The Long Awaited “Yiruma Vol. 6 - P.N.O.N.I”!!!

Friday, 31/10/08
This post perhaps is a little different from my other writings.

Again it’s the last day of another month. I’ve been pretty busy with a couple of things, lately, mostly about the many things running inside my head.

But I bear good news. The coming month of November, I think I will be sticking on with this blog. The reason is because I don’t really like returning to a stagnant blog, not to even mention a blog of my own. I feel that I want to keep it running, if not for myself, then it’s for the few eager readers who never fail to visit this blog every day. As so, I shall begin to update new (but old stories – written months back then) posts every now and then (probably every 2-3 days).

And about the latest update on the issue about getting my own domain, I think I shall pop a few questions, here and there, learning a little more on how it works first, before I really consider if that’s suitable for me. Meanwhile, I think I should be considerate by updating this blog while I take the time of my life making this very simple decision.

If you’d noticed, today’s a Friday!! And I love Fridays. It so happened that the end of this month falls on a Friday, which conjures a good-spirited mood in me. Though I feel like writing a decent post, but I must admit that I have lost my touch in my writing after toning-down a lot in the past few months.

Less melancholy this post shall be, as I think I should be updating on the very events that are happening lately.

Firstly, now it’s the End-Year Exams for the Form 2’s. I guess it’s because of that, that’s why she didn’t come online for more than a month. I worryingly asked Madelene some weeks back then, but she reassured me that everything’s fine, and even added (before I asked) that she certainly didn’t block me. But whatever it is, I really, sincerely wish that everything would be good for her in this term’s examination. Cliché as ‘absence makes heart grow fonder’ may sound, but I really miss her, a lot. I really want to see her…

Next, putting up many Yiruma’s music’s on this blog before would have certainly realised you that I’m a Yiruma fan. Before I share my story of Yiruma moments, I guess introducing him a little should do a little justice: Yiruma is a popular (unpopular, at the same time) Korean pianist who plays piano music’s of the new-age genre. However, he’s particularly famous for his melancholic piano pieces such as “Kiss The Rain” and “River Flows In You”. His popularity begun when he played many soundtrack pieces in Korean soaps such as “Winter Sonata”, and “Spring Waltz”.

After listening to all his albums, I became so hooked and addicted to his pieces, and have then made the resolution to purchase all his entire discography of albums. But after searching high-and-low for his original label-albums virtually almost in every CD shop I’ve passed-by, I reaped nothing but disappointment. Thus, I resorted to the internet for his albums, and found almost everything. The collection of his albums started last year, and till date, I’ve collected almost the entire discography, except for 2 albums left. Of course, such erratic ambition also burnt an ungodly big hole in my pocket, not even mentioning extra shipping charges and the currency conversion.

And after waiting and wondering for a long time when will Yiruma make a come-back (or that if he would even make a come-back) since he left for the mandatory Korean military service two years ago, I guess my thoughts poured over it was worthwhile after all. Because he did make a come-back. In fact, I think this come-back a little too big for my heart to take. When I read about it on the net, my heart almost burst out of excitement, literally.

Yiruma would be releasing his 6th album: P.N.O.N.I., and it stands for “Piano And I”, which I think it’s a pretty creative abbreviation. The album’s release date is set on the 30th of October 2008, which just was only yesterday. However, the news of him releasing this album came out only on the 25th October 2008, and I had only read about this shocking news on the 27th October 2008. I think it’s a pretty close date since the announcement of the news and the release date. If he would have announced it earlier or pushed the release date a little later, at least that would have built lots more anticipation for his fans. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t complain at all about the short announcement and release date, because since I read about his new album on the 27th, the next three days wait already inflicted great anticipation in me which seemed to last for three months instead.

It’s not the end of shocks that rolled in simultaneously when I knew about his new album: I also read that Yiruma’s doing a nationwide concert tour in Korea, in which he will be playing many of his famous pieces. And the concert has a very unique name, “Ribbonized”, in which it’s also a title of one of his pieces in the latest album. Reading further, my heart dropped when I was reminded that I don’t live in Korea, and that simply means dropping a hard fact that I wouldn’t be able to attend any of his many concerts. The Korean site of his original music label, Stomp Music, also stated prices of the tickets, in which the cheapest of all stands at a staggering 55,000 won (about RM157).

But the mother of all shocks is only about to be announced. Fans of the book, “Twilight” that have been following and waiting impatiently for the Hollywood movie based on the storybook, also named “Twilight”, should know that there’s a rumour spread across the internet, even fiercer than wildfire, that one of the soundtracks that is going to be played in the movie named, “Bella’s Lullaby”, perhaps is going to be Yiruma’s “River Flows In You”. However, Bella’s Lullaby will be played by Carter Burwell, and not Yiruma, nor the title for this particular music in the upcoming movie would be called River Flows In You.

Being a Yiruma fan long before even the idea of this movie to be produced, I certainly got a rude shock when I got to know about this. At first, it was totally unacceptable to me that one of Yiruma’s most beautiful, noted, and famous pieces that was composed long before even the book Twilight was written is going to be used in the movie. Knowing that it’s such a good music, it certainly would boost the movie’s revenue.

But I’m not unhappy about that if that the movie would benefit more though the use of Yiruma’s piece or not, but it’s actually because I share a very beautiful memory of her and me together that has an essence of Yiruma in it. Of course it’s a good thing that Yiruma will be more famous because this, but then, this sudden surge of ‘tsunamic-attention’ towards Yiruma makes me feel as if the ‘beauty’ and ‘sacredness’ of our memory would be tainted just because of people who become sudden-Yiruma-fans, just because of the influence of a Hollywood movie. Then, it would seem that everyone is a Yiruma-fan-wannabe.

But after much talking, this controversy that has been going inside me, and perhaps to all the other people who feels the same as I do, and as much as they want to protect their memory, this rumour will remain as much as a rumour, no matter how much people talk about how true it is, until the truth is revealed when the original soundtrack is released. Unfortunately and ironically, no matter how much is said, the damage is already done. Now people know about River Flows In You, now they know about Yiruma, and it’s all because of the rumour (or truth) that spawned from the production of the movie.

Moving on to the next topic, I’m in a painstakingly-hard process of trying to obtain my driving licence. The reason why it’s ‘painstakingly-hard’ is because of some tight procedures that is too complicated to be explained here, or maybe it’s just because I want to save my own soul, that’s why I think its best that I just keep my gab shut about this.

I guess that’s all about the updates in my life, currently, or until I remember if there’s any, they will be subsequently added into the fore-coming posts. Pondering a little as I write, I wonder if this type of writing should be better. Maybe not, if I should choose to write about more memory and melancholic stories about my life, because this tone and way of writing just doesn’t fit that kind of mood.

And there will be an update tomorrow, until I change my mind at the last-minute.