January 2012
10 posts
“People will often cry gross over-intellectualisation when popular culture is...”
– Simon Pegg, ‘Nerd do well’ (via ninestories)
Hollaaaa
Discovery
I listen to an alarming amount of chillwave. (That, or electro fairy-rock / 2011-era Bjork reincarnations.)
Disneyland with the Death Penalty →
William Gibson’s travelogue on Singapore for Wired is pretty old, so it might be a little outdated, but a fascinating read nonetheless. Unbiased journalism it is not, and Singaporeans (perhaps East Asians as well) will likely protest at his generalization of them as Orwellian automatons. However, as far as portraits of strange and paradoxical places go, I found it quite fresh.
“I don’t like this expression ‘First World problems.’ It is false and it is...”
– Nigerian author and artist Teju Cole (via xkimberlyx)
December 2011
13 posts
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just the tip of the iceberg
I just administered the reading section of a mock TOEFL exam for my cousin, who is 20 years old and just failed his first semester of college in the States. He scored 17/74 points. He cannot matriculate as a full-time academic student until he a) scores at least 70/120 on the actual TOEFL and b) passes his remedial English classes at school.*
Self, say hello to the rest of your week...
“We were listening to music—
a little Bach, a little mournful Schubert....”
– Adam Zagajewski, “Blizzard”
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Ramblings on Interstitial Spaces, Part 2/2
While I’m on the topic of weird, in-between places, I might as well mention something else that happened during Thanksgiving weekend.
On Friday, I attended my high school’s 5-year reunion. It was held in the relatively quiet downstairs space of a pub in Harvard Square, which was probably the only reason I attended at all. (For the proximity, I mean, not the fact that it was at Tommy...
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“[It] is only by knowing how to write that you can make use in literature of your...”
– Virginia Woolf, “The Modern Essay”.
November 2011
5 posts
why netflix only recommends me "dark cerebral...
I just watched Breakfast at Tiffany’s for the first time today. I totally hated it. (And I’m not even counting Mickey Rourke’s turn in yellowface as Mr. Yunioshi here.)
Granted, it was an aesthetic delight. New York City was shot at its most picturesque, Audrey Hepburn was gorgeous and I painfully pined after her entire wardrobe. But I found the tension contrived, the drama...
October 2011
5 posts
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September 2011
9 posts
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"En Route"
( Image reblogged from Vapours )
This Adam Zagajewski poem is long (though its individual components are small), but captures so many things I’m longing for right now. Breathtaking!
1. Without Baggage
To travel without baggage, sleep in the train on a hard wooden bench, forget your native land, emerge from small stations when a gray sky rises and fishing boats head to sea.
2. In...
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August 2011
13 posts
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