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.
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.
It is hard for me to relate to the magnitude of filmmakers’ disappointment after being handed a NC-17 rating in America (no children 17 and under admitted) when here in Singapore, we have the R21 rating (for above 21s). Nor do I necessarily agree with the proposition that rating should be given and can be appealed based on precedence because though I do not necessarily agree with the censorship here in Singapore, one thing I learned is that films should be rated based on the current tolerance of the society.
But if I could put myself into the shoes of an American independent filmmaker, I would certainly feel the frustration having to go against the MPAA’s film rating system (Motion Picture Association of America) that in general favors the big studios. “This Film Is Not Yet Rated” attempts to uncover the mechanism behind this rating board. The original cut was given a NC-17 rating and the new version – that is not yet rated – includes the appeal process undertook by the film director Kirby Dick.
Overlapping a set of at times entertaining and at times serious interviews is a rather interesting journal that documents how Kirby Dick hired a private investigator in an attempt to uncover the identities of the MPAA rating board members. Some parts of the movie are entertaining such as when different movie clips are shown as an illustration on how inconsistent the rating system is. Some commentaries are informative such as the topic of why violence is so much easier to obtain a non-NC-17 rating compare to sex.
Maybe I am secretly comparing “This Film Is Not Yet Rated” to my favorite documentary film “Bowling For Columbine” by Michael Moore (or even “Super Size Me”). “This Film Is Not Yet Rated” seems to lack the depth and authority and probably not as funny as what some critics have mentioned. While I wouldn’t go to the extend to say that it is a must-watch for those who are frequent movie goers (like some reviewers actually do), “This Film Is Not Yet Rated” is certainly a good starting point to understand how the MPAA rating system affects the mainstream Hollywood films that in turn may affect the American culture.
Is “This Film Is Not Yet Rated” going to change how films will be rated in America? Only time can tell.
Any English book that attempts to give an overview of Islam targeted at the mass market will inevitably draw lots of criticism. The scholars and academics may question the credibility of Karen Armstrong and the historical accuracy of “Islam” while suggesting alternative titles, titles that the non-academics may find it hard to read. Other readers may feel that Karen Armstrong is being too politically correct and bias towards an idealistic view of Islam. But, I suppose we forget the fact that “Islam” is a short history of the religion from the days of the Prophet Muhammad to our modern day, a 161 pages of main content that attempts to help us in identifying some of the knowledge gaps we may have and to research further if we want to. It is not meant to be an in-depth analysis of the religion nor to primarily examine the modern day Islamic communities.
Being brought up in an environment of polytheism then turned atheist and now a Catholic, the first thing I observe from reading “Islam” is that I have this preconception based on the way I am being brought up. If in the Christian Bible, Jesus Christ is the God-made man, what should the main human character in the Quran be? If the Bible is being composed and cross-referenced and interpreted in a certain way, shouldn’t Quran be complied in a similar fashion in order to be deemed religiously worthy? Of course, my initial impression with regards to Islam was largely incorrect.
Although Islam is one of the three faiths of Abraham, it evolves in a different way. The 21 pages of chronology at the beginning of the book gives readers an idea of the constant political turmoil the people of Islam have lived under as the religion evolves. Islam is indeed centered towards politics since the beginning.
Throughout the history of Islam, the concept of ummah (the Muslim community) is important to the fragmented tribal community in the land of scarce resource (oil was discovered much later). Prophet Muhammad received the first revelation of the Quran in Mecca in the year of 610. The Quran together with the prophet’s way of life have guided the ummah till today. Upon the death of Prophet Muhammad in 632, a series of kahlifah or caliph were elected, and the ummah was guided and ruled by the ulama (guardians of the legal and religious traditions of Islam) and imam (the leader of the Muslim community) respectively. What followed was a series of civil wars that relegated the power of the caliphs and transferred it to the local rules who established dynasties in various parts of the empire. Then came the first Crusader in 1095. In 1187, Kurdish general Saladin defeated the Crusaders and restored Jerusalem – the third holiest city – to Islam.
Although the invasion of the Mongol in 1220 has brought forth immense destruction to the Islamic cities, once they had achieved victory, the Mongols rebuilt the cities they had devastated on a magnificent scale. It was Mongol policy to build on local traditions once they had subjugated an area. Soon, all the Mongol empires had converted to Islam. This laid down the path of the continuation of militarization of the society that led to the “Islam Triumphant” – three major empires that arose after the Mongol empires dissolved in 1500. They are: the Safavid Empire in Iran, the Moghul Empire in India, and the Ottoman Empire in Anatolia, Syria, North Africa, and Arabia. Each empire has its own unique challenges – Shiism versus the Sunni Islam for the Safavid Empire, Islam being the minority in India for the Moghul Empire, and the variation of culture within the states of the Ottoman Empire. Nevertheless, as the “Imperial Islam” progressed a great deal between 1500 to 1700, so was the religion.
The last chapter “Islam Agonistes” is one that I can personally relate to and have found some of my questions answered. Born as a British subject, I often wonder what leads to where we (the colonists) are today.
The rise of the West is unparalleled in world history. 300 years of innovation and modernization of the society made them powerful enough to colonize other civilisations in a worldwide scale. It was a painful process for those societies that have these 300 years of continuous progression taken away from them and were brought to face modernization imminently. Raw materials were channeled into the West, products were made and sold back to the colonies. No longer focus on the production of the raw materials, the West reinvest its future and created an economy that grew to what it is today. Traditions of the colonies no longer survive the Western modernization and many of these traditions have become tourist spots instead. The rest of the world was demarcated as and when the West colonized without taken consideration of the distribution of the race, culture, and religion of the people. Countries were formed later with people having difficulties to identify with. Violence continues as individual groups continuously seek for independence. In the sub-chapter “The Way Forward”, Karen Armstrong subtly advances her theory of religious fundamentalism whereby fundamentalism is a child of modernity, and fundamentalists are fundamentally modern. That, I found is refreshing.
“Islam” is best to be read in as few sittings as possible because the number of historical figures and Arabic terms introduced can be overwhelming. Because the writing style is straightforward and engaging, it is generally accessible and can be a good starting point to get to know the history of the religion better. I enjoy reading “Islam” as much as “The Bible” by the same author.
PS. My sincere apology if this blog entry is not entirely correct. The mistake is all mine as this entry is written based on what I remember of or rather what I absorbed from reading the book. All feedback is welcome.
Why does the musical film adaptation “Sweeney Todd” receive such a positive review from so many sources? I don’t know. One thing I know though is that director Tim Burton loves to work with Johnny Depp and especially his wife Helena Bonham Carter time and time again.
Maybe it was the green tea or maybe it was something I ate the night before, I had a terrible stomach cramp. I thought I wasn’t able to make it to this evening’s movie outing. Maybe there is such a thing as ‘green tea overdose’. But since I am replacing alcohol with green tea, I ain’t going to quit that as yet.
“Sweeney Todd” surely made my stomach churned with all those throat cutting scenes and blood spurting scenes. The blood does look fake but still … that silver blade that cuts throat after throat, gruesome! I give a thumb up to the computer generated scenes though. The effect goes well with the dark, insane nature of the movie. If I could bypass the utterly boring monotonous melody and silly lyrics, I would say the acting is pretty good. Come to think of it, I am a big fan of Tim Burton for his “Corpse Bride” (2005). Had “Sweeney Todd” be filmed in the same way as “Corpse Bride”, I may be able to enjoy those silly music. It is hard to watch Johnny Depp sings about being complete with his blade or Helena Carter sings about the worst pie in London. I just couldn’t get into the mood with real actors.
That is my view. How about the rest of the Movie Review Squad? TK fell asleep 20% of the time, couldn’t bear to see the blood scenes, and Cynthia thinks that it is so-so and below expectation.
My stomach cramps again. I should moderate on green tea consumption.
Most non-French speaking people may recognize Vanessa Paradis as the partner of the American actor Johnny Depp and the mother of their daughter and son. Some of you may remember her as the girl who promoted Chanel’s fragrant Coco back in 1991. I certain remember her by her single “Joe le taxi” (1987) when she was 14. Despite having 20 years of music career, she has only released 5 studio albums. “Divinidylle” is 7 years in the making.
I like French music because it brings something fresh into my English music collection. There is something about French music that is hard to explain, something that doesn’t quite follow the usual formula of the English music scene. The melody sounds fresh, the way of singing sounds fresh, even the music arrangement sounds fresh. Especially “Divinidylle”, if you pay attention to each individual music track, there are full of little bits of creative moments scattered along the tracks. The entire album is consistent with memorable hooks. Vanessa Paradis took part in the writing of some of the songs and she sings well throughout “Divinidylle” – from her low range to light whispering to falsetto. Need not to say, I found her voice pretty sexy.
“Divinidylle” seems a bit short (35 minutes). But it is a perfect album to listen to in the evening on the couch surrounded by candle lights with a glass of wine – on your own or with your partner. Check out the song below called “Dès Que Je Te Vois”. If you like it, you may wish to try the single “Divinidylle”
If to replace the main character of “Can You Keep a Secret” with Rebecca from 
