The well is dry...

Whatever I had which constituted as creativity has gone the way of the dodos. Feeling fucken uncreative recently. There's no mood to blog and no mood to play any music. The worst of all: the launch of the Aging Youth site is coming soon and I'm sitting on my arse about several interviews which I'm supposed to do.

I think this is what they say work does to you. Feeling lethargic and all.

I feel like I need to hole up somewhere for a few months with a notebook and return triumphant with an EP or some shit. The interest to play music is stronger than the will to play it. I'm such a fucken weak pussy to align the two. The two are not exactly mutually inclusive nowadays.

This is starting to depress me.

Yeah, I know. The irony of this post. But I reckon that the next post would be still pretty soon. It'd be me raving/ bitching about Spiderman 2. Thankfully, this dry spell has no effect on me going through pictures of scantily clad women. There will still be a H.A.I.R. of July.

Guts

Guts, an online short story by Chuck Palahniuk. Unsettling.

Weapons of mass destructions: time to google bomb

What's a Google bomb?

According to this article, it goes something like:

Google Bombs were conceived last April as part of a brilliant gag by Adam Mathes. In his own words:

"Google is unique among search engines in that while it almost always shows you pages that have the exact keywords you are looking for, occasionally it will show you pages that don't have those keywords, but other pages linked to that page with those words.

I first discovered this when searching for internet rockstar, which turned up Ben's page. [editor: Adam is referring to internet rockstar Ben Brown] At the time though, he did not actually have that phrase on his page however the legions of teeny-bopper blogger morons who linked to him always used that phrase in their links."

Adam identified a critical loophole in Google's algorithm. This article I'm writing may be about Google Bombs... but if enough sites linked to it using the phrase "Aunt Jemima," then this article might come up as the first search result for "Aunt Jemima." In other words, the linker can impact the Google Rank of the linkee.

Why am I talking about Google bombing? Ahem, I'm trying to increase the ranking of Aging Youth Productions in any Google search. Those with blogs? Help out by pasting the word, 'Aging Youth Productions' in any of your posts. Those without blogs just click on the link.

Nothing is up yet. I'm just trying to increase the ranking in Google searches. Thanks!

The Punisher

Just watched it with Graham and Khai. Surprisingly, it was pretty decent with a little clinches here and there. But what the fuck am I talking about? This is a comic book adaption... It's bound to be clinche!

Thomas Jane is surprisingly pretty good as Frank Castle aka the Punisher. Well, John Travolta is just gettin' more and more irritating.

Spiderman 2, out on Wed. Can't wait.

Pleasantly surprised

I think Melvin will be all over me *ahem* to watch this. Can't believe it's coming to town.

Shows I love...

Nowadays, I've been watching shitloads of the BBC comedy, The Office. I have 1st read about it on CHUD actually. Then it went on to win several Golden Globes this year. Now, Arts Central has jumped on the bandwagon and is showing every Thursday night at 1030pm. It's really fooken hilarious in the typical snide British way.



Another really good one would be the USA Network show, Monk, a detective with an obsessive-compulsive disorder. A smart show which does not treat its audience like idiots. Fine acting all round as well. The 2nd season just ended on Channel i. However, they are re-running Season 1 on Sundays, 5pm.



CSI: Miami leaves me cold. I don't really like the fact that they added too much character involvement in the series. I like David Caruso in NYPD: Blue 10 years ago. I don't really like him here that much. However, the original series, CSI or CSI: Las Vegas is da bomb with its clinical approach to forensic detective work. I love it and try to catch most episodes. Bring back my CSI man...

Of course, I watch Smallville and a little of The OC. But you guys already know that...

Joyous day...

Just bought the domain name for Aging Youth Productions... the template is almost done... The revamp is within sight.

Death of fashion

Today, my director took the boys (i.e. me and my other male colleague, Andy Leong) out shopping. She got us 5 shirts, 3 pants and 2 ties each from G2000. All colour approved and colour co-ordinated by her as well. Sounds great, I know.

But no more peach pinstripes shirts. No more pink shirts. Sigh...

That's like not allowed anymore...

Crap.

Heineken Green Room Sessions: Area 320

Chekkit here.

That's my Bush...

Where was he when what happened? *photo is a link*

Still insisting it.

Results of hegemony

Some women in the military - if they are not themselves being raped by male soldiers (in February, US soldiers were accused of raping more than 112 colleagues in Iraq and Afghanistan) - seem to have to prove that they are one of the guys by sexually humiliating the only people less important than they are: Iraqi prisoners, of whatever sex. It's a chilling lesson, that women can be sexual sadists just as well as men. Just give them the right conditions - and someone weaker to kick. It's proof that sexual aggression is not really about sex or gender, but about power: the powerful humiliating the powerless.

Read the entire article here.

National Penis Month

Well, apparently, it's National Penis Month back over at Eros Blog. Here are some photos Bacchus has been featuring.


Yes, it's meant for the ladies.


It's a friggin' cute dog but you still wouldn't want it to go through your drawer...

Uh huh...

Stuck in office today. Am rading the Straits Times. Came across this column in the Tech & Science Section where they answer science questions.

The question of the day:
"Why do people close their eyes when they kiss?"

Here's some exceprts from the reply:
"... Biologically, some anthropologists believe our lips are comparable to the labia of a woman's vagina."

Ermmm.... okay.

"The sensory homunculus - how much space the brain allocates to different body parts when it comes to 'feeling' the world around us - for the lips occupies a large part of our brain's white matter. With kissing in action, this induces a sensory overload. Therefore, closing your eyes is a natural way to reduce the sensory load....

... Emotionally, some prefer to believe, people close their eyes to reduce embarrassment and to concentrate on the feeling of tender touch and love more than anything else. In short, they simply do not wish to be disturbed.

Assistant Professor
Yau Che Ming
National Institue of Education, NTU"

The Evil Lair says, "No shit, Sherlock."

Hip hop non-stop...

THat's like da description for G. Dawg maaaannn. Unfortunately, due to his absence last night, I have decided not to bust da joint, Cocoalatte last night. Well, sorry, Gracie sweetie and Jess, some other time? Uh...

Was out with some NUS friends last night at Balaclava. Had not met up with Zippy, Kueh and Peishi for a long time. So it was all good. Catching up with them. Crap, shoulda brought a digicam... My 'Food On The Table' photo exhibition might have to be delayed. Fuck.

Anyway, just found out my primary school classmate, Adelina is toying with the idea of setting up a match making agency. Well, she's holding a singles party tonight and I'm supposed to go down and test the water. See if the whole idea can work out.

And it's held at Cocoalatte. The irony.

Take Me Out Tonight...

ah'm been given notice by the sistahs/
Y'know and ah know, ah'm not a rebel/
Orders given must be obeyed-uh/
Pimp or be pimped-uh/

Friday night, R n B club 'Cocoalatte'/
ah'm bustin' da joint with mah posse/
just obeyin' orders from Grace and Jessica/
Gawd, ah hope nobody ain't drivin' no cars/

Beer, lychee martini, vodka tonic, tequila/
consumed and disgested in that ordah/
We be getting G. Dawg down and deerrrty on da floor/
shaking his bits to the four-to-da-floor/

ah ain't frontin' when G. Dawg cops his moves/
all da 'hos be comin' fast and loose/
"Fo shizzle, mah nizzle?"/*
Fuck off, Aaron you drunk geezer/


* street speak for "For real, my nigga?" or "Are you certain, my African-American brother?"

Censorship...

Was watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer just now ith my sis. Probably, the only thing we share in common beside our parents. Anyway, TCS 5 is showing the final season of Buffy every Wed 12 midnight.

Since we are still on the topic of lesbians, today's episode featured Buffy's sidekick, Willow (lesbian) under a hex, cursed to transform into the man that she killed. In order to turn Willow back, Kennedy, a new character and most likely, lesbian, had to kiss her. While they were exchanging saliva, the shot featured a girl and a man (Willow was cursed...). Then as the camera spirals around them, suddenly, they were sitting apart with the curse removed and Willow being a female again.

Damn this censorship laws!!!

Did I forget to mention that Sarah Michelle Gellar is incredibly cute as well?

Ermmm...

Let's see.

Friday? Drinking with B.boy, G. Dawg, Gracie, Jessica, Jasmine and quite a couple more. Joe Jee (still haven't featured his mug on this blog) and Adrina joined us. Was struggling through 3 pints of Erdinger lite. Shit....

Saturday? Had Teochew Porridge as mentioned below. Went to meet the guys later before going Zouk.


Someone (aka fucken Kevin Ang) was sure happy to see me.


I tried to do the food with people theme again but there was only beer around... soon-to-be-blushing-bride Doris and 'Eugene Alex Desmond' Koh Lip Peow who is, by the way, not the groom.


I believe Melvin was trying to make a proposition here... something about swallowing something whole.


From right: Roy, Johann, Natalie and the kopi tiam auntie. We all still dunno her name though we have been drinking at the same kopitiam before going Zouk for the last 7 years...


Edwin "Martell is my bitch" Chan in deep discussion if he should have 2 jugs of whiskey soda and a bottle of Martell or just 2 bottles of Martell. The life-changing decisions he makes daily...

It all went crazy after that. Total liver damage: beer, vodka lime, Martell, whiskey soda, tequila shots. Luckily, I didn't puke. Khai and Chung joined us later. They just came back from Perak, OBS camp, both pilot trainees. As usual, Nick was the latest and, never failed to do so, brought a date, Tina. Alvin, my darling Jo and Jonathon came around 12 midnight. It was a riot, to say the least.

One of our friends (cannot mention any names) was here the night before and 2 girls (purportedly lesbians) asked him to go back home with them. Fuck woah!!!! I believe I speak for all mankind when I say, 'Fucken lucky bastard!!!' However, he didn't go. He thought it was pretty disgusting. I believe I speak for all mankind when I say, 'Fucken stupid bastard!!!'

Anyhow, the whole night was spent trying to edge him to get those very same 2 girls who were 'coincidentally' there that night. It was that fun. Somehow, one of us (not the lucky bastard though) managed to goad the girls into a lip-lock. Needless to say, it made the night for all the guys. It was like sorority girls in an American frat boys' party. And there was tongue involved... oh yeah... you heard that right.

After that, all adjourned to Newton for supper. I dunno if anyone got on with anyone. I sure as fuck went home alone!!!

The 1st in the series of the Evil Lair's photo gallery exhibition

A thought struck my head struck my head that day. I'd have my own online photo exhibition, revolving the theme of food and people.

It all started from this quaint shot... I inspire myself...


Thanks guys...


An unsuspecting Serene... Teochew porridge at Havelock Road.

I wonder who's gonna get served up next... hehehe...

Warner Bros.

Read this on Pitchfork:

Various Warner Bros. recording artists are huddling together, making small talk, and nervously biting their nails as the label, which recently let go more than 1,000 employees, has begun announcing which bands are to be cut from their roster. Many of the bands that will be released are those who existed on the east-coast-based Atlantic and Elektra labels, which are being consolidated as a part of a massive reorganization at Warner Bros. The reorganization comes as a result of a private group of investors, including former Universal mogul Edgar Bronfman, Jr., purchasing the label from Time Warner back in February. Several bands have already been let go, and it is estimated that nearly half of the 170-act roster will be given pink slips and be sent on their way.

One notable early casualty is Stereolab. According to the band's manager, Martin Pike, Stereolab was told that their "services are going to be dispensed with." Stereolab had been on Elektra since 1993, but apparently their consistent output and relatively steady popularity in the indie world wasn't enough to save them. Stereolab's most recent album, Margarine Eclipse, was issued earlier this year, "moving" only 40,000 "units," a very low output by major label standards.

The label is remaining fairly tight-lipped about who's staying and who's going, but Lyor Cohen, the label's U.S. chief executive, has outlined a vague definition of what will allow an act to remain on the roster, saying, "The tipping point of whether an artist remains is the company's passion to market and promote them. Everyone that remains we're going to be insanely passionate about." Which we must take to mean that you can expect to see more of The Darkness than you ever dreamed, and possibly a whole lot less of Built to Spill-- the justice, of course, being that these bands will likely make more money on indies anyway.

Luckily, a few of the indie bands at Warner Bros. and its various subsidiaries have a high standing with the label that is keeping them safe for the moment. Guster, for example, are currently in the option phase of their contract, which means that the label could've chosen to drop them if they wanted. In January, however, only six months after the release of Keep It Together, the option was picked up for another album, securing their place with the entertainment giant. According to Nettwerk Management spokesperson Dalton Sim, although Guster, like labelmates The Flaming Lips, are not selling millions of albums, they have "an active fanbase that continues to develop."

Sim commented that Guster has been very happy with the label, which is apparently realistic about who is and who isn't radio-hit material, stating, "I can only say that our experience with Warner/Reprise has been a very good one." He went on to comment, "If they don't think the band has a radio song, they take that money and spend it elsewhere." So it makes sense that cutting a band like Third Eye Blind-- who was a radio powerhouse in the past but stalled at the starting line with their most recent release-- would be an easy decision, as their popularity was rooted in big radio singles.

An interesting footnote is that everyone's favorite angry 45-year-olds, Metallica, seemingly strong-armed their way onto Warner Bros. for their next album. Like Stereolab, Metallica had been on Elektra, but chose to leave when the announcement was made that the label was being dissolved into Atlantic. The story goes that Metallica informed Bronfman and Cohen that they would not deliver the final record in their Elektra contract unless they were allowed to move seamlessly to Warner. On the surface, this seems like a sound business decision by Warner Bros., as Metallica has been a pretty sure bet financially for the last 15 years or so, but consider that Metallica's sales peaked with 1991's self-titled release, and have been on a steady decline ever since. Their most recent disaster, St. Anger, for example, has sold fewer copies than any album they've released since 1986.

As the cuts slowly leak out, here's a partial selection of the massive artist roster that, as members of the rather extended Warner family, could potentially find themselves homeless: Green Day, The Stratford 4, Dream Theater, Depeche Mode, New Order, Jewel, Morcheeba, Deftones, Built to Spill, The Donnas, Barenaked Ladies, Junior Senior, The Stills, Mandy Moore. Mandy Moore, people! That girl won't survive on the street!

Shakin' that ass...

Beyoncé's live performance (plus some lip-synching of) 'Naughty Girl'.I thinksome parts were taken from Donna Summer's 'Love To Love You'.

Chekkit out here in RealPlayer for a good rump-shaking.

China Bar photos...

Graham... not the 2 beer man anymore...


... we are proud to say that he can finish one whole jug himself...


Brendan... smug bastard... but not many can finish that much beer in one sitting...


Smug bastard here with his chick, Charmaine. She joined us around 2 am. We were all pretty wasted by then.

The O.C. returns this Thurs

G. Dawg, get a grip on yourself...

Movie trailers

Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events, starring Jim Carrey. Cute.

Martin Scorsese's The Aviator, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Kate Beckinsale, Alec Baldwin and Jude Law.

Fahrenheit 9/11

Was totally wasted last night at the China Bar. Puked 3 times. Shared 5 jugs and a round of Sambukas (have always drank it but dunno how to spell it). 5 jugs of fucken Erdinger lite... Yes, I'd gotten drunk on Erdinger. It's crazy... Met the director of local comedy bar, The 1 Nite Stand, John who bought us the additional rounds which pushed us (i.e. Brendan, Graham and me) over.

Anyway, apologies to Jessica, hahaha, I still can't figure how to use that HTML code to embed a movie trailer on my blog. But you know, not everyone has Quicktime (fucken idiots...).

So,here's soapbox ranter, Michael Moore's Cannes-winning documentary, 'Fahrenheit 9/11'. It's fucken funny towards the end. Chekkit.

Nick Berg

Jason Siau sent me a link regarding the execution of American Nick Berg by Arabic terrorists. I vaguely knew of the details. But conspiracy theories are a pet topic of mine.

But the theory holds some sense. Well, there was Bill Clinton's sex scandal and suddenly, the Haitian invasion. Hmmm... U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi soldiers, followed by a shocking video of an American being beheaded. Coincidental? Staged?

Chekkit.

Michael Moore hates America

An American film-maker, Michael Wilson who basically disagrees with many of Michael Moore's political views and agenda makes his own documentary about, well, Michael Moore. Wilson tries to contact Moore throughout the shoot for an interview but fails to get him to commit to one.

Kinda reminiscent of Moore himself in his Oscar-winning documentary, 'Bowling for Columbine' when he went after K-Mart which sold the bullets to the teens behind the Columbine High School shootout and Charlton Heston aka Ben-Hur in, well, 'Ben-Hur' aka Moses in 'The Ten Commandments aka U.S.'s National Rifle Association president-and-shoo-in-mascot.

I believe Moore might be flawed at times but who isn't? Wilson reproaches Moore for using documentaries as a vehicle for Moore's own personal political agendas. In the trailer, you see supporters of Moore defending him but they sound like idiots. You'd see detractors of Moore speaking out against him eloquently.

Trailer for 'Michael Moore Hates America' which has a tagline of 'A Documentary That Tells The Truth About A Great Nation'.

Ah, I swear the irony is so thick you can slice it with a knife.

Panties power

Found this link on Eros Blog, this guy shares his wealth of knowledge about panties and the power they have over men in general on his blog.

New H.A.I.R. of July

Elisha Cuthbert is this month's H.A.I.R. She's most well-known for her role as Kiefer Sutherland's daughter in '24'. Well, apparently between season, she appears in different forms of media, print, film, etc. in all manner of undress. Hey, I'm not complaining...