Bahrain is naturally hot, so when the winter finally gets here, life is all good. Today, I stepped outside for a while and, wow! A strong COLD breeze, like you just opened the door to a fridge, the sky is all white, (actually it's all clouds and no sky, some white, some grey). Looks like we're having rain soon, too. Winter is here!
Hollywood has lost it's touch. The entity that used to create eternal classics, moving people, playing with their emotions, fears, joys and thoughts, has lost most of it's essence and is stuck in gimmicks and special effects. Most new movies released have no novel stories, most repeated from previous ones, and besides the visuals, hardly any produced these days can be considered 'classic' material.
A strong contender for a genre that has gone down the drain is horror. Today's horror movie doesn't scare; sure, you have the scenes that are dark and quiet, with all of a sudden something happening to make you jump, but nothing really terrifying. And somehow, horror isn't about horror anymore; it's about more blood and gore. Movies like the Saw series, for example, are full of the most disgusting ways to cut up/kill/torture a person, but all that does is make you cringe in your seat. Again, nothing really scary about that, just a little revolting.
On the other hand, I was watching TV last night when on came an old 70's classic horror movie, 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'. Now obviously, movie titles have improved since the 70's, but the scare factor in this movie is a good 10/10. The scary parts weren't the moments that made you jump, or the occasional bloody scene. Nope; this whole movie put you into a situation that slowly grew and grew, making you (along with the main characters) feel less helpless as the movie goes along. Humans are being cloned into mirror images of themselves, just ones that have no feelings, while the original person dies away. Slowly, the disease takes over all of the city (country, world?) while our main characters try to figure a way out of the situation. Being scientists, they try to find a solution, and contact the authorities (police, FBI and so on) to support them, but as the movie keeps going they start realizing that even the authorities have been taken over, and they start to run. The more they run, the more they realize the extent to which this disease has taken over, and it starts to get to them slowly, one by one. Just the feeling of helplessness that develops as you watch is enough to warrant this movie an award.
There's one scene where they realize how the transformation actually takes place, and that has got to be one of the freakiest things i've seen on TV for quite a while (I won't spoil it here, go watch the movie). The whole process happens when you sleep, so after the characters figure this out, they try their best to stay awake (but how long can you last before giving in?) The whole aura of a cold San Fransisco, the 70's clothes, the grainy, dull colors of the movie, and the off-beat background music only serves to support the whole freaky atmosphere of the movie.
Seriously, here's a movie that reaches out and puts you in a really scary situation, and gets you wondering what you would do if something similar would happen. Another chilling effect is when groups of the 'transformed' stop and look at anyone who shows any sort of emotion, cold and empty, with eerie, frozen stares. It's almost an apocalypse scenario, somehow, seeing all the people turn into clones with no feelings, no emotion, walking in straight lines obeying orders, their only goal in life being to turn anyone who isn't a clone into one (their shriek is also bloodcurdling and makes you want to cover your ears and hide).
You know when the label doesn't represent what something really is? Or when the hype over-exaggerates a product? Or when a trailer gets you excited about a movie, only to get disappointed after watching it?
Well, how about this, found deep in the center of the magical kingdom of Manama:
It's funny, this whole SMS message thing. Sure, it gets us closer in touch with everyone else no matter where we are; but in reality aren't we actually getting further apart, having an excuse not to see people physically since we can message them at any time?
Today is the first day of Eid, a day of celebration for the muslim world. The regular (old) routine for Eid was to go out from house to house, visiting family and friends, spending time together, having lunch, and so on. Over the years, contact between these family and friends breaks down, and to show that they haven't forgotten about you, you get a 'msg' every now and then, wishing you the best for so and so.
Today is one of those days; i've recieved close to 100 msgs on my phone, some from people I see regularly, and others are from people I haven't heard from since, well, their last SMS the past Eid. I have to admit, i'm guilty of this myself, as i've used today to send messages out to everyone I know just to reaffirm that "I still remember you, and if I ever do call you when I need something, it won't feel too awkward since i'm in touch with you".
I wish I didn't have so many friends; this month my phone bill will probably be double the average just because of the number of messages I send out. Hmm..
On another note, did anyone catch Zainab Askari singing a song for our King? When she first started acting about 10 years ago she was a medicore actor, and recently she attempted directing (which turned out rubbish). Today I heard her actually attempt to sing, and i'm not really sure if the discomfort I felt was my feeling sorry for how she was embarrasing herself, or whether it was just the headache she was giving me. Here's my advice for you Zainab; please shut your yap and stick to what you know best, which, according to your previous attempts, doesn't seem to be either directing or acting.
Ah, never mind, she's probably not going to stop, is she? Eid mubarak to you all!
Wonderful day, isn't it? Just wonderful. The whole of Bahrain is on a vacation for 10 days, except the banks, obviously, because I work there. It's like some super-conspiracy to make sure that ammaro never gets his much-needed rest, so all the banks got together and decided; let's put a working day smack dab right in the middle of ammaro's holiday. Bluh.
Anyway, always look on the bright side, right? There's not really much traffic outside. Actually, there's no traffic at all; it looks like a scene from 28 Days Later, and my daily drive to work took 9 minutes instead of the regular 40.
I would still rather be back in bed though...
