Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Prelude To A Switch


One has to go. That alter ego. The decision is clear. It's finally here.



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Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Everything Changes


I opened my eyes, with every strength I could muster, wide enough to be blinded by the ethereal light of day, and greeting me casually was the beatific azure which painted a glorious charm to the otherwise vacuous morning. Today, dragging to work seemed like an arduous task. But what came after was very much an admirable day, one that I hope would be better, tomorrow.


The past days had been unpleasant as I was defective. Instantly, I was the epitome of ill. Immunized by the drugs equivalent to the chemical content of chlopheniramine, I became the object of laze. Sloth was probably my greatest sin, as weariness took over me, overwhelming me like a blanket would over a pathetic 89 years old dodo suffering from a traumatic coma. Time was also heavy upon me, making my progress extremely delayed. Maybe it is a sign, for I have no intention to stay there longer than I expected. If need be, I shall move on, go forward and meet the government of miracles, hoping that there are greener pastures on the other side of the plane. I am but a lonely man with plenty of agendas to fulfill. Being at the peak means being in different places all at once, and the only catalyst of change is change itself. So it's time, I believe, to chart the grand design.


I had started the change back then by archiving/showcasing the previous version of play6round in a documentation of portfolios entitled 100% Design Portfolio (available in PageOne & Amazon). Selections Lounge (aka Hiatus Lounge) is no longer alive. This one is for the road. This one, which stood for the longest of time, will have a place somewhere in the deepest province of my heart.


Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Seven For Seven


Let’s not, I say, hope for too many hopes.
Let’s not get too occupied with things that never seemed to come your way.
But hope, in the best of times, for all to be good and true.


Little memories, (from where they came I am not aware?), sweet-talked through my ears as I typed these, not really realizing how fast it has been. Just three weeks into the fresh year and I have already began to shut the past. This is a progress, indefinitely, but within that, there are vital nostalgias that I would love to treasure. The honeypots that were just too rich to be ignored must be remembered. I shall cling on to some of these, and some of that, and as I looked back, I will reflect and decide if they are worth the keepings, for in the measuring of one’s life, some things are safe for reminiscing, while some, no matter how grand it might look or sound, are better left perished with the sands of time.


Seven moments from 2007:

01. ZapCode – How To Save Costs By Becoming Your Own Talent.
So now, this realization emerged. Adaptability and versatility are major keys to eradicate the occasional ennui that confines the walls of my tiny cubicle. From now on, I shall play on.



Linda Leong - ECD * Tommy Lim - CD * Caroline Chew - Copywriter * Madally Wurlpiz - Designer * Renee Yeow - Stylist * Ben, One Twenty One Studio - Photographer / Image Retouch.



02. Ganga Zumba: UM – Imported from The Land of The Rising Sun.

Waiting is a tiring game. Eventually, patience does bring unexpected results. So here at last, I can now soar with Ganga Zumba. Come on people, Habatake!



03. The New Paper - New Face 2007 Campaign
Despite some hideous namecalls to the end product by The Powers That Be (May God Bless Them), nothing beats the pleasure of watching (and directing) three gorgeous babes with giant dryers blowing winds on their faces and dresses. Post-production wise, while it looked like eternity trying to solidify and refine art directions, was a learning phase worth noting. The journey was almost surreal.



Linda Leong - ECD * Dollah Jaafar - CD * Jade Mok - Copywriter * Madally Wurlpiz - Designer / Typographer * Shutterbug - Photo Studio * Eye Candi - Image Retouch.



04. The Ten Best Reads of 2007 in Random Order.


01. The Enthusiast Almanack by The Enthusiast
02. Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk
03. The Intellectual Devotional by Kidder & Oppenheim
04. The Prestige by Christopher Priest
05. The Raw Shark Text by Steven Hall
06. Sold by Patricia McCormick
07. I Am Muslim by Dina Zaman
08. If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor
09. JPod by Douglas Coupland
10. Shampoo Planet by Douglas Coupland




05. SPH Ink Awards 2007 - The Write Stuffs.
Featured in July 2007 issue of AdAsia, this campaign, neatly created by dear buddy Rachel Chin, is a little pitch of ideas, that turns me into an experimental copywriter still waiting to be exposed. I need more space to rewrite. This may not be much, but since its documented and distributed far and wide, it makes for a fine, simple, first piece of something.



Linda Leong - ECD * Tommy Lim - CD * Caroline / Wurlpiz - Copywriter * Rachel Chin - Designer



06. The Magnificent Seven Reunites

The echoes of laughter are residing at the back of my cranium, forever.




07. License To Speed

After numerous twists and turns and uncounted visits to the trippy slopes, the license is mine and mine to hold. The triangle begins.


Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Pilot


Despite my failing effort to restore or boost energy, whichever deems fit for today, I have survived yet again, an exquisite acid reflux of my heart which took me off guard at close to half-past-midnight early this cryptic morning. I will (for the first time ever) write a chapter at these wee hours, with the scenic backdrop being in particular a Delphian vault of clouds, and peculiarly but otherwise beautifully, accompanied by a chilling windy breeze and a 40% black-purple phenomenon of light that signifies either (a) the apprehension of non-entity or (b) the signals of a possible convection rain; of which the correct answer I do not wish to recognize.


The real soundtrack to this moment would be the PSP, vocalizing a retired Japanese tune.


With sweats and particles filling the ear, all I can theorized is Misia’s ‘Everything’ turning into a bunch of sour notes, a mess of hazy sound waves that pollutes, in a humdrum style of deliverance, the thin spaces that exudes an air of decay. It was possibly strange, as the B-flat sounds ringing in monotone surrounding my tympanic membrane, beating back and again like a tennis ball's elegant flight in a court, brought me into a state of thoughts, thinking of the possibilities that I might be crazy. Yet through all that, I'm half awake, half asleep. Half gone-case and half like a bird finding its way back home. Drunk.


Here, expectedly, almost all are empty. What do I have to fill? I asked. There are stark blanknesses, the lack of warmth and silence confronting my fear of not having anything to write. My fear of white space, the innocence, the untouched, this agitation - of having the perception that everything minimalism is nothing but the intimation of art.


So, what will you do if you have a blank space in between everything else? What would you do to fill the opening? This interval of discontinuity? This virgin space?


As a visualist, what I'll do is a simple craft of filling. All I have to do is fill. Fill it with anything: - an important message, a stunning picture, a promising promotion, a creative buy, an unusual fact, a meaningless article, a stupid recipe, an animated strip, a random illustration, an interesting pitch, a famous quote, a short movie.


Anything could just be ‘Everything’.


In a newspaper company, the term is known as “Fillers”.


As such I will fulfill my thirst, with a tincture, not deliberate but with much afterthoughts, a 5-7-5 haiku:


Tomorrow’s today,
Is yesterday’s tomorrow,
So today’s today.


I will be, in the fifth month of this annum, 27. And this site, ever changing, could never guess it’s ultimate ending. Will time ever makes me wiser, or with doubts greying the clouds, a better person of the play? Indeed I have to go soon, but the question is not where, but how? World peace is nowhere but far. And right here right now, as far as I am concern, I really need to pursuit the thing I have always craved for.


That.