Fashion Photography

Brief from NotCot.org
" An amazing editorial by brilliant photographer Steven Klein for Vogue Italia 'Future Couture' with Guinness heiress Daphne Guiness. It's pure art. "

Ditto.

Read it at The Arab Aquarius blog.

The pay day

Since I don't have a telly, my only access to Olympics updates is, the usual way, HD cap files that I only will only finish collecting 2 days after Olympics Closing ceremony.

Then, just like all others that are fascinated by Gymnastics since young, a gymnast by the name of Nastia Liukin caught my attention. So, naturally, I went on a google and wiki about this athlete. Interesting enough, I have landed this search result that kept me wondering about sports management. You do make a big buck out of it, if you've good talents and marketing strategy. See, you don't have to be great!

Read this. The Pay Day, an interesting article about Nastia Liukin's sports agent.

Olympics

This is what you have missed from Olympics.
And now I know what the 400mm lens is all about!
It's ok if you do not understand German. I don't, as well.

View the best moments of Olympics from Stern.de

10 great years.

Yasmin's work. This got me laughing for a long while.

Big Buck Bunny

Big Buck Bunny from Blender Foundation on Vimeo.

I forgot where did I get this. But, I just recall it's an open source animation.
Drop me a note if you know.

Take the unbeaten path to a cemetry today. No joking.

On my way back from Sugardough Panificio e Patisserie, G asked me to drop by Melbourne General Cemetery which she claimed to be...I can't recall how she recommended the place. But, with my courage as immense as roaring lions, I just jumped off the tram at the tram stop across the road and then off visiting my long lost friends.

The cemetery was separated into sections based on religion streams. There was also a separate section for child's cemetery, which was quite upsetting. Somehow, when you actually stepped on the vicinity, the serenity just calmed you down and you just blended into the silence of the place. I believe that's the major difference from the creepy Chinese cemetery that I see for myself or from movies. Death should be a relief from vanity and materialism, however, in certain religion or culture, the living will be conceptualized to have fear and respect for the dead so that the dead will bring them good and no harm.

Anyway, it's been a interesting experience, especially a text message came in from a friend abroad as below:
" HEY YOU, R U ALIVE? How is Aus?........"

Right. I was so alive but everything just felt surreal that I just left the place not long after a couple of young lovers came out from no where.

Anyway, I did not bump into Sir Redmond Barry, the Acting Chief Justice who sentenced Ned Kelly to hang; or famous Australian explorers, Burke & Wills. Everything was great, and you should drop by the place some time.

Here's how you can go there:

Firefox 3

I shall not exaggerate by calling today a day of change to internet usage pattern. But, somehow, there will be a significant change to how we perceive internet browsers. Yes, it's Download Firefox Day and I've done just that. Deeply believe that web browsing trend should be driven by users themselves, this new release just thrilled me.

From end user's perspective, I noticed a few changes after using it for an hour. I have yet to test it on the sites that are only-IE-friendly. I hope Firefox 3 will tackle the flaw that boycotts non-IE browser.

What I like:

1. Smoother flow in page switch. This could be the result of memory usage improvement that's been a key feature in this release.

2. Revamped bookmark feature - New way of tagging a page for bookmark, auto-complete of address field according to page name or website address, as how you bookmark the site, etc.

Then, I googled "Amazing Firefox" and stumbled upon the post by Mozilla's Software Engineer, codenamed Pavlov. Please give Pavlov's write-up a read. The post is about the improvement made on Firefox 3 Memory Usage. It's a geek-friendly post involving a lot of technical jargon. Since it was posted in March 08, it sure did give me a clearer perspective on the key improvements to be expected that I might not notice.

In all, I'm happily using my Firefox 3. Are you? Regardless the fact of you helping them make it to Guinness Record or not, get your Firefox 3 today.

Summer Bloesem!

As I was browsing through Cookie's house tour feature section, I saw a feature on a house located in Kuala Lumpur. The interior is warm and bright, just perfect to raise a kid. And also, Irene's a Dutch, somehow it just clicks with my love for Dutch design although this and that are so not related. But, whatever.

Anyway, Irene also hosts a blog which content I resonate very much with. Don't miss it. Have a look!

Sebastian's Voodoo

I'm supposed to post my pictures from Australia but I ended up discovering stuffs much more worthy of my space here. I didn't even finish my Cambodia/Vietnam travelogue. So, we'll see. ( AGAIN?? Yes. )

Another discovery from BoingBoingTV.

In today's episode, Boing Boing tv presents an animated short by Joaquin Baldwin, a UCLA grad student working towards his MFA in animation. Joaquin has recieved numerous awards for his work, including Best Animated Short at the Sedona International Film Festival and has been featured on the front pages of Youtube, Crackle.com, and Dailymotion.com.

In this piece, entitled "Sebastian's Voodoo," a voodoo doll must find the courage to save his fellows from being pinned to death. For more on Joaquin and information on festival screenings, you can check out http://www.pixelnitrate.com/

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Go gringo!

Gringo, as I looked in dictionary, means foreign language. You know me, always have a <3 for foreign languages. Also, I believe that, to learn a language well, you should learn from the basics and the most commonly used phrases, which will be dirty words. So, it seems that Sao Paolo design agency Gringo also agrees with me, and puts together this website that allows you to learn dirty words in every foreign languages as contributed by users. Each word will come along with a video where you can see how the native gives the 100% punch to the word!

As a start


Record your own



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Crazy Sexy Beautiful

“ ...I refused to be saddled with the isolating stigma associated with cancer. Just because it had changed my life forever, didn't mean that I had changed...
-Kris Carr ”


Having felt the start of dry season for tv series, I have seek alternatives in movie sources as usual. One day, I bumped into RLSLOG's post regarding VoMiT's release. It's about fighting cancer that turned out to be crazy and sexy, as the title "Crazy Sexy Cancer" says. That is quite true as how the main character presented it.

On Valentines Day in 2003, Kris Carr was diagnosed with a rare cancer which was in critical last stage with signs of deterioration. What lied ahead was knowledge of a time bomb being paused but with the possibility of being resumed into ticking in time. Weeks later, she began filming her journey seeking of cure, in medicine, homeopathy and inner peace. In this true-story-turned-documentary, Kris shares her wild and inspirational journey with exuberance and humor.

This documentary is about strength and growth in life, love and friendship, courage and wisdom. I love the editing of the story that really made me wonder how Kris could have faced this hardship alone, and then slowly, other characters such as family, friends and lover were introduced. Now, Kris has founded My Crazy Sexy Life!, a social networking site for the supporters of holistic medicine; Crazy Sexy Blog! that keeps those that concern updated. It's all about WEB 2.0!

In all, she had all my respect and admiration when she just laughed off certain difficult moments and decisions facing death. This is the spirit.

And that is what I do facing inflation. Go NGV!

The Girl Effect

"Girl Power" - one term that arose when female intruded the male dominance in many countries decades ago. What stay estranged is this phrase that is nonexistent in developing countries where female rights are still struggling.

Regardless, adolescent females in developing countries should be entitled to this term, be allowed to earn it by being offered opportunity to battle for the inequality of socio-treatment and economical benefits. They should have the opportunity to make a change not only their families, but also their communities and countries. Before they can change their surrounding, the world needs to give itself a change. As a start, the Nike Foundation and the NoVo Foundation have donated $100 million and collaborated with Norfolk based Grow Interactive and Portland ad agency Wieden + Kennedy to drive this cause for the world to recognize The Girl Effect. With that, we hope social issues such as poverty, disease, early marriage, and pregnancy will see a sign of reduction, so that the girls can unleash their power and lead their communities and nations towards change.

I enjoy watching the clip. I hope you do, and at the end of it, something inside of you is itching and screaming to make a difference, how minimal it may be.

Peace out.

d-e-f-i-n-i-t-e-l-y

I've noticed that even native speakers can get spellings for simple words wrong. So, someone smart turned it into a source of creativity.

Definitely, you will want to print the page out if you are not sure of the spelling.

Idea

Some friends have been giving me thoughts to start a travel blog. I wonder if my perseverance and endurance will sustain the completion of the story on whole journey.
What do you think?

Till then.

Signing off,
Melbourne.

Through the light

Through the light
I see hope

I am all ready to leap





Taken at unknown empty carpark in KL | 2008

Not just a university calendar

Amusing design by Jörg Block. I wish I can see such innovation being accepted by our local education arena soon. Well, you know, this takes time, very long time to happen.

Excerpt From Adobe Design Achievement Awards:

The illustrations were created for the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences research calendar. Each month illustrates a different project to demonstrate the variety of the university’s research activities for the general public. I used striking, funny, or droll images to inspire spontaneous interest in the featured research subjects. I intended the images to stimulate viewer curiosity about the concrete research activities referenced on the back of each calendar page and hope the viewer reads the detailed information there. The illustration subjects include marketing bio food, logistics systems, anesthesia technology, joining technology, bio diesel, and packaging.

Reviving the reefs

According to research, it takes decades to a century for damaged reefs to heal or re-grow. However, with the advanced technology we have, we might be able to shorten the time required to have the ocean filled with colourful reefs again.

EcoReef is a hybrid of technology and organic life. They look articifial on land but manage to attract the growth of wide varieties of baby corals and fish habitats than expected. To make this happen, the local activists use coral transplant technique to tie loose corals to the "antlers" of EcoReefs and let the nature does its wonder.

I hope Redang Island, Perhentian Island and others will adopt this initiative from our neighbouring country, Indonesia, soon. We have beautiful tropical islands in Malaysia but we do not have responsible civilians to protect them. It's about time.

Read PerceptiveTravel for more details.

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BW

For the love of black and white photographs, here's something non-related to black and white but somewhat related to it as well.

The posted video was created by Julien Vallée for a division of Bleublancrouge Montreal’s design/ad agency ; Black and White.

I came across a lot of fancy and really creative ads in a few ads-collectors' blogs. I might look into sharing them soon. Ahhh...laziness...

Hang it !

I imagine having my boss stuck on the wall with this.
Neat!

GET OVER IT

I'm sure you have your utmost regrets that you wish you can turn back time and correct them. The truth is, we all can't do that and have to get over it anyway. If you can't, share your sorrow with GET OVER IT, and get consoled by the public sympathy.

GET OVER IT shares similar concept with the secret postcard project. Everyone gets to expose their most shameful secret or regret with anonymity assured.

I hope you'll feel better after this. So, just share it.

Then.


GET OVER IT

Define success

Maybe it is when you're so famous that you have a character created after you, virtually owning a radio station in a very popular game?

Tell Karl Lagerfeld about it. Karl. Karl Lagerfeld. He is in Grand Theft Auto IV limited edition pack.... with his own radio station.

I don't see it do you?

P/S: Even H&M is in SecondLife. What's next?

50 simple tips for healthy lifestyle

I've been google-reading some blogs about self-improvements and that sorts. Here's something very useful and just simple enough for anyone that reads it to really do it.

Screw all the diet pills, healthy replacement meals, or re-engineered food, best health improvement comes from tweaking your bad habits into healthier lifestyle. In fact, to achieve that, you don't have to spend 100k to get a plastic surgery as you might not even feel healthier after all the arduous process. All you need to do is reading 50 tips by DumbLittleMan. The post in DumbLittleMan's blog actually elaborates further on 4W+1H - Why What Who When Where How. I'm not sure about the "Where" but it's worth a read.

You life changes from today.


What can you do in 10 minutes or less?

More than you think. In a brief 10 minute window you can release tension, prevent future frustrations, get your blood flowing, etc. In fact, here are 50 things you can do. With time out as an excuse, what are you going to begin doing differently tomorrow? I don't care what it is, the point is, just do something!

Here are some ideas. If you have other thoughts, leave them in the comments!

1. Brush your teeth


2. Do 15 sit-ups


3. Read the health news headlines of the day


4. Straighten your posture


5. Eat an apple


6. Stand up and stretch


7. Send a friendly email to a friend


8. Resist the impulse purchase of a candy bar


9. Post an inspirational quote on Twitter


10. Do 10 lunges


11. Drink a glass of water


12. Smile


13. Put a package of oatmeal in your pocket or purse for a healthy breakfast or snack


14. Throw a bottle of water in there as well


15. Plug your cell phone into the charger


16. Pay a bill online


17. Ask to have your salad dressing on the side


18. Start a dollar jar to be added to once per day


19. Open a window


20. Say thank you to someone who deserves it


21. Take a deep breath


22. Put on your seat belt


23. Wake up 10 minutes earlier


24. Post a comment on a blog


25. Turn off the lights when you’re the last one out


26. Put on your make-up (this usually pertains to the ladies, but hey, whatever makes you happy)


27. Share a healthy recipe


28. Give your mother a call


29. Wash your hands


30. Put on hand lotion


31. Check your blood pressure


32. Jog in place for 9 minutes


33. Throw away that pen that doesn’t work


34. Take a canvas tote bag to the grocery store


35. Ask a friend to join you for a healthy dinner


36. Put down the remote control and get up to change the TV channel


37. Hug your kids


38. Replace your next cup of coffee with a cup of tea


39. Lay out your clothes for the next day


40. Put your car keys in the same place everyday


41. Take a 10 minute break


42. Suck on a breath mint


43. Add a little pepper to your salad


44. Load the dishwasher


45. Play FreeRice for 5 minutes


46. Take a quick walk


47. Prepare your coffee maker the night before


48. Skip your late evening grocery store run


49. While watching TV, do 5 push-ups during the commercial


50. Read this list over again and count how many things pertain to you

Changing pavements

France's Eurovia is developing a thermosensitive road varnish that changes colour to indicate freezing and dangerous conditions. Colour changing boxes - hmm, I think I've seen this somewhere in before on a geeky t-shirt - Hypercolor.

As the temperature changes to subzero or other way round, the road could turn to any other indicative color as pre-designed. Several roadways in France are currently being used for durability and usability tests. I look forward to more lively roads in near future. When i say "lively", it could be vividly blinking colours "lively".

Men and their fantasies

Maid cafe is here. I mean in California, USA. This creation is inspired by Japanese role playing game or "cosplay" a.k.a costume play. In Maid cafe, the customers will be served as "masters" by the waitresses dressed up in maid uniforms. Customers are always superior wherever they are but with this settings, I'm sure the gratification achieved is twice as high.

Enjoy.

Aqua Leung

I always think Marvel comic is all there is for superhero-themed comics or all there is for western comics. Yes, I'm talking about handsome men with husky and muscular bodies, wearing tight leather pants. I'm pleased to see something different. Well, maybe only now is when I take notice on the minority players.

Here's a new comic with Asian character bearing same name with its title "Aqua Leong", I suppose, and it just reminds me of the infamous Wong Yuk Long's Oriental Heroes comic which turned Dragon Tiger Gate movie. This comic Aqua Leung, is created by Mark Andrew Smith and Paul Maybury. Yes, Mat Salleh! I'm keen to see how this will turn out, if any media attention is stirred as expected.

Joe Keating of Image described it this way: "In a nutshell - the royal family of Atlantis is slaughtered, with their murderer taking up the throne. What he doesn't know is their young prince survived and is battling across the ocean to get his revenge."

Browse for preview pages here.

The Kite Runner

I know many of you might have watched this movie at film festivals, advanced screening etc. But I still think that, it's worth a mention here.

I learned about this story when it made its big break as best seller in the states. Having the pre-assumption that the Americans were always appealed by the exotic eastern tales that came abundant in market after the Afghan war. It was their atonement for their government invading the middle east for political agenda.

6 years later, the movie adaptation of the story is released. I was refrained from watching it for the same reason. I was vain enough not to be as vain as others to hunt for the same pot of gold. Eventually, I succumbed to the writer's strike and had to dig of something to get by.



The story is about 2 childhood friends that turned out to be blood-related. Amir, whose father has kept the secret of his half-brother all his life, answered to a calling from home when Hassan, his half-brother died and left a son in Kabul alone. The story focuses on his inner journey to define his identity after trying to be like his father when he's just different on his own for good. The climax unravels near the end of the movie when he finally pushed himself to recognize a mistake he made as a child and redeemed his sin by making amends to Hassan's son.

I would say the cinematography is exceptional and there are quite a few memorable scenes - Amir reading letter written by Hassan after self-learning writing for a long time, young Amir insulting young Hassan by throwing rotten fruits at him in order to overcome his own guilt, the early scene when Amir asking Hassan if he would eat dirt as he requested...and a lot more. What lies in my memory will be the scenery of Kabul before Russian invasion. I know it's a make-shift from a few unknown locations in China. However, back then, you do see hope and joy in Afghans.

Overall, the pace of the story is perfect but the core plot only appears after 1 hour 30 minutes which is 75% of the length. The story in front might be arranged to present Amir's personality and inner battle but his journey in Kabul is not explored with more details as it should.



The history has evolved, the country has changed but the story has captured the essence of humanity that we should not forget. Love, friendship, and loyalty.

Watch it if you can. Read it if you can. Do both if you can.

I'll get a copy of hardcover soon.

Keep you updated.

Ratings: 7/10

Get Ready!

I've been on very tight budget lately, all for the cause of upgrading my lens to a multipurpose Nikon 18-200mm f3.5-f5.6 VR. It could be cheap for you but definitely it's not that cheap to me. Sometimes, I almost want to give up and start playinig with simple camera body, low budget and no restrictions of lens capabilities.

Perhaps, building ReadyCam is a good start! Readycams is a collabo by Corbis and Readymech. The construction is simple. Download, print and build your own pinhole camera.

Merde!

This is what keeps me going and feeling intrigued to learn French, at my own pace. Isn't it a known fact that learning to curse is the fastest way to pick up a foreign language? First, try it with your boss.



Enjoy the site!

Erin Tyner

Certain illustrations for nursery rhymes can turn out to be a surprise for you. Erin Tyler builds story-telling images with mini people and low-tech materials. These scenes are built in her living-room window using props from a junk drawer.


The man with twister


Sometimes, I just don't know how these people get their fantastic ideas.

If you're interested to get a print for yourself,visit her Etsy Shop and click on Buy :)

Penelope

Another entertaining movie I'll add to my list that starts growing thin. Penelope was filmed in 2006 but only released early this year in the States. I did not go on digging for the reason but the story itself is captivating enough for me not to doubt its quality.

Born with the snout of a pig, young Penelope Wilhern (Christina Ricci) spends her life a virtual prisoner in her home. Believing that the only way to break the curse is to marry one of her own kind, she meets a number of suitors, but all reject her. Two devious men , one with a grudge against the family, hire a man to pose as a suitor, but complications arise when he begins to fall in love with Penelope, and she makes a bid for freedom.

© 2008 Summit Entertainment.


Does this sound familiar to you? Turn pig's snout into scissors and Christina Ricci into Johnny Depp, you get Edward Scissorhands, maybe with less Tim-Burton-ish grim.

The Cover

Playboy. It never occur to be that some pictures in Playboy can be tasteful for once.
Thanks to PlayboyFrance for fronting Lou Doillon on their cover.



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Coalition for Tibetans

I honestly do not read much on local news or sometimes world news too. But, I do know one thing that disgusts me, is how the monks had to go to the extent of hunger strike, self inflammation or street protests to remind the government and the world that the disastrous social and political madness should be put to halt.

After Burmese monks were injured in a series of protests,Tibetan lamas reenacted the strategy to free Tbet from China's gripping anarchy. The irony submerges when China has recently been removed from the list of worst human rights offenders by US State Department.

I will not say more.


( Copyright by Reuters / Shruti Shrestha )


Please read further at my discovery source - Boingboing.net. Even Reuters or GoogleNews might not disclose much enough of what's happening in Tibet with the big boy controlling the media leaks, I guess.

Fall without wings

The election in Malaysia just ended. The immediate aftermath we witnessed was mass fatality that thrilled the people. Those with high profile or the douchebags, all slipped through the cracks, had their wings torn and suffered in the same fate of death. Or, some, with heart attack.

Some say the snake is up for the throne as we all were tricked to perceive him as our salvation. We'll know the answer in 5 years time.

The Tilted Room

I almost thought it's a happy ending short film. What a surprise. You should watch this.

Don't let this happen

Even the animals are having target practice. This is an awareness campaign by WWF China to protect wildlife. So, don't let them resort to such self-survival disgrace.

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Michael Ferris Jr

When I enter this page, I was struck by the patterns imprinted on human flesh. Perhaps, it's not the patterns that struck me, it's the sculpture that has such resemblance to prehistoric beings that awed me. Well, Apocalypto by Mel Gibson, gave me quite unforgettable memory that Mayans or people of prehistoric era, bear tattoes on their face as a portrayal of war achievements or bravery. These patterns that look like shooting targets remind me otherwise - Chinese pressure point maps. Yes, I thought I just revisited my childhood memories of being dragged to Chinese Sin-se clinics with huge anatomy diagram on the wall and it's enclosed with pressure points for acupuncture. Whatever, I hope you get me.

I still don't quite own the artist's eye. Tell me what you see.


Maybe, you'll see something in Michael Ferris Jr's sculture.

Extraordinaire

There is ordinary landscape portrait macro whatever genre that I commonly recognize. Somehow, creativity is really the key towards extraordinaire. From simplest factors as photography objects and lighting, some are able to create their own signature photography style e.g.

Instead of referring her works as animal photography, I think Sharon Montrose will best be identified as life photographer or as her website title says "Dog Photographer". Other than animals, she also photographs babies, however, what strikes me will be how she captures the moment - which is also the key criteria to be a good photographer and for most of the time, easily said than done.

Then, I also came across Mark Rubenstein's work that expresses such depth of fantasy and dreamlike elements. I know photoshop helps but I always believe in the fundament of photography that comes with hardwork and originality. I did not read on further if Mark's work is digitalized or scanned from full frame photograph. But, do let me know what you feel.

I have so much to share with tonnes of hits in my G.Reader being "Starred" but not having the time to post here. I'll try, even if no one's reading.

Note: No pictures today since my photobucket is loaded unbearably slow. Hopefully, weekend will be much better for my network to chill off for a bit.

Pacemaker

Whenever someone mentions Sweden, I always think of the amazing creativity of Swedish designers. Don't believe me? You should view an interesting trailer about the product "Pacemaker" by Swedish animator Kristofer Ström and Martin Ottosson. Production by Björn Wahlström.

( via )

Note: Just realize it's a bit difficult to find the trailer on Pacemaker site. Here's the clip embedded below.


Pacemaker - this is how it works from ljudbilden on Vimeo.

<3 is lame

Quoting a friend's favourite line - "Love is lame". How interesting.

A post long drafted and overdue.

David Kassan

Brooklyn-based artist David Kassan produced lifelike portraits that practically leap off the canvas. As quoted from his website: "As an expression of his own calculated observation and visual consumption of surrounding environment, introspective glimpses of reality imbue the art of David Kassan. By immersing himself into his subject matter, Kassan is able to infuse his painting with life and realism."

Sometimes, painting seems just like photography and vice versa.

The Diving Bell and The Butterfly

As a start, I can squeeze out tonnes of positive review from the vast internet sources. Or, I could also refer to the humanity or impeccable courage the main character in the movie has. So many cheesy reasons that could support
my drive of hunting down the English subtitles with such determination. Finally, Terence shed me a light when I already left this thought behind. I can factor the determination into 3 simple reasons.

Strike #1 - The poster looks stunning. There's something about it that attracts me. Maybe the smile on Jean-Do's face or how the summer glare makes her gaze so dreamy that I wish I am at the beach. There's just something about it.



This looks simple but beautiful, no?


Strike #2 - It's a French movie, or I'll say it falls into my general category - anything European. I know I know. It's not a language to be fully comprehended by a Penang-born Chinese that assumed mastering English will make understanding French easy as well. But, there's just something appealing about the way European movies are being directed and filmed. Usually, the end result turned out to be a beautiful painting with great dialogues that I cannot understand. But, subtitles help to convey part of the context for most of the time. With that and my own added imagination, I often amplified all the punch lines the director intended.

Strike #3 - I'm a lazy student so I refer to film festivals as a guidebook to my film hunting journey. You should know that since I have mentioned how I found Dedication from Sundance festival. Well, since this film did great in Cannes, why not.

I do not know a thing about baseball. But three strikes are convincing enough for me to jump at this gem, which I do not regret spending 1:47 hour feeling my left eye has gone blind too.

The director insists on using the cinematography that allows audience to experience vision with only a left eye. So, more than half of the movie which involves Jean-Do's monologue, is presented in a close left-aligned angle as if we are seeing the world from his only vision left. At first, it was a bit disturbing but that makes us all agree as what makes the cinematography successful in influencing the cinema experience.

Before I write further, you should know that the plot is known by all, prior to watching the film. The editor of French Elle - Jean-Dominique Bauby a.k.a Jean-Do, had a stroke and went into vegetation state that left him only with his left eye. With that blinking motion, he dictated his memoir and died 10 days after its publication.

Of so many touching scenes accompanied by magnificent soundtrack, I like the scene where the doctor cruelly sutured up Jean-Do's paralyzed right eye. My instinct understands that the main objective consists largely of preventing the stationary eye ball from haunting all of them that have to stay around him. Maybe, it will also prevent infection to an eye without moisture from movement. Well, maybe.

Also, there's another beautiful scene where the wind by the beach gently blows his wife's dress and his vision pursues the waves of the dresses as it reveals the intimate flesh of his wife.

Nonetheless, there are heaps of humour projected by Jean-Do's monologue which got me laughing at times, and sarcasm that drove the bitterness in me to grow.

So, in all, at the end of the movie, I was deeply moved by his determination to write a memoir in such beautiful words and imagination, through such difficult process. Perhaps,it's no longer complicated when that's all you can do from then on.

Le Scaphandre et Le Papillon or The Diving Bell and The Butterfly is a thumbs-up recommendation to all sensitive souls. I'll definitely watch this again should it ever be screened locally.

P/S: The soundtrack is awesome. Read this line with American teenage footballer's accent. Charles Trénet's La Mer kept on playing in my mine. What a beautiful summer.

Dedicated to "Dedication"

Sundance festival just ended a few weeks back and it got me into the mood of digging into rare indie movies. "Juno" was one of the rare finds. But it was an easy discovery since it was widely loved by mainstream market. I can't recall how I found this movie. Most probably I was looking through NT.info's list as usual, and user reviews in imdb.com that claimed Mandy Moore's role - Lucy - is actually quite good too. I was convinced by vanity of polished public review.

As you might have perceived from the poster, Dedication is a romantic drama. But it comes with a wee bit of dry humour. It's definitely a good dig for those that are into "Garden State" especially a version with excess romanticism, with great soundtrack. (Nick, I'm saying this to you.)

I like the imaginary scenes whenever Billy's stressed with some problems in life, his dead writing partner for children's book, Rudy, will come alive and give him a few very wry words of wisdom that help him to overcome those problems. Billy is just a weird character with a lot of funny phobias, which he manages to face as the story progresses.

Lucy is the typical female character with charisma that overturns Billy's weird-ness. I wouldn't say it's an easy act since she manages to play the role with an amazingly natural flair and maturity.

Still, I like Billy's character - a cocky and weird introvert that breaks out of his shell in the end. In fact, I love this movie & its soundtrack ( they feature Cat Power's Metal Heart!) very much - one of the very few romance movies that get my green light.

Anyway, this might not turn up in big screens so you have to use your sources.

Counting Rambo

Other than the inaugural "Gong Xi Fa Cai" to all my readers celebrating Chinese New Year (if there is any), some people just have so much time to do the counting rainbows thing, don't you think? I mean, counting Rambo.

Don't click here!

Why using "click here" in posting links is a bad practice? I never learned the solid reasons behind it until I read this convincing page by a Finnish guy, Jukka "Yucca" Korpela. You should give it a read because the justification is very convincing!

"Click here" mistake was featured in the design mistakes review made in 2005 by Jakob Nielsen which has been maintaining this almost-yearly-updated list of Top Ten Design Mistakes since ... many years ago. "Click here" was one of the many mistakes I was tagged for. In fact, my posting habit was developed, aligning to what I’ve come across in others' blogs. Since “Click here” was used widely in websites and web logs, I just presumed it is the best practice. From now on, I will kill this word off all the links I include in my posts. I try.

FYI, Click here for the post. Opps, did I do it again?

Say, Marimo

Here's a typical tear jerker from the Japanese movie Inu no Eiga with subtle emotions and slow paced storyline.

Ghost Town

Definitely, I do not have the capacity to interpret the metaphor of the slimmest strip of sunlight creating a huge glare in most section of an image, images that are exposed multiple times to create the theme of “sense and sensibility” or that sort. Not just that, I’m, too, unequipped with slightest idea how certain pictures that look plain, will end up as critically acclaimed work. The critics play their role for a reason, which is to see what ordinary people fail to grasp. So, I’ll leave all this professional review to them while I’ll go on with my maniac ranting on things I perceive.

In all, I’m saying all this to prove that, it’s much easier to see things from ordinary being’s eyes, and take your first thought as the most honest reply to the work you’re looking at. So no more yada yada yada. I came across some impressive pictures recently from a feed I subscribed to.

The pictures below are from Richard Ehrlich that captures Namibian ghost town of Kolmanskop. The town was in bloom during 1908 when a diamond mine was discovered. German expats moved in and turned the whole town into a western settlement. 20 years later when the mine was dried, they abandoned the place, leaving shadow and silence in vain.

So here you go.


Definitely, I do not have the capacity to interpret the metaphor of the slimmest strip of sunlight creating a huge glare in most section of an image, images that are exposed multiple times to create the theme of "sense and sensibility" or that sort. Not just that, I’m, too, unequipped with slightest idea how certain pictures that look plain, will end up as critically acclaimed work. The critics play their role for a reason, which is to see what ordinary people fail to grasp. So, I’ll leave all this professional review to them while I’ll go on with my maniac ranting on things I perceive.

In all, I’m saying all this to prove that, it’s much easier to see things from ordinary being’s eyes, and take your first thought as the most honest reply to the work you’re looking at. So no more yada yada yada. I came across some impressive pictures recently from a feed I subscribed to.
The pictures below are from Richard Ehrlich that captures Namibian ghost town of Kolmanskop. The town was in bloom during 1908 when a diamond mine was discovered. German expats moved in and turned the whole town into a western settlement. 20 years later when the mine was dried, they abandoned the place, leaving shadow and silence in vain.

So here you go.
(via)

The Golden Age

In general, a lot of European films hardly made it to international block busters due to its inclusion of very localized elements that we foreigners, most of the time, do not comprehend. ( It's just like how Seinfield, The West Wings and The Sopranos are never my favorites. ) So, I can only rely on my sources, you know. Perhaps, foreign film festivals held by GSC cinema is one of the only few moments when I could watch the critically acclaimed European movies on screen, but how many more will be missing from the list? Well, let's not frown on that. The sources will save us all!

Here's a good example of a shinning European film that I'm not sure if it'll be screened here due to its sensitive theme that our beloved Censorship board will be up against. 4 luni, 3 saptamani si 2 zile (imdb) - the winner of Palm d'Or at Cannes Festival 2007. It definitely won for a good reason. The core storyline is about the protagonist assisting her naive roommate to get an abortion which was deemed illegal in Romania during the 80s. In this movie, the cinematography is magnificent as the filming presented very raw emotions by shooting from the protagonist's perspective, the long one-take scenes, and the occasional hand held shooting. In fact, there's nothing much I can tell about this, other than "you should watch it yourself". The depression of the Romanians during the communism era was impressively portrayed throughout the film and the grayness was so immense, reaching the extent of a soft-core horror film would.

What the director intended was to capture the audience's focus on the main character - the tough protagonist. Trust me, you will feel stressed out and exhale in relief once the movie ends.

So, I need a cold drink.

Note: This movie is the first release of the director's trilogy production, titled "The Golden Age", which is about the communist era in Romania. Perhaps, it is the golden age when the Romanians portrayed such courage we human beings never know we have.

New Bits

Another entry to my dust-off life - The Jane Austen Book Club. The biggest discovery of the night would be - Paolo Nutini is Paula Nutini with wrong spelling. The movie took the pace of sentimental tv series and explored how Austen's work changed the lives of everyone in the book club. It's not compelling as Michael Clayton ( which I did not enjoy much at all ) for sure however, it appeals to me, a typical romance chic flick fan, even if it's not even cheesy chic.

I'll quite talking about movies for a while. Here's something you should sample. Paolo Nutini's New Shoes. Imagine toned down version Mika with more beats and less drama. Don't eat the shoes, just click the |> button and play it.

Lastly, enjoy the chilly nights - unbearable summer is coming soon!




Or, if you're like me, very much into Brit accents, then Jenny, don't be hasty. This is the louder version of John Mayer with less blues. I'll cut the crap, and let you try this on.

Round up!

Punk is not dead but I just don't like it.


Obviously, I could not finish my marathon list as expected. I finished 6 out of 14 titles in the list, which I presumed to be impressive enough for me to feel content about it. Out of the 6 titles, I've ranked them according to my preference as follows.

1. Persepolis ( imdb )
Witty, cynical coming-of-age movie that dissects the life revolving an Iranian girl turning into a lady, leaving her home land to Europe and back again. From scenes to scenes, the movie also illustrates the rebellion of suppressed Iranian people against the autocratic government - something, we and the world that claims to be victimized by terrorism, will never have understood before watching this movie. By the way, "Animation" sounds like a 5-minutes clip on youtube. So, I called Persepolis a "movie", since I enjoyed me more than the rest.

2. Rocket Science ( imdb )
Another coming-of-age tale about a stuttering boy being conned into a high school debate team by a dazzling girl that recruited many other "losers" in high school right before she transferred to a high school with winning team. Stutter boy did the stuttering act so well that it really annoyed me throughout the movie very much. Claire Benette's flying boyfriend is in the movie as the star debater that this lil' boy looked up to. Overall, it's quite enjoyable to look into a suburban boy's life and see how he sees through his own weakness.

3. Across the Universe ( imdb )
Being The Beetles' fan, I love the soundtrack and all the rearranged song covers. Some of the scenes in the movie really gave huge impact by using the right song eg: a young African American boy hiding next to a car while the police were pacifying the African American crowd on riot; a cheerleader walking away from the field while her crush kissed the cheerleader captain. My memory is wearing off now, so you should watch it, skip through a few, if you think the songs are too much. But, just a note: the songs used in the movie fit perfects in each scene; actors/singers' voices brought out the soul in the music; each scene is just interwoven to the next smoothly.

4. Suburban Girl ( imdb )
Don't waste your time watching this.
Sarah Michelle Gellar trying to be next...big hit romance actress. That sounds like a weekend filler that brings you no where but loose plot - imagine SMG fell for an old man. after her dad died, suddenly she claimed to have grown up and ditched him. The director presented the story in chapters just like arrangement in a book, as a trick to tie to the movie setting which is in publishing business. This is something new for me, that I can't comment much.
Still, a crap that I won't detest since I haven't come across crappy movie in such a long while. I'm just having good taste in movies all the while until now.

5. Ensemble C'est Tout ( imdb )
Audrey Tautou doesn't give a plus for this movie. The editing and cinematography are of typical European style with subtle details and less climatic storyline. It's not the typical romantic movie with lots of kisses, tears, hugs, and "i-heart-u"s.

6. El Camino Los Ingleseas/Summer Rain ( imdb )
I'm giving up to finish this poetic movie. I don't deny that it has very beautiful cinematography & script that made me feel like I was watching a piece of poetry with lots of symbolic scenes with a lot of exotic looking Spaniards. However, another coming-of-age story is not that I should be watching after a weekend with so many of them. I finished 50 minutes of it and I don't think I can continue it until I need some youth revival in months to come. This is not a conclusive opinion so...you can leave this aside too. Note, this is the first directorial work by Antonio Banderas and I think he did a great job!

Hah, I hope I'm not turning this into a movie blog. Better not.

You've got curves

There were times you hope life was not so much of a winding road up and down the hill, where you had to make a reach at every stop at every parts of the hill. You wish, you could just barge down the hill, straight from the peak to the bottom, like a snowball gaining its momentum before crashing into a pine tree.

We all wish. But, there's no fun to it if you know the ending of the story, isn't it.

Till then, we make turns and turns around, feel the itch of diarrhea or dizziness in the twist of corners, until someone tells you, you made it...

Movie Marathon

As promised, here's my list of selected titles for my weekend marathon:

1. Charlie Wilson's War
2. He Was A Quiet Man
3. Le Scaphandre Et Le Papillon
4. Mr Brooks
5. Persepolis
6. Rocket Science
7. Suburban Girl
8. The Tattooist
9. Across The Universe
10. Gone Baby Gone
11. Before The Devil Knows Your Dead
12. Elizabeth The Golden Age, that I think I will skip.
13. Four Months Three Weeks and Two Days
14. The Assassination of Jesse James
15. Summer Rain
16. Ensemble C'est Tout

I know the list looks long. But, I'm ambitious.

Calling for Le Scaphandre et Le Papillon English Subtitles!

Have you ever come across a movie you know can make a difference to your life? Well, there is none because you answer to the calling of your life and you make all the decisions where you are accountable to your own actions. So, stop depending on 120 minutes to change the many minutes that have yet to come. I'm just saying that to myself as I do think the story of a successful editor at Elle's turning paralyzed and still could write a book by blinking only one eye.

Here it goes. I've acquired a copy of The Diving Bell & The Butterfly WITHOUT SUBTITLES. With total confession to the fact that my understanding in French is too limited the first 5 minutes of the whole movie ( since the story has not even started yet !!).

So, please help me out if you can dig the English subtitles for Le Scaphandre et Le Papillon 1 CD. I must watch this movie. And, yes, I must stick to this copy since I refuse to resort to RMVB version with mere Chinese subtitles that will totally degrade the anesthetic element of the whole movie! All exotic accents should play in its original voice, period.

Please leave me a comment if you have it, or even know this movie. At least, I can talk to someone about this.

More about my weekly movie marathon later.

Watch Documentaries Online

Watch great documentaries online.

You'll see more that you should.
You'll know more that you do.

Wow, that sounds catchy.

Face

"Is your worrying global enough?
Face the problem before it’s too late."

This campaign rises from a project of sensitization on Global Warming effects. It tells you that global warming can be a personal choice to make a change. Founded in 1980, Legambiente is an association of citizens that acts for the environmental protection and for the human health, the natural resources and the historical cultural patrimony.

Advertising Agency: Grey, Milan, Italy
Executive Creative Director: francesco Emiliani
Art Directors: Letizia Bozzolini, Andrea Salvaneschi
Copywriters: Livia Cappelletti, Marco Carucci
Photographer: Zona 13

Earth Hour 2008

www.earthhour.org

Let’s do an environmental theme this weekend. I just watched An Inconvenient Truth, not much of a surprise for you, since most of the sentimental kind was so hyped up with this documentary when it was first released. Al Gore made his impact on giving a shock to the society however, the change did not take place as intended, or at least, in public eye.

Global warming and other social dogmas were made a PR stunt by most companies now. Microsoft & Dell will increase their revenue with the release of (RED) so that they can donate more? All clothing apparels are using organic cotton for whatever known reason that made their brand looks green and environmental friendly. China still has the villain look as ever. And, most movies are illustrating the doom of human kind decades down the road.

One of the green house related stunt or "effort" goes to EarthHour. I remember having those moments back when I was staying with my ol' granny. The electricity supply went down and we all could still enjoy the chill in the night. They walked outside and talked to each other, sat on the stools with a cuppa in their hand. Best of all, I looked up and stars were glittering at its best. Do you still remember such scenes that once existed in your life?

Last year, the people of Sydney made an effort to turn off the electricity for an hour. And that's the significant Earth Hour with 10% reduction in use of its power grid. Quoting Josh Spear's explanation - In CO2 terms, that's the equivalent of taking 50,000 cars off the road for an hour.

Now EarthHour is back for 2008; this event has turned global, and on its quest of mankind to turn off the lights for one hour. With businesses so dependent on electricity and energy-consumption, we need to collectively remind ourselves of what we're doing and how we need to change, or at least we should starting making an effort towards this intended evolution. On March 29, 2008 at 8pm in your time zone, you can be part of Earth Hour's environmental movement. Melbourne, Toronto, Chicago, Copenhagen, Brisbane, Tel Aviv and Manila are just some of the global cities that are taking part. If you're not in those cities, you can still sign up at the Earth Hour website and make a difference.

There's always something to talk about, something to do. So, start something, and make something out of it, today.

Click #3 - The Home Song Stories

Fellow Chinese reader, please welcome Joan Chen, the "diva" in Chinese film industry context. With so many awards in hand, I'm pleased to see her taking on a role, without famous Chinese directors, or the many stories about war epic that we see amass nowadays. Just a little simple storyline, few characters, portraying the core values keeping a family together, or not really.

The Home Song Stories is one of my accidental discoveries of hidden gems because right from the beginning, I wasn't really keen about watching this movie until I read the line below in IMDB.com

"Australia's official submission in the Foreign Language Film category for the 80th Academy Awards"

Right after that, I headed off to a wild dig for this movie and I watched it immediate after I found it. And 103 minutes later, I was left gasping for air, not because the storyline was suffocating but the details in the scenes, the delicate lines to bring out the characters, and the emotions that were immense enough to keep me gripping tight so that I missed nothing.

In all, the director, Tony Ayres has done a great job of bringing his life story to the big screen and escaping the result of many boring and disastrous autobiographical films ended up as. The movie is about what Ayres remembers about his mother, a songstress who uprooted her children and migrated from Hong Kong to Australia after marrying an Australian sailor, and their struggles to etch a living surviving in a stranger's land. The intensity starts when we see Rose ( the songstress ) succumbed to her weakness for men quite easily, falling fast and hard, switching from man to man, being unlucky in love, and causing embarrassment for her children, who do not know what to make out of the “Uncles” that come through the door or a suicidal mother after each heartbreak.

IMHO, Joan Chen captures the complexity of Rose’s character superbly, one character that I've heard about so frequent since childhood, from gossips, rumours or speculations on certain people you met in the neighbourhood. You just see characters you once heard so much about, being casted on screen alive. The feeling is really immense. Meanwhile, Joel Lok gives a watchful and intelligent performance, as the son, Tom, who worships his mother and must witness her pain, even when blocking his ears and shutting his eyes. It's amazing & surprising that both Joel Lok & Irene Chen are just newcomers, yet able to show such level of maturity and natural flair of acting skills in portraying Tom & May, even as fantastic as the actual Tony Ayres and his sister, Mei.

At its core, The Home Song Stories evokes painful memories, but also brings about the notion of forgiveness, remembering and honouring those memories. A mother’s love knows no bounds, even if she behaves in a manner you cannot quite grasp at the moment.

The one line that moved me was in almost the last few scenes:

“It is extraordinary,” as grown up Tom says about himself and his sister, “that we ended up perfectly ordinary people.”

Note: The trailer might not move you much, but it's definitely a movie I'll purchase the DVD for collection or watch when it's in local cinemas.