Any Comments?

Btw, just installed this Haloscan commenting tool. Kinda fancied the crazy ads the comment tool randomly spurts out on Shey's site. So I thought I must have that. :) Took all of about a minute to install too. Check out this current ad:

Lesbian Misbehavin'
I'd SPANK George W -- if he was my type.

Froth Slosh B'Gosh
Somewhat liberal, Pittsburgh based blog

Haha.

Heaven

Disregard the corny title of this post. The message is pretty corny too.

Well, my sis is totally hooked on the Korean drama, Stairways to Heaven. She recently went on a trip to Korea with her friends- It was a rather 'unplanned' trip. It's like her friends and her, after they were done watching this and other Korean series, decided on-the-fly to apply for leave to go to Korea. Hope you get the level of their addiction now. After she came back, it's like Stairways to Heaven day-in and day-out on our TVs. Wherever she's around, Stairways to Heaven is playing close by. It's that eerie.

Anyway, Stairways to Heaven reminded me of the Bob Dylan song Knocking on Heaven's Door. That, in turn, reminded me of the long opening sequence for that other korean movie- Windstruck (the part where she leaped off the skyscraper). The Korean Invasion into our innocent lives, brought about by my sis, started all this. Next thing I know- I'm getting nightmares about being cast in a Korean drama or something. If you noticed, actors in Korean dramas all does a similar 'irked' reaction. They all do the same facial gesture when they're annoyed by stuff. It's like a part of their culture. I do that irked-face to my sis often these days. 'Spoken-Korean' gets on my nerves too. It's more fun listening to a buncha seals squealing in a zoo enclosure. But Jeon Ji-Hyun is korean.

Windstruck reminded me of Jeon Ji-Hyun (of My Sassy Girl fame) and how I disliked the male actor in the movie. Mere jealousy, maybe. The movie wasn't that great too. But everything else in the world stood pitifully inadequate in the face of Jeon Ji-Hyun. Jeon Ji-Hyun, in photo-stills or 2-dimensional, is just an ok, very pretty Korean girl. Catch Jeon Ji-Hyun on the move and it's quite something else. How do you define beauty of the tallest order? How do you define beauty etched in a dimension outside time and space? How do you define beauty that escapes trappings of it's own definition, that isn't beauty anymore? How do you define words like eternity or immortality? Ok, I'm choking. *Cough*

(Corn. Flakes. A pic is supposed to go in here. But I couldn't find a photo of her that she wasn't in a pose of any sort.)

Now, here's someone who can maybe do it without choking himself. Milan Kundera explained in the opening paragraph of his book, Immortality-

. . . She walked around the pool toward the exit. She passed the lifeguard, and after she had gone some three or four steps beyond him, she turned her head, smiled, and waved to him. At that instant I felt a pang in my heart! That smile and that gesture belonged to a twenty-year-old girl! Her arm rose with bewitching ease. It was as if she were playfully tossing a brightly colored ball to her lover. That smile and that gesture had charm and elegance, while the face and the body no longer had any charm. It was the charm of a gesture drowning in the charmlessness of the body. But the woman, though she must of course have realized that she was no longer beautiful, forgot that for the moment. There is a certain part of all of us that lives outside of time. Perhaps we become aware of our age only at exceptional moments and most of the time we are ageless. In any case, the instant she turned, smiled, and waved to the young lifeguard (who couldn't control himself and burst out laughing), she was unaware of her age. The essence of her charm, independent of time, revealed itself for a second in that gesture and dazzled me. I was strangely moved. And then the word Agnes entered my mind. Agnes. I had never known a woman by that name.
- Milan Kundera, Immortality.

Off to play some Warcraft Dota now.

Type Slowly

Type Slowly
Pavement

Sherri, you smell different
Get up early in the bed -- for you morning comes so easy
Spells have been cast and the urge has been lost
Snipers posted bills -- as they should -- of our midnight vacation
Back on the planet now -- i'm beginning to see just how
Echelon your dreams and they'll come true
Type slowly

One of us is a cigar stand --
And one of us is a lovely blue incandescent guillotine
The edge of creation is blurred and blushed
Not a lot of room to grow inside this leather terrarium
People of the bay -- it is excruciatingly gray
Face the front when he comes for you
Type slowly

Cherish your memorized weakness
Fashioned from a manifesto -- lady, i am no futurist
I'm my only critic, i

Trolls in the glen are consorting again
The liberals say they don't exist but i know that they do
Reinforce your literal ass -- hit it on the first or second pass
Frozen images, respected few
Type slowly

---

Catchy song by Pavement. As with all songs by Pavement- Not much of an idea what it is about- S.M. had problems with the typewriter or something. But everything rhymes and fit together nicely- excellent song.

Talked to a friend over coffee earlier about wanting to catch that Wong Kar Wai movie 2046. My friend promptly showed me a magazine with a review of 2046. The reviewer dubbed the movie a "pretentious bore" in the first line. What followed was a detailed explanation of that first statement. I guess everyone is entitled to their opinion. I haven't watched it so I may feel the same way about it. Not surprising though, because his films tend to split viewers into two distinct camps: 1) Smoke-rings Are Cool camp and 2) What is the Director Smoking? camp.

Led me to think about another minor detail though. Not since school-days had I been made to write in detail on a subject I utterly dislike. It is like asking me to write a detailed report on "Positive Thinking: The Secret to Success Is In You" or an effective manual on "Easy Dancing 101: Move Your Feet". The thought is vomit-inducing. It must've sucked for the reviewer.

How to make it easier to write about stuff we don't like? Think Happy-Thoughts (tm) while writing? Time to lay off the whatever. Perhaps the secret is in Typing Slowly: Heeerrreeee goooeeessss...

Coming Soon: My take on 2046. If that didn't happen, you know what it means. Haha :)

喜歡陳綺貞

記不起自己為什麼會喜歡陳綺貞的音樂了。。。 就是喜歡她。

Picture a small petite girl, lugs a big guitar, and sings about A Coat in her wardrobe and her favourite Guitarist.


(Taken from cheercover.com)

That's Cheer Chen Qi Zhen. She has a soothing, saccharine voice. Often listened to her stuff when I was down. Most of her songs made me feel even more depressed afterwards. So I wasn't exactly sure what made me want to listen to them time and again. But when the CD got to more up-beat numbers like "Guitarist", I'd feel slightly better. When it reached a slow number again, I'd go back to feeling sad. Just before it hit the last number/note, I'd most likely have fallen into a pleasant slumber. Left all troubles for the next day. Her music feels like comforting words of a close friend. I would play her CDs on a hot and stuffy day too. They have that cooling effect. :O


(Taken from Cheer's published book (LOMO camera shot))

Hope to get to watch her perform live soon.

Links:
Official site

Cheer Chen and friends

School's out for the bloody summer

Quipped Spike, just before he died.

Hmm. Getting late and I should be in bed but I couldn't sleep. Played some System Shock 2 (again) which I downloaded earlier. Thank god for The Underdogs and Looking Glass for the classic game. And only just watched the final episodes of Buffy Vampire Slayer before that on starworld. Ended with a bang and all- reduced the whole Sunnydale into a mere crater. Still, 'bits' were missing here and there, not exactly The Greatest Finale (I still remember that final episode of M*A*S*H to this day), but good enough for me. Props to Joss Whedon. I've missed tonnes of episodes and even entire seasons, but for those parts I've watched/followed- they were good, never failed to make me snicker just a little. I enjoyed the Firefly series by Whedon too, but that too, ended too soon.

"You know Buffy. Sweet girl. Not that bright."
- Willow

I am Destruction

Terrifically bored and yeah, I am Destruction. Somehow, I've always known that. :O



Destruction, the sixth of The Endless, you are a rebel. You abandoned your realm, refusing to be held responsible for all the disasters in the world. You roam forever, trying to escape what you are. Always on the run, and never facing the truth, you live in denial. It's not your responsibility, it's not your fault, and it's not your problem, even when it is.


Which Endless are you?
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Legend of Condor Heroes

I had taped and tried to follow this Legend of Condor Heroes (She-Diao-Ying-Xiong-Zhuan) series on tv (scv channel55) since a couple weeks ago. It is, IMO, an excellent rendition of the first of the popular trilogy novels by Jin Yong (Louis Cha). Still, the series may not suit everyone's taste because it is done by CCTV, a mainland's (China's) production- the styles employed were largely different from that of the Hong Kong tv series we had become so used to.



Mainly, this series had an intimate and realistic portrayal of the characters Guo Jing (Li Yapeng) and Huang Rong (Zhou Xun). There were also good performances by the supporting actors, for example Sun Haiying who portrayed Hong Qigong. Both leads had great chemistry. Li Yapeng made a believable Guo Jing. Zhou Xun especially brought to life the character of Huang Rong- being both adorable and intelligent at the same time. Large credit had to be given to the director Ju Jue Liang as well. The series told Jin Yong's story well. Guo Jing and Huang Rong's adventures. A glimpse of the great mongolian ruler Genghis Khan. Questioned the ideals that constitute Heroism. /plug

Did I say Zhou Xun was adorable?



In effect, it made me want to read the novels again.