The Lazarus Effect

One thing I hate more than cheap, expected scare tactics in horror movies is wishy-washy, weak supernatural backstory. The Lazarus Effect was a good sci-fi horror movie, but not without its blandly predictable, timely jumpscares and typical suspense scenes. I really liked the plot of this movie and it's very rare that I would like an angmoh horror movie. PLUS, omg it's rated PG 13 only.

According to Wikipedia, the "Lazarus Phenomenon" is the medical nomenclature for a "spontaneous resuscitation" - due to unknown causes - after a cardiac failure. Basically in layman's words, you die for a moment, then you resuscitate.

The movie was about a team of scientists working on a promising project using what they have extracted "Lazarus serum". Injecting it into the brain they end up resurrecting a dog which subsequently developed aggressive inclinations due to its heightened brain functions. To protect the authenticity and profits of their brainchild from the corporate world, they decide to replicate their experiment, only to electrocute one of the scientists, Zoe by accident.

After a series of jarring decision making in complete abandonment of ethics and scientific code of conduct, Frank resurrected "Zoe", pulling her out of her purgatory that was self-constructed upon a traumatic childhood remorse, thereby unleashing this weird demonic version of Zoe into their lab.I thought that the backstory and explanation of the movie plot was amazingly cogent, given that it's a supernatural horror story. Perhaps the sciency part about this medical resurrection which the movie centered around injected a bit of logic that is ever absent in horror films. I guess this was the number one thing which made the film stood out and be sadly underrated.

My only gripe about this movie is how terribly predictable the scenes were. Basic horror film tactics like flickering lights, perpetually dark hallways, sweeping your flashlights here and there... Well they do add suspense but they aren't original. For horror, it's really just those basic jumpscares which you can clearly foresee especially with the typical suspenseful buildup as mentioned. Nothing new. But that doesn't discredit the scare of the movie. I thought it was quite scary? Not the scariest, but it still qualifies as a horror.

Here is Evan Peters dying prematurely. NOOOOOO

Considering I felt a little need to relieve my bladder throughout the movie but still stayed on because I couldn't find a boring opportunity to do so, The Lazarus Effect is definitely something I'd recommend for anyone who seeks well explained sci-fi horror.

Haunted - Chuck Palaniuk

Tsk, doing a review on Chuck Palaniuk's Haunted is very difficult because I've never had so much mixed feelings for a book. It's either a provocative masterpiece, or a disgustingly showy story. I decided to give Chuck Palaniuk a go because I keep seeing his books around. 

Provocative because of its storyline; a "Writers' Retreat" promising 23 participants 3 months of hermitic living where they will write their next best-selling books. Food and shelter as promised, but these 23 people find themselves confined in a grand theatre, hermetically sealed from the outside world.

Structure-wise, the main story (about the happenings between the 23 people) is interspersed with poems and a short stories of each of the participants. You get to know the story behind nicknames the 23 people identify themselves as. 

The first short story, Guts, was on Saint Gut-Free, and after reading it, I initially thought this might be the most exciting book, ever. Though it's highly sexually explicit, it keeps you on your toes, it makes you uncomfortable, yet it urges you to pursue the next page and the page after. 

You can read Guts here.

I guess it speaks volumes for Palaniuk who has the guts (haha) to publish such a disgusting piece of text, because it's one of those things people would either love or condemn. The fact that the short story can evoke feelings of disgust and sympathy for the character takes it to a new level, in my opinion. Digging deeper into my reaction, I suppose the mark of good author is his ability to churn emotions from words, and on retrospection, I realise my favourite books are those that made me think and feel alot. While I do not fancy the detailed expository on "getting off", the amount of dark humor in the Guts is amazing.

I personally feel that Guts was the opening gambit to draw readers into reading Haunted. Sadly, the rest of the short stories fall short of expectations. They were dark and interesting, some were okay, but not as good.

Some good short stories:

Something's Got to Give by Countess Foresight

Dog Years by Mr Whittier

Exodus by Director Denial

The main reason I have mixed feeling for this novel is because of the amount of gross shit it has. Getting your guts sucked out, pulling your fingernails, eating a cat, ok fine, it's provocative, it's good. I felt things were spiraling out of hand in the later part with self-castration, hacking fingers and toes, and slicing a hunk of ass from a live being. That's not provocative, that's just trying too hard, it's bordering on perverse. But looking at the bigger picture, Haunted by Chuck Palaniuk is an excellent satire on human selfishness and greed. These people are resorting to self-mutilation because they want to frame themselves as victims under Mr Whitter's evil machination guised under a "Writers' Retreat", so that their next bestselling book would be about their 3 months torture. Omg, yes take a moment to soak up the insanity of it all.  

From reading reviews on Goodreads, it is said that Haunted defintiely loses out to Palaniuk's other works. Would absolutely try Fight Club. I would give Haunted a 3.5/5. 

Being a model student I am, I gave my brother's POP a miss 2 years ago because I didn't want to skip school or CCA (I can't remember which), LOL I'm not kidding. I was rather looking forward to seeing a collective group of men celebrating their first 2 months of service but when I was walking up to the seats on the platform I felt like I was gonna faint from the bloody smelly fumes emanating from the guys. I honestly had reservations on putting my arm around my army friends because they were so sweaty and smelly and disgusting but after awhile of walking under the sun, looking for people while clad in semi-long sleeves (such a genius) I think I had soaked up the smelliness of it all. But smelly guys are ok ah, at least to Thien who was eyecandying anyone in green. To quote: "You look in this direction, I look in that, we see got any good looking sergeants."

My friend HW, who didn't march at all but still as sweaty yuck

Congrats to all who have 22 more months to serve! :-)

Last Party - MIKA

The Lucifer Effect - Philip Zimbardo

It was my first time actually completing a non-fiction book. A few months back I was reading David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell but it was so damn dry and factual I just gave up halfway. I never liked giving up on books (and that was what made me toil through Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens a few years back, and I haven't touched a classic since), but non-fiction books are really not my thing. 

I deserve a pat on my back for finishing The Lucifer Effect by Dr. Philip Zimbardo. There were some parts where I skimmed through (will get to that) but I still made it to the end of the 500 plus pages YAY. 

The infamous Stanford Prison Experiment was conducted in 1971, at Stanford University. Actually, I feel this connection with this controversial psychology experiment because I had actually stood outside Jordan Hall (whose basement the SPE was situated at) back a few years ago on a school trip to SFO. 

I'm not gonna elaborate on the SPE itself because I assume everyone should have some knowledge of it. The Lucifer Effect details out the SPE through a day-by-day account, and then extrapolates its findings onto real-life prisons. It then attempts to explain the atrocities of the Abu Ghraib Prison (Iraq 2003) whose leaked photos of torture shook the world. The central theme of Dr. Z's magnum opus is that anyone can have the propensity to do evil ("Banality of evil") even if we think it's completely besides ourselves. But on the flipside, it also means that we are intrinsic heroes.

  

One main takeaway from this book is that we must be circumspect when making 'dispositional' judgement on someone (meaning that you see someone completely culpable for his actions, disregarding the environment, or 'situational' forces acting upon him). Like the apple analogy that Dr. Z uses throughout: Do bad apples exist because they are inherently bad , or because the barrel in which they reside in is bad? We like to use the former in judgement making because we like to believe that we have the willpower to resist any external situational forces that can alter our perceived "born good"-ness, and that bad apples are just one or two outliers that prove that oops, He makes mistakes too. 

No. The SPE shows that normal people can morph into sadistic, violent beings with just a flick of environmental switches. Authority, autonomy, appearance, duty etc. It's actually very, very scary to think about it. Like I know I'm not a sadist nor tyrant, but being aware that deep within my psyche lies a sleeping giant that may be aroused by things I do not have control over is really very scary. 

After the part on SPE was the extension to Abu Ghraib. I skipped the reports because there were too much military names to get mix up with. The photos (go google it) are really sickening, what with unnecessary thumbs-up and grins over  flagrant torture and abuse. Dr. Z highlights that though situational forces lies beyond the forces of our control, it cannot be used as excuses for our metamorphosis for the worse. 

Evil of inaction is something I always believe in. It's a reminder to not remain passive when you see something wrong.

And of course, if Man can fall from grace like Lucifer to Satan, we also can rise up to be one of those unsung heroes, because of "the Banality of Heroism". I loved how the book ended with a succinct quote from The Gulag Archipelago (whatever that is, idk, I just like the quote): 

"The line between good and evil is in the center of every human heart."

And yeah, reading this 500 paged non-fiction within a month is made possibly with my lovely piece of electronic. It's just really really convenient to bring my kindle around; on the bus, during work as opposed to the book (borrowed from the library prior to buying my Kindle).

I'm reading Chuck Palahniuk's Haunted now. This page near made me choke on coffee: 

Kindle + Skios - Michael Frayn

I used to promise myself to never get one of those Ebooks because I prefer to identify myself as a no-frills, pen-and-paper person. Now that reading off a slab of electronic constitutes one of my daily tasks, I'm re-evaluating the merits of the Ebook. Expectantly, I had been too quick to disparage the worthiness of this gadget in the past and now I'm starting to regret why I have not given it a try earlier.

I got a Kindle 7th Generation!!! I didn't get Paperwhite or Voyage because I think the functions of the basic Kindle suffices.

I like the entire E-Ink thing, which, in layman's terms, is like one of those kid play toys which you draw/doodle on, and with a swipe, your screen becomes clean (idk what it's called). Basically, whatever print you see on the Kindle doesn't require additional battery or power to remain there. Each pixel has the ability to display varied shades of grey, and so concertedly, they conjure a letter, or a greyscale image, etc whatever.

Screen-Saver mode

The Lucifer Effect - Philip Zimbardo

The Kindle also automatically reloads where you last left off upon hitting the screen-saver button again. I don't off my Kindle because according to other readers on the net, repeated on and offing will deplete the battery more than how prolonged screen-saver mode does. The battery of the Kindle sustains for a protracted amount of time, so running out of juice is something I don't really have to worry about. 

I'm currently only 31% through The Lucifer Effect, and I'm determined it'll be the first non-fiction book that I'll ever finish!!!

Another great function is the highlighting of text so you can revisit your favourite excerpt. I would highlight actual books with a fluorescent Stabilo highlighter but I'd be defacing the book. Also, the best thing that the Kindle provides is probably the in-built Oxford dictionary; so with just a tap and hold, definitions will appear. Very, extremely, utterly suitable for lazy people like me who sometimes can't bother to lift my arms to reach for my phone's dictionary. Plus, the Kindle also automatically stores and compiles all your searched words in a Vocab list so you can review them as and when you like.

Upon receiving my Kindle, I fed it with all the Roald Dahl books that I have missed, a few of Hubert Selby Jr.'s to try out, and also Books 1 to 11 of A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. Recently, I picked up The Penultimate Peril (Book 12)(Only book 12 and 13 are in my possession) to resume the grim series but I can only vaguely remember Books 1 to 11 from my PRIMARY school days. I'm pretty bent on completing this series because it's so morbidly captivating, and the persona of Lemony Snicket that the author constructed through bits and pieces at the end of each book is very enigmatic and compelling. I love the narrative style of this series, it's like you're a part of the Baudelaires' dark and whimsical journey.

The Kindle also has Wi-fi to allow connection to Amazon and online dictionaries. But oddly, it doesn't have an "Off Wi-fi" option, so the alternative is to switch on Airplane mode. 

Great piece of gizmo, idiot-proof and straightforward. In addition, I can finally read really thick and heavy books while commuting to work, and DURING work. I mean, well, the company contract states that the phone is strictly forbidden, but it has no bearing on books and EBooks what. Plus my immediate supervisor turns a blind eye to phones so I presume it extends to other forms of gadgets ah. (Great working attitude, way to go NX)

I think it'll probably take me many months to finish all my EBooks (34, LOL), and I still have approx. 10 plus paperbacks in my cupboard. 

Skios - Michael Frayn 

Skios was an easy read. It's one of those light-reading stories that takes your mind off things, that sucks you into ludicrous situations. An eccentric man with a taste for risks switches identity with an academic in some sort of mid-career crisis spells an entirely impossible but funny plot, with dashes of screwball humour which makes it quite unforgettable. A messy cocktail of lost identities, lost luggages and fish-out-of-water experiences in a fictional Greek island, Skios.

Towards the end of the book there were many things going on at once - the activities of the 2 main characters and their tangled network of acquaintances (who played minor roles) - culminating to a very, very lackluster ending. I mean, since there were so many things going on, I expected the story to kind of end of with a bang, but I was sorely disappointed as it kinda left it hanging. 

But overall, an enjoyable read, purely for laughs, one of those books that seems to be written for a comedy adaptation.  

The Imitation Game + Freeing SG

Caught this highly anticipated thriller biopic The Imitation Game! I was abit frustrated when I entered the cinema because I was a little late.
The first few parts of this movie was like warming up to Alan Turing, getting to know his personality and eccentricities. Played by Benedict Cumberbatch, Turing is depicted as a sociopathic genius whom I cannot help but draw parallel with the BBC Sherlock. "Irascible genius", coined in the film, really quite fit their descriptions; both having no regard for social decorum which lead to comic relief scenes in the film and drama respectively.

And OMG, just to digress, I've been keeping a close eye on #SETLOCK2015!!! I'm completely ruining the upcoming Sherlock special and the 4th season (in 2016 - the woes of being a Sherlock fan) with all these spoilers like:

?!?!

ANYWAY back to T.I.G., I would love to learn the specifics about the machine which Turing built and affectionately christened "Christopher" in the movie, like how it actually decrypts codes from Enigma because I felt the movie won't quite capture correctly the brilliance of Turing without, at least, explaining the process of his mammoth undertaking, which was building "Christopher". But of course the movie-makers had to make something idiot-proof enough to pander to the layman's understanding (or lack thereof, lol) at the expense of showing off Turing's mathematical and engineering capabilities. Afterall, this is a biopic film and it doesn't really matter whether it adheres to historical accounts by the film-maker's standard. Though factually false, the christening of his machine (the actual one was called "Bombe", according to Wikipedia) after a childhood friend/first love does perfectly tie in with a food-for-thought scene as to whether it is possible to humanise a machine. In the end, you could see how emotionally attached Turing was to the post-war vestiges of "Christopher".

Source

The later part of the movie touched abit on Turing's struggle as a homosexual in mid-20th century England which was abit thought-provoking because even after "shortening World War II for more than 2 years", he was still prosecuted for "gross indecency". Is it unfair and offensive to send a gay war hero who saved millions of lives for mandatory hormonal therapy? If he is spared, then does that mean the lives of thousands of other homosexual Englishmen are lesser than his?

SAUCE

Keira Knightley as Joan Clarke, serves an indispensable pillar of support for Turing in the film. A good supporting role too, for reminding everyone his immense contributions towards the end of the movie. I also loved her entrance in the movie and how she defied patriarchal expectations YAY girl power. But I was quite disturbed by the STARK difference in her hair and eyebrow colour.

Overall not a bad movie!

I also caught I Fine..Thank You..Love You, some Thai rom-com which wasn't even remotely funny at all in my opinion. I felt the movie was full of cheap laughs which does not contribute to the plot in any way. I didn't understand how the entire cinema cracked up at supposedly-hilarious scenes when they're all slapstick and unsophisticated. Halfway through the movie I was sickened and annoyed by the movie and was hoping for it to end. Its only saving grace is probably the 2 good looking actor and actress. 

Freeing SG

Freeing SG at The Cathay! I was initially skeptical about participating in these 'Reality Escape Games', because I was thinking how ironic it must be to pay to get locked in a dark room. If you know me, I hate to do things in bad lighting, and engaging myself HALF-BLIND in a mentally-demanding simulation game only brought out half-hearted attempts and redundant comments from me. But I must say that the concept of having to work your way out through puzzles and physical engagement all under the pressure of a time limit is something new. With the red LED countdown timer ticking its way to the end of 45 minutes , I was (well, at least, my friends were) compelled to think on my feet, and solve clues to lead us to the next stages of the game.

A quick search on the internet tells me that the first game we played was "War: The Battle for Freedom". We were basically soldiers trying to escape enemy base-camp or something. This room was special because there happened to be roles for some of us, er, like I was the "Scout" (complete with my personal army green sling bag), but upon entering the room I just surrendered my maps and torchlight to the 2 and a half, over-enthusiastic NS men and let them have a go at topography and morse code reading in the dark. We escaped with about 10 minutues to spare.

The next was "Ninja: The Secret Disciplines of the Shinobi", where we were first trapped in a DARK quasi-tatami room. I guess the best part of this room was this sliding/pushing compartment (which could fit 2 or 3 standing people) which transported us to an adjoining room where we were greeted with a few final challenges that stumped us. We almost made it out in the end but we were out of time.

On hindsight, I think the rooms really had disgusting, mawkish names (lol, "secret disciplines of the shinobi") but the game itself is an interesting break from all the few things you can do while you're out in Sg! Could do with more light sources.

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!

:-)