Hey Joe!

Joe

After writing about 'The Graduate' and 'Mrs. Robinson', I thought of writing a little of whatever that is left of the memory of Cousin Joe from Melaka. Cousin Joe had very little contact with us as he had already left our shores early in his life for further education and had lost contact with us till of late. Hope to meet him in person soon.
Besides remembering his skillful strumming of the above song, his woodcarving of portrait of Mickey Mouse on a trunk signed PJ also donned our wall of flat in RRF for many years to remind us of his existence. I wonder where the lacquered wood carving is now.

Wolves in sheep clothing - The Cousins

One cheeky moment with him was when he was having a shower in the bathroom in RRF with a stainless steel door and a hooked lock which can be easily opened from outside with the end of a spoon. And that is what all we, cousins of Sham and Shan, did whilst he was desperately and frustratingly trying to get a shower. It was all fun for us but I am sure the feeling was not mutual.
I wonder of Cousin Joe still remembers any of these pranks!

Driving home the point

There are two type of drivers - A) the one who commands utter silence in the car, paying undivided attention to the gadgets and meters in the cars and its surroundings so as to not to land a single scratch on his prized car; B) the other who turns on the car radio just as he switches the ignition key - to heighten his senses and beat the boredom of monotony of driving by having music in the background. And perhaps to rekindle long lost memory buried in the dendritic mash of hippocampus whilst sharpening the brain.

I am of the latter category.
In one of these auditory stimulatory exercise moments, I stumbled upon an episode of MKI (masih-kah kau ingat) on Klasik FM.
We, Malaysians, are guilty (me included) of categorising, compartmentalising and stereotyping people. Just like Harith Iskandar in one of his stand-up comedies, he recreated a scene of a typical road accident scenario. Malaysians, whose favourite pastime, besides eating is watching accidents by the road side like they do not have enough crash and burn scenes on TV, typically would look at an accident and blurt out, "Whoa, sure die one!" And the next question would be, "Eh, Malay, Chinese or Indian?" - like it would actually matter.
The DJ on MKI, as part of the their apprenticeship program, was doing a show with a young announcer named Ameline. It was a request programme, so people were texting and Face Booking. Rather than requesting for songs, people were more interested in knowing whether Ameline is of Chinese or Malay origin. So the DJ sheepishly told the listeners that she looks more like a Thangachee before revealing the real ethnic group.
In most civilised societies, this type is considered offensive and downright rude. What a person's parentage is is his or her business, but not here! Malaysia Boleh! We are tolerant, are we?
There are strict guidelines on what can spoken on air. One cannot speak on matters related to racial issues, politics and sex. So, I was pleasantly surprised when, on another station (BFM), a speaker was actually talking on the superiority of socialism. Listening through the interview, it is nice to know that there are other who share my perception of life.

Run for whose 10 course meal?

Just as ridiculous as The Osmonds' song 'Love me for a reason' sounds, so is the logo for the 2012 Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur Marathon (SCKLM) - Run for a reason!
With all deserved credits, SCKLM have been doing a job of running the runs seamlessly for the years that went by, other organizers have cannot be put in the same category. As more Malaysians are becoming conscious about their health and have the luxury of indulging in personal feel good moments with buddies of the same thinking without thinking about their next meal, runs are fast becoming geese that lay golden eggs. Minus meagre sums for this and that, the organisers still take home a killing. In worse case scenario, it would be written off as bad investments.
As for me, I am running the SCKLM FM for a reason and the reason is to enjoy a sumptuous banana leaf meal with mutton curry and all the accompaniments without a single iota of guilt feeling! Who cares if the registration fee is going to pay for somebody else's 10 course Chinese dinner at Tai Thong and Cognac VSOP to 'yaaaaaaam.......ssseeeeeeeeeeennnggggggg.......!'

Who decides what?

Reason for their predicament?

Who decided that Nicol David should be a world class squash star and not, say a chess master? Is it the parents' strict drilling and tireless pestering which Nicol took willingly at her stride that helped? Is it the neighbourhood that she grew in? Is it that an unexplained power from above that gave her and her parents this vision? Did a wise man who appeared from nowhere who suggested to them this path to follow? Did she or people around her realise that she had this special talent that made her where she is today? Is it the alignment of stars at her time of birth, if so I am sure there must be someone born exactly at the same time as she was but has not held a racquet in her life? Who gives the inner strength for an individual to excel in something whilst someone else with almost the DNA make-up fails miserably. Who decides that the adequately prepared marathon runner should have a bust up midway through his race? Is it karma?
If so who decides who is born with a heart defect, with congenital blindness or congenital syphilis for which the child suffers for no fault of theirs? Is God so cruel that He should decree that they were born to suffer? Is there really a pot of gold waiting for them at the end of their life (or afterlife)? If it is really a punishment, how come the body has no recollection of their sins so that they can regret and repent? How is the soul going to 'feel' the wrath of the Creator for disobedience of Law of Nature or Code of Law?

These are the unanswered questions that boggle a mind of a half centurion as he slips into his second and final half of time on earth. The questions keep on piling up and accumulates as the body slowly immerses itself into the loss of inhibitory effect of C2H5OH. 

Transcendental meditation promises to offer some of these answers but so far I have not heard of any explanation that explains my quandary. Maybe my nimble mind is too shallow!

And here's to you Mrs Robinson...

The Graduate (1967)

'Mrs. Robinson' must be the earliest English pop song that I was exposed to when my auntie Indra Shan and her family made a pilgrimage to Penang in the 1971/72 December school holidays. I vividly remember Joe (my Western cultured cousin) strumming away on Kapok guitar and his sister, Usha, singing. At that time, I thought it was one of those Christian Sunday school songs with words like 'Jesus loves you more than you will know' and 'Heaven holds a place for those who pray'.

Of course, it is a soundtrack from the 'The Graduate'.

A young Dustin Hoffmann (another of my favourite actors) stars as a high-scoring university student who is experiencing a coming-of-age period, confused about the future. He portrayed a 21-year-old youth while he was actually 30, but he did an excellent job.

It starts with Benjamin Braddock coming home to a party of happy family friends who congratulate him on his excellent achievement at college. Benjamin is confused about what to do with his life, but everyone around him just asks him to continue studying and be somebody.

Mrs. Robinson, a family friend and a bored housewife, seduces him. After many hesitations and unrelated to Mr. Robinson's advice to unwind before going head-on into work, Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson start a bumbling, meaningless, lusty affair.

At Mr Robinson's and Benjamin's parents' insistence, a meeting is arranged for Benjamin to meet Elaine, Robinson's 19-year-old Berkeley-studying daughter—much to Mrs Robinson's awe. Despite Benjamin's attempt to make the date as unpleasant as possible for Elaine, the couple hooks up anyway.

Tempers flare between Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson, and Benjamin must tell Elaine about his illicit activity before she learns about it from her mother, who threatens to tell her.

Disgusted, Elaine returns to Berkeley. By then, Benjamin had become sure of his feelings and pursued Elaine. The climax of the show is when a wedding is arranged between Elaine and her casual friend, her family. Our hero arrives there a wee bit too late when the couple had been pronounced man and wife and were kissing. But upon hearing the call of her name by Benjamin through a glass panel from the pavilion above, Elaine absconds from the altar against the resistance from family members. In the final scene, Elaine and Benjamin lock the mob in the church, board a municipal bus and head away into the horizon...

This film is listed as a satirical comedy-drama, but I failed to see the joke. Maybe Benjamin's clumsy questions and actions when teased by the flirtatious Mrs. Robinson give some comedy relief, but otherwise, it deals with a matter considered serious and frowned upon in the 1960s. On the contrary, there was no condemnation from pressure groups, but it was listed as a movie worth preserving in the U.S. National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant"!

Your next mission, if you choose to accept...

(Mission Impossible IV: Ghost Protocol 2011)

MI-4 did not really standout as its predecessors. It is a megalomaniac display of Hollywood's pyrotechnic and cinematographic prowess. The story is the good old confrontation of two Cold War supremos and hijacking nuclear warheads as well as the bombing of Kremlin.

Former Bollywood poster boy of the 80s, Anil Kapoor, appears as a bumbling Indian millionaire playboy whose judgement is hormone driven. Ghost Protocol refers to the protocol where IMF is disbanded after all fingers point them for the bombing of the Russia Soviet icon-Kremlin. Ethan Hunt which his team have to clear while shedding the Russian police off his back.

Sometimes you wonder... As if these paid Government servants would go through all these hurls, shrapnel and loss of life just for the love of the nation and to uphold its interests? Well, I say, dream on... Is life worth the piece of cloth that carries the ashes or medal of valour conferred posthumously?

Tom Cruise as the lead character, Ethan Hunt, never evoked any emotions in his character or his audience (i.e. me)! The dialogues were just forgettable fillers between action sequences.
I just watched it because of nostalgia and was waiting in vain for the catchy introductory 'tape will self-destruct' line to excite me. Maybe it was the lousy sound system, but the burning fuse which has been the signature tune of this franchise all this while appeared muffled and did not set the mood for the rest of the movie.

Interesting viewpoint

The person who painted these pictures wanted to attend the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts to become an artist, but academy rejected his application.
If only he had been accepted by the academy, the world history would have been much different ...
 


.. That applicant's name was ADOLF HITLER!