s.ty.lized

So there's this thing with some stage names or pen names which, though they consist of normal English words, are not supposed to be written with the usual capitalization rules. For example, e.e. cummings and k.d. lang. Wikipedia calls it "stylized", or sometimes "typeset".

It gets rather chaotic in the Japanese music scene, where some English names are natively written in katakana, which is ordinarily transferred to Latin in all-caps. So it is not clear whether DREAMS COME TRUE or FUNKY MONKEY BABYS should always be written in all-caps (which can really be quite glaring), since it might just be due to the katakana representation. It is easier to figure out true stylization when it's all non-caps, like the brilliant green (which looks like just a part of this sentence), or when it's mixed, like HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR (which is still glaring). Of course, some name owners themselves are inconsistent about the typeset, like how Every Little Thing have named themselves in all-caps, all non-caps, and katakana, all in three different single releases.

I am the type to rename my music files when I find out I've not been capitalizing them correctly, so this is significant. =D Well, getting someone's name correct is a sign of respect (though this guy here does bring up a compelling argument). Capitalization may not be as crucial as spelling (say, when mix-and-matching Patti Smith with Patty Smyth) but in names like hitomi the lack of capitalization is the factor that makes it Furuya-san and not Yaida-san or Shimatani-san, while missed capitals on names like KinKi Kids could push them a step closer to distasteful misspelling (as well as land one in trouble with dedicated fans).

This string of thoughts came about as I was just getting all starry-eyed blissful-eared clickety-fingered watching k.d. lang on YouTube, and trying to put my finger on how she can sing the same song differently every time (a swell here, a shortening there, a few different notes once in a while...) without ruining the original feel of the song. Even when it's a cover, instead of performing it as a musical composition she grasps its story and just tells it, and with that seemingly effortless divine vocal delivery she can surely afford to improvise and still tell it flawlessly.

...Yeah, watch me ramble, but the point is, for someone as accomplished as that, I'd pay really good attention to how she wishes her name to be written! (And here's a pretty entertaining article on the controversy over the miscapitalization.)

But this blog entry would not have been written had I not gotten extra rambling material from the recent realization that one-north (the MRT station where my office is at) is so far the only station with a stylized name... except counting HarbourFront, which would not cause any capitalization dilemma anyway, for example when the station name occurs at the beginning of a sentence.

Now to close this entry, Happy New Year! (And this one I'm pretty sure is meant to be capitalized like that.)

Safe in A Crazy World

I once read someone saying, "Music saved my life." He was in depression for an extended time and had repeatedly considered suicide. I suppose he found an outlet in music -- all I knew was he started composing music in genres that were... not so mainstream. The phase passed, and he seems to be a happy person nowadays.

With a brief Google search I found more such stories. A youngster who grew up in a slum learned to play the guitar and so instead of getting drawn into the neighbourhood gang he became a performer. A student who couldn't do well in any subject at school found her potential and purpose of life in playing music.

I haven't thought of music that way until the past week when I experienced something like that, albeit in a much milder scale. In my case, stress was building up from an assortment of little things: unsettled issues that piled up, small annoyances from people all around... Sometimes I feel the little things are worse, because in addition to these you second-guess yourself why you should be so upset with them when they seem so insignificant, and you chide yourself for being narrow-minded.

So I needed a tranquilizer. I turned on music and sang. And to dramatize a bit, I can say that music saved my sanity at the time.

As a Buddhist, a perhaps better alternative would be silence. But I'm ashamed to say that I've been struggling with meditation, that my mind is still too untamed that it kept slipping back to the noisy thoughts. But drawing a lesson from our former music director, I'd like to think music could be a form of meditation to some.

So while I continue to train this monkey mind, let me just hold on to my music -- the ever reliable companion when I need to be alone.

Noise keeps chasing me no matter where I go
And life likes pretending that it's on a TV show
When it's hard to tell what's real
From what the world just wants to preach
You are the voice I seek

'Cause when I'm wrapped up in your arms
Nothing else can touch me
What a wonderful way to recharge
I feel like I can breathe again

You keep me flying
You keep me smiling
You keep me safe in a crazy world

-- Corrinne May, "Safe in A Crazy World"

In Other Words, A Tropical Winter

つながった
冬の星座

Once again Orion tells me that winter is here,
a kinder sign than the cold that bites my skin.
Ah, winter has come, year by year,
even to this land that has only sun and rain.
And the world churns out songs of snow,
of feelings white that keep you warm;
tunes ringing with the longing you'd know
despite a climate tens of degrees off.

Yes, winter is here,
the season dancing in the sounds,
the season written in the stars;
and with none* of the freezing it still lets me glimpse
icy lands far and foreign,
frosty wonders my eyes have never seen.


* Except for the illusion of it on fingertips and such extremities.

扉

次々に歌を聞き返す
君の脳裏を知っていないけど
君の思想を理解したいから。

曲も詞もちゃんと感じ取る
君の心に入れないけど
君の世界を認めたいから。

Big History: Beautiful Story

I'm sharing this video link in the spirit of "collective learning" as recommended by the speaker of this wonderful talk on the history of the universe. I recommend watching it in full-screen mode (and darkened room if possible) to enhance the experience. =)

David Christian, "Big History" @ TED Talks



If the above streaming is slow, you can also find it on YouTube here.

Teaser snapshots:

Look Smart

Feels like I've grown rather saturated of smartphones without even starting to use one. =P Too much seeing them used in buses and trains and they start to look the same*. With running apps that look the same too (usually messaging or touchscreen games... pardon me for glancing).

* Even those of a certain fruity flavour, as I'm just not a gadget person enough to bother to differentiate at a glance, with those protectors on.

The increase in capability is of course a good thing, but visually speaking, I feel that the older feature phones, with range of models that are more distinguishable, have more of a personality.

But call me biased, as I'm still using a feature phone and liking it (points for it being able to fit unobstrusively in my pocket, and I'm on full-fledged computers almost all the time, anyway); wait til it's time for my mobile plan recontract + handset upgrade and see --- shall I go for looks, or intelligence? ;P


On a related but not exactly relevant topic, here's an interesting article that questions the nurturing of that intelligence (in general terms) where it should foremost be.

Generation T

According to Wikipedia, I belong to a generation at the edge between Gen X and Gen Y. The accurate dividing line, of course, depends on demographics and other factors, statistically. Realistically, we could just go by the distinguishing characteristics. Even then, rarely does a person fit neatly into any typical group.

I think of myself as belonging to a transition generation. Not as a term, but as how I would describe it here---that is, a generation that experiences both [temporal] sides of a cultural transition. Of course, the same might be said about almost all other generations, as it is unlikely that a generation span could go by without any significant transition taking place. Taking this to the abstract level, then, I would prefer to define this transition in the sense of inducing a way of thinking that encompasses both the old and the new cultures.

I was born into a culture of traditions, albeit one whose strictness had faded. There was an abundance of moral education on one hand, and superstitions on the other. Then science and technology brought widespread change of lifestyles, and thence came the culture of pragmatism, driven by what is effective and convenient. I have enough ties to the old culture to keep it in my life: childhood impressions, respect for the elders, memories of a time when the old way was the good way... I have also tasted enough benefits of the new culture to want to stick to it.

We who have witnessed this transition are in a position to understand the driving factors and, in a way, balance the best of both worlds. Have things changed because it was necessary or simply because it was possible? With a bit more effort we may also understand the ways of the generations before and after: what makes them think in a certain way that might at first seem ridiculous or outrageous. Some superstitions are simply poorly-justified or out-of-context good advice; some unscientific ancient medical beliefs might actually be beneficial though not for the reason stated (rather than confusing uneducated patients with explanations, better to drive home the importance of obeying the instructions using simple analogies). Likewise, "improper" behaviour patterns of the younger generation are likely a natural response (or even aspiring effort) to the values deemed important at their age, in the era.

Just as "the old generation" in our point of view may blindly follow traditions, or "the new generation" blindly follow trends, so may we prone to blindly rejecting their ways as bad. Trying to understand a common pattern should be considerably easier than trying to understand individuals with all their subtle flavours---which is what we need to do in our relationships anyway.

Transition or no, we can probably take more pride in being a thinking generation---whose span ideally has nothing to do with time---one who cares to try to understand rather than judge, lest there ever be a need to put "-ism" behind "generation", too.


Much of the inspiration for this writing has come from Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End", which painted a much more impressive picture of "generations" differing in more than one sense of the word.

An Exercise in Palindrome

Writing exercise.

Warning:
Dark theme, owing to--

Credits:
Heavy influence from Christopher Buckley's political satire "Thank You For Smoking" as well as David Sedaris' twisted fable "Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk" for the plot idea.


--------------------
No Love Lost
--------------------


It was really rather ironic, he thought, that this was where they'd first met.

He lit his cigarette, took a deep drag on it, and blew a cloud of smoke that blended into the imaginary swirl of her lingering perfume before vanishing through the window frame.

"I know you'd mind this, but--" He shrugged. "Hardly matters now, does it?"

Her gaze bore on his face, emotionless.

"Not that an apology would do any good at this point, anyway."

He fiddled with the cigarette in his fingers. Now that it was all over, he suddenly felt like spending a while longer with her.

"You wronged me first, remember."

He watched as pain registered across her face. She struggled with it for a long silent minute, fists clenched, jaws tense-- and then it was gone.

"We've all got to do what we've got to do."

She had said the same thing when she was leaving him, that first time.

Nothing personal, you understand. Was it really this easy to take a life?

It was her front-page article, crammed with privileged insider information that should've stayed within the bedroom walls, that had brought the company crumbling down in scandals and driven his brother to suicide.

"Don't give me that betrayed look. I know you never fully trust me. None of us is blameless, here."

In the end, it was simply a matter of who outwitting who.

Understanding dawned. She was smart. He suppressed a morbid urge to laugh. She was staring at him.

"With this," he gestured to his wine, the glass still untouched, "we're even."

He poured more wine from the bottle, filling her glass to the brim. It was deep red, a fitting colour for the occasion.

She contemplated it. "So you've come to tell me that you're going to overlook the past because you have further use for me?"

A thin smile formed on his lips. "I would think it poses less danger to my life compared to having a spying journalist in my house." He leaned back on his seat. "And I do intend to have you pay for what you've taken."

She gave him a sharp look as she drained her wine glass.

He took a cigarette out of his pack, and mockingly offered it to her. "You really wouldn't try a smoke?"


--------------------


For the second version/part of the story, please read the above paragraphs from bottom to top.


--------------------


Line palindromes in literature:
- James A. Lindon, "Doppelgänger" story-poem
- Jonathan Reed, "The Lost Generation" video-poem
- Douglas Hofstadter, "Crab Canon" dialogue (from "Gödel, Escher, Bach")

Crab canon in musical literature:
- J. S. Bach, "Canon 1 a 2"

A Flower By Any Other Language

I'm posting this for the unexpectedness value: when I saw the link to "Chinese version of Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana" I thought it would be the usual Chinese cover of a Japanese song by Chinese singers, but turned out it was SMAP themselves (the original Japanese singers, none of whom speak Chinese) singing it.



If I understand correctly they released this Chinese version for charity in support of the earthquake relief efforts. I've been out of touch with Japan entertainment news for quite a while, so I've only found out about this from the recent news about them serenading the Chinese Premier with this song during his Tokyo visit.

Pronunciation aside, I think the Chinese cover is really not too bad. It maintains most of the original meaning of the song without being overly translation-awkward, it rhymes well, and the overall thing is pretty amusing. =D Maybe it helps a lot that the song has pleasant and catchy melody to begin with. In fact, my favourite version of the song so far is the lyricless one:



...by a Chinese group, come to think of it. How great that music is universal, don't you think? =)

Listen

This year's Vesak resolution: listen.

This year we have an inter-faith celebration that is open to public, do drop by if you're interested! =)

十二色と 一色あたし

The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.
-- Ludwig Wittgenstein

And I lament the limits of my understanding of this language sometimes, there being someone who speaks so beautifully in it...

...but thankfully the eloquence is not only in words.

Of Witches and Wizards

A quick recommendation of my breakfast reading today:
Why Gandalf Never Married - 1985 Talk by Terry Pratchett

It discusses the portrayal of gender and magic in fantasy literature (he later wrote Equal Rites on this theme). While there are a number of references to the fantasy genre, I think his sense of humor is generic enough for everyone to enjoy. *dangles bait*

Reporting In

It's been a long time since the last blog. There's work, and then there're other things... The usual excuse, you know the drill, lol. I guess I just didn't have as many introspective moments as before, or as many mini-epiphanies I think worth sharing.

Something important to me actually happened recently: my first trip to Japan. =) The main purpose was to attend a work-related exhibition in Tokyo, but of course, I didn't miss the chance to go to a planetarium. Two 40-min shows back-to-back. =q I also briefly infiltrated Tokyo University, indulged myself along the Used-Books Street, got a cheap music CD from the famous Akihabara (and got tempted by a new Sony Ericsson / Cybershot model that might not even make it to Singapore), and took really pleasant strolls along the vast gardens / parks / shrines despite the spring season not yet arriving; among other adventures (and misadventures). Facebook photo albums will follow soon, maybe. (For those photos, I definitely still love my Elm.)



The second-last day of my trip coincided with the Sendai earthquake, which was also my first earthquake experience. It was rather frightening when the building shook violently, but having no prior scale to compare, at the moment I had no idea how severe it was and so didn't really panic. =X Everyone around were calm, even though they did say it was stronger than usual. So it was only later when I realized that public transport had all ceased operating, that I started to feel lost and worried about getting back to the hotel and contacting my family.

Long story short, I had a long long walk (and climb) back to my room that day, but still considered myself lucky when I saw the stranded people sleeping on the floor in the hotel lobby / McDonalds / any available indoor space on my way back, and even more so when I watched the round-the-clock TV news on the tsunami-hit areas. The aftershocks continued to worry everyone, but my flight back departed as scheduled, and here I am.

So yeah, I was happy to be there, and also happy to be back. Warm and humid tropical weather that's kind to the skin and a solid ground you can take for granted. Not traumatized, for sure; I definitely still want to visit Kyoto and Nara one day. =) And having a not-so-bad experience of the earthquake firsthand is good for heightening my empathy towards natural disaster victims. (To quote from Les Miserables, "A little drop of rain can hardly hurt me [...] and rain will make the flowers grow.")

Moving on... I'd say it was back to normal life, but there have been some new experiences at work (attending some intimidating meetings) and outside it (trying to impart my half-baked skills to a group of youths with my half-baked teaching competence; contributing to fundraising projects...) as well. There were also catching-up meet-ups which went pleasantly. I think I'm pretty much enjoying life as it is right now, the excitement and the placidity alike.

A reflection to close off: I dropped by Eka's blog where she wrote at one point:

"It's between choosing your heart and your head. The sceptical-in-love me really wondered if choosing your heart will always make you happier."

That reminded me of a review on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice by Michael Cohen, who said of Elizabeth and Darcy's marriage as

"a marriage [...] that shows us not that prudent choices lead to happiness but that the prudent are happy choosing prudently."

(No full source, but it was quoted here.) I think that is very well put.

Little Happiness

me and my bits of happiness
a sound,
a sight.

we and our bits of happiness
a touch,
a smile.