My "pencil"

As suggested by Twyla Tharp in The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life, this is my "pencil" for now:

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

-The tragedie of Hamlet, prince of Denmarke

V-day

Ophelia:

To-morrow is Saint Valentine's Day,
All in the morning bedtime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your window,
To be your Valentine.
Then up he rose, and donn'd his clothes,
And dupp'd the chamber-door;
Let in the maid, that out a mind
Never departed more.

(William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 5)

It has occurred in my past twenty years that I never celebrate Valentine's Day. (Yes, I chose "celebrate" as the action here). For the sake of respecting Islam I was told not to honor one of Early Christian martyrs, Valentine, to keep my faith from straying away, in general. Thence, had I known in my life in Malaysia not to celebrate Valentine's Day.

Last week I attended an acting workshop conducted by Shakespeare & Co., which headquarter is in Boston, MA, one of the established theater companies throughout the world. Monologue above was recited by my fellow in theater class, Amy, at the workshop. The question of "intention" in celebrating Valentine's Day aroused, when I was wondering my action of not celebrating it. I DO want to celebrate Valentine's Day, but MY intention is not to honor Valentine, may be appreciating my beloved one on the same day as other couples do, or appreciating Shakespeare's oeuvre.

Wish you were here

We all get at least one good wish a year. Over the candles on our birthday. Some of us throw in more. On eyelashes, fountains, lucky stars, and every now and then, one of those wishes comes true. So what then? Is it is as good as we'd hoped? Do we bask in the warm glow of our happiness? Or, do we just notice we've got a long list of other wishes waiting to be wished?

We don't wish for the easy stuff. We wish for big things. Things that are ambitious, out of reach. We wish because we need help and we're scared and we know we may be asking too much. We still wish, though, because sometimes they come true.

A car?

Recently, I've been watching several movies from Sean Penn, Gus Van Sant, Ron Howard and Clint Eastwood. Some of you might notice that most of them worked together in one production or another. Mystic River, Changeling, Unforgiven, Frost/Nixon, Good Will Hunting, Elephant, and Gran Torino are all the movies I've covered so far. Damn! I have no life! Anyway, I don't wanna talk elaborately the style of directions and storytelling by these great artists.

As for Gran Torino, I supposed it's another masterpiece from Clint. For those who always see movies straight to the plots, this movie might be another boring movie. Not saying that I'm really good in integrating ideas of a movie and concluding its premise, I believe this movie, Clint's last performance on silver screen, summarizes Clint's credibility as one of the greatest actors and filmmakers in the industry.

Here's Gran Torino's original song, music by Clint Eastwood, Jamie Cullum, Kyle Eastwood, Michael Stevens; lyrics by Kyle Eastwood, Michael Stevens. It's gonna compete in Golden Globe with Down To Earth from Wall-E, I Thought I lost You from Bolt, Once in A lifetime from Cardillac Records, and The Wrestler from The Wrestler.

p/s: pyan, I don't review movies. I write what I feel and think about movies.

If You Forget Me

If You Forget Me by Pablo Neruda

I want you to know
one thing.

You know this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists.
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.

But,
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined to me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving me.

I stumbled upon this poem when I was doing research about this great Chilean poet. While listening to Clint's masterpiece scores from Changeling, I kept on reading this piece over and over again until it came across my mind on how difficult it is for two souls embracing love.

In other event, I finally have seen The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The movie is stunning. Bolstered by cunningly directed cinematography, the movie has a story about the truth of life to tell.

My name is Harvey Milk, and I am here to recruit you - Milk

Sean Penn, Emile Hirch, Gus Van Sant and James Franco worked together in a film production. What more can I ask for? These amazing people, the artists I admire the most, collaborated together to produce Milk.

It didn't take me much time to look for this movie. Living here out of nowhere in Lafayette, I don't have many choices of movies to see in cinemas as the idea of clustering in Econ370 is not really applied to this town yet. As the overrated Twilight hit cinemas couple weeks ago, it could be said that they show that movie in every hour in every cinemas! So, with the hope of not being disappointed for spending couple bucks to drive down to Indianapolis, me with 2 other climbing buddies watched, a biopic, Milk 2 days ago.

Compared to other political assassinations: John Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, Harvey Milk's could be easily lost in this parade of these great dead leaders, in which also being gunned down, along with Mayor George Moscone, in 1978, couple months after being elected as the 1st openly gay man elected to major political office. But, Gus Van Sant, the maker of Elephant, Mala Noche, Paranoid Park, My Own Private Idaho, or the more commercial ones, Good Will Hunting and Finding Foresster, beautifully memorialized Harvey Milk in his recent oeuvre, Milk.

It all begins when Harvey Milk (Sean Penn) was a NYC insurance executive, closeted and clean-cut. On the steps down to the subway he picks up Scott Smith (portrayed with flirtatious charm by a hottie, James Franco - well-known as PeterParker's best friend in Spiderman). Trying to get to a better place where they can be themselves and surrounded by people who accept them as they are, they both moved to Castro, San Francisco's gay village within Eureka Valley. This is where Milk's political and personal life revolved.

I am no lesbians, gays, bisexuals, or transgender activist. Whatever you think about homosexuals (or politicians), you may find the movie worth seeing. Milk, embodied by Sean Penn in an extraordinary and self-effacing performance, takes the same journey of self-discovery that so many ordinary people must.

What do I write?

I found this link from Doc: Bed Story. People are asking me what am rambling about in my blogs. At one point, I'm kinda curious about what people think about me when they read my entries. So, this website pretty much has an accurate idea about me or my blog, at least. 

Just put on your blog address and it'll tell you about your blog or personality.

This is the analysis it tells about my blog. 

ESFP - The Performers 

"The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves. 

The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions."

 

Wade Robson - Beautiful performer

Pn. Azian, my notorious C++ instructor back in INTEC, always reminded me about a program's robust. I tested Azwan's blog and the result is kinda funny. Check it out by yourself.