* the paradise of flowers and fruit *

SPORE Art Salon on Tuesday 31 January: January with a Bang!

2012-01-29T19:07:00.003+08:00

SPORE Art Salon's coming again! (And yes, I'm updating this blog again, after a long hiatus.)

This time round I'm responsible for the curation of poet Lee Jing Yan and performance artists Ezzam Rahman and Daniela Beltrani.

More info at our Facebook event page and our blog.

SPORE Art Salon

Venue: Blu Jaz Cafe, 9 Bali Lane

Date: Tuesday 31 January 2012

Time: 7pm to mingle, 8pm for performances

This Saturday, I'm hosting a talk with Singapore's top theatre reviewers!

2012-01-26T19:20:00.001+08:00

It's the 4:30 Open Panel Discussion noted below:

Open Roads: Stage Talk -Theatre Talks Back and Open Panel Discussion
Saturday 28 January 2012, 2-6pm
Theatre Talks Back, 2-4pm
Open Panel Discussion, 4:30-6pm
The Substation Theatre
Admission: Free
This is an InHouse event

Open Roads: Stage Talk was a programme initiated by The Substation in collaboration with The Flying Inkpot Theatre and Dance in 2010 to invite members of the public to come together and converse about local plays. After two successful runs in 2010 and 2011, Open Roads: Stage Talk comes to a close.

*To end the programme on a high note, local theatre reviewers have been gathered for a final pow-wow session– an open panel discussion about the current state of theatre criticism and their personal processes of reviewing performances. Join Life! journalist Corrie Tan, TODAY journalist, Mayo Martin, local online arts journal The Flying Inkpot‘s Matthew Lyon and freelance reviewers, Ng Yi-Sheng and Tara Tan in an open discussion about local theatre. Look forward also to the first of our Theatre Talks Back sessions, where invited theatre practitioners will talk about their recent productions in a Q&A presentation.

The Theatre Talks Back session is hosted by invited theatre practitioners who will talk about their recent productions in a Q&A presentation. Cake Theatrical Productions will be showing a video presentation of Decimal Points: 4.44 and talking about the trials and tribulations of putting together the first co-presentation between The Substation and Cake Theatrical Productions.

Income inequality hurts everyone

2011-11-10T00:30:00.002+08:00

You've gotta watched this TED Talk by Richard Wilkinson, author of "The Spirit Level". It's not that he's a great speaker: he's just got an incredibly important point to make about how income inequality within a state causes health and social problems for everyone... and he has the data to prove it.

He doesn't shy away from the fact that Singapore is THE most unequal nation in terms of income in the world:

But unfortunately he doesn't have a lot of data to graph us. We definitely don't do well on the percentage of population incarcerated, though.

I've gotta buy this book.

October 2011 texts!

2011-11-01T23:24:00.001+08:00

Did I really read and watch so little in October? Singapore Writers Festival can't be that good for me after all...

*POETRY*
Leonard Ng’s “This Mortal World”

*FICTION*
Heidi Munan’s =“Tales from the Iban” and +“Tales from the Bidayuh”
+“My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me”, ed. Kate Bernheimer
Nuruddin Farah’s “Maps”
+Maaza Mengiste’s “Beneath the Lion’s Gaze”

*MIXED GENRE*
=“CERIPH 2”
+“The Short Stories and Radio Plays of S. Rajaratnam”, ed. Irene Ng

*PERFORMANCES*
=“Laskar Pelangi”
+Hofesh Schechter Dance Company’s “Political Mother”
JECKOSdance’s “We Came From the East”
+Pangdemonium Productions’ “Dealer’s Choice”

*EXHIBITIONS*
=Grapheme's "Zine Mosh"

+Amanda Heng’s “Speak to Me, Walk With Me”

SPORE ART SALON 10 - The Halloween Edition!

2011-10-28T01:31:00.003+08:00

Just a reminder to everyone that this month's SPORE Art Salon is coming - on Halloween itself! Guests include filmmaker Shaun Koh, artist Ila and sound artist Bani Haykal, and storyteller Kamini Ramachandran. Do also note that the price is now $20, and that it's now a free drink instead of free food.

In the spirit of 31st October falling on the very last monday of the month, we present to you, our first ever, themed salon - the SCARY EDITION! Don on your craziest costume creation, and come on out to The Loft to be spooked by a very special SCARY LINE UP of performing and visual artists who will be sharing the stage!!! It will be a night of halloween-inspired art making, nothing like another, so make sure you don't miss this spine chilling, mind blowing experience!

LOCATION: The Loft - 289A South Bridge Road (Corner of Smith Street & South Bridge Road)
Doors open at 7:30PM
$20/ticket donation/person
FB Event Page : https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=166529500101752

More info here.

SWF STUFF!

2011-10-24T00:36:00.000+08:00

1. I've been published in the wonderful Singaporean literary journal CERIPH, edited by Lee Wei Fen and Amanda Lee.

This is its 4th edition, branded as the white issue, launched last Saturday at the Singapore Writers Festival. I've got a poem to open each of the five themed sub-chapbooks in the journal (they like to monkey a lot with design): a poem on ivory, a poem on wheat, a poem on amber shift, a poem on cosmic latte, a poem on sleet.

Copies are $20 from BooksActually and the Select Books store at the Festival Pavilion, over at the SMU Green. You should totally pick one up.

2. I'm also being published in the mono-titular anthology Coast, edited by Lee Wei Fen and Daren Shiau.

Mono-titular means that every single story and poem in the book has the title "Coast". Contributors include every significant Singapore writer from Edwin Thumboo to Alfian Sa'at to Pooja Nansi to Theophilus Kwek. (My contribution is fiction, for once!!!)

Don't know how much it costs yet, but it'll be launched at the following free Singapore Writers Festival event:

date : 26 October 2011, Wednesday (Deepavali)
time : 2 pm ~ 3 pm
venue : Singapore Management University (Festival Pavilion, Campus Green)

Be there or be square.

3. I'm also hosting an event at SWF: the screening and discussion of the short film Civic Life: Tiong Bahru. I'll be interviewing co-director Joe Lawlor, bookstore owner Kenny Leck and someone else.

Tiong Bahru Trailer from Desperate Optimists on Vimeo.

The timing of the event is:

date : 30 October 2011, Sunday
time : 2 pm ~ 3 pm
venue : National Museum Gallery Theatre

Right now, the free advance tickets have been snapped up, but further tickets will be available at 1pm on the day itself from the Museum Box Office. More info here.

Reading tonight!

2011-10-14T10:55:00.001+08:00

Just thought I'd say: my NTU students have forced me to do a poetry reading.

Epiphany Literary Society's first Open Nic Night
Fri 14 Oct, 7pm
HSS Building B2
NTU

Hope there'll be some kind of audience!

Call for Entries to EASTERN HEATHENS: an Anthology of Fiction Based on Asian Folklore

2011-10-09T13:03:00.001+08:00

Dear Writers,

We love Asian folklore. We grew up listening to Chinese legends, Arab fairy tales, Malay ghost stories and Indian sacred epics, and their fabulous images have continued to inhabit our imaginations ever since.

But as adults, we’re sometimes bugged by the moralistic, simplistic way these fables are told. We’re aching to hear these tropes subverted, perverted or simply adapted to reflect our times.

So, we’ve decided to reinvent our heritage. We’re putting together ‘Eastern Heathens’: an anthology of short stories based on folklore from our continent. We're looking for intelligent, imaginative myths, retold for adult connoisseurs.

We’d like you to base your story on a pre-existing Asian folktale. To help you out, we’ve included a list of our favourite traditional stories and sagas at http://easternheathens.tumblr.com. (Do feel free to interpret a story that’s from a culture other than your ‘own’.)

Our deadline is 31 January 2012. Entries should be in prose; poetry will not be accepted. Please include your name and your contact information in your submission. Also include the title of the original folktale that’s inspired your story, as well as a brief summary of that folktale for our reference.

Please e-mail easternheathens@gmail.com for enquiries and submissions.

Yours sincerely,

Amanda Lee and Ng Yi-Sheng
Editors

P.S. Both of us editors are based in Singapore, but we welcome international submissions.

Texts September 2011

2011-10-02T12:16:00.003+08:00

Did I really not watch any films last month?

*UPDATE: Oh yes I did!

*POETRY*
+Okot p’Bitek ”Song of Lawino & Song of Ocol”
=Marc Daniel Nair’s “Chai”

*FICTION*
+“Teleny, or the Reverse of the Medal” by Anonymous
+Ngugi wa’Thiongo’s “Devil on the Cross”

*DRAMA*
+Yasmina Reza’s “The God of Carnage”

*NON-FICTION*
+Paul Rusesabagina’s “An Ordinary Man”
=Khoo Salma Nasution’s “Sun Yat Sen in Penang”
=Stella Dong’s “Sun Yat-Sen: The Man Who Changed China”

*GRAPHIC TEXTS*
+Troy Chin’s “The Resident Tourist (Part 5)”
+Alan Moore’s “Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?”

*PERFORMANCES*
+The Finger Players’ “To Whom It May Concern”
+TheatreWorks’s “Serunding”, “The First Emperor’s Last Days” (staged reading) and “Fear of Writing”
=Lau Ming Hang’s “Am I Crying”
STAGES’s “On This Emerald Hill”
Teater Ekamatra’s “The Gunpowder Trail”
LaSalle’s +“Kaspar” and =“Working”

*FILMS*
+James Lee's "Tolong! Awek Aku Pontianak"

*EXHIBITIONS*
+Bruce Quek’s “The Hall of Mirrors”
=Kian-Peng Ong’s “Within 140 Characters”
=Substation’s “Rahim: womb [wu:m]”

The City Limits Collective presents: "RHYME AND PUNISHMENT"!

2011-10-01T02:15:00.004+08:00

I've helped to put together this little event for the Singapore Writers Festival Fringe. It'll be on 21 October, 8:30pm, at the SMU Steps. Basically, we were programmed in the middle of a bunch of acts extolling the virtues of poetry, so we've decided to create an event where we ritually execute bad poems instead.

Help us make the event a success by uploading some bad poems on the Facebook page!

https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=232728086778744&ref=ts

WE WANT BAD POEMS! PLEASE POST THE WORST OFFENDERS BELOW!

A time of reckoning is upon us. Bad poetry must die!
For too long, we have tolerated its presence in our libraries, bookstores, schools and festival programs. We have been tortured by its slipshod rhythms; we have been oppressed by its tyranny in literature syllabuses. We have been scandalized by the repugnant politics of some of its texts – why, some of the damned things just won’t stay banned!

But just as a good poem should be praised, a bad poem deserves to be punished. (Never mind subjectivity – we’re readers, dammit, we know what we like!)

We have therefore resolved to hold a series of bloody executions, so that these miserable verses may die for their sins. And we look to you, the audience, to nominate those worthy of death.

So from now until 14th October, we ask you to post bad poems on this wall, along with your accusations thereof (e.g. banal rhyming, flaccid imagery, inciting civil unrest). You may also submit poems that you feel have been wrongfully charged as 'bad' and deserve a fairer trial in public.

At our event on 21st October, your poems shall either be acquitted or found guilty as charged. You will have the power to choose their fate: whether they enjoy a swift and painless death or suffer the agony of disemvowelment, or worse.

Let the killing begin!

Two literary events ahead!

2011-09-21T15:36:00.001+08:00

First of all, there's the upcoming SPORE Art Salon:

The featured artists that I rustled up include singer/songwriter Bani Haykal, poet Yong Shu Hoong and visual artist Lip.

DATE: Monday 26 September 2011
TIME: 7PM - 11PM
LOCATION: The Loft @ 268A South Bridge Road #02-01 (Corner of Smith Street & South Bridge Road)
There is a ticket donation of $15/person to cover event costs, and proceeds go to efforts of featured artists.

Webpage: http://www.sporeartsalon.blogspot.com/
FB Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=231373196910164&ref=ts

Second, there's the next Word Forward slam at Blu Jaz! I'm hosting!

DATE: Thursday 29 September 2011
TIME: 8PM - 10+PM
LOCATION: Blu Jaz Cafe, 12 Bali Lane, Singapore 189848

Still waiting for the event page to go up online...

Texts July 2011

2011-09-04T01:01:00.003+08:00

Sorry this is late!

*FICTION*
=Abdulrazak Gurnah’s “Paradise”
+Shamini Flint’s “Inspector Singh Investigates: A Deadly Cambodian Crime Spree”

*DRAMA*
Zakaria Ariffin’s “Opera Stage”

*NON-FICTION*
+Tracy Kidder’s “Strength in What Remains”

FOLKLORE
+Rosemarie and Ranjan Somaiah’s “Indian Children’s Favorite Stories”
+Kim So-Un and Jeong Kyoung-Sim’s “Korean Children’s Favorite Stories”
+Pugalenthi’s “Myths and Legends: Philippines”

*GRAPHIC TEXTS*
Frank Weyers’ “Salvador Dali: Life and Work”

*FILMS*
+Sidney Drew’s “A Florida Enchantment”
=Magnus Hirscheld’s “Laws of Love”
+Joe Johnston’s “Captain America: The First Avenger”

*PERFORMANCES*
+W!ld Rice’s “The Weight of Silk on Skin”, “Cooling Off Day” and “Family Outing”
+Teater Ekamatra’s “Charged” and “Nadirah”
DramaBox's "Is This Home?"
Theatrestrays’ “Paper Boat”
+Good Red Road Productions’ “Improvanopolis”

*EXHIBITIONS*
+stuff at Sarawak Art Museum and Sarawak Museum
=IndigNation’s “Pride and Prejudice”
+Asian Civilisations Museum’s “Terracotta Warriors: The First Emperor and His Legacy”
+ArtScience Museum’s “Dalí: Mind of a Genius” and “Van Gogh Alive”

SPORE Art Salon 9 tomorrow!

2011-08-27T13:54:00.003+08:00

Monday 29 August, 7-11pm

ECHO LOFT, Chinatown, Singapore, Singapore 162005
http://sporeartsalon.blogspot.com/2011/08/spore-art-salon-9th-edition.html

In the month of AUGUST, we are proud to present you a mish mash of artistic wonders! Doors open 7pm at ECHOLoft, a local short film screening will commence at 7:30PM... life drawing sessions, a stage play, poetry reading, an acoustic trio n then some!

SPORE Art Salon is a non-profit opportunity created for visual artists to meet, mingle, inspire, and share with performing artists. During the event, we alternate between drawing sessions with live models, and performances from musicians, contortionists, poets, dancers, actors and more. We also feature works of, and demonstrations by visual artists, individually or collaboratively.

For those who are new to the art salon, our event is modeled after world famous Giles Larrain's Art Salon in NYC, with a distinctly Singaporean twist and flavour!

There is a minimum donation of $15/person at the door, and proceeds will benefit ECHOLoft and our featured artists. There will be alcoholic drinks for sale, and a small spread of 'tapas'! Come meet, mingle and inspire with fellow creatives of various disciplines. Guests are encouraged to participate in the life drawing sessions in between performances, so, bring your charcoal, pastels, paints, drawing pad, ipad...... you are also welcomed to take the stage at the end of the evening during our 'open mic'!

FEATURED VISUAL ARTIST:

JOW ZHI WEI (film maker)
http://jowzhiwei.wordpress.com/

Born in Singapore, Jow Zhi Wei graduated with first-class honours from The Puttnam School of Film, Lasalle in 2010. He believes in making films that deeply examine the human condition through compassionate, intimate observation of behaviour, discovering the cycles of life and death, the fragility of relationships and the emotional isolation that characters feel in urban spaces.

During his two year study at the school, he wrote and directed two short films. His first, Outing, was selected for competition at the 58th San Sebastian International Film Festival in Spain. His graduation work, Waiting, had its international premiere at the 15th Busan International Film Festival in South Korea. It also received the award for ‘Best Script’ at the 2nd Singapore Short Film Awards 2011, and a ‘Jury Special Mention’ for both ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Performance’.

Both his films have screened at the National Museum of Singapore’s Cinematheque programme, the Singapore Short Cuts, a showcase of outstanding short films from Singaporean filmmakers.
Collectively, they have screened in over 20 countries.

He is an alumnus of the Golden Horse Film Academy in Taiwan, organized by illustrious Taiwanese filmmaker, Hou Hsiao-hsien and is due to pursue his studies at Le Fresnoy - National Studio of Contemporary Arts in France.

'WAITING' will be screened at 7:30PM.

FEATURED PERFORMING ARTISTS:

BECCA D'BUS (host)
Eugene Tan is an artist who works in performance, garments and drag. Till recently, Eugene was based in Boston, MA, where he worked he directed A Street Theater Named Desire, a guerrilla AIDS activist performance troupe that did work in gay cruising areas in the middle of the night, he also created Come As You Are: Celebrate Queer Sex!, a performance series that looked at queer sexual values 40 years after Stonewall, versions of Come As You Are were seen in 13 cities across the US, from major gay capitals like San Francisco to cities such as Cedar Rapids, Iowa. As an artist in research at the Berwick Research Institute in 2005, Eugene started an exploration of garments as performing objects, this, he has continued this work with costume design for plays, and also in the creation of Becca D’Bus, his drag persona. Eugene is currently a theater reviewer for The Flying Inkpot.

ALL I WANT - a stage play by Ren Robles
“What are you looking for in a partner?” Watch Vince and Amy try to answer this age-old question that has plagued single people all over the world in the charming romantic comedy ALL I WANT. A lighthearted romp through the perils of singledom and the quest to find The One, this one-act play is written and directed by playwright Ren Robles. ALL I WANT stars Jason Miller as Vince and Crista Leopardi as Amy, two old friends who stumble, bumble, and fumble their way to finding out just what they’re looking for.

REN ROBLES (Playwright and Director) finished with a degree in Psychology but pursues his passions in theatre as a veteran of Repertory Philippines Children’s Theatre as well as the Asian premiere of the stage version of HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL directed by Chari Arespacochaga for Ateneo Blue Repertory in Manila.

JASON MILLER (Vince; Ba. Musical Theatre at CQUniversity) has played Lennox and understudy for Banquo and Malcolm in MACBETH: THE CONTEMPORARY ROCK OPERA (2009), directed by Beth Child at Cremorne Theatre, QPAC.

CRISTA LEOPARDI (Amy; BS in Dance Management) is mostly a dancer but proudly credits roles in CHILDREN OF EDEN (Ensemble), BEND (an Original staging), and ANNIE GET YOUR GUN (Winnie).

ACE BIGCAS is Stage Manager for this production.

The Russian Dolls (acoustic trio)
Fuelled with the passion for music, Sarah E., Fauzo, and Ed came together in the spirit of this one mutual love, to try a hand at a new collaboration. The results weren't surprising... not yet anyway! But are increasingly entertaining, sparked off by the great chemistry within this unexpected trio! Let The Russian Dolls bring you a night of entertainment and laughter!

Stephanie Dogfoot (performance poet)
http://stephdogfoot.wordpress.com/
Stephanie is a performance poet who toys with ideas about identity, foreignness, (not) growing up and river snails. She won the Annual Singapore Poetry Slam in 2010, and represented Singapore in the Indian Ocean Poetry Slam on Reunion Island that same year where she competed against poets from countries like Botswana, India and Madagascar and bridged geographical, cultural and language barriers with a universal ode to hawker food. She was also runner-up in the Vancouver Queer Slam 2008.

Stephanie is in back in Singapore for the moment but is more often found in London where she performs poetry and hosts spoken word events in various spaces around the city (especially squatted buildings) and sometimes finds the time to study law. She recently came to the conclusion that lawyers and poets are more similar than they would like to think because both are in the business of arranging words to change people’s feelings. Stephanie is inspired by things in the world (but especially Singapore) that make her enraged, being righteously enraged, then laughing at them. Her work has been described as ‘spiritual lyrics for the human journey’ (some guy named Sky) and "um...a bit chim. A bit embarrassing for our family. But nice." (her sister).

I've decided I'm voting for Tan Jee Say.

2011-08-26T15:42:00.003+08:00

Was vacillating until I read this Yawning Bread article.

For those of you who can't decide, this one-stop chart is useful too.

CONTRADICTION 7, Sat 13 Aug, 7:30pm!

2011-08-10T01:52:00.000+08:00

Hi guys,

Some of you might know about IndigNation, Singapore's annual queer pride festival. It's on now, and the calendar's up here:

http://indignationsg.wordpress.com/

I'd just like to plug my own little event, which is part of the festival: CONTRADICTION 7!!!

https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=197068853683688

Our annual queer literary reading is back! Prepare for a sumptuous salon with Singapore’s most talented new GLBT writers, curated by Ng Yi-Sheng, Jasmine Seah and Amanda Lee.

Featured artists include singer/songwriters Iris Judotter and Roy Lim, poets Teng Qian Xi and Mika Yamaji, playwrights Joel Tan and Drayton Hiers, author/artist Tania de Rozario, slammers Stephanie Chan, Atiqah Lukman and Deborah Emmanuel, Golden Point Award winner Jeremy Tiang, and heterosexual guest star, accordionist Faizal Bochtiar. Hosted by drag queen Becca D'Bus.

Date: Sat 13 August (this weekend!)
Time: 7:30 onwards
Venue: 72-13, Mohamed Sultan Road (TheatreWorks office)

Free entry! Refreshments provided!

Rated R-18 by MDA - we just got the licence. :D

IndigNation's opening!

2011-08-05T02:27:00.003+08:00

The full calendar's here!

Our organiser, Jun Zubillaga-Pow, has asked me to advertise the Gala Concert he's organised as part of the opening at 7pm on Sunday 7 August:

Pride and Prejudice

http://www.bytes.sg/EventDetails.aspx?EventID=243

How often do you hear a trumpet, a tenor and a recorder in a single recital? Come and experience the triple-bill of Romantic pieces presented by Edric Liew, Adrian Poon and Jun Zubillaga-Pow. The young musicians will revive luscious music from the 19th- and 20th-centuries by famous and less-known composers. As the opening line of Jane Austen is beloved novel goes, “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” Be smitten by these suave bachelors of the musical world as they weave spellbound tales of affectionate love. The reverberant setting of the Chamber makes it such an auricular rarity that nobody should give this a miss!

Venue: Arts House Living Room
Price: $28
Time: 7pm
Duration: 1 hr
Date: Sun 7 August 2011

Texts July 2011

2011-07-31T04:26:00.002+08:00

I'm flying to Kuching today! Given that I probably won't finish any other texts in the next 24 hours, here's the run-down for the month:

*POETRY*
+Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo’s “24 Poems”
=Theophilus Kwek’s “They Only Speak Our Mother Tongue”
=“Fifty on 50”, eds. Edwin Thumboo, Chia Hwee Pheng, Isa Kamari and K.T.M. Iqbal
+Koh Jee Leong’s “Seven Studies for a Self-Portrait”

*FICTION*
+Shamini Flint’s “The Seeds of Time”
+JMG Le Clézio’s “The Prospector”

*DRAMA*
=Soeuf Elbadawi’s “Moroni Blues”

*NON-FICTION*
Michael Steane’s “The Last Colony: An Experience of Réunion Island”
+Stephen King’s “On Writing”

*MIXED GENRE*
+“Ceriph: Issue Zero”, ed. Hans Wong-Jensen and Wei Fen Lee

*FILMS*
+Matthew Vaughn’s “X-Men: First Class”

*PERFORMANCES*
+Fantastic Entertainment’s “Beauty Kings”
+Queensland Academie of Creative Industries’s “Drowning Ophelia”
=Pentas’s “3 Wajah”
+Nederlands Dans Theater’s “Mémoires d’Oubliettes/Sehnsucht”
+Lit Up’s “The City Limits” (yeah I was IN IT!!!)
=Actors Studio Singapore’s “Food, Sex and Death”

*EXHIBITIONS*
=Singapore Art Museum and Centre Pompidou’s “Video: An Art, a History”
=Lit Up’s “The City Limits”
+National Art Gallery’s “Liu Kang: A Centennial Celebration”

SPORE Art Salon 8: featuring slam poet Zuni!

2011-07-24T22:51:00.004+08:00

I'm a little brain-dead right now, so I'll just advertise this quickly: there's a SPORE Art Salon tomorrow, only it's at THE PIGEONHOLE, a lovely little shophouse bar, instead of the normal venue.

In short:

SPORE Art Salon 8

THE PIGEONHOLE

Mon 25 July, 7pm drawing, 8pm performances

$15 entry (inclusive of food, catered by the Pigeonhole)

Directions are as follows:

From Tanjong Pagar MRT Station: EXIT A
Choon Guan Street - Wallich Street - cut through Orchid Hotel - Craig Road - 52&53 Duxton Road

From Outram Park MRT Station: EXIT G
Cantonment Road - Neil Road - Craig Road - 52&53 Duxton Road

But you want to know what's actually happening on the day itself, don't you? Well, here's the info:

SPORE Art Salon is a non-profit opportunity created for visual artists to meet, mingle, inspire, and share with performing artists. During the event, we alternate between drawing sessions with live models, and performances from musicians, contortionists, poets, dancers, actors and more. We also feature works of, and demonstrations by visual artists, individually or collaboratively.

FEATURED PERFORMING ARTISTS:

NG YI-SHENG (featured model)

SUZANNE SUBHA CHEW (Laughter yoga artist)
http://mylaughingjourney.blogspot.com/
Suzanne zests for continuous learning and upgrading herself has motivated her to sign up for the Certified Laughter Yoga teacher (CLYT) course. She was trained under the world renowned guru Dr. Madan Kataria and had successfully obtained a certificate on the course in January 2010 conducted in Bombay, India. She is convinced, upon completion of the CLYT course, that the world could go HOHO-HAHAHA !!! and enjoyed the cheapest way to a healthy and happy living with little and best no medication. It can also be said that laughter is the best medicine to a stressless life.

JURANE (musician)
21-year-old Jurane Solano has been singing since the age of 4 in her native country, the Philippines where she spent a part of her childhood. “Growing up, music has always been a huge part of my life, and I think it always will be.” When she migrated to Singapore, she joined and won a few singing competitions, spurring her to purse her passion in the performing arts. Her latest achievements include being the central female character in a musical ‘Paul the Musical’ staged in NUS University Cultural Centre (2009) and also lead actress in the musical ’13:34’ staged in Singapore EXPO (2010) to sold-out.

ZUNI (poet)
Metaphorically speaking, Zuni is part-lion (not lioness), part-flying whale, part-fastest mealworm in the world. Literally speaking, she is a young woman who sang before she spoke, told stories before she learnt to read, speaks with respectful intent to people and objects and is grateful to her pillows for listening to her early compositions which were altogether incomprehensible, violent and vulgar. It is most shameful that she did not discover poetry slams until she turned 19, but throughout her life she has always tried to put words in a hear-worthy order. She tells stories through spoken word or music and she does not compose fiction; everything she writes has either happened, is happening or will. There is a peace sign in her signature and it is easy to forge.

As a poet, she has stuck her toes into Blu Jazz poetry slams and Open Mics at TAPAC. As a musician, she’s performed originals at post-museum and other places with a feminist-male/partner-in-crime . She is currently a philosophy student who spends her time in the company of Descartes, an ever-creasing dysfunctional poet family and deathly reassuring music. She writes everyday, half of which is discarded by the evening. Please give her your opinions because she's always up for more angles to frame the English word. Also, persons without opinions simply don't care.

FEATURED VISUAL ARTIST:

MELISSA TAN
http://www.wix.com/melissatan/weixiang

Melissa is interested in the idea of the push and pull of opposites. Elements and processes that are seemingly contrasting, and discovering the harmony of the in between, that gives her work its balance. Lately, she has been exploring materials, and learning to manipulate them differently. Merging them with other mediums, allows her to incorporate fragility that harmonizes into organic forms, translating a certain dialogue between the materials to inspire a certain ethereality of the work.

The theme for her recent work is on the transience of reality. Inspired by accidental mark makings, the uncontrollability of change and the constant act of trying to control. Merging the accidental marks with her own renderings, make it difficult to differentiate the two processes, however, the delicate line works that harmonizes the piece, aims to elicit the fragile beauty of the ephemeral.

Making a Great Art Museum

2011-07-17T01:16:00.001+08:00

So on Wednesday I attended the NHB/IPS Symposium on “Making a Great Art Museum”. And you know what? It wasn’t that great.

In retrospect, I think the event was sabotaged by the subtitle: “Contending with Southeast Asian Modernities and Art”. The panels of academics and curators didn’t spend much time talking about proposals: instead they agonised over the historiography of art: how the origins of European museums are embedded in cultures of colonialism and objectification; how we’re stuck in the hegemonic discourse of European and American modernism as the centre and all other global modernisms as the under-exhibited periphery.

But Singapore, they gushed, has the unique opportunity to present a new historical narrative of Southeast Asian modernism. We have the wealth, we have the location, and we have the total absence of pride in our own art history that would make us focus exclusively on Singaporean art (okay, they didn’t mention that last point, but it’s true).

What was missing was any sense of what this alternative narrative should look like – perhaps not surprisingly, since Southeast Asian artists began their modernisms rather independently of each other: Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia all have different encounters between colonialism and revolution and innovation and aesthetics: genuine intra-ASEAN crossovers between artists didn’t start happening till the ‘90s. The speakers’ presentations on their specific fields of study didn’t provide much of an idea of how to unify things.

Yet some constructive ideas crept through the academese:

1. Expose underexposed histories.
(Prof Adrian Vickers, Director, Australian Centre for Asian Art & Archaeology, University of Sydney)
The conventional narrative is that Balinese art didn’t become “modern” until 1930s European artists like Walter Spies and Rudolph Bonnet arrived in Ubud and commissioned traditional artists to paint everyday life instead of mythic subjects. But in fact, some Balinese artists were incorporating contemporary elements into their work by the 1920s.

2. Include marginal communities.
(Dr Apinan Poshyananda, Dir-General, Dept of Cultural Promotion, Ministry of Culture, Thailand)
“Spaces must be open for voices from nomads, tribes,” he says, exposing the “cultural faultlines within nations”, from the. Acehnese to the Rohingya.

3. Work with local stakeholders
(Ms Gridithya Gaweewong, Curator and Co-founder, Project 304 & Artistic Director, Jim Thompson Art Center, Bangkok)
I.e. local artists, none of whom were actually invited to speak at this symposium. In fact, it was all curators and academics – no artists at all. Why’s that?

4. Figure out how to include transnational artists.
(Prof Nora Taylor, Alsdorf Professor, South and Southeast Asian Art History & Director, Grad Programme in Modern and Contemporary Art History, Theory and Criticism, School of the Art Institute of Chicago)
In Vietnam alone, how are you going to classify folks like Viet Q returnee Dinq Q. Le and Vietnamese-Japanese Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba?

5. Dare to display popular culture.
(Oscar Ho Hing-Kay, Programme Ditrector, MA Programme in Cultural Management, Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Ho knows how overpopulated the museum scene is going to get: China plans to build 1,500 museums in the coming decade, more than the current number of Starbucks in the country. There’s gonna be tough competition for artefacts. Why not serve as a record of what’s happening in pop culture instead, making yourself immediately relevant and analytical of what’s happening today? (Another tip from Ho: celebrate difference, not sameness)

6. Dare to display material culture.
(Assoc Prof Flaudette May V. Datuin, Dept of Art Studies, College of Arts and Letters, University of the Philippines)
Datuin’s exhibited chamberpots, watercrafts, dresses, etc, to reflect the way average people look at history. Mind you, this is different from pop culture because it’s based on the curatorial decisions of village people, not fashion and style mavens – it’s about empowering and including local communities who don’t even think of themselves as artists.

7. Create a paratopia
(Ong Keng Sen, Artistic Director, TheatreWorks)
As part of his “If I were the Museum Director”, Ong went heavy on the jargon: mondialisation, affinities over ethnicities, a museum of empty space. But what’s at the core of his suggestion is that the museum could be centred on people as much as it is on artefacts: bring in camps and teach-ins and alternative intellectual community gatherings so you have a living space for art creation and analysis rather than just worshipping dead brown and yellow males.

… ooh, and Studio Wong Huzir's Creative Director, Huzir Sulaiman, had an “If I were the Museum Director” speech that was excellent. Besides being terribly funny, this is what he concretely recommended:

8. Don’t try and please everybody.
Given that there are multiple conflicting reasons why a person might want to visit the gallery (e.g. to learn, to show tourists around, to socialize) just focus on one.

9. Your goal should be to deliver great experiences with great works of art.
I.e. don’t pile on the history shit too deep. And definitely don’t buy bad art just for the sake of historicizing things. “There are only so many dull images of village maidens in harvest time that ne can take before one runs from the building,” he says.

10. Design your experience with your HEADS:

a) Holistic – does the exhibition feel like a coherent whole?
b) Emotional – does it make us proud to be Southeast Asians?
c) Aesthetic – does the space look beautiful even without art in it?
d) Dramaturgical – does it tell a story?
e) Semiotic – does it resonate with complex meanings?

11. Trust the art.
Huzir is uncomfortable with the slogan on the TNAGS website: “Here at The National Art Gallery of Singapore, we bring modern art to life.” To which he answers, “Dead meh?”

12. Finally, assert some political independence.
Don’t list a state-sponsored history. Undermine the chauvinistic narratives of ASEAN’s own government-issued textbooks. “Do not regurgitate the sanitized stories of tyrants and despots.”

Pretty useful, you’d think? But then Kwok Kian Chow, the actual museum director, had to give a wrapping-up speech. And here he claimed that he agreed with Huzir, and since there were so many demands to be made from different prospective viewers he had to satisfy all of them (directly contradicting Huzir’s point number 8.)

Seriously, the folks around me in the audience were horrified at this statement. Was this man being stupid (it was at the end of a looong symposium), or was he twisting Huzir’s words around, assuming we were stupid enough to believe him?

Also worrying me is what happened when I asked a question early in the symposium: what should we do, as art-loving citizens, when a museum censors work or acts unethically? The panel speakers just hemmed and hawed and regurgitated their own agendas without answering my question.

So at the end of the day, what did we learn? What makes a great art museum?

Maybe not this guy.

Phishing alert!

2011-07-11T23:54:00.002+08:00

I just got the following e-mail, and I'm pretty sure it's a scam. Just want to make sure as many people out there know this.

from Gmail verification@google-inc.com
reply-to Gmail
to support-details@google.com
date Mon, Jul 11, 2011 at 11:51 PM
subject Database System Update
hide details 11:51 PM (2 minutes ago)
We are shutting down some accounts that are not presently updated on our database system and your account was authomatically choosen. We are sending you this Email to verify and let us know if you still want to use this account..

*Full Name :
*Email ID :
*Password :
*Occupation :
*Alternative Email:
*Region/Territory :

Note: This email is only for Gmail users (Users should reply within 48 hours to avoid "Permanently Lockup" Account)

Thank you for using Gmail !

The Gmail Team

Texts June 2011

2011-07-05T07:52:00.006+08:00

Before anything else, I'm reading poetry tonight!

Carnal Stash, the House of Incest Reading
Tuesday 5 July, 730-9pm
Post-Museum, 107 Rowell Road.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=210225729018745

Otherwise... Huh. I guess I really didn't finish a lot of books while I was travelling.

*POETRY*
+Jack Mapanje’s “Of Chameleons and Gods”

*FICTION*
+Mia Couto’s “The Last Flight of the Flamingo”

*NON-FICTION*
Richard Sampson’s “With Sword and Chain in Lusaka”
+Nelson Mandela’s “Long Walk to Freedom”

*GRAPHIC TEXTS*
“Young Wildlife: Dawn of a New Kingdom”
+Dav Pilkey’s “The Adventures of Ook and Gluk: Kung Fu Cavemen from the Future”

*FILMS*
+George Nolfi’s “The Adjustment Bureau”

+Orson Welles's "The Lady from Shanghai"

+Clint Eastwood’s “Invictus”
+Craig Freimond’s “Jozi”
+“30 Rock” Season 4

*PERFORMANCES*
+David Bryan and Joe DiPietro’s “Memphis”
+Ian Rickson and Jez Butterworth’s “Jerusalem”
Teater Ekamatra’s “Pariah”
Kreativ Outbox's "LakiBini"

*EXHIBITIONS*
+Permanent exhibitions at Constitution Hill, the Hector Pieterson Museum, the Apartheid Museum, the Nelson Mandela House
Various exhibits at the Museum Africa

"I Am An American" by the Ad Council

2011-06-25T06:44:00.003+08:00

Trying to write an article for What's Up's Racial Harmony Day Special; my assignment's to write about What We Learned From 9/11. I'll be talking about my own experience of the event as a college student. One of my memories is watching this ad on TV:

Odd: I thought I remembered there being more overt representations of Arab-Americans. Kind of defeats the purpose otherwise.

Moving Words Slam, this Saturday, 630-8pm, Esplanade XChange Burger King!

2011-06-23T04:07:00.002+08:00

As stated before, I'm devoting a full post to this event, because I'd really like it to be successful. It's the first poetry slam I've organised (with the blessing of Word Forward), and also the first I've emceed in quite some time.

It's part of the Moving Words festival to promote Singaporean poetry, organised by The Literary Centre, who also published GASPP, doncha know. The event's held in conjunction with the featuring of Singaporean poems on MRT trains, a nationwide poetry competition, and the run-up to this year's Singapore Writers Festival.

Also! It features some really cool writers!

RAFA'AT HAMZAH, guest poet: A director, producer, performer and poet in the Malay language; Creative Director of COKELAT Events.

MIRIAM NASH, sacrificial lamb: A young and amazing poet from the UK, currently heading the Writing the City project at the British Council.

MARC NAIR, competitor: One of the young stalwarts of the Singapore slam scene who's represented us in the World Slam Finals. Author of Along the Yellow Line and Chai.

POOJA NANSI, competitor: Another young stalwart, author of Stiletto Stars and one half of the phenomenal music-poetry duo the Mango Dollies!

BANI HAYKAL, competitor: One of our most inventive slammers, frontman for indie-unclassifiable band B-Quartet, founder of multidisciplinary collective mux and associate artist with the Substation.

CHONG KOH YOU, competitor: An emergent voice and one of several of these writers to be jamming in the upcoming Lit Up! performance, The City Limits.

STEPHANIE MILANI, competitor: An Indonesian brought up in Singapore who's performed at the Singapore Writers Festival and the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival.

BENJAMIN CHOW, competitor: A former contestant on Singapore idol and one of our most consistent winners at the Blu Jaz slams!

Seriously, these are some of Singapore's best performance poets. I kid you not. And it'll be a real slam, with tension and competition and prizes.

Judging will be Rafa'at Hamzah, Word Forward co-founder Savinder Kaur, student writers Almira and Azura, as well as a few random audience members.

So once again:

Moving Words Poetry Slam

Saturday 25 June, 630-8pm
Esplanade XChange Burger King
http://www.facebook.com/?tid=1869389166914&sk=messages#!/event.php?eid=180821831975252

The slam is supported by BooksActually, Word Forward and the Esplanade Xchange.

Also click on the above to find out about the Moving Words open mic on Thursday 7 July from 7-9pm at 15 Minutes Cafe. And if you want to find out more about the MRT poetry prize, go to the Moving Words website.

Poetry Readings Galore!

2011-06-21T02:10:00.004+08:00

I'm just back from Southern Africa! And I suppose photos may emerge at some point, but right now I have to gear up for the ridiculous number of readings I'm hosting, reading at, or curating in the next week and a half:

The Contemporary: An International Conference of Literature and the Arts
Friday 24 June, 815pm
NTU, Creative Studio, HSS-B2-01
http://portal.cohass.ntu.edu.sg/TheContemporary/programme.asp

... I'll be reading 5 minutes at the university to academics. Suchen Christine Lim will also have a bit. There's also going be a launch of Spark, the Singapore Poetry Archive.

Moving Words Poetry Slam
Saturday 25 June, 630-8pm
Esplanade XChange Burger King
http://www.facebook.com/?tid=1869389166914&sk=messages#!/event.php?eid=180821831975252

This deserves a whole post to itself. Akan datang!

SPORE Art Salon
Monday 27 June, 7-11pm
ECHO Loft, Chinatown
Corner of Smith Street and South Bridge Rd, Second Floor
$15 for entry (including performance, sketching and food)
http://www.facebook.com/?tid=1869389166914&sk=messages#!/event.php?eid=126847487396738

I've curated Indonesian slam poet Stephanie Milani for this multidisciplinary performance!

Carnal Stash, the House of Incest Reading
Tuesday 5 July, 730-9pm
Post-Museum, 107 Rowell Road.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=210225729018745

Erotic texts and artworks curated by Amanda Lee. I'll get 15 min to read alongside folks like X'Ho, Alvin Pang, Pooja Nansi, Madeleine Lee and Tania de Rozario, in front of works by Genevieve Chua! The art show's opening tonight, in fact.

Hello 2111!: a collaboration with Michikazu Matsune

2011-06-12T06:15:00.000+08:00

If you happen to be in Vienna/Wien, Austria, this coming week, why not head down to a performance art/art installation I've helped to create called Hello 2111?

It's featured in Wiener Festwochen's "Survival Strategies", and it's initiated and mostly created by Michikazu Matsune, a Japanese artist working in Austria whom I last met at the Flying Circus Project 2007.

The performance segment is a letter to the people of the year 2111, performed by Mich himself. I helped generate the text (in fact, I just got off Skype with him as we hammered out the final version). Can't fly over because I'm currently in Zimbabwe.

Anyhow, details are:

13 to 18 June 2011
Kunsthalle Wien, project space karlsplatz
brut at Künstlerhaus

(The performance is on 18 June!)

More info about the exhibition here.

Go to Pink Dot, Sat 18 June, Hong Lim Park!

2011-06-07T00:20:00.000+08:00

'Cos I can't. I'll still be in South Africa. :(

Please SAVE THE DATE:
WHAT: PINK DOT 2011
WHERE: Hong Lim Park
WHEN: Saturday, June 18, 2011
WHAT TO WEAR: Of course, PINK!
TIMINGS: Activities commence 4.30pm, Concert begins at 5pm, Dot is formed at
6pm

*Please note: According to the park's terms and conditions, only Singaporeans and Permanent Residents may participate at the events held at Hong Lim Park. However, foreigners are most welcome to watch and observe.

For media enquiries and interviews, email writetopinkdot@gmail.com.

More info here

May 2011 texts

2011-06-06T13:16:00.003+08:00

Late I know!

*POETRY*
+Kazuko Shirashi’s “Seasons of Sacred Lust”

*FICTION*
+Nadine Gordimer’s “Burger’s Daughter”
+Thomas Mofolo’s “Traveller to the East”
+Neshani Andreas’s “The Purple Violet of Oshaantu”
=Bessie Head’s “When Rain Clouds Gather”
+Nozipo Maraire’s “Zenzele: A Letter to My Daughter”

*DRAMA*
+Aileen Ritchie’s “The Juju Girl”

*NON-FICTION*
+Teo Soh Lung’s “Beyond the Blue Gate”
+Sybil Kathigasu’s “No Dram of Mercy”
+James Hall’s “Sangoma: My Odyssey into the African Spirit World”
+Rolf C. Hemke’s “Theater südlich der Sahara: Theatre in Sub-Saharan Africa”
+Mpho 'M'atsepo Nthunya's “Singing Away the Hunger”

*FILMS*
+Kenneth Branagh’s “Thor”
+Stanley Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange”

*PERFORMANCES*
+Cake Theatre’s “Decimal Points: 4.44”
+Arco Renz’s “Crack”
=Boris Charmatz’s “Flip Book”
+Isinha’s “When a Gray Taiwanese Cow Stretched”
=Nature Theatre of Oklahoma’s “Life and Times”
+T.H.E. Company’s “As It Fades”
=Living Dance Studio’s “Memory II: Hunger”
+Teatro de los Sentidos’s “Inhabitants”
+Fantastic Productions’ “The Adventures of the Mad Chinaman”
+Ontroerend Goed’s “Internal”

*EXHIBITIONS*
+Aung Ko's "Village"
+Joo Choon Lin's "Too Big In the Tank"

I'm being featured in "Utter", directed by Natalie Hennedige, Sat 18 June!

2011-06-04T00:43:00.001+08:00

I've only got a single poem in the programme: "Ne Zha", from my collection "last boy". But I wuv Natalie, and the YouTube keeps gliding over "GASPP", so I'm pretty damn chuffed.

Sadly I'll still be in South Africa on the date of the performance, so I can't watch. But maybe you can!

Here's the synopsis, from the bookings page on Gatecrash:

utter : to give audible expression to (something), to articulate (words); pronounce or speak. Example: He can hardly utter a sentence without swearing.
utter : carried to the highest degree; absolute, complete, total. Example: Utter madness

What do you get when you add three exciting talents from the theatre, television and film circles to a mixed bag of creative writers from Singapore? Three utterly riveting evenings of highly dramatised readings you don’t want to miss.

Utter is curated and directed by Natalie Hennedige (Nothing, Cuckoo Birds), Lee Thean-jeen (The Pupil, Singapore Short Story Project) and Ken Kwek (Kidnapper, It’s a Great, Great World). These directors will draw fresh content from anthologies Telltale: 11 Stories, & Words and upcoming writers and screenwriters. Watch them breathe new life to these Singapore texts and brew a heady concoction for your enjoyment!

June 17: Curated and directed by Lee Thean-jeen

One moment, savour the quiet of the written word, and the scent of the flipped page and the next, put on new spectacles as characters take on new life - phrases shout out with new emphasis while other words are whispered or uttered into your ear. Observe how your fellow audience member reacts to the mounting tensions, the shattering relations and increasing distances even whilst you settle into your own seat. Thean-jeen turns the reading upon the reader as every gesture adds a different layer of interpretation to the text, and filmed footages add a new dimension to themes and topics explored in Singapore content including Dave Chua’s ‘The Drowning’ and Alfian bin Sa’at’s ‘Autobiography’.

Cast: Lim Kay Tong, Christina Sergeant, George Young

June 18: Curated and directed by Natalie Hennedige

'Thirteen Ways of Looking and Other Observations' utters naked truths and offers poignant and tender observations of life from the perspective of Singaporean writers. It weaves poems written by Yong Shu Hoong, Madeleine Lee, Ng Yi-Sheng, Cyril Wong, Alfian bin Sa’at, Toh Hsien Min, Alvin Pang and Felix Cheong into Alfian bin Sa’at’s short story ‘Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Hanging’. Directed by Natalie Hennedige and performed by Julius Foo, Noorlinah Mohamed and Lim Kay Siu, it is a celebration of the diversity, honesty and power in Singaporean writing.

Cast: Julius Foo, Lim Kay Siu, Noorlinah Mohamed

Sound Designer: Philip Tan

June 19: Curated and directed by Ken Kwek

What happens to a society of pragmatic Singaporeans when it falls under the spell of a magical, soporific haze? Applying the cinematic technique of time fragmentation, filmmaker Ken Kwek deconstructs Jeffrey Lim’s dazzling short story, ‘Haze Day’, and introduces a new chaos to the parallel lives of Evan, Fathul, Nallini and Hwee Leng as they unravel in a blanket of narcotic smoke.

Cast: K Rajagopal, Lim Kay Siu, Sukania Venugopal, Koey Foo

Advisory for 19 June 2011 performance: Mature content and some coarse language. Recommended for ages 16 and above.

SPORE ART SALON, Monday 30 May, 7-11pm

2011-05-29T20:24:00.002+08:00

The SPORE Art Salon, our monthly multidisciplinary showcase of performance poets, artists and musicians, is back! Be at Echo Loft in Chinatown tomorrow night to check us out!

Plus, we've lowered the donation price to $15 to make it more affordable. Proceeds benefit the ECHO Music Sponsorship Program for disadvantaged kids.

There will be models posing between performances and you are encouraged to take part in these mini live drawing sessions. I'd really like to recommend Miriam Nash (a splendid British performance poet who's leaving Singapore soon) and Ben Chow (a splendid Singaporean slam poet, full stop).

SPORE Art Salon
Tuesday 29 March, 7-11pm
ECHO Loft, Chinatown
Corner of Smith Street and South Bridge Rd, Second Floor
$20 for entry (including performance, sketching and food)
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=206097452746078

FEATURED PERFORMING ARTISTS:

BILL LEARY JAZZ TRIO: Bill Leary is a master jazz musician, who aims to educate and entertain people with his music. He will remove some of the mystery and myths about jazz music, and make it accessible to all listeners. Many times people are turned off by jazz because they don't truly understand the art form. Allow Bill to be your tour guide through this organic and ever-changing art form.

BEN CHOW: Benjamin spends most of his time slouched over a desk in a dark cobweb infested basement. He survives on rats and the occasional snake while crafting short little horror stories that often don't scare people as much as he would like. However, during those rare moments when Benjamin does crawl out from beneath the woodwork, he has been known to sing, loudly and annoyingly, and sometimes even tap dance. Benjamin sightings have been few and far between, but he has been recorded to have been seen at Blue Jazz, during their monthly poetry slams, at TAPAC (the Telok Ayer Performing Arts Centre), during their fortnightly Open Mics, and every now and then in one or two really off-off-OFF Broadway musicals. Nowadays, Benjamin is spending more and more time masquerading as a Student of Lasalle's BA (Hons) Acting Programme, while secretly using the basement there for his dark and mysterious purposes. It's more spacious. And they have a great theatre. Go figure.

MIRIAM NASH: Miriam Nash is a British poet, currently sneaking around Singapore. She has performed her poetry in London, Chicago and Singapore, at the Esplanade, the Arts House, Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, Young Chicago Authors and too many bars and cafés to count. She appears regularly at Word Forward’s Blu Jaz SLAMs and her work has been featured on 938LIVE. She coordinated England’s first national youth poetry SLAM and regularly runs workshops in schools. Her first book of poems will be published this year by flipped eye publishing.

NOLUYANDA MQULWANA: Is an engaging and passionate choreographer and dancer from South Africa. She brings a genuine and heartfelt authenticity to all her projects. She is looking forward to inspiring the art salon with her sensitivity and strength...a performance that MUST be seen!

FEATURED VISUAL ARTIST:

AVA TAN: This talented artist was born in Shan Dong province of China where she came to experience painting through the master Ma Yan Hong and later came to love painting as she continued to fervently pursue numerous summer programs in Beijing before enrolling at the local art high school. Her current work explores an inward turning world that appears incongruent from the workings of a sensing body. Through a voyueristic glass that is turned upon the human self and its various participants, it is at once a sympathetic and disparate view of an amorphous body image when the lines between performance and reality are blurred in the eyes of others as they are turned in upon oneself.

Moving Words launch today, 4-6pm @ Esplanade XChange!

2011-05-21T08:37:00.002+08:00

Have you heard about Moving Words, the new initiative by The Literary Centre to promote Singapore poetry? It'll be launched today at 4pm, Esplanade XChange, right next to Dunkin Donuts.

There'll be poetry readings from Singapore’s established poets whose works are gonna be featured on the SMRT train network. Poets such as Gilbert Koh (aka blogger Mr Wang Says So), Chia Hwee Pheng, Liang Yue, Rasiah Halil, Grace Chua and KTM Iqbal will read their featured poems.

The Proletariat Poetry Factory will provide poetry-on-demand for passing commuters using typewriters as a medium with accompanying local 3-piece Jazz band – The Reflections, entertaining the crowd.

Plus, we'll have the Moving Words Poetry Competition will also officially open for entries. The first 20 people to submit their poems for the Competition at the launch will receive a Books Actually voucher worth $20.

Here's some info on the competition:

We invite all aspiring poets, young and old, to participate in an open Moving Words Poetry Competition. This is a great opportunity for budding poets to showcase their poems, in any of the four languages, on a national platform – the SMRT train network!
Call for submissions for the Moving Words Poetry Competition. This competition is open to all Singapore citizens and Permanent Residents. The competition period is 21st May to 15th July 2011. The 12 best entries will be shortlisted by a panel of judges for display on the SMRT train network from August to October 2011. The public will then get to vote for their favourite entry and the public’s votes will decide the winning poem. The winner receives a brand new iPad2 and there will be two consolation prizes of Books Actually vouchers worth $200. Voters also stand a chance to win attractive prizes like the iPod Touch and Books Actually vouchers. Details about the competition can be found at www.movingwords.sg .
The 12 best entries will also be published in the Moving Words Anthology together with the works of established Singaporean poets, and launched in October at the Singapore Writers Festival 2011, Singapore’s largest literary event.

The website is www.movingwords.sg - it'll be live later today!

I'm acting in a show in the Singapore Arts Festival.

2011-05-17T06:24:00.002+08:00

Technically, it's part of Flipside, though.

It's a 10-minute play called "The Tent" by Wee Lilin, to be performed as part of Tisch Asia's "Love and Other Disasters" on Wednesday 18 and Thursday 19 May, 7:15pm and 8:15pm at the Esplanade Concourse.

Come come! It's free entry. Facebook page here:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=161177063944462

The Esplanade and The Department of Dramatic Writing at Tisch Asia team up to bring you two nights of short plays about love, loss, and zombies.

Performing on the Concourse Stage, Tisch Asia writers will be showcasing some of the most popular plays from the past two years.

This is a free event, and is part of the Flip Side, the Esplanade's companion event to the Singapore Arts Festival.

Featuring plays by Josh Billig, Adeline Food, Lou-Lou Igbokwe, John Marsh, and Wee Li Lin.

Direction by Maxim Dashkin, Drayton Hiers, Dean Lundquist, and Wee Li Lin.

And starring Michael Chua, Tim Garner, Sophie Khoo, Bill Kovacsik, Jacqueline Landsman, Ng Yi-Sheng, Glory Ngim, Adeline Pang, and Erik Wayne.

With Philip Leung as the Emcee.

TWO SHOWS NIGHTLY: May 18 & 19 at 7:15 and 8:15. Each performance is the same set.

Some tweets from Adrianna Tan

2011-05-09T02:46:00.006+08:00

I was at the SDP party at Quality Hotel the night of polling day, so of course I was mega-bummed that we didn't get a single seat (though our voter share rose to 36%, a real improvement over the 2006 average of 23%). We celebrated when we heard how WP has a GRC and an SMC, but we really needed to give PAP a stronger message than that.

Adrianna Tan, famed blogger of Popagandhi.com and media advisor for NSP, must also have been bummed. Still, she could be proud that they gave Goh Chok Tong's Marine Parade GRC a jolly good shelling.

And it felt good this afternoon to read her last series of late-night tweets at @skinnylatte:

"I feel like I'm going to sleep to a brand new SG. 2016 and beyond will see our future in more colours than white. I for one cannot wait.

Whatever happened or didn't happened these elections, we eroded their share, and showed them they cannot rule with the mandate of heaven.

We've gained and lost so much as an opposition, but that's politics.

I've seen opposition unity, I've seen talented young people working 24/7, I've seen old guards demonstrate astute political judgement;

I've worked with a dedicated volunteer corps from all walks of life; renewed our love for this nation.

If it's taught us all anything, it's that they aren't infallible, they cannot be given more chances, and we have to get better by 2016.

I've spent the last few hours talking to beloved friends who are in London, NYC and DC — each of them plotting their political futures.

People care, and care greatly. Have never felt more Singaporean than when I walked to the stadium in my Singapore Die Hard Fan Jersey.

I don't think the PAP achieved what they set out to do: to determine our next generation of leaders.

They ran such a bizarre, incoherent campaign, that if they were any lesser as a party it would have splintered all over their faces.

If you watched their campaign carefully, it had all the red flags of a succession struggle and internal bickering.

I think, and I hope, we'll have one more PM in white. And then let's close off this dynasty."

Inspiring words indeed. Thanks Adri! And good luck to us all for the next five years.

Why I'm volunteering with SDP.

2011-05-05T04:42:00.003+08:00

I've realised, somewhat to my embarrassment, that I'm actually a bit of a political centrist when it comes to Singapore politics. I'm from a (very) upper middle-class background, and as such I really haven't suffered a lot directly from the PAP's policies. I also think the party's done a good job of guiding us through the economic crisis - we've barely suffered, compared to most developed nations, from Japan to the US to the EU member states.

I'm also occasionally wary of SDP policies and rhetoric - the party feeds off the growing resentment of foreign immigrants in Singapore, and I think that's dangerous. Immigration may be a bad idea, but it's important to guard against an irrational hatred of all people of one class or race. (And yes, the new PRC immigrants can be seen as a different race from Singaporean Chinese. Race is a fluid concept, and depends on customs and group affiliations as much as skin colour and language.) There's also a manic tone to their website articles that makes me uncomfortable.

Still, I knew in these elections I had to support the SDP. This is why I've been volunteering with them: selling papers at rallies and signing up as a polling and counting agent. Here's why I'm doing this:

1) SDP believes in human rights.

No other opposition party sticks up for human rights as much as SDP. Their leaders and members protest against the death penalty, against Singapore's economic ties with with the Myanmar military junta and the Internal Security Act.

This is of special interest to me, because I'm gay. The SDP was the first political party to formally call for the end of Section 377A, our male-male sodomy law, on the grounds that it's discriminatory, way back in 2006. Dr Chee Soon Juan's a committed Christian, but that doesn't interfere with his belief in basic human equality and decency.

All this isn't empty talk, either. The party puts its money where its mouth is. The candidates this year include the openly gay social worker Vincent Wijeysingha and the former political detainees Teo Soh Lung and James Gomez. (Gomez was detained briefly in 2006, following his campaign for the Workers' Party).

We don't just need opposition candidates to suggest new solutions; we need them to speak up in parliament as the moral conscience of the nation. SDP is one party that cares less about political expediency than if something's right or wrong.

2) SDP gets persecuted.

My sympathy tends to be with the underdogs. And because SDP speaks up, it tends to get hammered. Its members have been sued and detained by the government countless times for exercising their right to free speech.

This is how I got to know the central party members, actually. I turned up at court to support my artist friends who'd been charged with SDP members for illegal assembly, and for contempt of court - they'd worn kangaroo T-shirts to protest the "kangaroo courts" of Lee Kuan Yew's defamation lawsuits. I've seen Chee Soon Juan and Gandhi Ambalam forced to attend court in shackles, and I've seen public prosecutors stammering at how to twist evidence against the party, even when the defendants have demonstrated the flaws in these unjust laws that should disqualify the cases on technical grounds.

All this is in the past five years, mind you. Those of you older than me will remember the PAP's vendetta against Chee Soon Juan that reduced him to bankruptcy.

The persecution's still going on this election, in a muted form. I'll forgive Vivian Balakrishnan for exposing Wijeysingha as gay - yes, it's a personal matter, but any pretty much any politician with this information would have used it to his advantage. What I won't forgive is his linking the orientation to pedophilia and his invocation of a "gay agenda" - an insidious term that suggests that a gay politician must have a hidden agenda to overthrow moral order, rather than simply wanting to a chance to govern.

Then there's the whole New Paper story claiming that Dr Chee was starting a protest march in Sembawang. I know it's a tabloid paper, but that was seriously low.

3) The SDP came to me.

That's my last reason. I might've just been an enthusiastic guy cheering on speakers at party rallies, but then lo and behold: SDP actually decided to contest my constituency, Holland-Bukit Timah. Plus they brought in a star team: Vincent Wijey, Michelle Lee, Dr Ang Yong Guan and Tan Jee Say - all excellent speakers, and from very different backgrounds, which the PAP might call "strange bedfellows" but which I call inclusivity.

As one of the more upper-income GRCs, we've been long dismissed as a lost cause for opposition parties - rich folks must be too comfortable with the status quo, surely, to want some change. I'd despaired of ever being able to vote unless I got myself a full-time job and moved out of my parents' home.

But they came to us. And as a first-time voter, I'm really grateful for that.

I think a lot of us who've been deprived of voting feel the same way. We feel like the PAP's cheated us of the right to exercise our democratic rights. Now it's the first time we can actually exercise those voting muscles, and we're sure as hell going to flex them in the direction of freedom.

This is something we've got to thank all the opposition parties for, regardless of how much or how little we may respect their speakers. They've come up and made a lot of us feel like a genuine democracy for the first time in our lives.

Truth is, I'm not optimistic for our chances. After the disappointment of the 2006 elections, I feel like it'd take a miracle for the opposition to even claim a single GRC.

But SDP, WP, NSP and SDA have given us hope. And for that solace, I thank them, and pledge to get off my ass more to help them out.

A pretty moving note on the elections

2011-05-02T23:59:00.002+08:00

I'm volunteering for SDP this year, but I really wanted to share this note I got this morning on the Arts Community e-group (names withheld).

Dedicated to Chiam See Tong and all Singaporeans*

In this General Election, I may appear to some people as a kind of political whore. My best friend and I were running all over the island to attend the nominations and rallies. We have not stopped thinking about Singapore (some of you may dismiss it as "politics") since the nomination day, even in our sleeps, and I know that we are not alone. I have many friends who are doing the same, and those who don't run around like a getai star are always faithfully at the computer feeding us up-to-date information like the statellite (you know who you are :)).

It is as if the elections have consumed our lives, but I would like to see it that we are all woken up, and realised that if we do not actively participate and claim our narratives, there is no doubt that the ruling party will literally consume all of us.

I have been planning to write a piece on the six reasons why I cannot allow PAP to hold absolute power in parliament, but after attending tonight's rally at Potong Pasir, I can't help myself but to write about how Mr. Chiam See Tong have touched and enlightened me.

I attended two rallies prior to this: SDP and WP rally at commonwealth and serangoon respectively. I was very impressed by the "Winning-11" team that the SDP has garnered as each of them respresented to me a distinct and genuine interest in the "software" (to quote Dr.Ang) of the society - teacher, social worker, ex-political detainee, psychiatrist... I am convinced that they will take care of the less priviledged in the society, and they have promised to give half their allowance to the needy in the community if they were to be elected. Over at WP rally, although I was not particularly impressed by what the candidates had said, the number of people who were there to listen was intoxicating and certainly, WP will be a great catalyst for change in the parliament.

However, after two rallies, I felt I had a bit enough of the PAP bashing. The attack of the lack of accountability and problems of PAP is of course, very relevant and necessary (I am still going around with "vote opposition" statements pasted on my back) but personally I think I am clear enough about the atrocities of the ruling party: What PAP propagates is basically a selfish, self-preserving culture. All the bad policies and tactics they have devised is a result of this warped immoral thinking, and definitely, it is poisoning the society inside out. I had enough of it, yes, I am fed up! And so I really wanted to know what are the dreams of the opposition parties. I wanted to know how they think about human life. I wanted to know how they can lead Singaporeans to feel beautiful again. Is there someone who can wake up the sleeping flowers in our hearts?

I found the answer in Mr. Chiam See Tong today at SPP rally.

Mr.Chiam began his speech with the question of why he decided to leave Potong Pasir and contest in Bishan-Toa Payoh. He answered, "for the promotion of democracy. There can never be democracy if there is no opposition in the parliament." There isn't a fancy slogan like first-world parliament, which at times really makes one wonder what it means. Mr.Chiam's
fight is for democracy, and he will never retire with a peaceful mind if he does not see this happening in Singapore. This is the reason why he has to break a GRC, the dirtiest divide-and-rule tactic the ruling party has devised since JBJ won a seat in Anson.

Do I doubt Mr.Chiam's fight? There is very little room for doubt when you see him in person: frail in physique, strong as steel in the mind, and gentle as a whispering father in his speech. There is almost no room for doubt when you think about how he and Mrs.Chiam have suffered under the government's brutality (he still doesn't have his own office) trying to
serve the residents in Potong Pasir the best that they can. And there is absolutely no room for doubt when you continue listening till the end of his speech, because he values every individual as a human being capable of living her or her life to the fullest, and is not just a pawn or a statistics.

I will describe to you my memory of the conclusion of his speech, which took place after quite a long pause. I imagined that his team was worried it would be too tiring for him to continue, but he insisted to carry on.

Like a grandfather telling a story to his grandchildren, Mr.Chiam told us how Lee Kuan Yew first assessed this man called Chiam See Tong. LKY looked at his O level certificate. (laughter from the crowd)

"He counted very carefully. 1. 2. 3...5. Only 5 O levels?" (another round of laughter)

"How many of you have 5 O level?"

My best friend shouted "I don't have any!" as several in the crowd raised their hands.

Mr.Chiam smiled in his heart (I could feel) and replied,

"Then you and I are the same. And I have become a lawyer now."

At this point, the crowd cheered so loudly that a friend who was sleeping on the other side of the estate was woken up by the uproar. After a round of hearty laughter, the crowd fell silent as Mr.Chiam continued speaking (he apologised in the beginning that we have to be very quiet because he couldn't speak loudly). He told us that it is o.k if we are not as smart as the others, and it is o.k if we do not seem as successful as the others. Some of us maybe late bloomers, but all of us have the potential to be better people, as long as we stay true to ourselves and keep trying.

"When there is life there is hope, when there is hope, there will be change."

I will always remember how effortlessly he had delivered that line and how many people were moved to tears while listening to him speak. Besides the immediate reference that despite two strokes, Mr.Chiam continue his fight for change in Singapore, I believe that these tears are also the most heartfelt human emotions that can only be brought out by the encouragement of a most loving father.

It is okay. It is okay.
You have not failed.
I have not failed.
We have not failed.

Just keep trying, my child,
together, let's keep trying.

With each living breath,
We can be better.
We will be better.

Thank you Mr. Chiam See Tong. I was in such a despair after reading and witnessing so much atrocities and brutality that the ruling party and Lee Kuan Yew have done to gentle people like you, Dr. Vincent Cheng, Ms Teo Suh Lung, Dr. Lim Hock Siew and many more people who have been forever silenced in the PAP version of history. I was in such a despair thinking how Singaporeans will disappear with the influx of yet another 1 million foreigners. I was in such a despair thinking how our children will have to grow up in this self-perserving culture that propagates bottomless fear and arrogance thinking about nothing but Money. But tonight, you have shown me, shown all Singaporeans, the light. And I am not angry and upset anymore.

Singaporeans. This election has nothing to do with GRCs. It is time to stop all these ongoing, useless debates and arguments that the ruling party wants to confuse you with. It is time to stop all the hype about Tin Pei Ling Vs Nicole Seah, Worker's Party conspiracy, Mas Selamat, upgrading lifts, grow and share etc.

This election is, with no doubt, about the past, the present, and the future of Singapore. It is about how PAP has completely crippled our rights to claim the power of our narratives as a living community and worthy individuals. It is about how they do whatever they want without a single question asked or answered. It is about how we, the citizens of Singapore, want the stories of our forefathers and mothers to be remembered and told; It is about how we, the citizens of Singapore, want to write our story from now; It is about how our children, the future citizens of Singapore, can be the writers of their stories without fear.

Ultimately, it is about trying to achieve democracy and equality in Singapore, as long as we have one more living breath.

Singaporeans.

Singapore is not PAP.

I love Singapore very much, but not the PAP.

Please, please don't let them bully and silent us anymore.

*大选后五年如何光景？别再冷眼旁观，请为新加坡投入一份爱心！*

新加坡人一向是温驯的一群，喜欢安分守己，不问世事。
一提到政治，就马上谈虎色变，避而讳言，事关受华文教育的上一代人，为了“关心社会
”而做出的牺牲太大了，以致大家觉得只要赚够钱，让家人有一个窝就好了，什么叫做“民主”，只是一个抽象的问题，于己无关。没钱的只盼有钱供一个组屋，有钱的梦想有朝一日买更大的房子，很多人于是不敢投反对票，怕人民行动党的恐吓，怕选区得不到提升，产业的增值就没有保障。问题是，放眼一看就知道，五年十年一晃，新加坡已经不再是我们过去脑海中的人间天堂了，我们恐怕不能再沉迷于泡影之中了！

今年大选所爆发的空前82席激烈争战实在反映了一点：新加坡民主党、国民团结党等各自奋起提出政治方针（还有“影子预算案“），以及工人党呼吁的第一世界国会和人民行动党的一党专政之间，所关系到的已经不单是“抽象”的“民主”问题，而是低收入家庭和许多就业人士切身的“民生”问题。现在新加坡的外来人口，已经占了总人口的百分之四十，简直骇人听闻（人力部长林瑞生光明正大地说：两个新加坡人对一个外国人，比率“刚刚好”），这所带来的社会问题是可想而知的。这不是一个某某国度的移民和本地民性存在隔阂的问题，而是新加坡一个弹丸小国的人口负荷问题，包括了随着外来人口而来就业问题以及物价、房价高涨的问题。试想现在生活都成问题，人们的公积金还都埋在房屋贷款的无底洞里头，退休后还有什么活路？而政府除了建赌场以外，还在为社会作什么建设呢？

新加坡的经济增长（双位数的起伏波动）和人民生活已经成了两回事。从2001年至2010年，新加坡平均工资的实际增长只有1.1%。根据人力部2009年统计，新加坡家庭中位数收入为2720元，这要是以一家四口计算，根本不够开支。至于新加坡的失业率，自从人力部2006年的3.2%连受雇的外劳也计算在内，本地人的就业实情已经难以说清。网上可以看到这样的故事：本地电脑人才，三年前因为公司一律改聘外地（廉价）员工而遭受裁员，为求生计当了德士司机，经济拮据让他无法不到HDB去要求卖掉五房式组屋，他们说不行，他只好说他跳进MRT火车轨自尽，他们才让他卖掉搬入三房式。但如此一般穷途末路，何止一人？

难怪这回选举中，反对党群众大会数以千计的盛况，和人民行动党的小猫两三只（一些中老年人士，还都是RC包巴士送过去，连送一包饭），已成了强烈的对比。反对党的竞选人士的素质和过去的比起来，也已经是今非昔比，工人党的最新王牌，是英美顶尖大学毕业的法学博士、叱咤国际金融业的商业律师陈硕茂，而民主党的行列中，有毕业自英国的社会工作者Vincent
Wijeysingha博士，有前副总理吴作栋当年首席秘书陈如斯（他本人写了一份报告，分析政府这些年来以船厂、电子厂为经济重点，大量依靠外劳的弊病），还有1987年因内安法身陷囹圄的退休律师张素兰（她一直在为穷人提供免费法律服务；著有《蓝色闸门之外》一书）等等。

其中最耀眼的新星，当然是团结党的巾帼英雄佘雪玲。网上已经把支持她的人潮，和孙燕姿的演唱会相比。她年仅24，却已有大将之风，义正言辞地道出了平民的心声，我们要是说新加坡年青人一向对政治有冷感，她已经象征了新一代的转捩点。现在大选当前，行动党忙着送红包收买民心，但可笑的是，眼见反对党的竞选活动如火如荼地展开，他们便宣布说工资理事会吁请雇主多加薪，另一方面，他们还吁请小贩六个月内不要加价。要是连购买选票都不愿意自己掏腰包，这是一个怎样的政权？佘说得好：你们要小贩六个月不加价，但是成本费用（柴米油盐、水电租金？）不减，这还不说明了当政的根本连人民生活问题的关键都视而不见？

当今网上资讯四通八达，博客、面簿、视频已经成了非官方的自由新闻渠道，纸是包不了火的，尤其是擅于英文的网民，对当政者的声讨已经连绵不绝。我们自认是华校生的，也不能再畏缩，缄默了。很多新加坡人还存在一种错误的观念，以为行动党就是政府，公务员也只能对行动党唯命是从。其实行动党多年来垄断政权的方法也很简单，就是一个金字塔模式，一层一层地笼络，所以总理部长的薪金最为惊人，再来是照顾公务员的饭碗，而很多中层阶级的生活也不错，但穷人呢？GST消费税照样收。民主党要求政府考虑让柴米油盐之类的基本必需品扣除2%，行动党一下就把提议打下来，连大选之际，财政部长Tharman
Shanmugaratnam也顶多担保7%五年不变，请大家回顾上一次大选，一上台几个月，GST就起了，这回不起，难道不会有别的变相收税？

网上视频有一个穷困老妇女在2006年被警察抓走的录像，她没犯什么法，只是心想亲近总理李显龙，把他当包公。我们要是不把几个反对党议员选入国会为人民反映心声，难道也跟她一样梦想见包公吗？新加坡2009年的国家预算里，34%（150亿元）给了国防、内安、外交，0.25%（1.1亿元）给穷人，给老人家和残缺人士更少（4.2千万）。大家说，我们还坚持要高干子弟当议员，还是要有良知的当议员？象佘雪玲这样的人才，她就说：我们要是都贪图荣华富贵，那还不如参加行动党算了？民主党还承诺，要是中选，就把议员收入一半贡献给选区帮穷人。
我国戏剧家及艺术教育家郭宝崑写过一篇史诗般的剧作：《郑和的后代》。故事一方面像是形容华侨先驱飘洋过海南来，接触新文化的心路历程，另一方面讲述的却是身为太监的悲哀。剧本里说，有一种最高明的阉割方法，其实不用直接用刀，而是用手慢慢地按摩孩童的下体，孩子只觉得舒服，以为有保姆在照顾他。日复一日，慢慢地，他就什么功能都丧失了，从此没‘种’了！亲爱的读者，亲爱的新加坡同胞，世界人口又在运动了，我们是否就接受弱肉强食的现实，接受我们被淘汰的可能，接受我们经历新加坡‘独立’建国的这几代文化，都只是殖民政策换手之下的一个牺牲品？

新加坡资政李光耀可以信口开一个数目，说新加坡需要90万个外劳。新加坡法律部长K.
Shanmugam可以说新加坡其实不是一个国家，而是一个城市。新加坡职总助理秘书长杨莉明可以说工人党和民主党提出的最低工资是“冷饭”，无需浪费时间。（其实全世界超过90%国家都有最低工资，中国有，马来西亚也在推出方案）新加坡卫生部长许文远可以说新山的安老院便宜，有车开过去不远。其实你我都可以学人家说，‘国家’经济或是‘城市’经济为前提，每个外劳的三四百元外劳税（人力部网站说是为了“控制”外劳人数），自有经济的道理。但我们放弃了国家的概念，是否也要放弃给予所有工友一个尊严，放弃“老吾老，以及人之老”的一个概念？刘程强提出新组屋调低价格，和收入中位数水平挂钩，发展部长马宝山就说这是“盗储备金”？那么反对党都是土匪还是山寨好汉？

今年是辛亥革命的一百周年。满清政府腐败无能，垂帘听政，挥霍无度，终于落得个悲剧下场。但要是当年改革维新成功，是否历史就应该重写呢？我们该不该连一个“维新”也不敢设想，说成是造反？又很巧，这个五月七、八日的周末原本该作为去年母亲节力挺母语活动的一周年纪念。但既然这么巧碰上大选，是否等于说就省了这一份心，收了红包袋袋平安，管它社会下来五年是什么道路，母亲只教我们听天由命？反对党这一回站在同一战线，背水一战，选民是否还停留在到超级市场购物的心态，贪小便宜，把命运交给别人决定？

最后谨此以两段诗歌献给大家，引自新加坡作家贺巾描绘五十年代华校生的小说《巨浪》：

“不做飘浮的白云
不慕高悬的明星
我愿是那浩海的巨浪，
随著狂风怒吼，
迎著朝霞歌唱。
... ...
明星讥讽我平凡
月光喜欢我犷悍
尽管海底有
暗流、险滩
把我阻拦
我最终要
涌起一座山，
把天地翻转，
把天地翻转！”

April texts

2011-05-01T03:59:00.002+08:00

*POETRY*
+Jennifer Crawford’s “Napoleon Swings”

*FICTION*
=João Guimarães Rosa’s “The Devil to Pay in the Backlands”
+Edmundo Paz Soldán’s “The Matter of Desire”
+Silvina Ocampo’s “Autobiografía de Irene”
+H.P. Lovecraft’s “At the Mountains of Madness”

*DRAMA*
+Nestor Amarilla’s “Saved by a Poem”

*NON-FICTION*
+Augusto Boal’s “Theatre of the Oppressed”
=José Enrique Rodó’s “Ariel

*FILMS*
+Jaromil Jires’s “Valerie and Her Week of Wonders”
Liao Jiekai’s “Red Dragonflies”

*PERFORMANCES*
+The Necessary Stage’s “Singapore” [preview]
=Cake Theatre’s “Desire and the Melancholic String Quartet”
Toy Factory’s “881”
+Singapore Arts Festival’s “Open Studio: A Language of Their Own”
=Singapore Repertory Theatre’s “Macbeth”

*EXHIBITIONS*
+CERIPH X Substation's "Synaesthesia"
+Singapore Art Museum’s “Notable Acquisitions: Featuring Works by Tan Oe Pang”
=Rofizano Zaino's "Fragments of My Identity"
+House of Matahati’s “The X Residence”

SPH-NAC Golden Point Competition!

2011-04-26T13:09:00.002+08:00

Send in your entries!

"Perform This Way" by Weird Al Yankovic

2011-04-22T02:01:00.002+08:00

Interesting story behind this parody of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" - read the text to find out more.

Strangely enough, without the image of the diva herself proclaiming these words, I feel like it's become a manifesto of sorts for my own costumed clownery. Viva la creativité secondaire!

SPORE Art Salon - April Showers Edition, Tue 26 Apr

2011-04-18T06:43:00.000+08:00

I was involved in curating this one. Come down and watch young slam poet Deborah Emmanuel - she's really cool.

SPORE Art Salon
Tue 26 April, 7-11pm
ECHO Loft, 268A South Bridge Road

Here's the blurb:

This month we will be featuring a live art installation/creation, featuring the visual artistry of ART SASPUTROWARDOYO and DAWN ANG. They will be combining their talents for improvisational line drawing, to absorb the atmosphere and produce a fantastic and imaginative landscape in real-time. This must be seen to be believed!! As always, we will be conducting live model drawing sessions throughout the evening, so bring your pencils, charcoal, pads and paper. Let our engaging and eclectic models inspire your creativity. All guests are allowed and encouraged to participate in the drawing sessions.

FEATURED PERFORMING ARTISTS:

ALICE RENOU BOUILET: Miss Alice hails from Paris, France, where she has enjoyed an exciting performance career. Having performed as a dancer at the world famous Lido theater, and distinguishing herself as an accomplished modern dancer, harpist, choral singer and actress, she now joins the SPORE Art Salon to weave her wonderful blend of cabaret, jazz, and sophistication. A truly tempting treat!

DEBORAH EMMANUEL: Deborah Emmanuel is a full-time learner, part-time teacher and performer who has newly discovered her love for telling stories. Most of the stories she has told have used theatre and drama as their medium. Within the last year, she has started using performance poetry as the way to tell hers and other people's. Most of her poetry is based on snatches of time or striking life experiences which explore raw emotion. Deborah believes that it is this essence of each story which brings people together, since every person has been sad, happy, angry or afraid- even if they pretend not to be. She hopes that you hear her stories with an open heart and mind, and that they make you feel.

EDMUND LEE: Sir Edmund Lee is a heartfelt and passionate singer/songwriter. Deeply inspired by the work and stylings of Jason Mraz and John Mayer, Edmund continues to create welcoming and warm pictures and stories with his music. Come let him speak to your soul.

You don't want to miss a single minute of this month's event. The cost of the evening is $20 CASH ONLY. Proceeds go to fund the ECHO music school.

Tell the Chinese government to release artist Ai Wei Wei

2011-04-17T06:34:00.003+08:00

This post previously appeared on the Canvas, the National Art Gallery's blog. It's still there, but it's been edited for diplomatic reasons. ;)

UPDATE: Time Magazine's done a great story on this. Click here.)

(Image from Ai Wei Wei's blog, via Danwei.)

We know that the Singapore is by no means a model for freedom of speech in the arts. Our government also arrests our artists for dabbling in politics.

But that's the government. We're Singaporean citizens, PRs and residents who care about art, and most of us also care about free speech. Which is why we bloody well ought to tell the Chinese government that we do not approve of their jailing one of their foremost contemporary artists on obscure charges of "economic crimes" - probably linked to his support of pro-democracy activist activities in support of a Chinese Jasmine Revolution.

There's a petition here: http://www.change.org/petitions/call-for-the-release-of-ai-weiwei?alert_id=ZntTBqdKpo_IZtByZSTro&me=aa

Please sign it. Please also share anything else you can think of which could help in this matter. To recap, Ai Wei Wei is most famous for being the designer of the Bird's Nest Stadium, showcased in the Beijing Olympics.

You may have seen his work at Art Stage Singapore - he created the colossal installation "Through" from the remnants of a demolished Qing dynasty house.
(Image via Snippets from the Manila Art Scene.)

He's spoken out against the Olympics, he's been beaten up by the police for testifying regarding casualties in the Sichuan Earthquake, he's been placed under house arrest and this January he had his newly built Shanghai studio destroyed by authorities, while visitors to the Tate Modern were ooh-ing and aah-ing over his "Sunflower Seeds" exhibition, consisting of 100 million handpainted porcelain sunflower seeds.

This February, amidst the government crackdown on pro-democracy activists, he cryptically posted the following on his Twitter account: "I didn’t care about jasmine at first, but people who are scared by jasmine sent out information about how harmful jasmine is often, which makes me realize that jasmine is what scares them the most. What a jasmine!"

On 3 April, government agents arrested Ai at the Beijing airport and seized papers and computers from his studio. That's pretty much all we know right now - no word on where he is or how he's doing.

A petition to release Ai on Change.org has been started by twelve leading figures in the international arts world, including the directors of the Guggenheim, Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, and Tate Museum, have started a petition on Change.org demanding that the Chinese government free Ai Weiwei.

Of course, we should be supporting the release of all the activists, given that many of them have played a more instrumental part in this movement than Ai himself. However, given the Chinese government's pride in its artists, and its new emphasis on showcasing them - they've recently announced plans for the world's biggest art gallery - their arrest of Ai is particularly egregious.

Once again, the petition's here:

http://www.change.org/petitions/call-for-the-release-of-ai-weiwei?alert_id=ZntTBqdKpo_IZtByZSTro&me=aa

Hidup Revolusi Bunga Melur.

Dead Philosophers in Heaven

2011-04-12T23:44:00.000+08:00

I am really rather amused at this new webcomic.

It doesn't score every time, but I thank the stars for every little thing that makes me feel that my liberal arts education was money well spent. :/

Texts Mar 2011

2011-04-04T01:47:00.004+08:00

*POETRY*
+Léon Damas Gontran’s “Pigments – Névralgies”
+Sandra Cisneros’s “Loose Woman”

*FICTION*
+Paul di Filippo's "The Steampunk Trilogy"
+Hyejin Kim's "Jia"
+Aphra Behn’s “Oroonoko”
+J. M. Coetzee’s “Summertime”

*NON-FICTION*
+Navtej Sarna’s “The Book of Nanak”

*GRAPHIC TEXTS*
=Gwee Li Sui’s “Myth of the Stone”

*FILMS*
=Wee Lilin’s “Forever”
=Zack Snyder's “Sucker Punch”

*PERFORMANCES*
Mereka’s “Bersendaloka”
+The Necessary Stage’s “Balek Kampong”
=Zizi Azah’s “No Exit”
+W!ld Rice’s “Emily of Emerald Hill”
=NUS Centre for the Arts and Checkpoint Theatre’s “The Power of Notions, Notions of Power”
+LaSalle’s “Thoroughly Modern Millie”
NUS Stage and Checkpoint Theatre’s “The Good, the Bad and the Sholay”
=Panggung Arts’ “F”

*EXHIBITIONS*
+NTU School of Art, Design and Media's "Port of Call"
+Singapore Art Museum’s “Singapore Biennale”, “It’s Now Or Never II” and “Negotiating Home, History and Nation”
The Art-Science Museum's ="Travelling the Silk Road", +"Genghis Khan: The Exhibition" and ="Shipwrecked: Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds"

RIP Diana Wynne Jones, 1934-2011

2011-03-28T18:31:00.002+08:00

She was my favourite author as a kid. I *loved* her Chrestomanci series and Tale of Time City. I had no idea why people made such a big deal over JK Rowling when there was a genius like this around.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/mar/27/diana-wynne-jones-obituary

Motherfuckers.

2011-03-25T17:45:00.000+08:00

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for your recommendation.

Recommended Title Details:-
----------------------------------------
Title: It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying, and Creating a Life Worth Living
Author: Dan Savage and Terry Miller
Publisher: Dutton Adult
ISBN/ISSN: 978-0525952336

We are sorry to let you know that we will not be buying the title you have recommended as we find it unsuitable for our library collections.

We welcome any other recommendations that you might have.

Thank you and have a nice day!

Librarian (Collection Development)
Library and Professional Services
National Library Board

Please do not reply to this auto-generated mail. If you have any queries about your request, please email to helpdesk@nlb.gov.sg

Are you Singaporean? Are you gay/bi/allied? And are you voting PAP?

2011-03-21T00:15:00.000+08:00

Before you do, you should take a look at what some PAP MPs think about the possibility of repealing our sodomy law - and mind you, this is one of the younger ones:

Granted, most opposition parties have chosen not to take a pro-gay rights stance. But two parties are doing so this year: Singapore Democratic Party and Reform Party. SDP is contesting my ward, too! W00t.

By the way, there's an interview with me on Writing the City.

2011-03-20T04:31:00.000+08:00

I share my top five writing tips!

http://civiclife.sg/writingthecity/index.php/my-five-ng-yi-sheng

I've a bunch of gigs coming up!

2011-03-17T01:57:00.002+08:00

1) I've got a poem in Man/Born/Free: Writings on the Human Spirit, edited by Gwee Li Sui. It's being marketed in South Africa right now as part of Spotlight Singapore. I hear it's doing rather well.

I'll be speaking on a panel at the Singapore launch! Here's the info:

Launch of "Man/Born/Free"
Friday 26 March, 11am-12pm
Living Room, Level Two, Arts House

And here's a blurb from this site:

"This literary anthology – centred on the travails of the human spirit – is like none other published in Singapore. It testifies to the social reflections of generations of Singaporean writers and their inquiries into issues of freedom, equality, humanity, and hope. The selection brings together works originally written in English, Chinese, Malay, and Tamil across almost six decades of Singaporean life. They are arranged here in a compelling way that argues for the inevitable interconnections of these concerns. Man/Born/Free is an exciting initiative to commemorate the relationship between Singapore and South Africa as extended through the 2011 event, Spotlight Singapore in Cape Town.

2) I'm performing stuff at the SPORE Art Salon. It's an event cooked up by Ryan Beck, a dancer at Resorts World's Voyage de La Vie circus show (no, I'm not kidding). He and his fellow artist/performers have been longing for a way to connect with the greater Singapore arts scene, which is really hard for them since they're usually working Wednesday to Sunday.

They've set up this monthly event where they can gather and showcase works by both Singaporean and expat artists - plus, there's live models present for sketching, so you can practise your drawing skills. Unfortunately, it costs $20, but the proceeds go to charity, and there'll be a lovely tapas spread to boot.

This month's will feature myself, musicians/comedians Jacqueline and Bill Landsman, pianist/songwriter/performer Johnny Kim and accordionist/singer/songwriter Faizal Bohtiar.

SPORE Art Salon
Tuesday 29 March, 7-11pm
ECHO Loft, Chinatown
Corner of Smith Street and South Bridge Rd, Second Floor
$20 for entry (including performance, sketching and food)
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=187152654659220

3) I was involved in a collaboration between artists and writers, organised by the literary journal CERIPH and the Substation. Not a lot of publicity materials out yet, but I'm just gonna announce the launch of the art exhibition:

Synaesthesia Launch

8-17 April (launch 7pm on Friday 8 April)
Substation Gallery, 45 Armenian St

Thankyee, y'all!

Singapore Biennale 2011 Young Art Writers Programme

2011-03-14T22:48:00.000+08:00

I'm leading creative workshops at the Singapore Biennale on Wednesday and Thursday!

If you're interested in finding out more, e-mail education@singaporebiennale.org.

I'm writing for the Canvas!

2011-03-11T03:11:00.003+08:00

Just wanted to let you know that I'm now a member of the Council, i.e. the unpaid staff who write for the National Art Gallery blog, the Canvas.

Why? Because I frickin' love art and writing about it is a good way to waste my time and hasten my death. E.g. I recently wasted time blogging about photographer Alecia Neo, plus I vomited up a piece called 10 Gloriously Cheesy Merlion Artworks, in honour of the Singapore Biennale 2011.

Speaking of which, I'll be attending the opening of that event in eight hours. No costume this time, sadly.

Two Singapore movies

2011-03-02T23:53:00.002+08:00

I just watched Kelvin Tong's "It's a Great, Great World" last night and I freaking loved it!

I've heard it's boring for some people, but if you're a Singapore nostalgia buff like me, it's definitely up your alley. It stars all the big Channel Eight Mandarin-speaking celebs: amazing that they can speak dialect so well. And yeah, the stories have heart - I was actually weeping by the end.

Also attended the gala premiere of Wee Li Lin's "Forever". (I was an extra! But don't try and find me; I'm in the airport scene, but I'm just a blur in the background.)

Mixed feelings. I liked "Gone Shopping" (final cut) better. But it works as a certain kind of chick flick. Come support!

February 2010 texts

2011-03-01T06:08:00.003+08:00

Grrr, I've been slovenly about reading this month! (But yeah, my fiction books were long and tedious. I forgive myself, partially.)

*POETRY*
+John Agard’s “Lovelines for a Goat-Born Lady”
+Jennifer Crawford’s “bad appendix”

*FICTION*
=VS Naipaul’s “A House For Mr Biswas”
+Rómulo Gallegos’s “Doña Bárbara”

*NON-FICTION*
=Richard Hammond’s “Chien-shiung Wu: Pioneering Nuclear Physicist”

*GRAPHIC TEXTS*
+Stan Sakai’s “Usagi Yojimbo: Return of the Black Soul”
+Slinkachu’s “Little People in the City”

*FILMS*
+Wolfgang Reitherman’s “The AristoCats”
+Mark Romanek’s “Never Let Me Go”
+Yann Samuel’s “L’Age de Raison”
+Lisa Cholodenko’s “The Kids Are All Right”
=Wee Lilin’s “Forever”

*PERFORMANCES*
+Palace Theatre’s “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”
+Garrick Theatre’s “When We Are Married”
+Duke of Yorks Theatre’s “Ghost Stories”
+Elizabeth de Roza’s “What the Dog Knew”
+The Finger Players’ “Turn by Turn We Turn” (preview)
=SMU StageIt’s “.RED”
+NUS Scholars Program's "Hay Fever"
+PANGdemonium’s “Closer”

*EXHIBITIONS*
+Tate Modern’s permanent collection and “Gabriel Orozco”
+Tate Britain’s permnanent collection
+Wellcome Collection’s “Medicine Man”, “Medicine Now” and “High Society”
+Singapore Art Museum’s “Collectors’ Stage”

Do the Creep!

2011-02-27T23:57:00.000+08:00

From the Lonely Island, the same guys who brought us the wonderful I'm On a Boat:

Also check out their oldie but goodie, the Natalie Portman rap:

I think I just have a thing for tiny, really feminine women doing perverted male things. :D

ROJAK 17, this Fri 18 Feb, @ 5 Magazine Rd, Central Mall

2011-02-16T04:24:00.000+08:00

Dearest friends,

Come to ROJAK 17! (I'll be hosting.)

Welcome to our first ROJAK of 2011, this Friday,18th February, co-curated by BBH and FARM. It promises to be alot of FUN, with live performances scattered throughout the night.

We are hosted by BBH at their lovely courtyard space at 5 Magazine Road (Central Mall). Syndicate will start spinning at 7pm, and presentations starts at 8pm. Come early to support and see!

Our presenters for the evening, are, in no particular order:

1. Syndicate, Visual & Music
2. Colin Seah, Architecture & Design
3. Yuki Mitsuyasu, Jewellery Design
4. Quek Kiat Sing, Chinese Art
5. Hunn Wai, Product Design
6. Douglas Hamilton & Adrian Chan, Advertising
7. Abednego Trianto, Photography
8. Andree Weschler, Fine Arts & Performance
9. Felix Ng, Design
10. The Observatory, Music

Remember to bring drinks and beer to share for the beloved ROJAK dinghy. Bring your friends and family too! It's all in the spirit of ROJAK sharing. :)

P.S. This salivatingly-fabulous poster is designed by BBH (lotsa thanks!!)

W!ld Rice's "Emily of Emerald Hill", 3-12 March @ Esplanade

2011-02-14T13:07:00.002+08:00

I've bought my tickets already!

Am deeply curious about whether they can make this monologue work in a space as huge as the Esplanade Theatre. Only one way to find out.

PANEL DISCUSSION: From Ideas to Theatre Idols

2011-02-08T17:21:00.002+08:00

(I'm moderating this!)

Meet three past winners of Theatre Idols, an annual event where staged readings of original new plays are held and the winner decided by public voting for a full staging of his/her play. These upcoming talented playwrights - Jacke Chye, Edgar Liao and Yak Aik-Wee - will chat about their experiences writing plays and taking part in Theatre Idols and also discuss real challenges facing new playwrights in the Singapore theatre scene.

Organised by the National Arts Council's Mentor Access Project and supported by The Arts House.

Free Admission.

Friday 11 February 2011,
7pm - 8.30pm ,
Arts House Play Den

Event details from: http://www.theartshouse.com.sg/event_details_2011.php?id=43. For enquiries, contact The Arts House at: 6332 6900.

January Texts

2011-02-07T09:18:00.001+08:00

*POETRY*
+Derek Walcott’s “Omeros”
+Edward Kamau Brathwaite’s “The Arrivants”
+Clive Murphy's "Orts and All: More Ribald Rhymes and Gay Doggery"

*FICTION*
+Jean Rhys’s “Sleep It Off, Lady”
+Jacob Ross’s “Pynter Bender”

*NON-FICTION*
+Dava Sobel’s “The Planets”
=Frantz Fanon’s “Black Skin, White Masks”

*GRAPHIC TEXTS*
+Roz Chast’s “Theories of Everything”
+Troy Chin’s “The Resident Tourist, Part 4”
+Alan Moore’s “Tom Strong” Books 5 and 6
+Neil Gaiman’s “Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?”

*FILMS*
=Mark Lee and Boris Boo's “The Ghosts Must Be Crazy”
+Alex van Warmerdam's “The Last Days of Emma Blank”
“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”
+Philip Noyce's “Salt”

*PERFORMANCES*
Elysa Wendi and Shu Jing Xing's “Ah Ma and Ah Niang”
+Sean Tobin and Natalie Hennedige's “What Did You Learn Today?”
+Helmut Van den Meersshaut's "Entre Nous"
+The Necessary Stage's “Model Citizens”
=Gene Sha Rudyn's “Al-Ikhlas”
+Young & W!ld 2's “Swordfish+Concubine: The Fall of Singapura”

*EXHIBITIONS*
+Achinto Bhadra's "Another Me: Transformations from Pain to Power"
=Lim Shengen's "Void: Utopia"
+Little Dröm Store's "School of Hard Knocks"
+Leung Chi Wo's "Something About Education But Not Exactly..."
+Evil Empire's "OH!: Open House"
+"Art Stage Singapore"
+Asian Civilisations Museum's "Art of the Congo River"
+Victoria and Albert Museum's Permanent Collection

Hymn to Evolution

2011-02-07T06:59:00.000+08:00

Evolution Made Us All from Ben Hillman on Vimeo.

Watch it! It's fun.

Friday reading, Gay's the Word, London, 7pm

2011-02-01T10:52:00.000+08:00

As you know, I'm in London promoting GASPP: a Gay Anthology of Singapore Poetry and Prose (in addition to some of my own work.) As part of the tour, I'm doing a reading at the UK's only GLBT interest bookstore.

If you're in London, please come! There'll be wine and Chinese New Year goodies.

Friday, 4 February, 7-8pm
Gay's the Word
66 Marchmont Street
(Russell Square Tube), London WC1N 1AB
020 7278 7654

Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=172960122748942

By the way, the event's been set up by Clara Yee, part of the amazing informal cultural promotion group Creative SINergy. Thanks so much, guys.

Go Go Next Media Animation!

2011-01-31T19:23:00.002+08:00

Finally, some properly snarky coverage of Singapore.

CSJ will survive; he's been through this countless times before. The SDP has a lot more momentum this round of elections, and they had seen it coming a while ago.

I'm going to London!

2011-01-20T02:42:00.003+08:00

I'll be there from 28 January to 8 February, just in time to miss Chinese New Year.

Also, I'll be appearing at these two literary events. Possibly a third, if we get our act together. :)

Count on Queers, Singapore!
Friday, 28 January 2011, 5:30-7pm
Room 104 (Senate House, First Floor), Institute of Commonwealth Studies
School of Advanced Study, University of London

Part of a public seminar series on Singapore Politics at the University of London. Queer Singaporean writers Ng How Wee and myself will be chairing the first part of the event, followed by a talk by Dr Simon Obendorf (University of Lincoln) on queer politics in Singapore.

writLOUD
Monday, 7 February 2011, 6.30pm onwards.
RADA Foyer Bar, Malet Street, London WC1E 7JN.

Birkbeck's monthly readings event, organised in partnership with Oxfam. I'll be one of the featured readers.

Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=174827652553310
writLOUD official page: http://www.writershub.co.uk/writloud.php

Crime Night, 29 January, 8pm at Prologue, Orchard ION

2011-01-19T09:21:00.003+08:00

Haven't mentioned this before, but I'm in Crime Scene: Singapore, and anthology of crime writing set in this country, edited by Richard Lord and published by Monsoon Books. Buy it! I get royalties. :D

There's an event happening later this month, but unfortunately I'll be in London at the time (never mind what the poster says). Go support these writers anyways.

N.B. It's on Amazon too!

Madeleine L'Engle's "A Wrinkle in Time" in 90 seconds

2011-01-17T00:04:00.001+08:00

I love this! We actually did this book for literature class when I was ten years old, thereabouts.

"A Wrinkle In Time" In 90 Seconds from James Kennedy on Vimeo.

Long-lost brothers?

2011-01-16T05:05:00.001+08:00

I just finished reading Derek Walcott's epic poem Omeros over on my other blog.

Incidentally, I've realised that Walcott and Gabriel García Márquez look uncannily alike.

They're born just three years apart: Walcott in 1930, Gabo in 1927. It's a plot twist worthy of a telenovela!

Teeheehee.

2011-01-12T22:39:00.001+08:00

Something to make you guys feel old.

2011-01-08T03:02:00.003+08:00

French kids puzzling over tech antiques from the '80s!

And remember, these tykes are from a nation that's culturally stuck in the 19th century. Would kids from, say, South Korea or Dubai be even more flummoxed?

UPDATE: Turns out they're from Montréal. No wonder they're so chill with the racial diversity.

Lucy Knisley roxxors.

2011-01-05T06:49:00.000+08:00

Via her Livejournal.

Texts December 2010

2011-01-01T05:17:00.003+08:00

And another decade's here!

*POETRY*
+“Layang-Layang” ed. Enoch Ng
+Yong Shu Hoong’s “From within the marrow”

*FICTION*
=Jean Heyn’s “The Governor-General's Lady”
+Caryl Phillips’s “Cambridge”
+Jamaica Kincaid’s “Mr Potter”
E. A. Markham’s “The Three Suitors of Fred Belair”
+Maryse Condé’s “Who Slashed Celanire’s Throat?”
+David Markson’s “Wittgenstein’s Mistress”

*NON-FICTION*
+Danny Lim’s “The Malaysian Book of the Undead”
=Julia Segal’s “Phantasy”

*GRAPHIC TEXTS*
+Ian Edginton's "Scarlet Traces: The Great Game"

*FILMS*
+Ivan Reitman's “Kindergarten Cop”
+Maneesh Sharma's “Band Baaja Baaraat”
+Michael Apted's “The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader”

*PERFORMANCES*
=W!ld Rice’s “Cinderel-LAH!”
=Dream Academy’s “A Crazy Christmas”

*EXHIBITIONS*
NUS Museum's +"Camping and Tramping Through the Colonial Archive: The Museum in Malaya", +"The Sufi and the Bearded Man: Re-membering a Keramat in Contemporary Singapore" and ="Working the Tropical Garden"
=Karmawibhangga Museum's permanent exhibition
+Yogyakarta Kraton's permanent exhibition

Happy Holiday Polyhedron #3: Unadorned Stellated Dodecahedron

2010-12-25T17:11:00.002+08:00

Some lilies don't need gilding. :)

Net here.

This one's tricky: it's got 60 faces!

And it goes both concave and convex. But it's perfect for the Christmas tree: its profiles show off both a pentacle:

... and a Star of David:

Merry Christmas to one and all!

How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse During the Holidays

2010-12-24T00:01:00.000+08:00

I know the zombie trope is *so overused*, but I ain't sick of it yet!

Happy Holiday Polyhedron #2: Tarot Pentagonal Icositetrahedron

2010-12-23T17:41:00.007+08:00

Hot on the heels of the non-denominational rhombic dodecahedron, here's another Christmas bauble to knock your wooly stockings off!

Behold the pentagonal icositetrahedron (if you're keeping up with your Greek prefixes, this means it has 24 pentagonal faces; another Catalan solid), adorned with all 22 trumps from the Major Arcana of the Tarot deck, drawn from Rider-Waite pack, the most commonly used Tarot deck in Anglophone countries.

Start off by printing out the net via Paper Models of Polyhedra. I used red card, and paid no heed to the gratuitous misspelling.

Then cut that bugger up.

I'm using the scissors to score the edges before folding. Makes for cleaner creases, not that mine are terribly clean when you come right down to it.

See how it all fits together? This is going along so nicely.

Now, for the decoupage. I was kinda obsessed with the occult as a teenager, and though I've since become skeptical of Tarot readings (anyway, why are we us Generation X-ers so hung up with this European divination form? We're in Asia; we oughta be using yarrow sticks and the I Ching), I still love the iconography of the Tarot.

It's super-easy to swipe images of the full house off the Net. One jpg to rule them all.

As you can see, I've also added in images of the occultist Arthur Edward Waite and the illustrator Pamela Colman Smith to the 22 trumps to make a total of 24 faces.

Snip snip done! Click to see the above in higher res.

The paper clip and ribbon in the picture are what I use to create the loop for the bauble. Figure out where you're gonna put this before you do any découpaging, so you know what's top and bottom in your figure.

Oh, and if at any point in your craftwork your cat comes to sit in your lap...

Do not push her off, but try to annoy her with the camera...

...moving in closer...

... and closer.

I'm fully aware of the apparent wrongness of introducing pagan and occult symbols into Christmas. Sure, I can console myself that the whole principle of Winter Solstice Festivals with erect evergreen trees and wise men following stars to indicate the newest avatar of the godhead is pretty damn pagan and occult in itself...

... but when I've got the Wheel of Fortune, the Day of Judgment, the Devil, the Hanged Man and Death on my bauble, maybe I'm actually more hardcore than is comfortable for me.

Never mind; we can turn that side inwards when we hang it. And there's an angel for Temperance. That's Christmassy.

One last look!

And there we go! All glued up and strung up: your personal Tarot Pentagonal Icositetrahedron, useful for either decoration or divination. (Kids! Freak out your parents by loading the die so it consistently lands on Death!)

Pictured, clockwise from top: illustrator Pamela Colman Smith, the Hierophant, the Emperor, the Empress, the Magician, and if I'm not mistaken a teensy bit of the Fool.

Also useful for annoying your familiar with. She actually knocked it about with her paw.

Avaunt, polyhedron! And a Very Merry Iconoclastic Christmas to you too!

Happy Holiday Polyhedron #1: Non-Denominational Rhombic Dodecahedron!

2010-12-21T20:27:00.007+08:00

Sorry I haven't been posting for a while - I went to Jakarta/Bandung/Yogyakarta for a week, and the packing/finishing work before that and the recuperating/welcoming prodigal siblings afterwards have kept me a little distracted.

But now I'm finally finding distractions to distract me from the distractions! Such as the creation of cute little Christmas baubles! Like the following:

It's a Non-Denominational Rhombic Dodecahedron! Here, I'll show you how to make 'em.

First, you need a "net", or the 2D surface layout of the polygons in your 3D shape. I got mine off Wikipedia, but later I discovered a better resource here.

The site's called Paper Models of Polyhedra, and it's awesome. Me and my sis used to trace these shapes out of our Childcraft encyclopedia: all the Platonic solids, tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron, icosahedron. Then I found a Chinese papercraft book and used a protractor to make prisms and pyramids and Archimedean solids, which are often just Platonic solids with their corners cut off: cuboctahedron, truncated tetrahedron, truncated cube... ah, never got very far with those, actually.

The rhombic dodecahedron is a Catalan solid. These were only discovered in 1836, and I'm fuzzy on the math. But the cool thing about them is that although they're made up of identical faces, these faces are irregular polygons.

Easy-peasy to print onto stiff card and snip it out. Now for some ideological aesthetics.

My family observes Christmas, because we like the decor, but we're actually freethinking Mahayana Buddhists with loads of Taoism and Confucianism and skepticism thrown in. So it makes very little sense for me to decorate the polyhedron with angels and shepherds and drummer-boys and wisemen and stars. Yet we don't want to write out the spiritual aspect of Christmas and replace it with Santa Claus and reindeer.

Luckily, I have a colour printer. And Google Images.

Save, paste into Word, print, cut with scissors, and paste with glue....

On the left-hand side: The Virgin of Guadalupe (Christianity), the Kaaba (Islam) and Tuapehkong (Taoism).

In the centre, from top to bottom: Michelangelo's Moses (Judaism), the Shrine of the Bab (Bahai), Mahavira (Jainism), Lakshmi (Hinduism), Zarathustra (Zoroastrianism), Amaterasu-o-mi-kami (Shintoism).

On the right-hand side: the Golden Temple of Amritsar (Sikkism), Bodhisattva Kuan Yin (Buddhism) and an Orthodox Jesus (Christianity).

Click the image above for a closer-up view.

Originally I wanted a Virtruvian man as well for the atheist humanists (like my sister, my boyfriend, and my sister's boyfriend), but I couldn't kick out any of the others, not even the double count for Christianity, because honestly, both those icons are gorgeous. Wanted Guru Nanak Dev as well for Sikkism, but decided to make a balance between male figures, female figures and architecture.

Gluing the whole thing together was trickier than I expected. I got gum all over the gods and prophets and I had to mop it up with tissue.

Nearly done. And there we go! Innit lovely?

Stick it on the tree, why don't you?

There we go. Sorry my photography's so bad. But I hope I'll have time to demonstrate another happy holiday bauble before Christmas. Selamat Hari Natal ke semua orang!

Abjad Binatang-Binatang

2010-12-05T05:44:00.006+08:00

Done! Q and X are lost causes, right? So I won't stress.

AKUSUKA = goose/swan
ANJING = dog
AYAM = chicken
BABI = pig
BADAK = rhino
BELALANG = grasshopper
BEO = mynah
BERUANG = bear
BERUANG KUTUB = polar bear
BIAWAK KOMODO = Komodo dragon
BUAYA = crocodile
BULBUL = bulbul

BULU BABI = sea urchin
BURUNG BEKAKAK = kingfisher
BURUNG BELATUK = woodpecker
BURUNG HELANG = eagle
BURUNG KAKAKTUA = cockatoo
CACING = worm
CICAK = lizard
CIMPANZI = chimpanzee
DOMBA = sheep
DUBUK = hyena
ENGGANG = hornbill
FALKO = falcon (burung falko, really)
GAJAH = elephant
GORILA = gorilla
HARIMAU = tiger
HUDHUD = hoopoe
IKAN = fish
IKAN LUMBA-LUMBA = dolphin
IKAN PAUS = whale
ITIK = duck
JAGUAR = jaguar
JANGKRIK = cricket
KACUAK = roach
KALA JENGKING = scorpion
KAMBING = goat
KANCIL = mousedeer
KANGGARU = kangaroo
KATAK = frog
KERA HANTU = tarsier
KERAM = clam
KERBAU = bison
KETAM = crab
KUCING = cat
KUDA = horse
KUDA BELANG = zebra
KUDA NIL = hippo
KUMBANG = beetle
KUNANG-KUNANG = firefly
KUTU = flea
LABAH-LABAH = spider
LALAT = housefly
LEBAH = bee
LEMBU = cattle
MACAN TUTUL = leopard
MARMOT = guinea pig
MERAK = peacock
MONYET = monkey
MUSANG = civet
NURI = parrot
NYAMUK = mosquito

ORANG = human
ORANGUTAN = orang-utan
PANDA = panda
PENYU = sea turtle
Q?
RAMA-RAMA = butterfly
REMIS = mussel
RUBAH = fox
RUSA = deer
SEMUT = ant
SERIGALA = wolf
SIAMANG = gibbon
SINGA = lion
SIPUT = snail
SOTONG = cuttlefish
TAPIR = tapir
TERITIP = barnacle
TIKUS = mouse
TIRAM = oyster
TUPAI = squirrel
UDANG = prawn
UDANG KARANG = lobster
UBUR-UBUR = jellyfish
ULAR = snake
UNDUK-UNDUK = seahorse
VAMPIR KELAWAR = vampire bat
WALET SAPI = glossy swiftlet
X?
YAKIS = baboon
YU = shark
ZIRAFAH = giraffe

Abjad Sayur-Sayuran dan Buah-Buahan

2010-12-05T02:54:00.016+08:00

So my Malay homework involves making a list of vegetables, fruits and animals beginning with each letter of the alphabet. This is, of course, impossible.

Still, I'm surprised that I can't even find any vegetables beginning with, G, M, N, O or R. Help, anyone? (UPDATE: Okay, if I accept nuts and spices I've got "macadamia" and "mete" and "mustar", and "nori" is a stretch, of course. But any port in a storm. "Rebung" is fine though. Ooh! "Oregano" and "ginseng"! Just F, I, Q, X, Y left then... So does "yerba mate" count? It's in the Malay Wikipedia)

ANDEWI = endive
ASAM JAWA = tamarind
ASPARAGUS = asparagus
BADAM = almond
BADAM HIJAU = pistachio
BAWANG = onion

BAWANG MERAH = shallot

BAWANG PERAI = leek

BAWANG PUTIH = garlic
BAYAM = spinach
BENDI = lady's finger/okra

BIJAN = sesame

BIT = beet
BROKOLI = broccoli
BUAH KENARI = walnut
BUAH KERAS = candlenut
BUNGA KANTAN = torch ginger
CENDAWAN = mushroom
CENGKIH = clove
CILI = chilli
DAUN BAWANG = scallion
DAUN SADERI = celery
ERCIS = pea (not sure if this is more Indonesian)
F?
GINSENG = ginseng
HALBA = fenugreek
HALIA = ginger
I?
JAGUNG = corn
JERING = jengkol (active ingredient in rendang)
JINTAN = fennel

JINTAN HITAM = cumin

JINTAN MANIS = anise
KACANG KUDA = chickpea

KACANG PANJANG = long bean
KACANG TANAH = peanut
KELAPA = coconut
KEMIRI = hazelnut
KAILAN = kailan
KANGKUNG = kangkong
KANJI UBI = tapioca
KAYU MANIS = cinnamon
KENTANG = potato
KETUMBAR = coriander
KLEDEK = sweet potato
KOL KEMBANG = cauliflower
KUBIS = cabbage

KUNDUR = gourd
LABU = pumpkin
LADA = pepper
LENGKUAS = galangal
LIDAH BUAYA = aloe vera
LOBAK = radish (or carrot)
MACADAMIA = macadamia
METE = cashew
MUSTAR = mustard
NORI = nori (might be just Indonesian?)
OREGANO = oregano
PAPRIKA = bell pepper
PELAGA = cardamom
PERKELAHIAN = rhubarb
PERIA = bittergourd
PETAI = petai bean
PETERSELI = parsley
Q?
REBUNG BULUH = bamboo shoot
SALAD = lettuce
SAWI = mustard greens
SENGKUANG = yam bean
SERAI = lemongrass
SOYA = soybean
TAUGE = beansprouts
TEBU = sugarcane
TERUNG = eggplant
TIMUN = cucumber
TOMATO = tomato
UBI KAYU = yam
ULAM RAJA = king's salad, literally
VANILA = vanilla
WASABI = wasabi
WORTEL = carrot (more Indonesian)
X?
YERBA MATE = mate
ZUKINI = zucchini (okay, this might be just Indonesia. In Malay I think it's timun Jepun)

On to the fruits now!

Surprising that there aren't any beginning with "H" or "U" (maybe "ugli"? It's a big stretch), but this was much easier than the veg assignment:

ABIU = abiu
ALPUKAT = avocado
ANGGUR = grape
APRIKOT = apricot

ARA = fig
BELIMBING = starfruit
BETIK = papaya
BUAH NAGA = dragonfruit
CEMPEDAK = cempedak
CERI = cherry
CIKU = chiku
CRANBERI = cranberry
DELIMA = pomegranate
DUKU LANGSAT = duku langsat
DURIAN = durian
DURIAN BELANDA = soursop
EPAL = apple
FRAMBOS = raspberry
GUARANA = guarana
H?
I?
JAMBU AIR = rose apple
JAMBU BATU/JAMBU BIJI = guava

KISMIS = raisin
KIWI = kiwifruit
KUMKUAT = kumquat
KURMA = date
LAI = pear
LAICI = lychee
LIMAU = lime/orange
LIMAU BALI = pomelo
LIMAU KESTURI = calamansi
LIMAU MANDARIN = mandarin orange
LIMAU NIPIS = lemon

LIMAU PURUT = Kaffir lime
LONGAN = longan
MANGGA = mango
MANGGIS = mangosteen
MARKISA = passionfruit
MELON = honeydew
MENGKUDU = noni
MURBAI = mulberry
NANAS = pineapple
NANGKA = jackfruit

NEKTARIN = nectarine
NONA = custard apple
OREN = orange
PEAR = pear
PIC = peach
PISANG = banana
PLUM = plum
PULASAN = pulasan
Q?
RAMBUTAN = rambutan
SALAK = salak

SEMANGKA = watermelon (may be more Indonesian?)
STROBERI = strawberry
TEMBIKAI = watermelon
UGLI = ugli
V?
WRESAH = (whatever this is in Indonesia)
X?
YUZU = (well actually it's "limau yuzu" or "oren yuzu", but who cares?)
ZAITUN = olive

Texts Nov 2010

2010-12-02T23:22:00.000+08:00

*POETRY*
+Djuna Barnes’s “The Book of Repulsive Women and Other Poems”
=Mika G. Yamaji’s “86 Benevolent Street”
+Teng Qian Xi’s “They hear salt crystallising"
+Grace Chua’s “The Stamp Collector’s Wife”
W. R. Groman’s “Oasis of the Sea: Sint Maarten Sonnets”

*FICTION*
+Daniel Putkowski’s “An Island Away”
+Valerie O. Patterson’s “The Other Side of Blue”
+Amir Muhammad’s “Rojak”
+Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island”

*DRAMA*
+Natalie Hennedige’s “Nothing”
+A. Samad Said’s “T. Pinkie’s Floor”

*NON-FICTION*
+Rustom Bharucha’s “Rajasthan: An Oral History: Conversations with Komal Kothari”
+The Oral History Department’s “Vanishing Trades of Singapore”
+Mary Prince’s “The History of Mary Prince”
+Fredrik Haren’s “The Developing World”
+Robert and Melinda Blanchard’s “Live What You Love” and “A Trip to the Beach”

*FILMS*
+Ryan Murphy’s “Eat, Pray, Love”
=Shakti Samanta’s “Singapore”
+ Amit Virmani’s “Cowboys in Paradise”
+Robert Schwenke’s “R.E.D.”

*PERFORMANCES*
=The Reduced Shakespeare Company’s “The Complete History of America”
The Theatre Practice’s “Man to Man”
=LaSalle’s “The Maids”, “Starting Here, Starting Now”, “Journey to Nowhere” and “The Heidi Chronicles”
+Cake Theatre’s “The Scientist”, “OMDM”, “The Performance”
=“The LaMama Experience”

*EXHIBITIONS*
+Cake Theatre’s “The Art of Living in the In-Between”
+8Q SAM’s “Trans-Cool Tokyo”
=Chan Hampe Galleries’s “HIV: Show Me the Love”

Why the hell not?

2010-11-29T19:44:00.002+08:00

I'm 30 years old and technology has made dada mainstream!

Call for submissions for ASYMPTOTE: a new international journal of literary translation

2010-11-27T03:16:00.003+08:00

My friend's setting up a new journal of translation called Asymptote! (Yeah, I was originally drama editor, but I couldn't commit the time. It's still an important effort.)

It's founded by multi-genre polyglot Singaporean writer Lee Yew Leong, but we've got other editors based in Germany and the USA. Our first issue is coming out in Jan 2011.

If you're a writer in a non-English language or a translator of non-English literature into English, we'd love to see your work. The deadline for submissions is 20 December 2010 and the guidelines are here.

Ooh, and get a load of our landing page, here: http://asymptotejournal.com

Some very cool international writers have already agreed to be featured in the Jan 2011 edition. We'll be featuring:

- a dispatch from Afghanistan about the plight of women in the context of the ongoing war
- an essay from Japan comparing "Literature and Mathematics" (which we thought apropos for the launch issue of a magazine called Asymptote)
- a group of poems by Melih Cevdet Anday, writing in the manner of a famous 17th century folk poet, translated from the Turkish by Sidney Wade and Efe Murad
- an interview with the award-winning lyricist who not only brought the 2010 World Cup song into Mandarin but has done some amazing (literary) things across Mandarin and Cantonese as well.
-excerpts from Singaporean playwright Alfian Sa'at's "Nadirah", last year's prizewinning script at the Life! Theatre Awards.

Hope to read your stuff on the site soon!

Fries Parade!

2010-11-25T06:32:00.002+08:00

About a month ago I participated in the following outdoor improv event with Mission: Singapore.

I'm wearing a really ugly T-shirt because the original idea was that we were supposed to exchange T-shirts in a crowded area. (Shrug)

Oh yeah, and I'm thirty years old today! Woohoo!

Painting class at NTU

2010-11-22T13:52:00.000+08:00

I've been modelling a lot this month. Usually it's just for charcoal drawings, but a few of the classes work with colour.

This first one's by the professor, Cai Qing:

But the students have turned in some interesting work, too:

One of my favourites is from this guy called Noel:

He got the background in and everything!

Mohan's bar exams started today, btw. And that's all for now.

So right... and yet so wrong...

2010-11-19T02:16:00.000+08:00

And definitely so American. How did I get so squeamish? Kids shouldn't be recorded dropping the F-bomb until they're like, thirteen.

FCKH8.com Straight Talk About Gay Marriage from FCKH8.com on Vimeo.

Bookstore Launch of GASPP, Sunday 21 Nov, 3pm

2010-11-13T02:17:00.004+08:00

Since a lot of folks couldn't make our last launch at Play, we're having an additional launch in an actual bookstore space.

Sun 21 Nov
BOOKSTORE LAUNCH OF GASPP
3-4pm, Birds & Co, Orchard Cineleisure #03-05A
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=159379880764684

If you haven't heard of Birds & Co, it's 'cos it's BooksActually's new outlet in the shopping centre district of Singapore. Ours will be the first book event to be held there. We're expecting to feature readings with Ovidia Yu, X'Ho, Lee Yew Leong and Cyril Wong.

A magnificently weird music video.

2010-11-02T00:08:00.000+08:00

With cute skinny guys, girl boobies and Spanish!

EL GUINCHO | Bombay from MGdM | Marc Gómez del Moral on Vimeo.

October texts!

2010-11-01T23:59:00.003+08:00

*POETRY*
+Yeng Pway Ngon’s “Poems 1: Rebellion”

*FICTION*

+Shamini Flint's "Ten"
=Mint Kang’s “6 Years of Parrot”
+Dany Laferrière’s “Heading South”
=Julia Alvarez’s "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents"

*DRAMA*
+Trevor Rhone’s “Two Can Play” and “School’s Out”
=Alfian Sa’at’s “Collected Plays Two”

*NON-FICTION*
+Octavio Paz’s “El laberinto de la soledad”
+Carlos Eire’s “Waiting for Snow in Havana”
+“New Malaysian Essays” ed. Amir Muhammad (except for the BM essay)

*GRAPHIC TEXTS*
*Dave, Rob and Kris's "Cyanide and Happiness"

*FILMS*
=Arthur Dong’s “Family Fundamentals”
+Alain Berliner’s “Ma Vie En Rose”
+Laurent Tirard’s “Little Nicolas”

*PERFORMANCES*
=The Substation’s “Tribal Gathering of the Tongue Tasters: B-Quartet + mux + friends”
=COLLAB’s “Metamorphoses”
daniel k’s “Hokkaido”
+Gregory Maqoma and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s “Southern Bound Comfort”
=Gunung Sayang Association’s “Pagar Makan Padi”
+“Rainbow Massacre 2010: We Are Family”
+NUS Stage’s “Mind Games”
+KreatiV OutBox’s “Constipated”
=The Esplanade and Atilah Soeryadjaya’s “Matah Ati”
+The Esplanade and Fauziah Nawi’s “Cinta Julia”

*EXHIBITIONS*
+Liew Kung Yu, Shieko, Hazri Haili, Jellene, Kal Idris, Ong Jo-lene and Tan Zi Hao’s “Seksualiti Merdeka 2010 Art Project: Portraits of the Unspoken”
Ayu Marista Murti’s “Cloning Garden”
National Art Gallery’s ““A Photo Journey: Memories of the City Hall and Former Supreme Court” (with Historic Guided Tour of the Former Supreme Court and City Hall)
+Singapore International Photography Festival @ 2902 Gallery, OldSchool
+Zero's "The Spectacular Spectacular"

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T03:09:00.001+08:00

Just reminding everyone: the launch for GASPP is tomorrow!!!

2010-10-28T06:04:00.000+08:00

Fri 29 Oct, 8-9:30pm, Play Club, Singapore
OFFICIAL LAUNCH
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=158729217489754
With readings by Alfian Sa'at, Chrystal Wang, Irfan Kasban, Michael Corbidge, Jason Wee and Tania de Rozario.

Updates at http://gaspp.wordpress.com. This is what our cover looks like:

Works by Johann S. Lee, X’Ho, Ovidia Yu, Alfian Sa’at, Cyril Wong, Jason Wee, Lee Yew Leong, Ng How Wee (黄浩威), Adrianna Tan, Koh Jee Leong, Wang Zi Si (王子思), Jasmine Seah, O Thiam Chin, Zhuang Yusa, Ng Yi-Sheng, Michael Lee, Selwyn Lee, Irfan Kasban, Andrew Cheah, Michael Corbidge, Desmond Kon, Johann Loh, Chrystal Wang, Ash Lim, Geraldine Toh, Jabir Yusoff, Mint Hong (思敏), Grace Chua, Nicholas Deroose, Tata So, Dominic Chua, Tania de Rozario and a little someone called Anonymous.

Hantuween @ Post-Museum, Sat 8pm onwards

2010-10-26T03:19:00.001+08:00

I've just been invited to read at this year's Hantuween, a fundraising event to feed the hungry by Food #03 and Post-Museum!

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=109186545811556

Post-Museum invites you to its very first Hantuween Party!

Join us for a Halloween celebration with a distinctly Southeast Asian flavour.

Come frolic under our Banyan tree with the Little Nonya’s rotting corpse, Ah Meng’s spirit, a semi-retired bomoh and more.

Take this chance to learn more about the myths and historical figures from our region. Come dressed as your favourite character and have a freaky good time with cabaret-style performances and Southeast Asian beats going on all night!

For More info:
email: admin@post-museum.org
tel: 6396 7980

* Entrance $25 with 2 drinks

* We are having an open call for our cabaret-style open mic session, so please get in touch with your performance ideas.

Writing the City - Launch event on Tues 2 November at Arts House

2010-10-25T03:21:00.002+08:00

Like it says! Don't forget to RSVP!

GASPP at Seksualiti Merdeka

2010-10-24T03:38:00.000+08:00

This is a basically a cut-and-paste of the blog entry I put up at my GASPP site. But I do want to reiterate what I said about KL (yeah, I'm self-quoting):

"Now I understand why Alfian and The Necessary Stage people love to go up there so much: because there's this young, idealistic community of activists and intellectuals and artists who can't afford to take for granted the values that Singaporeans are utterly blasé about: secularism, racial harmony, non-corruption, and the right to even heterosexual romance."

Unfortunately, my own photos of the Seksualiti Merdeka festival are lousy. So I'll have to rely on everyone else's photos of our event.

For instance, here's us at the Queer As Books event at 2pm, Sunday 17 Oct in the Annexe!

Remember, this was a joint launch (for us, technically a pre-launch event) of three books. So from left to right: Matahari Books publisher Amir Muhammad, Diana Dirani and Azwan Ismail, co-editors of the Malaysian Malay language queer anthology Orang Macam Kita; Alfian Sa'at, playwright of the Asian Boys Trilogy; and myself, Ng Yi-Sheng, co-editor of GASPP.

(The photographer is our own publisher, Fong Hoe Fang of The Literary Centre/Ethos Books.)

And here's GASPP itself:

We had a promotion going on: for every copy of GASPP or Collected Plays Two: The Asian Boys Trilogy we sold, you got a free copy of Charlene Rajendran's Taxi Tales. (No, she's not gay herself. But she's supportive!)

The launch was actually a private event, hence the low levels of publicity. Folks were afraid of attracting undue attention to Orang Macam Kita, a real danger since the queer Malaysian English language anthology, Body2Body, recently got pulled from the shelves after a complaint.

But still, we had readings from the contirbutors, such as Nizam Zakaria (wish my Bahasa Melayu was good enough to follow what was going on) before I goaded Alfian to go up and read something from our own book: Irfan Kasban's short prose work Dua Lelaki.

Yes, that is an expression of consternation on Alf's face. Dua Lelaki is kinda provocative.

Here's a shot of me reading from my short story Lee Low Tar, gleaned from the Facebook album of Dib Jual Kata. Yeah, we sure established ourselves as unsavoury types.

Adrianna Tan was originally supposed to come too, but she had to cancel suddenly for health reasons, so the event really ended up being quite a sausagefest. Hopefully this won't be the case for our Singapore launch!

This last shot's by Malaysian artist Jun Kit. At one point during the Q&A, I got asked whether we'd be able to sell the book openly on the shelves in Singapore. And I had to admit, well, actually, things are much easier for us in Singapore than in KL. Yes, we complain about censorship, but that hardly ever happens to books (only when important government figures get directly insulted) and what happens to plays is R-ratings and funding cuts and text changes: the whole production does not get shut down.

When we compare ourselves to London or New York or Stockholm, our freedom of speech record is lousy. But we're in a better situation than Malaysia, and we should remember that.

Plus, we should buy their books. Orang Macam Kita can be bought from Matahari Books by mail or from Amazon. Alfian's book should be available in all major Singapore bookstores, and if it's not, demand it.

And as for us, we're coming soon... :)

Petition appeals for release of British journalist Alan Shadrake

2010-10-23T02:18:00.001+08:00

Reporters Without Borders/Reporters sans frontières
22 October 2010

English: http://en.rsf.org/singapore-alan-shadrake-appeal-free-22-10-2010,38648.html
Français : http://fr.rsf.org/singapour-appel-acquittement-alan-shadrake-22-10-2010,38646.html

Reporters Without Borders today launched an international petition calling for the release of British author and journalist Alan Shadrake who is facing two years in prison for writing a book about the death penalty in Singapore.

The petition, which is addressed to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, can be found on the organisation’s website: http://en.rsf.org/petition-alan-shadrake,38642.html

Alan Shadrake, who is aged 75, has been charged with “contempt of court” and the verdict in his case is expected on 26 October. At his trial which opened on 18 October, the prosecutor accused the journalist of making comments “against the independence and integrity of the Singapore judiciary” in his book "Once a Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice in the Dock". Hema Subramanian, a lawyer from the Attorney General’s Chambers, said that Shadrake’s book contained "baseless, unwarranted attacks…that directly attacked the Singapore judiciary”. She termed the allegations in the book as “outrageous, offensive and irresponsible”.

The journalist’s lawyer, M Ravi, argued that the book was well documented and backed up by evidence. It was a “serious-minded and compassionate examination of the death penalty in Singapore”.

Reporters Without Borders urges the Singapore judiciary to accept Alan Shadrake’s innocence and allow him to leave the country. In fact, the book contains no defamatory remarks, no personal attacks or verbal assaults aimed at undermining the operation of the justice system. Given that it is simply a critical analysis of the institution and its methods as a result of a rigorous and well documented investigation, this work cannot constitute contempt of court.

We would like to stress the fact that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) of which Singapore is a founding member, is a protector of basic freedoms. The Singaporean government in July 1993 joined other member states in supporting the Vienna Declaration on Human Rights 1993 that calls on countries to respect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that guarantees freedom of expression.

Shadrake has been forced to stay on in Singapore since July in very difficult circumstances. His passport has been confiscated and his health has deteriorated badly since his arrest in July. He has serious heart problems and recently suffered an internal haemorrhage.

The British journalist is also virtually without resources and suffering serious financial problems.

For more information see: http://en.rsf.org/singapore-call-for-the-release-of-detained-19-07-2010,37975.html

Hey! My official photos from Youth Olympic Games torchbearing are up!

2010-10-20T14:29:00.002+08:00

It's in print...

2010-10-15T22:35:00.003+08:00

Copies were just delivered to the publishers at 5:30pm today. We caught it at Yeng Pway Ngon's book launch at the Arts House at 7pm.

Whoa. None of us can believe it's here. But it is! And it looks good.

Selling for $25 - less if you happen to be at a special event.

Now I'm catching a bus to Kuala Lumpur for the Seksualiti Merdeka festival!

Taste the Rainbow!

2010-10-14T22:54:00.027+08:00

Occasionally, when I'm hungry and bored and have no means of securing immediate food and entertainment, I start to fantasise about food. And I'm not talking about your standard gustatory fantasies, starring visions of doughnuts and fried chicken (as palatable as they are). What I'm envisioning is an epic sequence of feasts, in which every food is the same colour.

It's an idea I first happened to see in Hakim Bey's TAZ: Temporary Autonomous Zone, again referred to in a modern-day fairy tale in the anthology Snow White, Blood Red, and most recently spied again in Steven Leavitt's The Lost Language of Cranes.

People all over the world are having this fantasy. But if I were the head chef, what would I feature? Here goes:

Menu for a violet meal.

Appetiser: Boiled red octopus with beetroot.
Main course: Raw liver with raw red onions with a side of purple cabbage and kohlrabi. Unpolished purple rice porridge with red dates. Roasted eggplant.
Dessert: Yam pudding with red grapes, figs and purple dragonfruit. Violet creams. Lavender drops.
Drink: Purple carrot juice and burgundy wine.

Menu for a blue brunch.

Appetiser: Blue potato chips and blue corn, with a side of blue cheese.
Main course: Nasi kerabu dyed with blue pea blossoms. Flower crab, river shrimp and oysters, all to be eaten uncooked.
Dessert: Blueberries, huckleberries and elderberries.
Drink: Curacao liqueur.

Menu for a green dinner.

Appetiser: Edamame with nori strips and arugula salad. Green cheese with chopped green olives, green chili and fried green tomatoes.
Main course: Green turtle stewed in green curry with cilantro. Spinach tagliatelle with pesto sauce, garden peas, asparagus spears and broccoli florets. Green mango with wasabi. Sliced cucumber and celery. Kale chips with guacamole. Boiled kailan.
Cornichons.
Dessert: Green tea ice cream, topped with organic mint leaf, pistachio nuts, gooseberries. Pandan chiffon cake with kaya. Green bean soup. Key lime pie topped with kiwifruit.
Drink: Sugarcane juice with absinthe.

Menu for a yellow tea.

Appetiser: Buttered corn on the cob. Egg drop soup.
Yellow peppers au gratin. Garlic bread without the crusts.
Main course: Poached chicken in turmeric curry with saffron-infused briyani, garnished with golden sultanas and bits of quince. Battered dory with french fries and baked yellow squash, dijon mustard on the side. Elbow macaroni and cheese. Omelette. Polenta and farofa with ginkgo nuts. One saucer of dhal and another of applesauce.
Dessert: Durian custard gateau with slices of starfruit, golden kiwifruit and ripe mango. Portuguese egg tarts. A chunk of raw honeycomb. Mysore pak.
Drink: Calamansi-banana-pineapple smoothie with a twist of lemon. Earl Grey tea strewn with chrysanthemum petals. Sparkling champagne. Tiger beer.

Menu for an orange tiffin.

Appetiser: Pumpkin soup with diced carrots and orange peppers.
Main course: Deep-fried chicken, chili crab, drunken prawns, mussels in laksa soup, otak-otak and fish fingers. Paired with mee goreng, sweet potato mash, dried apricots and baked beans. All sprinkled with shrimp roe and crumbled salted duck yolks.
Dessert: Medley of tangerine and persimmon wedges with diced papaya and honeydew meat and candied orange peel. Mooncakes. Cheezels.
Drink: Orange crush.

Menu for a red banquet.

Appetiser: Selection of char siew pork slices, tandoori chicken bites, buffalo wings, lak cheong and tuna sashimi.
Main course: Rare beefsteak with lingonberry sauce and ketchup. Red rice, fried in red palm oil. Roasted red peppers and chili salsa on the side.
Dessert: Red velvet cake garnished with fresh strawberries, redcurrants, blood orange pips, craisins, pomegranate arils and maraschino cherries. Haw flakes and ba kwa. Ang ku kueh stuffed with azuki beans.
Drink: Claret, Shirley Temple and hibiscus tea.

Menu for a pink picnic.

Appetiser: Prosciutto and smoked salmon with grapefruit flesh, rhubarb stems and pink ginger.
Main course: Steamed red snapper with jambu and ama ebi garnish. Alaskan king crab legs. Honey-baked ham, corned beef and seared spam on beet bread.
Dessert: Candy floss and slices of peach. Watermelon sorbet. Beng kueh.
Drink: Raspberry soda, guava juice, pink lemonade, rosé wine and bandung.

Menu for a white buffet.

Appetiser: Calamari and boiled fishballs with slices of raw white onion and white truffles. Clam chowder with croutons of unbuttered popcorn.
Main course: Grilled cod seasoned with white pepper and kosher salt. Mantou, white rice, oatmeal and udon. Egg white omelette stuffed with tofu, daikon, taugeh, bamboo shoots, bonito flakes, blanched asparagus, cauliflower and paneer. Sour cream and lotus nuts on the side.
Dessert: Almond jelly with longans, lychees, white fungus, custard apple, segments of mangosteen and dessicated coconut. White chocolate meringues topped with whipped cream, mini marshmallows and minced macadamias.
Drink: Whole milk or s
oursop juice.

Menu for a transparent repast.

Appetiser: Bird's nest in clear fish broth.
Main course: Lobster sashimi with glass beehoon, wrapped in Vietnamese spring roll skins.
Dessert: Aloe vera, attap chee, konnyaku and agar-agar on shaved ice.
Drink: Soda water and vodka. 7-Up on the rocks.

Menu for a brown luncheon.

Appetiser: Lotus root soup with pork ribs and ground nuts.
Main course: Roast beef with caramelized onions. Duck stewed with chestnuts and button mushrooms. Teriyaki eel. Roasted jacket potatoes. Lamb korma. Tempeh. Seitan with mole sauce. Toasted whole wheat bread with a choice of spreads, including peanut butter, seared goose liver and pork pate and Nutella.
Dessert: Belgian chocolate gelato with walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, dried longans, chopped dates and wafers, powdered with cinnamon. Pecan pie drizzled with gula melaka.
Drink: Milo dinosaur and teh tarik.

Menu for a black supper.

Appetiser: Miniature squid ink pizza, topped with black olives, black garlic and beluga caviar.
Main course: Blood pudding and black chicken with buah keluak, served with black rice and dark soya sauce. Frijoles negros, century eggs and shitake mushrooms boiled in port with star anise and black truffle oil. Black hair fungus and fried scorpions.
Dessert: Compote of dark plums, blackberries, black cherries, black raspberries and blackcurrants, drizzled with dark chocolate and sprinkled with crumbled vanilla pods, Oreo cookies and bits of liquorice sticks.
Drink: Soyabean milk coloured with black sesame seeds. Guinness stout. Root beer. Coca-cola. Black coffee.

Launch of Translated Poems of Yeng Pway Ngon

2010-10-13T00:54:00.004+08:00

I'm promoting this 'cos it's a project by The Literary Centre, the same folks who're publishing GASPP: a Gay Anthology of Singapore Poetry and Prose. The launch is this Friday night at the Arts House Play Den - come if you can!

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=148281591880449

The Literary Centre (Singapore) cordially invites you to the launch of Yeng Pway Ngon's Poems 1 [Rebellion] at The Arts House.

Poems 1 [Rebellion] is a translated selection of Yeng Pway Ngon's works published between 1967 and 1970, a period in which his poetry openly confronts issues of urban modernity, consumerism and apathy, social decadence and cultural decay, moral hypocrisy, and the corruption of power. This is the first of a series of chapbooks in translation which will explore the range of Yeng's poetry from the 1960s to the present.

Born in 1947, Yeng Pway Ngon is a poet, novelist, playwright and critic who has published 24 volumes of poetry, essays, fiction, plays and literary criticism in the Chinese language. He has previously been translated into English, Malay and Dutch. He is also the recipient of Singapore's 2003 Cultural Medallion for Literature.

Date: Friday, 15 October 2010
Time: 7pm - 9pm
Venue: Play Den, The Arts House

Featuring: Mr Yeng, and translators Alvin Pang & Goh Beng Choo

Singapore MRT Maps, Old and New

2010-10-11T03:32:00.007+08:00

This is what I grew up with:

This is what is what we've got now:

This is what's been planned:

This is what's been rumoured to be planned:

It's a map dated to a July 2008 upload on Kong Wen Bin's blog, and the Downtown Line names are all wrong. But who'd go to so much trouble to forge something so realistic? (Well, many an Internet nerd, I guess.)

But that person really thought it would be a good idea to have an LRT station named Kling? (It's JS9.) And whoever it was seriously running out of names. S/he just started naming important figures at random: Winsemius, Parameswara, Sang Nila Utama, all the dead Presidents... And Mayflower? Tavistock???

GASPP: A Gay Anthology of Singapore Poetry and Prose

2010-10-06T03:30:00.004+08:00

You may remember me calling for entries for this collection a while back. It's an anthology of writing by queer Singapore citizens and residents that I've edited together with Dominic Chua, Jasmine Seah and Irene Oh. And it's coming out this month!!!

Oh, and of course I've set up a blog about it: http://gaspp.wordpress.com. This is what our cover looks like:

It's a photo by Lin Weidong, augmented by designer David Lee.

I should list our contributors, too: Johann S. Lee, X’Ho, Ovidia Yu, Alfian Sa’at, Cyril Wong, Jason Wee, Lee Yew Leong, Ng How Wee (黄浩威), Adrianna Tan, Koh Jee Leong, Wang Zi Si (王子思), Jasmine Seah, O Thiam Chin, Zhuang Yusa, Ng Yi-Sheng, Michael Lee, Selwyn Lee, Irfan Kasban, Andrew Cheah, Michael Corbidge, Desmond Kon, Johann Loh, Chrystal Wang, Ash Lim, Geraldine Toh, Jabir Yusoff, Mint Hong (思敏), Grace Chua, Nicholas Deroose, Tata So, Dominic Chua, Tania de Rozario and a little someone called Anonymous.

Our launch dates are:

Sun 17 Oct, 2pm, Annexe Gallery, Kuala Lumpur
QUEER AS BOOKS (part of the Seksualiti Merdeka Festival)
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=135470589834336
This is a pre-launch release. Two other books will be launched at the event: the Malay-language Malaysian queer anthology Orang Macam Kita and Singaporean playwright Alfian Sa'at's Collected Plays Two. There'll also be a panel discussion at 3pm on Queer Writing in Singapore and Malaysia.

Fri 29 Oct, 8-9:30pm, Play Club, Singapore
OFFICIAL LAUNCH
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=158729217489754
This is the big one! We're planning a festive evening of readings (plus a Q&A) at one of most popular gay clubs in the city, showcasing the voices of queer Singapore writers from different generations. Free entry, of course. :)

More details as the dates draw closer!

Whoa! A bunch of my favourite films won stuff!

2010-10-04T23:21:00.001+08:00

Re: Civic Life short film competition. Click here for the results.

Civic Life 90-second Film Competition! Vote now...

2010-10-01T16:23:00.003+08:00

Seriously, there's some good stuff. 20 finalists here, and the deadline's this Sunday. You can only vote once, so vote wisely.

Here are a few of my faves:

When the day begins... from Prashant S on Vimeo.

Miniature Town : Potong Pasir from togusa chan on Vimeo.

Corridor from Isazaly Mohd Isa on Vimeo.

The Neighbourhood Shops are Where the Heart Is from edwin s on Vimeo.

家 from Esna Ong on Vimeo.

Texts Sep 2010

2010-10-01T08:09:00.001+08:00

Finally finished with my deadlines! Will get some real reading done soon. And maybe actually watch some more movies.

*FICTION*
+Paul Theroux’s “The Mosquito Coast”
+Suchen Christine Lim’s “Gift From the Gods”
+Miguel Ángel Asturias’s “Men of Maize”
+Zee Edgell’s “Beka Lamb”

*DRAMA*
=Kee Thuan Chye’s “The Big Purge”

*NON-FICTION*
+Joan Didion’s “Salvador”
+Amir Muhammad’s “120 Malay Movies”
+Suchen Christine Lim’s “Hua Song: Stories of the Chinese Diaspora”
=Alan Shadrake’s “Once a Jolly Hangman”
+Jeffrey S. Young and William L. Simon’s “iCon: Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business”

*HARD TO CLASSIFY*
+Amir Muhammad’s “120 Malay Movies”

*FILMS*
+Boo Junfeng's "Sandcastle"

*PERFORMANCES*
=The Finger Players’ “Poop”
LaSalle’s =“Eurydice” and +“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”
Play Den Productions’ “Someday, Samsara”
TTRP’s “Descendants of the Eunuch Admiral”
=Singapore Repertory Theatre’s “Blackbird”
=Echo Philharmonic Society’s “Yellow River Cantata”
=one:lab’s “When the World Was Green”
=Young & W!ld’s “Unlike Some People”

*EXHIBITIONS*
=Choy Ka Fai’s “Lan Fang Chronicles”
+Terra Bajraghosa’s “Pixel X Pieces”
=Singapore Art Museum’s “Digital Nights @ SAM” and “Cheong Soo Pieng: Bridging Worlds”
+Debbie Ding’s “Singapore River as a Psychogeographical Faultline”

750 word exercise (lipogram)

2010-09-28T23:02:00.004+08:00

I'm writing 750 words a day at this site to exercise my fiction and prose writing muscles. I've decided to start posting some of my pieces to encourage myself.

"Murder your children," the voices tell Mr Lee.

"Smother them in their sleep," they whisper to Mr Lo.

"Poison them," they suggest to Mr Li.

"Set your house on fire, let them burn like insects," they murmur to Mr Lu.

The four men sit before their four-pointed desk, pondering business trends. They peer over their lorgnettes, intoning figures, outlining trends, highlighting KPIs. They do not listen to the voices: devilish things, missives of Lucifer or Eris or Someone Else Much Worse.

For, should they heed these speeches, they know their world would come tumbling down.  They love their children like no other four men love their progeny. They need their children, like cooked flesh requires sodium chloride. Children represent the future: there will be no future if their children perish before the mighty work is complete. They will not destroy their work's toddling fruit, never mind the sweet words of eleven hundred of voices.

"Torch them in the oven," they cry to Mr Li.

"Stuff them with herbs, mushrooms, ginseng," they shout to Mr Lo.

"Gut them, pull out their bones, shuck off their skin," they giggle to Mr Lu.

"Tuck in," they instruct Mr Lee.

The four men believe in discipline. Selected for their expertise, their stunning results slips, their record of never committing one error in their cycles on cycles of government service; the mousse in their comb-overs shine with their own striking luminescence, so perfect the souls of these men. True believers indeed: they give of their utmost for the glory of the further-projected good; five-pointed emblems of merit sit beside their computer monitors in their spotless offices.

They would not let one non-doctrine word pop from their lips. Yet the voices continue their endless song.

"Chop off their fingers," they wheedle Mr Lu.

"Poke out their eyes," they beg Mr Li.

"Press your body upon their tiny, writhing, helpless selves," they chortle to Mr Lo.

"Bugger them senseless," they tell Mr Lee.

The torture continues, hour on hour, week on week. The four men sit in their towers of industry, cooled wind whipping over their pores lest they perspire even briefly, wound in silken neckties, golden cufflinks, ironed trousers, woollen oversleeves, with pigskin shoes of corresponding colour. They smile to underlings, greet foreign celebrities with pomp yet obsequious respect, oppose opponents with cogent, cleverly composed responses, pose for photos, looking one hundred percent wholesome round the clock.  Nothing pierces their veneers. Nothing deters them. The voices do nothing but force them to suffer.

It is six o'clock. There being no further meetings, Mr Lee goes home. Mr Lo goes home. Mr Lu phones his wife to suggest dinner outside, some chi-chi bistro, you think? Mr Li locks up his desk, logs off his user ID, steps into his Volvo, then speeds off to his dwelling.

His dwelling is wondrous, guests often tell the host. It is old: some colonist's folly in the tropics from the 1930s, but the stone floors, the wooden ceilings, the stone buttresses, look splendid now, restored for posterity. His living room is furnished with polished Indochinese lumber, Ming crockery, French upholstery, Hindu divinities of bronze or pumice. The lighting, of course is Swedish. The books left open on the cushions, top-notch lexicons of worldwide culture, with topics from butterfly morphology to the history of the zoetrope.

Surrounding his dwelling one will find festive blooms worthy of forestry exhibitions: hibiscus, pong-pongs, spider orchids, birds' nest ferns, coconut fronds, golden showers; lotuses touching lilies in the Nipponese pond, to boot.

Within is his domestic helper, Flor. She presses his shirts, scrubs his toilet, douses the Volvo in froth, unrolls his socks. She utilises the technology of the kitchen expertly: blenders, skillets, egg-slicers, skewers, electric stoves, woks sizzling with burning LPG. With these tools, she cooks delicious dinners for forty, lofty receptions for fifty, or simple yet sumptuous brunches for one. But mostly, she cooks for one.

For Mr Li lives with no-one. No wife, no children, no dog, no gerbil, not even koi - for the pond is empty, bereft of even the jellied roe of frogs. No sentient being will thrive in the house's vicnity, except for Flor, who thinks it swell how no beetles or mosquitoes will bug her duty.

Mr Li rolls into his drive, the entry's iron shutters closing behind his bumper. He exits his vehicle, observing with some smugness the riot of colour in his bushes: chlorophyll feeding buds of red, blossoms of purple, juicy globes of gold.

Then, in his most prized flower bed, he sees something. He steps two steps in reverse, in horror, upon viewing the sight: one tiny, murdered child.

Further note: the above extract is composed without the letter "A".

Brazil pics!!!

2010-09-20T23:53:00.011+08:00

These are way overdue. I was in Brazil back in freakin' April. But, behold!

Statue in Park, Curitiba

Iguaçu Falls, Foz do Iguaçu

Muqueca with rice, Bahían restaurant, São Paulo

Catedral de São Pedro de Alcântara, Petrópolis

Sexy tourist beach boys, Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro

Churrascaría (buffet steak restaurant), Leblon, Rio de Janeiro

Live piranha, Amazon jungle

Pavement, Curitiba

Arpoador Beach, Rio de Janeiro

Bedroom interior, Novotel São Paulo Jaragua Convention

Wire Opera, Curitiba

Lamp post, Rio de Janeiro

Graffiti, São Paulo

Manaus Opera House

Tree stump, Ipanema Beach, Rio de Janeiro

Street corner, São Paulo

Sandcastles, Ipanema Beach, Rio de Janeiro

Japanese crafts shop, Liberdade, São Paulo

View from favela condominium, Rio de Janeiro

Liana, Amazon jungle

Pharmacy, Curitiba

Interior, Catedral Metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro

Bus stop, Curitiba

Politically incorrect (but useful!) suntan warning sign, Ipanema Beach, Rio de Janeiro

Cute tour guide, Manaus Opera House

Botanical Garden, Curitiba

Lamp post, São Paulo

Museu Imperial, Petrópolis

Grilled prawns for breakfast, Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro

Subway, Rio de Janeiro

Fat-friendly bus notice, Rio de Janeiro

Jabuticaba berries, sweet flavour, Curitiba

Para Ti Community School, Favela of Vilas Canoas, Rio de Janeiro

View from Novotel São Paulo Jaragua Convention

View of Sugarloaf Mountain, Rio de Janeiro

Cacao juice, Manaus

Museu Oscar Niemeyer, Curitiba

Insect, hotel interior, Amazon Jungle

Coixinha, between Curitiba and São Paulo

Christ the Redeemer (facsimile), Rio de Janeiro

Japanese Cultural Centre, Liberdade, São Paulo

Fruit shop, Favela of Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro

Phone booth, Manaus

Favela Chapel, Vilas Canoas, Rio de Janeiro

No Smoking Sign, São Paulo

Music videos I've been enjoying...

2010-09-14T16:54:00.003+08:00

From Kenya...

Just A Band - Ha-He

... from France...

The Toxic Avenger feat. Orelsan - N'Importe Comment

...and from the United States:

Scissor Sisters - Filthy Gorgeous (Uncensored)

Not a good day for the Singapore gay community

2010-09-10T12:20:00.002+08:00

1. Stuart Koe, founder of Fridae, has been arrested for meth possession. Possible jail time of 13 years.

http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC100910-0000070/Fridae,com-founder-charged-with-drug-possession

2. Tan Eng Hong, a 47 year-old man, has been charged under 377A for public sex.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/man-charged-over-gay-sex-act-in-toilet/story-e6frf7jx-1225916791886

Major downer this Hari Raya.