Oh yeah, 2 more...

Neil Gaiman's new book, The Graveyard book, which he describes as The Jungle book, but substitute the jungle with a graveyard. It's won a handful of awards, so I guess it must be good. Although for once I wasn't so excited over Dave McKean's cover. I kind of prefer the alternate cover(by another artist).

Also, this one I just found out about today. Flowers for Algernon. Apparently it's quite controversial and many have tried to ban it, especially in Canadian schools where it is studied by 9th graders. But the story sounds good and potentially heart breaking. A new medical procedure is discovered that can increase a person's IQ. This procedure is tested out on a mouse named Algernon, and after it is proven successful, it is used on a man with a very low IQ. It works, but the rate that the patient's IQ increases is uncontrollable, until the man is unable to connect with the people around him. Later, the mouse's IQ suddenly drops sharply, and it dies. The man's IQ regresses back to it's former level and he shuts himself off from the world.

I'm back at it again. Making lists of forms of entertainment. Because I like making lists. And I like discussing things that entertain me.

This time it's a list of books that sounds good, and I haven't read yet. If you have, probably you can give some comments about whether they are worthwhile reads. Most of them have won some award or other/are written by award winning authors/appear in online lists of 'best books'

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1)

OK, to start my list, the new book by Yann Martel (who wrote The Life of Pi)(incidentally Martel's birthday is 2 days from now, I found out on Wikipedia). Beatrice and Virgil, a story about a donkey and a monkey. And about the Holocaust. I suppose it's going to be something in Pi style, starting with a calm and simple background story, and then suddenly shocking you towards the end.

Incidentally, I found this short story by Yann Martel online as well. If you haven't read his books before, maybe it will be a good sample:

We ate the children last

2)

Next up, something that has been appearing regularly on lists of the best books of all time. A classic; Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. I know, it's a little bit dodgy, being a book about paedophillia. If I'm not mistaken I first heard about it from one of Amy Tan's books, where she talked about the beautiful writing style (no Amy Tan books on this list though. I like her stories, but they always make me feel angry towards men, so lets look for something less distressing) But I'm thinking if all else fails, I shall read this book while pretending that Lolita is a boy instead XD

On a side note, I'm surprised this book isn't banned in Malaysia. And Anne Rice's The Vampire Armand(no,actually all her books). Maybe they just ban books by the title or according to what mood they are in on that particular day *shrug*
3)

Moving on to what is called 'magic realism'(I learnt this from Wikipedia). Perfume, by Patrick Suskind(originally in German). The one that got turned into a movie, which I haven't watched. But the storyline sounds sadistically interesting. A man who is born without any body scent but having a strong sense of smell, murders women to collect their scent.

BTW is my list starting to sound a little bit dark? Oh well...

4)

A Hannibal Lecter novel. I haven't watched any of those movies, but anyways everyone seems to find them interesting, so maybe I should check out the novels. I think it is a series of 4 books.Silence of the lambs is the second one...but the title sticks the most. Psychological mystery kind of stuff. Interesting.
5)

Next up,a steampunk novel(Wikipedia improves my grasp of terminology). The Prestige, by Christopher Priest. It got made into a movie, which I am watching halfway. The original novel is a little bit different , but basically it's about 2 friends who are a stage magician's helpers, but later turn into fierce rivals when one of them accidentally kills the other's wife during a performance mistake.
6)

Last one, His Dark Materials series, by Philip Pullman. I just found out that the Golden Compass is part of this series. But anyway it's been a mainstay on lists of best fantasy novels, so it must be good.I'm usually a bit sceptical around lists of fantasy series since they mostly seem to revolve around knights and kings and all the rest of the royal cast, plus dragons. Sounds a bit too geeky and dry to me(especially if it's targeted at adults).But this looks promising.

I've come across another artist I should recommend
Julien Martinez

He makes modified ball joint dolls. I'm not sure how he does it, but i guess he buys ball joint dolls (exp: dollfie), modifies the shape with parts from other dolls and papier mache, sews the costumes on and paints them. But the workmanship and style looks pretty awesome. Mostly are neo-gothic/Victorian designs and pretty morbid, but pretty

Here's a fun looking project: Making sock monkeys. I first noticed these things catching on in popularity after seeing some of them in Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium. There was a stuffed animal with disproportionately long limbs in Hachiko too(it was for the dog). Of course it doesn't have to be a monkey...by changing the ears,it could be a cat or dog or whichever animal you like most, except with over-long limbs.

Someone from craftster.org also mentioned you can substitute the stuffing for rice, and make it like those things you throw into the microwave oven and later put in your bed for warmth on a cold day or if you have muscle aches. Only you have to make sure the materials used can stand heat and wont melt in your oven and kill you from food poisoning the next time you eat leftovers for dinner.



And then there are those with a sense of humour, who end up making something like the sock Obama. Oh well...everything seems to have Obama on it nowadays.
...or the Spock monkey
...or Mr T. Which doesn't look too huggable, but cracks me up.

Lately it's been a bit of a coincidence, but many movies that I watched for the first time or caught my attention the second time have been movies set in France. The directors come from various countries; America, Australia, France itself. Maybe for it's reputation as a romantic country, it lends a good background for cultural beauty or an opportunity to let your imagination run wild (although most people say fantasy and reality are 2 very different things, Japanese people even have a proper named disease for the culture shock they get when they tour France and find out that it's just as dirty and vulgar as every other country in the world-Paris syndrome)

OK, back to the main story, lets have a little collection of France-set movies, shall we?

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First up, Moulin Rouge! (yes, the title has an apostrophe in it)

I had to watch this movie I think 7 times a few terms ago, for research purposes. But I wouldn't mind watching it again. Directed by Baz Luhrmann, calling it lavish would be an understatement. The costumes and set design scream for attention in Art Noveau meets cabaret style. The soundtracks are famous for their combination of lots of popular songs to create new ones. If you've watched the movie, one of the words that could describe it best is:random. But unusually, this is a good thing. Maybe one of the things we need in cinema is some novelty. Moulin Rouge won 2 Oscars, one for Costume design and another for Art Direction.

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The next one up is Silk. I think this one has gone under the radar, or, I dunno...banned in Malaysia? But eventhough it starts Keira Knightly, I didn't know of it's existance until a few weeks ago. Actually it's set in both France and Japan, and tells the tale of a French silkwork smuggler who travels to Japan regularly for supplies, leaving his young wife alone for months on end, falling in love instead with a Japanese woman. The storyline was just ok for me...I found the sensuality attached to the Japanese woman unnecessary and confuses the plot a bit. But other than that, the set and costume design were wonderful. It doesn't make any pretense at the old world grandeur, but adopts the Japanese wabi-sabi ideology (I dunno if that was a conscious decision, but it turned out well). Old buildings were allowed to be crumbly, gardens were allowed to be overgrown, and it looked more beautiful for it.
As a side note, tho...I hate the tagline

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Next, a classic. The fabulous destiny of Amelie Poulain, or Amelie for short. The cinematography is excellent. I remember my lecturer showed us a clip from Amelie to illustrate exemplary camera coordination. It is a story about a girl who grew up with eccentric parents, thus making her friendless, but with an overactive imagination instead. Fittingly, you should watch out for the intro of the movie,which shows how Amelie viewed life as a little girl, and may remind some of you of how you saw the world as a child too. The music is composed by Yann Tiersen, whose style incorporates traditional French music. Check out his other works too.


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In my previous entry, I wrote about that little Reader's Digest book, and one of the authors in there was Paul Gallico. I liked his style of charming naivity, so I went on to watching a movie based on another one of his books;Lili, based on the book;Love of seven dolls.Filmed in 1953, it's a movie from back in the day, sans flashy modern special effects. I guess then they had to rely more heavily on the actors and how they could entertain the audience. So it was refreshing for me to watch an old classic, with song and dance, and somehow it was just as good or even better than the big budget stuff we are getting nowadays. So now i think i'm about to get hooked on old movies...I realised I haven't watched a great many of them. But meanwhile I'd recommend you to watch this one.(I doubt you'd find it in the stores in Malaysia, but you can always rely on Youtube*cough*)The story is about an awkward young woman who has come to the city to earn a living, but ends up working in a carnival when she finds out the baker she was looking for had passed away. There, she becomes infatuated with a womanising magician, ignoring the bad tempered puppeteer who gave her her job and had fallen in love with her.

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OK, and while we're still at it, lets throw in a Disney cartoon too(lol). Nothing much to say about the animation though. I remembered this one more for it's music. It's kind of strange for Disney to be producing a film as dark as Hunchback(something that critics love to chew on, Disney always painted everything in candy colours, and they threw out Tim Burton before he became famous, and now they want him back)With themes such as murder, lust and racism, it doesn't seem in line with the happy Disney brand.

But back to the music,the soundtrack was composed by Alan Menken (Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast,etc) and lyrics written by Stephen Schwartz (Pocahontas, Prince of Egypt,etc.) Somehow I thought the lyrics were beautiful. I've been playing the soundtrack looped on my iPod for awhile now. But most of all I thought Paul Kandel did a good job in the role of Clopin, the lead Gypsy. Here, a background in broadway really made a difference in singing and voice acting as opposed to a background in film. It's all about taking that extra step and not just singing well, but keeping in mind that it's really acting with one's voice alone.

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And lastly, notice the poll at the side? I plan to make it a permanent feature with various topics, so take part, check back for results and have fun!

I bought myself a new camera, at last.

Also, I bought it with my pay :)

Nikon Coolpix S3000. In pink as well, except that it looks nicer in real life that in the above pic. I was shuttling between thinking of buying a semi DSLR and a point and shoot, but got a point and shoot in the end because I'm too lazy to go into the technicalities of professional photography, or even pretend to. And also I'm too lazy and paranoid to carry around such a bulky camera.

So far the improvements over my old Casio camera is that it is even slimmer,has face detection(but I haven't tested if it's really beneficial) and records video with sound. I know...such layman qualifications, but I'll edit my photos in photoshop if I'm feeling artsy thank you. Faster and cheaper, thinks I.

So I think its time for me to open that uses manual. I've been putting it off for a little while. But here are a few for-fun pictures that I took with my new cam. The first 2 are edited in photoshop though.
Meanwhile I can tell you a little story about this book, which I bought at Pay less books' warehouse sale last Friday(it was on from Friday to Sunday, I would have recommended it for fans of David Baldacci and Danielle Steele, but other than that good books would be few and far between, after all it's 2nd hand for a reason)

The book in question is a Reader's Digest condensed novel, the 4th publication for 1974. At first the reason why I was draw to buy the book was because of the first short story in the book, The Boy Who Invented the Bubble Gun. I remember back in Primary school, I borrowed this book from one of my (at that time) closest of 2 friends. We've lost touch since then, but this book is like a little time capsule with memories of a much simpler life back then. The story itself was very good too, I still remembered the basic storyline(it was written by Paul Gallico, if you're curious), and coincidentally it was a naive story about a young inventor who travels across the country by himself to patent his invention, meeting several characters on the way and changing their lives.

But other than that, it was only after purchasing the book and bringing it back home did I realise how beautifully presented the book itself is. All the books in the RD condensed novels series are hard cover and leather bound with different motifs on their covers. It contains traditional media illustrations together with it's stories, true to typical RD fashion, but unusual for books targeted at adults. But it does lend a more personal and handmade feel somehow.All that's missing is the ribbon bookmark.
Hmm...ok, next are some pictures of the view from my condominium.
Malaysian style of raining,and a sunset.Its the same view, so you get how heavy the rain was.

Lately I've been going crazy over movie soundtracks. I guess it's something that is often overlooked(except for musicals of course), people see what's on the screen, they feel the atmosphere that is there, they might catch one or two soundtracks if they were made popular on the radio(and probably only if it's vocal), but generally they don't notice that background music.But what if you take away the sound, then suddenly you're left with this thing that might look nice but overall just lacks a bit of salt and spice.

Two of the most outstanding and popular composers for movies I think would be John Williams and Hans Zimmer. Probably you've heard their music before. John Williams has scored for movies such as the Star Wars and Harry Potter series of movies, Memoirs of a Geisha , Schindler's List and Fiddler on the Roof and has a long list of wins or nominations for Grammys, Emmys, Oscars and Golden Globes, being the second most nominated person for an Oscar after Walt Disney. This guy seems to be unable to do any wrong...Hans Zimmer has scored for movies such as The Pirates of the Carribean trilogy, The Lion King, The Da Vinci Code and The Dark Knight.Also another awards regular.

Hmm..now I'm wondering how much people like them earn per project...

Incidentally, I've found a really good list of soundtracks *ehem* if you know what I mean

here