Movie

LADIES IN BLACK

/ Alan Atkinson / Leave a comment

Here we were, in the middle of the ocean, on the fringes of the beach, postcard pictured setting… amongst the thousands of people. Then, suddenly… (change to next scene…music builds to a slight cresendo…especially the violins creating suspense. Ah…yes… suspense).

(big horns blowing)…Then suddenly, out of no where…appeared these unusual looking women…(suspense ends with the sound from a triangle hitting its note. “ting!).

Did they come from the distant future through time travel… or did they come on a space ship? In the distance, we could see a grey and orange object that resembled what looked like a spaceship, as people gathered around it to get a closer look.

The grey and orange object that resembled what looked like a spaceship.

These three women – all dressed in black, with special secret service issued shades (sunglasses), all of a sudden, appeared in the middle of the ocean (20 meters from the beach). They communicated with each other in a strange language which most people around here could not understand. For those that could grasp what they were were saying, could only make out a little bit. These women were speaking that language, yes the one that some universities accept a passing mark grade of 5% out of 100% to do law. The English language. They spoke the high end version, from the U.K., His Majesty’s version. And they spoke very lady-like, prim and proper.

The women in black.

As they appeared in a location quite close to us, we could make out who was in charge – the boss.

The boss, the leader. She had a device that hung from her neck…they all did.

I heard the boss say that their mission was to rescue a young princess in pink from the evil clutches of what is known as the “IdiotBox”. She said that if they played their cards right (Go Fish), they will be able to rescue the young princess in pink. It was a dangerous mission. One that is filled with advertisements, reaching out to your subconscious, inviting you, asking you, telling you to buy…even if you don’t have the money, things that you don’t need. How do you pay for this? Why friendly credit, of course. They are friendly provided you make the payments on time.

Somehow or another, they succeed in their mission to rescue the princess in pink (no idea why the location is in the sea).

They get the princess in pink to use special yellow floats to keep her steady above the surface of the water while waiting for their rescue vehicle to come.
We can see the boss using her special device to provide their location to their rescue vessel.

Within minutes, their rescue vehicle, disguised as a run-of-the-mill, type motor-boat; appeared.

They spotted their rescue craft.
The princess in pink told them that she did not want to leave them, that she wanted to be a part of their team.

The Ladies In Black’s mission was to rescue the princess in pink and put her on the rescue craft. They would not be following her as they would then move on to their next mission. The princess in pink insisted, they resisted. She insisted, they resisted even more strongly. The princess in pink said, “I am a princess. I command you to accept me”. They told her that if she joined, she would have to leave her princess-ness behind and follow orders just like everyone else. She agreed. Princess’ honour.

The rescue craft leaving without the princess in pink. It could not wait too long for risk of being exposed and the mission jeopardized.

They gave a pair of standard issue Oakley shades to the princess in pink. Now, she became one of them.

The rescue craft leaving without the princess in pink. The princess in pink relinquishes her pinkness and puts on the shades (you can see her with the shades on).

Till the next thrilling episode…

L.I.B.eraton i the name of the organisation the ladies work for.

Having fun. I thought up of this story and penned it at 3.17am in the morning. This may lead you to tell your own 3.17am fun stories.

NOTES:
1. The story is fiction.
2. “The boss” was one of the hotel guests, the same as us. She seems a very nice lady.

It Had To Be You

/ Alan Atkinson / Leave a comment

“To love somebody…to love somebody the way I love you…” coming over the “airwaves(?)” Bee Gees… and I am taken back to 1971, 1972, when the movie “S.W.A.L.K” was showing.

It was also the time when Susan B**l was the “Wow! The gorgeous Girl” that every guy could only watch from afar. She was 21, we 13. Her boyfriend drove her around in his brand new Ford Cortina 2000 GXL, we…many of us did not even own a bicycle. I saw her a few years ago…she was still a stunner. Oh…and she married her boyfriend of 1971, 1972.

Mid-way through the second day at Amcorp Shopping Mall. The crowds are in, full-swing, browsing, window-shopping (no windows here. We are an open booth😂), shopping.

By the time I got to typing, thinking, tinkering, screen-tapping (was about to use “thumping”. Leave it to your imagination), Bee Gees was over. Either I was a tad slow in typing, Bee Gees was taken off the air, or the song finished. I will go with the last option.

Looks good!

Jeannie has sold her latest creation to a very, very happy customer. She said she will be proudly wearing it during the coming soon Chinese New Year (lunar new year).

And I; I met with a journalist from a leading Malaysian newspaper. I decided to add more pizzaz to the fun I have in writing. I went for the new look.

The writer sporting the “serious Writer Image”.

Towards the end of last evening, at the closing stages of sales for the day; I remembered that there was a booth selling hats. I went looking for it and found it. The booth was on the west side (our booth is in the east wing), 1 floor above us. I saw a couple of hats I liked, one much more than the other. However, I did not want to hold back the hat seller from packing up for the day.

This is Mahmud, the specs and hats seller; with the writer wearing his newly acquired Panama hat.

Today, while I was eager to don a new look with the purchase of the new hat that I had yet to buy; we had a good number of people visiting our booth. Some were friends that we made in our previous outings here. I met an old La Salle Klang, schoolmate, Charles Thomas; too. He introduced me to his younger brother and a friend of his; both from La Salle Klang, too.

By the time I got going to get the hat I wanted, it was way into mid-afternoon. I met Mahmud, the specs & hat seller. He has an excellent selection of hats.

The hat, known as the “Panama hat” was still there. I tried it on again and confirmed it had to be you (the hat). The one I liked. I was sold.

If you are looking for a hat for any occasion, Mahmud’s the guy to see. He runs a booth on the 2nd Floor, East Wing.

My watch band matches my hat.

The Batik Influencer and the writer.

That famous Latino guy that plays the electric guitar looks like me, minus the moustache. Here I, the writer; am with my wife, Jeannie; the Batik Influencer.

While the hat itself has no. Magical powers, it sets the tone for new fun and conversations. For one, as I started wearing this hat, I noticed there were many others who wore hats, too. I mean, besides the common sight of those sporting baseball caps, there were many others who wore hats of all shapes and sizes.

Before we knew it, it was time for us to pack up and head for home. Not everything had gone the way we would have liked it to. I believe that the biggest takeaway Jeannie and I had this weekend was that we made more new friends.

Now, to go home and enjoy Harry Connick Jr.’s “It Had To Be You”.

1st Floor, Amcorp Shopping Mall (1),
Booth 1.16, Level 1
Amcorp Shopping lMall,
8, Jalan, Persiaran Barat, Seksyen 52 Petaling Jaya, 46050 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
Date: Jan 27 and Jan 28, 2024
Time: 10.00am to 5.30pm (can be extended to 7.00pm)

BOOTH 1.02 – COME MEET WITH US

/ Alan Atkinson / Leave a comment

1st Floor, Amcorp Shopping Mall (1),
Booth 1.02, Level 1
Amcorp Shopping lMall,
8, Jalan, Persiaran Barat, Seksyen 52 Petaling Jaya, 46050 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
Date: Jan 20 and Jan 21, 2024
Time: 10.00am to 5.30pm (can be extended to 7.00pm)

Yes, we, i.e. Jeannie and I; are at it again. We are at Amcorp Mall, the happening place, where discerning customers come looking for specific things of interest to purchase and collect. This is our first outing at Amcorp Mall for 2024.

Already having fun. We are entertained by Tamil (2)  rock n roll songs, and now, Kenny G, playing “I’m Dreaming Of a White Christmas” – music coming over the speakers from a booth one floor below us, selling vinyl records.

We watched the film “Shadows In The Sun”, starring  Claire Forlani, Harvey Keitel and Joshua Jackson; 5 times on tv during the week. I thought this is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. The setting: a little village in Italy. Jeremy, an editor / publisher, was tasked with getting Weldon Parish, a writer, to come out of retirement and sign with his publishing firm that he was attached with. The movie was very captivating. Claire was absolutely stunning in her role as Isabella Parish.

Weldon, the writer; wore a hat or a cap (more the “Andy Capp” [3] cap) wherever all the time. So, Jeannie thought, that me being a writer, should wear one, too. What do you think? Should I start doning a hat to have a more distinct writer image?

Here, below; is a couple of pics of me trying on a couple of hats which we are selling. One took me back to the era of the tv series, “Colombo”. However, a close friend, Patrick Archibald; may claim that he has inspired me with a hat like this. I can see the smile on his face now. 😀

Some would mistake me as Inspector Colombo, of the famed TV series, “Colombo”. Admit it, this hat does look cool on me.

The other hat was a baseball cap, with the word “Girl” in pink on the front of it.

The atmosphere, in Amcorp Mall, at least in the area we were at; was wonderful with one Christmas carol after another by Kenny G; coming over the speakers, filling the air with Christmas calm and joy. After all, Christmas is everyday.

The Batik Influencer, Jeannie; with one of her latest creations.

“Silent Night” is on now.

Met with my dear friend, Khatijah Marianne Abdullah and her husband, Fadil; at their booth. Their booth is super, super colourful; with their many colourful handmade and painted works of art. We had a nice chat. Marianne said that she now bakes homemade brownies, too; and will bring some tomorrow. Looking forward to tasting them.

The Batik Influencer (4) is making her rounds to all the booths, visiting all our new friends that we have made over the multiple times that we had set up our booth here over the last nine months.

Throughout the day, I was sipping ice-cold, super kaw kaw (5) coffee we picked up from New Apollos restaurant before coming to Amcorp. Mall. Jeannie’s ice coffee was of normal strength, without the “kaw”. The coffee remained cold throughout because we kept it in our Hydroflasks.

We have made quite a few new friends today. One of them is Jean Dorcet, who runs a women’s clothing business. Another, an engineer; who collects expensive watches. He was wearing a nice Carter Santos with leather band.

A customer browsing through the Hotwheels selection, while Jeannie is explaining the beauty of batik to one of our new friends).

The “kopi peng kaw kaw” is in the red Hydroflask (naturally, “dangerous”😂😉).

As we draw to the end of the day at Amcorp Mall, Jeannie is making her final rounds to the shops around here.

We will be back tomorrow for more fun, laughter, thrills, and excitement. Come drop by for a chat. See you.

NOTES:
1. Amcorp Shopping Mall is located in Petaling Jaya, a city in the state of Selangor, Malaysia.
2. “Tamil” language is spoken mainly by Indians in Malaysia.
3. Andy Capp is a British comic strip.
4. The well-known Batik Influencer is Jeannie Ong-Atkinson.
5. “Kaw kaw” is inb Hokkien dialect which means very thick or strong.

ROXANNE MCKEE : THE WOW! IN BEAUTY

/ Alan Atkinson / Leave a comment

As the day drew to a close for Jeannie and me, Jeannie decided on her usual, “watching a Hallmark Christmas movie”. I was still in the midst of shutting down everything at my workstation, closing my books and thought I would do more exploring and tweaking of my Samsung Galaxy Fold 5. It’s a folderable smartphone. However, once Jeannie got a movie going (rolling?) on the tv screen, I put my Fold 5 away. I have yet to give it a name. Any suggestions?

Once Jeannie chose a film, she put it on pause to wait for me to settle down (lie down on the wooden floor [I find it extremely comfortable doing so]). After getting a couple of gulps of a very strong and quite unusal black coffee (kopi peng kaw kaw [The brand of this coffee is soon to be revealed in an upcoming article. Kate, watch out for it]) (1); I settled in to my “watching tv position”. Watching tv is quite a rare experience for Laura, Jeannie and I, as we hardly have the time to do so. A couple of weeks could go by without us ever turning the tv set on (Not us physically turning on the tv set. The English language could mean so many different things. Quite difficult to take it literally.😏 “Take it”? to where?😉)

As my eyes locked onto the tv screen (the picture that is), the actress, Roxanne playing the role of Amanda; caught my attention. She simply was simply beautiful; more stunningly beautiful. The role she played of a budding photographer (more like Creuella, the “famous” photographer’s assistant). She was natural, she was the movie. Lovely! I won’t say much more. You have to watch the movie for yourself: “Picture Perfect Royal Christmas”.

After the movie, I took to connecting with her on Instagram, to let her know what I thought of the movie. She replied a few hours later, a screenshot of her response is below.

Going through some of her Instagram pictures / videos, I was impressed with her quest to be fit / stay fit. Also caught on to some of her other works, like the one below; “Game of Thrones”.

Roxanne is a very accomplished person. I hope to have many more interactions with her. I am definitely looking forward to more of her upcoming work.

For now, “Just look into my eyes”…

WIFELIKE : WHO CONTROLS WHO?

/ Alan Atkinson / Leave a comment

I watched this movie on my flight, coming to the U.S. a few days ago. A bit slow in th beginning, but great movie all the same.

It begins in the mind. From a thought..

When artificial human Meredith gets assigned as a companion to grieving widower William, it’s designed to behave like his late wife. However, in the fight to end AI exploitation, an underground organization attempts to sabotage Meredith’s programming. It soon begins to question reality as memories of a past life begin to resurface in a world where nothing is as it seems.

A well produced and entertaining thriller with great performances that build a human/AI world where everything blurs between what is real and what isn’t.

NOTES:
I am totally for technology advancement. I believe it can and will advance the standards of living for mankind.

On the flip side:

I am an advocator of strict regulation and control on the use and production of A.I. and its uses to prevent the complete destruction and extinction of mankind. You don’t need nuclear warfare to bring mankind to an end..

Top Gun Maverick: The movie to watch?

/ Alan Atkinson / Leave a comment

Tatlerasia.com

Don’t think, just do! Go by instinct, by gut feeling.

What a show! Thrilling for guys like me who love aeroplanes or in American English – “airplanes”. I love cars, well almost everything in motion…”love in emotion, que sera que sera”. Wait a sec… that’s “Lost in Emotion”.

Watching “Top Gun” (1?) in the later part of the 1980s was super thrilling. The movie was on a rented (we used to rent movies those days) VHS video-cassette tape. I watched it in my bedroom on a 20″ tube tv (with the big box at the back of it). The tv set and the video tape player (that plays the VHS video-cassettes) were my brother, Terence’s. We used to shar the bedroom back then. He and my late brother, Nigel; used to rent these videos from the shop nearby. As for me, if there was a movie on that interested me, I’d watch it. I wasn’t really a movie buff, still am not. But I was glad that I had the opportunity to watch this movie, “Top Gun.

Watching it with the sound turned up loud in a small room with the lights off, gave it some effects of a cinema. Watching the F-14 Tomcats in action, take off and land on a short runaway. it’s tactical maneuvers was amazing. It was to me, especially since I used to assemble airplane (American spelling) kits. I had quite a collection.

My dad was the one who inspired me to build / assemble aircraft because he used to build / assemble and paint (yes, paint) these kits. He is so artistic. He painted especially the camouflage colours to scale. I was not and still am not artistic. The paint jobs I did on some of my kits were disasters.

When you watch the short video clips below, make sure to turn up the sound and hopefuilly you will be watching them on a big screen, maybe with a Sensurround sound bar to enjoy the clips to their fullest potential.

By Vudu

There was a lot of hype in the promotion of “Topgun Maverick” over the last two years. Its release was delayed by two years mainly due to the worldwide sufferings of the Covid-19 outbreaks. Nonetheless, with all the tease short burst video clips, media interviews and promotions; the hyperbole intertest was kept hot with excitement.

All that hyperbole has paid off. It sure got the attention that they wanted, probably more. Every second of it!

Phoenix’s (Monica Barbaro) 2-finger “It’s a go”, take off signal; will be, if it has not already become; a worldwide iconic signal used by many people for “it’s a go”. That is for sure.

DANNY RAMIREZ, GLEN POWELL, MONICA BARBARO (PHOENIX), DIRECTOR JOSEPH KOSINKI AND LEWIS PULLMAN ON THE SET OF TOP GUN: MAVERICK FROM PARAMOUNT PICTURES, SKYDANCE AND JERRY BRUCKHEIMER FILMS. People.com

“Captain, what is that?” “It is one of life’s mysteries, sir.” “The end is inevitable. Your kind is heading for extinction.” “Maybe so, sir. But not today.”

The smart a*s quips are just as spicy as the action. The video above shows the abrupt 90 degree climb.

Jeannie and I sat under the sky of Malaysia’s hosting of its inaugural Formula 1 in 1999. We were treated to a short aerial show by the Royal Malaysian Air Force featuring the F-18 Hornet and the Russian made Mig-29s. The guys flying the F-18s did the abrupt vertical climb, directly above us. Maybe, not as dramatic as Maverick and the rest, but us being there at that time and watching this live did the trick. We were thrilled.

Maverick with the P-51 Mustang. Impawards.com

HOW A P-51 MUSTANG WORKS: The plane that Maverick tinkered with in his spare time. Animagraffs by Jacob O’Neal

This aircraft used for the Mach 10 flight is designed by Skunk Works, a division of Lockheed Martin. It looks similar to the SR-71; which itself is a prize winner of any standard in aircraft aviation. The SR-71 was also built by Lockheed-Martin.

The SR-71, unofficially known as the “Blackbird,” is a long-range, advanced, strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed from the Lockheed A-12 and YF-12A aircraft. The first flight of an SR-71 took place on December 22, 1964, and the first SR-71 to enter service was delivered to the 4200th (later, 9th) Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Beale AFB, California, in January 1966. The U.S. Air Force retired its fleet of SR-71s on January 26, 1990, because of a decreasing defense budget and high costs of operation. The USAF returned the SR-71 to the active Air Force inventory in 1995 and began flying operational missions in January 1997. Throughout its nearly 24-year career, the SR-71 remained the world’s fastest and highest-flying operational aircraft. An air-to-air overhead front view of an SR-71A strategic reconnaissance aircraft. The SR-71 is unofficially known as the “Blackbird.”

@Tom Cruise: It would be great that theaters can be built with screens all round 360 degrees, meaning all round the walls, ceiling, floor; so that viewers can be so much more immersed in the movie, with near real-like experiences. For instance, the viewers can experience the 2 minute 30 seconds run to the target, seeing what you the actor / pilot is seeing. The whole cinema room is one big cinema. This brings the Sensurround sound and viewing to the next level. “Don’t think. Just do!” Wishful thinking… or is it?

ACTORS AND ACTRESSES:
Tom Cruise
Val Kilmer
Miles Teller
Jennifer Connelly
Monica Barbaro
Glenn Powell
Jon Hamn
Ed Harris
Jean Louisa Kelly
Lewis Pullman
LyLiana Wray
Manny Jacinto
India Everett
Chelsea Harris
Kara Wang

NOTES

Tom Cruise follows me on Twitter @AlanIanAtkinson. I am honoured.


1. Video Cassette tape is about the size of a paperback novel and about half the thickness of an average novel. A paperback novel is a story (hence novel), usually fiction; printed in book form. This is for the uninitiated – the millennials. Hopefully, they have an inkling of what a book is, what with almost everything you read today is read from a screen.

Lisa Lisa Cult Jam with “Lost in Emotion” https://www.youtube.com/user/FreesyleJCuda