Wooot!

Sorry for the long absence. Was away at camp till Tuesday (a camp where I thoroughly made a fool out of myself, ahem). Rested awhile and went a-walkin' to a few places so I didn't have the spur or the strength to post something. :P I know, I know, I'm a bad blogger!

Till then, enjoy this song which is currently stuck in my head at the mo. Ryan Tedder is amazing at lifting that chorus sky-high!

The Tourist, ala Moi

My previous post ended with me headdesk-ing (I still am, mentally) so naturally the wannabe Hollywood-put-righter (a secret imaginary position wherein a discreet individual such as I snoops around the movie industry, film noir-style, in her mindspace, to fix things we wish could be fixed in real life) in me would like to offer a few alternatives to the Johnny Depp-Angelina Jolie combo.

Not that they're bad actors. Far from it. Johnny Depp more so than Ms. Jolie. But from the trailer they seem like they had to be forced to belong together, ya know what I'm sayin'?

So with no further ado, allow me to present other combos which I think could make The Tourist more watchable, in my book.

If they're a pair of mature sophisticated individuals:

May I propose Ms. Marion Cotillard and Mr. Jon Hamm. (Actually, this would be my prime choice).

If they're a slightly kooky/exotic pair:

Mr. Ken Watanabe and Ms. Olga Kurylenko

And should the Mssrs. Hollywood executives want to young-ify the premise to appeal to the young 'uns:

Mr. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ms. Clémence Poésy

Notice how the female leads are all European? That's because THAT'S THE WAY IT SHOULD BE. There's only one room for an American expat in that movie and I'd prefer it to be The Tourist himself.

And notice how half of them are from Inception? Now THAT's a movie with great casting. 

What do you think? ^^

I Hate You, Hollywood

What seemed like a potentially great slow-burn thriller has been reduced to this:

Why Hollywood why?? *headdesk headdesk headdesk*

And seriously, trailer? Muse's 'Maps of the Problematique' is not meant to be used like this! My favourite song... butchered! T__T

Tunes That Are Stuck In My Head So Deep I Need to Post About Them To Get Them Out of My Head 1

Hello one and all and welcome to a brand new feature - column - thing that I'll be doing. It's called 'Tunes That Are Stuck In My Head So Deep I Need to Post About Them to Get Them Out of My Head'. And if I feel hardworking enough I may even attempt to analyse them!

But I post songs to every entry I make, you protest. But no, I shall reply, this is different. These songs are the ones that I need to get out of my system, while the other songs I post are to accompany the atmosphere of the entry, you see. :D (This is where you go 'ohhhhh' while still thinking that yep, I've lost my marbles).

The prototype of this column was the previous blog entry entitled 'Don't You Dare...' but that did not receive any response. Hmm. No matter, this is my blog and I shall do as I please. *yay*

Today's Tuneage is Belle & Sebastian - Piazza New York Catcher. I can't seem to stop accidentally hum it.

And I shall finish with a pic that hopefully fits the feel of the song...

Food for Thought 2

A few words to remember and live by... ;)

 

And now a song to leave you all with, hopefully at a cheerier and more inspired to get up and go (like Miss Zee did): 

An Old-Fashioned Musical, Anyone?

Reading about Moulin Rouge and recently watching 2005's King Kong and sudden bursting out into a She & Him song has just put a crazy idea into my head.

It's been awhile since the days of movies like Breakfast at Tiffany's, My Fair Lady, Singin' In the Rain, West Side Story and the like. Musicals with a simple story, a hero or/and heroine to root for, just that. So I have just got myself a crazy idea in my head for one!

*cue dramatic orchestra music*

It's the swinging fifties! A young, wide-eyed girl with a dream and a lovely but unusual voice packs up her bags and moves to New York City after her last living relative, her grandmama, passes away and leaves her with enough money to start small in the big city. Her dream is to sing and dance her heart out on Broadway. But with pesky investors, snobbish producers, demanding directors, and overreacting divas standing in her way, will she ever find the 'true heart's desire' that she wants deep inside?

*moar dramatic orchestra music*

And that's it! All kinds of corny, cheesy. Who shall I cast? :D

Why, none other than Miss Zooey Deschanel herself of course:

And what would a musical be without some romance? How about multiple love interests, all vying for Ms. Deschanel's attention. 8-D

Lee Pace

James Franco

Joseph Gordon-Levitt (duh!)

Shouldn't be too hard to figure out who Ms. Deschanel's character will choose, right? ;)

Oh for the day when I can write again~

Meanwhile, here's the cute little vid that inspired this silly wishful-thinking post: 

How can anyone say no to a whole-lotta Zooey-Joe goodness? >8-D

111th View!

To celebrate my measly 111th blog view... here are two of my recent fave videos (yay~!).

Warning: they're a little artsy fartsy, but who doesn't love STOP freaking MOTION?! :D

Oh and if anyone was wondering... the music for the first video is Yann Tiersen - Comptine d'un autre ete l'apres midi; and for the second video, Belle and Sebastian - Piazza, New York Catcher.

OBSESSED

I tell ya when I'm obsessed with something, I obsess over it real bad.

Really. Really. Bad.

Right now, I'm obsessing over these two innocent objects:

Deco panel beaded shift dress from Topshop. Retailing for 40GBP.

This amazing clutch from Asos. 26GBP.

So amazing. Embellished well enough so you don't need to add on any accessories. And of course I gotta find a pair of lovely heels to go with them... here's one:

Louboutin heels. 800.43GBP zomg

OMG... nooo... not gonna obsess about teh shoes.... NOT GONNA OBSESS ABOUT IT TOO.....! >.<''''

Thank you for putting up with annoying me. Here's a little song for y'all.

What the fuck was I thinking indeed... obsessing over girly things all of a sudden... T__T

If you empathise, or like the stuff I write about... erm... comment ya! You have no idea how much it would make my day. Even menial comments like 'eh', 'meh', or 'you suck'. At least I know that there are people who care about what I blab about. Or not... hmmm. Your choice. XP

Bass Down Low

I messed around with Photoshop today and came up with this lame graphic:

Inspired by The Cataracs' 'Bass Down Low', featuring the ever-awesome Dev. Hit the Play button below to find out why I'm so hooked onto that particular line in the chorus.

Submerge Your Senses

Looking at beautiful pictures of sceneries and close your eyes and imagine yourself standing there, looking at it. :D It's one of the best ways to travel without actually physically doing it. And it's inexpensive!

Does your brain sometimes link an image to a music and a video? I know mine does, sometimes. Today's submerge of senses involves this lovely pic:

And this lovely song:

Maybe it's the similarity of hues in the video? I dunno, but I love associating pictures and songs. Both of them combined is guaranteed to transport you to another place and time. Today I'll be spending the evening-in-my-mindspace on that dusky Brighton beach looking at the lights and sounds of the pier in awe while letting Vanilla Twilight wash over me~

Any submersive experience to share? Share it! :D

Les macarons et Paris

I've been seeing macarons just about everywhere lately! One way or another someone's blogging about the wonderful macarons they've had whether as a treat or at a wedding.

The famous Parisian macarons of Ladurée

 

Moar macarons.

Macarons from SoBinique's blog

Pretty macarons all in a row.

These look very darkly tempting...

And of course who can forget the jaw-droppingly awesome

macaron tower from Alix's wedding?

Look at the fireworks go!

Here's a yummy and very charming video by Louis Vuitton on where to find the best patisseries in Paris. <3 It's all in French, but I'm sure the love for pretty and droolworthy desserts transcends language barriers. ;)

City Guide Louis Vuitton - Paris from SoLab on Vimeo.

And of course you can't think about macarons without thinking about the city of its origin: Paris.

Now, just imagine yourself in a quaint, antique tearoom in Paris drenched in romantic dim yellow light with a plate of macarons and a dainty cup of strong espresso reading Guy de Maupassant while this plays in the background:

  

Madame Piaf, je vous adore~

Does anyone know where to get some in KL? If anyone has ever had a macaron before... let me know how it tastes like! They look just so darn temptingly yummy. And of course, I get to pretend that I got a slice of Parisian life just by tasting it~

Pictures from SoBinique

Ah Paris, je rêve de toi... <3

Rom Com is *snaps fingers*

Watching one rom com trailer after the next, I've become struck by how formulaic and (seemingly) easy it is to make a rom com movie. You put two attractive leads with no character flaw/a quirky character flaw opposite one another, add a few funny, less attractive friends, a nice locale (or a house, if your movie is not outdoors-oriented) and an accidental push into the same boat together (entirely by chance of course) and of course a happy ending, et voila, you've got yourself a typical 21st century rom com!

I can still remember when rom coms were fresh and a novelty (You've Got Mail, Notting Hill, My Best Friend's Wedding, When Harry Met Sally - funny how they all seem to involve either Meg Ryan or Julia Roberts). Now it seems that there's a new generic rom com out every few months or so, with every one of them feeling as tiresome and familiar as the one before it (Made of Honour, When in Rome, 27 Dresses, Leap Year, and so on and so forth). I think the only recent rom com that I truly enjoyed was (500) Days of Summer which went where no other rom com dared to go: the pain and bitterness of heartbreak. Another good untypical rom com is Dan in Real Life. Who knew Steve Carrell could play a mopey, reluctant rom com hero so well?

Since it seems mind-numbingly easy to do, let's see this disillusioned crackpot take a shot at it, shall we. I don't expect my take to be as good as (500) Days, but let's see if we can at least get it above the generic level...

A boy and a girl meet over the Internet. On a gaming forum to be precise. They live in different cities. To make things more complicated, both boy and girl are in their own relationships. Suddenly and serendipitously both boy and girl's relationships go awry and they need to escape. Girl decides to go on a road trip for the weekend and gets the serendipitously crazy idea to ask boy to come along (despite being so far away from one another, but hey, it's cinema).

So what's different from this one...? Let's see if 'expectations' will do the trick. In the forums she'd singled out his opinions as those belonging to someone who's a bit more culturally aware than the other forumers, and maybe she'd thought that he would be a pleasant distraction (yes this is naughty, but doesn't this urge happen to people in real life too? That's why relationships get wrecked). He expects her to be a geeky nerdy male (now they don't know each other's genders - that's entirely possible on a forum, no? ;P) with whom he just wants to hang out and do and talk guy stuff.

Then lordy oh lordy, they meet.

See thing is, boy isn't as bright as he sounds. He's the sort who thinks a little differently from the way he acts and speaks, which is incidentally like a typical selfish dude. And of course for she, she was supposed to be a BOY. The last thing he needed on his timeout with his girlfriend of three years is another girl to mess things up for him. And she isn't perfect either, she's pesky, fussy, a neat freak where he's sloppy and lazy. The road trip becomes a nightmare of sorts.

Oh how the cliches roll on one after another! I want so much to cliche-end this, but I dunno if I should. See I can mess things up by having them absolutely hate one another's guts and good riddance I know better than to trust Internet strangers and I'm so lucky to have my current boyfie/girlfie but... if this were to be a typical rom com they will end up falling in love and it's just a little unrealistic (or maybe not).

I'm more interested in which ending will give a sort of... I dunno, a closure that gives a little something for the people who watch it to take home with them when the movie ends. When (500) Days ended I felt as if I'd seen both the bright and the dark side of love and both have equal chances of happening to you and you need to accept it all if you want to let yourself fall in love. I don't want a happy, shiny, overly polished rom com the likes of Valentine's Day or The Ugly Truth, but at the same time I want my leads to end up happy without travelling the cliched, oh-they-end-up-falling-in-love trend. But if that were to happen then... this won't be a rom com but a buddy road trip movie!

Okay, so maybe it's not as easy as I thought. Respect for Marc Webb = Level Up!

I can't resist from doing a little casting, so very briefly, here goes. I have no idea who I should cast as the lead female... she has to be the sort of female in her 20s or 30s who can look both cynical and happy (this rules Amy Adams out... I can't imagine her to be cynical, the sweet little thing). Anne Hathaway has already been in some rom coms, Zooey Deschanel would only bring comparisons of (500) Days. Let's go the unusual casting route and pick... Sandra Oh! I love her snark. For the boy, I'm going to go for Sam Worthington, despite his penchant for being wooden. I don't get it - he was pretty good in Somersault. No signs of the Woodman anywhere till he got into Avatar. Anyhow he has the dumb jock kind of look that will make it interesting to see what will befall these (very weirdly paired) two. Second choice would be Elisabeth Moss. I love her in Mad Men and it'll be interesting to see how she would fare in a rom com. I know most people will want to go for either January Jones or Christina Hendricks but Miss Moss is just as good (and attractive) as the rest of them.

Here's a look at some upcoming rom coms (as a reward for bearing with my ramblings):

(Yes for Natalie Portman, but seriously, Ashton Kutcher?)

(Rachel McAdams is infectious)

(Sounds like it could be a little tragic..)

(Emma Stone is adorable!)

(This one actually looks like kind of good...?)

And of course a song to accompany the (nonexistent) trailer of this (nonexistent) movie idea:

So as usual, drop any ideas, whether you want to watch this or not, or if this is utterly rubbish (it probably is, anyhow), or if you have a great idea to end the story without getting anyone killed) into the comment box below. Thanks and peace outtt.

Don't You Dare...

... fall in love.

No particular reason for this post... just did it to get this song out of my head. Before you get any weird ideas, that picture is a lovely lovely pic and made it here out of its own virtue, and not because I have funny thoughts in my head.

Consider this as an ode to a summer long gone for those in the North, and for the South an anticipation of a great summer ahead. =)

What If You...

... woke up one day and had the powerful urge to just up and leave to start a new life somewhere else?

What if... after settling in a new place and finding yourself...

... you find out that you and everyone around you were actually dead?

This is an idea for a story that just popped into my head... basically it is as you have just read: a girl wakes up from her bed, decides randomly to leave her boyfriend and life (setting: London :P) and drive off to a little village to start over again.

What happens to her in that village, I haven't quite thought out, but basically she will be an outsider, a curiosity with a posh accent and she begins to fit in by befriending the locals. But she can never quite befriend anyone, per se. She loves her solitude but at the same time, she wants human connection.

Then suddenly one of her newfound friends decide to break it to her... *dun dun dun* that our protagonist has actually been dead for some time.

And actually, so is the entire village.

They are all unclaimed and lost souls who have either had too strong, earthly ties and could not (and they do not want to anyway) leave the earth, and so are doomed to spend the rest of their lives, unaging, in that ghost town. If one wanted to leave, then they must find their bodies, truly accept that they are dead and sever all ties and regrets they have for their previous life on earth.

If this was a movie I would cast Gemma Arterton as my protagonist:

Probably no love interest. Sorry Ms. Arterton.

The songs that inspired this (and the most likely ones I will use for its trailer... XP):

We Were Promised Jetpacks - Conductor

Martin Bjorck - Starcrossed Eyes

She & Him - Brand New Shoes


Frightened Rabbit - Swim Until You Can't See Land

And the soundtrack will be entirely The Caretaker (go youtube him up... all his stuff are AMAZING).

One of my faves. The Caretaker - Cloudy Since You Went Away

I know, I know, terribly cliched. So it'll probably never make it into a real story... unless you guys have any improvements/opinions you'd like to share. Don't be shy, if it's crap, just tell me (it probably is anyway).

GNAAAWWWHHH It Wasn't Supposed to Be Like This!

One of the longest (and biggest) gripes I've had about a movie ever since I found out that Goldberry and Tom Bombadil were not included in the Lord of the Rings trilogy of movies (booooooo Peter Jackson!) is about 2004's Alien vs. Predator.

Now I'd been looking forward to watching this ever since I saw the trailers because - well what's not to love: Aliens and Predators, some of the standout sci fi creatures to come from the 80s and 90s. And I was hyped up by the tagline. To me, it only meant a full-blown Alien-bloodbath.

I didn't expect the movie to have a solid plot with more twists and turns than the road up to Cameron Highlands, but the fight scenes between the Aliens and the Predator were well-executed. I actually enjoyed the movie a little bit. 

Then they had to throw that little plot device/twist whatever in: THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY IS MY FRIEND.

And suddenly the last human survivor in the group gets to kick Alien butt with a friggin' Predator.

*facepalm*

Ruined. Totally ruined.

Pardon me while I cleanse myself with these:

My Dearest Wish...

... is to see the world.

even if it means doing it alone.

Witness something atmospherically magical:

even if it's man-made.

So what are we waiting for? Let's pack up and get lost! ;P

Till next time...

Food for Thought

Once in awhile I come across a string of words a.k.a a phrase that makes me catch my breath and double-think.

Here's one for today:

Being someone who *takes a deeeeeeeeep deep breath* considers herself as having creative tendencies and is currently stuck on a path that is completely devoid of any, that really strikes a chord in me. I know many will tell me to "follow your dreams! fly! be free!" but truth is, I can't just drop everything and go, as much as I want to do that. I have responsibilities, expectations, yadda yadda, but the real fear for me is, I think, the fear of flying... and then falling SPLAT on my face.

Enough of the pessimism. Today was Antimicrobial Therapy I... it wasn't so good. Meh. But I have no regrets; like this picture says. I may have gotten at least 50% of the paper wrong... but I know I'd done stuff in its place to feed my soul's need for creative tendencies. =P

I'm pretty sure when I find out that I've failed this paper I won't be thinking so optimistically...

Meanwhile, here's a little vid. Sayonaraaa

My Name Is *insert name here* Hey Hello!

Welcome to my very own blawg! (I blame the totally awesome Kilplix for infecting me with this spelling).

Now you may all wonder why I have chosen to start a blawg in the midst of finals (Antimicrobial Therapy tomorrow...yay!) Truth is, I've given up... totally and utterly stuffed what I could while I could. Facebook is not a conducive place to vent (limited status characters). Twitter, takyah cakap. And I haven't been writing for aaaaages (real dinosaur ages). Hopefully keeping a blawg can make me interested in writing fiction again.

Story ideas abound in my head, running around and climbing cabinets and toppling lampstands and emptying pantries and smearing paint on the walls like unruly little children in Enid Blyton stories, but unfortunately this mummy here has not the strength to tame them all. May this blawg vest its authoritative power upon me to discipline them into useful peo- erm, productive ideas.

Just to give you an idea about the useless things I like to crap about: random stuff, food (zomg zomg NUTELLAAA and marmalade), music, movies, books, clothes, things that annoy me, and pharmacy-related stuff (you actually believe the last one? hahaha-ha-ha!).

So ok la, kalo nak baca, baca la... if not then buhbye, tenkiu for your time, and I'll see you when I see ya... or not. Bye!

Ni hah, your reward for stopping by: