When it comes to Asian singers, there aren’t a whole lot that I really like and admire. But Jay Chou is one of them. I think he is a brilliant songwriter and he was open, chatty, funny and a little quirky throughout my (group) interview with him so it was great. Lin Chi Ling was also a pleasant surprise. It’s easy to dismiss her as little more than just a pretty face but as it turned out, there is quite a bit of substance under that sweet, gentle facade. The two of them were recently in town with director Kevin Chu for the local premiere of their film The Treasure Hunter.
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Y and G with their band Five Strangers during their (first ever) gig at Thai restaurant Rama V on Tuesday night. Unfortunately this was the best photo I managed because I didn’t want to move from my seat and I didn’t want to use my flash (read: all the other photos had at least one blurry figure) so you can’t see Marcus, who is on bass, and Shu, who is an absolute genius on keyboards. Jennie did an amazing job on vocals and the guys absolutely rocked! I’ll try to put up some videos if I can. Among the songs on their setlist were ‘Winter Wonderland’, ‘Perfectly Lonely’, ‘God Bless the Child’, ‘Fever’ and ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’. I stayed up till 2am and was so sleepy the next day but I had a brill time and it was totally worth it.
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Posted in: Movies Music TV.
You probably know the feeling: you’re watching a movie in a cinema when all of a sudden, there’s a rude thump on the back of your seat. You ignore it – perhaps your fellow moviegoer accidentally kicked your seat stretching their legs. Then it happens again. You ignore it still. And again. And again. By the time you reach the fifth (hard) nudge you are irritated. The next one leaves you simmering and you begin plotting your please-stop-kicking-my-seat speech in your head.
Okay, maybe you don’t do that last part. I do. But I’ve never actually told someone off for kicking my seat. If I’m really annoyed I turn around to see who the culprit is and usually that stops them. But sometimes it doesn’t, at least not immediately. Like when I watched New Moon.
I couldn’t understand why the person behind me kept kicking my seat. I was in GSC Signature which meant there was plenty of leg room. You could have stood comfortably in the space between my knees and the seat in front of me! It happened at least a half dozen times before I turned around. But the back of the seat was too high for me to see the culprit, let alone chastise her. Yes, it turned out to be a her.
She must have noticed me though, because after I’d turned around twice, she finally stopped. Just when I’d decided that if she did it one more time… At the end of the movie, I got up to see this girl who was lying practically horizontal on her seat, snuggling under a blanket with her boyfriend. The lights were on, the credits were rolling and the two of them were still giggling at each other under their blanket. Now that I think about it, perhaps I should have taken a picture. Or would that be illegal?
My sister and I seem to attract kickers. She had one that day too. During a press screening a couple of weeks back, I ended up in front of this 40-ish man who was, you guessed it, a kicker. And once, my sister and I actually had a guy stick his entire foot through the gap between our seats so it was on our armrest. Unbelievable.
Following this most recent episode, I’ve decided to stop tolerating rude, inconsiderate people like these and speak up the next time. Knowing my luck, I’ll get the opportunity sooner rather than later. What do you do when someone keeps kicking the back of your seat?
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Posted in: Movies Music TV.
Being neither Team Edward nor Team Jacob (that is what they call them, yes?), I actually didn’t plan on watching this. I saw Twilight but that was on DVD and way after all the initial hype had come and gone. I remember thinking how amazing it was that such a mediocre film could incite such mania and decided the books on which the franchise is based must be very good. Never read those either.
Then sister no. 1 rings me up the very week New Moon is released and as it turns out, not only is she a huge Team Edward supporter (actually, now that I think about it, she is; I’d simply forgotten), she’s also inviting sister no.2 and myself to join her in her little swoon-fest – her treat. Of course I said yes.
Well, I must say Robert Pattinson is extraordinarily pretty as Edward Cullen, even if I found it ironic how the immortal is the one going around looking deathly pale, but it was rather difficult to appreciate him fully when I kept rolling my eyes every time he spoke. He had probably the cheesiest lines in recent cinematic memory, and actually, to say he “spoke” is a little overstating it. Murmured is more like it.
If not for one little fight scene and one not-so-little topless scene, Edward would have spent practically the entire film standing around mumbling bad lines. Oh there was one running-in-slow-motion-through-the-woods-with-Bella scene but all that did really was conjure flashbacks of that Bollywood Anakin-rolling-down-the-hill-with-Padme scene in Star Wars Episode II. Ugh. Thanks for that.
Speaking of Bella Swan, while I thought she looked better than I remembered, every Twilight fan I’ve encountered so far seems to feel either one of three things about her: a) she’s annoying; b) she’s a loser; c) all of the above. Was that supposed to happen?
I guess that doesn’t really matter since most of the audience was there to either drool over Edward or swoon at Jacob Black a.k.a. Taylor Lautner’s newly-acquired abs anyway. In a painfully draggy, largely unmemorable film, those two hog the spotlight by default, simply – and sadly – because there’s nothing much else worth talking about.
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One of my highlights of the past month – attending the Black Eyed Peas press conference when they were in town. I know these photos are a little late but the Peas were huge then, they’re huge today and I’m pretty sure they’re still going to be huge tomorrow.
The one thing I will always remember about this press conference, other than seeing and talking to the Peas in the flesh, is how security wouldn’t allow R out of the room to go to the toilet. And this was before the Peas arrived. MA had to go earlier so she got out safely and was confronted upon her return by a security guy who wanted to know where she had been. She said, “Err… the toilet?”
About 20 minutes later, R decided she had to go but when she tried to leave the room, security said, “Sorry, but you’ll have to find another way.” As if there was a window. Or an opening through the ceiling. Or a toilet behind the stage.
apl.de.ap, Taboo, Fergie and will.i.am eventually showed up, of course, and even though they were over an hour late, I was so thrilled I forgave them. Currently loving their song ‘Imma Be’.
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Posted in: Celebrities, Movies Music TV.
2AM. They don’t speak English too well but they sure can sing.
Estranged. This is the actual view from where my seat was. So I found a better corner and maximised my camera’s zoom function.
Raygun. Their single ‘Just Because’ is really growing on us in the office.
Pixie Lott. She’s only 18 years old and an absolute darling. And talented.
Boys Like Girls. They’re a little scruffier than you’d imagine a band with the words “boy” and “girl” in their name would look.
Hoobastank. They said they were probably the least dressed-up of the bands there. They were right.
The All-American Rejects. I swear there’s never a dull moment with these guys.
Kasabian. The guys made it, swine flu rumours and all.
MTV VJs Denise and Utt. This is the view from my corner, without zoom. I regretfully concede I may need a better camera, tough as my old-school Sony Cybershot is. The flash just didn’t cut it this time.
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I still can’t quite believe that you are gone. I know I wrote two pieces on you today for work, but those photos we ran of you make me feel as if you are still very much alive.
The industry, the country, is mourning. I don’t know if you realise how many lives you have touched, but your influence was phenomenal. So many are so sad, although, as I wrote this morning in the office, “sad” doesn’t quite cut it when we’re talking about losing a nation’s champion of love, equality and acceptance.
I was privileged to have spent several hours with you once. I don’t know if you remember doing that interview with me. I thought you were beautiful in your passion, words, warmth, grace and elegance. And now that you are no longer with us, it is my hope that the ideals you carried, your dreams of seeing a people united, a people blind to the differences of race and religion, will shine on.
You will be missed so much I cannot even begin to imagine.
May you rest in peace.
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The long weekend is almost over and in between mild panic attacks at the thought of going back to work and withdrawal symptoms of the like, I realise I’ve spent much of the last three days crying.
Y has been away on a dive trip since Thursday night – he just got back a few hours ago – and in his absence, I’ve been crying over both episodes of Grey’s Anatomy that I’ve watched and pretty much every other episode of Brothers & Sisters, the first two seasons of which I finished just before noon today. I even watched all the special features.
These two are my current absolute favourite TV serials because I’m a complete sucker for brilliant TV writing. I wish I could write like that and I wish I could work on shows like that. The fact that I have no experience, seriously doubtful ability and live a million miles away from Hollywood doesn’t matter when I’m daydreaming. Oh, to be able to draw people in and create something that so many people can relate to and love, even when it hits a little too close to home.
Brothers & Sisters does that for me in so many ways I cannot even begin to tell you. It’s also got me thinking about fidelity, which comes up a lot in the show. I’ve always reserved a special anger for men who cheat, as some have discovered, but what I’ve been thinking about is the woman’s right to know.
I’d want to know if my husband cheats and I’ve told Y that at least twice. I would rather deal with the reality and the pain than live in stupid, if blissful, ignorance. To me, the only thing worse than being cheated on is not knowing, especially if everyone else around me knows. Because when the truth comes out, and it often does eventually, I’m going to feel a thousand times smaller and more humiliated. Or at least, that’s what I imagine anyway.
The thing is, I’m starting to wonder if everyone else feels the same way. After all, there’s the other school of thought, the idea that what you don’t know won’t hurt you. And until this weekend, I’ve always insisted that the woman should know. But what if she doesn’t want to?
Would you want to know if your partner is cheating on you? Would you tell your friend if you know his/her partner is cheating on them? My answer is yes and yes. Unless you tell me otherwise.
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Posted in: Marriage, Movies Music TV.
The last of my two-week celebrity spree. I’ve always been a far, far bigger fan of David’s voice than of his cutesy looks, but I can see why girls shriek for him and aunties want to adopt him. I don’t. I just want to hear him sing. And I was very proud to see that he’d developed some moves. In fact, the way he sometimes held the microphone reminded me of Chris Daughtry.
Imagine this times two and you have an idea of the number of people who turned up to watch David’s showcase at Sunway Amphitheatre.
David finally takes the stage. The screaming has to be heard to be believed.
Thanks to B for taking these two pics. I was too lazy to move from my vantage point among the plants.
David on the piano. I absolutely love his rendition of ‘Angels’.
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