I'm Not Asleep, My Eyes Are Just Closed

Music Editors - in the days when they wore loose jeans This month has been devoted totally to the awesome goodness that is Editors (not the) whose addictive tunes and passionate delivery have made me swoon in musical delirium. Thanks to the fan forum on the official website (yes, yes, I go to forums now, let’s leave it at that) and their plethora of hardcore and tech-literate fans, there is an abundance of live footage and live recordings of the band’s performances for one to covetously download and savour. (Especially when yours truly has little chance whatsoever of seeing them live). So, when I'm not skulking on the interweb, I'd be enjoying some of the gems below: 1. Fall (live video recording Pukkelpop Festival 2005, Belgium; London Calling 2005, Netherlands) On record, 'Fall' is hypnotic, morose and almost ponderous. Played live, it’s a different animal altogether – intense and oozing dangerous sexiness that climaxes into a frantic scream of guitars. A favourite...

Music 1. The View From Here (album) – TEMPERED MENTAL . They sounded good, honestly they did, when I went to see them at Laundry at the launching of their debut album a few weeks ago. Good vocalist, banging bass – I shuffled my feet a little – and I bought their album. Hey, it was going cheap at RM20 and I figured they needed to earn a living somehow. But on repeated listens, I realised that I don’t really like music like this anymore. Go back circa 1999 and I would probably be headbanging to their songs, along with all the other nu-metal music that were making waves then, but currently, I’ve gotta say no. Oooh, Tempered Mental might object to me calling them nu-metal but that’s what it sounds like to me. Good effort, but not my cup of tea. You can check them out on MySpace . Stand out tracks: Recall 2. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (album) – CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH. See, you need a good name for your band to catch people’s attention and stick in their memories, instead of a meaningless ...

Music Hey Girl - Delays Long Time Coming - Delays 1. Faded Seaside Glamour (album); Lost In A Melody (single) – DELAYS . It follows that after me going crazy for Delays’ sophomore effort, You See Colours , I’d be backtracking to their debut album to get more of the good stuff. If I had discovered Delays by their first album, I’d have gone, “Jeebus! What the hell happened to Delays?” when I put on their second album because the two albums sound like two completely different animals. Where You See Colours did nearly what it said on the tin with its synths, thumping bass and beats you can wig out to, Faded Seaside Glamour is a dreamy, airy, bittersweet collection that you’d put on while you lie on the grass and look at the sheep-shaped clouds in the sky. There are jangly guitars, soaring vocals and melodies so blissed out and mellow you could take them home to meet the parents. Nearer Than Heaven, Hey Girl and Long Time Coming are some tracks that jump out but on repeated listens I ...

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 an...

Books 1. Komarr; A Civil Campaign; Diplomatic Immunity - Lois McMaster Bujold . My precious babies have finally arrived after many weeks on the seas, and I can now look lovingly upon my collection of books. After all that unpacking of my worldly belongings, there's nothing I like better than curling up with a favourite book (or two, or three). The above titles are the last three in the Miles Vorkosigan series, which chronicled the life of one Miles Naismith Vorkosigan; a stunted, accidental covert ops operative extroadinaire, better known among his peers as 'that hyperactive little shit.' Miles is no ordinary person. He is the son of a formidable Admiral (known as the Butcher of Komarr), in a previously isolated military-mad planet with a phobia of mutants. Born with brittle bones due to poisoning from a bungled assassination plot against his father while his mother was pregnant with him, Miles grows up a little warped but survives a painful childhood with a burning drive...

Films 1. 300 – Or as I like to call it, More Six-packs Than A Carlsberg Factory. Anyway, don’t let that fool you; it’s definitely a man’s man kind of movie. I went to see this purely based on seeing the trailer and for the fact that there was sod all to watch at the cinema, unless I watched Ghost Rider , which looked really bad anyways. I did not find out till the end of the film that it was based on a graphic novel which explains the direction and the look of the movie – short, sweet and to the point, with a beautiful palette of sharp-edged browns accented with the reds of the Spartan army’s capes. The plot is not too difficult: 300 Spartan warriors stand against the might of an invading Persian horde far superior in numbers. The fighting is graphic and gruesome – I physically gagged at a couple of scenes – and any other scenes not involving mass slaughter are well-paced and served the purpose of the story. There are a few hammy lines thrown in and some concession is made to emo scen...

Music 1. Patience - TAKE THAT 2. Rehab - AMY WINEHOUSE . Scary woman, who despite her anorexic appearance, looks like she can beat you up in a darkened London alley any time. Powerful voice, catchy song. 3. Carry On My Wayward Son - KANSAS . You gotta blame Supernatural for this revival in classic rock. A shame I threw away my Yngwie Malmstein and Deep Purple songs. It would have been so good. 4. Highway to Hell - AC/DC . Ditto. 5. Bones - THE KILLERS . Rousing chorus, a hint of over-the-topness. You gotta love The Kilers. 6. Smack That - AKON . I don't really like rap or its ilk or the proponents of its genre who go about thinking their God's gift and saying "I'm hard me, I got shot nine times," and making it obligatory to have all sorts of naked ladies dance provocatively around them while they themselves are dressed in several layers of clothes. Hey,man, if you want to show that you've got balls, why don't you take off your clothes as well, huh? Anywa...

Music When The Night Feels My Song – Bedouin Soundclash Raya songs – Various artists . Dear God! Why do raya songs have to be so maudlin and depressing? Why are these people permanently di perantauan and not in their own homes? Why do they keep mooching about the past? Lighten up and stuff your face with ketupat , why don’t you? Uhhh, that’s it really. Haven’t been listening to the radio much lately. Movies Lucky Number Slevin – This movie, chock-full of quality film stars like Morgan Freeman, Ben Kingsley and Bruce Willis, wasn’t the box office smash its producers hoped for, which is a shame because I quite like it. It centres on Josh Hartnett turning up in a new town to visit a friend, only to be mistaken for his missing friend by two local gangsters. His friend owes each gangster a whole load of money and in order to save his life, Hartnett has to murder two people. But all is not as it seems as Bruce Willis, a notorious hitman absent from the city for many years, is whisperi...

Phewh! What with all the excitement of the past month, I've forgotten about my monthly list. Not that anyone would miss it, but I like to do it for completeness sake. This month, I've been listening to: Twelve Stops and Home (Album) - THE FEELING . I bought the album initially because there two songs on it that I liked plus it was on sale, but wasn't too enamoured with the album as a whole. Now, two months after I've bought this album, it has grown on me and I can put it on daily. It's happy, summery, guitar music and still well worth putting on even if summer's on its way out. America - RAZORLIGHT . Quiet, subtle music that seeps into your consciousness. Nice. Empire - KASABIAN . I'm ok with the odd Kasabian single but this one I really like. Plus if you have a bloke in your English band called Serge Pizzorno, you gotta be cool. Pump It - BLACK EYED PEAS . Yes, sirree, I will. El Matador - LOS FABULOSES CADILLACS . I heard this song from the Grosse Point Bl...

This month, I have been listening to: You Give Me something - JAMES MORRISON SexyBack - JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE . Ooooh, Mr Trouser Snake himself. Trouble - RAY LAMONTAGNE Fill My Little World - THE FEELING I have also watched: Garden State - Ehhh. Nothing fantastic, but maybe I've been reading too many reviews and expecting too much. I can garner some sympathy for the over-anaesthetised Andrew Largeman (Zach Braff) and appreciate the tension between Large and his father (Ian Holm) whenever he briefly appears on-screen, but I watched most of the film feeling like I was on all the anti-psychotics Large was on. Robin Hood: Men In Tights - Why did I rent this film? How could I forget that I watched it before and didn't find it all that funny? I returned it without watching it till the end. Spirited Away - Japanese anime is always a little weird but worth watching because they rarely fit the usual Hollywood/Western storyline. Captivating story with interesting characters, beautiful an...

This month I have been listening to: Take A Bow – MUSE. ‘Burn, you will burn, you will burn in hell, you will burn in hell for your sins’ – you couldn’t be more blunt than that, could you? Map of the Problematique – MUSE. Stonking electro-rock number that has been on repeat for ages. Starlight - MUSE. Okay, just get Muse's new album Black Holes & Revelations, right? Because it's addictive, overblown rock drama, even if Matt Bellamy has a tendency to sing in a range more suitable to dogs ears than human hearing. Last Request - PAOLO NUTINI. Nice voice, nice looking bloke, nice song. Smile - LILY ALLEN . Good, summery song about smiling after you get your revenge on your ex. Heh. Hips Don't Lie - SHAKIRA. Don't tell my housemate I like this song, because I've made fun of Shakira's strange warbling voice and bizarre lyrics about her mountain-like breasts before. And then of course, she has to come out with an infectious song like this. Damn that woman. And ...

I have accused my engineer sister of being a bona fide geek. Unfortunately, I am a closet geek, so in the time-honoured tradition of geeks everywhere, I shall be making a list. This is because I have two days off work (which accounts for my unusual good humour) and have rediscovered an interest in music and books after many months of being sick of it all. (Also because I have two sisters with blogs and am always cribbing ideas off them.) This month I've been listening to: Monster - THE AUTOMATIC . Four excitable Welshmen, one demented loon and lots of ace tunes. Mardy Bum - ARCTIC MONKEYS . Aaahh, yes, it is a rather sweet, affectionate song. When The Sun Goes Down - ARCTIC MONKEYS. Somehow reminds me of Sublime. Wires - ATHLETE. If you don't cry at Joel Pott's account of the difficult birth of his baby girl, you've got a heart of stone! Supermassive Black Hole - MUSE . Always slightly bonkers, is our Muse, but always delivers. Maneater - NELLY FURTADO . I always thou...