and oh yeah

went to see the NUS jazz band on friday after work. they were pretty good. tribute to nat king cole. had the vocal section performing as well altho they're standards varied a little.

felt really bad cos i did an interview with 2 of the undergrads and the vocal coach and i misspelled the girl's name!! hate when that happens. actually that hasnt happened but i hate it when pp misspell mine (like with a C) so i can imagine her disappointment. in a newspaper after all....

tsk tsk

anyway concert was pretty good. free touche beer also added to the informal atmosphere.

later went to china bar to see a different sorta band play. john molina and his band. cougar? that's what i've been told.

not too bad. altho played creed and nickelback and linkin park (yuck) but i guess he's gotta play some crappy stuff to please the audience. but then again the free bottle of beer i had earlier and also the 3 1/2 beers of erdinger i had later at china bar helped.
i dun rem how much i drank but i do know that everytime i left the table (like to go see the band or to pee) the mug (well it's not a mug but one of those long jar like things) was topped up again...

anyway whole lot of pp from sph there...

we left around... 3 i think? went for some teh tarik at adam

then i realised i shouldnt have done that. cos i cldnt sleep. think i slept around 6. was rudely awakened at 9 or so by the work going on on the roof...

movie watching

plenty of movies i want to see:
house of sand and fog
mystic river

er.... some other titles which i cant recall at the moment.

but i seriously dont wanna see an intense film right now and those two are definitely intense....

i did like Runaway Jury and gave it 3.5 stars altho i kinda fucked up that review cos i got the bloody release date wrong. but i blame it all on that other, larger, more well-known paper that put under their review (Opening tomorrow). and being from the smaller, less well-known paper (where when i tell people i'm from that paper they go... what? huh? where?) i thought the other paper would be right.

they wern't. so now i know not to trust ANYBODY
NEVER TRUST ANYBODY...

yes i am in a strange mood. mostly cos it's sunday. i have to work tomorrow.
and i have a nice big breakfast settling in my stomach for a change.

it's kinda weird. maybe cos i haven't cooked in ages (altho i'm sure a lot of pp wouldn't call it cooking) so i decided to whip up some scrambled eggs (which i placed half on a piece of toast and cheese, so the eggs sorta melt the cheese a little.... delicious) and a couple of sausages.
i would rather have had bacon. but we dint have any and the supermarket nearby never had good bacon.
ideally i would''ve liked pancakes with maple syrup or just lemon and sugar, a roasted tomato (which technically i could've done but would've taken a tad long) some freshly squeezed orange juice and a cup of darjeeling tea.
and i would follow that up with a nice cup of.... cappucino.. or mocha.

doesn't that sound just perfect for a sunday? of course by then i would've exploded.
or felt terribly terribly full like the other day at little india where someone made me finish that damn naan... and i actually did finish it in case you're wondering.

no credit

oops i am sorry that was fiona apple yesterday, singing Paper Bag from When The Pawn...
well the full title of that album (released in Dec 1999) is actually:
When The Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks Like A King What He Knows Throws the Blows When He Goes to the Fight and He'll Win The Whole Thing 'Fore He Enters the Ring There's No Body to batter When Your Mind Is Your Might So When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand And Remember That Depth Is The Greatest Of Heights And If You Know Where You Stand, Then You Know Where To Land And If You Fall It Won't Matter, Cuz You'll Know That You're Right

isn't that just gorgeous.

paper bag

hunger hurts and i want him so bad oh it kills
cuz i know i'm a mess he don't wanna clean up
i got to fold cuz these hands are too shaky to hold
hunger hurts but starving works
when i t costs too much to love

moonwatcher

in case you're wondering, this is a picture of Captain Eugene Cernan. The last man to walk on the moon!

trivial pursuit

i've been wondering, does it make me a bad journalist if i don't give a shit about news?
I've been asssigned to that damn Asian Aerospace crap and I don't want to have anything to do with it!!!!

I mean it's all this business aviation crap and it's so not my thing. I dont want to have to think about it. i dont want to have to write about it. i dont want to have find out about it. i dont want to care about it.

yes i am extremely whiney today. but i have a right to. i'm on mc. i'm sick in the brain today. im not physically sick. i just hate what im doing right now.

yeah i have terrible mood swings sometimes.

i think overall i like my job. as long as i do trivial stuff. like talking to entertainment people or doing feature stories. i like to do that shit. i really really do. i dont want to chase down big breaking news. i dont want a page one story. i seriously have no interest in that whatsoever. and especially business news. i mean, me? do business news? you have got to be kidding!

the day i forgot

i logged into blogger then i totally forgot what i wanted to write. a lot of stuff has been on my mind lately and it's made me both happy and sad. a little melancholy right now.

but anyway...

wanted to say Ladies and Gents technology has finally reached the Tan house. We have cable! yes laugh all you want. But it's finally here. the technology I have been waiting for all these years!

and yet as i flick thru the channels on the set-top box i wonder, why is it that with so many channels (as compared to the what... 5 free-to-air ones?) that there is still nothing to watch???

ok i do enjoy finally getting to see Just Shoot Me (with that hilarious David Spade), 2 Guys and A Girl (with the also hilarious and cute Ryan Reynolds who made it to my list of celebs I would like to go out with... ha!), what else what else.... The Simpsons of course. I also did catch half an ep of Newlyweds (that Jessica and Nick crap) er that's about it. havent really seen very much of interest.

Oh yeah, CARTOON NETWORK! that has got to be one of my favourite channels (altho we dun subscribe to that so it might disappear soon). Sheep In The Big City, I Am Weasel, The PowerPuff Girls, Dexter's Lab, Johnny Bravo, Samurai Jack, Cow And Chicken! WOW!

yeh i am a tv addict. i am also an internet addict. i am also a slave to the music.

who gives a fuck?

musicmatch

music-wise i had an excellent week.

tuesday saw Robert Cray play at the Esplanade tho the setting is extremely wrong for the music. It's way too formal, too large. His music should heard in a smallish place, preferably where some alcohol can be had.

Crowd was pretty rowdy with pp shouting out stuff (song requests??) to him quite a lot. but he preferred to keep the conversation to: 'this next song is low-down and dirty'

on friday, went to see jazz guitarist martin taylor who sorta blew me (non-guitarist) away with his amazing guitar playing. it sounded like there were two guitars altho he was playing it solo! very cool.

after supper, headed to this place called Pepper near Md sultan. where Heritage was playing. yes that very ancient band. but they were pretty good! altho i havent a clue abt led zeppelin, jethro tull etc it was good to hear some live rock music!

copycontrol bulls**t

yah know, i dun get the deal with "Copy Controlled" Cds. These are them Cds that come with that little logo.


I'm sure you've seen 'em before.

Anyway I bought two Copy Controlled CDs a couple of weeks back. Turin Brakes' Ether Song and My Morning Jacket's It Still Moves.

And you know what? it still copies!

First I made a copy of MMJ for a friend. I did a direct copy using the software that comes with the PC. No problem there and the CD played perfectly fine.

And then made another copy of MMJ for someone else as well as the Turin Brakes. Surprise surprise. No problems there either.

So today I figured, maybe Copy Controlled means you can't rip the CD. And since i've got my new baby, my iPod i mean, I decided to test out that theory by ripping Turin Brakes using iTunes. And you know, I'm listening to track 4 Self Help right now. So, Copy Controlled is a load of bulls**t really. Maybe it's some ploy to get people to buy a non-copy controlled version??? i dunno...

anyway like that funky grandma on The Kumars At No 42 said, "copyright in India means the right to copy"!!! hilarious...

meanwhile...

i also watched Tim Burton's Big Fish but wasn't too impressed with it. It was interesting and a bit fantastical but wasn't fascinating, unlike Burton's previous works. I have to admit that my favourite Burton film is always Nightmare Before Christmas. Nothing and I mean nothing can beat that one!

I've been thinking about the movies I have seen these 1 1/2 months. and I'm starting to think that Lost In Translation and Last Life Of the Universe as well as Love Me If You Dare were among the top 3 films of Jan and Feb. I liked that they made you think a little, didn't give an 'ideal' ending and the acting was generally good all around.
So applause all around for the brilliant screenwriters, directors, actors, producers and of course the movie distributors that actually brought them to Sg.

One thing about the Big Fish preview. It was held at the preview theatrette at Cathay (Hall 6) which is a bit of a thing. Prob seats only about 30 people. And it was packed! Luckily we managed to arrive early-ish and secured second row seats. Yeah I know, second row ain't all that good but at least we didn't need to sit on the stairs, which some people did!

lookee what i've finally got!

no, not the bear.... the ipod!!



I feel like I need to explain my expensive purchase (i dunno why really). I'd been thinking about getting an MP3 player for months now, trying to choose between the damn expensive ipod and the less expensive but less cool Creative Nomad Jukebox (or something like that... the name is too bloody long Mr Sim Wong Hoo!)

and them jem tells me my former boss is offering the 20g ipod for $620, more than $100 off the usual price. And that I've got to think it over damn quick. So I think it over, ask someone for his opinion and then, decide to hell with it, I've been wanting to get one for ages, let's just get the damn thing!

And so I did. And now it's lying on my computer table as I do some serious ripping. iTunes already has 400 songs (exactly!) and I've still got 18.5G left on the ipod! hahaha... now i can shout "I'm the queen of the world!"

god it's sad how an ipod can make me deliriously happy....

anyway i figure that since nobody's gonna be giving me a Valentine's Day gift, i'll give myself a damn good (and expensive) one. now scuse me while i kiss the sky.

library drive

Took a drive down to the Queenstown library on a hot lazy Sunday afternoon, My Morning Jacket's It Still Moves on the cd player. Golden is definitely a driving song. It conjures images of driving down the coast, in a convertible of course with the top down and the wind in my hair.

Sigh... need to get out of here...

Anyway I got a stack of books from the library and then had to join the damn long queue to check out. It's a little pathetic that this brand new library, with two floors of books only has 6 check-out machines. All on the first floor. And one of them wasn't working.

I mean, what kind of cow sense is that? (forgive my bovine put-down) But don't these people who plan the libraries think??

After spending 15 minutes in the queue I finally manage to haul my stuff out of the library and head back. And that's all I did today!

I did watch the stuff I taped yesterday (the two a little mediocre but still somewhat entertaining sitcoms What I LIke About You and 8 Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughters - which has to be one of the most ridiculously stupid sitcom titles ever, The Simpsons, Band Of Brothers and Scrubs) while I went to go see the movie, have dinner and coffee.

But I must admit to being addicted to Band Of Brothers. It is truly an excellent excellent series. I thought initially that it would be damn boring. YOu know, cos it's all about WWII and all but it's very compelling. The way the tales of these men of the Easy Company are featured. I really liked the ep where they featured the medic, when they were in the forests of Bastogne in the winter. Here's the synopsis from BBC

The storyline is terribly fascinating and the way the series was shot is amazing. It's very well made and I'm sure tons of money went into it but it was all worth it.

oh yeah also updated Bookbound.

last life

Saw Last Life In The Universe last evening. A Japanese-Thai co-production set in Bangkok with cinematography by Christopher Doyle.

In typical Doyle style, it was filled with longing shots. It was very still and simple and I have to admit a little slow moving but I thought it was not too bad. It doesn't warrant the five stars that Ong Sor Fern of Life! gave it though. I think I'd give it a 4 or 4.5 I'd have to think about it.

But anything's better than the usual Hollywood crap really and it's nice to not see a familiar face on screen from time to time.

Bangkok sure looked pretty dirty throughout the show. THere was tons of trash everywhere yet it made me want to go back! Of course the new cheap flights ($59) via AirAsia is mostly the reason...

Wait, I haven't really explained the movie yet. Kenji is a Japanese man living in Bangkok. he's a bit nuts really, obsessed with suicide, death by hanging, by bullet, by drowning it's all he thinks about. He works in a Japanese cultural centre and one day when contemplating jumping off a bridge he meet Nid, a Thai girl who works as an escort. She's had a major argument with her sister Noi who forced her out of the car along the busy highway. Kenji never really meets Nid, she gets knocked down by a car and dies.

But he does meet Noi and follows her back to her house, a sprawling bungalow strewn with rubbish. Used plates lie all around the house, the goldfish died a long time ago and the swimming pool water is a murky green.

He stays with her. Not really explaining anything. She doesn't force him out. It's quite an interesting relationship really.

The truth is, somewhat like Lost In Translation, nothing very much happens for most of the movie. It's much less foreigner in a strange land type of show, which Translation obviously was, with its reliance on Japglish jokes.

all Momixed out

The lights dimmed slowly and the curtains rose to reveal a large hammock stretched across the stage. A female dancer poked her leg lazily out and drew it back in again. She spun herself around in the hammock and used the bungee-like cords attaching the hammock to the stage to bounce around.

It could be taken literally as someone playing with a hammock but I guess it was also meant to give the illusion of a pupa (is that the word? i have forgotten my science entirely) a chrysalis, perhaps is the better word? a metamorphosis, a birth, a growth.

It was truly the genius of Moses Pendleton, artistic director of Momix. He choreographed, chose the music and the lighting and was a delight to talk to last week over the phone.

The show was Opus Cactus, Momix's latest programme. Inspired by the American Southwest desert, the performance made use of various props like a weird metal sculpture, 3m long poles but the backdrop was simple - lighting was used to evoke the different times of the day, sunset, night, day.

It was gorgeous and entertaining. The athletic ability of the dancers was amazing. And Pendleton's "new movement ideas" were enthralling. I was absolutely blown away by what he could imagine and translate into dance.

Although in some sets I questioned whether it could really be described as dance. Like one short set where the male dancers were suspended upside down, lipsyncing to the song.

Momix has been compared to Cirque du Soleil and while I do like both groups, I'd say the comparison isn't correct. Momix is less gimmicky and fantastical but equally entertaining. My guess is that Momix is merely trying to bring dance to a whole new level.

lost in translation (the late show)

well not the late show really. the early one.

went to the preview just now. missed the first half hour cos i had to file the bloody story. was hoping it wouldn't be for tomoro's paper but no... since zaobao was there, had to file it. so ya'll can read it tomoro, if u get yr hands on a copy that is.

(a quick aside here: when pp find out that i work for the paper, they always say they can't get a copy, whether it used to be delivered to their homes or dunno where to find it etc.... always the same story)

anyway back to the movie. missed the first bit, which my colleague later filled me in with, something about a Japanese prostitute who said 'lip my stocking' and bill murray went: 'lick your stocking?'' . she actually was saying Rip my stocking... in japglish.

anyway i liked the movie, the way it was shot but i left wondering, now what exactly went on there? i mean, it was like a movie about nothing really... but i liked that it wasn't the typical hollywood movie and ending. it reminded me a little of Before Sunrise...