- portraits: Mummy -

- portraits: Tobes -

- portraits: G. Phil -

At the lair

- portraits: the Pooh -

- portraits: Martita -

- portraits: Alice -

Friends be warned...
If I'm satisfied with one of my depictions of you, you will see yourself in here.

- portraits: Alexis -

Guys, I don't know. Should I start a new blog just for my personal photographs? Or should I incorporate them here? Gimme a hand...

- Gibbons and Œdipe -

I came across E. Gibbon's work the other day and I'd just like to share some thoughts :)

Gibbons has a series of these painting of characters set inside a frame. He utlises soft lighting, simple props and gentle tonal change and imbues them with a Classical sensibility. I find his paintings deliver a certain sense of romanticism, despair, and intrigue. The subjects do not seem to be claustrocised as they seem to have the freedom to step out into the fore if they wished, and the back to the frame does not seem solid. Which evokes these questions and thoughts: Why are they in the box? They seem to be in their own world. Why don't they step out and face the real world? They can, if only they would. What is so special about the sphere that he seems to hold so dear to? Does he love his own reflection? He seems akin to Narcissus? Why does the other man want to kill himself? Is it because he failed to protect his people? Is it because he failed himself?

Some people often don't understand why some art is better than others. A lot of times it's really quite subjective to the beholder. For me, it is the emotions and stories that is embedded into the work that is important; or it is the thoughts that arise out of viewing or experiencing the work; or the relations that it bear to precedents, personal memories or another object, person or atmosphere. It could simply also stimulate senses by way of colour, tone, contours, density and or a of a sexual, horrible, splendid, jovial nature, etc.

In Gibbon's biography he had expressed that he was influenced by Ingres. I looked up some of Ingres' work and came across Œdipe and the Sphinx. Now I think I saw it when I went to the Louvre, or else I have encountered it somewhere else, possibly in a lecture slide.

I found the story of Œdipe quite interesting, and some of you might have heard of the Sphinx' riddle, if not the story of the encounter with the Sphinx:

The most famous Grecian sphinx was the terrifying child of Echidna who bore many other mythical monsters including Cerberus the three-headed dog, the Hydra, and a two-headed dog named Orthros with whom she conceived the sphinx.

An oracle warned Laius, king of Thebes, that there was danger to his throne and life if his newborn son should grow up. He therefore committed the child to the care of a herdsman with orders to destroy him; but the herdsman, moved with pity, yet not daring entirely to disobey, tied up the child by the feet and left him hanging to the branch of a tree. In this condition he was found by a peasant who carried him to his master and mistress. He was adopted and called Oedipus, or Swollen-foot.

Many years afterwards Laius being on his way to Delphi, accompanied only by one attendant, met in a narrow road a young man also driving in a chariot. On his refusal to leave the way at their command the attendant killed one of his horses, and the stranger, filled with rage, slew both Laius and his attendant. The young man was Oedipus who thus unknowingly became the slayer of his own father.

Shortly after this event the city of Thebes was afflicted with a monster sent by Hera to guard the pass to the city. It was called the Sphinx. It had the body of a lion and the upper part of a woman. It lay crouched on the top of a rock, and arrested all travellers who came that way, proposing to them a riddle, with the condition that those who could solve it should pass safe, but those who failed should be killed. Not one had yet succeeded in solving it, and all had been slain. Oedipus was not daunted by these alarming accounts, but boldly advanced to the trial. The Sphinx asked him, "What animal is that which in the morning goes on four feet, at noon on two, and in the evening upon three?". Oedipus solved the riddle, saying that man crawled on all fours in his infancy, walked on two legs as a man, and walked with a third leg, his cane, in old age. The Sphinx was so mortified at the solving of her riddle that she cast herself down from the rock and perished.

The gratitude of the people for their deliverance was so great that they made Oedipus their king, giving him in marriage their queen Jocasta, the widow of Laius. Oedipus, ignorant of his parentage, had already become the slayer of his father; in marrying the queen he became the husband of his mother. These horrors remained undiscovered, till at length Thebes was afflicted with famine and pestilence, and the oracle being consulted, the double crime of Oedipus came to light. Jocasta put an end to her own life, and Oedipus, seized with madness, tore out his eyes and wandered away from Thebes, dreaded and abandoned by all except his daughters, who faithfully adhered to him, till after a tedious period of miserable wandering he found the termination of his wretched life.

-from Monstrous

- wacko! -

The English language is so perverse.
Sometimes it conjures a 'WOW! I've always wanted to know what that thingamajig was called!'
And sometimes, it's a 'Is it really necessary for that word to exist?' kinda deal.

Defenestration means 'to throw someone or something out of a window.'
n. [mythically from a traditional Czech assasination method]
[but apparently not a myth, just became illegal]

Other meanings:
1. Proper karmic retribution for an incorrigible punster. "Oh, god, that was awful!" "Quick! Defenestrate him!"

2. The act of exiting a windows system in order to get better response time from a full-screen program.

3. The act of discarding something under the assumption that it will improve matters. "I don't have any disk space left." "Well, why don't you defenestrate that 100 megs worth of old core dumps?"

4. Under a GUI, the act of dragging something out of a window (onto the screen). "Next, defenestrate the MugWump icon."

5. The act of completely removing Microsoft Windows from a
PC in favor of a better OS (typically Linux).

------------------------------------------------------------
I find meaning number 5 very evolved indeed.

- everybody has a brokeback -

The highly anticipated movie: Brokeback Mountain, has received notable accolades at the recent Venice International Film Festival. An interview excerpt from At the Movies:

JAKE GYLLENHAAL: We have this idea of what love is, and everyone says, "Love has no bounds." And we all subscribe to that idea. And you can read it in cards, you know, like, it's become such a cliché that we don't really believe that, because when it comes really down to "love has no bounds", we don't buy it. We all stay within a form, I'm speaking for myself. I stay within a form of, like, is that OK to do or is that OK to do?

And this movie was like, it has no bounds. Like, these aren't, in my belief, these aren't two, like gay guys. These are two people who fall in love. And, you know, from the environment that they're in, which is incredibly lonely, and, you know, they find each other.

It is very admirable that there're actors and directors constantly pushing the envelope these days, and coming from Hollywood, that's even more refreshing.

The trailer can be seen here.
Brokeback Mountain is directed by Ang Lee and has been adapted from a novel by Annie Proulx.

- falling grace -

I'm really sad that the trees in Hyde Park will have to go. It was always so romantic strolling under them at dusk. So grand, yet so eloquently protective...

Full story here.

- aaaaardman -

Watched Wallace and Gromit, the Curse of the Were-Rabbit tonight. Wallace is as usual this annoying old brat and Gromit is as usual his handsome self :) I dunno what it is, but something about Gromit just makes me wanna.... date him. Maybe it's the silent unsung hero type of character that I'm drawn to. Maybe he just reminds me of heccy. But darn, everything reminds me of heccy these days ;)

Might add more about the movie later, but I just came across their production studio: Aardman Animations, with a very "326" [mitsuru] style website and very interesting little commercials, well worth a visit :)















-326 club screen

- sei! sei! sei! -

Oh my god this is too funny to not share~
[link updated]

Hard Gay goes to Yahoo!

Here's a 7-minute capture from a Japanese variety program. I thought this seems interesting enough to put online, given that it involves Yahoo!. The story-line of this sketch is as follows: A character called “Hard Gay” (by comedian Masaki Sumitani aka “Lazer Ramon”) thinks that the “Hoo!” in Yahoo! is stolen from his often used exclamation and goes to visit Yahoo! headquarters to try to get a deal. He wants to be in their ads, even goes to prove that he's popular by auctioning off his hat to Yahoo! online auction site. Sure enough, the hat's bidding jumps to about [28500yen/AUD$336] pretty quickly. It's obvious Yahoo! cannot use this character for promotion, so “Hard Gay” goes off to prove what he can do. There's no shocking material in this unless you're offended by hip-thrusts. Whether or not it's funny is up to you. Note that Yahoo! offices sport a massage room.

-from chaotic intransient prose bursts

My synopsis for those who are interested in more detail (see the video first perhaps):

...He pops into the reception, thrusts at the receptionist and complains why receptionists have to be chicks.
...'sei!' is HardGay's trademark retort to shut people up. He resents the receptionist's doubt of 'sei!'s authority.
...He proceeds to go around the headquarters to promote himself as a commercial mascot.
...He pretends to be the receptionist...
...He goes to confront the copy girl. Offers to do the copying for her, she backs away in shock and crashes into the partitions. She then backs away to her quarters and crashes again.
...He photocopies his head. A warning appears in the captions saying to refrain from copying...[haha, get it]
...He takes out his impressive portrait and says 'even though one should never look directly into the light... but I had my eyes open anyway!' [i think it was cos he had sunnies...]
...He goes to the marketing department and sees a tired employee. So he decides to massage him with gyration. However the guy directs him to their employees massage room!
...He greets the incoming staff openly and clamps a hold of him as he got close.
...HG turns him around and massages his ass cheeks.
...Afterwards he raids the conference room with a "conference hoooooo!"
...He comes up with a proposal for the Yahoo! Auction arena. To sell his original HardGay cap!
...He pulls a member from the conference to help him out with putting up this auction.
...The crew helps him takes photos to put online. 3 hours later, his hat has biddings up to 28,500yen (AUD$340).
...HG is very impressed so he says that's enough! If it goes on any more it'll reach astronomical figures!
...He thanks the guy and says "Gay and Internet Merger hoooooo"
...He goes to a seemingly important guy and asked if that was proof that he was accepted in the internet society, and stated that the only logical solution now is to make him a commercial character!
...The guy kindly declined and said that there are many other Yahoo! communities in the world so...HardGay was shotdown.
...so HardGay decided that he shall make himself a billboard mascot instead!
...He wraps himself with neon tubes and elevates himself to a highway billboard and wails "yaaaaaaaaa hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!"

Livin' La Vida Loca sung by Ricky Martin.

Thanks Seb for pointing me to this :)

- adding depth to our pavements -

You know those angsty pavement artists who are so protective of their work? Yes yes they are amazing drawings and it's always a pity that they get such a fleeting existence, but it's no excuse to be a dick about it. I had one in Melbourne where all I wanted to capture in picture was the artist and the emotion she put into her work. I had almost started to admire her when she barked and me and made me pay her royalties. True true, I am a cheapscape. But if I had thought her drawing was amazing and deserved a picture then I would've given her money anyway, even if just a little (although not as little as 5 euro cents Martin). Forced charity really isn't a pleasant experience.

Julian Beever is a pavement artist who puts a comical and illusory stamp on his surfaces. Seen from one angle it is of complete irrelevance, but walk a bit more and turn 180 degrees and you will see a completely different world. Sometimes godly figures would be bathing in the middle of a mall, at other times a giant packet of crayons would be seemingly there for you to pick up. Here are some of his amazing anamorphic illusions:






Thanks Alfred for the forward :)

- worst disaster -

Oh ho ho ho ho. What a kodak moment.


And Google's at it again!
Try searching 'failure' on google and see what you get.
Now this isn't the first time I've heard of google searches lambasting political figures (and certainly isn't the first Bush related one), but it always titillates an empathetic giggle. good on Google! heh.

-from The Register

(Sorry about the existence of a Bush picture on my site...)
Thanks Liz for the forward :)

- words to think about 4 - featuring Nexus

Could it be? Could it really be time for another bout of Words to Think About?
You got that right!

vigilante - person who try to prevent crime or punish criminals unofficially
bashful - embarrassed easily; unabashed - without worry about criticism or embarrassment
aphorism - short clever saying, idioms
croon - sing or talk in sweet low voice full of emotion
stickler - person who thinks a particular type of behaviour is very important; eg 'a stickler for detail'

The unabashed army of vigilante animals, including penguins, under the soulful crooning of our Honda narrator, smashes the noisy diesel engine into smithereens. 'Honda, the power of dreams' is the aphorism that saw the fruition of this Nexus production that is oh so sunny. Oh and by the by, Martin is a stickler for detail.

Go to Nexus Productions to see this funky ad (and many other awesome productions, including my favourite Catch Me If You Can opening titles).

- super package -

The package of our new Superman to be, is finally deemed safe for all to ogle. From Newsweek Entertainment:

There was lots of early Internet buzz about the suit's being too dark, or the "S" 's being too small, but the biggest issue for the studio, according to costume designer Louise Mingenbach, was about Superman's trunks. Or, more specifically, what's in them. "There was more discussion about Superman's 'package' than anything else on the suit," she says, laughing. "Was it too big? Was it not big enough? Was it too pointy? Too round? It was somebody's job for about a month just working on codpiece shapes. It was crazy." And the final verdict? "Not big," she says, and laughs again. "Ten-year-olds will be seeing this movie."

CODPIECE?! I always thought they were the real thing! Now my illusions have been shattered...

- rodrigo y gabriela -

Isn't it the best when you discover something cool by accident?

Well I came across this name (well, these names) when I was listening to Seb's podcast.

Rodrigo y Gabriela.
They're a mexican duo that has settled in Ireland. Their music is to entertain and is flamenco in essense, with riff-based sounds paying homage to south spanish influences.

Here's part of a review from BBC that saves me from making up crap about it:

To the unattuned ear, flamenco can seem jarring, discordant and depressing, an unnerving combination of guitar in staccato mode and voices given over to sudden spasms of passion.

As an upbeat, ultra-accessible alternative, Rodrigo and Gabriela play a melodious riff-based sound influenced by the lamentations of southern Spain but not restricted to - or really rooted in - them. Instead, they aim to entertain, delight and make feet tap. Like the music of virtuoso guitar giants José Feliciano and Paco de Lucia, this is picking for performance, with some impressive, impossibly fast fretwork and lots of mutual, competitive emoting. Their live show went down a storm at WOMAD this year and the hooks are as addictive as they are seductive - R&G appeal way beyond the usual World Music specialist circuit.

They have released a studio record called Re-Foc, but their live recordings, such as Live in Manchester and Dublin, are much more uninhibited and eclectic.

Here's an iTunes link to their two albums for a taste:



Go to their website and a few tracks are free for download. 'Mr Tang' was the one I heard on Seb's podcast. It's very pleasantly pacey :) Enjoy~~~

P.S. Seb, can you please link me to the jazz podcast where I got this from?

- my pocket engine -

Remember those days -- those glory days where we were all happy that a bunch of simple pixels were hopping around?

And remember when we could take those happily hopping pixels everywhere we went?

And remember when those happily hopping pixels went colourful?

And what about the time when those happily colourful hopping pixels went ballistic and hyper?

And how wonderful was it when a whole bunch of new polygons started zipping around with the ballistically hyper and happily colourful hopping pixels?

And it was craaaaaaaaaaazy when those bunches of polygons and ballistically hyper and happily colourful hopping pixels shared rooms with sparkly spinning discs with extras and deleted scenes and heaps of alternate universes full of other happy polygons and pixels!

That was quite enough for me and I longed for those glory days again. Remember the Game Boy? Those little dark dots on the vaguely green background? The high score that you couldn't reach because you're on a road trip with your parents on a sunny day?

Well I'm not here to talk about that piece of space junk.

I'm here, to nostalgically reminesce the best handheld console ever made -- the PC Engine GT.

Developed by NEC and launched in 1990, the PC Engine GT was the best there was at the time. I mean, by golly, it had a colour screen powered by its own cathode ray tube! Its backlight and the recessed screen meant that you could play it even during your day lit road trips.

There was no question about it, the PC Engine GT was leagues ahead of its competition, and at 15, it's still being considered as 'quite possibly the best handheld console ever made', and only runs a close second to Game Boy Advanced, according to TotalGame.net.

It also offered the best game ever: PC Kid 2 (PC Genjin 2) by Hudson Soft.
This kid has a super bony head that could knock any wondering axe throwers or american indian triceratops into oblivion. Get him a meat shank and he'd turn into a huffing puffing zany-eyed maniac. And watch out for those fishies, they'll latch onto you and suck you dry if you don't shake 'em off with turbo powered fingers (more pictures). It's amazing how much you can do with just two buttons. Swim, climb, suck, kiss, eat, run etc... I could press those buttons all day.

Now I haven't seen my PC Engine GT for years. Perhaps even a decade. I had moved onto Playstation and the like in the past years but now I'm reminescing. I had just found out my mum has given it away in the past few weeks too and I'm desperately trying to get her to retrieve it. It's worth a bit nowadays but not as much as I thought it'd be (about AUD$130 on Ebay). But of course, if I could claim mine back and it's still in playable condition, I wouldn't give it away for all the chocolate in the world!