Singapore Danse Festival : Da:ns Festival

Posted on October 26, 2012 by skisoo

From 19 to 28 October 2012, the Esplanade in Singapore organizes the da:ns festival, a festival of dance. Many traditional and contemporary performances from troops coming from all over Asia are visible in the different rooms of the esplanade for 40$.

Outside the Esplanade offers some free events: Rasas in the Esplanade Outdoor Theatre to discover traditional dances from South East Asia and What’s your move? at the stage@powerhouse that offers to learn dancing. The professionals dancers dance first and then explain some basic steps. This Friday was Salsa, Bachata (with dancers from In Motion) and Tango (by ACTFA). It does not last very long (2 times 45 minutes) but it’s fun and we can discover cool dances. But it is not with the 3 basic steps learned that you can shine on the dancefloor! In Motion people are ready with their flyers ($ 80 per class of salsa!).

Rasas: Dances from Mindanao

What’s Your Move?: Salsa

What’s Your Move?: Bachata

Wind Arbor on the facade of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel

Posted on October 14, 2012 by skisoo

I have already walking several times in front of the Singapore Marina Bay Sands Hotel and I found the facade with the Arbor Wind pretty impressive, I had always wondered how it worked. The answer is simple: with the wind. Small “flappers” are mounted on hinges and can move independently of each other in response to wind movements. The effect is really impressive when there is strong wind.

Wind Arbor

Returning from a walk in the Garden By The Bay, I took some videos with my GoPro:

For the technical details:

6800 square meters (5 and a half Olympic swimming pools)
260 000 aluminum “flappers” independent of each other
From 15 meters high on the north side to 55 meter high south side
Designed by the famous kinetic art sculptor Ned Kahn in 2010

Chinese and Japanese gardens

Posted on September 26, 2012 by skisoo

Singapore may well be a very green city (much more than Paris and Tokyo), I spent almost the whole week in the city center, surrounded by buildings. A little greenery from time to time can only do good.

The grass field before entering the gardens

The Chinese and Japanese Gardens are two gardens located next to Jurong accessible from the station “Chinese Garden” on the green line and free. The place is really quiet and relaxing away from the main tourist areas.

The seven storey Pagoda

The spiral staircase inside the pagoda

View of the gardens from the last storey of the Pagoda

The theme of the Chinese garden is the integration of architectural elements in the surrounding nature. The most interesting part are a magnificent seven-storey pagoda, two twin pagodas, a bonsai garden and a garden of statues representing the different animals of the Chinese zodiac.

The twin Pagodas

Mouse statues

A little stream in the middle of the Statue garden

The Japanese garden is simpler and plays more on the design of nature elements like stones and plants. I think this is a lovely place for a quiet stroll (if you can stand without problem in the Singaporean heat).

The bridge between the two gardens

A little lake in the Japanese Garden

How to remove the fisheye effect from GoPro Hero 2 videos with free software ?

Posted on September 19, 2012 by skisoo

The GoPro Hero 2 is a great camera that can shoot beautiful video with a very wide angle. I find the fisheye effect pretty cool for videos with lots of activity with a person in the middle but on videos with landscapes the fisheye effect can bring some annoying distortions. The GoPro is my first camera, so I do not have any professional video editing software (and I do not want to buy one).

Fisheye Correction example on 1080p Wide Video from Go Pro Hero 2

How to remove the fisheye effect of the GoPro Hero 2 with free software?

By using the free software Virtualdub with the plugin Barrel distortion correction, I got the following result:

And here is a video explaining how to use virtualdub with the plugin:

Step by step explanation

download Virtualdub 32 bits (the plugin is not available for the 64-bit version)
download the plugin pack containing the plugin Barrel Distortion Correction from Emiliano Ferrari
Copy the vdf files from the plugin pack into the plugins folder of virtualdub
Start virtualdub
Open the video (the video must be in AVI to be opened in virtualdub, you can use GoPro CineForm Studio software supplied with the GoPro to convert video to AVI)
Select Full processing mode in the video menu
In the video menu, click on Filters …, and then add the filter Barrel Distortion
Uncheck Aspect Ratio and put the following values according to the angle used to film the video:

wide
 alpha=-0.3
 beta=0.08

medium
 alpha=-0.16900
 beta=0.03300

narrow
 alpha=-0.082
 beta=0.015

To determine the correct values, you first need to modify alpha (in the negative numbers) until the parts in the top center and bottom center are vertical, then you need to modify beta by going towards positive numbers until things are correctly horizontal. If you find better values, do not hesitate to send them to me.

Then, as we are in the mode Full processing mode, you must choose a compression codec ( menu video, then compression). If you leave uncompressed expect to have videos of several gigabytes.
Finally, you just have to save the video and wait for virtualdub to finish the job.

Vanda Miss Joaquim, the national flower of Singapore

Posted on September 10, 2012 by skisoo

After several months in Singapore, I realized that I had never really seen the orchid Vanda Miss Joaquim, the national flower of Singapore. I have already been to the botanical garden which is one of the classic attractions in Singapore but I did not pay much attention to this flower. I told myself it would be nice to go and see it in detail, especially now that we can go directly to the botanic gardens via the subway.

Once at the Botanic Gardens, I went straight to Singapore Orchid Garden, paid the five dollars to get in and I looked for this national flower of Singapore. Fortunately, no need to look long, the location of the national flower is directly indicated on the signs.

Vanda Miss Joaquim

Orchids have a special status for the Singapore Botanic Gardens. Since 1870, a program exists to expand the collection of orchids. Many hybrids have been created especially for celebrities traveling to Singapore.

Vanda Miss Joaquim

The orchid Vanda Miss Joaquim is a hybrid between Vanda teres, a species of Burma and Vanda hookeriana a species of Malaysia. It was discovered by Agnes Joaquim in 1983 (we do not really know if she found the flower or did itself the cross) then showed that H. N. Ridley, director of the Botanical Garden at that time who described it.

Vanda Miss Joaquim

The flower Vanda Miss Joaquim was selected as the official flower in 1981 among forty flowers ( including 30 orchids). It was chosen because of its vibrant colors and its resistance, which represents the values of Singapore and also due to its ability to bloom throughout the year.

Vanda Miss Joaquim

Vanda Miss Joaquim is a sun-loving flower and need high humidity and heavy fertilizing. The flower also need a vertical support to grow freely, and flowering begins when the stem grows above 50 cm.

The orchids Vanda Miss Joaquim on vertical support

Singapore Night Festival 2012

Posted on August 27, 2012 by skisoo

During the last two weekends of August (August 24-25 and August 31-September 1), two museums in Singapore change their wardrobes and adorn themselves with lights for the Singapore Night Festival 2012!

Many events are held after nightfall in different buildings of the Brash Basah Bugis Precinct: animation of lights on the walls of museums, shadow puppet show, circus performance (including aerial silk), parkour demonstrations, sounds and lights installations, trompe l’oeil paintings, outdoor cinema, dance performances, food stalls, music concerts … And four museums can be visited free of charge on Friday and Saturday nights:

National Museum of Singapore
Perenakan Museum
Singapore Art Museum
SAM at 8Q

I loved the ambiance, the variety and quality of shows and the fact that shows are performed several times so that we can see a lot of things without having to run everywhere.

Four of the lights animations are adaptations of realizations presented at the famous Fête des Lumières (Festival of Lights) in Lyon, France.

Useful information

Date: 24-25 August 2012 and 31 August to 1 September 2012
Location: Brash Basah Bugis Precinct (SAM, SMU, National Museum of Singapore)
All shows and other events are free and four museums are free in the evening.
Festival Guide