Hairstyles Experiment

This decade has experimented on hair more than any other.

Photos from Paul Waite’s and Lindsey Gee’s flickr

The 100,000 to 150,000 hairs on our scalp have an evolutionary purpose. It is our natural sun-block as it protects our head against the sun. It regulates our bodily temperature by trapping heat from escaping our head. But the more important prospect we root on is, it makes us look good. It is our extension of self-expression and fashion.

You remember that oceanic expanse of hair that’s aggressively intruding a personal space? Everybody looks like that in the 80’s; but now, people are more creative in stressing distinction through their hair.

It dazzles me how women can change hairstyles in a blink. One moment my sister’s hair is shoulder short, then on a different place it was way down her back. And I have to beat myself because I know how hair extensions work without researching about it. Women can switch hair colors too, braid it, put a hole in it, cut it shorter than men’s hair, and shape it like a ribbon or a horse.

Men started to care about their hairs as well. It used to be 5 mins lapse time between bath and going out of the house, but now we have to style our hairs. A man will give permission to touch anything in his body but not the hair. We hated spending so much time for beautification and we won’t risk anybody messing with it. There’s a serious trouble to place a finger on men’s hairstyles, including artful shaves, emotive spikes (that comes along with flat emotion), mohawk and doll-head wig.

I spiked my hair upward like a pointed weapon. What experimentation did you do with your hairstyle?

Is Asian Horror Better Than its American Remakes?

American remakes of Asian horror films tend to be overly explanatory.
by Deborah Bell of Seshat Travels

Photos are screenshots from Ju-on, Ringu and The Echo

For a good part of the last decade much of Hollywood devoted itself to cranking out remakes or adaptations of successful Asian horror films less well known on our own shores. Prompted by the success of “The Ring” starring Naomi Watts in 2002 – Gore Verbenski’s remake of Japan’s highest grossing horror film to date, the 1998 film “Ringu” — the marketplace was flooded with Americanized versions of East Asian flicks. Unfortunately for Hollywood, their attempts to cash in on this trend proved wildly uneven and produced far lower box office revenue than was anticipated.

Thus the flood of remakes dribbled to a slow leak. One trouble with these movies was that filmmakers on this side of the Pacific seemed to (wrongly) think that American audiences wouldn’t understand the subtleties and symbolism that permeate Asian horror. They replaced creeping tension with jump scares and offered slam-bang CGI instead of psychological shudders, and so ended up stripping their scripts of the very elements that made the originals work so well. But even a truckload of visual effects and a hot Hollywood actress in the lead can’t save scripts that lack true chills at their heart.

American remakes of Asian horror films tend to be overly explanatory, and usually resolve according to traditional Hollywood standards: with most of their plot threads tied up neatly at the end. Such ready explanations do not always exist in the Asian horror originals, where plots are often a lot more complex and sometimes told in a non-linear fashion, thus making those films all the more fascinating to unravel.

With endings that can be interpreted in multiple ways and containing cultural themes or ideas outside of our more familiar Hollywood horror standards, Asian horror challenges its viewers to pay attention and use their brains to try to figure out the plot twists and turns for themselves. This results in a much more involved movie experience than what the majority of the remakes provide.

The wise horror fan knows to avoid those carbon-copy American remakes and head straight for the originals. It really doesn’t take much effort beyond accepting the idea of subtitles in order to “get” Asian horror. “Ju-On” (2002, Japan), “The Echo” (2004, Philippines), “A Tale of Two Sisters” (2003, South Korea) and “Pulse” (2001, Japan), are all are excellent and incredibly scary films that deserve a worldwide audience.

But beyond the obvious first selections, there exists a slew of other fantastic Asian horror flicks out there that luckily Hollywood hasn’t touched yet. “Audition” (1998, Japan), “Infection” (2004, Japan), and “The Maid” (2005, Philippines) quickly come to mind as offering first-rate scares and/or psychological shudders aplenty. The Internet abounds with lists of dozens of really excellent Asian horror flicks that American fans may not have seen, but would greatly enjoy. I invite horror fans who may not be familiar with these films to take a look, it’s definitely worth it!

What is the creepiest horror film for you?

I’m a Tampa Bay Pop Culture Reviewer for Examiner.com, and a contributing writer at SciFi4Me.com, where you will find a vast array of sci-fi news and reviews, interviews and cool links to other science fiction sites.

Getting People’s Attention

7 billion people in the world and each has their own unique personalities. 

Photos from photoXpress; TJ Sengel’s and Julie, Dave & Family’s flickr

Some of them loved to be in the center of attention at all times. For the diminishing number of people, they keep their private lives intact. There are instances though that we need to attract people’s attention.

Applying for a job, impressing a person, boosting your ego – there are many situations in which you’ll have to get people’s attention. Being too shy isn’t filling up anyone’s social credential, and a feed of attention once in a while won’t hurt, isn’t it?

At those times I feel the need to have people’s focus on me, I wear red shirt. Red color is dominating. It can easily be spotted against any other color and it is memorable. When there’s a rubbish know-it-all I’d want to outperform, I speak out louder than usual and let what my brain got to outsmart. But those are rare times.

People who act the craziest get the most attention; that is not the norm of my actions though. I’m usually a composed and relaxed dude. The only way I’ll act stupid and crazy is when I went beyond my body’s alcohol tolerance threshold.

I’ve seen some techniques in screens. People utilize a prop, most times a cute dog or a baby. It’s some kind of a chick magnet. According to the survey of Askmen.com, “being a great father or husband” is the main plus factor that defies a real man. Taking care of a baby would shift heads of women. In a study of University of Austin scientists, a woman’s face is mostly important to 75% of men. I agree with that, the eyes, the smile, the skin are all attention grabber. I guess makeup is a prop to get attention too.

Extremes looks can shift heads as well. We’ve been hyped with recurring news of Lady Gaga’s outfit, sometimes meaty, sometimes see-through, or Katy Perry’s new unnatural hair color. The peculiar extremes will surely get attention with raised brows.

How do you get people’s attention?

Sources:

Great Male Survey: Gender And Success; Askmen.com

10 Traits Men Appreciate Most in Women; Genius Beauty

 

The Art For You

There is at least one form of art you don’t like, yeah? And you have your favorites.

21st Century Art Appreciation. Photo from artsbeatla.com

I opt for the art of writing, especially writing for a blog. It is because there’s freedom to write all that sprouts out of my moody mind. At times, my posts will have less than a hundred words while you can find articles that have more than a thousand words. As long as I don’t force it, I don’t care. Writing all of it is fun, and reading all about my interests is fun as well.

I have different masks for the art of literature. I fancy short story and novel; however, I don’t dig poetry, especially the one’s you just knit your brows and say “is this about something or just a jumble of vocabulary words?” The artsy and literary ones are repelling for me – those that only the author and a few nutty writers could understand. I mean, it defeats the purpose of writing when majority of the readers couldn’t grasp the message of the text.

PhotoLedger is a category I put up in this blog to give appreciation for the photos that stood out in the windows of my eyes. I’m a photography aspirant myself, and I believe that the most creative captures I got are out of my crazy probing. However, I’m not sure if photography can be in the shelf of art because it’s damn easy. Any person with a camera could call themselves a photographer, which is everybody.

Leonid Afremov’s Painting

Paintings are the least I appreciate. Yeah, I see the beauty in it. I stood witness of the artist’s passion in his or her masterpiece, and it’s a noble profession since most artists’ greatness will only be recognized as time elapses; sometimes they have already passed away. But in an exhibit, I will only look at a painting for a second (literally, I timed it) and move on to the next. There’s no need for me to come back, take a closer look or a longer time. But then, you’ll see my house with paintings because it’s more valuable than just a typical photograph.

I must say I have a young infatuation with Abstract paintings. Probably because it manifests the irrefutable complexity of life, but mainly because it gave my doodles a hope to be called art. At some point I though I was good at drawing, then I showed it other people and then they didn’t say anything (maybe my art takes longer time to be appreciated!). Animated movies and video games, which are still series of drawings, are plain fascination. I see the effort to take something from reality and present it imaginatively.

I sing and dance, but I don’t show it. I act everyday, in front of people and in front of mirror. Performing arts are the best, if you ask my preference. I love film and theater, and it will be moments of ecstasy for me when compelling storylines and true music are rooted in it. I say true music because the prevailing music of today was fake in a sense that it only resonate each other – the music’s industry is for the money, not for the art.

From sculpting to crafting and designing, what form of art do you mostly appreciate?

More Moments for you:
Artist Apprised: Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors
What If.. Earth is Purgatory
Life’s Best: Feel Good Movies

Perfect Imperfections

Scars, moles, and extra nipples are all subject to cosmetic correction unless the owner regard them as beauty marks.

The popular notion of beauty is perfect all throughout, hair to heels. Makeup and cosmetics are invented for human’s need to conceal the perceived mess in their body, that is, the ‘imperfections’. But really, who defines a part of you as imperfect? These people are focused on camera but they won’t care:

Madonna’s teeth gap

Photo from static.gigwise.com

Kiefer Sutherland’s & Mila Kunis’s heterochromia (different eye colors)

Photo from kanbyamadworld.wordpress.com

Photo from 4.bp.blogspot.com

Joaquin Phoenix’s lip scar

Photo from i2.listal.com

Mariah Carey’s facial mole

Photo from dirrtyinc.com

Mark Wahlberg’s third nipple

Photo from justjared.com

Mila Kunis could just wear matching contact lenses, or Mark Wahlberg could pay a doctor to scrape off his extra nipple. But they haven’t, and it shows that they are not ashamed to carry the ‘imperfections’ themselves. The tricky truth is, a perfect human has imperfections.

I love that these people didn’t succumbed to the demands of hypocritical beauty. I have a scar on my cheek. What imperfection in your body are you proud of?

More Moments for you:
Deceitful Digital Enhancements
Perfectionism Ruining Your Health?
What If.. You Sell a Body to a Chemist