Posts Tagged ‘best’

Mauritius is Inspiration to Writers

Arts & Culture, Travel | Posted by admin
May 11 2009

The island of Mauritius is well known for its beautiful beaches and scenery, and it has an extremely interesting cultural history and social dynamic. While it has many interesting natural heritage aspects, its association to literature and the arts is representative of its great and wondrous beauty. The writer Mark Twain refers to the island in Following the Equator, and Nobel Prize winner Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio lives there for part of the year. Tourists appreciate the beauty and historical significance of the island. The best hotels Mauritius are typically found in the city centers, though many visitors seek out the unique country inns, which offer a major contrast to the urban setting.

Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio is an award winning French author. He was born in 1940 in the city of Nice on the French Riviera. When he was eight his family moved to Nigeria where he spent most of his childhood. Later he would draw on these early experiences for his writing, specifically with his semi-autobiographical novel Onitsha. He studied at both the University of Bristol in England and Nice’s Institut d’Etudes Litteraires. After he completed his education he came to the United States and worked as a teacher. He also spent a short period of time serving in the French military in Thailand, though he was expelled from the country due to his outspoken opposition to child prostitution.

Le Clezio has written at least 40 works and has won numerous awards. These include the 1963 prix Renaudot for the novel Le Proces-Verbal and the 2008 Nobel Prize for literature. The Swedish Academy recognized his work as poetic and sensual. It is often characterized by a focus on the environment. His style of writing underwent major changes in the late 1970s. He let go of his tormented struggle themes and a lot of his work began to deal with travel. The desert is a regular focus in his writing.

Tags: , ,
No Comments »

The Big Apple

Uncategorized | Posted by admin
May 04 2009

New York City is home of the Great White Way and affectionately referred to as The Big Apple. While most people will recognize the Great White Way as reference to Broadway and the city’s famous theater tradition, The Big Apple is a somewhat more ambiguous reference. Residents of Manhattan and the surrounding burroughs are extremely familiar with the reference and tourists will often boast that they are headed to the Big Apple. Fine dinging, great theater, and the best hotels Manhattan are all associated to the grand red fruit.

What is commonly accepted about the term is that it first became popular in the 1920s by John J. Fitz Gerald. This is due to his references in the New York Morning Telegraph regarding horse racing. By 1924 he make a direct headline reference in his column, Around the Big Apple. Why this name was given to New York remains unclear, though this early source is a sound starting point for its usage. However, around the same time it was also used to describe Los Angeles, and there are theories that The Big Apple refers to any large city. However, its connection to New York became solidified in the early 1970s. At that time the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau began advertising the city as The Big Apple.

Perhaps the most significant association came about with the popular Harlem nightclub called The Big Apple Jazz Club. Many jazz musicians sought to perform at this club and it was often frequented by some of the greats in the industry. Around the nation they started referring to performing in New York as performing in the Big Apple, meaning the establishment. This eventually led to the inclusion of the greater New York area and the name became more generalized. These theories and bits of history are all interesting aspects of the mythology of New York. Whatever their origin or original significance, the name has remained and continues to be the chosen nickname of one of the greatest cities in the world.

Tags: , ,
No Comments »

Outdoor Cinema at Singapore’s Fort Canning Green

Arts & Culture, Entertainment | Posted by admin
Apr 20 2009

Starlight Cinema is Singapore’s only outdoor cinema festival. It is held at the Fort Canning Green and is more than an experience in movie watching. The festival offers the opportunity to see new cinema, and it allows the audience to experience the beauty of the diverse weather evenings of Singapore. Because it is outdoors, it is exposed to environmental noise and aerial activity, such as the passing street traffic just outside. The theatre sound system works well, and the film is presented in surround sound. Adding the miscellaneous traffic noise from outside gives a new perspective to the concept of surround sound. This presents something of a sensational juxtaposition perspective, and combines the immediate environment with the viewing of the film.

Because there is no formal seating at the Starlight, patrons are encouraged to bring their own blankets and or pillows to settle into for the evening. This promotes an almost picnic like experience and the audience is invited to bring their own food and drinks. There are concessions available, though they are limited and primarily composed of hot dogs and popcorn. Many people come in groups of friends, and bring entire meals for the occasion. This can make watching the film a fun project by having each person bring their favorite food from one of the best Singapore restaurants. And every responsible audience member knows to bring an umbrella in the event of rain. All of these ingredients combine to provide more than just a film watching experience, the evening can become quite a unique adventure.

Fort Canning is a beautiful though not very large park near the central business district of Singapore. Other attractions the in the park include the Spice Garden. It was designed after a model of an experimental botanical garden. Sir Stamford Raffles created the garden and had spices like nutmeg and cloves shipped in to be planted there. Gothic Gates is another notable element, greeting visitors as they arrive at the park. These somewhat imposing Gates were built 1846 and mark the location of what was once a Christian Cemetery. Across the world, Fort Canning might be compared to Central Park in New York City.

Tags: , ,
No Comments »

Singapore Artist, Cheong Soo Pieng

Arts & Culture, Travel | Posted by admin
Mar 30 2009

Cheong Soo Pieng was another Singaporean artist that had been born in China. He was born, the last of seven children, in 1917 and began his study at the Xiamen Academy when he was only sixteen. His family was not against his pursuit of art, though they also did not encourage it. However, he was extremely self-determined and finished his studies at the Academy in three years. He continued his education in Shanghai, though his study there ended during the Sino-Japanese war, during which the Academy had been destroyed. Pieng returned home and began teaching at the same school he had attended in his youth. He was also focused on his own work. He quickly gained a reputation as an inspirational instructor and it was his own passion for his work that drove him. He presented his first individual show at the school in 1942 with his work in watercolor. Oil paints were a luxury and difficult to acquire in China during this time.

He moved to Kong Kong in 1945 and spent time there before he moved on to Singapore. He was instrumental to the founding of the Nanyang Fine Art Academy and taught there. His teaching career spanned more than twenty years and he was highly esteemed for his inspiration to his students. Pieng loved teaching though his true passion lied in is own work. He retired in his late forties and devoted his time to his art. He remains one of Singapore’s most influential artists and educators and is known for his part in developing the Nan Yang style of painting. He continued to work in water color though he used oil paints once they became available to him. He also worked in sculpture. His works hang on the walls in businesses and some of the best Singapore hotels, offering beauty and inspiration to those who view him. He’s also strongly influential to young students of art. His life work was presented in a show by the National Museum in 1983, though unfortunately Pieng died four months before the exhibit opened. He remains respected today and proves to be an inspiration to young artists for generations to come.

Tags: , ,
No Comments »

From the Perspective of Local Artists

Arts & Culture, Travel | Posted by admin
Mar 22 2009

The city-state of Singapore has long desired to been seen as a viable participate in the world of art. The organizers of various shows and festivals have looked towards other cities in hopes of discovering ‘the way’ they achieved such acclaim and the reputations that cities such as Manhattan, or Paris, or Florence. The government of Singapore has created objectives towards this goal, the goal of a more Renaissance, culturally and artistically, society. Artists that live in Singapore contend that what happens culturally and becomes phenomenons in those other cities is something that must be created from within the city itself, not created by copying what the others have done, but by the originality and quality existing already within Singapore’s artistic, and local, communities. One artist stated that it is necessary to consider that the artistic culture nurtures the city, and that that can not be forced. That it must happen naturally.

So much of Singapore’s ideas and society is fostered by the economic successes in the business world, the technological world. Tourism is a growing industry based on the achievements of the business world, and the best of Singapore’s hotels and restaurants and convention centers. Artists of Singapore fear that the driving force of business, of making money, is altering and diluting the purpose and the pure of the art world. Singapore has many art festivals throughout the year, the Biennale and the Showcase Singapore being two main, and very large exhibitions. But the local artists are quite happy when the festivals leave town, as the commercialism that has over-whelmed the shows in the last few years takes away from the beauty and the meaning, or rather, the meaning art has to the artist themselves. They view these festivals as spectacles, and the wish is to bring back the local artist, the creative soul.

Tags: , , ,
No Comments »