The lover /l'amante

The Lover
xxxccg08xxx

something hung in the air,
it settled on the walls and the furniture
his smell was left behind and i could smell it
smell him
his hair, his neck, armpits and belly.
and how he smelled of dolce terra and aceto
even for that last time.

i opened the windows
let the wintry breeze seep in
from the nearby park in viale Monza
through glass and jacquard,
i could hear the swish and silent whispering
and his voice, also left behind
the words that marked every corner of this house
like the first and last words of a book,
a book that contained only
his goodbye.

to close my eyes: and see
how two miserable beings found each other
imprisoned in that bubble of space and clarity.
it is intolerable to watch the game unfold,
of hearts wrenched with guilt, revived with happiness -
the immensity of it
slipping quickly under their skin
burrowing itself beyond even memory,
and to close my eyes: and see
it is intolerable to
have searched for this prison and this heart
and watch the dawning sun take everything away
just like that
simple as eating all the minutes and hours up, unmindful

of the gentle loosening of buttons
the grating of teeth, the wounding of flesh
and the breaking of hearts.

in one swift second,
everything collapsed and time started ticking its barbarous
tick and tock, i could feel him leaving even before
he gathered his clothes and closed the door.

he heaved a sigh and looked at me
and that sigh contained in itself all his unsaid words,
all the unkept promises, all the time unspent.
with that sigh he gazed at me without our eyes meeting
he held me in his arms without our bodies touching
he gave me back what was given

that sigh was my death.

But just like that, the way i sat, the way my head
was bowed down, like the many brilliant notions
that come to man
like the many ordinary notions that come to him ,
each and every single day, i stood up
i made coffee and smoked two Bensons.
i put my hair back in a japanese nod, i look at the mirror
i barely look at myself so much as looking at a stranger,
i took my keys
and went out the door.

Auden said:
"Any knifewound now is every one i had coming."

Inside my mind is a vision of
when i would smile,
at a barking dog or a leaf falling from its autumn fate,
it is an image
that lets us know without spelling it out,
the truth, no matter how cruel,
bears with it always a semblance of
something that could resemble
hope.

and i cling to all these pieces,
all the big pieces, the little pieces, the shattered ones,
the memories of all those missing pieces,


to keep things whole
and him, inside the house,
a haunting ghost.

just a ghost.


L'Amante
by haneul. xxxccg08xxx

qualcosa era sospeso nell'aria,
s'è attacato sul muro e sui mobili,
è rimasto il suo odore e potevo sentirlo
Lo sentìi
l'odore dei suoi capelli, del collo, l'ascelle e la sua pancia
e il suo odore come terra dolce e aceto,
anche quell'ultima volta.

Aprii le finestre
lasciando entrare il vento invernale
dal parco vicino in viale Monza,
passando attraverso il vetro e tessuto jacquard,
sentivo il fruscio e sussurra silenziosa
e sua voce, anche quello è rimasto
le parole che segnano ogni angolo di questa casa,
come la prima e l'ultima parola di un libro,
un libro che conteneva solamente
il suo addio.

a chiudere i miei occhi: e vedere
come due esseri abbracciati della miseria si sono trovati,
imprigionati in una bolla di spazio e chiarezza.
è intolerabile guardare come il gioco si sfoglia,
dei cuori strappati con colpa, rianimati con felicità -
l'immensità di questa situazione,
entrando rapidamente sotto la loro pelle,
scavando anche al di là di della memoria,
a chiudere i miei occhi: e vedere
è intolerabile
di aver cercato questo prigione e questo cuore
e vedere il sole sorgente che porta tutto via
cosi come
divorare i minuti e le ore, non pensando

allo sbottonamento dolce dei buttoni,
i stridenti dei denti, il ferimento del corpo,
e la rottura dei cuori.

in un istante,
tutto crollò e l'ora ha iniziato di nuovo il suo tic-toc barbarico,
sentivo lui che partiva prima che
ha raccolto i suoi vestiti e chiuso la porta

emise un sospiro e mi guardò
e quel sospiro conteneva in sè tutte le parole non dette,
le promesse non mantenute, tutto il tempo perduto.
con quel sospiro, mi guardò senza che i nostri occhi s'incontravano
mi tenne in braccio senza che i nostri corpi si toccavano
mi diede ciò che è stato dato

quel sospiro era la mia morte.

ma era cosi, come mi sedevo, nel modo in cui avevo la mia testa
verso giu, come molti concetti brillianti
che giungono all'uomo
come molti concetti ordinari che giungono a lui ogni giorno e ogni singolo giorno,

mi alzai
preparai caffe e fumai due Benson.
mi misi i cappelli indietro a nodo giapponese, guardai lo specchio
mi guardai ciecamente quasi come uno sconosciuto,
Presi le mie chiavi
e uscìi dalla porta.

Auden disse:
"Ogni coltellata adesso è ciascuno di quelli che ho fatto venire."

Nella mia mente, c'e un immagine
di quando mi mettevo a sorridere,
ad un cane che abbaia o una foglia che cade dal suo destino autunnale,
è un' immagine
che ci fa sapere senza dirlo a chiare lettere
la verità per quanto crudele,
porta con sè un'apparenza
di qualcosa che assomiglia
speranza.

e io, mi tenni stretto questi pezzi
tutti i pezzi grandi, i pezzi piccoli, i pezzi distrutti
la memoria di tutti questi pezzi persi

per preservare la compiutezza delle cose
e lui, rimasto in casa,
uno spettro.

solamente uno spettro.

louise gluck's the butterfly

i want to share this poem that is immensely astute. it's a poem by Louise Elisabeth Glück, an American poet. The poem is from the collection of poems entitled Meadowlands (Ecco Press, 1996). Enjoy!
vorrei condividere questa poesia che è molto astuta. è una poesia di Louise Elisabeth Glück, una poeta america. è estratto dal libro, una collezione di poesia, intitolato "Meadowlands" (Ecco Press, 1996).


THE BUTTERFLY / La farfalla

Look, a butterfly. Did you make a wish?
Guarda, una farfalla. Hai espresso un desiderio?

You don't wish on butterflies.
non si esprime un desiderio quando vedi una farfalla.

You do so. Did you make one?
Invece si. L'hai espresso?

Yes.
Si.

It doesn't count.
non vale.




THE WISH

Remember that time you made the wish?
Ricordi quella volta che hai espresso un desiderio?

I make a lot of wishes.
ne esprimo tanti desideri.

The time I lied to you
about the butterfly. I always wondered
what you wished for.
La volta che ti ho mentito
a proposito della farfalla. Mi sono sempre chiesto
quale fosse il tuo desiderio.

What do you think I wished for?
Tu che desiderio immagini?

I don't know. That I'd come back,
that we'd somehow be together in the end.
non so. Che io tornassi,
che alla fine in qualche modo saremmo stati insieme.

I wished for what I always wish for.
I wished for another poem
Il desiderio era il desiderio che esprimo sempre.
Era il desiderio di un'altra poesia.

SIMPLE TRUTH (with words by Thoreau and Basho)

SIMPLE TRUTH , photo taken by Haneul , 2007




Man's life must be of equal simplicity and sincerity with nature, and his actions
harmonize with her grandeur and beauty. -- Thoreau

I want to go soon and live away by the pond, where I shall hear only the wind
whispering among the reeds. It will be a success if I shall have left myself
behind. But my friends ask what I will do when I get there. Will it not be employ-
ment enough to watch the progress of the seasons? -- Thoreau

Occasionally, when I feel energetic, I gather firewood and draw spring water.
I love the drops which fall, tok-tok, along the green of a single spray of fern,
and nothing is so light as my stove. -- Basho

Yield to the willow
all the loathing and all the desire
within your heart.

-- Basho


I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to
practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep
and suck out all the marrow of life. -- Thoreau


The morning wind forever blows;
The poem of the world is uninterrupted,
but few are the ears that hear it.

-- Thoreau


My solitude shall be my company
and my poverty, my wealth.

-- Basho


The scent of orchids
perfumes the wings
of a butterfly.

-- Basho



I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me
that I had several more lives to live and could not spare any more time for that
one. -- Thoreau



Going nowither; where travelers are not too often to be met; where my spirit is free;
where the walls and fences are not cared for; where your head is more in heaven
than your feet are on earth. --- Thoreau



When observed calmly,
all things have their fulfillment.

-- Basho



The humblest fungus betrays a life akin to our own.
It is a successful poem in its kind.

-- Thoreau

support jayr

http://thegumbayproject.blogspot.com

He's Gumbay JaYR aBAS. HE came to Italy years ago and started working as a one of the crew in a Mcdonald's branch. About three or four years ago, i met up with him because of his newfound passion - the sport of snowboarding. No matter what anyone says, i believe he has gone a long way in the sport, considering that he's the only filipino able to enter into different tournaments held here in italy and given his many constraints - lack of support from the Phil. government, lack of support for training and gear. but what he really needs now is YOUR support. we have contacted the phil olympic commission and they said we need to drum up a petition for jayr and that he be endorsed by the phil. consul general here. we already got that from our Hon. Sir Pete Chan so now, it's our turn!

This sunday Jayr goes back to do a slew of interviews (sports unlimited, gma 7, untv, various print media) and hopefully finally get his voice heard by the commission.

please go to this website to learn more about him and follow the link to the support page (see nav bar) . tell all your friends! support jayr! his dream is every filipino's dream!

http://thegumbayproject.blogspot.com

p.s. soon we'll post downloadable fun stuff like more posters, wallpapers, etc. and hopefully we get rights to publish online his competitions with burton etc.
for email: gumbayjayrabas@gmail.com

my peeps

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

METRO TALES. an encounter

Wednesday. It's hell day.
My Wednesday usually starts on Tuesday (or you could say, my Tuesday usually stretches out up to Wednesday lol) but however you look at it, it's one of those long, dragging days when work just doesn't seem to end and when it does, you are depleted of all
energy. It's a wonder I can still get home. A 40-minute tram-to-metro journey. Ugh.

So after having taken the 9, I find myself reading in the subway. The book, Deepak Chopra's Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment, has been with me for two days already and I have still to get through the first chapter. People ask me why i lug around books all the time. There's your answer. It is while waiting for the subway train that I find the time to read.
I was just getting to more about this young man in line for the throne and for his father's kingdom - this young man who yearns for the outside world as much as I used to yearn for it - when i suddenly heard a voice. ANd it was directed at me.

James: Ch'oum poepgetsumnida. (How do you do?)

I turn. This (obviously) Korean guy was sitting beside me, him and a girl. Both were looking at me with smiles and expectant looks on their faces.

Cris: Ne. (Yes.) Annyong hashimnikka? ( Good evening.)

James: Are you Korean?*
* spoken in ENglish

Cris: Aniyo. (No. ) Yeongeorul malsum halsu isseoyo? ( Do you speak English?)
Jeo-nun han-kook-o-rul jo-gum-bah-ke mo-tahm-ni-da. ( I only speak a little Korean.)

James: Yes. SOrry. Thought you are Korean. I just got here.

Cris: (kinda figured that out, with their luggage and all) Are you guys here for vacation or business?

AT this point, I knew it was the guy that spoke better English because the girl was squinting at me so hard I knew she was hoping I would speak more slowly.

James: No. I got here today. SHe... living here in Italy.

Cris: davvero?!? (Really? - it just came out of my mouth. I didn't even think if they would understand me)

Irae: Si. Milano. (Yes. Milan)

So she understands Italian!!!

Cris: Ah! Ma da quanto che sei qua in Italia allora? (Ah! So how long have you been here in Italy then?)

Irae: Io... 9 mesi. (Me... 9 months)

Cris: Perche? (Now, it's James that's squinting! I was loving this!)

Irae: Studiare... Italiano. (Study...Italian.)

James: Namjachingu imnida. (I am his boyfriend... He said this with such a cute expression - it was like he was so proud and so happy of it! So sweet!)

(three of us laughed then, with Irae nodding her head in a meaningful way.)

Cris: Capito... QUindi lui è qua per farti una bella visita. (Ah. I understand. So he's here to visit you.)

Irae: Ye. (Si. Yes)

Cris: song-ha-mi oteoke dwesijiyo? (What is your name?) Mi chiamo Cris. Nice to meet you. Mahnnabwepge dweoseo bahngahpsoumnida. I am very glad to meet you.

I honestly was confused at this point because I could not figure out anymore whether to speak in Korean, English or Italian. I just went along with it. When I would say something in ENglish I would look at James more and if in Italian, at Irae. They would then talk to each other in rocket-speed Korean that would just be like a blur to me.

James: I'm James. And this is Irae. We're from Seoul. (Mi chiamo James. E lei è Irae. *I-re-e.Veniamo da Seoul.)

Cris: Bello! (Beautiful!)

Irae: Cri--- Cris, vero? (i nod). Tu - Milano - studiare? O lavorare? (It's Cris, right? You- here in Milan - studying? Or working?)

Cris: No. Io sto lavorando come grafico e scrivo anche per un giornale. Dovrei studiare piu la lingua Italiana. (No. I'm working as a graphic artist and I also write for a newspaper. I should actually study more the Italian language.)

Irae: Da quanto tu a Milano? Abiti qua? DOve? (How long have you been here? DO you live here? Where?)


Cris: Oh, I've been here 4 years. I live in the zone Turro. (Ah. Sto qua da 4 anni. Abito a zona Turro.)

JAmes: ANd your family? (e la tua famiglia)

Cris: No. I'm alone here. Sono da solo. Gajok? (family/famiglia) Niente. Sono tutti nelle Filippine. (My whole family's back home in the Philippines.)

Irae: Anch'io! Naneun...Seulpeoyo.

Cris: ah... seulpeoyo... ?

James: seulpeoyo... Sad. That's why I come. But, only for one month! (Triste.
è per quello che sono venuto. Ma solo per un mese.)


Cris: Choe-song-ham-ni-da. Chonun hangungmal chal-mo-tae-yo. (I'm sorry. My Korean is soooo bad. Scusa.... Parlo male il Koreano.)

Irae: Kok-tchong ma-se-yo! Tu parli benissimo anche Italiano! (DOn't worry! You speak good Italian too!)


Irae: (takes out phone) Noi..scende Pasteur. chiamiamo?

AT this, I was flustered again. ANd I think she mistook it for me not understanding what she meant. She repeated it, gesturing to her phone and then pointing to me and to herself. BUt in truth, i was just surprised that she wanted to exchange numbers so fast after just meeting each other. I looked at James and he was nodding so yeah....)


Irae: (after saving the number in her phone. she mispelled Cris , she did it with a K but that was ok. It was already Loreto and they had to get off at the next stop)

Cris: Allora grazie. Ci sentiamo. Usciamo forse, a fare le foto. Farlo vedere la città. (to James) Show you the city. YEs? (Then thanks. LEt's talk soon. Maybe we can go out, take some photos. Show him the city.)

James: Thank you. Yes. Annyonghi kashipshiyo.
Cris: Mannaso, pangapssimnida. (Nice to meet you! Lieto di incontrarti!)
James: (laughing) You too!
Irae: Ciao!
Cris: Bye! Ciao!


Two stops later, it was Turro. AS I got out, i had this rush of exhiliration. I love that feeling!!! It's like being alive, being connected to the earth, to life, to people!

In my life, it's only happened four times. One, with one of my closest buds, Jong (who, strangely, looking back at this night's incident) is also Korean but lives in Hongkong. We met at a bicycle path and almost ran each other to the ground.
Second time, with Gary. This AMerican guy at the Feltrinelli Library. We still keep tabs on each other, he's in London now. But i think he's coming back to Milan in May for a vacation.
Third time, was with Jeni. It was after the first day of school in this Italian university that holds free Italian classes for foreigners. I was reading (hmmm...maybe that's the key to meeting people... I should read more in the subway) and she just plopped her pretty self right next to me and asked me, Are you FIlipino? I said yes. Her second question would be the "gist" of it all. She asked me if I was single, sane and straight. I answered yes, yes and no. That would cement our friendship and up to now we're still the best of friends, and pretty soon, roommates!

Let's hope this fourth encounter would bless me with two new friends.

Tto bwepkessimnida!!! See you later! A dopo!

MISSED !!! HOW A SIMPLE "HEY YA" CAN MAKE YOUR DAY

SO AFTER A WEEKEND OF QUESTO AND QUELLO, I GO BACK TO THE OFFICE, SIGN IN ON YM, AND LISTEN TO MY FAVE MUSIC.

AT 15.50, I GET A CALL FROM THE UNICEF OFFICE FOR A PHONE-INTERVIEW WITH THE ONE IN-CHARGE OF VOLUNTEERS. SO I WENT TO THE OTHER ROOM.

AT 14.43, I GO BACK AND DAMN!!!

THERE IT IS! MISSED IT! MISSED A CONVERSATION WITH RAM! HOPE YOU'RE COOL, FRIEND!

BRILLANTE MENDOZA'S TIRADOR IN MILAN!!!

The 18th Edition of the Festival Cinema Africano, Asia and Latino Americano returns this 7-13 April. And like last year (which included Benji Garcia's BATAD...for the pics, click HERE), another Filipino film is to be presented to the Italian public - Brillante Mendoza's TIRADOR as part of the Competition Segment "FInestre sul Mondo".

As I have yet to watch it, (and hopefully, i DO get to watch it, I'm still waiting for my Press Pass!!! fingers crossed!) I post here some of the reviews about the film, which apparently has already done a signifcant orbit around various international film festivals.





NOTES ON TIRADOR (film by Brillante Mendoza)
"Rapidly emerging as an important new talent, young Filipino director Brillante Mendoza delivers his second feature of the year, a wickedly energetic portrait of Manila street life shot on the fly with a digital camera." JA, Eye Weekly, Toronto

"From the opening police raid to the closing political rally, director Mendoza takes his hand-held camera into the heart of Manila to create a remarkable, lively, intimate and realistic portrayal of life in a slum!Not one moment looks staged, and the cast performs flawlessly. Mendoza never plays to our sympathy or editorializes. He lets his stories tell themselves and weaves sharp social observation into his frantic and often funny action." Now Magazine

"Superb drama "Slingshot" makes the streets, alleys and crushing deprivations of Manila come to wrenching life. Shot like a mini-"Bourne" film with lightweight high-def video cameras, it darts from one acutely observed vignette to another! Some of the details break your heart, without the trappings or musical cues of melodrama." Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

"(The) biggest discovery of the (Vancouver film) festival! Mendoza's most audacious inspiration is shooting the film on location during the election season, where the politicians have done his set dressing for him...(While) the title Slingshot...(is) a literal translation of the street slang for thief, (it) is oddly appropriate for a film that moves with such whiplash momentum and (with) characters who rush and ricochet through their worldâ” Sean Axmaker, Green Cine Daily Vancouver Dispatch

"Mendoza's breathless account of desperate lives in the mean streets of Manila is a pummeling and visceral experience!A highly impressive technical exercise, yet at heart offers a penetrating glimpse into lives lived on instinct, predation, and reaction alone”Doug Cummings, Film Journey

"not so much a movie as a moving portrait ”complex and complete, hopeless and honest " into the underbelly of a society that could be as at home beneath a city as within...The feat of (the) film lies with its ability to deftly deliver us to a world we haven't seen before and demonstrate that the lowest denominators in society are common the globe over. The film delivers slogans, substantiated by our own daily news, that democracies are definitely not infallible.” Elliot V. Kotek, Moving Pictures

"(Reminding one) of Los Olvidados, both in its unsentimental treatment of the poor and its political critique!The final shot, showing an anonymous petty crime accompanied by a crowd singing. How Great Is Our God,would have had Buñuel smiling.” David Bordwell,
davidbordwell.net

"(Director) Brillante Mendoza…has come a long way in a few years!The many vignettes in the film have an additive effect, contributing to a larger picture. Like City of God, (the film) is relentless."”Bruce, Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film

"The film finds Mendoza once again taking his camera into the teeming streets to capture life as it flows right now. This is a fiction film, but Mendoza's impressive skill is to impose a calculated narrative onto Manila's constant unpredictability, shaping its ground-level chaos into art.It shows Mendoza's rapidly maturing abilities with digital cinema. What is more (is his) novelist's eye for the full range of human behaviour, especially the ironies of greed and vanity.” Cameron Bailey, Toronto International Film Festival

"No disrespect to the late Robert Altman (well, not much), but you ain't seen multi-strand plotting or heard overlapping dialogue until you've watched Slingshot. From the opening scene of a night-time police raid on the building, the film plunges us into a world of non-stop noise and chaos.(The film provides an) angry but heart-breaking picture of a corner of society with no obvious way forward.” Tony Rayns, Vancouver International Film Festival

"The most stunning film at the Vancouver (filmfest) was Slingshot, by the prolific Filipino Brillante Mendoza. With its skin-tight realism, the movie positions us right in (a) Filipino slum where the everyday existence of the characters is as squalid as the sludge-filled gutters of their ghetto.Urgent, powerful and devoid of sensationalism, this is one of the year's best films to come out of anywhere.” Kong Rithdee, Bangkok Post



Here are glimpses at other films in the category:

ANDALUCIA
Regia: Alain Gomis
Nazionalità: Senegal / Francia / Spagna 2007
Enthusiastic young thirty year old, both funny and violent, Yacine lives in a caravan, on the margins of reality, gets by with little jobs. Attracted by the unknown man but without flowing with it, he one day meets a woman who looks like him. And so reappears in among people he had so carefully avoided: Djibril, a childhood friend from the city, then his Algerian family headed by his, formerly in the FLN converted to Catholicism. This community brings back easily to the surface memories of exclusion, desire for recognition, boyhood frustration, and, in order to move forward, Yacine will have to rid himself of it forever and take-off.


EL BANO DEL PAPA - (IL BAGNO DEL PAPA)
Regia: Enrique Fernandez, César Charlone
Nazionalità: Uruguay / Brasile / Francia
A small South American village is in a flurry over the Pope's 1988 visit.


GETTING HOME - (ANDARE A CASA)
Regia: Zhang Yang
Nazionalità: Cina
A black comedy about a farmer who tries to bring home the body of his friend, who died far from their town.



LA MAISON JAUNE - (LA CASA GIALLA)
Regia: Amor Hakkar
Nazionalità: Algeria / Francia
In the arid mountainous landscapes of Algeria, Aya, a young girl of twelve, is digging a plot of land when a police car pulls up. The policemen hands her a letter describing the accidental death of her elder brother who was doing his military service. As soon as the rest of the family is informed, the father, Mouloud, sets off to collect his son’s body. Determined to do right by his family, he braves all sorts of dangers to bring back his son's remains.

MUNYURANGABO - GIORNO DELLA LIBERAZIONE
Regia: Lee Isaac Chung
Nazionalità: Ruanda / Usa
An orphan of the Rwandan genocide travels from Kigali to the countryside on a quest for justice.












MUTUM
Regia: Sandra Kogut
Nazionalità: Brasile
"Mutum" is a coming of age story seen through the eyes of a ten year old boy. Thiago lives with his family on an isolated farm in the arid backlands of Minas Gerais, Brazil. As the story unfolds and Thiago is forced to confront separations and betrayal within the home, Thiago begins, little by little, to see and understand a place that he had never been able to before, thus slowly letting go of his innocence. "Mutum" is an adaptation of the novel "Manuelzão e Miguilim" by João Guimarães Rosa





OUT OF COVERAGE - (FUORI COPERTURA)
Regia: Abdullatif Abdulhamid
Nazionalità: Siria
Amer and Zohair are friends. While Zohair spends time in prison for a crime he did not commit, Amer devotes his time, energy and own family’s needs towards Zohair’s wife and little daughter. Now, as Zohair, is about to be released, Amer faces an unexpected conflict between good and bad - a classic duel between him and his devil. Will Zohair’s return lead Amer back to his small family life?




POR SUS PROPIOS OJOS - (ATTRAVERSO I SUOI OCCHI)
Regia: Liliana Paolinelli
Nazionalità: Argentina
Two students would like to make a film on women who have family in prison. It turns out to be quite difficult to get in touch in the first place and to build up confidence. Elsa, the mother of one prisoner, eventually agrees but under condition that her son in prison is being interviewed as well. Pretending to be the son’s girlfriend, Alicia has to undergo the humiliating controls in prison and understands that the elder woman plays a double game in order to pull her son out of his despair and lethargic state. She has used Alicia like Alicia used her as a protagonist in her film. But then everything becomes different. Turning a documentary makes you learn a lot about yourself. Although he is proven guilty and the prison cell is small and depressing, Alicia falls in love with the prisoner and herself becomes a “wife of a prisoner”. Films as a medium of participating observation, the responsibility of a filmmaker, the wretchedness of the convicts and the co-punishment of the relatives.



BUDDHA COLLAPSED OUT OF SHAME -(BUDDA CROLLÒ PER LA VERGOGNA)
Regia: Hana Makhmalbaf
Nazionalità: Iran
This unusual film, directed by a 19-year-old, is shot on Afghan locations very close to the spot where the fundamentalist Muslim Taliban destroyed the centuries-old gigantic statue of Buddha.

MiArt 2008 --- see you there!

Enzo Guaricci
don-azione
2003
resine e polvere di marmo
35 x 35 x 15cm


MiArt 2008 the 13th edition of Milan's International Modern and Contemporary Art Fair won't fail to surprise with its new features and projects. This unique event turns Milan into a prestigious showcase for art and a point of reference for collectors, gallery operators, artists and curators.
Like last year, MiArt will take place in the Portello pavilions of fieramilanocity between 4 and 7 April, with the invitation-only inauguration scheduled for Thursday, 3 April. MiArt is reasserting its role as the only trade show in Italy able to offer a complete panorama of the art world through its 3 separate sections that encompass modern art to the most innovative voices of contemporary art. Together, the 3 sections, Modern, Contemporary, and Anteprima take in Italian and international art from the historic avant-garde to the most recent experimental works, attracting collectors with different interests and backgrounds.


Kro Art Gallery
Peter Assmann / Iberia Medici
NON VEDO L'HORA
2007
wandteppich / arazzo
180x83cm
MiArt 2008: a benchmark and a meeting point for the art world that, for this edition too, will see the participation of internationally respected gallery operators, critics and collectors, as well as the directors of prestigious museums.
Thanks to the increasing collaboration with the public and private sectors, over recent years there have been numerous cultural and art events presented during the exhibition under the umbrella title "fuoriMiArt" - an unmissable program that promises to present the most exciting events in the whole city. The numerous parallel events testify in a tangible way to MiArt's desire to establish an ongoing dialogue with the city of Milan and transform the exhibition into a fully fledged arts festival.

Focus on Latin American Art

MiArt 2008 is continuing its program of inviting galleries, artists and dealers from one particular geographical area. The decision to run the Guest Nation program over the last three years stems from a desire to look beyond the globalization of styles and tendencies that can blur differences and highlight the unique qualities of local art.

As a part of pursuing this goal, the prestigious conference “Cina Intra/Extra Ovest,” chaired two years ago by Hans Ulrich Obrist, will return – probably in Beijing – with the goal of catching up on a country where time passes quickly and seeing what effect this has on its art.

Last year’s focus on the Netherlands had different objectives. It was intended to be a look at a country (in some ways similar to Italy, and therefore easier to understand) whose system for promoting contemporary art is probably unrivaled in the Western world. With the exhibition staged in a city where there’s heated debate over the urgency of a museum, this system offered many points for reflection.

And in 2008 the focus is on Latin America, a group of countries in perennial transformation in which the exigencies of art are defining a political and cultural identity. The Latin American artists featured by international galleries and galleries from Central and South America reveal a crosspollination of languages, of an art that, despite the pressures towards uniformity, indicates a strong identity and incredible bonds with particular localities.

In contemporary Latin American art, different languages and an abandoning of traditional techniques in favor of extra-pictorial media are the tools artists use to tell their stories of a great region that is looking for a model for autonomous development. The emergencies of social disintegration and exclusion that the various democratic governments are facing come alive in the region's art, in which the urban space – as the focal point of change and contradiction – is often the central theme. Like nowhere else in the West, where we embrace the areas away from cities, in Latin American it is in the cities that new artistic messages and national identities are taking shape.

And it is from the cities that, since the 1980s, the Latin American artworks featured in biennials around the world have come and that are triggering so much interest internationally. This is an art of reality in which a profound knowledge of the individual leads to a lucid and passionate interpretation of the events taking place today in each artist's country.

The Anteprima section of MiArt 2008 features a group of international galleries, coordinated by the Spanish-Cuban Omar-Pascual Castillo, that will focus on the creativity of Latin American.

Named by Castillo as “En el posterior de las American,” the man who conceived the project has this to say about it:

With MiArt 2008 the first host of Project Rooms dedicated to Latin American art at an Italian art fair, I believe that bringing together a selection of artistic identities – artists who work in Latin America, the United States and Europe – was the best perspective to take on what is an ongoing dialogue.

“En el posterior de las Américan” therefore presents artists and galleries that aspire to speak of an outward and return journey of infinite reciprocity, a path of relocation – not just physical, but, in particular, subjective, which can have no other end but reciprocal and cumulative enrichment.

The exhibition centers on Project Rooms that focus on the recycled experiences of the artists and their perception of this reality. Thus, a Mexican gallery can present a Texan–New Yorker artist; a Dominican or Madrid gallery, a Cuban artist; a Catalan gallery, an Argentinean artist living – by no coincidence – in New York.

Since a Project Room is a legitimizing place in the context of an art fair, with a transient yet effective exhibition exuberance and fragmentary but also design possibilities, I’m enamored by the idea of presenting individuals active in the art world in the form of these fleeting, concentrated prisms. This is a world in which an encyclopedic approach is not possible and the maps must be part of a process whose ending you cannot guess. The decision to focus on the artist is more than obvious to me, since it corresponds to the interpretation of the continent in which we are located as mere observers.

And, at times, we can only recall the “legible paths" of artists capable of creating esthetic-poetic works.



Studio D'Arte Fioretti
Ben Vautier
JE VEUX DISPARAITRE

acrilico su tela
100 X 100cm

30 people off the top of my head

Can you name 30 people you can think
of right off the top of your head?
Don't read the questions underneath
until you write the names of all 30
people.

1.watz
2.george
3.mark
4.nessa
5.flor
6.angie
7.nard
8.thea
9.whisky
10.roland
11.chill
12.ram
13.nessa
14.mean
15.norman
16.mamu
17.papi
18.antonio
19.rogel
20.brat
21.lanz
22.she
23.charm
24.wilson
25.barry
26.stacey
27.nicole
28.mia
29.ciongs
30.ghrei


THE QUESTIONS:

• How did you meet 10?
* he's my current roommate and sistah

What would you do if you had never
met 6?
* i'd probably still be yearning for that younger sister after me (that is, if thea didn't come after too)

• What would you do if 20 and 15
dated?
* I'd be happy! They both mean a lot to me so of course, their happiness would be mine too!

• If you could marry between 6 and 14
who will it be?
* 14! 6 is invalid! she's my sister!


• Did you ever like 9?
* yeah i did.

• Have you ever seen 4 cry?
* of course! we cry to, with and for each other all the time!

• Would 4 and 17 make a good couple?
* nope

• Would number 1 and 2 make a good
couple?
* NO!

• Describe 8
* wacky intelligent

• Do you like 12?
* oh god. next question!!!!

• Tell me something about 17
* my dad keeps a lot to himself, i think i got that from him.

• What's 7's favorite color?
* i gather it's blue

• What would you do if 1 just
confessed he/she liked you?
* next question! (why did i have to take this survey! i ask myself, why!)

• When was the last time you talked to
number 15?
* months ago

• How do you think 19 feels about you?
* my best loves me!

• What language does 13 speak?
* tagalog, english, flemish and maybe french

• Who is 2 going out with?
* no one

• What grade is 16 in?
* way over that stage! unless my mom's taking her masters in worrying management

• What is 5's favorite music?
* i think the romantic songs

• Would you ever date 13?
* of course!

• Is 11 single?
* yes!

• What is 10's last name?
* Culler

• Would you ever want to be in a
serious relationship with 7?
* no!

• Where does 18 live?
* vimercate, italy

• What do you think about 20?
* ultra-sweet and deserves to be happy

• What is the best thing about 30?
* she's got the best soul and the greatest heart

• What would you like to tell 14 right
now?
* that i wouldn't be this strong if it weren't for her!

• How did you meet 9?
* that's a secret

• What is the best and worst thing
about 2?
* that she's not here anymore

• Are you going to know 3 forever?
* i can't imagine a life without nime!

• How long have you known 26?
* some months, 10 i think

* Who is 24?
* one of my best buds from HS

• Are you or did you ever date 2?
* no!!

• Do you have a crush on 27?
* i think so! but in a good, unromantic way!

• Would you kiss 25?
* not in a million years

• Have you hugged/kissed 22?
* of course!

• Would you like to hug/kiss 21?
* i always do! she's my girl friend!

• Is 29 your bf?
* waaaaahhhh! no! he's a good bud!

• What do you hate about 23?
* she's so intelligent!

• What's your relationship with 28?
* one of my best buds

• are you inlove with 1?
* it's not gonna work out ever, but yeah. i AM. forever

More than just about CHI

the China Central Television's headquarters in Beijing



the "BIRD'S NEST" Olympic Stadium, designed by Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei and Switzerland's Herzog & de Meuron




Hi Panda COllection. I WANT THOSE LITTLE 'UNS!!!

(for more pics, see the IHT article)

Think Chinese are only about piracy? Think again! China's Design Evolution is slowly being recognized and pretty soon, it might be the other way around - the Westerners imitating them!

I read this interesting article on the International Herald Tribune website this early morning and couldn't help but be taken in by the cute panda collection and the amazing architecture! damn!

see, my friend Gary and I were talking once about how the Western World will eventually lose to the new emerging powers such as China, India and if given the right attention and aid, even Africa is bound to be a World Superpower. Somehow, I just can't wait for that day to happen!

TU ... DA CHE PARTE STAI?!?

Okay so we all know what April 15 means, right?
It's when:
April 15, 1991 Europe foreign ministers lift most remaining sanctions against South Africa
April 15, 1988 Meteorite exploded above Indonesia
April 15, 1985 South Africa will repeal sex and marriage laws against whites and non-whites
April 15, 1983 Tokyo Disneyland opens
April 15, 1973 Walt Disney Store opens
April 15, 1896 1st Olympic games close at Athens, Greece
April 15, 1877 1st telephone installed: Boston-Somerville, Massachusetts
April 15, 1865 President Lincoln shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater
April 15, 1784 1st balloon flight in Ireland

Apart from these, it's also the day these famous stars were born: emma watson, emma thompson, elizabeth montgomery, henry james, leonardo de vinci,
And of course, moi. Yours truly.

BUt April 13 and 14?

For Italians, it's market day, a walk in the park, think about good and evil, coffee break, work some, cigarette break, chat with colleagues, lunch break, another coffee break, siesta, work a little, cigarette break, coffee break, and then maybe finalize a decision about which lesser evil to vote for.

With the failure of Senate President Franco Marini to form an interim government after former Prime Minister Romano Prodi was forced to step down from office when he lost a most crucial confidence vote in Parliament, a legislative election was then scheduled for these two 'spring' days - April 13 and 14.

The race isn't as exciting as CLinton's and Obama's. Nor is it, at least in my opinion, that substantial.

Like most things in Italy, I gather it's all for show.

We have Silvio Berlusconi, Italian politician, entrepreneur, and media proprietor who heads the Forza Italia political movement, a centre-right party founded in 1993 in Rome. The wealthy Berlusconi has three times held the office of President of the Council of Ministers.
I like to call him Silvio Vulture-sconi. Imagine such a wily, violent predator following the Prodi government's every move with its right eye, its left ready to signal when to pounce and eat them all alive.


And on the other side we have Walter Veltroni, leader of the Democratic Party and former Mayor of Rome, having held office for seven years. He's the Italian Giuliani, I guess. Not much I know of him. Except that he was a former journalist, seemingly all-for Democratic Rights, and a socialite-life lover.

I've never really been into politics, but I am beginning to show some interest not just in the Italian political system but those all over the world. True, hurts every working nerve in my body thinking about all the reading i have to catch up on to get me updated, but hey.

Italians, according to the survey done by Demos-Eurisko , as published in national daily are split into a 44.3 % vote for Berlusconi and a 43.2% for Veltroni.
The rest is undecided.

Most of the Italian friends I know and with whom I have had discussions with, well.... discussion's a pretty strong word, would normally shrug. Or they'd be like, "Oh well. I'll decide when i get there." or "It really doesn't matter. This country needs someone ready to instigate change.I guess we'll have to just wait." And that's that.

Going back, I say that the coming elections is kind of futile, because i kind of agree with ROberto Saviano, Italy's foremost writer/journalist/Mafia nemesis. He is that Superman sans underwear over tights, Clark Kent sans eyeglasses. I have yet to read his GOMORRA novel, wherein he describes in detail the machinations of the Italian Mafia, but there was this article that he wrote in the March 24 issue of TIME Magazine, entitled "Maimed by the Mob", which poured more cement to my already hardening belief that Italy cannot fix its regional and national ills without fixing its "Mafia" problem first.

I used to watch Mafia movies and I have always found them interesting, almost romantic - living that hard-trodden path where you face evil everyday but keeping (supposedly, at least, most of the heroes did) a good heart inside.

Now I think Mafia and I think death and filth.
Rue the day when it gets to me so much that thinking of Italy would bring no more images of the good life, Tuscany, olive oil or wine but the Mafia and those two words that unfortunately cling to it.


SIAMO INCAZZATI

YURIGU, my friend posted this photo in his site; him, being all about politics. (still my idol!) MY interest isn't so much that I would voice out my own little-informed (as of now) opinions on which guy to root for, but the campaign ad did get my mind thinking. As an immigrant, what WOULD i like addressed on a national level after the elections are over? Granting, of course, that the person elected would have the balls to address them.
The site to go to is http://www.siamoincazzati.com/ where you will be greeted by these words:

ci sono un milione ragioni per essere esasperati e stanchi ma non dobbiamo rassegnarci
( there are a million reasons to be exasperated and tired, but we shouldn't give up. )

Here below are my own ideas:
All photos and text by Ha-neul.ccg

a click, a flash, an idea

SUBMIT YOUR BOOK NOW!!!

FRUSTRATION 101

1. Dream BIG. no, HUMONGOUS. Really GRAND.
2. Then do nothing about it.
3. Browse other people's, those with the same interests and BIG DREAMS, and salivate at how they have managed to churn out results and achieved a iota of what their original idea was, whatever it may have been.
4. Salivate some more.
5. Then Dream of How You Yourself Are Gonna Pull "It" Off in an Unprecedented, Totally TIME MAGAZINE's 10-ideas-that-change-the-world manner.
6. Or Pick Up the TIME MAGAZINE's issue with the 10 Ideas that Change the World article and read it, losing valuable time and then realizing that it's already 17:31. (takes a look at PC clock and nods, shakes head, sighs. Yeah, it is 17:31:37)
7. Glance at the other computer screen, glaring at you with the COREL DRAW and ADOBE CS windows and the text ready for input for the next MUTUO & CASA advertisements.
8. Then think of Mr. Allan Tiu, somewhere in Milan, walking briskly almoust out of breath squinting eyes or as much squint as he can get out of his chinks, already formulating in his mind the e-mail he will send you tonight. Cris, Where are the ads? The flyers for Grace? The marketing kit? The and the and the and the......
9. I'll take frustration anyday.
10. BTW, please repeat everyday of the week.

That's my days and nights lived out in painstaking digital agony.

wings, pixie dust and wind

had a dream last night.

it's not that strange.

unless you count the fact that i never dream. Or i do, but i never remember them.

this one i did.

let's wait awhile to see what happens...

igoogling it

Having had a load of problems with my Internet Explorer, I decided to give Mozilla Firefox a shot. And it working with Google, I immediately realized I can have my own personalized homepage wherein each widget, each moodget, each gadget that i would see on it is something that's useful to me.

try it! trust me, it's worth it!

stake me!

"Oh my God! Buffy, what are you doing?" - DAWN
"Oh, merciful Zeus! Oh, my eye. My burning, beautiful burning eye." - XANDER
"Why are you naked in bed with Satsu?" - WILLOW

"About time." - ME/PEN/HA-NEUL/IO



These are the reactions of the Scooby Gang upon barging in on Buffy the Slay Gal , or should i say, Gals , Buffy and Satsu in the comic "version" of the cult TV series.

Now many of you will think, "oH, that flick series!" (there's more beef here than in O.C. or Prison Break) or "It's so shallow" (Right, you who likes The Simpsons and High School Musical).




Truth is, BUFFY is probably one of the best written shows ever in modern TV history, thanks to its brilliant creator JOSS WHEDON and his very own Scooby Gang of writers. In all its seven seasons and 144 (!!!) episodes, it didn't just tackle the paranormal. In fact, the paranormal in this series becomes a mere shadow , a metaphor of reality, of life. And because of this, the humanity in each of the characters were fully presented in a believable manner, in which CHANGE and GROWING UP becomes the main issue.

IT did, in all senses, help ME go through my formative years. (and i thank , of course, my dear NIME /FAITH for going through the ride with me. 5x5)

AFter the series, a huge void was left. Not just in my daily viewing habits (because I could always re-live it, as i have all episodes on DVD (thanks, sis!) but onscreen. Which is why, all BUffy fans rejoiced when DarkHorse published the Buffy comics which has kept the show "alive" and actually, grow more, expand and become this mammoth of a creative pool that knows no boundaries.

Okay, back to the pics. Although i have yet to process it, I must say. Kudos! Hey, if she was able to snag (and shag) two centuries-old vampires ( Angel and SPike ), and a cool Military Guy ( Riley ), why not another girl? A Slayer at that! The event happens in the new story arc, "WOlves at the Gate".

Years back, the series was groundbreaking in having shown a lesbian kiss with lesbians in an actual relationship, Willow and Tara. See video. swoon.



I can just imagine Buffy's mother, rest her soul, JOYCE SUMMERS, if she were still living and were to find out about it. "BUffy, is there anyone or anything you wouldn't do?"


In an interview with the New York Times, creator Joss Whedon even said that there were no plans to make BUffy gay, and that... "We're not going to make her gay, nor are we going to take the next 50 issues explaining that she's not...She's young and experimenting, and did I mention open-minded?"

Or former lover SPike, "Well hey, the more, the merrier."

Or FAith, "No Way!"
to which a Willow would retort, "Way."

miss the old times.

stake me.

cheeky movies' barbie & ken

Okay, so maybe that's a misnomer. There ain't no Barbies here... Ahahah. From among cheekymovies' flickr photos, there are many that stand out but none more than his barbie's ken dolls series which truly is amusing! (check out more from the series in his flickr site)