The Skeptical Optimist

I’ve had a really good run of interviews lately – just thought I should post some links up before they disappear forever from the Primetime Morning page. One of the ones I am particularly proud of is this one that I did with Wole Soyinka, Nobel Prize Laureate and political activist.

He was in town for the Sun Festival and I got a chance to sit him down and talk about his writing, his dreams (at the grand age of 75) and his political views. I’ll admit freely that before I met him I only had a vague idea of Nigerian history and its political struggles. Of course, like any interviewer worth her salt, I did quite a bit of research before I actually did the interview. Still there’s nothing like hearing it firsthand from someone who experienced it. The best interviews I do transport me into someone’s thoughts and memories – and I really hope that that comes across when the interview goes to air. What really moved me was when he talked about how he had come to a certain acceptance that the “utopia” he wished for Nigeria would not come to pass in his lifetime – but that didn’t mean he would stop trying to make the world a more fair and honourable place.

Somewhat more lighthearted, but no less intellectual really was my interview cum cooking session with Chinese cookbook writer Fuchsia Dunlop.

I’d actually written a paper on her memoir about eating in China as part of an independent study module I did for my ongoing Masters in English Lit that I’m doing in NUS. It was about cultural transformation through food and it’s truly fascinating how Fuchsia has really taken on an incredible amount of Chineseness (if there is such a thing) through learning, cooking and eating all manner of Chinese foods. Her command of Mandarin, especially it’s specialized culinary vocabulary is astounding and never fails to impress Chinese chefs. I love the way she describes falling in love with spicy Sichuanese cuisine and also the very astute observations she has about China’s gastronomic culture and how that will be the way out of its food scandals. I definitely recommend the memoir, although being the half-baked Chinese cook that I am, her cookbooks are a little intimidating!

And of course… now the Neil Gaiman interview is up on the website! Neil has graciously credited me on his blog which is making my blog stats go a bit nuts with Gaiman fans. Sorry to disappoint! I am neither macabre nor fantastical! But if you are curious about the interviews… they are up here and here. Enjoy!

Tags: Fuchsia Dunlop, interviews, neil gaiman, Wole Soyinka

I got the chance to interview the lovely Neil Gaiman again after his first visit here 4 years ago. Here are the photos: first me very very pregnant in 2005 with Neil and then very unpregnant in 2009


What can I say? It’s amazing to be in the same room with a mind that is sharp, witty, expansive, omnivorous and best of all, just really nice and down to earth. It was really nice chatting to him after the interview as well, and you come to understand why he’s so beloved of his fans. It’s not just that the universes he creates are so encompassing and vivid, it’s also that he’s a truly genuine guy who really tries to connect with each person that he meets. I’ve interviewed quite a few celebrities in my short career, but even then, I can tell you that that is pretty rare. So kudos to the people who braved thunderstorms, waited in line patiently and lugged enormous copies of Ultimate Sandman all around the shop – it IS totally worth it.

Check out my 2 part interview with him Wednesday on Primetime Morning – he talks about his new book about the Chinese legend “Journey to the West”, his relationship with Amanda Palmer and his best advice for writers…

Tags: neil gaiman

Most of us when faced with a fork in the road would naturally gravitate to the choice that looks well-paved with clear signposts and a predictable destination. Not for Gary Fisher and Oliver Ronzheimer who were both guests on Primetime Morning this week. 

      Gary is the Californian hippie who in the 1970s, began to modify his road bike to enable him to race up and down mountain slopes.  It was the first step towards the introduction of the sport we know today as mountain biking. 

      Oliver is one of Europe’s best motorcycle stuntmen. Like Gary, his love for two-wheelers propelled him onto the road less traveled.   

      For Oliver, who had been riding motorcycles since the age of 8 (although, he was quick to point out that this was legal, on offroad vehicles), it was his twin loves of entertaining people and motorsports that led him to his career, and he hasn’t looked back since.  He became a professional stuntman in 1992, and in 1999, set a Guinness World Record for jumping over 38 people on a motorcycle – without a ramp.  

      When asked whether he had suffered any major injuries, he replied with  deadpan Teutonic humour, “I’ve never broken a bone. I’m a professional.  It makes no sense, when I spend my time in the hospital I don’t make money.” 

      Where Oliver was the disciplined German, Gary Fisher’s path to fame had a more American frontier spirit to it. Starting out as a professional racer, he was actually barred from competing because he had long hair.  But it wasn’t his way to  get his locks shorn to gain easy entry. 

      Instead, he decided to do his own thing and began biking in the Californian hills.  By modifying existing lightweight racing bikes with tough motorcycle-like gear, Gary was able to make the humble two-wheeler an all-terrain machine. 

       “You can ride almost anywhere you want, you can ride all those little paths, you can ride out on mountains, you ride out in the forest, you can go almost anywhere you want. And it’s light enough that you can pick it up, put it over a fence, or go through a difficult area, carry it sometimes and ride home.” 

      The next step was to start a company with his partners, making mountain bikes for people, and introducing the sport to others.  

      To hear him talk about those early years, you conclude that going offroad was the best thing he did. 

      “Coming down the trails, it was amazing, it was a like a big natural rollercoaster. I had for years ridden around the periphery of this great riding on paved roads and everything, and suddenly this was the heart of something fantastic. And you know we used to say, you get out in the mountain bike, you’re away from the cops, the cars and concrete and you can have a really good time.” 

      Spoken like a true hippie and I for one definitely hope that life still holds many unexplored, unconventional but rewarding paths to take. 

(this article appeared in the TODAY weekend edition 28 Feb-1 Mar 2009)
 

Tags: alternative lifestyles, motor stunts, mountain bikes

One of the things that I’ve always been really interested in is how to create art, or at least do something that makes you happy- while simultaneously helping other people and making the world a better place. Sure, it’s really easy for artists to say that their art is enough, that it enriches the lives of the people around them, provokes them to think differently and in that sense “makes a difference”. Sure, that is true to a certain extent – but only for people who have access to galleries, theatres, concert halls: performance spaces that often place filters on access through tickets and even the way they are marketed. An art gallery might have free admission, but a shabbily dressed worker might feel too intimidated to enter.

Truly committed humanist artists I believe, find a way to marry ideas of artistic vision, social entrepreneurship and public outreach in their work. They make art that touches people in the conventional sense, yes, but also perhaps says something about the true state of the world we live in today, with all its attendant inequalities, injustices and forgotten stories. Then they somehow find a way to tie this to the real life situation on the ground, perhaps by tying up with an NGO or by getting a corporate sponsor involved to make a concrete improvement in the lives of the disadvantaged or perhaps to our overburdened environment.

Some photographers who are going to be on Primetime Morning this coming week,are seeking to do just that. They were involved in what they called “The Rice Project”  where besides spending time documenting life of post-tsunami survivors on the Sri Lankan coast, they also distributed rice, that staple in the lives of almost all Asians.

These are just some of the moving pictures that they sent to us as part of the interview: bare feet that are testimony to the relentless poverty of the region, an almost ominous shot of the tide coming in, recalling the unprecendented natural disaster, the tired haunted look of a small boy collecting rice grains on the road that have fallen from an aid truck and most encouragingly the indomitable hope of children, many perhaps born post-tsunami, into a world that had irrevocably changed.

I don’t mean to say that all art should have some social/corporate/NGO agenda – in fact, perhaps it’s the hardest to make good art when there is some sort of interference, even if it is with the best intentions. But somehow, these photographs succeed and these photographers succeed. There is a way to make art that can change the world, even if it means being hard nosed with corporate sponsors or social entrepreneurs. And when you do get it right, the feeling must be one of the best: doing something that you love and truly making someone’s life better.

Exhibition details:

Venue: VivoCity, South Avenue & South Court
Dates: 13 Feb (Fri)  — 22 Feb (Sun) 2009
Opening Hours: 10am to 10pm daily

Tags: aid, art, photographers, post-tsunami, social entrepreneurship, Sri Lankan

There’s nothing like a good meal – whether it’s something someone has lovingly cooked for you or whether you enjoy pottering around the kitchen and fixing something exactly the way you want it. One of my favourite things to cook is softly scrambled eggs with just a bit of butter, maybe some goat cheese and herbs or a splash of full cream milk. I don’t cook many things better than my Italian mother-in-law, but this is one of them.

Speaking of Italian food – I just filmed another episode of this segment I’m producing and presenting called “Off the Menu”. For this segment I interviewed Chef Giacomo Gallina who has just set up a new restaurant called ‘Otto’ in the Red Dot Building in Singapore. Giacomo is pretty much the “godfather” of Italian chefs based in Singapore, having mentored some pretty big names behind the well established Italian restaurants here. He was a really nice, laidback kind of chef with sure, deft touch to his cooking.

We also had a chance to do a tasting!

I have to say, I’m also a sucker for a really good chocolate molten cake – as cliched as that may be. But Giacomo also makes a mean squid ink pasta and perfectly cooked asparagus with a rich and decadent cheese sauce.

Off the Menu is not just about food though – in fact it’s not really about the food per se but the stories and ideas behind the dishes and cooking styles. Over the past few months, I’ve had a chance to interview some culinary greats like Pierre Herme and Anne Sophie Pic (only woman in France to get 3 michelin stars) – and some homegrown self taught cooks like Willin Low. Plus I got to talk to a young but determined chef behind one of my favourite restaurants in Singapore – Sage. Jusman So is a man who really values honesty, especially in cooking and if you head down to his restaurant on Mohamed Sultan road you’ll see what I mean.

Do tune in to the segment – it’s on Tuesdays during Primetime Morning at 9.20am Singapore time. Otherwise, you can always head down to the website to catch the episode you missed. I hope you have as much fun watching it as I did filming it!

Tags: chefs, cooking, eating, good food, interviews

Kermit was right – it’s not easy being green. And before you think I mean that in some flippant way, let me assure you that I’m dead serious about it. When I first met my husband in the States, he was vegan and as an omnivorous Chinese woman in her early 20s, I thought he was quirky, slightly mad and definitely a little bit too committed to the cause. Some 7 to 8 years later, he’s now living in Singapore with me and he’s a less than reluctant omnivore. Definitely, it’s my fault – from the ricotta cheese and gelato in Italy to the scallop in New Orleans – he says watching me eat was just too much! Plus my mother-in-law is an amazing cook, and my father-in-law likes to barbecue! mmmm… sausages!

But recently, I’ve been giving some serious thought to becoming at least part time vegetarian (yes, that term exists!) and maybe even extending this to my boys… This is really difficult, because it’s one thing become vegetarian yourself but it’s another thing figuring out how to give two energetic growing toddlers enough protein, calcium and nutrients.

Plus, I really do love meat! I’m not a bleeding heart vegetarian, I believe in the circle of life philosophy – but with responsibility and humanity. So that means that while I don’t think it’s unethical to kill a cow, fish, chicken, pig, etc to eat it (although I respect the beliefs of the ethical or religious vegetarians)- I do believe that it’s completely unethical to industrially farm these animals and subject them to cruel and unusual forms of housing and death. Industrially raised pigs, cattle and poultry live in abysmal conditions, often overcrowded, overfed and injected with antibiotics to prevent diseases that are a result from these conditions.

Sticking to this view, it makes it really hard to eat meat unless it’s free range and organic, something that’s almost non-existent in Singapore unless it’s for a very high price, which basically makes it untenable. Honestly, I can’t afford to pay $60 for a piece of grass fed steak and shouldn’t have to. Which makes the alternative? Well, going green in the most fundamental sense.

To add to that, there’s the environmental imperative. Recently I interviewed a Geography professor who had done extensive research into lifestock and he confirmed my suspicion that one of the easiest ways for you to reduce your carbon footprint is not just to ditch that fuel guzzler of a car, switch off the lights and airconditioning unit and use less plastic – it’s actually to eat less meat. Cattle produce the most greenhouse gases! More than cars apparently… and that’s not taking into account their waste which pollutes waterways. Plus, they actually use up arable land that could be used to grow grain and vegetables to feed parts of the world populations that isn’t getting enough food. It’s quite a serious situation.

But how to run on this campaign in a food loving, food crazy country? No one is going to be able to tell you not to eat that plate of ba chor mee, black angus steak, panfried foie gras, pork knuckle or ba kwa. Not to mention mutton soup, ayam penyet and beef rendang. There would be riots! And don’t think that bento box of sushi is immune too, research shows overfishing could lead to a total depletion of oceanic fish in twenty years or so. So it’s quite a conundrum and really sometimes thinking like this can make your head swim, because how are one person or one family’s choices going to make a difference in a situation that seems like it’s headed to the dogs anyway? A more appropriate response might be: eat all the foie gras that you can right now because it’s all going to pot anyway, and you might not be able to afford it 10 years from now!

Right.

So in my household we are making simple decisions – red meat once a month, chicken once a week, farm raised fish or seafood twice a week and vegetarian pasta dishes or stews and stirfries with rice the rest of the time with added protein from cheese (not completely innocent I know, but hey my kids are under 5 and their bones are growing), eggs, tofu, lentils, beans and chickpeas.

It’s not an ideal situation, but it’s working for me. Although when we eat out at the hawker centre we do eat the normal wanton mee and chicken rice.

Still I’ve discovered old dishes that I used to cook to impress my once vegan husband, drawing out of the veggie cookbooks I bought for romance. It’s an uphill struggle, I’ll admit, I’m a sausage-bacon-lobster-foie gras-steak-otoro sushi-hamburger kind of girl… but hey, it’s not just the health of the planet and the humane treatment of animals – it’s after all also our health as well. Still, I have to admit, once a month we’ll go on a date without the kids and just have a steak or hamburger or plate of wonderfully expensive sashimi. After all, you only live once! What do you think?

Tags: feeding children, good food, omnivorism, vegetarianism

I had the honour of meeting pianist Emanuel Ax for an interview last week. Ax is best known here for his extensive collaborations with the cellist Yoyo Ma, but really he’s a virtuoso player in his own right, considered to be one of the great pianists of his generation.

The one thing that struck me was how humble he was… one of the things he said was that maybe he stuck to piano because he didn’t have any other options open to him! But really, we’re lucky that he did stick it out with the piano – his playing easily ranks among the top 5 of the classical pianists that I’ve heard live. Listening to his play Chopin in the Esplanade Concert Hall was a magical and sometimes infuriating experience. Magical because of his technical skill, control, expressiveness and vivacity – and infuriating because as a lapsed pianist… I recognise how dastardly difficult Chopin can be and how much practice and innate talent you need to pull it off in a concert setting. “Manny”, as his friends call him, the down to earth New Yorker with a self-professed love of Shanghai dumplings is transformed to pianist extraordinaire Emanuel Ax when he sets his fingers down on the ivories. He made the complex runs in the piano concerto sound sublime, effortless, as if his hands were simply floating above the keys and willing them into beauty with some telekinetic power. Plus, he was generous with the encores too, playing an additional nocturne and waltz.

The feeling you get when you listen to a grand master like this is, oh, this is how Chopin is supposed to sound like – not the tinkling and banging that you suffered through during piano lessons – this almost other worldly lyricism and breathtaking momentum, this is what the composer meant when he was setting these notes down on the manuscript. It’s almost like getting a glimpse of a perfection beyond mere mortality.

Tags: classical music, emanuel ax, pianists

One of the best things about the job is getting to meet all kinds of interesting people and having the chance to sit down and have a proper conversation with them… well for at least 10 to 15 minutes. There’s no other way to meet the writers, musicians, artists, architects, decision-makers and really sort of put them to the test with your questions. In a way it makes you immune to the effects of celebrity because you realise that hey, famous people are just people after all with their quirks and idiosyncrasies and good/bad camera sides!

But a couple of times a year you still do get all groupie-ish and weak-kneed at the prospect of interviewing someone truly great. This year it’s already happened twice for me… the first was interviewing Sophia Loren. She’s truly larger than life (in more ways than one…) and wonderfully statuesque and regal. If the Italians still had a queen, she would definitely be in contention for royalty.

But while it was really thrilling just to be in the same room as the legendary screen siren, it was Sonny Rollins who really made me feel both charmed and a little awed by his humility and his grace. Sonny is a Harlem born saxophone player who is 78 this year and has played with a list of jazz’s who’s who, including Coltrane, Davis, Monk, Hawkins, Powell… etc. I love jazz, but I’m not a real expert – still Sonny’s playing is particular – he is really innovative and yet manages to retain a warm, inviting tone at the same. Even though, his solos are often intellectual and “out there”, he still manages to communicate with the audience – something I heard and saw first hand when I went for his concert at the Esplanade last week.

What a pleasant surprise to find that Sonny is as expressive and forthright as his playing is. Evidence here. It was one of those rare interviews where you really feel that your questions are being heard and that the answers you are getting are really heartfelt and considered. Sonny talked about his instrument, his passion for his music, his relationship to his late jazz companions and what he hoped his legacy would be. He was very open about his youthful drug use and how he considered these to be mistakes that he had moved on from. And to top it off, when I thanked him for the interview and shook his hand, he kissed mine! Ah…. talk about old school! They don’t make them like they used to….

Tags: celebrity, jazz, sonny rollins