The Mighty Mighty CK

The band is back with a new lineup,
and another new member is expected soon.

 It’s been a
15 months hiatus, much spent on our personal life after the last time we
jammed, in which we were still looking for new members. The last lineup took a
downturn after some verbal clashes between me and the old guitarist, leading to
his departure to a new band, which incidentally is doing pretty well.

 He is a
talented guitarist, but the power hungry nature inside him caused a rift
between the band members. The jamming sessions was often riddled with his loud guitar
work sprawling throughout the studio, drowning everybody else and creating an unpleasant
atmosphere, which brings me to my next point.

 Talent is
essential to a band’s progress. Without talent, there isn’t much music that you
could make, let alone giving out the groundbreaking work that could be listened
by millions in the future. But talent alone is not enough. You’ve got to have
the right attitude when you’re playing in the band. A control freak and self
glorification attitude don’t walk hand in hand in teamwork displays, especially
in a band.

 Anyway, he’s
with another band that’s doing well in the local charts so good for him (this
really doesn’t sound like me), and for the rest of us it’s time we move on and
do what we do best: Julian with his progressing bass line, Ian with his mind
numbing off-beat drumming, Syed (he’s new, can’t remember how to spell his
name) with his great guitarwork and me, well I’m just doing the vocals. There’s
nothing much in that.

 I write the
best lyrics when I’m depressed, and right now with the case of mild clinical
depression that I have, I guess there’ll be more great songs coming up for the
band. The jamming session last Saturday was another testament that the band is
certainly heading the right way, because after 15 months, we expected ourselves
to be really bad but it turned out that we did very good, though we are a
little bit rusty.

 There’s
always some kind of blessing in disguise, always.

I had a bad day yesterday. I had to travel close to 100km to a 7-11 branch to do systems upgrading there and as soon as I finished my job, I hopped into my car just to find out that the car wouldn’t start. Turned out the battery was flat and I don’t know anybody nearby that can help me jump start the car. I managed to get the 7-11 field manager to jump start the car but it failed. I was broke (part of being on your own business is that either you have money or you don’t at all because your clients don’t pay on time. Fucking Malaysians!). Anyway I managed to get cash elsewhere, got a new battery installed and reached home safely, all tired and flushed out.

But the turning point of the day was when I was in the store. There was this guy who works there who had Down Syndrome from birth. According to the store manager he’s been working there for 14 years, since he finished high school, and all he does is mop the floor and clean up the place. He wears a white head cap normally worn by Muslim male, and he was a very hardworking guy. I can see him cleaning the same patch of floor at least once an hour, and the store was very clean, compared to the other stores I’ve been. It’s what he’s been doing for the past fourteen years, and should he been born normal he would have been a field manager by now.

As he takes his lunch break, I observed him while he sits at the back of the store where the stock and office was, on a plastic carton, taking out his lunch. It was a simple meal: rice, chicken soup with small chunks of chicken and a tail section of fried fish. It was a humble meal, and a meal he ate and at the same time enjoyed. After his meal he went back to his work and when the time came, he walked back home.

He led a simple but normal life, despite his physical and mental lack ness. I didn’t pity him, I envy him.

We live a life worrying about ten million things: why are our Saturdays and Sundays not filled with fun and laughter, why do we have to deal with people that don’t understand us, why can’t we have a decent romantic relationship, why we can’t go shopping and buy that brand new Gucci handbag and lots more. We complain and complain as we get caught up with life’s rat race and often ridicule ourselves with trivial things that happen in our family and friendship with others. But this guy gets to opt out of the inane courteous formalities which are utterly meaningless, insincere, and therefore degrading. He doesn’t have to pretend to be interested in your back pain, or your excretions, or your grandma’s itchy place. Can you imagine how liberating it would be to live a life free of all the mind-numbing social niceties?

I may not remember his name, but I will certainly not forget the way he made me think today.

The Celebrated Identity Thieves (unedited)

There’s something about preserving identity. First of all,
it’s a tad difficult thing to accomplish, and some even died trying. It is also
something unique that distinguishes ourselves from the others, be from the way
we look, dress or walk, to the way we define ourselves in the choices we make
or the “pseudo codes” we follow to come to a conclusive action. Identity, no
matter how trivial it is, builds us to be the person that we are and always be,
and keeps us in a distinguished realm of our own, at the same time enables us
to communicate better with the outside world. It is our own, even though some
of it may show similarities with others, but different combination and
variations of these traits makes each of us different and unique.

We often see in science fiction movies and series where
humans are being cloned to the last details. One day, maybe this will become a
reality in the real world, given the right tools to Mr. Scientist, he way well
conjure up The Beatles or even Elvis (provided the rumors of him being other
than human is not true, otherwise it’ll make up into a good bedtime story to
scare the kids away). Cloning is a delicate process, not that I’ve done it
before, but the science behind it is practically similar to how people
sometimes can retro-alter their identity. Or is it? I don’t know, maybe I’m
just too stoned to tell. After all, detection is a pretty complicated thing,
especially when it comes to identity filtering.

Then there are the identity thieves. These are the nasty
ones, often prowling with a so claimed identity of their own and then turn into
something else overnight, as if the tale of Jekyll and Hyde is not entertaining
anymore. Well, at least Jekyll and Hyde consists two characters of opposite nature,
but identity thieves makes a mockery out of multiple personality disorder
patients.

Identity thieves lives with a certain dogma attached in
their psyche. It’ pretty simple actually: just follow the trend, live with the
trend and when it is at the verge of dying, cut it loose. The term trend
applies; it could be fashion, community, lifestyle, even their loved ones.
Wait, how can they be “the loved ones” if they can cut them loose in the end?
Well, maybe we are not talking about their immediate family, because that would be
plain inhumane (though the idea sounds very provoking and at times, tempting).
These “loved ones” could be their friends or their spouse, which at this point
makes more sense. It depends on how the trends change because certain
happenings can change the desire of a new identity in them. Most common of
these would be demographics and way of life. The changes in their environment
around them led them in changing with it too. Some may argue with this point
because looking it in another way, we need to diversify according to the
changes in the outer world.

The moot point being here is not about diversification and
blending in; it’s about changing the way you were into a totally different
person. It’s like one of those witness protection program, where you change
everything from your name and your vital details, but deep inside that “you”
still remains, locked. Here, we are talking about the identity we have inside
us, that makes us as us, that distinguishes us from other people, from the way
we think and do things to the way we run the conversation, our daily lives and
the things that governs them. Everything is a chain reaction if we look at it
in a bigger picture. One change will catapult to changes in other attributes
until at the end we lose the entire attributes and convert them to a whole new
one.

Cold? Well, these identity thieves have no problem with it.
They have been living under these false pretenses for as long as they could
remember, changing the aspects of their lives just so they can fit in. It’s a
shame to see them run their live like that, but it’s a pain to see some of us
tangled and be a victim in their ultraviolet, to witness their changes and get
hurt.

People say there’s always hope. I say the universal law is
the best hope. The universe settles the score and brings everything to balance.

Does it?

Jake: She didn’t say anything else?
Tanya: She didn’t talk much Jake. All she said was she wants the kids now, she felt like she’s been robbed of them.
Jake: Robbed?
Tanya: I hate to say this, because Lyd’s my sister, but I think maybe you’re doing a better job taking care of them, maybe that’s why she wants them on her side.
Jake: But what’s it got to do with me? It’s not like I didn’t want her by my side. I love her. I always told her to leave everything behind and come to London so that we can raise the kids together, not like this, when she’s halfway across the globe. I quit, why can’t she?

(Tanya looks away to Mick and the kids)

Tanya: I don’t know Jake, maybe it’s the fact that she wants to do something on her own, to help the family, although I would say they don’t need much of it anyway.
Jake: She could always help me out in my company. I’m not saying that she should stay home.
Tanya: Funny why she didn’t think of it.

(silence)

Jake: Why are you helping me?

(Tanya looks at Jake)

Tanya: Because what is my sister doing does not make any sense at all! Jake, the kids love you more, I swear I could feel it the way they behave in front of their mom. Not to say that they don’t love their mom….

(Tanya sighs)

Tanya: I think both of you should work this out, somehow. Whatever it is, the kids needs you, both!
Jake: Tanya, do you know she….beat me up when she took the kids with her?
Tanya: She WHAT!

(Tanya looks at Jake seriously)

Tanya: No way! She would do….

(Jake was still looking at Tanya indicating that he is serious about his statement)

Tanya: You are serious….but….
Jake: Not the first time…
Tanya: You mean she…..did this before….?

(Jake nodded)

Tanya: Oh my God, why…?
Jake: Do you know anyone by the name of Daniel Carver?
Tanya: Well yeah…..he is in Lyd’s department, friend of hers. He’s helping her out with….
Jake: With?
Tanya: Oh, nothing…sorry.
Jake: With?
Tanya: Look, I’m not supposed to tell you this….(Tanya hesitates). She wants a divorce. Daniel’s helping her.
Jake: Do you know how?
Tanya: I don’t know. She said he has friends in high places, something like that….

(silence)

Tanya: Jake, she mustn’t know about all these…..
Jake: It’s okay, don’t worry. She’ll never know about today.

i’ll talk about the positivos first:

First, they retained back the old soundtrack, which is good, cause that classic soundtrack really resembles the essence of the Superman movies. Then Brandon Routh did an excellent job carrying the mantle of Clark Kent and Superman….well, maybe not as well as Christopher Reeve, but he’s there all I can see him.

On other notes, the special effects and the quality of the production is noteworthy. Details have been carefully attended to, even to the costume. Probably the boots looks a bit silly, I mean how can you fit a normal office shoes inside those big burly red boots? Then again, we are talking about Superman, so all that “faster than a speeding bullet” have to account for something.

The rest falls short from my expectaction.

The plot is bad. I thought there will be a better plot than a rather comical (althought less comical approach from what I’ve seen by the Gene Hackman’s Lex Luthor) approach and plot of world domination by Lex Luthor. I mean we are talking about the guy who is going to be the President of the United States, the guy who almost owned the whole of Gotham! And all we get here is a rather unorthodox plot by him (who was supposed to be a genius) to create a continent using the Krypton’s crystal tech from the Fortress of Solitude.

Kate Bosworth was terrible-utterly terrible: she couldn’t carry the persona of a hardworking and zealous Louis Lane (instead she looks overworked on something), not to mention the depth given to the role itself, which is quite shallow in my opinion. James Marsden played a rather empty role as her husband, and the rest of the cast had a somewhat lukewarm role in the movie.

AND DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED WITH LANE’S KID!!!!

Overall, it’s a good effort in terms of bringing The Man of Steel back to the silver screen, but given his reputation, Singer should have done a better job and the script writers….well, let’s hope they are more creative and less likely to be a comic killer, if they ever thinking of bringing forth a sequel.

*then again, it’s just my opinion*