Good Films

Son of Babylon

A movie filled with raw emotions, realism and utmost sorrow.

The Social Network

David Fincher is brilliant. He brought out the story in a fascinating, engaging and riveting style.

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Catchy Songs

Scissors Sisters - Fire with Fire

Love the vocals by Jake Shears and the musical arrangement.

Kylie Minogue - Get Outta My Way

This song has an addictive dance beat.

Maroon 5 - Give A Little More

Love the supremely catchy tune.

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Firework

Katy Perry - Firework

Love this music video by Katy Perry. Beautiful fireworks and story. And it is filmed in Budapest!

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The Town

The Town

Ben Affleck is talented! This film is tense, exciting, well written and well cast.

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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

A really good crime mystery thriller with fantastic performances from the leads.

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Good Movies

There have been quite a lot of good movies recently. Some notable ones are as follows.

The Crazies


Inception

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Off to Belgium

I'll be flying to Brussels for a work trip.

Will be back next Sunday. Thankfully the volcanic ash seemed to have stopped.

It had been a really hectic week. Work has been sucking away much of my life recently.

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Off to Penang

I'll be flying to Penang for a short weekend trip.

Back on Sunday.

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Off to KL

I'll be flying to KL for a 4 day course tomorrow. Back on Sat.

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Shutter Island

Shutter Island

Shutter Island is an eeriely effective psychological thriller.

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At least I rant in my blog

It totally irks me to see someone from my facebook friends commenting about their nationalistic views all the time. Everyone has their own opinion on things, why torture other people with your own biased views again and again?

I mean get a life. We all know that you dislike Singapore, what is the point of ranting your grouses all the time? It only makes other people dislike you more.

Even reporting news gets his ire, to quote one of his status messages "In ASEAN summit in Vietnam, the secretariat says "Thailand's situation is INTERNAL matter, so ASEAN will not interfere". Still, Singapore media keeps digging out this news (if not just reporting). So, is Singapore part of Thailand??"

I mean HELLO? You mean Singapore should not report riots in our neighbouring countries? Bangkok is one of Singaporeans' top tourist destinations and we are not going to report or comment on it? Sorry pal, it's not practical or intelligent not to report the news on the issue.

Is there a "delete friend" button on facebook?

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A Single Man

A Single Man Trailer

Colin Firth is truly magnificent in his role in the movie.

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Off to Japan

I will be flying off to Japan tonight for work.

Back next Thursday. :)

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Short Getaway

I will be leaving for Phuket tomorrow until Sunday. :)

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82nd Academy Award Nominations

Best Picture

• “Avatar” James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers
• “The Blind Side” Nominees to be determined
• “District 9” Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, Producers
• “An Education” Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers
• “The Hurt Locker” Nominees to be determined
• “Inglourious Basterds” Lawrence Bender, Producer
• “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, Producers
• “A Serious Man” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Producers
• “Up” Jonas Rivera, Producer
• “Up in the Air” Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, Producers

Actor in a Leading Role

• Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart”
• George Clooney in “Up in the Air”
• Colin Firth in “A Single Man”
• Morgan Freeman in “Invictus”
• Jeremy Renner in “The Hurt Locker”

Actor in a Supporting Role

• Matt Damon in “Invictus”
• Woody Harrelson in “The Messenger”
• Christopher Plummer in “The Last Station”
• Stanley Tucci in “The Lovely Bones”
• Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds”

Actress in a Leading Role

• Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side”
• Helen Mirren in “The Last Station”
• Carey Mulligan in “An Education”
• Gabourey Sidibe in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
• Meryl Streep in “Julie & Julia”

Actress in a Supporting Role

• Penélope Cruz in “Nine”
• Vera Farmiga in “Up in the Air”
• Maggie Gyllenhaal in “Crazy Heart”
• Anna Kendrick in “Up in the Air”
• Mo’Nique in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”

Animated Feature Film

• “Coraline” Henry Selick
• “Fantastic Mr. Fox” Wes Anderson
• “The Princess and the Frog” John Musker and Ron Clements
• “The Secret of Kells” Tomm Moore
• “Up” Pete Docter

Art Direction

• “Avatar” Art Direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Kim Sinclair
• “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” Art Direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro; Set Decoration: Caroline Smith
• “Nine” Art Direction: John Myhre; Set Decoration: Gordon Sim
• “Sherlock Holmes” Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
• “The Young Victoria” Art Direction: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Maggie Gray

Cinematography

• “Avatar” Mauro Fiore
• “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” Bruno Delbonnel
• “The Hurt Locker” Barry Ackroyd
• “Inglourious Basterds” Robert Richardson
• “The White Ribbon” Christian Berger

Costume Design

• “Bright Star” Janet Patterson
• “Coco before Chanel” Catherine Leterrier
• “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” Monique Prudhomme
• “Nine” Colleen Atwood
• “The Young Victoria” Sandy Powell

Directing

• “Avatar” James Cameron
• “The Hurt Locker” Kathryn Bigelow
• “Inglourious Basterds” Quentin Tarantino
• “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels
• “Up in the Air” Jason Reitman

Documentary (Feature)

• “Burma VJ” Anders Østergaard and Lise Lense-Møller
• “The Cove” Nominees to be determined
• “Food, Inc.” Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein
• “The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers” Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
• “Which Way Home” Rebecca Cammisa

Documentary (Short Subject)

• “China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province” Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill
• “The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner” Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher
• “The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant” Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
• “Music by Prudence” Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett
• “Rabbit à la Berlin” Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra

Film Editing

• “Avatar” Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron
• “District 9” Julian Clarke
• “The Hurt Locker” Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
• “Inglourious Basterds” Sally Menke
• “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Joe Klotz

Foreign Language Film

• “Ajami” Israel
• “El Secreto de Sus Ojos” Argentina
• “The Milk of Sorrow” Peru
• “Un Prophète” France
• “The White Ribbon” Germany

Makeup

• “Il Divo” Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano
• “Star Trek” Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow
• “The Young Victoria” Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore

Music (Original Score)

• “Avatar” James Horner
• “Fantastic Mr. Fox” Alexandre Desplat
• “The Hurt Locker” Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
• “Sherlock Holmes” Hans Zimmer
• “Up” Michael Giacchino

Music (Original Song)

• “Almost There” from “The Princess and the Frog” Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
• “Down in New Orleans” from “The Princess and the Frog” Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
• “Loin de Paname” from “Paris 36” Music by Reinhardt Wagner Lyric by Frank Thomas
• “Take It All” from “Nine” Music and Lyric by Maury Yeston
• “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from “Crazy Heart” Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Short Film (Animated)

• “French Roast” Fabrice O. Joubert
• “Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty” Nicky Phelan and Darragh O’Connell
• “The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)” Javier Recio Gracia
• “Logorama” Nicolas Schmerkin
• “A Matter of Loaf and Death” Nick Park

Short Film (Live Action)

• “The Door” Juanita Wilson and James Flynn
• “Instead of Abracadabra” Patrik Eklund and Mathias Fjellström
• “Kavi” Gregg Helvey
• “Miracle Fish” Luke Doolan and Drew Bailey
• “The New Tenants” Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson

Sound Editing

• “Avatar” Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle
• “The Hurt Locker” Paul N.J. Ottosson
• “Inglourious Basterds” Wylie Stateman
• “Star Trek” Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin
• “Up” Michael Silvers and Tom Myers

Sound Mixing

• “Avatar” Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson
• “The Hurt Locker” Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett
• “Inglourious Basterds” Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano
• “Star Trek” Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J. Devlin
• “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson

Visual Effects

• “Avatar” Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones
• “District 9” Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken
• “Star Trek” Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

• “District 9” Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
• “An Education” Screenplay by Nick Hornby
• “In the Loop” Screenplay by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche
• “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher
• “Up in the Air” Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner

Writing (Original Screenplay)

• “The Hurt Locker” Written by Mark Boal
• “Inglourious Basterds” Written by Quentin Tarantino
• “The Messenger” Written by Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman
• “A Serious Man” Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
• “Up” Screenplay by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Story by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy

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Interesting Traffic-related Quotes of the Day

"Sooner or later we will see passengers of SMRT found even on the roof of MRT."

"Omg just got off the bus at bugis to change to train. Got on the stop before bugis at 630 n by the time i got off the stop right after bugis it was 715.. Wats wrong with the traffic?!!"

I'm glad these people share the same thoughts as me. Is LTA even listening? I'm getting sick and tired of all the traffic jams everyday.

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I wonder why

Sometimes I do wonder why do Singapore get all the bashing from our neighbouring country folks.

Copied from someone's status messages from facebook.

1. From Thai diplomat in Singapore: Let Singapore enjoys their "I am better than you" pride and expressions, although, it may bother us sometime. At the end, we all know, what else can they do..... (Hmm, this is the most interesting diplomatic statement ever.)

2. From this news by Singapore ex-PM, there are two interpretations: (1) Singaporean worker is lazy and not productive (noted the word reply on "foreign" worker). Or, (2) to be good Singaporean, you must work hard like a robot..... Glad that I am Thai !! :-)

3. This is another news by Singapore PM. There is NO priority for "Quality of life". Sigh for Singaporeans.... Very glad and proud to be Thai again !! :-)

My thoughts are as follows...

I am wondering if someone can dislike a country so much, why is the person continuing to live and work here?

If Singapore was the size of China, would anyone be so obnoxious and post such biased statements?

Personally, I do not make such judgmental and presumptuous statements nor do I look down on my neighbouring countries.

I would prefer people to post such personal comments on their own blog instead of publishing such comments on other people's news feed in facebook, where people get "forced" to see such comments.

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Passed

Yes, I passed my ippt today! Almost got a silver but passing is good enough. :)

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Marchin On

Marchin On - One Republic

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