"Lakhsmi" - For Molly

Molly, there's good news and bad news.

Bad news? If you read my last post about Dafen, you'd know France swept through and took all the best paintings and best artists and shipped them off to the South of France to set up a similar "Artist Village" there. Well, I'm sorry to tell you that the gorgeous Lakhsmi you wanted PLUS that artist were among those so-cruelly taken.

Explaining to the shop owner
which of Dunhuang's
Lakhsmis I was after.

Good news? The shop is currently breaking in a new artist to "tribute" Dunhuang's Lakhsmi series and he has several copies of each one.

Bad news? The new artist isn't in the same league as the previous one. In fact, the lovely guy who owns the shop, Jin, was even embarrassed to show these paintings to me. However, I insisted and thus ...

Good news? Since Dafen artists are all so extraordinary, even "not in the same league" is better than what you'd see anywhere else in the world, although this guy doesn't make you want to weep at the sheer beauty of Lakhsmi's hands.

Even Better news? The shop owner said "Half the quality; half the price", and so I got you one on the cheap.

Your Lakhsmi.
You'll have to wait til you get it
to see it the correct way round.

Sure, it isn't amazing like the other one, but ... you like?


And if you aren't Molly and you're looking at this painting and thinking "Must get me a half-quality/half-price Dunhuang Lakhsmi of my own!", this shop is called Guang Yuan Art Shop and it can be reached at: kingkong88@21cn.com (He asked me to pass this on. It was the condition he let me photograph inside his shop.) (Funny, huh!, how these Dafen folk "tribute" other artists but don't like you "tributing" their "tributes"!)

Note to a Hideous Stinky Skunk-Weasel!

The horrible mean skunk-rat - and you know who you are - and I do too, you realise, since it isn't the first time - who took my 8. memory card from my camera and replaced it with your 2., I discovered your hideous crime while I was right in the heart of Dafen yesterday when I suddenly wasn't able to take anymore photos and a sign kept flashing "memory full"! I immediately knew it was you and was so downright annoyed with you.

You realise that what you've done means that no one gets to see some amazing artists at work, nor the exciting new auction house that's promoting ORIGINAL Dafen art, nor the new high-class bar and restaurant they've just started there for the richer types, nor a young girl called Elementalisa who has been hired by the auction house because she speaks English, although, well, she really doesn't only they haven't discovered that yet, but who is so likeable I'm on her side and certainly won't be the one to tell them! So I hope you feel really bad about it!

And I want my 8. back as well or you shall forever be known as "Hideous Stinky Skunk-Weasel".

More Lili Latham

I've found more youtube clips of Lili (daughter of Possum) ... actually, her mum sent me these links and I'm grateful because it saves me hours of hunting.

This first clip is amazing! Just a 17 year old girl, a NZ small-town hall stage and a proud mum behind a camera, and you've got "Wow!" and "Here's someone who totally deserves to go places!" and "Disney really knows its stuff!"



Let me go look at the other one:

Bob James and The Angels of Shanghai

Went to the Hong Kong Jazz Festival last night to watch Bob James and The Angels of Shanghai. It's an East-West fusion band that really rocks!

I was planning to tell you all about it, but - voila! - youtube comes through again, and so, because a picture paints a thousand words, let me save a goodly nine hundred by simply pasting a sample in here for you to see for yourself.

"Kicker B-Boys" - For Susan!

Susan B. is currently loving Korean Boy Bands. I've been into them for a while now, and I want her to see a short film on youtube made by our friend M. She's kinda shy so she calls herself "M" on-line so no one will know who she is ... but we know.

So, Susan, hopefully I'll be able to find the film and download it here, and you'll find it as gorgeous as I do. Mmm, and aren't the boys gorgeous too!

Got it!

And I've included another one on the same subject by someone called Raymond!