all tied up in knots

Before i start rambling on about serious stuff, or maybe not really that serious stuff (for today), just thought i would post a link to this useful webpage. Took the link from GQ, and it will come in very helpful to all who need to put on a suit, or just wear a tie.

A very comprehensive guide to ties.

Enjoy!

Been checking out some of Mr Brown’s podcasts.
Lots of interesting stuff, so please go check it out and give his site more traffic!

Oh man, check out this drum video.
This guy drums darn well, and JUGGLES too!
Even non-drummers should check this out.
madness.

Just feel like posting up a whole bunch of links today instead of writing.
No inspiration.

Here is a link to the future of transportation.
It looks cool, is fast, and is environmentally friendly.
What’s not to like about it?
Hope all cars look and work like that someday.

After so many years of coming out with hit album after hit album, I still like the classics of U2. With or without you.. One.. Just timeless classics.

And lastly, the more important news i just read off a link from intelligentsingaporean regarding the failed bid of the substation to hold a substation street party.

Here is the link to the brilliant writeup by yawningbread.

I know a lot of singaporeans will go “so?”.

Coz too many singaporeans are just not interested in the arts. Maybe its coz they equate arts with drawing, paintings, dali sculptures, exhibits at the biennale, classical music, weird plays, ballet, etc.

But art is so much more than that.
According to wikipedia, the arts is “a broad subdivision of culture, composed of many expressive disciplines.”

I don’t know about you, but i feel that the arts gives every person that avenue of free expression. Expressing what one feels, what one truly thinks without the masks of being politically correct or not stepping on anyone’s toes. Which is why i guess the arts can sometimes make people feel uncomfortable.

 

Because it is supposed to. (in a way)

 

There is something wrong, something amiss, some darkmatter, lingering within the human heart and the human mind. And the arts allows these locked-away thoughts and emotions to be brought to awareness. It also points to the flaws of humanity and paints a picture (be it visual or aural) of something which was previously a thought, previously intangible.

 

I’m trying to finish up this post quickly by the way, coz i need my sleep. So what i say might not make too much sense, and could be riffs – meaning slightly smarter comments – or just plain nonsensical rambling.

 

The limits of permissable free expression in Singapore has been brought into glaring light with the recent turn of events during the IMF/World bank summit. So there is no need for me to comment on that. Just follow the links on intelligent singaporean, xenoboy, yawningbread, etc.

 

Let the links lead you to whereever it leads you to. =)

 

Oh no, losing my train of thought.

 

Time to sleep.

 

And eka just pointed out to me that I made a rather silly comparison of attending gigs and listening to indie/experimental/rock music versus clubbing and dancing music.
Yea, those are very different things and thus a little off comparing them.
My bad.
The point i guess was about the stuff that is being fed to the masses, and what the masses want. It’s all about listenable music. Familiar stuff. Stuff that’s been said and done before a million times. But of course it is very difficult to be truly original as almost everything has been said or done before. However, with radio music, it’s sometimes just cringingly cliche. Overplaying of songs, etc.
But, who am i to argue about the laws of demand and supply?

 

Back to the subject of the arts.

 

If we aren’t given the liberty to freely express ourselves,
and we are all brainwashed to think that there’s a price,
a HUGE price to freedom of speech and expression,
how then will the arts here grow?

 

But of course we know that the whole point of the arts here is to complement the economy. To make singapore a more liveable place so that the foreign talents will set foot on this sunny island and make this their home. In the end, it’s back to square one, the question of economic benefit.

 

We and our overobsession with objectivity.

 

Just because something cannot be objectively quantified , does that thus make it that much less important or irrelevant or not even worth thinking about?

play that funky music

And before this blog turns too porleeteekerrrll…

Here are links to various bands in singapore.
I’m of course slightly biased,
as i am friends with a few of these band guys.

But listen for yourself.
Read for yourself.
Check out their gigs for yourself.
Listen for yourself.
And then judge for yourself if local music is that bad.
If only imported music from everywhere else is good.
If local = bad
If we are infact lacking musical talent in this country.

Sleeve

Camra

The Love Experiment

Phorous

Furniture (from KL)

Lunarin

Serenaide

ETC

KLPHQ (From KL)

Life Without Dreams

Leeson

Plainsunset

E.P.I.C

Ugly in the morning

Mistaken Identity

Embryo

Zero Sequence

And that only touches the tip of the iceberg as far as bands in singapore and malaysia are concerned. These are about all the links i can conveniently find when going through the friends part of each band’s myspace account. Other names off the cuff would be Tiramisu, A vacant affair, The Great Spy Experiment, The Super Illegals, The Oslo Castaways, IF, Electrico, The Observatory, The Pinholes, etc etc etc.

So, lack of music in Singapore?

Then why is it that you hardly hear any of this stuff on radio?

(well, lots of it is more experimental music. And until these various genres garner more mass appeal, i guess it will never make its way to mainstream radio. But most of these bands don’t set out with the aim of being heard on mainstream radio anyway.)

Well, enjoy all the free tracks in myspace.

So, after hearing all this, would you pay to attend a gig in singapore featuring some of these bands?

It’s also another sad point to note, that most musicians in singapore do it purely out of passion and a love for music, and not for any economic benefits or monetary gain. I don’t know of many who are playing gigs and hoping for that big break to make it big and instantly become rich. But most bands here put in hours and hours of rehearsals, put in many tiring hours of jamming and come out with original material, and then go through lots of effort to put out a good gig. But do our fellowcountrymen care? Do they appreciate all that effort and hard work?

And then…

all too often…

These bands end up playing to hardly any audience.

Coz everyone else in singapore is happily clubbing away, enjoying coverbands that are playing their favourite songs which they just heard on the radio a few hours ago (not that it is wrong to do so), and then saying that local music has no standard.
any wonder that our arts scene here is how it is?

21 grams

Just happened to come across yet another thought-provoking post. This time from xenoboy. I don’t know what it is with me, but seriously, if you surf around some of the blogs and links and allthatstuffthatisalsolinked on cyberspace, you discover a lot of interesting things. Just looking at wikipedia every other day, you learn something new each time! (but quickly forget it too). Especially refreshing (and this would also make you quite disillusioned and jaded) is the views and reports on foreign presses. It’s nice to read something without a superpro-gaaaaahmen stance for a change.

Are we selling our souls?

Ser-diiiiii-yah!

Pardon the incessant rants about the gaaahmen and the like recently. Cannot help it, thanks to all the action, pr booboos, standoffs, crazy security, and just everything.

You cannot help but think about our freedoms.
Trade-offs.
Are the trade-offs for real? Or have we all just been brainwashed from day one and likeeverobedientdrones have grown to hold dear to this philosophy that we need all the extreme measures and limits of expression to keep singapore peaceful and prosperous?

Interestingly, after reading this, this, and this…
And also reading some other contrary views like this…
and then discovering some interesting stuff about the Hydra-Wolf…
and then seeing some views on scholarships…

Well…

Shows how fragmented the views and beliefs in s’pore are.

I’m not going to comment on the above blogposts, but will leave each to form his/her own opinion after reading them.

I do admire the courage of csj though.
He’s a smart chap i believe. And to throw away one’s career and cushy lecturing job to pursue personal freedoms, freedom of speech, political freedoms…
He has definitely blazed a ballsy trail.
Albiet he has sometimes done things which I don’t believe to be very smart, but well, what do i know. I’m just an armchair observer.
We also all know the press quite well by now, and how the side of the story they present is well, yeah, you know. That point needs no mentioning especially after how the GEs were handled. It definitely opened up (and clouded up) many young minds though.
It’s quite apt, in all this furore about freedom…

to remember our national pledge.

We, the citizens of Singapore
pledge ourselves as one united people.
Regardless of race, language or religion
to build a democratic society
based on justice and equality
so as to achieve happiness,
prosperity, and progress for our nation.

Just read it again. And again.

What do you feel?
What do you think?

got brain?

Was about to sleep, but came across this brilliant piece from theintelligentsingaporean.

It’s about the whole dilemma facing singapore right now. And i truly do believe we’re at crossroads. So, what will happen in the next 5 to 10 years? Will anything change?

Here is the post i was talking about. Do check it out. 

oh the silence

Came across two interesting write-ups in yawningbread.

Restful quiet or sterile silence?

Wow! Great! The PR disaster of gargantuan proportions was a great great success! Everyone loves us, our systems, our efficiency! Money well spent!

Sad, sad.

And i do sort of agree with the what the writer says about this whole vicious cycle of fear and self-censorship. We do not dare speak. Even when we feel it’s right, even when we know we are right, we still should shut up, for fear, fear of stepping on the wrong toes, fear that big brother’s watching or listening in, fear of losing our job, fear of getting sued for defamation, fear of getting sued for defamation, oh have i said it yet? Fear of getting sued for defamation. And what do we all do at the end of the day? Just go back to our daily routines, back to the daily grind, self-censor our words thoughts and actions, and be the obedient silent yes,sir! citizens we were told to be from the day we were born.

sigh

parallels

After reading and surfing around, i just had to blog about this.

It certainly couldn’t have come at a better time (or worse depending on your bias) for our gahmen. We’ve even made it to the main page of google’s news. headlines baby!

What parallels could one draw from the NKF scandal? Don’t forget, don’t forget.

And the story of the moment: the protests, bans, police actions, etc.

Both articles taken from yawningbread.org

Also check out my link to intelligent singaporean.
A collection of links to articles and other interesting posts and stuff.

I’m now wondering.

Like in the case of the nkf…

Could the current action against the FEER cause any backlash?
Furthermore with the international furore and tonnes of international delegates flooding our little island… What is to be of this entire debacle?

let’s all sit tight and watch it all unfold

Actually…

Actually…

Originally uploaded by backbeats.

This is a really nice shop selling lots of cool stuff.
I love the decor and layout of the shop. Quite quirky, but definitely has charm and personality, unlike many of the other stores around in singapore which are soul-less and just sleek.

This shop changes their collections every few weeks, so everything is always pretty new and fresh. Also, by only bringing in very limited quantities of any particular piece of clothing, it is definitely going to make that piece of clothing you buy quite unique. Less chances of that bumpintosomeoneelsewearingexactlythesamething thing happening.

Really happening jeans, t shirts, polos, both guys and girls stuff, bags and pencil cases made of recycled materials, funky shoes…
What are you waiting for?
Not for the totally mainstream kinda clothing person though.
Jeans are priced around 230ish, while tshirts are pretty reasonable at around 35-45 a pop.

It is located along Seah Street.
The street directly opposite Bras Basah Comples.
The shop is on the 2nd storey, with interesting steps leading up to it.
Find this museum of toys place along Seah Street, and and a few doors away is this gem of a shop hidden away.

Trying to overdo the smart-aleckyness

Trying to overdo the smart-aleckyness

Originally uploaded by backbeats.

And.. we just had to outdo the smart-aleck.

Overkill and pointless, but hey, it definitely highlights a rather pointless joke. Haha, I wonder how someone who is actually looking for the “what customers want” book would react.

And which book he/she would end up buying.

Smart aleck

Smart alec

Originally uploaded by backbeats.

Couldn’t help but snap this when I came across it in Borders.

Probably the work of someone as bored and boliao as iliyas and i.