01-31-2007: The Drama Called The Universe

Today I finished the last (Book 8) of Osamu Tezuka's Buddha series. It is a fascinating story of the Buddha's life told in Osamu's philosophical depth and Japanese pop cultural wit. The picture above from the comic is my takeaway for the rest of my life.

01-30-2007: Fearful Pattern

Another Time cartoon that lays out the pattern of hatred that most Persians (and many in the rest of the world) have towards America. It is unfortunate that the American soldier is the one who has become the moving target while the real perpetrators sit and brood on Capitol Hill.

01-29-2007: Design is a Verb

This is what Lars Wallentin taught us through his old-fashioned (for once there was no Powerpoint) yet entertaining and very lively presentation yesterday.

01-28-2007: All About Me

You. Yes, it's all about you. That's what the media buzz is about. Every time I see this brilliantly conceived and designed cover, I think how long will 'WE' the individual stay in the limelight.

01-27-2007: Pet Search

The hunt for a pet can make you learn about new animals you have never heard before. Thanks to my wife's search for a pet, I got acquainted with a new fellow called chinchilla. This one in the picture is actually the pet of the petshop owner. And as you can see he sure can do some good publicity stunts for his owner. We found our 5-month-old chinchilla from a private owner.

01-26-2007: Shadow Play

This is that rare occasion of photography capturing a graphic interlude that is made possible with the precise measured positioning of books, table and light. It did put a smile in my mind. Inspiring image of the day from the spectacular photoset of Bernie Dechant.

01-25-2007: Vivid

This beautiful painting by William Britt (curated by Pure Vision Arts) that I stumbled on through Alex Lloyd's site evokes a lot of lush feelings in my heart and mind. Vivid is sort of the word that comes to mind. The English countryside, my uncle's estate premises in Vengad-Kerala, Vermont, love birds, retro colored images on matchboxes etc are some of the images that pop into my mind on seeing this.

Also the fact that the painter William Britt suffers from developmental disabilities and yet managed to convey his frustrations and hopes through these paintings makes it strike a deeper chord inside me.

01-24-2007: The Heat is On

Finally, this years Oscar nominees are announced. No big surprises. Pretty much what I had expected. Now the real nail-biting starts. Especially in the best director category, where once again two veterans of film making Clint Eastwood (who's won twice before) and Martin Scorsese (who holds the distinction of the most nominated director ever and not won anything). There is this weird feeling that Scorsese might win for The Departed, which is actually a remake of the Hong Kong flick Infernal Affairs (which I think is a far better movie). It would be a real shame if this happens because Clint Eastwood has a far better epic story in Letters from Iwo Jima. Anyways we have to wait a month to find out the results. Till then, may the best man win. (Picture from New York Times)

01-23-2007: Hate/Love

I hate most of the Microsoft products. Most of them really suck and are badly designed compared to it's competitors (best example for me is how terrible Internet Explorer is compared to the features and simplicity of the Mozilla Firefox browser). However the only thing I love, from the company that I hate, is their MS Office suite of products. Their Word, Powerpoint, Excel etc have worked wonderfully for me. And I have not felt the need to shift to any other product. So I am looking forward to the new enhanced version of the MS Office. The picture above shows a snapshot of the new MS Word main tool bar. Captured from a New York Times slideshow.

01-22-2007: Share Ideas

As information turns into a mere commodity, the folks at W+K London encourages us to share ideas.

01-21-2007: A Speck Called Human Life

As I progress through Osamu Tezuka's version of the life of the Buddha, the opening page of 'Book 2: The Four Encounters' makes me aware of the insignificance or minuteness of human life in the grand scheme of things that comprise our universe.

01-20-2007: Good-Old Fashioned

Got this flyer ad in my mailbox. Was surprised to see the handwritten copy on the flyer. It seems there are still people who write things down and take the effort to photocopy it and then distribute it through the mail.

Having lived in the last couple of years in the US where there is a daily barrage of junk mail in your mailbox, this one totally caught me by surprise. I am also wondering that the Singapore postal service must allow people to send such flyers through their postman. Because it had no stamp or postal authorization on it and yet was delivered into the locked post mail box at my apartment.

But I am not complaining, as there is a sense of feeling in me that somebody had personally written to me.

01-19-2007: The Vanquished Strikes Back!

"When the White Man discovered this country, Indians were running it. There were no taxes, no debt and women did all the work. The White Man thought he could improve on a system like this." - Old Cherokee Saying

This picture taken by Flickr patron Bitmapr from his recent road trip through Navajo land (stunningly captured in this photoset) captures that historical discontent of the vanquished over the victors. I had spent most of my 7 odd years in the US in the Midwest and the East Coast and never got a chance to venture on to Native American territory. Maybe I should, next time I am there.

The universal truth that stems from this is that nobody likes foreigners to come on to their land and disrupt things and make it their own. Alas our world history shows something quite contrariwise.

01-18-2007: Holy Cow!

As I sit gazing at my desktop, my desktop gives me this advice.

01-17-2007: Iraq Express

This cartoon from Time made me laugh and cry at the same time thinking about the sad state of policing of the world that the US government has undertaken and is failing at miserably.

01-16-2007: Hair-raising Fears

The biggest fear for women is expanding waistline, while for men I would guess it is that of crop circles popping up on their heads. As I wade into my 30s and as the signs of crop circles pop up on my head, the fear grows. Yesterday that fear was expounded by this nice little chart, elegantly called the Norwood-Hamilton Scale for Male Pattern Hair Loss, which I encountered at the medical clinic.

01-15-2007: Mallu on the Moon

This image that a buddy of mine emailed me, had me in splits yesterday. It is hilarious if you are like me a Mallu (who is a person whose mother-tongue is Malayalam or has his ethnic roots to the southern Indian state of Kerala). There is an old joke among Mallus that wherever on earth you go, you are likely to see a Mallu there. Other Indian ethnic diasporas like Punjabis, Bengalis, Gujaratis etc can be found in large numbers in various parts of the world. With Mallus, they are supposed to have permeated to every corner of the world, maybe not in large hordes.

The epitome of this Mallu omnipresence happened when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon and was all set to make his famous speech, when a Mallu tea shop dude interrupted him and asked if he would like some tea and snacks. Of course, you'll enjoy this joke much more if you were a Mallu.

01-14-2007: Jabberwocky

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

'Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

The frumious Bandersnatch!'

He took his vorpal sword in hand:

Long time the manxome foe he sought--

So rested he by the Tumtum tree,

And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,

The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,

Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,

And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through

The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!

He left it dead, and with its head

He went galumphing back.

'And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?

Come to my arms, my beamish boy!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'

He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

01-13-2007: Thai Cowboy Cliche

This New York Times article pointed me to 'Tears of the Black Tiger', the celluloid Thai take on all things cliche about westerns, cowboys and gunslinging. The movie I most eagerly look forward to watching this year.

01-12-2007: Hajjis on Coke

A cousin mailed me some pictures of the Hajj pilgrimage from an old National Geographic edition from the 1960s. This one is the bastardized Coca-Cola one. It shows some Hajjis getting refreshed on Coke. Draws me to the fact that Coke was already a staple in the Saudi market way back in the 1960s and even the Hajjis got their mojo from Coke.

01-11-2007: Nostalgic Cravings

A friend of mine sent me this image via-email. Apparently he is all nostalgic and craving for some good old Kerala toddy (a form of fermented local alcohol) served up in those little toddy shacks (as seen in the picture above) which are omnipresent in the nooks and corners of 'God's Own Country'. Made me nostalgic, not for the toddy coz I don't drink it, but for the sumptuous spicy seafood and other dishes that accompany the toddy. I was reminded of the good old days back in Kerala when we used to go to these toddy shacks and enjoy those great Malabar treats.

01-10-2007: Anticipation

Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone at the MacWorld in San Francisco yesterday. Just looking at the clean design of it in the picture and reading about it's features makes it the most anticipated gadget I would want to get my hands on. It's supposed to hit American stores in June and later in the year in Europe. Hopefully by Christmas or early next year in Asia. Oh it's a long, long wait.

01-09-2007: Graphic Wit

Nobody captures wit through graphics as the legendary British graphic designer Alan Fletcher. I was reminded of this once again as I stumbled on to this picture from Gareth Kay's blog about Fletcher's retrospective at The Design Museum in London.

01-08-2007: (Red)

(Red) seems to be gaining momentum. Saw this (red)dening of Motorola in a magazine. It is a great idea to create a color code and attach it to different brands to persuade people to pick the (Red) associated brand and pay couple of extra dollars to help fight AIDS. Hope the money keeps flowing into the (Red) fund from the vast consuming class.

01-07-2007: Alice Once Agian

After many readings in bits and parts and versions long and short, I once again stumbled on to Lewis Carroll's famous Alice adventures at the National Library of Singapore. My latest Alice adventures thus begins.

01-06-2007: Adolescence Revisited

This little journal entry by the key character in David Mitchell's latest book 'Black Swan Green' reminded me of the fears and anxieties of that phenomenal period of life called adolescence. The book beautifully captures adolescence and the end of innocence in small-town England in the early 80's. It is bleak and dark, but often full of hope for a better future.

After reading it I consider myself lucky that I didn't have to grow up in small-town Britain or America where the pressure to fit into groups and stereotypes almost makes that great period of life unbearable. Mine was fun and what I constantly cherish as some of the best years of my young adult life.

01-04-2007: Convenience v/s Cost

This picture of a bullet train in Taiwan from a New York Times article reminds me of the paradox of technological advances which results in a gridlock between convenience and cost of getting that convenience.

The article covers the bi-polar issues of the pros of this newly launched bullet train for the Taiwanese people because it connects 94% of the Taiwanese population, offering a much needed alternative to the clogged highways and the pollution and environmental damage that results from it.

But on the other hand there is the issue of the huge cost tab involved - an enormous $15 billion or $650 for every man, woman and child in Taiwan. Makes us question about the huge cost of procuring a safe and environmentally sound infrastructure.

Another very interesting point the article points to is the hodgepodge produced by the commercial disputes this enormous project went through since its inception in the 1980s: French and German train drivers who are allowed to speak only English with Taiwanese traffic controllers while operating Japanese bullet trains on tracks originally designed by British and French engineers. Is this the true conundrum of rampant globalization?

01-03-2007: AIDS

I happened to see this ad in last month's issue of Creativity magazine. It is a very simple yet brilliant use of the most basic communication character out there - "the human stick figure". It's that little figure people across the world universally identify from rest room signs to public place signages to what-not. And this is I think a great ad from Cliff Freeman & Partners in New York that could work anywhere in the world because the visual language of the ad is something that any illiterate person can read.

We are living in an age where AIDS is a looming killer and still blazing like wild fire in many parts of Africa and Asia. Many global organizations have realized the urgency of combating this killer disease and is trying in multiple ways to create public awareness of the disease. Lately we are beginning to see Bono's Red campaign to fight AIDS in Africa.

Three months back when I landed in Singapore I was asked to take an HIV test as part of the immigration process here. Today, my wife went through the same test for HIV. So now more than ever, this great ad also made me think about the implications of HIV in the world we live in today.

01-02-2007: Unruly Juxtaposition

Found this Thai brand of cigarette rolling paper on the footpath near my apartment in Telok Blangah. The whole juxtapositioning of the cock and football seems quirky and downright interesting for a brand of cigarette rolling paper. It revs up images of underground cock fights synonymous with South East Asia and the camaraderie and fanfare of football in the region. And the red color is just bang on!

01-01-2007: Optimism

The idea of capturing one image or picture a day and putting it together in a blog or some other archivable format has been on my mind for quite sometime since last month. And I kind of deliberately procrastinated it so that I can embark on it from Jan 1 in 2007.

So here we go. This was an image that sort of captivated me and got me thinking yesterday. Was waiting for a bus under the Queenstown MRT Station here in Singapore and got to read this copy from an ad for The National Museum of Singapore. The striking thing about this was that as I enter my third month in McCann as a planner there is an overwhelming excitement and sense of hope for a challenging and exciting future to do some great things and make a name. These lines from the ad seem to sort of address that same sentiment in an irreverent and funny way.