film, music video: lost in translation, manic street preacher, motorcycle emptiness, tokyo

'Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness'... this rock ballad makes me feel sad and lonely despite thoughts of a bustling city full of glowing lights. if u analyze the lyrics, u wuld realize that this song has more depth, its actually a commentary on modern culture and society in general.

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the music video of Manic Street Preacher's Motorcycle Emptiness reminds me so much of the movie Lost in Translation. maybe sophia coppola is a fan of the band and she thought about the music video while filming in tokyo? no?

look at these screenshots i took. parallels!

photography: sea, horizon

look what i found while browsing the web.
they are like soulmates waiting for each other.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeribosma/
http://egorshapovalov.ru/

culture: garden, tash aw, oriental, western

"One shudders at the thought of the harshness to be found in the great French gardens- in Versailles, for example, the greatest of them all, where the rows of trees are lined up like soldiers on parade. In spite of what the French would have us believe, I have always thought their gardens display a certain poverty of imagination, a failure of the romantic impulse.

My designs owe nothing to the tradition of those gardens the French think of as le jardin anglais, the grand visions of classical perfection at Stowe or Blenheim, for example. How distasteful that would be in a setting such as this. If anything, this will be a wild garden, a creation of seemingly casual beauty, whose charms are quiet, understated… Is the purpose of a flower bed not similar to that of a poem? Within their artificial boundaries, both contain a tiny world of beauty, a joyous compression of life."

- The Harmony Silk Factory, Tash Aw

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"… the evolution of the so-called Anglo-Chinese garden, a development which helped to shift attitudes away from the ideals of classical formality and regularity which had predominated in the Enlightenmentperiod, towards a greater sense of naturalness and freedom.

According to the arthistorian Michael Sullivan, the image of the Chinese garden, transmitted toEurope by Sir William Chambers inter alia, helped to provoke ‘a reaction against the formal, geometrical gardens of Italy and France, and helped to bring to birth the natural gardens that were so much more in accordance with English taste’ (in Ropp 1990:286). Some critics believe that this transmission had a crucial influence on the formation of Romantic attitudes towards nature (see Lovejoy 1948), and in the opinion of the historian Adolf Reichwein, what was involved here was not merely a revolution in garden design as such but an epochal shift in attitudes towards nature from those associated with Augustan ideals of classical symmetry and proportion to the more liberated, imaginative, spontaneous view that blossomed in the Romantic period (see Reichwein 1925:113ff)."

- Oriental Enlightenment: The Encounter Between Asian and Western Thought, J. J. Clarke

isnt it brilliant how a garden reflects the sensibilities of two great cultures? choose your garden!

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after encountering a couple of East-West views in two of his books, i reckon that my favorite author Tash Aw has read “Oriental Enlightenment”, an intellectual book which holds noteworthy explanations regarding the historical and cultural position of Asia in relation to the West. ive only read the first few chapters of this book while i was in college, still dont have the time to finish it.

images:

http://www.french-gardens.com/gardens/versaille.php
http://www.mobot.org/hort/tours/cgtrad.shtml

philosophy, music: peter heppner, reincarnation

Schiller feat Peter Heppner - I Feel You

I feel you
In every stone
In every leaf of every tree
You´ve ever grown
(That you ever might have grown)

I feel you
In every thing
In every river that might flow
In every seed you might have sown

i havent come across religious doctrines stating that one can be reborn into a tree, a river or a lifeless object such as a stone, but this dance song by Heppner jus reminds me of reincarnation.

Schiller mit Heppner - Dream Of You
Heppner smoking hot at 1:14
he is as sexy as his voice. i got a crush on him.

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"In the last fragments of my life I truly wish, in spite of my Christian faith, to believe that we will all live again and again so that I may be blessed, perhaps in some future life on the far side of a new morning, to meet you again and to tell you how much I love you.."

- The Gift of Rain, Tan Twan Eng

i cried buckets when i read this passage, it struck a chord in me because i always think the same way about my religion. sometimes i wish i was born buddisht in thailand - then probably my life would be much easier given my present circumstances.

sometimes i wish christianity believes in reincarnation.

music: the music i grew up with, trance, lifedance, chicane

to say that i had so much fun at Lifedance 2012 is an understatement. being a fan of chicane since highschool, it was a dream come true for me to finaly see him live after soo many missed oppurtunitites. i spazzed out when he played "hiding all the stars" and danced his entire set like its 1999.

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i listened to a lot of trance/electronica in my teens back in early 2000s, a time when everybody was digging the usual mtv popstars while i talk alot about the latest from paul van dyk and ATB etc.. i always like it when people viewed me in an esoteric way because of this unusual preference in music. it was a bit weird though being a trance fanatic growing up in a semi rural place with no clubs, rave parties, drugs watsoever hehe. i remember wanting to go to that epic first chicane gig in manila but of course my parents didnt allow me coz i was too young back then.

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and a dj played a remix of this classic trance anthem at lifedance! yay!! memories rushing back of those pretend rave parties in my room where i danced to this track and imagine im somwer in the mediterrenean coast. silly! and i also rememebr my good frend S whom i shared the same dream of experiencing berlin's love parade and going to ibiza someday. S is now in canada and sadly, love parade is now defunct. maybe ibiza in ten or 5 years or are we too old for that? hehe and to V, i always ask her to sing the intro vocals of walhalla by goureylla. they dont make those kind of trance anymore.

art: classic, asian, national palace museum, taiwan, sculpture, cabbage

in my humanities class back in school, i was quite dissapointed when the discussion on visual arts was mainly based on western examples. the discussion on sculpture in particular was all about those greek and roman figures like Venus di milo and hermes. i honestly dont like that ther wer too many western references.

how come there wer no asian stuff? like chinese art with its 5000 years of civilization, of the arts in ancient mesopotamia, babylonia or india? hmmm i must be missing something here.. maybe it was jus the curriculum of my former school, or could be the fact that there was no renaissance movement of some sort that happend in asia that is worth studying. i duno.

whoever wrote history has its biases.
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anyways, here are amazing sculptures housed at the National Palace Museum in taipei, taiwan.

Meat-shaped Stone
Ch'ing Dynasty (1644-1911)

'The craftsman who made this meat-shaped stone took the rich natural resources of this stone and carved it with great precision, and then the skin was stained. "

Jadeite Cabbage with Insects
Ch'ing Dynasty (1644-1911)

"Carved from verdant jadeite, the familiar subject, purity of the white vegetable body, and brilliant green of the leaves all create for an endearing and approachable work of art. Let's also not forget the two insects that have alighted on the vegetable leaves!"

Ivory Ball

a ball within a ball - INCEPTION! jus how on earth did they carve this?? mind boggling work of art.

how i wish i can visit this museum someday.

fashion: maison martin margiela, 2012 mens, brother sharp

a look from martin maison margiela fall 2012 menswear.

http://www.style.com

the look above reminds me of this viral photo of 'brother sharp/vagabond prince'. netizens were intrigue as to who was this strikingly handsome beggar donning layers of clothes as if he was strutting down the runway. his accidental taste in fashion gained him the admiration of millions worldwide. yes hes a real beggar and sadly, people found out that hes mentally ill.

read his story here:
http://knowyourmeme.com
http://www.chinahush.com

music: suede, campfire song, nothingness, emptiness

Emptiness falls
Nothingness calls
Dust settles
In my head

A static TV
Stares back at me
We are soulless
We are soulless

Nothing inside
Nothing to hide
We are soulless
We are soulless

listen to song here: campfire song - suede

emptiness 1
emptiness 2
emptiness 3

film, places: i come with the rain, mt diwalwal, tran anh hung, josh hartnett, takuya kimura

i admire foreigners who considered the philippines as the playground of their imagination, like alex garland (the teserract) and my favorite wong kar wai (the Days of Being Wild) among others. its rare for our country to get this kind of publicity without involving a natural calamity.

in 2009, acclaimed french vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung brought josh hartnett and takuya kimura into the jungles of mindanao wer they shot a part of the film noir “I Come With the Rain”. to be exact, the filming took place in mt diwalwal! yes! that notorious mining town tucked in some remote mountain region in mindanao. isnt it soo cool!

Tran also directed the art film "The Scent of Green Papaya" which won him an award at Cannes. i wanted to like Green Papaya but it was just slow and too simple it barely had any strong impression on me. but on a positive note, it was such a treat to have a glimpse of an era in vietnam that has nothing to do with the war in the 60s. so scent of green papaya left me somwer between hating and liking it. if not for its unique title, i wuldnt watch this film.

my favorite diwalwal scenes from the movie:

a distraught josh hartnett ordered a bottle of beer in a dingy hole in the wall in diwalwal. there wer strippers gyrating to an oldies ballad (Gintong Araw by Rodrigo Bing, i find this song choice rather weird and unsexy) but Josh was too distressed to even ogle at the nudity being served in front of him. haunted by his memories, he turned his back from the sleazy scene, pause a moment and left the bar. deadma! na hugyaw ko sa background music!!

The resurrection of shitao.


Shitao (kimura) came back to life days after he was shot dead by three armed men in the jungle. u must see the pain in his eyes as he rose from the dead acting mad and confused, maggots and insects creeping on his bloodstained body. it was jus him amidst the lush foliage on a rainy day in the tropics. this scene has no dialogue and it convinced me that takuya is indeed a brilliant actor.



the Bible taught us how Jesus raised Lazarus back to life. but there was no Jesus in the movie. shitao himself became like Jesus, like a messiah he acquired the power to heal those who are sicked. it is said that the resurrection of Lazarus was a turning point in the crucifixion of Jesus. someone is nailed on the cross at the end of the movie.

psychology, trauma, stockholm syndrome, hong kong triad, cult, violence, exotic locations, detective crime, cruxificion… if u are interested in these things, then this movie is a must see. as with my experience with the Scent of Green Papaya, dont expect that much with I Come with the Rain.
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Diwalwal is one of those places that i really wanted to visit even if there are safety concerns. i want to experience how it was like during gold rush, descending into those tunnels to mine precious metal either by hand or TNT! gold panning too is something that i want to try. gol

my moms family actually live not far from this mining town. i remember mom told me that we have relatives living there. how i wish i know them.

i remember a classmate in elementary who was born there. she was named after this place and we sometimes call her as Diwata. Asa na kaha to si din?

design: lamp, cloud, wout wessemius, kenneth cobonpue, dominic wilcox, studio italia design

i recently saw this cloud lamp by wout wessemius while browsing the net and i thought uhmm no! not this kind of cloud design again. so i decided to compile these almost similar designs and you decide which one you like.

Le Nuage by Wout Wessemius. this reminds me of fats.



Cloud Suspension Lamp by Kenneth Cobonpue for Hive.
this is orignally designed by hae young yoon right?

i think i hav actualy seen this in a coffee shop somwere uptown. the ones i saw look grimy as if dusts clung to its surface, so from a far it looks like a suspended rock and i cant place the whole lightness and flufiness of a cloud. but i still like it!


Nimbus by Dominic Wilcox. its going to rain...



Nuvola by Studio Italia Design.

art: nobuhiro nakanishi

wish i was the one who created this. i have thought about layering some materials but not with images. i love how this work appears to be multi dimensional. so beautiful!

Layered Drawings by Nobuhiro Nakanishi

more here:
http://design-milk.com/nobuhiro-nakanishi/