The Early Years (2002-2005)

There are many Christmas songs, but only very few really great new year’s songs, in my opinion… one of my favourites is “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?”, of which I’m currently listening to the Rufus Wainwright version. The song’s lyrics of hope mixed with longing are a good match for his plaintive voice, I think.

Puppy pic above taken from Cute Overload! ;) 43 is the largest non-McNugget number. Why Sean Lennon is single. Well, besides that, as noted, any woman dating him would face a crazy mother-in-law. I love Miffy. Always reminds me of being a little kid in the old National Library at Stamford Road. So nice to see that Miffy - well, the work of Dick Bruna, who created Miffy - is being shown in museums.

Fiona Apple’s “Extraordinary Machine” is a gem of a song, finished two years ago and shelved by Sony but finally seeing the light of day after numerous Internet leaks. The song is the soundtrack to the cracked house of mirrors that is a broken relationship - yeah, the ghost of Apple’s breakup with PT Anderson haunts the song, apparently. And Apple’s smoky-voiced defiance about criticisms match perfectly the lyrics defending her personality and who she is:

Because being a media monopolist ain’t easy, I just repeat content from my arts blog to here and back. So here’s the two little girls of ShiSho, with “Get Behind Me Santa”. Check out their cover!

So yesterday, shopping for books at Borders, someone walked by me talking loudly on his mobile, going “It’s raining man! It’s raining man!” Very tempted to respond with a “Hallelujah!”

Now that I’m back in Singapore, I’ve finally made it to the Earth From Above outdoor photo exhibition, featuring these glorious photos by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. Well, I got to see half of it, anyway, before the rain started Pouring From Above and I had to take shelter - will return for the other half soon. Took some shots to remember the exhbition by (a meta-photo, I suppose, since I was photographing a photo), but the prints really have to be seen in their full size and glory. This is the Folgefonni Glacier in Norway, which sadly, like other glaciers around the world, is melting in part due to climate change.

Just bought a Palm TX, since my Zire 71 kept losing all its data no thanks to its battery running out. Great stuff - on the design side, the huge screen is really clear, I like the feel and response of the stylus, and the steel blue colour is sleek. On the features side, the fact that it had Wi-Fi was the selling point, but now I’ve come to really appreciate syncing the thing through Bluetooth. Mmm.

Just finished reading Zoe Heller’s Notes on a Scandal, which I picked up because, I admit, the blurb featured some hyperbolic praise comparing the work to that of Amis or McEwan and the first chapter was compelling. Yeah, the blurb wasn’t even from a review, just advance praise from Edmund White, but hey, I was looking around in the library for something to read.

I’ve been quite taken by the works of Tom Hunter being displayed at the National Gallery in London that I’m seeing online. The BBC has an online gallery - I thought “Rat in Bed” looked lovely, and the obvious parallels between “Ye Olde Axe” (2002) and Diego Velazquez’s classic sole surviving nude the “Rokeby Venus” (1647-51) are fascinating.

One year ago, the Boxing Day tsunami, one of the worst natural disasters ever, hit this region - to all affected, we remember.

Christmas surprises can be wonderful sometimes.

Just thinking back on the new songs that moved me in 2005 - which doesn’t necessarily correspond to a best-of, since sometimes for whatever reasons you can intellectually recognise the quality of a song and see why it speaks to everyone else and still not have it say anything to you. Keeping the list short at 15 songs, in alphabetical order and with links to legit downloads where available:

A Christmas playlist, based on a mix I made for someone, but with slight modifications: Diana Krall, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” Nat ‘King’ Cole, “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)” Eartha Kitt, “Santa Baby” Tom Jones and Cerys, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” Macy Gray, “Winter Wonderland” Olivia Olson, “All I Want For Christmas Is You” Jimmy Eat World, “Last Christmas” Weezer, “The Christmas Song” Edward Elgar, “Snow” Frank Sinatra, “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear” Joni Mitchell, “River” Harry Connick Jr., “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, one and all.

Speaking of photos, here’s one I took from inside the Palais des Congres in Montreal. Thought the colour effects were pretty interesting. Technorati Tags: montreal, photography

Punk photographer Andy Rosen puts up his pics on Flickr. Album covers from the Jam, a whole Clash set - frankly, the collection is pretty amazing. Heidi Klum and Seal’s baby is frankly quite ugly. The best one can say about Paolo Di Canio’s “I am not a racist, I am a fascist” defence of his one-armed salute gesture is that it’s original, I suppose. I love cryptic crosswords - got hooked on them back in the day when the New Yorker carried them. The Guardian one is really quite fun, and now the editor Hugh Stephenson has a little article on how to solve them. Online art photography magazine AK47.tv’s 9th issue is out, and I do like the “Twos and Threes” set by Jesse Chehak. Technorati Tags: photography, football, crosswords

Back from a sojourn into the wilderness of Singapore aka standard army reserve commitments. Because lately poems have been running through my head, here’s another favourite one of mine, from Neruda, all intensity and passion.

And to cap off 2005, a song: Just in time you’ve found me just in time Before you came my time was running low I was lost the losing dice were tossed My bridges all were crossed nowhere to go Now you hear now I know just where I’m going No more doubt of fear I’ve found my way For love came just in time you’ve found me just in time And changed my lonely nights that lucky day

“About suffering they were never wrong, The Old Masters; how well, they understood Its human position” - W.H. Auden, “Musee des Beaux Arts”

“Last night. Okay. Six months from last night. December sixteenth, six o’clock in the evening, track eleven. It’s a train ride for you, but I got to fly over. But hey, I’ll be here.” - Jesse, in Before Sunrise

Because sometimes news items make me think of poetry: here’s a news story on a forlorn lover leaving a ring for someone else. In the desert I saw a creature, naked, bestial, who, squatting upon the ground, Held his heart in his hands, And ate of it. I said, “Is it good, friend?” “It is bitter - bitter,” he answered; “But I like it Because it is bitter, And because it is my heart.” - Stephen Crane, from “The Black Riders”