Oh Singapore, Oh MDA

I was born and raised in Singapore, and on many levels, I'm very much a product of where I'm from. In the 12 years that I've been away, much has changed in my home country. It's been interesting to see Singapore work hard to reinvent it's image to the outside world.

One of the areas that the government's invested in is developing Singapore's media industry to be of international standing. You know, like everything else that my people do. Nothing wrong with that, mind you.

You can say a lot of things about Singapore. You are entitled to your views and I will happily listen to what you've gotta say. My friends know this to be true.

But I cannot even begin to comprehend why the august body tasked with that noble and worthy responsibility of improving the media industry, the Media Development Authority (MDA), thought it would be a good idea to have its senior management team rap in a music video.

Enjoy the train wreck, and don't let this spoil your weekend.

You Gotta Laugh

So I was in HK last week and on Friday, I made my way to Happy Hour at Club 97 in Lan Kwai Fong, for drinks and so-so people-watching. I was with my friend Ben and we were just joking about how the gathering of fellas was a truly blah experience.

About half an hour after we'd arrived, 2 guys, who looked ostensibly like a couple, right down to their matching outfits, walked in and parked themselves next to me at the bar. They were attractive, fit and out-of-towners (my guess). Then one-half of the duo, the one standing right next to me, turned and asked "Hi, can you recommend some bars or clubs to check out tonight?"

I gave them the details on where to head out to, and even showed them on the map that was in the guide book they had with them. I later learned that they lived in LA and were visiting HK after a work stopover in Tokyo.

The guy I was talking too was named Stefan, and he was born in HK but had moved to the States some 20 odd years ago. He's biracial and spoke fluent Cantonese, but looked kinda east European, so I didn't think he was part Asian.

And Stefan's boyfriend of 7 years was named, get this, Jeff, and they live in Orange County with their baby boy.

It was a random meeting, a easy-going chat, and we met again later in the evening at the club I had suggested. We had a great evening of music, drinks and great company. Stefan & Jeff. Too funny.

But not as funny as the London's Tube announcer who posted fake messages on her blog in the same style as what you'd hear on the trains. Her bosses found out and fired her. Her site, as you can imagined, has crashed from the worldwide interest in hearing her say things like

* "Would the passenger in the red shirt pretending to read the paper but who is actually staring at that woman's chest please stop. You are not fooling anyone, you filthy pervert."

What a star!

Lust Caution

This is what happens when famed NY-based fashion photographer (and videographer) Steven Klein directs an ad for C-IN2 underwear for men.

Hot & Hungover

Have you missed me? Sorry, hangovers can be so time-consuming. The heat that I experienced on the return flight to KL didn't help much either.

Thank god for Indian genes and a strong liver. And watching Justin Timberlake in concert on DVD helped me focus on something else, but more on that later.

~ Daniel Johns - who is a member of Aussie rock band Silverchair, and is also Natalie Imbruglia's husband - gets GQ Australia's seal of approval as one of their Men of 2007. Thanks to PerezHilton.com for this photo (and appropriate caption).


~ Entertainment Weekly magazine has announced their Entertainer Of The Year list and Angelina Jolie makes it to the Top 25 celeb honour roll.


Click here for the complete list.

~ And finally, Justin Timberlake is in New Zealand as part of his world tour (is he ever gonna do an Asian stopover already?!) and took part in the celebratory haka, a dance like he's never done before.

Here's a sampling of what his Kiwi friends can expect to see, taken from his Madison Square Garden concert earlier this year.

.

Hot.

PS: I am so in love. With my new Blackberry Curve.

Customized Spasms

For the first time ever, I got stopped by Customs when I got into HK yesterday, and they made me empty out the entire contents of my bags.

Apparently one of the little fabric-y things they used to swab my bags set off some sort of alarm (3 times!) during a random (yeah, right!) scan, which then saw me taking bags to a quiet corner while they inspected every inch of my suitcase.

The officer in charge was very nice about it, but it was hard to look him in the eye as he went thru' my underwear and toiletries. He seemed to be looking for the apparent contraband that I was hiding somewhere in the lining of my clothes or the waistband of my briefs.

Throughout the entire episode, he was very professional and courteous, but it didn't stop from me sweating ever so slightly. It was all over in 20 minutes, and I was allowed to pack up my stuff after they didn't find what they thought they were looking for. They even unpacked a gift pack with baby clothing (a gift for my friend Brian & Jen's baby boy), just to make sure I wasn't being sneaky.

I wasn't carrying any drugs (outside of painkillers) and I hadn't handled explosives, so your guess is as good as mine.

Speaking of painkillers, how glad am I that i brought my bottle of pain relief medication, given that during a meeting with the boss today, my back muscle decided to tense up and have a minor cramping moment.

The combo of the search and the spasm could have driven me crazy, though not as crazy as these people who attended this year's Oprah's Favourite Things episode, which aired yesterday in the US.

Chart-Toppers, Show-stoppers and Family

~ The American Music Awards (AMAs) have been given out and American Idol alums Carrie Underwood & (Chris) Daughtry each won 3 awards. I don't quite understand the relevance of the AMAs, but Mary J Blige did perform her new single "Just Fine" and as usual, she brought it. Hail Mary!

There was also a country-fied version of Beyonce's "Irreplaceable". I'm filing this under "Interesting".

If you want the complete list of winners, they're all here.

~ The other big news over the weekend was the annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, which is becoming a major media and entertainment event.

This year's musical guests were the Spice Girls who performed their lame-o 'return' single and thankfully some older hits, but it was Heidi Klum's duet with her husband Seal that made just as many headlines as the eye-popping collection of lingerie.


~ Over in the UK, Leona Lewis, who won last year's X Factor talent competition, made an impressive #1 debut on the British album chart (selling 375,872 copies). Leona is also #1 on the singles chart with "Bleeding Love", which has gone on to sell almost half a million copies.

The album is going to get a US & Asia release in March next year, and if her record label markets her well, Leona's gonna be huge, cos this girl can sing, and you know this song will be huge-r at karaoke bars all across Asia and beyond.



~ As the Writer Guild Of America continues it's strike, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge one of TV's best-written series - Brothers & Sisters.

Set in LA, Brothers & Sisters tells the story of the Walker clan, with their complex dynamic and even more complex personalities. All strong, all vocal, all distinct.

The series debuted last year amidst some chaotic last-minute cast changes but ratings have continued to rise and the 2nd season has just debuted in the US.

I've been doing lots of catching up over these past few weeks, and having watched half of Season 1's DVD boxset, I cannot evangelize enough about this well-crafted, multi-layered, honest, mature, funny and refreshing look at family.

And the cast, led by Sally Field, Calista Flockhart, Rachel Griffiths and Rob Lowe, adds star power to considerable acting chops. You can get more info, and hear from the writers behind Brothers & Sisters here.

And Then...Nothing

Frangipani on Friday is a good mix of this, that and a lot of the other. Over the years, there have been some decent Fridays. And a few painful ones.

After about 4 months of not really knowing what the heck I was avoiding, I finally popped into what used to be my regular watering hole (that sounds dirty, I know).

And sure enough, one of the pseudo reasons why I stopped going out was there. Despite my initial hesitation, I breathed and said hi, did the usual chit-chat and when the exchange was over, I didn't blanch, I wasn't bitter and I was OK.

Way less drama that I thought it was gonna be.

Here's some drama from the internet's latest singing sensation - 15-year old Charice Pempengco.

File Under Where?

~ I caught sight of this picture of Tommy Lee & Rod Stewart on Perez Hilton's site and the thing that caught my eye was Tommy's underwear. Dirty.

(Pix courtesy of perezhilton.com)

You can get order your own set here.

~ Retired tennis ace Bjorn Borg has just designed (really?) a new underwear line, and as he's inviting members of the public to submit photos of themselves wearing his designs for a 5-euro discount on their next purchase.

If he got better-looking models, maybe the product would sell itself, huh?


~ When will any city in Asia institute National Underwear Day like this one that took place in NYC's Time Square earlier this year?



~ And in somewhat related news, Brian Paddick, the former deputy assistant commissioner of London's Metropolitan police has announced that he's the Liberal Democrat candidate for the city's mayoral contest. He'll be up against incumbent Ken Livingstone and the Tories' Boris Johnson. There's a rich pun waiting to explode with all those last names...

I just want to see the openly-gay Mr Paddick in his skivvies.

Thursday Tidbits

~ Alicia Keys is always having problems with her rapper 'boyfriends'. In "If I Ain't Got You", it was Method Man, and now in her new video to "Like You'll Never See Me Again", it's Common's turn to be on the receiving end of some serious 'acting' by Ms Keys.

~ This website is way too random and too funny to not pass on - Men Who Look Like Old Lesbians.

(Thanks to Towleroad.com)

~ I've not been watching any of the new episodes of Heroes, but apparently Milo Ventimiglia loses his shirt a lot in the new season.

I so have to catch up on the trials and shirtless tribulations of Peter Petrelli.

~ Did you hear about the 2 fellas who got into such a huge fight that they literally took it to the streets?

Boys can be such girls.

~ You might have heard that Matt Damon is People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive, but this other fella from Ugly Betty is too cute.

~ And finally, I don't know why I find this oddly compelling.

And Now For The DILFs

Women's Wear Daily reports that Giorgio Armani has signed David Beckham to be the global face (and more) of the new Armani underwear collection.


With such fine credentials, it was probably a no-brainer for Mr Armani. (The photo is not from the campaign - it's from Becks' W magazine photoshoot from earlier this year.)

I've never heard of Man About Town magazine but they've put Ryan Philippe on the cover, and he also appears in a 44-page portfolio. Check out this photo - that's daughter Ava on his dog-tag.


Hugh Jackman at the beach. 'Nuff said.


More DILFs in future postings, and I welcome your suggestions, too.

Not So Random Hot MILFs

In the name of being fair and balanced, and also for all the het fellas out there, here's your fix of trans-Atlantic eye-candy for Tuesday.


I am not sure where Elizabeth Hurley was (apparently a Women Of The Year awards?) but she looked stunning and shows us that 40something and gravity can go hand in hand. More of the lovely Hurley here.


And Halle Berry presented at the BAFTAs, which happened last week in London. Most people couldn't remember what she was presenting, distracted by her pregnancy-enhanced boobage. More screen grabs (easy) here.

Happy right-clicking, fellas.

Music Whore and So Much More!

The publicity machinery for Kylie's new album 'X' is in full swing, complete with appearance at high profile events, that TV special that aired on ITV this past Saturday, and now, the unveiling of new publicity photos.

As you can imagine, they're a nice mix of naughty and nice, but this one's a bit tranny-rific! If you wanna see them all, click here.

And after watching this 'live' version of her single '2 Hearts', which she performed on France's Star Academy, I'm beginning to believe that the song can work, though I still think it's not her strongest tune.




The Spice Girls (who weren't even girls the 1st time around!) have been coiffed and buffed and air-brushed to perfection in their new promotional pictures for their great hits collection and upcoming world tour.

Nice, but can Melanie C (a.k.a. PE Teacher Spice, 2nd from right) be any more ordinary-looking?


After Radiohead's worldwide headline-making 'Pay What You Want' campaign for their new album 'In Rainbows', their old record label EMI is making available all of the band's back catalogue in various formats, including on a special edition Radiohead Bear USB.

Cool, but between US$63 and US$167, yowza, pricey!


Filming started in Hong Kong last week for Batman: The Dark Knight.

From complaints about noise from low-level helicopters, to the lack of support for local productions, Hong Kong has caught Bat Fever in a big way. More photos here.

And for Grey's Anatomy fans, here'a a picture of actor Eric Dane living up to his McSteamy moniker, arriving at New York's JFK airport last week.


Le sigh.

Fierce on Friday!

The Kylie Show airs tomorrow night on Britain's ITV and this TV special showcases Kylie performing her previous hits, as well as music from the new album, X.

Fans will find this shot reminiscent of her Agent Provocateur ad from some years back.


Ugly Betty's hotly anticipated wedding episode looks set to be yet another hour of can-you-believe-this camp madness on network television.

The storyline featuring Wilhelmina Slater's wedding (to publisher Bradford Meade) is primed for primo ratings, and comes complete with from some serious star power.

Designer Vera Wang, hamming it up as herself, is on hand to dress Wilhelmina and her celebrity bridesmaid, one Victoria Beckham, in a scene that's bound to inspire drag queens and parodists all over the world.

Here's a delicious sampling for your viewing pleasure.



And finally, some of you might have seen this one already - Amy Winehouse was a hot mess when she performed in Munich at the EMAs last week. Her slurred speech, glazed over eyes and shakiness aside, it's a fierce performance by a woman who the critics love and the audience can't wait to see fully implode.

(Thanks to Stevie for the link).

Have a fab Friday, people.

Idol Update

You must by now have heard about the writers' strike in Hollywood that's beginning to affect/halt production on TV's best and brightest shows and series.

Labour/financial discussions aside, reality TV seems to be a 'saviour' of sorts for folks in TV Land and there's no bigger reality champ than American Idol. We are about 2 months away from yet another season of cringe-worthy auditions and competitions that will unveil the (can you believe) 7th American Idol, so all you diehard fans out there, standby.

The recent confirmation from series producer Nigel Lythgoe that the new season's auditionees will be allowed to play instruments is sure to bring on more magical reality TV moments.

Last season's competition runner-up, the beatboxing Blake Lewis is releasing his debut album "Audio Daydream" in early December. Here's the album cover.

Can we say Liberace In Space Camp? What am I missing here?

Gassy & Sassy

OK, I promise this is the last time I'll talk about jetlag. This week.

So I've been trying to eat more healthy over the past 3 months - I've included more fruit, started introducing flax seed and oats into my diet in a bigger way, and I'm also rediscovering the joys of nuts (don't laugh).

I'm also going to the gym more regularly, and I'm finding that the new healthy foods in my diet is making me less achey and tired, which is a good thing when I'm not exactly gym-tastic.

I'm so committed to this new thing that I even brought a small container of oats when I was in the US for 2 weeks, and I went to the hotel gym twice.

Since I've been back in KL (5 days in), I've found that my out-of-sync body clock is making me react in the gassiest way possible to oats and nuts. It's most unpleasant when you have to meet with friends or colleagues for extended social get-togethers. So far, I've been able to hold it together without any embarrassing expressionistic explosions.

I'm sure this too shall pass.

On possibly related developments, I've begun to feel more enthused about doing more, without feeling weighted down by holding on to something that I never had. It's a very thin line between warm feelings and hot air.

Colin Wins, Pants Down

Another picture is from Mario Testino's new photo book, Let Me In.


Sometimes all you need is a towel. Le sigh.

Bedtime Stories

For the first time on a long-haul flight, I popped 2 sleeping pills to help me sleep. And help it did - I actually missed my 2nd meal on the flight from LA to BKK, which kinda works out to be 7 hours, which is a long amount of time for me to be asleep on a plane, which on a 16-hour flight, is a very good thing.

I thought that it would be good for me to stay up as late as I could on my first night in KL, you know, to re-adjust to local timings of my usual routine. But I didn't factor in a late-night caller a-calling, which resulted in my going to bed around 5:30 in the morning. And waking up 5 hours later. And then falling asleep again at noon for another 7 hours - which meant that I was sleeping in LA time.

Thankfully, it was good, dreamless sleep. Methinks this readjustment will take a while. Is it time to get new pillows?

The Return

I guess on some levels, you can call it closure.

This return visit to the US, returning to New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles has been unexpectedly stress-free, save for the minor ego scrapes in cars, trains and restaurants.

I've been telling friends here that all 3 cities don't seem to awe me as much as they did when I first visited years ago. Sure, you can say that the intervening years of increased travel has given me a higher level of comfort with the unfamiliar.

Or the fact that the world is indeed smaller, thanks to Skype, Instant Messaging, the Blackberry, and whatever else that's just round the corner to make the distance between me and you almost negligible.

I guess I'm better able to frame new experiences in the context of the bigger journey that I'm on, this intangible collection of experiences and expressions that refine and define me.

And it was good to see Stephen after our goodbye in KL in June. I'm not sure if I'll ever truly recover from the rollercoaster ride that I would not wish on my worst enemy. Have I become stronger and better for it? Has the heartbreak been worth it? Why am I not able to cut all ties? Is this love or something more insidious disguised as a feeling that I crave and value?

I remain open to all answers that come my way. For now, all I want is to be able to sleep on this flight back to KL.

Halloween

Growing up in Singapore, Halloween was something that I learned about from watching American TV programs and movies. I never quite understood the concept of this thoroughly American ritual/tradition/institution, but it looked like a lot of fun.

Earlier this evening, I attended my first Halloween 'parade' in West Hollywood. Interesting, to say the least, 'cos Halloween in WeHo is a freak show like no other that you'll experience.

Los Angelenos - at least the ones who thronged Santa Monica Boulevard - treat Halloween like it's an early Christmas, but with costumes.

From WeHo Halloween

Me? I'm not a costume type of guy. I mean, c'mon, do I really need anything more when I already wear my heart on my sleeve? Or do you really need more honesty?

Now that would be scarier than Halloween in WeHo.