Hats off to Liu Bolin

Liu Bolin - The Real Life Invisible Man is really amazing!!!

Makansutra Review 1:Chew Kee Eating House (Upper Cross Street shop 8)

Remember how last week I wrote about our purchase of Makansutra 2009 and how we were going to check out the places in the book and blog about them? Well it happened this weekend. (Technically, we had started last week but the first place we reviewed - some ice cream place had moved! Shame on you Mr Seetoh for not bothering to check! You owe us some money back!) We checked out Chew Kee's Sauce Chicken Noodles(6 chopsticks: Die Die Must Try!) for lunch yesterday.



The verdict? - It was pretty good stuff. The chicken breast meat included in $3 portion was generous and tasty. There was a slight herbal tinge to the noodle sauce which I liked, and the parsley(I love parsley!) added to the usual chye sin enhanced the taste of the noodles. I wolfed my plate down. People working close by in Shenton Way should take note: Chew Kee Eating House (Upper Cross Street shop 8).

Heal Heal Heal

I have the largest mouth ulcer, from famished chewing in a hurry last Sunday, and it is taking forever to heal. I have to apply Bonjela Gel like 5 times a day and each time, the pain ...

On a different note, I caught Inglourious Basterds today, standard Tarantino, which means the usual high standards of story-telling and mindless violence. A great piece of revisionist history. I won't spoil it by saying more.

Went shopping with Jaime today. Apart from getting a new pair of slippers to replace my dying Havaianas, I also bought the 2009 edition of Makansutra. We are planning to visit one place each weekend. I know it's been done to the death already but a new food blog may be in the works.

I dig this photo btw.

Photographer Spotlight: James Nachtwey

I have been a witness and these pictures are my testimony. The events I have recorded should not be forgotten and must not be repeated. - James Nachtwey.

http://www.jamesnachtwey.com/

Another photographer I admire, James Nachtwey is one of the world's leading photojournalists, and he twice won the World Press photo. He originally studied art and political science. Self taught, he started out as a newspaper photographer in New Mexico, and in 1980 moved to New York where he began his career as a freelancer. Like Robert Capa, he devoted himself to covering conflicts worldwide.

James Nachtwey has often spoken of how the Vietnam War shaped both his political sensitivities and opened his eyes to the power of photography. Still pictures from this confused and doomed conflict played a significant role in turning public opinion against American involvement in Vietnam. Moreover, the conflict was far from clear cut; there were no definite good guys or bad guys and military and civilians were implicated together. This sense of ambiguity shaped Nachtwey's approach to covering conflicts. He does not take sides, nor is he interested in the grand strategy, war in general or what he refers to as 'history with a capital H'. War for him, is about the tragedy of the individual, the single man, the family. His pictures zoom in on the terrible moments and random acts of indiscriminate violence that conflict produces time and time again. His pictures have a visceral quality, where the viewer is transported right into battle.

It all unravelled

Today, I was the last piece in the jigsaw.
It's shocking how much a person can hide...
A whole other life.
For 3 whole years,
they were unaware.
my my
What secrets we keep.

PCN.

We tried out the new park connector that is supposed to take us from my place to Bishan Park, yesterday. But there were too many overheads to cross and Jaime wasn't comfortable with my cool new Strida-clone, so we settled for the swing at Happy Avenue.

And i thought this was a real laugh!

Miu Miu explores the breakfast table.

Read,learn, shoot, reflect, read more, shoot more

I think perhaps I have been visiting Clubsnaps too often (BnS section) and shooting too seldom. The Shooting Thematically workshop, conducted by Mr Chow Chee Yong, that I attended over the weekend awakened me to that. Over the last 6 months I have accumulated so many books on photography - composition, philosophy, photoshop, the works of famous photographers. I should be picking them up instead of reading up on the latest specs of the latest cameras or scouring the forums for bargains. Read, learn, shoot. Reflect, learn, read and shoot more.

Changing Perspective: Adopting a new eye level. (From the Tao of photography: Seeing beyond seeing.)

Pretend to be shorter, taller, different. Go to unusual places. Look at your surroundings from uncommon perspectives. Be a cockroach; crawl under the bed, hide in a closet. Be a bird, sit on a branch and look around with your bird's eyes.

Explore new avenues. How would a the cat lying on a car's hood see a parade? What would a grasshopper see peering up through blades of grass. What does the salad in your refrigerator see when you open the door?

Expand your repertoire of photographic positions: Kneel, Squat, Lie down, on your back, your side, your stomach. Stand on your head and watch how the world changes.

Avoid stiffness. Approach your subject quietly and move around it, under it and above it, then back off and observe how the background changes. Keep moving and observe how new relationships can be created by changing your eye level. A cup of tea in the background suddenly becomes a skyscraper when we step a little closer and view it from below.

Experiment with juxtaposition of objects, create a new world, permit yourself to see as never before. See the world dance.

Little Gremlin.

More photos of Miu Miu, we must get more before she grows up, to remember what a cute little darling she was.

No, that's not her, that's the OS upgrade I got for my Macbook today. It's supposed to speed up everything.

The Cove.

I am just back from watching The Cove, a documentary about the senseless slaughter of Dolphins which takes place annually in the Japanese fishing village of Taji. I am shocked and saddened by the footage. We must do something to stop this!

I got myself an imitation Strida bike at $240 and I plan to cycle to school every Friday in lieu of taking the car, in a bid to reduce my carbon footprint. The cool thing about the Strida clone is that it folds up really well, so if I am tired, I can hop onto a bus, without too much of a hassle.