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ccept all the credit as well as the possible censure from certain quarters who may be acutely discomfited by dato hamid s published confessions kam s approach to writing is distinctly more cinematic than literary in that he prefers to set the scene and then allow his characters to reveal themselves through their words and deeds this makes his book a painless pleasure to read by eschewing verbal embroidery and highfalutin stylistics kam draws the reader straight into his tale just as a well crafted film instantly immerses us in the action and the atmosphere the naturalism that kam has achieved in his story telling grants us a privileged glimpse of a world within a world that of the upper class malay in the context of post colonial malaya s rapid evolution into the multi layered complexity of a multicultural multiracial malaysian nation dato hamid s stories engagingly reveal the foibles and follies of the malay elite and offer a rare insight into the sociopolitical and psychological factors governing malaysia what s the title of your book i asked kam umm still thinking about it he said wondering if i had any suggestions i smsed kam call it hamid in bold 3d font like ben hur with a subhead confessions of a retired civil servant he shot back an sms funny i was thinking along the lines of ben hur myself later i googled the arabic name hamid and found out it means praiseworthy definitely a name that looks good carved in stone note in 2007 a few months after this article appeared kam raslan s debut novel confessions of an old boy was published by marshall cavendish it proved to be a runaway bestseller first published in the hilt december 2006 share this share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook like loading leave a comment posted in books literature malaysian arts culture and tagged malaysian writers bookmark the permalink sacred ritual as art posted on august 6 2021 by antares maitreya ricardo chavez tovar mexican malaysian the muse is not available december 2009 the elusive art of sacred ritual commercialism and industrialism now threaten alas to turn art into just another economic activity and the artist s ceremonial and magical role into a purely ornamental one no doubt a certain superstitious awe still attends the artist s endeavors but in this consumerist age the artist shaman s contribution to the success of the hunt has been reduced to churning out effective advertising and public relations for the vulgar new gods of materialism or fashionable new trends for the children of the privileged antares maitreya inner technology of art making public the private 2001 it s not often that i get the chance to quote myself so i decided to grab this opportunity i feel the above statement is particularly relevant to what ricardo chavez tovar is all about he is one among a handful of artists with whom i m personally acquainted who has consciously reclaimed his magical lineage as a brujo a practising shaman technically he is as conscientious and competent as any professional artist you will find anywhere in the world it s just that ricardo doesn t give two hoots about public relations and the glossy hype that permeates the art milieu rare photo of the artist with some of his students i don t claim to know the man at all but he apparently knows something about me since he keeps inviting me to officiate at his openings and now he is twisting my arm to write a foreword for his catalog even though he must suspect i no longer feel fired up enough about art to wish to pontificate about it in any case ricardo says i should view it as an honor and not a chore and so i will ricardo chavez tovar will always be an enigma perhaps even to himself i won t attempt to expound upon his equally enigmatic and intriguing art indeed to approach his work on the cerebral level seems sacrilegious it would be as uncouth and ungracious as furtively extracting dead skin cells from the fingers of the muse for laboratory analysis instead of ecstatically surrendering to her tender caresses one thing is certain ricardo chavez tovar is not bothered by the games people tend to play and the elaborate pretenses that surround the rarefied precincts of fashionable and marketable art would he otherwise spend months and years working on exhibits that can t be sold and proudly displayed in the finest suburban homes altar to the muse december 2009 nonetheless having said that i can picture ricardo s evocative installations occupying pride of place in some prestigious contemporary art museum anywhere in the civilized world so i hope he maintains an open mind about the prospect of sudden unexpected global acclaim what drives the man then to such unimaginable intensities of feeling and artistic arousal if the word religious didn t carry such a heavy burden of negative connotations i would apply it to ricardo s art after all he was born mexican a tempestuous genetic and cultural mix of olmec maya zapotec toltec aztec and conquistador his blood is infused with the otherworldly song of stars and with the colors flavors and textures that inspire vivid murals his cellular memories encompass galaxies and constellations the mystery of death fascinates and obsesses him as powerfully as the secret of life his imagination is fired equally by the divine and the diabolical you could call him a regenerate pagan a renegade human what inspired him to embark on the current series in a recent email ricardo discloses that he got struck by a shining light of creative madness while listening to the residents one of his favorite avant garde bands whose allusions to an imaginary guru named n senada and his theory of obscurity were probably based on the mutant musings of don van vliet aka captain beefheart a 1970 s dada rock icon who retired from the music scene in 1982 to focus on painting morning stretching of a golden fool on the awakening balcony ricardo s series of installations dedicated to the muse conspicuously absent yet ubiquitously present now exist only in photographic form lovingly documented by ung chirt min having been exhibited to no more than a tiny number of hardcore aficionados in effect ricardo chavez tovar is one of those rare artists who can operate quite happily without an audience since his art is his personal form of worship his own sacred ceremony ricardo spent three years in china learning the language and absorbing the culture then he relocated to penang where he has taught for nearly twenty years his best buddy and artistic accomplice in penang is askandar unglehrt a german married to a kelantanese princess who shares ricardo s eye and taste for the surreal the epiphanic and the ephemeral and also the luminous numinous humorous ludicrous and conceptually intoxicating i mention askandar because his contribution to ricardo s evolution as an artist magician cannot be discounted every artist shaman sorcerer or wizard derives inspiration nourishment and nurturing from those who recognize acknowledge and believe in him well ricardo let me state here for the record that i too recognize acknowledge and believe in you live long prosper if at all possible and influence the course of human destiny if you so desire october s full moon party at the tropical gardens of lady luna 2012 antares maitreya magick river 6 august 2009 a note of apology from antares ricardo emailed me in january 2007 asking if i would say a few words at the opening of his installation the muse is not available i agreed of course since everybody says it s an honor to be invited to officiate at such events my dear friend askandar unglehrt in his program notes to this event describes ricardo s work as a visual poem about presence and absence or more precisely about the presence of the absence i know ricardo as an artist who lives his art and we know that life imitates art as often as art imitates life i was looking forward to being present at his opening in kuala lumpur and yet my absence is proclaimed by this note i was compelled by unavoidable circumstances to deliver this message by proxy one of my daughters celebrates her 10th wedding anniversary today on langkawi island and she insisted that her daddy be present without consulting the calendar i immediately agreed knowing her she would not be amused if i didn t show up for her grand party ricardo i know has already forgiven me indeed he wants me to officiate at his next opening i promise i will make myself available on that happy occasion for now i can only trust that my absence will add to rather than detract from the magical presence of ricardo s uniquely imaginative and evocative work thank you dear friends may you enjoy and be enriched by the work of this extremely talented and passionate artist antares 1 june 2007 share this share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook like loading leave a comment posted in visual arts and tagged installation mexican in malaysia penang artist ricardo chavez tovar sacred ritual bookmark the permalink hot heavenly hornbills posted on july 11 2020 by antares maitreya minah angong became an overnight sensation after performing in sarawak photo courtesy of rafique rashid antares reports from the 1998 rainforest world music festival in sarawak mak minah strolled along the white sands her hunter gatherer eyes scanning the beach for little sea crabs and edible molluscs she glanced up at the luminous clouds clinging to the evocative peak of mount santubong so this was the land of hornbills beautiful postcard views but not a single hornbill in sight a few hours earlier the 68 year old temuan ceremonial singer had boarded a boeing 737 jet at the cyclopean klia for the brief bumpy flight to kuching her first ever airborne experience as usual mak minah was amazingly cool about it no big deal was her verdict however she had prepared herself for the big gig overseas at sarawak s first annual rainforest world music festival by getting her hair permed a whole fortnight before the event when dr wan zawawi songwriter anthropologist who s now dean of the faculty of applied and creative arts at unimas invited akar umbi to join his anak dayung group for this two day world music festival august 29 30 1998 i didn t have a clue what he was talking about back me up on a couple of numbers and you get to perform one of mak minah s songs the affable academician had said well i d never been to sarawak and this promised to be an idyllic musical junket now we only needed to check if rafique was game for this gig miraculously he was even though the monetary stipend was modest as it turned out we were rewarded with four memorable nights in a musician s heaven joey ayala with hegalong rafique rashid i didn t know who else was on the festival bill until we received our souvenir programmes the only name familiar to me was joey ayala whom i d met 13 years ago at the first kuala lumpur arts festival it was a blast to see joey ayala again accompanied by his immensely lovable and vivacious band when i finally saw them in action joey and his dazzling group simply blew me away o mighty eagle my true king i want to fly in the sky like you joey ayala intoned lamenting the plight of latter day eagles who not finding any more tall trees to build their nests were in captivity or in hiding wings folded and flightless may there always be tall trees in the forest for us to build our nests so that like the mighty eagle we too can fly eagles hornbills emblems of freedom and nobility for an instant a small frown furrowed joey s brow then he called out to the sound booth no sound i want to play my guitar yes there were lots of problems with the sound mainly due to the understandable confusion of a technical crew who had never experienced a concert of this scale and variety and there was sound what a monstrously beautiful powerful towering ecstatically transcendental sound earthy as a filipino folk tune funky and spunky as celestial angel come no one embodied the spirit of the rainforest world music festival more musically more poetically more sincerely than joey ayala and when his band let rip everyone just soared like an eagle or a hornbill riding the joyful musical airstreams joey s line up cynthia alexander joey s baby sister on electrifying bass guitar an impish science fiction elf princess flying sorceress and a highly gifted award winning musician to boot malou matute wholesome piano teacher turned diabolical percussionist she played gamelan like tuned gongs called kulintang renato tengasantos dynamic powerhouse on a runaway drum kit it took two stagehands to hold down his bass drum alex de paz tupaz on exotic marimba tree for want of an actual name francis reyes on highly effective effects guitar and joey ayala himself switching from rhythm to lead guitar to a lizard like two stringed beast called a hegalong that spewed forth smouldering soul satisfying riffs take the down to earth folksy approachability of country joe and the fish throw in the mesmerizing messianic charisma of bob marley add a dash of frank zappa s wizardly wit and musical competence serve with a generous dollop of pink floydian rock concert theatricality and you have the joey ayala group we found ourselves swept away by the typhoon of pure musical excitement they unleashed rafique shared my view that this was the absolute high point of the festival and judging by the eager mob that swarmed around joey and his group after their performance almost everyone else thought so too true the celtic jazz quartet lammas flown in by the british council served up a stimulatingly virtuoso performance salvaging the first night from being generally lacklustre but it was joey ayala on the second night who captured the heart of puteri santubong legendary princess of the mountain whose story no one would relate to me because it was too complicated or too tragic i m sure joey s inspiring performance made the spirit of the sacred mountain smile and weep for joy lammas delivers a heady fusion of intelligent progressive jazz flavoured with irish scottish and portuguese folk melodies co founded by don paterson on guitar and bodhrán and tim garland on concert flute and saxophones the lammas sound was exquisitely augmented by karen street on accordion whose sensitive coloring turned her instrument into a synthesizer fiddle bagpipes in a performance that was both an epiphany and a revelation the husky allure of vocalist christine tobin s pitch perfect and soulful voice was at once earthy and heavenly everyone fell instantly in love with her or at least i did garland and paterson write or arrange much of the lammas material intricate pieces of invigorating originality and verve performable only by master class musicians as a guitarist don paterson is a worthy successor to fellow scotsman john mclaughlin while tim garland is technically on par with jan garbarek the great norwegian blower he so admires b tutta a sydney based conservatorium trained ...
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