Brought to my attention by Eriko. Vitas. Titled "Dedication", the following song-without-words features not the best of his performance, but it shows off the wide range of his amazing vocals, from sensitive, magnetic tenors to almost-devilish, nearly-ultrasonic highs. And he did all that while playing the piano, seated, live! This is truly, a gift.
Watch his other videos on Youtube to be mesmerised.
POSTMORTEM
Sunday, December 30, 2007, 01:50 p.m. #1448
The postmaster returned my call on Saturday as promised. He turned out to be quite a polite and obliging guy and he even exclaimed that whoever did such a thing to the package must have been "brainless". And after the call he immediately came to my house personally to take a look at the state of the package (I thought he'd ask me to bring it to the post office). After surveying the stamps on the package, he concluded that it might have been the work of a private company, not Singpost. He said he'd conduct an investigation nevertheless, and call me again on Monday.
Anyway I'm satisfied that Singpost has taken note of the negligence - not really expecting anything in return.
Hungrily devoured the scores - "Un Dia De Noviembre", as mentioned in #1435. The notes were easy to work out, and it really wasn't too difficult to inject feelings into such a lyrically-written piece. Music makes me a forgiving and happy guy. =)
THE DISFIGUREMENT
Friday, December 28, 2007, 10:08 p.m. #1447
I've waited for two weeks for the scores which I'd ordered to be shipped over from Britain. What would your reaction be, if the shipment arrived in the state below?
I was flabbergasted. According to my mum who retrieved the package from our letterbox, the package was folded in three as above and forcibly squeezed into the confined space of our letterbox. As I was opening up the package, I prayed that my scores were not damaged. However, quite unsurprisingly, I was greeted by two long, irreversible, visible fold marks which stretched across the front and back softcover of the thin spineless book. (Yep, the book is being bent into a U-shape instead of lying flat. And yep, books are supposed to lie flat on the table, I think.) Sure, the contents are still there - the musical notes haven't run away, but I think I've paid quite a hefty amount to import the item - how could the postman treat my package like that? Surely I didn't pay so much money to deserve a disfigured book which has been folded - not once but - TWO times! Shouldn't a package be hand-delivered to the doorstep if it cannot fit into the letterbox? (I was at home the whole day and my front door was wide open so the postman can't use the excuse that he tried hand-delivering but no one's at home.) What if the package contained a CD (in fact I nearly ordered another set of scores which has a CD insert)? Who in the right mind would bend a hardpaper-boxed package? And which part of "PLEASE DO NOT BEND" did the postman not understand? The words are capped, bold and in large print, for heaven's sake! (I've always assumed all postmen are literate. No?) Or did he purposely bend the package so that he wouldn't see the "DO NOT"?
The initial shock and disappointment turned into disgust and anger, and I called up the post office to lodge a complaint. Throughout the call I was very calm and composed but I made sure I expressed my unhappiness about the deformed package. The operator told me the "postmaster" was not in the office and she didn't have the authority to handle the matter. So she took down my story and promised that the "postmaster" would get back to me by tomorrow. Seriously, I do not know what I should expect from that "postmaster" - Just an apology? Or a compensation?
It's like I'm served with some very nice chicken rice - but on a trashbin cover. The rice is still good, and I can actually ignore the poor presentation and still enjoy the chicken rice. But why should I tolerate being served rice on a trashbin cover?!
Utterly, utterly disgusted.
THE SEASON OF GIVING
Wednesday, December 26, 2007, 04:45 p.m. #1446
I'm always very grateful when people give me a book as a gift - not that I am an avid reader (in fact I seldom read books) - but I treasure books a lot, and to me giving books is a very sincere gesture of wanting to share a personal, wonderful experience which the person has enjoyed him/herself. I'm happy to say that I've received quite a number of books from my friends (JJ, WK, Eriko, ZW, CT, etc). Just days ago, M gave me her Malay dictionary and grammar book (still in unbelievably pristine condition) - she'd read in my blog that I was learning Malay several months ago when she was studying in Australia, and she made it a point to pass the books to me when she's back in Singapore. Isn't that just very, very thoughtful?
Today, when I went back to school for staff meeting, I found one book lying on my table - "To Sir, With Love", by E.R. Braithwaite. The note inside revealed that it's from my vice-principal, Miss C, who has recently been transferred to the HQ. In the note, she said that this is a book which inspired her when she first became a vice-principal and she hope that it would inspire me as well. The book is about the true story of a black teacher (the author) who fought against all odds to motivate a class of students - of whom some were thieves, some were prostitutes, and some made love along the corridors (according to the preface)... Miss C has also arranged to meet with me earlier during the holidays, just before she left, to give me affirmation for the work I've done. She also shared with me parts of her personal journey as a teacher, and discussed my future plans for my teaching career. She really needn't do all these when she's already leaving, but she did it anyway - and I really appreciate it - it takes effort to be nice.
I'm sure I'll enjoy the book.
YEAR ENDING
Thursday, December 20, 2007, 11:55 p.m. #1445
Christmas is a season of get-togethers. Went out with the guys (John and GY) for a karaoke-lunch at Cineleisure K-Box yesterday - I've known John for over ten years, but I never knew he sings.
Met up with the girls (JJ, YJ, M and Kel) for dinner at Pu Tien today. The Heng-Hwa food at Pu Tien is really good - no wonder there's always a perpetually long queue whenever I pass by to go for orchestral practices. We actually ordered two rounds of food, and I still felt like having more. That really means something when I'm usually a small eater. The picture below shows about a third of what we had today - looks yummy, huh?
The new workyear is starting soon, and I'm not ecstatic about it at all.
THE IDOL
Monday, December 17, 2007, 12:06 a.m. #1444
Hady Mirza is the first Asian Idol! Of course I'm happy that the Singapore Idol won the contest, but I think Taufik Batisah would have been a better representative?
Tried to perfect a beautiful guitar piece today. Here's John Williams' rendition of it. Heitor Villa-Lobos' "Prelude No. 1".
FACEBOOKING
Saturday, December 15, 2007, 00:22 p.m. #1443
Registered on Facebook quite some time ago but I never really used it until just three weeks ago when I got all fluffy with the (fluff)Friends on Facebook and got addicted to its (fluff)Races - oh yeah, I was addicted to gambling for a while - using virtual (fluff)Munny, that is. Before this, I was actually getting quite annoyed with email notifications of people "poking" me, giving me virtual hugs, and telling me to add certain applications. Didn't understand the point of all these. So what did they expect me to do when I receive a virtual glass of champagne? Poke a straw into my LCD screen and drink from it?
Then one day I decided to give Facebook a chance, and the first application which I installed happened to be (fluff)Friends. Couldn't believe I actually got hooked to it. On some days I would log on every hour so that I could bet on the races (there's a limit of eight races per hour), and I would try out every piece of (Fluff)Food available to see which would give my (fluff)Pet the best speed boost.
While I was waiting for the hours to pass so that I could place my bets, I started exploring the possibilities of Facebook, and I began to realise that some applications on Facebook can actually be quite useful. As I looked through the friend-lists of my friends (and my friends' friends), I also began to get re-connected with some very old friends whom I've lost contact for decades - no, I'm not trying to be figurative here - I actually found some friends whom I haven't met for more than twenty years, and we started messaging each other. Isn't that simply amazing?
Okay, I still don't understand why people throw virtual snowballs at each other, but hey, not everything needs a "point", yeah?
THE MUSICAL FANTASY
Friday, December 14, 2007, 04:43 p.m. #1442
Four concerts (watched three, performed in one), several music lessons (including a couple of make-up ones) and tons of music homework (one sonata movement, two dance pieces, two Mazas etudes, three theory exam papers). That's how I spent the past ten days. I was so busy that I almost felt like a full-time music student.
This might sound a bit sadistic, but I think I actually enjoyed that. And I'm glad that the long holiday (which comes along with my teaching job) allowed me to live this alternative life which I'd always wanted.
If my parents had agreed to buy me a piano more than two decades ago, if I'd taken up music earlier in my primary school days, if I'd made the bold move to study music when I was choosing university courses, then... I might have been a very happy musician (or a music teacher) by now. Then again, I might also not be enjoying this as much as I do now, because the imaginary life which you can never have would usually seem more attractive.
Oh well, if I have so much time to ramble so much, then maybe I should spend the time more constructively and... take a nap. =)
PAGANINI
Friday, December 14, 2007, 09:24 a.m. #1441
Listening to Paganini's pieces is always a breathtaking experience. Even more exceedingly so when the pieces are played 'live'.
Attended the finals of the National Piano & Violin Competition at VCH yesterday. One of the two finalists, Cao Qi, played Paganini's violin concerto no. 1 in D major. The dramatic melodies, gigantic leaps (of the left hand and of the bow across the strings), frantic multiple stops, extensive passages of artificial harmonics, percussive pizzicatos, carefully-articulated ricochets... The non-stop virtuosic displays test the player's dexterity and stamina, and also puts all the audience on a spell of delirium. And Cai Qi performed the piece almost flawlessly, with lots of stage presence and charisma. She won, naturally.
Loh Jun Hong was one of the first violinists in the accompanying orchestra (sitting at the position where I sat four days ago). I remember being inspired by this boy two (or more?) years ago. Now he's grown so tall and confident. Incidentally, the violinist beside him was the guy who stood in for my violin lesson when my teacher was on maternity leave. I remember he plays using his double chin (almost a wattle) as a shoulder rest. And he showed off the Mendelssohn concerto and how he could play the violin in any position during the lesson, as if it was his recital. Also spotted a cello friend. Nice to see familiar faces.
MY TEACHERS
Wednesday, December 12, 2007, 02:09 p.m. #1440
Here are my two wonderful and beautiful violin teachers, who have given me much guidance and inspiration over the past three years and ten months. Taken after the recent "phantasmic" performance at VCH.
RUBIK'S VICTORY
Tuesday, December 11, 2007, 01:18 a.m. #1439
For the first time in my life, I solved the Rubik's Cube!
CONCERT WITH THE PHANTOM
Monday, December 10, 2007, 09:56 a.m. #1438
Performed at VCH with my music school orchestra yesterday. The orchestra was better-practised than most other years, and all the pieces went smoothly generally.
Liked the "Phantom of the Opera" suite (six pieces in all) - had the wholesome feel about it, with each piece featuring the orchestra, violin solo, piano solo and choir in turn. It's a pity that "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" was taken out of the repertoire - thought the new arrangement by Andrew Lloyd Webber is very special and stylish. And it's weird that for the single piece which featured the guitar ensemble, the guitarists merely strummed standard chords and played accompaniments. If they'd wanted an item with the guitars, shouldn't the piece showcase some virtuosity or character of the instrument? Or else what's the point of involving them? To inform the audience that the guitar ensemble exists in the school? (Maybe because I'm also a guitarist, I get quite infuriated when the potential of guitar is undermined and when people still think it is only a trivial strum-along instrument. Nothing wrong with strum-alongs, but guitars really aren't merely capable of strum-alongs.) There was also one violin concerto, of which I could never hear the soloist ever since the rehearsals, even with the microphone - which made it really hard for us to accompany. Well, the soloist is just a little girl so I don't blame her for lacking confidence on-stage, but since she's not truly ready, why was this item added, almost at the last minute?
Those aside, I feel this was the most successful-to-date concert put up by the music school. Not many music schools organise such annual concerts - and concerts don't usually make money from the businessman's point-of-view, so I'm thankful for the school principal's vision and that we still continue to have such concerts for young musicians to get inspired (no, I am not young, but in the field of western music, I'm still a baby). Hope the orchestra continues to grow and excel.
THE PANDEIRO
Sunday, December 9, 2007, 10:31 a.m. #1437
Thanks to Eriko who had an extra ticket, I attended my second concert of the International Guitar Festival last night, performed by Ze Paulo Becker (guitarist) and Bernardo Aguiar (percussionist). The pieces were all Brazailian, with plenty of pyrotechnics delivered by Becker for his free-style jazz-like running semiquavers, percussion-imitating effects, and the usage of loops by live sampling. It's a pity that the plug-in microphone made the guitar sound overly metallic and the constant Brazilian strumming sounded a little too tiring for the ears. What fascinated me the most, surprisingly, was the percussionist Aguiar, who used the instrument pandeiro most of the time, amongst other percussion instruments. The pandeiro is a hand frame drum that looks like a tambourine, except that the drumskin can be tuned. With a clip-on microphone, the pandeiro sounded as powerful as the timpani, but it's even more colourful for its variety of pitches and dynamics, changed within demisemiquavers under the skilful and nimble hands of Aguiar. The following Youtube video shows the prowess of the pandeiro (although that's not the most impressive yet):
The concert ended on a really high note when Becker led the audience into cheering "Hoo! Hoo!" along with his guitar beats while he diminuendo-ed and slowly sneaked out of the stage, leaving the audience still ritually cheering. And yep, I thick-skinnedly got Aguiar to take a picture with us.
THEY'VE GROWN
Saturday, December 8, 2007, 01:33 a.m. #1436
My form class of 2006 organised a BBQ at East Coast today. Am very glad that all of them are still friends although they've been streamed into different classes this year. It rained heavily in the late afternoon, like last year, but the sky cleared just in time for us to start the fire. I still remember last year, at the chalet, we had a "flour bomb fight" and we had to clean up the mess after that. Thankfully this time the kids weren't so wild, but we still had a lot of fun. Many of them have visibly matured - physically, mentally, vocally - well, they're still in their growing years. It feels great to see these kids - whom I've held so dear back in 2006 - grow. Next year will be their graduating year - wonder if we'll still have any more of such gatherings?
Created a video for our reunion - that's the fourth video I've created for the class!
UN DIA DE NOVIEMBRE
Friday, December 7, 2007, 10:02 p.m. #1435
I left a message on Mr Fukuda's blog in Japanese and asked him for the title of one very nice encore piece (I apologised for my terrible Japanese), and he replied!
So thankful that he bothered to reply, and that my Japanese was actually passable. The piece is written by Leo Brouwer, and it's the theme song of a movie in 1972, "One Day in November" (Un Dia de Noviembre). The wistful melody is still stuck in my head ever since Wednesday. Found it on Youtube - experience the emotional ride yourself below:
SHIN-ICHI FUKUDA
Thursday, December 6, 2007, 12:07 a.m. #1434
Attended Mr Shin-ichi Fukuda's guitar concert. The last guitar concert which I attended was John Williams', in June last year - I still remember it was merely hours before my Beijing flight and I had to rush to the airport right after the concert (and thus had no time to review it).
Heard about Mr Fukuda from my teacher, who told me she attended his concert twelve years ago, and to this day she still remembers how much in awe she felt then. After tonight's concert, I finally understood why. Despite a few inconspicuous and insignificant slips, Mr Fukuda was great. A true maestro indeed. Needless to talk about his technical skills. His two-finger tremolo puts all plectrum users to shame. His four-finger cross-string tremolo beats all living pipa players, hands down. There were a few passages that were played totally in artificial harmonics, and he did them with perfection. His rasgueado was wildly explosive, and his vibrato was so gentle. His attention to tonality, clarity and feel is painstakingly meticulous, and yet so natural.
In his introductory speech, he said that he was glad he could perform again in Singapore after twelve long years. I'm not sure whether he'd say the same after today. Midway through the concert, the handphone of a teenager (who was late) started ringing, and Mr Fukuda gave a disapproving glance in the direction of the ring. And that teenager had to LET THE PHONE CONTINUE RINGING, like all of us didn't know it was coming from her, and she only stopped the phone when people were giving unhappy grunts. Then, during a melancholic encore piece, another phone rang again, this time even louder - and it was in techno. I felt really really embarassed as a Singaporean then, for these people to be humiliating a grand master like that during his performance - Mr Fukuda must be thinking, Singaporeans are really rude!
After the concert, there was a short autograph session. I waited until the session was over, and when Mr Fukuda was resting on the couch, I approached him for a photograph. My O level Japanese finally came to use. I asked Mr Fukuda in Japanese, and he gladly agreed and put his hand over my shoulder to take the picture (although he put his hand back down when he realised I was too tall). Wanted to tell him how impressed I was with his performance and how apologetic I felt about the phone-rings, but decided I didn't want to seem like a gushing schoolkid.
He still looked very happy in the picture, yeah?
HOUSE
Sunday, December 2, 2007, 03:13 p.m. #1433
Only started watching the first season of "House" recently (it's in its fourth season now), and I'm so excited by all the unusual cases in the series that I'll read up on the diagnoses after each episode. Never had a very good impression of medical dramas (except for "Green Wing", which is excellent but is, strictly speaking, a comedy): "ER" was great until the characters started messing around with each other and got so tangled up that the whole cast had to be changed, "Nip/Tuck" became a criminal drama as the seasons progressed, "Grey's Anatomy" seemed to focus more on the doctors' scandalous personal lives, and I assume the longest-running soap on TV, "General Hospital", must be even more soapily sensational.
I like "House" for its witty lines (they come along so fast I often have to rewind to catch them) and investigative nature (like the CSI of medical dramas). There's one early episode, "Fidelity", which I particularly liked, not for its usual unimaginable cause of illness, but for its human drama. In the episode, the symptoms of a lady fit in with an African Sleeping Sickness despite having never been to Africa or ever having a transfusion, which means the most probable way which she contracted the illness was through sex with a carrier. The medicine for African Sleeping Sickness is potentially fatal and she'd die if that's not her illness, so the doctors had to confirm that the diagnosis was correct before they could administer the medicine. However neither the lady nor her husband would admit that he/she had an affair. The lady soon fell into a coma, and the husband had to decide whether the medicine was to be administered. He eventually gave the consent, but part of him wished that his wife wouldn't get well, so that it would mean that his wife had been faithful to him all along... As a subplot in another episode, "Poison", an 82-year-old lady was diagnosed with syphilis, but she decided not to undergo treatment as the sickness actually had some biological effects which made her feel young, sexy and alive again, and she'd rather hold on to that feeling instead of being cured... In the pilot episode, a patient refused treatment and asked to be discharged so that she could die at home with more dignity without all the tubes and needles, and the doctor replied, "I don't care if you can walk, see, wipe your ass. It's always ugly - always! We can live with dignity - we can't die with it."
It's really quite amazing how our body behaves in certain ways in order to tell us something or to help us get well. Just yesterday, I suddenly felt a very sharp spasmodic pain in my stomach and it was so bad that I couldn't move. Then I sneezed, out of no reason, four times. Each time I sneezed the pain was excruciating. But immediately after the four sneezes, the stomachache cleared. I'm not able to explain this medically - I guess the sneezes might have expanded my arteries, accelerated the bloodflow in my body and cleared a bloodclot in my stomach - nah, I never took Biology in my entire life - in any case, the sneezes worked and I'm fine again.
Just hope the series doesn't degenerate into another soap. =)
BRIGHT HILL
Sunday, December 2, 2007, 10:20 a.m. #1432
Went to Bright Hill Temple (better known as Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery) on Friday with Mum to pay our respects to my maternal grandparents and uncle. It wasn't my first time there, but I've never gone into the new columbarium pagoda before. It turned out to be a really comfortable place - very clean, air-conditioned, with tranquil chants playing in the background.
Got to see my deceased uncle's face for the first time. He's my mother's younger brother, but he passed away before I was born, in a motorcycle accident. He's quite handsome (even in today's standards), and I wondered what kind of life he would have had if he hadn't rode on his bike on that fateful day. Well, it isn't cheap to get a placement in the pagoda. My uncle was lucky, in a sense. When this new air-conditioned pagoda was newly built, there was a ballot for those who were already in the old columbarium, and my uncle got this present urn placement (which was on the priciest level) for free, or else it would have cost us about ten thousand bucks. The priciest urn placements are those that are at the eye level. The cheapest placements (which still cost a few thousands) are so high up that you'll need a ladder to access. My maternal grandparents weren't so lucky during the ballot - they remained in the old columbarium, which was rather old and dark, and their urns were placed deep inside a cupboard at foot level - I had to lie on the ground and use my phone light in order to find their urns. Then again, does the difference in the placements really matter? Will I feel the difference when I'm already gone? Will anyone come to visit my urn anyway?
Mum also brought some offerings for one of the young dragonboaters who drowned recently in Cambodia (only one of them was sent to Bright Hill). It's an awkward feeling, placing the joss-sticks in front of his tablet at the crematorium - he looked so young, energetic and full of promise - felt a deep sense of regret for him although I never knew him.
