Fast and Furious 7

So I managed to watch FF7 last week and I must say that despite it being the 7th installation of the film, it still does impress (in a leave your brain at home and don't think too much kinda way)

Honestly for me, I watched the movie for Paul Walker. After FF6 and how I saw them bring down a big ass plane on an ultra long runway, I never thought I would take Fast and Furious seriously anymore. But as I said, I watched it for Paul Walker.

Apart from Paul, the movie was action packed with amazing stunts and you need some kinda wild imagination to come up with that. And that is where enter James Wan, the director for FF7. Now, James is a Malaysian born Australian director. I have been a fan of his work since the first Saw movie. That was some good shit and The Conjuring was some pretty impressive stuff.

What disappointed me about FF7 is that James having his roots in Malaysia, I think Jimmy has been watching too many Tamil (especially Vijaykanth) movies. Some scenes were just too much to bear for me. I am not going to give away any of the scenes. Just go watch it for yourself if you're into this kinda wild action flicks.

It is good that in the movie, a tribute was paid to Paul Walker and I must admit, my eyes sweated a little... Or I had Ninjas cutting onions next to me. Overall, despite the movie having most or almost all the scenes depending on absolute 1 in a million coincidences to save each character, I would say, yeah go watch it in the theatre just for Paul Walker's sake.

Overall, 6/10 rating for me. Just for Paul!

Rape and Male Chauvinism

Ask a chauvinist how to deal with rape and the most common answer would be "women should cover themselves up and not provoke rape". This is a general view across the board for most males with a narrow mindset. If you had asked me this question say maybe 15 years ago, and my answer would have been the same and I admit it with shame. Though today or maybe some time ago, I managed to change my mindset and see the bigger picture thanks to my sisters who have educated me well. The truth is, you cannot blame people with this mindset due to our patriarchal society. Males have been brought up to think that they are far superior than females. Even in advanced societies, there are still residual notions of male superiority. 

Victims of rape are shunned upon in some societies and this is still evident even amongst women folk who are supposedly more sensitive. You'd be surprised to know some women are still not able to accept a rape victim as their daughter in laws even if their sons are willing to accept the victim as their wives. This is the sad reality.

Going back to the topic of women having to cover up to avoid rape, let's understand one thing about sex. Sex is a primal instinct. There are no 2 ways around it. But there needs to be clear distinction between us and animals before we act upon our primal instincts. That is where rationalisation takes place. Most of us have been taught that rape is wrong. Nobody teaches their children that rape is alright. However, my view is that merely saying that rape is wrong is not enough. Parents need to teach their children especially boys to respect women. This is not only subject to mere lip service. Men need to show women respect in a household. Violence towards women in some households are a reason for male children to believe that hurting a woman is pretty okay. Another thing that we need to understand about rape is that it is not only the sex, research shows that rape is also about dominance. It is not the clothes, it is not the pretty face, it is not about what time a woman goes out at night. It is not the victim's fault. It is all about the rapist. That's where the focus needs to be. 

Please do not teach your kids that girls who do not cover up get raped. This is simply not true. There are ample cases of women who are covered up who get raped. I for one am attracted to any women in any form of clothing be it a Saree, Punjabi Suit, Kurti, jeans, Kebaya (especially Kebaya), cheong sam or whatever! The attraction is there but is there an intent to rape? NO! If you're attracted to someone, that is normal. If you want to rape someone, that is abnormal, you need to be evaluated. 

Just on the topic of covering up prevents rape, explain to me how a fully covered male gets raped. A few years ago when I was visiting the UK, I was in the train station in Liverpool and my friend and I saw a young guy crying profusely and he had his mates consoling him. Being Malaysian and naturally curious, we asked his friends what happened and they explained to us that he had been raped. We were surprised and that was an eye opener for me. Being male, I could never imagine how the poor guy felt. Just put yourself in that situation, what would you do? 

What we need today is a society that does not ask a woman to cover up or prevent her from hanging out late. What we need is a society that respects equal rights and one that empowers women. Do not objectify women. They are not baby making machines nor are they your slaves. Male chauvinism is so yesterday. And please do not use religion to try and justify your sick ideas. So I end this with the kick-ass poster below (it's free to use... gunakan tanpa was-was):

BOOOYAH!

Nova Rock - I'm in a Band Now!

Nova Rock 

Somewhere in April last year I was approached by Norman who was my boss in one of my previous employments to feature for a song about friendship. It would be my first collaboration with a rock band and I was excited to see how well the band could play.

As soon as I received the instrumental to the song, I was blown away! Musically, they were very mature and I had no idea Norman could sing that well.

As soon as we had done Nanban, I had this idea that I should speak to Norman and become a permanent member of the band due to the awesome chemistry amongst the band members. Everyone spoke the same language.

A few weeks later, before I asked to join the band, Norman asked me instead to be part of the band upon agreement by all the band members.

We would then go on to push Nanban for radio airplay on THR Raaga (Malaysia's number 1 tamil radio station). Once we saw Nanban getting positive reviews, we started working on our second single, Gaveena. Gaveena would go on and enter the Malaysian Top 10 charts and stay there for about 6 weeks. This was truly surprising as we did not expect such an outcome.

We have shot 2 videos as a band both for Nanban and Gaveena (links below). Being with a band is different from my experience being in a rap group. There is more work involved due to live instruments. With a band like ours, there are even more challenges as we all have day jobs and hold managerial positions so our responsibilities at work usually takes precedence. Nevertheless, we try to commit ourselves to meet up and work on new material.

At the moment we are working on our 3rd single, Sabthame Melody which is a song about music. We are hoping to release it by the end of the month. This would be our last single for now before concentrating on the album.

So look out for our album to be dropping soon.

Nova Rock consists of Norman (Lead Vocals), Jonathan (Lead Guitarist), Shenchker (Rhythm Guitarist), Alvin (Bass Guitarist) and myself (Rapper).

Follow Nova Rock On

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mynovarock
Twitter: www.twitter.com/mynovarock
Official website: www.mynovarock.com

Videos:
Nanban
Gaveena
Nova Rock says Thank You
Sabthame Melody teaser #01 
Sabthame Melody teaser #02

Religion

To say that I am an atheist, may not be true. To say that I am a freethinker, may not be precise as well. I honestly do not know what I am. I believe in a power or rather an energy out there that governs the entire universe or universes or whatever you would like to call it.

Though being brought up as a Hindu, I only use the knowledge I have to pray. Yes, Pray... I do pray.. but not like the way you think... I pray to remind myself; prayer for me is a form of reassurance; you need to tell a certain something to achieve something by believing in something. That's how I am programmed. I need to know that there is a higher authority because I am insecure that way.

I do not believe in reincarnation. I do not believe in heaven or hell. I do not believe that you will have to pay for your sins or reap the benefits of your good deeds. I just believe in being a reasonable human being. Not a good human being but a reasonable one. Why not good? Just because of the fact that assholes deserve to be treated like assholes.

Religion in my opinion has become like an MLM; a business so to speak. Join us, recruit more believers, your sins will be cleansed... Have you not heard that before? NO, WE ARE NOT AN MLM.. WE ARE DIFFERENT. RECRUIT MORE MEMBERS. GOT HUGE BENEFIT WAN!

People seem to have stopped to think; to rationalise and ask questions. Is this what we have become? a majority of followers? a majority of of people with herd mentality? In fact, it still humours me when people still believe in sayings like "Saami kannai kutthirum (god will make you blind if you do not believe/follow/"

What the world needs now are people who are not confined by ideologies. People who are not mere followers. People who are not restricted, and finally, people who are receptive to change. I ask one thing out of you who are reading this, "Question your greatest doubt"

If you wish to debate further, please send your senselessness to vixstarr@gmail.com/ www.twitter.com/vixstarrns

Tonite on The CRIB SHOW – VixStaRR : aforadio.com

Tonite on The CRIB SHOW – VixStaRR : aforadio.com

Make sure y'all catch this show!

My Take on Alvin and Vivian

Since the news is so panas in the press and cyberspace, I decided to take a shot at it as well. The blog Scrumptious Erotica has gained notoriety that it was required to be shut down by the couple. If you asked me if I would do something like that, I would definitely say no because I think it is ridiculous. But, that is just me. Should they have done it, well, that is their call really. If they are comfortable with it, then, fine go ahead. Who are we to judge the morality of others. Where do we draw the line when it comes to morality? Who are we to be the moral police? An example would be me; I cuss and swear on my blog but to me, I think that is a fair conduct. I am just expressing myself. You don't like it, you don't read it. Simple. Sure, I post the link on Twitter and Facebook and sure, I send invites for you to like my page. But, hey, don't read it or subscribe to it if you don't like it. It's not like if you don't like, subscribe or read my rantings, a child will die in Africa.

Likewise, what Alvin and Vivian had done are purely based on what they think is right and to them I honestly think they are not bothered. They wanted attention, they got it. Mission accomplished. The repercussions are secondary. It is not as though they're forcing it on you to watch their sexcapades. Watch it if you like. If you think that it is not for you then, why gatal pungkok wanting to watch it? That's hypocrisy right there. If you think what they did was immoral, why watch it? Curios? well fine but you knew what was coming because you would have seen the "dumbed down" images but no, you want to see the juicier ones. So how can one claim to be morally greater than the couple? This also applies for homosexuality. No one is forcing homosexuality on you. No one is asking you to rear end another dude. What the homosexuals are asking is just for their rights. If you deny their rights, that is a greater sin because you are denying the very fundamentals of being human; to have human rights.

You may argue that this couple are airing their views publicly via their blog so you have the rights of freedom of speech/expression. I agree 100% and at the same time, if this couple refuse to apologise for what they feel is not wrong, then please, do not force them to comply to you.

All I would say is, leave them alone and as long as no law was broken, then no one should judge them (pun very much intended).

Don't Steal Quotes - Give Credit

Disclaimer: If you're easily offended by profanity then, this article is not for you. Please close the window and have a nice day.

I have been on Twitter and Facebook for some time now and it absolutely pisses the fuck out of me when people use quotes without crediting the brain behind the quote. If the quote was from an anonymous individual then please just state at the end of the quote "Author Anonymous" or something to that extent.

Stealing quotes is not cool. It is tantamount to plagiarism. If you want to come up with quotes, make your own; no matter how shitty it is, at least people will know you wrote it. The reason I am saying this is because, when you steal a quote, although you want to make yourself look articulate and intelligent but in reality it is far from the truth because half the shit you write on Facebook and Twitter is either a) grammatically fucked up, b) is beyond your vocabulary or c) you're simply not intelligent enough to come up with something that deep. Through one's writing, you can say a lot about an individual including the level of maturity. For example through my writing, you can tell that I may have a chemical imbalance which is kind of true and I have no qualms about it. I use shit loads of profanity of which you can deduce that I am foul mouthed as hell. Good deduction I must say, Watson.

If you would like to use a quote from someone who is far more intelligent than yourself, please give due credit. That way, you would look more like a learned person who reads a lot rather than a douche. You could also pinch a quote from somewhere and credit the author but at the same time not know the meaning of it but that would make you a bigger turd because you have no idea what you're talking about... a whole different ball game which I may save it for later.

It is incredibly simple to find out if a quote was stolen. JUST GOOGLE IT, when in doubt. If I wrote a quote, it would be simple to find out because my punctuation and grammar to a certain extent is rubbish. I am not proud of it, but at least I am consistent.

If you want to be original and not sound like a wasted douche, do more reading and less plagiarism. There are some nice quotes out there but at the same time, the authors need credit. Some of these people dedicated their lives to something important and when their quotes are stolen, you have just discredit them because more stupid douches out there think that your sorry arse came up with it. It does not matter if what you said is intelligent or not; as long as it makes sense. I have seen so many posts on Facebook and Twitter that are grammatically suicidal but it still makes sense and I respect that because the author is trying to be genuine and at the same time be original. People are smart enough to interpret your writings and at the same time, they're smart enough to sniff out the idiot in you.

P.S. I do not have the IQ of Einstein nor Stephen Hawking but I have the IQ of a regular person to identify plagiarising douche bags!