Thursday, June 26, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
The Essence of Good Music
Apart from that, I always thought that it took someone older and matured, in other words; wise, to value those songs. There was always a border and a limit within me, and I
felt I wasn’t good enough for the grandiose of this music. Slowly as I grew, that boundary dissolved and disappeared, even without me knowing it, and I grew to love these bands immensely. It all started from Led Zeppelin and Stairway to Heaven, progressing to U2’s With or Without You, to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. The best part is, I’m still learning of new classic bands. Just when you think you know them all, there’s more. And since I wasn’t born in that era, it has become like a valuable learning experience for me. Something irrefutably worthwhile to the growth of my soul.
If I seem like I’m preaching, it is only because this is the only way to express my thoughts on this particular area that is under scrutiny by me, right now. One of the hardest things that I’ve encountered is the feeling of sheer frustration and discontent of not having many peers of my own age to share the wonder and exuberance of such music with. It’s depressing at times. But of course, there are a handful of people that I do know, that also appreciate it. Those that were actually born during that era, you have no idea how lucky you are. I do know that what I speak of may seem slightly trivial and petty, after all its only music. But if you think real hard, music is part of the epitome of life, alongside culture and belief. So I really think that this is just a fraction of what I should be doing in this area.
Bands in that era, the 60’s and 70’s to be precise, wrote the best music. Real music, at its finest. They don’t make music like that these days, its all protocol and formatted nowadays, manufactured and ready to cater for the synonymous interests of today’s generation. Nothing extraordinary or simply different, everything sounds the same and has the same chords and vocals. They even tend to rip off song choruses, as heard in Gym Class Heroes ‘Cupid’s Chokehold’, with Supertramp’s Breakfast in America.
Maybe it was the ‘flower power’ generation, with its endless influences of drugs, alcohol, environmental issues and not to mention groupies. Mind you, this is an amateur writing. Not that there’s an ample lack of these influences in today’s day and age, but things then were more…authentic. Then again, imagine what the people of then must have thought about their era. To me, good music irrevocably consists of a memorable air about it, which immediately takes me to another place such like how Pink Floyd’s ‘Shine on You Crazy Diamond’ makes me feel, as if Waters’ is playing atop a mountain, during the solo. It is indescribable. Once in a while I do have to say that a good piece is made today, but incontestable to the genuine feel of yesterday’s creations. The camaraderie of the band mates, their origins, and the emotional journey that they traveled together, are among the aspects that prove and build the essence of good music.
Hawksbills? in Malacca?
I will never think of turtles the same way again. I must confess, before this I didn’t think much of turtles and was indifferent towards them. I joined WWF-Malaysia’s Melaka Hawksbill Turtle and Painted Terrapin Conservation Project in April, and needless to say, I was thrilled. My mind was filled with idealistic thoughts and visuals of all the great things that I’d undertake there. I was doing my internship with WWF-Malaysia along with my close friend Adele. We are both great nature enthusiasts.
We arrived just on the cusp of turtle nesting season’s commencement, and thus we had great hopes of seeing many turtles. Staying in the field house in Masjid Tanah was a great experience. We got to know the project team: Team Leader Lau Min Min, Peninsular Malaysia Seas Programme By-catch Officer Ernest Chiam and Programme Trainees Arvind Devadasan and Grace Duraisingham. All four are great individuals with their own special personalities. Arvind and Grace lived in the field house with us, our bedrooms upstairs and the office below.
Almost immediately we were given our first task: to develop a fact sheet about why turtle eggs are not as nutritious as people would like to believe. It was aimed at the local villagers who were known to poach and consume turtle eggs. Stopping this through education was our aim.
Our main mission was to help on
Yup, idealistic all right! Reaching the island at around
We wait for 9 long days; still no turtle. This is one thing I must warn others about. There is a lot of waiting to do and patience is essential. We joked that we were getting depressed from “turtle deprivation”. Then, on the tenth day, the cycle was broken. It was my turn to patrol with Richard. Suddenly, my gut instinct told me to check the upper part of the shore, near the trees. My torchlight illuminated a stretch of land and ended up under a large tree. A ‘rock’ just lay there. I was used to the beach, having patrolled it the last 9 days; therefore I knew that no such rock was ever there. Excitement surged through me as I processed what it may be. That’s when I saw a flipper move backwards, kicking the sand away.
Yes, I lost it. I started flailing my arms madly at Richard, who was meters behind me. He hurried to me, a grin on his face as he registered the look on my face. He called Arvind and Adele, and they came over within seconds. The air was electric, the waiting paid off beautifully. Adele and I hugged, tears on our face. The nesting turtle was so beautiful, almost otherworldly. Her carapace (shell) length was 76 cm, width 64 cm. There was an injury on her carapace, where a chunk of it was either taken off by a sea predator or a boat’s propellers. We waited for the hawksbill beauty to conclude her ritual, and then we removed barnacles off her shell and sea lice from her eyes.
The moonlight reflected off her lovely shell as she scurried silently to the water’s edge, before disappearing entirely into the water. We watched her in silent awe, a hidden understanding among us. They had been doing this throughout history, for more than 100 million years. It was a practice as ancient as time itself, the whole experience ethereal. As soon as she left, our work began. We found her nest pit and her eggs. Freshly laid, they were still soft and very fragile. Adele took charge of writing the data sheet and holding the torchlight, while Richard excavated the eggs out of the nest. He passed them to Arvind, who then passed them to me to be laid gently in a big red pail. The transferring of eggs was done very carefully, without rotating or shaking them. This is very important as the contents of the eggs will be affected badly if that happens. After that’s done, we move to the jetty and record the finer details of the eggs. We collected 135 eggs that night, one yolkless. Arvind and I then record 10 eggs’ width and height, as control samples. Even after it all, we were still excited; the euphoria hadn’t died down.
The next day, our luck remained as two turtles came up! We repeated our actions, and finally ended everything at
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
My ventures Into the Wild
I cried like hell at the end, but i expected that too. Emile Hirsch really played the role of Christopher McCandless to perfection, with the angst and bewilderment that accompanied his reactions to the beauty of the wild. Yea, i've also been bugging everyone to watch it, to a point that i've pissed some of them off!
It was an amazing movie, and Sean Penn did a good job of bringing Chris's story to life.