Friday, September 24, 2004
Material Girls
Material-Girls.com
I bought Materials-Girl.com as one of the singers songwriters in this new group, Chen Shanni, made a distinctive and politically charged brilliant live 2cd album as a solo act. Often at the forefront of Mandarin pop, her releases were stylistically varied. She has been known to do indie weirdly jangly pop to stripped down politically charged songs to commercially exploitative love songs.
Material-girls.com takes a leaf out of chicks on speed with their spoofy group and album name, lyrics and electroclash pop cheesiness. It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand the lyrics because the songs are mostly refreshingly dancey and unlike most Chinese pop.
However, if you do read Chinese and listen to Chinese pop songs, you will realize that the lyrics are contemporary. Lyrically, they are often inane, idiotic and laid back punk.
Highly recommended.
Material-Girls.com
I bought Materials-Girl.com as one of the singers songwriters in this new group, Chen Shanni, made a distinctive and politically charged brilliant live 2cd album as a solo act. Often at the forefront of Mandarin pop, her releases were stylistically varied. She has been known to do indie weirdly jangly pop to stripped down politically charged songs to commercially exploitative love songs.
Material-girls.com takes a leaf out of chicks on speed with their spoofy group and album name, lyrics and electroclash pop cheesiness. It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand the lyrics because the songs are mostly refreshingly dancey and unlike most Chinese pop.
However, if you do read Chinese and listen to Chinese pop songs, you will realize that the lyrics are contemporary. Lyrically, they are often inane, idiotic and laid back punk.
Highly recommended.
Sunday, September 19, 2004
A Christian Response to Homosexuality
By NCCS
The National Council of Churches in Singapore advocates that homosexuals should not be discriminated in areas such as discrimination, but however, undergo “pastoral care” to “reorientate” back to heterosexuality; or at the very least, practise celibacy.
Without a practical, tried and tested method of reorientation and celibacy, one is left to about the effectiveness of the method of pastoral care as suggested by the Council of Churches.
The stand and methodology of the Council of the Churches is similar to ex-gays or reparative groups based in the United States that claims to be able to “cure” homosexuals though they have never been able to do so with convincing scientific results.
Besides preaching pastoral care, the church council also urges the government to maintain current legislations against homosexual acts and ban legislation on groups that represents gay interests.
It is apparent that the church council is intent on politicizing the issue despite its claims. By insisting that homosexuality is a sin according to their interpretation and imposing it on the nation, their action effectively rules out how other homosexuals feel (Christian or not); which is in actual fact, a form of sexual prejudice and latent homophobia.
Overall, A Christian Response to Homosexuality tries to mask poorly researched material, which lacks credible scientific and theological data to support its call. As an example, the book claims that HIV infection in Singapore is made up of mainly homosexual contact though the reverse is true.
Invisible Trade
By Gerrie Lim
The Invisible Trade is a collection of interviews of female escorts, gay male escorts and female karaoke hostess who divulges the trades of the tricks without imposing moral judgements on their livelihood and lifestyles.
The result: a fascinating and amusing collection of stories of sexual behaviours that one would hardly believe is happening in Singapore.
From asphixation to feet worship, to golden showers and humiliation, The Invisible Trade exposes the darker and unknown sexual side of squeaky clean Singapore.
A must read.
By NCCS
The National Council of Churches in Singapore advocates that homosexuals should not be discriminated in areas such as discrimination, but however, undergo “pastoral care” to “reorientate” back to heterosexuality; or at the very least, practise celibacy.
Without a practical, tried and tested method of reorientation and celibacy, one is left to about the effectiveness of the method of pastoral care as suggested by the Council of Churches.
The stand and methodology of the Council of the Churches is similar to ex-gays or reparative groups based in the United States that claims to be able to “cure” homosexuals though they have never been able to do so with convincing scientific results.
Besides preaching pastoral care, the church council also urges the government to maintain current legislations against homosexual acts and ban legislation on groups that represents gay interests.
It is apparent that the church council is intent on politicizing the issue despite its claims. By insisting that homosexuality is a sin according to their interpretation and imposing it on the nation, their action effectively rules out how other homosexuals feel (Christian or not); which is in actual fact, a form of sexual prejudice and latent homophobia.
Overall, A Christian Response to Homosexuality tries to mask poorly researched material, which lacks credible scientific and theological data to support its call. As an example, the book claims that HIV infection in Singapore is made up of mainly homosexual contact though the reverse is true.
Invisible Trade
By Gerrie Lim
The Invisible Trade is a collection of interviews of female escorts, gay male escorts and female karaoke hostess who divulges the trades of the tricks without imposing moral judgements on their livelihood and lifestyles.
The result: a fascinating and amusing collection of stories of sexual behaviours that one would hardly believe is happening in Singapore.
From asphixation to feet worship, to golden showers and humiliation, The Invisible Trade exposes the darker and unknown sexual side of squeaky clean Singapore.
A must read.
