Another Book!

After the beautiful mind-fuck from Bolano, I had a hard time reading The Art of Travel. Maybe because it’s of the same mold as Bolano–big words, cascading thoughts, yadda yadda yadda.

So I put it down and picked this up:

I got Zadie Smith’s Changing my Mind in Singapore. Rather expensive, if I may say, but I knew it would be expensive, back in Manila, too. Which means I wouldn’t buy it until I find it in a thrift store several years from now.

It figured in Time’s Best of 2009 list, and having been bugged countless times to read Zadie Smith! Read Zadie! Read Zadie! I threw my budget in the air and picked up the book in Kinokuniya.

It’s a grreat Bolano follow-through read for several reasons:

1. Easy language. Smith’s choice of words are as easy as ABC. Nothing big, nothing grand, nothing highfalutin. If you must know I hate highfalutin words. But what I hate more than that are pretentious writers who have no command of the language, insisting on using highfalutin words. Anywayy.
2. Tone. She is authoritative but knows exactly when to turn personal. She makes the reader feel as though they were having a conversation. This is very hard to achieve.
3. Sharp. I love love love how sharp this woman is. She doesn’t mince words, she doesn’t mince ideas. She just goes on stating her logic very well. most writers get lost in their syntax, choice of words, theories, etc. Not Smith. She is sharp, sticks to the thesis, which are very well thought-out.
4. It is not fiction. It’s a collection of essays. Which wouldn’t cloud the billowing images from Bolano that yes I like holding on to.

Okay. Enough. I am not a critique. And besides, I have only started reading the book. Of course a lot of underlines. So far, this is my favorite line:

There is a weird inverse confidence to be had from feeling destroyed, because being destroyed, having to start again, means you have space in front of you, somewhere to go.

How comforting. Aww, I can’t help but include this too:

I think sometimes that the best reason for writing a novel is to experience those four and a half hours after you write the final word. The last time it happened to me, I uncorked a good Sancerre I’d been keeping and drank it standing up with the bottle in my hand, and then I lay down in my backyard on the paving stones and stayed there for a long time crying. It was sunny, late autumn, and there were apples everywhere, overripe and stinky.

I can’t wait to go home and read more of this book. And then after, I shall open On Beauty, the first Smith book I bought, in a second hand book store no less, several months ago. I never got around to reading that, despite countless beckoning from my friends. Bolano, perhaps, kept me busy.

More from Singapore

So. I never got to tell you about the concerts I saw in SG. The trip was done specifically because of Yeah yeah yeahs. I love that band to pieces that when I found out they were gonna go to Merlion’s city, I just had to book my airline ticket and go.

I had my friend who’s based there buy me the concert ticket. Of course we ran out. So my friend and I decided to buy Cat Power tickets, to accomplish what we booked those airline tickets for.

When I was in LA, another friend, who has amazing super powers, was able to reserve for us VIP box tickets for the YYYs show! Can you believe it?! So two concerts, one week equals a very happy albeit poor lounatik. So what. This is what I’m working for, right?

YYYs is amazing live. I think it’s mainly because the band, Karen O specially, is so fun to watch. They were obviously enjoying themselves! Look at her go!

She was interacting with the audience, which of course the audience loved. And their choice of songs is great! They opened with Runaway, and then closed with Turn into. Tucked in between are Gold Lion, Isis, Heads with Roll, Dull Life, Hysteric, and a song off their early EP (I don’t have titles, sorry. I only refer to them as track 1, track 2, and so on and so forth).

Of course they opened the encore with an acoustic version of Maps. And I loved it. That’s how you “cover” or acoustify a song. Just because you use an acoustic guitar doesn’t mean it’s already an apt acoustic version, right? Anyway, I love this band photo. I think it demonstrates just how cool Yeah Yeah Yeahs is:

Wow. The next night, it was Cat Power.

It’s a stark contrast from YYYs in that this is very low-key. Everybody was seated, hardly anyone was screaming, so taking photos was a drag. I segue: Forgive the ugly photos as they are taken in stealth manner.

Chan Marshall was beautiful and graceful. And her voice was so cool. Unlike earlier reports, she’s no longer a “rockstar.” They came in late but how can you remain mad when Chan immediately courtesied? She wasn’t drunk. In fact, she was drinking tea.

More than her though, is her band whom I love. They were a bunch of old men who are clearly well-versed with their instruments. They knew how to pluck those strings, make the drumsticks bounce off the drums, etc.

At the end of the show, she went down the stage with a bouquet of flowers which she distributed to the audience one by one. Of course front row got all the love. It was so unreal because some of them would ask Chan for a photo and she’d pose like it was nothing!

YYY also did an almost the same thing. Karen O had the entire front row sing! Oh bejesus.

Can I just say? I love live shows! YYYs has always been in my “to see live” list along with Radiohead, Sigur Ros, Portishead, Rolling Stones, etc. So, I’m ecstatic I got to cross out another one. As I’ve said, next stop is Sigur Ros, though I don’t know when and where that’s gonna be. (I could’ve seen them in Japan as they were to perform there two weeks after the Radiohead show. Of course I did bec Japan is too expensive and my visa wouldn’t allow me to stay as long). I can’t wait for it though.

I love watching concerts! Too bad The Killers got canceled in this part of the world. But yeah, I’m looking at a life full of trips abroad to watch concerts.

Watch it

There are a few “major” purchases—a watch, a new pair of sunglasses, a couple of new pairs of jeans, shoes— I want to accomplish this year. I say major not because they’re expensive but because of the length of time they’ll be of service to me.

In Singapore, I discovered Mondaine Watch. It’s like having a wall clock but on your wrist.

Apparently Mondaine is the official Railways watch of Switzerland, so accuracy and precision are vouched for. I’m liking the big round face, the no-nonsense design, and the easy telling of time and date!

This one I particularly like:

(images from mondaine)

So why didn’t I buy it? It costs almost 400USD, more than my daily budget for the entire 5-day trip! Goodness. So. I am left visiting their website on an almost daily basis since I got back, and salivating on all these timepieces.

I’d like to think I’m not materialistic but this post obviously says otherwise. Hehe But a watch is a watch and who doesn’t need one? Save for my beloved macbook, I don’t think I’ve purchased something grand for myself the past 6 years that I’ve been working. (Trips and vacations aren’t included of course).

So yeah. This year I plan to have you Mondaine.

Singapore swing

Along North Bridge Avenue

Came from a five-day Singapore trip, to catch Yeah Yeah Yeahs! and Cat Power. A few friends came along making it less a pilgrimage and more of a trip. Except everything is forbidden there! I couldn’t even take the delicious Persian food with beer because beer is mostly prohibited in Persian joints. A pity because Persian food is awesome with beer.

I refer to Singapore as the country with a plan. All their parks —Jurong Bird Park, Night Safari, Singapore Zoo, Sentosa, even—seem to have been carefully thought out and executed down to the last detail. Which is amazing, but I dunno, it lessens the possible spontaneity of it all.

Bird Disco...very Center at the Jurong Bird Park

Anyway, the concerts. They were awesome, in a different kind of way. I don’t know how else to put them. YYY was rockin. They were a joy to watch because you can tell they enjoy what they were doing. Karen O was dancing like cray. They did a few songs from old EPs. For encore, they did Maps and Turn Into.

[I dunno why I can't seem to upload photos from the gigs. Sorry!]

Cat Power was more subdued and low-key. She was very cute and gracious. Her band was not. Because they were serious musicians who can prolly burn a hole into the music sheets. They were THAT good.

At the end of the show, she came down the stage with a bouquet of flowers, which she gave to the audience. Fans who asked for photos were granted their photos—she posed for them! And then she went back up the stage and threw away the set lists! How lucky!

Anyway, at Kinokinuya (?!) Bookstore, I found a copy of Tokyo Vice, which I first became aware of through QuirkyJapan. I read the first few pages and it proved to be very engaging! Except it was more than half my budget for the day so I had to settle for a quick snap of a page that made me promise myself to buy the book as soon as a cheaper version arrives:

From Tokyo Vice