14	15	16	17	18	19
Morning		SAF Day Dinner Reh	SAF Day Parade Reh in NSC	SAF Day Parade Reh in SAFTI	COC HQ Fleet Reh in Changi Naval Base	SAF Day Parade Reh in SAFTI	Submarine Commissioning Reh in Changi Naval Base
Afternoon		Given Half Day Off. Went down to Orchard.	Cleared Half Day Off. Went home to kun.	SAF Day Parade Reh in SAFTI	supposedly given half day off. got stuck in traffic.	SAF Day Parade Reh in SAFTI	Kim Seng Concert Reh.
Night		Met 01S21 for dinner. Strolled down marina bay.	Birthday Dinner wif family at a Thai restaurant in JP.	Stayed in. Forgot wut i did.	Forgot wut i did.	Stayed in. Went dinner wif Ron and Woei Kee at Toa Payoh Crystal Jade.	BBQ at Justin's place with Dian Hua ppl.
	20	21	22	23	24	25	26
Morning	Went back to camp to get my tix.	Fall in late for parades in the aftnn.	SAF Day Parade Reh in SAFTI	SAF Day Dinner Reh	SAF Day Parade Reh in SAFTI	Submarine Commissioning Reh in NSC	Submarine Commissioning Actual in Changi Naval Base
Afternoon	Kim Seng Concert Reh at VCH.	COC HQ Fleet Actual & Submarine Commissioning Reh at Changi Naval Base	SAF Day Parade Reh in SAFTI	Given half day off. tink i came home to sleep.	SAF Day Parade Reh in SAFTI	Given half day off again. i did come home to sleep.	Finally nothing on. came home to zo bo.
Night	Kim Seng Concert IX	Stayed in. Dinner at Causeway Point wif Fazil, Wei Jyh, You Wei, Kok Wee, Alvin Low	Stayed in. Forgot wut i did.	Stayed in. Forgot wut i did.	Stayed in. Forgot wut i did.	Dinner at home. went back bunk to stay in.	BBQ at Pasir Ris Coasta Sand Resort with Kim Seng ppl.

 

I'm so so sorry not to update my blog site. either i hadnt been at home at nights to update properly or i didnt have the mood to start writing everything. one week. one tiring and irritating week of parades and concerts and everything. one enjoyable week of outings and presents and concerts and everything. eh? i said concerts twice. haha, that's because they're irritating yet enjoyable. ;p

ok ok, i shall end my blog prematurely here. rest assured i'll be updating this site more often when i'm less busy. i promise to update the blog by sunday k?

tired-yet-...well-tired,
Johnzzon

 

Popstage
Pop Music Repertoires for Wind Orchestras

1 Sousa's Holiday ~The Thunderer~ [2:25]
John Philip Sousa, arr. Toshio Mashima

2 Sousa's Holiday ~Stars and Stripes Forever~ [3:36]
John Philip Sousa, arr. Toshio Mashima

3 Itsuki no Komoriuta [4:32]
Traditional, arr. Masato Myokoin

4 Che Sarà [3:14]
Jimmy Fontana, Carlo Pes, Nicola Greco Italo, arr. Masato Myokoin

5 Moanin' [3:09]
Bobby Timmons, arr. Masato Myokoin

6 Ever Green '70s [6:48]
How Deep is Your Love (Barry Bibb & Maurice Gibb & Gobin Gibb), Killing Me Softly With His Song (Charles Fox), Dancing Queen (Benny Andersson & Stig Andersson & Bjorn Ulvaeus)
arr. Masato Myokoin

7 When the Saints Go Marching In [3:45]
Traditional, arr. Masato Myokoin

8 Eine Kleine Nachtmusik [4:16]
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, arr. Masato Myokoin

9 Anohikiitauta (Japanese folk songs' medley) [9:14]
Furusato (Teiichi Okano), Hamabe no Uta (Tamezo Narita), Yashi no Mi (Toraji Onaka), Akatonbo (Kosaku Yamada), Naru no Ogawa (Teiichi Okano), Hana (Rentaro Taki)
arr. Toshio Mashima

10 Rhapsody in Blue [5:48]
George Gershwin, arr. Toshio Mashima

---

New Wind Repertoire 1998 ~Belkis, Regina di Saba~

Sinfonietta No. 1
Philip Sparke
1 I Overture [2:13]
2 II Aris [5:21]
3 III Scherzo [5:05]

As You Like It
William Walton / arr. Christopher Palmer / Transcribed for Wind Band by Yoshihiro Kimura
4 I Prelude [3:10]
5 II "Under the Greenwood Tree" [1:52]
6 IV The Fountain [3:32]
7 V Wedding Procession [1:45]

8 Poeme Montagnard [19:03]
Jan Van der Roost

Suite from the Ballet "Belkis, Regina di Saba"
Ottorino Respighi / Transcribed by Yoshihiro Kimura
9 I Il Sogno di salomone
10 II Danza guerresca
11 III La Danza di Belkis allaurora
12 IV Danza orgiastica

---

Storia Eroica

1 Unter dem Doppeladler Joseph E. Wagner, transcr. Wolfgang Wössner
2 Storia Eroica André Waignein
      Singapura Suite Jan Van der Roost
3 Part I
4 Part II
5 Daibutsu To Shika Great Buddha and Deer Itaru Sakai
      Norwegian Songs Edvard Grieg, arr. Jacob de Haan
6 Fremad! Fremad!
7 Stille Nu!
8 Fola, Fola, Blakken
9 One Day I'll Fly Away Randy Crawford, arr. Ron Sebregts
10 Antonin's New World Antonin Dvorak, arr. Dizzy Stratford
11 Mexican Trumpets Harm Evers
12 Open Air Festival Deutschrock-Medley arr. Mike Costello
13 Sunday in Rio Harm Evers
      From: "Parade"
14 Play Away
15 Try Out
16 Take It Up

---

if u're interested in getting the files, contact me via MSN to get the files from me.

 

last night was the performance for Audio Image band (A.I. in short). we (woei kee, zhenqiang and me) rushed down to victoria concert hall after directly booking out from SAFTI MI after our SAF day parade yesterday. just side track a bit. zhengyi saw me in my no. 3 vest slack, also in my worst form (sweaty and smelly and tired). saw him in his no. 3 wif his (issit?) SAR, quite funny and weird, to be seeing classmates in army uni with a weapon. haha.

anyway, we managed to reach VCH quite early, much earlier than expected. the concert had not even started yet. so i quickly changed, and (upon's lifeng's request) joined the band from the first song onwards. it was, well, quite terrible. the first song, First Suite in E flat by Gustav Holst. i tot it was actualli much better than our rehearsal. all the individual parts came out, and nobody broke down. i onli find that the percussion part (esp the clash cymbal) was, well, overpowering. besides that, i was actualli quite satisfied. but jeremy tot it was quite terrible. haha. perhaps i heard the worst version of it (which was during my very first rehearsal with AI).

second song, Concerto for Horn and Symphonic Band by Strauss. three words: Marcus broke down. *ops* the band was overpowering the single french horn too.

third song, Saga Candida: 7 Impressions for a Witch Hunt by Bert Appermont. argh~ i cocked up all the eupho soli parts by playing all the wrong notes. felt DAMN DAMN paiseh!! adrian was staring at me with a look of "i'll kill u if i'm not conducting now"!! dun dare to face him!! but on the overall, the sound was actualli quite ok, tho some solo parts din come out as well as i expected them to be.

fourth song, Internal Combustion. three words again: we broke down. some section din dare to play their soli parts and the whole song was so weirdly quiet at weird places. terrible.

then the pianist came out and performed her composition and two sun yanzi songs. woah~ she's great man! i meant her piano performing. it was really really performing! it was really really very entertaining to hear her playing. tho her singing cudnt really make it, but i was so mesmerized by her piano. she's not merely playing, she's really really putting herself into the song to perform the pieces! darn! i was so so pei4 fu2 yet so jealous at the same time!

after that, Misty featuring Ronnie's solo. he was really great, tho he looked weirdly paiseh on stage, almost like rephrasing the first line of the lyrics. haha! but he was really great, the song was great too!

South Rampart Street Parade... er... in my opinion, worst song of the night. the stupid drumset player tot that this was HIS song and played rubbish thruout the piece. damn it~ i liked the song so much and he destroyed it totally for me! urgh~

then the emcee sabotaged us and made the audience call for encore. so we played The Way We Were featuring Adrian on the saxophone. hmm~ nice. he got style in his playing. zhenqiang asked me to compare him and gilbert, i said Adrian was better becoz this piece so suited his style. anyway, i sight-read the song on the spot. it was pretty simple tho, but the thrill of doing it was so... satisfying！ haha.

i guess, as a player, i enjoyed the night. dun noe if i'll be going back to play in subsequent concerts, coz i actualli find the repertoire interesting tho demanding. oh well, this marked my debut band concert in vch! upcoming next, kim seng this sunday! gosh~

stressed-out,
Johnzzon

 

the nite of my birthday din jus end with the dinner with my family. after finish blogging, i left my sis place to head back to camp via mrt. on the way, alvin messaged me "hey, r u coming back to camp soon?" i replied "ya why?" "oh, nothin. jus to tell u we're sleeping soon, so dun on the lights when you come back." kinda mad at that reply, coz was tinking i need to unpack in the dark again. oh well... sighz.

when i boarded the 169, there was still time for me to go to the 7-11, so i headed there to get some stuff like milk and bread before heading back to camp. slowly strolled my way back, whistling on the way. den when i reached back, i was quite surprised that everyone was still awake. great, dun need to unpack in the dark! when i was greeted with a few ppl saying happy birthday to me. hmm~ dun know who went to spread the word around. den indera was looking damn drained coz apparently someone misplaced his number one (we found out it was sashi the next day).

so, i slowly unpacked, changed, den was abt to drink my milk when alvin opened a box to reveal a cute birthday cake! argh~! damn~ felt so paiseh, yet so touched, and so honoured at the same time. it was a simple sing-a-birthday-den-make-a-wish-and-blow-the-candles session, but i felt very great. din know they wud do it for me. haha. thanks a lot~ thanks a lot~

and so, my most important day in a year ended this way. kinda like feeling a great sense of satisfaction, almost like watching a great movie without any expectation from it. haha. weird rite? to be describing the feeling this way. keke. i dun noe how to put the actual feeling in words la. :)

thru-out the day, received messages from my frens. so glad and touched, and humoured by some. keke. thanks a lot peeps~! thanks a lot for remembering!

~//~

after the mini-class or fake-combi gathering on tuesday, sent my frens this message: "谢谢你们，真的！我刚才好舍不得说再见。S21的精神何默契都还在！希望能早一点和你们再重逢！"

in reply,
wenjing: "sorry my fone cant c chinese.." (i sent to her other phone) "Haha.. Me 2! Next time go the fake class bench again!"
zhengyi: (after midnite) "生日快乐！二十岁了！快“胖”长大！今天我们也玩得很开心！来日方长！哎哟，睡到总车站，现在走回家！哈哈"
zhengqi: ":) i had a wonderful time..the songs evoke v happy memories..even the song book itself tells a lot..s21 rocks! (",) "
muying: "我也希望！更希望的是大家都能各自努力，加油！happy birthday..."

~//~

birthday greetings from my frens:
wenhan: "happy birthday wor! May all ur wishes come true n may u b happy always! ;o)"
songyu: "Yoz... Happy birthday to u! Happy birthday to u! Happy birthday to zhengyong... Happy birthday to u!"
keith: "Ah yong ge! Happy birthday!"
yinjie: "Happy birthday! Ha..20yrs old le..u have reached e digit 2 le..But i tink ur maturity has long exceeded 35 yrs..Eh Ha..Enjoy urself k...Best wishes.."
yeok hui: "勇儿，祝你20岁生日快乐！要尽情地去享受这个特别的日子！不要感动到流泪喔！哈哈！希望你能开心，愿望全都实现okie?友谊长存！"

~//~

maybe u all hav heard enough of it from me, but still, i hav to say "thank you" so very much for making this i-tot-it's-gonna-be-gloomy period of time so filled with joy. thanks a lot for the presents, i liked all of them a lot! allow me: thanks thanks thanks a lot!

joyful-joyful-i'm-so-joyful,
Johnzzon

 

Finally, one of those days in the year when i can be king and do whatever i want. but tink i went a bit overboard with my temper this afternoon... haha... who cares. it's not like ppl dun know my temper has a very low limit. keke. to those whom i snapped at, *ops* thousands of regrets and apologies. sincerely, truly!

spent a very lovely evening and night with 01S21 yesterday. had dinner at plaza singapura's food court, but it was quite appropriate for us who always make a lot of noises everywhere we go. people who turned up: muying, yeok hui, wenjing, zhengyi and lastly zhengqi. thanks a lot peeps! i appreciated it a lot. but i found myself behaving kind of weird, perhaps due to the fact that i felt a bit paiseh that i asked them out on MY birthday but never really celebrated theirs this year. sorry~ but it was fun. felt like we were back in hwa chong when we go out quite frequently after school.

wenjing gave me a doraemon face thingy which is terribly cute (i kept playing with it on the bus), zhengyi gave me a cigarette case (hmmm~~), muying + yeokie + zhengqi + jingyi gave me a very nice converse t-shirt that i wun dare to buy for myself (the design is pretty cool, and the colour is so just-me!) thanks thanks thanks!

after dinner, i went MJ to buy my Jacky Cheung album (got 10% discount... muahaha~), den we proceeded to marina to chit-chat. went esplanade's convenience store to get our drinks (i bought a snapple pink lemonade~ yummy~) and we strolled down the river-side, disturbing a lot of couples by singing and making a lot of noises and wenjing running behind a jogger. haha~ we found a bench that looked like a mini-version of our own class bench, suddenly nostalgical moments swamped into our minds. i took out my song book and we spent the rest of the night singing away. so fun~ it was like having our singing session back in hwachong at our class benches and somehow some ultra big projector was screening the outdoor scene at marina around us. haha~

regrettedly, i said it was time for me to go at 11pm. i felt terribly and utterly bad, like destroying beautiful moments and denching us in cold water (dun understand? translate to chinese~). sighz... on my way back to camp, i was jus reliving the moments and smiling every now and then. oh, and worrying that i wun get back to camp on time. in the end i reached camp at 11:58pm. wow~!

din wan to make a big fuss today, so kept quiet purposely about my birthday. it was kelvin who first greeted me Happy Birthday! kinda happy. subsequently, whenever somebody greeted me Happy Birthday, somehow i wud feel a sudden swamp of pure happiness coming up to me. first time in my live! weird. haha. but got irritated by a few things in camp (as usual, something to do with library duties). still, my day was a good one.

took half day off, came home to sleep, and went to jurong point's Siam Kitchen to have my birthday dinner. sis gave me a ultra cute doraemon toy, mum and dad gave me ang pows. haha. the dinner was quite good, or issit because i'm hungry? haha~

now at sis place, scanned and did my march cards for tomorrow's SAF day rehearsal. gonna go back to camp soon. hopefully will reach there by 11:30 so i can go 7-11 to grab some food. keke.

i wanted this year's birthday to be a low profile one, because it's so weird to be wanting to celebrate it with so many (bad) things happening around me. but i guess because of that, i'm really thrilled when ppl remember this day. thank you all. thank you sincerely and wholeheartedly. thank you.

appreciative,
Johnzzon

 

morning: watched the 3 new episodes of Full Metal Alchemist which i downloaded from sis' computer.

afternn: went to mr ho's wake. went to kimseng band later. tried to forget abt things and jus concentrate on playing well. interestingly and unexpectedly, i enjoyed today's session. guess we were really on performance level liao.

night: had dinner wif aloy and yanhui at... erm. oh yar, far east. actually i reached far east first, and spent my time in Dream Music shop looking at second hand cds. found a few which i was so tempted to get my hands on, but in the end forced myself to buying only one: Gershwin: Porgy and Bess (Highlights)!!! (for those who do not know, the famous song Summertime came from this musical.) happily made aloysius a new fan of this second hand shop! ha! had dinner at sushi tei. ate a set dinner for $11, quite ex, but enjoyed it. walked all the way to hmv later to waste time. heard the dj playing L'Arc-en-ciel's Smile album. so tempted to get it, but it was $28.90. damn.

perhaps i was just trying to make myself forget the unhappy things happening around me, i kept making lame jokes and comments, and appeared jumpy and enthusiastic abt things. don't know la. i felt weird at the end of the day as i sat alone on the bus, listening to john williams music on my mp3 player.

i guess i'm very very emotional now. emotional as in not crying, but as in a lot of thoughts are filling my mind and altering my mood every other 5 seconds or so. i don't want to cry. it's what i've been telling myself this morning. it's what i'm telling myself now.

Johnzzon

 

Why are ppl leaving this world without saying a simple goodbye?

I'm not blaming them. Perhaps they would just like us to remember them in their better states. They may not want us to grief their painful moments, or cry when we feel helpless just standing beside their weak bodies.

Two people whom i know of passed away recently. First, it was my so-called uncle who came to live with us quite often when I was young. He was the first person who brought me to orchard to shop. He was like my big brother. He passed away the beginning of the week due to heart attack. Second, it was my secondary one chinese teacher who taught me briefly for a while. i was very close to him because i became his computer teacher and went his house to teach him computer and stuff. even tho i wud still call him "he2 lao3 shi1" out of respect, our relationship became more as a friendship than a teacher-student relationship. he passed away two days ago due to cancer.

i don't know how to react. perhaps i don't want to react, perhaps i don't want to cry. i know i left these people memories, good memories, memories that can make them smile as they rest peacefully. but i can't help but feel a twitch in my heart when they didn't hav much memories for me. perhaps it's selfish on my part to think this way, but i really really don't want to forget abt them as time goes by.

i've almost forgotten abt adrian. i don't want to forget abt these two people.

it is god's will to hav us face death so early in our days? it is His way of preparing us for more significant deaths that will have more impact on our lives?

when it was adrian, i cud only grief over the fact that i din spend as much time with him as a fren. i cud only grief over the fact that i wasn't there when he needed me but he was there when i needed him.

i feel terrible recalling all these people in my mind. i'm just afraid i'll lose the memories of them as time goes by, which i do not want to. i'm also very vexed by the fact that i'm learning their deaths thru a third person who does not really care abt their deaths.

i wud not write a tribute for them, for i tink i wud not do a good job. they were people of good will and good character, and for that, i hope to remember them always this way in my heart.

goodbye, 阿威哥哥 and 何忠良老师.

Yours sincerely,
Johnzzon

 

just went to www.apple.com/trailers to check out trailers. watched a few trailers for low profile movies coming along and found them nice as well. below is a list of trailers i recommend you to watch.

1. Fahrenheit 9/11 for fans of Bowling for Columbine and Michael Moore (THIS IS A FICTITIOUS WAR!!)
2. Vanity Fair Reese Witherspoon (Legally Blonde) takes up such a dramatic role. impressive!
3. The Stepford Wives Nicole Kidman in a comedy!
4. The Chronicles of Riddick a mix of Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and xXx. weird huh?
5. The Polar Express computer animated films jus look so cool to me
6. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... AND SPRING very serene, very art-house
7. Resident Evil: Apocalypse feels like an advertisement, actually a movie based on a computer game
8. The Incredibles from toys to ants, from monsters to fishes... now comes a parody on superheros!

ooh~ooh~ooh~,
Johnzzon

 

after many rumours and much speculation, we finally shifted our bunks (aka my PR home) to the other side of the parade square. at first, i was really expecting the condition of the bunk to be very bad, ie the standard of the bunks back in Pasir Laba Camp. Cement floorings, rusty cardboards, sponge beds, dusty and dirty. to my ultimate pleasant surprise, it turned out quite well. the floor is tiled with those irregular surfaced tiles to prevent slippery situations; the cardboards are a smaller version of what we use in BMT inclusive of a compartment to place the rifle; the beds are shorter and the mattresses are thick. we need to do some cleaning up tho. all in all, i was very satisfied with our new bunk (except the intrusion of two ppl, one whom i dun really hv good impression of).

so, was i excited about the move? or was i emotional? i can't really tell. i din even bother to really pack my stuff until this morning. the feeling's weird, as if i was just doing something part of my every-day schedule even tho it isn't. kind of weird that ppl are around me were making comments about this and that and this and that, while i wud be in my own corner saying "well, it's still quite ok", becoz it was. i din even complain abt the packing and unpacking. weird. totally. most of the time, i wud complain most abt these kind of stuff, ie unnecessary things that we're forced to do becoz of lousy management of the organisation i'm in. oh well, guess i've just gotten too used to it.

guess i've kind of gotten used to all these. all these leaving behind this to welcome to new that stuff. good? or bad? hmm~

tho, i must say i'm quite tired because of all the carrying and the cleaning up. haha.

oh yar, for somebody's information, i'm no longer living above chi sheng's head. ;)

blank-blank-blank,
Johnzzon

 

Aiyoyo~~ first is the terrible fever, now comes the attack of the killer sore throat!!

woke up yesterday morning feeling better, although i was still quite groggy and dizzy. i started wandering around my house like a ghost coz i really could not stand lying in the bed anymore. came online, blogged a while and after that a sudden pain striked my throat. it was piercing pain, burning pain, killing pain. so i started gulping down water, only to find that it hurt even more when i swallow the gulps of water. *scream* i tried sipping, but the movement of the muscles in my throat whenever i swallow seemed to be causing the pain.

asked my mum to look into the back of my throat, and she screamed. she was yelling there were white stuff on the surface of my throat. great, that sent me into panic. immediately she chased me out of the house to see the doctor again, this time to the family doctor i've been seeing since young.

the pain started getting worse, i can't even swallow my own saliva without flinching or twitching my whole face into an anguish expression. terrible. on the bus, some ppl stared at me as i had to frequently swallow saliva to ease the dryness of my throat. urgh. quit staring can? yesh yesh, you all are staring at a SICK person.

a sudden lame tot came across me when i saw one of the AdShel advertisements. "You can wait for the rain to stop, but patients can't." hmm, why are patients called patients when they cant be patient waiting for their cure? ok... *slap myself*

anyway, the doctor stared into my throat to look at how bad is the situation. he's always so calm no matter how bad the situation was, so i wasnt expecting much of a surprise from him. "ok, your throat looks quite red," he said in a very calm manner, "then there's one ulcer at that side, there's t... OH~ your throat is really BAD!" wa, for the first time, he gave an exclaimed comment which kind of shocked me. apparently my whole throat is almost filled with ulcer patches. urgh~ no wonder... he gave me painkillers and two types of antibiotics plus something to stop the swelling... *pain*

tried to go back to camp today for COG support, tinking i'd be there to look after instruments. but got groggy once i got back to bunk (most prob due to the long walk into the camp). fell asleep but woke up at the pain in the throat once again. damn~ i forgot to bring my medicine and my throat was just burning. had to force myself to keep drinking water even tho it hurt. ||: *breathe in* *drink* *swallow* *pain* *wait a while* *breathe in* *drink* *swallow* *pain* *wait a while* :|| (repeat infinitely) woei kee suggested i go home den since i got an mc for today. and that's wut i did. roy wanted to fetch me to the gate, but i declined, dun really wanna bother him. but thanks a lot man!

came home, took the medicine, and (as usual) got groggy and dozed off. (felt like saying *yet again*...)

gosh~ wuts gonna happen to me after i get better...? flu? argh!! *pull hair*

irritated,
Johnzzon

 

我又哭了…

很偶然的，我拿出了一年前为华初的同学与朋友们制作的《01S21回忆录》CD。我看了Slideshow过后，眼眶里禁不住湿湿的。我又哭了、感动而又怀念地哭了。

我现在过着的生活虽然清闲、虽然自由，但总觉得有一种负担，尤其是对友谊这种东西。好象我只是为了度过这两年半的生活而跟身边的人当上朋友。近来的日子更是显著的表现了这一点。其实，我都不知道是哪里犯了错，或是谁的错。有些人好象深怕你潜入他们的私生活太深，而有时夸张式的跟你划开界线；有些人觉得你会给他们这两年半的生活带来好处，而来讨好你，跟你做朋友。听起来好似两派人是吗？不，他们都是同一匹人。用“有事钟无艳，无事夏迎春”这句话来形容，更贴切不过了。

到底是什么因素让我跟01S21有那么强烈的感情呢？我不知道。可能我们各自都很少有纠纷；可能我们无事不谈；可能彼此的废话也能当作一种娱乐消遣。照片中的我们，笑容是那么的灿烂，那么的真实。我们可以随时随地就拍照，笑容还是那么的甜，那么的真。连老师都能跟我们混在一起，闹在一起。

艺术照、Toilet I/C、假-Combi…这一切已变成了01S21的专用词了。而这一切的一切，我只能好好地收藏在我回忆里。

“笑声笑声，满载温情…”,
Johnzzon

 

Instead of trying to torture my dearest readers with my grammatical errors, i shall pick out points from other ppl's reviews that i agree with totally this time round. Enjoy the grammatically-errorless-ness and decided if u want to watch it for yourself. *smile*

Positive Comments

'This third "Harry Potter" movie shakes the candy coating off of the franchise without violating its spirit.'

'Cuaron makes us view the familiar with fresh eyes as he and new-to-the-series cinematographer Michael Seresin (best known for work on Alan Parker films such as "Angela's Ashes") abandon the verging-on-Disneyland colorfulness of the first two movies for more muted tones and film grain you practically can scrape your hand on. The camera moves more, and the magical feels more real, even if some of the computer-graphics work (such as on Buckbeak the Hippogriff) remains dodgy.'

'The tree is introduced with a wink to the viewer who knows it is CGI: It shakes melting snow from its branches, and some of the snow seems to plop on the camera lens.' (ZZY's comments: i kinda like the tree as a sort of comic relief inside the movie where it enjoyed hitting blue birds. lame but funny. *grin*)

'Where the first two "Potters" were efficiently if uninspiredly directed by an eager-to-please Chris Columbus, Cuaron has crafted a rich, atmospheric stand-alone motion picture rather than simply a filmed adaptation.'


Negative Comments
'Given how much deeper the feelings of "The Prisoner of Azkaban" run, it's odd that the place it comes up short is the ending. The book's conclusion packs a wallop, drawing connections between Harry and his dad, the living and the dead, in a way that's as profound as it is poignant. The movie hits the same plot points, but many details are missing, so what's there feels more rushed, less resonant and, despite the overall darker tone, not weighty enough.'

'Cuaron, whose sense of humor is drier and more in keeping with Rowling's, streamlines the "Azkaban" plot in part to keep the story more focused on Harry's emotional arc and in part by necessity: Each successive book has grown longer while "Azkaban," at 142 minutes, is the shortest of the movies.'

'I like what Cuaron does with the look of the picture, but found the plotting a little murky; just when we should be focusing on exactly who Sirius Black is and why he killed Harry's parents, there is the sudden appearance of a more interesting if less important character, Peter Pettigrew (Timothy Spall), a real rat who undergoes a change of purpose.'

'It doesn't have that sense of joyously leaping through a clockwork plot, and it needs to explain more than it should. But the world of Harry Potter remains delightful, amusing and sophisticated.'


And below is just a comment made by a critic that i find... peculiar and weird.

'It's hard to watch the relentless Dementors curtailing liberties both at Hogwarts and in the surrounding country and not think about the current occupation of Iraq. The palpable sense of doom feels modern and real.'

Final Note from ZZY
If you have read the book, you might be disappointed at how much elements of the book have been dropped out. but the visuals and the settings were good enough for you to enjoy. it's kind of like having something that you've always imagined come to life (like the dementors' scenes and the ron-being-pulled-under-the-whooping-willow scene). HP & POA may not be the best movie, but it is still one of those enjoyable movies you'll find nowadays.

PS. i was indeed very disappointed at the setting of Professor Trelawney's classroom. it is too similar to a lecture hall and too neat and clean. and there's no ladder leading up to the classroom! urgh~

 

Came home yesterday feeling as if air-con was installed around my body. The sun was shining bright yet i'm feeling damn cold. but, heck, i got a valid reason to take a taxi home, yea!

once i reached home, took temperature for myself. 38.2 degrees celsius. hmm~ not good, had to go for A.I. practice later in the evening. so i took a Panadol Extra pill and hoped to get to dreamland, but my brain was not functioning normally. random and unusual thoughts kept coming to my mind (like wuts 1247 times 1854... well something like that) and i tot the fever was making me mad. slowly, i started to pant and my whole body started feeling ultra numb. when i tried to move my legs, i cud feel something moving but cud not make it if they were my legs. my chest started to feel numb from the panting too. gosh~ it was terrible. i decided not to go down to A.I.

stayed in bed moaning as my head felt like it was about to blow. waited quite impatient for mum to return. when she did, she took my temperature and it was a scary 39.0 degrees celsius. mum helped me downstairs as i waited to go to the clinic. before i left the house, my temperature was a staggering 39.5 degrees celsius. scary~ i never tot temperatures cud go that high. as i walked out of the house, i cud no longer feel my legs and my dad had to support me all the way to the roadside to hail a taxi. once he let go, i started to lose balance. gosh~ it was as if i was drunk.

it was as if a century of years passed as i waited for my turn for the doctor and for my collection of medicine. i felt damn lethargic and tired yet i cud not sleep. and when i open my eyes my headache got much worse, so basically my eyes were closed most of the time, even when the doctor was talking to me. the doctor (whom my parents call BA1 GE1 because he looks like one) gave me quite simple stuff. one type is antibiotics, one type is for the fever and one is for the occasional sniffing.

came home, took the medicine and continued to be bedridden. my mum tried to do lots of stuff to make me feel better while i tried to sleep. i woke up at 3am again feeling the headache coming back and my mum took my temperature again and it was still 39.3 degree celsius. sighz. i took the medicine and... mm... urgh... *rush to toilet* *puke* ya, i vomitted and i felt much better. but i felt a bit disgusted (i never like to vomit, den again, who does?).

nobody sms me today. felt kinda weird. guess ppl tink i chao geng or something. *angry* tried to survive thru today not trying to sleep by downloading stuff on the net and watching my Full Metal Alchemist. cudnt eat any solid food now, even porridge hurt my throat. trying my best to eat the biscuits in front of me now by soaking them in my tea. *terrible*

had to book in tonight coz we had an early parade tomolo morning. and staff din hear me say i got two days mc, and i felt bad leaving fazil alone for the parade, so decided i shd go back. oh well~ hopefully nothing happen tonight.

*groggy*,
Johnzzon