Friday, September 21, 2007

‘Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that has.’ Margaret Mead
Yes, well, Ratatouille has a nice French song as its theme, which is called ‘Le Festin’, which means ‘The Feast’. (Yes, it’s remarkable/scary how efficient I can be when I’m obsessed about something.) Today Rachel, Fariha and me/I watched the movie about a rat, which reminds me of Terry Pratchett’s reply for his book ‘The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents’ – how the producer hadn’t wanted to do the movie because ‘no one wants to see a movie about rats’, on which Terry Pratchett remarked that the producer should regret it, as it’s like saying ‘no one wants to see a movie where the ship sinks in the end’.
But alas, we did something really quite stupid. See, the movie was at 4.10pm at theatre 4. We reached there in time and entered the theatre, only to see that the show had already started. Okay so we sat down and watched it happily – until 5pm aroundish.
Then we realized that something was wrong.
We had entered the wrong theatre and watched the right movie at the wrong time. So we went out and entered the correct theatre only to watch the same part again.
It ended around 6pm and it was really quite good, the movie, aside from the fact that we watched the exact same parts twice without actually knowing what went on in the first half of the movie.
(I am getting the song as I type this – I am quite happy – I’ll be posting the lyrics and translation. Might not be perfect. I don’t know a word of French and the translator couldn’t listen properly to some words.)
Aside from that little disappointment, the movie had its wonderful moments, especially at the end, when Anton Ego gives his critique. I like one of his sentences – ‘Not anyone can be a great artist but a great artist can be found anywhere.’ Colette was wonderful as well; I love her French accent. And Brad Bird, the director did it again! For The Incredibles, he voiced Edna Mode, the superhero designer because ‘no one could do her voice to his satisfaction’ but he said that because he was free and available. In Ratatouille, he voiced Ambrister, the assistant of Ego – though I liked the health inspector more. His drawling is wonderful.
(I got the song! It’s quite cute – really floaty and almost whimsical)

Thursday was interesting as well – went swimming again for the first time in a year! Felt fantastic when I jumped in and kicked off – it was great to be back into the water again – though I would have died before jumping into the water a couple of years back.
I was doing actual lapping with Rachel and Yuanhan, Vincent and Jinken who tagged along just came for the sun-tanning and random kicks they get out of doing weird tricks in the water.
So for me, going to the other end was freestyle and coming back was breast stroke. So it was unfortunate enough for me to see everything, and I mean everything, that they were doing.
When I first came back, Jinken was doing the doggy paddle. It is extremely disturbing to see an almost full grown guy do the doggy paddle, especially when you know who it is. It was Jinken for goodness sake. I stopped and gulped a lot of chlorine.
I chased him out of the water.
The second time when I returned, Jinken was doing handstands in the water. Not the nice ones, the ones where he’s struggling to stand by kicking his legs ala the flipside camera you can take underwater.
This time, I chased Vincent and Jinken out of the water.
Third time back was the best – ultimate joke of all. The duo sank under water and assumed the Bodhisattva position before rising again in a sea of bubbles. I couldn’t take it. I stopped and turned and laughed a lot, swallowing a lot of chlorine before I returned with my eyes closed.
Then Vincent ran away, because it was his idea.
Vincent’s version of running away is highly entertaining. What he does is that he goes to deeper water and huddles underwater in a fetal position. This completely confuses me, because I merely need to swim over and rap his head really hard, or poke him really hard and he rises again in a flurry of bubbles. Ridiculous, really.
Hence we had a lot of fun in the swimming pool. I am quite happy – I got a bit darker!
After swimming we went to Subway where we had a snack and some fun. Vincent was complaining about Subway’s prices, Yuanhan argued with him on that and everyone knew that Jinken naturally got the most expensive meal. I tell you, no one can talk to Vincent without arguing with him. Fariha was saying today that when she and Vincent were SGLs for Orientation, they argued about everything; food, teams, games, the works – to the point where they stopped talking to each other. Then the next day, everything would be okay and the whole cycle would repeat again.
Vincent then began a tirade on the entire US crisis about the Estate prices and stuff. It was quite interesting but Economics just sidles past me with a grin and a shrug.
Then he had the brilliant idea to put his napkin across his face in such a manner that reminded us vaguely of bandits. Jinken saw him doing it and copied it and they took a few pictures with that and the Subway wrapper. I call that advertising.
As usual, Vincent said something to annoy me again, and since I was eating ice, I remarked that I had ice, a straw and the fact that he was sitting directly opposite me. Vincent grinned and replied that he had ice, a straw, the fact that I was sitting opposite him and, get this, a big mouth.
Everyone cracked up then – Vincent finally admitting that he had a big mouth is one of the most priceless moments in ODAC history because he has NEVER admitted to having one before, though we all know it.
Rachel was kinda disappointed that we didn’t record down that momentous event.
Alas, we can’t have all things in life, Rachel.

Ah prelims are over and I am currently slacking this week away by doodling, going online, finding manga, songs, reading random stuff and being completely and utterly bored. It’s quite relaxing. But I mustn’t slack too much! It’s disgusting how we’re getting back our results and knowing how (badly) we’ve done. And it’s called being realistic, not pessimistic. But well! All is not lost! I shall just have to read my notes more. Though this is probably the third or fourth time I’m doing so already. And I've been randomly listening to songs as well, you should really go and see the MV for Nickelback's If Everybody Cared, which is a good and meaningful song.
Smee! Send me UVERworld's Shaka Beach Laka Laka! It's such a random and nice song! XD

Ratatouille – Le Festin by Camille
http://community.livejournal.com/rat_a_too_ee/9793.html

Les rêves des amoureux sont comme le bon vin
Ils donnent de la joie ou bien du chagrin
Affaibli par la faim je suis malheureux
Volant en chemin tout ce que je peux
Car rien n’est gratuit dans la vie.

Éspoire est un plât bien trop vite consommé
À sauter les repas je suis habitué
Un voleur, solitaire, est triste à nourrir (this is a pun off of 'triste à mourrir' and 'nourrir'; see here)
À nous, je suis amer, je veux réussir
Car rien n’est gratuit dans la vie.

Jamais on ne redira que la course aux étoiles, ça n’est pas pour moi
Laisser moi vous émerveillez, prendre mon envol
Nous allons enfin nous réga….(ler) (the 'ler' is the end of the verb but isn't actually sung. I think it's more implied; you can still tell what's meant)

À la prête fin enfin nous (prends ce... / danse.....) (see here for a discussion on what the word could be)
Et sortez les bouteilles, finis les ennuis
Je dresse la table, demain nouvelle vie
Je suis heureux a l'idée de ce nouveau destin
Une vie à me cacher, et puis libre enfin
Le festin est sur mon chemin
Une vie à me cacher et puis libre enfin
Le festin est sur mon chemin. . . .



The Feast (translation of Le Festin)

The dreams of lovers are like good wine
They give joy or even sorrow
Weakened by hunger, I am unhappy
Stealing on my way everything I can
Because nothing in life is free.

Hope is a dish too soon finished
I am accustomed to skipping meals
A thief alone and hungry is sad enough to die (This isn't a direct translation at all, but it's the best way I could think of to explain the pun)
As for us, I am bitter, I want to succeed
Because nothing in life is free.

Never will they say again that I cannot shoot for the stars;
Let me fill you with wonder, let me take flight
We will finally fea . . . (st).

In the close future we will finally (dance / take this....??)
And take away the bottles, the troubles are over
I set the table; tomorrow is a new life
I am happy at the idea of this new destiny
A life spent in hiding, and now I'm finally free
The feast is on my path
A life spent in hiding, and now I'm finally free
The feast is on my path. . . .

Posted by norbert at 9/21/2007 09:54:00 PM