“Japanese porn is ugly, violent, and disturbing. German porn is ugly, fetishistc, and disturbing. American porn is stupid, slick, and produced in multiple versions (how explicit depends on what major hotel chain you're staying at) – sex as a mass-produced corporate endeavor. Brit porn, however, is the absolute bottom of the barrel – stuff so witless, brailess, joyless and strange as to remove from the imagination immediately any possibility that sex might ever actually be fun.

“The actors are crude, fat, and saggy and have bad teeth and dirty feet. Even their tattoos are artless. The cast members, apparently, are compelled to have sex through their underwear, tonguing saliva-soaked Jockey shorts until the questions about why Brits have historically been so fucked up about sex are answered: Judging from the videos I saw, it's all about bum whacking and undies. There is no hope.”

- Anthony Bourdain

What is the thin line between pornography and erotica? Most people, if asked to described what they think of porn would give out negative adjectives and all of them correct. Maybe there is nothing beautiful about porn. Porn is violent, humiliating, degrading, self-indulgent, destructive; an actiion against nature and all it stands for. Porn is culture's response against nature, according to Susan Griffin, fighting against something what they fear the most, what they desire the most.

In a binary way of thinking, nature and culture belong to the opposite ends of a spectrum, opposing each other, nature is woman and culture is man. Porn is a man's tool in his quest to degrading the woman. Why? Again, according to Susan Griffin, man is a creature obsessed with control and order, and woman represents everything that he detests. And at the same time, while man hates woman for making him do things he doesn't want to (take for example, Adam and Eve), he desires her to a feverish pitch, which makes him hate her even more. This theory just goes on and on, using various examples taken from the porn culture. Honestly, it's boring the hell out of me.

I admit, porn isn't pretty. It's brainless, but sometimes it's amusing. It's disgusting, but so disgusting that it produces fascination. And I think porn is at it's finest when it tries to be intellectual. Although when it backfires, it becomes even more disgusting. Like Caligula.

I may finally get a copy of Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential." After reading "A Cook's Tour" it became imperative for me to get "Kitchen Confidential" as well.

Anthony Bourdain, executive chef of Brasserie Les Halles, is on top of my favorite chefs on tv, and I've never seen him cook before. I never thought that cooking will eventually cease to become a prerequisite to be in my favored list. While all the cooks and chefs I've seen on tv have grilled, fried, baked, sauteed, stuffed, and chopped their way into my heart, he only did to eat is way around the world and told it in a way that I feel is in the same way literature does: food also tells something about the people who invented it. The basic use of food is to assuage hunger and nourish the body, then to please the senses and finally as an art.

When I was much younger, I never thought much of food, I never had much of an appetite as a kid which would've accounted for my being sickly most of the time. When I grew older it became a matter of quantity, eat as much as you can! Nowadays, its taste and quality and I am willing to spend as much as I can to eat food that interests me.

With a little help from Laika, I got my tagboard up and running and added a few links here and there.

Since I am still attached to this blog, I will try my hardest to maintain it. However it won't be easy since anything personal I put in my lj (and it's not even THAT personal) and saying anything about everything else isn't as easy.

But I will try.

Nyarh. Now I don't remember where to put links and stuff...

The semester is ending and I am swamped with papers. As usual. And while I'm chewing myself with papers, I have a few books on my shelf that I have left to rot. However, after the hullabaloo of the semester I will finally be able to enjoy them.

William Golding's Lord of the Flies

This is like a must for people who's into scary psychological stuff. Since I belong to that category, I bought it. Don't want to be an ignorant in case the book comes up as a conversational piece.

Clive Barker's Galilee

So angsty. Gosh darn, I hope Clive Barker won't bore me with this one after finishing Books of Blood Vols. 1 and 2.

Pornography and Silence

I almost didn't buy this because I felt it had feminist vibes in it. After spending a semester reading and getting bored with feminist texts, I tend to avoid them. However, I couldn't resist it because of the word pornography. As a walking sex theory, I feel that I must know more about this subject that I am so fascinated about.

I popped my self into Mary Ann's office (which I usually do when I'm bored and there no one to talk to) and found her brother watching Adevnt Children. I hung around and promptly forgot my last class.

Story...what, story? Advent Children follows up on what happened after Cloud defeats Sephiroth. Traces of the tragedy caused by negligience for the planet and Sephiroth's lingering presence seems to be the basis for its plot, which didn't impress me. Okay, so fine, a one hour and forty minutes movie has a small chance of competing against the game's own storyline but now this isn't even about it's plot (or lack of it). I wasn't driven to feel along with the characters. A disappointment because FF7 is one of the games that I love and whose characters are compelling (except Aeris, I hate her). Now I don't feel anything except for fanservice (which most probably is the reason why they made this in the first place, and money, too). FF7 was a sad story because the planet's eventual destruction was because of man's doing, and what is happening in real life.

Now the Advent Children movie for me is just a pretty piece of eyecandy, and nothing more. The CGI, of course, is awesome. Kudos to the Square staff for a job well done. The picture just about fits the atmosphere of the movie. I think they just overdid the actiones scenes, whose shot angles I find frustrating because most of it just leaves me hanging, too dynamic and less clear shots to balance it out. I don't mind the absurdity of the fights or Cloud's many-swords-in-one, I am used to Squaresoft's. Just the excess of it all just frustrates me. And I am sad that they didn't use the original Bahamut design.

The best part of Advent Children is that you get to see your favorite dysfunctional heroes and villains. The remaking of Tifa Lockheart is just yuck. She's in a Rinoa outfit, for Chrissakes! I love the girl to bits though, so I can let that pass. Cloud is in his usual whiny-whiny mode. You think he'd gotten over it by the end of the game but noooo, you see it again in the movie. Makes you want to smack him over his spiky-haired head with the flat of his huge blade. Vincent Valentine still rocks!!! His personality is the opposite of Cloud's whiny ass self. Cid, as usual takes the cake. Yuffie is in her usual annoying self. Red only speaks a few lines but no matter, he's cool and Cait Sith got rid of his stuffed toy guardian and is now riding on the back of Red. Barrett still has his tough attitude and his arm gun. The two Shinra bodyguards of Rufus (the bald one and the spiky-haired redhead) are also back. I was so happy to find Rufus Shinra alive! He's alive! Yes! Sephiroth is being his usual hot, sexy and psychotic self, too. Except that it only lasted for some minutes before he turned back to Kadaj. Every time Aeris appears, I can't help but growl. Shoo! Shoo! Go away and leave Cloud alone. Go to Zack!

But why is there no Chocobo in sight? *sob*

Toilet Literature

Are you one of those people who sits on the toilet longer than usual as you leisurely read a newspaper waiting for it to come like a punctual bus? Sometimes, I wish I am that type. Unfortunately, I don't have the patience and the toilet isn't conducive an environment for reading for prolonged periods. I try my best to use a book as toilet literature as much as I can but extensive use is only possible if I solely reserve a book for it; which is quite impossible because I am a voracious reader. I have a book that I like and I eat, lie down, sit (wherever this may be), commute, wait in a queue, pass the time with that book in hand.

Despite I this I still prefer to have a book with me while using the toilet. People have security blankets and candies, I have books.

Currently as toilet literature:

Joseph Heller's Catch-22
Clive Barker's Books of Blood Vols. 1 and 2 (but I don't think this would last me long I just started on volume one last night and if it weren't for sleep I would've finished it last night too)