Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Randomator

Drunk with sleepiness, I do so proclaim that journalism is the last of the romantic disciplines.

I wrote this before, that upon graduating, I found that I couldn't be a samurai, or a knight-errant, so I became a journalist.

A profession in pursuit of the truth. What can be more romantic than that?

Now, people predict - well, I predict - that newspapers in its current form will be truly out of fashion in 50 to 100 years from now. My nephews would be dead before they see the end of newspapers.

But the profession of journalism will live on. It shall evolve.

I believe that everyone should write. Simply because it would create greater awareness and appreciation for writing. And hopefully, reading. Of course, we do get people who comment on YouTube videos and its variants.

The ones who go, "FUCK YOU RACIALIST!" and "YO MAMA'S A HORE!" and "I SHOULD GET THE AWARD!" and "I AM A PILOT WITH 70 YEARS EXPERIENCE AND THE WTC WAS BOMBED BY SCUD MISSILES SENT BY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" and "I LOVE ANWAR"S SWEET BUTT!!!!!!!!!!", not realising how stupid they sound.

Anyway, still a greenhorn in this profession, comparatively speaking, I find it difficult to form any sort of picture about something with just 300-800 words.

I mean, you can spend 40++ years with someone, and not know him or her. What is a mere handful of words, to describe a person or an event? Possible only for those who see others as one-dimensional characters. Events as a picture in a child's colouring book.

This is a banana. That is an orange. This is a vagina.

I believe that only a mosaic of a million different viewpoints and opinions and perspective can even hint at what something is. For that, we need perhaps millions observing and writing truthfully what they see.

We have that now. Today. We have the technology. We can rebuild it. Faster. Stronger. Better. We can create the world's first bionic man.

And for a low price of six million ninety-five! Come on down!

Don Knotts. For some reason, I am thinking of Don Knotts. And the Harlem Globetrotters. And strangely, the word "Zoinks!".

I'm also thinking, if I were to use my writing skills, can I fuck half of KL? Would a movie about isolation and solitude, and the difference between being alone and loneliness and the barriers between human communication - would that outsell a movie about rempits? I doubt it.

Some parts of the arts circle and the entertainment community scream and yell for measures to save them. For someone - anyone - to save them. One question we must ask ourselves - have we done anything worth saving?

My answer is, yes. I have seen the elusive beauty and talent, passion and commitment in the industry. However, it is very rare that it translates into a body of work or a work of art that can be used as a rallying call, a signpost for many things.

My friend Lainie hates the fact that Malaysian movies are prohibited from showing gay people unless they repent at the end. I am against almost all forms of censorship (child pornography and a few other things being the exceptions), but the first thing that came to my mind was - where IS the gay movie celebrating homosexuality that is banned and would serve as a rallying point for gays in Malaysia, which I presume number in the millions. With perhaps billions in disposable income. There is power there. A lot of power.

I want the gays to rise up against censorship and discrimination.

I am a strong supporter of homosexuals, because homosexuality eliminates the competition. With more gay men, straight women will eventually have only one choice - ME.

And if all the girls are lesbians - woohoo! Oops... I think I just came.

Night all!