Saturday, April 21, 2007
buskers
i love buskers... and i have recorded (on my crappy digital camera) some quite fascinating performances by all kinds of buskers from some great cities of the world ( london, chicago, NY, Beijing etc) and one of my fav is this one by an old chinese man playing some old folk song on that stringed chinese instrument which i don't know what the name is somewhere on wang fu jing a couple of years ago...i'll post it on youtube one of these days ...
and my fave local blog bibliobibuli mentioned a great story about busking in this great washington post story and i didn't know anything about this violinist Joshua Bell until i read this fascinating episode in the subway and it piqued my interest and i recalled ( is it from another article or the same washington post one?) this one movie 'the red violin' featuring him playing violin solo soundtrack in this film.
and so happened that i was at bao kanh street in the old quarter of hanoi again several days ago and was checking the pirated dvds at the best pirated dvd shop in the whole wide world called 'fox music and dvd shop' ...and you tell me where else can you get pirated werner herzog 'nosferatu the vampyre' the greatest adaptation of bram stoker's dracula that ever is and with that memorable first scene of grotesque mummified corpses accompanied by the morbid and grim wagner's famous 'the ring' or coen brother's first film 'blood simple' (both of which incidentally obtained the rare 100% approval rating in rottentomatoes or roman polanski's 'knife in the water' or 'repulsion' or passolini's 'the cantebury tales' or 'padre padroni' or all those iranian movies (perhaps with the exception of that one - tom's dvd - near holiday inn just a few short miles away from beijing airport which is frequented by the same type of film buffs ) ...
and it makes sense too (that this store is such a good one) as the husband of the owner of this little store - who is a petit vietnamese that has hair that looked like that girl in one of my all time favorite movies 'the big leibowski'- has occassional small roles in vietnamese movies and a real film buff ...
and as i was saying i was here (the fox store) and bought the red violin and get to watch it last night in a surprisingly good but cheap resort on the saigon riverbank and what a marvellous film it was and yes, joshua bell's violin solos in this film is amazing...
but as the washington post's article above mentioned, he didn't get too much attention or recognition when he /washington post did that caper having him performing as a busker in the subway...but i saw this guy giving an incredible performance somewhere in new york subway a couple of months ago which i recorded and you can see here...
and by the way i noticed that that fox dvd store in hanoi has 12 storeys by that singaporean film maker eric khoo but i didn't see any of amir's....
and my fave local blog bibliobibuli mentioned a great story about busking in this great washington post story and i didn't know anything about this violinist Joshua Bell until i read this fascinating episode in the subway and it piqued my interest and i recalled ( is it from another article or the same washington post one?) this one movie 'the red violin' featuring him playing violin solo soundtrack in this film.
and so happened that i was at bao kanh street in the old quarter of hanoi again several days ago and was checking the pirated dvds at the best pirated dvd shop in the whole wide world called 'fox music and dvd shop' ...and you tell me where else can you get pirated werner herzog 'nosferatu the vampyre' the greatest adaptation of bram stoker's dracula that ever is and with that memorable first scene of grotesque mummified corpses accompanied by the morbid and grim wagner's famous 'the ring' or coen brother's first film 'blood simple' (both of which incidentally obtained the rare 100% approval rating in rottentomatoes or roman polanski's 'knife in the water' or 'repulsion' or passolini's 'the cantebury tales' or 'padre padroni' or all those iranian movies (perhaps with the exception of that one - tom's dvd - near holiday inn just a few short miles away from beijing airport which is frequented by the same type of film buffs ) ...
and it makes sense too (that this store is such a good one) as the husband of the owner of this little store - who is a petit vietnamese that has hair that looked like that girl in one of my all time favorite movies 'the big leibowski'- has occassional small roles in vietnamese movies and a real film buff ...
and as i was saying i was here (the fox store) and bought the red violin and get to watch it last night in a surprisingly good but cheap resort on the saigon riverbank and what a marvellous film it was and yes, joshua bell's violin solos in this film is amazing...
but as the washington post's article above mentioned, he didn't get too much attention or recognition when he /washington post did that caper having him performing as a busker in the subway...but i saw this guy giving an incredible performance somewhere in new york subway a couple of months ago which i recorded and you can see here...
and by the way i noticed that that fox dvd store in hanoi has 12 storeys by that singaporean film maker eric khoo but i didn't see any of amir's....
Monday, April 09, 2007
banned again: amir's film 'apa khabar orang kampung'
this time not a pipsqueak..no hullabaloo like the previos reaction to the banning of 'lelaki komunis terakhir' and what a pity...by some account this new film of amir- arguably today's malaysian finest and most cynical 'intellectual' if there ever is one - is a lot better than 'the last communist'...but i don't know as i never get to watch either and i can not find any in any of those places that sell PIRATED dvds in the usual areas like PETALING STREET...
i was quite looking forward to this new one especially after attending his slide show about the film at silverfish a few months back and he kept saying in his usual cheeky ways ..'ah this one looks like 'national geographic'...ah no this one is..." etc and i do like national geographic on astro ...some...
but unless you go hopping to international festivals- which i won't be doing- you'll unlikely to be able to see this latest idiosyncratic (documentary) film of his... and his cause is not helped by his letter of appeal to the censorship board which is by far his best writing i've ever read in YEARS...currently he has a column in NST but it is uncharateristically insipid and stupid... i don't read them...
but as i say his appeal letter is classic amir as i used to love them (in his perforated sheet days)...and here it is as appeared in his blog...
and now he's planning to make a new film about anwar ibrahim and the time when the 'reformasi' thing was at it's zenith...do you remember september 20? and i think he'll be the first to admit that this will not get a favorable view from the government...at this rate i suggest mr amir might as well make a local porn movie ...i'll certainly be looking forward to this...
Kepada:
Encik Mansor Embong
Setiausaha
Bahagian Kawalan FilemUnit Penapisan Filem
Kementerian Dalam Negeri
Fax: 03 8889 1685
Daripada:
Amir Muhammad
Da Huang Pictures Sdn Bhd
Rujukan Tuan: 1408160001
26 Febuari 2007.
Tuan,
14 DALIL MENGAPA ‘APA KHABAR ORANG KAMPUNG’ TIDAK LAYAK DIHARAMKAN.
Saya merujuk kepada surat pihak tuan bertarikh 12 Febuari. Saya telah membaca 7 sebab untuk pengharaman filem dokumentari saya.
Di sini saya ingin membuat rayuan supaya pengharaman tersebut ditarik balik. Dalil-dalil saya ialah:
1. Sebab-sebab pengharaman langsung tidak menyentuh aspek keselamatan negara sebaliknya interpretasi sejarah (dalam hanya beberapa dialog) yang bercanggah dengan versi rasmi. Saya kira hal interprerasi masih tidak merbahaya dan tidak patut menerima pengharaman, memadai dengan amaran atau potongan. Sejarah yang beku ialah sejarah yang sudah mati. Contohnya lihat saja perbezaan interpretasi mengenai Hang Tuah dan Hang Jebat dalam 50 tahun kebelakangan ini.
2. Sebab pengharaman yang terakhir ialah filem ini tidak sesuai untuk ‘masyarakat umum.’ Dengan ini saya meminta slot ‘tayangan terhad’, tertakluk kepada syarat-syarat tertentu. Contohnya filem The Passion of the Christ. Malaysia dengan bijak menghadkan filem ini kepada penonton Kristian, dan tanpa iklan. Diharap langkah bijak sebegini dapat diambil untuk filem ini juga.
3. Merujuk kepada sebab-sebab pengharaman, jelas terdapat kekeliruan yang amat dasar di antara “apa yang dikatakan oleh filem ini” dengan “apa yang dikatakan oleh sebahagian orang yang diwawancara dalam filem ini.” Dokumentari Apa Khabar Orang Kampung mengambil sikap yang objektif, tanpa menggunakan suara latar. Ia sekadar merakam satu tempat yang tak pernah dilihat oleh masyarakat tempatan yang lain. Tugas saya sebagai pengarah ialah merakam. Penonton dianggap sudah cukup bijak untuk mendengar apa yang diucapkan tanpa melatah atau mengamok; dan membuat tafsiran sendiri. Samalah seperti dialog filem fiksyen Puaka Tebing Biru di mana Nasha Aziz berkata ‘Mak tak percaya kat Tuhan ke?’ Ini hanyalah pandangan watak itu dan bukan pandangan filem itu secara keseluruhan.
4. Dokumentari ini patut diberi klasifikasi 18PA untuk unsur politiknya. Apabila warga Malaysia cukup umur 18 tahun, mereka telahpun melalui sistem sekolah rendah dan menengah yang cukup cemerlang dan sudah tahu, malah telah hafal, versi sejarah yang rasmi. Justeru itu, menonton dokumentari Apa Khabar Orang Kampung tidak akan memudaratkan mereka.
5. Filem ini boleh sahaja dimulakan oleh perkataan yang tertera di skrin, contohnya “Amaran Oleh Kerajaan Malaysia: Fahaman Komunisme Dilarang Dan Anda Ditegah Daripada Meniru Ideologi Merbahaya Ini!’ Ayat ini boleh terbit dalam saiz font yang amat besar. Ayat ini juga boleh berkelip-kelip seperti lampu neon supaya lebih jelas. Kalau tak cukup satu tanda seru boleh guna lima atau sepuluh.
6. Dokumentari ini mungkin patut diluluskan untuk orang yang telah menonton rancangan yang mendakyah anti-komunis seperti ‘Jungle Green Khaki Brown.’ Setelah disogok rancangan sebegini (yang menggunakan aksi lasak dan muzik yang menghiburkan), tidak mungkin seorang penonton itu akan terpengaruh oleh dialog orang-orang tua dalam Apa Khabar Orang Kampung.
7. Dokumentari ini mendapat tayangan perdana dunia di Festival Filem Antarabangsa Berlin, tidak jauh daripada runtuhan Tembok Berlin. Lebih 1,000 orang menontonnya. Biarpun penduduk Berlin pernah mengalami trauma akibat pertembungan Barat dengan komunisme, tidak ada penonton yang protes, pengsan atau mengamok. Kita boleh sahaja anggap Jerman sebagai negara maju, tapi bukankah Malaysia juga bercita-cita untuk menjadi negara maju dalam masa hanya 13 tahun lagi?
8. Pengharaman filem ini tampaknya bercanggah dengan beberapa prinsip yang terkandung dalam Wawasan 2020 yang menjadi pegangan kita, seperti “berjiwa bebas”, “masyarakat demokratik yang matang”, “progresif” serta “masyarakat liberal dan bertolak ansur.”
9. Filem ini besar kemungkinan akan lulus untuk tayangan di Singapura seperti Lelaki Komunis Terakhir tahun lepas. Tidakkah kita berasa sedikit kaget dan jengkel bahawa rakyat Singapura (yang berkongsi sejarah Darurat dengan kita) sudah dianggap cukup matang sedangkan kita belum?
10. Filem ini boleh juga ditayang kepada mereka yang telah membuat ikrar ‘Akujanji’ sebelum dan usai menontonnya. Ikrar ‘Akujanji’ ini boleh disamakan dengan proses yang harus dilalui oleh mahasiswa, pensyarah dan kakitangan kerajaan. Tapi kali ini mereka harus ‘berjanji’ untuk tidak sekali-kali amalkan fahaman komunisme, biarpun dalam mimpi.
11. Dalam 10 tahun kebelakangan ini, lebih ramai rakyat Malaysia dimangsai keganasan dan kerakusan Mat Rempit berbanding komunis. Namum sudah 3 filem mengenai Mat Rempit dibenarkan untuk tayangan luas di seluruh negara. Tidak adakah sentimen menghormati mangsa mereka?
12. Perang Dingin sudah berakhir pada tahun 1989 dan Malaysia sekarang menjalin hubungan yang amat baik dengan negara-negara China dan Cuba. Jadi kenapakah topik komunisme itu dianggap masih tabu?
13. Malaysia tahun ini meraikan 50 tahun sebagai negara demokrasi. Dalam satu demokrasi, kepelbagaian pendapat patut dibenar malah diraikan. Jika tidak, tidak ada bezanya dengan negara tanpa demokrasi, seperti yang pernah kita lihat di beberapa negara komunis dan teokratik.
14. Puluhan rencana telah ditulis dalam akhbar tempatan apabila Lelaki Komunis Terakhir diharamkan tahun lalu. Kita boleh saja anggap puluhan rencana ini mewakili satu minoriti yang bersedia untuk menontonnya, dan dokumentari ini juga. Justeru itu tayangan harus dibenarkan untuk minoriti ini. Jika ada yang tidak mahu menonton, mereka ada pilihan untuk tonton filem lain seperti Remp-It 2 (yang besar kemungkinan akan lulus).
Sekian.
Majulah filem untuk negara.
Yang Benar,
AMIR MUHAMMAD
Pengarah Apa Khabar Orang Kampung
i was quite looking forward to this new one especially after attending his slide show about the film at silverfish a few months back and he kept saying in his usual cheeky ways ..'ah this one looks like 'national geographic'...ah no this one is..." etc and i do like national geographic on astro ...some...
but unless you go hopping to international festivals- which i won't be doing- you'll unlikely to be able to see this latest idiosyncratic (documentary) film of his... and his cause is not helped by his letter of appeal to the censorship board which is by far his best writing i've ever read in YEARS...currently he has a column in NST but it is uncharateristically insipid and stupid... i don't read them...
but as i say his appeal letter is classic amir as i used to love them (in his perforated sheet days)...and here it is as appeared in his blog...
and now he's planning to make a new film about anwar ibrahim and the time when the 'reformasi' thing was at it's zenith...do you remember september 20? and i think he'll be the first to admit that this will not get a favorable view from the government...at this rate i suggest mr amir might as well make a local porn movie ...i'll certainly be looking forward to this...
Kepada:
Encik Mansor Embong
Setiausaha
Bahagian Kawalan FilemUnit Penapisan Filem
Kementerian Dalam Negeri
Fax: 03 8889 1685
Daripada:
Amir Muhammad
Da Huang Pictures Sdn Bhd
Rujukan Tuan: 1408160001
26 Febuari 2007.
Tuan,
14 DALIL MENGAPA ‘APA KHABAR ORANG KAMPUNG’ TIDAK LAYAK DIHARAMKAN.
Saya merujuk kepada surat pihak tuan bertarikh 12 Febuari. Saya telah membaca 7 sebab untuk pengharaman filem dokumentari saya.
Di sini saya ingin membuat rayuan supaya pengharaman tersebut ditarik balik. Dalil-dalil saya ialah:
1. Sebab-sebab pengharaman langsung tidak menyentuh aspek keselamatan negara sebaliknya interpretasi sejarah (dalam hanya beberapa dialog) yang bercanggah dengan versi rasmi. Saya kira hal interprerasi masih tidak merbahaya dan tidak patut menerima pengharaman, memadai dengan amaran atau potongan. Sejarah yang beku ialah sejarah yang sudah mati. Contohnya lihat saja perbezaan interpretasi mengenai Hang Tuah dan Hang Jebat dalam 50 tahun kebelakangan ini.
2. Sebab pengharaman yang terakhir ialah filem ini tidak sesuai untuk ‘masyarakat umum.’ Dengan ini saya meminta slot ‘tayangan terhad’, tertakluk kepada syarat-syarat tertentu. Contohnya filem The Passion of the Christ. Malaysia dengan bijak menghadkan filem ini kepada penonton Kristian, dan tanpa iklan. Diharap langkah bijak sebegini dapat diambil untuk filem ini juga.
3. Merujuk kepada sebab-sebab pengharaman, jelas terdapat kekeliruan yang amat dasar di antara “apa yang dikatakan oleh filem ini” dengan “apa yang dikatakan oleh sebahagian orang yang diwawancara dalam filem ini.” Dokumentari Apa Khabar Orang Kampung mengambil sikap yang objektif, tanpa menggunakan suara latar. Ia sekadar merakam satu tempat yang tak pernah dilihat oleh masyarakat tempatan yang lain. Tugas saya sebagai pengarah ialah merakam. Penonton dianggap sudah cukup bijak untuk mendengar apa yang diucapkan tanpa melatah atau mengamok; dan membuat tafsiran sendiri. Samalah seperti dialog filem fiksyen Puaka Tebing Biru di mana Nasha Aziz berkata ‘Mak tak percaya kat Tuhan ke?’ Ini hanyalah pandangan watak itu dan bukan pandangan filem itu secara keseluruhan.
4. Dokumentari ini patut diberi klasifikasi 18PA untuk unsur politiknya. Apabila warga Malaysia cukup umur 18 tahun, mereka telahpun melalui sistem sekolah rendah dan menengah yang cukup cemerlang dan sudah tahu, malah telah hafal, versi sejarah yang rasmi. Justeru itu, menonton dokumentari Apa Khabar Orang Kampung tidak akan memudaratkan mereka.
5. Filem ini boleh sahaja dimulakan oleh perkataan yang tertera di skrin, contohnya “Amaran Oleh Kerajaan Malaysia: Fahaman Komunisme Dilarang Dan Anda Ditegah Daripada Meniru Ideologi Merbahaya Ini!’ Ayat ini boleh terbit dalam saiz font yang amat besar. Ayat ini juga boleh berkelip-kelip seperti lampu neon supaya lebih jelas. Kalau tak cukup satu tanda seru boleh guna lima atau sepuluh.
6. Dokumentari ini mungkin patut diluluskan untuk orang yang telah menonton rancangan yang mendakyah anti-komunis seperti ‘Jungle Green Khaki Brown.’ Setelah disogok rancangan sebegini (yang menggunakan aksi lasak dan muzik yang menghiburkan), tidak mungkin seorang penonton itu akan terpengaruh oleh dialog orang-orang tua dalam Apa Khabar Orang Kampung.
7. Dokumentari ini mendapat tayangan perdana dunia di Festival Filem Antarabangsa Berlin, tidak jauh daripada runtuhan Tembok Berlin. Lebih 1,000 orang menontonnya. Biarpun penduduk Berlin pernah mengalami trauma akibat pertembungan Barat dengan komunisme, tidak ada penonton yang protes, pengsan atau mengamok. Kita boleh sahaja anggap Jerman sebagai negara maju, tapi bukankah Malaysia juga bercita-cita untuk menjadi negara maju dalam masa hanya 13 tahun lagi?
8. Pengharaman filem ini tampaknya bercanggah dengan beberapa prinsip yang terkandung dalam Wawasan 2020 yang menjadi pegangan kita, seperti “berjiwa bebas”, “masyarakat demokratik yang matang”, “progresif” serta “masyarakat liberal dan bertolak ansur.”
9. Filem ini besar kemungkinan akan lulus untuk tayangan di Singapura seperti Lelaki Komunis Terakhir tahun lepas. Tidakkah kita berasa sedikit kaget dan jengkel bahawa rakyat Singapura (yang berkongsi sejarah Darurat dengan kita) sudah dianggap cukup matang sedangkan kita belum?
10. Filem ini boleh juga ditayang kepada mereka yang telah membuat ikrar ‘Akujanji’ sebelum dan usai menontonnya. Ikrar ‘Akujanji’ ini boleh disamakan dengan proses yang harus dilalui oleh mahasiswa, pensyarah dan kakitangan kerajaan. Tapi kali ini mereka harus ‘berjanji’ untuk tidak sekali-kali amalkan fahaman komunisme, biarpun dalam mimpi.
11. Dalam 10 tahun kebelakangan ini, lebih ramai rakyat Malaysia dimangsai keganasan dan kerakusan Mat Rempit berbanding komunis. Namum sudah 3 filem mengenai Mat Rempit dibenarkan untuk tayangan luas di seluruh negara. Tidak adakah sentimen menghormati mangsa mereka?
12. Perang Dingin sudah berakhir pada tahun 1989 dan Malaysia sekarang menjalin hubungan yang amat baik dengan negara-negara China dan Cuba. Jadi kenapakah topik komunisme itu dianggap masih tabu?
13. Malaysia tahun ini meraikan 50 tahun sebagai negara demokrasi. Dalam satu demokrasi, kepelbagaian pendapat patut dibenar malah diraikan. Jika tidak, tidak ada bezanya dengan negara tanpa demokrasi, seperti yang pernah kita lihat di beberapa negara komunis dan teokratik.
14. Puluhan rencana telah ditulis dalam akhbar tempatan apabila Lelaki Komunis Terakhir diharamkan tahun lalu. Kita boleh saja anggap puluhan rencana ini mewakili satu minoriti yang bersedia untuk menontonnya, dan dokumentari ini juga. Justeru itu tayangan harus dibenarkan untuk minoriti ini. Jika ada yang tidak mahu menonton, mereka ada pilihan untuk tonton filem lain seperti Remp-It 2 (yang besar kemungkinan akan lulus).
Sekian.
Majulah filem untuk negara.
Yang Benar,
AMIR MUHAMMAD
Pengarah Apa Khabar Orang Kampung
Friday, April 06, 2007
what i did last month
I haven’t been too prolific in updating my blog. Last month I have just one measly entry on 1st march. And at this rate it is even lower than the average frequency of lovemaking by Malaysians (about four times a month) if some surveys are to be believed. april the first has come and gone and mercifully I only received only a couple of prank sms . I detest pranks no matter how funny or original they may be. I guess I don’t have that kind of sense of humour and I’m not terribly objective. Sometimes pranks can be really funny when it happens to someone else but the same one is decidedly unfunny if it happens to you.
But there was this one fine short story by my favorite jewish writer Isaac beshevis singer ‘gimpel the fool’ where the poor hero who is a simpleton is the victim of pranks by everybody which I read during my younger days and this story in fact got me interested in him and he has been one of my most loved writers ever since, as I’ve said many times before.
These days one is too busy to finish anything longer than short stories and that’s about the only fiction that I seem to manage to finish lately. Last night spent a pleasant twenty minutes or so reading a fine short story in a fine quarterly STORY. It was about this woman with one ear and this 47 yr old unmarried guy who nodded to each other for a whole year (and nothing more) as one gets on and the other gets off a 5.22 train at this one station stop. And the one eared woman suddenly stopped coming to the 5.22 train one day when he noticed her missing ear. It is that type of story which is very quiet and where nothing actually happens very much and the kind of story you may love to read when you’re a bit sad which I’m most of the time.
and if you want to know, the reason I got interested in STORY was because a few years ago I read somewhere that jd salinger’s first story was in fact published in this quarterly and I love jd salinger’s catcher in the rye and raise high the roof beam and the rest so ISTORY must be a very good magazine indeed to be the first to recognize mr salinger’s genius….
as I was saying I find it awfully difficult to finish any novels these days and jumping from one to another doesn’t help either… I was reading gunther grass’s ‘crabwalk’ when I picked up a ‘fine balance’ by rohington mistry as I was going to the loo and then I got this hardback ‘theft’ by peter carey and got side tracked again and now I can’t put it down (at the expense of the other good reads)….and what make it worse is that it involves one of my favorite craze…art… and at the same time I am currently reading a very fine ‘autobiography of alice b toklas’ by getrude stein and so happened that I saw her famous portrait by Picasso recently. Technically it is not an autobiography of course because it was written by stein but a memoir and what a memoir!...she named drop like there’s no tomorrow… she has met and befriend some of the most fascinating artists in the last century from Picasso, braque, matisse, rousseau to philosophers whitehead, betrand russel and writers like hemingway…
And Speaking of the loo and art I was thinking to say something about my museum hopping that I did last month (March) that include the biggest of them all…the louvre…and let me count all of them here… first art institute of Chicago (mentioned in the previous entry), then Indiana museum of art (IMA), then the MET, followed by Whitney, followed by MOMA and then TATE modern , then NAG, then National portrait gallery nearby, than off to the Louvre, then Musee d’orsay and then museum of modern art in the pompidou center and last week national palace museum in Taipei and Taipei fine art museum … so it has been a very busy and eventful time …and if I were to describe in one short paragraph what I get from this museum hopping, well here it is…
No matter how familiar a painting is from art books, there’s nothing like looking at the originals as looking at nudes in books is nowhere near as erotic and exciting as the real nudes and if I were to pick a discovery, this time it is BALTHUS, a very naughty painter and what disturbing paintings they were! And the first time I really noticed balthus painting was in the MET and I get to see some more in other museums and his paintings remind me of rousseau’s although his are totally different in subject matter and another thing, and I will say this, I still can not understand why I love the still life so much, from those great 17th century dutch/Flemish still life and vanitas right up to the great still life of cezanne but one particular favorite: I am getting more in love with chardin’s still lifes which are almost sensual to me….and if you want to know more about my admittedly simplistic and uneducated musings on art you can go here…..
But there was this one fine short story by my favorite jewish writer Isaac beshevis singer ‘gimpel the fool’ where the poor hero who is a simpleton is the victim of pranks by everybody which I read during my younger days and this story in fact got me interested in him and he has been one of my most loved writers ever since, as I’ve said many times before.
These days one is too busy to finish anything longer than short stories and that’s about the only fiction that I seem to manage to finish lately. Last night spent a pleasant twenty minutes or so reading a fine short story in a fine quarterly STORY. It was about this woman with one ear and this 47 yr old unmarried guy who nodded to each other for a whole year (and nothing more) as one gets on and the other gets off a 5.22 train at this one station stop. And the one eared woman suddenly stopped coming to the 5.22 train one day when he noticed her missing ear. It is that type of story which is very quiet and where nothing actually happens very much and the kind of story you may love to read when you’re a bit sad which I’m most of the time.
and if you want to know, the reason I got interested in STORY was because a few years ago I read somewhere that jd salinger’s first story was in fact published in this quarterly and I love jd salinger’s catcher in the rye and raise high the roof beam and the rest so ISTORY must be a very good magazine indeed to be the first to recognize mr salinger’s genius….
as I was saying I find it awfully difficult to finish any novels these days and jumping from one to another doesn’t help either… I was reading gunther grass’s ‘crabwalk’ when I picked up a ‘fine balance’ by rohington mistry as I was going to the loo and then I got this hardback ‘theft’ by peter carey and got side tracked again and now I can’t put it down (at the expense of the other good reads)….and what make it worse is that it involves one of my favorite craze…art… and at the same time I am currently reading a very fine ‘autobiography of alice b toklas’ by getrude stein and so happened that I saw her famous portrait by Picasso recently. Technically it is not an autobiography of course because it was written by stein but a memoir and what a memoir!...she named drop like there’s no tomorrow… she has met and befriend some of the most fascinating artists in the last century from Picasso, braque, matisse, rousseau to philosophers whitehead, betrand russel and writers like hemingway…
And Speaking of the loo and art I was thinking to say something about my museum hopping that I did last month (March) that include the biggest of them all…the louvre…and let me count all of them here… first art institute of Chicago (mentioned in the previous entry), then Indiana museum of art (IMA), then the MET, followed by Whitney, followed by MOMA and then TATE modern , then NAG, then National portrait gallery nearby, than off to the Louvre, then Musee d’orsay and then museum of modern art in the pompidou center and last week national palace museum in Taipei and Taipei fine art museum … so it has been a very busy and eventful time …and if I were to describe in one short paragraph what I get from this museum hopping, well here it is…
No matter how familiar a painting is from art books, there’s nothing like looking at the originals as looking at nudes in books is nowhere near as erotic and exciting as the real nudes and if I were to pick a discovery, this time it is BALTHUS, a very naughty painter and what disturbing paintings they were! And the first time I really noticed balthus painting was in the MET and I get to see some more in other museums and his paintings remind me of rousseau’s although his are totally different in subject matter and another thing, and I will say this, I still can not understand why I love the still life so much, from those great 17th century dutch/Flemish still life and vanitas right up to the great still life of cezanne but one particular favorite: I am getting more in love with chardin’s still lifes which are almost sensual to me….and if you want to know more about my admittedly simplistic and uneducated musings on art you can go here…..
