Life

Fancy a gold-plated brass necklace hammered smooth by nimble-fingered artisans from Kenya? The only thing that could make the piece more valuable is knowing that the craftsmen were paid fairly for their work – three times more than what they usually earn, in fact. The weighty accessory is from Ashepa Lifestyle, a locally based brand […]

LONDON • French designer Jean Paul Gaultier brought his lively and eccentric Fashion Freak Show to the London stage this week, a musical production looking back on his life from childhood classroom sketches to the Paris haute couture catwalks. The two-hour extravaganza, previously at Paris’ Folies Bergere hall, sees actors, dancers and performance artists take […]

It is one of the world’s biggest fund-raisers and a key event in the world of haute horlogerie. Every two years, many of the most celebrated watchmakers – both big mainstream names and independent brands – come together to contribute unique one-off pieces to a special auction. Please subscribe or log in to continue reading […]

WE ARE SINGERS The similarities between Taiwan’s Lala Hsu, A-lin and Rachel Liang go beyond their choice of occupation. All three have appeared on the Chinese reality show I Am A Singer (2013 to present), boosting their popularity in China. Apart from their own hits, they will probably perform some of their best-loved covers from […]

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With a spanking new theatre boasting Singapore’s first, and only, dedicated thrust stage, Singapore theatre company Wild Rice has unveiled its new performing arts complex at the revamped Funan mall. On one side of the mall, the company’s marquee stands out in flamboyant red. At night, it is illuminated by eye-catching lights. Please subscribe or […]

AMSTERDAM • Actor Rutger Hauer, who became a global cult icon for his role as a scary yet thoughtprovoking humanoid android in 1982 sci-fi classic Blade Runner, has died at age 75. His non-profit HIV/Aids charity, the Rutger Hauer Starfish Association, said he died last Friday after a short illness in his Dutch home. Dutch […]

NEW YORK • The 1976 movie Rocky and its sequels made Sylvester Stallone a box-office knockout. But few know that the actor, now 73, lost the fight in one area – he does not have an equity stake in the lucrative franchise, including the Creed and Creed II spin-offs. In an interview with trade publication […]

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BYO CINEMA Organised by the Singapore Film Commission, this free open-air celebration of Singapore cinema heads into its third film tomorrow with Ramen Teh (left, 2018, PG, 90 minutes), director Eric Khoo’s drama about food linking members of a family across disparate cultures and generations. Japanese actor Takumi Saitoh is Masato, a chef searching for […]

REVIEW / THEATRE THREE FAT VIRGINS UNASSEMBLED TheatreWorks 72-13 Home of TheatreWorks Wednesday Some classic plays do not age well. Ovidia Yu’s Three Fat Virgins Unassembled is not one of them. Twenty-seven years after its debut, it feels just as germane today. That, actually, is depressing – that Yu’s seminal feminist work should be not […]

The brand synonymous in Singapore with white canvas school shoes – Bata – is turning to new technology to woo customers. Over six months, starting from August, the footwear company will release a new range of shoes every month in its Asia-Pacific stores. Each range will feature a different type of comfort technology, from acupressure […]

What do French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and Chinese actress Angelababy have in common? They both wore jewels from the same maison on their wedding day, more than 200 years apart. Such is the longevity of Chaumet, founded in 1780. The French jewellery house, today owned by the LVMH Group, has a 239-year history that includes […]

SEOUL • Five years ago, she was working 20 hours a day in a hospital just to make ends meet. Now, at 75, Choi Soon-hwa is an unlikely fashion star and model in South Korea, one of a handful of seniors who have become socialmedia and fashion celebrities in a country where inter-generational conflict is […]

At the recent Cruise 2020 fashion shows, there was a duality of fantasy and reality. The Cruise season, for all the spectacle these days, is vital to many big designer names as the fashion shown on the runway is more likely to get produced and sold. The cruise clothes land in stores before the big […]

DJ MASEO (DE LA SOUL) PRESENTED BY COLLECTIVE MINDS X MATTEBLACC X SOUL VIBES ASIA Music fans might recognise his infamous laugh, which starts off British virtual group Gorillaz’s 2005 track, Feel Good Inc. But DJ Maseo is also one-third of American hip-hop trailblazers De La Soul, who introduced the world to acts like A […]

When I think of eating sea urchin, I naturally associate it with dining at a Japanese restaurant. But at The Lighthouse Restaurant & Rooftop Bar at The Fullerton Hotel, the new four-course degustation menu ($148 a person) celebrates the Sicilian sea urchin, also known as ricci di mare. This month, says Italian chef Carlo Marengoni, […]

THE BREATH OF CHANGE Cambodian artist Svay Sareth, 47, holds his first solo exhibition in Singapore, featuring pieces such as a single-channel video and an installation comprising about 180 soft sculpture water lilies. “The water lily, in my personal point of view, means freedom. For Cambodians, the water lily is a symbol of tradition and […]

JAZZ GETZ/GILBERTO (EXPANDED EDITION) Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto Verve 5 stars Brazilian musician Joao Gilberto died last Saturday at the age of 88. The singer-guitarist, along with composer Antonio Carlos Jobim and saxophonist Stan Getz, launched the bossa nova craze with their landmark 1964 album Getz/Gilberto. While the original had just eight tracks, I […]

Prolific Taiwanese musician Leo Wang has been active since 2012, first as the lead singer of punk band Gigantic Roar and then as a member of rap act Ye Mao Zu (literally, Night Cats Group). In 2015, he released his debut solo EP, whose title roughly translates to Leo Wang Sings His Own Praises. Please […]

NEW YORK • Last month, South Korean pop group BTS observed their sixth anniversary with an annual celebration called Festa – 10 days of new interviews, behind-the-scenes clips, choreography videos and the release of their member Jin’s first solo song, Tonight. They also held their fifth “Muster” fan gathering, continued their Love Yourself: Speak Yourself […]

Games Of Thrones, Deadwood and now Stranger Things – this year has seen several beloved series return, like prodigal children, after long absences that test their fans’ loyalty as well as memory. If you struggle to recall storylines from two or more years ago, season recaps help, but summaries do not quite capture the first […]

While some showrunners who create hugely popular shows with an ardent fan base feel mounting pressure with every season, the creators of streaming giant Netflix’s Stranger Things, the Duffer brothers, are happy to have a devoted audience. Matt and Ross Duffer, twins aged 35, tell The Straits Times in an e-mail interview: “We’ll never feel […]

Is Singapore in the “real world” or is it part of a massive theme park? The woman who knows is not telling. All that Lisa Joy, co-creator of HBO’s science-fiction series Westworld, will tell The Straits Times is that the crew has been filming at National Gallery Singapore, the hotel Parkroyal on Pickering, School of […]

Wonder Woman (2017) director Patty Jenkins and actor Chris Pine have reteamed for I Am The Night, a new limited series inspired by the so-called Black Dahlia murder of the 1940s – one of the most infamous unsolved crimes in Los Angeles history. And while it is a true-crime potboiler, the neo noir drama also […]

HIP-HOP BANDANA Freddie Gibbs and Madlib ESGN/Keep Cool/ Madlib Invazion/ RCA 4 stars The second collaborative album by rapper Freddie Gibbs and renowned producer Madlib, Bandana, melds two prominent aspects of hip-hop. Gibbs, who hails from Indiana, is brilliant in narrating the sobering reality of life on the streets while Madlib masterfully chops and splices […]

ART ROCK REWARD Cate Le Bon Mexican Summer 4 stars Perhaps it is about doing something tactile with your hands. Or is it the routine, focus and discipline required? Yes, I am talking about the allure of carpentry here. Actor Daniel Day-Lewis studied woodworking and apparently built a kitchen table for his role as a […]

ELECTRONIC DANCE MUSIC JOYTIME III Marshmello Joytime Collective 3 stars DJ Marshmello, who is most famous for dressing in all white and donning a marshmallow-shaped helmet, has lasted way past novelty status and released his third album in three years. On Joytime III, the American DJ-producer has made a significant departure from the instrumental Joytime […]

It was with a mix of excitement and trepidation that I made my way to the reopened Funan last Friday morning. For us geeks, this was one of our second homes. Sim Lim Square was the dingier place where we would run shop to shop for individual PC components to build our gaming rig, while […]

I prefer to jog at night along the park connector near my house as there are fewer joggers and personal mobility device riders around. Still, I need a pair of workout headphones that allows me to hear the surrounding sounds when I jog. The new Jabra Elite Active 45e seems to fit the bill. It […]