Xat…

Like all the cities whose names fall short of reality, Sulamé is definitely not a city floating on the sea. In the city of Sulamé, one may easily find multiple counterexamples to every of her beautiful legends. If you imagine her as a slender, swift yacht, you will be shocked at the sight of a gigantic ocean vessel. Her famous rose garden is a swamp filled with flies and rotten weeds when the tide is low. On her once crowded streets the marketplace has long gone; delicate china and fine tapestry have been replaced by grotesque boulders engraved with inconceivable patterns. In the city of Sulamé, function has detached itself from form. You can hardly tell a school from a wine house, or a theatre from a mortuary. Ornament is considered redundant. Pleasure is totally forbidden.

It is not because those legends are false. Sulamé was once exactly what you would like to imagine: a glorious city hidden somewhere in the immense ocean, basked in warm sunbeams and bright starlights. All expectations were met, each was in his proper place and the ultimate aesthetic need had been satisfied. Continue Reading »

So I admit this picture has nothing to do with what I’m going to say next except that there’s indeed a muscle man there and a car of his and he is indeed to move something (like some groceries, from a grocery store, you know). Well I’m not saying that I’m as hunky as him or I have the luck to own such a beautiful baby or I would be so stupid to drive this baby to some stupid grocery store just to pick some stupid garlic or diet pepsi, you know. What I’m saying is that, you know, that Spiderman movie you know? Well he said something like, if you are good looking, or rich, or whatever, you’ll need to be more responsible. Yes indeed, man! Like you know this shit… Like one day you become incredibly rich, like, have seven cars, BMW, Mercedes, with those hot chicks, nice suits, big houses, and your ma is still living in some shitty neighborhood, dogs barking at night, those shits going around, you know what I mean? Like you still have those old friends there, broke, no electricity, no food, can’t even get a cigarette… And where are you man? Clubs, hotels, like those golf shit? Yo man, let me tell you. That ain’t good. That ain’t go make no good…

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We were strolling down University avenue after dinner when B suggested we try the spicy hot chocolate. He mentioned this cafe, probably three times in this past month, but the name slipped past my ear each and every time. I am too rigid to deviate from my mother’s recipe book: almost all my gastronomical experiences in the bay area were confined to these several local Chinese restaurants. Hardly had I the interest (and gut) to walk right into an exotic place, point at a God-knows-what dish and say, “damn, why don’t we just try this?”

Well you can’t really blame yourself. When it comes to novelty one can’t be too careful. You probably don’t want to end up in an ER just because you don’t recognize the word noix: not all countries make idiot-proof products like the States… And this is why I tend to spend extra time reading menus in Italian (or Indian, or Mediterranean) restaurants. You know, upper-class menus don’t even bother putting up photos to accompany the fancy names… Continue Reading »

科恩兄弟的新片，春天就打出片花。皮特，克鲁尼一干大牌手舞足蹈，让观众目瞪口呆切切私笑。去年的《老无所依》，从头至尾严峻自觉，至今天再品，似仍有未及发掘之处。而今次的《看了就烧》脱下严肃态度，像是要躲在《老无所依》的高大背影里，与众粉丝爬梯一番。

伍迪艾伦的《巴赛罗那》，故意用过火的小情小调逗笑，风景优美、演员性感，看来轻松愉快。《看了就烧》反过来，倚靠的是百分百的脑力，用个性十足的表演，驾驭渐渐失控的情节。似乎是一辆装饰过度的喜剧花车，一路开来，噱头百出——开到哪里方向盘不灵了，那就关灯散场——单凭一个导演演员名单就压住场子，花车开下悬崖也没大关系。科恩兄弟在度假时，也是板着脸来，细节一丝不苟。试想把花车裁成流线型的小敞棚，让戴黑礼帽的滑稽演员列队进出，应该能更受欢迎些。

两位男同学，皮特和克鲁斯，完全有义务搭档参加《舞林争霸》节目。克鲁斯在《热带惊雷》里秃头突肚，但两段独舞，简直可去做夜店进阶教学录影带。

语录1：描述也是一种生活方式。
语录2：科学也要讲美学。

请简要指出，这四幅图说的都是什么？猜中有奖。

It was both weird and interesting to have some senior scientists sipping beer, staying in the hot tub together with you. Who knows if any of them would become your future boss… It was all serious business. I mean, as we were hotly discussing academic problems, the cool mountain breeze brushed over our skins…

Aye. It was like the purest, naked, kind of, science.