i’d first discovered Shel Silverstein’s books many years ago and have been buying them as gifts, but never owned any myself because i always thought the kids weren’t ready for them yet. so when heriati gave auni The Giving Tree as a belated birthday gift recently, it was the catalyst for me to finally start collecting his books. (i have a thing for collecting books by authors i like, e.g. mo willems – but more on that next time.)

the story is basically about a tree who finds happiness in giving away parts of itself (its leaves, its apples, its branches, its trunk, and finally when it has nothing left, it offers its stump) to a boy whom it loves unconditionally, and we see the boy in different stages of his life (from childhood, to teenagehood, to adulthood, and finally old age), finding joy, demanding help and seeking solace from the tree at each point.

i think a lot of people who read this will feel a sort of ambivalence towards the boy for his self-centredness and lack of reciprocity in affection; and also to some extent, towards the tree for its almost martyr-like selflessness if you read it as a quasi relationship between an indulgent parent and a spoilt child. i’m more inclined to think of it as an allegory of man’s exploitation of nature and the environment – well, in any case, it’s easier to explain to the kids. (i certainly wouldn’t want to draw a parallel between myself as a parent and the tree; i’m not THAT giving!)

we then naturally progressed to The Missing Piece, which attracted the kids for some reason. maybe the simple drawing of lines and shapes has a sort of primitive appeal to it, or the sparse text on the pages. the story follows ‘it’, a pacman-looking shape who feels incomplete because it was missing a wedge, and It goes around in search of its perfect fit. like i said, i was hesitant to introduce the books to the kids so early on because, as simple as the books appear, there are deeper, more complex themes that adults would better understand and appreciate. (another e.g. would be Anthony Browne’s books, which i really like – but more on that next time.)

as an adult, you’d know it’s a parable for that stage in life where you’re single and lonely, looking for love, experiencing pitfalls and hitting against walls along the way (like meeting the wrong fits, or the ones that do fit but don’t want to be in a relationship, or meeting the right ones but didn’t hold on tight enough, or held on too tightly – we’re all familiar with these situations, aren’t we!), at the same time having adventures and enjoying what life has to offer in between (because, being incomplete and unable to roll very fast, ‘it’ stops to talk to worms, smell the flowers, let butterflies perch on it).

then finally, it meets The One, and they roll with it, so to speak – and well, we’d all like this to be the fairytale ending (“and they lived happily ever after”)… but wait. ‘it’ finds that it could no longer do what it liked doing and was no longer itself, and… it lets go of the piece, and moved on. (i’m suddenly reminded of The Cure’s “Letter to Elise” at this point: “I thought you were the girl I always dreamed about / But I let the dream go / And the promises broke and make-believe ran out….” SOBS! :( ok sorry, i just always get emo with this song.)

sooo, anyway, yeah. why did it let go of the missing piece when it was the perfect fit? for freedom? for the thrill of the search? for the damned butterflies? in any case, readers could feel a sort of ambivalence towards ‘it’ here too. is he selfish for thinking only of himself? what about the piece whom he left? did he even consult with the piece before letting it go? Y U NO WANT PIECE?!

ok, before you get as aggro as me at this point, let’s move on to the accompanying book, The Missing Piece Meets The Big O.

now, THIS i like best. i suppose it starts off where The Missing Piece left it. the story now focuses on the piece, waiting for love to come by. i suppose if you have to assign genders, The Missing Piece would be a female. which explains why here it’s not as “actively” looking for an incomplete circle for it to fit into, and being a triangular sort of wedge, it didn’t have the ability to move (or so it believes). it tries to make itself attractive by wearing a flower, it tries to be flashy, it tries to hide from “hungry” ones, some put it on a pedestal, and i’m quite sure some were gay… and then it meets The One. but the piece grew (as do most women in relationships – in, ahem, maturity – yes?)… and got dumped.

then it met Big O. and something happened.

oh, why don’t you just read the story over here.

it’s pretty obvious why i like this one: for its values – empowerment, independence, changing your mindset, being proactive and choosing your destiny instead of waiting for it to happen.

it’s all very Beyonce, you know?

and so, to end this post, i’d like to dedicate this song/video to ‘it’ in The Missing Piece. (bet it sucks to be you right now HA HA.)

(ps: Beyonce is so many levels of awesome, isn’t she?)

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“it’s a perfect day for doing the unstuck
for dancing like you can’t hear the beat
and you don’t give a further thought to things like feet
let’s get happy!”

and that was exactly how i felt at the cure concert on wednesday – a rip-zipping, button-popping kind of happy!

the air pulsated with electrifying energy the moment we stepped into the dark and cool caverns of the indoor stadium. the band was already on stage (by rock concert standards, 8.15pm is VERY punctual!), their distinctively familiar riffs rippled through my soul as i bounced uncontrollably like a bunny gone mental to our seats. (hey, it’s been a while since the last time we went to one of these ok, and i have to say i was more excited now than when we saw coldplay!)

of course, since we were at the seating area, we could barely make out the band’s faces, but you could not miss the revered and venerated robert smith. he, an institution by himself, synonymous with the grand bands of the 80s, with his wild mad-scientist mess of hair, prowling the stage like a large black grizzly bear. a shy one though – you could tell from his polite thank yous punctuating the end of each song, saying little else otherwise, and the way he shuffled off stage, almost overwhelmed by our cheering and demands for encores.

and they did not disappoint! two encores, and the set list consisted of almost all the best and much-loved hits and singles, from pictures of you, to lullaby, to lovesong, to just like heaven, to close to me, and yes, of course, friday i’m in love! that brought the house down, no doubt, everyone around us just went mad (as did us, ha ha). <3

the music was, as Is said, "too loud", numbing our eardrums, the vibrations from our seats thumping along with our heartbeat, but what the heck! it wasn't long before we were on our feet, jiggling along with the other fans. yes, jiggling and jabbing and jumping, but please, don't try to imagine this. the mental image of izadnhana attempting such ungainly body movements might just kill you...

it was a solid three-hour show, again by any rock standards, very long! in between, they did some self-indulgent guitar 'gentels', and some of the newer songs, but the crowd was really more interested in the old stuff, heh. we're nostalgic like that. but overall, we had a fantastic time, and it's two days later but my head's still ringing with good ol' bob's voice (which, by the way, has not aged an iota).

the crowd, i have to say, is nearer to our age group so we didn't feel too young or too old, haha! but i'd really like to know, just how DO these old geezers (coz i'm quite sure they're well in their forties by now) have the stamina and energy to perform three hours like that (and it really looked like hard work what they were doing on stage), for so many days during a tour. and it's not like they look like the kind that work out in the gym, mind! :D

anyway, the order of the day was black outfits, of course. but no, we did not dress up for a goth halloween party.

there was girly-girl fangirl hana, who, of all people, found this other girly girl in the crowd, hailing all the way from KL and taking three days off from her doctor duties just to watch the band! it's funny coz we'd never met or been in touch much, but just one look at each other and we knew who the other was, lol! and in true blogger style, we HAD to take pictures, for posterity. :)

there was nerd fanboy izad, who caused a number of people to shout “VOTE FOR PEDRO! YEAH!” or well, at least mumble it out loud enough for us to hear. *chuckles*

skulking around outside the venue, trying not to inhale the cloud of nicotine in the air, we tried to look for thom yorke’s signature. ha ha, of course, we can only wish. we found travis though. well, alright, that’ll do. we did see them in 2001 with a then-new coldplay whose then-chris martin was so shy he barely looked up from his keyboard.

and since the kid was already fast asleep at my mum’s, we had the option of checking out the ‘official unofficial after party’, of which the flyer i was holding in my hands. sounded a bit dodgy though. and erm, we’d rather go home and sleep, being the old bores that we are. wuaahaha.

izad’s keen on the singfest later this month, but i’m iffy. the brett anderson show had been cancelled, so we’d just saved ourselves a hundred bucks. urm… i dunno… i mean, cyndi lauper??

i’d have to dig up some fishnet stockings and hair bands then.

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dear gwen,

as much as i like your style and covet your yummy milf status, i’m afraid the husband and i will not be seeing you terkinja-kinja on stage come august.

it’s stranger than Fiction but we unanimously decided to go watch these old geezers instead, whose singer incidentally wears the same amount of make up as you.

THE CURE!! WAAAAAAHHHH!!!!

i’m stoked! i am! i heart them many many for a long time hokay! i used to play their Wish album over and over again coz it was a rollercoaster of delirous happy (‘friday i’m in love’) and depressing sad (‘letter to elise’), just like i was at the time (ie. a teenage mess of extreme highs and lows).

we don’t have such sentimental history with you, gwen, but we wish you all the best and know that you will be playing to a full house when you’re here. our friends will joyously tramp along with you to ‘wind it up’ and swing to your ‘sweet escape’ and spell out ‘B.A.N.A.N.A.S’ at the top of their lungs, no doubt (pun intended).

oh my, it looks like august is shaping out to be quite a rawking month, eh? (not to mention, a pokai one. yikes!)

hollaback (er, whatever that means),
haNajuku girl

ps: for those who prefer EVEN older geezers, engelbert humperdinck is also performing next month. wuaahahaa!

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