Linolumixa's Notebook.

My MacBook Pro is very photogenic. Here are some vanity shots of my favourite object in the world.

I know that a sizeable percentage of my microscopic pool of readers are wondering whatever happened to myself. You can say that I have been lazy, or busy, or ran out of ideas, or becoming a boring person, or others. Work [a word not to be taken literally] has taken most of my time and attention, until I had to forget about everything else. Receiving a MacBook Pro out of the blue and not having an internet connection in my room made things worse.

But I love my MBP. I still have not decided what to name it. It won't be talked about in this post; it'll go into a 'My MacBook Pro' special.

How about a review of April 2008?

On the eleventh, my father took my brother and me to a supper buffet at Hotel Equatorial. This hotel can be considered as my family's number one hangout back in the 1990s, for Saturday night dinners. This night was the last night for the Scandinavian cuisine promotion, happening at Etoile Bistro. The sight of Scandinavian country flags make everything almost better.

Nothing much was to be seen, because the Swedish chef has packed up everything. So we headed to the coffee house downstairs and ate several dishes from curry mee to samosas to nasi beryani to baguettes.

Just a few days after I received my MBP, my brother came back from Frankfurt with an issue of Fantastic Man. Sadly to say, HE magazine was nowhere to be found. And since that I will be gifting Fantastic Man to JK, I made a copy for myself at the photocopy shop.

... and had a Photo Booth-aided shoot.

There was one day when I had to bring my mother to Sooka Sentral to meet someone, and while they had their discussion, I toured the complex to find food outlets, appealing young Caucasian office workers and a brand-new but incomplete fitness centre called Synar, which has a rock-climbing wall.

And on the seventeenth, I went to UiTM Shah Alam to see my mother giving a speech to graduate design students. It was a very hot day. There is something about this corridor that reminded me of a retro movie called Ali Setan.

On the twenty-forth, I hung out at Borders at The Gardens to make use of Starbucks' free WiFi. The speed was perfect to hold a video IM with one of my e-friends. Now my iSight is truly devirginised.

Oh, on the same day, I was having lunch with my mother at Nyonya Colors. I took pictures of the cafe when this guy [said to be a police officer] went ballistic over me and grabbed my camera away. I thought he was going to crush it as he explained how paranoid he was to have his picture taken. Luckily my mother was there to defend me.

Haha, on the 27th I participated in a creative writing workshop guided by Kam Raslan, the It author of the season. I expected a group of young secondary school kids but in reality, it was mostly people from the aged group, the kind who frequents Silverfish and thebookaholic.

Kam was very selamba in his speech. He was telling us about the techniques of... writing well [I don't have his notes right now]. After the free sandwiches, tea and coffee, I asked Kam to sign my journal. He chirped, "Oooh! A Moleskine!" [the way he said it was 'mowl-less-keen']. I said, "I thought it was pronounced as 'mo-luss-kee-na'". Then Kam made his trademark ambivalent face. It followed quickly by a photo session. I did an array of facial expressions, which confused him a little. Though in this picture, I'm the one who's looking confused.

A mystery was solved. Kam Raslan is NOT Karim Raslan. So for the past few months, I have been admiring two different men whom I thought was the same person. Remember, Kam writes stories, while Karim writes political stuff [meaning that that guy I saw at The Star election forum was NOT Kam].

Um, I guess that is it for April.

While waiting for my full report on the arrival of a portable Apple computer in my life, I am going to post what happened on Saturday the 12th. A friend of JK, known as Rugs, came all the way from the comfort of his Singaporean workplace called Front Row, to enjoy how a weekend in KL feels like, and I am honoured to be his seasoning.

It started from collecting Rugs at the KL Sentral monorail in the rain, and JK drove us off to CM Annexe, to check out an art exhibition thing. We got there at about 4.45 p.m. and found a painter and a curator telling a story out of a huge oil painting spread out on three panels.

Not too much was gained from this visit because... well, art is subjective and when it inspires this group of people, others might not be inspired at all. An hour later, we were on our way to Bangsar Baru to have dinner. We took a 'scenic' route through Taman SA to view the posh bungalows. When we reached Bangsar, we were delighted to find a parking space on the street! We dropped by Valentine Willie Fine Art to see a hardened crocheted chair, among other things. We reached to an agreement that we need to eat. As usual, Country Farm Organics was the first choice of eatery in Bangsar. The three of us ate a dish of brown rice and drank soy yoghurt which had a 'wooden cupboard' scent to it.

The main reason we were in Bangsar was for the RE:PLACEMENT One Night Spend sale. Some of the things that are on offer were the overrated white perforated pointed leather lace up shoe [don't know the proper name], limited-edition dresses, blouses... and others.

JK picked up a billowing monotone chiffon [?] blouse to help heal his ailing wardrobe, due to the lack of directional fashion items. I took several pictures of thick-framed glasses-wearing men, before heading off to sevendays. And for the first time, I bought something. JK and Rugs commented that it's what Björk would wear in her concerts, and it's a graphic brocade mini dress.

The night came and we still had an hour to kill before going back to CM Annexe for a special event. JK got excited with his own idea of bringing us to Lorong Haji Taib, near Chow Kit, where all the brothels are. It was still raining, so there weren't many prostitutes hanging about. But we were still delighted. Of course, this is nothing compared to Singapore's Geylang [?]. We also circled KLPAC and saw no one around. So it was time to get to CM Annexe.

The event we attended was Jerome Kugan's album launch. He's the sub-editor for KLue magazine and he interviewed me for my I Got Shot article. Apparently he has been working on this album for "nearly two years.... no, one and a half years". Guest performers include Azmyl Yunor, Bernice Chauly and Ferns. It was only at ten thirty did Jerome started his performance. The whole time, we munched on colourful icing biscuits [referred to a 'primary school biscuits], made popular by Khong Guan.

No good pictures came out of the small show, but here is a ridiculous picture of JK, Rugs and me being amused with ourselves.

After 11 pm, we left the gallery to see if the Ricecooker shop was open. Odd that it's a Saturday night, and it was closed. No punks were seen in that area, too. We walked back to JK's car that was parked near the Federal Court, where we took some more ridiculous pictures.

Right after that, a group of film students from Universiti Malaya approached us to ask for a video interview. We were asked about our dressing, social problems and for Rugs, how different Malaysia is to Singapore. This guy was in charge of the camera.

The excitement ended there when I was sent home. I had trouble sleeping that night. I was anticipating for something incredible.

I couldn't contain myself.

No more teaser trailer-esque pictures appearing throughout the week.

Now that the election fever is just something to look forward to in the future, my life has been like a river - it only gets exciting when it reaches the rapids. Here are some of my rapids.

Alvar Aalto exhibition, One Utama.

The layout of this exhibition is the first thing that puts me off. It's like some pameran kempen kesedaran anti-dadah; white walls and halogen spotlights.

Some of the items on display were pictures of Aalto's houses and the ones he designed back in Finland, printed on polyester-like fabric, which had very subtle touches of Modernist / Prairie-style to it. I expected some sweeping roofs and spiralling corridors but that's just because I had an Eero Saarinen vision in mind.

Other interesting things to look at were scaled down models of houses encased within black rectangular boxes, emotions of timber translated into forms of furniture and fluid-like themed glassware.

Random road trip, Hulu Yam-Serendah-Rawang-Klang.

One lazy Sunday, after a heavy buffet breakfast at the club, my mother, brother and I took the MRR2 to Batu Caves and drove on a road leading to Hulu Yam. Along the way, we passed by the Sungai Batu dam and several recreational spots.

Deep into Hulu Yam were very arid bushlands and several rows of old-school shophouses. I thought of checking out this yuppie retreat called Sekeping in Serendah, but didn't get a positive answer from those whom I have asked for directions. We then visited this residential area called Antara Gapi to check out empty houses [you might have heard of this place from watching their vague commercials on the TV].

On the way to Klang was the town of Rawang. I've heard of many people working in KL lives here, and I feel sorry for those who have to commute to KL everyday using the crappy KTM Komuter service.

Several hundred kilometres later, we arrived at Klang, known as the royal capital of the state of Selangor. And all Indians know that it's the place to shop for Deepavali festivities. The shops look really interesting, and same goes to this gallery of the Sultan's possesions, which I photographed while waiting for my mother to withdraw some cash from RHB.

I've seen pictures of the gallery in the newspapers and they look very tastefully-done, but we didn't have enough hours to spend looking at the Sultan's collection of Raleigh bicycles. I'd definitely give it a lurk the next time I am in Klang.

Klang is a town of country's most important seaport. So naturally, seafood restaurants are abundant [but directions from the town to these restaurants are nowhere to be seen]. We had to drive through lonely container yards to get to the seaside. We got to this restaurant but it only opens from 6 p.m. onwards, which was way too late for us to wait.

When you look at seaports in Europe [like Hamburg in Germany], you'd imagine super-nice fishmarkets, trams taking you to a seafront of salmon bars, pedestrian-only streets and scenic jogging tracks by the beach... but Klang is the upside down of all that.

About a forty five-minute drive away from Klang was where we had dinner at South Sea Seafood Restaurant. This was not my idea, but my mother wanted her seafood since that we got none in Klang. Six hours of driving and we end up eating at a place that's fifteen minute-drive away from our houses.

Helvetica screening, Olé Café.

This underrated food outlet in the tourist-friendly street of Changkat Bukit Bintang was the location of the free screening of the greatest typography film ever [but that's only because I've never heard of any other typeface being told into a full-length movie], hosted by Kakireka. I thought there would be like, a hundred movie-goers, judging by its guest list on Facebook but sadly, it was just a small group of graphic designers and perhaps students from MIA. Drats, I thought I could enjoy the sight of trendy design enthusiasts and fanboys who condemn Arial to the max.

Soon the movie started off with a demonstration on the use of... er, the movable type.... thing [my typography knowledge has gone rusty ever since I ended that one graphic design course]. The movie showed a satisfying amount of Helvetica goodness, ranging from the NYC subways signs to the now-bankrupt parmalat [once produced the tastiest juices] to the greatest bag company in the world. I couldn't help but getting my faced steamed from the secretion of excitement juices in my brains from watching the way the bagmaker cuts the tarp and washes it in an industrial washing machine, and spelling out 'HOLLAND' in Helvetica across three messenger bags. There were loads of street scenes, with Freitag-utilising pedestrians, cyclists of Amsterdam, Stefan Sagmeister reminding me how thick his German accent is, amazing type artists spilling a drop of their life on pencil and paper [and not to mention, PowerBooks].... and by watching Helvetica, I am assured that the modern European countries are the best to be in.

After the movie, about a quarter of the audience left, thus missing out on the 'exciting' group exercise of spelling 'Kakireka' in a freestyle manner. I was grouped with some happy people which may have very little in common with my view on typography. Here is our boring 'artwork'.

Some club night and fashion sale, Zouk and Palate Palette.

I was urged to join JK and friends to check out Steve Aoki on the turntables last Saturday night. I had all the reasons to avoid this [way past my ideal bedtime, air pollution coming from other people's lungs, no chance of having intellectual communication with other people, not-that-great club music] but I thought that my I Got Shot was in need of an update, so I paid the RM 40 entry fee and danced about wearing my terrific gas mask and being the most WTF person at the club.

Sadly, no pictures of outrageous clubbers were taken because the room was packed like ketupat, except this one.

The next day, I took some time to see what's on sale at this Junkyard Sale at Palate Palette. Steve Aoki and his Cobra Snake friend were selling stickers, hoodies and t-shirts [just three hours into the sale, they had to go topless because the air-conditioning was 'teh suck'].

I am again disappointed for not taking anyone's picture because all the trendies stayed upstairs where there's hardly any space for photographs.

Seapark Brickhouse.

There was one night when I was searching for driving directions to Sekeping on its official website, and was led to Seksan's latest project called the Seapark Brickhouse, located at the edge of Taman Paramount. I gave it a visit on the very next day, but remained outside of the secretive corner-lot terrace house.

A week later, I invited JK to check out the house at night. We were greeted by a Nepalese caretaker who was watching Hindi music videos on Zee TV. We were free to explore the rooms, and took photographs.

The Seapark Brickhouse aims to be an alternative to hotel accommodation, away from busy commercial areas, traffic and into suburban neighbourhoods where you can smell someone next door cooking salted fish for lunch, maids walking over-styled dogs, kopitiam patrons spending their last years and the old newspaper van honking regularly. Also, a good place if you're up to no good and avoiding the JAIS and getting 'tangkap basah'.

JK and I had a little fun with the bicycles, where I had Skeppshult/Monocle bikes and New York messengers dreams.

Argh. I need to get that foldable bicycle.

We watched some old-school Bollywood movie clips involving cleavages and shaking bellies with the Nepalese guy for awhile before leaving for dinner.

I visited a multi-million Ringgit mansion several weeks back but that is saved for another post because this post is getting too lengthy.

Bonus information: GOOD magazine is now available at the current affairs magazine shelf in Borders, The Curve. It will teach you a way of being somebody who is responsible and aware of everything that surrounds you. For me, I am waiting for it to be half-priced at my favourite back issue magazine stores.

Every tasteful person's favourite t-shirt store, graniph, is now available in English. Go ballistic!

And I wish I wore this to the screening of Helvetica [details in the following post] but my Freitag is better than everything else [those who have watched Helvetica can nod together].

Check out these amusing t-shirt descriptions:

The meaningless line drawing which depicts hands squeezing something, the American-cartoon-like onomatopoeic word, and the rainbow-like coloring. This graphic T-shirt is full of American's happy-go-lucky pop taste.

Many fingers are pointing on the middle. For the observer it seems that the wearer wants to be always in the center. It’s a very humorous design.

This T-shirts has a weird and crazy impact. Spitting the brain from it’s mouth, one can feel the gallimaufry of the guy with his fingers in his ears.

The three mushroom brothers are all poisonous. But they are somewhat cute.

Now shipping all over the Earth.

Early in the morning, I woke up and had breakfast with my mother at Strawberry Fields, PJ State to power up before going to Bukit Bintang Boys' School, where my mother is set to vote. Unlike what I saw on the television, there were no snaking queues coming out of the school.

Before a voter enters the room where they are supposed to dump their votes, they have to check their name on the SPR's [Election Commission] database to make sure that you only vote once. Then, the voter gets to go to a classroom, where they are called upon to receive a ballot paper, go behind a cubby hole to cross their favourite candidate, and sticking the paper into a transparent case.

I wasn't allowed to be near the classrooms, so I went to the back of the classroom and secretly shot some pictures [not really exciting].

The whole deal ended within five minutes, so my mother and I had a short look of the cars that act as a shuttle, going from houses to the polling station.

From Petaling Jaya, we drove to Pantai Dalam, the place where the KeADILan ceramah happened two days before, to check out the scene there. My mother wasn't really digging on the fact that buses couldn't get into the roads leading to the flats, and old people struggling to climb up the sloping roads to get out to vote. In a predominantly Malay area, it was baffling to not see a single mosque there.

Somehow we got to this place behind the New Pantai Expressway, a very kampung place. Note that this area is still under Lembah Pantai, and while Bangsar has a large share of million-Ringgit bungalows, this area is way underdeveloped.

We reached a school that was right under the highway, and I was attracted by the loud kompang beats played by a bunch of young people.

And just across the road was KeADILan's tent.

This place had a festive feeling, and people were queuing to vote.

Right after I took the picture above, the guy with the jacket told me that it's not allowed to photograph someone who is in the cubby hole.

I announced to my mother that we are visiting Kampung Baru in KL to check out the voting fest there. We took several rounds in the village, checking out old-school houses, seeing Dr Lo'Lo's [the candidate for the area, known as Titiwangsa] face everywhere, PAS flags flying, and surprisingly, a brand-new landscaping for the famous food street on Jalan Raja Muda Musa. Near the polling stations, there were many ladies waving green flags with a moon in the middle, and I gave a 'thumbs up' sign to them. I didn't take any pictures while we were in that area, except this boring sight of DSLR chicks somewhere near Stable Steak House.

I had a brilliant idea of visiting the Jalan Ampang Muslim Cemetery, behind Hotel Maya. It's a great place to de-stress yourself, and think about death for awhile.

Reading tombstones is an effective way of getting the imagination running, and..... hmm. It all depends on how you look at death and where life will take you.

Performing arts guy Zahim Al-Bakri was there, and I smiled at him. Unfortunately, he didn't think the smile was for him, so he just walked on.

I asked guy [who has been working at this cemetery for 20 years] to show me the grave of legendary and multi-talented artist / songwriter / film maker / everything P. Ramlee. He was massive back in the 1950s and 1960s and acted and directed classic and comedy Malay films, which still brings people to a laughing seizure to this day.

His grave wasn't as elaborate as I thought, and right beside his plot was A.R. Tompel's grave, P.Ramlee's sidekick back then.

And a step away was P. Ramlee's wife's grave, singer and actress Saloma. To this day, nobody has a voice that's parallel to her's. Have you heard of anyone else who can sing Selamat Hari Raya better than her?

This is how it looks like on the way out of the cemetery.

I got back to my mother who was chilling at the car, and headed to our last destination for the day - a primary school in Bukit Damansara. There was a van selling rojak and cendol parked a few metres from the school's entrance, where we had our lunch. After that, I went to check out how Bukit Damansara residents vote.