Culturally Preconditioned

You know, one of my favourite (non-cussing) words is “pretentious”. I seem to use that a lot when visiting so called hip and happening places like Bangsar and Sri Hartamas. It seems like everyone is going out of their way to impress other people there, and more often than not my friends will hear me say “Bitch look at all these pretentious fuckers”. Just the other day I saw this college girl wearing thick white rimmed glasses that only Dame Edna Average would think fashionable, and I was just sitting there staring at her with my Whatevia-tude saying “You’re impressing no one, bitch”.

Anyway, same rule applies to folks who claims they’re ‘learned’ or ‘cultured’ just because they get  the Philharmonic Orchestra or the operas sung in foreign languages. I used to think they’re all pretentious little fuckers. My friends say I have a sickness. And I don’t really deny it. I am, however, will be eating my words cause I’m going to try my hand at sitting through an opera this weekend.

I don’t think I am ever going to get operas, but if I was going to start trying, it might as well start with Puccini’s La Boheme. I just recently found out that Astro will be showcasing Puccini’s La Boheme this weekend. And for those who really get me, they’d know that I’m only doing this because of my Rent obsession.

The broadway musical Rent by Jonathan Larson was based on Puccini’s La Boheme, an opera in four acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de Bohème by Henri Murger. The world première of La bohème was performed in Turin on February 1, 1896 at the Teatro Regio (now the Teatro Regio Torino) and conducted by the young Arturo Toscanini. (that sentence was directly copied and pasted from wikipedia, FYI)
I have never heard of Puccini’s La Boheme prior to watching (and obsessing) over Rent. But what I have found out after reading some articles, is that the similarities between Rent and La Boheme is astounding. It really is amazing how Jonathan Larson used  Puccini’s La Boheme as a basis for the musical. If you know what Rent is about, and later read about La Boheme, you WILL be blown away by how much of a genius Jonathan Larson is. He really is a genius. Pure genius.

I got my Rent 2-disc Widescreen Special Edition DVD from Amazon.com last week and needless to say I was really over the moon. I was not, however, expecting to be moved quite as much when watching the 2-hour documentary on Jonathan Larson and the creation of Rent, but I was. I might write on the review for the DVD later though.

On a final note, I urge those of you who have watched Rent to give La Boheme ago. I’m pretty sure I won’t understand a single word sung in this Italian opera and I hope there will be subtitles, but at the very least, I’m pretty sure we’ll be amused at how amazingly different and at the same time amazingly similar the two are.

~Pretentious Bastard Izad~

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!

… cause I am two weeks away from watching Rent’s 10th Anniversary World Tour Original Broadway Production from New York in Singapore. Woohoo!!!!! I am even more excited about this than I was of Eid. And you can bet your sweet ass I’ll be catching the show in Bangkok too.

It will be a tad weird having an Asian Mimi but what the hell. I’m also excited with the fact that the same guy who played Angel will be played by the same actor (Andy Senor) who played the same role when I first watched Rent in 1999. I am so totally Over The Moon. MOO WITH ME!

Moo! Mooo!! Moooooooo!!!

There Is No Future
There Is No Past
I Live This Moment
As My Last

There’s Only Us
There’s Only This
Forget Regret
Or Life Is Yours To Miss
No Other Road
No Other Way
No Day But Today

And for some other less dramatic items.. here’s a recent picture of my cats.

The week-long DeepaRaya festivites has already started this week, and yet I am still at the office at 0645 hrs on a Monday morning. The things I do to for my company. I will probably be taking a week hiatus as I will probably be busy visting relatives and babysitting my 15 nepehews and nieces for the next few days. I’m not really sure what the traffic condition will be, but I’m not taking any chances and I’ll be starting my journey at 0600 hours tomorrow.

Essential Balik Kampung Checklist :
1. Samping songket
2. Songkok
3. 3-tier cage
4. Fresh kitty litter
5. Cat food (both dry and wet)
6. Litter box
7. Cat calendar (to show off the October 7th entry to everyone at home)
8. Mini iPod + USB charger
9. A Year in the Merde and Merde Actually and Kafka On The Shore
10. Sony Ericsson handphone charger
11. The cats (phew.. almost forgot them)

Survivor Recap

The Amy boot was totally expected. I liked her and I’m going to miss her. I’m not feeling much for the remaining people on the Nakum tribe. Bobby Jon annoys me with his stupidity. Brandon is just meh. Gary couldn’t get voted out soon enough. Danii.. well Danii I like. That said, it’s not any better over at Yaxha. I hate Steph with a passion. Judd is the biggest jerk to ever get on Survivor. Jamie is stupid not to realise Survivor is a social game. Lydia was missing. Rafe .. well.. not much impression on him. Cindy. Well.. Cindy’s gonna win this thing. No, this is not comping from any spoilers or whatever. It’s just a huge hinky that I have based on the observation from previous episodes. Cindy HAS that winner’s edit. Cindy WILL win Survivor Guatemala. (You gotta love the final shot of her cradling the immunity idol last week). The only thing that got me excited last week was Probst mentioning that they were gonna merge. That means.. brand new buff!! I can now go crazy and start pestering my bud to help me buy the 3 Guatemalan buffs to add to my ever growing Survivor Buff Collection (only 24 buffs to date).

The Amazing Race Recap

I can’t believe there would come a day where people would be rooting for the Paolos… but it happened. What is the show coming too. I gotta say that what All Stars did to Survivor, The Family Edition is doing to The Amazing Race franchise. It’s killing TAR.

NaNoWriMo 2005 (National Novel Writing Month)

November will be upon us, and it’s time to start writing again. My nano from last year (Daud In Distress) was a miserable failure. I still think I have a great premise with that story (and I’m pretty sure I’ll be getting lots of materials this raya season with all the kepohci makciks and crazy matchmakers… whoa.. I think I accidentally read that as ‘muthaf**kers’.. I think I’ve been swearing waaaay to much), but I’ve also actually started on a story based on a Fallen Angel from the Zoroastrian culture. The Angel story is wildly interesting, but fantasy is so not my genre, and it’ll be difficult for me to churn up approximately 1,667 words per day on that, if I were to meet the 50K word deadline. So I’m guessing I’ll be workingon Daud again.

RENT Ramblings

RENT will be staging in Singapore again. Lucky Singaporean bastards. I can always pop down to Singapore for a show. Yeah, I WISH. *cries* Anyway, between watching the Season of Love clip and the brand new Out Tonight video clip.. I am just brimming with excitement for the movie. I can’t wait to watch *cough*download*cough* the movie. I’m not sure if the movie will be eligible for the Oscars because they didn’t write any new songs particularly for the movie. Not that I care if it wins an Oscar or not. I just know I will enjoy the movie. Rosario Dawson didn’t exactly blew me away with her singing when I first heard the new Soundtrack CD (but only because I’ve been listening to Daphne Ruben Vega on the original broadcast recording for the past 6 years), but once I saw the Out Tonight video clip, I was floored. She was the perfect Mimi. This movie is going to be so good!

Well, that said, I’m signing off for the week. To everyone reading.. Happy Deepavali, Selamat Hari Raya and Happy Holidays!

There have been two distinct surreal moments in my life.

The first was during the freak accident in 2000 which had me spinning 540 degrees in my car, going at about 90 km/h and leaving me unscathed without even a single scratch on my body (even though the car was wrecked front and back). I actually distinctly remember grabbing tight onto the steering wheel and thinking “Wow.. so this is how I’m gonna go”. Seriously.

And the second was watching this Rent trailer. I can’t believe that the movie is actually happening. It’s really finally happening. The trailer makes me proud to declare that I’m a RENThead. It needs to be November RIGHT NOW!