That's The Way It Is...

Hullo. Oh no, the terms are coming! :( It's coming fast! (It's starting tomorrow). Preparation for Terms has been quite okay surprisingly haha. Hopefully I can maximise my time for Econs and the remaining Geog preparation. I haven't really prepared for Econs...

The NUS quiz was okay haha. My school sent 3 teams, and 2 teams, including mine, didn't pass through the preliminary round (only 4 groups out of 70-ish group can make it to the final). Thankfully, one of my school teams got through haha.. and they went on to win the quiz!

Yesterday I had a very strange encounter. Okay, it's more of freaky. I was waiting for my bus in Grange Road, when this man approaches the bus stop, and sat near me. He asked, "May I know what time is it?", and I told him the time.

Then he started introducing himself, and then he started asking me question. Like my age, school... and even my relationship status O_O I was really starting to freak out by then. But I don't want to offend him by moving to another seat, since there's only two of us in the bus stop. He was saying that usually when he talked to random people, people would ignore him blah blah.. and somewhat inside me thought maybe he shouldn't ask personal questions to them. He asked me, "What bus are you taking?", and I mentioned 2 buses. Then he replied, "Oh same bus". Only later then I realised that he could only take one of the buses, because he's going to Alexandra Road. Sadly, the bus he could take came first, and I reluctantly boarded the bus. Thankfully my mind was still kind of working, and I decided to sit near the driver cubicle, for fear anything wrong would happen. And he decided to beside me. Argh. I was really sitting on the edge of my seat, cause I don't know for what apparent reason he decided to put his hand over my chair for a while, and then I think he realised my discomfort. Then he started asking me, "Are you okay?". At first I said yeah. He was quite close when he spoke to me, which really bothered me. Finally I asked him, "Are you stalking me?" He said, "No. Am I making you uncomfortable?" And I said yes. Then I asked him, "If you're not stalking me, then where do you work?" And he said, "Alexandra. I can give you my work place's telephone number..." But I refused. Finally, 1 stop before his bus stop he was like saying "hope we are now friends, and that you won't remember me." I think he meant won't forget me. By then I just wanted him to go off the bus. And he did in Alexandra Road. Oh my gawd..................... my heart was beating awkwardly throughout the whole ordeal. I think I am so not going to take that bus number for quite a long time. Thankfully I don't usually take that bus to go home or school. And, he offered to shake hand with me like several times, and so by the end of whole ordeal, I was really disgusted with my right hand and can't wait to go and wash it.

Hmm, somewhat I thought why did the encounter happen to me? Does it have some message? Somewhat thinking back, I have very very little of sympathy for the man. Is he a lonely man or something? Still he really freaks me out. It's strange how you somewhat can find sympathy amongst paranoia.

Another interesting things that I learnt from the quiz.. learn to give more to others, and never under appreciate other people's hard work. I learnt the latter from the teachers :( who did the opposite stuff. The other 2 groups doesn't seem to exist under their eyes... which is sad. There's one girl I know who actually really really want to make it through the finals. I guess both of us are kind of doomed from the start due to the circumstances.

On the last note, 300 was fantastic. It is one of the movies which I won't mind watching again! Even though it may be historically inaccurate, it is shot in such a beautiful and original manner. Well, majority of the film is shot in front of blue or green screen, with effects added after the shooting. I love the brownish tone of the movie overall...... now I know that actually red can really stand out in brown. Hmm, though the movie is about 2 hours long, I was never bored for one second. This movie is very action-packed. Oh by the way, I didn't drool over the guys' abs. I think they're too... squarish O_O Some of you may disagree. Haha anyway, I guess this is one movie where both girls and boys will enjoy. Lastly, Rodrigo Santoro (from Love Actually) looks feminine and comical hahaha. If you're watching this movie because of him, haha be prepared to be disappointed and embarrassed =D 7.5 stars out of 10.

Cheers.

Movie Reviews

Time to catch up with movie reviews!

1. Sin City
2. Dreamgirls
3. The Lives of Others

Sin City (6.5 out of 10 stars)
Prior to watching this movie, I read a number of good reviews about it. I heard it was really loyal to the original comic book as well. So, as you would have guessed, I thought I would have liked the movie a lot. Well, the opposite is more true after I've watched the movie. Some parts of the movie is really boring, and kind of silly in some sense haha. I dozed off in the middle of "A Dame To Kill For", the part which has Clive Owen in it. You see, even Clive Owen can sustain my interest in some parts of the movie! Haha (though his red sneakers caught my fancy). Haha, anyway at least I learn some things about cinematography. The way they shot it kinda gives me some inspiration for photography. However, those photography ideas I'll only be able to carry out if I've managed to scrap enough money to buy professional lighting haha. In conclusion, this movie is not everyone's cup of tea. I guess the Sin City comic lovers would love it. That somewhat reminds me of something I read about 300.......


Dreamgirls (6.8 out of 10 stars)
First of all, do I think that this movie is overhyped? Well kind of, though not to the extent of Pan's Labyrinth in my honest opinion. Anyway, I still enjoy this movie! I thought the casting was perfect! You see after watching the movie, I thought Jennifer Hudson is a much much better singer than Beyonce Knowles. But.. come to think of it, Beyonce has more star power than Jennifer (well, at least at the moment). The costumes are nice too! I must salute the Dreamgirls for learning so much dance steps and songs O_O There are some parts of the show where I just wonder how on earth do they remember so many dance steps haha. However, there are some parts which I found quite boring, though at least I managed to get by it haha. Of course I thought of Jake Gyllenhaal when the song he sang in Saturday Night Live was sung (properly) by Jennifer Hudson (I've attached the Jake video below). At the end of the show, you'll realise that there are neither bad guys or good guys in the show actually haha.

The Lives of Others (7.5 out of 10 stars)

I never expected this movie to be really really good. I guess it really deserves the Best Foreign Film Oscar. Anyway, this is a German movie about a guy from the East Germany secret police who are tapping a couple consisting of a theatre actress and a playwriter. As the story progresses, he becomes more and more obsessed with their lives. Hence, the title of this movie. I love how the intricacy of the movie and how the different moods are conveyed in the movie. The story was kinda delicate, and though I found the ending was kinda draggy at first, the last scene of the movie kinda ties up the whole movie. Beware though you may have some questions left in you after the show. But the questions aren't that important, and are better left as mysteries in my opinion. Go and see this show if you like art films! (or even if you don't like art films, give it a shot! haha)


I'm going to watch 300 tomorrow... yippee!

A Question To Ponder..

One of my friends asked me this yesterday, "So, do you think you'll have any long term friends that you know from JC?"

That's one tough question to answer surprisingly.

Have you ever been in a situation where you go out with one person frequently, or you talk a lot with the person, but still you feel awkward with calling the person your close friend? I think this is a really weird situation....


Not that I'm complaining of any friendships at the moment :)

Olive and Olive

Some exciting things just happened. First of all, I got selected for NUS Chancellor's Shield quiz on Current Affairs and General Knowledge after attending the trial session. Yay! It'll be held on next Saturday.. which means I have to start reading on some topics. My school has decided to send 3 teams of 3 members each, and so each group member has been assigned some topics to read on. I decided to do politics, international organisation, nobel prize/ book winners, movies/entertainment.. and I can't remember the last topic haha. I will check later.

The 2nd thing is much more exciting thing. I've just secured a freelance photography job for a marketing company. It handled Noise 2005, and so I guess that's why it contacted me haha. I've already sent the quotation and stuff. I'll have to send 40 to 50 photos by the end of this month. Well, I've set the fee. I'm waiting for their response on whether they agree with it. Fingers crossed! I think this is a really exciting challenge.

So I guess you can see that my schedule is kind of packed now. My group had done the Econs presentation today. Honestly it went quite awful, because we didn't really use the graphs and figures to explain our argument. Furthermore... there's another factor which I shall not speak on. Ehm, but I'm thankful it's finally over! :)

I'm going to take a nap now.. then I want to do Maths! I so need to start revising for Terms X_X Oh GP paper today was okay haha. Though I don't know whether I'll pass. Fingers crossed.

Cheers.

Soundtrack of My Life..

The whole of yesterday.. I was thinking of "One Night Only" song in Dreamgirls. I was so crazy that I even changed it to "One Round Only" for jogging during PE haha.

The whole of today I was thinking of Bang Bang You're Dead by Dirty Pretty Things (because of river banks lesson in Geography haha. Bank Bank!), No Distance Left to Run by Blur (I really like the melody of this song.. shall search for its lyrics. I saw the video clip long time ago... and it was quite different haha), and Tender by Blur (please.. I think some people may mistake this as some gospel-ish song if they don't listen to the song properly.. because of its choir element. But I think it really suits the song).

Let us see what other songs my friends have to be tortured listening to tomorrow :)

Satisfaction Guaranteed

Last week was a really rollercoaster ride for me. There are things that I moan about, while there are also things that I cheer about. So today, the video for ACJC Science Research Symposium was finally presented.. and the response thankfully was good. Okay, beside having to make the video, a last minute thing popped up. Ahah. I have to talk more about it on the school stage during the assembly. In front of 1,500s pairs of eyes. Heh. It was quite an interesting moment. Well, let me tell you frankly. I sometimes thought that I have not ever gone up the ACJC stage to receive any prize... and kinda accepted the fact that I will not have to do it haha. Because I seldom join competitions heh. Drama... there are no real competitions. Academic-wise.. ehh... ya. I can't compete with the smart scienc-y, maths whiz kids haha. So yeah that kinda left me with practically zero chance of going up the stage. Hence the acceptance over the fact. So... today provides an interesting event for me. Now I understand when some people spoke of when they realised that a life changing event may occur soon. I got that feeling. Well speaking in front two thousands eyes doesn't really change your life. I was more afraid that mistakes I made on stage would remembered by many. So I guess if my life changed, it'll be for the worse haha. Thankfully I managed to brush aside that thought, and once I was on stage, the nerve kinda calms down. I just hate the build-up nervousness part. Well, mission accomplished :)

Last Saturday, I watched the Fountain. Which is superb and exceed my expectation. Ahh. Even if you're the kind who are really sick of lovey-dovey kind of film, well I guess at least you'll appreciate the visual experience this movie presents. The Fountain is about 3 parallel love stories between two characters played by Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. In all of the stories, Hugh Jackman is trying to rescue Rachel Weisz from dying. The movie is presented in non-orderly manner, and I guess that helps to make the movie more interesting and less direct. I can't believe with all those visual stunner the movie only cost $40 million to make O_O Anyway, if you're an emotional kind of person, be prepared to feel depressed watching this movie. I cried watching this movie :'( Another fact that amazes me is how on earth Darren Aronofsky could link stories from Book of Genesis (Bible) and the Mayan belief to this story. Both really make good representations of one of the recurring theme in the movie, which is life versus death. Obviously the other theme is love. This movie to me is more of an unconventional love story. Oh ya for your information, Darren Aronofsky is Rachel Weisz's fiancee. I wonder what he thought when filming the bath tub scene haha. Hmm on the last note, let me warn you the ending is kinda weird and strange. But I guess it brings the movie to a full circle :) 7.0 stars out of 10. (Hope Aronofsky's next project won't took so much time to come out..).

After watching movies, my friends and I had dinner. And then some of us (3 to be exact) went bonkers after the dinner. Since the road between Orchard Road to Youth Park is closed, we decided to do some random stuff on the road. First, the move is quite a tame one. Just stretching your arms and smiling. Then it goes to sitting down and posing the zen position haha. I guess we're too inspired by Hugh Jackman's zen position in The Fountain. As we posed several times, we also have to be aware of cars coming out of Meritus Mandarin parking lot haha. Well in the end, 2 of my friends got freaked out and don't dare to do anything silly on the road :( Oh our attempt to recreate the Beatles crossing the road picture failed miserably haha.

Pictures are in order of being taken.. (i'm the photographer for most of them :P)

At first the idea isn't that crazy or dangerous..

Nas and Vithya scream all their might (no they didn't scream =])

Me.. trying to act like a tai tai with lots of bags haha.

Then the screamers become 3...

Trying to be Beatles... but the oncoming car doesn't want us to be Beatles..

Meditating in Orchard.. such a Unique experience.
(pun intended)

We have found peace in Orchard Road haha. (well not exactly, cause a group of people took picture of us doing this.. while after this other people began to copy our ideas haha)

Yippeee!

I'm 18 now! Ehm.. I don't know why but I am still not that excited about turning 18. Maybe over time it'll sink in.. and I'll start appreciating of being 18. Well, being 18 means that I'm officially legal. 18= can watch m18 movies, can go clubbing muahaha.

I got the perfect birthday present today. My application for GYLC (Global Youth Leader Conference) got accepted! Yayyyyy. I feel fortunate for the success of my application, because application doesn't guarantee the fact that you'll be able to join the conference. So... after spending 3 days in Batam in June holiday.. about 5 days later I'll go to United States haha. But, before that, I have to apply for my visa first. Heh. GYLC will be about 12 days long.

The past two days have been really tiring. Me and a group of friends stayed back to work on the publicity video for ACJC Science Research Symposium. It's a very taxing task.. and really requires you to pay attention to details. Sigh. I'm glad that tomorrow we'll only need to do minor tweaking before finally handing in the thing. So one project down.

By next week, two more projects will be down too. The submission deadline for Geog blog is Sunday and my Economics project presentation will be Wednesday. So I think after Wednesday I can relax a bit more (and catch up with my studies haha).

Later.

Ni Hao!

Hellow. Happy belated Chinese New Year!! So how did your Chinese New Year go? Mine went okay... haha I went to my paternal grandmother's "village" (it's not that village-y, just a bit rural, 3 hours train ride from Jakarta). This year I got a lot of hong baos! Muahahaha. I have to admit I didn't expect this at all haha.

So 3 days of my holiday was spent in the village. Not much time left for me to spend in Jakarta. I really need to do more updates of my Geography blog project.. or else my team mates are gonna kill me, yikes. Tomorrow I'll be reaching Singapore at about 4.30. Hopefully I'll have enough time to do a huge update on the blog.. as well as do my Econs homework haha.

Can't wait to finish up my space video project (in collaboration with 3 other people) video for ACJC science research syposium. We've had a lot of fun making it. Hopefully the product will be as close as we envisioned it.

There's something that is kind of going on right now in my life. Hopefully it all works out well. I'll tell you if it works. If it doesn't, well I'll still share with you :)

Cheers.

Birthday Wishlist

1. Olivia the Pig book series - Olivia (available at Borders) (preferred choice)
2. Olivia the Pig book series- Olivia saves the circus (available at Borders)
3. A hardcover sketchbook
4. Muse Absolution Tour DVD
5. Anything to help my shopping :)
6. Book- The Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffeneger (print as large as possible)

That's all I can think of for now haha...

6 more days to 18 muahahaha.

10th February

So the weekend has finally arrived. Some interesting things happened this week. On Monday, I had to go to the Habitat for Humanities office to book the Batam slot. Their office is in Tanjong Pagar.. which led me to wonder if it's near Maxwell Food Centre. You see, there is this shop which sold nice Pisang Goreng in Somerset, but then it closed and moved to Maxwell Food Centre. So, I was really excited to go and buy the pisang goreng. On Monday morning, I was still not sure if I was that desperate to go and buy the pisang goreng. I really didn't know how far it'd be. In the end, my desperation got over me, and so I took 15 mintues walk from the office to the Food Centre. Ahh, once I bit the pisang goreng I thought it was all worth it... until I saw the address of another branch in the paper bag. "Tangs Orchard Basement 1". Hahahahahahaha.

Tuesday was reallllyyy interesting. I've been seeing this ACJC girls in the bus stop for the past few Tuesdays. I've only seen her this year. Then... this Tuesday because we missed 106, so we decided to take a Taxi together. We began to chat...

Girl: "Where do you stay?"
Me: "Leonie Hill Road"
Girl: "Ahhh me too. Which building?"
Me: "Grangeford"
Girl: "What? Me too.."

Hmm the coincidence doesn't end there. We chatted again after we got off the taxi..

Me: "Eh, which unit do you live in?"
Girl: "21-##.."
Me: "What the heck.. you live in Grangeford right?"
Girl: "Yaaa.."
Me: "I live in 21-#%..."

Hahahahahahah... Same building.. same level... and we never met the whole of last year. However, I found out yesterday from one of my friends, whom is also her friend, that she actually moved into the building only in the last half of last year. Hearing that, I feel somewhat less guilty haha.

I realised that now I got soooo many projects :s Let me list down..
1. Geog blog project
2. Econs project
3. National Weather Studies project
4. Science Research Syposium publicity project

I attended a briefing on this project called "Art Kicks Ass" organised by *scape and Singapore Arts Museum yesterday. The briefing was okay, very few people attended it (well, 4 to be exact including me). At first I really don't know what to do for the project.. because you're supposed to do a proposal on your project, and then the organisations will help to facilitate your project. Well, today while having dinner alone I somewhat got some ideas. Haha, I think I'll have to go Singapore Arts Museum first to see what they have there... and if I'm really serious with doing this, I'll have to begin pulling people in. I guess I'll think more of this project once Geog, Econs and Science Research project are over (they'll all be done by week 9, which is like 3 weeks away). By then I'll have more room to think.

I watched Half Nelson yesterday and Little Children today. Two very different kind of movies. Well, let me start with Half Nelson. The movie is very enjoyable. To me, the movie is rather unconventional, in the way it is shoot as well as the circumstances of the story. I guess the handheld shooting method gives a more intimate feel between the movie and audience. It gives the movie a documentary kind of mood and hence adding sense of reality in it. This movie succeeds in weaving different subjects together (eg. social issues, drug issue, friendship). The score and music somewhat adds mood to the movie. Ryan Gosling really brings humanity and vulnerability to the character. His character is somewhat someone whom some of us would have encountered in real life. Overall, a great original movie to watch. 7.0 out of 10.

Little Children in contrast deals with relationship affairs and pariahs of the society. There are two storylines in the movie. One is about a suburban housewife having an affair with a stay-home married man (Kate Winslet plays the housewife). The other one is about a former sex offender being ostracised by the community he moves into. I was absorbed by the movie for 3/4 of the movie. The last part of the movie was somewhat draggy, and at least the ending was okay, except for the ending given to the married man. That ending was rather disappointing. Other than that, I learnt some technical stuff through this movie. I would want to watch it again to write the technical details down. 7.0 out of 10.

That's all for now :)

Hello February! "It's Friday!"

Hello haha. So the week went okay. My Mondays are no more cursed, and I get by my homework. Well, barely. I had decided to dedicate my weekend to homework and revision. I so need to catch up with them, especially with the tests coming up. I barely caught enough sleep for the past few days. Something I learn this week. Despite having Thursday as one of my end early school days, I shall never go out on Thursdays again (well for the time being at least). I noticed that Thursday is a crucial point of the week for me to catch up with homework and stuff. I wasted my Thursday yesterday by shopping at Vivocity until 6.30 pm haha. Then when I thought I could reach home earlier by catching a bus from Clark Quay, there was a massive traffic along River Valley Road because of the road closure for Thaipusam haha. Well, at least I'm still able to live through the week.

Today I had an audition for Love ACtually event for Valentine's Day. It was quite a complicated story. Let me try to explain. At first, I only thought of playing Come What May in piano. But the councillor told me that it's supposed to be a singing event. So I must get some people to sing in the song. Thankfully one of my classmates, who is auditioning herself too, and another guy from a band who auditioned as well were willing to sing it. So, we spent about an hour on stage trying on Come What May haha. The experience was quite something. Then at the last minute I decided to sing "Other Side of the World" by KT Tunstall. But I think I was singing that well, because the councillor was like saying the song doesn't really suit my style of singing. So she asked me to sing another song which I could remember impromptu. As always, my favourite impromptu song is "Eternal Flame". Hahahahaha.

I'm gonna watch Life of Brian.. so that I can borrow Fight Club from Emma hahahaha :D :D so happy *thinks of Edward Norton*.

Hmm, I'm glad that the Batam Trip thingy is on the verge of being confirmed with the organisation. I'm gonna make payment on Monday to book the slot. Yayyyy! I'm so proud of my team and myself.. because this trip is self-initiated. Not school initiated. Haha. I can't believe I've done much of the administration thing :)

Ok more on the next entry :)

The Curse Has Been Lifted...

Oh my, thank goodness the curse on Mondays have been lifted. I've been experienceing bad luck for the past 3 Mondays. I was so scared of what may happen today that I prayed to St. Jude and harder than usual. Phew. Hopefully there won't be any more trouble on Mondays.

Anyway, my weekend went well, considering I spent it all alone by myself haha (mom went back to Indo). So yeah, on Friday night I watched Pulp Fiction, which is dammmmnn good haha. I never expected of me liking it so much. Now that I thought of some of the scenes, I found them absolutely hilarious (though some are hilarious in crude manner haha). I don't really understand the R21 rating for Singapore. Well besides all the swearing (with thousands of f, mother and n words), and a bit of violence, I thought it doesn't deserve R21. I thought M18 would be more appropriate haha. Anyway, I think I learnt some points on filmmaking from this movie. I wouldn't mind watching it again. If I ever start keeping a logbook on learning points of movies, I've got this movie to thank for. Anyway, I'll give this movie 8.5 out of 10 stars :) (oh there's this one scene on a restaurant. I found the restaurant very cuteeeee. How I wish that restaurant exists in real life :( )

Gah, I'm excited about the Batam Trip. I'm still waiting some more forms from the person-in-charge. Sigh. Can't wait to complete the booking of slot thing and start looking for ways to raise funds.

Hmm, yesterday I was quite excited by the news that either Jamie Foxx or Edward Norton may be starring as one of the future villain in the Batman sequel. Ahh.. if Edward Norton stars in it, I shall rejoice like crazy. Bale + Norton *shrieks* Anyway, Katie Holmes will not be reprising her role.

Yesterday I learnt something interesting. Sometimes you tell a person of an outcome of a situation. But you only realise much later that that may not actually be the final outcome and the situation continues to develop. However, though the situation develops, its outcome remains the same as the first outcome (even though inside you wish that another outcome should have been produced). So even though you want to tell the person the progress of the situation, you see no point of telling it. Because whether you tell the person or not, the outcome would be the same. Haha. (hopefully you get my point haha).

Cheers.

9 Days Later...

9 Days later and I still can't forget you.

Well, don't get the wrong idea. I'm not in love with anyone! It's just the Muse concert and its impact. I never expected its impact to remain this strong until now. This is the first concert where such thing happen. I still smile when I thought of it. That night is amazing. And I've never been so motivated to practice piano so much.

Oh well, let me not bore you with my ramblings about Muse haha. Much exciting things have been going on for the past week. Well, exciting in a good and bad way. After going for an official detention for latecoming two weeks ago (yes, late for school and you go for DC straight away in the evening), my Geog teacher sent me for his own DC haha for not completing the Geog homework. I seriously didn't know his expectation. I wrote very little, and instead just did some bracketing on the notes (to point out where I can find the answer). And he was unhappy with that. Sighhhh. At least now I know his expectation haha.

On a good note, a group of friends and I have decided to organise a CIP outing to Batam for the organisation of Habitat for Humanities. I was thrilled to have the proposal for it appoved today yay! Now I have to think of ways to get sponsorships and fund raising haha. We need to raise at least $3500 for 3 nights 2 days trip. The sooner we can raise the fund, the better it would be.

I'm also planning to apply to be mentors for Peer Tutoring programme! I'm planning to tutor Maths. Ahhh so exciting :D I can't wait to begin (hmm, this may sound a bit odd of me to say it haha).

Today, I watched The Painted Veil. (Review starts here)Ahhh... it's so nice :D And Edward Norton is HOT, HOT and HOT. Okay, I do admit he looks kinda awful in the first half of the show with his extremely gelled hair. But the last half of the show.. let me just say I couldn't stop smiling and sighing haha. Anyway, not speaking of Edward, The Painted Veil is a beautiful movie. It was shot at the beautiful backdrop of Chinese countryside, and I guess the backdrop makes the plot more unique and complex. I like how the story progresses, and its pace was just right. This movie truly doesn't disappoint :D I'll give it 8.0 out of 10.

Speaking of movie, I watched Midnight movie for the first time in my life during the weekend. Since my mother got a free voucher for hotel, we stayed in the hotel over the weekend. I invited one of my friends to stay for one of the nights. And then we decided to watch Babel haha. Well, it's not as straightforward as it seems. At first, we watched Red Eye on HBO and enjoyed it. We thought that after Red Eyes, Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho would be shown. Turns out it was another Psycho (with Julianne Moore and Vince Vaughn haha). So we decided to try and watch 11 pm show for Babel. But it turns out that only the front row is left. So we picked the 1.40 am slot instead haha. I was damn happy that the ticket people didn't check ID haha. So happyyy (though I'm only about 1 month away from my bday hoho). Surprisingly, the theatre was full house. I really never expected that haha.

So how was Babel? (Review starts here) It is good, though I think it could be better in some ways. As some of you might have known, the story involves 4 countries. I found the Japanese section the most touching part. I like how it uses actions to describe the feelings of frailness and loneliness. The other sections are nice as well, though I found some parts extremely draggy, because you can kinda predict what will happen next. The cinematography is amazing as well. Rich, vivid, contrasting colours against dim settings to convey the different emotions. I had just realised today that I guess the theme for this movie shouldn't be language barrier, as marketed or as the title suggests. The movie doesn't really potray this issue I guess. Desperation would be one theme which think all the sections can relate to. 7.0 stars out of 10.

Yesterday when I was going home I finally had an idea of what I could write if ever I want to write a movie script next time. I really didn't know that the GP Mass Media reading package would have such an impact on me :P The story would involve several main characters and their lives in some sense. I feel that the issue would not be covered enough with just one character. I wouldn't say the specific issue of the script (though I'm quite surprised why there hasn't been any movies so far on the topic... maybe in the future considering one ongoing saga about it. Well, that's a major clue for you =)

I'll stop here. More next time :)

Thankfully Safe and Sound

Oh my gawd. I almost died in Muse Concert. This is the most rock n roll concert I've ever been to. The first ever concert which I didn't leave unscathed. I lost my hair band... and my specs got bent :S all thanks to some stupid guy who was doing the stuff where sometimes in concerts people tried to float above other audiences' hands. And that guy's foot kinda pushed down my specs I guessed. I was damn pissed with the guy and some guys behind me who kept pushing me, and muttered "motherf*****" several times. Oh my gawd.

Well, about the specs thing, I'm glad at least I found it. At first I thought I'd have lost it haha. So now i'm wearing my spare pair of specs. Thankfully I have a spare pair :)

Other than that, the concert was marvelous. It lives up to my expectation. Okay, guess the number of the crowd? 6,000! And all are for standing. I guess this explains why when me and Steph reached Fort Canning Park at 6 pm, the queue was already extremely long haha. I saw some people who brought mattress to the venue O_o hilarious hahaha. Anyway, when we got into the real venue, the crowd looks kinda overwhelmingly scary... but it looked this way only on the side closer to the entrance thankfully haha. I bought a merchandise in the form of Muse Tour T-shirt. There's this Muse blouse which I like.. but I thought the tour t-shirt would be more memorable :)

Anyway, at first I started at 15-18 rows from the front. I was kinda sad.. because I really want to see my handsome, the lead singer Matt Bellamy as close as possible. But then I thought never mind, as the concert progresses I'll be able to move closer to the stage haha. And I was right! See the pictures below. These are my views. Both pictures are not taken with any zoom.

At the beginning of the show....

Towards the ending of the show...

But.. the bad thing about being in front is that you're very likely to get pushed. And I really mean pushed. With all the sweaty bodies against you. Eww. I stunk horribly by the end of the show. Couldn't go to sleep just like that :s I was horribly wet too by the end of the show. This is because, in the front crowd it's really hot, and my specs keeps getting fogged up. So the security guards splashed water on us occasionally. I guess this is a good and bad thing. Oh, and my specs broke during one of my favourite songs, Plug In Baby. It was 4th last song haha.

Haha, oh speaking of Matthew Bellamy, he looks exactly the same in pictures. Just that in person, you can really see that he's really slender and slim. About his shortness... well I can't really tell. Because maybe the other members are kinda short as well. They look they're of normal height haha. Oh, Matt's guitar and piano skills are astounding, amazing, astonishing, overwhelming.. (and the list goes on). I'm already amazed at how well he plays in videos and tv concerts, and to see it in person is really crazy. I like the style the drummer plays too. Seriously.

Sigh, so the concert ended at 10.30. I was quite surprised that the crowd which turned up are majority of 25-30ish, not like teenagers. Not much Caucasians surprisingly either. I heard some Indo conversations. I guess this is due to the fact the the Indo date for Muse tour was announced like a month after Singapore's date is announced. That's why some people might have purchased the tickets. And... not surprisingly, the guys formed the majority of the crowd. 65-35 is the rough ratio. I guess the girls mostly turn up for Matt hahaha (kidding). Well, I turned up because of their music and, I have to admit, Matt. But if in first place I don't like their music, I wouldn't have turned up in the concert. And if I wasn't amazed with Matt's guitar and piano skills, then I wouldn't have gone to the concert as well. Yeah, I guess you get my point :) (hopefully)

Well, I guess $87 is more than worth it for Muse concert tix :)

On last note.. I'm quite sad Leo lose in golden globes.. though I'm not that surprised actually. Forest Whitaker has been getting lots of buzz for his role in Last King of Scotland. I think he'll most likely win the Oscar.

If Borat got nominated for Oscar's Best Actor (which is highly likely), I shall laugh like a mad woman.

Cheers :)

12 Summarised

The first 12 days of 2007 has been okay. Some interesting life pointers learnt. Besides the Drama thing, I learnt how to make decision quickly. I was eligible for H3 Maths. So I was put in the position to choose between Maths and Drama. After considering and listening to answers for the questions posed during the briefing session, I decided not to take Maths. That's a difficult decision. You know how much I love Maths. Yeah, but with me decided to join the crew for the upcoming major Drama production, West Side Story, there won't be no time for H3 Maths.

It has been a great and interesting start of the year. Never expected to learn something important so early in the year. I hope that 2007 would have something more for me on its hands :)

Today I saw one of the most beautiful scenes in my life. I can't believe I never really notice it. Well that scene was standing below a street lamp when raining. I was waiting for the pedestrian traffic light to go green, when I looked above my umbrella, and noticed the scene. The scene somewhat looks different when you see it from afar, which I've done on a few occasions. I guess perspective is the key word :) A little inspiration injected into my life.

On the last note, I somewhat feel artistically deprived. I haven't found a new muse until now. Sigh.

Let me add...

I failed my Drama audition by the way. HAHAHA. But... I think I did better than my last year's audition, which is really awful. I really need to improve my posture and pronunciation. At least the advice and tips from the assessor (who is a drama senior) really help :)

Haaa... I think I'm beginning to accept that acting is not my thing. It's not as easy as it seems. It requires a lot of passion, research and patience. But..... I still want to work in the movie industry! (or at least the entertainment industry). So maybe I should start learning on directing and cinematography. I shall see on how it goes :) Though I seriously think that cinematography will be more of my thing.

Cheers :)

Countdown...

5 more days to Muse concert!

5 more days till I see how short the Muse lead singer is!

5 more days till I see whether he'll be in what I called 'pig-tails'! (plus the wind effect).

Hmm.. I found out the dates for the Rachael Yamagata and Jose Gonzalez concerts today.. as well as the prices. I think if I go I'll most likely purchase the students' tickets. I'll most probably be going for Rachael Yamagata's only.

I'm now starting to dread for not going to Kings of Convenience concert last year :( After listening their album a few times, it's actually nice :)

At last I found someone who kinda likes Edward Norton too ahh. More reason to watch Painted Veil :D

Cheers :)

2006 in review: Finale

Okay last entry for 2006 in review (I so need to move on to 2007 haha).

My favourite movies of 2006:
1. Volver
2. Casino Royale (I'm so gonna watch this for don't know how many more times haha)
3. The Departed
4. Little Miss Sunshine
5. The Illusionist (I seriously found this nicer than the Prestige haha.. can't believe I just wrote that).

My favourite songs of 2006: (random order)
-The Kooks- Ooh Laa
-Muse- Supermassive Black Hole
-Razorlight- In The Morning
-Razorlight- America
-Lily Allen- Smile
-Scissor Sisters- I Don't Feel Like Dancin'
-Tapes n Tapes- Cowbell
-Jose Gonzalez- Crosses
-Justin Timberlake- My Love
-Nelly Furtado- Maneater
-Thom Yorke- The Eraser
-Corinne Bailey Rae- Put Your Records On
-Keane- Is It Any Wonder?
-The Raconteurs- Steady as She Goes
-Hot Chip- Over and Over (ahahaha oh my gawd, this song is very brainwashing)

There are not much important moments in 2006 in my life I guess, well at least relatively to other years.

Some moments to remember....
1. Velvet Goldmine experience
2. Coldplay, Franz Ferdinand and Oasis Concerts
3. Chasing after Franz Ferdinand after their concert haha (and getting some autographs)
4. Visiting Singapore Biennale 2006 (and collecting the badges haha)
5. First ever drama audition (which I still found quite amusing until now.. especially the dance section)
6. Watching Casino Royale for 2 consecutive days in the theatres
7. Swearing and cursing as I read (with someone) the South Park screenplay haha.

That's all for now. haha

PS. Wish me luck for drama audition tomorrow :)

2006 in review: Movie Posters

Since I'm on the subject of movie posters, I might as well continue on it. So what are your favourite movie posters? Here are my top 5 favourites of the year:

Brick posters set
I really like seeing these posters as a set. I guess they really sets the background and the tone of the movie. Love the originality of the concept.



Little Miss Sunshine
I don't know why, but after watching this show and I take another look at this poster, the line "nobody gets left behind in the movie" comes to my mind. I guess this poster really tells what you can expect from the movie. Fun, exciting and yet emotional family tale. A poster from one of the best movies of 2006.


Pathfinder
I have no idea what this movie will be about. But the poster itself is enough to make people talking. My jaw drops when I saw this poster for the first time. Lots of details to this one. Full view to enjoy it in its most glorious state.

Superman Returns
Whether you hate or love this movie, a Superman fan or not, I guess you'll have a lot to say about this poster. This poster really stands out from the other Superman Posters.

V for Vendetta
This poster's very straight to the point, and I just love the use of mute colours to convey the rebel mood of this movie. If you ever want to give me a movie poster, this would be one great choice :)

Other interesting posters...

Grindhouse Poster

I just love this new poster of a movie called Grindhouse. It will contain 2 feature parts, one directed by Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction) and another by Roberto Rodriguez (Desperado, Sin City).

(image taken from comingsoon.net)