men / constructivism

After this exhibition, during Saturday afternoon conversation on relationship, a new crush, flirting, love, and lust at TATE cafe, my friends and I came up with the observation that men are like constructivism - like those straight lines drawn by a ruler on a canvas.

Love these insights

Psychology Today, February 2009

Insights: Navigating Wall Streets Is More of a Mind Game than Ever by Sadia Latifi

MONOPOLY MONEY

How did we enter financial freefail?

Here's one contribution. People cheat more when they aren't dealing with real money.

Abstractions - whether it's a poker chip or a stock option - make people more comfortable with fudging the rules. Start trading fancy derivatives and your morals just might come unmoored.

so true

So true about St Martins!

From 107 Charing Cross Road by Murray Healy, LOVE magazine

...This is why Kappo loves the place. 'You think it's a shitty old rundown building, freezing cold, with windows don't close properly, noise and dust, whatever. But no one is precious about this place. And because you're not precious about it, you use it...'

oh i love it

i love how Hanna Hanra beautifully describes how 1960s was like in i-D March 2009 sooo much.

"There was something happening in London, the sixties were swinging.
All along the watchtower and all down the Kings Road, the youths were marking their territory with mini's, midi's and maxi's, the contraceptive pill was making it ok to share some of the loving feeling that was in the air. No longer was being a teenager a grey area. The times, they were a changing and culture needed a poster pin up to become the face of generation."

dot to dot

I slipped in my rubber flats.
An anonymous guy smiled to me.
If we can catagoriz types of smiles, this would be what I call an assuring smile that says, 'hey, it's alright to walk and slip'.
Just two seconds, he made me feel so good.
It feels good to slip sometimes.

What if we take incidents in life as connected dots, rather than the one bold line drawn as lifetime or long term commitment to someone to make us feel good, to make us feel that we have a shelter to comfort us all the time?
What if we are happy with those dots which are the collected feel good things that we get from different people and strangers we happen to come across in one second, a week, a month, a year and there is no requirement for a life time commitment?
What if we are not overtly committed to any one and don't expect them to make us feel good, but rather jump from dot to dot and enjoy it?

Like the dot to dot I used to play when I was young.
I'm going start playing it again now.

This makes me think of Orange's recent campaign - "I Am Everyone".
Not so directly, but in a way.
If I were them, I might want to try using the dot to dot visual.

What makes me choose these brands

What makes me buy the brands I buy at Tesco, Tuna in a can and tissue rolls is the handle of the big tissue bag and the easy open end of the can.

Small things count.

As in life, sometimes we fall in love with someone for the first time by just a very small thing in their personality whether it's their accent, their pace, their movement, their gesture, their smile, or their messy hair.


Just came across a related article in New Scientist
"How Your Looks Betray Your Personality"
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126957.300-how-your-looks-betray-your-personality.html

These twins made my day.

These twins made my day.
They reacted a lot to the environment, they made faces, they learned to imitate facial expression, they pointed at things, they tried to speak.
They are new to the world and they got so excited.

Let's keep our eyes young.

Life needs what's next.

My life needs something to look forward to.
Both the planned ones and the unknown.

Looking forward to meeting my new-born nephew in Thailand.
Looking forward to 1st of every month to read forecasts on www.astrologyzone.com
Looking forward to the fresh smell of new monthly magazines.
Looking forward to hearing my daddy's jokes.
Looking forward to kissing my grandma's cheeks.
Looking forward to teasing my mummy.
Looking forward to Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones exhibition
Looking forward to "what's next?". C'mon life, bring it on.
It's like a guessing game. Without these, the excitement and the fun is gone.

It reminds me of the quote from Vicky Cristina Barcelona - "Only unfulfilled love can be romantic". It lies more in the wanting and the guessing games in life.



Not so related thinking:
Most of us look forward to New Years and Birthdays.
The time which we celebrate and a mark of the new bright beginning.
But my dad told me that perhaps we human create all the special days such as New Years or Birthdays and celebrate it to cheat ourselves, ageing and to make us feel good about the truth that we can never avoid - we're getting older every year.

The Verse

Last night the DJ played the remix of "Gold Digger" with my favourite verse sang by Jamie Foxx being repeated
"She take my money when I'm in need".
Just this one verse that made people sing along and get movin'.

If life were a song, sometimes a favourite verse is like a favourite phase of life - one moment, one specific phase that you enjoy the most and wish it replay forever.

Love his speech

And the BAFTA goes to.... Mickey Rourke.
Love his speech!!!!!

AMAZING La Clique

The best of the best show in town.
The magic of human body.
These people brave what we understood as human limitation to objects - tennis rackets, hula hoops, puppets, etc
The passion I can feel from the flesh in front of me.
Beautifully-made, it gives the audience the thrill, laugh, excitement - to reconnect with human emotion, to feel that we can still feel. Amazingggggggggg. It reminds me of the film "The Prestige". They're playing with the real thing. And if something goes wrong, people would think it's a joke, the show must go on and that would be the scariest part of the show that nobody else knows but the artists that have to carry on.

Old Person Home

Artists: Sun Yuan and Peng Ty
OLD PERSON HOME 2007
13 life size sculptures and 13 dynamoelectric wheelchairs
The Saatchi Gallery

When I first saw just heads of mobile old people on wheelchairs from the corridor, I thought wow it's such a good programme that takes old people to see contemporary art at the Saatchi Gallery.
Moving a bit closer, I got more suspicious. Why nothing else in the room but these old crowds on the wheelchairs.
I was amazed and really love the way it is displayed in an open space where you can walk close to the them, obstruct their wheelchairs, take a closer look till you see that they are all sculptures made with very interesting details (i really love the ear wax in the ears of one sculpture. it's what an old person usually has!)...... it's incredibly well-made, full with details.
Look very much like real people.
Most of them are dressed in military uniforms and have something in hands that reminds them of the past, the war the went.
In the last bit of your life, it's you and your past that live together, probably because the future for old people comes too quickly and too scary to look forward to? Not a type of countdown that you would enjoy looking forward to like other countdowns. Reminiscent of the past can probably make you feel it's not too scared to live.
Love love love the work and this exhibition.

Reopened

"Reopen" is one of the words that really make my day.

Like today at 6 pm, I was on my way to the class.

Here comes bus no.52, ahead of me.

Running as fast as I could, I still missed it.

Having seen the door slowly closed, I stopped and let go, telling myself 'it's okay'.

But then in seconds, it's reopened.

I jumped on, gave a biggest smile to the bus driver, and said the biggest thank you to him.

One word I silently said to myself, "YOU MAKE MY DAY".

An everyday-human kindness that exists even in the dusk as long as you don't turn a blind eye.

On the Fags.. how a smoker thinks

from ELLE March 2009
Interview with Gwyneth Paltrow by Craig McLean

Craig: Shall we pop outside for a cigarette?

Gwyneth: Man, I wish smoking didn't kill you, I'd be smoking right now. I miss it. The last cigarette I smoked was the day I found out I was pregnant with Apple. I had to sit down and smoke one final cigarette [a mourning sigh]. It's such a beautiful thing, I'm so pissed of it gives you cancer. Cigarettes were my upper, they were my downer. I would think with them, write with them. I just love them so much. The act of lighting them. I love the way the raw tobacco smells. But then, once you have children, if you've witnessed a death like I did with my father, you just can't. I'd never want to put them through what I went through. So I don't do it. But I've decided that when I'm about 70 I'm going to start smoking again. Why not? I can't wait!

Both worlds in one Elle

Bought ELLE March 2009 with Gwyneth Paltrow on the cover. Whilst I was flipping through pages, magazine insertions fell down. Two are not the same. Completely different. One is PLAN's brochure seeking sponsors for children in countries like Bolivia, the Philippines, and Sierra Leone with an image of a smiley girl in poverty on the cover. Another one? Much more sophisticated - Agent Provocateur's "Tableaux Vivants" poster inspired by virgins, Greek god, lust in paradise

hmmm... both worlds in one. totally different. one is asking for basic needs. another one indulges in the world of black pasties, micronet hold ups and fine French embroidery anglais. something i'm still thinking about... hmmm.

My most favourite exhibitions so far

1.Psycho Buildings at the Hayward Gallery
http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/festivals-series/psycho-buildings

2.Life Before Death at the Wellcome Collection
http://www.wellcomecollection.org/exhibitionsandevents/pastexhibitionsandevents/lifebeforedeath/index.htm

3.The House of Viktor & Rolf at the Barbican Centre
http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?ID=7272

Medium or Large

It usually happens when I am standing in front of an eggs shelf at Tesco looking at confusing options.

Medium

Medium free range

Medium Organic

Large

Large free range

Large Organic

Then I think of Buddha's teaching, go for a moderate way.

I chose Medium.

Reality doesn't bite, it heals.

Reality doesn't bite, it heals.

she, bank notes, and bites

I met this woman. She works at Lloyds. She once tried to convince me to put my money to a special account. I didn't do so. She counts thousands of bank notes each day. I met her again on bus no.7 today. And she was biting her nails - the hand that she counts thousands of bank notes every day.

A Matter of the L

Like

Lust

Love 

Lost

And today I heard one lady speaking on the phone with her cheating husband.. to add one more word, "Lies".

At the end of the conversation, she seemed Lonely.

love her

really love Beyonce's drummer! Brutal!

Quotes of the Week

No one forget the truth. They just get better with lying. - April in the Revolutionary Road

Pathetic self-diluted little boy. - April in the Revolutionary Road

Living life as it matters. - April in the Revolutionary Road

You didn't feel like a mistake to me. - Randy in the Wrestler

Have a beer with me? One beer. - Randy in the Wrestler

To grow in the future we must learn from the past

full version available at http://www.brandrepublic.com/Campaign/Features/Features/874449/grow-future-learn-past/

The part I like....

We are, quite rightly, an industry obsessed with tomorrow. Relentlessly searching for the next big idea. And that next big idea can't look anything like yesterday's big idea. Ours is a ruthlessly creative culture, more so than any other.

We have to accept, however, that we live in an age of unprecedented change. Accelerating so fast that we only see the presents as it disappears from our consciousness. Thanks to the power of digital technology, we make mistakes faster than at any other time in our existence. - Sir John Hegarty, Campaign

Hegarty's favourite ad

Heineken Water in Majorca - This famous campaign, originated by Terry Lovelock, produced some truly wonderful work. For me, this was one of the best. I genuinely think that, 500 years from now, anthropologists wishing to understand the British in the latter part of the 20th century will just play this commercial. Our obsession with class, language and self-deprecating humour are all supremely expressed. And all in 60 seconds.

Rare

Rare feels so good.

These days where everything is convenient and always at fingertips, the feeling of getting something hard to get feels so great.

6 inches thick this morning - London is severely under cover of snow.

If it snowed everyday in London, we wouldn't have enjoyed it this much.

This makes me feel there is a surprise in life.

It brings people closer - strangers interact, laugh together, smile to each other without a reason... just that they feel they share the excitement of the arrival of this rareness as if how we feel about an arrival of a newborn.