a blog update

hi everyone

yep. looking at the dates, its been a while since there's been an update on this blog. i've been busy living life. its been good and i've been documenting it in several other ways. its 2 days before the year 2005 ends, so i figured, its a good time for some words.

at the start of the year, i remembered asking some people what their favourite moments of the previous year were. some centered on personal loves. some recalled the big events, the ones that shook and jarred lives all around. some remembered the silly ones, the ones that stick out for the happy disruptions in our ordered routines. they're the ones that does it for me too.

there's been many good moments in my 2005. there were some downers, but now, i'm quite pleased to say i'm learning to live with them. i've met more new people this year. some became friends, some i would like them to be. i've lost friends too; some by choice, a few by distance, others by the lost of my handphone (gosh darn it!)


some things still remain the same. i'm still running. i still hate it but right after work, i put on my socks, shoes, music and i run. i still buy way too many local cds. i still sneak home way too late after a good night clubbing. i still don know how to cook green thai curry. and im still looking to fall.

so, on to a new year. i still think the world situation is going to get worse; the total amount of hate will still outweigh all the love in the world. but im an incurable optimist. i think we will get better, i think we will be better than what the world presents to us.


so here's to 2006. may you bring good music, good weather, good nights and love.

later.
hootie

F1 Hungarian: revenge of the mike

its been days since the race last weekend, but i've been busy getting the grease on sam, who got hung at dawn. the gig was loud but the tshirt was sweet. its 12 bucks a pop, you can get it at the next one on the 18th.

ok back to the race and what a race it was! first lap, first turn and the famous jacques attacks yet again. poor christian klein. when they said red bull gives you wings, they werent kidding. christian flew! flipped up, down then hard back on the gravel at 200km/hr. yikes! then further on the same first lap, david coulthard got clipped real hard. man, that was nasty.

my heart goes out to ma man juan pablo. mid race, mclaren timed their pit stops to perfection and montoya had a clear track in front of him. he was blazing. he ran fastest lap. then the ever unreliable mercedes engine blew up. oh man! a million mercedes owners all over the world slapped their foreheads all over again. this is a joke. everytime they put one of their boys in front, something will fall off the car.

but credit goes out to uncle mike too. the last 8 laps of the race was awesome. kimi was in the bag for P1. uncle mike was P2, but his right rear tyres was all botak and the left rear tyre had one miserable thread left. he's got his younger bro behind him in super fresh tyres. every chance ralf got, he closed the gap. on the straight, on the last chicane, on both the hairpins, ralf was so close you could not believe he was in a toyota car (when was the last time you saw a toyota overtake a ferrari?). but uncle mike pulled out all the tricks in his book. he started wide in the corners then closed the door in at the last moments. he kept changing the parameters of his car setup to coax the baby back on the track. he played the backmakers, dropped his speed when he can and kept to his racing line like . in a brilliant move, he kept himself stuck behind narain in the jordan and refused to overtake. now, narain is the most polite driver in F1, every chance he gets he will get his car out of the way of the big boys. it must have confusing for narain when for 1 1/2 half laps uncle mike just stayed behind his jordan. in the end kimi cruised home to a comfortable victory, a full half lap in front of uncle mike.

in the press conference afterwards, you can see kimi sweating stone faced into the camera, talking like he inherited steven seagal acting skills. then you see uncle mike talking like it aint no thang but an easy drive with the kids out to pasir ris. he does not even sweat.

now, that's creepy.

hootie

where have i been?

hello all

its been, right about 2 months since the last entry. yeah. much has happened. lots of ups, some downs, and lots of coffee in between. let me itemize

- went to a conference. met a beautiful girl with a distant voice and soulful eyes
- had a gallery opening and khai ate gold
- got the magazine in time for the arts marts audience
- saw hamlet in arabian with machine guns on stage
- young guns was a smashing success, must do better next year
- F1 Indy was an embarrasing spectacle
- she yoga. she can actually put her head between her knees. woah
- teater ekamatra offered their incoherently beautiful prison gem. i swallow
- elizabeth had a still flight in the studio
- australian comedians brought the house down
- cyril wong sang his heart out in the dark
- verena tay was 3 women upstairs
- stayed home for the weekend. made milky omelette, good coffee and read the hans blix report on WMD, ewan's long way round and june's Maxim cover to cover
- singapore gaga was a smashing success. every single screening was magic
- she runs. and swims. and meditates
- julie from labculture has solar panels on her backpack that charges her handphone
- bought seriously cool shoes
- went to the new library, saw cable rappelling window washers
- lusty passionate storytelling in the blue room
- karen makes a kick ass Gunner (the drink, not the jersey)
- sleepy eyes and crunchy carrots


so that's my condensed 2 months.
see ya at the SubC
hootie

my dodol week (24 - 30 may)

hello everyone

its a super short last week of the month
(hint hint, pay day)
if that is not enuff reason to celebrate, then
take a peek at three very important events
happening this week

1) the great singapore sale starts this week
click here for the deals and offers
//www.greatsingaporesale.com.sg
the deals and offers is only activated on the friday, hoh. so wait long long first
personally, i need shoes.


2) the even greater singapore arts festival starts this week
//www.singaporeartsfest.com
have you marked and bought your tickets?


3) im finally getting the iMac computer for the office
//reviews.designtechnica.com
yes yes, a classy coffeetable to put my coffee cup on top!


so. thats all good.
but heres something lagi best. party news.

beatbox breaks for Flipside at the esplanade concourse
//www.esplanade.com
friday 6.30 pm and saturday 8.30


Indie Jam @ Hideout
//www.hideout.com.sg
2 indie pop bands, Mistaken Identity and Stoned Revival. and after that, they'll be spinning non-stop indie tunes, the stuff thats on your iPod and not on Perfect10
James, Franz Ferdinand, The Smiths, The Dandy Warhols, Ash...



for something more intellectual,
miror theatre will be staging Shanmugam, the Kalinga trilogy pt1 at the substation
//sg.geocities.com/mirortheatre
and its Kalinga, not Keling Kia. if you have bought tickets, lucky you. i think the only shows left are the saturday and sunday 2pm matinee.


for something more engaging for your soul,
drop by the Little India function room this sunday morning and write a note in the Condolence book for the dead mynamar worker whose body was dumped in a multi storey carpark recently. non-profit groups Home amd TWC2 are organizing this. Home's founder, bridget made a moving appeal this morning on stage. i think the group is doing some excellent work and she deserves a kind word and a hug. and all your spare change, pls.
//newpaper.asia1.com.sg
//www.home.org.sg
//www.twc2.org.sg


the BarNone sessions ends this monday with Pop music. the bands playing will be Quantum Spring, Dreams Of Day Architecture and (oh oh oh) Serenaide!
//www.agingyouth.com
this will be the first gig for newly weds Pheyroz and Mimi
//phlog.net/manicmolly
will it be fun? i should think so. good drinks, excellent sound, great bands, comfy sofas, hot women with sexy strappy heels...


and lastly, heres something i just discovered today. everyone's favourite ministry, the Ministry of Gambling, aka the Singapore Totalisator Board, is on record as Singapore's biggest and most important donor organization. in 2004, they have given away S$300 million. let me repeat that. S$300 million. even the Lee Foundation cant fight ($49 million). nor SPH ($8.1 million). nor NTUC Fairprice ($4.3 million). nor Singtel ($4.0 million). gambling absolutely works!


hootie

F1 monaco : what it means to be a ferrari fan now

back in the world of brand name sport entertainment, interesting things are happening to the marquee brands. in soccer, brandname manchester united not only has to suffer the indignity of not winning any championship titles this season, but angering their fan base by getting a rich tycoon to become the new manchester united boss. it is a brand loyalty disaster at so many levels.

and now in F1 racing. im already beginning to see the fair weather ferrari fans switching over to the young bods of jenson, alonso, kimi. it is safe to say that after a disastrous monaco race, the ferrari brand is in trouble. the car is acting very strange. last year's car was built like a tractor. it was banged, bumped, stretched to the limit and it still brought uncle mike home to a pudium win. so wat telah happened? last race it was tyres. this time it was just slower than a jordan on a good day. check out the opening laps, when montoya blasted his way past bari and when DC was battling uncle mike. and just when it seems the ferraris were off pace, halfway thro the race, uncle mike woke up and broke the lap record. the only person going faster after that lap was kimi, 13 places in front of him. just what is going on? the ferraris clearly have a fast car. and uncle mike clearly can fly a fast lap. does this mean that uncle mike just cant be bothered anymore?

compare that to the hunger of the young bmw drivers. when they realise that alonso was losing his tyre grip towards the end of the race, they went all out. now thats bmw driving.

uncle mike. uncle mike...
should have left last year when you were at the top

hootie

singapore movies are oh so melancholic

the moments before she left. let me see if i can recap


i left the office early right after six to have porridge at home with the mum and the sis, then a quick shower and a rush to kaki lima cafe. it was really good to see adi, wahyu and adi's fantastically sinful oreo-revolution.



jeannette was there. yt arrived. we sink into bliss.



then dropped by straits records down the lane. i bought a slim volume by charles darwin, yt bought something by george orwell. we both got sold on the rndm gig. they were playing some reggae. im very relaxed. we then went to samar the new place at the corner. luke arrived after his akido training. he was still sweating.


eugene eventually arrived. we debate over spanish punks, casinos, auto tune and kinemat. smoke rose over the shadows on the wall, a new texture yet to be captured.


my phone died. we left. the ride was too fast.
we missed a hastily assembled police road block. goodbyes.


i woke up to the afternoon sun and a pile of laundry. time was compressed cos i was already late. rushed to the substation, the gear stomping was already in full force. the pedals were hammering the narrow walls of the gallery. the crowd didnt seem to mind it abit. i stayed till lunarin's linda left then rushed out to the singapore history museum. it has started drizzling and clarke quay was slippery. i passed hooters and the under dressed hooters girls looked like they could use a sweater.

it was time for short cuts.

lamentations really cut me.

F1 barcelona : uncle mike. tyre puncture, 2 times ahh!

After all that build up, the race itself turned out to be a dull showcase of technology. kimi won so convincingly, i have to make amends on all the mercedes jokes i've been making the past 12 months. kimi was so fast, so fast it looked like he was a red car painted black. big up to the mercedes team for finally getting it right and delivering a car that could stand up to full race length without
1) stalling the engine at the start of the race
2) the engine exploding
3) the driveshaft/driver water bottle/exhaust pipe dropping halfway

and all that fuss to alonso. he won second place. at no point in the race did he pose any challenge to kimi. he overtook mark weber in the first turn at the start of the race and basically cruised to the end.

it is perhaps fitting that the only drama in the race was provided by old man schumi himself. uncle mike counted on a daring 1 pit stop strategy. he bidded his time till about lap 25. once the car had a sweet balance between fuel load and weight, schumi piled on the pressure. he broke the lap record, once, twice. he went into pit. then went on to go faster and faster. its just weird. how can a car full of fuel just go that fast? with alonso in front and in trouble with a bad left rear tyre, it looks set to be an exciting duel.

then suddenly at lap 44, uncle mike's left rear tyre blew. he pit in to get a new one. then one lap later his front left tyre blew! oh my god. a million ferrari fans simultaneously slapped their foreheads. this is the kind of thing that you would expect to happen to jordan or minardi or mercedes. how can a ferrari make such bad cars? poor guy.


looking forward to the next race in monaco, it looks like another dull technical exercise. with most cars running old engines, uncle mike looks set to devour the competition in his new car during qualifiers.
oh well.


hootie

hootie's picks of the week 050505

i crashed a mac today. feeling quite depressed.
so
aint nuthing like music to make it all work again

so its been a while.
lets get it started

Sexy Sadie - Moonage Daydream
no idea who's more sexy, but mac aint so sexy right now.
this is all right tho. taken from Copy, right


Memphis Bleek feat. Jay-Z - Dear Summer
is jay z retired? yeah right. dude is as busy as ever doing all this collabos
taken from Soul Sides


Interstellar - Painting And Kissing
Aurgasm always have something good for the ears.


and of cos, theres mariah
Mariah Carey - We Belong Together
go to MariahCarey.com for all the mimi goodness

i heart mimi!

its been a while since my last post. well, much has happened. let me itemize them in chronological order

1) went to see spell#7 duets. its been a week. its still playing in my mind. thank you paul and kaylene

2) mr yashub rocks in his raoul shirt. dude, all you need now are the bling bling cuff links

3) things are looking up in the formula one world. ferrari got beaten by renault, yet again. spanish punk alonso fended off uncle shumacher behind him for the last 12 laps of the race. imagine, schumi in an unbelievably fast ferrari cant even overtake a beat up renault running on last week's engine.

4) miss minna's whirlwind adventure in singapore.
it started at 2.30 am thursday morning. after many frantic international phonecalls connecting me, her friend in sweden, her guy in jakarta and his deejay from velvet, she finally showed up at my house with 2 HUGE suitcases, a big smile and many new shoes. we then rushed to velvet underground, in time to catch brandon p's set. it was good! i got picked up by this hot chick. she was wearing green, had very nice lips and was missing her watch. i dont think her boyfriend was very pleased.

5) plug and play!
was as smooth as warm milk. took lots of pictures. many lousy ones. hopefully some good ones.

6) the emancipation of mimi
ahhh, i love mariah carey. and i love her new single, we belong together. give it up for mimi.

F1 bahrain : oh, ferrari got beaten by a toyota

at the end of every formula 1 race on tv, the race analysis show will come on, its opening computer graphics being 3 racing cars going through the paces. ironically, the car that gets first place happens to be in red. oh. thats not right.

michael schumacher did not win the bahrain race. his brand new engine fell apart.
it must be dissapointing for ferrari, esp after rushing the new car through extra and illegal testing the past 2 months. but how do you summon sympathy for a cash rich team like ferrari? they can come up with a brand new car in 2 weeks, and yet they can be so hard up they would squeeze a cash poor team like minardi out from the opening race in melbourne.

kiasi ferrari? ah beh then.

but i will not go on slagging everybody's favourite race car driver and singapore's favourite car. my love is for Formula One. and alonso is just so good for the sport. he's young, dashing, does a crazy accent and sports wild unruly hair. very easy on the eye.

in 2004, every time michael schumacher is taken out of a race, the entire grid seems energized and inspired. the racing just gets better and better. yesterday's race was not exception. just look at mclaren's replacement driver, dela rosa. after getting a car from (suspiciously) injured montoya, the man drove like a man with nothing to lose. he took insane chances, he lept at back markers, he rocked and fought all the way to the final 5 laps. the last battle with mark webber for 5th position was just riveting.

so, michael. do the right thing, yah.

ode to carnegies

so much has happened in the past week

i did went to catch the grandmasterflash in zouk. the man was an incorrigble wanker.
no doubt the zoukers lapped it all up.
the next day, my man alonso got pole position on the grid in the malaysian F1 race, and he did went on to win the race . it was a triumph of guts, engine and awesome tyres.
on wednesday, i attended a gut wrenching performance which is still on repeat mode in my mind.

however, no event is as groundbreaking as the news that the grand old club, Carnegies has finally closed.

Carnegies

ahhhh carnegies
you will be missed

we are so

this is so apt
dullneon.com
big up to the jaff man

and in other news,
big up to ma man alonso, i have faith in ya'all

when the fireworks display pop off over bandar kl tonight,
when the party people over at the Menara be shaking their booties,
when the boys2men are left wondering wat the faq they are doing
with the backstreetboys in the departure hall of KLIA,
i hope the boys in ferrari have a good night sleep

hootie

happiness is really good fish curry

smell is that unfair advantage.

did you know that the olfactory nerve supplying your nose is the First Cranial Nerve? there's only 12 cranial nerves coming out from your brain, and our brain has the good sense to give top honours to the sense of smell. smell is so important, our brain interlinks it in processes to produce and store memories. smell is like a neurochemical bookmark to catalog our warehouse of memories.

lennon used to claim that happiness is a warm gun.
i guessed yoko made really sucky curries

hootie

parking lot pimps

"someone once told me, when you guys come back, come back with both guns blazing"

and with those words, the parking lot pimps blazed on stage. G-ed up in matching G2000 blazers and unmatching adidas trainers, the pimps quickly filled the esplanade outdoor theatre with their latest reincarnation of their Urban sound, Exchanging straight club grooves for a funkier tone. breakin with a note perfect NERD cover, the pimps announced their intentions to move the esplanade audience.



earnestly pimp grooving the crowd 


tie a yello bracelet around the old left hook 


wats with the blazers guys? 


mr syed munir wears his sunglasses at night, at night 


the parking lot pimps are back 

why do i love F1? let me count the tshirts

there are many different reasons to love formula 1 racing. the cars that run faster than a US launched tomahawk cruise missile headed to baghdad. the brakes made of pure pencil lead that glow red when the drivers body slam them on corners. the phenomenal G force so strong the driver's helmet need to slashed to the driver's shoulders. and of cos the hot pit ladies in dresses tighter than the condition of my bank account.

i love F1 for all that. but the one thing I love most of all, are the swanky team tshirts. of cos, all tshirts being equal, some are more equal than others. so for today, heres my rundown of the best apparel to eye if youre headed to your atm.

1) BAR Honda
my vote for the best tshirt in all of F1 racing
blessed with 2 of the best young drivers in the circuit, jenson button and takuma sato, the BAR team capitalised on their youth and verve to create super cool top designs other teams dont dare to.
check check the button tshirts
and sato's ones

button up, Baby!



2) Renault
even tho they now have one of the best engines, that power does not translate into tshirt design. sticking with the hideous combination of green and yellow, check out what their designers came up with

ugh


and this ugh green one

now this is surprising, cos last year they came up with some pretty decent ones




3) BMW
their tagline is Sporty Elegance is the Name of the Game. riiiight. sporty elegance for middle aged uncles. its no surprise that the line has two colours, conservative blue and very conservative white.



they do have a tie up with Puma, and the line is so so much better. i love this sleeveless number




4) Mclaren
mclaren could have been so so cool. i mean, how wrong can you go with basic black? with mr ice cool montoya and mr ice cold kimi, they could have had really kick ass tshirts. but again, its design by committee over in the mercedes team. basic black with a cheapo logo on the side. safe, boring and no brainer. perfect to go with Gold FM on the stereo. jus like mercedes drivers the world over?






6) Ferrari
now why do racing fans hate ferrari so much? is it becos of the sheer arrogance of the ferrari team trying to bump off struggling no money teams like minardi off the circuit? or is it becos most of the real life ferrari drivers on singapore road are balding pot bellied middle aged uncles trying to look 35 years younger? perhaps it could be despite a seven figure operating budget, their t shirt still looks like it was designed by a secondary 2 student using microsoft powerpoint. in his free time.


ferrari makes tshirts that makes people go ...


looks like a red shirt with a corporate tie in the middle. from a distance, it might look like that you have a white penis hanging down your neck.

save sex. drug support 'em

readers to the straits times must have choked over their pratas with this morning front page news. Dr Balaji revealed this hypothesis that the recent sharp spike in local HIV infection was from exposure to gay parties like Nation 04. mr brown has a good write up over here. as always, i have never been interested in adding my 2 cents to this hot topic.

i am however more interested in solutions, and this is one of the best proposals i've heard. its from the highly respected Dan Savage, from the venerable OnionAV Club magazine. Dan first sounded out his ideas over here. You can read more reader comments here.

chris ho once recorded an AIDS benefit single called, Save Sex about a decade ago. crappy song tho it maybe, i remembered feelin proud that the dude managed to put together a tune about sex and get it played on perfect 10 radio. of cos, no way mediacorp radio will have the balls to play such music anymore. pity, cos bad song or otherwise, it did get people talking about sex, and hopefully saving sex.

so in a roundabout kinda way, big up straits times for choking readers in the morning. more talk, more action? yeah yeah.
hootie

prayers for unfaithful women

got a ton of pictures from this artist's weekend gig
its been a while, but her performance is still stickin in my brain
(yep, its that good)
(actually got a ton of other snaps to upload
let me get this connection proper first)


later
hootie

F1 australia : ahhh, renault

freaky rain halfway throu the qualifiers on saturday meant that the big dawgs (schumi, kimi, bari, sato) were racing wet, wild and all over the melbourne track. all that drama however did not translate into an exciting race on sunday. i was struggling to stay awake past the first round of pit stops. wat happened on the track? exactly nothing. all the drivers were basically going round and round on a leisurely sunday drive, burning fuel at 270 km/h.

just when i was getting ready to go iron my laundry, the unexpected happened. at lap 43, nick hedfield made a move on 13th position schumi (schumi in 13th? exactly, its that kind of race). schumi clapped back, forcing nick into his ass and both ended up with pieces of cars on the track and gravel. the ferrari built like a tractor last year was falling off pace faster than the gay debate in parliament.

once schumi was taken out, all drivers up and down the grid did a repeat of last year's monaco and posted significantly faster lap times. bari blasted his way thro backmarkers all the way from 8th to 2nd. alonso in turn chased the brazillian all the way to the end. but big honours has got to go to fishicella. the dude kept his cool, his guts, his tyres and the phenomenal renault engine together all way from pole to the podium. and surprise surprise, virgin driver kartik made it to a credible 15th spot. and this from a driver who was so gan cheong, he was caught speeding on his way to qualifiers by the Melbourne TP. big up, big up! is this really a new era for F1? i donno.

sepang will be a crucial race since the track is much more punishing. big dawgs will be bringing out big guns. lets hope the superior malaysian food inspires the teams and drivers to a better show in sepang 2 weeks from now.


hootie

hootie's picks of the week 050304

i've been hanging around chicks half my age and its been making me feel melancholically paternal. have you eaten dinner... make sure you drink more, its been so hot... dont stay back so late...


john legend - ordinary people
videos here
if norah jones grew a goatee, she will be john legend. i must be getting so damn old to be diggin such class 95 mush like this. but like i said, johnny boy has a great voice. and old geezers like me approach love at a different velocity these days. this time we take it slow.




plain sunset - plain sunset
words here
my vote for the most courteous rock song ever. its the last song in their second album, and after 6 big rock songs, they end by thanking the listener for listening, supporting, buying and loving plain sunset. listening to this song brings me back to the guiness theatre at their farewell gig, hands in the air, singing along to every word in the song, knowing that after this, plain sunset is no more. niceness is underrated here in singapore, and the sunset boys prove that you can be nice and kick ass at the same time



The Postal Service - Such Great Heights
download here
ok i gotta admit, i love their desktops design better than the music. the deaf tone singing gives hope to tone deaf singers everywhere, that with a killer hook, a working drum machine and some well placed strings, you can indeed go far in the pop world.



mashup of Sum 41 - Pieces vs Coldplay - Clocks
download here courtesy of SarongPartyFrens
my fav bastard pop of the moment. no idea who did it, but i love it. such a simple idea its a wonder no one had thought of it earlier. brilliant



ok. so enough of this moping.

The Game feat 50 cents - Envy Me

in the Marshall Mathers album, em reveals the marketing strategy of a typical rap album. in a skit, record exec steve berman explains
"Do you know why Dre's record was so sucessful? He's rapping about big screen tvs, blunts, 40's and bitches. You're rapping about homosexuals and vicodin... I can't sell this shit."
no worries here. 50 cents's latest protege, The Game is ALL about blunts, 40's and bitches. business as usual in the G Unit factory. being the risk adverse investor, 50 wisely props The Game with the best beats money can buy, and Envy Me has a killer hook. Westwood has been dropping an awesome mix in his Friday's show now, check it here




Ludacris - Southern Hospitality
singalong here

the only way you can ever put me in a karaoke bar, is if they have luda on tap.
heh heh heh. altogether now,

Cadillac grills! Cadillac bills!
Check out the oil! My Cadillac spills!
Matter of fact, Candy Paint, Cadillac kills!
So check out the hoes my Cadillac fills!

Pretty ass clothes! Pretty ass toes!
Oh how I love these pretty ass hoes!
Pretty ass high class anything goes!
Catch them in the club throwing pretty ass 'bows!


hootie

furious five or spinning alonso

this is one of those things that gives me tooth decay

on saturday 19th march, the reticent grand master flash will be finally getting up off his ass, into an airplane and do a tour of SEA. he will be spinning the night at a very very crowded zouk main room.
on the same night, 500 km away in kuala lumpur, a very relaxed fernando alonso will be turning in for an early night in his plush hotel room, safe in the knowledge that his renault R25 will be topping the grid after a hot hard qualifying day in sepang.


so
how do i have my cake and eat it too?
do i pay my homage to the original furious five or do i reserve my ear muffs for the phenomenal renault V10 engine?

hootie



updated 04/03/05
its decided. its gonna be a pure unadulaterated day of hip and hop
hip hop for hope
big up trivalation. do good yah

oh dear

its called the Otolith Repositioning Procedure of Semont and Epley

help!

update 26/02/05
it rained. and the room stopped spinning.
all is good. no longer crashing my head on the kitchen table.
now time for some radioclash

operated restorated

music for good did a gig last weekend. it was very good.
the poster and the gig clicks

the y auditorium turned out to be a perfect venue for a mega event like this. it was big, much bigger than the substation guiness theatre. it had proper sound (no doubt due to the swanky Line amps). the smoking corner is breezy. Macs is jus next door, so one can get greasy fries on tap. the wooden floor is ideal for injury free stage diving and moshing. but most importantly on that blazing hot saturday, the venue was airconditioned. yes yes.

the music was all good. wish i can rewind the good vibes for ya, but i hope this clicks will do.


operation regeneration


concave scream in glorious stage lights


pug jelly


sam from pug


yeah

i have lost friends and ear drums

ow!

last night's gig, i have lost friends, by the rascally chee wai was an exercise in volume control and sad brutality. i was dumb enough to place my ass 2 metres away from the main speakers and got the full brunt of the beautiful noise. it was so loud, sorry, it was so LOUD, my jeans were flapping.

the posters for the gig was deceivingly peaceful. and chee wai's apple looked deceptively puny. chee wai fronted the first act. he began on a gold fm snooze mode. tweaking the laptop and the mixer, he plied snatches of odd conversation ontop of a bed of sleepy wet sounds. i was expecting brian richmond to come in with the traffic report. then zai kuning cut the house lights, and the party began. a rock solid cliff wall of sound came looming and hit the audience front and center. it came, blasted and nailed us to the back wall.

shit was loud.

it was unrelenting. jus when i thought it would ease up, dude tweaked another knob on the mixer and pushed us ever more back. pound for pound for rounds in that sound. yt was behind me. her foot was cold. after wat seemed like the 25th hour (it was 15 mins) the lights finally went up, and we were released back into wonderful silence.

grateful smiles erupted.

next up was zai kuning. he had a bow and a guitar sitting across him. thank god there wasnt a laptop in sight. mr zai was inarticulate rage articulated with howling sadness. he was ripping, hacking, sawing the 6 strings. so hard the bow strings kept coming off by the strands. and that strange howls, that started off malay but came out elvish. i took pictures, but ive got uploads problems man.

evan and leslie came next. their set was also in darkness, with leslie on 6 string and evan on apple. leslie concentrated on doing rock star poses and sad star noises. evan massaged his laptop and coaxed the drums. both created a soundtrack to a disaster movie of bruckheimer proportions. i envisioned helicopter chase sequences (mainly super pumas from our MIW) and caldecott hill sized giant waves. i saw heroic food drops and massive water desalination plants. i saw fiona xie canvassing sponsors for milk powder and disposable underwear. and in the end, leslie knelt in front of his buzzing guitar and fed the feedback into the audience.

the last act was this obscure norwegian band, Del. not amitri, they were billed as a drone rock band thats highly improvisional and highly original. the lead was a stocky guy with a cheerful goatee and huge slippers. from the get go, Del performed the proper definition to the term drone rock. imagine fluffy room sized cotton candy that floats from the ceiling and smothers you, layer upon layer upon layer. after 30 seconds you are embedded in sticky fluffy pink candy up to your molars. that throbbing in the back of your head is the first sign of tooth decay.



im not sure i like it all, but my jeans are happy
hootie

hootie pick's of the week 050217

hootie picks of the week


im in the mood for lust, so let begin with my favourite pied piper

R Kelly - Sex in the kitchen (single)

mr kelly has been in repentance mode lately, doing pseudo
gospel schtick (U Saved Me, Happy People), so it is refreshing to hear some quality raunch for once.
kelly have been doing the acapella versions of it on drop spots last year, the audience was lapping it up. im kinda surprised when i finally heard the studio version. it is hilarious. he drops this insane loop of dripping taps, its just brilliant with the campy lyrics.

"Strutting pass, switching that ass while I'm on the phone
Cutting up tomatoes, fruits and vegetables and potatoes"




Kanye West feat John Legend John Mayer - All Falls Down (live)
AOL live > Kanye West

John Legend is frontin all of Kanye's marketing budget now, and mr west is sparing no expense. in this showcase with AOL, west brings out mr white bread himself, john mayer to lick some strings with his man legend. does it add to the show? i doubt, but then im a west fan. love the intro, mr legend can really sing. dig the chick in red with the fro. yummy!

trevor did an excellent short with mr legend.
bbc radio1 > soul nation (real audio 11 mins)



Consequence - So Soulful (White label)
n talking about trevor, our boy has been slippin this in for the past few weeks. its easy to see why. more of that squeaky clean west production, but its lovely chorus that gets me. perfect gym music, definitely can sweat to this.

and watch out for the return of Earth Wind and Fire.
yes, i kid you not.



Curtis Mayfield - "Here But I'm Gone"
still on the old school. taken from mr wang's o-dub. and he is right, mr mayfield can make grown men cry. lovely.



and now for something completely different
i been incorporating alot more sprint work in my runs these days
so somehow i have been getting this itch to Ride the Changi!

Force Vomit - Ride the Changi

i cue the track on my player, begin my visualisations and sprint off. the beat is my foot rushing one ahead trading lead with the other, the bass riff is my lungs suckin more air, more air. and the smooth guitars is the landscape that slides past my view. lovely. for dino and the boys, make more magic like this dudes.


i end this post with sadness
you guys probably know this already, but nick from gabba/pod is dead.
http://gabba.cc/pod/
nick was my first link into the lovely world of bastard pop.
i will always regret not asking him to eat my handbag, bitch. regrets.

100% happiness

its great to wake up on a sunday morning and see this wonderful piece of news

Group of 7 Agrees to Ease Debt Burden of the Poor
New York Times

lets do more
hootie

hootie's pick of the week 050202

hootie's pick of the week: 02 feb 2005



Common feat Kanye West N Last Poets - Corners

oooh more good sheets from k west and his fav muse, Common.
Common has a gift of stringing and streaming sylabbles, making them flow with little effort. and that good old k west production. dude still has wack delivery but his raps aint
mp3 taken from the excellent http://www.cocaineblunts.com/

Girlyman - Maori
First girlyman i tasted. song starts off with some acoustic strumming, first verse is about a dude trying to skive off an unwanted admirer (who smells of fish hooks?). then something wonderful happens at the chorus. we hear the girl singing together and everything changes. magical. it gets me everytime. still does.

Girlyman - Say Goodbye
Beautiful folksy number. her voice reminds me of tracie from EBTG. lovely for chilling
both mp3 hosted by adrianna at http://www.popagandhi/


Atreyu - Lip Gloss and Black (video mov)
Atreyu - Aint Love Grand
Atreyu - Right Side of the Bed
and now for something completely different. imagine Darkness without the camp. good big old air guitar riffs, thumping bass and drums that chugs like an apache attack helicopter. this is metal music like it was meant for Guns n Roses. excuse the crappy lyrics and lousy singing. Atreyu is all about the guitars, guitars and even more guitars.
Atreyu official site is here http://www.atreyu-online.net/
Download.com is hosting their mp3 over here : http://music.download.com/atreyu

Taking Back Sunday - Decade of Influence (video mov)
Taking Back Sunday - Timberwolves at New Jersey
Taking Back Sunday - Bonus Mosh pt[1]
wat do you get when you cross the music of punk metal with the lyrics of NSync? well emo of cos. taking back sunday is one of the best kept emo secret. lots of cry baby singing with wailing guitars. pug jelly should start taking lessons.
TBS official site is here: http://www.takingbacksunday.com/
Download.com is hosting their mp3 over here: http://music.download.com/takingbacksunday


Usher feat nelly - my boo (white label)
ok, its the customary hootie gay track of the week. you've heard the lovely dovey alicia keys version. jermaine dupri being jermaine dupri, he goes and hooks up our boy usher with a whole hosts of answer versions. the version with beyonce is jus aweful. but this version with philly boy nelly takes the cake. nelly reminiscing about the good old days when he was hooked up with his Guess bitch, usher? and usher singing about being nelly's first partner? who needs the michael jackson trial?

i donno bout cha'all, but i know bout us
and uh, its the only way we know how to rock
You've been mine since you've checked the "Yes" box
And we at six flags matchin down to the Guess socks
Girl, you and me be sittin in the tree we be k.i.s.s.i.n.g