back in boston

so. i am back in boston. and i am bored this lovely afternoon. it is really beautiful outside. i have a great view of the charles river and the boston skyline and its just as good at night too. the sun is out, a slight breeze whispers by my window, and i dont want to do anything.

so i'm going to write about "craziness." (inspired by a chat with one of my friends) the world is full of two kinds of people: "crazy" people and boring people. now what about the so-called "normal" people? normal people are still either crazy or boring.  how so? well normal people associate themselves with normality so as to be seperate from the "crazies." however, their recognition of "crazy" people implies one of two things; that they are crazy (it takes one to know one, friends) or they recognize the uniqueness of such people as foreign (hence, making them boring). So there we go, you, my friend, are either crazy or boring.

far-fetched? not really. if you consider craziness as the uniqueness in us all, then it makes perfect sense that we are all crazy. it's just that society tells us that we should all be a certain way, and not any other way. but it's there, underneath the surface, too frightened to stick itself out. The crazies are just those willing to put it out there and be real.

and of course, there are the boring people. they are the ones who have accepted society's lie, and have become the picture of society, inside and out. they are the ones that you talk to about school, and love interests, and thats about it. because there's nothing under there. they are the ones for whom the fire has died. yes, harsh, but true. 

so my friends, please do not be boring people. learn to let who you are live on the outside. live like you mean it, and dont be afraid to ask the big questions. its ok to be crazy, because frankly, everyone is.

Takashi Murakami

I went to Santa Monica last night to meet up with an MIT friend, Carter. After eating dinner at a Japanese curry house, we walked around the surrounding stores so we can make some room for dessert. One of the stores he showed me was called Giant Robot, which is where I became introduced to Takashi Murakami. He's a really amazing artist who is pretty much like the Andy Warhol of the 21st century. The subject matter of most of his artworks (that I've seen so far) is about high and low culture- the obsessive [Japanese] consumerism, the meaning of nonsense, shallowness of today's consumer-driven culture etc. The artwork itself is very interesting as well. He is definitely influenced by Warhol and Lichtenstein, but somehow fuses their styles with that of anime and manga. According to wikipedia and other sites I browsed through, this new style that Murakami developed is called "Superflat", referring to the flattened forms of his figures. The figures are cartoons with bright colors everywhere. Their eyes definitely remind me of anime like Sailor Moon (the only anime I've ever seen in my life). Murakami also takes his art to a very interesting level. While a lot of his paintings, exhibitions, and sculptures are on exhibit in many prominent art galleries, he also puts his artwork on consumer goods (kind of ironic I think...) like keychains, t-shirts, toys, you name it. Carter even told me that he's selling some kind of keychain for Louis Vuitton...I may have that wrong, but I know he's making something for that designer. All in all, I've never artwork quite like this, and I definitely recommend everyone to check out his artwork. It's kind of amazing, and seeing his work just reminded me how much I love looking at / analyzing people's creations :o)

I have midterms from week 4-9 or so. I hate the quarter system.