It's the "list" thing, again.

Here's what I want to watch in 2008.

1. Michael Clayton // There Will Be Blood // The Great Debaters
Drama Thiller or whatever grim genre or heavy storyline to watch along with bubbly smile. Get your popcorns ready and hold tight to your seat! Every year there will be a few big shot productions that we all should not miss eg: Crash, A Beautiful Life etc. And these few are just part of the league.

2. Persepolis
Monographic animation from the perspective an Iranian girl about her coming-of-age tale in Teheran and Vienna in an amusing way. Or not? At least this is the plot I could recall. Still not keen? Read this -> this film is France's Official Submission to the Best Foreign Language Film Category of the 80th Annual Academy Awards (2008).

3. PS I Love You
Gerard Butler being romantic and Hillary Swank being too girly than she’s born to be. I definitely will not miss this.

4. 21
Teenager’s version of Ocean 11/12/13. Why not? We’ll see if Jim Sturgess http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0836343/. And, this is a true story about the smart kids (that I’ll never be) fooling everyone else. Why miss it?

5. Juno
A highly acclaimed movie with Ellen Page from the unforgettable Hard Candy, about a underage pregnant teenager looking for adoptive parents for her new born. I’m looking forward to see the sarcastic attitude in her character.
Note: When I checked back Hard Candy in imdb.com, guess what, I saw Sandra Oh in the movie screenshots. :|

6. 4 Months 3 Weeks & 2 Days (Original Romanian Title: 4 Luni, 3 Saptamani Si 2 Zile )
This is about another premarital pregnancy. This time, two girls are plotting after a DIY abortion. Young girls out there should pay attention to this so that you’ll get inspired to devise an alternative to the conventional scratch-it-then-drop-it abortion method. Okay, that’s not how you do it? That’s why I need to watch this.

7. Purple Violet
I know I know. This might another underperforming plot that under-utilizes good actors. But, come one! Selma Blair? And an adult version of The Sisterhood of Travelling Pants. It’s time for me to ditch all my grim depressive indie movies and go back to the mainstream lovey dovey motivating happy sappy stuffs. Nonetheless, The Sisterhood of Travelling Pants is releasing in 2008 with the same cast in Part 1. Don't miss it since it will be a superb reunion after the 4 girls - Blake Lively (Gossip Girl), Amber Tamblyn (Joan of Arcadia), Alexis Bledel (Gilmore Girls) and America Ferrera(Ugly Betty) got it big in their acting career.

8.Man In The Chair
I was googling on the director Michael Schroeder since the name sounded catchy enough for me to stuff an impressive reason why I include this movie in my list. Well, I could’t find any names that ring a bell to me other than Honey, I Blew Up The Kid. However, whatever happened below does not dictate what you can achieve. The story line sounds very moving to me and the reviews have been good so far. So, I’m putting this in my list! It’s about underdogs and the long forgotten old men in a home helping out a teenager to shoot a movie to win a film competition for students. I’m expecting a lot of chemistry between the young and the old.

9. Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day
A retrenched governess entering the glamorous social life of entertainment industry after working for an actress. The plot sounds typical until I came across the name Lee Pace as the musician that the actress’s involved with secretly. Lee Pace?! That’s one daisical yes to watch.

10. The Diving Bell & The Butterfly ( Original French Title: Le scaphandre et le papillon )
IMDB says, “The true story of Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby who suffers a stroke and has to live with an almost totally paralyzed body; only his left eye isn't paralyzed.” That doesn’t sound tempting until I read that the film is shot from the perspective of Jean using his unparalyzed left eye to explore & communicate with the world.

What I Missed was Across The Universe which I'm sure all The Beetles fans did not. I’m not one huge fan but it’s good to feel all retrospective and young with The Beetles ecstatic rhythm all compiled in one movie again.

The, I tried to think Which albums in 2007 were good enough to catch my attention and I can’t think of anything other than Feist’s The Reminder album. Other than this, Rolling Stones did quite a good list of 100 best songs of 2007 that I quite agree with. So, click on and compile your New Year Even party mix tape.

Until then, I'm off somewhere.

Adios.

Another Three

This is a very useful occasion card, thanks to the Bureau of Communication from Magnetism Studios. Now I can just let it convey whatever necessary then I go straight to my point! (via)

1. It's the last sweep-take before we enter the last weekend before Christmas. Yes, we still have last Saturday/Sunday/Monday before Christmas posts too if I have the uuummmphh to do it.
Let your MAC/PC to turn festive along with your house decor. Here's a screensaver from OneDotZero. Get them here.
(via)


2. You know I dig on NotCot. But do you know that all my fashion/gadget/design digs start from NotCot? It's always about seeing what people do not see and appreciating what people do not like. So, if you're one of my people, try out the list of 30 gift guides from NotCot.

P/S: A gift guide handpicked by NotCot team from some brands/some online stores/some sponsors ( I'm not that sure but as long as they are the good stuffs), was featured every day for 30 days straight before Christmas. Here you go, buy me something! -> The Ultimate Collection of Gift Guides


3. If you're ever going to Singapore soon ( a.k.a just like me ), you'll need this guide from fashion is spinach. I've been looking for more information about Ann Siang Road & Haji Lane, the ever Bangsar-equivalent-but-much-higher-end-and-definitely-contending-winner shopping street, and here I bumped into this post in this blog that I've been subscribing through RSS for some time. It will be very useful for me, hopefully the same for you as well. It's time to move your lazy bum and cross the coastline!





Ho Ho Ho.

Just another happy-holiday post

You can't stop me from being all festive when I'm having my holidays at home.
So, again, happy holidays every day until 1st January is here.



By the way, this is greetings from a.viary.com

Are you sure?

Other than the usual - happy holidays! - I would like to contribute to the better good of this society. Let's go through the basic symptoms to determine your fitness to drive home after a new year's eve party.












Are you doing any of the above? If so, please stop being dazed, then squat, throw it all up, and wait until the dawn of next morning, or the same morning, or your mother is awake, or usually - when the first metro is available.

The installation above is a awareness campaign especially useful during holiday getting-drunk season! The pictures on the floor & wall show young folks stumbling into the bathroom, throwing up on the toilet. Obviously that just says you better stop drinking. The ironic part will be the characters in the ads were wearing tees with slogans below. Right.

* I just need to get it out of my system.
* I’ve driven home like this hundreds of times
* Don’t worry I know my limits.

Thanks to advertising agency - The Jupiter Drawing Room, now you know what to do for a self-check - if you're doing what they're doing.

(via)

Christmas Makes Me Blue

We all need alternatives from classic Christmas songs. Try this - Christmas Makes Me Blue by Simone White.

Simone White is a Hawaii born singer/songwriter whose predilection for mournful country-tinged Americana suggests reference points like Cat Power, or even Karen Dalton. This song shows not much reference to Americana but definitely it is one of its kind from the mediocrity. It seems that the currently prodigious influx of singer/songwriters trend shows no sign of flagging ( search Regina Spektor/Cat Power in Amazon.com and learn up their peers), but Simone White has certainly earned her place within the genre. The night is still long. We will see who is the last contender.

Misc Of The Year 2007

Yes, I'm going to start this as what everyone's doing - gather lists of top 10 of year 2007 on this and that.

Top 10 hit songs?
Top 10 fashion brands?
Top 10 best selling books?
Top 10 popular tourist destinations?
Top 10 most visited internet websites?

For me, I would fine Reuter's list more rewarding that any of the above. It's the Pictures of The Year 2007. There is no "Top" word to distinguish who took a better shot or who hit the target point. When it comes to photography, each individual's appreciation towards a photograph is very subjective. I browsed first 15 pictures from the list and decided to share this with you. Most of the incidents recorded by a shutter click did not happen in our countries. But, looking at them does make a little difference, for being aware of all the misfortune tragedy or enthralling comedy that took place without our notices.

Browse it here.

Also, here's the collection of 50 Top 10 Lists of 2007 if you're really that keen with the "Top 10" thing. I'm not sure if this is the result of public opinion or their editors' views. But, it's from Times. What do you expect?

Browse the lists here.

Lakai

We tend to embrace a clip more if the frame rate is tuned down to half its speed. Why does the world look much more beautiful when each movement is slow and graceful? Remember scenes from James Bond series or war movies where the explosion scene would show in slow motion, the hero would struggle through the guns and powder with such grimace gesture on his face? We would all go "wow" and our hearts will sink deep with the obstacles he faced and presented in front of us.

So, take your life slow. Tune down to a slower beat. Your life will be much more beautiful.

Featuring ad from Lakai Limited Footware

Merry Xmas from Form

When you're too broke or too must-be-different for a green-pines-brown-trunk christmas tree, always do something else and get creative. Definitely, this is something we should learn from Form. Browse this clip to learn it all.

So, to all of you, we're a day closer to Christmas.

Ho ho ho!

(via)

Woof woof !

Guess what this ad is about.





No, I wouldn't have guessed either.

Anyway, we no longer need creepy crawlies to do the dirt job. From now on, we can throw away the backbone-lookalike cheap plastic that holds the messy wires under your table because this little thing will take care of it for you!


Now, let's see Woofy in action.


Woofy Cable Container by Gabriel Negro for Normann Copenhagen
(via)

Coogi Hi Top & Low Top

Talking about my wish list. No, I'm not referring to Wishlist Necklace.



I'm talking about a cool pair of sneakers with vibrant catch colours that I'm sure no one around will own an exact pair. Does this look like a very For-Him-Only item? Well, I'll prove it otherwise!

The price of Coogi's Hi Top & Low Top is around 110 - 125 USD. Instead of Adidas sneakers that all your friends, brothers, sisters, colleagues, cousins, schoolmates, teachers, bosses, and strangers are wearing, I would rather invest in a pair of these instead.






Wait no more.

Santiago Chopper Skull Helmet

Have a biker as your boyfriend? Then, you're staring at the best Christmas present for him. The texture is so sleek that I hope to own one for interior decor - not that I will really keep it in my bedroom, duh. It just matches so well with my all-black dress code lately. With this, I'm sure I will feel safer walking by the streets, late at night.

This bad ass looking helmet will scare the crap out of any
onlooker while your enjoying you mid day cruise. Not only is
it light weight, but it's very comfortable inside, and has
alot of breathing space. You might even want to buy one for
your buddy;).

From Santiago Chopper website

Wait no more :)

Happy Christmas

I'm a fan of Christmas - not for the reason of all the sparkling bling blings hanging all around in the shopping malls; not for the fake trees with white candle-made doll on top; not for the many celebrities making covers of old Christmas songs, especially not for Rock Band making a punk cover of "All I Want for Christmas Is You"; not for any religious reasons either.

Definitely, the feeling did not grow from a reason. Perhaps, it's the Christmas sales that contributed to my infatuation with the real Christmas tree and the experience of making handcrafts for Christmas tree ornaments. Why not? Christmas sale is the time to shop till you drop. Wait till you see my Christmas wish list and must-buy list.

Please wait no more.

Happy Christmas month and let's counting down to that.

Thievery Corporation

Thievery Corporation or wiki them.

Wikipedia.org says,

Thievery Corporation is a Washington, D.C.-based production and DJ duo consisting of Rob Garza and Eric Hilton and their supporting artists. Their music style is dub, acid jazz, Indian classical and Brazilian (such as bossa nova) fused together with a lounge aesthetic. Thievery Corporation is on the Eighteenth Street Lounge Music record label named after the swank DCEPs appear on the 4AD and !K7 labels. lounge partly owned by Eric Hilton, but several of their singles and

In 2002, they released The Richest Man in Babylon on their ESL label. This fifteen track album is similar in sound and timbre to their earlier 2000 release, The Mirror Conspiracy, and features performances by vocalists Emiliana Torrini, Pam Bricker, and Lou-Lou.

In 2005 they released The Cosmic Game, which has a darker, more psychedelic sound than The Richest Man in Babylon. The album also featured more high-profile guest singers on it, including Perry Farrell, David Byrne and Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips.

In 2006, the group released Versions, a selection of remixes done by Thievery Corporation for other artists and toured the United States, playing at Lollapalooza.

The language of the group's lyrics are as diverse as English, Spanish, French, Persian, Portuguese, Romanian and Hindi. This reflects the group's global feel and collaborative structure.

This should sounds familiar if you've watched Vanilla Sky/Garden State. The title goes like this - "Lebanese Blonde"


"Rich Man in Babylon" - the title caught my attention as it resembles the title of a book I received as a present a year ago. There were rich men in Babylon, I truly believe so.

Scissor Sisters

The Fray, Augustana, Snow Patrol, Grey Anatomy's Soundtrack. They all sound the same and are built on the same remedy which seems to be targetting the soft hearts of the mellow people that need emotional songs to feel touched and resonant with the cold world.

It's time to quit that. So, here's my latest favourite - Scissor Sisters - that tops my Top-10 list from the usual No 9 position.



This is part of the lyrics. O Sweet vanity!

Every day and every night the people they say to me,
'miss ana thank you for the beautiful work that you be doing for our people, because everytime you get out of your corvette stingray in your white pumps and your pink acid wash jeans with the matching pink rabbit fur coat... we say miss thang you got it going on you is gorgeous.'

And i say,
'i am so proud to serve you people, because i know that with my looks i can achieve anything in this world yes ive got that revlon contract, and oh yes i'll take that record contract too because you know what im gorgeous and my job with my gorgeousness is to serve the people serve and i serve some more yes thank you ladies and gentlemen for letting me do my beautiful work in beautifying this beautiful world that is already already so pretty.'


Here's another track - "I Don't Feel Like Dancing"



Another one - Comfortably Numb, that got me very addicted to Scissor Sisters.



Sakra! Now, I can't stop pasting Youtube tags.

Meet the mascots!

Please meet the mascots of Vancouver 2010 - Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC). No over-expressive comments needed. It's just cute. Yes, I'm using the word "cute" ! This design is produced by Meomi Design aka Vicky Wong. Please drop by her site and you'll be appalled the characters living off the screen in front of you.



Feel enlighten!

The wool thing

Introducing a new category - Money Can Buy, for things I might consider to buy if I have the money which I do not have for now.


I always have a thing for wool, knitted wear that makes me look pale and "patienty" ( if there's such a word), baggy knitted cardigan that will make me look pregnant, trench coat that will reach my heels if i wear it, and any oversized cutting that definitely will make me look twice the size I am - horizontally, of course. It's just like how I have a thing for Louis Vuitton classic monogram design but I will never buy their bags.

Back to the wool thing. For example: wool hat-scarf by Red Envelope



Here's how it looks like before it's put on the beautiful model - yes, it's just a bunch of soft wool piled up together without geometrical shape. The beauty of its design is to utilize the buttons sewn to the scarf, and wrap it your own style.



And voila, here's something different for your day. Lastly, they have a beautiful name for this piece of gem - Merino, the wool hat-scarf. It's time to pretend there's winter in this region !

Crazy Stripes

While I’m busy brainstorming for dinner dress ideas, ThisNext Blog surprised me with this beautiful creation. Well, to be exact, it’s a Vespa. Or, they call it Designed by Limited Edition ‘Crazy Stripes’ LX50 Vespa scooter, from Piaggo. It’s a Gap’s design with all vibrant summer colours, striking and ensuring maximum exposure of your tasteful style wherever you bring it out for a ride. That’s not the end of the story. What’s even crazier about the already crazy ‘Crazy stripes’ LX50 vespas, is the price $5,999.00, $2,800 more than the standard price for a regular vespa which is $3,199.

Fellow Malaysians, kindly multiply that with “3.34” to get the worth in our currency. I don’t think you need to do the math to conclude that it is expensive!

But, it’s always a pretty thing to look at.

Story of a girl

She was part of the flock of kids that tailed most tourists that visited Red Sand Dunes in Mui Ne. This girl was definitely different from the others that kept "Buy from me! Buy from me!" hanging by their lips.

Far behind the cluster of shadows, a tiny figure was tailing behind them. I was taking my slow steps from far, not being disturbed by any of the kids since I looked like poor Asian or non-Korean that wouldn't sled sand. Then she stood there, without the plastic board in hand and asked,"Sand-sledding? " I said No because I just came from White Sand Dunes and I have done sand-sledding over there. Well, it was a lie because I didn't fancy much of this sand-sledding thing ( Come on, it was real crap! ) so I just spent all my time over there strolling on the white sand and the huge lake.

Then she said,"Ah, White sand dune is beautiful". I was hoping that she would leave just like the others, giving up and not disturbing me anymore. She did not. She walked next to me, quietly, not saying a word. So, I realized that, she was not part of them, she didn't have the big plastic board to sell her service, she didn't ask a lot of top-ten-annoying-kids-must-ask questions. My observation just encouraged me to start a conversation with her for the next hour.

She's the only kid I have met that would let me take her portrait and not asking for money in return. (This is a complement, trust me. ) At first, she was shy and reluctant whenever I pointed my camera at her. As time went by, we sat on the sand dune, played with the soft but burning sand.

From then, she started to let down her guard and smile in such innocence that I hope will stay with her as long as it can.

Note:
Most kids you see in Vietnam will sell you something. If they don't, their parents might, too.

About

Every action starts from defining the objective that's pushing it forward. And that justifies why all blogs, or most well-defined blogs, have an "About" page. It presents what drives you to spend hours per week or everyday just to upload pictures, maintain visitor's traffic and succumb to a data entry job. Well, I hope I will not resort to that stage, devoting my life to just a mere electronic journal - Yes, I do see it this way. Instead, I hope this blog will complement my perception of music, movie, art and stuffs that intrigue me.

I'll share a mass of information on music, movies, pictures, maybe photos I took, sites, stuffs I like from NotCot.org in here. And why "greentank"? I loved green ever since I learnt the word "colours". So I just had to use a word with "green". Not a good excuse, yada yada yada. In short, to present the professionalism behind naming this blog, let me explain the whole idea of "greentank" ( only if you're still reading up to now... )

The idea behind the name of...

This will be my think tank delivering fresh ideas/inspirations ( read g.r.e.e.n for vegetable )that I come across daily that keep my life interesting. The content will be just about everything black, white and just about every colour in between.

Frequency of posting? Well, as long as I like it. I started blogging since August 2001. I would say, this will be my first time being so organized about my blog. So, whatever it is, please keep on reading and most importantly, leave your comments for my reference in order to improve.

So, I just hope what you see here is not what you will read somewhere else. I'll try.

The content I plan to include are as below. Here, the word 'plan' will clearly clarify the uncertainty of me not complying to everything I will write below.

Music: vibes I deem to be good but not of your taste and I definitely think you should try it out, or maybe stuffs that all of you like and I'm trying them out.

Movie: flicks from underground unknown directors, blockbusters, movies you think are boring but people call them art.

Mixup art ideas: any creative ideas by the creative people that I'll never be.

Mofo: my original photo work. maybe not that original since I'm taking pictures from angles I'm sure many people have tried.

Money Can Buy: things I hope I can afford, or at least be available in M'sia.

So there you have it - my list of Ms that still can't defeat the importance of MONEY.

Keep on reading. This green stuff will keep you healthy.

Note: Yes, don't bother digging my old posts because I've decided to delete all my 300 posts and start anew.