Thursday, May 29, 2008

The Thief Has Stolen My Magpie!

Hmm, quite a number of things to write in this entry :)

I was terribly worried that the 5 weeks that I would be spending in Indonesia will be a bore (well, the first 2 days here kind of proved that point). So, I asked my dad on whether he could get me a place in his friend's office. An unpaid one, just for learning experience. So his friend got me a place and I found myself in the Asset Management department. Today was only my 2nd days, and the 2 days had been filled with reading of tons of materials on Asset Management (since I have zero knowledge of it). Well okay, more of 1 and 1/2 day. The other 1/2 day I spent stoning, and boring myself to death at the office. The head of the department left early to meet her client, and so after reading the materials, I didn't have anything to do! So I spent 2 hours rotting on my table, doodling and drawing (old-style entertainment, since I don't have a computer of my own).

This leaves me to the first conclusion of this article: if you are a high school student, and looking for an employment during the holiday, it would be highly recommended that you do not go for office jobs! Because.. most office jobs will require some special skills (technical skills that university education will usually impart). Instead, go for jobs that are more service-oriented. This way, you can build more on your people skill. As some of you would have known, an employee would need good people and working skills to be a good employee. I guess service-oriented jobs will force you more to talk with your customers. It is extremely important to build on your customer service skills to build a good business of your own. But again, this opinion of mine might lack other perspectives that will give a truer picture.

Oh and I realised something. I can actually use this work experience thingy as an excuse to volunteer in Jakarta International Film Festival (if they open volunteer spots) in December. Well, my father said why do I work for free for Singapore Film Fest? So why is he willing to let me be in his friend's office and work for free? Contradictions?

I saw the weirdest movie I have ever seen in my entire life. It's called "Mulholland Drive" by David Lynch. This movie is CRAZY. It takes a lot of time for me to digest it.. and fully understand it. How on earth does Mr. Lynch's brain work? Anyway, the first act of the movie, which was 2 hours long, makes complete sense. It's only in the 2nd act of the movie that the show get weirder and weirder. Actually I kinda like how 1st act breaks into 2nd act. The last scene of the 1st act, in my opinion, is the most chilling scene in the movie and kinda sums up the description of Mulholland Drive. The scene took place in this night show theatre called "Silencio", in which the MC of the show keeps saying do not believe what you are seeing on stage since everything there was an illusion. Somehow, when an opera singer emerged on the stage and (seems to) started singing a song soooo well, I was enthralled by her singing (goosebumps!) and believed that she was singing that song.... until that woman fainted on the stage.. and the sound recording kept playing across the theatre! Oh man, that scene freaks me out more than another scary scene of the show (which I shall not mention).

I love how the movie works, forcing the audience to make sense of the interspersed details of the scenes (some scenes at first don't make sense at all). And the cinematography is vividly parallel to the storyline. The movie also showed some film techniques which I have never seen in any other movies (I guess only David Lynch do such things), like the muted colour pallette and tons of usage of surrealism. I recalled seeing a movie recently with which I also would associate "surreal", but oh well, it's nothing compared to Mulholland Drive! I would not mind watching Mulholland Drive again in the near future (not so soon!) I have a feeling this movie might turn a lot of people off.. haha. So if you have little patience for movies to unravel their stories, don't watch this film! Cos all the important things only happen after the 2nd hour.

2nd conclusion: David Lynch's brain is nuts. It will take a lot of thinking from me on whether I should watch his other works. It is said that Mulholland Drive is his most accessible work to date haha. Oh no.

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