Poster Talk: Summer Wars preview

Already I am excited. Summer Wars puts itself on my must watch list by default that it is helmed by Mamoru Hosoda, whose last directorial effort was the excellent The Girl who Leapt Through Time. They are clearly gunning for the winning formula again, since the writer-director-studio team is the same as observed from various sources.

The last time they came together, The Girl who Leapt Through Time trumped Studio Ghibli's Tales from Earthsea in terms of both public and critical reception (that is how good this film is). This was an amazing feat, because Mamoru Hosoda is a virtual unknown next to Ghibli and Miyazaki. In fact, the irony is that Hosoda had been attached to direct Howl's Moving Castle but stepped down. And, up till now, I have not stopped wondering what the alternative would have been like.

I love Studio Ghibli. But I am also completely interested to see what Hosoda, Satoko Okudera (the writer) and Madhouse (the studio) will give us this time. For one thing, they clearly got a budget raise. The poster is amazingly stylish. There is something futuristic in the chunky font, but the silhouette of a girl clutching a traditional banner/flag seems to point to a less space-age look. It'll probably be something like The Girl who Leapt Through Time which has sci-fi elements but is set in modern Japan.

As for the story, depending on who you ask, it could either be about a young girl who drags her family through a bunch of adventures, or a family on an adventure with an old woman. Sketchy, I know. Nevertheless, I am already suspecting lots of green scenery - like set somewhere with lots of trees. With blue skies. That last one is a cliche for adventure type plots as it is. Basically at least enough bushes to conduct woodland wars in. It is summer after all...

Sources: Twitch, Yokaze, Anime News Network

Yesterday in Three.

14 Feb

Midnight slinks unseen

Past. Some things may change, but this

Would last forever.

Hot nights

Screw this bloody sore

It hurts so much even as

I enjoy ice-cream.

Tuition

Ink stains, the mark of

Industrious scribbles that you

Write, with unsure hands.

The Koala named Sam

Say hello to Sam.

Sam is the unofficial mascot for the fire victims of the Australian bushfire. She was rescued by a firefighter on the 1 Feb and is pictured here drinking water from his waterbottle.

Makes you wish all over again that the flood over in Australia would spread itself out and go put out the fires raging in Victoria instead...

image source via Google Images.

SHUT UP PY

I know what I did to deserve this, and I am now making a belated new year's resolution.

Never. never, ever, eat green tea ice with PY again.

UPDATE: I don't suppose anyone is being sympathetic. In any case, it was tough trying to eke out this post when I had to behave like a guerilla warfare soldier hogging her miserly blogspace while preventing the big evil PY from typing weird stuff into my blog yesterday at the comp lab.

Rosy memories

I suddenly remembered today that back in secondary school, during bio lesson, we once had to draw flowers for the plant reproduction practical lesson. My lab partner, who incidentally is Kappa, is clueless with the pencil, and I ended up drawing her flower for her with a lot of muttering. Most of the grumbling was because, of all the flowers she had to bring, she brought a rose.

A. Rose.
With lots of petals.

I hurriedly drew one for her (hey, it was almost the end of class), and then did one for myself, with what I believed to be slightly more effort. In the end, she got an A+ while I got an A.
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Blind tennis

Today, was sitting in the bus on the way home, minding own business by spacing out, when was struck on the side of the face with the end of a tennis racket. The racket had been poking out at a rakish angle from a JC student's bag and his girlfriend?sister? managed to rescue my face from further damage by stuffing the racket back into to the bag. The reason for this debacle, which I didn't even have time to react to (since I had been stoning) was that the student seemed to have sustained some form of eye injury and had tissue stuffed behind his spectacles, hence resulting in a lack of any kind of vision. Speaking of lack of foresight, it seemed they had randomly hopped onto the bus while not being sure how to get to their destination.

This makes the second time in a week that I have encountered an injured student, but these two did not seem to be heading to a clinic. They were instead discussing how to get somewhere by bus. But, judging from the way the girl was literally dragging around the guy, I seriously think they'll be injuring themselves further by, 1) falling off the steps of the bus, 2) trip, or worse still, 3) poke someone's eye out. I suspect however, that they'll continue to wherever they need to be via bus because, not oddly, they seemed to be amsued by the situation they were in. An odd couple they did make. I on the other hand, felt like a reluctant audience to some soap opera, because the guy was clinging on in this desperate way to the girl's hand, but the strangely touching scene (I am mostly thinking girlfriend now) was quickly reduced to a farce when we all alighted at the bus terminal and the girl ended up half-dragging the fellow around in an ungainly manner. They hadn't seemed to have decided where to go either and were walking about in various directions. The racket and the towel hanging out of the bag however, should help things. If you can remain injured and still have your towel with you, you're bound to be able to cross galaxies, let alone across one tiny island. The blind leading the blind indeed.

Out of the Blue

Yesterday, I went to watch the Science Faculty production of Neil Simon's California Suite. I will admit that it was essentially because it was the Science people putting up a play that induced me to go watch their performance rather than read my John Donne poems. As it were, it probably didn't need much encouragement to part me from my work.

First of all, the sound and the set were gorgeous. This is what you get I suppose, when Barang Barang probably sponsored their wonderful furniture for the hotel suite setting, right down to lights which you could switch on and off on stage. ooh. I feel my hands itch to plan a play all of a sudden.

While the first scene nearly made me leave, if only because the actors lacked chemistry and one of them had a funny accent, the second scene was beyond hilarious - what do you do when you find that after a night of inebriation, a mysterious hooker lying next to you and your wife is coming up the stairs? Hmm...........

It was a good evening, definitely, but there are some things that just didn't gel with me. For one thing, someone ought to have stop the lighting person from switching on the lights onstage abruptly and rapidly in the opening moments in the first scene which did absolutely nothing than to annoy me. I mean, they did not have to click on the spotlight above the telephone when it rang... or leave half the set in semi darkness and then only switch them on mysteriously when something in that section moved or made a sound. They could instead, have left the cast to switch them on, which would look more natural than hotel lights lighting up in an all too obviously non diegetic way. This was also disruptive because in the third scene, the cast were switching on and off the lights themselves, i.e. diegetically.

Mercifully, the production improved tremendously with no more playing of lights and a script that became funnier with the minute. I know it sounds horrid - my lack of faith in the science majors being able to put up a successful performance, but it turned out more than fine. I am impressed with the wardrobe's ability to suss out a proper tux for the third scene (where the hell did they get one?!) and that there were only two people in-charge of the costumes. While I was slightly miffed that Hannah's suit was clearly badly ironed and did not look crisp enough to fit her neurotic personality, I can't really be pointing fingers if only two people are involved in dressing a big cast.

All the same, a good job to the cast and crew. I loved the show.

Road Trip Expose: Zoo

Here are the promised ocular proof courtesy of the lovely Hash. Check out the pics below.

Gods know who this bespectacled stranger is. A trick of the light? A photo-taking error? At any rate, our trip which began bright if not so early, seemed plagued from the very beginning by the shadowy presence of Someone Else.

Never go to the toilet when tickets are being distributed or end up like me with the one with the picture of the proboscis monkey.

Check out the cute mousedeer!

The white tigers.
Looking very majestic is this one,
Lounging on the rock.

And this is Albert. Or Alberta for all you know.

Who this stalker is, nobody knows. But as it is, we can only proceed on...

to The Ethiopian Village, where you can play Where's Wally!

It's a pity the stalker looks so much like somebody's auntie. Why couldn't it have been someone better looking and male?

Attempts to identify this person took on a strange if relieving turn. Could she possibly be the missing link between homo sapiens and simia hamadryas, i.e. baboons? Could it be that she was merely tailing us to find her way home?

Alas, it would seem that I was wrong about the previous conjecture. The Mysterious Presence continues to follow us around, even as we consult the map on our way out of the zoo.

The stalker stalked. Further attempts to identify this person indicates that she is probably human, given the classic gormless tourist pose. Nevertheless, it's nice to be able to confirm that.

That's all for now folks! See you all at the zoo again!

A quick post in the dead of the morning

Woke up feeling all disgruntled about the co-op. How is it that NONE of my psychoanalysis books are in on Tuesday but all sold out on the next day? Obsessing isn't helping but I absolutely refuse to have to photocopy anymore bits from it to tide over my current non-book ownership status. And lvl4000 here I come. Urk.

Road Trip: Zoo

Yesterday, went to the Singapore Zoo with Hash and--. Am not certain, but it seems we were stalked by a bizarre figure in sunglasses. Attempted to shake stalker off, but no avail, not even when in desperation, we went to Ethiopia. See Hash's pictures for ocular proof.

The First Post of the New Year

In which one signposts for the year ahead.

Initially, I had one of those romantical, resolution-y sort of post in mind, but as the year passed from one to the other, the mood for a nice, proper post just vanished. Instead, I will begin 2009 with a flashback, not to 2008, memorable though it has been, but to 2001, the year of bemusing, nightmarish home economics lessons with a certain Mrs G.

On that fateful day, Mrs G., who is usually a tyrant in the kitchen, appeared to be slightly more mellow than usual. We were told to start heating the fryin pans in our separate groups while we watched Mrs G. at a demo before we er...decimated the recipe by ourselves later on. Indeed, the lecture had gotten on to a fairly good start, seeing as Mrs G. did not seem inclined to scream or yell threats at us as she did on a regular basis and that everyone sitting in front of the classroom was behaving sanely.

Then. One of the frying pans abruptly erupted in flames.
We stared on, partly startled but mostly amused as Mrs G. began screeching indignantly about the many times she had reminded us to be careful when heating oil in the pan. She bustled over to the offending frying pan and switched off the cooker, all the way muttering accusatory things at my friend and her partner, the two unfortunate souls which the pan belonged to.

This memory remains burned in my brain and talking about it on the bus with Kappa only served to polish further the weirdness of the event. Yes, Morphie, if you're reading this, you remain the unfortunate source of our jokes till this day.

Speaking of which, I am glad that I am beginning the new year with the people who have been close to me, whether in the form of the butt of the joke or otherwise.

Go along with every year,
Bring with you your joys,
And leave behind your fears.

Vampires

Now really, this post is essentially me trying to put the Twilight posters further down my blog so that whenever I look at my own blog I don't have to see it immediately. Also, given several more postings and it'll exist only in the archive. So, in order to achieve that happy notion, here is a theory of mine about how vampire lore came about. This is unresearched. I have never been to Transylvania nor taken a module in linguistics as anyone can tell you.

We all know that the vampire legend came about because of the nasty habit of a very bloodthirsty and violent prince aptly known "Vlad the Impaler" of staking his enemies. Arguably, it is also poetic justice that Vlad or at least, his vampiric incarnation would be staked by future generations, a practice entrenched by popular culture, with its own legendary capability of swaying hearts and mind.

But has anyone wondered why vampires are always portrayed as suave, mysterious, and above all, aristocratic? Unless Dracula is very fussy, and he would have to be nowadays as aristocrats are a dying breed, he'll have scarce food to rely on if he only fancies blue-blood. Kidding aside, but why blood-suckers specifically? Could, perhaps, the myth of vampires have a marxist background?!

My theory (or one of my bad ideas as kappa calls them), is that aristorcrats (or your bourgeoisie) literally sucked the masses dry by 1) not working 2)living a life of indulgence. Yup. This convenient pun lends even further credence to how vampires are coldblooded aristocrats - Counts and Princes and what not - because, they sucked their victims dry of the blood (and sweat) spent tilling the lands for a no-good boss who not only didn't pay you but demanded tithes all the time.

See. It fits in too. Vlad can't have been the only source for the legend. Perhaps some other little thing added to it too?

Attempts

Attempt 1:
And in one night, I learnt to play poker, blackjack and taiti. I used to suck so bad at these kind of games that I wonder how I even pick anything up at all.
Attempt 2:
In other things, origami folding still remains as dismal attempts by me no matter how long I spend twisting and folding bits of paper up. The paper crane looked as though someone put it through a rack (no pictures, fortunately). My sister on the other hand, makes pretty little sculptures while I sit there and flap bits of paper at her and whine, my vocab having being reduced to the following: "darn.", "shit.", "what do I fold now?", "help me", "arggghhh"
Attempt 3:
Then, finally, my attempts to rework a different blogskin has more or less ended with me sticking to the old skin anyway. I feel like taking out the Twilight poster. It's irking me.

Winter Games

A cheery game for the season of festive damp.

http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/g3/bells.htm

Poster Talk: Twilight

First up, the producers clearly didn't spend a lot on marketing. I mean, just look at this: the girl actually looks nothing like her poster self in the movie. Then, what in the world were they thinking? That cheesy pose and bare-ness of the poster really really irks. Just because there will be a guaranteed crowd doesn't mean they ought to scrimp on publicity. Then, I do know that Robert Pattinson (aka Cedric Diggory) plays a vampire (Edward Cullen), but did they have to do the make-up like he was dead more than undead? One feels like thumping the table at the wasted opportunity.

The movie itself fares no better. Like the generic, lack of attention and any pretence at effort poster, the flick is utterly flickawayable. The idea of an American gothique in the film seems to be a lot of mist, drippy woods, and green and grey tones for the sets and costumes. While there were some lovely scenes, the cinematography, perhaps unconsciously influenced by all that meteorological wetness, was rather watery fare too. And don't go giving me that old but it's a teen flick adage. Romeo + Juliet was a well-shot teen flick. Titanic stole many hearts (young and old) and won an Oscar. High School Musical was not my kind of movie, but it didn't suffer from bad filming. And grievously, they didn't even follow the book closely, which might have accounted for the awkward dialogue. I found myself just waiting for the next scene to happen, given that the lack of momentum meant me talking to the lovely ladies beside me and ogling the audience instead.

Speaking of which, the audience sighed at Edward Cullen's every whim (wince) and when the lead vampire made his first appearance, there was I kid you not, a collective sigh from them (double wince). One can only wonder what the reluctant boyfriends are thinking. And gorgeous Pattinson may be, but he lacks the something to carry off the character - and gorgeous is nothing if actor and role do not suit. Kirsten Stewart did a better job though their roles aren't anything to compare by. A teenage girl is possibly easier to play than a century-old vampire though I have my doubts about this statement as it is.

In any case, one can only hope the book is tons better. For the sake of the rest of the living world.

Bus stuff

It has lately been observed that public bus fares have been exhibiting strange behaviours. Peruse for instance, the following four observations made by my colleague, Suz:

Trip #1: BUS 151 Kent Ridge Terminal to Jln Toa Payoh (aka longkang bus stop) = 133 cents

Trip #2: BUS 59 Tampines Ave Two to Bishan Interchange (via Toa Payoh) = 143 cents

Trip #3: BUS 105 Serangoon Ave Three to Jln Toa Payoh = 93 cents

Trip #4: BUS 135 Ang Mo Kio Interchange to Serangoon Ave Two = 31 cents (71 cents minus rebate)

Consider exhibit 4 again. Where did the rebate come from? I have no idea. But 31 cents was exactly how much I paid today. And as to why it costs 93 cents to go from my home to Toa Payoh and only forty cents more to get to NUS from there is to my mind, ridiculous. Consider that on very good days when and if I have the time, I can walk to Toa Payoh. No one walks from Toa Payoh to Kent Ridge. The difference in distance isn't a marginal 400 metres. It's kilometres of difference. And I just know that the 105 bus has something against me. As if it hasn't done enough making me either run for it, miss it, or is unfashionably late, arrives in an entourage and plies a route riddled with jams, crowds, and short roads with many turnings to increase my bus fare.

Alternately, I am baffled that I have a rebate on my way home. 31 cents from Ang Mo Kio to Serangoon? That's even cheaper than when I paid the 45 cent student fare.

Today in Three.

1. Hail

All hail December!
White snow, eggnog and sharp stones,
Tomorrow’s herald.

2. A Snail's Requiem

Poor poor little snail.
Humans, please watch where you step,
or i'll go crack crack.

3. City Lights

The shape of Jurong
Is etched in glimmers of light,
Islands dreamt awake.

Today in Ten.

Today.
Watched Manhattan glitter across the screen in monochrome splendour and felt strangely empty.

Today.
The bus broke down 2 stops from Harbourfront and I didn’t even get a souvenir ticket. Maybe I should have waited?

Today.
It started raining while I was walking to the MRT station and then the escalator tried to eat my foot.

Today.
I wondered what it would be like to shoot Singapore in black and white too, and decided that all the different shades of green on the trees wouldn’t come out nice against the cloudy sky. Or maybe it would.

Today.
Why hasn’t anyone discovered how beautiful Jurong Island looks at night? And it’ll look great in black and white footage too.

Today.
My nose is plugged, and there is phlegm in my throat. I feel ill, though better than yesterday.

Today.
Someone should discover if pathogens have developed a malicious genetic strain that leaves its victim weak and miserable right before and during exams.

Today.
What is love in contemporary urban living? Woody Allen has left me more perplexed and unsatisfied with second viewing.

Today.
I think the phlegm is messing with my brain. After all, if the ancient Egyptians could squish out dead brains through the nose, the two parts must be somehow connected.

Today.
I suck at the game Bubble Town on Msn.

Shoes.

On examining my poor knee yesterday, I found that it was still red and scrapped looking from a minor fall on Thursday. I can’t remember what I was laughing about, but that was exactly what I was doing before screeching loudly and tripping on the uneven tar between the Computing/Business Faculty and the Arts canteen. I had been wearing a pair of sandals which I detested and which on further examination, looked as though the shoemaker had never met a physicist during the designing stage. The base is narrower than the top. Which means that the centre of gravity is high. Which means said object topples at the merest whim. Possibly at the slightest thought too. So of course the wearer, and a careless one (me) at that is going to stumble around quite a bit, twist ankles, fall ungracefully and scrape knees. The thing is, I didn’t even know I had been bleeding until I rolled up jeans in the lift on the way home 5 hours later. Then, yesterday, I sat in front of the shoe cupboard at home and whined about my lack of footwear. My old flats had given way months back, and I was left with a pair of smelly brown ones which make my toes curl if worn for extended periods of time. I bought a new pair of shoes, and after giving me a bruising under my left toe nail, gave way not two weeks later. The rest of my shoes are heels, which are wrong for revising exams in, and both my pairs of slippers are in dismal shape. PY has seen the newer pair looking holier-than-thou and the older pair still survives in a semi-retired state out of some exaggerated sentimentalism on my part. My blue slippers have been all the way to Venus Drive, trudged through forest mud and river water and remained intact in spite of me having bought them since I was in upper primary.
Oh God.
That’s how long it has been???
Yes. And they cost me only 3 dollars. The newer pair cost 19 bucks and expired less than 6 months later. They just don’t make footwear the way they used to. So yes, I am now trudging around in borrowed slippers, which is upsetting because my mom’s feet are slightly smaller than mine, and I keep stepping on the edge of the slipper. The poor (this part is through. I feel miserable revising) starving (BK is eating all my money) artist (as in, I am from Arts) look is but a poor excuse for the embarrassing footwear I have at home.

Blognality

The Rhetoric Room according to the tests.

We think http://midnightmuttery.blogspot.com is written by a woman (67%).

link: Gender Analyzer

But according to their poll, they get almost as many misses as hits, so it's a debatable thing.

And according to uClassify, my blog is my evil twin. This would have been funny if it wasn't also just as distressing. Maybe I should stop laughing at engineers so much.

The analysis indicates that the author ofhttp://midnightmuttery.blogspot.com/is of the type:
ISTP - The Mechanics

The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment are masters of responding to challenges that arise spontaneously. They generelly prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts. The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters.

And it looks as though me, or rather my blog (I sound just like Wemmick), is OCD.

Attention to details? What? I wander around half blind, and I can never find the stuff I need after I dump them in my cupboard. And I have a goldfish memory. However, clearly the test says otherwise.