joining forces with superman

center stage (1992): oh, she may be weary

2012-01-23T23:19:00.000-08:00

Ruan Lingyu (阮玲玉) 1910-1935

"As an artist, I hate to be maligned. Rumours are horrible in any age. It's still just as scary now. A movie star doesn't need to make her private life public. What an ordeal if the public twists the facts and turn white into black. When your private life spills into public domain, you feel you're being stripped of everything bit by bit. That's the most traumatic experience. So I fully understand how Ruan felt then." - Maggie Cheung.

Ruan Lingyu was one of China's first predominant actresses, thrived in Shanghai's silent cinema scene in the 30s, and at the tender age of 25, committed suicide. But her inner motivations, what she liked, what she disliked, her dreams, were all taken to the grave with her, leaving Maggie Cheung (and the team) a half tabula-rosa to embody and a story to flesh out on film. And Cheung's performance is something to behold: breathing life into Ruan Lingyu once more, whoever she was 80-something years ago, and the talent she had on camera. Stanley Kwon combines biopic aspects from dramatization to documentation to archival footage, to create not just a reflection, but also a study of a sensitive, long-gone actress and an equally sensitive, lone-gone era, filled with societal pressures and expectations that don't exactly go away even with time.

Other thoughts: Stunningly beautiful Maggie Cheung, Shanghai silent cinema needs more delving into, and slow, so very slow.

titles: beginners (2011)

2012-01-15T17:17:00.000-08:00

When I first heard of the film, I mistook the title for, 'Beginnings.' Ever since, it's always been 'Beginnings' rather than 'Beginners': a good title for the start of 2012.

leningrad cowboys go america (1989): just wanna be a rockstar baby

2011-12-30T05:29:00.000-08:00

Closing off 2011 with Leningrad Cowboys Go America--if not belated since I watched this before I went to England. Finnish director, Aki Kaurismäki introduces a bizarrely wonderful crossover between cold war Eastern European culture and western pop culture, in the form of fictitious band, The Leningrad Cowboys. With their obtusely exaggerated pompadours, ridiculous pointy shoes, ill-fitting suits, over-the-top oompah folk music turned to versatile blues-rock-country-ska-you-name-it-they-play-it scene; they were a great resurrection parody nod to the American rock o'roll scene of the fifties. They move to the US, following their shady manager in dreams of becoming as big as their pompadours, only to find out that Mexico is their destination for "their kind of music." Hopping from roadhouse to biker saloon, the film takes us on a surreal, quirky adventure through the US, through old-time rock o'roll and a droll sense of deadpan humor.

The Leningrad Cowboys were actually the Sleepy Sleepers in real life--that is until they became the Leningrad Cowboys after the movie took off.

boy bands in space: the sci-fi obsession

2011-12-07T16:54:00.000-08:00

Backstreet Boys - Larger than Life (1999) and g.o.d - Observation (2000)
(Note: Youtube doesn't have the music video for Larger Than Life; wonder why?)
What was up with the sci-fi theme? Was it an overgrown post-obsession from the 80s in which the world was fascinated with galaxy adventure and universe expansion discovery? Or was it just the ideal staple for all things laughable, crazy, and unexplainable?

Take Korean boy band, g.o.d's video (acronym for Groove Over Dose) for Observation, which is definitely a low-cost production. It starts with all of the boys hopping and bopping in space with a mission to take down some anonymous villain who may or may not be after a beautiful anonymous woman. They pop into the Earth's ozone and hop and bop around to save beautiful anonymous woman (includes a great mannequin scene that reminded me of N'SYNC in It's Gotta Be Me...) After some stalking and obtuse spying, the boys discover that the anonymous villain was just a crossdresser! Oh my! Devastated, the boys return to their spaceship, which promptly runs into Santa Claus and his host of reindeers and explodes, leaving their wiggly bodies floating in the wide expanse.

Larger than Life in comparison, was more of a high-cost production with all of the insanely intricate yet ugly robot suits, huge spaceship model, detailed tech gadgets imitating an early protocol of Tony Spark's work interface, and hover boards. Everybody in the group starts out in their little sleep pods and then float around in their own sphere (Ken in the control pod, Nick with his army of dancing robots, Brian playing racquet ball with a virtual person on the hover board, AJ in a dark room connected to pipes, and Howie, the only one not in a spacesuit of some sort) until the dance ensemble. In which AJ rocks out the tiniest midriff cut-off. Then Kevin is fighting off missiles that is coming from a woman invader but all are successfully avoided and the boys all return to their sleep pods.

It's not about the possibility of comprehension and belief in any of these videos--only and purely all-out crazy fun shenanigans, super catchy music, great funky dance moves, and the excuse to 'be' in the wide expanse of the universe, the unknown frontier, the unmarked territory, doing whatever you want with hardly any consequences. Unless you happen to run into Santa Claus that is. :)

If anybody has any other space/sci-fi music video with another boy or girl band, please let me know. Britney Spears not including.

the good, the bad and the ugly (1966): cowboys twirling them guns

2011-11-23T23:12:00.000-08:00

What makes a western, a western:

Deserts, never-ending stretch of deserts, and the one or two random saloon towns or adobe hut
Bullets of sweat, grit, dust, and dirt, which can never be washed off even with an hour of scrubbing
Guns, cannons, explosives
Horses and horsebackriding
Attire of tattered wide-rim hats, ponchos, cowboy boots with spurs, holsters, and the most important of all: a water pouch
Buckets of money buried somewhere
Twangy, dramatic soundtrack (an extra star if Ennio Morricone happens to be your soundtrack composer!)
Fantastic intertitles
Great character names
Super close ups to insinuate first-person perspectives
A pink sun umbrella (an extra star for frills)
Bandit cowboys, sheriffs, and a very obvious villain
Cigars and alcohol (you don't need food when you have these!)
Clint Eastwood, squinting into the sun with his mouth in a perpetual grimace

That pretty much wraps up Sergio Leone's The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, which as the title implies, follows three men: a good-esque fellow named Blondie (Clint Eastwood), a very bad man named Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef), and a particularly ugly one named Tuco (Eli Wallach). I especially loved seeing Tuco, twirling his pink sun umbrella with frills, and the way he enunciated, 'I'll killll youuuu!!" Also, it is always fantastic to see Eastwood do what he does best: squint, grimace, and chew on a cigar while shooting away in the endless desert.

Semi-related trivia: DJ erb made a great mashup of Ennio Morricone (Ecstasy of Gold) versus Naz (One Mic). It was the first mashup I was introduced to and it is still one of the greatest mashups I've ever heard.

something about fall

2011-11-01T17:55:00.000-07:00

Unfortunate relaxing Tuesday: woke up at 5 am nauseous and spent the rest of the day at home recuperating.
The last day of warm toasty autumn--creepy baby pumpkins, trees shedding, the nostalgic crunch of leaves against my shoes.

willard asylum: unintentional time capsules

2011-10-28T22:26:00.000-07:00

In 1995, the Willard Asylum was shut down to be renovated as a drug rehabilitation center. When the New York State Museum went in to remove items, they found an attic full of old suitcases that used to belong to patients from the 1910s to the 1960s. Because the patients never left the asylum, all of their suitcases were stored away after they passed away. In 2003, a small selection was chosen as display, revealing individual stories and a case!snapshot of their lives and what they chose to bring with them to the hospital.

Photographer Jon Crispin from Massachusetts, was given an incredible opportunity to photograph these unintentional time capsules, archiving a still moment from years passed. There is something very intimate and curious in glimpsing into one's most prized possessions--or one's most valued and important--that they would not part with. Yet at the same time, nostalgically sad for none of these residents knew that they were going to never return home or that their belongings would one day become artifacts.

the devil's backbone (2001): ghost story with soul

2011-10-23T18:13:00.000-07:00

Guillermo Del Toro is undoubtedly one of my favourites in the film world--if Wong Kar-Wai appeals to me through his nostalgic romanticism (and HK of some time ago-the HK I wish to remember), then Del Toro appeals to me through his cinematic (and literary) exploration of imagination alongside reality (or reality alongside imagination), fantasy, and horror.

El Espinazo del Diablo--a kind of predecessor to his later-on big hit, Pan's Labyrinth, is also set against the Spanish Civil War in a Loyalist-run orphanage, housing the children of deceased Loyalists. It's a multifaceted story of a new boy who learns of a murdered child whose ghost continually haunts for revenge. Their minds are impressionable with myths and fantasies and impose their imagination upon the world they live in--but are they merely conjured? Then there are the adults--flawed protectors and one used-to-be-orphan-now-aggressor who will stop at nothing to steal gold from the orphanage. What makes the film enjoyably suspenseful is the constant reminder of tension: nuclear bomb in the orphanage, waging warfare, ghostly intervention, the muddy dirt and darkness, all pointing to some unavoidable doom cast upon them all. Imagery is beautiful--love the contrast of bright dusty yellow dessert and blue skies against shadowy dark tones of the night. The boys are as wonderful as they are terrible to each other--though charming and innocent despite their Lord of the Flies-attributes. In the end, the children depart from the world that, in its harsh and stark way, protected them against the 'real reality', which is much darker and more horrifying than the ghosts or the foes they confronted in their enclosed orphanage.

rocco e i suoi fratelli (1960): a milkshake of melodrama

2011-10-20T23:43:00.000-07:00

I'm back to blogspot after a summer and a third of fall's worth of abandonment. Was originally going to post my 1/4-review-3/4-screencaps-thing onto my livejournal but it got so out of hand with my other updates that I decided that it was time to return to 'joining forces with superman.' Not that anyone knows this exists lol!

Finally watched Luschino Visconti's Rocco e i suoi fratell (1960)--out of guilt that it's been sitting on my hard drive since who knows when and my need for some attractive Alain Delon. Typical Visconti; long, melodramatic, theatrical, and long. Many describe it as neo-realist but the only aspect I find neorealistic in this film is the focus on a poor, migrant farming family from southern Italy, trying to make a living in the cold, aloof northern industrial city of Milan (the cinematography though is stunning--especially the touches of film noir lighting and the barren landscape of working class housing). Beyond a family's struggle to survive, Visconti takes the audience through a multi-character study of three different individuals' descending path towards the act of 'selling their soul' as a 'sacrifice,' means of surviving, or sheer lust for power and recognition. The human condition's susceptibility to jealousy and pettiness proves as dramatic approaches to consequential demise and further disintegration of a family. Perhaps touching another (neorealist) social commentary, the film addresses the change in times, in mentality, especially in regards of traditional spiritually-inspired acts of sainthood versus reality-oriented pragmatism.

It's like a bittersweet frothy milkshake of a bit Rocky, a bit of Italian diaspora, lots of family drama, and yummy bits of Alain Delon... There's nothing more I can say about Delon...the fact I had to wean out so many screencaps of Delon CUs says it all.

Trivia: One of Visconti's lovers was Helmut Berger, who played Ludwig in the really, really long film called Ludwig with Romy Schneider, Delon's ex. Berger was also in De Sica's last film, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, in which I recall him being blonde, beautiful, and anemic.

feeling like...

2011-06-16T22:33:00.000-07:00

Summer hath come?

two films at the end of my undergrad career

2011-05-14T20:44:00.000-07:00

Three months ago, I collaborated with Chinatown Community Development Center in San Francisco to make a video for them--for them to use something fun and interactive and interesting for their fundraising kick-offs or special events. I screened this on Chinatown CDC's Fundraising Kick-Off on April 28th:

Yesterday night, I screened my last short narrative, Walt Mack & Gatz, at the ATA with the rest of my 16 mm class and Motion Graphics. If I had $350, a crew of 15 people, I would have done it on 16 mm but alas, I don't have that luxury. Walt, Mack & Gatz is inspired by the ever awesome Misery Bear (which I've blogged about a month ago or two), following three little fellows unsupervised and up to no good. Enjoy!

*Both videos were filmed on Panasonic HPX.

the revisiting series: sevilla

2011-04-17T16:58:00.000-07:00

Three years back, three of my girlfriends and I went backpacking through France and Spain. One of our stops was the little town of Sevilla in southern Spain. Quaint, wonderfully saturated warm yellows and reds, contrasted against blue skies--it was undeniably a relaxing escape into an early summery, lackadaisical atmosphere.

(Note: I had a bad case of over-exposing my photos back in the day...)

Sevilla, Spain

25 May 2008 - 26 May 2008

the revisiting series: firenze

2011-04-10T21:00:00.000-07:00

As it is commonly heard among all enthusiast young student travelers, "if I had more money, I would go all over the world." Luckily endowed with the opportunity to study abroad for the first four months of 2010 and then work abroad the summer of the same year, I was by no means moseying around with pockets full of cash and wealth. But to the best of my ability and stringent budgeting, I managed to visit several places, cities, and towns that have left a lasting, memorable impression in my life.

It is now 2011 and the only place I've gone to is England to visit my lovely boyfriend, given that I'm still financially recovering from last year's adventures. So here's a visual return, a nostalgic sigh and toast, to those past visits!

Firenze, Italy

6 February 2010 - 7 February 2010

misery bear: following the unluckiest bear ever

2011-02-21T15:02:00.000-08:00

Misery Bear is the loneliest, saddest and drunkest bear in the world. Nothing ever goes his way, no-one gives him the time of day, and he’s just trying to get through his depressing life in one piece. He drinks too much, hates his job, and can’t get a girlfriend.

This is his website.

academy of science: nightlife

2011-01-25T21:26:00.000-08:00

la jetée (1962): thank you leslie

2011-01-12T23:23:00.000-08:00

A film of photograph stills, a 60s post-apocalyptic, sci-fi trek through time traveling and mind psycho-wankery, directed by Chris Maker and edited together into a remarkable montage by Jean Ravel--truly an inspiration.

bookish mood: vintage classics

2011-01-09T21:07:00.000-08:00

Simply put: I adore Vintage Classics. What is being sold on American bookshelves--I believe and witness--are an older line of production; recent but not the latest, which can be previewed on their website, linked above. But I'm positively in love with the cover designs; here are two themes:

Fyodor Dostoevsky: Minimalism

F. Scott Fitzgerald: Lackadaisical

From the Vintage Classics 2010 collection, I'm especially digging Vintage Hardy (simplistic lifestyle), Vintage Twain (carefree sketch), Vintage Vonnegut (I find that all Vonnegut covers tend to do Vonnegut justice--these are modern fun and particularly even more colourful than Dial Press Trade), and even Vintage Austen is alluring. They all range differently price-wise but on Amazon, they're about the same price as Oxford World's Classics, which are also a package of excellent cover presentation. The newest Vintage papercovers came out in 2010, Oxford in 2009, and all are sweet temptations for my wallet and a great motivator to help reach my ever-constant-goal of reaching 50 novels a year.

sense and sensibility (2008): the bbc miniseries

2011-01-03T23:41:00.000-08:00

Last night, I watched Le Clan des Siciliens (1969), directed by Henri Verneuil, with Jean Gabin, Lino Ventura, and the ever-handsome Alain Delon, and was subsequently going to follow-up with a post about the possibly worst score written by Ennio Morricone, mainly because of repetitive, obnoxious 'boings.' Legitimate boings.

But instead of whining about something I didn't enjoy, I decide to turn to the BBC production. I've only read two Austen novels: Pride and Prejudice and Emma, which was the book that pretty much stopped me from reading anymore of her work. But BBC's Sense and Sensibility has done the almost-impossible: convince me to read more Jane Austen. Not to mention, I actually like it. So far. We'll see what reactions it will yield in the next two parts.

I do feel at a disadvantage, not having read the original, since I cannot gauge if Dominic Cooper, who will never fail to come across as a creeper perv to me (haha, History Boys!), is really representing this Willoughby fellow and any possible potential sleaziness.

the king's speech (2010): american fascination with british monarchy

2010-12-25T11:24:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas! Winter break has made an unexpected, upsetting turn but I am trying my best to march onwards, head up, face determined. Today, the parentals and I decided to go watch Tom Hooper's historical drama of Queen Elizabeth II's dad, poor spazzy, temperamental king with a stuttering nature, played by the brilliant Colin Firth. Alongside are the ever-shining Helena Bonham Carter as Queen Mother and Geoffrey Rush as snarky, unprofessional yet efficient, Australian speech defect therapist, Lionel Logue. It was a nice escape into another period piece in which the weather outside matches the weather within the film on this holiday season.

blow up (1966): mom, I'm not taking hallucinogens promise

2010-12-23T20:43:00.000-08:00

Michelangelo Antonioni is popularly known for his trilogy of L'Avventura, La Notte, and L'Eclisse, all which I watched but ended up passing out on (though, I managed to keep the eyelids open for Alain Delon in L'Eclisse). Why I decided to give Blowup a try, beats me. Antonioni takes us into the beautiful but lifeless world of mod fashion and art of "Swinging London" and succeeds in truly making a period piece that detaches itself firmly within the 60s. It captures the views of blossoming preoccupation with post-modernism, existentialism and ideals of that time period very well: self-reference, loss of personal identity, emptiness of glamour, the repetition of the mundane, and the uncertainty and questioning of experience and purpose within life. Blowup can alos serve as a bigger, more abstract metaphor for Antonioni's perception of filmmaking, the whole concept of dream versus reality and seeking objective truth and if it exists or not and so on. While it was beautifully and aesthetically shot, David Hemmings as a pretentious photographer manho, a tall, young, elegant but spazzy Vanessa Redgrave, and the rest of the cast...just not my type of people at all.

le petit soldat (1963): quotable quotes

2010-12-18T17:29:00.000-08:00

Le Petit Soldat has the famous popular quote: "Photography is truth...and cinema is truth 24 times a second" but I was more taken with character Forestier's monologue post-torture scene, beginning with:

"Today, everyone hates the French. I'm very proud to be French. But I'm also against nationalism. One defends ideas, not territories. I love France because I love the films of du Bellay...and louis aragon. I love Germany because I love Beethoven. I don't love Barcelona because of Spain but I like Spain because Barcelona exists and America because I like their cars..." - Bruno Forestier

kung-fu hustle (2004): cantonese in shanghai?!

2010-12-14T19:24:00.000-08:00

Partly due to seeing the trailer and assuming the whole thing was in Cantonese and mostly due to being lazy, I watched with no subtitles. So while the movie was comprehensible 85% Cantonese, the remaining 15% mostly went through my ears, brain department processed about 20% of that and shooed off the rest. As for the film itself, why would a Chinese director set his story in Shanghai but write most of his characters as speakers of Cantonese and those few who were Mandarin speakers, fluidly engage in conversation with each other?! As anyone who has been in mainland China knows, no one north of Guangzhou understands Cantonese and most of the general Chinese population pretty much perceives it as no more than a dialect.

But I digress, language hi-jinks aside: it was all in good, martial-arty, screaming your guts out fun. I enjoyed how no one in this movie was a particularly sympathetic character and were all flawed to an extent of almost-obnoxiousness.

My favourite shot in the whole movie; I just love the not-really-but-sort-of-parallelism in background and foreground.

Dessert Soups 101: After Dark "Sugar" (12/2, Exploratorium)

2010-12-12T22:14:00.000-08:00

'Snow Fungus and Papaya Dessert' (L)

'Sweet Potato Dessert' (R)

Two weeks ago, I added my own contribution to the Exploratorium's monthly After Dark event. December showcased sugar and after much misery and failure on my part and lots of help from the museum staff, I managed to finally put up my installation of a dual film presentation on two monitors. On the left was the Snow Fungus and Papaya and on the right, Sweet Potato. Each dessert parallels each other and through film that was edited to the millisecond, I wished to portray mirror images of sugar within these soups.

First public artwork, the whole event wiped me out, but it was a good feeling when things finally started rolling!

"Go Away" Live Performance (2010): must be great to land this gig

2010-11-27T22:06:00.000-08:00

2NE1 - Go Away, Live on SBS Popular Music, 9/12/2010

I couldn't give a rat's end tail about this song (yeah I know, artistic merit at zero) and whether or not it is a celebration of the triumph of the free female over the oppressive male or just about having a whole lot of head-banging fun. Because this is what the live performance of this song says to me exactly: a giant part rave on stage. It must be grand to be a back up dancer on this gig: basically being part of an awesome choreography of slow-mo and jumping up and down like a little kid. Not to mention, the whole effect altogether looks pretty awesome!

sometimes when one is feeling extinct from the daily pressures of life...

2010-11-12T21:45:00.000-08:00

Participate in photography therapy.

(Cross-posted from my livejournal. Pictures taken at Wave Organ, Marina/Cow Hollow, San Francisco.)

OK Go's 'Last Leaf' [MV] by Geoff McFetridge

2010-11-09T17:36:00.000-08:00

When I saw this video on Kitsune Noir, the first thought that came to my head bounced back to the theme of my experimental cinema course: the exploration of film and landscape. For OK Go, director Geoff McFetridge explores moving images on hundreds of toasts to create an amazing stop-motion video. I love the fact that he utilized bread as a canvas for moving images as well as replacing the eye of the camera to the pieces of bread instead.

WHO ARE THE WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS?

2010-11-02T00:09:00.003-07:00

PHENOMENAL

"Comforting Sounds" (2003): To the Outer Realm

2010-10-29T15:48:00.000-07:00

When I first sat down to listen to Danish band, Mew's, "Comforting Sounds" (as recommended by the brilliant brilliantinemortality!), I was situated at a 27 inch IMac with huge Sony headphones plastered to my head at my university's ever-so providing media labs before class. It was one of the best musical experiences I have had for a while, ever since rediscovering the famed Ziggy Stardust album of our ever sparkly companion, David Bowie.

The last track, as helpfully described to be a 'magnum opus', of Frengers follows a similar structure as Death Cab's "Transatlanticism" but in an even further ethereal motion and emotive expanse. Its deceiving simplicity takes one from physical and corporeal, sending the mind to the fringes of another reality, otherworldly universe of dreams and the intangible. There is something about this track that for me, automatically connects to the image of laying in sprawling meadows under a deep, deep midnight blue sky with stars that never seem to fade. In regards to orchestration, the accompaniment of its slow, swelling contrast to the drums and guitars but still making a delightful duet with the vocals of Jonas Bjerre, occupies an intriguing space within the song; it plays with the psychological and affects the interior in such a way that you just don't want the last few minutes to ever end. To me, there is something eerily beautiful about it all; creepy dolls and animals in the background and all.

Mew performing "Comforting Sounds" live in Copenhagen, 2005:

this week: a wrap up

2010-10-23T23:19:00.000-07:00

Top to bottom: A free food/drink event sponsored by Yelp at Plant Warehouse in Noe Valley (thanks Teresa for inviting me!), Posey and Beardo hugging out a victory, Tuxedo-chocolate-covered strawberries at Cary Lane's 2nd Anniversary Party, Giants for World Series!!!

REDLINE (2010): SONIC BOOOOOM

2010-10-15T09:37:00.000-07:00

"This is hella bamf shit!!!" pretty much sums up the entirety of this AMAZING SPECTACLE OF VISUAL EYE-WONDER OF EPIC PROPORTIONS. And it's pretty much impossible to NOT write about this film without utilizing PERMANENT CAPS-LOCK KEY, abusing the shift + 1 key over and over, and lack of grammatical structure!!! REDLINE takes SPACE RACING to an entirely different DIMENSION of speed and utter anarchy! We're in some alternative universe, filled with creatures and mechanisms that would put the fastest bullet trains today to shame. These machines are made of fucking biceps, triceps, quadraceps and any muscle that could be possibly mechanized and turned into the toughest type of metallic metal enforcement EVER! They're not cars; they're not space jets; they're FIERCE BEASTS, armed with missiles and gadgets all ready to assist in a dirty win, guns that would make Saddam Hussein weep, engines that apparently go up to 35,000 horsepower and throttle your brains to a sobbing, dripping mess.....you might want to invest in some gas-protection-thick goggles to save your eyeballs and tearducts. Then there's the exterior ~~terrorist dictatorship~~ universe of Roboworld: biological weapon called FUNKY BOY, which is on another platform of obtuse militarism, and hyper-disengaging cannons (or something close to that), akin to atom bombs enhanced with intense laser guns to the 1000th power. Did I mention steroidal chemical substances that don't even exist but could probably just wipe out the face of our planet this day? Yeah, don't think the universe today can handle this much power. It was THE RIDE OF MY LIFE; possibly my favourite film of 2010 so far. EXPLOSIVE.

(FYI: Katsuhito Ishii (Kill Bill Vol.1) and Takeshi Koike (Animatrix) hand-animated this over the span of five years. You can find the summarization here to read about possible mentions of a plot.)

Too many caps? NEVER. But it's a way better justice to VIEW THE TRAILER HERE, a 1 minute glimpse into the 100 MINUTE EPIC FIREWORKS SHOW that is REDLINE.

le mépris (1963): nothing to do with odysseus...or does it?

2010-10-06T23:32:00.000-07:00

Starring Brigitte Bardot, Jean Gabin, and Fritz Lang himself. What can I say, it was a little bit on the painful side, with obligatory annoying American producer in the way of "art", repetition of the same soundtrack clip every few minutes or so, Bardot's character being idiotic... But as usual, Godard doesn't fail to deliver; that Kodak chrome colour film really makes everything pop (which is probably why every scene, minus an interlude and a scene, was shot in daytime/sunlight).

The return to Godard-watching has resumed.

Betty Draper, meet Don Revie, your twin counterpart in real life

2010-09-24T09:34:00.001-07:00

Starting in 2008, I've been keeping track of all the movies and books (sometimes television) that I watch/read in a year. And as of yet, 2010 has been the most representative of turtle-pace consumption of television/movies but the highest in literature reading. Anyhow, the case is that I haven't been watching many films because I find myself pretty much narcoleptic even more so nowadays compared to the time I could sit through the entirety of Gone with the Wind or Il Gatttopardo without going through a series of unconscious head bobs. Instead, I am back to the cycle of television series catching--and this time, in the form of Mad Men.

I love watching it, seeing references, reading on Slate/Guardian's commentaries, and then moving on with life because God knows how much time I actually have when I'm not conking/conked out. But I think my utter favourite pop cross-cultural reference to this date is the nifty article written by Christopher Mann called

"THE MUTUAL SUFFERENCE OF DON REVIE AND BETTY DRAPER"

I am not so keen though, on the physical attraction of Betty Draper in correlation to Don Revie's blotchy, skin-sagging, once-had-a-structure, face; it frankly makes me snort in response.

Mad Men meets football manager? What is this supposed crazy spewing of rhetoric, analytically thought out and sitting on the borderline of acceptance on my part? For those who don't know Don Revie, perhaps you've watched The Damned United. And if you haven't watched The Damned United, then in short, Revie is the infamous manager of Leeds United during the 60s and 70s, who, through argued-contradictory/hypocritical play, brought the team to top standing in the league, only to be brought down by his rival (probably because of his argued-contradictory/hypocritical mangement), Brian Clough. And Betty, is the psychologically-afflicted trophy wife of once-Draper and now-Francis, and still engaging in a furious love/hate debacle with her former husband.

Appearances aside, Mann comes to the conclusion that both of these personalities strive to appear and be more sophisticated than others when they are sadly deluded as they fall victim to the same cycle of moral corruption of those who they despise and criticize. (On the other hand, the analogy of Betty Draper-now-Francis/Don Draper antagonism and Don Revie/Brian Clough antagonism insinuates a sort of jealous homoerotic relationship between the latter group, which is half-disturbing and half-comical.) What also helps in concreting the comparison of unlikelihood is the fact that Don Revie's career pretty much teeters on the same time period of Betty's fictional existence. Brilliance right?

goodbye chinatimes

2010-09-11T14:04:00.000-07:00

Goodbye New Oriental Cool Camp. You were very far from cool. You were also a hot mess. To escape your hot messiness, we merely escalated towards more hot messes which tended to turn into shit shows. It was kind of like a hell froze over for 6 weeks type of an experience. But I loved you nonetheless. For those very failtimes that allowed all of us to share, bond, learn, and grow as a collective and as individuals.

Goodbye Chinese kids. You were an amazing bunch and I am honoured to have met all of you and interact with you all. Some of you had insane names (Gentleman Fan Fan, Freedom, Circle, Killer, Mango, Panda…I will NEVER forget you guys). Some of you were a little too eager to befriend us. But I love you all. And I miss you guys. Keep learning, keep fighting. Maybe one day, we’ll see each other again.

Goodbye fellow foreign teachers and Chinese TAs. You were also an amazing bunch of people. And we became friends through our shared crazy failtimes. I miss you guys. We bonded over the strangest things and as a result, we have inside jokes that no one in the entire world will ever understand except for the bunch of us. Some of you were big characters; that’s okay; it just makes my storytelling that much more awesome. :P

Goodbye China. You were extreme. Extremely hot, extremely chaotic, extremely unorganized, extremely intense, extremely crazy. You never really made sense but at the end of the day, we found ourselves laughing at all the shenanigans and the next morning, alive and mosquito bitten to an entirely new level.

wordpress

2010-07-04T19:54:00.001-07:00

THIS IS MY CHINA BLOG.

My updates will be there. It's actually under my job requirement to blog as much as possible and take as much pictures as possible (as well as video-taping as much as possible). I am nerve-racked, emotionally a little under the weather, a bit unprepared but looking forward to more adventures and challenges in life. Catch ya'll there.

I'm not even German

2010-07-03T09:54:00.000-07:00

But the sad part is I'm going to miss the semifinals because I'm pretty sure I'm not going to run into a bar by myself in Hong Kong at 2 in the morning. That's protocol for giving my aunts myocardial infarctions. Though I can insist. I think I know how to say World Cup in Cantonese. (For some reason, I don't know how to say football in Cantonese but got no problems in Mandarin. I predict epidemic fail for the next 6-7 weeks of my life. It doesn't help that I'm listening to BSB.)

thirty days of sharing: I skip and cheat all the way to the end

2010-06-21T21:16:00.000-07:00

30. whatever tickles your fancy

First off, here were the following four after 'describe your day in detail':

day 26 → your week, in great detail
day 27 → this month, in great detail
day 28 → this year, in great detail
day 29 → hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days

ARE YOU FOR SERIOUS? I could not even write substantially for a day; can you imagine the horror a week/month would be and the complete failtasm FAIL a year would be? And I am not particularly in the mood to be expressing my hopes, dreams, and plans at this moment, particularly the idea of keyboard smashing it on blogspot is not exactly appealing, so I'm just going to let it fly by the radar.

But I will leave you all with this from Dirty Tackle, which never fails to make me guffaw to myself in the office; talk about unprofessional work etiquette! *Guffaws*

"The people who make Legos decided to get in on the World Cup spirit by recreating the goals scored in certain matches - in this case, Saturday's 1-1 draw between England and the U.S. - with their product. There really isn't too much you can say about this delightful bit of nonsense.

I do like how they interpret every person involved in the match as being so happy, even though almost all of them have the same exact hairstyle (Lego Heskey may want to get that gaping hole on top of his head looked at). I'm also not sure why they have the goalkeepers wearing caps - must be some form of Lego revisionist history. But Lego Clint Dempsey's ball control is just as amazing as real Clint Dempsey's. And I would definitely pay good money to see Lego Clint rap."

- Brooke Pecks

So that's it guys, no more of this ridiculous sharing meme. Does this mean I will disappear completely, leaving behind a follow-me trail to my wordpress, which is intended for China purposes? No, not really. I might finally find the guts to post that argh-I-got-a-cute-tumor-in-me-brains curtain fic without falling off my chair and rolling into the side of my bed.

thirty days of sharing: day twenty-five

2010-06-17T19:16:00.000-07:00

25. your day, in great detail

Ooo, these are tough. Well, today was the long, delayed Mackenzie and Rebecca date. The car has been all sorts of suicidal and pulled one on me by excreting green liquid at the gas pump last week. But it has been fixed! And I drove into the city, found myself tackling parallel parking on a hill in the Castro district...and the girls hit lunch at Firewood where we got giant salads, which we took ...something ridiculous long to consume.

Mainly because there were a many things to catch up on. I can't discuss this part in detail because well, hello there, public blog. But it's nice to have a lengthy conversation between girls, catching up personally and everything.

After a few hours in the city, in order to have a head-start over transbay traffic, which is awful, I zoomed back but unfortunately met up with some car-jam up before the bridge. Chilling here with some Jamaican Ginger Beer, listening to some Ella Fitzgerald....the weather has been glorious....mmm, I think I can use a nap.

thirty days of sharing: day twenty-four

2010-06-16T10:53:00.000-07:00

24. whatever tickles your fancy

I keep blogging about cupcakes but look at these marvelous little treats! WORLD CUP CUPCAKES! I want to order a whole complete batch for the final...that's how much I want them.

thirty days of sharing: day twenty-three

2010-06-15T10:32:00.000-07:00

23. a YouTube video

The only thing I can say that will justify this is: I'm just in the mood.

thirty days of sharing: day twenty-two

2010-06-14T11:04:00.000-07:00

22. a website

Orisinal Games

Want to procrastinate and binge on uber-cuteness at the same time? Orisinal is the place to be (though for the longest time, I thought it was 'Original Games'). Adorable graphics, accompanied by equally adorable game soundtrack, these mini games are sure to distract you from a night's worth of productivity. Don't click on the link unless you really have nothing to do...or if you're really that keen to not do anything for a few hours. :)

This has nothing to do with anything but Jon's birthday package arrived this past weekend on one of the hottest days of the month. My room has been invaded and swamped by the cologne of Jon. Earl Grey did well for a while but now it has been knocked down. I also think I might be allergic to indecently copious amounts of this stuff, hence, the all sorts of wonky my eyes have been yesterday and this morning.

thirty days of sharing: day twenty-one

2010-06-13T13:57:00.000-07:00

21. a recipe

Design*Sponge's Behind the Bar: Chelsea + Tec Petaja's "magic juice"

Does this count? Or does this just make me seem like a compulsive alcoholic? I've made half magic juice so still awaiting the opportunity to make full magic juice hee.

thirty days of sharing: day twenty

2010-06-12T10:12:00.000-07:00

20. a hobbie of yours

Hans van der Meer photography

To go along with the WC spirit (hurgh), been a football spectator for a very long time, well, not as long as my father but for a considerable length of time (at least longer than me and baseball). Despite what goes along with football, hooligan violence, business corruption, money-runs-the-game-conspiracies, knuckled-headed moronic footballers with the bod and no brains, it's still a game I enjoy a lot. And sometimes, at the end of 90+ minutes, you think to yourself, wow, what a game.

thirty days of sharing: day nineteen

2010-06-11T12:45:00.000-07:00

19. a talent of yours

*Laughs nervously* Why do they always ask this question?

Been playing since I was five and it's been a long ride. Paused when college hit but still pick it up from time to time. It's a joy to play, despite everything.

thirty days of sharing: day eighteen

2010-06-10T12:55:00.000-07:00

18. whatever tickles your fancy

I don't even like cupcakes that much but the fact that these are freaking MUPPET CUPCAKES is sheer incredibleness, all highly condensed into a form of diabetes-inducing sugary goodness. How can you say no?

thirty days of sharing: day seventeen

2010-06-09T19:29:00.000-07:00

17. an art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)

Pieter Brueghel the Elder - Peasant Wedding (1568), Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

The great thing about the KHM is that most of the paintings they collected of artists tend to be showcased in the same gallery room. Another great thing is the availability of supremely comfortable couches to sit down and then gaze at the works of art right in front of you on the walls.

Absolutely loved the Brueghel room(s).

thirty days of sharing: day sixteen

2010-06-08T10:15:00.001-07:00

16. a song that makes you cry (or nearly)

"Nessun Dorma" from Puccini's Turandot, sung by Luciano Pavarotti

I've listened to Nessun Dorma countless times, ever since I was seven on a road trip with my parents up to Vancouver to the time I went to Opera in the Park the year Pavarotti died just days before and teared up none so elegantly when they broadcast this song across the field. Every time, this very performance makes me goosebump over; Zubin Mehta orchestrating the Orchestra from the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma (which I have the great honour of listening to twice this past year), accompany Pavarotti's truly unique tenor tones. There's never a time when I'm listening to this recording and not wish I was there to see him perform this. The video above cuts out at the end but you can still here the audience clap before he ends and then erupt after the music ends....it's really quite something.

thirty days of sharing: day fifteen

2010-06-07T10:36:00.000-07:00

15. a fanfic

Oh man, why am I so excited for this one? Maybe it's because I have TWO that I want to just gush over, ridiculously and possibly without any reason except for its utter sweetness. But I will be good and choose one. If you're curious about my runner-up, leave a comment and I'll link you.

Theories about Nuclear Winter (Calvin and Hobbes)
Summary wraps it up as "When Calvin finally sorts out his feelings for Susie his timing is not great," which is more or less the understatement of it all. Our childhood comic figures are now teenagers in high school, Calvin's smart but academically unmotivated, Susie's a book nerd, sharp yet sensitive at the same time, and Hobbes is still there in the background, an ever-comfortable, familiar presence. It's a beautiful story, a really sweet interpretation of Calvin and Susie as they are now older, attempting to grab at the loose wiry strands of their prescient teenage emotional tumult; why is that, years ago as snot-picking kids, they couldn't stand each others' guts but now, they pretend to ignore each other based on some ridiculous silent insecurity...

As a child who bought Calvin and Hobbes comics in excess, this was almost a ten years later sort of scenario for an older me. The first time I read it, I found it incredibly cute, because truly it is. The second time I read it was just a week (or two?) after I came back from England/Rome, after Jon and I decided to be together. While I did not think I could possibly love the story any more, the inevitable happened: I did. Every little heart-felt sentiment Calvin felt reverberated in me as a reflection of Jon and let me tell you, this line that encapsulates everything:

"And that's why he loves her, she just knows."

...It's something incredible that some amazing writer out there knows what it feels like. Shmoop, shmoop, shmoop; I didn't mean to turn this into a freaking emotion-dripping exposition on me (not a teenager anymore though) but it has a personal touch. This story kind of affects me, whilst to say I do act against my inner sentimentality a lot. :)

thirty days of sharing: day fourteen

2010-06-06T13:45:00.001-07:00

14. a non-fictional book
Two years ago, I took a course on Religious Ethics: Gender and Sexuality Studies at uni and one of the required readings was Leila Ahmed's Women and Gender in Islam. What it provides is not only an insight into an often stereotyped and misunderstood religion but also a historical account of the woman experience in both a feminist and Islamic perspective. Usually with certain academic texts, the writing may tend to be sucked dry and imitate a bulldozed construction site with wrecking balls of information making mad swings towards your head ("ABSORB ME"). But Ahmed's book is written in a lucid style, story-esque accounts of past leading up to present interwoven with intellectual analysis. It's much more of an easy read that some might presume and I thoroughly enjoyed it; very enlightening.

thirty days of sharing: day thirteen

2010-06-05T10:27:00.000-07:00

13. a fictional book
Day thirteen only?! I feel like I've been doing this for a way longer time. Nevertheless, I have been looking at rereading the above-mentioned novel yesterday when I realized that perhaps, my Stephen Fry books might have finally arrived in the mail! And they did! But that doesn't stop me from entertaining the thought of reading The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay again.

Joe Kavalier, trained in the arts of Houdini, smuggles himself to New York City from Nazi-infested Prague and joins up with his cousin Sammy Clay in being co-heads of their own comic book of superheroes. The plot is magnificent, romance not overtly sentimental but still expands on emotional depth, and its tale is truly as exciting as a romp through one's own imagination of living in a universe of heroes, endowed with superpowers. This book concreted my feelings towards Chabon's work and it really is quite a fascinating piece of work.

" 'To me, Clark Kent in a phone booth and Houdini in a packing crate, they were one and the same thing...you weren't the same person when you came out as when you went in. Houdini's first magic act, you know, back when he was just getting started. It was called «Metamorphosis.» It was never just a question of escape. It was also a question of transformation.' " (3)

- Sammy Clay, learnedly expounding at WonderCon or Angoulême or to the editor of The Comics Journal

thirty days of sharing: day twelve

2010-06-04T11:01:00.000-07:00

12. whatever tickles your fancy

Conan O'Brien, Stephen Colbert, and Jon Stewart in an EPIC DANCE OFF on the Conan Legally Prohibited Tour in New York City, 1 May 2010. Here's an alternate link.

thirty days of sharing: day eleven

2010-06-03T23:27:00.000-07:00

11. a photo of you taken recently

Taken by Teresa over at First Impressions in Oxford over the Thames River

thirty days of sharing: day ten

2010-06-02T19:05:00.000-07:00

10. a photo of you taken over ten years ago

thirty days of sharing: day nine

2010-06-01T17:36:00.001-07:00

09. a photo you took

Vernazza, Cinqueterre. (Liguria, Italia)
What a magical place.

thirty days of sharing: day eight

2010-05-31T11:09:00.000-07:00

08. a photo that makes you sad

It doesn't exactly make me as sad as it makes me go nostalgic. 2005, huh? How time has flown pass. And the knowledge that you once were the underdog, able to surpass difficulties and challenges of any football club, to find yourself champion at the end--it's bittersweet.

thirty days of sharing: day seven

2010-05-30T10:44:00.000-07:00

07. a photo that makes you happy

There's just so many things in this picture that makes it win shining aces and stars across the galaxy.

thirty days of sharing: day six

2010-05-29T20:06:00.000-07:00

06. whatever tickles your fancy

I miss you, sushi. It's been a while.

thirty days of sharing: day five

2010-05-28T11:04:00.000-07:00

05. your favourite quote

"Humans had gone well beyond the red hourglass and the simplicity of natural informative markings. They had evolved, complicated life, refined it, and lost touch. They had tried to push back the basics, the cruelty and poison, the seeds and urges, the nurture and beauty. The potential to love and kill, having loved and killed, the ned to rut, could not be an initial introduction any more, set on a shoulder like a swarthy badge of life. Yet some would have it that way still, they would have the ordinary speech of identity, the colours of their landscape, that which they had in common with the rest of the human beings of the world..."

- Electric Michelangelo, Sarah Hall

Again, not my favourite, but that Sarah Hall, she writes beautifully embellished prose.

thirty days of sharing: day four

2010-05-27T20:32:00.000-07:00

04. your favourite book

Just like movies, songs, or television series, picking a favourite book is not like a walk in the park or anything. Close to two years ago, I read Name of The Rose in pretty much a week or so and loved it. Loved everything about it. Since then, I've read a lot more books; some have joined the list, some haven't. Also, two years ago, I wrote this, which is probably the closest to a summary I can offer (besides the lack of mention regarding semiotics):

It's 1327 and an abbey is convicted of heresy and Brother William from somewhere England comes down to investigate a rising number of murders. On the surface, the story is a detective mission but turning each page leads to more, like the disintegration of the monastery, in which catholic universities and schools are on the rise, translating and acquiring new and old texts alike faster than the traditional abbeys with their almost mythical-like libraries and mazes. Not only that, Eco brings up issues like the fine line separating religious zealousness and religious madness, which so many spiritual figures have coined as "heretical." There are many cults and sects of the Catholic religion that Eco exposes and to the main papal authority, they are all the same, they are all heretics. But that's the thing, they're not all the same, and they may be heretical, convicted on the case that they are probably, more "zealous," more intense, more feverishly inspired by an idea that could shake the very foundation of mankind's laws of humanity and social order.

...on the topic of knowledge, Eco introduces a new face to lust, besides carnal bodily lust: the lust for knowledge, which is almost as frightening as the lust for power and ambition because it is equally dangerous and even, perhaps so, yielding any sort of knowledge for personal desire.

So there's a lot; and it sounds like really heavy material to actually read and absorb but trust me, it's in no way archaic or overtly pretentious...the writing is superb, or at least the English translation is as lucid and sublime as you can get.

thirty days of sharing: day three

2010-05-26T18:01:00.000-07:00

03. your favourite television program

A syntagmatic analysis, in which what Berger calls, an examining of “a sequence of events that forms some kind of narrative,” can be applied to the televisual universe of The Wire. By looking at each season, which revolves around a certain theme (drug trade, port, city government and bureaucracy, education, and the print media), we can also examine how each event/scene in each episode builds up not only one relative problem, but also parallel such problems. In season four, the drug trade prevails as a dominating force in the inner-city kids’ lives, which is one of the reasons (on top of lack of city funding) why some of the schools undergo so many disciplinary problems. Each character, no matter how separate they are in which institution they belong to, are somehow interconnected to each other, whether they are aware of it or not, due to events within the frame of the story. In season two, nephew to Frank Sobotka, Nick, and his girlfriend visit the house, Jimmy McNulty’s divorced wife, a realtor, is selling. Neither of them knows each other but Nick Sobotka, his uncle, and his fellow port workers are currently under high scrutiny of the crime force McNulty works on.

All the events in each season purposefully build up to reveal how the urban poor deal with the conditions in their neighborhood, how the police, in turn, deal with matters that complicate on different psychological and sociological levels, and how Baltimore’s problems do not stem from one cause but a messy web of many inner-city issues. Each season’s story becomes a complex commentary because of the many themes the show tackles. The finale to each season usually ties up the major case but often times, there are many loose strands still left behind, which adds to the complexities that comprises the multi-layered story of The Wire.

thirty days of sharing: day two

2010-05-25T17:47:00.000-07:00

02. your favourite movie

It was a throw up between this, Chungking Express (1994) by Wong Kar-Wai, starring my favourite Tony Leung and The Legend of 1900 (1998) by Giuseppe Tornatore, starring my favourite Tim Roth (soundtrack by the brilliant Ennio Morricone). Le Samourai won, based on the fact that it is the film I refer to as one of my favorites the most. Alain Delon, Jean-Pierre Melville, perfectionist hit-man, minimalist setting and theme dating back to hints of Japanese samourai traditions, I dig it all.

Wiki | IMDB

thirty days of sharing: day one

2010-05-24T23:01:00.000-07:00

01. your favourite song

The Murmaids - Popsicles and Icicles
I had to change my favourite song.

Lizst's Piano Sonata in B Minor moves me to tears; Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No.2 leaves me in an incomparably nostalgic mood; and Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D Minor encapsulates an epic-ness that can only be associated to the grandness of Russia. But The Murmaids' Popsicles and Icicles holds a place special in my heart. I first heard it on Kitsune Noir's Swedish Fish mixtape and initially, there was nothing going for the song except for a lovely, summer-esque tune that floated lightly out from my speakers. A few months ago, while listening to the entirety of it all, I decided to send it to Jon, based off the fact that at that particular time, I really liked the wholesome feel of it all.

Then recently, while talking to Jon, I re-listened to it and started paying particular attention to Popsicles and Icicles. He informed me that another track on Swedish Fish (Aphex Twin, 'Avril 14') held unspeakable importance to him; so much in fact that he can't just listen to it regularly because of several reasons. I smiled to myself and said to him, well, Popsicles and Icicles has just took on another meaning for me; sentimental yes but nevertheless, quaintly special. At that moment, Swedish Fish became our mix.

I'm going to try to do thirty days of sharing but when it's asked of your favorite _______, it's going to be pretty failtastic most of the time.

2010-05-24T21:37:00.000-07:00

(Picture from jonasapproved.com)

Kat took me to Specialty Bakery and Cafe for some dense, thick cookies today downtown near Montgomery and while I didn't have snicker-doodle (shown above), the oatmeal raisin was richly condensed and utterly delicious. Nothing like a carefree afternoon spent in the city with one of your collegiate buddies, eating and drinking tea lattes while getting your macbook frame replaced for free because three years ago, you decided to purchase a lengthy protection plan. Thumbs up self.

a blank slate you say?

2010-05-23T21:24:00.000-07:00

Yeah, it's kind of empty except for Eugene Sledge occupying the bottom part and a newly prettified sidebar.

For the longest time (meaning since its birth), I have not an idea of what I should fill this space up with: travels? blank thoughts on academia? "cultural arts"? random things I find intriguing/hilarious? nonsensical crap? Can't even say that the most remote sense of sentimentality won't sneak its disruptive way into here. Deleted it but I originally posted a sickeningly sweet photo of my 15-year-old Spot plushie cuddling with Jon's handkerchief, celebrating its 25th birthday this 2010. (The horrifyingly crazy thing: Jon has the exact same Spot; I shouldn't even be surprised now but I am.) Sickeningly is the keyword still.

I shrug at the prospect of anything that will be produced here but this shrug of a shoulder is going to last for a pretty damn long time.

"you can't get rid of me that easily"

2010-05-22T20:54:00.000-07:00

It's a new start with Eugene Sledge chilling in the golden-lit meadows of sunshine.