Mix the inability to sing with a gagged self-consciousness and you get a deadly, or at least deaf-ly concoction.
You get me, too.
Had my virgin karaoke session with Bry, Vic (she's leaving for Aus! *WAILS*), Kelv, Jee and Pauline and I had these cool peeps to thank for the eye-opening, as well as ear-drums ripping experience. I never knew discovering that I lack the ability to keep on tune can be so fun. I should do more of such self-discoveries (they are already talking about an ice-skating session, which I would inevitably meet my two left feet. Blood will spill, mostly on my part. Can’t wait!)
The best part is this karaoke session charged through my stereotypes of what “singing K” is all about, leaving me high and dry (poor throat, traumatized by the sudden rush of unfamiliar work it had to undertake today). I always thought karaoke is a bit cheesy, and consists of a few people in a room swinging their bodies left and right to overplayed hits. The reality, of course, is not very much different – save for the fact that in our room, it was much cheesier, way more swinging than was healthy for our age, and the overplayed hits generally oversang.
I screeched more than I sang. It was too fun to be polite. Sorry, hons, that your ears had to go through such atrocity such as my voice. Next time, I’ll bring everyone earplugs – with colours that match the “mike-doms” of course =P
Note to gang - we gotta do this again! You can’t possibly let me sing “Hot and Cold” and “Wannabe” only once. And I haven’t had enough of that Mika falsetto yet!
On a somber note:
“Too lazy lah”
This is the only quote from Yasmin Ahmad which I remember – it was published a while ago, when the reporter asked Yasmin why didn’t they correct the lighting in Sepet, as some complained that the lighting was too dark in certain scenes.
And Yasmin answered along the lines of, “Lazy lah.”
When it came from Yasmin, it was not an excuse. It was honesty, confidence, and a refreshing surprise – just like her movies and her advertisements. It was Malaysian, through and through.
We lost her today. May we never lose her spirit.
Rest in peace, Yasmin Ahmad.
And in the spirit of Malaysia:
Monday, July 27, 2009
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Overdue - Thoughts on Dark Knight
I wrote this for my blog a looong while back, but it never got around to seeing daylight. Just rummaging through some old saved posts and found it again. Oh well, time for its' resurrection :)
It’s kinda scary when freaks start philosophizing.
Most of the time, it is because we are afraid that, this time, they might have gotten us really figured out.
Maybe it really takes someone out of our little system to see what’s wrong.
Maybe the joker really knows the truth.
I like Dark Knight. Not for the storyline, the characters, the things that blow up, the things that are better off blown up, nor the Christian Bale whom everyone gushed about on their MSN personal message. Not even the witty exchange between Wayne and Alfred, although I’m usually a sucker for these things.
I like Dark Knight because it isn’t as corny as its name. I like the questions it posed; the open challenge to our beliefs of heroes, of truth, of loneliness, of freaks.
And I like this Joker. A being not in control of his tongue, let alone his mind. A mind so brilliant that it could only burst out of its skull; an outlook on life so blunt that it could only made him laugh. Personally, I believe the Joker killed Heath Ledger. The character was too surreal, too disturbing, that perhaps the only way to be it is to put on the make-up, and in a way, put on its mind.
Dark Knight stripped humanity bare, seemingly to humiliate it, but in actual fact to test it.
Remember the whole scene of which-ship-will-bomb-which-ship-first? In the spur of the moment when morality, ethics, and humanity lay in the mercy of a single button, my breath dangled before the abyss. And when the bulky inmate threw out the bomb detonator and chose not to kill anyone, not even when he himself could be killed, I felt a wash of relief and felt my inner devil strangled. A feeling incomprehensible to people who haven’t just watched that scene.
“Just do it” is a myth – sometimes the right thing to say is actually “just don’t do it”.
As one wrestler in Tony Parson’s novel said, sometimes you just gotta do the human thing.
Every good movie has A Moment. The whole scene of who-will-push-the-button-first is The Moment in Dark Knight.
I’m glad humans disappointed the joker, so he could not have his last laugh.
It’s kinda scary when freaks start philosophizing.
Most of the time, it is because we are afraid that, this time, they might have gotten us really figured out.
Maybe it really takes someone out of our little system to see what’s wrong.
Maybe the joker really knows the truth.
I like Dark Knight. Not for the storyline, the characters, the things that blow up, the things that are better off blown up, nor the Christian Bale whom everyone gushed about on their MSN personal message. Not even the witty exchange between Wayne and Alfred, although I’m usually a sucker for these things.
I like Dark Knight because it isn’t as corny as its name. I like the questions it posed; the open challenge to our beliefs of heroes, of truth, of loneliness, of freaks.
And I like this Joker. A being not in control of his tongue, let alone his mind. A mind so brilliant that it could only burst out of its skull; an outlook on life so blunt that it could only made him laugh. Personally, I believe the Joker killed Heath Ledger. The character was too surreal, too disturbing, that perhaps the only way to be it is to put on the make-up, and in a way, put on its mind.
Dark Knight stripped humanity bare, seemingly to humiliate it, but in actual fact to test it.
Remember the whole scene of which-ship-will-bomb-which-ship-first? In the spur of the moment when morality, ethics, and humanity lay in the mercy of a single button, my breath dangled before the abyss. And when the bulky inmate threw out the bomb detonator and chose not to kill anyone, not even when he himself could be killed, I felt a wash of relief and felt my inner devil strangled. A feeling incomprehensible to people who haven’t just watched that scene.
“Just do it” is a myth – sometimes the right thing to say is actually “just don’t do it”.
As one wrestler in Tony Parson’s novel said, sometimes you just gotta do the human thing.
Every good movie has A Moment. The whole scene of who-will-push-the-button-first is The Moment in Dark Knight.
I’m glad humans disappointed the joker, so he could not have his last laugh.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
17 again
I forgot it was so simple.
Being crazy, acting kecoh, wasting money, vandalizing, laughing too hard – happy are those who are 17, and lucky are those who have not forgotten how to relive it.
Roya and I had the blessing to be the latter today. We went back to our alma mater – SMK Subang Utama for its Hari Keluarga and man, it was a whole lot of fun. The best part is, I am not even sure why. Seems to me, after certain retrospection while shampooing my hair just now, that all we did was just wasting too much coupons on sugar, talking too much during the magic show we decided to catch, recognizing people that we probably never knew (though we weren’t sure), posing stupidly for too many pictures, drooling over the students’ “I ♥ SU” t-shirts (OMG I SO THE WANT ONE!!!) and generally trespassing into all the places that we shouldn’t be at (nyahahaha five years in a place which never has enough pas keluar in a class forces you to know the secret entrances and exits).
It was a trip down the memory lane. We visited old classrooms which, by the look of it, still get the same treatment from students even after all these years – for example, there are still dried tissue papers stuck to the ceilings and the paint on the lab tables was partially peeled off. We scoffed at the newly built blocks that are sitting on what was previously our hockey and volleyball court. We laughed at all the notice boards of clubs and societies, and went o.O at the fact that Interact Club marked a “Count-your-eyelashes-day!” and “Say-Hi-to-A-Bug Day!” on their club calendar. We read tables well-scribbled and commended the authors/artists/wordsmiths efforts in keeping up with the fine traditions of Xpressing Yourself. We bumped into our ex-teachers and the canteen lady, and they all said that we looked the same after all these years.
Oh, and we thought that Taylor’s College should learn the word “overkill”, because its name popped out all over the school, on every signboards that it sponsored. And boy, it sponsored A LOT of signboards.
It was our school. Those were our tables. There sold our favourite Nasi Goreng Pedas – still the best nasi goreng ever, IMO. Granted, something is different about the school. The wall murals have changed and looked more gorgeous than ever, the toilets have been renovated and looked tackier than ever, and well, Roya observed that kids are getting hotter these days. That is true – everywhere we look there seems to be teens of mixed ethnicity (probably the exotic kind) on the loose.
I miss being 17. I miss my friends. I miss being kecoh with them in school. I miss playing ballet/hip-hop/feng-tau football. I miss recess time. I miss all the dingy bengkel and back-breaking stools in the lab. I miss complaining about them with my friends. I miss having angka giliran (almost forgotten the existence of that word). I miss being nerd with my species Tau Foo and being sarcastic with my other species VV. I miss face-painting during Hari Keluarga and got a bad sun-burn and freaking Wan Qi out.
Viva la 17!
Being crazy, acting kecoh, wasting money, vandalizing, laughing too hard – happy are those who are 17, and lucky are those who have not forgotten how to relive it.
Roya and I had the blessing to be the latter today. We went back to our alma mater – SMK Subang Utama for its Hari Keluarga and man, it was a whole lot of fun. The best part is, I am not even sure why. Seems to me, after certain retrospection while shampooing my hair just now, that all we did was just wasting too much coupons on sugar, talking too much during the magic show we decided to catch, recognizing people that we probably never knew (though we weren’t sure), posing stupidly for too many pictures, drooling over the students’ “I ♥ SU” t-shirts (OMG I SO THE WANT ONE!!!) and generally trespassing into all the places that we shouldn’t be at (nyahahaha five years in a place which never has enough pas keluar in a class forces you to know the secret entrances and exits).
It was a trip down the memory lane. We visited old classrooms which, by the look of it, still get the same treatment from students even after all these years – for example, there are still dried tissue papers stuck to the ceilings and the paint on the lab tables was partially peeled off. We scoffed at the newly built blocks that are sitting on what was previously our hockey and volleyball court. We laughed at all the notice boards of clubs and societies, and went o.O at the fact that Interact Club marked a “Count-your-eyelashes-day!” and “Say-Hi-to-A-Bug Day!” on their club calendar. We read tables well-scribbled and commended the authors/artists/wordsmiths efforts in keeping up with the fine traditions of Xpressing Yourself. We bumped into our ex-teachers and the canteen lady, and they all said that we looked the same after all these years.
Oh, and we thought that Taylor’s College should learn the word “overkill”, because its name popped out all over the school, on every signboards that it sponsored. And boy, it sponsored A LOT of signboards.
It was our school. Those were our tables. There sold our favourite Nasi Goreng Pedas – still the best nasi goreng ever, IMO. Granted, something is different about the school. The wall murals have changed and looked more gorgeous than ever, the toilets have been renovated and looked tackier than ever, and well, Roya observed that kids are getting hotter these days. That is true – everywhere we look there seems to be teens of mixed ethnicity (probably the exotic kind) on the loose.
I miss being 17. I miss my friends. I miss being kecoh with them in school. I miss playing ballet/hip-hop/feng-tau football. I miss recess time. I miss all the dingy bengkel and back-breaking stools in the lab. I miss complaining about them with my friends. I miss having angka giliran (almost forgotten the existence of that word). I miss being nerd with my species Tau Foo and being sarcastic with my other species VV. I miss face-painting during Hari Keluarga and got a bad sun-burn and freaking Wan Qi out.
Viva la 17!
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