Turned 21. Birthday contemplations

"Goddamn it, I feel as if I'm trapped in a freaking daytime soap opera."
- Me to Justin, 7th of March

"Relationships, friendship, romantic, family, anything, obviously have their ups and downs. Without the 'downs', there's no way we can ever cherish the 'ups'. Right.. right?"
- Me, 7th of March

"At moments like these, I think friendship is the most important. TOMODACHI, BABY!"
- Me to Chimari, a dear Japanese friend, 4th of March

6th of March was my birthday. So many things have happened during the past few days that I didn't even feel like blogging. So, I'm 21 now, and for the first time ever, I celebrated my birthday without my family.

Sony Tropfest 2005, Oscars, starting a new short film project

Goddamn it! Had lots of problems trying to get into blogger. Right, so, what have happened during the past few days?

On Sunday night, I went to the Fremantle Outdoor Film Festival to check out the Sony Tropfest, which is supposedly the world's biggest short film festival. 16 finalist films were shown, and the winners were announced later. What can I say? All of them blew me away. Some were funny like heck, some were really thought provoking, some were really cool, some were realy sweet, yes, this sounds like asskissing, but I sure as hell had a great time there. Definitely none of those 'bah, I could've made greater stuff' feeling at all. (and because of that, I'm given more pressure with my upcoming short film... shit)

Right, yesterday's Oscars. Seems that I've gotten 8 out of my 11 predictions correct. If I've followed my mind, instead of my heart, I think I would've gotten 10 out of 11 (I was pulling too hard for Sideways). But during the first half of the Oscars, judging by its momentum, I really thought 'The Aviator' would really win the big one, despite me feeling that it doesn't really deserve it.

What else? Yeah, my upcoming short film is titled Forced Labour, and it's going to be 24308208208205205820 times more ambitious than A Boring Story. Already been getting some actors for it, like Justin's cousins (one was really a theatre actor, I believe), a guy from my literature class last year who is studying acting, some guy Justin knew, and Tenzan (yep, of CosMas and formerly of Comic Fiesta). Will need a chick to play the lead, and also another fat guy. Difficult.

My Oscar 2005 Predictions.

All right, here are my Oscar predictions. Like the Golden Globes, I'm only going to look at the major categories. One is my prediction, the other's my preference.

Allen Iverson Is God!

Today is historic, man! Allen Iverson dropped a career-high 60 points on Steve Francis and the Orlando Magic.

Just yearning to make another film.

A couple of weeks before my departure to Perth last year, I was visited by a high school friend who's also an aspiring filmmaker. The guy was collaborating with another friend of his to work on something for the Astro Chinese Short Film Competition, so he came over to pitch his ideas to me, and also wondered whether I can help them out as well. Alas, I was going to Perth, so I had no choice but to turn down his kind offer, even though I was very tempted to join them.

Alexander Payne's SIDEWAYS

Most films that are nominated for the Oscars are usually not shown in Malaysian theatres. In fact, among the five films that were nominated for this year's Oscar (Ray, Finding Neverland, The Aviator, Sideways and Million Dollar Baby), only one, The Aviator, was shown in the cinemas, probably because it had a star-studded cast, and a pretty huge budget.

Books and CDs I bought in Singapore

Books

Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco - Always wanted to read a book by Umberto Eco, so I picked up the very first book he wrote.

A Heartbreaking Work of Overwhelming Genius by Dave Eggers - Was attracted by the title. Obviously.

Kelly Chen, Ronald Cheng, Grasshopper. 1996

More personal memories from Cantopop of the mid-90s.



The lady beside me is Kelly Chen. It was 1996, there was a celebration after an award ceremony in Singapore, but she was also celebrating her birthday.



Ronald Cheng and Calvin Choi (one of the guys from the pop group, Grasshopper) were there too.

My 10 Favourite Films of 2004

Swifty's Top Ten Films of 2004

Here are my favourite movies that I saw on 2004, not in any particular order.

Golden Globes 2005

Yay, last night, right after I finished my entry, I continued writing the subsection 2 of SD:IS's Episode 22, and I think it's shaping out to be pretty well. But enough with that.

Just watched the Golden Globes just now, and see how did my predictions fare.

My Golden Globes Predictions.

Eek, suddenly remembered that Golden Globes is tomorrow morning (Malaysian time), so I'll be making my predictions right now. Yep, I love keeping track on these award shows that lead to the Oscars, been doing that ever since I was a kid. So... here we go!