The Singapore national museum had changed quite a lot since I last visited the place a few years back. The front lobby area is still left largely intact, but though seemingly nothing much has changed on the exterior, the magic comes when you enter the building. The compound now spots an extended basement exhibition hall area, effectively increasing the exhibition floor area by a substantial amount.

Decked in modern-ish white and black it’s like the perfect showground for contemporary media- whether it’s the vast open spaces for large sculptures or the high walls to deck large paintings on. The two most interesting exhibits for the day are located in these two basement level exhibition halls, namely the Singapura 1960s exhibit and Cai Guo-Qiang’s controversial art.

The 1960s Singapore showcase
This exhibit “Singapore 1960″ celebrates a year on after 50 years of self-government. The display takes the form of a vibrant and colourful ‘live’ show set interjected with both noteworthy and quirky news articles throughout that year, all lined along the curved walls of time, separating the main exhibit partitions. Interesting to note are the news, advertisements and even comics shown on the papers then, some do really stood the change of time. The show features over 300 artifacts will be presented in the manner of art installations.

Interior of the museum

1960 Singapore exhibit

Clothing of the yesteryear

Featured too in the exhibit is a 100-year old Strohmenger grand piano which used used in the composing of the national anthem, sexy sarong kebayas, the Aw Boon Haw jade collection, fully sequinned Chinese opera costumes, hundreds of popular vinyl records and publications, two pairs of sweat-stained boxing gloves and a kitschy diorama; these were some of the icons that dotted post-WWII Singapore’s socio-cultural landscape.

The display is free for viewing and rather professionally done in my opinion. There are some cultural spaces familiar to Singaporeans then such as the eclectic Haw Par Villa and the defunct neon-lit ‘Worlds’ amusement parks. The whole display is rather small in my opinion and I believe could be expanded to show more of Singapore’s part than just that particular year, but that is just mostly it, would love to see more.

Passage through time

Niffy displays

Wall of vinyls

Commendably, in comparison to several museums I’ve been in London, particularly the Tate, British, Natural History and Science museums, which I can vouch for are world class museums, the Singapore national museum in my personal opinion not bad on that standard, with the exception of the smaller exhibition space.

I will touch on Cai Guo-Qiang’s gallery in a separate post.

Caught Avatar 3D yesterday afternoon at the Vue Cinema in Grafton shopping center. Yes I know it’s been a month since it was released and everyone had already watched it, let be some even 2 to 3 times, so this rant is not new. But I had not really been watching movies very often these days, let be even only major ones over the yesteryear. But when I saw the trailer to the show last year I told myself that it’s a show I will definitely have to watch.

And I did, and was blown away by the show. At the end of the show. I was lost for words, far beyond thinking ages since I’ve left a theater after a show feeling so captured, so memorized- I was torn beyond words to even describe how good the show was. Let be even forget about the high ticket price (despite it already heavily discounted at £6.95) I paid to watch the show in 3D. The experience the show provided was even worth more than the price. It was a show which I left the theater still overwhelmed, it’s just that fantastic.

One thing I like about adventure, sci-fi shows is that it immerses the viewer into a whole unique world given it’s rather bizarre ecosystem, told over a brilliant storyline and fantastic soundtrack (which I can’t stop listenng now) which amazes audiences at every corner of the planet Pandora. Well though as saying goes, sex sells, but I think the skimpy sexy Na’vis are just part of the main attraction in the show.

The show also blends in the world of nature, science and technology as an insight to a world as envisioned by James Cameron himself. All brought to life true a new frontier and setting a new benchmark for 3D and animated CG films (including human motion tracking film) since Final Fantasy, the spirits within wowed us almost a decade ago. And you need not to be an animator to enjoy the film by the polygon!

Avatar, though only 4 years in the making (since 2005) the story was actually written in 1995 over a period of 3 weeks, after James was done with the Titanic. It was set for a 1999 release, but CG and film technology was not mature enough to make the film as he envisioned it to be, until now. James is not done with Pandora just yet- A sequel is confirmed by himself and it’s rumored that the sequels could look at the interior of Pandora, possiblity introducing us more of the ecosystem as well as Pandora’s marine life. Apparently James Cameron has a whole underwater landscape mapped out. Sam Worthington (Jake Sully) and Zoe Saldana (Neytiri) have signed for a trilogy. With rumors of the return of RDA’s Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi) and Secops’s Quaritch (Stephen Lang).

“Avatar” earned it’s place in the record books as the most successful and highest grossing Sci-Fi movie in history, I won’t be surprised if this show gets an award this year for Best picture and I believe they will, deservingly. For me, this masterpiece will get definitely get a place in my video collection when it releases on Blu-ray or DVD.

Being an avid fan of the battlemech universe, this installment to the mechwarrior franchise will sure to get any battletech fans jumping out for joy. The latest trailer released by Piranha Games shows the in game-graphics bringing out all the details of the battlemechs, far better than what I recall having entered the series in Mechwarrior 2, where there are like only 3 colours you can see on screen- the sky, ground and your HUD frame.

The trailer shows many interesting aspects of the game and HUD, particularly the all irritating cockpit voice. The core failure was spectacular too, and the cockpit features free-look just like in most modern cockpit simulators now. Not sure whether the HUD displays are live or just animated textures though. There are countless ways to destroy enemy mechs, so as how you as a pilot can to- I will be damned so see how an overheat meltdown gets to as well, if only there is the possibility to spam large lasers with your coolant flush depleted.

Nothing shown on my favorite mechs, the Timberwolf aka Madcat and the Vulture, but whatever your favorite is, I guess this new game will sure allow you to experience it the best any game can offer to date.

The trailer in High-Def on the click:

As part of the series of “Meet the cast” in the uber cool game, Team Fortress, which sadly had saw me playing for a good ol’ 10 years since 1999 with team fortress classic and now it’s sequel, team fortress 2. This latest installment is an early leaked version not released by VALVe yet, but it’s still cool as hell (no pun intended). As with this video, a keen eye may be needed to get a foothold or what to expect on future item updates for the game- other new in-game items can be seen in this video as well, such as the new “Saxton Hale’s croc-toothbelt” sniper hat and the heavy’s football helmet in the intel room which are new headgear entries for the respectively classes. Anything related to the scout’s mom, well that’s dealt in pure James Bond style.

With the game’s mature theme, expect gore to go with the video haha.

Ahem, now gentlemen, the video at the click:

Ahh, good ol’ Universal studios, and with a photo booth prank to boot as well. This one really made me laugh quite a bit, courtesy with footage on the tube from CNBC. I just wonder how cooperative people will get if we have this in Singapore, or will they simply just go off marching to the complains department, haha.

A good laugh for the day- the video of Doug Zongker’s “Chicken chicken chicken” lecture at the click:

The lecture slides in PDF for those who wish to zap them for the exams.

Check out this rather cool advertisement showing the change of time, over the new, fresh and modern over the dated and old- All in a rather interest video that is pure Audi, too bad we do not get such Commercials aired in Singapore (maybe Premium autos can take a hint of there) If you watch BBC’s topgear, I think Jeremy Clarkson really needs to rethink this remarks on Audi driver’s now, or maybe he is still too in the “stone-age” with this English Cottage house.

I like the part where the Mercedes C300 is swapped for the A4, it’s like so in-the-face for the Merc. Progress Is Beautiful, yea.

You can you view the full higher resolution video at the source on Audi America.

I’ve held this update till it’s officially released today worldwide. Today will mark the day where the 3rd line of class achievements are released. This time particularly for the Heavy class. As stated by Robin Walker in the official Team Fortress 2 blog, their main goal for the Heavy is to make the big guy be more effective even when there’s no medic around, so there is no pondering what type of weapons we can expect in this update.

The Sandvich, Natascha and the Killing Gloves of Boxing
The first of three unlockable weapons planned for the The Sandvich which is very much a standalone survival tool in place of the shotgun (which nobody ‘really’ uses if you are a heavy). Eating (activating it) heals 120 health. Eating a Sandvich in the heat of the battle will make a heavy stationary and completely vulnerable to attack during the four second eating process, even when his loud, happy sounds of vigorous chewing won’t draw enemies to him the least. The Heavy’s Sandvich supply is unlimited.

The Heavy’s second unlockable, Natascha, is a level 5 minigun with 100% chance to slows enemies with her bullets on hit, encouraging enemies to think twice when attacking him and find cover. Natascha is slightly weaker than the standard minigun ‘Sasha’ (25% lower daamge), so she takes longer to finish off a victim. Natascha have the same chance of criticals as the normal minigun.

Heavy’s Natascha Minigun

The heavy killing gloves of boxing

The heavy sandvich edible device

Heavy are Killing Gloves of Boxing (or K.G.B.), will replace the Heavy’s bare fists as his melee attack. The Heavy receives five full seconds of guaranteed critical hits to any of his weapons after killing any enemy with the gloves (i.,e you can switch to a shotgun and minigun with criticals for 5 seconds), the effect can be further extended (added on) with any additional foes he kills with the gloves. The gloves offer a slower swing speed than the Heavy’s uncovered fists, making use of the item somewhat riskier than the standard equipment roll-out.

The Heavy’s new weaponry will likely see a similar structure as the previously released Pyro update, which granted unlockable weapons at 10, 16, and 22 earned achievements.