3 posts tagged “new york”
The exciting life of Nadira and her coincidences. This picture was taken at Long Beach, New York when I went on a field trip with some friends. One of them, being Nadirah Zakariya from Kuala Lumpur but currently based in New York. Beautiful person, talented photographer.
Anyway, we were walking back to the trains when I saw this written in cement. Nadirah's older than me but her mom also owns a cookie factory and we're both Tauruses. We both handle cameras and share a mutual very close friend, through whom we met.
Selfishly enough, I start to get the feeling that now, whatever coincidences happen to me, happen more for me than the other person which I experience it with. Sometimes. I don't know about DizzyLi. Only because it happens to me so often and I don't hear much about my other coincidence partners having many coincidences after.
It's just strange because Nadira is an Arabic name meaning precious, unique. It's not the most common name too. To find that in the cement in any landmark in America, what are the chances? It's crazy.
I wonder what Kian looks like.
Even better, I got treated to it because I was modeling for a friend's Turkish t-shirt line. I want to do more modeling. I've some experience and I'd say I understand the camera's mise-en-scene quite well by now so if I'm ever in your vicinity or vice versa, look me up.
Now onto something less savoury. The Oscars was a travesty. Double standard bullshit. Foreign film as a category when Atonement and La Vie en Rose are not American films. It's not a foreign film nomination unless it's depressing and has to do with a war of some sort especially the holocaust? Miley Cyrus and Jessica Alba presenting awards? And I knew they'd have one animated character hocking up puns - Jerry Seinfeld from Bee Movie which I will never touch in a million years. It looks like cliche tripe. The Oscars have been put on a pedestal long after they lost their integrity. I refused to watch last year's because Ellen Degenres was hosting and true enough, Scorsese won an Oscar for The Departed which was an adaptation of a "Japanese film". Quote wrong quote. If I was Andy Lau I'd be angry too. The Departed was a horrible movie the only reason why Scorsese got the Oscar was because they felt indebted to him. Well if you gave him best film instead of Rocky that year he wouldn't have won for The Departed. What about films like 'A Scanner Darkly'? And why did CLINT EASTWOOD win best foreign film for Letters to Iwo Jima when he's America's most famous cowboy? Doink. I'm surprise Chuck Norris hasn't gotten an Oscar yet.
I am especially concerned about Hollywood's new wave in distribution. To cut down on costs for distribution, Hollywood is now putting a lot of big budget productions straight to dvd. That means less premiers, less movie shows, more money for them and production. Hollywood already produces so many films they're going to flood us all. Imagine Bollywood amounts of production but with a Hollywood budget. 20 million films were made in 2007, this includes independent films. And don't forget, there's also Nollywood. The only people who are going to be making money is Hollywood because they still have the big names attached.
Film making is capitalist ground. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. With the rich gaining more access to the public through television, dvds and the internet, the rest of us can't compete. Watching a film will be equivalent to looking at a still photograph. This mass production is not only going to affect people's salaries but it will also further devalue art. As if Hollywood hasn't done that already. Out of all the films in the world, the ones nominated for Oscars were only notable ones attached to production houses who have solid alliances with the Oscar committee. And it's not only that, the cinema is communal ground. If things go straight to dvd, that means we don't get to choose what we want to see on the large screen. Going to the movies is traditional, it's a treat, a culture. We're going to be desensitised further, how evil. And I've met a big time New York distributor before. He was a cocky asshole and it makes me sink inside, thinking that someone like him would be so comfortable upsetting this fragile balance as long as he still gets his money. The fool. I bet he's a huge Warhol fan. How is it that you can get PEOPLE whose designs are so unintentionally Dadaist it makes you want to puke?
Film making will reduce in its stature as a trade and more as a hobby for the masses. It already feels like that in South East Asia. Maybe I was right about it being safer there. But maybe that's a wave that's meant to be. Maybe this insane surplus will act as a sporing mushroom and the easiness of film making will birth little pieces of art across the globe all the more. Soon we will need visual libraries when films become as commonplace as books and the written word.
I guess I could live with that but oh damn. If I'm gonna be out of a job I better start looking for a sugar daddy quick.
I had a job interview, Friday and since I finished early I decided to go to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). It had been snowing like mad since dawn and by the afternoon the city was turning into a puddle of slush. Everything was wet wet wet but thankfully I'm not sick.
Took the subway from Grand Central to 77th and made my way there. One word of advice. When people say get stoned before you get concerts, set up toys before you get on meth, work out before you climb a mountain... be on your period before you appreciate great art. You get so affected. It's awesome. I'm rarely ever hormonal when I have my period but this time around it worked.
I've always been a big fan of Jackson Pollock and it was great to finally see his pieces in real life. The texture, emotion and calculated evenness of his strokes which vary in thickness and colour. All the layers... seeing it in real life was spectacular. Andy Warhol was a hit and miss for me. 'Mao' was great though, it made me laugh.
My opinion on Picasso hasn't changed much. As his work progresses it just looks more and more like what a person who takes too much drugs would end up churning out gradually. Or someone with a stroke, whichever. I really don't like cubism nor do I care much for still life but I can appreciate Van Gogh. There's something so child like about him, so much pain and weather in his work. Matisse is fabulous. One thing I've always appreciated about him is that - I'm not a big fan of plant photography or paintings but his painting style seems to capture more the soul of flowers rather than the vanity of flowers on their own. Love it.
European paintings were hard to look at because there were so many paintings of Christ. It made me cynical again. How can super religious, conservative people even begin to empathise with Jesus' crucifiction if they don't get piercings? I got my bottom lip pierced twice because my piercer was a moron and strong-as-an-ox me nearly fainted. At least I can begin to sympathise and it's ME of all people.
An interesting piece that they had there was by Damien Hirst. I got a shock when I saw it there because I've kind a mild case of bathophobia and I wasn't expecting to walk into a room with a shark. Trippy.
The shark was still yet in motion, with its eyes rolled to the back of its head it was no longer breathing which makes your breath stop. I don't know what was more impressive. The shark or the kick ass title. I've seen Mother and Child Divided which is another piece by Hirst. The profundity in his titles really compliment his work. I am very much a fan now.
I couldn't find any pieces by Frida Kahlo. Maybe I need to go again or that side was closed off. At least I got to see a piece by Diego Rivera. They should have preserved the mural he was working on at Rockefeller though. That would have been great.
I find out about whether I get the internship next week. Hopefully I do. I've got a good feeling but fingers crossed for sure anyway. I love New York. In March, MOMA's showing a Samuel Fuller film. Really hope I get to see that.
