mardi 28 avril 2009

employment

Finally, I have a job. It involves tutoring English to a 23 year old Korean boy(or do you start calling them 'men' by that age..?) three times a week for an hour each session. So far we have established that he can only understand 30% of what I am saying, I can only understand 60% of what he is saying, but he thinks I look "good and kind" so what is there to worry about?

As of next week, I will be able to cover the following personal expenses:

- coffee
- lunch 
- monthly train ticket 
- something very small and cheap

Barely self-sufficient at all, but I know what types of jobs to look for now. I am hoping to double my weekly wages, if I can do that I will also be able to cover: 

- photographic expenses
- on sale clothes
- other extraneous but never-the-less indispensable items such as birthday gifts, attractive trinkets etc.

Tomorrow is my first lesson. 


dimanche 26 avril 2009

jon edwards






Jon Edwards is my favourite polaroid photographer. I think he is 19 and Canadian, but I'm not sure. There is something magical and elusive about both his work and himself. It's a pity his flickr gallery is now locked, but trust me he is ah-mazing. I am waiting for him to be less secretive, but I doubt it would ever happen, and even if it did, I think it would detract from his appeal.

class of 2006

Class of 2006

It's ridiculous how much I can't get over this shoot by Paolo Roversi for British Vogue February 2006. Roversi is, hands down, my favourite fashion photographer. It's rare that he does a shoot as colourful and playful as this.

samedi 25 avril 2009

a one bedroom apartment




When no one else is at home, I like to embellish on my sense of loneliness by enveloping myself in the following stimuli: the Amelie soundtrack and words by Dallas Clayton

I also paint my nails an understated colour, so I feel less guilty about acting dramatic.

vendredi 24 avril 2009

fan girls

Today I was meeting Jayne at GPO, where out of no where there was Scott Schuman (the Sartorialist) and Garance Doré leaning casually over the third level balcony. We decided to be weird and went up to them to say hi and blabber words of admiration. Scott shook hands with us and introduced us to Garance, who was interested in the shopping bag Jayne was holding (she had heard of the shoe shop and was interested in where it was). They told us where they had lunch, and we told them where else they should try. Then rather awkwardly we left feeling inexplicably disappointed. A culmination of spotting them without even trying, but then not being invited to follow them around for the rest of the day to see how they work (ok, I was not really expecting them to extend such a gesture). 

I can only hope that next time I bump into them I'm without my gumboots and old woolly sweater. The wet straggly hair probably was not too chic either. 


PS: Garance is even more gorgeous in real life, and Scott's camera is not as big/fancy as I imagined.  

apocalypse

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When Egon Schiele paints, his world is foreboding, melting, fragmented and collapsible. You can not view any one of his paintings without a sense of anxiety.





mardi 21 avril 2009

the horror

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Outwardly, fairly normal.

But open my mouth and you get this "Are her teeth melting?"-effect. WHY YES, I
AM GOING TO EAT YOU.
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And because I'm starting to really desperately just want my braces off, I am actually going to abide by the orthodontist's orders. Two hideous elastics in my already metal filled mouth it is. 24/7. 

The best part is I overheard a 14 year old girl on the train today boasting about how she's already had braces, and has moved on to a plate. I never saw the day I would be jealous of a peep squeak and her plate. Oh woe is I!


lundi 20 avril 2009

revel in its panda-y goodness

If I'm a stay-at-home-mum with lots of cute half Japanese babies in 20 years time, I am definitely feeding them this for lunch, every-single-fucking-day. 

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all about lily chou-chou

I am addicted to movies about 13 year olds who live in a world of their own. Shunji Iwai does this best in All About Lily Chou-Chou. I am in love!

chicken soup for the soul

We had this little hen for a while. She was a gift from my mum's aunt, who had quite a few chooks at her farm. For a few weeks, we kept the hen in the courtyard of my grandma's apartment. She was pretty tough as chickens go, in fact we'd thought she was a small rooster until she started laying an egg each day. When I went out each morning, I promised that I'd take a photo of her before she was made into chicken soup, but somehow I always forgot. We'd have kept her as a pet if there was more room, but inevitably her life was over the day she was given to us. I think they slaughtered her a few days after I left for Melbourne. 

I remember when I was about 8, the same great aunt gave us a rooster. He was also slaughtered and eaten a week later. My cousin and I sat at the dinner table both disgusted and tempted by the wafts of delicious smells. But we kept our integrity and didn't eat a bite. The next day we found some of the bird's feathers and buried them solemnly in a nearby construction site. 

There is something about the hopeless deaths of those chickens that disturbed me. I have a theory that this is a reflection of my fear of my own mortality. 

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"La Mere Poule" by Picasso

dimanche 19 avril 2009

pony

One thing I'm very eager to do with my future long hair is to tie it into a life size pony tail*.

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It's such a blasé way of showing off the impressive length of one's tresses.

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*a pony tail equivalent in length to the tail of an actual pony

one week is not enough

I need an excuse to stay in bed for a few more days and do nothing but sleep, read, watch movies and drink tea. 

It's been a pathetic Easter break.

incognito

audio preview



A lot of you probably remember seeing this little comic on xkcd. I am possibly very dimwitted, but I've just realised that Youtube does in fact have the 'audio preview' function now.

samedi 18 avril 2009

at the dinner table

The little toddler, barely two years of age, sat on her high chair furrowing in her mum's bag. It was becoming a long meal, as often the case when copious glasses of wine are involved. She brandished out an unused nappy and with great concentration began unwrapping it. One by one, the voices on the table die down as all eyes turn to the nappy on the dinner table. For a few split seconds, there are only expressions of concern, but soon a dozen smiles emerge like a Mexican wave as it becomes obvious that the nappy is, in fact, not used. The toddler stops playing with the sticky tab and gives the rest of the table a proud grin. A few chuckles break before everyone erupts into roaring laughter. She laughs along, but soon detects a sense of alienation, which she does not like. Her little lips purse together and begin to quiver as her face turns bright red. Suspense builds as the laughter subsides. The dramatic finale is finally delivered when the toddler bursts into a howling fit of tears.

I am left stunned: how is it that this little fluffy haired two year old knows the difference between "laughing with you" and "laughing at you" while I still falter at such subtleties?

food associations

I have a strange fascination with the word "sauerkraut". I like how it's spelt in a foreign way, but is in fact pronounced phonetically (unless I'm pronouncing it wrong). Sadly, I can't say I've ever tried it, but I like to imagine it as a large loaf of German sourdough bread eaten with liver paté and gherkins. The fact that it's actually fermented cabbage and has nothing to do with bread diminishes a lot of its appeal for me. There is a 90% possibility that I'm just craving some carbs right now.

at last

This single roll of film has been in my camera since new year's day, but let that not be an indication of fine, well-calculated photography. In fact, they're possibly worse than usual. My affinity for documenting everything has dwindled somewhat in the last few months, and I rarely take my camera with me these days. This (portion of a) roll is a testament to my ailing hobby :(

F1000006
During my month spent in China in January-February, this was the ONLY photo I took on film. And it's a somewhat abstract looking one at that. 

F1000009
My cousin looking quite octogenarian in his reading glasses, dressing gown and Sunday paper.

F1000011
Maddy wearing my floppy hat which I bought for $10 at a market - it's brand new!

F1000012
I told her to ignore my camera, but it made her nervous, so I told her to give me a big grin instead. Art is not worth making a friend uncomfortable.

F1000014
Token double exposure.

F1000015
Surrealism at its best.

F1000016
Normally, I hate photos of roadkill. But the way this pigeon had been severed was mesmerising. One part of its body is almost completely intact and plump. (sorry if this picture has offended you)

F1000017

F1000018
I was Maddy's first non-family passenger since she got her license. Our first roadtrip was to the market and it lasted 7min there and back.

F1000019
"Maddy, my light meter wont fucking work. Urgh, it keeps telling me that the shutter speed should be set at 1/100 but that's definitely wrong. Oh fuck it, I'll just take this anyway" Well, I don't know what happened, but the camera was right. (The light meter returned back to normal after this, and the next shot was taken at 1/1000 but appears no different - wtf?)

F1000020
These hairclips were MAJOR when we were 10.

F1000022
A LAN party. It smelt bad. 

F1000023
Walking home next to the cemetery. 

F1000024
Stone stuck in sole. 

F1000025
Another person's cat who kept returning to Maddy's house no matter how many times they tried to return it. A persistent cat, but it got what it want - it's now an odd addition to Maddy's two existing Burmese. 

F1000026
"I wonder if there'a frame left - oh, yep"

I get a free roll of film every time I develop a roll. I don't know what to photograph...

vendredi 17 avril 2009

sunny

Every time I say the word "sunny" I cringe a little on the inside. But I think other's generally get a good "hehe" from it. So I do my best to keep them happy, since I'm such a selfless person and all. 



PS: I dropped off a roll of film at the photolab today, but I got distracted by thinking about what I wanted to eat for dinner, and forgot to pick them up. I wont forget again tomorrow, and then there will hopefully be something to post about. Rejoice!

mercredi 15 avril 2009

a new application for olfactory senses


Sometimes I wish I could eat with my nose. Take these shrimp crackers for example: smell delicious and shrimpy, but taste bland. A lost in translation between my senses perhaps, but essentially a lie to my taste-buds. Alas, easily avoidable if I could just gobble them up through my nose.

allison harvard


America's Next Top Model Cycle 12 is good. Alarmingly good. Mostly because of Allison Harvard (a former 4chan starlet. 'Nuff said?)

mardi 14 avril 2009

miracle on 4th aisle

I saw a little Korean girl yesterday wearing a cream skivvy, a tartan pinafore, grey tights and black mary-janes. For a few seconds, it felt like an Asian white Christmas had landed squat in the middle of Safeway tinned foods aisle. 

samedi 11 avril 2009

deja vu



My biology lecturer told the exact same anecdote, except from the perspective of the father.

(But, no, he isn't Natalie Portman's father. Unfortunately.)

where it all began

mercredi 8 avril 2009

your what?

Through my uni account, I often get emails from people who have lost iphones/USB's/etc. However, just then I read this in an email with subject "Missing Black Tube":

If anyone come across my bazooka, anywhere in the building, please contact
me on my mobile, XXXXXXXXX or by replying to this email.


I will assume that a bazooka can be many other things other than what I had in mind....


mardi 7 avril 2009

no energy for philosophy

Yesterday on the corner of Faraday and Lygon, I saw the resident bum. He is a man of maybe 60-75 (it's very difficult to tell with bums), and was spotted in his usual reclining position, dosing off and with an upturned bucket hat at his feet. There was something else I noticed on yesterday's occasion - a battered copy of "Sophie's World" in his lap. At this moment I felt a great kindredness with the chap. 

Though it shames me to say this, I am only too familiar with the soporific effects of that book, having tried numerous times in my early teens to read it, and giving up around the mid-way point on each occasion. I imagine this will be the case even when I too am 60-75 (and very likely also reclining on some street corner with a bucket hat at my feet).

lundi 6 avril 2009

injustice


All these boys (except for maybe the one wearing sunglasses) have the hair of my dreams: thick, long and brown, with a slight wave. It's unnatural to be envious of a boy's hair, let alone a posse of them, but alas I am very green indeed. 

picture from dropsnap.jp

samedi 4 avril 2009

trams

The woman on the tram is 40 at first glance, but only 35 on review. There are many women like her on trams in the early morning, always with over-plucked eyebrows and an outfit with undiscernible origins and trend. This woman is sitting across from me and she is wearing too much makeup on her thin tanned face and her head looks a little too small for what I imagine to be a tall lean body when standing. Her eyes are darting intently across the back cover of a free weekly magazine as she rapidly chews on the gum in her mouth. She opens to the middle of the magazine and I see what she had been reading - a catalogue of a closing down sale for one of those dank home-ware shops. At this point I notice that she has headphones in, which would explain the small rhythmic jiggles in her shoulders. It doesn't take her long to flip through the few pages and she returns to studying the back cover. I resume scrutinising the jiggle in her shoulders which are becoming more vigorous. 

Apparently bored, the woman finally puts down the magazine with a sigh. She procures a pair of flashy sunglasses from the small black handbag in her lap, aviators with an ornate floral design along the side, and puts them on roughly. She fidgets with the magazine and begins to roll it up tightly. A new song can be heard playing from her headphones. This one has a strong bass, most likely a 90s dance track, and the woman begins to wiggle her entire body in her seat. I, and the others nearby, are all very aware of this. Completely consumed by the beat of the music and the false sense of privacy which sunglasses can provide, the woman begins to tap her palm with the rolled up magazine in time to the song. The sound of her tapping grows louder as she becomes bolder in her wiggling. I exchange knowing looks of disparagement with the man sitting across the aisle.

 The tram slows down as it pulls to a stop and the woman stands up with a spring in her feet. Her black pants are a little too short for her long legs so she gives them a slight tug which smoothes out a crease. She strides quickly to the door of the tram, and with a cheerful leap exits the stifling carriage, completely oblivious of the sour looks on the faces of the remaining passengers. A few heads turn to watch the woman walk away, but as the tram gains momentum, we each go back to studying our fingernails, reading the paper or looking out the window. There is a lingering silence as we all wait in anticipation for the next person to cause a stir. I give a small cough to break the suspense, but I don't have my sunglasses with me, so I withdraw any intention of being the next act. 

mini fiona apple






A decidedly unabashed confession: 

Hi, my name is Sunni and I am a fan of Isabelle McNally (in all her shapely eyebrows and green barbour jacket glory). I'm still not sure why she's (semi-)famous, but it really doesn't matter when she's that pretty to look at. 

I like how unspectacular she tries to look in these photos by the Selby

after 6 years of deliberation...



I finally got myself a pair of Docs. That is the smile of a smitten 12 year old. 

mercredi 1 avril 2009

note to self

In future, do not attempt April Fools unless certain the victim is sharp enough to understand it was a prank, but dull enough to not outsmart the prankster.