Extras
Guest star: David fucken Bowie
Friday, September 29, 2006
Hmm...
Got it from Weng. Good read.
The fallout from the Thai coup is yet to hit Singapore's Madame Ho, writes Eric Ellis.
THAILAND'S military junta has gone out of its way to assure that it's business as usual in Bangkok.
The baht has wobbled, likewise the stock exchange, but neither with symptoms to have neighbours sniffling with the contagion they caught here during the late 1990s financial crisis. The coup has been smooth as silk, as Thais like to say.
But there is one woman in Singapore who desperately hopes the generals are as good as their word, the person whose dealmaking with Thailand's ousted Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, precipitated the coup.
Her name is Ho Ching. She is chief executive of the Singapore Government-owned Temasek Holdings, which controls a $100 billion-plus portfolio, including Optus.
She bought Thaksin out of his family businesses, Shin Corp, in March in a highly questionable $4.5 billion transaction that outraged Thais.
The Singapore company bought the Thai leader's controlling half share in Shin Corp and then quickly snapped up most of the rest on the stockmarket. Temasek now controls 96 per cent.
As Thaksin banked Temasek's tax-free cash, Thais burnt Madame Ho's effigy on Bangkok streets, traducing the reputation created for her by Singaporean spin doctors as a safe pair of hands. It was, at best, a spectacular misjudgement.
Far from being the great buy Temasek claimed, the deal ignited six months of political turmoil, culminating in the coup. Thais stopped using the television, airline, finance and technology businesses Temasek bought.
Now Shin buyers wear a $US2 billion ($2.6 billion) paper loss on the deal after less than six months.
As Thai regulators deepen their probe into the transaction and Thaksin's "rampant corruption", Temasek and its partners reportedly face fines of up to $US2 billion if it's proved, as many suspect, that Thai licensing laws have been breached. Or have the deal declared illegal, the assets nationalised.
Coups d'etat tend to arouse shrill demonstrations of nationalism; Temasek is the convenient foreign villain, its predicament entirely self-inflicted.
In these post-Enron days where blameless corporate governance is paramount, if the chief executive blows $2 billion in six months, the bloodletting in the boardroom would be swift and brutal. But even if her Thai adventure worsens, that seems unlikely to happen to Ho, who is the wife of Singapore's Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong; the daughter-in-law of the nation's long-time strongman, Lee Kuan Yew.
At 54, Ho is no Singapore Girl. Dour and grim, with a penchant for unflattering grey business suits, she's be! en Temasek's unsmiling CEO since 2001, presenting as an untouchable corporatedominatrix protected by the formidable Lee family edifice.
The Lees, as compliant Singaporeans famously know, don't make mistakes. Any questioning of their methods - as bankrupted opposition politicians and the foreign press have frequently discovered - hazard libel suits heard in Singapore's courts, where the Lees' history of success is unparalleled.
Not that the Singaporean media does much questioning either. The day's newspapers after the coup did not report Temasek's obvious dilemma, odd given that ultimately it is Singapore taxpayers' money Ho has hazarded.
It was left to a sole letter writer, presciently published a week before the coup, who suggested that an alliance with the much-hated Thaksin might not be a wise risk for the national nest egg. "Hitching our investment bandwagon to the first family is a double-edged sword," wrote Danny Chua in Today.
"We can go higher with their rising star but when they fall, we can fall too. Our investment must stand up to scrutiny in the eyes of the law. There must be compliance with corporate governance and transparency. We must be able to sleep peacefully, knowing that we have done the right thing."
Singapore loves to control and, when it can't, to quietly work its power relationships behind the scenes. Temasek claims to be independent of government but often seems to follow government policy in its investment portfolio, spending to boost neighbours.
And in Thaksin, Singapore found an autocrat after its own heart, rare in a region where mostly-Chinese Singapore isn't much liked, derided though grudgingly admired as rich and arrogant.
Thaksin was a big fan of the Lee's long-ruling People's Action Party and its compliant "Singapore System". Thaksin and Lee were allies in pushing EU-style ASEAN integration and there was resentment in Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur of a supposed Singapore-Bangkok axis within the group. Not any more.
Serious questions abound for a Singapore that likes to lecture the world about "best practices" of corporate governance it supposedly employs.
Temasek is suspected of funding Thai partners in the Thaksin deal, the implication being to avoid breaching foreign investment laws.
And where did Temasek pay Thaksin? Thailand's central bank limits personal cash transfers to $US1 million a year - thus it would take about 2000 years to transfer Thaksin's pile - and needs special permission from the central bank to go higher.
But Thailand's central bank governor is seen as a cleanskin, and a contender to be appointed caretaker prime minister by the generals.
Thaksin presumably knew that so it raises questions whether Temasek paid some of the funds offshore, in a foreign tax haven perhaps, avoiding Thai rules altogether.
And then there's impact beyond Bangkok. Economic contagion seems to have been contained but the bloodless ease in which Thaksin has been removed, the popularity of the coup, has been noticed in Jakarta and Manila, both struggling to secure their own democracies.
Temasek is in serious trouble in Thailand. It's suddenly friendless, losing its main political ally in Bangkok and his cronies, and runs the risk of having its assets seized as the Thaksin probe deepens. The deal itself is a fait accompli; Thaksin banked his $US2 billion months ago and, now in gilded exile in London, is unlikely to offer to return Temasek's cash.
If Temasek and Thaksin fall out, the legal implications are fascinating. For the moment however, the silence from Temasek has been deafening. It simply says it is "monitoring events". With $4 billion of other peoples' money in the balance, it might've added "anxiously".
Eric Ellis is South-East Asia Correspondent for Fortune magazine.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
New songs to download
Filipino band Bamboo’s just released a compilation in June and this is the Singapore single ‘Truth’. I like the organ sound in the track and how lead singer (well) Bamboo’s phrasing in the chorus. Their 1st single (ever?) ‘Mr. Clay’ is pretty good as well. Generally, nice vibes.
Everybody loves some melodrama in their lives. Bamboo left Rivermaya quite a couple of years back which they carried on. ‘Balisong’ has this great falsetto from singer Rico Blanca and nice tinkling on the piano. I think the radio stations are playing their hit from last year ‘You’ll Be Safe Here’. You write songs like these to get laid ALL THE TIME!!! I bet that Rico dude is getting laid by the minute! Max, go and download this right now!!! It’s a damn pussy song; you’d love it!!!
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Friday, September 22, 2006
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Extras
Got these YouTube links off Billy's blog. Ricky Gervais who did 'The Office' a few years back has a new series 'Extras'.
Amazon.co.uk Review
Extras,Ricky Gervais’ much-anticipated follow-up to The Office, is a quieter affair, and a little less accessible that its award-laden predecessor. But across the six episodes on this first season DVD set are several episodes that will richly reward repeated viewings.
Gervais plays Andy Millman, an actor whose roster of jobs seems to consistently consist of extras work. Each episode follows him on a different production, and also brings in a notable guest star. Lining up throughout the series are the likes of Samuel L Jackson, Kate Winslet and Ben Stiller. And while their presence undoubtedly adds something to each carefully crafted episode, it’s perhaps those with the lesser names that show the programme on top form--certainly the appearance of Les Dennis makes for an excellent half hour of comedy-drama.
At the core though is Gervais’ Millman--a far easier character to warm to than David Brent--and Ashley Jensen’s marvellous Maggie Jacobs. It’s these two who consistently provide the show’s highlights, and while the headlines have been generated by the all-star roster of names attracted to appear in Extras, it’s the two less showy characters who work the best.
Extras isn’t a show full of belly laughs, and its fanbase is likely to be smaller than that of The Office. But it’s still a quality creation, properly crafted, with an awful lot to it to enjoy and appreciated.--Simon Brew
Though somehow I think 'Extras' will suit Singaporean tastes more than 'The Office'...
Guest star: Daniel Radcliffe
Guest star: Patrick Stewart
Thursday, September 14, 2006
The Album Leaf - Making of Into The Blue Again documentary
I love The Album Leaf but HMV's price for the album is $28.50 which is too steep for a broke person like me. I'm gonna get it prolly online even though I've the entire album. Yes, even if you can get free mp3s, you'd still buy the album to support the acts you love.
Enjoy.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
I Was A Lied Groupie...
Was up last weekend to hang out with Adlin, Sen Kiat and Matt and have some fun in KL.
Grassland coaches suck goats' balls. There were no food and worse, no personalised DVD players!!! I was aghast to say the least. Luckily, I brought my own entertainment. Finished 2 books on the way there and back: Chuck Palahniuk's 'Invisible Monster' and Robin Epstein and Renee Kaplan's 'Shaking Her Assets'.
First stop off the coach: Zouk KL. I've gotten directions on how to take a train to Zouk KL. I managed to stop myself from taking some photos of the monorail to avoid looking like an absolute tourist.
Lied which won the Heineken Thirst Rock Band category was performing with the other Thirst finalists. Sen Kiat's other band, Supabar was playing before Lied. I swear, all these Malaysian indie kids play in at least 3 bands each! I heard Ronnie of furniture has a side project which the entire band dresses up as Malay girls in tudung and baju kurung and plays improv noise!!! I'm still waiting for pictures from Ching for this band.
Lied at Zouk
Anyway, back to the story. Here's a picture of Adlin serenaiding one of the many chicks with 'Oceans Part' when he walked up to them. I call it the "Bono syndrome" when you sing the chick song in your repertoire to well, chicks. Very sly. Very sly, indeed.
No wonder he's KL's sexiest man...
After the show, we were hanging out at The Loft which I think Twilight Action Girl (KL's version of PopTart was playing. Adlin's 2 friends Kim and Nadia were there with the intention: "Let's make the Singaporean drunk!". Being very young girls, they proceeded to challenge me to drink that last third of a Long Island Tea jug which I did. After 30 minutes later, when I went to pick up a new pack of cigarettes, I returned to 2 very drunk chicks.
Me - 1, Just legal girls - 0.
It was very strange to drink with 18 year olds... I felt 10 years younger though. Hurhur...
Since I was crashing with Adlin, I went with the band to their guest band slot at an all-boys Catholic school's 'Battle Of The Bands' the next day. It was interesting to see a pretty bad Iron Maiden cover band with all their friends headbanging at the front while there were 12 year old boys running around chasing each other.
Meet Chak, singer of Supabar.
We were looking for a place to smoke and decided to go up to 'rokok' in one of the classrooms instead. Damn rock'n'roll, I know...
After dinner, Adlin, Sen Kiat, Matt, Kim and I popped down to The Attic for one of their friend's birthday celebration.
In the car, Matt switched to his 'Jessica' mode when there was an awkward silence, asking me, "Would you like to touch my cock?" Of course, he kept up the entire gay thing until we stepped into The Attic and he realised we were in a gay bar.
Sen Kiat, Matt and I were having a smoke in the balcony. You can't smoke in the lounge. Yeah, what the fuck, right? One of Sen Kiat's ex-colleague Jason floated, yes, floated over (he's a ballerina, apparently) and said hi. He was telling me in a conspiratorial tone that he used to call Sen Kiat his 'little monkey'. To which, Sen Kiat laughed it off and retorted, "You only patted my head..."
At this point in time, 'Jessica' was shrinking literally and looking very uncomfortable. He excused himself and went into the lounge. Inside, he was rather panicky and kept saying, "Hey, let's not send out any wrong signals here."
But you are 'Jessica' what...
"Yeah, but these guys are for real!"
We left after a while. In the car, 'Jessica' returned in full force with the whole gay trash talking. For a gay poseur, gay bars were his Kryptonite. Pretty hilarious.
We went to this supper place for barbequed stingray or ikan pari as the locals call it. In memory of Steve Irwin, we decided to have 4. According to Sen Kiat's reasoning, "they took 1 of us; we are taking 4 of them. This is for you, Steve." and chomped down a piece of stingray.
Took a coach back home on Sunday. It was a pretty fun weekend. In fact, I'd really felt like a tourist when we went around Sen Kiat and Matt's places to pick them up. Prolly will go up again in a few months' time: either to crash out at their places or hopefully, play some shows there.
Monday, September 11, 2006
More than meets the eye
Before I blog about my KL trip, these are such design pictures which Adlin sent me. Somehow, I reckon Billy and Max wouldn’t be too impressed with these designs of the Autobots and Decepticons from Michael Bay’s live action take of my favourite cartoon as a boy: Transformers.
Face of Bumblebee
Full body Bumblebee
Megatron.
Megatron again. I know the design sucks. He’s going to be an alien jet which is fine by me. But the design?? Man…
Starscream
Optimus Prime. Yay!
The rest of the pictures here.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Beck - Where It's At (live)
It was just as well that he was a failed breakdancer. Amazing show though.
Edit: Terence saw the video and said that Alvin should start breakdancing during The Love Experiment's shows. Don't fucken put ideas in his head!!! He's already played a show with his T-shirt as a cape and only in his boxers!!!
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
I feel you...
Interview with Jimmy Tamborello, the other half of the eminent Postal Service at Pitchfork.
Pitchfork: Have you guys started sending tracks back and forth? Is it still the same style?
JT: Yeah. We're still doing it that way, except this time we know how to use YouSendIt.com. Doing stuff online is a lot easier now. So we probably won't be using the actual mail.
Hehe...
Hmm...
Went for the Heineken Green Room focus group discussion on Monday. Was quite interesting. Met a bunch of folks there, namely Wayne from JUICE, Amanda from Electrico and DJ Feng. Was introduced to music producer Case who did an electronic album with Kit Chan, I believe. Since he had been recommended by some friends, namely Fuzz (if I can remember correctly), I asked him if he did mastering as well. He started bitching how Don Bartley ex-chief mastering engineer of Sydney's Studio 301 really screwed up Concave Scream's Horizons. He made a very interesting point about how all the local albums still sound softer than their international counterparts and how that really pisses him off. It really makes the Singapore acts look amateurish and bad. Interesting.
However, there was this chick from a PR agency who was all out to impress the Heineken brand managers at every opportunity she got. She kept praising the team about how good the Green Room Sessions were and how glamourous the events were. Fucken bitch sounded like she was going for a job interview. Probably, she was, considering the fact that she admitted earlier that she would bring shitloads of namecards to network at parties.
Me? When they handed out a survey form, I placed the most important reason for being at the focus group: Money.
By the way, The Lard Brothers (which Jason Ong has been asking what the hell this is all about.) is finishing up an original track 'Democracy'. Weiyuan'd be probably recording Max's final vocals over the weekend. Gotta check with my colleague Andrew to see if he'd be scratching over the track. We'd be starting on a new track 'Monster' soon. I'm thinking of doing it ala George Michael as a tribute tune. Well, I've been listening way too much George Michael these days... that and DJ Krush. Kinda weird though.
Thankfully, The Love Experiment will finally start recording next week if nothing goes wrong. Hopefully, the album will be completed before our 30th birthday... Heh.
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Friday, September 01, 2006
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