asialife HCMC 1 - AsiaLIFE Magazine

xoneFM top tenOfficial xoneFM Vietnam Top 10this last title artistweek weekendorsedradar123456789105101101324NEWNEW9Ngan dieu cho emDreamNho emThuc tinhQuen diDieu muon noiDoi thayKhi muaDen bao gioPhu xeUS Top 10this last title artistweek weekTuan HungSuboiMinh VuongHo Ngoc HaHoang Anh KhangHa Chuong feat TuanMessiNoo Phuoc ThinhDong NhiTran Trung DucRap SoulLuck of the Drawchatroulette.comChatroulette combines blind and speed dating, albeit across a computerscreen. Similar to Skype, the website displays video and allows participantsto speak or type to one another. The only difference: Chatroulette, as its namesuggests, is a gamble. Hit play to see a live feed and then click next to trawlthrough countless random strangers from around the world. Some log in fora legitimate chat, others to play pranks. Beware though. You’re bound to seesome nudity. Us AsiaLIFE staffers met with a young man from Tennessee,two Turkish lads, a couple drunken Brits and a dancing buffoon before seeingsome full frontal action. It was a little disconcerting, to say the least. Aside fromthe depravity, Chatroulette is addictive, great for a laugh and provides a quicksnapshot into the lives of others.12345678910215910346811FireworkRaise Your GlassWhat's My Name?The Time (Dirty Bit)GrenadeOnly Girl (In The World)Just the way you areWe R Who We RJust A DreamBottoms UpUK Top 10this last title artistweek week123456789106NEW28751493The Time (Dirty Bit)Whip My HairYour SongWhat's My NameOnly Girl (In The World)Like A G6HeroesThinking Of MeWho's That ChickPoisonKaty PerryP!nkRihannaThe Black Eyed PeasBruno MarsRihannaBruno MarsKe$haNellyTrey Songz FeaturingNicki MinajBlack Eyed PeasWillowEllie GouldingRihanna Ft DrakeRihannaFar East Movement/Cataracs/DevX Factor Finalists 2010Olly MursDavid Guetta FtRihannaNicole ScherzingerHaruki MurakamiBy Nora LindstromI don’t like science fictionor fantasy. I can gulp downnovels at a rate of one a day,but these need to be anchoredin reality and fact. At least thatused to be the case until Icame across Haruki Murakami.The prolific Japanese writerblends fact with fiction like noother, writing novels and shortstories so extraordinary yetat the same time so real thatthey make you doubt your ownunderstanding of reality.Take Hard-boiled Wonderlandand the End of theWorld for example. Written in1985, the novel is a dream-likefantasy that follows parallelnarratives told in alternatechapters; one set in the surrealtechnology-powered world ofthe Hard-boiled Wonderland inwhich human brains store andencrypt data, while the otherfollows the narrator in End ofthe World, an equally fantasticplace where inhabitants arenot allowed to have shadowsnor, it transpires, minds.The two storylines eventuallyconverge, concluding themindboggling exploration ofthe mind, leaving the readerto question his or her ownexistence.Murakami was 29 when hewrote his first fiction novel,Hear the Wind Sing. His majorbreakthrough came eight yearslater in 1987, with the publicationof Norwegian Wood, oneof his less surreal books. Thenovel became a best-seller inJapan, the tale of love and lossattracting young readers inparticular. In 2006, he receivedthe Franz Kafka Prize for hismagical yet down-to-earthnovel Kafka on the Shore.Despite his success, thereclusive author is considereda bit of a controversial figurein Japan. The country’s literaryestablishment is not keen onhis tales that often explorethemes of alienation andloneliness in Japanese society.References to western culture,which permeate his works,also rile the purists.Yet at a global level, he isloved. Widely expected toreceive the Nobel Prize for Literature,he has been describedas one of the world’s greatestliving novelists. I certainly thinkhe is. And I suspect there areother Murakami-fans in Cambodiatoo. Why else wouldseveral of the capital’s bookshopscarry copies of booksby the author, often for as littleas US $3 a piece?Today, I gave my ex-girlfriend two concerttickets to show her I still care about her andwant to win her back. She sold them. FMLLife’s the Pitsfmylife.comFMyLife is hilarious. People who’ve had beyond crappy days post their experienceson the website, giving visitors the opportunity to rate the anecdote (“Iagree, your life sucks” or “You totally deserved it”). Divided into categories—love, money, kids, work, health, intimacy and miscellaneous—each spiel beginswith the word “today” and ends with a short, yet effective “FML” (f**k my life).Take this corker, written by a woman from Victoria, Australia: “Today, I discoveredI am the ‘before picture’ in an Internet weight loss advert. FML.” Or theslightly more disgusting: “Today, I was playing around with my sister’s kitten. Asa joke I put him underneath the sheets and farted. He attacked my nuts. FML.”A trek through FMyLife will make even the most downtrodden character feelbetter about themselves.Snarky Snapspeopleofwalmart.comPeople of Walmart documents the white trash (for lack of a more polite term)that roam through the massive American super centres dotted across theUnited States and Canada. A little mean, perhaps, but downright funny arethe sneaky snaps taken of unsuspecting victims. Think a heavily overweightwoman with protruding belly rolls from a skintight pink tank top, an elderlyman wearing a hotdog hat, a granny towing a child through the aisles behind ascooter and a series of pantless wonders. It’s all class. The stories’ section isfunny, too, and gives Walmart-goers a forum to share their own up close andpersonal experiences. The bunch behind the site have now released a bookcalled Shop and Awe—a picture collection of Americans in their natural shoppinghabitat.102 asialife HCMC asialife HCMC 103