Eye on Everything

One Block To Rule Them All.. LEGO.T.R.!!!!

2012-01-31T10:22:00.002+08:00

HOLY. LEGO IN A RING, GANDALF!

CANNOT. RESIST.

MUST. OWN. THESE.

Full story at The One Ring.

Also, check out these AWESOME LEGO LOTR dioramas too!

Beer Of The Week: How Could This Be Beer? What Sorcery Is This?

2012-01-19T16:22:00.000+08:00

In case you haven't heard already, there's a brand new craft beer place down in KL called TAPS BEER BAR, and it's got one hell of a crazy range of beers. There's currently about 14 different taps now, with another 20 different bottles of beers. And these aren't even the normal Carlsberg, Hoegaarden, or Guinness beers - these are genuine CRAFT BEERS brought all the way from UK, Australia and Europe. If you think that's impressive, think again... Taps plans to have at least SIXTY FIVE different beers by the end of March. Holy shit that's a lot of beers!

One of the best brands they currently serve is BrewDog, from Scotland, a craft brewery that prides itself on its punk philosophy and awesome beer names:

But more about those other beers for now. Today, the beer of the week is this one, arguably one of the most expensive beers available in Malaysia currently... Behold, the BLACK TOKYO* HORIZON:

Is this even a beer? When me, Shaolintiger and Fireangel tried this the other day, we were wondering the same thing.

The beer itself costs a whopping RM107++, which seems like MADNESS when you consider that it comes in the usual 330ml bottle. Then, when Alvin of Taps poured us the beer, we found out why.

First of all, it was poured into a wine-glass like goblet. The texture was velvety, thick and rich, and the color is almost impenetrable BLACK (we actually tried shining a torchlight through it and it really WAS impenetrable).

On the nose, it smelled of a combination of dark chocolate and er... light soya sauce (it smells better than it sounds, trust me!). At 17.2% and with such a full body, this is definitely a beer you SIP and SAVOUR, not GULP and GUZZLE. Heck at that price you BETTER BLOODY NOT GUZZLE IT!

This beer will literally FUCK WITH YOUR MIND. As I was drinking it, I kept thinking: "THIS IS A BEER, THIS IS A BEER" but it tasted so UNLIKE beer that I swear my taste buds got confused. This is a very, very complex beer (in fact, it was more like wine than beer) - velvety smooth and rich, with layer upon layer of flavors including malt stout, dark chocolate, all accompanied by the syrupy sweetness of port wine.

Let the beer warm up a little (yes you can drink it at room temperature too), and you get more layers of flavour - bisuits, rich malt - and it all comes together in a long. lingering finish of chocolate, port wine and er... soy sauce (again, it tastes better than it sounds).

The Black Tokyo* Horizon is a special collaboration between three independent European breweries – BrewDog (Scotland), Nøgne ø (Norway) and Mikkeller (Denmark), and is a fusion of the respective breweries’ big stouts, namely the Mikkeller Black, the BrewDog Tokyo*, and the Nøgne Ø Dark Horizon.

The beer is a small-run, limited edition brew; and at the time of writing, there are only 10 bottles of the beer left at Taps. So if you want to try it, you better hurry up!

Taps Beer Bar is located at One Residency, 1 Jalan Nagasari, Off Jalan Raja Chulan, Kuala Lumpur (Tel: 03-21101560)

Contraband: Not About Rubber Bands

2012-01-11T16:15:00.000+08:00

Contraband.

Not a review.

No, not Contra-Band

It's not based on the video game Contra (remember that?)

And it's not a new type of rubber band

It's about smuggling contraband.

Drugs, money, cars whatever lah.

Mark Wahlberg.

I still think he's the worse leading man EVER.

He has like, ZERO charisma.

And ZERO personality.

You could replace him with ANY ACTOR.

He has the SAME expression in every movie,

And is probably the most forgettable leading man EVER.

The movie itself was so-so,

Kinda like one of those crime procedurals on TV.

Told from the bad guys' POV.

It's kinda like Leverage,

Minus the witty one liners, the elaborate scheming,

The cool gadgets and hardware, the hot babes,

Oh what the heck, it's NOTHING like Leverage.

Oooh Kate Beckinsale.

Only realised it was her halfway through the movie.

At first I thought it was Ali Larter wtf.

She was so so here.

No Cleavage Rating (tm) cos she didn't show any.

Can't wait to see her in black leather again hur hur.

The plot was so so.

Action was ok.

A bit all over the place though.

And you see the twist coming a MILE away.

Still, at least it wasn't a TOTAL waste of time.

Just wish it didn't feel so much like a TV crime procedural...

An Unexpected Journey To Prometheus as The Brave Dark Knight Avenges The Expandable Django.

2012-01-03T16:01:00.000+08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR! WELCOME TO 2012!

This year promises to be a cracker of a year in terms of movies, with lots of big blockbusters coming up. Without any further small talk, here are my personal top ten most anticipated movies of 2012!

1) The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

FINALLY, we return to Middle Earth!

2) The Dark Knight Rises

I couldn't decide whether I was looking forward to this more than The Avengers, but in the end I plumped for this because well, it's BATMAN. More accurately, it's NOLAN'S BATMAN. Plus, I think I look forward to seeing Anne Hathaway in leather more than Scarlett Johannsen in leather. Ok, maybe not. I wanna see BOTH of them in leather. hur hur.

3) The Avengers

Iron Man! Captain America! Hulk! Thor! Black Widow! Nick Fury! Hawkeye! The only way this could excite me even more is if Anne Hathaway was in it and wearing leather.

4) Brave

After two years of sequels, Pixar returns to an original story about a Scottish princess with a bow, and a bear. Expect lots of awesome looking Scottish scenery, some unfathomable accents, and an awesome movie.

5) The Amazing Spider-man

It may have been made solely because Sony didn't want the rights to the character to revert back to Marvel Studios, but I'm quite excited about this. I've just finished reading the ENTIRE Ultimate Spider-man comic series, and I'm hoping that this will follow the more realistic and gritty version of Spidey (with lots of wise-cracking) in those comics than the Sam Raimi versions did.

6) Prometheus

It's a sort of prequel to Alien, done by Ridley Scott himself. The trailer was choke full of Alien Easter Eggs (Space Jockey! Doughnut ship!), and it looks like Scott is harking back to Alien more than Cameron's Aliens. Hopefully this will banish the memory of those blast AVP movies forever...

7) Men In Black III

At first I was like "MEH", then I saw the trailer and I was like "WHOA, JOSH BROLIN AS TOMMY LEE JONES!"

8) Django Unchained

Quentin Tarantino directing a Western starring *deep breathe* Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Sacha Baron Cohen, Don Johnson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and many more. What's not to look forward to?

9) Skyfall

James Bond #23, Daniel Craig Bond #3. Hopefully will not feature Bond running around like a little headless chicken screaming that the sky is falling.

10) The Expendables 2

Go watch it or Chuck Norris will make sure YOU are expendable.

Best of 2011: Movie Magic and Cleavage Ratings

2011-12-29T13:00:00.000+08:00

2011 was a strange movie year for me. In past years, I've always had a clear cut favorite movie that I would put on top of my list without hesitation. Most of these were Pixar movies, of course, but this year, Cars 2 just did not grip me as much as Up, WALL-E or Toy Story 3 did in the past couple of years. All the same, I've plumped for quite a number of animated features in the list, because I'm still a kid at heart, so sue me. Animation somehow captures my imagination more than live action movies. And as usual, I still prefer mainstream movies to the heavier, Oscar worthy stuff, so if you're looking for serious movies on this list, go away.

Anyway, in a year with no clear cut favorites, I've decided to go for the movie that I enjoyed the most, from start to finish, and which funnily enough, does have a Pixar connection to it as well. Yup, I'm going for THIS movie as my top movie of the year:

1) Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
The plot may have been flimsy, but the action was superb, the pacing was relentless, the thrills were actually thrilling, and it was actually quite funny too. For once, Tom Cruise let the team help out more, and he even got his fair share of knocks. The main reason I put this on top however, is because I actually enjoyed the entire movie from start to finish, and left the movie wanting to watch it again immediately after that, which was probably the only time I felt that way this year (oh wait, I did for Transformers as well...)
Favorite scene: THAT vertigo-inducing scene outside the Burj Khalifa. It had thrills, action, comedy, great one-liners, and Tom Cruise whacking his head on a window. WIN!

And now, here are the rest of my top ten favorite movies of the year (as usual, the links lead to the Movie Not Reviews I did on the movies):

2) Kungfu Panda 2
After I watched this, I predicted that this would be the year that Dreamworks beats Pixar not just in the box office, but critically as well. I was right. Cars 2 was entertaining enough, but it sputtered somewhat by focusing too much on Mater. This sequel however, saw an already well-liked, established character being let loose to do what he does best. The action was brilliant, the 3D was superb, and there's just something about animals fighting kungfu that just... WORKS.
Favorite scene: almost all the kungfu fighting sequences, actually.

3) X-Men: First Class
After the dreadful X-Men: Last Stand, this was a welcome return to the X-Men franchise, rebooting the whole thing with Professor X and Magneto as young men. Michael Fassbender was an EXCELLENT Magneto, while James McAvoy actually made the usually goody goody noble Prof X cool and roguish. Too bad Kevin Bacon's Sebastian Shaw and January Jones' Emma Frost were so forgettable though (though the latter had other er... assets to flaunt hur hur). Bonus brownie points for Wolverine's cameo too!
Favorite scene: Magneto pushes a coin SLOWLY through Shaw's brain. What a horrible, horrible way to die.

4) Captain America: ~~World Policeman~~ The First Avenger
Of the two pre-Avengers movies this year, this one felt more complete and less comic book-like to me. Thor was always going to be a hard sell, but here, Joe Johnston actually made a great decision sticking to Captain America's origin story and basing the entire movie in World War II.
Favorite scene: "I'm not kissing you!"

5) Rango
A cowboy movie with a chameleon in the lead, and awesome ensemble of characters, and some darn good animation. Way better than Cowboys and Aliens (the other big-budget 'Western" this year) One of the most fun movies of the year, animated or otherwise. The Pirates franchise should have kept Gore Verbinski on.
Favorite scene: The bonkers chase scene between the moles and Rango's posse.

6) Cars 2
It may not have been my favorite of the year, but Pixar has always been consistently good for me, and I have a great deal of sentimentality for the Cars franchise. This sequel may have been made out of a desire to sell more toys, but I loved it for the fact that it was so different from the first movie.
Favorite scene: The opening scene introducing Finn McMissile. It's like James Bond's car decided to eject 007 and take over the mission instead.

7) Transformers: Dark Of The Moon
Yes yes, I'm a sucker for Transformers movies. This one may not have been the awesome fest that the first one was, but it is the movie that SHOULD have followed up the first one, not that insipid metal-ball banging Revenge Of the Fallen. Also deserves mention for some great 3D action. Minus points for casting Rosie Hungtinton-Whitely, who may be hot but was just plain annoying, and is an even worse actor than Megan Fox.
Favorite scene: Almost every scene with Optimus Prime in it, of course.

8) Nasi Lemak 2.0
It's not without its flaws, but this was the most hilariously MALAYSIAN movie I've seen in years. MALAYSIAN, mind you, not Malay, Chinese or 1Malaysia - this is a MALAYSIAN movie that probably only Malaysians would understand, and not just if you're from one race. Why can't more Malaysian movies be like this?
Favorite scene: "Who care you no money yo / Please don’t judge me wrongly / We no need eat baoyu yo / We can eat wan tan mee..."

9) Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes
When I finally watched this on the TV, I immediately regretted not watching it in the cinema. The visual effects were stunning, the story was compelling, and Andy Serkis' deserves an Oscar for his motion capture role as Caesar.
Favorite Scene: Caesar standing defiantly on top of a San Francisco tram car with his three lieutenants - an alpha male chimpanzee, a gorilla and an orang-utan. Never mind the Avengers, here come the Apevengers!

10) Puss In Boots
Between Kungfu Panda 2 and this, this was truly Dreamworks' year. This spin-off blew the last two Shrek movies out of Never-Never Land into Never Again Land, and underlined Puss In Boots as THE best character in the ENTIRE Shrek franchise. Also helped that the story was decent, and did not rely too much on cheap and lame pop culture spoofs.
Favorite Scene: The dance-off between Puss and Kitty Soft Paws

Honorable mentions

Attack The Block - Aliens + British gangster wannabe kids = Believe!
Bridesmaids - A bride in a wedding dress taking a shit by the road. Best "romantic comedy" EVER.
Cowboys And Aliens - The execution wasn't as great as the idea, but David Craig is a GREAT cowboy.
Drive - Bravo, Ryan Gosling. Bravo.
Fast Five - Completely nutso, but props for reinventing itself into a heist movie.
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, Part 2: WHAT A WAY TO GO, Harry Potter.
Paul - It's probing time!
Real Steel - Probably the best and most heart-warming robot story of the year.
Senna - Poignant, emotional, and utterly compelling. Brilliant documentary about a brilliant driver.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows - RDJ's Sherlock is still the coolest, ass-kicking incarnation ever.
Source Code - WHOA, MINDFUCK!
Super 8 - The American kids vs aliens movie. Really really good too.
The Adventures of Tintin - THUNDERING TYPHOONS! THIS IS TIP-TOP!
The Muppets - It's the MUPPETS! THE MUPPETS!
Thor - Great prelude to Avengers, but a little TOO cheesy at times.

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Biggest Wastes Of Time Of The Year

Conan The Barbarian - GRRRRRRRRR SMASH STUPID MOVIE!
Green Lantern - Even The Muppet's parody trailer was more entertaining than this entire movie
Pirates of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - What a mess, what a waste.
Priest - Paul Bettany, get a new director to work with.
Sucker Punch - I felt like a sucker after watching this
The Sorcerer And The White Snake. 白蛇傳說之法海 - Don't even bother downloading this piece of shit.

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Cleavage Rating Chart:

January Jones (X-Men: First Class) - Complete waste of a great character, but at least her costume stayed true to er... form. Hur hur
Gal Gadot (Fast Five) - Didn't do much, but we got to see her in a bikini whee!
Rosie Huntington-Whitely (Transformers: Dark Of the Moon) - Can't act for nuts, but hey, she wasn't hired to ACT, was she?
Hayley Atwell (Captain America) - Not so much of a Cleavage Rating than an "Awesome Boobage in Uniform" rating.
Jamie Chung (Sucker Punch) - The only good thing about this stupid movie was the eye candy.

Best of 2011: Musiclarity Moments and Ceremonials

2011-12-28T11:59:00.000+08:00

In a year full of big-name releases (Coldplay, Radiohead, The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys, Death Cab For Cutie, Wilco, Bjork, Snow Patrol, REM, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Feist, Fleet Foxes all had new albums), it was Florence + The Machines' Ceremonials that stood out the most for me. I tend to rate albums by how many songs I like in it and how long I can listen to it on loop without getting sick of it; and after three months of being stuck in my car's CD player, I am STILL not sick of the album. It was the same with Adele's 21 and Coldplay's album as well, but in the end, Florence won out because it had the least number of songs I pressed "Skip" on.

Foo Fighters, The Black Keys and The Vaccines also rate very high here because these are just some of the best headbanging, good old rock 'n' roll albums of the year. Radiohead is inevitably in the top ten because while it is not as accessible as most of their earlier work, it is still a great album as a whole IMHO, and I still listened to it on loop A LOT. In contrast, PJ Harvey's Let England Shake may have been very well-acclaimed, but I couldn't bear to listen to it for too long. I'm mainstream like that, so sue me.

Here are my top 20 albums of the year then:

Ceremonials (Florence And the Machine)
21 (Adele)
Mylo Xyloto (Coldplay)
Wasting Light (Foo Fighters)
El Camino (The Black Keys)
The King Is Dead (The Decemberists)
Build A Rocket, Boys! (Elbow)
What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? (The Vaccines)
Metals (Feist)
King Of Limbs (Radiohead)
Prisoner (The Jezabels)
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds (Noel Gallagher)
Helplessness Blues (Fleet Foxes)
EUPHORIC /// HEARTBREAK \\\ (Glasvegas)
Bon Iver (Bon Iver)
A Creature I Don't Know (Laura Marling)
Last Night On Earth (Noah And The Whale)
Bread And Circuses (The View)
Kosciuszko (Jebediah)
The Whole Love (Wilco)

Notable mentions:

A Different Kind Of Fix (Bombay Bicycle Club)
Blood Pressures (The Kills)
Chesapeake (Rachael Yamagata)
Cults (Cults)
Fallen Empires (Snow Patrol)
Ghostbird (Zee Avi)
Going Out In Style (Dropkick Murphys)
Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will (Mogwai)
Hotel Shampoo (Gruff Rhys)
Kiss Each Other Clean (Iron & Wine)
Let England Shake (PJ Harvey)
Nine Types Of Light (TV On The Radio)
Skying (The Horrors)
So Beautiful or So What (Paul Simon)
Valhalla Dancehall (British Sea Power)
Velociraptor! (Kasabian)
Year of the Wolf (Nerina Pallot)
Yuck (Yuck)

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Top 10 Favorite songs of 2011

1) All This And Heaven Too (Florence And the Machine)

Did you know that Florence Welch was diagnosed with dyslexia before? With that in mind, consider the lyrics of this song, which is about how "Poor language doesn't deserve such treatment" and how "All these words are all escaping and coming back all damaged"... it gives the entire song an additional emotional heft that when coupled with the rising verses, the soaring chorus and the wonderfully flowing, longingly glorious outro, makes this in my humble opinion, the most underrated yet most emotional song in Ceremonials. Glorious, simply glorious.

2) June Hymn (The Decemberists)
Quietly understated, amazingly melodic, and with beautifully written lyrics that roll off your tongue like poetry honey. It's been a long time since I've been so motivated to learn the lyrics to a song.

3) Someone Like You (Adele)
It may have been overplayed to death, but that doesn't change the fact that it is still an epic ballad, with some very sad, sad lyrics, and Adele's voice at her most yearning and melancholic yet. When I first got Adele's album, this song was the one that stood out the most in an album full of pretty damn good songs. Heck, I'm happy that I managed to overplay it to death BEFORE everyone else started overplaying it to death.

4) Shake It Out (Florence And The Machine)
The most obvious hit single from Ceremonials, but it's the most uplifting and soaring single you'll ever hear this year. I love it most for the way she sings the lyrics "I am done with my graceless heart, so tonight I'm gonna cut it out and then restart" so resolutely that you can practically feel her determination to restart.

5) Dear Rosemary (Foo Fighters)

The best song on Wasting Light, the rousing intro, the battling guitars, the frenetic build-up, the soaring chorus, and the mid song bridge with Bob Mould makes this a song that just COMPELS you to turn the volume up to 11 and start headbanging.

6) Charlie Brown (Coldplay)
I first heard them play it live at Splendor In The Grass, and the hook riff just er.. hooked me from the start. Afterwards, I couldn't get it out of my head and kept wondering what the hell I was humming, up till Mylo Xyloto came out and I finally realized that it was the riff from Charlie Brown.

7) Set Fire To The Rain (Adele)
MY second favorite song off 21. I actually this more dramatic and angst-y song to the more popular Rolling In The Deep (which I think has been overplayed to death on radio and by every single wannabe pub/wedding live band out there). I think her voice is more powerful and emotional on this song than on Rolling In The Deep.

8) Euphoria Take My Hand (Glasvegas)
It doesn't help that the riff recalls Coldplay's Life In Technicolour somewhat, but this plaintive plea for heartbreak to go away is sung to depressingly emotional heights by James Allen's trademark wail. Glorious when heard live (which I did at Splendour in The Grass, see the pattern here? heh heh)

9) Lippy Kids (Elbow)
Another song I heard live at Splendour in The Grass. It sounds simply glorious when heard live, and singing "BUILD A ROCKET BOYS!" out loud to the night sky just seemed so... ethereal. My favorite song off one of my favorite albums of the year.

10) L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N. (Noah And The Whale)
Go on. I dare you to listen to this song and not get sucked into singing along to the chorus.One of the best feelgood songs of the year, and my biggest regret was that I passed up watchign them at Splendour to go watch the Jane's Addiction borefest instead.

Notable mentions:

Arlandria (Foo Fighters)
Birds (The Submarines)
Calamity Song (The Decemberists)
City Girl (The Jezabels)
Every Teardrop Is a Waterfal (Coldplay)
Half Moon (Iron & Wine)
Helplessness Blues (Fleet Foxes)
Heart Is A Beating Drum (The Kills)
Holocene (Bon Iver)
How Come You Never Go There
How To Be A Werewolf (Mogwai)
Hurts Like Heaven (Coldplay)
Grace (The View)
Grey Lynn Park (The Veils)
Lonely Boy (The Black Keys)
Lots Sometimes (Glasvegas)
Lotus Flower (Radiohead)
Neat Little Rows (Elbow)
No Light No Light (Florence + The Machine)
Post Break-Up Sex (The Vaccines)
Princess Of China (Coldplat feat. Rihanna)
Rolling In The Deep (Adele)
She's Like A Comet (Jebediah)
Skip The Charades (Cold War Kids)
Still Life (The Horrors)
Strangers (White Lies)
The Beat Goes On (Beady Eye)
The Birds (Elbow)
This Will Be Our Year (Nerina Pallot)
Those Distant Bells (Snow Patrol)
Tragic Magic (The View)
Vomit (Girls)
Walk (Foo Fighters)
Walking Far From Home (Iron & Wine)
Wetsuit (The Vaccines)

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Best Gigs I attended:

Jimmy Eat World (Singapore)
Splendor In The Grass (Australia)
The National (Singapore)

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Biggest disappointment of the year:

Codes And Keys by Death Cab For Cutie. I expected more from Ben Gibbard and co, but this album just didn't make much of an impression on me.
MGMT's concert in KL - No beer, no atmosphere.
Ukelele Songs (Eddie Vedder) - Seriously, Eddie, stop mucking about with that stupid ukelele and go back to Pearl Jam already.

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Favorite new discovery:

The Vaccines - addictive lad rock and catchy tunes too.
Australian indie rock. Attending Splendour In The Grass really opened my ears to some great Australian bands, like Jebediah, Cloud Control, The Jezebels, The Panics and The Grates and MAde me go out and explore more of their music.

An Unexpected Trailer of An Unexpected Journey!

2011-12-26T15:03:00.000+08:00

Never mind The Avengers. Never mind Batman, Spiderman or Superman. THIS for me will be THE movie event of the year.

Yes folks, in December next year, WE RETURN TO MIDDLE-EARTH!

The trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is out, and it is the first part of what will be TWO Hobbit movies directed by none other than Peter Jackson himself:. Empire Online has an impressive breakdown of the trailer HERE (and where I got most of the pictures for this post too).

The trailer starts off with a very nostalgic piece of Middle Earth: BAG END!

I swear I almost had a tear in my eye when I heard the Hobbit theme come on. Sighh...

Fast forward a bit, and HEEEERREEE'SSS BILBO BAGGINS!

Alias Arthur Dent alias Watson.

And then Gandalf comes on and introduces the 13 dwarves who will be bringing Bilbo along on his unexpected journey:

HEEERREEE'SSSS *deep breath* Fili, Kili, Oin, Gloin, Dwalin, Balin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Dori, Nori, Ori, and Thorin Oakenshield:

After that, Thorin starts singing a very solemn Dwarven song, with the rest joining in as they sing in Bilbo's living room:

Since it's gonna be a two movie thin and The Hobbit is a very, very short book, Peter Jackson's adaptation has a lot of parts that were merely hinted at in the book, especially the part where Gandalf buggers off and leaves Bilbo with the dwarves to go fight some 'Necromancer', whom he appears to be hunting for here:

Also, Bilbo visits Rivendell, where he sees the Shards of Narsil (a.k.a. the yet to be re-forged Anduril), and Galadriel gets up close to Gandalf (don't know why though):

Oooh, speaking of swords, here's Bilbo finding Sting! Big hairy spiders not in picture.

Then there's a blur of action stuff, with Gandalf fighting some sort of demon thingy, and the dwarves coming up against the three trolls:

By the end of it all, we finally see the ONE RING, with Gandalf telling Bilbo that he can't guarantee he will come back, but if he does, he will never be the same again....

Foreboding words indeed.

So, no Barrels Out Of Bond, no Battle of The Five Armies, and no sign of Smaug anywhere. I'm guessing that the first movie probably stops with Bilbo discovering the ring in the Misty Mountains and the riddles in the dark. Still, it looks like Peter Jackson is picking up where he left off with this, which means it is gonna be one hell of a return to Middle Earth next year! WOOHOO!

Click the logo below to go watch the trailer now!

How To Have A Great Party: The Heineken Way

2011-12-21T10:30:00.000+08:00

Hello everyone! Let me tell you what is aGREAT party.

THIS, for example, is NOT a great party:

A good party is when you've got lots ofgood friends, good food, and most importantly, GREAT BEER.

Behold, a great beer:

And here is my little wife drinking that great beer with aer... straw...

But it's ok. It's Christmas time, and you can drink your beeranyway you want to! As long as it's a great beer like Heineken, of course. Hehe.

Anyway, me and a bunch of close friends celebrated a very earlyChristmas last week by drinking lots of Heineken at Sid’s Pub TTDI.

Oh look, a Christmas tree! Whee!

They even played lots of Christmas songs!

And together with allthat Heineken we were drinking, it made me wanna SING!

ONE TWO THREE FOUR,

ALTOGETHER NOW!

Jingle beers, jingle beers,

Give me some more beer!

One big beer, one small beer,

And more Heineken beer!

YAY!

Suanie had a beer,

A Heineken beer,

And when she has a beer,

She is a happy dear!

Sotong had a beer,

A Heineken beer,

And when she has a beer,

She camwhores all the way!

HEY!

Jingle beers, jingle beers,

Give me some more beer!

One big beer, one small beer,

And more Heineken beer!

YAY!

Ok, next song:

Hark now Fireangel drinks,

A Heineken was drained…

And men will drink forevermore,

Because of awesome beer!

Ok fine, less singing, more drinking:

Greedy, greedy...

God and Mrs. God approve:

And now Suan gets into a staring contest with her Heineken:

KY buat tak tau only LOL.

So, what IS a great party? A GREAT PARTYis one where you have GREAT FRIENDS, GREAT BEER and have a GREAT TIME.

Sekian sahaja tutorial ini. Now go forth and be merry! With lots of Heineken! WHEEE!

It's All About The Bromance, My Dear Watson.

2011-12-19T11:41:00.000+08:00

Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows
Not A Review.
Wayhey, Sherlock Downey Jr is back!
And So is Jude Watson!
Bromance is alive!

RDJ's Sherlock is still the coolest incarnation ever,
Though I quite like the Benedict Cumberbatch BBC one too.
RDJ's Sherlock is a bit TOO scruffy sometimes,
Even though he's certainly cooler than most,
And boy can he kick ass.
His disguises could do with a bit of work though LOL.

Oh look, it's the original Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
Without a dragon tattoo, obviously.
She looks exotic here, no wonder she was so good as Lisbeth.
No cleavage rating though haih.
And she really didn't have much to do, did she?

Nope, no romance romance here,
It's all about the bromance, bro!
Watson is the straight guy to Holmes crazy guy,
And they've got to be one of the best bromance couples ever.
Although Holmes has to be one of the worse best men ever...

Oooh, and there's also the Great Rivalry.
Moriarty FTW!
Accept no other Holmes villain, I always say.
He's a real match for Holmes here.
And oooh look, the Reichenbach Falls!
(Non-Holmes fans, don't Google this if you don't want any spoilers)
La di da....

Still, it's jolly good fun.
Good action, nice effects,
Lots of slow-mo and lots of bullet time
And RDJ is always fun to watch when he's in crazy genius mode.
The plot's not exactly rocket science though,
Just elementary.

Truth be told, I prefer the BBC TV show Sherlock though,
RDJ is good, but that BBC guy is better.
And Moriarty here is a bit disappointing.
Still quite intimidating, but something missing somehow.
The BBC one is damn chilling though, go watch it!

Accept This Mission, Or Be Disavowed.

2011-12-13T16:03:00.008+08:00

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.
Not a review.
Your mission, if you choose to accept it,
Is to go watch this movie.
Because it's the best Mission Impossible movie yet.

WHAT??!!???
A DECENT MISSION IMPOSSIBLE MOVIE YOU SAY??!!??
AFTER ALL THOSE THREE DUMBASS TOM CRUISE MOVIES??!!???
WHERE EVERYTHING IS ABOUT TOM CRUISE?
IMPOSSIBRU!

Well, believe it.
Turns out it's NOT impossible to make a decent M:I movie after all.

All it took to make an impossible mission possible was an Incredible director,

An Iron Giant of a director, you might say.

One with an affinity for talking, cooking rats.

And for Tom Cruise to share the limelight,
And not let his ego take over the ENTIRE movie.

Why did it take FOUR Movies for them to realize it?
That Mission Impossible has always been about THE TEAM.
Did you ever see Jim Phelps jumping off buildings?
Or do everything by himself?
No, because he has a TEAM.
MI4 works because Ethan USES his team properly
And it's a pretty decent team too.

There's Jeremy "Hawkeye" Ratner,
There's Paula Patton as the token hot chick,
She's tough but pretty hot too.
Cleavage rating: 8
Oh, and best of all, there's Simon Pegg!
He's doing his whole Scotty tech geek thing again,
But he makes the movie a lot funnier!

The action quite good wor,
Some parts a bit kua chiong,
But still pretty exciting and fun!
The building climbing scene was damn good too,
And Tom Cruise isn't as self-absorbed as before,
So it's a lot more fun!

Yup, you should definitely accept this mission,
It's got great action,
Some decent laughs,
A story that is not rubbish,
AND it's the closest we've got to an actual MI movie so far.
This post will self-destruct in... nah I'm keeping it.

My My, Mylo Xyloto, WHOAAAAAAAA

2011-12-06T13:08:00.004+08:00

This just in. Based on the lyrics on Mylo Xyloto, Coldplay's next new album will consist of songs that only have the lyrics WOAAAH, OOOH, AAAHH and WOOOO in them. I lost count of how many times Chris Martin goes WOAAH in this album, or breaks out into non-committal Lalalalas in the middle of a chorus (like in Princess of China). Even when I saw them performing the new songs live during Splendour In The Grass, we could all singalong with the songs because there were so many WOAAAH moments in them. It's like Chris Martin is trying to recreate the WOOAAH in Viva La Vida, so that he can get the crowd to sing it during concerts.

Lyrics aside though, this is a pretty solid album though. The first few songs are soaring stuff (though I maintain that Paradise is one of the most boring singles they've released so far, and it doesn't help that I think it is a rip-off of a Beyond song, hehe), starting off with one of my favorites, Hurts Like Heaven, which is just... FUN.

My favorite song off the album has to be Charlie Brown (despite the annoying chipmunk voices in the intro). I keep humming the damn riff for hours unconciously, that's how addictive it is. Princess Of China is also pretty good, but I hate it that half the song is just Martin and Rihanna going nananana and "you stole my star", and the best part of the song, the chorus where Rihanna sings "Could have been a princess..." is only sung ONCE. ONCE! Godammit.

Anyway, the style of music here is pretty much stadium anthem Coldplay, with a lot more electronic synths thrown in. There are some wonderfully uplifting sonic flourishes that rise and rise and don't ever seem to come back down, but also some repetitive and somewhat unremarkable moments that seem to just go on and on.

Ok, I don't think it's worth the five stars that Q Magazine gave it, but it IS still a pretty solid album that gets better and better with each listen. But trust me when I say the songs song A LOT BETTER when they play it live. heh heh.

Don't Be a Muppet Of A Man!

2011-12-05T10:15:00.007+08:00

The Muppets.
Not A Review.
Ma nah ma nah!
Ma nah ma nah!
Ma nah ma nah!
Ma nah ma nah!
Ma nah ma nah!
Ma nah ma nah!

WELCOME BACK KERMIT!
WELCOME BACK MISS PIGGY!
WELCOME BACK FOZZIE BEAR!
WELCOME BACK SWEDISH CHEF!
WELCOME BACK GONZO THE GREAT!
It's the MUPPETS! WHEEEE!

Ok it's a bit TOO cheesy in the beginning,
To the point of being VERY VERY cloying and annoying.
Jason Segel is his usual HIMYM self,
All earnest and goody goody
Amy Adams is like the Amy Adams in Enchanted,
Only slightly er... older.
(no cleavage rating, sorry)
(It's a KID'S movie!)

But once Kermit appears, it's all good!
And then all the Muppets start appearing!
There'll be explosions! (ok, just ONE explosion)
There'll be toilet humour!
There'll be a lot of cheesy 80's jokes!
There'll music and laughter!
There will be lots of cameos!
There'll be lots of nostalgic moments
And of course, THE RAINBOW CONNECTION!

That Jim Henson was a GENIUS I tell you,
The movie is a bit cheesy,
Then again, The Muppets ARE A relic of the 80's after all,
This was just great, mindless, cheesy fun.
Don't hurt your brain by analysing it too much,
And don't expect too much either.

Oh come on, it's the MUPPETS!
You'd have to be a Muppet of a man to not like this.
So be a very manly muppet instead!
It's time to play the music,
It's time to light the lights,
It's time to meet the Muppets!!!!

Beer Of The Week: Fuller's Gets An 1845 out of 1845!

2011-12-02T17:09:00.004+08:00

I've always been more partial to ale than most other styles of beer, and when I first saw this beer in Bangsar Shopping Complex, I couldn't resist buying on to try. I ended up liking it so much that I decided to go back and buy more of it, even though it was slightly more expensive than other beers (It's about RM28 at BSC, and RM22 in Isetan KLCC I think)

Anyway, this is probably one of the best ales available currently here. Made to commemorate Fuller's 150th anniversary, it is bottle conditioned and matured for 100 days. It has a wonderful fruit cake aroma, malty, and has a full, malty, creamy body that was also pretty chocolate-ty as well. The richness of the malt was just wonderful, and I just love the aroma of the ale.

For RM22-28 a bottle, it's probably slightly expensive, but still worth it, considering it is a 500ml bottle. Plus it's better than most ales that cost just as much anyway.

Fuller's 1845 is 6.3% ABV, and I saw it in O Gourmet in Bangsar Shopping Complex, Isetan KLCC and is apparently available at Sid's Pubs for a limited time as well.

Puss Leaves Shrek In The Litter Box

2011-11-23T16:25:00.005+08:00

Puss In Boots.

Not a review

Puss Puss Puss Puss!

If any Shrek character deserves his own movie,

Then Puss In Boots is it!

(thank god it wasn't Donkey)

You know his name!

You know who voices him!

Now you will know how he became LEGEND!

And then became a sidekick to an ugly green ogre.

Yeesh.

This was MUCH better than the last 2 Shrek movies COMBINED.

It only just loses to Shrek 2...

Because Shrek 2 was where he was first introduced.

Antonio Banderas is awesome.

Heck, he's ALWAYS been awesome.

And Puss In Boots is STILL the most awesome character EVER!

In the Shrek universe, of course.

Am I the only one who thinks Salma Hayek was a waste?

I only say that because having Salma Hayek in a movie,

And not having proper Cleavage Rating,

Is just SUCH a waste.

Especially with so many pussies around.

Hur hur hur.

(Then again, cat cleavage would probably be quite disturbing).

(Yeeesh.)

This was a real meow of a movie!

Doesn't choke on hairballs at all!

Leaves the last Shrek in the litter box!

Some good pussy parodies,

Some great kitty kapers,

And no pussy-footing around with pop culture spoofs.

Shrek should have stopped at two movies,

And Puss In Boots should have been the star after Shrek 2.

Let's hope they make another one,

And rope in Pinnochio or Gingy in!

Shrek, Donkey and Fiona can stay out of it.

Big Deal About Small Fry! New Toy Story Short, Whee!

2011-11-14T12:47:00.003+08:00

Ooooh there's gonna be a new Toy Story short tagged on in front of The Muppet Movie next month! Whee!

It's gonna be called "Small Fry" and here's the synopsis:

Buzz Lightyear is left behind at a fast food restaurant when a kids’ meal toy version of Buzz takes his place. While Bonnie’s toys are stuck with the annoying three-inch-tall Buzz impersonator, the real Buzz is trapped in the restaurant at a support group for discarded toys. As Woody and the gang devise a way to rescue their friend, Buzz tries to escape the toy psychotherapy meeting.

Just look at that itsy-bitsy Buzz Lightyear! Haha so cute!

Beer Of The Week: Double DAMN, Voll-Damm!

2011-11-03T18:43:00.002+08:00

One day, while I was walking around Bangsar Shopping Complex, I was quite surprised to see a rack of beers at the O Gourmet Food Hall, just next to a cabinet full of Monin syrups. There were about six beers there, a couple of Fuller's beers (the Fullers 1845, and the Fullers London Pride), a Spanish cider called el Gaitero, and three other Spanish beers - Estrella Damm, Birra Moretti and a beer from A.K. Damm which I wasn't sure what, and this Voll-Damm Doble Malta, which I'm gonna assume means double malt.

I bought three bottles that day, the cider, 1845, and hte Doble Malta, and I've already tried two of them. The Doble Malta was the first one I tried, and surprisingly, it was a pretty good beer. Clocking in at 7.2%ABV, it had a nice golden brown color and a really strong malty aroma.

The beer itself was surprisingly hoppy, and as expected was pretty malty as well. It was a really full-bodied beer too, and the finish was a real kick in the pinata, heh heh.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to trying the rest of the beers next time, but at about RM20-30 a bottle, it's a little on the high priced side. Oh well, one at a time then...

Rack Em Up, Eat Em Up, Drink Em Up!

2011-11-01T14:24:00.009+08:00

The cocktail scene in Changkat Bukit Bintang seems to be growing right now, with quite a few bars along that street with pretty decent bars serving some pretty good cocktails. The newest palce to offer some nice cocktails is this place called RACKS.

Why is the place called 'Racks'? Well, apparently it's because they serve RACKS of pork ribs, and also RACKS of cocktail shooters. Unfortunately, their waitresses don't really have huge racks, but that's beside the point. Hehe.

The place has some interesting deco, with a couple of torture racks (hey, there's that word again), chains hanging everywhere, and even some torture racks. No it doesn't look like a torture chamber (it's quite cozy looking actually), just... odd.

Anyway, although the focus of the restaurant is its pork dishes, I figured I'd start off with the drinks first, since that's what I do best anyway (and what I did most of during the review). It's all related to the food though, since Racks is quite quite big on apple-based cocktails because apparently because apples go well with pork (which is quite true, surprisingly).

My first cocktail of the night was this yummy Apple Mojito:

Made like a usual mojito except with Bacardi Apple instead of normal rum, and apple juice, this was a yummy, apple-ly, refreshing drink that didn't seem too strong either. The mint and the apply combined quite nicely too.

Next was this dainty little Apple Martini:

Made using Smirnoff Apple, triple sec and apple juice. Pesonally, I prefer my appletinis with vermouth as well (like a regular martini), so I thought this one was kinda normal and light. Not sure why they serve it in a martini glass though, I reckon this would be better if served in proper glass or as a long drink.

Frankly, I preferred the Apple Daiquiri:

Made with Bacardi Apple, Apple Liqueur and FRESH apple juice. The apple juice made all the difference, making the drink a lot more well balanced between the alcohol and the juice, and it was fresh-tasting, not too sweet too.

I also tried a couple more apple cocktails that night, including the Apple Margarita (tequila, apple liqueur, triple sec) and last but not least, the BIG APPLE LEMONADE (Bacardi Apple, Amaretto, Sprite & some homemade sours):

which was not bad, being nice an fizzy, refreshing and despite the Sprite, not too sweet either.

In between the cocktails, the owners of Racks also brought out some racks of shooters. First up, was the aptly named, lethal Molotov shooters:

Made with vodka, tequila, Jack Daniels and with a dash of Tabasco sauce, this really is as lethal and potent as it sounds. The three spirits makes for a heady mixture, and the finishing taste of the Tabasco sauce after you swallow gives it a real OOMPH. Quite an awesome party drink, actually, heh heh.

Next up, we had these pink little Test Tube Babies:

Made with Cranberry juice, vodka and Peach schnapps, this tasted like a Cosmopolitan in a test tube, heh heh.

And finally, we had the nice fruity Illusion:

Made with Midori melon liqueur, vodka and pineapple juice (yes, ignore the 'Cuervo' logo, there's no tequila here) it was actually very easy to down (I think I did three of it in one shot and didn't feel a thing...)

Of course, this being a FOOD review, there were also lots of good stuff for me to line my stomach with while I gulped down the cocktails.

The starters consisted of a few platters with stuff wrapped in awesome pork prosciutto, including fruit, seafood, these sausages (The so-called 'Special Pigs in Special Blankets'):

My personal favorite, the asparagus:

and even oysters!

Mmmmm, yum yum.

There was also a platter of pretty good cold cut meats:

and after that, it was time for the main courses, which included some GREAT pork sandwiches, and these two burgers.

The Pulled Pork Burger:

And the Rack's Pork Burger:

Of course, you can't go to a place 'Racks' without trying their racks of pork ribs, which were huge by the way. Here to illustrate how big the pork ribs are, please welcome back Kimberlycun's Arm:

Anyway, we had two types of pork ribs that night, Sweet & Sticky Pork Ribs, and the Hot & Spicy Pork Ribs:

The Hot & Spicy Pork Ribs were my favorite of the two, largely because the former seemed a bit too er... common, while the Hot & Spicy one was at least quite different from most other pork ribs I've tried.

Oh, and yes, the pork DID go VERY well with the apple cocktails.

Racks is located right at the end of Changkat Bukit Bintang, directly opposite Havana.

Celebrating Florence's Glorious Ceremonials

2011-10-31T08:00:00.002+08:00

I've been looping Florence And the Machine's new album Ceremonials non-stop for days now, and I still can't get enough of it. It's a glorious album of soaring highs and even higher highs, and is one I can really get high on. Er, ok, maybe not THAT kind of high, but you get the point.

Like Lungs, the emphasis is on Florence Welch's powerful, almost shouty vocals, with tough, pounding, almost tribal drum rhythms that add an almost visceral feeling to the songs. I saw Florence And The Machine live in concert a couple years ago (and interviewed her as well, she is such a darling little flightly, wispy character), and the drumbeats were the most memorable parts of the music (as well as her mad enthusiasm) for me.

My favorite song on the album BY FAR is All This And Heaven Too; a beautifully written, stirring, soaring song that rises and falls like a wave, with lyrics that flow along smoothly with the crests and falls of the music. It's got everything - beautiful, quiet breaks, a soaring chorus, a flowing, crescendo-ing outro, and wonderfully worded lyrics... I was looping this ONE song for more than an hour last week, and I'm STILL not sick of it.

As for the rest, my next favorite is Shake It Out, which is probably the most obvious 'hit single' of the album; and then there's Heartlines, album opener Only If For a Night, What The Water Gave Me, and Never Let Me Go... like Lungs, the more you listen to the album, the more each individual song stands out more.

One thing about the album though, it doesn't exactly break new ground when it comes to Florence's musical style. Somehow many of the songs just don't stand out as much as the individual brilliance of the songs in Lungs. Maybe it's the fact that I'm already used to her style now, whereas when Lungs came out, her sound was still fresh to my ears. But anyhow, if you liked Lungs, you'll like this one as well.

Most of the songs would also sound awesome in concert, which leads me to believe that If Lungs was her eccentric debut, then this is Florence And The Machine's huge stadium anthem album. Now if only she'd come back to the region for another show. I would give it all this and heaven too just to hear her sing All This And Heaven Too live. That would be glorious, just glorious.

THUNDERING TYPHOONS! TINTIN IS TIP-TOP!

2011-10-28T13:40:00.005+08:00

The Adventures of Tintin.
Not A Review.
TEN THOUSAND THUNDERING TYPHOONS!
BILLIONS OF BILIOUS BLUE BLISTERING BARNACLES!
IT'S TINTIN!
Directed by Steven Speilberg!
Produced by Peter Jackson!
TINTIN!
YAY!

Waddaya mean you've never heard of Tintin?
It's TINTIN, for fucks sake!
The greatest boy reporter (who doesn't report) ever!
The one with the funny pointy hair,
and the Snowy doggy who goes WOAH WOAH instead of WOOF WOOF!
And is friends with that drunk captain Haddock!
Who always swears BLISTERING BARNACLES!

The story is a combo of three books:
The Secret Of The Unicorn,
The Crab With Golden Claws,
But the movie stays very true to the comics' spirit.
It's like an actual Tintin comic come to life,
But with added Hollywod BOOM BOOOM ACTION!

Tintin is suitably ambiguous and goody goody,
Haddock is AWESOME (Give Andy Serkis an Oscar!)
Snowy is cute and fun! WOAH WOAH!
And Red Rackham's Treasure.
It's got Thompson and Thompson!
And Lady Castafiore!

After the movie, I wanted to read the books again,
Lots of Easter Eggs in the movie,
I only spotted King Ottovar's Sceptre,
But I recognise a few more things.
The Tintin comics were awesome!
And they're planning to make another one,
Based on Seven Crystal Balls and Prisoners Of The Sun,
My favorite books! WHEEE!
HOORAY FOR TINTIN!

At Least It Wasn't a Complete Waste Of Time

2011-10-27T11:53:00.006+08:00

In Time.
Not a review.
Not a complete waste of time either.
Just took a bit too much time to get to the point.
Then in the end they rush rush as if out of time.

Wah everyone is 24 years old!
And got clock on their arms wan.
Got alarm clock function wan ar?
With a built in snooze function?
What about an iPod dock?
And if you lift your arm high high,
Can you get radio as well?

It's Justin Timberlake!
He's bringing sexy time back.
Er, ok maybe not.
He was a bit blah.
And his character really wasn't very interesting lor.
But at least got sexy time with Amanda Seyfried.

Oooh, Amanda Seyfried,
Foxy.
Cleavage rating 8.
Not badass enough though.
And not convinced with her character development.
But hey, who cares?
At least she's nice to look at hur hur.

I loved the idea of time being money,
And that you have to work to get time,
Just so you can live longer.
The possibilities are so intriguing.
But it seemed a bit wasted here lor.
2 hours not enough to explore everything in this world.
This would have been GREAT as a TV show methinks.

I'd love to see a crime procedural based on this idea.
With Cillian Murphy's Timekeeper in the lead.
He was pretty awesome.
Or even a ghetto gangster movie,
Focusing on the Minute Men gang
Oooh, and how about a Mad Men-styled 'retro' show,
About how that creepy rich guy got so much time?

Yeah, this wasn't a complete waste of time,
But I feel they didn't spend enough time on the idea.
The world had SO many possibilities,
And the details they put in was really good.
But didn't spend enough time exploring it properly.
A TV show would have been MUCH better.
Will it ever happen?
Well, only time will tell.

Beer Of The Week: Ho Ho Sapporo!

2011-10-23T00:20:00.004+08:00

Hmmm, two Japanese Beers of The Week in a row. Oh well, I've always found Japanese beer to be quite nice anyway. I have fond memories of this particular brand, as I remember visiting the Sapporo Museum when I was in Tokyo where they had a nice six flight beer tasting thingy for only about RM20 (can't remember exactly how much though, but it was cheap!).

Anyway, Sapporo (which is the oldest beer brand in JApan, apparently) was recently launched officially in Malaysia, and is also available on tap at Bar Madrid, Jaya One.

I quite like this one, which is their premium beer. Funnily enough, this particular awesome looking can also says it was brewed in Canada, which is a bit strange, but at least the beer is still pretty good. It's got a nice light citrus-y nose, and tastes a little citrus-y sweet as well. For this kind of style of beer, I'm still partial to Suntory Premium Malt though, but for a lager, this is still pretty good.

I don't really know where you can get this can though, but the draught in Bar Madrid is also pretty good, so do check it out next time you're there!

Noel Was The Heart And Soul of Oasis, Liam Was Just The Mouth

2011-10-21T16:37:00.005+08:00

Ever since Oasis broke up, we've all been waiting for the two Gallagher brothers to come up with their much-hyped solo releases. Liam was first out of the blocks with his new band, Beady Eye, which is pretty much just Oasis without Noel (the other two members of Beady Eye were also in Oasis), releasing Different Gear, Still Speeding in April.

At first listen, Beady Eye sounded like Oasis, though that was pretty much probably because Liam was the lead singer of Oasis after all. Then you start listening to the songs properly, and although they were decent, I somehow felt they just did not measure up to what Oasis use to come up with (even during their lesser albums like Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants and Be Here Now). My favorite out of the whole album was probably The Beat Goes On, which ironically was quite Noel-esque in nature. The rest sounded like Liam was trying to sound macho and trying TOO hard to prove that he was better than his brother.

Then, came Noel's High Flying Birds. And the difference was clear. Noel's songwriting is DEFINITELY, WITHOUT A DOUBT the stronger of the two brothers, and it shows. The songs may be gentler than Beady Eye's, but the melodies are splendid, and the lyrics certainly kick Liam's ass soundly. Sure, his singing voice might not have that 'raw madchester' thing Shaolintiger thinks Liam's has, but it certainly is no pushover either.

Besides, if you think about it, I personally think one of the greatest songs Oasis has ever recorded was Don't Look Back In Anger... which was written AND sung by Noel Gallagher. And every other hit the band had, especially on their firsts two albums Definitely Maybe and (What's The Story) Morning Glory? Yup, ALL written by Noel Gallagher. (The only Liam-penned song I REALLY like is Songbird. The rest were pretty shite).

Anyway, I tried an experiement where I put both albums in the same playlsit and shuffled it, and I found that the songs I skipped the most were the Beady Eye ones. Conclusion? Sorry Liam, you may have been the band's voice and attitude, but Noel was the true heart and soul of Oasis.

Jackie Chan's 100th Movie is Not a Jackie Chan Movie

2011-10-18T12:00:00.002+08:00

1911
辛亥革命
Not a Review
It's Jackie Chan's 100th movie.
But it's not a typical Jackie Chan movie.
It's very, very serious,
And very historical and talky.
If you just wanna see Jackie fight,
You'd be pretty bored.
The only funny part of the movie,
Was when they called Penang 'Penang Pulau'
WTF.

Nope, no Jackie falling off buildings,
No Jackie fighting baddies (only one SMALL fight nia)
No Jackie being funny
No Jackie using ladders or umbrellas to fight.
Just Jackie being very serious and drama-rama.
And acting pretty well too, if I may add.

That's not saying this is a bad movie though.
It just isn't a Jackie Chan movie.

Unfortunately, everyone is talking about it like it is.

Even the pictures I found are all Jackie only.
This is almost like a documentary.
All about history and actual events.
Very educational, actually.

Anyway,
It's about the Xinhai Revolution in China,
WAAAAY back in 1911 (duh),
when they overthrew the Qing Dynasty,
which means that finally, after more than 200 years,
CHINA HAD NO MORE EMPEROR.
Very important bit of history, this.
Worth finding out more about.

Like I said, it's a serious historical epic.
I liked it because I liked all this history history stuff.
Not sure how accurate it is lar.
And I think got a fair bit of romanticizing also.
But if you just want to see Jackie Chan fight,
Go watch Police Story or Project A again.

The New 52 is Nothing Like The Old 52

2011-10-17T13:54:00.006+08:00

IF you're a fan of comics, especially DC Comics, you would probably have heard of the DC's New 52, a completely new reboot of the DC Universe that had 52, yes FIFTY TWO, new #1s, including new takes on Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, and the Jusitce League among others.

Thanks to my iPad, I've managed to get most of the titles through the DC app (and er.. other means), and have read almost every single one of the titles. I've liked some of the new titles, and hated some.

It started out with the new Justice League #01, which was interesting enough, featuring Batman, Green LAntern and Superman apparently meeting for the first time. It's an intriguing start to the new series, and I'll definitely be er.. acquiring the next issue later.

The most significant change in the New 52 BTW, is that Superman doesn't wear his underwear on the outside anymore:

Ok, there are two new Superman titles in the New 52. The one above is Grant Morrison's take on the Man of Steel, through the new Action Comics #01, where Superman is still starting out with this whole superhero shit, and is a little bit more cocky and less goody goody than you're used to seeing him. Oh, and he wears JEANS. Awesome.

Well, I loved it a lot more than Superman #01, which I thought was a little too messy for my liking:

Another comic I quite liked was The Flash #01:

I've always had a soft spot for The Flash (I've got er... THREE T-shirts with his lightning logo on em), and since the Flashpoint event was supposedly the whole catalyst for this New 52 reboot, I was interested to see how things would pan out for Barry Allan.

Turns out this is a pretty straightforward reboot for The Flash. It's not an origin story, since we meet him when he is already an established name in Central City, but he hasn't married Iris West yet, and he's running around (heh) solving some mystery involving a friend from his past.

Nothing much happening in the first issue yet, but I think I'll stick to it for now.

Now, we move on to the main event, for me at least - the BATMAN comics.

I've been on a crazy rampage through Batman's past recent comics lately, having read No Man's LAnd, Streets of Gotham, the awesome Gotham Central, Gotham Knights in quick succession, and even the frankly lousy Batman RIP and Return of Bruce Wayne arcs (Batman Inc. is pretty interesting though, I have to admit).

The New 52 is a strange one for The Dark Knight. On one hand, in Detective Comics and Batman: The Dark Knight #01, he seems to be starting a brand new arc.

In Batman & Robin #01 however, he seems to be continuing on in the main continuity , with Damien Wayne (yes, Bruce's son) as Robin. The same seems to hold true with Batman #01 as well, which was great when Bruce Wayne was shown together with all three Robins, former and present (minus Jason Todd, of course). And then, there's the OTHER Batman-related titles like Nightwing, Birds Of Prey and Huntress...

Oh, and how could I forget THIS kinky little minx?

Catwoman #01 has caused a bit of a controversy with all the sexy, scantily-clad action she gets into, and THAT sex scene at the end of it, but frankly speaking, it's CATWOMAN. You DO expect some amount of tits and asses in this title after all, though the artist seriously needs to do more er... research for the next time he draws a sex scene - I mean, HOLY HENTAI SHIT, BATMAN, whaddafuck kinda position is THAT?

Overall, I thought the whole New 52 exercise is a pretty interesting one. The main characters - Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash and Green Lantern - have pretty promising titles, while I also liked some of the lesser known ones such as Animal Man, Teen Titans, All Star Western (Jonah Hex!), Justice League International, and Justice League Dark (John Constantine FTW!). Some, like Red Hood And The Outlaws and Legion Of Superheroes are pretty bad though, and others like Captain Atom and Hawk And Dove just couldn't hold my attention.

The New 52 has definitely gotten me more interested in reading the DC titles again, and it should be interesting to see just how far the company is willing to take this. For now, some of the titles have gotten me hooked to reading comics again, and it's been great fun keeping up with the New 52 so far.

Assembly Almost Complete

2011-10-12T09:39:00.010+08:00

Loook who's baaaackkk.....

Oh dear. But nary you fear! For where there is Loki, there will be...

THOR!!!

THOR!!!

THOORRRRR!!!!!

Ok enough Thor.

Oh wait, here he is again. Who's he fighting here?

Captain America! FUCK YEAH!

He's here to save the motherfucking day yeah!

oooh lookie lookie hubba hubba, Black Widow!

Hmmm, she looks really hot in red, short hair and black leather... hur hur hur.

Here's the boss... Mace Windu in an eye patch!

Shouldn't the bazooka be purple, Mr Fury?

Introducing... Hawkeye!

That bow looks kinda flimsy, dude. At least you know how to use it...

And HEEEERREEEE'SS Bruce Banner!

HULK SMASSSSHH!!!!!

And finally, last, but DEFINITELY not least....

IRON MAN!!!

a.k.a. genius billionaire playboy philanthropist. Heh.

Put em all together, and what do you get?

Oh come on, you know what this is...

AVENGERS!!!

ASSEMBLE!!!!

(in May 2012. Pah)

BTW, click the logo to see the new trailer!

Beer Of The Week: Ohai Asahi, The Jap In Black!

2011-10-10T13:42:00.004+08:00

I first heard of Asahi Black when I was browsing through a copy of TimeOut Singapore, and they recommended this as one of the best beers available at Ice Cold Beer in Emerald Hill. The first time I tried it at the outlet though, it didn't really live up to expectation (probably because it was the second day of Beerfest and I was pretty sick of the taste of beer).

Undeterred, I bought another two bottles back from Singapore the last time we were there, and tried it again at home. This time, the experience was much, much better.

The nose of the beer is rich and chocolately, and even reminded me of a chocolate infused Guinness. The beer itself was full-bodied, rich, and strangely, very crisp at the same time. I has a rich, malty flavour not unlike a Guinness, but also some awesome chocolate notes as well, all of which go down refreshingly and gives you a brilliant chocolate malt finish as well.

Definitely much better than the usual Asahi Dry lager I always have. Next time you go Singapore, keep a lookout for this one!

Pixar-mad At the Big Bad Wolf Sale!

2011-10-07T11:01:00.006+08:00

Behold... my haul from the Big Bad Wolf Books Sale!

A total of 30 books, including children's books, comics, hardcover graphic novels, and cocktail books. The damage? Only RM230 (I only brought RM250 cash this year to limit myself, and no credit card too...)

Anyway, this year they had a new system for the preview sale, apparently because there are winners as well as media people at the preview, so we had to pick up this pass from Bookxcess before going there.

The location is in Serdang, actually right behind UPM, at the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS), and you have to drive there, park your car, and take a bus that will take you to the sale. Word of advice: Bring a bag, or trolley to help you with your shopping, like this lady here:

Trust me, you'll need it. You don't want to be lugging a box full of books around THIS:

And that's just HALF the warehouse! Yes, it's THAT BIG.

It's all really well-organised, with BIG BIG SIGNS telling you which section you are in, be it Children, Young Adult, Graphic Novels, Non-Fiction, or Fiction.

Anyway, my favorite part of the sale was the piles of Pixar comic books by Boom! Studios, the studio run by Mark Waid, so the quality is pretty good. They've got WALL-E, The Incredibles, Toy Story, Cars and Finding Nemo comics, which were pretty awesome.

I sapued about 18 of these, all at FIVE BUCKS EACH! There There were some Muppet comics as well, but I didn't buy any cos I was on a budget...

The fantasy selection was pretty good as well, lots of new titles and old ones, and even the newer Wheel Of Time novels by Barry Sanderson. Hardover, going for... wait for it... EIGHT BUCKS!

As for non-fiction, there were lots of stuff too, almost half the hall was non-fiction, and cookbooks too.

Lots of dummies and idiots there as well:

I DID find the graphic novel selection a bit disappointing though. Mostly a lot of manga, Speed Racer, Star Trek, and Transformers stuff:

I found a Tank Girl: The Gifting for RM8, Maxwell Strangewell, a MAD Sergio Aragones hardcover book, and two Zits books for RM12 each. That was it, really. I also bought 3 kid's picture books by Oliver Jeffers, for RM8 each.

My haul this time round may not be as much as previous editions of the Big Bad Wolf Sale, but I was quite happy with it, especially all the cheap Pixar comics. Other than that, I didn't really browse much in the fiction section. No time. and no money. heh heh.

Anyway, The Big Bad Wolf Books sale will run from today to Oct 16 at the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang, Selangor. Opening hours are 10am to 9pm. OCBC cardholders get an additional 5% off the total bill.

Have fun, and remember to bring a trolley!

RIP Steve Jobs. Visionary, World Changer, Magic Maker

2011-10-06T14:25:00.006+08:00

(picture taken from Disney-Pixar FB)

R.I.P.

STEVE JOBS

(1955-2011)

Personaly, my favorite Steve Jobs contribution is not Apple, but Pixar. He was the one who gave Ed Catmull and John Lasseter the backing to start the company. Without Steve Jobs, we might not have had movies like Toy Story, WALL-E, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and so on. And the world would have been a less happy place for me.

As for Apple, I used to be so anti-Apple it hurt. Then I got an iPod shuffle, then iPod Touch, then iPhone, then iPad.... Yup, iConverted. Anyway, here's my personal history with Apple, through a rundown of the devices I've owned:

Apple II: I remember countless hours playing Karateka on the Apple II my dad bought for us. Back then, computers were so awesome. Our dad had to limit the time we were on it to an hour a day.

iPod shuffle (Gen 1) I bought this off Erna after she got it from a lucky draw, and I was instantly hooked. An over-glorified thumbdrive it may be, but it changed the way I listened to music. Used to abuse it a lot too.

iPod Nano (Gen 2): Again, bought it off someone who got it free. All of a sudden, I had a SCREEN! I could see what I was listening too! Didn't last long though, because not soon after I got this, I got the...

iPod Touch (Gen 1): This was the breakthrough. This was the one that got me hooked. I was in love. Since then, I've not been able to get used to any other touchscreen. Unfortunately, after almost two years, it drowned in an unfortunatel flooding incident at my apartment. Sigh...

iPod Touch (Gen 2): LL bought this for me for our anniversary after I'd lost my last one. It was slimmer, more canggih than the last one, and best of all, it's got our names and anniversary date engraved on the back. :-)

iPhone 4: After YEARS of using a Nokia E71, it finally died and I wanted to get a touchscreen phone. At first I tried out some Android phones, but somehow, I didn't quite like it. I didn't understand why until I bought LL an iPhone 4, and realized that I'd become so used to the touch screen and the interface of the iPod Touch that I simply could not get used to the Android ones at all. So yeah, and that's the story of how I got an iPhone 4 eventually.

iPad: I got this slightly cheaper than normal from a friend. After lugging my laptop around for so long when I travel, the iPad turned out to be a godsent. It was AWESOME for long haul flights, I could watch videos, read books, comics, and play games, AND the battery didn't run out halfway through the flight.

So yeah, that's how I evolved into an Apple geek. No, I still don't use a Macbook though. I like change, but not THAT much. :-p

Thank you Steve Jobs, for changing the world. Rest in Peace.

Weissbrau, Where The Brew Is At

2011-10-04T15:54:00.008+08:00

October has become a month that I both look forward to and dread the most at the same time these days, because of a very very special festival... OKTOBERFEST!

Yup, that beer-guzzling festival has never failed to make me utterly sick of beer every year it comes around, thanks to all the one liter steins of beer that is available everywhere these days:

(picture from Kimberlycun)

Anyway, a couple weeks back me, LL, Deepak, Shaolintiger and Kimberlycun were at Weissbrau Pavilion KL for a little private food and beer sampling, in conjunction with their Oktoberfest launch.

First up, the food. We got some sandwiches, some burgers and pork knuckles, which were pretty decent, but the highlights for me were this potato pancake:

... which was super awesome! Cheese, potatoes, ham and a sunny side egg on top, all melted together and formed this AMAZING little thing that I could not stop eating.

Also, the seafood pizza they served us was pretty good as well:

I especially liked the sweet onion base they put on top of the crust. It was really one of the best pizzas I'd tasted in a LOOONG time.

Of course, we also drank a whole lot of beer (Kim even managed to finish one whole half pint of Franziskaner all by herself without speaking a single word of Mandarin or falling asleep!

Ok, on hindsight, I probably shouldn't have taken one whole liter of Erdinger Dunkel all by myself, especially after two glasses of awesome Schneider Weiss beer, but I managed (barely) to finish it eventually. I think. I don't remember much after that. But at least I drank more than Deep, who chickened out halfway MUAHAHAHA.

(picture from Kimberlycun)

Anyway, the Octoberfest celebration at Weissbrau started on 22 September 22 and ends on October 6 (yup, that's this Thursday). You can purchase either one litre of Franziskaner or one litre of Erdinger Weissbier and Erdinger Dunkel at the price of RM 60++ during Happy Hour (10am till 9pm) and RM 72++ for non-Happy hour. The customer can also purchase the one litre mug at the cost of RM 7+. Not a bad deal, actually. Hurry up! the offer ends on Thursday!

Float Like a B-52, Sting like a Tank!

2011-10-03T15:27:00.008+08:00

Real Steel.
Not a Review.
Surprisingly good.
It's like a family movie,
But with awesome robots beating each other up!
No, it's not like Transformers at all.
This one has a lot more heart and soul.

This little boxing bot is called Atom.
He has more spark than all the Autobots combined,
And could kick Megatron's back with ONE ARM.
(Oh wait, didn't Optimus do that as well?)

Of course, h also needs Hugh Jackman's help.
Call him Full Metal Jackman if you wish.

ROBOTS!
KICKING THE ASS OUT OF ONE ANOTHER!
Now THAT'S what I call a real robot fight!
And BOXING! Actual BOXING!
This is like Rocky... but with ROBOTS!
Heck, it's actually better than HALF the Rocky movies!
Like a colleague of mine said,
They should have called it Irony.

Yeah the robots were damn cool.
At least here they have a REASON,
For beating the crap out of each other.
Pretty good action too.
And you can actually SEE what is happening.
Not like the Transformers WHAM BAM WHODAFUCKISTHAT crap.

There's only one chick there.
She's no Megan or Rosie,
But she's got MUCH better acting.
Decent cleavage rating too (7.5).
But she doesn't do much.
This is ALL about Hugh and son.
And robots kicking ass, of course.

Hugh Jackman's pretty good here.
He's a bit of a selfish asshole,
But a pretty likable one.
The kid's good too.
At least he wasn't annoying.
In fact, he's pretty cool too.

Yup, this is worth watching in cinema.
It's very well-made.
Good balance of action and drama,
Good acting, good editing.
And very touching at times too.
And as much as I liked Transformers,
I have to admit THIS is now THE best robot movie of the year.

PHWOAR GOT HOT CHICK SNAKE LESBIAN ACTION!

2011-09-27T13:33:00.012+08:00

The Sorcerer And The White Snake.
白蛇傳說之法海
Not a review
Previously titled It's Love and Madame White Snake
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
It's got Jet Li,
And some hot chicks,
And dodgy CGI.
Ok, A LOT of dodgy CGI.

Jet Li! As a monk!
As a laser shooting monk actually.
Well, sort-of.
He hardly does any fighting.
Just shoot lasers from his palms.
WHY JET LI WHYYYYY??
(BTW, why ALL the demons he fights are all hot babes wan ar?)

WAH GOT LESBIAN HOT CHICK SNAKE ACTION!
HALF-NAKED WOMEN! WITH SNAKE BODIES!
(Eh wait, aren't snakes reptiles? Why do they have boobs?)
FROLICKING AROUND IN THE GRASS!
FOOYOH!
OH wait, what? That's not actually a lesbian sex scene?
And what, They're SISTER SNAKES?
EEEEEEEWW......

Oklah, the two chicks quite hot.
That Eva Huang chick is hot,
Have I mentioned I've actually met her in person?
Yeah, she's even hotter in person.
Charlene too, actually.
Too bad there wasn't some REAL LESBIAN HOT CHICK SNAKE ACTION.
Ok wait, that would be weird.
EWWWW.

Oh look, got talking animals!
Got rabbit, turtle, rat..
WAh got thousands of talking rats saving the day samore!
What is this, NARNIA?
Oh look, got Lord Of The Rings Gandalf vs Balrog rip-off also!
And got 2012 giant tidal waves also!
And ooh, look, VAMPIRES!
And got that Ghostbusters ghost trap also!
Wah, the director really know how to 'borrow' from Hollywood hor?

WHAT'S WITH ALL THE CRAPPY CGI!
Oh, 3D, so must have A LOT A LOT of CGI is it?
Until EVERYTHING is CGI is it?
And why does it all look like video game wan?
And don't get me started on the 'monster' makeup.
Ok fine, check it out below:

Actually hor,
Calling this a B-grade movie is an insult to B-grade movies
Because at least B-grade movies KNOW they're B-grade movies.
I pity the sucker who invested all that money into this movie.
And those who paid money to go watch it.
So if you haven't gone to see it yet, DON'T
Go spend your hard-earned money on some nasi lemak instead.

It's The End Of REM as We Know It (And I Don't Feel Fine)

2011-09-22T11:49:00.006+08:00

So, REM. has broken up after 31 years. While it's always sad when a band breaks up,especially one as influential and great as REM, the band's output HAS been kinda stale lately, with only a few flashes of brilliance in their last two or three albums, but not enough to really make an impact.

Like it or not, Michael Stipe and co. will always be best known for being the early pioneers of alternative rock and their earlier music, which included some of the greatest songs ever in Rock and Roll.

Anyway, in tribute to the band, here's a list of my top five favorite REM songs. EVER:

1) Losing My Religion
Because life is bigger than you, and you are not me. This was just a song that I fell in love with the SECOND I heard that first sentence, and the way the lyrics just rolled off your tongue meant it was great to singalong to. Unfortunately, the radio stations back then BANNED the song (for obvious reasons), but I think BFM has been playing it lately. You wouldn't believe the lengths that I will go to to play this song (I considered playing it at my wedding hehehe). Oh no, I've said too much. Ok, I've said enough.

2) Everybody Hurts
For me, this is the ultimate break-up-recovery song. Everybody hurts, sometimes. It acknowledges your sadness, but tells you to stay hopeful and hang on. Everybody hurts, you are not alone. take comfort in your friends. And hold on. No matter how sad you feel, that rising 'Hold on, hold on' crescendo at the end of the song is guaranteed to lift you up and will give you the will to hold on no matter what. Fuck all those so called 'emo bands' today and their fake sadness. THIS was and still is the saddest yet most uplifting song ever written.

3) It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
That's great, this starts with an earthquake and then proceeds on to shudder and vibrate through some of the most awesome motormouth verses to sing ever. I used to be obsessed with motormouthed songs like this (others include Billy Joel's We Didn't Start The Fire, Barenaked Ladies' One Week, and Savage Garden's I Want You), and would spend days memorising the lyrics and singing along to the songs. I can still remember every single lyrics in these songs. Heh heh.

4) At My Most Beautiful
This is just a beautifully written love song. That's all.

5) What's The Frequency Kenneth?
This was the first song I'd heard after the greatness of Losing My Religion, and it instantly struck me how different it was from that other song (this was pre-Internet/torrents, so I could only rely on the radio to listen to their songs). I remember thinking, "who the fuck is Kenneth and what the hell is Benzedrine?". Again, this was pre-Google, so I couldn't just google the answers. But the lyrics stuck with me for years until I finally found out what they meant. Heh.

Beer Of The Week: Zippy Zesty Żywiec!

2011-09-21T00:38:00.001+08:00

I've mentioned this Polish beer before last year, but since I recently got another can back from Germany, I thought I'd do another post, with a proper tasting. And just because I like it so much. heh heh.

Anyway, Żywiec is a Polish beer that I used to drink a lot of years ago back in Poland, and everytime I go to Europe these days, I keep a lookout for this or the other favorite Polish beer of mine, Tyskie. These are two of the very few lagers I can actually drink all night and not get sick of.

Żywiec is a lager/pilsner. It's easy to drink, refreshing, and has a wonderfully zesty, zippy zing to it that I find very pleasant. It's not hoppy like most lagers, it's slightly citrus-y, and it's even got a slightly CREAMY texture to it, which I love. And oh,

This is definitely one of the best pilsners I've ever had, and I've had quite a few too. I've loved it since I first tried it in Poland some 9 years ago, and even though it's been 5-6 years since I had it, the first taste of it brought back some really good memories with this beer.

Sigh, too bad it's so hard to get around here... SIGGGHHHHH...

The Big Bad Wolf Sale is Back! Be there or be less broke!

2011-09-19T18:17:00.006+08:00

YAY! The Big Bad Wolf Book Sale is back! The biggest, baddest, cheapest book warehouse sale is back!

Remember all the other times I went to the sale? It used to be at Amcorp Mall (where Bookxcess is now), and the first time it came around, it DEVOURED my money because of the choices and the prices.

Now it's back, and promises to be the BIGGEST and with over a MILLION books for sale. It's claiming to be the biggest in the WORLD, and I'm pretty sure these guys wouldn't exaggerated. Heh heh.

Anyway, the next Big BAd Wolf sale is on from 7th - 16th October, and will be held at Hall A, MAEPS, Malaysian Agro Exposition Park, Serdang. Click on the poster above for more info and the map to the venue!

Be there or be... er... stay un-broke, but with fewer books!! :-D

Beer Of The Week: My Goodness My Guinness!

2011-09-15T19:04:00.009+08:00

No, this is not an advertorial about Arthur's Day. If you want to know more about that, you can go check out the hundreds of other more popular blogs promoting the event, including some by guys who don't even drink it in the first place (yes KY I'm talking about you LOL).

I'm here to talk about Guinness, the BEER. Because you know, everyone's so wrapped up with the bloody concert that no one seems to care about the beer that the concert is based on in the first place.

Frankly, there really isn't enough free Guinness in the entire world to make me want to go watch Taio Cruz.

Not that I have anything against it, mind you. I LOVE Guinness, Draught or FES. I just haven't been drinking a lot of it lately, partly due to an overdose of it some time ago, and because I prefer ales these days, so I drink more Newcastle and Kilkenny.

Anyway, Guinness is a stout. But did you know that the one you drink on tap at pubs is technically NOT a stout? the bottled one, otherwise known as Foreign Extra Stout (FES) is the REAL stout.What's the draught one then? I don't know. a kid stout? Heh heh. Not that I mind though, I prefer the Draught over the FES, even though I like em both.

FES is more full-bodied and has a much, much heavier malt flavor to it. It's also got a higher Alcohol content.

On the other hand, the Guinness Draught is pretty much an easier to drink version of the stout. It's lighter, slightly heavier than Kilkenny, full-bodied (but not TOO full that it makes you bloated after one), and is easier on the malts. It's slightly creamier as well, and is a very, very satisfying drink especially after a long day at work.

BTW, Guinness Draught has a special two-part pour that makes it better to drink. I'm not gonna go through it here, so go Google it yourself. Oh, and the Guinness in Malaysia brewed by GAB is apparently the best one brewed outside of Ireland. Now that's some achievement.

And the best place to have Guinness Draught? Sid's Pub of course. Where else? Now, I'd take a pint or two of Guinness at Sid's over a whole night of freeflow with bloody Taio Cruz ANYTIME....

A Sale Of Books And Comics

2011-09-14T14:12:00.008+08:00

Just got back from the media preview of the MPH Distributors' Warehouse Sale. Pretty decent selection of books there.

They've got the entire A Song of Ice And Fire series for RM80 or something like that:

Got a lot of other books there as well, but frankly, I've been too spoiled by Bookxcess and the Big Bad Wolf sale to bother with the books these days.

For me, the main attraction was the comics section. the sale has a pretty good selection (almost four bookcases full!) of graphic novels and trade paperbacks, mostly DC Comics and Vertigo stuff, with a few Dark Horse lying around. Absolutely nothing from Marvel though. All going for RM13-RM50, which is a STEAL.

I saw lots of Superman and Batman titles, some great stuff like Preacher, Constantine, Hellboy, BPRD, Y: The Last Man, Fables, DMZ, Ex-Machina, Swamp Thing, some Neil Gaiman stuff, and A LOT of the usual superhero stuff.

Yup, there were some Absolute editions as well. I saw quite a few Absolute Sandman Vol II, and Absolute Batman: Long Halloween going for RM76 each. Now THAT'S a great buy. No more Absolute Watchmen and Absolute Kingdom Come though. The hoard of hoarding journalists sapu all oledi heh heh.

Anyway, the sale is open for the public tomorrow until Sunday. Here're the details and a very handy map to the sale as well!

Date: 15-18 September 2011

Time : 8am to 7pm
Tel: 603 7958 1688)
Facebook: Facebook.com/MPHDistributorsWarehouseSale

Address:
Ground Floor
Bangunan TH
5 Jalan Bersatu
Section 13/4
Petaling Jaya

Curry neh! Go watch Nasi Lemak!

2011-09-13T13:14:00.007+08:00

Nasi Lemak 2.0
辣死你媽!!
Not a review.
Wah, last year only I interviewed Namewee,
He was trying to get funds for the 1Malaysia movie.
Now here it is!
Wheee!

Go watch it!
It's funny!
Got Proton jokes!
Got politic jokes!
Got Alleycats!
Got Adibah and Afdlin!
Got Patrick Teoh!
After watch already you'll want to eat Nasi Lemak!

Hmmm, so odd seeing Karen Kong onscreen,
Way back in 2007 I was the first person to interview her.
She was an unknown then, just starting out.
She was so shy and awkward,
And didn't even know how to answer my questions properly.
Now, she's a star! Quite hot also!
Not just in music, but also in a movie also!
Wah I so proud la.
hehehe.

Anyway, Nasi Lemak very the funny.
It's a bit disjointed though.
Some slapstick parts no need also can.
But the jokes are actually pretty smart wan.
Especally if you're familiar with MAlaysia,
The races, the stereotypes, the politics, the culture,
The food, the language.. EVERYTHING lah.
(Except religion. nothing sensitive here)
Oh, also if you're familiar with Namewee's 'career',

It's a Malaysian movie.
got Malay English, Chinese, Tamil, Hokkien Cantonese...
Not a Malaysian-Chinese/Malay/Indian movie.
It's MALAYSIAN movie ok?
Don't want to watch it?
Diam lah!
Curry neh!

Chick Flick! Fuck Yeah!

2011-09-12T12:01:00.009+08:00

Bridesmaids.
Not a review.
Wah, a chick flick!
I actually went to watch a chick flick!
It's been years since I watch a chick flick!
Oh wait, I just watched one last year.
Oh never mind.

This chick flick quite funny though.
At least it's not like other chick flicks.
You know, the sort always starring Katherine Heigl,
Who plays an airhead chick who can't/won't get a guy,
But falls for one in the end.
Yadda yadda bla bla zzzzzzzz

Oooh Rose Byrne.
She's hot, but I don't like her character so not THAT hot.
Got so many British actors too!
Got that baldie from Little Britain
And that policeman guy is quite cool.

This one is funnier, raunchier,
And best of all, no Katherine Heigl!
(She's hot and all, but damn she can be annoying).
Heck, I don't even remember most of the actresses' names.
Except Kristen Wigg, who is really funny.
That butch Megan also damn funny hahahahaha.

Bridesmaids is like most Apatow comedies,
Got shit, fart, fuck, cuss, puke jokes,
But not stupid dumb like how Jack Black always does it.
And it's not like other chick flicks.
At least you don't spend half the time rolling your eyes.
And it's less a waste of time than most of the others.
Go watch it with a chick!

10 years After 9/11

2011-09-11T23:22:00.004+08:00

This was the front page of The Star ten years ago, the day after 9/11.

The night before, my sister and I had just spent the most unbelievably surreal night in front of the TV ever, watching the events unfold live as they happened in New York. I remember thinking, "What the fuck is happening? Why is this happening? Is this REALLY happening?"

It's been ten years since the World Trade Centers crashed down, and the world has been a really different place altogether. War, terrorism, and crazy airport security. It doesn't matter what your opinions of 9/11 and what happened after that. Let's just remember what happened on that day, during those few hours, when the world stood still and watched as the U.S. came under attack.

THOSE are your worse songs of the 90's? HAH!

2011-09-08T13:10:00.009+08:00

So yeah, Rolling Stone had a list of the worse songs of the 90's. I don't agree with half of them. Why? Because most of them were not so much lousy songs, but songs that were overplayed to death. Ok, I think Achy Breaky Heart and Who Let The Dogs Out deserve their place, as well as BArbie Girl. But What's Up? Really? What's up with that? I thought that's a pretty good song. And what's wrong with Tubthumping? Damn uptight Americans.

Anyway, here are MY personal worse songs of the 90's:

1) Mambo #5 (Lou Bega) - Once, the office decided that it would be a good idea to pipe in MixFM on the PA. It was tolerable at first. Then... THIS song came on. I think half the office wanted to commit mass suicide by jumping off the building at that point.

2) Barbie Girl (Aqua) - Ok, this is one choice I actually agree with. It's the most annoying song ever, with the most stupid lyrics and sung in the most annoying high pitch voice EVER. AQUA MUST DIE.

3) The First Time (Surface) - The first time I heard this song, I wanted to punch the face of the singer. Then the video came out and I wanted to chop him into little pieces THEN punch him in the face.

4) With Arms Wide Open (Creed) - Good bands don't let their frontmen yarl.

5) Blue (Eiffel 65) - I'm blue, badadibadibagaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

6) Rico Suave (Gerardo) - Ale alele! Riiicooo... SUAVSHHHADAAAAP.

7) Amazed (Lonestar) - Before Lady Antebellum, there was Lonestar, pioneer of boring, unimaginative, wholesome 'country' sickness.

8) Honey (Mariah Carey) - I actually liked Mariah at one point, when her hair was still curly and before she started looking like a sex-crazed slut. This album was for me, the one where she started completely annoying me, and on this song in particular... DOES SHE EVEN SING? What does she do beyond all that YODELLING???

9) You Are Not Alone (Michael Jackson) - Sorry, Jacko fans. Everytime I see or hear this come on on the TV or radio, I just turned it off so I could be alone.

10) I Believe I Can Fly (R. Kelly) - The only version of this song I could stand was the one FlyGuy came up with during his Breakfast Show (back when HitzFM was still tolerable), which went: I believe I can flyyy... I believe I can grow an eyeee...

---------------------------------------------------------

SPECIAL MENTION:

Almost EVERY fucking song by Michael Learns to Rock Deserves a place on this list. In fact I could have populated the ENTIRE LIST with songs from that fucking band, but I didn't think about it until KY pointed it out on Twitter AFTER I'd posted this list. So, what's the WORSE EVER Michael Learns to Rock song? The idiotically retarded lyrics of The Actor is a close second, the grammatically incorrect That's Why You Go Away is also close, but the WORSE MLTR SONG EVER IMHO is...

PAINT MY LOVE.

Everytime I hear that fucking song, I imagine paint on the walls curling up in protest, or just turning into flakes and flying away just to get away from the song. It's got a fucking boring verse, and the bloody chorus just makes my ears bleed. WHY THE HELL IS THIS SONG AND BAND SO POPULAR IN MALAYSIA? It's a fucking insult to my name, it is...

HUARRRGH!!! KILL! GRWWAAOOOARRR!!!!

2011-08-23T16:00:00.000+08:00

CONAN THE BARBARIAN!
NOT REVIEW!
RAWWWWR!!!!
HUAAARRRGHHHH!!!

GRRRAAAAHHH!!!!!
UURRRGGGHHH!!!!

MOMOA!
ROAAWWWWRR!!!
NO MORE ARNIE!!!
GRAAAAAAAWWRRR!
MOMOA GOOD!
MORE MOMOA!!!!
HHHUUAARRRGHHH!!!

STORY BAD!
UUURGH!
STUPID BAD GUY!!!
GRRRRR!!!!!
GRRROOOAARRR!!!!

NOT ENOUGH WENCHES!

GGRRRAAAAGGH!!!!
ARRRRRGHHHHHRRRHHHHH!

HUUUURRRRGGHH!!!!
BOOBS! MORE BOOBS!
NOOO! CENSORS!!!
DIE DIE DIE DIE!!!!
CONAN WANT MORE BOOBS!
KILL CENSORS!!!
GRRRAAWWRRR!!!!

KILL! KILL KILL!!!
BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD!
STAB STAB STAB!
HUAAARGGH!!!!
SLASH SLASH SLASH!!!
MORE BLOOD! BLOOOOOD!!!!
GRRRAAAWWWAAARRRRRR!!!!!!

What The Smurf....

2011-08-23T12:00:00.001+08:00

The Smurfs.
Not a Review.
Why the Smurf did I go watch this movie?
Oh wait, it was cos UOB BAnk had some CSR project,
And they let a few children s' homes watch it for free.
So yeah, whole cinema full of kids.
Oh well, at least it was a good movie for kids.

Yeah, it's a kid's movie.
Lots of slapstick,
Lots of silly jokes,
Lots of little blue people running around.
And lots of La la lalalalaaaa, lalalalalaaaaa...

ooooh, Smurfs.
I didn't hate them in the cartoon.
In fact I quite liked seeing all the different Smurfs
Here, most of it is a few Smurfs only though.
Mostly Papa Smurf, Clumsy, Brainy, Grouchy...
And a new Scottish Smurf called Gutsy Smurf!
Oh, and Katy Perry as Smurfette.

But at least the beginning got a lot more smurfs.
There's Jokey Smurf, Vanity Smurf,
Greedy Smurf, Farmer Smurf...
Handy Smurf, Baker Smurf, Hefty Smurf...
Even a Narrator Smurf! He was fun.

What's this, TV sitcom movieland?
Got Barney Stinson,
That hot Latino mama from Modern Family,
And that cute chick school counselor from Glee
And the voice of Apu 'Welcome to my store' as Gargamel.
Oh, and Megatron is voicing a cat. Go figure.

Oh, and be careful.
I couldn't get that bloody song out of my head the ENTIRE DAY.
Altogether now!
La la lalalalaaaa,
lalalalalaaaaa...
Come on, you all know the words!
La la lalalalaaaa,
lalalalalaaaaa...

Letting The Inner Toy-Car Bashing Kid in Me Out.

2011-08-22T15:26:00.000+08:00

Cars 2.
Not A Review
VROOM VROOM!
KACHAU!
CARS IS BACK!
WHEEEE!

I LOVE Cars.
I don't care what anyone else says.
Cars is awesome.
I have great memories of playing with my toy cars,
Crashing them around,
Taking them on adventures,
Doing stunts,
etc etc etc.
That's probably why I love Cars so much.

This one is completely different from the first one.
The first one was slower,
And was about slowing down and smelling the exhaust.
This one is a SPY movie!
It's got lots of action! Stunts!
And it's got Finn McMissile!
WHEE!!!

Mater is still annoying though,
But he's the kind of annoying I can stand.
Because he's just so innocent and child-like,
Heeheehee.
McQueen isn't that great here,
Mater is the main star.

Finn McMissile is awesome!
He's like James Bond...
If Q had combined James Bond with his car!
All those awesome gadgets!
And it's Michael Caine!
He sounds so 'sophisticated British spy' that it hurts!

Problem is, this is a Pixar movie.
If any other studio had made it other than Pixar,
Then the critics would have loved it.
But Pixar has set the bar so high,
It's not enough to be a GOOD Pixar movie anymore,
You need to be GREAT.
Sigh.

Oh well,
I LIKED IT.
It's very different from the first movie.
In fact, if I were a kid, I'd love this movie more.
The adult in me likes the simple and sweet first one,
The toy car bashing kid in me likes this one more.

Beer Of The Week: Hoppity Hoppity Hopus!

2011-08-17T08:00:00.003+08:00

This is one of my favorite beers over at Brux-Ale Belgian Bistro, where they have about 18 other authentic Belgian beers there, three of which are on tap. It's probably one of my favorite places to go for beer, because of the variety and the different types and flavors of beers there.
There is literally a beer for ANYONE at that place.

Hopus is one of the more unique beers at Brux-Ale. It's also the strongest one there, coming in at about 8.3% ABV. And like every beer in the bar, it also has it's own set of glassware, specifically for the beer. Did I say SET of glasses? Yup, this is one special beer, because it comes with TWO glasses for that one bottle of beer - one normal glass, and one shotglass.

What you're supposed to do is to pour the beer into the large glass first, then when there's only like a few centimeters left in the bottle, pour the bottom of the beer into the shot glass. Taht way, you'll get TWO different taste profiles in one beer.

First, take the beer in the shot glass. This part contains the residue yeast at the bottom of the bottle, and so the beer tastes extremely hoppy and bitter. It's a very full-bodied ale, and full of flavour as well. Once you've finished the shotglass, move on to the bigger glass, which is full of nice hoppy yet grassy notes, and despite the strong ABV, it's a surprisingly refreshing beer. Jsut don't drink too much too fast....

You can get Hopus and a lot of other awesome Belgian beers at Brux-Ale (4 Jalan Telawi 2, Bangsar, 59100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. For reservations, call 03 2287 2628). You can even buy a gift box set that includes the beer, as well as the full set of glassware there!

Beer Of The Week: Go Go Carlsberg Gold!

2011-08-10T08:00:00.000+08:00

Most people know the green Carlsberg bottle, but Carlsberg Gold has actually been around for quite some time now. If I'm not mistaken, it's only available in Malaysia right now, but boy, what a gem we have here.

First of all, it's a lot stronger than the usual Carlsberg - about 5.5% ABV. Like its older brother, the beer has hardly any nose to it, but when I tasted it, I could immediately tell the difference between this and the regular Carlsberg.

The green bottle has a certain edge to it that I find to be very distinctive, and while I don't mind drinking it, it's not exactly the first lager I would go for. But Carlsberg Gold is a different matter - it's definitely got a richer, more full-bodied and malty flavor to it, and the hops aren't as apparent here as the regular one. It's also damn bloody refreshing and smooth to drink - I downed my 325ml bottle in less than five minutes.

Definitely one of the best lagers available in Malaysia. I know Shaolintiger can't get enough of it too haha. If only it was available on tap as well, then I would mind actually asking for a Carlsberg.... heh.

Captain America! Fuck Yeah!

2011-07-25T11:54:00.008+08:00

Captain America: The First Avenger
Not A Review.
Captain America! Fuck Yeah!
Coming round to save the motherfuckin' day yeah!
Captain America! Fuck Yeah!
The Avengers is the only film left!
Fuck Yeah!

The costume is still damn dorky loh.

But they managed to explain it pretty well.

You should see the first time he wears it heh heh.

But later on it was ok.

Still dorky, but at least he kicks ass in it.

Chris Evans! Fuck Yeah!

Much better than expected.

I actually like him more here than in Fantastic Four.

Maybe cos he doesn't look so cocky.

But more goody goody heh heh.

Oooh, who's that chick?

Hayley Atwell? never heard of her.

She's pretty hot.

And even though got no cleavage rating,

Her Uniformed Rating is off the charts.

Nothing hotter than a girl in a uniform.

(Unless she's in a uniform AND also wearing glasses.

(And holding a machine gun)

Their love story was quite bittersweet,

So emo, sniff sniff.

And the shield is pretty awesome too.

But they don't explain why it comes back after he throws it.

Did he train himself to do that?

Did Howard Stark fix a magnet to his hand?

Is Captain America secretly an Australian?

Hugo Weaving AGAIN?

What is he, the ONLY person who can play a villain?

Oh wait, Mark Strong's been around a lot lately too.

Red Skull was ok,

Though when they first revealed the red head,

It reminded me of The Mask.

Almost expected him to start calling himself Cuban Pete.

(And start doing the rhumba beat)

Tommy Lee Jones! Funny!

Howard Stark! Not Tony but still fun!

Bucky! Er... carry on....

Dum Dum Dugan! Nice hat!

Howling Commandos! Not much howling done!

It's actually better than I expected.

Probably cos I had VERY LOW expectations.

I quite liked Thor,

But surprisingly, this was better.

At least I enjoyed it.

The pacing was more consistent,

And the action was decent.

Just ignore all the 'RA RA AMERICA' stuff lah...

Oh, remember to wait till the end of the credits for an extra scene,

It's one easter egg worth assembling for, I'll tell you that.

We've got Iron Man, Hulk, Thor,

And now Captain America...

Next up, The Avengers!

TIME TO ASSEMBLE!

(Well, I'm not green, so that means I'm not the Hulk...)

Come One, Come All to the Alcon Launch!

2011-07-22T16:04:00.002+08:00

Are you sick of paying WAAAY too much for booze thanks to the REALLY REALLY HIGH taxes imposed on alcohol? Well, Alcon are as well.

Alcon stands for the Alcohol-Consumer-Rights Group Malaysia (Alcon), a group of consumers who are petitioning for the rights of all social drinkers in MAlaysia.

Anyway, Alcon is having their OFFICIAL launch TOMORROW, at 4:30pm-730pm. Where is it gonna be? Well, you gotta be a member of ALCON to find out. Go HERE to join the cause, and then go to the event page HERE to find out wherethe launch is gonna be!

And OF COURSE there will be drinks. DUH.

-----------------------------------------------------

If you're still wondering what Alcon is standing for, here's a petition to the Ministrt of Finace that they came up with last year:
Here is a petition they came up with last year:

We the undersigned ask that the government reduce the unusually high duties and taxes levied on alcohol in Malaysia, as compared with the rest of the developing and developed world.

We strongly feel that responsible Malaysians have been subjected to EXTREMELY EXCESSIVE duties and taxes for alcohol. Malaysians are still low-income earners, but the prices we pay for alcohol are quite ridiculous.

In terms of income vs price, Malaysians probably pay the highest for alcohol in the WORLD. This is a very distressing and unsustainable situation.

The huge majority of drinkers do so as a form of recreation and a social activity. There are not alcoholics, and are responsible citizens. Many are professionals, businessmen and artists.

However, the cost of moderate drinking can cost up to 25% of a person's monthly salary. In most countries, for the same volume of drinks, it would only be 5-10% of the monthly salary.

Alcohol consumers already contribute close to 10 billion ringgit (5.6 billion spent on beer alone in 2009), but our views as stakeholders have never been taken into consideration by the government. In addition, the government’s revenue from alcohol taxation are already in the billions each year.

It’s time that the government shows some concern about this situation.

Please do not look to us an easy source of government funds anymore.

WU HU! Donnie Yen Kicks Ass! (Again)

2011-07-21T12:31:00.004+08:00

Wu Xia
武侠
Not a review.
Wah Donnie Yen again!
Why always him wan ar?
No one else can fight as good as him ar?
Oh yeah, there isn't.
Oh well...

Fooyor the story damn mystery mystery.
It's not all fight fight kill kill.
Got CSI scene also wan ok!
Kinda reminded me of A History Of Violence though.
Simple guy living simple life,
But actually hor, got damn bloody past wan.

Haiyor what spoiler.
See also you know lah.
It's DONNIE YEN.
See his face only you know he's going to fight lar.
And you KNOW he is not going ot be simple simple forever.

Takeshi was a bit weird though.
Maybe cos it's the Cantonese dubbing.
But quite fun, the fella.
Like House a bit, and can do CSI CSI also.
I quite like how they analyse the 'crime scene'
A bit kua ciong but fun.

eh the girl quite cute leh,
Oooh, she was from Lust, Caution.
That means we've seen her nekkid before lor.
Heh heh.
Nothing like that here though.
But her acting here is pretty good.
Didn't realize she was from that movie until later.

The fighting not bad.
But the beginning a bit slow lor,
If you just want fight fight fight fight.
Then you'll be disappointed.
But at least they tried something new.
Takeshi was fun
Donnie was... well, Donnie.
And PHWOAR the big boss is scary power.

It's quite interesting though,
Got fight, got CSI, got drama.
I quite like the CSI parts.
But hor, the ending a bit potong.
Both metaphorically and literally.
HAHAHAHAHA.

Tonight, I Dance With Dragons!

2011-07-14T14:46:00.003+08:00

IT'S HERE! IT'S HERE! MY COPY OF A DANCE WITH DRAGONS IS FINALLY HERE!

IT'S A BOUT TIME, GEORGE R.R. Martin!

Now PLEASE don't take this long to finish The Winds Of Winter!

PS: At a total of 1016 pages, this book is gonna break my back if I carry it around to read....

What a Way To Go, Harry Potter!

2011-07-12T13:13:00.004+08:00

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Not a Review.

IT'S FINALLY OVER.

After TEN YEARS

SEVEN BOOKS,

EIGHT MOVIES.

The Harry Potter series has finally ended!

It's not been a very easy franchise to follow.

Not all the films were great,

The first two were plodding bores,

The third was awesome,

The fourth, fifth and sixth were not bad,

And the seventh was just pointless.

But at least the whole thing has ended on a high.

But WHAT A WAY to end it all.

This is probably Radcliff'es best performance in the ENTIRE series.

At least you don't want to slap him silly.

And he's got more than two expressions this time around.

And Voldemort got more things to say also.

Damn scary bugger.

No nose also so scary.

Neville Longbottom!

YOU DA MAN!

Oooh, Emma Watson.

Cleavage Rating 6.5 (only because she doesn't er... flaunt it)

Ron is not so annoying either.

WHOA Flashbacks of LOTR.

And er.. Matrix Reloaded.

Don't ask.

Wah damn drama.

Damn emo.

So sad also.

*sob sob sob*

SNAPE! SNAPE! SNAPE!

Now THAT is what I call a payoff for the character!

THIS is what we've been waiting for!

And Alan Rickman is AWESOME here.

And Professor McGonagall is one badass MOFO.

I wish they'd shown her kicking more ass .

You know, they should have just made ONE movie.

Cut out bits of part one, and add an extra hour to part two.

Then it would have been SO SO much better.

But I don't blame the filmmakers

I blame Rowling-In-It.

She desperately needed an editor,

Especially in those last few books,

Which were thicker than bloody dictionaries.

But all in all, it's a good way to finish the series.

Lots of action, lots of drama,

And the mother of all wizard duels.

(actually, not really.)

(It's nothing compared to the Dumbledore vs. Voldemort duel in HP5)

It sure ain't no Return Of The King, that's for sure,

But it's still a brilliant way to end the franchise.

Oh, and who want to bet ten years from now,

J.K. Rowling-in-it is gonna write a prequel,

About James, Lily, Sirus' generation?

(or maybe a gay romance novel starring Dumbledore).

(Yeeesh)

Quiz Bodoh Kapitan America

2011-07-11T18:20:00.009+08:00

What is Captain America's real name?

(a) Steve Rogers

(b) Buck Rogers

Which America is Captain America from?

(a) North America
(b) Central America
(c) South America

What weapon does Captain America use?

(a) Shuriken

(b) Lightsabers

What happens when Captain America's shield gets stuck in a tree? Does he:

(a) whistle for it

(b) climb the tree

What happens when Captain America gets demoted? Will he be called:

(a) Sergeant America

(a) Major America

What happens when Red Skull gets a Blue Lantern Ring?

(a) turn purple

(b) stash it with the rest of his jewelry

What would you call Captain America if he wins Miss America?

(a) Captain Miss America

(b) Miss Captain America

What coffee does Captain America drink?

(a) Cafe 50

(b) Starbucky's

Which reality show would Captain America win?

(a) American Idol

(b) X-Factor

Beer Of The Week: Bonjour, Blanc Beer!

2011-07-04T11:24:00.004+08:00

I've always liked Kronenbourg 1664's lager. It's probably one of the few lagers I can drink without wincing. It's a bit expensive here in Malaysia, but still, I'd take it over most other lagers these days.

Anyway, Carlsberg Malaysia just launched the second beer under the Kronenbourg brand - 1664 Blanc - which is a wheat beer. The launch went down at an awesome party at View @ Gtower last week.

The beer comes in a pretty nice blue bottle (so you don't confuse it with the lager's green bottle), and like most wheat beers, the beer is a murky, slightly grey-ish yellow color. Taste-wise, it's a very fruity beer, kinda like Hoegaarden but with a stronger citrus flavor to it.

Frankly, 1664 Blanc is a little too sweet, too fruity for my liking. It's a bit of a girl's beer, even more so than Hoegaarden if you ask me. It's still pretty tasty though.

But I'd still prefer the Kronenbourg 1664 lager over this anytime.

You should be able to get 1664 Blanc it at View, Library, Ecoba, The Hill and other Carlsberg joints. It's available in bottle and on tap too I think.

Just Pretend Revenge Of The Fallen Never Happened

2011-06-28T00:01:00.014+08:00

Transformers: Dark of The Moon
Not A Review.
HOLY SHIT.
That was my reaction after the movie.
HOLY AWESOME SHIT.
HOLY FUCKING AWESOME SHIT.
Now THAT is what I call a Transformers movie!

Forget the second movie.
No really, pretend it never existed,
Pretend that we never had to endure those stupid twins,
That horrible script and those dumb robot balls.
Because THIS is the sequel we TRULY DESERVE.
THIS should have been the sequel to Transformers.
Not that bloody Revenge of The Fallen crap.

SHOCKWAVE! More devastating than Devastator!
SOUNDWAVE! No longer a useless satellite!
LASERBEAK! No longer an obsolete cassette!
MEGATRON! Robot-kutu-infested!
STARSCREAM! Still chicken shit as ever!

OPTIMUS PRIME! Now with awesome TRAILER!
SENTINEL PRIME! Spock-tastic! Galvatronising!
THE WRECKERS! WRECKING!
SIDESWIPE! IRONHIDE! Now with more things to do!
DINO! NOT A DINOBOT!
Bumblebee! Er.. still there!
Jolt! Pointless!

Seriously, even the plot kinda ignores ROTF.
So many plot holes.
But it all makes sense IF you pretend ROTF never happened.
Which for me was pretty easy.
Not for Jasonmumbles, who watched it like 11 times.
LOL.

No more Megan Fox (sob sob)
But there's Rosie.
Well, she ain't Megan,
But oh yeah, she's hot.
First thing you see is her awesome er... behind.
BEST. USE. OF. 3D. EVER.
Cleavage rating 8.
Acting rating: 2.5.

Didya notice how all the pictures here have no guys?
It's all just robots and babes.
Because that's all that matters, really. Heh heh.
Shia? Josh? Tyrese? Same old same old.
The parents are still damn annoying and pointless.
John Turtorro is less annoying & surprisingly competent.
And thank god that annoying douchebag from ROTF is gone.

BTW, the 3D's pretty good too.
Still a bit too long though.
Should have kicked out the parents.
John Malkovich and Ken Jeong were pointless and annoying too.
But holy slag, Laserbeak is great.
Kicks Ravage's ass anytime.
But there is LOADS of action in the end,
And LOTS of robot-on-robot fights.
Now THAT'S what a Transformers movie is all about!

I actually watched this LAST WEEK.
You have no idea how torturing it is to keep my mouth shut.
I mean, what's the point of watching it so early,
ONE WEEK BEFORE THE ENTIRE WORLD,
And not being able to gloat about it?
Especially since this was AWESOME?
GAAAAAH!

(BTW, is this the first review of the movie in Malaysia?)
(I know it's the first NOT A review in the WORLD. Hehe.)

In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night, Send This Movie To The Blight.

2011-06-16T08:40:00.006+08:00

Green lantern.
Not a review.
In brightest day, in blackest night,
This movie sure ain't no Dark knight.
May all who worship Marvel's might,
Beware DC's power... Ryan Reynolds' tights!

Sorry Ryan,
You should have stuck with Deadpool.
I liked you more there.
Not so annoying.
And you're not er.. heroic enough ler.
It ain't easy being green eh?

Blake Lively.
Not very lively.
A dead fish would have been livelier.
Stay in Gossip Girl, girl.
(Oh, Cleavage Rating: 7)

And why is Parallax a giant CLOUD again?
Like Galactus only.
No other shapes for giant evil space entities ar?
All cloud this cloud that.
This one is a cloud with tentacles samore.
(oh, you should see the crappy Parallax toy they made)
(That's gonna be in the bargain bins for YEARS)

Seriously not enough of the Green Lantern Corps lor.
Sinestro was alright (not yellow yet though)
Killowog talked too much like a hip-hop star for my liking.
Tomar-Re was not bad, but underused.
And they show SO MANY of the other Green Lanterns,
But never give them a chance to do anything,
Except shine their torchlights in the sky.
WTF!??!!????

MEH.
It was slightly better than Green HORNET,
But that's not saying much.
This was just... MEH.
Oh, and don't bother with 3D, it's pointless.
Go watch X-Men better,
Looks like DC is still stuck with Batman and Superman.
Though they better not screw up the Flash movie...

Beer Of The Week: Full Of Fuller

2011-06-13T12:00:00.000+08:00

I'm in London right now, and the first two days was basically a really long pub crawl for me. I wanted to go on the London Real Ale Trail, but didn't have time, so I just hoped into random bars and tried all the different ales they had.

Fuller's isn't exactly an unknown brand to Malaysians - it's available in several outlets, though only in bottle form. Never really liked the bottle one, but I decided to check out the draft version while I was here (Also cos I'd tried every other ale in this particular pub).

Anyway, Fuller's London Pride is pretty much par for course when it comes to ABV - only about 4.7%. It IS however a lot nicer tasting than I remember the bottle one being. Maybe because I was thirsty and eating fish and chips at the same time, but the beer really went down smoothly and was remarkably refreshing and pleasant.

I tried a whole lot of other ales in London, but surprisingly, Fuller's London Pride was one of the more memorable ones for me.

More real ale to come next time!

Ole Ole Ole Ole! Senna! Senna!

2011-06-10T15:42:00.005+08:00

Senna.
Not a review.
Not a review about my brother's dog.
But about the actual Senna.
THE Aryton Senna.
Arguably the greatest F1 driver ever.
Don't think it's ever going to Malaysia though.
But if the local distributors have any sense in them,
This is one documentary they SHOULD bring in.

Yes, it's a documentary,
So don't expect Fast 5 styled car races.
But it's a brilliant documentary.
None of that stupid boring talking head crap.
It uses real footage and live race footage.
And tells the story brilliantly.
So brilliantly in fact,
That you don't have to be a F1 fan to enjoy it.

From the start of his career,
To his spats with the hamsap looking Alain Prost,
The in-car cameras showing off his driving skills,
It is a fitting tribute to a great driver.
His first win at the Brazilian GP was especially awesome.
Especially when you see the pain he was in after the race.

Of course, you know that he dies in the end.
But the build-up to that moment was brilliant.
From the pre-race footage, to the in-car footage,
It makes the eventual crash so, so heart-wrenching.
And what happens before the crash is even sadder.
You KNOW what happens to him.
Which makes each sentences he says even more poignant.
If you get the chance, WATCH THIS.

X-traordinary. X-ceptional. X-cellant (Xorry)

2011-05-31T15:22:00.005+08:00

X-Men: First Class
Not A Review.
X-ceptional
X-quisite.
X-cellant.
X-traordinary.
X Marks The Spot!
First Class is Top of The Class!

Professor X!
>Aka. James McAvoy!
X-cellent!

X-Rated! (great pickup lines, Charles!)

No wheelchair! Don't touch his hair!

Still X-tra Awesome!

Magneto!
aka. Michael Fassbender!
Magnetizing!
Heavy metal!
Ironclad performance!
That is one hell of a way to kill a guy, Erik!

Other mutants!
Havok: Energizing!
Mystique: Mystifying!
Banshee: Supersonic!

Beast! er... blue!
Azazel! Angel (with butterfly wings)!

(Poor Darwin)

Hubba hubba Emma Frost!
Cleavage rating 8.5!
Ok January Jones isn't THAT hot,
But when she takes her clothes off THAT often,
Who's looking at her face?
Hur hur.

Probably my favorite of all the X-Men movies so far.
Yes, even better than X1 and X2.
Yes, even without Wolverine!
Matthew Vaughn is KICK ASS!
Get him back for the sequel PLEASE!

Yup, this is DEFINITELY a great reboot of the franchise.
X-cellantly done, Vaughn!
EAT THAT Brett Ratner!
THIS is how you do an X-Men movie!
Now bring on the next one!

(I said FOUR Big Macs, Erik. not five!)

Beer Of The Week: Malt Of The Rising Suntory

2011-05-27T17:00:00.001+08:00

I have to admit, I'm not that great with Japanese beers. Most of the ones I've tried are the more common ones like Asahi, and although I visited the Sapporo factory in Tokyo once, that was before I could REALLY appreciate beer as it should be.

Anyway, this week's beer of the week is SUNTORY PREMIUM MALT beer, brought to you by the same guys who make Yamazaki and Hibiki whiskies:

Suntory is actually the fourth largest player in the Japanese beer industry, behind Sapporo, Asahi and Kirin, but apaprently, Premium Malt is now one of the top PREMIUM beers in Japan. It was launched here quite recently, just under a year ago, but it's not widely available - probably only in certain Japanese restaurants and shops.

If you happen to have a bottle or can at home, you should probably know that there is supposedly a special way to pour the beer. You have to pour it straight down first to generate a nice foamy head, then after it's settle somewhat, you pour the rest in gently via the side of the glass. This way, the head remains, and supposedly prevents the flavor of the beer from 'escaping' too quickly. If you have the special Suntory glass, even better, since the glass was designed to be the perfect vessel to serve Suntory beer.

I tried the beer with and without the special technique before, and the one done without was definitely flatter and less aromatic than the one that was served properly.

Anyway, I quite like the beer - it's got a nice, hoppy aromatic aroma that isn't TOO hoppy, and quite pleasant. On the palate, it's very refreshing, one of those beers that I just LOVE having upon coming home after a long day's work and during a hot day. And using ONLY premium malted barley, it's got a very distinct and nice malty flavor to it as well.

Definitely one of my favorite Japanese beers so far.

Is this the year the Panda beats Pixar? SKADOOSH!

2011-05-27T12:00:00.003+08:00

Kung Fu Panda 2
Not A Review.
WHEE SKADOOSH!
Wah Pixar better look out,
Cars 2 has a lot of ground to make up
Because this movie is actually damn good.
Heck, it's even better than the FIRST Kungfu Panda IMHO.

Tigress! Snake! Panda!
Mantis! Monkey! Crane!
Peacock! Rhino! Ox! Croc!
I love all the different animal kungfu styles!

The action was definitely bigger and better.
Each individual animal also got to show off more.
More fighting, more awesome stuns,
THIS is how a kungfu movie should be like!
(Without all the actors breaking their necks, of course)

Fooyor the peacock bad guy damn power,
I really like the way they used the bird's form,
The metal claws, the tail feathers, the spear,
And his feathers are deadly throwing knives!
Lord Shen would KICK Tai Lung's butt, no fight!

It's quite funny also.
And at least they don't use all those pop culture jokes,
That all the Shrek lar Shark Tale use.
BOOORING.
Oh, if you understand Cantonese,
Go watch the Canto version also.
It's funny!

Oh, and it's not all action action fight fight,
Got some parts damn touching also ok?
Especially with the goose.
And the 3D not bad also.
Watch out Pixar, this panda means business.
SKADOOSH!

Vroom Vroom TWOOOO!

2011-05-25T17:08:00.002+08:00

ARGH. Someone PLEASE give or buy me this set of three movie posters from Cars 2 PLEASE:

This'll look AWESOME framed up and hung up on one of my walls.

Speaking of Cars 2 posters, these country specific posters are pretty damn cool as well:

Beer Of The Week: Tui Tui, Don't Ptui It!

2011-05-20T14:30:00.000+08:00

Couple months back, a former colleague of mine brought this back from New Zealand.

Yes, a couple months ago. I put it in the fridge, and completely forgot about it until recently when I cleaned out the fridge.

Fortunately, the beer doesn't seem to have gone bad, or at least I dont' think so. But since I don't have another Tui to compare this one to, you'll have to take my word for it MUAHAHAHA.

Anyway, this particular beer is the Tui East Indian Pale Ale, which I reckon is a fancy name for 'English Ale', since it tastes very much like what an English ale tastes like. It's light, sweet, and has a nice caramel finish, not too long. But it's a bit light though, and reminds me of a Newcastle Brown Ale as well.

Nevertheless, if I were in NZ, I'd probably drink this a lot because its the kind of beer that I like. It's a bit light though, only 4.0% ABV; so I can probably drink this all night long.

Plus I like a beer with a sense of humour:

Overall, a nice, pleasant-tasting beer, not too spectacular, but nice nonetheless. Where can you get it? Probably New Zealand, I suppose. heh.

Four is Definitely Enough, Jack

2011-05-16T12:07:00.005+08:00

Pirates of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Not a review.
Otherwise known as POTC4
Or POTC: The Pointless Money Grubbing Sequel
Pointless in that it doesn't add anything to the franchise,
Beyond giving us more Jack Sparrow.
And frankly, I'm getting a bit sick of him.

Ok, Captain Jack Sparrow is always fun.
But this time around he was fun but boring at the same time.
The first movie he was AWESOME because he was FRESH.
By the third movie, he was a bit tired already.
And this one, it's ALL him.
Which is good and bad at the same time.

It's not too bad.
Just.. pointless.
I reckon you could take the best bits of all 3 sequels,
And make one REALLY AWESOME sequel.
Instead we got one LONG trailer to the 3rd,
A third movie that was all over the place,
and a 4th movie that is pretty much pointless.

Blackbeard was awesome though.
Ian McShane is AWESOME.
Even better than Davy Jones.
And Barbossa is still my favorite pirate of the lot.
He's the only one who can give commands like a REAL pirate!

Lucky no Will and Elizabeth this time.
But wait, there's some wishy-washy guy,
Falling in love with a mermaid.
WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT SUBPLOT THERE FOR ANYWAY?
IT'S BOOORRING and doesn't add ANYTHING to the plot.
It's like a mini-Will & Liz for fucks sake.
URGH.

Ooooh, Penelope Cruz.
She's smokin' hot.
MUCH better than Keira Knightley
Not much of a cleavage rating though haih.
And those mermaids are damn hot too!
Until the go psycho and bite your heads off, that is.

Yes Johnny, four is definitely enough.
Unless you can get a new director,
One that can give the franchise something NEW,
You're only gonna be making the same movie OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
There's only so much Sparrowing around we can take, Jack.

Beer Of The Week: Tetley, Tetley, Very Smoothly

2011-05-13T11:00:00.001+08:00

It's beer of the week time again! This time, I checked out a Tetley's Smooth Flow English ale that I bought from Village Grocer in Bangsar Village:

According to the can, this has 'A uniquely smooth taste', and 'for best result,; serve cold from the fridge, pull the tab, listen to the surge & pour down the side of the glass in one smooth movement.

I actually expected it to have a Bebola Terapung Ajaib (otherwise known to common people as a widget), since they kept emphasising the 'smooth' on the label, but it didn't have one, disappointingly.

Taste-wise, it's pretty light, containing only 3.6% alcohol:

Well, they DID call it a 'light English Ale' after all, so I suppose that can't be helped. Hey, at least it didn't taste like one of them piss-lite American beers.

It's definitely lighter than the one I've tried on draft, and much lighter than Kilkenny or even Newcastle Brown Ale. it's slightly sweeter than a Kilkenny though, though not as caramel-y as Newcastle Brown Ale.

I drank this one one of them awful hot days we've been getting this past week, so this was actually pretty awesome and refreshing. I still wouldn't pick this over a Newcastle Brown Ale, but at that low ABV level, it was a great light beer for a hot, hot day.

This Aren't The Aliens You Are Looking For...

2011-05-11T14:06:00.005+08:00

Paul.
Not a review.
Comic Con!
I love Comic Con.
I was there when they filmed Paul there you know.
Even though I didn't see them filming,
But I was there anyway. HAH!
PFFFBBBBT.

This is like a lover letter to Comic Con geeks.
Or Sci-fi geeks in general.
So many homages, so many Easter Eggs!
Star Wars! Aliens!
Indiana Jones! X-Files!
Close Encounters!
WHEEE!

Pegg and Frost were ok though.
Not as funny as they were in Hot Fuzz or Shaun of the Dead.
But still pretty funny,
I still prefer it when Frost is the bumbling idiot though.
He does bumbling, innocent idiot very well.

Surprisingly, Paul himself was pretty cool
I thought he'd be damn annoying and obnoxious,
Especially since Seth Rogen is voicing him.
But he was quite cool!
Quite endearing too, in fact.
And there's just something hilarious,
About an alien smoking a cigarette.
Heh heh.

Overall, it's ok.
Not as funny as Hot Fuzz or Shaun,
But still funny.
Even funnier if you're familiar with all the sci-fi movies,
and Pop culture in general.
IT's fun picking out the lines and easter eggs!

Hurts So Good, But Not Better Than Love

2011-05-09T14:12:00.006+08:00

(picture from NME.com)

Did it feel better than love? Not really. Was Hurts so good? Well, they were pretty decent, actually.

I was right though. Before going for the show, I'd surmised from the album Happiness that most of the songs would sound A LOT better live, especially since they were mostly SOARING, melodramatic ballads that would sound MUCH better played live and LOUD, instead of the more polished and slightly blander sound on the album. And I was right.

The songs, coupled with the group's presentation made it more than just another boring indie pop band gig. The concert started out cun-cun 8:30pm, with Unspoken, and lasted a little more than an hour, going through 15 songs, including a Kylie Minogue cover Confide In Me.

Songs like Silver Lining, Evelyn, Stay, Blood Tears Gold and Unspoken sounded SO much better than on the album. The soaring choruses, the pounding synth beats and melodramatic performances by lead singer Theo Hutchcroft and synth player Adam Anderson made it a pretty good show. I especially enjoyed the drama on songs like the soaring Blood, Tears Gold and Silver Lining, and the unexpected head-banging session during Evelyn, the only song where Anderson got up and played an electric guitar instead.

But those were not the best part of the concert for me though. Nor was it the expected Stay sing-along (which though good, kinda felt a bit of an anti-climax).

No, the best part of the gig for me was when halfway through the album's hidden track Verona, the back-up singer just BURST OUT into song, his powerful voice overpowering ALL the musicians and putting Hutchcraft's own vocals to shame. The fellow was STANDING STRIGHT the ENTIRE NIGHT, not moving a single muscle except his vocal chords, and when he finally left his post at the end of the encore (Better Than Love), that was when we KNEW that the concert was over (that, and the fact that Hurts had already played every single song on Happiness (barring The Water) and then some, and were pretty much out of songs to sing).

All in all, a decent gig, pretty decent for a band that only has one album to their name so far. At least they didn't make me regret not going for Gruff Rhys instead....

Beer Of The Week: Ay Caramba, It's Corona!

2011-05-06T10:35:00.008+08:00

In case you haven't noticed, I've added a new label to the blog titled: Tipsy-Turvy, which of course, is the name of my regular alcoholic column in the newspaper. In addition to that, I'm starting a new 'Beer Of the Week' label where I'll choose a beer, any beer, and tokkok about it, just for the heck of it. Heh heh.

To kick things off, here's a beer that's always been close to my heart - Corona Extra.

You see, way way way way back when I didn't know better, and before there was Hoegaarden, Stella, or even Kilkenny; there was Corona. It's the only imported beer I seem to remember being available back then (correct me if I'm wrong), and I used to snub Tiger and Carlsberg just so I could be seen as 'cool' drinking Corona. That, plus the lemon in the beer always made it a great conversation starter with the girls hur hur hur.

Of course, later I found out that Corona isn't exactly a premium brand even in Mexico, and my American brother-in-law even laughed at me mockingly once when I ordered a Corona in front of him. Deep even calls it Mexican Donkey Piss. HMPH.

Anyway, a few days ago, I was invited to check out a Cinco De Mayo (Fifth of May) celebration at Las Carretas restaurant in Ampang, where the sponsored beer was of course, Corona.

This was a good chance for me to go back to a beer I once loved after trying so many other beers, and finding out once and for all why exactly I liked it so much.

And no, it's not because of the hot promoter girls:

Anyway, armed with my new *ahem* discerning beer palette, I realized that on its own, Corona is actually pretty bland and tastes just like any other lager. In fact, I'd even venture to say it's even weaker than Budweiser, and that's saying a lot. I don't even know why I liked it last time (hey, I was young and naive back then).

So what makes it so special then? Well, if you asked me, I'd say it's the lemon/lime slice that they always put inside the bottle:

Like Kenhynn of Beer Beer says, Corona is pretty pointless without the lemon or lime. Without it, it tastes bland and forgettable. But WITH it, the combination of the lemon and the beer makes for a refreshing, tangy and pretty cool drink. Of course, you could argue that you can add the lemon to ANY lager and it'll taste the same, but I suppose it just ain't the same if it ain't drunk from the Corona's clear bottle.

Oh, if you have some tequila lying around, you can use it in a submarine:

I've blogged about How to Make A Submarine a LONG LONG time ago, so go see how exactly it's made and how to drink it. And no, it's more than just dunking a shot of tequila into it and downing the whole thing. Now THIS it for me, the BEST way to drink a Corona, heh heh.

I suppose if forced to choose between Corona and the usual Tigers or Carlsbergs, I would still go for a Corona, though probably more for sentimental reasons than anything else. It IS a pretty refreshing beer, though like I said, make sure you get the lemon, or it's pretty much pointless.

Mexican LL Approves!

Priests, Please Pray For Paul's Career....

2011-05-05T17:25:00.007+08:00

Priest.
Not a review.
Wah so religion-y.
Church this church that,
Cross this cross that,
Vampire this vampire that...
Oh wait.

Ok, it wasn't BAD.
But it wasn't really GOOD either.
It WAS really really meh.
I expected more out of this lor.
Especially after that stupid Legion.
This one was supposed to redeem Paul Bettany.
It's based on a Korean horror manga samore...

Wahlau, first Legion, now this,
Paul Bettany really needs to pray for his career.
Or at least work with other directors instead.
But at least this was much better than Legion.
Though that isn't saying much.

In Legion, we wanted LOTS OF ANGELS AND MACHINE GUNS
But all we got was ONE angel with guns and boring zombies.
Here, I was expecting LOTS OF FIGHTS WITH LOTS OF VAMPIRES
But don't have.
Haih.

Wah this Karl Urban is EVERYWHERE these days.
Star Trek lar, RED lar,
Priest lar,
Quite cool at first,
But after that a bit silly lor.

Maggie Q a bit wasted.
She didn't even get to air out her bikini.
Eh? Priest got no bikini?
If she's as hot as Maggie Q, why not?

Eh, why the vampire all so ugly wan,
Don't have sparkle sparkle also.
And why Chinese vampire all different wan?
Why the vampire hunters so violent wan?
Stick a piece of yellow paper on them mar enough lor...