Jaime's Den - Manet V

Quote of the day ....

At some ideas you stand perplexed, especially at the sight of human sins, uncertain whether to combat it by force or by human love. Always decide, "I will combat it with human love." If you make up your mind about that once and for all, you can conquer the whole world. Loving humility is a terrible force; it is the strongest of all things and there is nothing like it.

- Dostoyevsky - The Brothers Karamazov

The above has nothing to do with our bae-ziness :-) well maybe it does, 'cause you know, I have a passion for anything pertains wisdom, so just feel compelled to share something I feel deeply tugged in my heart. I just learned this passage of Dostoyevsky in last Sunday's Mass. Since I have a habbit of linking anything I encountered in my life with our BYJ, I was thinking what this has to do with him, and without much effort, I found it! Here! - don't you find our prince would always choose peaceful, human love to deal with the difficult situations in his life? Don't you think that "loving humility" is best suited to describe his attitude to his fans, and that "loving humility" of his is his "key feature" that attracted all of us? I do! And I believe that this is why his humbleness carries so much power and he is well on his way to conqure the world, ok, if it is not the whole world of this earth, it is the whole world of me.


I assume Jaime has already posted her Manet V on Quilt. I have been so busy lately that I rarely got time to check out the bae-land. Thank goodness there is still bb as my portal (thank you bb for your persistent work), and Jaime lovingly passing her writings to me. Thank you Thank you Thank you Jaime!

Oh, one more thing, since this is my blog, think it would be ok to share my personal dream (is there such thing as non-personal dream?) I had this morning (must be in the morning, for I still remember it) - Met a tall, good sized, good figured Caucasian woman at a store, (a bookstore?) she wore a light blue dress, was holding a magazine, presummably a magazine to do with BYJ, when she met me, (apparently we did not know each other before), somehow this lady grabbed me and started to express her passion to BYJ. I was so delighted to meet someone who shared the same love, so we sat down and started to talk about the man ... Could not remove this dream from my thought for the whole day, wondering who this lady could be? She does not look like anyone I know of in my real daily life. I take this as a blessing that some of our gals here are thinking about me. :-) Thank you Thank you Thank you for coming into my dream! I love you!


Now here is Jaime's Manet V. Thank you Jaime for pouring so much love, energy, time into this Manet Series. I know you intended to finish this series. But I hope you will share with us more. Maybe another artist, huh? Oh no! More work! Am not pushing and twisting arms, just tossing out wishes :-) Personally I've learned a lot, feeling more cultured and educated. What is so good about this bae-land? Entertaining, inspiring and Educational!


===================================================================


Dear sisters …… as promised, I will wrap up my Manet series with this last chapter. When Mrs. A inquired about the ‘bar girl’ painting in her previous comment, she inspired this Mrs. Z, “what a remarkable painting to appreciate upon closing this series!”. So, hope you’ll enjoy …….


Manet’s last masterpiece ‘Bar at the Folies-Bergere’ was completed in 1882, injecting his eloquent and heartfelt effort to make a grand final statement ……




The setting is depicted in the chic music hall Folies-Bergere, where avante-garde Parisians socialized and danced under its faded red and dirty gold decor. Our visual focus lands on the serveuse (waitress of drinks) and an unrealistically large mirror reflection of the bustling scene of patrons and neglected live entertainment (notice the acrobat’s green socks on top left). The artist caught the serveuse’s weariness, boredom and her impassive gaze oblivious to the world, enduring the unpleasant reality of solicitation from a male customer (on far right). Manet lent our heroine immense facial dignity and an air of aloofness conveying a message of self-containment. He expressed anonymity and loneliness inherent in modern life, not responding to the glitter and glamour of bourgeois society.

An honorary mention is Manet coalesced his love for still life with portrait here creating perfect equality and harmony, can you imagine the visual pleasure of ‘Bar at the Folies-Bergere’ without its sparkling array of bottles and fruit dish?


I initiated this series with a pure admiration for Manet’s charming illustrative letters and desire to share that tranquil love for Yong Joon with my dear Bae sisters. Little did I anticipate it to be a mini-tribute to the artist’s innovative thoughts, elegant style and even his uncompromising life. Manet’s challenge to old clichés prompted him to carve out a new art movement away from centuries-old traditional practice. Like our great king who led the Hallyu Wave into Asia with his charismatic appearance and subtle acting, has carved out a new cultural phenomenon of Asian Wave across world continents. So many tender hearts are awakened with so much dormant emotions erupted, we never seem to have enough sumptuous words, heavenly artworks and melodious music to glorify our Yong Joon’s respectable being and outstanding accomplishment. There was no one like him before, and never will be after! Please allow me to attempt one last time with Manet …….














Thank you for patiently reading the entire series and sharing your valuable thoughts with me. Your comments are so precious to me that I read them over and over again like a beautiful poem. Let’s hope Yong Joon be safe, healthy and happy always!



Acknowledgements :

1. Impressionism, Belinda Thomson and Michael Howard, Bison Books Corp. 1988
2. Impressionism Art, Leisure & Parisian Society, Robert L.Herbert, Yale University Press, New Haven & London. 1988
3. Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, James N. Wood, The Art Institute of Chicago. 2000
4. Manet The Still-Life Paintings, George Mauner, The American Federation of Arts. 2000
5. The purple picture in the 4th artwork comes from sister ‘flower’, please let me know if it’s fine with you, thanks.

Jaime's Den - What's With the Hair

She posted this on Quilt, but again!!! I can't see postings on Quilt any more. Thank goodness she sent a copy to me. Ah, another humorous piece. What do you think of his recent hairdo as a warrior in TWSSG, Jaime? That looks like an easy do-it-yourself job, yes? no? I just cut my hair short two weeks ago, hubby called me "self-destructing", suggested me to get help from a barber. My options are very few, can't try any of these fancy hair styles. It's all yours Jaime!


===================================================================


Dear sisters ……. What do you think of our prince’s recent evolvement in his hair style? Here’re my thoughts to share with you, hope you’ll enjoy …..





The first time I laid eyes on our gorgeous prince in Winter Sonata, besides that ‘out-to-kill’ sunshine smile, was that ‘out-to-shock’ golden hair that caught my attention. What a glorious combination of an ultra-handsome modern man living in an ultra-romantic fantasy! I was so totally electrified that if you plug the socket of your microwave oven into my ears, I can probably help you to defrost your steak (Asian sister, please use your AC adapter, we use 125 volts here in Canada). Determined to live in my prince’s image even though it’s already 4 years after the fact (never mind, we Canadians are not known to be fashionistas anyway. I heard my Canadian sisters protesting, ‘speak for yourself!’), so without wasting another second, I frantically summoned my ‘favourite’ hairstylist. You see, my hairstylist is the type who scouts the latest trend around the world, then eagerly want to experiment it on his customer’s (I mean, victim’s) hair. Being a ‘self-respecting’ woman living a simple life, I try to voice out that I have absolutely no desire to look like a ‘gel-up, make-up’ runway model in a John Galliano’s fashion show donning those asymmetrical puffed up hairdo (maybe another time, another life, but definitely not now). But at the end, Mr. Trendsetter always prevails, I usually let him win. Hey, I’m not dumb, after all he’s the guy who is holding the scissors up there. I don’t want to risk turning my haircutting session into an ‘open face surgery’!

But this time is different, with my powerful prince behind me, I was pretty adamant that MinHyung’s hair IS my hair. He had no choice but to succumb to my demand and fussed on my hair with a pouting face the whole time. I specifically instructed him on the cutting technique, blow drying angle, what base colour, how much highlight and where exactly I want it (I could have easily shown him MinHyung’s picture but I was afraid he’d laugh at me all the way to the washing basin). Have you ever wondered what mysterious ‘magic’ mist those stylists spray on your hair and somehow randomly fluff a few strands up here and there, and wala, you look so Hollywood-glamourous at that instant but you can never re-create it again at home?

I was one satisfied customer this time and proudly strode out of the salon, through the busy shopping malls and into the parking lot. Along the way, I couldn’t help but noticed everybody was staring at me, some even turned their heads around to look. I was smiling to myself and feeling totally gratified with the attention I was getting! I got into my car and decided to flip down my vanity mirror to admire myself one more time. ‘Holy baloney! Who sticks a picture of Lion King on my mirror?!’ I rubbed my eyes, touched the mirror and looked closely again, MY GOSH, that’s NO ‘Lion King’, that’s MEEEEEEE! My golden brown hair was sticking up and out in all directions like a lion with a GIGANTIC mane. Those passersby were NOT admiring me, they thought a half human/half beast maniac has just escaped from Prehistoric Jurassic Park! I felt like taking my head off and stashed it in the back seat while driving all the way home. I swear I will never go back to that hair guy again (btw, I’ve also said it at least 20 times before) and next time instead of giving him 20 percent tips, I will take the ‘0’ and ‘per’ out and only leave him with 2 cents (and that should give him the message)!





A few months has passed, both my hair and shattered self-esteem has slowly restored to its normalcy when our prince revealed himself again attending the wedding of SSH’s manager. This time the ultra-handsome man donned a long hairdo tied loosely and casually at the back in a pony tail. Remember his Korean fans joked in the AS screening that Yong Joon should have more ‘dirty thoughts’ so his hair could grow faster? I was just so glad that my hair has caught up to his length so quickly even though I SWEAR my thoughts are totally clean and pure when I am NOT thinking about him (well, it’s another story when I do think of him ~@@~). For the next 5 hours, this silly woman was standing in front of the bathroom mirror extending her poor arthritic arms and hands up to tie those hair at just the right looseness and length, running between the bathroom and computer to verify that ‘easy and breezy’ look. My effort finally paid off, for the next few months, yours truly was also donning this exact same ponytail as my prince. (Please don’t laugh at me, my heart really feels very warm and close to him knowing we are wearing the same hairstyle!)





Then the new summer Lotte pictures showed a slight variation by introducing curly waves to my prince’s hair. That may sound easy enough, after all it’s just curling a few strands of hair using the hot iron right? WRONG!!! Do you have any idea the torture ‘a night owl’ like me experience by dragging myself out of bed in the morning even 1 minute before the absolute latest wake up time?! Let me tell you, that degree of torture is equivalent to actually putting 10 burning hot curling irons directly on my hands, feet and forehead! But to ensure I resemble the Asian Goldilocks, I had to set my alarm clock half an hour earlier every morning to curl my hair now. Aye, the sacrifice I have to make for you my prince!





Wow, when the latest Lotte pictures came out a few days ago, the prince once again shocked me with this ‘gender-blender’ hairstyle, I was literally at a loss of words. His face still looks heavenly gorgeous, but WHAT’S WITH THE HAIR? Who doesn’t look ridiculous walking in an average crowd wearing a hairdo like that? How much disguise does a girl have to wear on her face so as not to be recognized? I know I know, you say ‘Who told you to copy the same style as our prince?’. But you see, it’s my destiny already, some fans carry his pictures, some wear his T-shirt, I just wear his hair! I can’t speak about other actors or actresses, but Yong Joon’s facial features are so beautiful and delicate, only he can carry a hairdo like this and still manage to radiate a princely, refined and sultry air. Now my big question is how do I achieve that look? Is this one of those styles that you have to hang your head up side down to dry, then tease the hair high at the top and back? Isn’t that similar to the lion mane that I’ve just recovered from a few months ago? Looks like I’ll have to crawl back to Mr. Trendsetter and beg him to try this one for me too (hopefully he has amnesia since my last visit and our professional ‘stylist-client’ relationship can blossom again, amen)!

From light-reading to heavy-readig

A lightreading turned into a "soul-searching" type of discussion. Don't take me wrong, I am not losing faith or leaving the bae-land, just the priorities are shuffled around lately. The comment Jaime made in the previous posting echoed in my heart for quite a long time, especially these words " We may see a small touch of kindness once in a while in our everyday life. But where can you find such an abundant amount of warmth, kindness and beauty concentrated in a fan circle within such a short timeframe?? Only in the BYJ family!! ". This is so well said and so true, Jaime!!! This is why we are here, I took it as a gift, and good Lord, how can I give up on this gift?!

I too saw great change in the way I deal with people in my life after falling into this bae-land. I can see myself having a bigger heart and strength dealing with difficult situation and difficult people in my life, with BYJ backed me up as a role model. It may sound funny that people in my age still talk about role model, but the fact is we all do. My heart feel much more joyful and peaceful after knowing him and learning to apply the attitude I learned from him toward the situations in my daily life.

Since Jaime can't resist to shed her light on her BYJ journey, I can't resist to repost it here. Jaime, please keep writing, have you finished you Manet V? Send to me when you are done, please!

I love you all!


=================================================================

Dear h,

I'm so glad you pointed me back to Mrs A's debut and your 'Soul Be It' post. This time I really digested the words slowly and thought about what you ladies are trying to convey. (Gosh h, you really should write more. I really like your amusing writing and unique perspective! (Thank you Jaime!)) You're so right, we really use our souls to communicate, regardless of our differences and backgrounds. Along this Bae journey, we discover about BYJ, the fans, each other and ultimately, OURSELVES!

This discovery signifies a new light, a new meaning in my life. I've always been someone's daughter, sister, friend, girlfriend, wife and mother; doing things to please other people and make sure that their needs are taken care of. Suddenly this man comes along waking me up, making me realize our hearts and minds have to be fulfilled first before our lives can blossom.

These few months I have been busily absorbing so much knowledge, not just on the actor BYJ, but on the beauty of life and human. The physical beauty of Korean everything and then expanded to Asia and the world - scenaries, people, culture, music and art. The beauty of human psychology and capability are displayed through fans' work and their interaction. We may see a small touch of kindness once in a while in our everyday life. But where can you find such an abundant amount of warmth, kindness and beauty concentrated in a fan circle within such a short timeframe?? Only in the BYJ family!! To me, this year seems like another lifetime, another new lease in life!

We are on the same wavelength, h. You're right, 'Nothing will last'! The other day, my sister just said to me casually that 'this is just a phase for me.' One day, BYJ will retire and we will no longer see him in the limelight. There will be no more news of him, fans' anticipation will die down. She may be right, this fanfare will not go on forever, but I know it's definitely not a PHASE for me. It's a turning point in my life!
He makes me rediscover passion like art, pure hearts, innocence, and the hidden side of humour and writing. I have the confidence now to deal with difficult people out there and face any challenge - by looking up to BYJ as a role model (God knows he has to face media scrutiny and business obstacles everyday).

Like you, I know from this point on, I may not be as engulfed by throwing myself into his life and his work as before (but it's so hard to tear my eyes away from his gorgeous face). I am slowly trying to strike a balance between my family, my life and my fantasy. Maybe this is a natural evolvement for a typical BYJ fan?

As you know, this journey will definitely not last without you and other beautiful Bae sisters. I enjoy so much of our mutual respect and support of each other. Sorry for such a long and tedious comment, just can't resist.

love ..... Jaime

Sunday, September 10, 2006 12:02:06 AM

(Translation) 马奈 (四)

This Manet IV is a nice read ...... again! I think Jaime posted this on Quilt on his birthday, but my translation comes too late ... just think of it as extending his birthday's celebration ...


亲爱的姐妹们 ……刚过了我们亲爱的勇俊的生日, 兴奋之余,看了才女们创造的所有美好的贺信, 美术作品和视频, 我已经被彻底地征服了. 我本想将马奈的整套系列作为献给我们王子的生日礼物, 但没想到我缓慢的速度(或年龄?)占了上峰. 因此, 亲爱的勇俊的生日来也匆匆,去也匆匆, 而我却还埋头于印象流派的书堆里! (我已续借五次,对图书管理员已用尽了所有的藉口!)


万一你好奇我有多罗嗦或是想知道你还得忍耐多少这样的章节, 我很高兴地告诉你马奈系列就要在下一章结束了. 但愿到现在你还喜欢. 在这章, 我试图探究马奈的静物画, 以及它与我们王子最钟情的爱好 – 摄影艺术之间的关系 :


马奈倾心于静物画, 在他的作品中有五分之一, 至少有八十幅, 是静物画. 他坚信静物画比任何其他流派画法都要考验画家的技能,看其能否以最纯粹的形式传达主题形象. 艺术家对构图, 视角, 采光和精确度的掌握是至关重要的. 静物画的创造过程有两个方面 : 一是表现在对物体的安排中, 二是表现在绘画的过程中. 马奈将静物画归纳为”建立在另一种艺术品上的艺术”.






在近代, 这一创作过程在摄影艺术中被重现, 摄影艺术家要考虑同样的四个要素 : 构图, 视角, 采光和精确度. 我们已经听过无数次著名的摄影师和艺术指导评价勇俊怎样通过摄像镜头象梦幻奇迹一样展现他超越摄影极限的美. 他对美学有极其敏锐的感觉和对完美的追求, 我们这些家人对他的赞美和欣赏绝不是夸大其词,而是对他变幻能力的肯定和赞誉. 虽然从外表上看,为了配合每次摄影所营造的气氛,他要表现得从容轻松, 但他的工作态度却绝对是严格热切,认真专业的.每每我们的王子都要一丝不苟地以他的超高标准来检查每一幅照片的精确度和美观性. 由于他迷人的光彩在精心设计的照明灯下被摄入镜头,每一幅照片都自成一体尽善尽美. 我们因此才能受益匪浅,享受到这样精益求精的产物.







对于马奈来说, 服饰的魅力和时尚并非浅薄之事. 他对穿着的看法是多层次的 – 也就是说一个人外表的形象, 言谈举止风度, 反映了他的艺术和文学修养, 也反映了他对哲学,社交和政治的关注. 他的观点 “Il faut etre de son temps’ – 意思是 “合乎时尚是有必要的”, 表达了他现代主义的格调. 如果马奈是当今二十一世纪的摄影师,他很有可能被感召于我们王子最中意的摄影师圈内,与金太万和已故的亨利 卡迪尔-布莱森齐名. 对于单调物体与有活力的生命之间的关系,马奈有着独到的领悟.这一组画不仅是马奈这一意识的图例,而且也更进一步证实了我们王子是当今时尚的典范 :

















鸣谢:

1. 印象流派，Belinda Thomson and Michael Howard, Bison Books Corp. 1988
2. 印象派艺术, 休闲与巴黎社会, Robert L. Herbert, 耶鲁大学出版, New Haven & London. 1988
3. 印象派和后印象派, James N. Wood, 芝加哥艺术学院. 2000
4. 马奈 静物画, George Mauner, 美国艺术同盟会. 2000

Master of Sitting Art - My Sitologist

Hotelier is my first encounter with BYJ, but I got truly addicted with him from THE drama called Winter Sonata. (I've watched it countless times). He is so dazzling, colorful, handsome, stylish, gentle, kind, loving, forgiving, you name it! Just can't find enough nice adjetive to described this well educated, well mannered, nice looking, pure, loving gentleman. As I got deeper and deeper learning about this young man, I can not help but to admire that he does possess superior acting talent - that Min-hyong who he portraited so well in WLS, was not exactly 100% the man that he is, (maybe it is 36% of him), honestly, I think he is really the man shown in the above picture and in the rest of pictures of this posting - do you see that dominating power in him when he was just at the age of 24? He was like a prince of super super power, a 120% superior man than a "neutual man" as recent newspaper described him. The gentle Min-hyong made him extremely popular in Asia, but by looking at the way he sits, my gut tells me that the strong musculine side of him weighs more in his human nature. It is his magical mixture of the manly strength and the gentleness that fascinates me to this day.















































Look how he stretched his long legs. He even hold that unsurpassable power when he was shooting a leisure scene.






















Even, when he travels in a limo, he sits with that bossy style. I love it! The man knows the art of sitting. It's in his blood, I tend to call him Dr. Sitologist.






















Wow, look at the position of his hands and the angel of his stretched legs, his proudly lifted head, that serious look on his face, the clear background of the blue sky with white cloud, and that vast blue sea, I can't help admiring this great momentum, he does look like a prince with the vision and mind to conqure the world.










































The sweet summer sweat exhales from that musculine chest, Hmmm... I can smell it...... Are we still looking at how his sits?











































Yes, he sits like a real lubricious man. Maybe he has 1% of that "quality", will this make him more alluring? Sigh ...... The honest answer is "Yes"!














































All of a sudden, he is showing the sunny and graceful side of him. When he opens up his broad shoulder and chest, criss-crossing his legs and leaning back, he gives me a strong and warm feeling of a family man.












































When crossing his legs and leaning again the chair, every part of his body is cut clean and clear, the knee, the albow, the wrist, the shoulder, the fingers, the neck, especially the seriousness on his face, the piercing eyes, the tightly closed lips, the ring, the watch, the sleeves, the pants, the carefully unbuttoned shirt, the glasses, the hair, the ear, the nose, the eyebrows, the fingernails, I love every nitty gritty part of this man, this piece of art. When the man gets serious, you know who is calling the show!























































































Then when he dresses up and smiles at you, all you see is the elegant and genteel prince. Be it crossing or stretching out his legs, be it with or without socks!


























I am 100% positive that he is sitting, look at that grand red leather chair, but it might be his face is so handsome, that the photographer only focused on his upper body, this leaves me unlimited room to imagine how magnificent he sits.

Jaime's Den - Manet IV

Jaime, nice job! Don't worry about speed, Manet's elegant paintings accompany wuri yoon joon before and after his birthday, looking forward to more of your writings ...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear sisters …… After the excitement of our dear Yong Joon’s birthday, I’m overwhelmed from reading all the wonderful greetings, artworks and videos created by our talented sisters. It’s my original intention to dedicate my complete Manet series to our prince for his birthday, but my unexpected slow pace (or old age?) catches up with me. So now, dear Yong Joon, your birthday has come and gone, and I‘m still burying myself in the pile of Impressionism books! (I’m really running out of excuses explaining to the librarian that I am renewing their books for the fifth time!)


In case you are wondering how longwinded I will get or how many more of these chapters you have to endure, I’m delighted to inform you that I will be closing this Manet series in next chapter. Hope you enjoy it so far. In this chapter, I attempt to explore Manet’s still life painting and its relevance to our prince’s favourite passion, the art of photography :


Manet dedicated one-fifth of his drawings, no less than 80 of them, to still life paintings. He believed still life, more than any other genre, tried the painter’s ability to convey the appearance of subject in its purest form. The artist’s mastery of the arrangement of subjects, angle of vision, illumination and precision are of crucial importance. The creativity of still life is two-fold : first expressed in the arrangement of the subjects, second during the course of painting. Manet regarded still life painting as the epitome of an ‘art built upon another art’.





In modern times, this creative process is rediscovered in the art of photography whereby the artist would consider the same four aspects : arrangement, angle, illumination and precision. We heard numerous accounts from renowned photographers and art directors of how Yong Joon can transcend like a dream, a miracle through camera lenses. For us family who appreciates his acute sense of aesthetics and quest for perfection, these compliments are not magnification but a recognition of his metamorphosis. While outwardly appearing relaxed and acting leisurely to complement the impression of each shoot, his work attitude is strictly intense and professional. Our prince would meticulously examine each picture for its precision and aesthetic quality to his high standard. We are blessed with the end-product of that scrutiny as his radiance is beautifully captured under designed illumination and each picture becomes a self-contained perfection.





For Manet, the charm and style of apparel were hardly superficial matters. His notion of dressing was in many layers - implying external appearance, style of behaviour and speech reflected one’s awareness of artistic and literary tendencies, as well as philosophical, social and political concerns. His remarks ‘Il faut etre de son temps’ - meaning ‘it’s necessary to be of its time’, conveyed a tone of his modernism. If Manet were a photographer in present day’s 21st century, he could well be inducted into our prince’s favourite photographers circle, among the likes of Kim Tae Hwan and the late Henri Cartier-Bresson. This set of drawings illustrates Manet’s consciousness of the relationship of inanimate objects to the delights of human life, further substantiated by our prince as a style icon :















Acknowledgements :

1. Impressionism, Belinda Thomson and Michael Howard, Bison Books Corp. 1988
2. Impressionism Art, Leisure & Parisian Society, Robert L.Herbert, Yale University Press, New Haven & London. 1988
3. Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, James N. Wood, The Art Institute of Chicago. 2000
4. Manet The Still-Life Paintings, George Mauner, The American Federation of Arts. 2000