第N個NOTE

The Right Notes

2008-12-22T12:15:00.000-08:00

When Jamie Foxx was interviewed after receiving the Oscar for portraying Charles in the film 'Ray', he told an interesting story that illustrates part of the magic that was Ray Charles. Foxx, who began studying piano at the age of three, prepared for the role of Ray Charles by rehearsing music with Ray Charles himself.

The actor describes him as a tough teacher. "We got a chance to sing the blues with each other, and I hit the wrong note, and he said, 'why the hell would you do that?' And I said 'I don't know Ray'. And he said, 'the notes are right underneath your fingers, and all you gotta do is take time out to find the right note. That's what life is, we all got notes underneath our fingers and we gotta take time to find the right notes, to come up with our own music.'"

Taken from JeremySutton.com (link)

The Secret Brings Great Blessings

2008-12-19T11:13:00.000-08:00

Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

Philippians 4:11-13, The Bible (New American Standard Bible)

I'm glad in God, far happier than you would ever guess—happy that you're again showing such strong concern for me. Not that you ever quit praying and thinking about me. You just had no chance to show it. Actually, I don't have a sense of needing anything personally. I've learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I'm just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I've found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am. I don't mean that your help didn't mean a lot to me—it did. It was a beautiful thing that you came alongside me in my troubles.

Philippians 4:11-13, The Message, translated by Eugene H. Peterson

The Center

2008-12-19T11:10:00.001-08:00

I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plants, but God made you grow. It's not the one who plants or the one who waters who is at the center of this process but God, who makes things grow. Planting and watering are menial servant jobs at minimum wages. What makes them worth doing is the God we are serving.

1 Corinthians 3: 6, 7, The Message, translated by Eugene H. Peterson

Understand Ourselves

2008-12-19T11:06:00.001-08:00

The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

Romans 12:3, The Message, translated by Eugene H. Peterson

Four Standards of Judgement

2008-12-15T10:57:00.000-08:00

Four basic standards one applies to a work of art.

1) Technical Excellence:

Using painting as an example... "here one considers the use of color, form, balance, the texture of the paint, the handling of lines, the unity of the canvas and so forth."

2) Validity:

"By validity I mean whether an artist is honest to himself and to his world view or whether he makes his art only for money or for the sake of being accepted. If an artist makes an art work solely for a patron--whether that patron is the ancient noble, or the modern art gallery to which the artist wants access, or the modern art critics of the moment--his work does not have validity."

3) Intellectual Content (the world view which comes through):

"As far as Christian is concerned, the world view that is shown through a body of art must be seen ultimately in terms of the Scripture. The artist's world view is not to be free from the judgment of the Word of God."

4) The Integration of Content and Vehicle:

"...how well the artist has suited the vehicles to the message."

Art and the Bible, by Francis A. Schaeffer

Making Comics Choices

2008-12-15T10:36:00.000-08:00

5 Choice-Types:

1) Choice of Moment

Deciding which moments to INCLUDE in a comics story and which to LEAVE OUT.

Goals: "Connecting the dots," showing the moments that matter and cutting those that don't.

Tools:

6 Varieties:

1. Moment to Moment: A single action portrayed in a series of moments

2. Action to Action: A single subject (person, object, etc...) in a series of actions

3. Subject o Subject: A series of changing subjects within a single scene

4. Scene to Scene: Transitions across significant distances of time and/or space

5. Aspect to Aspect: Transitions from one aspect of a place, idea or mood to another

6. Non Sequitur: A series of seemingly nonsensical, unrelated images and/or words

2) Choice of Frame

Choosing the right DISTANCE and ANGLE to VIEW those moments.

Goals: Showing readers what they need to see. Creating a sense of place, position and focus.

Tools:

Frame size and shape.

Choice of "camera" angles, distance, height, balance and centering.

The "establishing shot." Revealing and withholding information. Directing reader focus.

3) Choice of Image

RENDERING the characters, objects and environments in those frames CLEARLY.

Goals: Clearly and quickly evoking the appearance of characters, objects, environments and symbols.

Tools:

Every artistic/graphic device ever invented.

Resemblance, specificity, expression, body language and the natural world.

Stylistic and expressionistic devices to affect mood and emotion.

4) Choice of Word

Picking words that add VALUABLE INFORMATION and WORK WELL with the images around them.

Goals: Clearly and persuasively communicating ideas, voices and sounds in seamless combination with images.

Tools:

Every literary and linguistic device ever invented.

Range, specificity, the human voice, abstract concepts, the evocation of other senses.

Balloons, sound effects and word/picture integration.

5) Choice of Flow

Guiding readers THROUGH and BETWEEN panels on a page or screen.

Goals: Guiding readers between and within panels, and creating a transparent and intuitive reading experience.

Tools:

The arrangement of panels on a page or screen, and the arrangement of elements within a panel.

Directing the eye through reader expectations and content.

Using moment, frame, image and word in tandem.

Making Comics, by Scott McCloud

建築師的工作

2008-10-18T10:59:00.000-07:00

不光是人，大海也想要更美，島嶼也希望自己能夠成為森林。

而所謂的建築，就是靠著業主的信念，以及場地的信念這兩者交集而完成。

如何成為兩者之間的橋梁，就是我們建築家的工作。

安藤忠雄 (Tadao Ando)

Interview: Folkert de Jong

2008-10-13T19:34:00.000-07:00

... Art is vulnerable. The weak point in a civilization is its cultural heritage.

Secondly, I was particularly interested in Brancusi and Arp because they were making such minimalistic sculpture at a time when war was raging through much of Europe. I thought, "How can one possibly make a sculpture of an egg when this is going on?" I was shocked - as an artist, you simply cannot do such a thing. You must take a position. Then, I realized that such reduction and silence in the midst of chaos gives people time to breathe and think about what is essential. I finally understood chaos gives people time to breathe and think about what is essential. I finally understood that the role of the artist is to take a significant position, but that it need not always be an aggressive position. Maybe it's up to the artist to create silence and focus.

Confronting the Grotesque - A Conversation with Folkert de Jong, by Micael Amy

sculpture, June 2008, Vol. 27, No. 5

Segmentation

2008-09-25T19:14:00.000-07:00

Segmentation, however, is more than diversity and more than a marketing device. People are finding their identities, not so much in themselves, nor in their families, nor in their communities or nation, but in the groups that they belong to.

There is a problem, however, with this segmentation of politics. It destroys a common ground for argument or persuasion... Pro-lifers know how difficult it is to discuss abortion with a militant pro-choicer. Appeals to Biblical morality, to the constitutional right to life, to scientific facts about the development of life in the womb, to the brutality of abortion techniques - these objective issues carry no weight with people whose worldview allows for no external absolutes, who accept no moral criteria beyond a woman's arbitrary choice, or who uncritically accept the orthodox feminist party line.

Because they lack a common philosophy and a common language, these special interest groups cannot persuade each other or even forge a compromise. They can only exert power over each other. One wins, the other loses, and the battles are often ugly and ruthless.

The fact is, Christians too have become a segment of society rather than an integral part of the culture. The church is on its way to becoming a subculture. Christians have their own bookstores, their own contemporary music, their own television networks, and their own schools. In many ways, Christians have formed a parallel culture to that of the secular world. Christians have not so much withdrawn from secular arenas as they have been excluded from them. The ghettoization of Christianity, however, must be seen as part of the larger trend of the segmentation of postmodern culture.

Postmodern Times: A Christian Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture, by Gene Edward Veith, Jr.
Chapter 8: The New Tribalism

Dead End

2008-09-25T11:22:00.000-07:00

"The flattest possible characters in the flattest possible landscapes rendered in the flattest possible diction."

The artist no longer "creates" or "expresses" some vision of an autonomous self. Rather, he or she slavishly imitates external images, generally bland products of a commercial culture. Artistic skill is subordinated to an impersonal process. Both the artist and the subject are drained of personality.

With the loss of a comprehensive worldview, such as Christianity, art split. Modernist art promoted meaning apart from the external world; postmodernist art promotes the external world apart from meaning. Art becomes a matter either of expression or representation, meaning or appearance, reality or illusion, truth or convention. Both modernists and postmodernists have forgotten that art can be both.

Postmodern Times: A Christian Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture, by Gene Edward Veith, Jr.
Chapter 7: Metafictions

惜才

2008-09-24T15:56:00.000-07:00

人對了，組織就會對。

你要為公司各階層找到好的領導者，如果知道找到對的人才就能夠改變公司，幹嘛還要把時間浪費到別的地方去？

改變不是從下而上的，是從上而下的。

我認為中國企業一定要面對的是，他們必須持續培養中層管理者，這是我看到的問題。

賞時不吝千金，罰時六親不認。

Jack Welch

商業周刊接班人系列 No. 4

The Curse of Babel

2008-09-24T15:29:00.000-07:00

The shift from modernism to postmodernism seems in fact a version of an ancient failure and an ancient curse...

The culture that built the Tower of Babel parallels the modern age. Confident in their human abilities, their reason and scientific knowledge, the modernists had no need for God...
God punished Babel by undermining the faculty that made possible their success - their language. The human race splintered into mutually inaccessible groups. The is exactly what has happened with the fall of modernism. The monolithic sensibility of modernism, which seemed to have an unlimited potential, has fragmented into diverse and competing communities... There are no common reference points, no common language.

The curse of Babel... was a punishment for sin. When Christ atoned for the sins of the world, the curse for sin was removed. When the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the church, the curse of Babel was undone... The restoration of language was a sign of the Kingdom of God.

On Pentecost the Holy Spirit began gathering the Church from all nations. This Church was a different kind of community, neither unified in an autonomous humanism like the Tower-builders and the modernists, nor fractured into alien groups like the Babelites and the postmodernists. Rather, the Church is a balance of both unity and diversity...

Postmodern Times: A Christian Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture, by Gene Edward Veith, Jr.
Chapter 1: There Are No Absolutes