Sunday, August 30, 2009

Sungha Jung- Prodigy (Fingerstyle Guitarist)




Have you seen this kid?  He’s amazing!  I've been planning to send my daughter to music school sometime this year.  I wanted her to learn the piano but kind of thinking whether she should learn the guitar instead right after seeing this 13 year old South Korean boy play it like he's born with the guitar attached to him.

Sungha's been making friends with known guitarist around the world.  He plays the songs that other artist like Ulli Boegershausen and Hiroshi Masuda arranged for him.

This prodigy however has several original compositions that I think will hit the charts soon.  Most of his videos in YouTube have more than 2 million hits.



Since I like Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, this’ll be the first Sungha video I’ll feature.


Smells Like Teen Spirit





And of course, who doesn’t like the Beatles?

All You Need is Love






I remember Adam Lambert of American Idol Season 8 getting a standing ovation for singing an acoustic version of Tears for Fears.

Mad World




And watch how cool and relaxed Jung sways while he plays the Mission Impossible theme. 




Did I say that he’s amazing?


Sunday, August 23, 2009

How Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left Made Me Want to Kill

You’ll be bouncing on your seats when you see this film. This is actually a remake and a good decision too, by the way.


Spoiler: It’s just you and your surgeon-husband on a relaxing Saturday evening. Your teenage daughter is staying over her friend’s house. You hear several sharp knocks on the porch. You go out to investigate. The next thing you see is your daughter on the floor, barely breathing and covered with blood and dirt. Your heart twists as you carry your only child inside the house. You discover that she’s been raped and been shot. Out of circumstance, you realize that the group of people you had offered to stay in your guesthouse earlier was the one responsible for such dreadful, unimaginable act. What will you do?


The common suspense movie would probably have this family call the authorities for help or simply run away. Then a common ending would follow: the family survives the tragedy or some members of the family get killed and only one survives (of course, the killing part would be exciting and bloody, it being a suspense movie and all.)




What makes this Wes Craven film different is that in this movie, the family, or so to say the parents, will go on a killing spree to avenge their child. The mother and father holding one of the perp’s head down a water-filled sink. The mother holding a kitchen knife and the father gripping a furnace stoke while slowly, ever so slowly, going into the guesthouse bedroom to kill the rest of the group.


The scenes were exciting and bone chilling at the same time because it invoked the animal instinct in me. The civilized person would say that the matter should be handed over to the proper authorities, but would you REALLY feel that way when it happens to YOUR child?


I have a 6 year old daughter and I think I’d feel like ripping the guts out of the man who illicitly touches my child. I might even do a Lorena Bobbit thing and castrate the son of a b*%#. What happens to the rapist in the last scene of the film befits his inhumanity. You have to watch it to know it. But for the curious, let me give you a clue: human component in a dysfunctional microwave.


The rape scene would affect any human being. It has none of the stupid screaming and asking for help typical rape scenes; especially none of the scenes where most men would still find it naughty and arousing. You’ll see Mari begging, crying for the man to stop. You’ll see her whispering incomprehensible words, probably consoling herself that it’ll be over soon. You’ll feel her pain as she’s pushed back on the dirt, her face, shoulders and knees all bruised and scratched from the rocks and twigs of the forest floor. You’ll probably watch this scene with an open mouth, as speechless as you feel helpless to stop what is happening. It’s only a movie after all. But is it only JUST a movie to the mothers? To the women?


I am generally a pleasant person yet I felt so righteously evil when, gripping myself with fear and excitement, I felt triumphant as the mother smashes a hammer claw on the skull of a bad guy. Too disgusting for your taste? See the film and feel your eyes sting as choke up on tears when the father discovers that his princess has been molested. You’ll definitely agree on “an eye for an eye”.


FYI: The original film in 1972 was so controversial that it was banned in several countries.


I give Wes Craven’s Last House on the Left 4 lipsticks out of 5. Please DO NOT watch this with minors.