Wait, they don't love you like I love you

I pretty much bootlegged the entire Yeah Yeah Yeahs gig with my trusty iPhone (*kisses iPhone*) when they played at the Esplanade earlier this month. Unfortunately, I had to delete most of the files because the gig was SO LOUD that the recording quality turned out to be pretty poor. (Yeah cos it's a rock concert...)

But I love love love this acoustic version of Maps, which the band plays at the beginning of their encore.

In this recording, as Karen O says her thank yous, you would hear things like..

Me: MAPPPSSSSS MAPPPPSSSS!

Melody: What is she wearing?

Me to Dave: This is Maps!

Dave: Is it?

Me: Yesss, they always play an acoustic Maps.

Dave: But where's the *imitates drum solo beats*

Me and Melody: (When Karen O is introducing the additional guitar player who isn't formally part of the band) Sorry you won't be part of the band! We don't care about you!

Melody: Where is he? Maybe he went to the toilet?

Dave: He's a love child of me and Chris Pahlow!

Link to my dropbox download:

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps (acoustic) and live at the Esplanade (right click and 'save as')

Yeah, fun times. :)

Midnight movie

On a spontaneous decision to watch a midnight movie, we had to make a tough decision between Tooth Fairy and Legion. The first scored a 15% rating on Rotten Tomatoes while the latter an 18%.

Tough choice between shit and shittier.

What happened to the art of storytelling? Have audiences been dumbed down? Or has Hollywood's monopoly meant that film studios now shoot for the lowest common denominator?

Or has it always been this way and I've just become more discerning of where I put my money on now? Plus, with a wider array of entertainment choices, I don't really want to spend money at a movie being bored. (Lord knows how many movies I've tried to stay awake at).

But it's now our turn to be served at the popcorn counter. And if you're wondering, we went with Tooth Fairy, only because it had an earlier screening time and I have free movie vouchers.

Darth Vader the farmer

Old darth vader had a farm
E I E I O
(what the ledge behind my desk looks like)

My profound question of the day

  

Why are Chinese New Year songs always so noisy? Full of synthesized music, unbridled enthusiasm and CYMBALS. Lots of cymbals.

Little Lungs

Another An Horse song that I love.

"But sometimes, it gets a little cold inside / And I know you tried, yes I know you tried"

How to stop a party invitation in its tracks

[9:23:15 AM] Party person says: Hi Lisa do u hvev anything on this Fri?
[9:23:40 AM] Lisa Cheong says: yeah
[9:23:47 AM] Lisa Cheong says: have an interview in the evening
[9:23:50 AM] Lisa Cheong says: wassup
[9:23:55 AM] Party person says: ok oh.. how abt night say 7pm onwards..
[9:24:10 AM] Lisa Cheong says: my interview is at 7
[9:24:28 AM] Party person says: after that?
[9:24:53 AM] Lisa Cheong says: not sure

And just like that, I managed to dissuade the party person from inviting me to her birthday party. It's okay, because this isn't the first time she hasn't invited me to one of her social events. :)

Better photo

Ride Sally ride

"Maybe this ride can get me to the cheezburger factory!"

The haves and the have-nots

Couple of weeks ago, I attended one of the strangest press conferences ever. I say strange because for one, the press conference was held in the boss's apartment, right on the 68th floor of The Sail @ Marina Bay. I knew this the minute I stepped into the room, because everybody was sitting on plush sofas instead of your formal work-like black chair, drinking coke out of expensive crystal instead of your typical office mugs. Plus, there were personal ornaments around the house, such as family photos and an expensive CD player mounted to the wall.

The boss of the Indian conglomerate which called for the conference is a character by himself as well. Not only did he have a photo of himself on his desktop (who does that?), he would wear shades and a hat indoors, and never once did he take them off. Even when there was a point in time when we were all shrouded in darkness, save for the presentation screen.

And even as I was examining the personal photos that were on the wall or the corporate brochures, the boss was wearing the same hat every bloody single time. Perhaps it is a brand signature for him, but later on I asked Dave the very important question: "Do you ever think he keeps the hat on while he has sex?"

Just yesterday, the boss appeared in the newspaper again, because he had apparently made a very large donation to an Indian cricket club to play in Singapore. And if you didn't know who he was, the article kindly started off by reminding you that he was the flamboyant businessman who had stirred waves in the real estate market two years ago when he made the offer for the apartment where the press conference was held.

How much did he pay for the apartment?

$15.8 million.

I didn't finish reading the rest of the article, mostly because I wasn't very interested in learning about why he had sponsored the Indian cricket team or how he plans to raise the profile of cricket in Singapore..

But $15.8 million? Some people would need to work for several lifetimes just to earn that kind of money - and on the other hand, we have people who are currently living on less than US$1 a day.

Man, we are really living in a time where the divide between the haves and the have-nots just grow further and further apart.

Fall at your feet

Aww, the cat likes snuggling up to Angeline's foot!

what i really want to say is:

Solve your own fucking problems!

You promised *insert advertisers name* something which technically isn't supposed to be agreed upon and now I have to apologise and issue a correction note on your behalf?

What are you, fucking nuts?
 

This is a song for the one that I love, I haven't met them yet but I'm quietly confident

(Image by nofreakingwei)

Yes, I'm still crazy over An Horse's Camp Out, and just last night I even managed to find this lovely poster featuring the song's lyrics. (squeeeee!)

I've been reading and watching interviews with An Horse's Kate Cooper where she talks about how the songs on their debut album all have to do with a breakup that she went through the year before - something which is also reflected in Camp Out.

("And you said you wanted to crawl down deep inside/ But at this point of the last year I am happy to be alive")

But I'm starting to see a theme in the songs which really strike a chord for me. Like Camp Out, most of them have a pretty optimistic view on relationships, even if the person has just gotten out of a really bad relationship.

And secondly, the songs are usually about overwhelming, all-consuming, obsessive love, even to a point where being single is better than a dead relationship (see: Neko Case's That Teenage Feeling, Tegan and Sara's I've Got You, Death Cab's I Will Follow You Into The Dark).

Maybe I grew up on too many Nora Ephron films, read one too many New York Times wedding stories (still one of my favourite things to do every Sunday by the way, especially with the NYT app), but is it wrong to expect that my relationship be one where there's a constant giddiness when you're with the person. Or on the flip side, a deep ache and a sense of longing if you're not together, even if it means wanting to take a cab in the dead of the night just to sleep in the same bed as the person and feel the other person's warmth?

But is this sustainable? Or do these feelings wax and wane according to your own individual moods?

Questions.

Prunes are good for you!

Inspired by last night's conversations on bowel movements and toiletry habits (thanks Mark!), I've decided to take a photo of a note I pasted on someone's bag of prunes late last year.

But there were another bag of prunes, which I also pasted a post-it note on, stating a list of constipation remedies like drink more water, eat your vegetables, don't strain too hard, etc.

That second bag is now gone, leaving this sad sack of prunes in the office fridge.

Hahaha!

You're something like a phenomena baby, so roll kid knock your body up!

Seriously, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs put on a crazy show - what with the confetti, giant inflatable balloons that looked like eyeballs, Karen O's crazy dancing, Christian Joy's flamboyant costumes and a girl in front of us passing wet gas..

I spent the entire gig jumping like a mad bunny, so much so that my legs hurt and my face was plastered with sweat.

Best 100 bucks spent this year...

My joke for today

What do vampires say when they receive a present?

"Fangs!"



LOLOL.

Reminder

Even though it's only been a week, work-wise, it's been a shitty year. Arguments that I have had to settle, clients (what the hell, I'm not even supposed to deal with your clients) that are unhappy due to other people's fuckups, friends leaving the company, interns quitting (after four days of work, fuck!), deadlines that were pushed up, the boss cracking the whip and admonishing my lack of "leadership and management skills" as the reason for not being able to meet deadlines. (Uh no, it's because unlike your 'fucking pride and joy' title, I can't just copy off my sister titles and actually need time to sit down and bang these bloody features out.)

In all, I'm not a happy camper and I'm just trying to scrape on through.

I'm a person that is driven by my emotions and how I feel, much to Dave's chargin at times. Sometimes he doesn't understand how I can so easily flip on a switch, say yes or cancel an appointment just because I "feel like it". Sometimes even I don't understand how I can get worked up and annoyed over what seems to other people to be like small issues - see my recent arguments with Soren over how he spends his time between LCSD days and his girlfriend last year - when at the back of my brain, my rational self is going, "Chill the fuck out dude!!".

So I'm writing this as a reminder to myself in case I ever forget how this feels like, sitting here at my computer at 11:06pm, trying to finish this opinion piece on how HR policies can hinder or help yada yada yada. You know what? I don't really care. I'm pissed off at how things have turned out, the corner I might have inadvertently created for myself, the lack of general support, the usual drill.

So in the future, if I think back about why I never really took up the chance to relocate to KL or Hong Kong despite my boss's expressed "disappointment" in me, I hope this post will remind me why I didn't do so.

It's because if I had to choose between a place/vocation/career opportunity which creates a negative environment for me and being with Dave, who makes me happy and someone who I enjoy spending time with, then it's going to be Dave every fucking single time.

This much I know is true.

You want to camp out, I want to fuck around in the dark

You know how I was so crazy about An Horse's Camp Out late last year? Yeah, in a cheaper Aussie version of La Blogotheque (hullooo, even the fonts are almost the same lor), I found this gem of a video featuring Kaki King covering Camp Out! How awesome is that!

If you've ever listened to Kaki King's Gay Sons of Lesbian Mothers, you would know that this woman is awesome. Just that song alone is all kinds of genius, especially when she singlehandedly creates a full song just by looping and laying tracks over each other.

She opened for the Tegan & Sara gig which we went to three years ago and she even hung around the merch table after the gig to sell her merchandise. And when my friend Shirley (who was a huge fan) wanted to buy the last hoodie left, Kaki even gave her a discount and apologised for accidentally spilling beer on the hoodie.

Dave was so impressed by her gig that we bought her CD so that we could have it signed.

My point of this rambling? Nothing really, other than to share my excitement of finding this Kaki King and An Horse video.

Humpday blues

How is it possible that it is only the third day of work and yet all
the negative feelings I had about work have started to resurface again?

Ughhhhh.

Of course, the solution is that I flex my 'time management and
leadership skills', which doesn't really help one iota.

I laugh at my own jokes

cherisse: arghh i need to get inspired

working on a property campaign

me:  Have a dog barking.. and saying..
'ROOF ROOF'

Yes, I am very pleased with this joke. Nearly choked on my tea while trying to stop myself from laughing out loud as well. *self-satisfied smile*