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Review: Stoker
Stoker
We all are consists of good and bad. Everybody has their own dark side, either it’s intentional or not. In some people that we considered normal, the dark sides are often being oppressed. On the other hand, when the dark sides appears more that’s when the people are being called not normal, bad, or even crazy. But how if the two sides are colliding, both are having the same portion in one person? I believe that’s what we called psychotic.
I’ve just watched a movie called Stoker. The story is about a girl who lost her father on her 18th birthday. India Stoker and her mom later being introduced to her father’s charming brother, Charlie Stoker. Odd things begin to occurs around them. The missing of the old Mrs. McGarrick, the head of caretaker after she was involve in an argument with Charlie. The missing of the great Aunt Gin, Charlie’s aunt, after she visited the mourning family. The death of Whip, India’s friend, just after he tried to rape her. He was killed by Uncle Charlie, of course, and India helped her uncle to bury Whip. And how India finally found Mrs. McGarricks’ body inside the freezer in her house and how she finally decided to call aunt Gin just to found out that the phone was buried in her yard along with its owner. And some other things that’s happening…
For some normal people, what happened will be terrifying and even traumatizing. But not for India… She was calm when she discovered Mrs. McGarricks body, a bit shocked but fine after that. She was even experiencing a sexual awakening when she remembers how Charlie broke Whip’s neck.
For me this movie, which is directed by Park Chan-wook, is a quench to my thirst of a brilliant psychological thriller movie. Mia Wasikowska (India Stoker) and Matthew Goode (Charlie Stoker) are brilliantly succeeded in portraying the psychotic side of the normal looking people. As we know, people with mental disorientation are often thinking that they are normal. Most of them do act as they are normal, but there are some different behaviors compares to others. For example, they are likely to be alone, they don’t know how to react or express on some condition, they often fearless, not wanting to be touched, and many more. Those characteristics are brilliantly shown in this movie by those two good actors. The way they express their need of loving yet they are alone characters are so good.. Good enough to raised my goosebumps around my neck. Trust me, I would definitely be more aware to some strangers after watching this movie.
The dark side of this movie is even more frightening than a horror movie. Why? Because it’s real people we’re talking about. Real people that might be around us without being noticed. Real people that might be crossing paths with us, without us even realize it. Not too much blood, which I like, in this movie but still frightening. Imagine how will you react when you try to solve a mystery and call someone you trust just to end up listening to their ringtone below you on the ground. Or imagine how one time when you want to eat some ice cream, you found a dead body of someone you knew lying inside the big freezer. This movie is scary in its own way… I like it, because it makes me want to learn more about people. Why did they do that thing, how did they do it, and so on…
So, I recommend this movie to all psychological thriller lover and to all of you who just want to try something new besides those romantic comedy or big action lies thing.. 
Oh by the way, Charlie did kill India’s dad and India killed Charlie and ends up as a cold blooded psychotic killer… (Didn’t I told ya that this review would be a spoiler too?)
Adios!
-CS-
When Rolling Stones and Magic Johnson collides!
Do you have a place where you could enjoy your “me time” for like hours? A place where you will be calm and happy and forget about problems for a while. A place where you can call “home” away from home. I do have this one particular place called Glodok Elektronik! Yes darling, it’s a store! 
My favorite kind of store, where you can find almost anything! From households to toys, from electronic supplies to electronic gadget, from gardening tools to some cute stationery, from geeks toys to beauty supplies. All available in one store! Trust me, it’s fun! This is just a regular store with racks all over the place filled with stuffs (there’s some dust sometimes). No beauty arrangement, no glowing window display (there’s no window at all!) just stuffs. But, in here we could find some unique stuffs that’s hard to find somewhere else. And every time I visited this store, I’m able to find something dearly. Yesterday I went there to find some stuffs for our office’s Christmas celebration. We’re going to exchange gifts with each other with the limit of 30k each. Where can I find a useful stuffs with only 30k? Glodok Elektronik!
So I went there by myself (I kinda don’t like to go there with friends) and I spent one and a half hour to have some “me time” too. Despite the gifts I found for the Christmas celebration, I also found two cute things to bring home. One is a playing card with Earvin “Magic” Johnson’s face all over the cards! There are three NBA players cards available: Magic, LeBron and T-Mac. While I don’t really like LeBron and T-Mac is not my favorite, Magic-with 17 years of pro career, 17.707 pts, 6559 rebounds, 10.141 assists and some MVPs, NBA Champions and many more- is definitely my favorite! Plus he played for the Lakers!
The cards are packed inside a plastic box to keep the card clean and straight and it wrapped in a carton box with big smiley Magic Johnson in the front. The cards are made in China with Chinese writing all over the box, which I cannot understand at all. Here’s how it looks like
Plastic box
the cards
close up
The second thing that caught my eyes in the first place is this cool Rolling Stones wall accessories made of can! I like this band a lot! I grew up with their songs and my favorite is Keith the drunken master!
this can
plus this cutie
equals to this!
Well, who says that joy can not be simple? I found simple joys with these two!
What’s your favorite “me time”?
-CS-
New Writings
Hello there friends…
It’s been a while since I lost my appetite on writing. I think the work thing has been soaking up my energy for the past few years. I’ve grown into totally almost different person. But, the real me is still hiding inside waiting to come out! Apparently writing is still become my passion. Inspired by my friend, Meilani’s blog Pygmalionland I started to write again. Tonight I’m adding a new menu in my blog called “Review” and the first thing that I wrote under this menu is Jars of Clay – Christmas Songs.
Since I have some interests on Music, Movies, Food, and books (also hot guys!), I will write my reviews about them all. Well, at least in my very own humble opinion
So, I think it’s enough talking here! Enjoy!
-CS-
Review: Jars of Clay – Christmas Songs
It’s Christmas time already! Season of joy and love!
For some of us, it’s also time to seek some good music and presents too! Well, what I’m about to share here is one of the thing that can do both as good Christmas music or presents to our beloved. As usual I have this Christmas ritual to wander around music stores to find some new or new but old collections of Christmas albums. I went to a mall today with my friend and I started to wander by myself (while she is looking for the hair iron thing!). I finally came into a store named Goodnews. since Christmas is about good news, I entered the store. I was looking for some artists, but couldn’t find any. So I asked for Jars of Clay’s Christmas album. And I found this:
Jars of Clay-Christmas Songs
It’s quite an old collection from 2007 but still good to hear. I love the way they make music with all those high spirited rhythm (and notes too!). In this album we can find some familiar old Christmas songs, such as:
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Drummer Boy, Gabriel’s Message, and In the Bleak Midwinter
More than that, we could also find some good Christmas songs written or arranged by the Jars of Clay themselves:
The Gift of St. Cecilia, Love Came Down at Christmas, O, Little Town of Bethlehem, Peace is Here, and Evergreen
Oh! Don’t forget some festive and joyful Christmas songs like:
Hibernation Day, Winter Skin, and I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day
Two catchy songs from other writers:
Wonderful Christmastime (no! I did not misspelled it!) by Paul McCartney and Christmas is Here by Lee Mendelson
These album contains all 14 songs that can make you dance in your seat with joy of Christmas and love of God! My favorite is God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. Not because it’s an old and familiar song that I sang every year, but because the band arranged it into some catchy acoustic music with the touch of violin. This song is a hymn but they turned it into a rockin’ hymn!
In all, I would love to give 4 stars to this album! Trust me, you would love the sound of Dan Haseltine’s vocal!
Enjoy the music and have a jolly Christmas! May the Love of Christ fills your heart forever!
-CS-
a little note
I love you….
place that I love #2
it took a while to decide which place would be my favorite number 2. i finally comes up with flight cabin…
why? let me show you the picture and answer it yourself
how could i possibly not be in love with this beautiful place… where people sit together heading to one destination, no matter what the purpose might be. the place where love, hatred, happiness and sadness mixed together. the place where hopes are both arise and ended. the place where anxiety comes up. the place where our adrenaline is being tested to the very maximum. the place where at the end, everybody would smile with gladness.
when i’m flying in an airplane, i would love to see the sky outside. it reminds me of how great God is to create such a beautiful thing… blue with white clouds that looks like cotton candies. in a storm i could see His amazing power through the dark grey or black clouds, roaring thunder, and blinding lightning… oh, don’t forget the strong wind too when it’s too dark to look at the sky, i would love to see people around me. other passengers and the flight attendances. some of them would sleep peacefully, some would chat, some would try to control their fright of flying, some would try to attract the person sitting next to them all kind of interactions make it complete. while all the flight attendance try to make the flight feels pleasant with all the hospitality, warm smiles and calming attitude… don’t forget to thank them!
besides the cabin, there’s one place that can put joy inside my heart when i take a peek on it… it’s the cockpit! knowing that there are two people in charge for our pleasant fly. the two people who would do anything to avoid harm and accident. the two people who always wanna make sure that all passengers would landed safely and meet their loved ones. inside the cockpit lays the hopes and love of hundred passengers who flies with the captain and the co-captain. so, i always make sure to take a peek before and after the flight and see them! sometimes, when i get so lucky, i’m able to wave my hand to them
and by the end of the flight, my favorite place would be the beautiful runway. the place where the flight begins and ends. i love seeing the runway especially at night, where those blue or yellow lights goes on
i miss flying, though it frightened me sometimes in bad turbulence…
-CS-
my soothing song #7
This is my favorite gospel group… Everytime I heard this song, my heart fills with joy. No matter what happened, this song put some joy inside me… And please do listen very carefully to the voice of Timmy Duncan the bass voice… He’s just amazing!
Signature Sound Quartet – Happy Rythm
Ernie Haase, Doug Anderson, Tim Duncan, and Ryan Seaton
