May 2007's list

Books





1. I Am Muslim - DINA ZAMAN. No, don't go running off at the title because Dina Zaman's latest isn't going to preach/proselytise/ to you or urge you to leave your 'sinning ways' and repent. As Dina herself said, this isn't a book about religion, it's about a person who happens to be a Muslim trying to make sense and find her way amidst perilous Kuala Lumpur life. Sometimes, she's not even writing from a Muslim point of view (whatever that is) but from a thirty-something newly single woman just experiencing life and poking fun at it. It's rather a relief to me, that even someone like Dina, whose column Dina's Dalca I used to read as a teenager in the New Straits Times, is still searching and is still trying to find some semblance of order and meaning in today's world. Dina's humour is never nasty, nor despairing and the warmth of her anecdotes of the people she meets, no matter how bizarre, demonstrates her willingness to learn and not to judge. I have to admit though that there are a couple of chapters in there about the dating scene in KL that gave me nightmares for a week. So leave your expectations by the door. It helps when you read this.



2. The Stars My Destination - ALBERT BESTER. Neil Gaiman was right when he said that you can tell he date of an old science fiction novel by every word on the page. "Nothing dates harder and faster and more strangely than the future." He was also right when he said that Albert Bester's The Stars My Destination (published in the UK as Tiger! Tiger!) is the exception to that because if I didn't know it was written in 1956, I would have sworn that it was something written recently, something along the lines of the bizarreness of Chuck Palahniuk, perhaps. In the future, everyone can teleport across space and time, except that they can't do it through the vacuum of space, which is why Gully Foyle was screwed when his ship was buggered halfway between Mars and Jupiter. His situation was hopeless - he lived in a closet which was the only airtight room on the spaceship and was 171 days gone before his distress signal hailed a passing ship. But the spaceship Vorga appoaches, then leaves Gully to his doom and the enraged, and by now quite demented Gully, swears sweet, bloody revenge on the Vorga and everyone aboard. Quite how he achieves this is the plot itself and I won't spoil it for you if you should ever choose to read this, but be prepared for a lurid, frenetic ride as you get caught up with the monstrous being that Gully becomes as he becomes unstoppable in his quest for revenge.




Music

Wolf Parade plus visiting alien

1. Modern World - WOLF PARADE. If you read this blog, you most likely read my sister KJ's blog as well, who on the weekend goes by the name DJ Flea On A Leash on KPIE radio (What the cool kids listen to, allegedly). You will also know that she has been trying to convert me to the Church of The Genius Spencer Krug for many months. Her preaching has mostly been met with my indifference but KJ has been relentless with espousing the virtues of Spencer Krug and friends. She even had a special podcast just for me one Saturday afternoon playing a set consisting mainly of Wolf Parade and Krug's other band Sunset Rubdown. She must have played about 10 songs before Dan Broeckner's raspy voice singing Modern World's downbeat, biting tune got to me. So KJ is happy that I finally like one Wolf Parade song, only rather disappointed that it's a Broeckner-led song that I like rather than one sung by the band's other vocalist, Spencer Krug. I guess you can't win them all.

Oh and check out their absolutely cool video for this song here. It's very Tim Burton.

Delays (L-R) Aaron Gilbert, Rowly, Greg Gilbert, Colin Fox

2. You See Colours (album) - DELAYS. Big Sister bought this on recommendation from the guy at Rock Corner and we've been playing it non-stop in the car. It's infectious sunny pop-rock that's happy to distance itself from the sneering swagger of Brit bands like Oasis, Kasabian et al and make you bop your head like a chicken, waggle your hands about and....okay, that's just the way I dance, alright? YOU might do it differently. It's not vacuous happy pop, but the kind of happy that you find after a lot of heartache, so it's an exuberant well-earned happiness. Uh, I'm not making sense, am I? You think I shouldn't be reviewing music at all? But don't let my half-assed review put you off Delays. This is the kind of album you can listen all the way through. One song sounds like Alison Goldfrapp,another sounds like some 80s Bonnie Tyler/Journey, while another sounds very much like a guy singing...... You can go like that through every song in the album (It's a man! No, it's a woman! No, it's a man!) before discovering that it is actually a guy called Greg Gilbert singing in a falsetto alternating with sexy, raspy vocals together with his three friends from Southampton. S-s-s-moking.

Favourite tracks include You and Me, Valentine, This Town's Religion, Too Much In Your Life and Given The Time.