May 22nd, 2007
it’s been a while since i’ve done one of these. it’s also been a while since i’ve looked at the blog! or any blog at all, for that matter. i’ve been busy with college and assessments, but now we’re done (we still have four more weeks to go which we spend helping the 2nd years to prepare their show).
i think a website redesign is in order, with the inclusion of, of course, a portfolio! (finally!) because my work has changed, or so say my fellow illustrators.
i’m still taking a break from all the stress, including the very messed up sleeping habits! the weather’s looking up, the temperature is getting finer, it’s dress season, the sky is as blue as it can get, the parks are bursting with every single shade of green, and my bike isn’t getting a day’s rest! god i love how summer just slips in!
posted in oh, moi | no comments »
May 16th, 2007
i dreamt my parents had a great dane and some fishes, but somehow my brother was in charge of them. he didn’t really like the great dane because it was enormous, and i asked him how could he not love such an adorable dog? he replied that the dog was responsible for knocking the bowl over and killing the fish, to which i replied the fish were fine, that he should put them back into the water and they’d live.
i went over and hugged him and realized his fur would change from long, dark, and locky, to beige, to short and scoobydoo-like. then i realized i could understand him, that he could understand me, and i decided to keep him.
then there was this event a la wacky races where if you crossed the finish line you got to see a movie for free, and my vehicle was this giant hovering pink piano keyboard i controlled by shifting my weight, and sped it up or down with this switch.
i got to the end, through cobbled streets, with much destroying flower shops and restaurant terraces, crashing just once in the twilight. my family was waiting for me there, and we all looked up at the ticket stand to see what free movies the theater offered. they all sounded boring, and it was taking a while for us to decide as the other racers got their tickets, so i suggested seeing ’smelt’, which seemed to be about these three guys who found these old coins and wanted to melt them in some mountain in south america and then they’d be rich or something else would happen. and we went in to see it.
sometimes some dreams seem so real that you are convinced that the people appearing in them must have also dreamt the same thing - the idea that they did actually not experience as well them seems impossible. so much realness can’t just spawn from just one mind but from another as well. these times, when i sit up in my bed and scratch my head, gaze out of the window and through the blind’s slits, i allow myself a few guilty minutes of not ‘believing in science’.
posted in oh, moi | no comments »
April 6th, 2007
today i felt so french/dutch carrying my groceries in my bike’s basket, sans bags, with packets sticking out, prompting comments such as ‘dorset cereals… very healthy’. oh do i enjoy cycling yes i do very much thank you. it’s the wind in the hair, the tick-tick-tick of the chain, how the pedals feel under your soles as they turn, and knowing you’re in complete control, and not relying on anyone else such as the tube, buses, and cabs. which are unreliable, you can rely on that.
independence, maybe, is the word i’m after. you’re the driver, fuel, and passenger all in one. no waiting, no tutting at your watch, no stressing. then again you are at war with cabs and buses for riding space. i particularly have issues with cabs. they just ram around like they’re blind or in some urgent business for the president of the world (which i suspect is a toilet paper shortage and sends all the cabs in london to tesco’s for imediate backup).
london really should take a leaf from the netherlands and denmark.
i acquired my bike a week ago, at a shop that sells vintage furniture and clothing, and now its home is in a little corner in the corridor to the kitchen. it’s a lovely dutch ladies’ bike, with mudguards, an impeccable seat, and hardly any rust. initially the idea was to spray in pink like my other bike, but the golden typeface on the stickers and the marbled cranberry frame made it just so cute and enchanting i had to keep it as it was: like an old lady in a smart red coat and red shoes and a basket of red tulips belonged on its seat. she’d be patting her silver-haired bun and adjusting her navy neckerchief every now and then.
while i rode in the easter sun i suffered a surprising, flashback induced craving for some enya. i even got a slight tan today and my freckles are back with a vengeance.
posted in oh, moi | 6 comments »
March 12th, 2007
amelie has caught me by surprise tonight, unadvertised, unannounced, on the ghostly double-imaged and snowy screen, which made me promptly jump up and waltz with the antenna until i got a clear, yet not perfect, picture.
amelie makes me so happy. so happy that i don’t mind the bruise on my hand that is reappears weekly like a begrudged pheonix as i transport freshly hung clothes to their destinatory racks. i don’t mind not having finished the painting i’ve been working on in time for tomorrow, and the fact that it looks ever so slightly disneyficated. i don’t mind the colors running in the wash and ruining perfectly pure whites, because, after all, there are other white things in the world unmarred by dark fabrics.
amelie makes me just as happy as audrey hepburn jackets/coats*, spekulaas, and gelatine free desserts do. it makes me want to skip pebbles even though it’s not summer and i’m not at the beach. this means that on my to do list this easter is disrupting imaculate blanket of green algae on canals by a badly skipped pebble, or two, or three, or four, not before making sure there aren’t any innocently bystanding ducks around.
amelie seems to have been shot through a lomographic camera, crosprocessing the film afterwards. the green tints, the red shadows, the yellow filters, all highly contrasted, bright, and enchanting.
amelie is how the world should work.
dammit.
*see givenchy.
posted in oh, moi, awesome | 5 comments »
March 7th, 2007
i squinted my eyes, not being able to entirely open them, at the night table and tried to discern the clock’s hands. quarter to twelve. i dug my face intot he pillow and thought of what i could do today.
oh it’s lovely just to sleep in and just plan out the rest of the day.
i thought, i should go for a run first. the sun sliced through my blinds in that way i love the sun being sliced. the sort of slicing that pours onto the potted plant, the bedsheets, the pillows, the walls and my face. it would be a good day to run, a good day to shower, a good day to go to the zoo or the british museum to research college work. it’s sunny. i could do anything.
but i couldn’t move. i tried to lift my arms but they hurt from carrying paint tubs around aldgate. my back wasn’t up to it either, specifically my shoulder blades. so i wormed my way further into the sheets and stayed ther for another fifteen minutes until the strike ended.
posted in oh, moi | 1 comment »
March 5th, 2007
such a ham.
i solemnly swear to stop taking hepburnesque photos for my amusement. or at least, make them less frequent.
posted in oh, moi | 5 comments »
February 28th, 2007
i can’t stop running my hand up and down the back of my head. shortest hair ever. after years of long hair i think i still don’t believe it and i have to look twice at window reflections to see if it was me or someone completely different. i’m so smitten with the cut!
i expected the worst when the girl kept up picking up the scissors going chss chss chss and i clawed at the arm rests thinking ‘put. those. scissors. down. NOW.’. but it was all good in the end, and birds are still singing and the crocuses are blooming and the milk men are still driving their vans.
posted in oh, moi | 5 comments »
February 24th, 2007
i’m going to see tilly and the wall on wednesday - i’m so excited!
the tap-dancer live must be amazing.
i forget how i came across tilly and the wall. i generally forget how i happen to come across bands.
along with the ticket, i bought the latest rough trade shops: counter culture compilation for a breath of fresh air. i didn’t know what to expect. sometimes i like throwing myself at things and seeing what happens. and… amazement. it has nothing to do with the one i bought back in 2003. the first disc has got lovely melodies, folk melancholy, vocal harmonies, and soft bluesey riffs. the second goes crazy experimental, with bursts of rythmic punk and electrotechno, cute happy tunes alternating with heavy distortions and spoken word.
i may spend a little more time at rough trade and a little less on itunes. something about the tangibility, the album promotion posters, and the cosy, hidden-away pokiness of the basement character, in the middle of covent garden.
the guy that sold the compilation to me plays in one of the bands on the latter disc.
i love little coincidences, they make my day.
posted in oh, moi, awesome | 1 comment »
February 20th, 2007
this morning i was approached by this lady who handed me a card and asked if i would like to model for hairstylists.
not being amazingly happy with my now half mane, i had nothing to lose.
she took me to this very lovely looking hairdresser’s in the cute little sicilian avenue passage in holborn, sat me down and ran her fingers through my hair. after discussing what sort of haircut i wanted in vain, she disappeared and shortly came back bringing a very flamboyant man in a pink zebra shirt. he shuffled my hair, brought my bangs forward covering half my face, shuffled my hair again, commented on how much hair i have, told me to lift up my chin several times like a trainer asks his dog to sit up, picked the back up, and suprisingly suggested giving me the haircut i’ve been wanting to have but didn’t have the guts to. he was resolute: ‘the back’s not really doing anything. it’s neither here nor there’.
he held my hair like a bob and took out a mirror. how cute it looked from the profile! i was smitten.
he insisted on hard, crisp lines, but i shook my head saying i wanted soft and feathery, almost shaggy-looking. yet his advice was final:’you have a very good face for a bob’. the lady said that even if i still wasn’t sure, i could always call the day before and say i just want a more classic trim. so no pressure.
she snapped a polaroid of me, took my details, and booked me in for the 5th of march. they provide clothes and i’m guessing make up as well.
i honestly can’t wait! i want the haircut now, now, now. the analysis of my hair-face ratio mr. pink zebra gave made me feel more secure about dismissing all sentimentality of my hair in lieu of something new and cute. on the plus side, the lady also mentioned that the haircut we discussed would grow out very well by default. easily growable, free (worth much more than i can afford for a haircut!), and feeling pampered. how could i say no?
posted in oh, moi | no comments »
February 20th, 2007
i don’t know, but i wouldn’t let any royal duties involving crackers and milk seperate me from gregory peck. even if this bradley was initially looking for a good scoop. even if he pretty much beats the photographer up every now and then.
oh, sadness.
posted in oh, moi | no comments »
