Box of Delights

Am having one of my longest break this weekend, I can't recall a weekend like this one for the longest time.

All, i mean, ALL my appointments from Friday till today were all cancelled, or postponed. Wedding gig rehearsal postponed, dinner with girlfriend in IKEA cancelled, acting workshop cancelled, shopping with SM @ Amcorp flea market cancelled, it didn't help when the market was closed for Raya.

Looked into my yellow box stored in J's house, in his bedroom...old music sheets from my Operafest days, some of his guitar books, old theatre program books from years ago (Dangerous Liaisons, Hiphopera, Box of Delights, A Flight Delayed, Art, Mountain Language... ), empty file pockets, and among them i found my orange paper folder, it's rather thick...its content makes me smile and drift into nostalgic mood.

on top of everything else in the folder is a big stack of tore out magazine pages, from the old Men's Review, Day & Night & Asia Magazine. Am sure some of you know these columnists:

Kam Raslan, Men's Review (You Are Here, 2000)
Kam Raslan, MR (Being A Man, 1998), also found was a cut out of the same column by Sohail Khan, and Roland Takeshi
Kam Raslan, MR (Say What? 2, 1997), with Amir Muhammad in the seat in 1996
Puvan J Selvanathan, MR (Urbane, 1997)
Ida Nerina, MR (Being A Woman, 2000)

and then of course there was the
Fay Khoo, MR (Tongue In Cheek, 2000)

I had cut-outs that I don't remember reading...like Sharaad Kuttan's feature piece tittled In Search of Democracy in the May 1997 issue, but then again, 1997 is 7 years ago...

Off with Men's Review (it was one of the better mag back then with local columnists who entertained well), before MR, Kam Raslan was Shooting Blanks in Day & Night mag.

These guys were the celebrities for me back then, I remember meeting these people in person meant so much for me, I had diary entries of those `events' I believe. However my self-introduction to Ms Khoo was vividly disappointing, maybe I lack confidence or some x-factor, but I remember I got a half-hearted smile and nod and my awkward walk-away from her. Whatever happened to Ms Khoo, I used to nod to her writings...and you know, there were not many sexy ones who keep only white shirts n blue jeans in KL.

Later I have (sadly) grown out of my starstruck days, I say it's sad because SM loved my wide-eyed innocence back then when I would go up to Amir Yusof shamelessly and ask for a photo taken together, or scream when Jit Murad was in the same room....Jit is very much still larger than life for me but I have somehow grown shy these days....it's a real shame.

I have a few hand-written drafts of cover letters for a few job applications, I was hoping to get into SONY I think, the recording company. Then there was a few `emails' I wrote down before I sent the emails, back then I wrote my emails before I get to the cyber cafes.

Then I have these thick print-outs of emails from my first love....this is before Gmail ok. Reading them can literally transport me back to the year MalaysiaKini first had its anniversary dinner where I met him.

Anyway, that's it, I have obviously kept only these few items in this folder for a reason I can't remember now but I know I will archive these `memoirs' of the years gone by....1996 and 1997, what were you doing then?