Me and you and everyone we know

The shoe salesman says "Did you want to try these on?"
The woman who drives the cab says, "No, I'm just driving him."
- So those are comfortable?
-- I guess so. I mean, they kind of rub my ankles, but all shoes do that. I have low ankles.
- You think you deserve that pain, but you don't.
--I don't think I deserve it.
- Well, not consciously maybe.
-- My ankles are just low.
- People think foot pain is a fact of life... but life is actually better than that.

Sipping coffee in Cambodia, looking at the evening sky...

There is one sky. I love the sky especially during the evening time. If you have a place that you can look out of, or for that matter, just a window, remember to catch a piece of the sky and hold it for a while. It's like the world is one big house, and there is really just one sky, and the only difference is that you're looking at it from a different window. Zoom in, and here I am, on a small island, in a small place, with 2 cats, looking out at the same sky as you are. It's such a nice big picture that you can't help but feel this is no longer such a small place, that somehow there's more room in the world now (places and things get smaller and smaller when you keep doing and seeing the same things over and over again), and there is more magic out here than we care to let ourselves believe.

says the shoe salesman who set his hand on fire trying to save his own collapsible life : "I don't want to have to do this living. I just walk around. I want to be swept off my feet, you know? I want my children to have magical powers. I am prepared for amazing things to happen. I can handle it (from the movie, Me and you and everyone we know)." Can we handle it? It's harder and scarier than we think...

;)

Can you keep your balance?

Can you keep your balance? Internally, externally? What is the weight at the opposite end that will keep you at where you are? What happens when something tips the balance? Desire? Jealousy? Greed? Obsession? Watch this clip called "Balance" which won the the Oscar for Best Animated Short, 1990 and deservingly so!

Cinema Paradiso

"Living here day by day, you think it's the center of the world. You believe nothing will ever change. Then you leave: a year, two years. When you come back, everything's changed. The thread's broken. What you came to find isn't there. What was yours is gone. You have to go away for a long time... many years... before you can come back and find your people. The land where you were born (from the movie Cinema Paradiso, 1988)." You have to succeed overseas before Singapore will recognize that you have succeeded... We have heard this phrase so many times that it's almost a cliché. Unfortunately, this is still true...

"The Screen Kiss is important to Cinema Paradiso. Early in the film, the local priest previews each movie before it is available for public consumption, using the power of his office to demand that all scenes of kissing be edited out. By the time the new Paradiso opens, however, things have changed. The priest no longer goes to the movies and kisses aren't censored. Much later, following the funeral near the end of Cinema Paradiso, Salvatore receives his bequest from Alfredo: a film reel containing all of the kisses removed from the movies shown at the Paradiso over the years (Reelviews)."Haha - Remember the time when old men queued up in long lines just to watch some uncensored scenes? Even today, art with nudity is deemed as too sensitive in public places... Maybe the Internet is a good thing - it forces a re-think from "control" to "letting go"...

Catmasutra - Break time?

Another new piece based on the coffee shop theme. This is what I call coffee! I prefer the authentic local coffee brew, when done properly, tastes as good as any of those served by western coffee chains as Starbucks, TCC or Coffee Bean. I don't mind the latter but on a daily basis - give me that good old kopi-0 any day (also its much more economical). Some foreign workers (from the Western continents) may decry the quality of local coffee, so much so that in their minds, local coffee is just bad coffee. It's just laughable when you hear one such foreign worker shower insults on poor old local and 3-in-1 coffee when the office's espresso coffee machine broke down; how he now has to spend $5 just to get his daily caffeine shot. You know what? Grow up!

Heritage, culture, and the joy of the true kopitiam experience! Kopi with charcoal grilled toast served with butter and kaya and soft boiled eggs, and of course you can have otak too. This is especially evident when you're attempting to paint something that is unique to us. Some of these Catmasutra paintings are a product of this searching. Alas, if we're not going to value what we know is unique to us, then one day they'll become extinct. Shame to all those stall owners who make bad local coffee, especially the food court ones!


And I'm not sure why this pops up in my head, but shame to the power that be that tore down the old national library... Some things, once lost, can never be reclaimed...

Catmasutra joy juice - Catmirnoff!

Finished the remaining details today. Actually illustrated this piece last year but didn't get around to painting it. It was supposed to be "Angel", being a Russian Blue with the Russian Vodka... Changed my mind 'cause I wanted a warm color to complement the red. "Completely original. Completely Catmirnoff!" wahahahaha A fun piece, this painting is meant to warm the heart and get you smirking in an jiffy. Just add 1/2 - 1 ox 100 proof Smirnoff, filled with Catmasutra-joy juice soda ice cubes. Serve in Highball glass and a high dosage of smirking!