New blog

More often than not, I'm a stubborn bastard but after being encouraged by Jules to set up a Tumblr account, I think I'm shifting my blog there as well. I guess it's basically Twitter with multimedia functions but the main draw for me is its relative obscurity. Shit, I'm going to be indie as fuck as one of the first 100 Singaporean Tumblr account holders. People like me are probably the kind who will spend money on ICQ accounts with six-digit account numbers.

Anyway, go on to http://www.nongnongdongfongbong.tumblr.com. Whether or not I'll update this blogspot page is still unknown, there are some things that tumblr does better than blogspot and vice versa. So, just check both sites often.

1968 - 2009

First, a little backstory:

Black Americans Tommie Smith and John Carlos won 1st and 3rd place respectively for the 200m race in the '68 Summer Olympics held in Mexico. Standing on the rostrum, with their country's anthem playing, they raised their clenched fists up in the air, an action which is known as the Black Power salute. They were booed by the crowd and was condemned by the International Olympic Committee, because they were making a political statement at an (supposed to be) apolitical event. The very same event that had the home crowd performing the Third Reich Salute at their ruler, Hitler, in Berlin 30 years before.



This is the world-famous photograph that was splashed across newspapers around the world. Outrage, empowerment, inspiration and disgust were probably the different emotions felt by the public then.



More than 40 years later, the first black president of the United States of America had his inauguration ceremony with a turnout so huge, satellite photos of Washington DC had the entire stretch in front of the Capitol Building clotted with gigantic clouds of people eager to witness history in their lifetimes.

President Obama's inauguration speech, not as flowery as the one he made in Chicago during his acceptance, highlighted the great challenges, domestic and foreign that the country has to face in the months and years ahead of them. He assured the people that they will overcome, but only if they work towards it. Despite the grim outlook of the future, the people in Washington DC cheered, for they were experiencing the change and hope that Obama's entire election campaign was based on.

John Carlos and Tommie Smith?
They were watching.

40 years after their silent protest at the 1968 Olympics, Gold Medalist Tommie Smith hugs Bronze Medalist John Carlos, and their wives Delois Smith and Charlene Carlos after Barack Obama is officially sworn in as the President of the United States. Photo taken in the Smith room at the Sheraton Boston in Boston, MA. (Boston Globe/Stan Grossfeld)

My ____________ in 2008 (continued, because I'm milking this for all it's worth)

My favourite concert in 2008

Broken Social Scene



Definitely described in better detail and memory in this post, but I can still remember them starting off the concert with 7/4 Shoreline and as soon as the first note of the intro hit, everyone in the audience knew it was going to be a great night.

Runner-up: Camera Obscura



I realise I have only gone to two concerts this year so having a runner-up is a little redundant but I just want to make it known that I go to indie concerts so any hot indie chick passing by this blog will offer to fellate me. Anyway, this was more of a sit-down kind of affair and understandably, it's the way they're meant to be enjoyed. Everything sounded beautiful even though the band kinda look like a bunch of secondary school teachers playing as a group for the school's annual talent time. For $38, I couldn't have asked for more.

My worst meal in 2008

Buffet at Dallas Chicken & Ribs



Fried Chicken? Love. The idea of free-flowing food? Love. Combine the two together? Tried it and not so love. For $12, you could get as much fries, onion rings, chicken burger and of course, fried chicken as you want. If the greed portion of my mind was even just a tiny bit smaller, I would have realised that I can never eat enough fried chicken to justify the $12 but obviously, rational thought isn't my strongest trait when hungry.

When I entered the restaurant, which is situated along Upper Cross Road, the two young waitresses were watching old Friends episodes on a black-and-white TV and nope, no "Hello, welcome"s from them, just gave us a fraction of a second of eye contact and back to fantasising about having witty, awesome friends who don't seem to get bored of each other after a thousand seasons.

Alright, I'm here for the food but THE FOOD SUCKED. The fried chicken had soggy skin and the batter was tasteless. Everything else was alright but really, how much fries can you swallow before feeling fat and depressed as fuck? To their credit, their fried chicken wrap was delicious but you could only get one of those for buffet as it's not part of the deal. Well, THAT SUCKS.

Go to KFC instead, the tastiness to price ratio is much, much higher.

My favourite meal in 2008

Shellfish at Ben Thanh market in Ho Chi Minh City



I love eating seafood, especially the kind that live(d) in shells so this stall was perfect, exactly what I wanted when planning the trip to Vietnam. If given the choice to take up Judaism (which prohibits the consumption of shellfishes), I'll pass it up even if it means passing mysterious money-generating abilities because I love eating shellfishes that much.

What added to the experience at that stall was a half-hour-long conversation with this expat from California who lives comfortably in Vietnam as an English tutor. Interestingly enough, he was in that very same country as a soldier during the war so he probably killed a few relatives of his goddamn gook students. It was just interesting listening to his stories but he kind of got creepy after a while when I realised that he could very well be paying for kiddy sex on the side as well. All white guys do that when visiting South-East Asia, don't they?

Runner-up: Oysters in Perth



Honestly, I've had better oysters in Singapore but you don't get a manicured field of emerald green grass, light spring breeze and perfect late morning sun here. Combine that with a great company and the knowledge that for the next few days, you won't have to deal with any work-related nonsense, the world just felt perfect for that hour.

My ____________ in 2008

My favourite music in 2008

Caesars - Strawberry Weed



The low-fi recording techniques might be a little unnecessary but it's still a damn solid album. Sweden's social democracy may encourage the growth of white supremacy and black metal but if they keep churning out pop bands like these as well, it's not that bad.

The Japanese Motors - Self-titled



The Japanese Motors are pretty much The Strokes if they were Californian surfer bums instead of rich privileged kids from New York, as they share the same jangly riffs and lazy drawling. I realised the brilliance of my favourite track "Regrets a Paradise" when I was taking a shit at work and the beauty of the song just kept escalating, reaching a climax during the solo which wasn't a blazingly fast one or anything. It just worked perfectly. Possibly the best shit I've taken.

Vampire Weekend - Self-titled



Speaking of rich privileged kids, here's this year's hate-or-love band. The hate seems to stem from the fact that these are Ivy League kids making music that they claimed were inspired by Afro-Pop. The way they just exploded into popularity probably didn't help soothe the critics' anger either. Maybe these critics have forgotten about the kind of people who actually listen to "Indie" music nowadays, a lot of them are cardigan-wearing rich kids who frequent thrift stores and buy "fairtrade" coffee. Combine this "What has MY music scene become?" angst with jealousy of a band that seems to have gotten its hype and attention rather quickly, it's not hard to see why they're vilely hated in some circles.

She & Him - Volume 1



Here's something harder to hate, not even your parents can find a reason to hate this, and I mean that in a good way, not "safe, sterile, boring" kind of way. The first track I heard from this album is "I Was Made For You" and was immediately drawn in by the Motown-esque bassline and back-up vocals. Wait, the band is a bunch of white folks doing black people music? Uh oh, maybe someone will find a way to hate this. The singer also happens to be that Zooey Deschanel woman so if you're into indie girls, listen to this because she does have a good voice, just not a good rack. But, I digress.

tits

The Guts - Let It Go



Despite having the non-ironically ugliest album art ever, this album is still being played regularly because it's still catchy as fuck after so many listens, especially "Heartbreaker". There's that distinct early rock-and-roll vibe which I've grown to love in recent months but fuck, what an ugly cover.

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My favourite music in 2008 (That weren't actually produced this year)

The Strokes



I've dedicated an entire entry to them before so I don't think I should write too much here but shit, I'm still discovering "new" great songs in their discography up till now.

The Jesus and the Mary Chain



Look at that. Despite that, there's a lot of great music in their entire discography. It's bands like these that made you wonder why distortion was once considered undesirable when electric guitars were first invented. Just remember, whenever someone who grew up in the 80's tries to tell you about how shitty teenagers dress nowadays, calmly ask them how alternative and hair metal bands dressed "back in their days". As he stammers around for an answer, slip your sunglasses on, light up your cigarette with a quiet smirk and walk into the sunset.

The Beatles



The Beatles are the kind of band that you will not like in the first 18 - 22 years of your life but somewhere in your young adulthood, sooner or later but definitely, you will chance upon an opportunity to actually listen to them instead of having them forced on you by your Dad telling you it's "real music, not like the crappy new bands". You listen to them, you like them and you try talking to your Dad about them but he'll then start blabbing off about other old bands that sound really boring and you'll pretend to listen to him while surfing the web. The Beatles, they're that kind of band.

Blondie



I used to just skim past their songs until I heard "X-Offender" from their first album, which was written in the late 70's. A month later, I noticed the bassline from "Atomic". Not too long ago, I heard "Dreaming" in Zack & Miri Make a Porno. It's just a little too bad Debbie Harry doesn't have the kind of shelf life like the songs she sang on.

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My biggest music-related heartbreak in 2008

Rosay leaving the Pipettes

It's not actually just her who left the band but the duck wearing glasses too, leaving just the man-looking one behind as the only original member of The Pipettes. But oh, why would I care about anything else? Won't you stay behind a bit and...dare I say, dance with me, pretty girl, tonight?



Don't worry, pretty baby. I'm Asian, it'll fit.

Manse! Manse!*

National Geography's Inside Undercover in North Korea is neither the most comprehensive nor the most sensational documentary on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (Or to most of the outside world, North Korea) but it serves as a good enough introduction to the country that's the equivalent of the weird family on the 3rd storey who never seemed to step out of their house other than the one time you saw the son rush for his short bus to special school with his light blue school pants worn tits-high. This is coming from someone who went through a phase of total fascination with how totalitarian societies work a couple of years ago so I have read more than a thousand pages on how the reclusive nation is like, so you probably won't find the documentary as shallow as I did if you weren't as nerdy.

However, it wasn't a waste of 45 minutes for me as the ending was something I'll remember for life. I'm not spoiling it for you but I'm assuming that you have total faith in my awesome taste in music, films and all things media so the video should already be loading on your computer.

Heart-breaking as the ending was, it's nothing compared to this other North Korean documentary that I watched which had the infamous hidden-cam shots of kids with hollow cheeks, sunken eye sockets and bones threatening to pierce through forearms picking up stray grains of rice from the muddy ground at a black market selling UN food aid. There were some other such scenes in that documentary that really poked at whatever that's left of my heart and if I remember correctly, I shed a few tears during my watching. I can't really remember but you know, I might have, or I might not and even if I have, it's not a big deal right? It's really not a big deal, if I've actually had done so.

If you like the Inside Undercover at North Korea, click around and you can find other documentaries on the country, including the one I talked about. Then maybe, you'll move onto borrowing related books from the library and then halfway through it, you shudder, realising that all governments around the world, including ours (especially ours), do the same thing to gain and maintain control over the people and then you'll eventually become a cynical, apathetic and selfish bastard who is wondering why he's even bothering to blog about it on the Internet.

* Manse: Translates to "Long live", as in "Long live our great leader, Kim Jong Ill". Probably derived from the Chinese's use of the phrase "万岁", which has the same meaning.

Okay, I found the link to the better documentary two days after posting the original entry. Watch it, it's worth your time.

Oh come on

That's what I said when I saw this picture because, look at that, it's like the photographer took the effort to set it up nicely for my blackened heart go all soft again.

This fucking election

There we have it, a new president of the United States of America and it will take some getting used to a man who can speak so eloquently and inspire confidence from behind the podium after 8 years of GWB. American backpackers and tourists no longer have to stick on that Canadian flag patch on their haversacks in Europe and Asia. Suddenly, punk bands no longer have an easy topic to write songs on.

Don't get me wrong, the world is not going to automatically become a better place overnight because there is a lot of work to be done, and that's just within the American border itself. I've been saying this as a joke for a while now, that all you need to know about this election is that: Obama is black, McCain is old, Biden is just there and Palin's a woman. However, this will lead you to think that I'm apathetic but in fact, I've been following the race quite closely purely because of its entertainment value.







Wah wah wee wah this is McCain's daughter, Meghan.





I wanted to post Bristol Palin as well but she's pregnant and I'm not sick, guys.