Topics

May

Connecting Through the Universal Language of Music

by Meredith Mullins on May 4, 2015

Two dancers in white at the rue Mouffetard in Paris, showing that music is the universal language of connection. (Image © Meredith Mullins)

Sunday morning dancing on the rue Mouffetard in Paris
© Meredith Mullins

A Reminder of Old Paris: Singing and Dancing on the Rue Mouffetard

I want to make people cry, even when they don’t understand my words. —Edith Piaf

It’s Sunday morning in the Square St Médard in Paris. I am singing in the warm sun . . . belting out the words “Tant que l’amour inondera mes matins” from Edith Piaf’s “L’Hymne à l’Amour” (The Hymn to Love).

With my limited French, I don’t quite understand what the words mean; but the song swells up inside and puts a little lump of emotion in my throat. I feel an unexplainable nostalgia. Read more...

Meredith Mullins 4 Comments

Cultural Encounters/France (Paris)/The World's Music

Mar

India—Cultural Encounters of the Colorful Kind

by Meredith Mullins on March 16, 2015

Flower seller, car-to-car, cultural encounters in Northern India that provide travel inspiration. (Image © Meredith Mullins)

A car-to-car flower seller in Delhi
© Meredith Mullins

Travel Inspiration from Northern India

I expected sensory overload . . . and India delivered.

Bright colors warmed by the sun
Labyrinthine bazaars, far more organized than first glance implies
Horn blasts and shrill shouts from streets crowded with cars, rickshaws, animals, cycles, and carts
Spices that pervade the body—smell, taste, and touch
Dust and wood-fire smoke permeating air and clothes
Mounds of golden flowers—in markets and on shrines to the gods
People living their lives in the open—in the streets, on rooftops, in alleys, in unwalled shops, or in just about any open space

Rooftop in Old Delhi, cultural encounters in Northern India that provide travel inspiration. (Image © Meredith Mullins)

Up on the roof . . . in Old Delhi
© Meredith Mullins

What I did not expect was the depth of hospitality or the pride of place that I experienced from the people of India. Read more...

Meredith Mullins 14 Comments

Cultural Encounters/India/The World's Photography

Feb

Landscape Photography with a Deep Sense of Place

by Meredith Mullins on February 23, 2015

Landscape photography (Homeward Bound II) by Roman Loranc showing a slice of California scenery, a road toward Mount Shasta. (Image © Roman Loranc)

Roman Loranc: Rooted in the California Natural World

There is an empty canoe drifting in the Consumnes River in the Central Valley of California. It’s photographer Roman Loranc’s ride. His way of slipping gently into one of the landscapes he loves.

He is facing away from the escaping canoe, knee deep in the river, with his tripod steadied on the river bottom and his 4 x 5 camera trained on the forms just visible in the distant mist. He hasn’t yet noticed that he is stranded. Read more...

Meredith Mullins 6 Comments

The World's Photography/USA

World Views: