Only two words to describe my reaction when I got my April 2009 copy of Going Places: Shock and awe.
That was before I flipped to my article and went Holy crap.
12 Hours, Going Places, April 2009
I walked past this building, went inside, gabbed excitedly about it to the editor, waxed lyrical about it and yet never in my wildest would expect it to look this good in print.
I guess this is what separates the wannabe (photographers) from the already-theres.
Righto. Back to (amateur) photography 101 for me :(
On the bright side, I never knew buildings could be so exciting.
I perambulated through Dataran Merdeka. Soaked up the atmosphere at Sin Seng Nam over a plate of Hainanese chicken rice. Witnessed the abhisega ceremony at Sri Maha Mariamman Temple, during which Lord Murugan, Lord Ganesh and Seri Mariaamma's figurines are showered with buckets of unguents (yoghurt, milk, saffron, coconut water, honey etc) in individual stalls. Absorbed fascinating historical trivia about Yap Ah Loy and gang at the Taoist Sze Ya temple, named after his “Tze Ya” (an honorific for Yap's subordinates who were killed during the civil war) - one of whom was said to ooze white blood, hence cementing his deity status.
In other words, I played tourist to the hilt and enjoyed every minute of it. Thanks to KL boy, practising architect and ardent conservationist
Most importantly, this walkabout changed my perception about buildings. I finally understood what my passionate historian and architecture buff friend, H, meant by "Buildings are repositories of history. All human stories have an indisputable connection with different buildings."
The happy side effect?
These days I drive my friends batty when they drive me around and I go, "Hey, that's art deco" or "Oh look Moorish architecture"
The Chinese will say, "Sik siew siew pan toi piew" (Know a little but pretend to be an authority on the subject) :P
Ok, H, what were you saying about a crash course in architecture?
3 comments:
hey i read that article while i was on Firefly!!!
i was amazed, as i never saw that building before in KL.
will take note of the place. but wat to order eh? chicken rice? didnt state properly in the article, if i'm not mistaken.
Wow, despite having spent the past three years studying in KL I never really stopped to smell the roses or in this case gape at the splendour that is architecture =)
Thanks for enlightening those of us in the dark
you can call me again about architecture.
:-P
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