barfly

Was supposed to watch Electrico perform at Barfly last night..and ended up watching everything but haha. bo pian lah had to leave early cos got work next day. But there was at least one really good band there-I dunno what they're called but it's a three piece band from Australia..the stuff they played was rather Mogwai-esque i.e. loud and crazy moments interspersed with deceiving lulls. (see above)

Also got to talk to Daniel Sassoon and asked him the perennial question for songwriters: which comes first, music or lyrics? For Electrico it seems they doodle around with ideas in the studio and come up with music first. I've always felt that music takes precedence over lyrics.

So that's what we're gonna try on Saturday..three hours of solid jamming, maybe an hour set aside for random doodles to see if we can come up with anything catchy - and have the entire session recorded down so we don't forget anything later.

Bedok Macs is GONE!

This was probably the place where I had my first taste of Macs. It's been there for as long as I can remember and had since become one of those things you could always count on to be THERE.

Those lazy afternoons where I'd grab some fries or a McFlurry on the way home from school. I was such a pig!

music snobs

Even though I still think 4'33'' is utterly pointless (4min33sec of silence), I'm beginning to have new respect for the man behind this piece of music. While I still find his music hard to stomach, I appreciate his philosophy behind his music, that there is beauty in everything if you look hard enough; and in the same vein there is beauty in every sound around us. I think this is a strong message to music purists everywhere – those snobs who insist that their classical music or bossa nova or whatnot represents the zenith of sound. Or the mainstream pop junkies who are so quick to dismiss jazz or heavy metal (both of which have challenged the conventions of music to some extent and at some point – they gradually attracted a larger following after the initial resistance) as noise.

There is a parallel to be drawn between abstract art and all those under-appreciated genres of music. Both are, on the surface, unpalatable to most, yet they express more raw emotion than their mainstream counterparts ever could, unfettered by convention. Conventions like, in the case of music, music theory; in art the need to resemble something. The beauty of abstraction lies not so much in its appearance as its subject matter/the emotions it tries to convey, and only when one experiences the painting on a more profound level does it become beautiful. The same can be said of jazz or metal or John Cage's works in their function as a sort of anti-aesthetic. They are all acquired tastes.

Sadly, most of us have developed an ear for strictly radio-friendly, melodic sounds, which according to Cage, is like developing an ego. It is the same ego that closes our minds to abstract art or cubism simply because they don't seem to resemble anything. We learn to refuse sounds and images that are so-called non-musical or non-visually pleasing, thereby cutting ourselves out from a great deal of experience.

Now i'm not saying I don't have any of that ego. I still cannot stand some of the music that's going on out there. But i'm hoping to open my mind to and explore more kinds of music. (hence my rather bizarre taste of late) I also felt compelled to rant about the music snobs who feel that they invented music and feel the need to define it for others.

“The first question I ask myself when something doesn't seem to be beautiful is why do I think it's not beautiful. And very shortly you discover that there is no reason.” - John Cage

I think, therefore I jam

I have for the longest time been bothered by Descartes' “I think, therefore I am” philosophy. This disdain was further reinforced over tea with my sister when she explained how that genius derived his wonderful revelation.

One fine day after having a particularly satisfying meal, Descartes was bored. And since it was winter, it was too cold outside to do anything. So he thought “hey why don't I lock myself up in a room with a fireplace for the rest of winter and maybe spring and come out only in summer then I can hit the beaches YEEHA!” And so he did.

He spent a couple weeks stoning by the fireplace, getting up occasionally to cut firewood and stoke the flames. This mind-numbing activity finally took its toll on him and he began to wonder: “I think I'm sitting by the fireplace, but am I really sitting by the fireplace?” His face lighted up; a sliver of meaning had finally crept into his life, or lack thereof. He got down on all fours and peered at the dancing flames, wondering “Is the fireplace really there?”
Then he panicked. “Am I really here?”

This was getting to be rather alarming. What if every experience and memory was all imagined. What if everyone else existed but they only chose to perceive his existence and that was the sole reason for his existence? What if his own existence was possible only because he imagined it to be so? His world began to cave in right then and there!

Out of the maelstrom of random thoughts that must have been floating around in his head by now, a particularly soothing one came fluttering by and he grabbed on to it at once.

“Well, there has to be someone sitting here doubting his own existence, and therefore...I exist! CHYEAH!” He leapt from his easy chair, grabbed his coat and trudged off in the snow to spread news of his magnificent epiphany. (and probably returned with a shovel down his throat)

And just in case, he had a friend sit by his bedside to make sure he existed while he was asleep and not aware of his own existence.
-----
Saturday morning was spent at Tovya's place with Jem and Sam. We managed to settle the guitar parts for Jem's new song. It sounds super laid back and jazzy – which is fine as long as not all our songs end up sounding like this..after all people who come to watch a rock band want to hear rock!

let's all invest in hawker centres

Was having nasi lemak for breakfast and chatting with the stall holder at Eunos hawker centre this morning and gained some insight into the world of hawkers. The rental at Eunos hawker centre, if you rent directly from the government, is $400. But what this guy had to do was rent from the owner of the stall at $1400 per month, thus the owner gets $1000 a month for doing nothing. But that's nothing - this woman bought 5 stalls from Golden Mile food centre and collects $1500 rental from each one. That's $7500 for doing nothing! and I was thinking "sialah this is better than property trading sia..that one still need to worry about parking/maintenance of facilities/condition of interior..here we're just talking about a miserable little stall what's there to maintain!"

And that's not all..these aren't even the prime locations. Apparently at Bedok Interchange hawker centre a stall now costs $400,000! And the owners are renting it out at $5500 a month. That's a super good deal. And people are more than willing to buy, cos the business there is really good. So that means..if a someone had bought a stall directly from the government from the very beginning (presumably for less than 400k) and has been renting it out to hawkers at 4-5k per month since then he'd be laughing all the way to the bank..

Anyway, that dude was exceptionally friendly and chatty. Singapore needs more friendly and chatty people like that who open up to strangers. Unfortunately, it just doesn't seem to be in our culture. And this is what happens when someone who isn't too good at talking to strangers tries to talk to strangers in a culture that isn't receptive to people who talk to strangers:

cheeyen and I were crashing NTU a couple days ago and we witnessed this on the bus back to boon lay. Someone got up from his seat, and a handphone could be seen on the cushion. A lady was about to pick it up and hand it to him when this rather huge guy who had been sitting next to that someone said "no that's mine." Everything fine so far.

Then after a long pause (maybe 30 seconds?) the big guy quipped "You mean you thought it was his?" in a spectacularly awkward attempt to strike up conversation with the lady. It didn't help that he had this perpetual smarmy grin plastered on his face. Probably taken aback by 1) the attempt to resurrect the interaction after such a long pause 2) his words, which might have seemed like an accusation, she replied "Yah I thought...so it's yours?" After another 10 seconds he says "Maybe it isn't." Five seconds. "Maybe I stole it."

At this point the lady was just exchanging uncomfortable glances with her friend, while the man was obviously rather uncomfortable himself and trying to look away in the hope of redeeming himself. It is one thing - and a perfectly admirable thing at that - to strike up a conversation with strangers, but here he just came across as creepy.

..I must add that NTU seems to be more happening than NUS. The people there just seem..happier.

three months to ORD

Met up with the ORD and soon-to-ORD personnel Aston, Soon and Marcus at Orchard where we lunched and lazed around at Starbucks. Aston was lamenting about the "urban legend" of his being a playboy to the three of us when we spotted this rather cute girl working there.

Aston nonchalantly muttered, "TP."

"what?"

"She's from TPJC. I know her."

The trouble with that man is he doesn't know how to follow through with a good lie...

We then hopped over to Lucky Plaza for pool before going to watch RE Extinction. It was going to be my second time watching it. It looked like we were going to be late, but decided to take our time anyway.

Me: "Well even if we miss the first part it's nothing much. It's just Milla Jovovich waking up naked..again. Did you guys notice for the past two movies she's been waking up na.."

Aston, Soon and Marcus: *scramble up escalator*

After that, dinner at Marmalade Pantry. ORD personnel + birthday boys Colin and Sara's treat. Frankly I didn't think much of the food there..pretty much reminded me of Aerin's - mediocre service and overpriced. We saw Kumar on the way there. His waist is thinner than a wasp's.

After-dinner drinks was at Aston's brother's bar S-Club at Purvis Street. Lots of drinking games though I tried not to drink where possible. It was simply not possible to walk into a bar and not drink. Soon wowed the crowd with his semiprofessional crooning. I too requested a song but they apparently forgot all about it. Maybe the world isn't ready for my voice.

..and now, because I'm not in a mood to write descriptive prose, I shall let the pictures speak for themselves.

marcus and aston
after-duty eyebags! 1.5 hours of sleep.
colin and his b*****s
zehan and hongxuan looking contemplative
no caption could possibly justify the beauty of this picture
real men drink chivas from the bottle
and then sing in drunken stupor
zehan and marcus
colin's sunglasses were a hit with us


happy times

a leisurely jog in a thunderstorm and a bag o fishnchips

Took PM off yesterday and as a rule I like to make the most out of my off days. So I thought crashing NUS would be a rather good idea again. might as well try to like the place before spending four years there. Oh yes it's probably official, I'm staying in Singapore for the time being. My sister's getting married and moving out so that pretty much leaves me to stay and look after the parents yes?

if you thought nobody else in his right mind would be in such a hurry to get acquainted with varsity life, there's always cheeyen. We went to Arts faculty and had the obscenely cheap chicken cutlet and fishnchips ($2.20 each!) but not before venturing into the CompSci faculty in our search for the arts canteen. Maybe I was influenced by stereotype, but it did seem that Arts people are better dressed than their sciencey counterparts. Being among the arts people felt nice and warm and fuzzy. Also, zero risk of familiar people catching you engaging in an activity as mundane as going to school on your off-days.

We then wandered into the bookshop where I stood and admired this line of products by BlueQ for the longest time. Take a gander at these:
splendid, are they not? I had half a mind to get these for Colin and Sara's birthdays.

And when we were done there, we traipsed over to Engine faculty to explore the myth of the gross gender imbalance there. We went in with a myth and emerged with a FACT YES IT'S TRUE IT WAS A TRAUMATISING EXPERIENCE IT WAS ALL GUYS IT WAS LIKE AN ARMY CAMP so we didn't stay for long.

Met up with Tovya at the Engin Macs and cabbed down to Greenwood Fish Market to dabao dinner. Quite a charming locale! And the fish and chips came in a paper bag..only thing missing was the roll of newspaper. We then headed for Tovya's house just as it began to pour. No worries, I have my umbrel...wait I think I left it in office the other day. Very nice. Run.

The fish n chips were excellent! But not quite as nice as fish n co IMO!

We were discussing homosexuality. I think gays are very poor thing. Tovya was telling me about how this girl liked a straight girl and kept pleading with her to give herself a chance.

shopping week!

what do you do when you get your NS and tuition pay on the same day and happen to feel very rich? reap the fruits of your labour of course! make the retailers happy!

first I got a polo tee with a rather nice print involving an electric guitar. (it's easy to trick me into buying something-just incorporate guitar into the design) billabong I think. Then I saw a t-shirt with the exact same print and decided it was even nicer. So I bought that too.

Next I went crazy with the neck accessories. got beads and a tribal tooth necklace from Rastafari, a Deathnote necklace from the manga store and a rather heavy chain from tampines mall.

moving on- I got a couple of jackets from LP zone and a store at Marina Square. The latter had the words "lead guitar" printed on it. Sold.

..and lastly, a shirt with sparkly vertical stripes from dapper! I never thought spending money could be so fun. I think I'm really deprived. at least I don't feel quite so rich anymore. that should squish the spending bug for a bit.

..but I do still want that shirt at espirit and practically everything from Skin.