The Street Window

The Street Window
by Franz Kafka
(translated from german by Willa and Edwin Muir)

Whoever leads a solitary life and yet now and then wants to attach himself somehere, whoever, according to changes in the time of day, the weather, the state of business and the like, suddenly wishes to see any arm at all to which he might cling--he will not be able to manage for long without a window looking on to the street. And if he is in the mood of not desiring anything and only goes to his window sill a tired man, with eyes turning from his public to heaven and back again, not wanting to look out and having thrown his head up a little, even then the horses below will draw him down into their train of wagons and tumult, and so at last into the human harmony.

---

Many a time in my life, my thoughts had wandered and taken me back to this little passage by Kafka. Just sharing some current thoughts. Not feeling too great I guess.

Read about how Max Brod (Kafka's lifelong friend) betrayed Kafka's wish to destroy his unprinted manuscripts after his death. He edited and published the materials instead. Brod had admired Kafka's work and wanted to make them known to others, but in doing so, defied Kafka's death-wish. That also became one of the main themes in Milan Kundera's book- Testaments Betrayed.

It is often the best-intentioned and most-passionate proponent that betrays. It is ironic but when we hold certain ideals/things/persons too dearly, we tend to unknowingly (or knowingly) gradually incapacitate the very-qualities we valued and loved in them. Mainly, it is not easy to discern between good and harm when you become too passionate with something. The infatuation process usually involves a slow, controlled suffocation of the subject. Shrug. Now, I will almost feel guilty whenever I commit or throw myself to doing anything too passionately. Haha. Anyway, something to think about.

Will be back to blog some, in the evening, perhaps.

A secret vice

"...they all feed the great hype beasts."
-Haemish from Waterthread.org

Blame it on short attention span. I was alternating between reading an article (The Aberrant Blue Sky) on Waterthread.org and typing this. An interesting article at that. Mainly, it talked about journalism (specifically, gaming journalism), the fact that true objectivity in these types of journalism is impossible and the 'values' of having rant sites.

I will like to take this opportunity to assure patrons visiting here that this blog is also nothing more than a rant site. We feed the hype beasts here on a regular basis and sometimes even after midnight. Every "news I bring to you here is filtered through my cracked lenses and the only constant is my love of well-done games" and other interests that include films and music. Then perhaps, there is also the disconcerting obsession with my own thoughts and speaking these thoughts.

Yet another worrying indulgence may be my passion for the trivia- the footnotes in fine print, appendixes, backstories and general business that no one really cared about. I am quite a nosy individual, though I generally stay away from big current news. Choosing to take interest in little unknown information or the most obvious facts. A most obvious hazard caused by this habit is that I am very easily distracted. I should think that if I were to drive a car, my passengers would quiver in fear when it hit them that I could not focus on the road ahead of me for a solid 3 minutes. Some friends commented that I had frequently snapped into a dazed, day-dreaming state wherever I go.

While waiting to catch the Olympics basketball or badminton matches on tv earlier, I stumbled on the gymnastics finals. The commentator told little facts about this russian female gymnast, Yelena Zamolodchikova while she was on the floor exercise apparatus. Apparently, she is a pretty superstitious person who carries a luck charm in the form of a Winnie the Pooh toy wherever she goes. Her father had been involved in the Chernobyl clean-up and had passed away because of cancer.

What can you make of that little trivia? I figured each of these athletes has a similar interesting backstory, each of them a legend in their own country. Some trivias open up new perspectives on things. Those without intrinsic values can be cool too. I had come to know another interesting aspect about trivias- For obvious reasons or not, it may be that some trivial information were not meant to be looked too deeply into, or dissected and analysed.

I found, from some notes, this thing Ben Okri wrote in one of his books. (I had not kept a reference of which book it was from)

"If you look too deeply, everything breaks your heart."
-Ben Okri

I am reminded of this story about a tadpole too. A tadpole once lived in a small pond where he longed to be an adult frog so he could see the better part of the world. Emerging from the pond, the tadpole-turned-teenage-frog hopped happily away from the confines of the pond. A fascinating world awaited him, that is until he came upon a road and got promptly squashed by a 3-tonne truck.

Ok, I made up that story. I will end this with something else I found in the notes.

This is Just to Say (1934)
by William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

Banana Mania

The word is out. I am sure you have all heard about him. Spawned from the raging inferno (or 'wet queues') that is the infamous singing contest show- Singapore Idol, he is Singapore's very own superhero- Banana Man aka Melon Man aka Saikomelon. I mentioned "Singapore" because I found out there was an Original Banana Man. Still, this Melon Dude is the coolest thing to hit local tv since... I can't think of anything better on local tv. There is not a cooler banana since Banana Yoshimoto or Bananas in Pyjamas. He is greater than the William Hungs or Clay Aikens.

A Flash (done by NCH/ref from sganime.com forum) had been made for him. Here's an alternative site to download the flash.

I also found the Original Banana Phone Song by Raffi (a Canadian entertainer). Do check it out. Pretty good song actually.

Finally, an Exclusive- From the words of the man himself. (He revealed that he did not meet the judges at all and that he is supposed to be a watermelon)

"Thank you all for the support everyone. I'm really honored.

CloudStrife, the mask was homemade by my mother. Cannot buy outside one.

wira, it's true, I never did see the judges. The judges were probably shown my audition clip, and their reactions recorded. Then they just blended it with my audition video. >_< If you look carefully, you notice you'll NEVER see me and the judges in the same 1 shot."
-Banana Man (Saikomelon) on gamersquare.com forum

[Random Fact: I'm supposed to be a watermelon. But I guess everyone thinks I'm a BananaMan instead probably because my banana hairdo stands out more, along with my bananaphone song. Oh whatever. Cheers! :P]
-Banana Man's Friendster's description

The Controversy- Here is an observation by Agagooga from Balderdash blog-

This Gamersquare post reveals that the judges only judged contestants who'd made it through a first round of screening by "MediaCorp TV Channel 5 executives and music professionals". Which begs the question of how *some* people got through. Maybe they were so bad that the executives and music professionals let them through just so the real judges could skewer them for entertainment."
-Agagooga (Balderdash blog)

That is pretty sick if you think about it.

Also, I have seen pictures revealing the true identity of Banana Man posted on the internet. I appeal to these folks and everyone else to keep our superhero's identity a secret.

Now I thought, how cool it will be if the entire audience wear Banana Masks to the grand final of Singapore Idol. The day of reckoning and you get an audience-full of Banana Men. How cool will that be? Maybe the judges can don Banana Suits on that day too.

So, if you ever need a hero, you know who to call. And what phone to use. Riiiinng Riiiinng Riiiinng... Banana Phone!

To Priscilla Tolkien

[354] To Priscilla Tolkien
(Written from the house of Dr. Denis Tolhurst, four days before Tolkien died at the age of eighty-one)

Wed Aug 29th 1973 at 22, Little Forest Rd, Bournemouth

... My dearest love to you,
      Daddy.

It is stuffy, sticky and rainy here at present- but forecasts are more favourable.

-From Letters of JRRT, Chris Tolkien (Editor), Humphrey Carpenter

---

Stuffy. Dreadful night.
You have avoided a life of dread.
Truly, you deserved better.
Why do I always feel I will bring doom to the next person I resolved to be close with?
I deserve no one.
Maybe two Cheer Chen's cds.
Forecasts will be more favourable?

One hell of a country

So said Leslie Low of defunct local band, Humpback Oak, in their album SideASideB. You can take it both ways, I guess.

The family watched the Parade on tv earlier. A rehash of more or less the same stuff every year. You could, if you wished, try to squint a lil to look past the boring displays, to find those minute details that evoked a sense of "Hey, like it or not, we are in the same boat/shit together." (Or some would refer to as national identity or the stronger word- patriotism.)

More than anything, National Day brought home the fact that we live on a tiny island. We watched the A4's and F16's did their fly-bys past the stadium on tv, the sound from the tv superimposed with the actual booms and roars of these planes as they flew by above our apartment. The fireworks and cannon-salutes sounded as though they were fired not so far away from our backyard. After so many NDPs, mum and sis were still tempted to run to the kitchen to try to catch a glimpse of fighter-jets, fireworks and whatnot. For a moment, the sudden amplification of sound seemed to transport them to a different time and space. I had to break the reality to them that we live on the second storey- That they would merely stare into concrete or the neighbouring Apartment-Block-50 if they ran to the kitchen's window.

I thought to myself- Given that I was born in a different time and space, and had the option to choose my place of residence, I would likely decide to settle on a tiny island, close to the sea, off some peninsula again, as opposed to some smacked-centre region on a huge land mass or continent.


House of Flying Daggers

Watched House of Flying Daggers earlier too. I had not disliked any Zhang Yimou's films. I pretty much enjoyed this one as well. But it somewhat pales in comparison to the best films he made. My favourite films done by him are To Live and Not One Less.

The chase scenes in the woods were reminiscent of Kurosawa's blazing, breath-taking tracking shots. The colours (harsh snow-white against shades of green) used were luscious as they had been in the last movie, Hero. The plot-twist at the end landed a rather thought-provoking and cool closure for the film. Relationships between the main characters did not seemed to have been established very well though. Parts of the film and some of Andy Lau's lines made it seemed like a rerun of Infernal Affairs. Where I watched the show, I was not sure why but part of the audience would laugh at the mere sight of Andy Lau. The fight-scene in the bamboo-forest harked back to Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon as well. I was sure most audience (including myself) could not help but felt the correlation with these other films because it was inevitable we would carry with us previous movie experiences to this one or any other.

It has to be said that Zhang Yimou is a die-hard romantic. The kind that suscribes to the old-school (shakespearean) adage that reads:

The greatest romance is the death of a romance.

Expect one or more parties involved in a love-affair in his films to die or part ways.

Final thoughts. My opinion is that HoFD is a simple, romantic and thoughtful film. If anything, the crucial ending made it more meaningful. A contemplation on a classic love triangle- told the relationship of 3 individuals tied in a fragile deadlock, whereby they each loved and valued one another. Main fault found with the film is that in place of the lengthy action/dance sequence, more could have been done to establish the relationship of the 3 protaganists.

Without a doubt though, Zhang Yimou is one of the greatest directors around.

The Gateway to Hell is Open

For anyone not in the know: I am a gaming-freak and today is Doom3 Day. That's quite an evil combination. Muahahaha. Amazing how a person at my age still giggles (like a little girl) in anticipation of the postman, with the game-box, to arrive at my door. After that, I can only pray that my 5 yrs old comp will be able to run the game at all. Feels like those Wing-Commander Days all over again.


(Taken by Hardwarezone.com forumer Pinta)

Bloghead

I am hooked on reading blogs done by folks I don't know. Here's a couple I'll like to show you. With folks like these bloggers and The Dude around, it (in a small way) reinforces the fact that the world is good. hurhur.

Whetstone

Spatula Forum

BoingBoing

THE HULK blogs too.

On another note, I finally figured out why I loved the defunct band Pavement.