Finally Found!!!

A fansite for the H.A.I.R. of February, Jaymee Ong is finally found!! With shitloads of pictures to boot. Crap. Shoulda have gone there and clip some pictures.

Ah well, the month is almost over innit?

Holy Batcave!!! I forgot to update the poll for H.A.I.R. of March

It totally slipped my mind. Ah well, there's always next month.

The Google conspiracy

Read this to know more.

Where is the Love?

As I have mentioned before, my friends and I have organised a gig which would be held next month. We are currently rushing out the publicity materials and a simple website to advertise the gig. I hope we can get some posters up at some venues, eg. WakeMeUp Music, LaVanita, Roxy Music, etc.

Any suggestions where we can put up some posters?

Actually, we are hoping to get it all done by Sunday which is like fucken tommorrow!!! Dammit... I hope we can get it all out and up running.

All I can say is that come down and support us (ie. The 78 Love Experiment aka Andy, Weiyuan, Yeeyong and me) and the rest of the bands which are playing on the night itself.

P.S.: pinkiebrown, you asked for details. I wanna release the information all out in one motherload. All I wanna say now is that keep your Sunday night, 21st March free. That goes the same for all of you out there as well!!! Sujin membersss, you are excused, just for the fact that you are not in Singapore!!! And actually, there's quite a couple as well. Hmmm...

And the drool pours through my mouth... (waitaminnit, there's something wrong with the structure of that line. Fuck it!!!)

I can't believe it!!! Robert Rodriguez is going to do an adaptation of Frank Miller's classic 'Sin City'!!! Woo hoo.. I just hope the casting goes better than 'Constantine'. Miller's 'Sin City' is really good without the usual superhero stuff, concentrating on a very very noir feel (that dirty, overused word had to be said since the whole comic is usually black and white).

Read about it here and here!!!

How I Have Become A Cranky Old Man...

Actually, that's what I wanted to post tonight. However, I'm so sleep-deprived that I can't type straight anymore...

And I'm running out of cigarettes. So I'm gonna buy me a pack and turn in for the night. It seems the night is over soooo fucken fast when you start working again. Crap.

A little update

As compared to my usual blogging frenzy, the last few days have been slow, so to speak. I've been quite busy recently, having started a 3 month contract job as a Marketing Officer or something along the line. In addition, I've been co-ordinating with my partners with BabyBlueMall, planning some promotional run.

And on top of that, I've organised an upcoming gig which would be held next month. This would be the 'some stuff' I was talking about in my previous post. I'd reveal more details about the gig once we (ie. Yeeyong, Weiyuan and I) finish up the publicity materials. If you bloggers out there are willing, put an banner or something like that to help us promote this gig. Thanks in advance!!!

Whew! I don't think I've ever been this focused for quite some time, not since the last time I accompanied Lolo to look for the shop at Queensway Shopping Centre which sells pirated VCDs.

Why do the obvious?

From Pitchfork:

On February 12th, just days before Weezer's twelve-year anniversary, Rivers Cuomo shocked a roomful of Cal State Fullerton students by joining former Weezer bassist Matt Sharp, unannounced, during Sharp's solo acoustic performance at the university's Titan Student Union. In a small venue at the large Fullerton CSU campus called The Pub, Matt Sharp opened up with six songs, solo: "Jumping Around," "Goodbye West Coast," "January's Girl," "Thoughts From A Slow Train," "When I Get Up" (cover of a Tegan and Sara tune), and "The Love I'm Searching For." Then, with a heartfelt introduction from Sharp, Cuomo joined his former bandmate on stage, dumbfounding the audience of young Rentals fans. Reportedly, cell phones began to buzz as friends called their friends and more friends called their friends until the room was packed, the fans delighted and cheering.

Rivers, accompanying on acoustic guitar, performed four songs with Sharp. They started off with "Mrs. Young," a song the two co-wrote before Weezer's self-titled 'Blue Album' was released in 1993. Then came "Time Song," a newly written collaboration from Cuomo and Sharp, followed by a priceless sing-a-long moment with "Say It Ain't So." After placing their instruments aside, the whole fake-ending-begging-for-an-encore thing began. A restless and amazed crowd chanted them on until they finally finished with the 'Blue Album' classic (and Matt Sharp's memorable spoken-word performance) "Undone (The Sweater Song)."

According to weezer.com, the two disillusioned ex-bandmates have buried the hatchet (emotionally and legally), rekindling their friendship and composing music together once again, separate from their own predominate projects.

I'm not a Weezer fan. So, my point? It's just tht "whole fake-ending-begging-for-an-encore thing". I mean, I just attended a Martin Taylor concert/ recital/ whatever on Friday at Victoria Concert Hall. I thought it would be a pretty much straight-forward thing: just play the whole set and after the standing ovation/ applause/ whatever, call it a night and pack it in. But nooooo, he went and did what exactly happens at every rock concert I've attended. Go backstage and hide for a while before returning triumphantly to an escastic crowd. It's such a fuckin' cliche. Don't get me wrong. The concert was great. Taylor really pulled some stunning guitar pyrotechnics.

I mean, we all know that the musicians are coming back again to play a few more songs. The musicians know that as well. So why the deception? I'd be surprised if they didn't come back for an encore. With the exception of Smashing Pumpkins back in 1996, I can't remember any bands/ musician playing in a large venue not giving an encore.

Then again, it's show business. Something that I don't really know.

My friend's portfolio

My friend, Chee Ken's online portfolio can be found here. Take a look if you like design stuff.

I've realised that I haven't really said anything much for the last past week about myself. I know there are some friends who actually read my blog to find out what is happening in my life. Well, I've been slightly busy organising some stuff which is hopefully coming to fruition. That pretty much keeps my mind occupied and I have no time to feel all angsty and miserable as usual. I guess the details for the thing I'm busy with would come out within the next 2 weeks. I'm not going to reveal it just yet; I just love being a cock teaser.

In addition, I've been working on my grammar due to incessant bitching about it by quite a few people I know.

That was supposed to be funny... Screw it. Anyway, more updates on my life will be coming up soon. Then again, I hardly do anything that is out of the norm. So, expect the boring stuff.

That's one happy bear for you...

Masked and Anonymous #06

From my man, Keith Boi:

ARE YOUR TOKYO EYES LONESOME TONIGHT?

What does a terminally jaded, middle-aged celebrity with a periodic taste for tuxedos, and a bored and restless city girl, with an idle taste for self-help books, necessarily have in common?

Nothing much, really; unless, of course, if they are characters from a movie, or from a wonderfully clichéd short story. Or unless they are these two American strangers, stranded and encased in the respective solitudes of their Tokyo hotel lives. Lost In Translation is precisely the subtle tale of the curious connection between a pair of lonely characters caught in the nocturnal time warp of an alien metropolis.

Bill Murray plays Bob Harris, a jaundiced movie star on a weeklong business trip to Japan to shoot a ridiculous and typically gaudy whiskey commercial – which tries to make Murray’s frumpled character with his Suntory whiskey as iconic as Serge Gainsbourg with a fistful of Gitanes.

Chastened by insomnia, the ineffably sullen Harris adopts an unwavering posture of awkward amusement as he marches his way through the hermetic neon wilderness of an ultra-urban Tokyo. On his every turn, the milieu is crass and almost surreal, as Bob self consciously entertains a bizarre coterie of his sycophantic handlers and the local talk show crazies. He attempts to contact his wife and kids, but always manages to make his phone calls at all the wrong times.

Ever the borderline alcoholic as suggested by his advertisement persona, Bob’s only hideaway from the madness is the hotel’s lounge bar – which is where he first chats up this young, neglected newlywed he met, Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson). The quietly inquisitive Charlotte doesn’t seem to recognize Bob Harris the burned out actor, neither does she seem to care much for his craggy fame; instead, she identifies with Bob’s isolation drills right away. More importantly, she gently informs Bob that he might just be experiencing his mid-life crisis – only to Bob’s poker-faced acknowledgements, of course.

A tentative romantic friendship forms from their chance acquaintance: the both of them obviously drawn towards each other’s undisguised emotional displacement. For though Charlotte may have a more serene and enchanted view of the city’s foreign charms through her solo wanderings, her sense of loneliness is as palpable as Bob’s. The young woman is coming to grips with the likelihood of a sterile and unhappy future shared with her heavily distracted photographer husband, John (Giovanni Ribisi).

Like a lot of good things, Sofia Coppola’s second feature is deceptively simple. Her sparse, meditative film has an ethereal quality of an inwards nature, not unlike the coy and endearing trysts between the two protagonists.

Her assured direction is evident in how the movie’s focal karaoke scene is handled. Hilarious but also intimate at the same time, Bob and Charlotte’s karaoke date is their unlikeliest rite of flirtation: she dons a pink wig; he pretends to wig out to the excitement; furtive glances are exchanged over Bob’s smartass/sad-sacked renditions of Elvis Costello and Roxy Music, and you can feel their two hearts start beating as one.

A portrait of the kindred bonds that form through mutual disconnections, Lost In Translation is Coppola’s loving testimonial to the molasses of melancholy. And like her first feature film The Virgin Suicides (2000), it feels unabashedly cinematic. I particularly enjoyed those silent scenes trained on the lonesome figure of the fresh-faced Johansson (who bears a disarming resemblance to the director) traveling light or mulling on her own, which lends a touching resonance to the wistful heroine.

Sofia Coppola’s gentle mood piece of a film is generally a more charitable and mature effort than The Virgin Suicides. But it can be argued that the director did a lot of far more interesting things with her adaptation of the Jeffrey Eugenides novel for her aesthetically flamboyant debut.

Directing from an original (and rather gossamer) script she wrote, Lost In Translation feels much more deeply personally – one can’t help but read a bit into the parallels between Charlotte’s preoccupied husband and Coppola’s own spouse, director Spike Jonze – if only for her attention to every frail detail of the film. (Me: Yo man, slight gossip titbit. The 3rd generation Corleone is now the ex-Mrs. Spike Jones)

And this is one movie that hinges entirely on the director’s oblique sensibility, from the well thumbed choreography of potent imagery (Lance Acord’s subdued cinematography has a haunting effect) to the great use of music (it’s a sick thrill to witness how My Bloody Valentine’s Sometimes (Me: Amen to that man!!!) and the Jesus And Mary Chain’s Just Like Honey are so brilliantly employed).

Needless to say, Lost In Translation is the chief beneficiary of a wonderful deadpan performance – lots of blank expressions, lots of quizzical frowns – by Murray and his lethargic eyes; but we had also seen him better in other films, most recently his grand comedic turn in Wes Anderson’s Rushmore (1999). Johansson is no slouch as well, a presence of warm innocence and suitably vulnerable. It’s the hush chemistry between the two lead performances that becomes the true heart of an understated and eloquent film.

How to give good cunninglingus

For those who wish to pick up an additional art (hey, triple alliteration... Yippee), check this out. Make your girlfriend or wife a happy woman.

Awwww.....

Does reading news like this make you warm and fuzzy to the core?



I applaud their efforts. Makes me feel like bringing them home and giving them a hug and some squeezes. Awwww.... nothing like making up in public. Are they gonna make up in like, y'know, a reality TV series?

The Grey Album

I've written a post about a producer, Danger Mouse reconstructing Jay-Z's 'Black Album' with music samples culled from the Beatles's 'White Album'. Danger Mouse called his work 'Grey Album'. Haha, very amusing indeed.

You can download the album here which I copped the link off Groovy Mother. I love the Black Album and I guess the White Album is pretty listenable.

So, I've downloaded the remix of 'Dirt Off Your Shoulders' and it sounds utterly different from the original Timberland production. It has bleeding acoustic guitars!!! Actually, some songs sound like Lemon Jelly with a rapper over them.

Help A Man Out Here

I'm thinking of adding a radioblog to this blog. However, the minimum requirements are Windows and a PHP hosting. Needless to say, I have Windows. As for a free PHP hosting, I don't. Not too sure how to go about it as well. Anyone knows how I could go about getting one? Do I have to pay? Well, the instructions of the software is to copy the directory to the web server. Hmmmm, I don't think blogger.com would allow me to host this application.

Any suggestions?

The Hollywood remake of Infernal Affairs

From CHUD

Now that Martin Scorsese’s Howard Hughes epic The Aviator is all but wrapped, he’s setting his sights on a new project, and a remake of the Hong Kong cop thriller Infernal Affairs may be at the center of the bullseye.

Well, the rights to the series was bought over by Brad Pitt about a year ago. It is still being speculated that Pitt might be attempting to take on Andy Lau's character for the remake. Judging from his past performances in 'The Devil's Own' and 'Fight Club', he'd be able to bring out the moral ambiguity within that character. Though there were some talk about using Edward Norton for Tony Leung's character, I don't really think that he would be suitable for the role. Then again, I can't think of an alternative to it.

Happy Valentine's Day

Even though if you might be spending this day alone or with a bunch of friends attempting to get drunk, you can at least take this Physical Attraction Test and see what kind of person you'd find physically attractive. It provides 20 minutes of good fun.

Well, from what you'd be reading, I guess I'd be condemned as a shallow person for the rest of my natural life. Here are my results:

Favorite Qualities
Your photo choices suggest a woman over 25 is probably getting a little old for your tastes
You seemed interested in dating a woman at least 25 or older
Very beautiful women
So-called "Ectomorphs," or thin angular faces
Light brown hair
Dark brown hair

Favorite Looks
There's something about the energy and youthful appeal of "Cheerleaders" that's hard to resist. We use this name to describe a group of women who's facial features combine feminine beauty with a "tomboy" flair. They usually have blonde or light brown hair--cut short, small button noses, and wide smiles. These aren't "perfect" beauty contest winners. But their vivacious personality comes across even in photographs and makes their overall impression one of dazzling beauty. You won't be surprised to find out that more than 1 in 4 men (27%) still want to date the head cheerleader.

Women with a "Girl Next Door" appeal also caught your eye during the test. Most of these women were young adults, but there's something about their "girlish" and "innocent" look and charm that will stay with them even as they get older. Long, straight hair (often light brown), an open and warm face, very feminine features, and a soft smile are among the hallmarks of this look. 1 in 5 men (20%) describe this as their favorite "look."

Favorite Face Type
You especially liked a pattern scientists refer to as "Ectomorphs." Geometrically, they are similar to triangles, because they are widest at the cheekbones and then narrow to a relatively pointed chin. Women Ectomorphs tend to have long, narrow noses and prominent cheekbones. Historically, these faces have been viewed as delicate, and combined with the typical lean build, can give a very feminine overall impression. About 46% of other men especially prefer women with this face type.



Type
Your physical "type" refers to women you find appealing and whom you expect would find you attractive as well. (Me: I could be deluded for all I know...) In the test, you picked a relatively small number of women as attractive.

The choices you made in the test suggest you have strong, automatic preferences for certain types of women. You made your choices quickly suggesting you have clear physical instincts. A variety of features stood out as important to you. This report explores these features in detail. To start, look at the list of features below that were most common among the women you liked. These "turn ons" were noted in different combinations across many of your choices.

According to the selections you made in the test, this woman fits Your Type.

Why I Can't Rape My Wife

The Ferret writes a pretty funny article about kinky sex.

My new toys...

sigh... Shit, in debt again...

I've gotten a free turntable from Weiyuan (no lah, it's not a Technics Mk II!!! There's no slipmat for scratching; it's just for listening...) and I'm already thinking of transferring my entire Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd CD collection to vinyl... shit... This is not good. However, the funny thing was that the turntable was a gift from Weiyuan's housing renovation contractor. Mr. PCK used to play loads of guitar when he was a wee lad, forming bands with his friends. It seems that he has a couple of vintage Fender strats from the 60's!!! Amazing, innit?

Starsky & Hutch

Starring Ben "Mr Furious" Stiller and Owen Wilson. The trailer is pretty funny. Love the touch of having Aerosmith's 'Sweet Emotion' (personally, that's my all-time fave Aerosmith tune) in the trailer.

3 minutes of my life was wasted just like that...

... and I dun mean by smoking.

Ever hear David Hasslehoff sing? I didn't... until like 5 minutes ago and it was a complete waste of time. His pipes are okay. But that gawdy video!!!

Captain Haddock's curses

Personally, my favourites have always been: "Land-lover!!!" and the perennial favourite: "Billions of bilious blue blistering barnacles!"

Learn how to cuss like Tintin's fellow adventurer here.

Why I wouldn't get a 100 watt Marshall...

... not at least in a HDB flat maaaan....

Find yourself a Russian bride

Find your own personal dominatrix here!!!

The Lounge Lizard watches the 46th Grammys...

... well for the 1st 5 minutes. People who understand me well enough know that I don't give a shit about all this awards thing. It's all nonsense and self-congratugatory public masturbation. However, the live performances are the only thing I really enjoy about these nonsense. Fer Gawd's sake, The Artist Whom I think Might Be Calling Himself Prince Again opened the ceremony this year. Prince?!?! Sweet Mother of Jesus!!! Prince!!! He did a rendition of 'Purple Rain' with his Cloud guitar (y'know, the one with the weird symbol) that was on an 80's staurated distorted guitar tone. Pretty amusing But I love the guy. He's amazing.

Then, Beyoncé Knowles appeared and joined him for the rest of the medley. They did a little of her hit, 'Crazy In Love'. ("Uh oh uh oh uh-oh uh-oh) I love that song. Prince whipped out a Tele and started ripping on the guitar. Under normal circumstances, I'd very entranced by what the guitarist is doing. However, I couldn't take my eyes off Beyoncé. I saw a performance that Christina Aguilera and Dave Navarro did at some MTV awards thing. I couldn't give a shit about the lil whore. But this time round, it was different. I quote my friend, Gavin: "When she pull that one move (Gavin attempts a Beyoncé dance move), I get so turned on." I think he speaks for 80% of all mankind. And she had to break my heart in this little pink number.



And yeah, the Purple One is shorter than Foxxxy Cleopatra.

I should have stayed home and watch the whole thing. I mean, I didn't fuckin know that Earth, Wind and Fire, Parliament/ Funkadelic and Outkast were going to do a collaboration!!! Fuck!!! I dun really care much about Sting, Dave Matthews, Pharrell Williams of the Neptunes' rendition of the Beatles' 'I Saw Her Standing There'. What I've read was that André 3000 of Outkast performed that insanely catchy hit, 'Hey Ya!' complete with Parliament/ Funkadelic style of live set-up, y'know, spaceships, crazy outfits, etc. Fuck, I really shoulda stayed at home...

In a different world on Saturday, I went out with my National Service mates to catch up. After a jug of beer on my own (we had around 17 in total), I popped my karoke cherry by backing Chung on The Papas and Mamas's 'California Dreaming'. As you know, the song revolves around a call-and-response type of vocals. I was the response dude, slugging it out in a vocal style that was a cross between a helium balloon and a squealing pig. Someone had to play PeeWee Herman to Chung's Barry White.

The Evil Lair turns 1... a few days ago or soon

I'm not too sure when exactly I have started this blog. I can't remember the date and it seems I might have some missing entries in the archives.

Thanks for reading all this while. Though I'm still unsure who is reading all this stuff, except for the usual suspects who have their own blogs. If it's a community, why do I have only 3 names there? I guess not that many people are that exhibitionistic (is there even such a word?)

In the coming year, I guess there's a few areas I'd think I'd like to work. 1st, My grammar, yes... my grammar. I'm sick and tired of you fuckers (you know who you are!!!) complaining about it the whole time. Then again, don't count on it. 2nd, I think the blog is getting rather messy-looking, duncha think?

By the way, in case, if you like, please a msg below so that I knows who reads this blog.

Cheers...

When you know you are bored, you clap your hands...

Some people differs from the rest of us. When he's bored, he makes Janet Jackson breast cupcakes. She attempts to join American Idol on her webcam. Well, I like to look at nice tits at www.nice-tits.org when I'm bored.

'City Girl' Music Video... well, sorta

Kevin Shield of the legendary My Bloody Valentine contributed only one vocal track, among 3 other instrumentals to the sound track of Sophia Coppola's 'Lost In Translation'. Here's the link to the video but it's actually just clips of the movie strung together. But hey, you get a smiling Scarlett Johansson at the end. That counts for something. Right?

Tribute the movie

A rockumentary about tribute bands, simply called Tribute. Here's the pretty good and in-depth interview with the directors of the documentary at Film Threat.

This is un-fucking-believeable insane!!!

Are they even fucken serious?!!? Read the beep.

An excerpt:

(George W. Bush and Tony Blair) have been put forward by a Norwegian politician who said toppling the Iraqi dictator (Saddam Hussein) had reduced the threat of weapons of mass destruction.

Xombie the animated series

Check out the cartoons at www.xombified.com. Kinda reminds me of Jamie Hewitt's artstyle for Gorilliaz.

All cartoons are made in Flash. Pretty fun stuff.

This proves that most Mac users are all slightly unhinged...

I posted this link about a guy gutting a G5 and installing a PC in it. It turns out to be a hoax, as reported in this article. Some Mac users actually emailed the guy, threatening bodily harm for dismantling a G5. I swear, those Mac users need some therapy...

Peek-a-boob

Pardon the pun... While you guys out there start hunting down the infamous footage of Janet Jackson baring her right titty on US national television, here's the official statement from NFL. Though this is what he should have said. (from Highclearing)

We deeply regret the appalling incident that occurred during halftime celebrations at the Super Bowl yesterday. For 40 years and more our league has been tantalizing our fans with partial views of women's breasts. We have been committed to showing cleavage and, failing that, the outline of women's breasts on our cheerleaders, in the commercials of our sponsors, the silhouettes of our network sideline reporters and the crowd shots by our network broadcast teams - to titillate and to fill downtime.

We have hoped that our viewers would discuss women's breasts and imagine women's breasts, speculate on their authenticity, ponder nipple color and size, daydream of seizing those spongy masses and twisting them this way and then that way, of burying one's face in them like a spaniel at the dinner bowl. Above all, we have hoped that our viewers will associate women's breasts with the National Football League.

But we never meant to show you the whole thing. We sincerely regret that our half-century long tease overshot its mark yesterday. We urge our viewers to forgive us, and to continue to content themselves with veils and innuendo in our future seasons.

P.S. And no pussy. Ever. Quite.

Sincerely,

Paul Tagliabue
NFL Commissioner

After Britney so famously sucked face with fading pop icon Madonna (on yet another MTV event), how could Justin Timberlake, otherwise more known to be the man who popped the Virgin Whore, Britney's cherry could lack behind his ex's in shock stunts eh? His official statement that it was really not an accident.

Timberlake: "I am sorry if anyone was offended by the wardrobe malfunction during the halftime performance at the Super Bowl," he said. "It was not intentional and is regrettable."

Start crying me a river maaaan!!!

Why Mommy should NEVER read your blog

Enough said!!!

Pain In The Ass part 7

Technically, it's not in the ass.

I'm having the mother of all zits. I have one stuck inside my right nostril and it's totally full-blown now. Yup, just imagine the pain!!! The shitty thing is that you can't squeeze the motherfucker... It hurts when I twitch my nose. I'm a person with morning sinus; you can imagine how it'd be like when I wake up later. The horror! The horror!!!

But I guess, the worst place still to have that zit is as a pain in the ass. Or more so, right in the bunghole. Ouuucccchhhh...

Fucken amazing' online magazine

I've been reading past issues of Vice Magazine non-stop for the last few days. It's so absolutely good that I've added it to my daily online reading.

This interview they had with Matmos is fucken hilarious. Chekkit. Matmos was the duo that backed Bjork up in her last album, "Vespertine". Yeah, they seemed to be like the Pet Shop Boys of the IDM movement.

Gangs In New Zealand

No, it's not a movie. Read this article in Vice Australia regarding the flourishing of gangs in modern New Zealand. I visited the country when I was a wee lad and definitely would make it a point to make a trip back to the beautiful country at least once more in my life. That and Brazil, which I have never been to before.

I have a friend who went back to New Zealand (his family emigrated there when he was still in secondary school) after National Service. He was supposed to have went back to study in the local university. Apparently, he had dropped out for reasons unknown to me. What I've heard so far is that he had joined a gang "out of protection" and has been supporting his lifestyle by collecting stolen car stereos and re-selling them (Well, I guess it's a promotion from just stealing them)

So far, from what I've known from the mutual friends we shared, it seems that everyone has sort of lost contact with him. He's known to be the irrational type, prone to getting into fights. I hope he's doing fine and staying outta trouble. After all, I still need someone to bunk in with when I visit the country again!!!

Gilberto Gil Live At The Esplande

The following excerpt is taken from BigO's emailer:

As Brazil's culture minister, music icon Gilberto Gil might have less time to compose and listen to music. Still he has managed to fit in a tour that will take him to Hongkong, New Zealand, Australia and $ingapore. For Gil, it's pop diplomacy when he takes to the stage at the Esplanade on March 4. Acclaimed for his samba and bossa nova tunes, Gil said in an interview that he had always combined his music with politics. "One job enriches the other," he said. A strong environmentalist allied to Brazil's Green Party, Gil became minister of culture in January 2003. His brief is to use the arts to help bring the different social classes in Brazil together.

Since the '60s, Gil has been one of the most famous singers and composers in Brazil. With singers Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa and others he helped found Tropicalia, the musical movement that followed Bossa Nova. In 2003, Gil was named man of the year at the Latin Grammy Awards in Miami.

Tickets for the 8 pm show are at $149, 129, 109, 89, 69 and 49. Available from Sistic outlets (www.sistic.com.sg).

How fucken cool is that when you have a musical icon as your culture minister. You have no worries if your minster truly understand the concept of art or your minister is just using art to make some more money for the nation. As an ignoramous Singaporean citizen, I wouldn't even know who our Minister for the Arts, Communication and Information is. But I can bet you the Esplande that it's bound to be some government scholar.

This gig still clashes with the Bowie one which is going to happen on the exact same night. Fuck...

This article is fucken hilarious...

Taken from Vice Magazine, the following excerpt cracked me up.

However, I’m not going to deny that sometimes there just seems to be a tendency for some groups to adapt better to capitalism. Groups like the Chinese, the Lebanese, the East Indians, and the Jews, repeatedly, in any context, often fare better economically. If you look at the Chinese in Singapore—for example—that is a poverty-stricken area of the world, raising all kinds of theories about the relationship between tropical weather and productivity, but the Chinese just bought some air conditioners and got to work. Today it’s one of the richest countries in the world.


Ah... just like what our Senior Minster had prescribed in the 60's.

Choose life part 3

Jeremy Chua invited us to his girlfriend, Pearl's place on Saturday for a get-together for my army mates. Roy fetched me, Khai and Chung to her place. Kevin came down later with Lip Peow and his girlfriend, Sherry. It was great fun as we finished 2 cartons of beer and gambled the night away though I lost like $20+. Crap...

We started talking about our directions in life. Chung started telling me how he felt that I was totally directionless in life and didn't seem to exude any sense of confidence in how I 'sell' myself to others. I just inspire confidence in others. He threw in a disclaimer that his words were harsh. I told him that he was right to make such observations. What he had said was what I was aware about too. Jason Ong aka J. O. had remarked to me just a few days ago that I just seemed to have any drive in life. They were not wrong to say that. It didn't come as a surprise to me that they would think that way as well.

Sometimes, I just feel like I've stopped giving a shit about everything. I just feel so tired. I've not done anything in my entire life to warrant that, of course. However, I need to get out of that single rut, that fucken stupid feeling that is boggling me down.

Roy suggested that I've been meeting the wrong employers but I don't think he's right to say that. I'm tired of giving such excuses to myself. I concurred with what Lip Peow had said about being stuck in a comfort zone. As crazy as it is to get a car, getting a sales job which might require my own personal transport might just kick my ass in line. But of course, like what Roy mentioned, I'd just sell the car if I can't afford it or decide to get of that very job which is financing the car. This, I agree with him. I may need a greater kick. I dunno.

BUt one thing is for sure: I really need to get out of this comfort zone. I guess the question is what will the ticket be and how would I get it? I'm not expecting answers. I just have to find it myself. And I don't even know when I would find it.

Acid vs. Shrooms

Just read about it here. I think I'm more of a Subject B person. Then again, I fall into the correct age category.

Lost In Translation

Just watched Lost In Translation with Billy, Gracie, Gavin and Aldric. Thought it was pretty good and I do like it. Not too much but still more than a lot of movies I've caught recently.

I thought the nuances were done pretty well and Bill "Dr. Peter Venkman" Murray did a pretty good job as his role of a lost soul. I haven't caught Sophia Coppola's "The Virgin Suicides" yet, so I'm not too sure about how she would perform. However, she was rather horrendous in "The Godfather part 3". Then again, she was acting at the time, not directing. Nothing too obstructive and nothing too gimmicky, except for several soft-focus shots. According to Billy, Coppola was running out of time and didn't obtain enough location permits for the shoots. Thus, some of the shots were haphazardly shot.

Well, the romantic/ sexual tension between the 2 lead characters, Bob Harris (played by Murray) and Charlotte (played by Scarlett Johansson) was nicely captured. Though the whole "2 fishes outta the water finding themselves with each other" schtick seemed a lil cliché, the backdrop for the story seemed perfectly apt. Coppola explored the theme of middle-age crisis within Murray's character who gives up a theatrical role for US$2 million to star in a whiskey advertisement in Japan. (Digression: There's a website dedicated to this phenomeon where Western stars flocked to Japan, attracted by the obscene amount of money the Japanese throw to them to feature in some obscenely stupid advertisements. David Beckham, Brad Pitt, etc. You name the person, the person most likely have shot an advt in Japan before.)



The whole struggle within the character itself seemed to reflect the whole identity and cultural crisis of Japan as well. Coppola touched on it briefly while never asserting any strong views on the situation, preferring to paint Toyko as a fascinating city of lights and vibrance. The city never seems to sleep. The contrast of the traditional and the modern and the worship of Western culture, especially American were just presented to the viewer with no conclusions drawn. I like the non-judgementality (is there such a word?) of it all.

Scarlett Johansson was decent in her role as a wife, Charlotte following her husband on his business trip, trying to discover herself in the process. She walks through the movie like a wide-eyed doe; a lost person searching for herself in an alien world which is lost itself. There's fear and trepidation in her eyes. Nothing too over-the-top, just expressed with a dignified manner and grace. As compared with her peers, I think she'd be someone to look out for with her acting chops at such a young age.

After the screening, the guys agreed that Scarlett Johansson is pretty righteous though on the meaty side. Grace expressed her surprise at my ability to notice some cellulite on the legs. (Eh, I've not been running this blog for nothing.) But hey, she's still quite busty.

By the way, anyone has the "Ghostbusters" DVD? It's been quite sometime since I've watched that. Oh yeah, the soundtrack is pretty cool too. Coppola managed to coax British indie music legend, Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine to score the movie.