Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
This post’s subtitle owes an apology to Wendy Carlos.
(Wendy, who was originally named Walter, is most famous for her 1968 LP “Switched-on Bach”).
This post includes a musical bonus; like the featured image, it involves Tibetan Buddhism…but not J.S. Bach.
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…is an arresting, humorous/sinister/beautiful composition by Carla Bley. (for more, see footnote at bottom of this post)
Probably, Carla was inspired by some fellow Americans – Venus Flytraps.
Possibly, she had in mind the spectacular pitcher plants that lurk in Asian jungles.
However, the hottest spot for carnivorous plants is somewhere Carla has never ventured – Western Australia’s southwest corner, where more than 25% of “our” planet’s flowering carnivore species live, exclusively.
Many have exquisitely delicate flowers and look like they wouldn’t hurt a fly.
Comments closedEver wondered how speakers/singers of Spanish or Portuguese would render a duck’s “quack”?
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Tomorrow, Western Australia’s west coast is expected to experience a “once in ten years” storm event, with winds that could gust to 130 kilometres per hour.
Today’s photo shows a much gentler day in a beautiful south coastal WA place, but it still shows how wind – especially salt-bearing wind – shapes, sculpts and prunes.
Musically, today’s venues are in Tokyo and Bahia.
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On this winter’s day in Rajasthan these demoiselle cranes had it easy.
The altitude was low, the weather mild, and they only had to fly for a few minutes – from a local dam to a nearby village, where food is provided expressly for them – then, back to the dam.
To reach this cranes’ paradise, however, they had to cross the world’s mightiest mountains…and as winter becomes spring they will have to fly over the Himalayas again.
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No other large desert is so densely populated by humans.
Its remarkably abundant and diverse wildlife also defies preconceived notions of deserts as “empty” or “barren” places.
Most of the Thar Desert is in northwest India; the other 15% is in Pakistan.
The greater portion is in Rajasthan.
One CommentThe photo (copyright Doug Spencer) was taken, in a state of astonishment, this week, near Subiaco Railway Station, Western Australia.
A suitable caption: Do Not Believe Your Eyes!
Comments closedThe photo shows Lake Mashū in eastern Hokkaido, late on the misty Spring morning of 22 May 2017.
Complete with cherry blossoms, the scene was almost proverbially peaceful, serene, but…
Comments closedI took this post’s photo late on the afternoon of 14 July 2010, just below a small waterfall on Oahu Stream, near Kaikoura on New Zealand’s South Island.
Comments closedOver the last year no “female vocal” albums have moved me more deeply. In their different ways, each defies description, and is a very “unlikely” success. Respectively, they were recorded in the singer’s living room in Iowa, and in a studio in south-east France. Iris Dement interprets Russian poetry, in a manner no one else would ever have attempted… or imagined. Elina Duni addresses poetry and traditional song from her birthplace, Albania…with three brilliant Swiss jazzmen.
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