Sunday, June 25, 2006

Blogger's Block

I've got nothing to say, except for this...
INSPIRE ME!!
I'm out of words...
just INSPIRE ME!!

Monday, June 19, 2006

Cinema Paradiso



Hey Buj.. this one's for you since you haven't seen 'Cinema Paradiso'...

If you love movies, it's impossible not to watch and appreciate Cinema Paradiso... It's the story to young boy Salvadore nicknamed Toto... and his love affair with the movies.. and the story of a very special friendship between toto and Alfredo...the projectionist.
If you're ever down.. Cinema Paradiso is just the right movie to brighten up a gloomy day and bring a smile to just about anyone. it's almost magical...

Most of Cinema Paradiso is told through flashbacks. The film opens with Salvatore, a famous director, who has just received the news that an old friend has died. Before departing for his home village(Giancaldo) to attend the funeral, he remembers...his childhood, his adolescence, the places and people he hasn't seen for decades.

Toto loved the movies. He would use the milk money(intended for his younger sister) to go watch the matinee at the local theater, a small place called the Cinema Paradiso screening films starring big actors such as John Wayne, and Charlie Chaplin. His experiences in the theater, watching movies and listening to Alfredo's stories, form a kind of journey of discovery. As Salvatore cultivates his love of movies, you yourself will start questioning the meaning of film to you, especially if you're into this genre of film.

As Salvadore get to his teens, Cinema Paradiso shifts from being a nostalgic celebration of movies to a traditional coming-of-age drama, complete with romantic disappointment and elation. Salvatore falls for a girl named Elena... now depending on which version you see... the original or the Director's Cut... the love story differs.. I saw the both ten years ago and thought the original cut was better... I watched the director's cut recently and vowed that it is the ultimate best... regardless.. the film is perfect...
one other detail...
'The Screen Kiss'
Yes.. they had censorship as well...Early in the film, you'd see the local priest previewing each movie before it gets screened to the public, demanding that all scenes of kissing be edited out. Toto would sneak in and watch the priest ring his tiny bell away, his queue to Alfredo to censor that specific part..
I don't want to ruin in by saying too much... but keep in mind the deal that toto makes with Alfredo... by the end of the movie... it's the sweetest most satisfying ending that anyone could wish for..
Very touching...
Not a lot of people realize what the ending really means.. when u see it maybe then we can talk about it... gotta leave some room for you to enjoy...
and since you're into music... you'll love it even more... here's a sample
simply perfect in every way..

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Ahlan's Hot 100?!?


You have got to be kidding me... I was passed a tape of a documentary made and screened by the BBC about Dubai's Hot 100 according to Ahlan Magazine... Ofcourse this hasn't been aired here, but some of our friends abroad decided to record this one... So I slip in the tape and watch..
half an hour of absolute uhm... how do I term this without being offensive...I can't.. it was absolute BS...

If these are the top movers and shakers in Dubai, man we're in trouble..

If a blonde model who opted to take her pic in a bikini (who changed her mind and wore a loose shirt on it) by mina alseyahi, and who mind you I didn't think had the looks,or the BRAINS, just the body... is a mover and shaker in Dubai...
then boy oh boy aren't we lucky to be in Dubai...

If a french party organizer who had organised the hot 100 party at the one and only royal mirage is a mover and shaker...
then my oh my aren't we lucky to be in Dubai...

“I love throwing lavish parties and equally enjoy attending great evenings like this one,” said His Excellency Kenyan Consul General, Prem Prinja, who is famous for his fabulous parties, thrown in the Emirates Hills.
He's a mover and shaker alright...
I guess he moves and he shakes with this 'lavish parties'..

We also have another club owner on this "HOT" list....

Gives you a great impression of Dubai..
How shallow can we get..This is appalling..

but then again... We are talking about Ahlan... UK's equivalent to 'Hello' Magazine... Now picture this... if Hello magazine decided to throw a party for the Top 100 in the UK, I really wonder where they'd get?!? actually I don't think Hello! would ever attempt such a thing...
This list was created for 2005.. I wonder whether they had one for 2006..

so read and weep...
The Ahlan! Hot 100 Launch Party'
Ahlan! brings together high society

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Dedicate 6 hours of your life to watch this film


I have just watched one of the greatest films ever made... 'The Best of Youth'
how do I describe it? Where do I begin...
poignant.. touching... funny.. sad.. mesmorizing... and surreal... absolutely brilliant...
simply beautiful...
and I laughed and I cried and cried...
(and everyone knows me as stone woman 'cause I simply don't cry in movies)


'La Meglio Gioventù, as director Marco Tullio Giordana calls his prizewinning narrative masterpiece, begins in Rome, in 1966, when the Carati boys — two of four children born into a middle-class family — are just launching their adult lives. Nicola wants to become a doctor (to which end a kindly professor urges the young man to move away because ''Italy is a dying, useless country''); Matteo has more longings — he's a passionate reader of books — and fewer plans. Nicola identifies with liberalism and enlightenment; Matteo becomes a soldier, then a cop. And as the lives and fortunes of the Carati clan wax and wane, expand and intertwine, their intimate struggles, joys, and accommodations reflect the rhythms of societal life on a larger scale: The 1966 Florence floods, Italy's 1982 World Cup championship, the terrorism of the Red Brigades, and the violence of Mafia murders share equal, gracefully apportioned weight with personal history. (The geography shifts too, from Rome to Florence to Turin to Palermo to the Tuscan countryside, with a magical stop in Norway.)
Like a great novel from a more expansive bygone age, The Best of Youth is full of big thoughts; like a great soap opera, it's also full of sharp plot turns, vibrant characters, and great talk. It is, in short, the best of cinema.'



To know more...
The Best of Youth


I know I will watch it again and again...

Friday, June 16, 2006

Be Aware... Torture Aware

I couldn't find a better song for this purpose...
James Blunt... No bravery




There are children standing here,
Arms outstretched into the sky,
Tears drying on their face.
He has been here.

Brothers lie in shallow graves.
Fathers lost without a trace.
A nation blind to their disgrace,
Since he's been here.

And I see no bravery,
No bravery in your eyes anymore.
Only sadness.

Houses burnt beyond repair.
The smell of death is in the air.
A woman weeping in despair says,
He has been here.

Tracer lighting up the sky.
It's another families' turn to die.
A child afraid to even cry out says,
He has been here.

And I see no bravery,
No bravery in your eyes anymore.
Only sadness.

There are children standing here,
Arms outstretched into the sky,
But no one asks the question why
,

He has been here.
Old men kneel and accept their fate.
Wives and daughters cut and raped.
A generation drenched in hate.
Yes, he has been here.

And I see no bravery,
No bravery in your eyes anymore.
Only sadness

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Dubai's 'Funkiest' Dentist - dare to try?

I'm one of those people who has always had terrible experiences with dentists...but my tooth was begging me for some help... so my colleague suggests a dentist that his nephew goes to...apparently this kid is frightened from anything... but the doc managed to treat him nicely..

so I go ahead and book this appointment and I'd leave the rest to fate...

I walk in the clinic with this very old wrinkly filipina with a really hoarse voice asking me to fill out a 4 page application form asking me about my complete history including the prescribed AND over-the-counter medicine I've taken the past 6 months... I ignored some of the questions such as the 'admitted in hospital' and gave the lady my form... she looks at the paper and eyes me again.. ' you've never been admitted to the hospital? you've never had an operation' I said I did.. and to my surprise she says frigidly ' maam I don't want to lose my job, PLEASE answer all the questions' ... 'But I had my operation in 1996... 'It doesn't matter, you write everything here' and I'm thinking 'O.Kaaaay!!! better do as she says'...

as I was filling out the form... this uhm.. 'being' with grey slightly-long hair comes out of the dentist's room wearing tiny white tennis shorts with a T-shirt... and not only that... There was loud techno-lounge music streaming from his office..
I handed in my papers and sat down like a good girl...
'You have got to be kidding me.. is THAT the dentist.. I don't know whether to be scared or not...'

waiting observing waiting anticipating...

'what the hell did I get myself into?'

I mean this guy was a character and a half.. he was literally dashing between the waiting area and his office..leaves the apartment to have a smoke every 5 minutes between patients and between injecting the patient and the actual 'ZZZZzzzzzzzZZZzzz Deal'
and 'Boov Boov Boov!! the music played hard and high'

So I'm still waiting and observing... The guy looked absolutely 'chaotic'... maybe someone who killed way too many braincells when he was in college.... and the receptionist 'OH me dear he's very good he was in New York for a very long time'...
'RIIIIIIGGGGHHHHTTT!!!'
the patient leaves.. she looks happy.. but then again he says 'say hi to your mummy'... they're family he'll be gentle with her...
he looks at me and sways his head to his office just like a footballer would do if he had to hit the ball with his head... not one word uttered... I understood the signal... 'lady, your turn... come in'

'GULP!! here goes nothing.. ' deep breath...
I walk in his office and quickly scan the room.... every wall painted a different color .. I think I counted 5 different colors.. all the shades from yellow to orange to red..
The CD player is stacked with CD cases and around it 5 CD 'pillars'...

I lay on the examination chair... he looks at me... 'ok what do u want?'
'Extraction and implant unless u think otherwise'...
...
...
'By the way, who told you about me?
'long story.. my colleague's brother kid comes here'
he gave me a strange look and dismissed the idea of asking anymore
...
...
after 3 x-rays, one injection (and I didn't feel the needle), and one other tooth fixed..
I thinkin'.....'hey, this guy's not bad!!'
as for my initial predicament... well that tooth is gonna have to wait...
According to my doc I need to come in early in the day.. and in 4 sessions I'll be done with that as well...
*two thumbs up*
verdict:
as psychotic as the guy behaved and looked... as a dentist performing, he was really good...
I just hope it wasn't only for this session...

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Dubai Arthouse

With the frequent hints and articles regarding the mystery behind Dubai's reluctance to set up an dedicated Arthouse, the niche market exists.. and it exists strongly... this is why I have taken up the challenge to create something that everybody is talking about but doingin nothing about... Why can't we have an arthouse.... some of the reasons being that the big guys such as grand Don't want to invest anything in such a project convinced that the only way to make big bucks is through Hollywood releases... and they don't want to waste their time listening why Dubai needs an arthouse... another hurdle would be the amount of money involved in setting up such a venue... Another slasher to this would be censorship... If we're gonna invest big bucks to get this project going and we get the film censored.. that would be the ultimate killer....
I'm not sure how places like Five Green, IBo, and The third Line screen their small version of 'film club' but we're assuming it's through DVD's that may or may not have been censored. The danger here is the fact that it is considered (in a way) illegal to screen these because of the actual copyright laws on the DVD itself.
So who's gonna invest something like 20 million dirhams for a 3 screen cineplex that might have its films sliced by censorship laws. If you know anyone, let me know...I'll set it up today and not waste any more time...
Another issue would be this... where is the best location to set up such a venue....
or has the situation reached such an extent that my fellow movie buffs would drive anywhere in Dubai amidst the traffic chaos just to quench their thirst for some serious Arthouse films...
Would love to know what you think? or any suggestions on the way forward?