tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50741062011-07-08T17:35:54.912+08:00Yes, I am surely a wanderer, a pilgrim on earth. Are any of you more? -- Goethe, <i>The Sorrows of Young Werther</i>Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.comBlogger7571100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-8187373610584878212007-02-06T16:31:00.000+08:002007-02-06T22:34:19.847+08:00

I'm giving Wordpress a spin. Please bookmark my new blog:http://strangeknight.wordpress.comWell, it's not really a new blog. Just an extension of this one. Will check back here from time to time though.See you all later.

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-68125032402863142202007-01-26T18:01:00.000+08:002007-01-26T18:25:13.060+08:00

DecasiaDecasia Home pageThe New Yorker, 2004From the New York Times, 2002:''I wasn't just looking for instances of decayed film,'' Morrison recalls of his two-year excavation. ''Rather, I was seeking out instances of decay set against a narrative backdrop, for example, of valiant struggle, or thwarted love, or birth, or submersion, or rescue, or one of the other themes I was trying to interweave

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-27273778664899561872007-01-14T00:36:00.000+08:002007-01-14T01:32:20.115+08:00

I haven't been paying attention to The Authority for a while, so I only just found out that it was restarted last Oct. Say, doesn't that girl's shirt look familiar?Yeah, that's Jenny Quarx. Leader of The Authority, 14 years old, the Spirit of the 21st Century, with unlimited (albeit undiscovered) powers and gay superhero foster parents. Damned cool. Time to start reading The Authority again.

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-66474831347082132672007-01-10T22:56:00.000+08:002007-01-10T23:05:08.851+08:00

GE called upon BBDO and Three Legged Legs to create an animated fable for their Imagination Theatre campaign. Our answer: Samurai. It's a tale of a pint-sized samurai faced with a seemingly impossible challenge as proposed by a behemoth Emperor and his wicked minionsCute. Take a look.

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-78968307780940882872007-01-10T17:21:00.000+08:002007-01-10T18:12:18.118+08:00

Table of Malcontents posted, via Google Video, Academy Award-winning animated short Ryan by Canadian animator Chris Landreth. Watch it before it gets taken down by lawyers. Now this is what 3D animation should be used for. To reinforce characterisation and storytelling. Enough with creepy photorealism and talking animals!

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-27955549689796703272007-01-10T16:41:00.000+08:002007-01-10T16:49:45.855+08:00

Holy OSX -- the iPhone! Engadget coverageLet's see, by 2008 the bugs should be ironed out, and Asia might get a 2G iPhone too :)

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-6611141100242842372007-01-09T00:08:00.000+08:002007-01-09T10:18:41.800+08:00

The history of man can be written with objects. - Eduardo PaolozziJoseph CornellReview of Utopia Parkway: The Life and Work of Joseph CornellandAn online gallery of Cornell's workJan ŠvankmajerJabberwockyandAn interviewandA Commentary: Animated AnxietyPESDownload his videos at http://www.eatpes.com/Kris Moyes:“The clip took 14 days to shoot and was all mapped out from the beginning. I notated

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-43530141983853863012007-01-06T23:42:00.000+08:002007-01-06T23:45:53.379+08:00

Fellini at the Barbican this month. And Bunuel in Feb and Mar!Fellini's WorldGuardian Film Blog

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-76746788541167441422007-01-06T23:33:00.000+08:002007-01-06T23:41:05.555+08:00

WSJ.com carried an interview with Frank Gehry:Considering that Mr. Gehry's buildings appear almost completely indifferent to conventions, I expected Mr. Gehry to be something of an egomaniac. Instead he turned out to be surprisingly modest. Describing a hotel in Spain that he just completed, Mr. Gehry said, "the rooms are comfortable," and when talking about the Guggenheim in Bilbao, he said that

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-3479935510672554012007-01-04T16:45:00.000+08:002007-01-04T16:54:34.310+08:00

British B-movies, unlike their American equivalents, were the result of a quota, as The Guardian explains:The quota quickie was an unlooked-for consequence of a state attempt to give British film a shot in the arm - the 1927 act, which obliged exhibitors to screen a greater percentage of home-made films. A guaranteed market was created overnight, and muscular Hollywood outfits such as Paramount,

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-48335251891485297102007-01-04T00:49:00.000+08:002007-01-04T17:11:16.928+08:00

Caught Pan's Labyrinth and got my Paprika OST from a friend who recently returned from Japan.

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-22666344583746760192007-01-02T16:21:00.000+08:002007-01-02T16:25:59.067+08:00

Happy New Year everyone.The iBook died again shortly before the New Year. I suspect HD failure. Can't fix it through either Disk Utility or fsck. Can't reformat the disk either. Repairs at Ang Mo Kio will be expensive -- the alternative is to replace the HD myself. There're instructions online -- I just have to find the time to do it.

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-8063536746674504812006-12-29T13:19:00.000+08:002006-12-29T13:22:38.500+08:00

The germ of my plays? I'll be as accurate as I can about that. I went into a room and saw one person standing up and one person sitting down, and a few weeks later I wrote The Room. I went into another room and saw two people sitting down, and a few years later I wrote The Birthday Party. I looked through a door into a third room, and saw two people standing up and I wrote The Caretaker.---

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-47455302402646116762006-12-27T18:24:00.000+08:002006-12-27T18:34:17.731+08:00

From "Philip Yeo moving to PM's Office", Today, 23rd Dec 2006:Singapore's strength lies in execution — not ideas, nor strategic planning, said the fast-talking Mr Yeo.And prowess in execution is easily learnt by other countries.

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-89971965931131860362006-12-24T16:53:00.000+08:002006-12-24T17:02:19.655+08:00

Jonas Mekas, veteran of the American underground art scene, is going to combine new footage with footage that he's been recording most of his 85 years.While most of those friends -- Andy Warhol, Stan Brakhage, Allen Ginsberg -- have departed for that rent-controlled loft in the sky, Mekas continues to create and innovate.On Jan. 1, a week after his 85th birthday, Mekas launches a yearlong

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-6417442350639509012006-12-21T10:13:00.000+08:002006-12-21T10:21:27.358+08:00

Charles Saatchi, owner of Saatchi Gallery, is a smart man: In May Mr. Saatchi, famed for spotting young unknowns and turning them into art-world superstars, created a section on his Web site for artists of all ages to post their work at no charge. It is called Your Gallery, and now boasts contributions by about 20,700 artists, including 2,000 pieces of video art.Everything there is for sale, with

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-22230061015399605162006-12-21T09:40:00.000+08:002006-12-21T09:50:27.625+08:00

Yep, strange but it happened in 1977.The Washington Post explains:The notion of pairing the resolutely white-bread Crosby with the exquisitely offbeat Bowie apparently was the brainchild of the TV special's producers, Gary Smith and Dwight Hemion, according to Ian Fraser, who co-wrote (with Larry Grossman) the song's music and arranged it.Crosby was in Great Britain on a concert tour, and the

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-70214845758191632422006-12-20T12:37:00.000+08:002006-12-21T11:27:11.498+08:00

Discovered via the Penguin Blog: Delicious Library!Get your Mac, a webcam, and Delicious Library and rediscover your home library. Just point any FireWire digital video camera, like an Apple iSight®, at the barcode on the back of any book, movie, music, or video game. Delicious Library does the rest. The barcode is scanned and within seconds the item's cover appears on your digital shelves filled

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-28731752312053259482006-12-19T15:43:00.000+08:002006-12-20T00:08:58.145+08:00

Tan Pin Pin, speaking from considerable experience, on the benefits of film schools and what prospective film students may want to look out for:In the best case scenarios, film schools (or education for that matter) allow you to find your voice and they also provide a supportive enough environment to help you develop it. That was why, although I enjoyed my time making Under One Roof, I had to

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-83693242217683539922006-12-18T15:06:00.000+08:002006-12-18T15:12:30.317+08:00

I got an iMac over the weekend. And yes, I've already pressed the F9 button on my work (Windows) laptop more than a few times today.

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-24644355891569595062006-12-18T10:12:00.000+08:002006-12-18T15:14:13.456+08:00

All entrants into the service come equipped with a vocabulary of common words of precise meaning adequate for all ordinary purposes. But when they begin to write as officials they have a queer trick of forgetting them and relying mainly on a smaller vocabulary of less common words with a less precise meaning. --- Gowers, The Complete Plain Words (3rd Edition)Picked this up over the weekend at

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-6008744980423672042006-12-18T00:11:00.000+08:002006-12-18T09:33:47.199+08:00

Kudos to the National Museum for bringing in the 1919 silent Indian film Kaliya Mardan for a screening as part of its opening celebrations this month. Apparently the most extant work of D.G. Phalke (according to the NYT). I hope the Cinematheque (the ostentatious name for the film programme there) will continue bringing in such works -- manna to film buffs and academics!This was a rare glimpse

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1166083148345906762006-12-14T15:16:00.000+08:002006-12-14T15:59:08.370+08:00

Many Singaporeans online appear to think that all opinions should be equally respected so long as they come from individuals. This is silly, because the right to say what you want is not the same as being credible or correct. The Straits Times used to derive a lot of its credibility, in the eyes of most Singaporeans, from the fact that it was a government mouthpiece. So the paper's reputation

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1165802848618206252006-12-11T10:05:00.000+08:002006-12-11T10:19:08.633+08:00

Students from Ngee Ann Polytechnic's School of Film and Media Studies have set up their own film commentary site, ambitiously called sgNewWave (http://www.sgnewwave.com/). Moreover, they apparently want to make this the Singapore equivalent of Cahiers du Cinema. Well, we'll see. I like how their masthead is a nod to Sight & Sound, but did they really have to use Impact?(From sinema.sg)

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1165426091446050122006-12-07T01:07:00.000+08:002006-12-07T01:30:38.883+08:00

Directors, scripts and actors are important, but film is fundamentally an experience of sight and sound. Two recent articles from The Guardian:One on music in films. The writer criticises Woody Allen's exploitative use of Gershwin in Manhattan.Because Gershwin's music had already been enshrined in the cultural pantheon for decades, its use in Manhattan seems like an extraordinarily cunning trick,

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1165400492766866162006-12-06T18:13:00.000+08:002006-12-06T18:22:47.933+08:00

Yes, there are stuffed toy versions. I've seen one in person and it's devilishly cute. Wonder where I can get one here?Go visit Cerbi.

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1165396204919604432006-12-06T17:10:00.000+08:002006-12-06T17:10:05.040+08:00

BBC NEWS | Business | Richest 2% own 'half the wealth'The richest 2% of adults in the world own more than half of all household wealth, according to a new study by a United Nations research institute.The report, from the World Institute for Development Economics Research at the UN University, says that the poorer half of the world's population own barely 1% of global wealth.

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1165326599489299732006-12-05T21:44:00.000+08:002006-12-05T21:49:59.513+08:00

... or has too much time on her hands. A boy wakes up to find a map of locations along the route he takes to school, where his girlfriend has illustrated lines from "Fly Me to the Moon". It's really sweet; she's a keeper. Lucky bastard.See the rest of the street art here. Thanks to Wooster Collective!

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1165069909798719512006-12-02T22:31:00.000+08:002006-12-02T22:31:52.136+08:00

For extreme logophiles, you now have Wordie. It's Flickr but with words./heavy breathing

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1164969059698266672006-12-01T18:30:00.000+08:002006-12-01T18:30:59.720+08:00

(Eh?)Courtesy of McSweeney's: Alternatives, Should You Not Like Pi�a Coladas and Getting Caught in the Rain.

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1164968324719271932006-12-01T18:12:00.000+08:002006-12-01T18:18:44.740+08:00

NYT's Best 10 books of 2006Oh, and McSweeney's

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1164636911293463092006-11-27T22:08:00.000+08:002006-11-27T22:15:11.313+08:00

As the email says:Do come for our 1st Anniversary Party on 29th November, Wednesday, from 12 noon till 9 pm for a whole lot of waffles, films, cupcakes, tea, ribboned balloons, Italian notebooks named "Ciak", root beer & ginger beer goodness!BooksActually is at 125A Telok Ayer Street. Look for the whitewashed horse kiddy-ride machine.

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1164618823135196112006-11-27T17:07:00.000+08:002006-11-27T17:16:09.530+08:00

Further confirming Pocky as the otaku snack of choice (well, outside Japan), Glico teamed up with Bandai to offer... Pocky Gunpla Packs. Yeah, those little plastic things kinda suck but it's the concept man, the concept! Available for a limited time only.(From Gunota Headlines)

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1164338571228440502006-11-24T11:22:00.000+08:002006-11-24T11:22:51.250+08:00

Just in time for Christmas!100 Notable Books of the Year - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1164331438087618132006-11-24T09:23:00.000+08:002006-11-24T09:27:50.903+08:00

Penguin's released a new series of classic works with blank covers. The main selling point of the "My Penguin" series is -- you guessed it -- that you get to design your own cover. You can send your scrawlings unique cover art in to Penguin, and they'll showcase the best (which is also a good way to drive traffic to your website).Clever. But will these books be cheaper since there's no cover art

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1164300415926350932006-11-24T00:46:00.000+08:002006-11-24T00:46:55.953+08:00

The author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Lila grants a rare interview.'Well,' he says, 'there was fear. All these ideas were coming in to me too fast. There are crackpots with crazy ideas all over the world, and what evidence was I giving that I was not one of them?'The interview: Robert Pirsig | Review | The Observer

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1164216972069314202006-11-23T01:19:00.000+08:002006-11-24T13:30:58.583+08:00

Satoshi Kon excels at mindblowing visual tricks, which makes him an interesting director for animated psycho-thrillers, as shown in his debut Perfect Blue. Paprika seems to belong to the same genre, but has more in common with Millennium Actress (Sennen Jouyu) in its exploration of reality-fantasy blurring and the more fantastic tone. Cast comprising well-known seiyuus led by Megumi Hayashibara.

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1164185327754827212006-11-22T16:41:00.000+08:002006-11-22T17:04:57.923+08:00

The NYT has a brief article about the counterintuitive personal ads that run in the London Review of Books:But in the strange alternate universe that is the personals column in the London Review of Books, a fetish for even the naughtiest dairy product is considered a perfectly reasonable basis for a relationship. Rejecting the earnest self-promotion of most personal ads, the correspondents in the

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1164126781212932482006-11-22T00:18:00.000+08:002006-11-24T13:22:10.240+08:00

UPDATE: The sale of collectibles etc ended on 23/11. You can still get badges though.28 31 down, 67 64 more to go :pThere's a lot of leftover merchandise from the Singapore Biennale, and it's selling at a mad 70% discount. I got a Barbara Kruger t-shirt at just $6 (If you'd gotten it during the Biennale, you'd have shelled out $20).(Browse the merchandise here)There're also tonnes of free

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1164078944412998262006-11-21T11:05:00.000+08:002006-11-21T11:22:10.280+08:00

Chris Ware, whose cover for Candide I raved about earlier, has drawn 4 variant covers for the Thanksgiving issue of the New Yorker. 4 sad and beautiful covers, plus an illustrated story (comic sounds a bit too insensitive) about a lost brother. See them all here, and listen to the short audio interview while you're there.Chris Ware's covers and story for The New Yorker(via Boing Boing)

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1164015842727107672006-11-20T17:44:00.000+08:002006-11-20T17:45:41.060+08:00

Say it after me now: hapax legomenon.

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1163990187340817432006-11-20T10:36:00.000+08:002006-11-20T10:36:27.376+08:00

with the Movie Primers at GreenCine. Of course, Godzilla gets his own :)

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1163753518253189642006-11-17T16:51:00.000+08:002006-11-17T16:51:58.323+08:00

Couldn't believe my eyes. A cool event at the Science Centre?Roam the Science Centre and Observatory at night, for free! Come party at the Eco-Garden with free gigs by Electrico, Astreal, Great Spy Experiment as well as Guerillaz. Dance till you drop to Poptart's unique blend of Indie Rock and more.Indie Garden - Explore Singapore! Closing Extravaganza

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1163701176727984102006-11-17T02:19:00.000+08:002006-11-17T02:19:37.633+08:00

BBC NEWS | Business | Economist Friedman dies aged 94

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1163406064418797342006-11-13T16:20:00.000+08:002006-11-13T16:48:25.766+08:00

The Penguin Classics Deluxe imprint looks and feels great. Take its printing of Candide, for instance (shown at left). Chris Ware's fantastic cover complements Voltaire's understated, bleak humour well. You can't see it on the web graphic, but there's mock gold filigree on the cover too, around the "Candide". Very nicely done! The book is a pleasure to touch and look at. (That the contents are

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1163396810946779912006-11-13T13:46:00.000+08:002006-11-13T13:50:40.986+08:00

The folks at Blogger managed to recover all of the Singapore Film Society's blog, after the original URL was hijacked. We're now at a new URL, so please update your bookmarks and feeds with http://singaporefilmsociety.blogspot.com/Now if the committee would just post...

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1163381724226873162006-11-13T09:33:00.000+08:002006-11-13T09:35:24.253+08:00

Never fall in love with an idea. They're whores: if the one you're with isn't doing the job, there's always, always, always another.-- Chip Kidd, The Cheese Monkeys

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1163256465779653192006-11-11T22:30:00.000+08:002006-11-11T22:47:45.803+08:00

Finally got a rough cut of my short film out. There’s still too much to be done though. The editing is clumsy, the film hasn’t been colour-corrected, and the sound – the sound irritates me the most. I have to, with my Final Cut Pro fumblings, make this film sound a bit better than it's supposed to.On another note: was pleasantly surprised to find Vol 2 of the excellent noir comic Blacksad at the

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1163173296853175302006-11-10T23:35:00.000+08:002006-11-10T23:41:36.876+08:00

After having tried it for a while, I'm come to the conclusion that BookMooch isn't working for me. The books I want are never available, and sending books overseas is so expensive that I'm effectively paying new book prices for used books of uncertain condition. However, that's the only way to get points since Singapore isn't large enough to support an adequate population of diverse readers.

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1162912891735883182006-11-07T22:59:00.000+08:002006-11-07T23:21:31.773+08:00

I do not have the vocabulary to adequately describe how deeply sensual Jeanette Winterson's Written on the Body is. Every page brings to mind a ripe fruit, ready to burst. The love in those pages bleaches the world of its colour. Only in books, they say. Only in books. In Anne Fadiman's Ex Libris, she talks about the joy of reading aloud with your partner in bed. Maybe the Robert Fagle Iliad (did

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1162905356236977462006-11-07T21:15:00.000+08:002006-11-07T21:15:56.320+08:00

Go get 'em! This year's roundup is spectacular. Bill Plympton will be in town, but I'm most excited about Satoshi Kon's latest work Paprika. It hasn't even seen general release in Japan yet!Schedule and synopses here: Animation Nation 2006

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1162744276964169952006-11-06T00:26:00.000+08:002006-11-06T00:31:16.990+08:00

(Originally posted on 5 Sept 2006)What are the chances of two unrelated individuals mentioning an obscure anime title to me, within a few hours of each other? First, a friend of mine asked if I'd seen Glassy Ocean (Kujira no Chouyaku): a surreal animated short where a whale's leap is frozen in time while a variety of characters stroll on an ocean newly transformed into glass.I couldn't recall the

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1162742940871493632006-11-06T00:03:00.000+08:002006-11-06T00:09:00.873+08:00

The S'pore Film Society blog, which I used to contribute heavily to, has been hijacked and turned into a splog. The bastards! There's a special place in Hell for people who do this.I'm a bit surprised at how angry I am, but you never really realise all the time and effort that goes into crafting each post... No blog is safe, so back up yours soon if you wanna keep it.

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1162195994112619722006-10-30T15:56:00.000+08:002006-10-30T16:15:11.626+08:00

Travel halfway across the world. Watch films, buy books, walk around a lot, take tons of photos.Movies (Airborne)The Devil Wears PradaThree KingsKramer vs. KramerRomance & CigarettesWorking GirlMovies (On Land)ShortbusThe Science of SleepThe PrestigeMarie AntoinetteThe Last MovieTidelandThe QueenBooks: loved and lovableAnne Fadiman, Ex LibrisJohn Berger, Ways of SeeingThomas Pynchon, The Crying

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1161084863819844662006-10-17T19:33:00.000+08:002006-10-17T19:34:23.840+08:00

A scholar's education is greatly improved by traveling in quest of knowledge and meeting the authoritative teachers (of his time).--- Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1160997779758046402006-10-16T19:22:00.000+08:002006-10-16T21:04:02.793+08:00

Received my second overseas book via BookMooch, this time from Australia. Manuel Puig's Heartbreak Tango. I passed two of my books today to a fellow reader -- Natsume Soseki's I Am A Cat and Mark Kurlansky's highly-readable A Basque History of the World. I picked up I Am A Cat at the Kinokuniya bargain alley, but somehow couldn't muster enough interest to read it. This morning, just before I gave

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1160979276096843782006-10-16T14:04:00.000+08:002006-10-16T14:30:31.496+08:00

In surfing the net researching Stewart Brand, I came across The Long Now Foundation -- set up to fund the Clock of the Long Now and get people thinking long-term again. Author Michael Chabon: I don’t know what happened to the Future. It’s as if we lost our ability, or our will, to envision anything beyond the next hundred years or so, as if we lacked the fundamental faith that there will in

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1160725471309580742006-10-13T15:07:00.000+08:002006-10-13T15:53:43.606+08:00

I love the BBC's In Our Time, podcast. This week's topic - the Diet of Worms:Nestled on a bend of the River Rhine, in the South West corner of Germany, is the City of Worms. It’s one of the oldest cities in central Europe; it still has its early city walls, its 11th century Romanesque cathedral and a 500-year-old printing industry, but in its centre is a statue of the monk, heretic and founder of

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1160669104766111152006-10-13T00:05:00.000+08:002006-10-13T00:15:25.590+08:00

Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk has just been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature this year. From the Committee's official statement, Pamuk is a writerwho in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures.What are our symbols? Where are our stories?

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1160588441003151302006-10-12T01:30:00.000+08:002006-10-12T01:46:42.133+08:00

Came across this in Wallpaper*. I like Timothy Yeoh's Turnover -- a design that tries to replicates some of the more tactile (read: human?) elements of reading, for electronic text. The concept of bookmarking by folding a corner of the electronic paper is so natural I'm surprised it hasn't come up before.I still like the smell and feel of paper underneath my fingertips though. Fortunately analog

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1160583351969834842006-10-11T23:59:00.000+08:002006-10-12T00:15:51.996+08:00

Before I can edit anything, I'll have to pull the footage off the DV tapes. I tried to batch capture, but didn't realise the timecodes on my tapes were screwy. Should've captured as I played the tape. I have to get faster about this stuff, but even then I think I'll have to clear more weekends for editing.

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1160534826255681162006-10-11T10:45:00.000+08:002006-10-11T15:03:57.086+08:00

I'm helping friends who are organising an animation festival at the end of the year with some Japanese communications. Before this, I didn't pay too much attention to Asian fonts. SimSun is not ideal for Japanese (some designer's idea of revenge?) -- the katakana and hiragana come out stunted -- so I had to change everything into a Japanese font like MS Gothic.(So I learnt that MS Mincho and MS

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1160532205690435862006-10-11T10:03:00.000+08:002006-10-11T10:14:32.746+08:00

Flipping through the hefty 10th anniversary edition of Wallpaper* last night, I wondered whether Singapore or a Singaporean would be mentioned in that bumper issue. Well, at least a Singapore jeweller's made the website. Argentum was featured on 10 Oct in the Design section.Argentum at Wallpaper.com

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1160502601272227492006-10-11T01:43:00.000+08:002006-10-11T01:50:01.300+08:00

I finished all the filming (I think) for my short film on Saturday morning. Now the real pain begins -- editing. I'll be using the iMac G4s at Objectifs even though my filmmaking course has officially ended. The good folks there have, of course, learnt that the majority of students never finish editing their works before the course ends.Telling people about my short film is the pressure I need to

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1159844796699221662006-10-03T11:06:00.000+08:002006-10-03T11:06:36.720+08:00

A photoset of classic Penguin paperback covers on Flickr:(via BoingBoing)Picking up Penguin by Design rekindled my interest in book cover design and illustration. Later I would pick up a copy of Type and Typography without realising that both books shared the same author.

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1159719232718072892006-10-02T00:08:00.000+08:002006-10-02T00:13:52.743+08:00

I wonder if Blow-up and Other Stories (earlier post) was later reprinted under a different name? I'm thinking of Bestiary: Selected Stories which I'd previously borrowed from the library here.

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1159372532085616792006-09-27T23:54:00.000+08:002006-09-27T23:55:32.120+08:00

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1159293519556510542006-09-27T01:46:00.000+08:002006-09-27T01:58:39.580+08:00

So BookMooch does work. I mooched a copy of Julio Cortazar's Blow-up, and Other Stories from someone in the US about 2 weeks ago, and it reached me today. Looking at the amount the guy paid for postage - approx. US$9 - I don't feel so bad any more about shelling out $15 to send China Mieville's The Scar to Finland.

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1159184434942116572006-09-25T19:37:00.000+08:002006-09-25T19:40:34.970+08:00

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1159147223942758562006-09-25T09:20:00.000+08:002006-09-25T09:41:41.793+08:00

Dmitri Shostakovich - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1159121089303254152006-09-25T02:01:00.000+08:002006-09-25T02:05:00.483+08:00

Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read is observed during the last week of September each year. Observed since 1982, this annual ALA event reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted. This year, 2006, marks BBW's 25th anniversary (September 23-30).BBW celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1159119099928861492006-09-25T01:09:00.000+08:002006-09-25T01:31:39.950+08:00

The Bargain Alley at the Liang Court branch of Kinokuniya is always good for cheap, interesting finds. Picked up a new printing of the Arden Shakespeare Troilus and Cressida for a mere $6 as you can see. I was also tempted by The Sandman Papers, but just the idea of academically dissecting such a great series seems unsavoury. But if you're interested you should get down there quickly - it's just

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1159074112735418802006-09-24T12:56:00.000+08:002006-09-24T13:01:52.736+08:00

Oh yeah. Have been wanting to get a Penguin copy of Gravity's Rainbow for ages. Kinokuniya only has the Vintage edition, which has miniscule text. This new version comes out at the end of October - not very far away.

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1159033368249331072006-09-24T01:41:00.000+08:002006-09-24T01:43:23.673+08:00

As you may have noticed, I've decided to change the blog layout. We're still open for business though.

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1159031430568885502006-09-24T01:05:00.000+08:002006-09-24T01:10:30.603+08:00

See, this is what happens when you're tired and not thinking properly. You go and lend a set of five Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics (ok, they're second-hand and yellowing but still) to a soon-to-be-ex-colleague on her last day of work. Why didn't I put 'em up on BookMooch?

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1159031885813914842006-09-18T13:14:00.000+08:002006-09-24T01:18:05.816+08:00

I've just discovered that there are no Thomas Pynchon novels - not one - in any Times the Bookshop outlet here on my tiny island. I'm disappointed. I know I shouldn't be, but I am.Incidentally, this made me decide not to bother with joining their membership programme despite the lower cost - $10 a year vs. Kinokuniya's $21.

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1157680107254407762006-09-08T09:46:00.000+08:002006-09-08T09:48:27.280+08:00

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1157619038966792762006-09-07T16:50:00.000+08:002006-09-07T16:50:42.556+08:00

At night projections from moving cars are shone on the buildings downtown. Each car projects a video of a wild animal. The animal’s movements are programmed to correspond to the speed of the car: as the car moves, the animal runs along it speeding up and slowing down with the car, as the car stops, the animal stops also.Primal and ethereal. Very cool to watch. Take a look at Wildlife(via Wooster

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1157272853375629992006-09-03T16:40:00.000+08:002006-09-03T16:43:47.996+08:00

Imagine a book of short stories comprising:Sixty-two entries, each in the voice of a beheaded historical, mythical, animal or modern figure, make up the collection. Each is exactly 240 words, Butler's estimate of the number of words that could be spoken by a decapitated head before oxygen runs out. Among the post-mortem monologues Butler imagines are John the Baptist, Medusa, Cicero, a chicken,

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1157261581821393102006-09-03T13:27:00.000+08:002006-09-03T13:33:01.830+08:00

In case anyone's wondering, I got my iBook back from the Apple Service Centre earlier this week. Turns out that the 3rd party RAM chip was responsible and they had to change the motherboard. Thank goodness for warranties. I don't need the extra RAM right now anyway.

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1157216710829765922006-09-03T01:05:00.000+08:002006-09-03T01:05:10.916+08:00

Came across a new service that, like BookCrossing, tries to find new homes for unwanted books. Unlike BookCrossing however, BookMooch introduces a points system and allows matching of books to individuals. Panegyrist explains the system here.While being an improvement over BookCrossing, I don't think it solves the main problem with trading systems like these: that people will game the system by

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1157181088360043732006-09-02T15:11:00.000+08:002006-09-02T15:11:30.870+08:00

Offend someone today! The Politically Incorrect Alphabet (via Web Zen)

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1157026822449948482006-08-31T20:20:00.000+08:002006-08-31T20:20:24.026+08:00

On Arranging Books by Color

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1156781670321854432006-08-29T00:14:00.000+08:002006-08-29T00:14:30.343+08:00

Cute attack! Wind-Up Robot Pencil Sharpener | OhGizmo!

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1156767191409690532006-08-28T20:11:00.000+08:002006-11-06T00:33:41.396+08:00

Got my cheap thrill of the day: I actually used a quote from Saint Jack at work. The one where Jack Flowers deadpans: "Some people when they're desperate they think about suicide. Me, I'm different, I think about murder."The film's full of one-liners like that, and Ben Gazzara throws each one like a tight punch.For his presentation yesterday, Ben Slater, author of the book on the making of this

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1156486776833670422006-08-25T14:09:00.000+08:002006-08-25T14:19:36.883+08:00

"For All Seasons" is an impressive Flash animation - where text turns pages into landscapes you can manipulate. "Autumn" is my favorite - now find yours.

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1156178524155816942006-08-22T00:42:00.000+08:002006-08-22T00:42:07.373+08:00

Nostalgia attack! Rock In The Fine City has SBC music videos. Scroll down the blog to the June 24, 2006 entry (no link - hey, I didn't design their blog).

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1156165040791780002006-08-21T20:57:00.000+08:002006-08-21T20:57:20.913+08:00

Published a year ago, but I only discovered this recently. From Harper's, July 2005: Chance Traveler by Murakami Haruki.

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1156160393262714502006-08-21T19:38:00.000+08:002006-08-21T19:40:13.356+08:00

Aw shoot: I've forgotten all my Dr Strangelove quotes.(Psst! Over here!)I love that movie. /sniff

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1156057970997923352006-08-20T15:11:00.000+08:002006-08-20T15:16:11.000+08:00

Turns out that re-installing the Mac OS was a breeze. Now however, I have to update everything again. The Mac OS X update alone is over 140MB. Strange -- with files that big, why can't you update in stages? If you stop the download halfway, you have to download the whole darn thing from scratch.And my trackpad's still not working, so I may have to go to the service centre anyway. I personally

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1155571883603395962006-08-15T00:02:00.000+08:002006-08-15T00:14:36.846+08:00

Yep, my iBook crashed. It's been giving me problems for a while now: trackpad won't work; resets itself randomly; won't wake from sleep mode properly. I'd sit down and reinstall the OS... if I had a day or two to blow sitting in front of that white slab trying to figure out what the hell I'm doing. To the service centre then. The iBook's actually lasted a shorter period than and given me more

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1155553304797209002006-08-14T18:58:00.000+08:002006-08-15T00:17:32.450+08:00

(From Twenty Four Originally from illustrator Seymour Chwast. See this entry on Booklust)

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1154717948845194052006-08-05T02:59:00.000+08:002006-08-05T02:59:09.003+08:00

Back from Hong Kong. Should be posting related stuff over the next week or so. Speaking of travel, the LA Public Library has scanned its collection of vintage travel posters: Far and Wide.

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1153717177731552792006-07-24T12:59:00.000+08:002006-07-24T12:59:37.800+08:00

Of course, I should've looked on YouTube for Pizzicato Five music videos. Why didn't I think of doing that earlier?

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1153303292770276302006-07-19T18:01:00.000+08:002006-07-19T18:01:32.850+08:00

Awwww! This t-shirt is cute as hell!

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1153065160028870792006-07-16T23:52:00.000+08:002006-07-16T23:52:40.080+08:00

From an old post on Typographica - the island of San Serriffe. What a cool idea!San Serriffe | Typographica

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1152667665664151742006-07-12T09:27:00.000+08:002006-07-12T09:27:45.740+08:00

Some examples of great design here: Spanish pharmaceutical ads from the '60s and '70s. (From BoingBoing)

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1151949106653312262006-07-04T01:49:00.000+08:002006-07-04T01:51:46.666+08:00

Ok: if I write at least one thing everyday, even if it be the tiniest word, eventually I will end up with a work of some sort, right?

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1151912070591930032006-07-03T15:34:00.000+08:002006-07-03T15:34:30.693+08:00

Coudal Partners had a competition where people were invited to submit combinations of book and band names. You can see the entries here -Coudal Partners: Booking Bands- but what caught my attention was that they installed blackboards in their washroom. Neat.

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5074106.post-1151826623338911942006-07-02T15:49:00.000+08:002006-11-06T00:02:35.156+08:00

Let's take a minute or two to remember the grand old dame of Singapore cinemas – the Capitol.(The Capitol on Cinema Treasures)There’s a feature on the Capitol cinema in today's Sunday Times (No links because The Straits Times has in place an anachronistic policy of locking every article behind a subscription. Perfect way to make yourself irrelevant online.) For those of you outside Singapore, or

Readymadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00636031917981754285noreply@blogger.com0