How NOT to be creative

Mr Jam caught live talking to an audience of young “creatives”

Comments

[Irene]

I have also seen Prosperous Building, but it looks very run down.

[Watcher]

I have seen Tiny Building. it's huge.

[Angela]

ROTFL!

Gotta run for client meeting but I can't resist posting this:

I was at little India with my sister and two girl friends for the Thaipusam festival last week. It was dinner time and we were starving after fighting our way through the thick crowd so walked into the first restaurant at the corner of Serangoon and Rangoon Rds. (BTW, what's the difference between Serangoon and Rangoon? if I may ask)

Four hungry females piled in front of the counter served by grim looking Uncle to order some curry dish. My friend Nikki who was first in the queue leaned over the counter and ordered, "One Chicken Briyani, Please!"

Uncle slammed his palms down hard on the counter and yelled back, "This is KOMALA'S VEGETARIAN RESTAURANT!!!" and chased us out.

We ended up at Burger King.

[TS]

what's the difference between Serangoon and Rangoon?

"S" and "E" as far as I can tell...

[grandpa]

I was in Little India last week too.
I was at the same place too... but I did not see you

Strange......

[sej]

Fardel,

She has to run around in the shower, so of course you missed her.

[sej]

In Sydney, we have a building "Australia Square"... It's round?

[Lift Lurker]

I think is very great advantage if people are not creative in names.

For example when one ask direction to Greenish Building, no one ask "How will I recognize it?"

Simplicity makes things clear.

It used to be that names were simple. "The British East India Company", very clear. "London Electric Company" very clear. Japanese Imperial Army, very clear.

But names like "Apple" or "Google", is not very clear what they do.

I think every building should be called Building. Like Empire State Building or Chrysler Building.

-Sears Tower become Sears Building

- One International Finance Centre become One International Finance Building

- Jardine House become Jardine Building

- Egyptian Pyramids become Egyptian Old Buildings

- White House = White Building

and so on

Products can also be identify with what they are.

I would love to wear Levi's Pants together with my Nike Rubber Shoes. My favorite pastime is watching the LA Basketball Team vs the Portland Basketball Team.

I go to work in my supercool Ford Car. And sometime bring the children to watch movies like "Star Wars Movie", "The Empire Strikes Back Movie", or "Die Hard Movie"

To go on holiday you can take "British Airplanes" or "France Airplanes" or "United Airplanes"

You can perhaps watch "Tour de France Bicyle Race" or the "Olympic Assorted Sports Competitions" in London.

Cities should be called City, like New York City. So I have friends in Vancouver City, Beijing City, Sydney City,

Of course they should name all streets to Street. No more Boulevard, Avenue, Road, Highway, etc.

- Sunset Boulevard become Sunset Street

- Avenue de Champs Elysee become simply Champs Elysee St.

The gadgets I use: Apple Microcomputer, Apple Mobile Phone, Apple Tablet Computer. Then it's easy for me to remember which is which.

As Henry Thoreough once said "Simplify, simplify, simplify" (I wish he had simple surname)

[grandpa]

elevators should be called lifting boxes..
At least people would know them for what they are, really

The ones going down would be called Dropping boxes .

[marble]

Watching you guys "debating" makes my day. Thank you all.

[rafanjr]

...and all human names should end with "human" to differentiate it from dog names and cat names or any other animal names...

[rafanjr]

...but then you can use Mr. or Ms. or Mrs.

...but then again my neigbor's dog is named Mr. Poodle

[sej]

Lift Lurker,

Double plus good!

[TS]

Regarding your movie titles, it needs to be simpler. In a perfect world "The Empire Strikes Back Movie" should be "Star Wars Movie 2".
But thanks to George Lucas, the Star Wars films are not that simple to put in order.

Let's just take the first one as an example.

First there was "Star Wars".
When that became a success George told everyone that he had actually planned a series of nine films and for some inexplicable he had decided to start with Episode 4 (or as the ancient Hollywoodians would have written it: IV) with the subtitle "A New Hope". This was then inserted in the title sequence of subsequent cinema releases.

Summary:
Star Wars 1.0 = Star Wars
Star Wars 1.1 = Star Wars IV: A New Hope

Two sequels followed and George Lucas took a long break from the franchise where he created the classic film "Howard the Duck", turning the tables on the F-word by creating the D-word as in: "What the Duck was he thinking!".

In 1997 Lucas was ready to start work on on three prequels to the series. To remind people about how the new series was going to end, he decided to re-release the original series into the cinemas.
As he pulled the reels out of the closet he realised that a they needed a major clean up. As his minions was working with brushes and crack fillers, he thought he'd spruce things up with some computer animated creatures that weren't that well made and looked completely out of place. Also he decided to edit a crucial scene that establishes the nature of the character "Han* Solo".
Han is cornered by a bounty hunter called "Greedo*", in bar. While having chat at a table, Greedo pointing a gun at Han, Han pulls out his gun under the table and shoots Greedo, who just manage to squeeze off a shot that misses Han before he fall over dead.
In the new version George have edited that scene so that Greedo shoots first. Making the character of Han Solo less opportunistic and less dangerous if you ask me.

Summary:
Star Wars 1.0 = Star Wars
Star Wars 1.1 = Star Wars IV: A New Hope
Star Wars 1.2 = Star Wars IV: A New Hope, 1997 Special Edition

Fans were furious that George would mess with a classic film like that. Although the new digital creatures was disliked, the bar scene was absolutely positively hated. But George didn't give a duck... O did he...?

In 2004 Star Wars was finally released on DVD. George had tinkered a bit more and this time around Han and Greedo shoots at the same time. An improvement but it still doesn't make Han Solo the ruffian and ruthless person he was to begin with.

Summary:
Star Wars 1.0 = Star Wars
Star Wars 1.1 = Star Wars IV: A New Hope
Star Wars 1.2 = Star Wars IV: A New Hope, 1997 Special Edition
Star Wars 1.3 = Star Wars IV: A New Hope, 2004 DVD Version

Later this year Star Wars will be released on Blu-ray, the net is abuzz with rumours that George once more will duck around with the film making it version 1.4.
Will Han Solo be de-deemed?


*I can't believe that my spell checker do not recognise these names!

[Lift Lurker]

TS, amazing background stories about Star Wars.

Not impossible that by Star Wars 2.0 Greedo and Han are lovers trying to commit suicide pact.

(What is meaning of "de-deemed"?)

[TS]

(What is meaning of "de-deemed"?)

Opposite of redeemed. He will be de-deemed back to the cold blooded killer he was in Star Wars Movie 1.0.

[Nury]

Wow, I never realized all that about the first Star Wars movie -- so that's why it is the first movie but also the fourth. TS, you are a serious nerd!
I like liftie's suggestion that Hans and Greedo are lovers by the next one.

[Peter B]

Nury : you most add a govt health warning to your website ( and CERTANLY TO YOUR VIDEOS ) : EXTREME DANGER - watching this video without MAXIMUM LAUGHTER CONTROL ON may seriously damage your health .

Everybody in our flat, even the cats, came to pick me off the floor.... :-)

[Amused]

Funny blog!

Is there an RSS feed for all comments? There's currently an RSS feed per column but it would be great to have an RSS feed of all comments so I don't have to subscribe to a new feed whenever a new column is posted. I find it hard to follow this site at work because the images are unpredictable so an RSS feed works best for me.

[grandpa]

I think that not being creative is contagious:I am writng form the Capital of Europe ( you know , the country where the sun produces as much heat as a low consumption light-bulb)
The main railway station is called: centraal station.
know when one travels he:she must specitfy:
I am in central station, Hong Kong , planet earth

i am in ceentral station , Brussels or Bruxelles , Belgium , planet Earth

[ray_dios_apier]

Very funny!

I've become a real fan of Nury Vittachi over the past few years, since I read "Feng Shui Detective" after having been to Singapore for a project. Now, I've been back several more times, and have read more of his books, and read this blog periodically, and it all just gets more and more funny.

Thanks so much.