Fraggle Rock

I always stood by the tv to catch every single episode of this Jim Henson's muppet show when I was a kid. Fraggle Rock was fun to watch yet profound, in a way, too because it contemplated on serious themes such as Death, Mortality, Discrimination. They don't make kid-tv like these anymore. =) These brought back much memories.


Sunlight and Shadow - Mokey sings of freedom when she was caught and caged up.

Sunlight and shadow,
And oak trees, bravado,
And rivers that race to the sea.
Puff balls, fireflies,
And larks in the sunrise,
All know a way to be free.
And here's to their roamin',
Here's to their homin',
Ah, how I wish it was me.
Pity a soul that's not free.

Ants have a highway,
And birds have a skyway,
And winds can go wandering far.
See how they climb,
In the mercy of time and,
They don't know how lucky they are.
And here's to their roamin',
Here's to their homin',
Ah, but I wish it was me.
Sit for a moment and pity a soul that's not free.


Free and High - Wembley takes to the sky. My favourite fraggle- He's a laid-back coward, much like me.


Friendship Song - Boober and Red were trapped in a poison cave. They were terrified that they were going to die but cling on to friendship for support.

Breaking Point

Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) - Fight Club

Have I lost it? =)

Like many, I've hammered at walls of cubicles in toilets in frustration, slammed/kicked doors, threw furniture, vandalized, scrawled graffiti... I'd attribute most of that to teenage angst.

Later in life, I'd been held at knife-point in a robbery. Been taunted by a drunk with raised fists inches from my face at a bus stop. I had walked away from all of that with some anger but they had not amount to any serious injuries that would cause me to want to even retaliate. On some days, I do wish that same drunk will appear before me, so I have a reason to break his skull or break my own.

As I got older, I'd dealt with deaths of friends and relatives and began to understand and wrestle with the grim term- Mortality. But somehow most of us were able to walk away from all of that mostly unscathed too. Relationship problems have driven many insane, and killed or tried to kill many more. Simple rigors of trying to earn a living, to feed mouths, have driven many to suicides, corruption as well. It seemed that the limit at which one breaks depends on the individual. There's no fast and hard rules or formulas. All of us have known friends who are quick to anger, friends that are patient or ones that go crazy when we pushed a single wrong button.

I've always been known to be a patient person. So, I'm sometimes curious as to just what may be my own breaking point? Because I don't seem to be able to see it at all. Not on the horizon. Not on the plates. My life had been pretty shitty. Yet I'm still intact. What is wrong with me? So what does it take to break me completely? Or make me say enough is enough and retaliate with a hatred, mindless of my own survival?

The furthest I'd gone would be an incident in Navy- When I almost caused the lives of 40 to perish. It made me puke bile and gastric juices, fall on my knees. That's about as close as I got to... losing it. But I'm able to recover even from that. The only reason being that I 'didn't' really cause the 40 men to lose their lives. I'd been lucky. I'm reminded of a recent movie I've seen: Seven Pounds- Is it possible for a person to recover from that- killing 7 innocent people (including your own wife) in a car accident?

As I got older, I'd been able to walk away from nearly every situation with a mere cynical smile. I do cry sometimes. But tears will run dry eventually. At times it merely requires a retreat into my indulgence- music, movies, games etc. What happen when your whole world comes crushing down and you're supposed to feel sad but you're not? Like Brad Pitt/Edward Norton in Fight Club- You only smile while getting thrashed to death?

Numb. We gradually lose the ability to feel because pain and loss have become a steady diet. Late news on TV. Fake smiles. Obituaries. Walk away. You only have to walk away from it all.

But sometimes our limbs are tied.

"Rick Blaine : Ilsa, I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world." - movie Casablanca


=) =) =)

Ed is Dead

I want to name myself Ed and this song is to be played at my funeral.


Pixies - Ed is Dead

:D

張懸 - 巷口

Love the lyrics to this song. To LM:

巷口

安靜的巷口　單車和人交錯經過
安靜的巷口移動

安靜的巷口　我還沒準備好回家
安靜的巷口迷惑

兩個人之間的字眼，省略許諾
孤獨中的快樂不能用來解決失落
對我來說　對我來說
其實跳不出生活

慢慢地想著　離開的人對我的好
慢慢地想著以後
淡淡地想著，總渴望逃脫的念頭
淡淡地想著；如何？

一杯酒帶來的熱絡　早上沒有
愛和改變分得清楚，可以等於自由嗎
對我來說　對我來說
其實就是生活

也覺得想不透；想透了能有多輕鬆
畢竟不是那麼沉重
還好不是寂寞。城市中我繼續行走
安靜的巷口沉默；沉默並溫柔



Found it on this blog

Goodbye

Tastycakes69 (in the comments wrote):

"To me this song is about being dead to a girl who forgot you............but going on living undead on a psychoactive beach in the cosmos, mellow and learning to deal."


Pixies- Wave of Mutilation

Blood From The Shoulder Of Pallas

Mesmerized by this passage from the Watchmen graphic novel.

From Chapter 7 A Brother to Dragons-
Dan Dreiberg (Niteowl)'s Journal on the study of Owls.

"Blood from the Shoulder of Pallas

Is it possible, I wonder, to study a bird so closely, to observe and catalogue its perculiarities in such minute detail, that it becomes invisible? Is it possible that while fastidiously calibrating the span of its wings or the length of its tarsus, we somehow lose sight of its poetry? That in our pedestrian descriptions of a marbled or vermiculated plummage we forfeit a glimpse of living canvases, cascades of carefully toned browns and golds that would shame Kandinsky, misty explosions of color to rival Monet? I believe that we do. I believe that in approaching our subject with the sensibilities of statisticians and dissectionists, we distance ourselves increasingly from the marvelous and spell-binding planet of imagination whose gravity drew us to our studies in the first place.

This is not to say that we should cease to establish facts and to verify our information, but merely to suggest that unless those facts can be imbued with the flash of poetic insight then they remain dull gems; semi-precious stones scarcely worth the collecting."

Watchmen by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons

Watchmen is truly inspiring.

The Sorrow of Love

The Sorrow of Love
by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939)

The brawling of a sparrow in the eaves,
The brilliant moon and all the milky sky,
And all that famous harmony of leaves,
Had blotted out man's image and his cry.

A girl arose that had red mournful lips
And seemed the greatness of the world in tears,
Doomed like Odysseus and the labouring ships
And proud as Priam murdered with his peers;

Arose, and on the instant clamorous eaves,
A climbing moon upon an empty sky,
And all that lamentation of the leaves,
Could but compose man's image and his cry.



Chilly. night. cold. :(

Beneath the skyyyyyy

headboppin to the pixies
in the middle of the night
They got a ranch They call number-51
Beneath the Skyyyyyyyy
Beneath the Skyyyyyyyyyyy
i empty my head bring me to sleep what happens when i sleep
Ed Ed is Dead Ed is Dead Ed Ed Dead ED IS DEAD
Wave of Mutilation Wave of Mutilation Wave eh eh hey hey
You can LEVITATE ME Elevate elevate elevate LEVITATE ME
HEY!!! must be a devil between us Or whores in my head Whores at my door Whores in my bed We're chained chained CHAINED
Got me a movie I want you to know Slicing up eyeballs DEBASER
makes me happy we have music

To the girl with a BIG BIG heart. You know who you are. Hang in there, kidd. Take Life by the horns.

Heidenroslein (Rose on the Heath) - Schubert

Watched the Taiwanese movie Cape No. 7 海角七號 some time ago. In it was an interlude played in a couple of scenes. One of which was that of an old man whistling a tune while riding his bicycle from screen right to left. It harked back a scene from Akira Kurosawa's movie Rhapsody in August. This time an old woman was braving a storm with her wrecked umbrella, the same screen right to left. The same tune/music was playing in the background.

I've been meaning to find out who made the music and what it was about. There you have it. :) Schubert's Heidenroslein (Rose on the Heath) There were Japanese and Chinese (野玫瑰) versions of it. Both Franz Schubert and Hans Werner Henze wrote a song based on a J. W. Goethe's poem. Here's the story of the song-

1)A boy saw a rose growing,
a little rose on the heath;
it was so young and lovely as the morning:
quickly he ran to see it from near,
and with much delight he saw it.
Rose, rose, little red rose,
little rose on the heath.

2)Said the boy: I shall pick you,
little rose on the heath!
Said the rose: I shall prick you,
so that you shall never forget me;
I won't let you do it!
Rose, rose, little red rose,
little rose on the heath.

3)And the rough boy picked
the little rose on the heath;
the rose defended herself and pricked,
but her cries and sighs were in vain,
she just had to let it happen.
Rose, rose, little red rose,
little rose on the heath.

Thanks to youtube.

2009

Dum dee dee dum. As far as new year's resolutions go, I have maybe one -

To try to eat breakfast every day of this new year.

Zhang Xuan, Chen Shan Ni, Yui, Shiina Ringo/Tokyo Jihen

Merry Xmas :)

Zhang Xuan (张悬) Then - Back when she was in the band Mango Runs (芒果跑).


芒果跑/畢竟

Zhang Xuan Now - A barrage of Youtubes. Coz she's cool.


張懸/無狀態


張懸/寶貝


张悬/嫁祸进行式


張懸/巷口


張懸/憂愁

Well, Zhang Xuan recently released her song 喜歡's mv and was accused of copying certain visuals from jap artiste, Yui's My Generation mv. She stepped up to apologize and pulled the mtv off circulation in a matter of hours. I believe it was mainly the fault of the mv director. Anyway, I like Yui too. As well as Shiina Ringo (and her band Tokyo Jihen 東京事変) + taiwanese singer Sandee Chen Shan Ni (陳珊妮). :O Their tubes-

Chen Shan Ni Then - 1994/11


陳珊妮/茫然

Chan Shan Ni Present - 公主


陳珊妮/醉人的詩意


陳珊妮/風景好

Both Zhang Xuan and Princess on stage together-


流浪到淡水


如果有一件事是重要的


Yui - Tokyo (live)


Shiina Ringo 椎名林檎


Tokyo Jihen 東京事変


杨乃文/今天清晨


陳珊妮/四季

Kim Deal- rock cliches and her bass playing

Part Ed/Chris/Yossarian

I want to be like Ed (from tv series, Northern Exposure), to always listen intently and learn, and know just about everything to do with movies. :)



To be like Chris (from the same show), to have his wisdom and knowledge (esp. of books and music), to be as broadly educated in the ways of the world.



And finally, I want to be a little crazy like Yossarian (from the book Catch-22). Or if you look at it in another way- to remain the sane one in this crazy, crazy world.

"There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.
"That's some catch, that Catch-22," Yossarian observed.
"It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed." - Joseph Heller, Catch-22

LOL

Lost In Sunrise, Yu-Xuan and Pocket-watch

Happened to watch the "frame-skipped" version of the movie Before Sunrise, starring Ethan Hawke/Julie Delpy. It was supposed to be in H.264 or some weird format. Apparently my comp wasn't beefy enough to process the info. So I got a clearer picture, just not the complete picture.

Anyway, it had me comparing with another movie, Lost in Translation, which worked on pretty much the same premise- Two lonely strangers/souls met in a foreign land and the resulting friendship.

So, what made each of those movies tick? Which would I prefer? I could say Lost in Translation, but why? I found both to be pretty good. It's not like a Cat vs Dog or Beatles vs Elvis Presley thing (Tarantino's Pulp Fiction) where you could only choose one. (Dog and Beatles for me btw). I'd expect a friend Warren to choose Elvis. Don't ask me why? Maybe it's in the way he walks lol.

I like both enough I guess, just Lost in Translation a lot more. =)

Julie Delpy was brilliant, in a very real, intelligent and thoughtful girl way. Scarlett Johanssan was more or less the same, but in a sorta more regal, faraway princess-in-a-castle way. Bill Murray owned Ethan Hawke hands down of course. I think p'haps Ethan Hawke was trying too hard to put across that dumb-vocal-American thing or maybe the script required him to do so. He became quite annoying early in the movie.

Many ideas were raised in Before Sunrise vocally (through conversations) and many of them I found kinda interesting. "Sometimes I'm sick of being around me all the time. I want to go to a place that I'm not there." Lost in Translation, on the other hand, weaved a sort of silent magic. It told its story through nuances and music. The last parting scene had Bill Murray whisper something to Johanssan (the content of which the audience were never told).

林雨宣 (Lin Yu Xuan of Xin Guang Bang 3)

Often criticised for lack of power in her voice. I thought she's charming. Love her voice, nuances in her voice. As one of the judges commented, she's loads of emotions, but lacks technique. All the songs she chose happened to be songs that I like, which is a bonus of course. =) Really like this following song btw:





Christopher Walken's Pocket-watch

Sometimes I feel like that small kid in the now popular Chris Walken (as Captain Koons) pocketwatch scene in Pulp Fiction. Someone left me in front of that box (TV) and forgot to carry me away since. The captain-koons--of-this-world would then continually try to interrupt you from watching your TV, to have you listen to their captain-koons-of-this-world-speeches. It is very sad. Lol.

Faith Yang Nai Wen

Hidden Connections

Of Coincidence

Bizarre ending to Moon Palace. M.S.'s father (Julian Barber) died from tripping and falling into an open grave. Eventually, M.S. gave up his search for the elusive cave, walked off into the sun, much like cowboys do in westerns.

Not the first time Auster killed off important characters in a whim near the end. Much like Auster's other books, this one had been a bizarre journey littered with strange, almost surreal occurrences. Memorable scenes in the book - There is this one part whereby M.S. imagined his father being at several places he had been before. That he may have unknowingly ran into him on several occasions. He even 'placed' Julian Barber in Vegas, that his father could have been one of the audience of Uncle Victor's band performance. He began to see hidden connections everywhere. Another is M.S. reading off the books left behind by Uncle Victor as a way of mourning him. Also, carting Thomas Effing through the streets of New York in the rainy night to distribute money to 'deserving' strangers. These scenes will always be memorable to me.

Coincidences do happen in real life but they're often dismissed or viewed as out-of-place. You almost can't find them in an abundance in books or movies anymore. Weird coincidences do happen to all of us. Somehow the intentional 'imperfect' ending of the book takes you back to a modern reality. The world is imperfect, why should we expect logical endings in books? The world stays the same, only we have changed from experiences accrued. The journey is what counts.

No coincidence too that I tried to tackle this subject early on, made this stupid short-film back in school, aptly titled Coincidence Inc. :) These are difficult topics to explore- The effects of deja vu. How can you be certain that you haven't encountered this person before? And to merge the ideas of Coincidence with Religion.

Coincidence, Failure, the Search for (or absence of) a Father (figure) are recurring themes in many of his books. I think that is the reason why I can relate to them. Essentially, Auster is telling almost the same story in all his books.

Halfway through another book, Oracle's Night. It is an ongoing process to understand who the writer Paul Auster is. Consequently, hoping to be able to pick up pieces of myself along the way. To better understand who I am.

Of J. B. Jeyaretnam

Another coincidence that I met Mr. JBJ in person just months ago at the lift lobby of Tan Tock Seng Hospital. A pretty tall, charismatic individual. First time I've ever seen the man in person. Maybe he was there for his heart checkup. An Indian woman, in her 50s or 60s, was waiting for the lift too. She smiled, almost shyly, at JBJ. JBJ acknowledged with an amiable smile and a nod. To me, it was a very genuine smile that seemed to say, "Don't worry. I will carry on the fight for all of you." While most current government officials seemed perched at seemingly unreachable places, it is gratifying to know there is someone who stood right by our side.

I just realised that was also around the time he would be busy constructing his comeback into politics, the formation of the Reform Party. Rest in peace.

Man In the Dark - Paul Auster

Paul Auster reads from his new book, Man in the Dark. Snippets of movies referred to in the book - Tokyo Story, Apu Trilogy, Renoir's Grand Illusion, Bicycle Thief. Gotta get this. :O

Moon Palace - Paul Auster

Lovely book I picked up from the library recently. Simple words put together can be so poignant, deeply moving. A pen and a notebook. Auster's words flows naturally, is easy to read, yet beneath the calm, an undercurrent of absurd ideas and magical thoughts bounce off each other and then the seabed.

Wanted foolishly to try to retain certain experience of reading it so I have collected here a couple of passages from the book.

The Fall

"After such a promising start, it would not have been difficult for me to go on acting sensibly. All kinds of options were available to people in my situation - scholarships, loans, work-study programs - but once I began to think about them, I found myself stricken with disgust. It was a sudden, involuntary response, a jolting attack of nausea. I wanted no part of those things, I realized, and therefore I rejected them all - sabotaged my only hope of surviving the crisis. From that point on, in fact, I did nothing to help myself, refused even to lift a finger. God knows why I behaved liked that. I invented countless reasons at the time, but in the end it probably boiled down to despair. I was in despair, and in the face of so much upheaval, I felt that drastic action of some sort was necessary. I wanted to spit on the world, to do the most outlandish thing possible. With all the fervor and idealism of a young man who had thought too much and read too many books, I decided that the thing I should do was nothing: my action would consist of a militant refusal to take any action at all. This was nihilism raised to the level of an aesthetic proposition. I would turn my life into a work of art, sacrificing myself to such exquisite paradoxes that every breath I took would teach me how to savor my own doom. The signs pointed to a total eclipse, and grope as I did for another reading, the image of that darkness gradually lured me in, seduced me with the simplicity of its design. I would do nothing to thwart the inevitable, but neither would I rush out to meet it. If life could continue for the time being as it always had, so much the better. I would be patient, I would hold fast. It was simply that I knew what was in store for me, and whether it happened today, or whether it happened tomorrow, it would nevertheless happen. Total eclipse. The beast had been slain, its entrails had been decoded. The moon would block the sun, and at that point I would vanish. I would be dead broke, a flotsam of flesh and bone without a farthing to my name."

On Conversation

"As Uncle Victor had once told me long ago, a conversation is like having a catch with someone. A good partner tosses the ball directly into your glove, making it almost impossible for you to miss it; when he is on the receiving end, he catches everything sent his way, even the most errant and incompetent throws. That's what Kitty did. She kept lobbing the ball straight into the pocket of my glove, and when I threw the ball back to her, she hauled in everything that was even remotely in her area: jumping up to spear balls that soared above her head, diving nimbly to her left or right, charging in to make tumbling, shoestring catches. More than that, her skill was such that she always made me feel that I had made those bad throws on purpose, as if my only object had been to make the game more amusing. She made me seem better than I was, and that strengthened my confidence, which in turn helped me to make my throws less difficult for her to handle. In other words, I started talking to her rather than to myself, and the pleasure of it was greater than anything I had experienced in a long time." -Auster

Auster, MBV and When You Sleep

Ever had that feeling you're living through life like one of the characters in Paul Auster's trilogy? A-huh, it is that bad. :)

For therapeutic purposes = Couple of footages of MBV Live this year. Good stuff happens still.


MBV - I Only Said


MBV - Only Shallow




MBV - When You Sleep


Only place I'd rather be. And yeah, Bilinda Butcher.

Loud band. Check out the number of amps. Not an easy task to record them live lol.

Lost In Translation and MBV Reunion

Lost in Translation. Love the ending to this movie.



Just Like Honey - Jesus and Mary Chain
"Listen to the girl. As she takes on half the world. Moving up and so alive. In her honey dripping beehive."



Sometimes - My Bloody Valentine
MBV reunited and releasing a new record soon!