January Roads Θ 劍鋒路: July 2011

Saturday, July 30, 2011

№ 30. Animated Saturday

They're art born from relatively new and still evolving media. But the processes, I can imagine, require almost the same mindful creativity, vortex of resources, obsessive reach for perfection and marrow-seeping tedium as the genius behind Sistine Chapel.

Sometimes, just seeing the result, without the necessary but painful process, makes us forget of what it takes to create a gem. Is pain a necessary assumption for genius? Will art be denied its fruition without the fuel of misery? Is it really true that the boost of agony or the burn of acid at the seams of the tortured soul may propel the next breach in the limits of quantum physics? Should creators and their kind be unhappy? Otherwise, no art. Nada.

Well, assuming they already have the gift of genius, why else should they have access to a torrid sex life, right? Or at least a gum-pink healthy love life? What more do they need?

Today is May 4, 2010, Tuesday. We're in the middle of Manila's concrete bake off. It’s only 11:10 AM and I’m already melting from the heat.

I’m writing this confession on a black Mac, which has the color of my id.

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Like the rings of a redwood, sweat is etched in my indexes. They yield tales of the fat years as well as the lean ones.

I have recently been self-employed---unplugged from the matrix of production. Technically though, I am just a capitalist in hibernation.

I also just switched from Windows to Mac last year.

Yes, I’m aware that Mac is a Q Continuum compared to that unenlightened majority of the technological divide. Those protozoans and their clones. Still, my Mac hums on XP. Defilement, you say. Well, my system can’t be purged of all eighteen years of assimilation. Redmond is still fused with my flesh.

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№ 28. Manila Extract (after Ondoy)

Design Anthology

You are dense.
An equation of salty noodles
steaming in my cup.

You are stained.
A peppered whisper
left by the ketchup on my lips.

You are Manila.
A name seasoned by monsoons
stirring needles in my gut.

№ 27. Monday is Sandwich Day

"A sandwich is more than a food item. A sandwich is the whole world between two slices of bread. The construction of the right sandwich – ingredients balanced, mustards and mayonnaises judiciously administered, flavors harmoniously layered – can make people fall in love."

Sandwich

Sunday, July 24, 2011

№ 26. Invisible Realities

"The Non-Visible Museum is an extravaganza of imagination, a museum that reminds us that we live in two worlds: the physical world of sight and the non-visible world of thought. Composed entirely of ideas, the Non-Visible Museum redefines the concept of what is real. Although the artworks themselves are not visible, the descriptions open our eyes to a parallel world built of images and words. This world is not visible, but it is real, perhaps more real, in many ways, than the world of matter, and it is also for sale."

More in MONA

Bento: It's a new concept I'm still too timid to accept. Treading carefully, or I might get punk'd.