What a working week shld be

Weekends are too short.
There are too many weekdays.

We should just work on days starting with T.

Tuesdays and Thursdays.

No, Todays and Tomorrows are days.

The Island versus Never Let Me Go

I am in the midst of preparing to head out to Mushroom Pot for dinner. And probably get more STIKFAS figures. Muahahahaha.....

Just caught The Island. Not a bad movie. There is a lot of potential for the story to break away from the normal vehicle bang up and parades of arsenal. BUT this is a Michael Bay movie. So....the second half of the movie became something like Bad Boys but with a fine pair of caucasians of both sexes.

Anyway, no time to do this now. Would want to compare the movie with another similar novel i read recently about cloning. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. I have procrastinated for too long and never really gotten down to blog about the book...

after dinner. and more stikfas later.....

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No STIKFAS figures. Dinner at Mushroom Pot wasn't as fantastic as I thought. we should stick to zi char stuff. not expensive, quality can't be too much off.

anyway....i'd like to blog about cloning. not about the ethical issues. but about the book i read (Never Let Me Go) and the movie i saw (The Island). first, let me say that Scarlett Johansson is
so beautiful. she and natalie portman epitomise the whole woman/girl thing. there's kirsten dunst as well. and julia stiles. okie. better not wax lyrical on them. v will not be happy.

Never Let Me Go is actually the title of a fictitious song from the album Songs After Dark by this female songstress named Judy Bridgewater. Don't bother googling for the song. There isn't. The story revolves around three main characters. kathy h, tommy d and ruth. in my mind, if this novel was ever to be made into a movie, i'd have kirsten dunst to play ruth. kathy h will be scarlett johansson and tommy d, well....probably Gael García Bernal. ron howard or robert zemeckis can direct (sticking with hollywood). james ivory who did remains of the day (also by kazuo ishiguro) can do the honours as well. if wong kar wai or zhang yimou helms it in an asian version, please let christopher boyle do the cinematography. but would really rather lee ang do it. or stanley kwan. ruth will then be Zhang Ziyi. kathy h will be Angelica Lee. tommy will be daniel wu.

enough of the imaginary stuff.

There is a strong similarity between the novel and the movie. they are both about clones being reared apart from normal humans. both are sheltered. their ends are the same; death. the former has the clones being told since young that they will one day be harvested and then wasted. while the latter has the clones being tricked into thinking they are special people waiting to go to the last pathogen-free island once they win a lottery that picks the winners "randomly".

the novel was tragic. the sombre tone was carried throughout the book. the character development was so strong and you start to feel so much for kathy and tommy. they were hopeless from the start, two clones resigned to fate (did they have one?). they knew they will eventually be harvested for their parts. maybe once, twice, thrice even. but death was iminent. halfway through the story, they were given a glimmer of hope to lead normal lives together but as they pursue this track doggedly, they only met with disappointment and that death for them, was inevitable.

the movie had potential. the products were given hope so that they had an aim. albeit collectively. they will work hard, hope to win the lottery, so that they can be sent to the island which was the prize - utopia. they were special because they were able to survive this supposed "mass contamination" that occured on earth. the non-existent island was the impetus. they will work happily thinking that they will one day leave for the island. never questioning and always docile. if the movie's second half was coherent with the first and make the viewer grapple with tough issues concerning the right to live and ethical aspects of clients versus cloners versus products and such, it would have been great. but michael bay made the second half into bad boys and girls, with smokin' guns and flying motorcycles......it was like the potential was never fulfilled. I'm sure many liked the movie. it seemed to have many aspects. action, bits of sci-fi, morality, romance, blah....but, the topic was ripe for weightier issues. i'm just nit picking...

saw the trailer for the Corpse Bride. it's got the same animation as Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas, naturally, as he is directs this as well. helena bonham carter and johnny depp voice the main characters. one's his wife and the other is his onscreen hero. gonna be a blast. was there ever a better pairing in hollywood between a director and his leading man?

Much Ablog About Nothing

I have got so much to blog about but at the same time I don't have the energy to transpose my thoughts into words. Coherent words that form sentences.

They will come out like a string of symbols. like asterix:*, hex:#, tilde:~, exclamation mark: !, question mark: ? and other such symbols.

So if my thoughts collectively have a mouth, this is what it'd say: "*&@!$(#*@!)(92@()#(!*a(**%#!~>":|}{!!!!!!!!!"

I think I can better articulate them in Hokkien.
Which brings me to another point. Ever since Rockson Tan came into the scene with that entry on NKF, the singapore blogosphere seems to have grown looser in tongue. Expletives seems to be more readily uttered. Cusswords punctuate sentences. And body parts, especially private ones, and verbally expressing one's intention to copulate with another's mother who has a vagina that smells offal, they are becoming common.

Sleepy. Should sleep now....

Time

I have been listening to only three songs on Royal Gala 2 since Monday. They are in my On The Go 3 playlist and constantly on repeat all mode.

The first song I talked about in an earlier entry.
The second is a classic by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: As I Sat Sadly By Her Side.
And the last is a cover of a classic also by Nick Cave and gang: Let It Be. Which of course is by The Beatles.

All these songs make more sense than ever. Especially Let It Be. There will be an answer. Indeed. The Beatles had a sense of their biblical knowledge I guess. Between Annunciation to my present stage of facing up to reality, there aren't any more wiser words of wisdom than let it be, there will be an answer, let it be.

Listening to more of Tori Amos' voice led me to more goodies from her album of covers which included this gem:
Time (originally by Tom Waits, who has a song called Singapore - stereotypical idea of the ex(r)otic far east)

The smart money's on Harlow
And the moon is in the street
And the shadow boys are breaking all the laws

You're east of East St. Louis
And the wind is making speeches
And the rain sounds like a round
of applause

Napoleon is weeping in the carnival saloon
His invisible fiance is in the mirror

The band is going home
It's raining hammers,
it's raining nails

It's true, there's nothing left for him down here

And it's Time Time Time
And it's Time Time Time
And it's Time Time Time
That you love

And it's Time Time Time

Well they all pretend they're orphans
And their memory's like a train
You can see it getting smaller as it pulls away

And the things you can't remember
Tell the things you can't forget that
History puts a saint in every dream

Well she said she'd stick around
Until the bandages came off
But these mamas boys just don't know when to quit

And Matilda asks the sailors are those dreams
Or are those prayers
So just close your eyes, son
And this won't hurt a bit

And it's Time Time Time
And it's Time Time Time
And it's Time Time Time

That you love

And it's Time Time Time

Well, things are pretty lousy for a calendar girl
The boys just dive right off the cars
And splash into the streets
And when she's on a roll she pulls a razor
From her boot and a thousand
Pigeons fall around her feet

So put a candle in the window
And a kiss upon his lips

As the dish outside the window fills with rain

Just like a stranger with the weeds in your heart
And pay the fiddler off till I come back again

And it's Time Time Time
And it's Time Time Time
And it's Time Time Time

That you love

And
it's
Time
Time
Time

Time that you love.....

moody Monday song for a rainy Tuesday

The silicon chip inside her head
gets switched to overload

and nobody's gonna go to school today
she's gonna make them stay at home

And Daddy doesn't understand it
He always said she was good as gold

And he can see no reason
Cos there are no reasons
What reasons do you need to be shown

Tell me why
I don't like Mondays
I want to shoot
The whole day down

The telex machine is kept so clean
and it types to waiting world

And Mother feels so shocked
Father's world is rocked

And their thoughts turn to
Their own little girl

Sweet 16 ain't that peachy keen
No it ain't so neat to admit defeat,

They can see no reasons
Cos there are no reasons
What reasons do you need to be shown

All the playing's stopped in the playground now
She wants to play with her toys awhile
And school's out early and soon we'll be learning
That the lesson today is
how
to
die

And then the bullhorn crackles
And the captain tackles
With the problems and the how's and why's
And he can see no reasons
Cos there are no reasons
What reasons do you need to die?

~ as covered by Tori Amos
orginally by the Boomtown Rats.

This track by the Boomtown Rats was inspired (lack of better word) by a 16 year old student who made headlines when she grabbed her father's gun and opened fire on her school from a house across the street, injuring eight students and killing the school's principal and custodian. When later asked why she'd gone on the shooting spree, she responded "I don't like Mondays."


Don't make me do it....