Paucis Verbis

Today, August 31st , is the second annual International Blog Day. According to stats there are 90  million bloggers worldwide, a lot, if we consider absolute number, but also not many comparing to a whole number of internet users , which is 1,173,109,925 ( roughly 1,2 billion ) .

There are many reasons why people starts blogging. One of them is to express yourself, to show that you are not that small out there in a the big world and want to leave a track of you existence :)
For others, blogs is a new experiment that brings a chance to make/try something diffrent - so let’s call it kind of curiosity. There are also people for which blog is their own interlocutor - talking to themselves or rather writing to themselves is a form of therapy.
No matter what reasons are there to drive us to blog, the most important thing is to keep going with what you are doing, find joy, have fun in it and if blogging is not your job then don’t let it waste too much of your precious time :)

This is a wish to myself and You.

“W Polsce rządzi układ zero jedynkowy.  Zero jest nr jeden,  nr jeden jest zerem. “

“In Poland binary system rules. Zero is number one, number one  is zero ”.

found on onet.pl forum  ( ~pierwiastek, 31.08.2007 16:32 )

 My legs,  my bag - Still life from a diffrent angle

“The place I like best in this world is the kitchen. No matter where it is, no matter what kind, if it’s a kitchen, if it’s a place where they make food, it’s fine with me.”

“Kitchen” ( キッチン )  published in 1988 , Banana Yoshimoto’s ( よしもとばなな )  novel is a book that brings a strange and peaceful mood while you reading it.
A story starts when Mikage Sakurai, a young woman who is just in fact a girl entered into the life with a suffering. Mikage is all alone after the death of her grandmother - the last remaining relative.
At the crossroads of the life Mikage soon makes friends with Yuichi Tanabe, a classmate, who knew Mikage’s grandma while working part time at the flower shop after school. Yuichi concerned that she might need an emotional support as well as financial, offers her place to live in his apartment together with his transsexual father-turned-mother, Eriko.

Mikage though is still grief-stricken by grandmother’s death, trying to find a sense in her life and to keep life going, she is cooking everyday in the Kitchen partly to repay their kindness and at the same time find it relaxing , also kind of psychotherapeutic nourishment…

Her residing in the Yuichi’s apartment becomes also her the first step to a real-life maturity, even though harshly treated by life she finds equivalent of a family ties that with the passing of time becomes her real loving family.
In the story a lot of space has been given to her relations with Eriko - Yuichi’s father-turned-mother,who makes a breathtaking first impression to Mikage : “I couldn’t take my eyes off her. Hair that rustled like silk to her shoulders, the deep sparkle of her long, narrow eyes; well-formed lips, a nose with a high, straight bridge–the whole of her gave off a marvelous light that seemed to vibrate with life force.
She didn’t look human. I had never seen anyone like her”.

Apart from Eriko’s gender also her attitudes towards Mikage was diffrent from typical Japanese older-person attitudes towards younger-one. When first meet Mikage, she speaks to her informally, whereas Mikage replied in formal way using desu/masu form , but by the time both became closer and they call each other by names.
One tragic day breaks again Mikage’s seemed stable life…

The book is like the window to Japan’s society. Shows teenagers and young who are on thethreshold of adulthood - their worries, their dreams, their first steps first step towards real-life, their search for love in the country of Sakura.
Uncover their mentality and sensitivity - that is expressed partly in infantility but also in maturity.
I have dozens of Japanese friends and everytime when I read Kitchen once more I see them and each of them has something from Mikage or Yuichi or Eriko, like each of us too.

Dedicated to my Japanese friends ( their photos in the gallery )  and Giang who keeps asking me “When are you gonna write something new?! “   ;)

“Life isn’t a dress rehearsal ”

“Życie to nie próba generalna”

“Cuộc đời không phải là buổi tổng duyệt ”

“ 生活 不是 排演 ”

- Kerry Packer

 Isola Bella/Lake Maggiore /North Italy/2006

Found on www.interia.pl

Chungking Express, another masterpiece from Wong Kar-Wai. Again, about Hongkong and again, about love.

The movie plot concentrates on two stories of two policemen. Two romance stories, two ways of seeking the other half and just the one love.

Cop 223

“Every day we brush past so many other people. People we may never meet… or people who may become close friends. I’m a cop, No. 223 . My name’s He Qi-Wu . ”
Qi- Wu - (Takeshi Kaneshiro) suffers from a parting with an ex-girlfriend that happened on 1st of May. This is also his birthday date. He decides to deal with his pain by making this date magic and give the love another chance namely putting the 1 st of May as a deadline, sort of “expiry ” love date. If until the 1 st of May, the girl won’t come back, then the love is definitively finished. In the meantime he buys tons of pineapple cans, which expiry date is obviously ‘94/05/01.

“One goes another comes” - At the last night of April, he meets a drug dealer, a killer in a bar - who is a woman with a blond wig and who will bring little happiness to his life next day.
The end of something is also the beginning of something new. The mysterious woman is the only one who will send a him birthday wish on the 1 st of May…

Cop 663

“There’s one stewardess you long to seduce. This time last year, at 25,000 feet… I actually seduced one. I thought we’d stay together for the long haul. Flying like a jumbo jet on a full tank. But we changed course. ” Like the first one, cop 663 ( Tony Leung Chiu-Wai ) broke up with his flight attendant girlfriend and he is at a well hidden low ebb. Everyday he orders chief’s salad at the local fastfood stand. This custom is broken by a new employee, who advices him to take fish and chips instead.
The girl, Faye ( Faye Wong ) who secretlly falls in love with him is a great fan of California Dreamin’ ( The Mamas and the Papas ) and Dreams ( The Cranberries) and always dreamed to go California to see how it is like “if the other California, was warm and sunny” . She decides to bring a fresh air into his life by breaking into his apartment during his on-duty hours and makes some little changes in the decoration…

Romance in the city. City in the romance.

Once again Wong Kar-Wai pays tribute to the city of his passion. To the city that never sleeps. Here, unlike in the ” In the mood for love” Hongkong is presented as a collage of fast motion sounds, colours, diffrent faces of races, even smells which creeps out through each freeze-frames, that makes the audience a part of the story , that makes each of us accompany side by side with main characters.
Here, Hongkong is vivid, is beautiful, charming, almost like a painter’s splash on a still surface.
The camera is set like music video clip, captures a whole impression than details which are often melt into the crowd but this benefits to a reception of Hongkong’s sense. Wong Kar-Wai is a guide who skilfully shows tourists-viewers around the city, passing through narrow side streets , busy corners , bright neons, stalls groaning with food.

This all seems like a city caught in a storm by shots of a camera. Maybe Hongkong can’t be seen as details but as an exited experience where everything is mixed, blurred and where you have to feel and see to not look at. It must be like a whirlwind pass.

Love is in the air carried by the sounds of California Dreamin’ and Dreams

There is a diffrent nostalgia than in the ITMFL. This is the feeling of loneliness in the big city, where everybody is close at the distance caused by a high density but keep their internal distance.
Kar-Wai shows the isolation in a crowd, a vast of city fun, joyfull attractions that lures thrill seekers. But next to this there are ordinary people looking for a an ordinary love. Nothing more, but when it comes to the reality it is not simple anymore.
Next question is where to find the love. It seems that love is everywhere, but not in everything. Things are not like they seems to be. Look around yourself, be more open on the things surrounds you, on the people who are passing you, smile on Fortune, because then maybe the Fortune will smile back on you. Sounds really hackneyed, but in most of platitudes there is a grain of truth.

Here are some quotes from the movie. These are one of my favourites:

Cop 223

Jogging is something private. Not something you do with an audience.

——

We’re all unlucky in love sometimes. When I am, I go jogging. The body loses water when you jog… so you have none left for tears.

——

Somehow everything comes with an expiry date. Swordfish expires. Meat sauce expires. Is there anything in the world which doesn’t?

——

If memories could be canned… would they also have expiry dates? If so, I hope they last for centuries.

Cop 223 : I can feel that you’re lonely.

Woman : Really?

Cop 223 : Yes. Why would a woman be wearing shades this late? Either she’s blind… or she’s a poseur… or she doesn’t want people to see she’s been crying.

——

Cop 663

Faye: Nothing for your girlfriend?

Cop 663 : She’s gone.

Faye : Why?

Cop 663 : To try something else. She said.

Faye : I guess she’s right. Plenty of choice in men. Just like food.

——

( Talking alone) Did I leave the tap running… or is the apartment getting more tearful? I always thought it would cope okay. Didn’t expect it to cry so much. When people cry they can dry their eyes with tissues. But when an apartment cries… it takes a lot to mop it up.

——

( Talking alone) She may have gone but life goes on. You must stop indulging yourself.
You’re a real disappointment to me. You’ve changed so much. You can’t just switch personality like this. Her walking out is no excuse. Pull yourself together.

@@@