tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-135860912023-06-24T04:42:18.426-07:00...intelligent notes on the lotus side of lifeg chinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08348484649543895070noreply@blogger.comBlogger48125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13586091.post-1154283684421211492006-07-30T09:41:00.000-07:002006-07-30T11:23:07.116-07:00

The Japanese animation studio powerhouse Studio Ghibli premiers its latest animated feature film Gedo Senki or "Ged's War Chronicles" in Japan July 29, and out of competition at the Venice Film Festival (La Biennale di Venezia), which runs August 30 to September 9, to most of the rest of the world. The English version will more than likely be distributed worldwide by Walt Disney Pictures, which

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08348484649543895070noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13586091.post-1144307013973137332006-04-05T23:58:00.000-07:002006-04-06T00:03:33.996-07:00

Archetypal tales indeed.May the force be with muggle Bart Alewijnse, with thanks, for this image.

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13586091.post-1140572527522202902006-02-21T17:36:00.000-08:002006-02-21T17:42:07.523-08:00

Quote attributed to Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha)[Image courtesy Art.com]

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13586091.post-1140572079751590282006-02-21T15:04:00.000-08:002006-02-21T17:34:40.250-08:00

Ikea, only Danish? Not exactly.Jysk (pronounced you-sk) is a Denmark-based international housewares chain, with stores primarily serving Europe and North America. Many of its currently 23 Canadian locations are west of Ontario, a novel luxury for Western Canadians accustomed to substantial waits while international chains realize the Canadian market isn't restricted to the Greater Toronto Area.

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13586091.post-1140563031228260992006-02-21T14:49:00.000-08:002006-02-21T15:03:51.260-08:00

My bad.Richard "Just A Gwai Lo" Eriksson, whose blog I blogged a few days ago, recently sent me a very polite email pointing out that his last name is spelt with a double-s, not with a double-k as I had done - with disturbing consistency - in my original posting. The error has been rectified in the original post, and here is the public apology to Mr. Eriksson for the glaring oversight.Thankfully

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13586091.post-1140163584764264452006-02-16T22:35:00.000-08:002006-02-21T14:48:58.583-08:00

Madonna with bindi and mehndi (picture courtesy Natural Expressions). Bjork in kimono (picture courtesy Amazon). Willie Scott in cheongsam (picture courtesy Wikipedia), lip-synching her brazen blonde way through "Anything Goes" in the opening sequence to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. And a chap called Richard Eriksson in Just A Gwai Lo. There's even an image of cherry blossoms (pictured

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13586091.post-1137569996936566542006-01-17T23:30:00.000-08:002006-01-17T23:39:56.950-08:00

Captured in the women's washroom adjoining the Pacific Centre food court (first stall from the front, on the right), downtown Vancouver:"Warning: The Prison of Marriage & Motherhood Bad For Women's Health."Truth, I think.

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13586091.post-1137533632041869702006-01-17T13:11:00.000-08:002006-01-17T22:47:20.780-08:00

It isn't that large a leap from chocolate cheesecake, to chocolate-flavoured cheese, if you think about the idea objectively.Yet just as some struggle with the culinary concept of using beans in dessert - consider the Chinese sweet "red bean paste," akin to sweet rice pudding, a traditional Lunar New Year dessert (a timely comparison, since the Year of the Dog is around the corner) - the idea of

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13586091.post-1135597468632133352005-12-26T00:01:00.000-08:002005-12-29T04:19:00.050-08:00

Find most parties and clubs boring skankfests, and lounges an expensive exercise in wasted time? Wonder where the other semi-intelligent and vaguely pleasant people are, and where you can get some? Interesting company, that is.It's been remarked, sometimes less than politely, that Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (thanks to Frank Liu at PBase.com for the photo) isn't a great place for a varied

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08348484649543895070noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13586091.post-1135132218662402732005-12-20T17:07:00.000-08:002005-12-20T18:31:38.310-08:00

Art imitates life, if somewhat imprecisely, when it comes to Billy Dee Williams - most popularly known as the actor who played Lando Calrissian [pictured at right] in the classic Star Wars film trilogy (that's Episodes IV-VI of a series of six films, for the uninitiated). Like the multi-gifted cardplayer turned Cloud City administrator turned Rebel Alliance general Lando, Harlem-born Williams is

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13586091.post-1132920444095419572005-11-25T02:27:00.000-08:002005-11-25T04:10:50.726-08:00

Is violence funny? As implied by the Björk song off her 1993 solo album Debut, "Violently Happy," it would seem to depend on your state of mind. Or on whom you're asking. And if that somebody happens to be David Cronenberg, director of the 2005 Cannes favourite A History of Violence - now in wide release - the answer would be "yes.""I think you can be funny and serious at the same time. And yes,

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08348484649543895070noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13586091.post-1132313991489272442005-11-18T01:49:00.000-08:002005-11-18T03:41:31.493-08:00

The Russians are really coming at last - and they're doing it literally Hollywood-style with Night Watch (Nochnoi Dozor), the first made-in-post-Soviet-Russia blockbuster. (Russian promo poster pictured at left.) How blockbuster, exactly? BBC World and The New York Times articles in 2004 written shortly after the film's Russian release reported Night Watch's domestic ticket sales (exceeding US$12

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13586091.post-1131005382260183402005-11-03T00:08:00.000-08:002005-11-06T03:04:38.680-08:00

There is a great streak of violence in every human being. If it is not channeled and understood, it will break out in war or in madness.David Samuel Peckinpah as quoted in Aljean Harmetz, “Man Was A Killer Long Before He Served a God,” The New York Times (August 31, 1969) [thanks to Garrett Chaffin-Quiray, Senses of Cinema] Image courtesy Senses of CinemaIt is better to be violent, if there is

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13586091.post-1130998868469471322005-11-02T22:04:00.000-08:002005-11-06T02:29:44.046-08:00

It's a portable, convergent world. Mo' stuff in mo' smaller is mo' better. But gadget geeks who actually use the darn things know from experience: size may matter, but it's about how you use it.Although hunting and pecking or thumb-typing on your vertical form-factor PDA is fine for inputting the occasional phone number or brief note to self, serious data entry or writing that magnum opus

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13586091.post-1130550630326947752005-10-28T18:48:00.000-07:002005-10-28T19:53:43.873-07:00

Presenting a fair aspect and wielding musical instruments, the Chinese are taking over the world. Well. Not exactly. But if reports are to be believed, the People's Republic of China has a viable cultural export with current cache in the prosaically-named Twelve Girls Band, touted as a PRC music sensation.What's the hook? Similar to other all-female groups of the New Age, easy listening,

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13586091.post-1128063756394529282005-09-29T22:08:00.000-07:002005-10-28T17:44:10.680-07:00

Perhaps David Boreanaz's time has come (again) at last with Bones, The FOX Network's "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation meets The X Files" wannabe hit show. Although it'll be hard to top playing the titular character in the five-season cult favourite Angel, Joss Whedon's most successful post-Buffy the Vampire Slayer tv series to date (let's not even mention the Firefly debacle).Boreanaz's

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08348484649543895070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13586091.post-1126496016752361672005-09-11T20:32:00.000-07:002005-09-15T04:44:22.463-07:00

And you thought Love. Angel. Music. Baby. was just the name of Gwen Stefani's No Doubt-less recording debut. No. Of course you didn't. As a highly pop culture-aware individual you knew all the time that the above romantic appelations refer to Stefani's posse of Muses, the Harajuku Girls (pictured in colour-coordinated perfection at right, with Stefani pulling a Diana, Princess of Wales pose at

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13586091.post-1125512159341208952005-08-31T11:10:00.000-07:002005-09-15T02:14:50.276-07:00

Not exactly Anderson Cooper 360. But the Yahoo! version, officially launched by-invitation-only on March 29, 2005 [thanks to the CNET Yahoo Blog], fits into "the same only different" category: it tries (very hard) to be all things to everyone, a sort of personalized, super-customizable, uber-My Yahoo! homepage with a hyped-up online cool factor and big on communications ability. And of course,

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13586091.post-1125471511853684962005-08-30T23:54:00.000-07:002005-08-31T23:37:32.623-07:00

Time-travel 500 years into humanity's future and you'll arrive smack into the setting for Joss Whedon's writer/director feature film debut, Serenity, opening September 30 at a theater near you. Serenity is the big-screen version of Whedon's short-lived tv series Firefly, which FOX aired for a mere half season back in 2002/03. The film retains the same core cast, and takes up the plot where the

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13586091.post-1125457938674183762005-08-30T20:11:00.000-07:002005-08-30T23:50:53.453-07:00

It's birds. It's planes. It's the Mighty Asians, already. Plural, since a reasonable number of the latter (definitely not the birds) shazammed their way into the Vancouver Asian Film Festival's first Mighty Asian Movie Making Marathon. Hmmm, MAMMM. Evocative. But I digress lasciviously.Yes, the abovementioned Mighty Asians would include myself, as a member of the "Flying Chopsticks" - one of

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13586091.post-1125457820137541502005-08-30T19:57:00.000-07:002005-08-30T20:10:20.143-07:00

...the physical materialization of a character to be created emerges of its own accord once the right inner values have been established....Each person evolves an external characterization out of himself, from others, takes it from real or imaginary life, according to his intuition, his observation of himself and others....it makes no difference. The only proviso is that while he is making this

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08348484649543895070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13586091.post-1124696042551005802005-08-22T00:02:00.000-07:002005-08-22T00:34:02.566-07:00

...sort of. The Government of Canada’s (GoC) On-line Research Panel, Phase 5, is an ongoing GoC initiative to gauge public opinion and usage of its online services. Sign-up to the panel is of course free (it's not like the feds don't take enough of our money). For the small inconvenience of having notifications about quarterly surveys emailed to you, your name is entered into draws for small cash

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13586091.post-1124529008926680782005-08-20T01:34:00.000-07:002005-08-21T23:55:11.956-07:00

The official Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Radio site mentions the following in small letters on the web page's lower left corner: "CBC is currently experiencing a labour disruption." One click takes you to the official CBC Negotiations website, which has regular updates and a little more background information on the issues inherent to the dispute - from the CBC's point of view. The

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08348484649543895070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13586091.post-1123618816951105222005-08-09T13:10:00.000-07:002005-08-09T13:20:16.956-07:00

When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come close to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.Recalled on 100th anniversary of his birth, 18 Feb 79. Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations, compiled by James B. Simpson. Copyright © 1988 by James B. Simpson. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. [Thanks to Bartleby.com;

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13586091.post-1123574690625341402005-08-08T23:25:00.000-07:002005-08-09T01:09:38.780-07:00

The White Stripes were in concert at the Orpheum Theatre, Vancouver (a National Historic Site in British Columbia), August 7-8; if their show on the former date is any indication, band members Jack and Meg White give an energetic live performance that improvises on their studio material without compromising it.Pictured here on the cover of their latest studio cd, Get Behind Me Satan (2005), the

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08348484649543895070noreply@blogger.com0