Nobody messes with James Cameron

Well, I was in Kuala Lumpur during the weekend to attend a chess meeting-cum-discussion called by Dato' Tan Chin Nam at his Dato Arthur Tan Chess Centre in Jalan Dang Wangi. I think there were about 30 people there comprising chess organisers, chess coaches and chess players and they were all giving their views and opinions on taking chess forward in this country.

There were lots of interesting ideas, all shared with great enthusiasm, but the problem is implementation. Who are in a position to implement them? Certainly not all these interested chess parties and certainly not the Malaysian Chess Federation too. So unless there is action to follow these proposals, I'm afraid we'll not achieve much from the meeting except that ideas and opinions are now out in the open.

But I do not wish to say anything much about this meeting here. No point. Not the right place, not the right forum. I'll just restrict myself to say that meeting aside, Hamid invited me to a very nice thosai dinner in town (a small non-descript Indian restaurant on the first floor of a shop house, with only a tiny signboard above a narrow staircase to acknowledge its presence) which was then followed by a cinema show at the Suria KLCC: a screening of Avatar 3D version.

I've only one comment about this show: nobody, nobody messes with James Cameron, the director of this show! Nobody! He's the master: the director of the moment, the director of the hour, the director of the year!

Story line was rather thin and predictable but the virtual reality special effects were awesome. And that's essentially the ingredient that makes today's movie shows stand out from the past: it's not about the story (although it helps to have a good script) but the special effects. I can understand why some friends go and watch this show multiple times....