It’s called The Moment of Truth.

And indeed it is. This is not your ordinary TV show whereby you just get some music and a dose of entertainment, period. It was pretty controversial back in 2008 – see what the first contestant Lauren Cleri said about the reason she went on air.

It’s like a moral dilemma we have here – should the TV show promote the washing of dirty linen in public? Does the TV show, notwithstanding legal contracts, have the moral right to ask questions that will destroy people? Should people tell the truth simply for the sake of money? What will people say about you when they know the sordid things you did in secret? Can your family or friends still say they’re proud of you despite the things that you did?

So the question is, does the truth hurt like hell? For some people, apparently it did. Name a price, and these people will speak the truth, even if it will hurt more than hell itself. Can people take the truth for what it is?

I don’t know how much I stand in comparison with these people, but I can say I’ve suffered possibly, something resemblant of hell, for knowing the truth. So it’s not so surprising that this show’s my favorite, eh?

This episode, featuring Paul Schon, has gotta be the best of all. It’s just that, unfortunately, it isn’t showing anymore. So sad for the truth.

1/4

2/4

3/4

4/4

New Zealand, one of the earliest countries to usher into 2010, has seen displays of fireworks just a while ago.

Well I’m cooped up in the house with the comp (that’s why I can follow up with such a quick NYD update), so to all NYD revellers happy 2010 and don’t drink too much! :p

and have my own Na’vi Avatar, nah even better be a Na’vi itself and have my own Ikran and make my own tsahaylu.

This has gotta be the most fantastic sci-fi movie I’ve ever watched in a long while. So literally fantastic it’s like I was having my own Emerald Dream while still trying digest the reality of Pandora. It is strongly reminiscent of Warcraft 3’s Night Elves, but even better – glow-at-night plants and being able to biochemically bond with animals (what the Na’vi call tsahaylu) beat the Priestess of the Moon or the druids. Anytime.

The 3D’s extremely beautiful, but I think the theme is the most beautiful, if you can see beyond the devastation wrought by the “Sky People” later in the movie. The Na’vi had very few human allies, but these humans stood up and did the right thing of trying to save the Na’vi of giving in to human corporate greed like everyone else. These few humans had the courage to admit that the Na’vi were a spiritually and biologically blessed people, and took a painful and courageous step in opposing their fellow brethren. In the end Jake Sully (who was called Jakesully by the Na’vi) took the side of the Na’vi and finally drove the humans out in a heroic defence of their homeland.

I like to think this drives across a very powerful message to certain people, I’m hoping (a fool’s hope but well, you never know) they can understand that this is not just about beautiful graphics. When you have Russian media giving special attention to a film from Hollywood (think politics) and even praising its message, you know that something’s special about Avatar.

Avatar is definitely the best theatrical eye-candy for me this year, but even more, I’ve never felt so liberated watching a movie. Bottom line, everything about Avatar is fantastic – the graphics, the imagination, the theme, the message, even the duration of the theater version. I was thinking that if they had an extended version of Avatar in DVD or Blu-ray later on I would most definitely snap it.

Now we don’t know about you. Since it just came out we recommend you grab a 3D ticket while it’s still available. Or do yourself a favor by clicking on the play button of the bottom trailer if you’re not convinced. Yet.

Official Avatar Movie

Fellow Malaysians, you should’ve brought your cameras, iphones, lappies along! Blog about it, post youtube vids, tweet it, take pictures. It would have gone viral! Why so little love for Arthur? I couldn’t say much if this was something not ‘big’ enough to garner attention, but even the STAR did something on Sep 25 itself. This was the BEP performing, hello?

Ok, rant aside. The BEP, as usual was greatly welcomed by the crowd at the Sunway Surf Beach in Kuala Lumpur. Here’s what the STAR (a newspaper company in Malaysia) had to say:

However, aside from a few bloggers who took the trouble to write and took vids, there were so few coverage about the event! Sedih lah (so sad).

Smashpop.net had some pictures of the Arthur’s Day celebration in Kuala Lumpur, check it here.

Chris, a very good photographer I met before, had a lengthy photopost of BEP during the press conference.

In addition, Chris also recorded the BEP in Boom Boom Pow action.

Though I have to say, I still think the G.I. JOE version is better.

However one Youtuber actually took a very high quality vid of BEP singing I Gotta Feeling. Will.i.am even said KL KL KL a few times (KL is the shortform of Kuala Lumpur) – makes it more endearing lol. I must say thank you dear Youtuber, that was really excellent and more useful than you think. I love Fergie’s furry vest

As for me, one thing I regretted was not being able to be present myself. Well, I don’t know but I’d really go all way out to make this viral if I were there!

Aside from Kuala Lumpur, the Arthur’s Day celebration was also held in Dublin (Ireland), New York (US), Lagos (Nigeria) and Yaounde (Cameroon). The following clip shows everyone cheering to Arthur in Dublin, much like what happens in the Arthur’s Day ad (I don’t know if you’ve seen it, try search in youtube).

There’s plenty of photos in the Independent.ie for the Dublin celebrations.

Finally, if you want to see more vids for the Dublin celebration as well as some pics of the Lagos concert, go to GuinnessPours.net. Go go go!

It was a bit sad, such a great event had so many people going but the coverage does not compensate as much! And BEP chose to go to KL of all 5 places! That was the greatest honour ever people.

for Susan Boyle.

She’s landed in America for the first time, to sing there for the first time, tracks from her very first album, I Dreamed a Dream. Yes, the same name as the world-famous audition song.

She’s had a first-time very transformational makeover, so much that she look much much better now. I’d say she’ll look fantastic even if she’s really riding a wild horse. However the mainstream media strangely never took notice of her new looks. Here’s a very recent photo of Susan, from here.

Lovely?

Anyway, it’s Susan’s first time releasing her debut album (which will be released in November), and one of the songs which Times Online UK says she will sing is Wild Horses (original by Rolling Stones). Hear her soul in the music below, lyrics included:

Well Susan can’t really run free like a wild horse yet. She’s been taken to Disneyland for some Mickey Mouse fun after hordes of fans and media personnel “mobbed” her. Maybe a song of the same name from Natasha Bedingfield will do the trick for now:

lyrics

So, on a typical working weekday like Tuesday, would you feel running carefreely like a wild horse?

However, it seems that Kanye West was not really that happy about it – he snatched the mike from Taylor as she was giving her acceptance speech…

Hmmm, since I knew about it from Mashable, I’d like to ask the same question too:

Was it staged, or just Kanye being Kanye?

Anyway, I don’t care so much. I like most of the songs from her album, so I guess I’m a fan of hers. I like her music and her very creative and innovative music – you don’t simply have people going crazy over country pop so easily, like until now. It appears that later on, Beyonce, whom Kanye tried to prop up in the mike-snatching incident, selflessly invited Taylor for a “do-over” (refer here). So all ends well that starts well, I guess? This is an opportunity for me to share one of my favourite MVs with you, so here is the VMA award-winning MV – You Belong With Me:

(Yahoo FTW, the tube doesn’t allow embedding courtesy of —)

This is how excited I am when I saw it.

Click here to see it!!!

Click here to see it!!!

Click here to see it!!!

Click here to see it!!!

Click here to see it!!!

I know I’m a little paranoid but I really <3 that ship Caspian supposedly constructed according to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. CS Lewis wrote that the Dawn Treader

was only a little bit of a thing compared with one of our ships, or even with the cogs, dromonds, carracks and galleons which Narnia had owned when Lucy and Edmund had reigned there under Peter as the High King, for nearly all navigation has died out in the reigns of Caspian’s ancestors.

But look at this!

Look at that window! Look at that flower pattern! Look at that seamlessly polished wood! As the Malaysian would say, WALAO!!!!

See the ship in full size below.

Wah!!!!!!!!

Honestly what Lewis said about the ship seems to be disproved by the set producers. But it doesn’t matter, all it matters is

WE LOVE IT!!!!!!

Narniafans.com, which I must rightly credit for the above pics, reported today that a video of Skandar Keynes (Edmund) and Ben Barnes (Caspian)’s fight scene was just posted. Look at that ship, and look at the coolness of the whole scene.

Cool, cool, cool! And you have to agree with me!

But one thing which may not be so cool is the release date which is 10 December 2010. T.W.E.N.T.Y T.E.N. O.M.G. Oh well guess I have to wait…

*rereads the novel to relive the magic again*

A very popular choir group, Libera is going to the Phillippines to sing. I can’t go to the Phillippines, but maybe those who are there might try. One catch, could you sing with them, like this?

Fantastic soprano? I daresay it is. I’m not a fan of the Gregorian/polyphonic chant kind of thing, but they’re really so good I can’t help but take notice.

The first line of Gloria:

Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in terra pax hominibus.

(Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to mankind)

Is no doubt reminiscent of the Gloria in the Mass of Roman Catholicism. Perhaps that is the reason why Libera decided to go to the most Catholic country in Asia. Tickets ranging from 500 to 3850 pesos, at the PICC Plenary Hall in Manila. If you’re going, get your tickets here. Remember, October 25! Or remember, Youtube!

Guys, I was busy the past few days. But guess what?

I have a NEW blog again. And this is the one which I promised I would do, for a very very long time – my Korean blog, at www.koreanlikethis.com. Does it sound a ringbell? You bet it does! It’s the family of “Like This” hahahaha!!!!

As you probably know, that blog’s for all my stuff that I know about Korean. For now I’ll probably do some simple stuff like writing and posting pics.  But God willing, I will make cooler stuff like vlogging and podcasting in the future, both here and in my K-blog.

So my friends who are into Korean too, please add me to your blogrolls, please help me about Korean, thanks! ㅋㅋㅋ

Issue #2

I don’t know if you know this, but Youtube is currently planning to allow RENTING of movie films. Which means you and I will be able to watch Hollywood films online, streaming, without the hassle of having to download them as in the iTunes store, or the hassle of watching them free but only in the US as in Hulu.com or annoying the big entertainment companies for *downloading* from *some other places*. If this actually happens that means ALL of us may be able to watch our favourite movies on our favourite video channel, with perhaps a favourable fee. I will not settle for anything more than 3 to 4 USD per film because that’s usually how much I pay for watching in cinemas or DVDs.

Is it exciting? I guess it is. It feels like a viable alternative for me I’m certain. I don’t like to download every single movie I’m watching, I don’t like expensive stuff, I don’t like having to live in the US just to be able to watch stuff free.

Where did I get this news:

1. Techgeist
2. Business Week
3. The Movie Blog

Lol, guess I’m a little backdated in telling you this news. The whole thing came out in early September and I’m only talking about it now.

Sometime ago I heard that the British Monarchy decided to be more open and had their own channel in Youtube. Previously the Vatican had a headstart with videos and videos of papal speeches. Then I stumbled upon India’s official tube of exotic dance vids and some tourist-pulling ads. America has her own channel linking various subchannels of the different government agencies. And now this.

Youtube tweets about Kremlin coming to Youtube

Like I said, today’s a boring day. It would’ve been more interesting if I could make out what Russian President Dmitri Medvedev was talking about in his government’s Youtube channel, and make more sense of the Cyrillic script. Can I suggest something to the Russians – English please? At least some subs. You know, so that people all around the world can understand what you’re trying to say better. I unfortunately have yet to master Russian and I really like to hear what the President is saying. It’s a great thing isn’t it?

If you happen to be great in Russian, perhaps you should also check out President Dmitri Medvedev’s blog here, powered by LiveJournal which is , not surprisingly, used by many blogger Russians AND owned by a Russian company. Nationalism.

Well, since our country is neutrally friendly to both the USA and Russia, that makes for fair coverage doesn’t it?

PS: I’ve seen you guys’ comments on the movies. I’ll be catching some movies soon based on your recommendations.