tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-144480022024-03-08T10:33:39.169+08:00* the paradise of flowers and fruit *Ng Yi-Shenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18175656890555470042noreply@blogger.comBlogger908125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14448002.post-75902932898215609802016-06-14T16:24:00.001+08:002016-06-14T16:24:04.936+08:00More Than Just a Kiss<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<em>(This article first appeared on <a href="http://sifa.sg/sifa/blog">the SIFA Blog</a>. I've been advised that it may be inappropriate for that platform.)</em><br />
<em><br /></em>
<img alt="" src="https://sifa.sg/sifa/media/ckfinder/userfiles/images/Les%20Miz.jpg" style="height: 400px; width: 600px;" /><br />
[<a href="https://sg.news.yahoo.com/les-miserables-in-singapore-mda-to-take-action-122206932.html">Source</a>]<br />
<br />
This past weekend, there was a controversy over the staging of the musical Les Misérables at Marina Bay Sands. The directors had inserted a male-male kiss for comic effect into the staging—it took place during the scene <a href="http://www.elyrics.net/read/l/les-miserables-lyrics/beggars-at-the-feast-lyrics.html">Beggars at the Feast</a>, when the minor villain Thénardier is laughing at how he's been able to assimilate into the upper classes:<br />
<em><br /></em>
<em>Ain't it a laugh?</em><br />
<em>
Ain't it a treat?<br />
Hob-nobbin' here<br />
Among the elite?<br />
Here comes a prince<br />
There goes a Jew.<br />
This one's a queer<br />
But what can you do?</em><br />
<br />
It's just a tiny peck on the line "This one's a queer." Blink and you'll miss it, reports say. But the theatre went nuts. Letters of complaint were sent. <a href="https://sg.news.yahoo.com/les-miserables-in-singapore-mda-to-take-action-122206932.html">MDA had to take action</a>.<br />
<br />
<img alt="" src="https://sifa.sg/sifa/media/ckfinder/userfiles/images/13393945_10153563036537371_6519726233232506565_n.jpg" style="height: 294px; width: 507px;" /><br />
<br />
[<a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153563036537371&set=a.45553817370.67836.649992370&type=3&theater">Source</a>]<br />
<br />
So the kiss has been removed. And I don't blame the company for doing so—if you're performing a multi-million-dollar international touring musical revue, then you don't need to worry about artistic integrity. It's all about the bottom line instead. You're essentially serving up an expensive version of cultural McDonalds.<br />
<br />
I'm not even surprised this happened. I was there in 2012, when MBS put up <a href="http://www.fridae.asia/gay-news/2012/05/21/11713.a-chorus-line">A Chorus Line</a> and people were leaving the theatre as soon as they discovered there were openly gay characters.<br />
But people got pissed. Playwright <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153563036537371&set=a.45553817370.67836.649992370&type=3&theater">Alfian Sa'at </a>(who wrote last year's SIFA highlight, Hotel) wrote a great little screed about this on Facebook. So has <a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/gwyneth-teo/that-same-sex-kiss-in-les-mis%C3%A9rables-did-audience-goers-really-just-watch-the-pl/10154477666326992">Gwyneth Teo</a>, who notes that this G-rated play has portrayals of prison labour, prostitution, child abuse, child soldiers and graphic death, and yet decide that this tiny, frankly more homophobic than homosexual kiss is what needs to hidden away.<br />
<span style="line-height: 1.6em;"><br /></span>
<span style="line-height: 1.6em;">And that was before this happened:</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 1.6em;"><br /></span>
<img alt="" src="https://sifa.sg/sifa/media/ckfinder/userfiles/images/Orlando%20Shooting(1).png" style="height: 565px; width: 476px;" /><br />
[<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/orlando-shooting-attack-gay-nightclub-lgbt-club-pulse-florida-mass-us-a7078341.html">Source</a>]<br />
<br />
Omar Mateen's attack on the Pulse in Orlando, Florida was the largest mass shooting in US history, leaving 51 people dead and 53 injured. And according to his father, it was partially triggered by seeing two men kissing in public.<br />
<br />
<span style="line-height: 1.6em;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/indulekshmi/posts/10153809552206379?pnref=story">My lawyer friend Indu</a> commented,<em> </em></span><em><span style="line-height: 1.6em;">"I wonder if the Singapore government will see this as the lesson it is, that extremism cannot be tolerated, or take away the opposite lesson: that gay people shouldn't kiss to avoid being shot."</span></em><br />
<br />
Right now, the law favours making sure that kissing doesn't happen visibly. Our <a href="http://statutes.agc.gov.sg/aol/search/display/view.w3p;query=CompId%3A78ab8c9d-d74c-49b1-9726-41e6d10ceefe%20ValidTime%3A20160331000000%20TransactionTime%3A20160331000000;rec=0">Public Entertainments and Meetings Act</a> says:<br />
<em><br /></em>
<em>(3) The content of the arts entertainment must not contain —</em><br />
<em>
(a) anything that is likely to undermine national interest;<br />
(b) anything that is likely to cause offence to any racial or religious group in Singapore;<br />
(c) anything that is likely to cause feelings of enmity, ill‑will or hostility between different racial or religious groups in Singapore;<br />
(d) anything that is lewd or obscene;<br />
(e) anything that promotes any lifestyle or behaviour that is contrary to prevailing social norms, including any alternative sexual lifestyle (such as homosexuality or transgenderism), deviant sexual behaviour or drug abuse...</em><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mda.gov.sg/RegulationsAndLicensing/ActsCodesOfPracticeAndGuidelines/Documents/Acts,%20Codes%20of%20Practice%20and%20Guidelines/Industry_TV_ContentGuidelines_FTATVProgCode.pdf">TV shows similarly aren't allowed</a> to "promote or justify a homosexual lifestyle".<br />
<br />
The ironic thing is that Singapore does have LGBT-themed art on show. Lots of it. I just reviewed the gay-themed play <a href="http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2016/06/fresh-faces-old-wounds-review-twenty-something-theatre-festival-part-1/">Long Weekend</a> at the Twenty-Something Theatre Festival. And <span style="line-height: 1.6em;">In </span><span style="line-height: 1.6em;">The OPEN Film Fest</span><span style="line-height: 1.6em;">, we'll be screening at least two films with queer themes: </span><a href="https://sifa.sg/theopen/event/Tangerine-Rating-TBC-Love-Story-Not-NC-16/" style="line-height: 1.6em;">Tangerine</a><span style="line-height: 1.6em;"> (about trans sex workers in LA) and </span><a href="https://www.sifa.sg/theopen/event/Uncle-Howard/" style="line-height: 1.6em;">Uncle Howard</a><span style="line-height: 1.6em;"> (about Howard Brookner, a gay artist who died of HIV). Plus, in SIFA's main program, we'll be looking at queer issues through the perspectives of gay performance artists Loo Zihan and Ray Langenbach in <a href="https://www.sifa.sg/sifa/show/I-Am-LGB/">I Am LGB</a>.</span><br />
<br />
<img alt="" src="https://sifa.sg/sifa/media/ckfinder/userfiles/images/tangerine_ver2.jpg" style="height: 406px; width: 535px;" /><br />
<em>Poster for Tangerine</em><br />
<span style="line-height: 1.6em;">[</span><a href="http://www.impawards.com/2015/tangerine_ver2.html" style="line-height: 1.6em;">Source</a><span style="line-height: 1.6em;">]</span><br />
<br />
So why does all that get a pass, while Les Miz's non-sexual, non-political tiny gay reference has to go?<br />
<br />
Because there's more than one kind of art in Singapore. There's art for the masses, and there's<span style="line-height: 1.6em;"> art for the intellectuals: the folks with open minds who want to be challenged, who want to think, who want to see different viewpoints and different forms. The argument, from what I've heard, is that the intellectuals are already thinking about alternative ideas, so they can be exposed to freakier things.</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 1.6em;">The masses still need mollycoddling, according to government policy. </span><span style="line-height: 1.6em;">Which means that they don't need to see anything that might offend them. Which means that they can gain all the signs of being cultured—knowing the famous names and the great classics—without actually getting the real benefit of culture, i.e. an inquiring, open mind.</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 1.6em;"><br /></span>
<span style="line-height: 1.6em;"><img alt="" src="https://sifa.sg/sifa/media/ckfinder/userfiles/images/I%20am%20LGB.jpg" style="height: 338px; width: 600px;" /></span><br />
<em>Poster for I Am LGB</em><br />
[<a href="http://www.artitute.com/2016/04/07/2016-singapore-international-festival-of-arts-sifa/">Source</a>]<br />
<span style="line-height: 1.6em;"><br /></span>
<span style="line-height: 1.6em;">Does this upset me? Sure, it upsets me. But on the other hand, I suppose we should be grateful that some of us can even show LGBT themes in some arenas? Even though it has no hope of creating any greater awareness amongst the larger population?</span><br />
<br />
No idea, man. By the way, there's <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1018067164951581/">a candelight vigil for the victims of the Orlando shooting</a>, scheduled for tomorrow at Hong Lim Park, 8pm. I'll be there.<br />
I might even sing a few Les Miz songs while I'm at it. I'm a gay man, after all. Broadway may throw me under the bus, but I can't stop myself.</div>
Ng Yi-Shenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18175656890555470042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14448002.post-58475827337139287932015-09-08T17:44:00.001+08:002015-09-08T17:44:18.886+08:00Cabanons<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<em>Ng Yi-Sheng</em><br />
<em><br /></em>
<em><img alt="" src="/ckfinder/userfiles/images/Cabanons.png" style="height: 400px; width: 600px;" /></em><br />
[<a href="https://instagram.com/p/7GE9QeS5BK/?taken-by=sifa_sg">Source</a>]<br />
<br />
I'm too jaded for this shit.<br />
<br />
I mean, seriously, Keng Sen. Why? Just because there is a famous contemporary artist (assuming contemporary is, say, 1965) with a brand name to slap on a show does not make it contemporary. Just because we are wandering from tent to tent to tent does not mean we are engaged in, um, relational aesthetics or some other buzzword.<br />
<br />
This is basic circus stuff lah. You watch Cirque de Soleil, <a href="http://dejiki.com/2012/07/voyage-de-la-vie-farewell/">Voyage de la Vie</a>, also not so different. This is not cutting edge. I don't know if even got edge to try cutting or not.<br />
<br />
<img alt="" src="/ckfinder/userfiles/images/Cabanons1.jpg" style="height: 749px; width: 500px;" /><br />
[<a href="http://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/arts/less-circus-and-more-art">Source</a>]<br />
<br />
On the other hand, as circuses go, this one's pretty cool.<br />
<br />
I mean, it's visually very beautiful, as you'll see from above. That's Tantiana Mosio Bongonga, the high wire artist, doing the freaking splits on a tightrope while wearing a leather corset. She's accompanied by a singer, Oumou Kouyate, who's in a colourful West African headwrap and boubou and accompanies her as she teeters and totters with melodious somethings in Bambara (or some suchlike language; I am not an omniglot).<br />
<br />
And it's all very analog - you can see them hoisting the net bit by bit at the beginning, while Kouyate sings and Moriba Koita (an instrumentalist) strums his n'goni. Maybe the best bit is that everything's quite close up, cos the tents are smallish - you get an intimacy that you don't get with any other circus setting.<br />
<br />
I think I also lucked out last night because the whole delegation from Kerala Kandalam was there too (they're doing<span style="line-height: 1.6em;"> Smriti Padha tonight), as well as a bunch of kids from a youth centre, and they were oohing and aahing and clapping like anything.</span><br />
<br />
Some of the regular theatre crowd was there, too. One young man told me he wanted to marry both the highwire girl and the Juan Tula, the Argentine guy on the cyr wheel.<br />
<br />
<img alt="" src="http://www.cnac.fr/media/galerie/26e_Ignacio_Tula_Juan/26_Igniacio_Tula_Juan_3.jpg" style="height: 333px; width: 500px;" /><br />
[<a href="http://www.cnac.fr/cnac-796-Promotion_Cnac_2014_26e-Juan_Ignacio_Tula">Source</a>]<br />
<br />
He was wearing a shirt when he performed here, so I wasn't all that engrossed. I spent my time joking about how the aerial silks artist, Bella Legrain looked like she was frolicking inside a giant mosquito net.<br />
<br />
<img alt="" src="/ckfinder/userfiles/images/Cabanons2.jpg" style="height: 400px; width: 600px;" /><br />
[<a href="http://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/arts/cabanons-gives-an-intimate-twist-to-big-top-circus-acts">Source</a>]<br />
<br />
There were Asians, too - a pair of Cambodian tumblers, Sopheak Houn and Sarev Roun! <span style="line-height: 1.6em;">They'd been designated to frolic amongst Daniel Buren's ubiquitous stripes, which, I'd like to say, are <strike>ugly</strike> not as good-looking as his colourful tentages.</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 1.6em;"><br /></span>
<img border="1" src="http://www.aucirque.com/actus/2011b/2011-09-19-cnac3.jpg" style="background-color: #b50b0c; color: #ffffdd; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.6666669845581px; line-height: normal; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><br />
<br />
[<a href="http://www.aucirque.com/actus.php?num=10586&comp=yes">Source</a>]<br />
<br />
<img alt="" src="http://www.danielburen.com/files/images/r2_2013_istres_3311_p1000413.jpg" style="height: 450px; width: 600px;" /><br />
<br />
[<a href="http://www.danielburen.com/images/exhibit/2159">Source</a>]<br />
<br />
Weirdest of all was this ringmaster who looked like a cross between Uncle Fester and the Marquis de Sade, who came in and explained to us how Buren is one of the greatest masters of art from the mid-20th to the early 21st century, because of his goddamn 8.7 cm stripes, which are supposedly inspired by 1) Oriental mysticism, 2) the measurement of his wife's body, 3) I forget.<br />
<br />
The accent was strong on this one. I was also rather unfortunate to have him in my last tent, so we ended the entire show on a big WTF note.<br />
<br />
So, yeah. It's a nice circus show. Bring your friends! Bring your family! Bring bread, since that's what circuses are best paired with during election season!<br />
<span style="line-height: 1.6em;"><br /></span>
<span style="line-height: 1.6em;">But if there's a deep</span><span style="line-height: 1.6em;"> conceptual insight buried in this one, it's not just postmodern, it's also post-me.</span></div>
Ng Yi-Shenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18175656890555470042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14448002.post-13851120062027325192015-06-13T02:56:00.001+08:002015-06-13T02:56:22.945+08:00So I'm obsessed with Psychobitches.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xk5ZZ0jjJsk/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xk5ZZ0jjJsk?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<br />
And I'm wondering, what other legendary and historical women could fit into Psychobitches Season 3? Hopefully providing some greater ethnic diversity while we're at it?<br />
<br />
Mulan<br />
<br />
The Queen of Sheba<br />
<br />
Indira Gandhi<br />
<br />
Mary Seacole<br />
<br />
Lakshmi<br />
<br />
The Rani of Jansi<br />
<br />
Noor Inayat Khan<br />
<br />
Scheherezade<br />
<br />
Hatshepsut<br />
<br />
Isis<br />
<br />
Mami Wata<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Lucy (the human ancestor)<br />
<br />
Lilith<br />
<br />
Agrippina<br />
<br />
Athena<br />
<br />
Artemis<br />
<br />
Mary Magdalene<br />
<br />
Jezebel<br />
<br />
Britannia<br />
<br />
Marianne (the symbol of France)<br />
<br />
Amy Winehouse<br />
<br />
Elizabeth Barrett Browning<br />
<br />
Lady Jane Grey<br />
<br />
Mary I<br />
<br />
Anne Bonney and Mary Read<br />
<br />
Louisa May Alcott<br />
<br />
Annie Oakley<br />
<br />
Elizabeth Fry<br />
<br />
Mary Wollstonecraft<br />
<br />
Little Red Riding Hood<br />
<br />
Goldilocks<br />
<br />
Esther<br />
<br />
Arachne<br />
<br />
Anastasia Romanoff<br />
<br />
Penthesileia, Queen of the Amazons<br />
<br />
Anna Leonowens<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Ng Yi-Shenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18175656890555470042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14448002.post-68866971784582247252013-11-02T08:19:00.004+08:002013-11-02T08:26:45.358+08:00A researcher made a scientific breakthrough about the chemistry of water. Everyone thought she was a man.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So I first found out about this a few days ago: a researcher named Xi Zhang, at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, led a team that suggested <a href="http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2013/10/weve-finally-figured-out-why-hot-water-freezes-faster-than-cold/">a reason why hot water freezes faster than cold water</a>. (It's called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mpemba_effect">the Mpemba Effect</a>, because it was first noted by the Tanzanian student Ernesto Mpemba.)<br />
<br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/Ice_cube_Air_entrapment.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/Ice_cube_Air_entrapment.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Awesome, right? I used to work at NTU, and while they're <a href="http://sg.news.yahoo.com/ntu-rejects-outspoken-professor-s-tenure-appeal-115504121.html">not a model for academic freedom</a> in any way, it's great when any institution invests in science.<br />
<br />
It's been reported in both <a href="http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2013/10/weve-finally-figured-out-why-hot-water-freezes-faster-than-cold/">Gizmodo</a> and <a href="http://www.iflscience.com/chemistry/hot-water-freezes-faster-cold-and-now-we-know-why">I fucking love science</a>, which talk about "Xi Zhang and his team", "Xi Zhang and his colleagues".<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhz27gNcm7vsgQ6jzQDUcQ3fe7MmO2oBrfLDQXQKsPi0ipKN3eP9w5HjE3KWHj1WyAp6WkfssFmjbypSBWr2hxsr9-MNVhJGuzKwhO5LPBzwBM0D_zD1QJV4LwYTfl0IUEwrlN/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-11-01+at+11.51.05+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="70" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhz27gNcm7vsgQ6jzQDUcQ3fe7MmO2oBrfLDQXQKsPi0ipKN3eP9w5HjE3KWHj1WyAp6WkfssFmjbypSBWr2hxsr9-MNVhJGuzKwhO5LPBzwBM0D_zD1QJV4LwYTfl0IUEwrlN/s400/Screen+Shot+2013-11-01+at+11.51.05+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH9V6y7MYRfqOqJwtzgZUuTlIJz5UVdTFl_97Vkqk0S5qeJOjYQDoGvcysNafN0JpOIAQEUZmf-yBBk0zCgVhCC9nlg8ZKWlmMOml1Pc52ePaV02GcCwVxm6bNFla_Fb_2jzjj/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-11-02+at+12.04.51+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="98" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH9V6y7MYRfqOqJwtzgZUuTlIJz5UVdTFl_97Vkqk0S5qeJOjYQDoGvcysNafN0JpOIAQEUZmf-yBBk0zCgVhCC9nlg8ZKWlmMOml1Pc52ePaV02GcCwVxm6bNFla_Fb_2jzjj/s400/Screen+Shot+2013-11-02+at+12.04.51+AM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
The weird thing is, when I went to search for the face of this researcher, I found <a href="http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Xi_Zhang14/">this:</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkPVYlaJtEFVhqaZ4__OsLBVOqyUV5LUcGRPxlInmqxGgm31Rhebck5kV-ZVdFG9eqTosHNyqLUCTVjZrzppSivkukGMBUrfbnNTdUsiz09XD1fb4KTUAqhbrzrOph6Omg8ED2/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-11-02+at+12.11.40+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkPVYlaJtEFVhqaZ4__OsLBVOqyUV5LUcGRPxlInmqxGgm31Rhebck5kV-ZVdFG9eqTosHNyqLUCTVjZrzppSivkukGMBUrfbnNTdUsiz09XD1fb4KTUAqhbrzrOph6Omg8ED2/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-11-02+at+12.11.40+AM.png" /></a></div>
<br />
She's a lady. <a href="http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Xi_Zhang14/">Check the page</a>. She's not just another scientist with the same name: her field of research and the university are the same.<br />
<br />
Now, I'm not saying this was a deliberate attempt to whitewash women out of scientific history (although this has happened in the past). And of course, Xi was just one of several researchers, male and female, working on the discovery, which is the way science has often worked.<br />
<br />
But journalists of the world: when you're dealing with foreign names, you really can't make assumptions about gender. Elise Andrew, the blogger behind <a href="http://www.iflscience.com/">I Fucking Love Science</a> should know this - <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/science/us-news-blog/2013/mar/20/i-love-science-woman-facbook">she's experienced that kind of sexism herself</a>.</div>
Ng Yi-Shenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18175656890555470042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14448002.post-85816221473797031402013-03-16T12:48:00.001+08:002013-03-16T13:44:40.155+08:00Eastern Heathens Launch on Sat 23 August, 6:30-7:30pm!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Hey guys! <a href="http://www.theartshouse.com.sg/Programmes/EventPage.aspx?EventID=3003">Eastern Heathens</a> is FINALLY going into print!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGYCaBgaO2kLovN9fzbDvI3fxoiEd7NTDbZQRdXseCZ1zQxkQX3QlzMl7yH5bxCeNuhye4A8fNU6VnVJUcHtGNGZCvr7R9GKequFgVNhD0TmSUKPp3dvVZWQX0CalD719vkwuG/s1600/62444_2990066888260_253222589_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGYCaBgaO2kLovN9fzbDvI3fxoiEd7NTDbZQRdXseCZ1zQxkQX3QlzMl7yH5bxCeNuhye4A8fNU6VnVJUcHtGNGZCvr7R9GKequFgVNhD0TmSUKPp3dvVZWQX0CalD719vkwuG/s640/62444_2990066888260_253222589_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
What is it? Well, it's an anthology of stories inspired by Asian folklore - there's realism, fantasy, historical fiction, oriental steampunk, horror, comedy, sex... and I'm one of the editors! Mind you, it's mostly drawn from the inspiration and the sweat of my co-editor Amanda Lee Koe - and from the contributors. (I tried submitting a story, but we agreed it wasn't good enough.)<br />
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We sent stuff to the print shop yesterday and we're holding the launch next Saturday, at the Arts House, aka The Old Parliament House. It's part of the <a href="http://www.theartshouse.com.sg/Programmes/RegularSeries/Literally.aspx">Literally 9</a> festival to celebrate the arts centre's ninth anniversary. Alfian Sa'at, Cyril Wong and newcomer Bryan Cheong should be reading! I'm hosting, methinks.<br />
<br />
<i>Venue: Arts House, Living Room</i><br />
<i>Date: 23 Mar 2013</i><br />
<i>Event Timing: 6.30-7:30pm
</i><br />
<i>Free admission</i><br />
<i>Facebook page: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/442375729179327/?fref=ts">https://www.facebook.com/events/442375729179327/?fref=ts</a></i><br />
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The authors, btw, are:<br />
<br />
Bryan Cheong (Singapore)<br />
Hoa Pham (Australia)<br />
Cyril Wong (Singapore)<br />
Jeannine Hall Gailey (USA/Japan)<br />
Alfian Sa'at (Singapore/Malaysia)<br />
Amanda Lee Koe (Singapore)<br />
Jon Gresham (Australia/Singapore)<br />
Anila Angin (Singapore)<br />
Chan Ziqian (Singapore/Poland)<br />
Jennani Durai (Singapore)<br />
Li Huijia (Singapore)<br />
Abha Iyengar (India)<br />
Zeny May Recidoro (Philippines)<br />
Jason Erik Lundberg (USA/Singapore)<br />
<br />
Seeya there!</div>
Ng Yi-Shenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18175656890555470042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14448002.post-89123603473012312762013-01-03T03:05:00.000+08:002013-01-03T03:05:01.045+08:00Several announcements for January!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b>1. Flying Circus Project!</b><br />
<br />
I'm going to Myanmar from 3 to 15 January, to be part of the Flying Circus Project! <a href="http://flyingcircusproject.weebly.com/blog.html">Here's the blog I'm maintaining at Weebly.</a><br />
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<a href="http://i45.tinypic.com/9lilb5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="http://i45.tinypic.com/9lilb5.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>2. OH! Marina Bay</b><br />
<br />
This means I'm gonna miss Evil Empire's <a href="http://www.ohopenhouse.com/">OH!: Open House at Marina Bay</a>, a series of interactive art tours that are happening this weekend and next weekend - that's 5, 6, 12, 13 Jan - at Marina Bay. I contributed a short story to their program, titled <i>Block Quotes</i>. If you wanna go, better go early - lines are kuh-ray-zee.<br />
<br />
<b>3. Campaign City</b><br />
<br />
I actually designed a poster for Evil Empire as part of their Campaign City: Life in Posters exhibition. It's showing at the National Library, Level 11, from 9 January onwards - huge light boxes on the walls, each featuring an artist's reinterpretation of one of the PAP's propaganda campaigns! I worked with the Speak Good English campaign in a way that celebrates local experimental writing.<br />
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<a href="http://i49.tinypic.com/2rnh7ar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://i49.tinypic.com/2rnh7ar.jpg" width="372" /></a></div>
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<b>4. Choice Cuts</b><br />
<br />
And there's actually already an exhibition I'm involved in on show, at Jurong Regional Library, called <a href="http://www.studiokaleido.net/choicecuts.htm">Choice Cuts</a> - a little installation by my friends at Studio Kaleido that gives you personal recommendations for Singapore literature, by Singaporean writers. As you can see, I'm featured as a recommender (not as a recommendee), as are Boey Kim Cheng, Wena Poon, Enoch Ng, etc, etc. (Gwee Li Sui is both a recommender and a -dee, ugh.)<br />
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<a href="http://www.studiokaleido.net/kaleidoimages/choicecuts5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="http://www.studiokaleido.net/kaleidoimages/choicecuts5.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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The show will move from library to library until it opens in Central Lending around March. I should be able to make it for that launch.<br />
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That's all for now. I think!</div>
Ng Yi-Shenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18175656890555470042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14448002.post-14253834676709160472012-12-06T01:39:00.002+08:002012-12-06T01:40:18.285+08:00Microcosmos/Archiving Cane: Opening this Thursday!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I´ve written material for two art exhibitions opening this Thursday. Sadly, I can´t attend either of them because I´m in Scandinavia - I´m a blogger for the ILGA Conference in Stockholm next week!<br />
<br />
This means you´ll have to attend in my stead. Pop over to the Substation for Loo Zihan´s <a href="http://www.substation.org/archiving-cane/">Archiving Cane</a>, which I´ve written an essay for:<br />
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<a href="http://www.substation.org/wp-content/uploads/Archivingcane_650x250.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="152" src="http://www.substation.org/wp-content/uploads/Archivingcane_650x250.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"></span></b><br />
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<b><b>Archiving Cane</b></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">Date: </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">Fri 7 Dec to Sun 16 Dec</span></i></span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Venue: The Substation</i></span></span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Reception: Thu 6 Dec, 7:30pm</i><b>Please note that this exhibition contains material that is rated R21</b></span></span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b><br /></b></span></span></b></div>
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Then get a cab to Goodman Arts Centre for Amanda Lee´s <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/432577316797550/">Microcosmos</a>, a photography exhibition for which writers like myself have written poetry and stories inspired by the art:<br />
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<a href="http://www.nguan.tv/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/microcosmos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://www.nguan.tv/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/microcosmos.jpg" width="440" /></a></div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<b>Microcosmos</b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">Date: </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">Fri 7 Dec to Wed 12 Dec</span></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Venue: Goodman Arts Centre, Block B, 90 Goodman Road</i></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Reception: Thu 6 Dec, 8pm to 10:30pm</i></span></span></div>
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Click the links if you want to find out more!</div>
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Ng Yi-Shenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18175656890555470042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14448002.post-48317993558348859952012-11-21T00:04:00.003+08:002012-11-21T00:23:50.003+08:00But Is the Book Better?: Eating Air, Thu 28 Nov, Sat 1 Dec<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I'm off to the Georgetown Literary Festival in a bit, but before I do that, I'd like to advertise a little something I've got coming up. It's a screening of the fabulous 1999 motorcycle gangster movie at the Arts House, after which there'll be a talk about <a href="http://www.firstfruitspublications.com/firstfruitspublications/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=23">my novelisation thereof</a>!<br />
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<a href="http://kelvintong.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/eatingairhires.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://kelvintong.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/eatingairhires.jpg" width="272" /></a></div>
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<b><br /></b>
<b>But Is the Book Better?: Eating Air</b><br />
Venue: Screening Room, the Arts House<br />
Date/Time: 28 Nov, 7.30pm; 1 Dec, 3pm.<br />
Free admission<br />
(on a first-come-first-served basis)<br />
<br />
My talkback is on 1 December, with director Jasmine Ng! More info <a href="http://www.theartshouse.com.sg/Programmes/EventPage.aspx?EventID=2861">here.</a></div>
Ng Yi-Shenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18175656890555470042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14448002.post-58775068054435961722012-11-03T00:30:00.001+08:002012-11-03T00:43:31.110+08:00'Tis the Festive Season!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
And no, I don't mean Hari Raya Haji and Deepavali. I'm talking about the <a href="http://www.singaporewritersfestival.com/">Singapore Writers Festival</a> and the <a href="http://gtlfestival.blogspot.sg/">Georgetown Literary Festival</a>!<br />
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<a href="http://www.theartshouse.com.sg/portals/0/Images/Origin_green_SWF_black-bg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.theartshouse.com.sg/portals/0/Images/Origin_green_SWF_black-bg.jpg" width="309" /></a></div>
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Just bussed back from the SWF opening, in fact, where Math Paper Press did a <a href="http://www.mynewsdesk.com/sg/pressroom/booksactually/pressrelease/view/swf-2012-alfian-sa-at-x-cyril-wong-the-twin-launch-public-event-807991">twin launch</a> of Alfian Sa'at's <i>The Invisible Manuscript</i> and Cyril Wong's <i>Straw, Sticks, Brick</i>. </div>
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My book, <i>Diary of a Stone Monkey</i>, was supposed to come out too, but alas, there were printing problems. Seems like this is my year of stymied book launches. One of my stories is featured in the Sunday launch of <a href="http://www.singaporewritersfestival.com/index.php?option=com_php&Itemid=69&category=16&id=428">Fish Eats Lion</a>, though. Come, come!</div>
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<b>Launch of <i>Fish Eats Lion: New Singaporean Speculative Fiction</i></b></div>
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<i>Sunday 4 November</i></div>
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<i>4pm-5pm</i></div>
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<i>ilovebooks.com Pavilion, Campus Green, SMU (Singapore Management University)</i></div>
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<i>FREE ADMISSION</i></div>
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Quite a few prominent names are featured in the fest, including Michael Cunningham, Monique Truong, and the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Please-Look-After-Vintage-Contemporaries/dp/0307739511">my Korea book</a>, Shin Kyun-Sook. Will see if I can get interviews and autographs. :)</div>
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But, more importantly, I've been invited to Penang!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhvzj4PiLlTS5OsvOHhTrGDnw-ZGbqTNOIJhFkfDjBVDEik6m-BhHzHmprm3jflVGwH43Mt3eaBk4hmbiMkV3MpyAU1sFhxNFcP12tBX3esSU5yV8q6Wc-2djEb3OlWCQaO7ig4A/s1600/Georgetown.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhvzj4PiLlTS5OsvOHhTrGDnw-ZGbqTNOIJhFkfDjBVDEik6m-BhHzHmprm3jflVGwH43Mt3eaBk4hmbiMkV3MpyAU1sFhxNFcP12tBX3esSU5yV8q6Wc-2djEb3OlWCQaO7ig4A/s640/Georgetown.png" width="451" /></a></div>
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See that upper left hand corner portrait? That's me! I'm actually being featured in the opening ceremony, where I'll be performing my poetry right next to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._Samad_Said">A. Samad Said</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Musa">Omar Musa</a>. Can you believe it?</div>
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These are the events I'm involved in:</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Poetry Workshop with PELLTA and Arts</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Friday 23 November</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>8-9pm</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Sekeping Victoria</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Writers: Ng Yi-Sheng, Omar Musa and Nii Ayikwey Parkes</i></span></div>
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<i style="font-family: inherit;">FREE ADMISSION</i></div>
<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Official Opening C<span style="font-family: inherit;">eremony </span></span></b><b style="color: #222222; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">by Chief Minister of Penang, Y.A.B. Lim Guan Eng</span></b></div>
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<i style="font-family: inherit;">8-9pm</i></div>
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<i>Friday 23 November </i><i style="font-family: inherit;"> and Nii Ayikwey Parkes</i></div>
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<i style="font-family: inherit;">Sekeping Victoria</i></div>
Readings and performances by A. Samad Said, Ng Yi-Sheng and Omar Musa<br />
<i style="font-family: inherit;">BY INVITATION ONLY</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Poetry Rant: Mad As Hell!</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Sunday 25 November</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>12:30-1:30pm</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Sekeping Victoria</i></span></div>
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<i>Five poets get angry. Watch them get mad - and bad!</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Writers: Ng Yi-Sheng, Omar Musa, Alfian Sa'at, Shivani Sivagurunathan and Nii Ayikwey Parkes</i></span></div>
<i>Host: Jasmine Low</i><br />
<i>FREE ADMISSION - seating on first come, first served basis</i>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Reading and Panel Discussion</b>: <b>Taboos or Travesties</b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Sunday 25 November</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>2-3pm</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Sekeping Victoria</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>How do writers go about saying the unsayable? How do they deal with issues and themes that may cause scandal and uproar? See how these writers deal with challenging issues that simply need to be said.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Writers: Ng Yi-Sheng, Reggie Baay, Dina Zaman, Linda Christanty and David Van Reybrouck<o:p></o:p></i></span>
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<i>Moderator: Bernice Chauly</i>
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<i>FREE ADMISSION - seating on first come, first served basis</i>
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... and then from 3 to 20 December I'll be in Stockholm for the ILGA Conference. More about that later. :)</div>
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Ng Yi-Shenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18175656890555470042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14448002.post-2311527948294735612012-09-22T08:27:00.002+08:002012-09-22T08:27:34.977+08:00Book launch in Kuala Lumpur tonight!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Will be speaking at <a href="http://silverfishevents.blogspot.sg/2012/09/singaporemalaysia-book-launch-at.html">Silverfish Books</a> in Kuala Lumpur this evening, 5:30pm, to promote my translation of "The New Village"! Three books to be promoted, in fact:</div>
<ol>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Robert Yeo’s <a href="http://www.ethosbooks.com.sg/store/mli_viewItem.asp?idProduct=273" style="color: #2971a7;"><i>ROUTES</i></a><i>. </i>Robert Yeo, a.k.a Yeo Cheng Chuan, (b.1940, Singapore -), is a poet and playwright, novelist and newspaper columnist on the arts, literary and theatre essayist advocating the establishment of a distinctly Singaporean tradition in writing. He was for many years a lecturer in the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University and was a proponent for the greater inclusion of the study of Singaporean texts in the school curriculum. Poet and critic Aaron Lee has described Yeo as being “the most Singaporean of Singaporean writers”.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Dr Wong Yoon Wah’s <a href="http://www.ethosbooks.com.sg/store/mli_viewItem.asp?idProduct=290" style="color: #2971a7;"><i>THE NEW VILLAGE</i></a>. Wong Yoon Wah (b. 13 August 1941, Perak, Malaysia - ) is one of the few Singaporeans who excel as an international poet, critic and scholar. Prolific in both creative and academic writing, he has published over twenty collections of prose, poetry, and academic writings on Chinese and comparative literature in Chinese or English. For his commitment to promoting literature regionally, he has been awarded the Southeast Asia Write Award (1984), the Cultural Medallion (1986), and the ASEAN Cultural Award (1993).</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Wong Phui Nam’s <a href="http://www.ethosbooks.com.sg/store/mli_viewItem.asp?idProduct=289" style="color: #2971a7;"><i>THE HIDDEN PAPYRUS</i> <i>OF HEN_TAUI</i></a>. Wong Phui Nam's poems are regarded as among the best Malaysian ones in English, unsurpassed in their eloquence and linguistic richness. Most of them are contemplative and draw their images from the local landscape. Wong Phui Nam's poetry explores the experience of living in multi-cultural Malaysia. "Before the British set up this country, Malaysia was a totally agrarian society," he says. "Suddenly we get this commercialism and development of plantations to supply a metropolitan power. Even for a writer in Malay, whether he is a Malay or a non-Malay, he has to reinvent the language. All the more so for Indians and Chinese. For a Chinese, when we write in Chinese, we cannot pretend that nothing has happened and try to write Tang poetry. So for us to write in English, we are exiled three times, culturally and spiritually from China, culturally from the indigenous Malay culture, and then writing in English. We cannot claim that it is a tradition. I would say we have appropriated the language. So, in a way, it is a much more interesting medium to work with, to work with the language against the tradition."</span></li>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Professor Mohammad Quayum, of the International Islamic University of Malaysia, will moderate the event, which will include discussions with regards to the development of Malaysia/Singapore writings in English. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Venue: Silverfish Books, </i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>28-1 Jalan Telawi, Bangsar Baru, </i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>59100 Kuala Lumpur. </i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Date: Saturday, 22 September 2012 </i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Time: 5.30 pm</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Admission is free. All welcome, but seats are limited.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(And then on Sunday I'm going for <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/136966399782348/">Art For Grabs</a> at the Annexe Gallery. Awesome.)</span></div>
Ng Yi-Shenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18175656890555470042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14448002.post-80222346228506009962012-09-09T14:27:00.002+08:002012-09-09T14:27:56.600+08:00Perfection of 10, Fri 13 to Sat 15 Sep<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I've got a play coming up! Or perhaps it'd be more accurate to say WE've got a play coming up. I was invited to crazy-experimental director Sean Tobin to be part of a team of ten Singaporean playwrights, each creating a segment of a wacky play marking the Esplanade's tenth anniversary!<br />
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<a href="http://haydenng.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/perfection-of-10-2-a.jpg?w=640&h=959" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://haydenng.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/perfection-of-10-2-a.jpg?w=640&h=959" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>Perfection of 10</b></div>
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<i>Thu 13 to Sat 15 Sep, 8pm (additional Sat matinee at 3pm)</i></div>
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<i>Esplande Theatre Studio</i></div>
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<i>Tickets at $25 from <a href="http://www.sistic.com.sg/portal/dt?retry=1&dt.windowProvider.targetPortletChannel=JSPTabContainer/sEventsCalendar/Event&dt.provider=PortletWindowProcessChannel&contentCode=ten0912&dt.windowProvider.currentChannelMode=VIEW&dt.isPortletRequest=true&dt.containerName=JSPTabContainer/sEventsCalendar&dt.action=process&dt.window.portletAction=RENDER">SISTIC</a>.</i></div>
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10 established Singapore Playwrights were invited to reflect on their experiences as theatre-makers and their notions of perfection. They then set out to capture a perspective of life on earth, in Singapore and in the theatre, through their own 10 minutes of stage time. <br />
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10 stage items from the past productions of 10 established local Theatre companies help create a world in which these characters can reside.
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The perfect child from the perfect home, the perfect actor on the perfect stage, in front of the perfect audience, and of course the perfect review. Not to forget perfect relationships, the perfect life, and the perfect death. Can all this be captured in the perfect play?
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Are these ‘mirrors of nature’ real or imagined? Archetype or stereotype? Is this biography or fakery? Is this existentialism or entertainment? Comedy of Manners or a Problem Play?
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As we join in celebrating Esplanade’s 10th Birthday, we also celebrate the trials and accomplishments of Singapore and its stage, through the intercepting thoughts of 10 well-loved local playwrights and 4 actors collectively asking, “Why do we bother?”
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Performed in English with some Mandarin, Malay and dialect, with English surtitles. Suitable for patrons aged 16 years and above.
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P<i>erformed by Ang Hui Bin, Patricia Mok, Rizman Putra, Tan Shou Chen
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<i>Written by Desmond Sim, Ng How Wee, Irfan Kasban, Jason Wee, Jean Tay Kaylene Tan, Li </i><br />
<i>Xie, Verena Tay, Ng Yi-Sheng & Zizi Azah
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<i>Directed by Sean Tobin
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<i>Dramaturgy by Low Kee Hong
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<i>Produced by Michele Lim
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<i>Set Design by Wong Chee Wai
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<i>Light Design by Adrian Tan
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<i>Costume Design Hayden Ng
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There will be a post-show discussion with the artists.</div>
Ng Yi-Shenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18175656890555470042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14448002.post-37851404231457394572012-09-05T21:37:00.003+08:002012-09-05T21:38:19.035+08:00Why Pixar Movies Are All Secretly About the Apocalypse<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">I'm a huge fan of AfterHours, this web video series at Cracked that's intent on over-analysing pop culture until it hurts. This is their latest. Watch it:</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><a href="http://www.cracked.com/video_18459_why-pixar-movies-are-all-secretly-about-apocalypse.html">http://www.cracked.com/video_18459_why-pixar-movies-are-all-secretly-about-apocalypse.html</a></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Then read the expansion of the premise by contributor <a href="http://www.cracked.com/members/VonMonocle/">VonMonocle</a>:</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><i>Watched the video, read the comments, and I think we can put all of this together (GIGANTIC wall of text to follow, so… sorry about that):<br /><br />Brave sets the whole deal in motion (magic turns people into animals and all that). It’s also set in ancient times, so we’ll have from then until the present day for sentient, intelligent “people creatures” to interbreed with their new parent species and evolve a world where smart animals and insects are the norm (it wouldn’t happen that fast if at all, but hey, magic). Somewhere along the way, magic dies out and becomes relegated to superstition and folklore and people forget about a time when some creatures were just like us. The creatures themselves descend into hiding for the purposes of self-preservation.<br /><br />Skip ahead to Ratatouille, and we see the animals tentatively poking out of hiding to test the waters, so to speak. The experiment seems to go well in the small, controlled environment of the movie, but it couldn’t be long before the idea of smart creatures ignites mass panic and some sort of cover-up on the part of the humans. The creatures go back into hiding, now a little more resentful of us. It’s also important to note here that while the creatures possess human-level intelligence, this movie establishes that they can’t communicate with us via speech.<br /><br />Now we get to The Incredibles, as people begin to develop super powers. I’d put this further on, but the whole movie had a retro vibe to it, so it most likely took place before the events of Toy Story. Also, it introduces us to the first conceptual AI, which represents a massive leap in technological development and could then explain the sentient toys later on.<br /><br />The Toy Story trilogy takes place simultaneously with A Bug’s Life and Finding Nemo, in the present day. In the trilogy, we see it well established that the AI programs have come to love humans and want us to be happy, while the creature movies clearly portray humans as apathetic antagonists at best. The battle lines are drawn.<br /><br />Up could represent the final straw and the spark that would ignite the war. By developing a harness to allow communication with animals (who are already established as intelligent) it could be that the harness has the unintended side effect of essentially lobotomizing the creature, thus the relative stupidity of the dog when compared to, say, Ratatouille. However from the perspective of the humans, it would represent a HUGE step forward, so we would immediately set about harnessing every animal we could in an effort to communicate better. The creatures see this as nothing short of genocide, and they fight back. But as their presence become known, the AI machines rise up to protect us from the onslaught.<br /><br />The first shots in the Machines vs. Monsters war are fired.<br /><br />Now, even with the machines on our side, it’s pretty easy to believe that if every species of animal and insect simultaneously rose up against us, they’d wipe us out pretty quick, even with super heroes fighting with us. Hence the creation of the star ship that sends what remains of humanity into space to live happy and carefree lives, while the machines remain behind to deal with the monsters.<br /><br />In the time it takes the machines to win the war, the monsters have continued to evolve. As they are pushed back further and further, they find a way to open a portal to a different dimension to escape, but not before swearing revenge against the humans somewhere down the road. So they dedicate their entire society in the new dimension to making technology powered by the screams of children in order to attack the humans while also perverting the technology that protected and saved them. They then use the portals to go back in time to before the War and harvest the screams of human children, hence Monsters Inc. The end of that movie could actually be seen as the legitimate end of the war, as the Monsters forget why they seem to hate us so much and focus on using laughter to gain energy instead.<br /><br />Meanwhile, the machines win the ground war, and the cars emerge as the dominant machine race, ruling the planet until they screw everything up via pollution. This could start a civil war between them and the other machines, the aftermath of which leaves the planet in shambles, and the humans are completely forgotten in space until WALL-E finds them and brings them home.<br /><br />There. Done.</i><span style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br /></span></span></div>
Ng Yi-Shenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18175656890555470042noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14448002.post-41756529831670135792012-09-01T04:23:00.000+08:002012-09-01T05:27:18.340+08:00Draw Something!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I've been wanting to bring up something for a while: I am AWESOME at Draw Something, and I don't have nearly enough people to play with. </div>
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If you play regularly, add me! My username is ng.yisheng, and I *never* spell my word out.</div>
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I have more pics in <a href="http://tinypic.com/useralbum.php?ua=uza1SJHrXnoV%2FG%2F%2BLRc%2BFg%3D%3D">my Tinypic folder</a>.</div>
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Ng Yi-Shenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18175656890555470042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14448002.post-84209894355618633642012-08-28T07:09:00.002+08:002012-08-28T07:09:40.801+08:00SPORE Art Salon tonight!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Why not advertise? Alvin Pang's supposed to be on, unless he's still lost his voice (it was lost over the weekend), in which case I'll have to replace him! Just warning ya.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlqwagSS1rKhtwQ_vRIqodAOSpWQ67YtK-qyFyyLRec28eYTexE_fdyjGWI2O5oDpIpYYZERC2jDtG-tWYGX3XYrRkMp_8mf1rOO1XE6WyeyJBUgERrKAGPGAMJiTNPX6FP3DXmg/s1600/salon21st.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlqwagSS1rKhtwQ_vRIqodAOSpWQ67YtK-qyFyyLRec28eYTexE_fdyjGWI2O5oDpIpYYZERC2jDtG-tWYGX3XYrRkMp_8mf1rOO1XE6WyeyJBUgERrKAGPGAMJiTNPX6FP3DXmg/s400/salon21st.jpg" width="305" /></a></div>
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It's our 21st salon! To celebrate our coming of age, we're calling a mix of fresh and familiar faces to the stage.You'll encounter a live graffiti artist, a brand new model and a nationally awarded poet. Plus, you'll get to say hi again to Weish from the Cold Shoulder (18th edition), Su from 'Call Me Bea' (19th and 20th) and Fauzo from the Russian Dolls (5th, 9th and 14th). Come hang out with the family!<br />
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WHERE: BluJaz Cafe, 3rd Storey (12 Bali Lane)</div>
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WHEN: Tuesday 31 July 2012, 7:30PM onwards</div>
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FB Event Page : <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/485692351460948/">https://www.facebook.com/events/485692351460948/</a></div>
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FEATURED VISUAL ARTIST<br />
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ASRI SCOLA (visual / graffiti artist)<br />
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<a href="http://www.scola.carbonmade.com/">http://www.scola.carbonmade.com/</a><br />
Asri Scola describes himself as a teleporter who feeds on visual aesthetics. It has been a decade since he started writing his way into the street/graffiti culture. His progressive works explores the intervention of spatial relations and colours, interspersed with distinct streaming line movement. Scola versatility has seen his artworks exhibited in " 100 Friends:100 Artists ", " Art The Hall - Art Garage " and " Off The Wall - Graffiti Kings from France and Singapore " exhibitions to name a few.<br />
His works has been featured in different platforms such as Culturepush, Actually MAG, Arts Republic, Singapore Writers Festival and Street Visibility Catalogue.<br />
He was one of the 4 winning designs for ActuallyMAG 8th Signature bag competition recently. Currently his hands are tied with street art NDP project, Calligraphy Graffiti works for local museum (revealed soon) and pending exhibits.<br />
Besides doing mural and illustration, Scola likes to dwell on different array of disciplines from printmaking to paper-cut to photography. Significantly, he enjoys the process more as it gives the ability to eliminate and reconstruction that allows for accidental self-discovery. Though Scola likes to document and express his thoughts through his artwork, his normal alter ego has a conflicting separate identity of procrastinating and unusual fascination of teleporting.<br />
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FEATURED PERFORMING ARTISTS<br />
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HOST<br />
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TEH SU CHING as "Felicity"<br />
Teh Su Ching is a bilingual writer, performer, and producer. A short film she wrote and produced, Ash, premiered at the Moscow International Film Festival in June. A condensed, silent version of Ash, renamed Evening Shift, has been shortlisted for the Louis Vuitton Journeys Awards. In 2011, Shanghai theatre group 3rd Culture Theatre staged her English and Mandarin play Seven Days in Jing An in Shanghai’s Jing An district theatre festival. In 2008, another play, Russia! was featured in the Yale Playwrights Festival. Russia! was also read at The Substation, where Lim Yu Beng played the lead. Su Ching's full-length play Ubin will be given a reading in New York's Workshop Theatre in October. Catch her as forensic expert Jean Wu in the hour-long drama Code of Law, which debuts on Mediacorp's Channel 5 September 13th.<br />
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MODEL <br />
JURANE SOLANO<br />
Born in 1990, Jurane Solano has been singing the instant she could, with more than a few winning titles under her belt. She grew up listening to “almost every genre conceivable”, but says that “Broadway almost always comes out tops.”<br />
Her love for musical theatre is evident – she’s played the lead actress in several local productions to full-houses, commanding a nationwide following.<br />
She hopes to one day create a platform that can leverage on people’s artistic talents to make a real improvement to the world.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyXohtf9tVBG2_IdJba5FwYBw0NbLnII2Kl_f6XlQL9i50XYyOhJjDL27tEWBXBH-5D-RzrobDcXz6u-cAyxNmjvxx6I3cM2EjYHIM2UmgWhZH2oJ0LpJJrnFY-bt683zoLUSeYg/s1600/weish.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyXohtf9tVBG2_IdJba5FwYBw0NbLnII2Kl_f6XlQL9i50XYyOhJjDL27tEWBXBH-5D-RzrobDcXz6u-cAyxNmjvxx6I3cM2EjYHIM2UmgWhZH2oJ0LpJJrnFY-bt683zoLUSeYg/s320/weish.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
weish (musician)<br />
<a href="http://youtube.com/weishbub">http://youtube.com/weishbub</a><br />
Weish started out as a wedding singer many years ago, but only began writing songs proper in 2010 and has never looked back since. Extremely excited about expanding her sound, she has grown from a lone-ukulele getup to vocal and instrumental looping, as well as forming bands - among which is Cold Shoulder, for whom she sings and plays the synth. She currently hosts the open mic sessions at The Pigeonhole, and is passionate about providing platforms for new musicians to grow and be found.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisM5QXGipAkL6RotdJmYC0YQsEvRo6AURPefgNN0e9lMNiR3FBO9VV3MZ103aUjfYfD6T454-BoKTnEa7GJbbx1cOKABWjar3Rh_wcS5xFuCl3avxb_JgFDePmqoWfG5iXY4RfIw/s1600/AlvinPang.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisM5QXGipAkL6RotdJmYC0YQsEvRo6AURPefgNN0e9lMNiR3FBO9VV3MZ103aUjfYfD6T454-BoKTnEa7GJbbx1cOKABWjar3Rh_wcS5xFuCl3avxb_JgFDePmqoWfG5iXY4RfIw/s320/AlvinPang.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
ALVIN PANG (poet)<br />
Alvin Pang (b.1972) is a poet, writer and editor. His poems have been translated into fifteen languages, and has appeared in major festivals and publications worldwide. A Fellow of the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program (2002), his books include Testing the Silence (1997), City of Rain (2003), What Gives Us Our Names (2011) and Tumasik: Contemporary Writing from Singapore (2009). He was Singapore’s Young Artist of the Year for Literature in 2005, and received the Singapore Youth Award for Arts and Culture in 2007. He represented Singapore at London’s Poetry Parnassus event, part of the 2012 Olympic celebrations. His most recent volumes of poetry – both just released in 2012 – are: Other Things and Other Poems, published in Croatia, and Waiting for the Barbarians published by Arc in the UK.<br />
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FAUZO (musician)<br />
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A 'veteran' of the SPORE Art Salon editions, Fauzo loves challenges and exploring various intricate pieces of Classical music. His deep love for music started when he first learnt the power chords of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit". From then on, a musical journey began with the exploration of various genres - from Latin Rock to Progressive Rock and finally, finding love in classical music after nailing Mozart's Piano Sonata on the electric guitar, an assignment proposed by his guitar instructor.</div>
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Ng Yi-Shenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18175656890555470042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14448002.post-82827824727880343162012-08-23T15:42:00.000+08:002012-08-23T15:44:16.569+08:00Contradiction approacheth!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
And this time we've got a proper poster, too!<br />
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<b>ContraDiction 8: Our Very Own Literature</b><i><br />Sat 25 Aug, 7.30pm, </i><br />
<i>The Reading Room (21 Tanjong Pagar Road, #04-01 – former Mox Bar)</i><br />Our annual queer literary evening is back, with a new focus! Listen to some of Singapore's oldest works of queer literature from the 1980s, as well as works by our youngest writers from the 2010s. Featuring Ovidia Yu, Joel Tan, NUS Poet-in-Residence Jay Bernard and many more. <br />
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By the way, we have some video clips from last week's Gaily Ever After event, uploaded to YouTube!<br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl5tIilbL0I">Part 1 (Cyril Wong)</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IP_WWjo9QU">Part 2 (Ng Yi-Sheng)</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fvr-2mtgFlo">Part 3 (Tania de Rozario)</a><br />
... and <a href="http://youtu.be/V5nTR6Ha74w">Part 4 (Anila Angin)</a> is below:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/V5nTR6Ha74w" width="420" height="280"></iframe></div>
Ng Yi-Shenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18175656890555470042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14448002.post-23766860527969932402012-08-13T02:36:00.000+08:002012-08-13T02:40:08.453+08:00Gaily Ever After: Our Very Own Fairy Tales, Fri 17 Aug<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I should of course mention that I've done a rather fun <a href="http://www.fridae.asia/newsfeatures/2012/08/10/11851.you-can-choose-not-to-get-hiv-elizabeth-pisani?from=login&success=1">interview on Fridae</a> with the awesome HIV epidemiologist <a href="http://www.portraitindonesia.com/">Elizabeth Pisani</a>, whom I met at the Makassar International Writers Festival. It's been getting quite a number of comments (much more so than my usual humdrum articles about the arts in Singapore), and the even haters are terribly amusing to read.<br />
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But, on to literary matters! My first <a href="http://indignation.sg/">IndigNation </a>event's coming up this Friday!
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<b>Gaily Ever After: Our Very Own Fairy Tales</b></div>
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Fri 17 Aug, 8pm, BooksActually (9 Yong Siak Street)</div>
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Sit down for an evening of storytelling with four Singaporean writers, each bearing a fairy tale with a gay twist. Featuring Ng Yi-Sheng, Cyril Wong, Tania de Rozario and Anila Angin.</div>
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I'm pretty happy about this event, since it's really my brainchild: just happened that I knew quite a few queer fairy tales had been written, so we're binding them together. I think it'll be fun.</div>
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If you want to know about the IndigNation Festival in general, here's the full calendar (<a href="http://www.fridae.asia/newsfeatures/2012/07/30/11824.singapores-8th-indignation-festival-to-focus-on-lgbt-heritage-aug-3-25">text version here</a>):</div>
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<a href="http://static.fridae.asia/media/images/00/15/71/157175.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://static.fridae.asia/media/images/00/15/71/157175.jpg" /></a><strong>Landing Places: Our Very Own Art<br />Thu 16 Aug</strong>, 7pm, Objectifs (56A Arab Street); exhibition runs till 6 Sep<br />
Landing Places is a Singapore-based, multidisciplinary exhibition happening in conjunction with IndigNation 2012. It features work by 10 queer artists and seeks to document experiences of how our sexualities affect the ways in which we define, create, articulate, question, reject and/or relate to notions of home. The exhibition will comprise drawing, painting, photography, collage, and animation.<br />
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<strong>Are You GAYme Enough? 2: Our Very Own Gameshow<br />Fri 17 Aug</strong>, 9.30pm, Play (21 Tanjong Pagar Road)<br />
Oogachaga brings back the popular 'Are You GAYme Enough?', and this year’s edition promises to be bigger, better and raunchier! Watch the contestants battle it out on stage as they get quizzed on topics ranging from sexuality and sexual health to local LGBT history and culture. Join in the fun by assisting (or sabotaging) the contestants when they use the 'audience card' or the 'helpline card'. We’re not sure if it’ll be the survival of the smartest or the cutest – what we do know is that one very GAYme champion will walk away with grand prize worth $3000! First 100 audience members get free entry and a standard housepour! To join as a contestant, simply register at <a href="http://tinyurl.com/OCGayme" style="color: #5f7487; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/OCGayme</a> Register before 12pm, 10 August 2012. Like us on Facebook at <a href="http://tinyurl.com/OCGayme" style="color: #5f7487; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/OCGayme</a> and stand to win a pair of tickets to Toy Factory Productions' Purple! Hurry, contest ends on 27 July, at 12 noon.<br />
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<strong>Our Very Own Stories</strong><br />
<strong>Fri 24 Aug</strong>, 8pm, The Factory (22 Lim Tua Tow Road); exhibition runs till 7 Sep<br />
Our Very Own Stories showcases real Singaporean LGBT people who have struggled and triumphed against the challenges of self-worth and discrimination. Curated by Nicholas Deroose, this collaboration between five community photographers seeks to give hope to a future generation and show them a possible future beyond the adversities that they face today.<br />
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<strong>ContraDiction 8: Our Very Own Literature<br />Sat 25 Aug</strong>, 7.30pm, The Reading Room (21 Tanjong Pagar Road, #04-01 – former Mox Bar)<br />
Our annual queer literary evening is back, with a new focus! Listen to some of Singapore's oldest works of queer literature from the 1980s, as well as works by our youngest writers from the 2010s. Featuring Ovidia Yu, Joel Tan, NUS Poet-in-Residence Jay Bernard and many more.</div>
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</div>Ng Yi-Shenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18175656890555470042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14448002.post-76543350158181724892012-08-08T04:04:00.001+08:002012-08-08T04:04:24.981+08:00I'm trying to get back in the habit of writing prose.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So I wrote the following mess on <a href="http://750words.com/">750words.com</a>:<br />
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Once upon a time, there was a woman who lived inside a coral-studded chamber on the peaks of Mount Ophir. You may think it is very curious indeed that she lived in a coral-studded chamber on a mountain, but you see, she was a sorceress, and very clever indeed. She had expressed a great desire to see the pink fronds of coral waving from her ceilings and walls, and had therefore conjured a spell in order to sink Mount Ophir into the South China Sea for approximately nine years, during which she would commute from her cave to her high-rise office using scuba gear. Over the nine long years (approximately), she was pleased to see the molluscs gingerly latching onto her home and sprouting their tendrils, sinking in their fleshy roots and extending their arms like yoga practitioners practising their sun salutations in a place where there was indeed no sun. Of course, it was troublesome, eating, sleeping and defecating in scuba gear, but she was certain that as soon as her chamber was redecorated with marine life, everything would be worth it. The increase in property value alone, she reminded herself, as she discreetly pooped through a tube, not to mention the sheer aesthetic pleasure thereof.<br />
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What she could not abide, of course, were the tiny tropical fish that kept darting between the coral fronds: clownfish and seahorses and sea dragons and assorted other vertebrates, neon-coloured and rock-shaped things which defied classification according to her Srivijayan grimoires and bestiaries. Butterflies are butterflies, she scolded them, fish are fish; creatures of the ocean should never attempt to imitate the insectine flowers of the air. Whenever she was in a particularly bad mood, as for example on the occasion when she stained her pantaloons and everybody at the New Years Office Party happened to see when she sat on the Xerox machine, and she had gone home soused in cheap champagne in disgrace only to find a festival of blacklight minnows cavorting amidst her corals, well then, she summoned her magical demonic powers to turn the little buggers into *people*, that's right, and my, how she enjoyed watching them gasp and burble and drown at the bottom of the sea. She would have used their skulls as drinking glasses, only she found that skulls did not retain water very well, even when under the sea. She used them as coral food instead, grinding them up with her mortar and pestle, sprinkling them amongst her hungry little corals, all the while talking to them, because this is what she loved to do: she would talk to the corals, because she believed in the magical curative power of talking to plants, both for the talker and the talkee, for she did indeed believe corals to be plants, stupid thing, and she was superstitious, but then she was a sorceress, so superstition had paid off in some way. Judge not lest you yourself be judged.<br />
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Finally, the nine years came to an end. The sorceress was very happy about this, because there was this new mail boy who had come into the office, a perfect dish, a tight round bum that she would love to peg and be pegged by, oh my, and she needed an apartment to invite him over to without his getting crushed by the water pressure, and she couldn't book an overnight hotel because she was saving up for a trip to Ibiza.<br />
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So, in the middle of the night, she jitterbugged widdershins around her cauldron and said the magic words ladybug ladybug witchy woo woo, and then the whole of Mount Ophir teleported itself from the middle of the South China Sea back to, well, Mount Ophir, because places are usually named after mountains, since mountains (barring long-term geological effects and sorceresses) generally do not move.<br />
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Oh how the sorceress laughed to herself to see all the fishies and dolphins and manatees flip-floppering on her cavern floor, while the tendrils of the corals waved them goodbye. She took off her breathing apparatus and cried out the date for her Chinese New Year Party, because e-mail and Facebook invitations had not yet been invented and this was the best way of making sure all her neighbours knew.<br />
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And so came the date of her Chinese New Year party, which was a bit gratuitous because she was not even Chinese, and who should come through the door but the mail boy, as sexy as ever, dressed up in a gimp suit because he had got the date mixed up with Halloween.<br />
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The sorceress was so delighted that she jumped upon him and started making love to him there and then. But of course, the corals had not had enough seawater for several days, so they began dying and detaching themselves from the walls and plopping on the copulating couple straight off.<br />
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They say they are still there, fucking in the coral-studded cave, amidst the dead and dying (probably all dead by now) corals, while the guests chew pistachios in horror.<br />
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The moral of the story is, try to avoid pooping in a scuba suit. The End!</div>Ng Yi-Shenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18175656890555470042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14448002.post-42437009918525791802012-08-01T22:40:00.001+08:002012-08-04T01:54:40.262+08:00July texts!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
*POETRY*<br />
+Sunthorn Phu’s “The Story of Phra Abhai Mani”<br />
=Bernice Chauly’s “The Book of Sins”<br />
=A. Samad Said’s “Ballad of the Lost Map”<br />
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*FICTION*<br />
=“Malaysian Tales: Retold & Remixed” edited by Daphne Lee<br />
+Donald Barthelme’s “Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Colby”<br />
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*DRAMA*<br />
=Goh Boon Teck’s “Purple”<br />
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*NON-FICTION*<br />
+Richard Dowden’s “Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles”
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">*GRAPHIC TEXTS*<br />=Alison Bechdel’s “Are You My Mother?”<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">*FILMS*<br />
+Eric Darnell's “Madagascar 3”<br />+MacGillivray Freeman's “Arabia”<br />
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*PERFORMANCES*<br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">=Teater Ekamatra's “Bleeding Grace”</span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">+The Theatre Practice's “Lao Jiu: The Musical”</span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">=Cake Theatre's “Si Ti Kay”</span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Buds Youth Theatre's “The Coffin Is Still Too Big for the Hole”</span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Amrita Arts' “Para-Human”</span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">+The Common Folk's “Paper Men”</span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">+Deborah Emmanuel and Lee Jing Yan's “The City of Letting Go”</span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">+W!ld Rice's “La Cage aux Folles”</span><br />
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*EXHIBITIONS*</span><br />+Singapore Art Museum's "Not Against Interpretation: Re-staging Jason Lim & Vincent Leow’s A Flog of Birdies in the 21st Century"</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">+Justin Lee's "The Paper Ball"</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">+Jendela Art Space's "Our Places, Our Stories"</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">+Peranakan Museum's “Emily of Emerald Hill: Singapore Identity on Stage” </span></span>
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</div>Ng Yi-Shenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18175656890555470042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14448002.post-9229498610318984902012-07-28T01:26:00.002+08:002012-07-28T01:26:32.302+08:00Party Action People & SPORE Art Salon<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Two things I should mention:</div>
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1) Party Action People is performing again at the TAPAC courtyard today at 6pm! Reprise of our original program, in case you missed it on Sunday.</div>
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2) SPORE Art Salon's happening again next Tuesday.</div>
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Happy National Day! Red and white flags are going up all over the island, but we Salonistas are staying decidedly international. This month’s awesome visual and performing arts lineup includes a Swiss experimental trombonist, a Filipino playwright and an American actor, as well as a host, a poet, a model and a short film, all from dear old Singapore. Come join the mish and mash of things and create conversations within. See you soon!<br />
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WHERE: BluJaz Cafe, 3rd Storey (12 Bali Lane)<br />
WHEN: Tuesday 31 July 2012, 7:30PM onwards<br />
FB Event Page : <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/248696541900162/">https://www.facebook.com/events/248696541900162/</a></div>
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<span itemprop="description"><span class="text_exposed_show">HOST</span></span></div>
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<span itemprop="description"><span class="text_exposed_show">DEBORAH EMMANUEL</span></span><span itemprop="description"><span class="text_exposed_show"></span></span></div>
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<span itemprop="description"><span class="text_exposed_show"><a href="http://www.deborahemmanuel.com/" rel="nofollow nofollow" target="_blank">www.deborahemmanuel.com</a></span></span></div>
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<span itemprop="description"><span class="text_exposed_show">Deborah
Emmanuel has been telling stories since she could talk. Her first story
was that there was a microscopic pterodactyl living inside her ear,
which when she was reading would not allow her to hear the dinner bell.
Since then, she has used drama and creative writing to tell other
stories which have reached out to many people. Her first time on stage
was at age 4 in the kindergarten circus musical, in which she
desperately wanted to be a ballerina, but was made to wear a hairy bear
suit instead. Since then she has played several human acting roles, and
appeared as an educational speaker and performance poet on many
occasions. She believes in art as a tool for change and reform. She also
knows that anyone can heal when they express themselves through art.
Deborah will continue to write, perform and teach as long as she exists.</span></span></div>
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<span itemprop="description"><span class="text_exposed_show">MODEL</span></span></div>
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<span itemprop="description"><span class="text_exposed_show">TEH SU CHING</span></span></div>
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<span itemprop="description"><span class="text_exposed_show">By night,
Stella Chung is a flapper in mourning. By day, she's a writer, producer,
and performer who answers to the name "Teh Su Ching".</span></span></div>
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<span itemprop="description"><span class="text_exposed_show">POOJA (poet)</span></span></div>
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<span itemprop="description"><span class="text_exposed_show">Pooja Nansi
is a teacher and poet who believes in the power that speech and
performance can lend to the written word. Her first collection of poetry
"Stiletto Scars" was published in 2007 at the Singapore Writer's
Festival. She has performed and conducted workshops in several
educational institutes both locally and abroad such as Kuala Lumpur and
London, with individuals of different ages to try and make poetry
relevant to their lives. She has also participated in poetry projects
such as "Speechless" with the British Council, where she worked in
conjunction with poets from London, Ireland, Taiwan, The Phillipines,
Malaysia and Vietnam and engaged in a month long tour of the UK to
explore issues surrounding freedom of speech. She is most passionate
about using poetry as a platform to raise awareness about issues close
to her heart.</span></span></div>
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<span itemprop="description"><span class="text_exposed_show"> </span></span><span itemprop="description"><span class="text_exposed_show">INTOXICATED (stage play)<br /> <a href="http://www.facebook.com/roofdeckprod" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.facebook.com/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break"></span>roofdeckprod</a><br />
INTOXICATED is (mostly) a comedy about love and alcohol. Trish (EARL
MALLARI) is a fun-loving girl who loves to party, but has a tendency to
drink a little bit too much and get into all sorts of crazy shenanigans.
On one such night, her good friend Jim (GARETH PROSSER) confronts her
about her apparent alcoholism. Neither Trish nor Jim is prepared for the
emotional rollercoaster that is to follow.<br /> About INTOXICATED -<br />
INTOXICATED is the second play to be staged by Roofdeck Productions at
the SPORE Art Salon, following the successful staging of ALL I WANT
during the 9th edition in August 2011. INTOXICATED is written and
directed by Ren Robles, and stars Earl Mallari and Gareth Prosser. Jason
Miller is Assistant Director for this production, with Ace Bigcas as
Stage Manager.</span></span></div>
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<span itemprop="description"><span class="text_exposed_show">FREDI SONDEREGGER (musician)<br />
Bass trombonist Fredi Sonderegger was born and brought up in the small
town of Herisau in the northeast of Switzerland. He has been a member of
the Singapore Symphony Orchestra for over 10 years, while holding the
post of coordinator of brass studies at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts
and lecturer at the School of the Arts. As a soloist and clinician, he
has traveled extensively throughout the South East Asia region,
performing in China, Thailand, Jakarta, Taiwan, and Malaysia. He has
also performed in Italy, France and Germany as well as USA. Groups he
has played with include La Fenice, The Freiburg Baroque Orchestra,
Concerto Vocale, Les Cornet Noir, GregLyon’s Omniform, the Jeremy
Monteiro Big Band as well as the Brass Explosion Big Band. He has also
had the opportunity to display sound installations and perform in ad hoc
theater groups incorporating his music.<br /> Fredi’s sound art has been
exhibited in Singapore, Macau and Taiwan. He has also performed in ad
hoc theater and in a staged solo venture. He will perform at the Jeju
International Band festival in August 2012. Future projects include the
making of a solo CD and tours to Australia and New Zealand.</span></span></div>
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<span itemprop="description"><span class="text_exposed_show"> </span></span><span itemprop="description"><span class="text_exposed_show">--------------------------<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break"></span>--<br /> <br /> <br /> FEATURED VISUAL ART</span></span></div>
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<span itemprop="description"><span class="text_exposed_show">BLOTCH STUDIOS<br /> <a href="http://www.blotchstudios.com/" rel="nofollow nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/blotchstudios</a></span></span><br />
<span itemprop="description"><span class="text_exposed_show">"Mother", 7min<br />
This film is a tribute to all mothers of the world. There are times
when we may not appreciate your presence, but we will always feel your
absence. Although we may not agree on everything, we thank you for your
unconditional, everlasting love and dedication, for bringing us into
this world and for showing us what it means to be a selfless pillar of
our families.<br /> <br /> </span></span><br />
<span itemprop="description"><span class="text_exposed_show"></span></span><br />
Two little notes: Party Action
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<span itemprop="description"><span class="text_exposed_show">About BLOTCH Studios -</span></span><br />
<br />
<span itemprop="description"><span class="text_exposed_show"> </span></span><span itemprop="description"><span class="text_exposed_show">Blotch is new, nebulous, and constantly rediscovering itself; it is emerging, growing and always seeking new grounds to conquer. It cannot be defined, cannot be contained. It is a vision, a belief, an ideology. It is a reason to fight, for all of our dreams combined. It is a group of individuals but also one.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span itemprop="description"><span class="text_exposed_show">In 2012, founding members of randomINK decided to take a new direction and bring together a group of creatives passionate in their individual fields to form a creative collective. This cumulated into Blotch Studios. Many of us previously graduated from Hwa Chong Institution's Art Elective Programme (AEP). We envision Blotch Studios as a multi-disciplinary studio that has a focus on filmmaking. Our members also dabble in creative pursuits as diverse as graphic design, photography, animation and illustration, and we see this cross-pollination of ideas and influences across art mediums as a distinctive feature of our group.</span></span><br />
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<span itemprop="description"><span class="text_exposed_show"><br /> --------------------------<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break"></span>--</span></span><span itemprop="description"><span class="text_exposed_show"> </span></span><br />
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</div>Ng Yi-Shenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18175656890555470042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14448002.post-59409950487886645422012-07-25T03:22:00.003+08:002012-07-25T03:23:11.015+08:00IndigNation 2012!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://www.indignation.sg/">Our monthly LGBT Pride Festival</a> is back! And this year, we have a logo!<br />
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We also have a theme: looking back at our heritage. It's not reflected in all our events, but it is in some. Click on the link to see the calendar properly:<br />
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Specific timings for each of our events is listed <a href="https://www.facebook.com/IndigNationSG/events">here</a>. I've curated two events this time. Come come come.<br />
<span itemprop="description"> </span><b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/344689902272546/">Gaily Ever After: Our Very Own Fairy Tales</a></b><br />
<i>Date: Fri 17 August</i><br />
<i>Time: 8pm</i><br />
<i>Venue: BooksActually, 9 Yong Siak Street</i><br />
Sit down for an evening of storytelling with four queer Singaporean writers, each bearing a fairy tale with a gay twist. Featuring Ng Yi-Sheng, Cyril Wong, Tania de Rozario and Anila Angin.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/134560076685203/">ContraDiction 8: Our Very Own Literature</a></b><br />
<i>Date: Sat 25 August</i><br />
<i>Time: 7:30pm</i><br />
<i>Venue: The Reading Room, 21 Tanjong Pagar Road #04-01 (old MOX bar)</i><br />
<span itemprop="description">Our
annual queer literary evening is back, with a new focus! Listen to some
of Singapore's oldest works of queer literature from the 1980s, as well
as works by our youngest writers from the 2010s. Featuring Ovidia Yu,
Joel Tan, NUS Poet-in-Residence Jay Bernard and many more.</span></div>Ng Yi-Shenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18175656890555470042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14448002.post-49778612912953953232012-07-17T00:08:00.000+08:002012-07-17T00:08:10.015+08:00Lit Up Singapore 2012 and the Party Action People<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I'd like to take the opportunity to plug yet another literary event I'm involved in:<br />
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It's a youth literary arts festival organised by Word Forward, Singapore's main performance poetry group. It's running from Sun 22 to Sun 29 July at Telok Ayer Performing Arts Centre (TAPAC), the soon-to-be-demolished building at 182 Cecil Street Singapore 069547. </div>
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The website's at <a href="http://litup.sg/">http://litup.sg</a>, and the Facebook page is <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/377050639017080/">here</a>. We're also non-profit, so we're raising funds via a <a href="http://www.rockethub.com/projects/8922-lit-up-singapore-2012">Rockethub page</a>. There'll be shows, workshops, exhibitions, bazaars. Come come come.</div>
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Self-servingly, I'd like to promote the two Lit Up events that I'm performing in, namely:</div>
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<b>1) <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/440876472602312/">Lit Up Singapore 2012 Launch</a></b></div>
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<i>TAPAC Courtyard, 4:30-7pm, Sun 22 July</i></div>
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Besides being a wonderful place to mingle, this is where we'll be debuting the Party Action People, a spoken word troupe made up of Marc Nair, Lee Jing Yan, Nabilah Husna, Deborah Emmanuel, Zuni Chong, Abel Koh, Charlene Shepherdson and myself. (Our bit is only half an hour long, and it'll come on around 5pm.)</div>
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<b>2) National Poetry Slam</b></div>
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<i>TAPAC Courtyard, 7-9pm, Sun 29 July</i> </div>
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Hopefully I'm gonna compete at this year's slam - mostly because Marc's told us he wants to have a good, strong show to close off the festival. Must create three new poems; will inevitably be beaten hollow by someone else.</div>
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If you're in Singapore, hope you can come!</div>Ng Yi-Shenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18175656890555470042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14448002.post-68049814525181058612012-07-02T06:35:00.000+08:002012-07-02T06:35:22.999+08:00PinkDot 2012!I actually changed my flight from the USA to make sure I could attend this. Manned the <a href="http://www.indignation.sg">IndigNation</a> booth and then helped to clean up rubbish afterwards.
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/aVo6U6BdB6g" width="560"></iframe></div>
My sister came too - parents couldn't be convinced, but my mum did lend my sister a pink T-shirt.Ng Yi-Shenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18175656890555470042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14448002.post-86835934463753474402012-07-01T19:00:00.000+08:002012-07-02T07:02:54.705+08:00June texts!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Did a lot of reading overseas, as you can see!</br>
</br>
*FICTION*</br>
+Lily Yulianti Farid’s “Family Room”</br>
=Shehan Karunatilaka's “The Legend of Pradeep Mathew”</br>
</br>
*DRAMA*</br>
=“Theater of Memory: The Plays of Kalidasa”</br>
+George Bernard Shaw’s “The Doctors’ Dilemma”</br>
+Lynn Nottage’s “Ruined”</br>
</br>
*NON-FICTION*</br>
+Jonathan Haidt's "The Happiness Hypothesis"</br>
+Felipe Fernández-Armesto’s “The Americas: A Hemispheric History”</br>
+Aung San Suu Kyi’s “Letters from Burma”</br>
</br>
*SCRIPTURE*</br>
+Penguin Great Ideas' “Writings from the Zen Masters”</br>
</br>
*GRAPHIC TEXTS*</br>
+Lisa Sankar-Zhu’s “The Emperor, His Bride and the Dragon Robe”</br>
</br>
*FILMS*</br>
Barry Sonnenfeld's “Men In Black III”</br>
</br>
*PERFORMANCES*</br>
+TheatreWorks’s “Lear Dreaming”</br>
+Marion D’Cruz’s “Gostan Forward”</br>
=The Merchant Family's “Taj Express”</br>
+I Theatre’s “Our Island”</br>
+“Clybourne Park”</br>
=“Newsical”</br>
+“Shear Madness”</br>
</br>
*EXHIBITIONS*</br>
+URA’s “Singapore City Gallery”</br>
+Peter Chen's "Perspectives from the Ideal City"</br>
=The National Museum of Women in the Arts’s permanent collection, "Royalists to Romantics", "25 x 25: Artists’ Books", "Women Silversmiths" and "Mamacita Linda"</br>
=Sister Mary Corita King's "R(ad)ical Love"</br>
+The National Museum of the American Indian’s permanent collection, "A Song for the Horse Nation" and "Best in the World: Native Athletes in the Olympics"</br>
+The US Botanic Garden's permanent collection and "Savage Gardens: The Real and Imaginary World of Carnivorous Plants"</br>
+The Hirshorn Museum's permanent collection and "Suprasensorial: Experiments in Light, Color and Space" </br>
+Ai Wei Wei's "Circle of Animals: Zodiac Heads"</br>
The Sackler Museum of Asian Art’s “Feast Your Eyes: A Taste for Luxury in Ancient Iran", Perspectives: Ai Wei Wei”, “Masters of Mercy: Buddha's Amazing Disciples”, "Xu Bing: Monkeys Grasping for the Moon"</br>
The National Museum of African Art’s +“African Mosaic: Celebrating a Decade of Collecting", ="Africa Cosmos: Stellar Arts", +"Lalla Essaydi: Revisions"</br>
The National Museum of American Art’s +permanent collection, ="African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond " and +"The Art of Video Games"</br>
+The National Portrait Gallery’s permanent exhibition and "Portraiture Now: Asian American Portraits of Encounter"</br>
+John F. Kennedy Museum and Library’s permanent exhibition</br>
=Boston Tea Party Museum’s permanent exhibition</br>
</div>Ng Yi-Shenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18175656890555470042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14448002.post-40878155976817103052012-06-13T10:40:00.001+08:002012-06-13T11:00:33.126+08:00I'm going to the Makassar International Writers Festival 2012!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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It's started already - in fact, I was supposed to go yesterday but Garuda Airlines rescheduled my flight. (I complained and they compensated me by upgrading me to business class, so I can't be that mad at them. Also, I'm now wondering if they informed me by phone while I was half-asleep.)<br />
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The website's <a href="http://makassarwritersfestival.com/?lang=en">here</a>, btw. And Makassar is the provincial capital of South Sulawesi, located here:<br />
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I've been invited by Lily Yulianti Farid, whom I bonded with at festivals in Ubud and Singapore in 2009. She writes in Bahasa Indonesia: the volume below is Lontar's excellent translation.<br />
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Other folks I know (or have read) who'll be at the festival: slammer Omar Musa (AU), short story writer Xu Xi (HK), memoirist Bernice Chauly (MY), poet Jennifer Mackenzie (AU) and Elizabeth Pisani (US), the fabulous HIV activist and author of <a href="http://www.wisdomofwhores.com/">The Wisdom of Whores</a>.<br />
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I'm afraid I don't know the Indonesians. But I'll get to know them! (As long as they speak *some* English. Malu lah, gua tak boleh cakap bahasa nasional Singapura.)<br />
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</div>Ng Yi-Shenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18175656890555470042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14448002.post-50767682191144543082012-06-01T01:53:00.000+08:002012-07-02T07:04:27.059+08:00May TextsI've really gotta read some poetry. Haven't for the last two months.</br>
</br>
*FICTION*</br>
=Lil Bahadur Chettri’s “Mountains Painted With Turmeric”</br>
+Shamini Flint’s “Inspector Singh Investigates: A Curious Indian Cadaver”</br>
+Rabindranath Tagore’s “Selected Short Stories”</br>
</br>
*DRAMA*</br>
Chay Yew’s =“Porcelain” and +”A Language of Their Own” (reread)</br>
</br>
*NON-FICTION*</br>
=Jason Wee’s “My Suit”</br>
+Isabella Bird’s “The Golden Chersonese and the Way Thither”</br>
</br>
*GRAPHIC TEXTS*</br>
+Alan Moore’s “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century: 1969”</br>
</br>
*FILMS*</br>
+Joss Whedon’s “The Avengers”</br>
+John Madden’s “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”</br>
+Wee Li Lin’s “Singapore Country”</br>
</br>
*PERFORMANCES*</br>
Choy Ka Fai’s “Lan Fang Chronicles” (cannot give judgment lah, I was part of it!)</br>
+Kim Itoh’s “Bridge Café Project”</br>
+Théatre du Centaure’s “Flux”</br>
+Gerardo Naumann’s “Ciudades Paralelas (Parallel Cities) – Factory”</br>
+Lola Arias’s “Ciudades Paralelas (Parallel Cities) – Hotel Maids”</br>
+National Arts Council’s “Nan Nan Zi Yu”, “XII – In Search of 13” and “Songbird”</br>
Slung Low’s “Pandemic: They Only Come at Night”</br>
=Young@Heart and No Theater’s “End of the Road”</br>
=Espaces Sonores’s “An Umbrella for 2”</br>
+Marion D’Cruz’s “Dream Country”</br>
</br>
*EXHIBITIONS*</br>
=Brahma Tirta Sari Batik Studio’s “Sarong”</br>
+Neo Kim Seng’s “Mix:Re/Tape”</br>
+Choy Ka Fai’s “Lan Fang Chronicles”</br>Ng Yi-Shenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18175656890555470042noreply@blogger.com0