Yesterday was Malaysia Day, celebrating the addition to the federation of Sarawak and Sabah and not to be confused with Merdeka (independence) some weeks earlier. I gather Sarawakians and Sabahans get quite irritated by Merdeka. Interesting tensions here. We went to Hojo tea in Midvalley, a huge mall conglomeration surrounded on all sides by large […]
Poor show
An unconscionably long time since my last post and I did not pass a single day (almost) without a pang of guilt. In the past weeks I have spent a few days in Karachi, over a week in Taiwan, and been clobbered by work upon my return to KL. Excuses, excuses, but hopefully this is […]
OMG
I just finished the third volume of NK Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy. What a way to end. The first volume, The Fifth Season, was fantastic and really ended on a high. The second, The Obelisk Gate, seemed to me to simultaneously flag and to jump the shark. The third volume, The Stone Sky, brought the […]
Grey hair
A night call and I was in the emergency room again last night. Happily, this time it was only for a short while and we were home about an hour and a half later, with the patient feeling well enough that this afternoon she insisted on accompanying me to the bazaar. I had some of […]
Woke up
Woke up this morning, looked at the news. Fuck me.
America
The Debate Link quotes WEB DuBois in a post about the white nationalists in Virginia and Trump’s refusal to even condemn them and their act of terrorism: As we saw the dead dimly through rifts of battlesmoke and heard faintly the cursings and accusations of blood brothers, we darker men said: This is not Europe […]
On the brink
I suppose I should be glad that we went to South Korea earlier this year, given the current international climate. Better timing than our earlier plans to visit Libya and Syria, both interrupted by war. So if the worst happens, we will have personal experience of what is lost. Not much of a comfort. When […]
A third film
A film a day this weekend! This is very unusual for me. The third was Trainspotting 2, which we had started some weeks ago but there was something wrong with the print. I thought it was very good, the best film of the weekend, despite having reservations during the first 20-minute long watch. The callbacks […]
Two movies
On Friday it was Dunkirk at the imax. I find Christopher Nolan invariably lets me down. This was better than Inception, but was let down by some sentimentality and dire dialogue. As always some magnificent images though nothing to match the planetary wave in Inception. Nice to see a war film that was neither ‘war […]
Political afternoon
First watching the live blogs on Metafilter on the US ‘skinny repeal’ healthcare bill, with John McCain’s surprise ‘no’ vote killing it. Then, immediately, turning closer to home, to where the Supreme Court of Pakistan gave its verdict on Nawaz Sharif. Sharif is gone. I have mixed feelings about all of this. On one hand […]