Merry-Go-Round

Mmm, it's been a few days since I last posted here. But it feels like it's been ages, for all the wrong reasons. Haha.

Anyway, to blow and scatter away the unpleasantness of the week (see the picture below for the image I have in mind), I'm thinking of Merry-Go-Rounds and looking at pictures of them.


The Merry-Go-Round. Carousel. The Galloper. Roundabout. Flying Horses.

Probably the most representative of all fairground rides.

It conjures up images of magic and whimsy.

I especially like them by night when more sparkles of magic and mystery are sprinkled on them by their fairy lights. Even higher scores on the magic-meter if they're by the sea. Like in one of those old-world seaside amusement parks.


The picture at the top of this post was taken by me when I was in Kobe, Japan, last year.
It was in a fairground complex by the sea, in an area of multiple shopping and entertainment developments. It was pretty late by the time I'd finished poking around the Sannomiya area in the north that I was staying in, but since it was the only night I was spending in Kobe, I was determined to make it down to the seafront and see the Ferris wheel and Merry-go-round illuminated by night.

How did I come to know of it, you ask?

Well. A few days before I left for Japan, I read a post on one of my favourite blogs to stalk, that of the Ayabie bassist, Intetsu, which had this picture:


His blog is a real visual feast, with many pretty pictures to accompany the posts. He blogs about places he's been, while on tour or in Tokyo, adorable cafes he's been to, delicious-looking food (mostly sweet. Haha) he had and dishes he made, nice-sounding tea he's had, cute cats he's stalked, and so on. He also posts selections from 'photo walks' he's taken with camera in hand.


When I saw that photo steeped in magic, I really wanted to see the place for myself. After getting directions from the hotel front desk (I kind of just went 'I want to go to the place by the sea with the Ferris wheel' haha), I hopped on the train and after a walk through the shopping complexes, I rounded a bend, and lo and behold, there was the Ferris wheel flashing its neon down on me! Crossing a few roads and climbing a flight of stairs or two finally unfolded the sight of the merry-go-round nestled at the foot of the Ferris wheel.

A moment of breath being taken in and camera shutter clicking.


I didn't ride on the merry-go-round. Don't think the idea properly entered my mind. Even if it did, I doubt I would have. Just a tad pathetic, don't you think, a girl hopping on a merry-go-round alone at 9pm? Haha.

Anyway. I can't clearly remember the last time I was on a merry-go-round, though. There is an enlarged and plastic-framed picture of six-year-old me riding the merry-go-round in Tokyo Disneyland at home, though. I've definitely been on a few since then. But somehow just can't recall my last ride.

But anyway, even though the thoughts of merry-go-rounds have been flickering onto and off centre-stage in my brain recently, mainly due to some pictures I found (more on these in a little bit!!), the impetus for sitting down and actually typing out a post is this picture that Intetsu (again!) posted up:



It's of the merry-go-round in the LaQua complex, the website of which states 'Spa Shopping Restaurant Attraction' in English. Another place I never heard of until I left Japan. It seems like a huge entertainment development by the sea, and has its own giant Ferris wheel and roller coaster as well, by the looks of it.

Seeing the picture made me think about the fantasy and magic of the merry-go-round again, and so I'm finally putting up these images of merry-go-rounds I found a while back.

First up, a wintry merry-go-round:


And then one with a Spring-like feel:


I love the colours in these two pictures for different reasons. And! I've just noticed that the merry-go-round depicted in the second picture is a Double Decker!! A term I've just picked up from skimming through wikipedia's article on merry-go-rounds/carousals. It's a fascinating article (did you know the earliest known depiction of a carousal dates from about 500 A.D. in a Byzantine bas-relief? Or that many carousal connoisseurs feel that the Golden Age of carousals was early 20th century America?), but I don't feel quite up for reading it all right now.


Anyway. When I think of merry-go-rounds, the first song that leaps into my head is Joni Mitchell's 'The Circle Game', in which she sings about "the carousal of life".


From there, it's a short leap away to 'The Merry-Go-Round of Life', by the genius composer, Joe Hisaishi. He often collaborates with the preeminent director and animator, Miyazaki Hayao, the man behind Studio Ghibli, and of 'Spirited Away' and 'My Neighbour Totoro' fame.
'The Merry-Go-Round of Life' is the main theme of the Ghibli film 'Howl's Moving Castle'. I personally thought both the film and the accompanying soundtrack were not the most brilliantly spectacular of both men's works, but I did find this amazing video of Joe Hisaishi playing the piano part and conducting 'The Merry-Go-Round of Life'.

Lovely.

Seeing Hisaishi live was one of the dreams I had before going to Japan, but one I didn't get to fulfill. But there's always 'wait' and 'hope', eh?
After watching this video, I now regret not buying the DVD of the concert commemorating 25 years of collaboration between Hisaishi and Miyazaki. It's still sitting in my Amazon wishlist! Hmmm.

And when I think of merry-go-round music, my mind goes to the compositions of Yann Tiersen. I suppose he's most well-known for the 'Amelie' soundtrack?
And wasn't there a carousal in the film as well? I can't really remember. Only saw it once many years ago. I have been meaning to see it again for the longset time ever, but have no idea where the DVD is now.

Here's one of the tunes in the soundtrack with a clip from the movie:

I really could do with more Yann Tiersen CDs! Think I only have 5? Hmm.


Oh, I also wanted to post this screen-shot up:


It's this silly online game I play, in which the player keeps a pet and can dress them up and decorate their rooms. I love my little merry-go-round of pixels. Whoo.


And it's about time I put an end to this post that has taken off in a few different directions around the central focal point of the merry-go-round.

Here's another picture of Intetsu's to bring things to a close. The LaQua merry-go-round again, but taken roughly a year ago, when they held the event commemorating the band going major there. I like this picture the best out of the three of his I've posted here.

Endings Over Openings

What's Up Ahead:
• My current favourite song, the ending theme of an anime I'm currently watching.
• Introduction of some anime series by delightfully bizarre production studios.
• A little insightful, though possibly erroneous, explanation of Japanese room-size unit of measurement.
• Foray into describing the Japanese online amateur made music scene.
• What a Vocaloid is.
• Vocaloid videos.
• Final Goal!!!


Have been lamenting my lack of musical exploration lately.

I can't properly recall the last musical discovery that set my enthusiasm leaping with delight. I have been listening to the same, limited collection of tracks stuffed into my tiny, decrepit, but still valiantly functioning iPod Nano for goodness knows how many months.

However, I have had little moments of 'oooooh, nice!' on the musical front, and most of them have been coming from the Opening and Ending themes of anime series.

(Yes, I'm still watching anime. Yes, I'm fast approaching the mid-twenty mark. Yes, I'm still escaping from reality.)

What I've been really quite in love with is the Ending theme of the Spring 2010 anime series, 'Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei' (四畳半神話大系). With the assistance of my trusty friend, Jim Breen's, online dictionary, I've rather clumsily translated the title into 'The Four-and-a-Half Tatami Mat Compendium of Myths'. Possibly messed up the order of the words, hence scrambling the meaning, but please try to overlook the translate fail.

'Four-and-a-half tatami mats', is I'm pretty sure, considered the size of a small, poor-person's room. I haven't actually looked this up, but have seen enough references to it to come to the conclusion. Japanese rooms, especially traditional ones, are measured by the number of tatami (traditional straw flooring) panels it takes to cover the floor. So sometimes on the websites of ryokan (traditional Japanese inns), they tell you how many 'jou' (the counting verb for tatami panels) large the room is. Since I've convinced myself I'm hopeless at numbers and figures, I shan't bother looking up just how large one tatami 'jou' is.
Coming back to 'Four-and-a-half', the namesless protagonist of the series lives in a boarding house of 'four-and-a-half tatami mat' rooms in Kyoto. It's produced by the studio Mad House, which sort of accounts for the delightfully bizarre and unique animation, storytelling, and atmosphere.


(Note the use of a 'four-and-a-half tatami mat' floor plan to form the character for 4!)

I could ramble on and on about the anime, despite having only seen 4 episodes so far (I believe about 8 of a total of 11 have already been aired). But will restrain myself here and bring myself back to the main purpose I had in mind when starting on this post. Music. Specifically, anime ending and opening themes.

I rather love the ending theme for 'Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei', 神様のいうとおり ('Kami-sama no iu toori' - 'Just As God Said'). It's a collaboration between three parties, whose names I'm feeling too lazy to romanise right now. It's a groovy electronic piece with deadpan-ish vocals that dwell in that territory between cutesy and airy.

AND, I have to add that I really love the ending sequence animation too!! It makes use of the 'tatami room floor plan' idea and has some rather nifty animation.

Here it is!!



Surfing around on youtube also brought me to a more electronic version of the song. This one on youtube is different from the one that came with the single, somehow! And I actually like it better! Reminds me of old-school video game sounds. Lovely.




Another anime theme that I'm rather in love with currently is the one for Bakemonogatari (化物語). The title of the series is rather neat - in Japanese, the three characters can be split into two words, 'bakemono' ('monster') and 'monogatari' ('story') by sharing the middle character, and it can be translated into English as 'Ghostory'. Pretty cool playing with language that is wonderfully translated, huh? ^^

'Bakemonogatari' was produced by the studio SHAFT, which exceeds Mad House in terms of bizarreness and creativity, I feel. 'Bakemonogatari' has very gorgeous animation, with great colours, the highlight of which are the beautiful red outlines. Also has very strange imagery and words being flashed on the screen, that I just allow to wash over me in a mind-boggling celebration of wonderful strangeness. The background music is a delight, the voice work excellent (exercising herculean self-control not to go down this tangent). I can hardly keep up with the puns and humour, even with subtitles, though, which makes me feel really quite inadequate.

Right. The ending theme. 'Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari' (The Tale That You Don't Know) by supercell. It's a very pop-ish song. I rather prefer the full lengh version to the anime ending sequence version, but am going to post the latter as I rather like the ending animation. Again. Heh.



supercell is rather interesting. It has its origins on Nico nico video, which can be called the Japanese youtube. I haven't really explored this area of the world wide web, so forgive the inaccuracies, misguided assumptions and/or statements spawned from ignorance that may result from my insufficient knowledge and web-surfing.

It seems that 'doujin music' is quite the phenomenon now. 'Doujin' is used to refer to 'amateur made' products, (the most famous example would be 'doujinshi' - 'amateur made manga'). This flourishing of the doujin music (I'm not even 100% sure if that's how they refer to it...... -.-) scene seems to be a result of two wonderful pieces of technology.

Firstly, the tool of the Vocaloid. These are singing synthesizing software. Wikipedia can probably do a better job explaining. Even an ignoramus like me couldn't help but notice the word 'vocaloid' being bandied about with great frequency in the Japanese-loving corners of the internet. And now I can name a few, like the Kagamine twins and Gackpoid, which uses the voice of legendary (to some I suppose) singer Gackt.

Anyway, so basically Vocaloids allow people to put in vocals to compositions they've created, and the whole composition and production of a song can be completely accomplished on a computer. No need to be able to play any instrument or sing, or have to enlist the assistance of people able to do so. This, as you can imagine, enables a lot more people who are talented in composition to realise their creations in audio.

The second piece of technology is the platform of NicoVid. I say it can be called the Japanese youtube, but I think it has one added feature that makes it really quite different. I think it's the function that allows viewers to comment on a specific moment in the video played. It also scrolls these comments from viewers across the video when it's being played (yes, this can be switched off, thank god!!). Can't put up a screen capture as my laptop is now running on 'Zero' disk space, but I think this function adds to a sense of, how shall I put it? Participation? Community?
A lot of the comments are just exclamatory, such as 'cute!!' or 'hot!!' or just the Japanese version of 'lol' or 'haha', 'wwwwwww' (the w looks like a smile, doesn't it? like ^w^ ).
Even though they're just simple comments, I think the commenting and viewing of comments as the video runs definitely puts in an added-dimension to the video viewing process, and that's what makes NicoVid different from youtube.

And, coming back to my point, I think this more participatory video site hosting these 'amateur made' songs does enhance the popularity of the scene.

Oh, I forgot to add that another key characteristic of 'doujin music', apart from using Vocaloids, is the accompanying animation or visuals.

Take supercell as an example. The group (or 'circle' as they're called) has one key member, Ryo, who does the composition and production of the music, and I forgot how many other members who are in charge of providing the illustrations and animation. I think there're about seven of them??

Anyway, now that we're back on the topic of supercell, what I want to comment is how it's rather impressive that a web-based amateur music composer is now signed on a major label and releasing music. They no longer use vocaloids, though. What you heard in the video above is a real flesh and blood singer. However, I read that she, too, has her roots in the online self-produced NicoVid music world.

So, now, I'm going to end my own little amateur foray into describing and dissecting doujin music with three Vocaloid videos!

This song was my initiation into the world of Vocaloids. I came to know of the song as it was covered by a couple of seiyuu (voice actors). (Yet another piece of evidence of the power of the doujin music scene! Usually, wouldn't the order of covering be the reverse?)

'Iroha Uta', composed by Gin Saku, featuring the Vocaloid Kagamine Rin.




What do you think? I took some time to get used to the electronic voice. But I think it's a good, catchy song.

Next up, 'Karakuri-shi to Ao' ('The Marionette Master and Green') by Machigerita, featuring Gackpoid and Hatsune Miku Append (which I'm assuming is another version of 'Hatsune Miku').
This one is nice and creepy.




And finally, something a little different. 'Hello Again' by mayuko. A duet by the twins Kagamine Rin and Len. Really quite lovely. If a tad too long. ^^;




So what do you think about Vocaloid singing and doujin music?
I also heard that quite a lot of these tunes are available at karaoke places as well. Not very sure about the details, but it really is quite some thing, isn't it? For amateur created products to make their way into the commercial sphere like this. Definitely something worth looking further into, but I'm not sure if I can spare the time and effort!!

Anyway, I actually planned to post more anime opening and ending sequence videos, but I think I'll leave the onslaught of youtube videos at this for now. Am getting rather tired, and I'm sure you, dear reader, are too.

Right. Last obstacle to clear!!

The ending sequence with credits removed of the anime series 'Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei' (Farewell Teacher Despair). Produced by the superbly strange SHAFT, and starring the wonderful seiyuu (voice actor) Kamiya Hiroshi, a mini-festival of whom I'm currently having. The art styles and animation forms they whisk the viewer through is even more varied and strange than that in 'Bakemonogatari'. Not going to delve too deeply, as apparently I've already spent 3 hours on this post.





There we go!!

If you managed to make it through this entire clunking descendent of Frankenstein's monster post AND watched all *counts* 7 videos, as a reward, you can claim a big Badge of Approval from me. Hahahaha.
But remember, no cheating or lying!

Haha.

A Day or So in a Life

Feeling exceedingly drowsy and lazy. Think it's a combination of the weather, and a lack of sleep and exercise.

It's been raining loads here. We're being assaulted by flash thunderstorms. Our plane back to Beijing was delayed for 3 hours due to 'bad weather conditions'. When the plane was making its descent, there were flashes of lightning that made everything outside the windows flicker. And since I had the beginnings of a cold, my nasal passages were stuffed up and caused my ears to be put through agony before we finally made it to the ground.

Ever since being back in the capital, the skies have been gloomy and wont to open up and dump rain down upon us, creating disgusting pools of water in the streets and sending the scooter alarms ringing outside my window. There's quite a lot of flashes of lighting and rumbling thunder, as well as the occasional startling crack of thunder. Apparently all this is very uncharacteristic, as Beijing is usually skin-crackingly dry all the time. Well, I actually rather like it this way. I really quite like rainy days, and this is definitely way more pleasant than scorching sunshine and brain-numbing 40 deg cel heat.


Funny thing is that it's raining loads back home as well! So much so that the main shopping area flooded! I saw videos on FB and followed the buzz on twitter! We were actually trending for a good few hours because of that! Above the world cup hash tag as well! Was rather surprised and impressed by the number of tweeters and tweets we produced.
Anyway, it was pretty serious. Saw the Starbucks where people seem to like to lie in wait to ambush me (hahaha) with water up to the table-tops. Sleezy relic from the 80s shopping centre had a swimming pool of murky brown water in its basement. Swanky new shopping centre packed full of Omotesando/Selfridges-grade shops apparently had its basements filled with water as well.

Quite surreal, as I used to pass through the area practically everyday last year. It was also my most convenient and laziest hang-out spot. And to think I missed the monumental event of it being submerged. The relevant governmental department is 'still investigating the cause'. HahahaHAH!


Anyway, it was a public holiday here yesterday, for Duanwu Festival (端午节), the Dragon Boat Festival, or Dumpling Festival, depending on whether you wish to put more emphasis on tradition or your stomach.

I woke up at 5 something as had fallen asleep with the lights on. Couldn't go back to sleep, so I powered up the old, abused laptop to get my fix of internet.

But holy cold turkey! The internet was down!! After a few minutes of desperate CPR clicking, I gave up and decided to watch Ayabie's 2008 Spring Tour Live DVD instead.

Which finally brings us to the main picture of this post.

I absolutely love it when Intetsu goes berserk! ♥♥♥♥♥

He's got what they call the 'gap' aesthetic right down to a tee. (●´ω｀●)ゞ

Hikonyan-chan approves as well. I bought him from a kiosk in Kyoto Station after seeing Aoi waving a larger cousin of his around on stage at the end of the Kyoto gig. ^^;

Anyway, I sat around in my pajamas, mostly in front of the computer, following the flood on twitter, doing the random shit I usually get up to online, waiting for someone to wake up in London so I could wish them a happy birthday. That done, I felt obliged to go out.

And now, patient reader, for making it through being bored to numbness by all that's come before this, here're some pictures as a reward! Haha. :p


We went to this hutong that I'd never been to before. Hutongs (胡同) are streets, usually rather narrow, but they come in a variety of sizes, formed by lines of courtyard houses, siheyuan (四合院). They're the distinctive features of old Beijing, and hence are mostly found in within the Third Ring Road.
They're also what were being bulldozed by the hundreds (?) in the lead up to the Olympics, that had foreign and local conservationists up in arms, emotionally-attached how-many-th generation residents in tears, and, uh, me rather ignorantly bordered between being swayed by the indignation of the foreign press and impassivity, as I'd never been to a hutong then.

I'm not going to delve into the whole 'Redevelopment with progress and money and new, modern living for the residents' VS 'Conservation, retaining tradition and history' debate here, though. Don't really think I'm entitled to pass judgment, as I'm not a resident or even a Chinese citizen.


Whatever it is, the government has definitely caught on to the tourism potential of hutongs. There's one particular lane that is wonderfully done up with many chic and funky shops, bars, restaurants and cafes. My guidebook calls is 'bourgeois bohemian', and it really is a rather apt description. Where we went yesterday was in the process of being redeveloped.

I arrived early, and so snapped some pictures of the place, with a lovely menacing sky as a backdrop. The particular hutong we went to was near the Lama Temple:



I went there last spring. It was pretty cool and interesting. I rather like the architecture. Had lovely flowers when I went as well.

And this is the hutong




As you can see, a lot of not-so-traditional looking additions to the buildings.

And there're now a lot of new and quirky looking shops like these:



Nice naming-sense here:



Spotted a kitty staring at me. Hiiii!! Times like this when I wish the GR Digital had a zoom. >.<;

Really cool looking bar:




This is what it looks like from the entrance of a couryard residence:



At some point of history, a single household would occupy a single courtyard residence. Up to the point when the Qing Dynasty fell (1911 I think?). A huge number of households then crammed into a single residence, carving up the space and putting up flimsy dividing walls and such.
Now there's a trend back towards a single household in a single courtyard, with wealthy Chinese buying out entire courtyards and refurbishing them. This is really costly, as they have to buy out the many, many households living in there!

The signs of redevelopment were all around along the hutong yesterday:



You can't get more visual than this:




There were still quite a lot of locals living along the hutong, though. I can't imagine what it must be like for them, seeing these swanky shops, restaurants and bars sprouting up in their midst, while they go on subsisting on incomes that won't buy them a meal in one of those places even with a month's (or more??) work.

We were part of the invading army, I'm afraid, sipping on milkshakes in chic cafe.


Anyway, was pouring down after dinner, so took a cab back. The windows were misted up, and there was a point when the driver went down a really poorly-lit road that seemed to be lined with trees. Got me slightly worried for a while. But being driven through a rainy night with lightning and thunder was rather atmospheric.


Was really dark when I woke up this morning, and then it started to pour again. Was really tempted to go back to sleep, but I valiantly got out of bed and fed myself and put on some clothes and made it out the door. Whoo.




I miss London. Boo.

And my kitty cat. Triple boo.

A Crunch Opens a World of Thoughts

Granny Smith apples are one of my favourite fruit ever. I like them crispy and tart. If factors other than those gastronomical were to be taken into account, I think the crown of Favourite Fruit would be sitting firmly on the head of the Granny Smith apple, leaving the mango, blackberry, honey dew and all to bow down to its preeminence.

Green apples (as I used to call them before being acquainted with the, in my opinion, inferior Goldendelicious) are, for me, infused with childhood.

This used to be my daily habit when I was in primary school: When I got home from school, I'd be told to go wash my hands. Then, I'd make a direct course for the kitchen and rummage through the fridge for an apple. Green apples were my first choice. Then, with apple that has most likely already been crunched into in hand, my next stop would be my grandmother's room. In the cupboard under the window, the comic books used to be kept. I'd sit down on the floor, all the while jaws busy masticating, and spend some time selecting a volume. We had loads of Garfield, old Peanuts, some B.C., almost all of Asterix, and the occasional Andy Cap, Wizard of Id, and more titles that have slipped through the sieve that is my mind. Fixing my fancy on the choice of the day, I'd go back out and settle myself on some piece of furniture in the living room and so my apple eating and reading time would begin.

I remember how I used to skip over lengthier dialogue in the comics and focus on the more visually-driven strips.
I also remember how I never seemed to tire of reading and rereading the same volumes.
What a wonderful and simply satisfied thing the young mind is.

I also remember how my reading material also came in the form of the towering stack of library books piled either on the rattan rocking chair or the round coffee table.
My mother used to bring us to the nearest library (the building has still retained its original form. I visited it again for the first time in a long, long while last year and was submerged in nostalgia that clutched) and max out our entire family's borrowing allowance. Back then the lovely government gave each of its happy citizens something like 7 books each at a time. We could pull books off the shelves and stagger to the issuing counter with wanton abandon. Good times.

And so I've come to associate green apples with afternoons spent immersed in comics and books.

I also remember how I devised a system, as sort of procedure of steps, for apple eating. It's rather complicated to explain, and I'd just sound ever-so-slightly insane if I went into it. So simply put, I always eat my apples in the same manner, following the same sequence, even to this day.


Given the many associations and memories Granny Smith apples hold for me, I was delighted to find them in my local supermarket here. They're imported from Chile or the USA, and are rather pricey. But I treat myself to them, and munching on one makes me happy and unravels old film reels that my mind sleds down.

May Through a Smeared Lens: Phone Photos May 2010 - Part 1

I used to take excessive photos with the slightly crappy camera of my now battered and bruised Sony Ericsson clam phone. It's part of the Walkman series, and so more emphasis was placed on the music functions than photography capabilities. I'm not fond of using my mobile phone as a music player, as doing so eats up battery. However, I really wanted a clam phone, and so went with this model when I was seeking to replace my previous phone that was teetering on the edge of breakdown about just under two years ago. And this has served me well ever since. I feel a strange jump of satisfactory joy whenever I snap the phone shut after a conversation.

With this phone, I got in the habit of whipping my phone out and snapping pictures of random things and scenes. Frequently. There's also a fair share of narcissistic self-portraiture too, I'm afraid. ^^;

However, ever since I got my GR Digital, the number of pictures snapped with my phone plummeted. Under the influence of a certain someone, I've been carrying my camera with me practically every day, and have been using it instead.

The other day, while looking through my phone photo albums, I realised just how few photos I have in there for recent months.

Having my phone being stuffed full of colourful, commonplace, and curious snapshots is somehow very comforting. I enjoy flicking through them, on the train or even just in my room, and reliving the memories of remarkable and unremarkable times alike. It's different from having many pictures on a digital camera.

And so, I decided to step up my phone photography rate. And since it seems a bit of a shame that they just sit around in my phone's memory, only to be seen on me on solitary public transport journeys and quite moments in my room, I've decided to put selections up here as well.
I think they give a more typical view of my day-to-day life. Perhaps.

Well, after that lengthy introduction, here we go, into May 2010, Part 1~!



1. Grassland with no grass in Inner Mongolia. Clear blue skies meant scorching heat. I think those were horses there.


2. Display case in the hotel lobby. Why canned drinks?


3. I realised I rather like irises.


4. Tous Les Jours has great doughnuts. Here I tried the Mango Something and the Strawberry Something (forgot their names). They do pretty good bread as well! Something that is slightly on the elusive side here. Apparently it's a bakery chain from Korea.


5. One of the most wonderfully delicious and varied bowls of fruit I've had! (Except those my mother used to prepare for me. >^<) The sorbet was yummy as well. Alcohol tinged. We couldn't figure out what flavour it was.


6. They drew a treble clef in my coffee. ^-^ I like how it morphed after I drank some of it. It looks like a strange rune! Yes, I'm drinking coffee again, after staying away from the stuff for about 3 years.


7. They were having a tiny photographic exhibition on tigers at the subway station near my office. This panel was my favourite.


8. Most shops keep some gold fish. 'Fish' in Chinese sounds exactly like 'excess', so I suppose they have gold fish to bring them bountiful takings. Quite a lot of the vessels the fish are put in are terribly cruelly small, though.


9. More crammed conditions for animals. This time in a petshop in the clothing market. But I think these bunnies have it way, waaay better than those bunnies sold by random roadside peddlars. T^T
I really want to get a pet rabbit, but they don't allow pets where I live now. Also, it's really quite selfish and irresponsible, seeing as to I won't be here long-term, or anywhere long-term in the near future, by the looks of it!


10. Breakfast with early summer sunlight, rustling leaves, and the smell of greenery. And a good book thrown in too! Perfect! The food and drink were kind of foul, though. >.<


11. Classmate went back to Japan and returned bearing snacks. Lovely wafer roll. Here I have blue shoes + blue tights + blue skirt. Excellent.


12. Barbecued (well, not quite, but can't think of another word to translate it into) skewers!! This place is amazing!!! The golden (enoki) mushrooms wrapped in tofu skin are excellent! And so are the buns! *wipes drool off keyboard* Just a 3 minute walk away from me! And only 1 RMB per skewer! I go there. A lot.


13. View from the stairway of my office block.


14. Letter writing in a cafe. Also bought some Tirol before that. Have become rather addicted to those little squares of chocolate! >//< You can see Time Out peeping out in the bottom right corner. ^^


15. The most adorable little rings!!!!!!! xDDDD Rocking Zebras?????!!!!! *grabby hands* But I exercised monumental self-control and satisfied myself with surreptitiously snapping a photo of them instead. Another time when a phone camera comes in more useful than a digital one! Sneaky shop photography!


Right, I better stop the photo-spamming for now. Really should get going. The gloriously overcast day has now been slightly ruined with sunlight (haha! Wait for temperatures of 35 deg cel and rising, and then tell me whether you like the sun or not!) though. Argh.

I think this post is probably the one productive thing I've achieved so far this day. Time to change that!!

When Worlds are Made to Collide

Found this Book Meme!! Sounded like fun, so tried it out.


1. Take five books off your bookshelf.
2. Book #1 -- first sentence
3. Book #2 -- last sentence on page fifty
4. Book #3 -- second sentence on page one hundred
5. Book #4 -- next to the last sentence on page one hundred fifty
6. Book #5 -- final sentence of the book
7. Make the five sentences into a paragraph:


1. Book#1 - Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Haruki Murakami

First sentence: The elevator continued its impossibly slow ascent.

Book #2 - The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter

Last sentence on page 50: All the natural laws of the world were held in suspension, here, where an army of invisibles tenderly waited on her, and she could talk with the lion, under the patient chaperonage of the brown-eyed dog, on the nature of the moon and its borrowed light, about the stars and the substances of which they were made, about the variable transformations of the weather.
(It ran onto page 51. Haha. From 'The Courtship of Mr Lyon')

Book #3 - In a Glass Darkly - Sheridan Le Fanu

Second sentence on page one hundred: Page 100 is blank!! >.<

Book #3 ver 2 - On the Road - Jack Kerouac

Second sentence on page one hundred: My aunt and my brother Rocky went in the kitchen to consult.

Book #4 - Seven Gothic Tales - Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen)

Next to the last sentence on page one hundred fifty: I thought of the gardens of Assens, but it was closed to me forever.
(From 'The Deluge at Norderney', which I haven't read yet. >.<)

Book #5 - Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman

Final sentence of the book (uh, spoiler alert?): And they walked away together through the hole in the wall, back into the darkness, leaving nothing behind; not even the doorway.


Make the five sentences into a paragraph:

I thought of the gardens of Assens, but it was closed to me forever. My aunt and my brother Rocky went in the kitchen to consult. The elevator continued its impossibly slow ascent. And they walked away together through the hole in the wall, back into the darkness, leaving nothing behind; not even the doorway. All the natural laws of the world were held in suspension, here, where an army of invisibles tenderly waited on her, and she could talk with the lion, under the patient chaperonage of the brown-eyed dog, on the nature of the moon and its borrowed light, about the stars and the substances of which they were made, about the variable transformations of the weather.

There we go!!



Fitting the five sentences together reminds me of those games they used to make us play, either in language class or at camps or similar situations, where we're given strips of paper with sentences on them, and are tasked to piece them together to form a coherent and logical sentence.


Anyway, two of the books grabbed off my shelf are actually pirated books bought off the roving book pirate bicycle carts (pictured at top of post). Was very surprised and rather impressed to find Neil Gaiman's 'Neverwhere' and Jack Kerouac's 'On the Road' nestled amongst the Marx and Kinsella and what's-her-name-Twilight-author, etc. Incidentally, both books remind me of Anne!! xD

Lapped up 'Neverwhere' like a very hungry and rather un-felinely enthusiastic cat at a dish of cream over two days. Lovely stuff. Made me long for London badly, though.
Am not currently on 'On the Road'! I feel like I should look at a map of America as I read it, though. Hmm.

Asphalt and Sand

I wrote this a while back, after I went to Inner Mongolia in May.


The country has just staggered out from being whirled up in the frenzied flurry of the Labour Day national holiday, and I myself staggered off a 16 hour long bus journey back from Inner Mongolia. I've sworn off long-distance buses in China. You'd have to threaten me with the bloody murder of my pet cat if you want to get me back on one of those Destination Hell vehicles again. Well, to be honest, the bus itself wasn't toooooooo horrendous. It was more crammed than the regular cattle class seats on airplanes, but when the sun was out, it tended to get stuffy and hot, and the jams on the road were nothing like I ever experienced. We drove through Hebei Province and Shanxi Province, the province that surrounds Beijing City and the one next to that, which are churning out huge quantities of coal and full of disgustingly wealthy coal-magnates. So being in coal country, the roads were clogged up with coal-transporting trucks. However, some chatting with our driver as we stood around on the tarmac waiting in vain for the endless row of trucks to start up their engines and begin trundling along again informed me that most of the coal gets transported by train - these trucks are mostly bound for more rural areas with no railroad access, and smaller factories which do not require such large quantities of the black stuff.

The stories that float around about the Shanxi coal magnates are pretty crazy. Apparently they stroll into Rolls Royce showrooms and pay for fleets with sacks stuffed full of cold hard cash. And they only make price inquiries after making the decision to purchase. When they get married, the town gets clogged up with convoys of 4WD limousines.

Mad stories that just make the whole rich-poor gap thing all the more appalling.

I'd previously gone through the same two provinces to and from the ancient city of Pingyao, and I thought our journey back then was bad enough. Ohhhh noooo. The roads during a national holiday are hopeless. However, it did give some memories I'm sure I'll never forget. And it was quite interesting chatting to my fellow inmates of the Hell Express. Solidarity in suffering.



Cute horses I met on a farm (?). The brick building you can sort of see in the background is the 'toilet'. Basically a few holes in the ground with pathetic excuses for dividing walls that basically only come up to knee-height. I was rather shaken by the experience. Haven't seen one of those since I was 10, which was, yep, in China as well.

These two sweet little teenage horses are apparently still not tamed. The dude I spoke to said they're still really afraid of humans, and they were indeed still really jumpy. They did let me pet their noses a little, though. ♥



I didn't ride horses this time, though. There was something like 100% inflation for the hourly rate, and the 'grasslands' had no grass (refer to picture at top of post).

What I did get to ride, though, was a camel!!!!


As you can see I was really quite excited. It was in the desert and all rather silk route-esque.

The camel wasn't as excited, though.


Oh, camels have the most adorable feet, by the way!! Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a good picture of the feet.

Most of my pictures weren't too fabulous. They were mostly taken in blinding sunlight when I couldn't see shit on my camera screen. And the GR Digital doesn't have a viewfinder. So it was a lot of squinting at shadows, pointing and shooting and hoping for the best.

There was also an excessive amount of bus window photography, but I'll spare you with most of that save for this one selected from my playing around with the ISOs in the dark.


Oh yes, and finally, a not particularly good picture from standing around on the asphalt.


I don't think you can really get a feel of the experience and sight until you've been in the situation.

Pop Stars

Do I have to be sociable today?

Can't I just curl up in bed with my iPod and listen to the sounds of the world moving muffled by my windows?



Anyway.

I'm currently participating in the 365 Photography Project, which involves chronicling a year of your life with a photograph a day.

I've only been uploading for the project for a month and a half, but it's made me pick up my camera and play with it everyday since. I'd already been taking a lot more pictures after I got my GR Digital, which I carry around with me almost all the time (Guess whose influence.. *innocent whistling♪♪*) However, this project has really made me explore the possibilities of photography and find opportunities and images in many unlikely nooks and crannies.
So on days like this when the outside world does nothing to jolt my sense of joy and inspire sparks of wonder in my head, I get to randomly capture the internal world of my room in ways that I hope induce it with a surreal, warped, misrepresented beauty that splashes a little romanticism and lends a cloak of pop colours and fuzzy edges to this existence. Let's me have a slight leap of satisfaction skip through my heart when I am happy with the effect and am pleased with the image taken.

The main image is one of those I took last night.



What is it?



Why, the lights outside my window reflected on the back of my trusty and battered iPod Nano.
Got it before I went to Japan, and it's seen me through a lot.
In a spur of slightly misguided inspiration, I attacked it's shiny back with purikura [photo stickers] and star stickers.
The 12 year old kid styled decorations have since received their fair share of rubbing and abuse, and now look slightly forlorn.
One of the four main purikura fell off one day while I was taking the subway here. I didn't realise it. The thought of a picture of mine falling to the floor in public like a crumbled piece of rubbish, to be trodden on or found by random strangers makes me feel rather queasy. Ah well. What's gone is gone.

Of Inaugural Posts and Not-Quite Introductions

Since Wordpress was being hair-tuggingly uncooperative, I think I shall blog over here on Blogger. It's the blog host with which I had my longest-running blog, which went out in a blaze of fireworks and shuddering.

Swirling dark clouds of gloom-lurkers and ill-portent have settled into the crevices of my brain.

Sugar and sunlight can't seem to dispel them.

What I need is a good dose of smiles and laughter.


Anyway.

I think I'm back to blogging.

And now I'm going to draw my curtains and then leave the room in search of pretty notebooks and hopefully fabric and trimmings.