an inconvenient truth...

well, even when i saw a preview a few months ago, i got chill from it... what can i say... this is a documentary you absolutely need to see it... even to have that instant fear which might only linger for 5 minutes after watching this... we are in a deep trouble and need to do something about it...
there is one thing i would love to ask you and myself is that let's try not to take plastic bags from stores... why don't we carry our own bag or use paper bags... plastic bags are just awful... and there are just way too many of them... and even the sound of it is awful... shouldn't be so hard...
hopefully it's not too late for us and the future generations... yikes...

a week in salzburg... almost...

so...
was in salzburg to perform vijay/mike and ibrahim's still life with commentator project as a part of kontracom festival... which turned out great...
we were staying in a hotel just outside center of the city... was 5 minute walking distance to everything... have to say it was rather small place... charming but small... within 30 minutes of walk, you could see pretty much everything... no, i didn't go to any of mozart places... had only one mozart kugel... which was ok... we had lots of ice though... me, liberty, guillermo and mike... we were hooked on ice... it was everywhere anyway... and cheap...! tried to speak a bit of german since this is my 3rd trip in german speaking country within last 2 months but failed since everybody speaks english... eh... hung out at this cozy cafe/finger food place called carpe diem... had nice dessert and snacks... they serve this cheese snack looks like an ice cream corn... yes, tried wiener schnitzel... was delicious but too big... went to a nice sardinian restaurant where almost everybody went into a food coma except me in the middle of a day... what else... oh, drank cappuccino twice... you know, i don't drink coffee in general but it's a bit hard to avoid in europe... they do have better espresso and stuff... went to a modern museum and discovered a couple of great artists... günther uecker and roman opalka... they had some nice yves klein and lucio fontana too... i really dug günther uecker's stuff with all that nails... i'm such a sucker for the relationship between chaos/order...
the concert took place at this venue called republic and was really nice space... they had to turn around the whole space to accommodate the stage set up that was required... it worked out great and the staff was fabulous... and the performance itself was a great success if i may so... which helped us to party all night before coming back... i think i've never drunk that much in my life... basically i drank at least one drink a day... if you know me personally, i have a very very low alcohol tolerance... well, not anymore...! heh heh heh...what elsese... british airway wasn't too bad... except that they lost my cello on the way back home and i had to wait 8 hours at home...
was a great hang, boys and ladies...

oldboy... spoiler included...

finally got to watch park chan-wook's oldboy... one of the most talked about korean movie ever... it even won grand jury prize at cannes a couple of years ago... the only reason why i hesitated so far was a) i don't do that well with violent movie, especially with gross physical one... which this movie was famous for... i still have finished watching reservoir dogs for the same reason... after watching a bit of that torture scene on a chair, i couldn't take it... b) was worried that i might not like this movie and got frustrated with all the attention it received from the west... it's the same reason why i cannot stand kim ki-duk's film... think they are not bad but they are not as amazing as the critics are making them to be... meanwhile there are so many other good korean movies that are not getting attention from the west because it doesn't have that violence...
but i have to say i enjoyed the movie quite a bit... yes, i had to close my eyes when the ants crawled out of dae-su's skin, when he was eating live octopus and yes, when his tongue got cut off... yikes... but didn't think they were there only for the shock value... was really a part of the story and had to be there... and also found it very funny in many ways... i watched it in korean so i don't know how well these funny scenes were translated though... especially at the very beginning when he was so drunk at a police station was hilarious... which was mainly improvised by impressive choi min-sik... and some of the editing were really amazing... when he was trying to locate that chinese restaurant and when he was back at his old school... and yes, that one long take fight scene which had no edit was pretty great... and the story and the characters were pretty believable... and all the actors were pretty damn good... although the last twist was a bit too much... especially if you watched the director's interview which was an extra material on DVD, it makes you frown a bit... but oh, well... human desires...
still cannot say this movie changed my life in any ways... i think it's truly great that park chan-wook along with many other korean directors are able to come up with their own styles of movie makings... just hope that they won't be repeating themselves due to all the success though...

an incident in east village... that pissed me off...

well, it's been a while ago already...
was walking up on avenue B one day and when i reached the 5th street i could see that there was a film/tv shooting going on between 6th and 7th street... thought would take a left turn on the 6th street to avoid all that and kept walking... in the half way between 5th and 6th street, this guy ran up to me and said "hey, miss, could you please cross the street and walk on the other side?"... i replied that i was going to make a turn the next corner and he said "yes, but still could you walk on the other side then make a turn?"... i found it so absurd that i had to cross the street to walk the rest of the short block, i stared at him for a second with annoyance... then he heard something through his earpiece and said "ok, miss, go ahead"... so i was pretty annoyed already that these guys are taking over the sidewalks of east village and i am told which way to go... anyway when i reached the corner of the 6th street about to make turn, another guy ran up to me and said "hey, beautiful, can you walk that way?" pointing at the direction i was intending on going... well, i was pissed... first of all, why did he call me "beautiful" other than "miss" or something more appropriate...? then who the hell is he telling me where to turn...? so i said "you guys don't own the streets here" which apparently irritated him... then he had a nerve to tell me "i'm going to call security" and motioned calling someone through his microphone tucked in his shirt... i was even more pissed and walked up to him and said "yes, call the officer, i'd like to ask him something"... after all i never signed anything to agree that i cannot walk on the street just to accommodate these people, right...? then realizing his bluff wasn't working, he said "go away, why are you making my life miserable? you are rude and cursing at me"... i couldn't believe he was making up stories by now... obviously his life was way miserable even before i came to the picture... when i was ready to walk away he shouted at me "who are you anyway, you are nobody!"... ok, by then i WAS pissed... i walked up to him and we did exchange some more heated words...
but then it was way later that he's just an example of majority... for him or people who belong to any kind of institute or system such as cooperation or film business, and if you are not a part of it, you are nobody... it's all about who's below you and above you... it can be simple as how much money you make or even what kind of clothes you are wearing...
i was dumbfounded... yet felt so lucky i do not belong in any sort of institute that allow you judge people based on material or status... then i felt sorry for the guy who is stuck with earpiece and had to do whatever was told to him through it...