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KL zine fest 2010 the report

The Kuala Lumpur Zine Fest 2010 was planned to be on 25th July in conjunction with worldwide zine month which is celebrated on July. Many zine-related events happen all over the world on this month. A few weeks before the event, I went around town distributing flyers and also posted it online. A lot of people asked whether it’s really happening so I took it as a good sign.

Ben gave an idea to do something like 24 hours zine making. But instead taking 24 hours to finish the contribution, I figured they should do it on the spot. So I name the activity on the spot zine making.

On the day itself, as soon as I woke up I went to buy a pack of pens and cut a few A4 papers into half. I went to fetch Kudin at Bangsar and we headed to the venue, Noisy Warehouse. Noisy is a space a community space where a lot of activities like gigs, screening and DIY events been held.

Some punks spent the night there after the gig the night before. Some were still sleeping. After filling my belly, I went inside to help cleaning the space, setting up the tables and prepare for the event. Three girls were early and bought many zines. Two of them are from neighboring country; Thailand.

The event officially started at 3.30pm. We had some light performances by one man show, The Chalat Chalat and two bands; Keladak and The Pips. As The Pips started their set, rain started pouring heavily. There was a surprise during The Pips set, the front woman Hana announced the birthday of Nunu who stays at Noisy. During these performances also we had ‘On the Spot zine making’. We provided some pens and papers for the participants to write or draw. We asked them to share a DIY recipe, a simple fixing skill or petua.

After The Pips’ set, we proceeded with screening of Joe Biel’s ‘$100 and a T-Shirt’ documentary movie about zine subculture in the states. Mat Norr suggested switching-off the lights so everyone would concentrate watching the movie and can proceed buying the zines after that. More and more kids arrived during the screening as the rain started to calm down a bit.

After the movie ended, we crowd proceed with buying and trading zines. We also had zine reading session. Azizi who released his latest issue of Bebal zine read some excerpts from that and previous issues. Mat Norr read about his surgery experience from Scenery Is Free latest issue. I read Ben’s writing from my latest issue, Mosh #13. Yuen who just released a zine Shock & Awe talked about the zine and read his writing. Salleh Bintang Kertas talked about why he did zines and lastly Alind read some poems from his zine and talked about Kudeta Collective. The whole event ended at 7.30 pm.

I can safely say the ‘fest’ was a success even though it feels more like a gathering of zines makers, readers, and friends rather than a fest. The name is just an exaggeration to make it feel grand anyway. See you at Kuala Lumpur Zine Fest next year, which hopefully would be better than this first attempt.

I hate you, I still do

I hate you for laughing at me because I was skinny and said that I looked like a drug addict when it’s your son who was a drug abuser.

I hate you for laughing at me and making fun and calling me a drug addict when eventually you’re the one who got caught selling drugs and faced death penalty.

Dreams and nightmares

People around me always said that whatever happened in your dreams, the opposite things will happen. I do agree with that. It was proven a lot of times in my life.

Last year I lost my mobile phone. Then in my nap I kept on dreaming about the phone. I dreamt my girlfriend called me. The image was that very same phone with her name on the screen. I can’t sleep well.

Last week I had a nightmare. I was at a very faraway place and I misplaced my car key. Even though it seemed like a simple thing it was kinda very long and one of the worst nightmares I had in a while. With no spare key and at a strange place, it seemed so real. I woke up sweating.

This morning it almost became a reality. I misplaced my car key. I escaped from work for a while and took a nap and kept on dreaming about the key. Later that day I found it in a small pocket of my bag, I wonder who or how did it get in there.

Last two years I had the worst nightmares of my life, as far as I can remember. In that nightmare the whole family was at a beach. My mother was so excited and called us to join her playing with the water. All of a sudden a very big wave was splashing towards us and pushed my mother. Her body was smashed onto some buildings so hard and…I don’t wanna continue writing.

I woke up that very instant and was sweating. Then I continued sleeping.

I had a second nightmare right away after that. This time around, it was at our house. It was raining cats and dogs and flooding. The water was rising so fast. I climbed up to the highest cupboard in the house with my mother’s help. She couldn’t make it and was drowned.

I woke up that very instant for the second time. I was sweating like hell. I can’t sleep anymore. The nightmare seemed so real. I kept on thinking about my mother. I felt like calling her that instant. I drank some plain water, like what my mother would suggest if we were in shock.

I called my mother as soon as the sun rises. She was okay. I told her I had dreams of her. But I didn’t tell about the nightmares.

I texted my auntie and told about the nightmares. She said that the nightmares meant that my mother will be healthy and have a long life.

Yes. I do believe that.

draft buku punk rock part 2

Punk itu muzik bising. Punk itu compang-camping. Punk itu huru-hara.

Punk itu pemalas, punk itu busuk, punk itu sampah, punk itu selekeh, punk itu miskin, budak punk takde masa depan dan kutu punk takkan berjaya dalam hidup. Punk itu budaya kuning, budaya rosak akhlak, punk tak ada pedoman hidup dan punk itu adalah sejuta kenegatifan yang lain. Punk tidak patut hidup bebas. Punk mesti ditambat dan dihumbankan dalam lokap sebelum anak-anak muda lain terpengaruh dan anak-anak dara dirosakkan.

Macam tu lah punk selalu dimomok dan dikaitkan oleh media mass dan sesetengah budak ‘punk’ sendiri dengan segala elemen-elemen negatif. Kalau dah cecah umur 25 tahun dan masih menjiwai dan mencari punk, kau pasti ditegur. “Tak habis-habis dengan punk!”

Kenapa? Mungkin sebab-sebab yang tadi lah. Sebab ianya negatif. Jadi ia mesti ditinggalkan. Dah habis sekolah kena hisap dadah. Dah kerja kena pencen dari punk. Dah kahwin kena lupakan punk. Dah ada anak kena jadi manusia contoh yang serba sempurna.

Punk bukan sekadar muzik huha-huha, pakaian koyak rabak dan penampilan diluar norma masyarakat sekeliling. Punk bukanlah wajib melanggar undang-undang dan bersikap ‘tak peduli’.

Can you speak Malay????

Kejadian orang berketurunan cina cakap bahasa cina dengan aku memang aku alami berjuta kali sepanjang hidup aku. Tapi kebelakangan ni, aku perasan yang orang berketurunan melayu pun cakap ngan aku macam aku orang cina ataupun cakap 'speaking' ngan aku. Aku rasa diorang sangka aku berbangsa cina kot.

kakak kat foodcourt: "tadi u punye nasik dah siap MAAAAA, itu orang lain sudah ambik MAAAA".

brother pos ekspress: "nanti sudah siap, u letak itu barang kat atas ini macam"

kat kedai makan. pelanggan sebelum aku semua dibahasakan dengan panggilan "abang". sampai giliran aku...

akak kaunter kedai makan: "Ha boss!! Minum apa boss???"

kakak poslaju: "Yes sir, please take a sit first"

adik jual kasut: "Is this yours? Okay, please wait for a while"

budak jual lotion: "Can you speak Malay?"

Hahahha. Aku gelak je. Sampai tanya aku boleh cakap melayu ke tak. Sorang brader kat tempat kerja aku suruh aku belajar cakap cina so bila orang cakap cina ngan aku, aku boleh jawap. Satu ayat pun jadi katanya.

Satu lagi kejadian tak berapa aneh. Ramai orang ingat aku masih belum kerja. Kalau orang tanya je aku sekarang kerja kat mana, aku jawab. Mesti aku dapat soalan susulan macam ni:

"Oh, belajar lagi..."
"Eh, kau tak habis lagi study?"

Memang aku masih study, tapi studynya part-time. Cara diorang tanya tu macam aku belum kerja. Seorang student aku pun cakap masa ingatkan aku student. Selekeh sangat kot. Kat library aku mintak borang renew library card. Dibaginya student punya. Pastu aku tanya staff pun borang ni ke. "Oh, you're a staff??"

KL zine fest 2010!

Programme for KL Zine Fest 2010

On the spot zine writing (participants will be given a piece of paper and pen to write. Writings will be published).

Zine reading:

Mat Noor

Azizi Bebal

Pidot Nothing Else

Nizang Mosh zine

etc.

Performances:

The Pips

The Chalat Chalat

Keladak

Etc.

PS: we need suggestions for other activities...!