It doesn’t look like my planned excursion tonight is happening, so I thought I’d look to see what’s on at the cinema next door. Its website handily includes details of the film classification system used over here in Malaysia. Which is:

U - General viewing for all ages

18SG - For 18+ with non-excessive violent/ horrifying scene

18SX - For 18+ with non-excessive sex scenes

18PA - For 18+ with political/ religious/ counter-culture elements

18PL - For 18+ with a combination of two or more elements

Guess what Sweeney Todd is? 18PL. Presumably ‘two or more elements’ could include ’singing’.

And come to think of it, isn’t ‘two or more’ a little vague? What if you’re really offended by sex and violence, but not counter-culture or religious, elements? How do you know that the movie you’ve chosen is going to include the two you’re offended/not offended by?

Re-reading the classification list, I also think they mean ‘excessive’ as opposed to ‘non-excessive’. Otherwise, presumably, films which feature non-excessive sex and violence - such as Bambi, say, and The Sound Of Music - would be rated 18PL. Or are films in Malaysia usually sexual and violent, so they only have to warn you about the ones that aren’t?

It’s all very confusing. Maybe I’ll just stay in and watch Night At The Museum on the TV instead.

I’ve finally uploaded the pictures I’ve taken so far onto Flickr. They include pictures of the jazz club, Georgetown at night, and the views (as in: same view, looking different) from my room.

Many of them are snapshots, just sharing the things I’m seeing over here - but there’s a few that I like, including these ones below. The first of which was taken one afternoon just before a rainstorm, when the view looked like a watercolour painting. A split second after this picture, a bolt of lightning appeared in the sky. See, I’m great at timing:

(Btw, the annoying Flickr uploading tool puts the photographs on their site in a completely random order. The correct order is here in the ‘Penang’ set. To see them with captions explaining what some of them are about, choose ‘Detail View‘).

It’s the Grammys tonight - so I thought I’d take a look at who’s been listed in the Jazz Vocal category. And the nominees are…

Avant Gershwin - Patti Austin
Red Earth - A Malian Journey - Dee Dee Bridgewater
Music Maestro Please - Freddy Cole
Nightmoves - Kurt Elling
On The Other Side - Tierney Sutton

I don’t know any of these albums apart from Nightmoves, which I only discovered this week and which I absolutely love (Kurt Elling - he one clever guy).

To my possible shame, I’d never heard of Freddy Cole. Turns out he’s Nat King Cole’s younger brother - and as I worked through his website, I found this gem of an album from 1956 (Freddy Cole - he one old guy):

Isn’t that fantastic?! The tracks have titles like ‘I’m All Alone’, ‘Joke Is On Me’, ‘Rain Is Such a Lonesome Sound’ and ‘This Life I’m Living’. And, well, I’m no gambling woman - but I’d put good money on that life possibly not being a very happy one.

Just a handful of tonight’s requests. Note the penultimate one:

That’s it. Tomorrow, I’m learning ‘Sway’.