I like Alfred Hitchcock movies in general, like "To Catch a Thief", "Gaslight", "Infamous", ect. Anything with Hitchcock and Grace Kelly, or Ingrid Bergman, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease.
I only wish he'd done a film with Audrey Hepburn, but she said no, and as we know, Hitchcock only used blondes in his movies, and perhaps Hepburn refused the bleach?
We shall never know.
So I went to see the movie "The Tourist" at Al Bajha.
Well, director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's "The Tourist" was AIMED to be Hitchcock-esqe, with Angelina Jolie playing Elise Ward, an ice maiden/femme fetale whose ex-lover, the mysterious Alexander Pearce, is wanted for stealing billions from an English Gangster who surrounds himself with Russians.
Interpol is trailing Ward, a. because she is sexy, and b. because she is the only link to Pearce that they've got.
Stereotypically, the Hitchcock blonde/Henckel von Donnersmarck Jolie has the veneer of the icy seductress, who attempts to pull Interpol away from her lover Pearce, by seducing an unwitting tourist making his way to scenic Venice [Depp, who plays a math teacher from Wisconsin] to make the Interpol peeping toms think they've got their man Pearce.
And while we expect her to explode like an ice covered volcanoe at the end of the film, all the while being glamourous and ravishing through out, in Hitchock grande cinematic style...
[I love the standard of perfection in old cinema.
Which honestly, I like the idea of. They never do that in movies anymore, especially American movies. Thus I had hope from this European director]
...AT LEAST...
That is what we are waiting for, but it never happens.
We barely get a vapour, steam or fizzle.
This movie has got the clothes, and the hotel rooms, but none of the mystique or restrained elegance of the old Hitchcock era.
And the thing I hate most is, they could have TOTALLY done it with Depp and Jolie. it could have worked. The script, while albeit NOT the ending, had it in there, but somehow it was lost.
Ward screws it all in typical exploding volcanoe ice maiden style (we the audience are meant to believe) by falling in love with the boring math teacher from Wisconsin. Which is TOTALLY UNBELIEVABLE because there is no sexual tension whatsoever in the film [a must of the hey days of Hitchock's thrillers] but close ups of Ange's body, and weird fantasy scene for Johnny Depp's character that doesn't fit with the ending very well. Which is not typical of this genre of cinema.
Johnny Depp and Jolie, well looking quite stylish together through out the film, have no real chemistry.
The movie is totally about the clothes of Depp and Jolie, and touristy footage of Venice streamed in. [If you are a fashionista, it is TOTALLY worth seeing for the clothes alone and Jolie's hairstyles.].
So, our fallen in love pair, the glamourous femme fatale, and the pure hearted but simple minded math teacher, face a second rate gangster (who even I am not at all afraid of), and we wait to see if Alexander Pearce will step in to save his love, or will it be the math teacher from Wisoncsin?
Johnny Depp seems to be trying to channel Peter Sellers but nothing he says turns out to be very funny. The Omani audience laughed anyways, but, it wasn't that funny. Have you seen "The Party" or the original "Pink Panther"? THAT'S funny toned down acting. Depp utters about a dozen lines throughout the whole film. In fact, he’s so terse he hardly seems to be in the movie.
[I won't ruin the ending, but to be honest, I think it SUCKED majorly. NOT CREATIVE AT ALL]. I didn't feel suspense, I was just looking forward to see what Jolie and Depp would be wearing next.
The only funny lines in the movie came from an Interpol agent obsessed with catching Pearse, played, I believe, by Paul Bettany (the guy who played the albino demon monk from the Da Vinci code?).
Mr. Bettany, who are the ONLY thing, beyond Ms. Jolie's stylist, that kept me munching my popcorn, instead of heading to the mall shopping, to pick up the trends from Jolie's looks. Thank you, and I commend you. You were given a VERY unbelievable part, and yet you made me believe it. Kudos to you.
That folks, is acting.
Jolie is on auto pilot, and Depp is trying something that doesn't seem to be working for him, though if you hated 'Cap'n Jack Sparrow' you'll maybe prefer him this way. I don't know.
It wasn't a bad movie. I could watch it again, though on rental. Worth seeing in the theatre once. "Meet the Focker III" seemed the only alternative the night I went. I loved the clothes. Bettany was funny. But to steal lines from another review I googled that I didn't save the lin to "the film makes no mistake of it's identity as a “thriller.” You have several aspects found in Hitchcock thrillers here: mistaken identity, hidden pasts, the elusive femme fatale, an original score that just won't stop (seriously, not one second of silence) and the big reveal at the end meant to make the audience scratch their head in awe. If you're in awe, it'll likely be along the lines of saying out loud, “that's it?”
I did appreciate that they didn't try to replce Jolie with Megan Fox (deeeeeeeear God!) even though she's getting older and has some wrinkles on her face now. I like the cinema that used an older Ingrid Bergman, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, ect in film. Very Catherine Deneuve. Women can age and still be very striking, and beyond the glamour of a pale imitation of such.
Anyways, I am bored of my review now.
To sum it all up without ruining the ending: A boat-chase scene is so slowly edited that it quickly becomes boring, and no one knows the code to crack open the safe, or do they? Finally, Jolie dresses up and takes a motor launch. So does Depp. They look spiffy. Venice looks beautiful. Jolie and Depp cruise around in a sleek motor launch.
And that's.... about it.
Plus some gloves. Jolie makes me crave to wear elbow length gloves for day. And I found my next hair style for the next wedding I am going to.
Until next time I have nothing to do and head out to the cinema...
-Love OPNO
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
For all you Fashionistas or brides... you missed it because I am a horrible blogger
BTW, I forgot to blog about it in the daily diary, but Oman's French Museum in Old Muscat just hosted a totally awesome collection of historical & haute couture bridal wear from France, and French Designers. http://main.omanobserver.om/node/29248 & http://gulfnews.com/mobile/life-style/beauty-fashion/trends-that-shaped-the-evolution-of-the-french-wedding-dress-1.726793
Thirty luxurious dresses from prestigious collections were exhibited to retrace the history of matrimonial fashion between 1810 and 2010, featuring the innovations of the most famous French designers including Jean-Paul Gaultier, Christian Lacroix, Guy Laroche, Yves Saint Laurent, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Chanel, John Galliano, Karl Lagerfelt, Paco Rabanne, Marcel Rochas, Jeanne Lanvin, Jacques Fath and Christian Dior.
It's not there anymore, but it was totally worth checking out. I loved loved loved the chanel one, and I remember finding the Victorian era dresses in Vintage shops in my city, as well as the vintage parasols and gloves.
Right now I working on sewing some traditional Omani wedding dresses, two of them, and eventually I will post pictures of different regional bridal dresses and customs. A virtual gallery of my own.
I totally understand WHY alot of Omani girls, especially my Muscati ones, forgo the traditional Omani dress in favour of the white wedding dress, as I wore one for my wedding here in oman, and it weighed a tonne. After a few hours in the warquiya (heavily bejewelled shawl) my headaches, and the embroidery and beading on the bodice was too much to move other than ceremoniously. And despite the dress being designer, designer as much as one can get in Oman, it had tacky sequins on it in places. I mean, the dress was nice, but not all that.
So decided to make my own. That LOOK as nice the Hindi tailored ones, but are COMFORTABLE AND BREATHABLE AS THE WHITE DRESS.
I was saying to my Omani friend S, "This dress, the embroidery and beading looks gorgeous, but in the end it's cheap hand work, and highly uncomfortable. If the same embroidery and beading was done on the dress by Lassage using French couture techniques, it would be comfortable."
Second quote of the night. "And sequins! No one but Chanel and Armani REALLY do sequins with class."
OPNO is a bit of a snob, she will be the first to admit, when it comes to clothes.
A review of the exhibit:
"...The genesis of the exhibition occurred with the French Embassy's desire to commemorate through the medium of fashion — one of France's greatest cultural exports — the 40th anniversary of Sultan Qaboos Bin Saeed's reign in Oman.
It was thus decided that the wedding dress would be the theme, for the very nature of weddings and wedding dresses conjures up an atmosphere of gaiety and celebration....
The ground floor is thus largely dedicated to dresses from the 19th to the early 20th century while the floor above contains haute couture wedding fashion 1970 onwards.
One of the most striking aspects of the exhibition is that the wedding dresses do not exist in isolation. While the dresses are narratives in themselves, as in the actual dresses and fashion that dictated their appearance, the team also incorporated them into being part of a greater social narrative occurring over time. The decision to do so was in keeping with the exhibition's vision of playing with the idea of time. The specifically named rooms, such as the Cinema Room, indicates the impact moving images had on the world, allowing a moment to be relived, rather than be frozen in time, through the inclusion of a Lumiere brothers film reel.
Another room is dedicated to documenting the pictoral representation of wedding dresses over the past two centuries, etchings graduating to print and 20th-century glossy magazines. One also gets a glimpse of a doll that was used as a marketing and advertorial tool, with designers dressing it up in their creations and sending it to potential customers. The room reveals the preoccupation with the wedding dress, predicated upon the assumption that it would be the most important dress a woman would wear in her life, given the sanctity of the wedding ritual and marriage and the attention dedicated to it, albeit in changing media avatars over time."
Anyways, if you've never seen the French Museum (exhibits in french, arabic, and english) it open from Saturday to Wednesday from 10 am to 1 pm and from 5 pm to 8 pm and Thursdays from 10 am to 1 pm.
-Love OPNO (who loves many things, like fine French food, and haute couture---not the stupid niqab ban.)
Thirty luxurious dresses from prestigious collections were exhibited to retrace the history of matrimonial fashion between 1810 and 2010, featuring the innovations of the most famous French designers including Jean-Paul Gaultier, Christian Lacroix, Guy Laroche, Yves Saint Laurent, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Chanel, John Galliano, Karl Lagerfelt, Paco Rabanne, Marcel Rochas, Jeanne Lanvin, Jacques Fath and Christian Dior.
It's not there anymore, but it was totally worth checking out. I loved loved loved the chanel one, and I remember finding the Victorian era dresses in Vintage shops in my city, as well as the vintage parasols and gloves.
Right now I working on sewing some traditional Omani wedding dresses, two of them, and eventually I will post pictures of different regional bridal dresses and customs. A virtual gallery of my own.
I totally understand WHY alot of Omani girls, especially my Muscati ones, forgo the traditional Omani dress in favour of the white wedding dress, as I wore one for my wedding here in oman, and it weighed a tonne. After a few hours in the warquiya (heavily bejewelled shawl) my headaches, and the embroidery and beading on the bodice was too much to move other than ceremoniously. And despite the dress being designer, designer as much as one can get in Oman, it had tacky sequins on it in places. I mean, the dress was nice, but not all that.
So decided to make my own. That LOOK as nice the Hindi tailored ones, but are COMFORTABLE AND BREATHABLE AS THE WHITE DRESS.
I was saying to my Omani friend S, "This dress, the embroidery and beading looks gorgeous, but in the end it's cheap hand work, and highly uncomfortable. If the same embroidery and beading was done on the dress by Lassage using French couture techniques, it would be comfortable."
Second quote of the night. "And sequins! No one but Chanel and Armani REALLY do sequins with class."
OPNO is a bit of a snob, she will be the first to admit, when it comes to clothes.
A review of the exhibit:
"...The genesis of the exhibition occurred with the French Embassy's desire to commemorate through the medium of fashion — one of France's greatest cultural exports — the 40th anniversary of Sultan Qaboos Bin Saeed's reign in Oman.
It was thus decided that the wedding dress would be the theme, for the very nature of weddings and wedding dresses conjures up an atmosphere of gaiety and celebration....
The ground floor is thus largely dedicated to dresses from the 19th to the early 20th century while the floor above contains haute couture wedding fashion 1970 onwards.
One of the most striking aspects of the exhibition is that the wedding dresses do not exist in isolation. While the dresses are narratives in themselves, as in the actual dresses and fashion that dictated their appearance, the team also incorporated them into being part of a greater social narrative occurring over time. The decision to do so was in keeping with the exhibition's vision of playing with the idea of time. The specifically named rooms, such as the Cinema Room, indicates the impact moving images had on the world, allowing a moment to be relived, rather than be frozen in time, through the inclusion of a Lumiere brothers film reel.
Another room is dedicated to documenting the pictoral representation of wedding dresses over the past two centuries, etchings graduating to print and 20th-century glossy magazines. One also gets a glimpse of a doll that was used as a marketing and advertorial tool, with designers dressing it up in their creations and sending it to potential customers. The room reveals the preoccupation with the wedding dress, predicated upon the assumption that it would be the most important dress a woman would wear in her life, given the sanctity of the wedding ritual and marriage and the attention dedicated to it, albeit in changing media avatars over time."
Anyways, if you've never seen the French Museum (exhibits in french, arabic, and english) it open from Saturday to Wednesday from 10 am to 1 pm and from 5 pm to 8 pm and Thursdays from 10 am to 1 pm.
-Love OPNO (who loves many things, like fine French food, and haute couture---not the stupid niqab ban.)
Monday, January 3, 2011
100 followers today, wow, and yay!
Wow, I have 100 followers as of today, which amazes me, since this blog started out as a runaway's journal (until I added some friends), mainly about personal nonsense no one needs to know, and Omani cultural things and observations of quirky situations.
Such as friends like KH driving 120 km on a winding road with his feet out the car, skating the pavement.
Yeah. Life in Oman as we know it.
-OPNO Princess
Thank you all for reading our blog. I love Oman and I am glad you found some of our stories just a horrifying or hilarious as we did. I hope you enjoyed the interior design posts that had nothing to do with Oman as much as I did;p
-An Omani Princess studying in the USA
Dear beloved followers:
100 followers. Who'd of thunk it? Since we r noooooo Muscat Confidential and lack wit of any kind. We hope to add an additional OPNO or two into the mix soon, and I pray, inshaAllah, that none of us ever fights with the rest, and changes our blogger account password:D
Ameen.
If there is anything else you'd like us to add on the blog, or if you'd like to email us pics to post on the blog ect, ect, our email is (though minus the spaces)
OPNO princess @ hotmail. com
Love
-OPNO #3
Such as friends like KH driving 120 km on a winding road with his feet out the car, skating the pavement.
Yeah. Life in Oman as we know it.
-OPNO Princess
Thank you all for reading our blog. I love Oman and I am glad you found some of our stories just a horrifying or hilarious as we did. I hope you enjoyed the interior design posts that had nothing to do with Oman as much as I did;p
-An Omani Princess studying in the USA
Dear beloved followers:
100 followers. Who'd of thunk it? Since we r noooooo Muscat Confidential and lack wit of any kind. We hope to add an additional OPNO or two into the mix soon, and I pray, inshaAllah, that none of us ever fights with the rest, and changes our blogger account password:D
Ameen.
If there is anything else you'd like us to add on the blog, or if you'd like to email us pics to post on the blog ect, ect, our email is (though minus the spaces)
OPNO princess @ hotmail. com
Love
-OPNO #3
Sunday, January 2, 2011
I have 1 to add: You know you've been in Oman too long when...
...You buy a heater in the middle of an Omani December {Yep, I actually did that} and you don't actually think it weird at all that they sell wool winter coats in the fashion avenues of this little desert country.
I bought a little 3.9 OMR heater from Lulu, the kind that blows hot air. Coming from a cold country, I know it to be a sucky little thing, but I don't exactly live at the top of Jebel Akhdar, so I don't really need one of those oil metal coil radiators, now do I, going at 14-20 rials? I figure I'll only be using it for 3 months max out of the year, and it heats up my little bedroom and kitchen just fine in the mornings, so, so far, it has turned out to be a great purchase, plus a nice felt blanket from Mars Hypermarket. Hehehe, my little sis would LOVE the faux Louis Vuitton Harajuko rainbow print ones (we know not real Louis) they've got there, in the Sohar Mars Hyper, Japanese culture addict that she is. I should get her one.
I bought a little 3.9 OMR heater from Lulu, the kind that blows hot air. Coming from a cold country, I know it to be a sucky little thing, but I don't exactly live at the top of Jebel Akhdar, so I don't really need one of those oil metal coil radiators, now do I, going at 14-20 rials? I figure I'll only be using it for 3 months max out of the year, and it heats up my little bedroom and kitchen just fine in the mornings, so, so far, it has turned out to be a great purchase, plus a nice felt blanket from Mars Hypermarket. Hehehe, my little sis would LOVE the faux Louis Vuitton Harajuko rainbow print ones (we know not real Louis) they've got there, in the Sohar Mars Hyper, Japanese culture addict that she is. I should get her one.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
DURA Inner Covered Neck & Innerscarves uploaded
Salam semua, I will upload some of inner covered neck for you to see.
The colors available:-
1. Fuchsia
2. Grey
3. Yellow Mustard
4. Red Maroon
Memorable Moments @ SP
Salam All,
Alhamdulillah, today's sales was awesome! Thanks everyone!
FYI, I just met Ika Radiusite today! Finally!!! Hehe....We just talk about biz & how to make great hijab & bla...bla...bla.... Actually, she's so adorable & nice person. Luv to talk & share our stories together. So guys, some of our picta together.
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| My linglong :* |
 |
| omg!I'm so skinny....uwaa |
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| Okie, InsyaALLAH we meet again babe! |
What Makes You an Expat?
Being married to an Omani man, surrounded almost entirely by Omanis, or at least, Muslim women who are experienced in dealing with Arabs and living their lives in the Gulf, my identity is hard to distinguish sometimes.
I was never terribly patriotic to the land of my passport. Even as a child I knew, I belonged somewhere else, and my life was always going to be somewhere far away and unexpected. People always say expats are either a worthless or a romantic type of breed. You JUST KNOW this. Some people just belong somewhere, and when they find that place, they just know.
Others are boundless, but these are the rarest form of man. I wouldn't ever say I am boundless.
My home is certainly Oman. And the majority of my culture is Islamic and even Omani, nigh 90%, while I know Omanis whose culture is only around 60%, but still, I am not Omani. I am not even 30% the country of my passport, but I am not 100% Omani either.
So I still consider myself kind of an expat. An Omani expat, for in my home country, to all apearences, I am certainly Omani, but I am still someone not 100% on the inside.
A close family friend said it is a gift, to be able to walk between worlds and relate to people of all walks of life, to the most fabulous, to the most humble, and find one's self most at home with the humble, but at ease with the great. I guess this is my gift. I find it easy to adapt and relate to almost anybody. But it doesn't make me anymore an Omani, or any less of an expat.
Does it?
MOP says just because I am married to an Omani, I am an Omani, and it is a simple as that. For my most of my Omani girlfriends, it IS as simple as that.
If the girl is from Dakliyah region but her husband is from al Batinah, she becomes an Al Batinah girl. The girls say, this is only rare for Dhofari girls, and they reason, maybe that is why they marry only Dhofaris.
I think it is more like my parental culture. I am not my husband and he is not me. Together we are something more.
My Omani husband veiws us as one and same. That is his culture.
I don't think one is better than the other, but I think my identity is of an Omani who is an expat, no matter what country they go to.
I started thinking about this after reading Nadia's post one, YOU KNOW YOU"VE BEEN TOO LONG IN OMAN WHEN http://dhofarigucci.blogspot.com/2010/12/15-signs-you-might-have-been-in-oman.html
And I remembered the comment's on Jet Driver's blog on this post. From JD: What gives you away as being a newbie expat in Oman: http://muscatjetdriver.blogspot.com/2010/02/experiences-you-must-have-before-i-will.html
I don't know why really. It is not so important to me really, to know my identity, for I truly believe that only the shallow know themselves, but I have to assert what I am not, when people claim "you are an Omani girl now", for at least I know what I am not, even if I do not comprehend wholly what it is exactly that I am.
I was never terribly patriotic to the land of my passport. Even as a child I knew, I belonged somewhere else, and my life was always going to be somewhere far away and unexpected. People always say expats are either a worthless or a romantic type of breed. You JUST KNOW this. Some people just belong somewhere, and when they find that place, they just know.
Others are boundless, but these are the rarest form of man. I wouldn't ever say I am boundless.
My home is certainly Oman. And the majority of my culture is Islamic and even Omani, nigh 90%, while I know Omanis whose culture is only around 60%, but still, I am not Omani. I am not even 30% the country of my passport, but I am not 100% Omani either.
So I still consider myself kind of an expat. An Omani expat, for in my home country, to all apearences, I am certainly Omani, but I am still someone not 100% on the inside.
A close family friend said it is a gift, to be able to walk between worlds and relate to people of all walks of life, to the most fabulous, to the most humble, and find one's self most at home with the humble, but at ease with the great. I guess this is my gift. I find it easy to adapt and relate to almost anybody. But it doesn't make me anymore an Omani, or any less of an expat.
Does it?
MOP says just because I am married to an Omani, I am an Omani, and it is a simple as that. For my most of my Omani girlfriends, it IS as simple as that.
If the girl is from Dakliyah region but her husband is from al Batinah, she becomes an Al Batinah girl. The girls say, this is only rare for Dhofari girls, and they reason, maybe that is why they marry only Dhofaris.
I think it is more like my parental culture. I am not my husband and he is not me. Together we are something more.
My Omani husband veiws us as one and same. That is his culture.
I don't think one is better than the other, but I think my identity is of an Omani who is an expat, no matter what country they go to.
I started thinking about this after reading Nadia's post one, YOU KNOW YOU"VE BEEN TOO LONG IN OMAN WHEN http://dhofarigucci.blogspot.com/2010/12/15-signs-you-might-have-been-in-oman.html
And I remembered the comment's on Jet Driver's blog on this post. From JD: What gives you away as being a newbie expat in Oman: http://muscatjetdriver.blogspot.com/2010/02/experiences-you-must-have-before-i-will.html
I don't know why really. It is not so important to me really, to know my identity, for I truly believe that only the shallow know themselves, but I have to assert what I am not, when people claim "you are an Omani girl now", for at least I know what I am not, even if I do not comprehend wholly what it is exactly that I am.
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