terrychoong's Xanga

TERMINATED

Sat, 30 May 2009 13:52:00 GMT

Every time a big sequel movie comes out, I always make it a point to revisit the earlier movie. So with the release of Terminator Salvation, I had to go back and watch Terminator 2 Judgement Day and Terminator 3 Rise of The Machines. You will notice there is no The Terminator, mainly because I did not have great impression of it when I was a kid. Not much on special effects and it was considered a low budget sci-fi movie. But since I had my T2 Judgement Day Ultimate Edition DVD and Terminator 3 Rise of The Machines Special Edition DVD, both acquired during my stint in the US of A, those were easily accessible.

I look back at T2 and realised this is how a sequel should be made! Not only was it bigger and more explosive, the story had even more depth and character. James Cameron is a perfectionist director, and he made history making it the then most expensive movie ever made (at the time). It was worth every penny. Sitting down to watch it today, the action sequence still hold up. The story expanded the characters and concept of the first one. It must have been ingenious on the writers part to have Arnold Schwarzenegger's T-100 turn from the villain from the first movie, into the hero of the second. Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor turns from whiny wimpy girl into a one-woman army. T2 pulls all the stops. It certainly deserves its place in the best sequel movie hall of fame, joining the ranks of The Dark Knight, Aliens (James Cameron again!), Spider-Man 2 and X-Men 2.

T3 was a little more cheesy. I admit it was a great (and fun) idea to have the next version of the Terminator to be a femme fatale, known as the TX or Terminatrix (Terminator female dominatrix, get it?). Clair Danes does not have much to do in this one though, while Nick Stahl seems to have taken the character of John Connor from a street-wise kid in T2 to whiny wimpy adult. I did not like this turn very much. And then have the story say Sarah Connor died of cancer. Wonder how this fits in with the recent Sarah Connor Chronicles?

Anyway, seven years later, the Terminator franchise returns with director McG at the helm of Terminator Salvation. I know, this was the guy who did the Charlie's Angel series. Could he pull off a famous action movie franchise? The trailers looked pretty bad-ass, introducing what every sci-fi should have, a giant walking robot. Because everybody loves giant walking robots. Ask Optimus Prime and friends. Throw in everybody's favourite intense actor Christian Bale and a rather compelling-looking newcomer Sam Worthington, it looked like Terminator Salvation had some good things going for McG and team.

Stepping out from the cinema, I have to say I enjoyed Terminator Salvation a lot. Character development was a little lacking even for John Connor. But even with the little that Christian Bale was given to work with, he still managed to make John Connor compelling. Bryce Dallas-Howard makes a much better Kate Connor compared to Claire Danes despite the very small role. It was a nice touch to include a young Kyle Reese into the story played by Anton Yelchin, last seen in Star Trek. But the real surprise has to be Sam Worthington's Marcus Wright. I somehow wish the trailer had not spoiled the surprise twist of his character, but even that was rather obvious from the start of the movie. I think Worthington nearly upstaged Bale in this one. And Bale is one hard actor to upstage.

Action is darn right edge of the seat. There is 10 feet tall Harvester going around capturing people, as well has able to combine with a Hunter Killer. The T-10s from Terminator 3 make appearence as well. But the most fanboy moment had to be the appreance of the Governator Schwarzenegger's image on the T-100. I know it was not him in it, but fanboy enthusiasm takes anything you give them.

I do not understand why critics were tearing this movie apart. It is by no means perfect, unable to achieve what T2 achieved, but certainly much better than T3. Some greate characters from our favourite charismatic actors, lots of explosion and action, what's not to like? I should probably revisit The Terminator and The Sarah Connor Chronicles just to get back in the whole Terminator lore once again. Terminator, it will be back.

THE RETURN OF STAR TREK

Sun, 10 May 2009 11:12:00 GMT

In the world of movie and science fiction, there is only 2 franchise that comes to mind, Star Wars and Star Trek. While I remain truly a Star Wars fan, I do follow Star Trek with great interest.

My first encounter with Star Trek started back in the 90s with Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG). People generally find Star Trek boring due to all the science lingo and lack of action. But it is all this technological and science babble that keeps my interest in the series going. Later on, local television and now-dead MetroVision screened Deep Space Nine and Voyager, which I tried to follow to the best that I could, considering Seremban is not supposed to be in MetroVision's coverage. Spoilt Klang Valley brats. After that Star Trek went into hibernation, before coming back with a prequel series, Enterprise, which subsequently pissed off nearly all Star Trek fans before having its plug pulled. The TNG movies did not fare all to well either. I would call First Contact my favourite Star Trek movie to date, but by the time they reached Nemesis, nobody seemed interested in Star Trek anymore. With Nemesis and Enterprise, the Star Trek franchise was considered to be dead.

That was until a few years back it was announced that J.J. Abrams was going to direct the new Star Trek reboot. Everyone started getting excited. Moviedom was finally welcoming back one of its favourite sci-fi franchise. Of course, when it is a franchise with this much history and loyal fanbase, there is always concerns about how it would turn out. As I do with all movie, my anticipation for it was high as well and I was excited. I eagerly got the tickets, which did not pose that much of difficulty as compared to the likes of The Dark Knight. Stupid average Malaysian audience.

Fanboy and Trekkie were both excited over the new Star Trek movie.

SPOILERS START
Having caught the movie, I have to say this was one great adventure ride. Star Trek never felt so epic. From the visuals to the musical score, it had epic movie written all over it. Abrams signature slow-motion sequence during emotional scenes were well in there in the opening. There were excessive use of lens flare everywhere. Heck, I never knew classic Enterprise would look so cool, even though I consider it one of the least impressive Starfleet ship designs compared to the slicker Sovereign class starship. Nero's Borg technology retrofitted Romulan mining vessel looks like some weird fusion between Vorlon-Shadow vessels, and it is huge.

My earlier concern was how do you reboot a franchise with so much history without pissing off the legion of fans? After the movie (and the comic books) I can see why it was perfectly acceptable. No other sci-fi series plays with time travel and parallel universes as much as Star Trek does, and it was only logical that this was the way they rebooted the series. You could still tell fans that their original series and history was still intact, that this was just a new timeline. Trekkies will take in any time travel crap you give them.

The excellent new cast gave a fresh new take on the old crew, but still kept their famous characteristics there. Fandom was practically screaming in approval for Zachary Quinto as young Spock. He definitely has the eyes for the job. Of course, original Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy, was not about to be out done by a young punk, makes a significant appearance in the movie as well. But try not to think about how that works out, these time travel paradox might fry a few brain cells in the process. There lies the strength of the new movie as well, keeping very much the familiar elements from the original series, and with a fresh take. Chris Pine's Kirk is equally dashing as well as arrogant. Karl Urban's McCoy was pessimistic with some of the best lines. Zoe Saldana suddenly made Uhura very hot. Simon Pegg's Scotty is a bubbly ball of positive energy. Anton Yelchin's Chekov gives us the comic relief and John Cho's Sulu is an ass-kicking Sulu. I was particularly happy and greatly amused at the inclusion of the infamous red shirt character. Trekkie and I seemed liked the only ones in the cinema hall laughing out loud when the red shirt finally bites the dust. And having Kirk being chased around seemed something out of The Original Series (TOS), even though I have never watched an episode of it in my entire life. But Galaxy Quest helped me a lot.

Essentially, Star Trek is one big fun adventure ride. It still remains faithfully science fiction, but with lots of the humour from TOS. But I must mentioned how a fellow sci-fi geek pointed out how that they made the new Star Trek more like Star Wars. Could not be helped, I supposed, with Industrial Light & Magic working behind the scenes. Is that not like a conflict of interest? Also check this out for another take on the comparison. But even as the comparisons are made between Star Trek and Star Wars, I believe their true similarity lies in the way it manages to tell an interesting story with great characters. That is what a great movie is made of essentially.

Once again, welcome back, Star Trek. We missed you for a while there.

NO LINE ON THE HORIZON

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 13:07:35 GMT

"No more line on the horizon." - U2, No Line On The Horizon

Another highlight from March, was the release of U2's latest studio album, No Line On The Horizon. If one had been following the music news, it made headlines (or at least in the U2 fan community) that the album accidentally went on sale online in Australia some weeks before the official release date. With that, the leaked copy made its run around the Internet thanks to the ever wonderful Torrent and ED2K sites. To be honest, I got a leaked copy too, but only because I knew I was buying the album any how. Rest assured, my consciences is still functional.

Now I had heard the album, and on recently acquired my very own copy of the album. Being the self respecting U2 fan that I am, I knew I could go no where near a standard CD edition. But mind you, unlikely previous times where the album only came in standard and deluxe/collectors form, this time around it came in 4 editions - standard CD, limited edition digi-pack, limited edition magazine form and limited edition hardcover book form. I made my decision and went with the digi-pack, after considering its packaging and value. Observe the photos below:

A plastic slip cover holds the album. I love U2, but I admit this is the most boring U2 album cover ever.

Ah, but once you slide the plastic cover, the equal symbol comes off, as it was part of the cover.

Open up to find the usual impressive photography of Anton Corbjin.

And there is the CD, but wait...

... part of the CD booklet opens up into a big poster! Not that I will be removing it from the CD case.

But enough with the cosmetics. What about the album? Well, I felt I liked the album on first listen than I did with previous U2 albums. It kicks of with lots of energy from the first few songs, and slowly brings into to a sober close with the last few songs. Briefly here is what I thought about the songs:

No Line On The Horizon - I think of it as U2 being influenced by Arcade Fire. It has a guitar sound which is different from what the band has done so far. But I like the strong bass line coming from Adam's part.

Magnificent - Trademark U2 song with a slow build up, but you can almost anticipate the energy the song is about to bring. Bono's voice sounds great on this song. Definitely one to be heard live. I call this U2's worship song on this album, with lyrics which seem to be addressing a higher power that Bono is so fond of. I am pretty fond of Him too.

Moments of Surrender - Sounds like something which came off from the Achtung Baby-Zooropa era. It feels mellow and The Edge comes in with some guitar solo to top it.

Unknown Caller - Reminds me of the likes of Walk On, the inspirational tune sort. I am not too sure, but my personal view is the Unknown Caller is God, who wants us to "cease to speak, so that I may speak."

I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight - Another fun U2 song. It is catchy, the lyrics are almost amusing. You can imagine when it is live and everybody joins in at the chorus and shouts in unison "I'll go crazy if I don't go crazy tonight!"

Get On Your Boots - The title track, which were most of the energy is pumping on this one. There are shades of Vertigo on this one and Adam has a strong funky bass line running in the background. It is a song you can jump and dance to for fun.

Stand Up Comedy - This trend of strange and funny-sounding lyrics is starting to show a lot. "Napoleon is in high heels"? And yet Bono still manages to drop a "God is love" into it. Musically, another one for the fun song catalog.

FEZ-Being Born - If this album was suppose to be experimentation of new musical sounds, this is the closest you will get on this album. It comes as one track, but I think the hyphen only goes to show its 2 songs, even when I listening to it. Bono's voice is hitting top form again in this song with his excellent wailing.

White As Snow - Things start to slow down as Bono sings the blues. But if I recall the phrase white as snow, it is probably another biblical reference. Which leads me to see this song as a possible repentance song, or one seeking forgiveness.

Breathe - Things pick up again, and Bono is singing silly words like 'cockatoo' and 'ju-ju man'. But I like The Edge's guitar licks. The sing feels like a pick-me-up song, it is uplifting.

Cedars of Lebanon - The album comes to a very mellow and almost sad close. Bono is half-singing and half-speaking in this song. I feel its more like poetry.

Overall, I think it is a great U2 album (you expected any less from U2?). But like all U2 album, it has to be listened a number of times before it starts to grow, and also the chance to hear it live will totally change one's view of the songs. I do admit that this album suffered from the dangerous effects of hype. Bono made it sound like it was a change like what Achtung Baby was. Sure, there are songs which seem rather experimental and unconventionally U2, but it is no successor to Achtung Baby. People need to stop giving into hype. It is dangerous. Hype kills.

LIVING IT LIVE

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 13:40:00 GMT

I reflect a little back on my live concert experience last month with Coldplay. I know most people see a concert as merely a entertaining show. You sit down on a nice comfortable chair, listen to some nice songs, wave your hands a little, watch the bright lights and then leave. This is not how I go to concerts.

One may find my approach a strange mix of my passion for my faith and my passion for music. Musical worship in church cannot be claimed to be just singing some nice songs. It is a personal experience. One can completely be lost in the moment of worship God. This may very much also lie in the fact that music, in its deepest and true form, is no mere entertainment. It has the power to stir up the emotions and elevate the spirit. That is the power of music and I am embrace it whole heartedly.

So with Coldplay's concert, I decide I was not going to just sit down and watch a show. I wanted to be part of it. I allowed myself to be completely be lost in it. From the moment the band started playing, I was up on my feet and my hands were never at my side. Each song was different channel for different emotions. Jumping, feet stomping, screaming, shouting, crying out, hands punching, hands waving. Frankly, I was on a high. And I did not need alcohol or drugs for it. Music serves me just fine. Such was a similar experience for when I attended Linkin Park and U2's concerts too. The audience, the band and the music become one singular entity.

I still could not believe there were people standing beside me, just casually swaying to the music. I'm sorry, hot Singaporean chick next to me with your middle age gwailo boyfriend, it just would not have worked out between us. Call me when you have truly discovered the joys of music.

THE HOUR IS AT HAND

Sat, 04 Apr 2009 13:32:00 GMT

March 28, 8.30pm-9.30pm was Earth Hour. The publicity prior to it was surprisingly big considering it was our very own Malaysia. I figured it was either Malaysian were getting more environmentally conscious, or that Malaysian just wanted more publicity again. If it were the latter than it would just be like normal day in Malaysia.

With such publicity, it is only fitting then a movement such as this has its fair share of critics. Suddenly, we have a great number of local critics taking shot at Earth Hour acts here. They argue that turning off your lights for a mere one hour is not going to make a great deal to the planet. They argue you would save more energy by not driving for a day rather than the puny act of switching off your lights. And you know what? They are right. Earth Hour is one giant publicity stunt. But it is a noble publicity stunt.

Think about it. It was not long ago that we Malaysians thought that the whole voting and election process was a show. People have been saying that one single vote is not going to change an election outcome. But who would have thought at the difference it actually made. Exercising one's vote did make a difference.

And so it is with Earth Hour. This is our vote. Our vote that says there is a global environmental problem at hand, and a vote that says we are going to do our part. My household casted our vote. Most of the neighbourhood casted their vote. 8TV casted their vote.

I know it cannot just stop there. I know I am doing my little part whenever I can. Reuse a paper. Shop with my own bag. Pack food with my own container. It may not look like much, but least I have some points to make an argument against any critics.

See you at Earth Hour 2010. Or maybe not, because its going to be dark with all the lights off.

THE END IS NIGH

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 13:05:58 GMT

This was another highlight of the month of March - most awesome sci-fi television series of present times, Battlestar Galactica, finally draws to a close. Ever since the first season, I have always held that this is the best sci-fi television series since Babylon 5. I recall when it first made its way around back in MMU days when the mini series started a lot of hype. One look at it and it resembled a dark and depressing future, somewhat along a series I remembered from back in school days Space: Above And Beyond.

But Battlestar Galactica has grown to be so much more than mere science fiction. Many critics have said that it has transcended the science fiction genre ( the other time I heard the term 'transcending a genre' was with The Dark Knight ). The themes which was explored in the series where just profound, issues like war, self worth and identity, terrorism, faith and belief among many others. This is a series which was bold and not afraid to put on screen scenes which were considered dark and mature like attempted rape and torture. Definitely not for the kids.

But at the centre of the series actually is not science fiction or war or technology, but in fact a lot to do with faith and belief. Yes, once again subjects which I like to discuss a lot about. They have been throwing around themes like 'God has a purpose', prophecies and 'everything has happened before and it will happen again'. Who said sci-fi was geeky? But its this central theme that puts forward the question of a never ending cycle of death and violence, which is so familiar in human history. Wars and conflict will come but who does one really put an end to it?

SPOILERS START HERE
Now after having watched the finale for the series, I felt that this is what closure feels like. Not grand or mind-blowing, but just a nice calm ending. It is perhaps that an ending should come quietly. The whole opera house dream sequence is played out at last. The Final Five's story is finally revealed. And what of Six and Baltar? They are angels or messengers sent by God? So there is a God in this universe. I think I should use this series to preach to people who do not believe in God. But unfortunately they had to throw in a line which says that 'He hates being called God'. Well, sci-fi dares only go that far into the grounds of religious belief.

And is Kara Thrace to be the Christ-figure of this series? Having died and resurrected, not in the usual science fiction explanation of a clone, but one who indeed has died with a physical corpse to prove. So is her current form the series way of calling it the resurrected body, like the one Jesus had after his resurrection? And Kara's life had a purpose, eventhough it was just to push some coordinates at the end. But there you go, that idea that all of our lives do have a purpose, no matter how small or insignificant. What more, Kara Thrace has her own 'ascension', but it bascially involved just vanishing into thin air.

On some level I thought would have been niced to try and explain how the God in this series, with his angels and his messenger actually work. But then I think again and it feels like do I need to explain God to my ownself? God is not to be completely understood, but rather just to believe in. So perhaps it is with this thought that the series should not have to explain further its interpretation of God in this series.

Gosh, see what Battlestar Galactica can open up to? It is that awesome. It will be missed, but it has left its mark in television history. So say we all.

WHO WATCHES THE WATCHMEN?

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 14:48:28 GMT

March was a month with many highlights, much of which may have slipped by without a mention here, as each event began to overlap each other. So now I revisit them, starting with my take on the Watchmen movie.

The greatest graphic novel of all-time, Watchmen finally gets made into a motion picture. This graphic novel is supposedly what changed the landscape of the comic book scene, making it more than just a medium of nonsensical fun, but become a deeper and more complex medium of literature. I came to know about Watchmen as I began to explore less mainstream of the comics which I was familiar with. Just look at Time's list, and you would find Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns on it. I have my very own copy of the graphic novel, which I read prior to watching the movie, just to refresh myself. And just looking at the writing and the panels, there is a whole lot to be cramped into a movie. Watchmen has so many characters, so many themes and layers underneath it. Director Zack Snyder would have a challenging task ahead of him.

As it is with any fandom, there was concerns about how it would all turn out. But early news where positive, as high profile fanboy director Kevin Smith said it was awesome. The trailers looked equally awesome when I laid eyes upon it, artfully using The Smashing Pumpkins' slow mix of The End Is The Beginning Is The End. But I figure it was hard for Zack Snyder and company to go wrong, when the storyboard was all laid out in the graphic novel panel-by-panel for them.

And now, having finally watched the film twice, first on a free preview screening and second on a true fanboy outing, I can safely say that Watchmen is awesome. But not as awesome as The Dark Knight. And here on comes the SPOILERS. Right from the get-go, it had to open with something grab the audience's attention. So they did a prolonged fight/death sequence for the Comedian with a odd but interesting mix with Nat King Cole's Unforgettable. Then we get treated to a quick run through of history lesson with Bob Dylan's The Times They Are A Changin' and wonderfully art-like slow-mo sequence. They definitely got me from the start.

It did not disappoint further down the road. I have to say Jackie Earle Haley has brought Rorschach right out from the comic pages into real life. I will say the cliche line like always, that is I think he was born to play Rorschach. Every word he utters brings along such frightening conviction that you believe what he believes in and the extent he goes to stand by them.

Patrick Wilson gives Dan Dreidberg (Nite Owl) just as much character as the down-and-out superhero. I felt what a sorry state he was in and how he longs for his past glory. Yet, his character is probably the most human of the Watchmen, in someways the most caring one even towards the likes of Rorschach. Billy Crudup does a decent take on the emotionless and naked Dr Manhattan. Much of his big blue dong was blurred off by Malaysian censorship much it was better than cutting his scene entirely. Jeffrey Dean Morgan's take on the Comedian was pretty spot on as well, bringing to life him and all his psychopathy. Matthew Goode pulled off a humble yet megalomaniac Ozymandias. My biggest complaint has to be Malin Ackerman's Laurie Jupiter. She can not act. People complain about Katie Holmes in Batman Begins. Well, wait until the watch Ackerman in Watchmen. Holmes is Oscar compared to her.

A lot of the scenes from the graphic novel was difficult to read even for me. This is because of the way the story was told, over narrations, shifting back and forth between places, times and character. So I imagined it would have been difficult to put on screen, but yet they pulled it off. Dr Manhattan's origin story was the one which worried me, but it actually came off even clearer for me in cinematic form. Snyder also seemed to up the violence factor a notch, with the prison riot scene looking much more brutal than the graphic novel. I also think that those Nite Owl scenes are either blatant rip-off from Batman Begins / The Dark Knight or just respectful homages. I would like to think it is the latter, because from Nite Owl's movements right down to the accompanying soundtrack, I felt like I was watching Batman Begins / The Dark Knight all over again.

I actually found myself liking the movie on the second watch, because it was at this point that I decided I did not want to anticipate what scene comes next or how its done compared to the comic, but to just watch it for the moment like an average cinema goer would. I felt myself more drawn into each scene because of this. Like the sadness felt at Dr Manhattan's origin story. The 'oh-shit' moments of realising the fate of the missing child Rorschach was looking for. But Ackerman's scenes took me away from everything. Her crying after the revelation in the comic was heart wrenching, but in the movie, she could not even shed a tear.

The biggest buzz about the movie is the change in the ending. I actually felt this was better than the graphic novel. Considering the current times, people are not going to buy or be scared about an alien invasion. Too many bad alien movies in recent times have probably cheapened this effect. So they did a wise decision by turning that threat into Dr Manhattan, and this still flows very well with the rest of the story. It seems more logical and devious of Ozymandias at the same time. Hats off to the filmmakers.

Watchmen continues on the trend that I am very glad to see. Comic book movies are becoming more than just cheesy fun. They are much more deeper and complex than that. Watchmen is an awesome movie, so many layers and themes, that one cannot watch this as mere entertainment, but must open their minds to actually think what is being put forward. If you want easy comic book fun, go watch Punisher Warzone I suppose. I love Watchmen just fine.

Znyder saved money on storyboards.

IT IS COLD DOWN SOUTH

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:43:15 GMT

About a month ago, I set into motions a series of event that would be lead me to another significant point in my life. Where I would be witnessing Coldplay live in Singapore.

Being cheapskate, I decided to save on an additional night stay of Sunday night and took the night train from Seremban down to Singapore. The last train ride I took down to Singapore was not all the pleasant as it was a sleeping bunk. I could not get enough sleep in those bunks mainly because the trajectory of the bunk movement was on a vertical plane. So this time around I opted for a 2nd class seat. Staying true to my Internet advocacy nature, I decided to get my tickets online through the KTMB website. I must admit that I like this new e-Ticket service. I like that I do not have to drive to a train station to buy a ticket over the counter. I like that by purchasing online using my credit card, I get more points. I like that I can select which coach and which seats I am purchasing. I like that I can get a return ticket for just RM56 (RM30 for the 2nd class night train seats and RM26 for the 2nd class day train seats). I like that I know all my ticketing details and the chances of screwing up the date and time is minimised unlike last time.

KTM has moved with the changing times and now have 42' LCD TVs in their coach.

And so I boarded the train on Sunday night prepared with eye shades and ear plugs ready for a good night sleep. Except that I got the exact opposite of that. Do not get me wrong because the train seats were fine. I can usually sleep on bus rides, so upright seats do not bother me. What bothered me was the amount of activity that goes on in the train throughout the night. The train makes countless stops, so everytime just as I was about to get used to the swaying of the train, it stops to pick up passengers. For me to sleep, I need my surroundings to have minimal sound and activity. A low constant sound, say, a TV programme in the background, and I would still be able to sleep. But on the train, I had the TV, passengers boarding and getting down, snoring, handphone ringtones, people talking on the phone and footsteps. I think I only managed 20 minutes of sleep the entire time.

By the time I reached Johor Bahru at 5.30am, my chances of sleep were gone. The air-conditioning through the night had now reached a freezing point and the only way for me to any sleep would have to involve me freezing, losing consciousness and drifting into eternal slumber from hypothermia. Of course, I did not, because now the train was being boarded by the Singapore-working Malaysians on a Monday morning rush and sleep was impossible. At this point I also realised that the cold was effecting my bladder. Upon reaching Woodlands customs, I felt a sense of relief because a urinal would not be too far away. As I watched out the window of the train, I saw people literally leaped off the train before it even stopped. These people were rushing to beat the queue at immigration counter. My heart sank but fortunately not my bladder yet, because I now had to queue with the Monday morning rush. It took some time, and some incredible strength, but that moment in the toilet after the long queue was the best thing that happened this entire journey.

I finally made it to Singapore and started to make my way about the Singapore transit system. The last time I got off from the railway station in Tanjong Pagar, I took my friends on a great hike to the Tanjong Pagar MRT station. This time I was a little more daring and tried the bus. The bas stand was not too far from the station, thought it took my one walk around the block to realise this. Boarding bus no. 131 and one stop later, I was at Tanjong Pagar MRT station. I probably could have walked there, but I wanted the adventures of boarding unfamiliar bus at unfamiliar place heading in unfamiliar direction. MRT are usually my favourite because its nearly impossible to get lost. From here I make it to Little India where my hostel is located.

If you recall, I was staying at The InnCrowd hostel a few years back, located also in the nearby facinity. This time I wanted to give a different backpacker hostel a try, Footprints Backpacker Hostel. These guys were offering a bed at S$18, and since I was keeping to my 'cheap' plans, it suited me just well. Now first impression is this hostel is brand spanking new. Walls looked freshly painted. As with the hostels I have seen, their setup is simple (and you know me that I like simple), with just a small living area for watching movies on a 42' LCD TV and 4 PCs with free Internet access (and not limited like InnCrowd). They give me a clean pillow case and a bedsheets and let me have any unoccupied bed in room 02-02. Footprints may not be as happening or as cozy as InnCrowd (who could forget foosball with the Brazillian girls at InnCrowd?), but if all you need is a good nights quiet sleep (with help of some ear plugs and eye shades because it is still a shared domitory) with clean toilets even for shared ones, Footprints fits the bill. One other thing I must admit about it, is that the review I read was accurate - the shower pressure here are strong enough to wash an elephant. Highly recommended for everyone who gets kicks out of strong showers.

While I had no intention of exploring much of Singapore this time around, I still took the time to meet up with my cousin Chin. For breakfast, we had the usual breakfast for champions, nasi lemak. This meal is similar to the Big Mac, whereby the taste never seems vary no matter where you are, which is a great assurance. Since I was staying around Little India, it is just opposite of the Sim Lim Plaza, the Singaporean counterpart to Low Yat Plaza. I still had to remain true to my geek nature. For the agenda, I would only be on the look out for classic games, which is scarsely available over on our shores. Since all our games (the legal ones that is) come in through Singapore, I thought I would have a better chance of spoting oldies here. I was not wrong, as I managed to find even the likes of Warcraft 2 on the shelves. But when a game that old is going for S$30 while Warcraft 3 Battlechest is at S$70, the logical Malaysian (and probably Asian) financial mentality is going to kick-in and say it is just not worth it. And it is just not worth it, as even a Singaporean such as my cousin is forced to agree.

With an early afternoon still clear of activities, I set out to plot my path to the Singapore Indoor Stadium. It may not be as daunting as it sounds, but considering I had no idea where that was, other than a spot on the map, it was necessary for me to this carry out. A land survey. A recon mission. A scouting party. On the advice of my cousin, I take the MRT to Kallang and attempt to get a bus from there. The number 11 bus from Kallang takes me where I need to go, but its frequency leaves a lot to be desired. If it was going to be this long, it is going to affect my later afternoon plans - recovering last night's lost sleep. It arrives eventually and I get to the stadium. I was surprised to find that for a huge sellout concert, the surrounding atmosphere looked strangely quiet. Too quiet. I even asked the counter girl to be sure there was a concert tonight. Over our brief conversation (which did not involve me getting her number), she advised against the number 11 from Kallang, and suggests the number 16 from Penang Road just outside the Dhoby Ghaut MRT station. MRT stations are like save game points for me in Grand Theft Auto. It helps me get back my bearing and offer me a safety point to carry on my journey. So I was delighted to find out as I got off the number 16, that it was just a few stops to Dhoby Ghaut MRT station. And Dhoby Ghaut is just one stop way from Little India. So I managed to get back to Footprints. After some (but not that much) shut eye, I get set for the concert.

Having discovered the number 16 from Penang Road earlier, I decided to take the bus from the place which I got off from. It was 6.30pm and I knew I was going to be there early, get to check out the crowd (and by crowd I mean chicks), possible buy a T-shirt, meet up with Bernard, grab a meal and nicely settle in way before the show starts. But by 7.00pm, the bus looked it was nowhere near the stadium or even heading in that direction. I started to worry. It even took me all the way to the bus interchange where I had to get off, and get on another same number bus. This was not right, but I feared to deviate from my present course. I had no doubt this bus goes to the stadium, but the question was 'when'. So I stayed on the bus and had a tour of its route. And then it came back a bus stop opposite of the one I board at Penang Road. It finally hit me, that I board the right bus on the wrong side. I just sat through its entire route. I was panicking as I watched my clock inch closer to 8pm. I did noticed some school girls boarding while talking about Coldplay. I knew they were headed there too, but why were they not panicking like me? Did they know something I did not? I was busy messaging Bernard updates on my location, while he was kind enough to get me my so-called dinner ready upon my arrival. An arrival that I feared would be delayed further as I saw the queues of vehicles heading to the stadium.

Like the experience in the morning, I was greatly relieved as I finally got off the bus. But I still found people calmly walking towards the stadium like they had all the time in the world. Bernard had already given up on me and was already seated inside. I made a last minute check to see if I could still get T-shirts, but alas they were all sold out. As I quickly made my way towards the stadium entrance, the lights went out. No, Coldplay were not on stage, but I wanted to check out the opening band. I quickly settled down, hungry, thirsty and lacking sleep as I watched Mercury Rev play. These guys were impressively tight. Eventhough I knew nothing about them (I did not even know their full band name until after I got back from Singapore), I decided to just enjoy their music. They play with lots of energy and I was cheering them on regardless. The lady beside me must have thought I was a fan and asked me who they were. I just knew they were Mercury-something at that point.

Mercury Rev on stage. But from this photo, I might as well have told you it was Coldplay and you would have believed me. Bernard was there and he thought Coldplay had started playing.

Mercury Rev plays a great half an hour before leaving the stage at about 8.30pm, and the hall is lighted back up. I was now thinking this was my chance to get my meal, but the impending thought that Coldplay could show up any minute kept preventing me from doing so. Any minute was not an accurate way to describe it, as I found a lot more minutes passing by. I also wanted to be polite by not leaving my seat and disturbing my row ( I was seated all the way in the corner ). So I remained contended to just crowd watching to pass the time despite the hunger and thirst I was going through. I was pleasantly surprised when they played U2's Magnificent over the speakers as the stage was being prepared.

Not long after, Blue Danube is blaring over the speakers. As with my apt timing, I decide to call Bernard to get my dinner. Except that the music was getting louder and I could hardly speak over the phone. As Blue Danube hits its end note, the stadium lights go off, and the rising opening tune from Life In Technicolor begins. Coldplay live in concert was officially starting! I lost all sense of hunger, thirst and tiredness from that moment on. This was one of my favourite songs from their Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends album and I was shouting along to it. Coldplay were on stage. Behind them, the giant replica painting from the album cover.

Living Life In Technicolor behind the veil

They then go on to climb Violet Hill and I was punching the air to their beats, sing "if you love me, won't you let me know!". I definitely knew. Following that Chris takes the piano and starts the opening for Clocks. This was old school Coldplay and the crowd loved it as well. When Chris Martin is on the piano, he looks like he is having an awesome fits. They then decide to take a slower, but no less passionate with In My Place. "Yeah, how long must you wait for it?". Around the corner of the stage, I start catching a glimpse of giant yellow ballons being prepared. This can only mean one thing - Yellow! The crowd goes wild, many probably remember when the guys were here last time bringing the hit that made them big. I envy the people in tier1 seats as they get to play with giant yellow ballons. What more if the ballons were popped, confetti explodes over the crowd. And no, Digi did not sponsor any of those ballons. Chris and the band even has some fun with the ballons, but had a harder time trying to burst them.

Don't call Coldplay yellow, okay?

I was surprised when they started playing Glass Of Water from the Prospket's March EP, and clearly the crowd was not too familiar with the song either. But it was one of the songs I loved off that EP and went the chorus came and Jonny Buckland explodes on the guitar, I was into it completely. "Neither half full or empty is your glass!". This follows with Cemeteries of London. I tried hard prepare myself to remember the lyrics to the songs on the album, but the best I could go was "singing la-la-la-la-lay". When Chris takes the piano again and starts singing "those who are dead are not dead", I flipped again because 42 has one of the best switch in tune I have heard. You thought this was a mellow song, then it heads of in a different direction as I sang along "you thought you might be a ghost, you didn't get to heaven but you made it close"!

By this point I must have used up a lot of energy to jumping, punching, thumping to every single song, and yet they start on the organ note of Fix You. The moment I heard it, I was shouting "fix it, Chris!". As a stadium rock song, this is like an athem. When everybody was singing "tears stream down your face, I promise you that I will learn from my mistakes" it felt like we were all on the brink of tears, crying out in the same way seeking forgiveness from that unknown person. Yet the hope of redemption shines as "lights will guide you home". At this point emotions were at a high, so they bring us back down to earth in the cherry mood of Strawberry Swing.

Later on, the band makes their way to the platform closer to the crowd. Drummer Will Champion sets himself up in front of an electric drums, starting hitting away and the band breaks into a techno version of God Put A Smile On Your Face and Talk. Talking in techno certainly puts a smile on my face. The rest of the band takes a break for the stage while Chris takes on his piano solo with singing a tortured The Hardest Part and a quiet Postcards From Far Away. On the stage, I could see that they had pulled out the bells. Jerusalem bells! The next song could only be Viva La Vida! When I said the crowd goes wild earlier, this is an understatement, because when Viva La Vida starts, the crowd pratically losses it. This is THE sing-along song because everybody knows the lyrics. But for me, this is song has profund lyrics, and when I sing along to it, I am singing a song of self-denial and the death of pride even to myself.

Intimate like its techno

I would have thought that banging on the bells like the way Champion did, he should have been pretty drained. But no. Will Champion is one enourmous ball of energy as he goes on pounding the drums for Lost. "I'm just waiting till the shine wears off" from Will Champion! After all the energy, Coldplay decides to get warm and friendly with the crow and they make their way over to the tier2 crowd. Not me, mind you, but enough for me to get a really good view of them from across the stadium. They do acoustics for Speed of Sound followed by Chris giving some spotlight to the rest of his band members. Jonny and Will gets a lot love, but just not enough for Guy. Chris goes on to introduce the great singing voice of Will Champion as he sings Death Will Never Conquer. Yes, this was the free track offered for download on their site about the time the album was being promoted. Yes, I know an obscure Coldplay song. Good for me. Then they cover I'm A Believer and everybody including the crowd as a fun time singing.

Coldplay plays warmly in the crowd.

With enough rest from doing acoustic songs, they head back to the stage. Chris set ups on the piano again and the stage explodes into blazing lights, drums and piano for Politik. Scream "open up your eyes! and "give me love over this!" After all that anger and political angst, it is more love with Lovers In Japan. The video montage played on the stage reminds me so much of U2's Window In The Sky. It is a spectacular show of lights, video, music and confetti! Butterfly-shaped luminous coloured confetti is rained down from the sky! Chris takes shelter from the rain under his Japanese umbrella. Chalk it up for another awesome stadium number. And I am even more envious of the tier1 people for the butterflies.

Let love 'reign'!

After all that loving, they build to the rising tune of Death And All His Friends, with guitar riffs which I loved and indulged in as well. Singing "I don't want a cycle of recycle revenge!". With this song, Coldplay leaves the stage. And as anybody knows, we are just waiting for encore. The way the crowd calls for encore is by singing the wooaa part from Viva La Via. How can Coldplay not comply. In just a few minutes they are back on playing The Scientist. I loved this songs as well. Oh heck, at this point I love any song Coldplay plays. "Nobody said it was easy!" to dislike any Coldplay. And then the song I having wanting to hear, again, Life In Technicolor II! "Oh love don't let me go!" because "Now my feet won't touch the ground!". Truly an awesome way to open and finish the concert.

Viva La Coldplay

I have not been to many concerts, but that was one of the best concerts I have been to. The pure energy, as everybody coming together like a single entity was amazing. The music. The sights. Chris is a sings with such a confident humility. Will Champion is ball of fire. Jonny Buckland is playfully-looking awesome. Guy Berryman is a cool cucumber. U2 is the standard of the world's greatest band, and their concerts are amazing, but Coldplay is well on to joining their ranks. I can only hope for the best of the career of Coldplay, as they continue to make great music. I will surely be back for another round, when there is another round.

Oh, and I did manage to address my hunger and thirst after meeting Bernard after show. I had not eaten since 11am and it was then 11pm. For Coldplay, I fast 12 hours.

This concludes another great adventure down south and another great concert attended. One for the financial reports:
Coldplay concert ticket from SISTIC - S$191
Sleepless 8 hour by train journey to Singapore with return ticket - RM51
1 night stay at Footprints Backpacker Hostel - S$18
Bus ride in unknown direction and panicking - S$5 and 20 minutes off my lifespan
Watching Coldplay live - priceless.
For everything else there is my RHB MasterCard.

JUST BROWSING

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 12:47:00 GMT

One of the many other geek things I like to do is to try out new software. I watch download sites daily for updates of new software and always eager to try it out. And one of the most exciting and interesting software to be looking out for in recent times is the web browser. It rather obvious that the world wide web plays a very big part in our everyday lives. Blogging, email, social networking, online banking and news are all done on the Internet. So it is only logical that web browser is a market that software makers will want to get their hands on. I also enjoy trying various web browsers just to check out what cool features that they have. I recall back my own journey of various web browser that I have used since the dawn of the Internet age when I started on my first ever modem costing me RM300+ and blazing at the speed of 56Kbps.

Netscape Navigator 4 was the first web browser I ever used around 1997. Back then web browsers were nothing fancy and Netscape let me explore the wonderful world of gray and white. I seem to recall every page was some shade of gray or white. I used it to test out HTML pages which I wrote in Notepad, when there was no Dreamweaver (or at least I never discovered it then). I used to this browse gaming cheat sites because I could not afford gaming magazines and books. I discovered MP3s, online guitar chords and TUCOWS. Those were good times I had with Netscape Navigator. Alas, today the Navigator is dead and gone, but with some consolation, some of its codes probably still lives on in today's Mozilla Firefox.

About that same time, Microsoft started to make its mark with Internet Explorer 3. I used it from time to time, mostly while I was still discovering the world of HTML and why some codes were different because Netscape Navigator supported it while Internet Explorer did not. I should have realised back then that a war was brewing.

Along the way I discovered Opera 3 and its subsequent versions. It felt like a great piece of software which was packed with features. I loved turning off cached image at the click of a button, because in the days of dial-up, pictures took forever and that would make a website take forever to open. Then Opera 5 also gave me mouse gesture, which help save my mouse movement from traveling all the way to the 'back', 'forward', 'reload' and other buttons. You will never imagine the amount of mouse mileage that was saved. Of course, then I started to learn that 'backspace' did the same thing as the 'back' button, but I was lazy to reach for my keyboard even so.

Opera remained a small player as Internet Explorer 4 began to take the scene. It came default on Windows 98, which was the operating system of the time, and so everybody was stuck using it. I switched over from Opera 5 to Internet Explorer 4 about this time, only because Opera had its annoying ad-sponsored version. Yes, we were being invaded by ads even back in 2001. Pop-up ads would become the bane of the Internet in a few years after that.

Internet Explorer 4 was deemed outdated after a while, and Microsoft pushed us into Internet Explorer 5. Not long after Windows XP started to take over the world and we had Internet Explorer 6 forced down our throats. The world just followed along with Microsoft and along the way Netscape died. I was still alternating between Internet Explorer and Opera depending on what I was browsing.

Then Mozilla Firefox showed up on the scene around 2002 and started to give Microsoft a run for their money. Open-source was the catch word of the day and I liked the idea that it was free right down to the codes. Malaysians always love free stuff. The world wide web was starting to change and Firefox was one of guys leading it. I started to leave IE in the cold. I never updated to IE7 because of Microsoft insisted on updating and making sure my Windows was legitimate. Firefox and Opera was serving me just fine.

And so fast forward to present day. Internet users are spoiled for choice. They have Firefox, Opera, K-Meleon, Safari, IE, Google Chrome and a bunch more. Currently I play musical chairs between 5 browsers on my system: Firefox, Opera, Safari, K-Meleon and Google Chrome. It is without a doubt that Firefox is a great browsers, and the improvement from Firefox 2 to Firefox 3 were very impressive, but I sometimes still find it to be a heavy browser of sort. The time it takes to load up seems slower compared to Opera or K-Meleon. In practical sense, I like that Firefox supports nearly all web pages to their fullest extent. I can have drop down contacts in Yahoo Mail, Xanga was all the editing buttons showing up, Facebook loads up without a lag and Google Mail runs in its full feature mode.

I have a slight leaning towards Opera and would consider myself an Opera fan as I use it more often the other browsers. These were guys who gave me early tabbed browsing, mouse gesture and speed dial. I find RSS on Opera much easier, though I have yet to try the others. But sometimes I run into some bumps with Opera. Like pull down contacts do not appear in Yahoo Mail, early Google Docs did not like Opera, GSC e-Ticketing does not like Opera, and reloading a Facebook page causes a lag. The masquerading as another browser feature is nice, but this usually messes up pages with layout issues. Opera definitely feels light compared to Firefox, and it does not even need plug-ins to do what Firefox can. Why can't Opera get a larger market share?

I sometimes switch over to K-Meleon for even lighter browsing especially when I am playing games. I need all the memory I can get. So K-Meleon has a small memory footprint and I can let stay in the background and download from Rapidshare and Megaupload which my download manager do not handle well.

Google Chrome made the waves recently with their multi-threaded browser. The layout is simplistic, but I miss mouse gestures. But it is definitely fast when it comes to loading pages. When playing Facebook, this is the browser of my choice as Facebook feels like its blazing fast. But despite all the praises it has, I still have bone to pick with it. Chrome does not go rich text formatting when composing in Yahoo Mail. And one major annoyance I cannot figure out is why Chrome and my Aztech WiFi toggle do not get along. My system goes into high CPU usage and WiFi connect drops whenever I use both of them together. Running on a LAN seems to have no problem. So I have to avoid Chrome whenever I am on my WiFi. And does the Google Chrome logo look like a Pokemon ball to you?

Which brings me to Safari 4 Beta. I was never a fan of Apple and its iPhones, iMacs and iPod, but this Safari really caught my interest. It has the same blazing speed at opening Facebook pages just like Chrome. However it suffers on its email support as GMail and Yahoo Mail does not give it rich text support. I loved DOS, but who the heck wants to write an email in plain ASCII text anymore? However, the fact that is does not conflict with my WiFi toggle means its the best alternative I have to Chrome. It does feel slightly heavier than Chrome though. Sometimes with these multi-threading browsers, I hate to see a memory usage of about 30 megs per browser thread when I am browsing 5-6 pages at a go.

I love that as users, we are spoiled for choice. For me, no single browser is the perfect browser, so I have fun trying out and alternating between different browsers depending on my needs. And just like the many flavours of Linux they have out there, it sure puts the fun back in computing.

OSCAR RETURNS

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 12:40:00 GMT

The Oscar results came out last week, and most of the nominated movies were out long before that. But our local cinema distributor decided to hold back on most of them. Up until today, only 2 of the best pictures have been screened locally, namely The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Slumdog Millionaire. I have reason to believe that our local distributors clearly understand that such movies are not crowd-pullers by themselves. Movies like these just generate a lot of buzz for the average movie goes. So they decide to hold back the release of these movies until around the Oscar period. This actually goes to prove my point that Oscar movies by themselves are not popular. Only the Oscar buzz makes them popular. And mind you, popular and good are not the same thing, as a self-respecting film geek like myself would know. If not for the Oscars, nobody would have wanted to catch them. But that is beside the point. The point is now I can judge these 2 movies and whether they deserve what they were nominated for or won. And with that comes the spoilers.

Let us start with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I will admit, this is a beautifully shot movie, completely unlike what David Fincher is known for making. Each scene seemed to be taken with such delicacy and pace like one would paint a picture. And that brings me to its pace. At a near 3 hour long for a story which resembles too closely to Forest Gump ( the writer was the same writer from Forest Gump ), it is 30-45 minutes longer than it should have been. Had the pace been brought up just a little bit more, I might have enjoyed it more. I would hardly give Brad Pitt a best actor nomination here, as he seemed to be playing Joe Black again with his plain, near-emotionless expression from Meet Joe Black (which also suffers from about the same problem with pace). There was hardly any kind of climax in this movie. Not David Fincher's best, in my opinion. Beautiful movie to watch, but far too overrated. 2 wins out of 13 goes to show that.

And then, the mighty Slumdog Millionaire. This indeed was worth its best picture win. Danny Boyle has always proven himself to be versatile director, but he was hardly ever noticed by the big league. He needed some source material that would get him noticed. And he found it in the form of the novel Q&A which would then be adapted into the film Slumdog Millionaire. Honestly speaking, the subject matter may be profound and moving, dealing with the lives of the children of the Mumbai slums, but the core of the story is a straight forward, a much simpler subject than what Boyle has done in the past. I would sum it up as a Bollywood movie directed by a Brit. Danny Boyle's Hindi movie, complete with love, loss and dance (at the end). Cinematography and direction was a sure win, because Boyle's style remains his own.

Frost/Nixon may come in the later months. Milk seems out of the question seems over here we are all hush-hush about the subject of homosexuality. I want to watch The Reader so I can go into critical overdrive about why it is not best picture material.