Dear Commenters/Lecturers

Please don't comment on those posts that end with "Pt. 2" they are an extension of the actual post and are not my weekly entries.

The Shorter Short.

Within the last decade in Singapore, the acceptable length of shorts has gone from 3inches above the knee to right about underwear length.

Please don't cite the heat or global warming as weak excuses, you don't need to because I really don't have a problem with this. At all. I enjoy the view, the girls enjoy the attention and the confidence boost. Everybody wins.

If the lengths keep getting shorter however, um.. how much shorter can we go?

While our culture is obviously gradually getting Americanised from the mass media channels that they own and saturate, skimpier more revealing outfits are going to throw asian humility out the window. Sad but true.

Hiphop, which has been a part of the western mainstream music for about 15 years now, has through cultural imperialism become increasingly popular in Asian countries together with the sleazy, skimpy, objectification of women. Asian pop music, then integrates the rapping and bass heavy instrumentals into its music, producing a weird clash of cultures.

While the video is an exaggeration of everyday club scenes, being telecast on mass media, it does influence Asians to deem booty shaking with a camera below your skirt as acceptable. While once again I'm not saying it's wrong to not be liberal, I just wonder what happened to humility.

In all aspects of culture, it's becoming increasingly acceptable to show more skin, be promiscuous and liberal about issues that were once taboo. As this is happening and will continue to go on, maybe it's time to take a second to take a real unbiased look at what Americanisation has done to our culture. What we've gained, lost, and whether that's what we really want as blood Asians.

Just so you know, the sleazeballs over there, masquerading under funky beats and cheesy rhymes are trying to convince our girls that going to a "hotel, motel, holiday inn" to "open up your blouse and pull that g-string down south" is definitely the way to go.

Once again, I don't have a problem with that.

What's Stopping You? Pt. 2 (Do Not Comment/Grade)

The Shamisen is a Classical Japanese Instrument. The Yoshida Brothers wicked skillz remixed on a electronic beat makes it so much more accessible to the masses.

Hsu-nami is a Progressive Rock band with an Er-hu (Classical Chinese Instrument) player

While not exactly of the highest artistic merit, these 2 artistes do bring some interesting flavours left of what we'd normally expect. Keep Rockin' It!

Context: The Low's Influence on the High.

The West, generally a low context culture has together with Westernisation pushed the rest of the world's (Asia's high context) culture to fit its own through it's Economic and eventual Cultural dominance.

In this environment, our country has evolved to promote low context qualities in individuals. The ability to speak and communicate verbally effectively has pushed public speaking courses into almost every corner of our education system. Class participation (really just the social courage to shout out relevant phrases) is increasingly valued. Culturally we're increasingly open to ideas, sexually we're only becoming more liberal. While talking about sex used to be touchy, these days teens tackle the topic of homosexuality like it's just another summer movie.

(I grossly generalise) In this aspect convent schools, seemingly more Westernised and having a larger stress on the English language and Western values has been churning out Chinese students with little to no aptitude in the Mandarin language and a culturally lower context. While initially frowned upon, the confident, liberal, individualistic qualities and inability with Mandarin has slowly become so common it's fast becoming social norm.

As Asian Culture is slowly (but surely) eroded from of the school system, and more and more emphasis is put on Low context communication, it seems there isn't a place for a High Context Culture to exist.

Will we through the generations eventually lose touch with our ancestral roots, or will the rise of China change the global dynamics push its culture back onto the West? Will we then put the stress back on Chinese like followers behind the Global superpowers, or will we eventually have distinct enough culture to call our own?

Dear Classical Music: What's Stopping You?

Play this while you read yo!

In today's pop culture, genre bending collaborations are commonplace. Borrowing from rappers' penchant to feature their whole extended family on their album and the effects of globalisation, pop culture has been exploiting its unique ability to bring 2 otherwise distinct non-inclusive cultures together.

While it's creating all manner of remixed mash ups and glorious imagery spanning the spectrum from the wonderful to the downright lame, pop culture's long lost cousin classical academia is not only getting left behind but is too caught up in it's own elitist snobbishness to come out and have some fun in the sun.

While Japanese cult fashion label A Bathing Ape gets with Spongebob to do a Shiny Yellow sneaker, who in turn gets together with T-Shirt label OriginalFake, who hooks up with Porter, Porter then with Nike on a Sneaker, Nike with Kanye West, Kanye with Louis Vuitton to do more over priced sneakers, Louis Vuitton with japanese Pop Artist Takashi Murakami to bring multicolour monogrammed bags into their boutiques and Bangkok backstreets, that peddle bootleg Shiny Yellow Sneakers thus completing a cultural orgy of sorts, our classical friends are still caught up in their stuffy tuxedos and 200 year old music.

Not that 200 year old music is bad, but classical music, with its tendency towards inaccessibility and dwindling membership numbers is not doing anything to save itself. It is nice to see a handful of people stepping out of a relatively classical, rigid background to experiment and mostly have fun, but I belief there's so much more interesting blends of music out there just waiting to be discovered. Therefore I was absolutely delighted to watch Paul Dateh work it with a DJ. Although strictly speaking he's got a jazz background, I think he proves that with the right people we could see some classical magic.

Not only can mutual exploration make classical sounds alot more palatable to the mass audience, it will expose more people to classical music and ultimately work as an entry level step into its complex world.

Culture is evolving, and I think it'd be so much more refreshing to see the classical scene push to reinvent itself for a younger audience. The kids can learn the culture, only if you're willing to share.

At Least I Admitted It~

Charlene Yi doesn't belief in love, and goes on a road trip (together with director Nick and tag along love interest Michael Cera) to find out what love really is. Going from city to city interviewing happy couples, scientists, an entire biker bar, and an Elvis lookalike Priest, she meets Michael from which a very endearing romance unfolds.

The acting, largely improvised sets itself starkly apart from regular scripted romance movies. As our protagonists fumble through the (very real) awkward silences of their initiation at a house party and the clumsy small talk, they remind us that real world relationships are nothing like the smooth sailing scripts that Hollywood sells.

Transitioning from experimentation into intensifying their relationship, we see a sloppy attempt at physical contact remind us this isn't your typical smooth-dude-cute-girl romance flick. Going into the bonding stage under the watchful eyes of the camera, they frequently break the 4th wall in a really quirky almost amateurish way typical of the movie's novel direction.

Slowly though, entering the bonding stages, the pressure of having every second together captured on tape sets in and cracks start to form.

As they gasp for privacy while struggling with their differing views on the film crew, the interviews roll on, contributing interesting insights on Western society's views on love.

A scientist explains how humans in love secrete chemicals and hormones that induce a high that really isn't that different from those induced by chemicals.

A romance novelist explains why romance novels typically cater to a female audience and dishes out a recipe for chick literary success.

A Las Vegas priest who recounts a marriage ceremony where the groom, when asked if he would take the bride as his wife proceeds to flip a coin and take a eyebrow raising peek at the result before saying "I do".

Eventually breaking apart, Charlyne leaves for Paris for some final filming where she finally breaks down under ther heartbreak of seperation.

While informative and amusing, the movie makes no attempt to reconcile the various perspectives on love, instead soaking the audience in the humble sincerity of its characters and eventually making them think of their own view on the subject.

What's love to you?

You Want Non-Verbal Cues? Pt.2 (Do Not Comment/Grade)

The very magnificent Charlene Tan posted a really good comment I'd like to highlight.

Well, it is an ironic thing. We, the fortunate and blessed ones, encourage people to save the poor and needy through the luxury of a computer. However, do we(when we encourge others) do our parts to actually save the needy? I doubt so. Most probably, which I believe, is that we just want to ease our guilt of helping the needy since we find it difficult to help them, especially the ones in overseas.
Perhaps, it will be easier to contribute a small effort first, starting from helping the needy in your own organisations, or country. People seriously needs to know that every small effort counts.

To which I have to admit to being guilty of not doing enough.

I personally think there's a phobia towards volunteering for the less fortunate that can be difficult to overcome. Much can be done to package it like pop music. I mean package it as not just meaningful, but a well respected endeavour. How can we make teenagers with nothing to do choose volunteering over say.. the shopping mall over the weekend?

Outside of that, the allocation of resources on a global scale needs to be completely reassessed. I'm also sure MANY people'd be willing to give up their dvd player so 20 kids in a desert get 2 proper meals, IF they actually get to SEE the massive difference their DVD player can make, or meet the beneficiaries.

Donation agencies need to be alot more transparent. I think recent happenings in Singapore have reinforced the notion that when we donate we don't know what happens to the money, and we're considered a nation with low corruption.

P.S. Charlene can u get that music off your blog. We don't always feel all lovey and emotional.