Totally Unplanned.

A few nights before the day, Hedirman, Danli, and I were chatting at South Coast MBS, realising that ZoukOut was this weekend! But our old bones were telling us to just stay home and watch a movie and crawl into bed by midnight. We all agreed that unless we were given tickets, we weren’t going.

So at midnight, I crawled into my bed and was reading an email sent that afternoon on my iPad. An email from the lovely people at iris Singapore and Heineken giving me tickets to ZoukOut and to their Heineken tent! #winning

So… I guess we were going!

Courtesy bag that iris sent! How thoughtful!

Floating balloon was just a floating balloon till I saw a woman strapped to it spinning and twirling so gracefully in the air!

You know you're getting old when you don't see that many familiar faces at ZoukOut. Another observation, LOTS of tourists from India and Indonesia this year.

Hello Stranger at the Heineken Sound Dome. Me, Man, and Danz.

The Heineken Sound Dome was great, there were Outdoor Aircon Units galore (Sorry K I couldn’t fit it in my handbag! I would have if i could?), a bar with NO queues, free bangers & mash potatoes in a cup, chairs, and a cool photo station which projects your photo on to the entire green dome.

We didn’t stay late, I had a wedding to attend to in the morning. But I still had a great time thanks to iris and Heineken!

Latest chick flick I watched at home.

If you have watched it… you know that guy… Stan? I want that kind of guy. And I’m pretty sure I won’t find him in Singapore.

Decided to join Danli and the girls at Stereolabs for the Kerri Chandler gig. Love house music, love Kerri Chandler and love my friends…so why not.

Here are a couple of snaps taken from that night. Bumped into Stan as well whom we haven’t seen in yeaaarrsss.

Hanged with Ming and Maurice for the rest of the night too after finding out it was Momo’s last night out before he heads to London for work.

The less I write, the better. Let the pictures speak for itself.

Was just chatting to Aresha on our favourite Horton hears Who character, Katie.

“In my world, everyone’s a pony, and they all eat rainbows and poop butterflies!”

OH MY GAWWWWWWWDD!! BOOKASHADE IS COMING TO SINGAPORE FOR ZOUKOUT!!!

I’ve danced to their music in Perth, got their awesome album online, bobbed to their tunes at work,and used their track as a ringtone on my phone.

Bookashade is the Berlin-based electronic duo, comprised of long time friends Arno Kammermeier and Walter Merziger. They have released two albums, “Memento” and “Movements” and the one I’m digging now is the latter.

I’ve put up my Radio.blog again on the top right, with a few of their tracks from that album.

If there were reasons to go to ZoukOut this year, it would be for the following line-up of artistes.
* Bookashade
* Armin van Buuren (my fav trance DJ, back in the days)
* Giles Peterson (i wonder who is the secret surprise performer)
* Carl Cox

ZoukOut 2007, Saturday 8 December

Definately one of the best things that has come out of Australia aside from Penfolds, Kylie and Tim Tams. Wayne and i were vegging in front of the TV, watching the awesome performances on Live Earth and this group got us jumping out of the bed, and on to google to find out more.

Listen to their songs on their website HERE. There are links on their website to buy the album if you digg their tunes.

Hmmm… i think it’s time i put up my radio.blog again!

Ever since I was young my favourite toys had to be the Transformers. It combined 2 things which I loved very much as a kid – and still do, fast cars and cartoon. So, when I heard that they were making a movie about it a year ago I waited in baited breath for its release.

From what I read in forums and fan sites, the storyline of the movie would be nothing like The Transformers: The Movie cartoon, which is to this day the best animation/cartoon I have ever seen or has really made me cry. I guess being a very impressionable 8 year old at the time in 1986; it was something totally unlike the happy-feel good sentiment of the cartoon series – in which good triumphed over evil. The cartoon movie took on a very dark and sinister tone with a very sad but much needed climax to bring forth a new generation of transformers.

Anyway, there was some apprehension towards this movie as I have seen many a CG disaster (read: Spiderman 3 and Star Wars Episode III) and I was expecting no less since there was no avoiding it. To my relief it was not, in fact the CG was an inch short of amazing and the movie almost matching my expectations after the cartoon.

The Storyline
Basically there has been civil unrest in Cybertron between the Autobots and Decepticons. Megatron the Decepticon leader has been searching for the Allspark, which is said to possess infinite power, to help him take over Cybertron and haverst use Earth to harvest it for its energy. Sam Witwicky buys a car which turns out to be Bumble Bee – not the Volkswagen Beatle but a Chevy Camero – and helps the Optimus Prime gain control of the Allspark – for you Transformer buffs its called The Matrix in the cartoon – and the fighting takes you from Qatar to the Hoover Dam to L.A.

The Crunch
The CG is amazing with the robots looking really like they actually did exist in the flesh. No cartoony looking feel to it as the shadows, shapes and transformations from their alter egos. You really do feel an attachment to these robots, very similar to how you could identify with the ones in the cartoons and they do evoke the same sort of feelings which I thought epitomized an Autobot.

The storyline was simple and yet it did not meander away too much from the original storyline though some of the vehicles have been upgraded to their American counter parts and the introduction of newer Decepticons. There was action from start to finish and Megan Fox was beautiful eye candy throughout the show. The film was well directed and the action sequences were fluid and fast moving, bringing you from one scene to another. The sound track too is something that I will definitely have to get with Linkin Park and the Smashing Pumpkins performing.

This show is a must see and if you have love the Transformers cartoons get yourself some Gold Class tickets. It was a really good movie that I enjoyed tremendously and brought back so many good memories of me racing through my mom’s garden fighting off Decepticon intrusions!

they didn’t play my song….i can’t believe it! Few years ago when i had my old blog, there was one song that was constantly on the playlist, and it was my favourite tune for the longest time. They played all their big hits on saturday, except for that one song…


Besides the crowds, and some weird random girl blowing my hair off my shoulder and trying to squeeze between me and another guy… the night was alright. Manage to get a pretty good viewing spot in the very packed Zouk.

One of my favourite Christmas Presents for 2006 was a Jamie Oliver cookbook titled ” Cook with Jamie, My guide to Making You a Better Cook “.

A beautifully bound book printed in my favourite combination of colors, Black and Gold. A fantastic “Kitchen Bible” of tips, tricks and easy to do recipes. Last Sunday’s dinner AND Auntie Pat’s Birthday Carrot Cake recipes came from this book.

Another clever idea was on the inside cover. Before Christmas came round, Penny had asked me for a photo of myself. And here i was, thinking she gave me a photo frame for Christmas. But in actual fact, the picture was glued onto the blank space on the inside cover.

Isn’t that such a clever idea? Coincidently i was dressed in the right colour too!

Saturday night, we watched “The Holiday” at the new Vivocity Cinemas. Now i must admit, i’m a complete sucker for chic flicks. Sometimes you just don’t want to think too much, just throw me the love, tragedy, drama and a happy ending. And this…is exactly one of them.

But, having said that, guys, if you’re reading this. Baaadd idea to bring your lady to watch that movie, because you’re just going to get yourself into trouble. Her expectations of you are going to fly through the roof, and for the next few days, she’s going to expect you to write her a song or romance her all over again. Don’t say i didn’t warn you.

My thoughts: Cameron Diaz can’t act, Jude Law’s character is terribly charming, true love shows up when you least expected and i want to see snow again.

Deep down, there’s a little voice telling me to move to England for a couple of years, just to have a taste of living in a foreign country (ok that sounds weird, considering the fact that england is meant to be home for me). But i want to be able to wear a coat outside, i want to exhale a misty breath, i want to light a fire in the fireplace when its cold, i want to be sipping a hot cup of tea as it snows outside.

hmmm…. we’re all allowed to dream sometimes right?

Hello hello. My first guest appearance and I have been tasked to review the movie The Omen which we saw last night. As you can see, to get ourselves into the mood, we got tickets for the midnight show for the morning of the 6th of June 2006 (0000, 666) in Hall 4 (4 Horsemen). Were these all signs for things to come? The movie was a remake of the 1976 cult film which many a horror fan (myself included) has seen.

Background
The movie generally is about the arrival of the Antichrist that has come to claim the earth. This is prophesized in the Book of Revelations Chapter 6, which states that the Four Horsemen will arrive onto earth after the 4 Seals have been broken freeing them each. T

he 4 are the White Horse (Antichrist), the Red Horse (War, Blood), the Black Horse (Famine) and the Pale Horse (Pestilence). Basically, all this has happened in the world with a few signs to confirm this like the star of Bethlehem appearing, the Jews returning to Zion, etc. Without spoiling the show too much for those who haven’t seen it, Damien is apparently the last horseman, the Antichrist, who has come down to claim the world.

Verdict
The original scared the living hell out of me when I was young and I had great expectations that this would do the same. Despite being really close to the original story – amid some timely updates, the movie overall did not do it for me. I guess it was anticipation of being scared out of my wits or for something new but this was not to be.

This one was a bit disjointed and the flow was not really very good. Focus had been given too much to the beginning than to the exploration of the origins of the child or the events that took place after it was born. There were shocks and there was a hint of eeriness about the show with the audience looking around every corner expecting something to jump out. However, the rawness of the original and the “uneasiness” about it was not entirely captured and I think most would be shocked rather than spooked by the show.

Plus I think the casting for Julia Stiles (played Katherine Thorn) was terrible as she did not suit the young mother role. I would have to give it maybe a 3 / 5 for not detracting away from the original and some pretty spooky acting by Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick (played Damien).

On a side note I had multiple bad dreams after going to sleep at 0300hrs (yes yes the haunting hour). Had kept on getting dreams that someone was standing at the foot of my bed or in the corner of my room while I was in “half sleep” and had to wake up a few times to make sure nothing was there. Whether it’s related to the show or not I have no clue, but the dreams surpassed the scare factor which the show failed to live up to.

Wayne P.

Last night, i finished reading a book my sister passed to me called “Marley & Me”. A wonderful heartfelt tribute to a cranky labrador written by John Grogan. Before i started on this book, i was forewarned by my sister that it wasn’t going to be easy reading it. Not because of its thickness, literary style, or font size, but the downright honesty and detailed adventures of this big ol’ dog, will wrench out memories i chose to keep at the back of my mind.

As i read the last few chapters late late last night, i weeped in the solace of my pillow and duvet, contemplating whether i should stop reading the book. But i couldn’t just drop the story just like that, i HAD to finish it. Everything came flooding back, good and bad memories of our family’s beloved dog ‘Flicka’. This book just made me realise how the wounds were still so fresh… i really really miss her. So for the sake of other blog readers who hadn’t seen the video before, here’s the video i did awhile back, in memory of Flicka.