Ravenna, The Evil Queen

Movie poster taken from wikipedia

“mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all”


That line, maybe one of the most famous line from the fairytales universe. And the one that I loath the most, mirror? gah, fairest? gah! What is the point in asking a MIRROR how good looking you are? it’s like Narsiscus, spending his day groveling about his face and end up dying in the lake.

Okay, skip the cynicism, let’s move to the movie itself.

This year, there are two live action movie adapted from Brother Grimm’s Snow white, the first is satiric comedy Mirror Mirror (which I watched months ago) and the second is epic colossal Snow White and the Huntsman, which I watched last saturday. I just gonna talk about the second. 

First thing first, for me, the title of the movie is wrong, it should be “Ravenna, The Evil Queen”, because she’s the only great thing about the movie, anything else just mediocre.

On The Road

With all the buzz around Cannes film festival and the release of film adaptation of Jack Kerouac's On the Road, I take the bait. I want to read the book and just bought the digital version of On the Road.

Dubbed as one of the best English-language novel of the 20th century, On the Road always said to be a story that define a generation, to be specific American youngster in the 50s. Honestly, I don't really have interest about USA post WW II. All the things that I've read that comes from before 90s -except the classic literature- is history related, this is the first. I've read the first chapter, and not really impressed, maybe after I read further... we'll see. My goal is to finish the book before I watch the movie, and maybe if it's good enough I'll write some review... we'll see. 

I've betrayed my own reading list by reading this one, I should have read Partikel first. but I'm in sinister mood, so it's better to read something more psychological and morally challenging that factually challenging like Partikel. Next one maybe.

I wanna do something that matters, say something differentSomething that sets the whole world on its earI wanna do something better with the time I've been givenI wanna try to touch a few hearts in this lifeLeave nothing less than something that says "I was here"

[Lady Antebellum - I Was Here]

L'arc en Ciel 20th Anniversary World Tour

May 2nd, 2012 is perhaps one of the day of the year that certainly I will always remember. It's the time when, finally, I watch L'arc en Ciel live!

I know L'arc en Ciel since I was in 2nd grade of middle school. Some of my friend at the time were into this band. And the simple and britpop worshiper me, didn't understand the fascination. It was not until I was in highschool I actually listen to their music, and I love it!

Some people called them freak and weirdo, oh... yes, they're quite a weirdo, but that's what make them uniquely remarkable. L'arc en Ciel is the one that mainstreaming rock music in their homeland, Japan. Bring rock music to a wider audience through anime and movie. And among others, they are the one that introduce japanese rock music scene to the world. I bet on my hat that every non japanese j-rock fans starting with listening to L'arc en Ciel.

"orang sunda itu... pas muda gak mau ngerantau jauh-jauh atau lama-lama, pasti pengen cepet-cepet balik lagi ke tempat lahirnya, pas jadi orang tua hariwangan (gampang khawatir), gak mau anaknya pergi jauh-jauh..."
[papah]

ya pas deh... yang ngerantaunya bertanya-tanya... 'kapankah saya kembali ke bandung?'
di sisi lain, sang orang tua, punya anak ngerantau 120 km lebih ke utara dikit aja bisa di-rewelin-nya setengah mati... :D

Orang bandung itu, dari lahir ampe mati pengennya di bandung...
Sederhana banget ya... :)

Nova Supernova

I got my order of Supernova series by Dee from kutukutubuku.com yesterday. Dee just launched the 4th installment of Supernova series, titled Partikel (in english: particle). It's thicker that the previous books, nearly 500 pages, almost twice Petir. I've opened the book and scan to the connection plot to the previous book, Petir, which is on the last chapter. And it's not so much describing the connection. It means that Dee actually mean it when she said that the connection of all Supernova books will be clear in the last episode: the 6th book - Inteligensi Embun Pagi. To consider that it takes 6 years from Petir to Partikel, I think I have to endure another 10 years until Supernova series completed. Oh God, I hope it won't be that long!

I really prefer buying books online than go to bookstore these days, part because it's cheaper (they gave me 15% discount) and part because I don't like crowded bookstore on the weekend. I'm still reading One Click, an unauthorize biography about Amazon.com and Jeff Bezos, and in the book, Bezos said that those two reasons above is exactly why people like to shop books online. Well, actually it's because we don't have to wear books, so that online book shopping will give you nearly zero unsatisfactory level.

Kembali ke pojok: Love is a four letter word

Aku merasakan suka cita dan bahagia yang dengan perlahan memenuhi ruangan ini. Melihat sepasang manusia yang saling menatap dengan takjub, dengan ekspresi yang kaya akan syukur dan bahagia. Ikrar akad nikah mereka baru selesai diucapkan, dan dengan diucapkannya tiga huruf dalam satu rangkaian kata berbunyi ‘sah’, mereka berdua memasuki kehidupan baru. How simple!

Aku menatap dan tak lama pun ikut tersenyum. Aku pun merasa bahagia, for such an undefined thing, aku bisa merasa bahagia. She’s my best friend, and he’s my colleague at work, and yes, they know each other through me. Siapa sangka? ironis, dan menurutku, aneh. Karena aku tak percaya cinta, maaf - kuralat, aku tak mengerti cinta.

Kedua mempelai lalu berkeliling, menerima salam, kecup dan peluk bahagia dari semua yang datang. Aku masih berdiri di tempatku, tersenyum sambil menatap mereka bahagia. How lucky they are. Mereka lalu mencapai tempatku berdiri, dan bersama-sama keduanya memelukku.

No Extra Part

Someone asks me a question today: "what is the best movie for this year (so far)?"

And the answer instantly popped up in my mind: Hugo.

As we all know, it is Martin Scorsese's, and as you may know that he, as far as I know, never make a crappy movie. Hugo is a piece work of art and creativity, and I don't care that people tell it is not commercially succeed, Hugo still outstanding.