Thursday, July 21, 2005
Whip out the plasic! :one:
One of the most precious shopping finds in Melbourne (aside from Fitzroy's opp shops) cuts Collins-Swanston streets in the city. Today, after purchasing tix for a nite of fun with animation shorts for MIFF (melbourne international film fest), me and cam chanced upon this new shop. It was about a week old and poised to be an accessible hangout for just about anyone.Why everyone? : well because it is unpretentious - it doesn't hide itself in some dark alley in a part of Melbourne (believe me there are several of these here) and claim to be for those who 'know better'. It is not hip or 'alternative' or for the crowd which clicks. However the hippy-looking storeowner with rimmed glasses, vest, patterned shirt, scraggly hair and earrings suggests otherwise.
I was at CD's Done Dirt Cheap and became very generous in my first-time purchase indeed. I grabbed 3 Tori albums - Little Earthquakes, Boys for Pele and Under the Pink. I have always wanted to own them but was waiting for the price to be tender enough for the picking. What a blessing indeed! 3 albums each for 10 AUD!
I was tempted to buy Jack Johnson, Kate Bush, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bjork, Air, Ella Fitzgerald, Radiohead oooh stop me! There were a lot more of course but I had to stay my itchy fingers after grabbing my Toris.
And no they truly are originals, not some musty ripoffs, as my ears and eyes testify. Thankfully the pocket does not have to feel too sore in the process.
Oh did I mention I bought the Noir dvd anime series for 24 AUD?
lux at 8:05 pm
Thursday, July 14, 2005
There is only a few reasons why I'm churning out so many posts in one nite and one of which is that I've nothing better to surf but still prefer to remain online and be aimless than to gainfully sleep. But oh well. Okie there's nothing I really want to write about in this post besides proving how aimless I am.Hmmm lets talk about random stuff. Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events was good, if not because the girl lead looked gorgeous. She has a fabulous wardrobe, a hairdo I aspire to having (on occasions) and a pair of luscious lips. Her lips are much better than Jolie's. Declared virginal and very desirable *insert smiley* +> The film generally was Tim Burton-aspirant, somewhere there in terms of cinematography and art direction but also not quite there when it comes to humour and cohesiveness. But films based on books can always use their literary counterparts to cover up their flaws when they don't do as well. 'Well it's hard to match up to the novel but as we all know, the original is usually better.' or 'The novel dipped in quite a number of parts and we tried our best to improve on it. But it was all in all not easy...' or something like that. Simply put: please cut us some slack, okie?
That doesn't mean Lemony Snicket wasn't good. It definitely beats Mr & Mrs Smith, Fantastic Four and whatevercrap Hollywood churnsout next a thousand solid times.
On an unrelated note, I'm glad I didn't club much at all this semester! I've reached this stage in my life when time spent at home chatting on MSN beats a night spent dancing away. No more detestable grinding of male pelvises, cigarette stench that needs 45 mins of bathing and shampooing to rid off, or walking home after a night of tottering on heels or... Saved money on clubbing = more money on clothes and food = greater fulfilment. I realise I actually have very simple needs eh?
Ermm now it's time to list down a few wants. Every less-than-sensible girl has wants right? Oh right lets correct that, even sensible girls give way to certain cravings every now and then don't they? We are very easy to understand in this aspect. I lurve lists, they have an order which is destabilised when new cravings creep in.
- Marks & Spencers' choc chip cookies
- Bettina Liano jeans
- Well-cut jackets
- Funky knee-length skirts
- A decent hardcover notebook
- A bottle of Inniskilin icewine
- White tea leaves
- A good mug to drink any of the above
Irony how anything associated with food - self-image, dieting, overeating, hygiene, healthiness blahblah, slowly consumes our mind. Courgette! Zucchini! Cucumber! I want all of those, I want none of it. It doesn't matter if its eggplant or brinjal - more importantly is it organically produced? Oh are they all the same stuff? I'm confused. My mind is making my tummy confused. To eat or not to eat? Shakespeare and a play on society's eating disorder? I wanna watch!
All of sudden I feel like directing and staging a play. Lets see it'll be about (switch on: stream of consciousness) flowers, butter, toilet paper and killjoy. It'll star a milliner and an abject lamppost. Setting: origami lesson. Music: Basement Jaxx. I'll do something fun. It will be fun because I want it to be so. I'm blabbering. It's time to sleep lux.
This post was intentionally random. Trust no single bit of it. It is blogger-fraud.
lux at 11:57 pm
Lifts me up!
A blast of freshness in the atmosphere. I feel warmth marble itself across my body despite the wintry chill. Music courses through my veins, pumping the blood within, and it exhilarates me, calms me.There are pecan melt crumblies, Zhang Shao Han, a good gym workout, a fulfilling week and beautiful friendships. You feel like you are being lifted up, up and up every moment you breathe and move.
When self-induced depression and melencolia seem to be three shadows away.
lux at 11:38 pm
Sunday, July 10, 2005
A summery winter in Sunshine Coast
My three days of vacation in Sunshine Coast turned out to be a timely culmination of a series of spiritual experiences which started when the holidays began, and became more intense as the weeks passed. The first day was a visit to the beaches and a talk with Pastor Wee; the second a full day in church and of simultaneous thinking and contemplation; the third a visit to the mountains and a discovery of the beauty in my life.I was once the cow chewing the cud but never daring to swallow it down.
It was a beauty I never knew existed in such a pure, simple and uncomplicated form. I had, at many times, professed to appreciate the subtler, more elusive details in life. I remember reiterating to friends and family the importance of not just going for the obvious big picture... thinking back I do not know if I did that because I truly believed so on every single occasion where I shouted loud and firm, or if I was concerned with building a reputation I thought was admirable by claiming to know better. Perhaps it was a combination of both - thing was when beauty revealed its unpretentious form to me, I remained unsatisfied and selfish.
Me being me, made things more complicated and difficult than they were. I had thought endlessly, trying to rationalise everything despite knowing that I was overwhelmed by a corpus of knowledge even before I could begin. My world was one where I did the thinking, the evaluating, the feeling and the worrying. I was the source of its limited strength and easily exhausted faculties. I was far from the beauties I claimed I could appreciate... if I wanted to.
Then I was brought to Pastor Wee, Auntie Janet and their children and their warm household. I am eternally grateful to them for what they have done for me and my cousin. And I will never forget the beauty of Your workings in my life.
lux at 7:32 pm
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Dutch Masters and a little German endeavour
Today my cousin and I headed down to the National Gallery of Victoria (International) to view the Dutch Masters Melbourne Winter Masterpieces exhibition. I have been wanting to catch it and having seen it, I am not upset at having to wait over a month before the opportunity arrived. Entry was 10 dollars, and worth every bit of it. The exhibition came from the Rijksmuseum from the Netherlands and, to me, rivals and betters last year's Impressionist exhibition from France.Today's collection featured works by Hals, Vermeer, Rembrandt, Hooch and many others from the 17th century. The subtle beauty, unassuming grace and simplicity of the portraits and genre scenes were astounding. Seeing the works in books and on the screen cannot compete with viewing them in their full splendour. I say splendour because I was never convinced by actual compelling visual evidence of how breathtaking and masterful the Dutch painters were. Their rendering of fabrics is marvellous - the quiver of a feather nestled on a hat; the soft folds of velvet, gold silk and embroidery; elaborate lacework and the stamp of wealth on those sleeves... yeah sleeves and much more.
That quiet, contemplative poise. A high, smooth unmarked forehead - a symbol of beauty. I stare deep into their eyes and into the trees...
The light falls muted. There are deep reservoirs of shadow because the Dutch seem to love their beauty partially hidden and elusive. Like my art tutor once said, 'Black is the new black.' Think you cannot see through the dark? well here the dark reveals and emboldens the viewer.
Of all the exhibitions I have been to, this ranks as unsurpassed in scope and quality. Munch, Impressionism, 20th century Paris, Pop Art etc. cannot beat this in its beauty. It does not jump out at you, brandishing a banner shouting big names. Instead you give them and yourself the pleasure of time, a patient spirit and keen eyes and revel in their auras. Good art does not need intellect or the eye and encyclopedic knowledge of connoisseurs. Just stand there and let it speak to you. The emotions the artist and his characters experienced then are no different from the ones we experience now. Do we not know pain, grief, joy, pride, jealousy, gratefulness?
Durer we didn't have much time to view. But I am going back, that's for sure. It has all his famous prints - The Passion series, St Jerome (and his numerous appearances), Melencolia, his rhinocerous (haha I just read recently that the collective noun for rhinos is crush) and others. I was pleasantly surprised that they decided not to charge for entry.
I am going back again. For Durer yes. For Dutch? hmmm perhaps verging on a bashful Yes!
lux at 10:53 pm
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Certain Temperaments
- The phlegmatic suffers the problem, the melancholy sees the problem, the choleric solves the problem, the sanguine is the problem. -
I dig the quote above. I found it on the net. It is so politically incorrect, so hilarious because of the aforementioned quality, and so obviously biased towards the melancholic (which uncoincidentally I have been, through some fairly dubious personality tests; been associated with).
lux at 6:20 pm