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.


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No Love Lost
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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?"


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


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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"

Three Worlds

Saturday turned out very eventful. Even surreal, if only I'd been more of an imaginative person. =P I was out for about twelve hours and spent the whole time (that wasn't transportation) at one place, the National Library Building.

(1)st there was EOY 2009, the only premeditated event of that day. EOY is an annual "Japanese cross-cultural event" with the main focus on cosplay. I was aware of this event only this year because DIsk took part in the artwork section. Took some photos but I'm not sure about the publishing rights so not posting here..

I'm not unfamiliar with cosplay, but it was my first time experiencing it in person, though only as a spectator, of course. =D I hope people were not interpreting my uncontained grins as any ridiculing gesture. I was simply wow-ed that this thing I'd been seeing in fandom was actually happening where I lived.

It's a pity that I'm no longer that much of an anime fan, so I missed about half the references there. Those I did recognize are mostly the older titles that are still ongoing or have current sequels, and from these some I only know on the surface. Well, there were FMA, Naruto, Tenipuri, Bleach,... Ah, one exception, which was also a nostalgic sight I hadn't expected, was a girl dressed up as Suu from CLAMP's Clover, complete with the pretty wings. I used to love that type of fantastic angst, ahaha. Exception because the manga has ended cleanly (, beautifully, tragically) as far as I know; would love to know if there is continuation of any kind as I'll probably still be somewhat drawn to it...

The most impressive costume I saw was that of Lv Bu from The Three Kingdoms, with his fitting large built and spears in both hands. Also, cute Doumo-kun made an appearance!

Other highlights include the cosplay competition, whose participants were actually only a small subset of total people who cosplayed at the event, and anime music performances, which featured some amazing vocalists. The MCs, while giving me the impression as not being otaku-s themselves when they misread the names in the Bleach quiz questions, did exhibit the entertaining bluntness I've been seeing on Japanese TV by honestly admitting, "OK, it's time for lame jokes, as we need to stall time here while the next performer gets ready!" xD (I don't know, maybe it's an universal thing, just that I rarely watch non-Japanese shows nowadays.)

I found it odd that they delayed the single last contestant until after yet another half-hour break. There were exhibitions and merchandise + artwork booths we could patronize during these breaks, but the most important activity was to go around spotting the cosplay characters and taking photos of them (procedure: ask permission, wait for them to pose, snap, say thank you). The crowd grew larger in the afternoon and it became very difficult to move around, so I decided to leave before the end.

That led to the (2)nd experience of the day whereby I got tempted to venture into the lending area of the library. I'm not a member, so I didn't intend to borrow any book, only browse around to see if I could find any Grisham book I hadn't read. (I used to follow John Grisham quite closely throughout the period of my life when I was attending schools with such accommodating libraries, but have missed quite a lot since then.) Well, the only one I hadn't read that wasn't on loan from the branch happened to be "The Testament", so I settled with that.

Long story short, I ended up staying in the reading area finishing the novel in 5 hours. Would have taken longer if the library hadn't had to close at 9pm. xD It's been a while since I finished a full novel in one sitting! I was too lazy to apply for borrowing rights, so 15 minutes before the library closed I started skimming through the remaining pages, practically reading only the first line of each paragraph. Since I couldn't take the book out (or didn't try to find a way to...) I also skipped dinner and forgot about toilet breaks but did wish I had brought a jacket when the room felt colder as night came. =PP

Since I had also been lazy to hunt for food during the cosplay event, I'd brought three slices of pandan bread along, and had taken two out of those for lunch. xD (Taken another two for breakfast before leaving home, as well.) Now, exiting the library, I was eager to get to the bus stop so I could start munching on the last remaining piece, but--

The (3)rd, last, and strangest adventure happened not far from the exit when an elderly man called out to me, "Do you speak English?" I found it a bit strange since he looked Asian -- I mean, I mostly expect Caucasians to ask that question and expect Asians to ask if I speak Chinese... though come to think of it the Asians I've encountered so far haven't been asking that question but rather just shot their questions directly in Mandarin because I look Chinese. =PP

But I digress. The man introduced himself as a spiritual traveler (forgot his exact term) from Tokyo. At this point my cautiousness about "speaking to strangers" (and the hunger) was overcome by the thought of "oh, might be interesting to talk to him". =D; He said he wrote books and was trying to find publishers for them. He told me the content of his books and asked my opinions about his choices for the titles. Since I'm just as fussy about words and titles, I kind of didn't mind discussing that with him.

My cautiousness returned when he asked if I wanted to buy any of his books. But having some interest in literature myself, I thought it was quite a worthy 'cause' even if he turned out to be a swindler, so I took his short story collection and gave him ten dollars. ^^0 He later 'threw in' a printout of his poems on Hiroshima and several pages of haiku.

Just before I wrote this post I did some Google search based on the name printed on his books, and found this page. That was him all right, Asano Hideo-san. The listing on Amazon also confirmed the books he talked to me about.

The page I linked above has the information and links about him, and I've also left a comment summarizing the conversation we had. Well, 'racist' is quite a fitting description, but I do think most humans are 'racist' in their own way to some extent, though to be fair I happened to be outside the groups he spoke against, so I could afford to be neutral about it. =| He was definitely stereotyping and being rather hard-headed about it, too, though I could mostly comprehend the contributing factors to his opinions.

I'm avoiding sensitive issues here xD so just one relatively safe example, maybe. He was disappointed that the locals he met had not even recognized such names as Hemingway (his favourite author) or Nietzsche or Kant. I happen to know these people from the quotations I like to read, but I did tell him I hadn't actually read their books. He was quite pleased, anyway, and apparently he had also met another Indonesian (from Jogjakarta, he said) who was literature-aware, so he wondered what motivated our thinking beyond money/business that seemed to be the 'theme' in this country. =PPP Well yeah, I told him things might be different if he had asked the locals who majored in arts, and no matter where we came from I guess those with no interest in literature will still not recognize those names? xP I suppose it's just because he has a bias for the field he loves.

All in all, a very interesting encounter. Not sure if I'd be comfortable meeting another like him or having another one-hour conversation the next time I bumped into him... but the 'flavour' of his inquisitive thinking is indeed similar to mine. I mean, there are matters that I simply don't care much about, and when some critical people question this and that about those matters I'd be like, "What's the big deal?" =PP But he was close to a kindred spirit, if maybe rather extreme about it.

And that was how my Saturday went. Twelve hours, five slices of bread, three worlds, one venue. xD (Indulge me, it's big enough for my scale LOL.)

輝かしい友情

Chasing down the world of J-pop from Kobukuro to Ayaka (she's so easy to fall for) ...and landed in the world of figure skating. =D

I am outdated as usual, only now finding out that her 2006 debut hit "I Believe" (also covered in Mandarin by 绝对Superstar's 石欣卉) was used by gold medalist figure skater Ando Miki in 2006 Skate America championship.

Apparently the two are good friends who share the same birth date and similar milestones in life... how interesting. It was by Miki's request that Ayaka recorded the English version of the song exclusively for her to dance to in the competition.

I tracked down the performance here, but was more attracted to the repeat performance one year later, in the exhibition segment of 2007 World Figure Skate Championships -- not that I know any bit about figure skating excellence but simply because Ayaka sang live for her, this time in Japanese, probably because the event was held in Tokyo.

(And do bear with the interval in between so as not to miss the encore with another song of Ayaka's, "Mikazuki".)



If by now I've managed to get you as interested in these two extraordinary friends as I am, you can go here to see them talk on a music show, though unfortunately without subtitle. (Yeah, I stalk these kinds of shows nowadays even while not understanding most of what's being talked about. =DDD)

It's What You Didn't Say

Got this from the "Writer's Block" section on my Livejournal:

Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in only six words. His response? “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” He is believed to have called it his greatest literary work ever.

Indeed, thriller is in the imagination of the beholder?

Six-word stories from other authors

Life in the Art Lane

I'm going to watch The Pillowman tonight. First real live event that I decided to buy a ticket for all by myself, so somehow I feel like it's something I need to be prepared for, XD which I'm not. Hmmm. Maybe I should've been more persuasive in asking my friends to watch with me, but I was in the never-mind, chop-chop-settle kinda mood. =P

Got myself a Kobukuro last weekend. Somebody should be proud of me for supporting the music industry for once. XD I knew they wouldn't disappoint (furthermore it's their All Singles Best), but part of the reason for that impulsive purchase was my excitement at knowing that their fame had apparently reached Singapore too -- wouldn't be surprised if it were in Kinokuniya, but I've found the CD in the Popular bookshop, see.

If anything, my one tiny purchase should encourage Warner Music Singapore to import more of their stuff, no? (On second thought, maybe it just helps that Kobukuro is currently signed under Warner Music Japan?) Their edition comes with Chinese translation of the song lyrics and footnotes in the album, too, so that in addition to 20 songs (16 of which I didn't have at time of purchase) in two discs at 19 dollars minus 5 cents are quite worth it, at least when balanced against my growing obsession, heh.

Two of the songs in the album I've posted some time back, so I won't post more here. Instead, here is a song "Kobukuro's smaller one" wrote for Natsukawa Rimi, another great singer whose CDs I've been buying (that's saying a lot if you know me). Please bear with the precluding talks -- there are cleaner videos out there, but I like this version because the songwriter performed with her and sang the harmony here.


夏川りみ & 小渕健太郎 「 さようなら ありがとう ～天の風 （アマノカゼ） ～ 」
Natsukawa Rimi & Kobuchi Kentarou "Sayounara Arigatou ~Ama no Kaze~" (Live Duet)

Conversations with Other Women

Watched Conversation(s) with Other Women with usual partner (Eka). =) A bit of an artsy film I suppose, what's with the split-screen cinematography. What's more, it's only screened in Cathay Orchard, in a small studio. Not bad for some VIP feel, huhuh.


The film itself was great, in my opinion. Considering 90% of the movie is a conversation between two people in a hotel. Or, depending on perspective, a very long (ahem) sex scene. =D Very refreshing for a change.

Speaking of which, I don't quite get the plurality in the title. I don't think the short lines exchanged with the few other female characters are significant enough. But anyway.

I've always been drawn towards mature characters in any kind of fiction, and I guess it's the top reason why I like this movie. Rational characters, rational conversation, nothing dramatized, nothing over the top. Still the woman (Helena Bonham Carter) has such strong personality, and the man (Aaron Eckhart) has such charming enthusiasm, that really engage attention from beginning until end. That plus some quiet humour from both as well as other characters.

I guess the clever use of split-screen helps too, since it keeps things alive with flashbacks and split-sequences (don't know if it's a technically correct term; what I mean is they split an event sequence into two and run both on the parallel screen. Like, say, the way you ask two kids to count one to ten in order, with one kid saying only the odd numbers and the other only the even numbers). And the last scene is quite a perfect ending technique. (Won't spoil it for you. Go watch.)

The official site justifies this technique by saying, "Since there are two sides to every love story, split screen proved to be the perfect way to tell both sides of Conversations with Other Women." It does heighten the interaction feel, though I don't think it is really about "two sides of a story", for which, in my opinion, they'll need to be consistent about which side represents whose side of the story. I'd say they interact quite amiably that the two sides aren't so different at all. But of course this way of telling it is much more interesting. =)

It is fairly open-ended too, with a slight suggestion towards a happy one =D so that's just perfect for me. Hahah. After watching moral-heavy movies like Hero and The Banquet, I'm starting to favor open-ended movies over simple happy endings. That is what life is like, after all.