SWIFT LOVING - Nanyang Technological University

VOL.
NO.
17
08
THE NANYANG
CHRONICLE
reviews
Music
AMANDA PALMER GOES DOWN UNDER
Amanda Palmer (Dark Cabaret)
, , , , ,
During her recent Australian tour to promote the album,
Amanda Palmer raised over A$3000 in a single show to
help the people of Christchurch.
REBELLIOUS, controversial,
and sinisterly humorous.
This mismatch of adjectives
describe Amanda Palmer and
her latest album, Amanda
Palmer Goes Down Under
perfectly.
While still relatively
unknown in the realm of
mainstream music, Palmer
(self-proclaimed and referred
to by her loyal fans as Amanda
F***ing Palmer for her devilmay-care
attitude) is wellknown
in the Australian and
New Zealand theatre circuits.
Goes Down Under is her
first recorded live album,
and plays like a comedy
musical to the ears of new
listeners. Hilarious lyrics
and catchy tunes make up
the essence of tracks such as
Vegemite, where she laments
the traditional Australian
spread, and Map of Tasmania,
a song with a funky, eclectic
Jamaican vibe.
In the latter song, Palmer
takes the unusual step of
comparing women’s pubic
hair to the little island south
of Australia. Let it fly in the
open wind/If it get too bushy
you can trim are some of the
track’s tamer lyrics.
Palmer does, however,
ta ke t h ings to a more
serious level with songs
such as Australia and On
An Unknown Beach, each
with her signature haunting
piano accompaniments. In
My Mind, a song reflecting
on her life and future, is
accompanied by the sounds
of a ukulele, her trademark
instrument.
Although Goes Down
Under is not your typical
easy-listening album, Palmer
never crosses the line into the
truly shocking.
You need an open mind
and a sense of humour to
enjoy her music, intentionally
recorded to entertain and
appeal to the quirky side in
all of us.
Nonetheless, her solid
vocals and witty songwriting
would serve her well if she
ever intends to break into
the mainstream market. For
now, take a walk on the wild
side with Amanda Palmer’s
unique effort.
-Priscilla Kham
"One of the reasons
why I love it here
so much is that
Australians aren’t
obsessed with
perfection.”
Amanda Palmer on her inspiration for
Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under
Interview with X-Press Magazine
LIFESTYLE 25
books
PREMIER LEECH
Neil Humphreys (Fiction)
$23.95 at Kinokuniya
Published by Marshall
Cavendish Editions
YOUNG men earn fortunes
for kicking a ball about while
the rest of the world struggles
through an economic downturn.
For fans of the English
Premier League who watch
their heroes on televised
matches every week, Premier
Leech gives them a shocking
look at the seedier side of the
global sport.
In the book, prominent
newspaper columnist and
writer Neil Humphreys returns
with a shocking exposé
about Scott (no last name
revealed), a football captain,
and his journey into the torrid
underbelly of the sporting
world.
Scott, a humble Essex
boy hailing from Dagenham,
East London, is riding high
as a top-tier league player.
But intoxicated by a deadly
concoction of fame, success,
and a lack of self-discipline,
he commits adultery with his
best friend’s wife.
As Scott attempts to suppress
the tabloid’s efforts to
uncover the affair, he is beset
by yet more troubles.
To compound matters, rumours
are gathering that his
club (which is never named
directly) may be subject to
a secret takeover bid by a
wealthy Saudi businessman.
Scott then worries that the
Saudi’s interest in his attractive
pop-singer wife may be
more than just coincidence.
We live in a definitive
new era of football where the
gap between the footballer
and his fans is increasingly
widened by fancy displays of
sports cars, celebrity wives
and sprawling mansions.
Humphreys questions if
the ‘Holy Trinity’ of the fans,
players and the manager all
being of equal importance, as
espoused by Liverpool legend
Bill Shankly, still holds true
today.
As you might expect, the
novel answers this with a
firm ‘no’.
Although the novel is told
from Scott’s point of view,
Humphreys echoes the disillusionment
of real fans by
emphasising the detachment
Scott has with the real world.
An early scene sets the
tone for the kind of cynical
humour that fills the pages.
Scott’s friend asks if the girl
he had sex with the night
before had taken a video of
their tryst.
Scott declares that unlike
Lampard, he’s sick of having
his face beamed around the
world every weekend.
He smugly adds that he
knows how to protect himself
from being filmed at any other
time, especially during sex.
EPL fans will no doubt
recall with some amusement
the sex scandal that implicated
Chelsea player Frank
Lampard some time ago.
With enough suspense
and drama to entertain even
non-football fans, Premier
Leech makes readers question
whether football really is still
the ‘Beautiful Game’.
-Goh Ee-Ling
100 MISTAKES THAT
CHANGED HISTORY
Bill Fawcett (Non-Fiction)
$23.95 at Kinokuniya
Published by Berkley Press
EVERYONE likes to hear stories
about others’ mistakes.
100 Mistakes That Changed
History provides you with just
that—a list of 100 mistakes
that changed the course of
human history.
While it is only human to
err, some mistakes come with
consequences too huge for
anyone to bear—even for some
of the world’s greatest leaders.
In his latest book, Bill
Fawcett takes readers through
a history of mistakes—from
the one that created the
Western Civilisation in 499
BCE to the one which led to
the collapse of the global
stock market in 2008.
Fawcett must have put in
tremendous effort presenting
the 100 monumental moments
as bite-sized stories,
and making them a joy to
read.
One story with an important
life lesson is how the
Americans took over Texas
from Mexico like guests that
had overstayed their welcome—since
1821 to be exact.
The stories may make
sense to those with a good
knowledge of historical
events, but confusing to those
without.
By cutting to the chase,
these stories leave out most of
the background information.
For example, Fawcett
mentions Richard Nixon’s
mistake of breaking into
the Democratic National
Committee headquarters at
the Watergate complex.
It cost him his 20-point
popularity lead in the polls,
along with the presidency.
However, Fawcett assumes
that readers are already
familiar with the context
of the 1972 American
Presidential election, and
does not delve into the de-
tails of Nixon’s obsessive
behaviour.
Probably the deadliest
mistake made in history was
the decision by European
peasants to kill off the cat
population during the ‘Black
Death’ period of the mid-
1300s.
The peasants eventually
caused the plague to spread
even further, as the population
of rats, the real carriers,
increased rapidly once their
natural predators were gone.
Their fatal error caused
100 million deaths, and the
social and political institutions
of Europe took a century
and a half to recover.
While Fawcett did a commendable
job in identifying
these defining moments, it
is a pity that he did not provide
additional insight or an
analysis of the events.
If his purpose for the
book is simply to provide an
overview of key mistakes
in history, the book serves
admirably.
Otherwise, it leaves you
searching for more background
information on the
mistakes you’ve just read
about.
-Cheryl Chan
BOOKS FROM KINOKUNIYA
PHOTOS | INTERNET