in the midnight hour

i could spend an entire day at a museum. i was a frequent visitor of the met when i lived in new york. when i'm traveling, i always try to get my arts and culture in: british museum, the V&A, national portrait museum, the tate, the louvre, rijksmuseum, van gogh museum, musee royaux des beaux arts, to name but a few.

not nearly as big as the above mentioned, i do try to hit our vancouver art gallery to catch the latest traveling exhibitions. there was the vermeer, rembrandt and golden age of dutch art masterpieces from the rijksmuseum exhibit in 2009 and the colour of my dreams: the surrealist revolution in art in 2011.

this summer, the vag is exhibiting collecting matisse and modern masters, the cone sisters of baltimore until september 30. the collection, amassed by claribel and etta cone, features works from matisse, gauguin, van gogh and picasso.

so on a rainy vancouver afternoon, sean and i went to check out some modernist and impressionist art. my favourite piece out of the entire exhibit was matisse's large odalisque with stripe pantaloons. (1925)

and as per our previous visits, i actually ended up liking the smaller, secondary exhibits over the headlining one. like andreas gursky's panoramic photography exhibit in 2009 and jim campbell's time-based analogue pictures. to me, they were much more intriguing than what was featured on the main floor.

and so it was again this time. 

on the upper floor was a trio of photos of ginseng roots by evan lee. but what was unique about them were that they were taken by digital scanner.

there was the large scale and decidedly phallic ceramic work by glenn lewis called artifact. (1969) it is made up of 176 individual tiles with salt shakers in various states of erection. we called it "back up into it." the vag bought the work for its permanent collection and this was the inaugural installation at the gallery. 

india suite by jack shadbolt was another work i enjoyed. a series of 20 charcoal drawings, in which the vag exhibited 5 panels, it was inspired by shadbolt's visit to indian temples, palaces and archaelogical sites in 1975.

but what was the highlight of the visit belonged to shanghai artist, yang fudong, who is known for creating highly stylized video installations. we were immersed inside a darkened theatre to watch fifth night, where a single scene has been filmed simultaneously from 7 different vantage points, creating a nonlinear and open ended narrative. 

the people in the movie wander and cross paths in a dark city square, while being disconnected from each other. yang described his work as "a midnight theatre for an audience of one", exploring emotive states during this "loneliest hour of the night". 

the installation was shot in real time and carefully choreographed so that the 7 cameras never overlapped any of the others.

the 7 channels were presented in a continuum along a wall, spanning 21 metres to be exact, so that subjects appeared or disappeared from view only to reappear in another frame.  shot in high definition black and white, i was captivated by the cinematography and the 1930s feel of it.

unfortunately, it looks like you can only see fifth night wherever it is being exhibited, as i can't seem to find a clip of it anywhere online. however, to give you a flavour of how dreamy, strange and riveting fifth night is, here's a video he made for prada's 2010 spring/summer collection called first spring.

oh, if only my life was that interesting to be filmed in such an avant garde manner.

sleepy bear

charlie is all paws when he's asleep. so ridiculously cute.

the poses this little cat gets himself into... i love trying to capture it. that is, next to trying to catch him in fantastically wide open yawns.

the things he lets his human do to him...

catnap time. shhhhh.

london calling

i've always had a thing for those red british telephone booths. when i first travelled to the uk in 2007, i even wondered if there was any way i could send one home with me. and what do you know, just this past april, BT was putting up 60 of these emblematic phone booths up for sale. but at the cost of $3100 plus shipping (think of the weight!), the cast iron kiosk remains a far-off dream for me. 

but i digress...

the point of this post is of my utter delight in reading that to celebrate the 25th anniversary of childline, a children's charity, 82 of these red telephone booths were getting a splashy make-over all across london.  

photo credit: jeff moore

there's so much creative energy in london. oh, how i miss it. if i was in london right now, i would totally go on the hunt to see all 82 BT artboxes. there's last minute cheap flights to london in the high season of summer, right?

on my first trip to london, completely by happenstance, i stumbled onto gibson's guitar town at more london, down by the south bank area. to raise funds for the prince's trust, teenage cancer trust and nordoff-robbins music therapy, the gibson foundation invited 29 visual and musical artists to come up with a custom design for the 10 ft gibson les paul guitar sculptures. it was a concrete field of guitars.

his master's voice 

designed by james holdsworth. signed by bruce dickenson

l: you wear it well. designed by michael english. signed by rod stewart

r: armes prydein. designed by mauricio ortiz. signed by robert plant

mod

designed by peter blake. signed by paul weller.

i considered myself extremely lucky to have come across guitar town, as i was just mere hours away from boarding my return flight. i was even wheeling around my luggage with me.

sadly for me, it's not meant to be with the artboxes, as they are only on display until july 16.

saying hello to our equine friends

when your mood reflects the overcast weather, spending time with animals is an instant pick-me-up. even better is when it seems like the animals remember you too.

the midget donkey definitely remembered sean from our previous visits, so much so that it seemed like he didn't want us to leave.

 this freckled horse was a really sweet creature. but after we left, i suddenly had a craving for some oreo ice cream.

southlands really is a gem hidden in the city.

(s)wipe out

damn you zynga for making zombie swipeout so thoroughly addictive. i was such a huge fan of zombie smash, with its tower defense concept, that i was really hesitant to try out this fruit ninja-style format. but i tried it out and now i'm hooked.

i think it's because i can score some pretty wicked weapons to kill zombies with.

first i was slicing and dicing zombies with my machete.... then while leveling up and acquiring in-game cash, i upgraded to a bat (and all of a sudden, i want to go to a batting cage). and it actually sounds like you're knocking out zombies with a bat.

pretty proud of this: my highest kill count in one round. each round is a minute and fifteen seconds.

updated: november 13

zombie smash/swipeout, you got me again!

a cosmic sunday

still on a concert high, one that i would love to go to is florence and the machine at deer lake park on july 20. that voice. she would be amazing to catch live.



happy sunday.

hypnotized for a night

dreamy. breathtaking. hypnotic. symphonic. lush. textured. exquisite.

what else can i say? the patrick watson concert was incredible. and i will never forget it.

it's been said that if you attend his gig, you're going to be in for a real treat. and then afterwards, you'll tell everyone and their mailman to go see him perform, if given the chance. so true on both counts.

listening to him support his newest album, adventures in your own backyard, the songs brought to my mind memories of childhood. of wistful summers playing outside. of make-believing that you ran away to the woods and came across a traveling carnival troupe.


patrick watson peforming tracks off his newest release for CBC radio 3 in april

and he's charming and delightful too. watson joked around, told little anecdotes about touring, gave backgrounders on his songs and opened cards and gifts from fans. his parents were even in the audience, having recently moved from quebec to vancouver.

watson and his haunting falsetto reminded me of the sway that jeff buckley had over all those who listened to him sing. remember the first time you heard 'hallelujah' and you stopped dead in your tracks? like that.

and the complexities of some of the songs reminded me of radiohead's experimental stuff. minus the electronica element. watson and his band are consummate musicians, each of them so gifted with their instruments. this was real singing and real playing. no flashy props or costumes. nothing to detract from the music which took centre stage.


patrick watson peforming tracks off his newest release for CBC radio 3 in april

how watson is not as big as he should be is beyond me. i think his newest album will catapult him onto another level and the next time he comes to town, he won't be playing a sold out 1100 person intimate venue.

oh, and i'm sure spike jonze will be kicking himself one day for turning down watson's song that he penned especially for 'where the wild things are'.  that was the second to last song he sang last night, when they came back for an ovation.

i was crossing my fingers that the finale song would be 'to build a home', so imagine my heart leaping when i heard the first few bars tinkered on the piano. i was afraid that it might not be sung as the song is an older one. also, almost every song sung was from the new album. and it was not performed at all on the european leg of his tour.

but then again, he is in vancouver and his parents were in the audience, so the 3 encore songs were the ones he's most known for.

the set list went something like this:

lighthouse
blackwind
step out for a while
quiet crowd
words in the fire
into giants
the things you do
strange crooked road
bird bird in a small cage
morning sheets
adventures in your own backyard
noisy sunday

encore:
the great escape
where the wild things are
to build a home

to give you a sense of what the vancouver concert was like, here is patrick watson on his european leg in paris april 24. they used those awesome finger lights for the opening number here too. and yes, he also got all of us to sing along with big bird in a small cage (at 15:10). except we belted it out here, unlike those subdued parisians.




i've been to a lot of concerts over the years but there are only a few that i can rave about. this is one of them. or rather, i want to whisper to everyone that if they want to be hypnotized by an unforgettable musical experience, then they should do everything they can to get a ticket and watch patrick watson perform.

i don't want to say that it'll change your life. (although it may for some) but i will definitely say this: it will enrich it. and you'll leave the concert hall, floating as if in a dream.

get the message

this is charlie's favourite stuffy. here's a picture i snapped of him after he dragged the stuffy across the room to lay at my feet. adorable, right?

when i got home after a whole day out, i found this scene in my hallway, right by the front door. charlie had dragged over his lamb stuffy and 2 catnip balls to welcome me home. a hint to play, perhaps?

such a cute gesture. how could i resist the little peanut. a one-off, i thought nothing more about it, until the next time i was out of the house for most of the day. 

this was plopped by my front door when i came home: charlie's stuffy, gecko shaped catnip toy and his tiger striped cat wand.

as i'm not working right now, i'm home quite a bit. so lots of charlie & his human time. charlie's so used to having me around (at his beck and call, i might add), that i think there may be some separation issues when i do go back to work. he may have just turned one years old, but he's still a kitten in many ways.

tightening it up

maybe more important than getting a bulleyes is shooting a tight grouping in archery. and last week, i shot my tightest grouping ever. at 18 metres away!

two arrows touching each other. boom!

accuracy and precision counts. a proud moment. woot!

my next challenge to myself: score a robin hood!

how far will you go to get your answers?

turn off that computer and get thee to prometheus. seriously. i can't even go into how jaw-droppingly fantastic this movie was. i'm still processing...

and yes, you can bet your bottom dollar, there will be multiple screenings. ridley scott is truly a motherfrickin' genius.

and when you've watched prometheus, delve further into the movie here, here and here.

prometheus!

oh my god! the day is finally here. we're seeing prometheus on opening day!

the marketing machine behind the movie went above and beyond in hyping this movie. i've been trying so hard to avoid any of the spoilers, interviews or featurettes these past months, save for the peter weyland ted talk and next generation david trailers.

but it's been so hard, especially when there's a dedicated channel on all things prometheus.

but wait no more. we're watching it today!

solar beauty mark

"there's a little black spot on the sun today...."

although vancouver was blanketed under thick, grey clouds (big surprise), sean and i got to watch the  transit of venus yesterday online. rarer than halley's comet event, the next time the transit of venus comes around won't be until 2117 and it's doubtful that anyone living will be around to see it again. unless you've been suspended in a cryogenic state.

a fan of infographics, here's a couple of cool ones on the transit:

of course, watching the transit online is not the same as seeing it with your own eyes (with protective glasses, of course). we would've gone to the southam observatory who was giving out viewing glasses, had it not been so dismally grey here. 

luckily, NASA has put together an awe-inspiring video of the unforgettable transit:

it is a thing of beauty and astonishing to behold. watching it, i can't help but feel how incomprehensibly huge the universe is and that we are a part of it.

belly to the ground

not an isolated incident, this is how charlie likes to relax. seriously. how is it that i've never known of a cat that likes to unwind in this position.

such a little peanut.

adventures on the road

how much do i love this song? this skateboarding video? everything about it is purr-fection.

it's poetry in motion. from the song to the filmmaking, to free-style skateboarder kilian martin.

when i first saw this video, i was immediately captured by the music and it's no surprise. the voice belongs to none other than patrick watson. he who wrote and sang to build a home with the cinematic orchestra. but this song is something else. the bugles, the guitars, the very spanish-ness of it all. it makes me want to be on an open and dusty highway somewhere.

i was struck at how it reminded me of another spanish-tinged song that also evoked images of the open road for me, that of crooked fingers' islero.



this song, adventures in your own backyard, is off watson's latest release. and as fate would have it, as i was looking into more songs from this album online, i found out that patrick watson will be playing in vancouver.

serendipity.

so... in my tiny fists of fury, i have a ticket to see his show at the vogue theatre on june 14! all the songs that i've heard from him thus far makes my spirit soar, so i would, of course, want to see him perform live.