Stop unwanted cars from excessive breeding!
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My Favourite Interviews
Been doing quite a number of interviews lately!
It has come to a point where now I keep a file called Standard Interview Replies.doc on my desktop, just so I could copy and paste my answers to my interviewers.
(In case you wondered how come my interviews in different publications all sound the same, now you know.)
But occassionally, the writer is someone who knows me so well, she can skip the interview altogether and still do an ass-kicking write-up about me. JoyceTheFairy did just that in September’s issue of KLue magazine.
(I know I’m a bit late plugging the mag now, but we are KLue-less here in Kuching. The only KLue we have are in Starbucks, and even those are from April 2008.)
I was featured in KLue’s 20 Under 40, a list honouring 20 of KL’s biggest movers and shakers.
Seriously, I do not know how exactly I moved or shook KL.
If I remember correctly, the only moving and shaking I did was when I went jogging in Lake Gardens last time.
I was so freaking fat that every step I took, the entire KL moved and shook.
The 20 Under 40 list included more worthy inductees like Anwar’s daughter Nurul Izzah, MDG boss Jerad Solomon and Malaysian spaceman Sheikh Muszaphar. Alongside them, I look like a complete waste of space on page 61.
Still, it’s quite a honour to not only be mentioned, but also have the “Carrie Bradshaw of KL” write about me. I cannot think of a more suitable person to do the write-up, so thank you Joyce! 🙂
If I had to do an interview though, most of the time I still prefer face-to-face over e-mail interviews. It’s a lot more personal that way and I get to express my emotions a lot better. Like what I did recently with Georgette Tan.
The interview, which was published on The Sunday Post‘s POSTmag, has gotta be up there as one of my most favourite interviews to date.
(Although I reckon she could’ve chosen a better front cover picture of me that doesn’t look like a vampire version of William Hung.)
New Media Man
By Georgette Tan, POSTmag, 13 July 2008.
There’s scarcely an Internet savvy person in town or around Malaysia who doesn’t know who Kenny Sia is. The 26-year-old IT manager started a blog three and a half years ago for reasons most people did at the time. “It was meant to be a personal diary,” said Sia. “It’s kinda deviated from that since!”
Sia was living in Perth, Australia at the time kennysia.com was born. He then returned to Kuching because his fater was ill. He knew there were going to be hard days ahead and so the blog became an outlet, a way of recording the changes his life was going through and a means of letting his friends around the world know what he was up to.
“I’ve always wanted to start a website. The invention of blogs made things really easy,” he said.
As blogs have taken over the Internet and become an undeniable part of online technology, Sia has gotten invitations to share his varied experiences with college students. He even served on a panel of last year’s Singapore Writers Festival. It was an example of something he never expected to end up doing when he started blogging.
“That was crazy!” he recalled. “I went there, babbled through my session and got paid for it!”
But Sia recognises an appreciative audience when he is faced with one.
“I like talking to students the most,” he said. “It’s more enjoyable because being bloggers themselves, they are more interested and ask valid questions.”
Sia commented that he is more recognised in Kuala Lumpur than he is in Kuching. However, he is very much a Kuching boy at heart. A good number of his entries are about the prides and peculiarities of Kuching, especially during the first year or two after coming home from Perth.
“I’m very proud of Kuching,” he stated.
Sia’s blog has delighted readers everywhere because of his tongue-in-cheek style, which often pokes fun at himself.
“People need to laugh at themselves. There’s a time to let go and a time to stay serious.”
While some other Kuching blogs are only beginning to gain recognition as part of the alternative media, Sia has had to lay down some ground rules for himself to prevent advertorials from taking over his blog content.
“I want to focus on content, so I won’t do more than three sponsored posts in a month, but sometimes this is hard to control.”
He went on to explain that he may yes to three ads, but some jobs get postponed to the following month.
“It’s just one of those things,” he said. “People often don’t realise how many ads I had to turn down in a month.”
Sia has had several opportunities to play a member of the media, mostly on an official basis.
His first, however, was decidedly unofficial. He infamously crashed the Miss Tourism Pageant 2005 grand finals at a major hotel in Kuching, and came away with photos, videos, and a candid report.
“I thought it would be interesting to cover it for people who never had the opportunity to attend such an event,” he said.
Last year Sia wrote to Sarawak Tourism Board CEO Gracie Geikie to ask if he could cover the 10th Rainforest World Music Festival for his blog. He was thrilled when she sent him a media pass.
“All it takes is one event,” he said.
Since then, Sia’s been busy, blogging huge concerts (we’re talking Black Eyed Peas and Jay Chou), playing a cameo role in a Mister Potato TV ad shot in Thailand, and making guest appearances at various other events.
His favourite was getting invited to cover the opening of the Venetian Macao together with 2,500 other members of the international media.
“It was mind-blowingly awesome. I never expected to find myself in that position,” he said.
The organisers of that trip realised the value of a well-frequented blog. “A lot of people who went there were referenced by my blog,” Sia said.
“I managed to reach that audience that stays in front of the computer.”
Sia also got to be a judge for the Internet-based reality TV show Malaysian Dreamgirl.
“I had a small role in that, but I got to hang out with cool people!” he enthused.
He scored himself more infamous points on the show, slipping into the “Simon Cowell role” by the first episode, something that may have surprised people who know him to be a cheerful and friendly chap. It was also something that caused him to apologise profusely on his blog after the show was over.
“People started watching the show after they heard about what happened in the first episode,” he said, fully aware that any publicity is good publicity.
A second season of Malaysian Dreamgirl is in the works and Sia has been invited back as a judge. Regarding the show’s venture into uncharted territory, he feels that the whole thing is new and things could have been done better.
“But it’s a step in the right direction,” he concluded.
Sia also ventured into new territory earlier this year when he interviewed the then Bandar Kuching candidates Chong Chieng Jen (DAP) and Alan Sim (BN-SUPP) before the elections.
“I was lucky I got to speak to the both of them,” he said. “I think it’s important to know what they stand for and I didn’t until I talked to them.”
Members of the opposition party DAP have started utilising the blogging arena to further their cause. Sia believes that this played a role in their recent election victory.
“The Malaysian media is very strict, and a lot of opinions are not portrayed accurately,” he said. “Eventually, people stop believing in the mainstream news and started looking for other news sources. When you see things happening around the country, the opposition blogs become easier to believe.”
And then, other bloggers start talking.
“Most people keep quiet because they believe they are the only ones who think that way,” Sia theorised. “When similar opinions get aired on other blogs, they suddenly realise that they are not alone.”
The popularity of kennysia.com means that his blog is far from the personal journal it was originally meant to be. Although Sia had the choice of charging ahead regardless of who is reading, with viewers of all ages he decided to exercise sensitivity instead.
“Having to self-censor is the worst thing that can ever happen. The blog is not very personal anymore, but I give myself generous leeway,” Sia reflected. “And things can get out-of-hand and exaggerated online.”
This is why Sia is careful and checks with people to see if it’s all right for him to write about them.
“The toughest part is satisfying everyone. But no matter what you write, there will always be opposing opinions,” he said. And there are usually plenty of opinions and assumptions no matter what the subject.
Sia takes the pragmatic approach. “You can’t control what people say about you, but you can control how you react to it.”
However, he admitted that some opinions are more important than others.
“I value the opinion of people who know me. I would matter more if family and friends get upset. Apart from them, I have learnt to ignore the rest.”
Coincidentally, that issue of POSTmag was the final one for The Sunday Post.
I guess they ran out of people to interview, had no choice but scrap the bottom of the barrel and find me.
Marathon Training Around The World
In one week, I’ll be in Kota Kinabalu taking part in the Borneo Marathon.
The Borneo Marathon came at the right time for me. I fell in love with KK since climbing Mount Kinabalu there last year and have been looking for an excuse to go back there since.
I signed up for the 21km race to prepare me for my 42km marathon in Singapore this December. Besides, a long time reader of kennysia.com is organizing it, and the least I could do is throw her some support.
Anyway, I’ve started training since about two months ago, running at least three times a week and clocking in more and more kilometres each time. Last Sunday was my best effort so far – 15km in two hours non-stop.
Friends and family are surprised at how seriously I take my training. I stick to my training program quite rigidly, sometimes to the point of absurdity. I’ve had the most awful experiences of waking up at the ungodly hour of 6am for a run, running at night or even running under heavy rain.
The problem with marathon training is that you do very long distances, and in a place like Kuching there isn’t many places for you to run. Very often, training get boring quickly if you just run around the same few park. It also doesn’t help the fact that there is only ONE decent park for running in the whole of Kuching – Stutong Park.
The jogging track in Stutong Park is only 1.6km long. When you’re doing 15km, there’s only so many laps you could do until you had enough looking at the SAME BLOODY TREES all the time.
So recently, I laid off Stutong Park and took my training to the streets.
And then I got addicted to it.
Horrible traffic smokes aside, I discovered running on the road is actually a lot more fun! Sure, it’s a little dangerous and sometimes I need to break my rhythm to cross the road. But I like running on the road because sometimes I’d notice quirky little things about Kuching that I wouldn’t have noticed if I were just driving around in my car.
Things like parents sending their cute little kids to school.
Or that hawker stall on Foochow Road selling kolo mee right out of their home car porch.
Who would’ve thought that after living in my small hometown for so long, I still don’t know so many things about it. Quaint new discoveries like those still tickle my fancy.
Another problem with marathon training is that because I’ve been travelling a lot lately, so sometimes I’d need to improvise. Since I begun my training, I’ve been flown off to Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, even to as far as Paris and London.
Normally I’d put my training on hold while I’m out of town. But I knew if I did that, come race day, my race results would suck so bad that I’d still be running when everyone else have finished packing up their bags and go home.
As a habit now, I pack my running shoes when I travel. And through that, I discovered the joy of running in different cities around the world.
Of course, it’s easy to lose your way in a foreign city.
Depending on how you look at it, getting lost can be part of the problem, or part of the fun.
I always carry my HTC Touch Diamond when I run in a foreign city.
I love this phone. The Diamond is an absolute gem for runners. It is one the thinnest, lightest PDA phone on the market so it’s damn easy to carry around when I’m running. If I got lost, I can use the GPS function to find out where I am.
If I got REALLY lost, I can always use it make an emergency phone call.
When I ran in KL, I found Lake Gardens a God-sent (or rather, a “DBKL-sent”) in a city filled with traffic smoke.
Bangkok’s traffic is not much better. On top of that, their footpaths are bumpy and narrow. Many times I nearly tripped over because their footpaths have more holes than Ahmad Ismail’s face.
But that’s ok, I can forgive that. (The footpaths, not Ahmad Ismail’s face.)
I ran once when I was in Paris, the City of Love.
From where I stayed in the Jewish enclave of Quartier du Marais, I jogged along the tree-lined boulevards, past Notre Dame Cathedral then all the way down Jardin du Luxembourg, joining the locals doing laps around sculptures and statues, including one miniature version of the Statue of Liberty.
But by far, the best city I ran in during my training is London.
The weather has been nothing but awesome during my time there. It was never too hot, never too cold, and not once did it even drizzle when I ran.
Londoners love the great outdoors so there are always heaps of beautiful parks throughout the city to wander into.
The bigger ones like Hyde Park, St James Park and Kensington Gardens are nicely decorated with ponds, lakes, sculptures and fountains.
Occassionally, you may see a duck sunbaking by the pond.
Or a hungry squirrel roaming about in the park.
Squirrels are cute. They are exactly like hamsters, but with a bushier tail.
The views along London’s running tracks are absolutely stunning.
There’s this hill on the outskirts of the city called Hampstead Heath where I ran to one morning to catch the hilltop views of London city. Hampstead Heath is a big ancient park where Londoners used to picnic and and fly kites. Now, it’s a place where many Londoners taking their dogs out for a walk.
In Hampstead Heath, there are plenty of natural ponds where you can go for a cold swim the old-fashioned way without smelling like chlorine afterwards.
People have been swimming in these ponds since at least 200 years old. The council had wanted ban swimming in them due to health risks, but those crazy Londoners fought against it and won.
There’s a secondary school near Hampstead Heath. That morning, I spotted a couple of students walking to school.
I like their school uniform very much. It reminded me of Harry Potter.
Amazing. Even those schoolkids look like Ron Weasley and Harry Potter.
Speaking of Harry Potter, there IS actually a Platform 9 3/4 at King’s Cross Station.
Don’t laugh. I know I look stupid singlets and shorts.
I love noticing amusing little things about London when I wander through the streets.
There’s this takeaway restaurant near my hotel with a stupid name called “Jerk Chicken”.
I believe their next business venture is gonna be selling roast pork called “Bastard Pig”.
In Parliament Square, next to the British Parliament, a protest match was going on.
The loud but peaceful protest was against knife crime, which has become a serious epidemic lately in London. A lot of people joined in on the match and it attracted a lotta attention.
Even the dogs joined in on the protest.
Hundreds of policemen were present. Instead of shooting protestors with water cannons, the police marched alongside them and cordoned off streets to ensure safe and smooth traffic flow.
Heck, those policemen were so cooperative, you can even blatantly drink beer behind their back and he wouldn’t arrest ya.
This man in crutches here is Brian Haw.
He is an anti-war protestor who has gained worldwide media attention for his unconventional way of getting his message across.
Brian Haw has been sleeping in this camp in front of the British parliament houses since 2001.
That’s SEVEN FREAKIN’ YEARS, abandoning his own home to live on the side of the road to stage a one-man protest against war.
Everyday for seven years, those politicians going to work have no choice but to walk past Brian’s posters and be reminded of the atrocities they’ve caused in Iraq. Now that’s what I called hardcore.
I can’t imagine anyone living outdoors for 7 years just to make a statement. Can you do that?
Bloody hell, I can’t even stay still in one city for two weeks.
People here have nightmares everyday
One thing I really like about running in London, is their street names.
They either sound like they’re from Monopoly, or something your genitals would require stitches afterwards.
On my last day in London before I return to Kuching, I had the most satisfying 8 mile run from my hotel in Islington all the way to The Big Ben.
Along the way, I passed by many landmarks I recognised from Monopoly.
Starting from The Angel Islington, I went past Pentonville Road, King’s Cross Station, Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly, Pall Mall, and finally Trafalgar.
It’s so exciting to see these venues come alive from the legendary 2D board game I have played since young. I felt as if I’ve already known them before I even set foot in London. If only Monopoly money were real, I’d buy them as I walked past them.
There was one only problem though.
I did not past GO. Did not collect $200.
🙁
London Bridge Fell Down Because I Was Too Fat
London, home of the English Premier League, Spice Girls and Nuff Nang (the slang, not the blog advertising company).
London has certainly got a lot going for it.
The Queen lives in it. Leona Lewis lives in it. Mr Bean lives in it.
Not to mention four years from now, the city will host the 30th Olympic Games.
It’s undeniable that London is a city people hold with high regard.
As a status symbol, fashion labels often list London as one of the cities where their presence are felt. More often than not, you see big labels proclaiming themselves such as “Topman – London, Paris, New York”
Very rarely do you see them go “Topman – London, Paris, New York, Kuching“
If I had any regrets about my trip to London, it is that I didn’t managed to spend enough time there.
Of course, I went to visit the few must-see famous tourist landmarks.
Like the Big Ben and the Westminster Palace, where the British parliament presides.
All I could think about is that it blew up in the movie V for Vendetta.
Saw the Tower Bridge, also mistakenly known around the world as the London Bridge.
Went to Trafalgar Square and molested the lions.
Doing the royal wave
Visited Buckingham Palace, where The Queen lives.
Well, actually I only went as far as the palace gates.
Tickets into the palace are 15 pounds (RM100) and we could’ve gone in if we wanted to, provided we booked in advance. But we didn’t, so all we did was look at the ‘toy soldiers’ standing outside.
These royal guards used to stand at the outside of the fence where mischevious tourists could make funny faces in front of them. Supposedly, they are so well disciplined that they will not move, laugh, bat an eyelid or get an erection no matter what you do to them.
Then again, some tourists are also a bit too much lah. I heard stories about the soldiers having to put up with tourists blowing cigarette smoke in their face, placing banana skins on the ground, or even sticking an orange inside the gun’s barrel.
Eventually they smartened up and moved the guards into the palace grounds out of reach from the tourists.
Gotta wonder what’s up with the furry black hat though.
Not sure if it’s meant to intimidate, but if I was the enemy I’d surely die laughing.
The London Eye is one of the newer London attractions.
I paid 15 pounds (RM100) for a 30 minute ride up the bicycle wheel to get a bird’s eye view of the city. I tried getting the girls to come with me as well but they were like, “What’s so special? Singapore also have what!”
Well, it’s different lah! In London, you can see lots of old church. In Singapore, you can only see Orchard.
Admittedly, it’s a kinda overpriced.
To be honest it was terribly unexciting as well. Pretty much, the only reason I went was because our Olympic cyclist Josiah Ng proposed to his fiance Kim Ong and I thought it was awfully romantic.
Salvador Dali sculptures can be spotted outside the Dali museum next to the London Eye.
Now, I never really understood much of Dali’s artworks. Like, what’s up with the headless armless naked girl with the golden egg in the middle?
But then I noticed something about the sculpture that amused me to no end.
Some stupid spider went and built a web around her crotch!
Poor girl must be not having “it” for a long time.
I like how London has its own trademark identity. The Tube, the red double-decker bus and the red-coloured telephone booth are just few of the things that are distinctively London.
The phone booths aren’t as innocent as it seems though. Inside almost every single one of them, there are stickers promoting “services” catering to all kinds of fetish.
Blonde, brunette, lesbians.
Or even trannies if that’s the kinda stuff that rocks your boat. 😉
One thing I really liked about London is that some of the best museums and art galleries in the world are located here, and they’re all free of charge.
While the girls went off shopping at Primark, I popped by the Natural History Museum to visit some…
DINOSAURS!
The museum is really quite exciting, if you’re a nerd. Never in my life have I seen such an extensive collection of dinosaur skeletons. They have almost all the species from Jurassic Park on display, and more.
The only dinosaur they don’t have is the Dickonosaurus. Too bad, because the only person in possession of that is me. Hehe.
Coincidentally, while I was there, the London Fashion Week was happening right outside the Natural History Museum.
Security stopped anyone from coming anywhere close to the action, but I heard Baywatch star Pamela Anderson was there too which I found very funny.
Apprently the museum has so much dinosaurs that it’s even attracting living dinosaurs.
Anyway, the Natural History Museum is a great educational fun place for kids. Apart from dinosaurs, it also has an interesting section on human biology.
There, Little Johnny can find answers to all the difficult questions bugging him in life. Questions such as, “Where do babies come from?”
The answer Little Johnny is looking for comes in “zombie porn”.
Harrod’s in Knightsbridge is another place I highly recommended going.
Here’s the thing. You don’t go to Harrod’s for shopping though because everything there is too bloody hell expensive.
Like I bought three donuts from the Krispy Kreme instore and the bill came up to 3.60 pounds (RM 23)! Sweet Jesus Mohammed Al-Fayed! For that price, I’d expect somebody to feed me and wipe my mouth.
Instead, head over to the luxury washrooms on the 1st floor and help yourself to some designer perfumes, free of charge.
On a more sombre note, the basement of Harrod’s has an Egyptian-themed shrine dedicated to Princess Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Al-Fayed, the son of the chairman of Harrod’s.
Encased inside a glass pyramid in front is a wine glass, still smudged with Diana’s lipstick from the couple’s last dinner.
Also in it, is an engagement ring. Dodi purchased the ring just a day before they died in that tragic car accident.
A city as large as London has so much to offer that I can’t help but to feel that I’m missing out if I only stuck to the tourist route.
At night when the shops are closed, I went out with the Tiger Beer people to check out Shoreditch’s infamous nightlife.
First stop, the Great Eastern Dining Room.
This restaurant serves Asian food catered to western palates.
Normally I find angmoh serving Asian food a bit suspicious, but dinner here was easily the best we have had throughout our time in London. I love it so much that when I came back for it the next day, it’s already fully booked out.
Over dinner, I learnt the truth about Dawn Yang, my travel partner for one week.
You may have heard those nasty rumours circulating about her on the Internet. Well, I witnessed it first hand.
And yes, I can confirm that the rumours are true…
Dawn eats. A LOT.
She eats so much even I got scared.
Whoever said models starve themselves has certainly not met Dawn Yang. While everyone was satiated after just eating one pork rib, our girl polished off at least EIGHT of those in one go!
How she managed to maintain her slim figure I have no idea. I am twice her weight and only ate half as much as she did that evening! Bravo, girl.
After dinner, we crossed the road to Shoreditch’s finest Cantaloupe bar.
This shabby yet chic bar has proved popular with the young professionals working around the area. It’s a Friday night and the clientele is a strange mix of jeans, heels and people in their work clothes. In a corner, the DJs spinned up kickass chillhouse music to complement the lively chatty atmosphere.
The only bummer about Cantaloupe is that you gotta walk damn far to reach the toilets, only to find this sign.
Question.
What drink do you order when you’re out in pub with a bunch of people who works Tiger Beer?
Why, Tiger beer of course! 😉
Asian beers like Tiger are actually considered premium brands over here. While it’s common to buy four bottles for RM20 here in Kuching, poor Londoners are paying something like 3 pounds (RM20) for just ONE bottle. How lucky we are.
To get us to the next destination, Tiger Beer arranged for us a tuk tuk!
Fancy riding a tuk tuk in London? Hell yeah!
It’s incredibly bizarre sitting in a tuk tuk, cruising down the streets of LONDON as red double-decker bus and black cabs whizzed past by.
When we arrived at our destination, instead of saying “Sawadeekap! You want buy suit? Massage? I give you good price!”, our driver simply went ” ‘ere ya go mate, ‘ave a good evening!” in full-on Bri’ish accent.
Something doesn’t quite match over here.
This is Dawn Yang – The Far East’s most desirable export since 1932.
Our next stop is Juno, where Tiger Translate artists Monorex did their Secret Wars live graffiti art battle.
Again, although I personally preferred the right hand side’s sarcastic artwork, the crowd cheered louder for left and he won.
Next stop, Koko!
Stupid big-boobed British chick blocked my camera
This is one of the most awesome and popular clubs in London.
Koko is housed inside a century-old theatre that used to host shows by Charlie Chalpin and Madonna.
It has since been converted into a party venue where, when big names like Coldplay and Mika aren’t holding concerts, independent UK bands rock the live audience crazy with their original gigs.
Our time in London was short, but at least I’ve experienced both the tourist and local sides of London. Still, I reckon there is so much more of London left to explore. 13-hour plane rides aside, I’m not gonna hesitate coming back here again if the opportunity arises.
To finish off this entry, I must relate to you this conversation I had with a Leonado diCaprio look-a-like French dude outside Cantaloupe bar.
This one is for you Cheesie. I know how much you dig French guys. 😉
Leonardo: Hey man, where are you from?
Kenny: I’m from Malaysia.
Leonardo: Malaysia? Where’s that?
Kenny: Well, you know where Singapore is?
Leonardo: Yeah, I know Singapore. I’ve been there.
Kenny: And do you know where Thailand is?
Leonardo: Yeah, of course! I’ve been to Phuket and Bangkok before.
Kenny: Well, Malaysia is sorta between Thailand and Singapore.
Leonardo: Oh, ok. I’ve never heard of Malaysia.
Kenny: But that’s only part of Malaysia though. I’m from Sarawak, which is on a whole different island.
Leonardo: Really? Sarawak!?
Leonardo: I know where Sarawak is. That’s on Borneo Island, right?
Kenny Sia’s Sex Tape
… of his pet hamsters.
There’s nothing quite like watching your two innocent furry little creatures going at it at supersonic speed. That’s after one year of wondering why they never mated.
Goodness. They sure are horny alright. Look at them go!
Even my phone doesn’t vibrate as quickly as they did.
Tiger Translate 2008: London
Nine artists, six countries, three days and countless bottles of beer and paint later, the event I came to London for has finally drawn to a close.
Saturday 20th September was showtime for Tiger Translate London. The artists have slogged through day and night to produce the kind of work that’ll earn them exposure and recognition, and now they get to showcase their work in the global city of London.
We arrived at Hearn Street carpark just as the workers are putting their finishing touches on this unusual art exhibition venue.
Adoring the walls of this indoor-carpark-turned-art-exhibition are works by current and previous Tiger Translate regional competition winners.
The number of displays at the venue were modest, but there was plenty to command my attention. It’s cool also that Malaysia was well represented with three pieces from our very own artists, including this one by a Dennis Juan Ma.
Dennis is also the guy responsible in producing this year’s flyer for Tiger Translate.
But my favourite piece has gotta be this one by Mongolian artist Badral Bold. It is his unique interpretation of the theme ‘Voyage’ that earned him the ticket to London.
I know it doesn’t look like much in pictures, but upon closer inspection I noticed something quite unusual about it.
See those hairy orange stuff in the middle of the painting? Those, my friends, are actually HORSE HAIR!
REAL horse hair!
Badral has a fine arts background and he’s been getting a lot of acclaim back in his home country. London was his chance to show off what he is capable of to people outside Mongolia. With this piece, Badral illustrated the bridging of cultures between East and West. And what better way to do it with some fine Mongolian horse hair.
I didn’t ask which part of the horse he got the hair from though.
Right smack in the middle of the entrance is the perspex glass by UK street artist EINE and Danish architect Andreas Kjaergaard.
One side of the glass, EINE wrote “LONDON’S CALLING.”.
London called him alright. Ironically, he got a phone call halfway through and had to rush off to respond to a family matter. Andreas was left with the perspex glass, who painted the other side with what he thinks Londoners are calling out about.
Not sure if Andreas deliberately left it unfinished.
Either he didn’t have enough time, or there’s some kinda deeper meaning behind his work. Like how London is so diverse, different and multicultural.
Quietly sitting next to Andrea and EINE’s work is the iconic black London cab, or at least, what resulted after Pure Evil (UK), Ben Qwek (Singapore) and Mee Wong (China) vandalised it.
If you remember, three days ago, the cab looked like this.
This is how pimped out it looks like right now.
Notice the figurine of the prancing horse and the words “Mongolian Express” in front of the car?
It is a tribute to fellow Tiger Translate artist Badral Bold from Mongolia.
The fact that Badral comes from a place where horse-drawn carriages are a common mode of transportation fascinated Pure Evil so much that he dedicated this taxi to him.
The passenger side of the car is dominated by Pure Evil’s monstrosity of a tiger.
Not sure where he got his inspiration from. I thought it looked like either a tiger on steroids, or what happened when Venom from Spiderman 3 drank Tiger Beer.
On the other side of the car, Ben added his touch of Japanese and Chinese culture influenced paintings.
Right at the back, Mee Wong drew two cute little pandas eating Chinese Xiao Long Paos.
But knowing how Mee Wong always eroticises her artwork, I knew she ain’t just gonna draw a normal Xiao Long Pao.
Take a closer look at them.
Yes, your eyes fooled you not.
Those are breast-shaped Xiao Long Paos!
We left for a break and returned to the carpark at 8pm.
As night fell and guests streamed in, Hearn Street Carpark slowly transformed from a quiet art gallery into one big party hall.
In keeping with the Tiger Translate theme of ‘Voyage’, Monorex (UK) painted this excellent mural to welcome the guests at the entrance.
With comfortable sofas to sit on all over the place and spotlights creatively lighting up the venue, that manky old carpark I saw during daytime suddenly turned into something completely different.
Heck, they even parked some tuk-tuks outside to attract the crowd!
The taxi received quite a lot of attention. One guy even offered to buy it for 2,000 pounds (RM9,000) but Tiger Beer is not selling it just yet.
They had a better idea.
Pure Evil suggested taking it for a road trip from London, UK to Ulan Bataar, Mongolia.
Sure sounds quite like an adventure, but unless they overhauled the engine, I don’t think I’m gonna bet my life on the roadworthiness of that old vehicle.
Towards the far end of the carpark, Udisha (India), Ben (Singapore) and Badral (Mongolia) showcased their spontaniety when it comes to art.
Painting in front of a live audience, they finished the large canvas earlier contributed by all of Tiger Translate London’s artists.
Indian graphic designer Udisha dominated a large portion of the canvas.
She first painted “Time For Tiger“, Tiger Beer’s old slogan, as roots of a tree in black and white. As if to underscore the brand’s growth through time, she painted the new slogan “It’s Tiger Time” in colourful stylised letters on top of it.
At Hearn Street carpark, it wasn’t just the artists that were hard at work.
The guests who attended the event weren’t just sitting around drinking beer either. They were given little tiles of canvas to paint and to hang on the wall.
It sure didn’t take long for the wall till fill up with everyone’s artwork. I didn’t even had a chance to paint my own tile dammit!
Try to see if you can spot the Malacca flag on the lower-right hand side of the wall, done by Claudine Yap, a Malaccan living in London whom I met up with to eat roast duck in Bayswater that costs 9 pounds (RM55) per plate.
As Thai band Circle 22 rocked the crowd at Hearn Street carpark, a couple of familiar faces began rocking up as well.
This is Jasiminne the Penguin, whacky as always, leaping onto her tall curly-haired man friend.
Those long time readers who’ve been following kennysia.com should remember Jasiminne. She used to be quite a hit until she quietly disappeared off the blogging scene after she moved to London, so it’s great to catch up with old friends again.
On a totally unrelated note, I swear her boyfriend Daniel looks EXACTLY like singer Josh Groban.
Don’t believe?
Here’s proof.
(And I am so gonna get killed for this.)
With old friends as company, I finally took my eyes off the art for a while. I checked out the crowd in attendance.
I thought Tiger Translate, being an independent underground arts exhibition, would attract more hippies and stereotypical artsy fartsy homosexuals. Quite surprisingly, not only were the crowd at Hearn Street carpark a mix of sophisticated and hip-and-casual souls, they also included many people across different ages, races and background.
Some came looking like a supermodel.
Others wore apple-bottom jeans, boots with the fur. The whole crowd was looking at her.
She hit the floor, next thing you know, her hand hurts.
The highlight of Tiger Translate came in the form of something called Secret Wars.
It is a live graffiti arts battle created by UK collective Monorex. And the way it works is pretty awesome.
Two teams of two artists get a white canvas each.
Working in front of a live audience, they must completely decorate the canvas with graffiti within a time limit of 90 minutes. When the buzzer rings, the team who gets the loudest cheer from the crowd wins.
Usually the teams would draw something sarcastic or insulting towards the other team, but they pretty much got a free reign on what they wanted to draw.
Due to time restrictions, the teams would not be able to coordinate or plan anything among themselves. The teams were only given black paint, so if they made a mistake, too bad.
Anyway, Team A on the left squared off against Team B on the right.
The crowd was enthusiastic, glueing themselves to the canvas for the whole 90 minutes as if they’re watching a football match between Arsenal and Man United. At the end of 90 minutes, this was the result of Tiger Translate London’s Secret Wars.
Not bad for an impromptu work done only by four people.
Although I personally preferred the cleaner artwork on the left, graffiti is meant to be messy and the crowd rightfully cheered for Team B to win.
I left when the live shows concluded around midnight, although many chose still stayed on and party till dawn (including Dawn who karaoked till morning came).
Tiger Translate was definitely an experince that was different from anything I’ve experienced in the past. I have been to many galleries and art exhibitions, but they’ve always been modern and contemporary, and none of them was as hip and underground as this one was.
Sure, a lot of focus was placed on street art and all the artists have names I had never even heard of before. But wandering through the makeshift gallery of Hearn Street carpark, I can’t help but to feel that there is an undeniable sense that these works, for all their different mediums, approach and styles, are bound by a shared spirit of togetherness.
And that, in a world like today, is unfortunately something we always take for granted.
I’m heading home to Kuching!
Meeting Of The Tiger Translate Artists
I know I hadn’t updated for quite a while.
The whole trip to London has been quite a frenetic mix of drama and fun. I’m enjoying every minute of my time over here, although I certainly wished I had a bit more free time to explore the sights of this amazing global city.
I’m staying in the borough of Islington, north of the city and not far away from Arsenal Football Club’s Emirates Stadium. Unfortunately Arsenal is not playing at their home stadium this weekend. Of course, that certainly didn’t stop me from wearing my Chelsea jersey around town, although I must say I got a few angry stares from diehard Arsenal fans in the pub.
Preparation for Tiger Translate is more or less going well underway. The Eastern and Western artists met each other on Wednesday. For the past two days they have been working hard on their Tiger-themed East-meets-West collaboration.
The up-and-coming artists representing ‘The East’ are Udisha Kumar from India.
Ben Qwek from Singapore, Mee Wong from China.
Badral Bold from Mongolia.
And Andreas Kjaergaard from Denmark.
Representing ‘The West’ are Pure Evil, best known for his dark sarcastic artwork.
HiCalorie, with his signature cute and cartoonish illustration.
Street graffiti artists EINE and Monorex. all of them high profile underground artists from the UK.
A number of media from Asia has descended onto London for Tiger Translate. Myself and Dawn Yang both specially flown in to blog about the event.
London, in particular the suburb of Shoreditch, seems like the perfect city to host this arts event. The art scene here is simply amazing. Londoners have a great admiration of creativity and people who can think outside the box.
Over here, street art is appreciated, not abhorred. Wall graffiti is seen as a form of beautification, not vandalism. A lot of credit goes to the artists themselves, who spent immense amount of hours and effort creating these images.
Yesterday, we had a first-hand look of the artists beginning their collaboration work.
EINE (UK) and Andreas (Denmark) were given a piece of transparent perspex glass. On one side, EINE painted “LONDON’S CALLING” with his signature block letters. On the other side, Andreas contemplated how to respond to that.
“If London is calling, what is it saying?”
In a carpark not far nearby, Pure Evil (UK), Ben Qwek (Singapore) and Mee Wong (China) began transforming the iconic London black cab into a product of their collective imagination.
The tree has very different artistic style. Pure Evil style is always sarcastic and sinister. Ben’s artwork involves a lot of fairies and mythical females, whereas Mee Wong’s style is always somewhat feminine and sexual.
It’s gonna be interesting to see what the black London cab is gonna turn into.
Meanwhile, back in the studio, the clash in artistic differences is becoming even more obvious.
Badrul (Mongolia) and HiCalorie (UK) were showing each other their portfolio. HiCalorie showed Badrul all the cute cute cartoons that he has done.
Badrul on the other hand, showed him this.
Badrul doesn’t speak any English. But through a translator, he explained to HiCalorie that the picture is a collection of female vaginas, which he represented as sea shells!
Together with Udisha (India) and Ben (Singapore), this long piece of canvas will eventually be morphed into a work of art.
With four artists from four drastically different background working on it, no one knows for sure what the finished artwork is gonna look like.
Is Badrul gonna draw a vagina on HiCalorie’s teddy bear? I dunno. But we shall see tomorrow night at the main event! 😛
One thing for sure, these artists are incredibly talented. And for unknown artists like Badrul or Mee Wong, Tiger Translate just might be the platform they’re looking for, to propel their artwork from hazy obscurity into mainstream acceptance.
And that’s what I call, a good Tiger! 😉
Prelude To Tiger Translate London
Passport – checked. Pound sterlings – packed. Travel guide to London – read.
Yes, I am jetting off to London to escape the recent spate of ISA arrests, learn about “agriculture” and perhaps drink some beer in the process.
No lah, I’m lying. I’m just going to London to drink beer, attend an arts festival, enjoy live music and look at artists from different parts of the world coming together to squeeze their collective creative juices.
The festival I’ll be attending in London is called Tiger Translate.
Tiger Translate is an initiative by Tiger Beer to showcase the work of the best undiscovered artists from Asia in the fields of visual art, graffiti, photography, music, fashion and illustration.
Tiger Translate Auckland
Previously, this festival was held across the world at such luminous global cities as New York, Berlin and Beijing. London is their seventh stop thus far.
Tiger Translate Berlin
But there is one thing that sets this festival apart from the rest. The essence of Tiger Translate is the intense focus of cross-cultural collaboration between East and West, and an opportunity for the Asian artists to work with high profile international artists in their respective fields.
Pure Evil’s (UK) intepretation of Heath Ledger’s The Joker
The way it works is like this.
A couple of weeks before going to London, up-and-coming artists from Asian countries were introduced to their more well-established counterparts from the international arena.
Udishma Kumar for India submitted this entry and got himself selected as a Tiger Asian Kinetic Artist (AKA) for Tiger Translate London
The two artists would NOT have met face to face. Instead, they have to communicate via e-mail to discuss how to transform something ordinary like a sofa, a fridge, or a lamp into extraordinary pieces of art.
Imagine a street artist from Mongolia teaming up with a sculptor from Denmark, or perhaps a computer graphic animator from China producing a music video for a UK rock band.
An Australia-China collaboration that fetched a cool price tag of USD$10,000!
The Asian and international artists are only gonna meet each other four days before the public showcase when they all fly in and gather at the host city of London. Then, with the limited amount of time and possibly language barrier that they have, the two artists must work through day and night to complete their collaborative artwork in time for the grand finale.
Kinda like me finishing my last minute assignments back in Uni.
Street art by Monorex (UK), one of the international artists
A stellar line-up of British artists have already been introduced, featuring EINE, Monorex, Hicalorie and PureEvil. They are set to collaborate with unknown Asian artists from China, Mongolia, India and Singapore found through a series of intense competition over the past few months. The artists will finish their work in front of a live audience on the night of the grand finale. Meanwhile a rock band and DJs will crank up the party mood.
Normally art fests are held inside some snobbishly pretentious art gallery right? Well, not this one. 🙂
Of all places, the grand finale of Tiger Translate London will gonna be held inside an abandoned CARPARK at the fashionable district of Shoreditch, London.
This unusual venue is where the artists will showcase their finished artwork, a reflection their intepretation of East-meets-West. Then we can all drink Tiger Beer, admire the artwork and listen to live music. There are gonna be some fun stuff to do as well, like creating a mosaic effect on a wall, and get this – leave a graffiti on the iconic black London cab!
If there are any kennysia.com readers in London, of course you guys can come down and join us at the event next Saturday. It’s free of charge after all.
Besides, this is perhaps your only chance of vandalising a cab without going to jail for it.
The theme for Tiger Translate London is VOYAGE.
And it’s about time for me to finish this entry and rush to the airport for my VOYAGE to London.
Ah Mad Strikes Back
The saga continues. This time, it involves tearing up a picture of his state leader.
Defiant Ahmad demands apology
“I urge the Chinese not to become like American Jews!”
“Consider this a warning! Do not push us, or we will be forced to push the Chinese for our own survival!”
After the press conference, several supporters brought down from the wall a picture of Dr Koh.
And proceeded to smash it to pieces.
For his theatrics, Ah Mad Is Mail was suspended for three years. Amazing.
That must be the Prime Minister’s first good decision in like his 5 years in power.
Indian Game Shows Are Awesome
I thought Japanese game shows were entertaining, but this one takes the cake.
There’s this game show in India called Dadagiri. Contestants have to survive three rounds of insults by the show’s bullies and compete against each other to win 50,000 Rupees (RM4,000) in cash prize.
The woman in the video is Esha The Goddess – the self-proclaimed “meanest, nastiest girl from college” and quite possibly the Indian version of Xiaxue.
Her job is to put down the contestants and she particularly hates people with ugly faces.
Part One: Watch this first. It’s in English. (1 min)
So in this particular episode, Esha yelled against one male contestant. She slapped him. HE SLAPPED HER BACK. She took it like a man. Meanwhile the whole entire 65,374 crew members surrounded the male contestant and proceeded to rip his non-existent balls out while he cried like a bitch.
Part Two. The Slap. (2 min)
If this is not TV gold, I don’t know what is.
I have only one thing to say after watching the clip.
How can she slap? HOW CAN SHE SLAP?