fortuity

wow.. i havent logged in for a while and boy am i surprised by what has been generated by Bettie's post. we should meet up for beer/teh tarik/prata!! roti jala's not so big in singapore. im better with prata joints - jln kayu, casurina rd, fong seng, al ahmeen anyone? this is making me hungry. how about newton or serangoon garden's fried hokkien prawn mee? oyster omelette? char kuay teow? sambal stingray? yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuummmmm...

wow. thanks for the heads up. instant karma now has an online store? since when?? now i finally tell my friends from the states... they were asking me about the tee i was wearing the last time.

wala wala's laid back place u can go in your tee and even berms. great for live bands. i personally like going down on thurs and sat nights for 'the unxpected' for some good ol' rock. check out their webbie unxpected.shareub.com

balaclava has live bands too. but it's mostly the after work crowd from the business district purely coz of its location. expect to see suits behaving badly after work.

harry's bar plays jazz. but it's really an expat place. and because it is situated in boat quay right next to raffles place, the heart of the business distract.. expect to see expat suits behaving badly after work.

emerald hill has quite a few joints for you to choose from even tho they belong to the same organisation. there's a club, rouge. music is very so-so. business does not seem to be very good. there's alley bar right beside rouge. very chill out. then if you make your way behind, there'd be a row of shophouses that house pubs. one of them (can't remember which, but you won't miss it) is a mainly expat hangout. the rest are filled with locals. the pubs are very laid back - good for a beer, chicken wings (very yummy!) and pool.

km8 is a recent addition to the scene. i havent been there coz sentosa's a lil out of the way. but it's said to be filled with beautiful people and bodies. (stinky feeling that it screams poseur)

why haven't u mentioned zouk? touted to the the clubbing mecca of asia. a must-go if you're a looking to club.

there are a lot more places. we're a small country but we're full of watering holes. so if you need more info, ask away.

hey guys...

im already in seattle and will stay till the 17th. are there any must-see gigs/events/exhibitions?

also, im never tired of any other shops you'd like to recommend!

thanks!

oh yes.. and are there any good flea markets or places that sell vintage/old skool stuff?

doesn't have to be your supreme or bapes. im no label whore. more interested in funky, quirky clothing. none of the mass market stuff. on the look-out for great t-shirts too. any clue?

awesome! thanks for the info...

any good places to shop?

hi guys,

i will be hitting Seattle in June for the first time. will stay for around 2 weeks. any great must-go shops/bars/places to recommend?

most shops in far east plaza sell cheap china/hongkong/thailand wholesale products. a small handful carry your supremes or bapes. however, word is you have to know your shit if you're going for brand names. apparently some shops carry fakes and sell them for real. there's the whole fake von dutch collection there if you're interested. if you're not too much of a shopaholic, it'd be just interesting to take a look see as it's one of the rare shopping malls in singapore with it's own unique energy.

the other mall with the name that escapes Ryan is "The Heeren" where HMV is the anchor tenant. that's the place to go for if you wanna check out some of the independant labels in singapore. the labels they house range from more high end local labels like blueprint, MU and sunny ang to more street labels like fourskin, instant karma and flesh imp.

have fun!

i'm not too much of a pro.. but perhaps you need the most up to date codec for quick time? i think the most up to date codec for divx is only suitable if you're using a divx player??? don't know if it will work!

let you in on a lil secret.. if it doesn't work and you really wanna watch it.. you can try purchasing the dvd online at http://www.4thdoorfilms.com i'm quite sure they carry it. good luck!

oh.. if i'm not mistaken, you're trying to watch 2046 on your computer. from one wkw fan to another, i advise you go catch it on the big screen first. the cinematography combined with the soundtrack are one of the most basic reasons why the overall appreciation of the movie should not be compromised on a small computer screen.

the "no sound" problem is probably because you don't have the up to date codec for whatever player you might be using to play the file. do download the latest codec for your player and it'd probably work.

dear dickhead

i really don't understand why you have to accuse me of being defensive when you are the one that's all worked up and hostile to boot. it really puzzles me why you have to first assume that i'm from radioactive and then subsequently assume that i have a friend who is related to radioactive.

honestly, i came across the post quite randomly and was just trying to be helpful. this is just a discussion forum! does everyone have to have ulterior motives in answering posts? you really need to chill man.

and dude, now you've got me really really curious about constitutes as good design to you. quit avoiding the question and answer it!

awaiting with bated breath,

fortuity

hahaha.. the caning bit about singapore is really quite a myth. it's really quite difficult to get caned. besides, if you asked me, the fay guy who made just big news out of it deserved it. i'm proud that the govt stuck it their ground. afterall, the guy broke the law here. who is the american govt to go around sticking their noses in how a country is supposed to govern their people. i say go fix your own problems first!

if you wanna talk about bars/pubs/clubs..nightlife.. singapore is actually quite the place to go. we may not be ibiza but for a small island, we are quite a full happening joints.. at least compared to most countries i've visited. for example there's the world renown superclub, zouk, clubbing mecca of asia. international djs constantly fly here to spin for parties organised by different clubs. in fact, fantastic plastic machine just played at the sound bar last night. come dec 14 we're gonna have a helluva dance festival party with the likes of djs paul van dyk, timo maas and other international names. so i guess singapore is cool when you're looking for dionysiac revelry.

oh. and you know why singapore is souless? one of the many reasons is coz so many of the old buildings with so many shared memories are being razed in the name of urban development.

we had the national library at stamford road with the dinky lil coffeeshop "S11" next to it. had many good times there when i was in college.. discussing the latest play i watched in the blackbox of "the substation" nearby over some smokes and a $1 teh-ping.

to be fair, we still have some hidden places with soul... like little india with it's funky smells... bits and pieces of chinatown (parts that have yet to be converted to tourist traps) with an alarming number of forgotten old folk lazing around... and pulau ubin with its ghostly abandoned kampongs and funky temples. also, don't forget to meet the kiasu auntie tropes available at all hawker centres, mrts and buses near you!

hello fellow singaporean!

singapore can get quite suffocating. there is truly a dearth of creative energy. well, it doesn't help that economically, we're truly in deep shit coz we've reached a point where we can't compete the other parts of asia which are richer in terms of natural resource and cheaper in labour. what can i say buddy? the mncs are pulling out faster than you think. there's no money to fuel the arts! so now we have to kiss china's ass and hope that the dragon will play nice to the country that's made up mostly of chinese who can't speak chinese for nuts. no money no talk, lah! we are passe.

but i guess there are some things which make singapore not-so-boring:

- our shopping malls close at 10pm. (i almost died in australia and hawaii.)

- because shopping is a national past time, we get one whole month of christmas in orchard road! talk about consumerism!

- we get such a HUGE variety of foreign film fests. i've been binging!!!

- the streets are safe at night. (so i can go watch my 9:30 pm movies and still take public transport home)

- oh. even though our beaches are pathetic, we can see the sea. ;P

urm ok. that's all i can think of at the moment.

ok i went to the website and realised that i couldn't find the designs i saw in the leaflet. so i went and dug out my leaflet. i've just realised that most of the cool t-shirt designs i mentioned are not by radioactive. the designs i like specifically belong to tan eng huat, WK INTERACT and tokidoki. apparently, radioactive did some collaboration for some t-shirt crossover project (which is what the leaflet is all about) and hence, the brands are on the radioactive leaflet. the tees i mentioned may not be by radioactive BUT they are carried by radioactive in their stores.

i guess it's quite a misunderstanding huh? but i'm still quite interested in what you feel constitutes as good design.

i'm not trying to speak up for radioactive here.. but to be perfectly honest, i think radioactive has much much better designs than what mindtrix is putting out. i won't say the same for their command of the english language though. however, i do believe that to put them down based on their command of the language, specially when we are discussing design, will be rather irrelevant and quite unfair. i reside in asia and i can safely tell you that i've seen far worse.

i won't say that radioactive's designs are prize winners. hey! i don't even own a radioactive tee! but if you see the shit that 2 big singaporean t-shirt labels "flesh imp" and "fourskin" are putting out... you might feel like recommending radioactive to people who are interested in looking at some t-shirt designs.

i guess that when it comes to visual aesthetics, one man's meat may be another man's poison. perhaps you may care to enlighten me on what labels/designers/designs you feel constitutes as good. i suppose it may truly be an eye opener for me.

im not from radioactive.. and i must confess i don't own any radioactive tees.. so i don't know about shrinkage. but i've seen some radioactive designs from this flyer that my friend passed me. he attended the idN conference that was held in singapore. anyway, they look pretty cool... the ones featured in the flyers at least... they are much better than what some of the local brands here produce.. so i thought i'd mention them. maybe u just have one bad experience?

it sounds awfully like this "brand/label" here in singapore called "brosbrothers". if you ask me, they're just jumping on the che bandwagon and taking a ride from an icon. also, their shop and its icon only appeared AFTER the che craze started.. talk about a way to kick-start a brand. took a look at their shit when they first opened.. honestly, there's nothing very refreshing about them. i can't even say if the shop is really entirely selling their own creations. shame on them.

as for the "___ shall not kill ___" line, it's been done to death!!! if i'm not wrong, bape started it, then a singapore label "fourskin" did a "parody" of it with a picture of alf(i'm not even sure if they paid copyright) in front and the words "alf shall not kill alf" behind it. i'm not sure if you can even call it a parody since i don't see any humour involved.. just alot of copying!

it's so embarressing that there are these people over in asia that are either openly pirating design or doing a shitload of copying while claiming that they are original!!!

argh! it's a real pity i just read your post. i know that there's a label called "radioactive" in m'sia that has real cool t-shirts! don't know if you checked them out!

over in singapore, i saw a pair on sneak attack's shop display window. but be prepared to fork out a lil fortune.. they're well known for "auctioning" off their stuff. good luck!

i'm not sure which part of the world you reside in. but here in singapore, i swear by instant karma. cool and cheeky threads for both sexes. website's www.instantkarmaonline.com

and for slightly girlier stuff, i find small black flowers pretty cool too.. a pity they don't seem to have a webpage.

a local lurker speaks out:

i think i sorta know what coke means. perhaps he means cut and paste with the "do what everyone is doing" mentality? no one's pushing boundaries. i reside in singapore too and what do i see from these supposedly underground brands like supreme, bape, zoo york..etc? it's either some teeny senseless graphic or just a word (e.g)"supreme" across the chest and it costs you $100over buckeroos. and the shop that sells it is in some icky corner in a worn out shopping mall. do i hear the word - low rental? hello. with prize idiots clamouring for a bit of what the US of A is churning out, any idiot will know that they (both retailers and manufacturers) are surely laughing their way to the bank well done. i don't quite call that underground, it's just MNCs with a twist. and i dont see any artistic merit i have to pay to anyone.

or mabbe it's the cut and paste with the idea of parodying something else. but i guess someone forgot to inform that there is a POINT TO PARODY. i have seen some brands that parody perhaps for the sake of COPYING some other big brand's/ some pop culture icon's nice or recognizable graphics. that is just sad.

been thru a bit of instant karma. to be fair, instant karma at the very least has some interesting designs that are interesting to interpret. so far, from what i've seen, it's satire does not seem to copy or borrow wholesale. i also don't see any irritating meaningless graphics or one-worders. it seems that they are not any big or/and underground brand so maybe they have to work hard for their moolah! haha! here's hoping they don't sell out anytime soon!

as for moneyshot, the label is not readily available here and its site was down when i tried accessing it.

just an average joe with my 2 cents worth. don't bite me. please.