Be good, Andy Warhol

copyright@Sarah

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?

Bankers in the City of London

Rena and I have been out in the City of London for a whole day to interview people randomly on our group project and I have found something really interesting about bankers "surviving" there.

Our ideal trip started early in the morning - managed to arrived at the London Bridge around half past eight when bankers are rushing across to get to their destination - the City of London. We have taken a few marvelous shots of the flowing "homosepian" stream by the Thames River successfully, and we even tried to record women's heel sounds as well.

Following the rushing bankers, we have got to the financial centre of the country - although Canary Whalf is apparentlly more famous in the world today, we still cannot deny that London's reputation of being one of the three biggest financial centre, started right from this place.

We saw RBS, HSBC, BOS, BOE, BOC... and numerous other banks with their names written in different languages in totally novel shapes to me. Well, Hello, the City of London.

Rena and I started doing some vox-pops first outside a cafe shop with a blackboard in front of its entrance saying "the BEST coffee in east - by TIMEOUT London". Wow~ Then we assume that bankers would certainly love this east-BEST-coffee and we have set our camera there up.

And we did manage to finish a few... yet none of our interviewees were bankers. Why is that??? Wrong spot???

Definitely not... The reason for this is extremly simple! Bankers are busy!!!

Of course we did not take this phenonmenon personally. And we totally understood their rush yet we have complaint a lot about this afterwards. Both of us thought they don't even have proper lives.

Bankers in the City of London rush, in a really high step pace with "agony" faces. Next time when you come to the City of London, it is quite easy to identify bankers among commoners - they do not smile, they look at the ground, they think while walking... Oh no, while running. Yes, they run.

Actually they are nice people, some of them kept saying sorry after declining our interview requests and murmuring words like "I wish to but I really don't have even a minute..." as they flee-ing away.

Funny experience anyway. And I do feel sympathy for them. We need normal lives. Money is something yet not everything. At least normal lives offer us more chances and mood to smile back at people. :)

One day in Christmas Fair

copyright@Sarah

Thanks for Stephy's camera <3

Exhausted after one day's wandering in a Finnish Christmas Fair. Even though happiness is still there: being free to play, to say and to enjoy. Reminded me a lot about my hidden homesickness. Friends get together so that they could support and feel each other. Oh, I had a smoked reindeer sandwich today as my lunch and! It is really something! REINDEER!
HA!
And lolli pops there are nice too~ Love them!

Back to Xiamen

 copyright@Sarah

I just cannot find a simple adjective to describe my university.
Yep~ MY UNIVERSITY.
One at a life time.
Stronger feeling after a nighty talk with Stephy and reading a post on a social web. 
Perfect.
And I love you.

Live alone

copyright@Sarah

What does living alone mean?

Living alone means that you can toss your pyjamas around after the shower; living alone means that you could eat only when you are hungry or feel like to; living alone also means that you could be naked freely behind your closed curtain.

Living alone is fine, interesting, free, cosy and... anything to describe...em... the feeling when you just live alone.

Then, what's bad about "living alone"???

I read a post on a forum this morning and that post made me think a lot about the living-alone thing. Well, apparently we are free, free from nagging, judging and criticism, and so what? In return, sometimes - I really mean sometimes - we are bored, we have no plans for a certain holiday cos most of nice plans should be shared and joined by friends and families, we may even possibly spend one hour staring at computer screen wandering around useless ads. Well, to be honest, i hate this aspect of living alone.

Living alone sometimes means that when you feel sick, you have no one around you; living alone may bring you feelings like there would be a possibility that some bad guy just force into your place and... the feeling is even stronger especially after watching a brand new episode of Criminal Minds; living alone is a kind of status more or less like helpless when you find out your roof is leaking...

Well, Living alone is a bad idea. Yet! It gives me more time focusing on myself and my own business. I could read more, photograph more and read more. It definitely would be perfect if cinema prices are lower in this place!!!

God bless me! Oh BTW, living along has brought me a new burn-scar on my hand this morning yet also a marvelous view of firework display - for the Guy Fawkes Day.

I just miss that place

Well, it is neither a story nor an experience. It IS a part of your life.

copy right @ sarah

And you know, sometimes photoes could remind you so much of your past.

copy right @ sarah

Life is adorable

copyright@Sarah

Well, when Deborah has invited David to do the lecture today, I just thought, this should be another scholar persuading us to study more about statistics and diagrams. And it turns out I was totally wrong about this.

It was a fun actually. For a procrastinative young person without any real social experiences just like me, to figure out what to do in the future has always been a real tough job. David talked about lifestyle journalism this afternoon, which reminded me again of my instincts and unrevealed passion on this unfamiliar but interesting pathway of journalism. I mean, well, I have been doing the journalism for a very long time... like four or five years... and this number would grow again if you wish to count the years i spent in some shabby studios of my primary school, middle school and high school in as well. A month ago when Deborah assigned us our first task during this module which is to monitor a prominent news story from three different types of media, I chose the Times, the Guardian and the BBC then. It happened to cover a weekend. And I got to have a look at the Sunday Times Magazine as a bonus from the press - like a kind of compensation after a customer has spent 2.5 pounds on a set of papers which would leads to inevitably two nasty hands... And I scanned the magazine. And I closed it. And I said to myself, Sarah, this is what you really want, isn't it???

I still don't know yet if that weird idea just came up like a slyly fairy upon my shoulder, waving her wings and blinking her eyes at me, or just a normal reaction as a reader finishing reading an interesting and attracting magazine. Things always develop in an unpredictable way and I really envy those who know what they want and persist on their dreams.

It seems a lousy idea to change now because of my selfishness after so many years of devotion. Thousands of occupations exist in this world and I am interested in hundreds of them?

When you get used to wearing UGGs... it is really difficult to put on the heels and get downstairs and say hey let's go shopping to your dear friends. There is a saying in ancient China which means that what you cant get is just the best. Well, dreams are pretty, they are innocent as newborn babies, oh meybe more like little Ricky, when you try to get to see them more clearly - opps - they just splash... And there comes no good.

Nagging Sarah has a secret to tell at the end of the story, hah~ Next time, never use a diet coca to cook your cola-chicken-wing, it is a disaster. Obey the rules and you'll be pleased. Trust me.