Slayer, the -1 tracks are of some pretty common pop songs, like Unchained Melody by Gareth Gates, and hey hey, This is the Night, by Clay, and Beautiful by Christina Aguilera. It's called Sing Ballads, and i think it's being released in conjunction with the upcoming Singapore Idol.
Krystal, -1 tracks are essentially karaoke tracks. They're the accompanying music to the song, but with the voice of the singer missing.
From The Food Quiz. Italics are obviously my comments.
My Results
You are friendly and easygoing. Why gee! Thanks! People feel comfortable around you so it is not a surprise that many friends surround you.Looks around wildly. Where?? Where?? just kidding guys. :p You have high self-esteem and will not let anyone get you down.Er, yea, I stomp on like, the faces of those who oppose me.
You're very careful and circumspect in all matters but you won't face any problems until they actually happen. Because by then, they're staring you in the face so hard you have no choice but to slap them back Also you're a kind and sensitive person.Awwww....
You think positively about the people around you and are never prejudiced. Yea! You're all cool! This means others see you as a kind and gentle person..Awwww....again They enjoy listening to what you have to say because they respect you.You do?
You are logical, smart and inventive. Hee... oh stop it...Sometimes you are too cold and selfish.Man, you really stopped it
Luther
So I watched this movie with newbie on Friday night. It's basically about Martin Luther, the guy who broke away from the Catholic church in the mid 1500s [i'm bad with dates. sorry.] to start the Protestant movement.
So what's the difference between Protestants and Catholics? For one thing, Catholics regard the Pope as their spiritual leader, the Great Shepherd of All Them Sheep, while Luther's Protestant movement was a breakaway movement from the leadership of the Vatican at the time. Why was that? Well, according to the movie, the Vatican was.... well, one hell of a shithole at that period of time. See the scenes where peddlers hawk statues and medals of saints in the streets, the predecessor to the modern day religious salesman. See the 'indulgences' being sold.
What are indulgences? Well, at that time, you paid the Church some money, and they give you a piece of paper, which states that the Bearer of this Certificate wilt have access into Heaven upon death, bypassing Purgatory, or spend 500 less days in Purgatory or something like that. It's sort of like a Monopoly card that says go straight to the Go square, and collect $200 on the way. In the movie, that was one of the Church's main sources of revenue, the selling of these little Certificates of Faith.
What got Luther into trouble with the Vatican at the time was that he specifically spoke out against the selling of indulgences, and saintly relics. [examples of saintly relics: bones of the Apostles, a hair from St Peter's head, a fingernail of Mary etc etc...] Naturally Pope Leo at the time [did i get the name right? I hope I did] got irritated, 'cos he wanted to build his spanking new St Peter's Basilica and there was this irritating little priest helping to reduce his main source of revenue. What a pest. Please excommunicate him now and let's get on with the Basilica.
[Sidenote: The St Peter's Basilica still stands today, over what is believed to be the actual remains of St Peter himself. However, because of that building, the Vatican was officially made bankrupt.]
But then again, the Holy Father Pope Leo wasn't exactly the paradigm of faith. Hello, what pope has gold gilded bird cages? The Vatican was a cesspit of corruption and politics, and this spread to the area outside. In the movie, Luther remarks that there are whores specially for the priests. Ironic considering that Jesus originally threw the moneylenders out of the temple.
The movie shows how Luther was disgusted by all this corruption, and wrote his books, deriding the selling of indulgences and saintly relics. This got him into serious shit with the Vatican and he was excommunicated. [one of the ironies of the film is that later on, he marries Catherine Dubray, a runaway nun. Excommunicated priest and runaway nun. Hm.] However, his popularity was immense, and spread as a holy fire throughout Europe at the time. At the height of the Reformation, practically the whole of Europe turned Protestant, with the exception of France and Italy. Catholics everywhere became persecuted and hunted down. Churches were looted and their stained glass windows destroyed. [the Protestants believed they were destroying graven images of Christ]
Which is sad and ironic, because at heart, Luther is shown to be a theologian, a scholar at heart, and a reluctant warrior of faith. Indeed, he stands before a raving mob in one scene, and cries out that "This is NOT what I taught!" With the strength of his words, he manages to stay the mob and prevent them from destroying the church.
Overall, a rather interesting movie. The story of Luther is well told and engaging. Unlike the Passion, the director here has chosen good old fashioned storytelling techniques, which engages the crowd, rather than alienate it.
Aside, there seems to be a trend of historical and religious films these days. Before the Passion there was the Gospel of John, then now Luther, and Troy opens next week here too. Gee, what's up?
Also, I just remembered a little story I read in an email before:
The Dragonfly on the Shoulder
Once upon a time, there was a man and a woman and they loved each other very much. They had met as friends, and after a long and happy friendship, they advanced to the relationship stage. Everyone remarked how happy and compatible they were, and it was no surprise when they eventually got married.
What was a big surprise, however, was that a few months after they'd gotten married, they found out that the man had cancer. It was a particularly vicious cancer, and the man soon passed away, leaving his heartbroken wife behind.
In Heaven, the man pined after his wife, and he asked God, "Is there a way for me to see her again?"
God replied, "When she dies, and comes to Heaven, then you will see her again."
"I can't wait that long. Please let me go down to Earth and see her."
God was silent a while. "I cannot let you go down as a human, because you have already died. If I let you down there, it will be as some other animal."
The man paused when he heard this.
"However," God continued, "If you can make her recognise you, and fall in love with you again, I will turn you back into a human, so that you may enjoy the rest of your lives together."
The man was overjoyed, because now he had a chance to be with his love once again. Thus, of all the animals in the world, he went back as a dragonfly. This was because he remembered telling his lady love that if he ever died before her, he would come back as a dragonfly and sit on her shoulder. He was thus sure that in this form, she would recognise who he was and they would be together once again.
[I'm taking some creative liberty here, because my memory of the story's patchy. Bear with me guys.]
So he went back as a dragonfly, and he swooped around, looking for his love. To his joy, he found her sitting in the park where they used to sit while courting, and next to her was the doctor who had treated him. He flew near her, eagerly trying to get her attention, but she didn't seem to realise he was there. Indeed, he even got swiped at a few times!
Maybe she can't see that it's a dragonfly, he thought, I should try letting her see me. So he flew to where she could see him.
He flew near enough to finally hear the conversation between her and the doctor.
"He's been dead so long. You have to accept that he's never coming back."
"I know, but, it feels like I'm betraying him this way."
"He would have wanted you to be happy too, and I... I would make you happy. You know that."
"Yes, I..do."
As their faces drew closer, the poor little dragonfly was aghast. He tried flying around their faces, but they were ignorant to the world outside of themselves. Finally, as they kissed, the little dragonfly felt his heart break. He even managed to perch himself on her shoulder, but they were too otherwise engaged to notice him there. He sat on her shoulder, utterly miserable.
"I'm sorry about this." came the gentle voice of God.
"I understand. And in a way, the doctor was right. I would have wanted her to be happy. I just wish..."
"What?"
"I just wished it could have been with me, that's all."
"Do you want to come back to Heaven, as a man again?"
"I think... no. Please. Let me be a dragonfly the rest of my life. I cannot go through the same pain I went through as a man. Let me be a dragonfly here on Earth."
"As you wish."
So what is the moral of the story? It asks us to see if there are any dragonflies on our shoulders? Is there someone there who cares for us, but have never been noticed? Please be gentle to the little dragonfly, and take a care not to blindly swat him.
Hope you guys liked the story. :)
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