at Wexner Center~

I couldn’t believe this is my 4th blog entry already! Time flies~ and the weather finally began to smile a little bit these days. It seems I’m going to survive my first winter here (is there a word beyond just winter?!) very soon. HAHA~

What is noticeable this week… well, I went to an Artist’s Talk in Wexner Center on Thursday and it’s a kind of fun. Honestly, it’s my very first time to step into Wexner Center, although there’s Andy Warhol hanging everywhere. My photographing class requires attending at least one activity in Wexner Center this quarter. So it triggered me made the move, finally.

The artist’s called Patty Chang, who mainly does a lot of short films about performing arts. The top one surprise for the lecture is that she’s a Chinese! The way she pronounce the province name of China, sounds so clear and naïve, well, not Americanized. This lights me up definitely. And there are several Chinese scenes in her work, the airport, the minority crafts and costume, which I couldn’t be more familiar with. It’s so good to see something familiar this far away from home, especially on Spring Festival.

About her short films, it’s a little bit strange, of course, hard to understand. Maybe that’s why we called it “artistic”. The most impressive among them all, is in one piece, she exchanged a passionate kiss with her own face reflected in water. And the ending is she drank up all the water…

But recently, she seems to try removing herself as the physical focus of her work gradually, like in her new film made in Tibet. Speaking of Tibet, there’s a misunderstanding image of China among foreigners. When I took several American friends wandering around Beijing last summer, they appeared to be so surprised and told me that they thought China would be like what in the movie, ancient, mysterious, minority groups dressed strangely, monks… that’s totally MISUNDERSTOOD!! The case is true only in a few provinces along the western border. Honestly, the first time I went there, I have a sense of “exotic”, too. Just because it’s rare, some movies magnify this side of China to attract people, even Chinese audience. Obviously, Patty Chang grabbed this point, too. But on the other hand, those commercialized city like Beijing, Shanghai… there’s no point to shoot.

Anyway, Patty Chang is a great artist! And have great parents!! (Most of her travels are supported by her parents, both mental and economic. They don’t get the point of her artworks; they just called “our daughter is being artistic, again.”)

Take a movie night~

There’s Screen Actors on TNT right now, Penelope Cruz, who caught my attention, is far more than perfect that night! And her accent, as always, is so cute. It sounds like a little pupil who is trying to pronounce every single word as clearly as she canJ It makes me think of her amazing masterpiece this summer, . A movie worm as I am, I’d like to talk more about it this weekend:)

Just as New York City was the backdrop in Woody Allen’s “Manhattan”, the stunning city of Barcelona is the setting for the romantic adventures of Vicky and Cristina. These two young Americans spend a summer in Spain and meet a flamboyant artist and his beautiful but insane ex-wife (my devastating Penelope Cruz, who has never looked more beautiful!).

Vicky and Cristina are like a jig-saw puzzle, well-connected, as they are close friend to each other, but the two pieces are way too different. Vicky is practical and traditional in her approach to love and commitment, and is engaged to the reliable but unromantic guy. Cristina, on the other hand, is a sexually adventurous free spirit, as she is spontaneous and unsure of what she wants, as she said, "I don't know what I want. But I certainly know what I don't want."

I can’t help to mention Penelope Cruz, my personal favorite among all the actresses. Although she is only half way through the film, when finally arrives, her moody performance is the perfect spice to liven up the whole movie. Her most impressive line, “Not talented, I’m a genius! Genius!!” I’m so fascinated by her ever-lasting confidence.

One tricky part of this movie is, either Vicky or Cristina or Maria, they end where they begin. It seems nothing has changed on the surface, but it does happen a lot, shaking down below. Maybe for them, what really counts is not the displacement, but the distance. It’s the path they move through makes them know themselves better.

I’m trying as best I can to keep this spoiler-free. Just go to watch it, and give a little more time to digest. It’s definitely worth it! Not to mention Woody Allen, the incredible, sensitive, etailholic director with a wicked sense of humor…~

My potential jester

When I’m thinking about the subject for my research project, “Celine” is the first idea that pops-up into my mind, a main character in the movie "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset".

“Not a movie but a life”, is the credit I give "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset". They are certainly NOT the typical sentimental “Hollywood romance”, which is the reason why that puts this film leagues ahead of the pretenders. The story follows two people, Jesse; an American and Celine; a French girl that meet on a train into Vienna. They connect to each other subtly, and just keep talking and talking and talking until the movie’s ending, no matter at the sunrise 9 years before or under the sunset 9 years after, no matter wandering in the city of Vienna or enjoying the picturesque Paris.

Celine talks a lot in the movie, I might say, she and Jesse fill every single moment with endless chatter. I have a strange habit of transferring movie to mp3 audios on iPod and listen it again and again, as I can always spot something new without the “jamming” of images. Because of their immense scripts, the movie series become my first priority for quite a while. What’s amazing about it is, sometimes I feel like Celine is speaking for me… the reason why being late for school, parents’ sophisticated interpretation of her dreams, her unique philosophy of relationship, her likes and dislikes of people or even cereals… it contained so many detailed observations of life, most of which I personally could relate to.

Maybe I can cut a little paragraph of Celine’s script to begin with my project, as there are a lot to dig about her personalities. The endless talking builds up “Celine” through her thoughts and feelings and thus, allow us to get to know her as we do the people in real life.

Btw, the movie is specifically nice to watch if you miss somebody, highly recommend!!

The back-up option is more than just a fictional character; he’s a vampire!!..Edward Cullen in the twilight saga by Stephenie Meyer. The four series books dominated my life for quite a while and I just finished reading them a couple of days ago.

The reason why choosing Edward as my subject is, I think it would be interesting to analyze someone from a human’s perspective while the “someone” is NOT thinking from a human’s perspective at all. As a vampire, who has an unlimited life technically (except for seeking death in Volturi), Edward has his own point of view upon time, love, and existence (live and death). Those things matter most to us may be dull to them, as what we treasure most, time, is far more abundant to them. As a vampire, Edward is not aging. He stays at the same phase for nearly a hundred years, so the wrinkles annoying us may be a pleasant change for him. He can’t sleep himself, that’s why he enjoys looking at Bella’s sleeping so much. Not to mention the vampires have their own characteristics, identities (vegetarian or not), enemies, treaty, legal rules as well as their own philosophy of existence. I think it would be a lot of fun to dig into another kind of “being” 's world from a human being’s perspective.

Hello.oo.ooo~

Hi everyone, I’m Vivien. Since there are so many ViviAns out there, I prefer ViviEn as mine
Peppy suggested “attaching” a picture to our names, well, I think I’m quite easily recognized as a Chinese. I was born in Beijing, uhh..even typing its name makes me miss the REAL Beijingese food so much (those on the High St. are quite Americanized). After having been stuck in the same greenhouse for 18 years, I decided to go to Macao for college, an isolated, exotic, little cute island in Southern China, known as the Asian Las Vegas. Maybe it’s the beginning of change that boosted my eager sense of adventure, so in the last autumn, I transferred again, to OSU.

Although major in accounting, I don’t want to keep my face businesslike. What I really have a passion for are, movies, photographing, astronomy, drawing etc. To some degrees, I may just take accounting as an efficient way to sustain my hobbies and a neutral option to take when it’s too hard for me to decide the career direction. Taking hobbies just as hobbies, keeping them isolated from $$, can make them life-long, right?!

Movies, travels, and extreme sports are the top3 in my spare time list. In my first freezing winter break here, I escaped to west coast soaking up as much as Vitamin D as I can. The mile long crescent of Monterey Bay, the eye-catching scene of sunset above the Pacific Ocean, the distinctive rainbow symbol of Castro in LA… impressed me so much. Best among them all, it’s the halo of the sunny sky. Even in winter, the climate in California is like melting honey. I couldn’t imagine how overwhelming its summer would be.

So when back in Columbus, it really took me some time to be adaptive to the vampire-friendly weather again. I’m so obsessed with Twilight books these days. Just like that in Forks, sun seems like a luxury here for quite a while. Anyway, as least I could expect Alice coming into real life! (She’s my favorite among the Cullens:)

Well, since there are still tons of assignments on the way, I guess I should stop here and save some inspiration. Frankly, since I’m the only international student in this class (am I?), my nerves are always on edge being with those amazing fluently native speakers as you are. I’ll do my best to keep on track:)

Nice to meet you all, wish we could have some warmth together to survive this freezing quarter :)