The Whateverlah Blog

This post is spoiler-free for the first paragraph. Natalie Portman is hot. The ones after.. probly not going to hurt you but just as a precaution… Natalie Portman is hot. I wasn’t exactly thrilled to be going to see V for Vendetta, so the lack of enthusiasm for this movie was brewing already as I was lining up for my popcorn. Natalie Portman is hot. In short, the movie is a major disappointment. And I’m not even comparing it to the graphic novel which I’d read some years ago while attending USC. As a movie, it stinks. Natalie Portman is hot and it was the only reason I stayed till the end.

I think the Wachowski brothers never really came out of the utter-crap phase that was Matrix 2 and 3 when they did this movie. Having a no-name director at the helm did not exactly help the fast-sinking behemoth of a storyline. The major problem, to begin with, was to condense a story that developed over 10 issues of comic books (later compiled into the graphic novel I read) which resulted in a very frenetic paced movie that dips its toes in everything but lacking any depth. In some strange irony, the fact that you never see who is behind the mask V wears is like how you never see what’s behind everything the movie is trying to say.
So in the end, you ask yourself what the hell was the that all about aside from seemingly glorifying anarchists and terrorists (a fact which does not sit well with some parties), poking fun at the current socio-political situation in the United States(ditto) and allowing the world to see how hot Natalie Portman is with her head shaved. Alright, I’ll stop with that Natalie Portman thing.

The film was in no way groundbreaking; you think of Orwell’s 1984 just watching the trailer and throughout the movie I’m reminded of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World - “community, identity, stability” versus “strength through unity, unity through faith”. Of course, in Huxley’s dystopia religion had no place in a society seeking stability. However, let us not go into a compare and contrast exercise or we’ll be here all night.

Daily Kos has an explanation for those of us who are suitably unimpressed with Vendetta: “[The movie] is not enlightening, offensive, or controversial–and that’s not the fault of the film. It’s our own fault because it simply is not enough to shock us compared to daily reality.” That perhaps may be the most sobering thought – that not only fiction imagined twenty years ago are relevant to current times but that they are far less impressive than reality. The writer of the article, funny enough, enjoyed the movie far more than I did.

There are things I did like about V for Vendetta and no, not just the hot-person-who-must-no-longer-be-mentioned. Stephen Rea as Inspector Finch was damn fine casting; his was the character I have the most compassion for. I really dig the songs played on V’s contraband Wurlitzer jukebox.

In anycase, spend your money on the graphic novel. You’ll get a far more satisfying story out of that (sans Natalie Portman).

OK, people, heads up. And I do mean this literally because in a few hours there’s going to be a TOTAL solar eclipse that’s going to take place. According to the AP article:

Crowds were anticipated in prime viewing points, among them Accra, the capital of Ghana, and in Turkey and India. In Ghana, the University of Cape Coast will broadcast the eclipse simultaneously on the Internet. Tens of thousands of tourists were expected along the Turkish Mediterranean coast.

Astronomers from NASA and Britain’s Royal Institute of Astronomy also were going to an ancient Roman amphitheater in Turkey to view the phenomenon.

Obviously, Malaysia is not going to be able so see zilch. If you’re in the same boat, there’s always the webcasts mentioned in the article. You can find links to them on Spaceweather.Com. I don’t know if the servers will be able to support the load cause I’m thinkin that there’s going to be alot of us trying to connect to them.

Spaceweather also says that the International Space Station (which I tried to track via Google Earth) will be in position to see the moon’s shadow being cast down on earth as the eclipse takes place. Ohhh, hang on a sec– geekgasm taking place.

Oh, happy day!

Edit: Heh. Brendan Loy a.k.a Irish Trojan points out on his blog that the same AP article I linked to is factually erroneous.

I recently got ahold of the entire Sportsnight series (all 45 episodes of this sadly misunderstood show) on DVD and I have to say… Aaron Sorkin rules. For the uninitiated, Sorkin, the creator of The West Wing, did a little half-hour ‘comedy’ series called Sportsnight which ran for almost two full seasons before getting cancelled. A year later Sorkin gave the world Jed Bartlet’s West Wing and its crew.

Anyway, in the first episode of the second season of Sportsnight one of the characters goes on a rant about a sporting incident that’s newsworthy and should be highlighted:

JEREMY: Cho Chang, a Chinese swimmer, is swimming the Taiwan Strait from Tescadora in Pong Hu to Tun Ting Dao. And there’s some question as to whether the mainland Chinese government is going to let her come ashore. Some quick facts: The island is separated from South China by the 161-kilometer-wide strait, and together with Matzu and Humoi form the seat of the government of the Republic of China, which of course claims the right to rule all China.

I stole the dialogue from an episode recap which you can find here, trusting the transcription to be accurate.

Now, Cho Chang is Harry Potter’s love interest. (wow, talk about being Captain Obvious there) At least, for three books worth she remained his interest. And Cho Chang is not a common Chinese name. As a matter of fact I didn’t even realise Cho Chang is supposed to be chinese till… well, a fairly long time after she shows up in the stories. And I will bet all the tea leaves in China that there is a sure connection between the swimmer Cho Chang of Sportsnight and the Ravenclaw Cho Chang of Harry Potter.

A simple search on Google indicates that some rare souls out there, those few other people who are as geeky and as lacking a social life as I am, have picked up on this too. Sadly, nobody seems to be pursuing it with any interest.

It’s known that Jo Rowling is a fan of The West Wing. This was revealed in an exclusive interview she gave to the people behind The Leaky Cauldron and Mugglenet. In a rundown of the interview, Leaky Cauldron’s Melissa Anelli said:

I still don’t know how we got on the topic, but Jo said that she is a tremendous WEST WING fan. Although in retrospect, and comparing writing styles, this seems a natural and unsurprising fact, nothing on this great wide earth could have made me happier, as I love that show with a passion, and admire Aaron Sorkin’s writing almost as much as I do Jo’s. She waxed on about him, and how intense his life must have been, to write those shows the way he does.

Emerson Spartz of Mugglenet pretty much echoes the sentiment albeit in greater brevity- “Melissa and I were happy to hear she’s a huge West Wing fan, because we can’t get enough of that show either.”

I posit that this admiration is mutual, and that Aaron Sorkin named his swimmer after a character of Jo’s as an homage (and way before Rowling became his fan). Since I will have no way of proving it short of grabbing Mr. Sorkin by his jacket lapels and bellowing, “WHY DID YOU NAME THAT SWIMMER CHO CHANG? HUH? HUH? HUH???” let’s just pretend for now that by presenting the two facts below, there is enough to believe that my conspiracy theory is right.

Fact one: Cho Chang is first mentioned in the third Harry Potter book ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’. This book was published on July 8th, 1999.

Fact two: the Sportsnight episode mentioning a swimmer called Cho Chang has an original air date of October 5th, 1999.

Before you go yelling post hoc ergo propter hoc at me, please just think about what an unbelievable coincidence this would be that Sorkin would pull a name like Cho Chang out of nowhere.

(Of course, a simpler explanation would be that Sorkin had in fact read Prisoner of Azkaban, liked the name and stole it and it’s not really a hat tip to Rowling or anything.

But this is more fun.)

“If coincidences are just coincidences, why do they feel so contrived?”

I seriously need to leave this place already.

Some days ago a friend asked if I had a copy of a file of hers. I knew for sure I did because of my pack rat nature. I had to go to the beat up, falling apart laptop of mine to locate said file.

In the process I also found many old versions of websites I once proudly (geekily) build and maintained. I wish my pack rat instincts bordered more on the obsessive compulsive side cause it’d be nice to see my very, very first site build in then un-merged geocities.com. The site was for what else but The X-Files.

But I did find some versions of my Gillian Anderson obsession site, the award winning* “Smart Is Sexy” :

I did go on to waste my time oncreate other sites; more as a form of stress relief than anything else. You’d be surprised to find how cathartic editing HTML on a plain text programme can be. WYSIWYG editors are for sissies!

Here’re a couple shots of sites now in HTML heaven…

*Geek Site of the Day, GAWS Favourite Site of the Month, Video Vault Site of the Month and various other mentions

There I was grading some kid’s comprehension work on Hamlet when suddenly I was overcome by fits of giggles. I was reminded of an episode of The Simpsons where literature classics were retold, Simpsons style.

They did Homer’s Odyssey (clever, clever), Joan of Arc and of course, Hamlet. Lisa’s Ophelia delivered the best line in that entire episode – “Oh great. Now Hamlet’s acting crazy. Well *nobody* out-crazies Ophelia! Hey naneenanee with a hoo and a haw and a naneenanee heey!” And SPLASH she jumps out into the moat. I nearly died laughing.

You can hear the clip from the episode here. Just scroll down towards the end.

Anyway, I just couldn’t get that image of Lisa out of my head and continued grading papers and having intermittent giggle attacks the rest of the afternoon.

God bless The Simpsons.

More Commonwealth love. Deal with it.

Another reason why i like them Kiwis, besides giving themselves nicknames like the Black Cocks, is the haka. Introduced to the world by and large by New Zealand’s rugby team the haka dance is such an awesome display of fervor and passion it makes for an intimidating sight. Let’s face it – the All Blacks doing the Ka Mate is a hell lot more scary than say the Scottish national side doing a jig in their kilts.

A real live experience watching a haka by the Samoan contingent at the ‘98 Games opening helps cement it, in my mind, as the coolest thing in sports since…. since instant replay!

Watching games highlights on tv today I can’t help but notice that the Kiwi lot are performing the haka without shirts a lot more often. Not that I’m complaining…

However, there are some party poopers bitching and New Zealand has been told to restrain themselves from breaking out in impromptu hakas during the opening and closing ceremonies. Not even the Queen’s apparent approval can stand in the way of pomp and circumstance. *rolls eyes*

OK, somebody explain to me again how the hockey girls beat the South Africans yesterday? I’m still in shock over this. If you look at the stats we had only 2 shots on target the entire match and converted both of them. South Africa on the other hand couldn’t convert on all but one of its 14 attempts and this in the dying minutes of the match where Malaysia was looking like slugs on the field. All the same, Malaysia Boleh.

The badminton peeps are doing plenty well. The squash squad not so well.

But the highlight of my day is the Kiwi’s sense of humor – their shuttlers are (unofficially) known as the Black Cocks. I knew I liked them for a reason.

My life is officially over.

Someone, while looking at a photo, asked my 15-year-old niece if I was her mother.

Random thoughts while watching the 2006 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony tonight went like this:

The opening is quick and painless. GOOD.

Fireworks on the river, fireworks from the buildings. Fireworks everywhere!

Oh, duckie! A boy and his duck. How cute. Just remarking to mom that I didn’t recall the 98 Games opening ceremony having any theme to it. Atchly, I don’t remember much of anything except booing the Singaporean contingent.

Flying with a skateboard? How Back To The Future is THAT?!

Technology is amazing. I am so loving how they can project stuff onto the ground.

Heheheh. Big, giant koalas carrying a ‘JUMP HERE’ sheet for the boy stuck in a tower.

6pm – So far, I have to say this opening is way more impressive than Sydney’s Olympic Games opening.

A lot of symbolic thing happening that I don’t understand. But it’s nice to see that Australia trots out the orang asli of their country when they need to remind people that they is a very multicultural nation too.

More live music performance that I don’t care about. Motocross Romeo and ballerina Juliet. Yawn. Skipping past.

Hey now, that’s a way to get my attention – fireworks on the ballerinas dangling in the air. Woo!

The athlete procession. Finally! Interesting that they’re accompanied by live music. And the entrance — walking across a bridge and then under it is.. different. But that umbrella thing in place of a placard for the county names.. no. nononono.

Can someone tell me in what order these athletess are entering because it sure isn’t alphabetical.

I so love that Isle of Man flag.

(oh okay, by continent, then alphabetical)

6.30pm

The Asian contingents enter. WOoooOOOooOoOO!!

Dude, the Bruneian flag bearer needs. to. lighten. up. The procession is not a military march.
Ey, not bad lah, our colors… black and orange. Tiger stripes. Awwwwww…. Go Malaysia!

Sri Lanka also has a great flag.

Wow, for having such a deep and twisted history with Asia Great Britain sure had very few colonies in the far east; 8 minutes later and we’re into the Americas.

6.55pm – Goooo All Blacks!!! Whom, should really adopt this flag as their national flag. Just so much cooler.

7.01pm – and the home team enters the grounds. With very strange looking outfits. Hrmpf. Boarding school chic.

Now, the final stages of the relay of the Queen’s message in a very funny looking baton.

Fireworks under the bridge. Brilliant! Whatever will these Weasley brothers think of next?

Was Prince Phillip falling asleep there or just deeply contemplative about the great big commonwealth. WTF? The Queen gets a birthday song 37 days early.
More fireworks, this time strapped to people rollerblading around the stadium. Blimey. But Delta Goodrem’s kinda hot. Oh, that song’s alright, too. Better than what Torino offered in the form of Avril Lavigne.

Okay. This is over. Getting boring. I’m gonna go out and have some maggi goreng.

SPM results day always makes me depressed. And I wish I knew why I loath it so much.

Anyway, from the requisite reporting in The Star, Nearly 50% Rise in all 1As Students, according to our Education director general “we should, nevertheless, be assured that these top students are all-rounded as they are also required to be active in various co-curricular activities.”
Well thank heavens. I was worried for awhile there, afraid that we were churning out mindless lemmings. After this reassurance I’m at ease to know that young Malaysians are not only book smart but are critical thinkers who can form original opinions and who refrain from regurgitating doctrine and propaganda *and* they can also dribble a basketball. Phew!

Annie Proulx, author of the Brokeback Mountain short story lit the Academy up with a commentary piece in The Guardian UK.

In it she called the Academy voters a bunch of “conservative heffalump … many living cloistered lives behind wrought-iron gates or in deluxe rest-homes, out of touch not only with the shifting larger culture …. but also with their own segregated city.”

It’s no wonder she writes gay men so well — the piece is more drama queen than any queer I know. And before we go on, Ms. Proulx is entitled to her opinions and as she’s made these ones public I’m sure as hell entitled to criticize it.

So not only is she mad at the voters for robbing Brokeback of Best Picture, Proulx also, in a manner only writers could, gave the nominees in the Best Actor category a few backhanded slaps (and ignoring one other outright). Right after calling Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s portrayal of Capote “brilliant” the Pulitzer Prize winning author laments:

“Hollywood loves mimicry, the conversion of a film actor into the spittin’ image of a once-living celeb. But which takes more skill, acting a person who strolled the boulevard a few decades ago and who left behind tapes, film, photographs, voice recordings and friends with strong memories, or the construction of characters from imagination and a few cold words on the page?”

I’m disappointed that Heath Ledger didn’t win either but damn, girl, why you hatin’ so much? I didn’t notice the same uproar when Hoffman took the BAFTA for best actor, beating out pretty much the same group of guys.

Proulx ends with, “for those who call this little piece a Sour Grapes Rant, play it as it lays.”

Why yes, I think I will.

Hollywood is conservative. And to think otherwise is certainly naive to say the least. To join the party knowing full well who the members and yet expecting them to play a different tune this year well, that’s just down right silly. I’m not certain, however, it’s the conservatism that caused voters to pick another movie but the marketing machine put in place to push Crash. And if so then Brokeback Mountain lost in the one game that truly matters in Tinseltown – selling the image.

As an aside, wouldn’t it be funny if the controversy was played out in a less glamorous category like Best Documentary? Oh, I can just see the uproar had March of the Penguins been upset by Murderball. Think about all the rants on the violence loving, animal hating members of the academy. Hah.
Previously:
- hits and misses
- little plastic gay men
- long, lonesome blues (the movie review)
- brokeback to the future
- Break my heart, no brokeback

I told someone that I couldn’t really say this out loud for fear that gay men will hit me with Manolo leather slingbacks – that so what Crash beat out Brokeback Mountain to win the best picture Oscar? While serving nicely as conspiracy fodder for the entertainment media is kind of a farce in itself, it’s the ‘how could the Academy snub a movie that’s clearly far superior to the winning flick??’ by them that’s really annoying.

While snubbed they were, Brokeback Mountain isn’t a better movie than Crash. In fact the field this year was so strong that I’m surprised the other nominees aren’t making noise about losing to Crash. Let’s count our blessings that this year was a bumper crop of brilliant movies. I mean do you remember last year’s choices? The Aviator? Sideways? Million Dollar Baby? Ugh.
But I digress.

A few days ago some Brokeback fans took out a full page ad in The Variety to thank the people behind the movie. This, I surmise, is in response to not netting the Best Picture Oscar. Which (this is where my Manolo fears materialised) seems a little dramatic for me. The ad cost Brokeback’s fans $18000 – an impressive amount raised in a matter of days. It just seems like a humongous waste of money to let people know that you think the Academy’s got it wrong. Think about what eighteen big ones can do for charity; shelters that take in gay kids who are abused at home and the likes. Just saying, ya know? Because, I think Heath Ledger, Ang Lee, Jake Gyllenhaal and all the rest don’t need an ad to tell them they’re loved.

Oh, and one last thing.. you can’t win ‘em all. Just ask Pete Carroll and USC’s football team.

Hah. It works. I’m a genius… at following instructions.

And whilst the thing was doing its thing (uploadinglah) I checked this blog’s stats and holy crap I had a traffic surge on March 6th and 7th, like 4x the normal traffic! All because one of my guestblogger’s article from March 4th got linked to ‘nother obviously more widely read blog.

I wonder if it’s because we were talking about they-who-crush-all-dissenters.

Anyway.. back to your regular (and sometimes not so regular) servings of nonsensical jibbering.

EDIT: Yes, Firefox browsers can’t see my blog. And somehow i managed to flood petalingstreet.org.. hope they won’t ban me or soemthing. Honest, mistake, sirs. Too tired to fix the code for Firefox. Will iron out issues tomorrow. Going to bed.

This is advance warning to you who read my blog (all 7 of you) that I’m going to upgrade Wordpress to ver 2.0.1. Things might go wrong cause Murphy’s my best mate and if they do you’ll hear about it.

My guestbloggers, when the new WP goes up, things will look different when you log in. Different better, I hope.

Stay tuned…