Archive for September, 2007

This is an obvious tribute to Mark Knopfler’s “Madame Geneva’s“. Best song ever.

“I’m a maker of ballads right pretty
I write them right here in the street
You can buy them all over the city
yours for a penny a sheet
I’m a word pecker out of the printers
I’ll write up a scene on a counter
out of the dens of Gin Lane
– confessions and sins in the main, boys
confessions and sins in the main

Then you’ll find me in Madame Geneva’s
keeping the demons at bay
There’s nothing like gin for drowning them in
but they’ll always be back on a hanging day

They come rattling over the cobbles
they sit on their coffins of black
Some are struck dumb, some gabble
top-heavy on brandy or sack
The pews are all full of fine fellows
and the hawker has set up her shop
As they’re turning them off at the gallows
she’ll be selling right under the drop, boys
selling right under the drop

Then you’ll find me in Madame Geneva’s
keeping the demons at bay
There’s nothing like gin for drowning them in
but they’ll always be back on a hanging day”
Mark Knopfler, Madame Geneva’s, Kill To Get Crimson

I’m glad to say that my Perpetually Finite design was used for the deutch raum & zeit magazine Cover, issue 149, September/October 2007.
Another design of mine, Invictus (reprised) last one, was used to illustrate the “Energiemedizin” article. Both designs has been a little modified (by Christiane Maiß) to better fit the magazine’s contets.

Thanks a lot to all the staff at raum & zeit and expecially to Christiane Maiß.

And… I’m back to Whirls/Swirls designs too; just to refresh the hobby!
Click here for more Whirls designs and here for the Swirls ones.

Another Orb design.

Back to Orb designs after some months.
The first ones are: Orb : Vibrant and Orb : Directional.

n., orb (ôrb)

1. A sphere or spherical object.
2. a. A celestial body, such as the sun or moon.
   b. Archaic. The earth.
3. One of a series of concentric transparent spheres thought by ancient and medieval astronomers to revolve about the earth and carry the celestial bodies.
4. A globe surmounted by a cross, used as a symbol of monarchial power and justice.
5. An eye or eyeball.
6. Archaic. Something of circular form; a circle or an orbit.
7. Archaic. A range of endeavor or activity; a province.

v., orbed, orb·ing, orbs. v.tr.

1. To shape into a circle or sphere.
2. Archaic. To encircle; enclose.

v.intr. Archaic.To move in an orbit.

[Middle English orbe, orbit, from Old French, from Latin orbis, circle, disk, orbit.]

(meanings taken from Answers.com)

As Descartes says, I have to “… accustom myself to the persuasion that, except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power…“; this is the only right way to consider and to face the world out there.
There’d be no more place for violence and overwhelming and every person should be considered independently by race, religion or geographical place; this should be the basical common sense.
It’s really sad considering how human race, although empowered by knowledge, is still stuck to the stone-edge feelings and it still persistently refuses a more moderen way of thinking.

“My third maxim was to endeavor always to conquer myself rather than fortune, and change my desires rather than the order of the world, and in general, accustom myself to the persuasion that, except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power; so that when we have done our best in things external to us, all wherein we fail of success is to be held, as regards us, absolutely impossible: and this single principle seemed to me sufficient to prevent me from desiring for the future anything which I could not obtain, and thus render me contented; for since our will naturally seeks those objects alone which the understanding represents as in some way possible of attainment, it is plain, that if we consider all external goods as equally beyond our power, we shall no more regret the absence of such goods as seem due to our birth, when deprived of them without any fault of ours, than our not possessing the kingdoms of China or Mexico, and thus making, so to speak, a virtue of necessity, we shall no more desire health in disease, or freedom in imprisonment, than we now do bodies incorruptible as diamonds, or the wings of birds to fly with. But I confess there is need of prolonged discipline and frequently repeated meditation to accustom the mind to view all objects in this light; and I believe that in this chiefly consisted the secret of the power of such philosophers as in former times were enabled to rise superior to the influence of fortune, and, amid suffering and poverty, enjoy a happiness which their gods might have envied. For, occupied incessantly with the consideration of the limits prescribed to their power by nature, they became so entirely convinced that nothing was at their disposal except their own thoughts, that this conviction was of itself sufficient to prevent their entertaining any desire of other objects; and over their thoughts they acquired a sway so absolute, that they had some ground on this account for esteeming themselves more rich and more powerful, more free and more happy, than other men who, whatever be the favors heaped on them by nature and fortune, if destitute of this philosophy, can never command the realization of all their desires.”
Rene Descartes, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One’s Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences, PREFATORY NOTE BY THE AUTHOR (PART III)

Edit: September 12, 2007 – Second design added.

“Some employ only concentric circles, others use eccentric and epicyclic ones, with which, however, they do not fully attain the desired end. They could not even discover nor compute the main thing–namely, the form of the universe and the symmetry of its parts. It was with them as if some should, from different places, take hands, feet, head, and other parts of the body, which, although very beautiful, were not drawn in their proper relations, and, without making them in any way correspond, should construct a monster instead of a human being.”
Henry Smith Williams, A History of Science (Volume 2), IV. THE NEW COSMOLOGY – COPERNICUS TO KEPLER AND GALILEO

“When I was a young boy I tried to listen
And I wanna feel like that,
Little white shadows blink and misten,
Part of a system, I am

If you ever feel like something’s missing
Things you’ll never understand,
Little white shadows sparkle and glisten,
Part of a system, a plan

All this noise I’m waking up
All this space I’m taking up
All this sound is breaking up

Ooh oh ooh

Maybe you’ll get what you wanted
Maybe you’ll stumble upon it
Everything you ever wanted
In a permanent state

Maybe you’ll know when you see it
Maybe if you say it you’ll mean it
And when you find it you’ll keep it
In a permanent state, a permanent state

When I was a young boy I tried to listen,
Don’t you wanna feel like that?
You’re part of the human race
All of the stars in the outer space,
Part of a system, a plan

All this noise I’m waking up
All this space I’m taking up
I cannot hear you’re breaking up

Woaaooh

Maybe you’ll get what you wanted
Maybe you’ll stumble upon it
Everything you ever wanted
In a permanent state

Maybe you’ll know when you see it
Maybe if you say it you’ll mean it
And when you find it you’ll keep it
In a permanent state, a permanent state

Swimmin’ on a sea of faces
The tide of the human races, oh
An answer now is what I need
I see it in the new sun rising and
See it break on your horizon, oh
Come on love, stay with me”
Coldplay, White Shadows, X&Y