Joke of the Day

Thanks to Nai's invite to attendthe Cold WAr seminar held by History Channel, I got the impetus to read through some of the emails I saved from university. It's barely five months since I've graduated and they're already coming in handy. Nostalgia can be therapeutic at times. Here's an excerpt from a BPF email:

"You are not asking about argumentative methods, you are asking about analytical methods. If you want to practice argumentative methods, there are two ways:

"Get married;

"Choose a career your parents disapprove of."

Gosh, I miss school.

Oops, thanks to SN for advice on the correct use of inverted commas.

海阔天空

I was disappointed the Beyond concert wasn't what I expected. It felt more like a commercial ripoff than a commitment to their music. It was painfully sad. But even aging rock stars need to move on.

An Orgy of Paper Planes

I love this picture I took on the job. A paper plane expert was giving a workshop on paper plane making and at the end of it he got everyone to throw their planes together, letting loose a paper blitzkrieg and, unsurprisingly, a hall of screaming, running and frightening-hyper kids. That anarchy was a picture-perfect opportunity but I wasn't prepared for it at all. The batteries in the flash were almost flat, my focus failed to keep up with the supersonic kids, launching their imaginary B-52s and F-15s before darting off to pick up another that crashed nearby. Camera at waist-level to avoid shy faces taking flight, I fired away, anxious I might not get any good shots. That will inevitably lead to me getting a good ear lashing from the Boss. No, I'm kidding. But I'm happy with this one. I can explain away, i mean, photoshop away the blur.

Goo goo dolls - iris

Chorus: And I don't want the world to see me, 'cuz I don't think that they'd understand.

If I could be.. where you wanted...

A couple of unfamiliar songs into concert, the crowd went wild as Ash played onen nof their early hits, Kung Fu. Lulu and Kenny started hopping like bunnies on amphetamines to the music.
It's not just the beer they downed earlier that caused such ecstacy. Lulu seemed really happy Ash came back--ten years ago he was still too young to see them perform in Zouk.

The turnout for that humid night was pathetic for a band like Ash. Maybe it's the expensive tickets. Maybe people forgot about them. Or maybe it's just Thursday night, and I felt silly in my leather shoes, which got stamped on by slam-dancing teens, and worried if I could get up for work the next morning.

To be sure, Ash still rocked--in a way most has-been bands can only dream of. (What happened to the the opening act Fishtank--which used to be one of THE local ska bands--is a case in point.) Ash played their brand of pop-punk (whatever you call it) with such dynamite that is unmistakably emblematic of youth. Who can forget the anthemic "Girl from Mars"?

And if Youth were simply reckless adventure, it certainly had left us slowly and surely. Gatecrashing no longer seem to excite us, even though we got into the venue through the wrong entrance with no security in sight. I couldn't believe we even dutifully made our way to the door and gave our tickets.Some things never change though, we'd rather walk a good distance than pay for the rip-off beer at the beerfest.

Not wanting to waste my time at a good gig, I didn't rue the passage of youth for very long. As Tim Wheeler ripped through the riffs of Goldfinger, I flung my heavy bag to Kenny, looked Lulu in the eye, threw myself over his shoulders and into the moshpit.

Emo's out but who cares.

Chasing Tail-lights

Met up with wax to get my birthday present-Radiohead's best-of collection. As we drove down the familiar bends behind NUS for our favourite duck rice, I fiddled with the camera in my hands. Tried to get a shot of the raindrops on the windscreen with light bouncing off from the tail-lights. This was as interesting a shot as I could get.