WIM MERTENS: "Close Cover"

All geniuses have a dark side. There’s a black rim to thoughts, like the inherent darkness that surrounds the moon and its craters. A stepping stone away, are you, an artist and its creation, unfolding talents like a rose its petals in the morning dew. It’s called You Tube and I can see you there, whenever I want, as many times I want. And I rush to yet another song, hungry for more like a Chinese, who are said to jump queue because they had no choice but doing that when they were desperate for food, starving from famine a few decades ago, when steel statistics were more important than body counts. As per today, You Tube is not accessible within the People’s Republic. So a billion of people are deprived of you, and the light-threaded tones that follow you like Tinkerbell’s stars follow her. Enchantment is only a mouse click away, these days.

MIKA: "Any Other World"

大理 Dali (China)

MIA: “Paper Planes”

I look down from the sky and see ants crawling nervously, from nowhere to somewhere and back again. Humans, intertwined, connected, disconnected and re-connected. Each of us is painting our own dot-to-dot drawing on the world’s canvas, randomly, in an unknown pattern. We lack overview to steer us in the direction of the next sequential number, desperately seeking shelter in the false security of an alleged ascending logic. For a line is not always straight. “No” is the answer to any unasked question. There’s only the risk of not getting a “yes”, eventually. I spread my butterfly wings and cause a storm at the other side of the globe.

Life turns with the ease of a whirling leave in the autumn winds. Its course is unpredictable, and we are merely rubber ducks floating in a whimsical ocean.

Happiness is as fragile as a paper plane. It turns around like a car full of adolescents on a jolly Saturday night. A song resounds inappropriately out of a smashed front window; invisible radio waves hang in the macabre darkness over the winding road. Raindrops dance in the head lights, as lively as those bodies were on the dance floor just now. A body is disposable, a thin wrapping paper of a chocolate at most. Full of sweetness, but still only a package when it matters. Or no longer matters at all.

Sadness is as despondent as the plastic carpet on the black canal water. It looks at you through the eyes of a hungry child on this early Manila morning. Half an hour ago, I did not even dare to brush my teeth using tap water in my 5 star hotel bathroom. And there she is, a ten-year old swimming in a puddle of dirt in search of a treasure amidst the mud. All water flows to the sea. I turn my eyes away, embarrassed as I feel like a viewer of a TV show; a 48-hour touch-and-go spectator of a world which is not mine; a chrysalis that will safely withdraw back into his lush green city-state cocoon soon.

EVANESCENCE: "My Immortal"

DELTA GOODREM: "I Can Sing A Rainbow"

In our breath, there is a power unknown to most of us. There is peace in effort, and emptiness in motion. Another world, firm and solid, that balances on the thin line between heaven and earth. Power and control. I paint a rainbow with my body, as I bridge the gap between my mind and my spine.

JASON MRAZ Ft. JAMES MORRISON: "Details In The Fabric"

“De gustibus et coloribus non desputandum est”. This is an old Latin expression, which states that “you can not argue about personal taste and colours”. We all have our own style of clothes and our personal idea about what is nice to wear and what is not.

Speaking for myself, I do have a few things that I really consider tasteless, either for man or for women. Nonetheless, the items of the following list are not yet threatened by extinction. Just walk down the street and you will sure spot them. For like what I said, personal taste is very individual and subjective.

My Personal “NOT DONE” List for Women:

- girls with a baseball cap
- black nail polish
- round earrings with a diameter of 5 cm and beyond
- underwear with tiger print or cartoon characters
- ear and leg warmers
- wearing sport shoes with a two-piece

And “NOT DONE” for Men:

- a classical one, to warm up: a bermuda with white sport socks and sandals
- golden necklace
- Hawaï shirt
- Tattoo
- a sleeveless fishnet T-shirt
- G-string

YAZZ: "The Only Way Is Up"

Less is more. By keeping it low, we actually reach higher...

SAMUEL L. JACKSON: "Just Like A Bird Without A Feather"

En un rincón de la vida
Se cae una gota
Se pierde la inocencia
Como un pájaro una pluma
Sin dándose cuenta
Evaporando al horizonte

梁靜茹 & 品冠 : 回到愛 (FISH LEONG & VICTOR WONG: "Way Back Into Love")

丽江市 Lijiang (China)

STEVIE WONDER: “Hello”

Beijing Lu, Kunming (Yunnan province, China). There’s four of them. Four in a row. Eye lids closed. A small chair in front of them, on the pavement. A self-painted banner behind them, full of Chinese characters describing the services they offer. And a price per item. Of course. Massage on the street. An old man seated on one of the chairs sets the example.

They call for attention to passers-by. “An Mó”. “An Mó”. The mandarin for “massage”. The words echo over the street. I pass by and look curiously as I walk along. Then all of a sudden, I hear “massage”, “massage”…Haha…I never knew blind man can tell the colour of your skin by the tone of your footsteps…

THE WHISPERS: "The Beat Goes On"

What is it, that you want to leave behind? A footprint in melting snow? Or a fossile conserved for a million years? Do you strive for eternity, or do you spot miracles in the breeze of a butterfly’s wing? Do you want to be a legend, or is a simple legacy enough?
Like all, I try to make ends meet. I’m juggling with time, not money, though.

POINTER SISTERS: "I'm So Excited"

昆明
Kunming
(China)