The UrbanWire

This inaugural international fencing event from Jan 22 to 24, organised by Fencing Singapore, is the newest one in our local fencing scene. Held at the Suntec International Convention Centre Halls 601 and 602, which will be the official Singapore 2010 competition venue for fencing for the upcoming Youth Olympic Games in August, the competition was open to the public, who didn’t have to buy tickets to watch.

There were 7 categories – Boys Foil, Boys Sabre, Boys Epee, Girls Foil, Girls Sabre, Girls Epee and Team Event in this competition which spanned 3 days. As this was a “cadet” competition, fencers had to be between 12 and 7 to participate. Singapore was represented by about 20 fencers.

^{(All images by Andra Chua)}

In fencing, there’re 3 age divisions – Cadet is for fencers 17 and younger, Junior for fencers aged 20 and below, and Senior refer to those at least 21. The purpose of this categorisation is acknowledge the differing abilities due to age, making it fairer for the participants.

In the finals, Clive Leu, 16, who represented Singapore, beat his 15-year-old opponent from Hong Kong to clinch the gold medal for the Boys’ Sabre event. For the Boys’ Foil event, 5 Singapore fencers qualified for the top 16 positions. They did exceptionally well, fencing their best, and 2 of them successfully moved on to the quarter-finals (top 8), where they were up against fencers from other countries like Hong Kong, Japan, and Taipei, who had fencing experience ranging from 1 to 5 years.

One thing about this event that’s not usually seen in local fencing competitions was the colour-coded fencing pistes. The competition area was separated into 4 areas identified by their colour: Red, Blue, Yello and Green. This aided the audience visually, when the commentators announced the respective winners for each competition or “bout” (round), as referred to in fencing.

In usual local competitions, a team would require 3 to 5 fencers in the same weapon category, 3 being the main fencers for the team with 1 to 2 optional reserve fencers. This competition, however, had a unique trait in which the team event required 6 members, which would be made up of 1 fencer per weapon and gender category.

The foreign fencers and their coaches were impressed with the organisation of this event. Daniel Chan, New Zealand’s team manager, told UrbanWire that everything was well organised and on par with some top-level tournaments he has been to.

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^{Front row, from left: Vernon A, Ris Low, Danny Loong (Deputy MD of Timbre).
Back row, from left: Jamie Yeo, Justin Ang, Rai, Goodfellas, Fauzi Rassull, “Magic Babe” Ning}

Going by the celebrities walking down the red carpet and the loud catcalls and cheers they received, the m:idea Youth Choice Awards organised to salute Singaporean youth’s favorite personalities and brands was a “Boomz” effort by Singapore’s first youth-run media conglomerate m:idea (pronounced “media”).

Without using mainstream media to publicise the voting, the organisers brought in an impressive 10,000 votes from the public in just over a month between Nov 19 and Dec 24 to come up with the list of winners. The nominees were first shortlisted through a poll of 600 youths.  In this short span of time, youth voted for 12 categories ranging from who they admire and care about, to their favourite mobile phone brand and hangout places.

The award show, held at the Atrium in Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) on Jan 9, hosted some 100 seated guests and attracted about 300 bystanders gathered around the outdoor tent. Nominees such as MTV VJ Utt, former Miss Singapore World Ris Low, Rai from music duo Jack and Rai, Muttons (Radio DJs Justin Ang and Vernon A.) from 987FM and ESPN Star Sports presenter Jamie Yeo were among those who made a grand entrance with a walk down the red carpet in front of a backdrop featuring the names of 10 sponsors literally from A (Active Red) to Z (Zuji.com).

The 100 invited guests were each given goodie bags with vouchers from the likes of Zuji.com, egg3 and Yami Yogurt worth more than $200, and the 3 top voters walked away with prizes totalling several thousands of dollars, including 3 of Sapura Synergy (authorised education reseller of Apple)’s 8GB iPod Touch, holiday packages in Bintan courtesy of Nirwana Gardens, kickboxing lessons by Active Red, and cold hard cash from Broadcast Communications International.

Shaun David Martin and Candice Miller, DJs from RadioHeatwave.com, displayed great chemistry as the event’s hosts. The show was kickstarted by NP’s reputed percussion group Baracuda Batucada, whose animated drumming and rhythms brought the atmosphere up another level.

To keep the programme short, the only other performer for m:idea Youth Choice Awards was “Magic Babe” Ning, Singapore’s only female professional magician and one of Ngee Ann’s and the School of Film & Media Studies’ alumna, who attended with her manager J C Sum. She spiced things up with a fiery hot performance of illusions! Who wouldn’t be drawn in by this gorgeous and sexy lady who was also featured on the cover of FHM Singapore last October?

She, ESPN presenter Jamie Yeo and popular Muttons deejay Justin Ang were also in competition for the Star Graduate Award conferred by Ngee Ann Polytechnic, as all 3 are alumni of the School of Film & Media Studies (FMS), which owns m:idea.

m:idea, Singapore’s first student-run media conglomerate, which has been running the campus radio and TV station, newspaper, magazine and theurbanwire.com, as well as doing media consultancy projects for external clients such as Lien Aid, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, online gaming publisher Infocomm Asia Holdings Games and many others was launched using this awards ceremony.

It was strongly evident that the m:idea team made the whole event “very creative”, in the words of Ris Low, who garnered some of the loudest cheers from the crowds. The design of the award, a framed black frisbee signifying the unfettered, carefree life of youths, and the various original trailers that introduced nominees of each category and cracked up the audience were examples of these. After earning 2 nominations under Best OMG! Moment of 2009 category, Ris Low garnered the most votes with her coined word “Boomz”. How shingz is that. Simply unforgettable.

When Utt went up to receive his prize as the Cutest Male Personality I Wanna Bring Home, he took out his video recorder, which he was making full use of the moment he stepped onto campus, and said candidly, on stage, “Wait a moment, I need to document my moment… Are you feeling my moment right now? You feel it right? Aura… aura!” The well loved Thai-American host and actor seemed really happy to know that he’s still winning hearts of girls, and even jokingly asked Director of NP’s FMS Ms Anita Kuan, who presented him the specially-mounted frisbee, to bring him home. Check out the expression on Ms Kuan’s face (right) in this photo when Utt was making his thank-you speech:

Fauzi Rassull, sporting a women’s cropped fur vest, stood out from the crowd as he made his way on stage as the Coolest Blogger I Wanna Gossip With. When asked if he was comfortable with the many stares thrown at him, Fauzi says that he’s used to people staring at him, and that he’s very confident of himself, and very importantly, being himself.

Invited guests were ushered to a private reception catered by The Garden Slug at the Lien Ying Chow Library one floor above the stage. There the lucky voters got to mingle with their favourite celebrities and pose for photos with them.

Danny Loong, Deputy Managing Director of Timbre, winner of Favourite Nightspot, commented that he was very happy that this awards show happened because he thinks that more Singaporeans should appreciate other Singaporeans who make an effort to either start a club or band.

“It’s great that it started with the youth because you guys set a good example for Singaporeans to start saying that a local band is good, a bookshop is good and a café is good,” said Danny.

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List of winners

Band I Wanna Throw Myself At: Jack & Rai

Coolest Blogger I Wanna Gossip With (xoxo): Fauzi Rassull

Best OMG! Moment: Ris Low – Boomz

Favourite Hangout Spot: The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

Favourite Bookstore: Borders

Favourite Mobile Phone Brand: Apple

Favourite Apparel: Topshop/Topman

Favourite Nightspot: Timbre

Hottest Female Personality I Wanna Date: Denise Keller

Cutest Male Personality I Wanna Bring Home: Utt

Celebrity Duo I Wanna Chill With: Muttons (DJs Justin Ang & Vernon A. from MediaCorp Radio 987FM)

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On Nov 20, Heineken held its ‘by-invitation-only’ party at the Police Coast Guard Headquarters (former) at 5 Stadium Lane, just right beside the Kallang Water Sports Centre.

Promising to deliver an entirely new and irresistible music experience, the highlight of this party event by the Heineken Green Room series was the presence of two revolutionary DJs, The Gaslamp Killer and Tayo.

Before the DJs came and blew the crowd away with their unusual dubs and mixes, we checked out the unusual location Heineken chose to hold this event at.

This is the former Police Coast Guard Headquarters, where the party happened inside the room with the red lights. This location was chosen on purpose because it also has the element of being ‘unknown’ or ‘unusual’ which gels in with the whole event theme.

This room located inside the location was definitely interactive. Anyone could go in, and there were battery-operated torches hanging from the ceiling by chains. If you switched one on and shone it at the wall, there’ll be graphic butterflies, which are sensitive to light, following the direction of your flashlight. Pretty cool way of showcasing another element, ‘movement’!

Slightly after 11pm, The Gaslamp Killer arrived and got the crowd wild by his unusual yet powerful taste in music mixes.

The invitation card for this event introduced him as: “The Gaslamp Killer: Heavy dub step meets freaked out soul meets whatever twisted sounds are playing in his head. Welcome the Gaslamp Killer: Joint-resident DJ of LA’s infamous Low End Theory club with Flying Lotus. Now he’s bringing his ultra-intense, hands-on set to Singapore. Prepare yourself. It’s going to be a killer night out.”

Indeed, it was. Merely 10 minutes after he took over the stage, he already managed to get people in the crowd grooving to the beat of his unusual music style. People on the dance floor could feel the vibrating beats of the music, and that itself, upped the mood!

What’s a Heineken sponsored party without Heineken beer? Stationed at both ends of the location, Heineken sold their original beer at S$12 each. For those who preferred other alcoholic drinks besides beer, they also sold Vodka mixes and soft drinks.

All in all, this instalment of the Heineken Green Room series lived up to what it promised; Darkness, Light, Music and Movement. Keep a lookout for its next installment on their website!