thought dump.

16 02 2008

I never really know what to write here. Whatever is really on my mind is usually too silly, trivial, or controversial. Seems like I’m used to censoring myself a lot, which doesn’t bode well because in the end I’ve lost sight of the real me.

I try my best, but I’m still a wasteful person, and I hate myself for that. I desperately need to reorganise my life, but first I have to clear this backlog of neverending readings and texts.

London this trip round was surprisingly unsatisfying. The best thing about it was meeting up with Enqi again and getting to bask in her aura of innate goodness and positivity, which I sorely needed after that dark period at the end of last year (the effects of which I am still feeling). Thank you so much for having me, dear. <3

I walked around the galleries and museums wishing Esther was with me, since now I’ve apparently turned into a lover of Turner, Constable, Pissaro, Canaletto and Degas in addition to the big three of the Impressionists (van Gogh, Monet, Manet). Seurat still leaves me cold though. This also marked the first time that I didn’t find any sort of solace in the British Museum, largely due in part to the masses of people. I’d been there during half-term before, but this time it was just ridiculous. Went to the Vanity Fair exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery which cemented my love of Annie Leibovitz and her amazing work, as well as a renewed interest in Mark Seliger. The Face of Fashion exhibition I went to in March last year had more stuff I was interested in, but it did introduce me properly to Steve Klein and Mario Testino.

I blame Esther for recent interest in fashion and the fine arts. Before I just liked looking at pretty pictures, but now I want to know the stories behind paintings and portraits. I also think Kate Moss is severely overused and overestimated as a model. There must’ve been about 4 portraits of her in the gallery taken by different photographers. While standing in front of a Testino series of pictures of her taken in 2007, I overheard a mother talking to her two young boys (probably aged about 7 or so).

mother: Do you recognise who this is?
boy 1: It’s Kate Moss, isn’t it?
mother: Yes it is. *regards portrait with a keen eye* Do you think she’s pretty?
boy 2: *enthusiastically* I think so!
mother: She is, I think it’s her high cheekbones. But she’s nine years younger than I am, and she’s got a lot more lines in her face than I do.

The mother lifted up the bangs to show a lack of lines in her forehead. With her hair up, she was quite pretty and didn’t look like her age (43). At this point she caught my eye, and I shared a secret and guffaw wither her before she herded her boys along to the next picture. I can only hope that she eventually educates them on the dangers of drink and drug abuse.





ticketbastard and the economies of scalpers.

13 12 2007

So I came back to my room from class with a message that one sole London date for BSB popped up out of nowhere, and a presale for O2 was already three hours old (because they’re playing the O2 Arena/ex-Millennium Dome). My first reaction was panic, because I must be the only one left in the SGeans with the old Virgin Mobile pay-as-you-go card. I didn’t upgrade mine to the O2 PAYG because I use less than £5 per month, and I don’t text much so I didn’t see the need for all the extra texts. This is the first time I’ve ever felt discriminated against for having a mobile number on a rival company.

First thing I did was ask Louis if he could help me generate a password to buy tickets, which he graciously did. After 20 minutes though, we realised that something in the system had screwed up because he hadn’t received a text back. (It is now about 7 hours after, and he still hasn’t received the code.) Then I asked Cui to help me generate another code.

Me: no answer?
Louis: yah not yet. strange. usually these things are quite instant
Louis: if it’s the same system, there’s smth wrong already…
Me: YES I GOT A CODE
Me: from…cui?
Me: she got it very fastly
Louis: huh! strange
Louis: maybe they detected that i was male

I got an okay seat at first, but thanks to a credit card snafu I exceeded the 2 minute window that TicketBastard forces you to enter your information in, so I lost it and ended up with a shittier seat. Worst seat that I’d ever bought in all of the presales I’d participated in before, and that’s saying something. The presale is supposed to get you decent seats before everyone else! In any case, one of my friends contacted me and said that she also wanted to go, so I ended up scouring ebay for tickets…and scored a pair in the SIXTH ROW..

SIXTH ROW. My mind is still reeling over that. It’s off to the side a bit, I only had to pay a bit more than the face value, and it’s going to be so worth it. I have to ebay my single ticket now, but all I want is to claim back my 30-odd pounds (Dear Justin, please to be pricing your tickets more like Backstreet, you rich arrogant popstar). I’d feel bad if I tried to make money off tickets like that.

Ironically, I think I just bought my sixth row tickets off a person that’s doing the exact same thing.