SIFF 3

today's programme was a re-run of yesterday's show plus a 2 hour long documentary that made me feel seasick from the jerky camera. in summary... BAD. so gan ann and i spent our time make stupid home video and pictures. But alas they are in quicktime format and i cannot edit them so till i figure that out, i cant share the lame videos. till then!



regards from the 3rd dimension

For My Info

note:

1. Apply local exchange on Friday (Results out on May 11th)
2. AY 07/08 - Aug 20th
3. Plan trip
4. part-time job

26Apr Friday: Hangout with Jan & Gan
29 Apr Sunday: Prawning
1 May Tues: Dimsum with FM
4 - 6 May: Bon Voyage Gan Ann, Del, Hailing, YiEng, Ah Pia & Yongbin =~~~~
10 May Thu: Good Evening Vietnam!

beautiful life

life is good when you take it slow

SIFF 2

ready? ACTION.

[entrance]

currently showing R21 film (transsexual included)

the very phantom of the opera swinging chandelier

6 more days to go.

SIFF Part 1

National Museum.

which is a pretty place to spend 26hours in over the weekend.

for the 20th Singapore International Film Festival

meet cousin IT

produced by the chua sisters

stay tuned.

Feet unbound

even though i'm tired and tomorrow is going to be a long full day at the national museum, i thought i should pen this down while the impact of the film is still raw.

after the fair share of political documentaries, short stories that seem to tell no story, Feet Unbound made an impact tonight. And as familiar names from JC history classes rolled out such as Mao ZeDong & Chiang KaiShek, the film told of an unknown story of women or even girls in their teenage years who fought along side with the men. women who left hometown to join the Long March with their favourite slogan (or motivational line) of 'going to Chengdu for rice', who died from the harsh environmental factors of the snow mountain and quiksand marsh, from hunger, from cold, and eventually when they were ambushed at Liyuankou Pass in Gansu Province. " A handful escaped, but the majority were killed, captured, raped, tortured or forcefully taken as wives by their captors.

Out of the more than 200,000 soldiers who took part in the March, about one percent or 2,000 were women. The surviving women Long March veterans are all in their 80's and 90's today. It is unknown how many of them are still alive.

Most of the female soldiers who died in the ambush at Liyuankou Pass were from the Fourth Front Army. They were teenagers when they started their Long March from Cangxi in Sichuan Province, crossed the Yellow River and became part of the Western Route Army. By the time they arrived in Gansu, they had already covered more than 10,000 km on foot.

It is a tragedy that the story of the ill-fated Western Route Army is never considered part of The Long March. The sacrifice of over 20,000 brave troops here has been eclipsed by the fact that their leader was a traitor (after his fall, Zhang Guotao defected to the Nationalist Guomindang).

The heroism of the soldiers who fought in the Western Route Army is largely unknown outside of China. Even less is known about the female soldiers who fought alongside their male comrades in their search for a better life."

was it worth it? the revolution, the war, the march and everything. i don't know if such a simple question will bring about political indignation, such as 'it has brought China so far'. But was it worth the life of many, and the shame of these women now aged 80, 90 that they have to bear of being raped, beaten, pregnant with children of their enemies. was it worth it?

and was it worth it to make the film that remind these women of what they have gone through in the past. and with our claps of appreciation for a good movie made, of a deeper knowledge of history beyond textbooks, my question is "so what". and now we see things in retrospective, as uninvolved 3rd parties that can only feel pity, there is no way history can be reversed. so... what now?

the date today is 19th Apr

i made a booboo. happily let myself lose track of dates thinking that 19th was tomorrow instead of today. So meaning, tonight will be the start of the Film Festival @ the National Museum. i happily missed the deadline for my MIS class's peer evaluation too.

1.44am

so the maiden SIFF volunteer work ended at 11.45pm, and well, to put it bluntly it was not just the volunteer who couldnt wait for the show to end. sai gangs to be done, but at least i think I can clear 80hours. i just hope i dont lose anything important. so say hi to me if anyone of you are bored and near the national musuem.

around singapore

spent the whole day traveling the entire singapore with my mum & grandma, ttsh to somerset to taman jurong (?!) then to the sensei at ChinaTown. the fall i had that cumulated itself as one of the suay events of the suay week 13 hasnt totally healed, so i jumped on this bandwagon of sehsei-seeing when my cousin had to go fix his swelled trotters acquired from soccer.

the funny part about it was when i told him about the crackling of my upper spine, he just did the same of thing he did for his past patient and said that my system was clogged up which is why i tend to be forgetful and sometimes i will be "头脑空空"，"要睡觉"，"每次都很累". i just tend to be very cynical about all these 'cos doctors just love to talk about me being tired which is obviously a hint they thought they bingo-ed from spotting my dark eye rings. but little do they know that they've been around since forever. and the "头脑空空", did i look bimbotic to him?

a reminder about JC terror

quoted from "Following the Wrong God Home" by Catherine Lim

...describing Benjamin Gallagher - an angmoh professor

'Mad as a hatter' said Vincent 'Do you know, in the middle of a lecture recently, he suddenly sat on the table and recited a poem in an obscure European langua, which he then translated and tried to get the students to comment on?' The bewildered students had not known how to react. They could only giggle. But they did not dare to giggle when the Professor, in the middle of another lecture, descended ferociously on the front row, knocking the notes books from their hand one by one. Somebody gasped. Another gave a startled shout, which was quickly swallowed. They all stared , shifted about, looked at each other but did not dare look at the Professor.

'Stop writing down every word I say and listen instead!' he roared. He picked up a notebook and began to read from it. The student had taken down the lecture verbatim, including an opening remark and a silly joke. Professor Gallagher threw back his head and laughed uproariously. Then he stopped and glared at all the student, staring faces ranged before him.

'Think, for God's sake,' he said. 'Think Speak up. Ask questions. Challenge me.' To his friends later, he groaned, 'I've never come across a more quiescent class of students'

So Miss K! and i can already imagine Ms K saying so us. but I never copy down Ms k's jokes ok.

phantom of the opera

over my caffeine dosage prior to Phantom of the Opera
i was just wondering how the river scene can be pulled off in a theatre
but everything was carried off so beautifully.
i was wrong when i thought cinematography helps make up for the details that lack on stage
i was sooo wrong.
theatre brings out the awe
put together by the sets,
of angels, chandelier, candles emerging from nowhere and enlarging right before your eyes
and a mirror which both reflects and yet you can still see the phantom behind it
by the glamourous costumes
and finally when the phantom trembled.

"Masquerade!
Paper faces on parade!
Masquerade!
Hide your face,
so the world will
never find you!
Masquerade!
Every face a different shade!
Masquerade!
Look around -
There's another
mask behind you!
Masquerade!
Burning glances,
turning heads . . .
Masquerade!
Stop and stare
at the sea of smiles
around you!
Masquerade!"

bravo.

last day as a year 3

well, as the graduates gloat over my misfortune of having 1 more year of SMU to go, i mentally record down these gloatings and will repeat it back to them should they complain about work in future. when the 'time's up' was said, the end of the Strategy exam also marked a finish to Year 3. timely reward is always FOOD.

graduating: Dec'07, today, today, Apr'08


lunch at Food Republic which formed part of the discussion in our strategy project


the above is a very singaporean thing.

quoting xiaoyu
"this nail polish is matte right, when i apply will it be glossy???"

xiaoyu is not just really blurrr... we often wonder whats in her head. or perhaps the lackthereof. uh... it says matte right? how can it be glossy?. stupid times will make me miss xiaoyu.


- some others -


advertising group mates. kum ho ah.


hands paws i hold to sleep, sometimes.

clinking glasses

life after exams seem to have mapped out a plan of its own with an introduction to a part-time job in the day and film festival at night. sounds like a cool plan for me. to money, films, phantom, 15 days with fi & an anticipation to the end of Year 3. 'clink

"Cause this life is a beautiful one
And though I seen it comin undone
I know most definitely
That it’s gonna be you
It’s gonna be me
So baby keep your head up
Keep it on the up and up
Cause you got all my…
Love love love

Cause we’re all just lovers and takers
Breaking hearts to make the papers
She wants love I told her to stop trying
Cause the reasons for her tears
Aren’t worth crying

And this life is a beautiful one
And though I seen it comin undone
Well I know most definitely
That it’s gonna be you
It’s gonna be me
So baby keep your head up
Keep it on the up and up
Cause you got all my
Love love love

Loving all around me
I think that love has found me
Loving all the time

And when the summer’s here
The waves are crashing
No time for thinking
Don’t even ask me
I’m gonna let it all roll right past me
Cause when I’m here
I’m always happy

And this life is a beautiful one
And though I seen it comin undone
Well I know most definitely
It always works out the way it’s meant to be
So baby keep your head up
Keep it on the up and up
And know that you got all my
Love love love"

... Tristan Prettyman :: Love Love Love

one's picture perfect

Comfortable :: John Mayer



I just remembered, that time at the market
snuck up behind me and jumped on my shopping cart
And rode down, aisle 5
you looked behind you to smile back at me
crashed into a rack full of magazines
they asked us if we could leave.

Can't remember, what went wrong last September
Though I'm sure that you'd remind me, if you had to
Our love was, comfortable and
so broken in

I sleep with this new girl i'm still getting used to
my friends all approve, say she's gonna be good for you
they throw me, high fives
She says the bible is all that she reads
and prefers that I not use profanity
your mouth was, so dirty
Life of the party
and she swears that she's artsy
but you could distinguish Miles from Coltrane

Our love was, comfortable and
so broken in
she's perfect, so flawless
or so they say, say

She thinks I can't see the smile that she's fakin'
and poses for pictures that aren't being taken
I loved you
grey sweat pants, no makeup, so perfect

Our love was, comfortable and
so broken in
she's perfect, so flawless
I'm not impressed, I want you back.

post-school trauma, things have gone back to normal pace just that now is mugging season which i am so not used to. nailed one down and just 1 more to go on saturday. studying aside, walks, talks & food with some of my oldest pals serve as mental sanctuary to be in such comfortable company. 'broken in' is a very apt term.

她的宝贝

阿嬷 (grandma) 是个温柔的女人。她在我家而见到我回家时，阿嬷会说“宝贝，你回来了啊” 。 有一次，她拿着我的书包说：“宝贝，你的书包很重嘞”。 ‘宝贝’这个名词中她的嘴巴说出，不是肉麻的。而是带来丝丝的温暖，让我觉得好爱这位温柔的女人。

geek

be a street photographer or a street fashionista? streetpeeper.com

step up

bury it and let it stay buried.

unknowingly

when it gets past a certain hour, i find myself reluctant to sleep. the hour when the the neighbourhood quietens down - with random sounds of motorbikes, mahjong tiles, closing doors, and my own brain wandering.

i think about how even dreams get commercialized. materialistic, career and never enough. achieving the lower level of the maslow's hierarchy of needs and now we have got to self-actualize. motivated & self-esteemed.

should we feel ashamed of simpler stuff? dreams of family, of little moments. little moments, not being caught aware of solitude.

and adults influx kids with "what do you want to be when you grow up?"
and its comes so naturally, and now i start wondering, why do we always answer with "teacher/doctor/lawyer/policeman"

since when have we become so.... influenced?

i want to be a.....

Malta

while we are it, lets continue escapism. for tonight, Malta is it. don't blink.



Republic of Malta lies in Southern Europe, an island nation comprising of 7 islands in the Mediterranean Sea. The above is Valleta, the capital city of Malta. It's a UNESCO heritage site.







the above is called Popeye Village - which was built as a film set for a 1980 production of Popeye. An entire village for a live-action musical. It took 7 months to build.

and i guess i just have to see this for myself. definately added to the 'to-go' list. blownaway. wowwow & wow.

too much to ask

Breakable

Have you ever thought about what protects our hearts?
Just a cage of rib bones and other various parts.
So it's fairly simple to cut right through the mess,
And to stop the muscle that makes us confess.

And we are so fragile,
And our cracking bones make noise,
And we are just,
Breakable, breakable, breakable girls and boys.

You fasten my seatbelt because it is the law.
In your two ton death trap I finally saw.
A piece of love in your face that bathed me in regret.
Then you drove me to places I'll never forget.

And we are so fragile,
And our cracking bones make noise,
And we are just,
Breakable, breakable, breakable girls and boys.

And we are so fragile,
And our cracking bones make noise,
And we are just,
Breakable, breakable, breakable girls-
Breakable, breakable, breakable girls-
Breakable, breakable, breakable girls and boys.

The Way I Am

If you were falling, then I would catch you.

You need a light, I'd find a match.

Cuz I love the way you say good morning.
And you take me the way I am.

If you are chilly, here take my sweater.
Your head is aching, I'll make it better.

Cuz I love the way you call me baby.
And you take me the way I am.

I'd buy you Rogaine if you start losing all your hair.
Sew on patches to all you tear.

Cuz I love you more than I could ever promise.
And you take me the way I am.
You take me the way I am.
You take me the way I am.

- Ingrid Michaelson -

megalophobia

and life continues to slap you in the face.

advertising finals

梦游

孙燕姿：： 梦游

穿过时光机器
我一定可以再遇见你
循着钢琴声
找到你迷惑的神情
不够高的身影
计算着与梦想的差距
看你努力奔跑
但是终点在哪里

未来总很神秘
有暴风雨
也有好天气
你曾经可以选择
轻易放弃

感谢你没有忘记
做你自己

跌倒时受的伤
在我身上
有相同痕迹
发现我的笑容
成长在你哭泣里

未来会很神奇
会经历爱
也学会期待
虽然有很多怀疑
你不明白

幸福的答案
我也还没解开

约定好醒来之后
要再次回到未来
陪我梦游



pressed a ear to my back
and heard the commotion of shatterings
and a scream for the lost of faith
held the frame
of my quiverings
never face to face
tip of my eyes
ends of my lips
you didnt see
you were always standing behind me
pressing a ear to my back
hearing the commotion of shatterings
and a scream for the lost of faith
holding the frame
of my quiverings.