feel better after a day out in town, and dinner with Juls. The good thing about dinner with him is that he'll talk so much obscene crap to you, that you're more focused on vomitting out your dinner, rather than getting neurotic all over again. Thanks fren... I think...

He did tell me this enlightening story though, about the Coffee Test:

A professor brought out a beaker, several golf balls, a bucket of sand and a cup of coffee. In front of his bemused class, he put the golf balls into the beaker, filling it to the brim with the golf balls, and he asked the class, "Is there any space left in this beaker?"

The class goes no. The professor smiled knowingly at the class, and tipped the bucket of sand into the beaker. The sand filled in the spaces between the golf balls, and now the beaker was filled to the brim with sand and golf balls.

Several heads in the audience nodded. The professor now turns to the class again, "Now, is there any space left in the beaker?"

The class says no again. The professor now tips in his cup of coffee into the mixture. The sand soaks up the coffee, and turns brown. In front of the amused class, the entire cup of coffee was poured into the seemingly-full beaker.

"What's the point of this exercise? You may be asking." Says the professor.

"The golf balls represent the most important things in your life. Your friends, your family, your lover, God. These are the things that will stay solid and firm in your life, like the golf balls."

"The sand represents all the little things that fill up the rest of your life. Your work, your housework, your bills... all the little nitty gritty things you have to do, that fill up the rest of your time, much like the sand has filled up the spaces between the golf balls."

"The coffee... is to make a point. That no matter how much golf balls, how much sand in your life, there's always time... to have a cup of coffee with friends."

Cute eh? Never knew Juls was capable of such... sentimental crap.

Anyway, to clear my mind, went to the Singapore Arts Museum yesterday. ( The old SJI ) They were having a Wunderpark exhibit, which is supposed to be an interactive exhibition. They did up a couple of the galleries to look like a park, sorta, and you're encouraged to go and scribble and leave your mark on the walls.

[side: If pix take too long to load, skip it all, and click on the PhotoBucket link to the right, and go to the album named SAM]
Some pix:

Maybe these are the snapdragons? :) Little red paper dragons, suspended on poles.

Closeup.

Some secondary school had just come in for a visit while I was there. Here, one of the students leaves her marks to one of the cardboard exhibits.

Graffiti-ed walls

Who can resist an unevil bunny?

Other pix:

SAM is taken over by evil orange mutant ooze

JuMing exhibits

Juming is a Taiwanese artist, whose sculptures are currently being showcased at various locations around Singapore. If you've gone to Orchard and seen some dubious blocks of granite outside Wisma, that's his. At the SAM, they have a couple of sculptures from his Living World series and Monk series.

BTW, these are the free ones I managed to see. The others, in another gallery, I had to pay for... so I din go in... hee..

The Living World series is inspired by the sculptor's observations of the world around him. Hence, this series tends to be observations of ordinary people in their everyday lives.

Lining Up - A common sight in Singapore, especially when free things are involved.

Aunties taking a rest - Probably from all the lining up?

Monks was inspired by the Venerable Ming Yi, who has done dangerous stunts in order to raise funds for the Ren Ci hospital. The group of sculptures is done in dedication to his selfless [and reckless] spirit.


There are more sculptures to be seen in the same style outside Fullerton, along Orchard Road, and at Changi Airport.

After dinner with Juls, I also went down to the Substation for First Takes. [yes, I had a very arty-farty night] This is a program organized by the Substation for aspiring local film-makers to showcase their short films.

4 short films were shown, namely:

Under the Manhattan Bridge - An encounter between a Chinatown boy and a Manhanttan pickpocket.

Portrait of a Young Man - The story of Lawrence Leow, which turned out to be a propaganda film for Singapore Poly.

The Assassin - A funny look at the life of a local assassin. :p Very fun, and tongue-in-cheek.

And my personal favourite,
The Funeral Photo - An elderly couple go to a photo studio to have their funeral photos taken.

It was quite interesting, but the Funeral Photo was hilarious. :) Too bad the director wasn't there for the Q&A after that, it would've been interesting to hear his insights on his own film. I signed up for the mailing list too, so if I hear of any other free screenings....

Hearing the directors speak of their difficulties in the local [practically non-existent] film industry in Singapore, though, was quietly inspiring. These people were prepared to take off 3 years from their jobs in order to pursue their dreams, and see if they have any chance of making it here. The Manhattan director was an investment banker before she decided to pursue her filmmaking dream, for g'sakes. Kudos for their guts.

Interesting. When we think of the film industry, we mostly think of Hollywood, Japan, Korea, and some European, but we never think of the local ones. This little pocket of filmmakers have been quietly toiling behind the veils, waiting for their chances, and exploiting little pockets of publicity like this, all confident in their dream, and willing to make the sacrifices just so that they can tell themselves in the future, "I tried."

Why don't they succeed? Funding for one, is a big problem. The 3 directors worked on shoestring budgets, with the exception of Portrait, because it was commissioned by Singapore Poly. The Assassin was shot with one camera and edited on IMovies, which is about as low-budget as you can go. :p Just goes to prove that finance is no barrier to creativity and talent.

Then there's the problem of publicity and public opinion. Most people think of local films as "bad", "low-budget", "fake angmoh accents", and such. As such, public opinion towards most local films is biased, and we tend to think that local films revolve mainly around Jack Neo and Royston Tan, and local actors all come from Mediacorp. There's a whole bunch of talented people out there, whom we've never heard of, but who are toiling for their 15 minutes.

But which also goes to prove. Creativity can exist anywhere. Censorship and funding may limit expression, but not creativity. Creativity can always find a way around everything.

Damn, why didn't I just study the arts?