Havenough
Monday, April 18, 2016
Havenough.com
Hi All
Thank you for our support all these years. I have decided to consolidate all my online writing to one place so have built a website of my own.The new website is:
Havenough.com
I hope I can continue to see you over there and looking forward to interact further with everyone of you.
Thanks!
Haven
The Chronicles of Clovar - The Missing Chapter
Once upon a time in a faraway
land there lived a Grand Cleric. The Grand Cleric dedicated his life to
cure the most difficult diseases in the realm and was loved by the
people near and far.
The realm was in mourning over the loss and the Grand Steward of the realm and his peers decided to build a House of Healing to commemorate his work and to continue the fight of such deadly deceases. The Grand Steward gathered a group of people, peers and friends alike and formed the Grand Council for the House of Healing and nominated a Fellowship of Life to carry out the plan.
As the plan moved forward, a rival conglomerate was jealous of the resources for the House of Healing and made different attempts to stall the progress. There were much struggle as the Fellowship of Life was determined to push forward without breaking important relationships along the way. The Fellowship of Life consulted the Grand Council at times but it was a battle for the Fellowship to fight. Along the way, the House of Healing gathered some traction and attracted able adventurers of different nature and background to help with the cause. The rival conglomerate understood there was no way to stop the House of Healing so had no choice but move their sabotage operations underground and attempted to establish blood binding deeds to limit the success of the House.
Finally after years of hard work and jumping over a lot of hurdles, the House of Healing opened its door to the realm providing care to all the seriously ill. The battle with the conglomerate continued while the Fellowship soldiered on with the vision of the Grand Cleric. Eventually battles with various parties to uphold the vision of the Grand Cleric took its toll and the Leader of the Fellowship of Life decided to move on with his life.
The departure of the Leader sent shockwaves across the Fellowship and the House. At this point the Grand Council was going through its own power struggles and became unstable itself. With the Grand Cleric’s vision still yet to be fully realised there was a race to find a new Leader for the Fellowship. The rush opened up opportunities to the unsavoury and deceitful kinds. A Witch of the South managed to meander her way through the gates and took up the leadership position. Two of the Fellowship members smelled the rat of the Witch of the South and decided to depart before she strikes. The Witch of the South, at that time yet to establish a strong foothold begged one the members not to disclose her departure and kept the news tightly inside her robe. However, as she slowly established herself she started to reveal her true colours bit by bit and commenced waves of white terror over the House. She gradually removed members of the Fellowship using different tactics, be it embarrassing them by dismissing them from the Fellowship without notice, humiliating them by forcing them out the Fellowship in front of their teams and continuously throwing unsavoury warnings about members’ positions in the Fellowship.
During the age of terror, the true colours of some of the adventurers who joined the cause were also unveiled. Some of them realigned their allegiance with the Witch of the South and turned the House of Healing into a House of Purging. One by one members of the Fellowship and adventurers who joined to establish the House were force out of the establishment. Meanwhile the Witch of the South showed no limits to her ambitions and decided to wage full scale war with the conglomerate at the expense of the House. The conglomerate was angry with the lack of respect from the Witch of the South and vowed to disintegrate and absorb the House. So the war continued without an end in sight.
Meanwhile ex-members of the Fellowship of Life and their fellow adventurers who were forced out of the House by different disgraceful tactics continued to live their lives in different corners of the realm. They were sadden by the downturn of the House into a personal political plaything by the Witch of the South but were still strongly bond by the initial success of the House. One thing they all knew was that the Witch of the South would never be able to establish the degree of legacy in the realm as they knew political and personal gains were nothing but delusional baits that would lead her nowhere but to her own demise.
Sunday, March 27, 2016
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
With the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it will
be surprising if DC Comics did not attempt the same with their great many
iconic characters. Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice is a product of such.
The movie has been hyped for quite a while and of course
stirred up quite a bit of discussion with Ben Affleck cast as the next Batman.
Man of Steel was a successful movie despite the mixed review it received from
critics. Nonetheless, Henry Cavill’s Superman did bring the Man of Steel back
to life. So as the second entry to the DC Universe and the rebooting of another
iconic character, how did Batman V Superman stack up?
The end product is a very long movie of 2.5 hours packing in
a lot of characters and a lot of storylines. As I weaved myself through this
maze of storyline I found myself lost in time and space, and wondering when
would this all stop. Yes, it is a pity as the stories can be so rich and
powerful, but with everything happening, there seems to be lots of loss of
opportunities littering around the place.
The first issue I had with the movie is the lack of motive
for most of the characters. Even when they have motives you couldn’t help but
wonder: “Is that it?” In the Marvel Cinematic Universe every character was
given sufficient time to develop their character and their role in that world,
so when Avengers came along, even when Black Widow first appeared in Iron Man
2, things made sense and puzzles pieced together neatly. However in Batman V
Superman, it seems they tried to force marrying the worlds and thus leaving all
characters quite hollow in their motives for doing what they wanted to do. I
personally felt the whole back story of Batman could be taken out because we
had already watched Chris Nolan’s trilogy, we know very well its back story. It
is only being played by a different actor that’s all. For Batman / Bruce Wayne,
there were jarring questions in his storylines: if he cares so much about
people who suffered in the last Superman battle, why wouldn’t he follow up with
the guy whom worked for him and Bruce rescued personally? Why would he let that
guy go rogue by over-indulging in grand scale of things that had a foundation as
thin as a piece of A4 paper? If Batman is so smart, how would he not know this
is Lex Luthor’s doing when going through the whole server archive of information?
These were just some huge plot holes that screaming to be filled but never
filled.
As for Superman, I understand we want to talk about his
human side and his care of this world. But his relationship with all those he
cared about were just lightly brought up with a few scenes here and there. And
honestly, if he is so super how could he not hear the trouble his mother was
going through? Shouldn’t he have a specific channel tuned in for his mom? I mean
he came just in time to save Lois and let his mother went through that? That is
again beyond comprehension.
As for Diana Prince, aka Wonder Woman, how would she not be
able to decrypt the server archive if she was supposed to be smart and
resourceful? She managed to do stuff under Batman’s nose and went almost
unnoticed. Even the whole Lex Luthor thing did not make much sense with the whole
father complex and personal over thinking about the world leading him to decide
to kill off some superheroes and destroy the world? He might be a lunatic but
lunatics still need better motives to do what they are doing.
The issue here is everyone is reacting to things that are
trivial to their cause. When there are so little for you to react to and you
kept on reacting to them, the characters got driven into hyper-hibernation and
became extremely boring. This is a pity because each of the characters had so
much potential and if done properly could rival people mounting interests and
indulgence in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The only saving grace was Lois
Lane, the person who figured out the whole plot bit by bit using her journalist
instinct. Batman for me in the movie was just an angry piece of junk that
annoyed the hell out of me. Seriously why would you want to destroy a character
rebuilt by the Chris Nolan trilogy?
That said the film did have great visuals, especially when
they re-created the Man of Steel battle scene from the ground perspective,
which linked the two worlds neatly together. However, there were situations
that CGI or special effects were used for the sake of it and I genuinely did
not know why those scenes existed in the movie when they were not even
significantly moving the plotlines.
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice carried a lot of weight
on its shoulder and in this case did weigh it down. I mean the scene when
Wonder Woman showed up was great but it was already spoiled by the trailer, so
there was nothing left to be excited about. Ben Affleck did a good middle aged
Batman but I wished the screenwriters gave him more materials to work on, which
applied the same to Gal Gadot and Henry Cavill. For me Batman V Superman is a
missed opportunity and I think DC Comics really need to think about this
holistically to avoid themselves being dragged into this cinematic mess again,
for once their characters were destroyed it will take a long time to rebuild.
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
A Rebel with a Heart
No matter what the media said, there is no denial that
Madonna still commands a huge influence in the performance industry and music
scene. Not every single is a hit and there surely are prejudice against her in
terms of air time for her music, but most of them still pack a punch and most
of them are still unforgiving in terms of the messages they carried.
Recently got a chance to see her live performance in Sydney
so decided to catch up with her recent catalogue before attending. I only
remember the last song I listen to was 4 Minutes with Justin Timberlake and
that’s about it. Did not notice MDNA was a standalone album (thought it was
just another best compilations) but did notice Rebel Heart because of the
controversy of “defacing pictures of historical icons”. Also the concert was
named after this album so there you go.
People have been criticising her being late. So for me I had
no expectation for her to come on stage on time. Sometimes I do feel people
nowadays will just criticising her for the sake of criticising her. Seriously
when you already knew she would be late and then complaining about her being late
is a bit too much. Anyway she did address the part by saying “Greatness equates
lateness” – typical Madonna style.
Once she was on stage there was no cheating at all. At 57 I
personally think it is acceptable that you cheat a few dance numbers as they
can be pretty demanding live on stage. However, there was no such thing that
night. When the beats came up, she was dancing without any hesitation. Her
dancers were brilliant and she did not show any sign of catching up at all. Her
flexibility and fluidity on stage is beyond comprehension. I think that really
what differentiates a good performer from a great performer. Choreography was
done for specific numbers and those specific numbers intertwined with the
emotion of the audience.
With a concert based on mostly new materials you would
expect people to be more lukewarm as people might be there for her old
materials. However surprisingly a lot of the audience managed to follow the
tunes and lyrics of her latest materials. That showed that Madonna still has a
strong following whether the current media likes her or not. Songs like Iconic,
Rebel Heart, Body Shop Heartbreak City etc. were all greeted with excitement
from the audience. There were of course her all time classics such as Vogue,
Material Girl, Like a Virgin, Music and Like a Prayer. Some were remixed and
some were delivered in their original flavours. The audience responded to every
single track and none of them disappointed. Madonna’s ability to sing and dance
without losing a beat or a tune proved that she is still one of the best live
performers in the music industry.
During various chat sessions Madonna responded to all the
negative media coverage claiming her experiencing a meltdown with her ongoing
custody battle for her 15 year old son. She told the audience “Madonna is not
having a meltdown. God forbid a mother missing her son. It is a crime for a
mother to miss her son”. That pretty much summed up how she despised the modern
media that tried to continuously write her off without even attempting to know
her. But then how often modern media tries to understand something before
reporting them anyway?
The concert was a full three hour fest with lots of
memorable tunes and performances. It is something that you would relish and
remember for a very long time. The show is about Rebel Heart and surely it is
representational of Madonna as an artist. For me I do think Rebel Heart is
Madonna return to form (I still failed to relate to MDNA and the Hard Candy
albums in any sense except for 4 Minutes). As an artist Madonna is
uncompromising, which I think is the reason that made her great and
outstanding. She is also fearless about critics and continued to push her
musical and creative boundaries. She does not give a shit to the media and various
outlets whom have no relevance to her life. She really has the heart of a rebel
inside her.
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Casting the First Stone
The world has really gone mad in the past few months. As the
world is scrambling to deal with crises around the globe: the Islamic States,
the Trump Presidency, Marriage Equality etc. etc., governments around the world
seemed to have lost sight of what they are supposed to do as government or what
it meant to be a government.
In Australia, the whole “us versus them” attitude in the
government has never been as rife as now, thank you to the extreme right wing
Tony Abbott government that tarnished and destroyed Australia’s reputation while
trying to build a Pearly Gate that shuts everyone but his closest cabinet
members out. A change of Prime Minister had not been as beneficial as most
Australians had hoped to be. The issue here lies within the still strong
extreme right wing influence in the Parliament that clipped the wings of this
new Prime Minister, who seems to be working to just keep his job.
What really disappointed me is the extreme right wing’s
continued use of “Christian values” to cast their stones against everyone. They
branded all Muslims in the country or the world as Islamic State accomplices
throwing out commentary that does nothing but divides the Australian community.
Their attitude of Christianity is more supreme than other religions is building
gaps in the society that are wider than the Grand Canyon. And then these “Christians”
continue to attack the Safe School program and Marriage Equality claiming that
they are grooming paedophiles and promoting distorted lifestyles in Australia.
They held their Bibles high and yelled at anyone who did not agree with them. If
their Bibles are made of stones they will not hesitate to cast them against
anyone who opposed them.
However, is that what exactly the Bible taught us? Or are
they just using the Bible as a weapon without properly understanding it?
Brought up as a Christian from a Christian school one of the very basic things
we learnt since we were kids were love and kindness for “God so love the world
that he gave his only son”. That is what I took from the Bible. I honestly do
not understand how people could act in the name of the Bible when they don’t
even understand basic principles as such.
Looking closer at the records in the Bible, we also
understand the Middle East descended from the same ancestor. Yes, for those who
conveniently forgot about this, if you go back to Genesis you will find out
that Ishmael, the son of Abraham was the ancestor of the Middle East. There is
no denial that there might be bad blood (nope I am not referring to Taylor
Swift and Katy Parry) but the fact is that if this is your own making, isn’t
your own responsibilities to fix it? And if you all right wing Christians read
the Bible carefully, you will remember God told Abraham that he will still
bless Ishmael despite the fact that he was not the chosen one for that his
promised. So looking from this angle, if Christians do think they are brothers
in God’s faith, shouldn’t they be helping the refugees from Middle East because
they are supposed to be blessed by the same God they believe in? If they are
not doing so simply because they are not practicing the same faith, are they
actually breaking God’s promise to them? Are they just not doing the duty they
are supposed to do? It is convenient to divide by religion but if the religion
is not meant to be divisive but keeping basic promises made by God, they
probably should study it real hard again before making further claims against
the rest of the world. Please note that this does not mean condoning what
Islamic State is doing but to extend your love and fulfil your duty to bless and
keep the descendants of the person God promised to bless.
The other thing is about how those right wing Christians
attack the LGBT community as deviants and finding every excuse to put them
down. I find it particularly hypocritical when Members of Parliament attack the
Safe School program as grooming paedophiles. Hello aren’t we currently having a
Royal Commission about the long history of paedophilia in the Australian Catholic
Church? Just judging from this I do not know why these Members of Parliament
who claimed to be Christians, and Catholics specifically can go around casting
their stones against the LGBT community branding them as a breeding bed for
paedophiles. Before you attack shouldn’t you be checking what’s happening in
your house first? Also their repeated claims of this is against God’s will and
these people will go to hell basically has not solid ground to base on. The
foundation of their arguments is built on sand so to speak. The thing is God
has repeated demonstrated He will bless and utilise people whom the so called “core
Christians” would despise. Read through the Bible, God has used and blessed
prostitute and non-Abraham-descendants as his messengers or agents to carry out
His will. And really if God hasn’t opened up the Gospel to the Gentiles, I doubt
these right wing Christians can even call themselves Christians now. So where
is the logic that you can tell people who are God’s chosen people when your
ancestors were just gentiles and outcasts? That is another fundamental principle
these so called Christians need to remember and reflect upon.
It is always easy to cast the first stone in God’s name, but
whether by doing so you are upholding God’s principles or you are actually
committing blasphemy is another question. You can try building your earthly
Pearly Gate and shut everyone else out in the name of God, but if you do
believe in God, then what only matters is the pass to the real Pearly Gate, not
the one you built in God’s name whatsoever. Christianity is a faith about doing
good and not about how you interpret what is good at your own convenience for
what man could have God’s wisdom to swear and act in God’s name? If you truly
believe that you are a Christian, stay open mind like God did in the Bible and do
whatever is good to the people around and the world, as the wrath of God is not
yours to unleash but God’s.
Saturday, February 20, 2016
The Family Law
Finally finished watching “The Family Law” today. I did not watched
it when it was live on air and some of my friends were thinking that I was sour
grape because I did not get the role I auditioned for. But the fact was that I
am never a weekly following person and never liked to watch and stop. So I just
as usual record the whole season and find a good time to watching them in
minimal sittings. I also want to have a more objective judgement by watching
the whole season in one go without commenting it slice by slice thus losing the
whole picture.
For those who don’t know what the show is about, it is based
on the book of the same name by Benjamin Law, a Chinese Australian writer,
about his own family. The story has brought the whole timeline forward to the
modern times (I am sure when he was 14 Kim-West were not around, not to mention
mobile phone that plays high quality videos) but remained truthful to the
family story. It is a family full of colourful people and hence drama and
comedies guaranteed.
I remember the day after the show first went on air a
colleague of mine asked me why SBS made another show about a Chinese family
running a Chinese restaurant. I spent some time explaining to her that though
the show seemed to be so it is based on a true story so it is not really aiming
at further stereotyping Chinese. I asked her to continue watching it then make
the judgement. For me, especially in Australia, a show such as this cannot be
judged by the cover or even by the first page.
For me, the show started off in a very comedic fashion.
Clearly Jenny, the mother, was the centre of the attention despite the story
was being told from Benjamin’s point of view. Her larger than life and no pull
back way of talking more than once embarrassed her kids in front of everyone.
But she saw that as part of the family, part of the bonding and what the family
is about. For the kids the whole growing up in Australia bit completely clashed
with a lot of their parents’ thinking. The people they hung out with, the
people they date, they food they like etc. are completely opposite to what
their parents portrayed them to be. The father is a typical Chinese father who
thought providing means love. I auditioned for the father part so did quite a
bit of research on the part and understood that Ben’s father acted that way because
this was what he experienced and admired about his father when he grew up. So
long story short this family is a Clash of the Titans every day.
I am quite glad this show was produced although I would
personally hope the Chinese aspect could initially be limited to daily living
details than being amped up so much in the earlier episodes. I found myself
quite disengaging when something showed up on screen screaming CHINESE at my
face. I particularly find it quite annoying with the whole Chinese whisper
gossip part which I personally think the show could do without. It might be
funny the first time but when these just go on and on episode after episode, it
just became annoying. However, since the show is about a Chinese family in
Australia, the producers might felt compelled to amplify the Chinese bit at the
beginning as cultural differences and clichés always sell. But I am glad that
as the characters established themselves, it became more about the story than
the Chinese-ness of the show. A pity was that by that time the show is already
coming to a close.
One aspect I really appreciate about the show was that it
does not shy away from a lot of subjects, including racism, puberty,
inter-racial relationships and homosexuality. The good thing is it does not
wave banners on those subjects but smartly incorporating them into the
dialogues. For me this is the smartest way to cover these subjects – by not
making them like subjects at all.
However, there is one major aspect that bugs me throughout
the whole series – the really bad articulation of Cantonese by a lot of the
characters. Jenny’s distorted Cantonese was quite acceptable as she was
originally from Malaysia, but for Danny, he was supposed to be born and bred in
Hong Kong and yet his Cantonese was even worse than Jenny. Also for the two
gossiping women I personally felt that if they were from Hong Kong, have good
Cantonese, if they are from Malaysia, then might as well speak Mandarin. I am
sure Jenny would be able to understand. I know I am getting quite picky here
and seriously most would think none of the local audience would picked up the
really bad Cantonese, but for me it was just like thorns to my ears every time
I heard that. I wish more works could be done to address this in the future
seasons or at least find a voice coach to coach the cast so they could speak
more accurate Cantonese. That is if the speaking Cantonese part is about the authenticity
of the family, make it authentic.
On the whole I think “The Family Law” was showing quick
maturity around 3.5 episodes into the season. If there is a second season, I
would like to see the series focusing more on the family and the characters,
who just happen to be Chinese.
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