asian flavoured. yum.

And so i was assigned the role of the publicity manager of the organizing committee for the Asian Beat band competition 2005/06. Various regions in Asia like China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand participated. This was the 2nd time Singapore was hosting the Grand Finals in the history of Asian Beat originally reputed for attracting hordes of mat-rock bands locally, but let's see what the regional grand finals will bring.

On the day the Asian bands arrived in Singapore, i was heartened to see the different bands politely nodding at one another and trying to establish rapport among musicians instead of treating one another as hostile competitors. Significantly, this event provides the bands a rare opportunity to experience the cultural exchanges from all round Asia. I was glad to see that they were embracing the unique diversity between them.

On the show day, i was highly charged with excitement. Really enjoyed the opportunity to work with MTV VJs who were emcees for the Asian Beat. In addition, my ears were opened to new fusions of music – how traditional Japanese festival music can be combined with rock, how a saxophone and Stomp-inspired instruments can be improvised into rock music, and how a deejay can jam together with a percussionist with perfection.

At the post-event farewell party held just after the announcement of the winners, I saw with my own eyes a scene that is hard to forget. Band members from Indonesia and Japan were taking a group photograph together and simultaneously letting out a long shout of victory like 'RAARRRRRR!!!". After that, the guitarist from the Indonesian band and the vocalist from the Japanese guest band gave each other a ‘rib-crushing’ hug and a few ‘thumping’ pats on the back, and the genuine elated smiles on their faces melted my heart as I watched from a couple of metres away. The fact that both bands did not speak each other’s native language and that neither knew English, did not dismiss the chance for their strong bonding to happen despite their seemingly opposing cultural barriers.

Between musicians, friendships can be forged anywhere in the world, in just a matter of 3 days. Word!


Band from Hong Kong


Band from Indonesia


Band from Japan


Denise Keller and I


Band from Singapore


Victor Smolski and I


Champion band from Taiwan

wham bam jams

majestically adrenalin-pumping. a mouthful.
thump thump. oh my heart beats with the drums.
strum strum. oh my hair stands as the string broke.

killer song strikes! bad japanese english.
crashed, in both senses of the word.

my body becomes a conductor of (musical) electricity.
and a good one at that.

the sound waves resonate through me, echo ringing...
a muffled mike amplifying a clear voice.

tube driver slaving with the fretboard,
at mercy to the 90cm monster.
but some manage to tame the instrument.

sticks flying at between 45 to 180 degrees.
no, faster than that; no, more than that.
is it the speed - or the impatience -
or the LIVE factor?

spread the lurvvee!

a mandatory credit mention: *courtesy of glen's blog*

phlegm, phlegm, phlegm

I keep having to blow out my snot, which is light greenish mucus. They come out in blobs. Also, I've been hocking up white phlegm. What a social embarrassment. I had to stop phonecalls and pause conversations in mid-air to cough and clear my friggin throat.

Mild coughing fits that last 5 minutes at one go evolve into sudden periodic attacks of coughing with gagging.

I've been taking drowse-inducing Promedyl-B Lintus, expectorants like Robitussin and Breacol, herbal mixtures like Pi Pa Gao and Sea Coconut Cough Syrup (which the picture of the coconut on the bottle looks like a p*ssy, says the bf), and nothing seems to work. I've been popping my multivitamins too.

When can I be cured? Maybe i've gotta start drinking 16 glasses of water to "loosen my secretions", as I've read in a medical website.

Apparently, my condition, not technically influenza yet, was caused by a virus-turned-bacterial-infection, because since my cough started before New Year, my phlegm colour had turned from white to green.

How i suddenly hate that colour.

I look a sorry sight.

And they had to call it a “productive cough" (one that brings up phlegm or sputum or mucus) when this blardy cough is affecting my productivity at work. Appraisal's coming, sheesh.

I must resist the urge to go around kissing folks on Valentine's Day, especially the boyfriend who is equally ill and got more ill when lips touched.

Instant infection. Yuch. Sorry, baby! :(

Right now, I feel dried phlegm plugging up my chest, tickling and irritating my bronchial tubes. I so badly want to put 2 fingers down behind the tongue and scratch the insides of my neck. And I wanna steam up my lungs in a sauna!

I hope I dun get that troublesome disease with the troublesome name brong-kai-tis.

globalization in a bowl

Right now in my bowl are 125 grams of golden orange raspberries from chile, 225 grams of pineapple-flavoured aloe vera chunks from thailand, 200 grams of european-style plain yoghurt from australia.

My home-made fruit salad, my sunday night sugar fix.

Talk about globalization of the food experience. It's happening right here in my singaporean bowl.

post-cny shopping list

i wanna buy:

- black kohl eye liner
- diamante bra straps
- rock chick teeshirts
- kitten heels
- a slim camcorder
- a motorcycle helmet

moolah, please.

holocaust cartoons!

An Iranian newspaper says it is going to hold a competition for cartoons on the Holocaust to test whether the West will apply the same principles of freedom of expression to the Nazi genocide against Jews as it did to the caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed.

Is this a joke? If they keep going at this rate, we could start a whole series of comic strips, though the intent is clearly not of humour, but of serious satire. And you can be sure revenge won't be sweet.

mohammad & the danish

There were 12 cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad published in a Danish newspaper last September, and a Norwegian newspaper reprinted the drawings recently.

I've got 2 over here, up there - one showing the prophet as wearing a turban with a bomb attached to it, one showing him as the head of a terrorist triad.

A great deal of the anger had to do with the mere depiction of the prophet. Muslims are prohibited from representing the prophet in any way.

I guess this (outburst of anger) would apply to Christians as well. But exaggerated Christian reaction to blasphemous, slightly or otherwise, cartoons such as this and this are largely unseen.

It's hard to be forgiving, isn't it? I better tread carefully in what I say here, in case i get jihad declared on me.