Of course, I should've looked on YouTube for Pizzicato Five music videos. Why didn't I think of doing that earlier?

Awwww! This t-shirt is cute as hell!

From an old post on Typographica - the island of San Serriffe. What a cool idea!

San Serriffe | Typographica

Some examples of great design here: Spanish pharmaceutical ads from the '60s and '70s. (From BoingBoing)

Ok: if I write at least one thing everyday, even if it be the tiniest word, eventually I will end up with a work of some sort, right?

Coudal Partners had a competition where people were invited to submit combinations of book and band names. You can see the entries here -

Coudal Partners: Booking Bands

- but what caught my attention was that they installed blackboards in their washroom. Neat.

Let's take a minute or two to remember the grand old dame of Singapore cinemas – the Capitol.

(The Capitol on Cinema Treasures)

There’s a feature on the Capitol cinema in today's Sunday Times (No links because The Straits Times has in place an anachronistic policy of locking every article behind a subscription. Perfect way to make yourself irrelevant online.) For those of you outside Singapore, or just too young to remember, the Capitol was a major cinema with much nostalgic value in the memories of many (slightly older) Singaporeans. It's still a key landmark here, right in the city centre.

(Photos, circa 2001)

Unfortunately, nostalgia alone doesn't count for much here. The article talks about the derelict state the Capitol has fallen into since its closure in 1998, after the invasion of multiplexes. Everything's rotting away or falling into disrepair due to neglect. This is painful to think about when you recall its history as a premier cinema here, with lavish (for its time) interiors. I was particularly impressed by the large representation of the zodiac on the auditorium ceiling, less so by the stylised wall-mounted sculptures of horses and riders on either side of the screen – all relics from an era when going to the movies was an experience.

No-one seems to want to take over the Capitol. Old buildings are very expensive to maintain, and when you add that to the exorbitant restoration and refurbishment costs, it becomes hard to justify why anyone would want to take over the building.

Should the Government do it? It’s easy to point at the authorities, but that doesn’t answer the real question: "What will we do with the Capitol?" It may not be completely right for the authorities to do nothing, but what are the alternatives?

The Internet has presented us with another fine, addictive use of office time:

The amazing Regret Index: I guess there is a lesson here for us all.

vote to find something new to regret
a world of regret awaits you
be a cautionary example for others
a horrible warning of life gone awry

Woody Allen's written a short piece for The New Yorker:

The point here is that in life one is entitled to a side dish of either coleslaw or potato salad, and the choice must be made in terror, with the knowledge that not only is our time on earth limited but most kitchens close at ten.

The New Yorker: Thus Ate Zarathustra

The good people at Pitchfork Media have assembled 100 Awesome Music Videos. And they truly are, starting with the video for A-Ha's classic Take on Me.

Hooray for YouTube!

Can't sleep. Off to reservist soon. I like green, but it's just not my colour dammit.

I already have a copy of Murakami Haruki's Dance Dance Dance, but I couldn't resist picking up a used copy of the Vintage International paperback, just for the startling cover art by John Gall. That was my sole purchase at Zouk's monthly flea market - Flea n' Easy.

One of my pet peeves is the abuse of the "@" symbol in names, and I thought the curators at the Singapore Art Museum latest exhibition might have been able to avoid this but no -- their latest exhibition is called Fiction@Love . What's that symbol doing there anyway? The phrase makes no sense whatsover.

In my opinion, the curators tried to be a bit too ambitious - the whole collection lacks a compelling focus, but it's worth a look (only $3 and there's the rest of the museum!). Stuff I especially liked were Amano Yoshitaka's black-and-white, close-up, Lichtenstein-ish portrait of a Gatchaman character, very different from his opulent, ethereal, and Yamaguchi Ai's "Hyaku no hana, yuki wa furitsutsu" installed in a small room near the second floor exit.

While you're there, go look in Gallery 2.7 (or was it 2.8?) for the work of video artist Paul Pfeiffer. I like John 3:16 and Fragment of a Crucifixion (after Francis Bacon).

Lately, if I'm not escaping into books or design or book cover design, I'm spending the weekend outside wandering around the fringes of the central area. I can't stand Orchard anymore, even more packed with people now that both the Great Singapore Sale and the school holidays are here.

Constrained by the small floor area, Karen and Kenny have tried to display the Moleskine notebooks for their little exhibition at BooksActually as best they can. The whole experience is a bit voyeuristic -- you are looking through someone's personal notebooks after all -- and the disposable rubber gloves provided add a fetishistic tinge.

Kenny says more books will be coming in week of 5th June. Go over and say hi.

Something to do this weekend!

Yes, I think Moleskines are overpriced too. But you don't have to buy one - just get something else from BooksActually :)

Felt like a vulture as I stumbled, hunched, into the now-quiet space, looking around for things to... buy. I'd had my eye on a poster (which turned out to be too large for my room), and I eventually left with that and a CD by local band Highrise (Nice guitar work, but I think their lead sounds awful.)

If Saturday night was the Irish wake for Cafe Cosmo, this was the church funeral. Hope things work out for the owners.

I didn't know today was Towel Day! :(

Nothing good ever lasts. The rumours are true.

Well, at least there was closure.

And in other news, The Futureheads are releasing a new album on 13th June: News and Tributes.

For some reason, I feel a compulsion to see all of Wong Kar Wai's movies before I fly off to Hong Kong.

Right. I wonder who dreamt this ridiculous sign up. Bet it was easier than thinking of ways to keep train fares down instead of raising them.