Flippin' 'eck, that's a lot of Art!

May is a good month to celebrate arts and culture in Singapore, what with the many activities planned out for residents on our dear l'il red dot.

The National Heritage Board (NHB), for example, is obviously bent on getting us Singaporeans and Permanent Residents to visit their 7 museums and heritage institutions at least once in our lives. Not that the goal is not a noble one, mind. From May 18, in other words this Saturday, the NHB is throwing its doors open to these sites to all Singaporeans and PRs for FREE. 

Yes, you heard me right, FREE. That bit of news should get us--the value-loving local--all tingly inside. Don't believe me? Here's what the NHB has to say: 

"Citizens and PRs enjoy free admission to NHB's museums and heritage institutions all year round. Through free admission, NHB hopes to give citizens and PRs greater access to [these sites] to enjoy their offerings."

The Singapore Art Museum (SAM) is always good for a leisurely stroll to whet one's artistic appetite. (Credit: NHB)

In case you are wondering, the 7 sites are: Asian Civilisations Museum, National Museum of Singapore, Peranakan Museum, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore Philatelic Museum, Malay Heritage Centre and the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall. Thank you NHB!

Flip for joy!

In other news, the Esplanade is also currently holding its annual Flipside arts festival. In its own words, Flipside is a festival that "presents the lighter side of the arts, offering fun and quirky theater, and music and dance programs. Audiences can expect unconventional, imaginative work and eccentric humor".

Credit: Esplanade

Flipside runs from May 17 to May 26, and there are plenty of free programs to enjoy in and about Singapore's durian-shaped arts destination. 

The chamber music group, Tze n Looking Glass Orchestra, will be one of such free acts and they will be looking to stir people's emotions and jog our memories as they play famous film music and soundtracks such as Psycho's iconic bath scene. This will be held at the Esplanade Concourse on May 22-23, with two sets each night starting from 7.15 p.m.

Another one to watch out for is the American brothers of Nate and Jacob Sharpe. It's not every day that you get to watch a circus act here, and when you do, it tends to tear a hole in your wallet. So when an opportunity presents itself to watch "character comedy, world-class juggling, death-defying acrobatics, and bad puns", I would suggest you make a beeline to catch the act. It will be on at Esplanade's Outdoor Theatre from May 17-19, starting at 7.30 p.m.

But here's the one performance that has me intrigued. Touted as Japan's answer to the U.S.'s Blue Man Group, Siro-A is a 6-member performance group that hails from Sendai. If you take your mime with a strong dash of optical illusions and technology thrown in the mix--or techno mime, as I call it--then I think this is a show not to be missed. 

Check out the group's video below (I especially love the humor in "Hole", beginning at 5:08):

Siro-A's Technodelic Visual Show is a ticketed event though, so if you're interested, be sure to visit SISTIC soon as there are only three sessions scheduled for the festival, starting from May 25 at 8 p.m.

For more information on what's going on during the rest of Flipside, check out Esplanade's Web site.

Have an art-filled month ahead! 

Mother Father Gentleman

I would have very much liked to blog about Psy's new song Gentleman when it was released, but unfortunately my column only comes once a month. Better late than never they say!


If you don't understand Korean, it sounds like Psy is repeating a cuss word over and over again. But this is actually what it means...

I don't know if you know why it needs to be hot
I don't know if you know why it needs to be clean
I don't know if you know, it'll be a problem if you're confused
I don't know if you know but we like, we, we, we like to party

Hey there
If I'm going to introduce myself
I'm a cool guy with courage, spirit and craziness
What you wanna hear, what you wanna do is me
Damn! Girl! You so freakin sexy!

Ah Ah Ah Ah I'm a...
Ah Ah Ah Ah I'm a...
Ah Ah Ah Ah I'm a mother father gentleman

I don't know if you know why it needs to be smooth
I don't know if you know why it needs to be sexy
I don't know if you know darling, hurry and come be crazy
I don't know if you know, it's crazy, crazy, hurry up

Hey there
Your head, waist, legs, calves
Good! Feeling feeling? Good! It's soft
I'll make you gasp and I'll make you scream
Damn! Girl! I'm a party mafia!

Ah Ah Ah Ah I'm a...
Ah Ah Ah Ah I'm a...
Ah Ah Ah Ah I'm a mother father gentleman

Gonna make you sweat.
Gonna make you wet.
You know who I am
Wet PSY! Wet PSY! Wet PSY! Wet PSY! PSY! PSY! PSY!
Ah I'm a mother father gentleman

I'm a, ah I'm a
I'm a mother father gentleman
I'm a, ah I'm a, I'm a mother father gentleman

Mother father gentleman

No hidden meaning behind the song like Gangnam Style. This song is indeed brainless, but a fun song to dance to at clubs, I guess... The MV also shows Psy being a total douchebag to girls he dates, until he meets a girl who is as much of a douchebag as he is.

Personally, I felt that originality was... barely there. This song was like a mash up of LMFAO's Party Rock Anthem, the Harlem Shake and Gangnam Style all mashed together. Maybe he was trying to do reverse engineering with the song after the success of Gangnam Style. But well, Psy's free to do his thing and it isn't THAT bad a song. So... alrighty then. Also, Gangnam Style had the horsey dance, and I supposed Gentleman has the hip shake - which was actually the crux of the Abracadabra dance by Brown Eyed Girls back in 2009.


Psy definitely did reference this dance well, getting Son Ga In of the Brown Eyed Girls to star in this MV with him. I reckon this song is going to be a hit with it's catchy beat and cheesy dance steps, but I'm not sure if it will do as well as Gangnam Style did.

What do you think about Psy's new song? ^^

This is The Kimchi Fairy signing out, PEACE!

come what may!

our signature KB CACC standees!

it's been slightly over a month since this blog has been launched. while we have not seen much writing on this blog per se, a lot has gone on over in the kaki bukit division for the community arts & culture club. it was definitely a busy month. here is a quick recap of all that has gone on:

1) 'eat your art out!' - passionarts village

enough has been mentioned on this blog about the village and if you want to take a quick stroll down memory lane, do click here! being the forward-looking person that i am, i actually have a concept for next year's village but not giving anything away for now. 

2) singing kakis' night

this is one of the signature roving activities that you will see and hear a lot of within the kaki bukit neighbourhood. since this is the first time i'm talking about it, singing kakis' night is essentially a night of karaoke that occurs every last friday of the month. what is unique about this is that it moves around the entire neighbourhood.

big thanks to the chairperson of green rc, fannie!

so in april, we partnered with one of our residents' committee and went over to green rc. what a night it was! as a part of their singing kakis' night, they had a block party complete with food, dance, games and exhibition booths. so if you've missed april's installation of singing kakis' night, fret not! it's the month of may already.

3) 'shall we dance?' - hotspot programme

another of our monthly features are the hotspot programmes. once again, these are activities that occur on the last weekend of the month. whilst singing kakis' night is on a friday, our hotspot offerings are on either saturdays or sundays. in addition, the programme duration is much shorter so blink and you will probably miss us.

shall we dance @ kaki bukit?

so in april, we decided to invade a rather tranquil area of the neighbourhood. we plonked ourselves right in front of sheng shiong and macdonald's, danced our hearts out for four hours and made a lot of new friends. if you haven't seen us gyrating to the tunes of justin bieber, you need to click here! 

yes, it was a busy april BUT we are not about to slow down our engines. in the month of may, there are more offerings coming from the kaki bukit community arts & culture team.

other than our regular singing kakis' night (24th may) and our may hotspot programme (26th may - morning), we'll be launching a couple of programmes and partnerships. more updates in my next monthly update. of course, you will be hearing from the kimchi fairy and mr couchsurf critic over the month and in june, we will be adding a third contributing writer to our humble blog. =)

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catch the hARTbeat @ kaki bukit!

edwin