Your Reviews. Your Hangouts.

Our latest brand, design and web project. New beta version with Web 2.0 flavour!

Blurbme.com is your platform to read, write and talk about the good, bad and fugly of restaurants, cafes, bars, clubs, spas, gyms, salons and many other places you visit or frequent in Singapore.

Blurbme.com is also a suave Asian city guide driven by community participation with honest peer insights. You may find suggestions on where to eat or drink, let others know where your favourite hangouts are and meet other like-minded people who enjoy life as much as you do.

Blurbme.com Burp Symphony

Gone Shopping - The Movie

If you got a some time and some loose dimes, Go catch Gone Shopping, The Movie the debut Singaporean feature film from Director Wee Li Lin and Producer Fazila 'Fuzzy' Abideen (who happens to be a friend and neighbor of ours). The films screens in Singapore theatres from July 26th. Just caught the premiere last night, and we thought it was a great debut. Support local indie films and creativity (It's a tough little GST world out there), and Go Shopping!

N.E.Mation Congratulations!

N.E. Mation!, a secondary school animation contest organised by Nexus and Animagine has just announced their winner. Animations themed "National Defence" were submitted by various schools. The winning piece is an innovative Claymation titled "Just Because", produced by Team NEmators from CHIJ St. Joseph's Convent School. Congratulations!

Singapore has a bright animated future just because...

Watch "Just Because" and other clips online: NEmation.sg

Need Help Buying Design For Your Business?

If you are a Singapore SME wishing to leverage on design to boost your business, take a look at the various Enterprise Assistance Programmes on offer by the DesignSingapore Council. One, for example, is the Design Pioneer Programme, a phased design promotion programme that assists local Small and Medium-sized companies in adopting design as a business strategy. The programme offers seminars, workshops and financial support of up to $50,000 to buy external design expertise for your business needs.

More about this and other schemes on: Designsingapore.org

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"

BookJetty.com

Singapore book worms' new best web friend, BookJetty helps you search for your fav books via the Amazon catalogue and checks its availability at the National Library. Useful little tool coded passionately by Herryanto Siatono.

What are you reading at the moment? BookJetty.com

Nexus 2007- Leading in Times of Disruptive Change!

Organised by The Digital Movement, "Nexus 2007- Leading in Times of Disruptive Change!" brings together industry leaders and the local community to discuss fundamental changes happening in business and technology, and how you can take a lead in them!

DATE: 24 MARCH 2007
TIME: 9am – 6pm
VENUE: NTUC CENTRE, 1 MARINA BOULEVARD

Notable names speaking at Nexus include:

Derek Callow, Regional Marketing Manager, Google Inc.
Andreas Weigend, Former Chief Scientist, Amazon.com
David Dan, Former President of Intel China
David Miller, President, Asia Pacific/Japan, Lenovo
Saw Ken Wye, Vice President, Microsoft Asia Pacific
Reza Behnam, MD of Yahoo! South East Asia
Kathy Teo, Managing Director, CNET Networks Asia Pacific
Nathan Torkington, O'Reily Radar, Perl Foundation Board Member

Find out more : www.nexus2007.com

Nexus is brought to you by The Digital Movement, with an aim to form an informal social fabric between senior leaders, entrepreneurs, overseas experts, investors and geeks.

Singapore Int. Film Festival '07

The Singapore International Film Festival will kick off from the 18th to 30th April. Celebrating its 20th Anniversary, the organisers announced that this year's spotlight will be on Singaporean filmmakers. Programme includes a showcase of 37 award-winning Singapore short films. (Wow. Didn't realise there were so many floating around) Opening the fest, however, is a Sri Lankan film “Sankara,” by Prasanna Jayakody.

The Official Festival Website is still frozen with last year's info but bookmark it anyway, they should get their act together. Soon enough. (The Festival is only a few weeks away)

SG Design Festival '07 Partner Briefing

Organised by: DesignSingapore Council

Date: 08 March 2007 - 08 March 2007
Time: 3 – 6pm; briefing starts at 3.15pm
Venue: National Library Board, Level 5, Possibility Seminar Room

Come 28 November to 8 December 2007, design will take centerstage in the city. DesignSingapore Council, the organizers of the Singapore Design Festival, cordially invites you to our Partner-briefing event and networking session.

For more information: www.designsingapore.org

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!

Happy New You-ear!

2007 is all about you - what you want to make, read, write, film, upload, download, share, subscribe, buy, create and generate. Time Magazine's Person Of The Year '06 was you. The headlining deal moving forward is the 'YouTube'. You or your friend probably have a Second Life or a Space You Call Your Own. It's all about you!

Have a Happy New You-ear!!

SKETCHES OF FRANK GEHRY 建筑大师盖瑞速写

THE PICTUREHOUSE EXPLORES :
SKETCHES OF FRANK GEHRY 建筑大师盖瑞速写

Saturday 16th December 2006 @ 3.30pm
The Picturehouse Lounge
Moderator: Tang Guan Bee

Have an opinion on the designs for the Sentosa IR bids? What do you think about Frank Gehry's controversial design? Share your opinions with us and others at an open forum at The Picturehouse Lounge. This informal discussion will encourage the public to share their views about the film SKETCHES OF FRANK GEHRY and the designs in the Sentosa IR bids. Award-winning architect Mr. Tang Guan Bee has been invited to moderate this discussion and will provide his views about the film, design and architecture in general.

For more information visit: The Picturehouse website.

Singapore on a high!

The recent few weeks has seen an upsurge of activity in the F&B sector. Everyone is either on an early 'IR' (integrated resort) high or had some sixth sense about the record tourists numbers (9 million) this year, as reported yesterday. F&B outlets are frenziedly opening up everywhere. Vivo City just launched to much hurrah. St. James Powerstation is dragon-flying up. Everyone is catching a cab to Rochester Park. The Dempsey Road area is now Tanglin Park for all. The massively revamped Clark Quay is now becoming a week-long Ministry. New joints are lighting by the hour there!

One must nod in agreement that Singapore is sniffing a phenomenal air of competitive optimism at the moment.

BMW design speak...

BMW recently set up their DesignWorks studio in Singapore. Their design director Chris Bangle was featured on CNA today. Here's some select quotes:

"We're experimenting and we have managed to bring into production the results of concave, convex relationships – things which in the past were not really known but they find their way into other products."

"Then there's the relationship that customers have with their cars, not just a functional relationship, but an emotional relationship, and I think we're seeing a whole world out there that wants that in all parts of their lives."

"I think we're (Designers) a set of professionals who mediate between people who need things and people who make things."

Read more from source: Channelnewsasia.com

Zoukout '06

It would appear... the whole of Singapore is anticipating a big outing soon... Zoukout '06, that is. Steve Lawler's headlining and it's on for just 1 day this year - Sat, 9th December 2006. Singapore has many events these days but not many worthy 'event' events. Zoukout is definitely worthy.

But No foot masseurs this year, pretty please.

I love Hansel & Sales!

Jo Soh's having a sale! More info on: ilovehansel.com

Asia Media Festival '06

13 Nov to 1 Dec 2006

"The Asia Media Festival (AMF) is an annual fiesta with a line-up of inspiring and exciting activities to delight all senses of the media and entertainment industry. Anchored in Singapore, the cosmopolitan business hub of Asia Pacific, AMF presents a spectrum of events for both public and trade."

Check it out: Asiamediafestival.com

Mag for Black Collar Workers

Arena Magazine Singapore Edition have just launched their first issue. Published by Mediacorp Publishing, the magazine is targeted at media males or as they call it Black Collar Worker (BCW) - creative or entrepreneurial types that only wear black, black and black. A decent first effort, the mag has interviews with Blond Bond, O&M's Tham Khai Meng in black and Singapore Dreaming's Colin Goh. Check it out at newstands if your collar is darker then the fine leather on your shoes. Ahem, I did.

View CNA video coverage of Arena Launch

Friday Foo-ism

A moment of Friday Foo-ism...

"The Singapore film industry is still ‘cowboy town’. You ‘Have Gun Will Travel’, brandishing a ‘Fistful of Dollars’, dealing with ‘the Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ trying not to face the audience ‘Unforgiven’.

In a cowboy town, the writer is the swing-door salon owner who sets up the bar waiting for thirsty cowboys (directors) who will come in for their creative elixir, only to be caught in a confrontation between the sheriff (producer?) and the cowboy, most of the time leaving the salon riddled with bullet holes."

Read more : Screenplayer Interview with Indie producer Juan Foo

Tiger Beer Films

In the tradition of the very successful BMW Films and other branded content, comes Singapore's very own (and first?) branded short film campaign for Tiger Beer. Tiger Beer: Unravel The Secret was produced by Leo Burnett Singapore, shot by DP John Seale of The English Patient and Cold Mountain fame and directed by his son Derin Seale. The 9 month John Lone-ish production looks period-fancy and expensive we must say. ('xept for that Tiger tat)

Unravel it for yourself: Tiger Beer: Unravel The Secret

Erhm. where's Jessica?

Lim's Untold Beauty takes a walk on Wild Side

Hearty congrats to Roy and Juan!

Source: Silvia Wong @ [Screendaily]

France’s Wild Side Films has taken on the French rights to Singapore new writer-director Roy Lim’s Untold Beauty, the debut project of two start-up production houses from Singapore, Rebel Productions and Shooting Gallery Motion Pictures.

The acquisition marks the first pre-sale ever of an independent Singapore film to a major territory.

“We are always in search of emerging talents from Asia and we think Roy Lim can be one of them,” says Wild Side Films CEO Manuel Chiche. “The Untold Beauty script is dealing with a subject we haven't seen often on the screen – an embalmer's life and his place in Chinese culture, with poetry and thrills, and we think it can be a very original movie that will make you tear and fear.”

The picture is a horror love story that revolves around a Chinese embalmer who views death emotionlessly until he has to confront the haunting of his loved one. Through post-mortem and embalming rites, Lim wants to show death in a different light.

“The fear of death and the thought of passing a threshold between life and death are interesting yet fearful. The embalming craft is not only for preservation but ritual and symbolic. Yet embalmers in some cultures are considered taboo and shunned,” he says.

Rebel Productions was set up by Lim as a production company. He also runs a distribution outfit Storm Pictures which previously handled the release of such foreign films as Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible in Singapore.

Untold Beauty has an estimated budget of $1m. Production is expected to start early next year. Producer Juan Foo of Shooting Gallery is currently in Pusan in discussion with international sales agents to represent the film.

Plug: Who Knew

Who Knew is a network for the design and distribution of documents that question and interpret contemporary culture. No topic is taboo.

Who Knew is dedicated to supporting graphic design's contribution to the production of knowledge by challenging designers to apply the interpretive power of graphic design to pertinent debates of our time. Who Knew is directed by Joshua Trees for the Graphic Design Department at Art Center College of Design.

You Knew?

Plug: The Pitch Blog

Singapore's Marketing Magazine have a new nifty blog "The Pitch" described as "The rougher and readier cousin of Singapore's Marketing magazine. You'll find ideas, gossip, commentary and a touch of cynicism as we flex our journalistic muscles beyond the constraints of our monthly mag."

Singapore Biennale 2006

The Singapore Biennale 2006 (SB2006), Singapore's inaugural international biennale of contemporary art, will open to the public on 4 September 2006. This major international contemporary art exhibition will feature more 95 artists and artists collectives from over 38 countries and regions including Singapore.

SB2006 highlights Singapore's prominence as an international visual arts hub, not only providing new opportunities for Singapore artists, curators and arts businesses, but also as a key enabler of exchange and collaborations for the global arts community. The presence of SB2006 is also a significant opportunity for the Singaporean public to develop a stronger relationship with contemporary art.

Find out more

NISSAN DESIGN FORUM: "Imagination Factory"

Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., will hold a year-long series of “Imagination Factory” design forums throughout Asia starting in Singapore at the end of August. The forums will be held in collaboration with local design councils.The forums are aimed at realizing new design possibilities through panel discussions with Nissan designers and local designers. Each forum will be accompanied by an exhibition of Nissan’s design’s philosophy, strategy and design processes that will be open to the public to give them a deeper understanding of automotive design trends.

>> Read more

Get your ingredients from Singapore's sex guru, Dr. Wei aka Dr. Love

SINGAPORE'S very own self-styled sex guru, Dr Wei Siang Yu, also known as Dr Love, is at it again.

The man who launched Singapore's first sex-edutainment show on TV and runs a Love Boat for singles on the high seas has just launched an egg and sperm "detox programme" for couples and singles, which he claims is a world first. (But, of course)

Called BabySmart, the programme employs a "multi-disciplinary approach" to enhance the egg and sperm quality of clients even before conception takes place. (Ooo, multi-disciplinary! So complex. So exciting!)

"The problem we have is much more important than just having a baby," said Dr Wei. "It is all about the whole conception process — it is also the ingredients of a baby."

More from source : Todayonline.com

Plug: An Urban Fairytale at the National Museum

"Happily Even After", a feature film by friend and Singaporean film-maker Unsu Lee will be screening at the National Museum next Wednesday as part of the CINE SG screening which showcases films by Singaporean directors.

SYNOPSIS:

Since their parents’ death, Jake (Jason Behr) and Elizabeth Singer (Fay Masterson) have become dysfunctional siblings. Jake is a self-absorbed, directionless young man, but Elizabeth thinks she knows what's best for him and tries to get him a new car, a new job and a new life. Jake sees these as superficial trappings; he’s more attached to his parents’ old house and his beloved truck, Wondergirl.

Enter Katie (Marina Black), a waitress with a mysterious past who seems to see things more clearly than they do. She becomes an unexpected presence in Jake's life, forcing him to make some changes. Without Jake's future to worry about, Elizabeth must now confront her own.

Set in San Francisco, 'Happily' is a contemporary fairy tale which meditates on fate and coincidence, with a lyrical score by the UK band Kid Galahad.

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

Seating is limited, so if you really want to watch the film, buy tickets early.

For more information about the film, go to www.happilyevenafter.com

For more information about the CINE SG Festival, go to www.cine.sg

Singapore in FIFA World Cup!

Well, not exactly as a competing team, but as a referee. 40 year old Shamsul Maidin of Singapore has been moderating a few of the group matches in Germany including Sweden vs. Trinidad, Ecuador vs. Costa Rica and Mexico vs. Angola. The only other Singaporean that ref-ed a World Cup match was George Suppiah in 1974, also held in then West Germany.

For more: Shamsul's FIFA World Cup Ref page

1st Bets Down On Sands!

Las Vegas Sands Corp. will be building and running Singapore's first casino and what will be the world's most expensive one at a cost of more than S$5 billion (US$3.2 billion). With crazy horse trends in mind, it was probably the name that did it - What happens in Singapore, stays in Singapore!

Bollywood Beefcake flys over Shenton Way

Krrish is the upcoming Bollywood Superhero movie starring beefy-bicepy Hrithik Roshan and shot entirely on location recently in 'Uniquely Singapore'.

Check out the teaser trailer on krrishthemovie.com to see Hrithik's biceps and his 'Neo' outfit and flight across our very own sleepy Shenton Way.

Wonder if he stopped by Lau Pa Sat for some satay on his way.

Play: Temasek Design Show 2006

Organised by: Temasek Polytechnic

Date: 31 March 2006 - 02 April 2006
Time: 10:00 AM
Venue: National Library, The Plaza, 100 Victoria Street
Locality: Singapore
Weblink: www-des.tp.edu.sg/

Play is irrepressible and irresistible! This exhibition showcases fresh, innovative ideas in communication, media, products, apparel, and interiors, by Final Year Design students from Temasek Design School. See how they play to explode the contemporary creative scene. In addition, get engaged in fun design and creativity workshops with students, staff and alumni members of Singapore’s premier design school. For programme updates, please visit our website - www-des.tp.edu.sg/. For workshop registration, email your name and contact to deshotline@tp.edu.sg or call 6780-5133. Seats are limited.

The Picturehouse Returns

Singapore's favourite and only art house cinema nostalgia - The Picturehouse - returns with an opening festival, funky suede 'Oscar" chairs and a T-shirt Design competition from 24th March to 29th March 2006.

A Brief History of The Picturehouse

The Picturehouse was originally launched in 1990, at a time when film goers were exposed only to mainstream commercial films. Early independent films like Pulp Fiction, The Wedding Banquet, La Femme Nikita and Cinema Paradiso were all screened exclusively at The Picturehouse, and many Singaporeans remember experiencing their first foreign and arthouse titles there.

The original Picturehouse cinema was a stand-alone hall with one screen and 220 seats, located next to the historic Cathay Building. Gazetted as a heritage site in Singapore, The Cathay Building was the country’s first skyscraper when it opened in 1939. The Picturehouse was eventually shut down in 2000, when the whole building complex was marked for renovations.

Check out The Picturehouse website for more details.

DesignSingapore Scholarships

Great news for budding design and creative enthusiasts. DesignSingapore has just announced scholarship programs.

"The DesignSingapore Scholarship aims to groom design talents who have the creativity, drive and passion to develop Singapore into Asia’s leading hub for design-excellence. The Scholarship is targeted at students and industry professionals who wish to pursue full-time undergraduate or postgraduate design-related courses at reputable institutions."

Read More Here.

Ministry Of Sound, Singapura

The long-awaited launch of Ministry Of Sound (MOS) in Singapore happens tomorrow night. Spain's Café del Mar, another past cult brand in club culture and history, is to open doors as well. Ministry Of Sound recently closed shop in Thailand after tightening of the Bangkok nightlife by the Thai authorities. Industry rumour is that MOS, in fact, considered sunny Singapore much earlier, even before Bangkok, but was scared off when a then local partner in consideration insisted on having Karaoke on the MOS menu.

If managed well, MOS might just provide some serious competition to Zouk - Singapore's only real clubbing institution and brand. Another strange addition to the Singapore nightlife landscape is the also recently opened Crazy Horse. And all these, a stone's throw away from each other in Clarke Quay. We're so excited - we can gallop back and forth and go crazy like Jay Z!! (Oops, wrong genre)

Check out the MOS Singapore website

ZoukOut: Thumbs & Toes Up!

Most would agree with reviews over the weekend that this year's ZoukOut 2005 was by far the best. It was well organised, well attended and well staged. The Main Stage and it's lighting was absolutely brilliantly engineered - one of the best we've seen. The roster of international DJs were at their best. The crowd was diverse, festive, playful and indulgent in their skinware. Drinks were served out in a jiffy which was pleasantly surprising.

Only suggestions for improvement would be to rid the long queues by better managing traffic into the arena. Oh, and also to lose the "Pearl Centre" Foot Reflexologists. It was indeed a uniquely silly sight seeing rows of foot masseurs, in their Chinatown garb and trade, at what is supposedly Singapore's "hippest and coolest" annual club/dance party event. (not quite sure of the FHM co-branding too)

Thumbs & Toes Up Nonetheless!

"KungFu Gecko" by Egg Story

Singapore's first bold entry into big budget animated feature film-making - KungFu Gecko by Egg Story Creative Productions - recently had their trailer unveiled at the American Film Market.

KungFu Gecko Synopsis
"Enter a world of small creatures where microscopic legends begin. A tiny tale about an unlikely band of accidental heroes, with little "Kungfu" and plenty of luck, overcomes all adversity and unexpectedly free a kingdom from the clutches of evil.

Saving the world in 2008!"

Watch the Trailer online at the Egg Story Website!

SFC grants seed money to six projects

As reported on ScreenDaily.Com
By Silvia Wong in Singapore 07 December 2005

Twelve new projects were shortlisted for a one-day intensive pitching session held last Thursday during the Asia Film Market in Singapore. The international jury panel consisted of Celluloid Dreams’ Michael Wrenn, Focus Films’ Elliot Tong, RGM Holdings co-executive chairman Devesh Chetty, Golden Village managing director Kenneth Tan and Singapore’s Media Development Authority Man Shu Sum.

Six winners were awarded including MediaCorp Raintree Pictures, Ground Glass Images, Oak3 Films as well as newcomers One Ton Cinema, Monsoon Pictures and Red Ink Media.

While the creative and artistic merits as well as commercial potential of the projects are some of the major assessment criteria, preference is given to projects set up as international co-productions.

"Singapore is heading in the right direction in encouraging co-productions. International collaboration is essential to raising awareness and developing the nascent local film industry," says Tong, Hong Kong’s Focus Films vice president of film production and acquisition.

The six winners:

Armful, action adventure
Produced by One Ton Cinema’s Kevin Lee

Nadra, period drama
Co-produced by Monsoon Pictures’ Christopher Chew and
International Entertainment Services’ Gary Rogers from
Australia

Fang, coming-of-age drama
Co-produced by Ground Glass Images’ Juan Foo and Red
Films’ Lina Tan from Malaysia

Tattoo, horror
Produced by MediaCorp Raintree Pictures’ Chan Pui Yin
and Seah Saw Yam
Director: Lee Thean-jeen

Charlie Company, horror
Written and produced by Red Ink Media’s Gilbert Chan

Titoudao, drama
Produced by Oak3 Films’ Lim Suat Yen
Director/writer: Goh Boon Teck

More on ScreenDaily.Com

Read the Official Singapore Film Commission Press Release

The Asylum Shop

The Asylum Shop - A cool local design-driven retail outfit that's doing interesting stuff and selling novel products. Pay them a visit and a penny. Click: The Asylum Shop

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.

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.

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.

The Small Local Production Industry

In a recent discussion with some industry peers...

There were 2 Singapore feature films in production simultaneously a few months back. A great boost for the local industry on one hand and also a red flag on how small the local "industry" is on the other. The 2 films, by no means huge affairs, practically wiped out all production talents and crews. Apparently, the whole motion picture/television commercials industry was at a stand-still of sorts. A seasoned veteran noted with a sigh that there was not enough new blood entering the technical/production arena of the glamourous film-making world. Every one wants to be a director and not a DP (Director Of Photography). It would appear that Singapore at present is capable of supporting only 2 size-able (if we may call it that) projects at any one time.

Plug: DesignEDGE 2005

DesignEDGE Conference & Expo 2005 produced and presented by the fine folks at IdN and Design Singapore Council. Do support and attend. They have some great speakers this year. All going down on November 10th to 12th 2005 at SUNTEC Halls 401 & 402.

More info at DesignEDGE website

Wicked Aura Batucada

A plug for our friends and Singapore's rising percussion stars Wicked Aura Batucada. Catch them at WOMAD 2005 at fort canning...


Wicked Aura Batucada is a percussion group made up of over a dozen noise mongers. As avid disciples of the drums, they play their own brand of Brazilian samba batucada music fused with funk, afrobeat, local ethnic rhythms and whatever sounds these urban jungle dwellers devour and regurgitate...

More at Wickedaura.com

Creative Circle & Young Asian Designers Awards 2005

Spoon will be participating at The Creative Circle Awards and The Young Asian Designers Awards 2005 as part of the judging panel.

The Creative Circle Awards 2005
David Soo will be participating on behalf of Spoon as one of the interactive judges for The Creative Circle Awards (CCA) 2005. The CCA organised by The Association of Accredited Advertising Agents Singapore celebrates its 25th Anniversary this year. The Creative Circle Awards is Singapore's one and only creative award show for the advertising and marketing communications industry.

The Young Asian Designers Awards 2005
Felix Fong will be serving on behalf of Spoon as one of the judges for The Young Asian Designers Awards (YADA) 2005. YADA is organised by Designers Association Singapore and aims to recognize the potential creative talents in Asian designers and to encourage the application of Asian culture and understanding in design.

We wish our best to all the entries at both awards this year.

Samsung Singapore Wins Regional & Global Grand Prize!

The other day we found out that Samsung Singapore first won regional then went on to take the global grand prize in an Internal Samsung Worldwide Consumer and Product Value Innovation Competition.

We recently completed delivery of a major web revamp and enhancement for Samsung (Singapore) - the hottest consumer electronics brand in the world today. The project was produced and completed in a record 40 days and helped account for about a third of Samsung Singapore's impressive win over it's regional and global divisions. We're proud to acknowledge that our work helped raise Singapore's bar over the other countries. The competition measured consumer touch-point and marketing effectiveness, usability and content substantiality amongst other criteria.

We would like to congratulate Hongki, Desmond and the whole team at Samsung Singapore for their great win!

Singapore's 1st Legitimate Graffiti

RSS - Real Singlish Support?

I overheard a hawker stall conversation the other day that went a little something like this: "The new Windows is called Longhorn. Got support for RSS - Real Singaporean Singlish some more. Damn cool man." "Yah right. You wait long long lah. What do Ang Mohs know about Real Singaporean Singlish one?"

The real question in this case is:

WHAT EXACTLY IS RSS?
In the recent OS buzz and battles, it was indeed announced that the coming soon Microsoft Windows codenamed "Longhorn" will have system-wide support for RSS. But more factually some call "RSS" Real Simple Syndication while others refer to it as Rich Site Summary. Both are accurately descriptive so the ball is in your court.

RSS was originally designed by Netscape as a text format tool (XML) for building portals of headlines extracted from major news websites. Various developers have since taken it up sprouting various RSS flavours (7 to be exact). RSS has now proliferated on the internet as a popular method for distributing headlines, updates and news in summary to audiences that want a glimpse before committing to a full download or visit. You may liken it to news and stock tickers common on television programs. The difference being RSS is "Pull" enabled allowing you to grab more so to speak. Television on the other hand is "Push" although this is to change with interactive and digital television.

Popularity of RSS can be attributed to the adoption by the Weblog/Blogging community as a means to share their latest blog entries. The ever-increasing Podcast phenomenon is built on RSS itself. Podcast - a blend of the words 'iPod" and "Broadcasting" is a democratic method of distributing MP3 content via RSS feeds.

Since 2004 almost every major news organisation have taken to RSS as a method to syndicate their news headlines and summaries. Current and future browsers feature support for accepting and reading RSS feeds. There are also stand-alone RSS feed readers in more widget-like desktop applications.

In context, the RSS feed to Splogger: The Spoon Blog can be created from www.spoon.com.sg/splog/splogger.xml

However, if support for Real Singaporean Singlish is important to you, also can. Make a feature-request at the Longhorn Development Center lah.