Today marks 30 years since the communists took control of South Vietnam. 2 million refugees risked their lives across the oceans, with countless dieing in the process. 30 years on and Vietnam now ranks as one of the poorest and most corrupt 3rd world countries, lacking in any human rights, and all forms of freedom.

I am one of those refugee who fled Vietnam in the years after the war ended, seeing Vietnam like it is today under a communist regime makes my heart sink. Vietnam has not progresses as a nation when compared to Japan or Singapore, and considering that Vietnam before the war was on par with these developing countries.

I don’t believe the Vietnam war was a civil war as communist propaganda would have you believe. I know the Americans (Ford, Nixon, Johnson and Kissenger) betrayed South Vietnam. From reading this book, The Palace Files

I believe in freedom and democracy for Vietnam.

Sorry for the mini rant, I’ve got a lot on my mind about this whole Vietnam War thing.

There were about 15,000 people at the rally today in Hyde Park.

All Points of the Compass ABC Sunday May 1 - 7.30pm

Thirty years after the fall of Saigon, All Points Of The Compass reveals the fascinating story of how the war looked from the inside for one South Vietnamese family - South Vietnam’s last foreign minister, Charles Tran Van Lam.

Charles Tran Van Lam’s love for democracy and the west would turn into a poisonous cocktail that would shatter his life. Thirty years later, this program is the story of his children, crossed by fate and flung to all points of the compass.

Its about that time of year where I go to the Art Gallery of NSW to check out the Archibalds with Hen and Lils, well, we’ve done it for the last two years. John Olsen was annouced 2005’s winner.

Lamp

With the imminent release of Apples’ new operating system 10.4, codename Tiger, here’s some nice leaked goodness. The new intro video, and the hot as hell looking RSS Screensaver. I don’t think I will update to 10.4 right away, apart from the cool Dashboard feature, pretty much everything else is useless to me. 10.3.7 is running happily for me, so no need to mess with it.

This is another case of “small world” Last week, Tin, Pauline, Haline and I were having lunch in Newtown, we picked up some postcards of the Tim Tam ads that are all over town at the moment featuring naked models covered strategically with swirls of chocolate and milk.

Well…

I messaged an old mate on my MSN list today and it turns out he works for Electric Art* . They are the ones who did the re touching and images for the Tim Tam ads, among other amazing work.

me: How was the swirling chocolate done?
Piotr: was going to be 3d but instead it’s an edit of about 700 shots of silk.

me: shit!
Piotr: Shot by Montalbetti and Campbell.. they’re so good. They shot over 80GB of stuff.

me: so how did you get the splattering effect of the milk then?
Piotr: milk was going to be 3d too.. but it’s milk from a bucket. 3d was a bit too technically challenging…. and a bit too perfect.

me: where the models naked? (haha I had to ask)
Piotr: yep… Denis chose dancers over regular models…nice. I think the blond girl was the producer. I heard she came into the office but no one recognised her.

me: i can imaging working with a super hi res image of a naked dancer there.
Piotr: someone had to do it, that’s the kind of sacrifice we’re prepared to make

Nice to know, thanks Piotr

Router LED

Monitor LED

Long time great friend, Sue is getting married to Marc Adrian. Its like a reality blog thing. + Just updated, Mike Matas blog is always nice. I’ve got his indoor and outdoor desktops set up on my dual monitors. One looks like a real desktop and the other looks like a nice place to lie down and stare at the clouds. + Billy Law is a sydney designer with very good tastes. + Karen Cheng, Perth designer and mother to two adorable kids. + Ash’s The Slippery Truffle is always quirky, funny and ireverant. + Sketches belongs to a good friend who lives in the next suburb down the road, but we rarely see each other, always a good read of his socially nights out.

Now, I just wish all my friends have blogs so I can keep up to date with their lives. Then again, thats a poor substitution for a phone call or catch up.

Hayao Miyazaki’s latest animation Howl’s Moving Castle. Check out that link for other links to trailers and movie poster. The trailer looks awesome.

Also The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy comes out this Thursday.

We hung out with Tin and Pauline over the weekend, Pauline’s boyfriend is in the group Architecture in Helsinki, so we’re going to check them out at the Annandale in May. My favourite AiH track is “The Owls go” from the “Fingers Crossed” album.

Derek Shumate, whom I started Digital Quilts with back in the days has finally made a site to showcase all his creative endeavers from the past few years at the School of Visual Arts in New York.

Adobe has acquired Macromedia. This is news to people in the creative industry who use their products on a daily basis. The good thing from this is that the various applications will be better integrated… I hope. Wouldn’t it be cool to design a Flash site in Illustrator and take it directly to Flash without having to rebuild all the elements.

Haline, her Mom, Langy, Susan and I went to Fairfield RSL to check out Lior at the Acoustic Thursday sets. This was like discovery a $20 bill in an old winter coat. Farifield RSL is so out of place that I never give any thought to it holding anything entertaining. Lior was really good, alternating between 4 guitars and singing songs from his debut album “Autumn Flow”.

In the space of a week, I’ve gone from the highs of doing something creative and meaningful with design and art to the lows of losing a loved one. For a lack of a better metaphor, its been like a rollercoaster of emotions. Its times like this that makes you appreciate the preciousness of life. Whichever way you find happiness, through living a pleasant life, a good life or a meaningful life, never lose sight of your loved ones and friends.

The exhibition launch over the weekend was great, we had a modestly large turn out, I think 3/4 of everyone there were either my friends and acquaintances or Halines’. It was officially launched by my good friend Huong Thao Nguyen, who gave a very poignant speech. Sarah rounded off the afternoon by giving a spine tingly rendition of “White Christmas”.

Thank you dearly to my friends for coming out to support the exhibition.

Check out the Exhibition Website for some extra goodies.

Launch Photos

Haline’s work

Vinh’s work

Tin’s work

My work

I think I’m posting this only as a lasting memory to someone I adore. His name was Kevin Vo, I named him after my nickname “Kevin”. He was my god son, He was my uncles youngest child. He was spoiled, he kicks me in the shins, but he was adorable and loving.

The last time I saw him, I did his favourite thing that he liked me to do, which was to lift him up over my head and spin him cartwheel like in a 360 degree circle.

He drowned today one month short of his 6th birthday. It feels like a part of me has died with him. I’ll miss him dearly.

Funny thing is, I thought of him a few days ago, because I hadn’t visited him and his two sisters since late last year.

I took these pictures of him when we went back to Vietnam in 2002 for New Years.

We finished the installation today, really happy with it, all the works look great together up on the walls. It opens tomorrow and the launch is next weekend. Below are some teaser images from the installation. I’ll post exhibition images after the launch.