I'm Listening

I did an experiment the other day - come home from work and barred myself from turning on the TV. Just spend the rest of the evening listening to music.

There still quite a few CDs I had bought and listened to maybe once, but never really 'digested'. As with books, I'm a bit of a shopaholic when it comes to CDs. Somehow I want to own a physical CD rather than downloading it off the internet - old fashioned, ain't it?

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On the CD shelf:

1. From the Apres-Midi Selecao shop in Tokyo

We found this little shop is the basement of Parco Shibuya in Tokyo and loved it. You enter the shop and you feel like you're at a beachside bungalow of the cool friend with a kick-ass chill out music collection. (Imagine some soothing music playing in your head...)

They've got a great bossa nova section and the first CD that caught my eye was Joao Gilberto's self-titled album. He's a great songwriter, arranger and guitarist from Brazil among other things - but I would say the thing I love most about him is just his voice. In the spare arrangement on this album (in most songs it's just him on guitar and vocals with the drummer), his soft quietly melodic -- almost melancholy -- voice is the definite highlight.

I was almost out of the door of Parco when I knew I had to run back and get another CD. I'm a sucker for duets and could not resist this album - Domingo by Gal Costa and Caetano Veloso.

Caetano Veloso is another Brazillian great; you may remember him from Pedro Almodovar's Talk to Her where he sings this achingly beautiful song (download it here) at the dinner party just in the middle of the movie.

[It's also him again singing at the opening of Wong Kar Wai's Happy Together with a grander orchestration and the image of a thundering Iguazu Falls. ]

This is another lovely work by him I couldn't resist. Gal Costa I hadn't heard of before but I love her dark and rich voice as well.

I just read somewhere that it was Caetano's first album - wow!

Last but not least, the shop also gave us a free compilation - something called '2005 Third Arrival ~ Rainy Night Edition'. I think it's sort of a sample of the series compilations done by this DJ called Toru Hashimoto and I would say every song is great in its own unique way.

2. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young + Tom Waits + vintage Rolling Stones

I'm getting to like some of the classic blues/folk influenced rock and the guys above are now on the playlist. Nothing like a blues guitar riff or the liquid twang of a pedal steel guitar. If you want a change from the plain vanilla voices you get on American Idol, try:

• Neil Young, CSN&Y: high pitched, "bordering on whiny" - but perfectly conveying a quiet melancholy mood. You have to listen to him on the song 'Helpless'.
• Tom Waits: His voice is "whiskey-harden gravel" - so darn macho. Favorite song: Jersey Girl
• Mick Jagger, The Rolling Stones: To those Rockstar INXS people - see here how rock and roll is done!

Deja Vu by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young












Heartattack and Vine by Tom Waits

Let It Bleed by the Rolling Stones

Michiko Kakutani

I had a strange urge today to google Michiko Kakutani. For the uninitiated, she's the New York Times's influential and 'much-feared lead book reviewer' - according to this Salon.com article.

And she's also turned into a pop culture icon. I remember first hearing her name in an episode of Sex and the City - she was the one reviewing Carrie's book. Michiko just has one of those names that get stuck in your head... there's a certain fun rhytm and rhyme in hearing it. Mi-chi-ko Ka-ku-ta-ni...

Thus began my mild obsession with this woman (cue music from Psycho shower scene). I still have to find a list of her notorious (but entertaining) negative reviews. A fairly recent one is this review of the lastest Tom Wolfe in which she end with the following put-down:

You may never put down a Tom Wolfe novel. But you never reread one, either.

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Let see... what I found on the Google trawl:

1. The biggest catch has to be this hilarious piece from McSweeney's online. Here's a quick quote:

We'd use it [her name], I'm embarrassed to say, as a metaphor for onanism.
"What'd you do last night?"
"Had a big date with Michiko Kakutani."

2. She's reported to be 'famously reclusive', but the Pulitzer Prize website does provide a short bio and picture.


"Ms. Kakutani is single and lives in Manhattan." How Sex and the City! Her hair reminds me of early Carrie in season 1.







3. More than one commentator has weighed in on her use of the word 'limn'.

4. I'm not the only one obsessed with 'DEAR SWEET MISS MICHIKO K.' - see here.

5. And I also had a reunion with one of my favorite humour sites 'Suck.com'. Too bad it's now defunked. They quoted Michiko here.

The Review of Books I'm Too Lazy to Finish

I have to admit I'm a bit of a shopaholic when it comes to printed material. Books, magazines or newspapers - seems I can't resist buying and accumulating (not to mention committing serial murders of trees) more than I can hope consume at the rate I'm going.

It's funny how even you can be materialistic towards books. Essentially they should be just a medium or vessel that transport the message to the reader; the real physical object, the pages, cover and binding, should not really matter - it's the content that counts.

But I guess publishing is a business not too much different from any other in our captitalist economy. The whole point is to entice people to want own your book (or shampoo or jeans or lipstick). Colors ads, posh packaging, premier shelf placement are need if you want to shift your product in any industry.

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Gosh, I didn't mean to sound so cynical! I still love, love to read - although a combination of my unstable attention span and the oversupply of books has caused me left me with a whole bunch of books I'd started but not finished.

To give you and idea, here an incomplete list:

1. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
2. Mad Dogs and Co. by Chart Korbjitti
3. Forbidden Colors by Yukio Mishima
4. Elizabeth Costello by J.M. Coetzee
5. Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
6. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
7. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
8. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
9. The Wings of The Dove by Henry James

(... as you can see I kinda over reach with all the Oprah Book of the Month Club-like selections)

As to why I still haven't finished, I place the blame completely with my lazy self. These books are all wonderfully written with engaging plots - shame to me for not sticking with it.

So as something of an atonement (FYI, Atonement by Ian McEwan is the best book I've read this year) I kick off an occasional series of posts entitled 'The Review of Books I'm Too Lazy to Finish'.

Oh and I will try to finish the darn books.

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Next post - a review of:

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers.