It’s totes official now; I’m a poet biatch!

•April 30, 2014 • Leave a Comment

R.I.P. Bob Hoskins 1942 ~ 2014

•April 30, 2014 • Leave a Comment

Bob Hoskins as Smee in Hook (1991)

Bob Hoskins stole the show as Mr Smee

Bob Hoskins in Unleashed (2005)

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Who Framed Roger Rabbit

A terrific actor.

GAME OF THRONES Philosophies

•April 29, 2014 • Leave a Comment

Move over Arnold Schwarzenegger, there is a new king of quotable quotes in the realm of memorable fiction:

Damn fine dialogue! The best-of really…And then there’s this:

But not nearly as bad as this guy:

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XD

Infomercial Struggles Compilation

•April 26, 2014 • Leave a Comment

*Sigh* …Such a tragic depiction of the human race:

These “Doing It Wrong” segments from infomercials are just so bad!

Fluttering Both Ways: Thanks to a Genetic Anomaly These Butterflies Have Male and Female Wings

•April 25, 2014 • Leave a Comment

Bilateral gynandromorphism is a condition where an animal or insect contains both male and female characteristics. This is caused when the sex chromosomes fail to separate during mitosis/fertilization.

Tiger Swallowtail Gynandromorph

Although it is one of natures rarest phenomena with only 0.01 per cent of hatching butterflies being born as gynandromorph, this condition is visually striking and can be easily spotted in most butterflies by the perfect division between the two halves of the body:

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

(Above) The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly.

Papilio Rumanzovia - Rare Gynandromorph

The female (left) and male (right) Papilio Rumanzovia (Scarlet Mormon) Butterfly.

one of nature's rarest phenomena with only 0.01 per cent of hatching butterflies being born as gynandromorph

I was wondering how other creatures of the same genus react to these unique anomalies. The butterfly above unfortunately died shortly after the photo was taken because it didn’t have a long enough proboscis. For the ones that live long enough however; my guess would be that pheromones play a role in determining attraction on a non-visual level. But I’m no expert. For more info on gynandromorpism, checkout sciencesnaps.com

★ THE ☆ WISHING ☆ TREE ★

•April 24, 2014 • Leave a Comment

2014-04-23 16.16.29

My university assignment asked for students to take a poem from the “Mauri Ola” anthology of pacific poetry, and take it to as many people outside of the classroom as possible. I chose Tagi Qolouvaki’s “Tell Me a Story and identified that its core is about reclaiming a cultural identity. I thought to myself; how could I get people to identify with an identity, even if they weren’t aware they were doing so? Hence, Te Wishing Tree.

I conceptualized this ‘desire to be identified’ in the form of an interactive installation. The reason why Tagi in her poem chose to identify with the story of burying umbilical cord in the land, is because she saw value in that story. Generations of storytellers before her imbued it with value. The same way people along the beach freely chose to write their inner well wishes on a random piece of artwork, is because they saw value in doing so. People admired and read and the more words that the tree accumulated the more passersby felt the urge to interact with it. This odd, poetic, art, kinetic, social experiment had such a snowball effect, I wasn’t anticipating it would intrigue and delight people as well as it did. I think I proved my point well.

I’m pretty confident I will pass this assignment, but for my own closure, I’d like to share with you my critical analysis of this event — Words on the Wishing Tree are wholly life affirming — People are inherently good. I personally believe we all have a duality within us; at once we want to go about our business our own way because we are unique, and at the same time we want to belong and be apart of something greater than ourselves. We want to be apart of something that confirms and expresses to the world how good and unique we truly are. Thank you all for giving this fallen branch value and a reason for others to identify with it and thus, with you. Now, pat yourself on the back with me 😀

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“Tell Me a Story” by Tagi Qolouvaki

•April 22, 2014 • Leave a Comment

Thank you for contributing your encouraging words, dreams and desires to the Wishing Tree. It is assured that if you affirm your beliefs habitually, they will come true 😀 This interactive installation was part of my Pacific Literature assignment at the University of Auckland (ENG204).

Wishing Tree - 2014-04-23 16.21.06

Thank you all for your curiosity — explanation & photos coming soon. This poem by Tagi Qolouvaki is about cultural identity and is the inspiration behind the Wishing Tree:

Tell Me a Story
by Tagi Qolouvaki

He vows I am planted beneath the Frangipani
Promises I am seed beneath the Bua.

He has his father’s tongue,
Owns his mother’s languages.
They sing honeyed songs together.
He has even tamed the palangi one –
It rides his tongue
And he is fertile with story.

Deftly, he weaves tales
Like the finest mats
Constructs memories
Tapa-tapestries
Stained in soil and
Coloured with song.

We store them, Cultural currency for the next birth
Death and wedding.
We carry them
To make us
Real.

He is a teller of tall tales, Talanoa

But what are stories if not lies
Though sweet as vakalolo
Cleaved to our fingers
Floating our souls
In the fat of coconut?

What are memories if not construction:
The storyteller as tattooist
Marking
And not marking
Brown skin.

And They say
If your pito-pito is unplanted
You will wander

They say
If it is unplanted
Home will elude you

Well mine is buried in story
Planted in a tall tale
And I wander
Yes,
And home is a story
Home is a story where the Frangipani flowers.

Qolouvaki, Tagi. “Tell Me a Story.”Mauri ola: Contemporary Polynesia Poems in English: WHETU MOANA II. Eds. Albert Wendt, Reina Whaitiri, Robert Sullivan. New Zealand: Auckland University Press, 2010. 185-186. Print.

Happy Birthday Your Royal Highness

•April 21, 2014 • Leave a Comment

queen

It’s on like Donkey Kong

•April 20, 2014 • 1 Comment

Be careful what you wish for huh 🙂

Lounge #37

Shura “Touch” [music video]

•April 10, 2014 • Leave a Comment

Doesn’t this just make you wanna touch everyone you see during your early morning commute? …No?

Fuck The Poor?

•April 10, 2014 • Leave a Comment

Thought provoking juxtaposition about glorification above life itself:

Charity asks Londoners to put their money where their mouths are in controversial ‘Fuck The Poor’ campaign.

Do we really care about those less fortunate? I don’t like that this is part of a marketing scheme, although its saving grace is that it is for a charity organisation. This social experiment would work as a stand-alone commentary on society in its own right. I like it. Hypocrisy on display.

Taylor McFerrin “The Antidote” (feat. Nai Palm of Hiatus Kaiyote) [♬]

•April 9, 2014 • Leave a Comment

From the forthcoming album “Early Riser” on Brainfeeder — Release date: 03 June 2014

“I spent years laying down tons of tracks,” McFerrin explains, “and I got into a really bad habit of never really finishing anything. So this last year the concept was – let me go back and find all the stuff that really felt right, the stuff that felt like an honest moment of creation for me, and just force myself to finish those tracks.”