this awful, neck-breaking blue monster in "superb condition" (the term as accurate as it's usage in property letting ads, don't you think?).
Therefore, I bought a catnip spray for my black witch, to drag her away from sides of the couch and attract her to that lovely scratching mat my bf bought a while ago. Results are satisfying, so far.
Anyway, I made this funny video. Since I remember, I have always connected in my weird, creepy mind "Rhapsody in blue" with a cat (not necessarily doing drugs).
Voilà:
Therefore, I bought a catnip spray for my black witch, to drag her away from sides of the couch and attract her to that lovely scratching mat my bf bought a while ago. Results are satisfying, so far.
Anyway, I made this funny video. Since I remember, I have always connected in my weird, creepy mind "Rhapsody in blue" with a cat (not necessarily doing drugs).
Voilà:
Sunday 31 January 2010
Friday 13th
Still searching for some fancy style for this blog. For a moment I came up with this creepy banner, I hope you like it.
For the record: I haven't seen this film and I hate horrors.
I really enjoy making banners and logos. Here are samples (made to advertise some of my blogs):
For the record: I haven't seen this film and I hate horrors.
I really enjoy making banners and logos. Here are samples (made to advertise some of my blogs):
my old lastfm playlist style (I don't even have an account there any more)
the writing says: "Regarding potential criticism, we must do everything to avoid criticism. Only applaud and full acceptation." (this is a quote from an old Polish movie, "Rejs" )
I think I will change that banner in a while, for something more "defining me" stuff, for a moment let's leave it like that...
Sunday 24 January 2010
Letting go
This is a direct translation of the newest note on Blog Azjofilki.
I must admit that I don't have a good opinion about this festival of commerce and fake smiles called Oscars. Judging by the list of "best pictures" in the last 10 years it's quite easy to see that original ideas and creativity lose when competing with spending loads of dough ("Lord of the rings"), "more shiny" sequels ("Chicago", "The Departed" - the latter was actually so shiny I couldn't look at it without pain) or very catchy subjects of poverty and racism, which make rich, fat people feel better about themselves by simply looking at the unfortunate ones for 100 minutes ("Slumdog millionaire", "Crash").
Nevertheless, I always follow what's going on in foreign films area, so when an award went to Japanese movie, I was very excited. Couple of weeks back I finally managed to see the picture. Why I waited so long with sharing my feelings about it? You'll find out soon.
"Okuribito"
"The departures"
year: 2008
movie page @ IMDB
Story is basically well-known to all fans of chick flicks: guy with high aspirations fails in achieving his goals in a big city, moves back to The Middle of Nowhere, discovers that family and friends are important, blah, blah, blah. Don't get me wrong, I like such stories, but only when they're told in an interesting, not too sentimental way (this is the moment where - I hate to say that - "Okuribito" fails).
So, there is a guy named Daigo Kobayashi. He is a mediocre cellist in mediocre orchestra in Tokyo. Orchestra is disbanded, he finds himself jobless and unable to pay for his cello. He decides to leave Tokyo, get back to his home town, move in to his mother's place and get a "normal" job. Normal job appears to be an encoffining - preparing dead bodies for the funeral. At first Daigo is disgusted, his friends feel ashamed to know him and his wife leaves him. But in a while, the job grows on him, he gets friendly with his collegues and finally finds peace of mind.
Now, why I postponed this review for a while? Truth be told, I was a bit disgusted right after seeing this picture. I did not like it's sentimental, Hollywood style (I suppose all foreign directors that get Oscars are basically rewarded for playing by Hollywood rules). However, a little bit later, when I started analysing what I saw, I appreciated the film.
First of all, mind the little detail that actually makes this film very Japanese: the motive of hard work in reaching perfection in any task or job you're taking in your life, stamina, responsibility. This way of seeing things is so much different from people of Western Civilisation: the job is boring, boss is a total bastard, salary is too small, and actually I'd rather do something else for a living. Japanese think: whatever it is that I am doing, this is my job and I have to do my best, period. This is something really worth considering.
Secondly, the main message of the film: to be happy, you have to let go. Daigo sells his expensive cello, which was the symbol of his unfulfilled ambition and frees his mind from sense of guilt and failure. Then, he moves out of Tokyo, which did not appreciate him as a human being and artist. Finally, when his wife leaves him, he does not run after her, just lets the things be. Instead of achieving, competing and aching, he simply lets it flow and finds the balance.
I think this is the message that makes "Okuribito" so special. It's a fine and ultimate answer to all those who feel prisoners in a cult of success and tired of running in the rat race. Let go, yield, step aside - and you'll find happiness somewhere where you did not even consider seeking for it.
There is one more reason for seeing this film, essential for all those who dig foreign cultures: the nokanshi (encoffinment) ceremony, especially the fact that it takes place in front of all mourners. It made me think a lot about my own feelings about death. I have participated several funerals in my life, but in fact never, ever seen a dead body. In Poland the deceased is usually shown to one member of the closest family for identification purposes (unless somebody else wants to "say goodbye"). I know that in some European countries there is a tradition of wake by dead body, but I've never come across such a thing. I connect death with singing some meaningless prayers on a cemetery, black clothes and tidying up the leaves on Nov 1st. All of that has nothing physical in it, as if the body after death did not exist any more. Japanese sees the body, it's physical, it's being washed, clad... and then cremated. The mourners say goodbye to the smoke flying to the sky and never go back to the same place to light the candles and do all that graveyard bullshit. Dead must go, so that the living could move on. Le roi est mort, vive le roi!
That's pretty much it. I guess an interesting subject of a movie and something to think about afterwards is good enough to make all film maniacs run to the theatres right now. In case you did not have enough reasons yet, I will give you another one: music composed by Joe Hisaishi. I haven't heard from him in a while and really liked that get-together.
Go to the cinema! Now!
I must admit that I don't have a good opinion about this festival of commerce and fake smiles called Oscars. Judging by the list of "best pictures" in the last 10 years it's quite easy to see that original ideas and creativity lose when competing with spending loads of dough ("Lord of the rings"), "more shiny" sequels ("Chicago", "The Departed" - the latter was actually so shiny I couldn't look at it without pain) or very catchy subjects of poverty and racism, which make rich, fat people feel better about themselves by simply looking at the unfortunate ones for 100 minutes ("Slumdog millionaire", "Crash").
Nevertheless, I always follow what's going on in foreign films area, so when an award went to Japanese movie, I was very excited. Couple of weeks back I finally managed to see the picture. Why I waited so long with sharing my feelings about it? You'll find out soon.
"The departures"
year: 2008
movie page @ IMDB
Story is basically well-known to all fans of chick flicks: guy with high aspirations fails in achieving his goals in a big city, moves back to The Middle of Nowhere, discovers that family and friends are important, blah, blah, blah. Don't get me wrong, I like such stories, but only when they're told in an interesting, not too sentimental way (this is the moment where - I hate to say that - "Okuribito" fails).
So, there is a guy named Daigo Kobayashi. He is a mediocre cellist in mediocre orchestra in Tokyo. Orchestra is disbanded, he finds himself jobless and unable to pay for his cello. He decides to leave Tokyo, get back to his home town, move in to his mother's place and get a "normal" job. Normal job appears to be an encoffining - preparing dead bodies for the funeral. At first Daigo is disgusted, his friends feel ashamed to know him and his wife leaves him. But in a while, the job grows on him, he gets friendly with his collegues and finally finds peace of mind.
Now, why I postponed this review for a while? Truth be told, I was a bit disgusted right after seeing this picture. I did not like it's sentimental, Hollywood style (I suppose all foreign directors that get Oscars are basically rewarded for playing by Hollywood rules). However, a little bit later, when I started analysing what I saw, I appreciated the film.
Secondly, the main message of the film: to be happy, you have to let go. Daigo sells his expensive cello, which was the symbol of his unfulfilled ambition and frees his mind from sense of guilt and failure. Then, he moves out of Tokyo, which did not appreciate him as a human being and artist. Finally, when his wife leaves him, he does not run after her, just lets the things be. Instead of achieving, competing and aching, he simply lets it flow and finds the balance.
I think this is the message that makes "Okuribito" so special. It's a fine and ultimate answer to all those who feel prisoners in a cult of success and tired of running in the rat race. Let go, yield, step aside - and you'll find happiness somewhere where you did not even consider seeking for it.
There is one more reason for seeing this film, essential for all those who dig foreign cultures: the nokanshi (encoffinment) ceremony, especially the fact that it takes place in front of all mourners. It made me think a lot about my own feelings about death. I have participated several funerals in my life, but in fact never, ever seen a dead body. In Poland the deceased is usually shown to one member of the closest family for identification purposes (unless somebody else wants to "say goodbye"). I know that in some European countries there is a tradition of wake by dead body, but I've never come across such a thing. I connect death with singing some meaningless prayers on a cemetery, black clothes and tidying up the leaves on Nov 1st. All of that has nothing physical in it, as if the body after death did not exist any more. Japanese sees the body, it's physical, it's being washed, clad... and then cremated. The mourners say goodbye to the smoke flying to the sky and never go back to the same place to light the candles and do all that graveyard bullshit. Dead must go, so that the living could move on. Le roi est mort, vive le roi!
Go to the cinema! Now!
Wednesday 20 January 2010
All's well that starts well
Hello to all those who stumbled upon my blog!
I suppose I owe you all a bit of an explanation, why we even meet here.
Main reasons for that are the following two:
1. I love blogging.
2. I suffer from incurable narcissism.
I have been running some other blogs for a while now:
- personal one
- blog about Asian culture
- blog about French stuff I happened to fall for
All of them are in Polish, because I'm Polish and have always thought that expressing myself in any other language is impossible. This blog is a bit of experiment. I have noticed that when speaking/writing English, I seem not quite the same person, at least to myself. I hope this bilingual blogging won't lead to schizophrenia... Also, due to my all-Polish blogger's career, I hid the "about me" box on the left. I'm sorry about that. As long as blogger.com doesn't provide an option of displaying different description blocks on different blogs, it will remain like that. But hey, all that blog is "about me", so maybe it's not such a waste after all?
So, to give you a bit of introduction - a bunch of basic facts:
Apart from basic facts, I'm annoying, talkative, nosy, cheerful gal who cannot stop thinking about herself for even a second. Will anyone find that interesting? Well, the popularity of my personal Polish blog (amongst my friends in real life, friends on the internet and complete strangers who happen to be registered on the same website) shows that some people do. As for my English-writing self, we shall see.
In case you want to have a look, there's more of myself on:
- deviantart.com - my photos
- 4shared.com - a few songs performed by me
As for the -friday in blog address: my last name comes from Polish for "five" or "Friday". Just another excuse for me to slack off on Fridays :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa2nLEhUcZ0
This is what I look like:
Till the next time, dear readers!
I suppose I owe you all a bit of an explanation, why we even meet here.
Main reasons for that are the following two:
1. I love blogging.
2. I suffer from incurable narcissism.
I have been running some other blogs for a while now:
- personal one
- blog about Asian culture
- blog about French stuff I happened to fall for
All of them are in Polish, because I'm Polish and have always thought that expressing myself in any other language is impossible. This blog is a bit of experiment. I have noticed that when speaking/writing English, I seem not quite the same person, at least to myself. I hope this bilingual blogging won't lead to schizophrenia... Also, due to my all-Polish blogger's career, I hid the "about me" box on the left. I'm sorry about that. As long as blogger.com doesn't provide an option of displaying different description blocks on different blogs, it will remain like that. But hey, all that blog is "about me", so maybe it's not such a waste after all?
So, to give you a bit of introduction - a bunch of basic facts:
- my name is Małgorzata (which is Margaret in English)
- I am 28 (born on December 6th, 1981)
- I was born in Szczecin, Poland, studied in Toruń, Poland, since August 2007 I live in Dublin, Ireland
- I test software for living
- I speak Polish (duh), English (fluent), German (theoretically), a bit of French, even smaller bit of Japanese and tiny, tiny bit of Russian (it all looks impressive at first glance, but truth be told only with English and Polish I feel comfortable)
- I like: music (mostly listening, but I play guitar and sing a bit as well), good movies, good books, photography, chocolate, cats, Christmas, my birthday (no, I do not get cranky about getting older, because I know I cannot stop the time and neither of you can, so there's no reason to pretend we'll be 18 forever), all sorts of jokes and humour (from 4chan to Monty Python), wine, foreign languages and cultures
- I don't like: blockbuster movies, tacky music, salt, Polish beer, working too much, being treated like an idiot, shallow and stupid people, television, Mondays, insects, football, heat
- I have a cat (black, female, more details later) and a boyfriend (caucasian, male, won't provide more details unless you really beg me), we all live together
Apart from basic facts, I'm annoying, talkative, nosy, cheerful gal who cannot stop thinking about herself for even a second. Will anyone find that interesting? Well, the popularity of my personal Polish blog (amongst my friends in real life, friends on the internet and complete strangers who happen to be registered on the same website) shows that some people do. As for my English-writing self, we shall see.
In case you want to have a look, there's more of myself on:
- deviantart.com - my photos
- 4shared.com - a few songs performed by me
As for the -friday in blog address: my last name comes from Polish for "five" or "Friday". Just another excuse for me to slack off on Fridays :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa2nLEhUcZ0
This is what I look like:
Till the next time, dear readers!
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