Reading “The Discomfort of Evening”

I finally finished reading this book written by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, originally in Dutch (De avond is ongemak) and winner of the 2020 International Booker Prize. What can I say except it is indeed a wonderfully dark, plot-twisted piece of work.

Recommended for those who are into this genre.

*Spoiler alert: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/08/books/review-discomfort-of-evening-marieke-lucas-rijneveld.html

Reading “Before the Coffee Gets Cold” by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Over the weekend I finished reading “Before the Coffee Gets Cold” by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. The four intertwined stories represents the idea of those who were brave enough to take the chance to visit their past (and future) in order to find closure in their lives.

I don’t think I have the heart to meet my beloved, even if I were given the chance to return to the past to meet them. The pain of losing them are unbearable until now.

Song of the Day #13

I can feel it in a second
Just let the words trickle down
What I had was nothing less than
I don’t know why I feel so down
And I know, its hard
What’s all this falling out
…”

Let’s Go Outside – Far Caspian (2018)

https://www.clashmusic.com/news/far-caspian-explore-dislocation-on-lets-go-outside

Everyone of us responds differently to the uncertainties caused by the pandemic. If you are feeling down and blue, try talking through the things that have been bugging you to someone you can trust with. In UTM, help is around, and you can just reach out to the ones who care.

Revisiting Travis’ greatest hits

Those who knew me knows that I’m passionate about qualitative research. A self-proclaimed narrative inquirer, I’m drawn towards anything that has some kind of storytelling element in it.

And it so happened that I have this strange “Travis moment” going on in me lately after I came across the band’s latest single “Nina’s Song” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wbum2xr3K40.

One song led to the other, and all reminded me of the songs that were the true companions during my doctoral years. Numbers like “Writing to Reach You”, “Driftwood”, “Side”, “Sing”, “Why Does It Always Rain on Me”, “Flowers in the Window”, etc., surely bring back some memories. My personal fav is “Closer”, always and forever (with that Dougie’s smashing bass, and yupp… it was Ben Stiller in the video…).

The fact that Fran Healy and I share the same year of birth (he’s 3 days older than me, matter of factly…), I now realised while I was embracing my own creative flow circa 2007-2009, he was also being experimental about the direction of his own creativity.

So it was a pure joy to stumble upon a recording of him entitled “A Chronological Acoustical Journey Through The Travis Back Catalogue” on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ynLL1U34os&t=2386s

Fran was indeed a great storyteller; sharing the story of each song that he had written over the years, all in chronological order.

Now I wish I had all their the CDs back in those years….

The Isle of Eroda

At this age of mine, to be a fan of a boy-band is kind of weird.

But this is Harry Styles post One Direction era, and I simply love the narratives of the extended version of his video, “Adore You” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yezDEWako8U

Quintessentially creative, and uniquely brilliant!

To know more about the Isle of Eroda, read: https://www.nme.com/blogs/harry-styles-adore-you-video-weird-fish-fine-line-2019-2584655

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adore_You_(Harry_Styles_song)