Friday, October 30, 2009

House Lizard

Hey! There is one tiny fellow in the banana bag.
My darling namesakes. (= My name Elli means house lizard in Tamil)

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Aphorism

Lady Navam clipped out this aphorism from newspaper and gave it to me to make an artwork.

I like the first sentence: For what is it to die, but stand in the sun and melt into the wind?

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Red Carnival Coming Up

At PT we are busy making Red Carnival - which is held in the Sungei Wang Plaza on 28th and 29th of November - into reality. You'll see my design all over the happening: in shirts, patches, posters, buntings, flyers, underwear etc.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

More About Shakespeare

It's funny that there is no more blog posts about my local theater activism. Only once before I've mentioned my most beloved hobby. Twice every week we gather up to practice the skill of acting with Shakespeare's works in the direction of brilliant Chris Jacobs.

Chris also teaches Shakespeare to 14-year-olds at the International Cembaka school and he has asked us to help him. To make the student's see what Shakespeare is about. Cause it is not literature to be read but it is a play that needs to be seen on stage. So last week we, with Kien Lee, Qahar and Nicole, performed couple of scenes from Merchant of Venice and Hamlet. I played the parts of Nerissa (MV) and Ophelia (H). Next Tuesday we'll enter the class room for second time and now I get to be part of the biggest love story ever told by playing the role of Juliet from Romeo and Juliet while Tapai will join us in the role of Romeo. Also Othello will be seen and in that one I am Emilia.

Today Chris asked me if I would like to be in a play that has an opening night on the 16th of December? Of course. Only thing is that my flight back to Finland is on 14th!
*to be continued*

Monday, October 12, 2009

Pure Joy

Second time in one week music made me cry and laugh from pure joy. Today I had a chance to witness breathtakingly beautiful Jazz concert by singer Mia Palencia and guitarist Roger Wang. The concert was held in a Malaysian Philharmonic concert hall in Petronas towers, KLCC. Even when my seat - which was a last minute buy in almost sold out concert - was facing rather the back of the musicians than front I was completely mesmerized by both of the artists. The music painted landscapes to my heart and thoroughly touched my soul.
Photograph is not mine! Copyrights belong to this guy.

P.S. Who would teach me to play guitar? It is an amazing skill!

Celebrations In A Row

Sometimes it feels like life in Malaysia is one everlasting festival. Maybe it has to do with the fact that three nations are living inside one so the amount of celebrations is tripled.

I week ago we had the Chinese Mooncake Festival. We ate mooncakes and burned incenses under the full moon. Kim (woman in the red shirt) told me it is important to choose either one or three. I made my own prayer with three incense, number 3 being my lucky number after all.



The night was cloudy so the moon was hiding most of the time. One traditional part of the festival is sending lanterns to the sky filled up with wishes. We didn't make our own lanterns but big red ones were sent from the neighbor's house (the red dots in the picture).
Part of the traditions of celebrating the muslim Hari Raya is to have Open House -parties for friends and family during the following month. We had PT Foundation's open house this Sunday and as you can see from the pictures it was quite an success. There was about 400 people visiting the PT's estate.

The guests came in colors of rainbow from all the communities of PT (Pink Triangle, Positive Living, Sex Workers, Maknyah, Ikhlas -programmes). Workers, volunteers and friends sharing a chat and a festive lunch.

One of the customs of Hari Raya is to give little money presents to the young ones of the families. Here the chairman Hisham is giving out the gifts to children of all ages.

As you can see violet was the colour of 2009.
I invited Veera to come along and we caused attention being the two blondes in traditional Malay Baju Kurungs. Oh, the amount of photographs people wanted to take with us! But I must admit, this time being compared to Nicole Kidman, I was quite flattered.


Smiles, friends, poses and some more photographs.
The same day but few hours later we were invited to celebrate a more private party: Raymond's dad's birthday. Again it was time for a ten course meal in the Chinese restaurant with the attendance of the whole family.
This cute pink teardrop shape cake represents longevity.
But of course Birthday wouldn't be birthday without a birthday cake of it's own.

It's always good to end the blog post to smiling group portrait. Selamat everything!

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Friday Love

Thanks to wonderful local band Stonebay I was today introduced to another Malay artist. And she completely stole my heart: YUNA. With her strong translucent voice she flew me back to the Autumn feelings of melancholy dreaming. To the moment when you're sitting in the corner table of a cafe, enjoying hot chocolate and looking at the rain falling down the window. Plus I've never seen as stylish use of hijab as in her style.

Friday, October 2, 2009

No Durians to Metro

It was finally time to go to my Visa extension trip to Singapore. There in the middle of China Town a camera shop seller made an offer I couldn't resist : "You're my last customer for the evening so I'll make an special offer". With more experienced Camera shopper, Veera, I was able to calculate that the offer was indeed a good one. So I left that shop as an owner of a beautiful SLR camera. Finally I was again able to capture moments, images and feelings with a natural extension of my self: my own camera.
The next day we headed up to the Singapore Zoo which might just be the coolest Zoo I've ever visited (I'm sorry Korkeasaari - the Helsinki Zoo! I like you as well but it is hard to compete with Orangutans and Polar bears). The animals looked relaxed and happy and the overall design for the people's gages was very enjoyable. The park was built like a theme park with lots of jungle and greenery.

The polar bear youngster Inuka is a genuine Singapore Zoo native.
Orangutan family.

"Pylly vasten pyllyä/ Pum pum"
Sleeping kitty.
Don't get too close to the animals!
But I guess wooden ones are ok.
Serious fish.
Baboons.
In the Zoo even this flower looked animal-like. Do you see a cat face?
More baboons.

Tapir.
Back to the human Zoo meaning the city itself. Near the Marina people had a handy way of drying their clothes.
The paradise view from the beach.
Mitsubishi transportation in the Little India.
The big Indian festival Deepavali is coming up. It's on the 17th of October. That's why the Little India is decorated with colorful lightings and decorations.
Here is the awesome people experiencing the Singaporian city night with me: Veera from Finland, Helena from Canada and Bryan from Singapore.
Little kittens made cute appearances everywhere. This fellow we met on our way back to the hostel.
Singapore is a fine city. This is the legendary country where for example eating gum is prohibited. But don't either bike trough this tunnel!

Skyscrapers.
They keep on expanding the city even though the limits of the nation have already been fully reached. Luckily the sky is sky high. Singapore is also building land on top of the sea to push the borders further.
Even when the famous Opera House has been inspired by the shape of durian...

...no durians are allowed to the neat and handy metro system of Singapore.