|
 CATEGORIES ::
>
Blah!
>
Movies, Music, Guitars & Comics
>
Moviemaking Muppet Madness
>
Downloads
>
Fiction
>
Random Research
>
Recollections
>
Friends & Foes
>
Shocking Asia BLOOD, SWEAT N' TEARS ::
>
FYI Entertainment
>
FYI Studios
>
Y2k
>
Triple 6 Poser
>
Ciplak
>
A Girl Named Jane ONLINE PRESENCE ::
>
Friendster
>
MySpace
>
Flickr FRIENDS' BLOGS ::
>
Albert
>
Az
>
Cynthia
>
Debbie
>
Eddy
>
Effigy
>
Helenasia
>
Izuwan
>
Jordan
>
Kevin
>
Pete Teo
>
Rina
>
Shelley
>
The Visitor |
Another Day In Paralysis...
...geddit? The whole pun thing, since it should read 'Another day in Paradise', like that song? Geddit? Geddit? ... You're no fun. So I'm sitting here, staring at my pink (yes, pink, although some would argue magenta) iMac piece-of-shit, wondering how I ended up with it. They changed my old iMac after my constant complains. And what did they change it to? An exact same model, except pink. Hasn't crashed, though. Yet. I'm not enjoying this whole 'Mac' business, not in the least. When I first came in it was a G4, and for something that big I expected a lot more besides a flashy interface and a really nice screen. Now I'm running on OS8 with 6GB of hard drive space. Excuse whilst my nipples lactate with delight. These fuckers are expensive. At a quarter (or even a fifth) of the price of a standard powerbook, I've already upgraded my PC desktop to pick up radio transmissions from extra-terrestrial species. This fucking Mac is still trying to come to terms with having Microsoft Word, Internet Explorer and Outlook open at the same time whilst playing Az's album. Ah, yes. Az's album. Marvellous. Simply marvellous. So marvellous, I'm quite sure I misspelt marvellous. Let's have a look: ooh! I was correct. What luck. But yes. If you have a chance, pick up 'acoustic gestures' by Az Samad. Beautiful acoustic guitar fingerpicking. I've always loved 'train to ericland' and 'latah setinggan'. 'Lagu royalti belum datang' is fast becoming one of my all time favourites, but then again, I never get a chance to listen past track 7, 'berjalan bersamamu'. Oh, and Az? If you're reading? I owe you RM30 and 'senja mula menangis' has officially made my top ten 'songs to commit suicide to'. It's that depressing. In a good way. Better to have an effect on the listener, they'll remember you longer and want to have your babies. Not that I want to have your babies. Unless they're on sale. My journey through MySpace has been interesting. I've always found the way people pose for webcams interesting. Strange how years ago the common roughed-up element in a photo was grain. Now it's pixels. As for the workload... it's died down considerably. Although, like some of you may have noted before, these are always the calm quiet moments before the storm that remind Gary Oldman of Beethoven. Give it a few days. A week tops. And I'll be ranting and raving to the absolute annoyance of Debbie. Unless I discuss udder fondling.
|
1.12.04 05:40
|
|
Mad But True...
...yeah.
I was gonna write about P.Ramlee today, but work caught up with me. So instead, I thought I'd bore you with silly facts that you probably heard about way before you read this.
Enjoi.
In Lebanon men are legally allowed to have sex with animals, but the animals must be female. Having sexual relations with a male animal is punishable by death.
However, recent research has proven that some animals are in fact homosexual and occasionally like it up the batty.
In Bahrain, a male doctor may legally examine a woman's genitals, but is prohibited from looking directly at them during the examination. He may only see their reflection in a mirror.
Supposedly because when an exposed sexual organ is seen through a mirror, it's much less sexually stimulating. Sounds kinda like the 'if you don't remember cheating on your girlfriend, it never happened' rule.
Muslims are banned from looking at the genitals of a corpse. This also applies to undertakers; the sex organs of the deceased must be covered with a brick or piece of wood at all times.
Speaking as a Muslim who's attended a couple funerals, I really don't remember seeing this in action.
The penalty for masturbation in Indonesia is decapitation.
Of which head?
There are men in Guam whose full-time job is to travel the countryside and deflower young virgins, who pay them for the privilege of having sex for the first time. Reason: under Guam law, it is expressly forbidden for virgins to marry.
I wonder if they have namecards with 'Virgin Surgeon' as their job description...
|
2.12.04 10:31
|
|
New and Improved Salsa: Pecan Flavoured
It's 11:54am, and so far I've discovered how frosted glass is made (it's a sticker!), suffered from an odd headache and surfed around MySpace trying to find interesting people to get to know from Sydney so that maybe this upcoming holiday won't be the usual family affair. As much as I like discovering new countries, my mom's itinerary often means we stay at a spot way longer than I'd like, turning what was an enjoyable visit to a historical and cultural spot into the dullest experience since that dream I had of being a black drape in a minimalist theatre performance. The ticket's been booked for just before Christmas, and I want to see more than Koala Bears and Kangaroos. I want to see the city, live it and breath it, discover its people and search for guitars and skate spots. I want to find out why Australian's wouldn't give a Castlemain XXXX for anything else. The weekend was a pretty standard fare. Y2k played an acoustic set at MPH for that Christmas album, much to the disturbance of young children everywhere. We also found out that we were supposed to be on Entertainment Now last night, but our footage got cut by the censorship boards. Could it be because of our masks? What's wrong with masks! Amuk wears a goddamn mask, let me wear one! Shi-ite. This post is dull. Not to worry. I shall go forth and search for something disturbing and perverse and post it up, and you shall laugh the laugh of laughy people. Or perhaps not.
|
6.12.04 05:07
|
|
Dangerously Exposed...
...but not in a naked way.
So I've been sitting in my new spot in my new office for a while now, and have come to a conclusion:
I don't like it.
I feel dangerously exposed, sat here. The man who believes himself to be my big boss continously glances at me as he walks past, his eyes speaking volumes. And he walks past a lot. There's a pillar behind me which I thought was cool, but now it seems everyone feels the need to walk behind me, between my seat and the pillar, to get to the other side as opposed to walking around me, which would be the more polite thing to do. And of course, the worst of all: I haven't got much work to do. And with all this unwanted exposure I'm sure everyone, the big boss, the little boss, the bees and the birds are all thinking the same thing:
"Is surfing the net the only thing that little fucker does?"
They didn't see me when I was rushing about like a headless chicken before, did they? No, I was too below the radar back then. Now I'm out in the open, and a subject of scrutiny. I told you about the little 'chat' the big boss poseur had with me, didn't I? 'Tis only the beginning. I can see it in his eyes. He wants to eat my babies.
If I had any, that is.
It's amazing how long a day takes when you have nothing to do. My stomach is filled with gas, as it has been for the past week or so, and I haven't had an appetite for just as long. The tooth still hurts, and the decision has been made in my cranium to never step foot in that hacks chair for as long as I live.
Unless I want free pain killers.
|
6.12.04 09:13
|
|
Actor, Writer, Director, Comedian, Singer, Composer...
...ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the late great P. Ramlee.  To the uninitiated, P. Ramlee was, and still is, the greatest actor, writer, director, comedian, singer & composer of our time in Malaysia. And no-one has even come close to at the very least replicating this multiple award winners talent: 359 songs as singer, songwriter, composer and/or musician, 66 films as actor, screenwriter and/or film director, 1 stageplay as director and writer, 1 stage drama as director and 2 television dramas as actor and director. He's won so many awards I'm not even gonna bother writing them all out, and not all of them were just in Malaysia or South East Asia. His last award was for 'Ibu Mertua Ku' ('My Mother-in-Law') in 1965 at the World Film Festival in Paris. His movies have won best picture, best actor(s) & actress(es), best cinematography, best musical score, best screenplay, Jesus, he's won them all! Not even Hollywood's greatest got shit on this dude. But to me, he's much more than that.
He's also the man that taught me how to speak Malay.
Back when I was about five and still in London with a pippy British accent, it was his movies that prepared me to speak my mother tongue. My parents would watch the movies with other Malay friends from the Embassy, and I'd watch from the sides, trying to figure bits out, reading the English subtitles which were originally put in for the British collonials.
I bet my parents didn't expect me to learn so fast. They weren't too pleased when I exclaimed, "Kepala hotak engkau!"
(N.B. This literally translates to 'your mother's head brain!', which sounds silly, but in Malay is an insult akin to 'your mom's so stupid she thought the London Underground was a terrorist movement!')
Once I had a firm grasp of the language, I'd watch his movies non-stop, beginning with his comedies, which were so whacked-out hillarious I'd be rolling on the floor non-stop. His humor was surreal, he often fucked around with the regular conventions of cinema, often breaking down the 'fourth wall' to hilarious effect. The fact that he came up with these comedies bac in the forties, fifties and sixties is testament to his genius. He'd often work with the same group of guys, doing series' of films based on certain characters that, after their first film, would be well established, almost as if he was inventing his own Three Stooges. But these weren't slapstick bungling bozos. One of the best would be his 'Bujang Lapuk' series of films ('bachelor's, I think). These were everyday guys, looking for a break, getting themselves into flat out funny situations time after time again, and not once dropping to the level of flat-out stupidity and craply executed jokes for the laughs.
Like Scenario.
Then, the drama's, which were so depressing I'd want to slit my wrists by the end of the film. Example? That movie he won an award for in France, 'Ibu Mertua Ku'? The whole story is about a couple who fall in love, a rich girl and a regular Joe orphan saxaphone player. Against the girls' mother's wishes they marry, even though it would mean the girl would be kicked out of the family. They try to keep their love going, but soon they go from living in a nice house to living in a tiny room in a shanty hotel. The mother-in-law comes to take the girl away, and when she leaves, the saxaphone player cries for days on end, till he becomes blind. Now unable to see and forever depressed, he plays his sax on the streets for chump change until one day he befriends a good natured doctor who decides to help him get his sight back. The operation is a success, the sax player opens his eyes for the first time in years and takes a look at the doctor's wedding photo. The wife looks familiar. She should. It's his ex. When the wife comes to visit the doctor and the patient he's been talking about so highly, they walk into the room where they find the sax player, blood dripping from his eyes after he blinds himself with some of the doctors utensils.
How's that for a friday night date movie?
Sure, the story may seem a bit corny (it's the way I tell it), and how does someone cry themselves to blindness? Watch the movie, and you'll believe it, and you'll feel like killing yourself straight after.
Another movie of his, and one of my all time fav's after the comedies of 'Bujang Lapuk', 'Do Re Mi' and 'Madu Tiga', has to be 'Sargeant Hassan'. A straight up World War II film with all the elements of any good World War II film firmly in place: heroes, villians, a love triangle, a jealous step-brother and of course, kick-ass action scenes.
It's the sheer perfection of his movies, done during a time when equipment was nowhere near as advanced as now, that it makes you wonder why the Malaysian film industry churns out such turdid fecal matter year after year after year. It makes you wonder why P. Ramlee could get the dialogue in sync with the film in the fifties and sixties whilst nobody can today unless they use one of those humungous production houses that usually handle Petronas comercials.
It pains me to know that Malaysia had such an increadibly talented person and nobody, I repeat nobody, has tried to better it since. It bugs the shit out of me to see a classic P. Ramlee film censored on national TV, making me realize that whilst the rest of the world shook off their prude, one-dimensional view of the world in order to be more open and accept new ideas, we in Malaysia closed up and got worse and worse and worse.
It makes you wonder, 'didn't anybody learn anything?'
P. Ramlee died of heart attack at 5.30 a.m. on 29 May 1973 (Tuesday) at age 44, and his legacy still lives on.
All information taken from here.
|
6.12.04 09:58
|
|
Smokin' In Singapore...
...in more ways than one.
Guess whose short film got selected for the Singapore International Film Festival?
...
What do you mean, "who"?! Me, that's who, who did you think, Captain-frickin-Kangaroo?!
Yes, 'Nicotine' has been selected for the Singapore International Film Festival. I don't know how. I'm not really sure why either, but I'm not complaining. Think I'll spend tonight to fix up the sound for the thing, then burn the fucker on DVD for the fest. Heh. Cool.
That's it. That's the post. Yes, it's just me basically going 'bangga, sial' repeatedly.
Well, fuck off, then.
|
7.12.04 04:55
|
|
Ready For Some Chilled-Out Acoustica?
Yup. It's that time of the month again. Time for another post to invite you all to come check out a show, courtesy of FYI Entertainment. We've just figured out the bands, but not the name of the gig, nor the entry price yet, although I shall keep it as cheap as possible.
Performing Acts: Tom Waits Allison, Khai (Me, not the Akademi Fantasia guy!), The Wallet, Nan & Broken Scar.
Venue: Paul's Place, Uptown
Date: Friday 17th December, 2004
Doors Open: 8pm
Put it in your calendars, folks! I'll be designing the flyers tonight...
|
7.12.04 08:15
|
|
Gigs! Gigs! Gigs!
20six is acting weird. I don't know whether the last post I put up went up, so I'll try again this way: Gig number 1: 
Please come 'cos I'm playing... go on... please...
And the second one is for all you Singaporeans: 
Cheers...
|
8.12.04 09:51
|
|
Dimebag Darrell R.I.P.
Taken from China Daily, because all the other new sites were subscription. Five Dead Including Gunman In US Shooting
A man walked onstage in a crowded nightclub during a rock concert Wednesday night and opened fire, killing at least four people and wounding at least two others before he was shot to death by police, authorities said.
Members of the heavy metal band Damageplan had just begun their first song at the Alrosa Villa when the man opened fire on the band, initially shooting the guitarist, who went by the name "Dimebag Darrell," a witness said. According to the band's Web site, the guitarist and another member, drummer Vinnie Paul, are formerly of the heavy metal band Pantera.
The witness, 22-year-old Chris Couch, said he was standing about 30 feet away from the stage when he noticed a man wearing a hooded sweatshirt and hockey jersey walk up to the stage, followed by a bouncer and another club employee.
The man in the jersey climbed onto the stage, started yelling and shot the guitarist five or six times at close range, Couch said. Couch said the gunman also shot a bouncer who pulled him off the musician.
Columbus police spokesman Sgt. Brent Mull said a police officer shot and killed the gunman. It wasn't immediately clear whether the officer was already at the show or had responded to an emergency call. Authorities didn't immediately provide the identities of the victims.
After the shooting began, Couch and a friend headed for the exit along with a tide of hundreds of fans.
"It was definitely a grudge. It was against something," Couch said.
Amanda Stankus, 19, who attended the show with Couch, said she initially thought the shooting was part of the show. "I just saw the guitarist fall down, and we decided to get out of there," she said.
Other members of Damageplan include vocalist Patrick Lachman and bass player Bob Zilla, according to the band's Web site.
|
9.12.04 08:17
|
|
[next page]
|
Remember that Christmas Album Musiccanteen was doing?