Friday, January 30, 2004

the wait is over...

not...

so i called Momix hq in the US. a lady answers and i ask for Moses.

She said:"he's not in".

the first thought in my head: DAMNIT!!!

i explained though that i was calling from singapore and would he back anytime soon.

she replied: "only in the afternoon..."

Pause

"which i realise would be in the early morning for you"

smart lady.

so i get her to take down my email at work and let me know if she can fix moses up with an interview the next day (ie tonight)

and that's the very exciting thing i'm doing tonight at 11pm. talking to artistic director Moses Pendleton.

what other exciting thing i could be doing if i didn't have to work on the interview? i seriously dunno.

but what i do know is that i am so going for the Lost In Translation preview on tues. altho it looks like i've got a job that afternoon. i am hoping that it won't be for the next day's publication. if it is, i've got to work f***ing quick but then i dun think i'll be able to do that really... sigh....

so just have to hope for the best!

oh yeh. last night after my failed interview i watched Jay and Silent Bob. hilarious. altho crude. but funny all the same.

Thursday, January 29, 2004

waiting...

i m waiting around...

why? my assignment today: phone interview with Moses Pendleton, artistic director of Momix, a dance-illusion troupe. but it's 1035pm. unfortunately Mr Pendleton lives in Conneticut i think. But somewhere in the US for sure. so i have to call him at 11am there which is 11pm here.

so i'm waiting for 11pm. meanwhile just dl-ing music and listening to Ben Folds, which is the CD that's been getting the most airplay on my radio station! really love that album!!

Wednesday, January 28, 2004

more cds! and free!

Stereophonics = Just enough education to perform
Stereophonics = word gets around
Ryan Adams = rock and roll
Mazzy Star = So tonight i might see
Appleseed Cast = Two conversations

and last week:
Elbow = Cast of thousands
Postal Service = give up

what a haul!! makes me feel bad... for a while .....

along came...

a dud of a movie called Along Came Polly

it sounds good on paper doesn't it? a movie starring ben stiller and jennifer anniston (a bennifer!!)

but it's a let down. jen and ben are good on their own, but not together. they are lacking a little thing called CHEMISTRY.

plus the whole movie is just tired and trite really.

it's the whole loser guy gets dumped by wife, meets up with old friend who's the total opposite of him, falls in love. and then wife comes back in picture (uh oh!) and then its a happy ending.

it's been done in the wedding singer, in something about mary. and done much better too.

the desperation of the director/writer can be seen when crap jokes begin early in the movie...

but i'd like to say i did like alec baldwin in this movie. he plays ben's boss. he was actually funny. fat. but funny.

and so was hank azaria, who played the french scuba instructor. funny i mean, not fat. he actually has a pretty hot body! surprised the hell out of me there....

SUMMARY: watchable to put it nicely.
but mostly crap.

Sunday, January 25, 2004

not much

dun really have much to add now. just thought that i should put in a new post, seeing that it's a new year and all. the year of the monkey has arrived. my reign as the goat has ended and i'll have to wait another 12 years.

according to the Life! article about the new monkey year, it's gonna be a good year for the Goats. let's see how that goes, shall we?

these four days have been excellent, mostly cos they involved not working.

not that i hate my job, mind you. just that altho it's only been three weeks, i needed a break, so CNY came along nicely.

let's see...what did i do yesterday?
ah we had lunch at Kia Hiang (sun plaza) with the farrer court gang minus the Wee family, dunno why tho. it was the usual fare - dim sum, yu sheng and the rest.

it was pouring but i still went out after, to meet up with yubin, partly cos i had to repay her all that money! we sat at bakers' inn for a while, where i learnt that they DOn't serve tap water anymore! each table has a typed-up sign saying that sorry you'll just have to pay $1 for a bottle of mineral water becos we're just too miserly to give you the water that's coming out of our tap.

so we decided not to eat there. i just had a cappucino. headed to ajisen to have their $13.80 ramen + starter+ drink set. not too bad. but the place is a little stinky, with bad ventilation.

We hung out there until almost 10, interestingly, cos it definitely wasn't a hang-out place but when we left, all the shops were closed (why aren't there any 24hr shops here???) and it was still pouring outside.

but to hell with it, the NEL was right beneath us and Clarke Quay just a stop away so it was off to Cafe Iguana and their $37.90 jug of lime magarita. quite yummy with enough alcohol to give a buzz and not just make me sleepy (unlike the crap they serve at China Jump!) the ice did melt a little too fast for my liking tho.

what i was terribly disappointed with was that at 1230 the nice waiter told us "last order". 1230!!!

they closed at 1!!! on a saturday!!!

how disgustingly early.

everything else around that area was really quiet tho and it was still pouring so called it a night, grabbed a cab home.

ok, this post is more than 'not much'.

another thing to add: was reading an old issue of Spin and an article was highlighting good non-US tv series. one of them being the Beeb's Office, which I've previously heard good things abt tho prob won't get to watch. Another was Money, that Pierre Png dramedy that only had one season tho it was actually quite a decent show to come out of this drab little island i call home.
Here, let me type out what the esteemed Spin writer wrote:
"...Despite the premise, Money isn't a traditional sitcom but rather a 1/2hr dramedy, with no laugh track and continuous voice-over narration from its introspective lead - like Ally McBeal, except with characters you actually care about."
how terribly fascinating!
in case you wanna know: it's the Nov 2003 issue of Spin, the one with Dave Matthews on the cover.



Tuesday, January 20, 2004

good tunes

i love music! and i love good music even more! :P

and here's what I'm currently trippin on:
Teitur - glorious easygoing tunes. Teitur's from the Faroe Islands, Denmark
Sondre Lerche - gorgeous voice, great melodies! and he's only 20! from sweden.
Wheat - quite pop-ish, upbeat music. cheery!
matt wertz - 24 y-o sings sweet love songs. mostly acoustic. very nice
beulah - check out Popular Mechanics For Lovers. fantastic.

Saturday, January 17, 2004

job perk

there are a few job perks.

like today. i attended a wine-tasting masterclass for free as i had to cover it for work.

held at gourmand restaurant at the paragon, it was conducted by this guy called john chua who's got like 30 over years of experience.

we sampled 4 different rieselings (that spelling doesnt look right - obviously wasnt pying attention!)

and they were pretty delicious! i'm not much of a wine drinker, in the sense that i just drink it, but i really liked this 1999 Brown Brothers Patricia Late Rieseling something or other. An australian wine, very fruity and not too sweet. it tasted really great.

the other three were not bad but this was the one that left the impression.

the wines were accompanied with some canapes, like the melon with prosciutto, some pates and foie gras.

All in all, a nice afternoon, although I didn't know anyone there. Should've asked if I ould take someone along!

btw, want to buy me a cd??
Matt Wertz - Somedays or Twenty Three Places
Beulah - Coast Is Never Clear
The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
Matt Nathanson - Beneath THese Fireworks or When Everything Mean Everything

Friday, January 16, 2004

hate to say i told u so

i have serious doubts about my ability to be a good reporter.

and that about sums up my whole week really.

Tuesday, January 13, 2004

the way of the samurai

so i went to see tom cruise's big epic The Last Samurai.

here's a quick bit about the story: remember Kevin Costner's long epic about Native Americans many years bacK? Dances With Wolves it was called.

The Last Samurai is Cruise's version. Just that it's set in Japan (a disguised New Zealand) and full of Japanese people instead of Native Americans. Should be called Fighting with Samurai really.

It's got the same big ego-ed American hero who thinks hes all that but then falls in with the savages and realises that they are the ones who are really all that.

What i found interesting was that i didn't hate it as much as i thought i would. The Cruise missile sputtered out in mid-air as I expected it to but the saving grace of the movie were the Japanese actors, specifically Ken Watanabe who brought dignity, nobility to the role of Katsumoto.

i did too like the big battle scene - very LOTR helms deep-ish with swords and bows and arrows and that kinda cool shit.

k that about summs it up.

Sunday, January 11, 2004

sunday rainy sunday

first time working a sunday for quite a while. it was a pain to get up. mostly cos i got home at 2 something, fell asleep at 3 something and then for some reason found myself awake just as the sun was about to rise! finally fell asleep again and then discovered it was already 9. doncha just hate that???

ay... when i got to work about 1015. no one there. well the ops guy doesn't count. i mean like the other reps. they came strolling in at like 11 or so... and i was like damnit! i should have come at 11 too! get an hour's more sleep.

but managed to stay pretty much awake. no choice really cos i had to do stuff... damnit ... was hoping to slack the whole day.



Wednesday, January 07, 2004

at last

hmm havent been keeping my new year's resolution about writing more often. in fact i've gone and done the opposite and not written for a long time.

ah well, i do have a good excuse u know.

my new job!

yep 3 days into the job and i'm so looking forward to my off day. which is friday! thank goodness. cos i'm all stressed out really.

my new colleagues are a friendly, fun-loving bunch and they've been really helpful and dont mind my pestering them with inane questions.

but its such a total change from the previous job! it's definitely tons more challenging and on the go. and i use my blain a whole lot more too.

i just have to work faster and smarter. it takes me ages to figure out an angle for a story. and i dont ask the right questions. im the type who one hour later goes 'dang why didn't i ask that?'

how the hell do i get over doing that???

need to talk to some veterans .... perhaps will see if ben and huijie have any advice.

Thursday, January 01, 2004

happy 2004

damn lost my post again... always happening to me ay.

anyway wanted to reflect on 2003. it was an ok year. spent most of it zombie-ing around at STI but the best news was that i got a new job!!!! hahahaha.....

yeh i know i am terribly pleased with myself but also terribly nervous.... new colleagues, new environment, whole new job scope. plus i haven't actually done proper reporting b4...

so i am keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that it'll all be good!!!!

let's see what else was good this year.. made new friends and met up with old ones (like one i hadn't seen in 12 years and we've become pretty good friends since).

became a semi-professional pirate.

wrote my first movie review.

hmmm doesn't seem like a very fruitful year did it?

well here's to a good 2004. hopefully i'll spend less money (which i'll prob break today cos i'm gonna do some shopping!!!) esp on CDs. cos i've got a whole bunch of them in 3 weeks (thanks jem!)

and altho i'll work hard in my new job, i hope to take some time out to do the things i enjoy like listening to music, reading, and watching movies.

(oh btw, saw the singing detective the other day and Robert Downey Jr was great altho the movie wasn't. it was kinda funny in parts but overall a let down... but great cast tho.... adrien brody, robin wright penn, an unrecognisable mel gibson.

but of course the best was Robert Downey Jr!

thank goodness didn't have to write that review.....

hahahahahah

ok back to 2004 - i'll try my best to stay in touch with friends, ex-colleagues etc.

and hopefully post more....

ah ok gotta go