November 22, 2023
I miss my days in vocational school on the mainland when I did not really study... I mean, I studied but was more into music, underground bands and independent records. I obsessed with rock music (thanks to the Internet), went to local music lives see poor musicians perform in a very small garage, and bought a lot of "cracked CDs." One of those "poor" bands now are famous, Wang Wen.
CDs were cracked and cut for a reason. They were "plastic waste" exported to China mainly from the west and Japan. In Chinese, they are called 打口碟/Dakou. During that time (early 2000s), buying cracked CDs was a major way to access foreign rock music although it was illegal. CDs were cut but only the last part of the recording was lost, and its sound quality was much better than pirated CDs. My music diet during those early years impacted my life a lot. I support Lawrence Lessig's view on copyrights.
To cracked CDs, here is the concert from Crack Cloud I like.
October 29, 2023
Lunched my personal website!
Half excited, half nervous :)
October 14, 2023
One of the most enjoyable "tasks" during my childhood was helping my mom feed ducks and chickens. I liked going to a small mountain next to our house, picking edible wild vegetables, cutting them into small pieces, and mixing them with grains. We had about 5 chickens living in a two-story coop, and we could collect about 2-3 eggs every day. Picking up the eggs was also my favorite, especially when they were warm. The memory is still vivid as I am typing now...
Two months ago, I watched the documentary "Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your Food" released by Netflix. I watched it during my hot bath time to relax but ended up crying so hard...when I saw how those cute chickens were treated. The documentary was well organized and pointed out the key problems in the regulation agencies. For example, the contamination of romaine lettuce was caused by contaminated irrigation water close to a farm, but "farm" and "lettuce" are regulated by two different agencies, and none of them would take responsibility. Companies (only a few suppliers) are shirking their responsibility to consumers, by instructing how to cook instead of making products safe. The documentary in the end advised consumers how to eat safely outside.
BUT, those chicken scenes made me very very sad. I don't know if any businessmen in the food industry feel a thing when seeing how those animals are treated daily, but what immediately came to my mind was the chickens I fed when I was little. And...I feel more devastated when thinking about food waste.
July 30, 2023
Watched the "Portrait of a Lady on Fire" last night and I liked it so much. I heard the movie before and it was always somewhere in my head though...This is the best feminist and lesbian movie I have ever seen!
。几年前听说过这部电影，但迟迟没找出来看。机缘巧合，这是在我看过的所有女权及同性恋爱描写中最喜欢的一部电影。豆瓣上很多精彩点评，可以帮助理解很多隐喻，包括小岛的设定，水火，红绿裙衣，画像=凝视，以及“回头”那里的几个对神话的解释。
我特别喜欢在两位女主角的感情之外加入的仆人设定，最喜爱的是三人一起的场景，在房子里，在海滩上，在草丛里。电影在描述这样一个可能性及事实：女性社会关系中的“有职责无阶级”，选择胎儿去留的“女性的自我能动性”，和“男性作为‘父者’存在必要性的否定”。
电影拍得非常美，非常干净。
