The Morning After

Mr Cinema Operator, I think you are the best! When the sign flashes "SOLD OUT", it doesn't really mean all tickets have been taken up but that there is still that one front row left, which by the way, would have cinema-goers craning their necks akin to sticking their necks out for the gullotine. But pray tell what difference do a front row and the 2nd and even 3rd or 4th row make? Don't they all make you hang up your necks?

This was the pathetic state moi was in on a Saturday evening. I was trying to catch "SUPERMAN RETURNS" and while waiting for someone I had secretly been chatting online, the orange code for "Filling Fast" were intermittently blinking before a still as a praying mantis red code proudly announces "Sold Out". This repeated for both the 19OO Hr and 1930 Hr showtimes before the orange code flashes again for the 2030Hr one.

By the time Mr Secret Admiree arrives, it was a front row seating left yet again. We had to abandon the idea of ever watching the caped crusader in his red underwear. That was hugely disappointing! But we did sit down for a real good yakkity-yak at Long John Silvers (at least I had) and the young crowd dining there was both fabulous and delectable ( I mean the dudes, what were you thinking?).

Among the crowd were a couple of dudes I met over the week elsewhere. Singapore must be really small for us to cross paths again like that.

I met two to three dudes this week, had a semblance of some good conversation (at least on my part I think) and moi sent out love feelers. No go, I think, as all are either straight aces (they would have you believe so) or bi (again I think it is a cover-up). As far as moi is concerned, metrosexuals are just "homosexuals in hiding" (HIH, luckily this acronym does not shorten to the frightening HIV one).

I don't have the statistics but it is me feeling that the world is more bi than purely straight ace or gay (both these at each end constituting perhaps 10% ). Anyone can go both ways or exclusively either.

It seems that the hiring of native English speakers' issue had not gone away. If I haven't had a fuller say than I did the last time, let me say more now. The issue seems to have centred on one imperative of "speaking better English" and that means enunciating words properly which native speakers apparently have a sharper edge?

One reader has written in to caution that many such speakers speak with their regional accents which would have our local students in stitches sooner than SUPERMAN can strip down to his spandex ( if you have heard Beckham announced his leaving the English soccer squad in his British English, you would have tickled yourself silly just listening to him).

Pronouncing words right is just one aspect. Stringing a sentence together correctly is another. Even more importantly, it about using words in the context of what it is meant to convey. In other words to know what you are trying to communicate, in your own way. This is diction in part. If only natives can do this and we can't, we must be in BIG TROUBLE. So chew on this!

When I was young, I have read about every comic book there was on ULTRAMAN. Ultraman, a Japanese invention, comes in a few types and is attired differently for each. These comic books depict the stories in full color and are of photo-quality. The TV series was equally popular with kids my age. So there wasn't just American but Japanese influence in my childhood life.