We read to know we are not alone.

[From 5:00 onwards]

C. S. Lewis:
We read to know we are not alone. Do you think that's so?

Student Chadwick:
Well, I hadn't thought at it before like that, Sir.

C. S. Lewis:
No, nor would I. I suppose people would say, "We love to know we are not alone. Would you?

Student Chadwick:
Well, if you mean falling in love, well, I haven't really, I mean, I probably learn more about love from books than from personal experience.

C. S. Lewis:
[A pause of silence and turns to the window] Go on, I'm listening.

Why love if losing hurts so much? I have no answers any more; only the life I have lived. Twice in that life, I've been given the choice, as a boy and as a man. The boy chose safety; the man chooses suffering. The pain now is part of the happiness then. That's the deal.


I think along the path of life, there are few things that one must feel thankful of. A "life author" is one of them. By that I mean not just a good writer with few books you enjoy, but a great mind that you can connect with, for life. S/he's your mentor, your friend and could be almost like a soul-mate. I'm fortunate enough to find in the writings of C.S. Lewis. There aren't many authors who possess as diverse a body of work as him: from literature criticism, theological writings, Christian apologies, poetry, autobiography, collective letters and essays, novels, science fictions (Space Trilogy) to the classic children books, The Chronicles of Narnia.

I don't consider myself an avid reader. I read very little. I cannot compare him with other great thinkers and writers through out the history of mankind. But often greatness is not to be known by comparison. It stood there. You just know when you see it.

I re-watched recently the movie Shadowlands. It's based on the true story of him and his wife Joy Davidman and how they come to terms with Joy's cancer illness and her subsequent death. The above conversation gives the movie an understated but conclusive end. For an Oxford professor who suffered the pain of losing his mother at an early age and opted for a life safe from the turbulence and possible agony of being in love, it's an unexpected life event to meet an American writer at his middle age and go on to marry her.

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable."

"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."

What C. S. Lewis wrote in books and believed in mind, now became a reality that he struggled to live through. "Experience is a brutal teacher, you learned, my God you learned." A cry in the movie after Joy's death. He did experience a period of questioning his faith and theodicy, later recorded in his book A Grief Observed, which helped inspire this movie.

It's worth a watch just for the brilliant performance of Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger (Academy Award nomination for Best Actress). It's a quiet, sometimes slow-paced film. Nothing overdramatic but possibly tear-jerking and even life-changing.

BMW Unstoppable

The music, the voice-over, the ride. Orchestrated to the right frequency that gets my blood rushing and lifts me from the ground for a few second. That's the power of advertising, in a good way.

I love doing ad when you're not just talking about the product, but something more universal, some human spirits that connect us. But how many clients today see that, and think it helps selling their brand?

BTW, I really love Scottish accent.

Ólafur Arnalds - Ljósið

This is beautiful.

Banksy's Village Petstore and Charcoal Grill

For more eerie creatures – aged and sad-faced Tweety, porn-watching monkey and hotdogs (yes, they are actually alive), visit its official site. The physical shop at 89, 7th Avenue in the West Village of New York City was closed. (All the pets were sold out I guess?)

Love is noise

I was slow to know that The Verve has it's fourth album (titled "Fourth") out on August.
I was even slower to know that they actually reunited last year.
Maybe I was buried by so many things other than what's happening in the music scene.
Here's the single "Love is noise."
It makes me want to jump up and down a bit.
Love the bizarrely mixed odd scenes in the music video, especially the North Korean parade.
Critics often accuse some bands of lacking progress or repeating themselves.
But for The Verve, we can forgive them.
Just love their original sound and hope they never change.

Rocky Took a Lover

He said 'I wanna shine in the eye of Orion
But I drove my soul through the Black Hole!'
She said 'What a wonderful way to wake me
You weren't so nice last night
You're such an asshole when you're drunk'
He said 'At least I'm OK in the mornings'

He said 'The three wise men came a long way
Following that pin hole in the sky
Yeah that one right there'
She said 'I don't believe in any old Jesus
If there was a God, then why is my arse
The perfect height of kicking?'

He said 'I'll shine for you, I'll burn for you
Yea I'll shine for you, that's what I'll do'

He said 'They're like headlights
In the rear view mirror
They're closer than they seem
And from this gutter we're still staring at the stars'
She said 'Would ya go away and shite
Last night all you did was curse those stars
You said they sang to you of hope'

He said 'The sun gives life, and it takes it away
But like all the greats, it'll burn out someday'
She said 'I don't mind, I don't want to get bored
I don't want to end up beached on this shore
I want to be that star'

And then I'll shine for you. Then I'll burn for you.
Then I can shine for you. That's what I'll do

My all time favourite song. Just never get tired of hearing it.

Ingeniously written, both musically, lyrically. Every line spills out wit and poetry.

Casual teasing between lovers reached up to heavens. The stars smile and were moved.

Check out this Irish band – Bell X1. Not a household name, formerly known as Juniper before the departure of lead singer Damien Rice, whom you may know better.

Yea, why my arse the perfect height of kicking? ...There must be a God.

Perfection. Perfection. Perfection.

Found at home this forsaken knitting manual. It's a very very old book, probably published in the '70s.

The cover picture made me stop and look. Besides its odd and funny styling, something was not quite right here. The guy on the left half-opening his eyes. The guy on the right looks bored by the photo shoot.

Happening today? Head transplant operation straight away, digitally.

An art director myself, I know nothing gets published until every detail was retouched to an immaculate state of perfection.

By the vehicles of the media, the most influential force on human's perception and psychology of beauty may well be... Photoshop.

This award-winning Dove TVC makes my point.



It's been 2 years old, you should have seen it. If not, share it with your girlfriend.

It might challenge her obsession on her own looks.

I suspect more likely, she'll ask you to start learning Photoshop.

Travis rocks

It's the Autumn of '97, a girl told me this band rocked. Heard this song, loved them ever since.

Back then, Fran (the lead singer) got more hair and looked like the son of his present self. Oh dear.

On 31st this month, I'm going to see their gig at the AsiaWorld Arena in Hong Kong. With the girl. Now my wife.

Cornstarch's Resume

Name: Corn Starch
Date of Birth: Refer to package
Sex: Desexed by now
Marital Status: Separated
Nationality: Mexican

Education:
None except the fact that I've been through hell tortured by hours and hours of soaking, grinding and dehydration before becoming who I am today – fine, very fine.

Qualification:
Member of Non-Newtonian Fluid

Work Experience:
I work mainly in a kitchen as a thickener, binder and baking flour. I'm a good team-worker. I mix well with others like water, different sauces and other fellow flours. I've actively participated with enormous contribution in many highly successful and delicious recipes. Examples listed below.

Hors d'oeuvre and Soups:
Prawn Toast, Eggplant Tempura, Hot Sole Mousse with Creamed Watercress, Cream of Artichoke Soup, Chicken & Sweetcorn Soup. (Too much to mention, in fact all kinds of Campbell soup if you insist to know.)

Main Courses:
Grouse with Pear Sauce, Pizza Base, Beef with Orange, Oregano Braised Lamb. (To mention but a few.)

Desserts Cake and Bakes (My Specialties):
Couscous Pudding, Portuguese Cream, Mini Shortbreads, Spiced Sponge, Creme Caramel, Black Forest Cherry Cake, Oeufs a la Neige. (The list can go on and on.)

Ambition and Dream:
Not to be swallowed in sauce, soup or your stomach. But to be free in water and soundwave and freaking DANCE! My awesome Oobleck Dance! (A sample attached.)

Bubbly Bubbly Happy

It's like colour bubbles floating in liquid air. Happy!

Not getting enough?



OK, got addicted?



It could be one of those Sony Bravia TVCs (Balls, Paints and Play Doh). There's just something in common. If you haven't seen one, here's more stop-motion, colours, joyfulness, and bunnies – lots and lots of them.

The Selfish Gene

This morning, when I was walking out of Starbucks with my blueberry muffin, a lady in front of me stopped and sided before the exit door, expecting me to open it for her. Hurriedly in automatic mode, I pushed the door open and she followed me out without a slight sign of gratitude.

After thought: I still would have acted generously if I had paused and examined exactly what was happening.

I feel sorry for her, for Hong Kong generally. Having lived in London, one virtue that really impressed me was how people of all classes (which they're so obsessed with) hold the door for others even someone is miles away approaching. Don't expect the same here. Instead you will find comical scenario where upon the first person opening the door, the others after will slip past it with silky moves comparable to those of Ronaldo, until, the door is closing to an impenetrable state. Then the cycle starts all over again.

It's funny. It's sad. Imagine this one particular moment of selfishness (or just utter laziness), multiplies by a thousand times, to become the total sum of all she does in her life. What would that be? A negative number, not even a zero.

I don't want to be self-righteous, feel superior and pass judgement on others. I want this to be my own exhortation. It's certainly not some big, philosophical teaching I discovered myself that I want to preach to others. (it's called Altruism, I learned.) No. I just don't want to waste my life DOING NOTHING. To me, that act of not opening the door for others and myself is DOING NOTHING. I may think it's doing me good, saving me some energy?...(I can't even think of anything else.) But in fact I have done NOTHING valuable to even my very ME.

"Hey you
Threw it all away
By holding everything in
...
a perfect combination of good etiquette and charm
You keep the chocolate biscuits wired to a car alarm
Oooooooooh
Selfish Jean"

Fran Healy, Travis

Viva La Vida

Now, millions worldwide have listened to it and thousands of review have been written. It's topping Billboard 200 album chart with over 720,000 copies sold in its first week. Can't be too bad. No British music has done that for a long while.

I'm no music expert or critics. I will just tell what touches me musically, and I think that's what music is all about.



I believe most people would agree, the climax of the album has to be Viva La Vida. Today on my way to work, my iPod was playing it just when the bus hit the highway. Fantastic! Do you have the same feeling that some songs are made for listening on a car or a train? Everything you see outside seems like beats and sounds materialized. Cars drum the same beat. Trees harmonize with the chords. Birds soar with the vocal. Your personal music video in the making. Viva La Vida is exactly this kind of song. Escalating. Enthralling. Exhilarating. While the lyrics is about the dethroning of a king, it makes you feel the exact opposite – you are the king of the world!

I like the acoustic version of both "Lost?" and "Lovers in Japan" more. Not sure why. These few lines warm my heart:

"Just because I'm losing
Doesn't mean I'm lost
Doesn't mean I'll stop
Doesn't mean I will cross..." (Lost?)

"Lovers, keep on the road you're on
Runners, until the race is run
Soldiers, you've got to soldier on..." (Lovers in Japan)

The album starts off with "LIFE in Technicolor", ends with "DEATH and All His Friends". Title wise, it's an obvious choice. But more magically (even spiritually), at the end of "Death and All His Friends", It has this extension track "The Escapist". Here we come back full circle to the same tune of "Life in Technicolor", just this time instead of purely instrumental, Chris Martin sings,

"And in the end
We lie awake, and we dream of making our escape"

It's a masterstroke.

Not a collection of songs. But a symphony of Life with 10 movements. Bravo!

Stop-motion

At the moment, stop-motion seems to be the in thing, here're 2 pieces which caught my eyes.

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Enormous dedication.

Enormous production.

Once

Just saw this movie. Beautiful beautiful movie. Beautiful beautiful songs.

How often do you meet the right person?

Once.

Young@Heart sing "Fix You"

I've got goosebumps watching this. Can't quite put my feelings into words. The magic is that such a beautiful song about lost, failure and hope was sung by an elderly man approaching life's end.

When I first listened to this song by Coldplay, near the end, I thought it's like:

"...Tears stream down your face, UPON THE SEA WHERE I will learn from my mistakes..."

And tears filled my eyes.

But I found out later in fact it's "...I PROMISE YOU I will learn from my mistakes..."

I'll stick with my wrong impression though.

blowing plastic bag

Remember in the movie "American Beauty", there's a scene of how the boy next door Ricky Fitts discovers the beauty of a plastic bag blowing in the wind. Here you are, same ingredients plus a bit of imagination, a dragon comes to live on the street of New York.

In Every Sunflower

This is a beautiful song I recently love. (Sorry, it's not really a video.)

"I wouldn't swap the pain
For never knowing you"

It's true, I believe, for anyone who has ever loved.

From what I was told, this was written about the band's vocalist - Paul Noonan's long term girlfriend, who was killed in a car crash late at night driving to see him after a gig. That makes it even more poignant.