The Homecoming Queens

Haha... I wasn't going to blog on the Mardi Gras. Tho' I wish I was there *shrugs*

This year is the return of the music divas. The come-back queens, they call it. For those of you who've unfortunately seen the rather adolescent-ish, somewhat Lindsay Lohan-ish, Paula Abdul's new MTV for her first single, err "Dance Like there is no tomorrow" on American Idol 7 two weeks back, you problably cringed a little. C'mon, I'm sure you did? Either that or you thought she was good!

(If truth be told, I thought she was Ooo-Kay-lahhhh. Uknow, like when you said to yourself after bingeing on that piece of fried chicken from pasar malam :p)

Then, there was the released of the much anticipated album from Ms Minogue early this year after her recovery from breast cancer and break-up with moronic, cheater bf of hers. I totally dig the new album cover and of cos, the album did not disappoint at all. Not the least bit tho' her first single is a tad Goldfrappish's "Beautiful".





Of cos, there was Celine Dion.

And, this month, Ms Janet's brand spanking album, "Disciplined", is released all over the world. Lookin' really good in her new video and much less pretentious, I'm confident this one will do well. I can't expect it to be like "Janet" or "Velvet Rope" but from the first two listenings, I am loving much.




Of cos, next month, there is That (FAT) Chick, Mariah Carey and her follow-up album after her emancipation to Mimi. Have you heard of the new single? Haha... it was fun while it lasted. That is all I can say. Don't get me started on the MTV and that her omnipresent "water balloons" :p Did I mention her album is called, ahem, E = MC2? Didnt take a genious to figure that one out!


Lastly but not least - I heard somewhere that Whitney Houston is releasing an album this year - there is Mrs Ritchie, the madame of pop, Madonna. "Hard Candy" is the title of the album. Justin Timberlake, Pharell and Timbaland are said to be collaborating with her this time. I've listened to the first single yesterday (they have removed it since) and I thought it is a pretty good Body Jam song. Haha... Well, I can't wait. It's Madonna, people!






For what it's worth, at least they can spare us the Britney, Lindsay, Hilary (both), *gasp* Paris.

Of hairy issue and public humiliation

The day has arrived. I will never be able to look at Gillian Hung, Cheong Pak Chi (CPC) and Edison Chen the same way I look at them before - not that I am a huge fan of any of them. On the contrary, I've never like the Twin gals because their music appeals only to people with hearing impairment, nor am I a great fan of Edison Chen, both in acting and singing (what singing?). As for CPC, I always knew there is a hidden talent to that coarse voice and "kuaci" face actress.

The day I found out about the news on Edison Chen and his now infamous collection of "obscene" pictures of him and other famous HK actresses/singers/models/etc, it was on the eve of CNY. Yes, I am at least 2 weeks behind. It is painful to see them. I seriously feel sorry for the girls. Especially that they are Asian and Chinese.

When I heard the news, whom my brother was sooooo willingly wanting to show me the pictures and shared the news to every single person that walks into the house (except the kids of course), I listened with a bit of skepticism. My brother is well-known for yeah, rumor mongering. So, I couldn't care less tho' I must admit I was a tad curious about my brother mentioning EC's mini-size erm, pencil-dick.

Many days later, a friend brought the topic back and decided to show us the pictures (I swear I did not even google it; funny ain't it esp. for a person who is always curious about stuff). The first picture shocked me. And the rest .... Hairy, cock, come hither..... slutty poses, pant pant pant. Oh boy... It gets more interesting. I was blown away (no pun people) and these pictures are razor sharp. I wonder how many MP is his camera. No, no not his "pinky brother"! LOL Oh boy, i get a kick out of this.

Today on the news is that they triad members in HK and South East Asia are offering anyone who could bring EC's hand to them for I heard, half a million HK dollars? Poor boy. Let's hope they don't take away his pencil-dick.

Yesterday, I took a train (LRT) downtown to visit a temple in Petaling Street. I've always like Petaling Street since young. I've used to take up tuition at Kasturi which was seriously THE tuition centre back then to go for "help" for SPM and STPM alike. Of cos, I also like the fact that after classes, I get to go Kota Raya and hang out at the arcades :P

What I saw yesterday @ PS was quite sad state - foreigners manning almost 80% of all the stores. I do not think it is cos the "taukeh" has gone for their CNY annual leaves. I think it is cos they figured hiring a foreigner is better than they man it themselves. So sad.

So, nothing is interesting except ... nothing? It's simply humiliating that the locals have to succumb to hiring foreigners to man their stall - what would the tourists think? Confuse, perhaps. This happened too to local hawker food stalls or restaurants. I simply do not order food prepare by foreign workers. Period.

But, thankfully, I had some joy from the train ride, really. I get to see the different architecture of buildings, houses i.e. some back dated to the 60s (If I've got a lot of money, I would buy these houses with manicured lawns and retain the exterior facade hehe), squatters and ugly buildings.

RIP: Heath Ledger

I was driving to work this morning and heard a beep on my mobile indicating an incoming message. It was from a friend, C. The content of her sms was that Heath Ledger was found dead at an apartment apparently from drug OD. Another friend's message came in much later which was even more straight to the point - Heath Ledger is Dead. Reporter *roll eyes*



I was shocked, naturally and replied to her that Jake will be distraught. Well, I can't help it but she didn't think it was funny and ascertain me that she was indeed not pulling my legs.


When I started the computer in the office, the first thing I did was to check on the news. Headlines from websites particularly on entertainment news mentioned on the sudden death of this incredibly talented actor whom I admired much since "10 Things I hate about You" and I continued to like him one movie after another with Batman being the latest movie that I've listed as the must-watch movie of 2008 simply because Heath Ledger is in it. Of course, Christian Bale, too.


The buzz created from the latest Batman movie is that Ledger is the "new" Joker in the movie and seeing him with that grin in the cell from pictures posted on the world wide web and of cos, YouTube, gives me enough shiver and convinced me that he will outshine Jack Nicholson.


Alas, before the world could comment on his performance, he had left us abruptly. The movie, however, will become more famous now that he is dead. It's quite unfortunate, really. He will forever be missed by fans and family members.



Here are some images of the life of Heath Ledger - whilst browsing for his photos online, I can't help but noticed that a certain stupid Entertainment Online website put up a photo of Ledger's body all wrapped up in a black plastic bag on a stretcher (thank you Mr. Rainbow for the word :)) and the headline was "Heath Ledger: Life in Pictures". Fuck man! If I'm dead, I wouldnt want to be photographed in that way? Fucking dimwits.

He Bangs

I had such a good laugh reading this article that I'd like to share with y'all...


Lose the Peter Pan Haircut

Taking the occasional style cue from guys a decade younger than you isn't the worst idea. It keeps you a safe distance from the threshold of grandpa-dom. Laceless All Stars. Denim jackets. Rugby shirts. A man over 30 can get away with these youthful accents from time to time. What a man over 30—a man over 20—cannot get away with is the most recent trend to emerge from the hallways of American adolescence: side-swept bangs. Zac Efron, 20, the pearly-toothed, sapphire-eyed star of the Disney Channel's High School Musical, is the poster child for the cut. But men like 28-year-old Fall Out Boy Pete Wentz are propagating it too.

"A lot of guys are coming in saying they want bangs," says New York hairstylist Takamichi Saeki, who has a salon in the city's East Village. Thirtysomethings who are in the market for a slightly cool-kid aesthetic are walking into Saeki's place clutching photographs of the Peter Pan cut. "It's usually banker guys who want to be a little more fashionable," Saeki says. "A lot of them are coming in with pictures of Tom Cruise."

The news that men are visiting their hairstylists armed with pages torn from Us Weekly is disturbing enough. The fact that they're bringing in recent snapshots of Tom Cruise is chilling. Cruise's hairstyle has always been reminiscent of a Lego guy's, but the brow-skimming bangs he's had for the last few months have been for a movie—one set in WWII-era Germany, in which he plays a mutinous Nazi.

This highlights another of the associations pin-straight boy bangs have (besides Jonny Quest, the sixties cartoon hero, the von Trapp boys, and Dorothy Hamill): Hitler. They were as essential to his look as his moustache.

Chances are, the fashion-forward preadolescents who are spurring grown men to ask their barbers for long bangs that sweep across their foreheads and curl out whimsically at the ends haven't connected those dots. Sally Hershberger, the celebrity coiffeuse who gave Meg Ryan a shag in the nineties—and, much more recently, John Mayer his anti-folksy crop—says she gets requests for the Peter Pan cut all the time. From teenagers.

"All the surfer kids in California started wearing their hair like that about a year ago, with the bangs swept across the forehead," Hershberger says. "It's got a mod, Beatles-esque thing about it." But just because the cut has a history doesn't mean an adult male can co-opt it with stylish irony, like Prefontaine-style Nikes. Boy bangs aren't a classic. They're the male equivalent of pigtails. "We picked up my friend's daughter at school the other day. She and her friends wanted me to give her little brother the Zac Efron cut," Hershberger says. "He's 8. He wasn't into it."

Smart man.

by Katherine Wheelock (Details magazine)


Yes, Bang?





No Bang?




Great (and darn cute) candid shot, btw ;)



Bang! Bang!
Yes. I mean somebody please shoot him for wearing that hairstyle. And also, men 30 or over wearing their pants/jeans way over their hip (see Orlando above).

Most Stylish ... Nonsense?

I do not know how and based on what criterias did GQ select The 50 Most Stylish Men but from the look of it, photography (again) of cos, I am quite please. I seconded Basquiat (How do you pronounce his name, anyone? I love his work :) ), the young Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Paul Newman, Beck, Tom Brady, JOHNNY DEPP! David Bowie! Miles Davies! Robert Redford (so chic), Mike & Keith (of the Rolling Stones) - just 5 years ago, we'd keel over and die to wear ruffles or spot a look so androgynous, but just walk into a Topmen boutique. You'd probably come up looking either like them or Robert Redford or even Warren Beatty.


And I must admit I felt awkward seeing Elvis Presley, Sam Shepherd, William De-Kooning (huh? I know), Woody Allen (HUH?), Michael Jordan? PETE DOHERTY?

Where are the Brad Pitts, and Josh Harnetts and Jack Gyllenhaals? Too predictable?

Maybe its me but I've noticed how everything is going way back. Theories: 1) The fashion conglomerate looks at how furnishing industry revived the retro modern pieces and they thought, Hey, let's do it for fashion, too? 2) I think people are TOO afraid of the future that bringing back old memories is one way to stay sane. No?

Whatever. I'm diggin' it. I love these grainy photos. I want to get hold of a grainy Lomo Reilo Retro 400. I love Lust Cautious; Hairspray. I love skinny pants that are cut slighty shorter. I love James Blunt new album.


Long Live the 60s! And the 70s and maybe, ahem, the 80s!

"Nonsense and beauty have close connections." — E. M. Forster

Lost

I was havin' the delicious fish paste noodles this morning when I overheard an uncle across the table talking out loud to a couple of aunty and uncle.

Uncle with dark framed glasses: "Eh Anita Mui lah!" nudging the aunty sitting across him and showing her the Chinese newspaper at the same time (obviously the tabloid section).

"She's back! Alive!"

Aunty in pink cap: "Back your head lah! Come back to visit you maybe!"

UDFG: "Hehe…no lah. Died already some more got so much news. Pity her also lah." He sighed out loud.

APC: "Yeah cos got people like you mah. Enjoy reading tabloids wat!"

UDFG: "Hehe…. Same like Leslie (Cheung). First play gay and got outed by the press cos got pressure. After that ah, got depression. Maybe that's why he killed himself"

APC: "NO LAH! It's because he acted in that movie. Neh, that ghost movie, what's the name? Think he got possessed by the ghost lah!"

Uncle with receding hairline: "Eh you siaw ah! Don't simply say lah. So you're saying the ghost made him commit suicide?"

APC: "If not? Sure got dirty stuff lah. He so handsome why want to kill himself meh. Some more people accept him as gay mah."

Both uncles shook their heads in disbelief while I stopped eating cos the noodles were simply too dry. Of cos, I was also disgusted by all the nonsensical talks from the aunties and uncles.

It has been 4 years and 7 months since Leslie leapt to his death from the 24^th floor of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hong Kong. I remembered clearly at the time when I received the news, I was in utter disbelief. He completely shocked the world and of cos, his beloved fans. Nine months down the road, the world saw another tragic demise of a great talent both in acting and singing –Anita Mui. Their music and their movies still rock my world tho'.

Pretty White Boy

He'd done it again. Looking so pretty on the cover of a magazine - Details, specifically. But, my expectations of the photographs in the magazine were anything but predictable.

I always know there's something about Brad. fyi, I watched "Babel" again and man, *speechless*. Go buy the magazine. It's worth the archive (if your hobby is archiving magazines. I HAVE mine!). And while ur at it (read: drooling), perhaps, you'd like to enlighten me how did he still manage to look so damn good at that age while babysitting a United Color of Babies with Angie?


Source

Meantime, I will have my cuppa tea and scones in highlands called Cameron. Till then, au revoir.

The Beckhams

The Beckhams. Ah.

I hardly am a fan of the Beckhams. ACtually, to be darn honest, I'm hardly a fan of Victoria Beckham. That's cos everytime I look at her, she reminds me so much of Cruella de Vil. Everytime. The similarity, however, stops there - the facial bit. Thank God for Cruella, I thought.

It must be darn difficult being her having to be David's wife - tolerating his infidelity (if any; but I don't blame him) and taking care of 4 kids while managing troupes of paparazzis from all over the world. Even Madonna and Paris are envious. Not for her funny looking titties but the glam and the super hot husband. By the day hot, may I add.

The latest issue of W Magazine evidently shows it. And, Steve Klein, the photographer, is like the Godfather of fashion photographer who've previously shot pictures of Madonna (she and the horses in W Magazine which I think the idea was "improvised" by a local photographer with Wan Zaleha Radzi), Britney, J Lo etc. My hero, I must add.

Now. Start salivating, boys and girls while I'm off to gym and google for the nearest salon that has tanning machine or air-brush tan on body. Any recommendations? Maybe I should get a tatt, too *vain grin*












I think I need a shot of tequila to cool me down. Grrr.