The world is a mask that hides the real world.
Thatâs what everybody suspects, though the world we see wonât let us dwell on it long.
The world has ways - more masks - of getting our attention.
The suspicion sneaks in now and again, between the cracks of everyday existenceâ¦the bird song dips, rises, dips, trails off into blue sky silence before the note that would reveal the shape of a melody that, somehow, would tie everything together, on the verge of unmasking the hidden armature that frames this sky, this tree, this bird, this quivering green leaf, jewels in a crown.â¦
As the song dies, the secret withdraws.
The tree is a mask.
The sky is a mask.
The quivering green leaf is a mask.
The song is a mask.
The singing bird is a mask.
Friday, September 09, 2005
"the cockroach would miss us"
Both the cockroach and the bird would get along very well without us, although the cockroach would miss us most.
-Joseph Wood Krutch, US author & critic (1893 - 1970)
shade
on fire
poised
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Focus Group
...sez guy on the streets:
"Anti-corporate image by street artist ELBOW-TOE. Acrylic on butcher paper wheatpasted on yet another expensive development site in Brooklyn. I appologize that the photo is strung together a little weird. A large SUV was parked directly in front of it."
Monday, September 05, 2005
Abu Dhabi to UNSCO: Register falconry as a world cultural tradition
UAE for falconry as world tradition
Khaleej Times Online, 3 September 2005
Khaleej Times Online, 3 September 2005
ABU DHABI — The UAE seeks to register falconry as a world cultural tradition at the Unesco. The proposal will be announced on the sidelines of the upcoming International Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition, Abu Dhabi (Adihex 2005).
“This will make the UAE the first country that calls for registering falconry as a world tradition,” said Mohammed Khalaf Al Mazroui, Member of the Board of Directors of the Falconers’ Club and Chairman of the Organising Committee.
The proposal has received full support from the President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
He praised the GCC states for being capable of evolving an excellent cooperation plan in the area of environment protection and sustainable development. He said this year’s exhibition, slated to start from September 12, will feature a substantial number of exhibitors as “bookings exceeded 130 per cent while the number of exhibitors surpassed 300 coming from 35 different countries.”
The five-day exhibition is expected to attract more than 70,000 visitors, he said, adding that for the first time a large area will be allotted for equestrian shows, where the biggest horse auction will be held in cooperation with the UAE Arabian Horses Organisation with participation of more than 400 horses presented by the most renowned horse breeders in the world.
On the sidelines of the exhibition, a camel auction, first of its kind in the world will be held in cooperation with the Camel Research Centre in Abu Dhabi, showcasing 135 she-camels produced via unprecedented scientific methods (the first tube camel in the world), he disclosed.
Al Mazroui revealed that a special exhibition titled: ‘Zayed the Giver’, will be inaugurated as part of Adihex 2005, to showcase rare pictures and great poems of late Shaikh Zayed on hunting and horseback riding. He said the organising committee has prepared an intensive advertising and marketing campaign through newspapers, magazines, TV and radio. More than 300 local, Arab and international media personnel from about 50 countries are expected to cover the event, he added.
celebrating the Maltese falcon
Historic falcon ceremony enacted once more in Vittoriosa
Malta Independent Online
5 September 2005
Vittoriosa was awash with colour yesterday, as a ceremony which used to take place every year in the long-gone past, was enacted with the presentation of a Maltese falcon to the Kingdom of Spain.
The Spanish King did not attend in person, but 27 nobles and businessmen attended on his behalf. Vittoriosa looked truly splendid for the occasion – which was organised by the Foreign Ministry and the Malta Tourism Authority’s re-enactment group In Guardia.
Hundreds of people, locals and tourists alike – some Spanish, others British and even Italians – flocked to the main square armed with their digital cameras and cam-corders to capture the action.
The elaborate and colourful ceremony commemorated the 475th anniversary of the cession of the island of Malta to the Knights of St John by Emperor Charles V on 24 March 1530
The Maltese falcon, on which the famous Humphrey Bogart film was based, is the bird which the Knights and the people of Malta sent every year to the Holy Roman Emperor and his descendants, the Kings of Spain, as a sign of their continuing fealty. The Maltese were subjects of Spain before the Knights came and continued being so even under the Knights.
A 27-strong delegation of Spanish nobles and businessmen arrived for yesterday’s occasion. It included Don Antonio de Castro y Garcia de Tejada, the Chief Falconer of the Kingdom of Spain, Archduke of Austria Andres Salvador de Habsburgo, the Protector of the Spanish Guild of Falconers and King Juan Carlos’s personal ADC, Lt Col Don Ignacio de Inza y Munoz. The delegation, in full period costume, were met at Couvre Porte and walked in procession to St Lawrence Church, where a solemn Thanksgiving Mass was celebrated and the falcon was blessed.
The town crier read out a decree, then a Maltese actor, representing Grand Master L’Isle Adam, handed over the falcon to the Spanish Chief Falconer. A musket salute was fired off and the contingents then went down to the waterfront where some of the guests and visitors left in dghajjes.
Today, the guests will visit the National Library in Valletta where they will be shown the authenticated copy of the original Charles V document ceding Malta to the Order of St John, including the annual donation of a Maltese falcon as proof of the Maltese people’s continuing loyalty to the Spanish Crown.
