After a casual morning at the Farmer's Market, the Grove and some shopping at Melrose Avenue, Saliheen and I made our way to Santa Monica pier! Unfortunately, it wasn't very sunny anymore when we arrived :( Oh well, at least it wasn't raining havily or else it would've been a wasted trip... always look on the bright side of life, amirite???
During the recent long weekend, I wanted to cook nasi lemak so Saliheen and I made it for our friends who came over for movie night! I figured it wouldn't be too difficult, just leceh because got so many components.
In the end everything turned out great except our nasi!!!!! BARANG PALING PENTING SEH. The rice was lemak and sedap ah but the texture was all wrong because lembik. We did the rice in two batches, both times the nasi lembik. Letak kat tengah tengah Sahara desert pun belum tentu boleh kering beb.
But lembik tak apa, asalkan dalam Instagram tak nampak :P
Clock-wise: Ayam goreng, ikan bilis, sambal sotong, sambal petai, timun, sambal manis, telur dadar and of course, the lembik but Instagrammable nasi lemak :P Nasib baik masih boleh makan because the taste was right and went well with the other dishes. Just the texture je yang off.
We watched 'The Usual Suspects' after our nasi lemak dinner and it was so, so good! I've been trying to watch cult classic movies as part of my personal 30 before 30 project so this was a great start. I've taken an interest for American pop culture so this is also me trying to "complete" that interest.
It sucks when an article/someone makes a reference and I don't understand/appreciate it because I didn't watch a particular movie or TV show! Now whenever someone says "Who is Keyser Soze?" I can reply with "The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist" :P
My favourite scene is the famous line-up scene, of course... I still can't believe the lines were ad-libbed!
Saliheen and I also watched 'Goodfellas' on our own the day after that and it was so good too!!! Especially when you know it is based on a true story wtf. I've read Bryan Burrough's Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI 1933 - 1934 and have some knowledge on Depression-era criminals and how the FBI started because of that era so this is a continuation/extension of that? Now I've been reading about the Mafia non-stop! (And lots of movie trivia, of course. Haha)
Also helps that the setting is in New York City, it is fascinating to imagine how the city was like decades ago and spot familiar things since we've been to the city! The next NYC-based classic movie I want to watch is Taxi Driver, which is about a lonely and depressed former US Marine who becomes a taxi driver in NYC. About time I know the context of Robert DeNiro's iconic "You talkin' to me?" line in the movie, amirite?
We're also going to watch The Godfather for our next movie night with friends so let's see what the hype is all about, and why Saliheen was so obsessed, he wanted to use The Godfather's soundtrack as our wedding dinner walk-in. Kau pikir kau mob boss ke ape sak. Suruh park motor sembarang bila takde proper parking lot je kau punya jari dah terketar ketar, nak perasan kau Don konon.
First heard about 'Chef' from Nad so when Rai suggested we watch this movie, I was all in! Nad seems to know my taste in movies so I trust her recommendations - no surprise I ended up loving the 'Chef' haha. Wonderfully shot, and it combines the art of making good food and social media marketing, two of the things that I'm very intrigued by right now (thanks to David Sax's The Tastemakers book)
Watch it if you want to feel happy (and also possibly hungry) because this is a super feel-good movie! And so much more refreshing than the movie we watched before that, which was 'The Theory of Everything' wtf depressing gila ke ape cerita tu. Laki aku pun lagi suka tengok 'Chef' because it keeps him warm and fuzzy bila tengok "dia punya Sofia Vergara". Darah naik siol dengar.
By the way, 'Chef' was one of the offerings at last year's Tribeca Film Festival! I'm pretty bummed because Tribeca Film Festival (held annually in New York) this year will be held from 15 to 26 April; which means I won't be able to attend any of their screenings since I'll only be there in May :( But it's okay, balek Singapore nanti ada two movies I've been waiting for yang akan keluar - Avengers: Age of Ultron and Pitch Perfect 2!!!!! JUST TAKE MY MONEY ALREADY LAH GV!!!!!
Last weekend, 51 years ago, something happened that would change the course of American history and would remain as one of the most riveting tragedies (or conspiracies, if you're into that kind of thing) of all time: the assassination of President John F Kennedy.
My fascination with this subject matter has been on and off over the years - something somewhere will reignite my interest and I will obsessively read about it all over again, even when there are no new facts to be examined. Now I'm thinking of re-watching 'Parkland', a movie which was released during its 50th anniversary last year. The plot summarized by Wikipedia:
Parkland weaves together the perspectives of a handful of
ordinary individuals suddenly thrust into extraordinary circumstances: the
young doctors and nurses at Parkland Hospital; Dallas’s chief of the Secret
Service; an unwitting cameraman who captured what became the most famous home
movie in history; the FBI agents who were visited by Lee Harvey Oswald before
the shooting; the brother of Lee Harvey Oswald, left to deal with his shattered
family; and JFK’s security team, witnesses to both the president’s death and
Vice President Lyndon Johnson’s rise to power.
Online reviews for the movie are so-so at best but personally, I quite liked it... maybe because I have a skewed interest in the assassination and its aftermath?
I think it's always tricky to create a movie based on something that everyone already knows the ending to, so the challenge is in trying to build the tension towards the ending... which the movie does pretty well, or is at least good enough for me. The movie is interlaced with actual footage from the event too! I like lah that sort of detail so don't mind me, please. Hehe.
If all of that does not spark any interest in you to watch the movie... ZAC EFRON IS IN THE CAST LAH HOW CAN YOU NOT TENGOK?!Haha! Honestly I wasn't a fan of Zac Efron when he was still a floppy-haired fetus in High School Musical (2006) but he caught my eye when he was in Hairspray (2007) and then officially sealed my love for him when he became a very convincing and charming delivery boy in New Year's Eve (2011). He is so yummy!!! If he was halal, mesti ZAC Butchery would've put him in their menu, mashaAllah banyak beristighfar sis.
Saliheen and I are taking a break from running home-related errands this weekend so I'm hoping to squeeze in some time to watch/re-watch some movies, including Parkland (He still hasn't watched it wtf)
Let me know if y'all have movie recommendations too! I particularly enjoy movies with dark humour, movies with quirky characters like The Grand Budapest Hotel or those based on history or true stories like Dallas Buyers Club, Hotel Rwanda or Argo (even if they've been embellished by Hollywood)
