Time to Go

"There is a time for departure even when there’s no certain place to go."

--Tennessee Williams

(Pictures of the various incarnations of Blanche DuBois)

The Sound of Silence

"I should be able to live exactly as I chose, obedient to no necessities but those imposed by wind and night and cold, and to no man's laws but my own."

-- Richard Byrd

Maybe it is selfish to desire solitude.
Afterall a retreat into oneself necessarily means cutting off friends and family regardless of length of time.
And it is hard to justify at times, for it's not like all solitary beings are retreating to compose the next Walden.
But silence, especially in this increasingly interconnected world, is luxury.

"What is clear is that most of us persist in equating aloneness with loneliness, and company with companionship, despite a lifetime of evidence to the contrary. "We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers," is how Henry David Thoreau put it after two years as the sole inhabitant of a house he had built in the Massachusetts woods. You're never more alone than when you're in a crowd. A cliche, perhaps, but most of us recognise the truth in it."

- Read rest of article here.

(Picture from here. What a great view!)

the moments of perfect bliss

one Sunday morning as he contemplates the perfect moment:

a warm summer breeze from the garden, the scent of cherry blossoms, the chatter and giggles of his two young children from the nursery, and the sight of his young wife sitting at the kitchen table, sipping coffee and reading the newspaper.

Münster “suddenly felt pain creeping up upon him: a chilling fear, but also a realization, that this moment must pass.

This second of absolute and perfect happiness—one of the ten to twelve that comprised a whole life, and was possibly even the meaning of it.

(read rest of article here)

Chicago in spring

feet dangling off the bar stool

seated by the kitchen countertop.

chinese stir fry and 25 dollars prosecco

dancing shadows cast by moving vehicles

tall bay windows and muted greys.

when the universe and all desires collided

to create a silent moment of absolute perfection

(Picture from here)

we already teeter this sheer cliff so high

Delicate line between heaven and earth...
The calm of the ages,all the world's worth.
Such minuscule measure,while we think it so grand...
Just five specks of smallness,This soft quiet land.
So frail and so fleeting,in the end you will see
Simple dreams were Horatio's philosophy.


For all the truth,
all creation,
all secrets of yore
Can be told in an instant,
by then they're no more.

-- Misao Fujimura

(Entire poem can be found here)

(Pictures from ffffound)

Resolutions

1. Diet, but not to lose weight. For there’s a more interesting and enriching reason for eating less. Epicurus, who was known as a hedonist, wasn't like today's hedonists. He didn’t argue that the pursuit of more was the key to happiness. Quite the opposite. He said he was as happy as Zeus when all he had to eat was a glass of water and a barley cake. Enjoying less, not more. Pleasure in small things. That’s the real test for us in a consumer age.

2. Work to live, don’t live to work. Cleanthes, who was a Stoic philosopher and also known as the water-carrier, worked by night so that he could do philosophy by day. He was clear that he would work enough, and only enough, to support his real passion, the thinking and writing. His story is timely, for in a year that will be marked by more job insecurity and credit crises, it will be even easier to work so hard that you miss what you want.

3. Meet a friend face to face, when you might have chatted online. Aristotle is our advisor on this matter. He argued that good friendship – soulmateship – is only possible when friends ‘share salt together’. He meant that they sit down with each other, not just over the occasional meal, but frequently and often. Then, you see each other body and soul. Texting and websites are part of modern friendship, but alone, they are not enough.

4. Start each day by contemplating the worst that can happen. It sounds like a recipe for pessimism. But the odd thing is that it isn’t. In fact, the day will never look better. Zeno, the Stoic, advised this practice. His point was that we spend too much of our time anticipating the worst, when mostly there’s nothing we can do about it. So embrace the worst; it probably won’t happen. And enjoy the day.

5. Take a technology Sabbath. Take a break from the relentless churn of emails, blogs and websites. They flitter in front of your eyes, and it’s too easy to fritter your life away in front of them. So have one day off a week from IT. Read a book, talk to friends, go for a walk instead. Secundus the Silent is our advisor here. He vowed not to speak, realizing that words are typically wasted. And he found it made him wise.

6. Talk to a stranger. There is a source of knowledge and insight all around us, and yet we barely notice it’s there. It’s not Google. It’s the strangers with whom share our world. Socrates realized this, and so started to ask people questions as he walked the streets of Athens – what is friendship, what is happiness, what is love? It was an extraordinary thing to do, and led to nothing less than the invention of philosophy.

7. Go on retreat. To take time out, away from the world, is an old religious practice. The pace of life is slower. It creates time for reflection. It should be easy to do, but actually it’s slightly frightening, for fear of what might emerge. Which is what Onescritus discovered. He went to India, and sat with the sages. He came back a changed man.

8. Write a blog for one week. If there’s one quality that you need not just to live, but to live well, it’s curiosity. With that, you’ll really see the world, and your life, and imagine it in a different light. This is what Sappho could do. Her verse changed the world because she gave women voice. Poetry is hard, so turn your observations into a blog. And see how you see things differently.

9. Do something that will surprise your friends, and you. One day, Diogenes the Cynic observed a mouse running about. He was shocked at how free it was, and how inhibited he was in comparison. Immediately, he took up residence in a barrel. His philosophy was that conventions trap us. So try breaking one or two, he’d say. A real taste of liberty will be yours.

10. Decide what you want at your funeral. We are different from other creatures, perhaps in several ways, but one must be that we often contemplate death. Some philosophers, like Plato, believed that death directly or indirectly shapes our every waking moment, and perhaps those during sleep too. But it can be tamed, by befriending it. To learn how to die, is to learn to live well.

Happy 2010! A new year of possible adventures, potential missteps, laughter and tears, unforced errors and unexpected joys awaits!

(from here)

(Picture from ffffound)

Let there be Solitude

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal.

-- Childe Harold, Canto iv, Verse 178

New York New York

New York, the unhappiest state?

At least according to this.

This is where I betray the fact of my non-American citizenship, but to me New York the state and New York the city are intricately linked. Or perhaps it is really more accurate to say that to most of the world at large, New York is New York City. I am not sure how sacrilegious this is to the New Yorkers out there but this is the burden to bear for being one of the dream cities of the world, alongside Paris and London.

As a kid growing up on the other side of the world, New York City was symbolic of a lifestyle to be desired and experienced. I remember my first trip to the Big Apple after college graduation. There we were, 3 scruffy starry-eyed young adults barely out of our teens, who arrived and expected the city to razzle and dazzle us. But every turn we took we were exposed to dust and filth and even worse, crazy tourists in Time Square buying M&M shaped pillows. It was all simultaneously so cheesy and grime that inwardly we all thought we were going to cry while wandering around with a determinedly fixed grin on our faces and the obligatory, "Wow!! Oh how…nice. Let's take a picture".

But New York City grows on you. Lying on the grass in Central Park may seem terribly unoriginal but what a wonderful way to be unoriginal. The museums, the restaurants, the people. And perhaps, more importantly, who can ever forget the city seen through the eyes of one's inexperienced youth; where every revelation was like raising up another set of blinds to reveal the world of possibilities beyond.

Ahh, Trader Joe's!

In the words of Calvino:

" … the city which can not be expunged from the mind is like an armature, a honey-comb in whose cells each of us can place the things he wants to remember…"

This Xmas, thinking of New York City, fondly.

(All black and whites from here, a loving homage to the City)

(Christmas display windows from Bergdorf and Barneys from here)

Rudolph

"Rudolph with your nose so bright, won't you guide my sleigh tonight?"

Are you in the Christmas mood yet?

(picture from here)

Vacant Look

(by Edward Hopper)

I rest my gaze on the screen
My mind on the horizon beyond
The keyboard clicks incessantly
But the wanderings have begun

Aka -- Sitting in the office pre-vacation

(Pictures from ffffound!)

Celebrate

"Cherish forever what makes you unique, cuz you're really a yawn if it goes."

-- by the divine Miss M

the mad genius of Marchesa Luisa Casati

THINK and WRITE

(photo by Dylan Coulter, see his portfolio here)

"Being able to read and write, and think about books and talk about culture, is an unwanted skill now. It's an antiquated trade."

-- Roger Lewis

Read rest of interview here.

Stride

It's not because I want to look like a boy, it's because being carefree seems to be all but missing in fashion now.

(Still from Breathless, Watercolour by Mats Gustafson)

Wisdom

"Wisdom begins with awe of nature."

-- Walker Lamond

Back from Tasmania, what a trip.

Great quote, more here. I know it's called rules for my unborn son, but one never gets too old to learn the rules, particularly useful ones like rule no. 412, "don't fill up on bread". Following them is a separate matter altogether.

31

And on the topic of turning 31, this is a great post and I say Aye!

Blue Velvet and Green Nails

Over the weekend...

I got a haircut (trying out a fringe for the first time since my mum stopped cutting my hair, eek!)

(this is sortof what my hair looks like now, no really....actually it's sortof what I wished my hair looked like, with the fringe and the tendrils but minus the cool, for now, until I figure it out, or so I hope, err....)

(picture from here)

A great mint green manicure (I love Jade but the best part of Chanel's F/W2009 collection was to me the nail polish, rest of the jade inspired renditions was a little bit mehh)

(picture from style)

Went for a baby shower where my new favourite vintage hairpiece made its debut

(from this great etsy seller)

Had dim sum with champagne (absolutely divine combination)

and turned 31.

(picture from here)

Growing up, I always thought I was a bit of an old soul and liked to tell people my head and heart were actually in their 30s although I was then 1_/2_. But now that I am 31, it just seems precocious and a little laughable.

I acknowledge that I still do not have all the answers and there are many more unfulfilled longings and dreams. But the beauty of being 31, to me at least, is that now I feel it's fine to try, to fail, to fall flat and still laugh out loud. And fashion should be all about having fun. So blunt fringe, green nails and blue velvet in my hair? Bring it on :)

(picture from here)

the intellectual

She has been called one of fashion's great intellectual. And without a doubt, there is no one quite as intimidating and awe-inspiring working in fashion today. In recent times, the lustre seems to have faded a bit from Prada, certainly a far cry from the ubiquitous black nylon bags of the early 90s. I mean Spring 2009 Ready to Wear was most notable for falling models which inspired a thousand blog posts and fashion editorial to boot, a great addition to urban lore, not too sure about sales.

But Prada continues to engage and fascinate me. The sheer diversity of her collections, the evident intellectual rigor and childlike curiousity shines through and the items are works of modern art.

And ironically, while the rest of the fashion world swoons over Balmain and Wang and the now omnipresent Louboutins, I find myself building up quite a sizable wish list of Prada items instead.

1) The Book

"Just to do a few ultra-sophisticated things for the connoisseurs, as they are called – for me, that's completely boring. You want to be understood by the sophisticated few but you also have to be more loud somehow, otherwise your message doesn't go through."

-- Miuccia Prada

Read more about it here.

2) Resort Bag

3) Prada thinks it's time for a revival of the nylon bags. The sheen and slouch certainly seems a nice counterpoint to the structured jackets and oversized tees populating the stores now. But more importantly, they are so "out", they definitely seem due to come back in...like shoulderpads :p

(Picture of Miuccia from here, Prada runway photos all from Style and Prada bags from Stylecaster)