October 22, 2002
a visit to kino
Listening
to: Princess Mononoke Soundtrack -
The Legend of Ashitaka Theme
Reading: Rainer Maria Rilke - Ahead of All
Parting: The Selected Poetry and Prose (translated by Mitchell)
Kinokuniya is a rare and pleasant treat.
It’s a bookstore located in the shopping mall at the foot of the Petronas Twin
Towers, and it’s two floors big, home to a stunning array of books. The place itself
is warm and possesses this irresistibly sophisticated charm. It’s undeniably my
favourite bookstore, although the times I actually get to go there are few and far
between. It’s a little out of the way, distance-wise and financial-wise. But so very
worth it.
Today, on a spontaneous decision, Dad took Za and I there and we went our different ways, each armed with our cellphones because we would definitely lose each other in the crowd and shelves of books.
I went on the same routine like every other bookstore, I’d check to see if the books on my wish list were there (and 7/8 times they aren’t) and then place an order at the help desk. This time, the guy who helped me out was great and I actually did find books that I wanted. I walked out happily, now with these fantastic additions to my overloaded bookshelf:
The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Jazz
I probably won’t bring up the fact that I bought this book in any of my current and
future conversations. But no one else will introduce me to it, so…
Ahead Of All Parting: The Selected Poetry And Prose of Rainer Maria Rilke
One flip of the page and this guy became my newest love.
You know what, I think I have a list of...
celebrities (for current lack of a better word) that I love. I should get them down just
in case I have to list them off during comparisons with friends.
I'll update it from time to time maybe.
So okay, in no particular order:
• John Mayer (singer,
songwriter, guitarist)
• Rufus Wainwright (singer, songwriter, guitarist, pianist)
• Jack Johnson (singer, songwriter, guitarist, filmmaker,
surfer)
• Norah Jones (singer, songwriter, pianist)
• Jorge Luis Borges (writer, poet)
• Mark Z Danielewski (author)
• Rainer Maria Rilke (writer, poet)
• Jude Law (actor)
• Tom Hanks (actor)
• Roger Chang (co-host of Call for Help, TechTV)
• Chris Pirillo (host of Call For Help, TechTV)
• Jeff Corwin (nature enthusiast, Animal Planet’s Jeff
Corwin Experience)
• Ryan Stiles (improvisational comedian, Whose Line Is It
Anyway)
• Chris Martin(lead singer of
Coldplay)
• Miles Davis (king of cool, you fool)
I’ll end this entry with a short poem by Rilke (since I’m reading the book now) that came to my mind during an attempt to fall asleep. Vivid imagery.
Spanish Dancer
(from New Poems, 1907, 1908.
translated by Mitchell)
As on all its sides a kitchen-match darts white
flickering tongues before it bursts into flame:
with the audience around her, quickened, hot,
her dance begins to flicker in the dark room.
And all at once it is completely fire.
One upward glance and she ignites her hair
and, whirling faster and faster, fans her dress
to passionate flames, till it becomes a furnace
from which, like startled rattlesnakes, the long
naked arms uncoil, aroused and clicking.
And then: as if the fire were too tight
around her body, she takes and flings it out
haughtily, with an imperious gesture
and watches: it lies raging on the floor,
still blazing up, and the flames refuse to die –.
Till, moving with total confidence and a sweet
exultant smile, she looks up finally
and stamps it out with powerful small feet.
- Rilke