The ghetto known as Flat Lumba Kuda, y'all. But at least it populated JB's city centre nicely

RANDOM THOUGHTS

I want to thank the producers of the latest American Idol for using Coldplay's "Lost" song during the programme's season premiere last week. I am in LOVE with that song and it was nice to hear the song being used for commercial purposes.

I watched the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button on DVD yesterday. It's about this dude called Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) who is born eighty-years old and dies as an infant. Imagine being born looking like a wrinkly old man who suffers from cataract. Benjamin was tiny tot but with a wrinkly skin . His look freaked his father out. So Daddy ended up abandoning Baby Benjamin at the doorstep of an old folks home in New Orleans. Thankfully the kind home supervisor brought Benjamin into her life, and the lives of the old folks.

Basically, the movie follows Benjamin's life journey,which for him means from old man until infancy. It's strange to see a small child being trapped in a body of an old man. It's equally strange to see a adolescent with pimples suffering from dementia. These are all phases in Benjamin's life. But the movie emphasises on moments of Benjamin's life. It's about the loves and the things he experiences, be it as a tugboat deckhand, a wanderer through India or simply a regular Joe who helps his mother out at the old folks home. Pitt has received a Golden Globe nomination for his acting (expect an Oscar nod as well). But I was pleasantly surprised at the return of Julia Ormond (Sabrina, First Knight), who plays Benjamin's daughter, who only finds out about her paternity at her mother's deathbed. Tilda Swinton is such a great actress to watch. And then there's the Great Cate. Mind you, she's playing a southern American girl, complete with Lousiana drawl, and she pulls it off (as expected).

I love the All American Rejects' new track" Gives You Hell", but I really really love their older song "Move Along". Cue singing: When all you gotta keep is strong , move along, move along like I know you do. And even when your hope is gone, move along, move along just to make it through

It is interesting to note that Johor Bahru's city centre is more quiet now than what it used to be. Of course, I'm only talking about the real city centre, which is the area directly after the causeway on the Johor side. It's quiet now because all the motorcycles, cars and buses that used to pass through the city centre has been diverted to the inner ring road, which leads to the new customs, immigration and quarantine (CIQ) complex. Some newspaper vendors downtown claim that their business has dropped 70 per cent since the Spaceship (my friends' nickname for the CIQ complex) opened in mid-December. Goes to show how the business downtown depended a lot on the flow of motorists going to and from Singapore. Now the city council is trying to revive the downtown area by launching a nightly bazaar and weekend flea market. My colleague says it's a case of "too little too late". He wrote a commentary last week about how much of the people who sued to live in the city centre have been relocated elsewhere due to development.

The huge mess / eyesore once known to Johoreans as Flat Lumba Kuda was home to hundreds of families who actually lived in the city centre. The families have since been relocated someplace in Stulang Baru. Ditto for those who once lived in Eyesore/messy flat number 2: Flat Bukit Chagar. The Space ship currently sits on the spot where the Bukit Chagar Flats used to be.

Anyhow, my colleague went to write about how the "spirit" of the people living in the city centre was now gone because people were, well, relocated. So who lives in the city now? The homeless, drug addicts and those putting up at the downtown hotels. Sadness Part One, dude.

Justine Bateman i.e. Mallory from Family Ties is in Desperate Housewives cast now. Times are A-Changing. People move on. So do actors.