Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Acting Hands, Gesturing Motions

0 comments
Fuck, I’m hungry. I missed lunch and tea yesterday because I was in bed supposedly ill for the day. If it wasn’t for matron bringing in a plate of beans on toast and a cup of hot chocolate, I’d have died twenty minutes ago. I might just make myself some more toast later. We’ve got fruits too. But the bananas aren’t ripe enough, and it feels like eating a stick soaked in water. It’s that bad. The apples are decent. There’s some crisps and chocolate bars in the vending machine, but I’ve just got no change.

Anyway, I’m now a part of the House Play. That is, if I don’t screw up and embarrass myself. I’ve had no theatrical experience whatsoever. Maybe the sketch we did three years ago could count, but this time it involves words. Bloody words. Well, I am looking forward to making this work. Curiously though, my character is named Black Caesar, a guy from Madagascar. Funny that. I think I only have about twenty lines in total, and there’s a scene at the end in which I’m drunk and crying. That’s gonna be a struggle. Ho ho. Ha.

Like I said, I was ill the whole day yesterday. Right after breakfast I felt dizzy. And felt like vomiting. Well, a tendency to vomit is normal if you know how KH food is like anyway. With my head aching, I stumbled my way to Matron’s apartment, and told her I was ill. So she gave me some paracetamol, and I was off to sleep for a further eight hours. Well, I should have if it wasn’t for the cleaners coming in every twenty minutes asking me to tidy up my room, which I’ll admit, is in the sorry state of extreme messiness. I’m glad to say now most of the mess have been packed inside the drawers and cupboards to be hidden from inspecting eyes. My room now at least looks remotely viewable. Before that, there was not a square inch without either a piece of paper, a piece of electrical equipment, a piece of clothing, books or food wrappings.

More serious stuff. Someone in my year, from my house got ‘asked to leave’ the school, which is just a nice way of saying he’s been expelled. He was expelled on Saturday, and us being away from school (me in London), most of us only found out during Dix on Monday evening. Everyone’s a bit sad about it, because the guy wasn’t a bad lad. He just got caught in a nightclub one too many times.

I am seriously not arsed to do this. I can’t think of what to write, and what to blog about

Signing out

Over and out

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Banging Heads, Revealing Words

0 comments
He starts to type. He thinks. He is unsure of what to talk about. He is tired, but it is not time to sleep yet. And he is not sleepy. He wants to spend the night spilling his hearts out, but when his fingers touch the keyboard, he still does not know what he should blog about. He is clueless. He thinks. He thinks hard.

And finally he manages to think of something to write about. He reckons he should talk about his love of metal and rock. He is a big fan, and he thinks he should make it clear. He does not play any instrument, and is not a connoisseur of rock and metal, but he loves it much. It is his escape from everything, for just a few minutes. It is his source of solace. The heavy riffs, the guttural voices, the frantic beats. He loves them. But it is not all about them. It is so much more.

He loves metal because of the lyrical diversity and focus of the songs. He admires System Of A Down for being brave enough to be politically charged and observant of world issues. He admires Rise Against for their fast-paced criticism of mankind’s lack of concern for the environment. He admires Jimmy Eat World for voicing out teenage concerns on issues such as heartbreak and school. He admires Deftones for their ethereal qualities and subtle lyrics.

He admires rock and metal for dealing with real issues that do concern people.

Yet rock and metal will always be misconceived.

He knows what people stereotype metalheads as. They see devil-worshippers, senseless lyrics in screaming voices. Talentless groups of people trying to scream their way into stardom. Violent punks that people try to avoid meeting in dark alleys. He understands how these stereotypes come to be, but he feels that they are grossly unjustified and inaccurate.

He has once been a fan of pop, listening to N*Sync and Britney Spears. He has once been a fan of hip hop and R&B, listening to Eminem and Missy Elliott. Yet he is no more. He has been disillusioned by pop, hip hop and R&B. He sees the superficiality of it all. He sees drama queens and self-confessed divas. He sees gangster violence and lyrics that objectify women. He hates the shallowness. He hates the artificiality. He hates it.

And now he is a fan of rock and metal, listening to New Found Glory, AFI, Coheed And Cambria, Bullet For My Valentine, Funeral For A Friend, Lostprophets, Trivium, Taking Back Sunday, Metallica, Blink 182, The Ataris, Trivium, Deftones, System Of A Down, Rise Against, Jimmy Eat World, Billy Talent, Slipknot, Killswitch Engage, Ill Nino, Radiohead, Hawthorne Heights, The Music, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Switchfoot, and many, many more. His interest in rock and metal is obviously not specific to one sub-genre. Emo, Screamo, Pop Punk, Punk Rock, Heavy Metal, Death Metal, Alternative, Progressive Metal, Post-Hardcore, Funk Rock, Gothic Metal, Indie, etc. He listens to them all.

He also appreciates the local metal scene in Brunei. He has listened to [H8], Senjakala, Airholes and Wan Long Kok, and is optimistic about the future of metal in Brunei. He remembers fondly the first gig he went to in Brunei. He remembers headbanging in the moshpit to [H8], Draconaeon, and a few other great bands that performed their hearts out that night. And he also remembers waking up the next day with neck pains, literally unable to turn his neck around because it had hurt so much.

And with that he will end up on a high note.

He signs out

Over and out