Category: Art and beauty

Rainbow & Blue Villages, Malang, Indonesia

On By Rick McIn Art and beauty, travel1 Comment

Jodipan Colorful Village is often called by tourists the Rainbow Village.

This was a slum area in the city of Malang, Indonesia, ready to be demolished. All residents relocated.

However, a group of students from a university in Malang came up with the idea to give the area a fresh and remarkable splash of paint in the hope of attracting the attention of tourists.

In June 2016, the Air Force troops painted the entire village (named Jodipan), and directly after it became a major tourist attraction.

Click PLAY or get a glimpse on YouTube.

It’s not easy to take a bad photo here. 😀

Look up. Way up.

This success inspired another Indonesian Rainbow Village ➙ Kampung Pelangi, Semarang.

Arema Blue Village was originally another slum right next door.

This area was painted April 2018.

It reminded me somewhat of the traditional blue city Chefchaouen in Morocco.

The Blue Village is not nearly as tourist ready. It’s mostly a neighbourhood painted blue in honour of the local football team.

Both are close to the train station and my hostel.

What is art? 🎨

On By Rick McIn Art and beauty, friends, videoLeave a comment

You know it when you see it?

Something that appeals to you artistically, I might consider garbage. And visa versa.

It’s subjective.

Certainly, anything I could easily recreate is NOT skillful. NOT art.

This is not art …

This is not art …

Voice of Fire by Barnett Newman.

It’s 2 cans of paint, 2 rollers, canvas, and less than an hour.

Almost everyone would agree that Van Gogh was an artistic genius.

Impressionism was an original step forward in generating emotion through art.

I’d argue that Warhol was another original step forward.

Picasso, another genius.

The artist friend I admire most is Mike Sissons. Great in many mediums including sculpture.

The artist to study in 2024 is a young guy from Mexico — Gawx.

He’s also the most skilled video editor on YouTube in my opinion. Something like Van Neistat, but even better.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Jungle – Let’s Go Back

On By Rick McIn Art and beauty, musicLeave a comment

Jungle is a British band closely associated with a dance troupe. Some of their videos, including this one, are one shot. Very cool.

Choreography by Shay Latukolan

Will West is the lead dancer.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Portugal. The Man – Feel It Still

On By Rick McIn Art and beauty, musicLeave a comment

Catchy tune.

But I post here for the brilliant choreography by Emma Scherer using that song.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

It’s a reimagining of Bob Fosse’s choreography from the Rich Man’s Frug in the musical Sweet Charity (1969).

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Click PLAY or watch the original video by Portugal. on YouTube.

A Death in Cornwall by Daniel Silva

On By Rick McIn Art and beauty, booksLeave a comment

A Death in Cornwall is the 2024 title and 24th in the series from Daniel Silva.  

Jealous? 😀

Gabriel Allon is searching for a stolen Picasso.

I enjoy the smart, entertaining dialogue. There is a lot of dark humour.

Some of the most popular characters from past books make an appearance, including a Corsican goat. 😀

A brutal murder, a missing masterpiece, a mystery only Gabriel Allon can solve …

Art restorer and legendary spy Gabriel Allon has slipped quietly into London to attend a reception at the Courtauld Gallery celebrating the return of a stolen self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh. But when an old friend from the Devon and Cornwall Police seeks his help with a baffling murder investigation, he finds himself pursuing a powerful and dangerous new adversary.

The victim is Charlotte Blake, a celebrated professor of art history from Oxford who spends her weekends in the same seaside village where Gabriel once lived under an assumed identity. Her murder appears to be the work of a diabolical serial killer who has been terrorizing the Cornish countryside. …

Gabriel soon discovers that Professor Blake was searching for a looted Picasso worth more than a $100 million, and he takes up the chase for the painting as only he can—with six Impressionist canvases forged by his own hand and an unlikely team of operatives that includes a world-famous violinist, a beautiful master thief, and a lethal contract killer turned British spy.

Silva writes lying on the floor. With pencils. On yellow legal pads.

No outline.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Impression, Sunrise by Claude Monet

On By Rick McIn Art and beautyLeave a comment

I’m no art enthusiast.

But one genre I totally appreciate is Impressionism. 

Impression, Sunrise (French: Impression, soleil levant) is an 1872 painting by Claude Monet first shown at what would become known as the “Exhibition of the Impressionists” in Paris in April, 1874.

The painting is credited with inspiring the name of the Impressionist movement.

Impression, Sunrise depicts the port of Le Havre, Monet’s hometown.

… the term “Impressionism” was not new. It had been used for some time to describe the effect of paintings from the Barbizon School. Both associated with the school, Daubigny and Manet had been known to use the term to describe their own works.

Apparently he painted this in one sitting. Giving us an impression of the moment.



DANCE ➙ Somebody That I Used To Know

On By Rick McIn Art and beauty, music, videoLeave a comment

by Gotye.

Fantastic.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Here’s the original — and original — music video.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. Grammy for Record of the Year.

Cunk on Earth – Eat THIS, David Attenborough 😀

On By Rick McIn Art and beauty, education, humour, TVLeave a comment

Very. Funny.

On Rotten Tomatoes, 100%.

Cunk on Earth is British mockumentary TV, brilliantly skewering everything and everybody historical. 

… stars Diane Morgan as Philomena Cunk, an ill-informed investigative reporter …

The series introduces subjects such as the development of agriculture and early civilization, the rise of Christianity and Islam, the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, the First and Second World Wars, the Cold War and the Space Race.

With an eye to the future, Cunk concludes the series with a speculative comment on the possibility of AI takeover. …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.