Huh! it's "Once"!!!

OMG! I am so proud with all the selection of films I chose in recent years to watch. Bunch of thanks to Rottentomatoes for giving me perfect guidance in choosing what are the best and what are not. Yesterday before going to Slayter Hill for Jazz on the Hill, I had the opportunity to see "Once", which one of the movies I've downloaded months ago, but still haven't had time to watch.

Here's the official website for the film.

Again, like "Into The Wild", I fall in love with Once's soundtrack, "Falling Slowly", prior to watching the film. Couple months later, when I heard "Guaranteed" was not nominated for Best Original Song, I was surprised learning that this was the only time when a song won in Golden Globe was not nominated in Academy and "Falling Slowly" was nominated and won the award that night. Right after that, I straight away consulted "Rottentomatoes" about "Once" and figured out that it gained 97% Fresh Rottentomatoes on Tomatometer, which is very not rare for such indie film.

'Once' has topped my favorite films of all time. It is one of those films that doesn't need powerful compelling plots to received stand-up critics . The idea of keeping it small gives me perfect guidance to tell stories from the most creative, yet truthful, perspective. Neither Hansard nor Irglova is a well-trained actor, but both of them show the charisma essentials in the art of acting.

Some critics labeled 'Once' as a musical film. Stagey set, glittery costumes, impromptu warbling and absolute fakeness, are the stuff to expect when you want to see musical films, like 'Dreamgirls', 'Chicago', 'Moulin Rouge', 'Enchanted' etc. But, 'Once' gives you a new perspective of making a musical films along with less budget.

When you see a musical film, have you ever felt that some songs come out in inappropriate parts? I have, and ALWAYS being annoyed by that. However, songs in 'Once' are rendered beautifully at the most relevant part in the film that you can think of.

Here's the tracklist for the film:

1. Falling Slowly
2. If You Want Me
3. Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy
4. When Your Minds Made Up
5. Lies
6. Gold
7. The Hill
8. Fallen Form The Sky
9. Leave
10. Trying to Pull Myself Away
11. All the Way Down
12. Once
13. Say It to Me Now

'Say it to me now' is my favorite!

'Once' is a wistful modern romance that incorporates organic and beautiful music together with honest performance by the actors.

Another Tagged post..

8 things I am passionate about:

1. My love to God.
2. Outdoor (esp CLIMBING)
   
3. Purdue Outing Club & Hiking and Camping Club
   
4. Poetry.
5. Being sentimental. (really really need to be emphasized! LOL)
   
6. Gorgeous friends around me
   
7. Damien Rice.
8. .

8 things I say too often:

1. well...
2. sweet!
3. *speechless, thinking of the word to say, while snapping my fingers*
   
4. oh yeah!
5. that is so....
   
6. douche
   
7. that's because the initial format of the file was .ppt but your instructor changed to .pdf, so there's an error when you print them out. I can refund it back if you want.
   
8. do you love it? do you love it love it?
   

8 books I’ve read recently:

1. Fences (play)
   
2. Marat/Sade (play)
   
3. Into the wild
   
4. The World is flat
   
5. The Red River Gorge: A Rock Climbing Guide Book. 2007 2nd E. Ellington
6. ...
   
7. ..
8. .

8 things to do before I die:

1. Explore "myself" as deep as I could
2. Saudi Arabia, India, China, Turkey and Alaska.
   
3. Let the people I love know how much I love them.
   
4. Climbing 5.13 routes
   
5. Playing Hinata Rhapsody #1 Opus 38 for the last time
6. direct a play
   
7. Come back to US and have my last Summer and Fall.
8. getting my own motor scooter!
   

8 songs I could listen to over and over again:

1. Hinata Rhapsody #1 Opus 38
   
2. The Blowers Daughter - Damien Rice
   
3. Amie - Damien Rice
   
4. Farewell - Dario Marianelli
   
5. Wings - Gustavo Santaolalla
   
6. Guaranteed - Eddie Veddie
   
7. We belong together - Mariah Carey
   
8. The Crane wife - the decemberists
   

8 things I learned last year:

1. Climbing is wonderful
   
2. There are so much things I still need to learn. 20 yrs old? Not enough experience.
   
3. What goes around comes back around!
   
4. EVERYBODY is special
   
5. I am too sentimental
   
6. I didn't know that I am a health freak until Laurie and Mark pointed it out!
   
7. How to differentiate kinds of hot drinks like latte, cappuccino, macchiato, espresso, mocha, americano, coffee etc!
   
8. living here, in United States, is not easy. No limit of knowledge and experiences, but they all need trade offs!
   

8 people to tag:

1. Azwan a.k.a. Kocek (oit! update blog!)
   
2. Faiz a.k.a. dwellsinnothingness???
   
3. Farah (Freshman cute dongengnya)
   
4. Timz a.k.a. gamat
   
5. Sureen a.k.a. katod
   
6. ...
   
7. ..
8. .

Spring Break: Appalachian Trail - North Georgia (Pt. 2)

We finally got to Unicoi Gap, paved GA Hwy 75, and we camped next to the parking lot a lil bit into the wood. Practically, we're not allowed to camp anywhere 100 yd near to road or trail, but, since, it was 11 at night, we had no choice. It was a freezing night, which I almost got frostbite! Yes! Frostbite! I had all frostbite's symptoms, but, luckily, Laurie was quick helping me warming up my hands and feet.

The coldness of that shitty night was paid off the next morning when there was a lady approaching our tents, who we thought was a ranger to arrest us for illegal camping, offering us free breakfast they've prepared in that morning. We had hot coffee and warm burritos, which were totally delicious!! On our way to get ourselves shuttled by a local to Springer Mt, Laurie said, according to a book she's reading about AT, those ladies are the backpackers called "Appalachian Angels" among backpackers. They do sectional hiking and give breakfast, or lunch to AT backpackers.
Above is the place where we met locals who shuttled us to Springer Mt, the starting of the whole Appalachian Trail.
On top of Springer Mt. Ready to start!! (Endo said something about Zach's Gandalf Stick)

*I would rather not to write anything about the whole 6 days of hiking. It's not that I'm lazy to type and don't want to share it. It's something that is better to keep it as a memory and stays in my mind. And I always believe that not everything can be expressed in words. Thus, I'm posting couple of pictures taken over the 6-day of hiking*

Spring Break: Appalachian Trail - North Georgia (Pt. 1)

"I started the trip not knowing anyone, but by the end we were all really close."
-Dan Heacock (Friend of mine)

This is my first backpacking trip in United States after 2+ years of not doing it. Although I have been to the Red, KY couple of times which tent needed to be pitched, this trip is considered as the REAL backpacking and camping trip. It was going to be 6 days of backpacking on 54.2 miles (approx 80+ km) trailS, 1 day of touring and 1 day of partying!! There are 9 of us in this trip:

Laurie Duncan (Backpacking Consultant)
Mark Endo (5.11+ Climber)
Dan Heacock (inactive member)
Rebbecca Lindberg (Aussie backpacker)
Erin Goheen (acquaintance of Mark)
Brian Hunter (inactive member)
Ryan Trevithick (Backpacker + Caver)
Zach Seaton (best friend of Ryan)
Myself

As quoted from Dan (Tripod), we started this trip by not knowing anyone except that I know a lil bit about Laurie and Mark before the trip. We gathered behind COREC around 9am in freaking freezing f**king cold Indiana's usual unusual weather and it was claimed by Laurie that I had the biggest backpack, but biggest doesn't mean heaviest. (Somebody's backpack was heavier than mine. I'll prove it later!). We left West Lala-land approximately 1030am in 1 truck with 5 peeps (Dan, Ryan, Zach, Beck and Brian - hula hoop team) and 1 car with 4 peeps(Me, Mark, Laurie and Erin - dee de gedee team).

It was 9+ hrs driving to Helen, GA, which passed trough Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina. Highlights for the driving trip:

• I had my 1st waffle at Waffle House, which according to Laurie, is the best waffle in South and it is everywhere in South.
• We had an accident somewhere passed Louisville. Laurie was driving the car after Mark said he needed a nap. When, we were talking about one of my metal sickness, there was a trailer passed by, and muddled up the snow straight to our car's front window. Snow covered the whole window and Laurie panicked and started cursing. She lost her control because the wiper couldn't get rid the snow as quick as it should to make it clear for Laurie to see the road. The car slid all the way to the left of the road and hit the divider hard! We got out of the car, tried to push the car, but it didn't work. Because all the tires were covered by snow and we didn't have good grips. About 5 mins later, there's a couple of moms stopped and gave us a shovel to clear up the snow a bit. Finally, we got out from the snow. After like 3 miles of silence, in the car, Laurie goes "I think they are lesbians". We were laughing out loud!
• The last night before our trip on the trail, we had our dinner at Ribs in South Carolina. I had the most amazing grilled salmon ever with country gravy and baked potatoes. Surprisingly, that full plate of salmon only costs me 5 bucks. We had a wonderful feast before, nights of Asian food in the woods. Here's our 1st group pic in front of the restaurant.

Spring Break - Sneak peek

"Georgia
the whole day through.
Just an old sweet song

keeps Georgia on my mind.
Talkin' 'bout Georgia
I'm in Georgia.

A song of you
comes as sweet and clear
as moon light through the pines.

Other arms reach out to me.
Other eyes smile tenderly.
Still in peaceful dreams I see
the road leads back to you. "

So, basically, this is my plan for this long-waited-to-come Spring Break. Purdue Outing Club, backpacking division, will be having a trip to Appalachian Trail, North of Georgia. I told Laurie, Backpaking Consultant,not to tell any climbers about my participation in this trip. Randy has been asking me to join Climbers to have a blast at the Red Rock, Utah. And Laurie goes, "They will know about it eventually." and I go, "Nope, until we're back from the trip!" It's gonna be 6-day trip and there won't be too many participants, which sounds good, for those who know how better it is to have few people to do hiking and backpacking in such period.



Georgia!!

Happiness is only real when Shared - Christopher Johnson McCandless

I "met" Sean Penn at The Red Thin Line. After watching his majestic performance as 1st Sgt. Welsh, I began to follow up his "presentation" in film industry. He's one of those great film artists, who started as raw genuine actors, use all the opportunities given and then continue to express the combination of meticulous scrutinizer sensibility and sincerity in arts, into film. Sean Penn's adaptation of Into The Wild has become one of my favorite films.

Information about the film can be read here.
Besides the desire to see Sean Penn's oeuvre, there are couples reasons that made me chose this film to fill up my hours on this Friday's night. Firstly, I'm a big fan of Eddie Vedder (really turning into Country's fan!). His single Guaranteed as the film's OST has grabbed couples of prestigious awards, including Best Original Song at Golden Globes recently. Secondly, Into The Wild is well-known with a lot of powerful and beautiful wise quotes. As far as i can see, more than 75% of the lines in the film touch me deeply and really really make me think especially the final chapter (you'll know bout chapter if you see the film), when Alex/Chris meets Ron (stunningly acted by Hal Holbrook).

On top of all the reasons above, I actually want to see Into The Wild because, seriously, there was one point in my life, it came across my mind to do exactly the same thing as Chris does. Go into the wild. Partially because I love wilderness. And there is a line that could be drawn to differentiate two audience's perceptions about the movie;

• This guy is crazy by going TOO FAR away as a response of vengeance.
• or He's doing the thing that he wants to do. He has all rights for his decisions.
  

This is the picture of himself taken by the real Christopher Johnson McCandless or Alex Supertramp, which sums up the film very well.


Watch the movie and read this trivia.
This is a movie that worth seeing.

Yes, that's him

When his single The Blowers Daughter hit my ears at the end of movie Closer, the melancholic feeling I had about the movie was relieved delicately. And it was not my habit to read credits at the end of movies until I heard this song in Closer. After acknowledging that Closer is his single, it didn't come to my surprise that Cold Water rendered in the middle of the movie is also his song.

I don't wanna post an entry about Damien Rice's biography. All I want to say is how this brilliant and exuberant singer (from my paucity of art sensibility) inveigles my quest of searching the art

side inside of me. Being sentimental (yes! I admit it Gamat!), I don't care whatever people would say about my choice of music. It doesn't mean that I hate those people who favor music genres that are not in my list. Too ballad? Yes, that's how I explore myself. And thank you to Damien Rice for enlightening my exploration.

Critics claim that Damien's music is too depressing and melancholic, which could bring down listeners' emotion. Damien, himself, admitted in Live at Fingerprints: Warts and All (before performing Grey Room)that he wrote all the songs in his new album, with the state of being down or depressing, that eventually let him out from being too much out of control. That's Damien's trademark. If I would listen to him in different subject and same angle of music, he would not be in my 'A' list singer. These are the traits shared by arts (in whatever kind of performances - poetry, novel, painting, sculpture, architecture, music, dance, theatre, etc):-

- Art is artificial, that is, art is made rather than natural (hard to embrace at the 1st time, but ponder for while, that's true)
- Art exists for itself, not needing practical use in real life
- Art is self-aware
- Art produces a certain kind of response - an aesthetics response- in the audience.

Damien's music taught me the last trait
- Art produces a certain kind of response - an aesthetics response- in the audience. Again, the exact meaning of aesthetic response has been debated endlessly, but I have to agree that it includes an appreciation of beauty and some understanding that goes beyond the merely intellectual or the merely entertaining. Just peruse for a while these extracts from lyrics wrote by him, and guess what, they are so much more beautiful with witty and eccentric music arrangement;

" And so it is

Just like you said it should be

We'll both forget the breeze
Most of the time
And so it is
The colder water
The blower's daughter
The pupil in denial"

-The Blowers Daughter

"Nothing unusual, nothing strange
Close to nothing at all
The same old scenario, the same old rain
And there's no explosions here
Then something unusual, something strange
Comes from nothing at all
I saw a spaceship fly by your window
Did you see it disappear?"

- Amie

" What am I darlin'?
A whisper in your ear?

A piece of your cake?

What am I, darlin?
The boy you can fear?
Or your biggest mistake?"

- Cheers Darlin'

" And when you think you've sinned
Do you fall upon your knees?
And do you sit within your picture?
Do you still forget the breeze?"

- Elephant

" Have I still got you to be my open door
Have I still got you to be my sandy shore
Have I still got you to cross my bridge in this storm
Have I still got you to keep me warm"

- Grey Room

" And we use cushions to cover
Happy glands
In the mild issue of our disgrace

Our minds pressed and guarded

While our flesh disregarded
The lack of space for the light-hearted
In the boom that beats our drum"

- Accidental Babies

These are are few songs that left me breathless, the first time I listened to. They NEVER put me into a depressing mode, instead shining the beauty of arts that I have in my mind.