Stephen Hawking Movies and Concerts

So recently I had this opportunity for a one day job stint as an assistant to an auction event! Never mind the stifling office wear, walking quite abit in flats and being bored to death whilst clicking "next" on Powerpoint for like 419 times (I had to navigate the slides which contained photos of auction items - can you imagine the auctioneer going through EACH of the items one by one?!), for the hourly pay exceeded normal rates YESSS. To be honest I thought it was good exposure because never in my life will I ever step into a swanky ballroom, spending MILLIONS (SGD, wth) on some ancient oriental pottery/spittoons/random animal figures). I really don't understand how some collectors can go so far as to spend MILLIONS on collectibles?

My knowledge of Physics in the cosmology branch is extremely limited and to be honest, I don't know much about Hawking and his contributions to the field, other than the fact that he's a damn smart handicapped physicist with a computer translator muscle detector thing. I first watched Hawking (2004) last year. The Theory of Everything seems to be a hit so:

The Theory of Everything

Amazing movie! Emotions run high in this one, it being a family-drama cum love story. The Theory of Everything gives us a glimpse into Hawking's (and Jane's) private life, directing us away from his intellect, depicting the struggles of the Hawking family as he succumbs to Lou Gehrig's disease (the famous ALS one, the famous Tuesdays With Morrie one [don't tell me how much you like the book, because I don't]), falling in love, and subsequently out of love. This movie gets in touch with his personality and is so emotional at times I won't be surprised if the movie or the actors get an award in the upcoming Oscars.

Surprisingly, there was the whole "God VS Science" notion underlying this movie. Attention is given to the conflicting beliefs between Jane and Hawking, and together with a waned passion for each other, they eventually split up which also meant tear-jerking scenes (I was so affected by Jane's "I had loved you" and Redmayne's anguish in response). A great deal of screen time was also devoted to family-drama, what with having a fatherly figure addition halfway through the movie and Jane's atrophied willpower in the face of a growing incapacitated husband (who happened to be surprisingly virile for his condition, with children coming one after another; No wonder Jane couldn't take it anymore). I thought that part, the in-between part, was abit too draggy, extremely unlike his sudden physical deterioration from a well-bodied man to a walking stick user as shown in the film.

Great deal of subtle hints were made to give us a prelude to his ailing body; how he's slower than his friends (start of movie), his awkward gait, a trip at the stairs. His eccentricities and his intellect was present but I feel not so much especially the latter?  

Even though I probably know little about him, it's so amazing that geniuses like him actually still walk (or er roll, in this case) among us today.

"10 questions, each more impregnable than the last. Good luck, you'll need it."

"I could only do 9"

Overall, an amazing emotional movie fit to acknowledge the humanness of a genius!!!

^ Also check out the resemblance between the real SH and the movie's. I was thinking about how he was already rocking the hipster glasses in his prime at the start of the movie. 

Hawking (2004)

A BBC televised film. From what I remember, this film was not as brilliant. It focused on his path towards his brilliant break-through (which I forgot, and still don't quite comprehend after 2 movies), so it was very physics-jargon laden and therefore equipped with a patchy knowledge of H2 Physics, I don't understand. Jane played a relatively minor role in this one, and it was a happy ending for all.
The film was interspersed with scenes of 2 scientists being filmed about their recording of 'hissings' , which I initially don't quite get the point of, but felt that they were entirely appropriate when the film ends with them.

Hawking's disabilities portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch was pretty inconsistent, I feel. I think that Eddie Redmayne was the better Hawking though.

Well it takes hell lot of recognition and respect to have two movies centered on your life, non-posthumously, under your belt. The best thing about these biographic movies is that they remind you that amazing people do grace the planet, and are remembered for good reasons.

鼓筝风采  Strumming and Drumming Concert

The last SCO concert I attended was probably a few years back. I felt really good to see some familiar faces of my previous instructors on stage. 

There were several pieces played that made me want to Youtube the song just so I can hear it twice, but some songs we quite unrelatable to me and there was one called <<律动>> (The Rythm) that I was unable to fathom the style it was going for. According to the concert booklet, it was about the tiding and ebbing of the energy of the orchestra, with highlights on the guzheng and percussion.

I was too fixated on the percussion because they had a variety of instruments every now and then but on the whole I thought it was an odd messy cocktail of perc instruments playing at untimely moments and therefore didn't fit into the entire song. Idk it seemed weird to me.

<<印象國樂-大曲>> (Impressions of Chinese Music) was an interesting one, I couldn't help thinking it was some OTS for some grand Chinese period drama (seriously, go Youtube it), but it was nice.

 

^ There was <<秦王破阵乐>> (The King of Qin in Battle), a duet featuring my previous perc instructor who got SORELY overshadowed by his duet partner. Love the build up and the absolutely on sync, suave ending between the two of them and the orchestra!!! Favourite piece of the night!

^ <<急急风>> festive Chinese new year type, alot of percussion everywhere-kind (急急风 is a rousing percussion technique)

Percussionists duets

We wanted to take a photo with our instructor only, but I don't know why the other half of the duet was roped in, lol so extra.
As per Quek Ling Kiong said, the 2 perc showcase songs pit Western and Chinese perc instruments against each other, and I thought that was a very interesting concept.

The New Tomorrow - A Benefit Concert for Children Charities

During rehearsals

Mercilessly ripped off FB

I fumbled alot for a few songs especially <<愿>>, For Good and most of all, Le Encore. But you can't really blame me for Le Encore (lol so pretentiously french) because Mdm Chin insisted LAST MINTUE that EVERYONE should be on stage for our encore, when we (perc) hardly have the correct scores. That meant that my first time playing Le Encore (according to a WRONG, slightly different version of the score ) was during the actual concert. Of course I panicked when we were at parts of the song that was not reflected in my version of scores, but thankfully, other than spacing out during the last long note of the song (by convention, timpani should roll), I did not 放炮 anywhere.

I didn't like any of the songs we played for this concert, because they were "modern" music, ("East meets West" music, "Fusion music", fusion fusion fusion). But I signed up for this because I thought it was an opportune break from my deadly SEDENTARY and aimless lifestyle (think pringles and movies), and to do something for a good cause.
Other than the fact I have to travel back to school twice per week, it was good experience as I've never played along with some seniors and juniors who are probably 5x more musically prodigious that I am.

Most importantly, cheers to the organisers for actually making things work!

:-)

Malice + The Hobbit

I've always held Keigo Higashino's books in high regard! The Devotion of Suspect X (go read it and thank me), the first book of his that I've read, became the yardstick for all other mystery/crime books. Reading Agatha Christie's Miss Marple series AFTER reading Higashino was probably one of the worst mistakes ever. Because after all the intelligent traps and killer plot twist from Suspect X, a gossipy old lady whose deductions seem to be painfully milked and concealed for suspense (not working) is really quite unexciting.

Ok I've never read her Hercule Poirot series, so perhaps my impression of her books are abit skewed. But to side track, I must say her masterpiece "And Then There Were None" is brilliant (even if there were too many main characters to take note of)

The mystery is exactly what the title suggests: only 10 people stranded on an island, all found murdered. The 10 Little Indian poem above (corrected version was soldiers) woven into the story gave it abit of creepiness too. EXCITING!

Moving on, the above 4 books are the only English translated works of the prolific author. I'm amazed by all, except for Salvation of a Saint due to its weak plot. Naoko was a special one, because it's less of a mystery and more of a freak accident cum family drama, which still impressed me nonetheless. One thing I like about Higashino's mysteries is that it focuses more on the WHY part of the murder, instead of the WHO and HOW. Most of the reasons are extremely profound and heart-wrenching, and this sets his works apart from the boring whodunnit mysteries that usually neglects the emotional aspect of crimes.

Anyway, Malice is his newest translated book and it costs $29.95?!?!?!
For a paperback?!?!?!

Of course I bought it still. Malice was written differently because the entire novel oscillates between first-person accounts of 2 people, the suspect Nonoguchi and Detective Kaga. I was quite blown away by how the accounts themselves serve to be both the story-teller and the evidence to the crime. Detective Kaga's own accounts become some sort like a balance pole that reminds you to maintain a more objective view, leading you to think logically by putting pieces of evidence together instead of believing whatever is seen (or read). His accounts are extremely factual, narrating what evidence there were and his opinions and hypothesis (not a surprise, because duh detective), but Higashino managed to humanise him by injecting Kaga's relevant past experiences and emotions.

I'm also very surprised how the murderer was actually revealed 3 chapters into the book (there were 9 in total). But of course it's suspicious how the murderer so easily resigned himself and provide his own account of the story, like he's so hasty to get arrested. In the end, many backstories are excavated and you realise that they form the underlying motive for murder.

"Your plan was unique. You had an entirely different goal in mind. You wanted to get arrested. You didn't care about committing the perfect crime. You wanted to establish the perfect motive"

"Yet who would suspect a killer of forging a vital piece of evidence indicating his own guilt of a crime? Truly, that was a brilliant stroke."

Anyway, I felt the translator would sometimes lapse into clumsy expressions. I didn't feel right reading them.

Overall a good book! It's quite scary to know that how printed words can mislead and easily warp your perception of someone.


The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

I was extremely reluctant to catch this movie given that I'm not even halfway through Fellowship of the Ring and that I've not watched the 2 preceding movies. I'm actually still quite annoyed that I'm not reading AND watching in succession lol. To be honest I never thought I'll ever read or watch LOTR/Hobbit series because the plot seems terribly convoluted and contains too much fantasy (least favourite genre next to romance), but if the Harry Potter series could captivate me, then I don't see why I shouldn't try LOTR!

I was expecting abit more action from the titular Bilbo Baggins, because I thought it's called The Hobbit for a reason. Surprisingly, the entire movie instead revolved around Thorin's "dragon sickness" and his turning over a new leaf and his valiant showdown with the Orc leader (while the concussed Bilbo stays entirely out of the battle and therefore had extremely little screen time throughout the movie). Maybe it's because I've not gotten hang of how the Hobbit series goes or something??

The fact that I could fully comprehend the happenings in the movie made me feel that it was pretty much a "one-off" kinda movie despite it being the last of the trilogy. I was prepared to be completely lost with all those ridiculous sounding names (Thranduil, Saruman, Radagast, wth) and places of Middle Earth but I'm just thankful for the last minute research on the characters on the way to the cinema. Except for the beginning, when I couldn't decide whether who Bard was (I thought he was Thorin lol they looked the same: messy hair) and hence had to google abit on the plot. (Visual cues: Gandalf &/or Saruman = less magical Dumbledore, differentiate Hobbits from dwarves is to look at feet, Bard from Thorin, look for eyeliner)

I really like how the different races in the Hobbit and LOTR series have qualities characteristic to them. In the movie, those of dwarves are distinct, even though all the main 13 of them looked the same (beard, ugly braids). The Elves were lithe and lofty and are supposed to be perfect, shimmering in light and stuff in accordance to JRR Tolkien's description, but I thought Thrandiul had the air of Lucius Malfoy especially with his flawless platinum blonde hair.

The melee probably took up more than half of the movie and I got abit tired of all the sword wielding and killing UNTIL the part where Legolas the elf was saving Tauriel and slaying an Orc on the bridge. WOW so agile and good-looking! Another was Thorin's showdown with the Orc leader which led up to the dwarf's death (then Bilbo timely wakes up after being MIA for the entire battle).

I did abit of googling, and it turns out that the giant Eagles were actually considered one of the 5 armies, but I felt they were the game changer in the battle, characters Peter Jackson hastily inserted because he can't think of ways which an outnumbered patchwork army of dwarves and elves could save the day. It was honestly quite a terrible conclusion to the battle, with Eagles appearing miraculously out of the blue, swooping down to disarm the Orcs (not killing it though) and releasing the bear-guy. Perhaps it's my lack of familiarity with the entire LOTR and Hobbit series but I thought that part of the movie was weak. There was also a lack of explanation to what happened to the Arkenstone (what does it do actually??) and whose possession did it eventually come under. And the treasures that the Elves wanted, did they get it???

The movie gave me an incentive to continue reading my book so I can watch both series in order, but it wasn't really that fantastic either sad to say. So far I'm quite into the book and hopefully Fellowship doesn't disappoint!

Reverse-Bungy: Attempt 1

Hilda and I wanted to go on the G-Max Reverse Bungy at Clarke Quay on the eve of Christmas! The drizzle foiled our plans initially so we settled for a good dinner and the sky cleared up abit after that so we bought our tickets ONLY TO BE DENIED OUR TURN DUE TO A SAFETY CHECK. We waited close to 40 minutes for our turn, feeling so excited and nervous watching people being launched into the air, only to end up in disappointment. Tsk. We then settled for a good dinner.

"Wait, my fringe!!!" collage:

"Oh look, they are taking a photo! Let me very impolitely park myself in between them"

Reverse-Bungy: Attempt 2

It was almost exactly like our first try, what with unforgiving weather and walks along Clarke Quay to kill time. 

Post-ride

The G-Max staff were quite funny, severely telling us that we weren't allowed to hold on to anything during the entire duration of the ride and we were actually quite gullible at first. There was NO COUNT DOWN to our blast-off so one of them kept on asking questions like "How long were you two friends for" and stuff to divert our attention but it did not work for we were/I was too fixated on the tightening elastic that holds the capsule. I was SO SCARED. 

Stills from the video we bought:

Instant when we took off, lol

^LEGS!!! The capsule was spinning and it was like we were about to be thrown off. You see how varying leg lengths determine the extent of knee-bending

^I was quite bemused that Hilda was actually making small talk with the stranger during the jump?! Look at me, still too frightened and incapable of speech as the capsule falls (the feeling of weightlessness during free fall).

Finally! An unforgettable way to almost conclude 2014! Next up is GX-5 Extreme Swing >:-)

Chirstmas with VJCO

Gratuitous photo to show off my phone camera and MIKA-designed watch

Great to celebrate Christmas with them!