DIR: Sofia Coppola
CAST: Stephen Dorff, Elle Fanning
SOMEWHERE isn’t just bad; it’s so bad that it makes me wonder whether I’ve previously overrated Sofia Coppola’s other work.
To describe what little occurs here as a story is perhaps giving too much credit, but for the record the film is about movie star Johnny Marco (Dorff). He’s in his mid thirties, clearly very successful and famous, and lives in the Chateau Marmont. One day Marco’s 11-year-old daughter Cleo (Fanning) shows up; her Mother has gone out of town, so she’s going to stay with Johnny. And that’s it, that’s the entire movie, and by God it’s tedious.
Coppola’s first film; THE VIRGIN SUCIDES, had a lovely, drifting, dreamlike style, it wrapped you up in the feeling of the film so it didn’t really matter that at a story level there was very little going on. That’s not the case with SOMEWHERE, rather than creating a feeling for the film it often seems as though Coppola has plonked her camera down as soon as she’s arrived at a location, and then just left it to run. There is no better example of this than the film’s opening shot, in which we get to watch Marco’s Ferrari zoom around a desert track. Unfortunately the camera never moves, so the car is in frame for about half a second on each of its several circuits, while for the rest of the time we get to look at a blank, featureless desert. It’s an apt metaphor for the film really… an ocean of nothing occasionally enlivened by brief incident.
The first half hour of this incredibly long 95-minute film is taken up with establishing how empty and lonely Marco’s life is, and it feels like we live every mindbendingly boring second with him. In no less than two scenes we have to watch an entire three-minute routine by a pair of bored looking twin pole dancers (it’s a testament to how dull this film is that even those six minutes aren’t any fun). We watch Marco shower, we watch him check text messages, we watch him sit on his own. It’s all meant to make us feel sorry for him, but I, frankly, had trouble empathizing with the poor depressed multi-millionaire movie star. It may be uncharitable, but my first instinct was to yell “If you’re bored and lonely, get up and DO SOMETHING” at him.
Stephen Dorff (remember him? No, me either) is generally okay as Marco, within the very limited demands of the part. The character is generally so detached that his lack of expression can pass for a decent performance much of the time. However, his limits as an actor become depressingly clear in the film’s one big emotional scene. Okay Dorff isn’t helped by the fact that Marco’s midnight call to his ex-wife, sobbing down the phone, is completely unmotivated, but he’s also pretty terrible in that moment.
Happily there is one thing in SOMEWHERE that compensates to some degree for the rest of the film, and that’s Elle Fanning. Like her older sister, Fanning is a consistently impressive and mature child actress and here she’s got her highest profile role yet. Coppola does seem to work well with actresses, and from Fanning she gets an incredibly natural performance. Her relationships to the other actors work well, whether it’s the initially slightly distant, but continuously warming, relationship she has to her Father or the nicely understated way she reacts when one of Johnny’s girlfriends asks over breakfast if she’s got a boyfriend. There’s also none of that slightly eerie mini adult quality that Dakota Fanning has; this is very much a kid being a kid. Fanning energises the film a little, whenever she in it the whole is at least bearable, even if she’s always far better than what’s around her.
The main problem with SOMEWHERE is its length, as a half hour short it might have been fine, but at 95 minutes Coppola is visibly stretching it out, and I felt every last second. Shots seem to go on forever (a minute of a slow zoom on Johnny sitting under a plaster face cast, the aforementioned pole dancing), whole scenes are given over to the laughably inconsequential (watch as a man and his daughter play a whole song on Guitar Hero) and nobody with the exception of Cleo develops any real personality to mitigate against the vast acres of nothing unfolding on screen. Come the blessed relief of the ending there’s no real payoff. The emotional moment that you’re waiting for between Dad and Daughter is the exact same moment you get at the end of LOST IN TRANSLATION and the final shot revels in symbolism so obvious and cheap that it feels like Coppola shouting “GET IT?” through a megaphone directly into your ear.
SOMEWHERE will have its defenders, they’ll likely claim that the film is lyrical, deep and patient. You may think so too, personally I found it shallow, boring endlessly long and nigh insufferable, Elle Fanning’s performance is just about the only reason I didn’t walk out. SOMEWHERE? Try Somewhy.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Saturday, October 30, 2010
LFF 2010: Review Roundup
I haven’t had the time (or, quite frankly, the energy) to cover everything I’ve seen from this year’s London Film Festival so, in the hope of clearing the backlog, here are some (very) brief thoughts on some of the titles I didn’t get to cover in more detail.
LIVING ON LOVE ALONE
DIR: Isabelle Czajka

This look at the life of a 23 year old woman (played by an excellent Anaïs Demoustier) drifting from job to soul destroying job and partner to casual partner until she meets a cool, handsome guy (Pio Marmaï) who says he’s an actor starts off really well. It’s slowly paced, but patiently builds two very compelling characters whose relationship is always interesting and believable. It also has some witty and true things to say about the experience of the day to day 9 to 5 grind of the job market.
Isabelle Czajka gets very strong, unaffected, performances from her leads, but unfortunately her script runs off the rails in the third act, when, with one key moment, LIVING ON LOVE ALONE seems to become another film, charging off in an unexpected direction that never really convinces. Still, the strong performances and Czajka’s naturalistic approach make this worth a look.
IT’S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY
DIR: Anna Boden / Ryan Fleck

This is definitely a tilt at the mainstream from the writing/directing team behind HALF NELSON and SUGAR, and it’s a pretty good one. It follows five days in the life of 16-year-old Craig (Kier Gilchrist) after he checks into a psychiatric ward when he’s feeling suicidal. It’s more fun than you’d think, given the subject, and what it ends up feeling most like is THE BREAKFAST CLUB in a psych ward. Boden and Fleck inject plenty of energy and variety into the film with animated sequences (very reminiscent of Michel Gondry’s work), escapes from the ward and fantasy sequences (Craig’s performance of Under Pressure is a highlight).
Most of the performances are strong, but in the lead Kier Gilchrist is a little bland. He’s not terrible, but he is shown up by the other actors around him. Best is Zach Galifianakis, who acquits himself very well in a largely dramatic role as another patient who takes Craig under his wing, while Emma Roberts makes for an effective love interest and gives her character enough depth to suggest that she’s already a better actress than her aunt Julia. Some may find this a little quirky for their taste, but I had fun with it.
THE TAQWACORES
DIR: Eyad Zahra

For better or worse, Muslims and the Muslim experience have been much more represented in media of all sorts since September 2001, but most of those depictions have tended to focus on one particular issue, whatever the angle. Perhaps the most refreshing aspect of THE TAQWACORES is that it almost entirely ignores questions of radical Islam, terrorism or the victimization of the Muslim community. Instead the focus is on the underground Muslim punk scene in Boulder, Colorado.
Director Eyad Zahra gives the film a washed out look, giving the impression that Boulder really needs this energizing music, but it is the script as much as the images that makes the film interesting. Without being heavy handed about it, and with a real sense of humour, the film looks at the way its characters sometimes struggle to reconcile their beliefs with the punk scene. This leads to a lot of thought provoking moments, especially in the prayer meeting led by Jehangir (a brilliant, charismatic performance by Dominic Rains), and to some big laughs (almost everything that Noureen DeWulf says as burqua clad Rabeya is hilarious). This is an energetic, refreshing, daring film that really throws you into a culture you probably didn’t know existed.
The only real downside to THE TAQWACORES is that the ending doesn’t quite satisfy, it feels cheap and stock, and therefore lacks the emotional punch it’s looking for, but it doesn’t undermine the film as a whole, and I really hope someone will pick it up for UK distribution so you get a chance to see it.
THE ARBOR
DIR: Clio Barnard

I don’t for the life of me understand why this film exists. It’s not that he story of the short life of playwright Andrea Dunbar (who wrote the titular play and RITA, SUE AND BOB TOO, before dying of a brain hemorrhage at just 29) and of what happened to her daughters - especially her mixed race first born Lorraine - after her death isn’t interesting, in fact it is fascinating and absolutely heartbreaking, it’s just that the way Clio Barnard tells it is so strange that it just doesn’t function as a film.
Barnard recorded audio interviews with Dunbar’s family, and other people connected to this awful story. That audio is what we hear in the film, but what we see are actors playing each role, lip-syncing to the recorded interviews. It is incredibly distracting. Barnard says that she wants to call attention to the fact that you’re watching a film, well… well done, I suppose. I never got away from the fact that this was a construct, never stopped being distracted by the fact that the lip-syncing was often a little off, and thus I never entirely engaged with the story.
My best friend isn’t a great cinephile, in fact he’s often described cinema as radio with pictures, usually I’ll argue with him until I’m blue in the face about that, but here he’s a hundred percent right. This is radio, it’s audio interviews, put them on the radio where they belong, where the impact of the story won’t be distracted from by the self consciously artsy manner of its telling. This is a story that should be told, just not this way.
IN YOUR HANDS
DIR: Lola Doillon

Britain and America seem to struggle finding roles worthy of the talents of Kristin Scott-Thomas. Happily that’s not the case for French filmmakers, who have helped this exceptional actress to a real career renaissance in her late forties. Unfortunately Lola Doillon’s latest, while it offers Scott-Thomas another emotionally intense role, doesn’t match up to the likes of I’VE LOVED YOU SO LONG or last year’s LEAVING as a whole.
The problem is perhaps that the film is stripped down, so simple, that it feels like something that belongs not on film but on the stage. It’s largely a two hander, with Scott-Thomas as a doctor who is kidnapped and held captive by a younger man (Pio Marmaï) who wants revenge, but won’t tell her what for. As he holds her for longer they begin to talk and form a connection.
The scenes between Scott-Thomas and Marmaï are great extended exercises in expressive, largely silent, and very subtle acting, but Doillon doesn’t make the most of them. The film is static, not very imaginatively shot, and never really comes to life visually. There are also problems with her script, notably the confusing psychology of Scott-Thomas’ character, whose relationship to her captor seems to change from scene to scene with little explanation, and no sense of a continuous arc. Kristin Scott-Thomas is a good enough actress to sell each individual moment, but when you step back and look at the whole, her character makes little sense.
This should have been intense and claustrophobic; instead it’s stagy and frustrating. It is worth a look if, like me, you’re a big fan of Kristin Scott-Thomas, otherwise this is very missable.
MEMORY LANE
DIR: Mikhaël Hers

There is a nice, freewheeling, feel to this Rhomeresque film about a groups of twenty and thirtysomething friends hanging out in Paris over a summer. There are few big events, narrative structure is minimal, instead what we get is a sense of being invited into this group.
The performances are naturalistic and understated all round, with everyone good individually but, perhaps more importantly, also gelling believably as a group of old friends. Standouts include Louis-Ronan Choisy, who builds on his debut in Francois Ozon’s LE REFUGE with a nicely played turn as a bandleader whose unstated but obvious mutual attraction to their keyboard player (Dounia Sichov, also excellent) forms the closest thing this film has to a narrative through line. Also standing out among the ensemble is Lolita Chammah, whose part here, along with her very different turn in COPACABANA, suggests that she’s inherited quite a bit of her mother Isabelle Huppert’s talent.
MEMORY LANE strikes some very identifiable notes as it passes through the day to day dramas of real life, dealing with some big issues; love, sex, depression and death among them without becoming overdramatic or depressing itself. Indeed this is a very light and easily enjoyed film, largely because it is so easy to spend time in the company of these people. If you don’t mind a film that meanders a little then MEMORY LANE is definitely worth seeking out.
LIVING ON LOVE ALONE
DIR: Isabelle Czajka

This look at the life of a 23 year old woman (played by an excellent Anaïs Demoustier) drifting from job to soul destroying job and partner to casual partner until she meets a cool, handsome guy (Pio Marmaï) who says he’s an actor starts off really well. It’s slowly paced, but patiently builds two very compelling characters whose relationship is always interesting and believable. It also has some witty and true things to say about the experience of the day to day 9 to 5 grind of the job market.
Isabelle Czajka gets very strong, unaffected, performances from her leads, but unfortunately her script runs off the rails in the third act, when, with one key moment, LIVING ON LOVE ALONE seems to become another film, charging off in an unexpected direction that never really convinces. Still, the strong performances and Czajka’s naturalistic approach make this worth a look.
IT’S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY
DIR: Anna Boden / Ryan Fleck

This is definitely a tilt at the mainstream from the writing/directing team behind HALF NELSON and SUGAR, and it’s a pretty good one. It follows five days in the life of 16-year-old Craig (Kier Gilchrist) after he checks into a psychiatric ward when he’s feeling suicidal. It’s more fun than you’d think, given the subject, and what it ends up feeling most like is THE BREAKFAST CLUB in a psych ward. Boden and Fleck inject plenty of energy and variety into the film with animated sequences (very reminiscent of Michel Gondry’s work), escapes from the ward and fantasy sequences (Craig’s performance of Under Pressure is a highlight).
Most of the performances are strong, but in the lead Kier Gilchrist is a little bland. He’s not terrible, but he is shown up by the other actors around him. Best is Zach Galifianakis, who acquits himself very well in a largely dramatic role as another patient who takes Craig under his wing, while Emma Roberts makes for an effective love interest and gives her character enough depth to suggest that she’s already a better actress than her aunt Julia. Some may find this a little quirky for their taste, but I had fun with it.
THE TAQWACORES
DIR: Eyad Zahra

For better or worse, Muslims and the Muslim experience have been much more represented in media of all sorts since September 2001, but most of those depictions have tended to focus on one particular issue, whatever the angle. Perhaps the most refreshing aspect of THE TAQWACORES is that it almost entirely ignores questions of radical Islam, terrorism or the victimization of the Muslim community. Instead the focus is on the underground Muslim punk scene in Boulder, Colorado.
Director Eyad Zahra gives the film a washed out look, giving the impression that Boulder really needs this energizing music, but it is the script as much as the images that makes the film interesting. Without being heavy handed about it, and with a real sense of humour, the film looks at the way its characters sometimes struggle to reconcile their beliefs with the punk scene. This leads to a lot of thought provoking moments, especially in the prayer meeting led by Jehangir (a brilliant, charismatic performance by Dominic Rains), and to some big laughs (almost everything that Noureen DeWulf says as burqua clad Rabeya is hilarious). This is an energetic, refreshing, daring film that really throws you into a culture you probably didn’t know existed.
The only real downside to THE TAQWACORES is that the ending doesn’t quite satisfy, it feels cheap and stock, and therefore lacks the emotional punch it’s looking for, but it doesn’t undermine the film as a whole, and I really hope someone will pick it up for UK distribution so you get a chance to see it.
THE ARBOR
DIR: Clio Barnard

I don’t for the life of me understand why this film exists. It’s not that he story of the short life of playwright Andrea Dunbar (who wrote the titular play and RITA, SUE AND BOB TOO, before dying of a brain hemorrhage at just 29) and of what happened to her daughters - especially her mixed race first born Lorraine - after her death isn’t interesting, in fact it is fascinating and absolutely heartbreaking, it’s just that the way Clio Barnard tells it is so strange that it just doesn’t function as a film.
Barnard recorded audio interviews with Dunbar’s family, and other people connected to this awful story. That audio is what we hear in the film, but what we see are actors playing each role, lip-syncing to the recorded interviews. It is incredibly distracting. Barnard says that she wants to call attention to the fact that you’re watching a film, well… well done, I suppose. I never got away from the fact that this was a construct, never stopped being distracted by the fact that the lip-syncing was often a little off, and thus I never entirely engaged with the story.
My best friend isn’t a great cinephile, in fact he’s often described cinema as radio with pictures, usually I’ll argue with him until I’m blue in the face about that, but here he’s a hundred percent right. This is radio, it’s audio interviews, put them on the radio where they belong, where the impact of the story won’t be distracted from by the self consciously artsy manner of its telling. This is a story that should be told, just not this way.
IN YOUR HANDS
DIR: Lola Doillon

Britain and America seem to struggle finding roles worthy of the talents of Kristin Scott-Thomas. Happily that’s not the case for French filmmakers, who have helped this exceptional actress to a real career renaissance in her late forties. Unfortunately Lola Doillon’s latest, while it offers Scott-Thomas another emotionally intense role, doesn’t match up to the likes of I’VE LOVED YOU SO LONG or last year’s LEAVING as a whole.
The problem is perhaps that the film is stripped down, so simple, that it feels like something that belongs not on film but on the stage. It’s largely a two hander, with Scott-Thomas as a doctor who is kidnapped and held captive by a younger man (Pio Marmaï) who wants revenge, but won’t tell her what for. As he holds her for longer they begin to talk and form a connection.
The scenes between Scott-Thomas and Marmaï are great extended exercises in expressive, largely silent, and very subtle acting, but Doillon doesn’t make the most of them. The film is static, not very imaginatively shot, and never really comes to life visually. There are also problems with her script, notably the confusing psychology of Scott-Thomas’ character, whose relationship to her captor seems to change from scene to scene with little explanation, and no sense of a continuous arc. Kristin Scott-Thomas is a good enough actress to sell each individual moment, but when you step back and look at the whole, her character makes little sense.
This should have been intense and claustrophobic; instead it’s stagy and frustrating. It is worth a look if, like me, you’re a big fan of Kristin Scott-Thomas, otherwise this is very missable.
MEMORY LANE
DIR: Mikhaël Hers

There is a nice, freewheeling, feel to this Rhomeresque film about a groups of twenty and thirtysomething friends hanging out in Paris over a summer. There are few big events, narrative structure is minimal, instead what we get is a sense of being invited into this group.
The performances are naturalistic and understated all round, with everyone good individually but, perhaps more importantly, also gelling believably as a group of old friends. Standouts include Louis-Ronan Choisy, who builds on his debut in Francois Ozon’s LE REFUGE with a nicely played turn as a bandleader whose unstated but obvious mutual attraction to their keyboard player (Dounia Sichov, also excellent) forms the closest thing this film has to a narrative through line. Also standing out among the ensemble is Lolita Chammah, whose part here, along with her very different turn in COPACABANA, suggests that she’s inherited quite a bit of her mother Isabelle Huppert’s talent.
MEMORY LANE strikes some very identifiable notes as it passes through the day to day dramas of real life, dealing with some big issues; love, sex, depression and death among them without becoming overdramatic or depressing itself. Indeed this is a very light and easily enjoyed film, largely because it is so easy to spend time in the company of these people. If you don’t mind a film that meanders a little then MEMORY LANE is definitely worth seeking out.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
lagu yang menghantui part2

jadi aja saia masang lagu ini terus *kebiasaaan kalo lg suka sama satu lagu pasti di puter ulang2*
pas ngdownload dr idws, tnyata ni lagu adalah soundtrack dr film anna and the king.. filmnya taun 1999.. hmm, kapan2 donwnload filmnya jg ahh *tp dengan syarat kudu dpet koneksi dewa* :P
makna lagunya jg dalem bgt.. cekidot liriknya:
Cannot touch
Cannot hold
Cannot be together
Cannot love
Cannot kiss
Cannot have each other
Must be strong,
And we must let go
Cannot say
What our hearts must know
How can I not love you
What do I tell my heart
When do I not want you
Here in my arms
How does one walks away
From all the memories
How do I not miss you
When you are gone
Cannot dream
Cannot share
Sweet and tender moments
Cannot feel
How we feel
Must pretend it's over
Must be brave,
And we must go on
Must not say,
What we've known all along
How can I not love you
What do I tell my heart
When do I not want you
Here in my arms
How does one walks away
From all the memories
How do I not miss you
When you are gone
How can I not love you..
[[Musical Interlude]]
Must be brave,
And we must be strong
Cannot say,
What we've known all along.
How can I not love you
What do I tell my heart
When do I not want you
Here in my arms
How does one walks away
From all the memories
How do I not miss you
When you are gone
How can I not love you..
When you are you gone.....
huaaa.. pnasaran sama film anna and the king jadinya :')
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
An interview with Spork director J.B. Ghuman, Jr and actress Rachel G. Fox

For a lot of reasons I felt much more relaxed for this interview than I had for my last one. Rather than a rather blank office we sat in the Central London Hospital Club bar, much cosier (if noisier) surroundings than a conference room. Even before the interview actually began JB Ghuman and Rachel Fox were funny and engaging, both remarking on my little voice recorder when I put it on the table.
From the dress (JB remarked on Rachel’s tight striped number, saying that she looked “like a sexy zebra”) to the manner the whole interview was casual, the tone relaxed and chatty, as JB and Rachel expanded on my questions, often ending up talking among themselves. I hope the transcript manages to capture the tone between JB and Rachel, which was close, chummy and occasionally good naturedly kidding. The talk gets a little rambling at times, but you try and interrupt these two in mid flow (you’ll see what I mean).
I don’t know if I’ve just been lucky so far, but this was another very easy interview, with two people who seemed excited about their film and were only too happy to talk, again we overran, I was booked for 20 minutes, but the interview ended up running for the better part of half an hour.
My questions and other interjections will appear in normal type, with JB Ghuman’s answers in bold, and Rachel Fox’s in italics.
[Before the interview, I’ve just put my recorder on the table]
J.B Ghuman: Oh cool, looks like a robot. We’re easily impressed.
Rachel Fox: Yeah, amused very easily.
24FPS: Nice and easy to use, fortunately.
24FPS: Okay… I wanted to start by asking you about casting, because with a film so character driven as this it’s obviously key to its success so; that process from both of your points of view, and JB, particularly casting Spork, because it’s such an unusual role.
JBG: First of all, my casting director is Jeremy Gordon, and he came in and it was a very Type A casting situation, we put out a casting notice and we got hundreds of kids to come in for all the parts. Spork, I had seen tons and tons of kids. I got this crazy reaction; I wrote the film, just some crazy artist who doesn’t know what he’s doing. I didn’t know what to think, I didn’t know if agents were going to think “Oh my God”. The dialogue is very crisp, it’s very candid and to the bone, so I didn’t think that I’d get that big of a response, but I got this crazy response; all these casting directors and agencies “we love your script”, blah blah blah. LA’s so weird.
I got hundreds of kids to come in for the different parts, and Spork, obviously that role was the big role to cast and I saw hundreds of kids, but when Savannah Stehlin came in. I’m big on character, so I don’t know if they say you should or shouldn’t dress for the part, to me I think that’s totally good advice, and she came in totally dressed for the part. I’m very visual, so for me as a writer/director, I love that stuff. She had her crazy hair, she came in in jean overalls and she really nailed it. I didn’t give her nay notes and I said “definitely her for the callback”. She came back for the callback and she had to do the scene where she yells at her mother – the gravestone. I didn’t want to do that scene, I went through an acting phase myself and I hate, hate auditions like that.
RF: Where you have to scream and cry.
JBG: It’s like, really? And you’re outside the room and you hear the other actor screaming. I hate auditions like that.
RF: I agree.
JBG: Because, when you get the part you have time to prepare.
RF: But in the audition you just have to turn it on right there, and you get one time to really nail it.
JBG: It’s like “Oh, nice to meet you. Go crazy.” And you’re thinking “Oh my God, I have to act like a sociopath” [Both laugh]. It’s so weird.
RF: And you have to not care about what anyone thinks.
JBG: And then they say “thank you” and you think “I’m going to leave, and totally go crazy”. It’s so unhealthy to do that to anyone, let alone children. But, mind you, I did it. I put it in there, because I was scared, it’s my first film, so what if I get on set and... this moment is so pivotal in the film, and if this girl, whoever I cast as Spork, can’t do it… It’ll ruin the film, it won’t have any heart, cause she won’t ever get there. Savannah came in – nailed it – never embarrassed for a second or anything, she came in and completely fell apart. I hugged her, she was crying, and it wasn’t even that, it was just her vibe and her energy. I’m not Miss Cleo, but she had a great vibe to her, I knew that she was the one.
Rachel came in – her story is awesome [Rachel laughs] – Rachel Fox who’s sitting next to me who played Betsy Byotch, she’s been working for a while, she was in Desperate Housewives, so she didn’t come in the conventional classic way, she wasn’t waiting in a queue at a casting session, me and Rachel had a meeting. Cause when you’re an actor, in the States at least, and you’ve done a lot of work you end up taking meetings with a director rather than coming in for casting. She came in, and she took a different route, Rachel didn’t come in in character, didn’t come in looking the part with her bangs and super bitchy. She actually came in very sweet and humble, very professional, and she brought a guitar with her.
RF: [Laughs] Yeah, I remember.
JBG: And she was like: “I’m going to sing you a song”. [Rachel laughs]. The song was about loving yourself, and I said “You know you’re up for the evil rotten bitch, right?”
RF: I came in like the opposite of my role, I don’t know why I did that.
24FPS: But obviously the singing is key to the part as well.
JBG: Yes, and she performed the song, she’s a singer songwriter as well and she wrote and sang it, and she nailed it. So of course that’s great… and now let’s read some lines where you have to be a complete witch, and she did, and what it did show me is that she has incredible range. Lucky for Rachel her body of work really complemented the part, because she had done a role on Desperate Housewives where she played a really mischievous, evil, female Omen child, and I knew, when she left the room. We already had the casting session out, it had been set up before I met Rachel, so I ended up seeing hundreds of girls for the part, but throughout the process Rachel was the comparison. I was like “Not better than Rachel, nah, not better than Rachel” [Rachel giggles]. At the end they said “who do you want?” “I want Rachel, as long as she will frost her hair”.
RF: [Laughing] Cut my bangs, bleach blonde, completely.
JBG: But she did it.

RF: That pretty much explains it from my perspective too, I don’t even remember why I came in sweet, with my guitar. I was just being myself.
JBG: You are sweet.
RF: Thank you. I don’t know, maybe I wanted to show how much I could flip it, how evil I could be. It was fun, we had a kind of general meeting, we talked about stuff and life and then about the script. I got the script from my agent and I loved it, and I definitely wanted to be a part of it.
24FPS: The singing and dancing is a key part for you, so I imagine there was a lot of rehearsal for that. How involved were you in putting those scenes together, you and the other girls?
RF: Really involved. I actually had to learn three different dances. One was the dance down the hallway, I had to learn a Britney Spears dance – a Britney Spears parody – and then I had to learn a dance from the sixties… sixties disco music so ... Actually a lot of the rehearsals were quick, we had to learn the dances kinda quickly. We learnt the sixties dance disco thing the day before we shot it, so we had to be good with picking up things quickly. I actually didn’t sing in the film, just mostly dancing.
JBG: People keep calling my film a musical. It’s not a musical. They say “It’s like Glee”, and no it’s not, it’s way cooler.
RF: No one’s singing. Just dancing.
JBG: I keep calling it a dancesical. “That’s not a word”. I’m like, “it is now”.
24FPS: Another big element in the film is obviously the visual design of it, which is very striking. So how did you and the art department go about designing that very particular world?
JBG: I’m what you call a type ADD control freak, so… All of this was in my script: the lightning bolt on the finger, the boom box with the Christmas lights around it, it was all in my script. The vines reaching her feet, her collage wall, it was all written down from 2003. How did I go about it? You know, ---, he was my visual effects supervisor, I art direct my own films, and I just came into it with a big imagination and hard work. It just came about by seeing things, drawing things out, working with my special effects artitsts. I’m a huge Tim Burton fan…
24FPS: I can see that with the vines.
JBG: Yeah, so obviously I don’t have a Tim Burton budget, so I don’t have Johnny Depp running around with scissors on his hands, but I do love surrealism. To me, everyone has their own reasons for telling stories, I like to see stories from a point of view we can’t see with our two eyes, cause to me if you’re going to tell a story, why tell it in a way you can experience it? Might as well tell it in a way we can’t ever see it, so that’s why I like that stuff.
24FPS: As far as Betsy is concerned, I think we’ve all met a Betsy…
RF: In our lives, absolutely, yeah.
24FPS… you don’t have to name names, obviously, but is there a particular Betsy that you based yours on?
RF: I had a couple of Betsy’s, cause I’ve been to different schools and I know that every school I went to definitely had at least one Betsy, so I pulled from the different ones that I knew. I guess I should thank them for helping me out with the role, cause I just basically pulled from exactly what they did. I just used that as my backbone for Betsy Byotch, I remember the feeling that they gave me in my stomach when they were doing really evil things, and I tried to put that into Betsy and give the audience that feeling, and give the other actors that feeling. That same really evil, tight feeling.
JBG: Rachel Fox is strong, even if you’re unaware of it. Most these Betsy Byotch girls are insecure, anybody that’s really mean to other people and is really hurtful and vile with their mouth and just overall spiteful, they’re obviously very insecure. It reads as very strong, but it comes from a place of their own pain and all that crap. Rachel Fox has a very strong sense about her. At her age usually girls are girls and women are women and Rachel Fox is lucky, at least I think so, because her face is… the way her bone is structured, and her cheeks, she has the semblance of a woman, which gives her a strong face. For a girl who is 12, 13, 14, she’s very mature, so it can read as very bitchy. I don’t know how much in your private life that affects you, or if you go to school and everyone thinks you’re a total snob or what. But when you look at Rachel Fox, she’s so sweet [looking at her in this moment, sweetly embarrassed would be an accurate description], she came in with a guitar and sang a song about loving yourself [Rachel starts laughing, clearly a little embarrassed]. Then if you Google her she’s got this song – I hope I’m not embarrassing you – she’s got this song about shopping, she’s like this Clueless girl. [To Rachel] That’s a 90’s reference, sorry.
RF: No, I know.
JBG: She’s like this valley girl, and she’s actually very funny and she’s very sweet, very kind. She’s very sweet to me at least, but she has this sense of strength about her whereas in the film it comes across as very bitchy evilness, which is good. Most of those girls come across as very strong, and they’re leaders, but the real reason is that they’re so insecure, that’s why they make such an effort to be a leader and be so mean. Lucky for me her strength can be perceived in this film as very bitchy. Might be why you keep getting those roles.
RF: It must be.
JBG: She’s like a little Madonna, her face is very angular, she has these strong cheekbones and your eyebrows are so beautifully pronounced over your eyes.
RF: [slightly questioning] Thank you.
JBG: She looks like a woman, but she’s 13 in the film. So when you put Rachel Fox around other 12, 13, 14 year old girls you’re like: “That’s the leaderbitch”. [Rachel and I start laughing]. She looks like the mean girl in the middle, but it’s really because she looks so mature, and so strong. I hope that doesn’t backfire on you.
RF: I hope it doesn’t either. That’s a good point.
JBG: Do you get flak at school for being a brat? Do they call you snobby girl?
RF: No, cause they know me, but like you were saying I’m just a girl with a guitar; I’m nice and happy and I don’t hurt people, I’m not mean.
JBG: If I didn’t know you, and I was a nerd in school, I’d be like “here comes Rachel Fox, she thinks she’s so cool cause she’s on TV”
RF: It’s so funny, I asked my friend what her first impression of me was, when she saw me, and she described something similar to what you said.
JBG: For film and roles it’s great, cause you walk in the room and it’s “she’s very strong”, but in life the kids who aren’t as strong would think “She’s such a brat”.
RF: They’re so quick to judge you by the way you look.

24 FPS: That’s another thing I wanted to bring up in relation to the Betsy character
JBG: Oh yeah, you’re here.
[Everyone laughs]
24FPS: No, it’s fine, thank you…. was that you do seem very nice and very sweet…
RF: Thank you
24FPS:… So does that make it a particular challenge to play someone who’s so bitchy, and such a vile person?
RF: Well, acting is what I do, so I have to go and change into completely different people, so it’s not difficult, it’s just fun. I just look at other people, other Betsy Byotches and I follow after them, I look at other films, at the people in them and I follow after that. It’s what I do. Everything has its challenges, but, it’s just fun for me, it’s like an activity.
24FPS: Something else I was going to bring up with both of you actually is, are there other films that you particularly looked at? Particularly, JB, from your point of view; there are a lot of different cultural references in Spork so I wondered what the particular influences were on you?
JBG: I keep laughing when people ask “who are you influenced by?” and I’m a complete hack, I’m the Gwen Stefani of filmmaking; I don’t care, I will openly say it just like she does: I am a giant mixtape of things I love, and anybody who says otherwise is totally lying. To think you have an original voice is so egotistical. I don’t think it’s possible, I think it’s like saying “My hair’s an original colour”. Everyone has their twin and for me, of course, I’m just a collage of what I like – I’m confetti. I love Todd Solondz; Welcome to the Dollhouse. I keep being told “it’s like Glee, it’s like Napoleon Dynamite” I’m like, “seriously, dig deeper”, neither of those movies inspired me. Welcome to the Dollhouse I love, Todd Solondz I love, such a talent, and why he’s not doing giant studio films I don’t know, maybe he doesn’t want to.
24FPS: I can see that, and also I mentioned John Hughes.
JBG: I like John Hughes, I’m more of a John Waters… actually that sounds so arrogant. I’m not John Waters, but I’m more of a fan of John Waters. John Hughes, he’s a little before my time [Ghuman will be 30 in December]. I didn’t really get into it, cause it was very much a Molly Ringwald misfit, it wasn’t really biting or offensive, it was just heartfelt 80’s, whereas to me John Waters was crazy. Divine and drag queens killing each other [Rachel laughs], surburban moms becoming serial killers? I’m like, he’s amazing, he’s so crass and crazy. So I love him for his characters.
24FPS: Rachel, were there any particular things that you looked at? Heathers seemed like a reference to me.
JBG: She’s not gonna get that, but Heathers was a huge reference for me, thank you for saying that.
RF: What is Heathers?
JBG: Heathers was the predecessor to Mean Girls.
RF: That’s amazing, cause I was just about to say Mean Girls, the role of Rachel McAdams, that was what I based Betsy Byotch on in my mind. I pulled from my own mind and girls that I knew, but Mean Girls was the main film.
JBG: Which, literally, everyone called the new Heathers.
24FPS: [To Rachel] Well, Kim Walker in Heathers.
JBG: Yeah! Heathers is a little darker, cause in Heathers people die.
RF: Oh God.
24FPS: One thing we haven’t mentioned yet is that Spork has a particular identity, as an intersex kid, which is very unusual, as a leading character. Did that make it especially challenging to get the film made, and have you heard anything back from people with the same issues?
JBG: Did it make it harder? No. I wasn’t, and I openly say this, I wasn’t and am not trying to make an anthem for intersex, hermaphrodite, whatever term is considered not offensive, for that walk of life. I’m a gay man, and I didn’t make this movie for gay men. I’m not trying to speak for anybody, other than the misfit. With this movie I was reaching out to everybody in the room; the cool kid, the nerdy kid, everybody. So, was it difficult making this movie cause that was my lead? No, because it’s indie film, I wasn’t going to Fox or Disney where, yeah, that probably would have been an issue.
Did anybody come back to me? Yeah, I’ve got nothing but positive feedback though, I think because I didn’t try to hit the nail on the head, because I didn’t try to do a shower scene where she cries at her crotch. I’m not trying to go there, I’m not trying to speak for the intersex community, I’m trying to tell a story about a misfit, who happens to be intersex – or in my film we say hermaphrodite. I think the reason the community has responded so positively is probably because I did that, because otherwise I’d probably have fallen short. I don’t know the jargon, I did not research references and a ton of media for hermaphrodite little girls or boys, because I didn’t really feel the need to, because that’s not really the centre of my story. I treated it just like a common thing kids go through, or just something she had, but really she needed to love herself for who she was, not just because she’s a hermaphrodite.
24FPS: We’ve talked about this a bit, but as far as the cast goes most of them are very young. So is there a specific approach that you took to directing the kids as opposed to the adults?
JBG: Yes. I love answering this question when I’m with the kids. When we’re on stage with one of the adult actors I don’t know how to answer it without offending them. It’s my first feature; I’ve done music videos, I’ve done some documentary shorts, I’ve done experimental art shorts and I’ve done a couple of narrative shorts, but never a feature film with kids. So, as a first time feature director, I was nervous, and I didn’t want to step on anybody’s toes, do I say “Do it again, but my way”… is that rude, what do I do? [24FPS laughs]. I went through an acting phase myself so I did know a little bit from an actor’s perspective. But working with kids, I would say, is awesome, by far a better experience and I’ll say that to anybody. I think we’re born smart, and then as we get older I think the trick is staying smart, not getting smart, kids are just so much more uninhibited, they’re so free.

I’m sitting next to Rachel Fox right now and she comes across as very mature, very together, but on the set he ego is so minimal. She doesn’t have that life experience behind her, she hasn’t been told, she hasn’t been told yes or no so much. So she she’s so accessible, so open, so free and that goes for a lot of my kid cast, it was like having fun. They take their art very seriously, and they work very diligently, their age doesn’t make a difference, they’re just as focused as the adult actors. But on the flipside, directing them and handling them, particularly with Rachel cause she’s here now, it was very much more like having fun, which I appreciate. Mind you, the material is light hearted so it wasn’t like we were doing Gone With the Wind. So maybe it’s a different experience if I were doing Let The Right One In or something [laughing] might be a little more intense. But in this situation, which is my genre, and I’ll probably stick to my genre for life, it was fun.
The only part I was a little nervous about was the dialogue versus the age. Rachel, and I’m sure you’d be fine to admit it, she said “I don’t wanna say the F word so much”, and I said “It’s in the script sweetie”, she’s like “alright, well can I do some where I say fudge?”
RF: Yeah! I remember that, we did takes of one scene where sometimes I’d say freaking, and other times I said the F word.
JBG: And she’s a sweetheart, and she’s like “I don’t talk like this in real life” and she’s a very professional actress… this is actually a cute thing, but she always gave me two options. She said “Look, I’ll totally do it your way, the way in the script” but she’s an independent young woman, growing into herself, and she has the right to own what she does, and she’s like “Well, I have my own rights and wrongs and I’d like to do it both ways, just to say that I did my thing”. That was the only thing. Even with the other kids… she had to say some racist stuff, they had to curse a lot, Charlie was being called a fag, I was like “this is so awkward”.
RF: It was awkward for me. It didn’t matter cause when you watch it it’s not… it’s funny.
JBG: I think in the moment it feels a little more biting, cause you haven’t seen the final product yet, so in my brain I knew what the final result was, and it’s not supposed to be taken that seriously, it’s hyperreality.
RF: Exactly, when we watch it it’s funny.
JBG: But in the moment it’s… “This dialogue’s really intense”. I’m saying “It’s not supposed to be, just say it, trust me”.
RF: [laughs] “Just trust me”, yeah.
JBG: Cause in the moment you would have to say it over and over and over again. She’d say “I really feel bad saying ‘fucking wee wee’”. [Rachel bursts out laughing]. I’d tell her “Just trust me, it won’t be taken so seriously once you see the film.
24FPS: You’re using a lot of stereotypes obviously, but also to break them, I think.
JBG: Right, so in the final result once the music was in and the colours and it was very colour booky and hokey. The film doesn’t take itself very seriously… I mean, Spork falls off a swing at the end, right when she says “love yourself” and then once that energy is put in there… I hope at least, people realize it’s not… that offensive.
RF: No, it’s not.
24FPS: I think we’re going to be wrapping up pretty soon, so I just wanted to ask you both about your next projects. JB, obviously this one took a while, so is there something you’re going to be able to move on to quite soon?
JBG: Oh, absolutely. I have another script called Rhino, and it’s another JB collage/ripoff of fifty things. It’s about a half latino half… I keep saying Mullato, but that’s not the right word, it’s actually Blatina, which is more offensive. I’m like “don’t say that” [24FPS laughs] but it’s half black, half latin girl – she’s blatina – and it’s hopefully Rosario Dawson, she’s my muse I’m going after. She dresses in these lace unitards, she’s crazy, she’s so awesome. It’s very late seventies, she’s obsessed with Prince; Purple Rain era [to Rachel] that’s another era where you’ll go “What?” [Rachel laughs] but it’s crazy, it’s fun. She works in a tollbooth on the highway. It’s very, very dark, but funny, and it’s a film more about being yourself in that she teaches people to strip down to their underwear and kinda explode into magic and love and all that crazy hippie shit I like. So it’s gonna be a musical.
24FPS: So this one IS a musical?
RF: This is going to be singing and dancing?
JBG: Well, it’s more of a dancesical again. I don’t get singing, I can’t sing so I can’t relate. But I can dance. And I’m putting together a studio film with Hasbro.
24FPS: And Rachel, I understand you’re working with Daniel Craig.
RF: Yes, I just wrapped a film called Dream House, we shot up in Toronto for a couple of weeks, it’s with Daniel Craig and Naomi Watts. It’s really cool, and it’s coming out February of next year.
24FPS: So that’s a big release in the States, right?
RF: Yeah, it’s a worldwide release, with Universal, and it’s a psychological thriller so the complete flipside of Spork, which is a comedy and this is a dark scary… it’s not a horror film, it’s a thriller.
24FPS: And just to finish up, again for the both of you. Leaving aside Spork, what’s the best film you’ve seen lately?
JBG: [To Rachel] You go first.
RF: I just saw The Social Network, and I thought that film was amazing, cause all the actors in it were really… [to JB] Have you seen it?
JBG: No, I’ve been told by so many people that it’s amazing.
RF: It’s such a good film [to 24FPS] have you seen it?
24FPS: It’s one of the best films of the year.
JBG: Does it make you hate Facebook or like it?
24FPS: I hate Facebook already.
RF: Yeah, I hate Facebook too, but it makes you see the genius points of it, the creation and why it’s such a phenomenon.
JBG: [To 24FPS] Oh, really? I haven’t seen anything new.
24FPS: Doesn’t have to be new, just something you’ve seen lately.
JBG: Well, there’s a movie I watch all the time that I love.
RF: What is it?
JBG: The Dark Crystal. I love that movie, I love Jim Henson, so I’ve seen that movie on a loop. You know what, to give you a really cool answer, cause I’m watching movies for the Hasbro film I’m trying to put together, and I watched a film called Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains.
24FPS: I’ve been wanting to see that for ages.
JBG: I stumbled on it for research, cause it’s a rock n roll girl hero movie. It’s so good; Diane Lane and Laura Dern, so random, so obscure, but it’s so amazing. It has the drummer from The Clash and all these crazy people in it and it’s a really kickass movie.
24FPS: You can’t get it anywhere.
JBG: I have it, I got it on DVD, can you believe it?
24FPS: No.
RF: Where’d you find it?
JBG: Netflix. And it’s really good, Diane Lane’s obviously beautiful in it and she’s really talented, and the make up and the clothing. It’s so kickass to see it.
And with that I thanked JB and Rachel for a great interview. I hope you guys enjoyed it, any comments will of course be welcomed as I’m still pretty new at this whole thing.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
LFF 2010 Review: Spork
DIR: J.B. Ghuman, Jr
CAST: Savannah Stehlin, Sydney Park, Rachel G. Fox,
Michael William Arnold

Last year, my LFF closed out with an offbeat American high school movie called DEAR LEMON LIMA, which, for some reason, no distributor has yet seen fit to give a UK release to. Hopefully SPORK, which is to some degree this year’s equivalent in the LFF programme, will not suffer the same fate.
SPORK is actually the name of the film’s main character (played by Stehlin); a female identifying intersex born 14 year old, who is an outsider at school. She’s bullied by a group of Britney Spears obsessed blondes who rule the school, led by the appropriately named Betsy Byotch (Fox), but when her friend Tootsie Roll is injured, Spork sees a way to get even with the people who have tormented her; win the school dance off.
This film rubbed a lot of the other critics I saw it with the wrong way, and I can understand why; the almost aggressive quirkiness of the film is definitely love it or hate it stuff, but I have to say, I found the whole thing inventive, irreverent, amusing and charming. There are a lot of influences, filmic and otherwise, at work in SPORK. At times it can feel a though director Ghuman is nodding to every kind of pop culture he can think of, but what this actually does is place the film very much in its own little world. It’s never quite clear when or where the film is set, because the references span several decades. On the one hand it’s post 1998, because of all the Britney Spears references, on the other people are still using tube TV, VCRs and there’s not a mobile phone to be seen. Blonde gang ‘The Bitches’ could easily have stepped out of MEAN GIRLS circa 1988 and yet the music (Britney aside) feels very modern, as does the dance culture to which Tootsie Roll and her friends belong.
This very individual look and world means that you accept some of the film’s surreal touches, which otherwise you might struggle with. Many of these moments also involve music, and few are as funny as the introduction of The Bitches, who appear singing and dancing their way down the hall to …Baby One More Time (and it seems that with this sequence Ghuman has hit on the one excuse good enough for the use of a Britney Spears song). There are a lot of other weird and funny things in the margins of this film, with standouts including a religious fair where there’s a sign on the wall saying “Choose Your God, Make Friends” and the occasional use of animation; a child’s drawing, in place of the sky over Spork’s trailer.
From time to time you can see what must have been a tight budget begin to bite (this is never more notable than in the nightclub that Spork and Tootsie Roll go to, which seems to be held together with sellotape and have about six people in it), but again, I didn’t mind an occasional roughness around the edges. Leaving this aside the only major complaint I had about the film is the amount of swearing, not because I'm offended, but because it will keep SPORK from getting the 12A certificate it should have in the UK to reach the audience it will mean most to.
The young cast is excellent. Savannah Stehlin is compellingly odd as Spork, it’s easy to see why, even leaving aside her intersex status, she’s an outsider at school, but she’s charming enough to ensure that you’re always on her side, rooting for her rather than laughing at her. Good as Stehlin is, the film is very nearly stolen from under her nose by Sydney Park, whose irrepressible energy as Tootsie Roll means that almost her every line scores a laugh. As the leader of The Bitches Rachel G. Fox is a perfect nightmare, like a junior version of Kim Walker’s school ruling Heather Chandler in the deathlessly brilliant HEATHERS. There are nice, if small, contributions from the cameoing adults though, including Beth Grant (in pretty much the same role she played in DEAR LEMON LIMA) and a very funny Keith David.
Dance is at the centre of the film, and it boasts an exceptional selection of songs and a quirky chiptune powered score by Casey James and The Stay Puft Kid, all of which adds to its slightly out of time 8-bit feel. The dance sequences are well choreographed, clearly executed (at least for the most part) by the actors and have a great energy to them.
This is Guman’s first feature, and for the most part it’s a confident and energetic debut. He uses a lot of stereotypes here, laughing as much at the stereotypes themselves as the kids that embody them. He also uses those stereotypes to, in the end, shatter many of them and to get the film to its heartwarming ending. In that way SPORK feels like a low budget 8-Bit tribute to John Hughes, if Molly Ringwald were intersex. Your tolerance for quirkiness may very, but I thoroughly enjoyed SPORK, and I’ll be interested to see where Ghuman goes from here.
CAST: Savannah Stehlin, Sydney Park, Rachel G. Fox,
Michael William Arnold

Last year, my LFF closed out with an offbeat American high school movie called DEAR LEMON LIMA, which, for some reason, no distributor has yet seen fit to give a UK release to. Hopefully SPORK, which is to some degree this year’s equivalent in the LFF programme, will not suffer the same fate.
SPORK is actually the name of the film’s main character (played by Stehlin); a female identifying intersex born 14 year old, who is an outsider at school. She’s bullied by a group of Britney Spears obsessed blondes who rule the school, led by the appropriately named Betsy Byotch (Fox), but when her friend Tootsie Roll is injured, Spork sees a way to get even with the people who have tormented her; win the school dance off.
This film rubbed a lot of the other critics I saw it with the wrong way, and I can understand why; the almost aggressive quirkiness of the film is definitely love it or hate it stuff, but I have to say, I found the whole thing inventive, irreverent, amusing and charming. There are a lot of influences, filmic and otherwise, at work in SPORK. At times it can feel a though director Ghuman is nodding to every kind of pop culture he can think of, but what this actually does is place the film very much in its own little world. It’s never quite clear when or where the film is set, because the references span several decades. On the one hand it’s post 1998, because of all the Britney Spears references, on the other people are still using tube TV, VCRs and there’s not a mobile phone to be seen. Blonde gang ‘The Bitches’ could easily have stepped out of MEAN GIRLS circa 1988 and yet the music (Britney aside) feels very modern, as does the dance culture to which Tootsie Roll and her friends belong.
This very individual look and world means that you accept some of the film’s surreal touches, which otherwise you might struggle with. Many of these moments also involve music, and few are as funny as the introduction of The Bitches, who appear singing and dancing their way down the hall to …Baby One More Time (and it seems that with this sequence Ghuman has hit on the one excuse good enough for the use of a Britney Spears song). There are a lot of other weird and funny things in the margins of this film, with standouts including a religious fair where there’s a sign on the wall saying “Choose Your God, Make Friends” and the occasional use of animation; a child’s drawing, in place of the sky over Spork’s trailer.
From time to time you can see what must have been a tight budget begin to bite (this is never more notable than in the nightclub that Spork and Tootsie Roll go to, which seems to be held together with sellotape and have about six people in it), but again, I didn’t mind an occasional roughness around the edges. Leaving this aside the only major complaint I had about the film is the amount of swearing, not because I'm offended, but because it will keep SPORK from getting the 12A certificate it should have in the UK to reach the audience it will mean most to.
The young cast is excellent. Savannah Stehlin is compellingly odd as Spork, it’s easy to see why, even leaving aside her intersex status, she’s an outsider at school, but she’s charming enough to ensure that you’re always on her side, rooting for her rather than laughing at her. Good as Stehlin is, the film is very nearly stolen from under her nose by Sydney Park, whose irrepressible energy as Tootsie Roll means that almost her every line scores a laugh. As the leader of The Bitches Rachel G. Fox is a perfect nightmare, like a junior version of Kim Walker’s school ruling Heather Chandler in the deathlessly brilliant HEATHERS. There are nice, if small, contributions from the cameoing adults though, including Beth Grant (in pretty much the same role she played in DEAR LEMON LIMA) and a very funny Keith David.
Dance is at the centre of the film, and it boasts an exceptional selection of songs and a quirky chiptune powered score by Casey James and The Stay Puft Kid, all of which adds to its slightly out of time 8-bit feel. The dance sequences are well choreographed, clearly executed (at least for the most part) by the actors and have a great energy to them.
This is Guman’s first feature, and for the most part it’s a confident and energetic debut. He uses a lot of stereotypes here, laughing as much at the stereotypes themselves as the kids that embody them. He also uses those stereotypes to, in the end, shatter many of them and to get the film to its heartwarming ending. In that way SPORK feels like a low budget 8-Bit tribute to John Hughes, if Molly Ringwald were intersex. Your tolerance for quirkiness may very, but I thoroughly enjoyed SPORK, and I’ll be interested to see where Ghuman goes from here.
LFF 2010 review: Black Swan [15]
DIR: Darren Aronofsky
CAST: Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassell, Mila Kunis,
Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder

I’m used to being the odd one out. I’m the guy who didn’t think BORAT was funny; I’m the one person on the planet who didn’t like THE DARK KNIGHT and, slightly more relevant to our current topic, I’m the guy who thought THE WRESTLER was just… okay. I don’t do it on purpose. I don’t set out to take down popular or successful movies, and just so we’re clear about this, every single time I sit down to watch a film I am willing it to be great. So it was with a rather heavy heart that I exited BLACK SWAN, knowing that I was, again, about to be the odd one out.
I sometimes wonder if I’ve actually seen the same film as other people have reviewed, and certainly that’s the case here. Several reviews have already claimed BLACK SWAN as the film of the year, more have suggested that Natalie Portman’s name should just be engraved on the Best Actress Oscar right now, and for the entire 103 minutes that it ran I sat there thinking that surely this wasn’t the film that prompted those comments, that there must have been some sort of mix up.
The story focuses on Nina Sayers (Portman), a featured dancer with a New York based ballet company, who is elevated to the starring role in Swan Lake when long term principal dancer Beth (Ryder) is forced to retire. As Nina tries to embody the two sides of her role; the innocent White Swan and the seductress Black Swan, she begins to have disturbing visions, and to fear that new dancer Lily (Kunis) is plotting to steal her role.
I have only one thing - that I know of - in common with Darren Aronofsky; we both love Satoshi Kon’s anime psychological thriller PERFECT BLUE. Aronofsky has often spoken of his desire to remake that film in live action, and though it is not as marked as the trailer made it seem, that much better film is an obvious and heavy influence on BLACK SWAN. It is present in the central questions of the film; whether Nina’s demanding new role is driving her mad, whether she is in fact becoming that role and whether her rival Lily is real or a symptom of her psychosis. There are also several shots that echo PERFECT BLUE, most notably the first time we see Lily (or is it Nina’s reflection?), which is a direct visual quote of Kon’s film. That said, this isn’t the live action remake that Aronofsky has been pitching, rather it feels as though he’s taken PERFECT BLUE and Powell and Pressburger’s masterpiece THE RED SHOES, added a large dollop of melodrama, shoved them in a blender and hit frappe.
One area in which BLACK SWAN really does excel is its design and photography. The film is often mindblowingly beautiful, and Aronofsky’s shots, though I often found their symbolism groan inducingly simplistic (yes Darren, we’re getting the idea of Nina’s split personality, now that’s enough shots in mirrors, thanks), are often inventive and gorgeous in and of themselves. The treatment of the dance sequences is also striking, with the film putting us right on stage rather than positioning us (as Powell and Pressburger did) as an audience. There’s some especially good use of POV towards the end of the film, giving us a real feel for Nina’s disorientation.
The big problem with BLACK SWAN is that the film that surrounds these beautiful visuals (and the exceptional, eclectic, cast) is shrill melodrama near its worst. The script can be so generic and on the nose, especially when dealing with near caricatures like Nina’s controlling mother (Hershey) and faded star Beth MacIntyre (Ryder, in a performance so overblown it’s comical). Because the tone is so operatic at times I never managed to believe in the characters or the events in the story. Performance wise, scenery is chomped left right and centre. Few have so complete a meal as Winona Ryder, but Hershey and Cassell are almost equally guilty.
Natalie Portman gives probably the best performance in the film, but she’s by no means great, and though she’ll likely get one an Oscar nomination would be laughably misplaced. Like the rest of the cast she telegraphs a lot, to the point that it’s laughable that the people around her don’t notice sooner and with more urgency that there’s something very wrong. To give credit where it’s due though, she works hard and her dance sequences, which she appears to have done almost entirely herself, are often stunning. Mila Kunis has much less to do than the trailer might suggest. Lily is supposed to be Nina’s mirror image (Black Swan to Nina’s White), but she’s only very loosely defined and Kunis is a rather one-dimensional bad girl.
Ever since this film was first announced, fans have been drooling at the prospect of one scene… no, not the climactic performance of Swan Lake… the lesbian scene between Portman and Kunis. There is good news and bad if you’re going to BLACK SWAN for that moment. The bad news is, sorry boys, no nudity. On the other hand, the scene is rather fetching and it gets pretty hot and heavy. However, that’s no real compensation for its utter redundancy in the film. There’s no reason for it to be there aside from the fact that it’s titillating, it seems to me more like a publicity grab than an actual contribution to the film.
It’s not so much that BLACK SWAN is an awful film; it’s just that the combination of elements didn’t work for me. I can see what Aronofsky is reaching for here, and I can see that there might be a good film in it if it were more dialled back, less operatic in tone and more concerned with the psychology of Nina. At the end of the day, rather than recommending that you see this film, I’d suggest that you log on and add THE RED SHOES and PERFECT BLUE to your netflix queue, and then have yourself a double bill. You’ll have a not dissimilar experience (outside of seeing Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis make out), but by the end you’ll have seen two masterpieces rather than one disappointment.
CAST: Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassell, Mila Kunis,
Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder

I’m used to being the odd one out. I’m the guy who didn’t think BORAT was funny; I’m the one person on the planet who didn’t like THE DARK KNIGHT and, slightly more relevant to our current topic, I’m the guy who thought THE WRESTLER was just… okay. I don’t do it on purpose. I don’t set out to take down popular or successful movies, and just so we’re clear about this, every single time I sit down to watch a film I am willing it to be great. So it was with a rather heavy heart that I exited BLACK SWAN, knowing that I was, again, about to be the odd one out.
I sometimes wonder if I’ve actually seen the same film as other people have reviewed, and certainly that’s the case here. Several reviews have already claimed BLACK SWAN as the film of the year, more have suggested that Natalie Portman’s name should just be engraved on the Best Actress Oscar right now, and for the entire 103 minutes that it ran I sat there thinking that surely this wasn’t the film that prompted those comments, that there must have been some sort of mix up.
The story focuses on Nina Sayers (Portman), a featured dancer with a New York based ballet company, who is elevated to the starring role in Swan Lake when long term principal dancer Beth (Ryder) is forced to retire. As Nina tries to embody the two sides of her role; the innocent White Swan and the seductress Black Swan, she begins to have disturbing visions, and to fear that new dancer Lily (Kunis) is plotting to steal her role.
I have only one thing - that I know of - in common with Darren Aronofsky; we both love Satoshi Kon’s anime psychological thriller PERFECT BLUE. Aronofsky has often spoken of his desire to remake that film in live action, and though it is not as marked as the trailer made it seem, that much better film is an obvious and heavy influence on BLACK SWAN. It is present in the central questions of the film; whether Nina’s demanding new role is driving her mad, whether she is in fact becoming that role and whether her rival Lily is real or a symptom of her psychosis. There are also several shots that echo PERFECT BLUE, most notably the first time we see Lily (or is it Nina’s reflection?), which is a direct visual quote of Kon’s film. That said, this isn’t the live action remake that Aronofsky has been pitching, rather it feels as though he’s taken PERFECT BLUE and Powell and Pressburger’s masterpiece THE RED SHOES, added a large dollop of melodrama, shoved them in a blender and hit frappe.
One area in which BLACK SWAN really does excel is its design and photography. The film is often mindblowingly beautiful, and Aronofsky’s shots, though I often found their symbolism groan inducingly simplistic (yes Darren, we’re getting the idea of Nina’s split personality, now that’s enough shots in mirrors, thanks), are often inventive and gorgeous in and of themselves. The treatment of the dance sequences is also striking, with the film putting us right on stage rather than positioning us (as Powell and Pressburger did) as an audience. There’s some especially good use of POV towards the end of the film, giving us a real feel for Nina’s disorientation.
The big problem with BLACK SWAN is that the film that surrounds these beautiful visuals (and the exceptional, eclectic, cast) is shrill melodrama near its worst. The script can be so generic and on the nose, especially when dealing with near caricatures like Nina’s controlling mother (Hershey) and faded star Beth MacIntyre (Ryder, in a performance so overblown it’s comical). Because the tone is so operatic at times I never managed to believe in the characters or the events in the story. Performance wise, scenery is chomped left right and centre. Few have so complete a meal as Winona Ryder, but Hershey and Cassell are almost equally guilty.
Natalie Portman gives probably the best performance in the film, but she’s by no means great, and though she’ll likely get one an Oscar nomination would be laughably misplaced. Like the rest of the cast she telegraphs a lot, to the point that it’s laughable that the people around her don’t notice sooner and with more urgency that there’s something very wrong. To give credit where it’s due though, she works hard and her dance sequences, which she appears to have done almost entirely herself, are often stunning. Mila Kunis has much less to do than the trailer might suggest. Lily is supposed to be Nina’s mirror image (Black Swan to Nina’s White), but she’s only very loosely defined and Kunis is a rather one-dimensional bad girl.
Ever since this film was first announced, fans have been drooling at the prospect of one scene… no, not the climactic performance of Swan Lake… the lesbian scene between Portman and Kunis. There is good news and bad if you’re going to BLACK SWAN for that moment. The bad news is, sorry boys, no nudity. On the other hand, the scene is rather fetching and it gets pretty hot and heavy. However, that’s no real compensation for its utter redundancy in the film. There’s no reason for it to be there aside from the fact that it’s titillating, it seems to me more like a publicity grab than an actual contribution to the film.
It’s not so much that BLACK SWAN is an awful film; it’s just that the combination of elements didn’t work for me. I can see what Aronofsky is reaching for here, and I can see that there might be a good film in it if it were more dialled back, less operatic in tone and more concerned with the psychology of Nina. At the end of the day, rather than recommending that you see this film, I’d suggest that you log on and add THE RED SHOES and PERFECT BLUE to your netflix queue, and then have yourself a double bill. You’ll have a not dissimilar experience (outside of seeing Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis make out), but by the end you’ll have seen two masterpieces rather than one disappointment.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
LFF 2010 Mini Review: The Sleeping Beauty
DIR: Catherine Breillat

In my review of her last film, BLUEBEARD, I mentioned that I haven’t, until recently, got on with Catherine Breillat’s work. This is her second adaptation of a fairytale, and though it marks something of a return to her often pretentious ways of old, THE SLEEPING BEAUTY also has a great deal to recommend it.
Like BLUEBEARD before it, this film has a sumptuous visual style, which makes it seem as though the movie has been torn from the pages of a beautifully illuminated storybook. It seems too that Breillat has become more comfortable with this new aesthetic; she’s moving the camera much more, with shots being more dynamic, less like artistic tableaux.
This being Catherine Breillat, THE SLEEPING BEAUTY is little like the classic fairytale. It begins traditionally enough, with three fairies (who are delayed in attending the birth because they are bathing topless in a stream), each conferring gifts on a princess named Anastasia after she is cursed by a witch. From there it becomes very odd, with the film following the six year old princess (Carla Besnainou) as she wanders the world in her dreams (while sleeping for a century, after which she’ll wake up aged 16). She stays with a family for a while, but when her older adopted brother Peter is seduced by the snow queen she leaves to look for him, encountering strange kingdoms, creatures, and people along the way. A century later Anastasia wakes up as a beautiful 16 year old (Julia Artamanov), and begins a romance with Peter’s great grandson.
At times THE SLEEPING BEAUTY has glimpses of the Breillat of old; pretentious, boring, obsessed with sex, but for the most part it’s engagingly strange, and has a rather hypnotic quality thanks to the very particular and beautiful visual style, which betrays the rather unlikely influence of Terry Gilliam. The sheer visual beauty extends to the cast as well, especially the older versions of Anastasia and Peter, whose handsomeness as a couple actually aids the otherworldly feel of the film. The performances aren’t exactly brilliant, but the rather mannered acting does actually suit the film.
I’ll have to see this film again to be sure exactly how much I like it, there is a frustrating sense that the entire film is an 80 minute digression, gorgeous though it may be, but it is diverting in both the strange alternate reality it creates and in its visuals. I’m looking forward to giving it another look, and that’s not something I’m used to saying about Breillat’s work.

In my review of her last film, BLUEBEARD, I mentioned that I haven’t, until recently, got on with Catherine Breillat’s work. This is her second adaptation of a fairytale, and though it marks something of a return to her often pretentious ways of old, THE SLEEPING BEAUTY also has a great deal to recommend it.
Like BLUEBEARD before it, this film has a sumptuous visual style, which makes it seem as though the movie has been torn from the pages of a beautifully illuminated storybook. It seems too that Breillat has become more comfortable with this new aesthetic; she’s moving the camera much more, with shots being more dynamic, less like artistic tableaux.
This being Catherine Breillat, THE SLEEPING BEAUTY is little like the classic fairytale. It begins traditionally enough, with three fairies (who are delayed in attending the birth because they are bathing topless in a stream), each conferring gifts on a princess named Anastasia after she is cursed by a witch. From there it becomes very odd, with the film following the six year old princess (Carla Besnainou) as she wanders the world in her dreams (while sleeping for a century, after which she’ll wake up aged 16). She stays with a family for a while, but when her older adopted brother Peter is seduced by the snow queen she leaves to look for him, encountering strange kingdoms, creatures, and people along the way. A century later Anastasia wakes up as a beautiful 16 year old (Julia Artamanov), and begins a romance with Peter’s great grandson.
At times THE SLEEPING BEAUTY has glimpses of the Breillat of old; pretentious, boring, obsessed with sex, but for the most part it’s engagingly strange, and has a rather hypnotic quality thanks to the very particular and beautiful visual style, which betrays the rather unlikely influence of Terry Gilliam. The sheer visual beauty extends to the cast as well, especially the older versions of Anastasia and Peter, whose handsomeness as a couple actually aids the otherworldly feel of the film. The performances aren’t exactly brilliant, but the rather mannered acting does actually suit the film.
I’ll have to see this film again to be sure exactly how much I like it, there is a frustrating sense that the entire film is an 80 minute digression, gorgeous though it may be, but it is diverting in both the strange alternate reality it creates and in its visuals. I’m looking forward to giving it another look, and that’s not something I’m used to saying about Breillat’s work.
PENGEN OTAK JENIUS, MAKAN SEAFOOD
Eiitss… Jangan bilang hoax dulu ya.. sebelum selesai membaca ini. Tau gak kalau mengonsumsi makanan laut itu sangat menyehatkan, karena kandungan proteinnya yang tinggi. Tidak cuma itu aja tapi juga bisa membuat tubuh sehat. Mengkonsumsi seafood juga bisa menyebabkan evolusi otak besar. Dengan kata lain bisa bikin anda makin cerdas alias jenius
Menurut para arkeolog, buaya, penyu dan ikan hasil laut telah dikonsumsi oleh manusia purba hampir 2 juta tahun lalu. Dan menurut sebuah studi, ini adalah bukti tertua yang bisa jadi acuan pola makan seafoood atau hewan yang hidup di laut sebagai diet kaya nutrisi, terutama untuk otak.
“Makanan yang bersumber dari laut penting dikonsumsi rutin, karena mengandung asam lemak tak jenuh ganda dan asam docosahexaenoic yang berkhasiat untuk pertumbuhan otak manusia,” kata penulis dan ahli paleoantropologi, Dr Richmond (dikutip dari laman Times of India).
Penemuan pola diet seperti ini memang beragam, namun yang paling penting dari studi ini, para peneliti mengetahui bahwa ukuran otak manusia purba meningkat secara dramatis setelah dua juta tahun lalu. Pertumbuhan otak yang besar membutuhkan investasi kalori dan nutrisi tinggi. Karena itu, hidangan seafood juga bermanfaat bagi ibu dan perkembangan janin.
Namun, yang perlu Anda tahu, seiring dengan waktu, kandungan nutrisi pada seafood terancam dengan makin meningkatnya polusi lingkungan, terutama di laut. Maka itu, ada baiknya konsumsi makanan hasil laut dua kali seminggu.
Tapi, tak semua ikan menyerap tinggi merkuri. Ada seafood yang terbilang aman untuk dikonsumsi, karena kemungkinan kecil menyerap merkuri. Antara lain, udang, ikan nila, dan ikan salmon.
Menurut para arkeolog, buaya, penyu dan ikan hasil laut telah dikonsumsi oleh manusia purba hampir 2 juta tahun lalu. Dan menurut sebuah studi, ini adalah bukti tertua yang bisa jadi acuan pola makan seafoood atau hewan yang hidup di laut sebagai diet kaya nutrisi, terutama untuk otak.
“Makanan yang bersumber dari laut penting dikonsumsi rutin, karena mengandung asam lemak tak jenuh ganda dan asam docosahexaenoic yang berkhasiat untuk pertumbuhan otak manusia,” kata penulis dan ahli paleoantropologi, Dr Richmond (dikutip dari laman Times of India).
Penemuan pola diet seperti ini memang beragam, namun yang paling penting dari studi ini, para peneliti mengetahui bahwa ukuran otak manusia purba meningkat secara dramatis setelah dua juta tahun lalu. Pertumbuhan otak yang besar membutuhkan investasi kalori dan nutrisi tinggi. Karena itu, hidangan seafood juga bermanfaat bagi ibu dan perkembangan janin.
Namun, yang perlu Anda tahu, seiring dengan waktu, kandungan nutrisi pada seafood terancam dengan makin meningkatnya polusi lingkungan, terutama di laut. Maka itu, ada baiknya konsumsi makanan hasil laut dua kali seminggu.
Tapi, tak semua ikan menyerap tinggi merkuri. Ada seafood yang terbilang aman untuk dikonsumsi, karena kemungkinan kecil menyerap merkuri. Antara lain, udang, ikan nila, dan ikan salmon.
PENGEN OTAK JENIUS, MAKAN SEAFOOD
Eiitss… Jangan bilang hoax dulu ya.. sebelum selesai membaca ini. Tau gak kalau mengonsumsi makanan laut itu sangat menyehatkan, karena kandungan proteinnya yang tinggi. Tidak cuma itu aja tapi juga bisa membuat tubuh sehat. Mengkonsumsi seafood juga bisa menyebabkan evolusi otak besar. Dengan kata lain bisa bikin anda makin cerdas alias jenius
Menurut para arkeolog, buaya, penyu dan ikan hasil laut telah dikonsumsi oleh manusia purba hampir 2 juta tahun lalu. Dan menurut sebuah studi, ini adalah bukti tertua yang bisa jadi acuan pola makan seafoood atau hewan yang hidup di laut sebagai diet kaya nutrisi, terutama untuk otak.
“Makanan yang bersumber dari laut penting dikonsumsi rutin, karena mengandung asam lemak tak jenuh ganda dan asam docosahexaenoic yang berkhasiat untuk pertumbuhan otak manusia,” kata penulis dan ahli paleoantropologi, Dr Richmond (dikutip dari laman Times of India).
Penemuan pola diet seperti ini memang beragam, namun yang paling penting dari studi ini, para peneliti mengetahui bahwa ukuran otak manusia purba meningkat secara dramatis setelah dua juta tahun lalu. Pertumbuhan otak yang besar membutuhkan investasi kalori dan nutrisi tinggi. Karena itu, hidangan seafood juga bermanfaat bagi ibu dan perkembangan janin.
Namun, yang perlu Anda tahu, seiring dengan waktu, kandungan nutrisi pada seafood terancam dengan makin meningkatnya polusi lingkungan, terutama di laut. Maka itu, ada baiknya konsumsi makanan hasil laut dua kali seminggu.
Tapi, tak semua ikan menyerap tinggi merkuri. Ada seafood yang terbilang aman untuk dikonsumsi, karena kemungkinan kecil menyerap merkuri. Antara lain, udang, ikan nila, dan ikan salmon.
Menurut para arkeolog, buaya, penyu dan ikan hasil laut telah dikonsumsi oleh manusia purba hampir 2 juta tahun lalu. Dan menurut sebuah studi, ini adalah bukti tertua yang bisa jadi acuan pola makan seafoood atau hewan yang hidup di laut sebagai diet kaya nutrisi, terutama untuk otak.
“Makanan yang bersumber dari laut penting dikonsumsi rutin, karena mengandung asam lemak tak jenuh ganda dan asam docosahexaenoic yang berkhasiat untuk pertumbuhan otak manusia,” kata penulis dan ahli paleoantropologi, Dr Richmond (dikutip dari laman Times of India).
Penemuan pola diet seperti ini memang beragam, namun yang paling penting dari studi ini, para peneliti mengetahui bahwa ukuran otak manusia purba meningkat secara dramatis setelah dua juta tahun lalu. Pertumbuhan otak yang besar membutuhkan investasi kalori dan nutrisi tinggi. Karena itu, hidangan seafood juga bermanfaat bagi ibu dan perkembangan janin.
Namun, yang perlu Anda tahu, seiring dengan waktu, kandungan nutrisi pada seafood terancam dengan makin meningkatnya polusi lingkungan, terutama di laut. Maka itu, ada baiknya konsumsi makanan hasil laut dua kali seminggu.
Tapi, tak semua ikan menyerap tinggi merkuri. Ada seafood yang terbilang aman untuk dikonsumsi, karena kemungkinan kecil menyerap merkuri. Antara lain, udang, ikan nila, dan ikan salmon.
Friday, October 22, 2010
LAURENCE KIM PEEK, SI SUPER JENIUS DG KETERBELAKANGAN MENTAL
Menurut ayahnya, Peek sudah memiliki ingatan yang kuat sejak usia 16-20 bulan. Ia membaca buku, mengingat isinya lalu mengembalikan buku-buku tersebut dengan posisi terbalik ke rak untuk menunjukkan kalau ia sudah selesai membacanya.
Ia membaca satu buku dalam waktu rata-rata satu jam, dan mengingat nyaris semua yang ia baca, mengingat informasi yang sangat luas dalam hal sejarah, literatur, geografi, angka, olahraga, musik dan tanggal.
http://starcasm.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/kimpeek.jpg
Teknik membacanya yaitu dengan membaca halaman kiri dengan mata kirinya dan halaman kanan dengan mata kanannya, dengan cara ini ia bisa membaca dua halaman sekaligus dengan rate 8-10 detik per halaman. ia bisa mengingat isi 12000 buku.
Mungkin para pencinta fisika sudah tidak asing lagi dengan beberapa nama orang-orang jenius di bidang fisika seperti: Albert Einstein, Erwin Schroedinger, Max Planck, dan sebangsanya.
Mereka memang merupakan orang jenius yang terlahir pada zamannya masing-masing. Tapi sekarang kita tak akan membicarakan mereka, karena yang akan dibahas kali ini adalah sesosok manusia SUPERJENIUS, dialah The Rain Man alias Kim Peek.
Masa-masa Awal Kehidupan Kim Peek
Kim dilahirkan pada tahun 1951 dengan ukuran kepala 3 kali lebih besar dibandingkan ukuran kepala bayi normal. Selain itu, Kim juga divonis menderita encephalocele, yaitu semacam luka di belakang kepala yang memperlihatkan sebagian otaknya yang menonjol keluar.
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0goVcgj4lRba3/340x.jpg
Di usia tiga tahun, luka itu semakin meluas dan merusak sebagian otak Kim. Tahun 1983, Kim menjalani pemeriksaan X-ray yang berhasil menyibak keanehan yang terjadi di otak Kim, yaitu otak Kim hanya memiliki satu bagian! Dengan kata lain, otak Kim tidak terbagi menjadi otak kanan dan otak kiri layaknya orang normal.
Kemudian, setelah dilakukan pemeriksaan lanjutan, kemballi diperlihatkan bahwa setengah dari bagian otak Kim telah terpecah menjadi tiga bagian.
Berbagai pemeriksaan itu tak juga memberikan keterangan mengenai penyebab kejeniusan Kim, melainkan hanya penyebab ketidakmampuannya. Kim memiliki kelemahan dalam hal motorik, bahkan untuk mandi dan menggosok gigi pun tak dapat dilakukan seorang diri.
Ketika Kim lahir, dokter memvonisnya sebagai ‘anak terbelakang’ atau ‘cacat mental’ dan ia menyarankan kedua orang tua Kim untuk membawanya ke rumah perawatan. Namun pada saat itu Fran dan istrinya membawa pulang Kim dan memperkenalkan Kim pada buku.
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/00Mr1zl4HLfdL/340x.jpg
Pada usia tiga tahun, Kim bertanya pada Fran arti kata “rahasia”. Sambil bercanda, Fran menyuruh putranya itu untuk mencarinya di kamus. “Saat itu ia belum bisa berjalan”, kenangnya, “jadi ia merangkak ke arah meja, mengangkat tubuhnya ke atas meja dan sekitar 30 detik kemudian ia berseru ‘ketemu!’”
Saat berumur 4,5 tahun Kim sudah hafal 8 volume awal dari satu set ensiklopedia yang ada di rumahnya. Bahkan, baru-baru ini telah terungkap bahwa Kim dapat membaca 2 halaman buku secara bersamaan dan meyerap isinya hanya dalam waktu 10 detik! Hebatnya lagi informasi yang ia peroleh tadi tak akan dia lupakan. Menakjubkan!
Selain kemampuan menghafal dan aritmatika yang jauh diatas rata-rata, Kim juga mencintai musik dan belajar memainkan piano pada Dr. April Greenan dari Universitas Utah.
“Dia mempunyai kemampuan bermusik yang fenomenal dan lebih dari sekedar menghafal”, Ujar Dr.Greenan. “Bila Kim mendengar sebuah simfoni saat dia kecil, dan kemudian mendengarnya lagi pada usia 53 tahun, ia langsung dapat mengetahui bila terdapat kesalahan kecil pada permainan musik itu.”
Kejeniusan Seorang Kim Peek
Sesungguhnya apa yang dikatakan dokter yang membantu kelahiran Kim ialah benar, bahwa Kim bukanlah merupakan seorang autis jenius, tapi lebih tepat disebut pria dengan keterbelakangan mental yang superjenius.
Karena seorang yang jenius biasanya memiliki kemampuan luar biasa dalam 3 bidang. Tetapi Kim, sang superjenius, memiliki kemampuan yang sangat hebat setidaknya di 15 bidang yang berbeda!
Hal ini disebabkan karena kemampuan menghafal 12.000 buku, memprediksi cuaca dan memiliki kemampuan bermusik layaknya Mozart! Tak ada orang lain di dunia ini yang memiliki kapasitas otak seperti Kim Peek.
Badan Antariksa Amerika (NASA) pun tertarik menggunakan berbagai peralatan canggih, seperti brain imaging dan data fusion techniques, untuk menemukan rahasia di balik kemampuan otak Kim yang mengagumkan.
Ketika Kim ditanya mengenai pendapatnya mengenai langkah yang akan diambil NASA, ia pun menjawab, “Itu yang terbaik.” Mengapa dia bisa tahu segalanya? “Karena saya punya rasa cinta yang besar pada semua yang saya lihat,”ujar Kim.
Sulit untuk berbincang-bincang dengan Kim. Pikirannya mampu berpindah-pindah dengan kecepatan tinggi. Namun dengan bantuan Fran, Kim selalu dibimbing untuk kembali pada topik pembicaraan semula.
Dalam sebuah pembicaraan umum, seorang bercerita bahwa ia dibesarkan di kota Cirencester. “Itu adalah nama kamp orang Romawi, Corin,” sahut Kim. “Corinium,” ujar orang tersebut seraya membetulkan pernyataan Kim. Tetapi belakangan, setelah dicek ulang, Kim lah yang benar. Karena orang-orang Romawi mengambil nama Corinium dari bahasa Keltik, Corin.
Sumber :
www.slowbos.com
Ia membaca satu buku dalam waktu rata-rata satu jam, dan mengingat nyaris semua yang ia baca, mengingat informasi yang sangat luas dalam hal sejarah, literatur, geografi, angka, olahraga, musik dan tanggal.
http://starcasm.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/kimpeek.jpg
Teknik membacanya yaitu dengan membaca halaman kiri dengan mata kirinya dan halaman kanan dengan mata kanannya, dengan cara ini ia bisa membaca dua halaman sekaligus dengan rate 8-10 detik per halaman. ia bisa mengingat isi 12000 buku.
Mungkin para pencinta fisika sudah tidak asing lagi dengan beberapa nama orang-orang jenius di bidang fisika seperti: Albert Einstein, Erwin Schroedinger, Max Planck, dan sebangsanya.
Mereka memang merupakan orang jenius yang terlahir pada zamannya masing-masing. Tapi sekarang kita tak akan membicarakan mereka, karena yang akan dibahas kali ini adalah sesosok manusia SUPERJENIUS, dialah The Rain Man alias Kim Peek.
Masa-masa Awal Kehidupan Kim Peek
Kim dilahirkan pada tahun 1951 dengan ukuran kepala 3 kali lebih besar dibandingkan ukuran kepala bayi normal. Selain itu, Kim juga divonis menderita encephalocele, yaitu semacam luka di belakang kepala yang memperlihatkan sebagian otaknya yang menonjol keluar.
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0goVcgj4lRba3/340x.jpg
Di usia tiga tahun, luka itu semakin meluas dan merusak sebagian otak Kim. Tahun 1983, Kim menjalani pemeriksaan X-ray yang berhasil menyibak keanehan yang terjadi di otak Kim, yaitu otak Kim hanya memiliki satu bagian! Dengan kata lain, otak Kim tidak terbagi menjadi otak kanan dan otak kiri layaknya orang normal.
Kemudian, setelah dilakukan pemeriksaan lanjutan, kemballi diperlihatkan bahwa setengah dari bagian otak Kim telah terpecah menjadi tiga bagian.
Berbagai pemeriksaan itu tak juga memberikan keterangan mengenai penyebab kejeniusan Kim, melainkan hanya penyebab ketidakmampuannya. Kim memiliki kelemahan dalam hal motorik, bahkan untuk mandi dan menggosok gigi pun tak dapat dilakukan seorang diri.
Ketika Kim lahir, dokter memvonisnya sebagai ‘anak terbelakang’ atau ‘cacat mental’ dan ia menyarankan kedua orang tua Kim untuk membawanya ke rumah perawatan. Namun pada saat itu Fran dan istrinya membawa pulang Kim dan memperkenalkan Kim pada buku.
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/00Mr1zl4HLfdL/340x.jpg
Pada usia tiga tahun, Kim bertanya pada Fran arti kata “rahasia”. Sambil bercanda, Fran menyuruh putranya itu untuk mencarinya di kamus. “Saat itu ia belum bisa berjalan”, kenangnya, “jadi ia merangkak ke arah meja, mengangkat tubuhnya ke atas meja dan sekitar 30 detik kemudian ia berseru ‘ketemu!’”
Saat berumur 4,5 tahun Kim sudah hafal 8 volume awal dari satu set ensiklopedia yang ada di rumahnya. Bahkan, baru-baru ini telah terungkap bahwa Kim dapat membaca 2 halaman buku secara bersamaan dan meyerap isinya hanya dalam waktu 10 detik! Hebatnya lagi informasi yang ia peroleh tadi tak akan dia lupakan. Menakjubkan!
Selain kemampuan menghafal dan aritmatika yang jauh diatas rata-rata, Kim juga mencintai musik dan belajar memainkan piano pada Dr. April Greenan dari Universitas Utah.
“Dia mempunyai kemampuan bermusik yang fenomenal dan lebih dari sekedar menghafal”, Ujar Dr.Greenan. “Bila Kim mendengar sebuah simfoni saat dia kecil, dan kemudian mendengarnya lagi pada usia 53 tahun, ia langsung dapat mengetahui bila terdapat kesalahan kecil pada permainan musik itu.”
Kejeniusan Seorang Kim Peek
Sesungguhnya apa yang dikatakan dokter yang membantu kelahiran Kim ialah benar, bahwa Kim bukanlah merupakan seorang autis jenius, tapi lebih tepat disebut pria dengan keterbelakangan mental yang superjenius.
Karena seorang yang jenius biasanya memiliki kemampuan luar biasa dalam 3 bidang. Tetapi Kim, sang superjenius, memiliki kemampuan yang sangat hebat setidaknya di 15 bidang yang berbeda!
Hal ini disebabkan karena kemampuan menghafal 12.000 buku, memprediksi cuaca dan memiliki kemampuan bermusik layaknya Mozart! Tak ada orang lain di dunia ini yang memiliki kapasitas otak seperti Kim Peek.
Badan Antariksa Amerika (NASA) pun tertarik menggunakan berbagai peralatan canggih, seperti brain imaging dan data fusion techniques, untuk menemukan rahasia di balik kemampuan otak Kim yang mengagumkan.
Ketika Kim ditanya mengenai pendapatnya mengenai langkah yang akan diambil NASA, ia pun menjawab, “Itu yang terbaik.” Mengapa dia bisa tahu segalanya? “Karena saya punya rasa cinta yang besar pada semua yang saya lihat,”ujar Kim.
Sulit untuk berbincang-bincang dengan Kim. Pikirannya mampu berpindah-pindah dengan kecepatan tinggi. Namun dengan bantuan Fran, Kim selalu dibimbing untuk kembali pada topik pembicaraan semula.
Dalam sebuah pembicaraan umum, seorang bercerita bahwa ia dibesarkan di kota Cirencester. “Itu adalah nama kamp orang Romawi, Corin,” sahut Kim. “Corinium,” ujar orang tersebut seraya membetulkan pernyataan Kim. Tetapi belakangan, setelah dicek ulang, Kim lah yang benar. Karena orang-orang Romawi mengambil nama Corinium dari bahasa Keltik, Corin.
Sumber :
www.slowbos.com
TANPAMU DISISIKU
”Saat ku mengenal dirimu, saat itu pula ketakutan demi ketakutan mengikutiku
Kuputuskan tuk mengikuti rasa yg tumbuh dan berakar semakin dalam
Dengan satu alasan yang tak masuk akal
Barangkali...
Kaulah pangeran yang selalu hadir dalam mimpiku”
Assalamu alaikum Wr. Wb
Sehari tak melihat dirimu bagai sewindu lamanya. Baru seminggu yang lalu kucium adamu disampingku, kini rinduku pun mengundang tuk memelukmu lagi. Bagaimana kabarmu setelah meninggalkanku sendiri, kekasih hatiku?. Bahagiakah kau disana dengan kesibukan dan sekelilingmu?. Pernahkah ingat padaku?. Atau setidaknya, ingatkah hari-hari indah kita yang telah terlewat?.
Semenjak kau tinggalkanku sendiri, mimpi malamku tak pernah kosong tanpa adamu disana, seolah kau mengerti akan rindu yang kurasa...kau hadir dengan tatapan manismu dan terus menjamu mauku dengan manis. Inikah panorama cinta yang buatku enggan beranjak jauh darimu?.
Sungguh tak mampuku menerawang kedepan tanpa adamu disampingku, mengertikah apa maksutku, kekasih hatiku?
Sudah bgitu lama, ku mengenalmu dengan segala kelebihan dan kekurangan yang bagiku tak ada bedanya karena yang kulihat disana, adalah dirimu yang indah dan penyayang. Seperti kemarin, saat masa sulit itu membuatmu dan aku hampir saling membenci, nyatanya kini kembali kemasa dimana aku dan kamu dalam diam tapi berfikir, kemana arah yang kita jalani ini, harapku kau pun memikirkan hal itu. Biarlah untuk saat ini kau jelajahi setiap sudut dunia ini, biarlah untuk hari-hari esok kau masih mengejar ilusi dalam hayalmu, biarlah untuk bulan-bulan kedepan pandanganmu masih tertuju pada ambisimu, dan biarlah untuk se tahun kedepan kau masih ingin menunjukkan kebisaanmu, namun...nanti, disuatu hari nanti, dikala dayungmu sudah tak mampu lagi melawan ombak, disaat jemumu kian tak mau kompromi, layarmu mulai patah dan ingin berlabuh dengan sisa yang tertinggal, kembalilah ke pelabuhan hatiku....kukan menyambutmu dengan senyum dan pelukan kedua tanganku. Karena sementara kau masih menjadi musafir cinta, aku pun disini akan membenahi hati dan membingkai kisah kita agar tak terkikis sedikit pun oleh waktu yang terus bergulir. Ku buktikan dengan sendiriku berteman impian dan bayanganmu, kekasih hatiku....
Sang kekasih hatiku....bisikkan padaku resah yang menyelimutimu, dari sorot matamu kulihat ada sepenggal rahasia yang enggan kau bagi denganku, apa yang kau takutkan???.
Kutak peduli dg kemisteriusanmu, bukan ku tak ingin mendengar tapi feelingku beerkata lain. Ku akui keunggulanmu dibandingkan aku, untuk saat ini itu tak kupungkiri tapi...inilah pengorbananku dan keseriusanku akan jalinan yang telah ada dan bagiku kisah kita bukanlah satu ketidaksengajaan tapi itu adalah pilihan, dimana pilihan itu telah kau putuskan dengan dirimu dan aku dengan diriku, tak ada satu ikatan antara kita tapi sadarkah kau, kekasih hatiku....disaat sinar matamu dan sinar mataku menunjuk satu bintang disana, disaat itu pula ikatan itu menyatukan ingin kita. Kututup mataku, saat menunjuk bintang itu, itu adalah bintang kita...bintang yang akan menyatukan kita, bintang yang akan selalu mendengar kisah kita dan bintang saksi cinta kita. Taukah apa yang kuminta saat itu?, ku ingin ujung kisah kita kan indah nantinya...apakah kau menginginkan hal yang sama???
Kekasih hatiku....
Dengan secarik kertas ini, semoga hati dan sayangmu kian bertambah...kian mengerti apa yang kufikirkan selama ini dan mulai berani jujur akan kata hati. Tak perlu menjawabnya sekarang, murnikan dulu dasar hati yang meragu selama ini...atau terbanglah dulu dari dahan yang satu ke dahan yang lain agar tak ada sesal nantinya bagimu dengan pilihan yang kau ambil, jangan khawatirkan aku karena aku kan setia menantimu...
Sebaris tanya kulihat disana, aku mengerti...karena ku ingin hanya kamu dan kuingin kaupun begitu.
Sampai jumpa di masa indah besok, semoga senyummu dan senyumku masih milik kisah kita...
”aku sayang kamu, kekasih hatiku”
”Bagaimana mungkin kau buat aku untuk menepi
Ku takkan mau melepasmu
Karena bahagiaku hanya denganmu
Dan ku pun yakin
Bahagiamu karenaku
Kamu sangat menyayangiku
Hingga tak sanggup dirimu
Tegas melepasku
Karena sesungguhnya sayangmu hanya untukku”
V3
Kuputuskan tuk mengikuti rasa yg tumbuh dan berakar semakin dalam
Dengan satu alasan yang tak masuk akal
Barangkali...
Kaulah pangeran yang selalu hadir dalam mimpiku”
Assalamu alaikum Wr. Wb
Sehari tak melihat dirimu bagai sewindu lamanya. Baru seminggu yang lalu kucium adamu disampingku, kini rinduku pun mengundang tuk memelukmu lagi. Bagaimana kabarmu setelah meninggalkanku sendiri, kekasih hatiku?. Bahagiakah kau disana dengan kesibukan dan sekelilingmu?. Pernahkah ingat padaku?. Atau setidaknya, ingatkah hari-hari indah kita yang telah terlewat?.
Semenjak kau tinggalkanku sendiri, mimpi malamku tak pernah kosong tanpa adamu disana, seolah kau mengerti akan rindu yang kurasa...kau hadir dengan tatapan manismu dan terus menjamu mauku dengan manis. Inikah panorama cinta yang buatku enggan beranjak jauh darimu?.
Sungguh tak mampuku menerawang kedepan tanpa adamu disampingku, mengertikah apa maksutku, kekasih hatiku?
Sudah bgitu lama, ku mengenalmu dengan segala kelebihan dan kekurangan yang bagiku tak ada bedanya karena yang kulihat disana, adalah dirimu yang indah dan penyayang. Seperti kemarin, saat masa sulit itu membuatmu dan aku hampir saling membenci, nyatanya kini kembali kemasa dimana aku dan kamu dalam diam tapi berfikir, kemana arah yang kita jalani ini, harapku kau pun memikirkan hal itu. Biarlah untuk saat ini kau jelajahi setiap sudut dunia ini, biarlah untuk hari-hari esok kau masih mengejar ilusi dalam hayalmu, biarlah untuk bulan-bulan kedepan pandanganmu masih tertuju pada ambisimu, dan biarlah untuk se tahun kedepan kau masih ingin menunjukkan kebisaanmu, namun...nanti, disuatu hari nanti, dikala dayungmu sudah tak mampu lagi melawan ombak, disaat jemumu kian tak mau kompromi, layarmu mulai patah dan ingin berlabuh dengan sisa yang tertinggal, kembalilah ke pelabuhan hatiku....kukan menyambutmu dengan senyum dan pelukan kedua tanganku. Karena sementara kau masih menjadi musafir cinta, aku pun disini akan membenahi hati dan membingkai kisah kita agar tak terkikis sedikit pun oleh waktu yang terus bergulir. Ku buktikan dengan sendiriku berteman impian dan bayanganmu, kekasih hatiku....
Sang kekasih hatiku....bisikkan padaku resah yang menyelimutimu, dari sorot matamu kulihat ada sepenggal rahasia yang enggan kau bagi denganku, apa yang kau takutkan???.
Kutak peduli dg kemisteriusanmu, bukan ku tak ingin mendengar tapi feelingku beerkata lain. Ku akui keunggulanmu dibandingkan aku, untuk saat ini itu tak kupungkiri tapi...inilah pengorbananku dan keseriusanku akan jalinan yang telah ada dan bagiku kisah kita bukanlah satu ketidaksengajaan tapi itu adalah pilihan, dimana pilihan itu telah kau putuskan dengan dirimu dan aku dengan diriku, tak ada satu ikatan antara kita tapi sadarkah kau, kekasih hatiku....disaat sinar matamu dan sinar mataku menunjuk satu bintang disana, disaat itu pula ikatan itu menyatukan ingin kita. Kututup mataku, saat menunjuk bintang itu, itu adalah bintang kita...bintang yang akan menyatukan kita, bintang yang akan selalu mendengar kisah kita dan bintang saksi cinta kita. Taukah apa yang kuminta saat itu?, ku ingin ujung kisah kita kan indah nantinya...apakah kau menginginkan hal yang sama???
Kekasih hatiku....
Dengan secarik kertas ini, semoga hati dan sayangmu kian bertambah...kian mengerti apa yang kufikirkan selama ini dan mulai berani jujur akan kata hati. Tak perlu menjawabnya sekarang, murnikan dulu dasar hati yang meragu selama ini...atau terbanglah dulu dari dahan yang satu ke dahan yang lain agar tak ada sesal nantinya bagimu dengan pilihan yang kau ambil, jangan khawatirkan aku karena aku kan setia menantimu...
Sebaris tanya kulihat disana, aku mengerti...karena ku ingin hanya kamu dan kuingin kaupun begitu.
Sampai jumpa di masa indah besok, semoga senyummu dan senyumku masih milik kisah kita...
”aku sayang kamu, kekasih hatiku”
”Bagaimana mungkin kau buat aku untuk menepi
Ku takkan mau melepasmu
Karena bahagiaku hanya denganmu
Dan ku pun yakin
Bahagiamu karenaku
Kamu sangat menyayangiku
Hingga tak sanggup dirimu
Tegas melepasku
Karena sesungguhnya sayangmu hanya untukku”
V3
WARNA -WARNI KU
05 agustus 2006
Bukankah ini yang dinamakan hidup??? Kadang menangis dan kadang tertawa...kadang mengharap namun kadang tanpa tujuan.
Hari makin tua...hati makin tak menentu jua. Ingin mengadu, pada siapa? Bahkan tambatan hati pun sudah tak dapat kugapai.
Sedikit demi sedikit, kumulai berada di depan pintu impianku, menjadi seorang dokter hewan, lebih khususnya seorang dokter hewan praktek, itulah cita-citaku, walau baru satu tahun terakhir ini, gunung es yang membeku itu mulai sadar akan potensi dirinya sebenarnya, aku bisa...
Tak banyak yang dapat kuceritakan dalam cerita remajaku...saat seragam sekolah membalut masa puber dan saat jas almamater membingkai lamunanku.
Saat ini, aku masih memakainya...dipundakku ada setumpuk harapan dari orangtua yang dengan tulusnya terus membimbing tuk raih cita-cita, walau apapun itu, mereka ada disampingku, terus menggerakkan langkah kakiku dan menangis untuk menggenggam harapanku....
Aku...
Aku hanya seorang gadis yang penuh ambisi dan keras kepala, punya prinsip yang terus mengokohkan inginku, dulu...semenjak angan dan mimpi mulai terbentuk dan sekarang ada satu hal yang membuatku takut dengan mimpi yang semakin hari semakin melemahkan etika mata hatiku.
Aku sadar....masa-masa puncak dimana tatapan mata masih padaku, aku adalah seorang yang sombong...percaya diri dan tak ingin tersaingi oleh siapapun, dalam hal apapun dan dalam kondisis apapun. Ada yang tak kumengerti....tak selamanya mahkota itu bertahta dikepalaku, karna semua ada masanya....
Ingatku pada mereka yang menghadiahkan mahkota itu padaku, mereka yang selalu menyanjung dan memujiku...
Aku bersyukur pada sang maha Adil telah menciptakanku dan memberiku kesempatan menikmati dunia ini. Memiliki orang tua yang amat sangat menyayangiku, adik-adik yang begitu lucu dan sahabat-sahabat yang melindungiku...
Siang itu, sepulang sekolah...ada keajaiban yang kusaksikan sendiri, aha....aku punya adik lagi, seorang gadis mungil yang lucu, bibirnya begitu merah, kulitnya begitu lembut dan tatapannya seolah memberi fatwa angin surga. ”yusnita dewi”, gadis mungil itu diberi nama yang aku tak tau atas inspirasi apa hingga nama itu yang jadi simbolisnya. Saat itu, keluargaku begitu bahagia, seorang ibu yang begitu sabar dan menyayangi anak-anaknya dan seorang ayah yang begitu kerasnya menghidupi keluarga, walau aku masih kecil, aku melihat keringat itu karna sayang yang begitu dalam terhadap kami anak-anaknya. Terima kasih pada orangtuaku yang amat sangat kusayangi....
Saat ini, aku sudah begitu dewasa....fikirku semakin matang dan langkahku semakin pasti, ingatku tak pernah lepas akan cerita-cerita itu. Ibu...kau tau, gadis kecilmu yang dulu sering kau manjakan kini sudah begitu kuat menghadapi hidup ini, semua berkat bimbinganmu. Ingatkah, sewaktu seragam merah putih kupakai, kau sering menanyakan apa cita-citaku, aku tak ragu untuk menjawab, ”aku ingin jadi guru, seperti ibu”. Huh...saat ini, cita-cita itu sudah tak menjamuku lagi, entahlah....aku merasa tak berbakat menjadi pengajar, aku lebih menyukai bekerja sendiri tanpa harus komunikasi dengan banyak orang. Hidup memang tak harus statis...
Kenapa aku harus berpisah dengan keluargaku?, bukan hal mudah tapi semua demi masa depan, aku memilihnya dan siap dengan kontribusi yang akan terjadi. Jangan katakan aku tak bersedih saat sendiri tanpa kalian, walau tangis adik-adikku sangat mengganggu fikiran, kini kusadar tangis itu adalah luapan api kesuksesan buat keluargaku. Ayah...ibu....aku melihat kebanggan dimata kalian dengan prestasiku. Bukan sombong, aku selalu jadi bintang disetiap kompetisi.
Kau ingat ibu...kelas 2 SD, aku sudah mengikuti kompetisi dan sainganku adalah kelas enam, begitu hebatnya anakmu ini. Dan perjalannaku semasa SD membuatmu bangga padaku. Banyak sekali teman-teman cowok yang mengikutiku, aku jadi merepotkanmu, ibu...ya...karna setiap pulang sekolah airmata membasahi pipiku, aku kesal dengan tingkah mereka.....hingga aku memilih sekolah ditempat yang berbeda.
Apa senyumku begitu manis, ibu??? Hum...hingga saat akupun sudah meranjak remaja, dengan seragam Smp, aku masih berada dipuncak....
Mereka sangat mengagumiku...jujur, aku pun begitu bangga dengan kemampuanku. Aku selalu berada dibarisan depan, banyak mata yang terus memandang kearahku.
Bolehkah aku bercerita sedikit tentang cinta monyetku???
Aku menyukainya karna tatapan matanya yang indah. Tempat duduknya tepat dibelakangku. Cowok manis yang tidak begitu berani untuk memulai. Aku sering memergokinya sedang memperhatikanku....” july...tasnya jatuh”. Wow...ingatanku masih kuat dengan kata-kata itu. Dasar....aku tak menyahut ataupun melihatnya, tersenyum bersembunyi dengan tatapan masih kedepan, itulah yang kulakukan dan mengambil tasku yang jatuh. Sejujurnya, itu awal yang begitu lucu untukku berteman dengannya. Dia terus memperhatikannku tanpa berkata apa-apa, namun tatapannya begitu jelas memberi isyarat akan inginnya. ”july...nanti pulang bareng ya!”. ”mm...”.
Kenapa dia terus membuntutiku???. Tidak hanya didalam kelas, waktu istirahatpun, dia selalu berjalan dibelakangku. Hingga akhirnya kuberanikan diri tuk menanyakan hal itu padanya. ”aku ingin jadi temanmu”, ”bukankah semua orang disini punya hak untuk berteman dengan siapa aja tanpa harus membuntutinya?”. aku tak punya pilihan lain karna menurutku itu tawaran yang lumayan bagus, setidaknya untuk mengetahui dia lebih banyak.
”ada cowok yang naksir ma kamu”, ” mm...”. kami mulai akrab semenjak kedekatan itu. Ternyata dia bukan cowok pendiam seperti yang kubayangkan. Selera humornya begitu tinggi, ada banyak hal yang kusukai darinya, tidak terkecuali dengan tampangnya, so sweet...wajahnya unik dan beda denga cowok lain, punya lesung pipit dan senyum yang begitu menggoda. ”kamu kenal dengan Atno?”. ” ya...apa dia cowok yang kamu maksut?”.
Pada dasarnya aku bukan tipe cewek yang suka diuber-uber seperti itu, aku lebih tertarik dengan cowok sederhana tanpa over acting. Aku merasa baru beberapa bulan masuk sekolah, tapi...terlalu banyak masalah yang membebaniku. Aku belum mengerti apa itu pacaran, apa itu yang namanya cinta, yang ku tau hanya seringkali wajah seorang cowok mengikutiku. Dan pastinya, aku tak suka jika dalam pertemanan ada unsur lain. Aku memang dekat dengan Atno, aku mengaguminya, bahasa inggrisnya perlu diteladani, belajar lebih banyak, itulah yang membuatku dekat dengannya. Aku tak menyangka dibalik niat baiknya untuk mengajariku bhs inngris ternyata ia juga mengiginkan satu status. 2 minggu pertemanananku dengannya, ia sudah berani mengungkapkan perasaan, sepucuk surat yang ia selipkan disaku bajuku. Aku tak begitu mengerti apa yang ada dalam hatinya, entah berapa kali kalimat ” i love u” itu ia tuliskan disepanjang suratnya.
” aha...biar kutebak, Atno sudah mengatakannya ya”, ”lupakan”. Kenapa anak smp sepertiku sudah dihadapkan dengan cinta monyet seperti itu???. Apa aku harus mengingat kembali mereka-mereka yang telah mengungkapkan cintanya???.
”Hendri syahputra sikumbang”, namamu masih kuingat kan???. Aku bukan tak menghargai perasaanmu, sejujurnya, saat itu aku pun merasakan yang sama, aku merasa terlindungi dengan keberadaanmu disampingku. Dengan sikap cemburumu bila mereka mengejarku. Aku tak mengerti apa itu cinta, yang ku tau aku menyukaimu...
Kenapa aku menolakmu???, karna aku tak ingin menyakitimu...aku bukan cewek yang hanya betah dengan melihatmu saja, aku masih ingin mengenal lebih banyak, dan aku tak ingin terkekang, aku masih ingin bebas tanpa ada yang membuntutiku. Itulah alasanku untuk tidak memposisikanmu di tempat itu, maafkan aku...
Kamu memiliki nilai plus dimataku, setidaknya dengan penolakan itu tak merubah keadaan kita sebagai teman, malah kau semakin baik, berbeda dengan mereka yang tak bisa menerima kekalahan. Ingatkah dengan senandung lagu yang kau nyanyikan untukku???
3 tahun berakhir begitu cepat, diakhir masa smp, seorang teman yang merupakan saingan beratku dalam hal prestasi untuk pertama kalinya mau tersenyum padaku. ”july...apa kau tak ingin aku menulis pesan dan kesan untukmu?”, saat itu aku memang sedang minta biodata dari teman-teman karna sebentar lagi kita akan lulus. ” kamu juga punya jatah”. Aku iri padanya yang selalu berusaha mengalahkanku, walau sampai sekolah usai, aku selalu ada diperingkat juara umum tapi dengan selisih nilai yang tidak begitu jauh membuatku harus berhati-hati padanya. Aku tak pernah mendengar nama itu sebelumnya, tapi tiba-tiba ia muncul dengan nilai-nilai yang hampir menggeser posisiku. ”siapa? Boleh aku tau siapa namanya?”, ”khusnul yakin”. Sifat penasaranku memang tinggi, kulangkahkan kaki menuju kelas II 3, ”khusnul, ada yang mencarimu”. Aku penasaran seperti apa cowok ini, seperti apa tampangnya dan seperti apa kesombongannya. ”itu dia yang namanya khusnul”, aku memperhatikannya dari belakang, dan berjalan kearahnya. Oo...ini dia orangnya, lumayan...aku tak sempat berkenalan langsung dengannya.
Sejak saat itu, geraknya selalu mencuri pandanganku, entah mengapa...aku selalu mengikuti gerak-geriknya, aku tak tau apa yang kuingin darinya.
Pernah satu waktu, saat itu ada acara quiz dari guru bhs inggris, setiap yang kalah dapat hukuman. Kelompokku berlawanna dengan kelompoknya, awalnya khusnul dapat hukuman dan karena khusnul tidak bisa menjawab pertanyaan, ia dihukum joget di depan kelas. ”ooo...ternyata tuh cowok jago disco”.
Aku mulai mengaguminya, mulai tidak menganggapanya sebagai musuh tapi sebaliknya, aku mulai menyukainya...kita pernah surat2an dan masih dalam status teman dekat, hanya itu...entahlah darimu, walau kau pernah mengaku bahwa aku ini cewekmu, bagiku itu tak jadi soal tapi yang pasti tak ada komitmen antara kita....
Sampai akhirnya...dikelas 2 smu, diawal masuk sekolah...setelah cinta monyet itu, kumulai mengerti dengan yang namanya suka. Aku ingin punya someone yang bisa mengerti aku tapi siapa???
Aku pernah menghayalkannya....cowok cakep dengan mata indah dan senyuman yang manis tentunya. 0...god...mimpi apa aku semalam??? Dia berada tepat didepanku...
Aku masih ingat awal pertemuan itu...cinta pertamaku...aku memperhatikan cara bicaranya dan tak jarang aku tertangkap basah sedang menghayalkannya. ”jam berapa dek?”. hi...hi... akhirnya ia membuka pembicaraan denganku. Semenjak perkenalan itu, ia mulai dekat denganku. ”haloo...fit, sory kl abg br bisa nelpon skrg ya...sbnarnya ada yg mo abg omongin”...jgeeer....dia orang keberapa ya??? Caranya aja yang beda2...
Walau hatiku begitu senang dengan pernyataan cintanya, aku masih minta waktu tuk mikirin jawabannya....dan itulah kisahku dengannya. Cowok baik dengan penampilan prima, kau tau...sepupuku sangat suka denganmu. Dan kau tau...bg aswin begitu senang dengan hubungan kita, tapi...maaf jk pada akhirnya aku harus memutuskanmu. Ada satu hal yang belum bisa aku memahaminya, mungkin karna aku belum siap pacaran. Entahlah...apa bedanya pacaran biasa dengan orang dewasa, dan bagiku ada batas yang tidak boleh dilampaui.
Mungkin aku harus banyak belajar...intinya aku harus menunggu sampai siap ke arah sana. Lebih nyamannya aku hanya bisa berteman karena peraturan dalam hal pacaran tak mampu ku mematuhinya.
Aku bahagia karena ada seseorang yang mendukung persepsiku. Awalnya dia, ”hadi” yang ku kenal sombong dan angkuh itu tidak masuk dalam pergaulanku tapi...mungkin karena kami sering berantem, teman2 lain malah menganggap itu suatu trik buat pedekate. Dan aku tak menyangka, jika hal itu memang benar terjadi...dia menyukaiku???aku tak bisa pacaran karena beberapa hal, 1. aku bukan cewek yang suka terikat,2. pacaran dgnku ga bakalan bisa malam mingguan krn dlm keluargaku ga ada istilah main or pacaran sblm kerja,3. kita boleh dekat tp tdk ada kontak fisik. God...semua itu tak jd masalah baginya dan mmg itulah yg terjadi tak ada tuntutan ataupun kewajiban so semua berjalan seperti biasa.
Hadi...taukah kau kl aku merasa bersalah dgn semua itu. Dr awal ku membencimu hingga perlahan aku mulai menyukaimu. Kau cowok baik dan menghargai cewek. Aku ingat waktu itu kau bilang tanganmu sakit, aku tau maksutnya tapi...aku tidak tertipu dan kau...hi...hi...mukamu merah krn malu...sory...karna mmg kita sudah punya komitmen, ok!!!
Tapi aku begitu mengagumimu...sampai saat ini, keseriusanmu adalah modal utama meruntuhkan hatiku. Secara tdk langsung kau telah mengikatku hingga ku berfikir untuk melabuhkan hati ini pada yg lain. Dan itu tlh kau buktikan dgn penepatan janjimu kemarin, kau melamarku. Ya...dulu pun kau pernah berkata bahwa akulah cewek terakhir dihatimu.
Aku menghargai niat tulusmu tapi...entahlah...aku ragu dgn diriku sendiri, mampukah aku menyayangimu seperti kau menyayangiku??? Mampukah aku terus memikirkanmu sementara masih ada dalam fikirku seseorang yang sampai detik ini masih kusayangi???
Mudah2n tuhan memberi petunjuk bagiku, siapapun yang nantinya jadi pendampingku kan kuterima karna dialah yg terbaik untukku...
V3
Bukankah ini yang dinamakan hidup??? Kadang menangis dan kadang tertawa...kadang mengharap namun kadang tanpa tujuan.
Hari makin tua...hati makin tak menentu jua. Ingin mengadu, pada siapa? Bahkan tambatan hati pun sudah tak dapat kugapai.
Sedikit demi sedikit, kumulai berada di depan pintu impianku, menjadi seorang dokter hewan, lebih khususnya seorang dokter hewan praktek, itulah cita-citaku, walau baru satu tahun terakhir ini, gunung es yang membeku itu mulai sadar akan potensi dirinya sebenarnya, aku bisa...
Tak banyak yang dapat kuceritakan dalam cerita remajaku...saat seragam sekolah membalut masa puber dan saat jas almamater membingkai lamunanku.
Saat ini, aku masih memakainya...dipundakku ada setumpuk harapan dari orangtua yang dengan tulusnya terus membimbing tuk raih cita-cita, walau apapun itu, mereka ada disampingku, terus menggerakkan langkah kakiku dan menangis untuk menggenggam harapanku....
Aku...
Aku hanya seorang gadis yang penuh ambisi dan keras kepala, punya prinsip yang terus mengokohkan inginku, dulu...semenjak angan dan mimpi mulai terbentuk dan sekarang ada satu hal yang membuatku takut dengan mimpi yang semakin hari semakin melemahkan etika mata hatiku.
Aku sadar....masa-masa puncak dimana tatapan mata masih padaku, aku adalah seorang yang sombong...percaya diri dan tak ingin tersaingi oleh siapapun, dalam hal apapun dan dalam kondisis apapun. Ada yang tak kumengerti....tak selamanya mahkota itu bertahta dikepalaku, karna semua ada masanya....
Ingatku pada mereka yang menghadiahkan mahkota itu padaku, mereka yang selalu menyanjung dan memujiku...
Aku bersyukur pada sang maha Adil telah menciptakanku dan memberiku kesempatan menikmati dunia ini. Memiliki orang tua yang amat sangat menyayangiku, adik-adik yang begitu lucu dan sahabat-sahabat yang melindungiku...
Siang itu, sepulang sekolah...ada keajaiban yang kusaksikan sendiri, aha....aku punya adik lagi, seorang gadis mungil yang lucu, bibirnya begitu merah, kulitnya begitu lembut dan tatapannya seolah memberi fatwa angin surga. ”yusnita dewi”, gadis mungil itu diberi nama yang aku tak tau atas inspirasi apa hingga nama itu yang jadi simbolisnya. Saat itu, keluargaku begitu bahagia, seorang ibu yang begitu sabar dan menyayangi anak-anaknya dan seorang ayah yang begitu kerasnya menghidupi keluarga, walau aku masih kecil, aku melihat keringat itu karna sayang yang begitu dalam terhadap kami anak-anaknya. Terima kasih pada orangtuaku yang amat sangat kusayangi....
Saat ini, aku sudah begitu dewasa....fikirku semakin matang dan langkahku semakin pasti, ingatku tak pernah lepas akan cerita-cerita itu. Ibu...kau tau, gadis kecilmu yang dulu sering kau manjakan kini sudah begitu kuat menghadapi hidup ini, semua berkat bimbinganmu. Ingatkah, sewaktu seragam merah putih kupakai, kau sering menanyakan apa cita-citaku, aku tak ragu untuk menjawab, ”aku ingin jadi guru, seperti ibu”. Huh...saat ini, cita-cita itu sudah tak menjamuku lagi, entahlah....aku merasa tak berbakat menjadi pengajar, aku lebih menyukai bekerja sendiri tanpa harus komunikasi dengan banyak orang. Hidup memang tak harus statis...
Kenapa aku harus berpisah dengan keluargaku?, bukan hal mudah tapi semua demi masa depan, aku memilihnya dan siap dengan kontribusi yang akan terjadi. Jangan katakan aku tak bersedih saat sendiri tanpa kalian, walau tangis adik-adikku sangat mengganggu fikiran, kini kusadar tangis itu adalah luapan api kesuksesan buat keluargaku. Ayah...ibu....aku melihat kebanggan dimata kalian dengan prestasiku. Bukan sombong, aku selalu jadi bintang disetiap kompetisi.
Kau ingat ibu...kelas 2 SD, aku sudah mengikuti kompetisi dan sainganku adalah kelas enam, begitu hebatnya anakmu ini. Dan perjalannaku semasa SD membuatmu bangga padaku. Banyak sekali teman-teman cowok yang mengikutiku, aku jadi merepotkanmu, ibu...ya...karna setiap pulang sekolah airmata membasahi pipiku, aku kesal dengan tingkah mereka.....hingga aku memilih sekolah ditempat yang berbeda.
Apa senyumku begitu manis, ibu??? Hum...hingga saat akupun sudah meranjak remaja, dengan seragam Smp, aku masih berada dipuncak....
Mereka sangat mengagumiku...jujur, aku pun begitu bangga dengan kemampuanku. Aku selalu berada dibarisan depan, banyak mata yang terus memandang kearahku.
Bolehkah aku bercerita sedikit tentang cinta monyetku???
Aku menyukainya karna tatapan matanya yang indah. Tempat duduknya tepat dibelakangku. Cowok manis yang tidak begitu berani untuk memulai. Aku sering memergokinya sedang memperhatikanku....” july...tasnya jatuh”. Wow...ingatanku masih kuat dengan kata-kata itu. Dasar....aku tak menyahut ataupun melihatnya, tersenyum bersembunyi dengan tatapan masih kedepan, itulah yang kulakukan dan mengambil tasku yang jatuh. Sejujurnya, itu awal yang begitu lucu untukku berteman dengannya. Dia terus memperhatikannku tanpa berkata apa-apa, namun tatapannya begitu jelas memberi isyarat akan inginnya. ”july...nanti pulang bareng ya!”. ”mm...”.
Kenapa dia terus membuntutiku???. Tidak hanya didalam kelas, waktu istirahatpun, dia selalu berjalan dibelakangku. Hingga akhirnya kuberanikan diri tuk menanyakan hal itu padanya. ”aku ingin jadi temanmu”, ”bukankah semua orang disini punya hak untuk berteman dengan siapa aja tanpa harus membuntutinya?”. aku tak punya pilihan lain karna menurutku itu tawaran yang lumayan bagus, setidaknya untuk mengetahui dia lebih banyak.
”ada cowok yang naksir ma kamu”, ” mm...”. kami mulai akrab semenjak kedekatan itu. Ternyata dia bukan cowok pendiam seperti yang kubayangkan. Selera humornya begitu tinggi, ada banyak hal yang kusukai darinya, tidak terkecuali dengan tampangnya, so sweet...wajahnya unik dan beda denga cowok lain, punya lesung pipit dan senyum yang begitu menggoda. ”kamu kenal dengan Atno?”. ” ya...apa dia cowok yang kamu maksut?”.
Pada dasarnya aku bukan tipe cewek yang suka diuber-uber seperti itu, aku lebih tertarik dengan cowok sederhana tanpa over acting. Aku merasa baru beberapa bulan masuk sekolah, tapi...terlalu banyak masalah yang membebaniku. Aku belum mengerti apa itu pacaran, apa itu yang namanya cinta, yang ku tau hanya seringkali wajah seorang cowok mengikutiku. Dan pastinya, aku tak suka jika dalam pertemanan ada unsur lain. Aku memang dekat dengan Atno, aku mengaguminya, bahasa inggrisnya perlu diteladani, belajar lebih banyak, itulah yang membuatku dekat dengannya. Aku tak menyangka dibalik niat baiknya untuk mengajariku bhs inngris ternyata ia juga mengiginkan satu status. 2 minggu pertemanananku dengannya, ia sudah berani mengungkapkan perasaan, sepucuk surat yang ia selipkan disaku bajuku. Aku tak begitu mengerti apa yang ada dalam hatinya, entah berapa kali kalimat ” i love u” itu ia tuliskan disepanjang suratnya.
” aha...biar kutebak, Atno sudah mengatakannya ya”, ”lupakan”. Kenapa anak smp sepertiku sudah dihadapkan dengan cinta monyet seperti itu???. Apa aku harus mengingat kembali mereka-mereka yang telah mengungkapkan cintanya???.
”Hendri syahputra sikumbang”, namamu masih kuingat kan???. Aku bukan tak menghargai perasaanmu, sejujurnya, saat itu aku pun merasakan yang sama, aku merasa terlindungi dengan keberadaanmu disampingku. Dengan sikap cemburumu bila mereka mengejarku. Aku tak mengerti apa itu cinta, yang ku tau aku menyukaimu...
Kenapa aku menolakmu???, karna aku tak ingin menyakitimu...aku bukan cewek yang hanya betah dengan melihatmu saja, aku masih ingin mengenal lebih banyak, dan aku tak ingin terkekang, aku masih ingin bebas tanpa ada yang membuntutiku. Itulah alasanku untuk tidak memposisikanmu di tempat itu, maafkan aku...
Kamu memiliki nilai plus dimataku, setidaknya dengan penolakan itu tak merubah keadaan kita sebagai teman, malah kau semakin baik, berbeda dengan mereka yang tak bisa menerima kekalahan. Ingatkah dengan senandung lagu yang kau nyanyikan untukku???
3 tahun berakhir begitu cepat, diakhir masa smp, seorang teman yang merupakan saingan beratku dalam hal prestasi untuk pertama kalinya mau tersenyum padaku. ”july...apa kau tak ingin aku menulis pesan dan kesan untukmu?”, saat itu aku memang sedang minta biodata dari teman-teman karna sebentar lagi kita akan lulus. ” kamu juga punya jatah”. Aku iri padanya yang selalu berusaha mengalahkanku, walau sampai sekolah usai, aku selalu ada diperingkat juara umum tapi dengan selisih nilai yang tidak begitu jauh membuatku harus berhati-hati padanya. Aku tak pernah mendengar nama itu sebelumnya, tapi tiba-tiba ia muncul dengan nilai-nilai yang hampir menggeser posisiku. ”siapa? Boleh aku tau siapa namanya?”, ”khusnul yakin”. Sifat penasaranku memang tinggi, kulangkahkan kaki menuju kelas II 3, ”khusnul, ada yang mencarimu”. Aku penasaran seperti apa cowok ini, seperti apa tampangnya dan seperti apa kesombongannya. ”itu dia yang namanya khusnul”, aku memperhatikannya dari belakang, dan berjalan kearahnya. Oo...ini dia orangnya, lumayan...aku tak sempat berkenalan langsung dengannya.
Sejak saat itu, geraknya selalu mencuri pandanganku, entah mengapa...aku selalu mengikuti gerak-geriknya, aku tak tau apa yang kuingin darinya.
Pernah satu waktu, saat itu ada acara quiz dari guru bhs inggris, setiap yang kalah dapat hukuman. Kelompokku berlawanna dengan kelompoknya, awalnya khusnul dapat hukuman dan karena khusnul tidak bisa menjawab pertanyaan, ia dihukum joget di depan kelas. ”ooo...ternyata tuh cowok jago disco”.
Aku mulai mengaguminya, mulai tidak menganggapanya sebagai musuh tapi sebaliknya, aku mulai menyukainya...kita pernah surat2an dan masih dalam status teman dekat, hanya itu...entahlah darimu, walau kau pernah mengaku bahwa aku ini cewekmu, bagiku itu tak jadi soal tapi yang pasti tak ada komitmen antara kita....
Sampai akhirnya...dikelas 2 smu, diawal masuk sekolah...setelah cinta monyet itu, kumulai mengerti dengan yang namanya suka. Aku ingin punya someone yang bisa mengerti aku tapi siapa???
Aku pernah menghayalkannya....cowok cakep dengan mata indah dan senyuman yang manis tentunya. 0...god...mimpi apa aku semalam??? Dia berada tepat didepanku...
Aku masih ingat awal pertemuan itu...cinta pertamaku...aku memperhatikan cara bicaranya dan tak jarang aku tertangkap basah sedang menghayalkannya. ”jam berapa dek?”. hi...hi... akhirnya ia membuka pembicaraan denganku. Semenjak perkenalan itu, ia mulai dekat denganku. ”haloo...fit, sory kl abg br bisa nelpon skrg ya...sbnarnya ada yg mo abg omongin”...jgeeer....dia orang keberapa ya??? Caranya aja yang beda2...
Walau hatiku begitu senang dengan pernyataan cintanya, aku masih minta waktu tuk mikirin jawabannya....dan itulah kisahku dengannya. Cowok baik dengan penampilan prima, kau tau...sepupuku sangat suka denganmu. Dan kau tau...bg aswin begitu senang dengan hubungan kita, tapi...maaf jk pada akhirnya aku harus memutuskanmu. Ada satu hal yang belum bisa aku memahaminya, mungkin karna aku belum siap pacaran. Entahlah...apa bedanya pacaran biasa dengan orang dewasa, dan bagiku ada batas yang tidak boleh dilampaui.
Mungkin aku harus banyak belajar...intinya aku harus menunggu sampai siap ke arah sana. Lebih nyamannya aku hanya bisa berteman karena peraturan dalam hal pacaran tak mampu ku mematuhinya.
Aku bahagia karena ada seseorang yang mendukung persepsiku. Awalnya dia, ”hadi” yang ku kenal sombong dan angkuh itu tidak masuk dalam pergaulanku tapi...mungkin karena kami sering berantem, teman2 lain malah menganggap itu suatu trik buat pedekate. Dan aku tak menyangka, jika hal itu memang benar terjadi...dia menyukaiku???aku tak bisa pacaran karena beberapa hal, 1. aku bukan cewek yang suka terikat,2. pacaran dgnku ga bakalan bisa malam mingguan krn dlm keluargaku ga ada istilah main or pacaran sblm kerja,3. kita boleh dekat tp tdk ada kontak fisik. God...semua itu tak jd masalah baginya dan mmg itulah yg terjadi tak ada tuntutan ataupun kewajiban so semua berjalan seperti biasa.
Hadi...taukah kau kl aku merasa bersalah dgn semua itu. Dr awal ku membencimu hingga perlahan aku mulai menyukaimu. Kau cowok baik dan menghargai cewek. Aku ingat waktu itu kau bilang tanganmu sakit, aku tau maksutnya tapi...aku tidak tertipu dan kau...hi...hi...mukamu merah krn malu...sory...karna mmg kita sudah punya komitmen, ok!!!
Tapi aku begitu mengagumimu...sampai saat ini, keseriusanmu adalah modal utama meruntuhkan hatiku. Secara tdk langsung kau telah mengikatku hingga ku berfikir untuk melabuhkan hati ini pada yg lain. Dan itu tlh kau buktikan dgn penepatan janjimu kemarin, kau melamarku. Ya...dulu pun kau pernah berkata bahwa akulah cewek terakhir dihatimu.
Aku menghargai niat tulusmu tapi...entahlah...aku ragu dgn diriku sendiri, mampukah aku menyayangimu seperti kau menyayangiku??? Mampukah aku terus memikirkanmu sementara masih ada dalam fikirku seseorang yang sampai detik ini masih kusayangi???
Mudah2n tuhan memberi petunjuk bagiku, siapapun yang nantinya jadi pendampingku kan kuterima karna dialah yg terbaik untukku...
V3