The UrbanWire

People revel the start of 2009 with 10,000 wishing spheres floating in the background

Singapore celebrated 2008’s final hours at one of the biggest countdown parties in town at the Marina Bay.

While celebrities prepared for the Countdown Show at The Float @ Marina Bay, thousands attended free performances at Esplanade’s Outdoor Theatre. Bands, such as Quasimodo, You and Whose Army?, and Tiramisu, kept the crowd excited with energetic shouts and brisk dance manoeuvres .

In between gigs, New Year wishes and shout outs by various celebrities, embassy ambassadors, spokesmen, and other people were projected at the Theatre. UrbanWire had concluded that 4 most used words were: “Trying”, “Challenging”, “Difficult”, and “Uncertain”.

Except the Paralympians, who state their admirable goals of breaking their personal limits and soar to greater physical achievements. Salute.

We know the past year hasn’t been easy, but there’s really no need to remind us (over and over and over and over and over). Yawn.

2009 is a wonderful year of opportunities. Whether good or otherwise, UrbanWire says: CELEBRATE THIS NEW YEAR. 

As if reading my thoughts, an elderly man left his seat in the middle of Quasimodo’s gig and started to dance in front of everybody. Boy, did he swing and sway. He put everybody young in that crowd to terrible shame.

Meanwhile, Channel 5 celebrities had gotten the crowd groovy at the Marina Bay SINGAPORE ‘live’ Countdown show. Despite haunting voids, reminder of a cancelled Party @ The Float, the crowd engaged in frenzied screaming and a Marina Bay Wave, adapted from the Kallang Wave.

While Gurmit Singh, Michelle Chia, Fiona Xie, Utt, and Andrea Fonseka made valiant attempts at hosting, homoegrown stars, such as Taufik Batisah, Hady Mirza, Adrian Pang, Jade Seah, Broadway Beng and Phua Chua Kang, and Rabbits from Superband, wildly entertain.

We heard regional rock band Rivermaya also came to wow the crowd, but we weren’t able to catch them for you because we had to prepare to capture enthralling fireworks.

Here are some more pictures:

Happy New Year, dear reader.

Photographs by Lee Xian Jie

With less than 25 hours from glorious 2009, it’s only fitting to leave you with Billboard’s Magazine’s Top 25 music hits in this exciting 4-and-a-half-minute mash up by DJ Earworm: “United State of Pop 2008“. (Read more)

Here’s what the UrbanWire thought would aptly describe Ben & Jerry’s Chunk Fest: Yummy, rockin’, fabulously fun and absolutely moo-licious.

And oh, did we mention yummy for the ice cream already?

Even the sporadic rainy weather and muddy fields could not dampen the spirits of the huge crowds thronging Fort Canning Green on Dec 6. There were people dotting the greens, with some settling down for picnics, and others busy taking snapshots of the good time they were having.

As the day wore on to evening, people were still making their way in to have a great time with friends and family.

Ben & Jerry’s hippies posing for the camera.

With fortune-telling tents, airbrush tattoo services, graffiti painting and caricature drawing lining the side of the sprawling open area, the crowd was spoilt for choice with the wide variety of fringe activities available.

But how could we not mention the highlight of the Chunk Fest? The Vermonster Eating Contest.

When huge tubs of ice cream were plonked down in front of them, some teams appeared slightly nervous, some were busy stretching in preparation, while others simply gazed longingly at the ice cream in the unbelievably humid weather.

With standup comedian Jonathan Atherton emceeing the Chunk Fest, lots of laughs were guaranteed. He specifically reminded the crowd to “never ever invite the winners of the Vermonster Eating Contest home for dinner”, especially when they finished 20 scoops of ice cream in nearly under 3 minutes.

Ben & Jerry’s Chunk Fest Vermonster Eating Contest

Three Brownies & The Noodle at the Ben & Jerry’s Chunk Fest

A whole lot of chowing action later, the winners of the contest emerged. Monstertruckers took home the first prize, Three Brownies and The Noodle clinched second place, while Chunk-a-licious was the second runnerup.

The winning teams on stage.

The aftermath of the Vermonster Eating Contest.

The ice cream fanatics had something other than the eating contest to look forward to: the 12 Ben & Jerry’s flavours brought in from the United States.

The queues for the limited ice cream flavours were snaking long, at a point in time the UrbanWire estimated, hitting 120 meters. Still, the thought of licking icy-cool ice cream to beat the heat left most feeling good-natured.

UrbanWire had a taste of two flavours: Pumpkin Cheesecake and Peanut Butter Cookie Dough. While the former we would only say is an acquired taste, Peanut Butter Cookie Dough was chewy, doughy and most definitely yummy!

What UrbanWire particularly liked about the Chunk Fest though, was the employment of Flogos (Flying Logos, hence Flogos, geddit?), a foam-making machine which blasted out foam shapes such as stars, hearts, flowers and the internationally-known peace logo. As kids crowd around the machine staring in fascination, adults likewise took out their cameras to snap the adorable, fluffy-looking shapes.

Into the night, Fort Canning rocked and grooved to popular and familiar hits like “The Falala Song”, “Viva La Vida”, “Dancing Queen”, “It’s My Life” and “Take Me Out” by local bands like Tabula, Jack and Rai, Good Fellas and 53A.

For those of you who missed out on Chunk Fest or still haven’t gotten enough of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, here are 4 things the UrbanWire would advise you to do:

1. Go buy a tub of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream from your local convenience store.

2. Finish the tub while watching the above 2 Ben & Jerry’s videos. On loop, mind you.

3. Pray the next Ben & Jerry’s Chunk Fest will happen early.

4. Keep praying.

Chunk Fest pictures copyright of Brian Cheong and Eileen Kang.

The Singapore Hit Awards 2008 had less star power and attracted a smaller crowd at the National Indoor Stadium: Only 2,500 people were present at the event. Nevertheless, those who were there were treated to the energetic performances of local and overseas artistes.

Gloria Kho Yzelman, guest writer for UrbanWire brings you the highlights of this event.

The usual hot favourites like Fahrenheit, S.H.E and Jay Chou were missing. Even local songbird, Stefanie Sun, snubbed at the nominations stage for Best Local Artiste, was too busy to attend the Oct 25 event. Unlike last year, the Singapore Hit Awards was not broadcast live.

(Read more)

Koreamania gripped audiences at the Singapore Indoor Stadium as 9 Korean artistes stormed the stage with a medley of saucy and cutesy performances during the Korean Pop Night concert.

(Read more)

“I hear we’ve sold more tickets than Kanye West,” boasted Avenged Sevenfold lead vocalist, Matt Shadows, to thousands of eager fans at the Singapore Expo Max Pavilion on Oct 24. (Read more)

Way ahead of the Christmas season, Orchard Rd will be brimming with festivities as early as November.

But, we’re not talking about Christmas here, at least not yet. We’re talking about the second phase of Get Your Sexy Back for this year.

Look out for the Heeren Festive Event in November, which promises a line-up some exciting performances from talented young artistes – who are also moderate drinking volunteer ambassadors.

What’s that again about getting your sexy back, you say?

(Read more)

A feel and a taste of home.

That’s what Singaporeans from Down Under were treated to at the Singapore Day 2008 in Melbourne, Australia.

(Read more)

Touted to be one of the wildest and most happening party here during the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix season, Red Bull’s pre-race party, which was held on Sentosa’s Siloso Beach, certainly lived up to expectations.

The UrbanWire gives you a glimpse of this exclusive private party, held at Cafe del Mar on Sep 25. (Read more)

Here’s new way to deal with your inner Hulk. MOHSEN OLIVER MICHAEL puts on his gloves and finds out the truth

PHOTOS BY: Alexis Lee & Airell Ang

Anger.

We all have our own ways to deal with it. Some meditate, some take deep breaths and count slowly to 10, while a few others will resort to squeezing stress balls. But will you follow the path of some and join the Society of Martial Arts Research and Science (SMARS) – a club similar to the one found in the 1999 Hollywood movie Fight Club? (Read more)

Dearest UrbanWire readers,

Welcome to UW 2.0 beta. (I’ll tell you what the PCD have to do with this later.)

Just like Web 2.0, UW 2.0 will constantly be on beta. Expect to see changes, especially over the next two weeks – but only if you ask for them. As mentioned in my previous letter, feedback is extremely important. We can do little if you don’t tell us what you like or dislike; tell us what is important to you.

(Read more)

Their quirkiness and dissimilarity seduce you, so you stop your march home and start speaking to them. You don’t understand what they’re saying at first, but when you finally do, you marvel at their insights and how much their actions reflect life.

That’s the UrbanWire’s personification of the Singapore Arts Festival 2008.

To keep you updated on the culture vulture scene, UrbanWire has prepared a special 9-week Singapore Arts Festival edition that will last from today till Jul 13. In this edition, expect to find reviews, profiles about the interesting people behind these productions and feature articles that will discuss the different themes in the festival. (Read more)

(Read more)

It’s 12 days before Christmas and UrbanWire has a special treat for you all the way up until the clock strikes 12 on Dec 25 and the sleigh bells start ringing.

We present to you our first 12-day Christmas edition, specially designed to prep you if your events and gifts lists are a little less full than you’d like, offer you a fun-filled and festive reading experience that will spice this Christmas up more than the usual and get the holiday spirit going.

Get the latest updates on the wildest Christmas countdown parties and nightlife promotions not to be missed on Dec 22 & 23 and the best tips on how to spend less for more presents on Dec 14.

If your pocket’s been hit by the crazy inflationary prices this year and you’re starting to panic, look out for our solution on Dec 18 to spending absolutely nothing on gifts but yet not missing any of your loved ones.

(Read more)

Just because you don’t own a credit card doesn’t mean you cannot enjoy the privileges that come with it.

That’s the idea behind the UWtimate Download, a unique privilege programme coming to your mobile phone.

(Read more)