Wednesday, January 08, 2003
Best of 2002 and Specials MD Compilation
Title Artiste Album
--------------------------------------------
Freedom Time - Lauryn Hill -Unplugged No. 2
Fight Test- Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
Born Again - Badly Drawn Boy - Have You Fed The Fish?
Daylight - Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head
Last Day of the Miners' Strike - Pulp - Hits
You Stole the Sun from My Heart (David Holme's Remix)- Manic Street Preachers - Forever Delayed Greatest Hits
My Dad's Gone Crazy - Eminem - The Eminem Show
Everyone Says Hi - David Bowie - Heathen
Dynamitee - Ms Dynamite - A Little Deeper
Empty Sky - Bruce Springsteen - The Rising
Siti - Force Vomit - Give It Up for the Trustfund Rockers
Love Somebody - Robbie Williams - Escapology
Don't Stop - Rolling Stones - Forty Licks
When Doves Cry - Patti Smith - Land
The Hands That Built America (Theme from GANGS OF NEW YORK) - U2 - Best of 1990 - 2000
Highly Evolved - The Vines - Highly Evolved
MF from Hell - The Datsuns - Best of 2002 CD Q Magazine
Jam for the Ladies - Moby feat Angie Stone, MC Lyte and Geronimo - 18
Daybreaker - Beth Orton - Daybreaker
Title Artiste Album
--------------------------------------------
Freedom Time - Lauryn Hill -Unplugged No. 2
Fight Test- Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
Born Again - Badly Drawn Boy - Have You Fed The Fish?
Daylight - Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head
Last Day of the Miners' Strike - Pulp - Hits
You Stole the Sun from My Heart (David Holme's Remix)- Manic Street Preachers - Forever Delayed Greatest Hits
My Dad's Gone Crazy - Eminem - The Eminem Show
Everyone Says Hi - David Bowie - Heathen
Dynamitee - Ms Dynamite - A Little Deeper
Empty Sky - Bruce Springsteen - The Rising
Siti - Force Vomit - Give It Up for the Trustfund Rockers
Love Somebody - Robbie Williams - Escapology
Don't Stop - Rolling Stones - Forty Licks
When Doves Cry - Patti Smith - Land
The Hands That Built America (Theme from GANGS OF NEW YORK) - U2 - Best of 1990 - 2000
Highly Evolved - The Vines - Highly Evolved
MF from Hell - The Datsuns - Best of 2002 CD Q Magazine
Jam for the Ladies - Moby feat Angie Stone, MC Lyte and Geronimo - 18
Daybreaker - Beth Orton - Daybreaker
Tuesday, January 07, 2003
I'm currently reading David Davidar's The House of Blue Mangoes which is about caste system in India and such. Pretty interesting so far.
Also, I can't seem to upload my previous page don't know why. have to find out. may try posting again
Also, I can't seem to upload my previous page don't know why. have to find out. may try posting again
Sunday, January 05, 2003
REVIEWS:
My poetic review of: ATTACK OF THE S.M. SPACE ENCROACHERS
Thank you chris for being the
Singapore Bitch
your con - spiral theories
of the under/ working under
System
within digits(people) sentiments, thoughts and actions
of being oppresser and oppresee
bypasses law and bully
taking high moral stand
refusal to look at reality
insistence on results - material economi - city
is indeed a very
low
blow
but you, the bitch bitched it
eloquently
the mighty space encroachers
are blind guinea pigs in the natural experimentation
of an autocratic government
and a free
one unified one voiced press
passing news for propaganda
stating the obvious
and selling it to us as truths and slogans (even shit smells better)
The government (note PAP is not = to government)
EVEN has to sell us the idea of OP
just to appear PC
oh dear
are we really living in a democracy?
or a world of make believe?
democracy for democracy sake?
opposition for opposition sake?
for fuck’s sake
this is even more scary than 1984
no wonder you said we are
natural
passing off man-made as natural.
natural actors?
natural surroundings?
natural for one parties government to allow people to speak up without giving up power and control?
oh chris/ t
my last poetic words are (like yours):
I would rather be human than Singaporean.
Tigerland
Watch Tigerland even though I’m not much a fan of war movies and strictly speaking, it is not a war movie where gunshots and grenades blast the screen creating horror spectacular effects leaving behind a grisly trails of humanly debris, blood and gore.
No Sir. it’s psuedo - Apocalypse Now without metaphorical and delusional imageries and disturbing questions on sanity and after effects of war.
Tigerland questions not the ethics and confounding confusion of the nature and repercussions of Vietnam War though it is about Vietnam war. It is actually groping about a group of young recruits sent to camp training before they step into the real war.
And what really separates this film from many others is its honesty; a well-trimmed storyline and the unflinching look on the recruits. Bozz the cutesy smart aleck who gains a reputation for AWOL and being caught always. He is also the one whom officers hate and tekan (meaning make things difficult); but the hero who keeps things going (when he was elected as platoon guide) and helps others get out of the war. He befriends Paxton, the romantic guy who keeps a diary so that he can write a book about his war experiences. Together, they are your army buddies playing and helping each other out.
Coarse foul vulgarities your mother would not want to hear but a common army lingo is freely expressed. The torturous training forms only a small part of the film filled in with more emotional tension scenes. Such as the occasion when Bozz, Paxton and Cantwell are peeling potatoes and Cantwell suddenly ruminates over the moon. Or when Mitter breaks down and confesses to Bozz about how he was despised by his immediate family and loved ones.
The story is well articulated with every moment revealing something deeper than what it seems to be or progresses towards an inevitable situation, sometimes quite unexpected. Whether its Bozz deciding not to partake in the training or Wilson getting into a fight with him because the former feels unfairly treated, the storyline moves to a climax that a good movie should do.
Tigerland is not just another war movie. It is a film with truths and scars.
Signs
I anticipated Shymalan’s Signs to be a more suspenseful thriller than The Sixth Sense or Unbreakable but was disappointed. The whole idea in Signs revolving around faiths, UFOs and gods just does not grip and gel as well this time. Maybe he was trying to explore/ sell family cohesion and values. I don’t know.
Graham (Mel Gibson) the family patriarch and support who has two children and a brother Mell (played by Joaquin Phoenix) finds himself suddenly having to deal with supernatural forces when crop circles appear in his farm. With news reports of strange sightings around the world, he realises that this might have a repercussion on his family who are now in danger.
Unknown creatures invading earth? What can we as a people do? Shymalan chooses to focus on a family as a unit and details how people try to deal with it; individually and together.
Perhaps we can see it mildly as an allegory. A reflection of the strange and chaotic times we are now in. The September 11 bombing of the twin towers depicting the downfall of the superpower and the perceived threat of terrorism trying to create a new world. Sure, terrorism isn’t new. But in America and on a well-known building and major landscape? The possibility of a new war? World wide depression?
Again I am stretching too far away from the film (and we know the movie is made before the bombing) but hell, uncertainty is uncertainty no matter which way you look at it. How do we cope with fear and continue to live as part of humanity when things are uncertain? Maybe its not such a bad movie after all. Telling us that fear is so much a part of us. But then again, isn’t that what all his movies are about?
The Bridget Jones Diary
Spinster blonde looks for Mr Right in contemporary society but always end up getting hurt, saying the wrong words or wallowing in self-misery. Makes me think of the recent controversies in Singapore. All those singlehood issues.
While not entirely Singaporean (in fact a very English movie) I’m sure single woman here will find something common here. For example, dinners with couples are dreaded affairs and to be avoided as it means getting interrogation about one’s love life. Parties with parents matchmaker- also act tactful.
Bridget Jones is the typical airhead that cocks up all the time, sings along to Celine Dion in her pyjamas and wishes to find a true boyfriend at 33. Pitiful? What happened to girl power? Feminism? Yet, I could not help laugh at her cruel fate which were really hilarious.
Oh no. I feel so wicked now. But all well ends well. We all know it don’t we, otherwise it wouldn’t sell. It’s a modern fairytale nevertheless. A funny one. A positive one.
Hang on there girls and in the meantime, keep on kissing the frogs.
My poetic review of: ATTACK OF THE S.M. SPACE ENCROACHERS
Thank you chris for being the
Singapore Bitch
your con - spiral theories
of the under/ working under
System
within digits(people) sentiments, thoughts and actions
of being oppresser and oppresee
bypasses law and bully
taking high moral stand
refusal to look at reality
insistence on results - material economi - city
is indeed a very
low
blow
but you, the bitch bitched it
eloquently
the mighty space encroachers
are blind guinea pigs in the natural experimentation
of an autocratic government
and a free
one unified one voiced press
passing news for propaganda
stating the obvious
and selling it to us as truths and slogans (even shit smells better)
The government (note PAP is not = to government)
EVEN has to sell us the idea of OP
just to appear PC
oh dear
are we really living in a democracy?
or a world of make believe?
democracy for democracy sake?
opposition for opposition sake?
for fuck’s sake
this is even more scary than 1984
no wonder you said we are
natural
passing off man-made as natural.
natural actors?
natural surroundings?
natural for one parties government to allow people to speak up without giving up power and control?
oh chris/ t
my last poetic words are (like yours):
I would rather be human than Singaporean.
Tigerland
Watch Tigerland even though I’m not much a fan of war movies and strictly speaking, it is not a war movie where gunshots and grenades blast the screen creating horror spectacular effects leaving behind a grisly trails of humanly debris, blood and gore.
No Sir. it’s psuedo - Apocalypse Now without metaphorical and delusional imageries and disturbing questions on sanity and after effects of war.
Tigerland questions not the ethics and confounding confusion of the nature and repercussions of Vietnam War though it is about Vietnam war. It is actually groping about a group of young recruits sent to camp training before they step into the real war.
And what really separates this film from many others is its honesty; a well-trimmed storyline and the unflinching look on the recruits. Bozz the cutesy smart aleck who gains a reputation for AWOL and being caught always. He is also the one whom officers hate and tekan (meaning make things difficult); but the hero who keeps things going (when he was elected as platoon guide) and helps others get out of the war. He befriends Paxton, the romantic guy who keeps a diary so that he can write a book about his war experiences. Together, they are your army buddies playing and helping each other out.
Coarse foul vulgarities your mother would not want to hear but a common army lingo is freely expressed. The torturous training forms only a small part of the film filled in with more emotional tension scenes. Such as the occasion when Bozz, Paxton and Cantwell are peeling potatoes and Cantwell suddenly ruminates over the moon. Or when Mitter breaks down and confesses to Bozz about how he was despised by his immediate family and loved ones.
The story is well articulated with every moment revealing something deeper than what it seems to be or progresses towards an inevitable situation, sometimes quite unexpected. Whether its Bozz deciding not to partake in the training or Wilson getting into a fight with him because the former feels unfairly treated, the storyline moves to a climax that a good movie should do.
Tigerland is not just another war movie. It is a film with truths and scars.
Signs
I anticipated Shymalan’s Signs to be a more suspenseful thriller than The Sixth Sense or Unbreakable but was disappointed. The whole idea in Signs revolving around faiths, UFOs and gods just does not grip and gel as well this time. Maybe he was trying to explore/ sell family cohesion and values. I don’t know.
Graham (Mel Gibson) the family patriarch and support who has two children and a brother Mell (played by Joaquin Phoenix) finds himself suddenly having to deal with supernatural forces when crop circles appear in his farm. With news reports of strange sightings around the world, he realises that this might have a repercussion on his family who are now in danger.
Unknown creatures invading earth? What can we as a people do? Shymalan chooses to focus on a family as a unit and details how people try to deal with it; individually and together.
Perhaps we can see it mildly as an allegory. A reflection of the strange and chaotic times we are now in. The September 11 bombing of the twin towers depicting the downfall of the superpower and the perceived threat of terrorism trying to create a new world. Sure, terrorism isn’t new. But in America and on a well-known building and major landscape? The possibility of a new war? World wide depression?
Again I am stretching too far away from the film (and we know the movie is made before the bombing) but hell, uncertainty is uncertainty no matter which way you look at it. How do we cope with fear and continue to live as part of humanity when things are uncertain? Maybe its not such a bad movie after all. Telling us that fear is so much a part of us. But then again, isn’t that what all his movies are about?
The Bridget Jones Diary
Spinster blonde looks for Mr Right in contemporary society but always end up getting hurt, saying the wrong words or wallowing in self-misery. Makes me think of the recent controversies in Singapore. All those singlehood issues.
While not entirely Singaporean (in fact a very English movie) I’m sure single woman here will find something common here. For example, dinners with couples are dreaded affairs and to be avoided as it means getting interrogation about one’s love life. Parties with parents matchmaker- also act tactful.
Bridget Jones is the typical airhead that cocks up all the time, sings along to Celine Dion in her pyjamas and wishes to find a true boyfriend at 33. Pitiful? What happened to girl power? Feminism? Yet, I could not help laugh at her cruel fate which were really hilarious.
Oh no. I feel so wicked now. But all well ends well. We all know it don’t we, otherwise it wouldn’t sell. It’s a modern fairytale nevertheless. A funny one. A positive one.
Hang on there girls and in the meantime, keep on kissing the frogs.
