Lakisha Jones, the World Idol

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A Butcher-Nite at the American Idols

The Top 12 male performance of the American Idols last night (Singapore time at 10 p.m.) was pretty tense towards the end of the show.

The tension started when contestant, Chris Sligh, snapped at one of the judges, Simon Cowell about how he doesn't sing ll Divo or Teletubbies after the latter passed an unfavorable comment at the end of his performance. Well, Chris wasn't the first or the only one to receive a 'no' from Simon. In fact, Simon was quite 'negative' throughout the night (as the host, Ryan Seacrest put it.) This negative thing was the crux of the entire show which led to the hostility between the two.

Simon defended his position that he was not being 'negative' by saying that he would not patronise and lie. He told Ryan straight in his face that he could do that in his own radio show. Obviously, Ryan didn't see eye to eye with Simon on his comments about the contestants from the onset, and even if he did, he probably thought that Simon was too discouraging that night. At the end of the show when Ryan thanked the judges, Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul, he deliberately omitted Simon. The camera was pointing at the judges and I saw Simon's expression. Was it hurt or indifference? I couldn't tell. I was, however, amazed at their outspokenness on TV which our local hosts and judges of the Singapore Idols will never have. I do not see any wrong in both of them. On one hand, Simon is just frank and non-compromising; on the other hand, Ryan is like a big brother protecting the contestants' pride and ego from the judges' criticisms.

As I end this blog, I hope both will have reconciled on their differences by now. I shall see for myself when the Top 12 females perform tomorrow.

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Thank God. Simon and Ryan got along well at the Top 12 female performance show earlier tonight. Although there were some exchanges between them, they were more like teasing each other.

I never thought that Simon could be a likeable person. But tonight, he was really adorable. When he strips away his serious look and smiles, he can be pretty cool.

Post-Valentine's Day Thoughts

Valentine's Day was over yesterday.

For the rest of the months and until Birthday or Christmas, no more flowers, no more gifts, no more romantic dinners, and the 3 letters 'I love you' are kept in a 'fixed deposit' till next Valentine's Day. Is this a post-Valentine's time-table or what? I'm not sure if you have a partner that practises such routine. It will be very mechanical if a couple needs any reason to express their love at any time of the year. Love should be spontaneous.

Last night, I had nothing from my American boyfriend but I felt like I have everything. He was supposed to be with me but had to cancel his trip because of work. He called to wish me "Happy Valentine's Day" and sent me a Hallmark eCard after we hung up. In his eCard, he apologised for not spending the special day with me and said that I will always have a special place in his heart. I know he really wanted to be with me if situation allowed and by saying sorry when he couldn't, it says a lot about this guy. These words don't cost anything but they are worth more than a billion dollar to me.

Call me a sceptic, but most people will scoff at my silliness. A billion dollar, dude? What craps are you professing? Well, I will say it's a load of craps if anybody tells me that money means more than love.

Drop your pragmatism and you will understand how I feel towards those words. Without trust and faith, your partner's sincerity can become crap to you.

To give love and to receive love is a simple thought; don't complicate it.

Why I changed my impression of the flamboyant city, New York?




I love New York. That was then.

New York sucks! That was after I visited.

I could try falling in love with New York again. This is now.

The grass is always greener on the other side. Nothing manifests this statement better than my visit to New York last summer. Before my trip, I have always loved New York. Any person my age who speaks English will want to walk on the land of fashionable people alongside its iconic landmarks, and experience its boisterous and liberal night entertainment. These attractions may have made New York popular on the world map, but I rate the likeability of a city as a package.

When my friends asked me how was New York upon my return to Singapore, I said the same things to everybody: airport and subway staff are rude, people on the street are not that friendly either, subyway stations are dirty and not air-conditioned and suprisingly, streets on Times Square smell like piss. In a nutshell, New York sucks.

However, I improve my impression of the city recently. New York has these two ordinary folks to thank for:



Mr Westley Autrey, 50, a construction worker who risked his life to save a stranger from an approaching train.
NYTimes article: Construction Worker One Day, Subway Hero the Next
This report moves me to tears. It's a good bedtime story if you have kids.



Mr Osman Chowdhury, a taxi driver who returned a bag of 31 diamond rings left behind on his cab.
Time artice: NYC CAbbie Finds and Returns Gems

I don't think I will have the bravery of Mr Autrey, but I will definitely have the honesty of Mr Chowdhury. These two incidents teach us that Samaritans are not somebody; they are just anybody who has a considerate heart.

Let's hope for more such selfless acts around the world.

I got a (RED) iPod as a gift last Christmas. It was pretty easy to get started with the iTune Jukebox, an interface that facilitates the transferring of songs from CDs to iPod. I was having a kick transferring songs after songs until the "Keith Urban - Days Go By" CD. It doesn't allow me to transfer the songs to my iPod. I knew I have picked a 'Copy-Protected' CD. It is among the copy-protected CDs released by EMI. Last year, the company abolished its copy-protection on all their CDs. If they have followed SonyBMG's footstep earlier, I could be listening to Keith's songs on my iPod now.

I am not upset that I was unable to have Keith's songs on my iPod because there are more unprotected CDs than protected CDs among my collection. Afterall, copy-protected CDs only enterted the market not long ago. The move by record companies to protect their music irk the consumers because copy-protection was executed at their expense. These CDs not only restrict playing on their existing media players, some plant booby traps in the form of malware in their PCs. The latter created a backlash against Sony BMG which led to the elimination of copy-protection on all CDs eventually.

The copy-protection on CDs rose from the abuse of the right to the CDs that consumers bought. The fine print at the back of every CDs state clearly what can't be done to that CD. A typical one read like this: "Unauthorised copying, hiring, lending, public performance and broadcasting of this recording prohibited." In layman term, this means just enjoy the music and don't mess with the CD. After working in the music licensing industry for 6 years, I spoke to a lot of ignorant individuals and companies that were clueless about this. The basis of imposing restriction on consumers is this: When record companies sell their CDs to music retailers, who in turn sell them to consumers, they did not sell away their right to the songs in the CDs. Just think. Hypothetically, if all copyright owners (record companies, composers and publishers) reached a consensus to sell away their rights of every song released in a CD, don't you think that an average CD will cost a bomb and not price at SGD18.00?

Copy-protection on CDs is a passé. Another form of copy-protection - Digital Rights Management or DRM entered the music industry with the rising trend of selling music out of the brick-and-motar way. This time, copy-protection on music that are sold online i.e. digital music. Unlike copy-protection on CDs, DRM affects both the consumers and online muisc retailers, and indirectly the digital device manufacturers such as Microsoft (Zune) and Apple (iPod). Basically, DRM restricts access to and usage of digital music.

On 6 February, 2007, a call to drop DRM was exalted by Apple CEO, Steve Jobs. Since the release of his powerful missive, titled "Thoughts on Music" on Apple's website, techies and music fanatics are reading between the lines as Mr Jobs outlined 3 scenerios on the future of DRM technology and recommended its abolishment. The major four record companies, Universal, Sony BMG, Warner and EMI are currently adopting a wait-and-see attitude towards Mr Job's proposal.

Though I have been speaking the tongue of copyright, I want to enjoy my music in peace without knowing the details of their business fight. Sooner or later, I will get to reap the fruit from their battle as Mr Jobs had put it across in his proposal:

"The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat."

His arguements were not new in the industry; however, they were louder because he is the world most famous and powerful apple seller. Every company argues from their point of view to their advantages. In other word - a hidden agenda. Apple didn't introduce iTune for consumers' convenience, Microsoft didn't produce Zune for no reason, the record companies didn't sell music to advocate the value of music, and consumers didn't buy a product just because the sellers advertised it as the best. All parties know what's the best for them.

The prevalance of online piracy demonstrated the vulnerability of music in the face of technology. Consumers no longer enjoy the music in the way it should be like the older days, and technology no longer delivers music in the way it used to. Thus, the tussle of the 3 Cs - Copyright owners, Content providers and Consumers.

When music are shared freely online for free, the record companies (copyright owners) will not be happy because their CD sales are affected. To counter this, they took infringers to court and imposed copy-protection on their CDs and later digital music. Each DRM is different from another, such as Microsoft 'Playsforsure" and iPod "FairPlay". That's when licensing comes into the picture. With every company writing their own DRM software program, this means that music consumers purchased from a particular online store can only be played on the so-called official player of that store, ex. iTunes only goes with iPod. The restriction pisses consumers and heated discussions storm into online forums and blogs. Somebody has to do something. And Mr Jobs did. He proposed an interoperable system which consumers could buy music online from any stores and play them in any players. Consumer will surely be happier, but it would be at the expense of the (1) content provider (i-Tune), which means exposing the DRM (in the form of licensing) to competitors, a scenerio which Mr Jobs painted as leakage of secrets, and the (2) copyright owners, which means no protection to their music, turning it into easy prey for pirates.

In today world of technological prodigies and anti-copyright mavericks, software programs can be developed to circumvent these so called copy-protection if secrets of the DRM is leaked. As Mr Jobs put it:

"Such leaks can rapidly result in software programs available as free downloads on the Internet which will disable the DRM protection so that formerly protected songs can be played on unauthorized players."

Sorry, sir but consumers will embrace it with a heartbeat given the flexibility to play downloaded music on more players. The industry by now should know what is of interest to the consumers. And in actual fact, they care alot because their products and invention are nothing if nobody is buying them. But at the same time, content providers care a lot whether DRM can be abolished in the long term because firstly, the consumers don't like it and secondly, It would be hell to modify the existing DRM should the leaked secret get emploited by DRM haters. Hence, Mr Jobs suggested a third alternative - to abolish DRMs entirely. He seemed to have consulted his crystal ball and was pretty confident that the big four music companies would agree to let Apple and (others) distribute their music without any DRM protecton. His reasoning?

"The simplest answer is because DRMs haven’t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy."

He made a good and strong point, and I totally agree with him. DRMs is a good try to curb online piracy but not effective. It will not work because no matter how secured the copy-protection is, it is still not written by God. A locksmith can break a lock made by another locksmith. DRM is a software program written by a programming genius and its codes can be broken by another programming genius. When there is a will, there is a way. Terrorism won't stop because terrorists are convinced that their action is perfectly righteous according to their religious belief. Therefore, crippling their network by an eye for an eye strategy will not work. Re-brainwash the brainwashed terrorists is the key to effectively bring the world to peace. In more civilised term "Education". Likewise for music piracy.

Copyright organizations, record companies and educational institutions worldwide have preached against piracy. Websites of oganizations like Pro-music and IFPI have enough information on copyright to turn away any pirate who sincerely wants to be a good citizen. So are they any improvement after all have been said and done? Surely yes. A handful out there must have already learned to respect copyright. The lessons are pretty easy to understand; it is just a matter of whether they want to be taught or prefer to be stubborn and learn their lessons the hard way. The industry was optimistic about copyright education on its onset, but is now acknowledging the fact that nothing beats the free culture of online music.

In my opinion, it all boils down to how a person perceives the value of music. I'm not talking about its monetary worth but its creative value to the industry and its personal value to you and me. Let's sidetrack from music and talk about jeans. Considering factors like colors, design and styles remain constant, would a jean lover buy a pair that instantly shapes the butt to that of Ricky Martin or J.Lo and costs only SGD18.00, or wear a free pair that doesn't accentuate the butt? Someone who truly loves music will hold its creation in high regards and
will not mind paying SGD18 for a CD even if he/she is offered a free pirated copy. The free culture of online music is for the greedy and the fake music fans. As Eminen had said: "If you can afford a computer, you can afford my CD". On the same note that computers are so affordable nowadays, anyone can be a 'Pirate of the Musicbean'.

Statistically, the age of people who engage in online piracy falls between 15 - 35. I name this group 'domestic pirates' who steals music comfortably at home. To educate these pirates, we have to first educate their family members. The industry and authority could collaoborate on an educational kit 'Music Piracy and your Family' and mass mail it to every parents. The objective is to reach out to parents who are computer illiterate and ecourage them to attend basic computer and Internet classes to effectively understand their kids' online activities. At the same time, the educational materials should be directed at (1) convincing parents that online piracy is the same as walking into a record store and taking CDs without paying, and (2) changing the mindset that when people do get caught, they can't be their kids. When copyright education is delivered door-to-door to each family, the concerted effort by all the other parties (copyright organizations, record companies, educational instituitons) is reinforced. When more people become anti-piracy, pirate syndicates will be losing their customers. Copyright education is not for these illicit organzitions because their mission is to make money. The plausible way is to first target their customers, reduce their demand and punish them by laws.

If music is treated as a free entertainment without an appreciation of all the hardwork behind, combating piracy is a losing battle. And please don't bullshit that music will be extinct one day if piracy continues. Personally, I don't see that it will be possible unless it is the end of the world. Ongoing education and down-to-earth facts are the essence to a healthy environment for everyone to enjoy music - peacefully.

I dedicate my blog today to friends in the United States, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Toronto and Bangkok.

If I were to write down a list of my friends, it won't surprise me that they are shrinking in number. Believe it or not, all my local friends are married. We used to hang out regularly in our early twenties; now, they hang out with their wives and kids. My closest girlfriend whom used to be single is also dating recently.

Seem like these friends suddenly become undatable after their marriage, huh? Not exactly. They are still there in my life, just not quite there. I believe that they will be around if I needed them and when I'm fine, they will cross my path once a while. Likewise, I also play my part in the similiar way. Bingo. The fact that I am aware of the situation but do nothing to bridge the friendshp that has drifted apart, points me to a problem which I'm a part of it. If I have done something about it in the past, my local friends will probably not diminish in number. With each passing year, it gets harder to keep in touch until one day, I started singing "If all my friends have forgotten half their promises, they're not unkind just hard to find" and believing in the words. I gave up on emailing, calling or SMSing. There is a book that says of men becoming progressively grumpy when they get older. I guess I am already there earlier than I should.

You may slap my face and question me this: if local friends are hard to keep in touch, isn't it harder for overseas friends? I have to slap myself too because it is definitely harder.

I am amazed at how I manage my long disance friendship over the years despite the geographical difference. I sort of concluded that 'EXPECTATION' is the key culprit that cripples my chance of preserving my friendship locally. The saying that "the closer we are to someone, the higher our expectation is from that person" is true to my case, except that I'm comparing with the closeness of distance and not just heart. In the same light, the reverse is true for oveseas friends.

We keep in touch by emails or MSN, whichever is convenient to them. I only get to meet them when they travel to Singapore for business or holiday, which happens only once in a blue moon. If you don't believe that a healhty, cross-country friendship can develop from such brief moments, I'm going to make you rethink.

My New Yorker's friend offered me to crush in with him and his roommate in his Manhattan's apartment. That gesture saves me from the expensive hotel stay. My friends from Hongkong and Bangkok showed me the best of foods, shoppings and entertainment when I visited. The most mentionable friend is of course, my Filippino American friend from New Hampshire, United States. He took 3 days leave from work and drove me around the town and to Boston. On my first day of arrival at the Manchester bus station, he was there to fetch me to the motel and assisted me with my check-in. His parents even invited me to their home for a traditional Filippino dinner. I'm lucky to know these kind and generous people. With a lower expectation from a long distance friendship, it is so much easier for me to keep the communication going. There is a Chinese saying that "When a thing is rare, it gets more treasurable". Whenever I meet these friends, I feel like one of those folks under the HDB* void-deck catching up with one another on the good, old days.

Bring me my black coffee.

Listen to James Taylor's "You've Got a Friend" @ myspace.com

Glossary
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*HDB - a type of high-rise apartment built by the Government for the citizens. Commonly known as HDB flats, they are the most occupied apartments for Singaporeans.

Bananation 1 Sep, 2007

The birth of Bananation is a personal fulfillment for my passion in writing. So why not just blog like others instead of doing this crazy e-zine thing? Who's going to read my e-zine when they are plenty out there? I'm sure they write better than me? These are the few reality checks I asked myself. My conclusion: There is no logic needed for me to do this.

If I sink deeper into my thought and weigh the pros and cons, you will never get to read this and I will never get to see my debut issue launched. I love the English language and enjoy writing in English. I also love the fun of Photoshop and Flash MX animation. So the hassle-free way to combine both interest is to ride on the convenience of blogs to create an e-zine.

I invented the word 'Bananation' from 'banana' and 'nation'. I'm a banana. That means I think like a white. Hence, the tag line of the e-zine is 'East thinks West'. I'm your 'fake ang-moh' or White imposter. I know I am not white. Duh? My features are pretty oriental. I have been mistaken as Korean, Mainland Chinese, Taiwanese and Japanese. I may be a banana but I'm not a hopeless one. I still hold on to good Asian values and lock them in my heart. The bad ones are shredded. Likewise, I also shred the bad Western values but embrace the good ones.

Now you know the short story behind Bananation, I hope you would bookmark my blog and comment on my articles. Your patronage will be an encouragement on my journey to learn to write creatively and yet decently without compromising on the importance of correct English.

Beauty Parlour Storke Syndrome. Heard of it?

I was lying comfortably on an Osim massage chair alike while a young shampoo girl washed and massaged my hair. I closed my eyes and relaxed as stream of warm water flowed over my head. The massaging, lathering and conditioning took about 5 minutes but I wished it was longer. A strange thought crept into my mind: what if I died on that chair? I don't know if that's possible. I checked it up on the Internet and found a case in UK in 2004.

It is called the Beauty Parlour Stroke Syndrome. Mr Malcom Crabb, 49, suspected that his wife, Pamela, 51, suffered a stroke and died after hair washing at the salon. Mrs Crabb did not die instantly at the salon but a week after her second stroke. Stroke Association (UK) is unable to confirm the direct link between hair washing at salon and stroke although they affirmed that similar case of a 42-year old woman who developed a stroke after a 5 minutes hair-wash, was reported and published in the medical journal The Lancet in 1997.

When a person's neck is pushed back into a sink, the neck is overextended. When it is stretched and kink for a long time, the arteries get stretched and are risked to tearing. Bleeding between layers of tissues can cause blood clots to built up, leading to death.

Doctors advise that salons should place a cushion so as not to over-extend the neck. Maybe high tech, ergonomic shampoo bowls and chairs are the answers to a safer hair-washing experience. This means a more expensive hair-wash. Will you pay extra for health reason even if the chances of you getting a stroke from hair-wash at the salon is very slim? I, certainly, will not.

>>>Have you ever felt sick or experienced some discomfort after a hair wash at the salon?

Why Nobody Bothers to Return Things they Borrowed

I was spring-cleaning my room yesterday for Chinese New Year and found several things that I used to own but are nowhere on my shelf now. I am sure that I did not donate them to Salvation Army nor did I discard them last year. These are DVDs, CDs and books that I am talking about.

When did you last realise that some of your stuffs are missing? Worst. You can't remember where they went to. I don't even recall I lent what to who and when. The question is: if I have forgotten, why didn't the people whom I lent to remember? Why are people oblivious to the items that don't belong to them but have been in their house for months or even years? These are what the lenders have to say about their borrowers:

"They are hoping that you will forget and they get to keep those things."

"They still need them."

"They like those things but can't afford them."

"They may need to use it in future and do not wish to borrow so many times."

"They keep forgetting to return and after so long, they are embarrassed to return them."

"They lost them."

I was once a Korean dramaniac that I bought some serial boxsets and borrowed some at the same time from friends. At the pace I was watching, I ended up not having time to watch those that I have borrowed. I thought I would have time to watch them in future and hence did not return them even they have been lying around in my room for months. However, I did return them many months later and embarrassingly, I admitted that I didn't watch them. They offered to let me hold on to them till I have the time. I declined. I know I will never watch them because my enthusiasm has dissipated and is replaced by new shows. Although I returned things eventually, in the mind of the lender, I might be just another sucker.

When we borrow things or money from others, we must return them on time if we promise a date. If not, we have to fix a reasonable time frame for holding on to the item(s). When an item takes a longer time to consume ex. a book, we need to prioritse to read the book we borrowed first and not to read the new release that we have just bought.

Generally, I don't mind people not returning things to me if possession of them is not important anymore. I will remind my friends to return certain DVDs, CDs or books that mean something to me. I will never have to worry about money lending issue because I don't have much disposable cash and all my close friends are richer than me. Even if I have half of Bill Gate's fortune, I will not willfully lend my money to any Tom, Dick or Harry who are tagged as 'friends', a term loosely used nowaday. If we only return things after our lenders chase after us, it is a shame! It is not the responsibility of the lenders to remind us but our duty to return things to their rightful owner after use.

If you have a lot of uncollected 'loans', you may want to start excercising your right to claim them back, or practise my style of labelling some items as 'strictly not for loan' (even to my bestfriend.)

It's RAIN-ing , Man. ABS-olutely NOT

Chaotic downpour hit Las Vegas and most parts of Asia. In Singapore, damage to the indoor stadium costs SGD888 (USD570) per square foot.

What, or rather, who caused the disaster? - Jung Ji Hoon, the Korean superstar, better known as the ubiquitous 'RAIN'. SGD888 is the price paid to watch him performing live at the Singapore Indoor Staduim on 21 January 2007. It breaks the record as the highest priced concert ticket in Singapore. It is also the most expensive ticket among his other concert stops at Las Vegas, Malalysia, Seoul, Hongkong an Bangkok.

Idolism is as blind as falling in love. I was an Aaron Kwok aficionado during the early 90's. My budget only allowed me the bus fare and a roll of flim for my camera (which I borrowed from my brother.) I was still a tertiary student then. I have no complaint against those who have bought the SGD188, SGD288, SGD388 or SGD488. The SGD888 tickets were given to RAIN's management and concert sponsors. I understand how crazy fans can be and there is no limit in lending their monetary support. But there's one thing which I don't understand - the exaltation of his physique.

I only know the song "Sad Tango" when I watched his music video at HMV. The singing was good and his dancing was groovy. He is quick to grab your attention by his performance. With a towering height of 1.85m and a toned, muscular frame, the dashing 24-year old RAIN has charmed girls around the world. However, singing and dancing are not the spearheads towards his superstardom; It is his acting career that sensationalises his body and causes the Asian downpour.

The cover on the 8Days magazine issue no. 848 is a topless RAIN. An arrow pointing at his supposedly amazing abs with the caption 'Skip rope 2,000 times a day to get this!". A photo speaks a thousand words but unfortunately, I can't prove my point here. Surely, he has abdominal muscles but not defined 6 or 8 packs. Come on, the average athletic men and most lean guys have his type of abs and they don't even 'skip rope 2,000 times a time'.

Media loves to exaggerate to accentuate a superstar's overall package. To all fans at large, lose your dollars, but don't lose your senses to judge.






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