moebius

I love Third Rock from the Sun.

There is something to that bawdy humor that I like. Don't know why. Sometimes, they bring up real important things about life. Like that one time, when the Solomons decided to join a White Power KKK group when they saw that the African-Americans had their own club. Or the numerous times when Sally learns how to use birth control, and when the time the family realizes that they have been evading taxes for too long.

Yeah, i have been watching it too much, reruns after reruns, and i think i am into its third cycle now.

Maybe it is because of their innocence. Their daily foibles are so interesting to watch. Makes one take a step back and re-look at human life. Indeed those aliens have so much fun. If only everyone takes life as easy as them.

I now watch the syndicated reruns almost every night before I sleep. At 12.30am, it is like a reminder for me to stop my homework, get off the comp, and tuck myself into bed, dimming the lights only to be brightened by the voices of Dick, Sally, Harry and Tommy. They are like a surrogate family to me. Makes me feel like i'm from another planet.

Doesn't everyone feel like that every now and then? Like, why am I here? This world isn't built for me? If it was, I would be basking in nice warm sunshine, having a beautiful tan and see pizza slices falling off trees. Here on earth, I have to be somebody, leading my life as a piece of a larger jigsaw puzzle, interconnected to a web of other people. It can be tedious at times, and burdening. I live my life as if I have to prove myself to some higher being. Is there a big giant head out there for me?

Maybe life is like a mission, and my role is to bring smiles to other people's faces. That would be nice. Except that the joke will be on me.

POOL PARTY
Saturday 1 May 2004
11am - 2pm


505 S La Fayette Park Pl
Los Angeles CA 90057

(213) 300 6711

Schwartz struts his stuff on 'O.C.'

Josh Schwartz was supposed to graduate from USC's film school in 1999 but he never quite made it. Schwartz, 27, didn't leave because school was too hard; he left because he was too successful and wanted to start working right away.

Schwartz, a former Trojan and former leader of the Pike fraternity house, is the executive producer of the popular Fox show "The O.C." and has written almost every episode, all thanks to USC he said.

Most of the show is based off the lives of students from Newport Beach that Schwartz met while attending USC, Schwartz said.

Schwartz struts his stuff on 'O.C.' - Daily Trojan - Lifestyle

In-N-Outlessness

"... the opening of a most unusual In-N-Out Burger in Glendale — an In-N-Out without a drive-thru. That is: an In-N-Out without an in and out.

Which is weird because the drive-thru is what In-N-Out is known for. The first In-N-Out Burger, founded in 1948 by Harry and Esther Snyder in Baldwin Park, was California’s first drive-thru hamburger stand. When Harry died in 1976, there were 18 In-N-Outs; today more than 140 dot California’s freeways and major thoroughfares, little roadside oases where weary commuters with a touch of the gourmand may find a simple, dependable menu, freshly made food and zero promotional tie-ins.

And yet, here is an In-N-Out where you have to park your car. (In a Mervyn’s parking structure, no less!) Facing this immanent, undeniable heresy, I experienced an episode of cognitive dissonance. Did this represent some new corporate strategy? Was In-N-Out turning its back not just on tradition but, even more unthinkable in Southern California, on the car itself?

I decided to make inquiries. I called corporate offices in Irvine and asked what the heck was going on.

“Our Brand Boulevard In-N-Out is actually our fifth location without a drive-thru,” Carl Van Fleet, In-N-Out’s vice president of planning, patiently explained in an e-mail a week later. “The first location without a drive-thru opened in Placentia in 1984, and there are also two in the Bay Area and one in Laguna Hills. So we really don’t consider a store without a drive-thru as a break with tradition.”

I’m told by the store’s staff, sometimes you’ll see the same car pass by several times in the span of a few minutes, a puzzled look on the faces of the driver and passengers.

They’re looking for the drive-thru, you see.

They ain’t gonna find it."

—Jay Babcock

LA Weekly

Memory is an action: essentially it is the action of telling a story.
- Pierre Janet

Our memory is our coherence, our reason, our feeling, even our action. Without it, we are nothing.
- Luis Buñuel

I think it will be interesting to list down the films that I have written about in my film classes. Wonder if they show up a trend of the films I enjoy, or are they mere academic indulgences.

Dracula (1931): 190 Intro to Cinema
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992): 190 Intro to Cinema
The Piano (1993): 190 Intro to Cinema

All in the Family, Everybody Loves Raymond (TV): 191: Intro to Television
In the Company of Men (1997): 192: Race, Class and Gender in Film
It Happened One Night (1934): 200 History of International Cinema 1895-1945
Fanny and Alexander (1982): 201 History of International Cinema 1946-present

Unbreakable (2000): 394 History of Postmodern American Cinema
Far From Heaven (2003): 394 History of Postmodern American Cinema
Bullets Over Broadway (1994): 394 History of Postmodern American Cinema
Man Who Wasn't There (2001): 394 History of Postmodern American Cinema

Medium Rare (1991): 403 National and Regional Cinemas: Asian Horror

Foreign Correspondent (1940): 469 Film Style Analysis: Hitchcock
Spellbound (1945): 469 Film Style Analysis: Hitchcock
Stage Fright (1950): 469 Film Style Analysis: Hitchcock
Notorious (1945): 469 Film Style Analysis: Hitchcock
The Bells of St Mary's (1946): 469 Film Style Analysis: Hitchcock
One Hour Photo (2002): 469 Film Style Analysis: Hitchcock
Panic Room (2002): 469 Film Style Analysis: Hitchcock

The Color of Paradise (1999): 473 Film Theories
The Last Laugh (1924): 473 Film Theories
Alexander Nevsky (1938): 473 Film Theories
The Celebration (1998): 473 Film Theories
Death of a Bureaucrat (1966): 473 Film Theories

Much Ado About Nothing (1993): WRIT 340
Bladerunner (1982): WRIT 140

Due to the upcoming research project that I am preparing for, I have become more aware of the work of acoustic technologies, its applications and the general auralscope of cities. It is a big field and I was surprised to read about the large amount of scholarly and leisurely work that has already been done.

The following are some interesting developments in the field of "acoustic ecology".

New Audio Tour for NYC
A firm in NY has developed a audio tour of NYC that goes beyond narrativity but surrounds the individual with the rich soundscapes of Lower East Side, Times Square and Chinatown. With a discman setup, the individual embarks on a armchair travelogue, that gives "a sense of the pulse in the neighborhood".
soundwalk.com

Dins of Cicadas to be huge this year
Cicadas, which has a gestation period of 17 years, will create the loudest din heard in years. As this year, the Brood X batch of cicadas, the largest of them all, reaches the end of the 17 year cycle.

New Acoustic Weapon for Iraq
A non-lethal crowd control weapon that produces sounds that is well above the normal threshold for pain is being deployed to Iraq. The device will produce the equivalent of an instant migraine.

Noise and Bubble Curtain to Stop Carp Invasion
A sound barrier that can be fine-tuned to repel unwanted species in water will be used to halt the invasion of the Asian carp in the Mississippi River.

EU Nears Approval of Pingers on Fishing Boats
These acoustic devices help to deter dolphins from fishing boats, but is said to attract harp seals.

Cellphone Tower in Yellowstone
A hundred-foot cell phone tower has been erected on a knoll overlooking Old Faithful, causing much public displeasure.

Calgary Considers Extending Quiet Hours
A new noise by-law by the city council calls for quiet after 9pm instead of 10pm. "Noise Nazis" have compared this measure to the quiet hours of monks.

Sound of Rain Used to Estimate Remote Ocean Precipitation
A U of Washington oceanographer proposes using submerged hydrophones to record the sound of rainfall.

NYC in Noise Crackdown
In Oct 2002, Operation Silent Night is launched, targetting vehicles, parking violaions, homes. A total of 111,180 summons were issued, 7400 arrested, over which 1100 have been on felony charges. Seems to suggest that noise and crime often goes hand in hand.

If you have any other information about acoustic developments and audio designs and applications, do let me know.

ACOUSTIC ECOLOGY | News/Issues

to borrow from a friend's webpage...

Things that make me happy:
- serendipitous meeting with people
- good looking people
- natural landscapes
- a child's smile
- an empty parking spot
- my sister
- stimulating lecture
- profound movies
- my friends finding success
- melancholic music
- an excited JD
- a day at the beach
- large shrimps
- the sense of excitement while walking down a street
- funny sitcoms
- feeling good about myself
- the occasional whiff of cigarette smoke
- the adrenaline rush that comes after a run or a game of squash
- a round of beer with good buddies
- time alone when I need it
- time with friends and family when I want it

PS: thanks pf for always making me smile. and do find out what argument i got into with tiankai.

i would hate to be a trophy son.

A trophy son is, like a trophy wife, meant to be paraded around in front of friends and associates. A status signifier or an economic asset, a trophy son could also merely be something to show off. In other words, an ego-booster.

Dads all over the world have been jostling for such a glory, of having a son that one can be proud of. Of course people are going to claim that they are proud of their children regardless of whatever they achieve. But deep down, I believe, there is a irresistible yearning for prideful indulgence.

Mothers have a whole different deal going on. As Freud would tell us, the relationship between mothers and sons exist on an entirely psychological threshold. Mothers are basically clueless about childrearing, but are nevertheless thrust into that position of cradling a life in their hands. They have no choice but to learn as they go along. There are no proper ways to stop a baby from crying. It is all trial and error, and as all mothers would know, the method that works today will probably not work tomorrow. And then there is that Oedipal level of emotions that mothers have to deal with. As castrated mothers, they are meant to deal with their sons growing up into a patriarchal society, a society that build fathers. The physical bond that keeps them together stops once the baby is off breastfeeding.

Back to the trophy son. Dads are capable of many things. Yes, there are truly delightful parenting going on, but every now and then, a father also presents devious efforts at silencing their sons. When the son is young, there are still capable of buying toys to keep their inquisitive son from the secrets that goes on at home. But when the sons grow older, they become harder to deal. There is less opportunity for playing ball in the yard. Talking about sex and adult topics are a big taboo. And the only positive engagement is when fathers start reaping off the rewards of their sons. Sons who are supposed to grow up emulating their father, but turn towards friends and the society at large for answers. What shaped the boy probably has less to do with the father than the multitudes of factors that are at work. It is a strained relationship, often measured in assets and liabilities, like an accountant's work of checks and balances.

My Friendster profile (version1)
Hometown: Singapore
Occupation: student
Interests: movies, travelling, theater, squash, swimming, tennis, volleyball, sleeping, cooking
Favorite Music: Belle and Sebastian, Mono, Air, Sun Yanzi, Simon and Garfunkel, Philip Glass, Faye Wong, Jay Chou, Madonna, l'arc-en-ciel, Pet Shop Boys, Something Corporate, Wu Yue Tian
Favorite Books: America (Baudrillard), Bend in the River (Naipaul), The Lover (Duras), Journey to the End of the Night (Celine)
Favorite TV Shows: The Simpsons, Malcolm in the Middle, Futurama, Friends, Survivor, Amazing Race, Sex in the City, Will and Grace, Third Rock from the Sun
Favorite Movies: Cinema Paradiso, The Piano, The Thin Red Line, Shawshank Redemption, Chungking Express, Central Station, The Hours, Spirited Away, Naqoyqatsi, The Truman Show, Pleasantville
About Me: I like birdwatching. no, serious. i love nature and anything outdoorsy, but dont look for me at a nudist beach. i am more reserved than you think. All my life i live in the shadows of my parents and sister, thinking that i am this neurotic little introverted twerp. but i am just beginning to learn more about myself, and how loud i can be. Living in LA has been such a bad influence on me. Not to mention the bad air. But i have become so outspoken and noisy, and drunk that i cant recognise myself sometimes. and i pamper myself so much with my bachelor pad, a sports car, bath salts and beer in the fridge. i have been so decadent the last few years and i love it.
Who I want to Meet: er... Nicole Kidman

If you have known me, or hear me talk about it or write about it, you will know that one of my greatest fascination with this country is with the American small town. I have always read about it before I came here. And like many people, Americans included, I have nostalgic-tinged visions of homely neighborhoods, where everybody knows everybody.

(Well, of course i soon realized that there are some really wicked towns out there, especially in mormon country, where everybody is related to everybody else.)

But my first true encounter was with Ridgecrest, about 2 hours away from Los Angeles. Surrounded by the Edwards Airforce Base, Ridgecrest is a run-down provincial town in the middle of a desert. Although it has a healthily large population, you don't really see any people on the street. Like missing souls, they figure only as a statistic on the highway sign.

At a fast food joint, I started chatting with some of the high schoolers that were working there. I was immensely curious about how it feels like to be growing up in a small town, permanently under the shadows of Los Angeles. And even though I still feel like an outsider in America, these people feel like outsiders too. Here is a different side to California that is equally genuine but somehow forgotten from the public imagination. They have dreams like everybody else, but simpler and frugal hopes for their future. In the meantime, they occassionally venture down to LA. Otherwise, there isn't much to do in town except for the movie theater.

This brings me to the latest film I saw. The Last Picture Show (1971) offers a similarly bleak view of small town America, a sand-blown town in Texas, where everyone tries to escape the city by driving down the highway. There, where the football team is always losing, the embittered adolescents scurry across the town aimlessly. Without adequate proper adult guidance, they venture into decadent relationships, hoping to find salvation within the remnants of humanity in town. Yet, the central protagonist, the most steady and level-headed one, only gets the misfortune to see his friends die and move away. It is a grim world without a future, a lost community that is left to fend for itself.