the2ndrule Issue 43
the2ndrule
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September 2003 email edition
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web edition: http://the2ndrule.com
Contents
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0. Edit
1. Someone Took the Words Away [Daren Shiau]
2. Meet Neil, meet neil [Sherlx]
3. Shivan [Sharanya Manivannan]
4. Instant Cafe Radio Episode 20 [Koh Beng Liang]
5. Loop [Li-Chuan Chong]
6. Old Man, Reposing [Nicholas Liu]
7. Notes as a Mudskipper [Sharlene]
8. Dial-A-Poem [Alvin Pang]
9. Sweet Surrender 201202 [Jazzy Loh]
Edit
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It is not the passage of time that blows out the candles. It is you, or more precisely, your saliva soaked breath, as you drool towards that golden sunset. You choose to work (it's just a hobby? what a lie), while others who do not have that choice are extending taxi licenses, or collecting cardboard boxes that used to hold disposable computers. You wonder why lady luck has been so kind to you while your peers whither away, as if you had no part in it. So you weep, or at least go teary-eyed, cracking-voiced, while the rest of us wonder which lisping leader to worship next, meekly slapping ourselves.
We're always looking for new work to publish. If you've got any writing, graphics, music, animation or video you'd like to get featured in the2ndrule, do get in touch with us. Please send your comments, suggestions and contributions to: editor@the2ndrule.com
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2ndrule team : Koh Beng Liang, Shannon Low, Benety Goh, Russell Chan, Alfian Bin Sa'at, Jason Tong
Contributors : Daren Shiau, Sherlx, Sharanya Manivannan, Li-Chuan Chong, Nicholas Liu, Sharlene, Alvin Pang, Jazzy Loh
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Someone Took the Words Away
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"Pass me the cap," someone said. "Each cap has a different question."
K___ handed it to P___. "Read it to us in your resonant voice," K___ said to laughter around the table. The table was at a restaurant where we were gathered after S___'s poetry reading.
"This is not a question," P___ said squinting at the cap. "It is a statement, a fact."
Later as the waitress took the orders, I told G___, who was sitting next to me, that the drink she chose was interesting. "What's R___," I asked.
"It's the one in the middle," she said pointing at the menu. "C___ makes me sleepy ... and P___ will probably wake me up."
- Daren Shiau
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http://www.pulpfest.com
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Meet Neil, meet neil
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Julia says a lot about you.
A bright untended spark dancing in the room,
she flashes her ringed finger, come,
Meet Neil, meet neil, a most wonderful
character, not cheap whiskey and bland sunflowers;
Gypsyish, she touches you on the lapels, come,
meet neil, meet me, we're a family here.
You grin your goatish countenance, 3 days of artist
stubble. come, we'll talk about the night, and
ringing fountains, come, he'll charm you, the goat!
Like faces at a masquerade, thousands of fluttering
faces before me, I wish you would buy me cheap beer
and a bright sunflower, and keep quiet for the night
of stars.
- Sherlx
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http://www.piecepark.org
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Shivan
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There is violence in loving you, akin
To the desire to run steel along my arms and raise welts and
Goosebumps large as marbles.
You are Shivan, and it was your natyam -
its destructive nature, its fluid language of power -
that I was most drawn to.
Alas, I Parvathi, mother-goddess and vestal consort,
Earthbound angel as it were, know not the vocabulary
That would endear me to you. My only
Reciprocation would be too tender a chord to be heard
Over the frenzied passion of your movement.
- Sharanya Manivannan
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http://www.them-art.com
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Instant Cafe Radio Episode 20
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Music, interrupted.
http://the2ndrule.com/issues/issue43/instantcafe.html
Playlist:
National Anthem - Italy (blackout remix)
Portishead - Road Trip (from PNYC DVD)
(Renee Zellweger - Monologue from Down with Love)
Funky Lowlives - Inside (Dorfmeister Vs. Uptight Productions)
Jackson 5 - The Love You Save (Sunaga 'T Experience's Asakusa S.C. '01 Mix)
TV Theme - Evangelion
Cat Stevens - Here Comes My Baby
A Man Called Adam - Estelle
Emi Fujita - The Water Is Wide
Saint Etienne - Lost That Girl
OMD - Locomotion
Johnny Cash - Personal Jesus
Ramsey Lewis - Do What You Wanna (Mr Scruff's Soul Party Mix)
Deadbeats - Funky For You (Dorfmeister Vs Madrid De Los Austrias Redefinition)
- Selection and mix by Koh Beng Liang
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http://www.forcefeedswede.com
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Loop
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Loop, repetition, ubiquity, simultaneity, virtual presence
Click the link to watch:
http://the2ndrule.com/issues/issue43/loop.mov
- Li-Chuan Chong
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http://www.saveordelete.com
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Old Man, Reposing
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Grey-faced days spent
nodding in the chair's curved spine
listening to wind and the rustle
of suits ripening behind olive doors.
- Nicholas Liu
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http://www.superdeux.com
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Notes as a Mudskipper
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I'm quick, in spite of
myself. But still it takes ages,
merely skimming through
these well-worn pages
of damp dirt and dead leaves.
*
Looking ahead: I forget
my plainness. Instead
there's the thrill of smug flight
and smooth falls, my own terse gift
of going places.
*
Quite often, a shoal of rain
leaves me elegant
with purpose. On such occasions
the ground is most dire, like a pursed
mouth or a crowded train.
*
A frank atlas,
these browns and grays.
From travels I've stumbled upon strings,
coins, tickets: small things, lost things
pale with the love of long stays.
*
Eleven o'clock, and I roll my eyes
at the dull surface. The sun winces over
a tall tree. I inhale deeply and run
to murky nothing; now and then,
the light amazes me.
- Sharlene
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http://www.stickerwar.net
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Dial-A-Poem
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Even Naomi was struck by the success of her "Dial-A-Poem" phone service. People called in from all over - tongue-tied lovers, wives in need of lines for a birthday card, husbands for apologies in verse, marketing people and copy writers looking for a snappy tagline, students and scholars who'd forgotten who wrote this sonnet or that, even the rare poet who'd lost his muse. One of them kept asking over and over for Ciberio's Canto Erotico, to be read in the traditional fashion - slowly and with the occasional wet smacking of the lips, whereby he'd end the call with heavy breathing and sobs after, invariably, the notorious Third Movement. An ad-man spent an expensive hour exploring rhyming couplets with the word "radish" in it; no easy task, and Naomi caught some of them being used in a promo jingle by a pharmaceutical startup a month later, although she couldn't sue. She'd saved at least two confirmed marriages with Lee Xuan's Haikus of Regret, and thwarted one suicide by walking him through Jalawi's Water Epic line by line until help arrived. Her favourites were probably the mothers who called to ask for poems to encourage or console their children (this peaked during the examination months), especially those with unborn children, who'd sometimes be named after the sestina or ballad she would have patiently recited over the phone to a receiver, pressed lightly to some softly pulsing, burgeoning womb. On exceptional occasions, Naomi's been tempted to make up her own titles and verses, instead of relying on her prodigious memory of obscure classics - after all, who would know better? - but her conscience always gets the better of her when she thinks of all those words already buried and untended in the vault of her mind and heart, wanting nothing more than to be free, and for a while to be useful and cherished
- Alvin Pang
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Joseph Stalin ruled the Soviet Union for two and a half decades. That was less than Lee Kuan Yew's rule over Singapore. Therefore Lee Kuan Yew was more successful than Joseph Stalin.
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Sweet Surrender 201202
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Eye candy wallpaper
Download at
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PC 1024 x 768 : http://www.5moke.com/eyecan_pcss_1024x768.htm
Check out http://www.5moke.com/#eyecandy for more.
- Jazzy Loh
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http://the2ndrepublic.com
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* 2ndrule t-shirts *
Non-uniform of the guerilla army. Now available at S$20 each.
Sizes: Girls (28,30), Boys (40,42)
http://the2ndrule.com/issues/issue24/2rtshirt.html
Please send your orders to editor@the2ndrule.com
Someone Took the Words Away (c) 2003 Daren Shiau
Meet Neil, meet neil (c) 2003 Sherlx
Shivan (c) 2003 Sharanya Manivannan
Loop (c) 2003 Li-Chuan Chong
Old Man, Reposing (c) 2003 Nicholas Liu
Notes as a Mudskipper (c) 2003 Sharlene
Dial-A-Poem (c) 2003 Alvin Pang
Sweet Surrender 201202 (c) 2003 Jazzy Loh
