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still life

Posted on May 28, 2011 @ 8:52 am by massimo | Filed under: advertisement,blog,fun,holidays,japan,people,ukiyo-e,wordpress

I really appreciate  the very peculiar   process of falling into sleep and, possibly, dreaming. Every time it happens it is like setting sail softly bound to some still  unknow region of our mind or personality. And as for  every real journey, we actually cannot plan much of what we are going to find into those deep regions. But alas!  At last we always wake up a bit confused by the dreams we dreamed or by their absence: what occurred to us while asleep has the power to determine our daily mood. I believe that every traumatic waking up could be positively overcome by some music or natural sound, so please avoid every alarm clocks even if you must wake up at 3 am because of your most recent late deals holidays ! Here is a lovely haiku by the japanese master Ryusui: “the nightingale’s sweet trill, The splash of ripples on the shore And all the rest is still”. What a way to wake up !

Illustration Fridays topic is: asleep

John Fowler t-shirts

Posted on May 25, 2011 @ 4:59 pm by massimo | Filed under: advertisement,bangkok,blog,fashion,fun,holidays,package tour,people,t-shirt,thailand,ukiyo-e,wordpress

Is Bangkok  the number one destination among  cheap package holidays? It’s hard to say ; indeed  this big city makes several thousand tourists welcome every year. Despite its monstrous traffic jam, pollution and hot climate, as for any other metropolis Bangokok has got a subtle appeal to many visitors, something which is not so clear at first. I’m not talking about the red light district, with its sex traps, or the striking shopping centres where once can buy whatever  stuff he is looking for. No, i’m thinking to some Bangkok pecularities that made this place unique among travellers from the late ’60. One of them certainly was the John Fowler shop on Pleonchit at Silom Road / Convent Road corner. Fowler really started a minor empire and expanded to other stores including Pattaya. What am I talking about? T-shirts off course, great t-shirts with original topics such as in the Golden Triangle series, or the Indian Gods series, or old Chinese images. There was another series with Thai Folk art like baskets and jars. Unfortunately my few old Fowler’s t-shirt  got lost. These days it seems difficult to get a Fowler’s original, so I made my decision and now I’m working on a few t-shirt drawings in the Fowler style: here is one of them.

ablution

Posted on May 24, 2011 @ 11:21 am by massimo | Filed under: africa,blog,cheap,fun,holidays,illustration,island,kenya,lamu,news,people,travel,wordpress

The road trip from Malind to Lamu is a time consuming one. I found out that the road conditions have not changed much after 25 years. My second trip to Kenya dates back to 2009 and actually the very reason to get back,  was my need to compare the changes: changes inside me while travelling those same places that possibly had changed: just a game, a sort of time machine. These were my thoughs on the crowed bus which slowly headed to Mokowe Jetty : there I would catch a cheap boat to Lamu Island, looking for the same cheap boarding house were I stayed 25 years before. Yes, my holiday seemed just a sentimental journey. The bus stopped one more time for a while, somewhere: a sudden rain was falling. I watched trought the bus window  and curiously saw an old black man, a giant indeed, bathing happily into a sort of mini swamp filled with muddy water. There he sat, gazing an old broken bycicle nearby and smiled to the clean rain falling on his body and his bald head: was he thinking words of wisdom, perhaps?

Illustration Friday topic is: soaked

The Lord of beginnings

Posted on May 19, 2011 @ 6:01 pm by massimo | Filed under: advertisement,blog,fun,himalaya,holidays,illustration,india,mythology,travel,wordpress

Yes, definitely this blog needs a new start! Altough I quit  the  reckless and endless wandering that I experienced for more than a decade, yet I’m still able to take my  time and travel once in a while. Nevertheless my actual travel time shortage, I found out  that there is a lot …