the new firefox certainly looks good!!
and it rocks too!!
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i’ve pledged and fulfilled my pledge, have you?
If you have not
Archive for the “Reviews” CategoryHave enjoyed doing International Screens very much since a long long time ago. perhaps it is because there are not much people doing this kind of show, therefore there won’t be a very packed cineplex and confirmed tickets. Or perhaps it is because not many people like to do such “boring” movies. there will be no big casts but actors and actresses you don’t even know who they are, there are no stunning visual effects that aw the shit out of you. however, i love doing it, because these shows are usually the kind of shows that can set your mind thinking about the meaning behind the scripts. Based on the original novel by Khaled Hosseini, it speaks of the tale of 2 boys, from 2 different family backgrounds, but grew up together under the same roof. however, the tie was soon to be broken when one of the boys betrayed his childhood friend. there was a twist when the story goes about 3/4, and suddenly everything makes sense. at the same time, i guess you will feel a punch hitting your heart, and then tears started to fill your eyes. if you can’t wait for the movie, just click on the spoiler below to read the full synopsis from imdb.com . this is the second movie that made me shed my tears, after Braveheart. so, to me i think it’s really a damn good movie which noone should miss. i am looking forward for Columbia Picture’s upcoming movie that is based on Khaled Hosseini’s second novel A Thousand Splendid Suns. however, the movie is yet to be filmed. A movie with a twist, a tear shedding ending, a bunch of personality actors, and a documentary like filming technique. damn, it’s a good movie you shouldn’t miss.. . Now Listening: Flyleaf - I’m So Sick Vietnam, my first ASEAN country. i’ve always wanted to visit the neighboring ASEAN countries. to my personal opinion, though most ASEAN countries are still labeled as third world and developing countries, they are so rich in culture no developed countries could ever match. especially the Indochine mass, sitting right in the middle of 2 of the oldest civilization India and China, i bet we would be able to see one helluva scene.
Influences of China, India, American and French cultures molded today’s Vietnam.. Chinese Temples that are still in use today, French styled buildings in the French quarters, Indian believes, culture rituals. the influences from these 4 main culture are very obvious from its architecture, buildings, people’s culture and even their daily livings. if you are ever a culture traveller, it’s a country you shouldn’t miss. torn apart by the bloody civil war, Vietnam has a painful history, but has given the world a very good lesson on how important peace is, and how war could bring a country down, by poverty.
though it’s only Hanoi and Saigon, it’s already an eye opener and i had a minor culture shock… one thing i’ll never get used to is its traffic.. i can guarantee you it’s a million times messier than KL, being so expensive to get a car, the 2 wheelers are the main mode of personal transport in Vietnam. it’s so popular that there are 2 millions motorcycles in Hanoi and 4 million in Saigon. and practically there’re no traffic rules in Vietnam, it is not for the faint hearted, trust me. i was on it and it was a LIFE AND DEATH experience to me. at that very moment the kid who was pillaining me brought me through streams of bikes and cars that stampeded towards me, i thought Mat Rempit’s way of rushing through the traffics and do stunts on the street are actually nothing, kid’s play, or you can say, rubbish la!! totally no kick ah!!
the one thing i know i could never pick up is the Vietnamese language which consists 6 different vocal tones, blardy hell!! Chinese language’s 4 tones can already be pretty confusing, imagine 6!! there’s one last thing i really need to say is that, Vietnam has incredibly beautiful kids. they are so beautiful i had a very happy time snapping the faces of the kids…
well well, let’s hope there’ll be a chance i can pay a visit to Central Vietnam, where most of Vietnam’s histroies took place, ancient ruins of historical kingdoms and a 20km coast line with beaches that have pearl white sand. frankly speaking, 2GB card was never enough for such trip, i’ll make sure i’m getting myself at least an 8GB CF card before i depart. all the images below are a small fraction from the 600 images i snapped from Hanoi, Halong Bay and Ho Chi Minh City(Saigon). if you’re interested, here are the links to the albums.. all sceneries are from Hanoi, HalongBay and Saigon my personal favorite album, the “faces of Vietnam”, where you see the people, their lives and their culture.. Halong Bay Cave Special . Now Listening: James Blunt - One of the Brightest Stars heard a lot about Nintendo’s Wii, the revolutionary gaming console that has brought gaming onto another level, unlike the convenional game consoles, Wii is so much more than just pressing buttons on the controller pads. however, due to the not-so-popular factor of Nintendo, i’ve yet to have a chance to lay a hand on a Wii..
Finally, yesterday was my first ever time layed a hand on a Nintendo Wii… and frankly, with that little thing on your hand… once you start, you just can’t stop, the experience is so un-conventional !! .. playing duel-fighting game is no longer remembering how you gonna move your D-pads and memorizing the button sequence but punch forward. running forward in a sports game could mean physically running.. swinging a racquet or a club means you really need to swing your hands while holding onto the controller. .. gaming has become so energy draining and so much fun with Wii.. and with all the swinging, moving, running, dodging, you are actually exercising even without you knowing. i was blady sweating like mad after playing an hour with Wii in a fully Air Conditioned Room, imagine that ! i think i should put serious consideration into trading in my PS2 for a Wii..
.. Wii ROCKS !!!! i was seriously wondering why is Nintendo Wii is named “W.i.i.”, at first, it doesn’t really sound right.. however, after yesterday night, i finally know why it’s called a Wii.. .. because Wii makes you go Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ! . Now Listening: James Blunt - Give Me Some Love
CRAP !!!!!!!!!! THE BIGGEST PIECE OF CRAP OF MOVIE CALENDAR YEAR 2008 !!!!!!! For goodness sake, who in the right mind would make movie like that !? seriously speaking, i kinda felt that my intelligence was insulted after watching the show, if the ticket is refundable, i would want a full refund + compensation to 80 minutes of my life wasted sitting in the cineplex watching this god damn show. .. i’m not going to say anything about this show because nothing is worth mentioning at all storyline SUCKS, movie SUCKS, actors and actresses SUCKS, sets SUCK.. everything about this movie SUCKS here you go the synopsis from imdb.com: been following Shayne’s music since his days while he was still struggling in the reality TV show X-Factor, when he wasn’t even known to a lot of people back here in Malaysia. due to the reason because i’m a real sucker to new voices. somehow, this fella has this special Charisma that would glue you to his voice even if you don’t really fancy over-night celebrities. His new and second studio album “Breathless” didn’t disappoint me like some of the over-night stars, instead of ballad style like most of his titles in the first album, he gave new genres a little try in this new album, such as “If That’s Ok With You” that has some element of Reggae, and some RnB in “No U Hang Up”.. i always admire celebrities who are willing enough to jump out of the commercial box and give a try to new styles instead of hiding themselves in their so-called “safe-zone”, especially those over-night stars who’ve won fame over reality TV show. as usual, his high pitch has brought much life to the main title “Breathless” and gave the song a certain level of sexiness. i realized, it wasn’t the MV that’s sexy, but his voice. and when it comes to sexiness, the MVs in this album featured much flesh than the previous album, pretty much of flesh flashed and red hot love-making scenes. and that made me believe the top 5 rules in Sales Bible said: “SEX SELLS”, no doubt, because i’ve been repeating his MVs. however, i hope this better not become the main reason why he sells. here, highly recommended by me. Shayne Ward - Breathless
1. No U Hang Up . Now Listening: Shayne Ward - Melt the Snow grabbed a copy of this newly launched magazine from the indian bookstore few days ago.. it’s been sitting in my car for a few days now, i finally got the time to flip through and give it a read just today while i was chilling at my favorite Starbucks. at first glance, it’s pretty attractive, the cover was nicely and neatly done. it’s a great step, for someone i know of. i agree and applaud the people who’re behind the magazine.. .. the photos are excellent, and the idea is great too. Sadly, however, what disappointed me is the content of the magazine. putting the excellent photos aside, the articles are rather crappy. i’m sorry, but it really does. not only without solid facts, but also the command of the language used to write the articles. it is definitely, 100%, confirmed not written by a professional frankly speaking, it’s like reading Secondary school standard .. Well, here’s my humble 2 cents worth point-of-view:
.. i admire your courage to put magazine of such standard onto the newstands. really. ah well, anyway, GOOD JOB on launching the mag, the night was great. . Now Listening: Colbie Caillat - Realize it’s been a very pleasant and eye-opening trip, despite the really cold weather…. Just imagine yourself standing inside a huge freezer. within the first 5 minutes, you would alread start to feel that your skin tightened up, and in the next 5 minutes, you couldn’t even feel your fingers and face anymore. every breathe you take will become mist, serious, i couldn’t differentiate whether it was my breathe or it’s the smoke from my ciggarette. and your lips dry up so fast you’ll finish half a stick of lip balms in just a few days. back to the trip, if you haven’t been to Shanghai, HangZhou and SuZhou and you love breathtaking sceneries, please go. you’ll be awe by how beautiful a place can actually be. my jaws were simply dropped while i was at the West Lake (西湖) in HangZhou. truly amazing, a masterpiece of art by mother nature. really, must say a big thanks to Cavin, i got the new baby, the Canon 400D a day prior to my departure.
with this new baby, i was definitely indulging myself of the “snapping desire” for pretty sceneries as well as collecting the necessary snaps to fulfill my “dream”. in total, i’ve killed almost 2300 rounds during this trip, after 1st round selection, i’ve came up with around 900 photos, then picked some of the highlights and made it into an online album. if you’re interested to see more of the images i took, you can find how truly amazing are the sceneries in China in the Full Album here. and of course, i just couldn’t resist taking the faces, because i think the a face really tell a lot about where you’re at, every night after work, when all the clients were resting in their hotel rooms, i would just sneak out of my room to take a stroll along the streets and start happily snapping away the faces of the local people.
so, if you would love to see more of the faces of China, i’ve got it all here as well… looking forward to going to these places again, this time on my own to really experience the people’s life… The 3rd and i guess the last album from his “SUPER” trilogy. Gary Chaw has been one of my latest favorite singer, simply for his wide vocal range as well as his talents. as compared to some other Malaysian originated artiste, he is the only one so far who can not only sing well, but create, compose as well as experiment with music. he is, to me, not only a singer, a celebrity, but an artiste, a musician. for those of you who’ve heard his on-stage live performance like me, i’m sure you’ll be awed by his extraordinary live performing skill. personally, he is another person who is on par with my all time favorite MISIA, whereby both of their voices during live performances are as good as their studio recorded albums due to my special love for jazz music, my personal favorite in this album is track 10 - 愛的弧度. it’s the perfect blend of contempt jazz with chinese lyrics, i hope he can produce more pieces like this in his upcoming albums… this fella, darn, he is good. on an overall scale, however this is a pretty well done album, though they’re still some unavoidable commercialized factors in some of the songs, the overall result of his album to me has overcome the commercialized factors, that’s on a personal note. it’s up to you to decide. he has once again proved his ability in playing around and experimenting with music. and most importantly, he hasn’t fail me yet to tickle my urge for multiple music types in one single album, on a very personal note, it’s been a very pleasant experience listening to his album. ah well, here you go… .. .. 曹格 - Super Sunshine
01. Super Sunshine .. If you would like more, click on the link to follow a very well music review blog i read all the time. LeON’s Music also, here’s a wrap up in chinese about this album Seriously speaking, how many soul music artists are there in the Chinese music industry? and how many of them can actually play it like him? After 2 albums from him, i’ve totally fallen in love with his music and his talent. there are many artists in the Chinese music industry who love to self-proclaim that they are the singers of Chinese R&B. Yes, Jay Chou maybe is the R&B sensation of the decade, not until you listen to Khalil Fong, a humble and talented musician whom you can feel his passion for R&B and Soul in his music. noone, i mean, NO ONE could make such soulful music in the Chinese Music Industry like him yet. don’t get me wrong, i’m not saying Jay isn’t good, he’s cool and he’s definitely one of the most gifted musicians. really, Jay earned his status in the industry. during his early days, i was crazy about him as well because i thought there finally is going to be a real Chinese R&B musician, however, he sort of disappointed me after i listened to his 3rd album as there’s not much of changes, he has been playing the same type of music over and over again with different lyrics. and this is where Khalil Fong stands out, like David Tao (陶喆), you can have a taste of almost everything in one single studio album, in terms of instruments, performing styles, music types, mood change, etc. however, maybe the genre of music of his kind doesn’t really appeal your senses, or maybe it’s just that you haven’t get used to this genre of music in Chinese. anyway, if you still don’t know who the heck is Khalil Fong, now, it’s time for you to get to know him, his music as well as the real original R&B and Soul Music. alright now, i would like to proudly recommend to you:
PLEASE SUPPORT ORIGINAL MUSIC, BUY ORIGINAL RECORDS .. more information can be found here if you’re interested: LeON’s Jazzanova WO - a very insightful music blog i’ve been reading. Pieces Introductions - introduction to the pieces in this studio album . Now Listening: 方大同 - Love Song |
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