Comfort Reading

They are on my bedside table recently.

Clockwise from top left:

1. A biography of Richard Yates. I've been in love with this American writer since I read Revolutionary Road. It's a pretty thick book and I read it little by little, because I don't want to finish reading it.
2. An autobiographical novel by the aforementioned author. actually, a lot of his stories are autobiographical.
3. A copy of Banana Yoshimoto's novel, Kitchen. I read this novel more than 20 years ago and for some reason had a craving to read it again. I couldn't bother to order a Japanese copy so bought an English translation instead (10p on Amazon.) Still an enjoyable read.
4. A Japanese magazine ku:nel, November 2003 issue. I have always, always loved magazines.  This one survived a few clutter clearing and traveled to England with me. I would go back to read it time to time and still there is always something new for me.
5. A book about kitchens. Not just kitchens but kitchens of good cooks. It's not a kind of kitchen you would see in ELLE DECO or a kind that Nigella carries out her performance at in her denim jacket (who wears a denim jacket while cooking!?), but practical, workable, achievable everyday kitchens. A kitchen tells a lot about that person and I enjoy looking at good kitchens.

When I want an easy read, I would go for 3. When I feel like having my heart broken, I would reach for 1.

Post posting(?) on 13th May 2013
I changed my opinion about number 3. It WAS enjoyable at first, but then it became a painful read. It reminded me why I stopped reading her novels or short stories in the first place.
Banana Yoshimoto can capture luminous moments in life. Her unique point of view is refreshing. However, she goes on and on about a character's feeling or somthing for two pages and I'm like "How much more do you have to explain why the girl is sad?"
Ms Yoshimoto has the tendency to do that; explaining everything. And it's so dull. It almost feels like she doesn't trust the readers so she underlines important bits by a marker pen to indicate where we should be looking at, or she is a control freak who wants to dictate the reader to feel exactly the way she wants them to. I think a good writing doesn't explain. It would simply show us, leave it to us and let us figure out.
So unfortunately, this book went straight to a nearby Oxfam.

The record player in Moonrise Kingdom

Vintage Barrington portable record player that Suzy Bishop "borrowed" from her little brother.

Just the Way You Are

A kid who has just turned 20 complains that she's "Too old!"
I scoff at such nonsense. You have no idea what you are talking about.  No, the kid really doesn't.

For the past 10 so years, I had always thought that if you were over 35, you would be in the category of middle age. I recently discovered that it's not always the case.
According to Wikipedia, definition of middle age is "around the third quarter of the average life span of human beings." and the categorization varies from 40-60 to 35-44. In Japan, 中年, reads chuu-nen and means middle age in Japanese, seems to be considered someone in their 40's and 50's in general.

I am feeling somewhat cheated. I could have enjoyed 5 more years of not feeling middle-aged! Silly as it sounds, all these years after 35, I told myself I was middle-aged and refrained from saying I was young but instead admitted I was chuu-nen. For what? To appear modest and wise, I guess. There definitely was a social pressure to "act your age" in the world I used to belong and if you didn't fit into the stereotypes, you would either be labeled as "childish" or with approval and admiration, "don't look like one".

I consider childishness is unpleasant quality. Three things I deplore in others are selfishness, arrogance and childishness. But what is this fuss about not looking like one's age? Demi Moore tweets with her naked self-portrait and people praise her less than 10% fat lean body. It's wonderful to be that fit, I admit. My problem is these over-used phrases like "Can't believe she is 48!" which Japanese media love to use. It's a crime for someone who gets paid for what they write to use such unimaginative headlines. I can easily name 5 people around me whom you wouldn't believe in their 40's and they are not Hollywood stars. They never had plastic surgery or use Botox regularly. It's 21st century. People's lives vary and so do their appearances. People don't look their age anymore.

I look around and see a woman who is very slim, wears kids' clothing without looking odd or childish. She knows her style and it suits her. She has a fair amount of freckles on her face. She must love outdoors and must have spent a lot of time being in the sun. Her beautiful freckles are the kisses of the sun. She is 46.
When I look at Meg White in the documentary video of the White Stripes, what I see is a laconic, camera shy woman with a pair of perfect doll-like legs who takes a nap on a sofa with a lit cigarette between her fingers. When she sits behind her candy cane drum set, approximately half a pound of fat tissue sits around her gorgeous tummy. She looks as perfect as Venus. I don't know her age and I don't care.

What I want to say here is that it doesn't matter how old we look. Let's not DOB or stereotypes dictate us. It's not important if we look young or old for our age. What matters is that we look the best we can and being able to feel comfortable with ourselves. Imperfectness is nature. We are perfect just the way we are.

Yeah I Saw the Boy Who Could Fly But..

..a flying fuel dispenser?
Surrealistic TV adverts are not rare but few are therapeutic.
Well, I find this therapeutic. It's kind of like Boris Vian meets Erik Satie.

Steam Punk

Borgen

Forbrydelsen, aka The Killing was sort of disappointing. I loved being able to see the city of Copenhagen and I thought acting was great, but the whole "Who's done it?" business was too tedious for me and couldn't care enough to keep watching it. Then I did watch every episode of the Killing Season 2, but I still thought it was lacking magnetic-something, sort of underdeveloped. It wasn't as gripping as Prime Suspect(not the US remake, the original) or as sinister as Criminal Justice.

This January the new Danish TV series Borgen has started on BBC4. I'm enjoying it so far. They included the Greenland issue in the episode 4, which I thought was a yay; one can't deny or avoid the history if one wants to talk about politics. So I'm looking forward to watching the rest of the series and will be glued to TV on Saturday nights for the next 3 weeks.

New Year's Resolution 2012

1. Wade through the piles of books in my bookshelf and make some progress.
2. No more impulse book shopping until I've done 1. (except No.3)
3. Find and read all of Richard Yates' novels and short stories that I haven't read.
4. Stop being sorry to anyone or anything. Oh yeah.
5. Stop feeling sorry for myself.
6. More adventure.
7. Less wine.
8. Less ale.
9. More gin.
10. More vermouth.
11. More 9+10=Gibson
12. Definitely more Bowie.