Aftertaste: Enter the Void

Gaspard Noe did it again! this time with acid neon in tokyo redlight destrict and haunting environment of hallucinogen and of course, what he famous for, hurting audience feeling and giving severe nausea. "Enter the Void" is the latest film came out in 2009, eight years after this french bad boy shocked the world with Irriversible. It is almost three hour of unpredictable jarring sequences. The film starts with opening credit with electronic music (the track is "Freak" by LFO), gaudy neon light typography and the title pops out abruptedly as a sign of what's about to come. Then we are introduced to Oscar and Linda, two brother and sister in tokyo through the eye of the brother in Being-John-Malkovich-like view point.  We fully potray him and get every single details he does, even the blink of his eyes. The brother, Oscar is an employed drug dealer who live dangerously day by day and the sister revolves with sex and lust in the strip club. Then after Oscar got shot to death by japanese police, we get throwned out of his body, floating all over the place and found ourselves in the unbearable tragedy crashed over and over. The plot dissolves into childhood flashback, switching back and forth with fragments of impure reality which narrated beautifully with semi-visual effect. Ultimately we learned about how the siblings should never leave each other and almost beg for them a second chance. What worse than Irreversible is that the tragedies come without warning, some of them show up spilt second after sweet pictures. You are not ready to close your eyes. Consequently, Enter the Void audience completely divided into two groups of extremely different opinions. One group hate it because it is exceedingly long, illogical and emotional abusive. The other think it's an awesome movie because it is long, illogical and emotional abusive (and yet very deep). Enter the Void: Trailer


I hate this movie...i hate it but i just can't stop talking about it.

Mark Weaver

today i came across the most magnificent illustration collection called "make something every day" by Mark Weaver, an illustrator from Boston. i was literally stunned by its tone, playfulness in its minimalist hyper-creativity and every other marvel i would possibly attempt to elaborate. check out his site and tell me who doesn't want make something like this every day.

Visualized

"Beyond the closed curtain, up above all rooftops to the Bangkok sky, there was no more boisterousness of the crowd, no sign of life. Only in the humid shady sky where huge numbers of fat cloud are floating slowly, forecasting the snoring bourgeoisies for the soon coming rain. The glittering stars are all behind everything. They are petite and unimportant, trying hard to shed the light down to earth but they can’t be recognized. Even though people are sleeping, Bangkok city never sleep even when it seems like. The systems still goes on like ant civilization under the pile of old magazines. Lives are just hiding under the roofs. While the needle ticks every second away, hands are still moving … silently. Some are dancing in the dark, some are waiting, some are hoping, some are giving themselves the one last chance from another failure. But stars mean nothing to them as well as fairy tales. They do no longer exist to them since they have electricity. Stars are only there to hold people’s secret, one for each."

an excerpt from my short story "701,702 and room unknown" , photography by my lovely friend Aei

23 - Blonde Redhead

 

"My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy"

kanye west's self-directed film, the idea is to put all the songs in his new album into a long music video called runaway. the video mindfully arrange all the songs into a simple romantic plot (mr.west dating a phoenix lady), in a marvellous art direction. trust me it worth your 34 minute of your life, of course unless you are a lousy hater. (for better perception don't forget to set the high resolution)

Rihanna "LOUD" Review

one of the few chart-hunting album dropped out this november, it's rihanna and she's back with this rosy-red head feminine i'm not so surprise to see how her look turn out this way at the first time in "only girl in the world". maybe she learned to renovate herself the same way madonna does to survive this long. by the way, it's all about her music though. and, i say yes to pop music so it's not out of my hand to talk about this one. rihanna albums recieves high score on critique reviews in her last 3 albums. she's not showing intimacy with listener (as she described Rated R) and not a hard-core glam anymore. as a result of reducing her lyrical uprightness, each songs become more playful, sympathetic and loud.  to be honest, rihanna looks less wannabe this time.

only girl in the world - first single come out last month (but leaked out way before), up-tempo danceable beat, annoying at first but so pure after a while. the video talks about a reddish girl being in love, dancing around in her drunken fantasy, laughing on the swing, very beautiful.

what's my name - a cooperation with younger rapper, drake. i initially hate this song but after it keeps playing on the radio for few weeks, i ended up humming it. presented in r&b/dancehall style, similar to her achievement "rude boy" less urban, more youthful.

man down - crazier than all songs in "rated r", talking about "mama i just shot a man down" !! narrated by some kind of ice cream jingle music. using the bardadian raggae/dancehall style to pull out her boyish vibe. i love this song.

california king bed - the title sounds like some nasty on-bed music but no, this song sounds very calm, sober and true with that soft guitar.

in conclusion, i think rihanna cannot yet settle down to something like we cannot say "wow this is so rihanna". we have to accept the fact that all radio music are not always the best. everyone leap into eurodance style, everything sounds like david guetta now. however i appriciate what she does so far. as she constantly changing, she is something on the radio that need to stay tune.

"Sigh No More, Ladies..."

Sigh no more, ladies, sigh nor more;

Men were deceivers ever;

One foot in sea and one on shore,

To one thing constant never;

Then sigh not so,

But let them go,

And be you blithe and bonny;

Converting all your sounds of woe

Into Hey nonny, nonny.

Sing no more ditties, sing no mo,
Or dumps so dull and heavy;

The fraud of men was ever so,

Since summer first was leavy.

Then sigh not so,

But let them go,

And be you blithe and bonny,

Converting all your sounds of woe

Into Hey nonny, nonny.

William Shakespeare

(From "Much Ado about Nothing")

Miranda July

after rambling around the week, obsessively looking for a chance to come across the new enchanment in the world of art but sadly i haven't find one. my life has been nothing but switching up the place apartment and campus on and on recently. i wish to have this circle broken before i wither away. i went out some night, met new friends, woke up next morning and met up with old folks. but life won't give up pulling me down...i am recovering from the aftermath. 

so this time i give myself a chance to write something i "adore" so that my wordiness can flow in a bit. and it's about Miranda July, my all-time most favorite person ever. eventhough she currently doesn't have her work come out globally, i refuse to focus on her masterpiece "me and you and everyone we know" i don't want to be the last person on earth to do that. Miranda July should rather be labeled an artist than director or flimstar because she has done everything, writing short stories, playing in a band or even selling pillowcase or sun blind. basically she is a kind of person i perpetually wish to have more in my daily life. though i'm feeling so far away for a big fan, i can't go to her show or meet the real person. all i can do is getting inspired by her film and book "no one belong here more than you" (almost entirely by sexual frankness comedy) and other thing accessible from her. despite the fact the she is not a prolific story maker, there are plenty of her works scattered over youtube which are friendly to my inaccessiblity.

HOW TO MAKE A BUTTON



who wants to know about how buttons are made, but when it comes to Miranda July there must be something. anyway don't try this at home!

"TOP RANKING" BY BLONDE REDHEAD



the most inexpensive stop-motion i have ever seen, not directed by her but very Miranda-ish

ARE YOU THE FAVORITE PERSON OF ANYBODY?



a man randomly ask people down the street "are you the favorite person of sombody" if you don't take this profoundly you may find this idiotic. it's a question of self-esteem. so are you anybody's favorite person?