ELC Gazette

I’m Mireya, the journalist in this very ELC Gazette. So, I’m going to cover the entertainment section, glamorously known as the Limelight. I promise that I will keep you updated with the latest movies, books, songs and everything fun in the town! So, don’t forget to visit our blog regularly! 😉

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ADAM (2009)

Have you ever heard about Asperger’s Syndrome? If you have absolutely no idea about what the syndrome is about, I recommend you to watch Adam.

Adam is a love story, a very unique love story. The story has never been told before, simply original. Adam is a guy who suffered from Asperger’s syndrome. It is a disease that causes him to suffer a very poor communicating skill, but anyhow he is indeed a brilliant guy who loves stars and space.

Adam lives alone after the death of his father, until he met Beth, he had never encountered any relationships before. Meanwhile, Beth who has been traumatized from the past relationship, wanted to take things slowly and so, they are together.

This story tells you about honesty, about being honest, about the necessity of love, and gives you more exposure to the Asperger syndrome – a high functioning autism.

Watch Adam, and you’ll learn the new meaning of sweetness.

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Hello and welcome back to UTP, people! I hope this semester will bring you joy and happiness and not to forget, for those who have made new resolutions, GOOD LUCK!

So, it’s been a while since I’ve last updated. I hope it’s not too late to wish you guys a HAPPY NEW YEAR and welcome to the 2010. So, since it’s only almost a month that we’ve left 2009, here I’ve listed the TOP 10 SONGS for 2009. Check it out guys!

10) JASON DERULO : “Watcha Say”

What’s it about? The lyrics are about the not-so-original scenario of girlfriend catching boyfriend cheating.

Did you know? Sampling Imogen Heap’s ‘Hide and Seek,’ the song is a first for up-and-coming R&B singer, whose self-titled debut album drops in Spring 2010.

9) OWL CITY: ‘Fireflies’

What’s it about? Adam Young, project-creator of Owl City, wrote this song about insomnia, which features guest vocals byRelient K frontman Matt Thiessen.

Did you know? Six months ago the humble Young was living in his parents’ basement in Owatonna, Minnesota, stuck in a low-paying job. ‘Fireflies,’ among his other songs, was originally written merely for his own amusement, not necessarily intended to share with others.

8) FLO RIDA: ‘Right Round’

What’s it about? Based around Dead or Alive‘s 1984 hit ‘You Spin Me Round (Like a Record),’ the song is about his night at strip club.

Did you know? The song was produced as a studio experiment, where audio mixer Dr. Luke provided the sample and Flo Rida recorded his lyrics over the song.

7) KELLY CLARKSON: ‘My Life Would Suck Without You’

What’s it about? Though the title seems self-explanatory, there is a little more to this fast-paced pop song than you may think. Clarkson sings that she and her boyfriend are dysfunctional and fight often, but for some reason he makes her life better and she cannot let him go.

Did you know? Our 7th top song of 2009 now holds the Billboard 100 record for largest leap to the No. 1 position.

6) KINGS OF LEON: ‘Use Somebody’

What’s it about? A touching sentiment of fragility, the lyrics are about feeling lonely on the road. The song was inspired from a falling-out lead vocalist Caleb had a couple years ago with the other band members in Glasgow.

Did you know? The song gave the group their first Top 40 hit, reaching No. 4 on the U.S. Billboard 100, No. 2 on the UK and Australian Singles chart, as well as topping charts in Norway, Germany, Canada, Belgian and other countries in 2009.

5) BLACK EYED PEAS: ‘I Gotta Felling’

What’s it about? Admit it — you’ve blasted this top 2009 song once or twice while getting ready to go out, or danced along to it at a club or house party with friends. It’s catchy, and well, pretty self-explanatory.

Did you know? The dance number was produced by Will.i.am and French house DJDavid Guetta, the latter making an appearance in the music video along withKaty Perry, American rapper Kid Cudi, and model/actress Chantal Jones.

4) LADY GAGA: ‘Poker Face’

What’s it about? Despite its upbeat electropop vibe, the song denotes a darker meaning of not “sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll” but rather, “sex, gambling, and bisexuality.”

Did you know? Lady GaGa says she wrote the song as a tribute to her rock ‘n’ roll boyfriends.

3) IYAZ: ‘Replay’

What’s it about? 2009’s third biggest song is about a girl that he can’t get out of his head, resulting in an infectious melody that we “can’t keep out” as we’re “singin’ like na na na everyday” while our “iPod’s stuck on replay.” Thanks dude — you really got the point across.

Did you know? Iyaz was discovered by reggae-fusion singer and rapper Sean Kingston, who spotted Iyaz’s music video posted on MySpace, originally created for a digital recording class.

2) JAY SEAN: ‘Down’

What’s it about? London-born Jay Sean wrote this song in efforts to “take everyone’s mind away from being down.”

Did you know? Lil Wayne was not originally featured in the song. As president of the record label the album is under, Lil Wayne surprised Sean with a rap verse following the second verse in a demo. Since it’s debut June 30, 2009, the single has reached the Top 5 at the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at No. 2 since September.

1) TAYLOR SWIFT: ‘You Belong With Me’

What’s it about? Swift is in love with a friend and tries to convince him that his girlfriend does not understand him the way that she does.

Did you know? The first lines of our No.1 top song of 2009 were inspired by Swift overhearing a male friend of hers on the phone with his girlfriend. She was berating him for hanging up on her.

Yeah, maybe the results are expected, and if you have not heard any of the songs, go find it and put it on your playlist before anyone finds out!

Source : AOL Radio Blog http://www.aolradioblog.com

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Still in the Raya mood?

Oh yes, talking about the Eid Mubarak, I imagined delicious food like rendang, ketupat, and all those colorful delicious kuih raya! So, don’t forget to go visit your friends’ house during the day and you might end up saving money for your lunch, dinner, and sometimes supper too! And the foods are of course, guaranteed marvelous (it’s homemade and what’s better than that?).

Since the mood of Raya excites everybody, so I have listed a few evergreen and most favorite Raya songs that lasted until today even it was produced YEARS ago. I also have put the lyrics together so you could sing along in the car later with your buddies and families. So guys, checked these out and hope you guys would love it! 😉

1. 1. Dendang Perantau – P. Ramlee

Di hari raya
Terkenang daku kepada si dia
Kampungku indah nun jauh di sana
Ayah serta bondaku

Di tepian mandi
Danauku hijau yang aman damai selalu
Nun di sanalah tempat aku bertemu
Aku dan dia

( chorus )
Apakan daya
Masa tak akan kembali
Hancur musnahlah semuanya

Impian yang murni
Tinggal menjadi kenang-kenanganku
Hanya rangkaian kata dan lagu
Dendang perantau

This song is a compulsory song for the Raya celebration as it has some kind of the sentimental feels when you listen to it. You don’t believe me? Try to listen to this song some day when you just couldn’t get back to your home during Raya (which it might happen once you’re employed!). I guaranteed, you might end up crying in your office reminiscing about your past Raya celebrations, because my teacher had gone through the situations and it was true!

1. 2. Selamat Hari Raya – Saloma

You go ask anyone, and this song surely might get listed in one of their favorite Raya songs too. This song gets famous by the tagline of a children singing adorably “mintak mak kuih sepotong, saya mahu makan kerna perut kosong” and also its catchy tunes that makes you couldn’t resist the temptation to sing along!

( 1 )
Selamat aidil fitri
Kepada saudara serta saudari
Setahun hanya sekali
Merayakan hari yang mulia ini

( 2 )
Di masa bulan Ramdan
Kita berpuasa hingga sebulan
Pabila Syawal menjelma
Hari raya disambut dengan gembira

( chorus )
Miskin kaya memakai baju baru warna-warni
Mengunjungi sanak-saudara kaum famili
Sungguh hebat pemandangan di hari raya ini
Tua muda wajah berseri-seri

Marilah bergembira
Bersama menikmati hari raya
Mintak mak kuih sepotong
Saya mahu makan kerna perut kosong

( repeat 1 & 2 )

Maafkanlah jika ada terlanjur perkataan
Diharap supaya jangan disimpan
Kuberdoa selamat panjang umur murah rezeki
Semoga Tuhan akan memberkati

Selamat hari raya
Hari untuk kita bersuka ria
Selamat kami ucapkan
Untuk kita hingga sampai tahun depan

Selamat hari raya

1. 3. Satu Hari di Hari Raya – M. Nasir

Satu hari di Hari Raya
Ku lihat cahaya bersinar indah
Langit cemerlang tak terkira
Tanda kuasa yang Maha Esa
Memberi nikmat pada manusia

Satu hari di Hari Raya
Ku dengar irama yang sungguh indah
Ku coba mendekati padanya
Kira irama itu adalah
Suara pujian pada yang Esa

Satu hari di Hari Raya
Aku menangis tanda gembira
Aku menangis tanda ku cinta kepadaNya

Satu hari di Hari Raya
Ku lihat wajah suci ibuku
Ku lihat wajah kasih ayahku
Ku gembira
Mungkin inilah dia kebahagiaan

This song has the feel and as usual, it makes you want to sing along with the song. This song is truly sentimental whenever you hear it even though you are in your home celebrating Raya with your family. This is what we call, the power of music!

1. 4. Balik Kampung – Sudirman

Perjalanan jauh tak ku rasa
Kerna hati ku melonjak sama
Ingin berjumpa sanak saudara
Yang selalu bermain di mata

Nun menghijau gunung ladang dan rimba
Langit nan tinggi bertambah birunya
Deru angin turut sama berlagu
Semuanya bagaikan turut gembira

Balik kampung oh oh…( 3X )
Hati girang
Ho ho… Balik kampung (3X)
Hati girang

Terbayang wajah-wajah yang ku sayang
Satu-satu tersemat di kalbu
Pasti terubat rindu di hati
Menyambut kepulangan ku nanti
Perjalanan jauh tak ku rasa
Kerna hati ku melonjak sama
Ingin berjumpa sanak saudara
Yang selalu bermain di mata

Nun menghijau gunung ladang dan rimba
Langit nan tinggi bertambah birunya
Deru angin turut sama berlagu
Semuanya bagaikan turut gembira

Balik kampung oh oh…( 3X )
Hati girang
Ho ho… Balik kampung (3X)
Hati girang

Terbayang wajah-wajah yang ku sayang
Satu-satu tersemat di kalbu
Pasti terubat rindu di hati
Menyambut kepulangan ku nanti

This song is surely a favorite! Even you could hear four years old children singing this song out loud. The happy tunes and the catchy lyrics could excite you especially if you choose to travel back to your hometown by bus. It could make you couldn’t wait any longer to be at home and meet your family and next celebrate Raya together.

I hope you like all the songs I have listed, and don’t forget to sing along for you to get the mood of Raya. And again, SELAMAT HARI RAYA and lots of apologize if there were anything wrong from me and the ELC members. Enjoy your holidays (but don’t forget your studies and ASSIGNMENTS!), take care and watch your food so you won’t end up gaining few kilos when the semester starts LOL!

Have fun, people!

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My favourite movies of all time (in random order)! Hopefully these might be some good picks for your weekend ahead.

1. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)

I love this movie to bits! This movie is full of colors, excitement, fun and CHOCOLATES! Who hates chocolates? Johnny Depp acts as a cool freak, as he is Willy Wonka, the owner of a mysterious Chocolate Factory who didn’t hire any workers after an incident where his own workers had betrayed him by selling his secret recipes to other manufacturers. Charlie, who lives with his extremely poor family, with his parents and grandparents (mind you, it is four of them, the grandparents!) got lucky when he bought a chocolate with the money he found on the road. Together with him, there are four other children ; Mike Teavee, a gadget geek, Augustus Gloop, a greedy little boy, Veruca Salt, a spoilt brat, and Violet Beauregarde, a cruel athletic girl, that got the ticket and are going to have a journey in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.

As they traveled to the different sections of the factory, each of the children got over-excited and went out of control. The greedy Augustus was sucked into a pipe and been sent to the chocolate making section; Violet turned into a monstrous blueberry bubble gum when she excitedly tasted the new invented bubble gum in the inventing room; Veruca had been thrown into the garbage section when she tried to have one of the squirrel when they were visiting the nuts section; while Mike grew a few inches taller when he was trying Wonka’s new invention.

And as usual, the last man standing is Charlie. Wonka offers Charlie his factory but with a condition that Charlie has to leave his family and stay with him. Charlie refused. This film makes us appreciate our parents and love them unconditionally. In Wonka’s case, his father might be strict, but he love Wonka very much.

2. Sepet (2005)

Directed by the famous late Yasmin Ahmad, Sepet tells a love story between two ethnics, a Chinese guy, and a Malay girl. The story was filmed beautifully, with a humble background of the Ipoh city. This story is not just another typical story of a boy meets a girl and falls in love, but it’s about how love could cross the boundaries of culture and religions. When Orked went to a night market with her Western-minded friend, she stopped at a stall which sells pirated cheap CDs and there’s where she met the love of her life, Jason. Their love is beautiful but at the same time, I could say, tragic. It occurred when Jason happened to be accused of having a baby with his ex-girlfriend who he didn’t love. His ex-girlfriend also happened to be the sister of a Gangster Head. Orked who didn’t know the exact story, decided to leave the country to continue her studies. To clear things up as he knew he might lose Orked for good, Jason wrote a letter to Orked to explain things between them. Orked read the letter in tears as she knew she was all wrong about Jason all this while. She called Jason for the last time before she left, and Jason picked up without her knowing that Jason has gone for good in an accident in his way to reach Orked.

3. Drag Me to Hell (2009)

Drag Me to Hell is definitely the craziest movie ever. The title might sound horror and spooky, but actually it is somehow, for me, a humorous movie. A loan officer, Christine Brown, is hoping for a promotion gets cursed by Sylvia Ganush. Ganush asked for Christine’s help to extend her mortgage for the third time. When Christine denies, she begs Christine but instead of agreeing with Ganush, she called for security. In the car park, Christine is attacked by Ganush who actually wants her button to curse her.

After the incident, Christine’s life turns to hell. The spirit keeps disturbing her and haunts her for her soul. Her fiancé at first does not really believe her but when things get out of control, he starts to believe and helps her remove the curse. She did almost everything and even dug Ganush’s grave that happened to die right after the attack. After she thought that everything is fine and things have gotten back to normal, she didn’t expect that actually she returned the wrong envelope. The envelope she returned contains her fiancé’s coin and not the cursed button. She was ‘dragged’ to hell in front of her fiancé. It was tragic, but humorous and disgusting at the same time.

Mind you, never watch this movie while you are eating. You might throw up!

4. Budak Kelantan (2008)

A Malay story about friendship and life; about principles; and about a clash between the good and bad. This is totally the only film that gave me a very great impact. It tells a story about Jaha, a Kelantanese boy who move to Kuala Lumpur to have a better life. He lives with his friends in his flat house. While Buchek, his old friend from Kelantan, who happened to be in KL after he finished his degree met Jaha when they were out. Buchek was introduced to the sinful life of Jaha who did almost everything from stealing to selling girls just to have a good life in KL.

Buchek thought of giving her girlfriend to Jaha for the thought that she might change Jaha for the better. Anyhow, it’s just not his luck. Jaha died in an accident.

Why this movie is so significant to me, is that the fact that this movie is so humble that it makes me feel close to it. The everyday life seems so real and it feels like we’re watching a documentary and not a movie. This movie makes me afraid to go out as it shows how Jaha abducted a Chinese girl who went for a morning jog. The scene was fast but the message is delivered- all girls out there, be careful for the man like Jaha. Anyhow, you should watch this movie to get the feeling yourselves.

5. Space Travelers (2001)

This Japanese production movie is definitely my favorite movie of the century. Not being exaggerating here, but I could say that this is the only movie that has all types of emotions a movie could have. It has the elements of suspense and love. At one time, you could roll on the floor laughing and at the other times, you could cry your heart out watching one of the character falling apart. This movie star Takeshi Keneshiro and Ken Watanabe as the main characters tells the story of three best friends, Takamura, Fujimoto, and Nishiyama who grew up in an orphanage and are making a kamikaze attempt of robbing a bank empty handedly. They only have one gun that could function while the others are faked. In the bank together with the robbers, there is a couple who are going to get divorce and is doing their assets division, a lousy electrical technician who got stuck because he couldn’t remember his PIN number, a male banker who is afraid of trying (or I could say, afraid of everything), a most wanted terrorist who pretend that he just came back to see his son and gives him a bear (that actually is an automatic bomb!), and a female banker who is just about to get married with her own officer and her bachelorette party that has been well-planned is just going to be held upstairs (at the bank), while the other bank workers are all at the second floor of the bank waiting for the party. Meanwhile, the security guard and the bank manager locked themselves in the vault so that the robbers couldn’t take the money away as the vault would only open automatically at 6 am every morning.

To make things worse, the party that is held for the female banker is a themed party that uses Police Uniform. When one of the co-worker is trying to escape, while wearing a police uniform and get caught by Fujimoto who just happened to have a faked gun in his hand and the incident was seen by two real police officers who happened to pass by the bank for a duty, things got mixed up and turned chaotic as the police force thought there is a police officer as one of the hostage! Meanwhile, Fujimoto is a fanatic fan of an anime called Space Travelers and while they are all trapped in the bank, he discovered that each of them has a personality of each of the characters in the anime. From being a hostage, all of them suddenly become robbers too! There are dramas going around as the police force thought the robbers are international criminals and they even get special coverage by the Japan media as the robbers naming themselves after a famous anime in Japan and they even thought that they are dangerous without knowing that this is their first attempt of robbing! There is one time when things get funny when each of them is hungry and there is no food to eat, so they make a decision to just ask the police force to buy food for them as they promise to release a ‘hostage’. The police agreed, and they aren’t only buy food, they even asked the police to send regard to one of the worker in the restaurant who happened to be a very fat lady with a fierce face, and all of sudden, the lady becomes famous, just in one night!

Things get funny and you could feel the adrenaline pumping every time the police force takes action and they even called the SWAT squad to stop the robbery. There were tears and laughter and all I could say is that you would remember even the simplest things when you watched the movie as it gives a very great impact to the audience. The story ended with Takamura, the violent and mysterious one, died when the SWAT team ambushed the bank and start firing their guns. He died when all of them decided to stop the acting and just give up to the police force as it was already morning. It was tragic and I could say it brought me to tears watching him die as I expected it should be a happy ending movie. Well people, you guys really should watch this movie!

Happy watching!