Blazing The Music With Converse event

After the Big Idea event at Plaza Sing, I took train to Orchard Road, went to Tangs to meet Ishardi. And Ben was there as well!! :-D Event still hadn't started yet, so I went to buy a quarter pounder for quick dinner. Ishardi, Ben and myself then went upstairs for a while to enjoy the air-con as well as rest our tired legs.


Event started at around 6.30 with some Eurasian babe named Kelly Josephine as the host. A sweet gal in light blue came forth to play some game by guessing the ten items hidden inside the Converse bag... and she won the bag!! :-)


Event started off with Campus Superstar 2 female champion Keely singing 2 Chinese songs. Chen Yuyang (another CSS 2 alumni) sang a duet with her and then a solo. Ishardi remarked that the pixie-faced Keely looked like a cross between Jade Seah and Felicia, to which I totally agreed!! :-)


Next came Jasmine in rock chic attire... she sang "Sweet Child O' Mine" (which she sang during the Singapore Idol Spectaculars back in 2006) and a Chinese song. If I have to be honest, I was drather dismayed over the fact that Ishardi and myself seemed to be the only original fans to be present... never mind if there were new "unofficial" ones along the way. Seems like I was right, the Jasmine fanclub seemed to have totally disbanded, much like most of the other Idol fanclubs back then.


Closing item consisted of Jasmine, Keely, YY Chen, Shane and Paige singing the main theme for the "Affairs of The Heart" variety special (the one for the survivors of the Sichuan earthquake last May). The whole thing ended at 7.15 pm.


Group picture of the band, the singers and the emcee.


And yep, you bet I took pic with Jasmine again!! :-) Th remainder of us fans then waited for Keely, only to learn that she had already left with most of the other performers. Oh well, there will be a next time perhaps...

Big Idea day 1

Long queue for ceratin sections of the Big Idea region. It was 1.45 pm at the time I reached Plaza Singapura after knocking off from work.


Event hosted by a deejay named Young. Last seen hosting Media Fiesta in early March.


Fans playing some puzzle re-arrangement game.



Channel 8 artistes grace the stage for first segment... Darren Lim, Ong Ai Leng and EELYN!!! They later went to the Scan n Win Booth to mingle with the people there. Oh ya, I got sabo'ed on stage by Young and ended up co-winner of the Lucky 7 game with Naomi!! :-D


Cast of "Red Thread"... Adrian and Aileen. By the end of Thursday's episode, we now know that Alex Sung is the elder son of Kong Wah and Suzanne. I felt it would have been better if least 2 more cast members could come, like Celest, Julian or Tracy.


Cast of Fighting Spiders... 7 of them!! Edwin (Lee Soon Lee), Shijie (Charlie Leong), Frederick (Peter Livingston), Janice (Mabel Lee), Bobby Tonelli (David Livingston), Kimberly (Yi Ling) and Sonnia (Samantha).


Cast of Polo Boys... Adrian and Nat, who play father and son.


Cast of "Sayang Sayang", Michelle Chong and John Lee (younger brother of Dick Lee).



Game time... the "Fighting Spiders" team versus the "Red Polo Sayang" team. The bigger team won obviously.


Yep, this was how Nat recated when he saw me among the crowd... cute right? :-p


Tha tall and dashing Bobby posing for fans. Some of you might remember him as Paul Robertson, the European lawyer who married Yueniang in "The Little Nyonya". Just don't ask him about that rumor started by Wan Bao...


That very tall and lean guy is my army friend Lee Xuncheng, he was a security guard for the event!! I found it rather ironic cos years ago during NS, I joked with my bunkmates that XC could become a security guard due to his height and no-nonsense persona... never thought that it would turn out to be real!! :-D


The cast of Fighting Spiders taking pics with lots of fans

Hurray, I managed to take pic with Bobby! :-)

For more photos, do go to these 2 links...
Part 1: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=115608&id=556354026
Part 2: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=115622&id=556354026

The underdog scores bigtime for AI 8!!

Seems like the underdog-beating-the-hot-fave concept had been repeated less than a month after Star Awards 2009 (in terms of Best Actress results)... only this time, it took place in the United States, and the result wasdetermined after a record 100 million votes.

That's right, I'm talking about American Idol! The dark horse Kris Allen beat hot favorite Adam Lambert to become the 8th American Idol!! Not only that, he was the first married individual to clinch that title. I believe that majority of the fans prefered an everyman of humble and decent background with earnest sincerity within his performances. I am not against Adam although I don't really like him due to his brashness, goth makeup and tendency to scream like mad (NOT due to his sexuality btw, though that may be part of the reason)... still, I have to admit that he was a better performer than Kris in terms of vocal ability and overall package, I was almost certain that Adam was gonna win hands-down. But in the end, I guess it was the overall likeability factor that helped decide the outcome. Somewhat reminded me a little of Hady vs Jonathan (only that both of them were on nearly equal footing back in 2006).

Oddly enough, the Final 3 consisted of 3 guys of different backgrounds... a young married man (Allen), a widower (Danny Gokey) and a man with a heavily debated sexual orientation (Lambert). Not that I have anything against those who might be err... gay. I'm sure these 3 will have a great future ahead of them... look at Clay Aiken, Chris Daughtry and Jennifer Hudson (to name a few). They may not have won the American Idol of their respective years, but they still made it big in the end.

Oh yeah, and who can forget the time when Kara DioGuardi truly stole the show by giving us hot-blooded men a moment to remember (and a truly amazing one at that!!)... when she snatched the limelight away from that bikini bimbo Kristall with a much better rendition of "Vision of Love", and then ending the ssegment with style by tearing off her dress to reveal a taut body in a steamy black bikini!! That movement alone left Kristall totally speechless and sent her back in the gutter, nyuk nyuk! Yeah baby, Kara's one sizzling hot mama indeed (even though she doesn't have any kids yet)... I do hope she will return as judge for Season 9!! Thumbs up to Kara all the way :-D

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Idol_(season_8)

My thoughts on "Angels and Demons"

Yesterday after knocking off from a busy day at work, I went to Iluma once more, this time to watch "Angels and Demons", sequel to the much lauded 2006 film "Da Vinci Code". Obviously the film is a lot different from the novel, for some important plots have been removed to avoid controversy among the Catholic Church (like how the film adaptation of "The Da Vinci Code" did with the myth of Jesus being "married" to Mary Magdalene and having descendants; that plot alone was absolutely stupid).

It all starts with the death of the original pope as well as an antimatter canister being stolen from the CERN labs. Worst of all, the 4 cardinals touted as hot favorites to succeed the late pope had been kidnapped and placed at indifferent historical landmarks. The carmalengo Patrick McKenna played by Ewan "Obi-Wan" MacGregor seemed to be a'n angel of sorts' when he assisted Robert Langdon (played by the versatile Tom Hanks), Vittoria Vetra (played by some hot Israeli babe named Ayelet Zurer) and the FBI in locating the stolen antimatter canister, then flying a helicopter as high as possible and escaping from it in a parachute before the canister exploded in midair, preventing a calamity from occurring at Vatican City. But then Langdon and Dr Vetra eventually found out the truth that Patrick was behind the death of the previous pope as well as 3 of 4 cardinals (each branded with marks of the 4 elements, disposed of by a hired assassin who looked a bit like Christian Cage), and that he was also behind the theft of the antimatter canister... he did all this with hopes that he could be ordained as the new Pope. Which means to say that instead of being the so-called savior proclaimed by the people, Patrick was actually a demon in nature (something like a 'wolf in sheep's clothing')... to think that he could repay the sincerity of the papal conclave by hurting them and plotting against them. And when Patrick realized that his secret had been exposed, he chose the coward's way out by immolating himself in the basement of the church.

Overall this film is many times better than "The Da Vinci Code", not to forget more action-paced and suspense. I found the crazy dash across the various streets of Italy somewhat like a 'wild goose chase'... but had it not been for the bravery and quick wit of Robert Langdon, the church would still be kept in the dark on Patrick's evil plans. Best part of all was, the public never got to know the actual truth, and that's probably the best way to salvage the reputation of the church. I rate this film 7 out of 10 stars, quite worth the watch for anyone ranging from Christian believers to people who would love to go to Rome on holiday. I myself would love to go to Rome too :-)

P.S. Firdaus is truly a demon due to what he did... I could go on mentioning a few more names who share a similar trait, but truth is I'd rather be putting a lot more focus on the angels (from true friends to fellow Christians to fave artistes) who have left a lasting impression to me. In a good sense that is :-)

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angels_%26_Demons_(film)