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          If you have me on Facebook and actually give a damn about my personal life, then you probably already know that I recently got my film developed! I can't get over how beautiful the shots turned out, so I'm going to shamelessly promote the best ones here. (Sorry for the redundancy, my Facebook friends.)

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

& Others from Universal Orlando

[shot with $13-disposable film camera]

1. "Welcome to Hogsmeade"   2. A real butterbeer vendor   3. Honeydukes candystore
4. In front of Ollivander's with fellow wizards

1. "All aboard the Hogwarts Express!"   2. Added some lomo-effects on this shot of Hogsmeade
3. A "curious" crate I would call this.   4. Souvenir coin machine; insert 50 cents & a penny.

Artsy Activities

[shot with a way more expensive film camera - thus the amazing quality]

[EU Film Fest @Bangkok Art & Culture Center:]
1. My fellow art-enthusiast friend, Mind, with some epic photos of old Siam
2. Portrait artist Khun Robert and his charcoal sketch of me!
3. Some intriguing flavors of ice-cream during movie intermission - Tokyo Banana & Yogurt Strawberry
[Unrelated:] 4. Excited about listening to my brand new Phoenix LP for the first time. 

Attempts to Get on Mom's Good Side

[Canon EOS Kiss, film]

1. Good morning, mother.   2-3. Happy birthday, mother.
4. The final attempt; got dad's help on this one.

Aikido: Black Belt Examinations,

June 18, 2011

[Canon EOS Kiss, film]

Mostly pictures of Mac (17).

Night @ Beirut, Lebanese Restaurant

[Canon EOS Kiss, film]

Parents. Meats & Breads. Tasty Tea. Friends.

That's enough for now. (This post took me a ridiculously long time.) More film posts to come as I travel backwards in time sequence. I'd just like to leave you with this personal thought about the film hobby: Because one film roll tends to cover several different events and you have no way of checking the success of each shot after you take them, film photography offers you so much more excitement and surprise.

A New Passion for Street Art

Left: Monday. All I had on me was my sucky quality BB camera.
Right: Yesterday. Intentionally brought my good camera. =]

          I hope you're wondering why I am so excited over this seemingly mundane piece of vandalism because I'm dying to tell what it really is. This little mosaic "graffiti" is actually an original piece of artwork by a world-renown street artist who goes by Space Invader, or just Invader.

          Now let's back up a little. How did I learn about this Invader? Answer: The European Union Film Festival. One of my favorite films of the fest was a UK documentary called "Exit Through the Gift Shop". This movie completely changed my perspective on street art. If you're a person who looks at graffiti and sees vandalism, I implore you especially to watch this documentary. Because that used to be me.

          Anyways, a quick synopsis. The movie shines the spotlight on a world of artists who characteristically shy away from the lime-light. After all, what they do "is in sort of a legal gray-area." But this is what is intriguing about their art. It's controversial, and yet highly influential because of its accessibility. Think about it. You don't have to go to the museum to find them. You already see them everyday! This Invader for example, I've easily passed over 100 times in my life. (Hint: Rachaprasong)... And on top of all this, Exit is a comedy - it'll make you laugh.

I'm determined to find more. I'm on a quest.

A Quest to Find 'Invader'

I'm on a quest to find invaders in Bangkok. That's right. I'm not joking. Right now I'm at Chula, my university. After class I'm going to return to the spot I first found an invader - this past Monday - and take a picture of it with my good camera.
Off to class now. Bye.

Finding Gold Spontaneously... (Again!)

          You know what makes me content about living where I do?...
It's that art and its appreciation are definitely not dead in Bangkok. I've seen it - literally.
          Recently, I devoted my waking hours of three days in a row to watching European independent films at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre. Had it not been for a little complaint from the parents I would have gone the fourth and final day. Deep regrets. Even when I wasn't watching the movies, I was at the Centre admiring Thai art exhibitions, getting a charcoal portrait of myself done in 10 minutes (actually more like 15, but that's still impressive), and delighting on rare ice cream flavors. I have no idea why I did not know about this very assessible place before. Makes me feel like I've wasted a lot of leisure time in my life.
          Anyways, how I ventured upon this event is another one of my spontaneous experiences. (Funny isn't it that I tend to find museums this way and end up enjoying them so much!) The story is that I came back from the US, craving to play aikido (the martial arts I keep up with), so I went last Wednesday and was handed a flyer by a friend. To be honest, going to watch foreign films sounded very interesting, but at the time I felt like it was never going to happen. I would probably be busy with catching up in summer school. No one else would probably want to go with me. I'm not familiar with the venue...
         So then the next day, I showed up for my faculty's photography club at 4 pm. It was the first meet and I predicted that it would end late, but all we did was introduce ourselves to people we already know... (smirk). What made me take another look at the flyersitting at the bottom of my bag was a conversation I had with someone-I-already-knew during the meet. She was talking about her plans to watch the final Harry Potter movie. I had plans too, but listening to her more thought-out plans, I realized how impossible it would be to get tickets at that point during the long weekend.
          I guess I was still determined to watch a movie over the long weekend, so I looked at the flyer, saw that a movie was playing at that very moment, turned on the GPS map-app on my Blackberry, and navigated my way to the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre! And it was raining! Talk about doing things on a whim.
          When I walked into the theater, the French movie playing was already an hour in, but it still moved me. Then I caught all of the last film of the day, a witty documentary from the UK. A long applause from the audience on that one.
          I left the building, realizing I had struck gold.
[Photos & movie reviews to come. I'm off to take a midterm exam!]

San Fran, Street Style

          My last day in San Francisco turned out to be the best day I had in San Francisco. My friend's brother dropped us off at the Ferry Building, which is where one of the Blue Bottle cafes is located at. On the way I caught of glimpse of the AT&T park, the big ballpark in SF. 
         The Ferry Building was such a beautiful place. From the outside it looks like a station or some corporate building, but it's actually a charming marketplace inside. Located right on the dock and on Market Street, the Ferry Building originally served as trade post for the entire bay. When it opened in 1898, ferryboats were the only means of transportation across the bay. Hence the Ferry Building brought together all sorts of characters and edibles in San Francisco.

Macchiato
Blue Bottle
New Orleans Style Iced Coffee [by Richelle Chen]  

          After we had our coffee at Blue Bottle (I recommend the New Orleans Style Iced Coffee by the way), Richelle (that my friend!) and I walked across the street to the downtown area...again! It was slightly chilly that day and in the excitement of finding a DAISO in SAN FRANCISCO, I bought 2 scarves for a $1.50 each. =]
          At that point, Richelle and I decided to spend the day doing and seeing the most "street" things in the city. We watched several street dancing performances. We had hotdogs from those famous hotdogs stands. I tipped a bum doing some kind of mime. We found the "Jesus Christ Loves You" guy who usually stands in front of Forever 21. We saw the drums of a locally famous street drummer, but he wasn't there. We even witnessed a worker's strike, and I asked one of the strikers about it.

1. The corporate area.
2. Street flower vendor.
3. Street drums minus the drummer.
4. The Jesus Christ Loves You guy.
5.  Street dogs!

          We also walked down Castro street, which was a really nice place. If you don't already know, Castro is known for being a gay street. But IT IS NOT SCARY AT ALL! I love the rainbow flag that are hung everywhere. And the people are so charming. One guy helped me out when I was talking about directions out loud. 
          At the end of Castro street is Dolores Park which Richelle says is where all the hipsters hang out. And across Dolores is Bi-Rite Creamery! There is usually a long line at this ice cream place, but we happened to walk in at the right time. I had the salted caramel and lavender honey. Both tasted amazing. I highly recommend. The lavender honey was a real surprise.

          Before walking Castro however, Richelle and I went to the CONTAINER STORE, which in addition to being Oprah Winfrey's favorite store is... my favorite store! What is more beautiful than organization? (Professor Daved, that is my rhetorical question!)

Ask me about what I got when you see me... because I'll have it with me!

          At the end of the day, I had Mexican food at Celia's with Richelle and her family minus a brother because no one called him. Whoops. We all returned home for a while before heading out again to the other brother's place. =P It was a good ending because I got to see everyone right before I left, even Maxi. Goodbyes were bittersweet.

Richelle, giving me the "What?" in front of Celia's.

One last capture of "home" in San Francisco.