June 25th, 2008 pkuan
There’s a new DJ at the the Venetian Macao’s Bellini Lounge, DJ Kamikaze
Catch DJ Kamikaze at the Bellini Lounge at The Venetian Macao, from 10pm most nights until late.
Read on to find out how he got his name, and why you should check him out behind the turntables, but steer clear if you ever see him behind a scooter.
Stefan Hensel, 28 aka DJ Kamikaze
How did you get your DJ Name?
DJ Kamikaze: In Germany the word for cat is “Katze,” I was 16 and had a scooter and accidentally
hit a cat, which caused a bad accident. So my friends started to call me “Kami-Katze,”
because I was driving like a kamikaze.
How and when did you start DJ-ing?
DJ Kamikaze: I started buying records when I was maybe 14 or even a bit earlier.
One Saturday a few years later when I was around 17, I think, a friend dragged me to replace a DJ who called in sick for the night. The club owner straight away booked me for the whole summer….
What made you leave Germany and where else have you worked?
DJ Kamikaze: I left Germany because of a nice girl, but travel back at least 3-5 times a year.
I have played all over the world, actually. Apart from Germany, of course, and the rest of Europe, I hold a regular DJ residency in Moscow. I also created my own DJ party events called “Just Bananas” in Shanghai and I get booked all over Asia and parts of the United States and Australia as well. Expect for Africa and South-America, I guess I played all over the world.
What’s your first impression of Macau?
DJ Kamikaze: I like it. Compared to Shanghai it’s small but much friendlier and more relaxed. The Food is very good and I love to wake up and have a dive in the pool.
Have you played in a casino before?
DJ Kamikaze: Actually yes, I’m from Germany’s most famous Casino-Town, Baden-Baden and was once invited to play there for a corporate event.
Describe your DJ-ing style?
DJ Kamikaze: I grew up listening to all kinds of music; Rock, Pop, Techno, Grunge, also Reggae and Classical Music. Now I try to mix and blend all the music-knowledge in the HipHop-DJ mxing style and drop in unexpected songs or songs you haven’t heard for a long time. Just playing the hits is too easy.
What are your musical influences?
DJ Kamikaze: My sister, she bought a lot of CD’s when I was younger. But of course nowadays other DJs, my girlfriend, just people around me showing me stuff on their iPod.
What are your proudest musical achievements?
DJ Kamikaze: Hmm, back in I won Germany the JUICE Magazine Mixtape award 3 times in a row
(http://www.juicemagazine.com).
I was also the first one to do a Mash-Up* CD back in 2000 when no one did that kind of style.
For me it’s more the small things. Like when I play at an empty club and after I finish the place is pumping. As I said, it’s more the small things….
* (“Mash-up” defintition from Wikepedia: A mash-up is a song created out of pieces of two or more songs, usually by overlaying the vocal track of one song seamlessly over the music track of another…Mash-ups are incredible fun and a fascinating way to reexperience some of your favorite tunes.)
May 22nd, 2008 pkuan
So, the gauntlet had been thrown down. Macau.com’s very own feisty editor happens to think of herself as something of a hotshoe behind the steering wheel, and gamely offered to prove it on the track with a little race against yours truly.
If you know Sue well, then you know that this was no idle challenge. Despite the flawless skin and lilting voice, the girl packs a mean Muay Thai punch, loves motorcycle riding and is fiercely competitive at any human activity that could be termed ‘sport’.
Me, I’m Ju-Len - her would-be challenger. I happen to write about cars for a living in Singapore, and like all motoring journalists, largely consider myself the lost love-child of Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher. Er, if such a union were ever physically capable of producing offspring, that is…
Anyway, what better venue for a little race than the Macau Motor Sports Club (MMSC), where for just MOP100 a pop, the track’s 1.2km of sinewy, undulating tarmac is yours for the conquering.
After a short bus ride to the track, Sue and I climbed the uphill approach to the facility and found our trash-talking interrupted when we encountered the impressive scale of the place. The large welcome area and spacious grandstands gave it the air of a serious motorsports arena, which kind of put our little friendly competition into perspective.
While I was deeply impressed by the MMSC’s karting facility, however, one thing did give me pause to reconsider our race. It had been drizzling all day, meaning the track would have been sprinkled with the sort of light pitter-patter that lifts oil right to the surface of the tarmac.
That, in turn, produces the kind of greasy conditions that spit overzealous, wannabe raicing drivers like myself off the track in embarrassing fashion..
While I tried to think up excuses to offer Sue (“Maybe we should come back another time. We don’t want your nice coat to get all splattered?”), I caught sight of how her eyes lit up when she saw the track itself. “That looks like fun!” they seemed to say, and I knew was in for a fight.
After helmeting up and being given a suitable briefing (in English, courtesy of the friendly Filipino mechanics on duty that day), we slipped into the karts and headed onto the track separately, with a good headstart for Sue. Ladies first, after all.
I soon discovered, however, that whatever she was doing, I would have my hands full just keeping the kart on the track. It wasn’t just slippery out there, it was so greasy I wasn’t sure a mountain goat could have wandered around the place without ending up toppling over onto its back, four legs kicking at the sky.
The track itself is properly challenging, too. After a flat-out left kink the wide track funnels into a tight downhill hairpin that requires you to stand on the brakes while fighting to keep the kart from swapping ends on you..
After a lap it was here, actually, that I came across Su facing the wrong way on the tarmac, after an overenthusiastic exit to the corner had seen her spin her kart all the way around
I drove past, slowly but in control, and could almost hear her cursing above the blat of the engines.
With Sue thus dispatched, I drove my own race trying to learn the various lines around the track. The key to a quick time in karts for non-racers like me, I’ve learnt, is usually to find the smoothest way through the corners, the path that lets you carry the most momentum through the last few bends.
That said, it wasn’t easy at the MMSC. The track is one of the most challenging I’ve driven on, with plenty of places where you can lose time, either because of ham-fisted charges through corners that tighten up, or in places where you’re fooled into going too slowly because the next bend hides behind a sudden crest.
And as with the great racing circuits of the world, it’s the undulations that make the MMSC track such an interesting one. The final right-hander with its long climb past the main grandstands, in particular, really punishes clumsy driving by making the kart work hard to haul you all the way up the hill if you didn’t carry enough speed
I ended up lapping Sue one more time, passing her around the end of the back straight which fearless drivers like her attack at full throttle.
“I kept spinning around!” she later protested. Well, that’s what happens when you let bravery triumph over self-control. And, with no little modesty, I should add that it’s what happens at a place like Macau’s karting track, which places a premium on skill.
So for now it’s Singapore 1, Macau 0. Sue, of course, is dying for a rematch and perhaps the next time we’ll try it out on the double-seater karts, so I can show her the right lines to take around the track.. It’s probably the only way, too, she’ll be able to stay on the same lap as me… 
Kart blanche
April 1st, 2008 pkuan
This is Yoshimi’s new friend
This is her dinner of Hainanese Chicken Rice
*Disclaimer*
The bird (above) is of no relation to the bird (top)
It is in fact, authentic Hainanese Chicken Rice, made by the original Singapore Meritus Mandarin Hotel’s Chatterbox Chef, who is now based in Rasa Singapura, which is located in The Venetian’s Festivita Foodcourt.
A few of us from the Macau.com team recently went out for dinner at 3-Monkeys restaurant, located in St. Mark’s Square in The Venetian Macao. Owned by a Singapore group, Solutions17, which also manage World Wide Wings - a sports bar offering 40 types of chicken wings and over 30 types of beer (that’s where Yoshimi’s chicken friend lives), Rasa Singapura, which specializes in Singapore dishes, all at The Venetian.
Other than the Hainanese Chicken Rice, which came with lashings of ginger, dark soy sauce and chilli, we also got the Singapore laksa. (above)
I realized I had bitten off a little more than I could chew when my dish of beef spare ribs arrived. (above)
That must be one big cow. And yes, that is genuine chilli padi and sambal to the right. Apparently the beef ribs is shipped over from the U.S. and takes up so much space, it is stored in a warehouse, and pulled out as needed.
After a soup, appetizers and picking at other people’s food, I managed to make a reasonable dent in the ribs.
I was even tempted when the sizzling fajitas were delivered to the table next door.
Apparently, the burgers here are to die for.
I have walked past 3-Monkeys on several occasions and always get distracted by the giant grinning plush toy monkeys that are hanging around the premises. It may be a family-friendly jungle-themed restaurant, but believe me, there is nothing childish about the portions of food - which are gorilla sized.
There are 300 toy monkeys altogether in the restaurant, collected from around the world. The owners say their friends grab whatever monkey they see on their travels bundle them up in glad wrap, chuck them in cargo and fly them over to Macau.
According to Gwen (above, far left), who runs sister cafe - the iconic Monkey’s Cafe in Orchard Towers in Singapore, many of them are so big, that many would require their own seat, if they were brought on board. And yes, we hear that the drycleaning bills are huge.
Despite the fact, they are the delight of many children, who squeal and clutch at the furry critters, grown-ups aren’t immune to the charms of a giant grinning soft toy monkey either.
For restaurant information, click here.
March 19th, 2008 pkuan
Canadian diva Celine Dion loves her LV.
The reed-thin singer with the huge voice reportedly gave the security staff of The Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel quite a headache - and not by warbling an emotional ballad that went on and on and on…
In Macau for her Taking Chances concert, Celine, who performed to a full house at The Venetian’s 15,000 capacity Arena last Saturday apparently got a little emotional when her precious Louis Vuitton luggage was going through the standard security check - fearing that her designer bags may be scratched.
But hey, give the girl a break, she works hard for her money (she was performing 5 times a week for 5 years at Ceaser’s Palace in Vegas, taking in an estimated US400 million before ending her run in December).
The girl loves to shop - and she has a sense of humor. After paparazzi accosted her outside Cartier, where she had just bought some jewellery, the ever-friendly Celine quipped: “I do damage wherever I shop.”
We say, let the girl have her bling!
You gotta love a girl who admits that audiences at her Las Vegas shows were often tired, drunk, sick and in some cases asleep.
And you won’t find her dishing out lawsuits or getting teary on talk-shows over being ridiculed for her stage movements, conservative behavior and emotional songs - even when it’s her own fellow Canadians.
Maybe it comes from having actual talent, and a whopping 5-octave range, but Celine says she actually feels flattered that people take the time to impersonate her.Heather Mills should take a leaf out of Celine’s book.
Like the title of her hit of Titanic proportions, Celine’s heart really does go on. Forbes voted her one of the top 10 most generous celebrities in Hollywood in 2006, after raising more than US$1 million for UNICEF’s Tsunami Recovery Fund, and spending decades supporting charities.
Stay tuned for the concert review…
June 27th, 2007 pkuan
As promised, I took another look inside…
As promised, I revisited Melco’s Crown Macau Casino (MPEL) yesterday (Tuesday 7 p.m. approx.). I thought what better way to get a feel for the place than to take the shuttle bus from the city centre. Well, true to my earlier report, a line formed waiting for the bus. I estimate a dozen or so individuals took the trip. As “burro” wondered, some people were just along for the ride. There appeared to be a few employees as well as a few individuals who did not go into the casino when we arrived. However, a good portion of the bus did enter the casino. I heard that there has been some active promotion on the part of the casino to bring people over to their Taipa property and true to this we were given a ticket that gave us a chance to spin the wheel when we arrived. My colleague’s ticket won that chance, but because he didn’t have his passport with him, he was thus ineligible…a bit disappointing.
The Crown Macau Casino has 5 floors. The first three are gaming floors, the fourth is a restaurant, and the fifth floor is a higher-minimums gaming floor. The first 3 floors had an active gaming scene. By this I mean there were a lot of tables in use, some to capacity but some empty. The central parts of the floors were busier than the fringes. Definitely, it wasn’t shoulder-to-shoulder like it can be at the Sands sometimes, but on the other hand, the first 3 floors had a scene, i.e. you wouldn’t think “This place is dead anyway.” (Swingers quote). The fifth floor on the other hand was empty minus a few individuals. This could be that minimum bets are more or less equivalent to my monthly rent. As for the punters, I heard more Mandarin (mainland) than Cantonese (HK, Macau, Guangdong Province).
In sum, I’ve walked through the Crown Macau on three occasions now (Grand Opening, one month ago, yesterday). Each time the casino has been busier than the last time. The Greek Mythology Casino in the New Century Hotel is right next door and it is one of the most profitable casinos in Macau. The location is probably the biggest obstacle, but as the Greek Mythology Casino has shown, it’s an obstacle that can be overcome with the right marketing. (I understand they cater exclusively to mainland tour groups, so the Crown Macau is likely going to pursue a different model.) My general feeling is that Macau is maturing into the type of destination that will attract visitors interested in visiting the Crown Macau. Maybe the Crown Macau is not packed this month, or this year, or even next year, but the property is in line with what most developers are planning and anticipating. I’m going to try and check the Crown Macau out again this weekend to note the difference.
By the way, I ate at the Crown Macau’s Monsoon noodle shop. Yum. I had Cantonese wonton noodle soup with Chinese chives and honey glazed BBQ pork. Delicious and very nicely presented.
Any comments, questions, etc. click below…
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