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June 28, 2005
On Robert Lowell
With a new book on Robert Lowell, NYT does a retrospective on the brilliant yet depressed poet, aka mentor of Plath and Sexton.
In other words, if you follow my link, you will get a crash course on why I think Lowell is one of the best brains out of 20th Century America.
Posted by lainey at 12:15 AM | Comments (0)
June 23, 2005
Changing the World
Talking to Shwang about voluntarism, human rights and getting jobs at NGOs, I realised why I am so passionate about, as my friends tease me, "saving the world".
I don't think I can so much as "save the world". I don't think the Iraqi invasion could've been averted, third world debt absolved or a cure for AIDS to be found.
But I believe in minimising the damage. That war-torn countries will not suffer so much, that some in third world countries get a chance to life, that AIDS patience get better treatment, better quality of life and better medication.
It's minimising the damage that we can do. It's not changing the world.
Sometimes I wish I am more cynical, perhaps I will feel less heartache.
Posted by lainey at 01:07 AM | Comments (0)
Scars
We have escaped the bitterness
Of love, and love lost, and love
Betrayed. And what might have been,
And what might be, fall equally,
Away with what is, and leave
Only these ideograms
Printed on the immortal
Hydrocarbons of flesh and stone.
-Kenneth Rexroth
When one feels low, one reads Rexroth and life feels better.
Brilliance is God's gift to the world.
Posted by lainey at 12:46 AM | Comments (0)
June 22, 2005
Shopping In Guangzhou
Beijing Lu - Guangzhou's ultimate shopping street.
That day I was tired from cramps - giddy, weak but still curious. I had spent the entire day on my own exploring Guangzhou and attempting to discover its train system. Finally, I met you at the mall near your office for dinner. We were both ravenous. We had not eaten the entire day and so stashed plans to go to that fancy recommended restaurant and went to the closest eatery to gorge ourselves silly.
I was tired and so were you. But you knew I was leaving the next day and I was still curious about the streets of Guangzhou and had wanted to visit Beijing Lu desperately. We took a train there, because I was so proud of myself that I discovered how to do so and so were you.
When we got to Beijing Lu, you insisted we walk into every shop, so that I see everything. I tried to explain - I don't like to shop, I don't like going into shops. I'm content walking along the streets with you. We stopped for juice, and iced tea. And you dragged me to a store and bought two tops for me. Two rather (by my standards) conservative-looking tops. You were so happy that I looked good in them, you bought them both.
But we were tired, and so we sat on a bench, leaning on each other, staring at the lights and you told me to take a picture of the street. And I did. Smelly and dirty and crowded Beijing Lu was, but weaving through it with your arm around my waist, your innocuous comments and your random kisses and hugs, it felt like the most beautiful street in the world.
Posted by lainey at 12:09 AM | Comments (0)
June 21, 2005
Housing in China
Living conditions have always interested me... so here goes the following photoessay.
A new and clean photoshop right below a flat of dirty, cramped apartments.
City housing at its worst.
The condominium he lives in. Nice, almost-clean, secure and modern.
Posted by lainey at 10:50 PM | Comments (0)
June 17, 2005
"The distance is quite simply much too far for me to row
It seems farther than ever before
Oh no."
-Death Cab For Cutie, Transatlanticism
Posted by lainey at 11:55 PM | Comments (0)
SF3
Singapore Fantastic Film Festival - an essential for escape from reality.
Kontroll is definitely worth a watch, or two. ;)
Posted by lainey at 11:17 AM | Comments (0)
Back From Reality
Guangzhou was polluted, rainy, humid and sweltering. But maybe through romance-tinted glasses, it has its unique charms too. Between urban gardens and malls filled with faux-designer goods, I found reprieve, rest and romance.
Perhaps it is also because I felt strangely at home - steeped in cantopop, cantonese, Chinese and strange Cantonese cuisine. Like walking the grimey streets of NYC's and Frisco's Chinatown, listening to Cantonese conversed unabashedly, I thought of my grandparents as usual. Being in Guangzhou and the chinatowns of the world bring me back to a childhood of loving grandparents, gorgeous food and blabbering Cantonese.
Speaking of which, I'm blabbering now. Sleep now. Reminisce later.
Some pictures coming up. When I finally clear the backlog of work.
Posted by lainey at 01:03 AM | Comments (0)
June 09, 2005
What I Learnt This Morning.
Hinglish words figuring in the dictionary this year include aunti- ji and uncle- ji , freshie (a new immigrant), gora (White), kutta (dog) and kutti (bitch), haramzada and haramzadi (described as bastards or obnoxious/despicable) and yaar (friend).
-unknown source, The BF
Posted by lainey at 10:19 AM | Comments (0)
June 05, 2005
Quote Of The Day
Harvey Krumpet says: Golden Retrievers are too cute. Unfair.
But I can't help it! I can't help it if my heart can only love one. Maybe it will learn to divide itself evenly between the two doggys. Hopefully. :)
Posted by lainey at 10:51 PM | Comments (0)
Two Dogs
A hyperactive Riki with a nonchalant Rummy.
Posted by lainey at 05:35 PM | Comments (0)
A Sleepy Dog
Rum sleeping soundly, oblivious of my camera.
Posted by lainey at 05:28 PM | Comments (0)
Determination
I walk in darkness, and no one will help me but my own mad self. I want to communicate with Dostoyevski in heaven, and ask old Melville if he's still discouraged, and Wolfe why he let himself die at thirty-eight. I don't want to give up. I promise I shall never give up, and that I'll die yelling and laughing.
- Jack Kerouac
Amen. :)
Posted by lainey at 01:16 AM | Comments (0)
Past Love
Do I love Edie still? The wife of my youth? Tonight I think so. In my phantasy of glee there is no sea-light and no beatness, just the wind blowing through the kitchen window on an October morning.
- Jack Kerouac
I love Kerouac and reading him on a Saturday night is pure unadulterated j o y.
Posted by lainey at 01:10 AM | Comments (0)
Finlandia Vodka Ad
In a past life I was a mermaid who fell in love with an ancient mariner. I pulled him into the sea to be my husband. I didn't know he couldn't breathe underwater.
So heartbreakingly tragic.
Posted by lainey at 01:03 AM | Comments (0)
Apple 98 Campaign
To the crazy ones.
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They're not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them,
disbelieve them, glorify them or vilify them.
About the only thing you can't do is to ignore them.
Because they change things.
They invent. They imagine. They heal.
They explore. They create. They inspire.
They push the human race forward.
Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
Or sit in silence and hear a song that's never been written?
Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?
We make tools for these kinds of people.
While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can
change the world, are the ones who do.
As much as I think it's kinda ironic that they spew this out unbashedly while creating sheep out of humans with their iPods and uber-cool gadgets, I still think it's pretty cool. In a sad counter-conformist, ironic and postmodern sorta way.
Posted by lainey at 12:58 AM | Comments (2)