Kyoto 1-Day Tour, Kiyomizu,Yasaka Shrine, Fushimi Inari Shrine, Monkey park, Bamboo forest, Okochi villas , Arashiyama kimono trees, Bicycle, Yasui Shrine, Yasaka 5 storied pagoda!! 

Kyoto 1-Day Tour, Kiyomizu, Yasaka Shrine, Fushimi Inari Shrine, Monkey park, Bamboo forest, Okochi villas , Arashiyama kimono trees, Bicycle, Yasui Shrine, Yasaka 5 storied pagoda!! Hi I’m Nobu, I like traveling overseas and in Japan, visited 26 countries! I’m a National Government Licensed Guide Interpreter of English for 10 years. For the people who are interested in and planning trip to…

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Happy Dracones Monday! Today I will share some Dracones Mundi lore with you!

Here we have three dragons, the top is the phaya naga, a long serpentine dragon with curved horns on it's head. The middle dragon is the dancing naga, a pink dragon with a gold underbelly and green details on her scales. At the bottom we have an Indonesian naga, a green dragon with wings, and golden details on the edge of it's scales.

While all these dragons are called 'naga', they aren't particularily closely related: phaya naga are in the serpent family, dancing naga are in the 'drakonid' family alongside dragons like the long (dragons found in east asia) while the Indonesian naga is more like a wyvern.

They all share the name 'naga' based on their geographical location (south and southeast Asia) and the folklore they are based on - dragons like Naga Pahoda, Kaliya, Antaboga, Barong Naga, Seshanaga, Apala...

'Phaya naga's name comes directly from mythology, and simply means 'great serpent' (to differentiate it from normal serpents, such as cobras), and most of the mythology about nagas are talking about great and magical serpents.

The Indonesian naga is based on wooden models and puppets of winged dragons found on Bali and Java, and I thought it would be cute to make a dragon based on these, and to discuss folklore such as the story of Antaboga, or how Barong Naga fits into Indonesian puppet theatre (Wayang) - there are a lot of cool dragons in Indonesia.

The Dancing Naga is not based on specific mythology, it is one of the few dragons in Dracones Mundi which is based on looser cultural concepts. The first concept is "if dragons existed, then things named after dragons would have to resemble them, right?" - dinosaurs, lizards, and certain plants would have to have a good reason to be named after dragons, so the bright pink dragon fruit (pitaya cactus fruit) would be named after a bright pink dragon. The second concept is based on the large dragon puppets used on Lunar New Year Parades, what dragons are they based on? So far most my East Asian dragons were yellow, blue or green so a gold and firey red dragon was needed, and some countries didn't have enough dragons in them, so I spread the Dancing Naga's native range over countries that needed more dragons. Did a quick look at how many languages were spoken in the dragon's range and looked at the most popular word for 'dragon' (mangkar, mangkr, naga, naaga, nagar, etc.) and found 'naga' words were more popular!

So 3 very different dragons all named naga!

Lookie here, my dear (Don’t miss this album!

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Lookie Here, My Dear is a weekly column that spotlights albums that have evaded the Big Sites (Pitchfork, Stereogum, Allmusic, etc,). This week’s album is one that especially needs some extra love and support:  Of Montreal’s 21st album: I Feel Safe With You, Trash.

Image from Of Montreal’s Bandcamp, please consider supporting an artist you love today on Bandcamp

Of Montreal is the closest I have gotten to embracing a Phish/Grateful Dead style fandom over a band. I would absolutely drop everything I am doing in my life to follow of Montreal on tour. I am singing along to every song. I don’t have the songs consciously memorized, they have been programmed into me. I have listened to a full bootleg version of False Priest and have seen them live more than any other musical act in my lifetime (Around 10 times in three different states and one different country). As an aggressively weird and emotional kid growing up in the South that wanted to break through the gender binary and frighten and challenge the “normals,” you couldn’t ask for a better soundtrack than Of Montreal. I discovered them in 2007, the year of Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? The last album Of Montreal would earn Pitchfork and Big Publication’s laurels and respect.

There have been 10 albums out since Hissing Fauna and I love the majority of these albums to various degrees. There is a B-sides rarity compilation Daughter of Cloud that I haven’t really spent time with and a couple of real dud LPs: Innocence Reaches and UR Fun. UR Fun was the most recent Of Montreal album that came out in the beginning of 2020 and was more or less written off as a complete failure by critics and online fairweather fans. Critics have actively grown disdainful over Barnes’ eccentricities and their overwhelming unfashionability, there hasn’t been anything trendy about of Montreal in nearly 14 years. Real of Montreal fans know there’s usually one middling album that paves the way for a much stronger release. Mainly evident in the jump of quality between Innocence Reaches and White is Relic. The leap in quality between Trash and UR Fun is astonishing.  

UR Fun has some choice cuts and even the worst Of Montreal albums are more interesting than a good deal of today’s musical landscape. I saw Of Montreal live for UR Fun in February 2020, one of the last full capacity shows that would ever happen in Brooklyn’s Brooklyn Steel venue, perhaps forever. Unfortunately it was one of the most unpleasant oM concerts I attended and no fault of the band but due to the audience. Restless and rude bodies going back and forth, forth and back to the bar or who knows elsewhere and shoving people around. An absolute covid nightmare. Nobody attending concerts in January and February 2020 were appreciating them as much as they should.

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Of Montreal had been releasing their albums on Polyvinyl since their sixth LP, the critical breakthrough Satanic Panic in the Attic. At that point Barnes had already spent 8 years building up a devoted cult following and making hysterically ornate psychedelic pop and lo-fi rock confections. Of Montreal seem to have a layered working relationship and have been a stable home for Barnes’ adventurous output. What’s remarkable is that none of these shifts in sound ever feel like counter culture role play or trying on an EDM hat or a alternative country hat, they are always distinctively an Of Montreal album. Besides stylistic adventurousness the other running throughline that connects the of Montreal discography together is Barnes’ penchant for hyper-literate, bold everything and the kitchen sink approach to lyricism and songwriting. The highly divisive, gloriously deranged Hissing Fauna follow-up LP, Skeletal Lamping is where the free-verse, songs within songs approach fully becomes a mainstay for Barnes. Even though I Feel Safe With You, Trash is being released on a separate personal vanity label, Sybaritic Peer, Of Montreal and Polyvinyl continue to be a fertile label and artist relationship. 

I Feel Safe With You, Trash is also notably the longest album released by Of Montreal since 2004’s Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies (1 hr 9 mins) clocking in at 1 hr 6 mins. As of writing this article I have already listened to the album three times and counting upon its official release date. Not because I have a moral principal about how many times a person should experience art before analyzing it, but because the album is so damn replayable. Of Montreal at their best, and this album represents Barnes at the height of their powers, reminds me why I love and obsess over music. Hardly anyone making music today is making music this bold and adventurous. At this point in their career Barnes has more than solidified their status as bonafide Japanese word for a Music Witch. 

Barnes has been performing and producing every single instrument and singing every backing track on their albums for over two decades now, and still indicates not even a sliver of fatigue. There are days where I can barely write a single thought down because I know it won’t get a single like, it won’t lead me any closer to picking up the camera and nailing that perfect monologue. I can be salty about the life of obscurity I have built for myself, but then I have to remember Kevin Barnes. A bonafide musical genius that hardly bothers to get the word out. Barnes seems incapable of stopping making the sort of albums a person can get lost in for days. They are my biggest musical heroes, they represent exactly the sort of path I want to carve out for myself.

I Feel Safe with You, Trash is the embodiment of the gift that keeps on giving. A portrait of an LGTBQI+ artist 25 years into a career completely devoid of diminishing returns. There have been some missteps along the way with “Georgie Fruit'' and having too much fun during a mid-life crisis with UR Fun. More importantly I Feel Safe with You, Trash represents real, critical growth for Of Montreal. And this is Album One of Two of 2021, the year Of Montreal continued to take up a considerable portion of my mental bandwidth, it’s pure bliss. 

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Notable Tracks:

Aries Equals Good Trash - The first obvious “single” for the album that has a serious swaying lilting, uneasy beat. The vocals on this track are indicative of the overall shift in quality in Barnes vocals that have gotten a lot less strained and smoother.  Favorite lyric/delivery:

“I compare thee to a saturnalia (ha!) if I may be so rude.” 

The song also touches upon Barnes’ relating to be on the spectrum, both the gender/sexual spectrum and the cognitive one. Music for people breaking new ground with a broken brain. 

Now That’s What I Call Freewave - 

“Every time I look at my phone I get brain damaged. By every blamedead person I get lobotomized"

This song is also the first song in the Western music canon to introduce the phrase “feelbad songs of Covid summer.” This song also marks the first appearance of several where Barnes is absolutely shredding the guitar. I don’t really listen to much music that places and emphasis on “solos” or melting the fret board, but how can you not get excited by that burst of guitar? Also leave it to Barnes to find a way to also shout out an experimental cinema deep cut, Chick Strand’s Soft Fiction. I also discovered the Czech film Valerie and Her Week of Wonders through the song “st. exquisite’s confessions.” Why not also use your songs as a chance to shout out cool obscure cinema? 

Still from Chick Strand’s Soft Fiction

True Beauty Forever - Of Montreal go future funk. If you don’t know what that means don’t worry I’m brewing up a whole story on the joys of future funk. 

“I'm a black widow and I don't bite you so I guess I'm in love!

Possibly my new favorite Of Montreal song...

Fuckheads Is the Auto-correction - Okay I need to nix that phrase from my vocabulary because nearly every song on this album could be considered a new favorite. How can you top this opening couplet: 

Am I a creep because I don’t have a chosen pronoun? Am I a creep because my mind is the Odeon of the multiverse?

Drowner's TeÃrs - The use of pitched up vocals is an example of some of the new bells and whistles added to the oM sound palette. 

Fingerless Gloves & Kcrraanggaanngg!! - Find Barnes doing death core, metal styled goblin shrieks and it really, really works. More absolutely gnarly and nasty fret work. 

 Yamagate Florest Flutes & ThRam Rammaged à Man-Mod - Reggae/Dub Of Montreal? :O

Notes Of ViOlate SPectates A Flatter Of Male & So Chill Then (o Portão) - On an album this dense and frenetic there had to be some more ambient and chill passages and having So Chill Then as the album closer makes for a satisfying, soft landing. 

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And to close whole she-bang up here’s a picture of Of Montreal performing at one of the best music festivals in the world, Pahoda in Slovakia:

 This post is in no way associated with Of Montreal in any way, but I highly recommend checking out and subscribing to Of Montreal’s Patreon Page and ride the artwave!

Novatech Acquires Xerox Dealer

Novatech Acquires Xerox Dealer

On August 19th, Novatech, a nationwide managed-office provider and a core portfolio company of private-equity firm Trivest Partners, announced it’s acquired Digital Office Solutions, for an undisclosed sum. Digital Office is a Xerox dealer located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Last month, Novatech had acquired another Xerox dealer, Pahoda Image Products, which is located in Denver, Colorado. “Novatech…

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Selamat pagi akka dongansss... 😄😄😄 Line: kotabalige . . . . . . . . . from @ujingria - Come sit with me (1) Come sit with me, Let's take a minute to feel the breeze in the skin The grass under the bare feet. Lets freeze the time, and sit still Let's embrace the quiet morning and drown in it. This weary hands and heavy hearts, This shaking skin, the swollen eyes and the stolen breath, Be still. There always be tomorrow, For now, i never know such peace. I think i'll stay awhile, Come sit with me Come sit with me ------- Took this picture at Pahoda Balige. This hill really famous for local couple especially young people to spend time with their love one. Inspired by them i write down that Poem. This is so great to be able to see the infinity of #LakeToba from this height. The camera can't even catch them all. #WonderfulIndonesia #BukitPahoda #PesonaDanauToba #PesonaDanauToba2017 #LakeToba #Volcano #Geopark #Poem #Quotes #Weekend #SundayMorning #TravelPoem #InstaNature #InstaTravel #SitWithMe #Goodreads #Nusantara #DanauToba #Love #LovePoem #Landscape #lovebirds

Princess Nokia premieres new song “G.O.A.T.” with new music video (I promise I won’t spoil anything!!!)

Concept cars, flat bill hats, gliding sub bass lines: it must be summer, and it must be a new Princess Nokia video! That’s right, pool-partiers: with record temperatures across the country and wildfire warnings lighting up the Doppler radar like a Christmas tree, Princess Nokia still felt the need to turn up the heat by dropping a new music video for a song she’s calling “G.O.A.T.” Something about the swag with which she carries herself in the video tells me the title may stand for “greatest of all time,” but you can judge for yourself after you watch the video below. Context-wise, Remember last year when Princess Nokia deigned to grace her kingdom with a mixtape titled 1992? I know I do, because: 1) it landed on our Favorite Rap Mixtapes column, our third-quarter favorites list, and our big Favorite Music Releases of 2017 feature (at #21), and 2) I was counting 100 emojis in my sleep for months. Well, this new jam is a lot like that, except this time it’s just the one song/music video combo. But c’mon, she’s royalty! She’s got other things to do! Luckily, one of those “other things to do” includes being out on tour until October — which, if I know anything about album cycles, likely means more music from her is coming soon! Wait…what’s that? It’s called the “Princess Nokia 1992 Deluxe Summer Tour 2017”? Well, shit. Oh well, check out the live dates below the “G.O.A.T.” video anyway, but maybe check your local humidity levels before you get out there, so you’ll know how many of those little handheld misting fans and novelty beer hats to bring with you. Princess Nokia surveys her domain 2017: 06.29.17 - Roskilde, DK - Roskilde Festival 06.30.17 - Toulouse, FR - Les Siestes Festival 07.01.17 - Tilburg, ND - Woo Hah Festival 07.02.17 - Brussels, BE – Couleurs Cafe 07.06.17 - Novi Sad, RS - Exit Festival 07.07.17 - Krakow, PL - Nowa Muzyka Festival 07.08.17 -Trencin, SK - Pahoda Festival 07.08.17 - Prague, CZ - Creepy Teepee 07.09.17 - Liege, BE - Les Ardentes Festival 07.12.17 - New York, NY - Central Park Summerstage 07.14.17 - Chicago, IL - Bottom Lounge [Sold Out] 07.21.17 - San Francisco, CA - Mezzanine 07.22.17 - Los Angeles, CA - FYF 07.28.17 - Toronto, ON - Velvet Underground [Early] 07.28.17 - Toronto, ON - Velvet Underground [Late] [Sold Out] 08.11.17 - Malmo, SE - Malmo Festival 08.12.17 - London, UK - Sunfall Festival 08.13.17 - Helsinki, FN - Flow Festival 08.26.17 - Brooklyn, NY - Afropunk Festival 08.28.17 - Montreal, QC - Club Soda 08.24.17 - Houston, TX - Warehouse Live 09.03.17 - Sao Paolo, BR - MIS Conference 09.06.17 - Ljubljana, RS - Kino Siska 09.07.17 - Pula, HR - Outlook Festival 09.10.17 - Los Angeles, CA – Day N Night 09.12.17 - Berlin, DE - Huxleys 09.14.17 - Copenhagen, DK - Vega 09.15.17 - Oslo, NO - Ingerbrigt 09.16.17 - Rotterdam, NL - BIRD 09.28.17 - Lawrence, KS - Granada Theatre 09.29.17 - Brooklyn, NY - Villain 10.10.17 - Zargoza, ES - Sala Lopez 10.11.17 - Madrid, ES - Ocho y Medio Club 10.12.17 - Barcelona, ES - Razzmatazz 10.13.17 - Seville, ES - Monkey Week 10.15.17 - Atlanta, GA - Afropunk Festival http://j.mp/2s6fXr6

Begitu sampai disini hujan lebat, berusaha berteduh tapi angin yang lumayan kencang menarik air hujan untuk masuk ke selah selah pahoda yang memang dinding dan atapnya didesain memiliki celah yang besar. Alhasil tetap basah meskipun kami sudah berteduh ehehehe Tapi tempat ini worth to visit. Dekat dengan hotel twmpat kami menginap. Dan udaranya segar. - #thailand #phuket #phukettrip #trip #tripadvisor #visit #vacation #holiday #holidays #holidaytime #clouds #darksky #rain #wet #denfilm #photo #photography #photooftheday #iphone7plus #iphoneography #jalanjalan #instafun #instagram #instalike #instagood #instadaily #l4l #like #like4like #likeforlike #like4follow #likeforfollow (at เขารัง ภูเก็ต Rang Hill, Phuket)

Wat Traoy Koh Pagoda in Kampot

C'ést Möi #picoftheday #photooftheday #latepost #Pahoda katanya nama tempatnya #dolokabadi :)

Do you have Naga?

I do!

As ‘naga’ is a word used in a lot of southern and south eastern Asia to mean ‘dragon’, I have somehow managed to have two completely different dragon species bear the name ‘naga’: the phaya naga and the Balinese naga.

The phaya naga (meaning ‘great serpent’) is based in Indian/Thai/Hindu/Bhuddist nagas. They are colossal serpents, large enough to attempt to eat elephants now and again, with huge sickle-shaped horns on their foreheads. Doing my visual research for these dragons was super easy as they decorate a lot of temples in S/SE Asia, which means a lot of photo references of three dimensional, fully coloured statues to base my drawings on!

The other naga in my book is the Balinese Naga, which is a small winged dragon from Bali in Indonesia. Growing up, I had a small wooden dragon carving from Bali in the house, and it was fun finding out more about Bali culture and the little dragons used to keep bad spirits out of houses (I don’t have a coloured image of this dragon yet, and also I tried to find a good photo of the wooden ones but none of them have the photographer’s name attributed to them and I am not comfortable posting unsourced images).

In the footnotes of these dragons I also mention: Kaliya, King Mucalinda, Apalala, Anavatapta, Sesha/Anatasesha/Adisesha, marinagas, Takasha, the Nagaraja, Naga Pahoda, a few mentions of serpents from Jainism (Dharanedra, Padmavati), Nagini Besandi, Antaboga and Barong Naga, just a very quick rundown of nagas in mythology.

Novatech Acquires Xerox Dealer

Novatech Acquires Xerox Dealer

Novatech, a nationwide managed-office provider and a core portfolio company of Trivest Partners, announced it’s acquired Pahoda Image Products. Pahoda Image Products is a Xerox dealer located in Denver, Colorado. Novatech did not disclose terms of the acquisition. With the acquisition, Pahoda Image Products will maintain its name and branding. It will operate as a stand-alone portfolio company…

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