Orientalism

Academia long discarded Edward Said's theory "Orientalism" as outdated and too structualist without however realizing that worldwide ignorance in regards to culture and ethnicity is still trickling its nasty tale behind glitz and glamout of modern metropolises. Were we a bit too in a rush to state that we are already past the primitive orientalism and exoticism of XX century? just to find us again in the midst of mass re-production of "otherness" of XXI century? How far are we from wearing again the "banana skirt" and dancing on the stage of La Scala?

Found this website and the description of services provided by "Oriental" people.
If "Oriental" do still exist in our "civilized" twenty first imagination, then it is certainly a symptom of underlying disease called contemporary racism.

Here I quote excerpt from the website http://www.orientalnannies.com/ and according to the site the definition of "oriental" is as follows:

"5 reasons to choose ‘Oriental Nannies’


• If you are specifically looking for oriental staff we are here to help - Our large pool of oriental domestic staff, enables us to send you more oriental applicants than any other agency in the UK.

• ‘Oriental Nannies’ gives you value for money, charging less, with our flat fees and we give you 6 month guarantee! (see our terms of business)

• We offer a risk free 2 week trial period-which means you have 2 weeks to get to know your new employee and ensure you are both comfortable with the arrangement.

• As parents ourselves, we understand your needs and concerns.

We shall satisfy all our clients with superior quality service, quality applicants, excellence, leadership and integrity in the industry".

Thy Kiss of Divine Nature

थिर्द वर्ल्ड Third World Democracy

If the history should witness another revolution perhaps it will come from immigrant mass. The classical antagonisms of racial, gender, and sexual difference seems to be replaced by new ones dwelling in urban megapolises dividng people and class by citizenry and status. In other words the classic division between white and black, female and male, heterosexual or perverts have been internalized to the extent that there is urge to shift the weight to new others. my God does it sound pompous. anyways. here's music of the day

In the Mood for Romance

When I was a kid and Soviet Art passed its initial phase of Renaissance, Russian performer Alla sang famous Tsvetayeva's lines in Romance style. No other music genre as Russian Romance has this ability to resonate emotional feelings, and ability to evoke music from the soul. Whenever I listen to it I experience a wave of sentimentality, disguised by delicate melancholy of lyrics. The video is an excerpt from Eldar Ryazanov's classic Irony of Fate or Enjoy your Bath! The film is supposed to be a social satire of communism and its failure as collective ideology in the face of individual creativity. The irony of individuals trapped in the societal obligations and planned housings is transformed through one magical New Year's night into spontaneity of unknown fate

Till this day I'm a big fan of Russian Romances.

Хочу у зеркала, где муть
И сон туманящий,
Я выпытать -- куда вам путь
И где пристанище.

Я вижу: мачты корабля,
И вы -- на палубе...
Вы -- в дыме поезда... Поля
В вечерней жалобе...

Вечерние поля в росе,
Над ними -- вороны...
-- Благославляю вас на все
Четыре стороны!

American, French, Brittish cultural subtleties

The train was packed, and the U. S. Marine Walked the entire length looking for a seat, but a well-dressed, Middle-aged, French woman's poodle took the Only seat remaining. The war-weary Marine asked, "Ma'am, may I have that seat?"
The French woman just sniffed and said to no one in particular, "Americans are so rude. My little Fifi is using that seat."
The Marine walked the entire train again, but the only seat left was Under that dog.
"Please, ma'am. May I sit down? I'm very tired."
She snorted, "Not only are you Americans rude, you are also arrogant!"
This time the Marine didn't say a word; he just picked up the little Dog, tossed it out the train window, and sat down.
The woman shrieked, "Someone must defend my honor! Put this American In his place !"
An English gentleman sitting nearby spoke up, "Sir, you Americans seem to have a penchant for doing the wrong thing. You hold the fork in the wrong hand, you drive your vehicles on the wrong side of the road.
And now, Sir, you seem to have thrown the wrong bitch out the window."

Кино урлаг шүүмжлэл эмэгтэй хүний нүдээр

Latest and as always finely executed text from Rey Chow. This time her theoretical musings flutter around classical, but never thoroughly exhausted leitmotiff of sentimentality and cinema. The subject of her study evolves around cinematic images from contemporary chinese selection already familiar to worldwide audience such as In the Mood for Love, Happy Together, and with post-scriptum about Brokeback Mountain. Borrowing from Nietzsche (hot the true world ultimately became a fable)she discusses individual auteurs in conjunction with vast theoretical knowledge on the phenomena of sentimentalism and its cinematic explorations. Truly every time I read her works my humble intellect goes "Ah that is what it is".

So I Started Revolution from my Bed . . .

Lately there have been a lot of studies and speculations conducted in relation to happiness and productiveness. Companies are launching relationship counselors, marriage consultants in hopes to boost overall performance in accordance with psychological hypothesis that a happy worker is usually productive one-hence blurring once established lines between private and professional life.

We should note here that most of drugs that target depression and melancholy are usually engineered to induce happy hormones in all its deverse formulae. Talking about happy hormone, here's one called oxitocin released during active engagement with your significant other, whether in kissing, hugging touching, or orgasm. So does it mean my typically blue mondays better endured if there was enough weekend snuggling? hmm interesting. . .shall I launch my businees right from my bed?

Call it True Romance

"I had to come all the way from the highways and byways of Tallahassee, Florida to Motor City, Detroit to find my true love. lf you gave me a million years to ponder, l would never have guessed that true romance and Detroit would go together. And to this day, the events that followed all seem like a distant dream. But the dream was real and was to change our lives forever. l kept asking Clarence why our world seemed to be collapsing and everything seemed so shitty. And he'd say: "That's the way it goes. But don't forget, it goes the other way too.'' That's the way romance is. Usually that's the way it goes. But every once in a while, it goes the other way too" From film True Romance by director Tony Scott, music Hans Zimmer, story by Quentin Tarantino

Once: the cultural kitsch

When the usual cocktail topic wants to slip away from heavy headed politics, money, sex affairs, the ideal conversation usually flutters around leisurely activities. In one of these social soirees I recently found myself in heated argument about "Once" a "well-received" film by both European and American critics. Everybody seems to like that film and I find myself dumb-founded whenever I have to explain my indifference to it. For that matter I went to see "Once" actually twice to really find out what was really the problem with me?
Milan Kundera redefined the term kitsch as disgust for participation in collective happiness. Kitsch can be manifested in past Communist May Day parades or in content American man's admiration for children playing soccer on beautiful green fields. In the past it was quite usual to see in the streets of UB grand posters of workers and peasants painted, in Realist fashion, with their heads always directed toward far away distance. The underlines would often spell something futuristic as "Towards Socialism!" Nothing could disrupt such harmony except probably occasional outbreak of violence repressed in the public. It seems today is a different world where nothing is suppressed, but on the contrary augmented to the extent it loses its shock value. There aren't anymore posters shouting loud and clear instead we find ourselves often in self-celebratory existence of "I am different, I am not your average American, I am not your average Filipino, and etcetera, etcetera". In a similar sense we see the demand of cheap material in fashion. Yesterday' stone-washed jeans (that ironically cost more than it originally cost when average worker used to wear it in the dawn of the century) are replaced in these days by obviously non-luxury elements as cotton and other cheap and raw materials. In other words what we see today is the mounting to the pedestal of collective worship, not velvet, gold, and silk, but cotton, plastic, and jeans. The public is choosing to distance itself unconsciously from mainstream, only unfortunately to find itself again in the ditch of self-celebratory orgiastic ecstasy of urban, hip bliss. All right, enough then about political or cultural agenda as many may accuse me, back to the film.
Success of "Once" is a reason why Hollywood is losing its share to indie boom. Film-wise I haven't encountered anything as engaging as I would expect from any classics. The film was original no doubt about it, plot was interesting, and soundtrack was amazing. However the picture failed to tell me its story. It was shot in documentary style; some of the still shots were manipulated by montage with usual video recordings. Again, nothing breath-taking. I would rather watch Pride and Prejudice, be a hedonistic viewer rather than sacrifice the beauty of picture to the fashionable trend of being hip and "refreshing".