Kelian (Chinese for pitiful) Weilian and a dead Husky

I know I have not been updating regularly nowadays save to post up chapters of my ongoing fiction that is still seeing print, thank goodness. Just got praised by my deputy editor for the nice action-packed bits of prose in the September chapter which will be posted up here but not so soon. In the rare case that you would like to know the latest happenings, please do attempt to get issues of the mag I am writing for.

Since there was a debacle over the issue of me naming the place I am working at, I shall not mention the title of the free publication I am working for. Just know that it's basically about games and it's available in Singapore.

Anyhow, if you don't already know this, the darn Project Superstar has ended and the winner has been unveiled not too long ago. Yes people, the blind guy won and the supposedly pretty ex-stewardess did not. How is it so? Let me tell you why. It's simply pretty much due to the fact that we do not get real-life handicapped basker done good cases happening in our local entertainment scene and the viewers here, like those bloodthirsty Coliseum spectators of old are always baying for the fresh new angle to keep them entertained.

I kid you not. I would give in to the fact that the guy has talent and he could in fact sing (although I have heard talks that he is not very versatile) but in the real sense of it all, who cares? All we are interested to hear about is how he managed to overcome his disability and has come forward to show to us, every normal mother's son, that if you have the damn will, there will be the damn way. More interesting in fact is the fact that he has indeed managed to win over better-looking, more marketable wannabes to clinch the crown.

Not trying to be mean here but I sense a certain degree of media manipulation. I mean, there is an entire library of literature being written about this guy, man! And you can be damn sure that there will be lots to follow in the wake of his 'phenomenal' victory over prettier than thou, sweet young thing Kelly.

My point?

My point is that sad to say, I see no real future potential for this Kelvin, talents and all. You wanna market him in Taiwan? Sorry, but it's a pretty boy haven there what with groups like 5566 and a whole pantheon of immaculately made-up boys ruling the roost. And if you wanna market him like Ocean Ou De Yang (who should be an ugly jock, by the way), sorry hor, but no go, since we already knew how he looks like, so the whole crap about talents before looks is inapplicable.

Maybe this marketing strategy will go well with the Taiwanese audiences but what makes you, Play Music, think that he can do it overseas when obviously our most successful export for years now since Kit Chan in 1993 has got to be Steph Sun and she's not even marketed by you?

Look at Joi Chua and you will know what I mean. The girl's still practically slaving away here, trying to make it so that maybe she will invited to sing at the 2006 NDP perhaps??

Consumers are wicked and fickle bastards who only care for the 'now'. They have no qualms about discarding the unfanciful come month end and move on to newer flavors of the next moon. So will it be for Kelvin, I guess. Though, once again, I must reiterate that I respect the guy for what he is doing and has tried to do but in the end, I think he is just a helpless pawn in a TV station's efforts in boosting ratings.

You may say that the viewer's votes count for 70% of the results but dare you to say that all the votes for Kelvin are based on pure musical merit? The almost daily drumming of how Kelvin came to be how he is today also plays a damn good part. Just look at the recent spate of nationalistic NDP programmes (about not running away when you were part of the contingent during that stormy 1968 NDP, wtf?) in the wake of all the furore over not being able to elect our own president and you will know what I mean. People are very easily influenced, whether they know it or not.

Oh well, in any case, Kelian Weilian won and there's no changing the fact. I just hope the industry treats him equal and not resort to using heartstrings marketing to sell this fella. That would be unfair and downright underhand, but what do I know? I am only a writer.

Enough about Weilian

The next point of rant is going to be short. If you are the fucking wanker who let you Siberian Husky die in the sun and not giving it water AND you happen to be reading this, I curse you and I despise you and your fricking inhumane way of letting that poor mutt go like that! Nabei Cheebye!

It's damn crazy nowadays I tell you. I thought such atrocities will not happen in Singapore where the furthest people would go is to staple cats' ears and kick them to death. But leaving a dog whose natural habitat is a cold one out in the sun to waste away slowly is sick. The poor dog died with blood foaming at the mouth leh. Please lah, you wouldn't do this to a fellow human being, why do this to a poor dog that despite its size, cannot really fight against the cruel nature of Man?? May the fucker burn in Hell for this.

Heard this being mentioned on Class 95 this morning and got really upset. One caller called up and remarked that there should be a document that people need to sign in order to own a pet. But like how the Flying Dutchman remarked after that, I too feel that if such a policy is being implemented, then Singapore would be such a sad and funny place, don't you all think so?

Don't people here have a slightest bit of decency left? Must everything that we need to do and every value that we should be upholding be governed by that signature on the dotted line or the perennial fear of that lofty fine being imposed on us?

We may have one of the best materialistic standards in the world but we sorely lack the heartware. Are we going down the path of depraved Japan where young kids shoot their classmates and sniff panties? I really do not know.

I feel so sorry for the Husky, really I am.

This is depressing.