In the final episode of A Sunday Kinda Love for 2015, we bring back one of the most popular stories we've had on the show - The Spectacular Adventures of Sweet Potato a.k.a. Gamju - with 2 parts brought together for a bumper binge-listening session.

The first page of any book, is in our opinion the most important page. Maya Tan reads from the first pages of books she's enjoyed in 2015 and plays music from her New Year jam. 

Books featured:

A Madras Miasma - Brian Stoddart

Indigo - Satyajit Ray

The Fahrenheit Twins - Michel Faber

The Rescue Artist - Edward Dolnick

The Strange Library - Haruki Murakami

The Coral Thief - Rebecca Stott

Playlist:

Tongue-Tied - OJ Law

Put Me Down - Aquilo

Waiting (feat. Madelyn Grant) - FKJ

It's Only You - Dominique

U - Mikky Ekko

Good Together - Tom Aspaul

Steps - Handsome Ghost

Innocence - Madeon, Aquilo

Chocolates & Roses - The Green

In the holiday edition of A Sunday Kinda Beauty, our bi-monthly show dedicated to beauty junkies, we speak to artisanal French parfumier Francis Kurkdjian about his creative processes. Li Ying Lim, Beauty Editor from Harpers Bazaar compares travel makeup kits with Maya Tan and provides some nifty tips for going from Office to Party in a flash.

 Hollow. The echoes of disillusionment. Are we expressed or repressed? Disparate readings and a killer playlist set the tone for a moody Sunday. 

Acknowledgements: Puteri Eleni - The Malaysian Poets Society, Afiq Shahril, Tasha Lim, Marissa T.

Original texts and playlist below:

The Vape Escape  by Marissa T. - Petaling Jaya

Eyes glow from narrowed slits

Vapour escapes, sidestreaming from lips

Hungry for something more

We feed, feed, feed

We're scrolling, we're trolling

Craving more than before

Fill Fill Fill

We're empty inside

Smoke, search, shop, preen

Grab, stuff, shovel it in, 

We're addicted

Stuck on the middle plane

Knee deep in debt

Always waiting for something better

Waiting for that lift off

That payoff

Next week, next month, next year

Next time maybe

But it never comes

This Box by Marissa T. - Petaling Jaya

This box

Four walls

Cracks: gaps in the wood

Light; shimmer-shiny, sharpshooting

Forcing their way in

Making shadows on splayed limbs

And the plastic bags in the corner

In here, you're someone else

Out there, you shine

Big numbers 'splayed in bright colours on your chest

It's a war cry

Smelling of a different place

A different life

A different you

Perfume rises as you

Squat on the commode

You don't sit on the fence

When you shut the door to your hovel

And get into your Mercedes Benz

Unanswered by Afiq Shahril, Perak

If you know your end

Would you be able to live?

Would you be able to breathe without worries?

Would you be able to share your love and care?

Would envy and jealousy matter anymore?

Would it be a hustle to be the first?

The first in everything

And how would you perceive life if you don’t know your end?

How do you make sure your start doesn’t end?

What if your start is actually your end?

How do you even answer these questions?

Mantra by Zoe Maisara, Kemensah

Murid-murid semua dengar sini

Kanak-kanak mesti belajar kuat-kuat

Bila besar, kerja bersungguh-sungguh

Jaga hati ibu dan ayah

Dapat gaji tinggi-tinggi

Beli rumah besar-besar

Bagi duit kat adik beradik

Nenek moyang dan kucing-kucing kesayangan kamu

Betul tak? (hu-hu)

Betul.

I Am by Tasha Lim, Penang

I am a Seeker,  Not of lost things,

But of forgotten feelings.

A Wanderer,

Searching high and low,

For that one little glow.

A Dreamer,

Waiting for snow to fall,

For someone to break my wall.

But what about you?

Before we go deeper,

Are you a Keeper?

PLAYLIST

Josephine - Ritual, Lisa Hannigan

Future Visions - Favela

So Cruel - Young Empires

Pluto (Remember You) - DJ Clock, Beatenberg

Broken Over You - Grace Mitchell

XXX 88 (Oceaan Remix) - MØ, Diplo

Cracks - Sam Sure

Sunday Girl - Brandon and Leah

Trouble brews when a boy in the neighbourhood transforms into a brain-eating zombie, and the cat from next door goes missing. Chacko Vadaketh performs this dark comedic tale written by Ee Leen Lee.

In a series of letter exchanges, Ah Beng confides to "the girl who works at the shop downstairs" about his trials, tribulations, and conflicted joys as a loan shark runner. Othniel Ting reads us this story written by Tham Wai Liang.

Beauty is never only skin deep, and it is in feeling great within that we look our very best. We explore the goodness of juices with Sara Ding, nutritional coach and author of Juicing for Health. Next, Li Ying Lim lets us in on her secrets and favourite products for maintaining her perfect glow. Then, three beauty editors give us a quick review of La Mer's long-anticipated Renewal Oil.

Composer and trumpet-player extraordinaire Michael Simon, hailing from the Netherlands and due to perform at the 10th Venezuelan Week in KL tells us what it's like to grow up in a musical family,  to travel from Venezuela to Cuba, Holland and Kuala Lumpur in pursuit of his passion for music. He brings his unique sound in collaboration with producer/presenter Ezra Zaid, to tell Maya Tan's comic story of five mobsters having a seemingly uneventful evening.

Mob-speak Glossary

Bagman - a person designated to collect and/or distribute illicitly gained money  such as bribes to public officials or money collected in a criminal enterprise, such as a "protection racket," or an intermediary in such transactions. 

Stand-up Guy - a member of the mafia that can be trusted and who has proven his loyalty time and again

Moe Greene Special - executing someone with a single shot through the eye. Taken from the movie The Godfather where the character Moe Greene(who was based on Bugsy Siegel) was shot while laying on a massage table

We explore themes of fire, choke, smoke and the darker shades of emotion in these crazy hazy times through poetry and song. KL-ites read from their favourite poets while Daphne Lee's story of the Endless Night casts a chill - all this to Maya's alternative R&B playlist. 

Part 1

Poems:

Fire and Ice by Robert Frost, read by Ashraf Zain

Fire by Dorothea McKellar, read by Martina Chow

I Have in Me Like a Haze by Fernando Pessoa, read by Kent Tan

Tracks: 

This Time (Serious Symptoms, Simple Solutions) - Jarryd James

Seen and Never Heard - Etta Bond x Chris Loco

Sharpness - Jamie Woon

Part 2

Short Story:

Endless Night by Daphne Lee, read by Maya Tan

Tracks:

So Good - Johnny Stimson

Part 3

Poems:

Smoke, excerpts from the poem by Philip Levine, read by Melissa Karim

The Fires, excerpts from the poem by Rudyard Kipling, read by Lim Jack Kin

The Words Come, They Choke Me by Leila Chatti, read by Wan Irdina

Tracks:

In The Midst Of It All - Tom Misch feat. Sam Wills

Testarossa Music - ZHU x Gallant

Love Again - Ta-Ku feat. JMSN & Sango

Foo Sek Han spins us a tale from the heart of the Borneo rainforests, of a precious creature with a precious lesson to learn. Richard Bradbury performs this short story written for the spoken word.