Sunshine is a gorgeous, gorgeous movie.
It’s part pensive study of human nature and part stupid slasher flick, all in the warm embrace of a mission to re-ignite the sun. There are brilliant shots, glorious moments when Sunshine soars, teeth clenched, fists out against the wind. By the rolling credits there’s a spotty sense of genius.
The movie’s high points are cinematic meth and well worth admission. But, like La Burrita’s triple enchilada plate, Sunshine tastes good going down but really doesn’t sit that well.
The contrived plot points that make space-thriller flicks a frustrating affair are all in force: the solar shield the most pivotal crew are sent to fix, the stunningly crucial yet easily destroyed ship systems, the pantry’s large selection of shiny vibrating knives. And why, why would anyone name humanity’s last hope the “Icarus“—and its successor the “Icarus II“? That’s just dumb.
I’m getting out early! Job’s done May 18th, and after a little victory lap I should be back by the end of May.
And now that the end’s in sight, the bottom’s completely dropped out of my work ethic. There are reasons I’d want to stay longer in Singapore, but for the most part I can’t wait to get back and do… do what? I guess laze—laze with all my might.
So the other day I was on a company field trip to a new project when I hit my forehead on some low-flying metal scaffolding. There was a very load “BONK” sound, and everyone turned around and looked then started making strangely nervous jokes. I’m somewhat concerned that it did not hurt at all, as one would expect whacking the very center of my conscious being would yield immense pain, but JM informs me that soccer players do it all the time with minimal repercussions besides marrying Posh Spice. That’s not so bad.
The client has been less than satisfied with my last project, which I won’t comment on in particular because this is a public website. I’m somewhat saddened but hey wattaya gonna do. On the bright side, my involvement with two other large, soul-killing projects has more or less finished, reviving thoughts of GET ME THE HELL OUT OF HERE. PLEASE.
Several things are, in fact, keeping me the hell in here:
- I want to try and go to Bangkok (the city), best done with a local friend from a competing architecture firm who unfortunately is quite busy until the end of May.
- I want to try and go to Ho Chi Minh City, best done by waiting until until a coworker from da Ho goes back to the Ho Office and then somehow… bribing her? to give me free lodging and guidance.
- I’m thinking of asking one of the famous scholar guys around here if I could be a research assistant for him, and naturally that’d require living in SG and having some sort of income.
- Technically my ass is theirs until more/less August. I can easily get out of it by paying for my own return flight, or more difficult-ly get out of it by being incredibly persuasive.
- What the hell am I going to do when I get back? (Specifically, for money, as there are in fact many things to do back in back.)
These and other issues complicate things.
On the bright side, I went to the Singapore Zoo today, which was truly world-class awesome. Stingrays! Elephants!
There’s one mind-blowingly genius move Michael Maltzan made with his Rainbow Apartments on Skid Row, and that’s the little painted section at the bottom:
That paint is working HARD. It balances the façade’s composition, centering it and weighing it at the base. It creates a visual form from two doorways. The upward slant suggests that the right door is a main entrance, may be a stairway. It gives dimension and direction to an otherwise flat and dead front.
It’s the only thing keeping it from looking like an unusually small, bleak prison. (Seriously, “Rainbow” Apartments? May be the technocolor’s on the inside.)
Many Korean-American students left campus immediately
By now you’ve all heard that a South Korean student, Cho Seung-Hui, was responsible for the Virginia Tech massacre.
What I want to know is: why are we being told he’s Korean? Why is his ethnicity even relevant?
And, why the hell would anyone seek revenge on other Asian students, simply because the gunman was Asian? What is this national sickness, where those of the same ethnicity must fear their fellow Americans? It should go without saying: murder isn’t some kind of Asian trait. No one should have to fear a “backlash.” Cho Seung-Hui massacred 32 people because of who he was and what he had become, not because he was South Korean!