A BRAND New Day

After my work on Friday, which ended at 1:24pm in the afternoon, I tripped down to Orchard Library after lunch at the Food Republic and read a most interesting book called Planet Simpsons...

It's not one of those comic TV trivia about the world's longest running cartoon series. In fact it was a very insightful deconstruction of what every character represents in the show in the midst of the times it was made... ala the problems of MNC Globalisation, the post-Punk era, the Corporate emasculation of developing countries, AIDS... etc...

It portrayed a political side of the Simpsons that, taken at its face value, you'd never have thought it meant so much deeper with regards to its take on the societal issues of its day. To date, the Simpsons has survived 3 US Presidents and it's still running. Now that's a feat for any and I mean any TV series.

So there I was happily reading the book and lapping up every page of it. Made me realise that the Simpsons was in fact a satire of every genre of world event, be it entertainement or politics, done in a self-mocking way.

Man... after I read the book, I'd never watch Simpson the way I did ever again...

which is good.

Later in the afternoon, Chao Yang and I rendevous at Orchard and we hopped on to Orchard Cineleisure to chill. We went to a cafe and he had some Mocha Freeze concoction which was too sweet for him and I had my Brownie with vanilla ice-cream on top. The usual fare offered at "luxury" kopitiams...

Well, think the best thing that ever came out of the conversation was when we shared about dreaming of going to the toilet but NOT being able to pee... and how it was one of those most frustrating dreams you can ever have... before you wake up and realise how full your bladder is...

I will not go into the details as there is a female audience here, but it was so funny it had us laughing till we had stitches...

yeah... think it all began when I shared with him how I dreamt that I woke up in the middle of ANtartica (no... not with penguins around me... ala Happy Feet...) one day and I was lying on a huge cold slab of hardened shaved ice...

It was so cold that I woke up shivering...

then I realise, it was cos my air-con had been freezing cold... quickly jumped out of bed and switched it off, shivering all the way...

I'm just amused at how our brain process senses and bring it across as images which we have seen before and relate to and beam it into the subconscious to cause a response that will effect the conscious...

awed... and funny at the same time... hahaha...

Well, after our chill-out session, I managed to convince Chao Yang to watch Flags of our Fathers, a war movie about the World War II battle at Iwo Jima, where the Americans invaded Japanese soil to try and end the war.

It was filled with gore and violence and you see people being blown up with heads and limbs flung tens of meters away and their guts and intestines falling out, while medics try desperately to save them.

It was pretty intense and it made us sigh a lot at the atrocities of war and the insensitivities of the treatment of the heroes of war by those who were not there.

So, at the end of the movie where the credits were showing, Chao Yang got a call from Jeanie and I could see he was pretty relieved to be able to find an excuse to get out of the theatre and miss more old photographs of the actual battle which was meant to invoke a sense of loss and regret at what war has done.

"Spoil my mood... on a Friday night" that was all he muttered the whole night...

which I find immensely amusing... hehehe...

But I'm cool with it...

"Watch already sure come out steam steam one!" I did warn him before the movie.

But well, now I'm just waiting for the companion film to Flags of our Fathers which is done from the perspective of the Japanses soldiers, called "Letters from Iwo Jima"

Clinit Eastwood, the director, while researching on Flags, had actually found letters written by the Japanese soldiers who were stationed there at Iwo Jima, and got the inspiration to do the second movie, shot entirely based on the perspective of these young 19 year olds, sent to the island knowing that only death awaited them.

Excerpts from these letters showed how these young men were not any more different from their similar aged American counterparts. They talked about how they missed their mums, their families, their dogs... things that you and I would be familiar with as well.

Can't wait for the movie to be out next year. :)

So. we ended the night with makan and a car ride home complimentary of my good pal Pei Ling who was around town.

It was a night well spent.

Not too sure about Chao Yang though...



"spoil my Friday night..."

it would be apt to add a ONE syllable exclaimation here.