How shall I begin...

Tell me.

Tell me, as I lie here with my head resting against the soft hollow between your collarbone and your arm, of adventures of tales and tales of adventure.

No, tell me not of films and books; of the origins of flashing Coca Cola signs; of the importance of Khipu in South America.

I long to hear your tale: a story of adventure, a narrative of event (not abstraction. I want to hear of absurdity; of people dressed in oddly frilled coats; of endless days in dull occupations; of monkeys and spiders (and spider-monkeys?); of sailing across on the wide ocean; of butterflies and moths; of wind-swept shores and islands you've seen disappear into the ocean; of Amazons running against you (while I secretly grin in approval); of mountains unreachable for fear of Yetis, skeletons and fluorescent moss; of endless forest where the Hoopoe sing cheerfully and hummingbirds hum; of...

No, I cannot say. I should not demand.

Mouth sealed, eyes shut; I wait as you stay silent and sleep.

Place your hand on your head and collapse, woman

Having watched The Godfather and questioning whether I actually liked it or not, I found myself asking certain questions. It's not that the film was particularly bad, but something about it was just rather irksome. Acting was amazing and its influences can be tasted everywhere. Whether I'd place it on my 'best films' list is a completely different story.

However: what is with the glorification of murder/crime in so-called 'masculine' films? And of the misogynistic themes that recur into films like Se7en, being somewhat of the same genre. I know I would be criticised for being too serious about a film, but when you are told that your place is passive and with children in media these kind of films being to be rather tedious. I am not saying that all films should be politically correct nor am I arguing that film should be overly moralistic. I guess what I find annoying is that films which are considered 'must-see' often depict women in a stereotypical role and play out masculinity as dominant. Anything remotely feminine is considered a 'chick flick' which has no possible capability of ever being any good.

Which brings me back to Neha's tale of ties and women: in film and in life, do we have to be of a 'masculine' gender in order to be important and respected? Even film directors: how many have been women and been successful? The wikipedia article lists a few films but the few I recognise and have seen have never been considered classics. Plus the issues they seem to address have never been as popular as the themes discussed in more prominent films. Having a brief look at the AFI's 100 films thing (including the 10th Anniversary changes) I don't even think I noticed a single female director.

I know that what it means to be female is socially constructed, and as such those ideas are fluid; I dislike chick flicks because they depict frivolous ideas which I find tedious. But then I also find Godzilla (the remake) tedious because it was just dull. Somehow I just feel that it is such a shame that in order for a film to be successful, it has to conform to particular female stereotypes and emphasise the dominance of masculinity.

I am liminal

I stand at the edge of erosion, watching as its darkened waves slap fast against my ankles. From here I cannot see the ruins of the wall which hid this ocean. Under my feet, the sand crumbles, lunging towards the ocean it once forsook.

I remember back then, back where the recesses of my memories are scraping towards past made from ashes and glue into large archaic sculptures; reflections of the self sit on windowsills where people peer and question at their obscure form. I remember when, as children - innocent and cruel - we would pick on the scabs of the wall and try to push it over. Then, as years washed away with the tide, I came back; watching the stones crumble and fall, the black ocean dark and blank, I came to know of their true meaning.

But now the wall has fallen. Children no longer mark their height and age against the stones that once held it up. I no longer run and skip and question what lies behind: magical mysteries, waters of multicoloured and luminescent properties, sandcastles as high as mountains, shells-a-million... the tales of the past are too hard to remember. Etching a name against the sand is almost impossible.

The sand crumbles and reforms, the blackness does not fade. Perhaps soon the sting of its oil-slick waters will dissolve into its incomprehensible tide.

Give a little Green Glow

The subject of carbon emissions should not be too far away on World Environment Day. To stand up against Climate Change is essential, but how?


Cutting carbon emissions individually is not actually that hard: reduction of heating/air-conditioning, buying produce grown in England (or growing your own food), changing your lightbulbs to energy efficient ones, placing solar panels for heating up your water (in Australia), etc. However, the difficulty lies in breaking a habit, and mine happens to be flying.

Flying to Australia once a year is an awful, awful thing to do and must be stopped. A habit, however, that has always existed in my multinational extended family; the issue of not flying becomes a slight problem when your parents live on the other side of the world. The issue then is only what can be done. The problem being that if I don't fly to visit family, they will fly and visit me: 3 versus 1?

I think the best step now, for me, is to reduce my flying plans to one set of flights a year. That way there is a severe reduction in flying time and a way of keeping my extended family happy.

So: Fly if you have not seen the world. Fly less if you have.