Hoa sữa lúc nửa đêm gây bệnh cồn cào.

Cái nhớ à, cái nhớ ơi, cái nhớ mày ngủ cho ngoan

Nhớ ơi, hoa sữa đang nở thì hãy nhắm mắt tận hưởng chứ đừng nhắm mắt hồi tưởng

Nhớ à, tao mệt mày quá,

Hà Nội vẫn ở nguyên đấy chứ có chạy đi đâu đâu mà sao nhớ thế này.

365 days

The definition of a year seems vague. Neither it is short nor long. 

BY Rob Mulholland

I have yet to read the rationale behind this beautiful piece of art, but for me personally it has something to do with human - our reflection, how our looks remain the same while the inside is transforming ... it is amazing how all of us have reshaped; mails, words and all that thought-provoking outputs merge into one intangible moss, it keeps on growing and drying out, breaking  through this side and twisting on that side... How could a lot of events be stuffed into just a few days? How could bold statements collapse so rapidly? Is it internal or external? Yes I find it pretty fascinating, it's even more complex than rocket science, almost unsolvable. I love this simple, almost too-obvious quote of McLuhan: "I don't necessarily agree with everything I say"

However, now that I've look at it from both side, the sequences seem clear. 

Ephemera. everything is life is temporary. what we once hold so dear and close, might vanish the next day without any signs. Enjoy this moment, suffer from it, laugh hard, taste every bite of your "now". 

So fast, now that I am seeing the others dealing with their changes. How I  wish I could do something, anything to help them, though the best thing I can do for now, is keeping silence.

a thought or two...about communicating

been to the design conference today. needless to say, things like inspirational, eye-dropping and all. I spent the evening sharing every single thing I could remember with my mates. I recalled the sessions, felt this-and-that, did my works with eagerness and positiveness.

the only downward thing is that, I'm not quite a good communicator. I cannot deliver a question right. how disappointed. I thought I would ask them about how they have gone through difficult times when they first started the business, but it turned out to be a bitch whining about how she didn't know what to do and need money to live on. So, yeah. It, together with some other questions raised, actually left some negative feelings for some of the audiences. well, I felt guilty and supppperrr embarrassed by letting some people down even if they are strangers and it might not take them very long to get this thing out of their heads. But again, my communication skill sometimes just sucks. sucks big time. okay I'm not taking language barrier as an excuse. I tend to talk non-sense when in crowd.

people sucks sometimes, so it's just one of the important thing that needs to be noted down. so that we can all improve ourselves for the better.


but really, sometimes, do you think words fail? I know it's best to balance both, chill and laugh are the best boost for basically everything. but well, today is the day that words suck with me. Haha, I suddenly feel for those who had said a bad thing or two during press and interviews.


 do you think we should shut our mouths, listen and silently improve ourselves as we learn from them, like "không biết thì dựa cột mà nghe", or should we just go ahead, speak up, make mistakes and feel alright as a flawed human-being and try to work things out from there?

Type affair or the disappearance of Linh

Life goes on fast these days. And all days all nights are dedicated to the little Type affair of mine. I wake up and fall asleep with him.

Our relationship started a month a go, when Brief told me "Ey, I've got this guy you'd really like, he's gonna suit your Tohe project perfectly. The only thing is that, you just gotta give him sometimes and get to know him. Wanna meet up?"

These two are actually from Nguyen... but since it looks so beautiful as rain I can't help posting <3

Of course I couldn't say no. Friends, marks, lecturers, even my own head and soul fell for the deal. so I started it off by sketching him out, doodles and doodles, I even searched for guys I like on the internet ( haha, what a shame...), re-traced their contours, admire their X-height, bowls, tails, arms, legs, ears... and I told him to be patience and nice, because I'd help him, train him, guide him because this is what I've wanted to do, now that he gives me a chance, I will grab it tightly.

Apart from personal cuddles, of course we hang out. We were with flour and dough, get dirty with color drops and wax ourselves with candle lights.

Yes there are days when I feel so sick of him, I get mad and said bad things to him, I cursed, I overreacted, I almost neglected him.

But there is, there will always a way to sort things out. Or at least, I believe so.

We'd take a walk by the peaceful canal, drench ourselves in the tranquil and enjoy the evening with pleasure.

work it out

It's been a long long time since I last updated, I know... My project is running okay, a bit slow though... Typefaces, design posters, struggling with the grids and ideas, torturing myself "How to make it better?", "Where do I go from here", "This is not good, redo!"

But of course, sketches and scamps are coming out. Stay tuned, my dear.

Anyways, I met a friend of mine, actually a backpacker who visited Vietnam in Sept2006.  More than 5 years have passed by, and who knows,  we met again in Singapore yesterday! Life is so amazing, unexpected, we could never figure out the way it works. Then you realize that human being is only a part of the grand cycle of the universe. Talking about universe, please check this link out. It's an interactive flash that let you examine sizes of almost everything - so much information presented in the most exciting way. Scroll your mouse to travel through, from the tiniest to the grandest. 

Scale of the universe

To hear her talking about surfing is just... beautiful. Wish I had recorded it, I tried to recall her lines, but they are fragments now and one should not rephrase a quote lousily right?

I know it's almost possible for me at this time to even paddling along the shores, but I will try surfing, once I've got muscles and gain possibly 4 more kg? Ha, with the late-night bed conversation yesterday with my roommates, I decided to set time for working out. Ahhh... It feels SUPER great to let loose, have a good stretch and the only could get into your mind at that point - is music.

Fill your head with bass and pump it up! This piece of soundtrack also get me through noisy studio. Maximum concentration. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross also take care of The girl with the dragon tattoo OST. Simply love these guys.

ordinary tales

I was looking for some photos, now I don't even remember which one I was looking for. Because while browsing through folders and folders of images, I came across those who I have left abandoned for quite a long time. 

Yesterday when we were talking about time and how we memorize our near-past, I told them I think about a period of time based on two things: people and projects. Who I had met, who I had parted, who had influenced me... Projects I've done, projects that is half-way, things that need editing but I never get time to do that... 

All these images were taken from around August 2011 to present. Each has got a story to tell, which I will try to write it down. Soon again, they will fall back into a thousands hundreds photos I've stored

 in a mess

 in a swarm,

which would take me forever to open the chest again.

 

1.  Colors in da house

So I was finding interesting, strange-looking stuff for my Image assignment. I was running in and out, digging here and there and it didn't take me long to realize, there were so so many color paints in my house ( the result of having 5 people who were/are in art school)  so I left the brief, took everything colorful I would find, together with Nguyen we arranged them and ...here comes.

Isn't it lovely to live in such a colorful world? Me and Khuyen never have our hands 'clean' in da house. There's always sth that has to do with colors: refill the ink cartridges, sketch with ink-pen, experiment with wax and watercolor, pastel and texture paste... We are so greatful, for we are able to play like a child, this time without a fussy mom to stop us.

 

 2.  16min challenge.

 I have a cousin who I really like. One time he showed me one of his project that involves drawing in 1min per piece. I saw the video and said the lines were too clumsy, even for 1min. So he 'challenged' me to do the same to see how it really worked.

Yes, I admit, my drawings are no better than what the artist had done in that project. A minute is really too short to polish anything. But I am proud to say that, I didn't think before drawing those, I just grabbed my pen and move my hands as swiftly as possible. But the result, personally speaking, were no worse. After 1min drafting, I spent another 10mins polishing it up, adding the details, and 5mins to add shades with a brush. The above photo is shot during the process, you can see the drafty lines hehe. The final looks like this:

3. Spring cleaning

2011 was coming to an end, and everywhere around our neighborhood, people were spring-cleaning their houses. There were tons of cool stuff left under the ground floor,  so we just carry them home! The red end-table was dragged 400m , at 2AM, we felt like living a thief's life really haha. But nothing fancy really happened until our lovely lady next door gave us this bookcase. We changed and moved everything around, we went to IKEA and I couldn't help buying the handsome square photo frame ( at 12S$ hur hur...) but considering all the free good stuff we were given, a ew clock a photo frame are good investment. Leaves and feather are from my 'collection' ( Yes, I've got a box full of feathers and another full of leaves) Nguyen made the frame and they go perfectly together. Bottle was 'stolen' from a housemate after he finished his drink; the map was torn from a very old encyclopedia ( I had to talk Nguyen into it, she never ever before tears or takes anything out  of her books, for her books are to be read and cared in the shelves, erhhh for me books have the potential for a piece of art). I love the reflection of the map on the flat mirror, it seems like a projection of "flat world". Underneath is a poem by E.E.Cummings, one I really love.

For the first few days after this transformation, me and Nguyen spent 10mins before going to sleep, laying in our beds and just looked at it - our little corner. Now this is really Linh's room <3

4. Chasing cars

when I was cleaning my brush, I noticed how drops of color slowly blended in the water, which was quite beautiful. So we just shoot footage of color drops on water, tried out different dropping technique: with a needle, hands, swirl it, straw...It was greatttttt fun and the result looked amazing. And so random, Chasing cars by Snow Patrol was playing on one of the computers, and we thought that was it, this thing and Chasing cars instrumental, no argue. However, it's take a while until we sit down and edit everything...

 5. Advertising 

Last year I was under Jessica for Advertising module - a very fierce yet amazing lecturer. This is a copy-ad for X-Acto penknife. First I was playing around with typefaces then print it out, but the impact was minimal, noone really liked it. So she suggested me to literally cut everything out! This was done with tremendous help from Nguyen, as always. She is the one who helped me cut all the tiny letters! Anyways, after cutting these I am officially addicted to die-cut...

6. Haircut

Last time, I did not went to fancy baber to fix my hair. My roommates did it - yes they cut my hair. I trusted them wholeheartedly, even sometimes, there were 2 scissors chopping at a time!  But this is not about my hair-do, but about the aftermath. After finishing, we were left with hair all over the place. I don't know what has gotten into us, but we started to play around and eventually it became a short stop motion. This is just a snap shoot of the whole thing though.

yes, this is my hair. and we are now collecting hair for art purpose. 

I know we are weirdos.

7.

A little girl, about 9 years old, made this watch for me when we were decorating a friend's wedding. Isn't it cute?

 8.

And yes, finally, what I have been doing for the past two months.

We went to the village, met the people, talked with them, we had lunch, we ate starfruits from the garden,... People from Xuan La village are the best.  Right now I have so many things to execute, analyze, so on and so forth. Thank you everyone for supporting me along the way. I will try my best not to let you down :)

Well, fin.

Warm blanket and two cats...

After days of tracing To he, today I finally got sometimes to chill with my buddies. Despite the dreadfully wet weather, we curled up inside our cozy corner, ranting about signs, traits, people and our little happy/worrisome lives.

And after a long rainy day, there's nothing as sweet as dim warm lights, jazz, creamy liquor and the soft purring of your two lovely cats. It's quite funny there are days when you just feel better than the others, without any reason. Like today, tonight, I think I am the happiest person in the world.

Just want to share with you guys an amazing artist - Dana Tanamachi. She's a chalk letterer - a type of Typographer who specializes on chalk. At first glance, they look nice and all - but as for an art student like me, I re-drew one of her artworks and there lies a dozen of typeface choices and the way she caters a handful of information in one single board... it's just amazing. I know the flag style with vintage fonts like this is getting more and more trendy which is quite sad, but the good stuff always stand out themselves. Be sure to check out her time-lapse videos too!

 Let's wrap up the warm blanket with a few jazz notes. Dream a little dream of me by Doris Day.

Though Catalog

http://thoughtcatalog.com/2012/love-in-365-days/

Just lovely. Though Catalog is simple, witty and fun to read sometimes. I think everyone will find bits of themselves tucked inside some articles. I have a few favourites, but it might be too personal to share, so find it for yourself :) You have to dig for the good reads though.



My two best buddies, each gave me a vanilla candle-in-a-cup ( it was accidental, how cool is that..) I put one in the living room, one in my bedroom so I was heated by vanilla scent whenever I'm home.
Keywords for today are Underwater photography, Penguin book covers, Typography and Letterpress. lately I've been thinking about what I really want to do, and these pretty much cover the things that matter to me. I remember my first encounter with Penguin books. It was heavenly scented and graciously laid out. Me and Gaius, each holding a book, carefully flip a page like it was going to explode into nothingness if we pushed too hard. From that moment on I knew I love the look of a book no less than the content itself. And it is a bit strange I am turning away from detailed, curvy illustration to very graphical ones. And I could even feel Typography now.

I am a organic creature that change day by day, bits by bits.


And here comes March again. Sometimes the idea of how fast time has passed by drives me crazy.  Hello there, treat me well this year, k?

 

 

The evolution of Typo

Harry Potter series under the penguin style

The classic layout: tille - author and Penguin top+bottom.

Lino or silkscreen on a map

Hồi Quan, Bắc Ninh fair - my Tò he tracks

Hai everyone!


Well, just so you know, I am happily swinging in my sweet little Hanoi. Unlike any other school break, this time there's no such thing as a rest-and-go. I convinced myself into buy tickets home, 10 days only, with this huge list of what-to-do-for-my-project. And I'd better make every minute count.

During the past few days I am fortunate to meet those very kind and supportive people. my friends, strangers, Tò he vendors and artisans,... I've got a list of contact in just 3 days, I shared my food with the vendors, I follow them day by day, to the point that I bumped into anh A ( who I met at the children palace) today and he said "We meet again little girl! Haven't you got enough already!?!" and what's even more surprising is that, I meet anh Hau and anh Tien today, and both of them appeared in my photo ethnography! (a collection of photos I have to submit just for the sake of it since I couldn't shoot myself until now, I had to download and use images from the internet to support, so their images was in my folder and now I met them in person!!!)

Overall, I love being home, I love being a Vietnamese, I love Tò he and no matter how chaotic and crazy Hanoi is, there will always be people like those I've met, whose enthusiasm and courtesy amaze me. I love how "Con duong cai quan" was played on my phone when I was reading Giang Uyen's writings of Vietnamese food on the plane home. I love to switch on I love Vietnam when I walked out of the custom. I love Bi's lousy version of Bai ca song Hong when we rode across Chuong Duong bridge...

So many stories to tell, so much to see and learn.

This is just gonna be my quick writings for the sake of process journal, very raw and rough. If you're the kind who love well-thought, polished texts, please proceed to see the images only haha.





SECOND DAY

Today I went to the Hoi Quan fair at Bac Ninh province. It's about 20km away from Hanoi, and the weather is around 14Cdegree today.

Yesterday, when I called anh Tien to ask for his schedule, he was still at Ninh Hiep fair, at 9.30PM. His phone was on-off like crazy, but he turned to his brother's cellphone and tried to call me back a few times. He said he'd be at Bac Ninh today. So Bac Ninh it is.

How great, I convinced my two friends to join me! It would be so crazy going to a fair alone, is it? Even if it's for your research purpose, what prevents you from having some fun? Ok so we search for a route and Chi was freaked out when she read on some article, we had to ride along 1A road! Turned out it was a
stupid misleading piece of information - erhm you should never trust the internet 100%. Also I remember one time I was wandering around Bac Ninh with CA, there was no such thing as 1A road to Tu Son ( however back then I bet we were lost and turned to a no-turn road, peharps it was 1A?)

 9AM. anh Tien called me. "Today's fair is very well-packed and happening! Lots of people and they're about to sing quan họ. Are you coming?" Arh, I set my alarm at 9.20AM. Sleepy beauty, wake up.


10.30AM. On my scooter again! It's amazing how we manage to navigate around the center of Hanoi, it's crazily crowded, noisy and there's no rule so to speak. But somehow I see it as a secret achievement - to ride around hanoi streets *almost* seamlessly.
I met Trang for the first time - she was involved in a Tò he revival project last year, but under the category of Tourism - the aim is similiar but approach is different. However, we talked things out, what she and her group had done, how "tu tuong lang que" they hold when it comes to promote Xuan La's identity, the current ups and downs... she was in A4 so apart from Tò he we have the whole Viet Duc category to open up, like  Tram and her legendary tales haha

11.30AM. Gathering the crew at Bi's house. Had bún bò Huế to fuel us up for the trip <3 still awesome as ever.

1PM we started from Hang Voi to be exact. Nobody really knew the way around, but this is Vietnam so we gradually approaching there by the classy method of just-go-and-then-ask. After ~1hour, the colorful flags were waving at us, people were swarming like flies and quan họ was on.

Urghhh just now I realized I didn't go for the merry-go-round =(( The rest of the afternoon, I sat with anh Tien anh anh Hau. Gosh anh Hau was awesome, I feel like he is one of us. At the end of the fair, where there were not many people around, he just played around with bits of dough. He created a face of some Chinese-like character. When I asked him who this is, he said "I don't know,it just coming out from my hands." - Woaaaaa hi-five anh! This is exactly how I'd always say when people ask me who I just drew. Everything he made he decorate it with tiny bits, very detailed and dedicated. There's this lively quality to his figurines, out of the people I have met so far, he is the only one that makes us whooing with every piece he created for us. Of course I filmed, I shot, I asked, I record.


I realize I love talking to new people. Whatever things that could spark between two strangers are so beautiful and memorable. What's more special, after the get-to-know phrase, we'd no longer be strangers and we'd be able to share food and a plus, Tò he vendors always give me Tò he as a gift. Not like what I had expected, that they'd ask for a fee for the so-called interview and shoots, they even gave me a souvenir and share everything they could. Are they the best or what?

Pretty much everything was recorded. As for visuals, I'd love to share with you guys some photos I shot today! Mostly I filmed so not much photos for today... will make up with footage later!

 

Lê la cà kê

Ôi, những ngày lê la là những ngày tháng ê a tuyệt diệu.

Mình rất ưng những kế hoạch tự phát, những cuộc nói chuyện random ngẫu hứng đậm đà. Có những niềm vui được viết nguệch ngoạc trên cái thùng vuông trắng "5 cents for your thoughts", mở ra hơn tiếng đồng hồ ca hát nhảy múa trong tiếng nhạc the beatles, beach boys và ăn bánh mỳ với nutella hay còn gọi là picnic nơi công cộng. Thật là những chuyện chẳng liên quan gì đến nhau, càng không liên quan hơn là những con người đáng nhớ mình gặp ngày hôm đấy: Aisyah - cô bạn đã mở trò picnic tự phát này cho một project của khoa Diễn xuất, cô gái gốc Malay có khả năng lôi mọi chủ đề cũ kỹ chắp vá ra khâu lại cho toàn bộ những con người cũng chắp vá nốt đang ngồi đó đơ mặt; Nadiah - cô họa sĩ Canada mới đến Sing 3 ngày, chạy một mạch vào tấm thảm picnic, nhảy ngay theo "twist and shout" và có mặt vì "tao vừa chạy lên thư viện trường mày check mail vì nó miễn phí, đi xuống thì thấy chúng mày!"; Sven - anh bạn người Bỉ đi du lịch băng qua những vùng đất liền, khởi hành từ Đức cách đây 7 tháng và vẫn chưa có dấu hiệu dừng lại... 

Mình đã kể những gì và được nghe những gì? Nhiều lắm, chặng đường của Sven từ Đức sang đến Nga, vòng xuống Mông Cổ, Trung Quốc và khắp Đông Nam Á; chuyện Nadiah sống du mục ở Sing, luôn đổi tranh lấy đồ ăn và các vật dụng mỗi khi có thể, ngủ ở bãi cỏ trường mình cho đến lúc tìm được phòng thuê ngày hôm đó. Chuyện ngành design, những quyển sách mượn được, Haw Par villa,...Đúng như tinh thần miếng vải chắp vá, cái kiểu khăn mà mình được xem ở Ấn Độ. Đó là những miếng vải  vuông nhỏ họa tiết xinh xắn, cắt ra từ những chiếc sari cũ. Trong hàng trăm ngàn miếng như thế, người ta cứ chọn, kha khá là ngẫu nhiên, các mẩu nhỏ và khâu lại với nhau thành chiếc khăn lớn chẳng thể có cái thứ hai trên đời. Mình cũng lờ mờ cảm thấy những con người hôm ấy được khâu lại với nhau bằng dòng suy nghĩ, trên tấm thảm picnic màu nâu hồng và nền nhạc Rock n'roll. Chẳng khác gì lạc về những năm 70s ở Mỹ, giống như trong phim mình xem, giới trẻ ăn mặc rách rưới hippy và nhảy nhót cắm trại, nền là "Lucy in the sky with diamonds". 

Nói chung cứ ngồi bệt bệt ra, gặp những người mà mình gọi là người xa lạ, nhưng lại chia sẻ được hồn nhiên từ lời nói suy nghĩ hành động đến đồ ăn thì ngày buồn đến mấy mình cũng vui lên được. Vui cực khi được thâm nhập vào góc nhìn của một ai đấy khác, mà hôm nay mình lại có đến 3 cái khác lận: một chiếc vé đi tuổi thơ bất ngờ có được, một cuộc nói chuyện bằng bút mực và cử chỉ, một buổi chiều ngồi vào chỗ của những chị bán hàng trước cổng cung thiếu nhi. Trong cùng một ngày, mình được người ta mở cửa cho, theo cả nghĩa đen và nghĩa bóng, vào những căn phòng đầy màu sắc khác lạ.  Cô bạn đồng hành thì tìm được niềm vui thích mới cho tương lai, mình thì đầy kín thẻ nhớ bộ não và máy ảnh với những câu chuyện Tò he kể mãi không hết, những đứa trẻ mắt long lanh đã đi qua gánh hàng, những chị bán bóng, anh trông xe bỗng dưng thật gần vì mình ngồi xuống mà nói chuyện, làm anh bán Tò he kêu "anh thấy em mài trắng cả mấy viên gạch rồi!"

Một thời điểm khác, khi mình chạy xe ngang qua sau này, hay lúc mình đã từng gửi xe đạp xe máy ở đây, khoác tay ai nhảy nhót đi vào hay đứng trước cổng nhìn về một hướng trên tầng hai, hăm hở vào lớp học Mayschool hay hoang mang chờ mẹ đến đón sau giờ học vẽ... những người bán hàng trước cổng sẽ chẳng bao giờ như ngày hôm nay, như là quả dứa bổ làm tư mình ăn chung với chị C anh B và đối đãi bằng Bueno.  

Ôi ngày hôm nay thì quá dài, những người xa lạ và mình có nhiều chuyện để kể, cung thiếu nhi và sân trường lasalle đều lên tiếng, nhưng sức người và thời gian ngồi đây khuya khuắt lại vô cùng hạn hẹp. Làm sao để có thể truyền tải hết những gì trong đầu ra thành câu thành hình đây?