I-dolls

Ooh! Just finish Singapore Idols. That Jonathan Leong is so cuuuuuuuuuute! Can't stand. How dare Florence (Ah)Lian even compare him to Sylvester?!? That one so ugly, so Beng, look like Duck-ula, and that's during his best moments, some more can't sing to save his life. This one however, is all GOOOOOOD. And the boy can really sing. And ooze style and charisma. Impressive. He gets my vote. Paul Twohill also pretty funny and entertaining. The rest all hopeless cannot sing lah, they should just go back sell popcorn and peanuts.

A Viewing of 'Non-Collectibles' The Exhibition

Yesterday evening was spent checking out the visual and audio-visuals on exhibition at The Substation.
On display was a series of Brian Ho's photography works http://www.thegaleria.com/noncollectibles

The artistes wanted to feature a sense of 'disposession' and I felt Brian Ho's works conveyed these pretty well.
His series focused on the darker, bleaker side of Singapore. Photos of old historical cinemas or old buildings that used to be grand have since become nothing more than relics, or a monochrome snapshot. I particularly liked Brian's series of people who live on the fringes of our society. One, of a dusty old man who collects rubbish, has as his main companion, a grubby pet mongrel for warmth and solace on cold nights.

That particular series is a fitting reminder to every singaporean that wealth distribution not just globally, but even in our country, is becoming severely imbalanced with the minority rich getting richer and the majority, poorer. At the lowest end of the weath spectrum are these dispossessed old men and women living off our streets. It makes me wonder when i'm in my particularly paranoid periods, with the pace of life scrambling forward as it is currently and possibly speeding up more as i age, will i in future, become like these rubbish collectors??? Scary but worth a thought, especially with my now worth nothing of an NUS Arts degree. BAH!

Osiris and the tale of his missing phallus

There's something really tragi-comic in the legend of Isis and her husband Osiris and his missing phallus dismembered and lost in the Nile River.
Isis, after finding the body of her dead husband, could not locate his phallus, and so drew his sperm from his spirit and inseminated herself with child, Horus.
The mysteriously lost phallus, is then revered by the Egyptians for fertilising the Nile river as it floods each year and inseminates the lands of Egypt with abundance.
Enchanting story and absolute useless info i'm peppering my blog with.

As ye eat, so shall you reap

Overdosing on chocolates can be so pleasurable at that moment in time but today i'm paying penance for yesterday's sins.
Woke up with an inflamed throat and croaky voice.
Today, my happiness level is 0.

Who needs Cadbury when there's Royce?

The husband and me got ourselves 2 boxes of Royce chocolates as a gift from Serene last nite. And oh dear, i fear that she might have opened a pandora's box of evil chocolate addiction for me.
Royce chocolates are sex for the stomach. Its smooth as pudding, its sumptuously chocolatey and its gonna take all your willpower to stop at one box.
The chocolates comes double-packaged and when you open the lovely royal-blue box, you will see bite-sized squares of chocolate trufffles staring invitingly back at you. The box even comes with a tiny spear so you can glutton ahead with elegance.
At this point, I'm halfway through the box of au lait as well as the second box of cherry flavour. I think i might have over-gluttoned myself though, cos i feel a sore-throat coming on. This may mean no chocolates for the rest of the day? Damn!

I dreamt of my eyeball last nite (a draft)

If you lift
the lid of mine eye
and peer inside
you will witness within, a resigned
eyeball clasping a contact lens
to itself
a plastic crutch
to help it perform a function
which it could no longer
do with accuracy
of purpose

Last nite
as if the eyeball
was trying to pass on a portentous
message,
it appeared in my dream
as a liquified creature
reduced to a pool of grey and white
mess
and lifting
the lid of mine eye
i witness within
the wretched eyeball
enclosed by a socket of fish-gills, rotten
purple

Perhaps my eyeball
has reduced itself
to threats
in growing awareness of its
mortality

Getting too old for late date nites

Phew, it has been a very tiring day.
2 hour meeting this morning followed by a session of ear-lending to a friend going thru a separation.
Followed by late lunch date with another friend, followed by work and then a second round of ear-lending to another friend also going thru a separation. Its deja-vu or something. The stories of infidelities and denials left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

Then while waiting for the husband to finish his art-group meeting, I had a chat with 2 strangers at Kampong Glam Cafe. The strangers (Muhamad and Mahfuz) shared a table with me becos the cafe was packed full as usual. Surprisingly we had a mutually interesting and engaging conversation about business, bureaucratic restrictions and entrepreneurship in singapore and overseas. Muhammad is from Saudi and Mahfuz's family was from Yemen. Muhamad kinda inspired me to rethink going into business again by his sucess and failure stories. I hope to continue the conversation we had today, again soon. There's so much i can learn from the experiences of people like him.

After dinner, the husband drove us down to Cineleisure to grab tickets for Da Vinci Code. We had tried getting tickets too, yesterday, but they were all sold out, so we were slightly more determined to watch it today. Well, at 10pm, all the tickets for pre-midnite shows were sold out. We were left with the 1.05am and 3am show, and since we had already paid the $3 parking entry fee, we kinda resigned ourselves to the long wait. For the next 3 hours, we half-heartedly shopped ( i got 2 tops!) . Ok, i shopped while the husband half-heartedly surrendered his money! Heh! Then, we attemmpted to get a bit of a nap in the car (unsucessful), then finally went to Burger King and snacked on the new waffle-fries (nice!). At one point, the husband commented that we seem to be the oldest couple to hang around Cineleisure, everyone else there looked in their teens or early 20s. Where are the rest of the 30-somethings ???

I conclude we are an anomaly since most people our age are at home, with kids, doing more productive things at this hour than attempt a late movie-date.

Now why can't i write sweet love poems like this?

Refusal


Beloved,
In what other lives or lands
Have I known your lips
Your Hands
Your Laughter brave
Irreverent.
Those sweet excesses that
I do adore.
What surety is there
That we will meet again,
On other worlds some
Future time undated.
I defy my body's haste.
Without the promise
Of one more sweet encounter
I will not deign to die.

Maya Angelou
*Poem extracted from : http://www.poemhunter.com

Gone Bad (a draft)

Because my mind is duplicitous
I can still see your face. It should
be a blur after all this time,
or splashed with the red hate of graffiti

If I could will your memory
Into the murky depths of a watery grave,
(Ego te baptizo... )
its' baptism and death
will rebirth me

Why not drill a hole
into this brain and drain you out
like a disease festering should be
cast out, bagged and burnt
and I, sterilized
walk free

I could gather these thoughts
Of you and shroud them
under a hundred layers of other
happier concerns

But you stubbornly lodge
yourself there
like a paperweight I wish
I could hurl against the wall and watch
fragment into nothing

Argh!

I-MUST-WRITE-A-LOVE-POEM!!!!!

Am so inspired by some of the love poetry I've been reading online and it depresses me that till now i havent been able to write a mind-blowing one yet or one that i like so much i'll read it repeatedly until my brain says "Enough already! I"m shutting you down in 3-2-1...!"

Been wandering around in a daze of romantic images burnt in my mind as a result from reading these poems.
Also re-read 'The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock' again, written by TS Eliot. Its so sad but so apt an image of the dilemma of the minds of this century. We're all so paralysed by inaction, by lack of will etc.
Reminds me of a certain person i know of who will spend his time with people he doesnt particulary like, at places he doesn't particularly like to go to; but he goes anyway because of the free drinks or free food.
I conclude human beings are strange critters.

Change is good

I'm slowly changing certain of this blog's aspects.
When i started, it was with the purpose of documenting my efforts with photo-poetry and hopefully, seeing some sort of progression or improvement in my works as I soldier on with it. So, the look of the blog was secondary, to publishing the works online. Thus, the amateur-ishly simplistic presentation *blush*

Since joining an online poetry forum called Dead Poet's Society, however, I've reviewed my "get it off the chest and get it down on paper" style of cathartic-poetry and am trying to be more careful with applying the high standards that fellow poets/writers at DPS themselves exercise with their art.
Its hard, to be so exacting with words, or to come up with a never-before-heard of metaphor or way to describe something.
Or to argue with my head over whether I'm putting across new ideas, or new ways of thinking about something ordinary or if its simply trite and rubbish I'm recording into my hard disk.

So, that's how the title of my blog changed into "Words Collective".
It explains, i hope, how i love words and the act of collecting them, and then arranging and showcasing them in new light. Also, in a collection of words, there is a story, a greater depth of meaning.

Peebrain from DPS recommended Cyril Wong's works to me recently, and I'm so thankful to her for the recommendation. His website features lovely poems. One love poem, in particular, made me catch my breath in wonderment when i read it.
So, in case you have not read him, please invite yourself to : http://cyrilwong.livejournal.com/ (Cyrl Walks In Uninvited) . Enjoy the lovely moments there, and do drop a note of appreciation to the writer if you enjoy his works. It makes every writer's day :)

Price hikes, right...on...cue!

The headlines on ST Interactive and Asiaone website today:

Moderate fare hike
If bus and train fares go up this year, any increase will be capped at 1.7 per cent. (Asiaone)

Smaller hikes this year, if any (ST Interactive)

Hmm..."if any..."? Is anyone suckered by that statement? At all?
Well, we've chosen, and now pay the price, literally. Wonder what's next? Oh well....

Saga - Experimental Series

At the old Harding Road Church compound, I found some dried saga seeds. From a distance they look like blobs of fresh blood.

When i was young, my friends and I collect- as young children love to do, these hard red seeds and use them for 'chongkak' the traditional malay game. I wonder now as i write, if anyone in singapore plays chongkak anymore. Chances are, its one of those things that have silently died with the progression of time.

I've never found, when i was young, an entire pod full of seeds still clinging to its husks. So, it was pretty interesting to find a few of them today. Took some photos, but only 1 turned out ok. This photo reminded me of a child's windmill-stick toy, because of the way the saga pods and its seeds form a ringlets branching out from a broken twig of the tree.

I'll probably develop a series on this. What i have in my mind is to take a shot of a saga pod while its still attached to a tree branch (god knows how i'm gonna do this?), add this one shot i've already taken , and the third subject shall be just the seeds in the chongkak board. I would like to call it "History of Saga". I think its gonna be a pretty interesting series for me :)

Haji Lane, Arab Street Snapshots

Mel, Jes, Suze, Niz and me left Bukit Kopi and made our way to Haji Lane. Checked out a new home furnishing boutique there called "SALAD". They sell black/ white home furnishings and accessories and everything is super lovely. Oh, and they also have imported designer toilet paper in tones of black, red and other stylish colours. If i remember correctly, each roll costs $18. Must use sparingly, very expensive cannot waste ah!

Presenting the unique Haji Lane...

Bukit Kopi Cemetery- Snapshots

Some notes on today's shoot:
Reached Bukit Kopi Chinese Cemetery at 8-ish am .
True to their word, Mel and Jes were already there, to sacrifice themselves to the mozzies first...heheh!
I love the silence and tranquility. Though there were at times disturbing statues (burnt black) that i saw at the base of big trees giving rise to scary thoughts and bumps on my arms, overall its pretty idyllic area to jog through and just relax at one of the garden chairs and benches around the graveyard. You could close your eyes while lounging in one of the chairs and feel like you're in just another spacious forest. Only be careful not to fall asleep while you're doing that. We dont want to wake up and find that its already dark...wooooooo!!!!!

And now the backlash...

So, the General Elections furore is still not yet over. The saga of Gomez-gate still continues unabated, it seems, now that he's been arrested for "criminal intimidation" of the Elections Office. I could not believe my ears when i heard this news over the Internet. The more pertinent question here, i believe is : Who exactly is intimidating who?

Elections is over, the spin-doctors have got lots of repair work to do.
The waves of backlash will now be felt, and i think the coming elections, the Pappies will learn their lessons and clamp down more on bloggers and the Internet. The newspaper report one day after the elections stated the govt will be studying the impact of Internet on this 2006 elections. For those who didnt know, this is the year of the Internet Elections -and why might you ask? This is the year, when the govt passed a flimsy law against political podcast and blogging, thinking that this will shut up effectively dissenting voices. They know that the mass media is already under their thumb, but the internet posed a far bigger dilemma with its far reaching threat. Journalists can be controlled. What to do with the masses not under the govt's direct control with the internet at their disposal? Enter the law. But then Alex Au of Yawning Bread and creative bloggers like Mr Brown found legal loopholes and encouraged a floodgate of singaporeans to speak up.

For the next elections, knowing the pappies bullying tactics, i wont be surprised if bloggers will be fined for any political, veiled or unveiled content (see Mr Brown's podcasts). I also wont be surprised if they say, only Pro-pappy content will be allowed to be published on the Internet.

I worry that websites by Mr Wang, Yawning bread, Xenoboy, Alfian, Singabloodypore will be next to be investigated. Certainly these have left a deep impact on many this Elections. Eradicated or shut down, the masses of singaporeans will not have a focusing point to gather alternative points of views and find a common rallying point against the govt or for the AP. All i hope for, is that the voices of reason and the intelligentsia will still continue to make themselves and of each other heard, despite the shallow victory of the govt. I was talking to Fauz yesterday and discussing the signficance of the percentages of the votes and how the PM translates the percentages to what he calls "a strong mandate". How laughable that he thinks singaporeans are so stupid they can't do math, they cannot translate the 33% in Ang Mo Kio or 66% overall, for what it is.

At the Carwash- Perspectives

There's a certain something, magic almost, about going to the Car-Wash. I'm talking about the car-wash services at the Gas Stations with a tunnel where your car enters and progresses as its being washed.

Perhaps it brings back the childish feelings of play, hiding in a safe place (under a table?) while imagining the world outside is in danger from earthquake or storm. Perhaps its the exciting feeling of secret isolation from the rest of the world when the car is blanketed by thick veil of foamy soap.
Whatever it is, i got The Husband to take some shots of this magic process last week when we were at the Wash.

First, a full silence in the car as we wait expectantly for the process to start.
Then the car suddenly sways imperceptibly sideways as the cleaners blasts heavy jets of water onto the car's side, top, rear.
Then comes the best part -thick soapy liquid drips speedily down from the ceiling like snow falling from the sky. It covers the car windows and windshield completely, instantly hiding us in a silent blanket of white 'snow'.
The cleaners sponge appears on the windscreen and windows. Soap trails appears following the path of the cleaners' sponge, forming rapid and continuous patterns of shifting swirls and circles. I'm transfixed by the art of soap on windscreen !

Schizo-Cat Part 2

Gettin my daily dose of Schizo-Cat warm-sweet-lovin


Schizo-Cat is pretty thorough about spreading his love. He likes to rub his face against my hair and suck the strands.
Or perhaps he's just in serious need of tooth-floss. My hair gets plenty of moisture this way, not the good kind unfortunately.

General Elections 2006: Pay and Pay? I think not...

I'm officially banging head against the wall sick of the PAP lorries going around my block, my coffeeshop, my block, my coffeeshop everyday and blaring and droning their indoctrination crap ad nauseum!
Vote for PAP! Vote for PAP! i'm beginning to even hear this last nite in my dreams! Oh, this is wayyyy badddd....i cant wait for voting to start, then i can vote Opposition and get some peace and positive energy back into my neighbourhood.
Though this is a thin hope, I wonder if the people of singapore will finally open their eyes this year and vote for democracy. I hope lah.

My cat, Tiger, is lazing in bed with me and behaving foolishly as usual. Tiger goes through moments when he suspects his tail of subterfuge. A few minutes ago, he suddenly stiffened beside me, stretched one paw tentatively to touch his tail, sniffed at the tail suspiciously and gives it a puzzled look- as if to say, what's this, it doesnt belong to me, does it? He's such a schizo cat...


Schizo-Cat with Mystery Tail