21st century enlightenment

Watch this, dude. It's a whiteboard-illustrated lecture. Fascinating ideas, captivating images.



In other news, my sister's just flown back to the States. The cat is sad. :(

Participants of "I Hate YOG" Facebook Group Arrested by Police [UPDATE: Actually, there might have been just cause.]

The main target seems to have been Abdul Malek, who was charged with "inciting violence and public disorder" for a comment he left on Facebook.

Oh lord. I knew we'd try and learn from the Beijing Olympics, but I really didn't think the Singapore government would be so frickin' STUPID. This is going to lead to incredibly bad international press for the country.

I'm really hoping there's been some kind of misunderstanding, but it doesn't seem possible. At least some news sources (The New Paper!) are reporting on this. I'm really ashamed of our country now.

Via The Temasek Review.

UPDATE: My friend tells me I should read the New Paper article, which outlines the specific threat that Malek made to a Cabinet Minister, which the police would have the right to at least check out. Phew. Less ashamed now. But I don't have a copy of TNP, so I can't make up my whole mind yet.

UPDATE TO UPDATE: Here's the story from Channel News Asia:

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_singapore/view/1077071/1/.html

It seems that Malek said it was time to "burn" Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, i.e. make him suffer. The police can say they couldn't afford to assume this was a metaphor, considering that this happened. But it's still pretty ridiculous, and the overreaction will make Singapore look even worse in the press.

(Why do I feel obliged to blog about these things? I could say I hope negative international attention will teach the government not to be so stupid... but that really doesn't seem to work. I suppose my sense of duty to justice is stronger than my sense of loyalty to country. Or perhaps the country that I love is a utopian Singapore, one that has sane governance with regards to freedom of speech, rather than the panic-stricken government we've actually been blessed and cursed with.)

ROJAK 16: next Saturday night!

I'm hosting again!


It'll be on:

28th August 2010,
Saturday, 7pm
Blk 263,
Waterloo Centre,
Singapore 180263
1st storey void deck

Ever since I became Facebook friends with students in Bengaluru, I've been getting chain letters like this:

“Every successful person has a painful story!

Every painful story has a successful ending!

So accept the pain and get ready for success! "

Money Coming Your Way

Money Goddess
This is a Money Goddess Lakshmi. Pass it to 6 of your good friends, or family and be rich in 4 Days.
Pass it to 12 of your good friends or family and be rich in 2 Days.
I am not joking.. You will find an unexpected windfall. If you delete it, you will never know!

SHE WORKS SHE REALLY WORKS

colonels enterprises

If Michael Jackson had lived in Communist China

Actually, the original title of this video is "迈克杰逊要是知道这视频肯定从棺材里飞出来" - i.e. "If MJ knew about this video, he'd definitely come flying out of his coffin."

Oh yeah, and ContraDiction's tonight! 7-9pm at 72-13 Mohamed Sultan Road! I just baked cookies!

I've been extremely behind with my updates.

But here we go:

1. I'm going to be a torchbearer for the Youth Olympic Games on Friday 13 August, roughly around 10:35am on Kallang Road, slot number 6081. You can stand by the road and support me if you like!


Announcements

Yes, I know it's ridiculous and that the YOG itself is really pretty fucked up, and the uniforms are fugly: baggy grey and orange, with clear stipulations that we are not to alter them or wear them in a non-uniform manner or promote any socio-political-cultural agenda with them while we're running.

But NAC Literary Dept asked me to be a teensy part of Singapore history, and since they've generally been pretty cool people, how could I ever say no?

2. My interview with Boo Junfeng about his upcoming film "Sandcastle" is up on Civic Life.



It's showing in Cinema Europa, VivoCity from 26 August onwards. Go early so you can convince the cinema to keep it in the theatres longer.



3. I never mentioned the fact that I've got a story up there myself: Last Kampong Boy, a brief summary of my father's memories of growing up in Tiong Bahru.



I think I'll talk about ContraDiction in a separate post.

I've done an interview with Royston Tan.

It's about his upcoming movie, OLD PLACES/老地方, co-directed with Eva Tang and Vitric Thng. It's up on the Civic Life Tiong Bahru blog, commissioned by the British Council.

The movie itself is being shown on TV: it'll be on Sunday 8 August at 8pm on Okto (wah, so many eights, must be auspicious). It's a series of personal stories told by ordinary Singaporeans about the vanishing places in Singapore.

Trailers here:







Loads of photos on the website. Tune in!

Texts July 2010

Not much reading this month, but I liked almost all of it. Makes up for all the iffy contemporary theatre I watched in Europe. But more on that later.

*POETRY*
+Cyril Wong’s “Oneiros”
+Ee Tiang Hong’s “Nearing a Horizon”

*FICTION*
+Célestine Hitiura Vaite’s “Frangipani”
+Mario Vargas Llosa’s “The Time of the Hero”

*DRAMA*
+Pablo Neruda’s “Fulgor y muerte de Joaquín Murieta”
=Jean Tay’s “Boom”

*GRAPHIC TEXTS*
+Molly Crabapple's "Scarlett Takes Manhattan"
+Jessica Amason and Richard Blakeley’s “This Is Why You’re Fat”
+Apostolos Doxiadis, Christos H. Papadimitriou, Alecos Papadatos, and Annie Di Donna’s “Logicomix”
+Yang Liu’s “East Meets West”

*FILMS*
+Akira Kurosawa’s “Rashomon”
+Steve Pink’s “Hot Tub Time Machine”

*PERFORMANCES*
+Deuten en De Goeij’s “De Schapelaar”
Theatergroep Max’s “Hoera een dochter” and +”Hoera een zoon”
+Thibaud Delpeut’s “Nacht”
=Nanine Linning’s “Dolby”
Orkater Circustheater’s “Ik beloof dat ik onvoorzichtig zal zijn”
=Dave St-Pierre & André Gingras’s “Libido”
=Ivo Dimchev’s “NEXT: Paris”
+Jin Xing Dance Theatre & Chris Haring’s “Lovely Liquid Lounge”
=Bouchra Ouizgen’s “Madame Plaza”
+Willi Dorner’s “Urban Drifting”
Lemi Ponifasio’s “Birds with skymirrors”
+Electric shadows’ “And all the questionmarks started to sing”
John Cale’s “Dyddiau Du – Dark days”
=Ery Mefri’s “Sarikaik – Community”
=Daisuke Miura’s “Yume no shiro - castle of dreams”
the first bit of Beatriz Catani’s “Insomnio – sleeplessness”, until I walked out
+ Handspring Puppet Company’s “Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria – The return of Ulysses to his homeland”
=Faifai’s “My name is I love you”
= Rachid Ouramdane’s “Loin...- Far...”
+Singapore Lyric Opera’s “The Magic Flute”

*EXHIBITIONS*
+Museum Folkwang’s “A Star Is Born: Fotografie und Rock seit Elvis” and “The Most Beautiful Museum in the World”
+Julia Stoschek Collection’s “100 Years”
+K21 Ständehaus’s “Intensif-Station”
+Singapore Art Museum’s “Singapore Youth Festival Art and Crafts Exhibition”