M. Ward

Here's my recent musical discovery...Matthew Ward, or more commonly known as M. Ward.
He makes the kind of music you grow into. Not instantly catchy and memorable, but after a few repeated listens...you realise that you're unconsciously singing along. And now, he's high up my list! I like how his songs have the storytelling-type lyrics...like 60s popsongs. Perfect background music for a lazy Sunday when you're bumming around at home.



M. Ward - Chinese Translation (cute video!)


M. Ward - Chinese Translation LIVE on Letterman (gotta love the maracas-wielding Chinese guy who's sitting on the drum...and the girl drummer! Girl power!)



M. Ward - Requiem (not so cute video)

HEADLINE: Maddy Discovers How Jesus Walked On Water

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHlAcASsf6U

Don't ask me how I find these stupid videos...

Mr Blue Sky

Song of the moment! 'Mr Blue Sky' by Electric Light Orchestra. This song was written in 1977, can you believe it?? It really doesn't sound out of place at all today. It makes me so happy just listening, I really love this song! And the lead singer, Jeff Lynne, reminds me of Hyde from That 70s Show, hurhur. ELO's cool cos they were originally from another rock band. Then they formed this trying to give rock music a new direction, so they incorporated the light orchestra (a smaller orchestra popular in Britain then) into their music. Cool huh! Which actually makes their name a lil geekier than you would have thought. Cos they're literally an electric light orchestra -_-

UK really comes out with the best bands, the Beatles, ELO, Stereophonics, it goes on and on. ELO's other songs are a bit more obviously 70s, cos of the weird electronics =p but the other song down there, Strange Magic, is pretty nice too. Okay, listen now!!



Sun is shinin' in the sky
There ain't a cloud in sight
It's stopped rainin' ev'rybody's in a play
And don't you know
It's a beautiful new day hey,hey

Runnin' down the avenue
See how the sun shines brightly in the city
On the streets where once was pity
Mister blue sky is living here today hey, hey

Mister blue sky please tell us why
You had to hide away for so long
Where did we go wrong?

Hey you with the pretty face
Welcome to the human race
A celebration, mister blue sky's up there waitin'
And today is the day we've waited for

Hey there mister blue
We're so pleased to be with you
Look around see what you do
Ev'rybody smiles at you

Mister blue sky, mister blue sky
Mister blue sky

Mister blue, you did it right
But soon comes mister night creepin' over
Now his hand is on your shoulder
Never mind I'll remember you this
I'll remember you this way

Mister blue sky please tell us why
You had to hide away for so long
Where did we go wrong?

Hey there mister blue
We're so pleased to be with you
Look around see what you do
Ev'rybody smiles at you

MAAD

Hey sexy, this is what i've been talking about...

Non-Children-Friendly Children's Book

The wonders of Photoshop...




...even more friendliness at Children's Books.

Passive Aggressive Notes

I believe these speak for themselves...



(Sidenote: They sell interesting underwear...)

...more friendliness at PassiveAggressiveNotes.com

Maddy Pwns the Egg

Now, before I go into the Origami Night photos, please head over to this blog (and its flickr relative) for fabulous food photography.

Yes, big plans we had. But like they say, aim for the moon and you'll land amongst the stars. Or something to that effect. Did I just make up a quote?


So last monday, we headed to PS to execute the preparation plans for the big day. Daiso, the Japanese $2 dollar, proved itself to be a worthy resource for all things cheap and Nippon-made. Like in most other dollar stores, there were lots of crappy mass-produced items that looked like they were falling apart. However, we were still able to find some hidden gems. Some interesting things to look out for at Daiso are the sakura-inspired cookie cutters (which we tried to use for the Green Tea Cookies you'll see below), pretty cupcake liners (which you can find in this post), assorted origami papers (see below), kimono fabric pouches, kawaii notebooks (with grammatically incorrect inspirational quote included), and bamboo baskets (for a zen home design).

After Daiso, and a quick detour to Carrefour, we headed to our favourite coffee place, tcc (aka the coffee connoisseur) to make the invitations and party gifts. One thing I love about tcc is the interior design. The different outlets have different designs, but they're all equally funky and stylish. They remind me of the art boutique hotel rooms that I see on Discovery travel and living.

Eggy went for the usual Mocha Villa, while I tried out the Iced Minty Mocha (it's the one in the picture above). We then shared a third cup of Mighty Joe Young, which is a very interesting coffee-banana blend, topped off with banana slices. We always have potato wedges with our coffee because wedges are cheap and we are cheapo.

We had plans to make Geisha hairsticks with attached origami cranes and beads for distribution on Origami Night as party gifts. But even after several bouts of trial and error, we couldn't attach the beads and such to the chopsticks without them looking ridiculously homemade. I think our hairsticks weren't even remotely artistic. Luckily, the chopsticks came in handy later, as utensils rather than accessories.
Invitations were fun! We went for a "Geisha" tone which was easily achieved through the repeated use of the word "humble". Our literary juices suddenly began flowing at this point, and we churned out several Japanese pearls of wisdom.

"The armless samurai will have trouble wielding his sword."

"It is impolite to present an ugly man with a looking glass."

"A shallow river river dries up easily."

"A bamboo in the land of pandas does not remain bamboo for long."

and my favourite...

"Green tea may appear yellow."

Signed, sealed and delivered....

Now, on to the day itself... or the night itself, to be more accurate. We started with sushi. The first step was to chop up the avocado, cucumber and crabstick into sushi-size slices.

Then once the sushi rice is cooked, spread it flat on the seaweed. For sushi rice, we just used normal rice (Golden umbrella, haha) mixed with white vinegar, sugar and salt.

After laying the rice, we added the layer of sushi ingredients, which was later topped with Japanese mayo drizzled in DNA-inspired patterns. After that comes the most exciting part....time to ROLL!!

The aspiring sushi chef poses with a perfectly cut avocado maki. Notice the Japanese V-handsign and the supposedly humble, demure smile.

The sushi turned out much better than expected. We were initially quite depressed because of several rice scares...first the rice was too dry, then it became too wet, then it became too porridgey (like the porridge from sliced fish porridge, not like congee).

We chose Asahi over sake...unfortunately, I don't like beer, so I can't really say anything about the Asahi beer. It's something I still don't understand, perhaps with time I will learn. To me, it just tasted strange, nasty and bitter. It did, now that I think of it, smell pretty good. :D

We also had miso soup with dried tofu bits. This came straight from the instant miso packets. All we had to do was add boiling water to miso-paste lumps.

We also made green tea cookies! Basically, we added green tea powder (removed from green tea bags) to a simple cookie recipe. Initially, we used Eggy's sakura cookie cutters from Daiso to cut the cookie dough, but it didn't turn out the way we expected to. They looked more like mutated cookie lumps than adorable sakura flowers. The cookie dough also kept sticking to the cutters, despite our desperate flouring attempts. So we ended up making cookie balls and swirls instead. The cookie turned out tasting pretty good...we can actually taste the green tea! The texture of the cookies reminded me of those Chinese New Year melt-in-your-mouth white flour biscuits. I think they look pretty cute sitting here in the strawberry printed origami paper box.

Cold soba saved the day.

Of course, no Japanese meal is complete without green tea.

We should have called this Japanese Night instead of Origami Night...considering we BARELY did any origami.