Busy Busy

I usually spend a significant amount of time brainstorming for and writing out my posts. Going to make it(relatively) speedy tonight because I simply do not have the luxury of time.

Just came back from Japanese in town. The sashimi was excellent. Swordfish sashimi has possibly overtaken salmon as my favourite kind of raw fish. Tong was saying that one of his friend's actually cooked his sashimi in the steamboat, much to the displeasure of the staff. Heresy I tell you.

Anyway, as you guys probably know, I've spent the past 14 consecutive days working my ass off(although certain individuals may choose to dispute the "ass off" part). The great thing - aside from the pay - is the company. It's like secondary school all over again. Tong, Gerald, Jeff, and Ee. And just like secondary school, there's plenty of gossip, quarrels, bullying, and of course laughter. Throw in Fabien, Elissa, and David Foo and you have a rather strange combination of people. Not everyone comes every single day, and this Sunday is my turn to take a break because I am totally burnt out. To the point where I must not be making much sense now.

Here are two pictures from work. The first one shows Tong hard at work(or not), Elissa is the background, and of course good 'ol Jeff. Second one is really really cute. Jeff did it. It's Tongielicious!

This working experience has made me realise that money isn't everything. I know it's super cliche and all that but what's the point of earning 100 dollars a day if you can't find the time and friends to spend it with? I really hope that my job in the future isn't like this - ie go to work in the morning, come home at 11pm, surf the internet and read what little I can of the Economist, and then go to sleep and repeat the cycle. This is not the way life was meant to be lived. Not to mention that while I am having a great time with the AC guys, I really do miss all my other friends, and the boyfriend of course.

Anyway, I'll catch up with you guys another time. Ciao!

The Emperor's Children

A novel by Claire Messud. The review in the Economist had piqued my interest for 2 reasons. Firstly, it was set in New York City in the months prior to and just after 9/11/2001. Secondly, one of the main characters, Julius, was gay. I know it shouldn't matter and sounds like a silly reason for wanting to read a book, but that encouraged me to hunt for it while I was in the States(having been unable to find it here in Singapore, although I did see it in Kino a couple of weeks ago). I was lucky enough to procure an autographed copy from Borders, which does add a certain intimacy even though I have never seen Ms Messud in my life and probably never will.

The Emperor's Children "is a dazzling, masterful novel about the intersections in the lives of three friends, now on the cusp of their thirties, making their way - and not - in New York City." While this does sound vaguely Sex And The City-esque - and there are mentions of sex, shopping and parties - these 431 pages explore a different Manhattan scene altogether. A scene which revovles around Murray Thwaite, celebrity intellectual, beacon of truth to the left, father of borderline socialite and aspiring author Marina.

The novel begins with Danielle Minkoff(Marina's best friend from Brown) having dinner at the home of a friend's friend in Sydney - where she is conducting research for a television series on the Aborigines that she hopes to produce - and her initial encounter with the charming Australian Ludovic Seely, an ambitious Machiavellian who intends to start a revolutionary magazine in New York later in the year. Seely has a particular obsession with exposing Murray Thwaite as a charlatan, and later uses Danielle to get to Marina.

We are then introduced to Frederick 'Bootie' Tubb, an idealistic, troubled youth who dreams of escaping the physical and mental degradation of small town New York, just as his idol(and uncle) Murray had done many years ago. Leaving his sweet but naive simpleton of a mother Judy behind, he embarks on a clandestine journey to New York City and the Thwaites.

Meanwhile, Julius meets the suave, straight-acting David while temping, and the two enter a whirlwind romance which pulls him away from Marina and Danielle, and into the world of invesment bankers who are more likely to read the financial section of the New York Times than his reviews in the Village Voice. One does wonder whether this sacrifice of friends for love is worth it, indeed whether it is even necessary. Surely love is not all-consuming to the point where it leaves no space for others? Something I've never understood.

Julius leaves his ramshackle hovel of an apartment in what I deduced to be Alphabet City and moves in with David. After a few weeks, Bootie - who has been given a job as Murray's "amanuensis" - decides that he should live on his own, so as to be truly independent and not overly impose on his hapless relatives. Thus, he sublets from Julius.

This is where the main plot begins to kick in. The reader realises that Murray is far from perfect. For all his talk of truth, he engages in deception(don't we all) whether subtle - "plagiarizing" from his previous articles when writing a new one - or rather more blatant - having an affair with Danielle. Murray, like so many other aging intellectuals(Howard Besley from On Beauty comes to mind here), seems to have an unquenchable thirst for the sensations of life, and a fear that settling down translates into atrophy. Bootie realises what his uncle is up to and this, along with several other revealations, brings the pedestal on which he had put Murray crashing down. He proceeds to concoct a less than complimentary essay on his uncle, including his views on a secret manuscript that Murray is still writing, a project Murray hopes to be his lifetime accomplishment.

With the situation heating up and September 11 fast approaching, the book does start to become more engaging. How will Murray react to Bootie's article? Will his affair with Danielle be discovered? Will Seely succeed in his attempt to turn Marina against her father, and how about the launch of his supposedly revolutionary magazine? Will Julius, unable to decide if he is really happy in a monogamous relationship - and cheating on David - be found out? All this set against the backdrop of an impending disaster. Will they, and the city, survive?

It is unfortunate that none of the characters appear very likable. I couldn't stand idealistic, selfish Bootie and his pretentious pseudo-intellectual garbage. Murray is every bit the schemer that Seely is. Danielle is bland and insecure. Marina is vain and somewhat shallow. Julius is tolerable but capricious and impulsive. Very much like real life no? Moreover, Ms Messud's style of writng, which includes the excessive use of dashes - which, as you can see, has annoyingly seeped into my own writing style - and unnecessarily grandiloquent language, is hard to follow at times.

That being said, and while it certainly isn't on the same level as Zadie Smith's On Beauty, I have no regrets reading The Emperor's Children. Bootie realises at the end of the book, when Murray once again finds himself a large audience in the post Sep 11 world, that his fallen idol has an unmistakable charisma about him. From himself to Danielle, from Marina to Seely(who claims that Murray is a quack yet continues to be preoccupied with him), almost everyone seems, in one way or another, to have an interest in Murray Thwaite. Undeniable x-factor, that certain je ne sais quoi. Doesn't that remind you of a certain American female pop icon? People claim to hate her and label her a has-been but they can't seem to stop talking about her. You go B girl!

The Hot 20

As promised, 3 months after the debut chart, these are the most played songs on my I-Pod.

Current Previous Title Artist Spins
1 1 Hung Up Madonna 164 (+3)
2 16 My Only Wish This Year Britney 109 (+67)
3 2 A Public Affair Jessica 103 (+5)
4 10 Jump Madonna 84 (+27)
5 3 Sorry Madonna 83 (+2)
6 - Irreplaceable Beyonce 80 NA
7 15 Get Right (Remix&Original) Jennifer 78 - 52&26 (+34)
8 7 We Belong Together Mariah 74 (+11)
9 4 Just Want You To Know BSB 72 (+4)
10 5 One ft. U2 Mary J Blige 69 (+3)
11 6 Get Together Madonna 65 (+2)
12 8 SOS (Rescue Me) Rhianna 64 (+3)
12 14 Since U Been Gone Kelly 64 – 49&15 (+16)
(Original&Remix)
14 12 Fall To Pieces Avril 63 (+13)
14 - Nothing In This World Paris 63 NA
16 9 Hips Don’t Lie Shakira 62 (+2)
17 - L.O.V.E (Remix&Original) Ashlee 59 – 33&26 NA
17 - Outrageous Britney 59 – 53&6 NA
(Original&Remix)
19 - Extraordinary Liz Phair 57 NA
19 - Leave Me Alone(I’m Lonely) Pink 57 NA

Phew! I have to add a caveat. I didn't include remixes (or orginal versions, in the case of Get Right and L.O.V.E) the last time, which explains why certain songs (Get Right, Since U Been Gone and L.O.V.E) seem to have had such large increases, when in actual fact I'm just adding on the additional spins from the remixes/originals - you can see the breakdown after the total number of spins.

The 6 songs that have fallen out are Don't Forget About Us (54,+3); ASHLEE'S Invisible (53,+4); Behind These Hazel Eyes (43,+1); Madonna's Bad Girl (41,+3); and Lindsay's Over (37,+ZERO) and Something I Never Had (37,+ZERO). Poor Lohan.

What an interesting list we have. Madonna dominates the top 5, with Hung Up still the far and ahead undisputed number 1 song despite getting only 3 spins in the past 3 months. Jump jumps(bad pun I know) into the top 5 because it was released as a single with that kooky video that made me fall in love with the song all over again. Sick of Get Together and Sorry. And A Public Affair.

Britney Britney Britney. Always on my mind. Causing me great anxiety and worry with your behaviour and antics. If I do make any resolution this year, it really should be to stop caring so much about you, because it's just a drain on me emotionally. Sigh. But I still love you, after all these years, and you have a penchant for making excellent pop tunes, such as My Only Wish This Year, which has the biggest spin increase because of the Christmas season, and leaps all the way to #2. I won't be touching this song for a while, but just you wait till Oct 07. Outrageous makes its way into the top 20. I do admit to giving it a little push (ie conciously listening to it so as to ensure a top 20 placing), but every extra spin(and its not like there were THAT many) just convinces me that I love this song all the more.

While B girl's Christmas ditty shows the biggest spin increase, that title technically goes to another B girl, Beyonce with Irreplaceable. I originally indicated a +80, because this one wasn't even on my I-Pod when I compiled the previous list, but then realised that would mean having to unfairly indicate exaggerated increases in other songs that already had a certain number of spins before the past 3 months but only just made it to the top 20 now. Does that make sense? For example, Paris' Nothing In This World would be +63, when in fact the actual number of spins in the past 3 months was far less than that. What can I say, this song was more or less dead to me until I saw La Hilton herself in the States and started playing it again. Perfect, breezy, catchier than an STD pop tune. Would have been a hit if sung by someone else.

Anyway, I KNEW Irreplaceable would be a huge hit the moment I heard it. I liked it immediately. And I just knew. Less than 2 months later, it was(and still is) #1 on the Hot 100.

Get Right benefits mainly because I added the original version, which I failed to do the previous time. Probably would have fallen positions-wise if I had included both versions in the previous chart. Still love them horns!

We Belong Together holds steady. I don't think I can ever get sick of this song, unlike say Since U Been Gone, which is always nice to hear in clubs but isn't something I would want to hear on my headphones now. I'm sick of Kelly Clarkson. Fall To Pieces and Extraordinary benefit from me having fallen in love over the past 3 months. Haha. Nice to Have Pink rounding up the list - I'm Not Dead is an excellent album, the best I heard of 2006(I didn't listen to many albums admittedly), and although the US may not appreciate her, the rest of the world does. Ashlee replaces herself in the top 20.

Anyway, if you're wondering why I would bother putting so much effort into this, its more for my own pleasure than anything else. I'm quite sure most of you don't really give a shit about my trashy taste in music, and I don't blame you. Haha. Anyway I've written enough for tonight.

Satisfaction's the name of this game

So it's the beginning of a new year. I was thinking of making a list of resolutions(most of them brought over from 2006 - damn still can't believe it's over!) but decided that doing so would prove futile. While I'm all for setting goals, both attainable and far-fetched, I don't think one should wait for the start of a new year before embarking on them. If you're serious about accomplishing something, why not just start immediately? Making resolutions is more often than not a glorified form of procrastination. The process makes us feel good about ourselves, demanding little by way of actual perseverance or effort - kindda like those pre-exam study timetables I used to spend hours drawing up - while providing the illusion that we are really accomplishing something. After all, what really is so different about the start of a new year? Has anything changed from a week ago? I do understand the need to make a fresh start, to shake ourselves free from the shackles of sloth and idleness, but does the new year really convey some magical property that renders us more likely to do so? If we are unwilling to motivate ourselves, no number of January 1st's will be of any real assistance.

Pondering the above led me to a different if not antithetical thread. That of satisfaction. In the game of life, isn't this one of our main goals? I begin 2007 on a good note, riding on the wave of the great year that was 2006. The question is, as humans with seemingly insatiable wants and desires, are we ever satisfied for long? Indeed, does attaining satisfaction mean that our game, our life, is over? What's there to live for and strive towards if we're content with what we have? Then again, at some point, isn't it good to achieve some semblance of contentment? That may explain why some individuals seek solace in religion in the later part of their lives. It fills a void that may otherwise seem unbearable. I'm 20(well 21 this year but not just yet), and still have my whole life ahead of me, which renders this whole thought process rather premature on my part. However, I am quite certain that a lifetime of contentment is not a life fully lived. Does that mean that life is an endless battle, an interminable fight to secure love/wealth/happiness/influence? Where's the fun in that too?

Strike a balance between the two. A logical, GP essay response. A balance between resting on your laurels and being hungry for more. Easier said than done, and that's presuming that there is a balance in the first place. The former is often inimical to the latter after all.

Ponder a ponder.

On a lighter note, look out for my next update, something a lot fluffier than this one! It's been 3 months since I last posted my I-Pod top 20, and there have been some interesting changes! Stay tuned for the chart and of course the commentary...