Be like Water : Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee, the Martial Artist, Philosopher and the ultimate Asian Icon, had many wise words to illustrate the philosophies of Jeet Kune Do, the martial arts style he founded. Many of these can like be applied to our areas of interest here on this blog... Brands, Design, Business, Creativity and Innovation.

Here are some of his most famously quoted...

For Business Managers, Strategists, Designers & Practitioners of Creativity
"Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.

Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend."

For Business Managers against Competition
"The fighter who enters battle and feels no fear is an arrogant fool."

Brands Building Loyalty
“The possession of anything begins in the mind”

For Ideas, Design and Strategy
“Simplicity is the key to brilliance”

For Innovation All round
“Obey the principles without being bound by them.”

Strength in Brand Focus & Category Leadership
“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”

Asia's 1st No Frills Hotel

Tony Fernandes, the Malaysian man behind the no frills carrier Air Asia and the tagline "Everyone can fly", has just announced what is claimed to be Asia's 1st No Frills Hotel - Tune Hotels. Rooms are at a flat rate of 9.99 Malaysian Ringit. That's five bucks a pop for Singaporeans. Bargain! That's about 15 times more bang for the buck than Hotel 81 in the friendly merlion city! Taking a sneak peek at the Tune Hotels branding, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Richard and his virgins had a tune in this some way or another.

Five bucks a pop: Tunehotels.com

Billionaires Of The World '07

Forbes.com's Annual List of The World's Billionaires is out. William Gates III still has No.1 vista spot with (USD)$56 Billion net worth, and for the 13th consecutive year. Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs is way down the list at 132, $5.7 billion. (hmm. And to think Apple was once the PC market leader. go iPhone go go go). Mr. Oracle Lawrence Ellison is at 11, $21.5 billion. PC Man Michael Dell is at 30, $15 billion.

The highest rated Asian on the list at No.5 is Lakshmi Mittal, $32billion, an Indian Steel titan. There are 3 Indians in the top 20. Hong Kong Boss Li Ka-shing is the only other Asian amongst them at 9, $23 billion. The top from China is, funny enough, a self-made woman in paper manufacturing, ranking at 390, $2.4 billion. Top Malaysian Robert Kuok, a self-made trader, at 104, $7 billion, beat top Singaporean, Ng Teng Fong, a real estate mogul (but of course), at No.118, $6.1billion. There are 4 Singaporean billioanires. Top Thai is Whiskey & Beer King Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi at 264, $3.6 billion. Japan is no longer the kingdom of Asian billionaires and USA is still the land of dreams with 5 in the top 20.

The filmmaker with the jedi power is Mr. Star Wars George Lucas at 243, $3.6 billion. The highest rated Muslim, at No.13, $20.3 billion, is Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud, a self-made nephew of the Saudi King. Top politician and Italian on the list is Former Prime Minister and Media Mogul Silvio Berlusconi at No.51, $11.8 billion. Youngest is 23 year old German Albert von Thurn und Taxis at 488, $2 billion.

Top woman on the list is Ms. L'Oreal Liliane Bettencourt at 12, $20.7 billion. Top Asian woman (who travels with 50 bodyguards) is Nina Wang, a real estater at 204, $4.2 billion. Other top women on the list are Ms. Heineken Beer herself - Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken, No.102, $7.2billion, America's mama Oprah (as usual) and Harry Porter's mama J.K. Rowlings (Ah. A creative writer type on the list. There is hope...)

Internet billionaires include Google guys Sergey Brin, 26, $16.6 billion, and Larry Page 26, $16.6 billion, and Eric Schmidt, 116, $6.2 billion; Amazon.com’s CEO Jeff Bezos, 188, $4.4 billion; Yahoo’s co-founder Jerry Yang, 432, $2.2 billion; Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel, 243, $3.6 billion; and eBay’s founder Pierre Omidyar 76, $8.8 billion. (New Kids On The Block Rock. There is hope yet again!)

If you go by the list, the top ten billionaire career choices would be 1. Software, 2. Investment, 3. Telecommunications, 4. DIY Furniture (Ikea), 5. Steel, 6. Casino & Gambling (Try your luck with IRs) , 7. Luxury Goods Retail, 8. Fashion & Apparel (Zara), 9. Plastic Flowers Retail (ahem), and 10. Media & Entertainment.

Read more and dream on... Forbes.com: "The World's Richest People"

Flickr Co-founder Talks...

A brief conversation with the co-founder of Flickr, the giant photo-sharing community site and the Pionr in dropping the "e" in web property branding and other eThings and Bays online. In our books, Flickr is still one of the most beautifully-interfaced and consistently-developed community/sharing (some might call it Web 2.0) websites available to users today.

Read more on Macworld.com: Flickr co-founder talks...

1st YouTube Video Awards!

YouTube has just announced the winners of their first ever Video Awards, as selected by their vhttp://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifoyeuristic community. And the Yoscar goes to...

Most Creative : Here It Goes Again / OKGo

Best Comedy : Smosh Short 2: Stranded / Smosh

Best Commentary : Hotness Prevails / thewinekone

Best Series : Ask A Ninja / digitalfilmmaker

Best Music Video : Say It's Possible / TerraNaomi

Most Inspirational : Free Hugs Campaign / PeaceOnEarth123

Most Adorable : Kiwi! / Madyeti47

Read more: YouTube Video Awards

Vote for the New 7 Wonders of the World

There were 7 wonders of the ancient world. Now, 2200 years later you can vote for New 7 Wonders of the World. All structures built or discovered before 2000 are eligible. Vote online: www.new7wonders.com/

Good Vibrations!

First time in Singapore, Good Vibrations Festival from down under happens this Chinese New Year weekend at Fort Canning Park. Star Artists line-up includes Beastie Boys and Jurassic 5. Get your tickets and get ready to vibrate!

The Apple iPhone has arrived!

...so has the widescreen Video iPod, and all in one palm handy mobile. Touch screen some more, with Dashboard widgety looky feely. Is this what mobile phones should be? We don't care. We want!

Check it out! Apple iPhone

60 Years Of Asian Heroes

Time Magazine's 60 Years Of Asian Heroes - nation builders, artists, thinkers, business leaders, athletes, explorers and inspiration heroes from the most populous and some would say "progressively optimistic" continent on earth today. Read more on: Time.com

007 Title Sequences - All Of 'Em

An obivously die-hard 007 fan has collated a playlist of all the James Bond Title Sequences on YouTube. Check it out here: Playlist: James Bond Intros

The Title Sequences of James Bond films have always been innovative and surely paved the way for all other motion pictures and indeed motion graphics design. The dancing girly silhouette, the bullet flying out of the pistol. The dripping blood. The dapper espionage. All cool. If the up-coming Casino IRs opening in Singapre had as good-looking and stylish a promo as the Casino Royale Opening Sequence, Its all in the bag!

iPod Gears of the Year

The iPod is the People's Player, a Portable Playlist, a Platform and definitely a Phenomenon. Everyone's got one. Playlist Mag rounds up their 2006 top list of anything and everything you can add, plug, dorn, wear, stick and shove into your prized little portable.

Check it out: Playlist's Plays of the Year: 2006

Wii! Its PS3!

The Gaming console war just heated up triple-fold with Sony Playstation 3 and Nintendo Co's new Wii console launching back-to-back in America. Both new consoles go head-on with XBox 360 this season for the Santa dollar. A shortage of the much anticipated PS3 stations had some units on eBay listed at 3 times the retail price. We're big fans of Sony and the Wii looks truly innovative so we hope the World is big enough for more than 1 option for gamers.

Read more: Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation 3 vie for supremacy

UnderworldLive|Cocoon

Underworld & DJ Sven Vath live set at Club Cocoon.

"Cocoon Club was conceived as an avant-garde field experiment for transforming space and perception. As such it provides the ideal backdrop for this collaboration which extends to all aspects of the show’s production — Underworld, Sven, the space, crowd, light, film, sound and Internet.""

Check it out:UnderworldLive|Cocoon

Ansari's Blog From Space

Hey all you wannabe bloggers in cyberspace, think you have the most out of this world blog out there? Think again. The most spaced out blog honours goes to Anousheh Ansari, 40 year old femme space cadet who paid $20Million to be a tourist on a Russian spaceflight launched from Kazakhstan. She's got a Space Blog that she's been updating whilst in extraterrestrial orbit. Jumping Jupiter, she's even got a Flickr Photostream. Eat your stars out!

Chinese Movie 'Still Life' wins Golden Lion at Venice

The Chinese movie "Still Life" or "Sanxia Haoren", a surprise entry set against the backdrop of China's gigantic Three Gorges Dam project, won this year's Golden Lion — the top award at the Venice Film Festival.

Chinese director Jia Zhang-ke's "Still Life" or "Sanxia Haoren" was a surprise entry late in the festival, and trumped candidates like Emilio Estevez' "Bobby," about the assassination of Robert Kennedy, and "The Queen," about the week that followed Princess Diana's death.

"Still Life" was shot in the old village of Fengjie, which has been destroyed by the building of the Three Gorges Dam, and tells of people who go back there.

More than 1.13 million Chinese have been relocated to make way for the dam, many of them complaining of bleak prospects in their new homes above the waterline or in other parts of China.

Borat Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

Go watch - like the many canadians scrambling to at the current Toronto Film Festival - Borat's upcoming and very politically correct film "Borat Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" for if it not success, he will be execute.

This crude funny man is excruciatingly funny as he moores the US and A. Check out the film trailer here : Borat Trailer

Check out also Borat's MySpace Page

FIFA Football Fever 2006!

The FIFA World Cup 2006 kicks off in Germany this weekend. Expect the world to booze and bet as teams battle all for the ball. This year's slightly wacky Official emblem, titled "Celebrating Faces Of Football", was designed by London agency Whitestone and charged with "conveying, via a symbol, the incomparable emotions that can only be evoked by football."

Check out more and past emblems on the Official 2006 World Cup website.

Top 10 Strangest Lego Creations

Top 10 Strangest and Geekishly Cool Lego Creations on the Tech Blog. Includes Lego iPod case, Han Solo frozen in Carbonite, knitting machine and air conditioner.

The Amazing Race Asia

The first ever Asian edition of the US Emmy award-winning hit The Amazing Race is up and running (pardon the pun). Application deadline closes on the 15th March 2006 so you still have 2 weeks left to get in there. Although the Asia prize money (100K) pales in comparison to it's US counterpart (US1Million), AXN Asia must be applauded for this brave experiment in geography, audience and border-bending entertainment.

We can only hope it's a success as this will lead to even more bigger and better border-bending productions in Asia. And not necessarily just limited to television entertainment.

A curious point to note though is that 'Asia' excludes Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the Middle East. Hmm... New Zealand we can understand. It was never included to begin with. But Australia? The prodigal son of Asia? And no Japan? But the Japanese make compelling television! We must have them! Ratings. Ratings. Ratings!

Check out the Amazing Race Asia website for more details.

Me No Speaka Wapanese!

Even before A Bathing Ape introduced Tokyo style to SoHo hipsters and Gwen Stefani named her tour “Harajuku Lovers,” Japanese pop culture was fast becoming the lingua franca of cool in Western tribes.

While anti-globalisation activists protest the proliferation of the infamous golden arches of McDonald’s restaurants the world over, many others are more than ready to accept emblems of Japanese pop. Since 2004, American tweens could pay for their Hello Kitty backpacks and toasters with a matching Hello Kitty Debit MasterCard (www.hellokittycard.com), emblazoned with the iconic mouth-less cat. . In 2003, 26.4 million Playstation 2 consoles by Sony were shipped to the United States and 19.4 million consoles to Europe. Japan's Marubeni Research Institute estimated Japanese cultural exports books, music, magazines, films and collectables at $15 billion in 2002, three times their value a decade earlier. And the revolution had only just begun.

Everything Japanese is invading mass consumerism faster than you can say “Pika-who?”, but the pervasive sweep of red and white is even more evident in groups that fall slightly outside the ker-ching radar. An obvious example: the bizarre world of anime and manga (Japanese comic book) fandom. Japanese animation, or anime, has found a cult following far beyond its shores. Discounting the irony of the genre’s large-eyed, blonde-haired protagonists, Western anime fans have been lapping up offerings from Hayao Miyazaki (director of Spirited Away) and Rumiko Takahashi (manga artist for InuYahsa) long after they graduated from grade school. Step into an American screening of Innocence: Ghost in the Shell, for example, and you will find not only Japanese students but local Caucasian lads, clad in Evisu jeans and clutching the latest issue of Asian-American magazine, Giant Robot (www.giantrobot.com).

Hardcore fans of Japanese animation are often dubbed the loaded label of anime otaku. Mention the word otaku to someone from Japan and s/he will envision an image of a social recluse, dressed in last night’s pyjamas and suffering from an unfortunate case of adult acne. Type otaku into an internet search engine and find thousands of matches from self-professed fans of that nature, none of whom are Japanese.

Such ready adoption of the term, originally deemed derogatory, just reiterates the widespread acceptance of Japan as the world’s leading exporter of cool, resulting in the phenomenon of the Wapanese. A crude portmanteau of “white” and “Japanese,” the Wapanese, according to www.urbandictionary.com, are “decidedly Caucasian individuals who, by means of thoroughly warped postmodern acculturation processes, have come to the decision that it is in their best interest to act as if they were denizens of the nation of Japan.”

But more often than not, such tributes to Japanese culture are in fact a superficial cut-and-paste exercise, borrowing elements of kawaii visual candy or sex and violence bordering on the perverse. Most self-professed Japanophiles try as hard as Bill Murray’s character in Lost in Translation to truly understand Japanese culture – that is, they hardly try at all. But until a state of informed and thorough cultural appreciation is reached, let’s keep singing with Gwen and friends, “Harajuku Girls you got the wicked style/I like the way that you are/I am your biggest fan.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article contributed to Asia! Magazine Backpage
written by May Yip
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Raprezent!

Representing the Asian Hip Hop Rap Artist.

Scantily dressed women gyrating suggestively to raps about booty and bling. Rappers getting arrested on gun charges. Given what’s in the media, we could be forgiven for thinking that hip hop is all about sex, money and violence.

For a true aficionado, however, Hip Hop is a state of mind based on creativity and self-expression. It’s a culture that transcends borders, one manifested in music, dance, art and fashion. And what music! DJs performing wizardry on turntables, and rappers (MCs) rhyming about issues that matter.

In Asia, “real” Hip Hop tends to remain underground while more commercial R&B and pop-flavored fare sells. It’s been a challenge for local rap artists as audiences tend not pay too much attention to lyrics. Dig a little bit deeper, however, and you’ll find some gems out there.

The more than 20-year-old Japanese scene is huge – apparently there are more Hip Hop artists signed to major labels there than in the US. It’s also very diverse, from the controversial K-Dub Shine with his pull-no-punches socio-political commentary to the more abstract stylings of Boss the MC (aka Ill-Bostino) from Tha Blue Herb, who also often raps for the legendary trip-hop DJ Krush.

Hip Hop is still evolving in Southeast Asia but watch out for a new breed of MCs rapping in their mother tongue instead of adopting American slang. Ahli Fiqir, for one, draws inspiration from the region’s rich ethnic musical and poetic forms. Produced by Malaysians, the group comprises three Singaporean vocalists and an Indonesian turntablist. It’s no easy task, coming up with lyrics that flow in any language, but Ahli Fiqir’s dikir barat (traditional call-and-response chanting) background probably helps. These young musicians have been critically acclaimed for intelligent Malay rap that draws attention to issues relevant to Southeast Asian youth. Laid over an innovative blend of catchy urban and Malay rhythms, it sounds mighty fine too.

Two thousand miles away in Mumbai, one of India’s biggest Hip Hop artists BlaaZe (pronounced “Blah-Zay”) recently collaborated with Chinese-American recording artist Coco Lee on her new single ‘No Doubt’. He still has to churn out commercial Bollywood hits to pay the bills but, when it comes to his own music, BlaaZe has his own Hip Hop agenda. Rapping in both Tamil and English, he clearly voices his perspectives on day-to-day struggles, political shortcomings and religious intolerance.

Unfortunately that’s the aspect of Hip Hop that most often gets ignored by commercial music – that of consciousness-raising and seeking to make a difference. As BlaaZe says, “The whole concept of Rap is to make people aware. To be able to make a difference by making people aware through the messages you portray. Good or bad, it’s your point of view and as a rapper, God gives you the ability to keep going on about issues that may or may not be heard or noticed otherwise. And to leave something behind ... not just to dance to but to actually listen and pay attention to”.

So the next time you come across an Asian rap song, listen up. The lyrics may actually strike a chord and tell you something about the Asian social context. And even if you don’t understand the language, it will still sound good.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article contributed to Asia! Magazine Backpage
written by Jean P. Fung
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Throw Cards Like A God Of Gamblers

Fancy being a God Of Gamblers like Fat Koh himself?

Well, master the lethal Art Of Card Throwing and slick that hair back... old skool style!

Sexshy Nano. 'Nuff said...

Rooting for Apple

Don't you just hate Microsoft and Creative for being such cop-outs! If you don't know how to create and market cool gadgets that will sell as well as the iPod has - just make sure you patent the nebulous technology that's behind it so that you get paid for someone else's success. Lame! I'm rooting for Apple to prevail.

VPod - Video IPod Out!

Just kidding. Sony is releasing a white version of the Playstation Portable.
It sure does look and work like what an Apple Video IPod would though.
Equally desirable for fans i would guess.

Miss Seinfeld?

Then watch Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm. I just happened to have caught an episode on Arts Central, and it feels like Seinfeld all over again. To the uninitiated, Larry David, together with Jerry Seinfeld, is the other brilliant mind who co-created probably one of the most successful sitcom ever....Seinfeld.

In Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry actually plays himself...Larry David, the TV producer who co-created Seinfeld. It's easy to see his influence on the characters of Seinfeld...he is as cynical as Jerry, as self-obssessed as George, as witty as Elaine, and as neurotic as Kramer, even sharing some physical resemblence, except that he's bald compared to Kramer's crazy full locks.

Like Seinfeld, this show is also about people going through their meaningless petty little lives; it's a show about NOTHING. In this episode I saw, it shows Larry trying to end his relationship with his shrink, just because he saw him wearing a thong at the beach. It's absolutely hilarious to see how he tried in vain to convince the shrink that he is CURED, and he didn't need his service anymore.

I felt a big void after Seinfeld ended its run. In many ways, Seinfeld was more than a sitcom, it was a philosophy. In a world of information overload, shallow commercialisation, touch-n-go relationships, only Seinfeld could make sense of it all. After Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm is probably the next best thing, until or unless Jerry and Larry decide to collaborate again.

By the way, Curb Your Enthusiasm is not exactly a sitcom, it's feels more like a reality show. The absence of canned laughter gives it a unique realness. Tuesday, 9.30pm, on Arts Central. Watch it!

Rock Star: INXS

The latest Reality TV and Idol fare on television the world over comes from the King of it all himself - Mark Burnett. And i have to admit - It's a stroke of genius, a win-win situation and a great example of push-pull media integration. Here's how and why...

1. The over-the-hill INXS band members get a second chance at life - in the limelight 2 nights a week on our tubes the world over. Before this, they were probably chewing down some fair dinkum grub with aunt lucy way out back in a place probably called woolawoomba.

2. Cool again. Revival of old INXS songs. In various flavours too. The 14 diverse inxs lead wannabes cleverly selected to appeal to every audience taste. There's one for every one. You have your kurt cobain. Your sheryl crow. Your Terence trent darby. Your Jagger. And your michael hutchence. And they all sing suicide blondes in their own way. Also amazing that the songs the contestants sing are almost immediately available for purchase and download from the rockstar msn website. (they're all pretty darn good singers)

3. Instant Fame and following for the next INXS Lead singer. The relatively unknown singer that eventually gets to be the lead singer is granted instant stardom before he even sings the first new INXS song. Now thats what i call... content... and creation... (The contestants also keep blogs on the site tracking the progress of the contest)

4. Beyond SMS voting like they do in American Idol... votes can be done through the website and supposedly through MSN messenger too. Ad and sponsorship sales also carries on from tube to net.

4. And... Dave Navarro gets another spot in TV besides his little home videos with Carmen. It can be assumed that he is there so some real rockstar youth will rub off onto a coupla old fellas. (Seem like nice old fellas though)

Pretty impressive if you asked me...

Game to be Godfather?

Join the family, pay your respects and return favours, get made and Brando's your buddy.

The upcoming game based on Mario Puzo's Classic Godfather Series by Electronic Arts featuring voices and impressions from the original cast.

Game Synopsis
Welcome to the Corleone family…

"Featuring non-linear action-adventure gameplay, The Godfather will offer gamers countless choices for solving the family’s problems with brutal violence, skillful diplomacy, or a cunning mixture of both. From mob hits and bank heists to drive-bys and extortion, step deep inside the world of The Godfather -- where intimidation and negotiation are your tickets to the top. Players will use their powers of loyalty and fear to earn respect through interactions with characters in the world. Decisions made by the player in the game will have lasting consequences, just as it was in the mob underworld featured in The Godfather fiction.

The Godfather film from Paramount Pictures featured some of Hollywood’s finest actors, and several are contributing to the game’s development. All character likenesses from the movie will be included, and lending their voices to add a dramatic and cinematic touch to the game are the late Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone, James Caan as Sonny Corleone and Robert Duvall as consigliere Tom Hagen."

Are they gonna pull it off or screw it up?

Mianshi Liumang 面食流氓

Noodlem: Noodle-Eating Hoodlums

They call them mianshi liumang 面食流氓 in China, menrui go-ro めんるいごろ in Japan and gook-su baeksu 국수백수 in Korea. These Noodle-Eating Hoodlums represent the next generation Asians born to an era when the old guard of the East and its traditional regiments are melting to the fast and furious heat of progressive change in Asia.

With some traits similar to the Beatniks, Hippies and Gen-Xers of the West, a Noodlem – Noodle-Eating hoodlum – is an urban Asian subscribing to a cultural hoodlumism. This cultural hoodlumism – Noodlemism – is a wholly Asian phenomenon and is a rebellion against conformity, homogeneity and the old value systems of YesterAsia. Noodlemism is a journey in identity and an exercise in individualism and self-expression. This journey in identity is an evolving experiment in cultural hybridity. This exercise in individualism and self-expression is a new spirit and way of thinking and living.

Noodlemism manifests itself in various gang cultures and chants (expression). Noodlem gangs are common in their rebellion but differ in their expression and journeys. They share cause but not effect. The fashionable consumerist shinjinrui しんじんるい of Japan can be identified as an a early gang manifestation of Noodlemism. The manga-manic otaku オタク of Japan and the funky iconoclastic linglei 另类 of China are more recent occurences.

KPunks in Korea is another Noodlem gang variant shouting their particular hybrid chant of punk rock. Noodlemism is defining a Neo-Asia Cool and its voice represents the genesis of FutureAsia – the impending nucleus of cultural influence, popular trend and opinion leadership.

Suss This Out: Down and Dirty Pictures

If you love and/or hate everything about American Indie Films - the business of and history - Suss this out: Down and Dirty Pictures : Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film by former Variety writer Peter Biskind - also responsible for Easy Riders Raging Bulls. This is a timely read - especially so with the impending arrival of Weinstein Co. Sundancing with the kid and pulp fiction with sex, lies and videotape. The essential Movie Mogul backstory for the true film fan.

Surviving the Coming Zombie Apocalypse

Hollywood would have us believe we are all headed for certain extinction. We risk being blown to bits by nuclear warheads, rogue comets and asteroids, hunted and killed by aliens, frozen to death by an impending ice age, drowned and smashed by tidal waves, swallowed by earthquakes and zombiefied by toxic spills.

Thankfully Hollywood also thoughtfully provided the roadmaps for recovery embedded in the scripts of the movies themselves. The solution to run around your neighborhood screaming and dying in highly creative ways, or else die in highly impressive numbers, until highly paid American celebrities lead a team of highly trained Americans to our rescue.

To those who have seen the fundamental error depicted in the last 2 paragraphs (we should be running around in Raffles Place, not in our neighborhood) its time to take matters in our own hands! Having sat through an immensely entertaining private screening of Shaun of the Deadin our office, I subsequently stumbled upon the ultimate DIY solution to repelling any such attacks of walking gangrene:

The Zombie Survival Guidelooks to be a hilarious spoof of survivalist books that goes into such detail as to what to wear (tight fitting clothes) and where to hide (definitely NOT the Winchester Pub) when the evil dead come knocking. Never mind that it was written by the SON of highly paid American Celebrity Mel Brooks..

Suss This Out: PhoneTaps Podcast

Z100 Phone Taps Podcast
Phunny Phone Pranks by the guys at NYC Z100 Radio station. We laugh. We like.

What is Podcast?
Podcasting is a method of publishing files via the Internet, allowing users to subscribe to a feed and receive new files automatically. It became popular in late 2004, intended largely for downloading audio files onto a portable MP3 player. However, listening to podcasts does not require a portable player and it is not traditional "broadcasting" to a mass audience at a fixed time.
More about Podcast on Wilkipedia

The Big Blog Forward

A revolution is sweeping through Asia's virtual community, transforming what began as a random collection of personal journals into a dynamic, controversial and sensationalised community known as a blogosphere.

With 3.35 million people operating blogs in Japan, and networks like www.blogkumedia.com aiming to make blogs a mainstream reality in Chinese Internet, it is hardly surprising that Asia has been dubbed the next frontier in blogging. Join us on this voyeuristic ride as we log onto some of the best virtual idiosyncrasies the east has to offer.

XIAXUE – WHY ARE YOU WORSHIPPING THE BLOG I WALK ON?
From Singapore, a cross between an FHM model and manga character, the (photoshop-enhanced) pictures of “Xiaxue” alone are worth a blog visit. Foul-mouthed or irreverent, sex kitten or just plain smutty, decide for yourself at XiaXue's Blog Site.

Blog Quote:
“Some girls say they are mean & bitchy too, but they are actually mild like hand soap - while I am the real thing, baby! I look at you in the eye and tell you you look like a blind La Salle student (note: art school student) dressed you up.”

If you prefer the girl-next-door, check out: BKKSoul by Lynn, an equally photogenic, but utterly wholesome, Thai blogger with so much grey matter that her first manuscript has landed a New York literary agent representation.

REZWAN, THE THIRD WORLD VIEW
The outsider view of Bangladesh isn’t always postcard-pretty. Political unrest, natural disasters and religious extremism define the South East Asian republic in global news headlines. The mission of Third World View is to offer an alternate perspective, to be “a window of Bangladesh” from an insider’s point of view. Learn about Bangladeshi bands (the blogger, Rezwan, is a fan of The Doors), cricket and one opinionated blogger’s take on affairs around the world at The Third World View.

On the Bangladeshi rock scene (and piracy):
“Elephant Road is a street which has three stores (namely Rainbow, Gitali, Ganer Bhuban) which has all kinds of LPs and later on CDs which they copy onto cassette for you for a fee (screw copyright). I remember that in my teens "Rainbow" was also my favorite shop for recording songs of my choice into cassettes. The owner Kabir was famous for knowledge in world music and his collection.”

YAN SHAM-SHACKLETON, GLUTTER.ORG
Using the blog as a kind of alternative journalism, Gluttergirl, or Yan Sham-Shackleton writes about freedom of the press, art and the state of Hong Kong’s political affairs. Her blog is banned in China for its support of the democratic movement in Hong Kong. If you happen to be residing outside the state, do visit Glutter.org for no-holds-barred opinions, otherwise absent from mainstream media.

On the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989:
It was an incomprehensible day because few and seldom days in history do we ever see a government launch a military attack on its own people. And in the backdrop students sang the “Internationale” and the residents of Beijing shouted “Ting Si, Ting Si” -Stop the killing, Stop the killing” as machine guns fired, people fell, tanks did not stop, and hospitals overflowed.

MASAMANIA
Masamania is a documenter of Japanese subculture, porn director and student of the English language. His blog is subsequently a hilarious melange of visual anecdotes, peppered with “Engrish” commentary on Tokyo’s neon underbelly. Possessing a keen eye for the weird and subversive, the level of photojournalism represented on this blog is not quite something you’ll see on Lonely Planet. It is, however, a through and through off-the-beaten-track guide to some of the stranger sights Tokyo has to offer.

Blog Quote:
“Hi, this is masamania who create this page, MasaManiA.com. This page is made up of photos I actually take in twon. I hope I can show and tell you the real, true Japan that cannot be seen in other mas media. I am living in Tokyo, Japan. I was born in Japan, grown up in Japan, study English in Japan. This is the reason I can speak Engrish. Some people complain that my updating and email response is slow. And other people conplain that my englsih is poor. Please forgive me. Now I study English hard, so i have no time to post new entry to my site. And I also update my site so hard, so i have no time to study English.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article contributed to Asia! Magazine Backpage
written by May Yip
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WIRED: Remix Planet

The current (July 2005) issue of one of my favourite magazines looks like a great read.

"Have you noticed? Everywhere you look, pop culture has been digitized, resequenced, and reassembled. Remixed. It started in music with hip hop samples and extended dance versions. It moved to movies, with director's cuts and Tarantino-style swipes from other films. Now it's spread to TV, games, music videos - even cars and fashion. From Kill Bill to Gorillaz, from custom Nikes to Pimp My Ride, this is the age of the remix."Wired Intro Quote

Gorillaz, Tarantino, Spock and more...
Wired.Com:Issue 13.07

Enjoy.

The K750i, Tiger And The Bluetooth Bug

I recently bought myself a spanking new phone - The K750i - one of Sony Ericsson's latest and greatest. I'm not one to swap phones every quarter but this nifty little device has really got me on the mobile gadget bug. New features I like include a 2Megapixel Camera (1 out of 2 shots look decent), a built-in MP3 and AAC audio player, Memory Stick Duo support (512MB for me) and a built-in video player (3GP and MP4 format). I have to admit that this is the first time that i have spent notable time listening to songs on a mobile phone. The sound quality is great.

The upgraded user interface, aside from nice eye-candy button effects, supprised me with its ease of use. I migrated over from my old and trusted Nokia fluently. The K750i also comes with a 262k colour TFT screen and features support for animated wallpaper, mp3 ring/alert tones and some handsome interface themes. I've got a Mac OSX Tiger installed on mine (Yes, I am a fruity evangelist).

Speaking of which, here's some software goodies and tricks for other Mac users with a Bluetooth bug like me...

Salling Clicker
A popular remote control utility for Macintosh computers. Great for client presentations, couch potatoes, audiophiles and Mac show-offs.

Make your Mac a Bluetooth Zombie
Another option (free) for your Sony Ericsson bluetooth phone.

BluePhoneElite
Caller ID and SMS functionality to your menu bar and desktop using your Bluetooth enabled phone.

MegaCellX
Manage contacts and SMSs of your mobile phone on your Mac.

PhoneAgent
Phonebook editing, SMS, MMS, Themes & File Exchange

Official Sony Ericsson Themes Creator
Easy creation of personalised themes for Sony Ericsson mobile phones.

Mac OS X 'Tiger' theme
Mac OS X 'Tiger' theme for Sony Ericsson K750i and other tidbits.

Apple iSync
Syncronize everything via Bluetooth on a Mac.

Enjoy and 'member to leave a penny for your bluetooth fairy.