Episode 708: Where Did August Go?

So I've given up trying to finish a chapter a day of that Shakespeare book. It's just too dry to get through so many pages in one sitting! I've already read more than half of it anyway, so I'll definitely get through it before I fly back to the UK. Also took some time today to finish my review of The Secret History for Evolve Journal, but as usual, my ISP refuses to play nice with the site, so I haven't uploaded it yet. Will try again tomorrow, otherwise I'm just going to e-mail it to Shirley and get her to post it, since she has no problem accessing the site whatsoever. David Tait got back to me a couple of days ago on how long my reviews of the online magazines should be, so I think I'll finish off the Pomegranate one by this week. Still have to read through one more magazine's archives and make a decision on whether to include it, but I keep putting it off to do other things. I don't actually think I've done anything in August! Didn't even spend time writing until yesterday, when I finally decided it was time to continue my sequence of irregular sonnets on the seven deadly sins and the seven heavenly virtues. The first half on vices was finished more than a year ago, but I've been stuck in the middle of the virtues ever since. Ended doubling the existing poems into full sonnets, and finished off another brand new one. Doubt it's any good though...

Episode 707: The Joneses

There are three films out at the moment that I want to see: Heartbreaker (or in the original French, L'arnacœur), which stars Romain Duris from L'auberge Espagnole (that film that made me want to live abroad because it seemed so exotic and cool), Boo Junfeng's first full-length feature, Sandcastle, and The Joneses, which stars Ben Hollingsworth from The Beautiful Life. I've found a copy of L'arnacœur, which I'm going to try and watch without subtitles tomorrow, and I hadn't realised films at Cinema Europa in GV VivoCity were so expensive, so ended up watching The Joneses with Jared at GV Plaza instead. Spoilers coming up! The film's a satire of undercover marketing, in which a fake family, the eponymous Joneses, moves into a suburban neighbourhood and begins to sell an entire lifestyle to their neighbours, mostly revolving around the purchase of more and more luxury goods. As a satire, it's smart, and the early shot of David Duchovny's character eating alone amidst all the gorgeous furniture is a brilliant moment of irony.

Where the film doesn't quite gel for me is when the personal lives of the characters come into play. Ben Hollingsworth's character is a closeted gay, but this is only hinted at once before the big reveal happens later on, in a moment of gaydar-gone-wrong that rings completely false because it's so blatantly contrary to the self-preservation that seems to go hand-in-hand with being closeted. Amber Heard's dalliance with a married man that eventually goes south allows for a beautiful moment when her fake parents suddenly behave like real ones, but apart from that, it's too hastily resolved. Duchovny and Demi Moore's developing relationship is probably the most solid subplot, although its being temporarily derailed by Duchovny's impulse decision to out their status as paid employees because of his neighbour's death feels a bit forced, like it had to happen because the film needed to be zipping along to its heartwarming resolution, so here's the turning point that needs to happen first. The critique of consumption isn't as strong as I would have expected, but hey, this isn't a Michael Moore documentary, so I suppose I shouldn't complain. I think it's terrible of me that my greatest takeaway from the film was how much I would have loved having their job. Didn't help that I was wearing one of my favourite Diesel jeans (the black pair) and those awesome white Diesel shoes, so I was like some walking billboard for the brand today. Discreet (because that's how I roll), but still...

Episode 706: YouTube Love!

Just spent an hour or so watching clips from The Onion News Network. (Just like the real news, only better.) Hardly a productive use of time, but oh so entertaining! Before that, I was checking out Mike Tompkins's YouTube videos, which are amazing. He's got a couple of covers uploaded where the effects are done almost entirely using his voice, including a brilliant one of Maroon 5's 'Misery', but even more incredibly, he's managed to make me listen to Miley Cyrus's 'Party In The USA' without wanting to stick a pencil in my ear. He is that good. I haven't come across such good singing on YouTube since I stumbled upon The Shures. You can find his YouTube channel here. I'm turning into one of those people who are glued to YouTube whenever they log onto the Internet, aren't I? Anyway, a technician from SingTel came around today to finally fix our problems with SingTel mio. Initially, he didn't want to come down because he claimed that when he checked on his side, there wasn't anything wrong. I'd say it is a problem if the moment I start a torrent running, mio TV stops working and I can't surf the Internet any longer. Everything seems peachy right now though, after he swapped our router for a newer model. So, uh, there clearly was a problem of some sort, right?

Episode 705: Musics

Quite unintelligent spiel about the music I listen to coming up. You have been warned. First up, I'm pleased to learn that Gareth Emery is finally releasing his first studio album, Northern Lights. Would order a signed copy, but MOE hasn't credited my annual allowance yet, so I don't have any pounds in my account. The money for my attachment has finally come through though, so I'll be picking up some books over the next couple of weeks. I'm listening to a preview of the album now on his website, and I'm liking what I hear. There's a level of complexity in Emery's sound that I've found appealing ever since I heard 'Exposure' and 'Metropolis' in 2009. On the other hand, there really isn't anything terribly complex about my latest favourite song. It's the title track off BoA's sixth Korean album, Hurricane Venus, so yeah, except for the couple of English words she sprinkles throughout the song, I have absolutely no idea what she's singing about. It's insanely catchy though. (Much more so than anything on her Japanese release, Identity, that's for sure.) The problem I have with J-pop and K-pop is that I can't stand the ballads. If a song doesn't have a thumping beat, the vocals start to grate on my nerves. Yet when it comes to English songs, I can completely appreciate more laid-back stuff. For example, I came across a Joshua Radin song on Shu En's LJ today, and I love his stuff. (Incidentally, is there a TV show that has not featured one of his songs? It's ridiculous how they've popped up everywhere.) Is it because I can understand the lyrics, and so that allows me to connect with their emotional content in a way that I can't with Japanese and Korean lyrics (even after having looked up the mangled English translations)? Perhaps. Anyway, have yet to finish today's chapter from that Shakespeare book, so I'm signing off now to go and get some reading done.

Episode 704: First Bit Of Academic Reading In Ages!

Started reading Adam Zagajewski's Eternal Enemies today, as well as polishing off one chapter of Andrew Gurr's The Shakespearean Stage 1574-1642. I figure the way to make myself finish the latter is to commit to reading at least one full chapter a day, since I'm usually quite rubbish at getting through academic works. Am contemplating bringing back some novels this time, in addition to the poetry I'm carting back. It's either going to be Bret Easton Ellis or A. L. Kennedy, although ideally, I would read them all by the end of September instead and save the hassle! Furthermore, I've already planned my next round of acquisitions, so it's not like I won't have another stack of novels to ship home next year. My mum would appreciate it if I stopped buying books, as it's become quite inconceivable where I would store them. I admit that's a serious issue, but somewhat unfortunately, I could totally see myself doubling my personal library. No sweat. It's probably a good thing I'm not terribly into 'classic' novelists, or my shelves would've overflowed way before now. I like to think that my library reflects pretty well on my taste, which is admittedly very heavily biased towards contemporary writing, with Thomas Hardy being the notable exception. (I sometimes think I only love Hardy so much because when we did The Return Of The Native in JC, Mr Purvis totally convinced me of his brilliance. That and all the thwarted desire bubbling away in all the novels. Seriously, all of them.) At the same time, there are some areas of literature I feel obliged to explore further. French literature, to pick an obvious example. When I get my own place in future, there's going to be a room dedicated to my library. Definitely.

Episode 703: The Great Enigma

Boxes of books have finally arrived! I've got nowhere to store them though, so they'll have to stay in their boxes for a couple of days yet. Don't think there's anything in there I particularly want to read, so it should be okay. I've whittled down the number of library books I've got lined up to read too. Got rid of stuff that I was only marginally interested in, as well as a book that had been savaged in a review by
The Guardian. Am reading Cyberabad Days at the moment, before going on to tackle one of the books listed as preparatory summer reading for EN301. Had to wait the entire afternoon for the delivery, so I ended up finishing Tomas Tranströmer's The Great Enigma: New Collected Poems, translated by Robin Fulton. This is a volume of poems I've been trying to get through since before I even left for university! That it's taken me so long is a reflection on my lack of concentration, not the quality of the poems, which are filled with beautifully economical images, like this opening line from the first poem in the volume, 'Prelude': 'Waking up is a parachute jump from dreams.'

Episode 702: Okay, Am An Ian McDonald Convert

Stayed up last night to finish reading Ian McDonald's Brasyl, which was on the longlist for the inaugural Warwick Prize for Writing in 2009. Compared to River Of Gods, Brasyl feels like a tighter novel, even if the intertwining of the three narrative threads still only becomes truly apparent pretty near the end, as in River Of Gods. I remember that one of the reservations I had about River Of Gods was the Indian setting, and whether this was just a little too calculated. Well, the Brazilian setting this time felt completely right, and for what it's worth, McDonald does come across as the sort of author who does his homework. There was mention in the novel of loop quantum gravity, string theory's competitor in the field of quantum gravity as a theory unifying general relativity and quantum mechanics. Or to (over)simplify, a Theory of Everything that will explain both the macrocosm and the microcosm. In short, the Holy Grail of physics. I'd have liked a bit more of the science stuff, à la Greg Egan's novels, which for me strike that remarkable balance between detailed scientific explanations and interesting narratives. The ending of Brasyl is sufficiently open-ended to leave room for a sequel, and I think the story deserves one, if only to further explore the contest between those who wish to destroy the multiverse and those who wish to preserve it. Surprisingly, the good guys aren't who you'd expect. They've concluded we live in a simulation that uses the multiverse as a quantum computer, in an age when the multiverse is dying, but they hope that the energy running the simulation could be enough to create another Big Bang. Now all this only becomes clear in the last couple of pages, so you tell me, is there room for a sequel to explore all this further?

Episode 701: Red Tape Versus $500

Got an e-mail this morning informing me that the stuff I shipped back had arrived, and I had to collect it within 36 hours of its being unloaded or face storage charges. Wasn't expecting that! So this has messed up my Thursday lunch plans with Bella and Hui Lin. Was going to handle the collection by myself, but gave up in the face of red tape, and since the recommended freight forwarder contacted me, I caved and decided to fork out more money to make my life easier. So for $500 (cost of which I'm splitting with Chris), everything from paperwork to delivery will be taken care of. All I have to do is stay at home on Thursday and wait for the cartons to arrive. Things almost didn't work out though, as my scanner has broken down. Miraculously, it temporarily revived itself and allowed me to scan my IC to send off to the freight forwarding guy. Unfortunately, this also means that I have to wake up early tomorrow in order to accompany my dad to send it for repair. (This is what happens when you don't have a social life to speak of. You have no excuses for not doing stuff, however much you don't feel like it.)

Episode 700: Five Years On...

So the reason why Thong was calling me yesterday was because he wanted to know if I'd be up for visiting our tutors back in RJC today. I figured I might as well, since I'd been planning on dropping by at some point anyway. It's always interesting to see how much the place has changed between visits. For one thing, the bougainvillea that used to grace the railings is all gone now. (Apparently, they were planted because Mr Hodge likes them.) The block that houses the Humanities classes has also been completely overhauled, and it actually looks really good. The programme's doing really well under the new principal, which is good to know. We spoke to Mr Purvis, Mr Tay and Mr Rollason while we were there, and it's quite sobering to realise how quickly time flies. I hate to invoke the cliché, but it really does. It was great to see a happier Mr Purvis, for lack of a better description. It's like all the changes have helped him to find his second wind, teaching-wise, and I envy his students. I'm happy where I am now, but some days, what wouldn't I give to be back in JC? Ah, nostalgia...

Episode 699: Unimpressive Buffet!

Just got back from a buffet with my and my godparents' families. Didn't think the variety of food was that great though, especially not for the prices we were paying. Plus the dessert selection was a bit lacking, and everyone knows dessert is clearly the most important thing at a buffet, right? (The ice-cream flavours were mislabelled!) Anyway, Remainder is intriguing so far. Reminds me of how I felt when I was reading Kazuo Ishiguro's The Unconsoled. Now that was another strange book. I thought worship went quite well today. I mean, I didn't even lose my voice as badly as I normally do. Why I always seem to lose my voice is an interesting question in itself. I think it's because our PA system doesn't normally use feedback monitors, so I can't tell how I sound. It's a lot easier during practice, since my PA skills are almost non-existent and I know just about enough to get my microphone to work. That means I usually crank the volume way up, only to have it turned down once the PA crew shows up to do their stuff. So I end up pushing my voice too hard to compensate. It's not so bad really. I mean, in the long run, if I did this on a regular basis, it'd be awful, probably get throat cancer or something. Nodules, at the very least. For now though, it just means I'm a bit hoarse and usually can't hit low notes by the end of a service. That's not too much of an issue though, since I'm typically more a soaring, anthemic chorus kind of guy when it comes to choosing songs.