Snakes on a Plane, dude.

Guys,
Snakes on a Plane is the biggest movie of this year. Why? Because there are snakes. On a plane! With Samuel L Jackson! haa. ok.

I am endorsing this movie even though when I first heard of it, I thought that has got to be the dumbest movie title ever. But things change. The internet buzz is big enough to make this film blair witch no. 2. Even before it is out, people have proclaimed it to be the best worst movie. They even reshot scenes just to add a line that fans wrote, mainly so that we can hear Samuel L Jackson say 'There are motherfucking snakes on the motherfucking plane'. And just look at the movie poster. It deserves some award for telling it like it is.

I'm loving this quote:

Beaks: One of those films that you’re working on right now is... well, it’s called Pacific Air 121—
Jackson: Snakes on a Plane, man!
Beaks: Exactly.
Jackson: We’re totally changing that back. That’s the only reason I took the job: I read the title.
Beaks: Snakes on a Plane! That’s everything!
Jackson: You either want to see that, or you don’t.

That said, Superman Returns is a great show. Superman >>>> Xmen. Bryan Singer is imba.

Justin's back

and so is Christina. I think the 15sec long clip of Justin Timberlake's new song is insanely catchy, in the milkshake sort of way. Christina Aguilera's trying to be Marilyn Monroe and soul belter all at once. Bring on the summer hits!

School started and it's rather intense. We're doing two and a half weeks' worth of syllabus in one. Add to that the sections, labs, and I am really appalled that I have to skip two days of school to go to NYC. I hope I seat next to some interesting people.


The eiffel tower sparkles every hour for 10 mins. I think they should do something like that in Singapore, you know, like have some light show at marina bay. One that makes people gasp.



The gardens at Versailles were huge. I must have spent almost two hours walking around the grand canal. It's actually more meant for cyclists. Just didn't feel like entering the palace.



Anyway, big shout out to Jevon for housing me in his "ghetto" and bringing me around to places he's seen a million times!
And also Jefferson for even passing me his handphone and oyster card, not forgetting the green day concert!


Isn't the world cup boring 70% of the time?

Fargo is dark, violent and brilliant.
Inside Man is powerhouse acting but I miss the point.
Rushmore is like Napolean Dynamite, but funnier.
I finally finished Se7en. Huangyu is very disturbed by it.

ok let's get this over with

I'm tired of writing linearly; let's play match da pictures.

• The Lourve pyramid; went on a free sunday. You could queue in the underground area leading to the inverted pyramid or outside here, in the hot sun. Paris was hot, literally. Sun was out every day, and yet people were still well decked in jackets and blazers. Oh and Paris Hilton's song is kinda catchy too.
• Eiffel Tower. It was too crowded for us to go up. Maybe next time.
• Underneath the Arc de Triomphe. Also there: a memorial for an unknown soldier. Seems like there are such unknown soldier memorials everywhere huh.
• A well hung man.
  
• The round pond in Jardin des Tuileries. I wish I were small enough to get on the little boat and sail across the pond as if it were an ocean.
  

• The magnificently cluttered interior of the Shakespeare book store. Yeah, the one in Before Sunset. A cool hang out place--just walls of books and a shaky staircase.
• A painting I really liked. I thought it was unusual, considering the snowy landscape.
• The Buddha Bar's Buddha.
  
• Really really young cheerleaders with really really short skirts.
• Lourve courtyard. It's easy to get disoriented inside, hallways leading into more hallways-- I took about an hour to find the mona lisa.
  

Well, school starts monday. The people in other apartments are either watching the kenshin anime or yi tian tu long ji. I did a bit of the latter and our commentary proved more entertaining than the show itself..

one flew over the cuckoo nest

I wanted to do one big thing a day, ie doing the driving theory test, but today was totally wasted on an afternoon nap. Speaking of the driving theory, they rejected me and I couldn't take the test. Seems that there is something wrong with my i-20 documents and such. Maybe they haven't processed it and the documents are still at the airport. And the lines were really long and slow. I think they need a reform. Inefficience.

Band of Brothers was great. I'm such a sucker for war shows now. The more action and torn limbs, the better.

Rize, as well. Krumping rocks.

These are my one liner movie reviews, as you can see.

The usual suspects was somewhat spoilt by the fact that I already know the twist.

I'm going to start watching Deadwood soon.

Utilities are rather expensive. And why does our orange juice always run out so fast?

Most of the morning was spent on doing the layout of the freshman guide. I'm so anal about punctuation and spacing. Also, turns out that cool fonts don't show up in the pdf format. Initially I wanted a dadaist cover, but had to resort to the same old trick in the end..



I need to work on photoshop, as well as my tan.

Pitchfork has a new feature on 100 awesome music videos. As if I don't already spend enough time on youtube! Highlights include kidz bop's version of since u been gone (2:37 is the greatest moment in music video history), royskopp's remind me (I've always loved cutaway diagrams and the like), the avalanches' frontier pyschiatrist, kate bush's wuthering heights. Dj shadow's 6 days, directed by wong kar wai.

Apparently his next film doesn't star nicole kidman. It does, however, feature jude law, rachel weisz, natalie portman, norah jones, yes norah jones, ed harris...

Random link #1
Random link #2

Mal Wash Zoe Book Simon River Kaylee Inara Jayne

What can I show you of London that you haven't already seen?


I don't like holidays much. Firstly, they make me feel useless, like I'm doing absolutely nothing with my life. I just got back from watching a world cup match, well not really, it was half time and I got bored. Life is pretty rountine now. I get up, get breakfast, do some errands (bank, haircut, groceries), watch something, hang out with other people, start preparing dinner, dinner, hang out some more. I've had minced meat for three consecutive days and today will be the fourth. Need some different recipe this time.



The Tate modern had always been a place I wanted to visit. Redone by Herzog & de Meuron (also the guys giving you the Beijing olympic stadium), it's one of the best examples of old-turned-new architecture, having used to be a power station. The interior is minimalistic, while the turbine hall serves as a space for extremely large exhibits. Unfortunately it was empty when I visited. I couldn't finish the whole place. But I like modern art and am inspired to do something.. I have an idea.
The Millenium bridge is a nice lead up to the museum. I guess it serves to bridge the new (Tate modern) and the old (St Paul's).


Shakespeare's Globe theater is right beside. I kind of followed Estelle's walking guide, cuz all my friends were busy studying (those muggers). Of the three places I've been to, I took the least photos in London. First night it was Millenium bridge -> Tate modern -> Globe -> Tower bridge -> Tower of London -> long stretch of nothing -> Swiss Re HQ (the gherkin) -> Lloyd's buiding (one of the coolest ever) -> London Eye -> Westminister Abbey -> Big Ben -> long stretch of nothing. Basically I walked till I dropped. In fact those two weeks were really strenous--urban hikes every single day. I didn't take the tube that much as you see nothing underground. Also, during one rush hour, I couldn't barge my way onto the train. Twice.


Gorgeous. I've seen cut through diagrams of the building, and they have these air wells that spiral up the building. On the outside they are visible as the darker skin portions.


Lloyd's. Futuristic, even now.



Second day I discovered the wonders of Oxford st. I don't know why but I like having shopfronts on the street (ala every other city) rather than in a mall (like Singapore). It's just more fun. Topshop was the cheapest there. Found the Dover st Market, incredibly snobbish high end 5 storey complex stocked with comme des garcons and the like. Cool thing found: a vending machine that vends clothes.


Then on to Regent st -> Virgin megastore -> Picadilly circus -> Trafalgar square -> Harrods (tacky!)->


Leicester square -> Convent garden. Though not necessarily in that order. I ended my day with Lion King. Great sets, great costumes, but I didn't think the songs were delivered perfectly.



Only took 2 group photos! Can you believe that. Couldn't even pick the best picture to post. Oh well, I might go there again, I don't know, 5 years later.

Santorini is the most Greecish part of Greece

I first heard of Santorini when I googled "white buildings with blue roofs". I got that image in my mind, somehow, probably from postcards of the Mediterranean. Anyway I was determined to go there, to that somewhere where the skies are always blue and the walls are all white. It's like my vegas with less flash. Turns out that there are many other Greek islands too, but Santorini still topped the list when we made our choice.
The ferry ride was supposed to be 7 hours long but was more like 9 hours. We did it overnight, expecting to be sleeping in a proper seats. Alas, all the airline-like seats were occupied by the time we boarded, and we thought we had to sleep on the deck benches in open air. Real sketchy.
We ended up in the lounge, where kids were entertaining/irritating us with their antics. I swear I hate kids. I'd like them only if they don't run about or cry.




When I first laid my eyes on Fira, the main town, as I stood on top of a cliff, I just had to take a moment. The pictures don't even do it justice. The cliffs run straight down into the sea, with the streets and buildings perched haphazardly at the edge. Unfortunately, Santorini (like Mykonos, another pleasure paradise) is also heavily commercialized now. It's all restaurants and hotels. I'd like to visit the other islands for both rustic charm and completely white buildings.



Roofs are great places for creativity and self expression. Some guy put an entire boat up on his roof. In addition, we realized that the blue roofs are reserved for places of worship, so there aren't many of them. Also found the iconic three bell church, after a really long and hard search, but saw it from the other side of the bells.


Ever wondered how they keep the roofs in such pristine whiteness? We witnessed a guy repainting the roof.


The story goes that this island used to be a huge volcano which erupted and sank into the Aegean sea, leaving behind several islands and indirectly causing the collapse of the Minoan civilisation on Crete. I can't imagine a future eruption destroying everything there. So go visit if you can. The nightlife is good (though Mykonos is said to be wilder) but we retired early.


The caldera is understandably, one of the best places on earth to view a sunset. No spectacular clouds on that day, but it still BEAT the phuket beach and the grand canyon sunsets hands down.



As we were short of time, we could only visit a beach to hang around for a while. Couldn't tan or do anything else. The Perissa beach is covered with black sand, which gets literally quite hot in the afternoon. The blue green water is rather clear too.



I thought this restaurant had the best ambience. We didn't go in though.


Parting shot: Lights sparkling away in the night.



... It wasn't a wisdom tooth after all; it's a root canal thing and it's going to be EXPENSIVE. Enough to fly back to Singapore. In the immortal words of D'angelo, Shit Damn Motherfucker. On the other hand, my mum did the same thing 2 years ago and it cost her 750 or so. So.

I almost died on the first day in Athens

It's true.
After a long day of walking around (getting sidetracked by spanish pimp and russian hooker) and negotiating with the hotel to let me crash Christina's and Estelle's hotel room (tried and failed), I settled down on my bed in that hotel and plugged in the european adapter, only to be fried. Glad I survived. I know you are too.


The subway system is a scam. There are no gates to go through when entering; the gaps are wide open. We cheated once. I think they are losing more money than the San Francisco bus service, seeing the number of people who dash through the stations. But of course, there's a heavy fine if you get caught.


We skirted around the hotel room issue by deciding to take an overnight ferry to the islands. The hotel guy did not believe that I wasn't staying there.


The acropolis is one dusty construction site. Much restoration work is going on there. My eyes were foggy even after I removed my contacts. I also thought that my tshirt will endear me to the Greek people.


That assumption proved to be false, however. When we posed with a head bust of Alexander (us kissing his cheeks), the museum woman forced us to delete the picture. In older days they would have had to confisticate the entire roll of film.


This is what I call the Yanni amphitheater. The urban sprawl beyond is amazing. All squat looking buildings stretching away in all directions.


The glam side of the Parthenon, "the finest achievement in Greek architecture".


The unglam side.


We were very thirsty at this point. The day before, I managed to locate what an online guide deemed to be the best restaurant and best icecream in the Psiri district (hip hip hip)-- Gelatomania on the junction of Taki and Aisopou and Platia Iroon respectively. We took a while to get out of the Acropolis area and headed for food. Ice cream flavors tried:

Baileys
Ferrero
Bitter choc
Cherry yoghurt
Peach yoghurt
something else

They were good.


The 7 hr ferry ride to Santorini was at 10.30pm. Little did we know what was in store for us..