Culturally Preconditioned

Wow.. and I honestly really thought Cindy had the winning edit in Survivor Guatemala all along. Now I’m gonna have to eat my words. You never ever ever fuck with the car reward curse. Nobody has ever won it. Ever.

Survivor : Borneo - no car reward challenge. Richard won the car after he won the million.
Survivor : Australia - Colby won the car (who could forget Mama Colby coming over for a visit and taking photos of her son taking a shower? Eww) and lost to Tina at the Final Two.
Survivor : Africa - Lex won the car and was booted at Final Three.
Survivor : Marquesas - Sean won the car and was booted the exact same episode (Final Five). However, they were all given cars cars during the reunion (it was unclear who were the actual sponsors)
Survivor : Thailand - Ted got the same fate as Sean in Marquesas.
Survivor : Amazon - Matthew received the same fate as Colby.
Survivor : Pearl Islands - Burton won the car and was booted at Final Five.
Survivor : All Stars - Boston won the car and lost at Final Two. So did Amber, but technically, Rob was the one who actually won the challenge. On a side note, Shii Ann also ‘won’ a car during the reunion which pissed off Jenna Fucking Whore Lewis.
Survivor : Vanuatu - Eliza won the car and ended up at Final Three.
Survivor : Palau - Ian won the car and went out at Final Three (in what HAS to be the most idiotic move/decision ever made on the history of the game. Stupid douchebag)
Survivor : Guatemala - Cindy won the car and was voted out at Final Five.

So the odds are… if you win the car, you will get voted out at
Final Five - 4/10
Final Three - 3/10
Final Two - 3/10

Like I said, never ever fuck with the curse.

Anyway, Cindy was presented with a surprise twist.. and there’s lots of coulda woulda shoulda debate going on on all message boards. I have no doubt that if she had given up the car and let the others have the four cars, there was no doubt in my mind that CBS was gonna give us another twist that she wins the car as well. But anyway, what’s done is done. But what in holy fuck gives limp noodle Rafe the right to be all pissy about how Cindy SHOULD give up her car? My God. For once, I have to agree with frickin Steph. Why should she do that? Cindy fucking EARNED that reward. Survivor is no place to be a martyr. So get off your gay high horse and admit that you were just a bitter whore, Rafe. Man.. that twat really pissed me off. Cindy was right to vote for Rafe.. he is a challenge whore (who would’ve thunk?) cause if you are observant, the idiot editors at CBS has already shown us a shot of who was/will be wearing the immunity necklace in the Final Four tribal council.

With regards to the Finale this Sunday (in the States), Entertainment TOnight had a brief interview with Jeff Probst :

Mark: Last night the Final Four were revealed and the million dollar winner will be announced in a two hour special airing this Sunday on CBS. So who will be in the Final Two? We’ve got some clues.

Jeff: One played the game in a way I never thought they would be able to play. And the other played a game I never saw.

Interesting, no? Given the Final Four that we have (probably the most boring and unlikeable Foursome since Survivor Thailand), I would have to say that
(a) “One played the game in a way I never thought they would be able to play” would be referring to STEPHENIE - she was an ‘outcast’ and no one ever thought of voting her out? Does she even have a single vote to her name right now?
(b) “And the other played a game I never saw.” would be referring to Danii. I mean, seriously, if she even had a gameplan, why weren’t they shown to us viewers? She makes Vecepia look good for goodness sake. If anything, she got really really lucky.

So will Danii or Steph win? As much as I hate Steph, I have to commend her for playing this game better than she did in Palau, and this time she played it HARD. She is definitely one of the better Survivor players in this bunch. But how will she fare with the fellow jury? Cause this is a social game, and she might make the mistake than Boston Rob did in All Stars.

On the other side of the coin, Danii defeats all odds from being the ultimate underdog to being in the Final Two. She will definitely score points in social aspect of the game. She’s been pleasant and has not really betrayed any of her alliance on the jury. Her circumstance reminds me that of Charlotte’s in Survivor UK - and Charlotte won by a landslide of 7-0.

So will Danii win or Steph win? Ultimately, it depends on the jury.. and ultimately, it WILL be either a vote for Steph, or against Steph.. which is rather sad since it’s the jury’s fault Steph got as far as she did in this game. I’ve a gut feeling that Danii’s gonna win this thing. Vecepia will need to pass Danii her “most boring contestant to ever win” tiara on Sunday.

I will have a post mortem entry after I’ve seen the finale and reunion show, which will hopefully be shown this Monday on ntv7. God knows, Malaysian tv doesn’t give a shit about letting viewers know in advance if they have changes in their schedule (TV3’s the same the way they’re bumping off Apprentice 3 for the shitfest that is the Konsert Sure Hanjing).

June 1999. My best friend and I were roaming around Leicester Square in London trying to decide on which West End show we should watch to celebrate our graduation. A little colourful flyer caught my eye - it was an aerial view of a group of twenty-somethings walking down the street. “Let�s go watch Rent. I think I saw a short segment on CNN on the musical two Christmases ago. It�s supposedly good”. We didn�t know what we were getting ourselves into. There were so many other musicals to choose from: Phantom of the Opera, Miss Saigon, Chicago. Les Miserables.. all huge famous West End productions, and we settled for Rent - a relatively less popular show compared to its well-known cousins. We weren�t sure what the musical was about, we travelled hundreds of miles down to London and was about to blindly spend GBP 45 on the tickets - it was a leap of faith, sorta.

I have never watched a proper musical theater (the university�s production of Jesus Christ Superstar didn�t count, although the girl who played Mary Magdalene was the absolute shiznits), and watching Rent at the Shaftesbury theater that night totally blew me away. It was a perfect introduction to musical theaters. The music was very edgy (for a musical), the message was strong and the cast was top notch brilliant. No other musicals I�ve watched after that even come close - Cats, Fame, Whistle Down The Wind - they all pale in comparison. So it was really not a big surprise that I make yet another pilgrimage, this time down to Singapore, to catch Rent performed on stage again on it�s first leg of the 10th Anniversary World Tour last weekend.

I’m supposed to write a lengthy review of the performance.. I’ll probably do it later (this is the worst streak of writer’s block I’ve had this year) so now I’ll just provide a Cliff Notes version of the performance that evening (Saturday 3rd December 2005 Matinee Show)

The Good
1. It’s RENT. Duh. Every RENT performance will always be a special occassion.
2. Uber excellent performances from Daryl Brown (Benny), Jeremy Kushnier (Roger), Caren Lyn Manuel (Maureen) and of course, Andy Senor (Angel)
3. Encores by the band
4. No matter how often I watch the performance or listen to the soundtrack, I never fail to shed a tear during I’ll Cover You (Reprise) which is a testament to how powerful RENT is.

The Bad
1. It was the first leg of the 10th Anniversary World Tour, and yet they didn’t even provide tour programmes (let alone other little souvenirs and titbits)
2. Some people mysteriously disappeared after the intermission. I don’t blame them since no announcement were made after the end of La Vie Boheme and no tour programmes were avaiable to inform the newbies that the show consisted of TWO separate acts. They probably thought it was the end of the show and not an intermission.
3. However, we were reminded to redeem our free RENT CD after the show, in exchange for our ticket stubs. Turns out the CD given out was Karen Mok’s CD instead - which I didn’t bother.

The Ugly
1. Oh this one’s easy. It’s Karen Mok. Plain and simple. She was horrible and terrible and abyssimal and horrendous. I don’t hate Karen Mok. But I really hated her performance. I’m not complaining about her dictions. She speaks (or ’sings’) good English (except for the one time that I think she pronounced “There’s only yes” instead of “There’s only us”). But I swear to GOD, she was a terrible terrible singer that day. TERRIBLE. It really had me wondering how she got the part in the first place. She also tends to overact on stage. It was as though she was doing a Senario skit instead of giving a theatrical performance. Seriously, Erma Fatima don’t know what ‘OVER’ really means unless she’s seen Karen Mok’s awful performance. The thing that bugged me the most was, she’s actually frontlining the World Tour and they are promoting her for this tour. I wasn’t expecting a lot from her.. but oh god.. seriously, I’d rather hear tortured cats screeching than her dismal performance. It was bad it was bad it was bad and I’m not exagerrating. I don’t really have any strong opinion on Karen Mok before the show. She might be a good actress, or a good singer. But she is a god awful terrible musical theater actress. She almost killed RENT for me. Almost.

With that said, was it worth it? Of course. If the show stops by Bangkok next year, will I go? For sure. Despite Karen Mok’s performance? Absolutely. But I’ll be sure to bring my iPod to drown out her solo bits in the show. But yeah, even with her on the show, I would definitely go see it again in a heartbeat. Viva La Vie Boheme!