|
dan jendela pun berbisik...
"Life is not about what you've gained, but what you've done" - Wong Ka Kui (1962 - 1993)
"I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it" - The Friends of Voltaire, 1906
"A dirty mind is a terrible thing to waste" - Anonymous
"If you read, you will judge" - Kurt Cobain
last modified Mar 17, 2005 at 0:17
champion of EUROPE? champion my arse. i am so disappointed with liverpool right now. i dont think it's too early to predict liverpool's chance to win the league title after only two games. what is the difference between last season's liverpool and the current liverpool? NOTHING! it's the same old Reds.
am i too harsh on liverpool? i dont think so. many football pundits believed that the liv-chelsea clash in the first round of the Champions League group G was poetic justice. to chelsea fans, it's a time for revenge while liverpool fans think it's a time to prove that garcia's goal last season wasnt a fluke.
judging from the previous three games, both liv and chelsea were not impressive. two ordinary teams with nothing special to offer their fans. i hope rafa benitez can come out with a great tactical flexibility for liverpool's sake. we can play catenaccio with chelsea. why not, they are doing the same thing. but with essien, shaun-wright-phillip and robben fighting for their place in the squad, chelsea might have the advantage of having overzealous players compared to liverpool. i wanted to believe that if wigan could do it, why not the Reds.
imo, liverpool is still depending too much on stevie G. as for cisse, i am so disappointed with him. he can run like hell mind you but that was all he did. as for scoring a goal, that was another matter. i dont know why liverpool strikers have troubled scoring. what's the point of being a striker if you cant shoot? the unconvincing win against the newly promoted Sunderland and a lacklustre game with 'Boro' were indication that benitez need to change his tactic or something. i dont know what, i am not the manager. he has to think of something and do it fast.
i dont understand why morientes failed to score with liverpool. when he was on loan to monaco from real madrid two seasons ago, he wasted no time in becoming the highest scorer in the champions league. there must have been something wrong with liverpool if they failed to fully utilize the prolific striker's skill. he's practically a goal machine. benitez should change his game plan. it's been two seasons but he still couldnt quite grasp the EPL playing style and pace. i think the rest of the EPL teams can read liverpool game like an open book. benitez's obsession with spanish players cant be good for the team. i would prefer a team with at least one dutch and one brazil connection, not a spanish armada. that is not what liverpool is all about.
i dont understand benitez's reason for buying sissoko. he looks like another traore to me, all legs but no skill. i wish liverpool can find another hamman. imo, he is liverpool's anchor, the connecting dot between defenders and strikers. maybe alonso can be a good replacement for hamman. every football team need a 'hamman', a midfielder that fans rarely see but he is actually the engineer of the game. phew!
again benitez had gone for a shopping spree all summer but most of the players he bought came from a "payless shop" ish! jahatnya aku. with all the money they received after winning the lucrative champions league title, benitez failed to buy even a single star player. while chelsea already crammed with "world star players" and still they manage to buy a couple more, all liverpool got was peter crouch. what crap!
liverpool's game with arsenal this weekend was postponed due to liverpool's uefa super cup match with cska moscow. i dont know what to expect from liverpool anymore, what with their erratic form and stuff. but for once, i wish they will prove the critics wrong, that's all i ask.
i went to the special screening of the seven swords at berjaya times Square yesterday. ok, so maybe i was the last person to watch it since the film had been out for almost a month but i dont care. i still want to rave and rave about it.
mr joe said the film was rubbished. well, i told him if he wanted to watch substance film, he was in the wrong room. it's a wuxia film or a kungfu flick. what did he expect? to each his own i guess.
i am a fan of chinese wuxia films since i was a child. i think i've watched almost hundred of em. i've watched once upon a time in china series countless times not to mention brigitte lin and jackie chan's old wuxia films. i am also a fan of two comic magazines Pedang Setiawan and Dewata Raya
i found that lots of chinese wuxia films are poetic. almost all of them are interwoven with chinese poetry and beautiful cinematography. and we all know how wonderful and beautiful chinese poetry is.
what i like about seven swords is its kungfu fighting is back to the old school style. ever since that crap ang lee's crouching tiger hidden dragon, the chinese wuxia films have never been the same. call me outdated or conservative but i just hate those effect that slowed the movement of the kungfu fighting. beauty and grace in motion konon. i mean, i dont want to watch a slow-mo kungfu fighting. i want a real, gritty, bloody and fast fight just like the fights in once a upon time in china. i am glad that tsui hark is directing again.
The story of Seven Swords is set in the 17th century, in which a new dynasty has been established by the conquering Man or Manchu. A new law, which bans people from practicing martial-art, is issued to crack down any rebellion. The bloodthirsty Fire-Wind (Sun Honglei) forms a private army to enforce the law for the new empire. He not only kills people violated the law but also targets at whoever he can find, because he is rewarded for every kill. While Fire-Wind’s gang is raiding a wedding ceremony, an old man shows up to stop them. He is outnumbered and badly wounded before barely escapes the hand of Fire-Wind’s men. On his way to Bowei Village, he meets Wu Yuanying (Charlie Yeung), daughter of the village master. In the fortified village, the old man warns the villagers about the coming of Fire-Wind’s army and then he is identified as Fu Qingzhu (Liu Kia-Liang), a cold-blooded police officer of the previous dynasty, with Fire-Wind as his right-hand man. Fu claims he has already given up killing but no one believes his story except Wu. At that night, Wu Yuanying persuades Han Zibang, the horse wrangler, to set Fu Qingzhu free. Following Fu’s suggestion, three of them travel to Mt. Heaven to seek help from Master Huiming (Ma Jingwu). In Mt. Heaven, Fu retrieves his sword he surrendered, Wu Yuanying and Han Zhibang each is received a sword, and Master Huiming’s four disciples, Chu Zhaonan (Donnie Yen), Yang Yuncong (Leon Lai), Mu Lang (Duncan Chow) and Xin Longzi （Tai Li-Wu）are ordered to help the people of Bowei Village. As the seven warriors ride out of Mt. Heaven, the legend of a band called the Seven Swords begins.
who cares if it was over the top and the plot was missing. it was supposed to be a four-hour film but they cut it into 2 and a half hours. i guess this isnt a movie for everyone. i want to watch the uncut version of seven swords, four hours of insane but glorious wuxia film. sigh! all seven swords are cool especially The Dragon. i love the sound the sword made every time the hero unsheathed it.
donnie yen is one of the best martial arts actors in the world in my humble opinion. i admired him in Iron Monkey and the only villain i love is him in once a upon a time in china 2. the best fight scene ever. hell, i couldnt wait to watch the uncut version and of course the rest of the six sequels. ambitiousnya tsui hark. can he do it? it's for him to know and for us to find out. good luck to him
Ballad on Climbing Youzhou Tower
Witness not the sages of the past,
Perceive not the wise of the future,
Reflecting on heaven and earth eternal,
Tears flowing down I lament in loneliness.
- by Chen Zi'ang
jumaat maghin aku hampir hanyut dan lemas di alam lautan. ikan-ikan comel menghurungi aku dan mengikut ke mana sahaja aku pergi. dunia laut yang penuh warna-warni membuatkan aku terpegun dengan kebesaran Tuhan. ikan-ikan pari menari-nari di hadapan dan di atas kepalaku tanpa henti seolah-olah mengejek aku yang tidak tahu berenang ini. ah! cantik sungguh kamu.
tiba-tiba jerung-jerung bergigi tajam yang sedang kelaparan datang mengejar aku. mereka bergerak sepantas kilat, tidak sempat aku mengelak. kuda-kuda laut yang bergantungan di batu karang, tertunduk-tunduk mentertawakan aku yang kebingungan. belut-belut berwarna-warni dan cantik pula menyembunyikan diri bila ternampak aku. hanya ikan kerapu gergasi yang memahami aku. kejinakkannya dan kemanjaannya menyentuh hati aku. ingin saja aku peluk badannya yang gemuk berisi tu.
batu karang indah berwarna-warni yang menjadi hiasan semulajadi alam laut terlalu berharga. kalau di darat, kita perlukan perabot-perabot indah untuk menghias rumah kita tapi di alam laut, semuanya telah tersedia. tidak perlu IKEA, hanya batu karang menjadi penyeri dan makanan kepada penghuni laut.
aku seperti tidak mahu meninggalkan dunia lautan ini. aku sudah jatuh cinta padanya. di sini, aku boleh lupakan segala masalah aku. tiada jerebu, tiada politik...tapi aku tidak tahu berenang. akhirnya, ikan-ikan itu hanya memerhatikan sahaja aku meninggalkan dunia mereka yang penuh dengan misteri.
dari air masin, aku membawa diri ke air tawar dan disambut pula oleh arapaima gergasi yang mungkin sekali libas boleh membuat aku jatuh pengsan. ikan-ikan di sini kurang mesra membuatkan aku jadi serba-salah. dunia lautan terlalu luas dan apa yang aku lihat kelmarin hanyalah a glimpse of the underwater world.
aku kena realistik sebab hanya dengan cara ini aje aku dapat menikmati dunia lautan. aku tak mungkin dapat menjejakkan kaki ke dunia lautan yang sebenar. selagi aku tidak dapat menghilangkan rasa panik bila berada di dalam air, selagi itu aku tidak akan dapat menjenguk penghuni lautan.
jadi terima kasih aquria kerana membawa penghuni laut kepada aku instead of aku yang pergi ke sana. aquaria baru aje dibuka. jadi tak perlulah aku ke pulau sentosa setiap kali mahu melihat penghuni laut. kuala lumpur sekarang dah ada underwater world sendiri. pergi aje kat kl convention centre sebelah klcc tu. aquarium besar di tengah-tengah bandar kosmopolitan. ada jugak penghuni hutan hujan macam katak bertanduk yang sekali pandang macam sehelai daun kering. dia buat bulu roma aku meremang. tarantula dan ular pokok juga tidak mahu ketinggalan berkongsi dunia.
pengalaman yang aku tak akan dapat lupakan ialah memegang sand tiger shark. aku ingatkan mesti rasa macam pegang baldu tapi rupanya keras macam kayu. kuasa tuhan.
a lunch invitation from the muse and a clear blue sky really brightened my sunday. Over the last two weeks, KL had been engulfed by thick haze that choked and burn my lungs every time i tried to breathe the air. it gave me this ominous sense of impending doom and made me so depressed. i took a leave last friday just to get away from the erratic weather and the madness of the haze.
but staying alone at home on a working day wasn't much fun. i couldnt sit still, too much adrenaline i guess. i ended up cleaning almost the whole apartment. i mopped the living room, the kitchen, the balcony, my room and cleaned my bathroom too accompanied by all kind of musics from ottmar liebert to dewa to weezer to system of a down to bumiputra rockers to godsmack to audioslave to pink flyod, etc. etc. for a while there, i forgot about the haze, the stress and the pressure at work.
on saturday, i braved myself to go to class but to my surprise, the sky was clear again. I never felt such relief to see the sun shining through the sky. I usually take the sun for granted and sometimes even complain about the heat but after that horrific haze, it’s a welcoming sight. I have missed so many classes since I changed my job. It cant be helped as most of the events are on Saturday. But I think my plucking has improved a lot. I still prefer finger plucking using the PIMA’s rule. Always remember the PIMA’s rule. P for the thumb (bass), I for the index finger, M for the middle finger and A for the ring finger. But sometimes we use our pinky for certain chord like dsus9. No guitar pick for me much to my teacher’s dismay. I do use pick sometimes esp when I played come as you are or the man who sold the world or xpdc’s semangat yang hilang. But I rarely practice now. But if I do practise, my wajib songs are oasis’s wonderwall, weezer’s butterfly, pearl jam’s last kiss, Denver’s leaving on a jet plane and beatles’s blackbird. Sheesh! It was so lame.
The Man united vs everton match kicked off the English premiere league 2005/06 season. But that was another story.
diy and I had lunch with the muse and a couple of writers at the restoran sri melaka, taman tun on Sunday. I got to know ash and sid at an event organised by the agency in kuching a few months ago and became fast friends. The lunch was our third meeting actually. I missed the potluck party at ash’ house last month. I guess we had so much in common and worked in the same circle. And we are all the same age and single except for sid who had just got a new boyfriend. She wanted to introduce him to us. The guy is not so bad I guess. I had a Cantonese yee mee and air bandung for lunch, what a stupid combination and a cendol for dessert. but what I really crave for is dim sum. Diy and I used to go to plaza damas for our dim sum. It’s been months since our last dim sum binge. Sigh!
It was raining cats and dogs outside but we didn’t care. Hujan rahmat tu. We were soaked to the bone by the time we reached our car. Pasang le heater kata diy. Kepala hotak kau. Hahaha…we went straight to central market after that. I wanted to buy some clothes, I havent buy any new clothes or even tudung for ages. there are only two shops that I go to whenever I am in central market. The mamak’s second-hand bookshop and snitches (where I buy most of skirts and blouses). Being the product of the 70’s, I was really into retro kind of skirts and blouse, almost ethnic. it’s disheartening to go to the shopping complex since the blouses there are mostly for women with size 8 or 10. so, I usually buy my clothes at the flea market in amcorp mall and mont kiara. it’s beautiful and you can bargain for the price. It’s cool.
Diy wanted to meet her sister behind the Kotaraya. I havent been to that area for months. That Sunday, we were surrounded by foreign workers, left and right. Apparently, it was their outing day but it was quite scary actually. Most of the time, I felt like I was in a time tunnel and those were the people that I met throughout my journey, something like that. I felt a bit disoriented at first, like I was in an alien world. sheesh! It’s not that they were bothering me or anything. they were minding their own business, hanging out with friends, probably gossiping about their bosses, laughing and sharing jokes. The saddest thing was they took a leak at the drain nearby in public as if it was nothing. My God, there were four or five of them taking a leak turning the area into an open public toilet. What could be grosser than that? No wonder the place smelled so terrible. I think that would be the last time I go there.
A few weeks ago, diy and I had watched bukak api. I thought I was an open minded kind of person you know. I mean, I’d watched various Spanish and bizarre French films. So I wasn’t the kind of person that would be shocked easily. but bukak api was really shockinglah. No wonder it was banned. It was too real to stomach even though you knew that was the reality. The film was too honest, too graphic and too harsh, the language especially. I kept reminding myself that this film was half documentary. But it was really good. I think people should watch the film.
As for Rockstar, JD rocks. But I don’t think he is suited for INXS. He is too volatile but a music genius in his own right.
aku rasa assignment hari ni adalah assignment paling bodoh yang bos aku pernah bagi. kerja sia2 yang membuang masa aku dengan rakan sepejabat aku.
ish! kan semalam kau yang beria-ia cakap event tu kita tak terlibatlah, tak payah tolong dia orang lah. habis tu kenapa hari ni kau suruh kita orang jadi spy leman pulak pergi tengok event tu ok ke tak. kan ke kerja budus tu namanya. karang kalau dia orang nampak kita ada kat situ, tak pasal2 kena ngata. bukannya dia orang tu tak kenal kita orang ni, dah le ofis sebelah-sebelah aje. Mr. D dgn Mr. Joe pun start le buat lawak cipan dia orang tu. siap ajar cara-cara nak mengendap, panggil kita orang charlie's angel lah bagai. aku nak marah pun tak boleh tengok gelagat dua lelaki yang tak berapa nak macho tu.
aku dgn shar pun dengan patuhnya pergi buat kerja budus tu. sampai aje kat shopping complex tu kita orang terus naik lif sampai tingkat 7 sebab event tu kat tingkat 6. yalah, spy kenalah nyorok-nyorok sikit, nanti pecah pulak rahsia. wah! dari celah-celah tiang tu kita orang meninjau progress yang berlaku kat event tu. nampak macam ok, media registration desk pun ada, goodie bags pun ada. sekarang ni nak tau press conference tu ok ke tak tapi nak tanya kat siapa ya. tapi kenalah tunggu the coast clear dulu sebab yang jaga meja tu kita orang kenal. lama jugak kita tunggu dia orang tu masuk dalam kedai.
ok shar, mari kita cuba bakat berlakon yang kita ada. konon! aku dengan shar pun pura-puralah lalu kat depan kedai tu. kebetulan ada salah seorang staf yang terlibat dengan event tu keluar. aku pun pura-puralah tanya kat dia pasal event tu. beria-ia aku berlakon, pada hal aku dah tak tahan nak gelak. shar tak guna tu dah pergi lari dulu tinggalkan aku sorang-sorang. kesian adik tu, dia pun beria-ia cerita kat aku. nasib baik dia tahu siapa vip yang datang. "ramai ke media datang dik?", aku pun tanyalah dengan cara yang begitu curious sekali. "tak ramailah kak", jawab adik tu. "akak tak nak masuk ke", dia tanya aku lagi. aku pun buat muka terperanjat dan menolak dengan penuh sopan santun.
ok shar, mission accomplished, tak payah susah-susah. last2, kita orang lepak kat starbucks minum the overpriced coffee. sambil merangka jawapan untuk diberikan kat bos bila balik ofis nanti, aku dengan shar pun pergilah window shopping sekejap. lepas tu, aku lepak kat borders, shar pergi shopping. tengok buku-buku baru dekat shelf tu, rasa nak menangis bila tengok harga-harganya. kalaulah aku ni banyak duitkan, mesti aku dah borong buku-buku kat situ. bulan ni tak boleh nak beli buku sebab bulan lepas aku dah berhabis RM100+++ beli buku. itu pun ada yang belum disentuh lagi. tapi ada satu buku tu tajuk dia Football Insult. sempat jugaklah aku baca tadi, best gila. buku kecik aje tapi harga dekat nak RM50. tah apa2 tah. tergelak2 aku baca. dekat-dekat pukul 12.30 baru aku dengan shar balik ofis. aku pun taiplah cerita ni sebab sakit hati sangat. terus tak ada mood nak habiskan artikel aku tu. terbengkalai macam tu aje.
aku sekarang ni tengah gila main lagu menghitung hari - kris dayanti. tiap-tiap malam aku main lagu tu. cikgu akulah punya pasal ni. minggu lepas, aku kata nak belajar lagu sleepwalker by wallflower tu. alih-alih dia ajar aku lagu menghitung hari pulak. nak belajar lagu alternative dapat lagu pop ballad pulak. belasah ajelah. esok aku nak belajar lagu apa ya!
ahad ni ada community shields. itu tanda musim bola dah nak start. Arsenal vs Chelsea. aku harap arsenal kalahkanlah chelsea tu. biar padan muka mourinho. dia tu setan ke manusia aku pun tak tau. dulu aku ingat sir alex tu manager yang paling jahat sekali kat muka bumi ni, rupanya ada lagi jahat dari dia. arrogant gila dia ni. mentang2lah second team kau tu lebih mahal compared to first team liverpool, arsenal dan man united, nak berlagak pulak. kalau kau terer sangat, cubalah menang treble season ni, baru aku nak respect. kita tengok ajelah nanti.
|