Can you feel it? 你感覺到嗎?

In animation, there is a zillion way to walk and with an attitude. Every posture is a series of extractions defining certain highlights/extremes only to be reconnected by the animator’s imagination. To be virtually natural is to search for postural extremes that express inner thoughts/emotions and to animate the posture with kinetics, of inevitable moves that guide the animator’s imagination and subsequence mathematics scripting.

In reality, only 1/zillion% of it falls within the human perceivable spectrum, while the remaining % is often regarded as delusional. The iterative signs within the 1/zillion% have the same progressions of the remaining unperceivable spectrum. While the perceivable lags behind and resonates with the delusive spectrum in shape and movement, the future becomes a recursive/delaying mode of displaying the already present (the inevitable), a projectile of self-affine series of events that is imminent but random at immediate viewing and with a well orchestrated movement at its exponential contributions. Reality becomes a black box sank below the placid lake of the already present future, of data displaying the imminent impact well preserved at the midst of the unforeseeable unknown.

Prophets and animators are interpolators of reality. They foresee the inevitable of the exponential seeding, re-stitching the extremes of the improbable and announce the imminent impact at the signs of the time. Prophets/animators navigate to the unforeseeable realm only to bring back the gems of the black box, displaying the textural ordinates of the unknown and conceive the unforeseeable. The recurring numbers and occult symbols are mystical ordinates to preserve the placidness of the worldly display, of fate to quarantine uncertainty variables, revealing the immediate probable and not affecting the divine order of the unforeseeable.

Note- The writing of this post is an after effect of the Olympic mystic (details here & here ), and for the final Olympic Fuwa prophecy, good slave believes is the reincarnation of the Jackson 5 divination… Can you feel it? good slave is ready!

MediocreCITY- City with no pride - 平庸城市

What the hell is good slave doin’ here
Good slave doesn’t belong here…

You* made vows only to abjure
In a city with no pride
Your allegiances to immediate greed made you renounce to the world of pride and obligation
An exile to MediocreCITY
So forgive them God…

A vow is to belong,
A vow is to take pride of what you do,
A vow is to practice what you preach,
A vow is to be fucking special…

You** bash the gifted only to steal from them,
In a city with no pride, you stop to evolve
Never been committed but evasion of your duty to create
You** stop bashing once you’ve learnt to steal
A citizen of MediocreCITY
Never enlighten, never contribute, forever a conformist
So where is your pride?

Good slave must be a creep, a weirdo
Believing in perfect soul
Believing in the vow
An outcast of MediocreCITY
Good slave must gravitate
For the soul commit to higher vow…

You* refers to newly-appointed undersecretaries (details here & here)
You** refers to local architectural practitioners (details as below)

Design for new cultural district, Bao’an, Shenzhen, by Rocco Design Limited
Design for Opus, Dubai, by Zaha Hadid

The oath that our local appointed undersecretaries previously made-
I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.

The disaster takes care of everything

The magnitude of disaster is congruous and harmonious with the intensity of architectural extremes that fit anything but themselves. At point fold of the fault where nature displaces the foundation of the very belief in architecture, a refuge from nature enfolds, eradicating life and city. The interior is a chamber of derangement, of anti-world- void-less, dark-less and faithful-less, where memories counterpart the disastrous loop, of the infinite returning future in the cosmic array of 成 、 住 、 壞 、 空. Disaster conglomerates to the multi-facet of the absolute where our desire illuminates, diminishes and simultaneously self-reflecting of this cosmic array.

Title-

a quote from "The writing of the Disaster" by Maurice Blanchot.

Yes we can 心中嘅一團火

Voodoos are everywhere- the self-motivating slogans of “yes we can, just do it, impossible is nothing” are spells placed under our already hypnotic environment. Good slave believes that if one needs feeling-amplifier voodoo to empower one’s enthusiasm, one is most likely not an achiever or worst - failing but believing in the self-fulfilling prophecy. An achiever is possessed by passion only and practice is the only ritual he/she can offer. The religion of practice is to transgress from being the untrained to the trained, a charm that stands guard against all voodoos and not to bewitched by the subliminal slogans.

Despite saying that, good slave is overflowed with enthusiasm in reading the quotes by Randy Pausch (The last lecture) The feeling of high hopes that good slave believes shall be more promising when sharing with you the invisible audience…

“... the brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They are there to stop the other people.”

“If you’re going to do anything that pioneering you will get those arrows in the back, and you just have to put up with it. I mean everything that could go wrong did go wrong. But at the end of the day, a whole lot of people had a whole lot of fun.”

“You obviously don’t know where the bar should be, and you’re only going to do them a disservice by putting it anywhere.”

Flat world

The world is flat…

At the vast horizon, enterprises orchestrate the world supply chain, of networks competing networks/ aggregates empowering aggregates, of strategic alliances in defining the borderless flat world… The navigations of global trades accelerate the apocalypse phenomena. The logistic in global searches of best aggregates skyrocket the energy demand. Human and machine are now competing for food, turning corn into ethanol, a fuel that can replace gasoline and compete farmlands with livestock.

Commodity price rises and the dollar falls, at where the convergence of the flat leveraging world with the apocalyptic fear is the revelation for architecture… The seeding of architectural commodity is an in-situ activity, a field of crops-like enterprises driven by global variables. Orchestration is the soil from which the architectural seeding spring, of leveraging the global capacities and aligning with networking possibilities. Architecture synchronizes with the primordial anticipation and fluid enterprising. The crops-like seeding pulsates the global aggregates, in-situ communal desire and optimizes the robust global anticipation, creativity derived from this massive plantations and apocalyptic orchestrations.

References -

Competing In A Flat World by Victor K. Fung, William K. Fung and Yoram (Jerry) Wind

Territorial war

Three days after good slave made the preaching on L in death note (New Year Resolution posted on 27 Jan 08), Hong Kong has become a site for the territorial war. Every citizen/non-citizen becomes a possible Kira to defend the last resort for free access of information (i.e. the internet).

First strike - the leakage of sex photos on the web, of rich star Edison Chen and a few starlets with naked postures and sexual act.
Second strike – police served warnings and arrested “anyone” who uploaded or kept any related photos. Many were arrested despite being the second tier distributors and police claimed to have captured the main source.
Third strike – Everyone became a potential Kira to led the war on cyberspace with the police and new photos on the web continue to surface.

The core of the incident is an age old war on territories among the have/have nots, public figure/general public. There are hundreds of private sex photos being uploaded on the internet daily, the police was alerted this time because the photos review the private life of the “have” while the “have not” not suppose to share. It is not about the obscenity that agitates the police, but the revealing of a general life style among the rich and famous. The arrest of chat room user was a retaliation on public by invading their cybernetic territories and Kira phenomena was the after effect that back fire the police, for any retaliation, more private photos to be revealed. The police took the role of Terminator, but only proven to be an obsolete machine. The general public is the cybernetic Kira T-1000, of no definite form nor identity, only perform fatal strikes to the authorities.

Remember the controversy paintings “Olympia & The Luncheon on the Grass” by Edouard Manet back in the 19th century? They agitated the bourgeois at that time because they led the general public to peek into their private life. Rather than being a naked Goddess (as in any conventional classical paintings), woman in there was naked only to be presented as any possible mistress for the bourgeois at that time. She gazed at the viewer (breaking the fourth wall) to flirt while enjoying the company with other males in the painting, a primordial form of Japanese AV idol and made Manet the avant garde of 19th century.

There is no bourgeois in Hong Kong, only rich and famous. Somehow they made belief to be living as bourgeois in a tabloid’s free 19th century society, and what’s remain private shall remain private under the privilege protection from the government… and that is fatal!

New Year resolution – pathologically speaking

When there is a resolution, there will be commitment. For every commitment to be made, there will be a path. And for every pathological self obsesses with procedures, there is a habitual pattern. The truth is out there, nothing but repetitions of things/movements do we see the lights within.

L in “Death note” is possessed by the procedures of committing murders, neither the discovery of the Death Angel (the supernatural) nor any confession of murderers could satisfy L’s compulsion to the logic among procedures. The supernatural/Death Angel is imperfect, but the procedure that governs a murder is flawless. There is only a suspect (the writer) and the effect of the text (the way of killing in death note), the rewriting of the text and reconstructing the procedures that contributes to the killings are L’s tactics to make the writer reveal himself.

We practice the same path everyday & night, of the same notes and postures, for every repetition we fine tune we see the logic within. The abstractive habitual pattern (bubble diagram) breeds pathological effects, an infinite loop of returning and connecting functions in the absence of the formula “if return xxx times then….” Only endless feeding of functions among functions…

For New Year re-resolution, we can either choose to re-invent the wheel that brings us the protagonist self or simply look inside the microscopic logic of our daily notes/posture and activate the pathological healing process…

Like in yoga practices…Namaste

Fatality moves

Writing script is like club dancing, purely for the spectacle, showing the world how fertile a perturbing form can be, all moves conglomerate to a “fatality” scenery – the ultimate attraction!

Everything seems like magic, you whisper “fatality” and the world follows. You command with a leverage point and with the flow of noise, the beat, the sexy form succumb to your specification.

For every word input, we await for wonders. A kind of agent-base arrangement with letters/symbols inserted into the black box/“fatality” that elicit wonders. Without the architectural dogma of drawing as representation of thoughts, scripting makes seductive moves and commands with the noise that brings forth the amazement.

Disclaimer- good slave does script.

Slaves are passionate

Good slave loves the Cultural Revolution propaganda MV, despite being the biggest lie that fooled a record breaking number of slaves.
The display of will & passion is insurmountable.
The drive to be free from slavery is the “Black Swan” of the improbable.
The impact is immense.
The outlook to a future that the present will not accommodate, the emancipation is the passion that drives the “Black Swan” phenomena.
To be free is immanent and not limited by free will.
Passionately guided by the inevitable and fulfilling the “Black Swan” prophecy,
Slaves align oneself with the imminent, making their traces upon the immense impact.

The evil spell of Suzie Wong

Once in a while at a dinner party, you would be stucked with an unknown encounter who happened to be an architectural designer. You asked about his views on local architecture (mainly for a start of conversations), and this often ended up being a monologue on feng shui and bamboo scaffolding. For the rest of the evening you would be hearing about how the locals grasped every opportunity to represent feng shui/bamboo scaffolding in their architectural thinking, from any international exhibits to local lectures, these were the “must do” theme to be recycled for decades. You might have wondered if there was life (or architecture in general) beyond feng shui/bamboo scaffolding or you being in a twilight zone listening to a primordial being babbling.

Things will evolve despite being mediocre. In recent years, the primordial beings were told that the most fashionable and politically correct term is “sustainability/preservation”. Since these are the new magic words to all things, the primordial beings are to find correspondence with their existing theme (i.e. feng shui/bamboo scaffolding) so as to continue their mediocracy. Therefore, you see bamboo decorations everywhere claiming to be sustainable in whatever aspect, and any types of additions to the historic context become justifiable instantaneously when under the name “preservation”.

In case Mr. Herzog & De Meuron are truly concern with the idea of “preservation” rather than “stereotyping”, good slave suggests they firstly to research more on the banality of these terms within the city context before inserting the gigantic bamboo-like scaffolding above the historic site (i.e. Central Police Station Compound) and claiming to conserve and revitalize (details here). In good slave opinion, building a bamboo-like scaffolding building at this day of age is no better than making a Suzie Wong movie back in the previous century.

Banality –
- Shall structures that imitate bamboo-like scaffolding be inherent properties of “nature, plants, transparency, the play of life and shadow” (as per Mr. Herzog & De Meuron claims)?
- By inserting “green areas, observation deck, public life accessible in the vertical dimension” that result a gigantic structure, shall such structure instantaneously be congruent to the principle of conversation?
- How does a local motif/icon (bamboo scaffolding/sampan/dim sum/triads society/Suzie Wong...etc) be of any significant that requires to be represented in a conservation project?

P.S. Previously in the media, many local architects had openly criticized the Sampan scheme for Hong Kong headquarter saying how it did not reflect Hong Kong as a metropolitan city and Casino façade alike… good slave wonder where are those brave critics now?

Quizás, Quizás, Quizás

Perhaps you come to this blog everyday and without saying anything,
Perhaps knowing you were here, good slave keeps writing it,
Perhaps in return, good slave wants you to be good,
Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps…

Perhaps good slave is special and see what the future holds,
Perhaps good slave believes the world to be a better place when you become rich,
Perhaps you may want to hold cash before others become poor,
Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps…

Perhaps gold is what you love when everything drops,
Perhaps you shall let go before the New Year's Eve,
Perhaps you are tired of being rich and not believe this,
Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps…
Updates –
Hang Seng Index, 5/11/07, value 28,942.32, change -1526.02 (day drop record high)
Gold, 5/11/07, 810 USD per oz (record high in 28 years)

《色•戒》《Masturbate • Not》

There are many ways to masturbate. For film, the thoughtless transposing of abstractive writings to picturesque scenes, replacing the intensified monologue with intense sex, without the strife of words, of reflections coming closer to the world apart but only representations of bodily fantasy.

Foreword by 張愛玲 Eileen Chang sharing her thoughts on writing 惘然記-

極簡單扼要地顯示文藝的功用之一：讓我們能接近否則無法接近的人。
For abstractive functions in art: to get closer to whom we cannot get close to.

在文字的溝通上，小說是兩點之間最短的距離。

In the communication of words, novel is the closest distance in between two points.

In 張愛玲 Eileen Chang’s writing, her microscopic detailing of the external world is derived from a contemplative dimension, an inner projection of a distancing world that inflate doubts and conflicts, neither a picturesque reminiscent of the past nor narratives of places… rather an agitator that speaks from a turmoil present, a truth elicitor from a disorderly world. On one hand, the powerful monologue of 王佳芝 questioned every reflections of her encounter, of what seemingly righteous act had rotten long after the primordial instinct took over, and on the other hand, 王佳芝 strife for the rational behind the sinful encounter and with delicate thoughts and sensitivities. The powerful monologue situates oneself inside the eye of a whirling world, her reflections and sensitivities are outlook for higher belief and lightness. In the film 《色·戒》"Lust Caution", the monologue was removed along with 王佳芝 reflections, the remains were places/objects of empty signs devoid of signification, with rubbles of historic images awaiting to be romanticized.

When sex becomes a deceitful weapon, passion weigh down on betrayal, only with an intent that levitates us from an irreparable world, of intense fulfillment in the passage of weighing & levitating. In《色·戒》, 張愛玲 describe the bodily encounter of 王佳芝 and 易先生 as such -

事實是，每次跟老易在一起都像洗了個熱水澡，把積鬱都沖掉了，因為一切都有了個目的。
In fact, every time when being with Mr. Yi, it feels like having a hot bath and getting rid of all burdens, it is because everything began to have an intent.

Disappointingly but expected, the film maker of 《色·戒》"Lust Caution" translates the text into trilogy of sexual encounter, which often associated with Hollywood film genre -

1st encounter – Sadism and Masochism or SM sex… to show Mr. Yi frustration with himself of being a traitor and the mistrust with 王佳芝 that led her to become a sex object.
2nd encounter – The display of various sexual posture in reference to Karma Sutra or 春宮圖… to demonstrate their affection and enjoyment when 王佳芝 began to earn Mr. Yi trust.
3rd encounter – Intense sex… to show Mr. Yi and 王佳芝 being in love with each other.

When things become literal, it is mediocre. There seem to have a lot more to learn for the film maker about the ambiguous role in the display of passion, love and sexual encounter. Nagisa Oshima would have taught the film maker that these roles were to be interchangeable, of a reversal order as “in the realm of senses” that had manifolds of intensity than the formulated Hollywood conventions… Sadism and Masochism are not meant to objectify the sexual counterpart, rather the merging as oneness conglomerates the composites of eroticism…and love/passion not necessary progresses in linear fashion from (rough>tender) sex.

Lastly, there were a few commentators/film critics here who highly praised about the movie in a very explicit manner… phrases like “Ang Lee had re-incarnated Eileen Chang’s soul… the scene was realistically generated in finest detail that was good for reminiscent of the old shanghai and Hong Kong … only European would know how to appreciate the love in the fallen city and not Americans especially the Californians…etc” Accord with good slave classifications, those are called hyper-masturbation, i.e. masturbating while watching other masturbating.

And good slave honestly believe 張愛玲 Eileen Chang’s would have shared the same view too.

Thank-you for your tenderness 謝謝你如此溫柔

Feeling aloft is great especially when you are inside the mega-shopping atrium. You turn around at mid-point of an expressway escalator that takes you from G/F to n/F. The scenery is spectacular, a reeling sensation running aloft the horizon.

At vanishing point, you see city gurus doing the atmananda sequences behind the glassy facades covered with sweaty mist, simmering inside and with glimmering lights for navigation of the atmananda sequences. At viewing of their sun salutations, postures become your guiding lights to ascend at higher altitude…

At the sides, you look out to the tranquil cityscape – Portland st. A red light district that had passed its’ hay days, with a few remains of “3-tasty massage, fresh school girls, part-time housewife, Russian Blondie…” signage, twinkling like a constellation around those magnet store advertisements (nokia, slim-fast, H&M)… at where the facades of the old district had been “resurfaced” for installation of multi-storey high posters and flooded with metal halides, dedicating the white nights experience to the neighbors in case their windows have not yet been blessed by the magnet store advertisments coverage.

At the midst of feeling serene, tenderness and reassurance, you look up to the starry night of a digital projection (the atrium ceiling) while being overwhelmed with gratitude from the voice of 山口百恵「さよならの向こう側」. A return of the lost Portland st. tenderness in resonant with the MV played by the mega plasma under your feet-

何億光年

輝く星にも

寿命があると

教えてくれたのは

あなたでした

季節ごとに咲く

一輪の花に

無限の命

知らせてくれたのも

last song for you

約束なしの お別れです

今度はいつと言えません

あなたの燃える手

あなたの口づけ

あなたのぬくもり

あなたのすべてを

きっと私忘れません

後姿 みないで下さい

Thank you for your kindness

Thank you for your tenderness

Thank you for your smile

Thank you for your love

Thank you for your everything

さよならのかわりに

眠れないほどに

思い惑う日々

熱い言葉で

支えてくれたのは

時として一人

くじけそうになる

心に夢を

与えてくれたのも

涙をかくしお別れです

いつものように

さり気なく

あなたの呼びかけ

あなたの喝采

あなたのやさしさ

後姿 みないでゆきます

1408

We take many things for granted in this world, especially for architecture. We assume the world to remain at every moment we turn our back behind… Walls, windows, doors shall be stationed and awaited for our next time around to remember, of the forgotten past in truthful display, always being purposeful and never betray our memory.

At 1408, Stephen King called it “evil” when the world behind stop being "there" for us and where architecture starts to transgress when we passed through.

Blackbird

Please note: the photo shown above is Pill, seated, appears with Jeff Daniels in David Harrower's play Blackbird at the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York. (Joan Marcus/Manhattan Theatre Club) and NOT the cast from Hong Kong.

Background –
Two years ago David Harrower's devastating play Blackbird thrilled and shocked audiences at the Edinburgh International Festival. This controversial production, directed by the legendary German director Peter Stein wowed the critics and transferred to London where it won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play. Hong Kong audiences will now have the chance to see the play's Asia premiere directed by Toronto's Jovanni Sy and starring one of Canada's leading stage performers Ashley Wright alongside Hong Kong's award-winning actress and director Bonni Chan. Blackbird is a brilliantly written, powerful and provocative two-hander about the reunion of a middle-aged man and a woman, with whom he had a sexual relationship when she was twelve years old. The man was sent to jail and on his release assumed a new identity and began rebuilding his life. Fifteen years have passed. She has thought of nothing else and on discovering a photo of him in a trade magazine, she sets out to find him, with shattering consequences.

-by Theatre du Pif

Good slave had finally gotten to see David Harrower’s Blackbird for the Asia premiere, with such an intriguing and brave story line, good slave had very high expectations - The devastation of being in an unforgiving love, the manifestation of the dissent and foreseeing its catastrophic nature… the returning of the perpetrator-victim chain and passionately bind together, with ephemeral joy in every recollections and doubts, love imprint upon the pathological self…

When good slave is in ecstasy (having high hopes) as in love, good slave writes scribbles as above and it normally ends in devastation. Good slave had walked into a disastrous site, a masterpiece of writing eradicated by weak casting. The over-exaggerated acting, with intentional jittering of speeches and purposeless gesture/facial expressions, conversations became lost soul drifting and loosing its pivoting depth. In the midst of rubbles (i.e. conversations), good slave was in despair. During the attempt to reconstruct David Harrower’s glory from the ruins, “the writing of disaster” by Maurice Blanchot came to good slave mind. Good slave was staring at the words displayed inside the subtitle box, and trying to replace speeches with words, a solemn silence replaced the living presence... until the reconstructions from those traces (written words from the subtitle box) became certain divinity that spoke from the absence, the oracle revealed itself - the glory of David Harrower’s writing, of silencing of background noises (jittering speeches from the actress) that filled the lost soul with hope and abyss…

Director’s Notes -
What drew me to Blackbird is the bravery of David Harrower’s writing.

If you were to put one hundred adults from anywhere in the world together in one room, it is overwhelmingly likely that all one hundred-regardless of race, age, gender, or political philosophy – world agree that the sexualization of children is morally reprehensible. Yet in the face of this, David Harrower takes one of the last taboo subjects and dares to question what we almost unanimously hold to be true.

Harrower succeeds in doing this by refusing to make Blackbird an “issue play”. With this subject matter, it would be all-too-simple to write a morality take. But Harrower steadfastly refuses to give his characters easy labels; no one is evil or innocent, perpetrator or victim.

In fact, Harrower hasn’t written a play about child abuse at all. Blackbird is an achingly painful love story between two damaged souls. Abuse just happens to be the incident that binds them irrevocably. Harrower neither condemns nor condones their past actions. He is more concerned with exploring the complexities of the human heart. He asks if it possible for a middle-aged man to truly love a child.

But it is not enough for Harrower to challenge conventional wisdom. Just as we, the audience, are gaining new perspectives on the nature of love, Harrower subverts our expectations once again in a shocking, visceral manner.

It’s not merely the subject matter that makes Blackbird such a brave piece of writing. With his Spartan verse, Harrower strips his characters bare. Blackbird is a masterful layering of codified language. At the start of the start of the play, Ray and Una first address each other with carefully rendered masks of normalcy. By the play’s end, old wounds are reopened, fifteen years’ worth of bottled-up rage and hurt are brought to surface. Blackbird demands that its actors expose their deepest fears and insecurities for all to see.

-by Jovanni Sy

Apocalypse Now 一念天堂,一念地獄

17th Aug07 was the ultimate judgment day, investors were caught in between polar (of the US sub-prime mortgage financial crisis vs. New policy of mainlanders free to trade Hong Kong stock through designated bank in Tianjin) and experienced the deepest V curve (or point fold) ever unfolded in Hong Kong stock trade. At the point where you saw the world was about to fall apart with some flickering lights surrounded by darkness, you doubted whether those lights were hallucination suffered from previous deep plunges or signs from angels in revelation. In the midst of vanishing world vs. the possible point of return, full of agony and unbearable suffering, an ultimate decision had to be made “to buy or not to buy”. Neither data nor analytical studies were available to support your decision, was a simple yes/no answer coming from your primordial instinct… Result - “You buy you win big, you sell you regret for as long as you are down and out in the stock market”

Due to the sub-prime mortgage financial crisis, the stock market worldwide had been in turmoil since the beginning of the month, but nothing compare with such apocalyptical atmosphere on 17th Aug07.

In the morning, Hang Seng Index (HSI) dropped from 20,600 to 19,995 which was the yearly range of increase for 2007. After lunch, the plunge began, starting at -300 points and within 15 minutes it dropped further 600 points with a total daily drop of 1286 points. While the world seemingly came to an end, the point folds began, and within an hour HSI shot up 600 points and closed at 20,387.13. Daily fluctuation ranged from 19,386.72 - 20,761.31

The first part of the apocalypse was conducted by the foreign hedge fund managers who started pulling out money from Hong Kong which led to the landslide. The second part was the taking over from china investors (as rumors say) that levitated us to higher grounds of hope. Since then, the following week, every morning had an open bid of +10% for those who wanted to re-enter the game, a kind of ecstasy pills for empathy, love, heightening self-awareness to an aftershock from last Friday. The stock market then turned into a Russian roulette, every bet you placed was a step closer to another possible landslide, but the enjoyment of near death experience made one to overcome the aftershock awareness and seemingly to live life twice!

The event reminded good slave of the movie “Killing Fields & Deer Hunter”. The pulling out of American troops and the taking over by the communist, the heightening of the apocalyptic atmosphere where life turned into betting chips, no room for any thoughts, we live for every moment in life through yes-no, winning-losing, life-death intermingles together …

For architecture, professionals have been simple-minded in accepting given data for distribution of the architectural program. Neither are the sources being investigated nor are the intentions of such data revealed to public being questioned. Curves or bar charts are simply drawn to extrapolate the future growth and resulting programs portend to accommodate future needs. Architects have been fed by developers with pseudo data, while being part of the propagandizing campaign, work produced are made believe to serve the public needs.

However for smart investors, they treat data in a very different manner - data revealed are considered as psychological aspect of the public. A reflection of intentions, of people in power desire for the future and the way they want the public to desire the same accordingly. The apocalyptic atmosphere, heaven and hell experiences, the heightening of human emotions are all artificially created delusions of a controlled future. Investors postulate the future by interpolation, the filling up of the gap in between now and the speculate intentions of those in power. The more polar forces lead to chaos, the more certainty for investors to make future by seeing what’s behind those pseudo data.

An Islamic puzzle

Good slave was in Malaysia (being one of the popular resort for the Islamic community) enjoying the vacation hot spot with strangers from the Far East. While taking the plane from Langkawi to Kuala Lumpur, good slave encountered an Islamic puzzle which kept good slave pondered along the trip. Since the global business works with generic models, the puzzle intrigued good slave for its spatial/mathematical implications to our supposedly highly efficient-base/protocol system, a kind of gems affection that resulted in a 20 minutes of delay.

The puzzle as follows –
- The seating arrangement of the economy class is a minima/maxima model of efficiency. Accommodations, circulation spaces, human bodies and luggage are all intertwined within the same formula of efficiency in “filling” up with the volume.
- When bodies and machines become intimate, it will be inevitable to have physical contact among bodies (whether to be sitting or maneuvering inside the plane).
- According to the Sharia Law, one would not touch women whom are not his "mahram" (guardians).
- So, when the plane is filled up with good followers of Allah Almighty and non-Muslim, the situation becomes difficult. Some Muslim couples will be seated in between non-Muslim males, and some non-corporative-non-Muslim males may consider consumer rights are more important than respecting other’s culture and refuse to switch seats.

Then how do we solve the puzzle without any segregation among Muslims and non-Muslims? Good slave is sure that such confusions are common and figures may become astronomical once we add up the total time of delay worldwide. Shall we avoid even number of seats per roll? Or Non-Muslim male shall get the window seats? How do we balance out the efficient packing models to avoid delay of flight?

The distancing among bodies and bodily movement vs. efficient programming has been an age-old question for architects. However, at current years, we are very fascinated with global generic models that we seem to intertwine with the organic and the non-organic under the name of efficiency. The delay in flight schedule reflects the distancing among human bodies and their postures defines the generic models and the “otherness” is always a good gem in fine tuning of the system.

p.s. while sitting in the plane waiting for the situation to be resolved, a westerner next to good slave was concerned about the Islamic women being forced to cover up the body in public (accord with Sharia Law). However, in good slave opinion, our women are no better since everywhere we are bombarded with images imposed by the media of how women shall “expose” their body in public (with having less dress), every parts of the body has a required measurement along with a price tag to achieve those standard (either by plastic surgery, laser treatment, botox, slim fast diet). Is this taming of the male gaze as in Manet Eduoard – Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe or simply capitalization of women’s body?

Midsummer Night’s Dream 熱情的沙漠

Good slave is becoming a zombie for drifting hopelessly at this torrid desert place called Hong Kong. Since the introduction of QDII policy in April07, Hong Kong has been a reservoir for the overflowing money from the North. Money is hot and here for action, every player is having multiple orgasms after orgasms with the China H share and stock analyses become protocols reminding your “lost self” of what to do at the midst of these frenzies. As the wise man say, day high, volume, dividends, earnings per share…etc are patterns of emotions to derive protocols of reminders for the “lost self”. We made ourselves believe to be a rational being by looking at charts for predictions/extrapolations, however, this only lead to more mysteries behind the mask of mega zombie (China H share)…

We zoom in and out from macro to micro, yearly>monthly>daily>hourly charts only to find out multiple layers of functional curves that governs the human emotional behavior. Sometimes are noise curves, sometimes are sin curves with some random spikes in between and most of the time are mixture of chaos + step functions. Each aura of curve/pattern governs individual periodic charts and very much the same of what we see in nature of things, as the nobelist Richard Feynman once said...

Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns, so each small piece of her fabric reveals the organization of the entire tapestry.
People say to me, "Are you looking for the ultimate laws of physics?" No, I'm not... If it turns out there is a simple ultimate law which explains everything, so be it — that would be very nice to discover. If it turns out it's like an onion with millions of layers... then that's the way it is.

Then, what’s the answer to all this? Surveys said before any stock crash in history, 99% of the financial analysts would say prospect of the stock market was good… in that case, good slave advises listen to no one but your feng shui master whom has more creditability (of course, relatively speaking) and let the natural force “gold, wood, water, fire, earth” to guide you out of this torrid mysteries.

A reflection on 清明上河圖

Since the national treasure 清明上河圖 was discovered at a bank somewhere north of China 50+ years ago, the exhibition (the pride of china) in Hong Kong will be the second time of the painting being revealed to the public (first was at shanghai). Good slave was lucky enough to be part of limited crowd who were given the 5 minutes viewing of this stunting piece of work. Good slave is no art critic nor art historian, however, being blessed by this opportunity of viewing the Song city being re-animated some 1000 years after, like any encounter of rare celestial alignment, I owe the author 張擇端 a reflection.

The 5m long script are compartmentations of series of axonometric lines projected from architectural artifacts. A view is constructed neither by linear perspectives (as in renaissance) nor 2d flattening (as in Egyptian art), rather a mental constructed lines of analytical viewing, fully articulated and intensively informative and in conjunction with free curves outlining the natural landscape/figures, the work is beyond documentation but an expression of the world of mass, noises, gestures, figures, signs, symbols, of axonometric constructed lines partitioning with the undulating curves… every figure (or particles) is about a few millimeters of a micro world in itself> the lines outline the postures> the postures outline the social status of the figures> the social status of figures outline the function of the surrounding artifacts> the details of the artifacts project axonometric lines to partition the macro world… the bridge becomes an eventful artifact connecting the worlds apart along the river and its underside, figures engage in trading activities along the periphery and extending their postures beyond for potential encounter… scaffoldings are pointing outwards from the core to construct architecture inside out… the script is re-animated with such intensity, infinitesimal detailing and many many more for good slave to learn within a 5 minutes interval…

Good bye, Edward! 再見,楊德昌

... and thanks for bringing all the wonderful works to this world.

Good slave loves your 牯嶺街少年殺人事件(A Brighter Summer Day), a true contemplation of André Bazin writings with traces of reality unfold on screen from an idling point of view, the off-the-screen actions left us pondering with jitters and the filmic expressions weighing upon us into your world of serenity and violence…
and most important of all, the gal whom Honey loved reminds good slave of first love and good slave believe you share the some feeling too.

Keep up with the good works in heaven!