Archive for July, 2007
amidst hurried meetups and forgone pedicures, i finally have time and internet access to sit down and blog. it has been a crazy week that has spared no mercy, not even for newspaper-time. and if there is anything i absolutely HAVE to do every day, lest i go batshit, it is to read the newspaper. and i have been going batshit - 6 days’ worth of newspapers are sitting on the shelf behind me waiting to be read. 6 days!!! isnt that outrageous! nowander i’ve been feeling like something’s missing from my life lately. i’m actually quite excited to finish this post so that i can dive into that inviting pile of news and not-quite-news, heehee.
the Festival was awesome. musicians from all around the world descended onto the town of Kuching for 3 days to play to an audience that came from all around the world as well. be it borne of the ukulele or the erhu or the djembe, music is universal, as is the love for it. and so for those 3 days, we all linked arms and laughed and danced to drumbeats with friends and strangers alike. the whole experience was like a high that strips one of all troubles and worries. i totally enjoyed it. will definitely be going back next year if circumstances permit :)
pictures!
#1 beautiful women dancing
#2 happy crowd
#3 this guy was perhaps the 7th or 8th person i saw wearing this tshirt on the first day itself! by the time i saw him, i thought enough is enough! i must start collecting pictures of people with this tshirt!
#4 arun from kl
#5 Andy the photographer/dancer/percussionist
#6 the tshirts all say, ‘I’m A Virgin (this is a really old shirt)’
#7 Mr Nice Host Kenny doing the Mummy!
#8 a funny and rolypoly guy who was dancing with a beercan on his head. unfortunately the beercan fell before this picture was taken
#9 me and a giant heineken! too bad for asian flush =(
#10 kenny and a giant heineken!
#11 me with waifon and faiz. best company ever!
#12 .. when they’re not busy texting, that is :P
#13 massive crowd on Day 2
#14 massive crowd on Day 2 again
#15 oh, the effort it took to get this picture!
#16 you want water, not beer! you want water, not beer!
#17 ohmygod the amount of trash left behind! what’s wrong with you ppl! boycott!
#18 this picture took some effort because very hard to balance on that kayu
#19 this one took some effort too because people kept walking in front of the camera selftimer!!11 *geram
#20 on the last day with Waifon. she is so much fun to be with! :)
#21 sigh, men! so easy to please them!
#22 sigh, women! so easy to please them!
#23 BEST DRINK IN THE WORLD
#24 hahahaha Sharizal saw this from across the lake and instantly knew it was me. wtf!
#25 batteries finally konk
#26 ladies
#27 revelling in sweat, good music and good friends
#28 crowd
#29 Aseana Percussion Unit. you make us proud :)
#30 me with Christy, the Angelina Jolie twin!
#31 remember him! this is the guy from picture #8! but with a new tattoo this time
#32 the kinkybluefairy, dispenser of tuak!
#33 Darren and i
#34 Mr Excellent Host Who Feeds Me Ipoh Biscuits At Night :)
#35 and the festival draws to an end
(i’d hate to have to watermark my photos so please dont take any without asking me first.)
it was a great weekend :) very eye-opening, in more ways than one. it’s funny how you can learn so much in such a short time.
July 20th, 2007
happy birthday julian.
July 18th, 2007
i believe it now - Friday the 13th is completely and totally deserving of its wretched reputation. this vile day could barely wait to unleash upon us unsuspecting souls its torrents of misfortune; calamity struck as early as midnight today. and this niagara of tragedy has just been cascading relentlessly the entire day, showing no sign of letting up or shutting up. sigh. i am chagrined, but i will persevere. there is a pot of Pocky at the end of the road less traveled. good things come to those who perfect the pinched smile. and other happy clappy adages that will get me through this Friday the 13th malady in one piece.
despite missing two flights in a row and suffering horrible symptoms of sleep deprivation, i am safe and sound in Kuching, blogging from a pink guest bed, having just returned from a long night out partying at Day 1 of the Rainforest World Music Festival. all the rumours are true, by the way - the Rainforest Festival is fantastic. no amount of crankiness and fatigue could mitigate the awesomeness of dancing exuberantly - like you just dont give a fuck about anything - to music of foreign cultures with friendly, smiling people of all nationalities. nevermind that some danish guy tried to kiss me twice while palming my tush; it is events like this that remind me of how world peace is not an impossible goal to strive for.
but more on the Rainforest Festival some other time, perhaps after i arrive home in kl, and after i understand fully what is going on with the nathaniel tan case. for now, i leave you with photos of my hong kong ‘do a couple of days ago :
at an alley in central
Krispy Kreme’s delivery car!
why not, i always say; when you have to, you have to
the mid-levels escalator; a facilitator of many a lingering kiss for people standing on the right. and when they storm up the left side, it means they are sulking, and that their boyfriends should be nice to them and give them many cuddles
a cop playing with his PSP on the job. i kid. it’s some fancy schmancy law enforcer inspectogadget that beeps and leads you to cars that are double parked illegally
the fruit vendor we always pass by, where we once bought longans, where we once bought papaya, where i once bought a pear that was a peace offering
from the pier at Lamma Island
on said pier
a lady selling cookies at Lamma - the coconut ones are yummy but not the peanut ones!
a view
there is desire even without grass
little houses at Lamma. totally TVB
dont really know what that grey thing is
frightened overpriced fish
dusk at Lamma Island
boats
me with tung lai cha (iced milk tea)
supply is a lovely thing. they have automatic doors too
oh Vitasoy. we will one day be reunited!
view of the morning from the window in the guest room that i will no longer see again
July 14th, 2007
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is without a doubt the best Potter movie of the 5 released thus far.
David Yates directed this one, and it’s his first time helming a Harry Potter flick. i havent seen any of his work prior to this, and because the directors of previous Potter movies were highly disappointing (sigh yes even Cuaron), i didnt expect too much out of this one.
but i was won over within the first minute of the movie! Yates’ style is clearly quite different from those of the previous movies, and it was lovely to indulge in that gorgeous indie mood at the beginning of the movie. i was just so wowed by the playground scene and the Dursley’s living room scene; they were shot in such a down-to-earth and simplistic manner, and really showed how bleak and uncolorful the Muggle world is compared to the wizarding world.
and then when the movie phased into Hogwarts and the wizarding world! oh my god! what is not to love about those broomstick scenes where they flew across London in the night! and when Mr Weasley brought Harry to the Ministry of Magic via the phonebooth! they were totally fabulous displays of cinematography and special effects, and a fantastic segueing into the grandiosity of the sets and scenes to come.
i thought the screenplay was actually not bad. it is only to be expected that many things will be omitted from the book, and i think they did a pretty good job of compressing a 700something-page book into a 2hr 20minute movie. the plot was intact and easy to follow, without making the audience feel like they were being led by the hand. key events like Ron and Hermione being made prefect (and thus alienating Harry even further) were plucked out, but the point to get across here was that Harry felt alone, and they tied up that loose end nicely with the conversation between him and Luna.
ooh, Luna! the girl who played her got the loopy airyness down to a perfect 10. i’ve been hearing so much about how she’s fantastic and born to play Luna Lovegood, but i didnt believe it till i watched the movie. she is really that good. cant say the same for Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, though. the former was never good to begin with, and the latter’s talent is slowly fading. it’s as if they are being swallowed by the movie; as the stars of the show, they do absolutely nothing to command the movie and make their presence felt.
and let’s not even talk about Michael Gambon who plays Dumbledore. i have never liked him and i dont understand why they still keep him around. why does he have to hunch like that! and is it just me or does he always stand tilted to the left! but Imelda Staunton as Dolores Umbridge was awesome. you really did feel like you wanted to slap her.
besides the Weasley twins’ exit, i also really liked the final battle scene at the Department of Mysteries. it was exactly how i pictured it when i read the book! but i wish it had been longer. the battle was over way too quickly, and although i thought Sirius’ death could have been hammed up a little more, he left us suddenly and unexpectedly, just like how it was in the book. totally didnt see it coming and i thought that was great. though i must say the relationship between Harry and Sirius wasnt developed too well in the movie due to book-to-movie constraints, and thus the emotional magnitude of Sirius’ death would have been lost on audience members who havent read the book. but for those of us who have, it was a total SIIIIIGH moment :(
hmm what else. i liked the flying aeroplanes. and even though Draco Malfoy was totally ke le feh, that didnt stop me from sighing lustfully everytime he came onscreen! we also started singing ‘I’m Too Sexy For My Shirt’ and whispering lines from Potter Puppet Pals when Snape made his appearance. hahahaha! Severus Snape, we do love you! we can still quote Bothering Snape verbatim.
and omg the Cho/Harry kiss! EVERYONE started groaning, not just us okay. sieutheng wanted to throw popcorn at the screen hahaha. noise we made during the kiss scene :
Cho : oh harry! you’re such a good teacher!
Us : oh harry! you’re such a good teacher! spank me!
Us : hahahahaha
Cho : *conjures up mistletoe* look, mistletoe!
Us : shut up lah it’s not even christmas!
and many other silly things. haha why are we so like that. and actually i have to go pack for my weekend trip now, so sampai sinilah coretanku untuk tatapan saudara-saudari. bottom line is that this movie was actually quite good! worth the watch, most definitely. and thou shalt all wear black to watch the flick like we did :
i’ll be heading to Kuching in a couple of hours for the Rainforest Festival that’s taking place this weekend. who’s going? gimme a ring if you will be there, or drop me a line at my email addy. then we can all partay together :) and take lots of photos, but of course.
edit : i missed my flight grrrrrrr. thank goodness the next flight still has seats. i swear i need to stop doing this being late thing.
July 12th, 2007
there are so many things i wanna say. yet i dunno how to say it. mostly things about what i feel inside but also things that happened. i wanna talk about that moment. that moment which is now a blank just before it happened. i don’t remember that moment. it’s a blank flash of white light which i could only circumvent but not get into. this is the moment before su ann gives me the scrapbook. nature has its way of clasping us to autopilot so that we are not overwhelmed by a big event that is about to envelop us. which explains this amnesia. it’s restricted. it’s not a glitch in the system, it’s for some reason just a delibrately disallowed, faint, concrete wall of unathorised access.
i realise now it is entitled “one year of everything”. i realise now the hole of the g’s on the pasted “hong kong” are coloured by black ink and not cut out, perhaps in a short fit of playfulness/rush the g-holes have eyes atop them. i now can connect that little bit of clue delivered to me by her giggly laughs on the junkboat, that “i once drew that building”, referring to I.M Pei’s iconic bank of china building, to the actual drawing in the scrapbook, bigger to me than the actual building itself, and on the same page also a drawing of the said junkboat, sailing from beneath where we stood back on to the scrapbook. there is a big cutout of a bowl of cendol complete with representations of brown sugar and shaved ice and lovely writings of sweet nothings so apt in its place. i saw the next day, as i returned to read it, that she wasn’t supposed to write on the blue cendol bowl. how could i have committed the sin of not laughing, with her beside me, at something which to me is so funny. now that moment is gone.
how did i feel before she gave it to me? how did i feel as she brought it out? as i held it in my hand? did i see her disappear and re-appear again with that scrapbook, which seems to feel like something life-saving? has she sussed out everything about this my frequent lapse into and snapping out of blurness? i’m gonna treasure this all my life and im gonna employ the oft-used cliche that words are beyond me. but i wish i had that moment back. of realising something big was about to happen, to cherish it just 2 seconds longer than however long it lasted.
happy anniversary, su ann. i love u. here’s to many many many many many many many many manyyyyyyyyyyy more crazy & love-filled years together.
July 9th, 2007
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