Weekend in Paris

 

“I think everyone who has ever spent time in Paris keeps those memories in their hearts as though it were yesterday! There’s just something magical about Paris.” -  Blog comment –Favourite Paris Quotes http://itsallmaya.com/favorite-paris-quotes/

Before going to Zurich for 2 weeks we already set our mind to spend one weekend in the city of lights, the capital of France – PARIS!  After over 6 hours train ride we are there.  We splurged a little in hotel since its just one night we stayed walking distance to Champs Elysees called Hotel Saint Augustin Elysees the hotel pride itself as an American Hotel but they don’t have English movie channel.

Paris was a glimpsed of idea how people were, there still something sophisticated about this illuminated city making their residents way of life more elegant. There’s more to Paris than meets the eye and yes, this city is bigger than LV, Mona Lisa, Hermes, and the Eiffel tower, being there I have experienced the best of both contemporary and age old European culture and I can’t wait to go back for a longer stay.

The Eiffel Tower

As soon as we arrived, we checked in and went directly to the Eiffel Tower.  I made lunch reservation online at 58 Tour Eiffel. I was so glad I followed my colleagues advised to book a restaurant to avoid the long queue going up and it worked like having a fast pass ticket in Disneyland no more waiting time.

The lunch was superb and the price was reasonable. My friend and I savoured each minute, there’s a sense of pride etched in our faces while munching our meals and desserts and sipping coffee afterwards. Never had I imagined I would see myself having lunch in the 2^nd floor of the ‘La dame de fer’ located in the street of Champs de Mars, overlooking 360 degrees view of Paris in the afternoon.

Coined as the iron lady The Eiffel Tower is one of the most recognisable landmarks of Europe, if not the world. It is an iron structure built in 1889 for the Universal Exhibition of that year in Paris. It is named after its designer, the famous engineer Gustave Eiffel.

Musée du Louvre

Having seen the splendour of the Louvre Museum was the highlight of my trip. What I read and seen in the Dan Brown’s novel came alive and was taken into account. Going back home in flight, I actually watched the movie again but this time there’s the ‘I can relate moment’ after being in Paris.

The Louvre was the central landmark of Paris Louvre Palace (Palais du Louvre) which began as a fortress built in the late 12th century under Philip II, same Philip II of Spain whom the Spanish explorer Villalobos named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas or Philippines in honour of the said ruler in 1543.

The Louvre is the granddaddy of all museums, it has seen a lot of centuries and monarchs, it has become a symbol of art and a mecca for artists and art lovers because it has absorbed and reflects the centuries of change in the political and social environment.  Houses more than 6000 European paintings dating from the 13th century to the 19th century. Its largest collection is of prints and drawings with an inventory of 130000 Including the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and the Winged Victory of Samothrace. Other collections include Islamic art, Oriental Antiquities, Egyptian Antiquities, and Greek Antiquities with pieces that date back as far as the seventh millennium B.C. Indeed the Louvre “exemplifies for the vast public the very concept of the term ‘museum’

Avenue des Champs-Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe

We strolled the stretch of Avenue des Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe on a sunny Sunday morning, there are  few people walking around and judging from how they are dressed,  you can tell they have never woken up yet because they have never been to bed,  still wondering around happily in their last night clothes. This “most beautiful avenue in the world” was vibrant in the evening as we are also here last night, wandering and enjoying a taste of Paris night life. Now a ghost town in the daylight, most shops are closed on a Sunday but many tourist are roaming around taking pictures on this  prestigious avenue in Paris, with its cinemas, cafés, luxury specialty shops (Louis Vuitton biggest shop can be seen here) and clipped horse-chestnut trees now looks fresh in the morning with less people.

In the west of this avenue ends at the roundabout there is a shrine called ’Arc de Triomphe’, built by Napoleon Bonaparte to tribute his victories and one of the most famous monuments in Paris that honours those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars. With the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces, beneath its vault lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I.

Notre Dame de Paris

Sitting in the bench along Champs-Élysées, we reckoned we had plenty of time left and so we decided to visit Notre Dame.  I only heard of this French gothic cathedral owing to Victor Hugo’s published 1831 novel ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ which the story is centred. Completed in 1345 this by far is the oldest church I have ever set my foot in and mind you, mass was still being held, still an active Catholic church, a place of pilgrimage, and the focal point for Catholicism in France.  Notre Dame de Paris or “Our Lady of Paris” access to the cathedral is open and free of charge every day of the year.

The cathedral is very dark, as all cathedrals tend to be. Taking photos inside the cathedral is permitted (except during services). Inside you can feel the strong structure of its parapets, everything inside are remnants of the past and if these walls could talk I guess they have plenty to say apart from Napoleon Bonaparte, who had declared the Empire on May 28, 1804, was crowned Emperor at Notre-Dame on December 2, 1804. Like any other ordinary churches there was the main altar and there are small altars on the side and most of the sculptures are very familiar to me. The statues I have seen are the Jesus Christ on the cross, St. Therese, St Joan of Arc, The Pieta, etc., there’s also the biggest and I’m sure the oldest church organ I have ever seen.

When I was there I wonder why Gargoyles and Chimeras carved in this house of worship but as researched gargoyles are sculptures of animals that conceal rainwater spouts on the cathedral. These spouts direct rainwater away from the walls of the cathedral when it rains, in order to reduce erosion of the stone in the building. The Chimeras are grotesque sculptures composed of body parts from several different animals that serve a purely decorative purpose on the cathedral.

Many people refer to all of the surrealistic sculptures on the cathedral as gargoyles, but in fact only those that are waterspouts are truly gargoyles. The word gargoyle comes from the French word gargouiller which means “to gurgle”.

 

Wicked

“Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better? But because I knew you I have been changed for good” – For Good lyrics – Glinda and Elphaba

I have a confession to make, I reached this matured age never knowing the story of The Wizard Oz. I’m just familiar with the characters and the yellow brick road but never really understood how the full story goes. I heard of this Wicked musical while vacation in LA and watching Glee…sing, sing, sing… but it never really moved me to purchase a ticket and sit my ass off to watch it, I opted for the NBA game in Staples Centre instead.

Don’t get me wrong, I love musical ever since Ms Saigon, I tried to watch as much as I can and I liked them all. When Wicked arrived in Singapore I have to comply to experience firsthand what the fuss was about.

We arrived late and missed the opening scene (The curse of the Ms Saigon strikes again!) but I am not my usual frantic self and regretting my tardiness because I have missed a great deal. I am just ‘unaffected’ as I can be. After having dozed off from watching The Lion King musical http://ellehctur.wordpress.com/2011/03/30/lion-king-the-musical/ at matinee, I reckoned my eyes will betray me and steal some nap time from this one again.

I came late but not unprepared, I have done my homework.  When I heard the this musical was based on the Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (1995), a parallel novel of the film The Wizard of Oz,  I watched the 1939 film finally but sad to say I didn’t liked it a bit, I’m not expecting a hi tech cinematography from a 72 year old movie but  knowing the storyline was shallow – the witch was killed accidentally by a pale of water and the great wizard of Oz was just a man that will ride a big balloon to go back to Texas was a boooo! Thus, I am not expecting much. But lo and behold I found myself wide awake and laughing to all the unexpected witty dialogues. I was hooked with Elphaba, the misunderstood girl with emerald-green skin, and Galinda, later Glinda, the beautiful, ambitious and popular blonde. Suddenly, ‘defying gravity’ sounds better than watching Glee. This ‘chick flick’ musical was really enjoyable and we were all blown away by the fantastic musical, sheer power vocal cords and openness of the actors.

Kudos to the revisionist author Gregory Maguire for retelling a story with substantial alterations in character or environment, to “revise” the view shown in the original work. I actually appreciate Wizard of Oz because of this stage prequel, which tells the back-story of the good witch Glinda, and of her malevolent green-faced rival, Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West.

I will watch this again and this time I won’t be late!

 

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 4,200 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

 

Zurich

Ganymed - Statue in Lake Zurich

“I am not the same having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.” - Mary Anne Radmacher Hershey

My first time in Europe and I get to stay in Zurich, Switzerland. — Zurich is the leading global city and among the world’s largest financial centres, home to a large number of financial institutions and banking giants like UBS and Credit Suisse has a lot of presence there. Not just the largest city in Switzerland, Zurich was named the city with the best quality of life in the world as well as the wealthiest city in Europe.The official language is German.

The A380

For someone who travels, I hate packing, flying, and most especially turbulence but after experiencing the Singapore Airlines’ A380 the latter was not a problem. This Superjumbo, double-deck, wide body, four-engine jetliner is the largest passenger airplane in the world. Many airports had to modify to accommodate it. I was so amazed because for a 12-hour flight the only time the fasten seat belt sign was lit was when we took off and landed. There was no turbulence in between it was so smooth all throughout, this is definitely flying at its best.

The Hauptbahnhof and Landesmuseum

As soon as we landed and checked in at Holiday Inn we immediately went out and check out the town. We are so excited to see the day to day activities of the locals so we head off immediately to Bahnhofstrasse, which runs from the Zürich Train Main station “Hauptbahnhof” right down to the lake. Bahnhofsstrasse is famous for being one of the most exclusive and expensive shopping streets in the world. We were amazed with what we saw, the town’s landscape, those clock towers, and building was amazing and the people are bustling.  The absence of skyscrapers make the sky more clear,  Europe draws the lower limit of a skyscraper at 150 metres The climate is not at all freezing though its autumn we can still wear tees on midday.

Apart from the shopping districts, we visited the Swiss National Museum or Landesmuseum one of the most important art museums of cultural history in Europe and the world. There are rich section with gothic art, chivalry and a comprehensive collection of liturgical wooden sculptures, panel paintings and carved altars

The Raclette

We got invited to a Raclette dinner by my friend’s colleague, Raclette is Swiss dish based on heating the cheese and scraping (“racler”) off the melted part. The term derives from the French word racler, meaning “to scrape”. Traditionally, it was accompanied by small firm potatoes, mushroom, onions and cubes of meat. I was hungry but I actually enjoyed the cheese and bread and though there’s an absence of rice it was all filling. I also enjoyed the dinner discussions as we are being entertained by French folks and a German colleague who functioned as a medium and translated everything in English for us and vice versa. Before the night was over, I learned how to do a proper faire la bise – a French gesture of exchange kisses on alternating cheeks upon meeting and separating. The number of kisses and the side that the kisses start on vary by region but our host, a very nice mademoiselle from Normandy, France told us the proper way should be 4 kisses are exchanged.

Lake Zurich

I think this is the memorable tour I had in Zurich, having beer and chicken on the top of the boat while cruising around the lake. I love the scenery, the swans swimming lazily and the houses enclosing the lake made me felt that Asia was so far away.  The long, narrow Lake Zürich stretches from the centre of Zürich along a nearly perfect 40-km arc to the southeast. The lake’s water, originating from mountain glaciers, is used (after purification) as Zürich’s drinking water. The house near the lake was so awe-inspiring, I felt a pang of envy just looking at these houses, It has the lake for its backyard and the garage has boats instead of cars.

I really enjoyed my almost 2 weeks in Zurich. While I was there I was thinking of a keepsake for myself that will always remind of this trip. I was thinking of taking a Swiss army knife home but the idea of losing it after sometime clings in my head. So I reckoned since  I’m in Switzerland and apart from cheese they are famous for clocks– Swiss-made clocks are still well-known for their quality and reliability, and intricate mechanics. Since I cannot afford a Rolex, yet. I settled for are true Swiss-made watch  and that is Swatch – I know I’m 2 decades late for owning one and it’s one of those childhood deprivation itch that I longed to scratch. In fairness to my parents, when this brand was popular  I never had one because I already had an expensive brand that is more appealing for older folks  so I wore that until end of college, and by that time Swatch is passe.

Zurich is a great place to experience I can work and stay there given a chance. The transportation is convenient and apart from the pasta dishes and the cheese, I’m going to miss the 3 amigos Mexican restaurant in Oerlikon, Mr Wong that Chinese restaurant in Bahnofplatz, and accidentally we are just too hungry we ate at this oldest vegetarian restaurant in Europe (since 1898) named HILTL. But most of all I will miss hearing the sound of the bell on the clock tower near our hotel, on the hour, by the hour… it never failed…

 

Krabi

Giant crab statue- Krabi,Thailand

Krabi is in the southern part of Thailand facing the Andaman Sea. Like our weekend in Phuket http://ellehctur.wordpress.com/2009/09/03/phuket/ the weather was glum and it looks as though a typhoon was in the area and will stay for the rest of the weekend. Note to self! the best time to visit famous beaches of Thailand is between the months of November to April …damn that groupon deals! This is what a get for being a cheapskate! Anyways, we never let this negativity dampen our spirit, in spite of, we managed to enjoy the hotel, the massage and the main street of Ao Nang which is dominated by restaurants, pubs, and shops.

While on the plane for one and half hours, I was contemplating on taking a boat ride to Phi Phi Island for a swim and indulge myself for some water sports and activities but since the climate was not at all pleasant and we tour the islands when we had our trip in Phuket, we opted for Elephant trekking instead which later on was a big regret. Located in the forest of Tumbon Khao Thong, Krabi. One hour elephant ride will take you through rubber plantations and nearby streams. The seat is only wide enough for two adults so the guide has to seat on top of its head. I was in awe seeing an uncaged elephant; they are such gentle giant, so the minute I stepped on its back I was overwhelmed with pity for this calm creature. So pitiful that if a member of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) happened to passed by and threw stones at me I won’t lift a finger to pick a fight. Anyways, as we are swaying to the rhythm of the elephants footsteps so high up while holding an umbrella, we jokingly imagined we now know how it felt like being a ‘haciendera’ scouting their plantation estate. Everything was going smooth until I noticed that there’s something wrong with our Dumbo (Note: I’m calling it Dumbo in reference to the Disney cartoon of the same name) , it loves to eat but only picks the branches nearest to the cliff, I worry it might slipped and fell on us and we get crushed by it (karma much?). Right there and then, I was arguing with myself, I should have rented a motorbike instead of going for this trek. At least with the bike I have the control with Dumbo we don’t stand a chance; it has a mind of its own with a big appetite. Dumbo kept eating and eating, our guide had a hard time swaying it to pace because it just want to stay in a cliff and eat. At one point the scent of the wet leaves and grass changed to a bog of eternal stench because from all that eating Dumbo took a pooh and by far that’s the biggest dung I have seen in my entire life. The last part of the trek is what freaked me out. Dumbo went to a secluded running stream. I felt that this is not part of its routine and Dumbo is the boss of us and our guide can’t do much. Instead of just crossing the running stream, it strolled along the running stream until only its trunk and we are what’s left visible of the muddy water. Though its whole body was submerged into murky stream, its trunk kept tugging branches and small trees are crushing down with every pull. All throughout, I was holding on tight to my umbrella thinking that one of the branches it yanked might include a snake…Oooohhh my imagination gets the best of me when I’m fearful. My friend was pissed because of my negativity but all I was thinking was how to jump off and save her. So this is my first and last ride with the mighty Dumbo.

We went back to the hotel in one piece and made fun of our experience with Dumbo and its giant dung. Our friends are already there from the Island hopping trip so we availed our free Thai massage. This is my least favourite type of message because it involves a combination of stretching and gentle rocking, and uses a range of motions and acupressure techniques. The massage is oil free and performed on a mattress on the floor with your clothes on. It’s not like I want to get naked but I find this type not soothing to my taste so instead of ahhhh…ohhhh…you can hear me say  awwww…ouuccchhhh….No! No! No….

 

Grimm Tales

“Shiver and quiver, little tree, Silver and gold throw down over me.” – Ashputtel (Cinderella), The Brothers Grimm

Last July 21, 2011 my friends and I watched a local play entitled Grimm Tales. I was captured by the poster plus the fact that my friends are into fairy tales and Disney’s. Anyways tickets is reasonable so might as well entertain ourselves.

Every time I heard of the last name Grimm it reminded me of these movies – The Brothers Grimm (2005) which stars Matt Damon and Heath Ledger, the story is more like a medieval ghost busters where the brother and his crew protect townsfolk from enchanted creatures by performing exorcisms. It’s all a hoax as their group are con artists pretending to help villagers rid of the monsters of their own doing until they came to this village where they encounter a real  curse in a haunted forest with real magical beings, that’s when they had to step up to the plate and aid the townspeople. The other one is this Drew Barrymore movie, Ever After (1998).  Having admired the new collection of tales from the Grimm brothers, the Dame of France summoned the siblings to probed about their story of the little cinder girl. Apparently the dame was dissatisfied of the story and when the brothers retort that there are too many versions of the tale to authenticate it, she reveal a glass shoe that had belonged to an ancestral blood line named Danielle de Barbarac and proceeds to narrate her true version of the story.

Jakob Ludwig Karl Grimm (also Karl) and Wilhelm Karl Grimm were born on 4 January 1785 and 24 February 1786 respectively, in Germany. They introduced us to Cinderella, a folk tale embodying a myth-element of unjust oppression and triumphant reward that has been passed on from generations to generation. They are among the best-known story tellers of European folk tales, and their work popularized such stories as Cinderella, The Frog Prince, Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White. Jacob and Wilhelm were really just focused on researching linguistics, and the famous Grimm tales are simply a by-product of the research. On December 20, 1812, they published the first volume of the first edition, containing 86 stories; the second volume of 70 stories followed in 1814. For the second edition, two volumes were issued in 1819 and a third in 1822, totalling 170 tales. The Grimm brothers are responsible for not only fairy tales, but several other works including writings on linguistics, folklore, and a detailed German dictionary.

This play features the following tales from their awesome book –  The Musicians of Bremen, Ashputtel (Cinderella), The Mouse, the Bird and the Sausage, The Golden Goose, The Hare and the Hedgehog, Hansel and Gretel, The Magic Table, The Gold-Donkey and the Cudgel in the Sack. The characters played by college students, watching it brought me back in high school when I had to participate in a drama-class as part of the curriculum. The props are modest but the actors maximized the use of it and the rest is up to the audience’s playful imagination. There are only a dozen of actors or less, they just switched role for every story. The presentation varies, like in The Mouse, the Bird and the Sausage - shadow puppets were used for the performance. If you have ever made hand shadows (used your hands to make shadows that look like animals, etc.) on the wall or have seen shadows cast by a flashlight on a camping tent wall then you already have an idea of how shadow puppets work. The rest are played with storytellers (but no drama, they just sit there narrating casually as if telling events to their friends) and characters dialogue which I think this combination is a brilliant style for presenting, because back in high school we never thought of this style –it’s always pure dialog.The diction was clear and some of the actors are really into character and really stood-out for their part to think they have multiple roles.  In Hansel and Gretel – as the 2 kids was left in the forest the narrator uttered … and  they waited, and waited, and waited… the 2 actors didn’t stand there like a statue, every time the narrator uttered the word’ waited’ these kids pose in different position so as to give audience a feel of them waiting for a long time. I think my favorite was their performance in Ashputtel – the part when she left her slippers- everyone was moving in slow motion and to insinuate that she left her slippers the prince has to point it with a comedic face. The crowd was actually roaring in laughter in this scene. Seeing this play makes me want to see more of the local arts,  It was all good stuff and worth my time c”,)…Awesome!

 

Voldemort Gay?

“Harry Potter is about confronting fears, finding inner strength and doing what is right in the face of adversity. Twilight is about how important it is to have a boyfriend.” — Stephen King

At 10pm of a Friday night of July 15, 2011 we have witnessed the final adventure of the Harry Potter film series entitled ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2’. There was so much anticipation for this epic finale in my circle of friends thus, to celebrate this unprecedented event prior to the release we scheduled to have a marathon from the first film, The Sorcerer’s Stone to the 7^th installment, The Deathly Hallows Part 1. To end everything with class, we indulged ourselves and booked at Gold Class Cinema — the ultimate in luxury movie viewing with a private lounge and plush electronic recliner seats comparable to First Class airline chairs. We had to cough up 4 movie tickets for the price of 1 to better view how the wizarding world escalates into an all-out war for a battle between the good and evil and Harry’s climactic showdown with Lord Voldemort.

I must admit I’m not a ‘raving’ fan of this saga. I stopped reading after Goblet of Fire (4^th book), In our marathon I fell asleep half of the 1^st movie, tweeting/facebooking on the 2^nd movie, skipped 3,4,5,6 and watched only the last part of 7, the part where Dobby got killed. ..sniffed… sniffed… I still can’t get over that drama. So I guess you can say in a wizarding world of gauging my fan level you can categorized me as a ‘mud blood’. Purebloods are those fanatics who avidly finished the marathon from 1 to 7 (you know who you are…hmmm Sugar!), Read the books twice, thrice, following  @jk_rowling, @Emwatson, @Tomfelton on twitter and a subscriber of the mugglenet.

The gayness of Voldemort

Ronnel is a part of the circle of friends who always have a question/opinion on every movie we watched his every ideas/interrogation presented most of the time made sense whenever he questioned the loop holes in every movie. In passing we mentioned that Dumbledore is gay according to the author and here’s the snippet of that statement:

“In front of a full house of hardcore Potter fans at Carnegie Hall in New York, Rowling, sitting on the stage on red velvet and carved wood throne, read from her seventh and final book, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” then took questions. One fan asked whether Albus Dumbledore, the head of the famed Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft, had ever loved anyone. Rowling smiled. “Dumbledore is gay, actually,” replied Rowling as the audience erupted in surprise. She added that, in her mind, Dumbledore had an unrequited love affair with Gellert Grindelwald, Voldemort’s predecessor who appears in the seventh book. After several minutes of prolonged shouting and clapping from astonished fans, Rowling added. “I would have told you earlier if I knew it would make you so happy.”  

Having heard of it for the first time Ronnel was in rant… No, he didn’t have a problem that Dumbledore is gay, he was more insistent that Voldemort was gay for the following reasons:

1. His fixation on Harry and always calling out his name in a bedroom voice… Ha..aaa.rrr..yyy…y.y
2. His selection of  Horcruxes, that dark magical objects that hold a piece of his soul are questionable to his masculinity i.e.:
1. The Diary –  he cannot grasped the idea of a boy (Tom Riddle) having a  diary
2. Jewelleries – really? The ring, the locket and this is a real giveaway… a tiara…gay much? (Imagine him wearing all of these in front of the mirror of Erised… hmmmm)
3. Nigini – A liking for snakes symbolism for fondness of something else
3. Constantly surrounded by male death eaters and shows disgust over a female stalker i.e. Bellatrix Lestrange
4. He is fabulous in black mixed with a hint of green on the dark mark –only a few guys can carry that with so much glamour.
5. Last but not the least, how he hold that elder wand, while Hermione holding it in a firm grip (like holding on to her dear life.) Voldemort hold it with so much finesse… like a fairy…

Personally I thought he was just ‘Emo’ at least the style is sooo 2011 as opposed to Snape who looked like a band member of The Cure from the New Wave era of the early 80’s. Also, I was waiting for Voldemort to develop into full feature of that handsome actor Ralph Fiennes who portrayed him, but it never happened. Partly I say this is also the reason why he got defeated by HP – Poor Voldemort his nose never developed, he can’t hardly breathe through that slit…duh!  Piggy banks has wider slit than his nose…

Anyways, enough making fun of the characters in the movie,  JK Rowling never made any comments about the question: Is Voldemort gay? But I like this explanation better in wiki.answer

Asexual. He has never shown any romantic or sexual interest in anybody and he is incapable of love.

Considering that Voldemort never cared for anyone but himself, it is doubtful he ever formed an attachment to anyone sufficient to define his preferences. He was only in love with himself and obsessed not with sex, but with power. He certainly would not have been above using someone else’s proclivities and preferences against them, but he would have considered anything as trivial as sex to be beneath him.

Voldemort is also incapable of love as he was conceived under the effects of a love potion.

Snape Surprise

Not long after Alan Rickman started to play Severus Snape, J.K. Rowling told him some character secrets about Snape that would not be otherwise revealed until the last book. Most significantly, Rickman was one of the very few people other than Rowling to know (years ahead of the last book’s publication) that Snape had been in love with Lily Evans (later Potter) when they were students at Hogwarts, and both Snape’s protection of and antagonism toward Harry came from that. Rowling said that she shared this information with Rickman because “he needed to understand, I think, and does completely understand and did completely understand where this bitterness towards this boy, who’s living proof of Lily’s preference for another man, came from.” According to Rickman, the directors prior to the publication of the last book were not privy to the information of Snape’s true character either, and he had to ask them to differ to him the portrayal of Snape, whether or not they understood why. – Source: IMDb

Alan Rickman’s Harry Potter Thank-you Letter to J.K. Rowling Rickman took out a full-page ad in Empire to say his very sweet good-bye.

Almost Ten years of Harry Potter — 9 years, 7 months of and 29 days of waiting between the first movie up to the last and some of us cannot probably imagine life without waiting. It was such a bitter sweet ending… sweet, for the characters as they lived happily ever after and bitter, for us viewers because now it all ends.

Interesting facts from IMDb:

1. At the end of the film, Harry has two sons, one of whom he addressed as “Albus Severus Potter.” The older one, never addressed by name, has the initials “J.S.P.” on his luggage. This stands for James Sirius Potter.
2. The filmmakers persuaded Tom Felton to convince his girlfriend, Jade Olivia, to play Draco Malfoy’s wife, Astoria Greengrass, in the film’s epilogue.
3. In every shot in which Voldemort and Bellatrix Lestrange appear together, she always moves so that she stands on his right, traditionally the position of the most loyal and trusted follower.
4. In the story, Voldemort has created several Horcruxes in an attempt to cheat death. Appropriately, his name is French for “Flight of Death” or it can also mean “Stealer/Cheater of death”.
5. Kate Winslet was first considered for and reportedly offered the role of Helena Ravenclaw. The role was rejected by her agent before she was able to consider it, believing that Winslet would not want to “follow suit with every other actor in Britain by being a part of Harry Potter”. The role subsequently went to Kelly Macdonald.
6. M. Night Shyamalan was interested in directing this installment.
7. Filming the torture scene where Bellatrix is torturing Hermione at the Malfoy’s Manor at the climax proved to be very intense for the actors involved (Most of the scene was cut to avoid an R rating in the USA and a 15 rating in the UK). So intense and brutal as it was that Helena Bonham Carter approached Emma Watson right afterward to make sure they were still on good terms.

 

Mime Dance

I saw this in you tube’ and reminded me of the experience I had in the early 90’s.  I was still studying back then and my friends invited me to attend a so called ‘afternoon disco’. I cannot believe I used the term ‘disco’ now I feel so ancient. It’s the same us clubbing but held in the late afternoon until midnight. This happening catered for students and younger audience therefore tickets and drinks are not that pricey.  There are a handful of discothèque who held this event, I remember that the disco-houses will sell their tickets and back then it’s not just an ink in your wrist or stub. Tickets back then are full of graphics, the event title was the latest dance craze that time i.e. dying inside, stars, and always, make it easy, etc. I attended ‘ Kalapana’s disco version of ‘The Hurt’ in the ticket the graphic will show a bleeding heart stabbed by a knife or at least that’s what I remembered. The afternoon disco goers collect these tickets like a trophy to show off how many times they’ve frequent these events.

Though it was broad daylight outside, inside it was dim so party people would feel the effects and the strobe lights that are following the DJ’s beat. Actually, if you are not looking at your ‘swatch’ watch  you will lose a sense of time and would feel an oversight that it’s way past your curfew and your parents are probably looking for you to whoop your sorry ass for staying out late,  that’s how shady the place was.

The crowd and the moves was the crux of the event and it’s as if as though everyone knows every Tom, Dick, and Harry of the dance floor and when the music played everybody was in chorus interpreting the song like the mime. I felt out of place and I felt like I was deaf trying to read all that sign languages made by all those people dancing while following the lyrics of the song and stirring on the beat. The dance moves and sign languages were not in verbatim of the lyrics there’s some comedic interpretations to it that’s make it fun to watch and interesting. Also you can’t invent your own move, you just can’t otherwise, you will look stupid, and the party people were in unison and in chorus of every song. One thing though, up to now I still can’t figure out what they were yelling in unison after the lyrics of REM’s Losing my Religion…I thought I heard you laughing… Everybody goes ha! ha! Ha! I thought that I heard you scream….  Crowd said something blurry to me… Also, let’s not forget that famous ‘ledge’ where the exceptional dancers dared claimed their place for the night to be seen by all and to take the lead.

Somewhere in the web you will read that the venue of these afternoon discos’ was coined by Disco-goers that time as “the squatter of discos” mainly because the place was not located in the business district. They said the disco played “out-of-style” disco music, and people who frequented the place were young fashion victims. Well, whatever! I was a student back then and I have limited resources to entertain myself. All I can say, I’m glad I experienced it before I experienced Zu and Euphoria.

I cannot find similar events to give you a good idea of the rave moves this should suffice:

In Singapore, when I attended a Zouk Out party a few years back I noticed that some of the ledge dancers and  party people dancing on the top of the speakers was making the same move when an oldie song was played. It’s similar to this video. Taken on retrolicious concert I attended few months back. (The intro was long sorry but check out the dance moves of the winning contestants).

 

An Evening of Romance with Jim Brickman

“The whole idea of my music now is honesty and really being who I am. It’s not really something I decide, and it’s not something that you learn.” — Jim Brickman

I finally got to see Jim Brickman live over the weekend. In the past few years I kept missing his show. Few years back, I was in Genting Highlands, Malaysia and noticed his posters there. He will be having a series of concert a month after my stay and I contemplated on going back there just to catch him live but the long road trip back kept me from my impulsive senses.

This songwriter and Sex in the City John Corbett looked-a-like is now “America’s romantic piano sensation” well,  that’s according to him. He was rubbing this to his audience the whole night as a joke. He is the only composer (apart from David Foster)  I know who gets the fame from a hit song when usually, the singer takes all the credit,  brilliant career  move if you asked me and with that he has 6 albums in Gold and Platinum status.

His concert was indeed dreamy and compelling. He tells jokes ans stories after performances and sees to it that the connection was always open between him and his audience. I like how he ends his piece with so much drama and consistency. His head tilted down, looking away from the crowd and putting both hands gently swaying to his left. It was amusing watching him as the man stressing his signature move and it added for his considerable stage charm.

As I mentioned, there’s a lot of chit-chat after every repertoire and here are the items I remembered: He started playing the piano at the age of 5 and did vocal collaborations with artists such as Michael W. Smith, Martina McBride, Donny Osmond, Olivia Newton-John, Lady Antebellum. On one of the Muppets milestone anniversary presentation, he got the chance to do a duet with his favorite Muppet character, Kermit the frog and he actually repeat the same duet performance to us changing his voice to Kermit once in while singing “Rainbow Connection” He was actually good doing a duet alone and mimicking Kermit’s voice while playing the piano at the same time. In addition, he did mentioned he was asked by Disney to arranged a song about how would the prince feel seeing Cinderella for the first time and the outcome was “Beautiful” — this was the title of the song. For his hits with lyrics he was accompanied by guest vocalist John Trones and Singapore’s own singer Michaela Therese but I like that he sang “Simple Things” on his own.

Separated @ birth John Corbett (sex in the city) and Jim Brickman

This was a sit-back-relax concert and Esplanade was a fitting venue for the romantic night. You don’t have to stand up or shout out the lyrics to participate and have fun while connecting to the artist. You will be entertained just by sitting, just but listening. Every tap of the piano keys and rhapsodic melodies was simply soothing that somehow  you will finally understood what it means when they say music is the food of the soul.

 

Surprise!!!

“It may be little, it may be big, but surprises happen when you least expect it. Take what life gives you. Delight it and enjoy it.”— L. R. Haake

According to Wikipedia the traditional etymology of the month April  is from the Latin aperire, “to open,” in allusion to its being the season when trees and flowers begin to “open,”   April’s birthstone is diamond, which symbolizes innocence and also the hardest substance on the planet. Its birth flower is daisy and sweet pea.

Here’s what I know about the month of April – The first day of the month is April fool’s day, when everyone gets to be a joker for at least part of the day. Also, it’s Tax season, the observance of Holy week and Easter Sunday (depending on the year).  William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564 and he died on the same day, in 1616. The Titanic sank after striking an iceberg on April 15, 1912 on the same date Leonardo Da Vinci, one of the smartest men in history, was born on 1452. Last but not the least, it’s the birthday month of Ramil (April 8), Cris (April 1/9), Sugar (April 22), and Badet (April 23)

It’s the year of surprises. It started with Lemon’s birthday March 11. We just thought of throwing him one just to make his day and to make the day exciting for all of us. For this kind of trick, the venue was essential – he always bugged us to go to Timbre Substation every Friday for our usual end of the work week activity but the queue is always long and we always end up in Chijmes and other bars.

I got mine March 19, 2011. Coming home, it was dark but the air-con was on – that was a giveaway but it was too late, the reverberating word ‘surprise’ followed. Friends were there, the living room was spanking clean, balloons and wall decors were all over the place… priceless! I cannot believe my mother was on it and my sisters as well…Yeap, just like in the movies. Two surprises in a lifetime must be good karma for me.  The first one was a top notch –It was a McDonald’s birthday surprise party- adult playing the parlour games and I had burglar for a mascot. This is off my bucket list definitely! –Thanks Friends!

Revenge is sweet and not fattening– come April there are 4 people going to celebrate their birthdays. For the mama’s and the papa’s who made love on September the result is an April offspring and  yes, got 4. We decided to give the surprise in one go, pick one date and plan the blow. As mentioned earlier ‘venue was essential’, we decided a condo amenity where no one from the group resides so we asked help from a colleague outside our group to book us the barbecue pit and lucky us, they have theatre room as well. When it was all confirmed we arranged ‘the lure’ for all of them. We decided that the timing should be on separate hour so as not to ruin the…tadah….SURPRISE!!!

Chivalry was never dead for Cris Sison. He was the go to guy for our laptop and computer issues, very ‘techy’ dude. Apart from that he’s very helpful and ever willing to give assistance but we were appalled when he didn’t take the bait when 2 of our guy friends invited him for a ‘supposed’ photo shoot. The brain child of this brouhaha had to step up to move him. We had to create a drama – a damsel in distress thingy that is need of a hero – I told him I need his help because a friend is not paying up and I need a guy friend to come with me to  their condo  just in case the husband intervene. He gladly conformed and fell from our trap…Gotcha!

separated at birth

I can’t help watching Glee and not be reminded of Ramil Oliveros. He is Cris Colfer looked like– refer to photo attached somewhat turned into ‘bitch stole my look’ segment of Fashion Police on E!  But in this case it became ‘bitch stole my face’. His Favourite quotes “it’s better to hate me for being REAL me, than liking me for being someone i PRETEND to be” An artist by occupation, he is a landscape designer. He can cook, he can sing and he showers a lot 2 or 3 times a day. Our accomplice never had a hard time inviting him he was game for a photo shoot. Come afternoon, He was pissed as it was raining. We can still hear him complaining for dragging his ass into the rain just as we went out from behind the barbecue pit for the surprise… Gotcha! Check out his stuff http://ramiloliveros.blogspot.com/, http://www.flickr.com/photos/ramileonard…

Bernadette Secillano the CPA who worked hard and played even harder. Badet is a very cool and collected gal. She is very fun to be with and loved to be out partying. Our accomplice and her flatmate was really stressed dragging her to the venue  at one point he just wanted to give up and just spill the beans just  to make her come. Her flatmates actually joined forces so as not to ruin the surprise and after few hours more of waiting and tagging she arrived half way of the movie.

Sharmila Castrojas or Sugar as we casually called her likes all things Korean especially those Kpop bands and music. She’s an energizer bunny, she arranged her own after party. She can still go clubbing even after dinner or movie. She was the only celebrants with visitor and it was her boss. We never had a problem with her, our accomplice was her sister who asked her to accompany her to a gathering and she was good to go. Problem was she has a spa and facial appointment that day so she arrived at the few scenes of the movie and the boss’ comments ‘Sharmila’s late even in her own party’.