Cirque du Soleil
Image from the show Wintuk

The "Circus of the Sun", in all its various shows, consistently merges colorful, artistic vision with wondrous music into an unequaled performance of sheer beauty. Each tells a simple story, but with such imaginative power that it leaves you amazed with wonder and yearning for long forgotten childhood fantasies.
 

Here’s a small video of this vision, with some scenes from various shows.

It All Started With a Dream

by Arhu, Like Dreams

A Hug

If you feel down or lonely or if you just need a little hug, watch this small video and you’ll feel a lot better.

Free hugs is a real life controversial story of Juan Mann, a man whose sole mission was to reach out and hug a stranger to brighten up their lives.”

Free Hugs

The Free Hugs campaign was so successful that it has spread all over the world.

If you want to know more about it, visit FreeHugsCampaign.org.

The music is by the Sick Puppies (http://sickpuppies.net/ or http://www.myspace.com/sickpuppies).

by Arhu, Like Dreams

Sprout
by Jeff Nusz

Sprout is a creative little game in which your goal is to get a tiny seedling that’s stranded on a small isle all the way back home to the mainland where its tall brethren live. The seedling has the unique ability to grow into the different plants it discovers. For example, the palm tree in the beginning teaches the seedling how to become a coconut, making it possible to get to the shore. All you have to do is find out what it can do and how to make use of its abilities.

This little gem won’t take more than 15 minutes of your time, so relax and get started, you’ll feel refreshed afterwards!

by Arhu, Like Dreams

"Stars, Moons & the City"
by Hicaru Tanaka, 1998

There is something about space, the vastness of the universe and time so long it boggles your mind. Something that makes you forget the here and now, that makes you get lost in a reverie of distant stars and an unknown future. There are some memories I have of this sense of timelessness, not many, just a few, but they are very precious to me.

One is a Belgian comic series called Yoko Tsuno that I read, no, absorbed in a library when I was a kid. It’s about a female electrical engineer of Japanese origin that takes place in familiar but highly technological settings on Earth in the future and even some 2,500,000 light years away in outer space.

The second is The Bicentennial Man, a movie based on a novella of the same name by Isaac Asimov. In it, a robot that seeks to be accepted as human survives several generations of a family.

The third is very similar in this regard, a short anime series called Gunbuster. Two girls do important work near the speed of light, meaning that time for them moves slower. And when they get back everyone they knew are gone. They only get to see snapshots of each generation…

Last but not least, there is the ending of Outlaw Star, an anime series in space. The closing has nothing to do with the story, but it’s so beautiful and serene.. and timeless. Watch and dream . . .
 

Outlaw Star ~ Ending 1

Outlaw Star ~ Ending 2

The artist who drew those pictures is Hicaru Tanaka. There’s more nice art at his site.
The first ending theme song is called “Hiru no Tsuki”, which means “Daytime Moon”.
The second ending theme song is called “Tsuki no Ie”, which means “House of the Moon”.
Lyrics translation by AL-Fansubs

by Arhu, Like Dreams

Hands - Compel
by Kevin Thom, 2004

They can play instruments, draw, sculpt, build, caress and even communicate via sign language. Some of what you can do with hands is so simple and yet so universal at the same time, it’s just beautiful.

Some creative minds came up with really amazing examples of using hands in different, unique ways that you may find inspiring and probably surprising.

Thousand-Hand Bodhisattva

An amazing dance performed by the China Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe.

 

What Hands Can Do

This shadow play is from a commercial for the VW Phaeton.

 

Daft Hands – Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

The first minute is a bit weird, then it starts getting interesting.

Holding Hands

Two otters are holding hands. Isn’t that cute?

Jewel – Hands

by Arhu, Like Dreams

"Many Colored Thing"
by Kristen Ankiewicz, 2004

My skin is kind of sort of brownish pinkish yellowish white

My eyes are greyish blueish green
But I’m told they look orange in the night

My hair is reddish blondish brown
But it’s silver when it’s wet

And all the colors I am inside
Have not been invented yet

~ Shel Silverstein

by Arhu, Like Dreams

A scene from ZoomQuilt.

Like in dreams, you can keep going forward and never quite reach a destination, because there is always more ahead, something new that you haven’t seen before.

These are some examples of zooming in and out, larger than life in a way.

The first is called ZoomQuilt, a collaborative art project which lets you zoom through a bizarre dream world that constantly shifts seamlessly to something different.

Information

One piece of information.

The second is made up of pieces. What’s in a photograph? The artistic answer to that may be somewhat unexpected. Find out.

From its content to its visual components, a photograph is filled with information. Choose a point on an image and delve deeper into it, linking one idea to another in a never-ending chain.

Can you imagine?

More at interact10ways.com.

Space

The second one lets you get an impressive glimpse at our universe ~ the intro from the movie Contact.

Fractals

The third is a an animation called Blue Oyster Fractal Twist, showing the infinite detail inherent in fractals.

Planets and Stars

Last but not least, here’s something that’s not really zooming, but is nonetheless mind blowing, showing how small we really are, relatively speaking.

by Arhu, Like Dreams

A life form in fl0w

Game play is fairly easy. Move your mouse to where your creature is supposed to swim, click the left mouse button to make it swim faster. Try to eat other microorganisms to evolve. Dive deeper by “eating” something red. “+” makes your current body segment evolve.

Accompanied by ethereal space music and with softly glowing graphics fl0w makes for a surreal, hypnotizing gaming experience in which you can easily get lost in time.

by Arhu, Like Dreams

Zoë Castillo (front)
April Ryan and Kian Alvane (back)

Dreamfall is a truly magical adventure set in two mysterious worlds.

These two worlds exist in parallel ~ one is Stark, our world, one of logic and science. The other is Arcadia, a world of magic and chaos. It is in Stark that Zoë Castillo, the protagonist, finds herself in a coma. She is aware of her situation, can think but does not know if anyone can hear what she’s saying. Yet she tries…

And she remembers, not for herself but for us, remembers what has happened to her and in those worlds, and she tells her story.
An important story.

About Zoë ~ Opening

I love this game sooo much! Even though I’ve only played it once so far I will always hold it dear. It has everything I like: a futuristic world, a medieval world, true magic, dreams, fantastic mythology, an emotional story and lovable characters with wonderful voices. Zoë even wears my favorite colors!

Dreamfall is most of all an interactive story. While the prequel, The Longest Journey, is a classical adventure with complex puzzles, Dreamfall is more easygoing: The riddles are relatively simple and then there are also some light elements from other genres like sneaking or fighting, which act mainly as small diversions. All for the story. Did I already mention how good it is?

The inclined reader might ask themselves, “why wouldn’t I just read a book instead if it’s only about the story?” That might be true in most cases. Sometimes however there are things that can’t just be told. You have to experience them for yourself.

About the Story and Continuation

"The Other Side of the Mirror"
by Silent-dream

Still, today TLJ may look a bit dated and could be relatively hard to get into, which might turn some people off. If you are such a person, here’s what I would do:

1. If you are just looking for a nice game, go ahead and play Dreamfall.
2. If you can really appreciate good stories or like dreams and fantasies, play TLJ first, with a walkthrough.

I must admit that I opted for the second version myself. I never played TLJ when it came out for some reason, but when I heard about Dreamfall I knew I had to play the prequel first, so I did ~ with a walkthrough, just for the story. And it was soooo worth it!

About the Ending

"Zoe and Wonkers"
by Silent-dream

What players need to understand is that Dreamfall is the first part of a two part story, yet it also tells its own story, which is complete. It’s a bit more complicated than that, but let me just tell you that it’s all fine! I recommend you read what the author Ragnar Tornquist has to say about the ending, why it is the way it is:

Spoiler warning: DO NOT follow this link if you haven’t finished Dreamfall yet! About the Ending (and Other Things). ~Spoilers!~

Note: Unfortunately Ragnar’s blog was hijacked and all old posts went the way of the dodo. Fortunately, the Internet archive still has the post, which is what I linked to.
 

Links:

• Ragnar Tornquist’s blog
• Official website of Dreamfall
• Official website of The Longest Journey
• Official forums
• List of Fanart

Links with spoilers:

• Various Dreamfall and TLJ ressources, including a DF names list + etymology, timeline and script
• TLJ / Dreamfall wiki, including a summary of the Longest Journey‘s story for those Dreamfall players who want to catch up without actually playing TLJ
• Dreamfall on Wikipedia
• The Longest Journey on Wikipedia

by Arhu, Like Dreams

Kylie Minogue as Elisa Day

Where the Wild Roses Grow is sung by Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue. The song is so beautiful, mysterious and moving.. It goes under your skin.

I haven’t listened to it very often, but for some reason it never leaves my head, mainly due to the delicate imagery and softly whispered vocals.
 

Where the Wild Roses Grow

Artist(band): Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds
Guest vocals: Kylie Minogue
Album: Murder Ballads

by Arhu, Like Dreams