The Lazarus Effect

Pause. Think. Do something.

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The Road

So, I was thinking about energy saving bulbs. Then I took a shower. After shower, I paced slowly to the kitchen, turned the tap and filled a bottle of water. At that moment, I was thinking about my parents.

Menu. Subtitles. Play.

For a minute or two I was wondering if the audio was ‘on’. This movie starts with no sound. Well, you’d expect a score – a background score of sorts. Well, score one! No score. So I sit in silent concentration. I moved from my bed, about 7 feet away – to my desk chair, about a feet away from the screen on which The Road plays. I’m glad I did that; and did that quite early in the show.

So the story unfolds. The movie… is intimate. Fearful. Captivating. Hopeful. Redemptive.

Reflective. Urgent. Profound.

Re-Creativity

I’ve been in a pretty pensive state lately about creativity and its applications, namely in the realm of communicating abstracts, like faith. Without tactile sensations, nor proof of existence – the creative outlet is underrated and under-understood, especially when called upon to bridge that gap. Here’s a compilation of thoughts that resonates with me. I think I’ve found a natural frequency to my raison d’etre… Enough to know how to propel. Enough to doubt (maybe even despise?) convention. Enough to hope.

When it comes to creating things (and things of art). It’s usually manageable when it’s purely a functional object. We cannot not care about being eco-friendly. We need pieces of innovation to represent the character and creeds of its creator. When that happens, one has to stop and rethink ye old method of production. Economics is secondary. Risk follows change. Yet, it is needed. For “when you see an object, you make so many assumptions about that object in seconds.” If perception is intrinsic, then explanations become plan B. The creative work itself, needs to be persuasive. We need to meta-design. Watch this.

I’ve stumbled upon a film about the change in production, distribution and consumption of creative works. “A new generation of global creators and artists is emerging, equipped with other points of reference and other tools. The teachers arenʼt certified schools anymore – itʼs web sites, discussion forums and a “learn by doing”-mentality. We see the children of a digital age, unspoiled or uneducated depending on who you ask. Collaboration over hierarchy, digital over analog – a change in the way we produce, distribute and consume creative works.” More about the film here Press Pause Play. Meanwhile, here’s the teaser…

(Appended on 8 July)
And then, here’s proof… Natalie of Community Channel speaking at Ideacity…

And some time ago, I found Elizabeth Gilbert on TED. She “muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses – and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person ‘being’ a genius, all of us ‘have’ a genius.”

Sometimes, we need to defy physics. Don’t we? Some time ago, ‘fact’ was that the earth was flat. Till they discovered otherwise. Curiosity. Doubt, a precursor of faith. I think we need to be child-like (as opposed to being childish). We could all use some Peter Pan moments, flying into the open sky. (Where’s Tinkerbell?) Away we go into Never-Never-Land. Here… watch Sigur Rós’ depiction of the said concept:

Creativity could also take strides in making a difference in society. And this, we need more and more and more…

Check out Favela Paintings…

We could all use some peace don’t we. I’m so gonna make some Peace-In-a-Boxes too. The idea is to give it away.

And there are times when creation meets creator, in perfect creativity… it’s like, “my hands they float up above me, and you whisper you love me. And I begin to fade into our secret place. The music makes me sway. The angels singing say we are alone with you. I am alone and they are too with you. I’m still alive…”

Do you not see the beauty that is? It’s everywhere. May we not be stuck in yesterday’s Flatland. Transcend. Avant. Like, “when we’re still holding on to how things were, our arms aren’t free to embrace today,” -Rob Bell.

“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” -Albert Einstein.

I suppose I’m just recording fleeting moments of creative. Creativity, like faith, is intangible, but attainable. I experience, I art, I believe, I live – in no specific order.

Masel tov.

Departures

Can’t watch this enough. If I have you describe how I feel about the movie, I’ll bring you to a garden, or a beach or a river… And I’ll hand you a stone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Departures_(film)

Why I like nights: Driving

All in a night’s drive

It’s about 12.30 in the morning. While I was driving, I read this… “Welcome Tony Blair!” under it, in half the size “We hate you!”. This was a banner maybe about 4ft wide, 3ft tall. Hung from a pedestrian bridge across the bypass linking Jalan Bukit Bintang and the Kampung Pandan Roundabout. It’ll be gone by morning I’m sure. Should have stopped and taken a picture Always wondered when and what time people do these sorta things. Would be nice to have a journalistic observatory experience of such some time, within this lifetime.

On the way to the bank for some refilling, I thought it would be nice to have a cuppa. Drove past Starbucks at PBD and it was closed. No matter. Got the cash, and was on my way to drop off some items at a friend’s. On my way back… perhaps McD.

McD’s drivethrough had two cars in front of me, and a truck that was blocking the through-road alongside. Noticed however, that the Starbucks at Centrepoint (which is directly across the McD drivethrough) was open. Backed up, got down and got myself an espresso&cream. I thought the register’s counter; LED display showing the name of your attending barista is a nice thing to have. So Hazel made the order. Thank you.

While waiting, noticed an unfamiliar pamphlet placed in the serving (erm) receptacle. AYA Awards’ 2010. Grabbed one. Nice booklet. It’s cool seeing where they are today. Visionaries. It is inspiring!

So the drive continues, sans the jams – of course. I like these free roads. It lets you enjoy things you won’t normally get to during rush hours or for that matter, any other times in the day. You get to actually observe with greater appreciation the things you just pass-by everyday. And that’s something I want to do – more. It’s quite something – these sights and scenes.

I also like my drives because there are occasions when whatever’s playing on the CD in the car – makes alot of sense. Tonight’s one of those occasions. So, up goes the volume and you’re almost lost in a world of rhythm, rhyme and reason – or at least the attempt at finding reason.

“You’re on the road, but you’ve got no destination. You’re in the mud, in the maze of her imagination. You love this town, even if that doesn’t ring true. You’ve been all over, and it’s been all over you.”

“It’s a beautiful day, don’t let it get away. It’s a beautiful day.”

There’s more…

You always know there are those potholes to avoid. I have no problems remembering that I need to avoid that pothole when I enter the car, but when it comes to the actual bend where the pothole meets the car, it’s usually too late to avoid. maybe it’s a night thing. Maybe it’s coz there’s a bend and it’s not like I can see it from far away. Oh well Such is life. We prepare, we forget, we lose, we try again. You’re at the mercy of those maintaining the road. In life, you’re at the mercy of that which sustains life. And His mercy is enough.

A drive at night also reveals other things you won’t normally see in the day. Beggars, lonely men (and sometimes women) scurrying the streets. Tonight, one sits on the curb watching passers by sipping brewed herbal bitter tea across from him. Helpless, hopeless. I sympathize. In their plight, I think they are strong – they must have such unwithering perseverance, just to get by the day. Just to stay alive. But what for. And what else can they do.

Necessity is the mother of all invention, we say. I pass by a street with sex for sale. To me, it’s more sad than it is disturbing that women sell themselves like so. If we only knew how it begun. What did life throw at you that made you you? While I am busy trying to contruct possible scenarios of their history, I see car after car stopping by the road unperturbed. Some inquiring, some just looking.

She takes another puff. Exhaling what could be life’s ubiquitous sigh.

I drive home with a greater appreciation of being. But with a greater need to pursue that which transcends life.

“I don’t know where, confused about how as well. Just know that these things, will never change for us at all.”

“Those three words, I say too much, but not enough.”

Idealists… Freedom Beckons

I just read something I typed on November 18, 2008 – but never published. Wow. It goes like this…

Today I deliberate on the meaning of freedom. Human rights. Basic needs. And the cost of freedom.

I quote from Micheal Moore’s 5 Nov Letter on President-Elect Obama’s win:

“We may, just possibly, also see a time of refreshing openness, enlightenment and creativity. The arts and the artists will not be seen as the enemy. Perhaps art will be explored in order to discover the greater truths. When FDR was ushered in with his landslide in 1932, what followed was Frank Capra and Preston Sturgis, Woody Guthrie and John Steinbeck, Dorothea Lange and Orson Welles. All week long I have been inundated with media asking me, “gee, Mike, what will you do now that Bush is gone?” Are they kidding? What will it be like to work and create in an environment that nurtures and supports film and the arts, science and invention, and the freedom to be whatever you want to be? Watch a thousand flowers bloom! We’ve entered a new era, and if I could sum up our collective first thought of this new era, it is this: Anything Is Possible.”

Failure, Empathy & the Imagination

J.K. Rowling speaks. Listen to eloquence, rhyme and profundity.

Something about tens

It seems, this year’s throwing the ‘tens’ around. At least at me.

A few hours ago, before midnight – I played the song “All Around Me” by Flyleaf for the 100th time. Slightly over a week ago, I tweeted my 1001th tweet. This year also marks the 10th year of leaving secondary school. A significant milestone 2010 will be to to me. And the fascination with these ones and zeros will continue to be.

I drove a Ferrari

… In my dreams today.

A friend of mine won/got a bunch of money and apparently was giving it to me, or at least some sizeable portion.

The dream began at the airport while she was ‘fugitive’-like, disguissed and trying to walk out without being caught by a random person trying to steal the money.

Passed the gates and fooled the thief, she passed me a key. Asking mr to look out for a red car. She must have thought it would be nice getting a car with some of the cash. So I ran toward whatever red car was within sight. O this is the airport’s car park adjoining some hotel.

It wasn’t the Kancil. She says look for the car with the number plate 09. It wasn’t the other red sedan. Then behind the screen of bamboo, there VIP cars were parked. I saw a red, well… Ferrari. And it was 09. And she smiled. Wohoo

Got it. Turned it on, and unfortunately remembered nothing about the interior. But remembered banging into a car parked near-by thanks to the ill arranged side mirror. Didn’t have time to adjust the side mirrors see, I was also running away from- em I dunno what.

Conscience kicked in, and I drove a round and parked and tried looking for her or leave a number to call if there was a dent to the back of the car nearby. Sorta seemed superficial though, the reverse-bang into the other car. So that part of the story ended then.

I was in the airport or hotel and my friend had changed into a dress for someone’s wedding. They were waiting and preparing for something. I sat next to a young girl. She asked for help to tie some sort of flower thingy wt a cable tie. Vividly I reached out my hand and woke from the dream.

Dreams so intriguing. I am in constant wonderment what each of the elements that make up the story mean. I may or may not know. All in due time and course.

You’re Not Alone

Japanese Perfection

Watched The Ramen Girl again today – in it’s entirety. The last I watched, I probably missed the beginning scenes. Anyway, it seems more evident, that there is something uniquely tranquil and mystical about the Japanese way of doing things. Maybe its got something to do with the tension of environments they are forced into – the hustle and bustle of urban modernity meets/versus solitary nature, green, zen, soul.

Spoke to a friend or two about my fascination with Hakagure – The Art of the Samurai. The artistry is oh so… meaningful. The mind wonders about this pursuit of perfection = pursuit of meaning to life.

I am also reminded of Departures – the movie. Meaning of life found, in the ceremonial preparation of the dead – for those that are mourning.

Then some days earlier, I watched Paris, Je T’aime – this film, is about finding love.

Profound, all these films are.

Waking Life

So I stepped into this Neo world, whose skin is mist covering iridescent pearl.
I catch a glimpse of this shimmery thing, the star hanging on this rear-view mirror;
reminiscent of Orion’s constellation just moments earlier;
when the sky was clear and clouds not seen, I stare in admiration as stars do inspire.

Watched Waking Life for the second time, on the second day. Again, I feel so much awe. Life is… now. It is also eternal. It is also momentary. Time, is like an elastic ozone of permissive life – of continuous opportunities to exasperate and extricate an affirmative ‘yes’ to the question of being ‘one’ – with eternity, of finding immortality.

The most profound, verbose, discourse of existential psychology and the memento of dreams; capturing in lucid transcendence – the human attempt to understand and tame it.

The Man Dies

The names of the actors are rolling-in but the lights are still dimmed. Usually by now they would have it all turned on, but I really didn’t want them to. So I sat up straight and leaned forward, elbows on the backrest of the seat in front of me, chin on them, and eyes glued to the silver screen – trying to appreciate what I just watched for the last two hours.

“The Time Traveler’s Wife“, it reads. A few seconds after – therein, the credits of movie makers start to appear. Then the lights come on. By now I was seating back trying to truly grasp all that was – the movie.

It is good! It’s not just a love story, I feel. It’s about time, love, and loss. It’s about the need to live the now – for later. And time, being transient, ephemeral and fleeting – is merciless. And we, it’s occupants, are bound. Therefore, we – time-bound-beings, need to make full use of it’s linear ‘dimension-ality’. Our occupation in this very moment, counts for the very essence of existence. Even so, time is also fateful. Things happen for a reason. And one day, I’ll find out why. Also I belief divinity sees time in multi-dimensions, hence having full knowledge of the past, present and future – and IS at it’s helm. So the probing question for self analysis is – am I existing now, if I choose to not to anything now? Anything substantial that is. I suppose there must be some sort of philosophical branch that wrecks-brains about these kinds of questions. The existentialists maybe? We all have a choice nevertheless; to be & live in the now/there. To dasein. I hope I choose to live the now – for the right kinda tomorrow. Choose right, do right and not be needing to wish I could correct my could-have-been-right last nights.

Anyway… Audrey Niffenegger and Robert Schwentke, author and director of the film respectively, deserves kudos. I wish I could write, and tell stories and record them in motion and light and pass them on so vividly and brilliantly as they do. Ahh. Art. I love thee.

So while gathering my thoughts, I recall watching a few other films, nights before and I’m starting to see a striking connection about these films. Today I watched The Time Traveler’s Wife. A couple of days back, I watched Namesake. Several days before that I watched Romeo & Juliet (the Baz Luhrmann adaptation). And then a while back, I remember watching Partition (the one with Kristin Kreuk). Common denominating factor; the protagonist husband, dies. Fortunately, between Romeo & Juliet and Namesake, I watched City of Angels – this time, well, unfortunately – the lady dies. Yet I love all of these movies. It teaches you something about life. I learn from The Time Traveler’s Wife – that, well, maybe you’ll one day get propose to a girl who’ll know how to joke and say ‘no’ just to express freewill but not really mean it. And that’s dandy In Romeo & Juliet, one wishes to have poetry in life – in some sort of nu-Shakespearean kinda way. And not to swear on the moons and the stars, but to ’swear’ on thy self for I art my fair-lady’s imagery of god (heavy paraphrasing here). In Partition, one wishes that the world unites in one-ness and seeks peace, in all matters of culture, religion and what-nots. Let bygones be bygones, and let not a foolish family feud be one that is passed on to generations to come. The latter resounds true for Romeo and Juliet as well. It is sad that where humanity fails, there comes saving grace in the form of a story of heaven finding means to kill discord’s loves with lost. And in City of Angels – one deeply appreciates the palatable texture of eating a pear.

I also like the end titles of The Time Traveler’s Wife. It is by a mnemonically apt person named Scarlet Letters. Such simple fusing of fine music along with a kaleidoscopic bokeh of lights – lovely.

So leave me dear blog-post, to my bewilderment and I bid thee good morrow. For it’s fast approaching dawn and I am intent and making today/tonight/tomorrow count for time-eternal post-haste.

Next thing to read, Odysseus (by Homer) – it’s in the iPhone waiting to be read. The story’s similar to this movie’s love/loss/time theme sorta thingy. But it’ll have to wait, my bookish retreat is in the form of Alice in Wonderland for now.

Another Heart Calls

There’s just something to it. Probably the only The All-American Rejects song I don’t mind playing over and over and over again.

In the Clouds

I have so many half-written posts. But today, I feel different. And to save me from committing another non-posting post; I’ll reserve the wordings. It’ll just be this picture…

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