The Arte-y-Pico Award......

Wow! another award to add to my collection. It's a great pleasure to recieve this wonderful award which means "wow, the best art" from my friend Kess of Its a dog's life. Thank you, Kess.

Before passing this on, here are a few set rules to follow.....

1) You have to pick FIVE blogs that you consider deserve this award for creativity, design, interesting material and also contribute to the blogger community regardless of language.

2) Each award has to have the name of the author and a link to his/her blog to be visited.

3) Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given him/her the award itself.

4) Award winners and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of the "Arte-y-Pico" blog so everyone will know the origin of the award

5) In compliance with said RULES, the award winner must show the RULES.

Now to share it out with my friends for their lovely blogs here at......

Little Corner of Mine, My Love. My Food, Moonlight Rendevous, Beachlover, eastcoastlife.

Weekend Snapshot # 11..Petronas Twin Tower.

Its been ages since I posted up a weekend snapshot. You can say a lot of things has been piling up for me to do and there seems to be short of time to complete all the task on hand or am I still in my holiday mood.
Here is something to give it a shot....our towering landmark in the big city of Kuala Lumpur which I manage to get a few takes with my humble digital camera while waiting in the car for son R to get his precious toy from KLCC lately...

Excuse me....?

Here is something about the flirting game. I am sure most of us have gone or will go through this stage of flirting and dating game at one stage in our lives. As through experience I have seen the many faces of pick up lines a guy would use on the opposite sex. Some are so good and some are just so horrendous that will make you run a mile away from the subject. My worst experience of a pick up line that I ever get from a guy was something like this..."Excuse me, can I have a date with you..? You look like my mum." He sure does not have the date or any more dates to come.
So if you want to know how good you are at the flirting game come and test yourself here at Ultimate Flirting Championship sponsored by Extreme Style by VO5

Click at the widget here to see if you can win the Victory Hair.

Pura Tanah Lot......

The entrance to Tanah Lot temple..........

Tanah Lot in Balinese language means 'land in the middle of the sea' and 'pura' means temple. Pura Tanah Lot is one of the seven sea temples built along the Balinese coast. It was built on an offshore huge black lava rock in the 15th century by a Hindu priest. Til today after some upgrading work done to it, it stands out in a beautiful setting along the coast facing the Indian ocean making it one of the famous tourist attraction in Bali. More pics to share of this beautiful place.........


Pura Tanah Lot sitting on the black rock..........

Caves formation below the rocks..............


Another scenic view of hut built on top of a rock offshore.......

A videoclip of Tanah Lot temple above..........

Wood Carving @ Mas Village.......

Many talented artist can be found in Ubud district. Each village had its own Balinese cultural art like gold and silversmith in Celuk, wood carver at Mas village, and famous paintings in Batuan village. After visiting the gold and silversmith in Celuk, we stopped at Mas village to see the wood carvings. These balinese artisans can carve anything ranging from intriguing masks and exquisite floral patterns to the anatomy of the human body with or without clothes from a piece of wood. Here are some pics to show what I mean.......

Balinese wood carvers at work................

Masks and small figurine............

A beautiful chess set carvings.....................

Coffee tables for a hotter cuppa.........?

Sensual art...................

I bought this lovely balinese lady in blue sarong carved from mahogany wood. See the exquisite floral carving of the coffee table..?

Note: Will be back to hometown today, so will be MIA here til next Wednesday.

Full Of Drama Barong & Kris Dance..

Bali is indeed a magical and mystical island. This can be seen in their colourful costumes and their graceful dances which is full of drama and emotions. We went to Batubulan on our second day of tour to see the famous Barong and Kris dance, one of the few famous balinese dances. Actually I was just expecting some pretty Balinese ladies staging some dance moves in their sarongs but I was surprise this Barong and kris dance was more of a play or drama with a few dances in between with balinese music provided by a team of musicians sitting cross legged in a hut beside the stage.

Although the mask they wore were quite frightening, their acts were full of expressions and emotions flowing accordingly to the storyline which were provided for the audiences in a few languages on paper.

The Barong play is actually about an eternal fight between good and evil spirits. A Barong, a mythological animal represent good spirit while Rangda, a mythological monster represent the evil one.

"Barong, a mystical creature with a long way back and curved tail, represents the affirmative, the protector of mankind, the glory of the high sun, and the favorable spirits associated with the right and white magic. The widow witch Rangda is its complement. She rules the evil spirits and witches who haunt the graveyards late at night. Her habitat is darkness and her specialties lie with the practice of black magic, the destructive force of the left. Both figures are of the same earthly substance, possessing strong magical prowess. Somewhere in a mythical past, the Barong was won over to the side of humanity, and, in the play, fights on behalf of the people against the intruding death force of Rangda." BaliVision.

Here are some pics of the show...........

The Barong is a mythical, supernatural creature, represented by a masked costume that resembles a Chinese barongsai lion. The costume is animated by two dancers, one manipulating the snapping jaws of the mask and one acting as the hind end. The costume is decorated with a shaggy fur body and richly ornamented filagree leatherwork, embellished with gold leaf and tiny mirrors.

The mystical Barong and his friend the monkey........


Two girl dancers representing the servants of Rangda...

The servants of Dewi Kunti.......


The evil Rangda with her splintery fingernails that fore shadow the dreadful vision of Rangda. From her mouth hangs a flaming tongue signifying her consuming fire and around her neck, a necklace of human entrails falls over her pendulous breasts. Howling a low, gurgling curse she stalks the Barong while waving a white cloth from whence issues her overwhelming magic.


Dewi Kunti and her son Sahadewa............

God Siwa and Rangda.................

Rangda is redeem and killed by Sahadewa, then goes to heaven...(funny to be sent there)

The evil wild boar fighting with followers of Barong in a compromising position that makes the audience laugh.........

The musicians with their gamelans and drums.........

The spectators in full concentration.........

Here are 2 short video clips of the Barong and Kris dance taken from YouTube...