ResFest '05: Keep It Curious

RESFEST takes place for a second-year in Singapore. The festival has expanded to include the first Live Music Series with Tokyo beat-cutters HIFANA whose live sets promise a terrific mix of live visuals, native instruments, scratch and human beatbox.

There is also a new exhibition component, ASIA.NO.W.HERE featuring works from W+K TOKYO LAB artists. Rooted in cultural identity, celebrating the spirit of hybrid media, this is a foregrounding of new work happening across Asia now.

More info on their website: www.resfest.com.sg

Self-Actualization

A great quote from Dr. Abraham Maslow on Self-Actualization:

"A musician must make music, a designer must design, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be. This is the need we may call self-actualization ... It refers to man's desire for fulfillment, namely to the tendency for him to become actually in what he is potentially: to become everything that one is capable of becoming ..."

Analog Girl is Cool

The Analog Girl is cool. A musical femme fatale made in Singapore with brave performance ambitions. Caught her last night at RNDM.

Quoted... "It is the analog feeling, sprinkled with electronic noises and fairy dust, that creates The Analog Girl sound. Her unique application of the laptop, vocal, effects boxes and odd synths can be heard on her albums she likes to call collectively as the Pink Bento Boutique."

Check out her debut album The TV Is On on Audio Lunchbox.

Open Dialogue: 18th Nov '05

OPEN DIALOGUE
Open House at Temple Street hosted by Spoon.

6PM - 9PM Friday 18TH November 2005

Freestyle dialogue and conversation encouraged - Talk Design. Talk Creative. Talk Collaboration. Talk Shop. Talk Love. Just Talk.

Hosted in support and celebration of the Inaugural Singapore Design Festival, Open Dialogue will be an informal evening of dialogue and engagement among makers, consumers and evangelists of design and creativity.

WHO IS INVITED?
Designers, Producers and Creators of all breeds.
Consumers, Buyers, Collaborators and Evangelists.

VENUE
Space At Spoon, 15B Temple Street #03-01.

DATE & TIME
6PM - 9PM Friday 18TH November 2005

INVITE/RSVP REQUIRED
Limited spots available. Email openhouse@spoon.com.sg to book yours.
(Confirmation subject to availability)

Click Open Dialogue for more information.

Singapore's Promising Brands Awarded

The Singapore Promising Brand Award (SPBA), organised by the Association Of Small and Medium Enterprises (ASME) and Lianhe Zaobao, recently awarded 36 up-coming SMEs who have shown outstanding performance in the communication of their brands. Some of these include Barang Barang, Breadtalk, ThaiExpress and Lee Hwa Jewellery. Good old Tiger Balm with its unbelievable 97 year old history was also awarded.

Visit the Official Award Website for more information.

Inaugural Asian Festival Of 1st Films

In line with Singapore's drive to become the media/creative hub of Asia comes the Asian Festival Of 1st Films. Part of the Asia Media Festival, the Festival honors first-time film-makers of Asian origin and opens in Golden Village cinemas from 23 to 30th November 2005. 2 Singapore productions have been selected out of two hundred over submissions internationally.

Visit the Official Festival Website for more information.

Pusan Film Festival Kicks Off

It seems Asia is afill with festivals come this time of the year. The Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF) celebrating its 10th anniversary kicked off in the port town of Pusan in Korea yesterday. The festival, participated by the Singapore Film Commission, is also featuring a few Singapore affairs including the new Cages The Movie and the current Singapore pride: Be With Me.

A few of us will be heading down to the Hyundai town for a week in celebration of Asian films and creativity. We'll post some happy snaps upon our return.

Visit the Official Festival Website for more information.

Memoirs of a Geisha Trailer

The trailer for the much anticipated adaptation of the best-selling novel "Memoirs of a Geisha" by Arthur Golden is out. Grab a peep. It looks glorious but... I had this weird funny feeling watching it. The hair stood on my back and the chills crawled up my spine as I watched Zhang Ziyi and Gong Li, 2 lovely and very traditional lasses from China dressed in kimonos speak in weird engrish to another lovely lass from Malaysia, Michelle Yeow, who also happens to be in a kimono. All this against the wonderful landscape of the rising sun. I was disappointed when the trailer ended without an appearance from Jet Li ( i was expecting to see him unleashed to rescue these three damsels from their linguistic misadventure).

Singapore Design Festival

The inaugural Singapore Design Festival takes place from the 9th to 23rd November 2005. In the words of the organisers, the festival is a multifaceted experience focusing on the design process and the conceptualisation of ideas. In essence the Festival aims to build upon the design culture in Singapore and around the world, making it an interactive and “live” experience of the design process and its end products.

The Festival activities will take place around Suntec City, Raffles City, and the Civic District, fanning out to other areas all over Singapore. Some of the activities include the festival’s feature events: DesignEDGE; International Design Forum; ADASIA 2005; the Red Dot award; Design Concept 2005 Celebrations; Young Asian Designers’ Award Ceremony and Beyond 2005 – The Global Summit for Creative Industries.

We'll be participating in the festival by hosting an Open House/Dialogue event scheduled for mid-November. Stay tuned. More details to follow shortly.

Hey Quark, Whose Logo Is It Anyway?

Quark, who once made the most favourite (and expensive) desktop publishing application - QuarkXPress - for editorial designers before they went MIA duck hunting, recently got the "Whose Logo Is It Anyway?" from the Scottish Arts Council when they unveiled their new "Q" Mark. Quark's new mark is almost identical to the 2002-trademarked logo of the Scottish Arts Council.

You'd really expect a company that prides itself as a premium brand for designers to be a bit more stringent than most others about the uniqueness of their new corporate signature. But hey, what do we know?

Our 5 Lines Of Strait Times Fame

A little self-indulgent horn-blowing if we may...

Our humble little blog got a mention and a rating (7/10) over the weekend in The Sunday Times (Oct 2, 2005). If you have a copy, read articles : "Blogs go Corporate" and "On the corporate blogging bandwagon". (We would have preferred a spunkier article title but we're not gonna complain.)

Other blogs mentioned were: XiMnet Malaysia, Virtual Office Singapore and General Motors.

An excerpt:
"Splogger successfully strikes a fair balance between company news and unrelated issues. The writing style is unpretentious..." Read more online at The Straits Time Interactive (subscription)

Toot. Toot.

Playstation Portable (PSP): The ultimate gadget - for guys mostly.

I can't imagine a single guy not getting turned on by the Playstation Portable (PSP) - the latest portable entertainment device from Sony. I've had the opportunity to spend a good 2 months with one and I couldn't really ask for more. For now, the PSP is truly the ultimate Testosterone Toy.

Originally released in black, the PSP is muscleware to the bone and not quite Chick Chic. Gadget girls (if they do exist) might have to turn to the Nintendo DS (very hot in Japan) or the current crop of smart phones for now.

The new white version is softer but I wouldn't recommend it. Sony didn't quite get the "iPod" white right. It looks a bit too expendable.

Two things that make the PSP such a great gadget now and the near future are its video capabilities and its built-in WiFi connectivity. The PSP is more than a gaming device. The wide-screen video display is beautiful, clear and a joy to watch. With its WiFi connectivity, the PSP doubles potentially as a portable internet TV set serving live/on-demand audio/content on the go. There are already productivity tools in the PSP pipeline for work and communication.

If you're planning on getting one, check these recommendations out:

1. PSP Games
Game code and graphics on the PSP is excellent. Before you buy any though, visit GameSpot for excellent game reviews and recommendations. My pick of the current crop are Burnout Legends, Namco Museum Battle Collection, Ridge Racer and Wipeout Pure.

2. PSP Protective Case
The PSP looks great but can be susceptible to damage and dirt. Get the Logitech® PlayGear Pocket™ to protect your prized PSP. It's hard & durable, cool and customize-able with a wide range of skins.

3. 2GB Memory Stick Pro Duo
As with all media gadgets, you can never have enough memory. Get the new 2GB Memory Stick Pro Duo from Sony. (Already available in Sim Lim Square, Singapore)