Pseudo-intellectual Musings. This blog contains the author's musings on society, culture and tech, along with the odd foodspot review, just to lower the tone and keep her strength up.
While in Malaysia, Pretensions picked up a Malaysian PC mag that had a feature on HighStreet 5, a newish (I think it's only been going a few months) Massively Multiplayer Online Dance Game. A bit like the better-known Dance Dance Revolution but with keyboard controls, HS5 allows you to create a 3D avatar that you can dress in the latest Rave fashion, take to a dance hall and chat with new-found friends a la Facebook while dazzling them with your online dance moves. HS5 was developed by China game developer Suzhou Snail Electronics (Woniu) and has been very successful in SE Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines) in particular, although the developers claim to have users from as far away as France.
The game looks very cool,in an anime-like style and enables you to gyrate virtually to your favourite artists including the Black Eyed Peas, Britney, Rain and plenty of others. Dance styles are mostly Hip-hop, House and its various spin-offs. The newly launched Virtual Dance City expansion now allows you to meet up with friends and go clothes shopping in the malls or have a joint salon session (The developers must be women). Like many casual games, HS5 is free to join but kewl togs cost virtual dollars which are funded by real money. There are apparently already 200 registered Dance Guilds in HS5 (take that, World of Warcraft!) and highly active forums.
The videos below show the music video-like dance performances of HS5 (PussyCat Dolls "Button") and I've also included one of a shopping expedition (courtesy of Youtube of course).
While Pretensions was visiting KL, The Expat magazine ran a poll on taxi services in Singapore and Malaysia. The results, published to much hoo-ha in both countries were thus
M'sia
S'pore
Taxi Quality
3.8
8.6
Driver Courtesy
4.4
8.0
Availability on the Street
4.4
8.1
Availability by phone
4.8
8.8
Driver Job Knowledge
5.5
8.7
Scores are out of 10.
Pretensions has made use of the taxi service in Singapore for many years and has been largely happy with it. Yes, she has occasionally lucked out and gotten the newbie that doesn't know how to get to any landmark in Singapore or the driver who's done one shift too many and is about to nod off at the wheel, but for the most part, taxis in Singapore have been clean and well-kept, easily available (except on Fridays after 9pm) and most drivers courteous and reasonably knowledgeable about routes. They are also getting more and more expensive nowadays, but are still lots cheaper than eg London or Tokyo.
How about Malaysia? Well, P took 5 taxi rides in KL and these were her results. Keep in mind that P's English is excellent, Mandarin Chinese not wonderful and Malay restricted to a few words here and there.
Taxi Driver #1 - From Hotel in KLCC to Office Building in Bandar Sunway. Hotel staff hailed taximan, an elderly chinese gentleman and instructed him to use the meter. He complied and was given the address of P's meeting place. To give him credit, he admitted he was not familiar with that area and would have to drive around a little to locate it. We set off with some trepidation but the ride was fairly smooth (especially once we established that P spoke neither cantonese nor khek and we would have to stick to mandarin chinese). Once we reached the industrial area where the office was located, we rapidly found ourselves lost amidst faceless shophouse blocks. "Do you know where we go from here?" asks P's driver hopefully. P once again explains it's her first time and she has not the least idea where to go. She decides that calling someone at the office and getting him to instruct the taxi driver is the best course. One phone call later, P's colleague is busily speaking to the taxi-driver in cantonese and teling him to wait at the Shell petrol station while he runs down to collect P. We pull over to the side of the road and begin waiting. After 3 minutes and 3 mis-identifications of random males later, the taxi-driver decides that P's colleague will approach from a random direction and we begin heading down the road. After another 10 minutes of driving, waiting and being honked out by shuttle buses, P decides it's time to try another phone call and this time, the taxi driver heads back to the Shell station and stays there. P is finally rescued by colleague wanting to know where we were while he jogged round the block. Lateness: 20minutes late. M'sian taxi score: -5.
Taxi Driver #2 - From Hotel in KLCC to University of Malaya building. Again, hotel staff hailed taximan, a youngish Malay chap, and instructed him to use the meter. He obeyed and set off. Hallelujah - this one speaks excellent english! Double hallelujah, he is well familiar with the university because his son studies there and gets me to the University and building in record time. Lateness: 15 minutes early. M'sian taxi score: 10 (he was tipped).
Taxi Driver #3 - From Hotel in KLCC to Lake Gardens. Hotel staff hail taxi, but forget to ask him to use meter. Taximan is a youngish, garrulous Malay. He speaks some English, lots of Malay and accented Cantonese and doesn't stop bombarding P with hefty dollops of all the above languages. He attempts to be charming but is actually fairly irritating. He also appears to consider himself a slick conman type, since he takes advantage of the lack of meter use to try to force P into a "package deal" - roughly 30MYR for a return journey, with him coming back for P in an hour. P remains sceptical even tho' she's not sure what the price should actually be and he desists. He answers his mobile phone a couple of times during the journey and once turns back to comment that he doesn't want to take this call, as the caller is a GAY (emphasis is taxidriver's, he spells it twice for P just to be sure). What is P supposed to make of this? Should she be horrified? Nonchalant? Does this mean the driver is or isn't? Honestly, why should she care as long it doesn't affect the driver's skill and navigation abilities? Upon arrival, the taximan attempts to charge P 12MYR for the trip. P has a sneaking suspicion this is much too much and bargains it down to 10MYR. She finds out later that the price should be 6MYR. Lateness: NA (no appointment time). M'sian taxi score: -10
Taxi Driver #4 - From Lake Gardens nearby main road to Hotel. P spend 5 minutes sweltering in hot afternoon sun while waving madly at various taxis before managing to flag down one. The taxi driver pulls in around the corner out of the main flow of traffic. P boards and mentions hotel name. The middle-aged chinese guy nods and heads off, starting the meter automatically. There is no conversation (peace!) and bill comes up to less than 6MYR. Lateness: NA. M'sian taxi score: 8
Taxi Driver #5 From Hotel in KLCC to KL Sentral station. Hotel staff hail taxi and don't ask him to use meter (Perhaps P needs to start tipping hotel staff - note: tipping is not usual in most Asian countries). After taxi driver #3, P makes no bones about asking the elderly Indian driver to use the meter. We run into a little traffic along the way, so the journey takes longer than usual, but is uneventful and he gets P to the station in time for the train. Lateness: 10 minutes early. M'sian taxi score: 7 (1 point deducted for having to ask him to use the meter).
None of the taxis were noticeably filthy but they weren't as well-kept as their Singapore counterparts.
Verdict: Taxi standards in KL are highly variable. The first lesson of the day: ask them to use the meter!
M'sia clearly needs to get its act together however, and make sure rogue taxi drivers don't get away with fleecing the ignorant.
P was at the most interminable gala dinner on Friday night. The food was actually quite good, but it was one of those multiple-course lengthy chinese dinner nightmares and the fact that the appetisers were only trotted out at 9pm didn't do P's plan (to get to bed at a reasonable time) much good. The cultural dances were a mix of traditional and modern with umpteen-cultures at once. Some were more identifiable as Malay, Chinese or Indian, others were just a pleasant rojak (mixed fruit and veg salad).
P realises that these gala dinners are also marketing and thank you occasions for the organisers, and therefore occasion many many speeches, but could she issue a plea for organisers to start earlier? Or feed the delegates (at least 1-2 courses) before making the speeches? At least for dinners not held in mediterranean countries?
Sorry the images aren't up to much. They were taken on a mobile phone, and there was lots of fog and flashing lights.
Pretensions was taken out to dinner by a colleague on Wednesday. He wanted P to sample some of KL's best Nasi Lemak (coconut steamed rice with meaty accompaniments) in a nice environment and suggested going to Sakura Restaurant near Bukit Bintang. P readily agreed.
The restaurant was very nice indeed, with golden dragon door handles on their glass doors and lovely modern decor. The nasi lemak wasn't bad either, but P was most impressed by their wireless waiter call system that she only noticed halfway through the meal.
As you can see from the picture, it comparises a little orange widget with 3 buttons that say "call", "bill" and (something else that P can't remember). Anyway P pressed the "bill" button at the end of the meal and a waitress came very quickly with the cheque. What more could you ask for? Beats gesticulating madly at waiters any day!
This is a short restaurant review of a classic Hainanese eatery in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. Restoran Cozy Corner is apparently a well-known favorite for KL-ites tho' this is the first time Pretensions had been there. Located in the aging shopping complex of Ampang Park, the locale does not seem promising, but the photos and menus posted outside promise a nice mix of Western (including blinis with Danish "caviar"!) and local food.
It has a nice old-fashioned steak house ambience and service is courteous and prompt with the formally dress waiters bringing food quickly and happily. P tried the sambal fried rice with the best crispy fried chicken she's ever had and an egg to boot (OK, it's cholesterol hell but tasted great!). P forgot to take a photo of the food, because she was too busy shovelling it down, but she strongly recommends the place. The rice and an ice-cream float came up to 15MYR, which was a bargain!
Having been told in glowing terms about Malaysia's wonderful new concert hall in the iconic Twin Towers. Pretensions decided she would use this trip to Malaysia to see something there. Unfortunately, her first choice, the Malaysian Philharmonic itself, clashed with her dinner schedule, so she was left with choice #2, Emanuel Ax.
After some hesitation (how Malaysian can a New York pianist be?), P decided to go to the concert spurred on by her innate sense of cheapness. She managed to secure cheap stall tickets right at the front at the last minute (55MYR is very cheap for Emanuel Ax; it's less than US$15).
The Twin Towers contain the usual faceless designer brand megamall and P got fairly lost trying to find her way to the concert hall. After lots of redirection, she found herself in the right section of the building. It is incredibly imposing, lots of glass and steel and sweeping staircases leading up to the obligatory glass chandeliers. P's not quite sure why the security guards have to be quite so obtrusive as they stand at every staircase turn and niche, but they do add to the sense of grandeur.
The seats are comfortable in the Concert Hall and the sound is nice and warm, probably due to all the wood used in its construction. The place was quite full for Mr Ax's renditions of Schubert and Liszt, even on a Tuesday night. P realised on taking her seat that her position was far from ideal as she was on the wrong side of the grand piano, and essentially under the stage, which meant she would catch occasional glimpses of Ax's face as he peered over the raised lid of the piano.
However, this became fairly incidental when Emanuel Ax walked in with determined stride and sat himself down at the piano, his cherubic face beaming at the audience. The man is a virtuoso. Every arpeggio rippled like glass, his legato sections sang and moods shifted like quicksilver with the music. However, P was near enough to the piano to realise that some strings were obviously giving problems; this was most obvious when Ax thundered out some fortessimo chords.
Of the music, P greatly enjoyed the Schubert Sonata #13 and the Liszt Mephisto Waltz for completely different reasons. The Schubert was all about happiness and contentment with its runs and happy skips in the third movement. The Liszt was all about a demonic lust, drawing on the Faust legend for its inspiration - great for tone painting. The Maestro obliged the thunderous applause at the end with a couple of encores, both by Chopin.
Thumbs up both for the venue (world-class) and the performer!
If anyone was wondering how come P'd stopped updating the blog, it was because of her preparations for a business trip to Malaysia. Malaysia's political scene is really vibrant compared to its counterpart in Singapore and nowhere more so than in its blogs.
Today's main headline in the New Straits Times was an article about blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin and his effect on Malaysia's shaky Barisan Nasional ruling party. For those not keeping up with Malaysian politics, the ruling party has recently made itself tremendously unpopular by a series of price increases, in particular that of fuel. Malaysian petrol has always been heavily subsidised by the government in order to keep prices affordable and the BN cut the subsidies this month, resulting in a whopping price increase of 78 sens. Regular petrol has gone up from 1.92 Ringgit per litre to 2.7 Ringgit. When P arrived on Monday, there were rumbles of a no-confidence vote on BN being tabled in parliament (not just because of this, it's complicated), but that hasn't materialised so far.
Anyway, back to our blogger. Raja Petra Kamaruddin has alleged on his blog and even made a statutory allegation that deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife were in some way involved in the recent murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu. Police are investigating his claim.
For those not in the know, Altantuya was a mongolian part-time model who is thought to have had a love affair with Abdul Razak Baginda, a Defence Analyst from the Malaysian Strategic Research Centre. Her remains were found in late 2006; she had apparently been murdered and the body exploded with C4 explosives in an attempt to obscure the evidence. Possibly a love affair gone sour, Abdul Razak has been charged with abetment in the murder and the prime suspects are members of the Malaysian Police Special Action Force assigned to guess who? The deputy prime minister's office.
Mind you, Raja is not exactly an uninvolved party as he was the leader of opposition party Parti Keadilan Nasional; although he has maintained that in this case, the government merely wishes to silence Malaysian bloggers. Freedom of the blog? You decide by checking out Raja's Malaysia Today website here (while you can).
Pretensions was at work today when she came across the new corporate gifts - colourful pencils with multiple coloured nibs that slotted out in turn. P hadn't seen something like this since she was in primary school and since our customers are manifestly NOT schoolchildren, P had an instant fit of the giggles.
It all reminded P of a series of adverts run recently by local Telco M1 - perhaps we're all living in an M1 world now? Or just the marketing department?
As a member of a struggling community chorus (is there any other kind?), Pretensions read with interest an article in today's Straits Times about unconventional sponsorship for the arts. Basically, with more arts groups competing for a limited pie, performing artists are reaching beyond the usual philanthropic foundations (such as the Lee Foundation in Singapore) to corporations that might stand to benefit from the publicity. Some of these weird pairings have included Chang Kee curry puffs (picture) for a Chinese music concert, Soup restaurant (whose title dish was created by Samsui women) for a photo exhibition on Samsui women in Singapore and Simmons mattresses (Beautyrests!) for local musical Beautyworld.
Of course, there has to be something to the deal for the sponsor. Either the deal allows them to reach a potentially lucrative audience or get lots more exposure for a tied-in product. Some groups also provide discounted corporate rates or stage performances specially for the sponsor.
The National Arts Council's (NAC) website records the total number of performances in 2006 at 6,556, up from 4,111 in 2001. In 2006, the NAC's grants and subsidies stood at 11.8 million S$, with the lion's share (just under half) going to Theatre. The 2002/2003 total grants were S$7.9 million. So, NAC funding seems to be roughly keeping pace with the increase in performing groups if we can ignore inflation. However, both NAC funding and corporate sponsors obviously gravitate to larger events with well-heeled audiences, such as the Singapore Arts Festival, which afford them much better exposure. At the other end of the scale, many of Singapore's ethnic group dance/music groups get funding through their affiliated communities and clan associations. Church-affiliated groups obviously benefit from the collection plate.
A western-style community choir (that may sing sacred and secular work) on the other hand, tends to lose out on all these fronts. How can we have our curry puff and eat it?
Just read in today's news that dramatic soprano Deborah Voight has staged a return to London's Royal Opera House after being dropped from a production of Ariadne Auf Naxos 4 years ago. Then director, Christof Loy, felt that the large opera singer would not fit into a little black dress he had designed for the title role. Voight has since shed more than 100 pounds through the rather drastic medium of gastric surgery and more importantly, kept the luscious voice that made her famous in the first place.
Fortunately, Voight hasn't lost her sense of humour and has released a Youtube video capturing "The return of the Little Black Dress", with the animated dress playing the role of the shamefaced lover asking for a second chance. View it here.
Voight's original firing raised hackles as it was a blatant case of discrimination on the basis of looks. While prevalent in most of the entertainment industry, opera has always prized luscious vocals over uuh, overly-luscious figures. Perhaps the distance of the average viewer from the stage helps foster illusions when sprightly youths are played by geriartric tenors and nymphs by those of more goddess-like proportions. P personally however, would always pick vocal quality over appearance in opera and musical theatre, but of course, there are limits to stretching credibility, particularly when movement is affected.
Of more concern to P are the long-term effects of drastic weight-loss and the possibility of yo-yoing a la Oprah. If Voight manages to keep the weight off and stay healthy, then P commends her. That being said, however, P would never contemplate that kind of surgery herself.
This blog entry is a bit of a cheat, since Pretensions intended to get to this seminar at the Institute of SE Asian Studies on Monday, but didn't quite make it. It was delivered by the Chief Political Analyst of the Global Business Environment team of Shell, Dr Cho-On Khong, as part of their Energy seminar series. ISEAS normally webcasts their seminars, but this one isn't up yet.
However, P read so much about this when she was deciding whether to go or not, she thought she'd share it with any interested readers. Basically Shell is trying to sum up the future for its stakeholders by presenting two wildly different visions, Scramble and Blueprint. Essentially, we're all headed for an energy crisis as traditional sources of energy (ie petrol, coal and other fossil fuels) run out. You may have noticed the jump in airfares recently; jet fuel is going to be the first to go as there are no real substitutes in place should it run out.
Scramble depicts the status quo continuing, with political leadership ignoring energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. This leads to a massive energy crunch by 2020 and a free-for-all as national governments struggle to secure energy resources for themselves. Needless to say, the resulting sociopolitical situation is pretty grim, with everyone blaming everyone else and everyone taking piecemeal actions. Natural disasters become an everyday event.
Blueprint focuses on NGOs and corporate entities taking action despite selfish governments and working across borders to accelerate change. Efficiency standards, energy taxes and other "unpopular" measures are implemented to improve energy efficiency of buildings, vehicles and fuel, due to public action and outcry. The world is on its way towards a sustainable future.
Watch the Shell video on the 2 scenarios here. Which path do you think we will go down? P is not optimistic...
Pretensions has just realised that the annual Singapore HeritageFest is just round the corner. A fairly recent addition to the Singapore cultural calendar, the S'pore HeritageFest got its start in 2004 as a state-mandated way to promote better understanding between Singapore's cultures. The Malay, Indian, Chinese and Eurasian comunities each get various platforms to showcase traditional music, dance, art, food and customs.
This year's Festival is all about Heroes apparently. No, not the TV show, real heroes either from the past (think WWII) or present. So, for example, Cultural 101 fatures a talk about the life and times of Lim Boon Keng, a local philanthropist and businessman, who founded the Singapore Chinese Girls' School (P's school!) to pioneer the education of Straits Chinese women in the region (Lim was of Straits Chinese descent). Prior to this, many chinese women in the region were illiterate and Boon Keng's effort was thought startlingly radical at the time. Lim also held various positions of authority in the young community, serving as legislative councillor, justice of the peace and muncipal commissioner. Lim was awarded an OBE by the British near the end of his life.
P may try to make her way to the Asian Civilizations Museum to catch this talk. She is also interested in some of the Expedition H trails, particularly the Pasir Panjang War Trail and the Other Side of Geyland Trail. Hey, how often can a respectable women find a legitimate reason to visit a red light district? :-) However, P would welcome the opportunity to find out more about the old Malay community that once formed the heart of Geylang and still lingers at Geylang Serai. P has been told about the good food served in the traditional coffeeshops and shophouses of Geylang but has never dared go there after dark. Perhaps this might be her chance to visit a colorful part of Singapore.
Today was the last day of the PC show, that mad geek extravaganza of discount happiness. Pretensions had been thinking about acquiring a GPS navigation system for her car for some time, largely due to the high likelihood of her getting lost on the way to her destination. Google Maps inclusion of Singapore has helped a lot since April this year, but P finds it difficult to read driving directions and keep an eye on expressway traffic at the same time. If you ever see a little red car zipping across 3 lanes from left to right to make an intersection, or struggling desperately to get out of a U-turn only lane, that's probably P. P will take the opportunity to tender a public apology to the enraged Imam in the BMW that she managed to cut in front of during her last attempt to find a new location.
Having read in the papers that several GPS manufacturers would be represented at Singapore's mega-sale of PC equipment and accessories, P decided to brave the insane crowds at Suntec City in order to check out what was available. Along with everyone else in Singapore from the look of it.
No parking was available anywhere within 800m of the Suntec Convention Center. Even peripheral mall car parks like Raffles City had few lots going and P watched the Esplanade car park lots dwindle from 100+ to 38 within the space of 10min (as highlighted on the new nifty car parking spaces notice boards). P felt the need for a GPS unit just to locate a parking space. And even when you got one, the nightmare was far from over.
The picture on the right shows what the crowd was like outside the exhibition hall - P didn't want to risk being trampled by stopping to take photos inside the exhibition hall. There were points when P was simply crushed between long lines of people trying to go in all directions at once or responding to the loud hail of the ever-eager gadget salespeople. P felt very sorry for the couple who were obviously trying to hold a wedding dinner in the Chinese restaurant on the 3rd floor.
P has a theory that sales bring out the primaeval hunter's instinct in everyone - male and female. Being the sort that enjoys the idea of having secured a bargain, P tends to plan her sales rampages with a certain tactical eye. When to go? Which route is most free of obstructions? How many tai tais to shove out of the way? Once having spotted her prey, P will then stalk and bring it down, armed with a sharp eye, steely nerves, good reflexes and the bladed edge of her credit card. P most enjoys the triumphal journey home, bearing the tamed carcass of her latest acquisition and then being able to say to an awed audience "Oh that? I got it for a song at the sales".
Oh, and the GPS? P finally settled on a Garmin 200W for S$399 inclusive of US maps and a 1GB SD card loaded with Malsingmaps (and guaranteed free updates). Admittedly, she could have achieved this without going to the PC show but wouldn't have been able to cross-compare and try out all available GPS units, so still considers the couple of hours well-spent. Anyone who disagrees may have their power cables amputated without warning - you have been warned!
This is obviously Pretension's week for brainless entertainment. She intended to go watch Prince Caspian or Sex in the City while catching up with a friend, but didn't quite factor in the Friday evening Singapore movie crowd. Despite getting to the Vivocity multiplex 40 minutes before Prince Caspian was due to begin, only front row seats were available and P still gets motion-sick from recalling her Bourne Ultimatum experience in that position.
The fallback was the new Hulk movie, which still had plenty of availability. This caused a certain uneasiness, but P remembers Edward Norton's excellent performance in the Painted Veil, so decided to give it a chance. Despite her prejudices, P found herself enjoying the movie. It is classic comic-book entertainment and no more than that despite excellent performaces by William Hurt (as an obsessed General Ross) and Edward Norton (as the title character's puny alter ego). There's plenty of "Hulk smash" action against both the US military and the aptly-named supervillian Abomination.
Edward Norton succeeds in portraying the pathos of the character and lives up to the mantle of 70's Hulk series hero, Bill Bixby. P especially enjoyed how the character uses yoga and a heart rate monitor to attempt to control his transformations (P never realised that the fast heart rate problem might extend to the bedroom!). However, Pretensions did feel a little let-down by the computer-generated Hulk which simply looks too much like a refugee from a PC game, rather than a real creature. Finally, P enjoyed the cameos by Robert Downey Jr (free advertising! Iron Man anyone?), Stan Lee and Lou Ferrigno (the TV Hulk).
Not up to Iron Man standards, but good fun despite its unoriginality, and miles better than the angst-filled but going nowhere Ang Lee version.
Pretensions only spotted this in her backlogged inbox today but reckons it is still worth posting about - for readers who are wondering what they can do this weekend.
The Italian Cultural Institute in Singapore and the Singapore Film Society has been running an Italian Film Festival, highlighting award-winning and interesting recent italian films. The opening film "La stella che no c'e" (The missing star) was the first Italian-Singapore co-production and was partly shot in Singapore.
P rathers fancies seeing "Cuore Sacro" (Sacred Heart) but has a pre-father's day dinner planned on that date already. The 2005 film is about a workaholic businesswoman who goes on an emotional journey to wholeness precipitated by a series of crises in her life. It won several golden globes and the protagonist also scooped the David di Dontello award for best actress.
P'll blog if she manages to see anything at the festival. If you've blogged about watching a film at the festival, please drop me a comment and I'll link to your blog in this post.
Scanning through the offerings, Pretensions spotted Apocalypse: Live!, a debut play by Ken Kwek, former journalist with the Straits Times political desk. It looks to be a satire on the state of politics/media here. I quote:
It is the year 2058. Singapore is reeling from a mysterious rain of fire. Buildings have been flattened; scores of people have been killed. In fact, nearly everything in this once pristine and technologically advanced city-state has been destroyed.
A day after the disaster, Major General Abdul Aziz has seized the reins of power in a non-effeminate military coup. A colony of intrepid survivors, led by activist Jessie Soon and spiritual leader Simon Sitoh, have pooled their resources to rebuild Singapore.
Sifting through the wasteland are news anchorman David Fong and reporter Lisa Wang, determined to cover the rebirth of the nation in unreal time. Can Singapore reclaim the future from the wreckage of her uncertain past? We bring you their minute-by-hour report-LIVE!
Searching through Singabloodypore's sociopolitical blog, Pretensions realised that Ken Kwek was the reporter who had the honour/misfortune of interviewing MM Lee Kuan Yew about voter intimidation and possible vote fixing in Singapore before the 2006 election. What a nightmare assignment for a (presumably) cub reporter! The original story (& video) was reported in Singabloodypore's original blog here. Hope Ken can bring some interesting insights to his play.
Read today that the New York City Opera has commissioned a new work based on Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain. The opera will premiere in 2013 and will feature a score by Charles Wuorinen, the youngest composer ever to win a Pulitzer Prize for music (in 1970).
Wuorinen works in the 12-tone tradition and is known for his fondness for incorporating elements of fractal geometry, particularly the Mandelbrot set, in his compositions. P is wondering how Annie Proul x's gay cowboys will fit into Wuorinen's mathematical equations? How will those scenes of quiet intimacy translate to the operatic stage, which is pretty much the opposite of intimate?
P hopes to be pleasantly surprised if she manages to catch this on one of her overseas trips.
As you can see, Pretensions tends to record her TV shows and watch them at spare moments. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles actually premiered on the AXN cable network in April, but P never got round to watching it until it finally made Mediacorp 5. For fans of the movies, the programme brings us back to the world of the Terminator franchise, minus "I'll be back" Arnie and Linda Hamilton.
In their places are Lena Headley as Sarah Connor (who's obviously skipped the gym workouts since breaking out of the mental institution) and Summer Glau (last seen in SF flickSerenity)as the new model real-food-eating Terminator from the future. She has a tough time protecting future leader-of-the-resistance John Connor (Thomas Dekker) from his own idiocy and the depredations of hostile Terminator Cromartie (Owain Yeoman).
The pilot episode follows on from the movie T2: Judgement Day, with Sarah on the run with her teenage son, John, protecting him from the Terminators sent back to remove him from history. I'm not sure if Terminator movie director, James Cameron, was involved in the TV series and it keeps to tradition with it's non-stop action, strong female leads and unstoppable robots. The series is lots of brainless good fun for days when you don't want to think too much.
P understands that world domination by Skynet and its intelligent machines may not be too far off. CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, has been developing a grid-computing network to analyse its Large Hadron Collider data. Numerous newspapers, including the Times and Telegraph, have speculated wildly (and mostly incorrectly) over its ability to revolutionise the Internet.
Scientific visionary/maverick Prof Hugo de Garis believes that we could be building godlike intelligent machines by the end of this century, 'though his views are not supported by the rest of the Artificial Intelligence scientific community. De Garis has written a book called "The Artilect War", where he divides humankind into Cosmists and Terrans. Cosmists support developing the AIs with the aim of ultimately leaving Earth, while Terrans will be the modern day Luddites, clinging on to the original visions of humanity.
Pretensions decided to take a visitor to the Haji Lane area of Singapore for dinner and drinks on Monday night. The last time P visited this area was back in mid-2007, and she was much taken by the Boho feel and the interesting boutiques/vintage clothes shops. Unfortunately, Haji Lane seems to have declined in fortunes since then, maybe something to do with the closure of cult cinema place Pitch Black at the beginning of this year? Anyway, the strip of boutiques etc is still there but seems a lot less lively and P couldn't find the interesting boutique that sold ice cream along with it's jewellery.
Still, the perennials like Kebab hole-in-the-wall Al Tazzaq with its cool second floor middle-eastern lounge-dining are still there. And so is Blu Jaz.
Blu Jaz is one of the few live Jazz cafes left in Singapore. P loves its edgy psychedelic decor and christmas-tree bauble lighting, and also the way it's colonised all the adjacent walkways and pavements in its own casual organic way. Drink prices are quite reasonable at about $9 a glass for wine and $6-10 for bottled beer and there's lots of variety to the drinks menu. The place feels continents away from standard Singapore watering holes at Orchard Road, CHIJMES and Clarke Quay. We got there at a quarter to 9 and were told that the live Jazz band Omniform would only start at 9:30pm.
Omniform is a 10 piece live band (saxophones, flute, trombone, drums, trumpet) that jam together on Monday nights at Blu Jaz. According to the notes in the loo, the band plays original compositions and arrangements by Greg Lyons. While we were there, the musicians were obviously improvising the heck out of the music with variable results. Sometimes, P enjoyed the cool laid-back vibe, and then they would swing into some riff that to P's ear didn't really gel. Still there was no cover charge and the drinks were good, so can't complain too much.
The cafe often hosts DJ gigs and visiting live music acts. The highlight in June seems to be the Japanese belly dancer. Mondays are fine, but the place does get pretty full on Fridays and Saturdays (the other live music days), so reservations are recommended. Food is local and generally quite good.
P was late meeting her visitor and Moomoo the cafe's resident cat decided to keep him company. Isn't he cute!
Pretension's got back from her dinner party last night in time to catch the first episode (in Singapore) of ABC's fairy-tale comedy Pushing Daisies.
Having been a long-time fan of the now sadly defunct "Six Feet Under", P was hoping for a new weekly fix of dark humour and the series looks very promising so far. Set in the alliterative candy-stripe town of Coeur d'Coeurs, the pilot or "Pie-lette" episode establishes the characters of pie-maker Ned (Lee Pace) and his dead-alive sweetheart Chuck (Anna Friel).
Ned is blessed or cursed with the power to bring ex-living beings back to life with 1 touch, but can only do it without consequence for 1 minute. Any longer and something/someone else around him dies. Also, if he touches the resurectee again, they die instantly and stay dead. When Ned's talent is discovered by detective Emerson Cod (Chi McBride), it makes for some unusual murder investigations... Not to mention some horrendous romantic entanglements when he resurrects his murdered crush-ee Chuck!
Anyway, P loved the psychedelic set and weird cutesy plot. Wonder if ABC can get Johnny Depp to guest star in this? It seems like his kinda thing! For UK-origin viewers wondering why Chuck looks so familiar - she was Beth in Brookside.
P will definitely be tuning in next week! Will you (it might be 2nd season for you US readers)?
Sayang, Sayang (Love, Love) is a new sitcom on Mediacorp's channel 5 featuring the trials and travails of a Peranakan/Straits Chinese family that sell Kuih Chang (glutinous rice dumplings - a popular local snack). The series premiered on June 4th, but Pretensions just got round to watching the half-hour episode today.
P was interested to watch this as she is of part-Peranakan descent herself. For the uninitiated, the Peranakan or Straits Chinese culture is unique to Malaysia and Singapore, with larger concentrations in certain areas, like Penang, Malacca and Singapore. Peranakans are the descendents of inter-marriage between the native Malays of the peninsula and Chinese immigrants with customs, cultures and architecture from both. The Peranakan lingua franca, Baba Malay, is a dialect of Bahasa Melayu, but has many chinese dialect words and english mixed in.
Anyway, the series plays up certain stereotypes, such as the domineering matriarch (veteran local actress, Tan Kheng Hwa, whose Malay is execrable btw), the hen-pecked husband (John Lee), the scheming second wife (Lok Meng Chue) and the overseas and over-educated son (Johnny Lu). The thread-bare plot revolves around the inheritance of the Tan Kuih-Chang empire as Nellie's (Kheng Hwa) husband willed that it be passed to his first grandchild. This makes for much scheming and maneuvering as Nellie and Pearl (Meng Chue) try to marry off their 1 respective son and daughter to produce an heir. Nellie's son, Marcus (Lu) complicates matters by returning from the States and proposing to his non-peranakan low-class ex-classmate, Li Choo (Michelle Cheong), both to spite his mother's match-making and to gain the inheritance.
Characterised by the usual histrionic over-acting of local comedies, it's an interesting half-hour diversion on Wednesday nights, but only if you don't have better alternatives.
Gatsby is a Japanese hair-styling product firm that has lately branched out into deodorants for men etc. Their advertisements have been airing in Singapore for the last 4-5 years and have always been er; different.
Pretensions has loved their wax ad for years. View it here and let me know if you agree! The actual styling wax is not bad btw, especially if you have short hair.
Their "Moving Rubber" commercial with Takuya Kimura was also sort of cute in a kitschy weird way. However, their latest ad for deodorant (Takuya Kimura again, what's with this guy?) has P's hair standing up without the aid of any styling products whatsoever, especially when viewed on public buses. Euuugh!!
Mediacorp, if you're listening, please stop airing this ad so often over terrestial TV!
Pretension's 2nd Singapore Arts Festival 2008 outing was to the live concert of Howard Shore's Lord of the Rings symphony. Before continuing, Pretensions should probably confess that she is a dyed-in-the-wool Tolkien fan and has been one since her teenage years. She didn't go so far as learning Elvish, but that was probably because she was always crap at languages. It did get to the stage at one point that she could actually parrot back large chunks of the epic and actually tried (yes, tried) to read the Silmarillion. Pretensions loved Peter Jackson's 3 movies, has the collector's edition of the boxed sets and has seen all the films several times. She has considered mailing herself to Viggo Mortenson, but found the postage cost too much (another incentive for weight loss!).
So, Pretensions trundled along to the Esplanade on Thursday night waiting for the waving conductor's baton to transport her to Middle-Earth. Unfortunately, this didn't quite happen; it was a good evening, but not a great one, which was a shame.
Howard Shore's music is magic and positively teems with Leitmotivs. Every race, piece of architecture and creature has its own theme. This works very well in the movie and helps to reinforce the visuals wonderfully. And the individual themes are wonderful, from the instantly recognizable woodland strains of the hobbits (rendered best on the Irish whistle) to the majesty and pomp of the horns in the Gondor/Aragorn themes and most especially, mad percussive rhythms of the orcs. It is a massive work calling for a full symphony orchestra, mixed chorus (the Slovene National Theatre Opera chorus making a reapperance, see my Architectureof Silence post), childrens' choir (the S'pore Lyric Opera Children's Choir), various soloists (most notably, Belgian soprano Ann de Renais) to render the soundscapes of Middle-Earth in Quenya, Sindarin, Adunaic, Black Speech and sometimes even English.
However, Pretensions expected something billed as a symphony to develop the themes into something rich, complex and interweaving. What we got was what felt like a musical degustacion menu; you know, one of those tasting menus where you get teeny-tiny portions of everything? It was a wonderful melange of complex flavours but not a full meal. Every theme was recognizable (and loved) from the movie, but wasn't developed any further.
Pretensions did love the way that John Howe's and Alan Lee's storyboard sketches got projected onscreen at appropriate moments during the "story" and the accompanying coloured lighting was good too (red for the Balrog, green for the forests of Lothlorien). The Singapore Festival Orchestra was a little rough around the edges (some horns apparently failed to follow conductor Markus Huber when the going got tough) but did a credible job with the music, as did the SLO Childrens' Choir. The Slovene National Theatre Opera Chorus were excellent as always and the alto soloist from the choir had a gorgeous colour to her voice. Ann De Renais did very well, obviously using her Swingle's training to sing instrumentally when it was needed and colour her voice as suited. This worked especially well in "Into the West" and "Gollum's Song" and Pretensions was very moved by the former. However, the soprano was noticeably under the note in one section of the music, which spoiled it a bit for Pretensions.
On the whole, a good enjoyable evening, but sadly it lacked the full Tolkien magic.
Pretensions went to catch this surreal Japanese drama last night with some colleagues at the Golden Village Plaza Singapura multiplex. She really can't recommend that place to moviegoers. The floor was littered with popcorn and there was this lingering unmentionable odour... The airconditioning started off freezing and then seemed to switch off entirely at 9:30pm. Despite these distractions. Pretensions thorough ly enjoyed this movie, while shedding a tear or two for the fate of the characters.
Accuracy of Death/Sweet Rain is based on a short story collection of the same name by Kotaro Isaka, a Japanese author known for his unexpected story settings. The movie's main protagonist is an Angel of Death, Chiba (Takeshi Kaneshiro), whose mission is to judge those who may die a violent or unexpected death. Accompanied by his telepathic black labrador, Chiba enters the human world through various doors and assumes different identities. He then has seven days to make a literal life-and-death decision; Proceed (die) or Suspend (live). Despite the grim subject, Chiba's unworldliness (to a girl - "Pick you up? Why? You are already standing.") and serenity, make this a humorous, even beautiful, rhapsody on life and the best way to live in difficult circumstances. The closest western analogue Pretensions can think of is Mitch Albom's "The five people you meet in Heaven" and that doesn't come very close.
The movie follows Chiba's judgements of three clients - an overworked & depressive helpline operator (Manami Konishi); a small-time Yakuza hood caught in a gang war (Ken Mitsushi) and an elderly country hairdresser (Sumiko Fuji). And yes, all the storylines tie together and resolve nicely at the end, although we never learn Chiba's final decision.
Takeshi Kaneshiro is perfect as Chiba and drop-dead gorgeous in the bargain, but the movie's success is due to an excellent ensemble cast and a plot that never-ever does the expected. The theme song "Sunny Day" is an ironic counterpart to the melancholy rain-washed landscapes that decorate most of the film and a very catchy tune in its own right.
What spilled out Wasn’t a tear but a praying voice What I looked up at Was the sun above the clouds
I was living like I was asleep I was always alone Until the day I met you I was always, always here
Even if there’s a love song I could sing by myself This warmth from the touch of your arms Can’t be found alone
If I had put on a mask Then I felt I might have forgotten I shut away my memories And locked them in a box
Even in that dark place I was able to find you Even if I can’t return I’ll keep going farther, farther
Even if there’s a love song That recalls loneliness I can’t reach it alone So I’ll walk out once more Toward the door to tomorrow With you…
I’ll transform sadness Into kindness And someday Once I’ve set my true self free The pain will disappear I know it
I don’t need a love song I can sing by myself anymore I can’t find it alone But with you I know We can find a place where the sun shines A tomorrow I’ve never seen
Pretensions just discovered Bookjetty, a newly setup social utility for sharing books (along the lines of Shelfari). Not only does it allow users to share their read/reading/wanted booklists and rate & review books, but it also links seamlessly to Amazon (for book buying and descriptions) and 300 libraries in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the UK and the USA. Users designate relevant libraries on (free) signup and the program searches automatically for availability when you click on a book's detailed description.
Bookjetty is only in beta and Pretension's booklist is embryonic, but she is already finding it very useful. The setup with the National Library Board in Singapore even tells you which branches the book is available at and whether it's currently in or out! From what this blogger can see, the library list is strongly biased towards university libraries, so this site may become particularly popular with university staff and students in the region.
Bloggers may also like Bookjetty's bookshelf widget for their site. Pretensions will probably put her's up later this year when she's had time to do her book list properly (also the blog seems to be getting a little slow at the moment)!
Also check out Bookjetty creator Herryanto Siantono's blog here.
Today's correspondence reminded me of last year's visit to Tokyo and the demonstration I saw there.
The Ikeuchi lab at the University of Tokyo has been programming robots to join in with traditional Japanese temple dancers to show off their fluid and naturalistic motion.
Click pic above to view Youtube video.
Pretensions never understood the Japanese fascination with humanoid robots, but the results were quite impressive.
Pretensions found this site courtesy of another article in Wired magazine, this time one on Bernie Krause, a field recording scientist.
Krause coined the word Biophony for the pristine sounds of Nature (presumably Bio plus symphony = Biophony) and this takes in crickets, frog choruses, wolf howls etc. According to the article, Man and his works is rapidly silencing Nature's voice and extinguishing whole communities in the process.
In the interim however, check out this extraordinarily cool global soundscape at thefreesoundproject - just click on the map markers to hear sounds characteristic of a particular location, from waves on rocks in Tasmania to subways in New York.
Anyone interested in recording ambient soundscapes should check out dblondin's site.
Perhaps Krause could collaborate with a composer to craft a real Biophony - it might get more attention for his cause.
Found this in my issue of Wired. Uncyclopedia is a great satire site that advertises itself as the "Content-free Encyclopedia that anyone can edit".
While taste takes a holiday in many articles, Uncyclopedia manages to tickle the funnybone most of the time. Some of Pretensions's favourite entries include:
Watched a Vietnamese Lion Dance on the way to something else. Can't really spot a lot of difference between this and a regular chinese lion dance. Can anyone else?
P was at the most interminable gala dinner on Friday night. The food was actually quite
good, but it was one of those multiple-course lengthy chinese dinner nightmares and the fact that the appetisers were only trotted out at 9pm didn't do P's plan (to get to bed at a reasonable time) much good. The cultural dances were a mix of traditional and modern with umpteen-cultures at once. Some were more identifiable as Malay, Chinese or Indian, others were just a pleasant rojak (mixed fruit and veg salad).
Pretensions was taken out to dinner by a colleague on Wednesday. He wanted P to sample some of KL's best Nasi Lemak (coconut steamed rice with meaty accompaniments) in a nice environment and suggested going to Sakura Restaurant near Bukit Bintang. P readily agreed.
Having been told in glowing terms about Malaysia's wonderful new concert hall in the iconic Twin Towers. Pretensions decided she would use this trip to Malaysia to see something there. Unfortunately, her first choice, the Malaysian Philharmonic itself, clashed with her dinner schedule, so she was left with choice #2, Emanuel Ax.
As a member of a struggling community chorus (is there any other kind?), Pretensions read with interest an article in today's Straits Times about unconventional sponsorship for the arts. Basically, with more arts groups competing for a limited pie, performing artists are reaching beyond the usual philanthropic foundations (such as the Lee Foundation in Singapore) to corporations that might stand to benefit from the publicity. Some of these weird pairings have included Chang Kee curry puffs (picture) for a Chinese music concert, Soup restaurant (whose title dish was created by Samsui women) for a photo exhibition on Samsui women in Singapore and Simmons mattresses (Beautyrests!) for local musical Beautyworld.
Just read in today's news that dramatic soprano Deborah Voight has staged a return to London's Royal Opera House after being dro
pped from a production of Ariadne Auf Naxos 4 years ago. Then director, Christof Loy, felt that the large opera singer would not fit into a little black dress he had designed for the title role. Voight has since shed more than 100 pounds through the rather drastic medium of gastric surgery and more importantly, kept the luscious voice that made her famous in the first place.
event.
start in 2004 as a state-mandated way to promote better understanding between Singapore's cultures. The Malay, Indian, Chinese and Eurasian comunities each get various platforms to showcase traditional music, dance, art, food and customs.
navigation system for her car for some time, largely due to the high likelihood of her getting lost on the way to her destination. Google Maps inclusion of Singapore has helped a lot since April this year, but P finds it difficult to read driving directions and keep an eye on expressway traffic at the same time. If you ever see a little red car zipping across 3 lanes from left to right to make an intersection, or struggling desperately to get out of a U-turn only lane, that's probably P. P will take the opportunity to tender a public apology to the enraged Imam in the BMW that she managed to cut in front of during her last attempt to find a new location.
The picture on the right shows what the crowd was like outside the exhibition hall - P didn't want to risk being trampled by stopping to take photos inside the exhibition hall. There were points when P was simply crushed between long lines of people trying to go in all directions at once or responding to the loud hail of the ever-eager gadget salespeople. P felt very sorry for the couple who were obviously trying to hold a wedding dinner in the Chinese restaurant on the 3rd floor.
This is obviously Pretension's week for brainless entertainment. She intended to go watch Prince Caspian or Sex in the City while catching up with a friend, but didn't quite factor in the Friday evening Singapore movie crowd. Despite getting to the Vivocity multiplex 40 minutes before Prince Caspian was due to begin, only front row seats were available and P still gets motion-sick from recalling her Bourne Ultimatum experience in that position.
As you can see, Pretensions tends to record her TV shows and watch them at spare moments. 
Pretensions decided to take a visitor to the Haji Lane area of Singapore for dinner and drinks on Monday night. The last time P visited this area was back in mid-2007, and she was much taken by the Boho feel and the interesting boutiques/vintage clothes shops. Unfortunately, Haji Lane seems to have declined in fortunes since then, maybe something to do with the closure of cult cinema place Pitch Black at the beginning of this year? Anyway, the strip of boutiques etc is still there but seems a lot less lively and P couldn't find the interesting boutique that sold ice cream along with it's jewellery.
ang (glutinous rice dumplings - a popular local snack). The series premiered on June 4th, but Pretensions just got round to watching the half-hour episode today.
have always been er; different.
Pretension's 2nd Singapore Arts Festival 2008 outing was to the live concert of Howard Shore's 
