Blogcritics Author: Daryl Sng

Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

Review: Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller

Daryl Sng — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 09:53:44 EST

Just finished reading Zoe Heller's Notes on a Scandal (also known as What Was She Thinking in the US), which I picked up because, I admit, the blurb featured some hyperbolic praise comparing the work to that of Amis or McEwan and the first chapter was compelling. The book was, it turns out, nominated for a Booker the year Vernon God Little won, so it's good to know that at least I have a decent publishing-industry eye. And well, the subject matter is very of the times, given what seems to be a spate of female teachers in the news for having affairs.Anyway, Notes on a Scandal is the tale of Sheba Hart (short for Bathsheba, and that adulterous name will portend something), an English schoolteacher who has an affair with a student, told through the eyes of her friend and fellow teacher Barbara Covett, a sixtysomething-year-old single teacher, the very stereotype of the aging spinster (she even lives with her cat). What Heller does well is absorb you in the world view of Barbara, who moves from what one thinks is an impassive, observant narrator with nothing worse in her than a schoolmarmish tendency to complain about the state of basic comprehensive education, to something altogether more disturbing as the story progresses.Sheba (who will be played by Cate Blanchett in the upcoming film) needs her friend Barbara (Judi Dench), of course, as a shield against the media hordes once her scandalous story breaks, but as Notes progresses it becomes clear that Barbara needs Sheba too, and Barbara's loneliness increasingly is revealed as a sort of sinister neediness. It's a story of twin obsessions: Sheba's increasing sexual/romantic obsession with her student, and Barbara's obsession with her friend, the former manifestly obvious, the latter revealed slowly. It's a real page-turner, and Heller's writing is incredibly fine, balancing between Barbara's astute observations of the world and of the things people hide in their own accounts of the world, while simultaneously hiding things from us. On Sheba, Barbara writes near the beginning, that "even now she is inclined to romanticise the relationship and to underestimate the irresponsibility - the wrongness - of her actions", although her factual accounts of the affair can be trusted - yet by the book's end, we wonder just how much the same applies to the narrator we thought we knew, and we wonder just where she gets her confidence that she and Sheba share a "relationship de chaleur", one of "uncommon intimacy and trust". It's a novel stalked by the doubts of relationships - whether of lovers, of friends, or of reader and narrator - and Heller pulls it off wonderfully.dsng.net

Daryl Sng writes about film and music on Delta Sierra Arts, the Red Sox on Singapore Sox Fan, and everything else on dsng.net.

Review: Novo

Daryl Sng — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 12:07:22 EDT

Novo tells a story that is part Memento, part 50 First Dates (although this French film, a 2002 product, predates the latter tale): the lead character, Graham (Eduardo Noriega) suffers from short term memory loss thanks to an accident. This being a French film, the memory loss leads to him being kept as a sexual plaything for his boss, Sabine (Nathalie Richard). The usual aides memoire of memory-loss films - writing in notebooks, on the skin, on the walls - come into play for Graham, particularly after he meets Irene (Anna Mouglalis), an office temp who falls for his clear charm (charm being a property of the immediate, rather than time-dependent). So is love dependent on memory and the accumulation of shared experiences, or can one fall in love at first sight? Oh brave new world.Unlike either of the other two films mentioned, however, Novo doesn't do much to develop these philosophical implications of short-term memory loss. Indeed, the film holds the potential for all sorts of interesting questions: how dependent on memory is intimacy? What about Graham's ex-wife Isabelle and his son Antoine, neither of whom he remembers? Is his real love now the love he has built and learned to cope with, with Irene? Or that of the past? But there is no depth to the film's inquiry: these are questions that could've been explored, but are instead merely tangentially glanced upon. Novo may shine on the surface thanks to director Jean-Pierre Limosin's cool direction, and the erotic charge of its early scenes is undeniable, but it settles instead into a film that resembles a charming man person without history: elegant, but shallow.Taken from Delta Sierra Arts and the daryl sng blog

Daryl Sng writes about film and music on Delta Sierra Arts, the Red Sox on Singapore Sox Fan, and everything else on dsng.net.

On the Road - the Film?

Daryl Sng — Sun, 7 Aug 2005 09:54:58 EDT

So according to the Hollywood Reporter, they're making a film version of On the Road, the classic Jack Kerouac novel, directed by Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries). I guess, thinking about it, the Motorcycle Diaries does parallel On the Road in that it tells the story through the eyes of someone in thrall to a much more charismatic real-life character - Che in the former, Dean Moriarty/Neal Cassady in the latter - and that's not always easy to convey in film. But despite liking that film, I remain skeptical of anyone's ability to adapt On the Road. On the Road was one of those books that made me want to go see America: the book for me felt alive with sheer manic energy, reckless and on the brink, sort of the literary equivalent of amphetamines. And that last paragraph - thinking of Dean Moriarty - always gets to me.I know On the Road isn't necessarily the greatest work ever written (and yes, I know of Truman Capote's sneering "typing not writing" quote); for that matter, the Dharma Bums is probably the better Kerouac novel. But it meant something to me when I was younger, and I'm certainly not the only one: the film's going to have to live up to very high standards if it wants to touch the emotional core that the book did.Taken from the Daryl Sng blog and Delta Sierra Arts.

Daryl Sng writes about film and music on Delta Sierra Arts, the Red Sox on Singapore Sox Fan, and everything else on dsng.net.

Summer Lawns - First We Waited Then It Started

Daryl Sng — Sun, 24 Jul 2005 14:07:17 EDT

Brooklyn band Summer Lawns' debut album, First We Waited... Then It Started (Stunning Models On Display/Isidore), is shimmeringly arranged, the natural product of a band that was conceived as a sort of rock chamber music quartet (as their bio puts it) and even features a cellist. Fortunately, despite a description that almost leads one to fear pretentious wankery, the layered structures of the tunes leads to a kind of swirling psychedelic sound reminiscent of bands such as Explosions in the Sky.Indeed, there's a sameness to the structures of Summer Lawns' tunes on First We Waited... that oddly enough gives a lovely hypnotic feel to the album. Each tune features a long languid buildup, volume slowly swelling (and occasionally fading: the good ol' soft-loud-soft-loud dynamics formula), as the guitar and cello join in and build on Jeremy Linzee's semi-falsetto voice. Where First We Waited... falters is when Summer Lawns try to speed up the tempo: Linzee's voice works best inhabiting the spare spaces in the music, such as in the droning "dance dance dance to the radio" chorus of "Transmission" or the reassuring "try to get some rest" line of "Piano Song", the first single. At its best, then, the album lulls you, calling to mind the dreamy, stuporific state of lazing on the lawn in the heat of summer.This post taken from Delta Sierra Arts.

Daryl Sng writes about film and music on Delta Sierra Arts, the Red Sox on Singapore Sox Fan, and everything else on dsng.net.

Baseball, softball no longer in Olympics

Daryl Sng — Fri, 8 Jul 2005 11:24:16 EDT

Sadly, baseball and softball have been removed from the Olympics: SINGAPORE -- Baseball and softball were tossed out of the Olympic program for the 2012 London Games -- the first sports cut from the Summer Games in 69 years. The International Olympic Committee then rejected the five sports wanting to get in. I understand cutting sports for other sports. I wrote last month that baseball was likely to fall out in favour of rugby, and indeed, as far as world popularity is concerned, rugby might even be a better choice, what with the Rugby World Cup being apparently the third-most watched sporting event in the world and all. But to cut two sports just for cutting's sake without replacing them seems ridiculous.Taken from Singapore Sox Fan

Daryl Sng writes about film and music on Delta Sierra Arts, the Red Sox on Singapore Sox Fan, and everything else on dsng.net.

A Tale of a Naughty Girl (Mondo Meyer Upakhyan)

Daryl Sng — Sat, 2 Jul 2005 14:52:52 EDT

A Tale of a Naughty Girl is director Buddhadeb Dasgupta's work about Lati, a prostitute's daughter who wants to be a student but whose mother Rajani wants to marry her off. So the film sets up a predictable tension between the life of the mind and the reality of the body in a small Indian village.The impression I got from the publicity materials made me expect a much more depressing film than it turned out to be - was expecting one of those 'life is awful for women in third world countries' films, but that turned out to be leavened by some sense of optimism. Dasgupta does a good job of balancing the terrible nature of life for the women in the brothel - there's a nice scene near the end where silently the camera just goes room to room and we see the awful customers, asleep, and then the saddened prostitutes - with the idea that life isn't completely hopeless: the year is 1969, year of the Apollo moon landing, and the news of the momentous event trickles down to the village. The film of course draws the natural parallel to Lati's attempts to escape the enormous gravity of her world. Perhaps therein lies the weakness of A Tale of a Naughty Girl: while well shot and acted, the film seems, like the lives it depicts, to be mired in predictability.

Daryl Sng writes about film and music on Delta Sierra Arts, the Red Sox on Singapore Sox Fan, and everything else on dsng.net.

Blogging etiquette

Daryl Sng — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 01:50:45 EDT

Since people like to talk about blogging responsibly, here's my easy guide for n00bies on blogging etiquette: Always bow before you blog. When you blog, do remember that the knife goes in the right hand, and the fork in the left. Always end your posts with "thank you, it's been wonderful talking to all of you. Godspeed." Polite bloggers NEVER use the words "asshat" or "aardvark". Whether "sexy motherf***er" can be said in polite company remains a matter of much contention. Particularly on the question of how to pronounce asterisks. The proper way to end a first blog is with a little kiss. No tongue. And, especially, no tongue down there. Remember, if you forget which keys to use, a simple little memory trick is that you should start from the outside and work your way inside. Hence, posts like "poiuy!" are the height of decorum. When someone visits your blog, be sure to offer drinks. If you are a male blogger and said visitor is female, please remember to raise your hat when the visitor enters your blog. Yes, you must have a hat. Thank you. It's been wonderful talking to all of you. Godspeed.This post taken from dsng.net

Daryl Sng writes about film and music on Delta Sierra Arts, the Red Sox on Singapore Sox Fan, and everything else on dsng.net.

Splendid Float

Daryl Sng — Fri, 6 May 2005 06:08:20 EDT

Splendid Float, Zero Chou's first film, depicts the life of a group of Taiwanese tranvestites in a travelling cabaret show. Roy (James Chen), dances and sings in drag (as "Rose") in the show at night, while spending his day as a Taoist priest conducting funeral rites. It's a clear dichotomy: his vie en Rose is filled with energy, while his life in the day, as a man, holds nothing but death.At one of the shows, Rose meets Ah Yang (here translated as Sunny), and the two fall in love almost immediately, making love with that certain urgency that in films tends to portend something tragic - even to someone who went into the show without any sense of the plot, as I did. And indeed, Sunny dies in a freak drowning accident, and the rest of the film is about Rose's coming to terms with the death.So Splendid Float becomes a film about the monopoly of loss, about the lover who dares not speak her name. Indeed, why the loss matters so much to Rose in the first place is not fully explicated - the Rose and Sunny relationship seems to arise sui generis, and while there are clear signs of affection, we're left to fill in what exactly the couple see in each other so much so that they talk about moving in together.In an ironic turn of events, Roy is the priest chosen to summon Sunny's soul from the sea, which allows him the chance to mourn the death, if only covertly. Yet even the mourning is not untarnished by suspicions: Sunny had left a cryptic note just before he left, and the standard questions that might gnaw at any young person whose lover died mysteriously are magnified by the situation - did he kill himself to leave her? Rose throws the divination lots to check if she can take an icon of Sunny's with her from the funeral, and the answers seem to keep pointing to a "no".Was she spurned? Was she rejected? Ultimately, as in with most attempts to communicate with the dead, Splendid Float remains resolutely ambiguous on these questions. Rose sees the ghost of Sunny in various times - whether it is a real ghost or she is projecting is deliberately not said - but what he means is never quite clear. That Rose is unable to say that a relationship even ever existed only makes it harder - this is a film about marginalisation rather than oppression, and the lack of even having a way of expressing her love and her loss is clearly painful to see. Rose is the nonexistent widow, as much a ghost in the present world as Sunny is in the other, and her wailings to the sea for Sunny to come back are only met with bewilderment by Sunny's relatives.The film also plays up the innate sadness that underpins many Chinese cabaret songs. The melancholic tune that repeats throughout the film speaks of dancing hiding one's essential misery, which holds obvious parallels to the transvestites' attempts to maintain a dual life and the sadness that that can cause. Leavening the weight of the theme are sprinkles of bawdy ribaldry, as well as Taiwanese-language humour. In the end, the other drag queens provide a solid support network for Rose, with a closeness that shows the true nature of their friendship, but there's no denying the impact of the loss of a great love at so tender an age. This is a film of contradictions: the darkest moment is where one finds happiness; dressing up in drag allows one to find one's true self; through frivolity true friendship emerges. And so, right till the end, the same tune repeats, and the drag queens dance to the music; joy and sadness all mixed in together in a bittersweet performance.This review taken from Delta Sierra Arts.

Daryl Sng writes about film and music on Delta Sierra Arts, the Red Sox on Singapore Sox Fan, and everything else on dsng.net.

MLBlogs

Daryl Sng — Wed, 27 Apr 2005 07:41:00 EDT

Six Apart, after introducing Friendster blogs, now introduces MLBlogs, a tool for blogging about MLB. OmMalik - who had the scoop on MLBlogs.com being registered - sounds happy, BusinessLogs is not impressed.While MLB's benefit is clear (revenue stream, developing a community), Six Apart also seems to benefit from the co-branding - now they're not just a generalist host like Blogspot or Blogs.com, they have specialised blogs like this and the Friendster ones.Still, I'm not really sure what improvement MLBlogs will have over regular Typepad Sox blogs, judging from the page. They did sign up Tommy Lasorda - Lord knows if he'll maintain the blogging frequency - and some others, and some broadcasters and groundskeepers, but no players yet - nothing like Jody Gerut's blog. We'll see. Right now it's basically costless to maintain a Sox blog if you use Blogspot - as lots of other Sox bloggers do - so I wonder what kind of new additions to the Sox blogosphere the development will bring.Originally published in Singapore Sox Fan

Daryl Sng writes about film and music on Delta Sierra Arts, the Red Sox on Singapore Sox Fan, and everything else on dsng.net.

The Far Side of the Moon (La face cachée de la lune)

Daryl Sng — Wed, 27 Apr 2005 07:28:34 EDT

The Far Side of the Moon, Robert Lepage's adaptation of his own play, is a beautiful, quirky meditation on a pair of brothers in Quebec coping with the death of their mother from kidney disease. Reflecting the title, Lepage plays both lead roles: Phillippe, a grad student of the philosophy of science, and his brother Andre, a glib weatherman. The two form opposing faces of the same family, Phillippe the more distant, uglier one - the far side of the moon - and Andre the less cerebral pretty boy, and LePage distinguishes them successfully.Phillippe's oft-rejected thesis puts forward the theory that the drive for space exploration was a product of narcissism, and indeed the film itself links the self-absorption of Phillippe with his interest in space, which is about as far as one can look outwards. Yet for all his self-absorption and his claims of intellectual superiority to his brother, Phillippe is hardly any good at introspection, and one of the revelations near the film's end centres around something he should have realised about his mother.As an aging grad student who works in a call centre, Phillippe carries a fair bit of (humorous) bitterness about life's rewards being somewhat unequal to his intellect, a bitterness that's exacerbated by his brother's success and infuses his speech. Thus, he says of Andre, "I don't care if he's gay, but like most gays I know he's carefree, rich and lucky". When, in the course of his work, Phillippe accidentally ends up calling the house of his ex-girlfriend, the conversation starts off gentle, even reconciliatory, until he makes an unthinkingly snide-sounding remark on the wealth of her husband.Yet The Far Side of the Moon is hardly a small personal drama, shifting as it does from the brothers' lives and the mundane to the deeper questions of the cosmos: is there life out there? How do we make a mark in the world? The visual style of the film matches this seamless shifting between the banal and the cosmic: Lepage doesn't so much cut between scenes as lets them flow into one another in one continual loop of past and present, such that all the events of the brothers' world form part of the same space-time continuum, giving equal import to the problems of the personal and the infinite.LePage balances the weight of existential questions and personal tragedy with the lightness of the film's dry humour: numerous visual jokes pepper the film, and its dry, laconic tone reminded me occasionally of The Man Without a Past (is it something about the humour that northern climes engender?). Its comedic highlight is the video that Phillippe makes for a SETI contest: filming beds for his video message to extraterrestial civilisations, he notes that "You don't have to be single to sleep on a single... and twins rarely sleep on twins".At one point, the drunken Philippe asks the bartender, how does a cosmonaut reconcile the glories of seeing space with the banality of day-to-day chores? As The Far Side of the Moon shows, it is Phillippe's coming to terms with both the grand question of our place in the universe and the banal but important facts of day-to-day life that let him achieve escape velocity and weightlessness.This review taken from Delta Sierra Arts

Daryl Sng writes about film and music on Delta Sierra Arts, the Red Sox on Singapore Sox Fan, and everything else on dsng.net.