she only loved two things. the first was her long dark hair. the second was how easily she could cut it off, and feel nothing.

i loved love love the movie. its quirky, funny, sincere, cute, light, witty and comes a lovely soundtrack which i bought promptly after the show. its playing on itunes as i post.

i had already found joseph gordon-levitt endearing as tommy solomon in 3rd rock from the sun and that was the last time i saw him as a teen. i did some cursory search on joseph gordon-levitt and found out that he is in fact my age and share the exact same birth date as i. another thing we have in common is the lack of spatial intelligence and direction sense. in an interview he says, “I get lost all the time. My sense of direction sucks. I remember time real well. I think everybody’s mind works really differently. I remember time real well and remember space pretty poorly.”

zooey deschanel looked really familiar but i couldn’t put a finger to it. imdb enlightens – she was trillian in hitch hiker’s guide to the galaxy (2005). also starred in many other mainstream movies like yes man and failure to launch but i didn’t see those. zooey deschanel also sings and composes, often her music is used in the films she is cast and its ost. she is the “she” is “she & him“. she recently married ben gibbard of death cab for a cutie.

i loved how the movie has a relationship with the city in which it is set. joseph gordon-levitt’s character is an architect by training but not by profession. but he still loves the craft and often sketches architectural designs. ooh, i love sketching, i don’t sketch enough. i loved the scene where he explains to zooey deschanel’s character how space can be better utilised in congested nyc by drawing the skyline on her arm and also tells her how long each building has been here.

i wish i could nurture that kind of relationship with the city of singapore where a structure can grow with me and chart my journey. i wish the creative industry in singapore can devote more time to ponder on that and produce works along those lines, not in a documentary but something more fictional and wistful.

mumm-ra’s she got you high is my favourite track of the ost.

chinavoc.com sheds some light on the origins and evolution of the chinese mid autumn festival. its origins involved the worship of the moon that can be traced to the xia and shang dynasties (2000 bc – 1066 bc). this practice began to concentrate around mid autumn in the zhou dynasty (1066 bc – 221 bc). it was only in the southern song dynasty (1127 – 1279 ad) that people began to send moon cakes to their relatives as gifts in expression of their best wishes of family reunion. this celebrations peaked in popularity in the ming dynasty (1368 – 1644 ad) and the tang dynasty (1644 – 1911 ad). the customs of burning incense, planting mid autumn trees and lighting lanterns sprouted on a grass roots level and varied in practice in different parts of china.

having a better historical perspective of mid autumn festival, i have a better appreciation of the sheer length of time this custom has been preserved on one hand, and allowed to evolve on the other. the pagan practice of moon worship does not cross anyone’s mind at all when consuming moon cakes. it is now an opportunity for networking, visiting and and plain consumption. but hey, if its yummy and does not come into conflict with my beliefs why not party on?

it was actually because of the geek and his invite to the jointly organised event by nhb and hua song museum at haw par villa that i participated in mid autumn festivities for the first time in all my adult life. to me, eating moon cakes does not count as having had taken part in the festivities.

the event at hua song museum was called “by the light of the lantern – a mid autumn celebration”. it was a free and easy programme where we could view the exhibits at hua song museum, stuff our face with dinner and moon cakes (free flow), get out names written in chinese calligraphy and make rudimentary lanterns.

we did all of them.

the organisers bought boxes of moon cakes from various hotels and bakeries and had them cut into smaller pieces for easier consumption. i can’t really tell one brand of moon cake from another. my personal favourite is snow skin, which was available in abundance!

this is the lantern that i made. i chose the rabbit patterns to associate the lantern and occasion with the chang’e and houyi mythology.

egged on by the geek, i had my chinese name written in chinese calligraphy. this was my first time since my last chinese exam i.e. 10 years ago that i wrote anything in chinese. the geek kept the end product because i have no idea what to do with it. neither would i part with money to have it frame and displayed.  it was fun anyway. the calligrapher wrote my surname in old chinese and said my middle character was special. i still don’t know how it is special.

i quite enjoyed the permanent exhibits at hua song museum. “hua song” means, “in praise of the chinese”. the exhibits chronicles the phenomenal emigration of the chinese people from china to all parts of the world, their arduous journey, the search for roots and identity and their customs that are preserved till today.

it also locates the emigration of the various dialect diaspora. the cantonese people surpasses all the other dialect groups by far in this exodus.

despite the staggering number of chinese people who have resided, remained and integrated into other societies over more than two centuries, it was only in the last few decades that the concept of immigration has been accepted because departure from the ancestral land was always meant to be temporary.

so this begs the question: do chinese people in the world today still consider themselves as diaspora if they have no emotional or conceptual connection to china especially in the modern context of the national person? where does loyalty lie?

personally, my stake is first and foremost with humanity at large i.e. i identify myself as a human being with common and universal human needs and aspiration as much as the next person, and then my nationality of a singaporean with quirks and idiosyncrasies handed to me as standard issue upon birth in this country and then i identify myself lastly with my ethnicity.

i believe in a human heritage. i believe that all peoples had a hand in destroying our only home and share a responsibility to salvage it. i believe that all cultural heritage is worth preserving laterally and not hierarchically, and should never be wielded as tool for emotional blackmail or for divisive means.

i’ve had a blast over this F1 season. i found myself reading up more about the sport (read: lewis hamilton), following the latest updates and this time round i could even explain to af how the qualifier works. having had the opportunity to meet the drivers in person also made the sport more personal and engaging. and of course, who doesn’t love some controversy to spice up the sport. to the uninitiated that would be nelson’s piquet jr fessing up to his deliberate crash that enabled fernando alsono’s win in last year’s singapore grand prix.

that being said, it was the awesome company last night with the geek and af that made the event for me. i also loved the great photo opportunities.

this is a picture i took of an F1 car in action.

this is a picture that the geek took of an F1 car in action.

i absolutely love his photographic skills and technical expertise to capture these shots.

this year i managed to enjoy a different spectator view of the race. we were situated at the marina bay grandstand last year. this year we upgraded ourselves to the turn one grandstand. af had the pass to the pit grandstand to we  rotated among the three of us to gawk at the privileged people at the paddock club across the pit grandstand.

also, we had access to the F1 village (food & beverage and entertainment area) with our passes. the place was set up with a performance venue and restaurants erected in structures to resemble double story shop houses ala chinatown and kampong glam.

it so happens that the back street boys were performing on stage when we were browsing the F1 village. i didn’t think that they would have such a big following. i was never a fan of boy bands when they were in their hey day, but now i think they definitely are more like back street middle-age-crisis-men in denial of their age.

incidentally, at the other side of the world, my sister and niece also had high octane fun at the coronado speed festival this same weekend.

i think we were still on an octane high when we chatted online like closest speed junkies because this was what ensued:

vk: we went to the coronada speed festival. i’m loading pics now.

me: i’m loading pictures of fast cars too. but my fast car is faster than your fast car!

vk: mine are old fast cars. the owners are the drivers. yours pay people to drive.

me: that means my drivers are professionals and your drivers are amateurs.

vk: my drivers are professional owners… but old already.

i’ve never been close to being a groupie till now.

last night, the geek and i attending an invite only meet the drivers’ autograph session. both of us were only actually interested in lewis hamilton, but got the autographs of the other drivers who were present too since we were already there.

fans were told not to bring memorabilia for the signing. autographs cards were provided. just as well.

the autograph session took place at the singapore gp paddock club. the grandstand at the paddock club is above the pit lane and has plenty of action and the who’s who. if not for winning the online contest i don’t think i’ll be anywhere near the paddock club.

the set up is really plush, similar to a night club cum hotel lobby. free flow of drinks is available from the bar. music plays in the background and glitzy lights oscillates via a projected beam.

the highlight of the evening however was the man himself.

lewis hamilton has the best pr skills among all the drivers. he smiled at everyone and indulged his fans with mega watt grins for point blank cameras. he shook hands and greeted everyone. the guys from brawn gp were also rather nice and friendly. most other drivers were sullen and made it obvious that they wanted to get over and done with their pr obligations, especially toyota who were not popular anyway.

tomorrow evening, i’ll be at turn 1 for the qualifier. i’ll have my eyes peeled for the yellow helmet.

more pics to come.