D.I.Y.

colour me please! ( click pic for a larger view in flickr)- a companion to this painting.

These 2 weeks have left J and I completely drained by work, hospital visits, work, laundry and work.

So I shall let this picture do its own talking...and let you, my dear friends, do your own colouring!

we've got balls!

world ball by J

Oblivious to the deaths of politicians, sliding earth and interrupted bombs, the 8.30am Marching Bands went on playing in and out of the train stations. Two members of that band were having a deep intellectual conversation about the intricacies of their post-industrial capitalist trap, braving the onslaught of the rival northbound band.

Y: [sighs] What a waste.
J: [yawns] Huh?
Y: [marching] So many people. Can you imagine all that human energy, effort, time...?
J: [glances at a pretty rival band member in a dress, marching]...
Y: [marching] Every single person oiling the gears, keeping the machine working. We work so hard, so that we can get paid to buy the things that we think will make our lives easier, machines to help us clean our house faster, because we spend all our time and energy at work, and when we save more time or do something faster, we then use all the extra time at work, and then to buy more things...A self-sustaining machine.
J: [stops marching] Hey, it's just like the ball I drew!
Y: [stops marching] Oh yes, just like the ball! [continues marching] It's pretty.

tropical malady

There must be days when you feel your mind is like a tropical jungle...no, wait, I mean the undergrowth of a tropical jungle - none of that majestic treetop experience, just the muggy, rotting, mosquito-infested mess of weeds, vines, stray branches and trees that will never see the sky.

You may then wish to find a DVD copy of Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul's 2004 Cannes winner Tropical Malady. A narrative yin-yang - at once simple and mysterious, leisurely and tense. Split into two, the first part of the film is all the sweet disease of love - the palpitations of the heart and the alternating chills and heat of chase and touch. The second half of the film is set entirely in the Thai jungles, and I think every fear, hallucination, and drop of sweat you would experience in a tropical jungle is captured in that feverish, haunting 45min.