AI & AF

I've been rubbing on Zara's face of Danny Gokey's upsetting elimination last week, and only after that happened did I realize that Kris Allen could actually win this thing.

Though everyone thought right from the beginning that the brilliant Adam Lambert deserved the title, I'm sure it was Kris's shy southern demeanour and teeny bopper appeal that has won the hearts of America. Or maybe it was the swing vote lah.



He ain't no rock star, but I would buy HIS record.



I didn't catch Akademi Fantasia's final concert until yesterday and was pretty disappointed by Hafiz's performance, a bit too safe compared to his peers. It wasn't as explosive as I expected it to be. But a worthy winner none the less. Nasib baik perempuan tu tak menang!

GOES TO SHOW THAT THE DREAM IS EVERYTHING

He was a clear winner.




He did a stellar performance that won the people's hearts. Congratulations Shah Indrawan a.k.a Tomok on your win. You got yourself a new fan.

p/s: Now, the question is, will we have an adik-kakak combo winning 2 major reality talent search competitions this year? Very likely, from the look of things (and vote ratings), if my humble opinion counts.

WHAT I LEARNT FROM 'DAMAGES'

Children? They're easy to love. They come out from you and you love them. It's what you do with them afterwards that's difficult - Patty Hewes-

BEDTIME STORIES

I'd like to blog about more positive thing, but somehow the most fascinating thing going on is more morbid talk. Another lesson on the topic of 'passing away' is through the Malay folklore 'Batu Belah Batu Bertangkup' which is Nunu's favourite bedtime story for now.

It wasn't my intention to subject her to gruesome and scary fairy tales, it's just one night that was the only cerita dongeng that I can recall it's ending.

It seemed that she enjoys the story so much, even the part when the mother commited suicide by throwing herself into an enchanted cave, heartbroken that her children ate the 'telur ikan tembakul' she was so craving for, and the 'derhaka' children was left crying and motherless.

Last night, while I was busy in the kitchen, she came to see me bearing our small laundry basket filled with hangers and said, "Nah, ma, teluq ikan tembakurrr."

At least I know she got a sense of humour :)

I don't think I'll show her the classic version just yet. This animation is suitable for kids, I think. Plus, the characters speak in our northern slang! Darn cute!



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I was reading a movie review about 'Bedtime Stories' starring Adam Sandler and Keri Russel, and the review mentioned the movie has parodies of fairy tales and other romantic classics such as the Princess Bride and Never Ending Story. So right now I'm not itching to catch the new movie, instead I'm going mad over these nostalgic movies and scouring youtube up and down for them. Other notable fantasy movies are Labyrinth, Cave of the Golden Rose and the 10th Kingdom. Any other suggestions?

Gosh, I'm too busy for this...

BUT SOME PEOPLE WEREN'T LIKING IT

Reality TV is such a complete waste of time, but the funny thing though, I'm such a big sucker and if I have some time to waste, I'd rather watch reality TV than pick up a book (but reading is not actually time wasting, right?). So if you don't like to waste your time, don't read this entry.

If you watched American Idol last night, then you'd know who came up with the title phrase above. And you know what? Surprise surprise, I LOVE Danny Noriega. I missed his performance (blame the itchy hands who changed the channel during the commercial break) but I was tuned back in just in time to watch the controversial difference of opinions between the judges. He's got amazing vocals (a face like that with a voice like that? unbelievable), a colourful personality ("bringin' the house down everywhere I go!") and contrary to popular belief, he actually has a great attitude towards comments and criticism (he was funny and Simon actually smiled! A sincere amused smile!) His drama queen attitude is part of his charm ("I got the shoes?") I wanna see more of Danny next time.

OK since this personal (like it matters?) comment is based on Danny the Diva, to make it fair I caught his performance on youtube today (how can you not love youtube?) I think it's pretty good! Again, he's a natural performer and nope, he's not trying to be The King. It's a bold attempt, too bad 'some people weren't liking it' (omg, I have a feeling this is gonna catch on soon)

To me, the winning performance last night was Jason Castro's, the young Travolta-Zach Braff lookalike. Yeah, you heard me right, I like him way better than honey-and-butter boy David Archuleta. Listening to Jason made me wanna skip in a meadow, soar to the sky with my fairy wings and dance on a rainbow. Smooth and easy listening, so unassuming and sweet.

Tsk, I told you reading this entry is a complete waste of time.

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I have openly admitted that I have a crush on WWM, but not so anymore after the 1st season ended and I'm now following the second season. I anticipated that I'll lose interest once the convicts escape coz I couldn't possibly imagine how the storyline can get better, but boy was I wrong! I'm hooked on every single subplots involving all the characters and my eyes are glued for a full 60 minutes (unlike in the first season when I only pay attention if WWM was on the screen! huhu) I didn't have such strong feelings towards anyone last season, but this time I really abhor Kellerman's guts and T-Bag just creeps the hell out of me. Such a disturbing and manipulative character (sure, just look at his family tree!) when he charmed and used that woman working in the postal office just to get Mrs. Hollander's forwarding address. I wonder if that's the only way we can find people, coz I certainly wanna know where some of my debtors are hiding! But does he have to kill that poor woman? Couldn't he be more resourceful and just use people finder ? Anyway, I despise his character so much, I can't get enough of him. Haha, I'm sick I know. Let's just hope the writers keep him in the story for a while and not kill him off unexpectedly like the poor Veronica.

MISS THE BOAT

* this is one of those rant & rave post not worth reading. you have been warned.*

GUNDUNYA!
BALDIFULL! (my childhoold version of bl**dy fool)
ARGHHHHHH!!! (and I think it's appropriate to further illustrate my frustration with a lil Homer humour... seriously, never in my wildest dream have I thought of him making a cameo in my blog)

Oh dear, what could possibly have happened, you ask? What in the world has befallen me to cause such an emotional outburst and reduce me to a screaming, raving, cursing maniac? (Trust me, I really am agonizing loudly over this as I'm blogging now, my trusty assistant can attest to that)

Well, I missed Anugerah Juara Lagu.

Haha, I imagined people would smirk and say to me, "Lerrr.. tu jer ke?" or to the extreme of "What?! Where have you been living? Under a rock?" or something to that effect?

Well, I do feel like I've been living under a coconut shell these days. What more with Nunu's relentless hogging of the TV and DVD player to watch her favourite Baby 'Ei-yen-stein' and other CDs.

Last Sunday night, when the AJL was on (which I was unaware of, of course), we were just finishing a round of 'Jolly Kids Songs' when Nenek came by. I flipped some channels for her until she decided that a documentary about a mama bear and her two cute cubs surviving the Alaska fishing region was exciting (it really was!). I spent the night narrating to Nenek about the bears diet of berries, fish and grubs, why they hibernate during winter and why papa bear disappears all year long, but comes back to sleep for 3 more months in the den which mama bear worked her a** off for. Then we were fascinated by the art of Alaska fly fishing(so different from the way we do our fishing over here) and amazed at the size of the trouts there. So that loosely explained why I didn't catch AJL that night.

What's so great about AJL anyway? Hmm, I can't say really but to me and my mom, it's the most anticipated award show of the year where musicians and artistes battle it out with their compositions. I think my first AJL memory is the year when Francessa Peters won for the song 'Sekadar di Pinggiran', and to my surprise, as I'm doing some reminiscing work here, I can remember albeit vaguely the performances of the subsequent years' winners such as Zaiton Sameon, Ramlah Ram and Aishah. When I got into boarding school, I missed some of the live shows but I got back into the game when they started airing the show during school holidays.

The past few years have been quite lackluster shows. Not that I'm saying the winners didn't deserve their victories, but none of the songs and singers really wowed me the way M.Nasir did with his memorable performances. Still, I have more faith in this year's line-up of songs, and I have absolutely no clue or prediction on who would win the big win (err, menang besarlah, I mean). Moreover, I'm curious to see how those 'bidan terjuns would fare with Faizal's songs.

However, last month when I was a little caught up with the whirlwind December events, I panicked when I realized that I didn't know the date of this year's AJL, and I was afraid that I might have missed it. It was New Year's holiday and I was frantically texting to people "Eh? When is Juara Lagu?", "Juara Lagu semalam ke?", "Eh, did I miss AJL last nite?"

Crazy, I tell ya.

Anyway, what is past is past. Thank goodness for youtube, I'm able to enjoy some of the performances (best eh, Mawi buat magik?!) which means, I don't have to worry about missing the repeat show, and how glad I am to find out who the winners are! The group with the killer song that I was rooting for won big, but how I wished Kaer was there to sing his own song :(

Whatever. Just enjoy the song. It's one of Nunu's favourite 'pop' song.

"Itu kamu... itu kamu" :)

IT'S GONNA BE OK

She said something really interesting today on the Breakfast Show.

"What is life if it is not lived with passion"

Nothing earthshaking really, but that's a nugget of wisdom for me.

Here are more good ones & some crappy ones :)

*this post was inspired by the lovely Daphne Iking & the chicken nuggets I made Nunu ate last night... tsk tsk..

RAGGEDYANNE MENONTON "HUJAH" DI TV9

If there is one thing that I'd like to avoid blogging about, it's politics. To tell you the truth, pontificating current affairs is darn taxing to the brain. If you happen to see a tinge of it in my previous posts about the Nila saga, well that's only because the news affects me as a blogger, and I really am appalled at the turn of events following the bloggers issue over here.

So, I watched the news, read Harakah & Aliran that Martian brings home on a regular basis but kept my mouth shut about what happened in Ijok. Now, I wouldn't even have touched this issue if it wasn't for last Tuesday night, when martian made me I had to give up watching

this guy...


to watch......

this guy...



faces off with.....

this guy



If you're interested, you can click here to read about what transpired on that talk show. Or you can click here to find out why the man in the blurry picture is such a notorious MP.

I was disgruntled, all right. Just imagine, Scofield was just about to hoist the pretty lady doctor up to the ceiling to escape the rioting mob, when I was instructed to switch the channel to TV9! Aarggh!

To my relief, it wasn't all that bad. Sometimes you gotta let your man have his way (heh heh) It really was interesting to watch a calm & collected man producing hard facts & strong arguments against an 'empty can'.

Which became more interesting because the MP with not much ammunition left brought up the blogger issue (which is entirely off the track) but his attempt to raise his point fell flat on his face when Saifuddin's Nasution's counterargument left a much convincing mark on the the issue of the government trying to put a chokehold on blogging citizens.

Ah, amacam? Dah letih, kan? I'm panting already.

So, this is raggedyanne, NOT talking politics.

This is just an excuse for me to post more pics of droolworthy Wentworth Miller (Pinkyj, is he one of your boyfriends too? Eh come on lah, yang hensem2 semua you nak kebas)

Come & pant with me!


What's with that hand in front of your face all the time...


Ooh, migraine. Sama lah kita...



I actually like him better with more hair & that shy smile on his face.

Hey, I actually have a picture folder of a male celebrity in my computer now! Wohoo!

Okay, since I spent waaaaaaaay too much time on this post, I might as well add in a useless (but not pointless) trivia about WM. This is totally 'cut & pasted' from Wiki-the-free-pedia.

In 2003, Miller was cast as 'Coleman Silk' in The Human Stain. It was revealed that he had an intense personal connection to this mixed-race character. Not only did Miller possess a similar racial background, but he also was involved in a controversial racial incident during his time at Princeton, when he was mistakenly believed to have written a derogatory remark about African-Americans, similar to the situation with his character in the movie.

In 1994, while Miller was a junior at Princeton, he published a cartoon in The Daily Princetonian featuring Cornel West, who was then a professor of African-American Studies there but who had just been hired away by Harvard University. The cartoon depicted Muffy, a white Harvard student, imagining her first class with West, who is saying, "Today's lecture is entitled, Rhythm—Why None of You Have It, and How You Can Get It." It also described West as "newly purchased," which is an innocent academic term for newly hired that was taken as a reference to slavery.

Within days the paper had run angry letters signed by dozens of students and faculty members, including novelist Toni Morrison, who according to the The New York Times wrote an angry letter to Miller. A symposium was even convened on campus on the issue. Miller, who everyone assumed was white, was considered a campus racist. Like 'Coleman Silk', Miller declined to bring up his own African-American heritage.

Years later when discussing the controversy, Miller remarked: "To be perfectly clear, passing is something that has never crossed my mind. Instead of stepping forward and explaining what I'd meant by the cartoon and positing my own racial background as evidence that I'd really meant no harm, I chose to remain silent. My attitude was, If they don't get it, I don't have to explain it, which was my way of saying that if they don't get me, I don't have to explain me. The people who knew me on campus and knew my background knew where I was coming from, but I think for most people I was just a name in the paper, and they probably assumed I was white."

After filming The Human Stain, Miller wrote a letter to West apologizing for the cartoon, but received no replies. However, West was present at the premiere of the movie. Incidentally, West is a friend of actress Anna Deavere Smith, who played Coleman Silk's mother in the film. He unexpectedly gave Miller a tight hug. Miller was glad to know that West had decided to forgive him.

Wow.

Isn't that something? How's that for an attitude & a strong stand? "If I have done nothing wrong & is being accused for something I didn't mean to do, then there's no point explaining myself".

So very Scofield, kan?

FGF #6: I TABIK SAMA YOU LAH!

I'm a little verbally-challenged this week, so I'm just gonna let the photo do the talking.


Maggi Hot Cup Chicken flavour & Super Ring ^_^

Inspired by these ads. Watch all three. Which one is you? *chuckles*

While you're at it, read the news about the infamous 'pramugara terlampau' and getting hitched at 13 *salutes*

NO VALENTINE ENTRY TODAY

Seriously, I have no life.

Just so you know, the Japanese tear-jerker series Oshin is making a comeback on TV9.

This sure will be a walk down the memory lane for many of us.

So TV3 is pretty smart to promote the serial by inviting the nice lady who was the voice behind the rosy cheeked & spunky (laugh all you want, Mynn) youngster (oh, she also voiced the 20-year-old and 80-year-old Oshin) to Malaysia Hari Ini.

But this is not her face.



Guess whose voice she did.

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DORAEMONNNNNNNNN's!!!!!

p/s: OK this entry would be A LOT funnier if you read this, and this

THE SOUL PATROL ON A ROLL

(Usually I dont think reality TV are worth mentioning in my blog and giving AI 2006 reviews are NOT in the *motherhood* jurisdiction, but since I have the luxury of blog space now - and I raved so much about Kat's OTR performance, I gotta have my say!)

Alamak, I have to eat my words lah!


The silver-haired fox wears the crown

I tried to catch the results this morning, and they were about to annouce the winner when suddenly my Astro went kaput (hmm, i think it's time to pay the Astro bill)! So i rushed to work after dropping Nunu off and as soon as I turn on my MSN, his win has already been declared all over the www.

But even before the results are out, I already predicted he'd win. His three performances were consistently good, while Kat's OTR still brought tears to my eyes (and every Dad with a lil girl across the globe), her third song was such a huge let down, i think she ended the song that way was partly because she's frustrated at how corny and uninspiring the song was. I mean everyone knows u gotta end the theme/debut song in a big, explosive way, but she did it short and simple.

So he deserves it. I'm no sore loser, pinkyj :P

Check out his really hot look here.

***
Since we're on the topic of reality shows, I'm totally excited over BJ & Tyler's victory over the Frat Boys. It's old news really but I just caught the finale last week, and it's a nice feeling when the couple that you're rooting for wins. I mean the race was pretty neck and neck and when the only thing between them and the million dollars were a coupla flags, you can say I was really at the edge of my seat. But brains always won over brawns, so even if they're actually geeks covering up as bohemian hippies, they're the funnest people you can compete with. Of course, MoJo wouldnt agree with me, but you'll either hate'em or love'em.

I must confess, I'm a sucker for all things reality (because my fantasy isnt enuff i guess :*) No matter how debasing or ridiculous in nature or agonizingly distasteful they are, I'd watch them. Whatever there is at stake, whether its a million bux, a modelling contract, a dream guy/girl/wedding/job, humiliation or your dignity, I'd cheer on and pick anyone I fancy as my favourite contestant. Sometimes watching the delicious hosts are excitement enuff for (are you reading this Jeff?). Err, this statement does not apply to Mr. Trump.

Yup, I need a life.

I guess I fit their audience demographic perfectly. It's nice to know that the producers are thinking of you (or people like you) when they come up with these kooky ideas for reality shows. They know what people like me want. No, not so much of who wins or loses, we prefer to look at people make fools out of themselves and how far they'd go to win. Gotta love'em or hate'em - the freeloaders, the backstabbers, the crybabies, the strategists, the drama queens, the under-the-radars, the competetive freaks, the average joes, the billionare heiress, the bullies, the clueless, the oddballs, the oddballs who think they can sing - the whole kit and caboodle.

Dumb shows and brainless people aside, so far I'm all for intelligent shows like the Scholar and the upcoming Akademi Al-Quran. It's glad to know there are intelligent people out there. Gila glamer, but still intelligent.

Akademi Fantasia is kicking off next week. Guess we'd say goodbye to Saturday nite-outs for a coupla months.

THE MCPHEEVER IDOLATION

This girl made me very, very happy last night.



Her performance rendered me speechless - my jaw dropped in awe and my voice stuck in my throat. Brilliant.

It sent shivers down my spine, goosebumps all over my skin - I was so gobsmacked I could pee in my pants.

The only other person who was able to make me feel this way was Jac when she sang Gemilang in the Malaysian Idol finale. I thought there's no one else after Jac.

Not Kelly, Rueben, Fantasia with her famouse 'Summertime' nor the unworthy Carrie. Not Vince, Zahid nor Raja SMS Mawi. Not Pija Mentor and definitely NOT Daniel MI2 (yarks!).

Jac's performance made my heart soar to the sky- but Kat's sweet rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow made my heart go aflutter to the heavens- and almost reduced me to tears.

True to the 'Queen of England's remarks - it's the best vocal performance of AI - to date.

I'm sorry Elliot is out, but what he lacks is singing with conviction.

And this girl here convinces me she's the next idol.

I shall need to pee first tonight before I catch the reruns on TV3. It's worth a second watch.

LOSTER AND LOSTER...

Who would have thought, a mini-series about a group of plane crash survivor, would generate this much hype. Mum was hooked first. I on the other hand, a non-subscriber of Astro, obviously couldnt understand what the fuss was all about. I mean, what could be so interesting, being stranded in an island? What story could they possibly spin to dupe us into the idiot box entrapment?

Ok, now look who's talking. This is the girl, who was once hooked- no, ensnared should be the word, to Knight Rider and Santa Barbara, the soap. Yup, I remember scrambling to get home from mengaji class to catch the show in the evening. And Santa Barbara was showing at midnight on TV2, right after I finished my SPM so I had a lot of time to spare.
Then, it was Ally Mcbeal, Dark Angel, Jack & Jill and so many other forgettable shows, and I was even hooked to WWE wrestling shows once. Back when the Hardy Boys were still brothers and Christian & were still hot, sexy, tag-team geniuses (yeah, I was a couch potato and a sicko).

Well, I stand corrected. Since having a baby (and ASTRO with AXN and Starworld), I now look forward to Mondays & Tuesdays.

Thank you, dear astute producers, for "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives".

T.G.I.L.D

Shoot, it's Monday again. Thank God It's 'Lost' Day.