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)

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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!)