love love love

look here as well --> dear old love

ALEX THOMPSON // "marksmen"

ALEX THOMPSON // marksmen from Sahale Jensen on Vimeo.

i will love you forever..

if you buy me a sally mann photography book..:. can't find one

alex thompson // balloons

improvements??
this was editing fast and I can see all the flaws but I would love some feedback.
what can I start improving?

ALEX THOMPSON // balloons from Sahale Jensen on Vimeo.

hero with one thousand names

Currently, for a class, I am reading "The Hero With A Thousand Faces" by Mr. Joseph Campell.

Joseph Campell is a known and well respected mythologist. He has studied and gathered myths from across generations and across the world and archived and compared them. In his studies he has discovered the universal hero.

And he really is..

The hero that we have witness in Jesus Christ is the hero that we might find in Odysseus.

The story keeps being told over and over.

And strains even echoed throughout other religions. You can either see that as an affirmation of faith or evidence to tear it down. For me, shadows of my beliefs popping up everywhere, give life an air of depth and a certain quality of wonder.

In his book, "The Hero With A Thousand Faces", Campell does more than take you into evidences of the universal hero, but also into the mythology and mystery of other cultures. This one passage about the Japanese tea ceremony perked my interest .:.

"The tea ceremonies of Japan are concieved in the spirit of the Taoist earthly paradise. The tearoom called, "the abode of fancy", is an ephemeral structure built to enclose a moment of poetic intuition. Called too "the abode of vacancy," it is devoid of ornamentation. Temporarily it contains a single picture or flower-arrangement. The teahouse is called "the abode of the unsymmetrical": the unsymmetrical suggests movement; the purposely unfinished leaves a vacuum into which the imagination of the beholder can pour.

The guest approaches by the garden path, and must stoop through the low entrance. He makes obeisance to the picture or flower-arrangement, to singing kettle, and takes his place on the floor. The simplest object, framed by the controlled simplicity of the tea house, stands out in mysterious beauty, its silence holding the secret of temporal existence. Each guest is permitted to complete the experience in relation to himself. The members of the company thus contemplate the universe in miniature, and become aware of their hidden fellowship with the immortals.

The great tea masters were concerned to make of the divine wonder an experienced moment; then out of the teahouse the influence was carried into the home; and out of the home distilled into the nation."

-"The Hero With a Thousand Faces" by Joseph Campell, p.168

basically, spreading peace and wonder with tea

to do: make some tea.

sink onto the couch.

listen to some japanese folk music.

become aware of my hidden fellowship with the immortals.

Resturant Review NO. 1 // Niko's Southside

when you walk into Niko's in Southside, your heart drops because you know that the prices are going to have to be outrageous for how nice -- not only the place looks on the inside, but how beautiful the dishes sound on the menu. however, as you finally decide to take a peek at the other column of the menu, the most frightening and price oriented section-- you will find yourself VERY pleasantly surprised. and then as you take you first bite into their signature Lamb Burger, you will almost die with gratitude for Niko's somehow allowing you to get away with murder. seriously, check this place out. your stomach will thank you and your wallet will thank you.

NIKO's SOUTHSIDE GRILL offering a variety of Greek styled dishes.
I tried::
The Lamb Burger $10
The Spinach and Feta Cakes $6
The Pita and Humus
The Tomato Bisque
And their selection of teas.

1400 Cowart Street
Chattanooga, TN 37408

They are located at the corner of 13 Street and Cowart Street.

Call (423) 266-9211 for more information

shootings

screaming women.
hundreds and hundreds of black kids swarmed Coolidge Park.
Chattanooga was a regular war zone.
There seemed to be no event, no activity, but the numbers upon numbers of gang colors that were out were crazy.

me and alex thomspon were walking down the sidewalk when we saw some teenage girls come running up the street behind us screaming in terror. I couldn't tell why but then I saw the police coming up after them. bursting from their group were too young high school men, one had grabbed the other around the collar and pushed him up against a car, and proceeded to start beating him to a pulp.

people started pushing and the two men started getting closer to the observing pedestrians. me and alex ducked into Stone Cup where the staff told us to get away from the windows and they promptly locked the doors to keep the violence out. Earlier, I had seen a man being taken away on a stretcher, and even later I found out that 4 people had been injured in a shooting that had taken place near the park.

I had no idea Chattanooga gang violence was this prevalent, or that they would dare take in to the streets in North Shore.

scary stuff

honesty session

Dear Best Friend,
Dear Lust and Love of my Life,

I will wait for you forever.

LOVE,
SAHALE

...::::my new favorite band::::...//maybe just this song

the NAKED and FAMOUS

the NAKED and FAMOUS

the NAKED and FAMOUS

the NAKED and FAMOUS

the NAKED and FAMOUS

the NAKED and FAMOUS

the NAKED and FAMOUS

the value of snuggling

i love indexed

cooking lessons

as a single individual, living on my own, I had some trouble transitioning to cooking.

((above: my strange croque-monsieur at class. inside contains, provolone cheese, yellow squash, beef summer sausage, bell pepper, black olives, onions, white wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, salt, butter, vegetarian stripples))

yes, I cooked as a youth, but for my whole family of four. With meal plans and ideas provided by a happy mother.
when I moved out of Southern Adventist's dorm I found many unseen issues. left overs, rotting vegetables, crappy frozen and packaged meals, frustration, no time to cook, and no creativity.

I end up eating lots and lots of packaged noodle messes and lots of rice, rice, rice.
since then life has been better, don't worry too much. creativity, vegetable usage and diversification experience, and tips from friends have helped me out a lot. my strange croque-monsieur is witness to that. but..

one night I was lying on my couch watching Julie & Julia and I realized the immense and amazing power and ability of food to make a life, your life, so much more rich. sure, it doesn't really matter how you get from point a to point b in life but if the journey is the real adventure and the real destination, then food, good food, must be part of that.

on a quest to find what Julia Child was looking for I downloaded her famous Beef Bourgingnon recipe and it will be my new experiment. when I have a life, when I have time. I'm sure it will be an epic failure judging by sections of the recipe: "Saute lardons in 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a flameproof casserole over moderate heat for 2-3 minutes to brown lightly. Remove to a side dish with a slotted spoon." Never "Sauted lardons" or had a use for a "slotted spoon". keep reading to find out what happens. haha

everybody plays the game

Heard this awesome demo of Julian Casablancas'

"I'll Try Anything Once"

//so it is this weeks' cover//

rough but true
I'll Try Anything Once by sahalemarja

I'll Try Anything Once
(Demo)

Jullian Casablancas
11th Dimension

thank/god/its/soon/to/be/saturday

the week has been death

thank God for His blessing of the Sabbath

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip

cycling season!

YES!
cycling season is upon us!!
That means that all those cycling god's, including Andy & Frank Shleck, Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer, Carlos Sastre, are all going to be out!!!! For all you non-cycling watchers and basically cycling may be somewhat of a mystery.. What is the strategy? Is it just the fastest man wins? Here is the lay person and American's guide to Cycle Sport.

There are three major grand tour races that are the ultimate boon in cycle sport racing and if you are new to the sport they are must sees. Everyone is aware of the Tour de France, through its famous and heretical standing. And it really is true. Le Tour de France is the biggest and most prestigious race in the World Grand tour standings. Le Tour de France is one of the reasons I wanted to learn french. But beside this tour their are two others that hold almost as much prestige.

-Le Tour de France

-Giro d'Italia

-Vuelta a Espana

These are grand tour races because they are stage races that cover over 200km a day. The Tour, which is the biggest, usually contains 20-21 stages. They are also grand tours because they have different qualifications for different classes. That means that Le Tour de France is raced in stages, over a period of days, and not in one go.

You can not only win the general classification, or the shortest time overall, but there are classifications for mountain climbing and sprinting as well as best young rider. The leaders of these classifications get to wear a jersey, denoting their position in the group. This can easily change from day to day, but the man wearing the yellow on the final day is the winner. The green jersey is for the points or sprinting classification. The polka dotted jersey is for the "King of the Mountain" or mountain climbing classification.

Maillot Jaune

Maillot à Pois Rouges



Maillot Vert

YES! Cycling is a TEAM sport.
In all the video footage you see in America, they always seem to forget to tell you that. The only hopeful for the general classification win is the team leader, the only job of the others is to help that leader position, draft, and get and deliver food to the other teammates. Just like motor sports, positioning and drafting are the strategy of cycling. If you move too fast, you will crack, run out of energy, and get dropped -- move to late and you will be left behind. If your team is not strong enough and can't give you a good position at the top of the peleton, or main group, you will not have a viable position for the win. If the main leaders aren't threatening it is foolish for you to go for a stage win, if they are attacking the lead, you have to make a move, tired or not.

CRASHES!

sadly, one of the most exciting elements of a grand tour race is the crashes. when the cyclists get tired turning those corners and focusing on staying up right becomes harder.. here are some of the best crashes..

OTHER STUFFS!!

American Grand Tours!.:.

look for them

The Tour of Georgia

The Tour of California

The Tour of Missouri

LEADING small stage races // leading up to the Tour de France

Paris-Nice

Paris-Roubaix

Dauphine Libere

my thoughts exactly // food for le thought

R.I.P. Alexander McQueen

more than fashion.

inspirational fine art.

my lover tintin

I have been in love with Tintin my whole childhood. and through my whole childhood I imagined what he would sound like. what that crazy hairdo was all about and what his character would be like: would he be timid? would he be stubborn? would he seem fierce and bold?

I adventured to far off lands with him and to the moon and even to the United States of America. my favorite of the books was Tintin in Tibet. There Tintin goes looking for his friend from China, lost in a downed aircraft. It is unbelievable that his friend would survive and even more unbelievable that Tintin's seafaring travel buddy, Captain Haddock, would; but they manage to live long enough to get tangled up in all kinds of mischief, with all sorts of hooligans, especially and most exciting the legendary yeti of the Himalayas.

I have always wondered what this strange and small wonder of a man would be like to meet. and I started thinking about him again recently because I may get to.

Steven Speilburg has undertaken an English language Tintin film based off the Tintin novel by Herge called "Tintin and the Secret of the Unicorn". I will finally hear his voice. See his face. Know what he is like.. and reserve the staunch and most joyous right of whining when they get it all wrong.

Apparently, to preserve the art of the comic style book, they are using the same technology employed by "Avatar" to create the graphics and animation of the film. My thought is that it is more because it allows them to do this::

"Ultimately, all the camera data was fed into a computer to create a 3-D replica of the actor. The digital document of the actor and the performance is so all-enveloping that the director, in this case Spielberg, can go back and change the "camera" movement and orientation long after the actor has left the set. "

-- Los Angeles Times

basic. laziness.

no pick ups or reshoots needed my friends.. its all in the computer.

surprise from Mister Spielburg, but maybe that is what filmmaking is ultimately coming to.

“I just adored it,“ he says. “It made me more like a painter than ever before. I got a chance to do so many jobs that I don’t often do as a director. You get to paint with this device that puts you into a virtual world, and allows you to make your shots and block all the actors with a small hand-held device only three times as large as an Xboxgame controller.”

--Steven Spielburg, quote from The Los Angeles Times

So now filmmaking is just like playing an Xbox.

awesome.

! these guys !

if all works out, I'll be excited to collaborate with some "young guns" next month.

my alter egos

Gustav Klimt's Judith. Nothing is so stark and so fierce as a bare breasted female. right? That is why Delacroix painted his lady liberty that way.. Because a woman can be such a symbol of strength of spirit and yet so vulnerable at the same time. I always envied this Klimt lady. She stands so proud but from such a position of venerability.

Madame X surely turned heads after Sargent painted her. She was so risque. Now we laugh. So mild. So tame. But I tell you I saw this lady twice. Once she traveled to the Seattle Art Museum, when I was in elementary school and my mother took me to the show. Even then, my inpatient and squirmy brain was compelled to stare into her eyes just a little bit longer than all the others.

The second time, I was in New York City, I turned a corner of the MET and there she was, like an old friend. I tell you, photos do not do this lady justice. She is suave, she is poised. She is a woman.

((snapped this with my camera phone, when confronted with her the second time))

MARY PICKFORD. queen of the silent cinema, and now facing someone twice her size. Women with balls.. women with balls.

AND YES...

this gal

she is hilarious.

and ambitious beyond belief

((parting music))

SNEAK PEAK Session

INTRODUCING//alex thompson from Sahale Jensen on Vimeo.

pics from my phone

more to come someday : )

why I want to go to Ethiopia

the simien highlands

SEXY

seattle love

no photoshop employed yet .:.
pics by me and katie hand