Singapore
ISEA 2008
In Singapore, ostensibly for ISEA 2008 conference (International Society for Electronic Art). So far out of two days only managed the opening party and a single morning session ... been too busy sampling the delights of Singapore really. We are staying in little India, which is a vibrant and alive part of town. Everything in Singapore is open late, even on a Sunday. Yesterday we had the most delicous Indian food at the Apollo Banana Leaf. In Singapore, 'Indian' tends to southern Indian - mostly Tamil. Bought a heap of Tamil music too. The guy in the shop seemed to be a bit surprised when I asked him for his recommendations. We went to a huge ramshackle department store called the Mustafa Centre. It was packed solid at 11pm on a Saturday night - its open 24 hours. We found a packet of Tim Tams that you can't even get in Australia - they were wafers with vanilla filling and dark chocolate made in Indonesia - so not even really Tim-Tams at all!
At a place called 'Food #3', as part of the ISEA program, we saw a young lady called 'Analog Girl' do an electronic performance off a Nintendo DS and vocals - Lisa bought her EP. I've got one track she did video'd on my mobile phone I'll upload it later.
Today, being my birthday, we went shopping - I got a Swiss made mechanical movement watch from Lisa for my birthday - Lisa bought some clothes. Singapore's main shopping district around Orchard St was packed solid. Singapore can be hard to move about on foot when it's like this - there's no clear sidewalks delineated, you weave in and out of shopping centres and so forth. And the humidity makes it very tiring (I will never take aircon for granted ever again I promise!!!). Also I have found that Singaporeans tends to have the usual quota of idiots who walk three abreast and very slowly, or stop in the most inappropriate bottleneck locations. The MRT (tube) is efficient and clean though!
Tonight we went to buy some sandals I spotted the night before in a small shop, and on the way back we investigated a hand-made Indian art store, bought an expensive Kashmiri wool wall-hanging among other items.
Tomorrow, back to the conference - Lisa presents her paper. Might even get some of the exhibitions in. There's a huge contingent of Aussies here too - probably the biggest group of Westerners at the conference I'd say.
At a place called 'Food #3', as part of the ISEA program, we saw a young lady called 'Analog Girl' do an electronic performance off a Nintendo DS and vocals - Lisa bought her EP. I've got one track she did video'd on my mobile phone I'll upload it later.
Today, being my birthday, we went shopping - I got a Swiss made mechanical movement watch from Lisa for my birthday - Lisa bought some clothes. Singapore's main shopping district around Orchard St was packed solid. Singapore can be hard to move about on foot when it's like this - there's no clear sidewalks delineated, you weave in and out of shopping centres and so forth. And the humidity makes it very tiring (I will never take aircon for granted ever again I promise!!!). Also I have found that Singaporeans tends to have the usual quota of idiots who walk three abreast and very slowly, or stop in the most inappropriate bottleneck locations. The MRT (tube) is efficient and clean though!
Tonight we went to buy some sandals I spotted the night before in a small shop, and on the way back we investigated a hand-made Indian art store, bought an expensive Kashmiri wool wall-hanging among other items.
Tomorrow, back to the conference - Lisa presents her paper. Might even get some of the exhibitions in. There's a huge contingent of Aussies here too - probably the biggest group of Westerners at the conference I'd say.