Too Much Heaven

Robin Gibb has gone as well.

Suffering from  colon cancer, he went into a coma and then got out of it to sail away forever on 21 May 2012.

We have lost yet another soul.

We have only words for you. RIP.

Corazon Dies

The heroine of the revolution is gone. She is no more.Toppling ironman Ferdinand Marcos was no mean feat but Corazon did it and avenged the death of her husband Benigno. With Corazon came people power to the Philippines. Many years later, the current sitting President, Gloria Arroyo Macapagal was to use the same means to get rid of Estrada. Filipino history has never been the same since Corazon.

She has her ups and downs. Her daughter,Kris was her pride who also caused her untold heartaches, as being a young renown starlet, Kris was to get involved in many trysts especially in Hong-Kong. Her rule as President also had alot of problems. Corruption and cessation violence in Mindanao continued during her times. We know she tried her best. It was just not easy.....

We say farewell to her in this blog. Adios! Magandang Babayee!

The Passing on of a Malaysian Legend

Yasmin Ahmad, the film director that dared to cross the racial divide in her literary works has gone. She passed on late yesterday night (25 July).

Malaysians from all walks of life are proud of her. She left us a priceless legacy in film and advertisement works that thrived on the themes of love, family ties and comedy against the backdrop of multiracial Malaysia. She was a true Malaysian.

Born in Bukit Treh, Muar, Johor on July 1 1958, Yasmin, who graduated in psychology from Newcastle University, United Kingdom, had won local and international creativity awards.

She began her career as a copywriter with Ogilvy & Mather before joining Leo Burnnett as joint creative director in 1993 and rose to become its creative executive director until her death.

She was married to Abdullah Tan Yew Leong.

Her creativity could be seen in many Petronas’ commercials and evoked emotion of the viewers, especially during the Aidilfitri celebration which would certainly be missed by viewers this year.

In the film industry, Yasmin, however, drew much controversy in view of her openness and boldness in analysing social issues.

She has been targeted by critics since her first movie, “Rabun” was screened in 2003 followed by “Sepet” (2004), “Gubra” (2006), “Mukhsin” (2006), “Muallaf” (2008) and Talentime (2009).

But she also earned rave reviews for “Sepet” which won the Best Film Award and the Best Original Screenplay Award at the Malaysian Film Festival 2005. “Sepet” also bagged several international awards, namely the Asian Film Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival 2005, the Grand Prix Award at the Creteil International Women’s Film Festival in the same year.

“Gubra” won the Best Screenplay award at the Malaysian Film Festival 2006.

“Muhsin” won the Generation kplus – Best Feature Film and the Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk Grand Prix award at the Berlin International Film Festival. “Mukhsin” also won the Best Asean Film at the Cinemanila International Film Festival 2007.

“Muallaf” won the Asian Film Award – Special Mention at the Tokyo International Film Festival 2008.

While leaving indelible marks at home, Yasmin’s movies gained international recognition as they were shown in Berlin, San Francisco, Singapore and at the Cannes Film Festival.

We will remember Yasmin always.

Fun Farrah is No More

Reuters reported that the funeral for Farrah took place on 30 June.

Lover and actor Ryan O’Neal led friends and family in a private funeral service for Farrah Fawcett, who died last week, aged 62 after a battle with cancer.

O’Neal, the long-time companion of the “Charlie’s Angels” star, was one of the pall-bearers and gave a reading at the service at Los Angeles Roman Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

Redmond O’Neal, the “Love Story” actor’s 24-year-old son with Fawcett, was allowed briefly out of jail where he is being held on drugs possession charges to attend the funeral service. He also gave a bible reading.

Fellow “Charlie’s Angels” star Kate Jackson, former model Cheryl Tiegs and rocker Rod Stewart’s ex-wife Alana Stewart were among the mourners. Fawcett’s Los Angeles cancer doctor, Dr. Lawrence Piro, delivered the eulogy with Stewart.

Fawcett’s coffin was taken into the church as a quartet of musicians played “Amazing Grace” and Irving Berlin love song “Always”.

Outside the downtown Los Angeles church, a few dozen fans watched as Fawcett’s casket was taken inside, covered with sprays of bright yellow flowers that seemed to symbolise and reflect the sunny smile and golden hair that made Fawcett a worldwide star 30 years ago.

Fawcett died in a Los Angeles hospital on Thursday with O’Neal and Stewart at her side after a long struggle to beat anal and then liver cancer. A personal video diary chronicling her cancer treatments was broadcast on US television in May.

Watching from the street, Karla Dishon, 47, told Reuters outside the church she had come to pay tribute to Fawcett — a star whose hairstyle she had copied as a teenager like millions of others around the world.

“All the girls did — wavy, pretty, surfer, California girl hair,” Dishon said. “She is an icon and she is a very beautiful woman, and I think it’s too bad that we lost her so young.”

Farrah Fawcett is gone

I have taken this write-up from on on-line source.

She really tried. And, for a sex symbol, that alone can be like an accomplishment.

A scrim of sadness covers Farrah Fawcett’s career. Her stardom traced that cautionary Hollywood arc: meteoric fame followed by years spent trying first to overcome it, then, too late, seeking to recapture it.

Cancer interrupted Fawcett’s attempted comeback in 2006 and put her on a different, more didactic track – pursued by a careful-what-you-wish-for flurry of publicity.

She put the incessant tabloid intrusion to the service of her illness, making a video diary of her struggle with anal cancer that, among other things, allowed her to feel that she had some control over the coverage.

NBC, never shy about exploiting a celebrity tragedy, overproduced and overpromoted her film in “Farrah’s Story,” but never made the public service point that, besides abstinence, the HPV vaccine is the most promising form of prevention against this type of cancer, which in most cases is sexually acquired.

Fawcett died Thursday at 62. And her last poignant appearances sometimes obscure a smaller, more gratifying story line of a celebrated beauty who worked against type to construct a more dignified second act.

Fawcett tried to be a good actress, taking on extremely difficult roles. She scrubbed off her tawny good looks to play battered – and battering – women in “The Burning Bed” and “Extremities.”

Fawcett was not as talented or as versatile as other 'A rate' actresses. Still, while at the peak of her career she tried to show skeptics that an object of male desire can hold her own in roles usually reserved for less glamorous, better trained actresses.

Farrah was most famous in her earlier days.Nobody in recent memory comes close to the giddy heights Farrah Fawcett reached in the mid-’70s with one season on “Charlie’s Angels” and That Poster.

The pinup of Fawcett in a red one-piece bathing suit, tanned, head tossed, body lithe yet curvy, was a revelation. She looked delicious but also a little carnivorous, her gleaming white teeth frozen in a friendly but slightly feral smile.

That poster ended up on every teenage boy’s bedroom wall and in the annals of pop culture – Farrah was the face, body and hair of the 1970s

Fawcett left “Charlie’s Angels” after only one season, the queen of “jiggle TV.” She had a dazzling smile underscored by a whispery baby voice, a sweetness that allowed young male fantasists to believe that she would be a forgiving sex goddess.

Fawcett was a cheerleader from Corpus Christi, Texas, who radiated a healthy athleticism just ahead of the aerobics revolution led by Jane Fonda and Jamie Lee Curtis.

She made movies like “The Cannonball Run” but also set her sights on Broadway long before it became fashionable and profitable for theatres to boost ticket sales by recruiting television and movie stars to perform onstage.

And in 1983 she dared to take over a role originated by Susan Sarandon in “Extremities,” in the grueling role of a rape victim who seeks revenge on her attacker. That performance led to “The Burning Bed,” a 1984 TV movie in which she played a battered wife and which was a television milestone; it helped her secure the lead in the 1985 film version of “Extremities.”

She took on other ambitious roles, not as persuasively perhaps, but they were brave choices nonetheless: the Nazi hunter Beate Klarsfeld in a 1986 television movie; the heiress Barbara Hutton a year later; and in 1989, the wartime photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White.

Her career took a detour in 1997 – that was the year of a Playboy spread and her infamous David Letterman interview, but it was also the year she played Robert Duvall’s wife in “The Apostle,” an affecting performance that was well received by critics, if not widely seen.

She kept at it, though the offers kept shrinking; her last movie was a small part in “The Cookout,” the 2004 Queen Latifah comedy.

Toward the end, her private life – her son’s drug problems, her on-and-off relationship with the troubled Ryan O’Neal – eclipsed decades of work. Cancer brought it to an end.

Not all of her performances will stand the test of time, but what is worth remembering is how hard Farrah really tried.

In Memory of Saadah Din

Where was I on 2nd May 2009?

Yes, I was home teaching Shun and Jon before 11.30 am.
Then I went over to Section 14 at 2.00 pm to teach my 23 students at PT Seri Ilmuan, had a piece of Indian popiah with Peen and then went to DUMC for the evening service.

But a sad thing happened on 2nd May. I did not know then.

Yesterday, I received an email from my elder sister. She said in that email that our good friend,Saadah Din has passed on.

I intended to ring up Siti Salmah in the evening as soon as I have finished teaching Janice English literature. But that was not to be as Siti,as if by sixth sense, rang up first to inform me about Saadah.

She apparently was in remission after removing half of her womb.Happily married to her husband who happened to be her ex teacher, Saadah shunned her head-dress and Muslim garbs and showed her pretty self once more.

The last time I saw her was at the MIMOS office at TTM where she helmed Admin and Finance. That was ages ago. She passed away on May 2nd.

It's rather sad that Saadah is no longer with us. Not that I was in constant touch with her. We moved in different circles after we left KPA in the early 80's.

I remembered what my Sister used to say about Saadah-that she married her ex-husband on the same day that he married the first wife which was in the morning. Saadah married in the evening on the self-same day. Incredible!

In my mind,she will always be her svelte looking self, long hair, sexy in many ways, some naughty talk and always a good friend. May God bless her soul.