S-POP万岁!】之创作大赛12强已经诞生

【S-POP万岁!】之创作大赛12强已经诞生。

谁可以进入半决赛？投票活动即将开始，锁定这一页，为你所支持的作品投票！

S-POP Hurray! Song-Writing Competition: Top 12

Who will make it to the semi-finals? You will have a hand in deciding that. Bookmark this page and come back to support your favourite composer; when online voting starts.

12强 TOP 12

作品 Song: 谢谢你的好
建议歌手 Proposed Singer: 陈铿百 Nat Tan
创作人 Song Writer: 曾文雅 Wendy Tjen 年龄 Age: 27

作品 Song: Love is Forever
建议歌手 Proposed Singers: 阮诗凯 Keely 曾裕淑 Maxilian 许政宁 Zhengning
创作人 Song Writer: 黄倍仪 Wong Bei Yi 年龄 Age:18

作品 Song: 沙漠
建议歌手 Proposed Singers: 陈迪雅 Diya
创作人 Song Writer: 陈环 Chen Huan 年龄 Age: 23

作品 Song: 蚊子咬咬
建议歌手 Proposed Singers: 谢子伟 Jeff Teay 官镜瀚 Jeremy Kwan
创作人 Song Writer: 梁卓生 Leung Churk Seng, Jae 年龄 Age: 22

作品 Song: 雨伞
建议歌手 Proposed Singer: 曾咏霖 Teresa
创作人 Song Writer: 陈明娴 Tan Meng Sian Dione 年龄 Age: 27

作品 Song: Sunday Evening
建议歌手 Proposed Singer: 杨佳盈 Carrie
创作人 Song Writer: 陈杏圆 Tan Sin Guan 年龄 Age: 20

作品 Song:男人香水
建议歌手 Proposed Singer: 林昱志 Leon
创作人 Song Writer: 童亮 Jacky 年龄 Age: 24

作品 Song: 婚礼
建议歌手 Proposed Singers: 杜蕙甹 Candyce 张乐声 Lesheng
创作人 Song Writer: 蓝智峰 Lum Chih Foong 年龄 Age: 29

作品 Song: 不再
建议歌手 Proposed Singer: 孙文海 Wenhai
创作人 Song Writer: 沈劭泓 Edwin Sim 年龄 Age: 26

作品 Song: 不再怀念
建议歌手 Proposed Singers: 卓轩正 Shawn 范平庚 Benjamin 黄俊辉 Adriano 洪裕阳 Yuyang
创作人 Song Writers: 谢雪莉 Chia Xue Li, Shirley 年龄 Age: 23
吳雪儀 Shawna Wu 年龄 Age: 22

作品 Song: 发烧
建议歌手 Proposed Singer: 汤灵伊 Tang Lingyi
创作人 Song Writer: 王天安 Ong Thean Aun 年龄 Age: 29

作品 Song: 我死了怎么办
建议歌手 Proposed Singers: 潘嗣敬 Sugianto 田铭耀 Mingyao
创作人 Song Writer: 邹智源 Chow Chee Yen Nelson 年龄 Age: 25

(Source: SPOP Website)

961123 超級星光大道 林健輝 VS 曾沛慈

LK, a singing enthusiast, sent me the following Youtube videos, asking me to comment on their performance and judge which is the better singer.

I reserve my comments until the end of this blog post and before I say anything, why don't all you singing enthusiasts reading my blog view their performances first before seeing what I have to say about the two of them?

林健輝 is a very stable singer indeed. All his techniques are well-executed and he exudes great confidence in whatever songs he is singing. However, some of his endnotes sounded abrupt or uncompleted and I did noticed how during his Lee Hom song, his falsetto was not completely smooth and flexible enough to bring out the flavour behind that song.

曾沛慈 is very good in emoting her songs. She knows when to inject force at the appropriate notes to make the songs her own. However, some of her notes are weak and sounded hoarse and like 林健輝, she could not complete some of her endnotes properly. Her facial expressions were also overly-pained and enjoyment of her performances consequently dropped.

After intently listening to their performances, my personal choice for the winner is 曾沛慈.

The reasons are because although she cannot match up to the vocal lushness of Sandy Lam or the R&B feel of Landy Wen, she manages to inject her own style and emotions into those two songs. 林健輝, on the other hand, though was great in his techniques, lacked the kind of emoting necessary to touch me when I was listening to his singing. He seems to intently mirror the original singers' styles, and this is very evident in his Westlife song. I quote from 张宇's comment： "扣人心弦”is the missing element in 林健輝's singing.

I saw all the comments from the above three videos. No doubt that techniques are a big big plus in such competitions, but packaging and singer's sensitivity to the songs and the ability to reach out to the listeners using the songs are important determiners to par excellent performances too.

That is my personal choice and analysis. Hope everyone enjoys their performances and feel free to voice your opinions as well. Speak your mind. =)

My condolences to the five Singapore dragon boaters and their families

Singaporeans found dead after Cambodia boat accident: police
Posted: 25 November 2007 1318 hrs

PHNOM PENH - Rescue workers have recovered the bodies of five Singaporean men who were killed in a dragon boat accident during Cambodia's annual water festival, police said Sunday.

The boat carrying 22 men capsized late Friday as it tried to dock on Phnom Penh's Tonle Sap river after competing in a race during the water festival.

More than 200 Cambodian navy sailors and fishermen, joined by seven divers and a medic from Singapore, scoured the river over the weekend searching for the five that remained missing.

"All the missing Singaporeans were found, and now the mission has ended," police chief Touch Naruth told reporters on Sunday.

--- Rest in peace. At least they gave their lives for something they loved doing.

Eyewitness account of Singapore dragon boat accident in CambodiaBy Asha Popatlal, Channel NewsAsia
Posted: 25 November 2007 1043 hrs

Mr Paraiso recounted what he saw.

He said: ''What I witnessed was the Singaporean team had already finished the race and was starting back to the point......for them to disembark.

"Unfortunately, during the time team players (were) getting off from the boat, the boat suddenly shook off and overturned. It happened so quickly."

He added: "The remaining players, the Singapore rowers, one by one floated and saved themselves and there were some railings that they were able to hold on.....

"All the players, I guess, were a little over-fatigued so they were not able to swim normally, so they just looked for something to hang on and the current was a bit strong.

"All the rescued players were able to meet on the platform and to account for those missing."

"All the people watching that incident were shocked, so (there was) a little commotion and panic all around the area," he added.

Kboxing with The Pouting Apple, Movie Review: Hero 2007

Kboxing with The Pouting Apple:

I met up with an anonymous singing enthusiast whom I decided to name as The Pouting Apple. The reason for the name is because she pouted alot when she sang out of tune for a couple of the songs even though those were such superficial mistakes in the overall quality of performance in her singing. Hahaha....

We met at Cineleisure Kbox level 8 for the Kbox Lunch package (which costs around 25 bucks) but it was a very enjoyable kboxing session. For nearly three solid hours, we sang as many songs as we could and although I am not very familiar with some of her songs, I tried to put as many of them as I can down here so all of you readers can get a rough idea of how the kboxing session sounded.

一眼瞬间 张惠妹/萧敬腾
爱情任务 蔡依林
不痛 张韶涵
你是爱我的 张惠妹
藉口 S.H.E
欧若拉 张韶涵
Open Your Eyes 张惠妹
真的 张韶涵
Super Star S.H.E
如果你也听说 张惠妹
珊瑚海 周杰伦/Lara

远走高飞 李圣杰
触摸 陈伟联
男佣 吴克群
最近 李圣杰
彩虹天堂 刘耕宏
我只是想要 陈伟联
心碎的冰咖啡 熊天平
流沙 陶喆
if 陈晓东
旋律 林宇中

When The Pouting Apple knew I would be blogging about the session with her, she insisted that I pointed out as many of her singing mistakes in my blog post so that she could learn from them. She was very determined singing enthusiast and went into deep thought just to reflect how she had sung immediately after our kboxing session at the basement foodcourt. Frankly speaking, she sang very well and there are only a very small handful of things that she needs a little bit brushing up on. Other than those, The Pouting Apple is definitely ready to take on the live singing stage. Since she is expecting my tips, so here they are:

1) Less Frowning: The Pouting Apple tends to frown too much whenever she tries to emote songs and I pointed it out to her earlier in the session. She is a quick learner and that wrinkling frown between her eyes disappeared for the rest of the session. The trick now is to remember that one can still close one's eyes to emote without having to frown so much.

2) Endnotes can be steadier : The Pouting Apple doesn't seem to be able to end her notes cleanly. She either ends too early and a little bit too suddenly. Perhaps she will need to know how to fade off her notes more steadily. Listen more carefully to how each line ends in songs.

3) Facial and Body Expression: Yes. Kboxing is about sitting down or standing up but The Pouting Apple has the potential and the enthusiasm to go on live stage and I did notice that she seemed rather rigid during singing, with only two expressions on her face for all the songs. Try to sing in front of a mirror to see how you perform. Gesticulation is very important and is to be coordinated with body posturing.

4) Exercise the stomach muscles: The Pouting Apple hopes to extend her singing breath and stamina but refuses to exercise. Well, exercise, especially for the stomach and chest muscles are very important because these provide the foundation for exertion of voice whenever difficult songs come along or when extended singing is done.

That's all. A couple of simple photos are taken today. Hope The Pouting Apple enjoyed herself today too!

The lunch tasted alright. Probably because I was very hungry then. Anyway, this is the lemon fish set with rice slightly sprinkled with pork floss, lemon fish (upper right hand corner), some fish sushi wrapped in seaweed and white sauce (lower left hand corner), cream puffs (middle left) and unknown vegetables in sour sauce (upper left hand corner). Oh yes, the place doesnt seem to have hot honey lemon, which sort of disappointed me.

The Pouting Apple loves to sing Amei's songs for kboxing and she is very good with them, nailing all of them with good precision and her highnotes were very impressive and sustainable even for hours of intense singing. I was more busy listening to her sing than take photos. Hahaha...

Movie Review: Hero 2007

After the kboxing session with The Pouting Apple, I had to rush off the attend a school alumni event, which offered a movie ticket at the price of 5 bucks. I have heard from The Holy Bitch that it is quite a good movie and morever, I get to meet some of my ex-classmates again so I went for it.

Takuya Kimura, the lead actor, was very good in depicting a highly-determined public prosecutor who was assigned to find out the truth behind a manslaughter case. It turned out far more complicated because the people involved in the case were also implicated in a high-profile corruption scandal with a top politician in the country. Faced against a distinguished defense counsel, mounting political pressure, and difficult and tight-lipped suspects, Kimura must find the key loopholes to win the case and at the same time juggle an elusive romance with his legal aide. Although there was very little action to speak of, the crime thriller kept me on the edge enough not to miss a single portion of the plot as I was just as keen to find out how to case would turn out.

After the movie, I quickly met up with two of my ex-classmates and their spouses before rushing off again to the library because I needed to prepare some notes for some of my lessons in the coming week. Looks like it's going to be instant noodles for dinner for me tonight. Boohoohoo...

Well, at least I have some instant noodles for dinner. The poor but super fluffly cat below (from Facebook Human Pets profiles) somehow lost its cheeseburger. Sad but so cute right? Haha..

Baldur's Game: Dark Alliance 2

Interesting (but disturbing) conversation:

I was teaching a student today and one of the conversations went on like this:

Me: "So it's important to keep good relationships with people around you."

Him: "Not everyone. I don't like my sister."

Me: "Why? She is your sister and part of your family."

Him: "She is a total tyrant in the house but I always show her who is boss. I punched her real hard the other time."

Me: "Punched her? Why? She is like four years younger than you. Is that such a need to use force on her?"

Him: "I have to. Because being vicious and cruel is the only way to survive in this world."

Me: "Huh? What makes you think that being vicious is necessary to do so?"

Him: "I saw on television and during computer games that if one is nice, one will be bullied and taken advantage of, so it's better to be vicious."

Me: "But TV and computer games are only a small fraction of what is possible in the real world. I hope you don't form such an early judgment of the world with so little exposure to the real things."

Him: "..... But that is what I believe in."

Me: "Of course. I am not trying to dictate how your perception of the world should be. But I am just trying to tell you to postpone any judgement of this world until you have seen enough for yourself. Such an early judgement may close up your mind about things and people and you won't really see everything as what they may have be. That includes your treatment of your sister."

Him: "......"

Facebook Human Pets:

There is an application within Facebook where one buys, sells and keeps profile pictures and associated pet images and competition between users within that application are mighty stiff. Even though I am not some sinister human slaver of pets, I keep my fair share of pets because I think some of them have very beautiful profile pictures on their Facebook accounts.

The following are a few of my favourite Human pets and I treat them well - petting them often and bringing them treats and trips, using "points" accumulated in that application. Some of them are really expensive as they are fought hard over against very competitive players but I suppose I am their owner (for now at least). Just feel like sharing their pictures with my blog readers. Pretty hor?





Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2

Yesterday, I was invited by The Married Soldier for a homecooked dinner and a round of Playstation 2 gaming at his house so I accepted the invitation happily. It's been so long since I was there.

I was tasting the home cooking of The Married Soldier's wife for the first time and it was really delicious. We had omelette with ham, cabbages with onions, pork in black sauce and beefballs soup. The soup was exceptionally delicious because the soup was thick and the beefballs were juicy and fresh.

The Playstation 2 gaming was, however, with lots of glitches. Firstly, The Married Soldier accidentally deleted a saved game file due to a faulty game controller, causing a loss of 6 hours of gameplay that we had together in a previous gaming session. Secondly, we had to drive around the neighbourhood for nearly 2 hours to secure another working game controller. Yet, despite all of these, the session was just as fun because we had cleared the quests before so both of us had a much better idea of how to complete them more efficiently. Of course, our complacency did land us into a couple of messy battles. Thankfully, there is a "Load Game" function. Heehee.

Oh yes, in that game, I chosed a female Dark Elf character called Vhaidra Uowiir whose class is a monk (actually The Married Soldier said my character should be called a nun and I was like -_-). Anyway, my character, Vhaidra, is very cool with her kung-fu style of fighting. The good thing is that she can move quickly to the flank or back of any opponent and drop a series of rapid punches, which will bring them down faster than they can scream out. The bad thing is that she is quite helpless against magical ranged attackers but that is where The Married Soldier comes into play - he is a Moon Elf magician. =) We have just gotten to Act III but I think our combination will do well to finish the game, that is, when we eventually meet up again.

S-POP Hurray Concert Part I Songlist 26 November 2007

Okay, I really can't find all the Singapore composed songs on haoting.com so I will do my best to look through again at as many music and song search engines as I can.

Some of these songs are composed very, very far back, stretching even before some of my blog readers were born but that doesn't mean they are not nice. Some of you will find them unfamiliar and even outlandish in some ways but don't forget, those songs during those times were amongst the best and were widely accepted by listeners then so listen with an open heart because if one wants to sing well, a little history of Singapore pop music will do no harm but benefit but increasing one's knowledge of how music has evolved.

For those songs not found on haoting.com but through other music/song engines, please kindly click on the individual songs instead in the list below in red.

For those songs not found yet, I have highlighted in blue in the list below.

For those songs which I have found, please click HERE for the music playlist. I hope everyone can enjoy these songs in their respective contexts and honour them accordingly.

Of course, I welcome all the readers of my blog to help out to complete the list of songs below as part of our microscopic contributions to Singapore pop music so that more people can know about these songs too!

JJ 林俊杰 - 流行主教、翅膀、西界、江南、不流泪的机场、木乃伊, 杀手

Kelly 潘嘉丽 - shakalaka Baby、一分钟的永远

迷路兵 - 泪

梦飞船 - 天天好心情、不值得

邓妙华 - 牵引、愫、温柔的夜

吴庆康 - 我的朋友我的同学

郑展伦 - 我用真心填满你的孤单

卓轩正、范平庚、李俊纬 - 有用的人

伍家辉、黄韵仁 - 一人一半

田铭耀、卓坊林 、Sugi - 阿Ben 阿Ben

汤灵伊、阮诗縚、谢慧娴、黄韵琴 - 我们这一班

巫启贤 - 星空下、故人的酒觞、鹰、唇边的笑意、悟、邂逅、走过年少、梦湖、你是我的唯一、红尘来去一场梦、太傻

黎沸挥、陈铿百、官镜瀚、谢子伟 - 只有你能完成我的歌、爱如潮水、等你等到我心痛, 说走就走

潘盈 - 让夜轻轻落下

洪劭轩 - 从你回眸那天开始

玖健 - 羞答答的玫瑰静悄悄地开

黄宏墨 + Alternative Band - 野人的梦、笨鸟的表白

蔡礼莲 - 关怀方式

王建復 - 最高点

杨佳盈、曾裕淑、许政宁、慧伶 - 胆小鬼

孙文海、张乐声 - 一千个伤心的理由

陈世维、陈迪雅 - 爱和承诺

陈世维 - 我等到花儿也谢了

陈伟联 - 城里的月光、走出黑暗的日子、细水长流, 小人物的心声, 触摸, 普通的人

Latest Screenshots of Teresa inside Christmas Album 2007 Music Video

Teresa looks exceptionally good in white.

I particularly like the last picture in the first column and the first picture in the second column because I think both screenshots offer the best angles to highlight her glittering eyes and fantastic megawatt smile. The soft-looking outfit and beret complements her facial complexion and brings out good contrast of her features.

Am definitely going to keep my eyes on the music shops and get the Christmas Album. Enjoy the beautiful screenshots!


(Source: blanket_ma of TFC)

Movie Review: Beowulf, Game Review: God Of War II, Song Recommendation: Life is like a boat - Rie Fu

Movie Review: Beowulf

I thought it was just another dungeon and dragons style movie, with heros slaying dragons and beautiful women falling over their feet for them. It turned out otherwise.

Beowulf was a competent but arrogant warrior who fought bravely but had a soft spot for beautiful women. He made a pact with the seductive demoness and managed to take over a kingdom but the child he had with the demoness turned out to be a malevolent dragon, which terrorized his kingdom. Realizing it was his mistake alone, he fought his own son in order to redeem his mistake and save what he truly wanted but had warped all along - genuine respect from all those around him.

The movie was a fantastic mix of characterization, humour, intrigue and action. The highlight was the epic battle between Beowulf and his dragon son, which kept the eyes of everyone in the cinema glued to the screen, breathless with each blow and counterblow between the father and the son.

The bad things about the movie is like although it made a heroic attempt to merge computer animation with real characters, there is still room for improvement as some of the characters' facial expressions were way too unrealistic. The movie also did not really account for deeper characterization of the demoness, which meant a missing piece of the rationale behind the seduction of the demoness to the various kings in the story.

Story: ***1/2
Acting: ***
Direction: ****
Visuals: ***1/2
Overall: ***1/2

Game Review: God Of War (Mature Rating) PS 2 Game

I was invited by The Married Soldier to take a look what he believes to be one of the best PS 2 games that he had played, God of War II. And after playing a few scenarios and watching the movie clips within the game, I am indeed won over by the very compelling plotline, the amazing graphics, and the very intensive combat.

The game, however, has a strong learning curve for non-PS2 players (like me who was struggling pathetically at trying to get the controls right, especially with the fights against the goddess, Athena). It is also quite violent with a lot of blood and gore and is definitely not for those with weak stomachs. Nevertheless, the stunning background, the weapon skills and the intelligence needed to solve the puzzles within the games more than make up for its limitations.

I'll definitely be trying it again in my next visit to The Married Soldier's house.

Armed with all-new brutal combat moves and magic, players retake the role of Kratos and embark on a new epic adventure to change the fate of mortals and Gods alike. The original God of War saw Kratos, a mortal warrior, set upon an epic quest to dethrone a God. But his journey did not end there. In God of War II, Kratos sits atop his Olympus throne, as the new God of War – far more ruthless than Ares ever was. To end his continued torment, Kratos must journey to the far reaches of the earth and defeat untold horrors and alter that which no mortal, or god has ever changed: his fate. God of War II sets an epic stage for a devastating mythological war to end all wars.

--- Brief outline by IGN.com

Song Recommendation: Rie Fu - Life is like a boat

The Holy Bitch sent me the following song over the MSN and after listening to it, I thought it was a light and insightful song about life and identity. I don't understand the Japanese lyrics portions but I think those lyrics must be about those themes as well.

We are beset by many things way beyond our mortal control but I suppose if there is always people supporting what you are doing or have empathy about how you are feeling, things will always look brighter. Hope all of you will enjoy the song!

Arcade Trip and Lunch, Visit to VIP friend, Andy Lau: The Heroic Celebrity

Arcade Trip and Lunch:

Yesterday, I went to Bugis Junction with a friend for lunch and to play arcade again. Yes, you may thnk that arcade games are a thing of the past but a portion of my childhood did come from arcade games centres when personal computers were still very expensive then.

We ate Japanese food for lunch and immediately proceeded to check out the large arcade centre at the basement level of Bugis Junction. The place is huge, newly-renovated with powerful blasts of airconditioning ventilating the whole area. My friend was a huge fan of those large machines wherein if one manages to push enough items from those moving trays into the collection chutes, one would get a medium sized soft plushie. So she went on with about twenty dollars and tried her skill and luck with the machine of her choice.

It was really fun watching her manoeuver that strange mechanical arm to scoop those packets of sweets from that moving belt and then watch her aim to release those sweets to the two piles of sweets on another two moving platforms. She bagged no toys but managed to get the two of us nearly one hundred assorted sweets and wafers. Thank you so much! Glad you had so much fun!

For me, I ended up playing nothing because most of my favourite arcade games are no longer there. In their places were some strange Chinese war strategy games, weird shooting games and racing games, which I am not very familiar with. Fortunately, all these were offset by the loot my friend had won from that machine and I derived my fun and excitement just watching the whole process, which was just as new to me. We parted company in the late afternoon because I had to visit my VIP friend.

Visit to a badly hurt VIP friend:

One of my friends is badly hurt. It happened a few days ago and I was busy trying to get hold of information of how he is coping and of course finding all sorts of ways to help him recover. Hence, I had been so busy that I could not update my blog as timely as I would have wanted to. This VIP friend actually was injuried last year but he was foolish enough to ignore it and managed to gloss it over without anyone knowing about it. The second time he got injuried, the consequences were twicefold and he was totally out of action and under seriously heavy medication.

Right now, he is still under treatment and close medical attention. Sadly, I am no doctor and there is nothing else I can really do except to wait and see what happens to him next. Shit happens and we all know this philosophy but no matter how often bad things happen, the unpleasant taste in the mouth is always there, no matter how mentally-prepared I am.

S-POP HURRAY! - Opening Concert Part 1

The following is the songs list for the coming SPOP concert.

26 Nov, Mon 7pm Debut Song List:


JJ 林俊杰 - 流行主教、翅膀、西界、絖南、不流泪的机场、木乃伊, 杀手
Kelly 潘嘉丽 - shakalaka Baby、一分钟的永远
迷路兵 - 泪
梦飞船 - 天天好心情、不值得
邓妙华 - 牵引、愫、温柔的夜
吴庆康 - 我的朋友我的同学
郑展伦 - 我用真心填满你的孤单
卓轩正、范平庚、李俊纬 - 有用的人
伍家辉、黄韵仁 - 一人一半
田铭耀、卓坊林 、Sugi - 阿Ben 阿Ben
汤灵伊、阮诗縚、谢慧娴、黄韵琴 - 我们这一班
巫启贤 - 星空下、故人的酒觞、鹰、唇边的笑意、悟、邂逅、走过年少、梦湖、你是我的唯一、红尘来去一场梦、太傻
黎沸挥、陈铿百、官镜瀚、谢子伟 - 只有你能完成我的歌、爱如潮水、等你等到我心痛, 说走就走
潘盈 - 让夜轻轻落下
洪劭轩 - 从你回眸那天开始
玖健 - 羞答答的玫瑰静悄悄地开
黄宏墨 + Alternative Band - 野人的梦、笨鸟的表白
蔡礼莲 - 关怀方式
王建復 - 最高点
杨佳盈、曾裕淑、许政宁、慧伶 - 胆小鬼
孙文海、张乐声 - 一千个伤心的理由
陈世维、陈迪雅 - 爱和承诺
陈世维 - 我等到花儿也谢了
陈伟联 - 城里的月光、走出黑暗的日子、细水长流, 小人物的心声, 触摸, 普通的人

(Source: MediaCorp Communities SPOP Forum, starzger, 31 Oct 2007)

Andy Lau: The Heroic Celebrity




刘德华前晚(11月6日)在成都进行内地巡回演唱会最后一站时，他再度发挥“华英雄”本色，勇救一名冲破保安防线欲上台送花、却被十多名保安围攻的男歌迷，华仔情急下从两米高台跃下，阻止动粗事件发生，华仔被全场6万观众称赞是英雄，不过他也当众教训歌迷要守演唱会规矩，更笑言想不到加插了一个高难度...

The translation in English: On November 16, Andy Lau was in the Chinese city of Chengdu on his concert tour's last stop when he demonstrated his heroism again by bravely rescuing a male fan who broke through the security ring to send him flowers onstage. The male fan was surrounded by more than ten concert security guards who began raining blows on him. Out of great concern of the situation, Andy took a dangerous 2 metre jump from the stage to intervene. All the sixty thousand strong audience praised Andy's heroic efforts but the latter also public reprimanded the fans, appealing for them to obey concert rules and quirked that he does not really want to perform another stunt like that again.

I was reading Kewei's blog a few days ago when I saw this terrible incident. I really have to wonder. Those concert security guards are behaving more like thugs guarding territory than really protecting Andy. The male fan obviously only wanted to give flowers and ended up being beaten up the concert security guards. The worst part is that when Andy jumped from the stage, they were actually attempting to fight off Andy from intervening their beating of the male fan. Thankfully, Andy is alright. Thank you, Kewei for sharing this news on her blog.

Note to self: Must always check the calibre and integrity of security teams to prevent such things from happening in any future events that I may organize.

Late Night Movie: Lions For Lambs, Card Game: Saboteur, 3rd Anniversary of Strength and Determination

Late Night Movie: Lions For Lambs (NC16)

Last night at around 8.30pm while I was happily playing Warbook and Battlestations! on Facebook, The Married Soldier called in, saying that he wanted get The Changed Man and myself to chill out together. He drove and picked me up at around 9.30pm and we headed off to The Changed Man's place to choose a movie there.

After much thinking, the three of us decided to watch Lions For Lambs, a movie starring Tom Cruise, about war, politics, ideology and courage. Since there was still some time before the late night movie began, the three of us hung out at The Changed Man's place to look at his Facebook friends and we had quite some fun debating about who are the prettier friends on his friends list.

We then headed out to Bukit Merah's ABC Market because the Changed Man did not have his dinner yet and they ordered some noodles there. I could not find any prata stall still opening at 11pm so I settled to wait for my nachos during the movie.

The movie was quite nice actually, not because there was plenty of fighting and shooting but because of the intense and engaging conversations between the actors as they tried to convince one another who is right or wrong and what is to be done about the war on terror. There was action, of course, and it was quite touching to see how two young American college students (Michael Pena and Derek Luke) decided to enlist into the US Marines Corps to fight for what they believed mattered to them - participating in a war that has a purpose and meaning to themselves. Against all odds in the harsh and bitter cold mountains of Afghanistan, both of them, encircled by Taliban troops, gave everything they could to fight for whatever dignity and pride they had with them.

The interview between a US Senator (Tom Cruise) and a senior reporter (Meryl Streep) was very intense as both of them tried to sniff out the weaknesses and mistakes made by each other in their assessment of the still on-going war on terror. There were many mistakes made on the war on terror but the ideological and humanity reasons to keep trying to win the war were equally compelling.

The meeting between a US Professor (Robert Redford) and a brilliant but disillusioned student was also very good because the former was trying to bring the student to realize that by complaining and escaping from the reality of facing one's potential was a waste of precious life. I like one of his lines in response to "What does it matter if the outcome is most likely to be the same?"--- "At least you did something".

My afterthoughts were: Wars are ugly and nobody likes dying in them either. Nobody can say they have made perfect decisions in wars either and there are always plenty of room for mistakes, regrets and improvements to be made in that very next skirmish or even ideological conflict.

The bottom-line is: What does one do about it? Whine and lament or get something done so that the eventual outcome can be engraved in one's heart and mind and conscience that one had at least tried accomplishing, no matter what happens eventually.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph
of evil is for good men to do nothing."

Card Game at MacCafe: Saboteur

The Married Soldier likes board games and card games alot so after the movie, we went to a MacCafe and ordered more supper - cakes and drinks. We settled down for a new card game that he had brought along last night called Saboteur.

It's a game in which players are dwarven gold-diggers trying to find a gold treasure 8 cards positions away on the table but there is also a possible saboteur trying to stop the gold-diggers from reaching the gold reason. The catch is that the unnamed saboteur is one of the players and everyone else would have to try and second-guess who the saboteur is whilst trying to reach the gold treasure before all the tunneling cards run out or the tunnels were permanently blocked from the gold treasure.

The three of us played two rounds and we had quite a lot of fun (at least I did =P) because for the first round, all three of us were actually gold-diggers, as none of us drawn the saboteur card but I was having fun fooling the two of them because I kept using obstacle cards to block their access to the three possible destinations of gold treasure, frightening them into lots of counter-measuring actions and throughout the entire first round, both of them actually believed I was the saboteur, which to their utter surprise at the end of the round, was not! Hahaha.

The second round was even more fun because I had drawn the saboteur card but I pretended that I was a gold-digger and both The Changed Man and The Married Soldier were so utterly convinced by my front for the second round that they thought each other was the saboteur instead. I was playing very dangerous by actually contributing to the tunneling process and the two guys were trying to play each other out, blocking each other all the way for the entire round until all our cards ran out. I won the second round hands down since the gold treasure belonged to the saboteur if nobody could reach the treasure in time before the cards ran out!

Two expensive but quite sinfully delicious cakes at the MacCafe. I did not order any cakes because I was initially very full but I kept stealing theirs because I am a chocoholic!

We were trying to figure out the obstacles cards (centre), which could prevent a player from tunnelling from starting point (left most card) to the possible gold treasure destinations (the three golden cards on the right most). The rule booklet was pretty hard to understand at first.

3rd Anniversary of Strength and Determination:

Today is a special occasion because I am celebrating an important event, which marked three years of sheer strength and determination over a delicate process of balance, which I am proud to part of.

The process of balance had its ups and downs and etched very powerful and valuable learning lessons and experiences which I will never forget but I am glad all the participants are still going strong and steady. Although I cannot reveal what the celebration is for because it's confidential, I do hope that the readers of my blog can nevertheless share in my delight and joy in celebrating the continued survival of something of great meaning and purpose in my life.

Hope everyone will have a great weekend ahead!

Personally, I think I am a traditionalist in celebrating events and stuff. It's just something within the cake (not forgetting that I like eating cakes) and the candles that I feel magical about - like the candles gave hope and renewed strength in the occasion and the satisfaction enjoying what one has accomplished thus far.

KTV at AMK Kbox, Teochew Porridge Supper, Blog Updates n Modifications，Song Recommendation:《你是我的眼》

KTV at AMK Kbox:

I went kboxing with Michelle on Tuesdays and it was like decided on late Monday night because Michelle had nothing else on on Tuesday afternoon. And my my, she was in such a high mood inside the room, selecting and singing non-stop for nearly four hours. It must have been her way of release from her end-of-year examinations and she was belting out songs from A-mei, Fish Leong, Saya and sang almost all the songs which Teresa had sung during the Campus Superstar competition. A hardcore supporter indeed. Hahaha...

Well, I didn't really sing much because I was more like watching her singing. The reason? Michelle, the whole trip was actually my way of thanking you for helping the fanclub supporters pass their presents to Teresa in school on her birthday. Hope you enjoyed yourself then! =)


Michelle was obviously an fan of A-mei's songs. I occasionally picked a song to let the girl rest in-between. Hahaha..
Fruit punch for Michelle. Hot honey lemon for me. She only finished only half of her first drink while my second cup was already empty. Hahaha... Michelle the camel who doesn't really need to drink.

Teochew Porridge Supper:

The Changed Man actually wanted a night run at East Coast Park last night but he was working too late that by the time he drove over to pick me up, it was already 10.30pm. He did not even had his dinner yet so we zoomed off to a famous Teochew Porridge outlet to quash his hunger pangs. Over the supper table, we ate and talk about all sorts of stuff (guys' talk so it's confidential..haha) and left after an hour because he was almost completely concussed from work. He is probably still knocked out even as I am typing this blog post.

Simple Teochew porridge fare. It was light but delicious. The place is especially packed on the eves of public holidays though.

Blog Updates and Modifications:

1) New Links and Links Updates:

I have added or updated the following links on my blog so feel free to browse them if you wish. Please don't spam the celebrities or my friends because it's not nice. I know not everyone likes everyone else but I suppose a little tolerance practised can make this world and my blogging a much nicer place, don't you all agree?

Friendster Social Website
Facebook Social Website
Kenneth (TFC)
Zena (TFC)
Natasha (Singing Enthusiast)
Kewei (Singing Enthusiast)
Kailin (Singing Enthusiast)
Huixian (CSS 2)
Weilian (PSS 1)
Kelly (PSS 1)
Carrie (PSS 2)

2) The Imeem Secondary Music Playlist:

For those who frequent my blog would have noticed that I would occasionally put up the secondary music playlist containing English songs on my blog. The reason is because I would like to share with all of you some of my memorable English songs in my life as well.

I know some of the readers are pure hardcore Mandarin songs listeners but don't worry, the main playlist of Mandarin songs is still available for all of you if English songs are not your cup of tea.

For those who find the English songs palatable, I will continue putting up the secondary playlist and update it whenever I rediscover more English songs which I have always liked.

Song Recommendation: 《你是我的眼》 By 萧煌奇

如果我能看得见

就能轻易的分辨白天黑夜

就能准确的在人群中

牵住你的手

如果我能看得见

就能驾车带你到处遨游

就能惊喜的从背后

给你一个拥抱

如果我能看得见

生命也许完全不同

可能我想要的我喜欢的我爱的

都不一样

眼前的黑不是黑

你说的白是什么白

人们说的天空蓝

是我记忆中那团白云背后的蓝天

我望向你的脸

却只能看见一片虚无

是不是上帝在我眼前遮住了帘

忘了掀开

你是我的眼

带我领略四季的变换

你是我的眼

带我穿越拥挤的人潮

你是我的眼

带我阅读浩瀚的书海

因为你是我的眼

让我看见这世界就在我眼前

听后感：有时候，好的歌曲不需要花样，能够感动便已足够了。《你是我的眼》的曲风听起来有点老土，歌词也没有新鲜独特之处，可是用一把不乔装弄势的声音，也能唱出一番的韵味。这是一首带着诚意的歌，感谢带路开眼的人。我喜欢。

News Flash: Britain's most stupid laws

Okay, I found the following from a news website on Yahoo! And It's about a national survey of some of the ridiculous laws in Britain that should be abolished soon.

1. It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament (27 percent)

--- I am like -________- So what do they do? Handcuff the corpse?

2. It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British monarch upside-down (seven percent)

--- Understandable but quite obsolete lor. Careless mistake also treason?

3. In Liverpool, it is illegal for a woman to be topless except as a clerk in a tropical fish store (six percent)

--- Okay. That's pretty weird. Rubbish discrimination about clothes on and clothes off.

4. Mince pies cannot be eaten on Christmas Day (five percent)

---- Christmas? I eat whatever I like. Abstinence from gluttony. No way. I need to gain more weight.

5. In Scotland, if someone knocks on your door and requires the use of your toilet, you must let them enter (four percent)

--- Hmm...interesting social grace but very dangerous if the person has ill-intentions.

6. A pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants, including in a policeman's helmet (four percent)

--- That's so gross. Policemen to serve the public but not serve until like that ba?

7. The head of any dead whale found on the British coast automatically becomes the property of the king, and the tail of the queen (3.5 percent)

--- The British King and Queen during the time of legislation of that law either like whale meat or like collecting whale body parts?? Maybe ba?

8. It is illegal to avoid telling the tax man anything you do not want him to know, but legal not to tell him information you do not mind him knowing (three percent)

--- Haha..Talk about confusing laws and legistation wordings.

9. It is illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament in a suit of armour (three percent)

--- Maybe they worry about assassinations or hidden weapons? Anyway, armour are smelly, heavy and really cumbersome. I tried before. I know.

10. In the city of York it is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow (two percent)

--- Bow and arrow? This law is seriously outdated. Abolish it!

(Information source: Yahoo! UK and Ireland News)

More Photos From MusicDreamer Live! Cafe

Okay, I finally managed to get my pathetic camera phone to cooperate with my computer and here are the remaining pictures which I took on last Friday night at MusicDreamer Live! Cafe.

Jianli playing masterfully at his keyboard. His face is blocked by the microphone (my lousy camera skill) and Yiling belting out a ballad. Yiling can be super-cartoonish especially when she squeezes out her cute anime-sounding voice when she tries Japanese. Hahaha...

This is a group shot of Yiling, Jianli and Mingyuan singing my song dedication 《牛仔很忙》. Notice how versatile they are as Yiling now playing the keyboard and Jianli playing the guitar. Miingyuan? He is responsible for the "heehaa!" in the song.

I think they deserved another photograph on my blog because the song is really very difficult to sing and coordinate. It was really fun listening to them sing the song but Jianli was complaining that he almost died playing the guitar as he was going extremely fast. Mingyuan was amazing. He could sing the song in full!

This photograph showed only two of the second group of singers on Friday night, Peipei "The ET" and Jiehao. Missing from the photograph was Dujin and all three of them were also excellent singers.

I will find time to include the photographs of the other singers/musicians whom I really admired - Zhongwei, Junxin, Weizheng when I come up with the time to go for their slots.

Reply to taggers:

zena: I know you didn't mean that la.

Gaara: Yes. But I heard it's still circulating fiercely throughout Youtube and within Britain itself.

kai ling: Bad hor? So shameless.

jojo3210: I know it's from which fanclub member but I am sure it's not intentional so never mind la.

zena: tagged liao. Run run run~~

xiangrui: sms me or msn me about the details.

skyvel: I know what u want. Will do what I can for you and your grandmother lor. Give me some time?

Night Run With The Changed Man, Money is In - Yay, MSN Virus Attack, Another Visit To Musicdreamer

Wednesday: Night Run With The Changed Man:

On Wednesday night, The Changed Man said, "Sean, let's go for a night run at West Coast Park."

I said, "Orrh. But I still trailing a cough ley. Don't run too fast, wait I die then how? Hahaha."

And he drove both of us to West Coast Park after we finished up with our respective work. We reached there around 10pm and started running. It was wonderfully cooling and quiet. I could not really remember how far we ran but it was a good run, sweating out all the day's pressure and coming back to the starting point refreshed in a way.

We went into the West Coast MacDonald's and had a light supper there (late dinner for The Changed Man). While eating, we were joking about how hard and crazy we had studied during our school days, and how all of that studying was both fun and madness at the same time.

We left the place at around 11.30pm and went home. Both of us still had work the next day.

Wednesday: Money is In - Yay:

Someone owed me nearly $400 and went missing. I was about to give up recovering the money because the person did not seem to have a shred of intention of paying up after he defaulted payment for nearly two days, not answering any of my sms or calls.

Then, someone he knew found out about the sum of money and forked out the cash on her own and sent the money to me. It was so nice of her to do so and I considered the money to be a bonus since I had long given up on it that I treated my parents to pork satay. I ordered 30 sticks altogether and was simply pleased to see my parents nibbling on the satays contentedly.

Thursday: MSN Virus Attack:

I was one of the itchy-fingered MSNers who clicked on the stupid image23 virus on MSN that night while I was talking to two of the fanclub members on the MSN. Considering that it was my rest day, I wasn't really resting for the next four hours as I tried frantically to remove the virus before it could ruin any of my vital files on my computer.

I would like to extend my appreciation and thanks to Pauline, Blanket and Renfred for helping me find the various effective measures to counteract the virus timely and saved those files. You folks probably have no idea how many people you just saved but my thanks to all three of you. =)

Friday: Visit to MusicDreamer

November is a rest month for me and I thought it would be a good idea to relax at MusicDreamer Live! Cafe since the cafe had lined up two groups of excellent singers on 02 November Friday night.

The first group was one of my favourites - Mingyuan, Yiling and Jianli because the three of them usually crack really funny jokes and can of course sing very well. I have performed twice onstage before with the help of Jianli, a senior keyboardist and vocal teacher there and I thought it would be nice to give him my show of support too. He was very nice to recognize me at first sight and greeted me when I stepped into the cafe on Friday night and I was pleasantly surprised by his recollection of me. They sang and joked and sang from 7.30pm until 9.30pm, and ended with my dedication of the song 《牛仔很忙》. =)

The second group came as a surprise because I initially thought it was Zhongwei and Junxin but it turned out to be another group altogether at the last minute and even though I was disappointed that another favourite group did not appear that night, the disappointment was slightly miffed by the second group of Jiehao, DuJin and Peipei. The three of them got the running joke about the pint-sized Peipei being an ET and Jiehao was also very good in teasing the other two singers and coaxing the laughter from the audience as well. They sang very well too for my first impression of them but a little bit less talking and more singing would have been better. They were a little short on fast and happy tracks so I sent them 《制造浪漫》, which they improvised quite well and brought more fun from 9.30pm to 11.30pm.

In any case, it was still an enjoyable evening at MusicDreamer. Here are some photos which I have taken. Unfortunately my phone is not cooperating so I could only transfer some of them which I have taken on Friday night.

This was a random photograph taken at an undisclosed building in which I was having some business meeting. I loved the beautiful reflection of the evening light from the ripples on the Singapore River.

While waiting for the 7.30pm to start, I took this photo of an office building with many of the offices still brightly lit. Poor souls, still working so late into the evening.

This is the only photograph which I successfully transferred to the blog. It shows Yiling preparing for her next song and Mingyuan singing one of his favourite songs 《你是我的眼》.

That's all for now. Have a good weekend everyone! =)

Mockery of The Elderly Trishaw Rider in Singapore By Three Tourists

(The passage below was taken from the Youtube Video Description Colummn. I would like to thank zaki for sharing the video with me. Now I will let more people know about this incident through my blog.)

About This Video

Did not pay in the end! Now covered in Daily Mail! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live...The 3 British assholes in the video probably weigh 200 kgs combined and they want a 67-year old man to ferry them on his human-powered trishaw. Throughout the ride, they were mocking him openly. When they decided they have made enough fun of the poor man, they pretended to have no money to pay for the SGD$10 ride and made the man follow them around like a beggar. The video clip ends abruptly but in an interview with "The Newpaper", the senior gentleman revealed that they left in the cab without paying.

The senior uncle was mocked, humiliated and cheated of his money. These 3 assholes actually think this is funny and uploaded it at http://youtube.com/watch?v=XH6RIzb_UKU as "The slowest taxi in South East Asia" and commented "This guy was hilarious."

In a newspaper interview, the rascal Bo Davis who uploaded the video wasn't repentant and said that they were not bullies, just "insensitive. " His account is at http://youtube.com/user/B0Davis Feel free to tell him how you feel about him.

Do refrain from racist taunts in your comments. The bastardly acts of these 3 hooligans are theirs and theirs alone. There are bad eggs in every society. There are also many good people around. See http://www.flickr.com/photos/sallyand...(Uncle Lee looks cute!)

Unlike what Bo Davis has claimed, the outbursts from the Singapore public have nothing to do with their race and nationality. If 3 local lads did the same thing to the elderly man, they will similarly be condemned and will eventually find their sorry asses in prison where they will be given "VIP" treatment. Bo Davis and his gang are lucky they are tourists and are now back home. In this part of the world, you simply cannot bully the elderly. If you did this in South Korea or China, the only way you can go home is in body bags.

On a side note, why are our elderly working such a tough job at such an old age? Is it because their public assistance grant of S$290/mth is not enough? I leave it to you to find out. These are the same people who built Singapore to what it is today but they can't enjoy the fruits of their labour and even have to be humiliated by tourists. This trishaw rider was a construction worker in his younger days so he literally built Singapore up! What is being done to help these people?

If you see senior citizens on the streets peddling their wares to earn a meagre living, please have a heart and buy whatever they are selling. Your comfortable lives in Singapore today are fruits of their labour.

Added: October 27, 2007

My afterthoughts: This may be indicative that our societies has reached such a competitive level that some people will jump at ANY opportunity to demonstrate their superiority and strengths over others with no compassion nor mercy.

What was done to the elderly trishaw rider was deplorable and the Youtube video serves as an example of how some people view the aged as open targets for ridicule, mockery and bullying.

I don't know what sort of nation building credit that trishaw rider has accumulated but I do know one thing - what goes around, comes around and if one treats the elderly so badly, one will probably get the same treatment when one grows old. Everyone grows old and feeble someday.

Are we showing the right kind of respect and integrity for the younger generations to follow?

We decide these things everyday of our lives.