yakayaka

after a long hiatus....can you tell me what these beans are called?

2011-10-12T21:20:00.003+05:30

it's been a while and lots gone down. left one job, joined another - which isn't quite working out etc. life has been really hectic and unsettled and the last thing on my mind has been this blog. which is a shame because after a really long time i just thought of this and it made me really happy - because this is the one place (yes i realise it isn't a real place, so to speak) that i can say whatever i want and do whatever i feel like it and not have to second guess myself - incidentally, is this what it feels like to work for oneself?

today i want to show-off my garden. especially these super tasty beans that we have growing that wimale picked up from his village in the kegalle district. it is popularly called atakana bonchi (ඇට-කන-බොන්චි) the beans are a deep dark purple when they're dry and a greyish green when they're tender. I though they were a variety of black bean - but i can't be sure, if an agriculturally savvy blogger knows what they are actually called, i would really appreciate the info.

Then we have our amazing cherry tomatoes. they've been green on the stem for about a week before they all suddenly started ripening. they are amazingly beautiful to look at, and the perfect tomatoes for salad and pasta (tart with a touch of sweetness-mmmnomnom)

in addition to the beans and tomatoes, we also have since of the last two months one tiny strawberry plant that we have coaxed and cajoled in to existence that is (fingers crossed) doing well and has leaves the size of two rupee coins. it's an amazing little bugger - the only one of 10 seedlings we planted that survived, hopefully i'll be able to post a picture or two of the fruit not too far off in to the future.

in the floral department we have the eager to please kumudu flower, every day there are at least two little heads peeping out of the water just waiting for the right moment to bloom properly and as well as the one Nil Manel bud that has boldly stuck its head right out of the water (the picture is of this morning just before i left for work - fast little fellows the Nil Manel flowers are).

apart from my tumultuous career, everything else seems to be pretty much the same as it was before i abandoned this blog. fingers crossed better (more stable) times are just around the corner!

dogdays are not over.

2011-07-14T18:19:00.004+05:30

my dog yoda is ridiculously bipolar.

vesak

2011-05-17T21:03:00.006+05:30

i watched a good PBS documentary on the life of the buddha online recently, if you're interested you can access it here.

vesak is great. i love everything about it.i tried to make a vesak pandol but failed horribly because it just kept coming apart. so i bought a frame from a 10 year old (who apparently CAN keep a pandol together) for fifty rupees and covered it with paper. it was fun but took me almost 4 hours and a bucket load of sweat to complete. today we hung it over a light and my god, it was worth the effort. i'm posting a couple of pictures of my quiet vesak at home, because it made me very happy.

day 14

2011-04-28T11:03:00.002+05:30

14. a song that no one will expect you to love

not my usual cup of tea, but what a great song!

day 13

2011-04-26T15:53:00.003+05:30

13. a song that is a guilty pleasure.

the less said about it the better.

day 11

2011-04-24T22:19:00.003+05:30

11. a song from your favourite band

i like loads of bands, including and not exclusive to the beatles, the strokes, franz ferdinand, but i think fair is fair, i decided i would put up one of my favourite songs by the band with the most songs on my computer. narrowly edging out the beatles, i give you (drumroll pleeeaaasee!)...

also reminds me of the time i was an angsty teenager who hated school (the other school nata, the other school)

day 10

2011-04-23T17:50:00.002+05:30

10. a song that makes you fall asleep

not because he's terrible or anything, but i actually used to listen to his album on my headphones to fall asleep (and also so i wont hear the action from my housemate's room next door :s)

he does have a most calming voice.

day 9

2011-04-21T08:27:00.003+05:30

9. a song that makes you dance dance dance

no greater song to get a party started, and incidentally, via the principles of 6 degrees of separation i am connected to alex turner by 3

(make no mistake, i really am THAT uncool)

day 8

2011-04-19T11:04:00.003+05:30

8. a song that you know all the words to

of all the songs by the beatles, this is one of my absolute favourites; and in my pursuit of a proper video for it, i found this really cool one on youtube of all of them in india (possible benares?) with the maharishi.

i love.

day 7

2011-04-14T08:07:00.003+05:30

7. a song that reminds you of a certain event

this song and others from the stars of 70s CDs reminds me of every single family holiday i've taken with the family. even now, everytime i hear a clarence wijewardena or annesly malewana song in my horrible van, i forget that i'm a grown up, and i'm still this child who pretends to hate her parents' music (while secretly mouthing all the words).

ahhh good timeeesss.

day 6

2011-04-12T13:49:00.000+05:30

6. a song that reminds you of somewhere

reminds me of a long time ago in allen hall (in fallowfield) and of manchester in general.

day 5

2011-04-10T22:22:00.002+05:30

5. a song that reminds you of someone

reminds me of that daft kiripani and eating 'chocolate' (MY chocolate, not HER chocolate).

day 4

2011-04-09T18:24:00.001+05:30

4. a song that makes you sad

what more can you say?

day 3

2011-04-08T12:23:00.004+05:30

3. a song that makes you happy

this is definitely one of those songs (and yes, i admit, i first heard it on the OC too)

day 2

2011-04-07T16:25:00.002+05:30

2. least favourite song.

without a doubt,anything by the black eyed peas, but i have a particularly large amount of venom for this particular song.

30 day song challenge

2011-04-06T23:19:00.003+05:30

it's slap bang in the middle of exams and i'm knee deep in assignments - so no time better than the present to start (technically) blogging again. nadia has started playing the 30 day song challenge so i thought i would too. only instead of on facebook i'm going to do it right here.

so day 1: my favourite song.
i don't have a favourite song, i have a collection of favourite songs that i never skip through. this is one of them.

thats the truth right there.

2011-02-10T14:54:00.003+05:30

natalie's words of wisdom

manioc 2011

2011-01-23T17:49:00.003+05:30

we had a bit of a manioc feast last week, days before boozysoozy left for australia on her adventure with chandrika. we dug out, washed up, cut in slices and fried the manioc from garden and had with a lot of rum and coke. it was fun and delicious. made even better because i actually knew where the manioc came from and i knew exactly how it was cared for. in an effort to keep the household healthy, our edible garden is completely (and obsessively) organic.

it's pretty neat.

giddy with excitement

2010-12-07T19:45:00.004+05:30

because it's christmas, and (nearly) both my homies are in town.

r.i.p nigel

2010-12-06T11:46:00.003+05:30

many things can be said about nigel de silva.

he was:
a funny man, totally OTT, compassionate, fighting for his right to be who he really was, treated negatively for being positive, a lonely man.

he was all of this (and much more)

may he achieve the peace in death that he was denied of in life.

rest in peace, nigel. i'm grateful to have met and known you over this last year.

first lines

2010-11-06T19:20:00.009+05:30

some great first lines from some of the greatest books ever written

the idea really came to me the day i got my false teeth

so this, said kay to herself, is the sort of person you've become: a person whose clocks and wrist watches have stopped, and who tells the time instead by the particular kind of cripple arriving at her landlord's door.

begin with a question, an obvious one. so obvious it has already crossed your mind.
Mma ramotswe had a detective agency in africa, at the foot of kgale hill. these were its assets: a tiny white van, two desks, two chairs, a telephone, and an old typewriter.

i still remember the day my father took me to the cemetery of forgotten books for the first time. it was the early summer of 1945, and we walked through the streets of a barcelona trapped beneath ashen skies as dawn poured over rambla de santa monica in a wreath of liquid copper.

the boys name was santiago. dusk was falling as the boy arrived with his herd at an abandoned church. the roof had fallen in long ago, and an enormous sycamore had grown on the spot where the sacristy had once stood.

Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.

this is the discworld, which travels through space on the back of four elephants which themselves stand on the shell of Great A'Tuin, the sky turtle.

and the villain STILL pursues her!

2010-10-11T13:32:00.000+05:30

Victorian sex-ed

i think you will agree with me, this is far superior to demonstrations using vegetables at home economic class.

the journey

2010-09-17T15:48:00.000+05:30

in another (long overdue) installment of other peoples work, Mary Oliver, whose work i only got to know last year (yes, i is philistine - apparently she and this poem are quite renown among the literati) had the ability to raise the tiny hairs on the back of my neck with this poem. I got it off a collection a friend sent me called 'wild geese'. if you have the chance, take a look at some of her other work because she really has the ability to sum up your existence in a few sentences.

best if you read out loud.

one day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
but little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save.

Destroy Everything You Touch: why are conservatives killing soul?

2010-09-16T22:48:00.000+05:30

a couple months ago, i got a letter from my friend sophie, bemoaning yet another incidence of conservative fiscal idiocy winning over ordinary common sense/humanity.

for a long time now, ever since i was able to discern good from bad, i have been a fan of the UK film council, the UK's leading body for film funding, giving lots of up and coming scriptwriters, producers, actors, directors the time of day and an opportunity to showcase their work to the world. if you think this is some obscure little production company think again, the UKFC has been solely responsible for films like Bright Star, Man on Wire, Touching the Void, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, Brideshead Revisited, and St. Trinians among hundreds of others.

The UK film industry, contributes over GBP 4 BILLION to the UK economy and took 7% of the global box office last year. Profits have been rising consistently since the setting up of the UKFC in 2000. every 1 pound invested in British film by the UKFC has generated5 pounds at the box office.

in 2009 alone, British cinema picked up 36 international and local awards.

if you think about it, if we didn't have the UK film council, we would never have been able to enjoy films like bend it like beckham, the constant gardener , the last king of Scotland, in the loop, NOR would we be able to look forward to seeing the most wonderful Colin Firth in the King's Speech and the latest version of Wuthering Heights.

so why have the bloody tories decided to abolish the UK film council?

beats me.

is soul on its last legs?

FOR SURE.

for your info:

2010-09-07T09:14:00.001+05:30

(almost) spontaneous combustion
small vehicles spinning out of control
deep canyons missing raging rivers
geography forever altered
walls crumbling around toppled regimes
consequences of several lifetimes of inaction
blurry faces on lacquered horseback
merry-go-rounds spinning chaos

question:

would life exist without
small explosions in the sky?

my life in a chart.

2010-08-11T14:30:00.000+05:30

google reader says i'm more active during work hours.
this is technically true. i can't concentrate if i'm not distracted every now and again.

but today, i wish i was somewhere else.

120mm problems

2010-06-19T11:02:00.000+05:30

these are some pictures from a 120 mm roll i shot last year that i gave up on because asshat developer man decided i was off my head when i told him it was square format, and proceeded to chop pictures up rectangular. the poor quality isn't all his fault tho, i have ridiculously shakey hands. i'm procrastinating at the moment so i decided to dig them out and re-chop them in to a squarish sort of shape (to avoid doing real work), and some of them turned out usable.

anyone know a good developer i can go to in colombo to get 120s developed? otherwise i have to send film rolls all the way to the parents to get developed and have it sent back.

silent vesak

2010-05-28T13:40:00.001+05:30

setting the stage

darkness falls

incense of lit matches

for one night only

the world stands still

broken sounds of

brass wind chimes

heavy petting with the wind

one lit paper lantern at a time

eyes on the prize

light replaces conversation

not that I mind.

too short sundays

2010-05-09T17:58:00.000+05:30

i've heard back from the ms. lexia people about the short story competition i entered earlier this year and my entry wasn't selected. i got a letter last week telling me that all is not lost, that i can subscribe to ms lexia today and get this month's issue absolutely free. FREE!

honestly, i don't mind, because i took the risk (what's $16 in the grand scheme of things eh?)

i thought to include a bit from the story - the whole thing will probably be too long for the blog, so that it sees the light of day (partially at least). would be nice if les readers could tell me what you think.

"...Sometimes a bird will fly inside as if it was the most natural thing in the world for it to be indoors. It’s like they forget on purpose that there are rules against that kind of thing. I find that birds don’t generally stick to the rules. Maybe they imagine the laws of the universe don’t apply to them because can fly. I can bend over and touch my toes but I don’t imagine I’m better than the rest of the universe.

The house has rules too. You don’t really know what they are, but if you break one, you pay the price. I learnt that the hard way. If you convince yourself that you deserve better than the house, it will consume itself. No, seriously. One day I woke up and I was surrounded by wood rot. The whole house was about to fall down around my ears because I didn’t want to be in it. I’m still paying for that bit of disobedience. Every six months I have to do a spot of DIY fumigation to stop the wood lice from coming back. That was, you can imagine, a very big rule. There are some smaller one also, but so far the wood rot was the worst consequence I’ve had to face.

There’s also another thing. You never get to decide when it’s time for you to leave. The house does that for you. Sometimes I get the impression that it has the ability to physically hold on to you like with the beefy tentacles of a giant octopus. You feel it generally around the heart, a little squeeze every now and then. If you stay away from it for more than a weekend or three or four days, you feel as if your heart would jump out of your chest and make its way home, leaving you to die.

Most people can’t take that kind of intensity, but I find it really nice to have someone, no, something wanting me around that badly. It must be what passion feels like. I’ve always believed that passion between people can be dangerous, unstable like a petrol bomb or South Asian politics..."

currently, in the middle of a tall and unsteady (and ever growing) pile of work that i'm a little afraid to touch, i'm fiddling. pretending to be sick tomorrow so i can finish isn't even an option. actually, getting sick (for real) isn't even an option anymore. i've sort of become the despised version of the 9-5 (or 8 - 4.30) that i was so afraid of turning in to. i have no time to do anything but worry about how much work i'm not doing.

pretending to be important and grown up is so hard.

this week, i wished i was back in uni, listening the kaiser chiefs, and no one scarier than my personal tutor to avoid.

want

2010-04-21T11:56:00.000+05:30

I want to eat chocolate, chinese food and drink whiskey to lose weight

I want to have an active social life with plenty of dates

I want to be smart enough to know what you’re talking about straight away

I want to be witty enough to be able to contribute in a big way

I want to be able to read people’s minds

I want to see if they’re playing or just being kind

I want to be sitting outside a little cottage somewhere near a stream

I want to have the time and space to dream

I want to be able to tell those I love every time I fall

I want to see them and not have to wait for a weekend video call

I want life to stop being such a chore

I want to be less of a bore

hello creepy cottage

the trick to posting while working

2010-04-05T15:21:00.000+05:30

i watched this wonderful documentary called 'a history of god' based on the book (same name) by karen armstrong. i found it to be a balanced study of god as is presented to us through the doctrines of the monotheistic faiths. i also discovered the profound yet simple wisdom of the patriarchs of the greek orthodox church - something i've never looked at with any interest (only their beautiful byzantine pictures of icons). there was this particular quote that really resounded with me by gregory palamas or st. gregory, that i can't really remember but starts out 'if we say god is, then we must say we are not', i think it means that we can't understand god through our limited understanding of the universe and life, because the concept of god is too huge and vast and mysterious for our little minds to comprehend.

most of you who know me, know that i don't really follow religion with any particular passion or fervour. that is of course not to say that i am an atheist or agnostic because i definitely believe in what i believe, but i don't believe in human fallacy as represented in the church or other institutions. however there is great joy in belonging to a community though i think - and i used to but found it really wasn't for me.

another thing that's been on my mind recently is the fact that my friend ruki thinks i'm being a big hypocrite for not eating beef. this bothers me on many levels. firstly of course, i don't like to be called a hypocrite as much as the next person, but i worry that there might be some truth to why she calls me that. my reasons are entirely personal and subjective and i don't expect anyone to follow suite. i don't advocate eating beef either. if you want to eat it go ahead, really, i couldn't care less.

i don't eat beef because i drink milk. mad you may think, but for me its a rather distasteful concept, i was weaned off my mother's milk with formulas and other things that were primarily dehydrated cows milk. so really it feels like i'm eating something maternal (god knows i wouldn't eat my mother). am i being hypocritical? please say no.

secondly - i feel like my beliefs are being challenged - and its not a bad thing, because before ruki, i didn't really think it was that big a deal. now because its a sort of joke in our little circle (of 3) i've become desensitized to a bit of humiliation, and i'm examining WHY a bit more seriously than i used to before. i'm not sure i'd ever be able to come up with a reasonable enough explanation for ruki - it's a good think i know she loves me on the inside.

Also has anyone noticed how much more vociferous vegetarians are becoming? all graphic details about animals and waste and how much better eating vegetables are for people etc. yes yes its all true, the largest percentage of green house gasses are produced by the agricultural industry. also true that eating meal contributes to obesity, cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease, divorce, bad handwriting, funny smells from the beire, MR's moustache among other societal ills.

but look at this:

tell me you dont want to dip a bit of naan bread in that baby?

anyway, its almost the end of the work day and i've spend the last hour or so writing and searching for pictures of tasty chicken curry on google.

my stomach rumbles and i want to fall asleep in my own bed as soon as possible at the moment.

peace.

rain, man.

2010-03-28T19:03:00.001+05:30

after a ridiculously long and hard week – there is no greater joy than waking up at 5.30 in the morning and realizing that you can sleep for at least 3 hours more with no fear of the consequences.

then like the cherry on top, well, i have the cherry on top.

the greedy birds missed the first cherry of the year, allowing it to ripen and get gloriously red and juicy looking. gorgeous or what?

as if that weren’t enough, we’ve also had a couple of early orchids like this purple dendrobium.

the garden is also seeing the ehela tree in full bloom this year, we’ve also had an errant photographer with a telephoto lens taking pictures of it on the down low.

it’s now raining. actually it’s drizzling, and i’m listening to the ratpack and imagining my life in retirement.

i can’t wait for old age.

aney this tropical life...

2010-03-13T17:31:00.000+05:30

every time i get sick and tired of this tropical life
i see something that reminds me of how much i would miss not living it

the frangipani bouquets high in their leafless trees
pungent mouthwatering smells of deep fried karawala
wafting from the girls hostel down buller's lane
chiffon saris
bright colours that don't look out of place
and other people that speak the same garbled version of english
i speak

sometimes the trigger to look at what i'm seeing comes from strange places
this week it was from this

this is borrowed from prash miranda's latest blog post. he's a fantastic indian artist that's working out of canada.
i'd like to say he draws like i think, but i don't think i have the creative capacity to think with such detail.

check out his blog here.

an abundance of radishes

2010-02-28T13:24:00.000+05:30

we've harvested our radishes!

we made the leaves in to a gotukola-esq mallung (figured it would be ok, since it belongs to the brassica family and we eat cabbage + turnip leaves in mallungs) and it was delicious and peppery, definitely something i would feed people.

as for the actual bulbs - let the pickling begin!

2010-02-26T14:43:00.000+05:30

the delicate balance

divine concoction
my poetry in motion

white pristine
the holy meeting

of the sea and sky

you could be
my turquoise

the cure for loneliness

2010-02-17T22:03:00.001+05:30

is dogs.

lots of them.

yoda

i just adopted two 4 month olds from a rescue shelter, where a nice lady dropped them off at my house and so now, the grand total stands at 4. i'm very pleased about it because i've been pretty miserable lately and missing everyone who wasn't here. i'm not saying of course i've replaced, say, my brother with a dog, but it takes my mind off not having him around et cetera et cetera.

merlin

the Sri Lanka Animal Protection Association (SLAPA being the unfortunate acronym) is doing a great job of trying to get homes for strays. if anyone wants and is able to look after a puppy or kitten i would highly recommend giving them a call. they're based in kalubowila, but are operational everywhere thanks to a dedicated group of active volunteers.

send me an email at yakasayshello@gmail.com if you're interested in adopting animals from SLAPA (really, very unfortunate) or volunteering and i can give you the nice lady's phone number.

2010-02-11T18:38:00.000+05:30

i miss people.

root vegetables make for great cartoons

2010-01-23T11:47:00.000+05:30

(think about it, they really do)

here at the casa del yaka, we don't have the space to grow food to be entirely self sufficient. a lot of the time we plant little experiments to see if it would work. last year we had an enormously successful white gourd (puhul) plant, the last and final puhul sits in the kitchen waiting for the fateful day we decide to cut it up and cook it in a mustardy kiri hodi. we also had a not so successful batch of sweet corn plants that rarely yielded ears of corn bigger than an elephant house chicken sausage *yum*.

however the father (garajaka - soft 'j') sent over a few packets of seeds he got in a sale a couple of months ago and we've been experimenting with newer ways to make better use of the little land we have. short of digging up the lawn, we don't have that many sunny spots around, so the solution? containers. since most of the veggies aren't perennials - once harvested its pretty much back to square one, it works really well because we can turn the soil and recondition it every so often.

so far we've planted turnips (where the sweet corn used to be), radishes, and basil. we're just creating a 2x2 plot of extremely fertile almost completely compost soil to plant zucchini, which i was told is notoriously easy to grow (basically just sow and reap).

the turnips seem to be doing well, despite the rocky soil

the radishes are grown in a ledge over our garage that we filled up with rich black soil from the compost heap. it was only four days since we planted when i took the picture - so it doesn't really look like much, but just wait a couple weeks

Basil despite getting the same treatment as the radish, is growing a little slower, but we imagine it could be because its not a case of uprooting the vegetable and being done with it, and instead we're allowed to develop a relationship with it. like all good relationships its bound to take some time.

in addition we have the usual chillies, spinach et al, the spinach has already started to flower which means we're going to have to save the seeds to replant, but it's so easy - it basically does it on its own.

chillies

spinach flowers and seeds

i'm excited for the next couple of weeks because of all the growth i'm seeing at the moment. fingers crossed everything will continue in this vein.

....for fashion

2010-01-17T21:58:00.000+05:30

Dear Natalie,

When trying to decide which decade is best for fashion it was very confusing because there seemed to be a lot of styles that tended to overlap (and also i dont really know much about it). In general though I think I could sort of identify predominant trends of each of the decades. So that way I’ve picked out a few decades that stood out.

Firstly we have the sixties. Who doesn’t love the sixties? Everything about it rings free and sexy. Short short skirts, bobbed hair, colour blocks, and in short a complete rejection of the traditional take of femininity. Women became more androgynous and style was something that sat at your dinner table. Icons of the decade include Mary Quant and her mini skirt, Vidal Sassoon and his bob cut, twiggy and the mods.

Mary Quant and Vidal Sassoon (the bob)

)

'
modern take on the sixties 'Mods

shift dress inspired by piet mondrian

Then we have the fifties. Women were quintessentially feminine and had by the middle of the last century perfected the art of looking spic and span female. This decade recovered from the war pretty fast and took to opulence like a hungry man would to fried chicken. Ruffles, frills, huge skirts, yards and yards of the most amazing fabrics money could buy and a tailoring and finish that we are constantly looking to emulate. Even today, fifties style has made a sort of a comeback with more and more women opting for a chic tailored yet feminine look. It doesn’t help that tv shows like madmen heighten the obsession with its portrayal of manly men and their fabulously attired females. If you told me you never wanted to look like January Jones, I would assume you were lying.

Audrey Hepburn in Givenchy

Betty Draper's handbook!

Promotional posters from Mad men

catalogue from 1953

trouser from the 50s. look familiar?I own all three styles!

totally luxe - iconic Dior ball gown for Louise Dahl-Woolfe

Next we have the forties. This is more for the principle of the thing. This is the first decade that women embraced practicality over beauty, thanks to the war and all the shortages. Gone were the corsets and movement inhibiting skirts, and in were the trousers, shirts and practical shoes. Despite what it may sound like the forties woman didn’t make the look dowdy or butch. Instead icons like Katherine Hepburn helped make the style a staple in every woman’s closet. Also less fabric wasn’t such a bad thing and as a result we get the suit. Iconic and the pencil line lives on. Doesn’t mean women didn’t find time to be glamorous though. Check out ultimate 40s sex bomb Veronica Lake in the most gorgeous pleated dress this side of Mars.

the suit

Katherine Hepburn in trousers

Veronica Lake's pleated dress

However though, as usual, there can be only one. For the sheer heck of it I wanted to go completely random and pick the seventies. Then I decided with Miley Cyrus and Nicole Richie running rampant with greasy hair, multiple bangles and fucking head bands, I might puke on my brand new laptop (and that wouldn't be cool). My favourite decade therefore, is the fifties. It felt like a breath of fresh air. They went back to their feminine roots, but still kept the practical aspect of fashion in mind. The dresses were beautiful and glamorous and gives a scruffy dontbrushmyhaircosiwakeuptooearly person something wonderful to aspire to. Like there really is a simplicity in the facade of traditionalism i think we tend to overlook. It sort of reminds us of a simpler time when the boundaries were clearly defined and bad was bad and good was good.

Besides, they had some kick ass bathing suits.

doesn't this look like fun?

අම්මටඋඩු!

2010-01-01T21:39:00.000+05:30

සුභ අලුත් අවුරුද්දක් වේවා!

ලෑබුනාවු නව වසර කිරියෙන්, පෑනියෙන්, විස්කියෙන් පිරුනාවු වසරක් වේවා.

(ස්තුති ඩීසී)

it's been awhile...

2009-12-29T09:21:00.000+05:30

lots done lots to do
people seen people to see
places been more places to be
books read books to be written

ratpack on the radio
big dog on the left new dog on the right
jharkhand lampshades overhead
beautiful green lush rich as far as the eye can see

at this moment i am happy.

rated R for graphic nudity

2009-11-02T16:35:00.000+05:30

hehe

robinson crusoe's wise sayings...

2009-10-31T19:39:00.000+05:30

by Ian Mcmillan

you can never have too many turtle's eggs
i'm the most interesting person in this room
a beard is as long as i want it to be

the swimmer on his own doesn't need trunks
a tree is a good clock
if you talk long enough to a rock you'll fall asleep

i know its christmas because i cry
waving at ships is useless
footprints make me happy. unless they're my own.

(i'm too lazy/tired/busy to write anything of my own composition. this will do, since often i share his sentiments anyway. except for the part about the beard.)

hot hot heat

2009-10-13T16:39:00.000+05:30

its far too hot to eat, sleep or breathe.

and its definitely too hot to work.

...for movies

2009-09-29T12:02:00.000+05:30

nnnaaaaattaaaaliiiieeeeee,

mischief, mayhem and soap.

this week is very exciting because you and i both know, that i could easily spend the rest of my life in front of a screen watching films and doing little else. to begin i started out by making a list of all the top movies from the decades from 1930 - 1990. i wasn't going to go any earlier than 1930's because frankly i didn't fancy sitting through a whole heap of silent films (i know, i'm a philistine) since the technology for synchronising sound with movement wasn't easily available before 1927.

it was really a fun few weeks and naturally it wasn't easy to pick one decade. i had a few favourites from all the films i watched.

1936 - my man godfrey - a classic story, with william powell and carole lombard, of a vagrant who gets hired to be the butler, but isn't whom he seems to be. call me crazy but william powell is also strangely attractive in his little pencil moustache.

1942 - casablanca - what to say about it. you know exactly how wonderful humphrey bogart is. love, intrigue, nazi's and a bar. really, you don't need much to make a movie more wonderful than that.

1950 - all about eve - with one of the strongest female casts, is an amazing film - a little like single white female but without the nudity. bette davis is the quintessential fading diva, and anne baxter is the scariest most earnest protege (how to get all the right accents?)

1967 - the graduate - the best film every made. period. it's funny and clever and the acting is brilliant and dustin hoffman is dustin hoffman. seriously, physically he's just a little grayer. anne bancroft is so good that i won't be able to see her in any other character after this. she will always be mrs. robinson. the soundtrack is needless to say brilliant also, simon and garfunkle were at their peak. i couldn't get it off of my head for weeks. now i'm writing about it, guess what i'm listening to? i was tempted to make the 60's my favourite decade just based on this one movie.

1987 - the princess bride - i know the title sounds a little corny, but it's the bestest fairy tale EVER! the movie intro lines/verse says it best:

"scaling the cliffs of insanity
battling rodents of unusual size
facing torture in the Pit of Despair
true love has never been a snap"

my favourite decade however, is neither of the decades featured above. it seemed only fair to highlight the movies that i really enjoyed watching from each decade as well as those of my favourite decade. i picked my decade on a purely subjective non-scientific basis. if i liked the film it got highlighted in yellow on my list, and at the end i just counted how many i had highlighted. it was a hard choice because, although the sheer number of movies in my decade is just enough to force my hand, the 1940's with its classic films noir, were a close and hard contender.

i love the intrigue and the sparse looks the movies from teh 40's carry. humphry bogart, lauren bacall, carey grant, laurence olivier are still unmatched as actors with that particular bland of platinum standard star quality.still, the 40's didn't quite cut it. although movies such as the grapes of wrath were award winning and very classily made, i felt a distinct inability to connect with it. hence, i left it for two days without getting to finish it and really, movies shouldn't require that much commitment. for me movies are pure entertainment. i want to be able to put my feet up and be enthralled. my decade really did this for me.

my favourite decade, for movies, then are the 1990's
i blame it on my mother. i'm a child of the 80s/90s. i grew up with jurassic park, die hard, braveheart and toy story. bruce willis is the closest thing i have to a language coach ("yippiekayey muthafucka"). the first bond film i saw (that spawned and uncontrollable bond obsession) was golden eye (1995). my first rom com was jerry maguire (1996). legends of the fall (1994) made me want brad pitt's babies. i even had his long haired mug on my wall for over a year.

then when i was little older, and i could actually discern between good and bad film, i saw all the films i missed, or watched and never understood and some of them still remain in my all time favourite movie lists.

princess mononoke (1997) from the studio ghibli is one of the best anime movies i have ever watched, along with other ghibli films remain on my top most favourite movie lists. animated films in general really intrigue me and even at the disgustingly old age i am at, i find they really haven't lost its magic for me. anyone who has seen toy story, the lion king, the little mermaid, beauty and the beast (and other such disney fare) KNOWS that their hearts are filled with goodness (and songs, many many songs) after watching.

the thing is with most films from the 90's they're so easy to watch. they're like a security blanket. especially if you've traumatised yourself by watching clockwork orange in the night, you need to see while you were sleeping (1995 with sandra bullock and bill pullman) to reassure yourself that the world's not bonkers.

in fact, i think 90's films mostly take us out of time and place. the world is such a volatile place, nothing is assured anymore. if you were to fret about everything that went wrong or that bothered you or made you think, you'd be a wreck. so really in a way, i think i like 90's film for the same reason i like 40's film. they were both really volatile decades, and the movies acted either as a form of catharsis, with the good always winning over the bad (or your side, over their side) or really downplaying the danger and uncertainty of the age. the difference being that, the 90's actually deal/dealt with the things that i could relate to. plus really, i love the cheese.

incidently of course, not all of the 90's were cheese. i was just making a point. some of my fav films were decidedly uncheesy. here's a few.

the talented mr ripley (1999) - gorgeous cinematography, very subtle story and matt damon. even if he is the creepy bad guy. it made me want to be insanely wealthy and spending months at a time in a quaint italian villa. it was the role jude law was born to play. lazy, rich and sun tanned.

edward scissorhands (1990) - johnny depp is one of my favourite actors. he's also the darling of one of the best directors in the world, tim burton. he made being an outsider cool. i dare you to not love it.

the virgin suicides (1999) - sophia coppola's surreal masterpiece. i say surreal because it really is - even at the end you're wondering what the hell happened and you try to theorise in a 150 different ways. amazingly hauntingly beautifully shot. based on the book by the same name, it has a soundtrack by the french band air, that could maybe rival simon and garfunkle's take on the graduate.

fight club (1999) - with edward norton and brad pitt. a film thats crazier than helena bonham carter's hair directed by david fincher of the curius case of benjamin button fame. dark and strangely funny.

then last but definitely not least, there's tarantino. pulp fiction (1994), reservoir dogs (1992) really? need i say more? (girl, da dum dum daa, you'll be a womanh sooonh). tarrantino is pure genius. i dont know how anyone can not love these two films. the soundtracks are equally, and very importantly, awesome.

love,
Y.Yaka

trader horn

2009-09-26T17:28:00.000+05:30

whoever Owen K Fielding is, he's looked after his books exceptionally well. i picked up a second hand (maybe more) copy of Trader Horn by Ethelreda Lewis at the Book fair yesterday. for fifty rupees. it's from Penguin's Travel and Adventure series from 1938!
it is in remarkably good condition, the pages are still crisp and the cover virtually unblemished.

i love the smell of bargains in the morning.

seashore haiku

2009-09-17T18:39:00.000+05:30

salt. white speckled green.

grapefruit sky. clammy breeze.

sun went down. local cali dream.

stories

2009-09-04T20:08:00.000+05:30

old paving stones

surround fresh new puddles

bare paws follow

bare feet

splashing across reflections of the blue skies

mushy wet grass

squelches underfoot

the very cool breeze

floats across space

to fly through her hair

to whisper in her ear

strange stories of people

in a language she’s not sure how she knows

maybe that’s why in the cool night

amidst the pitter patter

constant sounds of rain on the roof

she sleeps undisturbed with

gentle dreams keeping her mind occupied…

thibbatu metamorphosis

2009-09-04T17:27:00.000+05:30

Before

After

i don't know what they're called in english.. (tiny-ice-cream-shaped-balls-of-goodness?)

the wild

2009-08-22T12:15:00.000+05:30

Now the wild is at my feet

The call is getting vaguer

The urge, getting stronger

Resolve, getting weaker

To hear the gentle breeze beckon again

Cool amidst the trees,

To be awoken when the sun streams in,

The grass and the bare earth,

Between my toes to feel

Right now, I’d give

Most anything..

...for art

2009-08-20T15:00:00.000+05:30

Natalie,

excitement over our new project has been bubbling (bubble bubble) inside me for a week almost! it's not because i'm this uncool person who has no life, its because i AMcool and ...err... ok i don't have a life. so here's how i broke down this week's decade topic - ART. i split it in to three originally, ART art, PHOTOGRAPHY art and ARCHITECTURE art. then i realised, i really don't know much about architecture, except to see a really cool building and go 'ooh, THAT'S really cool'. so i just stuck to the first two sub categories. It was the most exciting thing i did all week.
first let me tell you the ones that almost made it to the top.

the decades from 1910 -1919, 1920 - 1929 and 1970 -1979

in 1910 Henri Matisse painted 'the dance' (the second version) which is now hanging in a gallery somewhere in St. Petersburg. its a simple, almost grecian painting of a group of people playing ring-a-ring-a-rosey (or at least it looks like it), but done in this fantastic striking pallete that i'm told is very fauvist - a movement that Matisse incidently popularised in the previous decade. I think you'l agree with me, its pretty amazing no?

Also advertising and magazine covers (pre-photography) was pretty kick-ass too:

(i would love to have this cover framed and hanging in the office room)

you have to admit art deco was something special and the truly wondful illustrations of beatrix potter and others...really, this was hard.

have you really ever seen a cooler table fan? you know whats cooler? it's actually called the Fitzgerald fan!

AMAZING photography: like the example below, by James Abbe in 1925 of Rudolph Valentino and his wife Natasha Rambova

there were a few others over the next few decades, like the photography of Joseph Szabo in his book "Almost Grown" (1978) - creepy yet incredibly cool documentation of teenagers. such as these

but in the end nata, we agreed, there can only be one winner. So here's my best decade for art:

THE FORTIES:

the forties were a funny decade, what with the war and the resulting shortages and dictatorships etc. but it was also the year that prepped the 60s and 70s. it's when the times are hardest that society produces its gems (i think anyway). one of my favourite artists Frida Kahlo produced some of her best work in this decade before she died in 1954 after a particularly nasty illness. just check these out:

absolutely stunning no? and totally evocative, its like poetry on canvas (ya ya i know, cheesy - vutudu?!)

also forties photography was beautiful without the fancy pants editing and HDR nonsense that we see nowadays, like these from Margaret Michaelis, an Austrian migrant in Australia who took these beautiful photographs of dancers and actors like the one below right of Hilary Napier (1947) and left of an unknown dancer ( c 1940 -1950). she also took haunting portraits of people in the 30s - which are really bleak but beautiful, some can be found here

and these from Arthur Leipzig who was a freelance photographer who caught these pictures of ordinary people in NYC between 1940 -1950

The Forties also saw Sri Lanka's own forming the 43 group; examples like this portrait of Iranganie Serasinghe (off of her website) done by Harold Pieris and the one next to it by LTP Manjusri (i'm not sure who it is of though, the artsrilanka website is pretty good for information ) and the third one by George Keyt off of his 'Bhima and Jarasandha' series.

there you have it, the forties. the big FOUR OH, my favourite decade for art - no nonsense, frill free, untouched by the plasticity of modern times, clean and elegant (it doesn't matter that not even my parents were born that decade -i WAS clearly born in the wrong one)

looking forward to the next couple of weeks

Love,

Y.Yaka

favourite rat

2009-07-31T17:37:00.000+05:30

Dear Natalie,

(The moment of revelation is at hand.)

I'm going to tell you about my favourite rat. I think you knew who I'd pick anyway, but I want you to know that although I started this little project out with a clear cut front runner, I was really seesawing between the choices towards the end - those clips you sent me of Sammy Davis Jr. didn't help. Then when I heard Dean Martin singing That Kandos Song, it almost made up my mind for me. Then I listened to my Frank Sinatra CD again. Then I changed my mind all over again. It was really really annoying.

(incidently, did you know Frank's mother was also called Natalie?)

I didn't really know much about the Rats, despite really enjoying their music. Some versions of their songs, I'm ashamed to say I only knew because I had heard the Jamie Cullum and Michael Buble versions. I think each of the Rats brought a special something to the Pack. It's hard to tell which one was the best because without the other two they maybe wouldn't have stood out.

Sammy was by far the most creative, and possibly the best entertainer. I would have loved to see him do his little routine live. Sigh, wrong decade, wrong bloody century. His Nat King Cole was hillarious.
Even though his looks reminded us a little of that horrible boy we don't like very much it was easily overlooked because he seemed to turn in to at least a half dozen different people while on stage. It's not his antics and comedy on stage that really got me to take notice though, it was his version of my funny valentine that melted my unromantic heart. I noticed that it's when he's less gregarious and less funny that we hear his real voice and his soouuull if you like.

Dean, I like for the opposite reason. I love his slap up comic songs. It's when he doesn't take himself seriously that he does his best work. He has an amazing voice but has the tendency to veer too far in to the cheese (check this album if you don't know what I mean). That Kandos Song, memories are made of this, is my favourite of his songs (remember the ad?) and who can forget that's amore? The man knew how to make an impression, and looked a little like Elvis (it couldn't have hurt). You were right about the movie, who would play him though?

Frank I love. I have always thought he was the most suavest (word?) most stylish and coolest performer ever. He tends to get ignored by the puritans because he has had the most commercial success and is arguably the most popular en masse. I love his voice. He has mara control, and always manages to sound like the best half of a good night. He doesn't need to do sketches, or funny songs or anything to get people to sit up and take notice. The man was clever. He knew how to do a proper duet; remember something supid? He knew how to use his big band to full effect, without it seeming to drown him out. Unlike Dean he stuck to his big band/swing/jazz formula i.e. I get a kick out of you?, if it aint broke, why fix it? The man is made out of pure cool.

SO. My favourite Rat is...(imaginary drum roll)...Frank.. (round of imaginary applause)

I can't wait to see your pick, although I think I can guess..

Love,

Y.Yaka

perfectly OK puhul

2009-07-27T20:58:00.000+05:30

so its not nearly as versatile as a coconut, and really it tastes of what ever you eat with it, but still you can't deny the awesomeness of the puhul fruit. for one thing, its ridiculously easy to grow, all you need is a sunny spot with a tree or some sort of massa (a lattice-y thing that the vine can grow on), and good solid kitchen compost. we planted ours roughly around 5 months ago, and over the last month we've been harvesting fruit.

it starts out like this:

then it turns in to these (annoying waxy grey residue stays on anything that comes in to contact with the fruit, remember the puhul hora story?)

puhul dosi (fudgey sweet) is the most common way to eat it, and we have loads we made put aside for the mothership to use in the christmas cake:

but the curry is pretty awesome and i'm told its all about the mustard:

i'm also told puhuls are used by kattadiyas and people of that ilk in their ceremonies, but i don't know enough to be sure.

all in all the puhuls were an interesting adventure, and more than anything else, the satisfaction of eating something you've seen growing from scratch is the coolest thing. AND you can apply all the IT words to it: organic, locally grown, fair trade (really, think about it) etc.

so the conclusion to draw from all that is that puhul is cool (pronounce it like koo-ul and you'll get it. geddit geddit?)

happy makers

2009-07-22T16:54:00.000+05:30

when things too large for comprehension overwhelm me and bring me down it's important for me to celebrate the little thing within my grasp that make me happy. sorry for being indulgent, but this post is more for me than for anyone else.i can't find my pencil so this isn't in poetry format (yey! for the poetry haters - not that there are many of those reading yaka's good word)

drowning dreams

2009-07-06T12:27:00.000+05:30

Puddles gather around my feet
Inching upwards towards my knees
Furniture floats crashing against each other
Splintering and losing meaning
The doors that contain the flood and debris
Don’t give way
Gushing and swelling the water almost about my ears
And now as it engulfs me
I wish light could reach me

What forest?
I can only see trees.

I'm staying

2009-06-12T11:24:00.000+05:30

until the flowers wilt in their trees

and the grass stops being such an iridescent shade of green

until the birds start sounding like rusty cans being pulled through the streets

and the fireflies turn in to beasts, intent on keeping me from sleep

until the well goes dry

and the hot days stop morphing in to cool nights

until the day comes I can’t smell the rain

and I can’t see serenity, only strain.

when.

and maybe, not even then, will my resolve wane.

manchester dreams

2009-06-05T10:13:00.000+05:30

of the crowded streets

the muddy paths, the constant drizzle

wet shoes and cold toes

the number 42 bus

of avoiding eye contact with the pregnant scallies in the back seat

a hurried sausage roll and an eye watering strength coffee

and hangover cures before class