HEY, GO JUMP IN THE LAKE!

Jens & Dominik, two Swiss travelers who hopped on the Love Bus and ended up at Magick River, take a giant leap into the Selangor Dam Lake off the Pertak Bridge. Both survived to act as British soldiers in a feature film called Hanyut ("Carried Away"). Music courtesy of Duncan Bridgeman and 1 Giant Leap. Dominik shot the brief interview with Jens; then I took over the camera.

Yup... it's all about conquering fear!

SETTING HISTORY FREE: David Wilcock interviews Graham Hancock

NOT FOR THOSE WITH SHORT ATTENTION SPANS!
In perhaps the best 90-minute presentation of scientific proof for an advanced ancient civilization ever filmed, Wilcock interviews Hancock. If you don't live in Malaysia and have fast broadband, click here to view this video without interruptions...





















[Kindly brought to my attention by Olivia de Haulleville]

An Open Letter to Naib Canselor UKM

Prof. Tan Sri Dato’ Dr. Sharifah Hapsah Syed Hasan Shahabudin
Naib Canselor UKM,
Pejabat Naib Canselor,
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia,
43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor.

Dear Dr Sharifah Hapsah,

PLEASE DO NOT ALLOW ACADEMIC FREEDOM TO BE SUBSUMED BY BN'S AGENDA OF OPPRESSION

I urge you to kindly refrain from taking disciplinary action against UKM political science students Muhammad Hilman Idham, Muhammad Ismail Aminuddin, Azlin Shafina Mohamad Adzha and Woon King Chai, who were arrested during the recently concluded Hulu Selangor by-election.

While your action may be in keeping with the University and University Colleges Act - an archaic instrument designed specifically to prevent students from playing an active role in politics - and will no doubt gratify the government of the day, it will most certainly be viewed as yet another manifestation of injustice and crude oppression.

This can only sully the public image of UKM as a benighted institution of higher learning caught in a time warp.

Ukrainian students protest the dehumanizing effects of the education system

Any sane and rational person will agree that universities serve as nurseries of independent, creative thinkers with a strong commitment to helping society at large. However, when a university succumbs to political pressure and takes on an inquisitorial role, it effectively becomes a tool of intellectual and moral stultification - and thereby fails utterly to serve the public interest.

We live in a time of massive changes. The analogue world is fast turning digital. Institutions that allow themselves to be misused to maintain a corrupt political status quo will lose all credibility.

The day-to-day decisions we make in life are what, ultimately, determine the worth of our brief existence as human beings on this earth. Surely you would not enjoy spending the rest of your days wishing you could turn back the clock and regain enough intellectual and moral integrity to defend your students' right to involve themselves in the larger world beyond the campus?

Going by the news reports I have read, the four UKM students facing disciplinary action have done nothing a rational person would consider "wrong." As students of political science, their interest in observing a by-election ought to be commended instead of punished.

Faithfully,
Antares
~^@^~
25 May 2010

South African human rights movement against state oppression

WHAT THE BUDDHA SAYS...

BETTER BE NUDIST THAN BUDDHIST!

Why so? Simply because the Buddha represents the Awakened Soul incarnate in human form. The Buddha is nobody's personal name, it denotes an enlightened state of consciousness that is now available to all souls in physical bodies - thanks to the brilliant accomplishment of Prince Siddhartha 2,500 years ago, who left a privileged existence within a royal palace and the creature comforts of home in quest of truth and deeper wisdom.

It's utterly pointless to be a Buddhist. Might as well strip off your clothes and become a Nudist. At least you would have nothing to hide!

This Vesak Day, in honor of Siddhartha's enlightenment quest, I beseech all who consider themselves Buddhists to forsake their text-book Buddhism - and go straight for Buddhahood instead. You can attain enlightenment at the snap of a finger, in the blink of an eye, in a single heartbeat. Being enlightened simply means you become aware of your own robotism, your own mechanical behavior, your own cultural and social programming... and therefore are able to successfully transcend it.


I would like also to convey my deepest love and admiration for my first daughter, Moonlake Love Lee, born 28 May 1969 - and to celebrate her birthday by sharing how her name was revealed to me in a vision. You see, she's a Gemini - the astrological sign of the Twins - and what I saw was the full moon vividly reflected in a tranquil lake, so that it looked like twin moons.

One moon shines brightly from the surface of the still water, reflecting the real moon in the night sky, orbiting the earth. The real moon is a celestial entity, the one on earth a reflection - albeit an entirely beauteous and pure one!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAREST MOON... AND ALL BUDDHAS (AND BUDDHAS-TO-BE) THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSE!

P.S. To all Umnoputra and BN eunuchs, I wish a candid and cleansing “We Suck” Day.

WEST SIDE STORY WOWS MALAYSIA

53 years after it first opened on Broadway, this classic musical still packs a powerhouse emotional punch...

I caught the last performance of West Side Story at Istana Budaya on Monday - thanks to facebook, and both my lovely daughters. Of course, I had read about the Original Broadway version of this timelessly enthralling musical opening in Kuala Lumpur on 12 May 2010. But a quick look at the ticket prices - ranging from RM190 to RM590 - was enough to blot this event completely from my mind.


Anyway, I got a brief message Friday from Belle on my facebook wall asking if I had seen West Side Story and which character I had played in the 1976 local production staged by opera aficionado Kam Sun Yoke. I remember driving from Ampang Hilir to some school hall behind the old EPF building in PJ two or three times a week for rehearsals - which dragged on for months. Luckily, back in the mid-1970s, I could drive the distance in 15-20 minutes. The kids would occasionally accompany me to rehearsals. I wasn't aware of it at the time, but Belle said they both were furious with the guy who played Bernardo for killing my character, Riff, whom they saw as their Daddy.


On Sunday I received an email from Belle with an e-ticket attached for the 24 May performance of West Side Story. She had bought me a stall seat, three rows from the orchestra pit. She and her sister Moon were picking up the tab, she explained, as an early Father's Day present.

When I think about it, West Side Story has played a very important part in my early aesthetic development. I was 11 when I first heard a 45rpm EP with four or five numbers from the 1957 original Broadway cast recording.

The sheer vibrancy and originality of the musical score by Leonard Bernstein (right) blew my young mind. Whatever musical taste I may claim to possess today can be traced back to that early encounter with pure inspiration and pizzazz. A year or so later, the movie version of West Side Story opened in a Singapore cinema and my parents were sweet enough to take me to the show (which I must have seen at least seven times when it finally played in my hometown cinema).


Every single aspect of the movie impressed me: the lush opening sequence designed by Saul Bass, Irene Sharaff's refreshing costumes, Daniel L. Fapp's brilliant Panavision 70 cinematography, Boris Leven's outstanding art direction and, of course, the mesmerizing choreography by Jerome Robbins (left) - not to mention the unforgettable, scintillating score by Leonard Bernstein, who immediately became one of my musical heroes. I walked out of the cinema in a daze, not realizing my life would never again be the same.

Natalie Wood's Maria and Richard Beymer's Tony, for anyone whose first introduction to West Side Story was the 1961 movie which won 10 Academy Awards, will forever be held up as the standard by which all other aspiring Marias and Tonys will be assessed. Russ Tamblyn and George Chakiris as Riff and Bernardo, leaders of the Jets and the Sharks, also created an indelible impression on me, as did Rita Moreno's definitive Anita.


In 1976, when I read in the press that an amateur theatre group was holding auditions for a KL production of West Side Story, I simply had to get involved. It was the first time I had felt a such a powerful impulse to hurl myself into public performance. You can imagine my excitement and joy when I was offered the role of Riff, leader of the Jets.

The producer, Sun Yoke, insisted on playing Maria, though she was at least a dozen years older than Jude Sta Maria, who played Tony. Well, apart from the fact that Sun Yoke was the producer-director, she also happened to be an opera singer with a beautiful voice, which more than made up for her no longer looking like a 16-year-old virgin.


The choreography - mostly borrowed from a video of the film and from memory - was slapped together by Suet Lyn and Suzan Manen, two ballet teachers who also played Riff and Bernardo's girlfriends. Midway through the rehearsals, Chin San Sooi was recruited as co-director.

After what felt like four or five months, the show finally opened at the Experimental Theatre, Universiti Malaya, and ran for about 6 days. I have no idea how it all looked from the audience's vantage point - at least nobody booed us. Fortunately, only a handful had seen the West End production in London and the rest were genuinely thrilled to see such an ambitious production staged locally.

One night after a particularly smooth performance, a self-assured American lady barged in backstage where the cast was busy removing makeup and changing into street clothes. She made a beeline for me, beaming brightly as she boomed, "I want you!" Funny, I thought, she doesn't look like Uncle Sam, so I just looked bewildered. "Ha, I've found my Snoopy!" Patricia Lockwood, director of a 1977 production of You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown, said exultantly. And that's how I got sucked into theatre for a good 15 years.


In 2007 the 50th anniversary revival of the Broadway production of West Side Story began an international tour covering the US, the UK and Europe. Three years later Yvette Kang of Yvents! persuaded the New York touring company to stage an 11-day run in KL's Istana Budaya - the only Southeast Asian stopover, apparently. Quite a feat, as the 70-member cast, crew and musicians are a logistical nightmare to move around - not to mention the expense. For the KL performances, about half the orchestra was recruited locally and they did a superb job under the magical baton of the musical director (whose name I would like to know, he was simply brilliant).

It's a shame that such a splendid and spectacular theatrical event had to be priced so exclusively owing to its high production costs. I certainly wouldn't have had the chance to catch it were it not for my daughters' generosity. What delighted me was the absolute freshness of this production - and the immense energy and enthusiasm of the young cast. Almost three generations have elapsed since the first staging of West Side Story, but the material is truly as timeless as Shakespeare. Stephen Sondheim (above, right) who wrote the superb lyrics, got the tricky mix between comedy, romance and tragedy just right - and the story is as relevant and heart-wrenching today as it was 50 years ago.

George Chakiris (Bernardo) looks awed as Jerry Robbins demonstrates a stylish arabesque

Jerome Robbins's incredibly demanding choreography makes such a powerful impression it can't be altered without destroying the essence of West Side Story. That Robbins was an obsessive perfectionist is revealed in the fact that he was fired halfway through the making of the film - because he was causing serious budget overruns with his extended dance rehearsals and holding up the shooting schedule.


Above all, Bernstein's groundbreaking score remains a shining star in the musical firmament and will doubtlessly stir the souls of many future generations. Arthur Laurents, who wrote the book, originally conceived the rival gangs as Catholics and Jews. Making it a turf war between white delinquents (Jets) and Puerto Rican immigrants (Sharks) established the irresistible interplay between the jazzy urban and Latino musical motifs that make Bernstein's score so distinctive and appealing.

With Google and YouTube, a great deal of information is now available online that will provide a fascinating glimpse of the complex and laborious process by which West Side Story evolved, over a span of eight hiccupy years.

I found the official West Side Story homepage a bit bland, apart from a welcome message from Jamie Bernstein Thomas, Lenny's daughter, who says she was only 10 when West Side Story was turned into a hit movie. However, there's a great deal of interesting data to be gleaned from this site dedicated to the movie version.

Here's a selection of video clips from the 1961 movie, plus a few links to videos documenting Leonard Bernstein conducting his own immortal score with a star-studded cast of opera singers...








2007 rehearsal with members of the original Broadway cast

Leonard Bernstein rehearsing "A Boy Like That/I Have A Love"

Recording session for "Quintet," "Jet Song" and "Cool"

Recording "America" in the studio

José Carreras has some problems with "Maria"

All-star recording session for "Gee, Officer Krupke"

Behind the scenes with the cast of West Side Story in Malaysia

Postscript: I hear quite a few ministers - including Muhyiddin and Ng Yen Yen - were present at the gala premiere. Even the BN crowd will agree, I think, that it's far superior to stage truly magnificent shows like West Side Story - rather than banal, mediocre and malevolent shadow plays like Saiful Bukhari's Back Side Story.

RPK ROCKS! Speaking Out in London

WATCH THIS HISTORIC 7-PART VIDEO ON YOUTUBE!

Raja Petra Kamarudin and his amazing wife, Marina Lee, at a talk hosted by the Solicitors International Human Rights Group on 22 May 2010. Pic courtesy of Malaysiakini.

The Piratization of Malaysia, Inc

"Almost all the scandals involved the government directly, or senior officials and businessmen closely connected to UMNO. In some cases, impropriety - whether illegal or merely ill-advised - was officially authorized or condoned for an allegedly higher purpose. Public funds were stolen in various ways, or simply poured into a big black hole in the name of ventures that bordered on the reckless, improbable, or criminal.


The extent of the losses - and in some cases the way the money disappeared - was never fully documented. Dr Mahathir's administration generally did not hold Malaysians accountable for the financial disasters, and often laid the blame on others. By the early 1990s, cynics remarked that it had been a good decade for bad behaviour, or a bad decade for good behaviour."

[Source: MALAYSIAN MAVERICK: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times by Barry Wain]

HITLER ~ THE MUSICAL

WHAT DO YOU DO WITH WOULD-BE DICTATORS?

















THAT'S RIGHT, FOLKS... RIDICULE THEM!

In Harmony with the Tao...

In harmony with the Tao,

the sky is clear and spacious,
the earth is solid and full,
all creatures flourish together,
content with the way they are,
endlessly repeating themselves,
endlessly renewed.


When man interferes with the Tao,
the sky becomes filthy,
the earth becomes depleted,
the equilibrium crumbles,
creatures become extinct.

The Master views the parts with compassion,
because he understands the whole.
His constant practice is humility.

He doesn't glitter like a jewel
but lets himself be shaped by the Tao,
as rugged and common as stone.

Tao Te Ching #39, Stephen Mitchell translation

[With thanks to Roy Hilbinger, who posted this exquisite quote on his blog]



4-part interview with Stephen Mitchell