RIFLE RANGE BOY

We didn't start the fire (History Podcast; 2021-2023) Hosts: Katie Puckrik & Tom Fordyce In the mid-1980s, a young person commented to Billy Joel. In the young person's mind, the world of the 1980s was plagued with tumultuous events. In passing, he said, "I bet the world must have been a more peaceful place when you were growing up." That got Billy Joel thinking. He started jotting down all the significant events from his birth in 1946 throughout his time growing up in New York till the summer of 1989. Like that, he came up with close to 119 incidences that impacted him at least. He started arranging the list, like a good composer would, and wrote a record-smashing hit that everyone in the 90s would know. Billy Joel realized as he reminisced about the years that went by that the world had always been a restless place. Looking back on the events, one thing is clear: It was as unsettled then as it is now. The list he came up with became a narration of all the events...

Wham! (Documentary; 2023) Director: Chris Smith This documentary is a poignant one. It plucks the heartstrings of many a child of the 80s. Those who grew to appreciate British Invasion music of the 80s of pop-sync, thick hair days and gaudy attire will indeed have wet eyes reminiscing the times when the duo Wham! hit the airwaves and the night market compilation cassettes. It was a time when young girls used to go gaga over George Michael (aka Georgio Panayiotou @Yogh) 's hair, musculature and Colgate white dentition and Cypriot looks. Die-hard fans of Wham! or rabid fans of George Michael's would all be too familiar with the genesis of their collaboration; for me, this knowledge comes 40 years too late. This Netflix documentary is done in a captivating way, avoiding too many current interviews of famous reminiscing about the good old times. Instead, it uses scrapbook format and old footage of Andrew Ridgeley and George Michael in the 80s and 90s when they slowly climbed the la...

Blinded by the Light (2019) Director: Gurinder Chadha Maybe it is the slave mentality at work. The slaves looked up to their masters and wanted to be like them very much. They see them as the proof of success, the pinnacle of achievement, and yearning to walk in their shoes. That is where the buck stops. The slaves chose what was 'good' and what was not acceptable. Many middle-income Malaysian Indians who were teenagers in the late 70s and early 80s had to endure this, yours truly included. The parents worked hard to provide their offspring what they missed growing up. What they thought they missed most was the ability to acquire education, pass examinations and the remunerations that came with it. They wished to achieve what they did not get, like the opportunity for education, freedom by their standards and academic achievements through their children. They did not, however, want the Master's idea of independence. Their idea of children is to be seen but not heard. The la...

Top Gun (1986) Director: Tom Scott I never really had the chance to view this movie when it came around in the mid80s. My wife and her friends went gaga watching a topless and muscular Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer on that one. I think that was the reason they thought the film was darn good. Viewing it now after acquiring the wisdom conferred by the School of Hard Knocks of Life, it is quite as plain as day. The movie is nothing more than a US propaganda tool deployed by Hollywood to showcase the might of the world's policeman to the rest of the capitalistic world. It was like Rambo singlehandedly ending the Afghan War in Rambo3. It was a time when the world was convinced that Americans were saviours with altruistic intentions.  There is not much of a story here. It is more like a prospectus to showcase how an elite select group of US Marines are handpicked to compete in a fighter jet dogfight tactical competition.  All through, I was squeezing my brain, trying to fathom the purpo...

Blues Gang I was just thinking the other day. Occasionally, in my social media group, one or two members would send snippets of Malay songs of the 80s and 90s. These songs used to be high on the music chart and ruled the airwaves in their heydays. I was pleasantly surprised that these group members were even familiar with such songs. We, the teenagers of the late 70s and 80s, must be a lost generation. The generation that grew up under the umbrella of the Malaysian New Education policy imbibed in Malay culture and songs. We grew up laughing at P Ramlee's antics in his actual Malaysian-themed movies and comedies in our preteen years. We ended up watching them umpteen times, probably able to rattle out certain classic dialogues and recall particular scenes from his films at the drop of a hat. The 80s saw a renaissance of modern guitar and drums bands that were belting out hard and punk rock music. Rock Kapak was another branch of rock of Malay punk. These bands were so popular that e...

In the late 1970s, as my future laid bare before me, I found no time in anything but my books. I looked  at watching movies as three hours of wasted time that could otherwise be spent on something more worthwhile, so I thought. At that age, everything was either black or white, factual and goal orientated. Watching the then Tamil movie which showcased hirsute stars in unkempt hair and their un-touched up face narrating mind-stupefying cheesy village stories was a turn-off. Its songs, despite be blared incessantly by my neighbours on their music devices, were just white noise.  Actually, it was an annoyance, as something I had to run away from to find solace at the quiet corner of the cemetery or empty classroom in the school to jam-pack precious information into my grey cells. That was the time when SP Bala and Illayaraja were churning out hits after hit that just passed me by. Occasionally a song or two would come to my attention clamouring from my father rickety radio. I did...

Rangasthalam ( రంగస్థలం, Theatre, Telugu; 2018) You think he is alright as your leader. He seems well composed to hear things out. He exudes an aura of confidence. He always has people around him who love him. He gets things done. He must be doing something right. He is even to be personally partaking in religious functions. He appears charitable enough. The same divine forces that govern your life must be the same one that runs his. The Ruler of the world must have sanctioned him to rule over this piece of land. Then you realise one or two things do not match. It does not seem fair; not proper. You pass it off your own naivety. After all, a person with so much public support and approval cannot be wrong. Then it hits you. Your liberty is snatched away. You scream injustice, but then it dawns upon you the whole administrative machinery has been turned to suit him. You and the ones wronged by the once thought to be the saviour of the land is actually a wolf in sheep's clothing....

I wanna hold your hand (1978) Director: Robert Zemeckis (debut) I remember growing up watching many of Zemeckis directed movies. So, I was pleasantly surprised when I came across this film which was set in 1964 New York when the Beatles visited New York to appear at the Ed Sullivan's Show. At one look, it appears like the director is trying to recreate the atmosphere and the mania associated with the arrival of the Liverpool lads at the Big Apple. Looking at the bigger picture, he seems to be ridiculing the younger generation's eccentricity, if not fetishism to pop culture. It tells the tale of a group of youngsters who make a trip to New York to catch a glimpse of the Fab Four. Each of them has a different agenda; to watch the Ed Sullivan Show, to snap pictures of Beatles, to partake in anti-Beatles' rally, to impress a girl and so on. In no way was the film a groundbreaking feat. All you throughout the offering are screaming and shrieking bevvy of girls before...

Stranger Things Season 1 (2016) This is the golden age of TV, they say. With the input from companies like Netflix, box sets and internet TV streaming, binge-watching had never seen a better time. For a television addict, abstinence is becoming a Herculean task by the day. This latest offering from Netflix that is taking the millennial and Gen-Y geeks by storm is 'Stranger Things'. It brings to life all the things we saw in the 80s - BMX bikes, big glasses, striped T-shirts, big hair and the adventures of the nerds ala-Spielberg. It can be summarised as a Stephen King story with the screenplay of John Carpenter and the cinematography of Steven Spielberg. It can be summed up as a hotchpotch of a potpourri of box-offices of the 80s - ET, Goonies, Batteries not Included, Poltergeist and course the unforgettable X-Files. In fact, the opening music score is a reminiscence of that of X-Files. There are the three school misfits in place of Mulder and Scully to do the brai...

Back to the future (Trilogy) 1985-1990 October 21, 2015, has special a significance to BTTF fans, as in the second offering Marty and Doc go into the future. The future that they see in 2015 is a far cry from the real 2015! Absent in real life are the roadless highways, automobiles that run on thrash rather than fossil fuel, the gravity-defying hoverboard  (the futuristic skateboard), among others!  Back in the 80s when I first watched the first instalment of BTTF, I thought that it was the smartest storyline ever produced with its catchy dialogue. One particular scene that stuck on my mind is when Marty performed a lead guitar rendition of Chuck Berry's 'Johnny B. Goode'. One fellow band member, Melvin, overhearing the tune calls upon his cousin Chuck to hear the 'fresh' tune that he was looking for his next song! Moving to and fro between times in their DeLorean speeding at 88mph with the help of a flux capacitor and 1.2gigawatts of power, Doc reali...

Dokumentari  : Jean Perera The Beauty Queen Murder  http://www.finas.gov.my/index.phpmod=vgallery&sub=video&category=5&album=25