Min Wae Aung

During my Myanmar trip, i was so surprised to see so many brilliant local paintings hanging in the hotel corridors and street markets. The local artists are celebrating their own beautiful culture, in their own different styles. Here is Myanmar artist, Min Wae Aung. He is quite well known with his simple, bold and elegant style.

more of his works here

Min Wae Aung was born in 1960 in Danubyu, a river port city in the Irrawaddy Delta. His father hauled goods for a living. Min Wae Aung spent much of his childhood playing at a nearby monastery, a second home of sorts, where he befriended novices and helped the monks with their tasks.

Today, Min Wae Aung—one of the country's most celebrated contemporary artists—is best known for his stylized depictions of Buddhist monks in vivid, burnt-orange robes on striking gold backgrounds. Faces are rarely shown, because Min Wae Aung likes to emphasize the monks' movement, and he says their anonymity helps convey how they are "leaving humanity behind" and going to "a peaceful place, like Nirvana."

---- taken from Wall Street Journal

Watching the Detectives.

Saw this movie when I surfing on the tv channels.
The info says: A film geek's life is turned upside-down when he met the femme-fatale. Something like that.



I missed the front part.

What I saw is, from the middle part to the end, the guy break up with the unpredictable girlfriend because he couldn't stand it with all the dramas but later he feels the life is so dull without the adventures.

One of the review says: many great laughs in a shallow pond. Agree!

The IMDb page is so considerate by quoting the lines/conversation/script, whatever you call it, in the movie. One of those interesting:

Neil: Oh god Lucien, she's ruined it for me Lucien. I mean it's all so boring now!
Lucien: Hey, hey let's put in a movie?
Neil: No, no more movies. It's no use, it's not enough anymore, ya know? It's just all so mundane and so predictable Lucien. Oh hey look! It's Jayson. Jayson's going to come in here and he's going to hand me a package, and then he's going hand me his thing, and I'm going to sign the thing and I'm going to hand it right back to him, and then he's going to get in his truck and he's going to drive of. Oh, it's... it's so predictable Lucien, it's not enough anymore, ya know? Where's the... where's the adventure, you know?
[while signing Jayson's package]
Neil: there's no adventure man. Where's the adventure Lucien?
Jay: You signed it Neil Adventure.
[Neil signs it again]
Jay: You crossed out Adventure and wrote adventure again.
Neil: What does it matter Jayson? Huh!
[Neil walks away]

Further info:
Neil - the film geek.
Lucien - Neil's friend.
Jay - some delivery man, not important.
She - the unpredictable girlfriend of Neil.

Anyways, a light movie but not as shallow as it seems.
Nice, i think.

Eat Pray Love

"You were given life; it is your duty (and also your entitlement as a human being) to find something beautiful within life, no matter how slight." — Elizabeth Gilbert

I have mentioned this movie earlier and finally I saw it!

Despite the suprisingly low rating of the movie in IMDb and the negative reviews (yes, I am curious with the ratings and reviews, how bad it could be?), I personally think that it is a good movie. I haven't read the book, but I just can't wait to get it immediately right after the movie, I know I'm slow. Sadly, the bookstore I went, they told me it's out of stock!

Many people don't really like the movie because of the character of Liz, they think that she is so selfish in love and self-centered, by abandoning her husband and lover with the reason which many people think is not sensible. Some of them think that the movie are much less than the book. Some say that there are other books, instead of this, with more interesting plots to be filmed. Some say it's boring.

Ignore all that, the stories do give us some lessons.
We could always learn from the good and ignore the bad, no?

It's inspiring. We shouldn't afraid of changing or losing. Ruin, is the path for transformation.
Let go yourself, listen to the heart and follow it, not afraid to change, not afraid to enjoy the silence and to enjoy doing nothing.
Most importantly, enjoy life!

Tim Burton+Johnny Depp

Today, finally, I came across this movie.


Edward Scissorhands
Christmas, dark, Johnny Depp, weirdo, unreal....everything makes me feel "Tim Burton".

Under curiosity,I googled the movie and ta-da! It was a 1990 movie by Tim Burton.
I have some kind of addiction over the eccentric matters. This might be the reason for my obssession over Tim Burton+Johnny Depp.

Tim Burton has made seven films with Johnny Depp: Edward Scissorhands (1990), Ed Wood (1994), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Corpse Bride (2005), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), and Alice in Wonderland (2010)



Ed Wood
This seems to be very interesting.
Want to watch!


Sleepy Hollow
Uhm, may not be the best, but just don't wish miss anything by them.

Others are quite well-known to people, I think.
Sadly, I'm a little bit disappointed for the lastest one, Alice in Wonderland. I don't see enough darkness and weirdness which was expected, but undoubtedly, it is beautiful. The costumes in it are very high fashion tho'. Big smiley:D
Maybe, we really shouldn't have any expectation before movies. This way, we will feel happier and be more open-minded for the movies.

A young photographer who is loud through images.

This photograph was shot by a girl aged 17.
Nothing special?


Boring?
Normal?


How about this, which was shot by a girl aged 16.
Still not attractive enough?

Well, this was shot by a girl aged 14/15.

All of these are by Nirrimi Hakanson. (More photos to be found in her website)
Forgive me not uploading more photos of her, because there's copyright and I couldn't copy her photo from her Flickr. Please check it out yourself. You may find some inspiration.

Anyways, it may be normal for most of the people out there.
But hey, do you still remember what were you doing while you're aged 14/15?

No doubt, she has the talent. Also, I like her attitude:
"i like pretty young things that i pull from the streets and film (i call what i shoot digital film, because it still has the colour). the sun is my lighting, the clouds my diffusers and i find studio images bland. if you want to be original you have to shoot outside the (literal) box. i want be a traveller and live, photographing realness."

"last year i became agency signed, shot a commissioned editorial for my favourite magazine and came first in the photography division of qantas spirit of youth and youth week awards. this year sees me shooting in new york and releasing a book. and next i want to write and create films. live dreams + be real!"


Btw, I actually get to know this from the PAPERFASHION blog, which I've introduced earlier : )

Je t'aime vs. I love you

Lately, I have watched some movies.


So far, I really like this movie.
New York, I Love You.
Seriously, it's more than the trailer suggests. Watch it!! :)
Nice, nice, nice!
What more to say?
It's pretty intersting too with many directors shooting one film, MANY! 10, 11? Owh btw, I think they call this anthology film.

(ps: I want to thank my dear friend for sharing it and now it's my turn to share)

However, there are quite lots of negative reviews for this movie.
Although I agree that the storyline is flat, all love stories being connected together, the connection somehow makes the flat love stories beautiful and romantic, at least there are some space for you to interpret the story yourself, it is not too directly played.

Maybe, nowadays people are getting hopeless in a pure romantic relationship.
As I saw one of the reviews suggesting that romance is not all about one person attached to another and there is lack of tension/seduction/confrontation in the movie.
That is sad, very sad, but people love all the dramas and this is the reality, don't they?

Or, maybe, the negative reviews are true that the earlier film, Paris Je t'aime, by the same producer is much better.
Comparison and expectation.



Indeed, the trailer seems better.
I won't judge it too soon tho' until I've watched it.

Destruction. Cornelia Parker.

Earlier, I came across this piece of art by Cornelia Parker.
I was stunned by the real thing. Believe me, it is much better and fascinating in real. I don't mean the photograph is not good, but you know, it's always the best to experience it by one self rather than seeing it through others' eyes.
I don't have the chance to take the picture I perceived through my own pinhole because there was the 'non-photograph-sign'.

It really calms me, like a dream, although with the destruction of the intruments.
I think the artist does really enjoy the destruction of objects and the aftermath.

"There’s a lot of violence in the making of these things, but a quiet aftermath. I take things that are worn out through overuse, that have become clichés, like the shed, a traditional place of rest and retreat, and I give them a more incandescent future. Explosions are very familiar from films and the news, but how many of us have seen one or even touched a piece of the debris?" She said.

The shed, the garden shed that was exploded under her request were recollected and re-established into another piece of art called Cold Dark Matter.



Destroy and rebuild? Consider it to be another way to see the 'dead things'. Or maybe, not a dead thing as it is given new value, probably a reborn.

Although I am not sure whether the artist was thinking that way, I recognise that she has special feeling towards destruction, while normally people do not even want to touch the charred pieces.


While Cornelia Parker working on the "Hanging Fire"


"It's sort of to do with fear," says Parker. "There's a lot of violence in the world, we're surrounded by potential catastrophe all the time. And somehow making calm installations about destructions, it sort of calms my fears."

I guess, the unique thinking of artists make them the artists and different from others whom the majority consider as 'normal' and 'reasonable'.

Does destruction mean more than destroying?