Scene City: Singapore – Promo

Description from YouTube:
A BRAND NEW photographic & cultural series that checks out the less explored & undiscovered Singapore, follow TOM ANG – as he leads 2 guests photographers each week as they visit places less known!

Lineup

19th August – Resorts World & School of the Arts
 
26th August – Singapore Dance Theatre & Timbre
 
2nd September – Semakau Landfill & Pulau Ubin
 
9th September – Kim Keat Lane Bakery & Changi Fishery
 
16th September – PSA & Print Dynamics
 
23rd September – Pearl Bank Apartments & Margaret Drive
 
30th September – Southern Ridges & Sungei Buloh
 
7th October – Star Cruises

Scene City: Singapore
Channel News Asia
Wednesdays, 8.30pm to 9pm

I have used the National Library’s microfilm collection a few times. They have issues going back to to the beginning of the Straits Times.

If you are searching for an article with microfilm, you have to know roughly when the article was published. The microfilms have a number of issues on each reel. You load it onto a special projector, then start scrolling through the film to find what you are looking for.

It’s manual and tedious – though strangely enjoyable, like a treasure hunt – but if you have absolutely no idea when an certain article was published, then you’re stuck. At very least, you need to know the month and the year.

So, I want to thank the National Library Board for coming up with http://newspapers.nl.sg/. (Thanks, Ai Lin, for pointing this out!)

NLB has scanned its Straits Times microfilms, so now the text is searchable. No more wading through rolls of microfilm. And you can discover other articles related to your search which you might not have been aware of.

If you search from home, you get article titles and short abstracts. The microfilm reel number is listed too.

You can only access full text and get prints if you’re at the library using one of their multimedia terminals. Or, since you now know the microfilm number, you can zoom in to the article faster. At least you know which reel it’s on! You still have to scroll through the film to get to a particular article. No shortcuts there.

It’s an amazing resource!

Will have to try “Malay Regiment” and “Battle of Pasir Panjang”. Already saw some interesting abstracts…

Microball by Serenity Nichols Ibsen
reproduced under a CC-BY-NC 2.0 license

http://teachersday.sg/

Thank your teacher(s) in six words.

You know you can do it.

My ‘thanks’ note is being moderated. My thank you note is here.

Can’t believe it’s almost five years.

Mark down Saturday 19 July 2008 in your calendar – that’s when the Pasir Panjang Heritage Trail is on!

Held in support of Singapore HeritageFest, this year the Pasir Panjang Guides will be conducting two walks on that day. We’ll be focusing on the question: who’s your hero?

We’ll start at the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research in NUS, make our way to Kent Ridge Park and end at Reflections at Bukit Chandu. Of course, if you’ve got the time and energy, you can continue through the Southern Ridges!

As we walk, you’ll hear about who (and what!) the guides find heroic (or maybe even villainous..) in the Pasir Panjang area.

Join us for the walk!

More details and registration information at http://heritagefest.rafflesmuseum.net/.

One of the blogs I enjoy reading most is Lam Chun See’s Good Morning Yesterday. His blog has been nominated among the Top 10 individual blogs in omy’s (as in ‘Oh my!’, I think) Singapore Blog Awards 2008.

If you enjoy reading his blog, as I do, show your support!

Vote for him* at the Singapore Blog Awards website. You can vote once a day for a blogger in each category.

If you’ve never checked out his blog before, what are you waiting for? He and his guest bloggers will tell you lots of things about Singapore in days of yore which you never knew. It’s chock full of stories and photos.

Someone else who deserves to be among the Top 10 individual blogs is LaoKokok. He blogs at Times of My Life. (Another heritage blog with a Paul Anka inspired title.) He’s kept lots of stuff from his younger days and shares them with his readers. Even though you can’t vote for him, you might want to read his blog. If you like Good Morning Yesterday, you’ll probably enjoy Times of My Life.

* For accountability (I suppose), you have to give up your personal information like your IC number. A small price to pay for making sure that the online voting is fair.

Envirofest 2008 is on this weekend. It will be held in the open area in front of Toa Payoh Community Library from 11am to 8pm on Sat 28 and Sun 29 June.

Lots of nature and environment groups will be there! Me? I’m going to be at the Toddycats booth from opening to 2pm on both days.

Hmmm… what’s this SWITCH mentioned in the banner? Apparently, it stands for Simple Ways I can Take to Change my Habits.

UPDATE – 29 May The M.I.A. Trail is fully booked! Thanks for your support. =)

The ever-popular M.I.A. Trail (that’s Missing in Action), held in conjunction with International Museum Day, happens on Saturday, 31 May 2008.

There are two tours, led by the Pasir Panjang Heritage Guides, at 5.15pm and 6.15 pm. The first tour is already Both tours are fully booked!

The trail introduces participants to the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research’s Public Gallery, Kent Ridge Park and Reflections at Bukit Chandu.

If you’re game for an evening of discovering what has gone missing in Pasir Panjang, visit imd.rafflesmuseum.net and sign up for the 6.15 pm tour.

South-west Singapore is relatively hilly terrain. Nothing to shout about in terms of height above sea-level, but as NUS students and staff will tell you, there is a reason why it is called Kent Ridge.

As a Pasir Panjang Guide, I was delighted to read that the bridges linking the Southern Ridges have been officially opened. Now, we have almost unobstructed access to the various parks in south-west Singapore thanks to the bridges which span Alexandra Road and Henderson Road respectively.

ST produced an excellent infographic (click on the image above to see it in its full glory) and an accompanying article, which can be found at Pasir Panjang Stories.

Blogging kaki Walter has already run up those hills!

Me, I’ll walk.

Infographic from Sunday Times p. 3, 11 May 2008.

Pitch Black is a movie-and-art themed cafe along Haji Lane, near Arab Street. It’s a quiet place to chill and there’s a screening room – equipped with a Blu-ray DVD player – on the 2nd floor.

Next week, they are doing a Wong Kar Wai Retrospective. I’ve watched most of the films that will be shown. I’ve not watched Fallen Angels, so I might go down for that on Thu, 10 May.

Food wise, they’ve got nice potato wedges. The drinks are so-so. The teh tarik shake (or something like that) was nice and thick the first time I went there, but was progressively more diluted on my subsequent visits.

The screenings are free with $5 minimum spent. A food item and a drink should more than cover that.

Pitch Black, 63 Haji Lane, +65 6392  3457

Technorati Tags: film, movie, screening, wong kar wai, hong kong cinema

It’s that time of year again.

No, not Chinese New Year but Total Defence Day on 15 February. (No… come back! Continue reading this post…)

Total Defence Day sounds sterile though. We should remember why, of all 365 days of the year, this day was chosen: Singapore fell to the Japanese on 15 February 1945. I feel it should be renamed “Fall of Singapore Day” or something similar. The total defence implications are quite clear, and it is so much more visceral. Singapore… fell?

To whom? How? Why did this occur? Can we prevent it from happening again?

Perhaps, it is with some of those questions in mind that I help guide the Battle of Pasir Panjang Commemorative Walk, held this year on Sunday, 11 February from 7 a.m. to 12 noon.

We will recall the Malay Regiment and how they fought stubbornly against the odds to defend Pasir Panjang Ridge. The guides, who are part of the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, will share the story of these brave men as well as the story of the ridge itself – a heritage told in geographical, historical and natural terms.

Besides this, there will be activities going on at Reflections at Bukit Chandu and Memories at Old Ford Factory.

There’s an Amazing Race-style heritage hunt, the Heritage C-Race, which starts at Reflections and ends at Memories. This happens on Sat, 10 Feb and Mon, 12 Feb from 8.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.

On Saturday, 10 Feb, you can catch an outdoor screening of a P. Ramlee film about a young boy as a Malay Regiment soldier during the Occupation. This takes place at Reflections, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

For the school kids, there’s Operation Maths Defence on Tuesday, 13 Feb.

Finally, for the working public, there are night tours from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Wed, 14 Feb at Reflections and Thu, 15 Feb at Memories. More details about these activities here.

I quite sure you’ll discover something you never knew if you take part in any of these. Particularly the walk. =)

Technorati Tags: history, heritage, singapore, world+war+II, pasir+panjang, malay+regiment