FoOie’s Haven

Finally! The last installment of my James Bond movie project, with the last 5 Bond films before Daniel Craig’s Casino Royale. Managed to finish it just before 2009.. what a great way to end 2008.

Truthfully, writing these posts have been quite time consuming. Running through each DVD to screen capture the characters, thinking of corny captions for the images, and writing them was a bit of a pain in the ass - but I couldn’t exactly stop once I’ve started.. Anyway, if any of the Bond posts made you smile or cringe (to their lameness), then my job is done. Hope you enjoyed them!

Licence To Kill (1989)

• Final movie to star Timothy Dalton as James Bond. Was also the poorest performing Bond movie in the US - although I thought the whole movie was pretty good.
• Some memorable scenes here.. a cool intro where they capture the villain by lassoing the tailend of a plane with a helicopter, and then parachuting into a wedding ceremony. The finale was cool too, with Bond singlehandedly causing the destruction of 2 drug laden oil tankers in a high speed chase scene (lots of explosions!)

Villain - Franz Sanchez

• Drug lord with plans to smuggle tonnes of cocaine to Asia after having discovered a method to dissolve them in gasoline.
• Ruthless. He caused a defection from within the CIA, and brutally murders Felix Leiter’s wife, as well as almost killing Leiter with a shark.. Goes up in flames when Bond puts his gas-coke soaked clothes on fire..

Villain - Dario

• ONE of Sanchez’s many henchmen. I’m only including him here because he’s a super young super skinny Benicio del Toro!!
• Totally didn’t expect to see him.. I love this dude’s acting roles - he always looks damn bad ass. Poor guy has a very bloody demise by falling into a grinder…

Bond Girl - Lupe Lamora (Talisa Soto)

• This latino girl is HAWTTT. Although she’s the main villain’s abused girlfriend, she doesn’t quite qualify as a henchmen cause she helps Bond even from the very beginning.
• Did I mention she was hawt? She carries herself with a lot of pride and stature in this movie, and those eyes.. those legs.. *sweat* Hotness Level 4/5.

Bond Girl - Pam Bouvier (Carey Lowell)

• A CIA informant who helps Bond track Sanchez down. An ex-army pilot, and definitely not a bimbo.
• I have to say she was pretty sexy here, especially with the famous 1980’s super short tomboy bob cut. Hotness Level 3/5.

Goldeneye (1995)

• Pierce Brosnan’s first James Bond movie. It took them 6 years to film this due to legal publishing disputes.
• I thought it was pretty good! Not as campy as the older Bond’s and definitely one of the better ones. It was also the beginning of Brosnan’s ‘high tech’ Bond films which will progressively get more outrageous…
• A traitorous MI6 agent and a Russian general with a plan to destroy Britain’s economy by withdrawing money from the Bank of England, and then decimating all electronics in that country with a satellite launched EMP attack (aka Goldeneye).
• Ultimate chase scene, with Bond driving a Tiger tank through St. Petersburg, crumpling cars and causing maximum destruction, while mowing a villain down..

Villain - Alec Trevelyan

• Sean Bean, another accomplished actor.. Plays Bond’s close friend and fellow double O agent who was presumed killed in action, but instead turns out he faked his own death and went rogue.
• Dies by falling off a huge antenna dish (used to communicate with Goldeneye), and then having the dish collapse on him.

Villain / Bond Girl - Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen)

• Downright THE most psychotic Bond Girl ever! This girl is CRAZY - she’s carnivorous, dominatrix and loves to seduce and to kill. The scene where she claws on one of her lovers chest, her insane grin, her squeals.. breathtaking..
• And her trademark killing maneuver? Crushing and suffocating her lovers with her legs. Really makes me wonder what it’d be like with her in bed.. haha.. Hotness Level 3.5/5

Bond Girl - Natalya Simonova (Izabella Scorupco)

• The sole survivor during an attack to steal the Goldeneye operating mechanism. She’s just an ordinary girl (a programmer) who ends up as a witness and gets caught up in the entire conspiracy.
• Nothing extraordinary. She’s nice. Hotness Level 2/5.

Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

• This movie made lots of Malaysians proud thanks to ‘Datuk Michelle Yeoh’s role in it - just cause she was born in Malaysia..
• It’s got one cool opening sequence with two Migs fighter jets duking it out, but the movie’s later action scenes doesn’t quite live up to its intro. You will however get to see a battleship sunk with a drill-head torpedo, Bond doing a HALO jump, a remote controlled BMW car chase and the movie’s highlight - Bond and a handcuffed Wai Lin escaping on a motorcycle.

Villain - Elliot Carver

• An insane billionaire media mogul who owns a massive stealth ship, which he uses to steal a nuclear warhead. Manipulates the military GPS to trick a British ship into Chinese waters and then sinking the ship to escalate political tension.
• His master plan? To monopolize the world’s media by starting a World War (thus creating his own news), and be the only network to supply the information..

Bond Girl - Paris Carver (Teri Hatcher)

• Used to be in a relationship with Bond before getting married to the villain. She will end up getting seduced by Bond a second time and reveal info about her husband to him.
• She dies after her husband discovers her betrayal. Poor girl. Well, I never really found Teri Hatcher particularly attractive. Hotness Level 1.5/5

Bond Girl - Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh)

• A Chinese secret agent with her own bag of gadgets and tricks. Initially pursues her own agenda, but teams up with Bond to get the job done.
• Considered by many to be the only Bond Girl that is Bond’s equal in terms of skill and independence.
• Hotness Level 1/5. Sorry for the low score Michelle Yeoh fans. I don’t know why but somehow or rather, I wouldn’t exactly ‘do’ her…

The World Is Not Enough (1999)

• I remembered actually enjoying this when I watched it about a decade ago.. It wasn’t particularly outstanding or memorable, just decent entertainment.
• Features a really long pre-title sequence in the form of an intense high tech boat chase. You’ll also get to see a more Bond ski-ing action scenes, with him single-handedly wiping out a squad of paragliding snowmobiles unarmed, defusing a nuclear bomb while traveling inside of an oil pipeline, going against a helicopter with large hanging saws, and hijacking a submarine.

Villain - Renard

• Poor guy has a bullet lodged in his brain that is slowly migrating towards the center of his head. Will eventually die, but for some wonderful movie plot reasoning - the bullet’s path is dulling his senses making him immune to pain.
• Proves that you do not exactly need a bullet in your head to do stupid stuff like sacrifice yourself for the sake of drop dead hot vixen who falls in love with you.

Villain / Bond Girl - Elektra King (Sophie Marceau)

• A rich heiress who masterminded the death of her own father. Plans to monopolize oil trade by building a pipeline to the West, and then destroying the remaining 4 Russian oil pipelines with a nuclear detonation..
• This girl is smoking! Elegant and graceful, Sophie Marceau is without a doubt one of the most breathtaking bond girls. Doesn’t matter that she’s got a bit of a flat chest here, or that the scene with her torn earlobe was a little hard to watch, or that she is super ruthless and even kinky as hell in a particular torture scene. Her imperfections contribute to her attractiveness.
• Do keep an eye out for a nipple slip when she’s making out with Bond.. Hotness Level 4/5.

Bond Girl - Dr. Christmas Jones (Denise Richards)

• God awful acting here, and totally unbelievable as a nuclear scientist. She sounded like a little girl throughout, and looks more like a blonde bimbo than anything.
• She’s got some almighty assets though.. haha. Hotness Level 3/5.

Die Another Day (2002)

• The worst Bond film in my opinion. Filled to the brim with non stop corny one-liners. Insults everybody’s intelligence with the most absurd plot ever. Overusage of CGI.. Has the most ridiculous non-plausible technology at the time - an INVISIBLE car anyone? Urgh.
• This one movie completely turned me off the entire Bond series. Thankfully it was the last of its kind.

Villain - Colonel Moon / Gustav Graves

• Probably giving it away here, but they are one and the same. A North Korean colonel, presumed killed by Bond in the pre-title sequence, he returns as a super rich dude after having considerable cosmetic surgery and gene therapy done to himself.
• Launches a huge satellite that is capable of reflecting sunshine and providing light to any part of the world. A front to secretly hide a diamond powered magnifying ‘glass’ that can focus the above mentioned sunlight into a deadly energy beam. Intends to use it to reconquer South Korea.
• First death - falling off a waterfall. Final and real death - getting sucked into a jumbo jet’s propeller engine.

Villain - Zao

• Do the screenplay writers think we aren’t smart enough to ask if those diamonds can’t be removed from this dude’s face? STUPID!
• Colonel Moon’s loyal aide. Dies by getting impaled with a huge ice chandelier.

Villain / Bond Girl - Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike)

• A MI6 agent supposedly working undercover to find out more about Gustav Graves rise to power. In reality, she’s a turned agent and is working for Graves instead.
• Dies by getting stabbed in the chest (through a passport?) in a sword fight scene with Jinx near the end of the movie.
• Carries herself with considerable stature, and a dash of unapproachable coldness. Just makes you want to break through her icy layer.. Hotness Level 3.5/5

Bond Girl - Jinx (Halle Berry)

• Plays a secret NSA agent who’s out to assassinate all those responsible for supporting gene therapy. Apparently gene therapy involves harvesting healthy genes from poor unfortunate people.. Apparently NSA find this appalling, and so must kill other people instead. Stupid stupid stupid!
• Awful! I don’t know what’s so sexy about her seriously. Hmm. Or maybe its just me. Hotness Level 2/5.

My Christmas Eve started with the usual day at the office, but the big boss got us to throw a mini party in the office for lunch. We then opened our mini Christmas gift exchange pressies.. wee! Thanks Melvin for the desk lamp, DVD booklet and cake holder!

Left the office early with Melvin to The Cathay to buy tickets for Twilight. We went over to Peace Center to play a few rounds of arcade and pool (more like getting trashed haha), before meeting up with Niki and her colleague Ashley for a quick sushi dinner at Nihon Mura.

Took the MRT to Clarke Quay after the movie and went to China One for our countdown celebration!

The 4 of us also took some pretty wacko camwhore shots (which I’ve yet to recieve from Ashley), but will put them up here as soon as I get em. Here are the more sane ones..

Melvin & FoOie

Niki & Ashley

Scanned group Polaroid by Heineken promoter girls

Slept like a pig the next day, and woke up just in time to rush over to Esplanade and meet Airin and Lai Kuan who was down for Christmas holidays.

Our objective was to get our hands on our own inflatable ‘Wishing Sphere‘, where we can pen down our thoughts, wishes, dreams, resolutions and whatnot. Come New Year, our sphere will be 1 out of the 10,000 other spheres which will be released into Marina bay as a symbol of hope and unity for 2009.

Took us quite some time to finish drawing up the whole ball - but it was quite a surreal experience. Sitting by the bayside, amazing Korean Christmas carols being performed just a few meters away, wishing placards hanging by lamps all around us. It’s hard to describe, but collectively wishing well for my loved ones and myself for that hour plus was reallllyy emo for me…

Starting out on the ball..

Haha, my cacated version of ‘George’

Our completed ball

The group next to us actually started posing the same way after seeing us do this..

My wishes for my family and friends.. The upper and hidden lower part are my wishes for humanity as a whole, while my personal wishes for myself (not visible) was on the left side..

That’s Marina Bay behind us.. filled with floating balls

Waiting for our dinner…

Dinner at Thai Express, before calling it a night. Had work the next day after all..

And in a few days.. New Years!

Airin went off to Australia for a long break and came back just in time for her birthday! Took her out for a nice dinner and was initially planning on going to Amara hotel for Korean, then to Boat Quay for French, but finally ended up in Esplanade’s Al Dente Trattoria for Italian instead.:P

Birthday Girl!

Me and my yummy dinner.

Loved the food there. My grilled red snapper with lemon butter sauce and herbs was delishious - I finished it all up (which says something). The oven baked baby tomatoes were all still attached to their parent stalk, and burst in my mouth like dumplings, while the young potatoes with skin was baked to perfection. Airin ordered sliced lobster and king prawns in a sweet zabaglione sauce which was really tasty too. Al fresco dining by the bay and fresh scrumptious seafood = a very satisfying meal. YUM..

Back at my place for the compulsory birthday song and cake blowing. Happy Birthday Airin!

Hope she likes the Charles and Keith clutch bag pressie!

Over at The Pump Room in Clarke Quay for a joint birthday celebration with Kenny the following night.

Bumped into Semil of ALLL people when I arrived there!

She was just down for the weekends and was waiting in the long queue (yeah the place was THAT happening) with her friends when she spotted me. Singapore is smaller than I thought (I seem to keep bumping into people here!)

On Sunday, took Airin to watch Bolt 3D (review in the post below) as promised her, for all her wonderful effort in planning MY birthday last month hehe..

There was a book sale in Plaza Singapura, where I blew about SGD50 on 3 large paperbacks and 4 novels. I can’t seem to control myself when it comes to books! Was supposed to meet up with Immi who was also down that weekend too but it didn’t work out..

Splurging on books

It was also the Chinese Winter Solstice Festival that night, which I used to celebrate back home every year by rolling up dough balls and boiling Tong Yuen soup with my family. Being away from home, I particularly miss the taste of home made Tong Yuen.. sobs..

Well, thanks to my cousin’s planning, I got to meet up with them for some tasty steamboat over at Beach Road where we pretended our floating pork and fish balls were Tong Yuen..

Ah Hui & Jeane

It was a happy eventful week.. Christmas was just around the corner, lots of photos were taken, and I will be uploading them soon!

Bolt 3D (2008)

• My 3rd full featured 3D film, and oh boy are they getting better and better! This is a story about a superhero dog (Bolt), who has spent the better part of his life protecting his owner Penny from the evil clutches of The Green-Eyed Man. Unfortunately, his superpowers, and all that he knows about the world is nothing but an elaborate setup from the movie studios to to trick the dog into believing everything is real (think Truman Show). Bolt gets a rude awakening one day when he finds himself all alone across the other side of America and he struggles to get himself back to Penny’s side.. while making some odd friends in the process, a depressive cat (Mittens), and a hamster who happens to be a die hard fan of Bolt’s movies (Rhino).
• This is a heartwarming family movie, regardless whether you are an adult or a kid. The Pixar team contributed to the story arc and characters, and the quality shows. Bolt’s tenaciousness, fierce loyalty and love for Penny knows no bounds and is touching to watch, and he’s super adorable as well! The characters are all unique and memorable in their own ways especially the pigeons! Jeepers, I had to suppress my chuckles every time the pigeons started talking. Mitten’s carefree despondence and perpetually lazy look couldn’t resemble real life cats any better, while the overly optimistic Rhino was an inspiration despite his craziness and “ridonculousness”.
• Pending the release of the next Pixar movie, you can’t go wrong with Bolt. But PLEASE DO try to catch this in 3D.. it’s a much more overwhelming experience.

Ip Man (2008)

• True blue kungfu films are a rarity nowadays, especially since the great martial arts actors of our decade have all declared retirement (Jackie & Jet). The one other guy I’ve been eyeing and waiting to rise up to the limelight, is no other than Donnie Yen. I have nothing but total respect for this dude after his mind blowing mixed martial arts performance in Flash Point - the most realistically brutal in any movie I’ve seen. If you have not yet seen Flash Point, you can find his scenes all over YouTube. Go catch them before watching this. And then you can imagine why I’m so excited about Donnie Yen stepping up to take his share of the wushu pie in Ip Man.
• Little is known about the real Ip Man character, save that he opened a ‘Wing Chun’ branch of martial arts school in China after WW2. He is also famously known as the grandmaster who taught Bruce Lee most of his fighting skills. Much of the movie is about Ip Man’s humble life (with generous over dramatization), how he learned martial arts as a hobby, balancing his time as a family man, while fighting only when necessary to defend the honor of his township. Movie takes on a more serious note halfway through with the invasion of the Japanese army, as he is forced to pit his skills against the Japanese.
• This film was PACKED with awesome fights. If like me, you came for that, you won’t leave disappointed. The Wing Chun style of fighting isn’t particularly flashy or fast moving, but that doesn’t detract from the awesomeness of well choreographed scenes. Suspension of disbelief was easy, and the opponents weren’t as campy as some in Fearless. As with most Asian films, melodrama was injected into it but nothing too tragic (overacted maybe). No matter how God-like Donnie Yen fights, I have to say that he still isn’t that great an actor. But screw that - Jet Li couldn’t act for nuts either. Sammo Hung’s choreography was top notch, and you’ll find yourself holding your breath whenever the fighting starts.
• The only complaint I have is that watching this in Singapore means that I have to endure a Mandarin dub of the original Cantonese version. Despite it being a Monday evening, the hall I was in was PACKED FULL. The audience was immensely supportive of the movie, laughing at scenes that I didn’t even find funny, and applauding whenever Ip Man wins a fight. Some even gave standing ovations at the end (I didn’t think it was THAT good). But hell, I WOULD watch this again without a moment’s hesitation, AND download it just to fast forward to the fight scenes. And best of all, there is going to be an Ip Man sequel, which includes Bruce Lee…
• Update: I did go and watch this again a 2nd time, and it was still good..

P.S. I Love You (2007)

• Based on the novel of the same name by Cecilia Ahern which I actually read back in January. Holly’s (Hilary Swank) wife Gerry (Gerard Butler) passes away from a brain tumor, but before he dies, arranges for a series of letters to be sent to her after his passing in order to help her recover and move on with life.
• Touching in some scenes, and mostly hilarious in others. P.S. I Love You is a pretty straight to the point chiq drama. It’s only average at most in regards to originality, screenplay, and directing. Although the film was still quite enjoyable for me, this movie isn’t going to get on any critics good side. RottenTomatoes gave this a measly 21% overall rating.
• Hilary Swank still gets my admiration for her acting prowess despite her being in such a lightweight happy movie (compared to most of her other movies which tend to skew towards a darker side). Gerard Butler, gosh I can’t imagine this was the same guy from 300. Thankfully, Lisa Kudrow’s supporting role also injected a lot of humor into an overly melodramatic film.
• Surprisingly, I much preferred this over the novel. I found the novel a little too bland and simplistic to read and hardly as emotional as the film. Of course, as with most novel adaptations, considerable changes was made to the original in order to fit and suit the big screen. These changes were done pretty tastefully in my opinion. Still, this IS a movie based on a chiq lit and you’ve been thus warned.

Twilight (2008)

• Sigh, I had such high hopes for this movie especially after all the positive comments left behind by my fellow female movie going friends. Should have realized that most of those comments were aimed only at the lead actor here, and at nothing much else.
• In short, Twilight is about a 108 year old vampire - Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), and an ordinary teenage girl - Bella (Kristen Stewart) who falls in love. Together they do teen things, like having to abstain from their overwhelming sexual attraction (disguised as bloodlust here), and deal with assignments and proms and stuff. Then of course another bunch of vampires appear to cause trouble, and some short lived lame drama kicks up..
• The on screen characters were admittedly quite smoldering. There’s nothing quite as interesting as mysterious personalities, either in the “I like to keep to myself” brooding Bella, or the stalkerish possessive “You have no idea how much I want to drink your blood” Edward. After all, which girl wouldn’t want to be lusted after as much as Edward does in this film? Oh wait, not ALL girls want that I guess - not after they realize how downright freaky it actually is.. Otherwise, most obsessive stalker nerds in this world would have landed their dream girls already - provided they have Edward’s good looks I guess. Sigh, girls. It ALL comes down to looks right?
• I particularly disliked the way Stephanie Meyer (the author of the books) ripped apart well known vampire lore, and created a watered down version fit for kids. What’s this about vampires appearing with glittery skin under sunlight? That was lame enough for people to laugh in my cinema hall. Or the fact that Edward is 108 years old, yet behaves like a lovestruck teenager. From the sound of things, it seems like there’s virtually no ‘negative’ side to being a vamp, since they can live a normal life like go to school and have a day job working as a doctor. Don’t give me crap about being turned into a ‘monster’, especially since there’s a family who can survive purely on animal blood. Diamond skin, super strength, speed, telepathy, prescience, not needing sleep, immortality, orange eyes, free lipstick, for Gods sake, TURN ME INTO ONE NOW. Also, if just a bite from a vamp can change a human, simple exponential mathematics would show that in just a few months, the WHOLE WORLD would have been converted by now (that or everyone is dead). ARGH, another fantasy movie meant for children. PLEASE BRING BACK ADULT FANTASY (no I didn’t mean THAT kind).
• Low budget with corny special effects. The way the vamps moved around (the fading effect) or the way Edward leaps and climbs trees had no style or grace to it. The final battle between Edward and the nomad hunter vamp offered a brief respite, but even that was very lacking in many departments, especially how the fight ended. There were also loads of cringe worthy corny lines here I assure you, which doesn’t help at all.
• I guess the writer hit the jackpot by creating a ‘Harry Potter’ meant for girls. Think of the whole thing as a premise for teen romance, attraction, sex, peer acceptance, proms, school life, parents, etc. Watch only if you are interested in seeing two teenagers get maddeningly infatuated with each other, otherwise I highly recommend you go pick up White Wolf’s Vampire The Masquerade RPG books or Anne Rice’s series (Interview with the Vampire) if you want proper vampire stories. Hopefully, the sequel called New Moon would be better, but I don’t have high hopes.
• What I AM waiting for instead, is for this top-notch Swedish vampire flick called “Let The Right One In” to be released. Synopsis quoted from IMDB: “Oskar, an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl who turns out to be a vampire.” Supposedly much more brutal and real, at the time of writing, it’s already made it onto IMDB’s TOp 250 and won 16 film awards (while Twilight won’t be winning any for sure)…

What Happens In Vegas (2008)

• Big names in an average chick flick. Ashton Kutcher plays the good for nothing that just got fired from his father’s company. Cameron Diaz is the uptight high strung stock broker who just got dumped by her fiance. While taking a break by visiting Vegas, they end up meeting each other, got pissed drunk -> got married -> struck the jackpot and won 3 million dollars. Of course they don’t want to stay married, but each one of them wants a share of the money. A court ruling forces them to try and make the marriage work, or they will never see a cent of the 3 million. They have 6 months to do it. Can they?
• The jokes weren’t all that great, although there were some gems in Ashton and Cameron’s acting. The plot seems a little forced, especially during the parts when both the leads attempt to make the other quit the court arrangement by doing horrible things to each other. Even more so was the way the movie rushed towards the end with the whole change of heart (yeah like you wouldn’t see it coming), which was rather fake. And then, typical of these chiq fliqs, you have to bear with the campy lines like “You bet on me, You make me wanna bet on myself” yada yada yada..
• Just an amusing flick to catch if you are bored and having nothing else to watch. Or if you like Hollywood romance comedies. If you ask me, once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.

Almost didn’t make it to ZoukOut 2008, as I had absolutely NO kaki to go with! Things just aren’t the same compared to when I was younger. Back then, there were always buddies up for all night noisy outdoor parties. Doesn’t help that I’ve just move down to Singapore and don’t have many friends here either. Luckily, Niki confirmed that she was interested in going…

If it was just another rave, I guess I wouldn’t mind giving it a miss. But I’ve heard about ZoukOut countless times during my raving years, mostly quoting it as THE party to attend in the region and I’ve always wondered what made it so special.. here’s what I found out:

• Well organized. The entrance was wide, and there was sufficient security personnel to conduct checks without causing congestion. Drink stations did get a little crowded at times - they could have sped things up without requiring us to purchase coupons, but there were plenty of stations to go around. There was enough LIT toilet booths too. Even at the end, there was free bus services to fetch the tired crowd all the way back to Harbourfront.
• 26,000 happening people attended! Although mostly youngsters, I caught a few aunties and uncles partying away. Everyone was dressed to have fun, in sandals and sneakers, shorts and bikini tops (sexyyyy). Girls would love the hordes of well built topless guys (although it was hard to differentiate the straight ones from the gays - I saw two kissing), guys were equally enjoying the bikini clad bevy of beauties. Thorough mixing pot of all races with lots of foreigners coming down just for this event, including friends I did not expect to meet there!
• Unique Mambo Jambo stage. Populated mostly by the Singaporean Mambo crowd from Zouk, this stage was packed as it span retro and pop hits non-stop through the night. It was downright weird hearing Abba and Backstreet Boys played at a rave. It was also amusing to see everyone was doing synchronized para para dance moves to the familiar songs although it was quite sissifying to see the guys pulling off those same emo hand maneuvers.
• There are loads more, from the great music and international line up, to the extravagant party costumes, great lighting / laser effects - including the spraying of tens of thousands of little paper pieces into the air to diffuse the light (god knows how they are going to clean the mess), laser and light equipped kites flying in the night sky (they looked like a swarm of UFOs), fireworks, trampoline bungy rides, the sea breeze, etc..

Anyway, just as I got off the monorail, me and Niki bumped into Ash and his friends. We split up at the entrance, hoping to find each other inside later, but we never did haha. Met a bunch of other friends inside as well, all of whom were there with their own groupies.

FoOie & Tanya

Niki with her devil horns

FoOie & Chak

I arrived at the Main Arena while Henrik Shwarz was spinning, but haven’t yet got in the mood to join in. Retired to Mambo Jambo for awhile before moving on to the Velvet Underground stage. Vicarious Bliss was on the decks then, and he was amazing with his hard hitting indie psychedelic fusion of electronica and rock.

Waited for Sasha to start at 3am and eagerly squeezed ourself into the packed Main Arena for him. But despite being the top DJ at the event, he was thoroughly disappointing. Left after about 45 mins to get drinks and rest. Went back in at around 5am in anticipation for Above & Beyond. The wait was well worth it - Above & Beyond was without a doubt the BEST SET for Zoukout 2008. They spun some amazing blend of uplifting trance (the sort of thing that puts a smile on your face as you jump along with the crowd), all the way till dawn at 7am..

Above & Beyond starting their set

My first rave till dawn experience

FoOie & Justin

Sorry guys, for not having more pics of chiqs haha. If you really want to see some, the site below has some nice ones, (including piss drunk girls and people making out haha).

AsiaOne Multimedia - Zoukout 2008

This other site below has a bunch of links to external photos of ZoukOut 2008.

Angry Angmo - ZoukOut 2008 - The Best Picture And Video Collections (flickr, youtube…)

And there are MORE photos should you care to search. Club.stomp.com.sg is one of em.

Despite feeling too old for this, I don’t think I have any good reason to miss the next Zoukout if I have friends going then. Well, until 2009!