Thursday, June 29, 2006
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
I've got the first date jitters.
I'm wondering what to wear to the office since I'm meeting him straight after work. I'm a little anxious about the restaurant I chose ('Pick one you like :)' his SMS read) because I want to convey the right impression. I don't want to choose one which is too cheap, nor do I want to choose one which is too expensive. I'm a little afraid that there'll be awkward silences or that I'll talk too much.
And most of all, I'm worried that this may not even be a date.
You'd think I would have outgrown all of this by now.
I'm wondering what to wear to the office since I'm meeting him straight after work. I'm a little anxious about the restaurant I chose ('Pick one you like :)' his SMS read) because I want to convey the right impression. I don't want to choose one which is too cheap, nor do I want to choose one which is too expensive. I'm a little afraid that there'll be awkward silences or that I'll talk too much.
And most of all, I'm worried that this may not even be a date.
You'd think I would have outgrown all of this by now.
Friday, June 23, 2006
Check out Pitchfork's great feature on 100 Awesome Music Videos. It's quite a coincidence that I stumbled across this in the same week I commented on two songs which are featured on the first page and which I don't usually hear.
One of the songs is Air - Kelly Watch The Stars which I heard while waiting for Play on Earth to start. I hadn't heard that song since I last watched the music video in 2001. It strikes me as a little odd that I hear it five years later and then read about it in the music video feature. And yes, I remember the Pong sequence in the video. Very cute.
The other song is A-Ha - Take On Me which I heard on Wednesday night while eating at Miss Clarity Cafe. I really love the song. It has an unforgettable riff which just makes me want to dance like a typical white man. And when I say I love it, I mean I love it so much that I'd like to sing it at a karaoke lounge.
As an aside, let me just say that being at the cafe that night was like being at Mambo Jambo but without going to Zouk. Almost every song that was played was something that would undoubtedly fit at Mambo, and when they played Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up, we knew it was time to go.
I've definitely been getting into '80s music recently. I'm starting to listen to Journey, a band which I'd not heard of until I watched The O.C. strangely enough. My current favourite of the moment is Faithfully, another song with a memorable keyboard riff... if I'm getting my instruments correct!
Another '80s band I started listening to after returning from England a few years ago is Depeche Mode. The thing is, I used to dislike them because my brother would insist on playing their greatest hits CD over and over and over again until I got really sick of Just Can't Get Enough. Then after a couple of years of growing up and discovering new music in London, I came back and lo and behold, I now find Dave Gahan's voice incredibly sexy.
Anyway, I'll end this off with one of my favourite music videos of all time is definitely Blur - Coffee and TV. I love the milk carton. Who wouldn't? His expressions are hilarious. In fact, he's got his very own web site!
One of the songs is Air - Kelly Watch The Stars which I heard while waiting for Play on Earth to start. I hadn't heard that song since I last watched the music video in 2001. It strikes me as a little odd that I hear it five years later and then read about it in the music video feature. And yes, I remember the Pong sequence in the video. Very cute.
The other song is A-Ha - Take On Me which I heard on Wednesday night while eating at Miss Clarity Cafe. I really love the song. It has an unforgettable riff which just makes me want to dance like a typical white man. And when I say I love it, I mean I love it so much that I'd like to sing it at a karaoke lounge.
As an aside, let me just say that being at the cafe that night was like being at Mambo Jambo but without going to Zouk. Almost every song that was played was something that would undoubtedly fit at Mambo, and when they played Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up, we knew it was time to go.
I've definitely been getting into '80s music recently. I'm starting to listen to Journey, a band which I'd not heard of until I watched The O.C. strangely enough. My current favourite of the moment is Faithfully, another song with a memorable keyboard riff... if I'm getting my instruments correct!
Another '80s band I started listening to after returning from England a few years ago is Depeche Mode. The thing is, I used to dislike them because my brother would insist on playing their greatest hits CD over and over and over again until I got really sick of Just Can't Get Enough. Then after a couple of years of growing up and discovering new music in London, I came back and lo and behold, I now find Dave Gahan's voice incredibly sexy.
Anyway, I'll end this off with one of my favourite music videos of all time is definitely Blur - Coffee and TV. I love the milk carton. Who wouldn't? His expressions are hilarious. In fact, he's got his very own web site!
Monday, June 19, 2006
"Cine.SG is a platform that allows local moviegoers to enjoy Singapore films on the big screen. It allows them to discover brand-new films or truly homegrown classics. It is also a platform that allows local filmmaking talents to meet their audience, through Q&A sessions and seminars."
Some films included in the showcase are Talking Cock The Movie, Singapore GaGa, Perth and Money No Enough.
Shamefully, although I've watched a fair number of foreign films, I've only watched one local film: Forever Fever. Even then, I caught it ten years after it first opened in Singapore.
Some films included in the showcase are Talking Cock The Movie, Singapore GaGa, Perth and Money No Enough.
Shamefully, although I've watched a fair number of foreign films, I've only watched one local film: Forever Fever. Even then, I caught it ten years after it first opened in Singapore.
In yet another coffee-related post, I discovered that a survey on coffee in Australia found that the cafe latte was the drink of choice for Melbournites living in the more affluent suburbs of the state, while the cappuccino, my preferred drink, is usually chosen by those who live in the poorer suburbs.
Here's the complete list of who drinks what:
Here's the complete list of who drinks what:
WELL-OFF INNER-CITY FOLK - Caffe latteRecently, I'd observed that us juniors in the office preferred to drink cappuccinos while those in senior management drank espressos. So I told one of the expat senior managers as he walked by that according to the survey, he was a trendy young man. Appearing horrified (he spurns all things mainstream), he protested that he drank cappuccinos as well. I dubbed him a yuppie bohemian. He seemed to like that better.
POORER, OUTER-SUBURBAN FOLK - Cappuccino
YOUNG MEN - Espresso
YOUNG WOMEN - Caffe latte
OLDER FOLK - Flat white
TRENDY YOUNG THINGS - Variations on the espresso
Sunday, June 18, 2006
This is a rather interesting site. It seems to be in the same vein as Bitter Asian Men, although there's a little more truth in the former than the latter. It's inspired by the same situation which gave rise to this witty exchange from When Harry Met Sally.
Sally: We are just going to be friends, OK?
Harry: Great, friends. It's the best thing...You realize, of course, that we can never be friends.
Sally: Why not?
Harry: What I'm saying is - and this is not a come-on in any way, shape, or form - is that men and women can't be friends, because the sex part always gets in the way.
Sally: That's not true. I have a number of men friends and there is no sex involved.
Harry: No, you don't.
Sally: Yes, I do.
Harry: No, you don't.
Sally: Yes, I do.
Harry: You only think you do.
Sally: You're saying I'm having sex with these men without my knowledge?
Harry: No, what I'm saying is they all want to have sex with you.
Sally: They do not.
Harry: Do too.
Sally: They do not.
Harry: Do too.
Sally: How do you know?
Harry: Because no man can be friends with a woman that he finds attractive. He always wants to have sex with her.
Sally: So you're saying that a man can be friends with a woman he finds unattractive.
Harry: No, you pretty much want to nail them, too.
Sally: What if they don't want to have sex with you?
Harry: Doesn't matter, because the sex thing is already out there, so the friendship is ultimately doomed, and that is the end of the story.
Saturday, June 17, 2006
My brother went to the Download Festival in Donington Park last weekend. While there, he encountered the curious phenomenon that is "bottle fighting."
B****y heck. I can't see this ever happening at ZoukOut.
B****y heck. I can't see this ever happening at ZoukOut.
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
I am truly, madly, deeply in love with Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars. I love it the same way I loved Coldplay - Yellow and Damien Rice - The Blower's Daughter the first time I heard them.
The beginning of the song makes me think of slow dancing with the love of my life, my head lying against his shoulder, feeling utterly and completely safe with his arms around me. That's the feeling the song evokes in me. And Gary Lightbody takes my breath away every time I hear him sing the words, "If I lay here / If I just lay here / Would you lie with me and just forget the world?"
Listen to Chasing Cars here and watch the video here.
The beginning of the song makes me think of slow dancing with the love of my life, my head lying against his shoulder, feeling utterly and completely safe with his arms around me. That's the feeling the song evokes in me. And Gary Lightbody takes my breath away every time I hear him sing the words, "If I lay here / If I just lay here / Would you lie with me and just forget the world?"
Listen to Chasing Cars here and watch the video here.
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
If you, like I, have been tickled by the Adidas World Cup 2006 ad currently showing on television, you can catch the full-length version which is infinitely more delightful here. The choice moments, other than the "Beckenbauer?" of course, are when Zidane whispers something in the chubby kid's ear and the "Soy capitán!" moment. This is definitely the ad of this year's World Cup.
Sunday, June 11, 2006
After catching The Vegetable Orchestra, my friends and I, who hadn't eaten dinner because we were told that there was going to be soup served at the concert and indeed, there was, but a small cup of it, were faced with the same problem I encountered the last time I caught an evening show at Jubilee Hall. Where were we going to find nice hot food at 9.30 pm?
And that's how we found the gem that is Miss Clarity Cafe. Located on Purvis Street, this cafe is very pink (but is also decorated with some other pastel colours), and offers good food at really cheap prices. The waitstaff are incredibly perky, to the point that my friends and I started making jokes about how either there must have been canisters of laughing gas hidden in the back or that the kitchen staff must be very grumpy or sad in order to maintain the cosmic balance.
For dinner, I ordered Pork Remoulade (I think, I can't quite recall the name) which was a large pork chop stuffed with sausage and came with cabbage disguised as sauerkraut but lacked the great sour taste of the latter, and that cost only S$8. My friend ordered the Chicken Ballotine which came in a similarly large size and cost S$8 as well.
You can add S$3 to get a soup or a salad and a dessert (a small scoop of mango sorbet), but in my opinion, the additional S$3 isn't worth it if you want to try one of the real desserts, as the choosing the set option only lets you get 50 cents off the price of any item on the dessert menu.
And mind you, if you do come to this place, you should definitely try some of their desserts. I have heard good things about the Bread and Butter Pudding, but pudding really isn't something I usually enjoy so I chose to go for the Mud Ooze, one of the cafe's specialties and highly recommended by the waitress, as well as a Chocolate Fondue to be shared among the five of us. The Mud Ooze, a hot fudge chocolate souffle-like concoction, was great although the vanilla ice-cream didn't go well with it at all as the ice-cream tasted well, cheap and artificially sweet.
The Chocolate Fondue was made from Valrhona chocolate and came with an assortment of fruit and marshmallows. Although the waitress wasn't well-versed on the intricacies of chocolate (responding, "well, it comes with all kinds of fruit, I can't tell you what proportion" to my friend's query on the percentage composition of the chocolate), she waxed on about the greatness of Valrhona which she only discovered when she started her job at the cafe. My friends and I, with the benefit of having studied overseas, were of course very familiar with the pedigree of that brand, and decided that we could jolly well afford to try out the fondue especially given that a small pot for two to three people was less than S$8!
And indeed it was money well spent. It was delicious, especially with the banana slices.
The only complaint I had about the cafe was that it was really noisy. It was packed at 10 pm on a Thursday night and it was so loud that the volume almost hurt my ears.
Miss Clarity Cafe
5 Purvis Street
Tel: 6339 4803
Open 7am to 11pm
And that's how we found the gem that is Miss Clarity Cafe. Located on Purvis Street, this cafe is very pink (but is also decorated with some other pastel colours), and offers good food at really cheap prices. The waitstaff are incredibly perky, to the point that my friends and I started making jokes about how either there must have been canisters of laughing gas hidden in the back or that the kitchen staff must be very grumpy or sad in order to maintain the cosmic balance.
For dinner, I ordered Pork Remoulade (I think, I can't quite recall the name) which was a large pork chop stuffed with sausage and came with cabbage disguised as sauerkraut but lacked the great sour taste of the latter, and that cost only S$8. My friend ordered the Chicken Ballotine which came in a similarly large size and cost S$8 as well.You can add S$3 to get a soup or a salad and a dessert (a small scoop of mango sorbet), but in my opinion, the additional S$3 isn't worth it if you want to try one of the real desserts, as the choosing the set option only lets you get 50 cents off the price of any item on the dessert menu.
And mind you, if you do come to this place, you should definitely try some of their desserts. I have heard good things about the Bread and Butter Pudding, but pudding really isn't something I usually enjoy so I chose to go for the Mud Ooze, one of the cafe's specialties and highly recommended by the waitress, as well as a Chocolate Fondue to be shared among the five of us. The Mud Ooze, a hot fudge chocolate souffle-like concoction, was great although the vanilla ice-cream didn't go well with it at all as the ice-cream tasted well, cheap and artificially sweet.
The Chocolate Fondue was made from Valrhona chocolate and came with an assortment of fruit and marshmallows. Although the waitress wasn't well-versed on the intricacies of chocolate (responding, "well, it comes with all kinds of fruit, I can't tell you what proportion" to my friend's query on the percentage composition of the chocolate), she waxed on about the greatness of Valrhona which she only discovered when she started her job at the cafe. My friends and I, with the benefit of having studied overseas, were of course very familiar with the pedigree of that brand, and decided that we could jolly well afford to try out the fondue especially given that a small pot for two to three people was less than S$8!
And indeed it was money well spent. It was delicious, especially with the banana slices.
The only complaint I had about the cafe was that it was really noisy. It was packed at 10 pm on a Thursday night and it was so loud that the volume almost hurt my ears.
Miss Clarity Cafe
5 Purvis Street
Tel: 6339 4803
Open 7am to 11pm
Saturday, June 10, 2006
This year's Singapore Arts Festival isn't as interesting as the previous two were to me. I hadn't intended to go for any of the shows until a friend informed me that she could get a discount off any of the tickets, at which point I jumped in with her for tickets to The Vegetable Orchestra and Play on Earth.
The Vegetable Orchestra, as you may have read from the papers by now given that there was an article on them in every single one of the English papers published in Singapore, plays music on instruments made up entirely of vegetables. Their aim is to produce organic sounds and apply it to different styles, from classical music to dub beats to house beats. The show began with the ten musicians looking incredibly serious all dressed in black seating themselves down on the stage which had their various instruments all laid out around their seats. Then they began to play with instruments varying from hollowed-out carrot flutes to cabbage clappers to aubergine drums to whistles made from a single vegetable leaf. They covered classical music (a piece by Stravinsky), electronica (Kraftwerk - Radioactivity) and even Austrian folk music. The two pieces which impressed me the most were the piece in which they imitated the sounds of different jungle animals such as a mosquito, a lion, a monkey and a bird, and Greenhouse, a house tune which you would normally hear in a club. There was even a piece when they made music from sliding vegetables down a ramp and amplifying the sounds. I was rather tickled when they threw a pumpkin down the ramp which promptly rolled off the stage and landed in the empty first row. Another delightful part of the show was watching the instruments slowly being shredded to bits, such as when a his leek clapper gradually became sparser and sparser as leaves fell off with every beat.
To end off the night, they served a cup of vegetable soup, made, thankfully enough, from the scraps of the instruments which they had carved an hour before the show, and not from the instruments themselves. Granted, it would have been a nifty idea if they had made the soup on-stage but after hearing the amount of spit that must have accumulated in the instruments, I wouldn't have touched the soup with a ten-foot pole.
For samples of their music, check out Greenhouse and their cover of The Radetzky March.
The Vegetable Orchestra, as you may have read from the papers by now given that there was an article on them in every single one of the English papers published in Singapore, plays music on instruments made up entirely of vegetables. Their aim is to produce organic sounds and apply it to different styles, from classical music to dub beats to house beats. The show began with the ten musicians looking incredibly serious all dressed in black seating themselves down on the stage which had their various instruments all laid out around their seats. Then they began to play with instruments varying from hollowed-out carrot flutes to cabbage clappers to aubergine drums to whistles made from a single vegetable leaf. They covered classical music (a piece by Stravinsky), electronica (Kraftwerk - Radioactivity) and even Austrian folk music. The two pieces which impressed me the most were the piece in which they imitated the sounds of different jungle animals such as a mosquito, a lion, a monkey and a bird, and Greenhouse, a house tune which you would normally hear in a club. There was even a piece when they made music from sliding vegetables down a ramp and amplifying the sounds. I was rather tickled when they threw a pumpkin down the ramp which promptly rolled off the stage and landed in the empty first row. Another delightful part of the show was watching the instruments slowly being shredded to bits, such as when a his leek clapper gradually became sparser and sparser as leaves fell off with every beat.
To end off the night, they served a cup of vegetable soup, made, thankfully enough, from the scraps of the instruments which they had carved an hour before the show, and not from the instruments themselves. Granted, it would have been a nifty idea if they had made the soup on-stage but after hearing the amount of spit that must have accumulated in the instruments, I wouldn't have touched the soup with a ten-foot pole.
For samples of their music, check out Greenhouse and their cover of The Radetzky March.
Thursday, June 08, 2006
I know it's late, but given that the World Cup begins in under 24 hours, I figured I should post these photos before then.
So I was at Raffles City earlier this evening when I passed by the World Cup Lego exhibit. Other than the scenes with giant football players and officials, there's also this delightful stadium built entirely out of Lego pieces. On the left is a shot of the entire stadium, and on the right is a close-up of the left-hand side of the stadium (complete with electronic scoreboard). There must have been several thousand spectators in the Lego stadium itself. The amount of effort put into this is mind-boggling.
On a football-related note, if you're planning on setting up a World Cup pool in which the participants select their choices for each round (second round, quarter-finals, semi-finals, final and winner), here's a cool free web-based application which will help. Alternatively, you can try out the BBC Football World Cup Predictor, which enables you to chart out your feelings about each of the countries in a more logical fashion.
So I was at Raffles City earlier this evening when I passed by the World Cup Lego exhibit. Other than the scenes with giant football players and officials, there's also this delightful stadium built entirely out of Lego pieces. On the left is a shot of the entire stadium, and on the right is a close-up of the left-hand side of the stadium (complete with electronic scoreboard). There must have been several thousand spectators in the Lego stadium itself. The amount of effort put into this is mind-boggling.
On a football-related note, if you're planning on setting up a World Cup pool in which the participants select their choices for each round (second round, quarter-finals, semi-finals, final and winner), here's a cool free web-based application which will help. Alternatively, you can try out the BBC Football World Cup Predictor, which enables you to chart out your feelings about each of the countries in a more logical fashion.
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Okay, I've finally transferred the photos from my phone to my PC (via my Palmtop, which is why I took so long).
So here's some photos I took while on vacation in Rome last year. I'm happy to say that I didn't have to do much touching up at all. I really love the camera on my phone even if it is just one megapixel.
The Trevi Fountain is definitely one of the most-visited sites in Rome. It's been featured in Roman Holiday, sung about in Three Coins in the Fountain, and is the place you have to visit if you want to return to Rome. You know, the whole throw one coin in to ensure your return to Rome, two to fall in love with a Roman, three to get married in Rome jazz? Anyway, the fountain is usually packed with tourists and all kinds of touts, but at midnight on Christmas, the place was blessedly empty.
Christmas Day at the Piazza di Spagna. Again, nicely empty and although this photo may not evoke any feeling in you, this was taken shortly before I danced down the relatively empty Via Condotti (the branded street) singing All I Want For Christmas Is You.
A Christmas tree along the walls that mark the city limits of Rome. A nice contrast of something so delightfully modern and cheery and something which is possibly thousands of years old.
A random shot of one of the many churches around Rome. The sun was setting and I just thought the whole building, though much simpler than the other churches around the city, was beautiful. I loved its roundness more than anything else, if I recall correctly.
So here's some photos I took while on vacation in Rome last year. I'm happy to say that I didn't have to do much touching up at all. I really love the camera on my phone even if it is just one megapixel.
The Trevi Fountain is definitely one of the most-visited sites in Rome. It's been featured in Roman Holiday, sung about in Three Coins in the Fountain, and is the place you have to visit if you want to return to Rome. You know, the whole throw one coin in to ensure your return to Rome, two to fall in love with a Roman, three to get married in Rome jazz? Anyway, the fountain is usually packed with tourists and all kinds of touts, but at midnight on Christmas, the place was blessedly empty.
Christmas Day at the Piazza di Spagna. Again, nicely empty and although this photo may not evoke any feeling in you, this was taken shortly before I danced down the relatively empty Via Condotti (the branded street) singing All I Want For Christmas Is You.
A Christmas tree along the walls that mark the city limits of Rome. A nice contrast of something so delightfully modern and cheery and something which is possibly thousands of years old.
A random shot of one of the many churches around Rome. The sun was setting and I just thought the whole building, though much simpler than the other churches around the city, was beautiful. I loved its roundness more than anything else, if I recall correctly.
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Seeing as my last post was somewhat Cuba-related (even if the people behind it are really British)...
The Cuban Film Showcase has just kicked off at The Picturehouse. The three films in the showcase are Soy Cuba (I am Cuba), Lucia and Fresa y chocolate aka Strawberry & Chocolate. As part of the showcase, there'll also be sessions on how to speak like a Cuban and how to drink like a Cuban. If I'm not wrong, sessions on how to dance like a Cuban were held over this weekend. Check The Picturehouse's site for more details.
On a movie-related note, I've watched quite a few good foreign films so far this year, namely, 36 Quai des Orfèvres (France), Les Aimants (Canada), Smala Susie (Sweden), Adam's Apples (Denmark), C.R.A.Z.Y. (Canada) and Chinese Restaurants: Beyond Frontiers (Canada). I haven't had the time yet to write down what I thought about them. I could attempt to do a quick, concise review of each of them, but again, I haven't had the time to think it through, nor do I think it would do each of the movies justice as to just how much I enjoyed them.
Of course, my liking of foreign films prompted a guy who I was interested in earlier this year (but who has, sadly, chosen to go after someone else) to ask me if I ever watched any films in English. I hadn't realised until then just how few English films I'd managed to watch this year, but I suppose if you count the ones I catch on television, then they just about balance out.
So what's the next film I'm interested in catching? Other than the films in the Cuban Showcase, it'll either be 8 Femmes (France) at the Alliance Francaise on 20 June, or Pirates of the Carribean 2: Dead Man's Chest. I don't usually like Johnny Depp, but he made me laugh an awful lot in the first movie. There really are too few good movies that are coming out this year. Or maybe I'm getting older and more demanding. That could be it.
The Cuban Film Showcase has just kicked off at The Picturehouse. The three films in the showcase are Soy Cuba (I am Cuba), Lucia and Fresa y chocolate aka Strawberry & Chocolate. As part of the showcase, there'll also be sessions on how to speak like a Cuban and how to drink like a Cuban. If I'm not wrong, sessions on how to dance like a Cuban were held over this weekend. Check The Picturehouse's site for more details.
On a movie-related note, I've watched quite a few good foreign films so far this year, namely, 36 Quai des Orfèvres (France), Les Aimants (Canada), Smala Susie (Sweden), Adam's Apples (Denmark), C.R.A.Z.Y. (Canada) and Chinese Restaurants: Beyond Frontiers (Canada). I haven't had the time yet to write down what I thought about them. I could attempt to do a quick, concise review of each of them, but again, I haven't had the time to think it through, nor do I think it would do each of the movies justice as to just how much I enjoyed them.
Of course, my liking of foreign films prompted a guy who I was interested in earlier this year (but who has, sadly, chosen to go after someone else) to ask me if I ever watched any films in English. I hadn't realised until then just how few English films I'd managed to watch this year, but I suppose if you count the ones I catch on television, then they just about balance out.
So what's the next film I'm interested in catching? Other than the films in the Cuban Showcase, it'll either be 8 Femmes (France) at the Alliance Francaise on 20 June, or Pirates of the Carribean 2: Dead Man's Chest. I don't usually like Johnny Depp, but he made me laugh an awful lot in the first movie. There really are too few good movies that are coming out this year. Or maybe I'm getting older and more demanding. That could be it.
Saturday, June 03, 2006
The Cuban Brothers were hilarious! I'm so glad I went in spite of my being incredibly exhausted from the busiest week I've had at work so far.
I didn't quite know what to expect other than well, hilarity and hijinks given their reputation as the no. 1 live act in Europe at the moment.True, I'd send the link to the Guardian article to a couple of friends in order to persuade them to come, but hadn't read the article myself. If I had, I would have known better, but my sense of fun and wonder might have been dampened just a little by my knowledge.
The show kicked off with The Cuban Brothers, dressed in bright yellow suits and hats, coming up on stage and performing a song. Right after that, the frontman, Miguel, introduced his brother, Archerio, and his nephew, Kengo San ("half-Japanese, half-Cuban", a fresh graduate of the Havana School of Performing Arts and a giant 'fro), as the dancers for the group, and the DJ, Clemente, as his brother and also his uncle. Turns out that Miguel starred in over 100 pornos in Cuba back in the '70s so close followers of the industry might recognise him as Juan Bandito, "double-O-69", from films such as Brownfinger.
With that lead-in, they go into a performance of Yum Bam Be/Porno Show, a delightful little Spanish tune which seems to have "porno" as every alternate word in the chorus. Midway through that, Archerio bends over, puts his head on the stage for support and sticks his butt in the air, and Miguel comes over and plays the drums on it, prompting me to lean over to a friend and say, "Wow, those really must be buns of steel drums!" Later on, Archerio and Kengo San bust out some wicked breakdance moves and I'm just agog, half-dancing, half-laughing my head off at the sheer audacious ribald humour of it all.
The Cubans then go on to sing a song which Miguel wrote for his good friend, Thom Yorke, and proceeds to show us how it was meant to be sung - apparently, in a strong Cuban accent. After this, they engage in banter with the ground, making comments about how he wants to "finger" a beautiful lady in the audience and yells "I mean touch her, you perverted bastards!" when the rest of us burst into startled laughter at his comments.
Other highlights of the night - and there were so many! - include Miguel singing their latest single, A Million Stories, while Archerio dances on stage while on rollerskates, doing this hilarious dance move where he runs in place with the skates on. Miguel and Kengo also stripped down to their boxers to breakdance as the night wore on, something which the Cubans are apparently famous for, but which I didn't think they'd do in staid Singapore. Even Clemente got in on the dancing, by coming out from behind his console, and busting out some moves in that hilarious way only a middle-aged, lame-ass, drunk guy is capable of.
To end off the night, Miguel sang a song which he wrote for Lionel Richie so many years ago. "Senor Lionel Richie, he came and asked me to write a song for him. I say, Lionel, you cut your hair first and we can work together. He did, so we did," he told us before bursting into All Night Long. In the middle of it, he makes his way to the podium, stands on it and starts singing Too Many Broken Hearts and doing some hand movements that prompt those of us familiar with Zouk to gasp, "is that Mambo?" just before Miguel confirms it, apparently having visited Zouk the night before.
Thus ends the live portion of the Cuban Brothers' show. I'm incredibly high at this point thanks to the heady combination of dancing, violent laughter, cheesy music and alcohol. Because of that, I stay on and dance to the music Clemente spins, which turns out to be mostly oldies and '70s funk remixed with modern R&B, not exactly the kind of music I enjoy. Still, I find myself dancing my heart out to a funky version of Crazy in Love and My Girl and Play That Funky Music. Still later, at the behest of T., I do a parody of a line dance to Dolly Parton - Nine to Five, before Clemente puts on an amazing bootleg of Jay-Z - 99 Problems vs. Nena - 99 Luftballons (a version of which can be found here). Startled, I dance with sheer abandon as the chorus breaks and realise the joy J.D. and Mr. Mueller must have had in that memorable dance scene from Scrubs.
Happy, but tired, I leave before the night ends because I still have to work in the morning. There're so many songs I never thought I would hear in a club ever, I marvel to T., especially not at Zouk of all places! Nevertheless, I had an incredible amount of fun, dancing to music I normally don't enjoy.
Many thanks to Heineken for bringing them in and Zouk for providing such a delightful performance area. Can I put in a request for Basement Jaxx now?
I didn't quite know what to expect other than well, hilarity and hijinks given their reputation as the no. 1 live act in Europe at the moment.True, I'd send the link to the Guardian article to a couple of friends in order to persuade them to come, but hadn't read the article myself. If I had, I would have known better, but my sense of fun and wonder might have been dampened just a little by my knowledge.
The show kicked off with The Cuban Brothers, dressed in bright yellow suits and hats, coming up on stage and performing a song. Right after that, the frontman, Miguel, introduced his brother, Archerio, and his nephew, Kengo San ("half-Japanese, half-Cuban", a fresh graduate of the Havana School of Performing Arts and a giant 'fro), as the dancers for the group, and the DJ, Clemente, as his brother and also his uncle. Turns out that Miguel starred in over 100 pornos in Cuba back in the '70s so close followers of the industry might recognise him as Juan Bandito, "double-O-69", from films such as Brownfinger.
With that lead-in, they go into a performance of Yum Bam Be/Porno Show, a delightful little Spanish tune which seems to have "porno" as every alternate word in the chorus. Midway through that, Archerio bends over, puts his head on the stage for support and sticks his butt in the air, and Miguel comes over and plays the drums on it, prompting me to lean over to a friend and say, "Wow, those really must be buns of steel drums!" Later on, Archerio and Kengo San bust out some wicked breakdance moves and I'm just agog, half-dancing, half-laughing my head off at the sheer audacious ribald humour of it all.
The Cubans then go on to sing a song which Miguel wrote for his good friend, Thom Yorke, and proceeds to show us how it was meant to be sung - apparently, in a strong Cuban accent. After this, they engage in banter with the ground, making comments about how he wants to "finger" a beautiful lady in the audience and yells "I mean touch her, you perverted bastards!" when the rest of us burst into startled laughter at his comments.
Other highlights of the night - and there were so many! - include Miguel singing their latest single, A Million Stories, while Archerio dances on stage while on rollerskates, doing this hilarious dance move where he runs in place with the skates on. Miguel and Kengo also stripped down to their boxers to breakdance as the night wore on, something which the Cubans are apparently famous for, but which I didn't think they'd do in staid Singapore. Even Clemente got in on the dancing, by coming out from behind his console, and busting out some moves in that hilarious way only a middle-aged, lame-ass, drunk guy is capable of.
To end off the night, Miguel sang a song which he wrote for Lionel Richie so many years ago. "Senor Lionel Richie, he came and asked me to write a song for him. I say, Lionel, you cut your hair first and we can work together. He did, so we did," he told us before bursting into All Night Long. In the middle of it, he makes his way to the podium, stands on it and starts singing Too Many Broken Hearts and doing some hand movements that prompt those of us familiar with Zouk to gasp, "is that Mambo?" just before Miguel confirms it, apparently having visited Zouk the night before.
Thus ends the live portion of the Cuban Brothers' show. I'm incredibly high at this point thanks to the heady combination of dancing, violent laughter, cheesy music and alcohol. Because of that, I stay on and dance to the music Clemente spins, which turns out to be mostly oldies and '70s funk remixed with modern R&B, not exactly the kind of music I enjoy. Still, I find myself dancing my heart out to a funky version of Crazy in Love and My Girl and Play That Funky Music. Still later, at the behest of T., I do a parody of a line dance to Dolly Parton - Nine to Five, before Clemente puts on an amazing bootleg of Jay-Z - 99 Problems vs. Nena - 99 Luftballons (a version of which can be found here). Startled, I dance with sheer abandon as the chorus breaks and realise the joy J.D. and Mr. Mueller must have had in that memorable dance scene from Scrubs.
Happy, but tired, I leave before the night ends because I still have to work in the morning. There're so many songs I never thought I would hear in a club ever, I marvel to T., especially not at Zouk of all places! Nevertheless, I had an incredible amount of fun, dancing to music I normally don't enjoy.
Many thanks to Heineken for bringing them in and Zouk for providing such a delightful performance area. Can I put in a request for Basement Jaxx now?
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