My 28th Birthday

It’s my birthday today. In fact, it’s my 28th birthday. Now I’m entering the final year whereby I get to fill-in any forms, in the age column, with a 2-figure number starting with the number 2 hahaha….

But hey, I’m not at all afraid or getting restless due to aging. That’s the female worry indeed.. ok sorry for stereotyping. I am actually quite ok with aging as male species are not that susceptible to that kind or worry.

Now, what did I do today? Some similarity with my 27th birthday, I’m actually enjoying the “alone”ness but somehow refuse to think it’s actually loneliness. Last year, I was in Cheltenham, UK on my birthday. I was in UK for my company training. I thought birthday was supposed to bring me luck but it turned out to be the other way round. The off-training program for that day was actually a horse-racing event in Cheltenham and the naïve me thought that it must be a lucky day for me so I made a decision to bet some, eventhough I was on tight budget that time, having to spend 10 days in Italy backpacking after the training. It turned out to be a disaster. I was spot-on with my pick during the 1st race but unfortunately I didn’t place any bet for the 1st race as I opted to “tunggu dan lihat” (which is a bad strategy indeed). Thinking that my prediction is so accurate, I confidently placed my bet for the subsequent races. BUT the birthday was wrong, indeed very much wrong. In the end, I lost RM100 altogether. I know I know….. it’s not a big amount, like compared to those who donate regularly to Uncle Lim in Genting but aren’t birthday boy supposed to be lucky???? That’s why, the naïve me!

So, what about this year? As of till now, there’s still around 2 hours before it turn to 28th April. I was busy meeting my potential customers the whole day and called it off around 5.30pm. I returned to the hotel and planning to indulge myself a nice sauna in the hotel gym to soak off all the tiredness a few days ago working in some remote jungle logging camp. I went down to the ground level and found that there was a volleyball match going on at the beach. I joined the game after watching for 10 mins. It was a good game and I really did enjoy it. The sunset view was fantastic! I didn’t manage to snap some nice pics of the sunset as I was too busy with the game. I ended the game with 20mins in the sauna before going out for my dinner.

I didn’t talk to any of my friend who wishes me happy birthday though I received some sms and a colleague of mine who sang a funny version of the birthday song when I called back to check on the daily update. How do I feel about that? Hm…. Peaceful, to be frank. Hahaha…. Eventually I think I am used to spending the day quietly. But I never really did have some big birthday party held before. The only one that I remembered was when I was still a child…yeah…..my age is really getting into me as I forgot what age was that!

And now…. What am I doing? Watching AMAZING RACE!!! That’s what I’m doing! Now that the dentist and the nurse couple was eliminated, I was hoping either Fran and Barry or the Hippies will win it, OK… dun tell me who won it! I dun like spoiler.
(Oh no!!!!!!!!!! Fran and Barry were eliminated!!!!!!!! I’m so proud of them!!!)

SO, I’m enjoying my birthday, my 28th birthday. Hm….thinking of that, to end my celebration, I decided to put on my birthday suit tonight hehe……

What's next?

Well... I wonder how it really started but recently it's happening more and more.........
We had the tudung issue ages ago esp when UIAM imposed it mandatorily to all its student it evolve into the police force and our PM endorsed the move.
We had a couple being caught and fined for holding hands in KLCC ages ago too and now it had been agreed to be made into law to prohibit hugging and kissing in public. (I don't even want to question the clear definition of hugging and kissing which will violate the law or rather is it only affecting certain fraction of the whole popluation etc etc........)

Well.......... it really made me wonder.... what's next???

Gubra

Wow............ I was initially kinda reserved about the sequel or so-called one of Sepet and with all the hype around it, I was afraid that it will turned out to be a disappointing one. However, after watching it yesterday................. I was worrying too much as Yasmin got whatever it takes to make a movie that can touch the heart of all Malaysians.

Won't mention much about the story as not wanting to spoil it all for those who haven't watch it yet and I think the synopsis is pretty much available in the media right now but I would like to mention some of the scenes that still linger in my mind:

1. Nam Rom patting the dog in the middle of the road. I'm sure there were certain parties now plotting some serious protest over this.
2. Those playful scenes between Nam Ron the cleric and his wife, and Orked and Arif the first bedroo/bathroom scene before she got a call from Ida Nerina.
3. The butt-showing scene in hospital. Hey, the similar scene in Kung Fu Hustle definitely looked tame here.
4. The joss-stick scene with azan blaring from background interlaced with the scene of Nam Ron's family praying and the church with Alan and her daughter.
5. The conversation in the pick-up between Alan and Orked, "It's like you are falling in love to someone but that someone doesn't love you?" and of course the cheesy song of Sam Hui. For me, the magnitude of impact of that dialogue is on par with the one in Sepet where Kak Yam mentioned something about Orked and Jason's SPM result.
6. The usage of the word BABI instead of the so-called polite one KHINZIR
7. The ultimate killing dialogue is between Harith and Ida in bed. That is SOOOOOO touching and the subsequent one with the fish tank? Hmmmmmm..... Go figure...it's tear-jerking in some subtle way

Sharifah, Juliana, Roziah, Nam Ron, Mas (the character), Adibah, Harith and Ida gave nothing but the best performance. My only reservations are Alan Yun's kaku acting though I'm sure the audience especially the gals will appreciate his half-naked shirtless scenes in the hospital; and Adlin's "Sandiwara Minggu Ini" kinda acting. Adibah's impeccable comedic timing is just spot-on. Why Alan Yun? Maybe the postman sentiment?

OK... comparing to Sepet... it's deeper for me. At least it's not as light and comedic as in Sepet though the early part of Gubra takes on lighter notes in its ambience and storyline.

The cinema is merely 10% filled (I watched it in KK), which is sad. To make it worst, it chopped off the snippets after the closing credit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's a crime and I'm going to complain to the cinema operator. Hey, it's GSC for God sake!!!! Didn't they know?

In a nutshell.......................... GO WATCH GUBRA. Devise your own opinion but please watch it.

Happy Ending

Among all the cast of Friends, my favourite is LISA KUDROW. Her character, Phoebe is the most interesting and less mundane compared to the other two. Her movie choices were always as interesting as she's known to take on challenging ones, not like what her compatriots in Friends did... think Pallbearers, the Monkey-play-basketball flick of Joey, the strings of Scream movies of Monica (by the way, kudos to her since her character remained undead).
Kudrow collaborated with the director of Happy Ending (HE), Don Roos before in the critically-acclaimed The Opposite of Sex (TOoS), which I had searched for so long. So, you can imagine how exciting I am when I saw HE DVDs on sale in Miri!!!!
Laura Dern (see We Don't Live Here Anymore) is also here. The other casts were unknown to me though their faces were familiar. However, I think they are Roos' usual cast. Oh yeah!!!!!!!! Maggie Gyllenhaal is there too. Known for her choice of quirky character, you can expect the type of movie is HE though it's way much tamer than what Todd Solondz will offer to you.
The story is mainly focused on Kudrow's character, Mamie and her stepbrother. The two of them had sex and Mamie was pregnant. She gave up her baby and Mamie and her stepbro stopped mentioning that episode ever in their life after that. Her stepbro turned gay and his story is one of the major story line besides Mamie's story line.
As the film title suggests, it dealt with the existence of Happy Ending. How do you define HE?
Take note of the songs performed throughout the movie and there were 3 songs performed by Gyllenhaal herself. Watch her performing "Just the Way You Are" and you will go...... Nicole and Reese.....you gals are not the only actress that can sing well!!!

Inside Man

A nice and entertaining movie. Messages were everywhere but it's not those on-your-face preaching kinda thing. Casting was superb, with the ever reliable Clive Owen as the calm baddie and of course Jodie Foster. Personally, I haven't watch a lot of Denzel's work (yeah.... I know.... it's a shame) but his performance here is superb and is nothing like what my stereotypical impression in my mind. Not forgetting Christopher Plummer and William Dafoe who were both excellent.
Plot is fast-paced with no moment for you to slow down. In Chinese, we said, no "cold-court".

The most interesting bit : The opening and closing music of course!!!!!!! I watched a lot of Hindi movie during my childhood period but I had never had the temptation to get some boogie like what happened to me last night!!!

4 brothers vs "Jia You Xi Shi"

If you watched the 4 Brothers, a sitcom from Singapore with the cast of Ng Yiu Hon, Gurmit Singh, Tay Ping Hui and Jien (Msia Idol) as the brothers, you will notice the obvious similarities with the HK movie around 2 decades ago, "All Well Ends Well". The Sharon Au's character is exactly copied from Mou Sung Guen's character in the HK movie. Gurmit Singh's character is Leslie Cheung's in the movie.

Talking about authenticities huh?

Idol Ramblings Again

OK... I couldn't help it but to rant bt AI.
Ace is still safe, as expected. Lisa was ousted, as expected cox her rendition of Kelly Clarkson's Because of You was quite painful indeed.
Next week is country so it's like immunation for both Kelly and Buck?

BFOK

Never before a YES sounds so nice....

We Don't Live Here Anymore vs The Ice Storm sans the Children

No wonder I felt something so similar when I watched We Don't Live Here Anymore. With all the hoo-ha surrounding Ang Lee's win in the recent Oscar... all his previous works were being digged out and the previous unheralded works were now being labeled as pieces of art. It's of course not a surprise as the media, especially the Chinese ones, couldn't resist running his story, personal and works non-stop though the Oscars were given out almost a week ago.



Back to the We Don't Live Here Anymore. It bears tonnes of similarities with Ang Lee's work, The Ice Storm. With an ensemble of Sigourney Weaver, Kevin Kline and Joan Allen as the main cast supported by still-relatively-unknown then Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci and Elijah Wood as the children of the two couples.... The Ice Storm is definitely a stronger bet. Like what LA Times claimed... "This is Ang Lee's year". There'll be more topics to breed out from this Ang's craze and I am interested to see what follows suit. Am I going to follow this craziness? Hehe... will try to look for the remaining Ang's work which I haven't watch yet, i.e. Sense and Sensibility, in which reportedly he had some tense glitch with Ms Emma Thompson, and Ride with the Devil.

George Clooney

Hereby I declared that George Clooney is my idol from now on.
Coming from protraying a heart-throb in ER which I thought was just another hey-i'm-good-looking performance. Follow suit were bad transition to big screen includes flop such as Batman and The Peacemaker.
I was impressed by his winning performance in Syriana and looking forward for his direction in Good Night, and Good Luck.
Another testament for his talent? Just tune in to his acceptance speech, you'll know.

The J-Male Singers and the non-J Female Singers

The current J-Male Singers' songs were kept playing in my playlist. Ops.... not JJ, not J, not Jolin etc.
1. James Blunt
2. Jamie Cullum
3. Jason Mraz
4. John Legend
5. Jack Johnson
6. John Mayer

The female list:
1. Madeline Peyroux
2. Corrine Bailey Rae
3. Stacey Kent

Confession

Confessions are never easy.
So when it was made, again, it's meant to be remembered.

Walk the Line

Most of the time I avoid biopic. Like Ray which generated such a buzz when Jamie Foxx won the Oscar for Best Actor last year, Walk the Line (WtL) is creating more buzz since both of the leading actor and actress were nominated in the both category. I still haven watch Ray until now and I wonder what makes me watch WtL. I guess it's due to my outstation trips and all those boring nights at hotels with limited tv channels. What made WtL an enjoyable watch is both Phoenix and Witherspoon. Both of them were such a chemistry to watch and their singing were superb for someone who were not singers themselves. I was never a fan of Cash so I can't really judge whether both Phoenix's and WItherspoon's voice were similar to Cash and Carter but their singing is good. At least it's their own and not being dubbed with original recordings of both. I would say it's a normal love story with such a stellar performances from both the leading actors. A good intro to the legacy of Cash's musics as you will find some of the songs were quite catchy and enjoyable. Witherspoon is the hot runner for the Actress category being closely fought by Felicity Huffman's role in Transamerica.

The Constant Gardener

Watched the DVD I bought during my recent outstation trip. Having a few DVDs in hand is really a saving grace from the boredom during outstation trips. Normally I will stay in the hotel at night after work during outstation trips unless those trips were in my hometown where I can sneak out some time to meet up with friends.
So... The Constant Gardener. Like wat my buddy J said, the title didn't do much to spark any interest to grab the DVD but having faith in some reviews I read, I bought it last month.
I won't reveal the storyline here but the cast's performances are brilliant. Fiennes as usual is gripping to watch with his intense but not over the top expression (put in Nicholas Cage here) and gosh.... Rachel Weisz is just soooooo sexy not in Jolie's way but definitely sexy to the dot!!! She's sexy even with a pregnant belly!!! I didn't mean it in a sexual way but more to a healthy kind of sexy way... The ending is very sad... and "mou noi/wu nai" so it's kinda heart-breaking too....
Definitely one to watch, along with Syriana. And Rachel is definitely a serious award contender esp after her win in Golden Globe.

Room 415

Some day destined to be remembered. This is one...

Writer's Block II

The subsequent post is self-explanatory with the title.

Writer's Block

Syriana

It's a fantastic must-watch movie. Finally I saw a good movie with George Clooney (think of his series of flops e.g. The Peacemaker, Batman etc.... though he's good with directing) and Matt Damon (never his fans other than Good Will Hunting). Brilliant movie.
However, there's still one more lingering question.....why the movie called Syriana?

Chaotic State after CNY

Finally the CNY mood had to be toned down as it reached the 7th day of the whole month of celebration. However, CNY tis year was not as smooth as we hope it will be.
1st, we had some major disaster in the Red Sea and the stampede in Philippines. Both cases should act as mirror to us in Malaysia as the rescue team in Egypt only acted upon the incident some 18hrs after it occurred and I am wondering how fast will b our response if it happen let say in the Straits of Malacca. The incident in Philippines also reflected upon us some points to ponder. The pulling power of a TV show offerring huge prizes is never to be underestimated. Let's pray for the victims of the both incidents.
Let's come back to our own country. The recent 11 bald old men incident sparks off some public interest comparable to the nude squat incident. I was not surprised that it did caught the attention of other countries aside from Malaysia. HK Commercial Radio was discussing this issue as well, proving globalisation at its truest state. Let's treat this issue separately. If they did gamble and have more than 2 tables in the same premise, OK, it's illegal, black and white according to the law. However, the treatment that these old men received was way beyong comprehension and I was wondering why the police force was not alert that they were being scrutinized after the nude squat incident!!!!! We in Malaysia always proud ourselves for being such a harmony society which embrace the culture and religious diversity as our way of life but the law enforcer of our country didn't even think twice to shave the heads of these old men during CNY where even washing hair is a taboo during CNY!!!!!! I hope the officers of Kajang police station know this taboo of the Chinese since we had been declaring ourselves as a harmony society for 48 years!!!!! The fact that the foreign radio stations was discussing this issue is a solid proof of what Thomas Friedman defined as true globalisation. There'll be no more cover up can be done in this era of IT world. We have to wake up from our dream trying to suppress everything under the blanket and keep smiling portraying the usual muhibah spirit we shouted out and loud anymore. After the false alarm of the nude squat involving a Chinese national, I believe now every single Chinese media will allocate certain coverage of news in our beloved country. So buck up everyone!!! V r under scrutinize, like it or not!!!

Taking a Leave

I did sth called impulsive decision just now. Grab my backpack and go travelling hahahhaha.....
Will share the experience later....
Meanwhile, Happy Holiday!