a place in the world

Posts tagged video

Myanmar

Burmese Days

Mingalabar! Here is a little film from our Myanmar trip. I will need to take some time to sit and process the week that was… it was a beautiful time, in large part because of the Burmese people we encountered along the way. Shots taken and edited from my iPhone, I filmed more than a hundred short clips but it was not possible to fit everything into 4:20 minutes– the length of Jonsi’s beautiful song I chose to accompany this little amateur video.

Burmese Days from Frances Ellen on Vimeo.

“The single great accident of human existence is geography: where we are born in this bordered, divided, largely unjust world. My life would have been different if I had been born elsewhere. If I had been born in a country like Burma, who would I be? What would I look like?

Can I remember the word for ‘beautiful’? Humans meet a landscape like this and all our words become second-rate. The beauty is mythical, mesmerizing; from elsewhere, I thought, then corrected myself. The plain of temples was just there. It is I who come from elsewhere”

– Burmese Lessons, Karen Conelly

Writing

so you think you can dance

I don’t dance and I’m not interested to learn or anything like that, but this show really is entertaining. It’s kind of unfortunate that it doesn’t get much love in these parts as much as American Idol does. I’ve seen four seasons so far, it’s amazing how people can move and use their bodies like these people do. Prior to this show, I didn’t know there was more to dance than just plain cha-cha or waltz or tango or hiphop. That being said, my favourite styles to watch are lyrical hiphop, contemporary and 70s disco haha.

Season 5 is halfway through and I can say it’s been great so far. This week Jeanine and Jason danced to one of my favourite songs as of late (last.fm says I’m one of it’s top listeners). It’s such a cheap thrill if they perform to songs I actually like (Priscilla Ahn, The White Stripes, Adele, Missy Higgins, Sara Bareilles, Koop, among others).

More favourites from this season:
Love Lockdown – Kanye West (sick popping!)
Ruby Blue – Roisin Murphy
Gravity – Sara Bareilles
Falling Slowly – The Frames (and she’s Filipino-American)

Favourites from previous seasons:
The Garden – Mirah
Bleeding Love (what.a.perfect.routine.)
Calling You – Celine Dion (I wish they used the Jeff Buckley version)
Adele – Hometown Glory
Beautiful – Me’shell Ndegeocello (“Tim Burton’s wedding” and I’ve had this beautiful song for years)