30 March 2012

Thinking About the Future

Ispent the day in a fancy hotel with a bunch of francophones, discussing literature, performance art, and cinema in a cross-cultural context (volunteering at a 20th and 21st century French and Francophone literature conference). The panels and subjects were so rich with diversity and depth that my biggest frustration was that I couldn't attend them all.

Among the perks of volunteering: delicious calimari, lamb, and chicken for lunch ♦ green tea orange tea earl grey tea darjeeling tea pomegranate tea with honey and milk ♦ brownies and white chocolate macadamia cookies on a mahogany pyramid shelf ♦ meeting all of these crazy different highly intelligent people who had briefly converged for a weekend in Southern California to discuss their shared passion before scattering once more to the corners of the world.

Everyone's idealism and pure enthusiasm for learning and the arts helped me, if only for a brief second, to find my footing once again against the stress of plain old living (I never really liked realism anyway). In that moment, while a panelist spoke about the reactionary nature of modern travel and another about one writer's infernal portrayal of Hollywood, I thought that I would be okay with being a poor student in France for the next three years, or a penniless filmmaker for the foreseeable future. As long as I stayed faithful to myself and did what I loved, I would be okay with whatever obstacles came my way.

I was especially overcome with the notion that while I loved this community and being here enthusing about these subjects, each paper was about someone else's work, and it was that work, more so than the papers about it, that initiated impact. The pull of action, of creation, is quite a bit stronger.

P.S. I tried to make up for the lack of photos with a drop cap.

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20 March 2012

Double Feature: The Joy of Books | Mourir Auprès de Toi

While watching The Joy of Books, I was reminded of another clever book-related stop-motion. The secret life of books is all too fascinating. I've also included a glimpse behind-the-scenes of Mourir Auprès de Toi. Enjoy!


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I like Mourir... just a bit more for the meatier plot and detailed embroidery. Although The Joy... is a spectacle and quite a feat. What are your thoughts? Did you like one more than the other?

Mourir Auprès de Toi - Spike Jonze + Olympia Le Tan

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18 March 2012

Before All Hell Breaks Loose

The Hunger Games will be released on Friday, and Lionsgate (whose logo is notorious in my house for resembling the opening credits of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) is expecting it to be the next Twilight (It's certainly being marketed as such. I just saw three hideous red t-shirts at Hot Topic. Who designs those things? The same people who make karaoke videos, probably).

The opposite should be true. When I first picked up the book a couple years ago, I prayed to the Book Gods it wouldn't be like most of the teen fiction on the shelves. Don't get me wrong, there are gems in YA Fiction. I was hoping this one would be one of them.
Spray tan + dirt + earthy tones = dystopian poverty

And it was. After a whirlwind that never once allowed me to catch my breath, the book left me with a cliffhanger. A cliffhanger!

Before it becomes a franchise, another marriage of mass marketing and an obsessive demographic gone horribly right, I just wanted to think back to the stunned, quiet moment right after I had turned that final page in my bedroom. Before the sweaty photoshoots and nail polish campaigns that would put the Capitol to shame, I simply read one of the most exciting books in a while.

Honestly, when I saw the way they were marketing the movie, I was upset that they were feeding the same spiel as they had done with the Twilight movies. As though they had to win us over with tons of merchandise and hot stars. We were won over some time ago, simply with a great book. I have nothing against teen movies, but can we be treated as intelligent beings rather than a massive herd of cows to milk?

All things said, I will be watching because I can't wait to see it on screen. Ironically, marketing campaigns don't always reflect their film (see Hugo). Reviews so far are generally positive, so there's hope yet.

P.S. The Mockingjay's song at the end of the trailers is so haunting. It sends chills down my spine.

P.P.S. This brings up another question: to what extent do the gears of a machine have to be united? I mean, does the marketing need to reflect the themes of the book itself? If so, what do you think of the nail polish line, etc, that seems to perpetuate the ideals of the Capitol, a quasi-villain of the book?

Photos via Entertainment Weekly

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11 March 2012

Courage, I Say

I'm bracing myself for what will either be the best or worst news of my foreseeable future, and I have no idea how to go about it. It's like a torturous itch somewhere you can't quite place, a constant wrenching of your gut, bile rising up in your throat at the very thought of the possibilities, both good and bad.

I don't want to raise my hopes too high and have them shattered for the second time, but I also cannot function with the constant twists and turns of dread paralyzing my limbs. I keep playing that half hour over and over in my head, tinted in varying degrees of compassion ranging from steeliness to sympathy.

It's moments like these all the superstition of human history washes over me and I fluctuate between fixating on the positive to influence...what, fate? and talking myself down so that if the news is bad, the fall is not so far, and if it is good, I have higher to soar. I pray to God one second and question his existence the next. I contemplate taking matters into my own hands and call myself meddlesome.

Mostly, I reach for something to hold onto, a strategy or project that I can use to pull myself out of this existential fog. At the moment, it seems like success is futile and mediocrity is all too close. I'm not content with chanting this too shall pass anymore, but I wish I could convince myself that any effort will be worth it.

Only time will tell if I will scroll quickly past these words and their pain, or if I will pause and smile with hindsight on my side.

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10 March 2012

Purple Mountains Majesty

We just returned from San Francisco early this morning, driving through the night and fighting sleep with coffee and sugary snacks.
Cracker Jack is becoming tradition for father-daughter road trips.
A California road trip  with my dad felt so American. I almost expected to turn around and find Kerouac and Steinbeck in the backseat. Farm country as far as the eye can see, and the mountains were actually purple. Katherine, fact-checker of patriotic songs. 
In Kern County, all the trees looked like they had absconded from a Tim Burton movie.  
After my interview the next day, we wandered around Chinatown and got egg custard from the Golden Gate Bakery. On the way back to the car I had some Super Duper Burger. Two out of three isn't bad, right?
And now my stomach is in knots waiting to hear back about the interview. Courage, and a good supply of silly romantic comedies will get me through. In the meantime, the fickleness of my own moods astounds me. 

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06 March 2012

This Has Been Film School at the Mall

Ess and I went to the mall today, to a store that we used to frequent like it was the only store left on Earth but hadn't in a while because quality, in our minds, should ultimately defeat quantity.

It's such a ridiculously large store, with such variety of styles, that I expected to find at least one item I would like. But after ten minutes, I realized that what I used to call variety was more like every pattern, color, and ruffle known to man tossed in a cement mixer and splashed onto the thinnest and shiniest synthetic fabric. 

We amused ourselves instead by finding the most hideous patterns in the massive sale section. One of them was so psychedelic, it could have been reproduced and sold as a a recreational drug. 


The purple in the second row is, admittedly, not a pattern, but I had to include it because Ess wanted to buy that vest and turn it into a wig. Indeed, once she be-vested her head I had to agree the material would have been put to better use on Governor Swann in the 1700s equivalent of his disco years. The 1670s must have been a riot.  

What's interesting is that some of the clothes were nauseating in person, but in the confines of a small square their patterns were totally palatable. The frame is just as important as the content, it seems. 

Just imagine how much worse these are on an entire dress. 

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05 March 2012

San Francisco Suitcase

On Wednesday, I'll be driving up to San Francisco with my dad. We'll only be there one night, because this trip is strictly business. Well, maybe with a bit of sightseeing and eating on the side. I'll try to accidentally walk him into Super Duper Burger or Golden Gate Bakery, and we will happen upon 826 Valencia when we inevitably get lost.

Sometimes when I pack I start to fantasize about living wherever I'm going, and that's when everything but the kitchen sink comes into play. A splash of cold water - thinking about lugging everything around and memories of anxiety because oh god I want to do that fun thing but ohhh my stuff - quickly places things in perspective.

So this may not be the most exciting of travel wardrobes, but I'll be free to tackle whatever adventure pops up and ready for my interview.


If you're familiar with the area, what are some of your favorite spots to visit?

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04 March 2012

A Fresh Start

Introductions are difficult. On one hand, a window into the life of another human being is always fascinating.

On the other, the language of a casual introduction cannot adequately convey the complexities and nuances of a person that we would get from spending time with them. We are okay with this simplicity, however, because humans like categorization. The world is much less confusing when everything is in neat little boxes.

I could make this short and sweet by picking out a few words that describe me: writer, student, filmmaker, artist, musician, Taiwanese, American, francophile. Isn't it amazing how one word gives such a vivid image? But I prefer just to be a person. I write and I make music and art. I'm still learning (although I suspect that won't change even when the label student falls off), but I'm not waiting for "real life" to begin.

I've been blogging for almost seven years now, on various platforms, but I hope to be here for long time. Some girls go through numerous boyfriends in high school. I went through blogging sites. This place will be an amalgamation of everything that interests me. And what are those things, exactly?

We'll just have to see, because I'm still finding out. There are so many things I don't know, but I'll figure it out through words and pictures.

Essayons-nous. 

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