The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe: Through The Portal of Time: The Quest for Peace hasn't opened in Singapore just yet. Soon, though. But they're going all-out in promotional projects, by which I mean, they took a spot of the empty land on Orchard Road where the live-in housemaids normally go for their Sundays off to picnic and covered it with planks and a couple of tents. The tents are supposed to give people the chance to experience the wonder of Narnia for themselves, outside of such wonder as they may derive from the books and/or movie, by which they mean, buy merchandise or tickets to shoot arrows at some targets, to pop balloons for prizes.
I was intrigued by the chance to get one's family's picture taken in the land that's had a hundred years of winter, considering the climate, but it turns out they don't even have a wintery backdrop -- they just have a couple of Chroma-Key surfaces, which you stand in front of, and they insert your choice of setting before printing out the picture. I have to suppose some of the authenticity of a winter scene is lost when all the people in it are in shorts and sandals.
There's also a ``Solve A Mystery in the Beavers Household'', which turns out to be a little radio play-style puzzle. That had me intrigued since I like the radio format, but I know nothing nontrivial about Narnia to start with (I missed the books, somehow, kind of like how I missed out on Tolkien) and it was threatening to rain, so I wanted to get to a couple of other places before I really missed my umbrella.
Channel 5 advertised a showing of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings: The Destruction of Jared-Syn: The Curse of the Black Pearl as being directed by ``the Academy Award-winning director of King Kong,'' which is the kind of thing that passes for amusing with me.
Trivia: Other Spanish names the Colorado River has had include Rio de Buena Guia (``River of Good Guidance'') and Rio del Tizon (``River of Half-burned Wood''). Source: A Crack in the Edge of the World, Simon Winchester.
Currently Reading: The March of Folly, Barbara W Tuchman.