Sunday, April 19, 2015

Fast and Furious 7

So I managed to watch FF7 last week and I must say that despite it being the 7th installation of the film, it still does impress (in a leave your brain at home and don't think too much kinda way)

Honestly for me, I watched the movie for Paul Walker. After FF6 and how I saw them bring down a big ass plane on an ultra long runway, I never thought I would take Fast and Furious seriously anymore. But as I said, I watched it for Paul Walker.

Apart from Paul, the movie was action packed with amazing stunts and you need some kinda wild imagination to come up with that. And that is where enter James Wan, the director for FF7. Now, James is a Malaysian born Australian director. I have been a fan of his work since the first Saw movie. That was some good shit and The Conjuring was some pretty impressive stuff.

What disappointed me about FF7 is that James having his roots in Malaysia, I think Jimmy has been watching too many Tamil (especially Vijaykanth) movies. Some scenes were just too much to bear for me. I am not going to give away any of the scenes. Just go watch it for yourself if you're into this kinda wild action flicks.

It is good that in the movie, a tribute was paid to Paul Walker and I must admit, my eyes sweated a little... Or I had Ninjas cutting onions next to me. Overall, despite the movie having most or almost all the scenes depending on absolute 1 in a million coincidences to save each character, I would say, yeah go watch it in the theatre just for Paul Walker's sake.

Overall, 6/10 rating for me. Just for Paul!

Monday, April 13, 2015

Rape and Male Chauvinism

Ask a chauvinist how to deal with rape and the most common answer would be "women should cover themselves up and not provoke rape". This is a general view across the board for most males with a narrow mindset. If you had asked me this question say maybe 15 years ago, and my answer would have been the same and I admit it with shame. Though today or maybe some time ago, I managed to change my mindset and see the bigger picture thanks to my sisters who have educated me well. The truth is, you cannot blame people with this mindset due to our patriarchal society. Males have been brought up to think that they are far superior than females. Even in advanced societies, there are still residual notions of male superiority. 

Victims of rape are shunned upon in some societies and this is still evident even amongst women folk who are supposedly more sensitive. You'd be surprised to know some women are still not able to accept a rape victim as their daughter in laws even if their sons are willing to accept the victim as their wives. This is the sad reality.

Going back to the topic of women having to cover up to avoid rape, let's understand one thing about sex. Sex is a primal instinct. There are no 2 ways around it. But there needs to be clear distinction between us and animals before we act upon our primal instincts. That is where rationalisation takes place. Most of us have been taught that rape is wrong. Nobody teaches their children that rape is alright. However, my view is that merely saying that rape is wrong is not enough. Parents need to teach their children especially boys to respect women. This is not only subject to mere lip service. Men need to show women respect in a household. Violence towards women in some households are a reason for male children to believe that hurting a woman is pretty okay. Another thing that we need to understand about rape is that it is not only the sex, research shows that rape is also about dominance. It is not the clothes, it is not the pretty face, it is not about what time a woman goes out at night. It is not the victim's fault. It is all about the rapist. That's where the focus needs to be. 

Please do not teach your kids that girls who do not cover up get raped. This is simply not true. There are ample cases of women who are covered up who get raped. I for one am attracted to any women in any form of clothing be it a Saree, Punjabi Suit, Kurti, jeans, Kebaya (especially Kebaya), cheong sam or whatever! The attraction is there but is there an intent to rape? NO! If you're attracted to someone, that is normal. If you want to rape someone, that is abnormal, you need to be evaluated. 

Just on the topic of covering up prevents rape, explain to me how a fully covered male gets raped. A few years ago when I was visiting the UK, I was in the train station in Liverpool and my friend and I saw a young guy crying profusely and he had his mates consoling him. Being Malaysian and naturally curious, we asked his friends what happened and they explained to us that he had been raped. We were surprised and that was an eye opener for me. Being male, I could never imagine how the poor guy felt. Just put yourself in that situation, what would you do? 

What we need today is a society that does not ask a woman to cover up or prevent her from hanging out late. What we need is a society that respects equal rights and one that empowers women. Do not objectify women. They are not baby making machines nor are they your slaves. Male chauvinism is so yesterday. And please do not use religion to try and justify your sick ideas. So I end this with the kick-ass poster below (it's free to use... gunakan tanpa was-was):

BOOOYAH!



Saturday, April 11, 2015

Nova Rock - I'm in a Band Now!

Nova Rock 
Somewhere in April last year I was approached by Norman who was my boss in one of my previous employments to feature for a song about friendship. It would be my first collaboration with a rock band and I was excited to see how well the band could play.

As soon as I received the instrumental to the song, I was blown away! Musically, they were very mature and I had no idea Norman could sing that well.

As soon as we had done Nanban, I had this idea that I should speak to Norman and become a permanent member of the band due to the awesome chemistry amongst the band members. Everyone spoke the same language.

A few weeks later, before I asked to join the band, Norman asked me instead to be part of the band upon agreement by all the band members.

We would then go on to push Nanban for radio airplay on THR Raaga (Malaysia's number 1 tamil radio station). Once we saw Nanban getting positive reviews, we started working on our second single, Gaveena. Gaveena would go on and enter the Malaysian Top 10 charts and stay there for about 6 weeks. This was truly surprising as we did not expect such an outcome.

We have shot 2 videos as a band both for Nanban and Gaveena (links below). Being with a band is different from my experience being in a rap group. There is more work involved due to live instruments. With a band like ours, there are even more challenges as we all have day jobs and hold managerial positions so our responsibilities at work usually takes precedence. Nevertheless, we try to commit ourselves to meet up and work on new material.

At the moment we are working on our 3rd single, Sabthame Melody which is a song about music. We are hoping to release it by the end of the month. This would be our last single for now before concentrating on the album.

So look out for our album to be dropping soon.

Nova Rock consists of Norman (Lead Vocals), Jonathan (Lead Guitarist), Shenchker (Rhythm Guitarist), Alvin (Bass Guitarist) and myself (Rapper).

Follow Nova Rock On

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mynovarock
Twitter: www.twitter.com/mynovarock
Official website: www.mynovarock.com

Videos:
Nanban
Gaveena
Nova Rock says Thank You
Sabthame Melody teaser #01 
Sabthame Melody teaser #02