Wednesday, March 4, 2026

Dress

 

Fair chance it was the trialing of the dress that gave the disturbance last night for Sak. In the earlier, conservative black baju the day beforewith the accompanying scarf, there was little issue; ensconced within that simple envelope Sak had sat easy & comfortable. The bright white and printed blue batik was a very different proposition, a very different venture—doubtful, problematic and hazardous. With the flat, lank hair on display further concern again was added, even though the new colour certainly suited Sak better. (At one of the early meets Sak had confessed she wore the scarf because she could do nothing with her hair. Far from a traditional Muslim gal beneath the persiflage.) Some acne was not able to be adequately covered by the make-up too. A testing circumstance, however you looked at it. Understandable unease was the result, which was perfectly apparent from the outset, even from the approach on the steps at the Plaza. An actor on the brightly lit stage before the public feeling very little fit for that role.

 

 

 

Monday, February 23, 2026

Fire Away!

 

Concerted AI campaign in the paper on these widespread crow attacks upon the populace, which have necessitated a return to the former sharp shooting, shortly to be resumed. Trapping & poison weren't working. Some years ago the authorities had desisted with the earlier measure, after an exponent had deployed a shotgun and wayward pellets caused alarm (a possible wounding too). Chap concerned a foreign national, whose accreditation, safe practices cert, &etc. had also lapsed; promptly fined, jailed and thereafter deported. In the pic in today’s S. T. a poor woman had a long, coloured strand of hair cruelly plucked and pulled upright, in an almost  vertical line. An online video on CNA featured another innocent caught unawares from behind, the bird giving the fellow some curry to go on with. Various other examples had been displayed in the last few days, making it an open & shut case. Complaints of urban warfare through the housing blocks were ready to be met with strongest argument and plentiful evidence. In the current period, however, after all the troubles on the screens, the restored measures might not play so well among some groups. Ill-legal feeding of birds had continued in the Malay quarter and no doubt elsewhere, despite the threat of harsh fines & incarceration.




Sunday, February 22, 2026

Publication news: Johor Bahru - The Introduction, Eksentrika Mag

 Hello everyone 


Another short flash of mine has been recently published by a Malaysian outfit called, Eksentrika, appropriately for a piece like this from the very first intro to Sing's near sister city, one kilometre over the Causeway. 

It all came as a surprise that first venture over 14yrs ago now.

Free on the site (800 words), —





Cheers
PR




Friday, February 20, 2026

Whereto?


 

Whereto, then was the question. Near 10AM Mr T T tutup, despite hearing last night from the Tamil-Malaysian tea-maker that they would be opening late, namely 9AM, he said. In the morning the same was spied from the kitchen window coming along from his digs at Block 2, where his crew were housed (3-4 to a room likely). Therefore, as one does need to be somewhere, the PLQ Starbs, first in some long while, judging from the lad at the counter. (Frictionless cash only since Dec.) Oh, Golly! How could that dribble come as a surprise? Arrgh!… What would you call that fare that passes like sweet mead for the boomer / millennial tops? One headphone, one plug among.  Just as a tall, leggy bunny passed outside the window with pointed pink mounts atop her own phones. Now, was that remastered Bob, or the original Nobel? Uncertain. Tricky for a tin ear. Did the man sell his back catalogue to Amazon like some other star recently? Might possibly stretch out the neck, risk it and say, no, actually. The strain, the tight little effort spoke against. One tattoo, with black sunnies added when a wink of sun through the window emerged from the overcast. Lashes latecomer landed left. Soon every table would be claimed, just like on the last visit. Opposite the fluro pink in her 40s canna help blinking when she feels the eyes of the whitey upon her, scanning ever so briefly & ever so discretely. All four older chaps upper 30s-40s dyed. Black, apart from the guy on the end with a fade one side & mottled tan top. Not a single brolly among them—they could all manage to get where they were going from there later under cover, either walkways or underground. Not unexpected. All comfortably snug in the warm aural waters. How is it that 100m away the outlet at Kinex could crank up the volume so strongly? Managerial independence & initiative? Always dribble piddle around the ankles here, that was unchanged. The guy following Bob gave it some big yeah, yeah couple points, muted again and blank. Yesternite outta the blue Yasu sent from Tokyo John Zorn’s throat-slitting screeching from darkest, deepest jungle, as if from the past hereabout. Yeow-wee!! double-plus! The young hooded Asian lad in duet reminded of the kamikaze pilots hurtling onto the battleships. If you’re not screeching & screaming inside right now you were not paying attention, way outta it in your own little private world. Tearing suicidal screams for emperor & country, delivered with twisting & bowing by the hoodie. Amusing the other day Morrie referencing from schooldays the Whiter Shade of Pale thingy. Boy! Took a bit to reclaim that memory. Morrie musta bin seriously fixated. Ukrainian tubby on the bus last week with his wife in a Zeppelin tee had got on board those boys from the get-go, he said, complete collection all in vinyl. Did say he saw them in Moskva back in the day? Junior radical dudes by comparison with J Zorn, though of course we have spun some fair way further now in these short few decades. No sign of the robot in the hour plus, getting serviced & upgraded during the NY pause, maybe. Many still shuttered three days on, joined coincidentally by their Muslim countrymen this year. Expensive fold-up Velo needed to be brought indoors and sat by the table right against the legs of the author, with nary a word or sign. Soiled panama, plastic magnifiers & frayed Op Shop Levis shirt left the disguise rather threadbare now. (Blasted Op Shop Versaces busted clean in half during routine handling.) Task to keep the jowls both from hanging and also stiffening. The sage of course or the master. Excellent guides. Letting the music slip first of all, easy does it, loose & settled. Why allow yerself to be smashed so easily on an innocent Thursday morning. Ramadan & the Fire Horse, latter only riding over the horizon every 60 years. This year some more attention to the last ten days for the Mussies, esp. that particular odd numbered for when the prophet first received revelation. One single toothy gleam from the screens along the bench seat, and the three others against the inner wall diving the bar. Heavy Indian lad had been tickled properly.

 

 

 

 

 

 


Wednesday, February 4, 2026

Publication news - The World’s Faire

the note below was in fact proofing stage - the edition finally got out end February


Out now—




 Hallo all


Another publication to announce up in the States, a little longer this one, coloured by some of the darkness of our current times.

The lit. journal Action, Spectacle has just posted "The World’s Faire", a kind of survey of various trouble spots over the globe, some contemporary and others from the not too distant past that still lives with us.

Freely available here, (2.7k words) —




All best
Pavle 



Saturday, January 31, 2026

Publication news: Bunga Rampai - Plants & Poetry Journal

 Hallo all


Happy CNY!… Soon! (Ignoring all the black clouds for a moment.)

A short-short of mine from the local Malay market in my neighbourhood in Sing has just been published in the States. 

Weddings need flowers of course, — here is a small part of the Malay theatre still currently employed locally, though this particular penning goes back to 2011, soon after first landing on the Equator.

Published by an outfit called, Plants & Poetry Journal. Print costs, but the online is free on the site, pdf included (260 words).






Cheers,
Pavle



Wednesday, January 28, 2026

Florida Marlin


 

Inanity no especially big deal ordinarily. What did it matter? In politics it was a bit more serious, but there it mostly covered the usual push from the usual direction; different kinda mask in that case. Otherwise, routine everyday inanity you quietly step around, pass by. ‘Tis the way. Can’t be helped. Onward regardless. True, somedays, unprepared, it could strike a fellow like a sudden arrow, pierce the heart and slowly begin to gnaw. Irritation and unsettling hardly noticeable at first, mostly impalpable. Implacable as it proceeded. That beanpole footing along this morning had never been in the meritocratic race, never made the starting line. Back in the field, bunched behind. Among the also-rans making up the numbers. Florida Fishing College... Faded, but still legible. Not clubcollege. Lad like that would never get into any college. Never get off the island, much less Florida. Maybe the $3 commuter bus over the Causeway to JB. Fishing off the bridges here was more like; that was the hook prompting his mother’s purchase. Trifle google-eyed, spectacles, flip-flops slapping. Sweetest as could possibly be every chance, which doesn’t deny the point here. All the sloganeering, the government, advertisers, fashion industry, the influencers & churches. (The Muslims & Hindu eschewed.) Before the first cuppa of the day didna help.