phinmag: a personal experimental media project

Hello, darlings.

Welcome to Phin Magazine, a new site with a fresh spin to an old idea. Phin Magazine is an experimental online media project that combines a personal blog with the magazine concept. It’s basically my side project, trying new ideas and all.

This is the inaugural issue of Phin Magazine, which I hoped to keep up publishing every month (if nothing else gets in the way, that is). This month’s theme is “Something Fresh” based on the creation of this blog/zine of sorts, and the new things I experienced since the beginning of this year.

I have about fifteen categories under Phin Magazine though not all fifteen will appear in every issue. Majority of it, yes. But some are subject to availability of content. Hey, I’m writing all the content on my own and that’s a lot of work!

With every issue comes a Start Here page, where I’ll put a short note of intro and lay out the table of contents.

[Contents] April 2006, The Inaugural Issue:

Radio Brain
Songs that make your feet dance.

Raves & Craves
Checking out some new and upcoming cellphones.

Phinologue
I’m game for something new. Are you?

Screen Time
Some tragic romance about a dude and his chick before that other famous dude and his chick.

Music Addict
SingleTrackMind finds closure in Seventeen.

Phin Interviews
He’s cute. He’s yellow. And everyone loves him.

SiteSeeing
Hokkien language goes online.

Travel Bug
I didn’t have to travel far to find something exciting to do right here in Kuching.

Phin Style
Introducing my other side project.

PhotoSlide
Exclusive photo shoot of a cool but reluctant model.

Crapola
I will not be held responsible for whatever that comes out of my mouth.

Since this is the first issue, here’s a bit more info on Phin Magazine.

Each issue will be published online every first Sunday of the month.

Thanks for reading. Enjoy!

Dance, Dance – Fall Out Boy, From Under the Cork Tree

This tune is so infectious I can’t erase it off my mind. But then, I’m not exactly complaining. I actually love this song. A very energizing tune!

Their upbeat music has fueled some crazy ideas in my head recently. Can’t really tell if this is a good thing or bad yet. So far, it looks harmless.

I’m two quarters and a heart down
And I don’t want to forget how your voice sounds
These words are all I have so I’ll write them
So you need them just to get by

Dance, Dance
We’re falling apart to half time
Dance, Dance
And these are the lives you’d love to lead
Dance, this is the way they’d love
If they knew how misery loved me

Dancing Shoes - Artic Monkeys, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not

I don’t generally have the fondness for British rock bands but I do like these guys. This particular song is not exactly one of my favorites but the tune keeps replaying in my head lately.

Get on your dancing shoes
You sexy little swine
Hoping they’re looking for you
Sure you’ll be rummaging through

I’m hunting for a new cellphone so I’ve been checking out some upcoming models online. I’m currently in love with the Sony Ericsson range of upcoming phones. Here are the ones I’m ooh-and-ahhing about:

Originally, I want to get this Z520i model because of its features and within my budget.

Then, I went online to look at the specs and discovered the other upcoming models that are making my decision difficult.

The W300i looks good. So does the Z530i. Both are clamshell phones with camera and comes in black. The important thing is I want a camera phone for times when I don’t lug my Nikon CoolPix 5400 around.

Then, lo and behold, I saw the K800i – not a clamshell but a 3G phone. Aaaah…Yes, it comes in black too.

Also, there’s that O2 Xda Atom that’s way over my budget. But it’s beautiful and yep, it’s black too. I like how black makes tech stuff look so sleek.

With all these choices, the only thing to do know is to wait for these phones to be out so I can consider them. Afterall, everything else boils down to my budget. Wait and see, I guess. Wait and see.

“Oh no, he’s gonna make us do warm ups!” I told my friend while in the car one fine Saturday afternoon.

My friend dragged me along to play futsal because her colleague invited her. Her colleague wanted to start an all-girl futsal team. My friend thought it was just for fun until the coach arrived.

“I guessed this is serious,” as my friend giggled and laughed at my statement earlier.

Honestly, I am not an athletic person - even back in school, when training for Sport’s Day was a nightmare. I never survived warm ups. I died by the first five minutes. Stamina is not something I have for sports though, ironically, I can actually danced for four hours straight in a club. Another point is that I haven’t done any proper exercise – unless you count dancing alone in my room because there are no where else in Kuching to dance without getting gawked at by people – for more than a year! That’s how active I am.

But seriously, I’m not much of a sports person. The only sports I pay attention to is the X Games. Yeah, I like extreme sports especially skateboarding (I used to skateboard when I was little until the board broke and Dad said girls don’t skateboard and that was the end of the story). Other than that, sports is not a favorite subject of mine.

Anyway, before I go off tangent, back to that Saturday in March… I happened to take a day off from work then, which was why I was able to make it for the afternoon training. This was my first experience playing futsal; the same with my friend too.

The coach is a few years younger than I am (my friend and I are the old farts there). Four other girls showed up including my friend’s colleague (she’s the captain) with the youngest being, like, eighteen. We are like a motley crew of female futsal players. One petite girl is like a little dynamite of energy; another is a bit crazed and tend to give self-sports-commentaries when she’s playing, pretending to be Ronaldo or one of those famous football dudes; one ever-smiling quiet girl who is just as confused as I am about the rules; our patient captain who tries her best to keep her deranged team mates in line; and my friend who giggles when she plays even when she’s kicking air with all her might. I just kick ball without any grasp over the rules or technique yet. (Though my friend told me that the captain thinks I got potential. My friend has been calling me Miss Pele since then.)

I admit it was a lot of fun. I guess I could be a part of the all-girl team – just for the heck of it. But with work and all, going for training may be a bit difficult. I think my friend likes the idea of wearing those cute women’s futsal outfits than actually playing the game.

Well, the coach did tell us one honest fact why guys like to watch women play futsal: it’s the sexy outfits – and definitely sexier if the girl can actually play. Hmmm… sweaty girls in sexy futsal jerseys and shorts expertly tackle a ball appeals to men, eh? Hah.

Trying something new has always been fun to me though it is not something I have done in a long while. A part of me is afraid of the unknown. Trying something fresh is scary. Yet, strange enough, a bigger part of me has this daring tendency to just go “Oh hell” and try anyway. I find that trying new things is a challenge to myself. If I never done it, I really want to do it no matter how scary it felt. I think growing stagnant of mind, body and soul is scarier.

Boredom kills me. And I do get bored easily - which is why I strive to find something new to do to get me all excited, motivated and feel alive again. The creation of Phin Magazine or Phin Mag is one endeavor to breath new life to the world of blogging. Well, at least my world of blogging - I don’t expect to rock other people’s world of blogging as well.

I’ve been blogging for about a decade now and it’s beginning to feel old. I know there are a lot of people out there who just “discovered” the joys of blogging. But for me, the trend is so passé now. This was why I came up with the idea of Phin Mag: take something old and give it a new concept. Putting the contents together has been pretty interesting and I’m really excited about publishing the first issue and coming up with ideas for future ones. It’s so fun!

My brain has been spewing some fresh ideas lately, with more new things for me to explore. Phin Mag is not my only side project and futsal is not my only new hobby. I’m game for anything. I just started another side project making jewelry for sale and rediscovering other passions at the same time.

Starting something new may be scary but you’ll never know what you’re missing out if you don’t try – even if you don’t know what you’re doing. New things makes us learn and experience, and takes us to where we’d never thought of. You’ll be surprise. A walk on the wild side has its benefits.

Take Danny Wallace, for instance. He’s a British author, who, out of boredom, placed a whimsical ad in the papers one day and asked people – just anyone – to “Join Me”. Join him in what? No one knew; neither did he. But a lot of people did join him anyway and Mr Wallace ended up with his own cult, by accident. It’s not a the-end-is-near-suicide-pact kind of cult (but he prefers to call it as a “collective”). It’s more about doing good deeds and random acts of kindness. I’m reading his book Join Me now, thanks to a recommendation from a friend who picked up a tattered secondhand copy of it in the budget bin at a bookstore recently.

I’m not starting a cult here. Nor do I have big ambitions to be a cult leader either. I’m the kind of person who throws herself into something new when she’s bored and needed a challenge to bring her out of her rut.

Life should be an adventure because sometimes there’s a need to get out of that comfort zone and have fun.

Movie: Tristan & Isolde

So there’s this recent medieval movie, right? Of a tragic love story long before Shakespeare’s lovebirds Romeo and Julyet (Mr. S original spelling of Juliet). This one is called Tristan & Isolda… erm, I mean, Tristan & Isoldei… um, no, Tristan & Isold-…

Argh! Ugh…

Thus, from here henceforth (due to my failure to pronounce it correctly), this film by Kevin Reynolds shall be known as Tristan & That Chick Named Izzy.

Set in England and Ireland circa year 600 (like, way yesterday!), one wise English ruler plans to unite England by repelling the Celt king from Ireland who is, like, y’know, Da Big Kahuna of England after the Roman occupiers withdrew. Of course, the English were not happy about this set-up and something has to be done to butt kick that Celt king off their beloved wet soggy homeland.

Anyway, this English ruler dude adopted a boy named Tristan and raised him as his son. When the boy grew up, he became a hot brave warrior dude who led his daddy’s posse fight against the Celt king. In what seems to be a successful ambush on the Celt king’s tough dawgs, the dude Tristan got himself poisoned and fell into a coma that resembles a deep slumber.

Since back in the old days the Brits don’t do this proper burial gig, they put Coma Boy there onto a boat and push it out to sea. Few days later, he gets washed up in Ireland and was discovered by this lovely chick named Izzy. And get this: Coma Boy woke up and yes, he is alive and well!

Obviously, when a hot dude finds good chemistry with hot chick, of course they fall in love. And no brainer to everyone, there’s some shagging too. After coma, definitely need to find out everything is working, right? Hormones, check!

Oh, and here’s the twist: that chick Izzy is an Irish princess. Yep, she’s Celt king’s baby girl. Go figure.

Tristan & That Chick Named Izzy starred James Franco as the dude Tristan while Sophia Myles played his chick Izzy. A bunch of people also acted in this film including Rufus Sewell and Jamie King.

What does Fate hold for Tristan and his chick Izzy? Are they as tragic as Romeo and his girl Julyet? I suggest you watch the movie to find out.

Then tell me all about it later.

Song/Video: Seventeen
Artiste: SingleTrackMind
Director: Jack Wung

The moment the video came onscreen, the first thing that popped into my head was Coldplay’s Yellow video: a man in a hoodie walking on a deserted beach on a rainy day, singing.

In Seventeen, a single off Kuching-born musician SingleTrackMind’s upcoming sophomore album, the opening scene has SingleTrackMind walking on a beach singing a song about closure. The difference between the two is that SingleTrackMind’s look less gloomy. Coldplay’s Chris Martin just looked drenched and unwell in his video, shot on a dark rainy day at a very solemn beach.

Anyway, nevermind that. Back to our rocker dude, SingleTrackMind and his new video…

The video, shot on location in Pattaya, Thailand last February, was directed by Kuching-born indie filmmaker Jack Wung and also stars Kuala Lumpur-based model-actress Stephanie Chai of – yes, you’ve guessed it! – Kuching.

Lucky me got a chance to watch this video before its official release some time this year when SingleTrackMind’s second album is release as well. I love the song Seventeen. The music incorporated the sape, a traditional instrument rarely used in modern music, throughout the song. The lyrics are poignant, about the sense of loss, letting go and moving on. Basically, finding closure.

The video sees two lost souls: One, a woman named Claire played by Stephanie, who pretty much floating through life after the loss of a loved one and having a hard time coping her grief. The other is a man portrayed by SingleTrackMind, who is a like a spirit or ghost floating in-between realms because he can’t leave until he’s assured that the one he left behind has found closure and moved on with life without him.

I like the fact that Jack had made a short film of sorts for this video. I like music videos that tell a story. Those are usually a joy to watch, even if it’s a sad one.

The video begins with rain and ends sunny. Like the tears shed have dried, replaced with the courage of coming to terms with the loss, remembering the life of the one who had gone, and live on.

Deep stuff there, huh?

Um. Anyway, look out for SingleTrackMind’s Seventeen video soon. He is expected to release his upcoming album mid-2006. Will Seventeen be the first single? Well, we’ll see, won’t we?

Quackers - or more famously known as Ducky - is a celebrity of sorts in Kuching. Gradually, emerging as a pop culture icon in Kuching, Ducky began his quest to be the most photographed duck in Malaysia (and hopefully, the world one day) in 2005. He’s been seen around the city, meeting new friends and even famous people.

For the inaugural issue of Phin Mag, Ducky was gracious to give me the exclusive interview. Here is what we talked about:

Phin Mag: Give me a little background about yourself.
Ducky: I am a small beanie duck. In April 2005, my owner Azreen handed me over to Gette because they both thought it’ll be nice for me to get out and see new places. Kinda like an exchange program.

Your real name is Quackers, why did you change it to something as generic as Ducky?
I didn’t! It just happened! Everyone says “Ducky!” when they see me, so it is an automatic nickname. If I had an IC, it’ll still says “Quackers the Duck”.

What makes you decide to start this photo project? Who’s idea was it? When did it began?
Again it was the idea of two humans. An exchange program won’t be complete without photos to show where I’ve been and who I met, right? It started when I moved in with Gette.

How do you approach people and convince them to take a photo with you, a stranger?
I just end up in their hands, on their shoulders or heads or knees when I go to them. I just explain that I want to have my picture taken with them. Most are only happy too. They laugh a lot in the process.

Do you have a favorite photo?
That’s a hard one. OK, the photo with Ramli Ibrahim and his dancers. That’s the most people in a photo with me and they all know that I’m the centre of attention!

What is your most memorable event you have gone to so far?
There was this time I went along to Hilton to talk to Lionel, the bar manager of Senso. He couldn’t stop kissing me! But he was nervous. And French.

Who’s your favorite person to be photographed with?
Amber Chia. I met her twice. She is one of the nicest and hottest and most down-to-earth person I ever met. She even has time for a little duck.

What do you hope to achieve through this project?
Putting smiles on people’s faces. And lots of photos. And making everyone think that Gette is a couple of eggs short of a basket.

How long will you continue this project?
As long as I’m young and can still travel freely. If I can’t live with Gette anymore, perhaps someone else will take me. Although I’m not sure how it’ll work out if I get married and have little duckies of my own.

Is there a special girl duck in your life now?
No! I’m still single and available!

I noticed you have a piercing on your wing. When did you get it? Will there be more piercings in the future?
I got it the same time all duckies get it. Most of them prefer to take it out as soon as they find homes, but I decided to keep mine. It’s always good to remember where you came from. I’m not sure about getting another one.

What about tattoos?
Don’t think so!

Are you a fashionable duck?
I’m fashionably yellow. It’s a good happy colour.

You draw so much attention wherever you go. Do you consider yourself a duck with sex appeal?
I’m too young for sex-anything! They all just think I’m cute.

Has popularity changed you?
Well, I had to take more baths than usual because of all the touching…

You’ve been photographed with people, humans, so far. Why not ducks, your fellow featherkind?
Bird flu! Anyway, I don’t meet a lot of featherkinds.

What’s your most scariest and/or amusing experience from this photo project?
Getting body-slammed to the table by little Emily was scary! Good thing I have no spine… er, bones! No bones to break!

Do you think you will spark a worldwide trend with this project?
I think everyone should have their photo taken with a travelling plush toy. *nods solemnly* Maybe one day I’ll travel across the world!

You seem to be a very dry duck. Do you swim at all?
Sometimes I swim in the bathroom sink! But not everyday. My butt takes a long time to dry.

Why the constant constipated expression on your face?
It’s not constipated. It’s multi-faceted, depending on the angle.

Do you have fans? What do you think about them?
I love them! Fans are so cool and they make something silly like my little project feel like it’s worth doing because it makes everyone giggle.

How do you feel about being a pop culture icon in Kuching?
Excited! It’s fun to be recognized!

Any last words to the public - especially those who never heard of you?
Take a photo with me?

If you see Ducky around, don’t be shy. Go up to him and say “Hi”. I’m sure he’d like a photo with you.

Visit Ducky’s site, Kuching Ducky, for all the photos and media attention he’s been getting so far.