Canon Rock

This guy is unbelievably good!

Merry Xmas!

This is a few days late but I wish whoever reads this a merry Christmas and a happy new year! This watercolour is for a friend who loves Olivia the pig and I reckoned painting her a picture of it is cheaper than buying the book! :P

Far away from home

From the university campus to the construction sites, a new generation of Chinese immigrants is becoming a regular sight in Singapore. We are on our way to hitting a population of six million and I wonder how this little city will look like in a few years. I hope all this pervading din and inconvenience from the neverending (re)construction will be worth it.

utterubbish

Pri 5 maths question

I got stumped again this afternoon. Underestimated the primary 5 standard, plussing and minus-ing and couldn't solve this easy question:(

Find the product of X and Y in the following number pattern.

1, 8, X, 64, Y, 216...

霍元甲 (Huo Yuan Jia)

I just watched Jet Li's 霍元甲/Fearless, supposedly his last martial arts movie. I had been tempted to watch it since the KBox session with the history boys the other day. Both Ah Ben's rendition of Jay's song and the action in the music video impressed me lots.

Anyway, I loved the movie. It has the usual kungfu message--"thou shalt not fight unnecessarily, ye kungfu kid," but this is the first time Jet Li is playing the antihero since my childhood days of seeing him in that righteous pigtail. So it's a little disturbing, at least until after his redemption.

Set in the late Qing period, the movie plays up the Chinese cultural pride as Li's earlier Wong Fei Hong films, albeit in a less chauvinistic, anti-imperial tone. Probably as a response to the tense East Asian relations, the central theme is friendship and harmony. Huo Yuan Jia beats the American boxer but does not kill him; and the boxer declares Huo victorious. Huo perishes in the hands of the wicked Japanese businessman, but fights a final honourable duel with the Japanese warrior.

Some snotty professor said this is what history should be really about... My classmate can write a good paper on Chinese civil society through a study of Huo Yuan Jia's Pure Martial Arts Association (精武体育会) that really existed and historians can dismiss the movie as fiction, but ultimately this excellent movie uses the past to advocate a peaceful present. Oh, and the action and Matrix effects raawwkz too!! =)

What a clever parrot!

Fugazi - waiting room (live)

Kob is kicking it old school! Funny how one falls back on the past when the brain is drained. Good luck to all through this exam season!

An exercise in creative writing

Finally my course in Dien Bien Phu history is coming to an end. We had a simulation of the court martial the Commander-in-Chief Henri Navarre for the charge of malfeasance resulting in French defeat in that decisive battle in 1954. My group played the role of the politician Joseph Laniel, trying to evade from blame of not supporting the indochina war, and an equal culprit for causing the defeat. The following is a diary entry written in the first person of Joseph Laniel at the conclusion of the trial, which found Navarre guilty as charged, of course.

Dear Diary,

Finally, it’s over. France got rid of that donkey Navarre who tarnished her imperial legacy forever. No, France wasn’t meant to leave Indoina like the beaten dogs the troops were at Dien Bien Phu; I promised my fellow Frenchmen an honorable solution, to leave the Viet ingrates with the glory of our French imperial glory intact. To think I went before the Assembly last March and insisted the VM evacuate the Red River delta as a condition for ceasefire, that defeat cost us both Hanoi and Haiphong. Why did Navarre wage a battle he couldn’t win? What the hell was he thinking? Didn’t he assure Admiral Cabanier in 1953 the military situation would turn in our favor and we could negotiate out of this mess? The defense lawyers were definitely right; Ely is as stupid as the imbecile he appointed as C-in-C of the far east command.

I’m equally appalled by the bitch-fight between Navarre and Cogny this afternoon. What is wrong with the French army?? Navarre, you brought untold disgrace upon yourself for not firing that media whore and let him screw up your unfortunate decision to take DBP. Worse still, you ADMITTED to incompetence due to lack of operational experience as your defense?! Who’s going to believe that?

It seems that the Yanks are as gullible today as they were in ‘53. The French public would never allow us to prosecute a decisive military victory against the vm. Eight years in IndoC with superior firepower and mobility and all we managed was a stalemate, and ol’ Dulles still expects Navarre to score a victory for the Free World. Get over it. Navarre’s defense seemed to suggest he went on the offensive (when his plan was to avoid one) because the Yanks wished for it. Here in Paris I was doing all I could for an honorable settlement for France and Navarre wants to play Genghis!! That judge is another dumbass for even taking Castries’ note seriously and asked me why I authorized Navarre’s plan without authorizing reinforcements. The French wants out and Navarre should obey when his superiors instructed him to keep the safety of his troops as his top priority. As a servant of the state, Navarre owes obedience to the state, not to his ego and certainly not to the bloody Yanks. Good riddance.

My blood is boiling,
Joseph

Quotable Quote of the Day

It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor remains an emperor.
- Neil Gaiman

Hallelujah

Some little things to remark on. I think last week's presentation was delivered to a great reception from the class and it made our anxieties worth it. I know it was partly because ours was the last one and everyone's relieved that the term is coming to an end.

My tutee passed! It's quite a miracle actually when I had gotten so frustrated last week and wasn't quite sure if he's going to make it. Calls for a celebration...

Kamikaze, cherry blossoms, and nationalisms : the militarization of aesthetics in Japanese history. In the midst of reading this book. Made my hair stand on end wondering about how the imperial state made idealistic educated young men give up their lives. There are no easy answers.

the most haunting song I've ever heard. I couldn't believe my ears hearing it in Shrek. It kinda expresses what I feel about the world right now, knowing that for some, the means justify the ends:
Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley

Shout out louds

I hate to admit this but I actually share some of mr brightside's emo sensibilities. Can't get enough of this song after the first time hearing it on his blog that I have to put it here as well. I should spend less time on facebook and get down to doing some real work and also write a rave for radiohead's new album which sounds so refreshing.


Shout Out Louds - Impossible.

simply bored

Singapore merlion

Copyright H.W.N.
I remember standing beside Faye as she took this picture thinking it wouldn't turn out right because the sun had already set. I was so wrong! The merlion never looked more surreal and iconic.

For more of her photography, check out http://chwnew18.shutterfly.com/

war and strategy in a valley

Was supposed to present the French counterattack strategy in class yesterday but was cut off as time was running out. The day before I was thinking how absurd it was for a lowly ex-LCP to present military strategy to a handful of officers in the class. My ironic fantasy was not even realized! What a loser.. haha.. I'm so glad there's a ps2 in school and thirty minutes of King of Fighters helped to release my frustrated tensions!

Evangelion model

My groupmate who worked on this evangelion world with me managed to find our work and here it is.

Samuraizzz

This is pretty cool. Expect more samurai postings from me. Taking two Japanese studies modules this sem.

Akang datang: New Evangelion movie!

I am starting to get the feeling the whole trajectory of my education is closely influenced by my boyhood love for anime, from Japanese history in Samurai Kenshin to war and destruction in Evangelion and Gundam Wing. A pity I lost, along with my crashed hard-disk, the 3d model of the EVA-01 done for a 3d-modeling course. Maybe I'll write an essay examining the link between Japanese preoccupation with global destruction in pop culture (think Godzilla, Evangelion) and the A-bomb experience. Yes, I'm still loving it!

たそがれ清兵衛

Tasogare Seibei is such a beautiful samurai movie..

100th post and it's my birthday!

Celebrated my birthday yesterday at carnivores chijmes. I'm flattered, we have enough in our group to form a football team. Good job lulu! The ambience was fantastic, with the samba music, candles and church in the background. It was meats' galore and everyone's favourite was the beef. The shrimp cocktail was good too. Good places don't come cheap, so the price was a bit steep, and us poor students were grumbling a bit. Nevertheless, I'm glad everyone had a good time!

Another PSLE maths question..

This one stumped me for some time today, to the point I wanted to give up. My brain's not working alright.

Ali and Baba has some money. Ali has $200 more than Baba. Ali gives 60% of his money to Baba, and then Baba gives 25% of his money to Ali. Now Baba has $200 more than Ali. How much does Ali have at first?

It shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to solve this question if you know what to do. The answer is inside the comments link.

Basker in Chicago under Full Moon

There's no full moon in the picture. But the image of that huge moon just over the horizon remains etched in my mind, perhaps because I'm used to seeing it from the equator as from higher latitudes.
As for what the saxophone player was playing, I cannot remember now. I wonder if he picked that spot under the angels to serenade strangers on that lonely night. Strangers who do not know about nor give a damn about his hopes and dreams. Well at least the angels will always be there listening to him.

Sigh, this picture will work much better with a spot of flash on the sax-player. =(

What is the Matrix?

[T]hat what happened and that which is said to have happened are and are not the same may itself be historical.

-Michel Rolph Trouillot

Eight years after getting a dose of skepticism from Morpheus' "What is real?", I'm dumbfounded by theoretical issues dealing with history. That historians try to explain the metaphysics of their discipline in convoluted arguments doesn't make it any easier. Ugh...

DCFC on Class95

On the ride home at the back of Colin's car, I was listening dreamily to the radio and the conversation between Colin and his girlfriend. Then suddenly I heard Ben Gibbard sing the lines--If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks/ I'll follow you into the dark--and I wasn't sure if I was hearing things because I certainly did not expect local radio to play DCFC.
The band's not indie anymore but not commercially successful enough to be up there with big acts like Spice Girls and Take That. Colin said the station's Class95 and turned up the volume to hear the curious emo song. I'm not sure what I feel about sharing the band I love so much with everyone else and lose that little sense of exclusivity. I hope they don't become a commercial cliche. (The late "anti-corporate" Kurt Cobain has his own action figure!?!) On the other hand, a greater popularity will mean their CD's will be cheaper and a stronger likelihood they'll come down for a concert or otherwise the local cover bands will make sure how to play their songs. :)

Ego is a stronger driving force than pain

Took part in the SAFRA half marathon this morning. It was an achievement for me because i outdid my last pathetic attempt by at least 30min. DCFC's hymn-like Soul Meets Body had been ringing in my head as I struggle through the first 17km: So brown eyes i hold you near/ cause you're the only song i want to hear/ a melody softly soaring through my atmosphere/ where is soul meeeets bodeeeey... Then my brother started pulling away at the 17km mark, and I can't let that fat ass outrun me. And "soul meets body" was replaced by the chant: "Get that fat ass, get that fat ass.." :P

1911 revolution

Time to dust some dusty kobwebs off this blog. I have been busy lately trying to come up with an essay on the 1911 Revolution of China when the Manchu monarchy was replaced by a republican government and how the revolutionary Chinese students in Japan played a part in influencing it. I can imagine how excited those overseas students were, far from home and family, plotting a revolution in their dim and cramped dormitories.

Faces

SoKo's the name

Adorable, funny and violent.

Tuckshop Rocks!!

Finally, I found the holy grail of hang-out joints with rocking tunes and good food!

yy and I celebrated the Pooh's birthday at Tuckshop--a cafe that resembled one in my dreams. I had a good hunch about the place upon entering the place when I saw the DJ's turntables. Though I wanted to, I didn't get to talk to the DJ; he spinned the best rock music I ever heard in a cafe. He spun songs from The Cure, AC/DC, The Strokes and some totally awesome punk rock songs I have never heard before.

Damn, I need to check out the live band and DJ nights with fellow music junkies! (u noe who u r!)

I'm not a foodie and I don't know what to say about the steak sandwich with a portobello mushroom, apparently the numero uno on their menu. Perhaps Popagandhi sums it up aptly as "simple and honest food."

Tuckshop
21 Tanjong Pagar Road (between Play and Oso)

-------------------

By the way, here's a little graphic to give cheapo birthday presents a bit more personality:

Just print it and stick it on the present like this:

... and hope that the recipient will forgive you for giving him/her YellowPages/dictionary/sudoku puzzle! :)

La Vie En Rose

I listened to an Indian version of song a lot in my brother KC's car without knowing how famous it is until I watched the movie La Vie En Rose, an enchanting biopic of the rollercoaster life of legendary French singer Edith Piaf. The moving soundtrack and Marion Cotillard's tantalizing portrayal of the petulant yet endearing Piaf make this movie a must-watch! :)

Woah~! OP parked downstairs!!

That looks like Optimus Prime at the carpark...

steak and beer Sunday

I am having a 500ml can of Tiger and a black pepper steak from Tanglin Halt Western Food (highly recommended by Ch U) as I'm writing this. It's not as if my blog has not been reduced to an irrelevant record of the minutiae in my life, but I'm fascinated by what Tim Hartford, author of The Undercover Economist, said about how supermarkets place their merchandise to make the most profit. Thanks to him, I decided to pay less for a 500ml can of beer instead of a pricier 330ml.

A 330ml can of Tiger costs $3.40, while a 500ml can costs $4.60. The smaller can works out to cost 12% more for the same volume. According to Hartford, the rationale for having two prices for the same thing is to differentiate between those willing to pay more and the "price-sensitive" customers like me who'd rather pay less to kill their brain cells.

7/11 placed the 330ml cans inside its fridges at the eye-level, which is really the first thing you'll find if you're looking for beer there. If you don't bother about how much the beer costs, you'll probably pick your favourite beer and then proceed to the counter. But I was feeling thrifty (read:broke) and started comparing prices: Heineken-$3.75, check; and I noticed the 500ml-cans placed right at the top. Voila, a quick calculation and I knew which was a better deal. Thanks Tim!

Anyway I recommend The Undercover Economist if you wanna read "Econs for Dummies"-like books and discover answers to questions like "Who pays for your coffee?" and "Why poor countries are poor?". Other than Tim Hartford, I also enjoyed books by Steven Levitt(Freakonomics) and Steven Landsburg(More sex is safer sex) who make econs interesting for the rest of us. =)

wala+dcfc

Just back from Wala with a gorgeous gal who digs Pink Floyd and thinks it's ok to try pot. Welcome to the sixties, Kobito! The cover band wasn't too bad, Remy--now with a goatie--was on lead G, with another good-looking drummer and a forgettable singer. I like them more unxpected actually. The downside was I failed to get them to play a dcfc song. :(

So here's one from youtube:


I LOVE DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE!!

I don't care if this is emo, it's a great mv:

LMF R.I.P.

The lyrics from Pink Martini's Sympathique in the previous post reminds me of another favourite song of all time:



I miss these guys. They put up one of the best gigs I've been to--young and old, mostly M'sians, packed into the small Esplanade bay arena. The audience was restless and ecstatic. LMF refused to play their vulgar songs like 含家玲 ("U noe wat da fuck i'm saying, 含家玲?"). Towards the end of the gig, the drummer jumped into audience, causing an impromptu moshpit and everyone went wild. Lulu jumped onto the stage and backed down when the singer looked like he's going to punch him. That was hilarious.

Sympathique by Pink Martini

Beautiful song. I almost want to put it into my brother's upcoming wedding dinner music. Dun think the lyrics are appropriate though, according to a comment on youtube: "I don't want to work, I don2t want to lunch, I want only to forget, and so I smoke"...

Nevermind the lyrics, this song has made entry into the soundtrack of my life. I've been listening to it over the past few weeks I'm sure it will remind me of the summer of 2007 when I hear it again years down the road. Unfortunately, this summer vacation hasn't been very eventful except for some days of work, running, rockclimbing and movies. (Transformers was great!)

cool vids

hat-tip to reg for these awesome vids.

Botanical gardens

I went running with Claud at the Botanical Gardens this morning. I knew people were going to give strange looks at me in shorts on a regular workday at the bus interchange. You just don't see a lot of leisurely people 8am when everyone else is heading for work.
The Gardens was beautiful, tranquil, and there were some photographers. It was the first time I jogged there, and it felt like the next best thing after Central Park, which was a lot more scenic and the morning air chill and dry. But I gotta learn to love what I have, at least here at the Gardens there's a swan lake.
Claud was late 15 minutes so I had some time to visit the clean public toilet (a pleasant surprise!) There's a UN Summit at the main building, and a lot of VIPs. They're probably handing out the UN public service award mentioned in yesterday's papers to our civil servants or something.
When she finally arrived we started to run. I didn't how fit she was then, she had been with the NJ dragonboat and they win every freakin' year and the year-end marathon idea was hers, so I flippantly suggested an hour's run for starters. It didn't take long for me to regret not restraining my ego and suggest 30min instead. The place was hilly and we kept running until we kinda got lost and ended up at Farrer Rd. Phwah..

be different

I just finished marketing guru Jack Trout's Differentiate or Die, a random book I borrowed. The core of it is companies must stay different in people's minds and he furnishes his case with many real world examples. His idea seems so obvious though; everyday the media is telling me to be different/original/unique/etc until it sounds like a cliche.
But the point Trout makes is that you just have to position yourself in a unique spot in the mind, and once you're there it takes a lot to dislodge your place. Any attribute can be differentiated. Like if you're no.1/low-cost/luxury/etc and people know it, you just keep working on that special attribute of yours.
To see brands how brands are exploiting this idea, I paid closer attention to the ads on the streets over the past few days. True enough, Nescafe is positioning itself as the fat-free coffee, pre-empting other coffeemakers the fact coffee powder doesn't contain fat. Going by Trout's analysis, if the "fat-free" campaign is successful, any other coffeemaker trying to use the "fat-free" attribute would be seen as copycats.
I wonder how many of my consumption choices are influenced by these marketing tactics.

Alice: "I amuse you but I bore you."

I just watched the movie Closer on DVD a second time. I'm not big on love stories but the first time I watched it when Grette was halfway through it. Aside from Queen Amidala's outstanding role as a stripper, what really struck me was the wrenching scene when her character Alice realized her love for Dan is over:

Dan: I love you.
Alice: Where?
Dan: What?
Alice: Show me. Where is this 'love'? I can't see it. I can't touch it. I can't feel it. I can hear some words but I can't do anything with your easy words.

Lady Luck is smiling at me; I managed to borrow the screenplay by Patrick Marber from the library!

ONE campaign

Recently BBC admitted in a report they carry a leftist bias to issues like world poverty and global warming. Personally, I share the same bias, taking for granted the persuasion from the Left. There're not a lot of counter-argument to these issues as far as I'm aware.
So here's a little poll to see what you guys think about a nice ONE campaign ad supported by American celebrities to end poverty.

For more info, go to www.ONE.org

Wondering what the hell to do with your life?

You might be able to get an idea or two from 43things.com. This site has over a million posts about the things people want to do. I find it refreshing to see the simple and down-to-earth aspirations like 'improve my handwriting' and 'design my own tattoo' from around the world. It's a lot more real than the 'live your life with purpose' literature that's topping bestseller lists, and you can even talk to those who are doing what you want to. The quirkiest thing I came across was 'learn to strip' so I'm sure there's something for everyone. As for me, I want to paint my room but I'm better off tidying it up first. ;p

link: www.43things.com

manhattan

Can you spot the Statue of Liberty?

This was taken 2 years ago from Brooklyn Heights at sunset. Probably the skyline at night would've been more fantastic but I didn't really know my way around the neighbourhood, and didn't want to risk getting lost there. I don't think the view is as pretty as what Lonely Planet says; I had more fun finding the view though. It was something of an adventure.

Over the past month my friends have gone places like Hokkaido, Copacabana, Prague, London, Cyprus, Philippines, Siem Reap and Australia. Lucky buggers.. =) I'm planning Mt. Kinabalu. Anyone interested?

zerodaybug

It was zerodaybug's first jam session after a three-month hiatus. I felt a little bad for not keeping up with practice because I have no motivation except when we have jam sessions. I like to keep up the rock star poseur once in a while.

By the way, Leonard put up the vid of us practicing soul asylum's 'runaway train' for the Science Club's bandcomp (yes, haha..) four months back. That's me on the left contributing the mind-numbing guitar noise backup. He's the one playing the ripping cool guitar solo.

To be sure, zerodaybug is Leonard's band, even though he didn't come up with the geeky band name inspired by a virus. He's the only one consistently learning new songs and making sure the rest of us turns up.

In fact, we wouldn't know what to play today had Leonard not prepared the songs and chords. That always works. Besides, our lead singer, Leon, couldn't make it today so Leonard wrote the chord progression to Hotel California and we played instrumental. It is a really good guitar song, although I got sick listening to Eagle's demo music video when I was selling Sony's hifi at IMM some time back.

Leonard wrote another progression: 1 measure of B minor, followed by F#, D, E and F#. Interesting. It's Britney's Baby Hit Me One More Time. He even brought the lyrics and the band took turns singing it since one guitarist sufficed and Leonard could play the bass guitar and drums. When it was my turn to sing, I remembered thengz who's such a big fan of Britney. I dialed his number and continued with the song. "How excited he would be if he heard the song over the phone?"

My day ended with good music at the Blue Jazz bar though. Lulu called up our bunch of old friends and I didn't want to miss it. I said 'haji lane' but the taxi unkle heard 'chai chee lane', which is in Bedok and not where the bar is. I made a big detour back to town, met the guys, talked cock, had beer with Eric Clapton's music in the background before calling it a day.

SNL - a special x'mas box

If you guys haven't seen this already. It's hilarious!

Alan's bar fight

Just watched an episode of Boston Legal. Great show. Witty and humourous. Almost every episode is a treatise on some important theme: love, death, religion and so on. =)

The most emo song of all time

It's been 15 years since its release and it still sounds poignant every time I hear it.

iGoogle

If you're like my friend thengz, who wonders about the ubiquitous and frivolous i-prefix to every new product, you won't be surprised by Google's homepage service, iGoogle, which iThink is pretty cool. i especially like the customisable idyllic landscape that changes according to the time of the day. uCan add rss feeds of your favourite websites and your gmail account to it so there's no wasting unnecessary time waiting for those websites to load. Here's a quote from the quote-of-the-day service on my homepage i kinda agree with:

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.
Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night
US novelist (1922 - 2007)

I used to pretend to be crazy like Van Gogh hoping I'll be as talented as he was. However I remained ku-ku with no talent forthcoming. :(


Gantz fanart, Copyright Kobacabana

thengz, pear and i

"You know, there are some cheena people who pass themselves off as kantangs but still appear extremely conservative and homophobic?"

"Sounds like me.."

"Really meh? But you are going home now what."

hono o daiko vid

I think it's Akemi Jige on the right. I was at one of her taiko workshops five years ago. Gosh, she's still as fit as ever!

もし百億円あったら。。

Oh man.. if i had a billion yen.. will i still outdo you in inanities?

Based on a real (stupid) story..

Thanks to thengz for making me recall wot a dumb arse you were! :)

Silly Primary 6 maths questions

My tutee was sick of the dreary repetitive Maths questions in his assessment books. So I tried adding a few drops of irrelevance into the usual questions to suit him. Surprisingly, he attempted them with some enthusiasm--either he liked colourful questions or he enjoyed putting his tutor go the extra mile to stretch his dollar. Here are the questions for your amusement.

1. A container has 2500cm(3) of Coca-Cola(tm). The base of the container is 25cm by 40cm. How high will the coke rise if I throw in 8 fishes, each having a volume of 350cm(3)?

2. The ratio of Ah Meng's weight to Spidey's weight is 3:1. Spidey's weight is 60% of the total weight between Spidey and Venom. Venom weighs 60kg. What is Ah Meng's weight?

3. Spongebob is running from Jurong to Yishun at 30km/h. At three quarters of the journey, Sonic overtakes him at 65km/h. Spongebob increases his speed to 40km/h and reaches Yishun 2.5hr after Sonic.
a) Find the distance of the journet.
b) Find Spongebob's average speed.

If you're bored enough to attempt them, the answers are: 1) 2.8cm; 2) 240kg; 3a) 1040km, b) 32km/h.

nature and modernity

nature and modernity
Originally uploaded by Kobacabana.

This picture sucks but I like the architecture.

Babel

I am writing this 4am and little stoned from watching the Babel dvd. Brad Pitt. Unintended consequences. We are all connected to each other through our actions despite our differences. Different languages. Though we cannot understand each other perfectly, the greater irony is when we can't even when we speak the same language. I don't like the movie. It's sad, but I'm sure the director meant it that way. To see the world as it is in the eye even though we see and hear different things from the news. It's sad, but maybe it's the Kilkenny I drank or I just need to sleep. I refuse to believe the world is that screwed up and we can make it go away. I can't believe I just wrote that hippie emo shit. I'm going to sleep. :)

Midsummer Night's Dream Rocks!

Midsummer Night’s Dream at Fort Canning last Friday was such an amazingly fun experience. I have to admit I do not know nuts about Shakespeare nor theatre and I didn’t catch the Shakespearean English half the time. Thankfully it was an accessible romantic comedy and there was enough local flavour and slapstick to keep me engaged with laughter. I was especially captivated by Pyramus, the guy who turned into a donkey that the Fairy Queen fell deeply in love with. Watching it under the stars with some good friends and picnic added the icing to the play. We had delicious sushi, cookies, potato salad, konyaku jelly and brownies, and toasted, befitting the occasion, to a Japanese faux-haiku I made up there:

この夏いろいろな
おもしろい
事をしましょう

This summer many
interesting
things shall we do :)

Christiine~!

ny-phantom
Originally uploaded by Kobacabana.

I will never forget my experience watching Phantom of the Opera in NY and falling asleep towards the end because I was too tired from jetlag!

lake*

lake*
Originally uploaded by Kobacabana.

A beautiful lake beside which I camped with friends while on roadtrip from Missouri to New York. I wish I remember the lake's name.. I got up early in the freezing morning for this shot and I've never seen such mist in my life before! Yep, it was worth the chill.

hey.. flickr's fun!

Doodle galore

I've put together a semester's worth of doodles drawn during the 'HR Management' class. I hope when my exam results are out I will not regret not paying attention in class. hurhur...

Spiderman3 at last..

Song from the movie's ending credits. If you found the movie corny, this music video will warm your heart. Hat-tip to wx for the mv. :)

singapore art museum

I was walking around the Bras Basah area trying to find Sculptor Square where Reg's friend held his art exhibition until I gave up and went to the singapore art museum to rest my tired legs. Chinese artist Zeng Fanzhi's "chaotic strokes" paintings were awesome, reminding me of McFarlane's Spiderman and Spawn. It's probably odd to compare high art with comic art and Zeng's art is like an amalgamation of both-caricatures surrounded by harrowing wild black strokes. Zeng applied this style on a Karl Marx portrait maybe suggesting that unfettered passions of idealism-the theme of his exhibition--can become scary dark forces. hmm.. Moving on the museum has some pretty outstanding works from the Southeast Asian region. My favourite among the collection on display are Affandi's works. He is an eminent Indonesian artist (1907-1990) who is hailed as "Indonesia's founding father of modern art". I particularly like his "modern" treatment of traditional Southeast Asians imagery like the rooster and swordfish, rendering them more abstract and yet at the same time incredibly expressive. I imagine it's his experience living through the World Wars and Indonesian independence that gives his art such a dark edge. But really, there's no need for such works to remind us of the harsh reality when there's hardly any good news anymore.

Couple of Affandi's works at artnet: http://www.artnet.com/artist/667635/affandi.html
Short bio on Affandi at wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affandi
Zeng Fanzhi's press release at channelnewsasia: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/273420/1/.html

Lao Zha Bor

This ah ma is just so funny and cute! Respect her for not conforming to the elderly stereotype! Go visit her blog for some laughs.

Leslie Kee Superstar exhibition

Too bored to do anything today so I went to the National Museum to check out what the buzz was about. I was quite reluctant to pay for the "national" exhibits and I was rather glad there were free exhibits, which didn't disappoint. Worth taking note is the Leslie Kee Superstar exhibition dedicated to the 2004 Asian Tsunami victims. The Tokyo-based Singaporean photographer couldn't go wrong with beautiful (East) Asian superstar models from Aaron Kwok to Zhang Ziyi, from actors to sumo wrestlers. The gallery was a splendid visual orgy of beautiful faces and great poses (my favourite being the samurai sword-wielding androgyne!) although a lot of it was stereotypical of popular culture. (Torn clothes, electric guitars, sultry faces... you get the hint.) After a while, it was too much eye candy and I had to leave.

Alas, the exhibition will only last another 2 days. Don't miss it!

SUPERSTARS EXHIBITION will open in the Singapore National Museum (93 Stamford Road) from 27 April until 4th May, 2007, 10AM-6PM, Free Admission.

For more info:
http://www.lesliekeesuper.com/photography/?p=21
http://www.super-stars.net/index2.html

Where is my mind?

With your feet in the air and your head on the ground
Try this trick and spin it, yeah
Your head will collapse
But there's nothing in it
And you'll ask yourself

Where is my mind?
The Pixies

Sometimes I wonder where I would be now had I taken the regular route paved for Singaporeans. Not that I veered off dramatically--O levels, NS, poly, uni--just a shuffle in the education steps. I like to think those were deliberate and free choices, and I broke free from the yoke of the rigid monotone system of exams and streaming only to emerge with a degree to monotonous and repetitive work.

Watching my peers succeed in such a system with cushy jobs that pay for the occassional holiday and expensive toys make it seem worthwhile though. Tyler Durden from the Fight Club must have gotten it wrong:

You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.

There's also the incessant complaints about work. The clueless colleagues, the irrelevance, the need to pretend you're busy when you're not, the list goes on.

Maybe people just like complaining. But what about the need to connect one's work to the greater things in life? This is where we stand on a slippery slope. One may get as much satisfaction from buying a new Xbox with his pay as another from contributing to the alleviation of world hunger. I'm not about to pass judgment on anyone who couldn't care less if their shirts were made in sweatshops.

Or maybe the trick is to find the work you love. Hardly anyone I know loves the work he or she does, and even so, the pay is unbearably low.

Choice. I think that's really the crux of the issue here. No use blaming the system. I would've have loved to attend art school (coincidentally like Hitler did) many years ago and be some dandy designer but nonetheless, I'm happy where I am and have been. Especially more so when the conventional is going through ceaseless regurgitation of education I have no interest in and wondering: Where is my mind?

Wasserbett

This one's really funny. I wonder why there are so few views on youtube.

Minorities and nationhood

Feeling ignorant about the issues in the region with regards to what I'm studying. I spent the past few semesters concentrating on samurai, exotic heritage sites and culture and naively thought tpolitics had nothing to do with them. Power, it seems, is the lowest common denominator for the desired life. Ideology and culture are the velet cloth covering it.

Well this semester I had the golden luck to read minority issues in Southeast Asia. The inter-ethnic conflicts in SE Asia (and I believe in Iraq as well), which I have been mostly indifferent to, had such complex causes that I should have paid more attention to in class. Again, I was more interested about the opium-producing minorities in the golden triangle and their relevance to Andy Lau's recent gangster movie. haha.. bummer..

Singapore history is not boring

I just want to draw attention to the blog (e-journal it calls itself) looking at the various aspects of historical and contemporary Singapore. It's something I'd read after a strong cuppa coffee, but I think it should be well worth the time, considering how little I know about my collective past.

s/pores: http://spores.wordpress.com/tag/volume-1-issue-1/

Niagara~! A curves/levels tutorial for better looking amateur photos.

Recently my friends got bitten by the shutterbug and started taking pictures with their spanking new digicams. So I thought maybe an amateur could give another some tips. So here it is: I can't think of other ways of turning mediocre pictures into better ones than the curve and levels tools found in good image-editing software like Adobe Photoshop or Fireworks, which is used here.


I took this picture of the American Falls (part of the Niagara) with a disposable film camera under a bright afternoon. I don't think anyone would use their expensive cameras near the falls and getting them wet from the mist and spray. (I got SOAKED even though I was wearing the souvenir raincoat!)

Naturally, you can see that the mist got to the lens and the picture is wahed out with white. You get a sense of the majesty of the waterfall but little else. Not very interesting.

So I applied the levels tool on the picture. The curves tool works the same way too. The idea is to increase the contrast of the colours or make the dark spots darker and the colours brighter. The picture would look better with a wider range of shades - in the dark, middle and bright ranges.

Ok, this is not a comprehensive tutorial. Just fiddle with the levels/curves controls on a copy of your picture. Be sure to check the preview checkbox in the popup dialog box to see the changes as you play with the controls. Experiment!


Jaa! Now the blue sky stands out more, like the kind you get with a polarized lens. There's more detail in the picture - the people and the birds appear to contrast with the massive fall. Now you just need to imagine the deep roaring sound of the gushing waters! (Nothing, of course, beats the experience of being there :)

Alrightey, I hope this has been helpful for all! Here's a link for more technical information on the levels/curve tools.

I'm not gonna change...

This one rocks. I was sorry to hear that The Strokes is taking the backbench now that Albert Hammond Jr. has gone solo. Cris was crazy about the band. Anyway, it's almost magical what they're doing - a bunch of guys just chilling, grooving and making music. Maybe it's because of the vibes, I love this lo-fi unplugged version more than their studio recording. Check out the stream of Albert's new cd here.

James Nachtwey

thengz, this might interest you. This photojournalist took important pictures that, in his words, recorded history and changed the course of history. I think they are a window to the darker side of the human experience.

Yo La Tengo Rocks!!

Yo La Tengo's gig at the Esplanade was totally awesome!! All those beautiful songs, guitar feedback and rock-star posturing(see thurston moore in my title banner), not to mention the superb sound quality in the concert hall made it a night to remember. Ya lah, there're not too many American indie-rock acts here in Singapore, and I missed Mogwai last year. soundscrobbler tells me it's a rowdy night, which was I wished the YLT gig to be like that too. To be sure, the band was great but I just feel something's missing: the punk counter-culture ethos and crazed, beer-guzzling fans, for example. (wx: it's like the delicious but small-portioned, expensive wanton noodles!) The crowd was so dead, just sitting there; and some actually left after the second song. "A lot of oddballs and corporate kids," soundscrob reckons. I agree, it's kinda surreal. But Lulu told me I should stop bitching about the uncles and aunties because kids will say the same thing about me in future.

Nah, I'm pretty sure I'll mellow and settle for Teresa Teng or Wilco in a few years. :p

CreativeBlock font from blambot.com

Opium and the minority Miao

I am so drained reviewing Geddes' book Migrants of the Mountain that I want to give up and ask thengz out for Carl's Jr. Anyway, the book's on the Miao minority group in Thailand, a subject I wouldn't normally want to explore if not for the module requirement. The only redeeming factor is that it gives me the lowdown on the my recent favourite movie--The Protege--as the are one of the mountain peoples cultivating the opium poppy. I'm quite surprised at how pretty the poppy flowers are. I don't think the general public will find the book a fun read except that there are two interesting anecdotes that relate to the movie. First, the 'cooking' of the raw opium shown in the movie adheres to the process described in the book. The second is a drug economics trivia (btw anyone remember that shareware druggie trading game): dealings in opium tend to reverse the conventional supply-demand formula whereby lesser quantities fetch higher prices; high premium were paid for large quantities to offset the risks and considerable organization to conduct the trading trip. (This will make sense if you've seen the movie.)

Source: Geddes, Migrants of the Mountain, p. 225-6.
Image Courtesy of: Clipart ETC

Ok.. back to work..

Push the Button

The world is full of terror, if someone makes an error, he's gonna blow us up to kingdom come.
There are some crazy rulers, they hide and try to fool us, with demonic, technologic willingness to harm
Teapacks - PUSH THE BUTTON

Sardonic lyrics from the song by Teapacks to represent Israel in this year's Eurovision song contest. Apparently, the Israelis find it a candid response to Iran's nuclear ambitions and the Islamic republic's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (Read more about it at BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6405457.stm

I found the song on Youtube. It's a rather silly but fun song!

Prices going up...

Today the price of my favourite prawn noodles went up 20 cents, a 10% increase from $2. I tried to find out if the reason was the GST hike, but the 'uncle' made a hasty retreat after my first question confirming the price hike. To be fair, $2.20 is still relatively cheap for a good bowl of prawn noodles.

I find myself more attuned to the costs of living these days. Maybe it's the education. Or maybe it's just the imminent reality of graduation and debts. I wanted to say "financing my own wants and needs" as well, but I don't think my expectations are likely to explode out of my means immediately, although I do want to see the world so badly.

Protege

The buzz coming from award nominations, star power and the raving comparisons to the massively successful Infernal Affairs didn't convince me that the recent HK movie Protege will not be just another rip-off of the Infernal Affairs. Instead, it has completely shattered my entrenched perception of the dearth of the thought-provoking genre in popular HK movies. The brooding movie takes an honest look at the dangerous and destructive heroin addiction from both the perspectives of the addict and the pusher. Caught between the two is Daniel Wu's role as narcotics agent struggling to understand why they cannot extricate themselves from their involvement with heroin.

ok, I love the movie but it's 4am on the first day of the lunar year and I don't have the mental capacity to discuss the movie nor disclose any spoilers for now.

Happy CNY and Gong Xi Fa Cai.

Crane Terror

The weather has been great lately. The clear sky and cool breeze are such a welcome change from the tormenting haze and torrent rains since late last year. I haven't been to the beach to soak in the sun since the last rave about the sunny weather (my life's getting boring) but I've gone rollerblading at East Coast Park with thengz and rockclimbing (after a 3-year hiatus) with Claudz.

The picture was taken on a rare morning when I woke up early and the cranes at the Clementi bus interchange looked so ominous. Of course, I did some digital work on it for better effect. There's too much re-construction and renovation work going on everywhere I go in Singapore. Progress and change, so exalted by our little nation, shouldn't be this annoying and uninspiring. Oh well...