Of Movies and Female Leads....

Most of my friends are aware that whenever a movie have a strong female lead, i often would pass from watching the movie entirely. Some might say that i'm too chauvinistic to even allow a woman to be the main lead (especially in action packed movies). Yeaa yeaaa... i can be a bit strong with my male agenda... but it doesn't mean that i despise female leads.

My problem, too often, with female leads in movies (especially the action ones) is that they are too obsessed in empowering the lead that they didn't even appreciate what women are. Among the usual suspect would be to create super strong and awesome lady lead who could beat the crap out of anybody and SLIT A DAMN BIG CLEAVAGE IN TIGHT SUITS. see how spiteful i am about it? yeahhh.. the women lead could add a zipper (like breastfeeding mother's clothing... lol) just in case they need to flash some sexy to get out of tight spot, but please.. don't let it all out 24/7.

Some just slap a woman face on a character that could just work with a male character (Terminator... errr.. which number was it? the one with the lady villain...you're guilty on this!!!!) and devoid of any female touch, feels. By making the character a female doesn't add anything to the story... to the character development... to no impact... and to no significance. I hate decisions to make a character a lady just for the sake of eye candy. yeaaa yeaaa... i know you'll complain... "but azam, you love eye candies".i bet tonnes of feminazi would start screaming.why are saying that it's good to sideline females from leads. deeyyy.... by nature, as a man... i like eye candy. but i know that the objectifying of women is not a good thing by brain. dudes and dudettes... i do have a brain. im not governed just by my primal instincts. contrary to popular beliefs, im not a total dick. hahahahahah

If you wanna do things right... have a strong story development of the female lead. create a dynamic character, show that the fact that she's a woman... adds to the story telling. show that the story cant't work if the lead is a guy instead of a woman. thennnnn..... you'll get a standing ovation from me (not a standing ovation while sitting down... you geddit?? you geddit right????). A fair example would be Brienne of Tarth from game of thrones. yes, im highlighting the action packed ones. there are other good lady leads but they're still within the safe zone of what defines a woman.

Yeaa yeaa... i know some of you would moan..."but Azam... she's not the main character.". dude... take a chill pill and understand. she's a POV character in Game of Thrones (GoT) and that as much as lead that any character could be in GoT. what makes Brienne a good female lead is that she is strong, with virtues of a knight, dynamic, and still believable. in my eyes she's 100% a true knight and 100% a true Lady... not just a far fetched bastardized merger of the two polar opposites.

Want an even cooler example? How about we reboot the spiderman series and replace peter parker with woman to headline her own comic? Sounds like a total sellout bullshit with another excuse to put sexy into spidey... Well it turned out we have THIS!

Spider-Gwen!!!!! yeaahh... i know... she's still in tights... but at least there's no big slit from her neck to down below. why is she called Spider Gwen?? it is because....

Because she is Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker's former flame that often died or vanished to obscurity in the many spider man universe(s). she's a version of spiderman in an alternate timeline/universe (whatever!) where instead of Peter Parker, it was Gwen that was stung by the radioactive spider. She actually met the main Spiderman(the one we all know) and this is what happened.

A role reversal... as how Peter failed to save the life of Gwen Stacy and it is the biggest regret that he had to carry.... Spider Gwen couldn't save the Peter Parker of her world and it is the weight that she had to carry. The gender switch created a new breath of fresh air and new perspectives on characters that we thought was set in stone. The writer took the whole spider-verse, tore it to smithereens, shake them up, re-organized it... and it still worked. The female spidey is awesome in her own rights.

I wont elaborate more on her story but if you're interested to know... kotaku wrote a great deal of detail on why Spider Gwen is awesome. READ IT HERE

Now im just gonna leave you guys with this....

Shit upon those who deserves it... (a story of GST)

Noise... So much noise.

Malaysians masses are somewhat an expert in this. We like to blow things out of proportions and commonly would have a dramatic reaction to any current or trending issues. We viral the shit about how this artist tweet that this other artist should stop singing, PM's electricity bills, amukan gadis ala Kiki CMD... common things you can see in your facebook feed..

One question, before sharing anything in social media.... one must fulfill one social obligation.. confirm the info you're about to share... or at least dig in for some validity. That's why im sure that there will never be Malaysian as Little finger's agent or Vary's whispering spiders. (yeaaahh i know.. Westeroos is not a real place).

Now back to our little talk about shitting. I just wonder with the looming April Fool's joke GST just around the corner, a lot of people are bitching that the government is making their life hard with the implementation. This would burden the people, not thoughtful, abuse of power..... yada yada yada. if you ask me about it, i'd say why the fuck are you condemning a taxation exercise that would actually stop tax evasion, a transparent taxing exercise and tax exemption for businesses below 200k?

"but GST will raise all the prices.. cost of living will rise... yada yada yada" u might say. Stop! Stop right there!! stop blaming the system but instead... lets put the shit where it belong. So where should all the shit go? All the shits should be with YOU, yeahhh YOU!

You... who owns a bigass company and evaded tax like an expert, loss accounts for submission to LHDN, profitable account for loan and banking. and now these rotten piece of human being are the loudest to protest GST and panicking as they will no longer be able to shit the people in LHDN with the transparent taxation exercise. Yes, the shit should be on YOU, who raise the price of goods with the excuse of "GST maaaa...." without any real knowledge of how GST works and do it just purely to make extra profit. (example, 10% service tax not abolished 6% GST on top).

My only issue with GST is the implementation should come with enforcement to make sure these dumbass excuse of a human being doesn't manipulate the implementation of to benefit their greedy cause.

To stop the rot, we need to know where the rot is. Hello there, you rotten people. So tell me again, where should the shit go?

My kind of sound, the path and the reflection...

And here we are again, after years of silence. My fingers are back to paint this blog with the click and clacking of my mechanical keyboard. That familiar sound that i learn to love and hate. The sound of the midnight oil burned in the name of work... or the sound my gaming venture, pwning.

The reason i'm here is not to talk about those sound but instead, to talk about music. The sheer magnitude that music have in my life. I have always lived my life with a background music running in my head. It is like I am living a scene of a movie. For those who might know me well enough or spent enough time around me, they would notice that i would occasionally hum a tune, whistle or sing out-loud without giving a damn about the surrounding because at that moment... that's the 'background music' of my 'movie'.

Sometimes, instead of humming the background music.. i would continue the last word of what a person say with a song a la pitch perfect battle minus the acapella twist.  Example:-

"jangan tinggal aku weih!!"
and i'll continue with "oh adik... ohhh juwita. kanda sedang rindu. Padamu yang manis jelita"

That's how music is king in almost every aspect of my life. The most common one would be 'the song' for that 'specific moment'. Like whenever i hear any Linkin Park Meteora songs, i would instantly be tranported back to my hostel life in UiTM. To the extend that i could still smell my worn out jeans, all the maggi mee, all the crazy/idiotic stunts down to midnight fart-etition (fart competition).

Most of the 'strong' musics i used to listen and jam to are very meaningful for me. hell, some are still in my playlist even as a father of two. I still need them, if not... the only music i would be listening would be Let it go and a whole bunch of other Frozen/Disney/Nickelodeon musical shows. The remedy of excessive 'Let it go' syndrome, common to fathers with daughters of age would be....

All the lols... better than the original let it go being played over and over and over and over again.

"Daddy, nak lagu yaya... nak let it go"

And here we go again... over and over and over...

The music that i love so much... the people... the bands.. a lot have changed in the music industry. Lately i've been digging and updating myself with all the music i used to listen to and my heroes singing the songs... most of them have settled down in a more quiet life.

Alexisonfire.. officially ended back in 2011 and did a farewell tour. Too bad Malaysia/Singapore wasn't in their touring list. They were the heroes of my youth.

Underoath... officially ended back in 2012 and they did drop by Malaysia for a farewell. hell, it was among the greatest night for me. nothing compares to the sheer presence of a band, the singalong and the mosh.

As i lay dying... didn't disband. instead, their frontman was trialed and convicted with the the attempt on his wife's life via hired guns and currently chilling in the state prison.

Emery is currently on hiatus and did a quick 10 years anniversary concert last year. without their bassist/vocals.. emery's sound is kinda lost in all their effort.

The only band of my youth... that is still active and delivering their music would be Funeral for a Friend. In my opinion the best band that ever walked the earth as their music fit my ears like a glove (errr... metaphorically... u dont wear gloves on your ears... dude... come on..!). I could still remember the first time i heard their song... Rookie of the Year in a Kerrang! compilation. It was superb. And later, as i was browsing some CDs in OU... there it was... FFAF's full album... Casually Dressed & Deep in Conversations. THE CD of my youth.

It is good to hear their new songs.. and please.. FFAF, come to Malaysia. =D (fanboy... yeah yeaaahh... i know..)

"I'm cutting the cord;
I'm cutting the cord that keeps me.
I'm cutting the ties;
I'm cutting the ties that
bind my feet to the ground, my head in the sand.
And when did the doors start to
close and why did we just turn away?
In favour of some passing
trend that lets us down everyday.
And do we believe in the words?
Do we believe in the words that
we say when we're screaming in
each other's faces just like the good old days?"
-Nails by FFAF

In a way... I'm not saying that the current crop of musicians, whichever scene you may want to refer to, lacks the quality. Im just saying.. those days.. those kind of music were MY kinda music. The same as your dads would say that no bands could ever be better than the Beatles. And here I am... listening to MY music using a headphone as my daughter is running around inside my room singing Let it go.