Gareth Gates-Anyone of Us

Haven't updated in a week. The other day I suddenly remembered that there was such a person as Gareth Gates and got an urge to listen to his songs again. Haha. So today I finally pulled out his album from my CD bag and imported it to iTunes. And I seem to remember his first album was better than his second.

I can't really remember what I did for the past week, but I do remember bringing Sparkle to the Vet on Tuesday I think, and volunteering at the Vet on Monday and Wednesday. Its been an interesting experience, watching operations like sterilisation and a Caesarean. Unfortch (as Trent on pinkisthenewblog.com says), the puppy was dead when they did the Caesarean. The mother had given birth to 3 puppies but one was still stuck, for too long a time I guess. It was a pretty sad day. Plus while one of the staff was showing me how to adjust the operating table, she broke the spring in the table and the Vet mobilised everyone to change operating table with another table. It took a long while and involved many tools. After that, they celebrated by opening coconuts. And Jialong didn't go on that day. Too bad for him. They had trouble opening the coconuts. Lol. The vet kept asking "Where's the guys when we need them?!", referring to JL (they call him JL. They have trouble remembering his name. Lol.) and Anton. The first day I went to the clinic, the three of us got to tend to a dog that was tick-infested. And the poor dog's owner poured kerosine on her because a couple of old men told him that that was how he could help the dog. -.- Poor doggie. Her skin was eaten through, because kerosine is apparently like acid. The dog had thousands of ticks on her too. And some of them were so huge because they were pregnant. Juji had to burst them with his forceps. And some of them exploded. Yuck. 

So, we brought Sparkle to the vet on Tuesday cos he had been limping for a few days. Turns out 

this doggie of mine is...

obese. 

And he has severe arthritis. So he has to take bone supplements, something like Glucosamine. Plus go on a diet on brown rice+broccoli+cauliflower+carrots. He's 3-4kg overweight. 

On Thursday, I went out with Yee Kei shopping. Got a top from Pull n Bear at Taka, and a normal spaghetti top from G2000. We went to Din Tai Fung to eat, it was my first time there. The xiaolongbaos are really nice!!! Better than Crystal Jade's. I met Joshua by coincidence at Prints at Raffles City, he's the only one that I've met twice by coincidence, other than Marianne. Talked to him for a while, then went off shopping again with YK. Haha.

After that we met the rest at City Hall MRT and it turns out we were the latest to meet there. Haha. The usual cliques were in their various groups, the tenors-so called "Super Tenor Combo" (Cliff, Joel, Randy...), the shanggongs, and the rest of us. We decided to go Marina Square's Cafe Cartel cos the Raffles City Cafe Cartel didn't have space for us-16 of us. Shared with Yee Kei, we were both pretty broke by then. Haha. The Cafe Cartel TV kept playing an ad that had a snail in it. Totally gross. I jerked and shrieked every time I glimpsed it. Yewsti and Yee Kei had to keep telling me when not to look. And Joel said "What? Snail ah? Very cute what!" We had the usual fun, making fun of the guys, Randy with his usual boy-boy outfit, Joel with his ugly stick-up hair and skinny jeans and shoes that were my school shoes. I told Joel I had the same shoes and he said I had good taste, I said they were my school shoes. Lol. Cliff ate at lot, but he wasn't full. He was acting full, embarassed that he's so fat eh? YK, Yewsti, the shanggongs and I laughed so much discussing about the jingdian moments of our years in AHS Choir. Haha. I had a lot of fun that night. After that Cliff and I went to East Coast cos I had the class chalet there. By then, I had been walking in my heels for 9 hours. They were comfortable shoes, but its inevitable that your feet hurt when you've been walking for 9 hours. The class went bowling, apparently. So we walked from the chalets to Macs. Which was an absolutely gruelling walk. When we reached Macs, I called the class and they didn't pick up, so I gave up and stayed at Macs for a drink and my dad fetched Cliff and I. Tiring night. Got home close to 12mn. Whew.

Yesterday i had the games at East Coast with the Youth, I didn't really play, was kinda sick. Talked to Marianne a lot at dinner, too bad she wasn't in church today. Went to church today and my sis didn't go, she chose to sleep instead. Cliff didn't go too, he overslept. Tsk. Even my dad disapproved of that. Went to Kallang food centre with my dad and Cliff after church, had a lot of food, Emperor's Chicken, and really nice tangyuan. My dad discovered fantastic pasta there, he got a chilli crab pasta for my sis for $5. Went home, and I hardly talked to Cliff because I fell asleep. -.- And I slept for 2 hours plus while Cliff played his PSP lying on the wooden floor. I feel pretty guilty now. Lol. When I woke up he had to leave for Zekun's b'day celebration. Sigh. He's leaving soon, on Tuesday, the day Ben comes back too. I feel like he's already gone, feel pretty lonesome already. Sigh. Oh well. Must force myself to start EE using the time. 

Dido's album is coming out this week!! I gotta get Amanda to download it! Lol. I'm not a big fan of hers but I do love her voice and its been a really really long time since her last album. 

This is an interesting article on what goes on in reality shows, particularly American Idol, with the recent incident of a contestant committing suicide as Paula Abdul's house:

All day, the gossip has been unfolding about the woman found dead in her car outside of Paula Abdul's house last night of an apparent suicide. As more and more details have made into the press, the sadder and sadder the whole thing has become. The young woman, Paula Goodspeed, was apparently obsessed with Paula Abdul to the point of stalking her, and when her parents reported her missing to the police they suggested that someone check Paula's house. To make matters more unbearable, Paula Goodspeed appeared on American Idol as one of the unwitting contestants who's used for comedic relief in the audition episodes because of how ashamed they should be to have such outsized dreams unbefitting their lack of talent. Inevitably, someone has dug up the video of Goodspeed on American Idol. It's macabre.

As a website that spends most of its time heaping onto the humiliation suffered by reality TV participants, contestants, stars, and would-be stars, it's hard to take the moral highground and criticize American Idol for its callous lack of respect for the sensitivities of human beings, but let's.

The fact is that most reality shows, while definitely being aware of the potential for embarrassment that awaits their attention-starved casts--thus the copious amounts of free alcohol in every McMansion, not to mention VH1's use of fart sound effects and MacPaint graphics--most shows nevertheless refrain from too much editorializing. Well, wait, let me be a little more careful, because obviously reality TV is nothing but one long editorial. We're all well aware of the heavy handed editing to the point of fabrication used to create sentences, characters, feuds, and storylines. There is no such thing as a reality show that lets you be the sole arbiter of opinion. They all work hard to guide you towards the desired emotional response.

BUT, there is something particularly insidious about the audition episodes ofAmerican Idol that IS somewhat unique in the reality TV field. Because from the tens of thousands of people who audition to be on the show, a few are handpicked by producers FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF being pointed at and laughed at by a willing nation. They don't even get to compete. To the best of my understanding of the American Idol process, by the time anyone actually sees Simon, Randy, and Paula, they've already been pre-screened in a preliminary audition by some sub-producers. So it was those people who decide which of the would-be contestants is so ridiculous as to be deserving of total humiliation and verbal degradation on national television.

Now, again, for the most part, anyone who puts themselves forward for a reality TV show knows what they are getting into at this point. This isn't season one of the Real World. The rules are well known, and most people who participate in these shows get exactly what they deserve. And to be sure, the resulting competition of American Idol, with its focus on wholesome garbage pop and the supposedly meritocratic search for genuine talent, for however much it's actually just a cashgrab of exploitative recording contracts and Coke endorsements, is still WAY more good-natured than, say, Celebreality. But it is precisely the dichotomy presented by American Idol that has made reality TV such a horrible and destructive force in our society. It holds out the promise of fame and fortune, encouraging people to strive for their dreams and insisting that anyone can succeed. But at the same time, it makes sure that the audience laughs at the frustration and fosters the humiliation that the average person often confronts just for trying. In reality, people get beaten down again and again, and it's not necessarily true that anyone can succeed. Lots of people can't. But if you didn't keep that hopeful dream alive, then how would you get the sad ones to show up so that you could make fun of them?

What happened to Paula Goodspeed was obviously the result of way more factors than simply her uncomfortable appearance on the show. That was just a chilling sidenote. But her death is a painful reminders of how the pleasantly nasty thrill of schadenfreude that makes up so much of reality TV's appeal is based largely on the pain and suffering of human beings. And that is sad. And that is our fault. Not hers.

Check out this article about the famous baby on Nirvana's Nevermind album:

In 1991, Spencer Elden was immortalized on the cover of Nirvana'sNevermind, and he's spent the last seventeen years not letting anyone forget it. Recently the high school student recreated that famous image in the same pool in Pasadena. "It remains unclear as to why Elden decided to shoot this new photo," reports MTV.com. Maybe he did it for the same reason he recreated the photo six years ago? "Every five years or so, somebody's gonna call me up and ask me about Nevermind," he told Rolling Stone in 2003. "And I'm probably gonna get some money from it." Someone get this kid a reality show already.

And if you're interested to see who is ranked as the Rolling Stones' 100 greatest singers of all time, check this out:

http://stereogum.com/archives/rolling-stones-100-greatest-singers-of-all-time_034931.html?utm_source=bb&utm_medium=mc

Out this week:

BEYONCE (11/18)
I am Sasha Fierce
Columbia (Sony)

DAVID COOK (11/18)
David Cook
RCA (Sony)

DIDO (11/18)
Safe Trip Home
Arista (Sony)

NICKELBACK (11/18)
Dark Horse
Roadrunner (WEA)

SHONTELLE (11/18)
Shontelligence
Univ Motown (UMD)

ZAC BROWN BAND (11/18)
The Foundation
Atlantic (WEA)