For such a long time, i have been abandoning this blog and totally stop writing down my thoughts as I used to back in those turbulent high school day. It's true that college swamps me with works and I can hardly find myself having enough time or getting into the right mood to start an entry. But the main reason isn't just school. My life has headed for a different direction that requires minimal or no verbal expression at all. A direction that I think is problematic yet, impressively numbing and comforting.

I've never been good at words, verbal communication or any in any other linguistic matters (maybe once upon a time, I did have a few glorious moments with writings). But at least, I used to have the urge to write. To think and to write. Nowadays, it's different. The more I can avoid speaking up/writing down, the more I feel at ease with my current self. So wrong. I've gotten myself in a lot of troubles for that but part of me just keeps assuring myself: It's ok. Stay right where you are.

And I don't like this part of me at all. In fact, I don't feel good with my new self.

I miss the old one. The one that is more daring and seem to attract more attention that the loserish self now

And I try to get it back after someone has pointed out how badly I've become.
Hopefully with this blog and daily documentation, I can find old self back. Pull myself together and move forwards?

I don't know



As much as I like this blog to be all about creative beautiful stuff, I figure out It's not wrong to squeeze in a little bit of personal life here. No one is reading this anyway.

That just reminds me of a few internet friends I used to have. I wonder how they are doing now.

The most poignant moment in Olympic

Pyambu Tuul represented Mongolia in the marathon at Barcelona in 1992. He came in last.
When asked why he was so slow, he replied ‘”No, my time was not slow, after all you could call my run a Mongolian Olympic marathon record.”
Not satisfied, another reporter asked him whether it was the greatest day of his life. To which came the reply which can throw anybody off their seats. “And as for it being the greatest day of my life, no it isn’t”, he said,”"Up till six months ago I had no sight at all. I was a totally blind person. When I trained it was only with the aid of friends who ran with me. But a group of doctors came to my country last year to do humanitarian medical work. One doctor took a look at my eyes and asked me questions. I told him I had been unable to see since childhood. He said ‘But I can fix your sight with a simple operation’. So he did the operation on me and after 20 years I could see again. So today wasn’t the greatest day of my life. The best day was when I got my sight back and I saw my wife and two daughters for the first time. And they are beautiful.” Simple, ain’t it? It’s the races that we run within ourselves that are most important.


Taken from listverse.com

HP Space - A disappointing inspiration

Today, brother popped up from nowhere and we had a little chat about things we are both interested...Artists in general you could say. Could not wait to listen to Lê Cát Trọng Lý later when I'm back. According to bro, she has the talent of Jewel and a twisted mind of Shiina Ringo. And that girl is just my age. Major admiration. I mean it takes no ordinary person to write a song about teenager prostitute!

Or maybe I shouldn't raise my expectation too high and then be disappointed later like what happened to me during my HP Space saga tonight. (yes, I was doing my pop up while watching it!). Basically HP Space is a creative competition for people of design industry. Like any reality show, the format is as simple as weekly elimination sandwiched between dramas. Since this is the first time a reality show has reached out beyond a country's border to integrate international contestant, HP Space is supposed to be the hugest deal of Asian TV this year. However, despite the grand scale and generous sponsorship from HP, as well as a line up of "star" guests (well-known people in the industry, you might say), there is something strangely lack there.

COOLNESS.

Yeah, I stress coolness because at the first glimpse, you could tell that chosen contestants are not a very good representative of current regional design industry in term of both skills and personalities. Everything is at average level although casting team of the show had obviously made the effort to pick out a variety of the most special among over 2 thousands applicants. Or probably, there are not much options to choose in the first place. It appears to me that professional designers are not bothered to submit so we are left with only people seeking for opportunities to launch their talents which is still in the process of being questioned. To add salt to the injury, the editing of the show could not help either. It was hasty, broken and in general lack of climax and suspension. Maybe it's Asian nature not to cause a scene, especially on international TV...but please, I don't think people have so little thing to say in such a happening period of time. And stop telling us to go to the website to check out exclusive videos. It's a shameless way to promote HP. (Yeah, another shameless way is to going gaga over a room filled with HP computer, exclaiming that you've never seen such a hi-tech lab before...Laugh my ass off pls, there's no mac, there's no way it's called hi-tech. What kind of designers would be comfortable without a Mac in sight although he or she might not like to use it >.<)

And it's true. The show surprises me with the absence of contestant from Japan - a kingdom of design in Asia. I kept wondering until I watched to the second episode. IT WAS OVERLY CORNY. The presentations kind of remind me days in secondary school where you had to come up with a lame skit, otherwise you feel unsecured. Totally bullshit. The departure of Daniel Tran upset me the most! Shitty team mate aside, his team aced the challenge. The presentation might be a little let down, but I bought that more than I did to the next team presentation...A whole lot of sentimental crap. Of course I respect people's feeling but for God's Sake, be professional, be cool. This is an adult creative competition so please, don't stuff your corny little stories inside. I hate personal stories get involved in a group effort.

Yeah, that bastard Trung really ticked me off. Corny to the core. And fuck him for calling Vietnam a third world country. FUCK YOU. Our country is not that bad. Go fuck yourself and die or better still move to a third world country to see how we are not! And it's Challenge, not Challenging

Sorry for the vulgarities but it was necessary.

I could not stand the bitch from Singapore either (wasn't even bothered to learn her name). The way she ranted about how other group did not capture the essence of Anime was annoying. Come on, they are more anime that your group's cheap Flash animation. Don't impose your little knowledge of the subject on others. It's just very wrong.

Haiz. I really like the Thai guy though. Quite humble, cute and talented. Also, The Filipino girl is very special >.<. The handsome Singaporean guy is major eye-candy.


Anyway,
The verdict is, the show is inspiring but boring in a sense that the challenges are not really out of the box while they require the contestants to think out of the box. Irrational

Song of the day: Boys who rape (should all be destroyed) - Raveonettes

This song officially made my day. Not because it cheered me up or spoke my mind ( I'm far from it, and I hope i would never have to relate myself to this song in any way ). But this is one motherfucking twisted song. The subject matter is extremely dark (the title said it all) but the music is trippily poppy and catchy. Like many other 60s songs, this song makes you twitch your body as tune goes. And the duet, layered vocals would be the last thing you expect from a song about rape! But Raveonettes did all of that in this song. And amazingly, I think this lighthearted take is really effective, at least, in soothing the pain that the victim was suffering. It's a like an advice, a sympathetic consolation from a sister, a girl friend. I hope the victimized girl would feel better when she listened to this song.




The lyrics are fucking touching!

Boys who rape should all be destroyed

Three to one girl
How can you win
One horrid night
You hope that it's a bad dream

They rip you to shreds
Make you feel useless
You'll never forget
Those fuckers stay in your head

Boys who rape should all be destroyed


In case you are wondering which girl the song is dedicated to, Read about Richmond High School gang rape

It's a really horrible story, not only about the rapists, the victim, but about by-standers. Those mother-fucking useless by-standers. And the fucking careless principal who refused to check out what the nuisance outside the school was about even when he heard the noise. More details could be found here at number 2 of the list

Sincerest sorry to the girl

3 minute active - Tokyo Jihen

It has be a LONG time since I last heard of Tokyo Jihen. After the supposedly failure "Variety" (personally, I don't think it is a failure. It was just an experiment), they are finally back to the old track (again, I don't think so. It's just what people think in the forum). Well, in my opinion, this is just a hybrid of both "Variety" and a bit of "Adult". It's the extremely funky track that has all the essence of old 80s-themed "Mirrorball" with a little bit of disco from "Get it up for love" (could not remember the Japanese title). The corny, overly cute melody that was last heard in Variety is tuned down with more sophisticated touch of bass and more solid support from drum. The dreamy accompany of keyboard and woa-woa effect from the guitar really push the envelop, making the groove totally addictive and sensual. It's a very brilliant idea to have Uki's voice at the background. I think that's the whole point of having a band and everyone starts crossing each others' field, having the time of their life trying something they have rarely done before. Otherwise, Shiina could just get the whole freaking super-band ensemble consisting of her friends, alleged lovers, brother's friends and brother's friends' friends to make her solo album. All that I am expecting now is to see Shiina playing the drum. Actually I've seen it before when she acted along her best friend Tomosaka Rie in a side project. But that's the girl thing. Playing drum with TJ members are definitely sicker and more exciting.

The PV of "3 minute active" was already released. It's an interesting video given the fact that recently Shiina alone has been really put off from really performing in her own PVs , using only metaphoric presentation or really abstract idling unexplained actions. Weird.

This video is interesting. Although for me it's not really impressive. The idea is somewhat a refreshing and cooler recycled version of Madona's "4 minutes" (did similarity in the titles ring a bell ?) although to be fair, with that kind of title and probably the same concept of "limited value time", even the most creative director might be bound to do so. In (lame) comparison, of course, TJ's version is 10 times more intriguing than the Westerner counterpart.

Basically, the PV are switching between different time slots in each of which Ringo sings with each of the remaining members of TJ performing with their own gear. The cut transitions were made so smooth with the intention of giving you the feeling that everything is happening continuously. However, in the end, Shiina reacts differently to different members. She was cool with Kameda, danced around Uki, however, angrily threw and smashed a bouquet of roses onto Izawa (bitch!!!) and flirtatiously played with Hata's yellow hair (yes, it's yellow, not blond). Probably it describes various complicated relationships that a woman can get involved in. Friendship, Platonic love, Hate-love relationship, or Fancying a man at her workplace. With each, she only has a very little time to deal with. It's an indulgence, obsession or misery. I don't know.

Anyway, there's a random moon-walk. With the groovy music, I think this PV is specially dedicated to KOP MJ. That's very meaningful and COOL (for the lack of a better word)

So I let you enjoy it now!



Live version is even better

2012 review

After the first failed attempt, I finally got to watch this movie and was quite surprised that at the wee hour of early afternoon show, Malaysian were still eagerly filling up the cinema. Were they supposed to be somewhere else working? It was not even weekend yet. Probably the fact that Sunway Pyramid was the pinnacle and the only cinema in this uni and college-studded area is enough to give a thorough and succinct explanation for this constant over-populated state. But well, given the student discount and quite acceptable felt-wrapped seat (the back rest is not as comfortable as it sounds though), I can turn a blind eye to the chaotic endless queue to concentrate more on having fun experiencing the works of arts. Today 2012 is definitely one of them.

Have you noticed that movie release cycle works the same way as we do. Promising in springs with lots and lots of trailer to tempt our curiosity. Really vigorous during summer, churning out blockbusters that suck movie-goers in like magnet. Going mushy throughout Autumn as chick-flicks and sugar-coated romance damp the eyes of the lovers (there are a few middle-ranged action movies too but chances are your girlfriends will have her way with hugs and kisses). And I have no comment about Winter, the industry wanes and fades into brain-dead mode with mind-numbingly annoying holiday movies (list 10 worst movies in any duration of time and a Christmas-themed 90-minute-torture will pop up like corn on stove).

That's why 2012 is such a fresh breeze to the silver screen this season. It might not be the best of the best but surely a must-watch, especially in its own genre: disaster movies.

Spoiler but necessarily, there is no way I am going to praise the storyline of 2012. If 2012 was made a year earlier, it would definitely be victimized by THE DISASTER MOVIE for its poorly constructed storyline. The plot could be dated way back to the Armageddon Day that I doubt my 10 year old cousin would feel the need to bug me now and then with the question: "what's happening next ?". Indeed, a new Nobel prize should be invented and awarded to whoever that could come up with a different formula for disaster movie. No kidding, it is as hard as changing humans natural reflex, not to mention in this case you have to change millions'. Leaving us to our own devices, our immediate reaction when disaster happens is of course either to run or to kill ourselves. I bet no film maker would opt for the latter just to end his blockbuster after 10 minute of screening unless if the purpose of the show is to collect rotten eggs and elaborated curses. So basically, the predictability of 2012 is forgiven.

However, watching 2012 is no less interesting than reading a well-written general knowledge. Basic facts are all there but the perspective of the makers/writers is new and refreshing. 2012 with its 2 hour 30 minute run could afford to do that without cramming up the details or getting boring. The relationships and how they are affected by the incident reach out far away from conventional and enough-said husband-and-wife, parent-children, companion connection. 2012 touches the sensitive side of politics, of estranged relationship, the wrongful affair, rivalry and especially the international interaction aka, general humanity although I have to disagree with it in some parts. The links between characters are not acted up but always kept in focus which thankfully does not make 2012 another disastrous medium to expose individual human nature but at the same time conveys a very positive dynamic of compassion within a huge population. In other words, 2012 looks at humans in a big picture rather than picking out a few biased examples to sentimentalize the whole subject. That's probably the reason why the heroic selfless acts here seem to be more reasonable than in the others.

The downside 2010 plot or any disaster movie is of course the characters remain one-sided. But then again, it is sorta hard to psychologically analyze the characters while a tidal waves are approaching them from both front and back. So yeah, next time if you go watch any movie of this genre, do not expect to see Johny Deep or Anthony Hopkins. :P. An amateur Chinese worker panicking with hammer in his hand can perform better in this kind of movie than both of those put together.

Talking about Chinese, I hate it when the casting chose all the cocky-looking guys to act as Chinese officials. I've been to China only once but I stayed there long enough to see that Chinese officials do not look a bit arrogant like that. We all hear bad things about China. Counterfeit. Cheap labor. Poisonous toys. But that does not mean Chinese people need to look like aliens or some stuck up dudes. Chinese nature is mostly kind and generous so the event where they refused to help the main bunch of characters is quite wrongly stereotyped, or biased. The movie could have done Tibetan temples justice too. Come on, it's the holly land of Buddhism with gigantic temples then why do you only show us a small little hut with a sleepy monk?

Besides, another thing that ticks me off is that there are only few countries invited to attend the special surviving project. How about UN? How about the rest of the world? There is a little consolidation for African in the end that they survive but how about MY country? How about Indonesia where more disasters have happened there than elsewhere? With tsunami occurs in yearly basis, I think Indonesia at least deserves a special mention there. In brief, we Asians (excluding Chinese and Japanese) feel very left out please. Oh yeah, another subtle message of the movie is that if Apocalypse occurs, the racial ratio in the world will definitely change. Filthily rich Middle Eastern and Russian millionaires will roam the earth while only a few Chinese workers who managed to sneak on the ark at the last minute will have the hard time to repopulate. Forget about Indian because bloody US did not want them in the boat at the first place. RACIST! But well, if whatever Russell Peter said about his race's number one cheapness is true, then Indians probably chose to die at will saying that "I'd rather die than paying billions for that bloody small room on a metal ark. I'd get the same room by going to jail..FOR FREE!". No offense :P Just a joke.

2012 is wrapped up with corny happy ending for protagonist couples too which I really dislikes because it required a few sacrifices from secondary actors who, in case of the Russian pilot, is major hotness (Funny Russian English accent is the plus plus).

Talking about life and death, 2012 is not that depressing as everyone imagined before really watching it. Indeed, the movie is quite lighthearted with several tension-breakers here and there. Not to mention the thrill drive of barely escaping the mass destruction of nature on a plane. Therefore, the entertainment values of 2012 are quite high, sometimes even subdue the sentimental aspect but I'm not sure if some concerned people feel pleased when the serious subject matter is treated that way. Whatever, Bentley joke is still the best (won't spoil it for you, just let you know that it's the best product displacement ever taking place in a blockbuster).

Visual and audio-wise, 2012 is a huge treat. Combination of magnificent view with mind-blasting sound will definitely leave you in awe until the next day. Special effect seems real and yeah, proudly to announce that one of the ex TOA students did the contribution. I'd have been more impressed if more action-movie-ly camera angles were introduced but since this is a disaster movie with no real emphasis on one single individuals heroic moment, I guess it's oik with just the panorama of the disasters.

What a pity that the message of saving the earth does not really transcend. No blame was put on human for those disasters. What happened was just simply attributed to the natural eventual end of the earth. I mean yeah, we should not rant about our responsibility for the environment all the time but why not give it just a little room in 2 hour and 30 minute for public education purpose to kill 2 birds with one stone? Do not tell me that this is more of religious prophecy because I get sick of all that surreal explanation (Give me back RM 10 I spent on THE KNOWING pls!!!!) . Not that I deny the existence of supernatural force. I just feel like human is not given enough credit for their misbehavior towards mother Earth.

In short, although I seem to bash 2012 in this review, it's by no mean a B-graded movie. I just want to mention some downsides of this blockbuster for the sake of being different and standing out from other reviews as well as to relieve whatever I think was portrayed unfairly in the movie. Let me assure you once again that 2012 is totally worth your RM 10 and nearly 3 hours in the cinema. If you think that you'd rather spend that time and money for New Moon, well, your life deserves to be taken in return for my pilot hottie Sasha :P

2 doses of Soil and Pimp Sessions

And



Motoharu is so HOTTTTT shaking his tussy around like that

Well, but Tabu Zombie is still the man of my heart