the age of aquarius

minhas fotos de buenos aires

2007-08-18T17:15:00.001-04:00

a arte deco

2007-05-19T20:10:00.000-04:00

eu adoro a arte deco da artista tamara de lempicka (1898-1980). para mim, sua arte representa inocência tanto quanto erotismo. em geral acho que o contraste entre dois valores contraditórios, quando tinham misturados sem contradição, é muito intrigante.

a verdade

2007-04-15T21:06:00.000-04:00

não é tudo sobre nós

2007-03-24T18:51:00.000-04:00

quero que vocês conhecer meu amigo o jovem raimundo. o menino é minha criança patrocinada no brasil. no mês passado ele fez 7 anos de idade. na verdade nos temos aniversário no mesmo dia.

raimundo mora na região do recife com seus pais, dois irmãos e sua irmã. seu pai é um lavrador e sua mãe é uma lavradora também. ele e ela esforçam-se muito para que sustentam sua família mas tem sido difícil.

agora raimundo não vai a escola. o menino tem ocupado para ajudar a sua família com as tarefas menores em casa. às vezes ele quer jogar com seu carro de brinquedo.

às vezes quando estou irritado ou estou frustrado com algumas inconveniências eu pensaria sobre o raimundo e a sua família. então lembraria-me que todo não é tudo sobre me.

a menina engraçada

2007-03-20T00:19:00.000-04:00

curvas perigosas é uma série fabulosa da caricaturista argentina maitena. segue-se as séries prévias suas, mulheres alteradas e superadas, que tinha publicadas em 12 linguagens e prosseguem com sucesso.

gosto de seu humor espirituoso sobre paranóias femininas e masculinos. por exemplo, em curvas perigosas diga quem você é ela dirá o que será o último a saber:

a esposa: seu marido sai com outra.
a mãe: sua filha está gravida.
o pai: papai, eu sou gay.
o marido: quero o divórcio.
o filho: você é adotado.
a filha: na verdade o seu cachorro não foi morar no sítio.
a sogra: nós nos separamos.
a melhor amiga: dormi com o seu namorado.
o paciente: é maligno.
o funcionário: está despedido.
a viúva: só tinha dividas.
o herdeiro: como assim, mais três irmãos?

acho que é engraçada. no ano passado comprei minha cópia numa livraria em ipanema. se você gosta dessa também, pode comprar uma cópia daqui.

troque as idiomas / switching tongues

2007-03-18T17:45:00.000-04:00

olá o mundo que fala em português. tudo bom? acho que vou experimentar alguma coisa que é diferente para mim. decidi que usarei meu blog para praticar comunicação em português. agora eu sei por pouco com esta idioma. mas começando agora eu tentarei de escrever somente em portugués. espero que vocês possam me ajudar aprender. eu não estarei triste se vocês me contarão sobre meus erros. possam me fazer algumas perguntas também (é mais prática para mim). até logo e muito obrigado!

*** i'm going to try something new. to my english-speaking friends, my apologies. i'd like to try using this blog to practice a foreign language that i'm trying to learn. bye for now, let's catch up later... :-)

what is faith

2006-10-23T20:13:00.000-04:00

the african impala can jump to a height of more than 10 feet and cover a distance of greater than 30 feet. yet these magnificent creatures can be kept in an enclosure in any zoo with only a 3-foot wall. this is because the animals will not jump if they cannot see where their feet will fall.

faith is the ability to trust what we cannot see, and with faith we are freed from the flimsy enclosures of life that only fear allows to entrap us.

blame it on rio

2006-10-07T19:15:00.000-04:00

mas que nada [sergio mendes feat. the black eyed peas]

garota de ipanema [tom jobin]

brasil [antonio carlos jobim]

related:
cidade de deus
number 5
numeros cinco y seis
dude, what's your plan

not luck, not fate

2006-09-29T23:04:00.000-04:00

viva pedro

2006-09-26T19:46:00.000-04:00

oh my god, sony pictures is re-releasing 8 great films from my favorite film director of all time, pedro almodovar. the film retrospective is called viva pedro and they started screening in atlanta last weekend.

i'm in almodovar heaven! here are the films:

women on the verge of a nervous breakdown
mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios

all about my mother
todo sobre mi madre

talk to her
habla con ella

the flower of my secret
la flor de mi secreto

live flesh
carne tremula

law of desire
la ley del deseo

bad education
la mala educación

matador
matador

watch the preview:

cidade de deus

2006-09-24T20:27:00.000-04:00

my top 5 memories of rio de janeiro:

sitting in a beach chair in praia de ipanema, sipping caipirinha without a care in the world, watching gorgeous cariocas go by

enjoying sumptuous churrasco in copacabana with newfound friends, trying to hold a conversation in brazilian portuguese

taking photos of the world famous cristo redentor in corcovado

having lunch in botafogo against a spectacular view of pão de açúcar (priceless!)

hitting the clubs (techno with a brazilian beat!)

obrigado e tchau, a cidade maravilhosa. muito prazer. até mais!

hope and innocence

2006-08-11T20:06:00.000-04:00

nothing takes the past away
like the future
nothing makes the darkness go
like the light

an american icon

2006-08-05T21:00:00.000-04:00

robert cook, 1984-2006. hero.

2006-08-05T01:16:00.000-04:00

"he met kimberley, as far as I know, that day. i would do that for her but i can't believe that a stranger who just met her would knowingly give up his life for her."

the father of an australian woman has described the final act of a heroic young skydiving instructor, who calmly told his daughter their plane would crash and embraced her to protect her from the impact.

"when he realised the plane was actually going to crash, he grabbed kimberley and he calmly talked to her and he told her that the plane was going to crash.

"he told her what to expect and what to do and kept her calm and focused her attention on him and what he was saying rather than what was happening around her.

"as he pulled her close, her head rested on his shoulders. he put his head against hers to stop it flopping around.

"he said to her: 'as the plane is about to hit the ground, make sure you're on top of me so that i'll take the force of the impact'.

"the plane actually hit, they believe, a power pole or a power line and it went into a vertical situation, and she became a little bit disoriented, but she felt robert actually twist his body around until kim was on top of him and then the plane hit the ground.

"kimberley suffered pressured vertebrae, severe muscle tears around her spine, a broken pelvis and collar bone, many cuts and abrasions, concussion and severe bruising.

"he took the full force of the impact."

read more

pace da tutti i balconi

2006-07-30T13:37:00.000-04:00

i first came across the pace flag while roaming the streets of rome a couple of years ago. at first i thought the very catholic italy must have become quite liberal over the years, what with those rainbow flags- usually associated with the gay cause- hanging all over the city. but i wondered what that word pace on the face of the flag meant.

later i came to realize that pace was the italian word for peace. pace da tutti i balconi- peace from every balcony- is a popular campaign that first swept across italy in the buildup to the war in iraq. it later spread around europe and has now grown into a worldwide movement.

imagine all the people
living life in peace
you may say that i'm a dreamer
but I'm not the only one
i hope someday you'll join us
and the world will be as one

-john lennon (b.1940-d.1980)

past, present, future

2006-07-29T20:15:00.000-04:00

those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

super icons

2006-07-16T12:14:00.000-04:00

express yourself

2006-07-09T15:30:00.000-04:00

south park me

2006-06-08T22:30:00.000-04:00

hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia

2006-06-06T21:05:00.000-04:00

yes, you there. you scrabble bully. it's a word. it's what you call fear of the number 666.

yep, 666. that enigmatic number. the sum of its digits plus the cube of its digits. the sum of the squares of the first seven primes. the sum of the first 144 digits of pi. the street address of donald trump's corporate headquarters.

today, my dear friends, is 6/6/6.

boo!

number 5

2006-05-27T00:27:00.000-04:00

getting ready to check off number 5. i can't wait!
not sure yet whether i'll make number 6 too but we'll see.

tonight!

2006-05-21T20:14:00.000-04:00

southern charm

2006-05-19T20:02:00.000-04:00

savannah is a quaint little southern town, about four and a half hours drive southeast of atlanta. its recent (kind of) claim to fame is being the location for john berendt's spellbinding bestseller midnight in the garden of good and evil. read the book and you'll certainly enjoy the juicy gossip around the colorful characters based on real savannahians. one in particular.

enjoy the pics.

all creatures great and small

2006-05-14T12:38:00.000-04:00

this is georgia aquarium, located in downtown atlanta just across from centennial olympic park and cnn center. it's the world's largest aquarium, sitting on 9 1/2 acres of land and housing over 100,000 sea creatures in 8 million gallons of fresh and salt water.

atlantans and visitors alike have been going in droves since it opened in november last year. georgia aquarium welcomed its millionth guest in march this year, just 98 days after opening. that's pretty impressive.

the aquarium's notable specimens include two young whale sharks named ralph and norton, and five beluga whales named nico, gasper, marina, natasha and maris. nico and gasper were rescued from an entertainment park while marina, natasha and maris are visiting from new york aquarium.

these pics are from the other weekend when i went there with a couple of friends visiting from out of state. hope you had a good time, marts and drew!

street art

2006-04-29T12:25:00.000-04:00

street art has always fascinated me. it's not mainstream, often viewed as a social menace, and usually nobody knows the artist. but the depth of talent i've seen so far is outstanding. i think street artists are one very underrated lot.

julian beever is one of the best. julian sets himself apart with his amazing anamorphic illusions. he's been doing them over the last 10 years in the streets of london, brussells, paris, amsterdam and a bunch of other places.

anamorphic illusions are drawn in a special distortion in order to create a 3-d impression when seen from one particular viewpoint.

look at these creative examples. click on each photo for a short commentary.

confessions tour

2006-04-10T21:54:00.000-04:00

my good friend in nyc scored us tickets today for madonna's confessions tour on july 3. we're going to go see her in madison square garden. so cool. madonna in new york, it's going to be awesome!

this will be my second madonna concert. the first time was when i attended her re-invention tour in atlanta back in 2004. that one grossed us$125 million over 56 shows. they say confessions tour has the potential for us$200 million. one thing's for sure, that broad is still raking in the moolah!

not until another 100 years

2006-04-05T00:06:00.000-04:00

i was just chatting with a friend and he alerted me to something cool happening tonight (uhm, this morning). at 2 minutes 3 seconds past 1 o'clock today, the time and date will be:

01:02:03 04/05/06

not gonna happen again until another hundred years. stay up and have a drink!

happy 30th, apple!

2006-04-01T20:24:00.000-05:00

"here's to the crazy ones. the misfits. the rebels. the troublemakers. the round pegs in the square holes."

- a poem on a wall at apple computer's headquarters

the rites of spring

2006-03-20T22:49:00.000-05:00

today was the first day of spring. for some people, spring is a time of renewal, the washing away of any negative energy accumulated over the dark winter months. for others, spring is the season for love.

in the spring, a young man's fancy lightly turns to
thoughts of love...
- lord alfred tennyson

champ for a day

2006-03-18T21:48:00.000-05:00

score! if only this were in real life, i'd now be spending my winnings cavorting on a month-long trip across south america and some in eastern europe. haha.

i love jeopardy. there's nothing like the shameless brandishing of one's command of useless trivia. what is that word that's also used to refer to a group of peacocks again? oh yeah, that's right, what is an 'ostentation'.

haha. i'm just being facetious. you can lower that raised eyebrow now. ;-)

happy birthday, sis!

2006-03-16T22:38:00.000-05:00

the circus is in town

2006-03-11T18:39:00.000-05:00

oh alright, not really. not quite yet.

next month, the fabulous cirque du soleil is coming to stage delirium at philips arena here in atlanta. delirium is cirque's latest production and its first-ever live arena event, a state-of-the-art mix of music, dance, theatre and multimedia.

i remember the first cirque production i ever went to. it was called alegría, which i attended back in sydney about four years ago. the second i felt my heart pounding while watching acrobats soaring and somersaulting forty feet above the ground was the precise moment i became a fan.

delirium is going to be fierce. i can't wait!

previews:
delirium
alegría
varekai
la nouba
quidam

tout va bien, merci

2006-02-19T09:18:00.000-05:00

it's only been one week ago but now it's a blur. i stayed for a few days in montreal the other weekend (my birthday weekend) and had a blast. i met new friends, enjoyed the food and definitely had a great time.

as usual, i'm posting some pics. the one above is fierce. i got lost walking around vieux montreal one day and happened upon this interesting graffiti. forgive the profanity (if you can make it out in the pic) but, whatever, it looks like art to me.

one of the pics below was another surprise. it's a section of the berlin wall, donated by berlin to the city of montreal in 1992 on the occasion of its 350th anniversary.

to my new friend dj tag, thanks for the demo cd. i love your mixes. come to atlanta sometime and check out the club scene. i'm sure your montreal sound will be a hit here. by the way, check your email, i sent you some remixes (rauhofer, calderone and tracy young).

and the winner is...

2006-02-04T23:42:00.000-05:00

woohoo! i won the auction.

i am now the proud owner of william and orbit, a really rare set of promo cds by the amazing william orbit back in 2002. only 1000 original copies in existence anywhere. click the image on the left to see the really cool set list.

don't ask how much the closing bid was. let's just say i had to beat other bidders with a stick for it. haha.

waiting for 06:51:29

2006-02-04T14:06:00.000-05:00

aargh, i can't stand the suspense!
tick tick tock, wish me luck!

g'day australia

2006-01-26T19:06:00.000-05:00

happy australia day, mates!

throw another shrimp on the... oh, never mind. have a nice day at the beach!

the new 7 wonders of the world

2006-01-02T21:11:00.000-05:00

congratulations, miss liberty, you made it to the finals!

citizens of the world can now vote for their favorite landmarks to be part of the new 7 wonders of the world list.

a world heritage foundation based in zurich is conducting a worldwide election to determine the official list. the process has taken six years so far, shortlisting 21 finalists from a pool of 77 across the globe. the winners will be announced in a live telecast event broadcast worldwide on new year's day 2007.

according to project organizer, bernard weber:

"the ancient seven wonders were declared by a single man about 2000 years ago, so i thought as a millennium project it would be fun to combine the latest technology ... (and have) all the people of the world select what they decide to be the new seven wonders of the world."

vote here and be part of history.

related:
the seven wonders of the ancient world
snotty parisiens call this 'hideous'
it ain't over till the fat lady sings here
"give me your tired, your poor ..." - you sure about that?
god is brazilian

happy new year

2006-01-01T21:46:00.000-05:00

3, 2, 1... and another 1

2005-12-26T11:04:00.000-05:00

don't get confused when this year's new year countdown skips a beat like a broken record. you'll just have to enjoy 2005 one second longer.

related:
a guerrila guide to nye in nyc
eat, drink and ~~be merry~~ go before you go
the words mean diddly squat, but sing away

person of the week [1] - jamie king

2005-12-25T21:42:00.000-05:00

sometimes it just amazes me how much talent some people could possibly have.

jamie king is one such person. jamie is one of today's most sought-after directors/choreographers in the entertainment business. his body of work is impressive. he has choreographed five grammy awards shows, two for american music awards, and a long list of other major events. he's directed several videos and concert tours for the likes of madonna, prince and george michael.

evidently jamie is a trailblazer. at the age of 20, he was already a principal dancer in michael jackson's dangerous world tour. in 1995, at age 23, he won an emmy nomination for directing the prince tribute performance on the american music awards. the following year, he was commissioned to choreograph the 68th annual academy awards, making him the youngest person ever to receive this honor, for which he also won another emmy citation. throughout his career so far, he's garnered four mtv vma nominations and three emmy nods.

credentials aside, have you seen his work? to sum in up in one word: wow.

related:
depending on my mood, you might start seeing person of the week posts from me on a more-or-less regular basis. no reason in particular. i just feel like it. this week at least.

google doodles

2005-12-25T21:26:00.000-05:00

you know how the logo on google search regularly changes to a holiday-relevant design whenever a red-letter day comes up? like for example, they had this for last thanksgiving, this for halloween and this for fourth of july?

well, it just occurred to me that they've never really featured santa or any other christmas-related motif on their holiday logo designs.

what's up with that?

i guess it's easier to come up with a generic 'holiday' design than to have to deal with christmas, chanukkah, winter solstice, kwanzaa and what-not all rolled into one, eh?

here's what they came up with for this year's 'happy holidays' season. i have no idea how a cat and a mouse have anything to do with the festive season but there you go:

and from previous years:

don't get me wrong. i love this concept of rotating logos. i'm not criticizing, just making an observation.

related:
who's behind the doodles?
logos, logos and more logos
it's not all work for googlers

say it like you mean it

2005-12-22T19:45:00.000-05:00

hello. if you feel sorry for me over this and you'd like to make me feel better like this, or you just feel like wishing me this, put away that hallmark card now and head on over to this.

go ahead, don't be shy. otherwise, you might as well do this.

haha, just kidding!

burn, baby, burn

2005-12-22T00:37:00.000-05:00

i'm okay now. but if what i went through tonight wasn't sending off 2005 with a bang, i don't know what is.

i just got back from the hospital emergency room, where i got bandaged up, poked around, pierced with a tetanus shot and ingurgitated painkillers.

what fun. not.

i was trying to make dinner tonight. except for last weekend, i haven't done that in years. make my own dinner, i mean. i'm one of those folks who use the oven for storage. anyway, after a good hour of slicing and dicing, i decided it was time to heat up the stove and start the main performance. evidently, the skillet got hot enough that when i poured some oil in, the liquid burst into flames.

i tried to keep my cool, but s**t happens i suppose. as the smoke alarm started blaring, i picked up the skillet with my bare hands (ouch), set it down on the stone floor, ran a dish towel under the faucet, and draped the wet cloth over the burning skillet. then, boom - the flames shot up to my face and singed my left eyebrow and forehead. after what seemed like forever, it eventually died down.

that has never happened to me before. but i survived and i guess that counts for something.

fa la la la la

2005-12-18T00:08:00.000-05:00

by the 12th day of christmas my true love had sent to me...

12 drummers drumming,
22 pipers piping,
30 lords a-leaping,
36 ladies dancing,
40 maids a-milking,
42 swans a-swimming,
42 geese a-laying,
40 gold rings,
36 calling birds,
30 french hens,
22 turtle doves, and
12 partridges in 12 pear trees

on the 13th day of christmas my now-ex true love received from me...

1 hell of a restraining order!

transitions

2005-12-15T21:52:00.000-05:00

2005-12-11T22:40:00.000-05:00

numeros cinco y seis

2005-12-11T18:04:00.000-05:00

ok, having nothing to do on a sunday afternoon inspired me to get started on at least numbers 5 and 6 of my plan for 2006. i started scoping out the two places that i am fascinated with at the moment. and by scoping out i mean reading their city editions of my favourite travel companion, the ever-reliable lonely planet travel guide.

so far, i have learned that:

the best time (climate-wise) to go to rio is anytime between april and november, when rio is cooler with temperatures generally in the mid-20s (celsius).
the problem with #1 above is that the world-famous carnaval happens usually in either february or march.
english is not widely spoken in either rio or ba. i'll have to learn some rudimentary portuguese and brush up on my spanish. [but hey, i survived 5 days in amsterdam knowing only one dutch phrase, dank je (thank you), so i'm sure i'll get by.]
i will not need a visa for argentina but will need one for brazil.
in rio, when atm's advertise 24-hour service, these 24 hours usually fall between 6am and 10 pm (huh?)

and finally, the most important lessons so far:

voce fala ingles

eu nao entendo

socorro

habla ingles

no entiendo

ayudame

the contenders

2005-12-10T17:37:00.000-05:00

three months to go until the 78th annual academy awards on march 5th 2006, and the competition is heating up. 'for your consideration' ads have started showing up here and there. production companies have stepped up their oscar campaigns.

the official nominations will be announced on january 31st 2006.

to be honest, i'm not much of a fan of traditional award shows so i don't really follow those events that much. still, i do tend to consider myself a bit of a cineaste, and it doesn't hurt to be aware of what's going on in that part of the film industry.

frankly, i rather preferred other films this year such as the three below which i saw at my favourite theatre in atlanta where i usually get my fix.

dude, what's your plan?

2005-12-10T17:12:00.000-05:00

no, these are not my new year's resolutions. this is my plan for 2006 which, by hook or by crook, i will most definitely do! check back in 2007 to see how well i did ;-)

no more mr nice guy. i will say no and i will mean it.

whining about being bored is boring. if i get bored, i will entertain myself.

i will do whatever the hell i fancy.

no more insipid routines. i will be more spontaneous.

i will go to brazil and take a photo of the cristo redentor in rio de janeiro.

i will visit argentina and watch a soccer game in buenos aires.

my spanish is hardly conversational. i will work on becoming more fluent.

i will see a little less movies and read a little more books.

i will stop procrastinating. i will be more decisive.

~~i will quit smoking.~~ no, i will not quit smoking.

so it was written, so it shall be done. so help me god.

fun with blocks

2005-12-05T23:14:00.000-05:00

this is fun. check this out.
spell with flickr

what's playing on my ipod

2005-12-04T00:47:00.000-05:00

that's right. got a problem with that?
;-)

i heart ny

2005-12-04T00:41:00.000-05:00

i love new york [madonna]

artsy shmartsy

2005-12-04T00:36:00.000-05:00

last thanksgiving weekend, i went up to new york city to visit a couple of good friends from college. we had a great time just hanging out. [mental note: gotta do that more often.]

anyway, while i was there, i stopped by the museum of modern art at W 53rd and 5th. i thought i was 'done' with museums, having gone to so many museums in the last several years. but i read about a warhol-inspired video installation of a sleeping david beckham at MoMA, which i thought was intriguing, so i went anyway. i ended up spending half the day there.

here are a few photos of some of the more famous art pieces in there. the one above is called campbell's soup cans by andy warhol. the ones below are, respectively, warhol's hammer and sickle, pablo picasso's les mademoiselles d'avignon, and vincent van gogh's starry night.

top of the world

2005-11-19T13:17:00.000-05:00

calgary and a weird pattern

2005-11-18T21:22:00.000-05:00

i'm finally back from a week's sojourn in calgary. not exactly my kind of town, can't really think of anything nice to say, so i'll just let the pics do the talking.

it did occur to me though that calgary marks the 14th city i have visited that ever hosted the olympics, summer or winter games included. hmmm, interesting pattern, but purely coincidental. come to think of it, i actually have now lived in 3 olympic host cities (melbourne, sydney and atlanta). i reckon that's just weird.

exotic india and the 'cosmic cycle'

2005-11-06T09:32:00.000-05:00

geez, i'm stuck indoors here in calgary. it's snowing outside and it's just too nasty to go out. hopefully it lets up soon. i just got here yesterday and haven't really had the chance to explore the city yet. i'll post some calgary pics later when i get around to it.

this cold weather is making me daydream about hot and tropical places.

speaking of hot, i thought i'd post here about chennai, a place i visited in india last year. chennai (formerly called madras), in the province of tamil nadu, is the 4th largest city in india. it boasts of having the second largest beach in the world - the marina beach.

chennai was one of the places hit by the asian tsunamis in december last year. i barely got out, i was there for a couple of weeks that november.

while i was in chennai, an acquaintance explained to me their basic hindu belief in the 'cosmic cycle' - that is, creation, preservation and destruction, and the process of repeating all over again.

don't bite my head off if i got this wrong (i don't profess to be an expert in theologies) but this is what i could remember. while hindus believe in a plethora of gods, there are basically three deities that form the core hindu trinity, each with a specific cosmic function. brahma serves the function of creation, vishnu represents preservation, and shiva symbolizes the destruction that precedes re-creation.

fascinating. especially when contemplated within the context of the tsunamis - birth, life, devastation and rebuild.

sunbaker

2005-10-23T21:42:00.000-04:00

i'm not much of a photographer, but i do appreciate photography. i'm a big fan of herb ritts, annie leibovitz, greg gorman and, yes, even the annoying spencer tunick.

one of my favourite photographs is by max dupain, a famous australian photographer of the early 20th century. the iconic photo is called sunbaker, taken in 1937, and is now preserved in the national gallery of australia.

the photo defines beach culture in australia and has become a national image. it is simple yet classic. i like this photo both for its composition and for what it represents.

'the surf and beach. gifts to man. a sense of inhibited physical
freedom.'
- max dupain (1911-1992)

paris of the north

2005-10-22T12:19:00.000-04:00

this is montreal, one of the most intriguing places i've ever been to. they say the best time to go there is in the summer. i once went there in the dead of winter. who cares, still a charming place even buried deep in snow, haha.

montreal is an interesting mix of all things french and north american. at one point you'd find yourself in a part of town where francophones walk by with a baguette tucked under one arm. at another point you'd be walking in an area that looks and feels exactly like any city in the united states.

some guy told me that montreal is in a fierce rivalry with its neighbour, new york, just south of the border, as to which city has the better bagels. i don't know about that, but i do know those little puppies at la maison du bagel at plateau mont royal were fantastic.

sex and 'that' city

2005-10-09T01:07:00.000-04:00

sex and the city [groove armada]

la ville est belle

2005-10-01T18:07:00.000-04:00

drowned world [william orbit]

if there's one thing i like most about paris, it's being able to enjoy chain-smoking while minding my own business at some cafe without having to endure dirty looks or being quarantined from the rest of the patrons.

smokers of the world, rejoice, there's at least one place in this world where we are not relegated as second-class citizens!

why, even in a liberal place like manhattan i have to step out of the bar and out to the street just to get a puff of my marlboros.

In los angeles, the waitress looks at me silly when i ask for an ashtray, like maybe what i really mean to ask for is a bowl of antiseptic atkins-approved green salad.

at the airport in tokyo, us smokers have to go inside a tiny smoky glass-encased room and enhale all that smog if we just happen to crave for a ciggie after a gruelling 16-hour flight.

take a chill pill, people!

happy birthday, sis!

2005-09-18T15:27:00.000-04:00

you are so beautiful to me [joe cocker]

an offering

2005-09-18T14:54:00.000-04:00

this is the oblation, a truly inspiring work of art dedicated to man's eternal pursuit of knowledge. created by the filipino artist guillermo tolentino in the 1930s, it depicts a naked youth, eyes closed and arms outstretched, offering himself to an unseen element. the nakedness and the pose conjure a powerful image of the youth's open and pure invocation for knowledge.

the oblation is an enduring icon of the university of the philippines, the country's premier educational institution. the original stands at the main entrance of the flagship campus (diliman) in quezon city, while replicas can be found in every other campus of the university of the philippines system.

city of brotherly love

2005-08-08T20:19:00.000-04:00

philadelphia is just a short drive southwest of new york. couple of hours tops. i wanted to go there for the live 8 concert last june, but i ended up just watching it on tv, haha. so it was good that we were able to go for a short trip to philly while i was in nyc last weekend.

independence hall and the liberty bell are must-see's in philly if you're there for a short time so of course we had to go. there weren't a lot of folks when we went though. i guess the sweltering heat kept most people indoors.

my favorite part was seeing the LOVE sculpture in kennedy plaza. it's nothing much by way of size or flash, but i like pop culture so stuff like that interests me. i hear the plaza used to be a skateboarder's paradise for decades but the city government put an end to that in 2002. what a shame.

new york, new york

2005-08-08T20:12:00.000-04:00

nothing really matters [william orbit]

glenn, this one's for you. i had a great time with your parents in the big city last weekend. wished you were here! i miss you guys!

new york was fab as always. i can't think of anything to say about nyc that somebody else hasn't already said. let's just say it truly is a city that never sleeps and leave it at that. you should come sometime.

we went to see your dad's old apartment in manhattan and had dinner at one of his old hangouts in times square. it was interesting to see his reaction, being able to share the experience with your mom. i'll definitely have to do that one day too, revisit and reminisce, that is. that'll be awesome.

ps.
to my friend martin, thanks for hanging out with me friday night! i had a good time. see you again sometime.

g'day sydney!

2005-07-30T20:22:00.000-04:00

the sydney opera house is probably my most favourite world icon. dramatically set against the very blue waters of the sydney harbour, the opera house looks like it's majestically sailing in the wind.

i took these photos with my very first digital camera way back in 2000. what a clunky piece of gadget that was. it was the size of a kiddie lunchbox (haha) and saved photos in 3.5" floppy disks. i was a little embarassed carrying it around. but i digress.

i lived in sydney for some time back in 2000. i had an apartment in a north shore suburb called milsons point, at the foot of the sydney harbour bridge, just across from the opera house. what an awesome place that was. i'd go back in a heartbeat.

here are some photos of the sydney harbour bridge, affectionately called 'coathanger' by the locals...

these ones are from bondi beach, a great place to peoplewatch...

arrivederci roma!

2005-07-24T11:01:00.000-04:00

lo que siente la mujer [madonna]

last year, my first thought as i arrived in rome late at night was - what a spooky place! as my taxi navigated through the dimly-lit cobblestone streets of the city, passing by ancient structures to get to my hotel, i couldn't help but think about how many generations have come and gone in this place. i wondered whether i would even be able to sleep that night, worrying about ghostly apparitions!

but not to worry. rome's ancientness becomes its charm. at least that's what i think. after all, it is the birthplace of civilization (or was that greece? sometimes i get my history mixed up).

the next few days were fantastic. i got to see the famous colosseo (built in 80 AD). just as lonely planet says, it is like seeing a celebrity in the flesh. i tossed coins into the fontana di trevi, walked up the spanish steps licking my gelati (that's ice cream, silly), enjoyed delicious pasta on via veneto, stared at da vinci's pieta in saint peter's basilica, etcetera, etcetera.

i had a great time. go there if you get the chance. you won't regret it.

more photos...

a little alliteration

2005-07-17T02:26:00.000-04:00

il fait chaud [passi]

feeling a bout of insomnia tonight, i thought i'd rather just stay up and play around with photoshop instead of frustratingly tossing and turning in bed. damn those two mugs of coffee i had after dinner tonight. i never learn :-(

anyway, this is my ~~sorry~~ attempt at ~~shamelessly~~ copying andy warhol's use of repetition in pop art. you see, i found these six separate black & white photos of the american actor james dean and i thought wouldn't it be cool to see what they would look like if laid side-by-side in the style of warhol. i think it looks interesting. or maybe that's just the insomnia talking, haha.

ps.
to those who've emailed to ask, the song you're hearing is called il fait chaud by passi. i'm gonna leave it on here for a while, until everyone tires of it.

happy bastille day

2005-07-13T20:42:00.000-04:00

cedric, this one's for you. je vous souhaite un joyeux jour de bastille, buddy! how'd you like the little graphic i made for ya? i must say the red apples look a bit dodgy to me. they look like a bunch of red peas, haha. oh, well.

le prochain fois.

what's wrong with the world?

2005-07-08T23:29:00.000-04:00

where is the love? [black eyed peas]

a toast to the runner-up

2005-07-06T22:58:00.000-04:00

ok so paris didn't really win, london did (congratulations london!). but leave me alone, i will congratulate whomever i want whenever i want ;-)

paris, congratulations for a fantastic effort!

too bad we're not gonna get to see baguette javelin or umbrella fencing added as official events!

over the years, winning host cities have had their well-deserved accolades. you know who they are, so we're not going to go through that list. instead, let's celebrate the second placers:

2012 Paris
2008 Toronto
2004 Rome
2000 Beijing
1996 Athens
1992 Paris
1988 Nagoya
1984 *
1980 Los Angeles
1976 Moscow
1972 Madrid
1968 Detroit
1964 Detroit
1960 Lausanne
1956 Buenos Aires

1952 Los Angeles & Minneapolis
1948 **
1944 ***
1940 ***
1936 Barcelona
1932 *
1928 Los Angeles
1924 Barcelona
1920 Amsterdam
1916 ***
1912 Berlin
1908 Rome
1904 Chicago
1900 *
1896 **

* means the winner was the only bidding city
** means the winner was 'assigned' by the IOC
*** means the games were cancelled due to war

hey, did you know:
in montreal (1976), following a rainstorm that doused the olympic flame a few days after the opening of the games, an official relit the flame using his cigarette lighter! organizers quickly doused it again and relit it using a backup of the original flame.

who'll it be ??

2005-07-05T21:41:00.000-04:00

the race is now on its final stretch. only a few hours to go until the IOC finally reveals who wins the right to host the 2012 summer olympics.

my vote goes out to paris and their bid to stage l'amour des jeux.

bonne chance, paris!

the candidate cities:
paris
london
new york
madrid
moscow

happy fourth of july

2005-07-04T09:38:00.000-04:00

my egnslih tcheear tuhgat me how to sepll

2005-07-01T23:24:00.000-04:00

found this while surfing the net. check it out:

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid.

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch taem at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Such a cdonition is arppoiately cllaed Typoglycemia :)-

Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt !.!.!

don't f...%#@ with me fellas

2005-06-23T22:28:00.000-04:00

yesterday the american film institute released their list of the 100 most memorable movie quotes of all time.

here are their top 10:

“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn,” “Gone With the Wind,” 1939.
“I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse,” “The Godfather,” 1972.
“You don’t understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I could’ve been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am,” “On the Waterfront,” 1954.
“Toto, I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore,” “The Wizard of Oz,” 1939.
“Here’s looking at you, kid,” “Casablanca,” 1942.
“Go ahead, make my day,” “Sudden Impact,” 1983.
“All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up,” “Sunset Blvd.,” 1950.
“May the Force be with you,” “Star Wars,” 1977.
“Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy night,” “All About Eve,” 1950.
“You talking to me?” “Taxi Driver,” 1976.

magical amsterdam

2005-06-20T22:41:00.000-04:00

the stuff of storybooks

2005-06-20T22:40:00.000-04:00

reflections on a canal

2005-06-20T22:39:00.000-04:00

giant wooden clog in the red light district

2005-06-20T22:34:00.000-04:00

a dutch icon - the windmill

2005-06-20T22:32:00.000-04:00

a study in symmetry

2005-06-20T22:31:00.000-04:00

lights along the canal

263 prinsengracht

2005-06-19T23:17:00.000-04:00

i was in elementary school when i first heard the story of a young girl who went into hiding with her family to escape terrible things happening in her town. according to my teacher, she was a creature of such hope that at the end of it all and in spite of everything, she still believed in the good in people.

that young girl's name was anne frank.

as i grew up, i learned more about anne frank and her legacy. i read about the holocaust, the persecution of jews, and the third reich. i learned more about what is probably the most evil era in human history. however, i wouldn't exactly say that over time her story has had a profound effect on me. those were always just academic matters to me. things that were studied in school, read about, or discussed in philosophical terms.

i wasn't prepared at all for the experience when last year i managed to come face-to-face with one hell of a reality-check --
i went inside the secret annex, the hidden rooms where the frank family went into hiding from the nazis, at 263 prinsengracht in amsterdam.

the building is now called anne frankhuis [translation: anne frank house]. it was opened to the public as a museum in 1960, largely through the efforts of otto frank, anne's father and the only survivor of the eight people who hid in the secret annex. the building has undergone structural renovations, however it retains much of its original state after the franks were betrayed and turned over to the gestapo in 1944.

i went through the entrance to the annex that was cleverly disguised behind a revolving bookshelf [trivia: in one raid, a gestapo officer reportedly examined and shook the bookshelf but failed to discover the entrance behind it]. i was inside anne's room. her magazine cuttings of 1940s celebrities greta garbo and ginger rogers remain glued on the wall, along with art cuttings such as leonardo da vinci's self-portrait, michelangelo's pieta and rembrandt's portrait of an old man. i was inside the room of the frank parents. pencil markings tracking anne's and her sister margot's heights over the years remain etched on one wall.

towards the end of the tour, i saw copies of anne's diary, translated into a multitude of languages, displayed all around the room. at the center of the room, encased in a glass cabinet, was the original diary of anne frank.

at the end of the tour was an interactive exhibit called "out of line". there you were asked to contemplate on various modern-day issues and test yourself on where you draw the line between freedom of expression and the right to be free from discrimination. for example, reflecting on the rap singer eminem and his (what is perceived to be) anti-women and anti-gay song lyrics, would you uphold the singer's right to free speech or would you support censorship in this case to protect women's and gays' right to be free from discrimination? where would you draw the line?

the whole experience was numbing.

postscript:
years ago, when i lived in melbourne (australia), there was this latvian retirement village which i used to cross everyday to get to my bus stop on the way to university. nothing out of the ordinary. except that a few years later, in 1999, a nazi war criminal was discovered to be living there. his name was konrad kalejs. it turned out that he was a former commander of a latvian killing unit that murdered at least 30,000 jews. it makes me shiver to remember this.

wanderlust

2005-06-15T21:51:00.000-04:00

2005-06-15T21:50:00.000-04:00

wanderlust
noun
1. An urge to rove or travel; a desire to move from place to place.
Etymology: 19c: German, from wandern to travel + Lust desire.

some people say it's a small world. others say we live in dangerous times, with all this war, terrorism and disease, that it's best to stay put. still others say what is familiar is safe and comfortable, what is new and strange is an unnecessary digression.

i say life is short, seize the day and expand your horizons!

i believe nothing beats the experience of coming into contact with the different cultures, sounds and sights of this world we live in. there are so many places to be, and so little time.

one of my passions is trying to take in as much as what this world has to offer. i dream of being able to one day sit back and reflect that i have finally set foot on all seven continents. and yes, that includes antarctica!

the red areas in the two maps above are various countries and american states that i have been lucky to visit so far, either for work or for play.

still got a long way to go.

big brother is watching

2005-06-13T19:50:00.000-04:00

have you ever had the feeling that you were being watched? you go about your daily business, nothing's really out of the ordinary, and then suddenly a feeling momentarily hits you that someone out there is watching?

if your answer is yes, then you're just being paranoid. hehe.

kidding aside, check out google maps. search for your home address and, voila, you get an earth satellite image of your home from a vantage point several thousands of miles above. zoom in and you can almost see your car parked in the driveway. [the map above is of my current home.]

now there's one more reason why, besides your snoopy neighbors, it's not a good idea to wander around naked at home, huh.

frankly, my dear, i don't give a damn

2005-06-12T23:08:00.000-04:00

scratch that. i think i do -- give a damn, that is.

i got up this morning and had a thought. i've done the tourist circuit, mostly in cities far and wide, but i've never really gotten around to checking out what's local here in atlanta. so today i decided to ditch the car and just walk around this wonderful city of ours.

i went on a tour at the margaret mitchell house on peachtree street (shown above). built in 1899, it was here that margaret mitchell lived and, in the 1930s, wrote the legendary novel, gone with the wind. it felt surreal to see the small writing table where she worked on bringing to literary life such characters as scarlett o'hara and rhett butler. [trivia: did you know that scarlett o'hara wasn't the original name of the character? she was called pansy o'hara in earlier drafts. obviously that name wasn't deemed sassy enough, haha.]

there was this other exhibit that was going on in one level of the house as well. black and white photography taken of martin luther king in the 50s and 60s. very powerful images. one photo i particularly admired was of mlk delivering his i have a dream speech to thousands of spectators in washington dc.

i remember one interesting quotation from mlk, an excerpt from his sermon known as transformed nonconformist. it goes something like this:

"Any(one) ... who blindly accepts the opinions of the majority and in fear and timidity follows a path of expediency and social approval is a mental and spiritual slave."

wise words from a wise man, about something for which i think we all should give a damn.

** p.s. welcome to my new blog. i'm just trying this out, we'll see where it goes. feel free to come visit from time to time.