Ignorance is bliss

There are some things which are better not to know. Like the fact that there are some wines which are not only too expensive to drink but which prices probably bear little relation to how good they are – now they might be fabulous wines but the prices really are a function of their investment value. Depending on whether a professional wine investor needs to balance a portfolio with a few more cases of Right Bank wines of a certain vintage or a wine fund needs to be liquidated (ha ha) and sold off, these bottles are bought and sold. There are probably no more than two dozen wines which could be sold off in an instant, which makes them liquid investments (again, ha) and everything else is illiquid. These are not difficult to identify, just walk into a wine shop and look at the price list – where the price falls sharply with a selection of wines which should be roughly as good, one against another, there is the cut. Porco is saddened.

A New Beginning

Porco nearly fell over laughing when he read this - it really appealed to his porcine nature. Perhaps we could get rid of the stupid Merlion once and for all.

Porc Art

Still on the subject, Porco visited 4 auction previews this long weekend just gone by. There were the usual suspects (and although some of the prices of Chinese pop art were laughable, it would not be so funny if the prices were realised at auction) and a few too many Gunawans for comfort. However, Larasati managed a good Zaki and Christie’s put together a good collection of Affandis, an unusual Phai plus a David Chan prequel.

Bye Bye Biennale

Now that it is safe to return to one’s own blog, Porco had a good chuckle when he read this last week. Mainly because it portrayed Porco as part of the General Public thereby boosting one’s populist and constituency credentials.

As the Singapore Biennale draws to a close in fortnight,  it is probably worth having a think about what was good, what was bad, what was ugly and in the final analysis, was it worth it?

Sure, the event put Singapore on the global art map – we found a reknown (Japanese) curator, we have seen things we have never seen before. The criticism - where was the Singapore in the Biennale – was probably justified to an extent but how much contemporary art is there in Singapore any way and how much of that is any good?

As with any show of any size, there was the usual quota of duds and one or two things which really hit the spot (like the seal in the secret garden). We asked a visitor if he noticed any of the art in the public spaces when he got in last weekend and he went like “huh?” Does this make us a global hot spot for contemporary art happenings to rival Venice, Lucerne or Miami? Does this turn us into a city of the arts like New York, London or even Manila or Bali? Probably not. 

Still some good came out of it – almost 1,500 people visited last weekend (it was free). How else would you get people to go?

So we count our blessings and we count the cost.

Through the haze

Porco thinks it may be safe to return to his own blog once the number of visitors have fallen below 40.  The Porco Sniff Index (PSI) was at 44 yesterday – we have hopes for bluer skies today. 

Scary

Since Mr Wang posted a link to this blog, there have been hundreds of people visiting – Porco’d better be careful about what he writes from now on. Who knows who might drop by? Indonesian plantation owners, perhaps. Bhavani might even leave a comment – now that would be worrying. 

Hazy Days

Porcorosso has a solution to the haze problem blighting South East Asia at the moment. As far as we know, these are caused by fires in Indonesia. Most are started at the behest of plantation owners. Most of these plantation owners have private bank accounts in Singapore. Most of these people would not like the Indonesian tax authorities to know about these accounts. If we get the MAS to tell the Indonesian tax authorities about these accounts, Porco is certain the fires will stop before the MAS can finish reciting the numbers which identify these accounts. And we will have blue skies over Sentosa – just you wait and see.

Piggys at Iggy’s

After a few missed attempts, Porco finally made it to the 98th best restaurant in the world. Now that may not sound like a big deal but when you take into account that Iggy’s is also the 4th best restaurant in Asia and by default the best in Singapore, plus the man himself has become a foodie mentor (sending us to places yet unexplored and calories undiscovered – Iggy is the yokozuna of belly tuna, the prince of ponzu and the wazir of wine), it would be rude not to. As it was a quiet night at the beginning of the week as well as a Special Occasion, Iggy himself looked after us for the most part, choosing the wines (a Jacquesson, a Riesling from Mosel and a Dujac) and talking us through the courses. He also gave us quite a few extra courses – jamon Iberico with bruschetta, pea soup, cheese, pannacotta and a little cake. Happy piggy to you!