Something Funny

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A Waltz on A Rope Between Twin Towers

http://www.designobserver.com/archives/entry.html?id=38785#

WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT:
Philippe Petit is a tightrope walker. He is crazy and inspirational. You must read his escapade! This happened way back in 1974 before we were born during the time before the 9-11 event, when the New York World Trade Centre was still standing.

As a youth of 18 years of age, he boldly harnassed a dream, trained and prepared himself for 6 years to eventualise it. This is a tale of ambition, vision, passion and faith. It was not based on monetary returns but just the satisfaction of self realization, hardwork and drive. Certainly re-iginited my beliefs that dreams are possible if you just decide "Yeah, that's what I wanna do!" and walk towards it. It may take one day, one month, one year. "Impossible is Nothing"!!


MY THOUGHTS:
Trying to figure out the kinds of reactions he might have encountered during the course of his journey. People who knew him probably put him down during the period he was pursuing this miraculous feat.

Sure, this is an easier feat than discovering electricity or inventing flight. But it holds the same weight in terms of labour and tenacity as well as an undying spirit.

HOW I FEEL:
As I read this, waves of emotions and warmth trickled, just like when I watched movies such as Sea Biscuit & The Pursuit Of Happiness. Yet it had the rebelliousness and wayward attitude of reality programs such as Punk. A lovely article. :)

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THE ARTICLE:

Michael Bierut
There is No Why

Philippe Petit, New York City, August 7, 1974

The best design movie of 2008 is not about a typeface. It's about a tightrope walker.

Man on Wire, a thrilling new documentary directed by James Marsh, tells the story of Philippe Petit's 1974 high wire walk between the two towers of the World Trade Center. As a 50-year-old designer who spends more time in meetings than at my (imaginary) drawing board, I find it conveniently reassuring to value concept over execution. Man on Wire shows how easy it is to have an idea, and how hard — and sometimes even miraculous — it is to see it realized.



Petit was a teenager in Paris browsing magazines in a dentist's office when he saw a rendering of the then-unbuilt World Trade Center. He was electrified. He was already an obsessed magician, juggler, and high wire artist. To an aspiring tightrope walker, the idea of two 110-story towers, side by side, suggested only one thing. Petit drew a line between the image of the two towers. All that remained now was the execution.


Making the walk happen took years of planning. Petit sums up his own attitude with characteristic aplomb: "It's impossible, that's for sure. So let's start working." He moved to New York and began visiting the construction site, at one point obtaining access to the top of the towers by posing as a French journalist. He made drawings and took photographs. Returning home, he built a full sized model of the WTC roofs in the French countryside to practice the walk. Getting all the necessary equipment up to the tops of the towers was not a one-man job. He recruited a group of confederates, a colorful multinational troupe who offer conflicting present-day memories throughout the film, and who each played a different role in what they privately called the coup. The plan was not just bold but actually rather insane: their solution for the hardest part of the whole scheme, for instance, getting the wire from one tower to the other, a span of nearly 200 feet, was to use a bow and arrow. It worked. Amazingly, it all worked.


Man on Wire's biggest, most satisfying surprise is seeing what Petit actually did when the moment of truth finally arrived and he stepped out into the void. I have to admit, I'd always assumed that he simply edged his way inch by inch across the expanse between the towers, teeth gritted and knuckles white, finally making it with relief to the other side. Was this is what I expected from past exposure to "death defying" circus acts, where the danger is always exaggerated while the crowd holds its collective breath? Or, more likely, was I simply projecting how I — and, admit it, you — would have attacked the challenge?


What happened was quite different. Philippe Petit was out on the wire for more than 45 minutes, crossing back and forth between the towers eight times. One of my favorite characters in the film, Port Authority Police Department Sergeant Charles Daniels, a mustachioed New York 70s cop straight out of Dog Day Afternoon, later described to news cameras what he saw when he was sent up to persuade Petit to surrender:


I observed the tightrope "dancer" — because you couldn't call him a "walker" — approximately halfway between the two towers. And upon seeing us he started to smile and laugh and he started going into a dancing routine on the high wire. And when he got to the building we asked him to get off the high wire but instead he turned around and ran back out into the middle. He was bouncing up and down. His feet were actually leaving the wire and then he would resettle back on the wire again. Unbelievable, really.


It had taken six years of work and planning to get to that moment, and Philippe Petit never wanted it to end. His greatest dream, unbelievably, had come true. He was 24 years old.


He finally surrendered to the police. In the film he remembers that the only moment he actually feared for his safety was when he was being hustled down the WTC stairs. Back on earth, he was mobbed by reporters, all with the same question: why?


"There is no why, " he said. "When I see three oranges, I juggle; when I see two towers, I walk."


Like many in the theater, I was crying at this point. It was all so senselessly brave and beautiful. And, of course, there was another reason: although it's never mentioned in the film, you are constantly reminded — especially as you watch Petit and his accomplices plan their audacious but benevolent "crime" — that the World Trade Center towers no longer exist.


When my wife and I first moved to New York in 1980, Dorothy's first job was in World Trade Center Tower Two. Alas, only the twelfth floor. I visited her after she started and we went up to check out the view from the Observation Deck. We never saw Petit there, although in the face of public acclaim after his coup, Petit had been given a lifetime pass. But we saw something else, a little hard to see but clearly visible once you knew what to look for: Petit's autograph, the date of his triumph, and a little drawing of two towers connected by a single line, a replica of the idea that started it all.


Along with so much else, that autograph is gone now. But Philippe Petit is still with us, living in Woodstock, New York, and serving as artist in residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. And, thanks to Man on Wire, so is the timeless lesson of the power of a simple idea, beautifully realized.

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SOURCES:
Ted Loong's MSN Status Message

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supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Definition: a nonsense word meaning fantastic; also called supercalifragilistic
Etymology: popularized by the movie 'Mary Poppins'
su·per·cal·i·frag·i·lis·tic·ex·pi·al·i·do·cious



Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay
Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Even though the sound of it Is something quite atrocious
If you say it loud enough
You'll always sound precocious
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay
Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay

Because I was afraid to speak
When I was just a lad My father gave me nose a tweak And told me I was bad
But then one day I learned a word That saved me aching nose
The biggest word I ever heard And this is how it goes:

Oh, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Even though the sound of it
Is something quite atrocious
If you say it loud enough
You'll always sound precocious
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay
Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay

So when the cat has got your tongue
There's no need for dismay
Just summon up this word And then you've got a lot to say
But better use it carefully Or it may change your life
One night I said it to me girl
And now me girl's my wife!

She's supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

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Something that always bring a smile to my face. :)
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Sources:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Brick - Ben Folds Five

6am, day after Christmas
I throw some clothes on in the dark
The smell of cold
Car seat is freezing
The world is sleeping
I am numb

Up the stairs to her apartment
She is balled up on the couch
Her mom and dad went down to Charlotte
They're not home to find us out
And we drive
Now that I have found someone
I'm feeling more alone
Than I ever have before

She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly
Off the coast and I'm headed nowhere
She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly

They call her name at 7:30
I pace around the parking lot
Then I walk down to buy her flowers
And sell some gifts that I got
Can't you see
It's not me you're dying for
Now she's feeling more alone
Than she ever has before

She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly
Off the coast and I'm heading nowhere
She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly

As weeks went by
It showed that she was not fine
They told me "Son, it's time
To tell the truth"
And she broke down
And I broke down
'Cause I was tired of lying

Driving back to her apartment
For the moment we're alone
She's alone
I'm alone
Now I know it

She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly
Off the coast and I'm heading nowhere
She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly

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HOW I FEEL
Really bitter sweet song. I like it a lot.
Especially the chorus that spurs you on to sing a long..
"She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly....
Off the coast and I'm heading nowhere.....she's a..."

Washes your soul like soft waves of morbid disillusion.
Romantic.. Depressing...Sweet....Simple.. Heartfelt Quiet Realisation..
Ending off with the soft tinkering of the piano keys.. nice
Released in 1997 and it still tugs

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WHAT'S ITS REALLY ABOUT
On Ben Folds Live, Folds explained: "People ask me what this song's about... I was asked about it a lot, and I didn't really wanna make a big hairy deal out of it, because I just wanted the song to speak for itself. But the song is about when I was in high school, me and my girlfriend had to get an abortion, and it was a very sad thing. And, I didn't really want to write this song from any kind of political standpoint, or make a statement. I just wanted to reflect what it feels like. So, anyone who's gone through that before, then you'll know what the song's about." (thanks, Matt - Conway, AR)

Quotation Source & More Trivia and Comments available at:
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=2267

Collide - Howie Day

The dawn is breaking...
A light shining through...
You're barely waking...
And I'm tangled up in you. (yeah)

I'm open, you're closed.
Where I'll follow you'll go.
I worry I won't see your face
Light up again.

Even the best fall down sometimes.
Even the wrong words seem to rhyme.
Out of the doubt that fills my mind,
I somehow find you and I collide.

I'm quiet, you know,
You make a first impression.
I've found I'm scared to know,
I'm always on your mind.

Even the best fall down sometimes.
Even the stars refuse to shine.
Out of the back you fall in time
Somehow find you and I collide...

Don't stop here...
I lost my place...
I'm close behind...

Even the best fall down sometimes.
Even the wrong words seem to rhyme.
Out of the doubt that fills your mind
You finally find, you and I collide.
You finally find, you and I collide.
You finally find, you and I collide.

The Hawaii Chair

http://www.hawaiichair.com/hawaii/

Was laffing my socks off when I saw this youtube series. Behold the great "Hawaii Chair"!!! :) LOL. I highly recommend watching the ellen talkshow version first. Followed by Scott Mills version. Its a riot. :) Think the product was a success in a whole new other way than it was intended. The tenacity of a spin off and spoof. AMAZING!!!!








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Quotations Quotations

"Strength does not come from winning,
Your struggles develop your strengths.
When you go through hardships and
Decide not to surrender,
That is strength"

"An educated man is the one who has
so developeed the facilities of his mind,
so that he may acquire anything he wants or its equivalent,
without violating the rights of others."

"Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal
with the intent of throwing it at someone else;
You are the one who gets burned."

"It is better to be hated for what you are,
Than to be loved for what you are not."

Flash Pop-up Eliminator

In the JS File:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
objects = document.getElementsByTagName("object");
for (var i = 0; i < objects.length; i++)
{
objects[i].outerHTML = objects[i].outerHTML;
}


In the HTML:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
script type="text/javascript" src="XXX/ieupdate.js">
/script

Compressing HTML

http://compressor.ebiene.de/

This is pretty cool for scaling enewsletters file size down. Simply just cut and paste and click to minimize file size in between the codes. Cool.. just saved me a lot of time. :)

The Black Google

http://www.blackle.com/

Didn't know that black pixels were energy saving. Amused? (Nods head) Nice to see google in black though. Fresh change from the boring white and blue theme. Original source from spoon interactive

Puzzle Bobble / Bust A Move

http://www.ventoline.com/frozenbubble/bustamove640.html

Was searching for this game for my mum. I ended up spending hours on it. Its a great mindtrip back to the old school days when I donated buckets of coins in those arcade machines. I remember having a hard time trying to pull friends away from it as well. Ha.. Damn hard to get those balls into the tiny nooks. Amusing nonetheless.

Prints International

http://www.prints-international.com/

Prints International has been sprouting across the island with its repertoire of paper products such as photo albums, cards, wrapping paper, notebooks and boxes. Pretty and classic looking prints that makes gift buying much easier. Prices are affordable. Only con is that the designs are not updated regularly and tend to look bland after a while when you revisit the shop. Nonetheless, thumbs up.

Paper People

http://www.paperpeople-shop.com/

Seen those real cool notebooks at Topshop Wisma? The producers of those funky little notebooks are none other than the paper people. Check out their website and eshop for more info.

nobodyandco

http://www.nobodyandco.it/

Fancy reading a book while you plunk yourself down on a chair. Forget about stretching, choose any of your books just around and about you. Cheeky 2 in 1 idea.



They have a buddha jelly mould as well that looks too deliciously holy to be devoured. Is it a sin to eat the great image of the Buddha? Om Mi Tou Fuo....

kleinschmidt

http://www.kleinschmidt.se

A wonderful food photography portfolio. Simple and tasteful. The colors are brilliant and composition is flawless. Most of the popular food blogs going round are filled with generous reviews and images from the common man. But they lack a certain aesthetic acuteness and quality. I hope the foodie blog phenomenon doesn't kill the livelihood of these professional food image masters. Its gourment cuisine for the eyes.

Audrey Kawasaki

http://www.audrey-kawasaki.com/

Chanced upon this gem while i revisited momomoogie . This illustrator paints on wood with the most subdued colors. The subjects are fragile and etheral with a melancholy and mysterious air. There are influences of asian themes, think flowing mountains and detailed flowers, thrown in occasionally with circus like objects like tigers, fire-eaters and such. Never OTT just very beautiful and quiet.

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Polyvore

http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/explore

Mix and match your favourite ensemble. Styling has never been easier or more fun. You don't even need photoshop to start. Its amazing what they come up with. Good way to shop, scour or browse for nice stuff to buy online as well when you're exploring the different color or thematic sets.

Lego USB

http://www.zipzip.net.au/

This is so cute!! Lego + Tech is so cool! :) Price is too high though. Wonder how the guy came up with the idea in the first place. Some other sites have posted similar versions as well. And it glows when connected. Its childs play.

Alwin Lim Photography

http://www.alwinlim.com

Alwin is an ex-colleague who used to crack us up during lunch with his nonsense. He's all grown up now and has started prepping his photography skills for a slice of the local wedding photography pie. Delicate and sensitive with a touch of whimsical insight. Check him out/