Frank Gehry's $300 million white elephant?

Figure as an architecture student, before I leave MIT for good I should at least take some pics of the new Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Lab (aka CSAIL or Stata Center), the latest multi million addition to the school campus. Afterall, my tuition must have contributed, however insignificantly and minutely, to this overbudgeted architectural whimsy.

Monstrosity or work of architectural ingenuity? I'm still on the fence. On the outside, the building looks like a gimmicky bunch of crushed cans, cardboard rolls and boxes; but on the inside, Gehry celebrates natural light, form, colour and space like no other. The deal is: why does good architecture always come with a hefty price tag?

Oldie but goldie:

Since the start of the moving season, I've discovered that I have a new talent - scavenging.
In the past two weeks, I have gathered myself a handsome booty of two matching night stand tables, a garment rack with them rolly wheels and an armchair. I found the armchair outside a lab two blocks away from my dorm, so I carried the bloody thing home with my two bare arms; and damn they are gonna hurt tomorrow. Well worth it though - the arm chair is a mid-century modern one: cushy, black vinyl, with 50's metal legs. It even spins! Who needs astronomically priced Herman Miller chairs when you can get them for free off the street??

Perhaps I should explore being a 拾荒亞嬸 (old grannies who pick up tins and cans from ppl's trash for recycling) as an alternative career path.
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In other news -

Zhang Ziyi may be the hottest Chinese chick out there, but she can't put on a bikini to save her life:



First rule of thumb for sex bomb wannabes: Learn how to wear a bikini top properly. (i.e. NOT upside down) *mwahahahaha*

CLC's got its own Xanga blogring:

If Xanga blogrings are anything to go by, Cheltenham Ladies' have gone down the toilet. Not that my high school ever produced any real ladies, but hell now the daisy-entangled "ladies" are a bunch of hoes and skanks partying with wannabe yigger homies. *shiver*

Lots of ppl blogging about their A Level results. Memories, memories.... how quickly have the last 5 yrs gone by.

Domestic bulletin - News from the soon-to-be-ex-dorm front:

My marshmallow plant is finally blooming!
The 3' plant / tree is finally giving v. v. pale pink flowers. Too bad they aren't edible like their namesake sweets. (What was that game called when you try to speak with a mouth stuffed full of marshmallows? Runny bunny??)




New kid on the block
Say hello to a new tenant at 488B. Faye, my bro's gf's hampster is staying with me for the week. All the fur ball does is sleep, eat and run on its treadmill. She's chunky for a hampster too. Sounds an aweful lot like me, except I don't even work out. Maybe I should have been incarnated as a furry pet. It would have been a cushy life.

Awe-inspiring, must see films for artists and architects:

Digested a big chunk of brain food over the weekend -

My Architect: A Son's Journey: made by Nathaniel Kahn, the illegitimate and only son of the great Louis I. Kahn. In an attempt to better understand who his father was 25 years after his death, the filmmaker trekked across the States and the world to see his father's now-textbook-famous projects and to seek his father's spirit. Poignant and humanist, the visuals of the visionary building themselves speak volumes about Kahn's artistry. Yet Kahn was much, much less successful at handling his private life. The man had numerous affairs, and three families at the same time. Does being a creative genius give anyone a license to act irresponsibly in their personal lives?

Radiosity renderings of the Hurva Synagogue
I literally jumped in my seat twice during the film. At the beginning, Nathaniel Kahn decided to start his investigation "at the top ", asking "the Man with the Glasses." He went to Philip Johnson, meeting him at his Conneticut Glass House, a place where I myself met the legendary man. The second time was when they showed CGI footage of the unbuilt Hurva synagogue at Jerusalem. The footage was taken from Unbuilt Ruins, a project on which my former supervisor Flavia collaborated. Suddenly I felt like I am, in some mysterious way, linked to the Greats of modern architecture.


The Legend of Leigh Bowery:

Was shocked that I hadn't heard of his name before seeing this movie. Outrageous, grotesque, camp, irreverent, fabulous and imaginative all at once to say the least, Leigh Bowery should have been a man enshrined in the temple of pop icons, waaay above Boy George, the epitome of 80's New Romanticism / androgyny, who's perhaps only 1/20 as interesting when compared to Leigh.

Fashion designer + musician + dancer + club owner + performance artist, simultaneously man and woman, Leigh was a larger than life figure who lived as if his every moment was a performance. The intensity of his sheer existence was overwhelming. Always better to live a short and glorious full life than a long and monotonous one.

The virtue of Idleness:

Why my parents should stop worrying. Forget what they've been teaching you ever since you were born - according to Tom Hodgkinson, laziness is bedfellows with greatness.

L.A.

was very fun. Better than what I had expected (then again, last time I went I was 8 and don't remember seeing anything since I pretty much slept through the whole trip)

I hearted:

- the giant Asian supermarket in Koreatown. Was amazing. They carry every snack I loved as a child. Went on a mini snack binge with Jenn and had a hotel room picnic. Just like the old boarding school days :d

- Spago: The food was simply amazing. $80 for a 3 hr trip to culinary heaven. I was never convinced that Americans can produce Michellin star level food... until dinner at Wolfgang Puck's fabled restaurant.
Started with a sumptuous v. strong, v. creamy and chocolatey chocolate martini (which I sipped a few times over dinner, with the aid of J & J as am ridiculously lightweight drinker);
then had foie gras done in four styles - pan fried, puree mousse, terrine and served with balsamic, jams and fruity preserves like fig and apricot. Was the creamiest I've ever had in my entire life, and the sweet and sourness of the jam spiked the flavour by miles.
Entree was a rack of veal in mushroom sauce with lemon polenta. Am not usually a fan of veal, but this was the best I've had in my life. Crispy on the outside, tender and juicy on the inside. Simply perfect. Polenta also far exceeded my expectations. It was so smooth, so creamy, lumpless and lemony.
Last was dessert that was a napoleon, topped with creme brulee and layered with berries. I would never be able to have a napoleon pastry without remembering this again. The caramel on top was nanometer thin yet oh-so-crispy. This is going down onto my lifetime best desserts list...
We also got to take a pic with Puck himself. He was making rounds in the restaurants, greeting customers and signing autographs. Was wicked to meet a celeb chef with flair and substance.

- Dok buk gi (spicy Korean rice cake dish)at the Korean Galeria mall food court: huge plate of garlicy / kimchee yumminess ... Jenn said it rocked compared to East Coast restaurants' versions.

And and and and and...

spotted Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon strolling with their son(?) at Santa Monica on Ocean Av.!! Being all teenybopper like, I got hyper excited. And apparently I have a facial expression coordination problem cos Jenn thought I was getting really scared or something. Anyhow, Tim Robbins was super tall... like 6'5" if not more. Did not know that. Susan was all covered up casual-Hollywood-star-in-public like, with baseball hat and sunglasses.

Also spotted star-wannabe Nicole Richie (daughter of Lionel Richie and Paris Hilton's sidekick on The Simple Life) when lunching at Fred Segal. Would not have known who she was if Jenn didn't tell me. Said starlette was carrying a tiny palm-sized pup that looked something like a miniature fox with beige fur like a Persian cat's. The pup was much, much, much cuter than its owner, who couldn't quite pull off boho hippy chic. I've decided that it's criminal for starlettes to be seen in public sans makeup... this girl was fugly by Hollywood standards.


I did not heart:

- lunching at Fred Segal: the place reeked of money so bad. Almost all the women were blonde, skinny, beautiful, and dressed in Barbiesque day-glow attire that should not be seen on real people. That or see through hippy-chic tops paired with day-glow bras. Mwah-mwah fake air-kisses all over the place *shivers*. $$$ without subtlety / edgy cool / elegance / good taste is bad bad bad.

- Lines of screaming / running / poking children at Disney

- The closing of the Space Mountain rollercoaster til '05: I so very wanted to revisit my first coaster ride, after which I puked, aged 6.

- In 'n' Out burger. OK it's better than all chain burgers put together, but compared to Mr. Bartley's in Harvard Sq it's still "eh". The Dutch still do better fries.

Westward Ho!

Will be heading out to The City of Angels next Sat for so much needed fun in the sun.
Now what should I pack for 5 days in the West... bikinis, boob tubes, short shorts, sunblock and shades? Where on earth can I get one of those foldable, roll-upable seagrass / straw beach mats on the Western hemisphere?

In other news, I got through the first round of auditions for Hell's Kitchen (see last entry). May the reality TV gods be on my side for the following rounds... Heck, if I fail to be a successful (aka employed) MIT grad, at least let me do silly things on telly! I can make an alien-looking, surface-of-the-moon-like green tea and red bean cheesecake - as I did for my bro's b'day. (Picture an olive green cake with neon red words written in icing)

Misc
 
Am feeling terribly homesick after calling my grandad to say Happy Chinese B' day this morning (his real / Western calendar b'day is this Thur). The whole family was getting ready to go to Koki Kiku (thx KK for correcting me), the new Japanese place that took Benkay's place in Landmark. Wish I were home :((
Got inquired on my relationship / bf / prospective marriage status. Arg. Sorry to disappoint, but unless otherwise stated, parental bodies and their parental bodies may always assume I'm single.
 
Fox's new reality TV show Hell's Kitchen starring Gordan Ramsay is doing an open casting call in town. Am tempted to go just to meet Ramsay. I still remember Vicky Tuck (prinicpal of CLC, my high school) bashing him away at prayers for being such a horrible man swearing non-stop at his apprentice chefs on telly back in erm, '98 or '99. Am drooling just at the thought of his apply pie that my family had tasted at his restaurant in London a few years back.
 
Currently reading Salam Pax: The Clandestine Diary of an Ordinary Iraqi. It's a collection of Salam Pax's blog entries on his blog Dear Raed. Mind-bloggling and often poignantly human. Imagine trying to get the latest Massive Attack and Radiohead records and watching VH1 to cheer yourself up on the eve of an all-out, impending war? It's so out of this (Western / American) world...

Haruki Murakami - The Folklore Of Our Times:
 
Short story carried by the Guardian Aug 2003.
Lucca! What a strange coincidence... does that mean Murakami could have been in the same small Italian town as me when I was working there?! =o

Cute monkey, (some) cute monks and a beautiful Tibetan sand mandala at HiMonkey.net. =D

A day in the life of a 臨記/奇哩啡/extra on the set of Lewis Lapham's The American Public*

In a moment of undue boredom I answered a posting on Craig's List calling for extras in a "dramatic-documentary musical" with Lewis Lapham, the editor of Harper's Magazine. A few days later I found meself on a Bean Town trolley "acting" as a tourist / space filler bod listening to Prof. Howard Zinn, of A People's History fame, giving a counter-standard version of the Independence War incidents that took place in Boston. The small crew of five tried to shoot with a mammoth 35mm film camera in the tiny aisle of the trolley, whilst the trolley zigzagged through crazy Bostonian traffic amidst the Big Dig mess downtown.

Though I'm not familiar with Zinn's works, the prof gave a captivating talk. If only my high school history teachers were all sweet grandpa Gandalf's or Dumbledores who have a cheeky twinkle in their eyes.

Later on, the trolley drove us to Randolf, MA to do a green screen shoot in a makeshift "studio". With Matrixy production scenes in my head, I thought the studio would be super high tech. Turns out the set was a trolley garage with huge rolls of green paper surrounding the trolley * Pft*.

The production peez claimed the shot would be 3 - 4 hrs. As time dragged on, it became obvious that the director and cameraman couldn't agree on the lighting & the speed of progress on filming. Both extras, cameraman, lighting crew and director got more stroppy and stressed out. In the end the shot lasted 7 1/2 hours. Now I know that on set time = 2x real time xp

* I can't even remember the title of the film...I only know that the last word starts with a P. Must be something like LL's The American Public or The American Power Struggle, or The American Power? So much for my amnesiac goldfish memory >.<

The director claims that they're aiming for Sundance in Jan '05. If I'm lucky, you might see my fat face on the silverscreen at an arthouse cinema near you sometime next year.

Jelly Belleys

Went to the New England Aquarium this afternoon. My last visit was 6 yrs back when my parents were taking me on the college tour. Thanx Yao & Taka for an afternoon of aquatic fun =D

Moon Jellies


Upside-down Jellies with simbiotic algae in their tentacles so they don't have to move to eat. (hmm wonder if I can stick leaves on meself so will be fed on photosynthetic sugar)



Japanese Sea Nettle


These tiny fluffy-tentacled dudes swim funny - see vids 1&2. As Yao says, "They have to work so hard!"

[apologies for lo-fi videos - am blaming it on my ghetto 1st gen Sony digicam]


Moon Jellies in action


These dudes had lines of cool pulsing rainbow lights


Penguins are always funny to watch
My first encounters with jellies was when my mum picked up a shored one down on its luck at the beach. Mum held it in her palm upside down and poked it around. The second time round was less fun. Aged 8 in a turquoise swimsuit with white polka dots and fluffy wings, I swam into what I thought was a plastic bag and OHMYGOD did it hurt. I swam as fast as I could back to the boat my family was on. My mum claims she's never seen me swim so fast (since then, before every swimming competition she'd tell me: swim like that time when you got stung!)

The upside of getting a thigh-wide jellyfish sting: I didn't get a beating when I got 60/100 on a Maths test.

20 Questions to a better personality

Woah. The diagnosis on my personality is half DEAD ON, half "What?!":


Wackiness: 24/100
Rationality: 26/100
Constructiveness: 30/100
Leadership: 34/100


You are an SEDF--Sober Emotional Destructive Follower. This makes you an evil genius. You are extremely focused and difficult to distract from your tasks. With luck, you have learned to channel your energies into improving your intellect, rather than destroying the weak and unsuspecting.

Your friends may find you remote and a hard nut to crack. Few of your peers know you very well--even those you have known a long time--because you have expert control of the face you put forth to the world. You prefer to observe, calculate, discern and decide. Your decisions are final, and your desire to be right is impenetrable.

You are not to be messed with. You may explode.

Evil?! Moi??? *looks all innocent with wide blinking eyes*

And...a Happy July 4th to y'all

Good god. No wonder this country is in shambles. It's run by pot-bellied men who like to do renditions of YMCA...*covers face in hopelessness*

Colin Powell prancing away on stage after the closing gala at the ASEAN security meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia
[from Wonkette via Yahoo News]

Coming to a cinema near you in fall

Hayao Miyazaki's latest creation \^o^/ - Quicktime trailer for Howl's Moving Castle (via Lossless)

CY the potato farmer

My 3.5 ft potato tree [see 3/15] finally gave in and flopped on itself. As I unearthed its roots to give it a quiet burial in the trash can, I found out it had given birth to some baby taterlings at the bottom of the egg nog carton box that I've been growing the plant in.
Perhaps saying goodbye to familiar things isn't always bad.... who know what lies beyond (or under).

My first harvest =D
Perhaps I should consider running a 'tater plantation in my bedroom if I don't find proper employment soon :p

How my life can be linked to a Manchurian eunuch's... (or 北京北長街的故事)

Sometimes, my Inbox is like a box of chocolates, as Forrest Gump puts it - you never know whatcha gonna get ;)
Last week I got a mail from my mummy, telling my family about the story of my gran's childhood home in Beijing, a traditional 四合院 (four-home courtyard house) that's quickly disappearing:

My mum asked my uncle how my great-grandfather got the house near the Forbidden City since they were not Manchurian Royalty.
My uncle called my great-uncle Tony for the answer. The story is as follows:

1. My gran's grandfather married a rich family's daughter (Chen family). She is my great-great-grandmother.

2. She bought a piece land from a retired Forbidden City's eunuch to build this house.

3. My great-grandfather married my great-grandmother and my great-great-grandmother's mother also stayed together in this house.

4. My great-grandmother gave birth to all of her 7 children in the house.

5. My great-grandmother died a week after her mother's death when my grandmother visited Shanghai to play basketball.
Both of them passed away in the house.

6. My great-grandfather continued to stay in the house for his rest life.

7. My great-grandfather married again after my great-grandmother passed away.

8. Half of the house was taken by our great-grandfather's wife later.

9. The Communist Government surrendered the house in 1968.

10. The Government assigned a lot of other families to move in the house. It became public housing.

11. My grand-uncle Chonggand (Ambassador of China to the US in the late 80's) spent a lot effort and money to get the house back and moved other people out the house in 1980s.


Another of my gran's awesome story took place in her home in Beijing -

"She once stopped all drainage and fill the square yard with water to make a skating
rink in the winter while her father was away."

Now I know where my princessy genes came from ;D