a chocolate house, in this economy

Recently I discovered David Lebovitz's blog. David is an American food critic currently living in Paris. I discovered his blog from an airplane magazine article in which he talks about how doing a cooking show is much more difficult than what people would normally imagine. I am no foodie. Food, especially western cuisine, is completely foreign to me. David Lebovitz's writing is informative and witty. He makes everything sound so easy and his pictures make everything look so delicious. I know even though the recipes are just right up there, the caramelized white chocolate ice cream I make will probably taste very different. Yet I am still always heavily tempted.

I find myself reading David lebovitz's blog a lot more often and enthusiastically than some of my favorite film blogs. His blog has practically become a second shelter for this hopeless dreamer(me)'s dreams. Film used to be the one and the only. Unlike those film blogs, David's writing on food, restaurants and everything food related doesn't remind me of any unfulfilled academic ambition of mine, so it is an even warmer shelter. And unlike films, food is usually a lot more delightful. It is too often that a good film contains more reality and emotion than my nerve can handle after a day's work. I know I need to work on my nerve, otherwise I will be losing my chance of becoming a qualified cinephile. However, it is just so much easier to turn to those lovely pictures of chocolates, apricots, fresh sea food...aren't they just as bright as sunshine?

Another reason I like David Lebovitz's blog is that it doesn't show much of what has been defined as "this economy". In this economy, David Lebovitz is still looking for the darkest chocolate, the creamist scoop of ice cream, and the perfect antique café au lait bowls. It is such a comfort to read his blog while for my job as a money-begging chick, all I type everyday is "deficit budget", "reduced funding", etc.

David Lebovitz is not living in a vacancy of reality. On his facebook page, he links all kinds of webpages including many journal articles that tell sad stories of good restaurants closing due to this economy. Maybe it comes down to a matter of selective memory, maybe he doesn't want this economy to ruin the mood of his blog too.

As long as David Lebovitz is not talking about "this economy", I have a place to dream and dream only.

sad, indeed

I posted a YouTube link of BLU's MUTO on my account on Douban. 3 friends told me they couldn't open it because YouTube is possibly banned in China, too.

How can this still be surprising to me, after they banned Wikipedia, Google, Facebook, and hundreds of critics' blog?

So I wrote another entry informing my friends of the link on Vimeo and the download link on BLU's website. This is the English translation of my entry:

The link of MUTO on YouTube cannot be opened in China. I wonder if Vimeo can be opened.
If not, please try BLU's website blublu.org. MUTO is free for download. Monetary donation is not required but appreciated. However donation is in Euro, because BLU is a Europe-based artist. Harvard University sent him an invitation to draw a wall in Harvard, BLU refused.

After I posted my entry, I was told that my entry is being censored. For the sake of my life, I cannot figure out why. I wonder if it is something I said or I drew the "lucky straw" in a random censorship policy? Douban showed me a list of possible reasons an entry could be censored or deleted for. It is a list of all kinds of policy that you cannot criticize. Criticizing a policy is against the policy. It is self-protective.

This might be the most pathetic and insecure way to establish an authority. Of course it is not Douban's fault. It is the policy environment that Douban has to survive. Douban is just a website after all. It can be easily censored or deleted, just like my entry, due to its violation of some bigger policy.

Eva could survive in China because she works with commercial/mainstream cinema. Danjie could develop a career in China because she deals with mainstream visual arts. Not me, not now. The whole idea of avant-garde is against unity, against censorship, against constraints, against power, against any form of control. It is supposed to be limitless. I love China, but I know I cannot go back.

BLU, genius

on youtube: MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU
on vimeo: MUTO

宋冬

I studied painting over weekends with Song Dong for a year. Now he is the hero in the New York Times Art Section headline story. Unbelieveable.

The show at MoMA is what the Times calls The Collective Ingredients of a Beijing Life, which is a heavy dose of accelerator to my homesickness. The show will continue through September 21. I hope we have time on our east-coast trip so that I can take my parents to see the show. I am sure my mom still has a pretty clear recollection of how he hated my dumpling painting, how he loved my paper-collage chair, and his long hair. If we can't make it in late July, I must go on my labor day trip to New York.

宋冬, another reason to go to New York.

Missing

When Chen Qizhen sings in her Meaning of Traveling:

You've tasted the night of Paris
You've stepped on the snow of Beijing

I always miss Beijing, very much.

Death meets Judgment

David Carradine died yesterday.

He was found in a hotel room closet with a rope tied to his neck and genitals.

First it was reported as suicide. I wondered, why genitals?

Today it is reported that his death might be an accident from attempting auto-erotic asphyxiation.

Film people are trying to divert public attention from the cause of his death to the fact that he's dead.

Death collides with judgment, who wins?

Something I learnt about Jean-Pierre Melville

Parts of several interviews with Jean-Pierre Melville.

I think it was the day I was given a Pathe Baby camera, a hand-cranked model, for my sixth birthday, so it was in 1923 that I made my debut as a filmmaker and decided on my path. my love for cinema started with the talkies, around 1929/30s. the first time I heard a word coming from a screen was in White Shadows in the South Seas by Van Dyke and Flaherty, when Monte Blue suddenly said, "civilization, civilization." it was the first time I'd heard talking cinema. at that very moment, I fell madly in love.

What did you do?

I produced and directed Le Silence de La Mer.
I think your first film should be made with your own blood.

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Do you enjoy editing?
Very much. It's without a doubt what I enjoy the most, that and writing. Writing and editing. In other words, the inspiration and the finishing touches.

Do you like filmming?
Not at all. Filming is absolutely horrible. I call it "tedious formality." I hate shooting. My only relief in the whole tiresome business are the wonderful moments when i am directing actors.

Are you hard on your actors, the people you work with?

No, not with the actors, that would be foolish. You can't be hard on any actor, of any kind. It is a fragile thing. It is hard to be in front of a camera and still look natural. I am much more demanding of those behind the camera.

How do you rate yourself as an actor?

Awful, like any amateur trying to do a job that is not his.

Did that make your mise-en-scene more difficult?

Not in terms of mise-en-scene, but in terms of where to place myself. In certain scenes, i am looking at the actors speaking to me, and it is obvious i am watching if they are doing what i asked.

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I think the greatest difficulty is portraying sexulity.

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I represent virtue.

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In terms of censorship, I am a puritan. That said, I can forgive anything as long as it has quality.

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what do gangsters represent for you?

Nothing at all. I think they are pathetic losers. but it so happens that the gangster story is a very suitable vehicle for the particular form of modern tragedy called film noir, which was born from american detective novels. It is a flexible genre. You can put whatever u want into it, good or bad. and it is a fairly easy vehicle to use to tell stories that matter to you, about individual freedom, friendship, or rather human relationships, because they're not always friendly. Or betrayal, one of the driving forces in american crime novels.

Do you know any gangsters?
yes, i knew quite a few, but they are nothing like the gangsters in my films.

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I assure you, alone in my room at 3:00am, i am not only modest but humble.

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I like to take risks.

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My films never follow the current trend.

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It's a film's duty to be commercial. Above all, it's a product.

It is the honest point of view of an artist: you have to please.