#five: food i would serve at my wedding

Anybody who tracks my Internet activity here in the States (ah, this sounds so delectably dubious) would know that I have been obsessively stalking wedding blogs (Ed's Note: nobody tracks Rachel's Internet activity). 100 Layer Cake is arguably one of my favourites. While most of the blogs center around awesome DIY tips (to make your wedding special, personalized and most importantly, low-on-cost), I will create my own wedding-themed post which has nothing to do about keeping your wedding affordable.

(You know how Chinese weddings always serve the same damn thing: that starter platter, shark's fin soup, tiger shrimp and oats, kailan and oyster sauce, steamed fish, noodles at the end (WHY?!), longan and almond jelly if you're lucky, red bean soup if you're not. For a typical Chinese wedding menu and its symbolism, click here.)

INSTEAD, here's my dream food list to be served at my wedding (can't decide if I want to hold it in a hotel or some exotic garden, but that will be reserved for another post).

1. A selection of gourmet soups, served in three tiny bowls (like sample servings!)

French Onion, Wild Mushroom and Tomato — substitutable for Buddha Jump Over the Wall, or Shark's Fin, for the elderly, if they insist on being savage creatures

2. A Really Expensive Appetizer

Choice between Pan-fried Fois Gras or Fat Scallops

3. The (Peking) Duck Replacement (not that I don't love Peking duck, it's just that I prefer this)

Confit de Canard... A quick Google search reveals that confit de canard is just preserved duck, but the one that they serve at La Petit Cuisine comes with some kickass tangy sauce which I like. Peking Duck option available to my notoriously variety-favouring self.

4. An Aphrodisiac in Advance

A very weird fusion of East and West: Singaporean hawker-style oyster omelette (with extra spicy chili sauce) served alongside freshly chucked (insert cool ocean here) live oysters. And Tabasco sauce. With lots of lemon slices.

5. Virgin Meat

Suckling pig is served as a symbol of virginity. How a dead pig is supposed to represent purity, I don't know, but the potential groom insists on serving Sweet and Sour Pork for the wedding dinner, which I personally hate for its inconsistent flavour. So I guess I'll make use of this part of the meal to camwhore when the wedding comes.

6. Don't Be Crabby! Stay Together!

Authentic Singaporean chili crab, mantou (fried dough buns), and lots and lots of crab roe!

7. Noah's Ark (or All the Other Seafood Together)

Sashimi, live drunken prawns, and fried Soon Hock for the potential mother-in-law

8. Cows

Wagyu beef or beef tenderloin with gorgonzola sauce

9. Choice of Carbs

California temaki, yam woon sen (only like my favourite Thai dish in the world), squid ink pasta or bak chor mee (his choice)

10. Perfect Ten Dessert!!

Platter of panna cotta and strawberry compote, hazelnut and dark chocolate cake, lemon tart (from Jones the Grocer), with a scoop of Haagen Daaz's Macademia Nut Brittle!!!

NB. All dishes will come with optional servings of mayonaise (his taste-bud-ically challenged choice) and djion mustard (hers).

Naturally this list needs revision but I'll worry about that when the time comes.

#four: an interlude

I have been meaning to start on my Longevity (play)List... but I haven't had the time to do it yet.

So in the meantime, here's a shortlist about The Many Frustrations of Love and Lust that has been keeping me company this semester.

1. Fucking Boyfriend by the Birds and the Bees

Are you an amateur, or is it you're unkind? / To torture all the other girls, you keep me by your side

2. Open Book by Cake

You think she's an open book, but you don't know which page to turn to, do you?

3. Infatuation by Maroon 5

You burn another bridge, break another heart / You try again, it will only fall apart

4. Maybe This Time by OK Go

You must have mastered this / The fragile art of a good excuse / The little things that get you to believe

5. Between the Lines by Sara Bareilles

He told me her name, it sounded familiar in a way / I could have sworn I'd heard him say it ten thousand times / If only I had been listening

6. Love is Just a Game by the Magic Numbers

I'm an honest mistake that you made / Did you mean to?

7. Move On Now by Hard-Fi

Don't you think we stay for too long? / Don't you think the color has gone?

no hesitation no delay; you come on just like special K

PLACEBO - Live in Singapore

It wasn't quite Muse or the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but for 90 deafening minutes Placebo unleashed a blitz of hard-hitting tracks at Fort Canning Park.

For someone who grew up listening to their music, Placebo's Battle for the Sun setlist was somewhat lacklustre - while tracks such as Bright Lights and For What It's Worth from their new album are great singles in their own right, the last thing I expected was a medley of untamiliar tunes. Apart from the occasional body-surfer, the result was a fidgety audience that only stirred and jumped when more familiar hits came on. Highlights of the night included: Sleeping with the Ghosts, Meds, Infra-Red, Special K, and of course the defining Placebo song, Every You Every Me.

That said, one can't help but feel drawn to the band's charisma, whether it be drummer Steve Forrest's tattooed torso or Brian Molko's androgynous beauty. With the help of Fiona Brice's electric violin their music acquired a somewhat edgier tone, and of course, Molko's nasal, haunting vocals sounded just as flawless live.

It was apparent from the Molko's sweat-drenched v-neck that by the end of the night the band had played their heart out, even engaging in some hilarious introductions. Here's to hoping that our 20th century boys return to play again for their post-blue fans, preferably in a location that is neither 36 degrees, nor one that will have them running up that hill.

#three: who is number 67?

The first half of Shutter Island has the dubious honour of being so bad, it made its better half shine.

Martin Scorsese's latest work brings us to Ashecliff Hospital for the criminally insane. As soon as Leonardo DiCaprio's Teddy Daniels gets off the ferry and onto Shutter Island, we get excited by the mere thought of the tantalizing thrills that Scorsese teases us with, what with the deliberate cemetery, electric barbed-wire fence, and paranomic police scouts armed with scowls and guns shots. We get it. Something wicked this way comes.

Daniels and his partner, Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), surrender their firearms at the gate of Ashecliff ("federal protocol") to investigate the mysterious disappearance of child-murderess Rachel Solando. But Daniels' agenda for being on Shutter Island is more than meets the eye, and the US Marshal intends to blow the lid on what is really going on. Obviously, we're intrigued.

Alas, for a good 90 minutes, we're plyed with predictable twists and turns — comically stock characters/villains included — and we wonder, "Is this story really that obvious?" In between the excruciatingly "duh" moments, we are rewarded with the beautiful, heart-wrenching dream sequences Daniel experiences. But when the movie seems to be going nowhere, one starts questioning if $9 was worth seeing just a couple of minutes' worth of surrealistic featurettes.

Thankfully, Scorsese delivers in the end, and the final nail-in-the-coffin leaves you feeling mindfucked. Unfortunately, it came a little too late. Less patient viewers might have left the theaters by then.

Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

'He must make his declaration now or never'; Koznyshev also felt this. Everything - Varenka's look, her blush, her downcast eyes - betrayed painful expectation. He saw it and was sorry for her. He even felt that to say nothing now would be to offend her. His mind went rapidly over all the arguments in favour of his decision. He repeated to himself the words with which he had intended to propose; but instead of those words some unexpected thought caused him to say:

'What difference is there between the white boleti and the birch-tree variety?'

Varenka's lips trembled with emotion when she replied:

'There is hardly any difference in the tops, but only in the stems.'

And as soon as those words were spoken, both he and she understood that all was over, and that what ought to have been said would not be said, and their excitement, having reached its climax, began to subside.

--

#two: leader of the procrastination again...

An ambulance drove down the street between us, and I imagined who it was carrying, and what had happened to him. Did he break an ankle attempting a hard trick on his skateboard? Or maybe he was dying from third-degree burns on ninety percent of his body? Was there any chance that I knew him? Did anyone see the ambulance and wonder if it was me inside?

What about a device that knew everyone you knew? So when an ambulance went down the street, a big sign on the roof could flash

DON'T WORRY! DON'T WORRY!

if the sick person's device didn't detect the device of someone he knew nearby. And if the device did detect the device of someone he knew, the ambulance could flash the name of the person in the ambulance, and either

IT'S NOTHING MAJOR! IT'S NOTHING MAJOR!

or, if it was something major,

IT'S MAJOR! IT'S MAJOR!

And maybe you could rate the people you knew by how much you loved them, so if the device of the person in the ambulance detected the device of the person he loved the most, or the person who loved him the most, and the person in the ambulance was really badly hurt, and might even die, the ambulance could flash

GOODBYE! I LOVE YOU! GOODBYE! I LOVE YOU!

One thing that's nice to think about is someone who was the first person on lots of people's lists, so that when he was dying, and his ambulance went down the streets to the hospital, the whole time it would flash

GOODBYE! I LOVE YOU! GOODBYE! I LOVE YOU!

--- jonathan safran foer, extremely loud and incredibly close

#one: plug-in baby crucifies my enemies

maybe next time i'll make a mental note to myself that you don't need to be inebriated to live out muse live.

the set in itself was a technical masterpiece, light-work gave the entire beijing olympics team a run for their money, setlist was perfect.

matt bellamy is sex on two legs and an extendable guitar riff. at times, the songs all sounded kinda similar as one blended into another. but muse came, saw and conquered.

penultimate song was my favourite: time is running out (currently my theme song as i procrastinate on my beastly philosophy paper) was what got me hooked on muse in the first place. yelled myself hoarse on that one. other crowd pleasers included resistance, plug-in-baby, new born. united states of eurasia does not sound any better played live, though in-person i feel the Queen reference more than other, and i still fail to appreciate the apparent symphonic masterpiece that is exogenesis (overture).

who: muse, brit band with glam-rock, indie, electric influences.

what: uprising, resistance, new born, map of the problematique, supermassive black hole, guiding light, interlude, hysteria, nishe, united states of eurasia, feeling good, helsinki jam, undisclosed desires, starght, plug-in baby, time is running out, unnatural selection. encore: exogenesis, stockholm syndrome, knights of cydonia.

when: wachovia center, philadelphia pa, 2 mar.

you'd like them if: you're winston smith from 1984, love freedom-fighter lyrics or Queen. or if you, like me, want to have matt bellamy's amazingly gifted babies.

for posterity

to do: write. record. experience life viscerally. create. take photos. read. remember. inspire. be inspired. don't die. live.