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God says Sorry to Pastor Kong Hee, and how we’re Missing The Point
Most of you would have heard of Pastor Kong Hee and his statement about God’s apology, which setting off a wave of outrage and the subsequent retaliatory influx of people in defense of him.
I just watched the video, and came to the conclusion that
everyone is missing the point.
Pastor Kong’s speech (sermon?) might have made you slightly uncomfortable – you feel that something is fundamentally off about what he’s saying, but being lazy, we latch on to a convenient point of contention we then sensationalize and use for cyber-bashing.
In this case, the convenient point most have latched on to for criticism is that he claimed God apologized.
By doing so – by extrapolating that single statement for nitpicking – is EXACTLY what the anti-church camp often condemn churchgoers for: taking things (/the bible) out of context.
Essentially, they are bashing Pastor Kong Hee without knowing why they are bashing him (sounds familiar?)
This disturbs me because when I take a stand against or for anything, I need a sound reason. I want to think through and justify my resentment or love for everything, which sometimes can be tedious, confusing, but – in my opinion – necessary.
Pastor Kong’s ‘sermon’ made you vaguely affronted and uncomfortable because there are several fundamental problems rooted in the way he is running a megachurch.
These underlying issues are what we should be looking into and surfacing for discussion, not merely how God is apologizing etc etc.
And since the #godnehsaysorry movement has been mostly shoddy about ruminating and articulating what they really think, I’ll try to break down some of the things that should be brought up instead.
This is why Pastor Kong Hee’s speech wound you up:
1. Why is he so eagerly defending and justifying himself…
If it is Pastor Kong’s belief that God has chosen for him a path of suffering alone, I can respect that. But he has imposed upon a congregation this belief, and essentially voided what (he apparently thinks) God intends for him.
If he truly believes that God wants him to suffer, and to suffer alone, then what he should be doing is to humbly accept the public persecution and have enough faith to ride it out knowing that it would eventually end.
Instead, he is telling everyone that he is suffering, as a hero, chosen by God. He is glorifying himself. This is neither suffering, nor is it suffering alone. He has instead turned the tide of condemnation and harnessed it for stronger popular support.
Basically, this intense justification would not have taken place if he actually believes what he’s arguing for in the video.
2. …with it self-indulgently disguised as a sermon…
This is a prevalent problem with megachurches that really gets to me (and is one of the reasons why I left church).
A sermons’ main priority is to “talk on a religious or moral subject”. Its goal is to educate, to enrich the spiritual life of Christians through teachings. What is Pastor Kong’s message here?
Maaaybe that in instances of wrongful persecution, we should think of it as pre-ordained by God. If that were the lesson at all, it is a very self-indulgent one: it aims at soothing the self, instead of teaching you to live out God’s words.
To be a Christian is not just about having a religious balm for all your woes. It is about work, about servicing others, even if it leads to personal suffering that cannot be shared with others.
This is why I find Pastor Kong’s speech (I cannot, by semantical technicalities, call it a sermon) incredibly self-indulgent. Not only does he deprive the congregation of what should have been a religious or moral lesson, he imposes them with what can only be a a form of self-glorification and opportunistic justification.
3. …in such a contrived, rehearsed, and self-righteous manner?
Another gripe I have with megachurch sermons is that they reek of over-rehearsal and insincerity. In fear of over-generalizing, I shall just discuss Pastor Kong Hee’s speech in the video above.
Can anyone watch it and tell me it is not a performance? The gestures, the immaculate pacing, the contrived accent. The overdosage of self-references. I, I, I. God said to me, me, me. I am a sufferer, I am condemned, but I, I, I will persevere, I will take on this burden, etc, etc.
While I have dissected the fundamental issues with Pastor Kong Hee, the most pressing matter I want to push forward is this:
Everyone needs to step back and think more deeply about issues, by themselves, for themselves.
Guided not merely by your church, or by media sensations. Think more thoroughly about why exactly you have particular feelings about subjects. The problem is that we are stimulated by simple scandals but are reluctant to understand what we are persecuting.
This goes for BOTH anti- and for- camps.
We need more incisive arguments on why we are against Pastor Kong Hee (not just that he is deluded about God apologizing), and why we believe and follow our religious leaders even when they come under fire (instead of just re-bashing haters).
I’d love to hear arguments either for or against this!
Edit:
I did a closer reading of what netizens had to say about the entire saga, hoping to find a post, or even just a comment, that regarded the larger issue instead of fixating on the apology issue, which is merely a manifestation of the overarching problem. The larger issue/problem being the structural leadership of a charismatic megachurch.
It was disappointing.
News reports focussed on the Sorry (although they are the media and their main aim is readership, so somewhat understandable although not admirable).
YouTube comments were painfully tacky attempts at wisecrack revolving around the Sorry (then again, it’s YouTube: watch and bitch is the routine.)
Other local forums involved equally intense debates… that were futile chasing of each other’s tails because um, it’s a non-issue to begin with. Did they even watch the entire video for context?
A miserable few alluded to general function of the church and his leadership. The miserable few did little to elaborate, or else their comments were mired in cringe-worthy shots at satiric humor (omg pls stop).
I call this the Stomp culture. We are a generation perversely hungry for news that expose another for very, very irrelevant and frivolous disgraces. Like reading newspapers on the floor of the mrt station and necking each other in clinics. I mean, whatever.
Can we want more? Can we BE more?
I am so sad and I wish someone would come and challenge me and tell me I’m wrong and why Pastor Kong Hee has done everything right and how megachurches are worthier than I thought so at least I know people out there are thinking along with their bitching.
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Frederick Seidel, Collected Poems 1959 – 2009
Early back in 07 (?), a friend sent me a soft copy of Seidel’s Ovid, Metamorphoses X, 298-518. I loved it and kept it for a couple of years until my digital migration in 09. Afterwards i tried desperately to find it online, but couldn’t.
Recently, in an abrupt and consuming lust for nostalgic poetry, i picked up Seidel’s Collected Poems (40 years worth!) and slaked my need for Ovid.
Since then, the first thing each morning would have me browsing through a few of his poems — am finally done today! I wouldn’t ham it up and say he’s stunning, but is definitely a good read. Personal favorite remains Ovid.
People like to think of Seidel’s ‘brutal sexual imagery’ (forgot where i read that) as his signature, along with his self-portrayed hedonism (his love for motorcycles and fucking). Pinning that as the locus of his poetry would be missing the point, though. Seidel does allude rather casually to vaginas and humping, etc., but it’s really nothing new. Also, the materialistic mien seems more of a conscious construction to.. throw us off guard? idk. He just does it for fun or self-referential mockery perhaps.
Surprising to me, and contrary to his commonly regarded persona, is that he is genuinely astute in his socio-political commentary (as opposed to orbiting around his self), and also unusually empathetic.
By empathy, i mean that in its barest definition – less of compassion than the ability to cast himself as the other.
He writes of James Baldwin’s escape to Paris:
‘How lonely to be understood
And have to kill, how lovely.
It does make you want to starve. It makes an animal kill
All the caring-and-sharing in the cage.Start with the trainer who keeps you alive
In another language,
The breasts of milk
That speak non-leopard. Slaughter them.What lives below
The surface in a leopard will have to live above
In words. I go to sleep
And dream in meat and wakeIn wonder,
And find the poems in
The milk
All over the page.’Racial themes, again, in ‘Boys’. This time he sheds the use of allegories and goes straight into it with blunt rhymes typical of his poems.
‘So it was a jolt, a jolt of joy,
To hear him cut the shit
And call a black man Boy.
The white-haired old Negro was a shoeshine boy.
One of my sovereign experiences of my life was my joy
Hearing my father in his fury call the man Boy.’In context of the entire poem you see how complex his ‘joy’ was, a secret thrill that hidden racial prejudices of his usually immaculate father slipped to the surface, that the hypocrisy he may have detected with a child’s instinct was confirmed.
Curiously, he also likes referring to the death of dogs.They make me incredibly sad. Firstly because i have issues with canine suffering (when watching The Artist, Cel and Becks wept away when the protagonist was about to kill himself, but i remained stoic until his pet dog sacrificed his life to save him, where i promptly burst into tears).
In his shorter poems, on the death of a pet dog Spinach:
‘Love is a cup that spilled him.
Spilled all the spin that filled him.’I loved his narrative pacing and style in Ovid. It starts:
‘A daughter loved her father so much
She accused him of sexual abuse.
But I am getting ahead of my story.’‘Muse, put your breast in my mouth
If you want me to sing.
(Fuck the muse.)’‘She had a noose around
Her neck attached to nothing,
Which is a metaphor for love.’Seidel also writes quite a bit on political stuff, which (being politically apathetic), I skim through without much interest. All i can say about them is that they are varied and genuine.
I like Frederick Seidel’s flexibility and variety. I like that he can vary between detached and distanced to more invested and personal (without coming off as maudlin). I like that he does an entire range of themes – political, social, personal (on age [‘I rot before i ripen’], on love, on sex [and sex, and sex]).
Even his voice is nuanced. Each poem can differ so much in its style I’m not sure if i’d be able to identify each one anonymously as by the same poet. It may require a level of familiarity with Seidel’s work to identity that blunt self-assurance that is the point of convergence in his repertoire.
This is typified, i think, in ‘Snow’:
‘Snow is what it does.
It falls and it stays and it goes.
It melts and it is here somewhere.
We will all get there.’He cares, but genuinely. His poems stand at a balance – subtly sincere without being cloyingly ardent. And oftentimes rather funny in his whatever-lah-just-say-anything-also-can Seidel style.
This is good for Political Science majors who secretly want instead to do Literature. Which is a large part of the local Political Science community.
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Miles Davis & the Modern Jazz Giants
When it comes to music, I’ve always preferred for words to be subordinate. It should enhance, not distract. This is why i’m downright inept when it comes to remembering lyrics, because to me their function is decorative. It is also one of the reasons why jazz appeals to me. Scat singing exemplifies the spirit of music first, words as a complement. Pre-scat bebop usage of words can be quintessentially found in one of my absolute favorites: Dizzy Gillespie’s Salt Peanuts. He literally yells SALT PEANUTS SALT PEANUTS in intervals. The meaning attached to these words become irrelevant, but the vocalizations are sublime paired with the music.
K that was a rather digressive aside.
I’ve been wanting to briefly share some jazz pieces/players here but didn’t know where to start. Justin has given me the perfect opportunity:
In it, The Man I Love (Take 1 and 2) – which i’ve never heard before; Swing Spring, Bemsha Swing. Miles Davis on the trumpet, Monk on the piano, Milt Jackson on the vibraphone, Percy Heath on bass, and Kenny Clarke on drums. It also includes ‘Round Midnight (!!!) which i really like, with Coltrane on the tenor sax, Paul Chambers on bass, Red Chambers on piano and PJJ on the drums. All in all an impressive line up.
My first comment when Justin popped the CD into his player and started The Man I Love was that it doesn’t do Thelonious Monk any justice.
First off and more obviously, he seemed muted throughout the piece. Secondly, even when his sound was discernible in the foreground, it wasn’t the usual charming Monk-spasmodic, but an uncertain-spasmodic. I apologize for my embarrassing lack of technical knowledge lol. Monk always plays lurchingly – and i mean that in the most reverent way possible (i love dissonance in music). It is a deliberate lurching, with characteristic pockets of sudden withdrawal and then a (very pleasing) burst of self-assured playing. In this recording of The Man I Love it sounded more timid than anything.
Percy Heath on bass, though, was great. I love the sound of bass and it’s always what stands out to me in jazz, and it did especially so here. Also, watch out of the vibraphone – whenever it came on it did an excellent job pulling everything (including the sidelined Monk) together.
At home i listened to Take 1 and 2 more closely. Miles Davis’ trumpet solo is much more captivating in Take 2 – harsher, cleaner – with the space more effectively shared with Milt Jackson’s vibes.
Monk comes back with a piano solo in Swing Spring and is par excellence on his usual form, and he doesn’t break the trend in Bemsha Swing. His comping for both trumpet and vibes in Bemsha Swing, particularly, was beauty.
‘Round Midnight features a different set, with Coltrane on sax and Chambers on bass – sans Monk, the original composer. Which i thought worked for this version. Monk with Coltrane did much justice for ‘Round Midnight but with Miles Davis thrown into the mix as well, Monk’s healthy dissonance might be thrown into confusion (Monk coupled with Gillespie, though, did such a breathtaking rendition).
This is a nice mix with classic tracks and beefy solos. My only gripe is that it lacks cohesion. Sometimes within each piece, but more distinctively as a compilation. Some albums give a strong sense of each piece being chapters to a unified whole. Each chapter unique in itself, with nuances in ambiance, but coming together finally so you feel that satisfaction of having finished something truly great. Still, there are enough moments of incredible solos that make this gift very worthy (thank you Justin xo!)
I recommend this album for that time of the night you realize you’ve tripped too far past bed time to be sleeping at all. When fatigue gives up on you and a light-headed, giggly kind of energy starts creeping in. The music here becomes brilliantly suitable, where discordant transitions from piece to piece will match your manic progression throughout the night. It will go down well with a strong, nasty brew of something heady like ginger ale. Slightly uncomfortable but exciting and secretly loved.
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Spiced Pumpkin Muffin Tops
Baking requires so much precision I’ve never trusted myself with an original recipe. But I felt like experimenting, and my grandma presented me with the perfect opportunity when she asked me to whip up something for her karaoke class (of mostly the elderly) with some pumpkin she had brought home (my grandma loves bringing home fresh produce and coming up with new ways to cook them). A core ingredient and a specific demographic group to feed was the ideal challenge so naturally I took it up.
…and came up with this!
Spiced Pumpkin Muffin Tops, with cranberries and chopped almonds!
I wanted something soft, easy and familiar for digestion but exciting on the palate (with more sophisticated spicing than decadent sweetness) in the form of finger food perfect for pre-karaoke snacking. And also health conscious because of their age.
Personally I was pretty satisfied with the taste and fragrance – a good blend of sugar and spice and fruity-nuttiness, but was more like a dense kueh bahlu than the chewy soft gooey desserts I like heh… BUT it was a hit with the old folks and everything was snapped up and da-bao-ed so YAY~
Recipe!
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, unsifted
- 3/4 c. brown + 1/4 c. granulated sugar
- 115g unsalted butter, softened
- 1 medium egg + 1 yolk
(Extra yolk if you prefer it dense > fluffy) - 1 c. pumpkin pureed in agar-agar amount of coconut milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp baking powder
(*IMPT*: do NOT sub with baking soda, because pumpkin and coconut milk are both basic, b.s. will make batter bitter w/o acids to balance it out) - Pinch of salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
(Above three can be subbed by 1 tsp of All-Spice) - 1 c. mixed dried fruits and nuts of your choice!
1. Butter and egg to room temperature, butter softened almost melted.
2. Preheat oven to 190 c. (But adjust according to your oven’s temperament, did mine at 170 c. because it gets overheated a lot)
3. Measure flour spoon and leveled, sift, then mix in baking powder.
4. Steam, boil, or bake pumpkin until soft, and puree. Cool to room temp.
You can try steaming or boiling the pumpkin until almost cooked, then simmer in coconut milk. This enhances both flavors super well. (Don’t boil it at high with the milk because coconut milk curdles.)
5. Chop up whole almonds/whatever nut by putting it in a baggy and pounding with whatever! You should get some sizable, visible chunks, slightly smaller chunks, and grounded. Separate these.
6. Cream melted butter before whisking sugar in until lumpy bits are gone, add in eggs one at a time.
7. Add pumpkin puree and mix until all combined. Add in vanilla essence, salt, cinnamon and all the spices. (I think some people add it into the dry mix but I think the flavor is more even this way.)
Add in ground almond/nut!
8. Add in dry mix and combine well.
9. Fold in smaller almond chunks and dried fruits!
I chose cranberries and a leeedle bit of leftover prune slices. Pecans and walnuts will work really well too I think. Maybe dried apricots and raisins, etc. Leave some dried fruits along with the visible almond chunks!
10. Drop 1 tablespoon each onto parchment paper, as you would with wet cookie dough! It should be a fairly peaked lump, not spread.
Decorate top of batter with the leftover dried fruits and larger almond chunks!
11. Bake in upper or middle rack for 12 minutes or until edges are golden brown.
But again I’m super agar agar when it comes to this lol so I rly don’t know the perfect timing. Just poke around and try la.
12. Leave in for 10 minutes after cause it will continue baking, then cool on wire rack.
Makes about 30 smaller sized, or 18 normal sized Muffin Tops!
I love what the spices and coconut do to the pumpkin flavor! It’s balanced out with the sweet dried fruits too, and almond adds nutty fragrance and texture.
Fun part was definitely choosing from various fruits and nuts, if y’all have any suggestions on nice new combinations lemme know! WHOO DOMESTICGURL93 pride of my Grandma~
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Zombie Dreams
Watching WWZ made me remember this dream I had about zombies that made me realize on a what a good person I am even on the subconscious level. Yes, I do say this myself but humility and compassion are not necessarily symbiotic.
Anywayzers.
It was a seriously vivid dream. The emotions I felt were distinct and intense and true. It started off with me right after I got infected by a zombie. I could feel myself losing control. In that transitional stage I managed to drunkenly drag myself to a female toilet, the whole time thinking: Please don’t let anyone come in, please don’t let anyone come in.
It was really scary, the transformation – it was like having my brain taken over gradually, knowing I’ll no longer be myself and that I’ll do things that I fear. Then I suddenly became aware that there was a woman hiding in one of the stalls.
Thus came one of the most epic struggle between my consciousness and my most primitive, diseased instincts. God, it was such a painful battle: I spazzed around the toilet stalls alternating between mournful cries and raging hunger. And I kept screaming at the idiot lady to run away but all that came out was truly terrifying savage wails.
And then at last she tried to escape and I couldn’t help but chase after her, and right when we were outside and I was about to attack her, that infinitesimal human part of me that remained forced myself to lunge over the railing, effectively committing zombie suicide.
The moments before dying I remember being happy because a) I died (at least a little bit) human and b) I killed a zombie (the one I was becoming).
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Top 5 Things I’ve Learnt About Being in a Relationship
(as a tribute to our 1st year together yay!)
Like i said before i still have a lot to learn about sharing my life with someone else in such an intimate way but i have picked up some important stuff here and there – i may be generalizing but they’ve mostly worked for me, so:
1. Don’t give in or compromise.
If you find yourself giving in most of the time, even for things that you truly stand for or reasonably want, it might make you a good boy/girlfriend for the other, but not necessarily one in context of the relationship. Firstly, it’s not a sustainable strategy because eventually you’ll tire out. Secondly, a relationship is built when both are investing. If the other doesn’t have a chance to give up certain things, they’d get bored before you tire out.
This may sound contradictory, because everyone exhalts compromise as the key to a healthy relationship. I’m playing semantics here, but compromise connotes some level of dissatisfaction despite an agreement. Instead, a couple should see their happiness as a joint affair, so ensuring the other’s well-being becomes natural, not an ‘inconvenience’ or a compromise.
2. Honesty over everything.
I learnt this over the first few months: that even white lies, or not being completely open about your feelings with some things leads to no where pleasant. Sometimes yes the truth can be embarrassing or humbling, or just plain awkward to discuss. But getting past that uncomfortable bridge just once makes everything afterwards so much easier. Inhibitions and partial truths are reserved for future employers and insurance forms, not relationships you want to sustain.
3. Stop seeking drama.
Oh my god I cannot stress this enough. Fortunately both Justin and I are pretty averse to this so it’s never been an issue, but we’re constantly horrified by the amount of self-generated pathos all around us. I don’t know what it is about Singaporeans but it’s like they just can’t get enough of thrills and would (subconsciously or not) cook up problems and indulge in romantic mind games which they would then passive aggressively hint at ALL OVER SOCIAL MEDIA which is one of my pet peeves by the way.
A relationship is as straightforward as you want it to be. Of course real problems exist, but faaar too often it’s constructed by people themselves and then brought to a new level of PDPA (Public Display of Passive Aggressiveness) which is just UGH. Ok if mind games and tumultuous relationships are your fetish go ahead but leave my Twitter feed alone? Also if your partner is not into it, it’s just plain annoying. Shtap.
4. A relationship isn’t a trade.
There isn’t a need to a tabulate how much you’ve done for the other and surreptitiously await payment. Neither is there the obligation to reimburse the other for whatever they’ve done for you (both Justin and I suffer from this lol). I guess yeah, accept that the other loves you and wants to do things for you. Carrying guilt or a sense of obligation becomes an unnecessary burden. At the same time do things out of love without conditions.
5. Don’t idealize (too much).
Some times we forget that a good girl/boyfriend may not be the perfect girl/boyfriend for you. Likewise what others deem to be a perfect relationship may not be what you’re truly looking for. We may have a checklist of ideals, but it really boils down to the fluid, real time interaction, no? Focus on what he or she is doing with or for you without actual expectations at all (besides the core ones like being faithful and all, lah) and just be appreciative.
:-) YAY!
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One Year Strong
It’s been a year since I was first bribed by Justin’s cookies into being his weekend bitch. It feels surreally like I’ve known him since way before that, but at the same time like we just got together a week ago.
There wasn’t much fanfare or fireworks: we spent Saturday playing boardgames, eating homemade chee cheong fun, and watching Finding Nemo at Xin’s with the mugs; Sunday drowsily watching cartoons and cat videos between taking a lot of naps.
It’s difficult to put the extent of this into words, but I really, really do love him very much, everything about him, and in many ways. I love him as a friend and as a person. I am a huge fan of his intelligence, his talent, his lack of pretention and how much fun he is to be around, the way I love all my other friends who blind me with their quick wit and make me laugh. I love him in an annoying and nauseatingly infatuated way – when he smiles it makes me want to flail around because it’s too adorable to bear and I just want to squeeze him rlyrly tight in a completely sexual way. And I love him like I would my family: thoroughly and with a biological inevitability.
One of the few things I’m very grateful for: he has smoothened out an otherwise rough road for me. I tend to go a little nuts with change and disorder. University, coupled with some shifts in my family and growing up and everything in the crockpot of horror would’ve made me completely cray. I was really lucky because at the time I most needed stable, unconditional care, and someone to hawkishly watch out for and rag sense into me, he was there.
The other: he makes me want to be a better person. The quiet way he is mindful of other’s misfortunes without being showy about it, the gentle way he has with qt little animals, the way he gives me a second (more empathetic) opinion whenever I rage about someone who annoyed me. It makes me think – omg even Justin who is super bitchy on social media is nicer than me I need to stop being a witch – and I’d channel good thoughts and breathe compassionate chi.
The thing I love most of all is that he doesn’t even realize how much he’s done for me.
*infatuated flail*
Anyway, I can’t claim to be an expert or anything, but there were a few things I’ve picked up on how to keep a relationship going. It didn’t come naturally and it took some trial and error, a little hard work and thought. (And I’m extra motivated to work for it because we might be continentally separated in the near future so I wanna make the most out of what we have.)
I’m a strong believer of having to work to sustain a relationship, be it a friendship or otherwise. This is ’cause I think love and hate are just a tiny leap away from each other – both governed by strong passions. You can love someone insanely but if you don’t prune the relationship well and it sours, it can so, so easily transit into hate.
It’s been a year and I still feel all fuzzy and excited whenever I think about Justin, in fact I think a lot more so than I already did a year ago. I’m just ver, very grateful for everything and idk what kind of luck I’ve accumulated because this boy is really perfect ily
*INTENSE EMOTIONS*…
*awkward exit*
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R4 YESSAH !
Arts Camp 2013. Although this time round i didn’t get the freshie experience, it was nothing less than amazing and i’m so, so thankful for that (and to everyone who made it so).
I remember the culture shock i got in 2012, entering a place where everyone screamed unabashedly about their wriggling snakes and making babies with each other. But upon induction you realize this is the only time you can be completely crude, have fun with it for some reason probably related to Freud’s theories of repression, and get away with it (with a prize if you do it enthusiastically enough).
That about sums up what i love about Arts Camp. It’s a place where you don’t get judged, where everyone just loves each other, stripped from the every day inhibitions and wariness and social distance.
That said, I hope all that loving loveliness with all the people old and new i’ve met in AC2013 carries on after camp. Can’t wait for O Week~~~! (Although I can wait for start of school oh god T.T the dread.)
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Precursor
It began in 2008 when i came across a jazz recording somewhere outside, and fell into such crashing love with the double bass (tbh i didn’t know what instrument it when i first identified its sound) (also i’d never listened to jazz voluntarily). I found out what it was (through shameless inquiry), this:
My first love and always one of my favorites, Mingus on double bass.
And then i dove right in and haven’t gone back up for air since.
I’ve never liked limiting myself to a preferred ‘genre’ of music, to me there’s only good music or bad music (and even then based on the individual). But jazz, but jazz. I’m obscenely partial to it. To me it’s the purest, most distilled form of music.
There’s a whole literature and science on it and also ridiculous variety given its history, but i mainly stick to bebop and cool jazz, occasionally nujazz (mostly japanese ones). Also i love the ones without emphasis on lyrics/with just nonsense lyrics. Better yet if it does without completely (yah i’m pretty much off scat singing).
I’ve always remained vaguely embarrassed about it, i’m not sure why. Not the same embarrassment i feel for secretly liking Alt-J (a brassy, see-if-i-care, omg i’m gross kind), but a shadier, more private one. It may have been because i never bothered to share it with anyone initially, because i knew none of my friends listened to it. And when someone did accidentally stumble across me listening to jazz one day over the phone, he asked “um… why are you listening to sex music?”
But sometimes it gets a little lonely it’s just such, such a lovely world that it seems to me a pity more of my friends aren’t into it. And not because they won’t like it but probably cause they never tried?
So i’m gonna do a series of recommendations (hence the title) of my favorites, cultivated over five years (with lackluster knowledge of the technicalities of which there are a lot, i should warn y’all). Half of you will be bored to death the other half will skip them. But maybe just oneee person will like at least one of the recs and i’d be rlyrly happy with that.
Ok but another day because i’m hungry and shleepy rn also i wanna read bye.
Q 