Written by lainie at 12:59 PM on April 20, 2008 in work?, Arty stuff.

Burning up a slight fever. Wanna help Lainie do her job? Read on and consider (yay).

Bernice asked me to work with her on something, and I agreed - so for the next 8 weeks, I'll be writing a travel guidebook again*! This time, will be working on Kuala Lumpur City Guide, for Insight Guides. Interesting for me, because I was flipping through their London version last year, which I quite liked.

Briefly read the intro for the previous KL edition and noticed that my current editor on Kakiseni, Kathy, wrote for the arts section there.

Heh heh heh. I'm starting on the LGBT nightlife section first *gleeful hand rubbing*. All suggestions for queer-friendly KL places (restaurants, hotels, clubs / bars) welcome - I can think of a few queer friendly hotels like Pondok Lodge (for guests, not informed about "friendliness for staff" perspective ala Sleep With The Right People).

Dividing up the sections with Bernice was iffy, because for a lot of the interests I have, Bernice is far more experienced than I am. In some cases (ala Readings), she's the one responsible for the events.

I'll be writing up on nightlife, festivals & events, essentials, environmental impact of travel, dance, and adding to some other sections like restaurants (Bernice is a food critic so it makes more sense for her to focus on this). She's also doing the Children's section, because she actually has kids and I don't (not that I'm aware of anyway).

The irony of this job's not lost on me, considering my sense of direction - drive me fifteen minutes away from my home, I'll have no idea how to get back. I don't remember names, locations, or phone numbers, but put me in a general area and I'll eventually walk into every place, try everything and find anything interesting there is to find.

It's the logistic details that get in the way of the experience. I'm not the kind to plan my explorations. Unfortuantely, it's also the logistic details that go into the writing.

Bernice: And at the end of it, we have to label the maps.

Lainie: *forehead smack* Bernice, I can't do maps. I can't. I really can't.

My sense of direction is stunted. I love KL, but don't show me maps of the place.

It's nice to know I'll be adding to my savings doing something I'm interested in - travel, and pointing out nice places to go to in Malaysia. I need the money, am planning to go to Melbourne / Torquay in the near future.

They're publishing their first edition of the Melbourne Insight City Guide soon. Who knows, give me a year or two there, and I might be able to add to it (if someone helps me with the maps).

*Before this I wrote on travel spots for Kuala Lumpur, then Langkawi for Expedia Guide (London). This seems like a small issue, but I'm encountering a certain obstacle that didn't matter when writing for a UK publication. The spelling. I have to use American spelling.

(WAIIILLL!)

If you can think of any place in Kuala Lumpur that I may overlook (in any category), feel free to let me know and I'll look it up, definitely.

Work means I should be spending my time on other pursuits besides blogging, but hey, since we're on the topic of cities:

In early April I went for a onedotzero: graphic cities screening, organised by British Council, as part of their Re-Imagining the City East Asia Tour.

graphic cities is an innovative moving image work exploring artists' interpretations of the urban environment, specially curated by onedotzero.

My favourite from the screening, Hendrick Dusollier's Obras (France):

synopsis: a poetic and graphical journey through wild and irreversible urban developments, explored in a single gradual shot. this highly original film offers a photographic and animated interpretation of the deconstruction and reconstruction taking place in the barrio ribera and diagonal mar, in barcelona, spain. dusollier's outstanding first film.

Usually I like long takes because it removes the additional feel of human intervention that editing gives. Instead, my awareness focuses on the craft it takes to compose a shot so everything is nice - if anything, if puts the human intervention vibe into the camerawork, and not the editing.

The difference here - there is no missing the sense that Obras is one big, continuous edit . I don't really expect what I'm saying to make sense to anyone but myself here.

There's a Onedotzero youtube account, but you get more videos searching it as a term.

It was actually a two part screening - KLUE curated the local films that were screened. Through various other screenings (and trawling the internet too much), I'm familiar with most of them - I can't say it measured up to onedotzero (though I would like to, given how some friends are on that list).

I doubt KLUE could have done much, we don't seem to have many existing films that would have fit the theme to reimagine a city. Not exactly a Malaysian version of a Zaha Hadid exhibition / building coming up here anytime soon to be the catalyst of inspiration, yknow?

I'm not saying we don't have the fodder here, but if what we have isn't fanning any fires...........Either the wrong fan or no fire?

Am woozy. Lainie hearts Panadol Actifast.