Of Moulds and Men

Last night, mum shifted the tv with the cabinet into her room. I never watched any tv in my room so the box had stood there, served nothing more than an unsightly prop, since ages unknown. The space left behind by the cabinet exposed a huge dusty bag of tapes. Old video tapes, that is. (To my friends:) They are Not porn tapes. Unlike porn, these stuff are a little harder to find. They are my collection of cheap, dubbed tapes of classic films, quite a few of them foreign stuff. My preciousssss nonetheless and they are moulding.

I may have to admit to some sort of cheap criminal misdemeanor here. Several years ago, a friend and I would go to this video-rental shop, DnO, at Tanglin Shopping Center on a weekly basis to rent movies to watch. We usually saved up enough cash and tried to rent about 4 per week. Back then, this was the only place you could find to rent good ol' movies and stuff. LDs were just starting to get popular and VCDs were unheard of. Tapes were the common deal. I still vaguely remember the owner of DnO- Mr Odell. He passed away in recent years and his death was briefly mentioned in an article by Ong Sor Chin in the papers. He would often look somewhat stern or serious. But you would think he was pretty cool after you got to know him. Spoke good cantonese too. Usually, we wanted to watch the tapes more than once so we got into the habit of dubbing most of the tapes we rented. I know, it sounds pretty 'cheap'. Eventually, we had about 100 of these tapes. They ran from classic Westerns, black and whites to French fare and asian Jap, Taiwanese, even Indian movies.

Now, the stuff I have are moulding. I have no idea what to do with them. I wonder how my friend's tapes are doing. The fungi is eating away at the tapes as we speak. That had me thinking about moulds, fungi, maggots, bacterias and similar entities. I thought 'fungi-and-friends' are not such a bad thing after all. These creatures are nature's way of telling you to, "Pack up, shift out. Time to move on.". These guys clean up after you are done with your dirty business of living. They are like hotel room-attendants clearing your room, after you checked out, to get ready for the next guests. They do not really care who you are or what business you had. Nice attitude, come to think of it. Not trying to instigate some elitist Zen-like ideals about the impermanence of things here but it is nice to be able to just 'move on' from everything else (such as when you are sick of a place). Well, I decided to dump the tapes of course.

Just realised, this incidently had been another topic mildly to do with Death or departure of some sort. Perhaps, I should put up some sunny, fun-shine shit in the future. Ha Ha.

Chicken blows

Listened to a load of GBV albums the last couple days. Just realised I had subconsciously hummed the tune of Chicken Blows (a GBV song) while I was bathing earlier. The tune still swirls in my head now. The song contains some crazy ass lyrics, complete with heavy-snoring sound effects. Like most GBV songs, it is fairly catchy. Used to be helluv fun to listen to this crap on an empty bus when travelling home from school/work. Can't go back to the old days anymore, especially after The Invasion. And I have wondered who came up with the brilliant idea of 'force-feeding' innocent commuters on a bus with TV programmes+screeching static they may or may not want to view/listen. The least they could do is make a section of the bus TV-free or something. Here's to TV-free zone on buses!

Personality Tests are a big thing these days. I came across at least 2 such tests today: "How much of a devil are you?" and "The Sexy Test". So I decided to devise a sexy test of my own. Don't worry, you don't have to answer 200 questions for this one.

Basically you have only to answer one question... 
for The "Who gets a cookie from Fraggle?" Personality Test!


The Dude and The Stranger (The Big Lebowski)

Question: What do you think of the film "The Big Lebowski" (by the Coen Brothers)?

1. I have seen it. I enjoy it.


2. I have seen it. It sucks.


3. I have seen it. I love it- yeah, The Big LempBiskit.


4. I have not seen it. But it sounds interesting enough.


5. I have not seen it. But I still think it sucks.

Now for the results... (drumroll)
Everyone with answers (1) and (4) gets A Cookie from Fraggle!

Now this story I'm about to unfold took place back in the early nineties-- just about the time of our conflict with Sad'm and the Eye-rackies. I only mention it 'cause some-times there's a man--I won't say a hee-ro, 'cause what's a hee-ro?--but sometimes there's a man... And I'm talkin' about the Dude here-- sometimes there's a man who, well, he's the man for his time'n place, he fits right in there--and that's the Dude, in Los Angeles.
-The Stranger (The Big Lebowski)

Sometimes (like once in a lifetime), there comes a film... that totally blows you away. And I'm talkin' about The Big Lebowski here-- it is a movie that you can use as a yardstick to gauge how well you 'connect' with another person. This is one such film. It sounds crazy to use a film to try to know the personality of a person but it is not. Take it from The Dude. :o)

Gotta run, for now.

The day the Voices died

Guided By Voices

The Day The Voices Died. Yet again, I was late to find out about this one. The indies band, Guided By Voices, is moving on to greener pastures. Their final album, Half Smiles of the Decomposed, will be released on Aug 24.
 
There are certain constants in the life of a kid who grew up listening to the indies. One of those was the knowledge that bands such as Sonic Youth and Guided By Voices (led by veteran rockers Kim Gordon and Robert Pollard) were always around to mete out indies-rock justice somewhere, be it in a studio, garage or on-stage. This is music I grew up with. I discovered GBV back in 1991, when I read about the album Bee Thousand in a local magazine Big O.

You are not supposed to try to interpret the lyrics in a GBV song.  At times though, parts of the lyrics 'pop out' to shed light and convey relevant emotions on a particular subject you are dealing with. On this occasion, it was some spoken words in the final track of Alien Lanes, that I had been listening to while writing this.
 

Alright (R. Pollard)

Alright
Alright
Alright
Alright
for our lives to be once again
like it once was
in the ice age, in a kingdom long ago;
without songs, without hope, without meaning,
and therefore
always having the same effect
without ever knowing why

It will be alright I guess. Here's A Salty Salute to Bob and gang.

MP3 of a new song- The Best of Jill Hives

Btw, David Bazan and Pedro The Lion just released a new album, Achilles Heel. You can listen to the whole album here.

Would you like a cup of tea?

"When the first living thing existed, I was there, waiting. When the last living thing dies, my job will be finished.
I'll put the chairs on the tables, turn out the lights and lock the universe behind me when I leave."
-Death

-Death of the Endless. Sandman series by Neil Gaiman,
Mike Drigenberg. copyright DC comics

FT's visit here prompted me to put up this cool pic I've stored in my hard-drive for centuries. I think I was influenced by some crazy friends. Like them, I often imagine folks around me to be certain characters from books or tv. That's how I remember them too. Brenda is Droopy Dog. Alien is an Alien. Georgene is Lane from Gilmore Girls. And FT happened to remind me of Death. *hurhur* Mainly I want to try putting up images here too. So, this is Death from the Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, one of my favourite comic series. She is cool. She carries an Ankh around her neck- the egyptian symbol for Life. Here's a brief Biography.

An Angel at my table

It was a Picture Night many years ago, that I chanced upon this gem of a film- "An Angel at my table", directed by Jane Campion. It told the story of another New Zealander, a writer named Janet Frame. Fascinated by the film, I was eager to find out more about its subject. I picked up a couple of books she wrote, Owls Do Cry and Faces in the Water. I soon found out she really had big fuzzy hair, as depicted in the film.

A search on Google returned several sites that described her as a 'reclusive writer'. I felt mildly amused reading these descriptions. Janet Frame's books are intensely personal and often, autobiographical. Though she seeked solitude, here is someone who shared with us her life experiences, who 'poured' her thoughts into accessible words, into books that we can readily pick up to read. Yet, she came across as being 'inaccessible' or 'withdrawn from society'.

Janet Frame passed away on 29 January 2004. Didn't get the news till about a couple months ago. I will remember her as the writer with big fuzzy hair.

It is easy to dismiss someone as 'insane', it is much harder to try to understand a person.
 
 

Number One

Sausage Day, Apple pie Day, Visiting Day, Operation Day.
Every Day.
And there was Picture Night.
-p.115, Pt.2, Chap VIII, Janet Frame- Faces In The Water

Always loved Picture Night.

The above is a random quote picked from a book I was reading. Owls Do Cry, the blog's title, is the title of another book the same author wrote.

Anyway, stay tuned.