World’s Finest

Warner Bros. is relaunching/rebooting/reintroducing the Superman franchise that will be much more darker than the previous movies. “We’re going to try to go dark to the extent that the characters allow it,” says Jeff Robinov, the president of Warner Bros. Pictures Group, who has definitely been inspired by how The Dark Knight, a dark take on Batman, has been making lots of money. I don’t think a dark Superman movie would guarantee a successful movie. I think the right word is ‘mature’ but I guess that’s what the Warner guys meant by ‘dark’ anyway…I hope . Relaunching the Superman franchise is just part of a larger plan involving the adaptation of other DC superheroes.

What Marvel is doing with their superheroes is giving Warner Bros. & DC a wake up call. Marvel has a great long term plan for their superhero franchise: Iron Man & Incredible Hulk (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2010), Captain America (2011) and finally The Avengers (2011), where the aforementioned superheroes unite (as hinted at the end of Iron Man and Incredible Hulk).

Meanwhile Warner/DC has been busy developing projects like…’Batman vs Superman’ or ‘Justice League’ I like Justice League but the project was simply rushed. Thankfully, they scrapped that and is now planning to follow the Marvel way; introducing individual characters in each movie, let them have their 2 hours of fame and then hopefully team them up for a Justice League movie.

Click ‘More’ to read about some of the superheroes that Warner/DC will probably adapt in the next three years:

Sinetron

In recent years, there’s a rise in popularity of satellite TV here in Brunei. Mostly (if not completely) due to the way it enables us to watch our favourite Indonesian channels. Nowadays, it’s normal for us Bruneians to have access to three different ’TV modes’ in a single household: the local Bruneian channel, the Malaysian Astro cable channel (eg.HBO, Cartoon Network, etc) and the satellite TV (receiving Indonesian channels). It’s usually a tug o war in my house between me wanting to watch cable channels and my mom with her Indonesian channels.

There are some good shows in the Indonesian channels and there are some bad ones. Then there are the “so-bad-it’s-good” ones . What’s interesting is that the shows that fit into this “so-bad-it’s-good” belong to the Sinetron genre, the type of shows that my mom loves to watch. What’s a Sinetron? It’s a short form of “Sinema Elektronik” (Electronic Cinema) and it’s basically an Indonesian version of Soap Opera. The main reason for why they fit into the “so-bad-it’s-good” category is that all of them share the same cliche that always makes me laugh whenever it shows up on screen. Here are the list of cliches of a Sinetron that I could remember:

The hero (usually a heroine) is soooooo good…like really really good, caring, noble…I mean all of the good qualities of human being magnified 1000x. She is soooo innocent to the point that she is very stupidly naive and get fooled by the bad guy every single second!!! This goes on till the very end of the series when the bad guy finally get his/her ass kicked by bad karma.

The moral of the story:When facing oppression, don’t stand up for yourself. Instead, just be patient and take all beating from the bad guy because one day she will get what she deserves. Maybe tomorow or in ten years but it will come eventually

Extra points: The good girl wears a head scarf and sweet looking. For maximum impact, reveal that she teaches children Quran reading as her part time job.

The bad guy (usually an evil bitch) is sooooo F***ing evil that she will do anything to get what she wants and make the good heroine suffer badly. There is one sinetron where the evil bitch got what she wanted (she gets to marry the heroine’s boyfriend) and yet she still continues to make the heroine’s life miserable by framing her for murder so she gets sent to jail. I mean she already got what she wanted! How f***ing evil can she be (and this is after the heroine admitted defeat and wish the evil bitch & her ex boyfriend good luck in their marriage). But don’t worry, the evil bitch got sent to the prison by the end of the series if I remember correctly.

The moral of the story:Being evil also equals to being smart. Try to be creative when you want to do some evil things to someone eg. frame someone for murder, ask a ‘bomoh‘ or a witch doctor for help to do the dirty job or claim that you were raped by the hero (usually a good looking guy who works at the mosque). And be a good liar too.

Extra points: The evil bitch is hot and sexy. And she must have bulging eyes! When she talks, her eyes keeps bulging (accompanied by dramatic music) to show how evil she is Hahaha. For maximum impact, have TWO evil bitches: the evil step mom and the evil hot/sexy bimbo daughter

A love triangle.The good guy and the bad guy out for the same girl or vice versa.

Random martial arts scene. Hero must know how to do martial arts moves. It’s also an opportunity for the director to try to do some exciting kinetic Matrix style fights. Even better, have a good looking pious man do martial arts with superpowers!

Evil shape shifting snakes. Usually locked in a battle with a badass pious man.

Big beautiful houses. One of the main highlight of an Indonesian tv series or movies is the way they showcase the big modern designed houses in Indonesia.

Comic relief characters: homosexuals, cross dressers, midgets. Any other characters who isn’t a good looking teenager are usually the ones that provides the comic relief. Besides, good looking teenage characters are busy with angst ridden love plot anyway….no time for humour. (BTW, a lot of teenage Indonesian stories now. What happened to those old Kadir & Doyok comedies or Sundel Bolong type of horror. Although I heard from many that Ayat2 Cinta is really good)

The title of the show is the name of the heroine. Sort of a trend these days…let me list down the names that I could remember: (Na)Dia, Suci, Intan, Candy, Mawar, Soleha and there’s a new one coming out during Ramadhan called Syarifah I think…forgot which channel.

We hear the voices inside the character’s head. Extra point: We hear the evil bitch’s plan (I know, the villain could be a guy but most of the time it’s a girl) through a voice over. Meanwhile, she smiles evilly and play with her eyes BUT nobody around her notice that she’s making evil facial expression!!! HAHA :-P

Longer than it should be. The series tend to drag and just frustrate the viewers. Probably because the producers or TV station stretched it out due to the success of the first few episodes.

***

That’s all I can come up with. Have any more ideas?

Beijing Olympic Closing Ceremony – random live thoughts

Update 25/08/08: Photos courtesy of ChicagoTribune.com

Just like what I did with the Opening Ceremony, I’m going to post some random thoughts as I’m watching the live telecast of the Closing Ceremony. I would be lying if I said that I’ve been following every events from this year’s Olympic games in last few weeks. All I know is that the Singapore Table Tennis team won Silver, Rafael Nadal won Gold for Tennis, Malaysia got Silver for Men’s Single Badminton, Jamaicans breaking records and China taking the rest of the Gold medals (except those that were obtained by Michael Phelps of course ). Anyway, the closing ceremony will start in about half and hour (BTW, I’m in Brunei so the Timezone is pretty much the same).

8:01pm: Here we go!! The raising of the Chinese Flag accompanied by the national anthem. A presentation on the big screen. A group of drummers wearing bicycle helmets (ok???!!). They get surrounded a larger group of girls forming a circular formation looking like the Sun. WOah two giant floating drums. FIREWORKS! CGI? hehe

8:12pm: Stupid commercial! A group of guys ‘cycling’ in a circular wheel enters the arena. The helmet guys are gone and out comes 200 bouncing men!! They seem to be wearing those special artificial leg that were always used for runners with disability. WTF Commercial again!

8:16pm: Flags of the participating countries arrive. I see East Timor, I see Spain, I see Trinidad, I see Swaziland. Since I was 5, I’ve always been fascinated with the world maps and countries so I’m familiar with the flags and the location of most of the countries in the world. Commercial….

8:25pm: The athletes comes out accompanied by a group of Chinese ladies in red drumming. And there’s also a young kid in the middle with a drum set. There’s also a little girl too…I think that’s the same one with the fake singing from the Opening ceremony.

8.36pm: Victory ceremony for the Marathon event. Kenya get a Gold,Morocco get a Silver and Ethiopia get a Bronze. It’s followed by a presentation for the athletes volunteers and children volunteers.

8.49pm:the raising of the Greek flag. Greece hosted the previous Olympic games in 2004. Speech by president of the Chinese Olympic committee and the President of the IOC.

8:59pm: Raising the UK flag accompanied by the familiar British national anthem, God Save the Queen.

9:03pm:The Olympic flag is lowered and the Chinese choir is singing the Olympic anthem. Out comes the Mayor of London. Mayor of Beijing is handing the Olympic flag to the Mayor of London. That’s a big flag…they carefully try not to aggressively wave it .

9:10pm:Haha The familiar double Decker London bus is here! Hmmm..I think this is a just a taste of what o expect for the opening ceremony at London in 2012; more of an Urban performance than the more traditional Chinese performance. The Double Decker bus transforms and out comes Leona Lewis and Led Zeppelin’s guitarist performing. Again, I think this is just a taste of what to expect from the opening ceremony of 2012 London games; a ceremony that is more like an ultra mega concert with various mega stars. Not saying that would be bad thing. OOOH DAVID BECKHAM!!! HAHA He kicked the ball and one lucky Chinese guy (one of the volunteers) catches it.

9:20pm What’s this? Three people climbing up the staircase like those that you see for aircrafts. They stopped and look at the giant torch. You see highlights from the games on the upper walls of the bird’s nest stadium. There’s also two half naked guys (painted in gray) in the middle of the arena doing some expressive body movement. Cue dramatic music followed with a Capella by Chinese girl and the flames from the torch disappears.

9:25pm: A large Babel tower like structure in the  middle of the arena covered with people dancing. A group of guys just ‘walked’ vertically up the tower and WOAH!! The guys hanging on the tower forms a red rose. Nice! The guys creates a human spiral thing around the tower. The tower is then covered with red sheets and…wow! umm…wow! those stripes of red sheet starts to float creating….wait wow Fireworks!!!…anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, those stripes of red sheet starts to float creating this web-like/spider-like formation around the tower…Ok maybe that’s not the best description. I will update this post with photos

9:32pm:Performance by various Chinese artists. Beijing, Beijing! Wo Ai Beijing! The song goes something like that. Is That RAIN?! The Korean singer who’s recently finding some fame in the US with a role in the movie Speed Racer and his “dance off” with Stephen Colbert.

9:36pm:a group of Chinese girls comes out and looks like they are lip synching a song but I don’t care about that :LOL: . Commercial again.

9.40pm:back from commercial and BAM! I see a George Lucas look like on screen! Haha This George Lucas look a like is singing an Opera song with a Chinese lady. Ok, a quick search and I found out that the George Lucas look a like is Placido Domingo, Spanish-Mexican Opera singer.

(Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images AsiaPac)

Another performance by various international artists with a group of performers floating in the air. Is that Gong Li?? Ok it’s not Hehe WTF Haha! Astro (Malaysian Cable Tv) keeps showing a lot of commercial. If I remember correctly, there weren’t that many commercial during he opening ceremony. Back to the ceremony and the arena is now suddenly crowded…see that’s why I hate commercial coz you miss stuff. The mascots are there; the guys are hanging around the tower; the different ethnic groups are there; …woah  wait…fireworks!!! MASSIVE!! Is this the fireworks to end all fireworks?

9.54pm: The ceremony officially ends but there are still fireworks. See ya in London

9:58pm: Wait, I heard that Jackie Chan was there…I didn’t see him! Oh well, that is what happen when you’re watching and typing at the same time or when there were commercials every minute So I guess that’s it! Time to change the channel…hmm…ooo, Apocalypto on StarMovies and it just started! Haven’t seen the movie so..yeah, I’m watching it now. Good night!

You may be interested in my post about the Opening Ceremony

Update 25/08/08: Photos courtesy of ChicagoTribune.com

Red Alert 3 cast revealed

The cast of Red Alert 3 has been revealed:

Courtesy of CNCNZ.com

Red Alert 3 is the latest game from the popular Command & Conquer franchise, a series known for its cheesy live action movies shown between missions to tell the story. In this installment:

…the desperate leadership of a doomed Soviet Union travels back in time to change history and restore the glory of Mother Russia. The time travel mission goes awry, creating an alternate timeline where technology has followed an entirely different evolution, a new superpower has been thrust on to the world stage, and World War III is raging. The Empire of the Rising Sun has risen in the East, making World War III a three-way struggle between the Soviets, the Allies, and the Empire with armies fielding wacky and wonderful weapons and technologies like Tesla coils, heavily armed War Blimps, teleportation, armored bears, intelligent dolphins, floating island fortresses, and transforming tanks.

From the trailer you can see:

• Evil Communist Russian with cheesy accent – played by Peter Stormare (Prison Break, Armageddon), Andrew Divoff (Patchy from LOST) and TIM CURRY!!
• The clueless US president – played by JK Simmons of Spiderman fame
• The old humble Allied General (Jonathan Pryce)
• Hot Communication Officers – Gemma Atkinson Ivana Milicevic (the bad guy’s gf in Casino Royale) and Kelly Hu (X-men2)
• Tanya (now blonde and played by…Jenny McCarthy )

With all the stuff mentioned above, you can be rest assured that the spirit of the old Red Alert games will be intact.

***

But nothing can beat this legendary cutscene from RED ALERT 2

 

I don’t give a wooden nickel about your legacy!!

Batman 3 – What I want to see

What lies Ahead

He’s the hero that Gotham deserves but not the one it needs right now. So we’ll hunt him. Because he can take it. Because he’s not a hero. He’s a silent guardian. A watchful protector. A Dark Knight.
- Gordon

There are two aspects that I think we need to think about that should give us a better picture of what to expect from the third movie.

• The Main Theme
• The Villains that relates to that theme.

Batman Begins was about Fear. It ties with the origin of Batman as we see Bruce Wayne overcome his fear of bats and eventually adopt the identity of Batman. The villains are related to this theme with Scarecrow using the fear toxin as his weapon of choice and Ra’s Al Ghul as the man who helped Bruce overcome his fears in the first place.

The Dark Knight was about Escalation or as Gordon puts it at end of the first movie, ”We start carrying semi-automatics, they buy automatics. We start wearing Kevlar, they buy armor-piercing rounds.” Batman’s crusade against the mobs becomes a double edged sword as it only creates more trouble. The epitome of this escalation is the Joker, the agent of chaos, who wants to bring Gotham’s citizens to their breaking point. Corresponding with the escalation theme is the rise of the idealistic Harvey Dent and his fall/transformation to Two Face.

Now comes the third movie and I have an idea for the possible theme of this one. Like how the theme of escalation was first hinted at the end of the first movie, the theme for Batman 3 was hinted during the final moments of The Dark Knight: The theme is Isolation. By the end of the second movie, Batman has finally become the Batman that we all know from the comics and the cartoons: a true outsider, a loner, the Dark Knight. He lost Rachel and Harvey Dent which means he lost his hope for a normal life. The police are chasing him thus he can’t work openly with Gordon anymore.

I expect a darker and grumpier Bruce Wayne as he starts getting a more pessimistic outlook on life yet can’t help to bring himself to stop fighting crime due to his hero complex (set this movie like 2-4 years after TDK to make it believable). And expect more detective work by the Dark Knight since he can’t rely on the GCPD now. Meanwhile, the cops are still hopeless in finding out the identity of the Batman (remember that scene early in TDK where the cop had Elvis as one of their suspected candidates for Batman). Just like how the mobs turned to the Joker in their desperate times, the cops also turned to “a man they don’t fully understand” for help.

Enter Edward Nigma aka The Riddler, a private detective/specialist hired by both the cops and the mobs (with both not knowing he works with them at the same time) to track down and find the identity of the Batman. He’s smart, a child prodigy, anti-social and highly obsessed with Batman especially with the dark knight’s detective skills. He finally find someone who can challenge him and is willing to do anything to achieve his goal, including creating an elaborate crime scene for Batman to solve.

Not only that, Batman has to face the idea that his privacy is being invaded as the Riddler slowly gets to know a lot of things about Batman (eg. Lucius Fox, batcave, identity). Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne starts dating Selina Kyle who leads a double life as the notorious thief, Catwoman. In the end Batman and Catwoman have to work together to stop the Riddler.

So how do all of this relates to the theme of isolation? In a way, the Riddler and Catwoman are the cure to Batman’s feeling of isolation. Following my idea that Riddler is a crazy Batman fanatic, I think he would probably leave clues/riddles that he knows ONLY Batman can solve and no one else. Therefore, Riddler would be the only one, aside from Alfred, who really understand Batman’s mindset. Unlike the Joker who just wants to mess with Batman’s head, the Riddler, or at least a version of him that I want to see in the next movie, wants to play games with him. In that way, Batman doesn’t feel isolated anymore.

As for Catwoman, well, that’s really obvious. Bruce Wayne is mysteriously drawn to Selina Kyle; she’s not Rachel Dawes yet she’s not like any of those other super models he flirts with. And Catwoman operates outside the law and enjoying it which is a perfect foil for Batman’s more serious attitude.

So yeah, I want the next movie to revolve around Batman’s growing isolation and how both the Riddler and Catwoman proves to be the answer to that problem (Batman is lonely and finds a new friend to play with & a new girlfriend). As for the casting of the two characters, I want Michael Emerson (Lost) as the Riddler and Carla Gugino (Sin City) for Catwoman. Meow!

The main reason why I think they should get Catwoman for the third one, aside from filling up the female character void left by Rachel Dawes, is that to the average folks she is one of the most instantly recognizable character from the Batman universe. One of the reason why Dark Knight is doing so well is because you have the most famous Batman villain, The Joker. I’m not saying that they shouldn’t put villains that haven’t been adapted to the big screen (eg. Clayface, Mad Hatter, Man Bat, etc) but if they want to draw a lot of people, Catwoman is their best chance. It’s also a chance to redeem the awful Halle Berry movie!!

So that’s what I want to see for the third movie. What do you think?

An Idiot…

Last night there was this idiot dribbling a basketball at the bowling alley and distracting other bowlers. Felt like throwing the F***ing bowling ball to his face!

Sorry for the Twitter like post hehe I was just trying to finish up another post about Batman 3 but I got writer’s block.

He’s one bad mother…SHUT YOUR MOUTH!

A Badass black guy walking + New York City + ultra cool music = A hell of a way to start your movie

Shaft (1971)

Who’s the black private dick that’s a sex machine to all the chicks?
SHAFT!!
Ya Damn Right!!

RIP Isaac Hayes (he was the guy who wrote/sing the theme song not the actor who played Shaft)

“I’m Not Wearing Hockey Pads!!”

If you thought that my review would be the last Dark Knight related post then think again :-p By now almost everyone on this planet have seen the movie which earned $609 million worldwide in about 20 days and the movie is seen by many to be the most likely candidate to dethrone Titanic off the Highest Grossing movie title.

What It Could’ve Been

“Wanna know how I got these scars?”
                                                      – Joker

Here’s a scan from The Official The Dark Knight Art Book. It’s one of the early concept for the Joker. I like what we have but damn~ just think about how freaky it could have been:

You can find more Joker concept art over at /Film

The Other Side of the Coin.

“I’m not wearing Hockey Pads!!”
                                              - Batman

Sick of hearing that the Dark Knight is a ‘Masterpiece’ or ‘the greatest crime epic ever’? If you’re one of those people who thought that the Dark Knight wasn’t the ‘Second Coming’ then you might be interested in this site: http://thedarkknightsucks.com/ which is self explanatory

Anyway, I want to offer my own criticism now that the my hype level is down and the shockwave that I had after watching the movie three weeks ago have died out (I’ve only seen it once! While everyone else have seen it hundreds of times…damn, I feel left out).

Here are some of the things that I annoyed me:

- Batman’s voice. I’m generally ok with his voice but when it comes to those long monologues like the end, you just kinda can’t take him seriously Hehe

- Speaking of Batman’s voice, there is this line in the beginning of the movie where Batman yelled, “I’m not wearing Hockey Pads!!” WTF The line has become a constant joke between me and my brother.

- After Batman saves Rachel from the fall, it just cuts to the next scene without showing what happened to the Joker after that. Did he just walk out party or something? Maybe a deleted scene in he DVD later.

- Speaking of deleted scene, what about the part after the Joker pissed off the man guarding him in the police station. Deleted scene? Maybe too violent for a PG-13? I have this wishful thinking that there is a scene involving the Joker using the hidden knife under his shoe and kick/stab the man on his balls

 - Why does Batman have to take the fall for the murder committed by Two Face? Why can’t they just put the blame on one of the mobs? I know it serves the story, you know, Batman is heroic because he sacrificed his reputation in order to preserve the image of hope for Gotham but still.

I’m actually planning to write about my thoughts on Batman 3 but I realize that it would make this post long. So I’ll leave that for the next post

I guess it’s ‘To Be Continue’ for now

Beijing Olympic 2008 – random live thoughts

Update 9/08/08: Photos courtesy of Boston.com

I have nothing else to do but watch the live telecast of the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Beijing on TV. I’m a bit late though because I was enjoying myself watching, out of all movie, Home Alone in another channel BTW, I’m in Brunei so the Timezone is pretty much the same therefore the time that I put are the same as the time in Beijing.

8.07 pm: Wow..the Olympics rings made of lights starts ‘floating’ in the air.

8.08 pm: A brave 9 year old girl in red singing (is that the national Anthem?) while kids dressed representing the 56 chinese ethnic group carrying the large flag of China. Kinda nice to see the costume of the different ethni groups. Flag raising ceremony. Ok nvm..this is the real national anthem of China. This is my first time hearing it..kinda short. Massive fireworks!

(update 13/8/08: There’s a big fuss about how it wasn’t the lil girl in red’s voice that’s singing but some other girl. Turned out this girl got replaced by the one we saw during the opening because she was much more cuter. I had two reaction when I read this piece 1) Duh!! I remember how it looked really obvious that the lil girl was lypsynching 2) So? It’s understandable, they needed the ceremony to be perfect. To achieve that, they not only just needed a perfect voice but also a perfect look (as in bleeding our eyes with the cuteness of little chinese girl)

8.13 pm: Massive glowing scroll in the middle of the stadium. Wow, ninja looking guys painting the scrolls while dancing/making expressive body movement. Really Graceful. This must be a pain in the ass to choreograph!

8.20 pm: Hundreds of Confucius look alikes carrying bamboos. A wave of blocks with Chinese characters. BTW, those blocks are being handled by humans not a machine which makes it more impressive. The blocks are now forming the famous Great Wall of China, easily the most recognizable landmarks in China. Haha! The guys who’ve been handling the blocks just revealed themselves and wave to the crowds and smiling. I just find it funny They seem to be enjoying themselves (What am I saying, of course they would be enjoying it, it’s the opening ceremony of the Olympics) .This is followed by a Peking Opera performance, if I’m not mistaken that’s what you call it. All dressed in Orange.

8.31pm: A lady dancing on top of a giant scroll being carried by a lot of people. Yes, she dance on top of a giant scroll! According to the commentator, the performance is about the history of the silk Road, a famous overland trade route across Eurasia. The tale of Marco Polo popularize the Silk Road. Now it’s about the maritime exploration. Pictures of Chinese pottery, majestic ships (like the one used by the famous chinese Muslim explorer, Cheng Ho) and there’s a man holding an ancient compass just one of the few amazing things that the Chinese civilization gave to the world. It’s kinda cool seeing how the wonders of Chinese civilzationor history have gained appreciation in recent decades. The world is beginning to recognize the richness of Chinese History.

8.40pm: Poles decorated withgolden dragon rise up from the floor with each pole having a lady on top of it. Add some epic music and..OMG Fireworks!! WOohoo!! Epic!

A guy and cute girl playing the piano in the middle of arena. Man, that girl is f***ing lucky! People dressed all green doing the wave. Wait, their clothes changed colours. Their glowing too and forming a white dove that changes colours. Again, a pain in the ass choreography especially since their doing this in the dark and onl relying on their glowing shirts.

There’s a kite being flown by a little girl flowing in the air. It’s the same red girl that sang in the beginning of the ceremony…Oh sorry, it’s not Haha

8.50pm: Yes! Martial arts time!! The lady is doing Tai Chi I think. Oh wait, we’re back to the kids, ok??…oh wait back to Martial arts Yeah!! All dressed in white and doing Tai Chi. School kids in the middle of the arena paintingthe floor while surrounded by men in white doing Tai Chi. Kinda cool, like these tough ass guys are protecting these cute Innocent kids. Nice, the lights are now orange making these martial art guys glowing like the sun.  Colourful animation of birds flying on the big screen as the school kids jump around in excitement.

9.00pm: Astronaut!!! Is that the Chinese astronaut himself? Anyway, a giant dome like structure rises up from the floor. Wait, not a dome but a giant blue ball!! hmm.the music souds like ET music? Steven Spielberg? I remember Steven Spielberg was involved in the opening ceremony right? But he pulled out because of Darfur or something. Who cares…Anyway, the ball turns into planet Earth with bunch of guys ‘skating’ on the surface Really cool!

 

A female and a male singer singing on top the giant ball. A chinese guy and a..sorry, didn’t catch her name Sarah something. I’m sorry if she’s well known and I don’t know about her. Pictures of kids from different race and nationalities from around the world. Fireworks!!! Woohooo!!! Spectacular! leave it to the Chinese when it comes to spectacular fireworks.

WOW, people from differrent ethnic groups dancing at the arena. I see Tibetans! Yeah! You know with all the recent HooHar! about the Tibet issue and how some of them want to boycott the Olympics, it’s kinda cool to see the Tibetans here.

9.10pm: What’s that about Brunei? Anyway, Greece comes first because they hosted the games before this. Guinea is next, so it’s not in alphabetical order, probably start with G then H then so on. Oh wait, I’m wrong, Turkey comes next so there is no particular order.

(Update 11.31pm: It’s in alphabetical order but following the order of Chinese characters instead of the English alphabet)

9.16pm: Malawi Hehe..I remember one of the house that I lived in back when I was in Japan used to be the embassy of Malawi. Just some small random thing that’s all. Bhutan!! I remember how the king recently agree to abdicate when after a general election. Belgium….ummm…French fries actually came from Belgium not France Hehe I know, random info. WTF commercial!!! Good it was short and we’re back with Israel and Shimone Perez is here. Japan!! Japan and China have an ‘interesting’ relationship over the years. TAIWAN!! No wait, CHINESE TAIPEI!! Boy, where should I start with the history of these two nations. Commercial again!! Must change channel from Astro to the local channel if it’s even showing.

9.20pm: Oh I just found out that Brunei didn’t register in time. That sucks…Oh well…Ukraine looks cool with the blue jacket and all.

9.34pm: Palestine! Timor Leste! Yeah for underdogs

9.40pm: India and Indonesia! Taufik Hidayat! Badminton

9.55pm: Iraq and Iran back to back

10.01pm:Angola.. I knew this kid from Angola. He was new to the school at that time so I didn’t know his name at that time. So during his first PE, I was in the same Basketball team as him and I stupidly call him black guy as in..”hey, where’s the black guy” Of course, it wasn’t intentional but you know, I just sort of blurted it out by accident and I realized how stupid I was shortly after I said it. Luckily, he didn’t get that mad so later I decided to make up for my mistake by getting to know him. He told me his name and that he came Angola. Just for the sake of having a conversation, I started asking him about the Angolan Civil War because that’s the only thing I know about his country. Very Awkward Haha!

10.05pm: Libya has the best flag. Just plain Green and it’s my favourite colour.

10.21pm:I see Bush with binoculars. I hope he knows how to use it this time Hehe

10.27pm:U! S! A! U! S! A! Bush with his wife. Speaking of Bush, I’m really curious about the new Oliver Stone movie about Bush that’s coming out later this year titled ‘W’. It looks stupid yet interesting. The actors don’t even look like their counterparts yet who cares coz the most important thing is the acting.

10.52pm: North Korea. How come they don’t walk together with South Korea like they did in the last game That was cool.

10.56pm: Singapore. Yup I knew it, the flag is carried by that famous Singaporean Table Tennis player, Li Jiawei. I was in Singapore during the Athens 2004 Olympic Games and was cheering for her to win. But unfortunately she got 4th place which is not bad anyway.

(Update 10/08/08: I found out that she’s getting some heat due to way she carried the Singapore Flag.)

11.01pm:It’s interesting how the Chinese have a different way in calling the name of the participating countries. For example, just now the Chinese announced Mexico with something that sounds like “woh chi ngo” or Tajikistan where he call it something that doesn’t resemble the original name. It’s similar to Malay, we have different names for countries like Greece (Yunani), Spain (Sepanyol), Egypt (Mesir) or United States (Amerika Syarikat)

11.08pm:CHINA!! YAO MING!! and a little kid who survived the recent great earthquake. Nice! I bet China will win this year! Very Proud of China.

11.21pm: Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer…I see Kobe Bryant

11.26pm: Speech by the President of Beijing Organizing Committee. Subtitles? Welcome to Beijing, I only understand that.

11.36pm:President Hu Jintao officially opening the games. FIREWORKS!

11.42pm: The Olympic flag carried by veteran athletes from China. The five Olympic rings represent the five continents of the world: Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia and Americas (combining North and South). By the way, the colours of the Olympic rings doesn’t correspond with any particular continent (no, black doesn’t represent Africa )

11.53pm:The Olympic torch finally arrives. Running up the stairs now. Wait, is this guy going to fly..Hahaha Yup! Like Superman!! That’s f***ing high! I would’ve piss on my pants and it would be dripping on the audience hehe…what…too graphic for you guys? ok, sorry Nice, he’s walking around the upper walls of the Bird’s nest stadium. Oh shit, it’s close….oh boy…..woah! HAhAHhaha *cue dramatic music* The flame is on!! FIREWORKS!!! Nice shot of the stadium. It’s like a warzone down there!

12.09pm: Just as I heard the name Jackie Chan, they have to cut to the commercial Haiya!! Oh he’s singing and Karen Mok is there too. For those who find it weird that Jackie Chan sings, he actually contributed to the soundtrack of many of his Hong Kong films like City Hunter and Police Story. Click here for more

12.19pm: I guess that’s the end. Good night (at least in East Asia that is). Will probably put some official photos of the opening ceremony in this post tomorrow to make it look nice. And about Brunei not being included in the Olympics…well…it sucks I guess. Expect it to be a major topic here tomorrow.

(Update 10/08/08: The local Olympic commitee released a press release and later the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports released theirs on the local papers. There’s also a possibility of a sanction or fine for Brunei. Oh well, a wake up call is what we need anyway.) 

Update 9/08/08: Photos courtesy of Boston.com

Oh Let it Louie, She’s Under Cover..

Here’s a random ‘game’ that my friend and I came up with during a MSN messenger session. It started with him giving me a link to the theme song of the game Metal Gear Solid over at YouTube. I replied with a link to the Battlefield 1942 theme song and so we went back and forth giving links to musical scores we like, be it from a game or a movie. But eventually we started trading YouTube links to songs that we consider to be ‘guilty pleasure’ songs (he started by ‘rickrolling’ me with that Never Gonna Give You Up song). Note that we don’t neccessarily considered these songs to be bad but they are something we enjoyed, laughed and remember fondly.

It’s kinda funny listening (and watch the music videos!!) to songs like Modern Talking’s ‘Brother Louie’ or Mc Hammer’s ‘Can’t Touch This’ again. We continually went “hey, remember this song?” or “OMG, this song used to…” back and forth. This went on for about an hour and some of these songs are now stuck in my head thanks to it.

Click More to see some of the songs that we ‘rediscovered’ during our little game over MSN. Enjoy the trip back in time