"Fix You"

I came across this song while catching up on "Glee" Season 3 and liked it straightaway. Coldplay's "Fix You" from their X&Y album (which I don't have).

Lyrics:

When you try your best, but you don't succeed

When you get what you want, but not what you need

When you feel so tired, but you can't sleep

Stuck in reverse

And the tears come streaming down your face

When you lose something you can't replace

When you love someone, but it goes to waste

Could it be worse?

Lights will guide you home

And ignite your bones

And I will try to fix you

And high up above or down below

When you're too in love to let it go

But if you never try you'll never know

Just what you're worth

Lights will guide you home

And ignite your bones

And I will try to fix you

Tears stream down on your face

When you lose something you cannot replace

Tears stream down on your face

And I...

Tears stream down on your face

I promise you I will learn from my mistakes

Tears stream down on your face

And I...

Lights will guide you home

And ignite your bones

And I will try to fix you

Some things left unsaid
leaves some things set to grate
To lead things into fate
of sorrow, hurt and pain

'Tis not the simplest task
to remedy what's been said
May daily hope and prayer
Be solace to ure fray

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

With a title like that, I would have missed the show if it weren't for Ewan McGregor. Although I am a little biased, having Ewan in the show (one of my favorite actors), I, surprisingly, enjoyed the show.

The movie is a romantic comedy about a fishery expert Fred (Ewan) who was unwillingly roped into introducing salmon fishing in the Yemen as commissioned by a wealthy sheikh (Amr Waked), which would benefit the British government as a goodwill (and profitable) act amidst some bad news on the Afghanistan war front. Emily Blunt plays Harriet, who is the representative for the sheikh, and whom Fred falls in love eventually. More of the story here.

I loved the humour, and Violet and I couldn't help laughing at many points in the show, especially Fred with his geekiness filled with sincerity. Kristin Scott Thomas was really funny too with her role as the PM's opportunistic press secretary, Patricia Maxwell.

I love to watch UK films which I feel has a different element...maybe it's the humour or a certain "smartness" to some of them. Or maybe it's the British accent. It's also been a while since we've heard Ewan with his Scottish accent onscreen, reminding us he's Scottish. Charming.

The Woman In Black

Good ol' suspense horror.

It's telling of the story was quite different from the play, and having been unable to finish the book, I can't make comparisons there. And by the way, I loved the play. One of my favourites...or else I wouldn't have made the effort to watch this.

From the early start of the movie, I could feel the suspense building. I began wondering, "shucks, why am I watching this alone, scaring myself", feeling a tinge of regret. Being flanked by couples on both sides didn't help. It would have been good to have some kind of company, even if it's a girlfriend (or a pet), but most of my friends don't watch horror, and it was an afternoon show. But of course, not to waste my ticket, I shouldered on.

Daniel Radcliffe, after Harry Potter, takes on another brooding role, but in a more mature capacity as Kipps. Having lost his wife not too long ago and having a last chance to prove himself in his career as a lawyer, Kipps takes on the role in handling the estate management of the late Alice Drablow out at Eel Marsh Manor. You can read the story here.

As I said, the whole atmosphere created by the show was pretty tense. And it was maintained for most part of the movie, and the terrible deaths of the children in the village were tragic. That wasn't in the play (or the book?). However, it didn't end as scarily, though it was inevitable, and tragic still. However, it looked like Kipps ended up in a better place where he and his son gets reunited with his wife.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

I found the opening very insightful and intriguing, about how we could build a land of the dead beneath the land of the living; skyscrapers underground (or should I say earthscrapers?) to house the dead. That kind of blew my mind a little coz I never thought of that, and I believe, gave us some perspective - the show was in reference to 9/11 and thinking of skyscrapers, you would think of the WTC.

The story focuses on a boy who had lost his father to 9/11. The boy seemed quite rude at times, but he has some anxiety issues, like being afraid of public spaces, afraid of sitting on swings, etc. The father tries to play games with him to get him to open up and they were very close. The movie shows how he goes in search of the lock to unlock when he finds a key he thought his father had left behind for him, but it was also a search for some kind of closure for him, trying to find his father again. It's very sad actually, because he was the one who heard his father's last words as he called home. But he froze. And he didn't tell anyone about it. I think it would have been very traumatising for any child to hear their father dying. He tortures himself by pinching himself till he bleeds. I understand that he hoped the physical pain will take away the pain inside his heart. The show was also when he finally became closer to his mother. It must have been really painful for her when he blurted out he wished she was the one who was gone instead of the father, but of course he regretted it.

I think the beauty of the show was the journey as he visited people the people, going by a last name he read on the key envelope. And how the mother actually went ahead of him to make it easier for him. And how finally the whole family came together eventually, even his estranged grandfather who returns and helps him in parts of the journey.

Mosaic Music Festival 2012

It's the annual Mosaic Fest and it's always great for me as I use it to explore more music. This year I bought tickets to 4 shows, so here's a rundown.

Architecture in Helsinki

Don't be misled by their name. They are actually from Australia. I must admit that their band name was the 1st thing that piqued my interest, but I did a quick listen of their music (as I always do when choosing shows to catch). Their 1st song had my friend and me remarking with "so retro!". A little bit of retro, a little indie Europop, AIH was light-hearted dance fare.


OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark)
They really rock. Even though they weren't actually my time, but this British synthpop band is still very much a hit that night. They had the crowd standing and dancing. Andy had some really strange dance moves with his hands, but it was funny. Hey! Imagine these guys are already 50 and the energy. Their songs did sound familiar...probably I've heard them on the radio, like "Dreaming". My personally favorite currently is "Talking Loud And Clear", thanks to my friend lending me their music, which they sang.
Oh, the lights design was great too.
(Sorry, no photos coz not allowed - in Esplanade Theatre)


Toe

Tickets for this were sure hard to get. I believe this was the only sold out gig at Mosaic, and I only managed to get tickets for the added show, which was sold out almost as quickly as the first release. Being the kiasu me, I bought 2 tickets, and only managed to persuade a girlfriend to come with me (who went with me to AIH). And she didn't regret it, nor did I. Their sound was by far one of the best of the shows I watched at the Mosaic Club (Theatre Studio) this festival and they were really into their music. Like my friend said, they were like in their own studio, totally immensed.
However, we did find the venue a little inappropriate as it was an instrumental performance (although math rock), so it would have been better if it were at the Recital Studio so that we could actually watch their playing.


Los Campesinos!

This was the last performance I caught at Mosaic. Well, the music wasn't too bad, but I found the singing rather off-key to me. But on the side, the percussionist had a great voice which we only managed to hear a little when he was backing a song...too bad he wasn't the lead.

~~~~~~~

So that's all for this year. Wonder who's coming next year?

What is Life?

A friend complained to me that she has "no life" these days because she has been so busy at work that it's basically work-home-work-home-work... for her, sometimes working late into the night in office. And she even works some more when she reaches home. It's partly because she's taken on a new managerial role and there's just so many things she needs to handle. Am happy for her that her wait to be recognised has finally come through, having eked it out for so many years in the organisation. However, I'm also worried that she might get burned out. I wished I could help her out, but all I can give is moral support. Hope she gets a good aide soon when the coming re-org takes effect. Also, I pray she gets her promotion soon, and with it a significant pay rise as she had reached the cap for her level for a few years already. Hopefully that happens this July.

Anyway, my purpose of this post was to ponder what do we mean by "life" then? Is it the activities we do, which in this case, seems to be life outside of work. But if your passion is your work, doesn't it make it "life"? How wonderful if one can do what you're passionate about at work. But sometimes, it might kill your passion though. Whatever. I think I'm contradicting myself.

Or really, is it about what's inside of you? You can have all the activities in the world to occupy you, but if you're "dead" inside, whatever you do is not going to bring you to "life" isn't it? Just a shell that's forever searching.

Another accident

Got into an accident this morning on my way to work. The car behind me didn't brake in time after I stopped and *bang!*. One side of my bumper drooped a little and there was a hole in my bumper. The guy had some damage too to the front of his car. As per normal procedure, we took photos and exchanged contacts.

The question is, how on earth did he manage to pierce a hole in my bumper? I didn't see any spikes in the front of his car.

Anyway, an assessment of the damage gave a cost of $1,000 for the repair, which was to change the bumper.

미남이시네요 (原来是美男啊 = You're/He's Beautiful = Minamishineyo)

I am generally not a big fan of Korean drama, and especially not 偶像剧 for all that matters. The no. of Korean drama series that I would consider "liking" can be counted on one hand. Not that I have anything against Korean series, but I always find them too draggy (think, Taiwanese drama). However, this particular series I recently got hooked on is a 16-episode series, which is considered short. And it's the first time I bothered to follow all episodes (even 《面包王》 didn't induce me to do so). Usually, I only start watching the later part of the series if I do get interested, but never follow all.
How did I know about the show? I happened to catch it showing on Channel U one night and decided to keep watching (also thanks to LeTV). I haven't actually finished it yet, but I don't know if I should look forward to that. Anyway, you can read about the storyline here.

Why do I like it? I also don't know. Maybe because it's light-hearted and fast-paced and the way it makes me laugh and cry. And I think it's also because of the music. Even though I don't understand Korean, they sound good to me...maybe that makes me try to feel the music more.
As for who I was rooting for? As sad as I was for Shin Woo (新禹) who's super nice and I would say maybe better-looking (tough fight, but maybe Tae Kyung (泰京) too "pretty"), I preferred Tae Kyung, the 嘴硬心软 one (I think I became a fan).

I don't know all the songs, but I've ordered the soundtrack through HMV. It's sold out, and being quite old (2009), hopefully there are still stocks available. So here are some highlights of the songs I like from the show.Hey, I learnt some Korean from the songs!

The theme song 여전히 ("依然"/Still)

말도 없이 (Without Words)

어떡하죠 (Otokajo/What Should I Do) Sounds so heartbreaking. Melt ah.

There are others too, like 약속 (約定=Promise), 바보라서 (因為是傻瓜=Song for a Fool) and "Goodbye".

I think I'm sounding crazy and it's quite unlike me. Who knows, maybe I'll get over this after a few weeks.

Tablo

No, I'm still not into the K-pop culture (not that I'm discriminating lah), but accompanying my friend to the YG Family concert while in Tokyo did make me notice Tablo (even though he ain't one of those pretty boys we see), of whom I like his songs. Though he mainly raps in his songs (which he composes), the songs in general are quite nice. It seems he has struggled a lot in getting to this point and he's a Stanford grad! Even though many have questioned whether that was true. You can read more about him on wikipedia.

Anyway, the songs I recall at the concert were "Tomorrow" (feat. Taeyang from Big Bang), "Bad" (sung with Bom from 2NE1 that night) and I think "Airbag" (with Gummy that night). I don't know what the songs are saying except for the English parts though.

Here's "Tomorrow":

Here's "Bad", though I don't really like the MV, coz too violent. I couldn't even bear watching it till the end.

I wonder if I can get his album (Fever's End) here. If not then I'll have to get it from iTunes. Hmm...it comes in 2 parts...are they sold separately?