mrbrown: L'infantile terrible of Singapore

We confess, we are Boon Huat...

2009-11-13T19:37:34+08:00

...and John, and Hui Leng, and Hui Min, and Anna, and Norman.

We were all six of them.

It's confession time. Yes, the mrbrown show team, consisting of Marc, Sam and I, were the writers for SixLives.sg, a Speak Good English project.

Since it's out in the news, we may as well tell you that not only were we the ones who wrote the story and created the characters (with lots of help from the SGEM team), we also wrote and performed the season finale song, seen below. Heheh.

It was a lot of fun to do this while promoting the language the three of us love. Hope you enjoyed the drama. If you haven't checked it out yet, go have a read.

Insing column: mrbrown and the APEC

2009-11-12T17:02:00+08:00

Latest weekly Insing column is "mrbrown and the APEC"

Excerpt:

With so many heads of state and power people coming to Singapore for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings, the critical question I am sure many Singaporeans are asking is, "Oi! When is the Nicoll Highway jam going to stop ah?"
The Nicoll Highway runs in front of Suntec City, where major APEC meetings are taking place and so it has become a bit of a traffic bottleneck when some lanes are closed at certain times of the day.

To their credit, the government has not closed off roads extensively and unlike the IMF/World Bank meetings the last time, Singaporeans don't feel like we are living in a caged prison trying to produce the required four million smiles.

Chinese President Hu Jintao, who is also attending these APEC meetings, announced that a pair of pandas will be coming to Singapore in 2011, as a symbol of strong ties between Singapore and China.

I wonder what animals China sends as symbols of average ties. A pair of random Chinese cows? (cont'd)

the mrbrown show: cheaper, better, faster

2009-11-12T02:49:08+08:00

Come sing with me! Lalalalalalala! Better faster go to mrbrownshow.com!

(Inspired by this video!)

JS, the singing twins from Down Under

2009-11-10T14:42:19+08:00

What lovely voices. They are Sonia and Janice, a pair of Korean twins born and raised in Sydney, Australia. This is a cover of Officially Missing You, originally sung by Tamia.

See What Show: 2012, interviews with the director and cast

2009-11-10T12:10:05+08:00

I had a great time chatting with the director and cast of the movie 2012 when I was in Cancun, Mexico. In this episode of See What Show, I speak to director Roland Emmerich, and the cast, John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandie Newton.

Twitter Lockout?

2009-11-10T11:52:38+08:00

Am I the only chap locked out of Twitter? I cannot seem to get in via any of my apps or web.

How am I able to share with the world what I had for breakfast like this???!!!

In other (late) news, Miley quits Twitter and raps about it.

And Hitler gets mad about Twitter downtime too.

And WHAT THE WHAT! Youtube is now joining HardwareZone's annoying in-your-face popup advertising practices too? Say it isn't so!

(While I am at it, let me just say that Hardwarezone's new annoying ROUND popup banners really take intrusive advertising to a new level.)

mrbrown in Bandung: Kawah Putih and other sightseeing

2009-11-10T10:17:00+08:00

After a hearty breakfast in the Sheraton Bandung, it's sightseeing time! I visit Kawah Putih, The White Crater, found at the top of Mount Patuha in South Bandung. About 1200m above sea level, the lake smells of sulphur. I also meet some tea farmers, and visit Rumah Stroberi, a strawberry farm where you can pick your own strawberries and drink all manner of strawberry drinks.

Channel 8 programs getting racier?

2009-11-09T21:28:13+08:00

Is it just me or does that silly housewives tv series on Channel 8 have a rather Yangtze-cinema soft-porn title: 主妇的春天 (Zhu Fu De Chun Tian)?

The English title of this Chinese series is innocent enough: Housewives Pte Ltd.

I bet many Ah Peks tuned in only to be disappointed.

And no, I don't follow it. I just happened to see it on the coffee shop tv while having dinner.

Union wants you to be Cheaper, Better and Faster

2009-11-09T11:55:25+08:00

The FDAWU (Food, Drinks and Allied Workers' Union) produced this music video and dedicated it to the NTUC.

I am not sure if the video was being satirical or it is really asking workers to be "cheaper, better and faster".

According to this tweet, the FDAWU was merely echoing the NTUC's "call on all to get onboard CBF bandwagon".

CBF sounds like a Really Bad Word.

Insing column: mrbrown and the Graduation

2009-11-05T14:19:20+08:00

Latest weekly Insing column is "mrbrown and the Graduation"

Excerpt:

My son Isaac recently graduated from kindergarten and his school, run by a Chinese church, organised a graduation concert.
"Make sure you are free on Friday evening, ah. Don't make any work and gaming plans for that day, ok?" The wife said. "He is performing at the concert and you cannot miss it."

Of course I was not going to miss this. How could the wife even think that I would forget an important date like this?

I quickly called off a session of LAN gaming with the mates.

The original plan was for just the wife and I to attend the event together, to keep things simple. My dad had his Friday evening plans, my mom was overseas, and we thought it best to leave Faith and Joy at home with the helpers.

Then my dad said he was able to make it after all, and the wife suddenly felt bad excluding Isaac's older sister and younger sister, and the helpers who look after my brood and who adore him to bits. And that was how a simple event became a village outing for our clan. (cont'd)