Ponder Over Yonder

Alone I Sit......

2008-04-27T17:11:00.014+08:00

When alone I sit and pine for my sire,

And think of the days gone by,

My heart is gripped by a great desire,

Which makes me ponder and sigh.

Alas! That wish can never be gained,

For it the past shall return,

Nay! not all the past; it is too stained

For the loss of love, I burn.

Read Two Good Reads

2007-05-30T20:17:00.000+08:00

Here are two books that I read last week. Both are non-fictional (my staple reads). One is heart-wrenching and the other is heart-warming;

DON ELDON; The Art of Life by Jennifer New
This young man was only 22 when he lost his life on assignment in Somalia, photojournalist Dan Eldon left behind much more than the journals. He left a lifetime of adventures that continue to inspire. Raised in Kenya, he took numerous expeditions across Africa that helped him to understand and love the continent. Through his safaris and benevolent crusades and with interludes of study and work in the US and London, and trips around the world, he crafted a philosophy of curiosity, creativity, adventure, and charity.

Intensely visual, like the life it describes, Dan Eldon: The Art of Life is more than a biography. It is an exploration of one man's will to take in everything life has to offer; an example of a life lived for art, and art experienced as life.

The Writer;
Jennifer New escaped big-city life a few years ago to return to her hometown of Iowa City, where she runs an educational consulting business with her husband. She writes non-fiction for local and national publications.

Kathy Eldon is co-producing both a feature film about her son's life and a documentary about journalists who put their lives at risk to tell a story. She lives in Los Angeles.

A BARN IN NEW ENGLAND by Joseph Monninger
Published to glowing reviews in hardcover and now in a handsome paperback edition, Joseph Monninger's finely crafted memoir of moving with his family to a barn in rural New Hampshire is part dream come true, part unexpected adventure. "An utterly charming story, told with grace and insight" (Booklist starred review), A Barn in New England perfectly captures the beauty of the New England countryside, the tests of renovating a home, and the pleasures large and small of making a new place your own.

The Writer;
Joseph Monninger is the author of the memoirs Home Waters and A Barn in New England and seven books of fiction and nonfiction. He lives in New Hampshire.

Call It A Day

2007-05-26T13:15:00.000+08:00

I long for the light of day,
I long for the darkness to stay away,

I long for my heart be filled with glee,
I long for the mirth of thee and me,

I long for my smile to last,
I long for my soul to purge its past,

I long for my demons be kept at bay,
I long for the day to call it a day.

Marry Her Regardless

2007-05-23T18:22:00.002+08:00

A paragraph from Tunku Halim's latest post; "I'm Going To Marry Your Books"

My cousin’s fiancee had read Think and Grow Rich 12 times. So my cousin concluded his fiancee had an unhealthy obsession with wealth. But the real issue was that she only read non-fiction. As he adored fiction , this caused a huge argument and thus they broke up.So if you’re about to get married, find out what your beloved is reading. It will give you an insight into her interests, her inner character even.

MY RESPONSE:

You follow your baby through the maze of aisles and shelves. You check out her behind from behind as she sashays down the aisle, her long hair dances at her every gait and you say to yourself what a mighty fine lady you have here but you still need to know what she reads, what turns her on, what intricacies waiting to unfold and what she is made of...intellectually.

She whizzes past the chick lit, romance and those horrible airport novels sections. You try to keep pace and try very hard not to be noticeable. Nevertheless, she is oblivious to her periphery as she makes her way through the gauntlet of dreary genres.

As she reaches a corner, she stops, picks up a book and you try to peep through between the Fantasy and the New Age shelves at the title that she is flipping through.

Her long slim fingers cover the title but slowly but surely they shift to reveal it and Voila! It's Kamasutra!

"Yes!,” you say under your breath as you break into a euphoric but controlled jig. Your mind transports both of you to tonight's sweaty juxtaposed lotus position. Yes, Nirvana is but a few hours away, but before you could really savour your reverie, she whisks away.

You scour the aisles and shelves and lanes for your lady. There she is.

She is making her way towards the end of the store, but isn't carrying the Kamasutra book. Bah! Never mind, maybe she will get that later, you say to yourself wishful thinkingly.

She is at the local authors section. She sees some reprinted titles and familiar names that remind her of the past. She looks on forlornly and shuffles to another shelf.

She picks up one book and looks quizzically at it and to your utter dismay, you cannot make out the title from where you are standing at nor can you gauge her countenance.

Then she smiles.

You go nearer and strain your eyes to catch a glimpse of the godforsaken title.

Then she spots you!

“Damn” you say. There goes your spying and stalking for the day.

She goes to the cashier. She is going to buy the book. You follow her. She pays for it but before you could look at the title, she hands you the book and asks you to autograph it.

You laugh your lungs out, open the book and sign your name on the inside cover of "44 Cemetery Road, The Best of Tunku Halim"

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So would you still marry him/her if he/she likes to read the books that YOU have written regardless of the genre?

Forsake the Forbidden

2007-04-24T17:45:00.000+08:00

In need of love and warmth was I,
Now you're here to make me whole,
So lost am I in love's lullaby,
As you slowly undress my soul,

Hushed rapture of your tempest,
Makes me want to taste your sweet skin,
So lulled am I in our quiet storm,
As you soothe my pains within,

Oh wondrous glowing love,
Let me drink your sweet, sweet wine,
For let's forsake the forbidden for now,
For I am yours and you're mine.

Inspired by Angry Medic's Wet Dream (with me looking like a slim Sharifah Aini in a dominatrix's garb)

A Must-Read

2007-03-08T19:20:00.001+08:00

One of the most harrowing and heart-wrenching tales of survival (the other is Shackleton's legendary expedition) that I've ever read is "Skeletons on the Zahara"(the Z is 19th century spelling). A story written by Dean H. King based on Captain James Riley’s narrative (which inspired Abraham Lincoln and Henry Thoreau). Lincoln listed Riley's narrative along with The Bible, Pilgrim's Progress and a few other books as being the strongest influences on his life.

In his forward to ''Skeletons on the Zahara'', author Dean King relates that in the fall of 1995, while researching in the library of the New York Yacht Club, he came across a large book with the intriguing title of 'Sufferings in Africa'. A bestseller in its time, the book detailed the story of American sea captain James Riley and the crew comprising 12 American men of the ill-fated brig, 'Commerce', which was shipwrecked in Africa. The crew was sold into slavery and suffered untold horrors at the hands of slavers who travelled from oasis to oasis barter-trading their ill-gotten goods among themselves and their ilk. Dean King retells the story which, although written nearly two hundred years ago, has great importance to twenty-first century Americans who are facing a clash of cultures that very well may endure for a long time.

I couldn't put it down, read it through the night and was deeply affected by the poignancy and moments of moribundity of the 12 wracked and wretched men in deep Arab-African hinterland that the horrific accounts played on my mind for weeks after that.

Review from The Internet Writing Journal:-
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Captain Riley presented his manuscript to the head of the New York Historical Society in 1817, and the book went into three editions as well as being printed in England and a French edition. The book's account of the slavery of the crewmen and the disdain of the pious Muslim tribesmen for the "Christian dogs" had a powerful effect on many citizens in the U.S. who were grappling with a mirror image of equally pious white slave holders and their attitudes toward African slaves. The importance of Skeletons on the Zahara to the reader of today becomes clear as the sufferings of Captain Riley and his men at the hands of the desert nomadic tribes are chronicled in relentless detail. The difference in cultures is evident on every page as the reader follows Riley 's countless miseries from sun, exhaustion and starvation

The nomadic tribes fight over their American slaves, steal from each other and follow a code that is incomprehensible to the Western traditions of personal property and truthfulness in personal dealings. Yet on an individual level Riley gives true examples of coexistence and mutual respect. The Arab trader, Sidi Hamet, helps Riley get back to Western civilization because he believes that for some unknown reason that the captain is favored by Allah.

The surprising final act of Sidi Hamet comes at the end of the book and is another confusing example of the clash of cultures. Dean King writes in a quick-moving, factual style that carries the reader through the shocking cruelties of the wild desert nomads and the stark oppressiveness of the hostile terrain. Captain Riley's hopes rise and fall, but he never really gives up. -Sarah Reaves White.[ Link The Internet Writing Journal®.Copyright © 1997-2006 by Writers Write, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ]
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It has been described as a Homeric journey by some and Dantean odyssey by others. King is almost pornographic in his description of physical pain; Skin bubbles, eyeballs burn, lips blacken, and men shrivel to less than 90 pounds, and gulping camel urine was like drinking Evian!

I'm not sure whether the book is available locally as I've not seen any in our bookstores. (I got mine as a gift from a friend who bought it in the UK) It could be on the "banned" list as the Arab Muslims are coloured as violent and barbaric savages in the book (and we wouldn't want that, would we!) But be that as it may, try to get it via Amazon.com or other online bookstores and read it, I beseech you!

p.s. So what is the most harrowing book that you've ever read? Share it with me.

Guess the Great Masters!

2007-03-06T20:37:00.000+08:00

They shaped the era they lived in with their individualistic genius and inimitable innovative style.

These are the great masters who had coloured our world with their paintbrushes and eccentricities and each had left a unique legacy of their own. So, I would like you, my well-versed, worldly-wise readers to GUESS these MASTERS and the titles of their MASTERPIECES that are parodied below by "The Simpsons".
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He was born in Ådalsbruk, Norway, (on December 12, 1863 – January 23, 1944) and grew up in Kristiania (now Oslo). He lost his mother, Laura Cathrine, née Bjølstad, to tuberculosis in 1868, and his older and favorite sister Sophie (Johanne Sophie b. 1862) to the same disease in 1877. Ultimately his father, Christian, died young, as well, in 1889. He also had a brother, (Peter) Andreas (b. 1865) and two younger sisters (Laura Cathrine b. 1867, Inger Marie b. 1868). After their mother's death, the siblings were raised by their father, who instilled in his children a deep-rooted fear by repeatedly telling them that if they sinned in any way, they would be doomed to hell without chance of pardon. One of his younger sisters was diagnosed with mental illness at an early age. He himself was also often ill. Of the five siblings only Andreas married, but he died a few months after the wedding. He would later say, "Sickness, insanity and death were the angels that surrounded my cradle and they have followed me throughout my life."

This painter was born on March 30, 1853 in Zundert – July 29, 1890 in Auvers-sur-Oise) and was a Dutch draughtsman and painter, classified as a Post-Impressionist. His paintings and drawings include some of the world's best known, most popular and most expensive pieces. He suffered from recurrent bouts of mental illness — about which there are many competing theories. He spent his early life working for a firm of art dealers, and after a brief spell as a teacher, became a missionary worker in a very poor mining region. He did not embark upon a career as an artist until 1880, at the age of 27. Initially he worked in somber colors, until an encounter in Paris with Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism accelerated his artistic development. He produced all of his more than 2,000 works, including around 900 paintings and 1100 drawings or sketches, during the last ten years of his life. Most of his best-known works were produced in the final two years of his life, and in the two months before his death he created ninety paintings.

This artist was born on April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519) was an Italian polymath: scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, musician, and writer.
He was born and raised in Vinci, Italy, the illegitimate son of a notary, Messer Piero, and a peasant woman, Caterina. He had no surname in the modern sense;
He has been described as the archetype of the "Renaissance man", a man whose seemingly infinite curiosity was equalled only by his powers of invention. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time, and the man with the most diversely prodigious talent ever to have lived.

Birth name Jeroen van Aken Born1450 Died 1516

Nationality Dutch.Born to a family of Dutch and German painters, he spent most of his life in 's-Hertogenbosch, a flourishing city in fifteenth century Brabant, in the south of the present-day Netherlands. In 1463, some 4000 houses in the town were destroyed by a catastrophic fire, which the then (approximately) 13-year-old may have witnessed. He became a popular painter and even received commissions from abroad. In 1488 he joined the Brotherhood of Our Lady.

Birth name
Salvador Felipe Jacinto Domènech
Born May 11, 1904 Figueres, Spain Died January 23, 1989Figueres, Spain
Field Painting, Drawing, Photography,Sculpture
Training San Fernando School of Fine Arts, Madrid Movement Cubism, Dada,Surrealism

Birth name Raffaello Sanzio
Born April 6, 1483 Urbino, Italy Died April 6, 1520 Nationality:Italian Field: Painting Training: Perugino Movement: Renaissance

He was born in Urbino. The surname Sanzio derives from the latinization of the Italian, Santi, into Santius.
In 1491, his mother Màgia died; his father died on August 1, 1494, having already remarried. Thus orphaned at eleven, he was entrusted to his uncle Bartolomeo, a priest. He had already shown talent, according to Giorgio Vasari - he tells that since childhood he had been "a great help to his father". His father's workshop continued and probably together with his stepmother, he evidently played a part in managing it from a very early age. He is described as a "master" in 1501. In Urbino he came into contact with the works of Uccello and Signorelli. According to Vasari, his father placed him in Perugino's workshop as an apprentice "despite the tears of his mother"; the subsequent influence of Perugino on his early work is most obvious. The evidence of an apprenticeship comes only from Vasari, and has been disputed. But most modern historians agree that he worked as an assistant to Perugino from around 1500.

Fact or Fallacy

2007-02-21T21:09:00.000+08:00

You want to write but you can't. You have this piece you
desperately want to get out, but, every time you sit down
to it, you totally freeze. Or you can only write....um crap.

Or maybe you're the opposite -- you've always been prolific, your fecundity’s impressive, churning out one piece after another but now, just at the point where everything should be flowing mellifluously, it seems as though the well of ideas has dried up.

Many stories and books have been written about it, plays and movies been made on the subject too, but are there any real reasons behind it or are they just at variance with the truth, and that it is just a myth. This "syndrome", people, is the " Writer's Block ".

Now tell me how many of you apt and able WRITERs out there who’ve experienced similar periods of percolation, (to quote science fiction writer Spider Robinson, "you ARE writing, you're just not TYPING yet") bouts of barrenness or your brains simply went bust ….because mine did. Believe you me, for the longest time, mine did! Although I do not necessarily deign myself as a writer but I do write poems.

I was in the most turbulent relationship in history of the known world and it halted and altered my mental acuity to the point where I turned into an intellectual mush much of the time. I became an introverted extrovert ( Yes, Mr Kenny Mah, if you're reading this, you'd know why I've described myself as such ) But I’m on the mend literarily, ergo this blog.

But this post isn’t about me, so lets get back on track here, what I’m most intrigued by is the attributing factors to a writer’s block WITHOUT the involvement of another living, breathing entity.

Could the causes be time (or the lack of it ), ailments of the body or mind or just plain rhythm? The natural rhythm that even prolific professional writers sporadically experience, I think. Numerous writers ( i.e. Diana Tamblyn, Woody Allen ) have their own take on it and one of them is Rowena Murray who has the subject covered in her book.

An extract from Ms. Murray's book from the excerpt featured on Guardian Unlimited;
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Writer's block is a specific problem often identified by name. Whatever meanings different writers attach to it, it is a term we recognize.

Anecdotally, it seems to be the term most often used for the most acute problems with generating text. It is also the one that is most feared - by any writer - and, perhaps, the most difficult to resolve.

In fact, the term 'writer's block' may be a term that people latch on to in order to try and explain why they are not writing; in the absence of a more precise definition, they resort to this term as a kind of catch-all. It certainly identifies the problem, even if it does not account for it. [Link to full article]

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I do believe that this condition isn't uncommon an affliction of writers and such but it is up to the individual to find solutions to overcome the impediment and increase one's productivity.

This quote, I think, of Mr Dave Taylor who's also a writer says it all;

"You're writer, and your task is to type, to put words down, to produce. Writer's block is for writers and hobbyists who enjoy the anguish and angst of "the creative process". One of the very best things I ever learned about writing was from professor Peter Elbow's books, that WRITERS WRITE".

So yes, you able writers out there, what's your take on it?

“ummmmmmmmmmmmmm...sure”
~ Oscar Wilde on Writer's Block

“Okay, so they get in the ship... and...”
~ Stephen King on Writer's Block

“I guess I'll write that thing where the man tries to catch a fish...”
~ Ernest Hemingway on Writer's Block

British Wit vs American Humour

2007-02-18T16:11:00.000+08:00

I have an American friend who whilst living in Britain, would frequently hear the remark that British humour is 'different' than American humour, and then get surprised glances when he appeared to 'get'/dish-out a clever bit of irony. He was always puzzled by this, as he merely thought it was the interpretation, filtered by cultural context, that determined whether someone got the laugh or not. Well, we can all rest a wee-bit easy now, as British actor/writer/genius-extraodinaire, Simon Pegg, writes a brilliant article on the difference or rather the absence of it between British and American humour. Mr Pegg and I both share something in common. We have American friends who can't quite cogitate the crux of the comic conundrum.

What about the sitcoms of both brands of humour? My personal American favourites are "Frasier", "The Office"(US version), and "The Simpsons" and hold others in abhorrence due to the predictability of the punch-lines i.e. "Friends" and other sitcoms of its ilk. And British comedies? I love almost all of 'em. My TV's default channel is BBC Entertainment.

An excerpt from The Guardian:

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Simon Pegg on British and American Humour

When it comes to humour, however, there is one cultural myth that just won't die. You hear it all the time from self-appointed social commentators sat astride high horses, dressed as knights who say, "Ni". They don't get it. They never had it. They don't know what it is and, ironically, they don't want it anyway. That's right: "Americans don't do irony." This isn't strictly true. Although it is true that we British do use irony a little more often than our special friends in the US. It's like the kettle to us: it's always on, whistling slyly in the corner of our daily interactions. To Americans, however, it's more like a nice teapot, something to be used when the occasion demands it. This is why an ironic comment will sometimes be met with a perplexed smile by an unwary American. Take this exchange that took place between two friends of mine, one British (B), the other American (A):

B: "I had to go to my grandad's funeral last week."
A: "Sorry to hear that"
B: "Don't be. It was the first time he ever paid for the drinks.''

A: "I see."

Now, my American friend was being neither thick nor obtuse here; he simply didn't immediately register the need to bury emotion under humour. This tendency is also apparent in our differing use of disclaimers. When Americans use irony, they will often immediately qualify it as being so, with a jovial "just kidding", even if the statement is outrageous and plainly ironic. For instance...A: "If you don't come out tonight, I'm going to have you shot... just kidding."Of course, being America, this might be true, because they do all own guns and use them on a regular basis (just kidding). Americans can fully appreciate irony. They just don't feel entirely comfortable using it on each other, in case it causes damage. A bit like how we feel about guns. [Link to the full article]

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I thought the article did a pretty decent job of showing how similar the two forms are, and that what people usually consider a difference in humour is actually a difference in the individual's mentality toward irony and understatement which is almost always influenced by one's traditional and cultural dos and don'ts.