Category: Entertainment

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Saturday/ Doraemon travels the world

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Saturday/ Snowpiercer

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The graphic novel for Snowpiercer recently became available in an English print edition.

Bryan, Gary and I watched a movie called ‘Snowpiercer’ on Saturday night.  It is loosely based on a three-part French graphic novel Le Transperceneige by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand and Jean-Marc Rochette, published in 1982.  It became a cult sensation after being published. The story is set in the near future (2031) and tells of a dystopian world destroyed by a new ice age (due to atmospheric engineering by a coalition of nations that had gone awry).  The last of humanity rushed onto a special train 1,001 cars long and are endlessly circling the globe.  The tail section of the train is where the poorest people live in cramped conditions, and are kept there by force.  In the first-class section in the front (of course!), the richest live in luxury.  The film is not for the faint of heart, with its violent hand-to-hand fight scenes and bloodshed.  These scenes are all precipitated by an uprising lead by Curtis (portrayed by Chris Evans) to get to the front of the train and seize control of the engine.   But the movie certainly makes important commentaries about social injustice, class, privilege, power, limited resources, survival and the environment.

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Thursday/ Grimm’s Fairy Tales at 200

The cover of the South African published book ‘Die Mooiste Sprokies van Grimm’ (‘The Fairest Fairy Tales of Grimm’).

The brothers Grimm’s fairy tales were first published in 1812, so this year marks their 200th anniversary.

I have had my eye on a South African publisher’s ‘Die Mooiste Sprokies van Grimm (2010)’ (The Fairest Fairy Tales of Grimm’) with illustrations by artist Piet Grobler for a while now, and today I finally purchased it.

This is my favorite picture in the whole book. Yes, that is Red Riding Hood. And check out the wolf’s long hairy ears, his sly eyes, his toe in the water, with the predator fish about to gobble up the innocent little one. The perfect undercurrent for what is about to transpire in the fairy tale !

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Tuesday/ my red roses

Let it be noted that there is not much to look at in my poor neglected front yard !  ..but I do have this brilliant scarlet-red rose (actually a few of them) in bloom to show off.

The roses now make me think of the preamble to the classic 1977 song You Took The Words Right Out of My Mouth, written by Jim Steinman, and sung by Meatloaf:
Boy: On a hot summer night,
would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?
Girl: Will he offer me his mouth?
Boy: Yes.
Girl: Will he offer me his teeth?
Boy: Yes.
Girl: Will he offer me his jaws?
Boy: Yes.
Girl: Will he offer me his hunger?
Boy: Yes.
Girl: Again, will he offer me his hunger?
Boy: Yes!
Girl: And will he starve without me?
Boy: Yes!
Girl: And does he love me?
Boy: Yes.
Girl: Yes.
Boy: On a hot summer night,
would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?
Girl: Yes.
Boy: I bet you say that to all the boys !

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Wednesday

Three of us went to see Alice in Wonderland .. the epic 3D fantasy adventure from Walt Disney Pictures (director Tim Burton) and with Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.  The picture was snapped in the theater by my friend Bryan  : ).   We all thought the 3D effects were underwhelming, though.  The movie had its moments, and some good underlying messages, but I for one didn’t quite expect Alice to turn into a Joan of Arc like character battling a fierce creature towards the end.

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Monday/ Outside China Town

It was a long Monday at work – Mondays always seem long! but at least I can post these pictures from yesterday’s visit to the Outside China Town (OCT) theme park.   Disneyland or Six Flags it is not – but there is a spectacular and steep aerial tramway up the mountainside to provide panoramic views of Dameisha, the beach and the bay down below.

The parking lot for OCT theme park. We see the tower with the wrap-around screen every night from the Yanba Expressway when we came in from work with the shuttle bus.
The entrance: a nod to the Year of the Tiger, and the first of five or six escalators that takes one up the mountainside.
A misty pond on the way up to the space shuttle display on one of the levels.
Trinkets and refreshments are for sale everywhere, of course.
Here’s the Starbucks, with a food vendor in the foreground. If the Starbucks was a little easier to get to, and not inside OCT, I would have visited it every day.
The water spray is kicked up by a jet ski, and we did not stay long enough to see what other entertainment was offered in this show.
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Here’s the aerial tramway, taking us to the top of the mountain ridge. Those pylons are really tall! That’s Dameisha beach on the right and Mirs Bay in the distance.
The arrival point at the top of the tramway. The little tramway cars take only 6 people, at most.
Posing for the obligatory photograph at the overlook. This is looking more or less west, with the coastline continuing on towards Shenzhen and Hong Kong.
Here’s the skywalk with its glass floor. Yikes. With these things, one has to trust that the civil engineers had double checked their design calculations, and that the builders had followed all the specifications without cutting corners.
Looking down at a new ride that is under construction, on the edge of the cliff. I’m too old for these kinds of heart-stopping experiences, so it’s a no for me, thank you very much.
Another Chinese only menu to decipher. The pictures are super helpful for the helpless (us), of course. The green section has the cold drinks (such as snow top coffee and iced tea) and hot drinks (black tea, green tea, milk tea, classic coffee).
Here is the view from the top, with some main areas and buildings of interest. Dameisha is really ‘big’ Meisha (‘da’ is big) and Xiaomeisha is ‘little’ Meisha (‘xiao’ means small or little).