don't ask

Be safe - image by J, click for larger view in flickr

Of course, from the outside, it is just another run-down shophouse. The door by the side leading to the second floor has a huge handwritten sign taped on it that reads "住家 Residence". We had earlier walked by another shophouse with a similar sign. Ah, definitely a case of 此地無銀三百*! Inside, the ground floor room is empty. Its green-tiled walls are mostly naked, except for a row of faded stickers that state the one business rule "100%/Condoms must be used here" in several languages. The cement floor give the only other clues to this shophouse's previous life. Lines on the floor left by room dividers that have been removed, and holes where the individual sinks have been hacked away.

*some kind of Chinese idiom - literally "there's no silver hidden here". Not.

song birds

karaoke for me - image by J

Three nights ago, the temple activities started in anticipation of the 7th month in the form of an all-out community Karaoke. From 6 to 11pm, auntie after uncle after auntie made their requests, trooped up on stage, and belted out songs of sorrow, joy. love and regret - off-key, nasal, all vibralto, or just plain croak-ish. The stage was at a corner of the temple, facing a small plot of empty grass. There was no audience, except the next auntie or uncle waiting by the side; and not even audience of the ghostly kind, since the time of their feasting and release had not started. If not for the coloured tubes of florescent light on stage, it was dark.


capture of the cinema screen, the closing shot of the 881 credits -image by J

Last night, J and I went to catch Royston Tan's new film 881 (click to view trailers), his musical tribute to the getai and the heartaches of the common man/girl. His previous films 15 and 4:30 were precocious; and the numeric title for his 3rd feature film didn't bode well at first. But 881 proved to an extremely likable film. There was laughter all throughout the first 70min and sniffly noises in the last 20min.

How not to like a film when next to you in the cinema are 3 women in their 50s who are probably real-life getai fans, wow-ed at all the sequinned costumes, and at one point in the movie, actually started singing along. How not to like a film where there was a generous serving of hokkien-style bawdry, most of it spouted by that fat lady getai superstar everyone loves (刘玲玲). How not to like a film whose leads are known as the papaya sisters and every other scene features extras who are the colourful folks you find sitting around in your neighbourhood coffeeshop...like the sad-faced bird shop owner in the film who spots a carrot-coloured poodle perm,

Cheesy as some of the lyrics of those hokkien getai standards may be, I cannot help but think that getais are what they are because they are relevant to their audience. There is a getai standard about suffering from a terminal illness in old age, "in and out of the General Hospital", "hoping your parents will come to get you quick" (all of which I can imagine Ma J thinking throughout her 1 year with stroke)...a standard about a hawker's life... another about the ungrateful child or lover who has abandoned you in your 1-room HDB flat... and the movie's default "theme" song, that classic about the equal sharing of everything you have with someone you love.

Getais are loved because their fantastic lights, electronic sounds and coarse humour provide a momentary escape, yet the earthy banter and vernacular lyrics remain right next to that sore or soft spot in the audience's heart - even if your life is never that dramatic or colourful. The glitter and the grime.

All of which almost makes you want to go do some cathartic bathroom singing.

p/s read wheyface's review(spoilers!!) here

3-hour beach holiday

even workshop elves need a tan

I've been finding myself running to and from meetings these days. A good thing I never really fancied wearing high heels.

All that running made me think of one of the first mandarin pop songs I heard on radio and had immediately liked - Cheer Chen's 让我想一想 (Let me think a little). The lyrics are probably alluding to a girl's uncertainty and fears at the start of her first romance or something. But since my mandarin's not great, my understanding of that song was and remains completely out of context! For me, it's a song about having that perfect lazy, quiet moment, in the sun, beside the sea, under a tree - when all is still except for the breeze. An understanding about as out of context as why my favourite line from Marvell's The Garden is - "To a green thought in a green shade".

让我想一想
漫步在荒原　我想找一棵栖身的树　
有阳光　有流水　还有微风吹...
该如何面对　这未知的一切　让自己的思绪沉淀
随着天色的改变　心情的外衣也要多加一件
这些对　那些好　我想追　我想逃　其实我也害怕...
可不可以就这样停下来　
我要多一点时间好让我再想一想

from The Garden
Meanwhile the mind, from pleasure less,
Withdraws into its happiness :
The mind, that ocean where each kind
Does straight its own resemblance find ;
Yet it creates, transcending these,
Far other worlds, and other seas ;
Annihilating all that's made
To a green thought in a green shade.


image by J

As such, in inspired pursuit of 阳光, 流水, 微风, J and I decided this weekend to drop the sneakers and the city, to venture onto yet another small island - even if this island is also (in)famously manufactured.

In its 3rd or 5th incarnation after many failed attempts to create our own little Bali, Sentosa has housed or still houses the following: an "artist village", a food court, a history/wax museum, a political detainee, a British fort and its cannons, a butterly park, an aquarium, a giant merlion statue-cum-observation tower, a water-slide park, cable car station, monorail tracks, dinosaur dioramas, hotels, a golf course, beaches, a monkey show area and a mini trapeze... Disregarding its rather ominous Malay name (Pulau Belakang Mati), the rulers of Sentosa are attempting now to revive it with expensive condominium projects, an "Integrated Resort", new spa-hotels, and beach front bars to match the new image.


pretty boy and girls - image by J

We were determined to get some sun, even if we are not quite Sentosa's new target crowd of Ibiza-loving party goers, bronzed, fit or wealthy (in which case, it doesn't matter if you are not bronzed or fit). So we packed our own bag of chips and a homemade cocktail (1/3 coconut rum; 1/3 club soda; 1/3 orange juice) to avoid the beachfront bars, sucked in our tummies, laid down on J's military-issue bath towels under a coconut tree on the imported sand of Siloso beach and watched the pretty boys and girls pose and laugh.

It was far from quiet or peaceful, but at least there was the sun and a cooperative breeze. And considering it took us less than 45min and $5 each to get here from our home, I'd say we had a fairly decent 3-hour beach holiday.

p/s Domestic Travel tips - Getting there by public transport
Take the North-east line, alight at Harbourfront station. Exit Harbourfront Station, and go to Vivocity Level 3. There, buy a ticket (Adult $3) and take the 4min Sentosa rail express that runs across the causeway to Sentosa and terminates at the beach station. There's a 7-Eleven at the beach station, but everything on this island is over-priced. So you can either load up on snacks and drinks at Vivocity's supermarket or bring your own from home. The beachfront bars blast their music, so there's no point bringing your own music.

For food, Farrer Park station is also on the North-East line. This means you can drop by Little India on your way back from Sentosa for supper at any one of Desker Road's naan/tandoori eateries and enjoy some close body contact courtesy of the legendary Mustafa all through the night!




Photo of Chinese medicinal hall in Little India that has morphed opportunistically into a bottle/alchohol shop. Images by J.