Malaysian Heat

SO! I recently wrote a random piece for submission to an anthology at the eleventh hour, thanks to some last minute encouragement from Sarah (who is currently on a trip to US).

In any case, I knew that what I wrote had a snowball's chance in hell of getting into the anthology, even though it's one revolving about science fiction/fantasy etc because of the sole fact that I wrote is for my own warped pleasure.

Now that I have received my letter of rejection, I can post it here freely!

P/S: Take this as my tribute to Adventure Time/Lumpy Space Princess. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you should go google/youtube it up and look/read/watch it, for it will give this piece some kind of weird context (?).

You have been warned.


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So, to mentally prepare myself for my upcoming trip to Japan, I've been reading some travel books, or more accurately, some books about travel. The first one I just finished reading tonight was Peter Carey's Wrong About Japan.

It's a pretty fun and light-hearted read which makes it a breeze to go through (I started last night before bed and read the remaining pages after work and over dinner). Before I turn this into another unnecessarily long winded review as I am wont to do, here's the main things I wanted to share.

First off, this passage. (I'm sure sapphire_1010 will understand my paaaaaaain)

***
“Yes,” said Charley. :And it would have been easy to take him to dinner with the otaku, to that place, you know, with that guy.” He was referring to the evening we’d spent in a Shinjuku restaurant patronized by manga artists, where the producer of the hugely popular anime and manga series One Piece taught him tricks requiring not a word of English, and where Yuka the otaku leaned behind my back and whispered to Charley, “Shush, big secret, there is a new Mobile Suit Gundam series, very soon.” And the mama-san had once been a famous radio announcer, and the master of the house was from as samurai family and now, suffering from emphysema, was sucking oxygen through plastic tubes, sitting grandly, cross-legged, while taking out orders. Gathered all around us were manga writers, artists, anime producers, publishers like Irie-san from Kodansha. Here someone had produced the latest Shonen Jump, a best-selling manga, warm off the presses, in which a huge spread depicted our host himself, a samurai with plastic tubes and a bevy of cute cartoon nurses tending him. We were, at that giddy moment, at the red-hot center of the manga world, or so it felt to both of us.

“We definitely should have brought along Takahashi,” he said.
***

After I read that passage, my heart skipped a beat, and I reeled my mind reeled and screamed '...NO YOU SHOULD HAVE BROUGHT *ME* ALONG INSTEAD *SOBS*' or something to that effect. To be able to share dinner with Eiichiro Oda while making wise-cracks are stuff dreams are made of. Now I have the sudden impulse to hunt down that resturant in SHinjuku just for the off chance that I might be able to see him there. No, that would be creepy No it wouldn't YES IT WOULD

Also, I like Peter Carey's writing style and turn of phrase enough to want to hunt down his other books (apparently he's a Man Booker Prize Winning Author?) I shall end this entry with one of his lines in the book that made me snicker, if only because of the reference to an old Chinese story/myth.

***
On Mr. Kitakubo, creator of Blood: The Last Vampire:

He looked like an underprivileged kid who had grown up drawing by the light of the open refrigerator door.
***

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Yes, it's time for another book pimp (hence another LJ update! HOORAY!).

I borrowed this book recently from the library, Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window. It was by chance that I saw it on the shelf as I was hurrying by to borrow my books before the library closed, and I picked it up because I've seen it being displayed numerous times at Liang Court's Kinokuniya, so I guessed that it must have some sort of merit to it to have been on the bestseller's list for a whole year since I've arrived in Singapore.

I only really got into it last night, and I'm already halfway through the book today. The contents blew my mind. It's a autobiography of sorts by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, a famous TV personality in Japan (which sadly I've never heard until I picked this book up), about a school she attended in her youth. The concepts presented there and the visions that the headmaster had for the school was so ahead of it's time, even when read today. It made me wish that I could've attended her primary school, but she was living in pretty volatile times, since it was just before World War 2 began.

Here are some excerpts from the book that I thought were quite nice and give a glimpse into the kind of school that she attended.

P/S: I've not proof-read the script I've lifted from the book, so please pardon the typos (if any)!

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How long has it been since I've suggested to do a KH doujinshi? 3 years ago? It's starting to feel nostalgic already...Anyway! With the release of KH BbS, I finally have a good reason to organize another KH series doujinshi (I totally glazed over 358/2 and Re:Coded because of mediocre/bad storyline and gameplay), just in time for Comic Fiesta's 10th Anniversary too!

Here are the details:

Kingdom Heart Birth by Sleep Doujinshi Anthology
Number of Pages: Unlimited
Deadline: End of June (negotiable)
Theme: Mainly any story related to any of the 3 main characters of Birth by Sleep (Terra, Aqua, Ven). I'm hoping for more comics than illustrations as usual, hoping to keep the ratio to around 70% comics 30% illustrations. Also, since Maiki suggesteed it, I don't mind allocating a small portion of the book for any 358/2 and Re:Coded artwork and comics, if any of the contributors would like to draw anything from those 2 titles. Also, I would like all contributors to do 1 illustration related to a Disney World with a Disney character if that's not too much to ask...

Contributors
So far, I think I've got...
Kuzu
Hooli
Maiki
(mind reconfirming guys?)

And I'm just throwing out the names I remember from the previous KH doujinshi anthologies, let me know if you guys would like to contribute? Any help would be very much appreciated!
Saph
Jac'kee
Fenix
Graff
Sou

I'll reorganize the list later after I get a rough estimate on the amount of pages each person'll be contributing as such. Standard doujinshi rules a.k.a common sense applies (No R18/hentai/excessive gore/etc), you know the rules. Anyone whose name is not on the list and would like to join in, feel free to leave a message!

The BBC apparently believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here: BOLD THE ONES YOU’VE READ!

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I'm too lazy to count how many books from the list I've read. (=w=)

This post's probably gonna be all over the place, but who cares right? It's been a pretty hectic Saturday for me as I had to attend a few hours' worth of conference talks at the Suntec City Exhibition Halls in the morning then walked from the City Hall MRT to Orchard Road. Random things I found when I was out and about today:
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The whole point of walking around was to satisfy my curiosity on whether UrbanWrite and Prologue at Somerset and ION respectively carried any watercolour selections (They didn't). I already visited ArtFriends last night but they only stock watercolours at both ends of the specturm; the really good but expensive ones and the really cheap but sucky ones. In the end I went back to Tiong Bahru Mall to get a 25-colour watercolour set from Popular. So much for travelling so far to get something that you can literally get on your own front yard.

I took a few photos yesterday and today that I thought of sharing, so here you go.
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So I spent a good chunk of my time this afternoon finding nice Acapella videos on Youtube. Here are the results.

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Okay done. I hoped you like them as much as I did!

OMAKE: Because I know there are a few Muse fans on my flist. Here be Acapella Knights of Cydonia LOL

I realise that I'm beginning to form a Friday post-office-hours habit:

Take an MRT to Bugis Junction ---> Have dinner at The Soup Spoon ---> Head over to the National Library ---> Loiter around Bugis Junction or go straight home

Not too bad if you ask me, as this allows me to just tune out and go on auto-pilot (Yes, I can space out while I'm walking and return to my senses once I've arrived at my intended destination...Don't ask me how).

Putting that aside, I was on my way back to my place today when I was approached once again by another insurance salesgirl. Seriously, what is it with Singapore and insurance/bank/ANYTHING promoters. They're everywhere and they're just 1000% more desperate than those back home in Malaysia, which I find kinda of funny. I was feeling particularly blur and maybe a little kind (because I have the wisdom of hindsight and I know how difficult it can be to ask anyone to sit down just to fill in a survey, what more with a huge banner that screams 'GIVE ME ALL YOUR MONEY IT'S AN INVESTMENT!'), I agreed to sit down with this girl and waste a few minutes of my time listening to her spiel let her do her work. Please note that I was really, REALLY blur at the time, so I think I appeared very much like a stoner at some point.
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P/S: I just got reacquainted with 'Rose is Rose' today, totally forgot how much I loves this series. It's kind of like Pushing Daisies in comic-form. Also, just noted that the National Library has whole shelves dedicated to Will Eisner (rightly so!) and Jeff Smith (I only took notice of The Art of Bone on the shelf the other day, I didn't realise that he drew Shazam too!). *grabby hands*

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It's great how books can make me feel so happy and alive inside! <3