September Movie: The Town

I just love a heist movie. The Town begins with four masked men robbing a bank in Cambridge, MA at gun point. Somebody triggers the silent alarm, so they take the bank manager along, just in case, before releasing her unharmed by the sea.

When they realize later that she lives near one of them, the leader of the gang decides to find out how much she knows. Eventually, he meets up with her and they develop a relationship.

Although the FBI is hot on their trail, the gang goes on to rob an armoured truck while dressed as Catholic nuns. The guards fight back and the police show up, but the gang manages to escape after a tight car chase scene along narrow streets of North End.

FBI Special Agent Adam Frawley: This is the not fucking around crew so get me something that looks like a print because this not fucking around thing is about to go both ways.

The Town (2010)

It pisses off the FBI special agent in charge. The members of the gang gets picked up for interrogation, but since there is really no evidence against them there’s nothing much that the FBI and police can do.

The leader of the gang wants to leave to Florida to start afresh, but the local crime boss is having none of it. For its final assignment, the gang is to rob Boston’s cathedral – Fenway Park!

The Florist: Do I hear you got a sweet new girlfriend? (Warner Bros. Pictures)

We went to the movie because Afi needed a little time off. So we bought the tickets after watching the trailer but without reading any of the reviews. We came out of the cinema really impressed. The Town is definitely one of the best movies we’ve seen this year. The movie felt authentic and efficient. There were plenty of bullets flying around but none of the over-the-top gasoline-fuelled explosions.

Ben Affleck both starred and directed the movie. I particularly like this quote of a review of The Town, or rather of Mr Affleck, I read on Rotten Tomatoes:

The rehabilitation of Ben Affleck is complete. His penance has been accepted. The star of Gigli, Daredevil and Pearl Harbor has now earned audiences’ respect again (to say nothing of finally being worthy of wife Jennifer Garner).

Brandon Fibbs

Raya

Afi made nasi himpit, ayam percik and rendang daging for our first Raya feast. I didn’t help much with the cooking at all, they were all her.

We prayed at the mosque at Manzil Way. The sermons were short, unlike at home. Rather strangely, in the first rakaat we only performed the takbir three times instead of the usual seven. Then, in the second rakaat we performed the takbir three more times but before bending down for the rukuk.

Afterwards, we had a Raya gathering at Wolfson College, where as a newcomer I was asked to introduce myself, supposedly as part of the Oxford Malaysian tradition.

Selamat Hari Raya! I hope next year we will both celebrate it at home in Malaysia.

Cats

The real masters of the world.

MEOWW!

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ADDENDUM: Humorous Duet for Two Cats

SFF

I’ve known since all the way back in school that I’d love to read science fiction (SF), although back then I didn’t read much fiction at all, let alone SF. There were one or two SF paperbacks I found at the school library and there were it.

Still, if anybody were to ask me then what my favourite book was, my answer would be Juara Yang Tewas by Aripin Said. I read it sometime in primary school and it really captured my imagination. I still consider it one of my favourite books. Juara Yang Tewas, which tells of the legend of the dragons of Lake Chini, is fantasy rather than SF. So was Her Majesty’s Wizard by Christopher Stasheff, which I received as a present from the school in 1994. In that year’s speech day, the school decided to give a book each to everyone who scored straight As for PMR, and mine was Her Majesty’s Wizard. I remember feeling very disappointed at it and wanted to throw the book away because I was expecting a more ‘serious’ book. However, I read the book anyway and actually grew to like it.

Then, in second year at UIA I had Abang Aziz as a roommate. He had a bunch of old SF paperbacks on his shelf he let me borrow. That was how I came to read The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov.

The End of Eternity is perhaps Asimov’s best novel. It is a novel about time travel. Some centuries after the discovery of time travel, an organization called Eternity was established to smoothen out human development by maintaining a stable society. So they use time travel to go back in time eliminating disruptive social trends, preventing wars, and suppressing the development of dangerous and risky technologies like atomic energy and space travel. What they cannot explain, however, is finding Earth far out in the future a barren planet. Time travel in the end turns out not such a good idea after all.

What I really like best about Asimov is that he didn’t use big words and complex, long sentences to deliver his ideas. The time travel device, for example, is simply called the ‘kettle’. The End of Eternity led me to the Foundation series, which was totally another level of awesomeness.

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LINKS:
Time Control: Isaac Asimov’s The End of Eternity
The SF Site Featured Review: The End of Eternity

Selamat Hari Raya

Sempena Hari yang mulia ini
kami memohon keampunan dan kemaafan
dari hujung rambut hingga hujung kaki
biarpun jauh di seberang lautan
minta kami jangan dilupakan.

Our first Raya together, and we got to spend it with just the two of us.

We thought about ordering personalized greeting cards from PhotoBox to send, even got the design all done, but decided in the end that they were expensive. :P

Syawal 1431/September 2010.
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COLLAGE: An afternoon at the Botanic Garden.

Book Trailers

I’ve only recently discovered book trailers. They are just like movie trailers but for books. According to Wikipedia, they have been made since 2002! However, unlike movie trailers made from actual movie footage, book trailers aren’t as polished. Most are really corny, especially the live action ones. Some are actually fan-made. I saw quite a few trailers of books I’ve read that are downright terrible I’m thankful I never saw them before. I might not have read the books if I had seen the trailers.

The best ones are animated, like these two for Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book (narrated by Gaiman himself) and Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan.