Danube by Night

The night is falling over the Danube...

The Planet of the Coffee

The Planet of the Coffee - high resolution image captured a while ago (3rd of April, 2015) by my personal telescope Hubble alike, I mean Humble... "My Humble Telescope"! Don't forget: it's just an image... [Sorry! Lack of imagination... You name it!]

Meanwhile, I moved on, from HD photos to HD moving imagery. Another angle, another night (26th of June, 2015), another atmosphere. Still milky though... Well, Milky Way it's still on its own way...

In time, the fast advancing technology will reveal the secrets behind the shady atmosphere from the above images. Or is it just the human soul enough to explain the complexity of feelings while experiencing a sip of coffee? Feel free to let me know!

Just Night

Reading Dunia's lines, a Romanian writer friend, my thought began their way, at a slower pace at first, then at a higher rate, towards The Sheltering Sky. There is a certain sequence in this movie which I consider like some sort of an inflection point of its action. It is not a peak of its action, and rather a scene that seeds the grain for further thoughts, for future reflections. The sequence itself is not an exceptional one regarding the technique, yet the simple fact that keeps on rising from the depths of the memory after so many years, contradicts somehow the appearances. What truly strikes is the dialogue between Kit and Port (Debra Winger and John Malkovich):

Port: You know, I miss times like this, places like this, more than anything in the world.

Kit: I know you do. 

Port: This is what I wanted to show you: this place.

Kit: Yes.

Port: Come on!

Port: Here... the sky is so strange. It's almost solid. As if it were protecting us from what's behind. Look!

Kit: What's behind?

Port: Nothing! Just night.

Kit: I wish I could be like you, but I can't.

Port: Maybe we're afraid of the same thing.

Kit: No. We're not! You're not afraid to be alone. And you don't need anything. You don't need anyone. You could live without me.

Port: You know that, for me, loving means loving you. No matter what's wrong between us, there can never be anyone else. Maybe we're both afraid of loving too much!

Kit: Let's leave here!

Port: Okay!

Kit: Okay! 

The breaks in the dialogue between the two travelers were left on purpose. Actually Port is a traveler, and Kit is a combination between a traveler and a tourist. The difference between the two is essential, being explained right at the beginning of the movie:

A tourist is someone who thinks about going home the moment that arrived, whereas a traveler might not coming back at all. 

Bernardo Bertolucci is the director, and the script belongs to the writer of the the book on which the movie is based, Paul Bowles, along with Mark Peoploe.

And because we can not skip the music, I will use it as an ending, but I will not end until I will make you aware of watching the clip (some sort of a trailer) right to its end, in order to discover something to make you reflect even more!

Winter, Snow, Europe, Ukraine

Seeing my last post, I thought that it is almost a month since the year started, and there's a lack of activity on my blog. It is not such a catastrophic event, since it is not a blog with a regular update. Due to the fact that the winter is already installed in my city, probably some new winter photos might be added, so I'll post a few of them.

The first snowy night in Severin.
Google was playing with this photo adding a snowing effect.

The layer of snow was bigger the second night.
It was not snowing at that particular time that I took the picture, so the sky had a different color palette. 

Well, winter in Romania, winter in other Western European countries, winter in Ukraine... In Ukraine where people are still fighting for their rights, people are still fighting to remove a dictator alike president.

Millions and millions of snowflakes blow by the wing in all directions.

My photos are fading in front of the ones of Ilya Varlamov, the journalist that went in the middle of the events that took place in Kiev on January 22nd and 23rd, at "Maidan". The following photos and many more are from Ilya's article, zyalt: Revolution in Kiev, Ukraine, written on LiveJournal.

"Actually the center of Kiev is very pretty right now."
(c) Ilya Varlamov

"European square. Back when it was all starting, there was a stage here, from which politicians pontificated their smart ideas about the future of Ukraine. Now the politicians have move on to Maidan, and the European square has become the rear base of the revolution. Cars with food arrive here; old tires for the bonfires, wood, medicine and reinforcements."
(c) Ilya Varlamov

Jazz Trumpet

Homeland TV series was recommended to me by a dear friend, so here I am watching it!
The title of this blog is not apparently related to movies, but to music. Two or three times during the first episode my ear captured a few trumpet notes. Jazz trumpet notes to be more precise. Some like in Englishman in New York, a great song performed by Sting.

A simple search using "jazz trumpet" as keywords on Google have lead me to Jon Faddis. He is a great trumpeter, but it wasn't the kind of jazz I was looking for. So I was added one more simple word: smooth. The keywords for the new search are now "smooth jazz trumpet".

Well, if you simply want to lay down, to close your eyes and then fly over the world... over the great cities around the world, during the night, with no plans, with no worries, without any target, with no direction at all... well then... this is what you might like to hear: EDolutionary!

Edmund Sobczak - trumpeter, composer originally from Poland where he studied trumpet performance at the University of Music in Poznan - one of the best Universities in the country. For the last 6 years he's lived in Oxford (UK). After 18 years of playing the trumpet and being involved in countless music projects, in 2008 he decided to start his own solo career.
- from EDolutionary.com