Growing up with a loved one (updated with official video directed by cameron crowe).

It's that time again. They're back with their 9th studio album. I'm not relishing the thought of kicking it with this new album, but after listening to the their 1st single "the fixer".... the buzz is killing me and i can't wait for this 20-9-2009 when it's officially released...



what i'm really drawn to is that they're still together after all these years and this just blows my mind. just as a primer, have a look at the making of....



i wonder if it makes sense to go to some seaside town to get some new done up? a change of scenery... the drums from "got some" sound amazing. trust MattCam to take it a notch higher...

then i came across this official video directed by cameron crowe.... rocks heart on sleeve....

to inspire wild things and to take heart of them...

again, being on this weird spiritual journey of getting connected with what or who i think or thought i am and to move and grow from that wretched place they call "then". maybe not spiritual, but you can feel the energy derived from the enterprise. admittedly i've been so far behind on the things that replenish me, maybe for the past 10 years... that i've more or less felt empty... perhaps i've been running on empty. without petrol and grinding down the machine that is me.

I don't know, maybe i've lost the plot or simply lost direction. I've been persistently dead set against having a garmin GPS in my car... and i think it stems from the fact that i want to retain my purportedly excellent sense of direction.

but having a sense of direction would, i think inevitably mean being rather retrospective, because you know where you've been and how to plan your escape route... but what about life's mysteries which simply show up and take you places? places you've never been or opportunities that even allow you the privilege of being blessed by something completely different?

i start today with this band, "Arcade Fire". the music's amazingly gut-wrenching and uplifting. i still haven't gone through their entire catalogue to truly think they're excellent but from what i've hear i love the dynamics... quite easy to pin down, but it takes a certain amount of inspiration to get it in the right order and they seem to have done it.

the question is how did i get to this point of being introduced to Arcade Fire? just my love for trailers. i came across this new movie that coming out sometime in october by spike jonze... "where the wild things are", which is a screen adaptation of the children's book by maurice sendak. i've never heard of it, but now i have and for some strange reason i feel so utterly rewarded. not only was it a good trailer, i found out it was a great book that i'm going to look for at either kino or borders, i found out about Arcade Fire how supplied the song for the trailer... recorded especially for the movie...

the song used in the trailer was "wake up" by arcade fire and it rocked. plus having tony soprano being carol, one of the wild things in the movie and in the trailer, can't be a bad thing.... here's the trailer if for your viewing pleasure":-

and if you really want to keep it and view it in glorious HD, click here.

so is this post about the movie or the song? I don't really know or care. do you? i think it's just telling me that i'm on to something. maybe i should keep at this and surprise myself every day... and it sure beats doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

my latest super deluxe extra specious love tawdry marital loverly stalking paining obsessive-tion

these last few days of the week have been harrowing and i'm hoping it'll end with a bang tomorrow. actually, with a few drinks here and there and a couple of laughs. this has been my pre-ccupation for the past few weeks.... it started last year when i saw the trailer for madonna's directorial debut. "filth & wisdom". it's gotten quite a panning, but what drew me to it was this irresistably loud and cacaphonous band... gogol bordello. with their lead singer and main man, eugene hutz, kicking up a shit storm. so i've been hooked since. so i checked them up on youtube and... jumping jeepers!! they really are as advertised....

so we start of with... supertheory of supereverything from their 2007 release Super Taranta...



then we head of with... start wearing purple from their debut album, Voi-La Intruder...



then this one from the movie and Super Taranta... wonderlust king... with an aged withnail...



finally to see them pull it off in the flesh... wonderlust king on david letterman



... and this ditty... not a crime...on Jools Holland's show and from Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike...



so i've been little aloof about things since... well, since... but this is sort of relateable and a welcome relief. so here's to eugene and the gang for making handlebar moustaches fun since 2002. =)

...these are a few of my favourite reds...

this is the shizzle if ya gizzle ma' dizzle, ma' bizzle?

if you watched the dark knight and had this linger on your mind, fret no more. here it is...



ok ok ok... so it was not a red band, but why... so... seriousss....? or wha tabout this one? this should be what an anti-piracy ad blitz be about.



so yeah, let's get on with the reds...















till next time.

the malayan borneo grasscutter ninjas union quartet

like all things weird that pop up, an unauthorised cover of the "whole year inn" by the maharajah commission. cannot believe how low people go to rip off other people's work without permission. i'm joking, of course. these lads have our blessings. here's "whole year inn" by the malayan borneo grasscutter ninjas union quartet.

KAMI a view through the perspex

the worst thing about penning my thoughts about KAMI - this is not a review (haven't done one of those for a very long time - is when you gotta do the dirty on a friend, or in this case 2 of them. me? I know fendi and fizzi and i know them well enough to feel awkward about writing this. on one hand i couldn't just let it be and be totally apathetic about it, or simply pretend i didn't watch the movie... with the usual euphemism, "ohh... busy-lah." but then again, i promised fizzi, i would. this could be a case of being careful for what you wish for.

so let me get this out of the way. in short, i liked it*. the asterisk is there, because i feel i have to qualify that statement. since i'm going gonzo on this, bear with me. i watched 3 movies this raya weekend, KAMI, Eagle Eye and Painted Skin. the last two were sheepishly bad... baaad. EE was mindless turdshit, i.e. shit of shits, while Painted Skin really offended my sense of wonder, the editing was bad, the story sucked seven types of floaters and the actors puked out their lines like the triads forced them to say stupid shit. WTF. how do people bankroll stinkers like these?

with that, i think KAMI became my favourite movie of the week. on its merits, i liked KAMI in parts, small measures. the acting was interesting, but the thing that annoyed me the most was the lack of dialogue and excess of posturing... "oh, look at me.... i'm misunderstood" or "oh... don't ask me too much... the truth will eat you alive and give you a migraine". "oh... look at me smirk, an evil smirk... i'm such a baddie", i could go on. i know its motivation but when people spend too much time on the screen with the difficulty of not being able to speak their minds, you have a problem.

let me try to explain myself. if you watched an arthouse/outhouse movie and there wasn't much dialogue or even an attempt to speak, it's cool... in an artie fartie sense... or on the flip side, if there was too much talking, you'd end up with a bunch of kevin smith poser retard characters whom you have not affection for, and case in point jay of the jay and silent bob. i like jay but he doesn't stick because he says too much.

but what we have in KAMI, is chilling. people with sooo much to say but having difficulty saying something. so if you watched the movie you'd be wanting to shout at the characters to "fucking say something!!!!" before the next fuck-up happens. can it be possible that so much shit happens in the movie because these kids have a problems talking to each other, even though they are friends? or are they even friends? go watch the movie and tell me if it is not fuck-up by numbers, and the determinant being a lack of chat time. dear readers, "what we have here is a failure to communicate".

it's bad enough the bunch have problems with their parents, or don't really have much to say to them apart from the pouting and storm offs, but even among themselves...? i was steaming in the cinema. that said, i do hope there is a sequel, just to see if these characters actually grow up - even if they don't, what fuck ups will they endure... like the rambo series or the nolan batman franchise, the theme of escalation may work out here.... let the failure to communicate escalate, so that they ended up doing really odd things... and we can all them have a laugh.

by the way, where's this university of norwedon? i'd like to know... cos' if i have a kid, i'm not sending them there... who in their fucking right mind would give sofie a placement in a university when she only just finished her SPM... bearing in mind her results are still weeks away. don't medical students have to at least have A-Level requirements....?

so, no.... i do not think the following, that:-

(i) ali's an underachiever with an oedipal complex, and how can he not with mommie being a hottie;

(ii) abu's a nut job, but after so many beatings in juvie detention, and no one really doing anything about it... an intervention may have saved him, but that wouldn't have sold as many tickets, i suspect, unless of course your uncle's tony soprano.

(iii) lynn's the other nut job and clueless glue that binds. so she can't articulate, but she can write... hatchet jobs. i'm guilty of those and i relate very well, all the way up to receiving my paychecks...

(vi) sofie's such a princess but her mommie's utterly bonkers. what happened to jamal, may not have been necessary to the plot, but leaving it unresolved means leaving it muddled and not ambiguous with regard to her mom's intentions of hiding sofie's offer letter.

(v) adii's my one true spark. she may as well be the allspark. i've never seen a character this whoreishly virginal and spunky in local cinema. may be an original.

(vi) boy's just an asshole who get's his comeuppance and not much else. the one thing i could not get was why was he a drug pusher, channeling paedophilic tendencies... you see that smirk and glint in his eyes? i thought he was just horny.

there were one too many sub plots that didn't matter, for me to really make sense and have closure. i didn't need it nicely wrapped up but it feels to unresolved. would there be a director's cut? i hope so.... all these little things would add to a lot.

i just wish there was some polish to KAMI, rather than a diamond in the rough. so i do like it, while reflecting on my childhood, the annexe, paul's place, doorbitching and bad jam sessions. but that's life and all that. i just wish i had a longer glimpse of what was or never was, than the 1 hour and 50 minutes afforded.

so just in case, you "think" i'm slagging the film off, please stop thinking... i'm just being honest here. i know i made a point somewhere in here, but that's up to you to figure out. i'm going for a dump right now. until next time... kill the lights and pray you don't see daylight.....

don't give up... oh siti, don't give up...

The outcome of the Siti Fatimah case, while a well earned victory for the applicant, Tan Ean Huang, raises more questions than it answers. Notwithstanding the constitutional issues pertaining to the jurisdiction and scope of Malaysia’s syariah framework vis-à-vis the Malaysian civil courts on the issue of apostasy, the Siti Fatimah decision as reported in the local mainstream media does provide Malaysians with the necessary clarity needed on such sensitive matters.

It may be noted that constructive discourse on the matter cannot be made just yet, as the decision of the learned Syariah Judge has yet to be published. However, as a commentary of the tone of the various reports in the local mainstream media (in particular, The Star and Bernama) the following issues, amongst other things, appear to have arisen:-

(i) that the MAIPP intend to appeal on grounds that her marriage would not have been annulled by her renunciation of her faith; and

(ii) that MAIPP appear to have been negligent in its role of “guiding” her back into the religion;

The MAIPP’s statement on the annulment is unnecessarily belligerent and obnoxious. While Courts and the religious authorities take the view that a civil marriage is at end when a conversion into Islam by either spouse occurs, it would appear to be repugnant that it is not the same if a renunciation were to happen as it has in this case. Why the double standards? Clearly all Malaysian citizens are equal in the eyes of the law.

What was it that MAIPP was required to do to ensure that Tan Ean Huang did not fall by the way side? There have been concerns and misgivings that an application to renounce one’s faith in Islam within the Syariah framework in Malaysia would lead to persecution and human rights abuses arising from the manner in which religious authorities conduct and discharge its obligations when “guiding” an applicant back to the faith after such an application is made.

We have only to look to the outcome of the Revathy case and the atrocious manner in which the accused and her child were treated to know that something is not right with the present system of handling apostasy cases. The Malaysian Courts, both syariah and civil, and the relevant authorities have to bear in mind that the Syariah framework, is a creature of statute, i.e. the Federal Constitution and not a separate “constitution” of Malaysia.

While freedom of religion is a reality in Malaysia, under the Federal Constitution, it must be clearly affirmed that Malaysia is a secular state and as it so, all Malaysians must be guaranteed their freedoms to enter and leave their respective religions by their own will and conviction, despite the affront that it may cause to another’s belief. It is paternalism, a misconceived notion of public order and this ever growing need for certainty that will diminish one’s faith, to which all Malaysians of any faith will ask, “whatever happened to faith in God?”