HAPPY THINGS TAG

Thank you dear Sascalia for tagging me!

Here we go - The rules are to name the tagger and name 6 unimportant things that make me happy and then tag 6 bloggers!

1. Breezes and nice sunsets

2. Eating yakitori and takopachi after a day of shopping

3. Watching Wind in the Willows episodes from Cosgrove Hall!

4. Getting clear snapshots 

5. The feeling of a clean keyboard

6. Pretty shoes that fit

I am tagging:

1. Superhouse

2. IndyGrrrl

3. Tizzalicious

4. Dustjacket Attic

5. Gallery Juana

6. Ismoyo's Playground

ASIAN CIVILISATIONS MUSEUM & MERLION

I visited the Asian Civilisations Museum on 21 May to catch the exhibition on Emperor Kangxi (Qing Dynasty). Before that I dropped by the Merlion attraction - a Singapore tourism symbol - since it was on the way. On a side note I just realised there was a DeviantArt meeting (DevMeet Singapore) 2 days ago at this merlion spot... argh. Oh well I had the flu since a week ago so never mind. The weather that day was EXCRUCIATINGLY hot - the skies were almost cloudless. I thought I would die of sun stroke and my head got dizzy. The photos however, came out nicely! 

The front view of the merlion. A night shot is also nice, but we didn't hang around till that late. Oh did you know a few months back the Merlion had his mane struck by lightning? He was under repairs for a bit lol.

Back view. There was a breeze and the wind blew mists of water on us which might've been a delight if I wasn't trying to protect the lens from moisture.

'People of the River' series art sculptures by the Singapore River. Entitled 'First Generation' by Chong Fah Cheong. It shows 5 naked boys jumping into the river for a swim.

Scan of the exhibition pamphet. It costs S$8.00 for an adult ticket. No photography was allowed in that gallery so I don't have any pictures. My opinion is that it was a modest, small-sized exhibition. They have several artifacts belonging to the Emperor including robes, haberdashery, ornaments and paintings - my faves were the 22-metres painting scroll for his 60th birthday and the 80-metres (!) painting scroll of the southern inspection tour.

Below are the permanent galleries where photography was allowed. I don't have many decent photos as the lighting was not sufficient for my camera. The galleries are: South-east Asia, West Asia & Islamic, Chinese, and South Asian. Artifacts included ancient tribal jewellery, clothing, calligraphy, performing arts items and religious statues.

A buddha.

Giant indian sculptures - the left one is a peacock with a snake in its beak. The other one looks like a lion.

Wayang Kulit - indonesian shadow puppets.

Javanese masks.

I can't really remember what these statues were for.

ART & MANGA-RELATED BOOK PICKS

Dropped by the art bookstore 'PageOne' at Vivocity mall recently! I can spend the whole afternoon there just browsing the design and art section, ooh I just wish I had the money to purchase them! These books below are on my wanted list:

'Illustration File Analogue'. It is a directory of Japanese illustrations published yearly. Unfortunately I didn't find the current year's or last year's edition and they don't have new copies either; it's one of my ultimate fave art books and I've been eyeing it for years! The illustrations featured are beautiful and varied, mostly of magazines, book covers and adverts with contact details of the artists. It's in Japanese.

'Manga Masters of the Art' contains interviews of prolific mangakas; their working processes, materials and other interesting titbits. Insightful although not super detailed but still makes for an interesting read. I was curious on how they met weekly deadlines and which aspects of producing manga were left to assistants.

'One Thousand Years of Manga' traces the beginnings of manga; from ukiyo-e prints to popular manga. A large part of the book are ukiyo-e art features and alot of familiar (and my favourite) manga artists who impacted the scene through the decades. Really lovely book with lots of colour.

'The Garden of Eye Candy'. I think alot of people already know about this book. The edition I saw was a PageOne edition without a box and different grey cover (also cheaper). It contains many artists who work in the style of hmm... eye candy. Girls with distinctive features or a certain atmostphere (lolita, goth, cute, etc). Sigh.

DECENT JAPANESE FOOD @ ICHIBAN SUSHI

Occassionally I'd treat myself to some Japanese food, not too often as they aren't easy on the wallet! Therefore I usually settle for cheaper decently-tasting fare at the malls nearby. The snapshots below are what I ordered from the Ichiban Sushi outlets here in Singapore, the tempura and gyoza nabe hotpot are from the AMK (Ang Mo Kio) Hub; and the salmon is from the Hougang mall outlet. Personally I thought the Hougang outlet has better tastes than AMK, probably because there are less crowds and I always visit during off-peak periods when the chef isn't so pressed to churn out orders haphazardly.

Ebi and yasai tempura. Was good! The prawns were fresh at least.

Gyoza (dumplings), chinese cabbage, tofu, chicken pieces and some other ingredients in nabe (hotpot). It was okay.

Ninniku salmon wazen. It also comes with chawanmushi and scallop salad.

POSTCARD ART QUICKIE

A quickie postcard art exchange off to Italy. It's rather simple and I drew it in a spur of moment with a pen; I'm having problems with symmetry! Hope it lasts in the mail too!

GORGEOUS CHINESE FASHION PHOTOSHOOTS

Check this out, a post on artistic fashion photography made in China, not too recent but still breathtaking. I love the ones inspired by the Beijing Olympics; as if poetry in motion captured on film. Great scans too - highr res!

http://ana-lee.livejournal.com/122540.html