Chingay was a rip off!

Thank goodness i didn't go!

I would have had a worse day if I went! Already feeling so down and out before exam week, I wanted to go witness how bad the parade could be since i had bad reports about it. I saw it on tv and i nearly hurled. I regret not making the soft news article more negative...

Chingay’s ethnicity—Malay, Chinese, Russian?
By Chia Kylie

“If the purpose of Chingay today is to boost tourism, I am sure tourists will be eager to discover more about Chinese culture in this part of the world, rather than sample an attempt at mimicking a Disney parade,” said Mr Nge Tuck Long in a forum letter to Straits Times last year.

Mr Chan Xiang Ju, a photographer agrees: “If I wanted entertainment, I’d watch some Hollywood movie instead.”

Case in point, is the purpose of the Chingay Parade becoming too watered down? Or is it just incorporating so many cultures that his Mardi Gras seems to be exaggerated already? Some argue that Chingay is increasingly a white elephant, however on the lighter side, there are more benefits that Chingay might still offer us.

Anyone who has gone to view the Parade live will have experienced the atmosphere, the entertaining costumes and decorated floats that traverse the parade grounds. There is also interactivity as you get to walk with the performers and immerse into the spirit of the crowd; Mr Chan even complimented the effort that “with Singapore being a globalised city, it would be good to introduce Singaporeans to others’ cultures”. Such are the beneficial points of the Parade, another being that it is good to have nation-wide events year round to de-stress Singaporeans.

But one would also discover that everyone would be lost about what was going on. “There are different cultural performances, but you don’t hear the emcees saying what type of dance it is or the purpose of it,” said Mr Fahmi Raihan who watched the parade first-hand. “Someone has to explain to, example, their children as it is very noisy there.” The parade, seemingly, defeats its purpose if spectators don’t know the significance of the performances and if simple harmonious values cannot be instilled in the younger generation. It is demeaning that organisers do not consider the spectators and it is one area that can be improved in.


Of course, other justifiable means that Chingay seems to deviate from the four main races in Singapore is that the different organisations, like People’s Association Youth Movement (PAYM) and Singapore SOKA Association, would churn ideas based only on their interpretation of the theme provided. Last year’s was Wonderland, hence it used insects, flower petals and elves to bring out the wonderland in youth. The ants came together to collect the food for themselves while butterflies flew around.

The question is whether we should try to create themes that are more in line with our own four cultures and reserve it only for the Chinese festivities? Or do we let the show go on and keep things spiced? In the position of the organisers, one would choose to stay relevent and loud in hope of maintaining or even luring audiences to the parades, so it is as more a business prospect than it is an ethical issue.

On another note, Mr Chan feels Chingay still serve its purpose as it is a tourist attraction which would aid in boosting the economical sector in Singapore. “Not only does it boost our economy, we also have foreign broadcasters and reporters coming to broadcast on Chingay because of its culture,” said Mr Gary Mo, secretary of PAYM Joo Chiat CC.

However, taking it a bit further, layman Mr Marcus Tay takes a more negative stand. He states that the parade mirrors Singapore society taking a more globalised route, paralleled with the influx of foreign talents and such. He argues “Singapore is losing its culture and becoming less unique now that it has become a rojak (messily mixed) country”.

There is no doubt that Singapore has become so racially diverse we might be losing our roots soon. But it is an inevitable fate that foreigners would flock to our country because we might be the only racially harmonious and secure country in the world now. We have a choice to continue celebrating our rich cultural diversity and forever hold our peace with foreigners, or to condemn the country for being so mixed and forever outrightly discriminating against people of a different colour. Should we choose to embrace change is up to the individual to decide.

the Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus is up to your imagination to fathom

Heath as Tony Shepherd, with a sore neck after getting strung up by loansharks to the underside of a bridge.

Trailer: http://www.doctorparnassus.co.uk/

I squealed at Johnny Depp again when he appeared in the Imaginarium the very first time! Darn, I waited an hour for him to show up and just when my hope of ever seeing him in a proper movie script was dying, he skipped into the mirror of magical proportions and revealed his alter personality in the dream world. Sooooo HOT! when he daintily pranced off some lily pads, which was one customer's imagination, and siddled up to her as she admired herself in a mirror. Then flourishing his masquerade mask and finally showing himself to be the persuasive sweet talker version of Tony Shepherd, I whooped for the next 5 mins and gushed crazily as the words came flowing smoothly out of his honey-combed lips. Woots!

For the scene where Johnny appeared, he was playing the part of swindler Tony but whilst in the mirror of Imaginarium, he altered to be the best of a cunning yet sincere Tony split-personality, trying to sell inner peace and getting customers to part with their valuables and cash, which he succeeded easily. The idea was to get as much money as possible for their little play and rickety stage, but Dr Parnassus had far more pressing matters in mind than those trivials.

Dr Parnassus had to clear his wager with the devil or just sell his daughter’s life to him on her 16^th birthday in exchange for the doctor’s own immortal life. A bad choice he made 600 years ago. And since then, the devil had paid him many a visit to spend his eternity whilst roaming the earth. Then a new wager that whoever got the 1^st 5 souls (by means of the Imaginarium, on whether the person makes the right choice n becomes reborn or makes the wrong choice n goes straight to hell) will get the girl. Valentino, of course, is vexxed and later throws a fit at her father for accepting the bet. Find out if she lives or not.

Her admirer Anton, fellow actor for the stage performance of Dr Parnassus’ Imaginarium the travelling caravan, stays on for her sake but finally meets his love rival when Tony Shepherd, a philantrophist and eventually philanderer, crosses their path and keeps a low profile by helping them with their show. He is played by Heath Ledger, the finest performance yet after his disturbing but stunning portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight. You could see an element of demented nervousness and professional pretence from the Joker when he acts as Tony, and you can imagine he was still on drugs when he changed his acting style from gallant knight in A Knight’s Tale to timid ghost hunter in Brothers Grimm (What an idiot, what a waste of talent.)This is the film he never completed, hence the use of other actors’ faces to represent his alter egos. They are, in order, Heath, Johnny when the first real customer entered he followed into the Imaginarium and he became a smooth talking salesman, Jude Law in his own Imagination, and Colin Farrel the evil personality, running away from the press, in his own Imagionation too.

Oh whatever… If you want the plot, go watch the DVD release! I’m supposed to talk about Johnny and how he fared for the 5 min scene. I thought it was the coolest 5 mins worth of script he ever said. Even when it didn’t seem much of a plot where he had to lead the first customer in a dance for her entertainment, he seemed to remain suave about it cos he seemed uncomfortable taking Heath’s role while in the Imaginarium. What rocked was that he was given the good guy alternate personality for Tony Shepherd. But while this scene was detached from the rest of Tony’s appearances in the Imaginarium, other anomalies would be spotted too as the movie is very abstract and subject to higher criticism. Johnny would have tugged more heart strings if he were the one hanging from the post tho, but he couldn’t play the bad guy for the end scene. It’s not him.

Watch Dr Parnassus only if you have the attention span of a housewife to Hong Kong dramas. Warning: not a show to be watched with your friends, especially when they don’t know who’s Johnny. I’d rate this a good 3.5 out of 5.

Have a break!... Have a leg cast

Lewis stinks... or is that perfume?

Okay, so he saved my butt for Issues and Viewpoints article presentation, where we sat with a partner in front of the teacher and poured out our views on the stand the author made of the topic like, music piracy declines 'cos of new legal sites and litigations, iPhones are our life, drink for 23 and above... He just about had all the info researched to debunk all claims the poor author stated, even the statistics were flushed down the toilet like paper and his fallacies (which were few) were twisted upside down and shaken like a bully getting at a scrawny kid's coins.

So litigations against illegal file-sharers are about 37,000 (estimate from Lewis) and not the suggested 18,000 from the anonymous man, hence the supposed effectiveness of the RIAA, Recording Industry Association of America. Embarrassing though it is that many more networks keep sprouting like mushrooms despite the crackdown, Lewis says the RIAA is useful in that aspect. He actually agrees and praises something politically related! It is rare to have him say that 'cos he's anti-govt. Stark raving mad against anything that suggests good governance or members of parliament.

And it is because of that I get stark raving mad back at him! Him and his anti-political agendas! Everytime he opens his mouth, a bunch of unsolicited, effusive chatter tumbles out and you're wrapped up in his words, trying to figure out the first sentence when he's already on the 3rd paragraph and before you know it, you're agreeing with his every word. There's no chance to interrupt either, hence the deep ingraining and ceaseless brainwashing if you don't release yourself from his clutches quickly.

     'The government is a wreck--they call themselves a democracy but they are authoritarians, at Hitler level,' he says.

     'But if you look at it another way, they do deserve to be in the government--they did bring Singapore up to what we are...' I try to rebutt.

     'If you look closely at the hierarchy system, there's no such thing as Minister Mentor or Senior Minister in democracy. The government made it up! So you see it is our Ministers who don't dare to step down because they still want to continue running the country like they always have for the last 50 yrs. They are afraid the moment they go, some opposition idiot will take over the PM position and turn the country upside down...' and so it goes.

It because of his voluble opinions and quick ramblings the reticent like one of his friends Trevers got so imbued on the sad topic of the government running our lives that he became so depressive about life (ok, he had some family problems to accompany that, but his blatant distaste for the government was no doubt born from none other than LEWIS!). We had an ehtnography project and Lewis said interviewing his friend on the problem 'How to make students enjoy their Poly education more even if they dislike it' was a good idea as he was in an engineering course to escape NS and pass the time while he pursued a cert in Piano and Guitar. That's when I found out about Trever's take on life.

Happiness: He feels it is unattainable in Singapore because of the govt.

Life: Depressing and frustrating 'cos of Singaporeans monotonity and govt's spoon-feeding.

I went back to Lewis and screamed at him. He was the bane of the poor oppressed Christian. Then Lewis so shamelessly tried to support his claims after we finished our ethnography presentation to the teacher. I was prepared for it and got rather angry with him for that. Pity for Trevers. I'd been down that same lane and have become the quite care-free person. I hope I can help the poor fool get out of the rut. Or Trevers too...

SP Escapade so major it hurt

It's a thrill... It's a nightmare...

No! It's not refering to MJ's Thriller!... lol

I'm talking about Singapore Poly's Escapade last Saturday where we had O' Level students come have an overnight monster celebration from dusk till dawn (enjoying a sunrise at Vivocity too!). All the media clubs in school had a field day covering the event 'live' on the website. Sad that I only had 1 photo chosen onto the Escapade site. Sheesh!

It was a blast, everyone rocked till 7 am and were all still lively and kicking when they went off (I was freezing sleeping in vid clubroom). But I could have stayed awake from all that heart-pumping action and eye-candy and Fashion shows and handsome band performers like Electrico's bassist... =P however,

My feet had taken its toll and gave way after a whole night in damned Converse shoes that gave blisters and hell from walking only. WALKING! I thought they would bleed out if I walked anymore. I had trasversed the entire campus about 3 times unintelligently running to get footages to the Editor and trying to following the groups around to catch their interactions. Well, praise be to all the organisers! Campus introduction... then a successful major trip to Vivo and still being able to rock it all the way home is no small feat.

Zouk DJ.Yay!

My memorable moments don't lie in the event that was the talk of the town. Rather, it was my first trip on Kenny's (fellow videographer) motorbike which I took in secret oath never to lay hands on. (My bro had created a lasting scare when he had his fair share of biking accidents that nearly took his life, and their bikes were identical Yamahas.) We were to go get midnight dinner at Mac's and he suggested taking the bike to Bukit Timah. I hesitated on seeing the speedster and the height of the pillion driver's seat. For an indeterminate moment, the helmet in my hand, the rotund Kenny grinning expectantly, Rainer tiring waiting for a response, I gave in to temptation.

I fumbled with the helmet all around my head like a fool uknown of shoelaces. Slipped the visor, and awkwardly stepped into the pillion's seat, then waited for him to tell me that there were seatbelts on the left hand. The only security was him, his overlarge paunch, which I found was an excellent protection against the wind and the easiest I clung to. He alleged I could sit back and enjoy the wind, but when he hit 30 kph and we had left Rainer behind, i began to whimper that we should go slower. I began to shake and contemplated getting off the bike already as we were dangerously close to the rough tar of the road and it was whipping past us at speeds I never reached on my bicycle. It was the rollercoaster going up the first hill, awaiting the plunge, but I didn't see it coming. I wanted to suggest I get off now but the worst came when he reached the gate, exited and revved the motor.

I think I screamed... or it was a silent one. The visor popped down over my nose, the scratches on it blurring my sight of the road. i got frightened of an inevitable fate and hung on tighter to Kenny's blubber. It was the only thing I felt most safe at the time. It was like one of those rollercoaster rides where you drop 50m down from heaven! I dared only make some small protests against going too fast and only managing to suppress a scream from all the 90 kph he kept hitting at.

Throughout the trip, despite the speed, I miraculously stayed gripped on the bike, and my feet had gone cold and numb. I think i hugged the bike too hard. Not hard enough though as I kept sliding onto the driver's seat when he braked. After we got back on terra firma (Ground sweet ground!!), he ordered meals and drinks, at which I began to wonder how he would feel having one side of his abdomen burned while the other side froze. I laughed at the idea.

But, I don't know if embarrassingly or ecstatically, I'll admit I had the best bike ride of my life. I felt the speed and the freedom albeit not without some ugly thoughts. My mum would have flipped if she saw me =))

15 has 27 cuts! Cut Chop Slice

Pic taken from Wiki's 15: The Movie.

Trailer: http://royston-tan.blogspot.com/2006/06/15-theatrical-trailer-dvd-released.html

I haven't watched it 'cos it was released 2006 in DVD, is R(A) and has full frontal male nudity as I've heard. The Board of Censors went overboard and gave its record 27 cuts to the movie after having initially banned it then rated it for the raw and gritty scenes of Singapore's gangsters roaming our streets and the dialect Hokkien. What's good about this film is it's one of the firsts of Director Royston Tan and a plus is he didn't have a script. NO SCRIPT! Yes, no script.

He got so angry with the Board of Censors for askign him to chop off all the ugly scenes till it made no sense that he made a satirical short film about them called Cut. It's hilarious and Royston did his research kinda' thorough. You can find both on Youtube. Yay!

Bitch about your friend today!

I never thought I'd do this! I'm a good girl! I would never do anything to offend anyone as much as I can... I only ever had evil thoughts in my head and cursed people behind their backs only if they did and said stupid stuff, ie my mum... I never thought I'd meet one more blatantly daft and outrageous in my 17 years alive. Apparently a clown of epic proportions who sadly exists in my class has taken the deathly attention of my eye. She speaks with a lisp, she wears cotton-on as if going to a ball or so full of confidence in her attire that all else ceases to exist around her and she is the centre of the revolving universe, and she has a rude streak. I guess I would be on par with that quality but I'm not so cruel as to post what she said on Facebook and embarrass her worldwide as much as the thought is tempting.

I'm am naught but an acquaintance to her, now her bitter silent foe, when I sent a simple request via SMS on whether she would like to join in this Zirca party at Clark Quay but takes $24. Simple, plain, direct, not insinuating anything negative. She at first said she didn't know me, not knowing my no., then asked which Kylie I was when I told her. I playfully said the same course, school and class as her at which she snobbishly replied 'To me you are non-existent.'

Oh man, it made my day! I was thrilled I could finally post something negative I didn't say on Facebook and not get the spanking from my Church teacher or poly friends. Woah it would have been so exhilarating to know she was blushing at the shit she spewed in my face and I would like to see her friends' reactions to that when she tries to make it up or de-bunk the claim. That would have been fun. All odds against her and I can't believe I didn't make use of it!! Why! What am I thinking! Why was I so naiive? I can't believe I'm still trying to protect her and not exactly blow this whole damn thing up like I always could! I've got the courage.I can't believe I don't want to hurt her! What the h***is wrong with me?