Social Network

Social Network from David Fincher is probably the most eye-catching movie this year. After the Inception wave among film bugs, this biography film of Mark Zukerburg, the guy who established famous network website Facebook, is certainly worth commenting for those eager film critics.

This film is rather different from David Fincher's previous ones both in style and story. His former films, like Aliens3, Fight Club, Se7en, Zodiac, Panic Room...are quite...cool - both in the sense of watching experiences and psychological tempreture as well.

Sex is the first motivation why Mark would set up Facebook. After being dumped by his girlfriend, it was anger inside him drove him to start a website comparing girls among male students in Harvard. And that is the start of the whole Facebook idea.

Is Mark Zukerburg an ASSHOLE?

A lawyer in the film said to Mark: "You are not really an asshole, you only tries to be one." Definitely it would cost something to succeed and in this network empire, it was friendship.

Mark abandoned his best friend - who also served as a co-founder of Facebook in the company, and later his business partner. As said by himself: "You don't get to 500,000,000 friends without making a few enemies."

Well, the question is meaningless now. Who cares? He is the youngest billionaire on this planet!

As Mark tries to add his ex on Facebook at the very end of the film, I laughed and cannot help thinking another thing. Do you guys also think Mark should spare some of his shareholder of the company to the girl? After all, she is the reason why this genius bursted out all of a sudden.

Oh, by the way, Mark's new girlfriend, that chinese american girl, does not really fit normal people's understanding towards adjectives like "pretty", "beautiful" or "gorgeous", right??

Warwick Castle

Well, finally got back from Warwick Castle today. A little bit exhausted. Claimed to be the most popular castle in England, Warwick Castle, somehow, did not quite match my initial imagination about a castle.

Warwick Castle locates at Warwickshire, England. The castle was built by William the Conqueror in 1068 adjacent to the Anglo-Saxon burh of Warwick. It was then owned by the Greville family, who became earls of Warwick in 1759, until 1978.

The castle was purchased by The Tussauds Group in 1978 and now opens as a tourist attraction and is very very very business-oriented. Go to its main page and you'll definitely understand what I am talking about.

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Entrance fee is high, though I have got a student discount. To be honest, the castle is not that grande and spectacular at all. This certain feeling - I guess - would stem from childhood imaginations over vivid descriptions of Princes' castles in Denmark from Anderson's fairies, for they all have been enormously vast and fabulous under his pen.

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The Tussauds has hired dozens of actors - they perform inside the castle as archers, knights, clowns, corpse and even, the Dutchess' lovers. 

What interested me most is their way of get the castle "interesting": they know clearly that this big outdoor playground would only become profitable by drawing in more tourists - mainly families with kids. Well, they get their things like slides set up in the yard, so that kids would not be so bored anyway. On the other hand, they have something for adults too - love affaires of Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick.

Daisy's love stories takes up a large proportion of the whole indoor exhibition. As a socialite, Daisy's lovers even included King Edward VII. This certainly offered a lot to say. 

Anyway, aside from those gossip "scenes" and children playground, the castle is generally fine. They have several genuine towers and you can try to climb them (531 stairs I guess?) - I enjoyed this part of the tour. What's more you could expect from a regular site-seeing tour like this, right? 

Coldplay

Apparently, Brits love Coldplay. They even use their songs in really formal and big event, like when Ed Milliband was chosen to be the new head of the Labour party this year.

It is interesting anyway. Why would such a band become so influencial and popular among the whole society?

When Coldplay promounced that they would have a few charity shows around the Christmas time this year, some of my colleges even cheered in our news room - it has been a long time since their last performance. According to the band, they have been occupied preparing for their fifth album.

Well the good news is that they are finally ready to release their "concept album" now. 

I have been listening to Coldplay when my university life officially begun: after a hang-out along with a few sophomores, one of them introduced the band to me. Back then I have always been a huge fan of classic music and New Age as well.

And Chris Martin's amazing falsetto grasped me immediately. I guess it was Yellow. Being a Coldplay fan is fantastic. And I love Gwyneth Paltrow too.

Viva la vida is a big success. Love Reign of Love the most. Just love them. Wave your "live long and prosper" gesture, guys!!

J'ai tué ma mère!

Ma mere, a toi je me confie
Des ecueils d'un monde trompeur
Ecarte ma faible nacelle
Je veux devoir tout mon bonheur
A la tendresse maternelle...

This is a poem given by his literature teacher when our handsome hero was about to be sent to a boarding school. As a good friend, the teacher, Julie, tried to make things work better between the boy and his mom.

Yet he wrote <<J'ai tué ma mère>>. 

Facing a camera alone, Hubert would say: I loved her, if someone hurts her, I would kill him. But at the same time I could name 80 people whom I love more. 

Adolescent rebellion. That is it.

This reminds me alot about my own cousin and his mother.

When my cousin was at Hubert's age, things were almost the same. He skipped classes, ran away from home and was a drug user as well. My aunt could do nothing but screaming at him.

Things get better when he was sent to a university in Russia. People there are apparently tougher and... well... one has to take good care of himself. One year later, when my cousin returned from that icy country, everything changed.

He hugged his parents at the airport - I guess he must miss them terribly in the past year. He even cooked for them. They live happily ever after.  XD

J'ai tué ma mère is directed, acted, written and produced by Xavier Dolan. The guy is even younger than me. And the film won him the best artistic film in Cannes last year. He is described as a new film genius by film critics.

He is brilliant, yet selfish. And he knows it.

I gave the film four stars this morning. Not only because of Xavier's handsome face, perfect talent in cinematography design, amazing beauty of colours in his film, but also the fact that this is rather a true story which started bitter yet ended happy.

Em, I just love this. Although you may say it is a cliche.

La Dolce Vita

When Yoann proposed that we could watch a film by Fellini together to release ourselves from last "boring" weekend, I thought, well, vow~ You gonna regret for this. Yet I said "yes" out of my love for him.

Em. And it turned out that I was wrong. The movie is fabulous. La Dolce Vita from Fellini. I loved it. Cynical Fellini depicts a typical upper-class life in 60s' Roma with handsome Marcello Mastroianni as a journalist this time. Many reviews even comment this film as the most beautiful movies in the world. 

Yes, indeed, with so many dances and soothing music in, no one would neglect its nature beauty. Not mentioning about its excellent casting like Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg. 

Marcello tried to become a serious writer yet actually he lived in a rather chaos atomosphere with a nagging and too-much- maternal-love fiancee Emma and of course a bunch of crazy Italian paparazzis. He is seduced by pretty women and upper-class balls everyday. And I think somehow he enjoyed this, before he met Steiner. He thought Steiner is an model, Steiner is successful with a loving wife and two angel-like children. Marcello looks upon to him...

Yet the story turned out to be a tragedy: Steiner killed his children and committed suicide afterwards. All things in front of Marcello just fleed away.

La dolce vita! It made me think.

5-star-must-visit MUSEUM

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Friday's coming. What's your new plan for this weekend? Anything special? Well, I have to say post-snow London is not lovely at all. After standing in my yard doing a piece to camera on London house prices, I was frozen and cannot even pronounce the word "place" correctly.

Maybe next time, a tour to an indoor museum makes a way better choice in such a freezing winter.

And I recommend Victoria & Albert.

Not only I am particulately interested in their lives after watching the film the Young Victoria, but also the real contents inside it. I have to admit that as a museum fan for such a longtime, the visit to V&A counts one of the top experiences.

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First of all, it is cosy. Compared to those museums like The British Museum and The Forbidden City Museum both in Beijing and Taipei, V&A is apparently much smaller - yet tighter!

Wandering inside big/giant/enormous...museums always makes feel me desperate after a while - It is so big!!! It takes forever to finish the visit!!! I am exhausted!!! 

Well, V&A would not. With the same contents and information, its tight structured exhibition halls offers a more pleasant and cosy environment to wander in.

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Secondly, it is marvelous. Queen Victoria's jwelleries are being displayed recently and I swear it worth a visit.

Sparkling diamonds provocate every visitor's "senses". Tiaras are sooooooo... pretty!!!

And never forget the fact that Queen Victoria has been called "the grandmother of Europe". Displayed items are from everywhere throughout Europe to Asia and even America. Indian gowns, Chinese towers, Japanese Noh masks, Czechic crystal art, French jwelleries, Italian glass work and those numerous unidentified treasures.

Last yet not least, the museum's location is perfect. Surrounded by Hyde Park and Green Park, which means great opportunity to get access to the Buckingham Palace as well, V&A is definitely a great choice for family's weekend plan and tourists' tight scheduled timetable.

Why not pay a visit this weekend? And you'll never regret it.

Be good, Andy Warhol

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Andy Warhol's Pop-Show at Taipei

"When he finally 'arrived' - after he had gotten rich and became a star - Warhol manifested the typical syptoms of a poor-boy-made-good.

Typical symptoms of a poor-boy-made-good

"During the week, he took on the role of provocateur, but on Sunday, he crept back into church. Warhol donated alms to ensure himself a place in heaven, but was irresponsible in paying his employees and helpers.

"A consummate Scrooge who appreciated nothing more than the crinckle of a crisp new dollar bill. An artist who loved money so much that he even painted it. A pretty bourgeois who slept on pillows filled with crumpled greenbacks. A pack rat who could not let anything go, who checked every bit of trash for fear that somenone might comb through it and start selling the content as souvenirs. A peacock who let himself be chauffeured around in a Rolls Royce, all the while complaining about his financial troubles.

"And yet at the same time, Andy Warhol was an extremely creative spirit who left almost no field of art untouched. He was a writer and a poet, a film-maker and photographer, and the founder and publisher of the now-legendary magazine Interview."

Are you famous?

That is Hans-Michael Koetzle, the author of PHOTO ICONS, talking about Andy Warhol. And I loved it.

Warhol once said that:"In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes." OK then. When is the future??? Warhol had succeeded achieving everything he wished to and the story developed in a rather different way.

Being a gay and a celebrity, Andy is popular - among his fellow artist friends or crazy fans who might dream to be rich and famous just like him. Yet his sexual-orientation is so disputable this this even has brought him enemies among whom was the guy who tried to end his life. Nonetheless, lucky Andy survived.

Being famous is dangerous.?.

Money-maker-Mr. Warhol

Warhol has been making money for his whole life, and as mentioned above, he loves money.

After he died at age 59 in 1987, mountains of pictures, antiques, and knickknacks that the social climber - forever plagued by insecurity about the future - had been auctioned. The ten-day auction in Sotheby's in NYC was a huge success. The auction house had underestimated the hammer price in almost every case.

Andy's ring, which was estimated at $2000 went for a final price of $28,000 and his candy jars with a market worth of around $2000, were sold for a total of $247,830. The entire estate got doubled over the estimated $15 million...

Warhol's friend Fran Lebovitz joked about Andy's possible reaction over this astonishing figure by saying "Andy must be furious that he is dead."

It was a happy ending, right?