The BIG Fry-Off

It literally was obscene. We're talking the kind of obscene that's illegal in 42 states and 20 countries. We'd only ever talked about having a fry party but never thought we would actually pull this off. But today, we did. With great aplomb, unplanned coordination, as balanced a menu as the deep-fried circumstances allowed (I mean, we *did* have veggies and dessert), and also a fleeting smidgen of guilt and embarrassment at how much we ate. And all this after the Big House Big Heart run (photos here.) Emilee put it best: "Can I just say how much I LOVE the idea of celebrating something called the "Big Heart Run" by frying a bunch of stuff?"

Things we managed to throw into the turkey fryer:
1. A 2lb prime rib (yes, a WHOLE prime rib)
2. Cheese curds
3. A pound of Italian meatballs
4. 13 scotch eggs (encasing extra-large hard-boiled eggs)- no, restraint was the one thing that was *not* on the menu today
5. 2 large country fried steaks
6. Eggplant strips (they turned out a little like tempura, i.e. delicious! And it allowed us to pretend that we had *some* fiber in our diet today.)
7. 5 giant chicken breasts (brined in buttermilk, so moist, so good, so ummmm-inducing... )
[by this time, people were starting to have that glazed, blank look on their faces- y'know, the blissful kind that comes just before an intense food coma?...]
8. 4lbs of hot wings
9. Handmade onion rings
10. Banana-Nutella and cinnamon brown sugar spring rolls (our contribution- it really worked and was the perfect decadent end to an already heedlessly hedonistic afternoon)

And all this for only nine people. All cooked in one vessel (at different times, obviously, but still, the capacity of that thing is amazing!). And, on top of that, with all the finger-licking goodness that was going on, we completely dispensed with cutlery altogether- why fuss with an extra transfer mechanism when you can just toss piping hot fried food straight into your oesophagus? Ahhhh bliss...

1. An obscene amount of fried food!, 2. Beer-battered onion rings, 3. Banana-nutella spring rolls, 4. Deep-fried eggplant, 5. Cheese curds!, 6. Scotch eggs , 7. Deep-fried prime rib, 8. Scotch eggs, cross-section , 9. Buttermilk-dipped fried chicken

Why Ricky Gervais should host next year's Emmy's

Ricky Gervais wasn't present to accept his Emmy last year and Steve Carell- his American counterpart in the American remake of The Office accepted it on his behalf. Last night, one of the highlights of the ceremony was Gervais' mock outrage that Carell still hasn't handed over his statuette. [Note also Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert- who had given Carell the trophy- barely containing themselves...] Carell's signature stonefaced distress and Gervais unrelenting jabbing make it the funniest- and Office-esque uncomfortable- two minutes in Emmy history. Oh, and there's tickling too... :)

I made you what you are and I get nothing back... Have you even been to see Ghost Town yet? No? I sat through Evan Almighty. Gimme my Emmy.
-Ricky Gervais "ranting" at Steve Carell

Halfway to the Half

...which also means I'm trained for a quarter marathon, as someone astutely calculated ;)

So it's just under a month to the Detroit Marathon, and I'm only halfway in my training. I'm running the half (for no other reason than it stretches across to Canada over the bridge and under the tunnel, making it the world’s only underwater international mile) so it's actually not too bad. I ran 11.5km today (Jenn and I adapted this route a little) and I figure if I can hit 19km the weekend before the marathon, I should be able to run that last 2km on adrenaline alone, if nothing else. I'm at that stage in my running where the first 3km or so is the hardest and then by the time I'm at 6km, I'm completely zoned-out (or in, depending on how you look at it) and some strange inexplicable force takes over my body until the voice via my iPod+Nike tells me it's time to stop. Yoga has helped my breathing a lot too so I hardly get out of breath which has also helped my recovery heart rate. The only part of my body that isn't faring too well are my legs- specifically my knees. They don't hurt while I'm running- the hours after a long run is when they bother me most. Thanks to Dark Orpheus though, this pose has been helping a lot.

It's easier to get motivated to run now that I'm running almost everyday, although I'm not going to be making marathon-running a personal hobby anytime soon- it's going to hurt too much. I think the reason why I've been drawn to running is the same reason I love yoga- it's all about my body and what it's capable of doing on its own. Every run- like every yoga session- is a challenge. How much further can I run? How much longer can I hold this position? And I actually look forward to the "aloneness" of running- it's some quality Serene-time during which I can think of anything I want- whether it's something I need to concetrate and think hard about, or something I need to get out of my system. I'm beginning to do some of my best thinking- not necessarily academic- as I run and I've come to appreciate that a lot.

So there, Serene Koh, enjoying running. Just a year ago, who would have guessed? ;)

Watchmen cast comparison

[from film ick- click for full-size]

Just because it's been intense bedtime reading for the past week (it's probably a bad idea to be working my mind so hard just before I sleep- I really should be reading something mindless...), and because I can't wait till March 6, 2009...

Heard joke once: Man goes to doctor. Says he's depressed. Says life seems harsh and cruel. Says he feels all alone in a threatening world where what lies ahead is vague and uncertain. Doctor says "Treatment is simple. Great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight. Go and see him. That should pick you up." Man bursts into tears. Says "But Doctor... I am Pagliacci."
-Rorschach's journal, The Watchmen

Funniest wedding invite - ever!

I kid you not, this is an actual wedding invite from a childhood friend ... sent via email ;)

Dear all,

I am getting re-enlisted into National Service on 30Oct08, and would like all of you my comrade-in-arms to witness the event at Regent Hotel.
Please confirm your availability. Unlike that day 18 Dec 1993, where they gave me a rifle and told me that its my wife (what idiots!!!), this is the real thing!!!!

FINALLY......I AM GETTING MARRIED....LIKE most of you................

Don't ask me whether i am sure or not? When i renewed my car insurance, they told me i can pay lower premium because I am 36...a responsible age.

I never believe in "Once Armour always Armour, but i guess Once a HEEJACK, ALWAYS A HEEJACK...
Our motherland is safer now that i am OUT of the army.............

Once a brother, always a brother.................please come and we can have one big reunion.

An apple a day...

Of course, it probably could have been a drier day... when we had originally planned to go apple-picking, raincoats, umbrellas and water-proof shoes were not supposed to be part of the package. But the freaky September weather being what it is and the remnants of Hurricane Ike coming our way, fruit-picking (apples and raspberries) at Wasem Fruit Farm included a fair amount of dodging and darting about. The good thing was everyone had fun- rain or no rain- the kids were especially game and they came all prepared with their adorable raincoats and galoshes :)

What made apple-picking most exciting for me though was the entire experience of picking fresh fruit, and then having it lovingly prepared that very day. Wendy thoughtfully prepared pie dough in advance and our afternoon was spent just hanging out at the Cooneys and basking in the deliriously wondrous smell and flavor of homemade apple pie. And it was the BEST apple pie I've ever tasted- the apple pie against which all apple pies will now be forever measured, in no small measure due, I'm sure, to Wendy's awesome crust, and simply how fresh and delicious those apples were.

It's this intensely intimate relationship with food that's one of the greatest arguments for supporting local farmers. Not only are you assured that your food is humanely and responsibly grown, you help sustain the efforts of famers who strive to do so. The other thing that occurred to me yesterday was how inspiring it is to cook according to the seasons. I'd never really thought about it before until watching Wendy bake her pie- to cook with ingredients that are at their peak of flavor and not just bland, generic-tasting food you can get all-year round at the supermarket because they've been industrially produced. Cooking and eating seasonally situates your food in a time and place, and in that sense, makes the experience a very particular memory. So even though apples are available all-year round, as I go through the two crisper drawers full of apples in our fridge and now and forever more, every time I eat or cook with apples, I'm going to associate it with that one cusp-of-Fall rainy day, when picking apples had everything to do with raincoats, umbrellas and water-proof shoes :)

"Righteous Kill"- to watch or not to watch?

If "Righteous Kill" starred any two other actors on earth, we could call it what it truly is -- a formulaic mash-up of every maniac-on-the-loose cop movie ever made. If it only boasted one of its leading men, we'd note how often he's played that role before: the quintessential tough guy, loose cannon, thick-tongued New York cop. But "Righteous Kill" stars both Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, and slack must be cut.
- Salon movie review

My first Saturday back in A2...

...was spent giving in to my basest vegging tendencies.

Morning: Woke up the latest I have this whole week actually, 8.30 or so. Called home to wish my parents a HAPPY WEDDING ANNIVERSARY! Their 33rd, which is pretty amazing :)

Morning-ish: Jude and I laid in bed listening to a This American Life podcast via my phone (the Break-Up episode, complete with Phil Collins and The Postal Service is simply inspired...). And tinkering with the Pandora app which I love.

About noon or so: Finally dragged ourselves downstairs for lunch. Hotdogs with a mozzarella/heirloom tomato salad. There wasn't anything good on TV and we ended up watching some strange how-is-this-meant-for-kids? cartoon on Cartoon Network.

Afternoon: The whole afternoon after lunch basically went by in a blur- I remember watching a documentary on the History Channel about Chinese gangs in San Francisco, falling asleep on the couch, and waking up to another documentary, this time about gangs in the military. Drifting in and out of a nap, I think I might have watched about 30 minutes of Save the Last Dance (the one where Julia Stiles is a ballet dancer in Chicago) on mute while Nick Drake was playing on our stereo (Don't ask me why I was watching TV on mute- I guess well-written angsty songs are better than badly-written angsty movies).

Late afternoon-ish: Couldn't bring myself to move from the couch so I just spent the next two hours or so re-reading The Watchmen in anticipation of the movie. Note to self: I shall spend the rest of the night doing this too :)

Before dinner: My half-marathon training today is supposed to be 40 minutes of cross-training so Jude and I decided to bike to Zingerman's for dinner and then bike back (no one said I couldn't use food as motivation...) It was very doable and we wondered why we never thought of biking to the Farmer's Market before. Dinner was delicious as always- pastrami and corned beef on rye with two kinds of cheeses and mustards. Dessert was even better- droolsome burnt sugar gelato and a shot of deep, dark, slurpy Spanish drinking chocolate. It made biking home 1) harder, but also 2) all the more necessary.

After dinner: I think it was a combination of food coma and the soothing cusp-of-Fall weather that lured us back to the couch for more vegging. Channel-surfed between Failure to Launch (I can't believe Jude actually enjoyed parts of this- but only parts...), a hyper-colorized Bad Boys II (which police departments allows car chases with a Porsche? Only in Miami it would seem), and Walk the Line (I *heart* Joaquin Phoenix).

Late-ish at night: Jude's DVD project for this semester- after conquering Battlestar Galactica last semester- is The Wire. He's starting right from the very beginning so it's a looong road ahead. I've been trying to watch with him this past week but jetlag always got in the way. Did sit through a couple of episodes tonight and they were pretty darn good. I've been hearing great things about the series from a whole slew of different people and I now see why. The production quality isn't the best but the narrative is as gripping as they come, and it hits right between the eyes and lures you right in. And for someone whose only image of Baltimore involves Charm City Cakes (thanks to the Food Network) and Hairspray, it was a terrifying refreshing (?) insight into the city.

I was planning on doing some work tonight, but it looks like that plan's about to be shot- basest vegging tendencies don't involve anything productive. Feeling lethargic and drowsy again. I've really been sleeping too much this week. I'm not sure if it's making up for sleep I didn't get enough of in Singapore or I'm still recovering from jetlag, but I'm giving myself till tomorrow to get my groove back. The trip home was really fruitful but now it's time to process all that work and get my data in shape. And since data don't transcribe themselves, someone needs to stop going to bed at 11pm and pull herself together...

The Omnivore's Hundred

Knowing my pornographic obsession with food, one of my office mates, Linda, suggested that I do this meme.

The Omnivore's Hundred (originally from Very Good Taste)

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you've eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht (Although I'm a little skeptical about the authenticity of the one and only version I've had at Shashlik, one of only two "Russian" restaurants in Singapore. I do love the old-world, musky charm of the place though. Enough to not snicker at the kitschy decor or mind the occasionally grouchy service.)
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart (We had so many of these when we first moved here. They fill you up pretty well and for $1.20 each, they're a fairly cheap meal when you're trying hard to save every penny.)
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes (One of the few things that make summers bearable here.)
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper (And risk potentially losing my voice forever? I don't think so...)
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float (Nothing beats Bill's in Ypsi- deep intense licorice flavor with creamy over-sweet vanilla ice-cream. Yummm...)
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat's milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth US$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut (We finally had these last year when we were in Chicago for the Cubs game. Plus the free one we each got because they were freshly fried, Rick, Emilee, Jude and I split a dozen. At 8.00 in the morning. It was a bit of an overkill I have to admit...)
50. Sea urchin (Tried it and will never eat it again- at the risk of being disowned by some very dear members of my family, the texture of uni really irks me.)
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi (And only just last week, where I unsuspectingly ordered a bowl of udon at Narita Airport with one of these pickled plums in it.)
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald's Big Mac Meal (I confess, I've never had a Big Mac.)
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine (See here.)
60. Carob chips
61. S'mores (Thanks to Rick and Emilee, I had my first S'mores 2 years ago while camping, so it was the real deal- over an open fire and all... And it was awesome!)
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin (Isn't this some kind of clay?)
64. Currywurst (1997. July. Berlin.)
65. Durian
66. Frogs' legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake (As whimsical as they all sound, I was a little disappointed to find that at the end of the day, fried dough anywhere in the world tastes almost the same once you sprinkle powdered sugar on them.)
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain (Thanks to our dear friend Beryl, this was just one of several Jamaican yummies we had the fine fortune to enjoy, on top of her homemade jerk chicken and one kickass beef stew with dumplings)
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe (Does it count if I stole a sip from Shibani's drink in Montreal?)
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill (If you drive on the freeways in the Midwest as much as we do, you'd never want to either.)
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict (The best of which was a crab-cakes version at Cafe Penelope in Chicago)
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare (What about rabbit? I think I might have had a bite here in Quebec City)
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish (My first taste of catfish was at Swensen's in Liang Court when I was 15. At my dad's recommendation...)
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee (And was sorely disappointed- definitely overrated.)
100. Snake

It was an interesting exercise not just in terms of recalling the different things I've ever consumed, but also the memories associated with them. Try it. In particular, I tag Terri- I just know you'll enjoy every moment of doing this meme... :)

Things I appreciate...

...about being back in AA:
1) My first sip of Starbuck's Pike Place brew: it's still my favorite roast from them. Plus, I refuse to pay S$4.50 for Starbucks in Singapore (after conversion, it's still ridiculous) so my first cuppa this morning was particularly precious.

2) Running in weather that doesn't make me want to pass out after 10 minutes. Although I realize that the cooler air is also thinner (whatever that means) and I had to breathe a little harder than when running back home.

3) Sane driving. (See here.)

4) No longer having to watch the current season of Project Runway via YouTube. Waiting for five videos to very slooooowly load- I'm told by my resident computer techie that there's something called "lag" and videos just load slower in Singapore- just for one episode was only barely worth it.

Things I don't:
1) Throngs of undergrads on the first day of term. I miss my "yay-it's-summer-no-undergrads" Ann Arbor... It's still not as bad as the claustrophobia of Singapore, but after enjoying those couple of months of peace and quiet in May/June, today was not nice...

2) The parched dry grass everywhere- even my beautiful lavender isn't holding up very well. I think I take the perennial greenery of Singapore for granted sometimes and forget that in Ann Arbor, green is something quite fleeting, whether we're talking about long, frosty winters or rainless summers that toast everything into an ugly brown.

3) No yummy home-cooked food. Yes, we cook, but somehow, pasta and casseroles just aren't quite the same as chicken curry, handmade hae cho (shrimp rolls), long-simmered soups, and other lovingly-prepared comfort foods.

4) Our family and friends. Enough said :(

In space, no one can hear you... clean.

[Blogging from Narita International Airport as I wait for my flight to Chicago. Strangely, this airport isn't particularly tourist-friendly, unless you happen to read and speak Japanese, want to buy high-end duty-free goods- who comes into the airport thinking to buy a Bvlgari ring?- crave ultra-sweet Japanese candy, or are looking for kitschy Japanese souvenirs. I'm sitting at my gate sipping an iced latte- which surprise surprise, is called "iced latte" in Japanese... Am hoping to have an uneventful flight all the way to Detroit, i.e. no birds flying into plane engines and the people at O'Hare don't screw up and delay me for some random reason again. If all goes well, I should be back in AA in 17 hours. Cross fingers...]


Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl. Girl is captured by strange forces. Boy saves girl. Girl falls in love with boy. Girl almost loses boy. The couple reunite. They live happily ever after. Yup, at its core Wall-E is a romantic comedy, pure and simple, and I fell in love with it at first gaze into Wall-E's soulful mechanical eyes.

For the first 40 minutes of the movie, there is hardly any dialogue, mostly beeps and chirps between the two protagonists, but this matters little, and you really hardly notice. Because the same people who gave us a piece of baguette in Ratatouille that looked as real as something you'd get at a French boulangerie have given us an animated (non-human) couple with more humanity than most Hollywood actors. Every nuanced emotion- ardor, annoyance, anxiety- is evocatively conveyed, like a Chaplin silent film or Marceau mime, with few words but a whole lot of heart. And by the last 15 minutes of the movie, I couldn't wipe the tears from my eyes fast enough, as if I was watching a heartwrenching 4-hanky weepie...

For those of you who do not stay through the credits at the end of movies, you have to here. You will be duly rewarded because it's one of the best I've ever seen. It was as if an entire other team of animators was put in charge of the credits and it is its own piece of imaginative art. Wall-E might now be my favorite Pixar movie, from its hauntingly eerie vision of a humanless post-apocalyptic Earth (almost I Am Legend-esque, but more poetic) to the sweet purity of Wall-E and Eve's love story, Pixar shows us that animation is way more than cartoon. It's cinematic art.

Look at what Shure sent me ...

I proudly announced in Sept.'07 that I got a pair of Shure E2C sound isolating earphones. And it has been my go-to earphones ever since. I like the fact that it isolates external noise - this was indispensable for the long flights home to Singapore. Also, I really liked the way the earphones stay secure in your ears no matter what you were doing - my old earphones always got painfully yanked out of my ears when I was at a weight machine or on the treadmill in the gym. And besides, for $39, the sound quality was unsurpassed by any other similarly priced earphones out there.

Hence, I was very sad when the cables of the earphones started cracking. I am not sure what the causes the cracked cables but this is a problem that has been experienced by many and is well documented on the internet. And going by the advice that I was given online, I only had to fill out a web form, include my original receipt and ship my damaged earphones back to Shure. And given the 2 year warranty covering the earphones, Shure will repair or replace my earphones. I did that last week, and guess what arrived at my doorstep yesterday ...



It's a slightly different model than the E2C. The Shure SCL2 is the professional version of the old model. From what I gather on the web, this model features some improvements over the E2Cs - an improved and more flexible cable and an improved driver to deliver crystal clear sound. I have to admit that I don't hear the difference yet, but apparently there's a burn-in period for this earphones. So, I am just running all sorts of audio on it to get the drivers in shape. But thus far, I am very happy with the service I got from Shure and the performance of the earphones. I was a little worried about what Shure was going to do with my damaged earphones as they've discontinued the E2Cs with a more fancy (and also more expensive) SE range of earphones. But all in all, I have to say that Shure's customer service is unparalleled. Thanks Shure :)

Now, if only I can justify the purchase of the SE530 to Serene :)

Virgin qik post :)

I first heard about this service from Kevin Lim. And it was more apparent that qik is a web service I should be paying more attention to when the Prime Minister of Singapore showcased qik in this year's National Day Rally. (Check out the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvxD8-L68bA) But more than anything, it was interesting to see the live streaming of my video as I was using the qik service. You can check it out below:



This is quite a nifty service. And what's more interesting is that this is a homegrown Singapore startup :) I can definitely see myself using this service a lot more. It was pretty easy to install qik on my iPhone. I am quite sure that qik installs on a variety of other cameraphones. It's pretty cool to stream your videos live ... think of yourself as your very own broadcast channel :)

Serene's presentation at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies

Serene has been invited to give a talk on her dissertation at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University. Details of the talk are below. Drop by if you are in the vicinity :)

It's all about the light...

Out in the open sea, with nary a city light in sight, Jude and I have never seen a more gorgeous sunset, a moon more resplendent, or light on the water more shimmering. We had our reservations about going on a canoeing expedition around Ao Phang-Nga (Phang Nga Bay)- a group of 132 limestone islands an hour away from Phuket- mostly cost-related, but I have to say now, it was worth every penny. Because we were in kayaks, it was about as close to the water as you could get without actually jumping in, and the views of the sea, the islands and the landscape was truly breath-taking from that perspective.

After bustling in Singapore for close to 2 months, being away in Phuket even for a few days was a relaxing break, especially enjoying the sun, sand, and sea. We've been away from any kind of coast for so long that just seeing the pristine beaches and feeling the warm grains of sand between my toes was divine. If Jude and I have one recommendation for those of you thinking of visiting Phuket, it'll definitely be to avoid the Patong Beach area altogether (congested and too much sleaze) and just head straight to either Kata or Karon Beach for pure seaside heaven. The whole experience was about as removed from city life as you can get and it was most refreshing. Data, charts, deadlines, proposals, submissions- everything faded away as we traversed the seemingly infinite horizon of the Andaman Coast- exploring limestone caves and lagoons, and dipping our hands into the waters to watch flickering bioluminescent plankton.

Seeking that Alex Garland, The Beach experience? This probably comes very close... :)

[Photos here.]

I think I'm a Death Cab for Cutie snob...

I'm sorry, but just because you know the lyrics to "I Will Follow You Into the Dark"- and only that song- and remember the *two* Death Cab songs from the O.C. soundtrack does not make you a Death Cab For Cutie fan.

Yes you. And you, and you too. Those of you sitting in the dozen or so rows in front of us today who didn't seem to know half the songs in the set. You know who you are- you of the O.C. generation who looked puzzledly at your friend when "Styrofoam Plates" came on; who barely recognized the riotous opening strains of "The New Year"; and in the name of all that is good and pure, I can't believe you didn't sing along to that awesome finale track... You actually looked bored.

Jude and I (together with an ecstatic Sam, Terri and Sam's friend Hannah) on the other hand, had a blast. We thoroughly enjoyed the concert more than the one they did in Ann Arbor in 2005, mainly because they played more tracks from their older albums, or as Jude and I like to think, their *better* albums. I suspect that most of the crowd only got to know the band more after Plans, which is why today's pre-2005 set-list might not have appealed to them as much. I loved it though- "Photobooth", "Sound of Settling", "Title and Registration"- all the stuff they did before they started wearing their bleeding indie hearts so much more readily on their sleeves- each and everyone of them made me so very, very happy :)

And then of course, essentially the one track we paid $70 to hear, Death Cab for Cutie's legacy, the one inspired poetry of a song in all its blissful glory, kept till the very end, every bit as divine as we remembered it to be 'live'. And Jude and I sang every word.

Great job, Death Cab. I'm sorry I ever said you weren't good 'live'. I changed my mind- I'm very glad I saw you tonight :)

Someone say "Lens Envy"?

Over the weekend, Jude and I helped my sister and her fiancé, Piao, take some pre-wedding photos. They're thankfully eschewing the whole exorbitant wedding photography package nonsense and wanted instead, something more fun and spontaneous. So they settled on us taking their photos in the picturesque Botanical Gardens and the pretty- and increasingly gentrified- Ann Siang Hill area in Chinatown. While we love taking photos, we clearly don't have the kind of professional gear necessary for wedding-quality photos. But apparently, there is now a burgeoning business in Singapore leasing cameras and lenses. So all thanks to a Canon 5D camera and a monster of a 70-200 F2.8L lens (plus a couple of our own cameras- hence the very meta photos of the photographers...), you get photos like these:

They're nowhere near professional quality, of course, but we're still quite happy with what we achieved- at least the future newlyweds seem to be :) It's amazing what a huge difference a good camera and lens can do. Shots like this and this would have been impossible without high-speed, paparazzi-level equipment. Which is why for the last couple of days, I've had to deal with a somewhat antsy husband who seems to be going through a bout of rather acute lens-envy-citis for what now seems in comparison to be our very humble and modest Nikon D60... ;)

Kidding around

Finally! After years of posting about Sesame Street and my favorite guest appearances (see here and here), in preparation for the show's 39th (!!!) season, Entertainment Weekly has put together a list of 25 Classic Sesame Street Visits. It's so awesome to see some of my favorites making the list (notably Norah Jones, James Stewart, R.E.M., Andrea Bocelli, and Feist). New ones to love- James Blunt and Telly in a melancholic duet (losing your triangle shouldn't have to be so sad...):



and Richard Pryor's expressive, irrepressible recitation of the alphabet:

My prisoner's dilemma

[As Jude kindly corrected me- told you he knows his stuff-, the situation I describe below is actually not so much the Prisoner's dilemma as it is the Diner's dilemma, which is essentially an n-player Prisoner's dilemma. While the fundamental ideas are the same, the dynamics are slightly different.]

So according to classical Prisoner's dilemma theory, when two individuals are faced with the choice to either cooperate or defect and if their only concern is with maximizing their own interest without any concern for the other person's payoff, then the rational decision is to defect (or "betray") even though each person's individual reward would be greater if they cooperated. This is of course a very blunt and naive distillation of what is essentially a very nuanced theory (which if you're interested, you can go read Jude's 60-page prelim paper...) and I bring this up not to provoke some sociological economics debate about self-interest, altruism, or one's commitment to the public good (again, for that, you'd have to go to my husband).

So last week, I found myself standing in line at the taxi-stand, very frustrated. It was 10.15pm and I had been standing in the queue for almost 40 minutes. I was fourth in line and had been fourth in line for the whole of those 40 minutes. The line had not moved. And there was at least 15 people behind me. Since we've been back, Jude and I have made a very conscious decision to take the train more and avoid cabs as much as possible. Between the rising cost of cab fares and the traffic jams you invariably encounter, it just is more cost- and time-efficient to take the train. But on this Friday night, I was tired and not too far from home so I figured the fare wouldn't cost too much. Besides, it looked like cabs were streaming regularly through the taxi-stand so I wouldn't have to wait long either.

But I was wrong. About the wait, at least. During the time I was in line, I could have taken the train and be home and rested. What I wasn't wrong about though, was the number of cabs coming through the taxi-stand. Oh there were cabs alright, just not cabs that were available for street hire. In that 40 minutes, every, and I mean *every* cab that came through was "On Call", i.e. reserved via phone. For an extra $3.80, you can call the cab company, and any cabs near your location will swing by and pick you up, without you having to wait in line at the stand. Now, there is nothing wrong with calling a cab, of course- this service is a godsend in an emergency or when you're late, but something just didn't feel right in that situation. By calling for a cab without standing in line (or while you were standing at the end of a long line), you are essentially depriving someone who has been standing in line- or someone ahead of you in the line- of a cab that otherwise would have come into the stand, available for street hire. Meaning, if I don't call a cab because I'm unwilling to pay that extra surcharge, I am destined to stand in line indefinitely. Think about it, if you were a cab driver in the vicinity of that taxi stand, faced with a choice of picking up someone who calls in (and earning an extra $3.80) and just driving into the taxi-stand and picking up whoever is waiting, what would you do?... Yup, and that's why you end up with hordes of cabs plying the streets waiting for reservations and never driving into cab stands.

[Photo from mr brown who seems to share my sentiments...]

So this is where the prisoner's dilemma comes in. Sort of. If everyone starts calling for cabs- which will evetually make taxi-stands irrelevant- then everyone will inevitably be worse off because 1) you won't be able to flag cabs down on the street; and 2) everyone will have to pay an extra $3.80, driving the ultimate cost of fares up. So much for an affordable public transportation system available to and affordable by all. However, if people refrain from calling for cabs unless there isn't a cab stand nearby and there are no cabs on the street, then even though we will all have to stand in line, the wait won't be long because cabs won't be driving around waiting to pick up customers who call, and are thus forced to have to drive into cab stands instead.

I know this is turning into a really long post, and a rant of sorts, and it probably sounds a little trivial. But it's been on my mind these past couple of days. Jude even tried helping me work this out theoretically over coffee last night. There is no easy solution of course, and it's hard to pin blame on anyone. As rational decision-makers, we can't help but act in ways that are self-interested. But standing in line for that 40 minutes made me appreciate the possibility of a time when self-interest will neither be a primary motivation or an act of first instinct (who knew that aching feet and a frustrated mind inspires such profundity?...) It's kind of like the Joker's social experiment with the two ferries in The Dark Knight- are you willing to give up the security of self-interest for the eventuality of larger social good?

Tune of the week: Air France - No Excuses

Perfect track to perk-up a sleepy lethargic morning. Pure pop headiness with handclaps, breathless/atmospheric vocals and synth anthem riffs. I don't really know much about this Swedish band, but I do think that Pitchfork's review of the EP is spot-on. The word they use to describe Air France's sound is "Balearic" - named after the anthemic brand of disco/dance that emerged from the Mediterranean islands of Ibiza, Corsica, Marjorca, etc. Despite the fact that my musical tastes have developed rather eclectically throughout the years, I have a real soft spot for individuals who are able to craft blissful pop gems. Perhaps it's a sign of my age, but the over-produced synth goodness of pop from the 80s and 90s are sounds that still appeal to my ears these days.

Speaking of nostalgia, Serene and I were lamenting the demise of Chris Ho's column "Pop Life" in The Straits Times. If you are like me, and grew up in the shadow of Chris' music recommendations, you might want to read his swan song article if you haven't. I've reproduced his eloquently written, dignified but rather bittersweet farewell below.

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The Straits Times (Singapore)

July 25, 2008 Friday

My musical send-off;
Singer Joni Mitchell will always be in my blood, even as I mark the end of this column next month

BYLINE: Chris Ho, poplife

SECTION: LIFE! - LIFE MUSIC

LENGTH: 794 words

T.S. ELIOT may claim that April is the cruellest month of the year but, to me, the cruellest is August. Come next month, this column of mine will cease to exist.

No big deal I know, but for a sentimentalist like me, it marks the end of this column's 25-year run, a long time for something as ephemeral as pop.

I remember when I first started this column, David Bowie was just crossing over to the mainstream with Let's Dance and Eurythmics were creating waves with Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This.

It was a time when my somewhat academic approach towards writing pop was deemed suitably edifying a perspective to lend credence to the subject, which was rather undervalued at the time. I was just thankful that studying literature in university gave me good background mileage in 'practical criticism' to appreciate poetic words.

It is no secret that my principal love has always been singer-songwriter music. After all, it was Joni Mitchell who gave me my 'great rock 'n' roll send-off'.

With her powerful lyricism and brave experimental style in the mid-1970s as primary influence, I felt I had connected with the very core of what rock 'n' roll is. Very simply, it is about being free with an eye on redemption. It is somewhat inexplicable a vibe, because you really have to feel it in order to know it.

With Mitchell's musical blessing, I felt I could ride with the bravado of Bowie, the punk of Iggy Pop, the decadence of Lou Reed and still take on the wild wonders of New Wave-dance-alternative-hardcore and whatever left-field noise or extreme metal there was.

To this day, I still live and breathe Mitchell (at least, all of her great work till 1979) for she is 'in my blood like holy wine', along with Jackson Brown, Tim Buckley and not a few others.

If my taste in music had, through the years, appeared esoteric or unfathomable, it is only because I am as much a 'trainspotter' as I am a dedicated supporter of great substance.

For what good is following the ever- changing tide of fashion or flavours-of-the- month if one is not blissfully grounded by the subliminal wow of true heavyweights?

Simply put, I follow trends to know what not to follow or buy into, and by 'true heavyweights', I do not mean what the collective consensus deems critically essential for the average consumer.

I have always prided myself in seeing what slipped through the cracks. For instance, I still uphold that Jhelisa's Language Electric is the 1990s' feminine equivalent of Marvin Gaye's masterpiece What's Goin' On. And that Billie Ray Martin's Deadline For My Memories is the unique Joni Mitchell-meets-Donna Summer foray into Studio 54's shuttered VIP-room of dire romantics.

By the way, did I ever tell you my self-propounded theory that Mitchell lost her greatest muse the day she stopped working with bassist Jaco Pastorius?

If all that seems insignificant, I am proud to recall that way before any big-time music rag (read: Rolling Stone, New Musical Express, the like) raved about REM, this column had called attention to the then-unknown band by way of their indie debut Chronic Town.

Not to mention Red Hot Chili Peppers, Los Lobos, U2... Some readers may remember more, but 25 years is too long to now capture in one breath.

And if all the Mitchell-talk renders me limited in outlook, I assure you I have ventured into a spectrum far wider than expected: from Judy Garland to Judas Priest, DJ Hell to Darkthrone, Johnny Cash to Butthole Surfers, Peggy Lee to Dick Lee.

In fact, I am guilty of being a stylistic scavenger hunting down all in search of that X-factor called great music.

Blame me for sounding egotistical, but my biggest regret in not being able to write this column anymore is the thought that from here on, no one is going to bother much about Rickie Lee Jones and Emmylou Harris. These artists, I believe, are now the true torchbearers of the Mitchell legacy.

Or, what if no one here recognises the great music of our own local players - from the late Michael Isaac to the new Max Shanti? Perhaps the world has changed, especially when John Mayer is now 'God' and Tori Amos seems to be the singer-songwriter goddess of them all.

What do I know? Except that this is a given directive of an exit for me in view of life's many changes. In particular, this one you are holding with a capital L and the exclamation suffix.

Well, this Pop Life has no big exclamation to end but a sad goodbye and a trite rationalisation that all pleasurable things do desist.

Relieved of the trite, I shall revel in my treasure trove of pop, punk, metal, country, folk, dance, ambient, jazz and rock to light the rest of my days.

May you be touched by your own Mitchell to seek a pop-life that is both gratifying and redeeming.

Best wishes always from me, an ardent music fan.