Waking up

You’re talking in my face,
Tear-spittle on the back of our hands,

the noise,
the noise,
the noise,
from the black hole
that’s supposed to be your mouth.

And suddenly,
I’m not sure I know your name.

Tally-ho, Bizarro!

Click to read more at BizarroBlog

Bizarro was always one of those comics I cut out of the papers and stuck in my journal, on the rare occasion I actually read the papers. I missed it, so did a little googling one day and found the official site, the usual wikipedia entry and even better, Dan Piraro’s BizarroBlog .

His daily entry gives background to one of his cartoons, and it’s entertaining to see what inspired or provoked the creation of the cartoon. Especially since the way he writes is exactly the same style of succint, offbeat humour you get in the strip. It’s also great that he credits his idea-givers freely. Now that’s a cartoonist who’s confident about his sense of humour and interpretation.

When I was younger, I used to mix up The Far Side and Bizarro. Not so much for the content – because there are differences in the humour – but because of the one-panel format and text placement. So it clears things up a little to find out that Bizarro came into syndication in 1985 to replace Gary Larson’s “The Far Side” when it shifted to another syndicate.

I’m glad for a daily Bizarro. It sure makes the daily stress-grinding better. Here’s another one of my recent favourites.

On tenterhooks

I’ve been sitting on the edge of my heart’s seat for so long, the insomnia doesn’t go away. Can’t breathe, can’t live, can’t think.

The words choke and hack, like an old man with his last breath. The chest caves in, like rib bones suddenly crushed, ready to puncture lungs.

For pity’s sake, just tell me so I can die and move on.

image photoshopped
original image by Ye Rin Mok @ gettyimages

KNN,WA PAK LE EH JUK-BOX AH

 

19TH JUNE 1959
Singapore bans jukeboxes and pin tables
(i.e. pinball machines) becasue they are associated with
smoky amusement saloons and back-room secrety-society operations.

______________

So we did ban more than just chewing gum, huh.

source: The Straits Times 

GRINDER-MAN: MUSTANG SINGAPORE

Went for the first GRINDER-MAN workshop in late May. Tons of laughs and aching muscles, but with a interesting batch of people who all seem to have theatre experience ( I think). Met the new teacher of TSD too – Brian. He’s working with Jireh now. It’s so odd that she should be teaching. Didn’t seem too long ago when we were still crewing for her Emily of Emerald Hill monologue.

What made me raise an eyebrown was that the 2 GRINDER-MAN instructors, Hitoshi and Maki didn’t speak fluent English. They had to conduct the entire workshop through Pauline, an esplanade translator.

I know it’s probably a usual thing, but it just made me think how far globalization has reached.

_____________________________

One of the exercises we did had the main aim of posessing the black head cube.

If you ever saw anyone chasing after another person to get the black cube on the latter person’s head , trust me, the first instinct is to giggle – whether it’s nervous laughter or amused one. However, according to Hitoshi (the troupe leader), it’s a serious, solemn affair for the performer doing it.

He never laughs, he never cries and he never gives up till he dies.  

So while the back-and-forth competition is initially funny, it gets increasingly more serious and sinister, as the number of black head cubes dwindle and desperation to possess the cube (sort of symbolic of a life-force) gives rise to chaos.

_______________________________

I’m not sure whether that’s going to be part of the performance because after the first one, I had to withdraw because I couldn’t commit to all the rehearsal dates. Did so reluctantly, but had to. Damn, because they look like they’re having a lot of fun if the pictures on the GRINDER-MAN blog is anything to go by. Ah well,  wish them all the luck! Going to watch the performance tomorrow.

If you’re curious about it, you can visit the official GRINDER-MAN website, but might not be much help since it’s all in Japanese, so take a look at the information on Facebook too.

Details of performace:

GRINDER-MAN
MUSTANG SINGAPORE
20 – 22 Jun (Fri – Sun)
esplanade waterfront
FREE

FRI
6.30 – 7pm
9.30pm – 10pm

SAT
6.30 – 7pm
9.15 – 9.45pm

SUN
6.30 – 7pm
8.15 – 8.45pm

 

image: flipside / esplanade