Avid readers may recall my good buddy KF the muscleman whom we … erm … did one time publicly admire each other’s bodies (pretty much like what girls do to each other I guess?) and did our little not-what-you-think kind of home videos. Cynthia granted me a last minute night visa so … Boys Night Out it was!
For reasons that will become apparent to you as you read on, the muscleman has agreed to meet me at Toa Payoh. My impression of that little old town of Singapore has always been … old and I was pleasantly surprised when I got off the train. This little old town looks so modern! KF proudly told me that his hometown, Toa Payoh, has everything one can think of, except a bowling alley. As I was ‘touring’ the bus terminal, KF proudly informed me that Toa Payoh has the Singapore’s first air-conditioned bus terminal and some of the design flaws it has as compare to the one at AMK such as the placement of shops and so on. I was nodding my head as though I have an idea of what a bus terminal is like (seriously I have yet to try one of those air-conditioned bus terminal). I felt like I was the PM touring the Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC. That was crazy, so much to absorb.
Another crazy thing was that I felt like I was walking around with a super hero. Gosh, those bulging muscles! I swear those aunties and young girls were all so checking my super hero friend out. Tsk tsk tsk … now I am so inspired to do some serious work out … ha ha ha …
The roasted meat was great, the dessert was great too! KF took me to a park where he often takes his kid to feed the fish … OK, that sounds wrong. I mean they both love to feed the fish with breadcrumbs. What a loving father he is! And there we were, two of us, seeing the sunset at the charming little town of Toa Payoh … hmmm … anyway, I quickly took out my phone and snapped a picture (see above) and headed to …
The main reason of my visit was to check out the flat panel TVs. KF has been in this mission of trying to help me to decide on a TV for years. As I was looking up and down and up and down on two of the major brands, I still could not make up my mind. And I gave up …
8.25pm and we both rushed into the Crystal Jade bread shop. KF wanted to get a particular bread that his son loves (again … what a loving father!). The night discount of 20%+ starts at 8.30pm every evening. I said to KF that we were still early. He replied, “We should start queuing up now. The whole community will be here soon!”
True enough, there were quite a number of people queuing up at the counter but not paying. It was actually quite a scene. The cashier looked elsewhere pretending that the customers were not around. The queuing customers looked elsewhere pretending that there was a virtual queue in front of them. When the clock struck 8.30pm, the cashier started to count the bread and the queuing customers snapped to life. Suddenly, the shop was so full of people grabbing all that they could see on the shelves.
I may not have decided on which TV to buy. But certainly tonight was an interesting night out.
Yet another voted as top 10 films of 2007 by the critics, I have got to drag my Movie Review Squad to check out this Oscar nominated animation from France featuring an Iranian young girl living through the Iranian Revolution (the film itself is in English). So much faith they have on me, I was kind of worried that it would be a let down once the 2D animation appeared on the big screen. TK did not even know what he was getting himself into! Neither was Cynthia I suspect. All I said was: trust me, trust me, this is good stuff. It was not a disappointment to them, phew! In fact, they seem to enjoy the film more than I do.
I am not a huge fan of 2D animation though I must say, the last two 2D animation films we have watched – The Simpsons Movie (America) and Paprika (Japan) – were pretty good. This film “Persepolis” is based on Marjane Satrapi’s autobiographical graphic novel of the same name and is co-directed by the author herself. I was not sure if “Persepolis” is indeed an autobiography therefore I watched the film thinking that it was fictional. In any case, the little details and mostly personal events of someone who has to live through the Iranian Revolution as portrayed in the film were convincing enough for me. You may laugh through some of the dark humors in the film, which helps to lighten up the mood, but overall, this film may have much impact to you emotionally. It is almost like a documentary film on what common people in Iran has to live through during the revolution and to face the long Iran-Iraqi war (1980-1988).
“Persepolis” is mostly cast in black-and-white or monotone color theme during flashbacks and in color during the rare present time storyline. The animation certainly retains much of the comic book feel and I personally in awe of the artwork. 2D graphics are simplistic. And to generate emotions from simple images, to me, seems hard. However, “Persepolis” has done a great job in communicating the underlying emotion from the way a character moves, the subtle change in shape of the eyes, the extension of the lips, to the mad heavy rock music and dance moves.
Good stuff or not, you decide. “Persepolis” is definitely not one of those films that are meant to purely entertain. You may possibly walk out of theatre feeling a bit more aware of what some of the Iranians have to go through in their daily lives. For a better understanding on the Islamic development and why Iran and Iraq is constantly in conflict, I would still recommend the book “Islam”. In case if you wonder what Persepolis is – like I do – Persepolis was an ancient Persian capital and is now in Iran. Persepolis is also a World Heritage Site as declared by the UNESCO.
I woke up this morning. The sky was grayish, the air was cool. Feeling a tad melancholy, I stared at my music collection like I do every working morning scanning for something appropriate for the day. Since I have been so Juno-overdosed (first the movie, then the Oscar), I picked “Belle & Sebastian” – something I have hardly listened to – all because two of their songs are featured in the soundtrack of “Juno”.
A much celebrated Indie band from Scotland loved by the critics and fans but only enjoys limited commercial success. I can certainly relate to that. It is not everyday I am in the mood of “Juno” or “Kill Bill” (both have great soundtracks). Today I am Juno’lized, so “Push Barman to Open Old Wounds” it is.
Fans hail “Push Barman to Open Old Wounds” as the best collection from “Belle & Sebastian” ever as well as the right place where new listeners should begin their journey from. This 2-CD collection with a total of 25 songs is a compilation of their out-of-print hard-to-find singles and EPs from 1997 to 2001 – a period some fans see the band at the pinnacle of emotion, naïve, and charm. I personally find the memorable oldie-feel melody and the genuine part-humor-part-ironic lyrics a remembrance of my youth (though I am not that old, I must say!). It brings me back to the time when I could just say-out-loud on my views of the current society (“there are people going hungry everyday, they’ve got nothing on their plates, and you’re filling your fat face with every kind of cake” – taken from “A Century of Fakers”). It brings me back to the time when love is still innocent and the essence of a heartache is still something new (“she was the one love of my life, she showed me the road, I loved her dog, her steady gaze, the chapter is closed … my anger turns to pity and to love, the season has arrived” – taken from “I’m Waking Up to Us”). As we get older, we simply accept the way of the world as what it is and stop to care in the most innocent way. We become pragmatic.
There is something about “Belle & Sebastian” that I simply can’t find elsewhere. It does fill up a hole in my emotional world that unfortunately – or fortunately – does not appear often. Below is a live video of the song “I’m Waking Up to Us”.
Drama is my favorite genre. This time, the talented young actress Ellen Page is not going to experiment with how to trap a pedophile and cut his balls like she did in “Hard Candy (2005)”. Instead, her character, a 16-year old Juno, has become pregnant and decided to find the perfect couple to adopt her baby. The winning formula of this critically acclaimed and box office success ($156 million gross from a $6.5 million film is pretty good) in my opinion is: a believable storyline, a lively script, great soundtrack of Indie music that goes so well with the movie’s theme, and the superb acting of Ellen Page. The script is so good that keep you smiling throughout the show. There are just way too many memorable scenes, from beginning to the very end. The storyline has enough opportunity for Ellen Page to shine. Amidst the rather unfortunate incident of teen pregnancy, the portrait of a Juno’s pro-life journey warms audience’s hearts. Juno is not the sweet young girl as you may imagine. She is more like a slightly grown up version of “Hard Candy” – sharp-tongued with attitude, without the balls cutting kind of angst – laterally – of course.
Voted by the critics as the top 10 film of the year 2007, “Juno” shouldn’t disappoint at all. It is worth checking out when you have time. Who knows? “Juno” could be the very first Blu-ray movie I own now that Blu-ray has won the format war.
Cynthia’s mother is leaving, my mother is arriving. I think I need a holiday.
We all do something stupid, in the past. I can’t explain why the paranoid. I mean, those are just computer files and pictures and seemingly useless stuffs now that I am looking at them. But back then, I put a protective password to every single file, every zip file that archived a bunch of protected files. That was madness, paranoid, and stupid. I am desperate to retrieve an old Excel file, all of a sudden.
Till now, I am still trying to crack my brain for that password. I know it is somewhere. I shall call a hypnotist for help.
And in this digital pile of junk, I have uncovered more than I could remember, more than I want to remember. Documents of (failed) business venture, diary, love letters, hate letters, letters that have never been sent, countless gaming programs I attempted to create including something as absurd as a Viking game (it is actually quite a good asymmetric game from York, UK, I think) – it was supposed to be a game of me against the machine, baby! Life of a geek in solitude, used to be.
I wonder. Where did I manage to find time to do all these?
My world was pure in the beginning. Before I left Hong Kong, I listened to classical music most of the time. The first English pop song I fell in love was Madonna’s “Like a Prayer”. The first pop cassette I owned was “Like a Prayer”. Before Cynthia came to my world, I hardly watched any TV programs. Now, I am a …
How I love to watch American Idol! Another new season, another something to look forward to, another something to cry upon. There are already some eye candies whom I really like. Even that boy with altitude … I mean … gosh, where did they find these people from? Monday, “Dirt”, Tuesday, “Heroes”, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday “American Idol”, any day, “E!”, “[V]”. To top up the list, there are always Oprah and America’s Top Something.
TV has taken control of my life!
OK, I am still cracking my brain for that password. Cynthia’s mother is leaving, my mother is arriving. I think I need more PJs.
I have read tens or perhaps hundreds of English books but none matches the sensation I derive from reading in my mother tongue. Like this particular book I am going to feature here, I was so deeply affected that my mind just wouldn’t allow me to do anything else right after I’ve finished reading the book. The plot was alive in my mind for days thereafter. I still cannot pinpoint why. All I could guess is that the reading pleasure may come in fourfold: the native understanding of the passages, the linkage to the culture and tradition, the construct of the phrases, and the depth and complexity of the development of human characters within.
People at times tease me on how much I suck in English spelling, which is true. Unlike English whereby words are constructed in alphabets that can be pronounced without knowing the underlying meanings, you can’t do the same for Chinese characters. You may be able to recognize the meaning of a character because characters are often assembled in components that represent the picture, sound, color, or the combined meaning. It is only fair to say that I am trained in recognizing and replicating words in the form of characters rather than memorizing the pronunciation of the words in alphabets. While I can quite easily find a Chinese book that I can recognize 99.99% of the words within, I can hardly say the same for English, by a far margin.
Recognition of words aside, it is often the context of a certain phrase derived from some literatures written in the old days that contributes to the art value of the modern day Chinese literature. If I was to soak myself into the work of Homer or Shakespeare or Dante or Woolf the same number of years I soaked myself in the Chinese poems and classic literature and history, I think I may be able to gain a similar level of appreciation from reading English literature. I knew that all those years of reciting old Chinese poems and literature does translate into something. There is just no easy way to do this except to invest time and effort. It is part of the culture and tradition that is imbued in me from young.
Another notable difference, especially in the genre of Wuxia (that I will explain later), is the excessive usage of dramatic and explicit expressions to describe situations that often lift up my soul just by reading those phrases at face value. For those who have the Chinese background, let’s see how many of the following phrases you can recognize. To describe a fearful looking man, we use “the horizontal growth of facial flesh” to paint a brutal picture of his face. To describe the break of dawn, we compare that scenic view to “the white belly of a fish”. Picture yourself in front of a half naked blacksmith creating a piece of metal weapon. As the hammer hits the red hot piece of steel, you can see the pulsation of this man’s muscles. We describe his muscles as “an infinite number of jumping mice”. When faced with a clamoring crowd, we describe the situation as “seven mouths and eight tongues”. Why is there an extra tongue? That is how noisy the crowd is. Finally, I will leave the last example, a four-character Chinese word, for you to decipher – “the howling of the devil, the rallying of the god”.
There is a certain parallelism between the Chinese genre Wuxia and the Western fantasy I believe. As I was once told, in the world of the Western fantasy, the good and evil is often well defined. It is the same for Wuxia though to add to the element of drama, there is often shades of good and evil. There are evil characters that may behave in an honorable way or good characters turn bad. The center philosophy of Wuxia is a blend of honor and martial arts. In the godless world of Wuxia, characters wield rare weapons, have gifted talents, able to perform martial arts, and some gain once-in-a-lifetime enlightenment to take them from heroes to legends. Center to the human character in the world of Wuxia is honor, love, hatred, deceit, revenge, betrayal, struggle, and sacrifice. It is hard to define any Wuxia piece of work as comedy or tragedy like a Western piece of work. Chinese authors seem to have no qualm in letting their most beloved characters assassinated, murdered, killed, mutilated, disfigured, or even raped at times by the very person these characters trust, by the most evil characters, or simply by the most insignificant characters. If there is any redemption to all these mishaps, the plot of a typical Wuxia story often resolves to the theme of: justice will prevail, honor will be restored. But at what cost? That is the beauty of this genre. The authors’ imagination is the limit.
Ni Kuang (倪匡) is a Chinese writer from Hong Kong who is famous for his science fictions. I cannot recall how many of his books I have read when I was a student. His venture into the Wuxia genre is new to me. In fact, this genre has been dominated by the legendary works of Jin Yong (金庸) that are usually lengthy and come in a volume of one, two, four, or five (another interesting observation is that some Western literature often comes in the form of trilogy instead). Ni Kuang has written a set of short Wuxia stories (each story roughly equals to 1/32 of a typical length of a story by Jin Yong) when he was young but the timing was not right for him to release his materials. It could be because short Wuxia stories were against the norm back then. Now that Ni Kuang is in his 70s and all of a sudden, he has decided to release all his Wuxia works in one go. Rejoice for fans like me of course. With such drastic reduction in length, Ni Kuang has stripped away the historical references to the main storyline like the typical Wuxia novelists do, the poems and the scenic descriptions that are so prominently demonstrated in Jin Yong’s work, as well as having a much limited character set. The result is a tight storyline, fast pace read with a high entertainment value.
《金腰帶》 (loosely translates to “The Golden Belt”) as part of Ni Kuang’s medium length Wuxia story series contains two short stories, like the rest in the same series. The first story is about how a daughter of an evil lord gets involved with a young hero who is in love with a lady from a good lord. The second independent story is about how a daughter seeks revenge after her parents were murdered due to a treasure they stole and later on falls in love with the son of the very person she is seeking revenge upon. I have retold the story to Cynthia in English (with drawings, timeline, and flowcharts) and she was deeply moved. I guess, in a rather long fashion, I have illustrated the last attribute of the uniqueness of Chinese or especially Wuxia stories: the depth and complexity of the development of human character within.
Alison Sudol, the songwriter singer and self-taught pianist of A Fine Frenzy, has a lot to go for. She is young and beautiful and her indie music style is genuine, personal, and is indeed a breath of fresh air in today’s commercial music scene. It is rare to find an artist who sounds as good in demos with just the vocal track and the piano too. Alison Sudol’s style reminds me of Jewel’s debut “Pieces of Me” though “One Cell in the Sea” is a more polished and well produced version but with similar singing style and the same melancholic feel as Jewel’s “Pieces of Me”.
Being influenced by famous writers such as CS Lewis, EB White, Lewis Carroll and Charles Dickens from young, it is no doubt that there is a poetic quality to her lyrics. And her interest in classical music and some of the classic bands and singers exist before her time could possibly explain the maturity level she has in “One Cell in the Sea”. For those who enjoy listening to the detail recording of the vocal track such as the breathing of a singer, this album may delight you. Alison Sudol does have decent control to her voice from the whispering verse to the soaring chorus, from an emotional loudness to a fine falsetto that floats the audience in the thin air of anticipation for the next bit to come.
I do find the band compliments Alison Sudol’s vocal and piano tracks well, which is nice because it takes much creativity to make the overall melancholic set of songs to sound sufficiently different and interesting to listen to. My personal favorite tracks are “Almost Lover”, “Near to You”, and “Borrowed Time” and mind you, it may take you more than a quick scan and a few listen to appreciate her music. Quite a few times, I find the gems of the songs hidden towards the end in forms of an unusual bridge or a variation of melody.
If you do own “One Cell in the Sea”, don’t miss the bonus materials offered in her official site. All you need to do is to insert your audio CD into your computer to activate the download process. Bonus materials include 5 demo songs and 5 exclusive videos. Below is one of her singles and my favorite track “Almost Lover”. It is hard not to fall in love with this song, trust me.
PS. Some fans observed that the stage name “A Fine Frenzy” is derived from one of Shakespeare’s works. As for the album name, it comes from the song “The Minnow & The Trout”. The extract of the lyrics as follows:
please, I know that we’re different
but we were one cell in the sea in the beginning
and what we’re made of was all the same once
we’re not that different after all
I am not going to deprive you the pleasure in discovering what “jumpers” are or where they come from – though I doubt if you can find all the answers from watching the film alone. It is rare to find a film that despite having so many flaws, it is still very entertaining to the core. Thanks to all the marketing effort, who wouldn’t be enticed by the film trailer or even that scene on TV whereby Hayden Christensen (as the main character David) took Ryan Seacrest to the Sphinx in Egypt, and then “jumped” back to the show, where Seacrest introduced the American Idol Hollywood week episode? Besides, the director has my favorite movies “The Bourne Identity” (2002) and “Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)” under his belt. TK was shocked to realize that I didn’t even do my thorough ‘homework’ before booking the tickets like I normally do. Hey, I can be quite spontaneous too, you know! Ha ha ha … While Cynthia and I have super high expectation on “Jumper”, TK didn’t expect much from the show – which in the end the film exceeded his expectation and met ours.
The truth is, I adore the OC girl Rachel Bilson from that teen TV series with a capital A. Never mind if she can act (as Cynthia constantly pokes fun at me). In fact, I don’t think our Anakin Skywalker Hayden Christensen can act either (as I constantly poke fun at her). And this pair of main characters were selected to replace the original casting as the producer needed more star factor for the film. Not only that, the screenplay was rewritten as well. Despite all that has done to save the film, I think the biggest flaw lies in the original science fiction novel by Steven Gould. I often think that great novel makes great movie and it is hard to make a good movie out of a bad novel. The differences between the novel and the film, as I have later researched, can be quite interesting. By and large, the film adaptation has made the story more entertaining except one single flaw: the ancient background history of Brian Cox (played by Samuel L. Jackson) who pursues the “jumpers” that forms the core of the film is just silly. It opens up too many questions that cannot be answered.
Acting and stupid storyline aside, the special visual and sound effects make the rather short film (90 mins) entertaining to watch. Even after the movie, Cynthia and I were fantasizing being able to just jump through space and skip all the walking or having our car to zoom through the traffic conditions. The scenery shots are great. In fact, some people whom I talked to (like the dude who washed my hair this morning at the salon after realizing that I was researching the movie with my wi-fi phone, he said to me, “Great movie! I love seeing so many places!”) see that as a big plus. I personally love the scenes shot in the real Colosseum that supposed to be a rare access for filming.
My favorite quote from the film is “only God should have the power to be in all places at all times – Samuel L. Jackson”. My favorite actress? Gosh, I adore Rachel Bilson . Have I mentioned that already?
I was caught on camera smiling while reading a book at the Botanic Gardens last weekend. How embarrassing! I’ll get to that later. Couple of months ago, I was also caught on camera as a school project – so I was told – while I was reading a book. It was a lovely afternoon at the Botanic Gardens and I was either reading The Medici Effect or Brand Leadership when a young girl approached me and asked if she could take some pictures of me. I was flattered of course and besides, if my mug shot can help someone to gain a grade A+ in her school project, why not?
Me: (nervously) What do I need to do?
Her: (smiled) Just read your book.
Me: (puzzled) Just read my book?
Her: (nodded) Yes, and I will take some pictures.
Me: Shall I face the camera?
Her: No, just read the book please.
Me: Okay, okay!
I was trying to strike an intellectual post given the rather intellectual book I was reading. I mean, I couldn’t really look that entertained and relaxed with a non-fiction book, could I? I acted as if I was in deep thought. I imagined a sponge, a huge knowledge sponge, while giving her the most stylish post possible without looking as though I was trying too hard. I swear, not a word from the book got into my head while I was photographed in all possible angles – front, behind, sideway – far and near. At the end of the photo session, she thanked me, I wished her all the best for her school project, and I regretted for not asking what the title of the pictures would be. “Bookworms can be sexy”? “A rare find in the Botanic Gardens”? “Future Singapore PMs are made of this”?
Last weekend, Cynthia the Paparazzi caught me on camera while I was reading Sophie Kinsella’s “Can You Keep a Secret”. Okay, there you have it. Chick-lit makes me smile. I mean, it is not the most glamorous thing to say but Sophie Kinsella’s books are actually very entertaining, however forgettable the storylines are. It is like, a secret indulgence, a breath of fresh air in the little mountain of serious books I read, a McDonald’s meal once in a blue moon. If only chick-lit comes with covers that are less pink or bright blue, that would be perfect for me to read in public.
If to replace the main character of “Can You Keep a Secret” with Rebecca from the Shopaholic series, the story would pass as one of the books from the same series. Except that the center of focus of this book is “secret”, which I find it pretty interesting. I am sure we all have our own set of secrets that are kept away from people around us however trivial they may be. What if all relationships begin with honesty with no holding back of secrets? Is it really a bad thing for your friends to know some of your secrets that concern them? How should the line be drawn between lies that are deceitful and the withholding of the truth because the recipient is not ready for it (white lies)? What if the whole world knows your secrets (like the main character in the book)?
One thing I know though is that those secret pictures behind the closed doors of the Hong Kong celebrities should be kept secret. But that is another story.
I woke up, which ironically was exactly when I fell asleep in reality, and I was dressed in my dark executive suit, white shirt, with a pair of dark trousers. Somehow, I knew today was supposed to be an important day. There was this sense of anticipation as my front door open. And I remembered. Today was the day to meet my kids for the first time! I had not had children before in my entire life. And that truthful reality curiously extended into my dream. I felt so excited. My first time as a father!
As the shining light of the morning sun beamed into my house, I saw six children at my doorstep – a pair of girls in early teens, a pair of boys not older than 5, and two toddlers. Vaguely in the background I saw a woman with a face I could not remember of. 6 kids! That feeling was so overwhelming. I was a dad! For the first time! A sudden sense of pride and responsibility descended upon me. The feeling was so surreal, so in my face.
But, wait a minute. Where did the kids come from? Even in my ecstatic state I could not help but to analyse the situation using logic. Even in my dreamy state I knew I could not have impregnated any of of past encounters that many times. 6 kids! Where did you all come from?
I could have married a divorce, yes? They could be from an orphanage, yes? Or I could have inherited them from one of my friends or distant family, yes? My frustration in finding an answer was overshadowed by my joy, the joy of being a dad to 6 kids. I was a dad, can you believe it?!
I always thought I prefer girls but I found it hard to connect to my daughters. They just didn’t want to talk to me. Give it time, I thought to myself. The pair of boys on the other hands readily accepted me as their dad. They hugged me and demanded me to bath them every night, which was nice. I did not have much recollection of the pair of toddlers.
Work had been crazy. I was given this impossible task as a trainer to train the internal staff on the topic of … oh well, I didn’t even want to talk about it. The bulletin had been circulated for a while and I doubted if there were many who would turn up. And I was right. The theatre was half occupied. In my trembling voice, I greeted the audience and continued, “Today’s topic is …” I paused, looked at the direction of my boss at the front row, and he mouthed the title of the training in a part encouraging part humiliating manner. “… Functional Usage,” I continued.
Then I flashed the slides onto the big screen and there was a mathematical formula. I stared at the formula as though it was the first time seeing it (and it was indeed the first time I saw it). On the left of the equation looked like the time available to us individual in a daily fashion. On the right was a whole list of components. The first item being the time we had to set aside for the security measures against terrorism. Ah, I saw the connection here. It must be some sort of time management training course. What century in the future was I at?! That mankind had to set aside time to go through the security measures, daily? How sad! Once I grasped the essence of what the equation was about, I had this sudden dose of confidence and my consulting skill kicked in (apparently my skills in real life extends to my dreams as well). I began to talk about terrorism and the need to better manage our time.
Speaking of time management, I had this longing to go home as soon as I could, to see my kids, especially my two boys.
If to replace the main character of “Can You Keep a Secret” with Rebecca from 