Browsing Lips
Have just been to see a beautiful film set in the Gobi desert of Mongolia called ‘The Weeping Camel’ – and yes there was a weeping camel. I picked up a flyer from the cinema, so instead of trying to re-invent the wheel I’ll just copy the synopsis from the back for those of you are interested:
Springtime in the Gobi Desert, South Mongolia. A family of nomadic shepherds assists with the births of their camel herd. One of the camels has an excruciatingly difficult delivery, but out comes a rare white calf. Despite the efforts of the shepherds, the mother rejects the newborn, coldly refusing it her milk and her motherly love. When any hope for the little one seems to have vanished, the nomads send their two young boys on a journey through the desert, in search of a musician. Finally a traditional violinist is summoned to the camp and a breathtaking ritual is performed.
It was such a simple story, but was so beautifully told. Sad to see how the nomadic lifestyle is changing so quickly and although I don’t believe it’s possible to stop change it’s sad when cultures change but have nothing to replace their traditions with and simply become empty copies of the West. Very highly recommended.
Have had a very relaxed weekend, which is good because I’m working five days this week and will need all my energy to get through the week. Yesterday – Saturday – I had a very lazy morning. After lunch I went for a walk by the harbour from the zoo around to Middle Head – one of my favourite walks and one of the most beautiful parts of Sydney. It’s hard to believe that you’re in a city of over 4 million people when surrounded by trees and sparkling clear water. Spent hours sitting on this rock overlooking the harbour contemplating the beauty of nature and how lucky we are here in Sydney to have such nature so close at hand.
Today I met up with a now very pregnant Anina for lunch. Hard to believe she only has 6 more weeks – it’s very exciting. Originally we’d had plans to have lunch out, but in the end we had a very simple lunch at Anina’s then went to check out this gallery that Anina had been wanting to check out to find a photograph for her partner Mario. Saw some really beautiful photographs and finally we decided on this one of some rocks and a tree. Black & white photographs manage to capture the mood of something so well – makes me want to get back into photography and developing. After our little shopping expedition we retired to this very cool café in Redfern that a friend of mine introduced me to – the perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
Right now I’m listening to the soundtrack of an Australian called ‘Somersault’, which I saw before I went away. It’s very atmospheric and evocative and brings back the film immediately – the stark, haunting beauty of the landscape around Jindabyne in the Snowy Mountains. The first track – ‘Heidi’s Theme’ is amazingly beautiful. Catherine lent me the soundtrack (thank you Catherine) as we went to theatre together on Friday evening. Catherine was in India while I was away, so we had lots to catch up on and decided to have dinner before the play. We saw ‘The Spook’, which was set in the 1960s in Australia and examined the way Australia dealt with the perceived communist threat by spying on members of the Australian Communist Party – extremely relevant in this age where so many governments seem so quick to portray all Muslims as terrorists or at least terrorist sympathizers.
Well – I think it’s time to go to bed. An early start – as always – and I have a lot of prep to do before class as I didn’t get much done of Friday afternoon. No doubt I’ll end up staying up quite late reading – am getting into Haruki Murakami’s very mysterious and typically quirky lastest book, ‘After Dark’. Makes me really happy to know that I haven’t forgotten to read all of the kanji (the characters) I learned and can still read a novel in Japanese. O-yasuminasai.
Springtime in the Gobi Desert, South Mongolia. A family of nomadic shepherds assists with the births of their camel herd. One of the camels has an excruciatingly difficult delivery, but out comes a rare white calf. Despite the efforts of the shepherds, the mother rejects the newborn, coldly refusing it her milk and her motherly love. When any hope for the little one seems to have vanished, the nomads send their two young boys on a journey through the desert, in search of a musician. Finally a traditional violinist is summoned to the camp and a breathtaking ritual is performed.
It was such a simple story, but was so beautifully told. Sad to see how the nomadic lifestyle is changing so quickly and although I don’t believe it’s possible to stop change it’s sad when cultures change but have nothing to replace their traditions with and simply become empty copies of the West. Very highly recommended.
Have had a very relaxed weekend, which is good because I’m working five days this week and will need all my energy to get through the week. Yesterday – Saturday – I had a very lazy morning. After lunch I went for a walk by the harbour from the zoo around to Middle Head – one of my favourite walks and one of the most beautiful parts of Sydney. It’s hard to believe that you’re in a city of over 4 million people when surrounded by trees and sparkling clear water. Spent hours sitting on this rock overlooking the harbour contemplating the beauty of nature and how lucky we are here in Sydney to have such nature so close at hand.
Today I met up with a now very pregnant Anina for lunch. Hard to believe she only has 6 more weeks – it’s very exciting. Originally we’d had plans to have lunch out, but in the end we had a very simple lunch at Anina’s then went to check out this gallery that Anina had been wanting to check out to find a photograph for her partner Mario. Saw some really beautiful photographs and finally we decided on this one of some rocks and a tree. Black & white photographs manage to capture the mood of something so well – makes me want to get back into photography and developing. After our little shopping expedition we retired to this very cool café in Redfern that a friend of mine introduced me to – the perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
Right now I’m listening to the soundtrack of an Australian called ‘Somersault’, which I saw before I went away. It’s very atmospheric and evocative and brings back the film immediately – the stark, haunting beauty of the landscape around Jindabyne in the Snowy Mountains. The first track – ‘Heidi’s Theme’ is amazingly beautiful. Catherine lent me the soundtrack (thank you Catherine) as we went to theatre together on Friday evening. Catherine was in India while I was away, so we had lots to catch up on and decided to have dinner before the play. We saw ‘The Spook’, which was set in the 1960s in Australia and examined the way Australia dealt with the perceived communist threat by spying on members of the Australian Communist Party – extremely relevant in this age where so many governments seem so quick to portray all Muslims as terrorists or at least terrorist sympathizers.
Well – I think it’s time to go to bed. An early start – as always – and I have a lot of prep to do before class as I didn’t get much done of Friday afternoon. No doubt I’ll end up staying up quite late reading – am getting into Haruki Murakami’s very mysterious and typically quirky lastest book, ‘After Dark’. Makes me really happy to know that I haven’t forgotten to read all of the kanji (the characters) I learned and can still read a novel in Japanese. O-yasuminasai.
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