Second Blossom

After months (or was it years?) of nesting in his 26th floor abode, abiding by his self-imposed curfew of 10pm nightly, deeperanddeeper finally made a re-appearance in the clubbing scene last Friday night at Frangipani. Unlike his last outing in La Queen mid-last year in which deeperanddeeper unglamourously yawned his lungs out when the clock struck twelve, this time it was somehow different. Deeperanddeeper seemed truly enjoying himself. Was it the beer? The ambience? Was it the companionship of the sisterhood? Or was there just too many Type A guys around? (Drool!!) Or was it a second time blossom?

The One Where Two Bloggers Conquered North and South

Last week, while fellow blogger Fable Frog descended the mountains of Yunnan in China and crossed the border into Sappa Village Resort in northern Vietnam, Deeper&Deeper was conquering the provinces in the vicinity of Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam. But the conquerers never met. However, unlike Fable who was (and still is) on sabbatical, Deeper was deeply engaged in work assignments! Poor Deeper! Nonetheless, Deeper did manage to squeeze in some time on his last day there to explore the streets of HCMC.

Rice balls that tastes quite like our apam or apong.

Imagine carrying a 20 kg barbell everyday! No need go gym liao!

Honda is the replacement word for motorcycles in Vietnam. So you say "ride a Honda" rather than "ride a motorcycle".

Plenty to shop for the rich and fashionable!

There are many old buildings in the city that still looks awesome.

Notre Dame Church

The People's Committee Building

I'd hate to be the electrician in HCMC!

If given the chance again, Deeper would certainly return to HCMC and Vietnam to explore! Plenty to see, so rich in culture, history and architecture. The country is clean and safe, and the people are friendly and gentle too. There will be persistent guys who will approach you to take you for a ride on their Honda or Cyclo (lang chia or beca) to show you tourist attractions or massage centres. There was once this guy who was so persistent in asking to take Deeper for girlie massage, but after Deeper repeatedly turn down his offer, he eventually asked if Deeper preferred gay massage instead. He claimed he knew a few good places. Wow! Suddenly Deeper's eyes sparkled and was no longer irritated! "Should I, shouldn't I??" Hmmm...

One Year On...

... and hopefully more sinful blog entries to come!

Meanwhile, in line with the theme of this blog, enjoy what I thought was the gayest-themed concert ever. After recovering from her cancer, Kylie resumed her Showgirl tour (homecoming) in Dec 2006 with the dancers dressed up like in a Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. And the male dancers were extremely hot and sexy! (Sweat!)



The guys are hot hot hot ... dressed only in swim trunks that accentuate their bulges. In between Red Blooded Woman and Slow, Kylie went up the platform and "zapped" the guys, before the guys shook/vibrated their hips. Yum!

Album Review: Hard Candy

Whenever Madonna releases a new album, you can always bet that it will never sound like any of her previous albums. She always changes her sound, musical style, just like the way she transforms her image and hair colour. Nonetheless, her hair colour has been somewhat quite consistent in the past few years, unlike during the Like A Virgin right up to Evita era.

That's why you can never get tired of her musical style. I've always liked the style and sound that she's experimented and dished out to her fans. R'n'b, broadway, rock, bubble gum pop, disco, spanish melodies, electronica, cowgirl songs, timeless ballads, 1930s era music, poetic songs (Rescue Me), those-I-just-wake-up-sexy-'talking' songs (Erotica, Waiting), those wierd sleepy beats (Secret Garden) and those weird tunes (Paradise Not For Me, Sanctuary, Mer Girl)... I like them all. That is why I have always assessed her songs individually by whether a song is lame or not. For example I thought the last part of the rapping bit in American Life was lame. Other examples: parts of Nothing Really Matters and Mother and Father (including parts the lyrics) are also lame.

I have a collection of all of Madonna's albums. I must say that Madonna had always looked fabulous in all her album covers. Her album titles are also always quite glamorous ... True Blue, Like A Prayer, I'm Breathless, Erotica, Bedtime Stories, Confessions on A Dancefloor .... so you can imagine the shock that I had when I first heard that the title of her new album was going to be Hard Candy. What's more, when the album cover art was first revealed, my first thoughts were "So unglam!".


Perhaps it fits well with the pop bubble gum candy theme. But I must say, it's really really super cheesy. I began to wonder about the quality of the songs in this album ... I mean, if Madonna's album title and cover art are unglam, and her Pharell-produced charity song Hey You which she sang at Live Aid (or was it Live Earth? whatever...) last year is any indication of the direction of musical style she's heading, then I'm bracing myself for the worst. Plus, I'm not particularly a big fan of hip-hop or Timbaland or Pharell or Justin (let me clarify that I'm a fan of Justin but for a different reason la!).

Madonna performing at Roseland Ballroom in NYC in conjunction with the release of Hard Candy yesterday.

Hard Candy opens with Candy Shop (naturally, you can't have any candy if you don't have a shop). It is probably the most unglam and lame album opener in all of her albums. After that, we have quite a few good tracks, 4 Minutes (which a friend commented that it's more of a Justin track than a Madonna track), Give It 2 Me (her second single off the album), Heartbeat and Miles Away. These songs appear to have great grooves, beats and musical arrangement, but there are minor bits here and there (certain lines where she sings) that are lame and doesn't seem to blend in well with the overall song structure or arrangement. Parts of Miles Away sounded exactly like Gwen Stefani's The Real Thing from L.A.M.B. I think Miles Away is a beautiful song by the way, but by comparison, if Miles Away is considered good, then I'll consider The Real Thing as great.

Madonna with Justin

There is only one other song that catches my attention, Beat Goes On. The rest of the songs in the album are somewhat mediocre, but most are lame, which makes the album appear weak overall. After a few rounds of listening to the songs in Hard Candy, I decided to put on her American Life CD to determine which is worse. I still can't decide.

My verdict/rating for now: 2.5 out of 5.

Labour Day Thoughts: Sabbatical

Thank God, I'm not the only one feeling that I needed a looonngg holiday. It seems that most people who've worked about 10 years or so, have either just resigned and gone for a sabbatical, or toying with the idea. Ten years seems to be a major milestone: for people to escape the bloody work environment. If you haven't got real passion for your job, it might be timely to take some time off to re-evaluate the situation and plan for a different path for the future. But a couple of months off just to get away from it all could be therapeutic.

Eva has pretty much made up her mind to quit her job after she collects her 2nd half of her bonus in July. In fact, she had intended to retire! Her mom was surprisingly somewhat supportive of this idea, and she is seriously considering if that could indeed be an option! Quite a few of her colleagues have also quit without finding another new job. They are apparently enjoying themselves not having to kow tow to their bosses and clients. Fable had also resigned and is somewhere up in the mountains in Southern China with his housemates. So jeles!! Maybe I should start planning for my sabbatical in the second half of this year.... hmmm... where shall i escape to? Maldives? Easter Island? Greece?