man movies

超熱血的啦
Han would say so if he saw the movies.

Recently Russell Crowe played a traditionally considered bad guy in "3:10 to Yuma" and a traditionally considered good guy in "American Gangster".
These performances remind me of the time when I started to notice him as a good actor. No, not "Gladiator". It was "A Beautiful Mind" that caught my eye.

After a childhood of Hong Kong martial-art movies and Hollywood hero movies, it becomes harder and harder for me to enjoy new man movies.
It is, firstly, very silly to define a movie by its audience population or the major characters in the film. But it is what the silly Hollywood has done. For example, gay movies and woman movies and chick movies and child movies and animal movies.

So I say "3:10 to Yuma" and "American Gangster" are man movies. No important female role in both movies. They are based in a man-only world. Men kill men. Men chase after men. Men befriend with men. Women are simply objects for sex or care-giving to men's children.

As a woman, I am not offended. If that is what the story is about, it's fine with me. I was not offended either when seeing "Brokeback Mountain".
I cannot deny that those two new man movies are well made. I cannot deny that I enjoyed both movies although I was very hungry when watching them. Never watch a 7-ish movie without a late lunch.

When will I see a well-made and well-accepted movie with a great female gangster or a great female cowboy featured in Hollywood movies? No, I am not talking about porns.
Hong Kong has already done so, except that cowboys are not universal.

Interestingly, even in a woman movie, men are not often simply regarded as objects for sex or hardware-fixing.
Cannot think of one.
Perhaps in the upcoming "Sex and the City" movie, some male characters will be objects.

Now I want to hug a huge barrel of popcorn.
Have a good weekend, you all. See a movie with some objectified human characters. And you think about it. Thinking is powerful. Your mind needs some workout.

beautiful season again

My yard, well technically it's not "my" yard, is covered with golden leaves. This makes me happy.
My smile makes me even happier. I am happy that I can feel this pure kind of pleasure again. Feels like being reborn. Feels like the world actually does not abandon me.
And my smile makes another person smile, which is the best thing in the world.

The first time I found my smile could affect a person was when I sat down under a tree ten years old. It would've been perfect if that tree grew golden leaves. Season changing is the best thing in the Northern East of the States.

There is a tree at the heart of Penn State campus. That tree gives a golden blanket like the tree in my yard.
I liked to visit the tree everyday in the season of Fall for 5 years. It was just plain beautiful. It was just a smile maker.



For the past couple months, I have had conversation with this sunny boy, who often times gives wise comments. He is weird and calm. Totally. So I like him.
He reminds me of people I met when I was 19 and when I was 25. He is not mere a mixture of characters, but quite a character.
He is beautiful. And I like to stare at him. I want to stare at him before the season of him ends.
I am wondering if he disappears too, when does the season come again? Or ever again?
How long can I stare at him? Measuring by year or by month?

He questions me.
All the time.
Which makes me think.
When I think, he questions me more and makes me laugh and I think more and I feel happy and I think more.
The conclusion often is I think too much and should have stopped when started laughing.
This kind of thinking is quite healthy.
This kind of thinking is to give myself an illusion of being grounded instead of make myself a unhappy whiner.
Feeling grounded is awesome!

Suddenly I am afraid that I am not going to see him again. So I stare at him more. Perhaps therefore I think even more and too much more.
But the sad truth is the nature of my life is unstable, is ungrounded, which really upsets me.
All these years, seeing people come and go, in and out of my life, tires my soul and slows down the process of me getting excited about new things.
Somehow, new things won't stay long enough to be old.

What can I do?
When the beautiful season goes, just wait for it to come again.
May I just bravely make it stay?
But if it has to fade, I cannot do anything. I have to live in a place where I am sure the beautiful season will come again.

make you learn

conferences

Hey, I did attend to the conference ...

(see the badge?)

.....with humans .....

(finally, after graduation, I start my Taiwanese network)


and animals :)

(just click on it to see more and more pictures)

Wild Animal Park - Nov 6, 2007

art at this moment

It is not a museum although it claims it is.
It is called the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego. It is even not as good as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland.
Of course, neither can compare the Museum of Modern Art, New York City.

However, I find myself enjoying the MCASD because of the building. The design of the museum, which is rather a spacey gallery in my opinion, captures the light.
And turns the sunlight into rainbows.

I stare at them on the floor, hesitating whether I am allowed to use a camera there.
And it occurs to me that the "museum" does not display or own the rainbows, the art at that exact moment.

San Diego is artificial.
It feels like a huge theme park. The "historical" part of it does not attracts me because of its undetectable age. It is nice and cute in a way that provides travelers food, drink, and window shopping memories.

Little Italy is not Italian for me. It is not full of loud people. It does not smell like coffee, wine, bread, or fish. It looks pretty and clean.
Old Town is not old for me. I pass by at least three times before I notice it is there because there is a sign saying "Old Town".
Downtown is where hundreds of thousands of conference goers play. Oh yeah, we play pretty hard. Almost impossible to get into the parties thrown by MIT, for example.

But I encounter arts from Tim Cantor.
If you like Cirque du Soleil as I do, you will like paintings of Tim Cantor.
I was supposed to go to the party of UCSD, but his charming art caught my eyes. I stopped and entered the gallery. I was amazed by how lights are represented by his artistic sense.

It is like after a show of Cirque du Soleil, I need to be alone or be in a quiet place to settle my thoughts and to move on with my thoughts with new inspired thinking.
My mind is suddenly overwhelmed. After a day of neuroscience, after a weird experience in a social event, and after Tim Cantor's artificial lights, I went back to the inn.

Some art is so transient as the rainbows on the floor of the museum.
Traces have to be consolidated to be remembered.
Or just sleep on it to release myself.