I am Your Sunshine

這幾天吃了…
奇峰閣
大台北
日本料理
聖誕夜晚餐 (蝦鬆, 螃蟹, 油飯… 等等好料)
跨年晚餐 (米粉湯… 等等好料)
有朋自上海來晚餐 (紅燒魚, 蔥油餅, 鰻魚… 等等好料)

我們自己吃了玩了:
SF: Branda’s French Soul Food, 逛 Fillmore Ave.
A Single Man, Nine.
Bill’s Cafe, Santana Row, Valley Fair, CPK.
Sonoma: Cafe Citti, Artesa, Imagery, Chateau St. Jean, Ledson
SF: Lombard St., Le Charm
Los Gatos 逛街, Main Street Burger.

今天餞別晚餐後, 還拿了一盒土雞蛋(叔叔家養的雞)跟手工香皂回家 >////< (跟狗狗玩了一天, 現在一直覺得狗狗怎麼沒有跑來我腳邊 XD)

I guess the reason why I enjoy staying up late is because it’s all mine. (though I do share it with you from time to time.)

cutting off sweater puffs is not as calming as drawing. my mind wanders.

My top six:
Chicago (2002)
La Vie en Rose (2007)
Nine (2009)
Beyond the Sea (2004)
8 Femmes (2002)
The Music Man (2003)

the rest I’ve seen:
Walk the Line (2005)
Dreamgirls (2006)
Across the Universe (2007)
Sweeney Todd (2007)
Moulin Rouge (2001)
Mamma Mia! (2008)
The Producers (2005)
Hairspray (2007)

music oriented movies:
Once (2007)
Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist (2008)
The School of Rock (2003)
Ray (2004)
Shine a Light (2008)
Coyote Ugly (2000)
Hustle & Flow (2005)
Music and Lyrics (2007)

有人在頭上走來走去的感覺真不好
彷彿隨時都會穿過天花板掉下來一樣
還把枝枝葉葉亂七八糟的灑在我們樓梯上
最好要給我清乾淨
不過我覺得不太可能

這個星期六下午還頗有人氣
我寧願它如同以往像全世界只剩我一個人那樣安靜
真是吵死人了!

Nine

Highly anticipated.
Just look at the cast!
Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Judi Dench, Fergie, Kate Hudson, Nicole Kidman, Sophia Loren

Nine (AMC, Cine@rt)

另外還有一大堆片, 都在Xmas跑出來了!
包括廣告超久的 Sherlock Holmes (AMC), Isherwood的A Single Man (Cine@rt), The Young Victoria (Cine@rt), 還有好像很厲害的 Up in the Air (AMC)
Continue Reading »

three o’clock in the morning
the world is supposed to be quiet and still
but it’s not
music flows not in the serenity of the dark
but in the crowdedness of the world and probably
of my humming mind

I am wide awake

trying to at least create calmness in my imagination
perhaps I should turn off the lights
but still, I know it’s not there
the absence of the night, or the essence that constitutes night, is incredibly immense
where has it gone?
how can I get it back?

not as satisfying as the Lighthouse, which was a page turner and very moving.

the characters in The Private Patient are less likable and hard to identify with, thus are a drag from time to time. The most interesting part is where Emma’s father quotes Wilde and the depiction of Kate.

Thanks to EW

Shows I watch:
Continue Reading »

N/A

I decided that it’s a guy thing, just like the much-praised, stupid Field of Dreams, ’cause, quoting Morales in A Chorus Line, I feel nothing.

I’m not saying it’s not good (plus some of the shots are spectacular); I simply felt nothing toward this father and son thing. I wasn’t shocked by what the movie portrayed, and I wasn’t touched. I can imagine some, if not most, guys feel the same way toward films touch upon female identity recognition issue and etc.

Men and their fathers… it’s taking care and depending on each other, it’s passing down the legacy, it’s a power struggle. It’s complicated.

Your 67th Golden Globe nominations

seen / plan to watch
Continue Reading »

(if it can still be called a “collection”…)

上次的整理.

Reds:
(Cab)
2002 Robert Mondavi Stag’s Leap Dist Cabernet Sauvignon $55(?)
2004 Simi Landslide Cabernet Sauvignon $40
2005 Ashley Capricious Blue Cabernet Sauvignon $90
三瓶都不會變的東東 XD

(Other)
2005 Masi Campofiorin Ripasso $16 新進(註)
2006 Masciarelli Montepulciano d’Abruzzo $9 新進
2005 Vicent Arroyo Petite Sirah
2003 Valley of the Moon Estate Old Vine Zinfandel (便宜, 但非常好喝. 2004 VOTM 的 Old Vine Zin 就差很多. 當初買了兩瓶, 這瓶一直捨不得開.)

White:
2007 Karl Joh. Molitor Riesling Spaetlese $14 (喝掉囉)
2008 Hermann J Wiemer Frost Cuvee (from Moni)

Dessert:
2005 Mayo Late Harvest Gewurztraminer $26
2004 Peller Estates Icewine (Vidal Blanc) $$$

註:
Masi Campofiorin Ripasso 這支其實已經買過兩次, 之前都是 2004 的. Ripasso 可說是窮人的 Amarone, 比較便宜 (很多), 適飲期也比較早. 這支 Ripasso 大概是除了 Robert Mondavi 的Stag’s Leap unfiltered Cab 之外 (還有那支西班牙白酒), 唯一一直買的酒了. 每次都喝得很開心. 但也希望有朝一日我可以下定決心買 Amarone. XD (明明跟那些 overpriced的加州酒差不多錢…)

Continue Reading »

Paul asked us to bring a photo of someone we feel strongly about (either love or hate.) I didn’t want to take my poster off the wall (it’ll be too big anyways), so I just randomly picked two photos of w’s and brought it to class. Unfortunately, Paul said w doesn’t look man enough XDDDD (nah, he said 4*6 photo is too small.) and asked me to find something else.

And I found one I like online and printed it out in the library.

We were doing a characture drawing. It isn’t meant to be proportional. First we divide the original image into a 4*3 grid. Then, randomly put 3 dots on the left side of another piece of paper and 3 dots (not aligned) on the right, and 2 dots on the top and 2 on the bottom.

so instead of this we have something like this

and this is what I did (it’s unfinished though.)

who do you think this is?

After we did the landscape drawing in the sunken garden, we returned to the classroom. Paul handed each of us a square of a image that was cut out of a larger image. We might not be able to tell from the small pieces that we got what it was that we were drawing, but we were supposed to draw the “values” not the “things” anyways. When we were all done, Paul took our drawings and pieced them on the wall, and voilà. (Mine is the one on the top left corner.)

It looked amazing. And you can tell that different person has different interpretation of what he’s given. I loved this project.

Then we ventured a new medium – crow quill pen + ink. This time, Paul taught us to create different values using hash marks. Our goal is to recreate our breakfast and put it in a setting that makes sense.

Today, we drew small portraits of our classmates on tiny pieces of some fancy paper Paul gave us. We were to make a wash (add some ink to a dish of water to create a shade that we like), make some organic shape on the paper and then draw our partner with a crow quill pen.

Here are some of mine.

Eddie Vedder, like doing the right thing, is an acquired taste.

People are wired differently, mysteriously. Matthew Bellamy’s hell to some’s ears but redemption to mine. Brian Aubert sounds unbearably childish to him while it get me completely and whole-heartedly addicted.

But even though he touched me with lines like you’re my muse with simplicity and desperate sincerity that he’s always good at, I’m intoxicated with your timid smile and persistent gaze and I think that possibly maybe I’m falling for you.

B+

hilarious. exactly what I’d expected and then some.

I’m not gonna say what it is. It’s a bit embarrassing. A guilty pleasure that is not even so pleasing from time to time.

The first two chapters can be cut. All the relevant information can be obtain via characters’ dialogue or quick flashbacks that come later. You can easily see what the author is trying to do. You can tell that she wants to make the male character idealistically perfect but misunderstood and the female defensive but kind. But the thing is, it doesn’t come naturally, nor convincingly. Instead, we feel her intention rather than seeing those characteristics to be real.

Something to keep in mind.

Granted that mom put me on sketching classes for at least two summers, Noelle’s always been the painter in the family. But to expand myself, I took beginning drawing this quarter and it’s been both fun and gratifying.

We did contour drawing in the first class. Our instructor, Paul, told us to draw our drawing partner without looking at our paper. The point is to rid us of the conceptual drawing that we’ve been so used to and to really observe. And for the first time in my life, I found that I draw better when I concentrate on the object I’m drawing but drawing itself. I’m not saying my drawing was true to life, but I was able to pay attention to details the way I didn’t know I can.

And then we did a cubist drawing. This is when I felt frustrated with my inability to draw something like I saw it. Other people’s cubic drawings look like interpretation of a thing when mine looks like some bizarre line rendering of something alien.

Then we practiced one point perspective and two point perspective which I felt very comfortable with because it, for me, is science, or more precisely, is mathematics. Tell me the rules to do it, and I can do it. And our next big project was to do a surrealism drawing.
This time, Paul told us to collect images from magazines that strike us as interesting, and then arrange them in smaller pieces of paper according to the eye level. We were to make four of those, imagine what the background would be and sketch it. Pick one that we like the most and draw it on a 24×18 piece of paper.

And this is what I did.

And them we did some landscape practice and we employed a technique called dirt drawing and drew our partner under sharp lighting.

tbc…

(A Response to Darren’s “The Glove Incident“)
Something similar happened to me. It actually happened to me more than once. I had my knitted hat from Roots since I was in Buffalo, NY. I wore it a lot during the winter cos it was really cold. When I got into my car, I’d take it off and put it on my lap. And twice, I totally forgot all about it, got off the car, walked home and realized two days later that I left it frozen to death on the driveway, covered by snow and hard as a stone. I actually walked past it once, thinking what the heck is that ugly thing (as it’d already become wet and black-ish) doing next to my car. I took it home and revived it with warm water and dryer, and did the same thing to it again a few weeks later.

And then there was last winter, I went to somewhere along central coast with my friends and I lost the hat at the parking lot of some information center, but I’m glad we were able to rescue it from bird and elephant seals. Now it’s lying happily on the carpet, ready to serve.

first sweet talked me into the sugar coating trap
wrapped around with chocolate oh so sweet
(and I don’t even like chocolate)
saying things like you’re gonna love it
luring and tempting with yes-follow-me’s
and i was circling round and round feverishly
which turned out to be a useless meaningless effort
and then pores coming out of nowhere
captured your heart all so easily
and you decided that i didn’t want it at the beginning anyways
your smiles trampled all over the futileness
of the purple glass of my heart
and you had to say, “you’re wrong”
(and then forced me to show that no i’m not)
when i’d already decided to forget about it

makes you feel that it’s wonderful to be alive.

Juliet, Naked did that for me.