Blah blah blah. (Where is my mind?)

The CNY Long Weekend is coming to an end. Rummaged through my old stuff at my mom's place I found Chuck Palahniuk's book of short stories titled "Stranger than Fiction". I wanted to savour the stories and stopped myself from finishing the book, putting aside the book after reading one or two stories. More than half a year later, I'm still not yet halfway through the book.

I have sympathies for Palahniuk's worldview, more so than I care to admit. Anarchic, anti-capitalist, and overall pessimistic about the human condition, Palahniuk reminds me of the fiery nativist anti-modern rhetoric from prewar Japan. With boundless energy and creativity, we are destroying ourselves and our planet, lavishing a minority with lavish consumer goods while millions live in destitution and poverty. Then again, it's easy to denounce capitalism and its attendant sweatshops and financial fat cats. Palahniuk's Fight Club was made into a chic Hollywood blockbuster, as cool as a Che Guevera T-shirt.

Okay, I haven't explained why I was sympathetic to his worldview. It's late and I've to work tomorrow, definitely not the right time for a lengthy exposition of my opinions about the world. Besides, I had intended to talk about Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers and Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational. Dammit, where is my mind?

Red_Cliff2

The movie was thought-provoking on a few levels. First, if Woo had really meant to say that nobody wins in wars, why not kill off Zhou Yu's wife instead of making him utter an apologetic "Everyone loses" refrain. Maybe it's because I don't view Caox2 so much as villian than an over-ambitious statesman with a weakness for women. He doesn't deserve having to lose his entire army while the wussy Liu/Sun alliance loses a minor character and suffers the humility of Zhou's wife serving tea for the enemy. Oh well, life's not fair and Caox2 should be grateful he's still alive for going up against the almighty poster boys Misters Zhuge and Zhou. (Takeshi Kaneshiro is defintely more convincing as a suave and sagacious military advisor than as Andy Lau's idiot kid brother in that other movie where he keeps saying: "大哥永远是对的。") Ok, let me continue word-vomitting, second, I've become so de-sensitized to these epic war movies that the extended battle scenes at the end don't really shock nor excite me anymore. Oh, there goes another dead man. Oh, he's got three arrows through his chest and he's still going at it. The hint of Band of Brothers in the explosion scenes actually made me consider buying the DVD set from HMV. Lastly, this movie made me think about how I am closer to the current conflict than many people than I actually care to admit. And it will stay that way until a) I find a new job or b) people learn to go past deep-seated ideological differences and live with one another in harmony. Back to the movie. I like it that Woo provided a glimpse of the profiles of the lowest soldiers on both sides. They fight the war to give their families peace.

Here's a cool Dragon Ash vid to shake off the blues.\

Sky Crawlers

I am an idiot for missing this anime by one of my favourite anime directors...