The Questions:Ken Lum at the Vancouver Art Gallery– what is this work being shown here, at this gallery? What interests you about this exhibition? What questions did you leave asking yourself?

Ken Lum’s work always involves the issues of identity, language and multi-culture. As a local artist, his work is just right to exhibit in Vancouver Art Gallery. Because VAG probably is the first choice for community members to look into the local artistic and cultural trend. Lots of Ken Lum’s work are related to the public and representing issues that our local community have. It is easy to get response from the major audience. And I think that kind of the art piece is the primary work being exhibited in the art gallery.

I am really interested in his mirror pieces. Because of the reflection, when viewers stand in front the mirror work, they are not just viewing the art piece but also interacting with it.  When they are judging the art piece, they actually are judging themselves. Because in the mirror it is your own image, observer is also been observed. The art work fundamentally challenges the structure of the viewer. It is all about self-understanding. His portrait with text works also interest me. The text and the portrait photo occupy equal space which in some way can be interpreted as they are some important. When watching this series, I believe most of the viewers would use the text to explain the image. But is that the true relationship between them? or do we just force ourselves to believe it? I don’t have the answer, but I think this may be an issue that Ken Lum intended to express in this series.

After saw the exhibition, the question I left to myself is that which one is more important: creating an artwork which is concerned with audience or making something on your own and totally ignoring the viewer? I am still seeking the answer.

Best Motion Picture – Drama

The Social Network

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama

Natelie Portman – Black Swan

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama

James Franco – 127 Hours

Best Motion Picture – Comedy Or Musical

Alice in Wonderland

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy Or Musical

Emma Stone – Easy A

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy Or Musical

Kevin Spacey – Casino Jack

Best Performance by an Actress In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

Mila Kunis – Black Swan

Best Performance by an Actor In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

Christian Bale – The Fighter

Best Animated Feature Film

Toy Story 3

Best Foreign Language Film

I have no idea

Best Director – Motion Picture

Christopher Nolan – Inception

Best Screenplay – Motion Picture

Christopher Nolan – Inception

Best Original Score – Motion Picture

Hans Zimmer – Inception

Best Original Song – Motion Picture

“I See The Light” – Tangled

Best Television Series – Drama

Dexter (SHOWTIME)

Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series – Drama

no idea

Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series – Drama

Michael C. Hall – Dexter

Best Television Series – Comedy Or Musical

The Big Bang Theory / Glee

Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series – Comedy Or Musical

Tina Fey –  30 Rock

Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series – Comedy Or Musical

Matthew Morrison – Glee

Best Mini-Series Or Motion Picture Made for Television

The Pacific (HBO)

Best Performance by an Actress In A Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television

no idea

Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

no idea

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Jane Lynch – Glee

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Eric Stonestreet – Modern Family

I watched Tron Legacy twice. The first time it is the regular 3D on day 1, and due to popularity of the movie, we have to sit on the forth row. From my view angle, the screen transforms to a trapezoid. It’s a pain to watch any fast-motion sequences. I call it a really bad viewing experience. Besides, because of its “normal” story, I would give it 3 stars rating.

Then on day 4, I went to see IMAX version with other friends. This time, everything is great. Bigger screen means more details, IMAX totally emphasizes the visual effects of Tron. And the sound system is tremendous. Sometimes I can feel my seat and floor vibrating, which is awesome. The 3D is entirely unnecessary, but IMAX gives the movie a cool shot.

Beyond Tron’s fancy picture with beautiful glowing lines and impressive music with ming blowing sound, I get nothing. I have to say it is a popcorn movie. The story? ha, I just cannot get into it, and the ending is like “what the heck?!” The pace of the storytelling is not bad at most of time, and then seems the whole world collapsed, they just want to rush to finish the film. Maybe the budget is the problem, I don’t know. The ending part truly ruins the whole movie. I know we call stuff cannot be explained sci-fi and you cannot create it completely make sense. But they are some things quite funny if you think about them. First, ok, it is “easy” to understand a camera can suck people into digital world. How the hell a camera can give a fully digital “girl” a physical body? Yep, you can explain is a new tech. Then, second, even camera can transform digital into physical, but how can you put all Clu’s army into Flynn’s arcade room if they successfully get into human world through portal? It gonna be a funny picture to see lots of them stuck in that small basement. There are more details we are logically unable to think about.

Anyway, it’s a good visual banquet worthing people spend time on it during the holiday season.

My final Rating: 4 stars

Tangled, Disney’s 50th animated feature, also its first 3D fairytale animation, successfully tells a classic story. Its great acting, its exaggerate squash and stretch animation, its beautiful composition, all of them remind me the glorious Disney classical animation Empire. Considering Disney’s previous 3D animations, Tangled is totally a leap. I guess it is the right time to let the empire stand on the 3D full length animation stage compete with Pixar and Dreamworks.

Can simple drama still move people? Sure, it all depends on how you represent it. I won’t spoil the story. But I can tell you there are several smart sets, not very conventional, really gives me a wonderful experience. Who said we were tired to see princess on the big screen? Then you should check Rapunzel. You would be easily touched by her pure emotion. Because of her amazing appearance, Eugene Fitzherbert, aka Flynn Rider, or should call him future prince, doesn’t really drop a mark on my mind. And we have to give credits to the artists who made Maximus, white horse “the awesomeness”. Can you imagine a horse sometimes acts like a human sometimes acts like a puppy and you won’t feel odd? Then this is it.

Inheriting from Disney’s classic, music, again, plays an important role in the movie. I can simply enjoy its whole original soundtrack as an individual pop music album. Last time I can remember the OST has the same impression is from “How to Train Your Dragon”.

With/Without Pixar’s help, I’m glad to see that Disney hasn’t lost its ability to present fabulous feature film. Tangled definitely is a good start to expect more fairytale in 3D.

My Rating: 5 Stars

I was quite busy recently. I have several reviews wanna talk about, probably gonna update after I finish this semester.

Developing film is fun. Doing fine print is a little bit tricky. I still gotta lots of stuff to learn.

I have to admit that team fortress 2 was my favorite game in the past 3 years. One of the most important reason why I like this game is that there are no level up in TF2. So everyone has the “equal” chance to kill others. All you need to know is to understand what your character should do. Basically everybody would enjoy the game based on its great job setting.

But things have changed. Since last year Valve released massive new weapons for various jobs, I have partly afk from TF2. The un-properly tested weapons appeared on every servers. And then Valve released “hat system”. To get the items, all you have to do is to spend lots of time on gaming. It totally transform TF2 from a decent FPS game to a stupid Korean-like MMO FPS. But it’s still cool, cause the hat only change your fancy appearance, which won’t affect any of your attributes.

And now, today, “great Valve” finally released the “trading system”. New fancy items will boost your skills, like make your character 10% faster, and gonna cost you a lot. Check this out. You wanna a hat for your Pyro? Sure, 17.49 USD. Indeed you can trade with your friend with some items dropped from the servers, but who will trade a 15 bucks weapon with some other stuff only worth 2 bucks? Trading is fun? Seriously? We’d better call it “Store System”.

From now on, you got money, then you have more HP, you run faster than others, you can wear a ugly purple hat to represent you are special. This is gay. TF2 is a complete stupid asian-made online game now. Thank you, Valve, you have created such a great game that tempt me spending over 900 hours in it. And you ruin it to let me move on.

Just read the report released by colourlovers. The major colors dominate the Internet are red and blue. So if you are a web designer working on a commercial website, you’d better be aware of mainstream’s opinion.

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