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Movie Marathon

I had always wondered what its like to go for a movie marathon and I finally found out how it really was. Wednesdays has always been the best day for movie goers to go catch a movie. This would also account to a crowd of people who seem to think the same as we do. Initially, we had planned to watch "Troy" but it seems a pretty good idea to watch "A Day After Tomorrow" since it was going to open tonight and the timing couldn't be any more perfect for us. This was what I thought about the movie overall.

Troy

There has been a certain trend in Hollywood recently. Historical figures tend to cause any interest to many directors that a long list of them had or will be turned into an epic story which include pre-modern customes, extra large sets, beautiful scenery and enormous battle scene. It dawn upon me that "Troy" would be another big budgetted movie that would fit into that criteria. It was an interesting two and a half hour movie that didn't really impressed me entirely. It could be due to its pretty weak ending. I had seen better movies such as this before such as "Gladiator", "Patriot" and "Braveheart". Noticable editting cause certain scenes to be poorly portrayed. The battle scenes were messy as you could really catch a clear glimpse of a real fight. Eric Bana and Brad Pitt did quite a good job in their roles. However, Orlando Bloom yet again lowered his acting credibility with such a poor performance. There was certainly no charisma in his portrayal and it was back again to the bow and arrow, which seem like the only thing he know how to do best. Overall, it was a relatively okay movie that didn't had much to shout about except Achilles super move which I found pretty amazing.

The Day After Tomorrow

I had come with much low expectation of this movie only to see it because of its special effect but I guess I was blown away by the movie that also produce a relatively well written script and storyline. The whole movie was one of the few natural disaster movies that was believable. Maybe that is why the movie left me in awe and amazed by how well balance and believable the special effects that were generated for the massive flood, hailstorm, tornados and the freezing icy temperature. One of the thing that my friend commented and which I agree was that the storyline was very positive. It spoke about keeping our environment and world clean that would help save mankind from its doom. Besides that, there was also a lot of family values that was included in it as well such as a father travelling from one end to another to rescus his son whom he know not of whether he would be alive or not. The key thing to this movie would certainly be survival in situation that are not familiar off. It also portray how we should always be ready and not take things likely. Jack Hall was pretty surprise that his research of another ice age would happened in another 500 years and would not imagine to happened in his lifetime. There many unknown actors and actresses in this film not including Dennis Quid.

One of the new stars which I found pretty interesting to watch was a young actress by the name of Emmy Rossum who played Laura Chapman. She reminds me alot like Penelope Cruz but better.




It was surprisingly interesting that I didn't feel tired and worn out after sitting through almost more than 4 hours in the cinema. The only thing that was killing me at that time was the air-con which seem to put be in the scene of "The Day After Tomorrow". This could be due to my training back in the good old days sitting in front of the television for hours. Today would be pretty much as close as I could get to feel the number of hours some people who sat through watching the marathon for Lord of the Rings.

After the show, we headed down to Serdang to get a drink and at the same time to collect Desmond's change which he left the day before when we visited the mamak stall. Thank God the owner of the stall for being honest and keeping the money for us until we came to collect it.

My Band

This would be the day that I would be joining with my band mates to jam and see if we could strike a good chemistry to make it as a band in the coming Audio Warfare, the battle of the bands in MMU. The rain was pouring outside. It had never rain for quite some time. We gathered at Terry's crib for quick run through on the songs that we would be playing tonight. There I met Sunny, Don's Kajang accomplice. We made our way to Subang with our empty stomach hoping to catch a bite before our practice at 8. However, our decent journey there was halted by a massive jam in Subang. It was simply unimaginable to get stuck in a jam such as this when time seems to creep ever more nearer to 8. We made a few detour hoping to beat the traffic but our effort took a toll when Don and Sunny began to get emotional and "bombastic" words began to fly out of their mouth. The emo got even greater when we met an interesting man in his Volvo who had no clue whatsoever about road manners or should I say courtesy.

I was in the midst of an emo as well looking at that driver oblivious ignorance to other driver who were trying to make a quick exit as well. At that moment, I realised how easy it could be for me to say a swear word considering the scenario I was in and also feud by the swears that my driver and co-driver were putting across. It happened to me before and I know unnoticingly easy to not realise it until it has been spoken. I respect Terry who was sitting beside me who remain quiet even in such a situation. In situation such as this, it would be wise to remain quiet and not speak a thing or even contribute to what was already in place.

We finally made it through the jam and reach the De' Rhymmix studio at almost 8.30pm. Looking at the time, we decided to push our practice time later and grab a bite at the nearby mamak stall. This had prove a bad move for Don when his appetite for nasi lemak took a tool on his voice. Our practice began soon after. Terry on Bass, Roland on lead guitar and me on drums. We played around with some songs that we had initially decided to play with Puddle of Mudd "She Hates Me", Toxicity, Greenday "Basketcase" and Incubus "Talk Show". Besides that, we were filling in with some spontaneous melodic blues and jazz rhythmm that got us filling up our studio time. As a band, I would say that we merge in quite well. However, we had one big problem. Our vocalist. It seems that he couldn't bring across a single song on note or on time. I guess our numerous mocking and frank opinion did break his ego a little. He realised that he did suck at it. He blamed it on the nasi lemak though my opinion tend to differ as I had listen to him sing and it was never near the Kurt Cobain that he proclain he was.

This had indeed broke down all the pride that we could make it through this competition. I seriously came in just for the fun of it although winning would be an added advantage. It seems that the dream of making it is fading away. We had decided to meet up on Sunday and polish on the vocal skills and see whether we could pull this through. If it doesn't become any better, I guess we would be pulling out from this competition or find ourselves looking for another vocalist. He assure us that it would be all good in the hood by Sunday and only time will tell when we meet up again. I am not dissapointed by whether he could sing or not. Honestly, I would encourage him and believe that he could make it through. However, I guess sometimes overconfident tend to stab you right at the back without you realising what his you in the first place.

I made some new friends as I got into this band namely the guitarist Roland who is from Uniten, our judge for the night Sunny from UM and a girl by the name of Dee, whom I guess was Roland's gal. I found Dee pretty interesting as she looked kinda cool with interesting features and somewhat looked like Esther Wee. Besides, she is also a drummer as well. We were off to the nearest mamak which was Darussalam which seem to be another decorated mamak stall for the sole purpose of charging extra. It was quite an awkward situation to be in with people who smokes. I for one is someone who tend to have a bad perception on smokers in general. Never like the smell or the act all together. Other than that, girls who smokes tend to turn me off. Maybe it is because of the people whom I am normally with who are not smokers themselves. But, it hard to judge someone who puff a cigarette. There are people I know who are smokers that strike a very good character as well.

Fear of Being Alone

I realise today that I have the fear of being alone. It doesn't mean that I need someone to accompany me all the time. However, I realised that my fear would be falling into sin whenever I am alone. It seem to dawn upon me that being alone is the best time that temptation would hit me in the face. Not having people look or see what I am doing when I am alone seem to allow me to indulge into sin unknowingly. It is subtle yet real. I guess at times I feel a hypocrite in some ways. In another words, having 2 personalities in 2 different scenarios. I realised that I am far more aware of people when I am in the open and less aware of God when I am alone. Thoughts and actions seems to take a tumble that would cost guilt and low self esteem to take control. In the open, I strike out as one who is care free and strong in character. Alone, I have anxieties and fearful. How do I strike a balance and learn to live one life and not two? This is one area of my life that seem to need a breakthrough.