When Jabba Met Jack

Duets In December Snow with Reindeer and Rice

There's always something about a nice male-female duet that gets to me. It's always nice when you get a nice blend of male and female vocals blending together perfectly to form a harmony of song that just... flows seamlessly together.

Now, there are also duets that just don't seem to work for me, For instance, Boyz II Men and Mariah Carey's One Sweet Day may have been a huge hit, but personally I can't stand the way Carey 'yodels' throughout the song and tries to BREATHE her way through the verses instead of singing the song properly.

However, when a male and female vocal can blend seamlessly together, the song is usually a joy to listen to. Here are a couple of songs I'd been listening to recently that inspired this post...


1) Damien Rice & Lisa Hannigan (Ihe Blower's Daughter ,and 9 Crimes) - Hannigan and Rice's voices are just so compatible it hurts. When her voice comes on at the end of The Blower's Daughter, it's such a beautiful moment, and the way they trade verses on 9 Crimes (Aslo used in Shrek 3) is just so brilliantly haunting and sad...




2) Colin Meloy & Laura Veirs (on The Decemberists' Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)) - Everytime this song comes on I can't help but just hum along and bob my head. The lyrics themselves may read like a damn novel, but the combination of the Decemberists' vocalist Meloy and Veirs was good enough for me to go look for more of both singers' work almost immedietely after hearing this song.



3) Gary Lightbody & Martha Wainwright (on Snow Patrol's Set The Fire To the Third Bar) - this was easily one of the best songs on Snow Patrol's Eyes Open album. And yes, Martha is Rufus' sister.







4) Gary Lightbody & Jeena Reeve (on The Reindeer Section's Strike Me Down) - Another song that just bring s smile to your face when you hear it. Gary Lightbody's deeper vocals compliment Reeve's softer and higher tone just right, without sonding too out of place. I like.





Yes I know, lots of duets out there that I should mention. but I got no time to elaborate now. Why don't YOU tell me what your favorite duets are as well then?

Protection, Destruction, Transformation, Posterization

So there are new Transformers posters. And here they are:



I want.


PS: I combined the two posters and modified them a bit to fit my desktop. You want to see how they look like alone? Go HERE.

Zeppelin, Zephyr, Zephaniah

Yes yes, the title of this post is just to see how many cool words that start with 'Z' I could come with, because it has nothing to do with the post except that last word, which is the name of dreadlocked performance poet Benjamin Zephaniah.

Anyway, if you've never ever been to a poetry reading in your entire life, then now's a good time to start, because this cool dude is in town:



BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH

Date: Friday 30 March 2007
Venue: Room #3, The Gallery, Top Floor, Central Market Annexe, Kuala Lumpur
Time : 8.30p.m.
Admission: RM10 at the door, no reservations necessary.


After picking his mind for an hour in an interview this morning, I belatedly decided to catch his showcase at the KL Lit Fest later in the evening (there's another one tomorrow - Thursday morning - in Marmalade, Bangsar Village II) , and seriously, this guy is good. His show was like a cool mixture of rap, reggae, poetry, demonstration slogans and even stand-up comedy all rolled into one. If you thought all poetry readings were boring, go catch this guy, seriously.

Heck, he made ME wanna start writing poetry too. But judging from all the odd little poem-like thingies I have in this blog, I think I better stick to the day job.

Performance poetry never sounded this cool. Go watch him this Friday. Respek, dude.

Giving Left-Feet Transformers the Boot

GREAT. Just what we needed. Transformers toys that transform into shoes.



(All images taken from Tformers.com)



Yup, you saw right. Optimus Prime and Megatron are now SNEAKERS. NIKE shoes to be exact.

The best part is, get this, they are both LEFT sided shoes:



So what, they transform into the left side, and the right side magically appears like Optimus Prime's trailer?

That's not all. Apparently, these robots wear the exact same sneakers they transform into...



Sneaker wearing robots transforming into the very sneakers they are wearing on their feet? Sheer Genius...... NOT.

So, let's say this toy gets made into a cartoon. What's the story gonna be? A war of two left feet? Two robots fighting over the same kid's left foot? A bad dance competition? If it were a war between shoes, wouldn't it make more sense for one side to be Nike and the other to be Adidas or something else?

And imagine, if Optimus Prime and Megatron were two Nike shoes, what would their subordinates be? Would Grimlock be a Dutch wooden clog (kayu, geddit? oh never mind)? Bumblebee a Croc? Arcee as a Jimmy Choo? Mirage as a selipar jepun? Or maybe Soundwave could be a pair of Blue leather office shoes and the cassettes would transform into stockings...

And when those questions are answered, this begs the questions... WHAT THE HECK WOULD TRANSFORMING INTO A PAIR.. sorry, THE LEFT SIDE OF A PAIR OF SHOES ACCOMPLISH?

Transforming into cars, jets, radio and even animals made sense (to a certain extent). At least Spike and Sparkplug could hitch a ride. But transforming into shoes... Maybe they thought Spike needed a new pair of shoes. Or maybe he couldn't run fast enough. Or maybe his left foot needed a boost of speed.

What if Spike has athlete's foot? GAH! And there I was thinking making a Shitty Prime toy was already bad enough for Optimus Prime's reputation...

Sneaky Pirates At World's End Affecting Productivity

Quote of the day: "Did no one come to save me just because they missed me?"

This Trailer is FREAKING AWESOME:



(from coming soon.net)


Blasted "PLAY TRAILER AGAIN" button. It's wasted 30 minutes of my time, cut down on my productivity and made my anticipation for this damn movie even greater than before.

In one sentence: This trailer for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End is even better than the ENTIRE second movie.

After all, what could be better than an awesome swordfight between Jack and Davy atop a ship's mast, Chow Yun Fatt with a bad-ass scar, a brilliantly maniacal Captain Barbosa, pirate kings from FOUR corners of the Earth coming together, ships firing at each other while swirling around a whirlpool, and ALL OUT WAR involving pirates?

And Captain Jack Sparrow, of course.

The 'Welcome to Singapore' line almost made me gag though. I'm surprised our tourism board didn't pay the producers a huge ass amount of money to change it to 'Welcome to Malacca' instead, this being Visit Malaysia Year and all... ahaha. Then again, they probably spent most of their budget building ferris wheels already...

Anyway, this trailer has bumped POTC 3 up the list to the top of my most highly anticipated movies for 2007. If the movie is even half as awesomely cool as the trailer, then Spidey, Shrek, Optimus and gang will have their hands full trying to keep these pirates at bay.

BTW, if you want the trailer, go to Coming Soon.net or Fireangel's blog. I malas wanna embed here. hehe

Surreal With a Jacky In It

This dude is probably the closest person to a 'legend' whom I've ever had the privilege to talk to.

It's funny how life goes, you grow up idolising someone and singing his songs which formed such a big part of your life; and all of a sudden, you actually HAVE grown up and you're faced to faced with him, talking to him one on one, and trying to recall the last time you'd heard a new song of his while itching to hand him a CD to autograph, a CD that you'd only got a few hours before, and have not even heard yet.

This job is weird sometimes. Surreal.

Oh, and he's a real nice guy too.

Now, will someone get Faye Wong on the line for me?

And that's the closest I'll ever get to talking about what I do. So there.

Good Neon, Bad Fauna, and The Queen's Weekend

Four recently 'acquired' albums. I actually bought the CD for two of them, ok?



It's funny. A few months back I wouldn't have even HEARD of these four bands (ok, maybe I'd heard of Bloc Party), but thanks to the wonder of mp3 blogs (which admittedly are a rather hit and miss bunch as well), I've manaed to unearth a few bands that are admittedly pretty damn good.

I bought The Good The Bad and The Queen on impulse after reading about it somewhere about it being yet another of Damon Albarn's 'side projects'. I liked Blur. And Gorillaz was not bad. So I buy lor. I'm a sucker, I know. It took a few listens for me to get used to the sound of it. Then it takes a few more to wrap my head around the unconventional sounding songs (as compared to more... MOR songs, I mean); and then MORE listens to actually like some of the songs and for some of them to stick in myhead. I especially like the second song, 80's Life. The intro reminds me of the Penguins' Earth Angel. Weird.

Of Montreal's Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? is a different album altogether. Strange title, some strange songs, it's another album that needs more listens to grow on you. Unless you're already used to listening to indie pop of course. Me, I still have American Idiot and The Black Parade on rotation in my car, fer gods sake. Go figure.

Same goes for the next one. All the mp3 blogs and reviewers seem to be praising The Arcade Fire's Neon Bible to high heavens. Personally, I'm still trying to listen to it properly (beyond just having it as background music piped directly into my ear while I'm working), though I've already identified a few songs I kinda like. CAn't tell you which though, on account of it usually being background music piped directly into my ear while I'm working. Heh.

Keep The Car Running is pretty catchy though. And I especially like all the church choirs they use, especialy on Intervention.

And last but not least, Bloc Party's A Weekend in The City. It's the first album this year I've bought based on the strength of one or two songs. In fact, I Still Remember is the first song this year I've liked on the first listen (the intro riff is haunting), and The Prayer is a damn catchy song too. Ther rest of the album sounds a little similar at times, but overall, still a pretty good listen.

One Carmel Destroys A Week of Bucks

Two shots of espresso
+ Milk
+ One shot of Torani Caramel syrup
+ Ice Cubes

The ingredients for a regular Carmel-By-The-Sea, arguably the best drink on San Francisco Coffee's menu of drinks.

Thanks to a stack of free coupons, I'd been drinking Starblahs coffee for the past few days, and I'm sick of their coffee-clavoured sugar water drinks. Even their so-called 'Espresso Frappucino' had hardly any coffee in it. so... BLAH. Starblah indeed.

Imagine, despite having one or two A DAY for the past few days for a total of TEN free drinks from Starblahs in five days, all of those free drinks added up together did not have as great a caffeine kick as that one Carmel-By-the-Sea I had this morning.

Now THAT's a good coffee drink.

Change the Caramel syrup to Hazelnut, and it's even better.

I heart SF Coffee. And their loyalty cards. Whee!



PS: just discovered that the one in 1 Utama has closed. :-(
PSS: Suan, want more coupons?

Frank Mulling Over Miller

So yeah. You've seen the Sin City movie. You've seen 300 Spartans kicking ass.

Now go read Frank Miller's graphic novels...

-----------------------------------------------------

Favorite single book: The Dark Knight Returns



Definitely up there as one of my favorite all time Batman stories. Damn cool story, damn cool art.

Too bad about DK2 though...



Favorite series: Sin City

Of the seven books (The Hard Goodbye, A Dame to Kill For, The Big Fat Kill, That Yellow Bastard, Family Values, Hell and Back, and Booze, Babes and Bullets) my favorite was The Big Fat Kill, and Family Values. Because I like Miho. She's cool. Female ninja with bare boobs. Nice. And I especially like the way the spines of all the books combine to make a picture of Nancy. Like this, see....



Cool eh??



Coolest looking book: 300



It may not be the original comic books, and there may be a lot fewer pages than most books that are cheaper than this; but the gorgeous hardcover and the nice one page artwork (as opposed to the one in the comic which tended to span two seperate pages) makes this damn worth getting...




Worse book: The Dark Knight Strikes Again



The art is horrible and the story is all over the place. Don't bother buying this. EVER.


Books I haven't read but I might get:Ronin, & Batman: Year One



Because I'm a sucker for completing sets, that's why.

Who the heck is Pan anyway?

Hola!
Pan's Labyrinth.
Not a review.
Quite intense (in a I-thought-it-would-be-a-light-fantasy-film kinda way)
Quite heavy (in a definitely-not-for-kids kinda way)
Quite violent (in a very-graphic-and-cold-blooded kinda way)
Quite depressing. (in a gah-the-horrors-of-war-kill-me-now kinda way)
Quite gruesome (in a-ew-ew-blood-that-is-not-like-300 kinda way)
Quite confusing (in a All-Spanish-no-time-to-read-subtitles! kinda way)
Quite scary (in a I-scare-cold-blooded-and-cruel people kinda way)
Quite scary (in a I-scare-monsters-with-eyes-on-hands kinda way)
Quite angry-fying(in a someone-please-kill-the-cruel-man kinda way)
Quite cringing (in a gutted-like-a-pig-look-like-The-Joker kinda way)
Quit thought-provoking (in a whoa-deep!-read-between-the-lines! kinda way)
Quite cool (in a not-that-bad-what-the-effects kinda way)
A bit disappointing (in a hey-I-want-more-fantasy kinda way)
But quite good (in a cool-I-wanna-talk-to-someone-about-it kinda way)
A bit scary (in a check-out-this-scary-monster-pic-below kinda way)



This monster damn scary.
Creepy. Very creepy.
Creepier when he was not moving.
But still damn scary.
When it start moving I damn scared.
No eyes. Scary mouth.
Eyeballs on hands.
Which I think are very useful.
Provided you had REAL eyes as well though.
Then you wouldn't be holding your hands to your head all the time.
Looks a bit dumb.
But still damn scary.
I don't like scary monsters.
:-(

The Inanimate Object Movie

For want of more er... mind-stimulating and profound posts, here is yet another post inspired by yet another rather pointless conversation with the Angel on Fire.

How many of these inanimate objects are actually the titles of real movies?

The Table
The Stool
The Rock
The Gun
The Apple
The Cheap Souvenir
The Book
The Fountain
The Door
The Shoe
The Dust Bunny
The Smelly Sock
The Tuxedo
The Banana
The Dirty Towel
The Coffee Bean
The Cup
The Movie
The Piano
The Sword of Omens
The Ring
The Toothbrush
The Firm
The Chicken Chop
The Carpet
The Vacuum Cleaner
The Pen
The Net
The Wok
The Cell
The Plate
The Fishing Net
The Wig
The Blog
The Car
The Badminton Racquet
The Village
The Park
The Toilet Bowl
The Pacifier
The Computer
The Paperweight
The Rice Cooker
The Mask
The Wire
The Ship
The Kettle
The Blob
The Newspaper
The Time-Wasting Post
The Sucker

Nerina and Rachael Keep Up with Jones

If you hadn't noticed, I haven't had the mood to blog lately. No mood lar. Too much stress. Too much emo-ing. Too much tension. Not enough coffee. Not enough alcohol. Not enough sleep.

No mood to sing also, so I've been listening to some hot chicks with smooth, sultry voices singing nice slow, relaxing songs instead.




Quite smoking hot. Especially Nerina. Wish I could watch her in Mosaic.

Oh, I'm talking about the music. But the girls are hot too.

More later if I feel like it.

You Know It's a Slow News Day in Singapore when....

...the main headlines on the PRIME TIME news show are:

• The news that Singapore beat Brazil!!!!!! ..... in its bid to host an international dentists' convention
• They proudly announce that the local public transport authority has added TWO NEW BUS ROUTES to their network! Woot Woot!

Then again, it's better than yet another headline on rape/ murder/ flood/ accidents/ record-breaking-roti-canai etc etc etc...

Everything and Nothing in Particular

Free-writing. gonna write whatever comes to mind within this next ten minutes.
Am bored. Actually, I'm not. I'm just bored of writing.
No, I'm not bored of writing, I'm just not particularly motivated to write right now.
Actually I got a lot of things to blog about wan.
Always driving driving thinking thinking, WAH! MUST BLOG ABOUT THAT!
But by the time I open blogger and want to write, I damn malas oledi.
So never blog lor.
Ever wondered how long do you have to keep at something before you get sick of it?
See, I'm so tired of writing that I'm writing just to get back my will to write.
I'm not saying I'm sick of it right now. But I think I'll go for a holiday.
Yes, a holiday, by Jove! Not now. Maybe later. Now too busy.
I want to watch movies too. Dammit last week missed Mukhsin.
But at least I got to watch 300. Next week got Pan's Labyrinth samore. Syiok!
damn that reminds me. Must go kacau people for poster.
Oooo, Heroes 18 is available oledi. Download damn fast samore. Syiok!
Dexter also not bad. No, not that kid with big glasses and annoying sister DeeDee.
Dexter the TV show. About this serial killer who kills serial killers.
Damn violent. Damn morbid. But pretty damn good.
No House MD for another few weeks. Sien.
This free-writing shit is kicking in. It's addictive.
Ooo, postman is here, wonder If I got mail.
Then again, better not. Dowan to get rejection letter. :-(
Gah, no mood to work again. I think I go read a bit of Tintin first.
Tintin rocks. No, not Rintintin howthehellcanyounotknow Tintin????
Oh wait that's not my conversation.
Yeah, Tintin rocks. Captain Haddock damn annoying though.
Hellboy kicks ass too. And so does Constantine.
Wah the MPH sale I bought too many comics liao. Kenot finish reading.
Must read proper books also! Oh wait, I just finished one
Garth Nix rocks too. Lady Friday is great. Can't wait for Superior Saturday.
Okok, I think I go take a nap. Maybe I can work better after this.
Sleep!

The Creepy Black Spider and a Silver Dude

Because sometimes there is nothing I can say but.....


GODAMMIT GIVE ME THAT POSTER NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW!!!!






Am busy. This is an update. Deal with it.

Cute Susan and The Hogfather Hog the TV Screen

Why didn't anyone tell me there was a TV show about Hogfather???!?!?!???

Isn't that what blogs are for? so total strangers can just come up to my blog and tell me, "Hey, there's a TV show/movie/toy about Hogfather coming up!!!!!!!1111"!!!. Bah. I need more (helpful) readers. Hehe.

I didn't discover this until just now at Kino when I saw a strange cover of Hogfather, with a PICTURE of the actress who play's Susan Sto Helit in the show, and a blurb below it saying: NOW A MAJOR TV PRODUCTION!

NOOO!!! The 'Now a major motion picture/ TV show" syndrome has hit Pratchett as well!

Oh wait, that actress actually looks pretty cute. Who the heck is Michelle Dockery anyway?

Anyway, according to Wikipedia: Hogfather is a two-part television adaptation of the book of the same name by Terry Pratchett.... over Christmas 2006. .... it was the first live-action film adaptation of a Discworld novel.

Drat. Now I gotta go download the show. IF I can find it...

I wonder what other Pratchett books would be great for a movie/TV... (But that's another post...)

300 Spartans and One Awesome Bloodbath

300.
NOT A REVIEW!
THIS IS SPARTA!
Ooo, it's like the comic, but with actual FIGHTING!!
KILL! KILL! KILL!
fooyor, damn stylo-milo.
BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD!
Off with their heads!!!!
BOOBS! BOOBS!! (female ones!)
Damn, kena cut.
KILL! KILL!!! KILL!!!
Wait, isn't that Faramir?
FIGHT!!! FIGHT!!! FIGHT!!!
Woot! blood spraying in Slow-Mo!!!
Eh? Why suddenly go back to Sparta?
Bah stupid political subplot.
Bah, too much talking.
Bah, stupid dialogue.
Bah, demeaning the queen.
Who cares about those?
All we want is...
FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!!!
KILL! KILL! KILL!
BLOOD! BLOOD!! BLOOD!!!
CUT OFF THEIR HEADS!!!!
FIGHT!!! FIGHT!!!!
BLOOD!!! BLOOD!!!!
TONIGHT WE DINE IN HELL!!!!
YEAAAAH!!!!!