Since there was a little talk of censorship, editing, etc. elsewhere it reminded me of this thing that happened to me. It is the story of the most post modern moment in my life.
On my way home from Bali to Canada I found myself with a 12 hr stop over at the
Kuala Lumpur Airport. I was basically not bothered by this 1) because it's the coolest airport in the world, 2) the people floating around were fascinating, and 3) I was wanting to get re-adjusted to the 13 hour time difference by staying awake, reading, etc. This was indeed the plan, but the Air Malaysia guy was insistant that I take a voucher and go to a pre-arranged hotel that I knew nothing about until I landed in Kuala Lumpur just then. I tried to explain to him that it was in fact the middle of the day in my home country, and that I had no desire to sleep, but he insisted that the hotel was lovely and that I could rest and watch some TV. He was very friendly about it mind you, and as I looked around at the airport from outer space it became clear to me that nearly everything was closing down for the night, so I agreed, he arranged a shuttle and I was quickly out of the airport in a van with a driver who spoke no English and on an empty highway surrounded by jungle. It occurred to me then that no one except the airport guy and the driver had any clue I was away from the airport, or even in Malaysia. My family and friends were expecting me to be in transit, with no indication that I would even set foot outside an airport, nevermind spend 12 hours in a country not even on the itinerary. I was suddenly terrified. And the 45 minute drive of jungle lined highway did nothing to ease my stress. Was I about to be sold into sexual slavery? What would I do if I needed to run in the jungle in the dark? Aren't there Tigers in the jungle here? Eventually a few hotels began to appear on the edges of the highway, and then I was at my hotel. I was relieved, but when I saw the hotel, I really wished I had stayed at the airport afterall. The hotel was... non-western in many ways that I wont go into. The guy at the desk copied info from my Canadian passport, but wrote "Australian" on the nationality section of my registration. I didn't want to ask him if this was an intentional change or an error, I was too tired and stressed out to deal with the possibility that he was doing this intentionally to protect me from... what? I had a tiny room with a tiny bed and an odd smell and a TV from the 80's that only got 4 stations, none of which were in English. I spent some time flipping from channel to channel, and realized that one channel appeared to be a mix of stock ticker info with the occasional Malaysian music video tossed in for good measure. I left it on for noise and pulled out my book, then fell asleep.
To my confusion I woke up to
this a half hour later. There was a brief moment where I thought I was home actually. But here's the difference: X-tina's navel was the only bodily attribute blurred out - not the rest of her mid-riff, just her belly button. The language wasn't edited: bitch, whore, etc. but there was a tiny pixelated area just around her belly button. Then Lil'Kim appears, drops her cape or whatever covered her, and she's blurred out from neck to knees. Again, none of the language was edited, nor was the hand-job-the-mike deal, the guy massaging his balls or the part where X-tine humps the hose, but occasionally if she shifted just enough for her navel to be exposed, the pixels would also appear and disappear accordingly. And just as quickly, the song was over, and it was right back to Malaysian stock ticker. I waited hopefully but not another bit of English language was played. In many ways a third wave feminist music video, edited for belly button exposure, in a hotel where no one knew I was, was the defining moment of me being a stranger in a strange land - a girl alone in a big world.
Also, on my flight, both ways one of the inflight movies was
Lost in Translation, which I must admit was a lovely choice for flights through Asia.
So what are the most memorable post modern moments you've had? I love this sort of stuff.
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Topic: Post modern moments? (Read 7323 times)