Blu Jaz

Another Bali Lane gem, Blu Jaz café has decently priced drinks, food, funky furnishing and decor, live music, and on Mondays, a 10-piece jazz band! Seems to be experiencing expatrification, which would really be a pity. I've yet to properly spend an evening there, so well, there'll be more to come on this post.



11 Bali Lane, and there's music on other nights, too. Check out http://blujaz-cafe.blogspot.com/

Straits Records

Tucked away on the cooler side of Bali Lane is Straits Records, a gem of a CD store that i discovered only yesterday. Occupying the first storey of a conservation shophouse in the Kampong Glam area, it manages to be urban, edgy, cosy, grungy, and all-round oozing with character, without being the least bit pretentious. Best of all, it specialises in local and regional bands, and boasts an impressive collection of both CDs and cassette tapes. If your knowledge of the local music scene starts and ends at Humpback Oak (my case), Din, who runs the place, won't hesitate to give you recommendations, explanations, introductions, or just a bit of conversation. There's even a sofa inside the store, a comfy little bench right outside, and a table soccer in the five-foot way.



Straits Records is the essence of what this blog is about: Local art, local tastes, local people. Those of you who already knew of its existence should have told the rest of us, and those of you who have never heard of it before, it's time you did. 22 Bali Lane, Bugis MRT

Work-in-progress

Here's an exerpt from what i was telling someone very close to my heart about my ideas for this blog:

...I've been thinking about the local arts blog that i told you about... I'm still not completely sure as to what the fundamental message the blog should communicate. Well, actually i do... i want the blog to tell people that they should be proud of being singaporean, regardless of who they are - as long as they grew up here. i'm hoping that i can communicate this by featuring local artists, who express (in my opinion) the city's soul, and local cafés and pubs (local as opposed to starbucks, hooters and other imports) that are modern, urban, and distinctly local in their flavour and clientele, and thereby express this city's life. I'm still thinking of what to call the blog, and how i can best express the blog's purpose as simply and as succinctly as possible. I'm also thinking about how exactly to go about featuring those artists, musicians and places. I think i'm going to have to try and find like-minded people who can help me: hence the importance of coming up with a clear statement of purpose.

Items that should appear in this blog:

Local poetry. Links to local music. Interviews with local artists. Photography. Links to good singaporean blogs. Reviews of good cafés and pubs. A bit of political commentary. Reviews of plays. Playwrights. Local composers and jazzmen (yes, they exist). Singaporeans overseas. And everything else in this vein.

I hope this actually happens. If you're interested in collaborating, email me: jf.khoo@gmail.com

If anyone has a better title than "Art for this city's soul", drop me a note.

Jazz and Coffee

A first post on a new blog owes it to itself to have at least a smidgen of symbolism. Here's a poem by siaunuren, a good friend of mine, who's poetry I've only recently discovered. Visit her site, there's some good stuff there!

- art class-

they said, we want bright colours

and we want the sun yellow
and the sky blue
and the flowers red

but what if i don't see it like them

and i want the sun bleeding
and the sky jaundiced
and the flowers cold

i'll colour it my way but
they'll tell me i messed up, screwed up, fucked up.
and then some.

ho-hum.

For more, visit http://siaunuren.blogspot.com/