9.14.2012

///LUCOLU///

An elderly and reluctant boat engine provided the soundtrack for our strange float down the opaque brown river leading to Tonle Sap, a Cambodian lake so vast strangers could easily mistake it for the ocean. The mostly straight and mostly still narrow-way of water was flanked by floating houses painted with colorful sunburst patterns and mysterious symbols; banks punctuated with stranded miscellanea; kids either in groups frolicking and waving naked in the water or riding solo on bicycles three times their size. The scenery on each side was always the same: a vertical triptych of brown water, green grass, and greyish blue sky. There were sections that smelled of just plain river, then a section inhabited by the fishmongers of the village that smelled much less plain and much more potent, then eventually came a part where we were just about at the edge of the lake and the smell of gasoline took over our senses. Our boat had broken down, just long enough for me to take some photos and attempt to grasp the unreal oddness of the surrounding atmosphere.

A number of temples became real visions during that trip. Some existed in the middle of remote, wild jungles, half-covered with gatherings of little green plants that looked a lot like cannabis. Local children were hanging out casually, sitting on ruins hundreds of years their senior, with sunlight freckling their faces through the leafy canopy. Other temples were in areas nearer the city, being swallowed by seemingly mutant trees, not quite as giant as Redwoods but still massive and definitely more imaginative. Their main prey seemed to be ancient debris, and their roots spread wide as if to imitate some sort of vacuum, while their branches twisted every which way grabbing onto other parts of the rubbled victim in case it might try to get away. This was a weird and, at the same time, beautiful battle to witness: the battle between man and nature. A telling scene: nature reigns, man invades nature, then nature reigns once again.
Lulu and Co x House of Jazz Sailor Collar Dress
Lulu and Co x House of Jazz Pleated Dress
Lulu and Co x Maarten Van Der Horst Ruffle Back Shirt
Lulu and Co x Maarten Van Der Horst Silk Pyjama Bottoms
Lulu and Co x Maarten Van Der Horst Silk T-Shirt
Film photographs and compositions by me - Siem Reap, Cambodia, July 2012
Drums Come From Africa
Al Quetz aka Quetzal

///COLOUR///

They say I'm different. If Kaisik Wong hadn't already been catapulted into the next dimension, I would've wished and wished and wished for him to play dress-ups with me. Who knows, maybe him and I will embellish and ornament one another later tonight, in outerspace.
Century New Pathways
Jose Parla 2010
Zen Zen
Jose Parla 2007
Mercurial Aesthetic
Jose Parla 2008
Switching States of Mind
Jose Parla 2009
Storm of Broken Syntax
Jose Parla 2008
Li-Jiang
Jose Parla 2008
Fashion aspects by the late Kaisik Wong, floating in bliss /// Compositions by me

"Wait, oh, mourning, smile for me in all colour." eske.
Special People
Betty Davis

///LORDSOF///

'Inflammation of the bronchial tubes' -- a phrase I often used in forged truancy-excuse letters at my all girls high school in New Zealand. Thirty-three letters later, I found myself being called to the dean's office where he presented me with a small black binder. Flipping through it, my own handwriting's attempt at my mother's signature fluttered about near the end of each ruled leaf. He didn't even bother to state the obvious, just gave me a look of stern disappointment, eyes wide and lips taut. Detention was to be attended for as many days as I skipped -- this was fine by me. Collecting trash around campus was much more tolerable than being stuck in a pallid room, barely awake, staring not at but through a teacher whose monotonous lecture always became a background drone to the daydream looping in my head.

Five mornings ago, I woke up with legitimate bronchitis. With no school to skip, no dean to disappoint, and no belief in the health-damaging, capitalist pharmaceutical industry, I prescribed myself an extra abundance of juices, smoothies, multivitamins, and superfoods for the next few days. But of course the most lasting remedy would be for me to quit smoking cigarettes. This ever-recurring cough is getting really old. I've quit so many other harmful things I used to ingest, why not this one too?

Having been, for the most part, loft-ridden this past week, I realized that solitude is much more valuable and enjoyable when one is in good health. Solitude when sick kind of just amplifies a desperation for tender, loving, caring company (read: mom or boyfriend) and tips very easily into becoming its close relative: loneliness. Thus, I finally got back into reading real paperback books that I can hold in the flesh; I finally got around to adding more layers to that beautiful mandala Ixchel and I started painting months ago on my bedroom wall; I finally found some free movies online that were compatible enough with my current mood to hold my attention the whole way through.

I drank a Jamaican ginger beer and several cups of chamomile tea with surfer turned skateboarder turned head-tatted-whiteboy-cholo-gangster, Jay Adams. Such a brilliant and admirable character; a real kid, not a sellout like all the rest. The idea of skating bowls and pools had been weaving a small desire within me these past sunny seasons, but while watching Lords of Dogtown the idea enveloped me with an urgent ambition, excitedly stating: YOU WILL LEARN HOW TO SKATE BOWLS.
Alien Workshop Colorsync II
Keith Haring x Alien Workshop
Penny Rasta (my baby board!) /// Flip Love Shroom /// World Industries Velvet
Penny Organic: Biodegradable plastic deck that eventually breaks down when fully immersed in soil due to a unique additive which reacts with enzymes in the earth to decompose. Comes wrapped in a hessian tote bag. Of course I want one.
Artworks by Anai Greog /// Compositions by me

9.07.2012

///FREE///

wheels softly spinning
floating, fragile
gliding gleefully
by & bye
farewell ground
i'm sliding with the endless sky
seeing why
how the universe works
a single gear
churning & turning
leaves, pages, stages
inhaling, chest high
exhaling peaceful sighs
i do my best without trying
i sweat with the sun
without running
a rolling stone
free as a cloud
light as a feather
stiff as a board
fluid like water
that flows & flows & flows
skin, like the earth
that glows, glows, glows
a single infinite string
weaving the web
that is
us
us, the collective
the oneness
the lightness
the loveness
the brightness
& eternally weightless
bodies conceptual
everyone is everything
this
is real
thinking to feeling to just being
vibrations realized & rising
wheels softly spinning
faster & faster
humbly
till
we are nothing
& everything
all at once
we're at oneness
when i realize i am one with
everything
all becomes easy
the zone, the flow
the flowing with the roll
rowing forward
growing toward
i&i
growing
upward
toward the source
way up high
inside
of me
when i flow
i am free
Photographs by I.Lara, M.Vincent, K.Buena /// Compositions by me:
Joshua Tree - May 2012
Long Beach and Venice Beach - June 2012
The Grove - August 2012

Dawn
Chocolate Grass

^/\|||<-|\\<*-/\-*>//|->||/\^ it's freedom time ^/\|||<-|\\<*-/\-*>//|->||/\^