Asia Magazine

Hey! Bryan Choong of Oogachaga just sent me scans of the coverage we got in Asia Magazine.

The magazine can be found in all Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf outlets, ComicMarts, as well as at the Images of Singapore Bookshop on Sentosa, the National Library, the Gallery Hotel, the Pan Pacific Hotel, The Ascott Apartments, SPCA, HiltonHotel KL, Shangri-la Beijing, The Kerry Centre Hotel Beijing, ThePortman Ritz Carlton Shanghai, The Pines Shanghai, The American ClubTaiwan and onboard airlines SIA, SilkAir, Sri Lankan Airlines.

Woot! Pan-Asian outreach! Rock never die, babe.



In other news, I saw a copy of the book selling in the branch of Popular bookstore near my home. How Heartland!

UPDATE: Hold on a gosh-darned minute! My dad did NOT stand up with tears in his eyes at a launch at Borders! It was at the launch at Mox, and he didn't cry either - all he did was wave clownishly to say "yeah, yeah, I'm the one who sired this crazy brat". But I do still appreciate the gesture. :)

Guess what? I can write prose!

Or at least a six-word long short story. I've just found out I won Culturepush's Very Short Story Competition.

This was my winning entry:

“Thanks, Singapore – the experiment ends now.”

Others that I sent in include:

Singapore colonises Britain. Speak good Singlish.
LKY Clones himself. Global domination!
Actually, Soon Juan, you’re the Messiah.
Fuzzy logic air-conditioners take revenge!
“I loved you, Kuan Yew. Goodbye.” [my favourite!]
Bomoh creates zombie army: no NS!
Haw flake ingredient: soylent green
They said I was gifted, once.
Huh? You mean I’m a robot?
Astronomy’s a hoax: green cheese, anyone?
“Guess whose cock you sucked, Papa!”
Don’t be silly, pontianaks don’t exi-
Lesbian pontianak! Quick, throw your tampons!
Sentosa’s independent! (Led by waxwork LKY)

I know, it really was a case of data-bombing. So sue me. Actually, sue them. It's been almost two weeks since they uploaded the results and they still haven't e-mailed me - nor did they print my name in the report. (shrug)

UPDATE: They've made the updates and sent me my $50 Books Actually voucher. Hooray! (Apparently they wrote and dated the article about a week before uploading it, so their sin of forgetfulness is not quite so grievous.)

Beating a Retreat

On Monday 12 and Tuesday 13 February, 2007, our director Loretta Chen dug into her own pockets and booked a chalet at Changi Sailing Club.

This was where we held a retreat-cum-workshop for 251 - photos here.



Lemme introduce the cast:
From left to right: Cheryl Miles, Lee Weng Kee and Paul Lucas...


The irrepressible Amy Cheng:


And playing Annabel herself, Cynthia Lee Macquarrie:

And of course, our beloved director Loretta Chen:


Our ever-responsible stage manager Stanley:

And moi. You can see why I'm not in the cast. I'm just too campy.

"last boy" and other autopornographies

Happy CNY! These are slides from the presentation I did last week at Rojak, discussing my career both as a writer and an exhibitionist.

1. last boy, my first book of poetry, drawing on my sexual history in New York, coupled with some extremely passionate poetry readings.



2. My experimental drag in university.


3. Which I also engaged in at the opening of the Singapore Biennale Opening Party for the sake of celebrating the carnivalesque. Components: Japanese oni demon mask and green vintage dress found in an old closet in Columbia.


4. Coverage: A wearable art intervention performed Friday, 10 November at Encounters 34: Beginning Belief, LaSalle-SIA School of the Arts. Materials: Singapore Biennale badges (X 92), Singapore Biennale tote bag, black tights, blazer and marker pen inscriptions of local contemporary artists not included in the Biennale. Reprised Saturday 11 November at the official closing party for the Biennale. Amanda Heng said she liked it. :)


5. And more recently, a grumpy protest against the proposed retention of section 377A, the Penal Code article against gay male sex, at the SQ21 blog.


There are other slides, but I'll curb my sluttiness for now. :)

Rojak!

I'm doing a presentation this Friday night on my work at the next Rojak. It's an evening of talks by artists and designers, held quarterly at a cool new location every time. This time it's at Pearl Bank Apartments, near Outram MRT, where I was born and grew up.

My talk's entitled "last boy and other autopornographies". Below is the proper invite:

09.02.2007 Fri 08.00pm till 09.02.2007

Welcome to ROJAK 07. This time, it is held in Pearlbank Apartments, part of the "Save the Modern Buildings" series. The Pearlbank Apartments, like our previous Golden Mile Complex venue, is in the midst of en bloc and possibly sold away. These architectural pieces contains many unique spaces and it will be a shame if they disappear from our local landscape. We hope that ROJAK can bring our local creatives from different disciplinaries to experience these spaces and hopefully, works can be inspired from them.

The presentation will also start earlier this time at 8pm and do come rest casually and comfortably :)

Due to the nature of our venue, there are a few things to note this time:

1. Please bring drinks to share for the ROJAK dingy. Previously, FARM always try our best to refill the drinks during ROJAK. But as this venue is far from any possible replenishment, we requested that all audience to bring something to share with the rest. It's the least you can do with all the sharing going around on ROJAK night.

2. The owner has requested that there is absolutely no smoking within the space, no sitting on the balcony ledge (which is 37th floor! yikes!!) and please do not touch the antique mirrors hung in the kitchen as they are quite reactive to water and stains (but yes, stare into yourself with them)

3. This is a private event. Please subscribe to FARM FEED for the invites and instructions on how to get to the venue (through the security).

See you soon.

See Website

251.3

Yep. Have just finished 251 Draft 3. We'll see how the reading goes on Friday. (Shudder).

It's good stuff, I'm just naturally paranoid.