Shintarō Katsu

Recently I bought the old movie directed by Shintaro Katsu. Shintaro was my farorite actior. I watched his 'Blind Swordman' series at Rex Theatre, Magazine Road during the 60's. There were almost 10 to 12 series of it. I would never miss, if it was in the theatre, as I admired his sword playing skills as well as his ethtical values.

我心目中的盲俠 胜新太郎

在本地第一次看到报章以“盲侠”就一词来形容第一届Superstar 陈伟联時。心中就想起自已的盲俠胜新太郎。，我在六十年代后期，一口气在当時的丽士戲院。看了他演的盲俠剑手整十多集。，对他的演技及剑术， 佩服非常。，他演的盲人按摩师， 非常令人信服。 直到日後， 才发现他是个能演能唱， 同時还是能編能导的奇人。 當然， 他亦有负面消息， 但在日本电影现代史上， 他肯定会占一席之地。 看官们， 如果你不相信， 去看他演的任何一套电影， 便了解所言非假也！

The photographs here are the screen shots of his last movie done in 1988.

The following is the information extracted from Wikipedia.

Shintarō Katsu (勝 新太郎 Shintarō Katsu^?), born Toshio Okumura (奥村 利夫 Okumura Toshio, November 29, 1931—June 21, 1997; nicknamed Katsu-shin) was a Japanese actor, singer, producer, anddirector. He was the son of kabuki performer Katsutoji Kineya (Kineya Katsutōji) who was renowned for his nagauta and shamisen skills, younger brother of actor Tomisaburo Wakayama (Wakayama Tomisaburō), husband of actress Tamao Nakamura (married in 1962), and father of actor Ryutaro Gan (Gan Ryūtarō).

His best known role was as blind Yakuza anma (masseur) Zatoichi in the series of films by the same name, which were very popular in the 1960s and 1970s. Katsu played Zatoichi in 25 movies between 1962 and 1973, starred and directed a 26th in 1989 and played the role in four seasons of a spin-off television series, the role comprising almost 30 years of his career.

Katsu became a force to be reckoned with within the Japanese entertainment industry during his long and varied career, not the least of which was the company Katsu Productions, which was formed after the closing of Daiei Studios. By all appearances Katsu Productions' focus was on producing film and television that challenged the established values of its industry, presenting many films that pushed the limits of their time. Though not always initially artistically appreciated, many of these films have gone on to be considered classics (The Goyokiba and Kozure Okami series, etc.). Introducing more intense themes of sex and violence, the influence of many of these films can still be found in contemporary Japanese cinema.

Extracted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shintaro_Katsu

My own version of Obama

I bought a 16inch action figure of Obama recently. These are the shots I took while posing him in different postures.

Parrot as Pet

Recently I visited Serangoon North Ave 2, where many pet bird shops were around. I saw my favourite Yellow Nape Amazon baby parrots for sale, the price is as high as S$5000.00 each. I kept this bird before, that was twenty years back. I bought it with the cost of $1500.00

The bird stayed with me for ten over years. It witnessed my son Kelvin from baby to 9 years old. They became playing partners at home, since Kelvin is the only kid at home then.

Unfortunately, the bird died of pneumonia; partially I sent him to a dog vet rather than a bird vet specially. I was depressed for long long time, and decided not to keep any pet at all.

The bird was extremely intelligent. It mimics both languages: English and Mandarin. At the later stage, it even could respond to my greeting or questions.

Attached here are three clips taken from YouTube, to show other bird keepers of the same kind demonstrating their talented bird in terms of talking or singing capabilities.

生命是如此无助

今日在健身室的一旁草丛，发现一个白頭翁的巢，想详细看看，母雀却在一旁雀噪不停。遂拿起手机拍之。一看之下，怜悯之心油然而王。事因看到鳥巢中，有一幼鳥，其側还有一顆未孵化的蛋。幼鳥看來己有两天之大。

眼看小鳥羽尤未長，僅能依靠母鳥体温而存。另一生命，想己逝于蛋中。哀哉！

看来，我们自己的生命又不是如此吗？今日不知明日事。谁能保证今夜合目而眠，明朝必然会醒来？我们何嘗不似这幼鳥一般呢？

Digital Art Form

Recently bought a book explaining how to use Photoshop more effectively. I started to follow its instructions and created my own digitized art works. Not a bad try if my resource materials are sufficient to use.

Show pieces of work here.

Sudden Deaths

Within a day, I got two sad news on two of my favorite actors. Both passed away on the same day. One is old time Chinese actor, Shi Jian (石坚). The other is Ku Fu actor David Carradine. Shi Jian died of old age. But David's death is still under investigation. He passed away in Thailand, in a hotel closet!

Really can't believe that he ended his life in this way.

Both were great actor on stage or in films. I believe they also had a fruitful life too.

Aquarama 2009, Singapore

Aqurama 2009 is an International Fish Show held in Singapore from 28 to 31 May 2009, at Suntax City, Hall 601-603.

The show exhibits all kinds of tropical fish, from fresh water to sea water types. It is a colorful show. We could see all sorts of new species of man-breed exotic fish around. The following photographs were the records of some of these fish. They are unbelievable lovely. I like the white fighting fish, it looks like a princess in the water. How on earth they mutated the color to this? The arowana fish looks majestic and elegance.

Electronic Drawing

Recently, I explored with Photoshop and tried several ways to convert my photos into pencil drawing. The followings are the results of it. Some of the works I like it very much. Of course, when you use computer program to create pencil drawing, would be entirely different from you draw it with a tablet; even worst, you do not have the thrill as it is done on the sketch book. The only pleasing fact is : it is instant.

A scene at Sentosa 

Wave Bridge at Henderson

Beautiful Black and White House

City scape

Old Beach Beach when Bedok Camp 1 and Camp 2 are now.

Creativity

Creativity has no limit, as long as you put some thoughts in it. Look at the works below, you will admire these artists' fantastic imagination and craftmanship.

Korean artist Jean Shin created Sound Wave out of melted vinyl records. The sculpture was part of The Museum of Art and Design’s exhibit "Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary." The artist explained the sculpture shows "the inevitable waves of technology that render each successive generation of recordable media obsolete." 
Displayed at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, On Gold Mountain is cityscape of San Francisco created by artist Zhan Wang using stainless steel pots and pans and silverware. 
This Elvis bust was made by David Mach, a scottish sculptor and installation artist, using no less than 50,000 matchsticks! 

The Black Whole Conference chair sculpture was made out of 72 chairs by Michel de Broin on 2006. It was part of the Québec Triennial "Nothing is Lost, Nothing is Created, Everything is Transformed" exhibition at the Musée d’Art in Montreal.

(Extracted from http://www.oddee.com/item_96494.aspx

Rosella Eximius

Rosella Eximius (Platycerus Eximius), also named as Eastern Rosella, Golden Mantled Rosella. A colorful bird with gentle and pleasant chirping or whistling sound. Many years ago, when there was no Bird Flu around, I used to keep one of this bird. It is one of my favorite pet birds. It is very gentle in nature, hardly bite you, and could be tamed easily.

Scientifically, it belongs to the Psittacidae family, and member of the sub-family Psittacinae. The genus Platycercus means “broad” or “flat-tailed.” This species is one of eight rosella parrots with characteristic cheek-patches and mottling on their backs. There are three subspecies of Platycercus eximius.

It eats on various types of seeds, and is very active if it is healthy.

Since Bird Flu is around, I dropped my bird keeping hobby, but could not stop admiring the beauty of this bird. I bought a 18 inch sculpture of this bird and put it in my sitting room display cabinet for good memories.