Les Miserables

Seeing the live show and the movie twice, fantastic. You need lots of tissues for this show.

If a Hard Rain's gonna Fall ..... it might be Time for the Cocteau Twins

Driving home at night in the rain with traffic. The sound of raindrops on the car. The flash of tail lights as cars whizz by, the glare of headlights as cars approach and disappear - all filtered through the rainwater on my windscreen. Glancing in the mirror at the lights behind.

The Cocteau Twins on the stereo.

I drove an extra hour just for this visual soundscape.

Behind Bars .....

Waiting can be such a difficult task.

With expectation in the heart, but anticipating disappointment. Looking forward to the future, hoping to leave the past behind.Wishing and hoping that all will turn out well ........................

I took this photo in a little court house in Shah Alam. The court handled civil and criminal cases. Some cases were frivolous and really rather a waste of the court's time. Others would lead to people spending time behind bars. The windows in the court house were not bars, they just reminded me of bars - and not the kinds with liquor.

I'm just glad I was there on a frivolous case. At least the time I wasted could be counted in hours instead of years.

the little man wears Shoes ...

14 months in and he wore shoes for the first time in his life yesterday. We've been holding it off as there was no necessity for him to wear shoes seeing as he had only been crawling, but I guess yesterday was as good a day as any.

Melody's Echo Chamber - lovely music, this ...

I haven't gone walkabout in looking for new music for the past few years, so what little falls into my lap is greatly appreciated. I'm not big on what passes for music with teenagers and the young-ish set nowadays but there is a motherlode of great music which exist on the fringes of the musical landscape - in the back lanes and the street corners - and most notably, on YouTube.

So the latest group to catch my ear is Melody's Echo Chamber with a slice of psychdelic soundscape.



Also, check out another one of their songs which immediately made me think of the Cocteau Twins - Endless Shore (here).

Boh Tea Plantation, Cameron Highlands

On a recent trip to Cameron Highlands, we frequented the Boh tea plantation again. But this time, with the benefit of hindsight, we only visited at close to 16:00 hrs. This way, we would avoid the traffic on our way out.

Unfortunately, 16:00 hrs was too late a time to go. We would have had a chance to wander around and see more if we had visited an hour earlier, but we were kinda busy with the strawberry scones at The Lord's Cafe.

 Proof that tea leaves can work as well as flowers as a way to a girl's heart ...

Still, I think that everybody enjoyed themselves. And at the end of the day, that's really all that matters when it comes to holidays.

say cheese !

Felix Baumgartner - 128,100 ft skydive. Wow !

He's been in the news. He must have caught a lot of imagination. To jump from that high - the mind boggles. Wow !

128,100 feet.
To dive from that high is already astounding. To achieve a maximum speed of Mach 1.24 ?



Let's not leave Red Bull out of this. Felix Baumgartner is faster than Sebastian Vettel.
Not. Even. Close.

Tan Hong Ming in love - the Petronas ad that nearly wasn't

I've been reading "How you know ?", a book written about famed Malaysian director/advertiser Yasmin Ahmad. There are snippets and insights into what seemed a pretty unique woman.

I was pleasantly surprised when I read that she had publicly given up her government scholarship once she found out that she got it partly because of her bumiputra status. In an age when taking what is rightfully mine - taking what I think should be mine (even if it isn't) - taking what is yours but I'm making it mine anyways - what Yasmin did is practically unheard of.

Then the bit about Tan Hong Ming in love -  the ad that was a Gold Winner at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in 2008 - and how they had already stopped filming Tan Hong Ming after he said that his best friend is a boy who wears a songkok. The entire final ad uses footage that was filmed simply to humour Tan Hong Ming, who kept following them even after his bit was done. They put the camera on him and Yasmin asked "Do you have a girlfriend ?" and the rest of the ad flowed out. Totally unscripted. Quite amazing, when you think of it.

Ian Poults for the Ryder Cup at Medinah

"We've revised the qualifications (for the Ryder Cup). It's nine spots, two picks and Poults."
- Lee Westwood

4 for 4 this weekend. 12 of 15 overall record in the Ryder Cup.

You've got to hand it to Ian Poults. He may never win a major, and lots of people may not like him or his image or his character or his clothes -  but stick him in the Ryder Cup and the guy will roar like an English lion....  And bring his A+ game to back it up.

The Ryder Cup makes for compelling TV viewing. Strange to say since I don't watch any other golf programme or event on TV or video or anything, really. But I've watched the last two Ryder Cups and I can confirm that it is right up there in the top echelon of sports TV.

Maybe it's because golf is a game that piques my mind. The possibilities, variables, strategy and the need to translate all that into the physical ...... it's a game that I find interesting.

Maybe it's because the players and the crowd and the TV audience are so obviously keyed in. Maybe it's because there are 24 millionaire golfers who are essentially playing for pride and little else - sports in it's purest form. Maybe it's the excitement, tension, potential .... whatever it is, I'll be waiting for the next edition in two years time.

Thanks Andy for Moon River

That song Moon River has many points of reference for me.

That it first showed up in 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'. What a title for a movie !

That Audrey Hepburn was the first to sing it (here). Moon River has a romantic, romantic melody.

That it references Huckleberry Finn travelling down the Mississippi River. Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn were two of the books I read and remembered when young. There was quite a lot of Mark Twain when I was young.

And later, when I found out that Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini were the composers. Henry Mancini - the composer of the 'Pink Panther' theme !

But mostly, it was because I really liked the song. I've heard a few versions (including Morrisey's !) but the version that I've remembered is by Andy Williams. It's been there and thereabouts for a large part of my life.

For that, I thank you Andy. RIP.

Les Miserables ... coming to a cinema near you ..

I've seen it twice on stage - have the soundtrack and the video - and I'm still looking forward to the movie version.



Please, please, please ..... please ... don't suck.

turning One...

Cedric turned One earlier this month and the little man got to celebrate his birthday twice. Once at Cameron Highlands with his grandparents and uncle/aunty/cousin and once at home on the actual day itself. Nothing fancy - just a birthday cake. But it meant that he got his favourite thing i.e. Food.

I thought that it's a good time to mark where he is at this point of his life :

* He's got eight teeth.
* He can stand for maybe five seconds but that's about it. He's still crawling but we're in no rush to get him to walk.
* Despite the eclectic music played at home, his first favourite song is "Old McDonald had a farm". Sing the song and he'll do a head shake and a bum shake and since he's not very coordinated yet, it's quite a funny sight to see.
* He likes pulling things out - pretty much like any other baby.
* He's pretty much ready to eat any time. It means that he's constantly asking for food when we're having our meals. It's not particularly convenient when the food is not baby-friendly. I've fed him food with chilli a few times. He hasn't blinked.
* He's a pretty solemn baby. Getting him to smile and laugh isn't particularly easy.

He's pretty different from the girl in many respects, that much we know.As he grows up and reveals his interests, we'll get a better idea of how to channel them in the appropriate direction. At the moment, the only thing that he's shown any prolonged interest in is Food.