Archive for the 'Singaporeana' CategoryPage 3 of 7

The Trainee

Published
by
acroamatic
on Wednesday, 15 August 2007
in Fun and Singaporeana
. 2 Comments

A funny short film starring local actress Qiaoyun. Hmmm… who’s this Craig Rosenthal fella who directed it?

Direct link to the video page at Portable Film Festival.

P.S. I realise this might take a long time to load, so press play to start the video. Once it starts playing, pause it and let it load the rest of the clip while you do something else. Alternatively, you can download the short film in various formats from the video page (.mov, .3gp etc. Registration required.). Hey’s its a portable film fest!

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Hidden Treasures - Raffles Hotel Museum and The Cathay Gallery

Published
by
acroamatic
on Wednesday, 1 August 2007
in Heritage and Singaporeana
. 4 Comments

I was at the Raffles Hotel for the MIS Asia IT Excellence Awards today. While I was there, I noticed that the hotel has a museum *!

It is a small gallery on the 3rd level which focuses on the history of the hotel and the romance of travel. There are artefacts from the hotel - old cutlery, furniture, fittings and equipment.

What caught my attention were the old photographs - lots of them - of the hotel and its surrounds. People who know me know that I love to compare old cityscapes to the current lay of the land. The photos and paintings on display at the Raffles Hotel Museum show such a different Singapore. So hard to imagine, yet captured in black and white.

A huge map of Singapore Town - so big it comes in four sections - from the late 1800s hangs on the wall near the entrance. After my recent discovery, I zoomed in to Bencoolen Street. Despite the map being huge and the fact that individual units were numbered, I couldn’t make out 159 Bencoolen Street. It was above my eye level. I had to tip-toe to get a closer look. Also, the numbers were tiny.

Reason for a follow up visit then. =)

Since I’m on the topic of museums and galleries beyond the Museum Roundtable, there is another little-known gallery on the other end of Bras Basah Road: The Cathay Gallery is tucked away on the second floor of The Cathay.

This corner - turn left as you exit the lift on the second floor - tells the story of Loke Wan Tho, his family and the Cathay Organisation. He’s quite the Renaissance Man. Go visit to find out more about this incredible person. His family is very much at the heart of the Cathay firm. And Cathay is synonymous with local films.

There are lots of exhibits to keep cinema fans happy. Classic old posters (look out for the photo of the Jedi Kembali poster - ‘Return of the Jedi’ just doesn’t have the same ring in Malay), manual ticket stubs, retro cinema chairs and other movie memorabilia. I feel that this gallery works better in telling the story of the local film industry than the National Museum’s film exhibit.

Besides documenting our film heritage, there are art works from the Loke’s collection (if I remember correctly). Loke Wan Tho was also an avid photographer and naturalist, so expect to see his collection of cameras (still and video) as well as some biodiversity sketches.

So, there you have it - two private galleries, not part of the Museum Roundtable, which are tucked away in historic buildings. I say the galleries are reason enough to visit the Raffles Hotel and The Cathay. Most people will probably visit these galleries incidentally, perhaps after lunch at one of the eating establishments at the hotel or after a movie at the once-tallest building in South-East Asia.

*I found the museum’s webpage through Google. It’s not very obvious if you try to look for it from the main page of the website. Back to top.

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Goodbye, Angsana

Published
by
acroamatic
on Sunday, 15 July 2007
in Heritage, Photos and Singaporeana
. 8 Comments

Each branch was like a mini tree

It was a cloudy, windy morning when they cut you down.

I watched from a distance as they removed your branches.

You still looked majestic as they stripped you of your crown.

Each branch looked like a tree in its own right.

You must have seen so many things over the past 80 years.

Countless vehicles. Maybe even Japanese tanks during World War II.

The cemetery behind you made way for a housing estate.

The greenery next to you gave way to a junior college.

The changes must have been amazing.

Did you wonder if you might have to go too?

When they put the concrete barrier around you, you must have felt safe.

Protected.

Little did you know that it was to become your tomb.

What were the motorists thinking as they drove past?

A funeral procession.

I stayed for about an hour and a half, witnessing your slow demise.

It was painful to watch.

The workers were not even close to cutting you down when I left.

That’s how big you are.

Or were.

The next time I go by, there will be nothing but a stump.

Eventually, your tomb will be removed so that the forked road can be rejoined.

Which is the point of all this.

Also read Braddell Road Angsana cut down this morning at Habitatnews and Poor thing at Lekowala.

More photos here and a short video, taken from inside a bus, of the removal crew.

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Pet peeves

Published
by
acroamatic
on Friday, 13 July 2007
in Singaporeana
. 8 Comments

Revert

Revert is not a synonym for reply. It means to go back to the previous state.

I suspect this word became fashionable in the Civil Service because someone high up started using it erroneously. It trickled down the ranks and spread far and wide to the point that almost every civil servant I know uses it.

Irregardless

Unlike flammable and inflammable, irregardless and regardless should not be used interchangeably. Although the word exists, its use is generally discouraged. The wikipedia entry claims that it “seems to be moving in the direction of standardization” but no citation was given for that assertion.

Double confirm

To confirm is to confirm. You can’t double confirm something. What you can do is to double-check (or double check).

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One man’s trash is another man’s artifact - Invisible City previewed

Published
by
acroamatic
on Wednesday, 4 July 2007
in Heritage and Singaporeana
. 0 Comments

Invisible City eFlyer

Last night, Coleman previewed Invisible City, a documentary by Tan Pin Pin. He writes about… rubbish! Well, he wasn’t saying the film was rubbish, far from it! He was reflecting about how the film made him think about what we consider to be trash:

What do we do with rubbish? We discard it… But fast forward a millennium or two, the rubbish we try so hard to discard may become a treasure for some in that generation. Just ask the archaeologists.

I can’t help but consider how some of us view mundane self-exhibitionistic blogger-diarists who blog about mundane happenings in their life… Maybe it’s digital rubbish to us today. But a century from now, it might become an important digital archaeological site to help future generations to understand this generation.

Or that Yeo Hiap Seng bottle that the naughty schoolboy conveniently discarded into the bushes in 1959 - that might turn out to be a notable find for an archaeologist today in Singapore. Which I learnt to be true today, while watching Tan Pin Pin’s new documentary, Invisible City.

Or Ivan Polunin’s colour footage of the streets and markets of Singapore in the 50s, also shown in Invisible City. Those scenes would have been boring if you were to watch it 50 years ago, but there I was a just now, staring intently and soaking in those fascinating mundane scenes: a lady at the market choosing an egg, a man pushing a cart of food, the colourful pillars of the shophouses…

I’m definitely going to enjoy this when it opens! Oh, just found Yawning Bread’s review in my feeds too.

Screening Information
Invisible City will run at The Arts House (Old Parliament),
from 22 July to 12 August 2007.
Tickets at $8 for adults and $6 for students (with ID).

There will be three preview screenings prior to those dates. Free admission is by registration only:

  • 19 July 2007, 8pm at the University Cultural Centre, NUS
    (What’s this pop up to tell me to use IE?? Grrr…)
    For registration, email cfaregister [at] nus [d0t] edu [d0t] sg or call 6516 4229.
  • 20 July 2007,8pm at 72-13
    For registration, email tworks [at] singnet [d0t] com [d0t] sg or call 6737 7213.
  • 21 July 2007, 8pm at The Substation.
    For registration, email movingimages [at] substation [d0t] org or call 6337 7535.
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