7 things I love about Singapore

About a week before Singapore's National Day, I gave myself a writing exercise. To come up with 7 things I love about Singapore in time for the nation's 42nd birthday. I will not allow myself the obvious Singapore subjects, like Chicken Rice, or Zouk. I will also treat the nation Singapore as Singapore the lady, a fast approaching middle aged needing something uplifting to look forward now that she is past the big Four Zero. So there will be abit of music, lots of movies, abit of food and abit of speed and a big heaping of love.

Alot of internet writing tend to be barbed and ribbing. So this will be a reminder we still love Singapore.

Read on.
hootie

number one

I love music so the first on the list is
Baybeats



Baybeats is one of the biggest music festival in the region.
Yes. The scene actually travels down to Singapore (hooray for regional budget airlines and local budget hotels) once a year to check out what Singapore bands have to offer.

geocities.com/hootie_inc/baybeats/

Baybeats is loud,
it is massive and best of all
it is free.

What more could you want?
hootie

number two

ok, number two on the list

Singapore made movies

If there is any doubt that there is a film scene in Singapore, the month of August will erase that notion.

For the past coupla years, August has been the traditional harvest month for local filmmakers to showcase their work. Last August saw Gloria Chee's Smell of Rain, Gilbert Chan & Joshua Chiang's S11, Leonard Lai's High Cost of Living and of cos, Colin Goh & Woo Yen Yen's Singapore Dreaming.

This year continues that tradition.
We have Nicholas Chee's Becoming Royston,


Royston Tan's 881,


Wee Li lin's Gone Shopping


and Tan Pin Pin's Invisible City.




And for those who missed out on the past years, Arts Central has (very generously) decided to air all the good stuff on (free to air) tv in the next coupla weeks.

Yes, they are really going to show Eric Khoo's Be With Me on local tv. and yes, are they going to show that (in)famous liplocking scene at the end of movie? who knows?
What I'm more excited about is the screening of Singapore Gaga 5 days after the National Day Parade. For those who have seen Pin Pin's work will appreciate this (understated) irony.

only in singapore
hootie

number three

I've been busy unpiercing my ear drums over at Baybeats this weekend, so I will be posting part 3 and part 4 together.

Number 3 on the list.

Where do you go to cool off on a hot saturday afternoon in Singapore? You can join the hordes at the many many shopping complexes. But wouldn't you be rather be chilling with chicks in bikinis instead?
Of cos.

And for that, one of the best spots in Singapore is

The Jurong East Swimming Complex



For a mere S$2.00 (thats 5 times cheaper than wild wild wet)
and a stones throw from Chinese Garden MRT station (you don't even have to take a shuttle to the island of Sentosa)

you get
not 1 but 3 water slides
a big ass wave pool tat comes alive every hour on the hour with waves with enough tossing power and a rain spray to cool off the afternoon soon
a easy relak longkang to pull you around the whole complex
plenty of water games for your toddler nieces
but thats not all
you also get a proper pool for serious lap swims
and a kentucky fried chicken store to offset all those calories you burnt in the pool

For those peeps staying in the west side of Singapore, (west side, represent!), the JE swimming complex has long been our undiscovered gem

I love singapore!
hootie

number four

I've written about singapore made films. But where do singaporean filmmakers get their filmmaking chops? By making short films of cos.

Singapore has a vibrant short filmmaking scene. To take a snapshot, this week alone has 2 separate short film events.

The Substation's First Take
www.substation.org
First Take is a democratic showcase of the newest short films made by local filmmakers. if you have a short film, submit it, and they will show it. every first monday of every month. the only catch being, you the filmmaker has to appear and participate in the post screening discussion with an audience of peers and film lovers alike. And its been going strong for the past 10 years. There is one happening tonight. Details here
Admission, as always is free

National Museum's Short Cuts
www.nationalmuseum.sg
The Short Cut series is a well curated series organised by the National Museum as a "best-of" showcase for local short films made in the last year or so. The series kicks off this coming weekend with an excellent collection by some of the more experienced local filmmakers.
details here
You can start collecting the free tickets from today.
Get in early, as tickets traditionally gets picked out on the first day.

hootie

number five

If you wanna go really fast, and you're stuck in Singapore,
there are not that many places that you can go to.
In fact, totalled up, you can count them down in one hand.

But what we make up for quantity,
we sure make up for it in quality.

One of the best "tracks" Singapore has to offer is our infamous pasir panjang slope.

Easily accesible from the AYE, you start off from NUH. Accelerate past the students hostel and then you start blasting down this twisty series of chicanes as fast as your balls allow you.


Trees on your left, a semi hazardous slope on your right, slow drivers on your front and not forgetting a very very harsh penalty for speeding
if you get caught.

If you make it down to pasir panjang road at the bottom, you can always chill out at the nearby hawker centre with one of THE best satay stalls in singapore and a long cool drink.

cheers!
hootie

number six

2 more days to her birthday
and I have not even touched on lunch.

Singaporeans love food. Ask any singaporean what/where their favourite chicken rice/laksa/steak/risotto and get ready for a 500 word full on essay.

I'm a Singaporean
and I love food
and of the many many things I love,

I love spring rolls.
I've tried many many popiah from many outlets.
My favourite thus far is Qi Ji Popiah

I love that Qi Ji has outlets located all over Singapore, and not at some hard to find one single outlet that might be closed the one day I decided to have some popiah.

I love that despite being a roaring franchise, the popiah is still made by aunties
(who look like they do have some cooking experience). As opposed to some button pushing instruction-following teenager at Burger King.

I love that I can tah pao their popiah home and it will still taste pretty good

And I love that their popiah taste awesome paired with their laksa sambal and kopi o.

Lest I become a biased QiJi unpaid spokesman,
let me state that their nasi lemak is crap.


hootie

number seven

I completely missed her birthday, since I spent it
along with hundreds and hundreds
of other Singaporeans

out of the country.

Which is apt, since this final piece is all about transits and transitions.

I pay tribute to one of singapore's favourite icon, The Changi Airport

The love hate relationship we have with our biggest airport is symbolic of our love hate relationship with Singapore. Singaporeans love the new things; we love the shiny and the bling and whatever is on the hot list of some magazine editor.

Changi is off that category by a mile.
A little old, a little aged here and there. Not quite elderly enough to fit into the current retro love affair sweeping the country (that award goes squarely to chinatown and kampung glam).
But not quite a spring chicken that she does need a nip and tuck reno these past few years.

All her parts still work perfectly. but still that botox injection of a new Budget Terminal and a Terminal 3 shows that the old girl is up and fighting to court new business from air travellers now starting to flirt with the new chicks on the block like KLIA, Suvarnabhumi.

Why do I love Changi so?

This comingDdecember holidays will see record numbers of Singaporean leaving for holidays all over the world. While they will be more than happy to leave this stress filled island, Changi does it for them in the most stress free manner possible. Changi has one of the best departure halls in the world. Great facilities. Wide berth toilets. Internet access everywhere. Good kopi catering to all price classes. Comfy chairs. Even the smoking area does not stink of smoke. Compare and contrast with (god forbid) heathrow.

Changi ensures Singaporeans leave in peace, not in pieces.

But do we come back? Of cos we do. and Changi pulls out all the stops to welcome us back.

Everytime I fly back to Singapore, I insist on a window seat. As the plane approaches Singapore, and the pilot does a sweep turn to Changi. I peer down my cheap economy window seat, down into the sea, and I see the rows of ships parked just off east coast beach, the lights of hdb flats of Tampines, Bedok and Simei twinkling in the night. This sea of lights replacing the dark sea thats been the view for the past hours cramped in seats too small for dignity.

I love it, this view that changi brings to the airplane audience. It still does bring a lump in the throat at this light show.

We might bitch and moan and complain about her stolid ways. but still. Singapore, she still knows a thing or two about the right buttons to push

Its so fashionable to be cynical and blase when writing/blogging on the internet, but I'm not afraid to say this

Singapore is a keeper

I'm a day late
but still
happy birthday, babe

i heart singapore

hootie

1 week, 15 films

off to bangkok for my very first bangkok international film festival
actually off to bangkok for the very first time

been doing abit of reading up


Discovered that google has got some pretty nifty tools. Google Maps is especially awesome. I'm using their My Maps tool to mark out my hotel and the Festival venue. Oklah, the image is alittle old, but all the BTS stations are there.
I'm syncing this along with my schedule, images, and other info to my dopod.
Plus, google is online, so I can refer to it again over there. I'm hyped.

so bangkok here I come!

hootie

teh, satay, and stayin together

Who would have thought you can blog 1500 metres above sea level?

I'm sitting here with a borrowed ibook (thanks matt), typing this out on the cool lounge of Daniel's Lodge (info here). It's been a perfect afternoon. Was at the teh plantation tourist trap teh shop having my overpriced fresh teh and not so fresh scones, but wat saved the day was reading up on the new issue of Off The Edge magazine I picked up in Ipoh. The May issue is, as usual, a quality read. I'm reproducing an excerpt of Hishamuddin Rais's tapai article below; he does a riff on satay and satay sauce which I really love.

check this out

Off The Edge - may 2007
tapai

Satay and wine
by Hishamuddin Rais


Early this year, I was by chance taken by a friend to a Kedai Satay in Keramat. He had frequented this kedai several times. This kedai has only one menu item - satay. This is a signature of a good eating place, very specialised and very artisan. Never trust any restaurant or kedai makan that boasts hundreds of dishes. This is a con job to lure the uninitiated into the taste of monosodium glumate.

I revisted this Kedai Satay recently. This time, I was well prepared with a half-bottle of Lucas California red and two plastic cups. It was a risky affair, but good eating is about taking risks. I took the table furthest from the main counter. When a beautiful, well-mannered Indonesian waitress appeared before me, I ordered satay ayam, satay daging, satay perut babat and satay hati - the entire collection of this satay house. For my drink, air suam.

It was an early Sunday evening, the kedai was rather empty. The tukang bakar was a youngish bloke in a red t shirt sweating himself in front of the extra long grill full of red, burning charcoal. The traditional kipas has gone forever - replaced by small electric fan.

The fundamentals of satay are: fresh meat well-marinated with the requisite spices. Beef should e from the T-bone or daging batang pinang. Intestines can be large or small. Chicken satay is simpler; chicken meat being always tender and easy to chew. But unlike beef, which can be consumed half cooked, chicken must always be well grilled.

Kedai Zainah Ismail's satay is really of top rank. Satay daging always failed me. Most times I avoid satay daging because it is hard and unpleasant to chew on. At Kedai Zainah, the satay daging was soft, tender and sweet - the meat must have come from daging batang pinang. The perut babat was excellent. For the uninitiated, satay perut can be a problem for its 'peruti' smell, but for the me, this aroma is rather erotic - a mixture of human BO that only occurs in the split second before orgasm. The the next sexual encounter, one should keep this in mind.

Hati or liver should never be turned into satay at all. Liver is 'unmarinated' because of the thin membrane that protects it. No spice can penetrate this skin. Liver itself is a rich composite that has its own particular strong taste. I did not rejoice at the satay hati despite the beautifully brown peanut sauce.

Yes, kuah satay or peanut sauce is part of the satay ritual. Let you not be mistaken - well-marinated satay with flawed kuah kacang will not help your evening. A brilliant satay sauce is of no aid to poorly marinated, hard meat. Satay sauce and the beef or chicken must keep in tempo, just like John and Yoko - there would be no Imagine without That Piano.

for the rest of the article, go get the magazine (link here)

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in my rush to pack for this trip, I happened to load a whole bunch of really old music into my dopod, which left me with a lot of reminiscing, re-discovering a whole bunch of tracks i thought i have forgotten

one of em happened to be Suede's live version of Stay Together
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUUi7w3uSsk

like John and Yoko, Brett and Bernard was completely in tempo in the first half of the song. but once the chorus slides out and the solo bridge comes in, you can hear the roar of bernard's guitar just ripping through the chords.

its no secret that by the time the single Stay Together was released, brett and bernard were not in good terms. and by the time the band got touring, things just got worse between them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suede_(band)

brett was kind enough to fade back while bernard worked the solo, howling out his pain and frustration through the strings. and when he was done, brett served in with a wonderful stammering riff revolving around the phrase "16 tears for every year". each man worked on and worked in the other's melodies, pulling and ripping apart the other, then adding and melding to build up a crescendo that went on and on. when they were done, the crowd just went nuts.
beautiful.

bernard left the band shortly after the tour. but for that moment, this was what made Suede great. the hits that followed from Coming Up were good (Beautiful Ones, Thrash, Chemistry Between Us), but nothing could beat that grandeur and tension of Stay Together.
two undeniable forces working in tempo, just like John and Yoko, way back in the day.


hootie

let's drive to Brighton on the weekend

Hi everyone,

Wow, it has been a while since the last update. Today is as good as any for a posting, so let's go. It is two weeks into the lunar year of the golden pig, and already i'm listening to alot of Bloc Party.

A Weekend in the City, specifically, their new second album after Silent Alarm, which I still love dearly.

I love that the album sounds as great in my headphones on my long runs as they do in a club with too many bodies.

Its a heady thumping album, great for timing your strides, with splashes of odd guitar bits tat makes you break out those airguitar poses.

Okereke still writes erratically, with horribly cheesy lyrics colliding with honestly great ones, sometimes in the same song.

I Still Remember
...We left our trousers at the canal, and our fingers had almost touched...

The Prayer
... Lord give me grace and dancing feet, and the power to impress ...

Waiting for the 718
...Spend all your spare time trying to escape, With crosswords and Sudoku...

My current fav is Waiting for the 718, a lovely song inspired no doubt by the promise of all that long weekends we enjoyed way back in 2006.

It starts out with a daydream while waiting for public transportation, and it somehow ends with travel plans to a beach somewhere.

Let's drive to Brighton on the weekend

Brighton is nowhere near Singapore, but we have all these great beaches a half a day away. Koh Pangan. Lombok. Na Thrang. Even Goa.

That dream of warm sand dusting on your skin. Reggae serenading a slow motion sunset. Hot coffee and long conversations. Fresh mango and sex. Long runs and morning swims. Sweaty afternoons and shared showers. And of cos, cheap and well done seafood.

Ahh, them days. Them days when every mid week, i'd be dreamin of drivin to Brighton. Them days when i cant wait to fill up my passport with new and exotic travel chops. Them days when i tolerated my job but loved the money.

Times have changed. I still love money (still cant/dont have enough) but i love my job even more. The dream is still there but it does not fuel me as much. I'm spending less and saving more. Sure Lombok is great, but i've learnt to make do with Siloso (those comfy beds litterin Cafe del Mar sure does help)

hootie

so long trev. i'll miss your soul nation

hi everyone,

a quick update for some big news

when you count all the big soul dawgs dats out there
you'll end up with a very very short list

you'll have dj jazzy jeff
you'll have giles peterson
and of cos you will have the great trevor nelson

this week, trevor nelson does his very
last Soul Nation episode over at bbc radio1
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/soulnation/

as usual the selection is smooth buttah
donnel jones (yeah), jon b, john legend, a little bit of kelis, aaliyah,
and of cos, the so so smooth anthony hamilton
yeah baby

been following the show for 4 years now.
every single episode is quality

i'll miss the soul nation
hootie

How now Mr Brown?

Strategic opportunities for contentious journalism on the internet

Hi everyone,

The world cup final is a coupla hours away, and since I have yet to watch a single WC match this year, I figured I should watch this one since the next one is 4 years away. Since I have time to kill, I figured I should drop a few words on THE hottest topic on the inter-net; Mr Brown getting dropped by Today.
http://www.mrbrown.com

And since I am really (un)excited by the coming match, I figured I should do this by the book.

The book I will be referencing from is Cherian George's Contentious Journalism and the Internet: Towards Democratic Discourse in Malaysia and Singapore

In both Malaysia and Singapore, the behind the scenes strings that tie the press to the government mean that the latter does not need to micromanage journalists by, for example, requiring articles to be submitted for vetting. The political leadership can instead count on editors to act in the interests of the nation, the state, the government, and the party (all of which in the politics of the two countries tend to get conflated). Editors do not always get it right, which is why the newspapers occasionally get in trouble with the government. Hegemonic control, after all, is not failsafe. The price of giving the dominated some choice in their domination is the risk that a few of these democratic decisions go astray. By and large, however, the mainstream press is ideologically aligned with the state, readily embracing their nation-building role, and recognizing the government of the day as the legitimate interpreter and trustee of the national interest. pg 49

The popularity of Mr Brown's writing lies in his uninhibited celebration of the yuppy lifestyle. He loves writing about the latest tech toys, playing computer games, checking out the newest dining spots, family life (concentrating on his children), and occasionally griping cynically about life in Singapore. In his latest article published in his Today Friday column, Mr Brown went on about the rising cost of living, ticking off a list of what he believes is wrong in today's society. It can be argued that by writing on something that is beyond his field of expertise, Mr Brown is approaching the realm of contentious journalism. Cherian offers this definition of contentious journalism.

Contentious journalism is the reporting and commenting on current events with at least some intention of serving a public purpose (the journalism half of the definition) and with the explicit purpose objective of challenging the authority of elites in setting the agenda and forging a national consensus (the contentious half of the definition). pg78


I'm not so interested in what has happened as I am to know, what will happen next? Mr Brown has several options. He can revert back to what he does best. He can review the upcoming Coldplay concert. He can fantasise about the next generation "wireless" iPod coming up in the last quarter 2006. He can do a podcast solely on Mavis Hee. He can get excited about the new Borat movie.

Mr Brown will suffer no fall in popular support, as it is in line with his previous writing history.

Or.

Mr Brown can continue with more exploratory writing online. He might wish to seek an external party to offer credibility to his arguments. Getting in touch with Think Centre is a start. Perhaps an economist with good data or projections to show. He might want to interview some people from the local think tank, Institute of Policy Studies. He can even get in touch with some of the members of the opposition party, perhaps some of the Workers Party committee members.

What he should do is to argue that what he wrote is not the isolated rantings of a typical cynical Singaporean. He needs hard facts, with credible data.

Unfortunately this is all hard work. You need contacts, coordination, scheduling, preparation. It is the work of a team. Mr Brown is one man, with a wife, kids and a full time job.

So.

How now brown cow?

hootie

road to guantanamo

its my first movie in a cinema since SIFF
(hey I finally saw king kong last month),
so I though that that deserved a mini review.


hootie mini movie review
Road to Guantanamo is the new romantic comedy from UK director Michael Winterbottom. Follow the madcap misadventures of a bunch of English punks as they travel from Pakistan to Afghanistan in search of the biggest naan in Asia. Set against the biblical American bombardment of Kabul, the punks learn to speak Urdu, grow facial hair and fantasize of deep dish pizzas. Hilarity ensues when, through a comic series of mistaken identities, the group end up in exotic Cuba.



or not.
hootie

SIFF 2006: Singapore Shorts - my list

hi everyone

im back. for my report for the first quarter of 2006, I think i'll write about short films.

yeah.

after 3 days of back to back SIFF shorts, after watching all the finalists, and as much of the non-finalists as I could, here's my 2 cents recommend list for 2006. as usual, the best shorts are not always in the official finalist list. these are, for various reasons, the short films that needs to be seen, by a bigger audience

you can get the full list here (pdf)
and this is the list of the finalists



Blinded - Brian L Tan
my favourite short. i've waited 10 years for someone to come up with all out action shoot em up short film, and its finally here. you want guns? you want them blazing? you want a swat sharpshooter? well, here's a whole tac team. they storm an abandoned warehouse (but of cos) and each one is downed like "lambs to a slaughter" (but of cos). brian l tan and his team must have sat down in a kopi tiam somewhere and collectively thought, now what would joel schumacher do to make this short film better?
more guns. more explosions. more smoke grenades. multiple camera units. action dialogue that's lifted straight from Counterstrike the game, eg "man down, man down". cheesy dialogue to supplement a plot that makes no logical sense. and everytime it starts to drag, there's blood. and more blood. lots and lots and lots of fake blood. absolutely brilliant lo budget effort.



Peter Ho - Yee Chang Kang
Peter Ho crackles with energy. despite its ending, I believe this is a love story dedicated to singapore. everytime we get to a scene in the tour agency, every time peter drags a bunch of tourists on a "Uniquely Singapore" tour, there is palpable energy on screen. the art direction is brilliant. I love the little touches on screen. ah neh's sagging name tag. the indonesian uncle's all batik shirt. the cowboy shaking the durian that's way too small for $5 a piece. the courier guy's ever present motorcycle helmet. the biggest jackfruit i've ever seen. the girl from katong who's off to milan for the fashion week. and the tour agency office set is a sight to behold.
but more work is needed in the pacing. the scenes of peter alone is unneccesarily draggy (do we really need to see peter's bare ass in the shower?), but that can be worked on with better editing. a worthy followup to last year's equally exuberant Da Bao (Big Bun)



untitled - Kan Lume, Loo Zihan
an unhurried short that packs a punch. that's fast becoming a kan lume trademark.


Rahim - Murni Mastan
its got so many things going against it. its in bahasa. its has an elleptical narrative. its got cheesy scenes of malay guys in drag throwing come hither looks to caucasian guys in muscle t shirts. and it is a full 20 mins long. but somehow murni mastan pulled it off. rahim is compact, lean with a powerful ending.


Dollhouse - Teo Eng Tiong
Aik Khoon - Chen Bang Jun
Di - Michael Kam
3 delightful feel good shorts. these will travel well.


Heave - Gek Li San
there was another multi threaded short in the finalist selection. while the other was unneccesarily angsty, Heave kept it tight and pulled it off. good concept, well executed.

Pontianak - Raihan Harun
another audience favourite. gene sharuddin absolutely chews scenery the moment he appears on screen. when the pontianak genre is done right, it can be a cracker.


Tee Please - Kelly Lim
lovely simple animated work. a joy to watch and (I believe) a joy to create.



Stuff I missed, would have loved to see:
Short - Tan Siang Yu
Girl in the Chute - Dave Chua
Zahari's 17 Years (l), Zahari's 17 Years (ll) - Martyn See

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