We followed up our recent jihadist theme with Eye in the Sky, an unflinching look at the moral dilemmas of drone warfare.

Another take on the real-life-does-not-always-fit-our-calculations plotline was the highly enjoyable Sully.

And on a completely different note entirely, we took in The Secret Life of Pets. As The Atlantic's reviewer puts it: "There's something quietly therapeutic about spending 90 minutes with some nutty, heroic furballs on a hero's journey with very low stakes."

Away from the silver screen, we took advantage of another of KLPAC's wonderful Shakespeare offerings. This one was Shakespeare Goes Bollywood, and we absolutely adored it. Very funny, even pantomime-like in places, it deftly wove together some classic Shakespeare tales, repackaged them in an Indian context, and spiced the whole thing up with some fabulous song-and-dance numbers.

The audience was predominantly ethnic Indian Malaysians, and this is always a fun group to watch things with -- very responsive, appreciative, and quick to recognize the songs and the in-jokes.

It's impressive to realize that many of the people involved in this production are amateurs. I salute you, guys. This was an awesome achievement.

And food? Because there's always food...

Well, genmaicha, back at Artelier, stretched our Japanese theme just a little bit further, and got rave reviews from me. It's an infusion of green tea and roasted brown rice. Smells wonderful, and tastes even better. Oh, and a couple of pieces of cake. Mine was the Victoria sponge.





We went back to Bacchus one evening. Inched our way down a bottle of Chilean Chardonnay, in the company of cream cheese and pear mini-bruschetta, crispy prawns, and tortilla de patatas.

Dolly Dim Sum, at Avenue K, was a nice new experience. From the extensive menu we picked har gao (prawn) dumplings; beancurd skin roll stuffed with black fungus in a wonderful sweet-and-sour plum sauce; steamed buns with honey barbecued meat filling; fried beancurd skin rolls enclosing prawn and mozzarella; and snowskin mochi filled with cool, creamy durian custard. Accompanied by a smoky puer tea. All excellent.

Also at Avenue K is a small exhibition from the DiverseCity programme. This was called Dirgahayu, which means longevity: "(mudah-mudahan) dilanjutkan usia; dipanjangkan umur". Depending on which of the three artists (Rahman Roslan, Hasnoor Hussein, or Ahmad Yusni) was doing the interpreting, the theme was investigated through recollections of the Emergency, portraits of veterans, and tinted food photos. Small but interesting.

Pity about the terrible mall lighting. But hey, that's how I viewed them... Below is the capitalist neon superimposed on the communist poppy superimposed on the Malaysian hibiscus: