threesixfive: june

another compilation 365: june in pictures.

happy canada day.

let me grant you three wishes

i SO want to dress up and play fairy. the wig, the sparkly make up, the diaphanous costume. as you can tell, i missed out on donning fairy wings to go treat or treating during my childhood.

and this movie looks like it would be right up my alley.



here is a short made by actor rupert friend and starring his actress girlfriend keira knightley called the continuing and lamentable saga of the suicide brothers. i love long movie titles of the morbid nature. (remember lemony snicket: a series of unfortunate events)?



the movie is about brothers bourbon and barath who go out to their shed everyday at 2pm in an effort to off themselves. everyday, a different method and everyday, fairy godmother knightley watches.



for more awesome pics, click here. once there, click galleries, then film, then suicide brothers.

the premise sounds neat and the visual concept looks pretty rad. hullo? guys in knee high socks and lederhosen! looks much better than that other little movie, what was it again? oh yeah, pirates of the caribbean part II and III.

leaving on a float plane

last thursday i found myself on a float plane to victoria.

capulet communications had invited me to speak with them at the 2 hour SME luncheon gig with about 60 executives from various industries on the importance of a corporate blog and the use of twitter. julie and darren of capulet wanted to use vancouver opera as a case study of a company that uses these tools effectively and successfully. (why, thank you, thank you very much)

though far from being a pro a la tony robbins, i'm getting much more comfy with public speaking. cuz really, when i think about it, i've gone through more petrifying stuff than standing in front of strangers and talking. or at least, that's how rationalize it to quell any sort of fears.

so back to those floaty planes. never had been on one before so i was way looking forward to it. other than taking off and landing on water, it's not much different than a regular plane except that it doesn't fly nearly as high. (and there's no cockpit door) it still gets buffeted by the wind, still experience a couple of stomach dipping moments and still has that dead air conditioning/mechanical smell when a plane lands and powers off.



being that the flight was only 1/2 hour, there was no drink/snack service as there was no flight crew, except for the one pilot. but we did get nifty little ear plugs as the propeller noise gets very loud in this 14 seater float plane. note to self: next time bum rush the people that got to sit up in the co-pilot seat with the pilot. i shall have to be quicker on the draw and be the very first to ask the next time.



still, an adventure away is an adventure away. (even if it was disguised as work) we even got a nice little write up in the times colonist newspaper the next day.

turned out that lightning struck twice this week as the times colonist piece went well with my earlier interview with vancouver courier on our operabot contest.

who would've thought that my personal interest and use of social media tools these past few years would've translated into an opportunity to become the spokesperson and active player for new media in the company i work for?

life's funny like that.

7/6 update: selina informed me that the times colonist’s article on my speaking gig is now out on the canwest newswire, and has been picked up by the new brunswick telegraph journal. my name has made it all the way over to atlantic canada. woot.

7/21 update: hits the financial post. rawr.

7/22 update: making the rounds. times colonist's article picked up by edmonton journal today. rock.

11/6 update: made the montreal gazette, leader post, dose.ca and vancouver sun. freakin' great.

feel. take. hold.

my heart does a little cartwheel whenever i hear someone talk about a band/song that we both really like. especially if that band was not of say, u2 or coldplay magnitude, where everybody and their mailman has heard of them.

unless one was a fan of college rock radio in the early 90s and not just following nirvana, pearl jam, rem or smashing pumpkins, ask the average person who toad the wet sprocket is, you'll most likely draw a blank face.

that's too bad because all i want is such a great feel good song but only a handful of people actually know who sings it.

but whoever does know, that somebody will always scores BIG brownie points with me.

operamania 101: your new best friend

i would imagine that most actors would like from their body of work to be known to movie-goers as one definitive character. a character they so embodied and was so convincing, we can't think of any other actor who would've done a better job portraying that character. perhaps some actors would luck out and be known as 2 or more defining roles.

when i think of all american boy next door actor, matt damon, i think of jason bourne of bourne identity/supremacy/ultimatum. but what also comes to mind is the smaller non-blockbuster movie that damon was so convincing in: the talented mr ripley. matt damon was tom ripley, just as jude law, in my eyes, will always be dickie greenleaf. this drama was a taut, on the edge of your seat thriller; so much so that i couldn't decide if i wanted tom ripley to get caught or to get away with his crime.

when tom meets dickie, the contrast between them couldn't be more different. beside the fact that the two were from completely different social classes, tom was a classical music and opera buff, while dickie lived for jazz. and because of the privileges that dickie has at his feet, tom becomes obsessed with dickie, first wanting to be his very best friend in the world, then wanting to literally be him. (hello, male version of single white female?)

when tom accidentally/on purpose kills dickie, he then starts to assume dickie's identity and lives dickie's life of lavishness.

while in rome, tom, watches an operatic performance of tchaikovsky's eugene onegin.


watching the duel scene of eugene onegin

when it came to the pistol duel between onegin and his best friend lenski, tom started to weep because he drew parallels from the story unfolding right in front of him onstage, to him having just killed his best friend.



click here for lenski's aria from act 2, scene 2 that was portrayed in the movie.

of course he was not sorry enough for what he did, nor did he want to give up his new lifestyle, as tom continued desperately to play out the rest of the cat and mouse game in the movie.

the talented mr ripley serves as a cautionary tale of "how well do you REALLY know your new best friend?" and also what can happen if you get stuck on a row boat, in the middle of the ocean and piss off said friend.

take me to wonderland

oh my gosh. i seriously have to wait until march 2010 for the what looks to be the fantasmagoric awesomeness that is burton/depp/bonham carter's alice in wonderland?

now i'm really curious to see who's version will rock more? marilyn manson or tim burton?

return of the mad hatters

a little bit of much needed frivolity with all the terribleness happening in the world...


uk's annual royal ascot took place these past few days. as british women love their headwear, the royal ascot proves to be an opportune time for peacocking around with the most outrageous and inventive hats they can don on.


if you follow fashion at all, you would've undubitably heard of the brilliance that is the milliner philip treacy. recipient of the british designer of the year many times over and a genius amongst other hat designers, treacy has collaborated in creating hats to complement alexander mcqueen and karl lagerfeld's haute couture collection.


in 2008, treacey was asked to launch the royal ascot with a special catwalk show, showcasing his elaborate creations. (this year it was designer vivienne westwood who did the honours)

although treacey claims he makes hats, not art, one could disagree because every hat of his is a sculptural creation. it's hands down brilliant. treacey's dramatic headwear make it so cool to not have to be of little old lady age to wear a hat.

i would imagine that wearing a philip treacey would prove one of the few exceptions to those places that would ordinarily ask for you to remove your hat.

another spin around the sun

there is so much beauty and loveliness that is offered to us in this world. why must we do ourselves the disservice of not honoring that?

tagged! now show me your heart

penny lane aka pen pen has tagged me for some getting to know you, getting to know all about you...so as i always play well with others, here goes.

the rules: with as much creativity as you can muster, show your heart in: a song (or piece of music), a picture, a poem, a phrase (or quote), an item of clothing, a place, and (just for fun) a disney princess.


song: interpol's slow hands. and not even jail. and take you on a cruise. heck, the whole antics album makes me leap with joy and grin like a loon. purr-fection. my favourite band.

by the way, asking me to just name one song is like asking who's your favourite child? can't be done.




picture: my trifecta of fashion icons: audrey hepburn, twiggy, edie sedgwick


poem: curiosity by alistair reid


quote: it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye - the little prince by antoine de st exupery


clothing: little black dress



place: (another favourite child question) the past year or two, i've felt the urge to go see where my family and ancestors originated from: china | portugal


disney princess: i've never related to princesses but i do relate to alice in wonderland

et voila. now you have a little piece of my heart.

operamania 101: only stanley kubrick

...could get away with something like this.

i think everyone has seen or attempted to have seen a clockwork orange growing up.

(i think it was from this very movie that i picked up the slang, "yarble" which i'm known to use on occasion)

a rather disturbing and subversive little movie by director stanley kubrick, a clockwork orange follows a group of psychopathic delinquents' reign of terror and violence in a small english town. the gang, calling themselves the droogs, is fronted by alex delarge, played by the charismatic malcolm mcdowell. alex, for all his leanings towards violence, surprisingly fancies classical music, particularly beethoven.

the movie makes use of not one but 2 of gioachino rossini's operatic works.

one is the william tell overture used when alex is having "relations" with 2 young devotchkas whom he picks up at the record store.

the other is the overture from la gazza ladra (the thieving magpie), which is played twice in the movie.



the first when the droogs start a brawl with a rival gang.



and then when one droog tries to challenge alex for leadership of the gang and then gets shown the what's what.

not for the faint of heart, although i did like the bowler hats, eyeliner, suspenders and cockney rhyming slang, a clockwork orange remains an iconic film by the bizarre genius that was kubrick. it is definitely worth viewing, if only just to see how classical music and famous songs such as singing in the rain are used in ways one would've never imagined.



which begs the question: what would rossini, beethoven and gene kelly have thought about all this?

i love you like 1,2,3,4

i adore that song, hey there delilah. it's is such a great song that i thought the plain white t's could not possibly top that. well, i think they did.

i love 1,2,3,4 mainly because the harmonies are reminiscent of a 70's beatles song. (and i LOVE the beatles) lead singer tom higgenson even sounds a bit paul mccartney-ish. this is such a sweet song. and a sweet video too.



pop simplicity at its finest. and a stand out among almost all the top 40 drivel out there.

animated

i admit i got all trigger happy at the anime evolution festival. about 80 pics within a couple of hours. (seen here or posted on my flickr) but it was so darn fun taking these kids pictures as they were all dressed up and role played as anime characters.

i made sure to head down there a couple of hours before the huge cosplay aka costume role play contest at the convention centre.

these kids so remind me of my raving days with those colourful outfits, wigs, make up and lovey-dovey attitudes. they were even giving out free hugs to whoever wanted them. just like my friends and i were. ah memories. (one day i shall have to post pictures of when we were ravers).

it was kinda funny to see these hundreds and hundreds of kids on the pier by the vancouver convention and exhibition centre, pan pacific hotel and waterfront hotel doing their thing against the backdrop of cruiseships that were docked at the hotels and the uber-surprised tourists who had disembarked, not quite sure what to make of the spectacle.

it definitely felt a bit surreal. you'd think you were in japan or something. but after going up and down that pier and inside the convention centre playing shutterbug, i was amazed by all the creativity and camaraderie.

this is how halloween should be done.

anime evolution has kicked that holiday's ass. and beaten it to a pulp.

my dear lake

nothing says awesome more than an end of the week picnic dinner at the park. this time at deer lake park in burnaby known for its trails, meadows and woodlands.

annual concerts and festivals are held at deer lake. the last concert that i saw here was mr mellow hawaiian himself, jack johnson. this summer, the virgin festival will take place here.

the draw for this park is the big oval shaped lake with it's paddle boat and canoes rentals as well as water inhabitants such as bullfrogs (boy, do their ribbits ever sound weird! so bass baritone-ish), tadpoles, turtles, trout and flying herons. did i also mention tiny mosquito like bugs swarming above our heads? it was almost dusk after all and sean and i were eating our sandwiches lakeside in this temperate rainforest surroundings.

i do enjoy being outdoors. anywhere where it's green. especially if it's near a body of water.

and to carry on this nature-y mood, we continued with watching bbc's 6-part documentary, wild china on blu-ray. i definitely recommend this dvd. it's astonishingly beautiful in its cinematography. (like bbc's other documentary, earth)



the wildlife animals featured in wild china are so adorable that you feel like saying, "i'll have one in every colour please". sean and i have already added a przewalski's horse, the last wild horses on earth and an ewenki reindeer to our growing menagerie of animals on our wish list from watching this dvd.

yes, we are suckers for animals and nature documentaries.

how would we look as anime?

if you happen to go to anime evolution 2009 this weekend, a 3 day festival celebrating all things anime, you'll be one of the first to find out about our latest surprise that we're launching this fall. (look inside your goody bag!)

vancouver opera is a proud sponsor of this year's anime evolution, alongside nintendo, sakura media and the connection games.

weekend activities will include panel discussions, workshops with voice actors, artists, animators and game developers, cosplay aka "costume roleplay" contests, 24-hour video rooms, a charity auction, games and much more.

so don on your final fantasy, sailor moon or kill bill's gogo yubari of the crazy 88 gang school girl outfits, this yearly festival will make you feel like you've walked into the pages of a manga or a video game.

for more info, check out anime evolution.

operamania 101: take snacking to a higher level

i feel like a laugh today. it's mid-week. it's operamania 101 day.

i don't know what it is but people over at doritos love them some opera!

the finalists in the past 3 years of doritos' "crash the superbowl" campaign, a contest for fans to submit doritos commercials in order to win $1M and have their ad televised during the big game, chose to set their commercials to famous operas.


Doritos - Crash the Super Bowl
2007 finalist "live the flavor" set to libiamo ne' lieti calici from giuseppe verdi's la traviata


2008 finalist "mouse trap" set to habanera from georges bizet's carmen


2009 finalist for "power of the crunch" set again to libiamo ne' lieti calici from verdi's la traviata

not to be outdone, england came up with a similar contest called doritos uk make your own ad where contestants could win £20K. and one finalist chose to use opera in a hilarious way:


"it helps to read the brief" to the tune of nessun dorma from puccini's turandot.

puts one in a snacky mood, doesn't it? so while i go off in search of some cheesy goodness, here are the verdi and puccini for your mid-week listening pleasure.





enjoy.

on the promenade

my girly fun day with peggy.


at bridges restaurant patio on white rock promenade


when in white rock, fish & chips are kinda a given, followed by a trek on the pier.


how could anyone possibly say no to this face?


white rock beach may be rocky, but the view is pretty awesome.

what's japanese for "fun sex"?

feeling rather shoe-gazy today. i was a fan of the 90s shoegazing scene: jesus and mary chain, cocteau twins, chapterhouse, ride and lush. lush because the band was fronted by a japanese girl named miki berenyi. cuz how many bands out there are fronted by asian women, make great music and are stylish to boot?







which is why i also love thursday by asobi seksu, a new york indie band fronted by yuki chikudate. not only does chikudate have an angelic voice to twirl to, but she has a pretty kick ass style too. this band is one of those best kept secrets i found out about in new york. her style alone garners a check it out.

stealth shooting

special delivery today.

i received this gorgeous retro-looking and more importantly, girly bowler camera bag. the best part is that it doesn't even look like a camera bag. how very clandestine.

no longer will my slr camera be housed and trucked around in a godawful looking generic bag. (goodbye roots bag that was thrown in as a freebie when i bought my canon slr).

this gets me all sorts of excited.

can't wait to tote it out and about.

a sunset picnic

the back of the museum of anthropology make for a spontaneous and delightful picnic spot with both a view of the sunset over the trees and an unobstructed northern view of downtown and the mountains. there's no tables or facilities (cuz it's not really a picnic spot) but that's of little consequence when you can sit among the totem poles and first nations long houses and have dinner with your favourite date.





rather than taking the well walked path that lead to these grounds like normal people, do like we did and scale up the ginormous 3 story "anthill" instead. then enjoy being the only ones sitting on the grassy lawn and watching the sun go down on a beautiful summer-ish night.

a word to the wise: beware the trail at the farthest end of ubc's pacific spirit park unless one wants to see some skin-tastic buck naked men waiting to meet their craigslist hook-ups. yes, we saw you. in full-on glorious techni-skin-colour. that is, before you ducked back into the cover of bushes after we surely disappointed you in not being your anonymous rendez-vous man.

i, operabot

our operabot contest got mentioned in this week's georgia straight.

to get in on the hot action, go to vancouver opera's youtube.

drool-worthy prizes include:

wacom intuos4
fuji finepix S-5100 camera
a games package: dead space, fear 2, call of duty: world at war, street fighter 4 for PS3 or 360
PS3 with exclusive kill zone 2

are you game?

operamania 101: a room with a view

the romantic power of opera was probably best used in the 1986 merchant/ivory movie, a room with a view based on the e.m. forster book. the academy award winner for best picture starred helena bonham carter, julian sands, judi dench, daniel day-lewis and maggie smith.

the movie takes place in england and italy at the turn of the century. the soaring aria by italian composer giacomo puccini perfectly complemented the free-spiritedness and romance of edwardian-era italy. for it is here that lucy honeychurch fell in love with the impetuous george emerson.


forward to 3:35 to see george emerson, in a fit of passion, kiss lucy honeychurch in a barley field to the song of chi il bel sogno di doretta by soprano dame kiri te kawana. the song is from act 1 of the opera la rondine.


after realizing that lucy is in love with george, she elopes with him to florence and honeymoons at the pensione where they first met. the closing music is another romantic masterpiece from puccini called o mio babbino caro from his opera gianni schicchi.



puccini, whose great works include turandot, tosca, la boheme and madama butterfly, is one of the world's most beloved operatic composers. his music was the purr-fect choice for a movie that sweeps you away in the throes of love.

so should you be inclined to visit romantic florence italy with your significant other, stay at the hotel degli orafi (where the movie was filmed) with its magnificent terrace and splendid views of the arno and the ponte vecchio. just don't forget the puccini.

ah, amore.

operabot wants you

okay, how flippin' cool and progressive is the company i work for?

first blogger night at the opera, then opera ninja and flickr fashion at the opera and now this...

vancouver opera is putting the operabot challenge out there to all animation geeks (i heart geeks so that's definitely not a dig) to come up with some all-out, whatever you can dream up, mind-blowin', gangbusters shorts inspired by our operas next season. all videos will be:

a) posted on our youtube channel
b) voted on by the public
c) final judging by leaders in vancouver animation industry: rival schools, bardel, rainmaker, EA and PIXAR. yes, PIXAR! (cuz they're opening a brand spanking new studio in our fair city)

prizes are seriously drool-worthy: animation hardware, gaming packages and digital cameras. every entrant gets opera tickets, so everyone's a winner!

contest runs from june 1-november 1. another awesome? it's open across the board: canada and united states.

the contest is found at our youtube.
the fine print/rules & regs is on VO website

so tell your friends, track-back, re-tweet, make our contest go viral.

what will we come up with next?

hang tight. this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Illustration by Roy Husada