8 posts tagged “singapore”
I feel a lil guilty for neglecting this blog. Haven't had much time to update here. the last month or so has been crazy with work that actually brings in money for me. Such as working on the Men's Health Singapore website.
There's a regional football tournament goin on currently - the AFF Suzuki Cup. Previously known as the Tiger Cup, Singapore's the defending champions. We actually won it twice in a row and three times in total, remaining unbeaten in the tournament for 19 games I think. Obviously we are favourites for this. Partly I think because we're defending champs but also maybe because we've always been embroiled in controversy in the tournament for some reason or other. Whether it was the Thailand walk-out in the last final, or the fights with Myanmar, the competition is super drama.
For the last few days, The New Paper has been voicing the angst of our local athletes who feel they've been shortchanged. These are the ones who've won world championships but lost out on the monetary rewards because only the major competitions like SEA and Asian Games and the Olympics offer the million-dollar payouts.
"WHETHER or not an athlete should be rewarded financially is a decision best left to the respective national sports associations (NSAs). That is the opinion of SingaporeSailing president Low Teo Ping, who is also the International Sailing Federation vice-president. He said: 'I think it shouldn't be done on a national level."
To me that's fair. You can't expect the supreme sports body to reward everyone and that is one area which probably needs more support, especially from the private sector. The individual sporting bodies need to work harder to generate more income and support for their sports although I think the SSC probably might need to give a little nudge here and there. Although in this current climate, that's probably not the most convincing of argument. What got my goat however was Mr Low's end quote.
He added: 'It also begs the question - why must it always be about monetary incentives? Why can't we take part in sports just for the sake of sports?'
It's like dude, then what's the point of being a professional sportsman? Just be like the rest of us amateurs and play sports for fun. These fellas invest their life, their time and whatever to make sports as a career work, competing with the best from the world for personal and national glory. For some of them, the sport is all they have. Plus it's a short-lived career.
This has been making the rounds a bit and I think it's really good. Inspired by the 'Hitler gets Banned' series, someone's actually adapted one to bitch about our local Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) woes.
In case you're unaware, ERP gantries are located at various points on our island to sort of manage traffic flow by discouraging motorists to pass through (crowded area) unnecessarily (cos they deduct money through a bulit-in cashcard system). Even if you don't drive and take the cab, you'll get saddled with the ERP charges which in some areas, can escalate to more than $10 in the morning. This is excluding the actual taxi fare, booking charges etc.
Anyway I think it's just a failure of the powers that be to control the supply of cars when they introduced the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) system. Anyway now we suffer cos we have to pay more and they're springing these babies up left right and bloody fuckin centre. Ivory tower morons.
Yeah ok right, the vid's below.
UNTUK BANGSA DAN NEGARA!
In 30mins time, Singapore clashes with host, China, for the 2008 Olympics' Women's table tennis team Gold medal. We've done well to proceed so far and are currently on course for our first medal since Tan Howe Liang's silver in weightlifting in 1960!
Feng Tianwei stole the spotlight from her more illustrious captain, Li Jiawei, by defeating Park Mi-Young in the rubber to send our little island into esctacy. Even PM Lee asked to reschedule the English telecast of his National Day Rally speech till tomorrow night, so it won't clash!
Of course we face a mammoth task against the ping-pong juggernauts but we're under no illusions that the gold's there for the taking. A silver isn't too shabby but I'm sure the girls will be doing their utmost to write themselves into the record books.
I'm not much of an Olympics person but it's always nice to be able to cheer for your country, as one, every now and then. The usual fingers are already out and wagging at these girls for not being born here, but well, we're not the only ones who've adopted foreign sportsmen. As long as these folks are willing to fight for their new country, that's more than I can say for a lot of people who WERE born here.
Ok refuse to rant. Come on Team Singapore!!
*UPDATE*
Well, we lost 0-3 to China. Not a total thrashing, because Jiawei and Tianwei lost their respective games 3-1 each. Disappointing we didn't win a game but good try nonetheless. Hopefully we can better this in the future!
Just came back from the Rock For Wayne tribute concert. Superb gig, stellar lineup of some of the top Singapore bands around including a special reunion of my all-time favorite, Humpback Oak and it's all dedicated to a great Singapore musician/rockstar who is gone too soon.
Review, music and photos to come once I can transfer photos from my phone. I took loads! I am seriously in love with my Sony Ericsson K800i. It's truly awesome. I hereby declare myself a certified phonetographer.
Eh, meantime here's a song from Electrico, one of the bands that performed tonight and probably one of the best to come out of our shores in a while.
You would have been proud of Singapore tonight Wayne 'Thunder' Seah. May you rest in peace.
I'm stuck at home cos I injured my leg again, it's a chronic injury, but pretty bad case this time around. Managed to clear some work earlier though so now I thought I'd share some of the music that Singaporean bands have come up with.
Singapore's a small nation, our mainstream music industry is dominated by exports, US, UK and the Taiwan/HK charts. Previously, the local music industry boomed with the likes of the Quests, Black Dog Bone, Sweet Charity in the 70s but if I'm not wrong, because of the perceived decadence of pop culture and rock and roll, forms of self expression such as music and movies weren't really encouraged once upon a time, up until now. So Singapore focused on being lawyers, bankers and teachers instead.
In the early/mid 90s however we had a mini revival of sorts. All of a sudden, local music was being heard! I started rocking out to the Oddfellows, Padres, Humpback Oak, Force Vomit for example and I still love them.We used to have a local arts radio station that would feature local music for a solid hour each week. That died due to a lack of funding for the station (which is quite symptomatic of our entire arts industry back then). I think the situation is getting better now and Singaporeans nowadays are more open-minded and appreciative of our own products (as long as the powers-that-be doesn't force it down our throat). Slowly local stations are giving more airtime to local bands which is fantastic. The younger crowds are so supportive of our local bands it's really heartening to see. Every year, our own indie festival Baybeats, is packed to the max and gigs here there and everywhere are well, pretty much filled although most of the time, it's always by the same old folks. It's a pretty close knit community, it's not surprising if a guitarist is a member of more than one band. Nonetheless it's so vibrant and with the wonders of the Internet, it's great to know that there are so many talents up and coming and importantly that they've got decent support.
There is so much more that we can do of course, for example setting mandatory airtime for local music or better marketing to reach out to the local masses. A lot of people go into this as a passion but unfortunately the reality is that passion fizzles out. Coming from a marketing and industry perspective, my wish is for them to really be able to commercially sustain their efforts and reach out to a wider audience. If Sweden, Norway and Iceland can all do it, why not Singapore yeah?
Anyway here are two of my favoritest tracks of all time. 1 of the band, Humpback Oak is defunct but their lead singer Leslie Low, continues to perform with the Observatory and as a solo artist. Stoned Revivals is not that active now, they kinda broke up for a while but started performing again recently. No matter, I hope you enjoy their songs. I will try and share some more of what I have or what I can find.
If I am Weak by Humpback Oak, (Ghostfather/ 12 Storeys OST) and Goodil by Stoned Revivals (Golden Lovesongs From The Evil Island Of The Handsome Tropical Cannibals/ 12 Storeys OST)
oh yeah forgot i just joined this Singapore group on Vox. The Groups feature seems extremely interesting and exciting, it'd be fantastic to share thoughts and ideas and whatever with people who share the same interests, especialyl with Vox being so huge and all.
So a big hi to the Singapura folks, for those who are not based in SG and wanna know more, feel free to ask I suppose.
Now I'm gonna find me a Liverpool group. heh.
My Groups
-
mp3eme VOX Updated: 1 hour ago
-
Indie Pop Updated: 2 hours ago
-
We♥Music Updated: 2 hours ago
Neighborhood
Explore friends, family, friends & family, or entire neighborhood.
