That banana skin

Eee ada ke patut! Siapa buat ni?

Poison

You
You are
You are my poison.

And I drink you yet
Every
Day.

While their flowers bloom.

Sepet won!

Finally, the accolades from home.

Sepet won the Best Film and Best Original Story awards, as well as the Best New Actor, Best New Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best Poster awards at the 18th Malaysian Film Festival tonight.

Congratulations to everyone - producer, director, cast, crew, and its supporters all these while.

Wilayah Kutu – Voices from the fringe

fringe

(frnj)
n.

1. A decorative border or edging of hanging threads, cords, or strips, often attached to a separate band.
2. Something that resembles such a border or edging.
3. A marginal, peripheral, or secondary part.
4. Those members of a group or political party holding extreme views: the lunatic fringe.
5. Any of the light or dark bands produced by the diffraction or interference of light.
6. A fringe benefit
Source

the lunatic fringe

DISAPPROVING OR HUMOROUS
people who have very strong opinions that are outside the usual range
Source

The much-awaited parcel finally came last Friday, and I wasted no time in reading up the thirty-odd titles of short stories and poems penned by a group of eight young men in various states of, ahem, lots of things, united by their common passion for writing.

With their unusual tagline (Himpunan suara anak-anak muda dari frinjan - collection of young voices from the fringe) and authors that includes a South Park character, a prolific blogger, a transparent nomad, a landscape architect and even one who claims to be available in perisa mentega keju, you do not expect them to write in a conservative manner with conservative storylines. Having went to Wilayah Kutu’s pre-launch reading session last March, I knew what to expect, and I am not disappointed in that matter.

At 165 pages, Wilayah Kutu is a moderately fast and entertaining read, made easier by throwing one’s prejudices out of the window. There are tales of political and social satire, of friendships, side-shots at reality TV shows, of love (and not necessarily the boy-meets-girl kind), of death and manic thoughts, of surprise endings. True to its radical theme, the writing styles are but usual and some of the stories are rather disturbing.

[You have been duly warned. Now according to this, I am not old enough to read it.]

My favorites among others would be these items:

- Tapi Aku Hensem by Ruhayat X
A man can’t vote, but can be voted for.

- Almari by Nizam Zakaria
A delicious twist in reference to the title.

- In Memoriam by Dhojee
There are many ways to remember a friend by.

- Aku Jatuh (Abu Zen collective?)
Of a fallen angel.

- Kamus Hantu by Dhojee
A dictionary that made someone finds more than just the meaning of words.

Rumah Terbuka by Saifullizan Tahir and all six titles by Danny Lim are worthy of a special mention for their approach alone. Rumah Terbuka is written in a haunting second-person narrative, where the only other memorable story with the same style that still vividly sticks in my mind would be Anak-anak Bumi Tercinta by Saharil Hasrin Sanin (in another collection of short stories, Lagi Cerpen-Cerpen Underground, a two-author book with Faisal Tehrani).

Danny Lim’s contributions (20% of the total, if anyone’s counting) in photo comic-book style:

[check out Danny Lim’s work]

Even without considering that it is not a big company publication, the physical quality and feel of the book is excellent with its eye-catching art cover and story-titles at the middle-edge of the pages. My only grouse would be the fact that there are a number of misspellings and missing spaces between words where there should be one.

There are only 1,000 copies of Wilayah Kutu in print, so far available exlusively from Silverfish Books, mail order from Neohikayat or from the authors themselves.

[My copy - signed by Sufian Abas! Can sell one day, eh?]

Wilayah Kutu & masa ku

From: "Sufian Abas"
To: teddisini@yahoo.com
Subject: RE: Wilayah Kutu
Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2005 07:44:46 +0000

I've posted the book, hopefully you will receive it soon.

Regards

S.

Yeay. Naskhah Wilayah Kutu aku akan sampai sikit masa lagi. Aku berjaya padankan nama-nama penulisnya di website Neohikayat. Kebetulan muka-muka tu ada yg dah familiar, juga aku dah baca artikel tentang buku berkenaan dalam suratkhabar pada hari yang sama.

Aku cheapskate, kalau boleh dapat free, aku nak free-lah. Hehe.

Lepas baca nanti, kalau aku rajin, aku akan cerita di sini.

Tapi 'KALAU' nya sangat besar, tau.

Aku buat-buat sibuk tak ada masa, kerana masih ada dvd Irreversible, Kate & Leopold, Amelie dan Bridget Jones 2 yang perlu aku tonton. Yang bakal dituruti pula dengan episod siri-siri Simpsons, Southpark dan lain-lain lagi.

Oh, juga masa untuk konsert-konsert AF3 :)

Werl!

The sum of all fears

Just discovered that among others, I have a case of this and this.

Okay, to save you your mouseclicks,

this #1 : xenophobia
a phobic attitude towards strangers or of the unknown

this #2 : atychiphobia
an intense fear of something that poses little or no actual danger

Now combine that with a dislike for making telephone calls. No wonder I couldn't get a lot of things done as quickly as it should. Panic panic. I think there's more down the list.

But I have no idea anyone could have a fear of these things too:

- sourness (no asam boi for them Acerophobics)
- opinions (Allodoxaphobics are always neutral then?)
- looking up (Anablephobics must have sore necks for looking down too much)

and even this,

- beautiful women (which means plain girls like yours truly would have better chance to be with Caligynephobic males lah hehehe)

Check and see what do YOU have.

Ted Cengeng

Mama : Don't cry-lah sayang, you make me feel like crying too..

Me : Dah memang cengeng, mesti la nangis...

How could I not cry, seeing Abah being wheeled inside the operating theatre for his bypass operation last Thursday. He spent two nights in the ICU after the procedure, and was finally discharged this afternoon. He got this year's Father's Day card on the hospital bed - I managed to find a card with the things we expect to see him doing again when he's better, things he could look forward to.

Mama stayed at his side all the time. She's the only one who knew the exact spot to pat on Abah's back whenever he got that cough; and the exact way to pile the pillows when he's sitting up.

I was actually so afraid that I may not get to give him that particular Father's Day card, or any other card for that matter.

Alhamdulillah.