misty lamps resemble a string of stars

while i waited around for my turn yesterday and had nowhere to go in a state of terminal agitation i went exhibition hopping.
i went through the asian art and script exhibit in melb uni, and then hopped on a tram and got to NGV, at one stage got a bit ambitious and hoped to get Piranesi from state library out of the way as well but no... someone or rather took pity on my waiting and let me have my turn in the arvo...

well when i got to ngv i realised with a bit of delight there was a free chinese art and calligraphy exhibit going on and managed to kill quite a bit of time there.
over the years i realised for me whether an exhibition is good or not depends not so much on the goodies they have but how well the captions/labelling were done. i still remember the time when Love and Devotion from state library and Napoleon from ngv were on at the same time and i totally did not enjoy Napoleon because the captions were so bland in comparison to Love and Devotion.

but labelling for this chinese exhibition were very very well done. the artworks were a bit obscure but what was written about them really brought out the best in them.

sorry about bad photography but i think such a caption makes any art piece mesmerising. I later tried to google the artist and his poem in chinese but i think he's so obscure (and really not much of a poet anyway) i just couldnt find it.
to be quite honest i dont think the original poem would have been that impressive. its the english translation that made the whole thing very very beautiful.

and i must confess i have never really been a fan of chinese art (and a majority of chinese poetry for that matter). that habitual romantic escapism so strongly present in whichever style makes any emotions they try to convey somewhat irrelevant to everyday life-
almost to the point of being nihilistic.

but i think it was that familiar sense of nihilism which acted as an anxiolytic for me and calmed me that morning.
i really entertained the thoughts that i just want to give up my career and pick up a history/language course somewhere and i really would love doing such a job translating nihilistic chinese poems and making them beautiful for museum exhibits for the rest of my life.

anyways on another note i managed to watch a couple of things today which i've always wanted to watch for the last little while.

Saint Oniisan


in one line this is about Jesus and Buddha taking a holiday in Japan and becoming roommates. i actually dont find the notion offensive at all. in fact when a secular artist paints a picture of religion in such a gentle humorous positive light, i think its really lovely.
though i did find the buddha bits slightly funnier than the Jesus bits. i suspect the author didnt know Christianity or Jesus that much more beyond the superficial to be able to make the bits funnier which is a pity.
but still Jesus from this story is so cute (~~>_<~~) - an anxious otakuish oniisan who loves watching all the evening jap dramas (and watches all the channels simultaneously in his omnipresence) and then promptly blogs all his drama reviews on the same night and gets a huge fan following...
awwwww~ can i have your blog link Jesus?~~~~ which dramas are you watching now?~~~~~  *sniffles + starry eyes x 1000*

and i finished watching August: Osage County. over recent years i hardly watch any western films but think the poster of this one just grabbed me.

i think it looks like one of those paintings from the romantic era. def getting the dvd.
the movie wasn't bad. lots of candid things brutally said and masterfully acted out. i just found julia roberts a bit weak towards the end. yes she was very good with the yelling and swearing, but wasnt great conveying the concluding strong and complex emotions via looks and facial expressions.
but BC was a delight, delievered his character with such steadiness and power. i still have very fond memories of him playing William Pitt in Amazing Grace, and his character this time brings back some of those fond memories and my respect for him as an actor. i am sorry, i just never managed to see him much as Sherlock... and Parade's End (and the praises BC sang for it) made me more speechless for quite some time...

anyways, end of the day i just want to say how much i enjoyed this movie reminded me of how much i love people -
all the horrendous pathetic monstrous bits of it.
so, i don't quite want to take off and go and translate nihilistic poems just yet.