I have reacquainted myself with Siouxsie and The Banshees.

This is the right time as it becomes the music that surrounds itself around this year's SIFF. For the entire week, the music from that album has being ringing non-stop in my head.

Three different groups have sat in the car and they have all pleasantly surprised by the album. For them, they know that the music is definitely not new, but it doesn't sound old to them either. All of them have asked who I played, some have even bobbed their head along with it. It's surprised how music produced about fifteen to twenty years ago still sounds refreshing to people. For me, it's rediscovering why I still love the band so much.

And I just wonder, how come they don't produce music like that anymore? Music which can stand the test of time (at least in my terms). For others, it's like an awareness issue, people don't get to enjoy more than they should because they are not aware of the total universe of good stuff out there. Alot depends on luck in being at the right place and the right time for you to be able to discover more of that total universe and in that sense, I have been luckier than most people.

Twice Upon A Time - The Singles. That's the name of the album.

Yes, the annual celluloid orgy is here. 17th Singapore International Film Festival.

I always have this wonderful feeling. This feeling like I am going to step into a wonderful carnival when I attend opening screenings of SIFF. When they darken the halls and play the FilmArt trailer, I often feel this tingling feeling surging over me - It feels make feel sad, relieved, happy, calm, comforted all at one go. This will be my sixth SIFF attendance and my fourth time attending the opening screening. For most years, the opening film usually end up getting my vote as the best film of that particular year's SIFF (strictly based on merit, I must stress).

The whole SIFF is a collective experience.

- You get to hang around Shaw Towers almost everyday for two weeks. It's a place which is quite forsaken by people during other times.
- There are groups or pockets of people in your life which you only get to meet once a year because they turn up for SIFF screenings. That's the only time when I actually get to catch up with them.
- It's comforting to be in the company of your friends who love film too. All the rushing around, quick meals in-between screenings. Although I have always tried to steer myself away from discussing film because I don't really like to discuss film. Film is quite personal for me.
- Every year's SIFF is always themed by music that appear in my life then. For SIFF in 2000 and 2001, it was Stereo MC's DJ Kicks. For 2002's SIFF, it was Return of the DJ Volume IV and it was The Cure's Disintegration for last year's SIFF. (There will be another post about the music that surrounds this year's SIFF)

This year's bodycount is pretty low. I have picked about sixteen films so far and place another fourteen on a standby list. My new job will probably prevent me from attending all the films that I have chosen so I am careful not to over-commit myself to my initial choices. I am also slowly realising that I can't really take catching five or six shows in one day and repeat doing so on the next day. It's quite tiring and I don't have that vitality like before.

Quality, not quantity.

There is this French person who wanted to borrow Humpback Oak's music from another friend of mine because he has heard The Observatory.

Yes, it's weird nation that I live in. A nation where most people don't feel proud and in most cases, ignorant about what they have, what they can offer and most importantly, the potential. Why do I feel strangely disenchanted when a foreigner becomes more interested in the music produced by Singaporeans than Singaporeans themselves?

For the uninformed - DJs from Singapore has been good to play alongside global names (Aldrin and Tony Tay played along James Lavelle at Womb in Tokyo). A Singaporean DJ will be playing for Renaissance (in London I think) very soon.

I have not been to other foreign film festivals but personally I believe that the SIFF is internationally recognised as a festival which is very well programmed especially with the budget it's got. If I am ever lucky enough to visit other overseas film festivals someday, I will definitely use the SIFF as a benchmark.

I hope Mr Cultural Attache is moved by the aching melancholy of Leslie's (Humpback Oak) voice and that he can safely tell his French friends that Singapore is not provincial at all.

Yes, I am going to stop talking about the office or work.

Catching up on blogging...

I have caught Zatoichi. Someone that I just got to know corrected the way I pronounced the movie's title. He was very polite about it though, "It's supposed to be "Zato (pause) ichi". He mentioned that he too, was corrected by someone else. We had gotten it wrong in the same way too.

Nonetheless, the movie was good enough. Life's not fair. Kitano managed to fuck around with many things and he's hailed as being "different". I don't think any other young (and unknown) directors would have gotten away with tampering with a period character. I was told that the original Zatoichi series (Zatoichi is a period drama serial) is very serious. Kitano managed to insert many comedic moments inside it and he made Zatoichi's hair blonde! This film is like a prelude to SIFF (Singapore International Film Festival) that starts next week.

Yes, and women still find Tadanobu Asano delicious in this movie.

Good news. Zatoichi is showing commercially. I will try to catch it this week before the Singapore International Film Festival starts.

The others

I don't neccessarily like the working environment despite the fact that I have a great boss and nice team members. The whole marketing is actually pretty huge and it's filled mostly with women. Before anyone can congratulate me, I think I should give a lowdown on what its really LIKE.

The women are hot. I can't deny that. They are pretty, well-dressed and they speak really well. I suppose if all of them went into a club, men will drop like flies on their feet. At the same time, they are also the prissy-types. If I ever need to speak to them, I will go speak to them in the most sterile manner ever - so that I can never be misinterpreted. The last thing you ever want is to have just one female disliking you for any perceived wrong-doing (keyword here is perceived). The next thing you know, you will be avoided like plague. Apparently, there are factions (cliques is too mild a word) even among the prissy-types so it's tricky for any newcomer - especially males. Somehow I do think that it would have made a big difference if I was some hot hunky guy. Unfortunately, hunk I am not.

It's a minefield out there, tread carefully I shall.

My boss

I think it's very important to have a good boss. Frankly, if anyone has asked me to choose between having a good boss and a couple of hundred bucks more, I would chose having a good boss without a blink of an eye. I think that most people who choose to leave their jobs are really leaving their bosses and not the job itself.

After reporting to two male bosses before, I am back to having a female boss. She's been really nice to me so far. She's the modern mother types - despite having two kids, she still parties and goes "part-toring" with her husband. How do I know? That because she tells us casually all the time. On an office day, she's like this impish girl who skips around in a trance of work.

More importantly, she's clear about what she wants and what needs to be done. This is a very important leadership skill apart from being a team player and knowing how to manage relationships with senior management on our behalf.

I really can't ask for more. I am really thankful.

There is so much I want to write but I don't have time!

I think this blog has become more like a zhuo(1) ji(4) (weekly diary).

The workplace.

The place I work in probably has one of the highest density of hot women in Singapore. Even a girl who is doing admin type of work puts in her best effort to dress well (nice shoes, stylish dressing and power suits). I haven't seen much badly dressed people at work except for the "foreign talent" which we hire "in bulk".

My cubicle doesn't give me much privacy but I don't really care. It's good that my team just shifted away from the main group so it's alot quieter. Silence is good for me to keep my focus and get work done.

The biggest surprise of all for me is the vending machine, which dispenses drinks at ten cents! It's definitely not helping my effort to stop being so reliant on coffee.

It's very important that the people in my team are nice. There is an ex-colleague of mine from my old place who is in my team as well so that helps me a great deal, especially when I need to tap into the grapevine to find out certain things about this organisation. The news I got is that another ex-colleague of mine is going to cross the chasm and join my team as well. There has been a mass exodus in the old organisation which I have work for. Does that mean anything?

Yes, I landed myself a job. It's with a competitor whom everybody else benchmarks against. The job is not going to be easy but it's something very interesting. I told many people around me that not many people get to do what I get to do in their marketing lifetimes. What touched me most was the support that I have got from my friends, ex-colleagues who are still at my old place and ex-colleagues who have now joined my other competitors when they found out that I have finally rejoined the industry once again.

Throughout the last three months, I have thought long and hard about leaving the industry for good. My old workplace caused me so much heartache that it really ate me up. But when this chance came along for me to come back in again it was too good to pass up. I knew what was required of me in this job and the money was better than what my old place offered me. I was hired on the spot with just one gruelling interview which lasted one hour and half.