Earlier this week, on the 29th August, the King of Pop Michael Jackson would have turned 53 had he not passed away under unfortunate circumstances 2 years ago. Millions have mourned the passing of the great performing artiste of our time, but his music lives forever, immortal and timeless. This weekend, his legacy will set the beat to the first glorious set of non-weekdays in September.

Smooth Criminal - Alien Ant Farm

Smooth Criminal will always be remembered for its stylish, noir-esque music video, an apt accompaniment to the fluid funk and dance-pop number as only the King of Pop can deliver. Alien Ant Farm made an alternative rock/nu metal reinterpretation in 2001, and just as it has propelled their career into the Rock Band and Guitar Hero stratosphere, those manic riffs alone will propel your weekend sky-high. Not advisable if your name is Annie.

Heal The World - Kollaboration

Kollaboration is a non-profit talent organization made by a group of Korean Americans and Korean Canadians whose mission is Empowerment through Entertainment. A song like this anthem for recovery, repair, renewal and hope is right up their alley. This union of talents and voices may not be able to match the soul that only comes with Michael Jackson, but it definitely beats last year’s We Are The World 25 For Haiti, simply because Lil Wayne is not in this. This is the kind of music that soothes the savage beast that is your throbbing head.

Beat It - Fall Out Boy (featuring John Mayer)

Swagger, party animal, swagger. No one wants to be defeated. This is one of the great ironies of Michael Jackson’s life (this, and his constant denial regarding plastic surgery). The lyrics tell you to play it smart and more importantly, play it safe, but the guitar-driven rhythm and the heavy percussion screams ANARCHY!!!! Nothing paints the moods and soundscapes of Saturday better.

Human Nature - Marcela Mangabeira

Bossa/Jazz sweetheart Marcela Mangabeira sang this bossa nova version of Human Nature, and performed a miracle - she improved on Michael Jackson’s ballad and made this song her own. While retaining the emotional resonance of the song, she gave it her unique brand of Latino, dressed-down charm that makes this a beach-side groove for the perfect chill-out afternoon.

Thriller - Michael Jackson

Marcela Mangabeira’s rendition of Human Nature is a very rare exception - nothing ever beats the original. Thriller proved how much the world loved Michael Jackson, when they allowed him to release a 13-minute music video that is mostly a cheesy-ass swipe at the horror staples of that time. There have been many covers of the song, but nothing beats MJ’s playful yet controlled delivery and, and, and THAT ZOMBIE DANCE.

Billie Jean - Chris Cornell

The weekend is over, the parties have ended, the office beckons and for some of us, it means our stalkers are back in business. Michael Jackson seems to have a song for everything, doesnt he? In Billie Jean, he sings out against a crazed fan (or lunatic stalker - with Michael Jackson, it is sometimes difficult to differentiate between the two) who claims MJ had fathered her child, but of course this lament is laminated with glossy funk-pop. Chris Cornell tried to match those standards and failed, but his guitar-driven lament beautifully sings the kind of blues less associated with James Brown, more with Monday.

XX Melissa (illustration)

& my friend Joshua Tan (his motivational skills)

So by now you might have heard the rumour about the world ending in 2012. To be more specific, on December the 21st, 2012, the human race will supposedly face the administrative and logistical hassle of becoming extinct. 

For those who have never previously heard about this, however, the abovementioned statement would typically draw two reactions:

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C’EST handpicked goodness for today: NYC from day to night in one frame.

This set of brilliant images from photographer Stephen Wilkes took over ten hours of taking hundreds of photographs to create. Each one of these gorgeous surreal images are a blend and weave of over 30 to 50 parts, meticulously put together to bring to life the vibrancy we often take for granted in the cycle of day to night and night to day.

Click ‘read more’ to see more!

XX Melissa

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Friday I’m In Love - The Cure

We chose the most obvious choice among Friday psyche-up tracks, true, but for 19 years, this has been the soundtrack for youths in that magical period after school or work and before the nights madness begins. Where it used to blare out from cassette players and Walkmen, it is now a mainstay in the iPods of scene kids, disaffected teenagers and adult hispters. Not to forget normal music fans who have better things to do than to limit their personalities with labels and stereotypes. 

Paris 2004 - Peter Bjorn and John

Swedish trio Peter Bjorn and John is the perfect kind of PB and J to start the day with after a night consuming Irish levels of alcohol. This classical guitar-tinged ballad is a nostalgic, sentimental reminiscence of a romance that has seen better days. You can relate by reminiscing on your throbbing head that has seen better days as well. Or you can just enjoy the melodic guitar twangs while you chow down on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to counter the alcohol in your stomach. I hope everything is alright with you.

Pour Some Sugar On Me - Def Leppard

All our Saturdays should be like Def Leppard’s crunching stadium-rousing number - a song that is all about urgent, raunchy sex involving bodies covered in molasses, but disguised as a polite, presentable jaunt. And you cannot talk about Pour Some Sugar On Me without raving about that iconic opening riff. Doesn’t it make you want to take your pants off? Just do it at the right place and time.

Soulful Strut - Grover Washington, Jr.

These days people get their swagger on to urban beats and Kanye West. In a simpler time, when nobody would dare interrupt an acceptance speech (otherwise known as the 70s), jazz’s Mister Magic Grover Washington, Jr sexed/saxed up Young Holt Unlimiteds infectious piano-driven instrumental masterpiece and turned it into a jazz-funk anthem for walking down the beach like a boss.  

Dance With Me - Great Spy Experiment

We’re not afraid to go local if local sounds like Great Spy Experiment. This beatific caper has lead singer Saiful demanding for you to get off your Monday-lamenting ass and do some goddamn dancing/start a little anarchy. Meanwhile, Magdalene Han repeats the same five notes on her keyboard, and its enough to do the magic - next thing you know you’re bopping away and - work? What work?

- Suff

It doesn’t bode well for our blogazine to say this, but sometimes, people simply don’t like words. So just for a bit of fun, we’ve condensed some of the most well-known movies into a string of 4 illustrations. Movie buff or not, you should be able to guess what they are. If not, feign an illness, get off work or school, and for goodness sake, go educate yourself!

If you did not manage to figure out what these movies are, I insist you go to a corner and hide in shame. Then come back and click on ‘read more’ for the answers.

XX Melissa

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It was courtroom drama unlike any other, especially so because it happened in a particularly long queue for Cowboys and Aliens tickets and not in a real courtroom. But it might as well have.

Mr Suffian Hakim, 25, representing all the believers of free love and its many forms of expression, which includes, but is not limited to, group sex. Being sued for statement, “I think group sex is perfectly harmless.”

Ms Carmen Vanwomen (not her real name), 22, representing common morality and all parents out there who want to protect their kids from the Devil. Suing the defendant for one free Cowboys and Aliens ticket.

Consensus states that there are generally two kinds of people in this world. One are those who, when presented with a glass filled to half its capacity, describe the glass as half-full. The other are those who, when presented with the same glass, describe it as half-empty.

Consensus missed out a third group. These are the ones who, when presented with the same glass, say, “Why the heck did you bring me this glass? Screw this glass! I want a full glass! As a matter of fact, bring me two full glasses!”

Now as much as we give these three groups their rights to express what they think of glasses and their water content, they are also entitled to express their sexuality whichever way they want. 

Allow me to express my opinion. I am sure most of you followed my speech to its logical conclusion – that the third group are those who actively engage in group sex. Here’s something you don’t know about the other two groups – they, too, have at least fantasized about group sex. 

EVIDENCE 1

Defiles the sanctity of sex

“Sex is a sacred act between two people, anything more is a defilement of an expression of love that two people share.”

EVIDENCE 2

Unsafe sex

“In most cases, you do not know everyone involved. They may carry STDs, they may be criminals, they may be – gasp – colleagues with your parents. When I say unsafe, I mean it in every sense of the word.”

EVIDENCE 3

Immoral

“Engaging in group sex reflects badly on you. It suggests that you are unable to control your urges, that you do not care who you expose your most intimate parts to and that you have a grossly distorted view of acceptable socialization.”

EVIDENCE 4

The younger generation

“If we take such a laissez-faire approach to group sex, the generation to follow ours will assume it is alright to have multiple sexual partners at one go. This will lead to the breakdown of the family unit.”

EVIDENCE 1

Consenting adults

“When all parties involved are consenting adults who understand the risks involved, and acts accordingly to counter them”

EVIDENCE 2

Putting the GRR in Swinger, baby

“Group sex is – you can’t deny this – more fun. Variety is the spice of life. More sexual partners means you have access to different talents in the sack.”

EVIDENCE 3

Develops social skills

“A two-person mambo allows you to develop only that one relationship you share with that other person. A group situation allows you to explore other aspects of your personality. You could be the leader, directing the action for everyone. You could be the counsellor, ensuring the timid one does not feel left out. The possibilities are endless.”

EVIDENCE 4

Serious bedroom cred

“Where street cred gives you respect in a club or among denizens of the Underground, bedroom cred makes you more desirable in the eyes of the opposite sex (or same sex if you swing that way).”

Who wins? You decide!

- Suff

Pill popping will now be pleasant.

XX Melissa

Kids of 88 - Just A Little Bit

If someone dubs Rebecca Black’s ‘Friday’ or Katy Perry’s ‘TGIF’ as the Friday anthem, they don’t deserve weekends. Friday nights are supposed to feel oh-so-good, and this New Zealander duo have created more than just a little bit of a hot hit. With lines like ‘let’s get unprofessional, baby’, this song is punctuated with sultry moans and gasps, and a beat that will leave you with no doubt the week is over, and that we’re going to have more than just a little bit of..

Jack Johnson - Banana Pancakes

So you have just had a little bit too much to drink, and now your brain is mush and your stomach is rioting. There is already an unpleasant pounding beat going on in your head, the last thing you need is more of that. Here is what you should do: crawl out of bed, drag your ass to the kitchen, pull out bananas and some pancake mix and in five (okay, you’re hungover, who are we kidding) 15 mins, you can chow down banana pancakes while listening to this adorable Jack Johnson song that should soothe any damned techno shit going on in your head.

Klaas & Bodybangers - Freak

It’s Saturday night, so ‘give me a freaky boy, I’ll make him sit and beg’. No, really. Saturday night means to get your sex on, and you will with this electro pop track. A rhythmic beat and risqué lyrics will guarantee a wild night. No amount of description can convey the delicious lewdness of this song, so let me give you a sneak peek at the lyrics: ‘give me a freaky boy, I’ll make him sit & beg, I’ll put a chain around him, wrap him between my legs, I like it bouncy bouncy, so throw me up & down, just keep on moving through me & turn my world around.’ Yummy.

Stan Getz & João Gilberto - Desafinado

If it is a Sunday morning and you are up reading this, I am completely incredulous, and I have no clue as to what is wrong with you. Two days of partying, you must be exhausted; if you’re not, you are simply not partying hard enough. I demand you go back to bed - but not to your bedroom. Get out, bring your swim wear and find a sunbed to lounge on. Bask in the sun and just melt into a puddle for a few hours listening to breezy Portuguese lyrics sung in a husky male voice, backed by subdued velvety trumpets and soft maracas in the background.

360 ft. Pez - Just Got Started

Rap and hip hop may seem like an odd choice for a Sunday night, but Australian rapper 360, along with the also Aussie hip hopper Pez have managed a smooth rap with a catchy back beat. The paradoxically subdued and upbeat song manages to successfully distract you from the looming Monday. Top that track off with a bit of alcohol and say au revoir pre-Monday blues (although I can’t speak for the actual Monday blues). ‘I know the weekend just got started, but baby, you shouldn’t care.’

XX Melissa

was borne out of a need to revolutionize the local magazine industry, to cater to the current generation of young adults in Singapore. We need an exciting, definitive new voice for our generation, equal parts street cred machine and intellectual vehicle. 

One might point out that C’EST is part of an incomplete sentence, but we intend to complete the sentence with brilliant, beautiful, witty and ground-breaking content. The title C’EST also gives us the space to be as thematically flexible as we choose.

C’EST is the consummate publication to embrace the less beaten path - the alternative - a magazine for those who yearn to break out of the not-too-fulfilling madness of the 9-to-5 paperchase that is unfortunately associated with Singaporean life.

It exists as a lifestyle magazine that joyously veers off the beaten track, with off-mainstream, entertaining and fun(ny) lifestyle content like satellite pieces featuring creative works, writing, design and op-ed pieces, and we promise it will always be entertaining.

Nevertheless, for all of its culture and intelligence, this is a magazine with soul and a sense of humour, a magazine that realises that the human experience should be as expansive as it is deep.

C’EST is the brainchild of Melissa Ng and Suffian Hakim. Melissa writes occasionally, but mostly spends her days as a graphic designer who has worked with companies such as Gloria Jean’s Coffees, Standard Chartered and Nordic Maritime. She is also co-owner and designer for shoe atelier The Apostrophye. Suffian is a writer (and poet extraordinaire) who has written for titles such as AUGUST Men, CNN Go and exclusive dining connoisseurs The White Card. 

XX Melissa & Suffian