Ted Mahsun

Received an email from BookXcess : Hi Ted! We're having a super promotion in conjunction with the World Book Day celebrations. Even our latest shipment arrived in time for our latest sale! :-D Award-winning books with 20% discount, free books for nett purchases above RM20, RM20 vouchers for nett purchases above RM200... there's just so much going on at BookXcess! We would truly appreciate it if you can help spread the word in your blog to your esteemed readers and share the joy of reading more for less at BookXcess! Attached is the e-poster we have created for the occasion. Wishing you a wonderful weekend! Hope to see you soon at BookXcess! Warmest regards, Andrew & Jacqueline Yap Click on the poster to enlarge. Sorry this isn't a proper post or anything. Just don't have the time to concentrate on blogging at the moment.

Here's an announcement from Amir Muhammad : Bapak-bapak, ibu-ibu, jambu-jambu dan awek-awek hadhari dijemput ke acara yang santai lagi gerek: Pelancaran buku KITAB PENGETAHUAN HANTU MALAYSIA. Buku sususan Danny Lim ini telah diterjemahkan secara sahih oleh Ahmad Kamal Abu Bakar. Ketahuilah asal-usul, sifat serta tumit-tumit Achilles puluhan hantu dan roh yang menjadi khazanah budaya masyarakat sibilis (sekular, pluralis dan liberalis) kita. Tempat: Bau Bau Cafe, The Annexe, Central Market. Tarikh: 5 Disember (Jumaat) Masa: 8:30pm hingga LRT senyap. Terdapat hiburan oleh beberapa kumpulan gitar rancak yang akan diumumkan kelak. Juga pembacaan mengejut oleh: Ahmad Kamal Abu Bakar Amir Muhammad Danny Lim Fahmi Fadzil Shahril Nizam Sharon Bakar Ted Mahsun dan beberapa lagi artis yang tak sempat masuk Bi-pop hari minggu lepas. Buku akan berada di toko-toko hanya 2 minggu setelah tarikh pelancaran, jadi dapatkanlah di sini agar anda tidak frust menonggeng. Harga buku: RM20. Tebal: 115 m...

KATA-SUARA featuring The Launching of Mustapa Haji Ibrahim's Poetry Book, Gemuruh Alam . which will be launched by Y. Bhg. Dato' A. Samad Said National Laureate Mustapa Haji Ibrahim was one of the artists who was directly involved in the formation of the 'Anak Alam' group, a seminal group of cutting-edge artists, poets, theater activists, dancers and various artistic personalities in the 70s. and not forgetting these fine writers and musicians: Mustapa Hj Ibrahim Siti Zainon Ismail Raja Ahmad Aminullah Dr Iqbal Chuah Guat Eng Rahman Shaari Nisah Haron Date: Saturday, 7th June 2008 Time: 5pm Venue: RA Fine Arts, 6 Jalan Aman off Jalan Tun Razak Food and Drinks Provided. Admission Free. Directions: View Larger Map Or if you choose to take the LRT, take the Kelana Jaya line (Putra line), and drop off at the Ampang Park station. Coming out of the ticket turnstiles, turn right and take the escalators up to get to the Ampang Park shopping mall. Go round Ampang Park and wal...

Before I get my new hard drive though let me show off my haul from the KLAB. 10x10 : 100 Minutes to Change the World - The Winning Plays of the Kakiscript Playwriting Competition (free, but had to fill in survey form and give up my private and personal details) Colonel Sun by Robert Markham (a pseudonym of Kingsley Amis; free, but obtained via Bookcrossing so will have to pass it on when I'm done reading) Cerpen-cerpen Terkemuka Akutagaw a (free, but obtained via Bookcrossing so will have to pass it on when I'm done reading, but at least I can say I read Akutagawa in the original Malay) Vox by Nicholson Baker (free, but obtained via Bookcrossing so will have to pass it on when I'm done reading) Ask the Dust by John Fante (free, but obtained via Bookcrossing so will have to pass it on when I'm done reading Bruce Chatwin by Nicholas Shakespeare (free, no strings attached) The Malay Peoples of Malaysia and Their Languages by Asmah Haji Omar (free, no strings attached...

So even a blogpost needs a teaser? Naw... it's just that I took a lot of photos and even several videos of the KL Alternative Bookfest that I'd like to upload and post on the blog but I seem to have run out of space on my hard drive. Only 300megs left! I'm going out to buy a new drive tomorrow so I'll blog about KLAB then. Other things to get tomorrow: a Mawi haircut. All this long hair is driving me crazy!

Lawyer-turned-Author, Nisah Haron , will be having a copyright workshop for writers and artists tomorrow morning so if you're worried about your rights and are wondering whether [insert-big-name-publisher] is ripping you off, this might be a good place for you to be! Details: Bengkel Hak Cipta sempena Pesta Buku Antarabangsa Kuala Lumpur Date : 12 April 2008 (Saturday) Time : 10 am - 2 pm Venue : Bilik Johor/Kedah, PWTC, Kuala Lumpur Speaker : Nisah Haji Haron Sponsor : Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka & PEKOMIK Entrance FREE. Please email Nisah Haron to confirm attendance : nisah.haron AT gmail DOT com Also, don't forget to check out Nisah Haron's new guidebook to copyright, Karya Kita Hak Kita , (launching this later today by Pak Samad) available at the Al-Ameen booth at KLIBF.

My fever is still around and my flu is getting worse and worse. The ridiculously low temperature in the PWTC halls isn't helping much either. Today, I met Zaki Zainol , author of Takluk Jagat 1: Bisikan Ariasha , and also Zamri Mohamad , author of many self-help books, the most recent being Rahsia Bisnes Mamak . They took pictures of me, so to those who still haven't seen me and don't know what I look like, there you go! And as if you needed another reason to go to the bookfair, Wira Bukit, helmed by A Samad Said's son, Helmy Samad, is seeking signatures for their petition to get Pak Samad's copyrights back from DBP. I wish them all the best! Also! Today is Pak Samad's birthday! Happy birthday, Pak Samad! Incidentally, mine is just around the corner... this Saturday in fact. No gift for me aaa? Books would be nice. Thanks!

Weekdays are slow days for the bookfair. The crowd was noticeably lesser and the sales disappointingly reflected that. Monday started out "interesting" for me. My shift for that day only started at 2pm so I had the luzury of waking up a bit later than usual. I promised Firdaus Ariff to have lunch with him at 1pm so at around 12pm I left the house... ...only to be called to the side at a police roadblock. For the record, I drive a 1968 Volkswagen Beetle and for the past five years I've been driving it, I have never been called aside, even when I wasn't wearing the seatbelt. You see, the police have never really given that much a glance at old cars when it comes to seatbelts, so I've never really bothered to wear mine. Dangerous, I know, but I guess I like living on the edge? So yesterday, the policeman comes up to me, sees I'm not wearing my seatbelt and goes ahead and gives me a summons. I'm all okay with that. As far as I'm concerned, it's a fair ...

Day 3 for me was spent mostly running around the fair but during the more quiet times I at least had my wife for company. Kata-Suara Khas went well, despite my worries that the readers/musicians wouldn't be able to turn up (it was raining heavily outside and I was scared they might have got themselves stuck in a jam somewhere). I was also worried that no one would actually turn up to watch, but thanks to Usratika, who started the event, we managed to get a sizeable crowd, although they did begin to taper towards the end. Sharon Bakar came up next and read a hilarious piece excerpt from her still-unfinished novel, about a wife of an expat living in Malaysia and who absolutely hated living here. (Her blogpost here .) Tan Sei Hon came up next and sang two songs, one about rain and another about a couple. I overheard Sharon mention to him later that he sounded like Cat Stevens, and to that Sei Hon replied: "Before he converted or after?" Hah! Intan Rafiza came in late but des...

(Click on the poster to enlarge) The nice folks from the KL International Bookfair has asked us to organise a special edition of Raja Ahmad's Kata-Suara event at PWTC this Saturday, so I hope you can drop by for a session of spoken words and music! This Kata-Suara will feature these fine people: A Samad Said Sharon Bakar Syed Munawar Raja Ahmad Aminullah Intan Rafiza Tan Sei Hon Dewangga Sakti Usratika Date: 6th April 2008 Time: 6pm Location: KL International Bookfair, PWTC See you there!

Pretty busy day. I arrived late at the booth, and the surge of schoolkids, parents with family in tow didn't make things easier. But the huge crowd did give give us quite a number of sales. Certainly much better than yesterday. Met Firdaus Ariff in the morning who was nice enough to drop by and keep me company for a short while. Later I met Azwan Ismail , who wandered into my booth with Fadli Akiti . They told me about Fadli's new sf book, Saga Horizon --" If you liked Opera Angkasa , you'd like this! " I told them I would certainly check it out. In fact, right after they left the booth, I rushed over to the Alaf 21 booth to get my copy. When I asked the lady there about it she looked surprised. "How do you know about that book? We just printed it yesterday! Oh, wait you're one of Fadli's friends aren't you?" I said I just heard about it and wanted to buy it. (But the question remains! So how bout it Fadli? Would you be fwens with me ?) I a...

So we managed to set up the booth without anybody's head getting chopped off. No cats got impaled either although I don't know if the annoying kids singing the nursery-songs-turned-nasyid on the other side survived or not. I'm at Booth #3030 at Tun Razak 3, all day and every day. The booth's name is under Koperasi Buku Malaysia/MLSI but I'm hawking books for Suarasuara Publications . I've got books from Suarasuara, catalogues from RA Fine Arts Gallery, the Mea Culpa book I told you about (only RM20!) and a bunch of second-hand books you may find worthwhile. Even if you're not interested in any of those wares, and you're at the book fair, do drop by anyway and have a chat. Because I am sad and lonely*. I haven't checked for wifi yet, but I doubt it. (I don't even have a plug point to plug my ibook in.) I didn't have a proper look around yet, having been round only the floor I am so far. I'm taking it easy this year since this is the firs...

It looks like I may be at the KL International Bookfair the whole gorram time, looking after a certain booth. I'm not sure the booth is under what name yet but I assume its Suarasuara Publications. Or it could be RA Fine Arts. Or maybe even Koperasi Penjual Buku Malaysia or something similarly proper- and baku -sounding. If you're visiting KLIBF and braving the smelly crowds, don't forget to say hi to me! I'll update details on my booth location when I get them. Hopefully today, but I excel in inefficiency so I make no promises! UPDATE: I'll be at Booth #3030 at Tun Razak Hall 3. Things to look forward to during KLIBF: cheap Dawama magazines (okay, maybe you don't buy them, but I have an odd fascination reserved solely for "approved" Malay-literature), new PTS books (am hoping to get some modernised Malay classics) and fringe literature. One example of fringe literature I think could be Amirul Fakir's new independently published book, Mea Culpa ...

A bit late posting this but better late than never? Some photos from the previous Kata-Suara event, courtesy of Firdaus Ariff . I was too busy running around doing stuff to take notes so you'll have to make do with these for now. Siti Zainon Jiwa Rasa Dewangga Sakti Gerald Chuah Zakaria Ali U-Wei Shaari Chuah Guat Eng and Dangsuria couldn't make it so we've reserved them for future Kata-Suara events. Hope they can make it next time!

Sorry for not updating. My circadian rhythm is wacked. I even almost forgot about tomorrow's event! :o Have many things to blog about, including Arthur C. Clarke's passing, but I might not get round to it until next week when my brain clears up. Also, I master at procrastination. Also, also: I kannot spel.

KATA-SUARA 3 featuring Chuah Guat Eng Gerald Chuah Dangsuria Zainurdin Dewangga Sakti Jiwa Rasa Siti Zainon U-Wei Shaari Zakaria Ali Date: Saturday, 15th march 2008 Time: 5pm Venue: RA Fine Arts, 6 Jalan Aman off Jalan Tun Razak Food and Drinks Provided. Admission Free. Directions: View Larger Map Or if you choose to take the LRT, take the Kelana Jaya line (Putra line), and drop off at the Ampang Park station. Coming out of the ticket turnstiles, turn right and take the escalators up to get to the Ampang Park shopping mall. Go round Ampang Park and walk across the pedestrian bridge over Jalan Tun Razak to get to City Square. Walk past City Square and Empire Tower beside it to get to Jalan Aman, which is a small road by the side of Empire Tower. RA Fine Arts Gallery is the white bungalow house on the corner of the road with the number 6. You can't miss it. And if you're interested, there'll also be an art exhibition launch earlier that day at 3pm at the same place.

Just to let you know I'll be crashing Rumah Pena on 1st March at 8.30pm. Am going to lend my hands and feet in supporting local science fiction writers, which in this case are my pals, Vovin , who wrote Opera Angkasa, and Firdaus Ariff , who wrote Sayap Adinila . See you guys there?

KL Poetry Slam "The Points are not the point. The Point is Poetry" Organisers: WordForward & The Dram Projects Date: 23rd Feb Place: The Loft, Zouk Club, 13. Jalan Ampang, KL Time: 7pm-10.30pm Cover charge: RM10 gets you into Poetry Slam and allows you to stay on at The Loft for the entire night. Stand up and be heard at KL Poetry Slam, an on-the-spot three round poetry contest in which poets perform, recite, or read their works on a stage before an audience and under a time limit (usually three minutes each). The vital element in a poetry slam is that the poems are judged immediately afterward by five people picked randomly from the audience who award numerical values (from zero to ten) to each poem. Individual or group that scores the highest points, wins the competition. Poets should prepare three poems (aprox three minutes in length each). The poem for the first round MUST contain a line from a John Keats poem as the slam falls on the death anni...

This month's Kata-Suara event was held right after the launch of "The Unknown" art exhibition at R.A. Fine Arts Gallery in Ampang, so there was quite a spill-over from one event to the other, and that resulted in the small room reserved for the Kata-Suara readings being packed with much more people than last month's event. The event was kicked off with Usratika , a band consisting of two guitarists and a percussionist. They performed two songs, Bagaikan Si Anak Kecil and Hanya Seorang Musafir . Check out the video of their performance: Awesome. Next up was Razali Endun who read two poems of his and a poem by Usman Awang (I think. I screwed up my notes again.) Aisyah Baharuddin read poems by Kahlil Gibran--her "lover" she claimed--translated into Malay. I'm not sure if she was the one who translated it. (Again, bad note-taking on my part.) One was about three frogs, the other was about justice. Bernice Chauly came to read her poems from her recently publ...