The Whateverlah Blog

If Channing wasn’t some semi-famous A/B list actor he’d just be another good looking shirtless guy jogging on campus I sprain my neck to ogle.

Lucky for me, he is a movie star with a couple new flicks out this summer. And for someone who’s starring in G.I. Joe you’d think he’d be alot buffer. Just sayin…

From My Famous Friend an insightful feature piece on Stephanie March back in 2006:

Stephanie has always been horribly superstitious, and the mention of anything important causes her to knock on wood. This makes it amusing to talk about important things where no wood is present—in a car, perhaps, or a big pool.

… And when being interviewed, it seems. Here she knocks on her own head when asked to comment on Farah Fawcett’s battle with cancer:

The cuteness, iz killin me.

I don’t usually go crazy english-nazi during everyday conversations but some things just drive me… crazy.

Examples:

- when people pronounce ‘client’ as a one-syllable word, sounding like ‘klein’. WTF, you manglish flers.

- when people pronounce ‘flour’ as a two-syllable word, sounding like ‘flower’. WTF, you yanks.

- when people add the extra syllable to ‘jewellery’. WTF WTF WTF.

- when people can’t tell the difference between ‘democracy’ and ‘majority’

Okay, so that last one is a poor understanding of social political theories rather than bad english. Whateverlah. It’s all very annoying.

“then I feel entirely justified in collecting free panties twice a year.”

How do you go from this:

to this:

 
Mariska has a hard on for Carolina Herrera dresses. She tends to wear Herrera to award shows. (I mean, how else do you think this fashion idiot knows who Carolina Herrera is.)

But this White House Correspondents Dinner outing is not a good one for the Herrera/Hargitay combo…  I keep thinking she should stuff it all back into whatever pillow she ripped open. Or, you know, tell that dress to quit molting.

And you thought the Kentucky Derby was all about the horses and booze.

Let’s be honest – who wouldn’t want a life-size Stephanie March doll? Even better if it comes with different outfits.

Grik couple have 21 children:

Oh, pray tell, Perak MCA, just exactly what were the prerequisites for this mother of all awards?

I’m going to let someone else say something because I have.. nothing…

Is there any way that the papers misquoted him and I might’ve mistaken our Education Minister for a sexist dweeb? Here are two back to back quotes in a news item in The Star about the Minister wanting to make sports a priority in Malaysian schools:

“For one, not all schools have fields now and there are also not enough sports teachers.

“I don’t mean to offend anyone but 80% of our teachers are women. Not that they are not important, but we need some men as well and we will have to figure out how to draw them into the profession.”

Can you blame me after reading the two quotes making the inference that he thinks only men can be sports teachers? What is a sports teacher anyway?

let me tell you it.

I am a fan but no purist. Wasn’t too sure about the whole idea of ST getting ‘reimagined’ but when I saw the product, I understand now.

I tried to find something really obvious about the movie that I could hate but I got nothing for ya.

The pace of the story was balanced and there’s action from beginning to end. The necessary expository scenes did not drag on. Hooray for good writing! Although the writers seem to have stolen elements from Star Wars and BSG in a couple scenes but that’s okay.

The actors were all solid choices. Yea, I made fun of the casting awhile back saying that the bridge was being overrun by The O.C. teens. Zachary Quinto is much better as Spock then he is as Sylar on Heroes. It is all a delicate balance between the actor’s own interpretation of the characters while honoring the personalities created by the original cast. And I think this bunch have done it all justice.

While the special FX in this movie was indeed super fan-fucking-tastic, it was all present to support the story not detract from it . *cough*CrystalSkull*cough*

Ditto for the sound design (just listen to some of the “old school” cheesy beeps and blorps sounding like they belong in this slicker ST world).

I’m thinking those who like ST mainly because of the utopian philosophies it promotes are gonna be put off by the story line. It lacks the macro social commentary that we’re used to in the world of ST. Instead, it’s about the individual and the choices me make. Not to mention, this is not your mother’s Star Trek. It’s grittier. It gets down and dirty. It’s an unapologetic action movie.

A strangely unimportant point – the bad guy played by Eric Bana wasn’t really all that fascinating. But since the story was to mainly show the ‘origins’ of Kirk, Spock, et al, it’s really not that big of a deal that the villain by the uninspired name of Nero didn’t scare the pants off me.

I’m for sure getting the DVD when it comes out but there is no comparison between your television and a 30 foot screen (and THX sound, son!). This movie is like a great amusement thrill ride – when it’s over you say, “Woah, let’s do that again,’ and run to line up for another go.

Ever heard of the Sanderson Hotel, London? Me neither.

It looks like the sort of thing that might be called “comtemporary luxury with a touch of whimsy” in magazines.

But all this eclectic modern sophistication is not the main point. The main point, the real kicker, is that – are you ready for it – this hotel has a “Modern Malaysian” restaurant, named “Suka” (Malay for “like”).

The menu lists such items as

PAPAYA & PORK BELLY SALAD
Slow braised and crisped pork belly tossed in chili vinaigrette with papaya, roasted jalapeno and spring onions
£11.00

LOBSTER WONTON MEE
Egg noodles cooked with poached lobster, lobster consommé and lobster wontons
£22.00

PUMPKIN TART TATIN
Spiced butternut squash tart with gula melaka syrup and crystalised ginger ice cream
£7.00

If you say, “So expenseef! Go all the way to London to eat fried rice?” then you are not the intended audience, theirs or mine. And if you (God forbid) say that we are apeing the West and still after all these years enslaving our culture to theirs, then I have nothing more to say to you.

But I’ve now added another entry to the List of Places To Go Before I Die.

How did I come across this, you ask?

I was wandering around here. (The rest of the site may not be work-safe.)

From the I-dunno-what-else-to-say department, via the Huffington Post: Hannity Attacks Obama For Putting Mustard On His Burger

Really, what else is there to say?

I couldn’t place the actress that played Call-Me-Sam The Lawyer but she was so darn familiar so I looked her up. Melinda McGraw. … How could I forget that name? Melinda effing McGraw is MELISSA SCULLY. duuuuh!!!!

Though, obviously, Ms. McGraw has been working quite a bit after getting very unceremoniously offed by some Consortium henchmen back in season three of The X-Files. Dude. Remember those days when that show was good? (As opposed to when it became as laughable as SVU. Scully giving birth and Agent Reyes assisting. Remember THAT? Ugh. Ok. Tangent over.)

Melinda McGraw has been in a slew of TV stuff. Most recently Mad Men but also of note is (huh) The West Wing. She was there during the transition episodes, i.e. the ones I never saw more than once. She played the right wing hardliner campaign manager of Arnold Vinick, replacing Patricia Heaton’s character. She was also Commissioner Gordon’s wife in The Dark Knight. huh. I guess the face just doesn’t stick with me.

Now I feel better.

Police personnel standing guard outside the state secretariat building. - 7 May, 2009

From The Star’s Battleground Ipoh photo gallery.

I’d be lying if I said I was surprised and appalled. Nevertheless, it’s painful to watch.

An exciting day in Ipoh. One for the history books. But not any kind of history books you’ll ever find in schools. There was a semi media blackout the whole day – you didn’t see anything on tv and radio. As the day was winding down there was a brief news item on the radio and on tv. The latter carried no visuals. If you wanted something you’d have to get online.

Videos? – head to Malaysiakini’s youtube channel. 

Breaking news? – The Malaysian Insider twittered updates all day.  According to the twitter updates, 64 were arrested today outside the state secretariat building and later in the afternoon 14 were released (including 8 lawmakers). It remains to be seen what they’re going to do to the other 50.

Oh, and the kicker? We’re waiting on the high court to decide who the Chief Minister will be on Monday. *cough*BushGore*cough*

Nana shared a write up about Malaysian food in the NY Times, published in 2006. I just wanted to reproduce this bit on asam laksa:

The bowl that arrived was a master class in contrasting textures and flavors, with each ingredient striking an almost perfect note: the rich and oily mackerel, the sharp mint and spicy sambal, the sour tamarind and sweet pineapples. And the thick, round white noodles were the chewy embodiment of “q,” the Chinese analog of al dente.

Yes. The right kind of noodles is oh-so-important. Soooo glad I’m not overseas when I read this. It would’ve been a very sad post for me. Now, I’m off to get my bowl of laksa.

but d’aaawwwwww Olivia Benson is the cutest detective evah.

I’m starting this one like I did the previous one – I didn’t HATE this episode. I only half hated it. The entire fucking second half!!

Ok, so let’s start with the bad: Kathleen. Like, wtf? Totally ridic plot line. Do adults really think that a teen would automatically listen to another teen? How old do you have to get to forget what it’s like to be a teen? Psssshhhhh… Things were just cruising along until Kathleen showed up. I felt like I slammed against a Bull Shit brickwall then. Or an extra serving of After School Special shoved up my ass when I didn’t want it. Now I know the fear that loudmouth boxer boy felt.

This episode never recovered from  the 25th minute mark on. All of a sudden it turned into farce SVU (or rather, totally par for course shitty season 10 SVU) complete with evil-sneering Judge. Her eyes were scary. Not in a good way.

Don’t ask me about the undercover crap. I hate it when they go undercover. 

And, there was no sex crime. AND there was no Alex Cabot. GUH. Okay, maybe Cabot’s off at some Bar conference. Yeah. Let’s go with that.

What did I like about this episode? Olivia. Olivia and lots of Olivia. Even some of Olivia being a bad ass. And Olivia in a leather jacket. Oh, Olivia.

And I like Alex Kingston as a defense attorney. Ok, it may be because of the english accent. But she’s a good actress that didn’t look like she was phoning this one in.

I also liked the Benson and Stabler double team interrogation. Although it’s not hard to break a pussy like that clerk. No need to pull out the heavy guns there.

What I was neutral about in this episode – the new lawyer. “Call me Sam”? Orly? I don’t understand why she’s prosecuting. And her weak (but frustratingly successful) attempt at threatening to sic IAB on Benson. Yeah. Whatever. Also, the actress looks wildly familiar. I fucking can’t place the face but the voice… is she from Battlestar or… or…. *runs off to IMDB*

Also, I swear I keep getting subliminal messages to own a Blackberry Storm….

So if you made if this far down, you gotta ask yourself, if this show sucks so much why do you keep watching? The answer is I like to look at my hot lady cop, and her partner, and her ADA, and I also remember what good SVU used to be like. I watch in vain hopes that they’ll stop taking themselves so damn seriously and have lines like, “Uh, there’s two r’s in hemorrhoids.”

* evil Judge Marsden to Olivia Benson