GERMANY~!!!!!!!

GERMANY
GERMANY
GERMANY
~!!!!!!!!!!

Goodbye, Arnold Newman...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Photographer Arnold Newman, whose portraits of artists like Igor Stravinsky and Pablo Picasso aimed to capture their souls, not just their faces, died on Tuesday at age 88 at a New York hospital, friends said.

Newman, whose work appeared frequently in Life magazine, was famed for pioneering a style called "environmental portraiture" in which an artist and his or her craft were aligned in a pose that could stay with a viewer forever. Often a painter would be set against his or her works until they seemed a part of it.

One of the most famous examples of the style was his portrait of composer Stravinsky, sitting off to the side of a grand piano, his head tiny and in the corner of the picture dominated by the piano's huge, open kidney-shaped sounding board.

His portrait of Picasso showed a pensive artist whose own face might pass for a Picasso painting. His photograph of actress Marilyn Monroe with disheveled hair and seemingly lost in sad thoughts hinted at the dark tragedy that was yet to come.

Jonathan Klein, the chief executive of photo agency Getty Images and a friend of Newman's, called him "a true pioneer who advanced the art of portraiture throughout his career."

"He captured the defining images of many of the most notable figures of the 20th century and greatly influenced the generation of photographers who carry on this tradition today," Klein said.

In a career lasting 65 years, Newman photographed hundreds of famed figures in politics, business, arts and letters.

In an interview with Apogee Photo Magazine, Newman recalled that sometimes he was at a loss on how to take a picture as when he photographed Otto Frank, the father of Anne Frank, the teenage Dutch girl who came to symbolize the victims of the Holocaust.

"How could I ask this man to pose? I couldn't. Instead I just waited and Otto went into a deeply pensive mood. It was then I took the photograph," Newman said. He recalled that the two men embraced and cried when the photo shoot ended, according to interviewer Ysabel de la Rosa.

Newman was born on March 3, 1918, in New York City and raised in New Jersey and Florida. He studied art at the University of Miami and began photography in 1938 in chain portrait studios.

In 1941, he was discovered by Beaumont Newhall of the Museum of Modern Art and famed photographer Alfred Stieglitz and given an exhibit.

His work has been the subject of several books and exhibitions.

Reuters/VNU

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Just found out not so long ago. And yeah, I'm pretty sad 'cos I really love his works. I'm not calling them photos, but rather art pieces. Masterpieces. The death of such a talent... sigh...

Check out the link below if you haven't seen any of his works before. Then you'll understand why I consider him to be such a great artist/photographer.

http://pdngallery.com/legends/newman/

10th anniversary of Neon Genesis Evangelion...

This year is the 10th Anniversary of Neon Genesis Evangelion. Which means that I have been a devoted fan of EVA for 10 years. That's almost half of my current lifespan. I never realised it until today, but for 10 years I've been obssessed with NGE. 10 years. That's as long as I have known Ling. 10 whole years. It made me realise how quickly time flies. 10 years, the series that got me hooked and addicted to anime and manga in the first place. And in spite of all the many other very wonderful anime series that I've read or watched, EVA still remains my first love.

I can still remember all their names by heart. Rei Ayanami, the blue-haired, red-eyed, alabaster-skinned light of my life (I know I sound like some crazed fanboy or otaku here but fuck that. And Asuka Sohryu Langley the crazy half german, half japanese bitch, Shinji Ikari our spineless protagonist, Yebisu (an excellent beer) guzzling Major Misato Katsuragi, the bastard Commander Gendo Ikari, ultra-hot Maya Ibuki (the rival to Rei for my affections), blonde-haired chain-smoking Ritsuko Akagi, the world's spunkiest penguin Pen-Pen, Aoba Shigeru, Sub-Commander Kozo Fuyutsuki, Makoto Hyuuga, Toji Suzuhara, Kensuke Aida, Kaworu Nagisa the last angel, Ryoji Kaji and Hikari Horaki-chan. Oh and Mana Kirishima from Girlfriend of Steel of course.

Each and everyone of them dear to me in varying degrees (Rei, of course, comes in tops, hands down with Maya coming in 2nd place) for the past 10 years, as though they were real friends of mine. I have watched the series and the movies countless times over, I adore the entire (and frankly, many) soundtracks, I have thought about them, written fanfictions, debated about it in countless anime forums, philosophised about it, I know all the trivia about it, like how many of the characters are named after WWII war ships in the Japanese Imperial Navy, up till today my com is still called Rei III instead of My Computer (III because so far it's my third com. You can guess what the first and 2nd were called...) I own many of the Evangelion figurines and machandise and I can't wait to get my hands on more...

I have never kept a photo of any of my exes when they were at that point in time my girlfriends, but I have always kept a picture of Rei in my wallet. I had the model kits right up till my mum threw them away by mistake (I was understandbly absolutely furious).

Evangelion. Neon Genesis Evangelion... As it is the 10th anniversary, I shall proceed to watch it again tomorrow. EVANGELION FOREVER~!!!!!!

Teh tells me t hat it's become just a bloody cash cow with Gainax churning out new merchandise every few months to earn money from stupid obssessed idiots like me but I guess I don't care and I'm happy that they do cos their keeping EVA alive for me.

But to think, it's been 10 years...