ACTIVITIES IN DECEMBER - PART 2

A few other activities during this festive month.

1) THE HOST

The tag line "Science fiction for people who don't like science fiction" is rather catchy for me..

I have finished reading this book by Stephenie Meyer, the author of the Twilight Trilogy. Unlike any vampire and werewolf, the author explores a science fiction with romance in this book. Here, the earth has been overrun by an alien species called Souls which invade human bodies and erase personalities. A soul name Wanderer (or Wanda as the human called her later) was implanted in a human (Melanie Stryder). Inhibiting human mind and body is new to Wanda and soon she finds out Melanie is not willing to give up to Wanda, refusing to relinquish possession of her mind. Later, Wanda find herself driven to reconnect with Melanie's old life, her vision of her human brother and lover, Jared who is in hiding and jeng jeng jeng.....well I won't tell more of the stories since I was made to know that The Host will soon be getting into a movie and will be directed by Andrew Niccol of the Gattaca fame.. but what I like most in this book is the conflict between two men i.e one loving an alien and the other loving the host which share the same human body... kinda interesting don't you think..this story coming from a writer who made a vampire and a werewolf falling over a girl... And talking about Eclipse, tentatively it will be shown world wide on the 30 June, 2010....

2) TWELVE ROOMS WITH A VIEW

Is the book I am reading now. Theresa Rebeck is a master story teller with all the right ingredient for a fantastic novel and I love her instantly. Here, Tina Finn, the main character, heard about her inheritance of a huge luxury apartment overlooking Central Park during her mother's newly-dug grave. Being a girl who is living in a trailer park, this will her dream for a better change but all this turn topsy turvy when her half brothers, left out of the inheritance think that she has no right to the apartment and they want her out by any means necessary..not only the brothers but other tenants have their own agenda for the house too and the story will go on how she must be prepared to fight to the end to keep it..yup the part that I have not encountered yet but soon..so much anxiety waiting for this Wednesday (will be on leave) where then I can snug in and finish reading the book....

3) Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant.

Intended to watch "Sherlock Holmes" on a last minute unscheduled activities last Thursday in Mid Valley but I cannot secure a good seat. A and I watched this movie instead. It is based on a book series by Darren Shan and it focuses on the fantasy adventures of a teenager and his best friend who discover a travelling freak show (creatures such as snakeboy, wolfman, bearded lady, monkey woman etc) who later was turn into a vampire himself. Then, he found out about a war between vampires and their enemy counterparts but later unknowingly breaks the 200 year old truce.... I found this movie very interesting, fast moving, perfect CGI, plenty of action and humor too...the unhappy part was that, the movie does not end here meaning more sequels will come thereafter...which means another painful waiting period again... arghhh...

Enjoyable movie...go see it

While in Mid Valley also, I bought a watch. After all this years of wearing watches given to me as present for my birthdays from my special ones, the time has come for me to buy one for my own. I have no intention to buy the watch at this time since I intend to buy it during my actual bonus payment scheduled in April or May next year but because of YES...yup.. the Year End Sales, I can't resist buying the watch earlier using my interim bonus with full knowledge that I am going to Bali this end January...nangis jap... nonetheless I am happy with the watch. Its a Victorinox Swiss Army Active with Sapphire Cyrstal Glass and with a 3 years warranty... with this purchase, I have to postpone buying a new couch or sofa as per listed in the budget items for this year..hehe

Last Saturday, A and I also went to Aquaria. Because of the holiday, we expected a long que to buy the tickets. As as solution, A and I decided to take turn queueing and eating at Kenny Rogers there..I will show our pictures there in my later post. We then have dinner at Quan's, with Panzer, Amri and Leo, starting with appetiser, main course, ice cream for dessert and coffee afterwards, our main discussion inter alia was our planning for a small gathering on the upcoming new year's eve....

HERE AND THERE IN NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2009

Two weeks ago, on a Sunday A and I decided to eat fish curry head but the shop that we were looking for was closed (near Public Bank at Kampung Attap) and after roaming around aimlessly, I saw a restaurant in Muzium Negara and decided to give it a try . At 4.00 pm, there were not much food left except curry mee/laksa and rojak. Too hungry to complaint, we ate in silent. Its has been awhile since I have been here, awhile means ages ago, the last if I am not mistaken was during my study years in ITM, i.e being a chaperon to my distant cousins from Saudi Arabia who cannot speak BM and little bit of English... After the late lunch, I persuaded A to take the tour to the whole muzium and to an exhibition which interest me i.e an exhibition from the 'orang asli' called 'Magis Belantara'.

At the entrance of the exhibition

Nope, 'he' did not invite me in...hehe

Yup, the shaman, err .. not him, but at the back...

Ermm..not the Magis Belantara but other sections..memories....

Always the curious one...

Last Saturday, my mother called and asked me to drive her back to Muar...together with A, we reached Muar by 2.00 pm. After eating the infamous 'mee bandung' , A and I went to Tanjung Agas and we were surprised that HotFM was having its last Night Jam Concert for 2009 there... It was one of the biggest concert sponsored by Streamyx and after watching the concert, we left for KL after the concert ended at 12.00am.

Still early, ronda-ronda dulus..

The stage at the back...Ate rojak, keropok lekor and buttered corn, delicious..

The concert started. Pasha, and his band, UNGU among the fav artiste that night

Datok Siti Nurhaliza belted 3 songs, one with all the HotFM DJs as her backup dancers

SOFAZ were to me the best vocal performance for the nite..

Other artistes performing were Alya, Akim, AXL, Sixth Sense, Ahli Fikir, One Nation Emcee and the worse performance of all were from Liana Jasmy..girl you need to go back to learn how to sing or else stick only to acting...

Other than that nothing much except watching movies such as Princess and the Frog which I highly recommended together with AVATAR..yup the Navi's world was actually the highlight of the whole movie... irregardless any dummies can really associate the animals in that world with ours such as dogs, horses, rhinos or birds....yet the technique was magnificiant (espcially you watch it in 3D)... the story so-so, the battle too long...my verdict...a movie that I will watch again with HD DVD. Off course you cant really compared this to TITANIC, the only movie that I watched 4 times in the cinema....Nonetheless AVATAR really has a deep meaning actually...the phrase "I SEE YOU" means something inside you that counts in whatever persona your outer layer would be... Again, if James Cameron said that this is his original story, I beg to differ. The story has a combination of Pocahontas and the animation of Battle For Terra, with regards to greedy invasion, betrayal of your own kind with the right course and love entwined so on and so forth...

By the way..a special thanks to Is for last Saturday's BBQ nite at his house, thanks to Leo, Amri and Panzer for the thang to BBQed, I prepared for the homemade dessert, and drinks and Azrul brought his homemade curry puffs... Shah and Sharul too... We had a blast....the fire crakers of the Ponggol devotees add glamour to our affairs hehe..

ACTIVITIES IN NOVEMBER 2009

With 3 movie animations (watching it 2 days in a row), a few other movies (also 2 movies a day on certain days) plus one live stand up performance and preparing for my next trip to Bali again (the 1st was in 2008) which is scheduled on the 28 Jan till 1 Feb of 2010 were all the activities done in November.

Lets talk about movie animations. Which is the best between these 3 movies i.e Christmas Carol, Planet 51 and Astro Boy? For me, the best movie in terms of storyline, family value, delightful characters and also a movie which does not afraid to address adult themes, then my vote will go to Astro Boy. There's nothing to dislike about this movie albeit it was originally a Japanese mangga cartoon produced in 1938...

Nonetheless, if you want to savour a really visually beautiful animation with jaw dropping detail and movement together with dazzling special effect then my vote will go to A Christmas Carol. If you observed carefully, the mood and colour of the movie is changing from dark and murky into bright and cheerful as the main character i.e. Ebe Scrooge changes into a new person...awesome......

What about Planet 51? This movie is not bad at all..it is just that, the previous two movies are much better in its own categories making this most expensive movie produced in Spain with its $70 million budget fails to compete. Planet 51 is a satirical movie, poking fun at everything with witty and clever humor and some of it I must say not and I repeat not suitable for children yet I am sure adults won't be bored thanks to these jokes.

Grade A list artistes lend their voices in all of these movies. The most significant was non other than Jim Carrey who played so many characters beside the frail and frighten Ebe Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. While in Planet 51, Dwayne Johnson a.k.a The Rock, Jesscica Biel, Justin Long, Sean William Scot, Gary Oldman and John Cleese played their part well. As in Astro Boy, we had the talented boy, Freddie Highmore (I simply love him in August Rush), Nicolas Cage, Samuel L. Jackson, Nathan Lane and more..

Strong yet caring , I love Astro Boy's character.

Two Malaysian were hired as animator and lighting engineer for this movie

The reverse role of who is the alien in this movie...

Next, comes the other 3 movies. Ninja Assassin, Mulan and New Moon. From these 3 movie, the best, despite a mixed review, I still prefer New Moon. Irregardless if it is regarded as not a particularly good movie unlike the last film, taking into account critics for bad acting, the long plot to type up loose ends and its two hours it's also a bit too long, I don't mind....hey its a love story for goodness sake, it captures the agonies and ecstasies of being young and in love (like me, young at heart...I am so will be labeled ASB's..hack!!!).. New Moon has romance, action, excitement and love that has only grown form time apart. The special effects of the wolves were superb but sadly Victoria, the bad vampire was totally underused...hope to see more of her in "Eclipse" which is rumored to be shown six month from now plus and a short but effective performance by Dakota Fanning was a pleasant surprise...

Talking about Mulan, this superb Chinese movie is far from the cutesy Mulan you saw in a Disney cartoon character a decade ago. Played by Zhao Wei, this legendary icon is seen to sprayed with blood on her face after killing a general and a desert king. But again, despite the war and the marvellous action scenes, this is still a love story between Mulan and one of her co-generals...one slack is that, this movie is a bit too long with few unnecessary scenes. Other then that, the acting skills of all especially Zhao Wei is commendable.

Jacyee Chan (behind), son of Jackie Chan acted as a supporting role..

Ninja Assassin.. The title hints at the idea of a highly skilled assassin, working his martial arts skills against high profile individual/government...true but then again the plot does not seem to handle the story well making it into the borderline of a B movie category. People either come to watch this movie because of the director, James McTeigue who is the second director of the Wachowski Brothers of the Matrix's fame i.e for its techniques OR only to see Rain, the Korean singer for his debut in film. For me, I have seen better ninja movies before and this I don't mind giving it a pass. As for the action sequences, even our neighbouring country can deliver such a jaw dropping scenes irregardless of genders, yup our awesome Thais...

So much blood but none on the floor, the normal CGI patchwork..

One Load of Bull Jit: Stories True and False.

Last Saturday, A, Farra (my niece) and myself went to the newly opened PJ Live Arts Theatre in Jaya One to watch the renowned actor and playwright Jit Murad sharing his thoughts on current affairs and idiosyncrasies of Malaysian life in a light and humorous style. This was the second time I watched Jit in action..so I can anticipate his jokes quite well and yet he still delivered his line with punch and gusto...The ticket was priced at RM65 and seen at the PJLA were Jit's buddies, Harith Iskandar, Han Issac, Shanon Shah and few other local artistes. This occasionally crude, usually hilarious and always witty (and at times quite provoking) performance was presented by Dramalab and produced by Datuk Zahim Albakri.

Jit Murad, yea youuu, yea youuuuuuu....

By the way, I enjoying myself listening to Leona Lewis's new album, ECHO... I must say her vocal is more powerful then ever...just like her previous album, all 13 tracks here are gems worth listening over and over again..especially her 1st single BRAVE. But then my favourite will be BROKEN and MY HANDS...pure bliss..

As for my reading material...am reading PATHS OF GLORY, a new novel from my all time best writer, Jeffery Archer..ermm will be finishing soon and waiting after that will be THE HOST by Stephenie Meyer (author of Twilight saga) and URBAN ODYSSEYS - KL Stories - an anthology from our various local writers...

Just bought Gossip Girl's 3rd season...can't wait to watch that too. Ermm..where do I have time for all this...hehehe

Last..am going to Anugerah Skrin tonite...have a nice weekend.. XOXO