Filed under: Current events, Tangents | Tags: A Little Princess, Alfonso Cuarón, area studies, Blindness, Concordia University Bookstore, diasporic literature, diasporic studies, Dominican Republic, Dominican-American, El misterio Galíndez, Galíndez, Gerardo Herrero, How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, immigration studies, Jesús de Galíndez, Jose Saramago, Julia Alvarez, Junot Díaz, Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, Migration studies, Patrick Doyle, Philippe Lioret, Rafael Trujillo, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Welcome
I am reading a book of fiction for no one but myself that I sincerely and realistically expect to finish, for the first time in way more than a year. I was reading Blindness last summer, by José Saramago, in anticipation of its film adaptation. I had started it just before the antecedent Christmas (does that sound awkward) and had made it more halfway through. Halfway through was horrific though, and I couldn’t actually get any further. I ended up lending it to Tony – who finished it – and hearing moderate spoilers from him in the end. I never watched the movie either. In fall semester, I read several whole and partial translations from late 19th and 20th century Chinese lit (finishing with scar literature), and while I enjoyed a good deal of it, as coursework it cannot be considered reading for me and me alone.
Everything finds its way. And weirdly, a lot of it has to do with A Little Princess.
A Little Princess (1995, dir. Alfonso Cuarón) → Patrick Doyle → El misterio Galíndez (2003, dir. Gerardo Herrero) → Galíndez (1991, by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán) → Jesús de Galíndez (1915-1956?) → (more…)
Filed under: Current events, Music, Tangents | Tags: Automobile manufacture industry, Coparck, TTC Transit City, World of Tomorrow
For the last few weeks, my Windows Live Messenger personal message has been, “cars in the sky, parking lots all around,” inspired by an episode of Curious Orange that featured the band Coparck almost exclusively. I don’t actually use MSN so often so I don’t notice these things – I haven’t changed my display photo in years. But they’ve been speaking about the auto industry and hopes for a bailout on the news with reference to both Canada and America and then the line popped back in my head. In my mind, I think I’d prefer that the money be spent to either ease the workers who will inevitably lose their jobs into retirement or other employment sectors. I really don’t think cars are for our future. It’s certainly been said before but if consumers don’t want to buy the cars that those factories in southwestern Ontario (and you know, wherever in the States) are able to make… maybe we should be making something else if manufacturing is such a big deal. It’s my first day at home today and I saw an ad for TTC Transit City on the way home from the train station and I thought, hey… (just sayin’) Bombardier’s still doing pretty well I think. The wiki article has an upward-pointing green arrow for 2008 anyhow.
Disclaimer: I don’t know anything about economics. I just know that I can’t be the only one who believes in infrastructure-investment.
Filed under: Fangirl, Motion picture, Music, Tangents | Tags: A Little Princess, Alfonso Cuarón, Children of Men, Emmanuel Lubezki, Patrick Doyle, Slavoj Žižek
My throat feel like paper and my voice goes here and there. I have a midterm to write on Thursday on the anthropology of “Middle Eastern Society and Culture” but all I can think of are the ways in which tangents lead me to conclusions that can’t be concluded yet, for I’ve only just turned 20. I like seeing tangents in my life, but it’s usually small ones here and there related to film or popular culture and interests rather than real concerns. A bigger and more enduring one hit me recently though. It’s not that big, and maybe not that enduring (maybe seven countable years), but I noticed it and thought it big.
Sean Axmaker interviewed Alfonso Cuarón for GreenCine last year upon the release of Children of Men:
“…you’ve made so many films about children and young adults and people who still have a sense of hope. I think A Little Princess is magical in a very human way.
“That’s the one I love. As I said, I never see my films after they are finished, but the one I love, my memories of it and everything, is A Little Princess. If I would rescue one of my movies, it would be A Little Princess.”
A Little Princess is kind of my favourite movie ever. Cuaron filmed it with his cinematic collaborator cinematographer demigod Emmanuel Lubezki. It was also scored by Patrick Doyle, the man who brought me love for Scottish composers. Throughout junior high I collected whatever bits Doyle left behind on the internet in .mp3 format (way back when Napster was still around) and by high school, my search had expanded to include Cuaron. An imdb search led me to find out he would be adapting P.D. James‘ dystopia: The Children of Men.
Fast forward to to 2007, because that’s about how long it took the film to reach a cinema near me, nearly a decade since I first met Cuaron. He includes a documentary by Slavoj Žižek in the special features on the real issues that are portrayed in his film. How did it happen… I need to understand Zizek for my midterm exam this Thursday and he’ll be my last reading of the semester for the most difficult but most interesting class I’m taking this semester (“Beyond Orientalism”).
It isn’t a long and tangled tangent-course. It’s just one that’s been in the works for years. Emmanuel Lubezki is amazing (listen to him speak here: http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/images/column/2107/lubezki3.mp3).
A smaller tangent happening now includes Hegel and facebook:
Édith Piaf (Milord) → La Vie en Rose → Sylvie Testud → Fear and Trembling, by Amélie Nothomb → Japan → facebook → a boy from school → Fear and Trembling, by Søren Kierkegaard → Hegel → Marx → Frankfurt School → Foucault → Said → area studies.
I should go study for that midterm, or at least the reading on gender I’m supposed to get at (as an aftermath to Said’s Orientalism).
When I grow up I hope to be well-read.
Filed under: Attempts, Current events, Internaute, Tangents, Travels | Tags: China, Cities, England, Gifties, Sraffies, Tate Modern
I tried to keep a China blog… it obviously failed. But I’ll be posting random photos from the trip and my memories of them in it, so it won’t be a total waste: http://shuqizaibeijing.wordpress.com/ I’m sorry if the Chinese characters appear as question marks or boxes.
I am in Zone 3, London now staying at teh BFF’s. It’s been a week since I’ve arrive and I haven’t accomplished much in sightseeing, except for when Blondie accompanies me and takes me on rapid tours of major landmarks in Central London. Yesterday we went to the Tate Modern and took a walk along the water. On Wednesday, I met up with Ian and Helen for a mini-Srafcon and after lunch, we wandered around the Harrods toy (Doctor Who toys!) and food sections, and then walked through St. James’s Park. This week I’ll probably try to kickstart the sightseeing since I only have about ten days remaining, three of which will be spent in Belgium (booked by Eurostar): the plan is one day in Antwerpen and one and a half in Bruxelles.
One of the things I love most about London is its age. It’s amazing to see building that have lasted so long… you can’t experience that sort of thing in Toronto. And the vibe a big city has is just something else. I’m glad I’m a city girl, even if my city only has a population of about 3m, compared to about 8m here and 13m in Beijing. I’ll still claim this city girl identity. The Tate had an exhibition about cities. Half of the world’s population now lives in such urban areas. Another sad statistic that Blondie worked out to be one fifth of the world lives in slums. Rosie wrote something about identity in Britain. The UN Secretary General wrote something about immigration in the Guardian. My anthropology professor said something about the majority of the Chinese population floating around as domestic migrants. I’m not sure why those are all relevant ideas, except that they clearly are… they’re just statements in my head right now. There’s something about cities and moving and people.
