portland

just came back from a wonderful weekend in portland.

stayed at the ace hotel which is unobnoxious hipster central.
made multiple trips to powell's books.
only 1 trip to anthropologie.
and ate and ate and ate.

besides two gourmet dinners (le pigeon and clyde common), we partook of some decadent junk food:
- from pine state biscuits, i had the biscuits with sausage gravy with an egg on top
- from cupcake jones, i had a red velvet cupcake
- from voodoo doughnut, i had a donut with oreo crumbles drizzled with chocolate and peanut butter

i need to not eat for about a week to recover.

this is a shot of the cute ceiling light at pine state biscuits. i decided that even a picture of the biscuit i ate was too fattening for visual consumption.



also, some of you may know of my recent obsession with the nelson swag leg desk.


design within reach (not much is within reach at this store, let me tell you) has a location in portland and i had the delightful opportunity of seeing the nelson desk with my own two eyes and touch it with my own two hands.

B knew to let me have a few moments alone with my current obsession.

but, honestly, i was a little underwhelmed by it in person. i thought the chrome looked a little gonna-rust-in-about-3-years and there just seemed to be too many different surface types (wood veneer, white laminate, black plastic, and the chrome).

but it sure looks lovely in this picture, doesn't it?

luckily, i don't have the funds to purchase this desk so i am happy to keep looking.


on the way back to vancouver, we stopped in at seattle's scarecrow video (which sells criterion collection videos for $30 each!!!) and i picked up the following which are available for borrowing from me:
- in the mood for love (cc)
- the royal tenenbaums (cc)
- metropolitan (cc)
- a woman under the influence (cc)
- three times
- lady vengence
- pinky violence box set

sun + bruise + camera

this past thursday, my knee made hard impact against a piece of furniture.

immediately, the bruise appeared. it appeared so suddenly that i've been slightly obsessed with it these past days.

and with the sun out today, i took the opportunity to take pictures of it. pictures of my legs. pictures of my face. pictures of my new bedroom chandelier.

here are the pictures that i'm willing to show you.


---- look at that bruise!!!



---- disregard my fat knees and notice all the dust in the air



---- i never noticed the tiny hairs on the inside of my thighs

a whole bunch of little things

. because the senior project manager at work went on vacation for 2 weeks, i had the opportunity to work with a large video game company. i wasn't nervous at all and had a blast.

. filmed nick's musical, In The Yard, Havin' Fun, as part of the PuSh festival last week.

. doing some ELTEE filming this weekend.

. will be spending a weekend in portland next week.

. planning a trip to san francisco for the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival in mid march as part of my duties as a programmer for VAFF

. planning a trip to new york in may.

. trying to take more pictures.

faux pas?

so i just twittered about a show i saw this past friday night.

i twittered tonight - sunday night.
the show was on friday night.

is there some sort of understood rule about only twittering about shows immediately after viewing said show? i.e. within 2 hours? 4 hours?

if so, too effing bad.

recent viewings

underworld: rise of the lycans (2009)
WATCH IT if you like
- the underworld franchise
- tight leather pants on your male lead
- lord of the rings special effects but with wolves



army of shadows (1969)
WATCH IT if you like
- ambient, european films about the war
- stellar acting that well supported minimal dialogue
- gorgeous cinematography
- criterion collection films



the third man (1949)
WATCH IT if you like
- orson wells (when he's onscreen, you realize that he's, by leaps and bounds, a superior actor than everyone else in the film)
- a good mystery
- a story in which americans are bumbling idiots
- criterion collection films on blu-ray



blueberry nights
WATCH IT if you like
- mediocre movies
- seeing rachel weisz and natalie portman act in circles around newby norah jones.
- seeing rachel weisz and natalie portman delivering unpolished dialogue
- seeing what happens when christopher doyle doesn't bother showing up to do his job as the cinematographer

i'm just like everyone else

wtf, it's like no one is posting anything interesting these days except for these personal lists. maybe winter is desolate in more ways than one. unfortunately, my well of interesting things to post is rather dry these days as well.

i got this one from km where you can only post 1 word answers thus increasing the chances that your readers will actually read your responses. here goes...

1. Where is your cell phone? close
2. Your significant other? new
3. Your hair? whitening
4. Your mother? narcissistic
5. Your father? worrier
6. Your favorite thing? sleeping
7. Your dream last night? unknown
8. Your favorite drink? greyhound
9. Your dream/goal? creativeness
10. What room you are in? bedroom
11. Your hobby? filmmaking
12. Your fear? illness
13. Where do you want to be in 7 years? vancouver
14. Where were you last night? home
16. Rockets? no
17. Wish list item? boobs
18. Where you grew up? richmond
19. Last thing you did? meeting
20. What are you wearing? pjs
21. Your TV? evil
22. Your medium? webnets
23. Friends? supportive
24. Your life? lucky
25. Your mood? awaking
26. Missing some one? birthfather
27. Car? necessity
28. Something you’re not wearing? makeup
29. Your favorite store? etsy
30. Your favorite color? blue
33. When is the last time you laughed? yesterday
34. Last time you cried? weeks
35. Who will resend this? robots
36. One place that I go to over and over? bathroom
37. One person who emails me regularly? spam
38. Favorite place to eat? grub
39. Why you participated in this survey? vanity
40. What are you doing tonight? painting

not likely

chinese director, chen kaige (who made Farewell My Concubine in 1993), has a new film out entitled Forever Enthralled.

Forever Enthralled, like Farewell My Concubine, is about the chinese opera set against political upheaval in china. like, when isn't there political upheaval in china?

anyways, this is a super long trailer. only the first 2 minutes is worth watching for it's gorgeous cinematography.

so what do you think are the chances that i can get this film to screen at the vancouver asian film festival this year?