Muse - Undisclosed Desires

My favourite song off their new album:

How Google Is Taking Over Our Lives

(More appropriately, how Google took over my life. Gahh...)

Gone are the days you use Yahoo for your searches. You use Google.
Gone are the days you use Hotmail for your mails. You use Gmail.
Gone are the days you download your documents to view it on Microsoft Office. You use Google Docs.
Gone are the days you use IE to surf. You use Google Chrome.
Gone are the days calendar is something personal. You use Google Calendar.
Gone are the days you get your news bites from clicking on Refresh. You use Google Reader.
Gone are the days you use ICQ for a quick chat. You still use MSN & Yahoo(Not quite there yet, GoogleChat ;) )
Gone are the days you have to download videos to watch them. You use Google-owned Youtube.
Gone are the days you blog in Blogger. You use Google-owned Blogger, with image hosting by another Google-owned product, Picasa.
Gone are the days you open up Paint to draw a map to your house for your housewarming. You use Google Maps.
Gone are the days you purchase a dedicated GPS unit for your car. You download Google Maps into your mobile that allows you to save your 'favourite places' online.
Gone are the days where public surveillance is a thing of FBIs and CIAs. You use Google Earth.
Gone are the days Small/Medium Enterprise spend much on servers/hardwares for their intranet. They use Google Apps.
Gone are the days you use Friendster, Facebook & Myspace. Oh wait, you still use them.

Wait 'til they release Google Phone, Google OS & takes over Facebook.

Conspiracy, anybody?

(500) Days of Summer

More often than not, romantic comedies are associated to being cliched and overly-dramatic. Hardly surprising as along with action blockbusters, the genre is the most sell-able and overpopulated. But as far as commercialism goes, the directors usually are more concerned of their paycheques and thus forgot to make a movie. That's why, it come as a great surprise that (500) Days of Summer, a rom com flick actually made it to the IMDB Top 250 (Fyi, only seasoned movie-goers are allowed to contribute votes here.). Upon knowing that the movie has arrived at our shores, I immediately booked a pair of tickets.

[Strangely, only TGV Sunway Pyramid is showing this movie, which is a shame because (500) Days of Summer is very, very good. ]

The essence of a good romantic comedy is, well in its romance and comedic elements. In terms of laughs, you won't find the usual slapstick humour and instead there are plenty of memorable (Some witty) scenes. 2 particular scenes stick in my head, but I won't spoil it for you but in case you're wondering, one involves dancing while the other expectations. ;-)

Nonetheless what makes (500) so good is that it captures the emotions of falling in and out of love so well. Time and time again you (Especially guys ;-) ) will find yourself in reminiscence of how you felt in different stages of love. It never fails tto put a warmth in your heart. In terms of storyline, what they succeed that most other rom coms failed is that they created a story that is believable and everybody could relate to. On top of that, the performances of the leads are top notch and the chemistry they had rival even that of Butler/Heigl in The Ugly Truth.

Although rarely mentioned, imo what separates a great movie than the decent ones is in the soundtrack. In a mixture of indie bands, a couple heavyweights (Feist!) and the Smiths =D, they have assembled a list of songs that fit their respective scenes perfectly. So memorable they are that when listening to the soundtrack, I was brought back to the world of Summer.

So if you haven't seen it already, go go go before the limited showtimes run out! Bring your significant other, your loved ones or even your best friend. This movie is best seen in the cinemas and even better, go share it with someone close to you.

Whoever you go with, do not miss this gem.

Dream Theater - Black Clouds & Silver Linings (2009)

The thing about working in the IT line is that you'll be facing the computer screen 99% of the time. Sometimes the job could be a little mundane, especially dealing with repetitive works (Maintaining master data for example). So to keep myself going these days, I put on my earphones just to get a little ommphhh.

In a way, I've been listening to lots of music than I ever did before. So I was thinking of starting a series of album reviews. I've been trying to source some less mainstream albums, guess this is a good opportunity to recommend some to you guys.
So, this happens to be the first album I loaded onto the lappy. All of my mp3s are in an external drive and DT just happened to release this.

Never was a true DT fan, but this one had me loop for numerous times. BC&SL leans a lot towards modern metal with progressive elements. The album starts off heavy with a 15-minute epic A Nightmare to Remember and a riff to die for. Easily the best song on the album, the song goes on to each section or "sub-song" without losing momentum. Yes momentum's what define an epic. Then the album goes into A Rite of Passage and Wither, 2 rather friendly tunes. The former has an addictive hook and has modern metal influence over it. Wither is a slow burner that could have made it to our radio even. With The Shattered Fortress next, we're back to epic mode and apparently this is the closure to Portnoy's 5 song suite. Having only to Octavarium onwards, I could only recognize a couple of riffs/motifs but this song gets my seal of epic approval, with the solos no less. Some of the changes in the song are simply brilliant. Not a big fan of Lebrie's vocals, but the performance here is top notch. The Best of Times was written in tribute to Portnoy's father with a beautiful prelude. The final song, The Count of Tuscany with its chorus, you have to wonder what they have been listening to. Pure headbanger in the 1st half of the song and in the 2nd half closes the album perfectly. You'll have to listen to know what I mean, the middle intermission has a little David Gilmour/Pink Floyd rubbing onto it.

The thing about BC&SL is that even being progressive, none of those elements felt forced and instead fits into the song with purpose... something I believe the band is good for. However, the album is not without its flaws, especially in terms of lyrics which I found a little cliched and could have been better. Also, this could be an acquired taste, but Portnoy should really keep the growling to the minimum... it works sometimes, but other times... well, keep drumming. ;)

Nonetheless, that's really nitpicking and shouldn't really hinder anyone from giving this album a try. Try it (If you haven't already!) if you love metal or even rock, really.

Funeral

Yasmin, we miss you.