Word of the day: "cerement"

It's a gray day. and the quotidian light seems leached of all colour.


Scratching self, sitting at PC, and presently working on finishing overdue blog entry since Wednesday. Thankfully, have won another day of peace. And here it goes -


Watching the Two Towers left me in an ambivalent fix; because I was torn between my appreciation of it as a movie-goer, and my appalled feelings as a Tolkien purist. In any event, I shall forebear the usual review system, mainly because almost everyone's seen it by now, probably, and so I'll just note a few scattered observations and feelings:


a) The battle between the Balrog and Gandalf is *exactly* what I imagined it to be from reading the book. Gandalf's falling to clasp Glamdring reminds me oddly of Cloud at the end of FF7, actually:) Other than the mysterious sudden cut from battling in that underground ocean to tussling on top of a mountain, it seriously gratified expectations.


b) Why is Legolas' role, apart from his dashing swashbuckling in the battle scenes, confined mostly to looking broodingly ethereal, staring at the camera, and intoning portents like: "There is a red dawn today.. blood has been spilled." or other such Delphaeic utterances? But then again, we have his zhai gymnastic vault onto the back of a horse, and skateboarding down steps while unloosing volley after volley of arrows. Note that his quiver never seems to run out as well during the Battle of Helm's Deep - whereas in the first movie, you could see him salvaging arrows.


c) Gimli was never really meant to be that much comic relief.


d) Faramir got majorly short-changed in his brief scenes. Would also have liked a depiction of seeing Boromir's body in his dreams, as per narrated in the book.


e) Why is Theodred's role confined to looking grim and quoting verbatim from the book?


f) Grima Wormtongue, Gollum and the Ents - strangely enough, I'd never really had a fixed idea of what these characters should look like, and yet, upon seeing them given form in the movie, they look *right*. With the exception of the Ents who move a bit too hastily and Treebeard not laying it on with the Ent steroids (Entdraught) and Hoom-action a bit more, and Gollum's excessively schizoid conversations-with-self, they certainly fit in with visual expectation. Brad Dourif is particularly good at playing freaky, ominous characters; he *was* the voice of Chucky after all.


g) The freeding of King Theodred reminded me of The Exorcist for some reason.


And despite all this nitpicking, I enjoyed the movie immensely, mainly because of the battle of Helm's Deep, mainly because Aragorn's increasingly matted, unshaven form has a certain macho charisma to it, and because above all, like Spiderman and The Godfather, it's a movie that focuses more on capturing the *spirit* of the literary source from which it sprung, rather than slavishly aping it. How far Lord of the Rings succeeds in capturing Tolkien's 'spirit' is seriously open to interpretation, and many will see it as a lukewarm dumbing-down for motion picture audiences, but to my mind, having read the book and watched the movies (thus far), they both evoke the same sense of arboreal wonder, the classic good-vs-evil plot, in unambiguous moral tones, and above all, redemption through the rejection of power/evil.


Can't wait for the Battle of Pelennor Fields in the third movie:)


Another amused observation, when I went to watch it , there were several costumed people capering around, to add flavour to the preview screening. One was a very Chinese-looking Saruman. (Just because the actor's surname is "Lee"....) Another were a couple of thuggish looking elves in Lothlorien garb; my friend looked straight at them and asked, "Are you uruk-hai or Eldar?"


They stared back impassively.


Upon listening to the chatter of people around us as we departed the cinema: "What does the Ring do ah?", "Eh, what are the Two Towers referring to?", "Is Saruman the same as Sauron?", etc etc etc, I despaired.


My friend told me of an even worse incident once when watching Titanic; a sobbing chick seated at the row in front blurted out: "Is the ship going to sink?"


Friday night, headed out for another pleasant Warcraft 3/Counter-Strike session with more of the returning horde from Australia. Proceeded to have another riotous, drunken gathering beside a friend's apartment swimming pool in which we discussed and debated the finer points of role-playing games, movies, various computer games, and comparative merits of a variety of fantasy fiction writers. That, and singing off-key 80s cheese tunes. The following morning, my friend graciously (or perhaps becuase the hangover headache was preventing him from thinking clearly) permitted me to raid his library for some texts since he was headed back to Melbourne soon. I hauled home a swag of about 20 books, supplements, RPG manuals, and other assorted texts which should keep me occupied for a while.


My PC now lies open case in front of PC desk, as I desperately try to fiddle the errant 128MB stick of RAM back into life. Argh. But funnily enough, over the last two weeks there hasn't been much impetus to play games, which means the pile is growing ominously again. But the only game I really want to buy at present is Shadow of Destiny; at least until Halo or GTA3: Vice City for the PC gets released.


Shall make sure to go watch some VCDs after this diary entry is complete; Knockaround Guys is still lying unwatched.


Meta-comments:


"Wielding a measure of moral power is better than nothing." To which I say - "Wielding nothing but a measure of moral power is useless." Even the Inquisition needed pikemen.


That rather seditious article on the Malaysian aristocracy was published in the local broadsheets. Mahathir, no matter his flaws, has never been fond of the parasitic vermin that constitute the Sultanates. It's often politically expedient to highlight their excesses.


To the nice person who quoted Kierkegaard: Think "Emperor's New Clothes." There is, unfortunately, a gulf between what is, and what we want it to be.


To whoever penned that call to masochism, and to the person who very happily suggested the Care Bear approach: Hah? But I believe: "Balance in all things." A little dippy happy smiley smiley is as necessary to a healthy life as bleak, morose brooding.


Gabriel: Hunting takes a lot out of the hunter. I pay for my late-night frantic conversation-orgies the following mornings, and in the pile of unread books and unfinished games.


To the next round of diatribes: Well, of course if I can't be vomitously self-absorbed and narcissistic on my own online diary, where the hell else can I be? D-uh. And as for the "typical angsty posts which refer to no one discernable to anyone but the poster", *shrugs*, it seems merely an odd but familiar convention on a lot of blogs; the dropping of weird hints and subtle injokes to an audience of one. I don't deny that the theatrical value is childishly amusing to me, but there's another reason: not everyone uses ICQ regularly or checks their email. So when one *really* wants to get a message across...


A Wong Kar Wai movie? I hope it's Chungking Express, with the angsty camera framings of In The Mood For Love!:)


It also occurred to me lately that I only blog when in narcisstic, play-with-locks-of-hair-while-self-mutilating -and-watching-lazy-cigarette-smoke-trails-as-mind-locks-into-depressive-brooding- anti-heroic- moments-of-darkest-despair-when-the-light-of-the-world-seems-crushed-by- onslaught-of-stupidity-and-misunderstanding-by-unwashed- philistines-unable-to-appreciate- my-greatness-or-the-profound-depths-of-my-suffering-soul kind of moods. That might explain the rather unbalanced portrayal of my mental states through these entries. I'm depressed, really a very happy chappie. Really.


*exhales in raw frustration* Lost the rest of this hideously long blog entry. NEVERMIND. I shall begin again, phoenix-like from the rubble, in my quest against Gabriel's teeming ignorance.


You forgot the largest roti canai (or prata to you heathens) or the longest sticks of incense in the world. Our achievements grow legion. Be that as it may, I actually agree with you here on how xenophobic and short-sighted this bit of nationalistic fervour is; but then again, any kneejerk appeal to populist sentiment is always a good political vote-getter. Yes, our government doesn't pay attention to irrelevant political necessities such as the will of the people, unlike Singapore.


Although at least we don't need SMS messages from the government teaching us about sex:)


But seriously, there's an economic point to be made; people DO respond better to ads made with local people. Granted, the ostensible reasons for insisting on Asians in ads in Malaysia are, of course, ideological and nationalistic ones, but in all honesty, how many Toyota ads do you see with Asians in America? It's for marketing reasons, not for patriotism.


Will get on with demolishing your flimsy rebuttals tomorrow at work. But if and when PAS looks like its wresting control; hey I'm just going to flee, man. Unlike you, I haven't got so much nationalistic fervour as to take up arms in defense of my nation - as you are so loyally training for. No wait, this is from the man who harbors various schemes on how to present himself as militarily unfit.


The Golden Rule as I see it: "Do unto others before they do unto you."


I think that it's kind of sad that you justify your blithe disregard for the feelings of others under the pretext of a moral decision made after "meditation" and the greater good of freedom of speech. The fact of the matter is, you simply don't care. Witness recent events in which you dismis the feelings of your friends as "trivial matters" and of "minor importance."


I don't even justify "all words should be permissible", as some moral imperative, I do it because I want to, particularly when its the opinions of the general world at large. "A man will fight for his interests, not his rights." But, unlike you, I at least pay some attention to the feelings of those I consider friends; even if what they feel or think makes no sense to me.


And finally, Islam DOES have a singing tradition; at least in Sufi Islam. But Sunni Islam frowns on graven images per se, let alone too joyous peals of choristering.


[Ed: Before I retire, but one comment of many to come:


""No wait, this is from the man who harbors various schemes on how to present himself as militarily unfit."
I *do not*."]