in which my cat models tram tickets.

in between catching my breath in December, I found all my tram tickets from Melbourne. I've written before about why I loved that short spontaneous adventure from three months back, but since it isn't here I now present a list:

• cheap brilliant coffee
• fresh sushi
• walking everywhere
• living in a ridiculously awesome location 
• equally awesome and ridiculous company
  
• pretty streets dressed in aerosol and fluorescent gig posters
• considering layers in the morning
• heaters at night
• and not a drop of sweat to be seen
• the reading culture
• realizing that the whole 'malaysians are everywhere' stereotype isn't true (it's a matter of picking train stops and walking)
• recording prose poetry in a studio, a full band improv jamming to it
• chillies burning my tongue off in single digit celsius weather

Those tram tickets were just paper I punched back then. They feel different in my hands now.

four pieces.

I flooded my flickr. happy weekend, happy eid al-adha, happy thanksgiving everybody.

the great blind bit.ly link party

since I'm not going to be online much this weekend, I thought I'd toss in a compendium of bit.ly links from my account that lead to all kind of wonderful places I've liked and shared somehow. I'll expand on them next week so they look like a proper list, but for now, blind bit.ly party! click one at random, or toss in a new bit.ly in the comments.

1. bit.ly/5Wjdn
2. bit.ly/6bhljP
3. bit.ly/5KEqA
4. bit.ly/2E8tQH
5. bit.ly/Gg4DW
6. bit.ly/1jO110
7. bit.ly/1dIAIA
8. bit.ly/wpCjL
9. bit.ly/2zxKJ8
10. bit.ly/7zLFGu
11. bit.ly/4a4A6D
12. bit.ly/2MWeLP
13. bit.ly/hkK0c
14. bit.ly/6pfP0k
15. bit.ly/1yF135
16. bit.ly/vQo35
17. bit.ly/6tmAwf
18. bit.ly/4qs20B
19. bit.ly/6NcnXh
20. bit.ly/1UggG8
21. bit.ly/2aB3gF
22. bit.ly/46X0Vc

here's hoping you like at least one of them. happy weekend :)

PS: for those wondering what bit.ly is; it's an online service that truncates long urls for you to share with other people, eg. on twitter or chat. in some cases (like these), ugly bit.ly links have an additional air of mystery to them too.

karaoke.

The first local movie to make Cannes in 14 years. Screening from today, till the 2nd December. So basically, a well-made local movie, shot nearer to my house than Cannes ever will be, will only be available for a week in the 'International Screens' section of GSC Midvalley. Only. Why? I have no idea. But go watch it.

PS: One more thing to catch, from today till the 2nd December, which I am mad excited about!

91.

91.1
We're all complex young people (ages aside, because meh). No one can't be pinned down in one photograph or a blog post. For example, thinking you got me figured out by the photos I take or the people I hang out with just shows how little you know about me at all. There are things my friends do that I won't consider, and accomplishments of others that I envy. But whatever it is should carry no resentment. It's pretty awesome to learn something everyday from my social atmosphere about what I like, and where I want to be when I grow up. That should work both ways. Our differences are precious. They fuel the awesome conversations and adventures we have, because similarities only get you so far.

91.2
I don't blame some for thinking I disappear on them all the time because I'm such a housecat. I'm sorry I get blur sometimes and am bad at keeping in touch. Details and remembering how much I adore my friends are things I do very well, but I guess demonstrating it sometimes can get tricky for me. I may not need evidence as frequently, but anyone willing to declare that they do will gladly have my time when I can give it.

fai finta di non girarti

I'm happy to have met them. They were such nice boys. But organizers, when you decide to bring in european screamo royalty, for the love of God put someone at the damned mixer. That way, when they're trying to set up, the MC won't interpret their question "is anyone at the mixer" for either

1. "IS EVERYONE READY FOR LA QUIETE!" or 
2. "does anyone here have a mixer? I know one of you has gotta have a mixer"
   

because that's just all kinds of embarrassing, especially since she is in a band also. And especially when the organizers themselves are all somewhere right in front of the stage, not doing a thing. If you're going to bring them in, take care of them where it counts lah. I want to enjoy watching La Quiete enjoying their show in KL, not cringe on behalf of my country as they lose their patience. The shameless attempts at mic-stealing from Fulvio was bad enough, the sound was meh also. It's nice and all to say that yes, La Quiete played in Kuala Lumpur, I saw them, but damn, in their own words: "two blown amps and one not very good." "This is our last show in Malaysia." (last stop from 2 venues, or last ever?)

Not like this.

Good points of the show: It was super cool to see the mostly-Malay audience sing along— in Italian. I managed to talk to two members after the show. Andrea (enough said) suddenly nuzzled my head for no reason while I was talking to Cebio. I shy. Na randomly got a photo of it. So... long-term shy. One Cafe's sizzling yee mee is rm6.50 but its awesome is priceless. And it was nice to go out to a gig again. I just wish the sound had been worth it.

PS: While walking back from dinner— long after the show was over—we realized  the band was still there. Looking at a menu, while waiting, presumably (correct me if I'm wrong) for the organizers to settle their stuff.

PPS: I wish I had caught them in Melbourne.

how lah to maju: my first/only religion rant

I don't think I've actually done this before, but I'm frustrated enough to do it. This is a rant on religion.

But please give it a chance. I'm not looking for a fight, or to cause you existential angst. I'm just throwing this out there because I get so bengang about what we've turned into sometimes. Since blogs are for sharing, caring, and seeing if anyone feels the same, here goes (in Times New Roman)—




It was easier to die after religion. Lots of people say that was why it first came (down?) to hang with us, atheists say that's why we cooked it up eons ago and killed each other over it ever since.

But once upon a time, that other face of religion was absolutely exciting. There was one god, wind gods and animal gods swirling round and round the rise of social organization. Incredible architecture, philosophy, art, scientific discoveries, math geniuses, fashion, music, literature, inventions— all of which fell under some umbrella of religion— were mixed in with a side of culture, and remained in encyclopedia illustrations ever since. The Qanun fi-al Tibb, the cathedrals in Europe, Al-Khwarizmi, elaborate Egyptians, Rumi, the colours of gods temples and flowers in India, and bad-ass Shaolin monks.

Blah blah blah, centuries pass.

Today. This country.

We piss to mark our territory. No one's doing the Cordova thing anymore. Even the monotheistic religions want to make sure that everybody knows that their mono god is the most mono of the mono gods, all the way down to the name game and facebook. We draw out lines, so many that not tripping is damn near impossible. 

• Journalism turns some sick yellow—o hai awful camphone shots of raging "sex parties" on front page— because religion is really about going "tsk tsk tsk" at everyone else (and their politics).
• We suffer from suspicion-racism & even self-racism since we're so used to Muslims of the 'very Malay' sort (eg. classmates surprised that I was familiar with Hadith Al-Bukhari, despite how "Western" I seemed wtf). 
• We blacklist people trying to make honest livings on the basis of what they're wearing (eg. Top 40 artists get their very own Muslim protest rally everytime they think of performing, but Shahrukh Khan's Jesus jacket incident is in the distant, pre-Datukship past). 
• We fear the world. We go to amazing faraway countries to study but cling to Malaysian makeshift student communities anyway, and miss out. Worrying about pigs and evil in everything.
• We ban yoga, brandish cow heads, piss over books, art, music, tolerance, everything the big beautiful rich history of religion helped us create in the first place. 

We live in the new lines. One toe too close, and swarms of officials arrive to serve lots of guilt (some too well). Our generations are raised to this tiny disappointing picture; just rules and rope. Kids grow up ready to break rules anyway, like at school. Delinquents and skeptics, always in need of fixing. And we talk/do so much to other people on behalf of God, I wonder if any of us can even see God by the time we're done.

Religion once sparked the intellect. It was big, spacious, and had room for everyone.
Now we've shrunken to this.

How lah to maju.

I rarely say I hate anything. But: I hate people who claim to be nearer to God than I am, who feel so privileged that they don't mind reminding me about how I'm not, and forgetting that they are flawed too. Maybe we did concoct religion to ease the tragedy of death. But we also say the dead rest in peace. It doesn't take a newspaper to tell you that we, the living, are the ones who are tragic.

Sorry that my examples don't reach into non-believing, evolution, 2012, peace in the middle east. I don't know enough beyond a spontaneous microcosm rant. We're wearing the accomplishments of our ancestors as our bragging belt, but it's so small. And it's so sad, that this became as silly as it is, and everyone's shouting, shouting all the time to cover up the fact that things didn't shine like it used to, long long ago.

Thanks. I needed to get that off my chest.