Saturday, February 26, 2011

Review: Black Swan

Apologies for the long absence! College can do wonders to your writing drive. :)



As you can probably guess from the title (aaaand the picture), I've finally gotten the chance to go watch Black Swan. I'm probably not going to do a very lengthy review as I'm wont to (like I said, college does wonders to one's writing skills and drive...), but let me tell you this:

IT. WAS. AWESOME.

Not just visually too (the ballet costumes were simply gorgeous). The performances from everyone onboard, from the astounding Natalie Portman to Winona Ryder were rock solid. But special mention definitely goes out to Natalie Portman, who absolutely dominates from the first minute to the last. She plays Nina Sayers, an uptight ballerina obsessed with perfection and trapped in a cocoon of her own expectations and pressure. The Nina Sayers at the beginning of the film is frightened and fragile, as succinctly described by Vincent Cassel's character, Thomas Leroy. To embody the Black Swan, she has to break out her dark side, and that is really, I think, the message that the movie is trying to get across.



Everyone has a good and bad side; light and dark; ying and yang. In order to make peace with ourselves, we have to get in touch with that dark side and know when to yield and when to resist. The true demons that are holding us back from reaching our true potential are not from outside but from within. Raised by an overbearing but well-meaning mother, Nina Sayers is too paranoid and too busy with trying to be perfect to recognise this, so when she is finally forced to do so in order to properly play the Black Swan - she ultimately ends up treading the path of her own destruction.


It's more than just lesbian sex and ballet. So do yourself a favour and watch this.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Test Drive With the Diana

So I've used up my first roll (wasteful ol' me - are you surprised?), and here are the results:










At least not the entire roll went bad, which I think is quite an achievement as I've seen some entire first rolls of what-the-heck. I spent RM30 to develop these - way too overpriced!!! Am never going back to the Central Market photo shop again!

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Platonicity...?

Hollywood seems to think that these days, a boy and a girl can't be friends without one way or another falling for each other. It seems that one can't seek solace with the other unless, UNLESS there's something going on between the two!

Look at No Strings Attached, Friends With Benefits, Made of Honour, heck, just look at the most prominent of them all: My Best Friend's Wedding. (Okay, there have been exceptions, I admit, such as Rabbit Hole). You KNOW from the title that somehow the protagonist is  going to be romantically linked to her best friend instead of, you know, trying to be supportive and banishing wedding jitters and all...

So as per usual, the ignorant keeper of this blog has decided, in all cock-surety, to go ahead and create a story that no one will care about, to set this matter right. It's going to be about:

*dun dun dun*

PLATONIC relationships!

I can hear boos all the way from this side of the Internet.

Basically it's going to be about a guy and a girl who meet and befriend each other through a Befrienders-esque group. Both are going through a bout of depression: the guy because his long-time on-and-off girlfriend has left him for a longer period of time than she usually would and has actually gotten together with another man; the girl because she's terribly in love with an older man who doesn't have the courage to be with her because of his age and keeps hanging on to his older-than-our-heroine-of-course girlfriend, who he coincidentally, loves very much, perhaps more than our heroine. Career-wise, the guy is a somewhat recognised professional photographer while the girl works in a law firm as a paralegal where said love-of-her-life also works, as a lawyer.

As I have no clear predisposition (whether for the positive or negative) for this story yet, I'm just going to throw in a filler there and say that this story will be all about how they help each other cope with crises at work, in love, life in general and well, lift each other out of the depression they're suffering.

Yes, it's going to be plotless, i.e. terribly boring.

Now we get to the best part - dreamcasting! (or fancasting, or whatever you call it!)

Our guy and girl:



O U SEE WHAT I DID THAR??

By casting two people with considerable age gaps, it kind of-sorta-maybe reduces the audiences' expectations of our two protagonists to move from platonic to romantic. Because, you know, you have to believe that our guy is really really in love with that long-time girlfriend of his (she's his muse, and everything!) and our girl is also really really in love with - I trust you get the picture.

Now let's move on by casting the 'love interests':


Monica Bellucci



Eric Dane




Ryan Reynolds


In case you haven't figured it out yet, Ms. Bellucci will play our guy's flame, Mr. Dane will play our girl's older lover that she can't get over, and Mr. Reynolds will play the guy that tries to court our girl. 

Oh and did I mention that this story takes place in the great city of NYC?

Well I certainly don't see any such thing worthy of lift-off anytime soon, so I'll just stow my hopes and dreams away and continue dreaming....

Ohhh Diana~


Meet Diana F+, the latest addition to the family!


Thursday, February 3, 2011

Live the Language

Came across some lovely-awesome-perfect vids from EF Language Schools. I especially like the typography, the music, and the cinematography. :D








and last but certainly not the least charming:


All videos directed by Gustav Johansson, D.O.P. Niklas Johansson, typography Albin Holmqvist. Produced at Camp David

All of them my favourite cities in the world to be in! EF certainly knows how to hook prospective students in. XP

Diana+ or Holga??

I've been wanting to get myself a film camera for a long time. Since I haven't any luck thrifting it, I've decided to get myself one of those repros that Lomography is selling.

From what research I've done (read: not that a lot :P) cameras ideal for bumbling beginners like me seem to be boiled down to two: the Diana F+, or the Holga 135.


or



In an ideal world, I'd have enough money to get either:

Lomo LC-A+

or


Lomo Lubitel 166+


So anyway, the Diana or the Holga? Feedback much appreciated! >.<

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Cloudy Since You Went Away...


1. fashiontoast.com; 2. pinterest; 3. thecherryblossomgirl.com; 4,5,6,7,8. pinterest; 9. liebemarlene; 10. the snail and the cyclops; 11,12. pinterest; 13. vivian maier photography