Be kind, rewind

Technorati Tags: be kind rewind,jack black,comedy,video tapes,jazz pianist,fats waller

From the title I was lost, trying to figure out what it means or if it makes any sense and soon to get a clearer picture that it was actually referring to a video rental store in a movie. It really is either you thought of a tape player or a video tape player, of course both of them work on a similar concept through the use of magnetic tapes to store data.

Jack Black is one of my favorite comedian actors, he always does or act in funny movies and “Be kind, rewind” is just one them. Among others, I am sure you are familiar with “School of Rock”, “The Pick of Destiny” or the remake of “Kong” for a more serious acting. Not intending to spoil the movie for you but as a rather brief synopsis, the movie “Be kind, rewind” is about this guy who got magnetized and erased the contents of the entire video tapes by accident. He and his friend ended up making their own videos to replace the contents, somewhat like short parodies. This movie is categorized under the comedy and drama genre.

Speaking of video tapes or video cassettes, do you remember what movie and when was the last time you watch any movies on them? I can’t really remember mine. Taking a wild guess, I think that would at least be in the mid or late nineties when VCDs or Video Compact Discs were first introduced. As for the movie, perhaps it was more like a music video of Joe Satriani, Paul Gilbert or Yngwie Malmsteen performing in a rock concert. They’re musicians (guitarists) if you’re wondering. Coming along subsequently at that time was the mpeg one format. I recalled having to use software called Xing Mpeg Player to view movies in VCD format.

Back then the movie industry globally, were beginning to face a threat on piracies and copyright infringements as original video tapes can be copied and duplicated with ease. Same goes to the VCD era as well as DVD era which came in much later. Oh hang on; there were also Laser Discs or LDs which was not as popular as the rest. The size of one LD itself is like a vinyl record, weights heavier and shinier. Now this reminds me of storage mediums during my computing studies.

I forgot one other thing; the movie is also about a famous Jazz Pianist by the name of Fats Wallace. I have zero knowledge on Jazz History so I had to Google and search for some information. There is a Jazz Pianist known as Fats Waller but not Wallace. Besides funny in a silly way, the movie is also nostalgic. I kind of like the concept because it’s different from what I have seen before. Not entirely a new movie as it was released in 2008 but it was worth watching in my opinion. About 3.5 over 5 from me.

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Zodiac and Toyol

Technorati Tags: movie,zodiac,toyol,jinn,freaky,freaked out,ritual,funny

Just watched a movie called “Zodiac”. It was released a few years ago and it’s about an investigation on a mysterious serial killer. Although there was plenty of drama or too much talking going on, I managed to survive the 70s settings, somewhat agreeing that the movie has a compelling storyline. It’s based on a true story if I am not mistaken. Mini synopsis aside and opinion wise, the movie gets about 3 over 5 from me.

Apart from the movie, topic for this post as I scratched my head, thinking and fighting off this aggravating writers block, is about the experience of getting freaked out. When I come to think of it, I could roughly remember about a few events that had freaked me out once upon a time back then.

First, it would be a creepy ritual made during my time when I was a music student in my early twenties. At that time, I was in a group of students of the same batch if I remembered correctly and we were up for a ritual to catch a glimpse of “Toyol”, a green little creature about the height of a table similar to that of a golem in The Lord of The Rings movie or goblins I suppose. We were gathered by our seniors (or event organizers if I may) in a small studio practice room. It was at night to make things worse. All of us who participated were blindfolded and sat on the floor with our backs against one another.

There were other materials used such as candles for the ritual and prayers. As we were still blindfolded, prayers were recited and just after a short silence we heard a rather horrifying or creepy voice followed by sounds as if the creature ran all over the room, running or crawling along the walls or so. As a safety measure, our faces were drawn with some form of liquid substance to prevent being possessed by the creature. Later after the grumbling voice tapered away, our blindfolds were taken off and we were asked to look into a mirror in order to see the creature. When I was asked whether I did or not see the creature, taking the rituals seriously, I said no but the truth was my face were painted with oil or coal. The whole thing was a joke and we actually had a trick played on us. The ritual ended with everyone laughing so hard because it was really funny to see us freaked out.

Apologies to my non Muslim friends, as a side note or thinking of that matter as of now, I still believe that toyol exists. It is one of many forms in which jinns are able to represent themselves (granted by Allah SWT) so that they are visible to the humans. As humans, we simply can’t see jinns in their true forms. After all, believing in the existence of angels (jinns are part of the “ghaib” or unseen or unknown matter) is one of the pillars of Iman in Islam.

I admit that I was really freaked out during that ritual. It could be coming from the fear of the unknown, maybe too skeptical on what or how it would be like to be possessed and beyond control. I might end up murdering everyone who was there for all you know. Hahaha. Okay, I know. Too much movies. Nevertheless, it was indeed freaky but funny.

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Talking about music

Technorati Tags: music,rap,singing,film scoring,music production,motion pictures,rants,art

About fifteen years ago I embarked on a journey to become a recording artiste. At a younger age, I was so obsessed with rap music and was convinced that I could come up with my own album back then. I formed a rap group consisting of four persons – me and another guy as the main MCs and another two as breakers or simply dancers. The first audition tape was recorded at my music school and it was all I could think of without proper musical equipment. Making rap music on a Yamaha Electone Organ is somewhat laughable as of now.

During my journey, I ended up learning how to sing so much for the commercial appeal for the music scene back then. An attempt to do a full one hundred percent rap album wasn’t advisable and reluctantly I had to give and take by mixing singing and rapping elements in an album. It was a good start although making great music was far from perfect. Seriously I don’t see myself as a singer back then. As I delved deeper into the real aspects of music production, songwriting and becoming an artiste, I saw that my true potential was in songwriting and music production – somewhat more of a behind the scene activity rather than up on the stage. I’m so glad I realized that.

Growing older and with maturity setting in, my passion expands with film scoring. I just love how music is used as an element to complement a video or motion pictures. Right now to go on the right track is another process which I think would take me some time to be more experienced and focused. As a listener and as far as singing is involved, my choice for now really is to a select few artistes or albums both locally and internationally. From my experience and in a weird way, there’s nothing more fulfilling than to get a goose bump when a singer sings with soul and passion – singing from the heart. Singing itself without the artistic expression or passion feels like riding a bus to school, as opposed to be driven in a limo ride.

I recalled reading this from somewhere, saying that “music is an art and art is always subjective”. It goes along that line or something like that. There’s always a dichotomy, in my opinion, in such a way that as of today, music is created either for the artistic appreciation or for the massive consumption as an end product. What seems to be in demand is simplicity that would capture the hearts of many, in the sense that a piece of music or a song can be enjoyed by people from different walks of life rather than focused on a specific group of listeners. Certainly there’s always music for everyone. The point is, what matters to you is the music that drives you.

Given with many choices, I would try as much as possible to have both aspects in a musical creation – something for the artistic appreciation combined with a reasonable degree of simplicity so as to have a balanced work of art. It really bogs down to making music for my own satisfaction and for commercial or monetary purposes.

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