Thursday, March 14, 2024

Leave It All Behind: A dark 'Shake It Off'


A surprise drop today. F. Hero's "Leave It All Behind" in collaboration with Babymetal and Bodyslam. I don't know Bodyslam at all, but they provide the heavy instrumentation and some vocal bits.

The title pretty much says everything. It's a song about moving on after a disaster. Indeed the MV is set in an apocalyptic wasteland, meteor shower inbound representing circumstances beyond one's control. It's a barren land strewn with rubble. Dark clouds overhang, all shadows and gloom. Babymetal dance on a thick disk resembling a concrete chopping block, but only they and the other performers are well-lit as beacons of hope in troubled times. It can't get any worse for the Titanic run aground behind F Hero, with not a drop of water anywhere to float your boat.

Musically, it's a fun song throwing Thai, Japanese and English lyrics into a blender, and as always Babymetal picks up the catchy chorus split between Su, Moa and Momo, our favourite cheerleaders offering bright happy vibes that ward off the darkness. F Hero provides the angst and frustration though his lines are those of a Drill Sergeant yelling at his recruits to get off their butts and get back into the fray. Bodyslam's lead vocalist brings the melancholy, balancing off Su and F Hero's extreme tonal qualities. 

But this song falls flat in how literal the lyrics are. It could be a language thing, though, as maybe the English subtitles don't translate well enough, while the lyrics may hit harder for people who actually understand Thai and Japanese better than me.

Overall, while this collab isn't the crazy fun that 'Kingslayer' was, it still attempts to be uplifting and motivational. But, I haven't yet picked up an earworm of a hook, so this drop goes into my 'have to get used to it to appreciate it' category.

Sunday, January 07, 2024

Horiginal Beef Noodles


Serendipitous discovery of this amazingly generous serving of beef noodles in gravy. This is from the amusingly named 'Horiginal Beef Noodles' located in the Koufu food court of Vista Point, Woodlands. Not a place I generally frequent, but there I was.

For just $6 you get beef slices, tripe, tendon, a beef ball, a beef hand roll that had an underlying ngoh hiang flavour, and probably one other thing that has slipped my memory. A rich, hearty beef broth on the side, and you can help yourself to the honest to goodness genuine chinchalok dipping sauce (with bits of raw onion thrown in) which you can see in the saucer just peeking over the bowl on the left. There's a choice of noodle, but the best option is kway teow, a broad, flat rice noodle, which provides just the right texture that brings out the best mouthfeel for the beef.

Maybe I went at the right time because although the place was packed with lunchtime diners, the turnover was fairly rapid. I very quickly found a table for four all to myself for the duration of the meal. Luxurious.

If I ever go back there, I have my sights fixed on the ox-tail soup and rice combo. It's been so long since I've had any.

Friday, December 22, 2023

Tim Horton's takes me back TO Canada



Made my annual pilgrimage to Vivocity and found Tim Horton's there. I knew they had opened, but hadn't planned on dropping in as I heard that the lines were crazy. New food places always are around these parts. As I got my shopping list completed, I noticed that the queue tended to pulsate. The next time the line was short, I jumped in. The last time I had any 'timbits' (a.k.a donut holes) must have been over 30 years ago when I was a student in TO. Good times.

Time has been good to Tim's. The outlet here looks more upmarket than I remember, and there is now a vibrant, exciting new vibe when it used to be chill and more laid-back as far as my memory goes. I like that there's no staff uniform, as such. Apart from a standard all black overall theme, the staff wore a variety of whatever brand of apparel they wanted, and a lanyard that prominently displayed the word 'STAFF'. A typically Canadian understatement. Otherwise, the place itself was busy and bustling with people standing around waiting for their orders, while the tables were full of customers enjoying their caffeine-and-donut fueled social activity. The scene was chaotic, but in a good way. Orders were being fulfilled, people were negotiating for a space to sit, or like me quickly buzzed away with our take-away boxes. The chaos of life.

The photos above do not do the timbits themselves much justice. $10 for a box of 10 pre-selected flavours: the classic glaze, the cinnamon, and the birthday cake (presumably decorated with sprinkles). I'd let my box lie fallow for a few hours as I was too full to consume them while they were still fresh. That was lunch. I opened the box after dinner for dessert, and yeah. They look much sadder than they were in the store. Taste-wise, they are nothing fancy, nothing pretentious. You get what you pay for: they're sweet, they're cinnamony, and they're sweet with a bit of sugar crunch. They're not meant to be savoured. They're meant to keep the mouth busy while you're having a good time with your friends. They're something to share between buddies in between sips of coffee. It's that community feeling that really sums up the charm of Tim Horton's. Glad to see it's still like that today.

Coincidentally, I'd decided to eat them while watching Netflix's 'Scott Pilgrim Takes Off' which is set in TO. Bits of memory flashed by with background shots of the CN Tower, the Skydome (now called Rogers Centre), and Julie's house reminds me of the one I stayed in on Bathurst Street when I first arrived in TO. Oddly enough, the storyline looks towards the future about 30 years, while today I'm looking back 30 years. I'm Old Xmac, and in many ways I can identify with what Scott is going through. It hit a little close to home.

Sunday, December 17, 2023

Kingslayer: down with the King!


[Trigger warning: video includes harsh language]

We finally have an official video release of BMTH's 'Kingslayer' feat. BABYMETAL! Since the track released about three years ago, the two groups have never performed it together until a couple of months back 'live' in Tokyo. After all the fancam compilations (some of which have been quite good, given the source material), it's great to have a closeup view of what's happening onstage.

The buildup video sets the scene with the undermining of an 'EVE-L' authority, made to look ridiculous with the infiltration of a virus corrupting the system and reducing it to 'N64 level graphics' and getting worse. Meanwhile, interspersed are shots of particular audience members, including closeups of young women in the crowd, suggesting that metal is no longer the domain of the typical 'metalhead' stereotype. When the video announces 'Kingslayer', the crowd erupts and explodes as BABYMETAL make their entrance. MOMO and SU are focused, MOA, as usual, acknowledges the camera. As they take their places, they naturally hype up the crowd. Fully energised, Oli (lead vocalist of BMTH) leads the crowd to chant with the opening riff that has by now become iconic.

Oli plays two characters in this story. He starts as an oppressor taunting essentially himself, as the oppressed. The oppressor sings the melody, the oppressed is the screamer who interrupts with a growing recognition of who his oppressor really is: 'corrupted' and 'the monster'.

SU chimes in with her catchy, pop vocals to introduce the Kingslayer. This metal hero is a familiar figure, appearing as 'Meta Taro' and in 'Metallism', representing the internal fortitude to fight back against adversity. Here, Kingslayer 'destroys castles in the sky' which is an inversion of the idiom, 'building castles in the air', referring to dreams that have no hope of being fulfilled. So the Kingslayer is the hero within ourselves who rises up against any authority that rules over us with false promises, or hopes that they have no intention of fulfilling. Such authorities could be addictions, abusive parents, relationships, or even ourselves (as in the characters Oli is playing) -- anyone holding us back, keeping us down, or otherwise preventing us from living in 'another world', a better one.

The oppressor uses two main tactics to remain in control. The first is the idea that nothing can change: you depend on them, and you are nothing without them. They threaten that breaking free is cutting the strings of a puppet -- you couldn't even crawl back if you wanted. The second is the accusation of ingratitude: 'do you really want to twist the knife in the belly...' to which the oppressed screams 'of the monster!!!' This realisation is echoed in the screamed chorus in colourful language. Its a 'wake... up' call to reboot the system and start again, this time without the monkey on your back.

BABYMETAL are our metal cheerleaders, encouraging us to fight on to overthrow our usurper King, reminding us that we will 'never fight alone' in this battle. We get to see more of their choreo in this video. Yup, very aggressive cheerleading movements, along with wide-legged sumo stomps and monster claws, and always so coordinated. 

By the end of the instrumental bridge, the battle is over and the oppressed screams his victory, 'I can't feel yooooou!!!', to which the ladies reply with a celebratory SG-inspired 'Ooooooh Yeeeeeah!!!' The last lyrics seem to be the frustrated last words of the deposed ruler, a middle finger to the victor, which is an oddly satisfying climax while Oli and the ladies head... no, bodybang a tribal victory dance to close out this breathtaking journey.

'de ded ded ded ded de de de dedded ded ded de ded!' A riff to keep in our hearts when we need the energy to overcome.

Wednesday, December 06, 2023

Audience Miss match #themarvels


A fairly long interview with Disney CEO, Bob Iger, but I'm mainly commenting on the sound bite between the 13-15th minute in which he blames The Marvels' box office disappointment on 1) the Disney+ streaming platform, and 2) the lack of executive supervision during the production process.

I agree with #1 in that The Marvels was not billed enough as a significant event that would get people out of their homes and into the cinema. Doubly so when the audience knows that we'll be accessing it on Disney+ not too long after its movie premiere. Nothing particularly important happens in this movie that shakes up the MCU other than a few seconds of mid-credits scene that we had to sit through an entire movie for. Nope. Most people would rather save their money and catch it on D+ as and when it shows up. There was no urgency to be first in line on opening day, and many, like myself, didn't even know when opening day was. Both the pandemic, and the actors/writers strike were factors in the lack of hype for this movie: nobody knew what the stakes were, or even who the villain was. Truth be told, I still don't.

Which leads me into #2. Iger doesn't elaborate on what he means by executive supervision, but it sounds to me like corporate meddling with the creative process. I think corporate should have said something before green lighting the movie in the first place. While I enjoyed the movie, like I generally enjoy most media releases, I'm now looking at this project from a marketing standpoint. Who was supposed to be the target audience? While there are Marvel fangirls like Iman Vellani, a.k.a. Ms Marvel, herself, the vast majority of audience who throw money at MCU movies are the guys who drag their girlfriends and wives along to watch great high stakes superhero battles. Was the battle depicted in The Marvels high stakes enough? I suppose on the cosmic scale it was big, but it didn't hit hard emotionally. It was fun, yes, but it didn't feel like our heroes were going to lose at any point. It was cool, but it also felt like a missable chapter in the MCU timeline. Nothing changed -- until the movie was literally over.

If the target audience was supposed to be women, the characters of Captain Marvel, Ms Marvel, and Monica Rambeau, aren't particularly well known to most women besides the die-hard fangirls, whose audience share simply does not compare to the MCU's male audience demographic. Droves of women are not likely to drag their boyfriends and husbands to watch The Marvels just because three women they don't know, and have never grown up with are the main characters. The Barbie Movie was a very different vibe, and was a huge box office success because Barbie is a character familiar to almost every girl in this and even previous generations. Barbie told a story that resonated strongly with its female target audience, and surprised the males who accompanied their significant others with an absurdly relatable story as well. The Marvels, on the other hand told a story that might have resonated more with a male audience, with all the punching and shooting, but the protagonists were female. Perhaps this story might have done better if it featured Rocket, Groot, and maybe introduced a new character like Nova, or someone similar (Adam Warlock?). While I appreciate the attempt at representation and diversifying the audience pool, representation for the sake of representation does nothing for the box office.

Expecting a hit out of The Marvels with female characters who are relatively unknown to its paying audience is like making a movie featuring Ken as the main character, in hopes of attracting a male audience waving lots of cash, yelling 'take my money!!!' From the marketing perspective, The Marvels made little sense from the start.

Thursday, November 30, 2023

Invigilation thoughts #28

Can't believe I've finally made it to the last official day of work before the December break. In honour of the cultural heritage of the one candidate I was assigned to oversee, I composed a haiku:

Final duty of the year.
Oh, no, it's the AA kid.
Time added.

If you know, you know.

Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Invigilation thoughts #infinity

The symbol for infinity is a sideways figure '8', like so:

Going by the XY axes, regular '8' is vertically oriented, two loops enclosing the space directly above and below its epicentre.

Notice, then, that the space beside the epicentre is completely unbound.

That IS infinity, as that space extends beyond the figure '8' forever.

So to symbolize the concept of endless space, we use '', representing the space remaining unbound by the closed loops of the '8'.

And because  aligns with the X axis, and if we take the intersection of XY as 0, infinity extends towards the right as positive numbers, and towards the left as negative numbers.

'' is clearly a well-though out, and exquisitely designed symbol for infinity... as long as we accept the symbol '8' to represent the concept of 'eight'.