Parody Is The Highest Form of Flattery: ‘Eat It’ by Weird Al

I’ve probably watched more Michael Jackson videos over the last weekend compared to the last two decades combined.

With the deluge of tributes and obituaries to the Gloved One, watching the iconic ‘Beat It’ video reminded me of Weird Al Yankovic’s extremely funny parody song and video ‘Eat It!’. Back in the mid 80’s it was the first time i’ve heard of the curly haired comedian, and as i recalled won a Grammy in 1984 for this song.

Eat It! by Weird Al (sang to the tune of Beat It by Michael Jackson)

How come you’re always such a fussy young man,
Don’t want no Captain Crunch, don’t want no Raisin Bran,
Well don’t you know that other kids are starving in Japan,
So eat it, just eat it.

Just eat it, eat it
Get yourself an egg and beat it.
Have some more chicken, have some more pie
It doesn’t matter if it’s broiled or fried
Just eat it, eat it,
Don’t you make me repeat it.

Atonement by Ian McEwan

Let’s see… good book made into crappy movies - lots of them. Dune, Stardust, The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, are only some of the recent ones that come to mind.

Good book made into good movies - well, Lord of the Rings, and umm… ah… anyway I can add another one to the list - Atonement. The book was written by Ian McEwan, and the 2007 film stars James McAvoy and Keira Knightley.

I read the book 3 months ago while i was on holiday, and watched the movie soon after returning. Initially I was a little disappointed with the movie, mainly due to three reasons. Firstly i thought that James McAvoy was too clean cut and kiddy to play the part of Robbie Turner. I had envisioned someone like Matt Damon (but British).

(Keira Knightley as Cecilia Tallis, and James McAvoy as Robbie Turner)

Secondly, I felt the movie failed to capture the sexual tension of the fountain scene at the beginning of the movie, which is pivotal to the entire book. And thirdly, i felt that the interview scene at the end of the movie, while necessary to keep the movie from going on too long, was a poor substitute for the party scene in the book.

(the pivotal fountain scene between Cecilia and Robbie)

(the overactive imagination of Briony Tallis ultimately ruins the lives of Cecelia and Robbie)

But now looking back, I’m beginning to see the strengths of the movie on its own, and appreciating the constraints of the screenwriters and directors. For one, casting Keira Knigtley was a masterstroke, even if she appears in less than half of the movie. So too was Saoirse Ronan, as the 11 year old Briony Tallis, the central figure in the story. The Dunkirk scene, a single-shot scene of the wartorn beach is especially breathtaking.

(Wounded and thirsty on the beach of Dunkirk, Robbie desperately waits for the boat)

So for those of you who love reading, pick up McEwan’s book. It was pretty popular back then, you’ll have no problems finding one to borrow, I suppose. Then watch the movie. If you’re not big on reading, get the movie anyway.

Technorati Tags: ian mcewan, atonement, keira knightley

Brylcreem, Code 10 and Vitalis

My father-in-law uses Brylcreem every morning after his bath. The same Brylcreem i used when i was in Primary 1, getting ready for school everyday. It still comes in the small blue cylindrical plastic can, with the lion logo. It still has that blue consistent texture that leaves a sickly sweet smell on your hands long after you washed it.

I couldn’t find a pic of the classic Brylcreem online, but the pic of the current packaging is very different. Once in awhile we used the slightly cheaper Code 10, which I think doesn’t have such a strong odour.

When we were older we moved on to Vitalis, which isn’t a styling gel, its a liquid that smell like cologne. The holding strength isn’t as strong, for that you had to use gel. My brother used this colourless brand that came in a blue transparent tub, can’t remember the name.

I think the ones we had came in a darker shade than this pic.

Technorati Tags: brylcreem, code 10, vitalis

To God Be The Glory By Andrae Crouch

Was at a the leader’s meeting some time back, Melissa was leading worship on the keyboards, very low key due to the small gathering. On the last song, she started on a refrain that sounded familiar, but i didn’t seem to know the words them.

When we reached the chorus, i realized what song it was - the hymn To God Be The Glory. The reason why the starting didn’t seem familiar was because when i was small my home church only sang the chours, without the verses.

A few days later i was looking for the video of the song and lyrics, it was tricky coz there is actually another popular hymn with the same title (a more upbeat one). Finally found this one by Andrae Crouch (probably no relation to Peter).

If you can’t wait to hear the chorus, skip ahead to 1:40. This was obviously from some time in the 70’s judging from the fashion and hair. But inspiring song nonetheless. To God Be the Glory.

5K

The 5,000meter race. On the road, its commonly as the 5k.

Men’s world record - Just below 12 mins.

Women’s world record - About 14 mins.

Both held by Ethiopians.

Men’s Asian record - Just below 13 minutes. Held by a Qatari.

Women’s Asian record - 14 and a half mins. A Chinese national.

Malaysian men’s record - Just over 14 mins. Since 1994.

Malaysian women’s record - More than 16 mins. Since 1997.

***

I tried doing it seriously the first time two weeks ago. Clocked 44mins. Geez, at 15 mins i hadn’t even reach 2km yet!

Last week i paced faster and i dipped below 40mins.

Tomorrow will be the third attempt. Targeting 0:36.

Going Back To Ceylon

Back when i was in Primary 2, we had this Indian classmate (of Tamil descent). He came from a very rich family, one time he took a week off school coz his family went back to visit their ancestral homeland in Ceylon. By that time Ceylon was already long known as Sri Lanka, but somehow our parents and us still referred to it as Ceylon. So for weeks we kept teasing him about “balik Ceylon“.

The funny incident was one day when he had already left for the holiday, a teacher asked, “where’s that Indian guy?” to which the joker of the class Azmi replied “kena tembak robot Cylon“. The Battlestar Galactica series was pretty popular back then, the original Lorne Greene / Dirk Benedict one not the new sexy one. Azmi got scolded by the teacher for his cheek, of course.

Mention of Ceylon or Sri Lanka always conjure up that memory, plus maybe my Form 5 geography random factoids (”Ratnapura juga digelar ‘Kota Permata’…”)

***

Anyway, few days ago i was reminded of it again as the longest armed conflict in Asia had “reached its bitter end“, with the defeat of the LTTE. But most reports also added that the conflict will still continue guerilla-style.

Bata Badminton Master

Remember this?

It’s the same type of shoes we wore to school when we were younger. Well, almost all of us. The richer kids had the Pallas velcro shoes, the ‘mat rock’s wore the high cut variety but this is was the standard.

Saw this vintage series at a shoe store recently, good to know Bata is producing it again.

I remember it was a lot cheaper than RM29.90 though.

Brings back memories of me painting it with Kiwi Blanco shoe whitener in front of my house every week… and using the teacher’s chalk to cover the black scruffs during class.

Puzzle: 100 Famous People in One Picture

This is really cool.

In the picture below there are 100 famous people through history, done in a beautiful caricature style. How many can you name? I got until about 50 then i gave up. Click on the picture or the link below the full size image (its VERY big)…

Click here to see the full size image.

I don’t know who the talented original artist is (I got this mail from Boone), if anyone knows please let me know so that i can credit him/her for it. I’ll post the answers in a few days if anyone needs it

Malim Nawar

There’s a small town somewhere in Perak called Malim Nawar, I’ve no idea where it is nor have I ever been there. But that i’ll always remember the name of that town because there’s where my pal Looi came from. I say ‘came’ in the past tense because 17 years ago at the young age of 20 he passed away.

He was my classmate and friend during my first year in university. He was actually roommates with my good friend Ray, so the three of us became pretty tight. He was a simple guy, from a humble background, a typical Perak guy of Cantonese descent. He was frank and funny, i remember one of the earliest memories was in a Sociology Class when the lecturer asked him what his Chinese name meant, he replied ‘fertile’ and ’sufficient’ coz his parents didn’t really want another child so they named him that so that he would be self-sufficient.

The three of us used to go to the city to watch movies in the weekend, he always wore the unmistakeable oversized jeans with weird green stitchings.

Anyway during the first year holidays, he went on a team building retreat with the faculty to Teluk Batik. Something happened one night while he went out swimming, and he drowned. His body was washed ashored the next morning. I got the call at night when the search was on, and later the second call confirmed the worst. the next day i saw the report in the newspapers.

Everything happened quickly after that. Some of our friends who stayed back on campus during the holidays packed up his things and motorbike and sent it back to his mother in Malim Nawar. He has 2 brothers, one mentally challenged and another, a useless good for nothing (in his own words).

Coming back for our second year, all of us hardly talked about after the first few days. But of course, we all remember, as i do until today.

Yep, Malim Nawar. What a strange name.

‘What It Takes’ By Aerosmith

Aerosmtih fans generally tend to fall into 3 broad categories. There are the new ones from the Armageddon era who think ‘I Don’t Want to Miss A Thing‘ is the greatest ballad on earth, although i find it creepy how Steve Tyler is singing about his daughter, Liv Tyler.

Then there are the slightly older fans from the MTV era of 1987 to the 1992, during the span of albums like Permanent Vacation, Pump and Get A Grip. Then of course there are the oldest fans from earliest days of Toys in The Attic, circa 1971. Yeah those purists that always maintain that the band had sold out since, etc.

But anyway, I’m definitely fall into the secondary category, the last album i bought was Pink. But it was during the early 90’s when i was in college that i really got into Aerosmith, along with bands like Metallica and Bon Jovi.

So what’s my favourite Aerosmith song, then? It sure isn’t ‘I Don’t Want to Miss A Thing‘ - i couldn’t stand it when i first heard it, still can’t stand it now. It’s a little known (to non fans) song called ‘What It Takes’, released in their ‘Pump’ album back in 1990. Most fans regard it as one of their best ballads, John Kalodner described it as a “a (expletive) masterpiece”.

What’s the song about? The usual story of a broken love affair, but you just gotta love Steve Tyler’s take on it…

There goes my old girlfriend, there’s another diamond ring
And, uh, all those late night promises I guess they don’t mean a thing…

***

There are 2 versions of the video, both of which i can’t find on youtube. The one i remember watching back was really low-budget, featuring the band recording the song in the studio. I guess you guys will have to do with this…

Technorati Tags: aerosmith