The good mormon

I’ve always hated mormons. Since the first moment I met one in South Korea and learned what they were I’ve freely despised them. I see them when I’m on the bus passing through Central. They always hang around outside Worldwide House because it’s full of Filipinos – the poor and mistreated are the easiest prey. For a long time I’ve wanted to dress like one except have “I hate mormons” on my badge, and go down to Worldwide House and preach the concept of intolerance of any one group of people that actively tries to convert people into a concept of segregation and blind faith. Mormons are like Hitler – so easy to hate you almost forget why you hated them in the first place.

Today, because I’m still sick, I allowed myself to watch another movie. This time I saw “New York Doll” – the documentary of the New York Dolls’ bassist Arthur ‘Killer’ Kane. I loved it apart from 2 things: 1. my new Tony Leung Chiu Wai hairstyle, which I haven’t even tried properly yet, quickly became superseded by the Dolls’ long hair and make-up, 2. all the mormons in the movie seemed to be genuinely nice people with sensible and useful things to say.
Man, just when you think you have the world summed up, someone throws you a curveball. It’s 2:40 in the morning and I have no idea who I should pretend to be tomorrow, who I should emulate, who I should persecute.

Wong Kar Wai did this to me

I watched Wong Kar Wai’s “2046” tonight. I’d heard mixed reviews of it and was expecting it to be a little clumsy. In the beginning I saw it was so well framed I was ready to forgive any bad acting or messy plot; by half way I was becoming very attached to the picture; and as it was nearing the end I was thinking it may be a masterpiece. The overwhelming nuance of time and memory and the continual overlap of storyline and conflict of personalities, each with their own timeline and memories, was amazing; together with the overlap of previous Wong Kar Wai movies and future ones it became something akin to truth – that indefinable, yet somehow tangible reality.

I’m getting over a cold – another one, which is strange for me. I watched a movie thinking it would be a pleasant way to pass the time and distract me from working, but it was too exciting. The movie made me want to start smoking and had me drinking whisky before it was finished, even though I’d planned not to drink till I’d stopped coughing up disease from my sticky lungs. Then afterwards I gave myself a side-parting like Tony Leung Chiu Wai, painted a fake moustache on my upper-lip, and drew this. Who the hell ever said “just be yourself”? Everything I love and ever loved has been on a pedestal. I’ve been myself, let me be you for a while.