the bleeding child within

'the bleeding child within' is a title of the book vivienne freeman didn't get to write ...

‘snow cake’ is a charming indie film; a collaboration between british + canadian productions. sigourney weaver gave a stellar performance in the flick as linda freeman, an autistic lady, alternating between off putting brashness, engaging honesty + bursting of spontaneous, childlike behaviour.

the movie is character-focused, precise in its arc + just roomy enough to let its performers breathe expand at the languid pace the material demands. it is funny, quirky (in a good way) + ultimately uplifting.

if you like ‘beautiful mind’ or ‘by hook or by crook’, you may like ‘snow cake’.

oh ... and i love the tracks in 'snow cake'!

"same deep water as me" - i am kloot
"alright now” - free
"notteru ondo" - japanese folk song
"deep in the heart of texas" - sigourney weaver
"northern lad" - tori amos
"just looking" - stereophonics
"anthems for a seventeen year old girl" - broken social scene
"let it die" - feist
"hello sunshine" (Radio Edit) - super furry animals

so i leave you with hello sunshine by super furry animals.


have a good weekend y'all!

this weekend, i'm doing 'transformers' with a bunch of excited 28 year olds (tak mengaku 29 tu) ... transformers ... more than meet the eyes! woohoo!!!

i love you optimus prime!

and sapa berani ... gwen stefani @ 21 august 2007, lets yok jom!

she's chuffed to bits, innit

i'm knackered, yet i'm chuffed to tiny bits!

remember last year, when i was going to jakarta, i kept on humming 'antara anyer dan jakarta' + i was real high.

i'm humming the song again + i'm buzzing. astro aruna has now become my closest friend (though i claim i had to give in to bapak, who loves the channel) with cecep from sinetron 'wah cantiknya!!', my latest muse. :op

i can't verbalise what's going on inside but i hope you'll like glenn fredly's cukup sudah. :o)



a certain someone rang me yesterday to remind me. woohoo!!! can't wait for 12 july + 07 september!

note to the other two monkeys: please don't forget to do your homework (hint: bangkok). ampun ya che tiena, i think i've been a gerhana ska cinta friend (i think i've gerhana ska cinta-d to a few friends too), do get well soon.

happy wednesday, peeps!

bumi manusia

to me 'babel' is pure genius.

i can stare at the movie over and over again, and still be amazed at the delivery.

the movie focuses on four interrelated sets of situations + characters, with many of the events revealed out of sequence, all imminently coming toward each other + coalescing as the movie progresses. its mishmash-ed story threads is not a surprise, since 'babel' is directed by the same auteur who gave us '21 grams'.

i've been thinking, it has long been an axiom of the media that bad news sells. given a choice between a mass murder and the construction of a hospital, most people will be drawn towards the massacre. to sell titles, even if its a broadsheet, the press sensationalise bad news, at least in malaysia (zuhri may come to the publishing community's defence just about now, if he reads this).

:op

fine, reporting bad news may be a public duty; but choosing worst case scenarios all the time indicates another motive or agenda. a hint to my dear readers: a worried society is a divided society; anxiety is easier to control than confidence (be careful when met with a persistant war monger).

'babel' subtly depicts the current world climate; much of humanity is returning to the days of witches, anti-christ, and self-willed apocalypse, when most of humanity is actually just trying to make a living.

is there really a terrorist threat?

since 9/11, many western leaders insist that international terrorism is the greatest threat to world security, but the evidence simply does not support this claim. come on ... how can iraq, a country which had suffered years of 'resolution 661' by un security council, create or maintain even its weapons of mass destruction.

what's unfortunate, the so-called war on terror would only spawn new, real terror. don't you think? if only the international muslim community could learn from the american history, specifically the demonisation of the african americans, maybe then we wouldn't fall into the trap.

criticism is prejudice made plausible. mencken said "for every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong". i reckon there are some truth in that, i may be wrong too. menyesal tak buang masa baca this post?

teehehehe!!!

by the way, if you're looking for something to do, drop by galeri petronas for masnoor ramli mahmud's 'bumi manusia' exhibition of paintings with photographic images, which is currently on until 15 july 2007 at the gallery located in suria klcc, on level 3.

the title to the exhibition reminded me to one of pramoedya ananta toer's earlier work, sharing the same title. pramoedya's work has always been intense + there's always a vein of bitterness going through his plots. but reading 'bumi manusia', was like being pushed into a corner while the world was closing in on you. so when i finished, i felt as if i’d just been released from a menacing prison. i walked out, and never went back.

*tiba2 i see myself escaping the cells with michael scofield in prison break*

hi handsome!

maybe i was too young when i initially read it, maybe i misunderstood 'bumi manusia', maybe it's time to revisit.

have a good week ahead, peeps!

very funny, or just peculiar

last month, cambridge university announced that it will be offering courses in etiquette.

you can chart the decline of human civilisation quite nicely in what a generation thinks necessary to teach. goodbye iliad + nash equilibrium, hello elbows off the table + don't pick your nose in public.

we're turning back into monkeys, and cambridge knows it.

so, a question i'd like to pose here: how monkey-nised are we, malaysians?

well, i don't know, you tell me.

i bought this book out of curiousity, over the weekend. londonstani is the debut novel of gautam malkani, a 30-year old not bad looking editor at london's financial times.

phewwit!

and most importantly, the back cover of the book went to describe, "no matter how much jas tries, though, it isn't enough to sleep with (wait for the ayat penting) seriously fit *cough* Samira ..."

maka ... terpaksa beli buku tersebut.

it is necessary to begin with a declaration of biases: je deteste sms shorthand.

it makes me shudder, even when i see it on the screen of a mobile phone (i'll go on a shooting rampage if anyone start sending shorthand texts). i reckon different vernaculars are best conveyed by capturing the choice of diction rather than through spelling words phonetically to convey accents.

so, opening a book to find sentences such as "your glasses r so smashed up u can't count? shud've gone 2 specsavers, innit. how many a us bredren b here?" sets off shrill alarm bells in my head.

neno! neno!

neno! neno!

neno! neno!

londonstani tells a story about certain myths of masculinity that both attract and weigh upon young men, warping their relationship with the world. the novel takes a shotgun approach, blending cultures and aphorisms and pop references at digital speed. the trouble with dumping so many things in a book is that it fractures the reading experience.

nonetheless, i have a sneaking suspicion that londonstani makes a fine novel - for younger male readers, who are familiar with the cockney accent. give this book to 17-year-olds who think novels are musty entities with no bearing on their lives, and you may well find them responding with huge enthusiasm.

in many ways, londonstani is audacious. however, the bloke-ish novel didn't work for me; londonstani makes a good sleeping pill.

sapa nak pinjam?

+ update 22.06.2007+

i feel like posting a song, so here's 'perpisahan' by anuar zain ... cik pms would know the reason behind that song choice


have a good weekend, y'all!

britain's got talent

yes, agus. you're absolutely right. thanks to a lead from a friend, i've been spying "britain's got talent" itv programme. :o)

my favourites from the show:

british beatboxing talents from leeds - crew 82, they've been around + been touring the uk but haven't broken into the main stream. now they've invaded "britain's got talent".

they're brilliant!

i went bonkers listening to them.

ch-ch-check them out!

but it was kombat breakers, the talents from coventry who brought tears to my eyes. sebab pernah work with kids like them kot gwe emosi terlebih or perhaps, what simon said to them about being incredible role models.

... and adorable george with his aspiration ...

... bessie curzon's audition as well. she's definitely a west end material.

i just love damon scott's bubbles .... rather hilarious!

but you have to listen to the blingest grandma rap! ... she's funny as well.



if you're not familiar with free running, here's a group of free runners from essex who auditioned. free running was inspired by parkour, an art of movement, which was born in france. if you noticed in the introduction to the movie "casino royale", there was this dude running, freeflowing around urban constructions, he adopted parkour techniques.

the mancunians were embracing the parkour + free running movement, as i was leaving the city centre. so the boys in this clip brought back memories.

anyways, good weekend + good week ahead, y'all!

+ updated 18.06.07 + the programme ended on sunday + paul potts, the carphone warehouse singer below, won!

+ updated 19.06.07 + a quickie update, i missed the post stupe had on his alumni dinner, got my picture below! phewwit! as usual, i songlap the picture sesedap hati without permission. :op

hi stupe! good to see you + wifey again. can't believe ryan is 10 kg @ 7 months old!

awesome talent

i was reduced to tears, the carphone warehouse salesman blew me away. check him out!

+ update +

azean irdawati is down with breast cancer + is short of cash for the mastectomy operation. if you or anyone you know wish to chip in + help out. buzz me for her details.

no storm lasts forever

"badai pasti berlalu" is a remake of 1978 indonesian movie with the same title. the original movie was directed by teguh karya, and teddy soeriaatmadja directs the remake.

it tells a story about siska, who's heart was broken once when her fiancé cheated on her + since, she had turned bitter + cold towards men. when she pulls her courage to love again, she got hurt-ed again, and again ... kesian.

the director tried to fit too much into the 90 minutes, he failed to allow siska's story with helmi, a conman, grow, so much so i forgot to hate helmi. one scene in this remake reminded me of "cinema paradiso", well it's actually an exact photocopy of the scene from "cinema paradiso". kantoi!!!!

hehe!

if you girls want something light on a lazy sunday afternoon, i'd recommend the movie (not for the boys, they would tear their hair out watching the flick ... but brucie should see the movie, since the door to his heart had been bulldozed, i bet he can 'feel'). i wouldn't recommend mummy-o see this film though, bekos she'll definitely use up all tissue papers in the house. :op


another reason i think "badai pasti berlalu" would appeal to most readers, especially them who appreciate all things beautiful is vino goivanni bastian ...

owh!

sapa nak pinjam DVD (original ok, not bajakan) to drool over vino sila register diri di sini (this offer applies to both boys + girls).

:op

ipang - 'ada yang hilang' from OST Realita, Cinta, dan Rock 'n' Roll.

feng tau nation

i haven't been doing any feng tau since the salem genting rave party in 2004. al-maklum, dah tua. last saturday, kawan punya pasal, i feng tau-ed. that same evening (or morning, rather), i made another record ... things i've done before turning 30 now includes berbaring di tengah jalan, bersebelahan one utama + lari lintang pukang apabila kerata datang menghampiri. a moral police, upon reading my post, may group me with the others in feng tau nation + label us as 'rosak akhlak' or 'social'. a cool snob may cringe at the confession of my latest things-i've-done-before-turning-30 input.

i on the other hand, i don't think its fair to judge people by them superficials. what's important to me is that a person have a good heart, they have the best intentions + they don't intentionally hurt others.

live life to the fullest (how ever you define it)!

kaer - 'izin ku pergi'

be careful what you wish for ...

thursday evening, thinking that i was hilariously funny (yes! i know, au contraire ... like daftness to the core), i wrote these lyrics on cik pms's comment box ...

i'm going to find a grill to close my heart,
from the ugly and the hurt,
that can come from people you care most,
i'm going to find the grill,
and call a locksmith,

mmm tak mmm mmm tak <- beatboxing

scratch! scratch! scratch! <- garu tangan

this morning, i was locked out of office. thanks very much to her royal highness (read: myself) leaving her set of keys inside the office, the night before.

the office clan had gone straight to cyberjaya, putrajaya + bangi. i had to prepare for an 11 a.m. + 3 p.m. ... having considered all options, the best solution would be to call the locksmith.

and so i called a locksmith... no, i did not fix any grill on my heart.

lesson learnt:

be careful what you wish for
'cause you just might get it all
you just might get it all
and then some you don't want
be careful what you wish for
'cause you just might get it all
you just might get it all, yeah

sekian, untuk makluman.

life, interrupted

the last time i saw zt was when wes borland was here + that was a few days before my hair went 'frizzy'.

zt came home for a week, last week, to pack baby zaara off to the uk. she managed to squeeze us into her tight schedule last thursday.

hung out with mummy-o + daddy-o both friday + saturday evenings, the lepak sessions was laced with giggle-fest + fart-fest ... err ... did i just say, fart-fest? you know, when you're no longer a semi-alien, why do friends' boyfriend + hubby burp + fart + snore freely when you're a guest? (and i'm not talking about daddy-o)

for the record, since i was brought up to be prim + proper, i was badly traumatised by the assault ok!

*sniffle*
we saw noryn aziz at alexis + most importantly "pirates of the carribean: at world's end".

OMG!!! will turner is very the hemsem!!! especially when he was at flying dutchman's helm. will must perform his duty for 10 years at sea, not allowed to set foot on land until the 10 years are up. i think if i were elizabeth, i'd be ok with the arrangement.

*berangan*
to me the latest instalment of the pirates of the carribean delivers its 'umph!' only at the final hour (time tu laa nak pegi loo! demmit!), the earlier parts were rather gorged + self-indulgent. nonetheless, the movie was wildly entertaining.

saw "hors de prix" with tiena + agus on sunday, not before having to suffer dave's deli food + getting confused because an absent someone decided to get emotional. i recommended the movie because i've seen many of audrey tautou's work + she's always been brilliant, so you can never go wrong with one of her movies.

from the poster, the title (’priceless’) and the opening credits, there is no mistaking that you are about to watch some light romantic comedy. in the style of quatre etoiles, we get to see audrey tautou playing the cynical seductress in a world of superficial wealth.

hors de prix is the cinema equivalent of that timeless fascination with watching the little bubbles in your glass of champagne as they rise; you know where it’s going, you know where it comes from, but it seems like magic none the less.

chop! i know because i've worked in a restaurant + bar tendered (back at university); in simple english i don't drink!

:op

i leave you with 'kangen' by maliq + d'essentials


p.s. there's a wedding this weekend ... imran + asma are tying the knot + don't have anything in lilac. erk ... shopping time!!!!

i know what you did last weekend

originally uploaded by riz ainuddin, songlap-ed without permission by wegra.

i want to wish daddy-o a happy birthday!

didn't have the chance to wish him today, dok run around macam orang gila, baru now i get to sit + take a breathe (tammau call now, takoot interupt his hot date ngan mummy-o), but i know he secretly reads my blog + both him + mummy-o won't bocorkan my 'shining black + bling2 gold' rahsia. hep!!!! shhh!!!!!

so happy birthday, da-dad!

yang benar,

the forever21 kak wegra (to arina)