Hanoi

Oh,wow.

H A N O I.

All 16 of us,including a whole loud bunch of family friends-landed early in the morning,and it took an hour's drive to the city.We went past countless paddy fields,vast and hauntingly quiet in that unholy time of day-finally reaching the city,still vibrant with noise and activity and people and vehicles at every corner that it was first a bit overwhelming to say the least.

The next day,I had a full itinerary planned for myself while the rest headed off for shopping in Hang Dai and Dong Xuan market(both part of my second day),both places situated in the Old Quarter,Hanoi's incredibly lively and sleepless central business district.

I first went to the Temple of Literature,then took a bike ride to Hoan Kiem Lake-from which my personalized walking tour took off-taking few tips from the two guidebooks I had purchased a week prior to the trip (Lonely Planet & National Geographic-Quick Note:While the latter was rich with glossy pics which I later found to over-glamorize locations,it was sparse with information and hardly recommended places aside from the usual tourist fare and the former is far more complete although with much less visual accompaniment,thus highly recommended for anyone intending to visit Hanoi)-I felt compelled to drop by the Shoe Market,St Joseph's Cathedral and a few other minor sightseeing/shopping places and small eateries which in the end were worth the tedious walking.

I can't describe to you daunting it was to travel alone in Hanoi-I was nervous as fuck even before going,knowing that spending a whole day alone in a new and unfamiliar place full of locals impatiently waiting for me to idiotically walk into any one of their many scams or whatever..was a bit tooriskytoodangeroustoocrazy..just TOO MUCH.

And true enough,I got lost-once for a full hour,desperately trying to find someone who could speak English and would point me in the right direction-a time in which my three maps each seemed to speak in their own different tongues,telling me to go here no there no here no there.But alas,with my ever-reliable camera in hand (also,a huge packet of M&Ms),getting lost turned out to be the greatest part of the 5-day trip,during which I crossed many of Hanoi's fascinatingly dirty inner streets full of local men and women engaged in their daily activity-women seated on flimsy plastic stools selling pho,large groups of elderly men playing checkers,schoolchildren in a frenzy playing games-I was lucky enough to unwittingly stumble into something so priceless and unforgettable,and driven to continue my journey with a continuously growing curiosity.

Not that I actually encourage getting lost-but there are things guidebooks just don't tell you to look out for,things you have to search at your own will and discover for yourself.Ironically,that's more or less what they say in the introduction part of almost every guidebook.

Moving on.I don't feel there was much to say about the trip-I can't be stuffed to lay out every single detail and place I went or food I ate because other from being too darn lazy to do that,above all,I felt it was a personal journey only I could truly understand and appreciate.A whole list of details would just bore you (more importantly,me) anyways.What I can share however,are the pictures.


Much more at my DEVIANTART.

Christmas

Christmas,being a shared celebration-a reason or excuse or whatever to celebrate-how can you not feel even the slightest tinge of relief,a sense of freedom?At a time nearing the end of year,a day that paves way for the ultimate concluding of what's been for most of us,an incredible year-a gentle reminder that though our troubles may not have vanished amidst bright lights and the tune of carols in the air,it's okay to let go for a bit and just take it easy,for despite how hateful and unforgiving we may be towards ourselves sometimes-deep inside,you know you deserve a break because you may not be that person the world wants you to believe you are.

Have a magical week.

Control

Control-The pacing's a bit off,too often slowing down at odd moments and Curtis' motivations behind his depressive behavior and eventual suicide are a bit blurry.The story lacks depth-hopping from one event to another with a general lazy attitude towards exposition,as a result the movie plot-wise feels shallow and uninspired.What makes it a film I can wholeheartedly recommend though,is the excellent cinematography and acting.The images are profoundly picturesque and it shows that much thought went into picking the best angle and lighting for every scene.And as for the performances,Sam Riley carries the role with a rare magnetism more often found in more mature actors-scene to scene he establishes just the right amount of detail,neither too forced nor inattentive-he's just effortlessly terrific here.

National Treasure:Book of Secrets-This movie is so detached from reality it deserves its own alternate universe-but I expected that walking in,so I nodded along brainlessly as Nic Cage performed fantastic things like kidnapping the US president an breaking into the White House without much trouble.It's sad to see Hellen Mirren wasted into a cookie-cutter role that could've easily been filled by any talentless pretty face.And I'm seriously appalled at the movies Cage chooses to make nowadays-he's definitely equipped to take on tougher characters like he did in Leaving Las Vegas and Adaptation,but instead prefers more of this blockbuster garbage that seems to make him less of a respectable actor anyone can take seriously.

Trade-Made of straight-to-video stuff,it starts off promisingly but quickly turns into a predictable story too bent on sharpening the good/evil contrast.The only thing that kept me watching was the portrayal of how these sex traffickers operate-it's all dangerously complex and discreet,and makes for a fascinating subject.Like how "customers" bid online through a website intelligently disguised as some sort of family/home-building corporation,guarded with passwords and special accounts accessible only through specific links.Additionally,the part about how these activities were linked to the government could've been expanded to something more intriguing,but was dealt with like a poor afterthought.

The Good Night-A Charlie Kaufman film except without the beautiful strangeness or compellingly human characters-so what's left?A bunch of intolerably whiny self-absorbed characters in a film that succeeds neither as a typically straightforward drama or anything more imaginative.HOW THE FUCK this still managed to be such a wretchedly unfunny and bland film even with Simon Pegg and Martin Freeman (a combo that,by right,should've been explosive),along with heavyweights Danny De Vito and Penelope Cruz in it-is truly one of the year's biggest conundrums (but with a shit script like this?Humph,maybe not)-best summed up by a New York Post reviewer-"The sort of movie you forget even as you're watching it."

...

+In preparing for an upcoming holiday in Vietnam,I stumbled upon this informative article about scams directed at traveling foreigners.

Raya

2am and I'm still almost half-awake,my brain stopped processing thoughts properly a couple hours ago.

Off to Melaka in the morning for Aidiladha,I really have to rest so I have plenty of energy to greet the aunties back there who expect to see me radiating with limitless joy and also,an insatiable hunger for thirty types of fish which inexplicably all tastes the same to me.

ONE Yahoo's list of the year's most memorable quotes.I still get a tiny headache everytime I go through Miss South Carolina's answer.Seriously bewildering shit.
TWO Deviantart recently updated.
THREE The not-so-new/most recent Band of Horses album is terrific.Traces of Shins,Panda Bear & Perishers,but mostly an original,solidly distinctive sound.
FOUR Caught Army of Darkness on DVD yesterday,man this movie is just brimming with quotable one-liners!My fave would be Ash' response to the now zombified Shiela's remark-"You once found me beautiful",to which he says "Honey,you got reeeeal ugly".
FIVE 30 Rock finally picks up after the last lackluster ep-also debuting Cerie's new "fuck-me" haircut and Lemon's dysfunctional family-fave quote from the ep,when Jack goes "Mother, there are terrorist cells that are more nurturing than you are."
SIX Been catching up on EXTRAS-very few comedies manage to be genuinely funny yet still be able to maintain compelling characters with real and engaging emotional/personal issues.The only other show currently on that keeps to that balance is The Office,though Steve Carrell's antics and the Pam-Jim story are almost running out of steam,so I'm sure they'll find something new and relevant to keep audiences interested.

Time for some sleep,happy happiness happy people everywhere.

West Hill

Can I get control,
Do you like me vulnerable?
M.I.A-Bucky Done Gun.

I wouldn't trade one stupid decision
For another five years of lies.
LCD Soundsystem-All My Friends

Now I know there is a world beyond
the small place I was coming from.

I feel at home here in the middle of nowhere.

I will never know the names
of these places that I travel through
to reach the coastline-
I've been told I will be there in time.
Kings of Convenience-Summer on The West Hill

With that last one,it's unbelievable the kind of songs this nerdy-looking duo come up with.The lyrics are so affectingly profound,combined with their nice mellow voices & ethereal guitars the result is just perfect esctacy-I could just put their music on and drown in their music all day,just let it take me away for a couple hours.Realised mum looked gravely stressed recently,so yesterday I burned a couple of their songs onto a CD & labeled it PEACEFUL MUSIC for her car,some music to and from the office and to accompany her many long journeys (and mine).

(Please,ocean cloud-let there be no storm on the crossing below)

Legend

Just got back from Kuantan couple hours back,still recuperating.It was raining pretty much every second I was there,but turned out quite a therapeutic experience if you take the nightmarish weather aside.Anyhu,managed to catch I Am Legend while I was there-a film I wasn't particularly excited about,but finally decided to watch (it was between this and Alvin & The Chipmunks) knowing how in the past,the charismatic Will Smith was the only good thing about movies like Pursuit of Happiness & Hitch that were otherwise massive stinkers.

Oh wow,looks it's Will Smith trying what he does best-saving the world!*Applause*But alas,Smith looks fatigued and reluctant in this movie-out of his usual energetic self,from start to end he's pretty much moping around and by the time a pedantic attempt at an emotional climax arrives,it's evident that nothing can save this movie from the self-destructive monotony it's chosen to pursue.I understand where it intends to go-to try and construct that magnificent 28 Days Later effect,relying on the sights of a usually chaotic city (in this case,NYC) now disturbingly quiet & inhabited only by overturned cars,rubbish and a main character who seems to have lost hope in mankind and lost his soul along the way-but here,it's just dead monotonous and dreary as fuck it just doesn't work on any level.Oh,and it probably didn't help that the "Dark-Seekers" were as scary as Spongebob.

Possible SPOILER ahead.As if it weren't bad enough that for an entire three quarters they put all this weight on this bloody dog I really wanted out of the picture from the get-go:not that I hate dogs,but you could see from the start the way they established the man-dog relationship in this tacky,superficial dog-food commercial way that they were eventually going to USE the dog for some exploitative purpose.Oh,and once they're done with the dumb disposable dog as a plot-driving tool-suddenly this pile of dung about Bob Marley Being A True Inspiration and Survival Philosophy and Where is God pops out of NOWHERE-no,seriously,the film walks miles just him and his bloody canine,talking about nothing specifically,then without any build-up or the slightest hint this random mother-son pair show up and before you know it they're having THAT argument about The Human Race and Fate.At this point,I felt like choking myself on popcorn.

It's just so damn stupid and ridiculous-I can't put it any better than that.Think movies like Transformers,The Day After Tomorrow-movies with really one-dimensional,self-important characters with laughably shallow motivations at the center,where the writers have this EPIC movie in mind and they take everything so goddamn serious the final film turns out some sort of banal mockery of itself.There's always a cheap family-related backstory,a whole proud bunch of unfunny jokes and the action scenes seem lavishly done but are flatly disappointing.There is absolutely nothing to salvage from this film.

I went in hoping for a half-decent post-apocalyptic film with mildly scary devolved humans,and I also read beforehand (here) they were showing a 7-minute Dark Knight preview before I Am Legend in US theatres and also,I vaguely remember seeing online a screenshot of the making for this film featuring Charlize Theron.Well,obviously none of those materialized.

+On a brighter note,the choice of DVDs they have is Kuantan is AH-MAZING!Only rivaled by Johor possibly.Well,I say this mainly because I finally managed to find Curb Your Enthusiasm-which I have been hunting for for months!-all five seasons conveniently crammed into a single boxset!

Mushaboom

Away From Her-Stories involving Alzheimer and so on are always mishandled,characters limited to Hallmark types like Grief-Stricken Husband,but here it's a miracle that their personalities come out pretty clear so that they're people more than anything,their pain genuinely affecting and the story honestly heartbreaking.I love how the story unfolds,and how the emphasis never strays from the main couple's relationship even as it progresses past terms like cure,treatment,affair.A beautiful film that comes in as one of the year's best.

28 Weeks Later-Having worked for the first movie,the same formula is once again relied upon-minimal words,an extravagant use of vast scenery and eerie instrumental music,but characterization this time around lacks that umph the first one had-whereas the original duo were able to remain totally kick-ass while seeming vulnerably human,the survivors here are merely just that:survivors.Sure there's that brother-sister relationship playing at the center,but there's still a cold,unvaried quality to them and the other characters that make them a horribly uninteresting bunch.Despite that,the film manages to remain frightening and sufficiently plausible plot-wise: at least up to a point near the end where the surviving trio venture the unlit recesses of an underground train station littered with corpses and not to mention flesh-eating psychozombies,with the surviving pack's leader confidently proclaiming to the others"Don't worry,walk on,I've got night-mode on this (her gun)",and then onwards it's all downhill-all the way to it's lame,unremarkable ending.

30 Days of Night-Well,it sure felt like it.Crap,save one scene when the vampires or whatever overturn the vehicle-that was crazy vicious.Casting Josh Hartnett as the lead to an already sleepy film was plain suicidal.

Eastern Promises -I thought A History of Violence was nothing to shout about,but there was something truly brilliant about the violence/sex in that movie.Same goes for this film,in which the violence (no sex here) is executed in this swift,nakedly raw but still amusingly comic manner.In the opening scene,where a guy's neck is sliced open-it's not disgusting or scary,but I felt curious and fascinated somehow.Satisfied even.There's this very unique way director Cronenberg uses violence-the controlled,and more often savage nature of it to achieve something that enlivens the scene and makes it peculiarly interesting-always leaving the characters totally exposed,but newly strengthened somehow.

+Ah,08's gonna be a year for music in Melbourne!Luck enough to get ticks for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah & Feist (both part of the St Jerome's Laneway Festival 2008 in Aus-you could get the general ticket for the half-day performance in which both of them perform,along with a couple other bands most notably Broken Social Scene-side note:they're performing more songs off Kevin Drew's recent solo album,which I'm not too keen about-or you could get ticks to individual solo shows-which I opted for),Jack Johnson in March & Foo Fighters in April!Yes,good love is on the way!I love it that they've got the balls to take up a big name like Feist to headline the event,instead of simply reaping up a pack of unknown people & boring has-beens then hyping it up as a fest for the sake of it (*cough cough* Live & Loud KL).I'm pretty contented with 08's itinerary for now,but I'm still hoping The Strokes would bloody hell get off their asses and come down to Melbourne already.

Deviantart updated.

Games

So,I've finally managed to catch some movies on DVD.

The Lookout-I wondered why Isla Fisher's character completely vanished after the third act,but that's not a big issue.The thing that really bugs me is Gordon-Levitt's performance-kudos to the guy making brave career choices with the small indie flicks but I think he's rubbish as an actor-here he faces the challenge of playing someone with a mental disability,and he does it so forcefully in this painfully obvious self-concious manner,as if every minute on camera he's dictated by a 'Things my character is supposed to do & be'' checklist,coupled with a message beeping loudly through his mind:I AM ACTING ACT WELL I AM ACTING.Now act special.Now laugh,but like a special person.Now say this,do that,act frustrated,oh,remember you're a bit off in the head.Aside from that,the film's solidly supported by an intriguing story that relies on certain contrivances,but then again most crime thrillers often do so (to a certain degree) and the tight script more or less makes up for the small missteps.

Waitress-Sweet & charming,but also tediously conventional.The main story's often put aside to make way for a couple sideplots-all of which aren't too disruptive,are individually interesting & tie up together very nicely in the end-the downside: the main story has little meat to it & the movie as a whole feels too light.Plus I hated the way the bloody birth at the end just ironed out everything so abruptly.It's like they make all this fuss about building a complex web of problems only to have the main character give birth to finally be able to sum up the courage to do what she's technically supposed to,and how everything else unrealistically self corrects around the same time-it's just so fucking brainless.

The Nanny Diaries-Not as bad as I imagined.It's formulaic to the bone,running on endless cliche's-the workaholic mother & father,absent parents to a nasty troublemaker,then the clueless nanny comes along only to find all this domestic turmoil,from which she eventually learns stuff about life and so does everyone else etc.But Scarlett Johansson is terrific here.Well,not terrific terrific-but I think she works great with everyday characters,those which allow her to breath easy and not be all wound up.You know,simpler roles.She was great in Ghost World & Lost In Translation-compared to her heavier stuff: like Girl With a Pearl Earring,The Island or The Black Dahlia,in which her presence felt awkward and her acting pedantic.But those were bullshit films anyways.So yea,Laura Linney's typically reliable but it's Johansson's surprisingly decent performance deserves equal praise.

Bug-It spends a whole hour on the build-up alone,but that proves useful later on-because what makes the idea of how much damage two extremely paranoid people can do is further heightened by having a clear backstory that unravels at just the right speed.At first it's a bit hard to believe and completely ludicrous,but then all the madness only makes the characters more interesting and most definitely mental,nothing in-between.Ashley Judd gives an unnerving performance,and I'm glad she's making much less crappy cop movies nowadays.

Yeap,that's it for movies this week.

+Link to the trailer for Funny Games.It's a bit violent,but you have to see it.

Pills

Recently,Hiro was found to have lost control of his two back legs-so we took him to the vet,who informed us that there was a loss of muscle mass possibly due to certain factors namely nutrition & the environment.So after being at the vet's boarding place for two days,being fed essential fluids to build up his appetite & attempt to make him the overactive,excitable cat he once was,we took him home with a bunch of pills he needed to be fed everyday.I've had little experience with giving pills to cats-but man,this one turned out to be a surprise-Hiro,always seen cuddled up meekly like a stinky furball in small corners,forever limp when you fetch him up-summons this CRAZY wild energy come pill-giving time,with all the furious clawing & loud screeching-you'd think he purposely rested all day to save the energy to battle off those small white pills.

But seriously,if you haven't tried it before,it's really no joke.This entry,however,is just too bloody funny,esp "Place cat in cupboard and close door onto neck to leave head showing".Anyhu,for some serious,helpful tips on this matter,you can find some here & here.

Picture

Chaos,chaos,chaos!

Nah,not really.But I've been busy moving back into the old house-it's been physically taxing,but more of a huge relief.Anyhu,internet at home's not set up yet,and I've nothing new to dabble on about.


So it's all come down to this-let me kindly remind you,I have a DEVIANTART page!Yes,I'm pretty blatant & shameless,then again it's just me promoting my personal online gallery-people do it all the time,so chill your ugg boots already.

I don't go out with the cam every single day,but when I do I come home with quite a number of pics-so I take the initiative to post a couple new ones online everyday when I'm free enough.I try to experiment with a lot of things,and get into stuff I don't normally feel comfortable to do-it's been less than a week having the cam,but I think I'm progressing quite well-having friends who are always at hand to give advice and answer my questions is extemely helpful,as well as having an environment (KL) that is naturally vibrant,exciting and full of surprises.

So yea,nothing much than that.Click click!Leave a comment if you feel like it,here or there-I won't bite!