you can't blame the blueberry pie

I liked My Blueberry Nights more for the visuals and the general vibe it carried more than anything else, but when you put it under scrutiny there is a lot to object to. There's not much to be said for storyline - like Jacq said it was just one of many variations of the old cliche of a serendipitous meeting of two strangers that leads to romance. At times the plot wasn't entirely believeable, and the dialogue/narration sometimes spoon-fed the audience a bit too much. It's as if WKW (my namesake director (:) got worried that his audience might be a little slow. But we must forgive him - after all this is his English-language debut and he can only get better from here. Jacq and I agreed that he tended to abuse the slow-mo/stop motion effect, but there were times when it was used to good effect. I'm not sure how to describe the colour in the film. There were all these flat shades, like when you up the contrast and turn down the brightness in Photoshop. And it turned out to be surprisingly pretty indeed, with each city seemingly cast in a different colour scheme. Oh and I think the cast really bolstered the rather weak script - except for Norah Jones who was nothing more than this visual anchor, or maybe this blank template of a person the audience was supposed to identify themselves with. Whatever it is, her characterisation seemed pretty weak compared to the rest. Sue Lynn seriously reminded me of Courtney Love. The romance didn't really develop in a typical fashion, no flirting or soulgazing, just the fact that they were there for each other, and the sincere longing for each other's company when they were apart. It was all very raw and innocent, something that is so rare in movies nowadays and could perhaps only have come from an Asian director. The use of ice cream melting over blueberry pie was a really strong metaphor for uh. the lovers' stream of passion.

My favourite quote from the movie:

"At the end of every night, the cheesecake and the apple pie are always completely gone, the peach cobbler and the chocolate mousse cake are nearly finished, but there's always a whole blueberry pie left untouched."

"So what's wrong with the blueberry pie?"

"There's nothing wrong with the blueberry pie, just people make other choices. You can't blame the blueberry pie, it's just... no one wants it."

temporary respite!

Had breakfast at Bedok BK after night duty..I swear there are few things more satisfying than a Croissanwich meal after duty. To think I've been torturing myself with the cookhouse rations for a year.
On the way home I passed by the day care centre and peered in; the caregiver was cooing "is this beautiful? beautiful? Yes you're right, this is beautiful!" as she held up a yellow skirt. Then she held up a different piece of clothing, asking "which is more beautiful? the other one?"
I wonder if this was how we were all taught to recognise beauty. I suppose we are all born knowing certain basic elements of beauty in its most obvious sense - colour, form, symmetry. But a lot of what we take to be beautiful is learnt.

Plenty of stuff coming up! NUS talk/jamming at Tovya's place tomorrow, Soon/Clong's birthday/ORD celebrations the day after, meeting up with Jacq on Monday, Soon's ORD treat on Tues, -maybe- a trip to the art museum on Thursday! And NO TUITION next week! hoho life is good! oh and I felt rather relieved yesterday when Soon told me how he too dreaded teaching those kids, how he never dreads teaching other students. I was beginning to think I didn't have the stomach for teaching. Guess it's not just me after all!
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After watching Fight Club yesterday, I felt inspired to embark on a lengthy discourse on how it attacks consumerism and how people try to make meaning of their otherwise pointless existence through consumerism.

However, the first rule of Fight Club is..

..and so I didn't.

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EDIT:

Everyone and his uncle and his pet hamster seem to have a video of themselves playing guitar on YouTube so I decided to record one of my own this afternoon

to put things in context, I have been neglecting guitar for the longest time so I'm as rusty as my strings. I overlaid the original recording (back when I could play) over the video because it would be too much of a chore to listen to otherwise