Apa itu rocok?

(Nota kepala : Penulisan berdasarkan sudut pandangan dan perasaan si penulis semata-mata, tidak mewakili si empunya karya dan produksinya.)

Malam tadi aku menonton teater, terima kasih Cik Azreen.....walaupun aku hampir ketinggalan mengikutinya, biasalah...orang yg pernah fail geografi masa skolah dulu mmg ada masalah ini (speaking for myself only)..apa kaitan fail geog. dgn teater...entah, suka-suka aku je nak kaitkan..huhu..Apapun....

Apa kes?

Merocok-rocok

Sapa punya kes?

Paradoks Production

Tempat kejadian?

Stor Teater, DBP (...kenapalah bagi nama stor...??)

Dari pertama kali aku dengar, aku dah tertanya-tanya..pekebenda merocok-rocok nih? Adakah ia sesuatu yang ganas, berseni atau lucah? Jangan dicari dalam kamus online, tidak berhasil. Temuilah jawapannya pada si pengarah...kerana hanya jauhari mengenal manikam...tetiba je.

Makanya, ganas? bolehlah...sebab ada pembunuhan.

Berseni?...of courselah, nama pun teater...satu cabang seni

Lucah?...err..taaak...sensual sikit ada..heheh

Love. Lust. Betrayal.

Penceritaan berkisar tentang perhubungan. Perhubungan cinta yang tidak kesampaian. Cinta yang bersegi-segi, mungkin. Cinta dan kepuasan cinta. Kecurangan. Dendam. Cinta tanpa pedoman. Penceritaan diselang-selikan dengan randai, yang mana, dari kaca mata seorang yang tiada latar belakang seni seperti aku, perlukan sedikit pertolongan dalam memahaminya. Penghayatan yang mendalam. Aksi bersahaja dan kadangkala spontan, selitan jenaka yang menghiburkan. Secara ringkasnya, seorang jejaka pernah berkasih tetapi keadaan menyebabkan kasihnya putus di tengah jalan. Menemui kasih baru, tapi nasibnya masih sama. Jejaka sangat terluka. Bekas2 kekasihnya itu menemui cinta baru dan membina keluarga. Namun, perkahwinan yang awalnya bahagia tiba-tiba dibayangi kecurangan pasangan masing2. Pertemuan semula dgn si jejaka ini membangkitkan memori lama dan ..... Apabila pasangan2 ini berdepan dengan masalah perkahwinan mereka, keadaan menjadi tidak terkawal dan nyawa melayang. Si jejaka menjadi suspek utama. Diinterogasi, dinilai pakar sakit jiwa...akhirnya, kebenaran ditunjukkan. Mungkin si jejaka tidak melakukannya, ....tapi boleh percaya ke dia tak terlibat 100%?  

Apapun, mintak maaf adik kakak, teater ni dah abis... 

Good work. Tiket RM20? Takde hal...lagi best dari beli tiket rege sama tapi dok nun jauh kat seat atas kat IB...

Studio Ghibli Craze...

I first watched an animation production of Studio Ghibli (SG) when I was a teenager. However, at that time I didn't know the existence of SG. It was Laputa. Many years later, I watched Spirited Away and loved it. Still I didn't know about SG. In fact I didn't remember when did I know about it. SG has produced numerous brilliant animation since 1985. What I love about these productions is the story, and the theme for some of them, because there's a certain theme which I never found in any animation. The creativity, the imagination. Remarkable. Even for the earlier ones when there wasn't any digital imaging or high-tech process. When I found out that my niece have the compilation DVD of SG productions, I was struck with joy and borrowed it, of course. My, there's a lot more good stuff I haven't seen, I realized later. So, all of the followings are the "good stuff" that I have enjoyed so much viewing....

Grave of The Fireflies (1988)

Grave of The Fireflies

This is the first film that I watched. And my, it was really touching. Usually we see animations as something of fun, hilarious and interesting. Well, this one is really interesting...but sad. It is a heavy emotional depiction of individual struggle in war-torn zone. The era is at the end of WWII in Japan. A tale of two orphans, a boy (Seita) and his younger sister (Setsuko) and how they had fought with their lives to stay alive after their parents were killed in the war. The two ended up staying over at an aunt's house, who was kind at first but after some time, when the war was prolonged and the food was rationed, the aunt became hard on them and resentful. Feeling that they were no more welcomed, Seita and Setsuko found shelter at an abandoned bomb shelter and made it as their house. The story ended tragically and I was teary-eyed at the end. There's no propaganda or ideologies in this film, just plain strokes of images telling a story of the aftermath of war to ordinary, simple people.

Ponyo (2008)

Ponyo

This story is very cute indeed. It is about a fish-girl (it's referred to as goldfish in the film) who is very adventurous. On an outing with her overly-protective father under the sea (who was once a human but said to be frustrated with human's attitude in contaminating the sea, he transformed himself to be able to live under the sea), she escaped to see more of the world but got 'tangled' in a mishap that landed her near the house of a cute 5 year old boy named Sosuke. The two just clicked together. Sosuke named her Ponyo. After that, it was an adventure when the father started to look for Ponyo and succeeded. But Ponyo was strong-willed to be with Sosuke that she escaped again, bringing together a massive tsunami that engulfed the island town where Sosuke lives. A lot more adventures as Ponyo transformed into a girl, Ponyo helped Sosuke to find his mom after the tsunami and the finale where it depended on Sosuke's feelings for Ponyo, that if he really loved Ponyo, she would stay as a girl and live with his family, but if he couldn't accept her, she'd return to the sea. One curious matter is that, unlike in other stories where children normally call their parents "otoo-san" (father) and "okaa-san" (mother), Sosuke calls his parents by name. A little odd there, I think. But a lovely story, love knows no boundaries...and forms, isn't it?

Spirited Away (2001)

Spirited Away

I think this movie is well-known by most people, since it had won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature. This fantasy story is full of adventure and good lessons to be learned as it tells the story of Chihiro, a girl, who reluctantly followed her parents into an abandoned amusement park as they found it when they were lost in the way to go to their new house. In a string of events, her parents turned into big, fat pigs and Chihiro was left alone to save herself and her parents. In her adventure, Chihiro would encounter many kinds of characters in many forms of creatures. Topping all that is Haku, a mysterious boy, and Yubaba, a kind of sorceress who runs a bathhouse for gods and goddesses. There's a lot of fun elements in it and we would see Chihiro's transformation from a sulky, whiny and timid girl into a brave and courageous girl with a big heart. There's no true protagonist in this film, since all of them changed for good after meeting Chihiro...(well, I couldn't speak for Yubaba..). Haku is 'kakkoi' (cool)! 

The Cat Returns (2002)

The Cat Returns

Another amusing fantasy-adventure feature where the main character is Haru, a shy and modest teenage girl who were sort of 'emotionally tortured' by her feelings towards the most popular boy at school, who seemed to already have a girlfriend. A courageous act of saving a cat from a traffic accident, led to a series of dumbfounding events afterwards. The cat was actually Lune, a Prince in the Kingdom of Cats. After promising to repay her kindness, Haru found herself treated to cattails, catnips and...mice! The King of the Kingdom, however, has bigger ambitions and wanted Haru to marry his son. Haru was then adviced by a 'beautiful voice' in the air to look for a big white cat who can lead her to the Cat Bureau, where she could find help. The big fat cat was Muta, and although complaining all the time, he did bring Haru to the Bureau where they met the Baron, a really 'cool', debonair male cat. Haru was kidnapped anyway, but Muta, Baron and their bird friend, Toto went to the rescue. They landed inside the kingdom where Haru changed little by little into a cat. Here, the message is to stay true to oneself for as Baron told Haru, the more she lost herself in the world of cats, the more cat-like she'd become. Then the challenge of maze ensued where they have to escape to the portal to go back to human world but the King was adamant in keeping them. Finally, it was revealed that the Prince had never intended to marry Haru. Later, some matters were revealed as who was the 'beautiful voice', who was the person (...or cat) that Lune would like to marry, and who were Muta and Baron. They finally escaped although their effort was nearly broken by the 'crazy' King. After the event, Haru returned as a more confident girl and didn't matter about her the boy of her crush anymore.

Whisper of The Heart (1995)

Whisper of The Heart

Oh, a lovely teenage romantic love story. Tsukishima Shizuku is a bookworm and reads voraciously. She frequents the library and borrowed lots of books from there. One day she recognized the same name in the library card for most of the books that she had borrowed. 'Amasawa Seiji'. It seemed that the person is also a reader as he borrowed many books before Shizuku. So, Shizuku started to wonder and fantasized about how would the guy be. At about the same time, she had a few encounters with a boy who enjoys teasing her with insensitive remarks and made her feel irritated. Anyway, one day, while following an interesting cat, she came across a cool antique store owned by an old man and there she saw a doll of a cat, which is the same as the Baron cat in the "The Cat Returns" (if you watch the previous movie before this one, you'd definitely recognize it) But in this movie, there's no magical fantasy, the doll is just a doll. Shizuku is totally mesmerized by the kind old man, the doll and his store. To cut long story short, the boy is actually the grandson of the old man, and he IS Amasawa Seiji! Before that she learned that Seiji is talented in crafting violins and playing it. Even his grandfather has a three-piece band played together one evening with Shizuku on the vocals. The story revolves so much on the song 'Country Road'. What's interesting is that the two fall in love but very modest with their feeling and just reflect their feeling through indirect conversation. Another interesting point is how love make them feel inspired by each other to find their callings in life. And how sweet the meeting at the end...aahhh, cute love.

Ok, I haven't finish watching all movies in the compilation. Maybe afterwards, I'll find more movies to my liking. Until then, I enjoyed so much the above ones that I watch some more than twice. Great entertainment!

Movie : Black Swan

Depressing. Confusing. Mental madness.

Well, this is a psychological thriller after all. The theme? Ballet. The backdrop? New York. The issue? The talent to play the Swan Queen in the upcoming 'Swan Lake' production.

It's dark, and deep. And at times, intimately sensual. We get to see the main character here is Nina, a talented ballerina from a prestigious company in New York. Thomas LeRoy, who is producing a new version of the classic and famous Swan Lake, is looking for a new star for the main role, to replace the aging veteran star, Beth. Nina, among others, attended the audition and is selected for the production. But for playing the Swan Queen, it's another story. Thomas thinks that Nina is perfect for the innocent White Swan but lacking the energy for the devious seductress in Black Swan.

So, for those who are unfamiliar with Swan Lake, don't worry, we will be educated about it in the movie. For simplicity, let me just say, a princess is turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer and the only way she can be human again forever is a faithful eternal love. When a prince falls in love with her, the sorcerer sends another disguised as the princess to trick the prince and succeeded, thus, the spell remain unbroken and the swan princess will forever be a swan. The only way to break free is by being dead, so the princess kills herself. There's more to this story but in the movie, it stops at this point. For the story's purpose, the same ballerina should play both swans, that's why the selected ballerina should be able to act for both characters.

Back to the movie, we get to see that Nina has a competitor for this role, Lily. We also can see that Nina has some issues with herself and always having hallucinations, which at times are really scary. She lives with her mother who seems to be overly protective (whether that's the effecting reason of her being 'crazy' or the affect from her being 'crazy', I don't know..). Sometimes, I wonder who has more unstable mind here, Nina or her mother.

Anyway, in the end, after getting the role, dealing with her hallucinations, and being a perfectionist, she masters both roles, especially the Black Swan. But will she able to do it all on the real stage? As her hallucinations becoming more elaborate and real, can she differentiate it from the real world? Can she save herself from ..... herself? We will have all the answers and we will know Nina's level of appreciation for her role in the Swan Lake at the end of the movie.

Deep. Dark. Depressing. Maybe causing a little suffocation..

bed time story

..lemme jot down a few lines, before I go to sleep..and call it a day..

within a couple of days, i have a few new tasks to solve
a bunch of blog drafts waiting to be finished and published
a bunch of other 'to-do's as a human being, and a good citizen...blah!

yet at times, i feel definitely bored

we dream
we hope
we wish

when will it happen

a.f.f.o.r.d.
a mighty word

r.e.g.r.e.t.
an ugly word

l.o.v.e.
a beautiful word

i am thankful that there are kind souls who really 'get' me, and accept me for who i am, and never make me feel down
they are not many
but they are q.u.a.l.i.t.y.
i hope, that's who i am too, for them

s.m.i.l.e.

Good night! Sweet dreams....

..dared by ms. christie..

MPH Subang Parade, 15-02-11

I was torn....arrrggghh!!

Going Places : Sanriku Area Part 3

Allrighty..., now we are on the 3rd day..please click on the links if you haven't read day 1 and day 2 yet...

27th May 2009: Ofunato - Kamaishi

Before I started writing this, I wondered myself, why it took me more than one year to put all these experiences and memories in a blog, it's not that I didn't have a blog before. But finally, and anyhow...to say of doing something, or to think of doing something, is wayyyyy much easier than to actually do it. So never mind that, glad that I could write it anyway, let's move on to my story for today....

In the previous post, I left you all in Ofunato, the small harbour town, located on the southeastern side of Iwate prefecture...we did some more learning stuff there before we later moved on to another city, Kamaishi.

the view of Ofunato Bay from my hotel room

So, while we were still in Ofunato, we visited the Ofunato City Hall, we had a lecture there and then together with the resource persons we went to several places to learn about their disaster mitigation systems....

Mr. Sasaki, the officer in charge of our trip in Ofunato

At the fire department's control room, we 'made acquaintance' with some tough cool guys...

These 'tombstones' are actually memorial stones set up as a remembrance of the past tsunamis in this part of the country...

macam batu nisan...

i honestly didn't remember where i took this...

During the trip, I had the chance of enjoying the local sweets...or cookie..er, whichever..called kamome no tamago (seagull's egg) which was of course, not actually seagull's eggs..but made of wheat flour, sugar and butter in the shape of a seagull's egg..it's yummy..

Kamome no tamago

We also went into a forest to look for a treasure...

into the forest..where robin hood n merry men jest..?

The interesting part for us, other than learning and seeing new stuff, was that at some places we had some people from the local newspaper and tv network following us, taking our pictures, and interviewing us for their newspaper and tv news. It was cool, of course. They were covering our stories, about these guys and girls from foreign countries coming to their country to learn about managing disaster. Thanks to our sensei, we get to keep the copies of those newspapers and the recording of the tv news with us.

me being interviewed..with the help of Okada-san in interpretation 
(thank you Titi for the picture..:))

Finally, it was evening and we had to hop on to the next city...Kamaishi...

..there they had more marts and markets..but like the other cities, the place had the laid back atmosphere and peaceful environment..

you don't really need to look up to find your way..

...and tomorrow would be another journey...

to be continued in part 4...

Going Places : Sanriku Area Part 2

(This is the second part of Going Places : Sanriku Area series. For Part 1, you can read it here.)

26th May 2009: Sendai - Kesennuma - Ofunato

Finally, I can move on to part 2...I hope you readers haven't forgot about what I wrote in part 1. As I had previously stated in the past post, I do not intend to educate y'all about the content of my study trip, but just to share with you the things that I couldn't "share" in my trip report, haha... so here's another day of the journey, where we moved on from Sendai City to places closer to the coasts, and farther than the high 'jive'ness of the city.

Early in the morning, we departed from Sendai to Kesennuma City by the rapid train. Kesennuma City is a fishery city and located at the most northeastern point of Miyagi prefecture. It has about 105.2 km coastline which is part of the Sanriku coasts. Here we visited the city's Emergency Management Division and the officers there were happy enough to show us some of their systems and brought us walking around the fishery ports and places with tsunami memorials.

'Hailing' a train..??

They also brought us to this beauuuuutiful site in Karakuwa Peninsula where there's a visitor's centre and near the centre, there's a walkway down until we reached this spot like in the photos below. The view was so breathtaking...with the fresh air, the seagulls, the sound of the waves, the pristine water...Subhanallah! 

 

We were in Kesennuma until late afternoon, then off we went to the next city, Ofunato, by another train. It seemed that we were going to a more rustic environment. Ofunato was peaceful and quite when we arrived there later in the evening. Not much thing going on. We went to check-in at the hotel and literally dropped our bags in our rooms, then off to the supermarket across the street to buy dinner. Then we walked around with our plastic bags, looking for a nice place to enjoy our dinner.

Our official visit in Ofunato hadn't started yet, but nevertheless, we started our own visit, since the signs of tsunami were almost in every nook and corner of this small port city.

one of the signs telling people where to run in the event of tsunami

me foolin' around...

After walking a little bit, we ended up at the port, no one was around, so we hopped on the seawall about 2-3 m high (if I am not mistaken)....the process of climbing was rather dangerous...but fun! The big brother anyway, was happy enough to stay down and enjoy his dinner by the parked boats, huh...And us girls? Never before in our life, enjoying dinner on top of a seawall...with view, the peacefulness, seagulls again...while the sun slowly sets behind us.

Us...on the seawall, enjoying our rice and tempura..

Oh, by the way, the photo above was taken by a curious and intrigued Japanese guy who happened to see us..in that condition. Until now, I am still wondering, what could be in his mind seeing us there.."Are those aliens?" "Are they crazy?" ... However, we didn't notice him until he suddenly popped in front of us and gesturing for permission to take our photo. Then he went. We thought that was it...but later, just as we were leaving the place, the guy came again, with copies of our photos, for each of us! My.....what a guy...

intrigued with the guy who was intrigued with us..

More photos...

'you jump, i jump'...on the tarmac

On our way back to the hotel, it was already dark, most shops were already closed....but this one was still open...and the result...thousands of yens spent on kimonos..well, them, not me..I just bought the little ones for my little nephew and niece..

the very friendly shop owner's family, regardless of the language barrier 

Oh well, another day spent on a faraway place...I put a lot of pictures of my friends here, some of them are theirs, I didn't take as many photos as them as I was more concentrated on taking videos. A little bit lonely because our other friends were in another place for their study trip, but with this little group, we had a very nice time with each other, at ease, more interaction with our resource persons and ...what else...peace!

See ya in part 3!

Note: The gif animation was done using the photos courtesy if Ms. Titi...thanks dear..

Blast from the past

The recent CNY holiday, I took the chance to escape to my hometown, back to my family home...while cleaning at some parts of the house, I stumbled upon two big dusty bags. Hmm, wondered what's inside, I took a peek and walla! There were my old notes and stuff from secondary school and uni years. And some old trinkets, memorabilia that suddenly flew me back to the past.

..down memory lane..

There were name tags and souvenir badges, old birthday cards, "words of wisdom" diary, my journal and school project books. In the picture above, there are Form 1 history project book and KH (Kemahiran Hidup / Living Skills) project book. Perusing those stuff, I couldn't help but noticing my handwriting style at that time and the things I collected. In the words of wisdom diary, there were .... of course, words of wisdom that I came across during those years, song lyrics and a few self-written personal poems, it would be nice to read back all those stuff...and laughed at some, huuhaa..

The journal...yes, teenage girls like to make pretty diary or journal that tells the stories in their life. Well, me too! It's just that mine wasn't as pretty as others, and anyway, I started it during my late teens. I remembered at that time, I didn't want to keep all things with sentimental values in it just inside a box. I thought that if I was no longer around in this world, my mom might throw away all my things without knowing what they meant to me. So, if I put them in the journal with some descriptions (the ones that could be pasted in the book, of course), at least, it would be a treasure in my life filled with things that are worth to be kept and remembered. Yeah, that's how my mind worked at that time.

As I flipped through the pages in my journal, I was quite astounded by the things I wrote and the stuff I pasted in it. Yes, it's ironic, considering that all work were done by myself. Generally, everything inside there is personal-yet-not-too-personal stuff. It isn't as heavyweight as the real diaries that I've been writing almost every single day of my life from primary school right until uni years, which I had 'safely cremated' at the front yard of my house last year. Yes, it sounds quite dramatic...I read them for the last time, then off into the fire. Those diaries had kept my happy and troubled times in them all these years, but I thought that I've had enough of keeping old stories within my life. I wanted to let go and move on.

Back to my journal, there are memorabilia of my school band. These bookmarks are souvenirs from the biggest concert that my school band ever held (and perhaps the only one during my time). It was in my junior year, when we, my batch, were still fresh in the game, hadn't even warmed up with our instruments yet. I remembered donning the all blacks attire, the uniform of the prop girls (bandgirls who are not playing during the event and in charge with helping the playing bandgirls with props and other things). And I also remembered feeling proud looking at my seniors playing the music in a large hall with a large audience...(everything seemed so large for a 13-year old at that time)...

Newspaper cut-outs of the persons that I admired for their talents....

 Excerpts from my Prinsip Akaun camp notes with the teacher's comments in it....(because I admire the teacher..uhuh..)

And...can you believe it...the examination registration no. slip that were pasted on the exam table, I still keep 'em! Excluding UPSR slip, my PMR and SPM slip were there.

   

...and a lot of other stuff, movie tickets, receipts of first assets (defined as camera with film roll...now already in the morgue), articles, old pen-pals' letters, postcards, etc. etc...including stories of my past crush...just silly...oh, those days....Now, reaching to the 3rd decade of my life, many things have changed, emotionally, mentally....but there are still bits and pieces of the past that I can still relate to and I can still feel. In life, it is a process of continuous changes. In moving forward, sometimes we have to look back to our past.

Now, I don't dabble in writing diaries. I just have a blog.
And a pair of ears who's always there for me.