american senyoritas...

Because of its irritatingly semi-romantic but perfectly amusing unfolding, I have watched this film about three times in the last couple of weeks. The actors are stellar presences on screen but their portrayals of their respective characters in this wickedly funny flick are something I find very humorous yet engaging. Vicky Cristina Barcelona is a movie for keeps.



Two American girl friends, Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) decide to spend their summer in Barcelona. Vicky is a girl who is traditional and committed in her ways of love towards one person while Cristina is spontaneous and is willing to accept that suffering is a part of the neverending quest for love. Vicky is spurred by the love of Gaudi's art to pursue her studies of Catalan identity in Barcelona while Cristina is just out of a relationship and is in Spain to vacation...cruising, not knowing what she wants in life.

At an art exhibition they come across an artist, a painter, Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem) who is not only well-known for his paintings but more so for his messy divorce with his ex-wife Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz) which almost cost him his life too. The girls' interest in him was palpable even when they had never spoken to him. During dinner the two are approached by Juan Antonio and invited to come to Oviedo to sightsee, wine and dine and make love. Vicky finds his blunt approach to be atrocious while Cristina thinks his no-bullshit approach to be very acceptable.

Meeting the painter and spending time with him in Oviedo totally changes their lives. He was passionate about many things, and very very adept at dealing with beautiful women. Vicky, who at first skeptical towards Juan Antonio, begins to question her own beliefs and even finds herself emotionally attached to Juan Antonio. It was rather strange that it was she who first had sex with Juan Antonio as circumstance was rather unfavorable to Cristina dealing her with an ulcer when she was about to have sex with the Spanish painter.



When they come back to Barcelona Cristina, though, eventually gets around to dating Juan Antonio and they become an item. She also becomes attached to Maria Elena who after another suicidal episode has been taken in by Juan Antonio in the comfort of the home she used to share with him. The attachment between the two women becomes very physical and the three of them begin to share a rather mutual sexual relationship. When Cristina confides this phenomena to Vicky, Vicky suddenly finds her attachment to Juan Antonio, which she had been trying to subdue, resurface again.



The end of the story sees acceptance in the end at the cards fate has dealt them. Vicky accepts that she is destined to have a more traditional path of love and commitment with her fiance, Doug, while Cristina is as aimless as ever, after she has left the turmoil of Juan Antonio and Maria Elena.



I love movies like this which are have an itch to them. This itch is there because it wants us to pull for something to happen and yet it never does. I wanted Juan Antonio to sweep Vicky away on her feet but it doesn't happen and this immortalizes the movie. Penelope Cruz' acting, which by the way won her an Oscar best Supporting actress award, is just lunacy beyond comprehension which also serves as fodder for those hungering for comedy. Her Spanish and English cross-yakkings are hilarious and yet natural.

Somehow I could really connect with Vicky because although she tries to defy convention, she is held back in place by her own beliefs. She finds herself guilty whenever she does things which are so not her. She is torn inside because she knows she wants to do something but it is contradictory to the principles she hold in life.

I enjoyed the movie immensely for many things and more. It is a light comedy which tackles the emotional struggles many people have which they try to downplay because they think they are in control of their own lives but they helplessly know they're not. The realities of social acceptance and emotional freedom are illustrated in a rather blunt way in this movie which makes it a guaranteed fun watch.


PS thank you to these sites for the photos :)
http://blog.spout.com
http://slamonline.com/online/blogs/game-notes/2009/01/game-notes-pistons-at-wolves/

OMG.....

OH my God...is this my idol's face after the battering she took from Chris Brown?


ALL THE MORE REASON we DON'T WANT BOYFRIENDS HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

P.S. thanks Perez Hilton for the picture :)

a dimension one owns....

There is always a point in our everyday lives where we forget about everything and just long to remain in that particular dimension and think of little or nothing else. We always retreat to that moment each day for our own personal reasons. Resistance of a destructive thought, comfort for our battered ego, or refuge for our weary minds, meaningful forays into happier times? It doesn't matter. We long to retreat to that point in space because we reach a state of NO-THOUGHT or LITTLE THOUGHT.

My mindless space takes on flesh and reality when I am in the act of running. When I am running, whether listening to music or not, I just follow a path, lines on a track, or the borders of a field and as far as I am concerned that is the only thing that occuppies space in my thoughts. I have found this endeavor to be my solitary confinement but it is not a dark space of uncertainty with a single thin line of brightness against a dark unknown world. It is an instant where I can just blank myself from anything cerebral and trudge on following the white line, watching my shoes come down on the ground from an elevated perspective, wipe the beads of sweat occasionally from my face, shove my hair out of my face if its getting in my eyes' ways, adjust my ponytail, click on my player if I dont like the music because it's slowing me down with its melancholic tempo....


Occasionally tears might run down my face! I have no idea if it's sweat escaping the barricade of my brows and streaming through to my lashes and onto my eyes or if these are genuine products of emotional blockage cracking up because of the failure of my desistance to let myself go. But most often it's the unexpected smile that's often seen by an outsider because I have let a funny or trivial thought intrude my mind in my zone of BLANKNESS...

I intend to keep this habit of mine for a long time simply because it's a worthy sojourn into an unknown state of myself. I am sure and yet unsure of what I am going to think or what I'm not going to think and this in itself makes it such a valuable exercise for my exhausted mind. My being enters into a strange homeostasis which keeps everything in a healthy balance and doesn't allow waverings from any part of me whether it be physical or mental. You should find your own sanctum of SEDATION too people. Believe me it works for me and I know it will work for you...

DELISHHH LEONA!!!!

can't stop....can't stop.....can't stop.....can't stop LISTENING to thishhhhh :D

an apt song for the moment....

musings of an ex-birthday girl

i know i owe everyone a birthday blog!

Not that it's an absolute obligation for me really as my toasted brain rarely allows me to think these days..

But anyway my birthday was a pretty sad one...

As I would describe it whenever my friends asked me how it went and how my brief overseas birthday trip went...uneventful, nothing worth-writing, and even the lowest point of my life... thank God the last description never reached their ears...well it will now if they read this....

My personal life is in shambles. I am a confused creature right now. I don't know what the future has in store for me.

I used to love peanuts and adored him and worshipped him and gave my life to him literally but he hasn't been too forgiving towards me the past coupla weeks...

I guess I can really say what goes around comes around...I wasn't too nice anyway to someone just before my birthday last year when I broke his heart too...I am so sorry if you are reading this my Perth friend. You should be happy I have finally gotten what I deserve...it took a year but it did come....

And now peanuts keeps on coming back into my life eventhough I want him out of it badly. Calls me everywhere..my landline, my mobile, my mom's mobile....hell if our dog had a mobile I bet he would have been pestering him too....

I don't want him anymore. I'm disillusioned with his promises and thoughts and impatience and yearnings and did I mention promises? I'm tired of the sacrifices, and everything I've ever had to deal with because of him...

I don't think I'm cut out for a life of commitment. I swear I said somewhere in this blog I just want a short life for myself. Short like a butterfly's rather than long like a worm's. So why should I opt for a connection that will bind me to something right?

Please talk to me people. I am really at an all-time low. Look even if you curse me continually I don't care. I guess words will be enough to keep me sane, atrocious or not...

to slumber or not to slumber? AMAZING RACE ASIA 3

Are we going to see an episode where the "quit-when-tough" attitude is finally going to go out the window?

Let's see...


The infusion of commercialism into the race has been subtle but very incongruous. Of course any intelligent television outfit would see the benefit of sponsors to keep a show running. And the Amazing Race is not by any means gonna veer away from that belief.

The teams had to go into a Sony Style Electronics store to choose among a selection of one thousand CDs, place one inside a DVD player and see if the words "CORRECT (rest of the statement LOL)" would pop up on the television screen to be able to get their first clue.

This seemed easy enough if you have repetition, luck and patience at your side as key components in finishing. Luck was totally lacking though in the case of Ida And Tania who were almost ready to give up after they saw team after team leave the room. But they decided not to incur the four-hour penalty by just crawling through the mountains of CDs.

Luck only plays a certain percentage THOUGH in this tricky venture, patience would rather be a virtue a team wants to acquire here. This was why Mai and Oliver were stuck for hours inside the store until it closed at night time. And to think most of them came in at the opening hours of the store in the AM.

The Chinese guys Sam and Vince however created their own luck during the next couple of moments. The first to finish at the Sony Store, both of them were very lucky to face the ONLY ever Fast Forward in the Race. Fast Forward is a situation where both teams can bypass all the tasks and straight into the next Pit Stop by accomplishing something. This one dictated that they had to have tattooes to get the Fast Forward opportunity. With only a bit of hesitation they proceeded to the designated tattoo parlor afterwhich they proceeded to finish the race by being first at the pitstop naturally after finishing only one task!!!

Team Hong Kong seems to be a heavy favorite going into the final three as of speaking time :)

Many of the teams are stuck at the Sony establishment for some time while others will never get through.



Henry and Bernie are the next team to take on the next Road Block task of digging through a pile of coal inside a cart to retrieve a souvenir, a smallish coin. A Road Block requires only one teammate finish a job. This one requires Herculean proportions and Einstein-like precision because not only do you have to toil through the digging but you also have to be alert for the tiny souvenir in case you miss it and pile it among the rubble! Hahaha. But since A.D. and Fuzzie were present in the coal mine compound with Henry and Bernie, both teams decided to help each other by identifying the souvenir whoever finishes first.


Geoff and Tisha fought a lot while driving around looking for the Coal mine museum. Team Philippines appears to be crumbling emotionally because of Geoff's clear lack of patience and snappy ways. Like many of the teams that had become desperate with the problems brought about by directions in the map and with the confusing roads of Taiwan, they enlisted the help of a taxi eventually....

After digging through the dirt in the musem, the teams were faced with a Detour, Pick or Pail...



The Pick task dictates the players to bring out their precision and powers of estimation by picking up three stuffed toys inside a toy machine. First team to accomplish this would be able to get through to the next Pit Stop....



Unbelievably Mai and Oliver are still stuck at the Sony Style store sifting through the CDs from the very first task, and the mood is not jovial and energetic anymore. Trudging through the seemingly mountainous pile of CDs, they talk about giving up and incurring the four hour penalty....I was disheartened to see this scenario as the Thai team was among my favorites :(



Forward to the second task in the Detour, Pail required the team to go to the Grand Tong Temple to fill a bucket of water and then carry the pail through the stone steps to a monk waiting on top of the hill with his measuring stick to gage the correct amount needed. This was work reminiscent of a Bruce lee movie where the martial arts king carried two bucket loads of water through a flight of stairs towards the top of a temple as his apprentice duties dictated him. Eventhough this was not so easy for both women, Ida and Tania eventually labored at not spilling too much water while climbing through the steps. With a sigh of relief as the monk's stick indicated they had brought him just the right amount of water, they had just wisped through to the next pitstop.



The second team to finish HOURS later after Sam and Vince were Henry and Bernie and then A.D. and Fuzzie. Geoff and Tisha were fourth and Ida and Tania finished fifth.

The Thai team were never able to get out of the Sony Style Store. They relegated all their tasks to the next day and decided to sleep in their car with the hopes of renewed vigor in the morning.

But they never make it through to the store opening as host Allan Wu knocked them out of their exhausted slumber by waking them with a knock on their windows. He announced depressingly that all the teams had checked in so they would virtually be the last team to finish. They were eliminated from the race!

This signalled the end of the Thai team's quest for glory and it was a depressing way to end it....This quite astounded me because the Thai team was a young and rigorous tandem and were as "never-say-die" as any of the other teams left in the competition. This kind of behavior was so unlike them....

Ohhh now all of the Thais in the race are eliminated starting off with Pailin, the beauty queen in the third race and then now, Mai and Oliver....

A bad day for Thailand indeed on the fifth leg of the race!!!!!

transitions...

i am no stranger to change...

i have been through a lot of changes in my life, both physical, and mental, as well as in many aspects of my social and cultural upbringing...

the beautiful background in my blog suggests a new beginning for me...my blog has always been a barometer of the changes brought about by the windmills of time and fate in my life...it has always been reflective of my mood at the moment and my own sorrows and happinessses...and it has contained so many of my eccentricities as well as my momentarily relevant pursuits....

Aren't terminals the platform for the transportation of commodities and people and indirectly the stage for the movement of ideas from one place to another?

This is why I have chosen the sublime background of a terminal/subway station.

I feel that I am in a period of great transition and change which is why outwardly I have felt it is very relevant to utilize a background which symbolically stands for movement and dynamism...

I just want to remove the cobwebs that have prevented me from progressing and mobilizing my life into another dimension which is why I have started in no place like home...my own heart and soul...my blog...

Everyone's support has been superb for me and my arrival into such a segment of my life has been facilitated by people who have helped me tremendously with sound advice and unrelenting encouragement...

Goodbye old leaf...Hello to the new leaf of my life...

Note: i would like to thank the Dpreview.com website (which is one of my favorite website reviews on digital cameras) for letting me use the gorgeous picture as my background...

Hilarity!!!!

What we all wouldn't do for a moment of hilariousness!!!!

the usual suspect - Amazing Race Asia!!!

For the second leg in a row, it seems from almost the very beginning we could obviously pick the loser of this part of the race....

The contestants had to fly from Hue to Ho Chi Minh and then onto the country of Taiwan for their next set of tasks and the next pitstop. It was pretty disappointing as the airport in Hue was closed for the night therefore no outgoing flights were on course. Most of the contestants were on the same plane towards the Ho Chi Minh and then Taipei as the airport opened only at a certain time of day.

The minute they set foot on Taiwan, there were marked cars waiting for them outside the airport. Tisha was so happy the gears were on automatic LOL. They then had to drive to the capital city, Taipei, for their next set of tasks. Trouble sets in for the Indian team of Niroo and Kapil as they find themselves stuck with vehicular trouble as the keys to their car got stuck inside the ignition key. Tantrums arose as arguments over directions ensued. The father and son tandem threatened to just quit it right then and there but grudgingly trudged through the whole race ironically.

The rest of the teams found themselves facing a Detour. It is a point where they have to choose one among two tasks to make it through to the next destination. The two tasks are called, "Shoot it or Shape it." In "Shoot it" they need to take a picture of the Amazing Race Asia card inside a miniature museum. The catch is the card has also been miniaturized haha! So this is quite a task for those who do not want to strain their eye looking for the clue. "Shape it" is a task they have to do in the middle of the Rao He Street market where they have to make four forms out of pieces of a Chinese puzzle. Most of the teams opt for the Shoot It task while only A.D. and Fuzzie chose the Shape it task.

The teams after completing the task, had to go to the Institute of the Blind to decode their next clue. In Braille!!! The Braille system is a series of dots placed strategically together to indicate letters of the English alphabet. Surprisingly, most of the teams breeze through the task which is totally astounding to me! I suppose the Braille system would be better learned by people with sight rather than blind people??? LOL

After picking up the next clue, the Malaysian team of Ida and Tania are first on this part of the race to get to the Chinese restaurant where a Roadblock awaits them. This Roadblock designates only one teammate to accomplish the task. One of them has to eat a big bowl of a tofu dish. Seems easy enough except that this recipe has duck blood, fermented tofu and vegetables inside it. And the stink is overwhelming.

As Ida volunteers to sit down and feast on the dish LOL, she makes a fatal error of eating slowly whereas digesting the food faster would have been the easier route. The result is a tear-stricken, vomitting and agonized Ida after a coupla minutes plowing through the horrid dish! If there was a most genuine episode of suffering during the whole race it would have been this moment where Ida is just crying because of the foulness of what she was trying to consume and Tania was encouraging and motivating her companion to finish the whole disgusting bowl! The Chinese team from Hong Kong breezes through the whole task exclaiming that they weren't Chinese if they could not eat anything at all hahahaha Damn right!!! Almost a coupla hours later, Niroo and Kapil never finished the bowl and opted for the 4-hour penalty.

Not surprisingly and most well-deserved, Ida and Tania where the first to race to the pit-stop where their host Allan Wu and a pretty Chinese thing waited to greet them there. Sam and Vince are in next place with Mai and Oliver in third place. The last team as expected is Niroo and Kapil as they did not accomplish the Stinking Tofu task and therefore incurred the time penalty. Father is very quick to defend his son saying he is unable to compete mentally anymore.

Oh well even if Team Philippines finished second to the last, I hope they make it better in the next round!!!! Go Team Singapore and Thailand!!!

no excuse pretty!!!

Amazing Race Episode 3

As cited in our last entry, there is no excuse for losing in this gruelling competition. Whether you look like a goddess or teach for a profession, you will lose fair and square if you don't make it to the pit stop...

Vietnam is a beautiful country and I was set to go there late in January until last minute plans were made which sidetracked me back to Singapore.

Our race teams start from the Museum of Vietnamese History in Hoh Chi Minh. They must catch a bus to their next destination Hue, in Central Vietnam. The deal is Hue is 1000 km away from Ho Chi Minh and the bus will take 25 hours to get there. In the confusion that was the purchasing of tickets, some teams misunderstood the bus cashiers saying 25 minutes or an hour and a half instead of the whole day journey ahead of them. Well they were just shell-shocked to find out how far it was.

The team's next task when they reached Hue was to change the tires and oil of the truck they were going to use while setting on about in their tasks while within Hue. Some of the teams set about doing the task like one two three as far as vehicle mechanical repair and maintenance are concerned while others lumbered in a flurry of grease, rust and heat from the metal tools due to exposure from the overhead sun.

As far as I'm concerned Natalie and Pailin seemed to be the teams on the losing end because Natalie expressed her exhaustion and discouragement at what the competition had thrown her way so far. Even while Pailin was asking her to help with replacing one tire, Natalie was like dropping her shoulders and showing her lack of motivation. Pailin even had to tell her to at least try in a really disconcerted tone.

The teams then drove to Khai Dhin tomb where their next task was found. The next task, a Road Block, where only one teammate can operate while the other stands by does not prove helpful for the two beauty queens again. The task to be completed is to look for seven coins from a neighboring tomb called Minh Mang tomb. The coins represent each of the seven emperors that ruled the Nguyen dynasty. The catch is they have to arrange the coins in chronological order in the Khai Dhin tomb with respect to the reign of each emperor. Natalie wanted to uplift her team's mood so she volunteered for the task but it took her another trip to the other tomb to try and finish what she was doing and eventually the fact that she gave up gave their team a penalty of four hours!!!

In the end of course because of this penalty their team lost. I guess so many of the Natalie and Pailin fans were distressed at their loss but even half-way across the show Natalie's attitude sucked big time and her lack of motivation almost delayed the inevitable anyway....Pailin did not hide her discouragement at their loss. She said it takes two to make a team float so she could never quite understand why Natalie did not even try...and it's sad too because of course their superstar looks make the show more interesting although I'm sure the competition will continue to thrive without them...

Onwards to the next episode and good luck to team Singapore, Philippines and Mai and Oliver LOLOLOL !!!!

(Thank you AXN asia official website for the photos!!!)

The Race!!!

The past few weeks I have been absorbed by this reality show, The Amazing Race Asian version Season 3 on AXN! I could never seem to watch the initial primetime showing every Thursdays but by hell they replay it more than four times during the week so it's easy enough to keep track hehe...And the best thing is the action and excitement never diminishes even if you watch it on the last replay...oh well unless somebody who watched the earlier shows tells me who gets eliminated LOLOL

The Amazing Race is a hit reality TV show which features a series of races through different landmarks in several countries in Asia। The beauty of this show is that it not only features various spots in a particular country but it also highlights and incorporates the culturality of a particular nation into the tasks needed to be accomplished within the race। The teams have to reach a pit stop to win a particular race series. One by one, the teams that finish last in getting to a pit stop get eliminated until the final three left go into the final race. The series are held all over different nations.

The race factors in obstacles that have been part and parcel of the show। With such interesting terms such as Road Blocks, Fast Forwards, Yields, Intersections and Detours, these obstacles are sure to throw in numerous twists and turns to the race। The show is a hit coupled with a lot of drama, competition, intense excitement and tougher challenges for the 10 teams from all across Asia. The producers of this show have made sure that the challenges in the NEW season were designed to test the team's relationships as well as their make their strengths shine through. The contestants are chosen from all over Asia and usually the combinations are interesting. There are celebrity beauty queens, father and son teams, cousins, siblings and almost every gregarious pair which makes for the excitement of the encounters.

Look out for celebrities from your countries too! Models, actors, almost anyone with a name could be in the race and surprisingly enough even the occasional unknown personality could crop up in the interest of television edibleness :)। Actually the best part of the show is that everyone is equal, given the tasks they have to fulfill as well as the frustrations they have to undergo. There is no showbusiness, no beauty pageant and no drama act in the race for glory!!! This is the real beauty of this show...

The gorgeous Allan Wu hosts the show but his hosting leaves a lot to be desired although he is delectable enough for television and well every television show deserves an attractive face to banner it hehehe....

And of course the show will not be without these people...Here they are...Our contestants!!!

1) Pailin Rungratanasunthorn and Natalie Glebova - tested and tried beauty queens as Pailin is a Miss Thailand Universe runner-up and Glebova won the Miss Universe of 2005 for her country Canada.

2) Bernie and Henry Chan - Siblings from Malaysia. Bernie is a model and hosted Project Runway Malaysia while her brother is a chef and restaurant ओव्नेर

3) Vince Matthew Chung and Samuel Wu - Hailing from Hong kong, Vince is a comedian show host and was once a teacher while Samuel is a top player of the word game Prolific.
4) Ida Nerina and Tania Khan - our second Malaysian team. Ida is an actress, director and producer while Tania is a property developer.

5) A.D. Chan and Faeza Sirajudin - describing themselves as colorful best girl friends from Singapore, A.D. is a freelance writer while Faeza (Fuzzie) is a teacher from Singapore. This pair is one of my favorite for the race simply because of their bubbly personalities!

6) Geoff Rodriguez and Tisha Silang - boyfriend and girlfriend from the Philippines, Geoff is a model while Tisha is a business development manager। They have been together for three years and says they are the classic example of "opposites attract." This is the second of my favorite pair because of Geoff har har

7) Visa (Mai) Sarasas and Oliver Faivre - male and female best buds from Thailand, Mai is an actress and a model while Oliver is a student and model from the Land of Smiles. This is my third favorite team because of OLIVERRRR लोलोल

8) Niroo Asrani and Kapil Asrani - Father and son team from India, Niroo is an actor and Kapil is an HR executive. They describe they connection as that of very good friends rather than father and son.

9) William and Isaac Hong - Football is the name of the game these two brothers are immersed in. But rather than playing the sport both of them are agents for football players in Korea. William also hosts football shows on Korean television.

10) Neena and Amit Rai - our second team from India, Neena is a model and an artist while her cousin Rai has his hands full in real estate consultation.

Since I started writing about this race just now I will start with Episode no। 4 in my next blog entry. Teams no. 1, 9 and 10 have already been eliminated :) Beauty queens are not respected in this race haha and the sheer gruesome schedule as well as temperature-soaring conditions have taken their toll on these three teams. But the rest of the surviving contestants will rock on and I will be there to follow their quests for the ultimate prize, the honor of winning Amazing Race Asia Season 3 as well as many remunerations which the show's sponsors and producers have provided !!! Good luck guys (particularly Team Philippines LOLOL)

(thank you to the official site of Amazing Race Asia AXN for the photos!!!)

charisse!!!

i know im probably too late about voicing how impressed how I am with this Filipina considering she is now world-famous but this obscure karaoke random performance coupled with the pounding of the carpenter's nails on their walls completely just stopped my heart!!! hahaha!!!

Well I've always been one to look for a unique way to look at an artist including which parts of her impress me hehehe

This is probably her FIRST performance that has truly stopped me and kept me clicking rewind hehehe