3DNA

Made a last minute decision to catch one of its last screenings last Sunday at GV Marina, after three super hectic weeks of rushing my HTML5 assignment. Price was a little steep at $20, but I went after deciding that its time to show a little support after not having bought any of their albums in the past decade.

Watching 3DNA was like watching Mayday's concert in a cinema; the difference was that nobody screamed like they usually do at concerts, although I spotted two lightsticks been waved around in the dark of the theatre.

Besides the concert performances there were also three little stories, which I liked very much. Short, sweet and touching. Excellent cinematography too despite being short.

As the name implied, the movie was filmed entirely in 3D. Either I have not watched a 3D movie for a long time, or that the 3D movies I have previously watched were all animated, the 3D effects on real subjects were astonishing.

While many of their classic songs were played throughout the movie, the one that caught my attention the most was the rendition of 倔强, from its original rock to some very smooth jazz.



I like.

I forgot when it was I began to like 五月天's songs; my guess is it started with 温柔 around 2001. One decade has passed, and they are still my favourite band. Let's hope they continue to make nice songs for more decades!

mid autumn festival

Its a little of an irony that one day after the world remembered the 10th anniversary of 9/11, we celebrated Mid Autumn Festival where families came together for gatherings with mooncakes, tea, lanterns and the Moon.

I didn't have the time to celebrate, having had a lecture in the evening followed by a meeting till late at night. Fortunately as I walked through the park behind my house at around midnight, there were still pockets of people lingering around playgrounds and pavilions with still-lighted lanterns, allowing me to immerse in that little bit of whatever is left of the festive mood.

There were plenty of evidence that the park was a venue for many family celebrations earlier on. Grounds were burnt black; lanterns were left hanging on trees [a pity they weren't lighted up anymore]; everywhere was littered with used candles and sparklers.

Ignoring the littering, I am grateful that people still bothered to bring their children down to carry lanterns and play with, well, fire. As years go by and we move on, tradition has slowly given way to convenience, safety, and pure commercial gimmicks. Parents prefer light bulbs to candles; kids prefer stylish lanterns of their favourite toy characters to the traditional, err, lanterns. Some parents might decide to skip the lantern carrying altogether so that their kids can study; some kids might decide to skip the lantern carrying altogether so that they can watch TV or play games.

From what I saw at the park, that's not quite the case, at least not now yet. The litter can always be cleared, but traditions that are gone can never be found again. Not that I encourage people to litter, of course.

On the other hand, why do we hang on to tradition anyway?

9/11 10 years on

9/11 anniversary: photographers recall day of horror - interactive slideshow | World news | guardian.co.uk

"A photographer is contending with time and timelessness. Its the illusion of stopping time in a frame or looking back at time from a photograph and trying to, kind of, recover what is missing; what is outside the frame."

Ten years ago, our world changed forever.

In the past couple of years, each time this day neared, I would be trying to recall what I did on that fateful day, or rather, night. I remembered lying on the bed, probably half asleep, when I heard the deejay announced breaking news over the radio. Because that kind of scenario had never happened before, coupled with the fact that the only World Trade Centre I knew at that time is the one bearing the name Harbourfront now, all that my simple mind could cook up then was that of a plane scraping the top of a building while it was trying to land at an airport.

And then, I have no other recollection. I cannot remember what I did when I woke up the following morning. Did I follow the news closely? Did I laugh out loud thinking it was all just a joke? Did I continue studying and playing soccer in school as if nothing happened? Did I feel sad? Did I feel nothing? I can't remember anymore.

10 entire years have passed; seems like it has been a very long time, so long that I have already forgotten what I did back then. However, the aftermath of 9/11 is still strongly felt by everyone today, so much so it seems like it only just happened yesterday.

I cannot give any before-and-after comparisons, because I have never flown before 9/11. But today, we are all subject to security checks, surveillance, loss of privacy etc. We can no longer pass through Customs checkpoints without first undergoing various levels of inconvenience. Each and every single one of us are considered suspects by authorities until proven innocent. Deep in our hearts, we probably consider every stranger we come across a suspect too.

We are all living in fear. Osama had succeeded.

In these past ten years, so many other things have happened, none of which did anything to reverse this culture of fear. Bali, London and Madrid all suffered similar, if not worse, attacks. Even Singapore came so close to becoming a victim herself.

When will this all end? I have no idea. Will this even end in the first place? I have no idea either. But I think even if this day actually comes, we will continue to be fearful and suspicious of each other, till the day we die.

Friday's Straits Times article reported on a Singaporean who had managed to escape before the North Tower came tumbling down. Years later, they found her wallet, driving license and credit cards, and mailed them back to her. When the reporter asked whether there was anything else she hoped to have recovered from the wreckage, her reply was:

"Nothing physical. But I wish I had that sense of innocence back. Now I am always cautious, and I watch my back in case there's another attack. I'm not as carefree as before. I've lost that."

I think we all have lost that.