Friday, March 22, 2013

Piledriver Waltz


     This is one of my favourite songs from Arctic Monkeys. The song is from 'Suck It And See' which also appears in Ben Stiller's movie, 'Submarine' (2010) who was named after the novel written by Joe Dunthrone. Why do I love this song so much? Well, I wish I could leave that question to one of the youngest lyrical genius, Alex Turner. But now, I'll rip the meaning of each lyric so you'll see how much this song is so heartbreaking, touching yet beautiful.
     So, I'll start with the title itself. Piledriver is a mechanical device used to drive piles into soil to provide foundation support for buildings or other structures and waltz is a dance. So, it means that he dances to the annoying and disturbing sound of piledriver. He's so brokenhearted that he even dances himself to the sound of it. And, here are the full lyrics of the song:

On the back of a raindrop
I etched a face of a stopwatch
And did a swap for the sand in an hourglass

I heard an unhappy ending
It sort of sounds like you leaving
I heard the piledriver waltz
It woke me up this morning

You look like you've been for breakfast
At the heartbreak hotel
And sat in the back booth
By the pamphlets and the literature
On how to lose
Your waitress was miserable
And so was your food
If you're gonna try and walk on water
Make sure you wear your comfortable shoes

Mystery's flashing amber
Go green when you answer
But the red on the rest of the questionnaire
Never changes

I heard the news that you're planning
To shoot me out of a cannon
I heard the piledriver waltz
It woke me up this morning

You look like you've been for breakfast
At the heartbreak hotel
And sat in the back booth
By the pamphlets and the literature
On how to lose
Your waitress was miserable
And so was your food
If you're gonna try and walk on water
Make sure you wear your comfortable shoes

Ohhh, piledriver

     The song tells about a boy who has a dream that his relationship will work out the way he wants it to be and he will remember it all his life. But, in the first line, it tells that he swaps his stopwatch, which I assume as the thing that records all of his memories to the sand in hourglass, which means he knows that his relationship will end and he just waits for it.
     The second line tells that he has a vision that his girl leaves him, which will become an unhappy ending for him. He heard the piledriver waltz, I assume it as the thoughts that really disturbing which woke him up. So, I think it's a sign that he knows that his relationship will be screwed.
     The third line tells that he sees his girl at the Heartbreak Hotel, which is the place for brokenhearted and dissapointed people. Even the waitress is also miserable, so are the people who go there. Heartbreak Hotel is also one of Elvis Presley's songs. If you're trying to walk......' means that if she really will walk away from him, he advices her to do it right, he makes sure that she does it right. So, the point is, the girl is still confused whether she has to leave him or not, because leaving the one you love or the one you used to love is the hardest thing to do.
     The fourth line tells about their situation. 'Mystery's flashing amber......' probably means their problems which come and go. 'But the red......' means that there are lots of things that the girl doesn't tell to the boy, which means she lies to him but he keeps waiting for the truth. Their relationship is considered as a traffic lamp, they're now in yellow, if they compromise to make it work and the girl will tell him the truth, the green lamp is the answer, they can go, but if they think they can't do it, they leave theirselves no other choices but to end their relationship.
     The fifth line tells that he knows that his girl has a plan to get rid of him in such a painful and fast way. He knows that his girl will leave him in such a heartbreaking way that it will hurt him so much. 'I heard the.......', he repeats to make sure we know that he really hates his situation and the sound of piledriver is all on his mind. But at the end, eventhough the piledriver sounds so annoying and disturbing, he chooses to dance to it because he doesn't care, no more.

James McAvoy

     This post goes to James Andrew McAvoy, an extremely gorgeous Scottish guy who was born on April, 21th 1979. He's my favourite actor all the time & when I say 'all the time', I really mean it. I'd like to tell you how I met him and how could he make me fall for him so hard.
     It all begun when I bought The Chronicles Narnia. I was, ummm, 8 years young? But, that time, I didn't fall for him as hard as I do now. I think I probably just thought, "Awww, he's cute.". What else a girl can say to a cute guy when she was only 8 years young? Oh, and fyi, I was innocent, back then. Oh, I still am.
     Years went by, I wasn't able to reach internet connection for some reasons, so I left him and considered to have a long invisible distance relationship, which in this kind of relationship, you know nothing but believe that he's still alive somewhere. Oh, and I didn't break up with him. I would never do that. We were still connected somehow, our hearts, of course.
     But then, it finally happened. I forgot him. I forgot his existence. I ditched him for Jonas Brothers, Justin Bieber and some other guys I don't want to mention because I know I'll embarass myself, it's for my own good. I probably went for some guys from Disney Channel, yeah, you know who. So, the point is, I left him.
     And then, this one day, my mom bought 'Penelope'. At first, I wasn't interested in watching it because there's Reese Witherspoon. For some reasons, I hate blondies, boys or girls, good or bad, good looking or bad looking, I just hate them. I prefer brunettes (and thank God my Jamie is a cute brunette). And the next thing I know, I spotted a beautiful guy on the cover and shouted, "I FOUND YOU, BABE!" (Well, this part didn't actually happen). So, you know what I did then, lied on my bed watching that beautiful face all over my tv. I could've licked my screen tempting to taste his face, fortunately, I was sane enough to know it was a stupid thing to do.
     Beyond all the craziness, I realized one thing. One essential thing. What the f*ck happened to your hair, Jamie?!? It just went straight to his face. Really just fell to his face. Pluk. That's the word. And I tried to have a positive thinking, he probably just ran out of hair gel or something or it's a new trend for haircut because I live in Asia and I know nothing about haircut except the fact that Rihanna dyed her hair almost everyday, back then.
     The story continued when I was about to watch 'X-Men: First Class' but since I haven't watched any of the movies, I decided not to watch it and watched another movie instead. When I found out that my Jamie was on the movie, I jumped off the bridge. So, to pay my sins and guilty feeling, I bought the DVD. Then, my baby was a man with long sharp metal inside his body. My baby just increased his level of coolness. And then I realized that he has something called bromance with Magneto, who was roled by Michael Fassbender, and I don't mind if he has a gay partner because Michael's beautiful. So, here I am, still waiting for the next X-Men  movie, 'X-Men: Days Of Future Past'.
     In this beautiful evening, I went to a DVD store and found 'Wanted'. So, I surely bought it. Judging on the cover, my baby, Angelina Jolie, and the director, Timur Bekmambetov, this must be epic. And, the hell it did! The movie is totally awesome and brilliant. I highly recommend it if you're looking for a fresh movie! Later, I found out that my baby didn't have a good time kissing on Jolie's lips. Ha, you belong with me.
     The next movies  I watched were 'Arthur Christmas' and 'Gnomeo And Juliet'. It was quite great too. The sad thing was, all I could do was just listening to his voice, imagined if he could turn up on my screen, which I wished to happen but it didn't.
     When I got into high school, I found this rental DVD near my school so I didn't have to buy more DVDs. There, I found 'Atonement' and found out that it won an Oscar. What pissed me was, his love interest was Keira Knightly. She's brunette, I know, but the very last movie of her that I watched was 'London Boulevard' and it led me to a huge disappoitment. Eversince, I hate her. Back to the movie, it's really beautiful and touching, it really is. Unfortunately, it ended with a sad ending. I cursed at Benedict Cumberbatch for being such an annoying asshole.
     Nah, and those all of his movies I've watched. I know there are more but I'm currently trying to find the rest. I'm also really looking forward to watch 'Filth', 'Trance', and 'Welcome To The Punch'. 3 movies in a year, and I put them on my new year's resolution, to watch them all. At the end, I gotta go now because when I'm typing this story, I'm supposed to study math. Lol. Xx.


Fia made this coffee.


Fia still thinks I'm goddamn gorgeous.


Fia helped me to shave this beard last night.


I'd be a superhero for you, my dearest Fia.
     

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Django Unchained (2012)

     Another award-winning movie by the great Quentin Tarantino. Since I'm a great fan of him, there's no way I would miss this one. Dan terbukti, film ini luar biasa. Cerita bersetting pada masa sebelum Perang Sipil, dimana perbudakan masih jadi hal yang wajar di Amerika. Django (Jamie Foxx), seorang budak yang bekerja untuk tuan tanahnya, bertemu dengan Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), pemburu buronan berkebangsaan Jerman yang tengah memburu pembunuh bernama Brittle Brothers.
     Akhirnya, Django dan Schultz bekerja sama untuk memburu Brittle Brothers, dengan syarat, Schultz mau membebaskan Django dari tuannya dan membantu Django mencari istrinya, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) yang telah dipisahkan darinya bertahun-tahun lalu. Setelah sepakat, perjalanan keduanya pun dimulai, yang akhirnya menemukan petunjuk atas keberadaan istrinya, yaitu sosok Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). Ia adalah seorang tuan tanah kaya raya yang memiliki ‘Candiland’, dimana ia mempekerjakan puluhan buruh, yang selain bekerja, ia adu satu sama lain, sebagai hiburan dan ajang olahraga.
     Django dan Schultz kemudian memata-matai Candiland. Tetapi pergerakan mereka berdua dicurigai oleh Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson), budak yang paling setia kepada Candie. Lantas, semua pergerakan Schultz dan Django akhirnya terbongkar dan mereka berdua harus keluar dari Candiland sembari membawa Broomhilda.
     Film yang berdurasi 2 jam 45 menit ini terhitung padat dan tidak mengulur-ulur cerita. Tidak ada adegan omong kosong untuk mengulur-ulur waktu karena Quentin Tarantino benar-benar meraciknya dengan apik dengan gayanya sendiri, just like what he did to his previous movie which is one of my favourites, Inglourious Basterds (2009).
     Menghadirkan aktor Jamie Foxx dan Christopher Waltz, mereka benar-benar menghidupkan karakter mereka. Namun, walaupun tokoh utamanya adalah Jamie Foxx, tapi hati saya benar-benar jatuh kepada Christopher Waltz. Schultz adalah seorang yang cerdas, penuh humor, dan pembawaannya sangat menarik. Peran itu dimainkannya dengan sangat apik. Saya tidak bisa membayangkan apabila peran Schultz diberikan kepada orang lain. Saya juga tidak heran mengapa ia dinobatkan sebagai Best Supporting Actor. 
     Kemunculan Leonardo DiCaprio juga tidak bisa diremehkan. Ia dengan total mampu memainkan The Heartless Candie dan beradu akting dengan Samuel L. Jackson dimana saya sangat membenci perannya sebagai The Annoying Stephen. Saya, sebagai penggemar Leo, have waited long enough for his next movie and then there it is!
     Film ini saya rekomendasikan untuk para pecinta film yang mencari cerita romansa yang 'kuat' dibalik terjadinya Perang Sipil, karena sebelumnya, sudah banyak sekali film yang terinspirasi dari perang ini. And at the end, I think Django Unchained is totally worth it for Best Original Screenplay and I'm really looking forward to his next masterpiece.



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Argo (2012)

     My first post goes to 'Argo' because I'm quite a great fan of it & I'm totally in love with its brilliant story. Cerita berawal dari Kedutaan Besar Amerika Serikat di Iran yang diserang oleh kaum revolusioner Iran yang menyebabkan beberapa orang Amerika Serikat disandera. Namun, enam orang sandera berhasil melarikan diri dan memutuskan untuk berlindung di Kedutaan Besar Kanada.
     Akhirnya, pemerintah Amerika Serikat memerintahkan agen rahasianya, CIA, untuk membebaskan sandera yang masih ditawan di Iran. Tony Mendez, seorang anggota CIA (Ben Affleck) mempunyai rencana dengan membuat film palsu dan menyelundupkan enam orang sanderanya sebagai kru film tersebut untuk keluar dari Iran.
     Durasi yang tidak cukup lama apabila dibandingkan dengan pesaingnya di Oscar, Django Unchained, Lincoln, dan Zero Dark Thirty, yakni dua jam, sangatlah cukup dan tidak berlebihan. Film ini terkesan padat dan 'greget' yang dihasilkan terus berkesinambungan, tidak terputus. Benar-benar film yang memuaskan dan to be quite honest, benar-benar pantas untuk menang sebagai Best Picture.
     Ben Affleck, sebagai sutradara, benar-benar membuat saya takjub. Mengapa? Karena, apabila dibandingkan dengan karyanya terdahulu, The Town (2010), dimana dia juga menjadi sutradara dan peran utama, film ini sangat jauh lebih baik dari berbagai aspek, dimana The Town terkesan terlalu bertele-tele dan cenderung lamban, sehingga 'greget' yang diharapkan pun sedikit mengecewakan, meskipun sedikit terobati dengan kehadiran Jeremy Renner dan Blake Lively. Seems like Ben has learned a lot of things to be a great director, eventhough he wasn't nominated for The Best Director.
     Film ini saya rekomendasikan untuk para pecinta film yang mengharapkan cerita yang unik dan segar, yang menginginkan film berpikir namun tidak terlalu berat, dan mungkin untuk penonton yang terlalu sering menonton film action yang penuh dengan aksi tembak-tembakan, karena film ini tidak berkisar kepada misi CIA dalam usaha penyelamatan negara seperti yang sudah sering ditawarkan, ini benar-benar gebrakan segar. Well, congratulations to Ben Affleck! By the way, he can argo fuck himself. :)))




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