Long before Chinese director Zhang Yimou gained international fame for his eye-catching, impressive opening ceremony to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, he had a reputation for making epic movies full of soul, grit, dramatic storytelling.
I raise this now because To Live, which was made in 1994, has moments to keep in mind.
As in: What you have might not always be yours. Winners can become losers. Losers can become winners.
Overall, though, appreciation – in my mind – is tops.
The above clip highlights that clearly – with the adult son of a wealthy mansion owner losing everything while gambling. That launched an epic look at China’s history through his eyes and experience.
Smart Design in New York City came up with this new concept for surgery gowns - the company used breathable material. Photo source: Smart Design
As a kid, I remember watching television shows in which a surgeon would stand over a patient in the operating room and, well, seem just a tad nervous.
I don’t know if it was a nod to reality – the pressure of performing an operation – or just a made-for-television dramatic moment. But there would be another person next to the surgeon, ready to dab any perspiration when needed.
Years ago, a friend and I were traveling through China and stopped in Xining in the highlands of Qinghai province.
My friend had just taken a long, bumpy ride in a vintage-era Jiefang truck from the mountainous areas of neighboring Sichuan province. It was a brutally-cold winter.
The driver had loaded the truck’s open cargo area with dead yaks – their skins were headed to market. I never asked whether this was permissible. The goal, especially for my friend, was to stay warm.
And, as my friend recalled, a ride in a vehicle out of the mountains was so coveted that people sat on top of the dead yaks for a ride to Xining.Â
After we met up, my friend and I went to a market when a Tibetan trader looked at my REI Novara waterproof jacket – it was the type that bicyclists wore, red and similar to this one - felt the material and realized its strength.
Through a translator, he asked whether I wanted to swap – my waterproof REI jacket for his long, fur-lined coat.
I respectfully declined. As I recall, his jacket had yak blood on it – and I probably didn’t want to tackle that at that moment. But at least, he suggested a trade of one jacket for another.
That wasn’t really the case when I received an email on Tuesday from a U.S.-based food supply company to write a blog post about its Web site and its section devoted to supplies for an Asian restaurant.
This YouTube video clip made by Tufts University applicant Michael Klinker was, well, just too good to pass up. Really.
The New York Times article, which talks about Klinker’s creation and college applicants using YouTube to gain admission to Tufts, is making the online rounds – for good reason.
I mean, a blue elephant – who has swirling helicopter blades – soaring through the air, doing a flip and hovering here and there?
I’ll get to adding longer posts soon. But I just wanted to note some colors and shapes that I’ve always enjoyed seeing in Seattle.
I’ve always liked how the red and blue match and even if the afternoon sunlight washed out the blue numbers against the red wall.
And there’s the curve to the building as well as the gray pole’s height, the green street sign cutting across and white-and-blue sign in the background.
I agree with many of the Vimeo commenters about artist Rob Carter’s fabulous stop-motion video, Metropolis, which looks at Charlotte, North Carolina - it’s fantastic.
I especially agree with one of the commenters, who noted that it has a very Monty Pythonesque quality to it – which is a compliment, indeed.
His work chronicles the city, which he said is growing fast with various skyscrapers and stadiums.
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