art-tistic movies

woah, time flies when you are having fun! in a twinkle of an eye, it's almost the end of february. (guess i forgot to set the alarm clock for the end of september!) so much has happened over the past few months, lots of meetings and planning for 2014. this year, a personal goal of mine is to 'go big or go home'. after all, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

anyway, instead of telling you of all the wonderful things that have been happening for the kaki bukit cac team, i would like to recommend you two movies that you must catch. one is from a while back while the other is on the big screens now (so do catch it!).

so the first movie is CZ12. 

it a jackie chan flick. you will get your usual martial arts moves but more importantly, it speaks of the rich art of china and its cultural significance. i watched the full movie online so if you are keen on watching it, just google for it. it's an easy search. 

the other movie that i caught over the weekend is the monuments men. 

it stars george clooney and matt damon (ladies, SCREAM!). you can read one of the reviews here. beyond that, the real stars are the artworks that one gets to see. the plot is simple yet the message is multi-tiered. is art worth dying for? that is a question that only the individual can answer.

if you are wondering what to do with that $10 in your pocket this week, i hope that i've helped you solve that problem.

catch the hARTbeat @ kaki bukit!

edwin

wake me up when september ends!

sure, it's a corny and lame title for this month but you get the drift! it is finally september. come to think of it, it's almost a year since i took over the reins of the team. the journey has definitely been interesting but we are barely getting started. if i can say it myself, the programmes and activities that we have lined are will be getting bigger and better (and one in particular, scarier!)

anyway here's a glimpse of what went on in august!

showcase of KBdARTS

as part of their 'graduation' from our dance arts programme, the children showcased their talents at our kaki bukit national day celebrations. for those of you who joined us at the event, we hoped you enjoyed our item. if you missed their performance (*wags naughty finger*), the second cycle will commence this month and our KBdARTS will be performing at an even larger scale event! more details over the next couple of months...

hotspot: percussion performance

i've always enjoy partnering performing groups to bring a little razzle-dazzle to our community. hence for the month of august, we invited the students from guangyang primary school for a percussion performance. it was definitely an enjoyable morning with them bringing us an extra groove at our annual 'one community walk'. if you want to catch a glimpse of their performance, just go over to our facebook page!

mural, mural on our walls

when our original wall mural was whitewashed over, we made many students from bedok town secondary school upset. they thought that it was the end of their masterpiece but little did they know that something else was installed for them. 

well, the students did not have to wait for long before they got an opportunity to exercise their creative muscles and put up a new mural. anyway, do swing by the new mural and take a selfie! if you are on instagram, do use the hashtag #kakibukitcac or add us @kakibukitcac.

singing kakis' night

well, in august, singing kakis' night returned to green rc. beyond a night of karaoke, it was also a bbq party hence it was definitely a treat for the senses. if you ask me, we can't wait for september to end and for our next singing kakis' night! 

finally, we wish each and everyone of you has a great month ahead, till the end of the september...

catch the hARTbeat @ kaki bukit!
edwin

Kpop Idol Culture + Lots of Queuing

Writing from the land of kimchi, still! And since I'm here, why not immerse myself into probably the biggest Korean export out into the world - KPOP! Idol culture here in Korea is a big thing, and girls, women and quite a number of boys and men queue up for hours outside broadcasting stations to either go in to watch music shows of their favourite idols or wait outside to catch glimpse of their idols walking in for recordings.

I've done both - and can I say that it takes a hell lot of effort and it's super tiring! Ok so basically to get into a music show, you will have to join the queue of a specific group's fan club. There will be rules on what you have to bring in order to get into the recording, usually the CD the group is promoting, fan chant and a slogan towel. And then you basically go to the broadcasting station to queue. Some of the bigger fan clubs have a bidding system for tickets so you will have to sign up on their fan café and this is usually war. You basically spend 3 hours queuing to watch your idols perform for 5 minutes.

And just to be adventurous, I decided to go out of Seoul to watch a music show. It was in Ulsan, about 4 hours out of Seoul by bus. Since it's summer, MBC held a summer music festival at their Ulsan Centre Stadium. Admission to watch is free, but the queuing thing happens again. Crazily enough, we hit the queue at about 6am in the morning and it was already snaking. People were coming out from tents like refugees. The recording only started at 4:30pm... so... the queuing starts.

At about 2:30pm when they started letting people into the venue, people who were behind the cut off point started to play dirty and wanted to cut the queue - lots of pushing and swearing happened. I'm just glad that I didn't get cut off if not my entire day of queuing would be wasted! This is it with queuing for music shows here in Korea, there's always that slight chance you would be denied entry. At the end of the day, we spent about $20 on iced water because the temperature was like 34 degrees and the sun was working extra hard! I got tanned, didn't care about my image and slept on the ground under a tree - just to see these 7 boys.

INFINITE!!!

But it was so worth it HAHA. Fangirl, through and through.

Here's the video of the performance, it was such good fun being in that crowd and screaming my head off!

单独旅行

上个月，我的人生有点转变。

我离开了原来的工作岗，开始人生下一段的历程。

不过，当这新的旅程开始之前，我独自到了台湾充充电。。

我到了垦丁，寻找一种很特别自由。一个对心灵上的自由。而这 所谓的“自由” 就像一个在疯狂世界的避风港。

让我以接下来的照片跟大家描述当下的“自由”吧。

人生旅程

海阔天空

思维

勇往直前

august action

so another month has ended and the start of a new month awaits. on the surface, it seems that we have been lying low with not much action but the truth is far from that. take for instance the three contributing writers, our 八六九一 is away on holiday, The Kimchi Fairy is currently in korea. how about Mr Couchsurf Critic and myself? it's just been work, work and more work. just to reveal a little about the identity of Mr Couchsurf Critic, he's a new daddy (*salutes and applause*) and recently made some changes to his career path hence the silence because the sound (and fury!) is fully managed by his newborn.

busy schedules and travels aside, july was definitely a fruitful month for the kaki bukit community arts & culture club. let's talk about what you would have witnessed around the neighbourhood.

community art gallery

community art gallery (blk 550)

the panels are up!!! more importantly, you will see artworks by our very own kaki bukit residents. since the art panels have been in place for the past month, we are very thankful for everyone who helped us keep a lookout of the pieces. for instance, we have had multiple calls with regards to the works slipping through the cracks. we have rectify the problems to the best of our ability. for a couple of the panels, we need the contractors to come in and do some repairs but nonetheless, thank you for being our eyes!

community art gallery (blk 526)

another exciting piece of news about the art gallery, the pcf centre at blk 526 have decided to adopt the panels right outside their school. this means that the artwork of the children will soon have a place in our gallery. expect to see the big masterpieces of our little ones from 1st october!

if you are truly inspired to adopt a panel, do drop me an email at kakibukitcac@gmail.com and write community art gallery as the subject.

hotspot: singapore memory project

for this month, we are in partnership with our friends from the national library board and brought in one of their roving exhibitions. while the panels are about geylang serai, you can participate in the project by telling us what your favourite memory of kaki bukit is. hopefully we collect enough contributions to, one day, have our own exhibition as well. do remember to pick up your gift after you have written down your memory for us.

singing kakis' night

wow, time flies. we went back to ville rc for another night of song. it's our second cycle already. that means that four months have gone by since we launch this initiative. it's great to see residents join us regularly for an evening of music and singing.

anyway, beyond what we accomplished in the month past, there is more lined up ahead before we bid 2013 farewell. here are a list of dates that you want to keep free: 25th august, 30th august, 27th september, 29th september, 25th october, 26th october, 16th november. the programmes will be getting more exciting. i'm sworn to secrecy about the exact details about some of the events BUT there is one that i can share with you about!

we are celebrating children's day in a unique fashion. we want to invite all children who are malay, speak malay or interested in the malay language to join us for an afternoon of pure fun! tickets are on sale as you read this post. grab them early because there is a seating capacity! call 64454223 to purchase your tickets!

i'm having a blast putting together the second half of 2013 for you but let's not overload this post so ta-ta for now. here's wishing you an early happy national day! oh, do join us on 3rd aug at the kaki bukit neighbourhood park at 6pm for celebrations. you will get to meet the KBdARTs too!

catch the hARTbeat @ kaki bukit!

edwin

Super late but still here entry! - The Kimchi Fairy

MANY APOLOGIES FOR THIS SUPER LATE ENTRY! But better late than never they say!

This Kimchi Fairy is in her adopted homeland, the wonderful place of South Korea! I've been here a month and settling down pretty okay. And being here a month made me see the difference between Singapore and Korea, despite both countries being economically developed.

Well, life here in Seoul is almost the same as Singapore except that in some ways it's super advanced (think electronics etc) and in some ways it's still quite... backward. Like they have a million "mama stalls" everywhere. Random aunties will be sitting inside hawking their goods. Mostly food stuff, and most of the time it's pretty good! One thing I have to get used to is that everyone in Seoul clears up after themselves when eating. In Singapore we are such spoiled brats and we literally eat and leave. But here in Seoul, after you eat, you take your tray and then separate the different types of trash and put them in the respective bins! They have designated trays for plastic, paper, food trash and even ice leftover from your drink! I think only recently Singapore has started to introduce the return your own tray movement but it hasn't caught on.

The people here can also be grouped into three broad categories - super nice, total idiots or they don't care. Hahaha. Generally the people in Seoul are a little less friendly than the other cities, I don't know if it's because of the fast pace of life and competitiveness amongst everyone here in school, for jobs or for whatever else.

The next thing I noticed is that these people are quite big on recycling! Trash is always sorted according to their types in restaurants and even for personal trash. People usually bag their trash and put it outside their homes or shops by a tree or in a corner and the truck will come by and collect it. And in shopping marts, they make you pay for plastic bags. If you don't want to, there's actually a little area after the check out counter where you can choose boxes of appropriate sizes to put your shopping in! They provide tape and string for you to tape your goods and then you can just carry the whole box home. These boxes are recycled from when the stock is delivered. So you save the environment (boxes are biodegradable) and save money (supermarket doesn't need to pay for plastic bags). Quite cool right!

Yes, I haven't really toured much of Seoul because of school and other fangirl related stuff so... I will put up a more culture related post ON TIME (because school is over!)

时光机

在这忙忙碌碌的生活，我们是否忘了很多当年的童年乐趣和回忆呢？

照片里头的游乐场是否勾起一丝丝的童年回忆？

它是我童年的一部分。

也许它在我们这一代消失。

不妨，

拿起照相机将它牢牢的记载下来。

让这一座 “时光机”能代代相传。

                                                      地点：大巴窑六巷，大牌28号