Settling in...

Heya guys, i've been away for some time yeah. Just got my internet connection. So far so good. The weather here is pretty nice except the afternoons when it gets scorching. Been really busy with orientation programmes as well. There're just too many activities. I've made some really nice friends as well...they're awesome. Miss home a lot. It gets a little depressing sometimes when I wake up to a different ceiling in the mornings. But I trust I'll do my best here and people are generally nice. I've signed up for my first sem's units. I'm doing English, Anthropology & Sociology, Ancient History and European Studies. Get to watch films as part of the curriculum for 2 of the units. =p hehehe... Anywayz, I'll get back to y'all soon...gotta run again. Take care! Hope you've all been good...

In transit...

I don't really know what to say this time round. I've been debating the matter over and over for the last week or so. I guess for starters, please accept my apologies if I haven't or will not be visiting the usual blogging circle for a while at the moment. Reason being I'll be busy settling in Perth, hunting for internet and phone connections and surviving orientation programmes. But I'll be back as soon as I get connected to the www and have got some time to myself.

I'm going to miss a lot about home. There're a million things I could talk about in regards to that. But I'm just going to keep at that right now. Take care everyone! Love to all my buddies...

I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to all the friends(and friends of my parents) who came today. We had a prayer for well-being in the morning. It's a religious tradition with my family(and most muslims) that we have the event whenever someone is about to embark on a journey of sorts. And mine will begin soon. We also had a huge cook-out today to commemorate the occassion. Friends arrived good-naturedly with sincere well-wishes...and presents and cash as well...hurhurhur =)

Went clubbing on the night of Valentine's Day with 2 of my wackiest buddies, Jo and Deena. Had a fantastic time, girls! Even though the music and the crowd sucked at some moments, there were several gems that made the night totally fun in the end. We club hopped from China Black to Tha Wu Bar. We had intended to go to Double0 but it was too crowded and the long line outside didn't show signs of diminishing. After the dancing and the partying, we headed back at 2 am. Deena back to her place and Jo bunking over at mine. After cleaning ourselves up, we had a good long chat over potato chips and mugs of ice cool water. Single's valentines ;)

I caught Chicago yesterday on a sneak preview and totally love it. It's possibly the best film I've caught so far this year(together with The Quiet American). It inspired a lot of thoughts and emotions(mostly giddy exhiliration) and that completely did it for me. This is probably my last film dissection before I leave for Perth. As usual, just my two cents worth(warning: some spoilers ahead)...

Chicago is charged but not extremely flamboyant. It is exuberant and stylish without falling victim to a trap of grotesquely stylized generic classification in film material. It is subversive without being cheesy. And any corniness on their part obviously belies a purpose. To put it simply, Chicago scaled a very fine line between being a magnificent cinematic opus and a completely overcooked ham. And consequently audiences may love it or hate it.

The premise is simple enough. Roxie Hart is a naïve wannabe stage performer who’s addicted to jazz, booze, decadence and most treacherous of all, her hunger for publicity. Her obsession with the limelight is apparent in her constant drifting into a fervent imagination dripping in song, acts and stage performances. But her survival instincts get a jolt and the true Roxie emerges when her even more blatantly guileless husband, Amos Hart(the amazing John C Reily), rats on her when he unceremoniously discovers that she was having an affair with the object of her murder. A passion turned sour when she realizes that she’s being used as just another piece of ass. Charged with murder, Roxie is sent to a women’s prison together with other notorious murderesses of Illinois where she meets Matron “Mama” Morton(the irrepressible Queen Latifah) and runs into the delectable and vivacious Velma Kelly(Catherine Zeta-Jones), a famous jazz performer convicted of murdering her sister and her husband whom she caught in a compromising situation together. She is the killer whom the public adores. Petrified of being found guilty and getting the death penalty, Roxie gets Billy Flynn(Richard Gere), Illinois’s best criminal lawyer to do her case. A conflict of interests is manifested, as Billy also happens to be Velma’s lawyer. A series of intrigue, theatrics and dance and song ensues as the plot thickens and unfolds to climatic proportions.

Renee Zellweger’s portrayal of the little, blonde minx with a lethal ambition is priceless. It’s even more captivating than her go as Bridget Jones. Catherine Zeta-Jones totally swings as Velma, a truly devious diva with a vengeance. Richard Gere’s singing and dancing…er…talents are competent enough but he shines as the self-obsessed, attention-seeking attorney, Billy. It is a collaboration of three-dimensional, multi-faceted characters and an ensemble cast of some of the most talented actors and performers to date including Taye Diggs, Mya , Lucy Liu and Dominic West to name a few more.

The film is rampant with the theme of publicity and the obsession to attain it, even by less honourable means. All the world is a stage, where acts and the right choice of words can mould truths, half truths and lies to conform the public opinion. In one way or another, everyone's a performer which is not just a comment on acting as an art but on the seedy capabilities of ordinary people and society also. To me, the film celebrates the strength of womanhood as well where women prevail after bad spells. With fantastic performances, cheeky innuendo and (gun)loads of charm, Chicago is a crowd pleaser with wit and sophistication that can cajole the most discerning and jaded of movie viewers into, at least, tapping toes to the music. It is a heady and sensuous musical concoction of intrigue, crime, sex, decadence, womanhood, dark glamour and all that jazz…..

I'm a little sad and disappointed. Two significant plans that I've been making isn't exactly turning out like I had hoped. A lot of absentees. I really appreciate the friends who make time for them. Thanks, guys. I owe you a lot. I guess I'm taking this a little more to heart because it could be the last time we get to hang out and just have a blast together. Can't just make them do it on a whim I guess...

On a more jovial note, my niece turns 3 today. She's so cute. She loves blowing the candles out. She gets some kinda kick outta it. So we did about 3 to 4 rounds of that before indulging in the sinfully rich and thick chocolate fudge cake. I tell ya. It's so so wrong on so many levels. Think she shares the same birth date as Jennifer Aniston and Sheryl Crow. Which is cool cuz I harbour desires of her becoming rich, famous and powerful. Bwahaha.

This is an intensely interesting film which I thought to share with you guys a bit:

Russian Ark- 2000 actors. 300 years of Russian history. 33 rooms of the Hermitage Museum. 3 live orchestras. 1 single continuous shot... that's right folks, the 96 mins film is made in just 1 single shot. It's not only the longest movie but also the only motion picture in history to be made in a single(get this), single take. Now this is something I'm holding my breadth for. Hope it gets to Singapore...and Perth too! =) Watch the trailer, HERE.

The protagonist, a 19th century French diplomat, ushers the audience through the magnificent spaces of the Hermitage spinning tales of the real and fictional characters from Russian and European history.

Later than midnight and waaaay past my bed time:
The Oscar nominations are out. The usual contenders stand; The Pianist, Chicago, Adaptation, Gangs of New York, About Schmidt, The Hours, Far From Heaven, The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers, Pedro Almodovar's Talk To Her and I welcome these underrated fighters, Road to Perdition and Frida. Nowhere In Africa is once again nominated for Best Foreign Film but Talk To Her looms dangerously over that category. And get this pple...Gangs of New York and My Big Fat Greek Wedding are actually nominated for Best Original Screenplay...who the hell let the dawgs out??
For the complete list of nominations, get yourself to Oscar.com.

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck turn their backs from director, Gus Van Sant dejectedly as they prepare a scene from the sequel to their former collaboration and it's entitled Hunting Season. Gus continues to count the millions of dollars in his possession by the side of the stage.

Ben Affleck(sarcastically): You're a true artist, Gus...

Matt Damon: Just take from it, it's a good course.

Ben: What. You're the director now?

Matt: Hey shove it, Bounce boy. Just remember who talked me into doing this shit in the first place. I mean talking me into Dogma is one thing but...

Ben(interrupting): Hey sorry if I dragged you away from whatever gay serial killer who rides horses and likes to play golf touchy feely picture you're gonna do this week.

Matt: I take it that you haven't seen Forces of Nature.

Ben(chiding): You're like a child. What do I keep telling you? You gotta do the safe picture and then you do the art picture. Then sometimes you gotta do the payback picture cuz your friend says you owe him.

Both actors then stare into the camera pointedly.

Ben: Then sometimes you gotta go back to the well.

Matt: Yeah and sometimes to do your Reindeer Games.

Ben: See...that's just mean.

I can't help but post that up. I find that part from Kevin Smith's Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back too hilarious! Kevin Smith rockz my dvd collection. Anyhoo, been away for a while now cuz the pace is picking up. I've got less than 2 weeks before I head off to Perth and hence been really busy buying stuff, packing and hanging out with loved ones.

I caught Final Destination 2 with Jo today and it's pretty good. Being a sequel, the death scenes were choreographed more elaborately and there was more gore, all in a bid to outdo its predecessor. Admittedly, they were rivetting and not to mention bold and rather shocking but it scaled the thin line between being astounding and just overdoing it. And that's quite a serious consequence since what I love and appreciate about the first film was its subtlety and sense of mystery; where each and every incident was a lethal coincidence and Death worked behind the curtains so to speak. Death was metaphysical then. In Final Destination 2, the supernatural aspects were being played up.

The movie pretty much keeps the idea from the first film as well as the characters' common objective(to stay a-live! bwahahaha!) but includes a new perspective into Death's Design, how to bend the rules to cheat it again and how and why the characters are involved in this sinister entanglement that started from the tragic demiss of Flight 180(from the previous one). However, I had also hoped that this time around, the movie would explain about the premonitions. Like how and more importantly why Kimberly(the protagonist portrayed by A.J Cook), like Alex(Devon Sawa from the first), was having them. And what enabled her to have access to such visions. It's just a thought of mine...perhaps Kimberly(as well as Alex) was given these clues by an opposite entity, the Fate of Good maybe, to counteract the malevolent forces of Death? After all, the chain of events do stem from the basic process of cause and effect. So it'd be interesting if the film makers had dealt with that for a bit.

Personally, I do prefer the first Final Destination but it didn't stop me from enjoying this installment also. A couple of corny moments mar it a little and the ending(which is kinda corny too) is not as staggering as its predecessor but it's worth well the attention. Well, just my 2 cents worth of attention anyway...

It was such a stupid and trivial disagreement. I can't help but be perplexed at how such a meaningless vessel of impatience turned out to be the receptacle that collected all the pent up tension and anger like puddles of dirty rainwater in a clogged drain. It was nothing...or at least it started as nothing. A careless gesture, a lot of hurtful words and a mounting frustration led to a heated quarrel; like the metamorphosis of a naughty elusive imp into a fiery and tangible phantom. Things escalated and we had a serious problem in the end. I hurt her badly, the one person whom I always try my hardest not to. And like someone who doesn't care, I walked out on my mother. I created the chaos, and in its wake I couldn't stand to stay.

It's my fault. I don't give in sometimes when I should. And sometimes when I want to change to a different direction from the hellish path we're already on, it's too late. The damage has been done. But in light of all of this, she had hurt me too...