Idol: The Final Three!

Jeanmarie Says: The homestretch is finally upon us.

Alas, I have no reason to watch American Idol any more now that my favourite contestant, the amazingly hot and cool Jason Castro, is out of the running. I knew he’d never win the whole thing, but he was such a joy to watch - for both good and bad reasons.

Teen dream David Archuleta is still the one to beat, as he fits the Idol formula. Pleasant looks? Check. Popular? Check. Solid vocals? Check.
Plus, I can imagine him singing his little heart out to yet another faux-inspiring message song that we’ll be forced to endure at the finale (eg: Fantasia’s I Believe, Taylor Hicks’ Do I Make You Proud, Jordin Sparks’ This Is My Now).

Still, I am convinced David A is in actual fact a robot being remote-controlled by his stage dad from the studio audience. How else to explain why he always can’t seem to think on his feet and come up with at least one interesting response to Ryan Seacrest’s questions? Seems as if he’s only programmed to do 1) nervous laughter 2) lick his lips 3) gasp and hyperventilate 4) shake his head in disbelief and fake modesty when receiving praise

Rocker-with-the-combover David Cook is not my favourite either, althought he’s the best of the worst in my books, but only because he’s the most musically inventive. But what do Chris Daughtry and Bo Bice have in common? Rockers never win, no matter how much they deserve to.

I’m expecting a David vs David finale, but not if lone female Syesha Mercado can help it. Call it the Katharine McPhee effect, when she sailed past her far superior male counterparts Elliott Yamin and Chris Daughtry and snuck into the Top 2. Syesha just has to turn on the waterworks and wear a sexy dress one more time this week and her place should be secured.

After all, it’s around this time in the competition when a shock elimination happens - Jason being booted off before Syesha doesn’t count. Remember how appalled we were when sure-things like Melinda Dolittle, LaToya London and Chris Daughtry were robbed? Don’t say I didn’t warn ya.

Tell Us: Who do you think should win American Idol this year? How do you find this season and the quality of its contestants compared to those in the past?

You can leave a comment here or e-mail us at tnpshow@sph.com.sg. Don’t forget to leave us your contact details: name, age, occupation and e-mail address or telephone number.

Nuptial Gender Bender

Sheela Says: The latest Hollywood lightweight rom-com, Made Of Honor, has Patrick Dempsey (Dr McDreamy of TV show Grey’s Anatomy) playing a maid of honour to his best female friend whom he just happens to be in love with. Julia Roberts did the same thing 11 years ago in My Best Friend’s Wedding.

While I would hardly take inspiration from a Hollywood rehash about swopped gender roles, there is something to be said about that.
If I had married the white wedding way, I would get my best male friends to be maids of honour along with my gal pals.
I would just call them mates of honour - mate being the Aussie slang for friend.

Gender stereotypes are just so last century.
My guy friends have seen me through the best and worst of times.
Not to have them be a part of one of the most important events in my life doesn’t make sense just because they don’t fit some societal stereotype that a maid of honour should be female.

I am obviously not the only one who feels that way.
As part of the film’s promotional blitz, local advertising manager Ashley Thng got her best mate Alvin Aw to be her maid of honour at her wedding in a cinema, which was held right before Made Of Honor’s gala premiere. And her husband was totally cool with it.
So when it comes down to it, friendship trumps gender stereotypes any day.

Tell Us: Would you consider having a male maid of honour on your big day and would your husband-to-be mind? How would you feel if your groom had a female “best man”?

You can leave a comment here or e-mail us at tnpshow@sph.com.sg. Don’t forget to leave us your contact details: name, age, occupation and e-mail address or telephone number.

Money Matters

Raven Says: Somewhere, at some point, it was decided that people were generally stupid and lazy and had to be treated like donkeys.

So, in order to get them to work, a carrot was dangled in front of people’s noses and they were rewarded according to the amount of work that they did.

Some people figured out that if they could do things that other people could not do, they could get more carrots. And so society evolved to the point that we’re at now, where most of us still work for carrots despite the fact that we hate the work that we’re doing.

Freud said: “No other technique for the conduct of life attaches the individual so firmly to reality as laying emphasis on work; for his work at least gives him a secure place in a portion of reality, in the human community.”

It does tempt the question that each of us needs ask ourselves: Are we merely donkeys chasing carrots, or do we run free busying ourselves with activities that are worth the passing hours of our life? Is money really all that matters?

Tell Us: Can you genuinely say you’re happy with your job? Do you think you’ve been rewarded according to the work you put in? And does money really rule over passion?

You can leave a comment here or e-mail us at tnpshow@sph.com.sg . Don’t forget to leave us your contact details: name, age, occupation and e-mail address or telephone number.

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 Letters Via E-Mail

Cost of living is spiralling upwards at very constant and speedy rate but wages are never increased at the same rate. Hence, the need to stay on your hated job is inevitable especially so when you realise that you will never get the same if not higher salary when you switch jobs. Though I am working in a specialised industry, I am indeed not happy with the salary because it does not commensurate with the responsibilities borne. But to switch jobs is the most dangerous act to do primarily due to my secondary education though I have bags of experience in this industry. So we are not donkeys per se but realistic and pragmatic persons.

Paul Antony Fernandez

Of course money matters. Otherwise why are we working? Passion is also a drive of motivation, but usually work presides over passion. Especially if the industry is a creative one. For example, being in the media industry myself, clients often demand to do the work their way. Overtime, our creativity dies with the client input and along with it our passion. Am I happy? This question really depends on whether we adequately paid? If there is no passion in the job, the money have to be enough to balance out our emotions attached to a job. Other factors can also motivate us beside money and passion, however these are secondary.

Catherine Ching

I have been working for nearly 10 years. And I’ve job hopped, never staying for long in any particular company. However that changed when I joined my current company in January 2006. It was truly a blessing in disguise, because, before I went for the interview for this job, I was offered a position at a prestigious law firm, but somehow, my job offer was retracted by that law firm and I was back to being jobless again.

With this job, I am very blessed because I truly love what I do, and I have a very good working relationship with my superior and colleague. After encountering (and unwittingly) being part of office politics in my previous jobs, I am grateful that I enjoy a very harmonious relationship with my co workers in my current job. I would actually prefer to work in a good conducive working environment with lesser pay, than being highly paid but miserable at work. Perhaps money doesn’t really motivate me.

I look forward going to work each day, and I’ll actually miss my colleagues when I’m not at work! I guess after so many years, I’ve met many good and bad people alike, who have somehow influenced me that what matters most is your happiness and mental health. Money can always be earned.

Your happiness and mental stability should always be a first priority. As for getting rewarded for the work I’ve put in, well, I’ll give it more time and see how I can progress and grow with my company.

Sarah Rae

Variety For Funny Bone

Sheela Says: I am a big fan of stand-up comedy.
Nothing says good night out for me than drinks with your best mates and a rip-roaring time at your local comedy club.
Which makes me wonder why aren’t there enough comedy clubs here.

It is not that we don’t have the talent.
Every time there is a comedy production involving Hossan Leong, Sebastian Tan, Irene Ang or the Dim Sum Dollies, the shows are usually sold out.
And let’s not forget Kumar’s weekly gigs at his regular spot at the 3 Monkeys Café- you have to make reservations to watch his shows otherwise forget about it.
Even the foreign shows like the Melbourne Comedy Festival Roadshow have sold out here.

Whether the humour is local or foreign, Singaporeans will pay good money to have their funny bone tickled.

I believe there is room in the local nightlife scene to have a few comedy clubs. It offers variety to people looking for a good night out. Not everyone wants to hang out at a nightclub just drinking and dancing. They want to have a bit of a laugh as well.

Tell Us: What do you think of the standard of comedy clubs here? Would you like to see more of them? Does Singapore have room for more local comedians too?

You can leave a comment here or e-mail us at tnpshow@sph.com.sg . Don’t forget to leave us your contact details: name, age, occupation and e-mail address or telephone number.

Nazi No-No

Maychoon Says:On which planet does German dictator Adolf Hitler - you know, mustachioed mass murderer and mastermind of the Holocaust - symbolise anything revolutionary?

Apparently, it’s Korea. We know that because a controversial Korean skincare commercial by South Korean brand Coreana starring actress Park Jin Hee has caused a flap around the world. In it, she’s wearing a Nazi-inspired military uniform.

Sirens wail in the background, German voices fill the air, a bomb explodes and raucous cheers resound. Then comes this message: “Even Hitler didn’t have the East and West.”

No matter how “revolutionary” this lotion’s moisturising and calming effects supposedly are, Hitler and cosmetics just don’t go. Unless of course you are a fan of The Producers and believe that the man was really gay.

But seriously, what the hell were they thinking? Or maybe they weren’t.

This pro-Nazi concept sparked outrage among foreigners in Korea and beyond, leading irate officials from the Israeli Embassy in Seoul and the US-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights organisation, to send letters of complaint to Coreana.

Eventually, good sense prevailed and the advertising campaign was withdrawn.

Oddly enough, the South Koreans themselves have remained apathetic and insensitive to the atrocities committed by the Nazis during World War II. Most of the mainstream media in South Korea didn’t even bother pursuing the story, nor did Jin Hee come out to make any statement.

However, you can bet your last won that they’ll be singing a different tune once anything Japan-friendly comes into the picture.

Tell Us: Do you think such ads cross the line of good taste? Are consumers getting more sensitive? Or should all things Nazi remain taboo?

You can leave a comment here or e-mail us at tnpshow@sph.com.sg . Don’t forget to leave us your contact details: name, age, occupation and e-mail address or telephone number.

Get Connected

Sheela Says: Despite my stand that the Internet is a cowboy town whose dark elements need to be reined in, it has become a boon for the wallflower.

Special interest groups on social networking sites like Facebook, Orkut or MeetUp have given shy ones a chance to get off the wallpaper to mix and mingle with other human beings. If you have a hobby, there is sure to be a group online who is organising an offline event where people can meet, talk and share.

Like the a group of local internet foodies who meet up regularly at a nice restaurant or at local hawker centre to talk about food and to just get to know each other in a stress-free, non-threatening environment.

And if you’re new in town, such groups are godsend for making new friends and possibly meet new romantic partners in a new city. Hardly surprising, Cupid has struck a number of people in these groups. One foodie told me that a fellow member, a 17-year-old student, was painfully shy when he first started coming for the foodie meet ups. Over time, he loosened up, became confident and his conversational skills got better. His future on the dating circuit just became brighter.

Tell Us: What do you think of these online groups that organise events offline? Are you a member of such a group? Would you join a group like this?

You can leave a comment here or e-mail us at tnpshow@sph.com.sg . Don’t forget to leave us your contact details: name, age, occupation and e-mail address or telephone number.

Playing the Game

Raven Says: By now, I’m sure you may have heard of The Game, the best-selling book by Neil Strauss which teaches you how to go from “average frustrated chump” to “master pickup artist”.

But is it really just a loser’s guide to getting laid, or is it less cretinous than initial impressions lead you to believe? The book arouses your curiosity as the story follows a ‘geek’ into a remarkable world of insecure boys who spend years trying to find their confidence and manhood through the pickup of depthless women in nightclubs. These guys have no confidence, no charm and really nothing going for them at all, so they have to fake it and that is their game.

The book was featured on the New York Times Bestseller List for two months after its release in September 2005 and it will soon be adapted into a film. This just highlights how many tepid and clueless men there really are out there.

But behind the psychologically juvenile methods and strange sad stories recounted, there is some pretty amazing writing. Strauss guides you through the full bodied recollection of a traveled vein with the hand of a master, deft and confident. Though some people revere this book as the ‘bible of picking up club sluts’, I argue that the real mastery in this book lays in the art of penmanship, not physical prowess.

Tell Us: Have you read The Game? Do you like it? And do you think a book can actually teach you how to seduce the opposite sex?

You can leave a comment here or e-mail us at tnpshow@sph.com.sg . Don’t forget to leave us your contact details: name, age, occupation and e-mail address or telephone number.

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LETTERS VIA E-MAIL

It is too simplistic to think that there is a set of method that can seduce the girls. I’m sure even under heavy intoxication our girls are more sophisticated than that. I think that this book is rather degrading to the girls but boost the males ego making them think that there is a simple solution to “getting the girls” in the club. Moreover, western culture differ from local culture quite abit.

Tan Kian Chong

Footloose!

Jeanmarie Says: Reality TV dancing shows are becoming a dime a dozen these days. There was that highly-entertaining So You Think You Can Dance and the missable Wade Robson Project. There’s also a new one coming up from the producers of Project Runway called Step It Up. And of course, here in Singapore, we had our very own The Dance Floor.

Now comes the successful Dancing With The Stars (DWTS), which has seen six seasons in the US, and will be premiering on TV here this week. The show has been such a hit over there, every episode gets dissected and analysed obsessively by fans on entertainment websites and blogs, and the show’s participants travel around the US in DWTS tours.

And of course, what would a reality TV show be without the stars? Has-been actors like Mario Lopez, Joey Lawrence and Jennie Garth have seen a new lease of life after being part of the show. And who wouldn’t want to see one-legged Heather Mills kick up a storm doing the cha cha? Or deaf actress Marlee Matlin negotiating the tricky tango without being able to hear the music?

But how about a local version with our own local celebrities? After all, the DWTS has spawned overseas in countries like Austria, Italy and even the Czech Republic. And let’s face it, The Dance Floor, while it was entertaining, didn’t really make you want to tap dance across the living room floor.

Tell Us: Are you looking forward to Dancing With The Stars on TV? What about a local version? Which local celebrities would you like to see in it?

You can leave a comment here or e-mail us at tnpshow@sph.com.sg . Don’t forget to leave us your contact details: name, age, occupation and e-mail address or telephone number.

Plastic Princess

Raven Says: As times roll on, I feel an impending sense of doom.

Not about my career or future, but about my face, my skin and my body in general. I feel like I’m slowly turning into a wrinkly potato and there’s nothing I can do about it. Maybe it’s my industry, famed for magnifying beauty until it’s burned out, but that aside, there’s very few of us who are immune to the emotional sadness of aging, no matter how little vanity we think we have.

The stretch of our waists and wrinkle of our once-taunt skin is a constant reminder of our time running out, and this in an age where many of us spend our days in isolation behind our computers, hoping we’re getting the best out of life while secretly knowing and ignoring the fact that we’re living the farthest thing from fulfillment. Time passes and we’re way past our prime, living in the minds that we owned 10 years ago and horrified at the realization that only our outside has changed, and people’s perceptions of us with it.

I find myself wanting to scramble to lose the pounds gained, to fit into those clothes and styles that I was once able to, to not be able to notice the lines quietly etching into my brow. More than anything, I want to have known then what I know now but be able to bask in all the innocent fabulousness of youth, sans spots, droop or cellulite.

As Rita Rudner says, “I don’t plan to grow old gracefully; I plan to have facelifts until my ears meet.” And, as the wrinkles begin to smile in the mirror, I find myself starting to agree with her.

Tell Us: How far would you go in the name of vanity to prevent yourself from aging?

You can leave a comment here or e-mail us at tnpshow@sph.com.sg . Don’t forget to leave us your contact details: name, age, occupation and e-mail address or telephone number.

Muffintops

Raven Says: So, they have a fat girl in the Miss England competition. Chloe Marshall has become the first “plus-sized” girl to make it to the finals of the UK’s national beauty contest.

I know that calling her a ‘fat girl’ makes me sound anti-curves but that’s just too bad. It’s what she is, with a BMI six points over her 5’10” optimal at the young age of 17. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fine to be full figured and curvaceous; we totally adore fatties Crystal Renn, Nigella Lawson and Sophie Dahl - I’m a happy size 12 myself, but I am quite aware that society seems to be embracing fatness with arms a little too widely open.

It’s worrying that people are accepting being a bigger size when they are NOT NATURALLY THAT SIZE… if you eat more vegetables than anything else, eat only as much as you need and get out of breath exercising three times a week and you are still a size 12 then congratulations, that’s your natural size. If you are sitting on your lazy ass, placing your job before your health and eating deep fried food all over the place, then you’re just a disgusting lazy fat ass who doesn’t deserve the right to complain about your size.

We need to remember that while no size is ‘bad’ or ‘good’, it is wrong to lie to ourselves about our true size and it is right to treat our bodies as they deserve to be treated, no matter what size.

Tell Us: Is big necessarily beautiful?

You can leave a comment here or e-mail us at tnpshow@sph.com.sg . Don’t forget to leave us your contact details: name, age, occupation and e-mail address or telephone number.

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LETTERS VIA E-MAIL

This question made me have two thoughts, beautiful or not beautiful. To me, as a guy, I would not want to criticise the girls who are big in size as that might affect their conscience. However,I would not mind Chloe Marshall winning this competition because I believe she won it with her excellent personality and a little on appearance because she is one of the beautiful big-sized ladies. As said by many, never judge a book by its cover. She may be fat, but she may have done several good deeds behind our backs.

Being fat is not really a healthy sign. According to the health bulletins, obesity tend to result in health problems such as high blood pressure and Arthritis. I hope that these girls will control their daily meal intakes to have a balanced diet.

Therefore, this makes me difficult to tell whether being fat is beautiful or not, but I can surely tell whether it is healthy or not. So, just let everything be natural.

Joel Ong

Big is beautiful if only you feel confident about it yourself, and that usually only goes to people who are naturally born big.

If binging and lazy is the reason that makes you big, people will find you unacceptable.

I know this better than anyone because i used to be big size girl.

Being big size not only makes me out casted by friends, but also crushed my dreams.

So, 7 months ago i took the first step to losing weight and say bye-bye to the 60 KG big girl.

Now i am a 45kg girl, and i get better treatments where ever i go.

After all, this is a realistic world.

Wendy Chong

The thing is, regardless of whether you are overweight because you binge, or you are lazy, or you have a genetic or medical problem or you are naturally towards the larger side, the society at large will still find you unacceptable. Sadly, thinness is the norm in Singapore and anyone who deviates from this norm is termed unacceptable.

How many times have overweight people been stopped in the streets by complete strangers who rudely shove pamphlets of get-thin-quick schemes and slimming products regardless of the place you are at and company you are with?

I don’t believe these ‘ambassadors’ of thinness are doing people like me a favour, I think they are ultimately insensitive and must be given at least a crash course in proper social etiquette. Somehow the general attitude towards big people in Singapore is that 1) they are slobs, 2) they are not active, 3) they eat a lot, 4) they are unattractive and 5) they most probably are not successful.

This myopic view of overweight people is indeed immature as it shows how narrow-minded people really are. I don’t think I have to list the thousands of individuals you and I may know who are overweight AND successful in their lives! We talk about equal human rights and egalitarian beliefs in Singapore but I strongly believe that such rights do not belong to people who are simply overweight in this country.

Forget the fact that the overweight person could be an educated, eloquent or talented person by all means, that does not really matter because the person’s BMI is not within the healthy range. Yes we agree we are unhealthy by all means.

Perhaps we are even burdening the health system in Singapore by being a breeding ground to numerous chronic or acute illnesses that could affect us due to our weight. But it seems as if the addicted smoker gets a more glamourized treatment than an overweight person who may not have any habits like smoking or drinking! At least they don’t have numerous pamphlets shoved at their faces or taxi-drivers and market uncles telling them how to stop smoking effectively. Overweight people are discriminated and there exists a stereotypical view of big people and no one can possibly deny that. The government encourages Singapore to be a gracious society, especially since the country is gaining popularity amongst the foreign crowd.

Perhaps, Singaporeans can start with being gracious to people who are simply different in size than the average person you bump into. Yes appearances influence first impressions, but if the entire world were to operate only on first impressions, we most probably would not have gotten this far. Learn to be sensitive to another person’s feelings, for being overweight is NOT a crime. Sensitivity ought to be the first signs of a civilized society, but are we even close to achieving that?

And yes, big can be beautiful, and no, it is not a way to justify being overweight.

Renuga d/o Konasegaran