Wǒ zǒu le
21 hours ago
Je pars dans moins de quelques heures pour le l’Empire du Milieu.
I still can’t really grasp the scope of it.
Got myself a 16gb sdhc card to store ridiculous amounts of photography. The camera indicates 7.4k photos available.
Comme mentionné ultérièrement, l’itinéraire se déssine grossièrement comme
Montréal > Beijing > Xi’an > Chengdu > Shanghai > Beijing > Montréal.
Avec des à côtés soupoudrés un peu partout.
Less is more: 1 pair of jeans.
Wǒ zǒu le = Je suis parti.
¶ One link to rule them all: the annual best links of the year 2008 edition from Jason Kottke. Even though his site is a must in my daily webroutine, I have missed a few of these precious findings, here’s one of them: Chicago’s The Wiener Circle, a restaurant where name-calling, racial slurs and sexually charged verbal hate are celebrated “much to the delight of the patrons, the heavily tipped workers, and the owners.” Get ready to kill a few hours of productivity.
Chalet
2 days ago
¶ Safe Trip Home is the name of both Dido’s third album and the accompanying website. The tagline reads “Create a journey through film and music”, with the possibility of responding to the 6 music videos, all filmed in different countries, portraying a day in the life of a single character. It’s well done, and it all ties nicely with the music (or vice-versa).
¶ It’s the relating post on BLDGBLG that hinted me to Carlos Labs’s Ground Zero maplet, which displays the scope of nuclear damage over a google map. “If you can find it in Google Maps, you can nuke it.”
Men gotta do what men gotta do
5 days ago
La semaine dernière, alors qu’il pleuvait des cordes sur la résidence familiale, on a décidé de démarrer le bbq. En fait, c‘était déjà prévu, avant les cordes, mais cette chute de verglas et tout le tralala n’ont pas arrêté notre lancée, un bbq a bel et bien eu lieu, che nous, le 27 décembre 2008.
Le grill en question, ce monument de pierres érigé par le patriarche dans la cour arrière il y a déjà quelques années, fut déglacé (au sens non culinaire) et déneigé à coups de pelle. On lui a fait un lit de demi-bûches, question de se distancer de l’amovible strate de glace tapissant son fond, et, avec le bois de chauffage bien sec, ça s’est enflammé dans le temps de le dire. Le parapluie fut posé après l’Xe essai de redémarrer le brasier initialement si bien parti; la pluie, coriace et taquine, a néanmoins su tenir son bout.
On a cuit des steaks épais comme ça ↑, des saucisses de boeuf de la ferme d‘à côté et tout plein de légumes d’hiver en papillotes. Après tous les efforts de stabilisation de la braise et des nuisibles contre-attaques verglacées, je salivais comme nul autre. Les steaks, grass-fed, tendres et cuits à point, furent dévorés avec l’enthousiasme d’un passionné, mais surtout d’un affamé. Les papilles à jeun — n’ayant rien mangé depuis le début de l’après-midi —, tout goûte tellement meilleur.
¶ Sad news to the design web community: japanese online design magazine Pingmag “will be taking an extended hiatus, and will not be updated for the foreseeable future.” It saddens me because we’re always better having insightful articles [online] rather than vapid glossy pages [in print]. I have linked to PingMag many time over the years, and there’s still more than enough content to discover in the archives.
¶ Forgot this in a pile of safari tabs: Best and worst logos of 2008. Rien de trop innovant, mais certainement une référence de bons (et mauvais) coups. Pepsi tombe finalement dans les pires.
¶ Another good reviewer we can count on: Pitchfork features its yearly “best new music” selection. Like last year, we get the 50 Best New Albums and the 100 best tracks of the year. A step forward to help fulfill the [eternally] unfinished quest to the absolute music library, temporarily appeasing the minds of our music loving selves.
To The Movies: 2008
9 days ago
While studying cinema in a concentrated matter years ago while still a young lad in CEGEP, I’m not sure I was quite creatively conscious through it all, I felt I was blindly following others without much personal opinion. The subject ended up being thrown on the back burner and has now been forgotten for quite some time. However, now that I feel somewhat comfortable with photography, grasping pretty much the gist of it, I am ready to slowly tackle and gain dexterity with its forgotten animated cousin.
Consequently, the past twelve month were the year of moving pictures. I watched many more films that read any books, with great esteem for it. I was scrutinizing the cinematography, questioning the editing, criticizing the plots and direction. To gain a complete knowledge of film, like for any other medium, one must watch, compare and analyze a heavy amount of material and then try it out for himself before getting it. ‘Tis the only way.
So the following list is what I watched this year. Nothing outstanding: simply composed of many long neglected old classics, some great and other no-to-great recent works. Looking back, the selection process was always arbitrary: most of them ended up being from american productions, with was no definite tying themes either; though liking a director’s storytelling or an actor’s performance, I often tended to watch a few other of their works in a concentrated matter.
So here goes 2008 in chronological viewing order, with starred personal favorites. Links will direct to the related hippopocampe review:
- La Face cachée de la lune (2003)
- The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
- Scoop (2006)
- 3:10 to Yuma (2007)
- American Gangster (2007)
- The Passion of the Christ (2004)
- No Reservations (2007)
- Juno (2007)
- Helvetica (2007)
- Eastern Promises (2007)
- Dreamgirls (2006)
- Dirty Dancing (1987)
- Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)
- The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
- Shrek the Third (2007)
- Knocked Up (2007)
- Mrs Henderson Presents (2005)
- Gangs of New York (2002)
- Babel (2006)
- Dan in Real Life (2007)
- Full Metal Jacket (1987) *
- Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo (1966)
- The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005) *
- C’era una volta il West (1968)
- Boogie Nights (1997)
- Horton Hears a Who! (2008)
- Sweeney Todd (2007)
- Hairspray (2007)
- 12 Angry Men (1971)
- Godfather: Part III (1990)
- Swimming Pool (2003)
- Zodiac (2007)
- Cidade de Deus (2002) *
- United 93 (2006)
- Do the Right Thing (1989) *
- Harold and Maude (1971)
- Manufactured Landscapes (2006)
- Fatal Attraction (1987)
- Hable con ella (2002) *
- Panic Room (2002)
- Restoration (1995)
- Hable con ella (2002)
- Fatal Attraction (1987)
- 4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile (2007) *
- Trainspotting (1996)
- Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis (2008)
- WALL·E (2008)
- Caché (2005)
- Eyes Wide Shut (1999) *
- Amores Perros (2000) *
- Into the Wild (2007)
- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)
- Rescue Dawn (2006)
- 12 Monkeys (1995)
- The Prestige (2006)
- Scarface (1983)
- Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993)
- Son of Rambow (2007)
- Heat (1995) *
- Die Fälscher (2007) *
- The Untouchables (1987)
- Akeelah and the Bee (2006)
- The Aviator (2004)
- Finding Neverland (2004)
- The Cider House Rules (1999)
- Munich (2005)
- Pianiste, La (2001)
- Donnie Brasco (1997)
- Paranoid Park (2007)
- Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom (2003) *
- Maquinista, El (2004)
- I’m Not There (2007)
- Funny Games US (2008)
- Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) *
- Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006)
- I Heart Huckabees (2004)
- Unser täglich Brot (2005)
- Up the Yangtze (2005)
- La Vie secrète des gens heureux (2006)
- The Graduate (1967) *
- Kung Fu Panda (2008)
Suggestions for 2009 are widely accepted. And yes, Matt, next one up is Koyaanisqatsi .
Baking with my black Chucks
11 days ago
¶ The NYT lists the english buzzwords of 2008. From “Recessionista” (a person who stays fashionable during an economic downturn without spending a lot of money) to Jack Black’s Kungfu Panda‘s kiai “Skadoosh”. Good typographic/illustrations.
¶ As we were discussing Nikons around the table on Saturday, here’s the follow up a few questions we had: CCD vs CMOS sensors and their video (in)capabilities with example footage. Plus, I had no idea of the exitence of this new mean machine: the Nikon D3x, a new professional 24.4 MP camera, bigger, better, bla bla bla. Good thing hard drives are cheap cause “the camera produces 50MB 14-bit NEF (Raw) files”. Get yours for eight thousand smacker$.
¶ Big picture’s best of 2008 round up: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. Seeing these is like a species report: what do human do on earth? Lots of shit,good and bad. Human drama, disagreements and disasters are inevitable. But amidst it all, it nevertheless seems that justice, beauty and goodness can transcend.
Échanges 8
16 days ago
23
En faisant la vaisselle, ma coloc me dit:
— Connais-tu le magicien Daniel Coutu?
— Non.
— Ben y vient d’avoir un bébé.
— Attends, as-tu dit «magicien»?
— Oui, c’est parce que c’t‘un ami à moi et y a mon âge pis sa blonde aussi a mon âge pis elle vient d’accoucher.
— Magicien. Est-ce que je connais le magicien Daniel Coutu? Gawd.
— Pis le plus hot c’est que son fils va pouvoir dire: mon père, il est ma-gi-cien.
— Magicien, c’est à 2 doigts d‘être cloune tellement c’est quétaine.
— Heilll-eu. Il fait des shows avec Nathalie Choquette la chanteuse d’opéra!
24
Aux élections fédérales en novembre, alors que je venais tout juste de déposer mon scrutin de vote dans la boîte, le bénévole attitré à l’isoloir m’annonce fièrement:
— En passant monsieur, vous êtes l‘électeur no 1 de la liste!
— Euh… je vous demande pardon?
— Votre code est le no 1! Tous les électeurs ont un chiffre, et vous êtes l‘électeur numéro 1 de cette station! C’est fou, hein!
— Absolument!
25
Le 8 décembre, alors que je refaisais la même danse du VFD (Vote, Fold n’ Drop) pour les élections provinciales, la dame à la table m’annonce tout aussi fièrement que l’autre, un sourire fendu jusqu’aux oreilles:
— Monsieur, vous êtes le centième! Vous êtes la centième personne à voter ici aujourd’hui!
— Oh.
— Bravo!
— Euh, merci?
L’ironie du sort: les députés pour lesquels j’ai voté n’ont pas été aussi chanceux que moi avec les chiffres.
26
Le plus beau lapsus depuis hippopocampe:
— Les requins sont aphrodites.
— Tout comme la déesse grecque de la beauté. Hermaphrodites buddy.
¶ NYTimes’s Year in Ideas. A is for Automated Anesthesia, B is for Bubble Wrap That Never Ends, C is for Carbon Penance, etc… not people, not products, not events, not news—just ideas and concepts only.
¶ An on-going series of his: Levi Van Veluw likes to takes pictures of himself with stuff on his face, may it be materials, paint or miniatures.
¶ The finalists of this year’s best Antville Music Video Awards, as stated by the very democratic antville web community. Best video goes to Encyclopedia Pictura’s beautifully crafted Bjork – Wonderlust shot in stereoscopic 3d (more technical info about the clip here, and here). The Antville selection has more credibility than the crap nominated at the MMVA.
Givre sur Richelieu
20 days ago
¶ By the way, if you like Mizrahi’s sketching style, you should see him draw live in his personal webisodes where he sketches design tips for women (and sometimes men too). Elegant drawing style, just breezes on the page. Plus, he’s quite funny and not full of himself.
¶ Elsa, Laurence, Audrey, all fashion gurls… Fashion authority WWD asked a handful of designers to sketch out what they thought the president-elect and his wife should wear at the inauguration ball in January. Suggestions for her (and the daughters); I like Mizrahi, Acra and Lacroix sketches the most (though Lacroix’s a tad overboard). On the men’s side, Obama gets day and evening suits mostly with an “updated yet classic sartorial style”. My vote goes to Ellie Tahari for day, the black Nautica suit for evening.
A classic I had withheld for too long. Hoffman superbly breaths life and passion to his character. The ending sequence couldn’t be more perfect. Its only birthmark (relating it to the 60’s) would mostly be the story pace, slower (even awkward) than what we are used seeing nowadays, and obviously also the music, which, for younger generations, unfortunately lives unrelated to this movie entirely. Nevertheless, the acting and directing work are both tight and timeless, with a few quirky-yet-sexy camera shots (mostly the close shots wity out-of-focus elements in foreground) that I am sure to remember. Trying to portray the making of such a movie today, who could aptly play the Ben character? Tobey Magguire comes to mind. Other suggestions?
Ouash ouash ouash. Je ne comprends pas comment tant de gens peuvent s’investir dans une production et se dire: oui, on fait quelque chose de bien. Je critique surtout la réalisation du film, en chute libre dès le premier acte terminé. J’ai même eu une crise d’angoisse après ça. Gawd.
¶ James, my Australian Sydney-born friend, why didn’t you tell me about these marvels? An overview of the many (40!) coastal pools of Syndey. I love the Pruned prose (emphasis mine): “[…] You sense that so embedded are [the pools] in the cultural geography of the city that they’ve become an indelible part of its psyche, soaked into its citizens’ genetic makeup after so many decades decades dipping into these baptismal fonts.”
¶ TED conferences are part of my regular webroutine. I try to watch a few per week; topics that don’t strike me as exciting at first often turn out to be, if well spoken, fascinating and thought provoking. Here are three presentations I recently watched that are all worth every minute of your time: 1) NY chef and restaurants/farm owner Dan Barber tells a surprising [and mouth-foaming] parable of ethically made foie gras; 2) Author and Harvard Scholar Samantha Power recalls the life and work of Sergio Veira de Mello, the skilled UN diplomat “who worked with the world’s worst dictators”, fighting for people’s rights till the very end; 3) and for those who, like me, are fascinated by smells: I loved this vulgarization of the science of scent as told by biophysicist and architect of perfumes Luca Turin.
¶ Next time you’re in TO, make sure to visit the recently revamped Art Gallery of Ontario. The grandiose transformation was realized by toronto-born star architect Frank Ghery and include new galleries spaces, a new facade, a whole new wing… (it’s unclear what hasn’t been remodeled). Additionally, many new private collections were unveiled with the building last month. AGO pool on Flickr. This is Ghery’s first contruction in Canada, hopefully not his last.
Following a single family/individuals to tell the tale of many is probably the most efficient storytelling technique. You are able to sympathize and get emotionally attached to the subject while moving through the comprehension of complex social and cultural issues. If you’re intrigued as to what happens next in the character’s lives, there’s an epilogue you can help out with.
Leif Vollebekk at the Black Sheep Inn
34 days ago
On a roulé direction Black Sheep Inn à Wakefield jeudi dernier, espérant arriver à temps pour y entendre chanter Leif Vollebekk, un jeune chanteur folk d’Ottawa qui lançait son tout premier album ce soir-là. Mon frère et ma soeur avaient tous deux participé à l‘élaboration de l’album fraîchement ficelé et venaient donc appuyer leur ami, l’auteur en question.
Évidemment, comme le hasard fait si bien les choses, quelques anciens amis s’y étaient donné rendez-vous aussi, et se joignent à nous, contents de se retrouver comme jadis.
La petite salle écoute silencieusement Leif et sa gorge déployée; ses cordes vocales au timbre Rufus-ien, une guitare héritée de Dylan.
L’hiver était bien là, dehors, mais il faisait bon en dedans.
¶ Japanese Good Design Awards. Winner is the Toyota iQ, a “Micro-Premium” car. Love the Muji window house and that gargantuous Mitsubishi transformer-like sheet-fed offset printing press. By the way, also in nomination is the Honda FCX Clarity, the first car for the hydrogen fuel-cell, zero-emission market. It’s not particularly good-looking but it’s heart is in the right place, so to speak.
¶ Au fédéral, l’opposition signe une entente. L’entente en question. Notez à quel point les signatures révèlent (ou relèvent de?) la personnalité de chacun. (merci Larence)
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Chinese Amish American
37 days ago
Photo prise sur la plaza commerciale à Ogdensburg, NY, quelques secondes avant que l’homme et sa femme (big-black-riding-hood) n’entrent se bourrer la face au buffet chinois #1 King Buffet. Rendu là, j’avais une terrible envie de leur demander un portrait de couple arborant leurs monstrueuses assiettes, mais voyant l’air terriblement maussade de la pauvre dame à cape, j’ai vite compris que 1) pour elle, l’abondance de nourriture n‘était manifestement pas source de milles plaisirs comme tant d’autres Nord-américains; et que 2) elle en avait terriblement ras-le-bol de se faire pointer du doigt comme si elle sortait du siècle avant-dernier.
J’ai tout simplement laissé tomber et suis retourné à mes red-sauce plunged chinese-american chicken balls [sic].
Pis on ne peut pas dire qu’ils ont vraiment compris à quoi servent les lignes tracées au sol dans les stationnements.
¶ Photographer Lars Botten brings the photography back in “fashion photography”, with a fantastic editing job in each series.