Esquire SG sept

Singapore 09 THE EYE SPY ISSUE 2018 ISSN 2301-3397 SGD8.00 Crazy Rich Asian henry golding on landing his big break, the importance of Asian representation in Hollywood and why you should never meet your heroes #CIAOBYTODS MaHB Tech Keeps on ticking We wait for a better smartwatch, but what if it’s already here? Ticwatch Pro retails for SGD340 and is available at www.mobvoi.com/ticwatchpro 214 Words by Wayne Cheong Here’s the deal: by now smartwatches have already set a template—they need to have push notifications for your social media sites and incoming phone calls, and they need to be a health tracker (heartbeats, sleep patterns, etc) The average smartwatch needs to allow the user to write on it, or at the very least type out messages It needs to have a GPS tracker, it needs to play music, it needs to mobile payments, so on and so forth Oh, and it needs to tell time The 1.39-inch Ticwatch Pro does the above mentioned as well as much more like customisable displays Also, through its Wear OS, you can converse with your Google Assistant… but the one feature that we think lends it an edge is that with a single charge, your Ticwatch Pro can last for 30 days, according to the company Mobvoi So that’s the magic Now here’s the science: the battery longevity is attributed to a dual-layer screen, where the watch switches between a low power FSTN (film compensated super twisted nematic) LCD display and the standard OLED display (the former sits on top of the latter) The standard OLED display takes up battery power due to the hi-definition, fullcolour screen and when it’s not in use, the FSTN display kicks in; this mode puts up your essential information (time, date, heart rate, yadda yadda) on a transparent LCD screen that’s visible under direct sunlight This mode doesn’t require much power so your smartwatch will carry on ticking… at least by our own test, on an average of two weeks MaHB Cars BMW M5: tricolour me impressed You probably already know that the BMW M5 is a 600HP bahn-stormer with more top-drawer features and cool bits than you can shake a stick at Plus, the M5 is home to a whole host of touches that pay homage to BMW’s in-house performance arm, M Division You know, just in case you forgot you just dropped over SGD500,000 on a big four-door that could eat most sports cars alive The more obvious ones include a model badge on its boot lid, the screen of its instrument cluster and atop its gear lever Smaller cues take the form of a red starter button and a light-up M5 plaque on the seat backs The most easily missable, however, has to be M Division’s tricolour adorning the edge of the seat belts Hidden surprises Words by Daryl Lee These pretty sweet cars are hiding some pretty sweet details in plain sight Bugatti Chiron: seamingly obvious Bugatti makes much of its signature horseshoe grille or the arc that frames the doors of the Chiron, but mention of The Seam is conspicuously absent A design element made famous by the dorsal seam of Bugatti Type 57 Atlantic of the 1930s, it’s also present in its latest hypercar It spans the length of the car from nose to tail, eventually forming a blade of carbon fibre suspended over its ludicrous 1,500HP W16 engine The Seam also makes its presence felt in the Chiron’s interior, bisecting the cabin and splitting the rear window, just like in the Type 57 Atlantic But if you can’t get enough of an homage to a car that last sold in 2010 for USD40 million, Bugatti now ofers a glass roof for the Chiron that, naturally, is split into two panels 215 MaHB Cars Rolls-Royce Phantom: the ecstasy of excess The Rolls-Royce Phantom is the limousine to end all limousines, so you can bet it sweats the small stuf Carpets so thick and lush you almost feel bad for setting your dirty shoes on them Or how every possible thing feels, to use the well-worn automotive cliche, ‘hewn from solid’, though to be fair, that’s because it probably is Anyway, the Phantom, and any Rolls-Royce for that matter, feels like someone has thought of everything Even mundane things like the seat rails are polished to a mirror shine, or my favourite item, the self-levelling centre caps for the wheels The RollsRoyce monogram emblazoned on them is always pointing the right way up, making it clear that problems like having upside-down wheel caps is something only the 99 percent have to deal with Jaguar E-Pace: getting all catty Jaguar, serious though its may be about making good cars these days (the Ford years are best forgotten), is also serious about having a sense of humour, what with its ‘Good to be Bad’ commercial a few years back And it can also be seen in its latest product to reach our shores, the E-Pace compact SUV, the smallest member of the family, which makes it the cub in the Jaguar line-up It might be a serious contender in its segment, but it’s also full of quirky little Easter eggs A corner of its windscreen features a big cat-and-cub motif, which is duplicated in its puddle lights that illuminate the ground when you’re opening the doors And its central cubbyhole is imprinted with a jaguar’s spots 216 MaHB Cars Audi RS models: sporting intent The more cynical members of the automotive community will no doubt be quick to point out the fact that Audis that bear the RS badge are merely enthusiastic versions of regular cars in the range, tarted up as they are with a hot engine and butch body styling They are, of course, wrong All cars that bear the RS badge, plus a handful of other low-volume models like the A8 and R8, are made not by Audi, but by Audi Sport (formerly Quattro GmbH) Now this sounds like so much marketing guf, but even if the extensive engineering work that goes behind making an RS car is largely invisible, there is one irrefutable identifier The VIN plate of an Audi Sport car declares it as a product of Audi Sport GmbH, as opposed to Audi AG Porsche Panamera: force feedback The most striking thing about the new Porsche Panamera is how it’s, well, striking A far cry from its predecessor, which many compared (harshly, but not unfairly) to the Hunchback of Notre Dame Its interior is similarly striking, a glorious techno-Bauhaus riot of brushed metal, digital displays and touch-sensitive glass panels The quality of the materials used are top-notch of course, but special mention goes to that glass monolith on the centre stack It magically turns into the centre control console when the car is turned on, but the more magical thing is how there are no physical buttons underneath That click you feel when you hit the button to firm up the dampers? That’s German black magic engineering working to simulate the click of an actual button You say “over-engineered”, I say “dead cool” 217 MaHB Cars 218 MaHB Cars Workin’ it The hottest Mini on sale now proves that it’s still the hot hatchback with the works I have a confession to make: I quite like the latest iteration of the hottest Mini around, the John Cooper Works hatch Which is a bit unusual, considering how much I dislike its second-generation (post-BMW takeover) predecessor Yes, it was quick and an absolute riot to sling around, but its manic, highly strung temperament and rock-hard suspension made it incredibly grating once the novelty wore of But the new third-generation car, fresh from a mid-life update, is a wholly diferent proposition The new Mini John Cooper Works (we’ll be shortening it to JCW from here on out) is, dare I say it, pleasant Not that you’d know it just by looking at its exterior though A jutting front 219 spoiler, a red stripe across its grille and racing stripes adorn its bonnet Add to that two-tone wheels, an oversized tailgate spoiler, a chunky JCW-branded steering wheel and you have a car that looks like it’s spoiling for a fight Thumb the big, red engine start button and the engine fires up If not with a bang, then at least a snarl But pull down on that new electronic gear lever, a sign of its switch to a new eightspeed automatic gearbox (replacing the six-speed and mechanical linkage of old) into D and progress is remarkably smooth Or at least, when you want it to be It’s still zippy enough, spitting out 231HP from its two-litre engine and getting it from nought to 100KM/H in 6.1 seconds MaHB Its new eight-speed box also delivers ultra-crisp gear changes on upshifts and downshifts Who needs a dualclutch when conventional automatics are this good? But unlike the previous JCW, this one makes no more demands of you than you of it If you need subtitles for that, here you go: you can drive it like a loony whose pants are on fire, or you can drive it like a geriatric It’s up to you, JCW is happy either way If you’re unacquainted with Minis in general or JCWs in particular, this is Big News Previously, all Minis and especially JCWs only felt comfortable when driven in anger, the product of a hair-trigger throttle and hyperactive steering As you might expect, there are some problems with this, the smallest of them being how you’ll burn through a tank of fuel at an alarming rate The bigger problem isn’t so much running into the long arm of the law, but escaping the unblinking, all-seeing Sauron’s eye of a million dashboard cameras Drive like a loony and cut someone of? Well, you’d best pray you don’t end up as the villain of the hour on some road vigilante Facebook page where someone will inevitably rail at this privileged prat driving like a madman in his JCW But the new car frees you from all that The new JCW is happy to sit at the speed limit in the middle lane or potter about in city trafic There’s also a fair bit of aural refinement and a diminished sense of speed, which is even Bigger News That changes when you stick the JCW in Sport, which firms up the suspension (even more), along with increasing steering heft and somehow also cures that small dead spot just of centre Shufling between the various driving modes is done via a toggle switch in the centre stack, replacing the oversized rocker ring surrounding the gear lever in pre-facelift models And that brings me to my only small gripe with the updated JCW I kinda miss the old drive mode selector switch It was quirky, fun and original, qualities which are hallmarks of a Mini car Speaking of Mini hallmarks, this JCW isn’t completely free of uniquely Mini practicality foibles The first being the hilariously tiny boot At 211 litres, it’s the smallest in its segment by a good long way, with segment averages hovering in the 300-litre range I had to fold the rear seats down just to fit a medium-sized box in, with some additional swearing thrown in from having to remove the fiddly rear parcel shelf while balancing said box on the boot ledge The rear bench also isn’t all that roomy, despite the Mini having grown nearly 10CM over its predecessor Petite (read: sub-165CM) passengers shouldn’t have too many problems with legroom, but anyone of average or greater height will likely be… inconvenienced But let’s face it, nobody buys a Mini because practicality was a paramount concern Well, there’s the Clubman and Countryman for that, but those are Maxis more than anything else Anyway, the JCW hatch is far from the most complete hot hatchback you can buy today That title goes to the Volkswagen Golf GTI, which costs around SGD17,000 less, has a far larger boot, far more rear legroom and is only marginally slower But let’s face it (again), nobody buys a Mini, especially not a JCW because 220 they want rounded They want one because it’s a barrel of laughs, full of cutesy quirks and has a voracious appetite for being driven roughly And this time around, they won’t have to sufer too much for it Owners of this JCW won’t have to deal with rage-inducing ‘quirks’ like go-kart suspension (which is an oxymoron since go-karts don’t have suspension), or a speedometer and window winders located in the centre stack Again, not quite the perfect hot hatchback, but the new JCW’s more amenable, palatable nature means you now don’t need to be a real Mini-ac to get one Words by Daryl Lee Cars MaHB Cars S P E C I F I C AT I O N S Engine 1,998CC, 16 valves, inline-four, turbocharged Power 231BHP at 5,200RPM Torque 320NM at 1,250RPM 0-100KM/H 6.1 seconds Top speed 246KM/H (electronically limited) Transmission Eight-speed automatic Fuel consumption 5.7 litres/100KM VES band B (no rebate/surcharge) Price SGD179,088 (including COE, excluding options) 221 MaHB Music Sly segues Keep your inger of the ‘skip’ button to embrace these albums in their entirety Before the days of streaming, an album’s track list could be found at the back of the insert found in every case that housed a compact disc or cassette tape Each song was presented in a desired sequence and what you saw is what you got On certain albums, however, music bufs who stayed on track and accompanied every decibel were rewarded There’s white noise but the album hasn’t come to its end yet? Be patient, a concealed tune awaits Janet (1993) Janet Jackson Jackson’s now-iconic topless Rolling Stone magazine cover was cropped for the album cover But that’s not the only recognisable trait of the multi-platinum certified record Eight singles were spawned from the 28-track album, which includes the hidden closing track, ‘Whoops Now’ The song was released as a single and reached No and No 1, respectively, on the UK and New Zealand singles charts Think Tank (2003) Blur This Banksy-stencilled album is hailed as the most commercial record made by Blur, which led lead singer Damon Albarn to be critical of it over time (Parklife can’t be topped) Besides containing the brilliant ‘Out Of Time’, hidden track ‘Me, White Noise’ is unorthodoxly placed in the pre-gap of the first track on first presses or at the end of ‘Battery In Your Leg’ after about 90 seconds of silence on the two-CD deluxe edition The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998) Lauryn Hill Hill’s debut and only original album to-date is a neo-soul standard that propelled hip-hop into mainstream prominence Hooked onto ‘Doo Wop (That Thing)’? The former Fugees vocalist’s cover of the Frankie Valli classic ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Of You’ was one of two hidden tracks on the album and held the honour of being the first hidden tune to be nominated for a Grammy Reflektor (2013) Arcade Fire The Grammy-nominated dance art-rock double album is inspired by Haiti’s rara music and was conceived with LCD Soundsystem’s frontman and producer James Murphy Beyond its fixed 18 songs, Reflektor contains a hidden 10-minute instrumental medley of reversed samples of songs, in the pre-gap before the first track on disc one and a five-minute soundscape follows ‘Supersymmetry’ on disc two Hive Mind The Internet Demonstrating a masterful execution of funky grooves and lush arrangements of digital notes with live orchestral instruments, the So Cal R&B band’s fourth album is their best record yet The well-placed bassline provides a solid ground for jazz and blues to flourish, along with Syd’s evocative croons Jake Shears Jake Shears Ah, don’t we miss the Bee Gees By that I mean falsettos The Scissor Sisters frontman’s solo debut trades some synths for a little twang, cue Kylie Minogue and Justin Timberlake Dance music is still Shears’ major, but there’s some clever honky-tonk and David Bowie in this post break-up ofering 222 Still Run Wet The alternative trio from Brooklyn continues their indie emotional pop sound for their sophomore release Downtempo definitely agrees with lead singer Kelly Zutrau’s soothing voice Former Vampire Weekend member Rostam Batmanglij-produced ‘You’re Not Wrong’ is a direction worth racing to Words by Derrick Tan FRESH FREQUENCIES MaHB Books New eyes Insights into the other side of the fence We judge others by their actions, but ourselves, funnily enough, by our intentions Atticus Finch said it first: “You never really understand a person until you… climb into his skin and walk around in it.” So climb into the skin of these books and their protagonists for a complete shift in your daily outlook Words by Joy Ling These titles are available at Books Kinokuniya Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World—and Why Things Are Better Than You Think Hans Rosling As its self-explanatory title says, the book aims to bridge the gap between our general ignorance and reality Aside from the five-star rating and personal review Bill Gates gave it, it is an innovative approach to step back and reflect on the 10 instincts that cause us to get facts so wrong that even chimpanzees choosing answers at random will perform better It’s non-fiction but does not read like one as the first-person voice of the late Rosling engages you like a casual cofeetable chat I, Lucifer Glen Duncan If God told you that you could choose between existing in immortal emptiness and living life as a human, which would you pick? If the latter appeals to you, so would this book Supposedly written by the fallen angel, this journal describes Satan’s life in a body belonging to a man with suicidal thoughts and heavily in debt Can the old devil live straight and clean in the mortal world, as a mortal? The prose is given to digressions, but it’s a fun ride on his side of the story The Room Jonas Karlsson This narrative hits close to home for white-collared, pigeon-holed corporates Follow meticulous ofice worker Bjorn and his chance discovery of a space that’s oddly unknown to everyone else The room increases his productivity and provides solace from his environment, but the more he uses it, the stranger his colleagues start to regard him A great read for when you have only a few minutes to spare, this short, surreal tale is imperative for the modern employee The Shack William Paul Young Calling this a highly controversial novel would be an understatement, but that is all the reason to dive into it Mackenzie Philips, broken and bitter over the brutal murder of his daughter in a shack, receives an inviting note from God apparently, to meet him at the same shack To see God as a black woman among other unlikely portrayals of the Trinity, you will close the book either loving or hating it, but surely left with an altered view on higher powers Success Martin Amis Success is relative In this case, between an opposing pair of foster brothers If you enjoy standard English cynicism, the signature Amis tone pans out this tragic comedy so convincingly, you would believe that Terence Service and Gregory Riding exist somewhere in London It’s profuse, it’s merciless, it’s your-wordagainst-mine Add a disloyal girlfriend, an erratic sister and eloquently vile writing into the mix and you have yourself a neurotic lesson on success 223 Still life 5|5 Leather boots, by Berluti 224 Swipe up Not just a tailor Singapore menswear aicionado, Kevin Seah, on why we Photograph by Hazirah Rahim need to embrace our local craftspeople 225 ... #CIAOBYTODS Contents September 2018 | Volume | No 70 | The Eye Spy Issue O N T H E C OV E R Henry Golding Photography Mitchell