SAMUEL L. JACKSON: "Just Like A Bird Without A Feather"

En un rincón de la vida
Se cae una gota
Se pierde la inocencia
Como un pájaro una pluma
Sin dándose cuenta
Evaporando al horizonte

梁靜茹 & 品冠 : 回到愛 (FISH LEONG & VICTOR WONG: "Way Back Into Love")

丽江市 Lijiang (China)

STEVIE WONDER: “Hello”

Beijing Lu, Kunming (Yunnan province, China). There’s four of them. Four in a row. Eye lids closed. A small chair in front of them, on the pavement. A self-painted banner behind them, full of Chinese characters describing the services they offer. And a price per item. Of course. Massage on the street. An old man seated on one of the chairs sets the example.

They call for attention to passers-by. “An Mó”. “An Mó”. The mandarin for “massage”. The words echo over the street. I pass by and look curiously as I walk along. Then all of a sudden, I hear “massage”, “massage”…Haha…I never knew blind man can tell the colour of your skin by the tone of your footsteps…

THE WHISPERS: "The Beat Goes On"

What is it, that you want to leave behind? A footprint in melting snow? Or a fossile conserved for a million years? Do you strive for eternity, or do you spot miracles in the breeze of a butterfly’s wing? Do you want to be a legend, or is a simple legacy enough?
Like all, I try to make ends meet. I’m juggling with time, not money, though.

POINTER SISTERS: "I'm So Excited"

昆明
Kunming
(China)

JAMES MORRISON: “You Make It Real”

…Why not ask yourself “why not?” in stead of “why?”…

HOWIE DAY: “Collide”

Would it be any easier when you give up trying to understand each and everybody? How many angles does it take to look at something in all possible ways? How many times must words be repeated to be heard and understood? Do you make it any easier to yourself by accepting that sometimes you will never be able follow another person’s thoughts, no matter how hard you try? How to decipher encrypted messages when you lack the code? How to speak a foreign language if you don't master it?
Do mysteries attract? Is it worth trying to reveal them, to solve the puzzle? Or will that only lead to frustration, when it confronts you with your own limitations?
Do you step in, or better step away?

JAMES MORRISON: “Save Yourself”

Can one day in a lifetime make a difference? Yes, it can.

HOOVERPHONIC: "The World Is Mine"

1,2,3, click, a pic, 4,5,6, what a mix, 7,8,9, the world is mine, and I feel fine…

THE CLICK FIVE: “Happy Birthday”

At first, I thought I might have written something offensive. Or perhaps, without knowing, I had captured a national secret on one of my pictures of a trip I made to the middle country. Should I feel honoured, that the fruit of my labour had been discovered by the censorship committee? Or should I feel angry, that this same committee prevented me from tapping into a potential reader’s market of more than 1 billion people?
I really didn't know what to think when I tried to access my blog when I was in China earlier this week, and got the message that the site was not accessible. I tried several times, but the result always ended up being the same.

Only when I read the paper in the plane on the way back home did I find out that I was not to blame: my weblog was not the only one being censored. Temporarily. At least, I hope so. All kinds of blog-hosts are currently inaccessible, just like hotmail, and even You Tube seems to be closed down from March already.

Anyway, it’s a lesson in humility: no Chinese official has probably ever read my thoughts, nor has he looked at my photos of his own beautiful and mysterious country, which I truly respect. A recent holiday trip to Yunnan province has made this feeling only more profound.

There’s more than a billion of birthdays in China each year, but only one is not celebrated. If you ask me, it need not be. Just like we don't celebrate the birthday of a person who has passed away, a country needs not commemorate something that is long dead. The whole world knows that a powerful and attractive giant was born in the past few decades. Censorship for a few days now only draws attention to a demon we all know the giant has long beaten.