RIFLE RANGE BOY

I take back what I said about successful Western movies needing to show flesh (lots of it) to stay on top. I stay corrected after watching Winter's Bone, another gem from my friendly Ah Long cum DVD peddler from his vast vault and arsenal of illegal digital  video decoders. This time around I had the depressing pleasure of viewing an indie production which won at the 2010 Sundance film festival and nominated for the 2011 Grammy. Depressing pleasure must be a new entity created to highlight the act of finding solace in relating to movie scenes of the suffering of common people in their lives and feeling happy that he has overcome it. These scenarios are  sine qua non of good Tamil movie in Amma's definition where she would be in red tear-welled eyes after watching a movie and say, "What a good movie!" Jennifer Lawrence: Academy award nominee My children, who think that everything is hunky dory in the Land of Opportunity (USA) - Starb...

The Traveling Wilburys, 1988.   L–R: Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne, Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Tom Petty. I may be 20 years a bit too late but as they say, it is better late than never! Thanks to eBay and the professional packing from the seller from Deutschland, I received my crisp untouched and uncluttered CDs (+1DVD) in the mail. Even though their second and last album was out 20 years ago, only now I had the sheer pleasure (and pleasure without of guilt of being spendthrift) of listening to this group which is said to be a congregation of the greatest in rock and roll - 'The Travelling Wilburys'. It is a collection of happy and fun filled melodies of men who have passed their prime but still have something to offer. And offer they did with lots of energy while enjoying it as they did as I can see from the music videos on the DVD. We all know George Harrison who needs no introduction; Roy Orbison, the toupeed aphakic rocker, is supposed to be a legend but I only kno...

Are we, Malaysians as a nation, mature enough to discuss so called sensitive issues without being all sensitive and sentimental about it? The answer is an emphatic NO! It is even more difficult to 'discuss' as a big chunk of so called Malaysian citizens cannot converse and communicate with each other due to inability to converse in a common language and deep rooted suspicion of each other. Eating and enjoying other's delicious cuisines and slurping till the last drop is where national integration stops for some! Brave men or working for livelihood? This is evident by the recent two happenings in the country. Ruling coalition leaders are crying foul with crocodile tears asking for the scalp of opposition leaders who suggested the possibility of a) the communist warriors/ terrorists (depends which side of the fence you are on) as freedom fighters and the policemen who defended the British fort in Bukit Kepong as British stooge; and b) the national fl...

Damocles (a courtier in the royal court of the tyrant Dionysius) exclaimed that, as a great man of power and authority surrounded by magnificence Dionysius was truly extremely fortunate. Dionysius offered to switch places with Damocles, so that Damocles could taste that very fortune first hand. Damocles quickly and eagerly accepted the King's proposal. Damocles sat down in the king's throne surrounded by every luxury, but Dionysius arranged that a huge sword should hang above the throne, held at the pommel only by a single hair of a horse's tail. Damocles finally begged the tyrant that he be allowed to depart because he no longer wanted to be so fortunate! (Wikipedia)  The University Act was drafted in 1971 to keep a check on university students' opinion on current events after a spate of the ugly showdown between these young punks and the authorities. With that looming in the background like having a sword Damocles hanging above...

The invincible Power Puff Girls Finally over a span of less than a year, I managed to finish reading the Millennium Trilogy. The trilogy is actually a set of 3 books written by a Swedish author, Steig Larsson who submitted the manuscripts and died soon they were accepted for publication. His death, at 50, due to heart attack after climbing 10 flights of stairs on a day of elevator failure is fraud with conspiracy of poisoning as he, being an investigative journalist, had exposed some individuals with Aryan supremacy activities! I managed to complete the books in midst of my daytime job and other vices like blogging and running. Most of the reading is done during toilet breaks! The series are actually suited to adult readers as it is dealing with mature descriptive subjects. Apparently the author witnessed a rape and felt guilty of not helping the victim. Hence, in his own way, as an advocate of anti-violence against the fairer sex, he highlights the abuse of women in his stor...

Excerpt from Dr. Jeyakumar's letter..... Let me cite a few historical facts - (i) Following WWII, all the left-leaning groups partook in open politics, asking for early Independence. They were part of the AMCJA-PUTERA coalition. Rashid Maidin and Abdullah CD were in unions affiliated to the PMFTU (Pan Malaysian Federation of Trade Unions) which was a major component of the AMCJA. The AMCJA-PUTERA coalition came up with the ‘Peoples Constitution’ in Feb 1947 which the British ignored. This group organised the Hartal of August 1947. A Hartal is a nonviolent General Strike where not only workers do not go to work, but businesses do not open and schoolchildren do not go to school. The August 1947 Hartal brought all economic activity to a halt for a day, but it did not result in the commencement of negotiations with the Colonial Government that the AMCJA-PUTERA Coalition was hoping to bring about. All this goes to show that the initial intention of this coalition was not armed st...

It is one of those Arty movies that I picked up (DVD) while waiting to go in to watch another film in the cinema (Bodyguard, Hindi). Boy! I am sure watching more movies than I should. Actually, I was only a bodyguard to my daughter to watch the film 'Bodyguard' (starring Salman Khan with his senseless ala Matrix kind of unimaginable stunts only to be bettered by Vijaykanth!) which is not worth mentioning in this posting! I have departed from my narration of Departures, a full-length Japanese movie, subtitled in English, about the departed. Departed? Departures? Confused? That is how our hero, Kobayashi, got entangled in this mess in the first place. Kobayashi, a cellist in a symphony orchestra, returns to his hometown when the orchestra winds down due to bad business. A good movie to watch to appreciate the sheer pleasing picturesque view of the interior colder parts of Japan. And I have definitely fallen in love with the finesse and the mild-mannered natured trait of the ...

Short descriptions of 16 pictures that made history 1. The famous photo of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara Che’, described as a ‘guerrilla hero’, appears in a black beret with his face looking out, in a photograph taken by Alberto Korda on March 5, 1960. Guevara, 31 years old at that time, was attending a funeral for victims of an explosion at Coubre. The photo was published seven years later. The Art Institute of Maryland (USA) has called it ‘the most famous photo and graphic icon of the twentieth century’.  Indeed, this photograph has been reproduced many times around the world and is considered one of the ten greatest photographic portraits of all time.  It is a universal symbol of rebellion for human principles against social injustice. 2. The agony of Omayra   Omayra Sanchez was a little girl who died during the eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano, which destroyed the town of Armero, Colombia, in 1985. Omayra was stuck for three days in the mud, water, c...

Datuk Rasamah Bhupalan  (Rasamah Naomi Navarednam a.k.a. Mrs F.R. Bhupalan)  needs no introduction. She has been seen in the media every now and then over the years. Listening to her interview, she must have had a very interesting and fruitful 84 years of lively life. Imagine a 16year old Indian girl in pavadai in 1943 donning military camouflage with a rifle over the shoulder and being shipped to Burma border as a soldier in the Rani of Jhansi Regiment of the Indian National Army under the auspices of Netaji Subash Chandrabose to fight the British. Happy Malaysia Day! " When the Malayan flag was hoisted in 1957, 'every person there did not represent one race, they were Malayans,” recalls Mrs FR Bhupalan, who was then a 30-year-old mother of two."

We are all used to hear of employees in Malaysia who have no qualms of calling in sick for the flimsiest of a reason that one can think of - great-grandmother sick, grandfather died at the age of 100 or the dog in ICU! Sometimes the same relative dies repeatedly and conveniently so as to ease their absence from work. Sometimes 3 days of national holiday in the middle of the week means a whole week of holiday! For example, recently Aidilfitri and Merdeka holidays were from Tuesday to Thursday. Most employees took it for granted that holidays start from the Saturday before all the way to the Sunday following Merdeka (a good 9 days of rest if Monday and Friday are sick leave!) On the other end of the spectrum, believe you me, we have people who persevere through thick and thin with only one thing on their mind - to achieve their One Vision against all the odds, what come may! Life goes on... It comes to mind how two recent British Prime Ministers came to the height of their respective...

Just enjoying the compilation CD of George Harrison as selected by his wife, Olivia and friends. Guess they just come up with a scheme to get more money from Harrison's legacy! George, the unashamed practicing Vaishnavite Hindu (yeah, the vegetarian who willed a princely sum of his estate to an ashram in India) and the rather quiet one behind the scene, overshadowed by John and Paul, is my favourite Beatle. Ringo, I think, was quite comfortable sitting at the back banging the drums crazy. I just picked up this CD when I was picking up some books for my small guy at Popular's. I wanted to educate myself on listening to rock and roll music by a legend whose musical potential only came forth after the break up of the Fab Four. Listening to a CD is truly rewarding experience, unlike listening to the radio - not just the lack of commercials but you can listen to it again and again and music quality and crisp is beyond definition. No regrets on getting the CD. It kind of grows on y...

You can only motivate someone so much. After that, it is left to nature or genes as one may call it. The more you push him to the brim, the higher the chances are that he may just flip. Everyone has his own capability to achieve his place in space and time at his own pace or bar of achievement. We cannot set our target and expect everybody else to follow. And just because the other person does not reach our expectation, it does not mean that he is a failure. At his own leisurely pace and his perhaps longer duration, he may actually attain enviable dizzying heights. The ability to explore and try out one's varied, sometimes eccentric ideas, not following blindly to preset norm is the cornerstone of innovation that started the Industrial Revolution at the end of the 19th century which categorically ended the greatness of the feudalistic empires of the world to be replaced by republics and people's rule of law by consensus. Let it be....

Now you see all the children of Gemini Ganesan (of four wives, at least) posing gleefully for the camera after coming from different corners of the world to see the ailing father on his deathbed. They seem to found peace with the contributor of their half of their 46 chromosomes. Sure, growing up must have been hell seeing their respective mothers shedding tears, indulgence in unhealthy activities with one of them falling prey to the curse of the black dog, hating the sight of each step sibling, their respective heartaches all because of the evil done by one man who could not put his raging testesterones under check! Perhaps,the flashing lights and his dizzying heights that his career took clouded his judgement. After all, he was only human... Gems of Gemini Ganesan L-R: Dr Revathi Swaminathan, Narayani Ganesan, Dr Kamala Selvaraj, Rekha, Vijaya Chamundeswari   and Dr Jaya Shreedhar.  ( Abs:  Radha Usman Syed, Sathish Kumaar Ganesan) Seeing six of Ge...

After almost 40 years, I finally get the chance to find out what the comic strip character Thor is all about. Some of the guys in PFS were devilishly attracted to this character in their brightly hot coloured Marvel comics. I always was told that comics are a waste of time and would only waste your time and bring you down as life is all about studies and getting good results and comics were thrash. Oh, man! What a wasted childhood, missing on all the nice things that boys love. In fact, the only time I could indulge on this sin is during the monthly visit to the B block barber - sometimes feeling like Mr. Bean during his visit to the dentist (when he reluctantly had leave his magazine when his name was called for treatment by the dentist's helper). Thanks to Hollywood, lazy people do not need read. They can conserve their God given retinal cells of rods and cones to savor the joy of colour, light and sense surround sounds of the psychedelic hues of the silver screen. Th...

Is it not funny that we only appreciate people and wet our eyes when they are long gone? We should all be thankful to have what we have and to learn to live with it. On the other hand, what is perceived as good now came with the social change that can only happen with that first step which requires us to come out of our comfort zones. Quantanamera....

Malaysian's favourite pastime, beside sitting down at the Mamak's over a cuppa complaining about injustices in the country and doing nothing about it, is eating. This is evident from the ever mushrooming of stalls here and there as well as the existence of 24hr shops serving death-calling unhealthy food at each corner of the city. Hence, it is only logical that the 24hr cable TV be filled with cook shows. Besides the usual variety of food show depicting cuisine from the four corners of the world, of late they are cooking reality shows. The famous show run by the Scottish chef with a razor sharp tongue, infamous temper and fussy temperament (otherwise referred to perfectionist) seem to be a current favourite amongst my kids. I do not think they particularly plan to take a career in culinary field or plan a cuisine for their parents to appreciate their efforts in feeding them! I think they are more fascinated with the dialogue (or rather lack of!). It is filled with so many beep...