STAR-studded.

Hey peeps.. been quite a weekend.. mainly for Saturday. 'Cos you know, I went down for filming @ Wheelock's Place for this Chuang Ye Wu Di Shou thing for Channel 8. Vivien got me the gig.

Anw, the show will be on:
CHANNEL 8, this TUESDAY, 8PM.

After a very rushed tuition with Ryan (started @ 9am.. tired!) my family sorta tagged along after they fetched me to Wheelock's. Went there and the first artiste we saw was Patricia Mok. Haha.. not the first time I've seen her, though, so not really surprised. Then came Julian Hee, Wang Jian-Fu, Vivian Lai (Yi ling), Porn-Sak and this guy from Superstar with those long strands of corn rolls at the back of his bandana-ed head =x

They went downstairs for the "introductory shoot" and I was told to wait upstairs. Meanwhile my family went down to take a couple of photos. Hee.

That dude on the extreme left is Julian "Trying to seduce us with his looks" Hee. Haha. Heard from Jiamin that he's a bi. Oops.

And that guy in green shirt that seems to be suffering from spasm is Porn-Sak. Or however you spell that name. You can also see Vivien and the girls dressed in black standing behind them.

Yup, after that they came up and filming commenced.

I was told by the producer to do a sound-check inside Snails (the nail spa) first. I was quite nervous so they gave me time to warm-up. I did it in the back stairway. Damn un-glam =X

I returned and was told to start.

I stood beside Julian and Patricia while the director told them what to say to "que" me in. It went something like this:

(in Mandarin)
PATRICIA: "Julian.. you see the other group.. got singing and dancing to entertain their customers. What about us?"

JULIAN: "Don't worry.. we've invited this professional (sic) trumpeteer to play for us today. We're more sophisicated. I'm sure the customers will love it."

( Que YOURS TRULY, playing Tong Hua while the two hosts pretend to sway romantically to the music )

Of course, I was told to pretend-play. Then we recorded the actual song back in the stairway.

Oh man, it's quite the most malu-fied thing i've ever done. If you ever watch it this tuesday I'm sure you'll laugh your arses off lor. I look like a c*ck. =P

Who knows, it's so dumb the producers might cut it out.

There's some truth to that, though. Halfway-thru, guess who appeared to support?

ZOE TAY AND HER FAMILY! (Her air-force pilot husband, Braydon (her first born) and her newborn, who was being carried in the arms by an old non-chinese nanny)

The following are paparazzi-like pics I snapped secretly:

That's Zoe in the big shady sunglass, flanked by Jian-Fu, Vivian and her husband. I think she saw the flashlight =x

That's Zoe carrying her newborn and escaping from the scene after she realised she was drawing too much unnecessary attention. Protect the baby first!!

And that's Mr Zoe Tay fleeing the scene, too, with Braydon in his arm. Wise choice, before the real paparazzi comes.

That's about it. You can watch it if you want this tuesday. Arghhh, think I'll look reaaalllly stupid if it comes out.

Oh well, NUS band concert was a blur. Took a long time (2hrs) to walk out of the campus to find a bus stop to take to Vivo. In the end, Youzi, Samuel, Chin Tong, Qingyang and shiying left for vivo on bus #10 at 930pm. I had to go home liao -_-

Okay, that's all folks. Last week of signals course! I'm starting to feel attached to the place and ppl liao. Oh no. But I still miss 24sa. Muahaha.. long lunch breaks here I come.....

Take care, peeps!

In Preparation..

Yea, tmr's sort of the "big day". I still dunno how's everything's gonna go.

It's my first time taking part in the filming of an actual tv show. Even if in the end they cut me away I'd still take it as a (cool) and valuable experience. Waha.

A shout-out to Bee, Fungi and iza* who gave me words of encouragement. Haha, shall update you guys.

Meanwhile I'm thinking of what the heck to wear, 'cos after the filming there's still a concert to go to with Jiamin and shiying (NUS band concert).

Just realised today that the concert's at 5pm and not 7:30pm. =S means I must zhao from Wheelock's Place (filming location) fast to be on time!

Anw, this will be what I'm wearing:

Pure and simple: My style. Well, if the producers decide to change then so be it.

Urgh I'm putting all these stuff in plan so that I won't have to fret over unecessary stuff tmr. After tuition with Ryan at 9am, it's off to wheelock's place.

Even got my hair cut liao (it's for my camp's COC parade actually).

I'm speaking as if I'm going to be the STAR tmr but I'm NOT. LOL. Just trying to keep it all light-hearted, since I dunno what's gonna happen.

Wish me luck =P

Take care, peeps!

Trumpet: Revisiting

Vivien asked me a few weeks ago to help her find a male saxophonist / violinist who is willing to appear on TV. Oh well, the search was hard. All the ppl I know either not very close with them or don't wanna appear on TV =x

But in the end, she asked the producers and they said "trumpet also can". Like -_-!!

So yeah, next saturday, I'm tentatively going for a recording for Channel 8's Chuang Ye Wu Di Shou, where I'm gonna play a short (supposedly romantic) melody for like, a minute. It'll be at Wheelock's Place, I think.

Like what the shit. But it's kinda exciting and interesting at the same time.

That's the piece that I intend to play. "Do-u-wa" or better known as 童话 (Fairytale). Yup, and that's my beloved China-brand trumpet on top of it. =)

Wish me luck, man. I will soft-tongue and try to slur as much of the notes to make it sound mellow. I know, me not a very good trumpeteer, but I'll try. And contrary to popular belief, the trumpet doesn't go "Beh-beh-beh". Lol.

Haha. I did a recording, though. It sounded okay at best =x

Anyway, just collected my tuition pay! Yay. Giving extra tuition 'cos Ryan's exam is on the following two weeks. That'd be an extra $75 in my pocket. Hee.

Already bought for myself this black Zinc bag. Don't worry. There's no FLASHY zinc logo at the front. So it doesn't look so LC. =x

A little advertisement:
NUS SYMPHONIC BAND CONCERT @ UCC next Saturday, 27 Oct, 7:30pm.
SMS me if you wanna go. Or directly SMS tess, lah.

P.S. I'm still worried if I have appendicitis. The feeling sucks. I hope it's just a bout of indigestion. Urgh.

Take care, peeps!

Proceed with CAUTION

Don't worry. You don't have to be above 16 to read this post. But you have to be above 16 to watch the movie, though. The movie in reference is none other than Ang Lee's latest landmark offering: LUST, CAUTION or (seductively) known as 色戒.

The review shall come later. Some random blah-blah first =P

Happy to book-out on friday. Continued my tuition with Ryan on Saturday, then went over to zhiwei's house for mahjong. Always win at the start then lose in the end. Bleah. I brought my cam so I thought, what the heck, just snap some random photo also sua.

That's me in my nike shoes. Szern in her slippers. Sk in his running shoes. Took the last bus home. I want to play badminton!! << this ="P">, Caution. Always seem to watch serious chinese flicks with him; notably 夜宴 (The Banquet), 墨攻 (Battle of Wits) and now 色戒. (All two-words, hor?) But it's good 'cos he studied chinese so we can have more in-depth discussions about them afterwards. I won't forget his interpretation of the ending of 夜宴. Makes sense and very deeep. Haha.

Anyway, here's the review for one of the most highly-anticipated movies of the year:

LUST, CAUTION 色戒

I give the movie W o o o o W (4.0/5)

I'm sure you would have heard about the whole hullabaloo of that 7-minutes missing from Singapore's version. And of course, The Straits Times, Life! movie-reviewer, Ong Sor Fern's hoo-ha about giving it a 5STAR rating if the 7min wasn't cut (fyi, she gave it a 3.5STAR rating instead). All I have to say is this: the Singapore-cut will please viewers that are 16 and 17-year old (and the distributors, of course) but irate the above-18 crowd.

But that aside, Ang Lee's war erotic film does live-up to expectations as an intriguing and well-crafted drama.

I don't want to bore you with plot-analysis. In a nutshell, Lust tells the story of a plan to assasinate a Chinese-traitor in a Japanese-occupated Shanghai. But the 'lust-bait' (actress Tang Wei) in-turn falls for the prey (the ever-magnificent Tony Leung) she seduces and the drama unfolds from there.

The narrative uses a flash-back to tell the story, thus it begins with a mahjong scene that has to be watched again to be fully-appreciated and understood. But from that opening sequence, we catch a glimpse of our Singapore-pride, actress Joan Chen (last seen in The Home-Song Stories with Qi Yuwu) who has a meaty role through-out the film. She's a class-act on her own.

But kudos to newcomer, Tang Wei. She's such a natural it's almost unbelievable that it's her first film-outing. Despite hearing that Wang Lee Hom was awkward at best, he did prove to be a credible contribution to the film.

Based on Chinese author Zhang Ai-Ling's short story of the same name, 色戒 is indeed a cinematically-beautiful film that deserves a second watching.

But caution, though. I don't know when was the last time I watched a movie without a happy-ending. Lust, Caution has a haunting and effectively-depressing ending that resonates long after the final scene fades out.

FINAL SAY: Nevertheless a stirring film that is both brilliantly acted and filmed. You can almost taste the China in this one =)

On to something happier. I got myself a new wallet from River Island.

There yer go. It's simple and brown. But I like simple stuff, so yep.

Alrite, need to go do CCNA liao -____-"

Take care, peeps!

Zzzombiez

There's a reason why there's so many "ZZZz"s ... it's due to my sleep deprivation because of my 24-hr duty on saturday. But ... I prevailed and I SURVIVED!

My last shift was particularly tiring but there was one good perk: watching the sunrise at the top of the hill was nice. Backdrop bukit panjang flats, with the foreground being PJC. See, my camp is so close to civilisation but yet, can't get out =x

The word zombies was because I caught the sneak preview of Resident Evil 3: Extinction. Met up with zhiwen for breakfast @ westmall then we got down to Suntec for the Royal Sporting House Warehouse Sale - up to 80% off!

But I guess if you read SzeRn's blog, you would know that its a failure. There's a reason why the stuff are so cheap - they are all FUGLY. =x Really lor.. can't even find a decent pair of shoes.

And we both spotted a worrying trend when we went around the shops in Suntec: male fashion is turning GAY. Shit man. There was this nike shop which had merchandise going for 50% off. The problem was - the shoes on discount were purple in colour and laced with yellow stripes. Urgh. Now we know why they're on sale =x

Ok, here's a (very) short review of RESIDENT EVIL 3: EXTINCTION

I give the movie W o o o o W (3.5/5)

I didn't catch the first two installments but after watching the trailer during Balls of Fury (review below), I knew I had to watch the show. The guard comd yesterday said he caught it the night before and it was damn good, so yeah.

But alas, it wasn't as cool and grand as I expected. Probably 'cos it was based on a video game.

One warning, though. There are a lot of 'heart attack' moments involving the scary zombies in the flick. So yeah, watch-out =P

For wednesday's nights out I caught BALLS OF FURY.

I give the movie W o o o W (2.5/5)

It was an act of desperation that I watched this show. Me and my buddy were in need of some brainless-laughs and we got just that.

Bad points: Incoherent plot. Lame characters.

Plus points: It really is funny (albeit brainless) at some parts. And Maggie Q is certainly a breath of fresh air =P

Sian that I caught two mediocre movies this week. But I'll be watching Lust, Caution this coming weekend. Muahaha, looking forward. =)

Ah, well, I have to book in le. Can't blog as much as I want to.

Take care, peeps!

Fairness? Not Guaranteed.

So many things happened this week. You should know where I was. Yup, after last week's post, I'm glad to say that things have changed (slightly) for the better.

And thanks, guys, for your rally of "I hate smoking". For the good news: me, my buddy and another chinese have (voluntarily, automatically, self-proclaimed) transferred to another smoke-free, pasar-malam-atmosphere-free bunk. =)

And guess what? Another chinese from another bunk pao-toed to the IC about the smoking prob (as if everyone can't smell it; please, there's this thing on our faces called the NOSE). The higher authorities were informed and we thought they were duly-punished. All I can say is: if you call that punishment, 20 push-ups is the death sentence.

What's the worst thing is the fact that I have to do a 24-hour duty tomorrow (a freaking saturday, fyi).

The un-fairness of it all that culminated in that duty is unspeakable but ... i'm whining.

Was complaining to dad on the way home and he told me something that is nonetheless true:
"This is the army ... what is fairness? You think life is always guaranteed fair? (then he pointed to some Bangladeshis dozing off on the back of a truck) Is life fair to them? (he lowered his voice) You can say that they were born in the wrong country. Nothing is fair."

That struck a chord.

Okay, can't blog anymore. Got to book in. Hai ... no, can't sigh. Live life with your conscience clear, stop looking for fairness. It's not guaranteed, I guess.

Take care, peeps!