As you may already be aware of, there is a distinctive lack of younger peers at these events, my interests at these social ‘parties’ turned towards the well-stocked bookshelves and libraries of whomever household’s we were inhabiting for the evening.

It was during my 11th year on this Earth that I discovered the Ramayanadha , an ancient Sanskrit epic that focuses on the adventures of various figures within the Hindu mythological pantheon. And while the subject may have been beyond my grasp of knowledge and understanding at the time, opening the ‘tome and discovering these rich histories of heroes and trickster figures, in illustrations and descriptive stories, is still one of my most cherished memories.

In 2008, there was an animation-film adaptation of the epic from the perspective of Sita/Lakshimi, the lover of Rama/Vishnu and, due to the Creative Commons license, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to watch the entire series via Youtube. This week, almost 4 years later since first launched, the film will be showcasing at the Pacific Cinémathèque between Wednesday, February 22, 2012 (8:30pm) and Thursday, February 23, 2012 (8:30pm). Sadly, I will be working on a last-minute digital narratives project for my interaction design class, but if you have a few free hours to spare in a mid-week evening, this movie will dazzle you with the colorful animation and 1920s snappy jazz music.

Official Review

USA 2008. Director: Nina Paley
Voices: Reena Shah, Debargo Sanyal, Aseem Chhabra, Bhavana Nagulapally, Manish Acharya, Nina Paley

In the ancient Sanskrit epic The Ramayana, Hindu goddess Sita is separated from, and then scorned by, her beloved husband Ram. In contemporary New York, Nina (filmmaker Nina Paley) receives an email from her husband, who has recently moved to India. Subject: DUMPSVILLE. Two women, separated by centuries, feel an irresistible urge to sing the blues — with the voice of 1920s jazz torch singer Annette Hanshaw.

Before Sita Sings the Blues, the longest animated film Paley had made ran but four minutes; for five years after her break-up, she toiled on her home computer to craft this 82 minutes of dazzling animation. And there are more remarkable back-story twists to the tale: Sita may be the first animated feature released under a Creative Commons license, which permits free usage — a move necessitated by complicated copyright issues that arouse over its use of old songs Paley believed were in the public domain. For a time, these issues prevented from Sita from being screened at all. Ultimately, Paley had to borrow $50,000 to pay for music rights. We’re paying screening fees, by the way — some of which, we’re told, will be used for payments on the loan! “ To get any film made is a miracle. To conceive of a film like this is a greater miracle” (Roger Ebert). Colour, 35mm. 82 mins.

via Sita Sings the Blues | Pacific Cinémathèque.

You may see a blank space below, then a gray box. Stick with it. When it’s finished loading, prepare to be mesmerized.

Click “Start,” and then use the slider across the bottom, or the wheel on your mouse, to zoom in — and in and in and in… or out and out and out… It will take you from the very smallest features postulated by scientists (the strings in string theory) to the very largest (the observable universe.)

If you want background music (or don’t want the distraction), click on the musical note in the upper right corner. Apologies if you’re using a mobile device; the tool uses Flash animation, which doesn’t work with all operating systems.

Can you see the ghost in the photograph?

I’ve been digging through the archives of photography on my ext harddrive and found this little gem from way back, summer of 2009.

The strangest part of this photo was the memories of an eerie ‘hair standing on end’ sensation during the ‘fresh air cinema” at SFU’s burnaby campus.

I was staring at the sky for the longest time, and had to poke my friends to make sure that I wasn’t the only person who could observe this.

SFU BURNABY IS HAUNTED OMG.. D: D:

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One of the worst pieces of career advice that I bet each of you has not only gotten but given is to “do what you love.”

Forget that.

If you are in touch with who you are, you are doing what you love, no matter what, because you love it.

So how could you possibly pick one thing you love to do? And what would be the point?

The world reveals to you all that you love by what you spend time on.

Try stuff.

If you like it, you’ll go back to it.

I just tried Pilates last month. I didn’t want to try, but a friend said she loved the teacher, so I went. I loved it. I have taken it three times a week ever since. And it’s changed me. I stand up straighter. (I’d also have better sex, if I were having it. The Pilates world should advertise more that it improves your sex life: Totally untapped market.)

Often, the thing we should do for our career is something we would only do if we were getting a reward. If you tell yourself that your job has to be something you’d do even if you didn’t get paid, you’ll be looking for a long time. Maybe forever.

So why set that standard?

The reward for doing a job is contributing to something larger than you are, participating in society, and being valued in the form of money.

The pressure we feel to find a perfect career is insane. And, given that people are trying to find it before they are thirty, in order to avoid both a quarterlife crisis and a biological-clock crisis, the pressure is enough to push people over the edge. Which is why one of the highest risk times for depression in life is in one’s early twenties when people realize how totally impossible it is to simply “do what you love.”

Here’s some practical advice: Do not what you love; do what you are.

(via Penelope Trunk)

As an alternative to methods of writing prose as a form of stress-therapy, I have been recording events and memories of 2012 via the art of illustrations in the Pony Brown diary-planner. Allowing the ink-filled tip of a “kitty princess” pen, to shape and re-lined drawings, is akin to the visualizations in my mind’s eye and a peaceful sensation.

While the art of writing, and writing, is often difficult to accomplish under periods of stress, the alternative methods of the art of illustration continue to thrive under the most stressful circumstance in-between academics. In contrast to creating this post, where I have spent more than an hour revising the grammar, sentence structures, and spelling errors, the action of of drawing the illustrations, adding colours, and snapping-uploading these photos to Flickr was approximately under 15 minutes.

Why does this method provide more of a relief from stress, versus writing?

For myself, it is the lack of verbal conversations. When I find myself in oral communication with others, the subject, and etiquette, often revolves around the environment and the strengths of the force of their personality. It is not so much that we speak, but that we adhere and confirm (or was that, compromise?) in our communications.

However, in contrast, the art of drawing is to satisfy myself, and myself alone. I draw and doodle but once, choosing the colors for these characters and figures is but a single thought, a once-choice that is not prone to constant revisions and the pitfalls of perfectionism (as this written blog post has done so).

Therefore, the art of drawing is much more of an effective stress reliever than the art of writing. I satisfy myself and my desires, seeking an inward approval (versus external acclaim).

Practice by drawing things large, as if equal in representation and reality. In small drawings every large weakness is easily hidden; in the large, the smallest weakness is easily seen.
- Leon Battista Alberti