Growing Old Gracefully

A friend sent me an email of all the female stars I grew up watching - and what they look like today. Pretty sobering. Its easy to tell who lived their lives on cigarettes, booze and late nights.

X Men - The Secret Scene

Finally managed to catch the X men with a friend. I must say that while there were some pretty neat effects and emotional moments, it was a let down in its predictability - even if some of them died. After X Men 2, I was looking forward to seeing Jean Grey return as the Phoenix. An avid reader of X men comic books, I was waiting for the birth of a spectacular Jean Grey. it was so disappointing to see Phoenix quietly stand by and be manipulated by Magneto. For a character that was supposed to be fiery, passionate, and explosive, all Jean Grey had was really a hard stare - if you took away all the special effects. She just stood there, observed and stared most of the time.

The only saving grace, as always, was the performance by Charles Xavier. And Wolverine & Halle Berry. They were the only ones that kept the show on track, that were truly representative of their comic characters. The touch of brilliance in the show is, ironically, not part of the show. If you sit through the credits, there's a secret scene - about 30s to a minute - that adds a twist and suggests that there will be a X Men 4. Will i watch it? Now that Jean Grey is dead, quite possibly yes.

Blanket Funerals

I was at a friend's granny's wake today. As usual, we saw the blankets hung up by the side of the void deck with well wishing messages from relatives who had sent them. This was in place of funeral wreaths. I was surprised as I thought this to be a Taoist practice and I knew my friend's granny and entire family were Christians. Apparently it was a cultural thing, not a religious one. The symbolism? It's a form of support shown to the family that relatives will take over the role of the deceased to keep his/her family warm. Hence the blankets. Again, asians live up to our reputation for strong family values. We may be quick to turn up our noses at superstition, but we can certainly learn a lot from the motive/idea behind our many many practices.