Ra. Everything and anything.
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OKAY BUT THIS
IS SO IMPORTANT. LOOK AT YURIO’S FACE. HE IS SCARED. HE IS UPSET THAT YUURI IS RETIRING. HE IS SO WORRIED AND THAT IS BECAUSE YURIO
HAS ALWAYS
BEEN A FAN
OF KATSUKI YUURI. AND THIS
WAS HIS TWISTED TEEN WAY OF TELLING HIM TO NOT GIVE UP AND TO JUST KEEP SKATING
BUT THAT WAY DOESNT WORK FOR YUURI SO YURIO TRIES A NEW APPROACH. THE LOOK AT ME, DON’T YOU WANT TO BEAT ME? WAY
YURIO WANTS YUURI TO KEEP SKATING AND TO KEEP INSPIRING HIMSELF AND OTHERS
YURIO WANTS TO KEEP WATCHING YUURI SKATE AND IMPROVE AND I LOVE THIS SO MUCH
YoI episode 12
[You can read my previous mega-posts here:
Episode 1 Episode 2 Episode 3 Episode 4 Episode 5 Episode 6 Episode 7 Episode 8 Episode 9 Episode 10 Episode 11]
This day had to come, right? The day when Yuri on Ice ends. It was a short but intense anime and I’m glad we’ve been given so much.
I am cautiously optimistic about this last episode. I believe the fandom is expecting a lot from it and I’m not sure it can give us all we want without sacrificing something on the way. I’m kind of afraid it will sacrifice the actual programs to give us a resolution of personal stuff. Given that this is a figure skating anime, I would like them to show us all the programs, as this is the last episode. But there’s just so much to solve yet, so I prefer to lower my expectations.
In any case, I have faith that everything will end well.
As a side note: I just wanted to thank you all for the support you’ve given me on my posts, and it makes me so happy to know that you’ve enjoyed reading them. It has been a pleasure and I hope we get a second season soon so we can share our feelings again!
Keep reading
I had the wonderful opportunity to illustrate an Avatar poster for Mondo’s Nickelodeon Gallery Show! It will run from December 9th till December 17th!
Wedding in Galilee (1987)
“Although the film alludes to these differences, gaps, and oppositions within the Palestinian community, its main thrust is to reflect a common history and a common struggle for liberation from Israeli occupation, along with a strong sense of national cultural identity, and a rooted connection to the land and its past, an obvious rebuff to all the Zionist denial mechanisms. In this sense, the camera’s painstaking and affectionate scrutiny of rural collective ceremonies and rituals, of the people’s primal love of the land and its fruits, does not remain on the level of an anthropological fascination with a Middle Eastern society but rather makes a simple political point: “We are here, and we exist.” The camera’s easy fluid movement from one Palestinian character to another – even if his/her adversary – as well as the dream-like blending of diverse voices and languages – from hallucinatory talks, through interior poetic monologues, through proverbs and popular rhymes to sloganistic political speech and daily slang – suggests the multi-layered richness of the society. The film visually and audibly, then, refutes the Zionist attempt to obfuscate the Palestinian people under such categories as the “natives,” or accidental “nomads,” in a “land without people.” And while the Zionist perspective sees vegetation and fruitfulness as the product of the European-Jewish pioneers who “make the desert bloom,” Wedding associates earth, crops, trees, vegetation and abundance of food with the Palestinians.”
(x)
Arabic Resources
*All of these resources are free*
Madinah Arabic Course: There are two sets of course:for those who can read Arabic script and those who cannot. In the course for those who cannot yet read Arabic script you will learn the Arabic alphabet, and slowly learn to read. In the other course you will be able to take 80+ Lessons that go over some of the basics for Arabic.
My Languages: Arabic: Audio. This hasaudio for tons of vocab and also goes over parts of speech like nouns,adverbs,pronouns,articles,etc.
Reed College Arabic Resources: Links to tons of resources including media, such as Netflix movies,newspaper and magazine sites, as well as recommendations for verb conjugator sites, and dictionaries.
Arabic Alphabet Song: Learning the alphabet is crucial to learning any language and having it in song definitely helps
Arabic Alphabet Quiz: This quiz will test you on your ability to identify all the letters and match them to their. This quiz is also timed,so go as fast as you can without sacrificing accuracy!
Writing Practice: THis website has tons of worksheets to practice handwriting and has the letters in all their forms. What I did,to save paper, was print out the pages I needed and put the pages in sheet protectors and I use a dry erase marker to trace the letters as I say their name and sound.
Those are all the free resources I use/know of and I hope to update this as time goes on. Enjoy!
Jan Brueghel the Elder c. 1618
Still-Life with Garland of Flowers and Golden Tazza
Our fascination with the iconic ghost has permeated so deeply in society that one of our first local horror film series was a trilogy about the pontianak. Filmmaker B.N. Rao premiered his film Pontianak at Cathay cinema in Dhoby Ghaut in 1957, and it proved to be a hit among Indian and Chinese communities, despite being a Malay film. Under Cathay-Keris Productions, Rao followed up with two more sequels Dendam Pontianak (Revenge of the Pontianak) in 1957 and Sumpah Pontianak (Curse of the Pontianak) in 1958. Fun fact, Zubir Said — the creator of our national anthem — composed music for the films.
But we don’t have to go into detail about the pontianak — we’re pretty sure you’ve already had a fair share of eerie stories told by others (or you’ve survived an encounter with one). Pivoting to another perspective you’ve probably never thought of before, we approached LASALLE College of the Arts Senior Lecturer Adeline Kueh for a more academic interpretation of the pontianak folklore.
Why her? For one, she actually gave a lecture at The Substation back in September called Pontianak & Her Sisters — a look into the conceptual category of ghost stories focusing on the construct of the ‘pontianak’ and her ‘sisterly’ counterparts within the contexts of folklore, fiction and film. Tickets to her lecture ran out pretty fast to the dismay of many, but we managed to catch Kueh recently to find out what you missed in her fascinating academic investigation into arguably Singapore’s scariest ghost.
How would you define a pontianak?
The Pontianak is said to appear sometimes in the form of an owl, but its most common form is that of “a beautiful woman who lures men to their doom”.
According to Allen Jean:
A woman who had died during or after childbirth becomes a pontianak. She is cursed [by] being denied the promise of peace in the kingdom of God (Allah). She is considered unclean, impure as she cannot fulfill her duty as a mother. The curse of immortality descends on her of having to “live” by draining blood from human hosts and not being able to die with the accorded dignity of proper burial rites.
So, tell us more about your deep interest in the subject of pontianak.
I grew up like Toto in Cinema Paradiso — my grand uncle owned a cinema in a small town outside Kuching, Sarawak and all our primary school holidays were spent there. As such, I have always had this long love affair with cinema.
When I did my masters and my focus was on the filmic representations of women in ‘50s and ‘60s film in Malaya, I was intrigued by the dichotomy between the good and fallen women. So you have the martyr mother, the virtuous virgin, the good daughter, and on the other end side, the fallen ones — the harlot/seductress/prostitute, witch, and the pontianak. Nearing the end of it, I kept thinking to myself how the cliché could be so true — “good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere!”
So I began looking at the conceptual category of ghost stories focusing on the construct of the ‘pontianak’ and her Southeast Asian counterparts.
Who exactly are pontianak’s ‘sisters’ then?
There are varying manifestations of spirits within our culture. The most popular is the variation of the Pontianak, a “gendered monster”, to borrow Barbara Creed’s term.The pontianak is the epitome of evil in our local folklore. Plus, stories about her have passed the test of time. There are many versions of her in our neighbouring countries too — examples of ‘her sisters’ are the Thai Nang Nak; Kuntilanak in Indonesia; and the Aswang and Manananggal of the Phillipines.
In your lecture, you brought up the connection between female ghosts and the concept of femininity…
Psychoanalytic concepts of projection and projective inversion can be applied to the study of folktales in the construct of Pontianak, and the other ‘fallen women’. According to Alan Dundes, projection “refers to the tendency to attribute to another person or to the environment what is actually within oneself… some internal impulse or feeling which is painful, unacceptable, or taboo.”
For example, in the many versions of the Pontianak story, the ‘woman’, more often than not, changes from one being seductive to suddenly monstrous. The sight (and sometimes scent) of a ‘beautiful’ woman gives way to the ‘evil within’. Perhaps serving as a warning, I would suggest that it is indicative of a certain tradition that dominates within Malayan folklore which constructs negative connotations around female sexuality. Women who overtly exudes their sexuality (read: power) cannot be considered ‘good’.
Furthermore, much of the meaning of folkloric fantasy is unconscious, particularly in a Freudian sense, that “[a]mong its functions, folklore provides a socially sanctioned outlet for the expression of what cannot be articulated in the more usual, direct way.” Folktales thus represent the site within which the anxieties of the Malayan culture can be vented. Within the narrative of the ghost story, the pontianak becomes the embodiment of female ‘difference’ and that which is despised or repressed within the culture.
That makes sense — what other socio-historial concerns are related to the pontianak?
Pontianak, like many monsters, exists more at the time of turmoil, or when negotiations about contradictions of socio-economic roles in society are being made at a daily level.
In popular culture, pleasure is constructed primarily through sexual difference. While there are stories which tell of women spotting the Pontianak, the target audience still is presumably male. At the very least, the female reader/viewer are masculinized in the sense that they are presented stories from a male point of view, carrying the age-old tradition of the worry-dispeller.
In these stories, there are elements of sexual attraction, expected gender roles, supporting the social structures of particular societies. Often times, like in films of particular societies (for instance, in Bollywood), the ideologies expounded within popular culture suggest a reaction to the various social movements or even social realities of contemporary women.
Sexual symbolism and innuendos also permeate the ghost stories, further exemplifying heterosexual relationships. The tension and impact of these stories are more ‘potent’ when it is between the female ghost and her often times chauvinistic, unsuspecting but virile (of course) male who presupposes a romantic liaison. Cultural stereotypes of femininity, often hinging on vanity are played out through the focus on the ‘beauty’ and ‘sensuality’ of the ghosts.
Damn, that’s heavy. On that note, why do you think the pontianak remains a very real fear among Singaporeans even today?
In terms of the relationship between folklore and social reality, ghost stories and folktales from SEA region draw their popularity from the reader’s (and viewer’s) familiarity with local folklore. Dundes argues that large portion of folklore is fantasy, collective or collectivized fantasy - in fact, “[f]olktales…, like all folklore, have passed the test of time, and are transmitted again and again. Unlike individual dreams, folktales must appeal to the psyches of many, many individuals if they are to survive.”
Within this genre of popular horror fiction, we could argue that the ways in which language (both in film and ghost stories) frames the situations are worth mentioning: presented from a Bourgeois/middle class point of view, the binarisms between good and evil, urban and provincial, religious and ‘ritualistic’ seem to be partial towards the point of view of the ruling majority.
These stories represent women (and sometimes other underclass) as a threat and the threat/s perceived within folklore may be traced to the influx of particular religions into our region. The result was a conflict between folklore or traditional beliefs, and religion. Folklore amongst the earlier indigenous Malay people involved animalistic or pagan beliefs and had closer matrilineal ties and traditions (such as the Minangkabaus and the Melanaus).
Like the Matianak myth, in all the examples, these traditions were gradually suppressed by the spread of Islam, Christianity and Buddhism and their respective (patriarchal) traditions in the examples I am referring to. According to Felicidad Lim, ghost stories are very much related to rituals of magic which should not be seen as having just projected onto films, but rather, magic exists alongside films in the popular imagination of the people.
You really know a lot about these things. But here’s the golden question — do you personally believe that pontianaks exist?
This is a question I get a lot — my answer is that it isn’t so much about whether they exist or not for me because I think of spirits and ghosts co-existing with us perhaps in ways we cannot explain scientifically as yet, but for me, the interest in this phenomenon stems from how I feel that these monsters reflect more about the culture and people that bore them.
Essential readings and films if one wants to be a pontianak expert as well?
There are too many books, too little time, literally. I’m including a list here but it may take up too much space. I am happy to provide more readings if anyone is interested.
Cohen, J. “Monster Culture (Seven Theses)” in Monster Theory: Reading Culture, Cohen, J. (ed.), Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press, 1996.
Haji Bujang, Rahmah. “Kisah Purba - Plot Moden/Ancient Tales - Modern Plots.” In Cintai Filem Malaysia/Love Malaysian Films. Ampang: Perbadanan Kemajuan Filem Nasional Malaysia, 1989.
Kueh, Adeline. “The Filmic Representations of Malayan Women: An Analysis of Malayan Films from the 1950s & 1960s”, in Kunapipi: Journal of Post-colonial Writing, Vol. XXII No. 1, 2000.
Lim, F. “The Politics of Horror: The Aswang in Film” in Asian Cinema, Fall 1997.
Skeat, W. Malay Magic: An Introduction to the Folklore and Popular Religion of the Malay Peninsula. London: Macmillan and Co., 1900. Reprint. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1966.
B.N. Rao’s Pontianak trilogy (1957-1958)
Ramon Estella’s Anak Pontianak (1958)
Sisworo Gautama Putra’s Sundel Bolong (1982)
Peque Gallaga & Lore Reyes’ Shake, Rattle & Roll I-IV (1984-1992)
Nonzee Nimibutr’s Nang Nak (1999)
Shuhaimi Baba’s Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam (2004)
A Light in Dark Times. - This one was painted after distance but there was something about it that bothered me from finishing it until now. :)
see more at www.scottuminga.com
As a 19-year-old, Yunalis Mat Zara’ai auditioned for a reality television show, One in a Million, that was searching for singing talent in Malaysia.
Timid and sweet-natured, she introduced herself as Alis before giving a solid rendition of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” – a choice the judges said was overly ambitious. She progressed to the next round but was eventually knocked out of the competition, failing to make it into the top 20.
The teenager, who was studying to become a lawyer, soon began building a following on social media by posting her music on MySpace – the platform of choice at the time. She also started performing her own guitar-based songs in cafés and playing live gigs, splitting the trifling fees with her band.
A decade on, the international pop sensation now known as Yuna is the most successful singer ever to come out of Malaysia.
Currently basking in the success of her third studio album, Chapters, which was released in May, her hit single “Crush” saw her teaming up with Usher – a “dream come true” she said. Although she has been grafting in the music industry for several years, the song was her first Billboard entry, reaching number 39 on the US music chart, and gaining global attention.
I don’t wear revealing clothes. People see that I practise modesty. I love fashion, but i have my limits
“I still feel like I’m new to the industry,” she told Southeast Asia Globe over the phone from her Los Angeles home, where she was resting up following a string of US tour dates to support the album.
In 2011, five years after her television appearance, Yuna caught the attention of US management company Indie-Pop Music, who found her music online and convinced her to relocate to LA and pursue an international music career. The Kedah-born singer-songwriter was soon working with Pharrell Williams, after they both signed to Fader Label (Yuna moved to Verve in 2013), and his mentorship helped her transition from acoustic guitar-tinged tracks to smooth soul. “I think he really changed the way I make music,” she said. “Before, I never used to work with any producers, so working with him was a really cool experience because it was pretty much a crash course.”
“I learned how to just be creative and try something new. I remember just not feeling comfortable trying to write ‘Live Your Life’ because it just wasn’t my genre.” But she said that Pharrell was always supportive. “He is always pushing me to try something new: ‘OK, I know you’re not from the R&B world but try, try and see what you can do with it.’ So I did. It was really, really cool. I feel like, after that, I could produce with just anyone. EDM, pop, country, R&B, rap producers, I can do it.”
It is not only Yuna’s sound that has evolved in recent years. From a shy teen dressed in a plain lilac shirt, clashing orange headscarf and simple jeans at her One in a Million audition, she has become a noted style icon. “When I first started out, I wasn’t the typical sexy singer on stage… I was literally the girl who wore very little makeup or none,” said Yuna. “I used to wear classy shirts and jeans and sneakers. It wasn’t a very typical girl artist/popstar. I guess a lot of girls can relate to [not fitting the ideal] because a lot of them have been raised in a world where the standard of beauty is what you see in the magazines.”
These days Yuna often substitutes her hijab for a turban, paired with a flourish of bright lipstick and modest yet modern outfits. In 2014 the New York Times declared her a “poster girl for ‘young hijabsters’” – the fashionable young Muslim women who wear their modest clothing with serious flair – and she was profiled in fashion bible Vogue this March, earning praise for covering up, with the magazine describing it as a “defiantly demure statement in what feels like the year of the naked selfie”.
“I think, as an artist, fashion is important and style is important. It shows you are unique and have your own way,” Yuna said. But she’s not willing to compromise her beliefs in order to get ahead. “I don’t wear anything sexy – I don’t wear revealing clothes. People see that I practise modesty. I love fashion and I like to be creative, but I have my limits. I don’t wear anything that I am uncomfortable with.” And the practice is clearly working for her. “I think with fashion, it is a lot about… how comfortable you are in your own skin. It is just you and how you present yourself,” she added.
Yuna is now carving out a space for herself in the fashion world, with her Kuala Lumpur store November Culture a well-established shopping boutique, and the launch of clothing line Hatta x Yuna with a friend earlier this year. “I really enjoy experimenting with fashion, and I really want to create something with what I know and the people that I know,” she says. “It is a collaboration between two artists. She’s a fashion designer, I’m a singer, but we both love fashion. We create clothes all the time and we tried to create a collection for our fans.”
It is pretty crazy. I’m just a girl from Malaysia who writes music, and I’m touring America
As well as gaining legions of fans in Southeast Asia, particularly in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, Yuna has been recognised with a number of awards and nominations, including three MTV Europe Music Award nominations. But the attention she receives is not always positive. After a video was posted online in June that showed her hugging Usher after a live duet, some passed judgement on her for not adhering to the ‘boundaries and limits’ of a ‘good’ Malay Muslim woman. Yuna responded on social media, saying she would not be cowed by the uninvited commentary. “This is me,” she wrote on Instagram. “I will wear whatever I want. I will show my appreciation whether it’s a handshake, or a hug, to my friends… Save your mediocre downgrading religious preach to yourself, they have no meaning to me.”
In half a decade in the US, she has never felt stereotyped by Americans for being a Muslim, she told Southeast Asia Globe. “Obviously I get questions like: ‘Why do you wear a headscarf all the time? We want to see your hair,’ or whatever. For those who are just finding out about me, and when they find out I’m a Muslim, they say: ‘Oh, that’s cool.’ They are super respectful.” It was also in the US where she began to realise the beauty of her darker skin tone, after years of being exposed to pro-whitening views in Malaysia. “I got criticised when I first came out [as a singer] – people said I was not beautiful because I was dark, dumb stuff like that,” Yuna said, adding that she regularly counsels young fans who have been the target of the same prejudices.
“I have had girls reach out to me and ask how I stay strong – it is heartbreaking. I say they shouldn’t worry about it. In some parts of the world, being brown is part of the goal of being beautiful. People out there, they pay to have skin like ours. They pay money for that. I try to talk to girls to make them feel like they can see they are beautiful. They just need to embrace their identity and individual beauty even though it is hard, and very clichéd to say that. But it’s true that once you find yourself and you are comfortable, you will believe that, and people will see that confidence that you have. You won’t have to believe in that standard of beauty.”
Despite criticism from some quarters at home, most Malaysians are supportive. Along with fashion designer Jimmy Choo, Yuna was made a tourism ambassador for the country in 2015, and she has collaborated with national carrier Malaysia Airlines on projects. She visits Malaysia every couple of months and is now so well known that she often gets recognised on the street. “It’s not really crazy, but it can get pretty hectic during events and things like that because if I am expected to show up, people just go crazy,” she said. “But if I’m just shopping or whatever, I’m pretty comfortable just going to the mall, going around and hanging out with my friends, watching movies. Once in a while, people will come and want to take photos, but that’s it. I’m really comfortable being in my city just doing my own thing because I love my people. They are really important and supportive, so whenever I go out, it comes with the job.”
When former record producer Paul Moss told Yuna all those years ago on One in a Million that she struck him as “something special”, he was not wrong. But he likely had no idea just how far she would go.
“It is pretty crazy when you think about it,” said Yuna. “I’m just a girl from Malaysia who writes music, and I’m touring America and you see people coming out to [listen to] my music. It’s awesome.”
Quaint little houses around Little India. I did not know such houses existed in Singapore still, was pleasantly surprised. The current belief is that in order to ‘see’ the world one must take off on a journey to a ‘foreign’ land but perhaps there are treasures to be found in our own backyards. Like a random row of houses that maintain the charm of the old days juxtaposed against tall skyscrapers.
Daehyun Kim aka Moonassi aka 김대현 (Korean, b. 1980, Seoul, Korea) - Stacks Of You, 2013 Drawings:Pigment Liners, Markers on Paper (+ details)
Uttaporn Nimmalaikaew
Each piece from Thai artist Uttaporn Nimmalaikaew starts from a canvas backdrop that is set inside a deep casement, and that is then lightly veiled by multiple layers of thread and netting. The artist paints not only on the canvas but also on the thread and netting in order to create shimmering portraits and figurative scenes. He creates a depth of field that goes beyond three-dimensional space; rather, his work captures a time-space dimension in a way that has few parallels in the history of art. Yet, to put it that way is still an understatement, for Nimmalaikaew’s genius lies in the way he imagines, and is able to execute with astonishing virtuosity, what might be called a ‘meta-dimension’ that fuses time, space and spirit.
Images and text via
