The lady herself.
Jit read an excellent memoir piece on "sexuality and religiosity". Funny and honest. Beautifully written but with a real Malaysian voice. Hope this material gets collected and published. I still have some of the pages I found on the floor later. Will keep them for posterity.
Canadian Jordan MacVay was a big hit at Seksan's when he read an extract from the non-fiction novel he's working on. He's further along now, and read the complete chapter four in which Rizal and his friend are floating in a raft in the sea after the tsunami, and encounter a group of naked girls drifting in the branches of an uprooted tree. Again, I was very moved by this material and want to shout out to publishers across the world that this novel needs to be put out into the world!
Young Nicholas Wong, now growing his hair back after his National Service stint. Nic will be heading off to Columbia University later this month. He read a poem about a cleaning lady; Nicobar Pigeon; Son-net; and then "a triptych" (lovely word!) of philosophical poems - the first on beauty dedicated to Sharanya. He also played the piano - and he is good, really good. (I feel that it would be fairer if talented were more evenly distributed.) He had his mum, dad and little brother there to cheer him on.
After the break, playwright Ann Lee read a wonderfully surreal peace called Perpustakaan (Library). I never knew that stage directions could be so poetic. She was going to read another piece but it was getting late so we didn't get to hear it. (Another time, I hope.)I had to leave before midnight as I had to get up very early for work, and so sadly I missed Sharanya and Bernice read.
I must say I like the venue very much ... but why do all cab drivers in that area seem to want to charge three times the fare even before midnight??
9 comments:
What? The cab drivers want to charge you three times the normal fare? I think this is because you are the Mat Salleh (or rather Minah Salleh). Next time just speak to them in Malay.
i knew i forgot something on sunday evening. sheesh.
probably right azwan
tie a knot in your hankie ms d!
Bernice read, among others, a really nice Malay poem, while Sharanya read her Karna poems plus a new piece (I think).
It was interesting to have ann lee read her stage directions; something we don't normally read or hear. When I heard the instructions for the light designer I was painting the scenes in my mind.
It occurs to me now that Ann Lee's piece would make a good dance program. Don't know how to get in touch with her, but I wish her all the best with it.
Jordan's reading it was another one that made me go off on an imaginary hike. It's interesting in a surreal way, but I felt like Jordan was trying too hard to tell us how surreal the world was for his character. I think I liked it more the first time I heard it at Seksan's; At NBT, the piece seemed too long and flabby.
I reckon about 20 people attended. It was a race night so I almost didn't make it myself if not for the fact that the Hungarian GP is the dullest race on the calendar.
thanks machinist. maybe jordan's piece had more emotional impact at seksan's because he only read the one episode (which is the last part of this chapter) and this stands perfectly by itself.
will pass you ann's e-mail (remind me if you don't hear from me later)
sad i missed sharanya and bernice
glurgacious is derived from glurge.
no-one else uses it? so what?
interesting word, first I heard of it and not in my dictionary. now i know why :-)
haven't started reading your blog when you wrote that post.
it's a cute word, interesting sound too...can build a poem around it
what's the point of having a language if you can't invent new words, huh?
true that.
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