Thursday, July 30, 2009

Orlando pix!!!

A few more photographs from our incredibly consumerist summer family gradu-vacation:


3D ride, Disney's Magical Kingdom.


Lion King musical, Disney's Animal Kingdom.


Ride of Tomorrow, Epcot.


Converted trailer, Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort



Munchkinland, Disney's Hollywood Studios.


Spectromagic show, Main Street USA.


Parents before taking roller coaster, Pioneer Land.



Parents after taking roller coaster, Disney's Animal Kingdom.



Asian-style ice cream stand, Disney's Animal Kingdom


"Chinese" dragon, Epcot.



Lobby, African Wilderness Lodge.


Sleeping Beauty wigs, Magic Kingdom.



Breakfast, Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort


It's A Small World Ride, Magic Kingdom


German exposition, Epcot.


Haunted Mansion Ride, Magic Kingdom.


Awesome German toys, Epcot.



Euphemistic prostitute restroom, Main Street USA.


Dinner, African Wilderness Lodge.


Before the Parade, Magic Kingdom.


Teacup Ride, Magic Kingdom.



Backdrop, Disney Hollywood Studios.


Toddler bellydance workshop, Epcot

Monday, July 27, 2009

The poetry of Dr Wong Yoon Wah

I discovered this guy's poems in the National Library Singapore writing stacks. He wrote mainly in Mandarin, but one of his volumes, "Beyond Symbols", published 1984 (yeah, that was the clincher), includes original work in English as well as a few translations.

He's often descends into purple prose (check out his absurdly honorific "Fruis of Nanyang") but some of his work's rather good. I'm particularly alarmed at the fact that the eponymous poem sequence, "Beyond the Symbols", is an almost direct precursor of my poem sequence "Translations", published in "last boy" in 2006.

Basically, both of them are textual reinterpretations of the embedded images in Chinese ideograms. The main difference is that he uses ancient jiaguwen whereas I, rebelliously, use simplified jiantizi.

He's born in 1941. That means he's probably still alive out there. Hmmm. Any leads?

from "Beyond the Symbols"

1. Morning


The sun standing on a reed
is drinking wind
and eating dew.
It has vomited out the shadows of night
leaving them hidden under the dry leaves.


2. East

The sun nailed to a sacred tree
is facing the door of mystery
in the spring, summer, autumn and winter.



5. River


The rapid current
with its waves
cut me apart.
My voice is on the right,
While my body is one the left.

The wondering monk on the shore
on hearing my voices
is unable to find me in the river.


13. Man

Are you the man
who is hunch-backed
holding a stone ax in his hand
and crossing the frozen river
in the darkness?

He lives in the darkness of a stone cave.
Sometimes he bursts into laughing,
and stretches his long long arm
to draw out the fire from the heart of rock
like a poisonous snake.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Film director Yasmin Ahmad (1958-2009)

She passed away last night. See here. Yesterday there was already news that she'd collapsed during her press conference from a stroke.

I'd admired her work ever since I watched Sepet. Or maybe before that, when I was doing my internship at Young and Rubicam KL and I found out about her Petronas National Holiday ads. It's Malaysians like her, I thought, that put Singaporeans with all our superficial racial harmony agendas, to shame.



Unfortunately, the only time I met her was at a free screening of Muallaf, which was awkward because I didn't actually like the movie, since it pulled its punches. But of course it was daring enough to actually take on the issue of Islam, and what filmmakers in Singapore have dared to do that? (I know of one, but he was called up for questioning by the ISD and his film was confiscated and he was forbidden to even discuss what happened thereafter.)

She was scheduled to shoot her first film in Singapore next year. It would've been called "Go, Thaddeus!" She'd already proven her worth with two short films advertising the importance of family love.

She quite liked us, although we kept on mispronouncing the titles of her films. We never censored and marginalised her and called her a traitor to her race the way Malaysia did. Of course, if she'd been born in Singapore, she would've been outspoken about the ironies we have here, and we would've destroyed her in our own way just the same.

I'm glad at least that she lived to see the elections of 2008, with the breaking through of a post-racial Malaysian politics. If only I knew there were other film directors like her around.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

If you haven't read Loo Zihan's NTU valedictorian speech...

... well, you should. Click here.


The poster for his short film "Threshold" got censored just before his speech, which makes it a little more than the usual sappy go-forth-and-prosper-fest.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Yeah, so I'm feeling productive.

So productive that I decided to add an "Upcoming Appearances" section to my sidebar and completely change my blog template!

Also, advance notification: I'm curating and emceeing this year's ContraDiction V, our annual queer literary reading, on Sunday 30 October at 7pm. It's part of this year's IndigNation Festival, as always. Full calendar here.

And in other news, the Onion lampoon news team has sold itself to the Chinese.


Police Still Searching For Missing Productive, Obedient Woman


China’s Andy Rooney Has Some Funny Opinions About How Great The Chinese Government Is

Oh Onion. You're so delightfully offensive. And too frickin' big for my blogger. What's up with that?

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

I've got two poems in "Writing Singapore", the first truly comprehensive anthology of English lit in Singapore, launched just tonight.

Unfortunately I neglected to bring a camera, and my mum's absconded with the volume in question, so I can't really advertise it photographically.

Still, it's really interesting! About a quarter devoted to pre-1965 writing, and another quarter to the 1965-1990 period (both of which contain many writers I've never heard of).

Unfortunately, it's expensive: $75 a copy. But maybe you can get a discount somehow. The two poems, by the way, are "Crystal Pear" and "Equidistance", both of which are extremely gay.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Blast From the Past: Straits Times, August 30, 1959

Came across this during my research. It'd make a great movie, doncha think?

“A new all-woman gang has made its appearance in the Singapore underworld. Known as the Red Butterfly Gang, it offers protection to prostitutes and bar girls.



Most of the “Red Butterflies” are themselves former prostitutes. They impose their “protection” services for a monthly fee. Those who refuse their services are usually beaten up. Their identification mark is a red butterfly tattooed on the upper part of the thigh.

They operate in the Sungei Road area and, like their male counterparts, they use acid bombs, sticks and knives. The “Red Butterflies” also offer their sercies to housewives whose husbands have gone astray. For a fee they will beat up the woman who enticed the man.”

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

"Destino" by Dali and Disney

Lo and behold, the 6-min short film that Salvador Dali and Walt Disney began in 1945 and didn't get finished till 2003.



It's WICKED. Incidentally, anyone else wanna watch Sumpah Orang Minyak at the National Museum's Night Festival?

Sunday, July 05, 2009

I'm at the Marathon!

Weirdly enough, we're part of the NAC team. One of the Literary Arts civil servants read too (not sure if I should state her name).

Alvin's reading now. First he did a bit of his autobiography, now he's doing Wena Poon.

Earlier on we had the guy who wrote "American Gangster".

I'm up in a while. Alvin's warning me he's gonna eat into my time. Pictures in a bit.

Saturday, July 04, 2009

Singapore Writers Festival Reading Marathon - I'm on from 3am to 3:30am!

Insomniacs: Do you feel frustrated every time you stay awake beyond the witching hour while the rest of your friends are soundly under the covers?

Clubbers: Don’t you always feel that the night ends too early?

So, on the morning of Sunday 5 July, from 1am to 7am at the Central National Library foyer, do something different, take a break from your routine: support literary arts!


Show your support for this one-of-a-kind Singapore Writers Festival (SWF) pre-festival event. The SWF team and some of Singapore’s more well-known writers will be reading a selection of homegrown works in public. Readers include Felix Cheong (The Call from Crying House), O Thiam Chin (Free Falling Man), Aaron Lee (Five Right Angles), Ng Yi-Sheng (Last Boy), Alvin Pang (City of Rain), Heng Siok Tian (Crossing the Chopsticks) and Jeffrey Lim (The Coffin That Wouldn't Bury).

Coffee, tea and biscuits to keep us awake are welcome, but just stopping by to listen to our readings are fine too!

Organised as part of READ! Singapore 2009 by the NAC.

UPDATE: It's actually happening already! Schoolkids were reading when I went Friday afternoon.



Seeya there!

Thursday, July 02, 2009

texts june 2009

Just finished Gilbert Koh's "Two Baby Hands" last night. Some really really great poems at the beginning, insightful resonant ones throughout, but a worrying number of pieces that end without really accomplishing anything. Still worth reading.

In other news, WHOA! Surfeit of graphic novels.

*POETRY*
+Maya Angelou’s “Poems” (reread)
+Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge’s “Nest”
=Gilbert Koh’s “Two Baby Hands”

*FICTION*
=Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith’s “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”
+Yukio Mishima’s “The Decay of the Angel”
+Eva Ibbotson’s “Which Witch?”

*NON-FICTION*
+Lauren Slater’s “Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century”
+David A. Price’s “The Pixar Story”
+Maggie Koerth-Baker’s “Be Amazing”

*GRAPHIC TEXTS*
+Milo Manara and Jaradowsky’s “Borgia: Blood For the Pope” and “Borgia: Power and Incest”
+Rob Ryan’s “This Is For You”
+Kehinde Wiley’s “Black Light”
+Miss Lasko-Gross’s “A Mess of Everything”
+Alan Moore’s “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century: 1910”
=David Mack’s “Kabuki: The Alchemy”

*PERFORMANCES*
+some weird meta skits at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade
+New York Theatre Workshop’s "Things of Dry Hours"
+Joavien Ng and daniel k’s “Forward Moves”
+The Observatory’s “Invisible Room”
The Suzuki Company of Toga’s “Electra”
+Rotozaza’s “Etiquette”
Spell #7 and Bodies in Flight’s =“Dream/Work” and +“Dream/Home”
+Lin Zhao Hua Theatre Studio’s “The Cherry Orchard”
ECNAD’s “Songs for Gaia”
Arts Fission’s “Bird Call” [I was in it so I can’t really rate it can I?]
+Singapore International Piano Festival's "Young Virtuoso Recital: Yao Xiao Yun and Nicholas Loh"

*EXHIBITIONS*
Museum of the City of New York’s =“Mannhatta/Manhattan”, “Amsterdam/New Amsterdam”, +“Stoops of New York”, =“New York Interiors”, +“New York Toy Stories”, +“Protect” and +“Perform: A History of New York Theater and Broadway”
+The Met’s “Permanent Collection”, “The Model As Muse” and “Francis Bacon: A Centenary Retrospective”
+KYTV’s “Pop Station: Singapore 2009”

*FILMS*
+Henry Selick‘s “Coraline”
=Peyton Reed’s “Yes Man”
+Sam Raimi’s “Drag Me to Hell”
+Shawn Levy’s ”Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian”
Sinema@OldSchool’s “Sinema Showoff”
=Conrad Vernon and Rob Letterman’s “Monsters vs Aliens”

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

The latest about HERE

aka Tzu Nyen's film, which I keep on blogging about despite not actually having seen it.

After a resounding opening last weekend, HERE continues its run at the Picturehouse this week

To those who have seen the film, thank you and do help to spread the word!

For those who have not yet experienced HERE - don't miss out on Singapore's unique feature film entry to the Directors' Fortnight, Cannes Film Festival 2009, by filmmaker and visual artist Ho Tzu Nyen! Come experience this singular cinematographic adventure!

Screening times (tickets available from Wednesday evening, 1 July)

Thursday 2/7 - 9.30pm
Friday 3/7 - 7pm
Saturday 4/7 - 4.30pm
Sunday 5/7 - 4.30pm
Monday 6/7 - 7.30pm
Tuesday 7/7 - 7.30pm
Wednesday 8/7 - 9.30pm

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What reviewers around the world have to say about HERE

"HERE... relentlessly forms, destroys and reforms, a different species among local films"
***1/2
- Eista Lee, zbNOW (translation)

"one of the most memorable features to have appeared recently on the local movie scene"
***1/2
- Yong Shu Hoong, my paper

"ranks among the best and most expressive films yet to come out of Singapore"
- Mathias Ortmann, sinema.sg

" a breath of fresh air"
- Tan Heng Hau, moviexclusive.com

"HERE is unlike any Singapore film we have ever seen"
- fridae.com

"there's a method to the madness here"
- Stefan S, A Nutshell Review

"Ho's interplay of camera and sound achieves hypnotic serenity, even, eventually, dreamy melancholy."
***1/2
- Whang Yee Ling, 8Days

"a deep reflection on cinema and on human nature"
- Bruno Carmelo, Nisimazine.

"A triumph for a first-time director"
- Amanda de Guzman, The Business Times

"a beautiful aesthetic"
- l'Humanité

"a strange sensorial experience"
- DVDRAMA

"a highly sophisticated visual language and inventive montage, the story intrigues, captivates"
- les Fiches du Cinéma

"an entry point into the singular artistic universe of the filmmaker"
- www.evene.fr

"Acquiring a ticket for this film, is accepting to immerse oneself in a cinematographic adventure."
- Tadah! Blog


TICKETING DETAILS

I. Tickets available at
- The Cathay box office, 2 Handy Road, level 5
- www.cathay.com.sg (from 1 July 2009)

2. Discounts:
- 12% discount on tickets purchased at box-office only with UOB Visa card.

3. About the film
www.herethefilm.com

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Washington DC pix!!!

More shots from what I'm affectionately calling our American family vacation on steroids...


Spacepod and inaudible guide, Smithsonian Air and Space Museum


Family eating, Chinatown.


Remarkably realist totem, African Art Museum


Brother bemused, Capitol


WW2 fighter plane, Air and Space Museum


Emanations, Library of Congress


Father fooling around, Capitol


Nigerian mask, Museum of African Arts


Aeroplane interior miniatures, Museum of Air and Space


Disney Dumbo ride car (decommissioned), American History Museum


White House


White House protestors


Mother at guacamole demonstration, Oyamel nouveau Mexican restaurant


"Black corn truffles", Oyamel nouveau Mexican restaurant


Astronaut fecal bag, Air and Space Museum



Indian tourists, FDR Memorial



Capitol Dome, Capitol


Brother's ex-roommate Brent, nearby suburbia


Surprising Chinese-American name, Vietnam War Memorial


Badly-lit family, Lincoln Memorial


Precolumbian Indian and African babies, Library of Congress


"Night at the Museum" props, the Castle


Star Spangled Banner re-enactment, American History Museum


Sleeping lady, Haupt Garden


Kermit the Frog muppet and imitator, American History Museum


Bucolic scene, the Castle

Monday, June 29, 2009

HERE by Ho Tzu Nyen... still in theatres

If you didn't catch HERE at the Picturehouse last week, never fear: it's still showing for a while longer. It'll be on from Thursday 2 July to Sunday 5 July, specific times to be uploaded to the Picturehouse site by Wednesday.



For more about the film, click here: www.herethefilm.com

Sunday, June 28, 2009

I've reached my quota on Picasa picture storage.

So to tide you over till my next pic-heavy post, here's some Thomas the Tank Engine yaoi.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

We're performing tonight!

I'm talking about ARTS Fission's A Garden Affair 013: Bird Call, of course. Tickets are sold out (well, it's free, but we've got a capacity of 40 and we've got bookings of about 65 each night. So yeah, we're sold out).



Unfortunately the dance studio is not very photogenic:


From left to right: Elysa Wendi (choreographer), Scarlett, Shirley, Mayu, Edwin, Bobbi and Lynn.


Look how they turn the simplest of tasks into an artistic act! No lah; I'm seriously impressed at how the ARTS Fission troupe willingly commits itself to practice, teaching, brainstorming, researching and sai gang. They're a really cool group of people.

I do have a few gorgeous pics, but they'd give away some of the ideas we have. So I'll post them after the show.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

HERE by Ho Tzu Nyen

Posting this for a friend-cum-really cool local artist:

Singapore film selected for the Directors’ Fortnight, Cannes Film Festival 2009,
runs from 25 June - 1 July 2009 at The Picturehouse



I. Ticketing details

1. Showtimes
Dates : 25 June - 1 July 2009
Time : one show time daily from Monday to Friday, additional screenings on weekend (2nd week run to be advised

25th June 2009, Thu 19:20
26th June 2008, Fri 21:40
27th June 2009, Sat, 13:00, 15:00. 21:40
28 June 2009, Sunday, 12:50, 19:40


2. Tickets available at
- The Cathay box office, 2 Handy Road, level 5
- www.cathay.com.sg (from 18 June 2009)

3. Discounts:
- 12% discount on tickets purchased at box-office only with UOB Visa card.

4. Group bookings / Director Q&A
- Private hall screenings can be arranged. Contact Cathay cinema at 6736-7228 or cinddie_teo@cathay.com.sg with preferred dates and times.
- Halls available on a first-come-first serve basis. 2 weeks’ advance notice to the cinema preferable (for programming reasons).
- A 25-minute post-screening Q&A session with the director can be arranged, depending on his availability. Please contact media@gsmprjct.com to enquire.

5. About the film
www.herethefilm.com


II. The Picturehouse Explores: HERE - Dialogue Session with Director Ho Tzu Nyen

Date : Sat 27 June 2009
Time : 3.00pm, 5.00pm
Venue: The Picturehouse Lounge.
Level 5, The Cathay, 2 Handy Rd

Free Of Charge. Light refreshments will be served. Film screenings before and after. RSVP your attendance to thepicturehouse@cathay.com.sg

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

My god! Why did no-one tell me the President of Madagascar was so sexy?



That's Andry Rajoelina, the transitional President (they've been having some trouble down there recently) with his equally hot wife Mialy Majoelina. He's only 35 years old. Via Madagascar Not the Movie.

Granted, it might be the photo. He doesn't look drop-dead hump-your-sofa gorgeous in every shot:





But he still beats the pants off Barack.

Alright, back to work now...

UPDATE: Er, I suppose I'd be an evil dick-thinking bastard if I didn't also mention that he was installed without elections after a military coup, and there are loads of protests by the populace (not against Mr Hawtness specifically, but more about the lack of due process). He might just be an ambitious ethnic rabble-rouser dictator wannabe who happens to have a pretty face. So er, I'm just giving him his hotornot endorsement, not a mandate to rule. Just sayin'.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

What do I do when I have a crazy week with too many deadlines due?

I blog silly videos:



...oh god, I just realised my 10 year-old niece reads this blog. Kimberlyn! The above video is... naughty. If you watch it, don't tell your parents.

I'm gonna be on the radio on Monday at 10am talking about Bird Call, btw.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Want to help the Iranian twitter revolution?

Eli Sanders says (with some references to the New York Times):

In our comments, and in comments on other blogs, a number of people have been asking what they can do from here in the U.S. to help the Iranian protesters. Here's a small, easy thing that's being requested by Iranians who are using Twitter to organize:

Help hide Iranian protesters: change your Twitter location to Tehran, time to +3:30 GMT.

The idea is to confuse the Iranian authorities. If every Twitter user in the world is suddenly based in Tehran, that means a lot more accounts for Iranian security operatives to comb through as they try to figure out who to track down and threaten—or worse.

Via Slog.

Garden Affair 013: Bird Call

Next Thursday and Friday, I'm involved in a contemporary dance performance called Bird Call, produced by ARTS Fission group and choreographed by Elysa Wendi. It's centred around the theme of birds, so I might have to do some dressing up in feathers. :)




Garden Affair 013 - Bird Call
Thursday 25 & Friday 26 June 2009, 8.30 pm
Garden Studio, Cairnhill Arts Center
126 Cairnhill Road #01-07/09
Within (tedious) walking distance from Newton MRT

Monday, June 15, 2009

Someone made me fanart!

Her name's Marylyn and this is what she drew, based on my poem "kami/kaze: a correspondence".

Thursday, June 11, 2009

I recently participated in KYTV's POP Station...

... thus yielding one of the most embarrassing videos of myself, ever.



The exhibition's showing at the Esplanade Jendela Studio till 29 June.

Oh, and I made a second one, too:

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Sunday, June 07, 2009

I'm back in Singapore!

And what a relief. I am not as free a spirit as most people assume: I am quite comfortable defined by work and community.

My last stop in North America this time was New York, which I've been revisiting every year since 2007 to follow up on loose ends - unresolved plotlines and relationships from my student life.

This time, I think the novel's over. Yes, I still have dearly loved friends and compatriots in New York, but the real passion's gone, moved on.



I was staying with George, an amazing and dangerously young Hunter College student I bumped into last year at the Pride Parade. He speaks fluent Korean, Spanish (complete with a madrileño accent), French and Greek (Ancient and modern), and now he's learning Chinese. Here he is, avoiding his summer classwork by watching his favourite multilingual Youtubes.



This one's by a Tunisian-French rapper. Means "I have a complaint". Formidable, visually as well as in text and spirit.



Both George and I are agreed that Wang is one of the finest specimens of the male form on the planet Earth, and that Rain's cuteness is overrated.



I can't remember if George said that the lead singer of this Spanish group is transsexual, or if that was someone else. The title means "More is more".

I guess one reason I'm putting these Youtubes up is to show off the fact that I supposedly speak the languages therein (not Korean, but Mandarin), but the truth is that George groks these so much more deeply and wholly and casually than I do. I mean, I can barely figure out what someone's saying in an American English song.

Language is supposed to be the basis of my career, but really, compared with someone like him, I fail.

Back to the small pond. Back to work. Build on my strengths, not on my weaknesses. Never stop making stuff. Never despair.

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

May texts

*POETRY*
+Elizabeth Alexander’s “The Venus Hottentot”
+Mary Oliver’s “Owls and Other Fantasies”
+Ryan Mecum’s “Zombie Haiku”

*FICTION*
+Max Frisch’s “Homo Faber”
+Gaile Parkin's “Baking Cakes in Kigali”
+Neil Gaiman's "The Graveyard Book"
+Chuck Palhniuk's "Pygmy"

*NON-FICTION*
+Jean Baudrillard’s “The Spectre of Terrorism”
+Dan Savage’s “The Commitment”

*GRAPHIC TEXTS*
+ René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo's “Asterix in Switzerland”
+Anne Taintor’s “I Can’t Be Good All the Time”

*ANTHOLOGIES*
=“New Swiss Writing”

*PERFORMANCES*
Entity Theatre Workshop's "Equus"
+A bunch of shows at Walt Disney World
+=A bunch of shows on the Freedom of the Seas, Nassau

*EXHIBITIONS*
Singapore Art Museum's "Threads" and ="An Unbroken Line: The Wu Guanzhong Donation Collection"
+"Thomas Jefferson's Monticello"
+The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, National Museum of African Art, National Museum of the American Indian
+The Capitol

*FILMS*
=Nick Oceano's ”Pedro”
+P. J. Hogan's ”Confessions of a Shopaholic”
Iain Softley's “Inkheart”
+Yōjirō Takita's “Departures”
+Ron Howard's “Frost/Nixon”
=Chris Williams and Byron Howard's “Bolt”
+A bunch of things in Walt Disney World
=Steven Spielberg's “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull”