Hi guys! I am in the process of shifting my blog. So here goes - the New URL is...

www.thatsiaopianoguy.blogspot.com

Yes, I have decided to move on to a new URL. I talk you listen has been with me for 2 and a half years now, and it was started only in the name of RI assignment. Yes, it's true, just get down to the first blogpost and you should see that I started it only because we had an English Assignment, and that was to write two blogposts about current affairs. 

So that was it. When the assignment ended, I decided to carry on blogging using the same URL and it's lasted me a good two old years. Two blog years = 45 human years. A blog that is 5 years old is as good as a senile old man with cobweb in his ears. 

So this blog is close to 67 years old of age. A good old age to die. 

I Talk You Listen

January 22, 2007-

July 15, 2009

Here Lies

I Talk You Listen

I Die You Change URL

I Lie You Hear

Hear Lies

I Talk You Listen

THE END

E-D#-E-D#-E-D#-E G# E!!!!

Sort of like, in a limbo now. I'm waiting for the new term to start, with much excitement, but the orientation is only next week. And I've been through NUS orientation for 2 times already. Next week would be my third.

I'm sitting in front of the television now watching the Prestige. Nothing to blog about really. I think I might just delete this blog. Then everyone will get all droopy and sad.I really don't know.

I'll see how it goes. Maybe we would shift it to a new URL. Somehow.

My house's turnng into a music studio. An upright piano, a grand piano, a cello, an out-of-tune violin, a guitar, and an electric keyboard.

A whiteboard. Sofas. Chairs. Coffe Table.

Come join in the fun. And the church rehearsal went well today! Well at least my arranged "There's Nothing Told" sounded better than expected. I should start working on more orchestral works. Until I finish Ballade.

Groucho Marx

I've had a wonderful evening

*shakes hand*

but this wasn't it.

The morose weather has invaded my head. I've actually started to believe that there were people watching me all around, while I eat, sleep. And these guys were from the Government. I'm not kidding. But for the sake of my family and loved ones I have to keep a sensible head and get rid of this thought.

While at lunch just now I was constantly taking my attention away from the ban-mian and glancing at others, in a belief that everyone was government, they were all spies. It really is so easy to fall into that. Only the questions of "why would they be hunting for you?" prevented me from walking out of the food court.

Yet they all looked so 'normal'. It was as if they had been trained to do this for years, and it was only their job to keep the security of the nation and to prevent any dissidents from compromising the safety of the nation. They were the eyes, the ears.

Those taxi drivers. Whatever. Trying to get more information out from you as you spoke, talked about your opinion. And that I was living in a bubble world, trying to hide away from them.

No, I have to rid my head of these stupid things. It's driving me crazy now, it really is. It feels as though I were typing this to warn you about them. Your phone might have been tapped. They could be anywhere, if they even existed.

And it's piling up in my head. I feel like puking my lunch out now, both the nonsensical and childish idea, and the possibility that it might be true. No, it isn't. Somebody tell me that it isn't. Hopefully when I come back the thought would have been erased, and that it was just a childish thought.

I need to get back to my music. Franck is so damn haunting, especially that F# major passage I played for you.

The curtains twitch. It really seems like the winds are hurting them, and the curtains beg for them to stop. But they can't, because they're just fabric and they have no mouths. I'll tell the wind for them.

For now I need to get in the company of people. More people. I need my friends. Some trio come over please. We can play Dvorak. Or Schumann. Or Shostakovich. I can write gebrauch music for piano, oboe and violin. Disconcerted, is it? Confused.

Short Stories

Just a little queasy in the stomach right now after chomping down cereals, bread stuffed with ham, and biscuits - all while reading about MJ's autopsy report on how he was a 'virtual skeleton' upon death. And the details.

The past week has been really fun. Fun as in like, fun. There isn't really much of a way to describe fun when you know it is. Fun.

Chi Ling's relatives flew over from Hong Kong last week (in a decision made the night before in Hong Kong while myother was there.) and I've finally met ALL of them! Though my grasp of Cantonese is so terrible but I admit I felt pretty comfortable with all of them by the end of the three days. Now I miss them, but I know I'll get to see them soon.

Lunches, outings, photos, dinners. Esplanade, VCH, ACM, Geylang No Signboard stall. Housewarming! Kids, Megan, cone ice cream, chocolate ice cream, corn strawberry ice cream, 2 million points, pillows. Gameboy parties, Jordon, Jessie, Aunty Jasline's birthday! The Singapore side, the Hong Kong side. Well, it's just about it. Everyone.

I spent the whole of last night reading The Catcher in the Rye. I mean, I read it until 3am. Then I decided that I could no longer take it, and slept.

Have a clear focus of what's going to happen for this year's competition, and I'm going to win it. But Zhang Aidi's so imba. Sigh.


Next book to read: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Re-thinking Life

Can you not believe in ghosts but believe in God at the same time?

What's the difference in believing in ghosts and God? After all, both are as intangible. Just that the idea of a supreme being appeals more to the head. We all need a little light and organization in our lives. The idea that I'm trying to push through here would be that God is man-made, an invention, a utility to all questions that seemingly have no answers to. He is the jigsaw piece that makes our puzzles complete.

He is Our jigsaw piece. We really do need it. So we make one ourselves. Why question? We need it anyway. These are people living in different places. Some look at the jigsaw puzzle from afar. Others want to be part of the jigsaw puzzle.

So much one can talk about but-

After reading CL's blog I feel like blogging intelligent stuff but I realized that there's a social limit to your intelligence - any further show of knowledge and lack of ignorance would mean transgressing The border!

Thus preceding the sudden possibility of a private blog.

Which is useless because the private journal would be a better option.

But it really is better to run these thoughts through your own mind (at least for me so that I don't get heckled by people for being 'extra' - those badass memories coming from The Musical Chord). And keep the journals occupied with musical stuff, experiences, and observations.

But you're wrong about life not just revolving around music and you. It's always good to keep it simple and less cloudy. Clear, simple, directions. There's already a hell lot of things to do with music, anyway! Obviously there are more things in lfe to think about, but these are just the cardinal ones, duh.

I prefer my life to be that way. Definitely doesn't make my life any less interesting, right?



Do bloggers plan what they type before they start, or do the thought processes happen concurrently? Am I wasting my time thinking about this? Probably not. At this age it's only normal to keep asking questions. Then when we get older we hardly find time to ask these questons and realize at some point that all the while we have been working to earn more money, raise a family, and lead a comfortable life.

Then we return to these questions. It's a cyclical thing I guess. Stop, reflect, go on. Stop, reflect, go on. Maybe the only thing that matters is which stage you are at when you pass on. Were you at a state of desperation, with no one to turn to? Were you surrounded by friends and leading a comfortable life?

Yeah, that's all that matters right? You either die a sad or happy or contemplative death. Like, a frozen frame. That's how your life ended. Here, tis' a picture taking when you died. You left in the dead of the night, your wife beside you, your children and grandchildren all asleep.

You've done it. You have ended it on a good note. Great. All the highs and lows, pleasures and pains, but really, ALL, all that matters is you died Good. A morally-high ending. No one cares about the bad things you have done in life. As long as. Yeah, he's dead already, forgive him.

Imagine what would have happened if you ended on a moral low. Your histories would tilt towards the ending. The things you have done that made the ending this way. Not good. Bad life.

No death does justice to the person.

'Real Love' by John Lennon

All my little plans and schemes
Lost like some forgotten dream
Seems like all i really was doing
Was waiting for you

Just like little girls and boys
Playing with their little toys
Seems like all they really were doing
Was waiting for you

Don't need to be alone
No need to be alone

It's real love
It's real, yes it's real love
It's real

From this moment on i know
Exactly where my life will go
Seems that all i really was doing
Was waiting for love

Don't need to be afraid
No need to be afraid

It's real love
It's real, yes it's real love
It's real

Thought i'd been in love before,
But in my heart i wanted more
Seems like all i really was doing
Was waiting for you

Don't need to be alone
No need to be alone

It's real love
Yes it's real, yes it's real love
It's real, yes it's real love...



Which expresses what I want to say to you. For you.

Yay.

Yeah.

Ok just to confirm the questions posted to me by friends over the week, yes, I'm going into NUS full-time.

FINALLY. I get to not do all the shit work that RIJC gives me.

Ok. I'll blog later.

Untitled 3

I want to play the piano now. Because I've finally hit upon what comes after the slow introduction. Always think about expectation...even I just thought about what I couldn't expect right after the slow intro.

BUT I NEED TO USE THE PIANO NOW and its already 1.30am. Later in the morning then.

Tiring day today, but the efforts paid off. If I did put in any.

Maybe I should go downstairs and take a walk. With my manuscript paper.

She's right, I need to focus more. Enough sleeping, and I need to get into the right mind. Should be back by 3.

On my favourite hobby that is Improvising -

Yes, something that I do in the morning, in the afternoon, and just before I sleep. Frequently, I would lumber straight to the piano a few moments after I open my eyes, clad in only boxers and eyes adjusting to the light of day. Of course, this only happens on weekends and the holidays, and no one is dumb enough to do that at 5am during schooldays.

Maybe at 2, but 5am is definitely overboard.

When did I pick it up? I started improvising since 9, but the music had no logic in it, and could thus be safely labelled 'atonal'. By logical I mean, with the proper voice-leading, melody, meter, form, and structure that could stretch the improvisation to well over 5 minutes. I only reached that level last year, while preparing for my Ettlingen competition. Surprising to know that it was not attained in Singapore.

Oh, and suddenly I remembered that there was one object that gave me the inspiration for my first improvisation - that of a clocktower in the centre of the town.

While practising the Ettlingen pieces in a musty practice room in the school, I noticed a most elegant and wise clock tower, gleaming white in the lukewarm afternoon sun. Underneath it was luscious green, and red-roofed houses were angled around it.

Interesting to note that the inspiration for Tendresse was drawn from the ticking of a green alarm clock in the dark of the night. Time and again.

Back to Ettlingen, I immediately recorded the improvisation, which was in D major. But before that there was a short process of discovery, taking roughly 10 minutes - a realization that everything did actually clicked into place - D major, G major, Bb major (the beautiful submediant major), A major, B minor, all of its different inversions, thus allowing the chromatic shiftings of each individual voice that would eventually lead to another key.

So all those years of nonsense didn't go to waste. All those years of "What are you playing? Doesn't sound right," from dad didn't lead to nothing. They lead to the realization of a dream. They led me to believe that it wasn't fake, those words from the history books - "Beethoven and Mozart improvised, Haydn improvised, he was good at improvising".

I questioned constantly the meaning of improvisation, WHAT it was. I had absolutely no idea what improvisation was - such was the cluelessness.

To know that I've finally improvised was such a huge joy. But the learning never stops.

The moment I got back to Singapore (without any prizes of course, those guys were freaking good), I immediately googled the word itself - here's something from Wikipedia that I read when I got back:

"

Improvisation is usually defined as composing music while playing an instrument at the same time. In other words, the art of improvisation can be understood as composing music "on the fly". This of course requires great skill and knowledge, and is a very important aspect of music in general, for any experienced musician. Musical improvisers often understand the idiom of one or more musical styles—e.g. blues, rock, folk, jazz—and work within the idiom and music-theory of the certain style to express ideas with creativity and originality. Improvisation can take place as a solo performance, or interdependently in ensemble with other players. When done well, it often elicits gratifying emotional responses from the audience. Very few musicians have ever dared to offer fully improvised concerts such as the famous improvised piano recitals by classical composers/pianists like Franz Liszt. The origins of Liszt's improvisation in an earlier tradition of playing variations on a theme were mastered and epitomized by Mozart and Beethoven.

"

(munch munch, eating baos I just finished steaming)

Then again I'm thinking that it is a really good way of revealing one's character, and personally I think I would be amazed also to see the huge array of personalities and characters emerging if everyone could improvize.

Experience of improvising? It does seem overwhelming at first sight, but after a while, I absolutely appreciate the large range of tones I have in front of me, 81 of them, 1200 chords in one octave, 8400 in seven. Combine the different chords together, at different intervals, different dynamics, different configurations, and there you have it, a NEW WORLD available at your whim and fancy.

That is, if you can make it yours.

I search for passing inspirations, experiences - they float across my mind, and zip through my brain. There have been times when it gets so overwhelming I wish that I could write it all down, but such orgasmic moments are meant to be relished, with nothing worthy, not even time, of capturing it. It is meant as a gift of the moment, for the moment, that the performer could receive, but only just, before it withers into memory's recesses.

Yes, mind, body and soul are required.

You need to have the facility -and as I always emphasize, arsenal- to get the best OUT of the keyboard, and of course, to better express yourself. Look at it this way - the larger the array of technique you possess, the more you can express with. It's better to have something you have but don't need, rather than something you need but don't have.

Mind - the vision as to how your improvisation would turn out to be, its form and structure. This took years and years of looking and listening to hundreds of songs and pieces. And command of theory I guess, must be really way high up. Just that I have a cheat source, that's perfect/absolute pitch. Which is something I really treasure. Ok, this whole passage looks easy to type, but I'm proud of whatever that goes behind it. At least 10 years of immersing yourself in music.

Soul doesn't need much talking about. The lifeforce to the music, without which there would be nothing.

BTB

Bleary-eyed, just woke up. Some of the goodies of the holidays would be being able to wake up so late in the morning (we're talking about 8am here) and still able to laze around.

Yesterday's night ended with a table-tennis game right in the living room, and within minutes I was glistening under the light. Moonlight, fluorescent, no matter. Oh wait, it don't. [inside 1E joke]

We went for another family outing on Saturday again. Ok, so, no more drunken chicken, no more drunken tapirs, no more drunken rhinos, we went to the Night Safari!

Took a hell lot of photos together, but MYJ is at camp now, so I can't upload them. Would be up by this week though.

Went back to Johor Bahru yesterday to celebrate Ah-Ma's 80th birthday. I'm so proud of her!!! She's still so healthy and strong. I did however, felt a queer mix of joy and sorrow when she took a photo with her birthday cake. I do hope for many more years of this to come.

An indignant boy had made his way into my blog by opportunistically vomiting on MY sandals, while I was taking a break inside the house watching Night at the Museum. Good job, BRYAN. But I still like you though, although I wished you'd rather stop jumping around.

"See Brrryan Mummy 跟你讲了，不要乱跳，跟Jonathan-gor-gor say sorry?"
"My sandals!!! My good old sandals!"
"Cool! There's grape, porridge, oh look at that, it's bubuchacha. Oh is that the mango?"
"My SANDALS. Sand..*faints"

Was the exact scene yesterday.

I think I was a little harsh but setting him down in front of me and saying, "Look, do you really have to vomit on my sandals." He gave me a look, and then lost attention and his gaze started to wander on my hair.

You know you fail if your hair grows long enough for people to call it Jonathan.

You know you fail when you shatter your permanent tooth riding on a four-wheel 'bike', realizing only after the accident that brakes exist.

You know you fail when you help a guy open the door, and he shatters your tooth by pushing the door too hard. The same tooth.

You know you fail when your mum passes away on Mother's Day (this one isn't funny but it's quite fail)

You know you fail when you dream of your friend telling you, "Jonny, 136 nipples on your face and still counting.


Ok another non-descript post worth forgetting. It's lacking in any bite but that's because I'm just a bit lazy. Now, back to Ballade.

My Adventures on May 31 and June 1

I wandered aimlessly around my bedroom for close to a minute in total darkness, trying to figure out whether I should, or not, switch on the air-conditioning. Just two hours before I was lying on my bed (that was ten), clad only in my jeans, and sweating myself in this moist cabin.

A short account of the previous few days would do good. A rehearsal at St Mary of the Angels, with my cello still missing its A-string. For the 2nd time running we rehearsed Schubert's Ave Maria, but with fewer instruments because the rest couldn't make it. By the time I got back, it was already early evening, and Chi Ling and I did well to finish watching License to Wed. Ma Yanjie desperately needed a partner to watch it with, but she watched it solo anyway on the other couch.


We waited for Aunty to get back home, and we reckoned that we should watch Night at the Museum 2 together since it was going to be another Family Day.

Now here's the part that showed me something important for the rest of my life. No, it's not another reflection on my part, no, but really, a physical ailment. My dad ordered steamboat on behalf of himself and Aunty, myself reluctant and my other being quiet about it, while MYJ suffered from a case of diarrhoea, subjected to my endless teasing (which had its retribution).

We were at our favourite Hong Kong restaurant (probably the only one in Jurong Point) once again, with all the food fare that we usually had. But today had to be special, because they were offering a package, and the package had to include the elusive drunken chicken.

It had been known since time immemorial that I have an alcohol allergy, or either that, am extremely sensitive to alcohol. Just one spoonful of drunken chicken, I was down. At first I thought it was just myself, imagining that there was a raging storm within my walls, but it wasn't.

I wasn't imagining. So here I was in the brightly-lit room, the two adults leaning against the glass wall opposite us, on my left my mei (:O, yes since ChiLing calls her that) and on my right ChiLing. The lanterns hanging overhead did drift in different hues, and my vision blurred several times as a immediate response. A plastic bag was soon at my disposal, and my attempts to retch out the wretched liquid was to no avail.

Meanwhile, I think we were there for a total of 15 minutes, myself suffering not so quietly, MYJ silent with the incessant thought of diarrhoea. My other got up to get medicated oil and she returned swiftly, the contents of the dial dabbed onto myself to sooth the pain. No, it wasn't a brilliant pain, but it was spasmic, and I could feel them shifting and groaning as the supposed cause traversed its normal course.

The walk up to the cinemas was itself a terror, and I once-again nearly vomited into the plastic bag.

Night at the Museum 2 was generally amusing, but it severely lacked coherence and we both agreed our intelligence (if we had any) went down. By a lot. But it was innocent kid fun, I guess. So not much to mention here.

The climax of the show undoubtedly came at the last part, when my eyes started itching. And they itched more when the show ended. By the time the credits came, it had hit upon both of us (we were sitting behind Dad Aunty MYJ) that my eyelids were swelling, and for myself, that I would soon be practically blind.

From this point onwards I could seriously not get a hold of anything, except that I proceeded the staircase with no incident, but I literally had to be led by the hand. While waiting for the car to arrive, I decided the best way to hide that hideous face of mine (for two bunions for eyes don't make a good human) was to cover it with the hood of my jacket.

Everything after that was a blur, and I suppose I had fell under the onslaught of the minutest spoonful of alcohol.

Every loud thud or sound rattled my brain, and there were consistent flashes of black lines that zipped across my eyes. The world seemed to be whirling around slowly, and I dozed off several times (or drifted in and out of consciousness), only to wake up hearing the sounds of my girl calling her mum to know where the nearest clinic or hospital is. I think. I think that I might have shouted 'Thank You Aunty' to the phone, but even this needs confirmation from witnesses.

I remember vaguely being bundled out of the car, and as you all know my vision was limited to only the ground beneath me, even with it a black line consistently hovered across, and that was the hood. A change of environment, the black night washed away by a sterile light, a greenish-white.

I thought it was a clinic, but only much later did I realize that I was in a hospital, a West Point Hospital. And that I was in the Accident and Emergency Department - my queue number, if there was even a queue, was 3035. Last check on 4D yielded no results.

One of the clearest instances of the entire hospital trip was the temperature taking, that comforting protrusion into your ear, a fuzzy feeling, a click.

"It's only my eyes that are inflamed, not my ears," I had said at one point. Either the nurse got too tired, or she just had a terrible day, but I heard no response. Probably she laughed, but the thermometer prevented any sound from reaching my drugged ears.

An injection was obviously performed, because not long after my right arm felt a burning pain, the muscle having been penetrated and the medicine dealt. This pain lasted for several days, and was evident during my Chopin performance the next day, which I would elaborate upon later.

It must be known that I didn't take much notice of the pain at all, simply because I was in such a stupor, that any bright lights or loud noises would only startle me, and stimulate all my bodily muscles into a tense fit, only relaxing after a few seconds. This condition continued right until the third day of my poisoning, where the alcoholic effects finally started wearing off.

[a reminder to the reader that it was only a sip of drunken chicken soup]

Also imperative to note that not at any point of this post have I exaggerated a single word, and I am merely describing my experiences at that point of time.

Returning from this digression, the ride back home was essentially missing, because the next time I opened my eyes ChiLing was no longer in the car, and for once I had failed to preserve my sanity enough to step out of the car and ensure her safe passage home. Upon discussion we both realized that this was wholly impossible, and I might have been a burden should I concur to faint in the lift or along the walkway.

I found myself in bed the next morning, and was told that I had fell down upon the floor in an attempt to remove my shoes. My socks were miraculously off, but my polo, jeans and belt were expectantly, still on. At this point I was reminded of a joke told to me a few years back, when a boy had fell asleep after physically pleasuring himself, only to find the next morning that he was clothed in his entirety.

Hardly a joke, but terribly amusing-amusingly terrible experience one could be in. To thus step out into the living room and find both parents at breakfast as if nothing had happened, to ask what state he had been found in the previous night.

"We figured out you had such a sneeze that your mucus went everywhere, and the obvious cause being that you weren't dressed, thus being exposed to the winds, my dear. So we clothed you."

Ah, it's only human to digress.

This day I wake up to would be Monday, June 1.

My eyelids were still in its enlarged state, but only less. I was fed half a dozen pills in one go, but I was willing to try anything that could rid me of the alcohol. Any intense stimulations caused all my muscles to contract, and my sense of balance could not be worse. I decided that I should continue watching the movies that I had borrowed from the Shaw Foundation Library, but could not bring myself to concentrate on them, for the fact remained that I still had to practise my Chopin.

Nothing much of interest happened in the afternoon, except that I went for rehearsal, which involved much shifting of chairs and sofas, and I wasn't of much help either. I was half asleep most of the time, and only awoke when there were exceptionally sudden motions, one of them being Thomas Ang's slam upon the table, which left me reeling.

Whilst on a stroll with my beautifully-dressed girl back to the ArtsHouse, I lost my balance after swivelling my head to take a view of the Central Business Area. This was not surprising then, considering we were walking on a sloping platform, and the buildings loomed so majestically over me.

The performance that ensued in the evening was without incident, and no chandeliers dropped while I played my Nocturne. Thank you to all who came to support me, the four most important being my Dad, Aunty, MYJ and ChiLing. You lovely people.

The rest of the night was spent getting ChiLing to Pre-U Seminar, at 11pm. And thus ends my Monday, which was spent mostly in a better state of mind, contrasting sharply with the horrific events of the day before.

Thus ends my narrative of my adventures. Do wait, if possible, with bated breath, for the next chapter. You might get to see more interesting shit.

Edgar Allan Poe is really cool.

The Alcohol Allergy.

The past few days have been the craziest days of the year.

I know this sounds like something out of a Taiwanese soap opera, but it's true. Few weeks back my dad found his long-lost brother at Parkway Parade, and subsequently his brother started calling up everyone else to inform them that, yes, they've found the last brother.

Well, my dad could have been dead for all they know, but of course he's still alive. In any case, the gathering was last Saturday, and we had a hell lot of fun. Singing Beatles, Carpenters, and Barry Manilow, not forgetting the Hokkien songs and the Chinese ones. If I can remember, I think there were 9 of them in all, with the spouses and such.

Truly frightening and hard to believe, because everyone laughed so loudly and cheered even louder. They were all soccer fanatics, and one of them even said they would die for football. So it seems it indeed runs in the veins. They are all my uncles and aunts, and I just found it super cool.

Finally, after 16 years of knowing their existence but never having seen them.

Feeling super tired now. Yawn. None of you will know what happened yesterday, shhh. Delirious.

intarkinatal

I cannot deny the fact that I am mildly depressed, but music is my drug and my sleeping pill. Here are some of the stupid aphorisms that I wrote down after finishing the comprehension in my GP test.

Women hold up half the sky, men pretend to do the other half.

Life is about minimum effort, maximum credit.

I'm not doing to type the other few because they don't look like aphorisms at all. Currently, I don't feel like a guy at all. I need to show more confidence. Strength. Faith.

Ok but anyway I'm advertising for another concert I would be performing in, this time for my Piano Ensemble. It's going to be at the ArtsHouse, which is behind Victoria Concert Hall. I would be performing Chopin's Nocturne in F# major. It's at 7.30, and tickets are sold at $10 or less. I can't remember, maybe even $5. There would be free drinks and an excellent ambience, with the purple and blue lights and cosy sofas, it really feels like a living room. A classy one.

Headed back to the studio again this Thursday to record Yisin's new song, Regrets. Great to see Martin again, Nathaniel his intern, and of course Lennard (i think?) who OWNS the studio. But the local music scene is always so cool, just that I wished everyone would stop smoking.

My dad's long-lost brothers and sisters are coming over in a short while, and I think everyone is quite excited about seeing them, especially since I've been hearing about them since young but never ever seen their faces. So it has been a long 16 years of waiting. Well, can't believe I would get to see them today. I'm rambling on and on.

I think I need some sleep. Sleep is my drug and my sleeping pill.

Wait! That means I'll keep sleeping right. I can't. I need to wake up.

I feel like typing a short story. But it will probably sound like I'm rambling. Like, a Narrative! Or a Travelogue! That would be cool.

And I finished my PI finally. No more work. .. ... .... ..... ...... ....... ........ ......... .......... ........... ........... ............. .............. ............... ................ ................. .................. ................... .................... .

Are the dots of the equal size? They look comparatively different beside each other. The rows of them.

. .. ... .... ..... ...... ....... ........ ........ ..........
.. ... .... ..... ...... ....... ........ ......... ..........
... .... ..... ...... ....... ........ ......... ..........
.... ..... ...... ....... ........ ......... ..........
..... ...... ....... ........ ......... ..........
...... ....... ........ ......... ..........
....... ........ ......... ..........
........ ......... ..........
......... ..........
..........

Wheezlebug! Bungaloon.

Bishbangpoofbamf! Butterbatter. Come on tomorrow. I'm waiting for you. Come on.

I shalt be deluded and go read the Bible now. I wish Thomas Ang were here to entertain me with Kapustin. I wish some musicians would come over now to improvise with me. I can't wait to practise four hands. It's every musician's wish I suppose, to play with someone they are most comfortable with.

soya bean milk with honey stars

This house has two blogophiles, one who blogs almost everyday and the other not-so-frequently but often enough. So here I am sitting beside my dad, who has taken to pasting all sorts of notes all around the house, with new rules being set up. It's like Camp Senja being run by Corporal Daddy who tracks shares constantly around the hour.

Actually I don't know why the change, but I preferred it better last time when he gave us the freedom. I mean, that's why the $10 is for right? We definitely can't spend more than that. But I suppose he wants both of us to eat inside the house, which is pretty reasonable, but considering we both have our own close circle of friends I think he should adapt to the situation, be flexible, and allow us to eat outside on some days. But the problem is, on what days?

Ok but we figured out the answer - that him not working makes him feel lonely for dinners, so we should do our best to join him for dinners. Then what happens to dinners with other important people? Well, I think the best way to find out is to let things run by its own. But it's already kinda sickening to watch him stick to the computer all day and look at all those numbers.



Drink beer, eat, shit, cook, look at stocks, go out with friends.



Head nodding, pencil scratching, hum of the computer, stacks of papers, notes.



Dinner at 7mile, tangyuan is <3.>

Oh right, about this morning. Yes, I waved Ma Yanjie off in the nicest of manners, with a few polite words spoken while I was in a trance, but I think it went something like, "no, school starts at 9am. please go away." It is articulated in the way that you wish you could tell the person to sod off, but because such an impolite order would most likely provide no following peace, you might have as well be nice from the very start. Which I think I did, correct me if I'm wrong MYJ.

Meanwhile I would like to use my blog to adverti$e again for the Inspire concert series! Let us all rally behind the hard workers who slog behind the scenes to make these concerts successful.

And dear readers, on my part comes a more personal request - if you ever meet Chi Ling these few days running up to the concert, do step up to her and say good job and thank you for doing this for charity. I will greatly appreciate it. I'm sure she would too :)

You can tag on her blog at www.chilly-chanchilla.blogspot.com, or alternatively you can tag on my tagboard since I placed this here.

Starting from myself, great job Chiling! All the hours dedicated to ensuring the success of the concerts, all the phone calls, letters, e-mails, SMSes, and the recceing. You rock :)

Cya lovelies!

failed to continue post.

Words in italics are written by MYJ.

BAlls! I have no idea why I decided to type that as my first word for this blogpost, but it warranted a "that's disgusting" from HORSEY! So today's post will be a split-post. Basically, in a split-post, two people will blog IN THE SAME POST. So you really don't know who the fuck is typing what. And who is typing which. And what is typing who. Deng deng.

Ok now I wouldn't tell you who is typing this, but I'll pass the computer to MYJ.

i was told to just type some shit, so here it goes: some shit.

After staring at the computer for multiple seconds, I'm utterly shocked and curiously clueless as to what to type in response to the comment. As they say, shitty things come out from shitty people. :O She tried to assassinate me by pushing my head! (onto the computer screen duh not some oncoming car). Stop laughing bitch.

Hou no! She's going to hyperventilate. As her feet constantly kicks the dustbin lever, she tries to recall her driving lessons. Well it's kinda terrible because she's laughing SO badly she just lost her balance. And the most absurd thing is that the floppy hair she has on her head (duh, where else) moves around in the most inconsistent manner. There, she goes off to the window to cool off, with hands on her hips and attempting to control her breathing.

Yes, that's it. One, breathe in, two, breathe out. Her lips curl into a tight shape, a fight against a sudden gust of laughter.

And no! The pillow goes on top of her head.

Now, my week.

Just like any ordinary week, this week has been sprinkled over with a myriad of activities, like powder on the donut. It culminated with HC Dance Night 2009, which was nothing short of titillating. For some reason whenever that word comes out the first thing that pops up in MY head would be lactation. I hope I'm not the only one. I'm sure any word with a 'tit' in it conjures an image of the breast.

"Can'(t it)?"
"(Tit)-for-tat"

Then the French irony of pe(tit).

If you googled what French irony really meant I'll laugh at you, in a French style.

Where were we. Right, titillating. Before that? Dance Nite. Sure. Before that I had the joy to have dinner with Chiling, Michelle (from her class), Kaizhi and MYJ. Homey Loses, Lomey Hoses, Holy Moses, I finally get to meet the man that MYJ talks about every single minute when I'm at home, Kaizhi this, Kaizhi that. Woah Kaizhi dao me. Kaizhi is so cute. There she goes, rattling the word 'shit'. But hey, look who invited me to the living room in the first place!

(the author has to go to school here - it's already 8.46am)

driving - the blogpost that spans a week

I just realized how busy it can be if you're a musician and you don't have a car. I reserved this Sunday morning for getting the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto score from Neville at church (now I can proudly say I went to Church this morning, but any other questions after that are entirely unnecessary. Questions like, "How was Mass?" are vastly irrelevant).

But as Dr Gooi says, the process is very important. How did you get to Church? Did you enjoy getting to Church? Answer was no, because my Ez-link ran out of money, which meant walking back from the bus-stop to Senja LRT station to top up the EZ-link card. Ain't it EZ.

It was convenient though, considering the bus-stop I was at was the wrong one, because 176 didn't stop there. Yes, lots of sweat and morning mucus. Must have been the instant teh-tarik. And then my favourite breakfast fare of pancakes and scrambled eggs for myself and MYJ. Done in 10 minutes, full for hours.

It's not a myth that I sweat alot, which I guess would be attributed to my body's high metabolic rate, so I wouldn't really blame the morning sun and the teh tarik for the mildly wet clothes.

Visited my mum, and then it was a change of two buses before I finally got to the Conservatory, where here I am sitting in the computer room, aware of the fact that I have only seen two other people in this building, one being Dr Hecht himself and the security guard. Everyone's probably back home hundreds of kilometres away, spending time with their loved ones after months of music and homesick-ness.

I thought, if only I had a car. Getting from home to Church, then Church to Conservatory would be much easier. And subsequently, from the Conservatory to Evans Road. Then I can also fulfil my dreams of one day being able to say, "Chiling, let's go for Rochor. Yeah, downstairs already." Then I'll dwindle my time at the carpark reading scores, and then she'll get down soon enough.

Or Ma Yanjie. "Oopezi, don't cook dinner tonight, eating out. If you don't get down by 5 minutes, I'll drive the car into the kitchen and shine the lights at your face."

So that would be it. She would get down, and then we could go eat out. Unfortunately/fortunately, she's going to be able to drive first, and then I would have to wait till I turn 18. By next year, she would be able to drive...then she could go fetch me to RJC already. Eh, entirely cool.

The past few days have been a flurry of motion. No, wasn't a case of terrible food and visits to the loo. On the contrary...(pentatonic scale please, with pedal. Technician! Fade out!)

On the contrary, I visited Seven-mile junction (now known to today's generation as Bukit Timah Market. Whatever. I'll stick to Seven-Mile Junction) together with Sydney and Kenneth earlier this week, one of my favourite food haunts. Kenneth had mutton soup, which apparently 7-mile boasts one of the best in Singapore. I had Happy Duck Rice (literally), and it dasted really telicious.

[yes, you probably re-read that again.]

But nonetheless, it was really good, duck was tender, peanuts were great. Sydney and I decided to rob some of Kenneth's mutton, but I sort of adulterated the mutton by having it dipped into duck sauce. Never mind that it still tasted great.

I guess the next day we went to watch the Chamber concert at Hwa Chong, got a sunflower for Fiona. Knowing that it was a school chamber concert, we weren't expecting an Esplanade performance, but it was fun enough. Three of us, myself, myother and myhalfsis then went for a sumptuous and beautiful dinner at the same place, this time having peanut tangyuan. The whole time we were laughing so hard, and I think MYJ even teared a little. But it was nice.

(here the author decides to go relieve himself and go up to practise. Bye!)

for now.

It's 1.55am, and I'm back home feeling more dull than ever. Firstly I'm pretty tired, and secondly there's no one to disturb from sleep. This morning's words were written under deft and silent typing so that I did not disturb my colleague while she had her sleep in the computer lab. Now, I can type at whatever volume I wished to.

Let's continue the day's narration - well Pop gave all of us the ride back home, including Chiling, and I was glad we could all reach home before the dose struck us. But before that I think I am pretty apprehensive towards Hwa Chong guys, (no don't ask, it's instinctive. and besides, sensitive.) But one of her classmates (apparently class gentleman and poet) actually said hello to me! (sorry I forgot your name) - I know this sounds really absurd and quirky but he probably was the first HCJC person to ever say hi to me other than my primary schoolmates. Maybe I just don't look receptive enough.

The next day being Friday - gosh, it's Monday already - and all 5 of us (by now you all should know who...pop aunty MYJ CCL JS) caught Angels and Demons. MYJ was so scared she cried on the way back home. I got really worried and was super concerned, you know the fabric of the pillow right...not good material to cry on. But I let the person to her devices. I didn't eat much of the popcorn, was probably staring at the screen the whole time without realizing. Solid movie. All the questions were surprisingly answered, and it was a satisfying end for such a complicated movie.

The next day, we practised four-hands...

And Sunday was just another busy day of soccer plus the most heavenly shower I've ever had. Besides we talked super long about OBS, kinda prep lesson for Amanda. And then later in the night, about music, practice, and careers. Discoveries, revelations, and practice. Hanon, Czerny. Mind, body and soul.

Next week, I'm bringing the bass and the amps to Boon Lay. Let the rock begin.

Wanted: Mas Yanjie

Mas Yanjie caught on picture! Wanted in Singapore, if found please recapture and send to Singapore Zoo. Picture above.

Sorry for scaring all of you readers off. Just scroll down if it makes you uncomfortable!!!

Yellow Submarine

It's a cloud descended upon my house. I slept for half an hour, Hwa Chong girl is already sleeping with her Nokia still blaring out Chinese music desperately collected over the past few days. She wants the battery out, I want the music out. Just charge it, who cares if it isn't dead yet! But no she refuses to, and now the lights are all on, her handphone is still on, and she's off.

On the other hand, I feel in a more accomplished mood today considering I actually finished the composition and am actually being extra by adding, well what do you know, extra parts. Then I have to ask myself, are they really essential? Yes they are, just that I haven't made them totally essential yet.

Whatever.

Hold on, I shall go get a sip of water to quench the sour tinge in my mouth.

Oh right before this slips off my mind I would like to say how much I admire the works of female authors. They just notice the subtler things, are able to better express emotions in words, and generally though I have had trying times comprehending the time, space, characters, it does feel like a fluid read. Yet it's sharp in details and meticulous, sometimes I do find it hard not to pick up the book when I supposedly have more important things to do.

Doris Lessing, Emily Bronte, Jeannette Winterson.

Meanwhile Aunty has problems trying to open the gate. I merely stare at my computer. Sometimes she sounds as if she were trying not to hurt the door, and the time she takes to open it is mind-boggingly slow. A quick click, a turn, and the door opens - a matter of seconds if I did the job.

I feel shagged now. A morning of badminton, Literature, History and Aural class. Helped to carry a teddy bear and jellies for a HC senior I don't even know, and suffered myself to buy aLIVE bar hahah that wasn't a typo it was really dead but the brand name is ALIVE. (in the voice of Nigel Chu Jia En)

I got the MEP scholarship! woohoo $1000, 5 Hanabi meals with loved ones. Let's go LKY! then we can both truly hanabi lol...

Sarnday

Today's blogpost is typed under duress, because of an uninvited guest sitting beside me. Truth be told I'm the one not invited, the computer is in fact hers, and I'm here because my ass is bigger than hers. Which means I can shove her aside.

The 23872942th arrangement of the furniture in the house means that we now have a new way of getting around, but surprisingly none of us have to CRAWL around to get to places. So much to type, so little time.

Let's start from...what happened just recently. Well actually let's start from what happened 24 hours ago. 24 hours ago, I happened to be throwing tissue paper at Ma Yanjie's general direction (no no serious I was aiming at the AIR space around her, not her. I'm too nice to even THINK of harming her). None of the tissue paper were used, of course, for I'm not such a dirty person, and if I were I would have tried to throw the toilet bowl.

Rationale for that? Mr Lee said anything worth doing is worth over-doing. Toilet bowl is the way to go.

Then after that I was content to go to bed after a good bout of volleying clean paper. I woke up this morning thus to the ACTUAL Mother's Day, at roughly 10.43am.

I fell asleep roughly at 10.44am though. Was checking the time. Then I woke up again at 11.30am, brushed my teeth, took a nap till 12pm, and I was off! To visit my mum at the Church of St Mary of the Angels.

Ok yeah, I know, it feels like 5 years since she died, because so many things have happened since she passed away. Got a new family, tons of new furniture, international competition experience and an award, college, more music, crazier classmates, a freaking cool teacher, and a beautiful other. All at once I feel like a lucky bastard who doesn't deserve any of this, but often life is about living with what you don't deserve, so you learn to treasure them more.

That aside and some of the smart shit I pretend to say, life has been really kind to me this past year. I'm not hinting at any nexus, but it couldn't be pure coincedence to say that some of it had actually been finally possible. I think it would be unfair if you were to condemn me for saying that, but it's unfair for me too because you didn't wear my shoes.

After taking a bus to church, I took two other buses to the Conservatory for a practice with Adriel and David. Dumka trio, it should be known, and rehearsal had been effective. It's always fortunate to work with technically fantastic and musically sound musicians. Then you can look towards more extra-musical stuff, and you don't have to worry about simple things like intonation and rhythm. Another reason why I'm such a lucky bastard.

Rehearsal till 4.30pm, and an exclamation from David Loke saying that he had to leave early because his grandfather passed away this day last year. It followed with an outburst from myself claiming this day for my mum also, and our eyes twinkled such that it nearly preceded an empathetic high 5.

"You know I wished I could give you a high 5 now, but it feels inappropriate. *chuckles*"

Adriel's mum fetched me to Bishan, where I waited at Yisin's house with a round of FIFA for the new HACAS president to finish her meeting. She actually finished it by today, and she totally deserves a good pat on her back, on behalf of all my readers here. Yes you do :). So proud of her.

Got back by eight, and Dr Hecht was back, like last Sunday. We had a sumptuous dinner, not without thanks to Ma Yanjie and her mum's fantastic cooking, and us three men contributed by eating and finishing up the food. It's tough work, but we survived in the end. So hilarious, American humour. Dr Hecht typed a letter for my dad's speech upon leaving DHL this Thursday, but it's never going to come out here because of the cuss words.

My dad choked several times though, it was just crazy.

Well that basically sums up my day, but since Akkra reminded me, he beat me 3-1 in pool the day before he left. Don't tell him I GAVE in to him to make him happy! Haha just kidding. And sure, all the best to Fiona's performance on Thursday. Go support come come come only $5 if you realise you are just slacking around digging your nose and not helping out with any work and not happen to have any serious work to do and is are really am will be can be should be must be feeling a little in the need for some chamber music then this is your night.

Just go watch it - for the effort I just put it, it surely is worth $5.

Cheers!

Happy Mother's Day Aunty!

I'm starting to insanely vainly view my life as an adventure, and my blog as its novel. I know, it's the delusional once-in-a-while oh HOT DAMN i'm in a spur kind of moment. The weather has been oppresively hot nowadays, and Singaporeans have been dealing just fine with it.

But the good news! Mas Selamat has been caught. Now I can sleep without worrying whether he would untune my piano at night while I'm not awake, though he has dealt a serious blow already by breaking my cello A string, and detuning the rest.

The weather is another suspect.

Mother's Day was not without occassion - I was in the company of the two sisters and their mum, otherwise fondly known in my blogposts as Aunty (in the right context, not Yanjie's mum). She who let me stay in her kitchen and watch her cook, help her bake, listen to her share secrets about her daughter (chuckles), and cut the vegetables, albeit under the watchful eyes of Chan Chi Ling.

But before I had finished sectioning ONE cucumber it would disappear, for the sound of each chop threatened the disappearance of a thumb, and the appearance of its red innards.



Long story damn short, Aunty deserves 5 stars and BEST MUM award, because she is truly in my opinion, the best mum I have ever seen. Without question, she would hence deserve the best present, which today came in the form of a song.

Written and composed by Chi Ling, sung by Chi Ling and Amanda Chan, mouthed by Jonathan Shin, piano played by Jonathan Shin. Happy Mother's Day Aunty!!!



And yes, before I forget, myself and myother are performing in Inspire 09: HeartStrings, plus eXDee is performing in Gifts from the Heart, which is basically the gala concert for Inspire 09..and the theme song for Inspire 09 is a song written and composed by both of us! So do please come down and support us.

HeartBeat - Inspire 09 Dance Concert @ Hwa Chong Institution (College) Auditorium
12 June and 13 June 7.30pm, tickets at $8.

HeartStrings - Inspire 09 Instrumental and Choral Concert @ Singapore Poly Convention Centre. 25 July 7.30pm, tickets at $8.

Gifts From The Heart - Inspire 09 Gala Concert @ Republic Polytechnic Cultural Centre
21 August and 22 August 7.30pm, tickets at $10 and $12 each.

We will both be performing 4-hand works by Rachmaninov and Camille Saint-Saens.

Cya!

Pops!

Absolutely depressing that my dad would be sitting opposite me and smiling and talking about shares - it's probably the only thing that pleases him most. If the stocks go down, his mood goes down too. And if the stocks go up, he nods, tells his friends all about it, and basically his whole day brightens up.

Or whole night - he comes back at around 10:45.

Yeah maybe it's the only thing he can be interested in now he's in his late 50s. One can never be satisfied about the money one earns right? Can't even be bothered to read some books I recommend him. Maybe people around him might get happier once he reads those books. Ok who am I to comment until I have started earning for my own pork chops. It's all about the money ain't it. All about it.

Been lacking serious motivation to do any of my homework nowadays, and I'm feeling this urge to go back to my musical roots. Go back and practise. If only I could take away one white slip for every 2 hours of quality practice I have with my piano.

Sunday is freaking declared as 'family' time. Why be so hypocritical and pretend its family time when obviously MYJ, aunty and myself don't even know each other well enough yet? I feel so restricted and I yearn to hear the laughter again talking to CL, Amanda, and aunty. It makes me feel much more comfortable, cross my heart.

It's unbelievable how 'stone' I feel nowadays when my dad is around, it's simply stifling. I hear the keys ringing, and I immediately stiffen, aware of this presence. When he enters the room, all I can bring myself to mutter is a simple 'hi'. A man with the most radical, bizarre and weird ideas, treats his house like his company, us like his charges. Confounded statements and reasonings. Maybe that's what makes him unique.

I have to bring myself to like him - after all, it's only another few more months before he leaves for China, and I can breathe a sigh of relief, knowing I have food to eat and piano to practise. It's so like Ibiza again - all by myself in the hotel room.

Meanwhile, thanks dad for all the 16 years, while you continue to pen down your figures and numbers and I wait for the fan that could only blow in your direction.


On a livelier note I'm looking forward to pool with Akkra tomorrow, and a good dinner before he leaves for Thailand on Saturday. Take care of yourself, buddy!

uncompleted post.

All the fuss for nothing.

"No, she's going to be bad, she's going to mistreat me, I'm so afraid of her." Whining like a true musician. But she turned out to be nice - I mean she's a tuition teacher you know? She teaches Chinese you know? And she's good with kids (well that's what you have to be when you're a teacher).


The past week has been a battle against time and myself. No, not coming into terms with my identity or anything. Most of you probably know I've been working damn hard for the past week for my juries, but yes, it's useless. To find the thing I'm good at (impromptu-ing and doing last minute stuff) failing me at the element I discovered this gift from, that is music. It doesn't work, and I have paid the price hard.





Recently I've discovered my dad and I have differences in ideologies and ways of executing things. Let's talk about the most pervasive thought in my brain now - religion.

The wheels and cogs started moving just 2 weeks back when I decided to pluck this yellow paperback from Ling's mini-library. The title itself was quite provacative - God is Not Great. Provacative means having Long come over to my table and covering the word 'Not'.

Before I start this stream of thoughts I would like to hold myself and only myself responsible for the words I'm saying here. In case people start pointing fingers at who said what and who did what, I'm quite in control of my own actions and my brain.

And if the stream of thoughts sound very organized, it's merely a coincedence.

Religion is important. As social creatures we constantly seek guidance from other humans in order to grow, mature, develop our own thoughts and ideas. Imagine an infant placed in a sealed cave without external stimulus and fed water and food daily through a tiny opening, without fail, for 30 years. His world would be the cave walls, the hand that feeds him, and the food and water. Any sense of anything else? Nonsense. Surely the man (now 30-years-old, if he knows it) is denied the rights to interact with other humans like himself, and his development be severely stifled.

Which leads to another question that just popped up in my stream of consciousness - is the ability to fulfil freedoms limited by only the human capabilities (simply saying to live free) - be the only condition to be a human? Is that even a problem?!?!

Let's start from the lowest rung of the human sociax (a word I coined while talking to Fiona on MSN and was unable to come up with a suitable word. Society wasn't appropriate because it didn't quite fit.) - that is the family.

Let's put the above-said poor child up for adoption into this family just 2 years into his terrible cave experience. Yee, he starts learning and growing, he has all his parents' guidance and teachings. Great. He has an expectation set for him by his parents, he has house rules to follow (don't dump your shit here, no no don't put that in your mouth), he understands that his parents have his welfare at heart.

Then let me combine this with one of the most powerful instinct/weakness of the human race - the fear of the unknown. Surely you readers know where I'm heading to. The unseen, the godly, the outside, the intangible. Fear. No no no, that doesn't happe, you might say. It does. Let's start mini again.

"Dave, there's a moth on your shoulder."

"Fuck I can't see it, help me get rid of it now, unless I have eyes on my back which I don't have so get this fucking moth off me now."/"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHh!!!"

Or let's put this into perspective.

"Dave, there's something I can't identify on your ass."

"(pants down)"

Thoughts racing through our head - what could be there? Who could be there? How is it there? When was it there? WHY is it there? Not why is it there on my ass, why is it there in the first place.

-at this point the author stopped typing and decided that he should set off for the Conservatory. It's already been one day since this has passed.-

-at this point the author returns to the post after 1 week of posting. he says forget it and he refuses to continue typing the post but decides to post it.-

(was thinking of title when a car honked) I lost it

So that is it. Another wonderful personality leaving the Conservatory to join National Service, with much pleasure and joy. This is to Clarence Lee, his wonderful performance on Wednesday night. The person who treated me like a younger brother, was always a listening ear, and dear me, how we shared so many tips and notes during the Ettlingen trip.

Unbelievable it may sound, but we spent hours practising on each other how to be gentlemanly and how to show respect to the opposite gender. The best way of greeting a girl (who was incidentally a hotel pillow), how not to stutter when talking to girls, how to warm the room immediately with a brightening smile, both Clarence and I discovered slowly. Sure, tons of laughter filled the room as I started jumping on the pillow (who was incidentally 'the girl') and erm, pseudo-wrestling.

I've not been blogging much because I've been spamming practice on the piano. Juries is next Thursday, and I'm heading straight to my doom. Ponning school just to practise, and then still cannot make it. I want to switch to composition already, if I can do it. ZAD is getting on my nerves by denying she's damn godly good, but then again if she just quit piano I think I might just get all my self-esteem back. Which is not possible because she's not going to quit anytime soon. She's going to reserve all her Math skillz and Piano skillz for herself.

Is this turning into some resentment? Never knew I could hold that much against a girl. She's just more organized and focused than me. Like all people are. Like all girls are. Right?

Anyway I've been having questions about religion. Questions, doubts. My friends would probably have seen me with this yellow book. I don't feel like talking about religion now, because I have a rumbling tummy. But what, what shall I eat?

Right yesterday Yanjie and I decided to sneak down at 11pm to have dinner at the 247 Kopitiam behind. Wasn't the case because I was the only one who had dinner. I had a breakfast set after my dinner (yes, tea with eggs with toasted bread). Slept at a fantastic time of 1. Carpenters music in the background.

My life would be very much complete and fulfilled if I bothered to do my RJC homework. I don't. I don't want to do it. I don't feel like doing it. I can't do it. I just want to go to school and drink tea and discuss matters with my friends. I have had enough of proving to people what I can do.

I have to prove to NUS people, and then I have to prove to RJ people. Why bother myself? Because I have to. Because it's my future. Because it's our future. There are dreams I want to accomplish but not before I fulfil all these requirements. You love them so much you want to do it for them. You want to do everything for them. They don't have to know you are. Just go do. Just do it!.!

Maybe I should turn off the fan. I'm shivering.

There have been several changes to the house plan - the study room is officially Yanjie's room. My room is exceedingly cluttered with all the books and scores from my yester-years. If you want to see what Jonathan Shin played when he was 6, there it is. They're all there. And it all seemed so recent, just yesterday when I had to feel as though there were an egg under my hands, and I couldn't let the egg crack.


Mathematical equations lying under the mouse.
She was playing with stocks and
shares again, just like my dad. Stop trade now, screaming in my face, flapping in the wind. Red. Trying to write like Carol Ann Duffy. But.

Failing because this is my blog. I did. I wrote the words. I wrote the words.
Repetition. Another cheap way to imitate the words.
The words she wrote I wrote. Not understanding. Why so deep? Why read
so much when an elephant is an elephant, and a spaceship
is a spaceship. Does it look like one? Like anybody else's?

It does. The shape and the words. I wrote the words.
Repetition from a preceding
paragraph. Alliteration. Surprise I didn't continue with another word starting with A.
Aa. Bb. Cc. Sure, Lim would have asked him to Google it but we didn't. Could
have been talking about the mouse when I wrote red. The


ink maybe? Nein. You read too deep. But I never said it was the mouse. I wrote it.
The words wrote me. I wrote the worte. Scratch your head,
bewildered-
Your mum.

Failed Blogfest.

Blogfest!

Yesterday looked to be an extremely busy day, and it was. Just for convenience's sake I shall type out the programme for yesterday.

1. Sound Check @ RIJC
2. YAP Class @ YST
3. eXDee Set @ RIJC
[dinner, walk-around]
4. YST Conservatory Orchestra Concert @ Esplanade
[supper]


There turned out to be no Sound Check, but we used the time to run through all the songs that we were going to play later in the afternoon.

1. Dreams
2. Old Steps
3. Tipping, Falling
4. Dare You To Move
5. The Great Escape

I would like to thank the band for 'Old Steps' and the dedication. :)

It was less raucous than I had expected, partly because this event was held in school and there were of course parents around.

At this point of the post the author feels like he really needs to practise piano. He might update later though. Bye lovelies.

Popcorn Wednesday!

Snuggled comfortably in front of the Mac computer in the Conservatory Technology Lab. Azariah's on my right, typing his peer evaluation form. I've just finished piano lesson, which was again nothing short of wizardry. But after realizing that people like Yanjie read my blog too, I've decided to type like any human being and stop blogging about my musical life. 

Yanjie, in case you didn't realize, is my dad's girlfriend's daughter. And she's also from Hwa Chong Junior College. And CCL is also from Hwa Chong Junior College (which RJC accidently swept away while we were aiming for the Waterpolo A Div title). Must have been the movie theatre incentive. 

"Boys, if we win this, we get to watch movies every Civics lesson. This is the ONLY difference separating us from HCJC."

":)"

[meanwhile]

"Boys, if we win this, we each get a buy-1-get-1-free coupon for ice lemon tea at the Fish Tank. This is the ONLY difference separating us from RIJC."

":|"

Another fun memory of the week: Two eager faces reflected on the microwave oven pane, against the backdrop of an expanding popcorn bag. Then we hear the delightful sound of corn popping and its mini-rebounds. 

I think we shouldn't stand too close, and we retracted cautiously. Just enough to prevent our faces from being fried by the radiation, just enough hear the sensational pop. So much for a bag of popcorn. 

Three straight days of Kenneth Hamilton Piano Playing as officially made my...oh wait, I'm not supposed to be talking about music again. See, see. But what else is there? 

eXDee is performing tomorrow at the ORA Fair at RJC, so if you do want to hear us play, do come down! 

Hm. Right. Made a trip down to HCJC during the week to catch up with Andai, and yes subsequently I would be going down to HCJC because that's my fastest route back home (something which I embarrassingly realized after a short 4 years). Finished my short G major motive and also my Mozart HP realization, and it's now on the Internet. 

I might have as well put the score here. 

Ok I have absolutely none the slightest of clues on how to put the second page up, but since it isn't there I could imagine that there would be some suspense as to how the second page would look like. "Would my face be there so the players faint when they turn the page?" "Would the expression markings have the word 'fuck' in them?" 

ppp - fucking soft. 

resofuckuluto.

With REALLY, lots and lots of determination.

Please respond to Facebook quiz

An attempt to start this blogpost failed on two occassions. The first was yesterday, when a cockroach invaded my study room. Yes, I am afraid of lizards and cockroaches. No, not moths nor ants.

So I entitled myself to trap this wicked insect at the corner of the room with a chair leg. However, it escaped and was soon limping up the wall. A few minutes before that I heard an extremely disturbing crack though, and I realised one of its wings was gone and the other legs were also kinda koyak.

Anyway I left the room, shut it, windows still open but this device was switched off. Beethoven score also went out, and any possible rations that could stay with me before I slept I brought out too.

The second occassion was today, when I tried to start this post at the YST Mac Lab, but thought it embarassing because the tapping of my fingers exceeded the decibels for whispering, so I gave it up. To type fast is to type noisily, says me.

On Sunday I was kindly invited to a game of soccer with Adriel, Daniel, Yisin, Yunsong, Chengsin, and the little brother, and some other people I didn't know. It was a good game, but overall it did give my body some workout, and my calves were hurting terribly after that. Simply sore.

The next day...Chi Ling and I and some other people (coughhackcoughhackdies) went to watch Shinjuku incident! Most stressful movie I've ever watched, but I'm morbidly fascinated with hands coming off. Especially my dad. "Which part did you like most?" "The part where the hand come off." "Siaow, first one or second one?" "First one lah! That one damn shiok."

My jaws dropped.

Ah yes! I most certainly didn't get to miss the Toyota Camry Incident, when my dad was driving the car. Yes, he was driving out of Jurong Point after we had dinner there, and from the opposing direction coming down into the basement he saw another car which was about to hit the adjacent pillar. His words of caution rang out to me as he said, "Peng you, tio liao, tio liao."

Which translated meant "Friend, hit already, hit already." Or for those Anglophiles out there, "Friend, you're going to get hit, you're going to get hit."

And then this dull growl came from the port side of the car, and yes, if the friend he was talking about were himself, he was quite right.

What can I say? After we got out of the car later, beholden and lol, the left corner of the bumper was scratched and blackened, after the silver coating got scraped off.

"lao beh, tio liao, tio liao."
"-.-" - him

Yeah anyway back to the Shinjuku incident my dad said it was pretty uncomfortable because she was there and it was the first time anyway and they didn't know each other at all except through word of mouth, so both of us had to content with sitting beside each other in the middle. Haha! Not a single awkward moment for both of us though.

Just today we had Jap lunch, and yes, couple of nice little coincedences and things like that but I survived all of them. Just got another one as I'm typing this.

Practical class was in the morning conducted by Dr. Gooi (without fail, I think he's a nice teacher and a nice chap and pretty hilarious also. and patient!), I played Beethoven Op. 10 No. 3 2nd movement without having had a lesson yet with Dr Hecht :O holey shit I'm not even sure whether that's allowed but the comments were generally good and he didn't have much to say, though I definitely took notice of the comments.



Right. Was thinking something cool happened yesterday. Oh yes! I met Fiona at HC busstop, and I decided to catch up with her at KAP because we haven't talked for a long time, and it was my maiden trip to KAP Mcdonalds anyway. I've always been afraid of that place, particular since I know Nanyang girls frequent that area.

Yes, lizards, cockroaches, and Nanyang girls. HCJC girls definitely not counted. I'm afraid of them particularly because of my bad experiences in Secondary 2 (like how my blogging life started with anonymous taggers tagging on random crushings). Keh. Ok whatever yes, we need to go out on a pool outing with Nigel and Shiyin set. Some day, if us men can make it. Time, time.

Completed the ever-smallest section of my fantasy during Chinese class, and I'm starting to get a little irritated with how she keeps nagging. But she's nice to me. :)

And lastly something from Facebook:

Liszt once said that D Major is “happy, sunny, and yellow,” which truly describes the D Major personality. As such, songs written in D Major usually have a happy, playful melody and rhythm. D Majors have a great sense of humor and thus makes friends easily. However, they sometimes can be too carefree and irresponsible, not to mention insensitive about people’s feelings. Like A Majors, D Majors possess a childlike positive outlook, though D Majors have a better grasp of reality. D Majors get along with almost all key signatures because of their friendly nature, but E Majors can teach them more about responsibility and B Minors can pull back their excess optimism. They should best avoid F sharp Majors as they don’t see eye-to-eye.

Ok so I took the "What key are you" quiz.

What do you'll think?

and cartwheeling back from his adventures...JS!

Dear Readers,

I have had immense imaginary pressure to blog because there are eyes that constantly return to the words here and are hungry for more. Or are there not? I wonder. Maybe there aren't but I'm blogging now, so who cares.

Ok lots of performances I realised that weren't blogged about. First on the list - Primarily Piano.

Yours truly played Ravel Sonatine Third Movement on that day, but I was truly only looking forward to the pizza, and the ice lemon tea which accompanied it. Two pizza slices, one cup, and I was off. But not before the well-wishes for the Medan performance came around once again...thanks people.

That was...Tuesday, two weeks back. If I'm not wrong, 24th of March.

Three days later (dramatic music please), Dr Hecht's lesson for all the Medan pieces which included:

Mozart Sonata 1st movement
Faure Impromptu
Liszt Petrarch Sonnet
Chopin Harp Etude
Griffes Scherzo
Ravel Sonatine
Shostakovich Concertino (2 pianos)
Gliere Valse Triste (sad waltz - direct translation, seriously) (2 pianos)
Chopin Polonaise Fantasie (orchestral reduction)

All of these which were memorised except for the orchestral reduction. How I love my 3MB-free brain as of today. Ask me what time I had my dinner yesterday and I wouldn't be able to continue this post.

So don't!

Medan's roads are extremely bumpy and cluttered, and it is entirely true that if you can drive in Indonesian traffic, you can drive anywhere in the world. But like any good author, let's start from the beginning.

Jonathan Shin was born in Ma.. On Saturday itself I skipped YA class for the first time (gasp) so I could rehearse with my band eXDee at Daniel's house. We got around to practising for around 4 hours, working on the dynamics and balance. Thinking about how I viewed classical art music against contemporary music a few years back, I'm surprised that I've changed alot. From thinking about how simple pop/indie/rock music can get, to getting RIGHT into the heat of it and viewing it from inside out.


There's a difference, and it's not rare you get that orgasmic feel running right into your bones every few hours you play in a band. Not forgetting classical music, but it's much easier considering the obscure chords you get when you play in a Mahler or Strauss orchestral piece. Yes, my point is, composers like Mahler and Strauss make use of such dissonances to produce aural pleasure.


We might argue though, that the power chords of I, IV, V and vi - the basic chord foundation of contemporary music help us to access that region of satisfaction and thrill with more ease. But it's not my time to argue about it. Eh, with different people comes contrasting viewpoints.


Ok then after that we cabbed down to Esplanade for our performance at the Esplanade Outdoor Theatre. I'll gladly post some pictures.

Facebook didn't pop any photos of us up together, so none of it goes on the blog. As you can clearly see on the amplifier, it says "BAYBEATS AUDTION 2008". Ok fine fine, no caps, but yes I'm just trying to make it clearer for you'll.

Anyway that audition was exactly one week back, and we're proud to say eXDee has made it to the top 8! Which means we would BE performing for the Baybeats festival itself already. Here's the page if there are any doubters out there.

"What? eXDee is that good? Sure or not... (in typical Nigel style)?" Here's the page.

Yeah ok so now it's over and the festival will be held one week after my performance for Inspire Gala 09. Festival's on the 28th, 29th, and 30th of August. The middle one being my birthday date. Well, it would be nice if I got to perform on my birthday, but I rather it being a free day for me to spend quality time with my family than one full of hustle and bustle.

This day was no exception. After the performance I was whisked back home to continue packing my stuff for Medan (the flight was at 7.30pm).

zad came over to practise two pianos (I had yet to memorise the Valse then (!!) ) and Chi Ling from Ms Tan's house to watch us practise and send us off at the airport. The most memorable question of that day was from zad, on the topic of "How do you get on the LRT platform?" Stupefied for seconds.

And then after that five of us - Myself, Chi Ling, zad and her mum, my dad - went off to the Airport, got confused with Terminal 1 and Budget Terminal but made the check-in perfectly on time.

The plane trip was approximately 1 hour, which meant that I entered the plane listening to "Back in the USSR", which was the first track on the Beatles White album, and left it listening to "Julia", which was the last track. Nice.

First signs of what to expect in Indonesia was an express treatment - men asking us whether we needed help for our luggage, all promptly shrugged off. Simply no time for an express luggage loss, thank you very much.

Shirley and her mum picked us up from the airport, and the traffic nightmare began. Flags for the Indonesian elections were EVERYWHERE on the sidewalks, and it was a mirage of blue, yellow, and red. And in the event that my readers are as ignorant to the news as I am to blogging over the past few days, the Indonesian legislative elections are to be held on the 9th of April.

Total number of parties running? 44.

Compare it to Singapore, and we're simply a digit extension of a turned-off giant.

And lo and behold, the faces and posters were everywhere, some smiling, some looking bored, some resembling mug shots while pending trial for murder, a couple looking to strangle the photographer, and not least of all, the "why-am-i-wasting-time-participating-in-this"look.

Of course, those with minimal funding for advertising did not get to put their posters anywhere public, but I'm sure they were creative and took to public toilets to enter their pictures for target training (for men). "If I hit him, I'll vote him." "Aww, missed! I really liked his political ideas though. Maybe next time then." For women, I'm guessing it would be much tougher.

A nutshell insight of Indonesian toilet politics.


Anyway we had a good taste of Medan food, and I have to assure you that it did keep my bowel movements regular (compared to back in Singaore), and most importantly, Medan food is delicious. I missed the chicken glutinous rice wrapped with pandan leaves. And that dory fish (ahhh..) that was fried in its entirety and looked absolutely wholesome with its fins spread out and its tail whipped up in an angle. Brown, golden, and eyes that stare wide at the world.


Eat.


The performance was on the next day itself (which was Sunday). At 4pm, Singapore 5pm. A few hours before Adriel invited me to a soccer game, which I politely declined because I couldn't afford to miss a performance myself, though I was tempted to take a flight back when I received it. Thanks Adriel.

And finally, the performance itself. I wasn't nerve-wrecked, but it was enough to throw me off guard when I played Mozart's 1st movement - an improvised left hand should have done well to patch it up from the 200-people-5-guys audience. Valse Triste was a blatant show of attempting to memorise - we got all the notes right, but a glimpse of her while I was at the opposing end made me chuckle.

We were both running through our heads on the next notes, pretending to move with the music but simply trying to get on with the flow so as not to lose concentration. But it was good music nonetheless, with all of musicality and tone.

Shostakovich drooled with sarcasm and mindless teasing (my lifejob). We brought a fresh and energizing rendition to it. All in all, good job well done! The photo-taking session/coffee break after the whole thing was a killer to our cheeks, with forced smiling not forgotten. We both received a Parker pen as a token of appreciation, I thought it would be apt as a gift, but Parker pens would probably be more suited for men.

But the performance was dedicated to you anyway, you back in Singapore doing your homework while I played. :)

I got back following Monday, and the facebook friend requests started coming in, and all the photo tags were pouring in too. They can be viewed here - http://www.facebook.com/photos.php?id=739548283#/profile.php?id=739548283&v=photos

Four days later I performed at RJC Music J1 concert, Shostakovich again this time with Willette. Thanks Michelle from HC for coming. And of course, the ever-supportive Chan Chi Ling. Yay more incentive not to miss out the tonic and dominant chords of "Somewhere over the Rainbow", which was touching and served as a good ending to the concert. Good job guys. See, as unexpected, everything with Jonathan Shin last minute but very good, although I didn't play much a part in this concert except perform and checking the placements of the pianos.

An Ibach and a yamaha c6 is no joke. Good job RJC for investing so much into music, you really rock. After that 3 of us cabbed to NUS to watch Dr Hecht's Hommage to Poulenc Concert, which was another concert that was beyond words. The ensemble work, deft and exquisite, is ENTIRELY out of my critique range. We shall now look to the guidance of Dr. Chang Tou Liang and Miss Chan for a taste of what true reviewing is.

I, Jonathan Shin, am now simply a digit extension of a turned-off giant.

But no matter, because I have completed my journeys over the past 2 weeks, as it has always been. Like, an adventure. Next week, my first concert with RJC Piano Ensemble on Wednesday.

Meanwhile...my composition pursuits has me in the midst of sketches and manuscripts on my Piano Quartet - violin 1 violin 2 cello piano. If only. If only, I could replace violin 2 with viola. Hopefully it can make it in time for its premiere in August, and I would love to see TheoKwek, Lanabel, myself on cello and CL on piano for this one.

Yours truly,
Jonathan

"who wants to wake up.."

A rare update because I'm having great fun in the March holidays. Dad's not been around because he's in Shanghai having his second honeymoon. I'm staying at home alone, from now till Sunday after my grandma and aunt left the house yesterday.

Chi Ling and I had dinner for the first time at Cafe Cartel, food was not too bad, but Munchie's will always be closer to our hearts.

I'll skimp details, but the past five months have not been less than glorious.

Good luck to Lydia for her cello exam tomorrow, the piano-cello duo (consisting of Chi Ling and Lydia) came over on Tuesday and Thursday and I heard them play Franck and Debussy respectively. As I have previously mentioned (in real life), $70 for 45 minutes and just pure monitoring is asswipe. Pure monitoring means telling you which bar is out-of-tune, which bar to practise again, and telling you what scales to expect.

Yeah sure, I'll pay you $100 for you to tell me which part of my back's feeling itchy and that "yes, you should scratch this part. And that. And this." Bullshit!

But I had great fun teaching, and it's this tireless passion of seeing students accomplish their goals and feeling great about it that probably drives teachers to continue teaching.

Breakfast was skewed today, but the pancakes I whipped up were generally out of proportion and a little race-biased on my part. And no, they're not usually like that, but I was in a hurry today. Scrambled eggs as per usual, and thick, partially-burnt pancakes on the breakfast table. The couple sits down to eat, while Lydia practises her scales. Just a little pepper on the eggs, please. And pancakes are laden with maple syrup. Mm, delicious.

Ho. A blank mind at this hour is forgivable.

Oh yes! We Intertwine is a FREAKING good song. First song on Fiona's playlist. But the Beatles' influence is overbearingly powerful in the song, with the voice harmonies and call-and-answers. One song I would love to hear on my powerful HiFi set in my room. Song structure is 10/10.

Whatelse. Squeezing stuff out of my brain at the moment. Forget it. Night, babes.

Well I figured out that there's no use using 'she' and 'she' and 'he' since everyone probably knows who I'm talking about, and using names would definitely make my blogpost more personal, which is mmm..[as in the kind of mm you use when you smell delicious things]..good.

So yesterday was Dad's birthday! Happy birthday Dad. Chi Ling and I got this cute little card for him, front cover had the words: "This birthday card is from both of us! One card, twice the love," Opening it up revealed the following "Half the cost! Happy Birthday!"

At least we heard the chortle from Pop (as we dearly call him).

He said it was his most memorable birthday ever, and I have no doubts about that - with all the friends and new people in the family, what more could you ask for? Everyone spamming birthday SMSes (but he ate dinner alone though) and wishes.

Yesterday I got to school without realising that it was actually an off-day because we did well in A-levels. Which is pretty expected with my heck-care school attitude. The place looked like a ghost town, and then suddenly it struck me that there was no school today.

Will update this at YST.

The Day I Ponteng School 31...or was it 32. Maybe 30.

Today was a holy day. I ponteng-ed school, and it was entirely worth it! I get to skip Math quiz which I have absolutely no idea (I think) how to do. And also I got to practise nearly the entire day. My fingers feel solid, firm, and organized now - which is great.

Yesterday was Mr. Leon Fleisher's masterclass, I don't know where to begin but I'm sure everyone there was in awe and learnt alot. True, there weren't many things that were new, but coming from my teacher's teacher's mouth himself, truly inspiring.

End of post, because I have too many things in my head, but I don't have the time to write them all down.

So even Imba says my blogposts are getting harder to read, and Uncle Eric (a person whom I greatly respect) who said I looked thinner and I should eat more. I'm REALLY spamming food already!

-start of stream of consciousness-

Hey peeps. A quick update from me, because I need to settle down quickly for the night and have a good rest before a new day tomorrow. Which is going to be equally long, but I'm promised that it's much more interesting compared to today.

Sunday was a great day, considering Arsenal's wonderful football and the subsequent comfortable win over Burnley. 3-0, adequate enough. I've recently been zoning out watching Arsenal play football, because the ball goes around aimlessly, but Sunday's game was just the opposite. Great runs, fantastic footwork, and engaging teamwork from both sides, but ultimately my favourites proved to me why they deserved to be my favourites, persevered, and took the game in their stride.

And then came today. Not a really stressful day, but a couple of miscommunications and understandings led to a little fright - some cock-up over my own recital and the Inspire 09 concerts. Ok so Clarence is performing.

Reminders about my upcoming concerts - Primarily Piano and Medan! I nearly forgot about Primarily Piano after I was invited to perform at a recital at the ArtsHouse next week (which I passed because I think I'm too busy for all these). Primarily Piano needs the Ravel Sonatine 3rd Movement while Medan needs all five of the Ettlingen repertoire back.

So here are some of the pieces that I would be performing before March ends.

Ravel Sonatine 3rd movement
Mozart K330 1st movement
Griffes Scherzo
Faure Impromptu in Fminor/major
Chopin Harp Etude
Liszt Sonetto del Petrarch

Gasp! Juries in May.

Beethoven Op 10 No.3
Liszt Mephisto Waltz. Or should I revert back to Valley d' Obermann. I think I should, I haven't gained enough stamina for Mephisto Waltz. But many people will be pushing me to play it.

Other than that Clarence taught me how to play Secret and told me of his many adventures of playing it on an upright piano back in secondary school, and how the girls would coo and sing along.

No thanks, I've had enough of guys doing that back in Secondary school. And playing a piece of music just to see people coo? Hell no, thanks very much. But seriously, thank you for teaching me. It sounded nice though.

Bryan Choong was being an exceptional bastard during lunch today by insulting everyone, and then not remembering that my mum had already expired, started telling me how ugly my mum was. [don't worry, he does that to everyone without even knowing how they look like.] The whole crowd at the table was staring at him with huge eyes and he was greeted with silence, until after a painfully long 10 seconds did he remember last year's events and apologising subsequently.

I couldn't do anything more than look at him in shock, but I don't think I'm the kind who would bother to raise my fork and stab him. Too tired already.

Speaking of which, yes, I need to go gym. I just SAY it, but whether I would execute it is an entirely different manner. After much persuasion I'm eating my meals regularly (gasp) and drinking bucketloads of water. But then I'm obviously lacking in stamina after playing through the first 3 pages of the Mephisto Waltz and PANTING.

But my 2.4 timing seems to have improved. Maybe it's just the thought of a PARTICULAR somebody beating me at 2.4 (or any other girls, as a matter of fact) that adds extra horsepower to my already failing engine.

Since we're at the topic of health and wealth, I might as well talk about the last time I ate homecook food (aside from a bowl of Maggi Mee). That was donkey years back, and it wasn't even at my own house. Thank you to Aunty for making my last homecook food memory so wonderful.

[damn. I really miss homecook food.]

Back to more musical matters in this stream of consciousness....I SHAKED HANDS WITH LEON FLEISHER. Couldn't be bothered to wash my hand after that, it's so precious. If we play the hand-shaking game again, I know Mr. Fleisher shook hands with Schnabel, who in turn shook hands with whatshisnameLeschtisvky. Who in turn with CZERNY himself. And of course, BEETHOVEN KISSED CZERNY on the forehead. Hopefully Czerny rubbed his hands on his forehead so he got some of the Beethoven DNA and passed it on.

-end of stream of consciousness-

Out of Blog Titles.

I wake up at the atrocious time of 7am, leaving me just 40 mins to assembly. No alarm clock, just me clad in boxers, with one eye still scanning the sky and noting the blue tinge in it already. It's never good news.

Uniform on, jacket hastily put on, and I'm out of the house by 7.10am, while my dad clocks 7.05 to fetch the car from the carpark opposite. I basically don't do much to pack, everyday's a close duplicate of the last. But today's different. There's piano practical, and then audition later in the evening.

I worked it out as 2pm, instead of the correct 5pm, which meant I got some of my meeting timings really screwed up badly.

The car pulls into school by 7.38am, but that doesn't mean I miss my fair share of looking at accidents and jams and roadworks on my way to school. Really, cars can be driven anywhere. Into ditches, into trees, into poles.

[...Car accidents in Poland involving civilians..]

While you seemingly uncurl your toes from the grippingly corny line, I shall take my time to finish my biscuit dinner. Yee, small Marie biscuits with a cup of fresh milk.

First class period of the day was Music Practical with Dr Gooi. I played Ravel Sonatine on the Firewood Piano, 3rd movement. Slips were prevalent for the first few bars, but after that I went on cruise control (which is not recommended). Cruise controls means like, running through the motoric configurations because you've played the piece over and over again and your fingers have without doubt memorised the movements.

I've seen friends who play like that. But I've been guilty before, of not practising separate hands (enough) and slow (enough). Which meant that when I was suddenly pin-pointed to start on a random passage with only the left hand, I'm often left lurching, embarrased and bewildered. [used to.]

If only we were to dedicate more time to simply practising slow, 100% of the time, with the actual performance of it at original tempo. I'm sure I've sat beside many of them, telling them to play slow, but after playing slow for at most three times (with pedal - ah! another thing), I taste impatience in the air.

Unfortunately I fall victim myself to this, but rinse-repeat, rinse-repeat, and you're certain to fall less into this unfortunate trap. But why do we practise slow? I should dedicate another post to this subject matter. Next time then.

Practical ended with Evan's Rachmaninov. Sidenote: I've never played any solo Rachmaninov works before.

The lessons after Practical were a blur. This is what happens when you don't have your breakfast, and your dinner the day before. This is what happens when the last time you ate was 3.30pm the previous day. This is what happens when you're lazy.

Sat through Thomas's String Quartet 2nd movement, which he composed for leisure. Conventional sonata form, but loved it well enough. I just realised how messy my hand-writing was compared to other musicians. Db major, mmm..

"I thought composers had neat hand-writing!" - some random girl whose name I can't remember, because that phrase is stuck in this girly high-pitched voice in my head.

Met her for Jap lunch at Clementi at 3 with a throbbing headache and a heavy heart (man I'm starting to be like a woman. Not that women have heavy hearts but the throbbing headaches part...)By the time we finished talking my head felt like helium and my stomach? Full. 3.30pm. Cheers.

24 hours without substantial food (ok I did eat half a bagel from Sydney at 10). But my moods and spirits were maxed up.

Was late for the auditions though, by 2 minutes. Willette was already playing her Rachmaninov, Griffes wasn't touched for the past week, but a silent practice before entering ensured a confident and dynamic reading of the piece. Never felt so comfortable playing Griffes after Ibiza Finale. Cross my fingers!

Lady asked me if I played the cello, and unfortunately no I don't wish to pick up cello performance again. It's that having to lug this huge piece of wood around that puts me off totally. Around the school, around Singapore. Gosh, give me a break sial.

Wish I could deny the prophecy I made to Tuck Wai the previous day.

"I never get home earlier than 6."

"Wow, that's sad."

I got back home by 6.10 today. Yes, it's a fun and happening life. I can't wait to see what happens when my dad goes off during the March holidays.

Life Adventure

I'm surprised today is Tuesday.

A sudden thought while reading my own blogposts yesterday, that my life's turning out to be an adventure. It sure is. Auditions, band, concerts, compositions, homework, lessons, classes, competitions, festivals. I'm glad now there's someone (more than one of course) looking out for me at every turn, to pull me up when I slip and fall.

I still think I had to, but I wouldn't elaborate. Reaching the end of this sentence makes me think about what Fiona mentioned on my convulated and pseudo-cryptic words.

I admit - I can't concentrate on anything else when there's music around - pop, jazz, classical, funeral, whatever. I've known people who suffer from such a handicap (eg. Ben Low), which means when we do work and listen to music all we think about is:

"Right, C. A minor. F. G."
"No, next one would be an E minor. Just for that kick."
"Aww, shit, it was really an A minor."
"Ok cut here. What? No cut?"

Then we would end up not doing anything at all.

Just like how I feel like not doing anything at all now and watching Batman Begins on Channel 5.

For your eyes only, that I really bought the milk and would be drinking it for dinner/supper WITH biscuits. I had a super super heavy lunch at 3 (with 2 tons worth of vegetable), so I'm really full right now. No worries..!

After Batman Begins, time to read a little poetry and be inspired.

On a sidenote, I scored 6 goals today during a lop-sided soccer match played during PT/PE. Total score was 7-1. Logically speaking, we're the former. And Piano Ensemble took on a new meaning of watching RJ alumni talk about piano performance for 1 and a half hour.

-1 and a half hour later-

"Have I been doodling on?" [In a slow and mundane voice]

On my very ambitious list of composition:
an eight-hand two piano fantasy! (for Child's Play Piano Ensemble Concert 2009)
and another solo piano work for Music-Art collaboration

I need a piano concerto before I reach 20. I must. I have 3 more years left.

I'm surprised tomorrow is Wednesday. Track of time, seriously derailed.

musicfest, birthday, exdee

Ok.

First and foremost, I survived this week. Obviously, or I wouldn't be posting here right? I hate how MusicFest was organized, but it's the brutal reality of it. They want entertainment, which was never in my head since I started writing the music for it. Which was 3 weeks before the actual thing. Believe it or not, the third and fourth movement was written on the day of performance itself.

And Dramafeste people! We finish LATER THAN YOU GUYS! Yes we really do, we finish work at around 10.30 and then I almost always have chicken rice dinner at S11. Ah, the yummy soup. Gosh I really want to eat it now. Speaking of which I just woke up at 4.15. Slept at 2 yesterday.

This whole week has been a kalabaloom week, with all the late-night rehearsals. And then the realization that other houses were doing much better than us (apparently). But I haven't lost my impromptu touch, to rush things out last minute and at least score some points.

At least we got 3rd prize, what a relief. The first movement was self-composed, a close imitation of a March, late Romantic. The second movement was composed last December for piano for her, and then I transcribed it for 2 cellos, 1 violin, 1 euphonium, and yangqin. And piano.

3rd movement called Potpourri, a medley consisting of 3 tunes (originally 4) - Bananas in PJs, Telletubies, and Elmo's World. The Bananas was an improvisation, and nothing was written down except the chords. Telletubies and Elmo's World was scored last minute.

4th movement was also never scored properly, just the sequencing. An ostinato of the Powerpuff Love tune, and then a fugal section when Bananas, Telletubies and Elmo's World was played (although not really obviously).

The characters marching out wasn't really a significant one in my head, simply because I managed the music and Mich and Willette did the choreography. Even that, I heard, was improvised, because we've never rehearsed with them before, and the masks were done in the PAC itself.

Wonder what other houses would think when they read this. Even I feel a little sad for them and their effort. Congrats to BB and MT! BB deserved it entirely (even though I've never heard them). MT...grr. Bad blood between MT and MR. :O Or maybe it's just me and Shawn Neo.

After MusicFest I had to run to the opposite Multi-Purpose Hall, where eXDee was due to perform 2 numbers and an encore. That was pretty alright, but not the best.

Saturday was definitely going to be another mad rush. Got my passport photo taken (because the old one was taken in 1996, and I still get stopped at EVERY immigration point I've been to. Ran though music at Daniel's house at 5, Baybeats top 30 auditions was due at 7.45pm. Performed 2 songs, did everything right.

And guess what! We got into TOP 15!!! I just got the message from Yisin at 10 (which meant after that I slept for a further 6 hours. Fantastic.

After that I ran over to Plaza Singapura to celebrate her birthday, and she was with the huge Pooh balloon(think about lugging it [ok no trying to hold it down] around Singapore). Aunty was there too, but sister wasn't, although 4 of us got down to celebrating it in the end.

Due to a freak accident the Breadtalk cake was erm. partly decimated, but Bengawan Solo cake prevailed ALL THE WAY from Thomson to Orchard to Boon Lay (omg.) Yeah we cheated on the last leg because we decided to cab back. And how I hate rainy weather. In the cab went the balloon and the 2 cakes and 2 carton of eggs Aunty got for a crazy 95 cents for a carton.

Photos, cake, blowing candles, play a little piano, done.

Back home by 2am.

And sleep till 4pm. Tomorow, a new week. New challenges.

Such things cheer me up a little

I'm broken in spirit and in strength. Wit's end, call it whatever you want. Beansprout Suite, another one such aspiration down the drain? Not so fast. A few more hours before I close shop. Will be drinking Milo to sustain myself.

I feel so apologetic for letting my loved ones down when they get around to reading this.

It's not a case of being 'hero' or anything. It's so silly - doing things last minute, just the way I've done over a 100 times before. But it's this other thought which is really frightening. Like the way Shawn put it, that he's here simply "to own Jon Shin".

Spirit battered, half the battle probably lost. Hopefully that's not how the other houses/faculties think, because if the only reason is as stated above, fuck the whole thing.

But I know it wouldn't, because some houses really want to do music. Another fatal mistake? Writing 'Esplanade' kind of music. Apparently 'RJC' music consists of hearing familiar tunes and happy sing-a-longs.

Yeah, sing along with my navel. It might be even more in tune.

Piano is coming into the house BEFORE her birthday, so it certainly would be nice to have it as part of the birthday pressie package. I love the new piano (secondhand)! And I'm sure we could both agree on that, with a huge array of pianos to test on, but the single-mould cast (or was it single-cast mould) did a great deal for the sound to vibrate. Such things cheer me up a little.

To sit at a distance and watch her play scales and chords,
to hear the sounds reverberate around the white-walled rooms,
to see my dad talking at the corner of my eye to the dealer,
to blink at the shiny lights reflecting off the polished pianos.

Come Friday evening, then I could let down my hair and crowd-surf all I want.

To jump into the crowd and hear them scream.

This Week In Words.

I think I sang in my dreams. I remember singing loudly at one point, was some sort of gathering outside an old folks' home. Maybe my class? Couldn't see their faces.

Tech-run yesterday, was kinda disorganized because I was there in my impromptu fashion, saxophone haven't gotten his parts yet. So damn tired from the whole week! It's just editing and writing and editing, and Nigel insists I still have time to read History notes. Which I unfortunately don't have the luxury of, but I know I'll do well in RJC. Mygod, I've even started copying down notes!

Yesterday's History lesson was awkward but funny at the same time. Right imagine two adjacent classrooms, and two classes, backs to each other, both teachers trying to concentrate on their lesson. The partition in the centre couldn't be closed by our lanky security guard, so in the end he sort of left. Like, just walked off, never came back.

I was sitting at the back row (which meant that I, along with classmates in my row, were sitting closest to the other class) and it was tough, you know. Writing down notes and trying to listen to History teacher Miss Lim talk.

The other class was having Physics lesson. Which meant that in the midst of lesson (ahaha, in time and space!) I was hearing different stuff from different teachers. Got me confused so much that I thought I heard something like, "you'll lose marks for that." Apparently the Physics teacher on the other end said that, but I was busy taking down stuff.

I sounded so damn stupid, help me lord. "Mdm, what did you say about losing marks?"

"Huh? Losing marks? (over the din)"

"Yeah, losing marks. Doing what will make me lose marks?"

"What?"

"Wait, did you say something about losing marks?"

"No!? (looks at the other end) Maybe it's the other teacher?"

What a gaffe.


Speaking of nicer musical things both Samuel Cheah and I stayed back for an impromptu jam yesterday. Even better than the jam sessions I had with Nige and John Lee. As in, it was so complex! We were improvising jazz...I don't really know how to describe the experience. Sometimes we're just lost for words.

Later in the day, piano ensemble camp. [camp in the piano? (!)] And of course, YAP.

Tomorrow's eXDee rehearsal. Naice.

FInally.

A blogpost. Finally. A blogpost. And the first movement score to the Beansprout Suite. The rest are going to be easy, because they're already waiting to be written down, but this first movement was painstakenly composed in the whim, at canteens, in buses, at the back of class, in the toilet, by my bed, in my sleep. All of these but at the piano.

Just came back from Jurong Point where she helped me for my Chinese (the horror!) 4-character phrases, and then I was given tingxie. Out of several I didn't get 4. several being more than 10, which means I obviously pass. Quite a huge difference compared to 21/150 for the mock test. Kudos to her.

Have been enjoying JC life, with my NUS side going not so hot now, and I think I'm balancing both of them well.

And...2 hours later. I'm back, having done some re-editing. Yet to have showered, but glad I'm done. With the first movement. Second movement and third would be easy, but 4 is another huge one.

Premiere of the Beansprout Suite would be next Friday, at the RJC MusicFeste. 6pm. OMG freaking nervous. Fatty Lady (aka Dad's girlfriend) came to my house again today, and switched off the main power to the TV and the Starhub Cable Machine. I'm warning you, don't touch my stuff or the next thing you see is my foot up your ass, if I can find it beneath all the fats. Amen, I didn't mean to say that.

Err...Valentine's Day was as memorable as it could get, so that settles it, stop asking. Couple of fun classmates around, Dillon and Steph! Erika, Wai Teng, Jonathan Lee, Andrea, Natalie, Becca. Wah, fun man. Am enjoying every single subject now, including Chinese. A renewed interest in it after finding out that there's HOPE.

Why, hope for Jonathan Shin! Now that's something special. But 3/4 of the work has to be done by myself.

Shanghai has written some lyrics, off to set some music to it. Then Chinese journal. All at this earthly hour of 11.25pm. Why not? There's something called Milo.

In the dark

A blog post typed out in the dark.

Why, I might ask.

Then you would reply that you rather be picking/peeking your way at the keyboard than let the neighbours opposite catch you WITHOUT YOUR CLOTHES ON.

Of course your boxers are on, reason for this state is because the weather in Singapore is just too hot for anyone to practise properly without sweating. OK maybe you people practise in an air-conditioned room, or have a fan facing you directly, but I'm not that rich to be granted any of these privileges.

On a more encouraging note we went to check out some of the pianos at Yamaha Plaza Singapura last week to see which upright piano I should get. (the painful irony between paragraphs). We decided on the YM5! Or at least we short-listed it and it turned out to be my final decision.

Exam-model (in case I teach anyone), and above-average quality. Ok, good quality.

I'm getting a second-hand YM5 though, going to view it this Saturday morning at some house in Seng Kang. Second-hands are what I'm looking for anyway, I want the sound to be 'old', but hopefully the depth wouldn't be compromised. (Yes, I know, grand piano depths can't be compared with uprights)

Bought myself a pink file to put ALL my composition things in, and I realised it's so handy because I can now compose ANYWHERE, now that I have a hard board to place it on, and I can put my pencilbox inside it anyway. It's not really a 'file', it's actually more like a box. A rectangular box. Ah! Like those used to contain mah-jong tiles.

I'm constantly reminded that being able to compose without the keyboard is a gift. But well, the journey to attaining that skill was long - I started composing without the keyboard at around 11, but whenever it went to the piano it sounded utterly like shit.

But now, friends, IMPROVISING on the keyboard without the keyboard is a SKILL.

Hallelujah.

Have absolutely no idea what to call the up-and-coming work, but the recent days have been fun, fun, fun, although my sickness has cause for worry. As I have mentioned before, I've never been that pro-active in house activities, but the enthusiasm of other Morrisonians surprises me too. Great job guys.

REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO SATURDAY.

It's the day where I'll go check out the upright piano.
The day where I'll go for YA lesson at 11am.
The day where my Jazz Improvisation book is due.
The day where they put Saturday on in the calender.

haha loser! (sniggers)

Morrison-Richardson Music Fest

Another busy-looking week ahead. I'm surprised Morrison-Richardson managed to convince me to work so hard for them, but whenever musical matters come into view, I'll be there to do the best I can. And since I can, I will.

So here I am, busy drafting out a 4-movement Suite which would probably be one of the more outstanding works I've ever written. Weird right, doing composition just for kicks. Isn't that how famous composers become famous? Just writing for the sake of self-entertainment and 'expression'. Expressione. With a cup of teh and a pencil in hand, nothing could possibly go wrong, for every wrong note is an improvisation.

Nigel Chua is in my class, and JL also. Presented MadLibs to the class, probably made some people feel worse after seeing that I'm in their class (my quirky-ness has gone way out of hand these days, musical creativity oozes out when I'm in my quirkiest.) The hell's kind of excuse.

Had my worst lesson ever with Dr Hecht, so much so that the lesson was only 20 minutes long. This is what happens when you don't practice. However, this week will be different! Promise all of you guys. And then I can relax on Saturday.

Hopefully I can get this project done by Wednesday, and then maybe Morrison-Richardson has someone who knows how to engrave the music (I'm not doing that) and send the scores out to everyone. Rehearsals will be short, but definitely has to be effective, or else we will die.

I really want to see us win this one. And I'm relieved to hear that Austin can play horn. Need an instrument of that range currently...

Chi-ca-bang-bang, chi-ca-bang-bang

Open the door, rush to the toilet, pee, sigh.
Switch on the computer, read the emails coming through, sigh.
Think about some compositions and projects, sigh.
Realize my house has been intruded by my dad's 'girlfriend' and her daughter, scream.

I feel good and comfortable with my OG, and the organization by the J2s has been great thus far, really appreciate their effort put in. The only part that I never really enjoyed was the dance part. I can't dance for nuts, but I swear I can do waltz :) Really! Not kidding.

So I got back home (after Sin Teck fetched me back, thanks lots), looked at what's on top of the printer, and then start laughing. Not a genuine laughter, like some laughter that has sorta sealed my fate.

A floorplan of their house in Shanghai. Great, Jonathan Shin you're so damn soon going to be alone so you better start cleaning up on your cooking and your house management. Ok maybe not but I'm expecting myself to be carrying up almost all of the burdens soon enough. No more dad-fetching-you-to-school-in-the-morning assumptions, then again no more waking up to Dad calling you a cheebye because you cooked breakfast too early when he assumed you had no school today. :)

It's like, ok miscommunication, but isn't it not surprising that even if he heard wrongly it would still be my fault? Because he's the sole breadwinner and money-earner of the family. It's this alpha-male thing, and when clashes come, there's only one winner. Think harder, and maybe you could see through it.

Ok but nothing held against him, it's only normal (seriously, I'm not being sarcastic, it's just the way things work).

New ideas for composition coming along during the OG race around Singapore, I'm planning to continue on Sonatina. Much confident now after hearing a breath of fresh Prokofiev on Monday's studio class. Again I'm in doubt on whether it's possible to do composition without a composition teacher. Maybe it is, but then there definitely would be more things that one would try to confirm with, let's say, yeap, should I use this motive again? Will it sound fresh?

So damn mentally and physically tired yesterday.

After studio class (which ended at 9.15pm) I managed to catch a ride from ZAD's dad, reaching home at around 9.45pm. Same old shit haunting me, returning to an empty house, stuffy, lifeless. My grand piano is still there though.

Click some lights on, get the hot water running. Meanwhile I turn to cooking my dinner (for the first time with rice). Throw in some Japanese seaweed chicken, salad with thousand-island dressings, and steamed eggs.

First of all, it tasted REALLY good. Maybe it was because I cooked it myself, so there's this bias hanging around. Shortly after the chicken entered my stomach (Yeah I took out the feathers already. In bits lah!), that mayday-mayday-stomachache-coming-in-a-while alarm started ringing. Obviously wasn't cooked well enough, tsk.

With the whole thing done, I downed my first Yakult, talking with much discomfort on the phone. My second before I slept. Great that I didn't have any diarrhea.

Ok point is, I will be looking forward to more of these days. (sulks) Should stop complaining, because there are much brighter things in life to look forward to. Not this week, but well, at least next week. Or I hope this week.

Be satisfied with what you have. I'm glad, and I really want to thank someone for helping me reach the point where I can cook my own first dinner (with rice), albeit with a little stomachache.

Oh yeah, on a John Lennon listening spree now, hope you'll like the song I posted.

Chinese New Year celebrations

Ok after a long hiatus I've decided to be back in business. It feels like a month since I last updated on Tuesday. Anyway huge family gathering yesterday at my house, let's talk about that first.

Had my usual Saturday theory class at 11, with Zhang Aidi finally making her appearance for the semester. In life there has got to be a time when you make a career-decisive decision, and I am guessing this would be it for her. Just guessing...but aiyah you still have to make your decisions at the end of the day.


After class I got back home, and then I met her at BPP (coincedentally finishing her lesson at Keat Hong around 1) where we shopped for finger foods, packet drinks, and snacks. Dabao-ed, got back home, showered, shelled the peanuts, done.

Then the first few guests start trickling in, my grandma, fifth and third aunt, my late second uncle's wife and daughter. Then I did some introductions. Cough.

We sat around waiting for them to come, and by 6 there were more than 20 people in the house. More introductions on my part, but approval from them later in the evening. Anyway whatever the food came soon enough, fried rice, curry (yum), finger foods. And then there was the laoyusheng part.

Basketball and soccer, apparently I've learnt some more fanciful skills in soccer, and I don't think it has turned rusty after a few weeks of not playing. Felt grateful though when I was still invited to play soccer with the YO guys yesterday evening. Thanks Adriel.

Dr Hecht, Miss Tan and ST came later in the evening, and we talked till around 12am. Apparently the auditions at YST have an extra component of self-study! Which basically means they give you half an hour to study a page of music, and following that you're supposed to play the piece. Nice, hopefully I get around to trying it someday.

Split decision between having to do a Fantasy or a Theme and Variations on this Db major melody I recently came up with.

Next week would be orientation week. I already have had a bad impression of RGS girls (hopefully it's a reciprocal feeling, I don't want to feel guilty for the next few days) but I think it would change as I get to know more people. I know people who want to have clean sheet when they enter their new junior colleges, but I guess it would be close to impossible for me.

And besides, if I haven't already mentioned, my only major CCA in RJC would be Piano Ensemble, because Jazz clashes with my piano major lesson. Will have to make do with it then. Glad I have finally played through Ravel Sonatine 3rd movement, so for this week's lesson I would have to bring it up to performance tempo, and have it memorised.

And get another composition done.

Recently I've also gotten hooked on some of Lennon's songs, which I would promptly post once I get the Internet hooked up again in the study room. (The part-time maid [seriously, not my dad] who would come around every Sunday is cleaning up that room so I can't use it yet.)

From David's Blog

- Pick your birth month.
- Strike out anything that doesn't apply to you.
- Bold the five-ten qualities that best apply to you.
- Copy to your own journal, with all twelve

August
Loves to joke. Attractive. Suave and caring. Brave and fearless. Firm and has leadership qualities. Knows how to console others. Too generous and egoistic. Takes high pride in oneself. Thirsty for praises. Extraordinary spirit. Easily angered. Angry when provoked. Easily jealous. Observant. Careful and cautious. Thinks quickly. Independent thoughts. Loves to lead and to be led. Loves to dream. Talented in the arts, music and defense. Sensitive but not petty. Poor resistance against illnesses. Learns to relax. Hasty and trusty. Romantic. Loving and caring. Loves to make friends.

I'll strike them out someday, because I really really really don't know how to do strike-outs in Blogger. You can help me strike them out if you want by tagging whatever you feel doesn't apply to me.

Ahaha! That's one for my grandma for those of you who couldn't find 'susceptible to acne attacks'.

Mosquitoland

www.i-talk-you-listen.blogspot.com
25th January 2009 – Blog post
Destination: Jalan Taman Molek, somewhere in Johor Bahru, close to the border

Ready to close for the night, sitting in front of the laptop with a cup of warm Milo (100% Milo powder, I usually go with 75% milk and 25% milo), and a plate of kueh neng kor. Kueh neng means chicken egg, while kor means cake, but it’s really just some kind of dough mixed with eggs to get this Chinese New Year ‘delicacy’. All shaped like fish, probably for the ‘yu’ part. Yum.

Upon deeper thinking I realize I’m the only guy in the house, because my dad went to watch Arsenal vs. Cardiff at the nearby coffeeshop. Was tempted to go and watch it with him, until he ordered me that before I could go I had to change into some outdoor clothing. Not surprisingly I was too lazy to do so, and am much content with my current state of sitting in front of the laptop typing.

I slept through the rainy weather a few hours back, waking up after 4 hours. My head propped against the pillow, my left arm drawn back underneath my head, and my right hand silently tapping the bed as I recalled one of my earlier drafts written before I started improvising. I still like it a lot, the distinct melody and the oscillating semiquavers. The dull weather and the tinted windows perfected the ambience, raindrops falling nonchalantly outside.

Time passes by slowly here, and the four females are mostly engrossed in cooking, cleaning, cooking and cleaning again. I don’t know where my grandmother gets her income from, but I believe they do stick addresses onto envelopes (by the thousands – all the envelopes containing advertisements) once every month, forming the bedrock of their income. The rest? Courtesy money from relatives I think. But they’re getting along very well here.

I’m surprised that my cousins do read my blog also, and this afternoon’s questioning yielded the (fact) that they were the ones who tagged as ‘anon’ and ‘gel’. How very factual, but it just goes to show that yes, they do get updated also. Another facet of me revealed :O

Mosquito bites are the norm in this place, but they aren’t killing me – yet. The Conservatory has once again entered my life, its ‘Semester 2 Concerts & Events’ booklet being used as a mouse pad. Apparently I brought along some of Conservatory stuff too, like Dr Makerome’s worksheets. Here are some of the modes I’ve recently learnt, for kicks. And yes, in case people like Zhu En stumble on my blog, he could learn a thing or two. Or too.

Ok modal scales can be identified by the intervals between each note and the next in the scale. And here’s the revelation:

The Ionian mode would be all the white key notes played starting from C.
The Dorian mode would be all the white key notes played starting from D.
The Phrygian mode would be all the white key notes played starting from E.
The Lydian mode would be all the white key notes played starting from F.
The Mixolydian mode – G.
The Aeolian mode – A.
The Locrian mode – B.

Essentially all the major scales we’ve been playing are based on the Ionian mode, which would be C major. To prove it, just count the semitones between each note played in the C major scale, then play B major and check whether the number of semitones corresponds. If it doesn’t I will gladly offer my right ring finger for sale. Gosh, Schumann was so stupid to try to strengthen his fourth finger. I realized that both the fourth and little finger used the same muscle, after failing my attempt to retract ONLY my little finger and keeping my ring finger outstretched. Forcing it only introduced more pain.

Alright that’s all for tonight. See you people tomorrow.

Off

YST Conservatory library, with two Thai seniors talking behind me while I try to type as softly as possible. Which is hardly possible, because you guys probably know about my typing speed and the level of attack I use, and the pedalling depth, and the...

Oh, hold on. Wrong topic.

Two days back on Thursday I attended Jazz workshop, where some unfortunate souls were sabo-ed to improvise (which I desperately failed at because our rhythms turned too complicated) while being watched by (the horrors!) 2 dozen people in pinafores.

Last I heard guys didn't wear pinafores so you people can figure.

You know, this sort of disgust isn't going to do/be any good when I go deep into the RIJC education system. But I don't know, is it just some kind of irrational fear? Yeah.

MRT trip to the Esplanade, Eroica, off.

So anyway I was sobbing when they said 2nd year students had to do harmonic minor and melodic minor scales in contrary motion. When they said we had to do it in 3rds, 6ths, and 10ths, I contemplated hari-kiri.

Melodic minor, seperated by 6ths (we usually do it in octaves), and done in contrary motion, is not a joke. Neither is not coming for class for 2 weeks consecutively and taking my fantasy worksheet with you a joke, ZAD. But I don't hold anything against her, and still wish her a happy Chinese New Year.

Yeah so lesson yesterday started with the G minor scales, which I probably tore apart after having to play its diminished seventh chord in broken scales, chromatic scale in G, and its harmonic and melodic minor modes, its appegios in different inversions. Ja, anything you can think of.

Following that was Ravel Sonatine Third Movement, which was ok, just like any other lesson, inspiring, but braincell-killing.

Waited for her lesson to end, and then all three of us went for a Munchie Monkey dinner, and then a round of pool with Akkra. Out of 3 games we played, I beat Akkra 2-1! The last game was thrown away by me after I knocked the 8-ball in, but we cheated by replacing the black ball with another cue ball so we could continue having fun.

Apparently we could be fined because of that, but we didn't bother anyway.

Going to Johor for the next few days, probably one, but I will be missing people of course, and the only thing I can pour my miseries on would be the manuscript books. Or maybe not.

A chat over teh, and then I'm off.

Remember when...

A glaring sunset filling my study room with orange and red light, against the green paint. Half an hour later it is gone, the lights go on, and I get ready for the practice that would be happening tonight. But, indeed, an exceptional sunset.

That means getting my stomach filled, blog, check my emails, cleaning the dishes, and then keeping the laundry. All of which are already done except for blogging. I'm proud of myself :) Dinner was essentially breakfast x 2. Breakfast = 2 pancakes +3 eggs (to be scrambled). Ok go multiply that by two, except the number of eggs still remain the same.

6 eggs = dinner + diarrhoea.

Yeah but add a cup of warm milo and some cookies that we both baked...full lah.

Tiring but fun day, the tiring part comes from soccer with RI guys and some of my classmates back in RI. Fun...well improvising for my audition into Piano Ensemble is something that took me lots of courage to do, and I did it :) But I cheated and played a little Griffes, just in case the improvisation turned out shitty. Which I don't think it did...

A dedication article from my classmate Geoffrey in honor of me, thank you very much. Article can be found in RInspire, I don't really seem to know about things that revolve around me. Maybe CNA has played 2000 videos of me jumping around Singapore, and I don't even know about that. But no, I'm sure I wasn't at Obama's inauguration ceremony, so you wouldn't see me standing there.

It was great, 1am back at home, having just showered, settling on my dad's bed to catch the swearing-in live. It's the thrill of it, watching things live, let's say soccer, or any sort-of sports. You know, you get that "oh-so-I-know-what's-happening-currently" feel-good feeling. But this was absolutely different.

I was witnessing with my own eyes a historic moment - America's first black President, first black Commander-in-Chief. But there was a little stress at the back of my brain. Would he be assassinated? Touchwood touchwood.

Like, after saying, "So help me God."

Then everyone applauds, and then suddenly a huge roar, everyone dispersing, the camera shakes vigorously around, panning around (probably for the possibility of capturing the assasin on tape) before zooming back on the downed target. And then the anchor would be like, "President Barack Obama has been shot! President Barack Obama has been shot!" And there would be screaming and crying and lots of Secret Service people surrounding the podium.

(shivers) My gosh, if this ever happens, one of the things you'll would remember would hopefully be this. Or if it ever happens, I'll dig up this post again and put it as my latest post.

See, example of evil bastard, sitting right in front of the computer.

So God help me.

Nonsense!

Eh...yes. I'm still in my own home, that's all that matters for now. I know all these seems rather out-dated due to the fast-moving pace of my life, but I still feel a kind of 'responsibility' towards my readers.

Long story short I'm going to blog about the yester-days. Friday lesson and masterclass were surprisingly smooth, except I nearly got that gag reflex again because of what Mr McLachlan told me to do, to hold down the pedal and create this 'dirty kind of tone'.

It's unfortunate that being allergic to alcohol (a whiff can knock me cold) isn't enough, I'm apparently sensitive also to harsh dissonances. Not that I haven't been creating enough in my improvisations, but harsh dissonances together with muddy pedalling can induce a gag reflex, and subsequently cause me to puke.

I'm not kidding. I might sound like I'm exagerrating but sigh. I'm not. Thankfully I have yet to vomit my guts out yet thanks to the beautiful sounds I have been hearing at the Conservatory and also at RJC. However being the subject of this weird experiment conducted on me during masterclass has left me dazed - much like after scratching the chalkboard or the wall for 2 hours continuously.

Torture.

Lesson before that was spent running through Griffes in preparation for the masterclass, and then of course the 3rd movement of Ravel's Sonatine, unsurprisingly presented slow and steady and (hopefully) organized. T'was a good lesson, and I'll make sure this week's lesson would also be as good.

I know it has already been posted, looks like I was too late. But yes Saturday's concert at the Conservatory by the same man who taught me during masterclass was...was. Due to the state of my mind currently I am unable to give you any of my thoughts or ideas or whatsoever.

After my business was done at RJC I walked over to RI to get to my bus. Met two teachers, both of whom said I had indeed grown thinner. Seems like someone has been starving or something, but no leh. I do eat alot...then again I was lucky [again, lucky bastard] because the second teacher, Miss Alicia Goh, told me that today was Testimonial Collection Day :O. Which I obviously wasn't really in the know about.

Testimonial, I'm proud to say, was stunningly true and clean of bullshit. But my future CEO so needed to know that I was a stagehand during SYF 2005, and that one of my aspirations was edited to being an accompanist. Hur.

1) Teacher
2) Composer
3) Performer
4) Conductor
5) Critic

Ah. The complete musician. The close reflection of Trevor Sze (although I've never seen his critiques or compositions)

Get it? Get it? No "accompanist". You might have as well told me to be a page-turner.

K other than that, I would be performing in Medan next month so I wouldn't be here for a while, and an opportunity to also go to Chethams, Manchester in August. Unfortunately I have concerts and performances in August too (on my birthday) so that means...nope. Chethams would have to wait. My birthday is more important. :)

I have this nagging feeling that I've been mentioning Medan for a thousand times already, but I don't care. It feels good, and anything that feels good is worth over-feeling.

what the hell.

Questions hanging

Yeah, call it what you want. Exiled from my own home. Self-imposed. Real-time, me, yes. Not going back home because my potential step-mum and her daughter are in it, and no, I'm not going to enter a house that has strangers in it.

Can you replace a mum? No. And if I'm going to look to her as a kind of maid or a housekeeper, can you then imagine your own dad marrying the maid? No. Suddenly, in my life, a half-sister? No. can't imagine. Why should I be sharing my house with other people then? Other people whom I have no feeling for, whom I've never even met before, other people whom I don't love.

Let's bring it to yesterday - woke up with a splitting headache after sleeping super late the previous night. RJC open house. Anyway I still got there 1 hour earlier than many other Rafflesians of my cohort. The reason why I woke up so early was because I had to have breakfast with my 2 aunties, my cousin and my dad at Serangoon. Bopian, otherwise I have to take public transport, which isn't really a good deal, considering you get your food paid for (by my dad).

I have chosen to join Raffles Jazz and Piano Ensemble, Piano Ensemble because Thomas Ang is in it, and he's damn good, and it's fun to have sight-reading contests with him when you know that you would definitely lose.

Who the hell would want to compete with a guy who accompanies a hell lot of people and has to learn pieces in the shortest amount of time?

Maybe it's just me. I'm a glutton for losing. Speaking of losing I'm feeling like a loser now - practised for the past 3 hours and starving with nowhere to go, and in my RI PE shirt and Germany jacket. Keh.

So yes, I'll be waiting for Raffles Jazz auditions, and then I'm in already. Hopefully I'll pass, but sometimes in life you don't get everything you want, though it seems contrary to that now. After Open House went to Esplanade with Subway dinner in hand, reached Pan Pacific Hotel at around 7.25, then RAN all the way to the Esplanade. Thank you, we managed to get in, albeit I was panting like a dog.

Don't run next time.

PM Lee was the guest-of-honor today, special occasion being the SSO 30th Anniversary. They invited us to have a piece of cake when we left the concert hall later, so we could bring a piece of the SSO home (the hell?) Anyway they weren't lying, we were both given a small yellow nicely-done package with a piece of the cake inside. I'm doubting it, but maybe it was because the cake look so small when we were all the way up at the top, on the 3rd level.

Yes, they rolled the cake up on stage.

Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 was stylistically accurate (a great achievement considering the hundreds of recordings I have heard of it and none of them seemed to suit the period), rhythmically tight (after my own bad experience of playing it in VJC as a cellist) and musically sound. Nice one, SSO. As usual, I was listening and writing down composition/orchestration techniques. Some people beside me kinda made me think that I would be reading a review in a few days' time.

Old man on my right was looking sagely, but he cracked that image apart when he started bouncing to Bruch's Violin Concerto. Bravo, let the senility show!

I didn't stop him though, lest when old people rule the world I would be the first on his target list. But thinking about it now, dang, I should have nudged him a little. Hopefully he would get the drift.

Yeah anyway Bruch Concerto...was nothing out of the ordinary. Just usual solo playing, making it look difficult, and rushing from the part of the soloist, which I swear is inevitable, but assistant concertmistress was great though. Was thinking about Song Quan when I heard the Concerto, wondering how easily it would sound under those young yet astoundingly precise, graceful and strong fingers. And just 13-14. Or maybe younger. Brr. Wonderboy.

Intermission was spent eating Subway (YUM I feel like eating it for dinner today) and listening to some 40-50 year old guy sing at the atrium.

Beethoven's Symphony No. 5...Marc Rochester was right. It really isn't that creative compared to the 1st. Talking about modulations, tonicizations. The famous first 4 notes were played at a much faster tempo compared to the 7000 ones I've heard before (gosh have I attended so many concerts in my life? Maybe shopping centres and elevators and lobbies would be more fit.)

It was like, "Omg omg omg the first 4 notes are starting...(5 seconds later) Huh. Over already ah. Ok I don't know the rest of the piece, so I'll just sit back and relax, sleep. What, I paid 27 bucks just to listen to this, and now it's over. Dumb."

So we had Rochor beancurd for supper as usual along with my dad. Youtiao, butterfly. Mmm.

Piano lesson followed by masterclass, then piano departmental meeting, then don't know what. Tired. Confused. Sad. And probably for the first time, angst whilst lying on the bed. That chest pain. That...heart pain.

Do you even love her? For how long have you even met her? And if you spend the money on getting the flat, and then you'll divorce, what happens? Where does the money go to? And if it turns ugly, legal spat, can we pay for it? Is it worth it to go through all these trouble just to let her look good? Just to let people see that she has a flat to live in?

Is it just altruism on your part? Random act of kindness? A quick bounce-back after a death? Ever weighed the consequences if anything happens? Anything. Anything can happen.

I know I'll never be at peace should I share my house with an utter stranger, strangers. I will never practise the piano the same again, never be able to listen to music, eat my food the same way again. It's different. And I know because I've talked to people who've gone through this shit. And I've just added one more person to my list today, someone close to me (not my dad lah, my friend) Someone who knows music just as well, or even better than me (although he can't improvise that well hahahaha)

Couldn't say anything but I gave him a hug to console him.

Not being able to share a flat with some people means they cannot come over and stay in the house. My dad wants to stay with them in their new flat, which means if you haven't realised, I'll be living alone.

Yes, as in we're talking about living, means like months or years, alone. Something like boarding. But then in boarding they don't give you a grand piano, they don't give you a huge TV, a great blah blah. You get the idea. Well, maybe I can start thinking of myself living in a suite. But then again I am my own maid, my own butler. I do the cooking, laundry, housekeeping myself! And if my dad were to return probably once a month or more then his bedroom would have to be kept tidy.

And if it's on the agenda, I might start teaching regularly again for duh, income. I don't wish for any other kids to be like me, but I don't know whether it's taking things too far. I just realised I have A-levels, exams. But then I'll be expecting some food and green bean soup to be delivered hehheh :) right to my doorstep. Every Villian Is Lemon.

Then again what if I suddenly go into a seizure and die? Or get knocked down by a car (which accidently drove 22 storeys into the air and crash into my home? Accident lah. Anything can happen in accidents remember??) Yes, some things to ponder.

I'm having this thought that some of you reading this might think I'm joking or something, like just to get blog-hits. Hey, obsession with bloghits over! (checks counter) That's not counted. Anyway yeah it's true, see I got into RJC (as I have blogged), not faking. Keh, like that would increase bloghits.

I might be staying alone starting from late this year, but who cares. I'll survive.

Anyway yes so here I am at the Conservatory, typing this on a Mac. Hesitant of whether she will still be there when I get back home or not. Hopefully not, because I need to shower and revise my music for tomorrow's masterclass and lesson.

Some things are just plain incredulous.

Life has given me more than I've asked for, and I'll definitely treasure and cherish them. Thankfully, there's an inner joy still tucked somewhere in me, telling me to be contented with life and the people around you.

Sleep, Jonathan, sleep.

Bah-bah-bah

So today I got to cook up pancakes and scrambled eggs for breakfast. And then instant noodles for lunch. Dinner's outside. Practise the piano. Read a book. Getting a life.

You're Tipping Me Over The Edge

A sleepover at Lennie's house, and a visit from the police. Story goes like this -you have 5 guys staying over in some huge semi-D which has a cool balcony and 3 storeys. With a front lawn and back lawn and side lawn and whatever.

Yisin and I decide to watch AC Milan versus Hamburger downstairs on the 1st floor, the game starts at 10.55. The game ends in penalties, which Milan win, and we decide to join the guys upstairs. The guys - Daniel and Lennie - seem to be practising guitars in their room, but they aren't.

They're in the balcony, performing for the whole wide world, under the moon. Both of them have the guitars sling over their shoulders, both of them strumming vigorously. The music they produce, well, sensible. Marcus and I join them, and soon we're engaging in some Nigel-Jonathan improvisation, lots of nonsense in it, the penultimate subject being love this time. And when such things happen, you sure know that everyone tries to shout at their top of their lungs. It's, just an expression.

We hear someone shout from down below, but it's at such a distance it's merely a whisper at the top.

First signs of trouble around late 1am, when we see a police car driving real slow across the gates. We stop in our tracks, and look at the police car.

Police: We stop in our tracks, and look at the balcony. Four boys, not older than 18, occupy the hallowed area. Two of them have acoustic guitars slinged over their shoulders, while the other two seem not to be doing anything. However their mouths open and close. They probably must be talking.

Us: "Holy shit. Are they looking for us? Just now some guy shouted, he probably must have called the police." Oh wait, look, they're moving again! Heng siah. Me: "Lol later they U-turn back, then I'll be the one laughing." Everyone laughs as we exaggerate them turning back around and stopping in front of the house.

Police: We pull out of the street. We might be back.

Us: We continue singing, this time quieter. 5 minutes later, the police patrol car freaking pulls RIGHT in front of the house.

Police: We U-turn back, wind down the windows, and stop the car outside the house. We then get out of the car. Those guys up there must be so scared they're pissing in their pants.

Us: We're pissing in our pants. Two policemen step out of the car, and one asks, "May the owner of the house please come down." No, more like a request. An order.

Lennie says, "It's me." And he looks pretty shaken, but since we were with him all the while, we walk down six flights of steps in total darkness, and reach the front door. Only Marcus and Lennie walk across the front yard to talk to the patrolmen, while Yisin, Daniel and I stick to the sofa in the living room. No, we weren't sissies, too many cooks spoil the broth. I'm serious! Anyway we would have walked out if the police called us - a band always stick together.

Lennie comes back to the living room with a relieved smile on his face. We go up inside the room to discuss what happened.

Turns out the policemen had no choice but to do some follow-up because some person complained, so that next time we made noise the police can assure the person they did check up on the details. Lennie tells them, "Happy New Year."

"Oh oh, sure, Happy New Year. Good night."

I love Singapore policemen.





Yes, the blog music you're now listening to would be one of the songs that Exdee has recorded (I'm in it) over the past 2 months. Title would be Tipping, Falling. Love song. Lyrics under:

I never knew if you had ever felt the same for me
I had to know if it was real or just sympathy
There has to be something more behind that smile
I wish I knew, I wish I knew

I remember the nights that we spent so long
Talking about things that would make a song
Do you remember the same things that I do,
The things that make up, me and you

But now, I’m never letting it go again,
I’m never making the same mistakes
I’ll have you know

I’m crying out, all my tears have dried
No im not alright, so perhaps i lied,
Don’t try to catch me when I fall
I want to fall in love with you/ I wanna fall

Now it seems that i have fallen for you
I know this sounds absurd, it surprises me too
The door is open so step in and take a ride
Let me take you, on this ride

I’ll take you past the tall neon sky scrapers
To the quiet beach where we’ll spend the night
Staring at the stars, with you in my arms,
I will be looking, in your eyes

But now, I’m never letting it go again,
I’m never making the same mistakes
I’ll have you know.

I’m crying out, all my tears have dried
No im not alright, so perhaps I lied,
Don’t try to catch me when I fall
I want to fall in love with you/ I wanna fall in love with you

You're tipping,
You're tipping me over the edge, over the edge.

You're tipping,
You're tipping me over the edge, over the edge.

You're tipping,
You're tipping me over the edge.

You're tipping,
You're tipping me over the edge.

I wanna fall...

I’m crying out, all my tears have dried
No im not alright, so perhaps I lied,
Don’t try to catch me when I fall
I want to fall in love with you/ I wanna fall in love with you (x2)

snakeweed

Part 1
New Year Resolutions - since Hongrui did one I think I better do one too. Alright but I'll do really really short ones because I have no time to think of things to resolute this year.

Really Short New Year Resolutions:
1. Finish washing my clothings I wore today
2. Shower
3. Finish half of the pork floss cake for supper
4. Sleep before 2

Part 2
Studio recording at Snakeweed Studios. We didn't record my part today, its been pushed to being the first thing we're recording tomorrow afternoon. Listening to the chords and stuff now, thinking of what effects to stuff in. While waiting for our turns to record, we spammed my PSP and Daniel's laptop.

What boring things to blog about.

Eugene got me a Beatles card deck he bought from Liverpool for a New Year's present! I literally jumped up and down at the wooden stairs. Thanks, Eugene.

And I better start reading on Economics now.

sex education in RJC?

Oh so I did blog more in 2008 compared to 2007. 1st day of the 2009 was spent at Professor Tang's house.

We met Professor Tang during the China trip, and now he and my dad are great wine buddies. So they down two bottles of wine, and even my dad can't take a third, but Tang said he wasn't feeling a high yet. Congratulations, my dad has finally met his match.

You obviously knew my dad didn't go behind the wheels, because if he did I wouldn't dare to sit inside the car (not like he has ever done that before). Got back home, showered, slept. No, read Oryx and Crake before sleeping.

Can't imagine myself writing a book review about it. Actually I can, maybe it's the music playing in the background that just fuzzes my mind up.

Went to the Conservatory again, couldn't refrain from smiling like a mad man when I saw the 2-piano room from the bus I was in. Gosh, can't wait for it to start. I like challenges. Met Dr Hecht, and he passed me a 6-can Guiness pack.

Yeah, right, for me to finish.


She stands at a distance while I gingerly pour the pancake flour-water mixture into the frying pan. Soon it forms a neat circle, but I cross my fingers. My pancakes usually develop air holes at the surface. Hers, well there were air holes, but at most they could be counted with just one hand. Or maybe even none.

And then they start appearing, popping up at random. Cue dismal face.

"My dad says women can tahan great amounts of pain," I turned to her and said.

"Of course! Do you know how painful labour can be?"

Vigorous nodding of heads.

"Yeah I know, I know."

"How would you know?"

Laughter all around the cooking area. I flip the pancake round, the side up coloured golden, with an obvious black burn mark - just another screwed pancake to add to the list.

"This one's mine."


Sounds familiar? Yeah, it's a comprehension passage I dug out from the bowels of my fuzzy mind. What does this one refer to in Paragraph 7?


I heard from Paul that RJC is going to spam us with sex education lessons right from the beginning. We could do with chanting the we wouldn't have sex in the toilets mantra for an hour before class starts. Maybe installing black stickers in the toilets and claiming they are CCTV cameras might work.

Or install real ones and the security guards would be spotted drooling in front of rows of black-and-white flickering screens. Ee-yer.

Now...

It has come to pass that I am fated to spend the Countdown alone! What a terrifying thought. Yes Surya, as in, alone alone. My dad went to a countdown party at some Serangoon Club. I refused to add to the bill or take a taxi, so I'm at home vacuuming the floor and watching Discovery Channel.

Had a bowl of congee for dinner at Bukit Panjang, I think I looked a little sad.

It was great that we managed to cook some pancakes this morning, didn't know it could be that simple. Better go and get some of the ready-made flour myself. Maple syrup, peanut butter. Honey? Urgh. Finished the chords for ‘？’, look through photos I took in China.

I plan to sleep the coming New Year away by pulling out that sofa-bed in the living room and listening to the Carpenters. My FIFA 09 skills have also improved, which is a cause for some cheer. Last room to vacuum, and that would be the study room.

Maybe I'll do a short walk down memory lane.

Rewind back to a few hours before 2000, and everyone was being stupidly panic-ky about the Y2000 bug, which never happened in the end. I remembered we were at Westmall doing shopping at around 9 (which was unusual because I should be practising from 8-10), and we were outside the Popular store. And my mum threatened me (sort of) that everyone would die. Woohoo, I was freaked out.

I stayed up till 12am to watch the countdown, and for the first time thought I had never seen the sky so dark before. You know, it's interesting when you're a kid, and the first time you woke up at 7am and saw the colour of sky, you go all googoogahgah.

Wait till you've stayed up for 24 hours, and you might have gone googoogahzzz...

At least that's what happened to me, lah.

Have I ever mentioned that 2008 has been such a topsy-turvy year? If you asked me to describe this year, I wouldn't even know where to begin. Exactly 1 year at this time I was invited to a count-down party at Trevor Sze's house, along with John Yu and some other String Ensemble guys. Sipped just a bit of the alcohol, and I was close to shutting down, couldn't even locate Lavender MRT. Got back home at 11.45pm, just in time to watch the countdown.

Now...[refer back to first paragraph and keep reading]

Happy New Year 2009, in advance.

The Text that got..whatever.

It's as if you all know that I wouldn't continue blogging about China anymore, which you all are right about.

But no, I just want to give special mention to the food there - it's been months since I tasted such good rice. Just refreshing, warm rice from the rice bucket, continuously scooped up by me and dumped into my bowl to be consumed. Ah, the rice-y rice. Yum.

At one particular restaurant they served a wine which was 50% alcohol [wondered how many people have died in that restaurant already], and all my cousins except for me and one cute other cousin tasted it. Imagine the scrunched up faces.

Whatever. It's fantastic to be back in Singapore, feeling the humid air and the breeze that (does not always) blow across my sunny island. I didn't realize my fashion insulation until I stepped out of the aeroplane into the connecting bridge - I was still wearing 5 layers of clothing. Sweat like a mountain pig.

We managed to watch Bedtime Stories yesterday night, what a hilarious show. Much wordplay and great comic timing from Adam Sandler. Had chicken rice and ban-mian before that, popcorn during the movie, done. Off to start and finish Twinkle in a day!

The Text that got reprinted more times than Monkey King Part 1

Back from China, and feeling the heat already, literally. I'm still bler-bler about when school starts, but I reckon it's next Thursday, where we start our orientation and holding hands with girls :O I hate orientation camps where they make us hold hands with girls.


I'm still waiting to upgrade after managing to make hand contact with my cousin's dog Cookie.

Ok China trip has its ups and downs, like how I made semi-friends with a hyper-active guy whom I couldn't stand (which must be a big deal seems it looks as if I'm hyper-active enough). I dao-ed him for the rest of the trip, because if I made any attempt to answer any of his questions, it would make it look as if I were INTERESTED to continue the conversation, and that would be that.


I would be stuck talking to him forever and ever, amen. I wouldn't mind if "him" started with a capital letter, but unfortunately, it isn't.

You see, you wouldn't really want to talk to a person who interjects in every conversation about the same soccer game (the game in question would be Arsenal's draw with Aston Villa). We could be talking over dinner about politics, and then suddenly this hyper-active kaki of ours would refer back to this game which took place years ago, and how he wouldn't mind sacking William Gallas for hacking down a player if he were Arsene Wenger.

You could have told me how you would wish you were white if you were Obama, and I wouldn't care.

But anyway yes, all the cousins came to a consensus that his intellect was questionable, and we left it to that. At least I was tolerant and I didn't scream at him when he told me how Arsenal drew the game with Aston Villa (for the 4th time) while I was taking a pee. Never should have told him I was an Arsenal supporter. Never should have told any of you! Haha now I'll be teased till the end of my days.

Our Kunming tour guide was fantastic, she was really strict and firm about everything, but she was funny and sarcastic, so we all liked her. The local tour guide (that is, the Singaporean tour guide) was so passive all the while, and the only thing he did was to tell us to watch our step everytime we got off the bus.

Us kids started betting on what new vocabulary he would add into his arsenal of greetings. Paddy Power gave us the odds of 1 to 2 that he would greet us with Merry Christmas on 25th of December, so that wasn't much of a big deal. He...never had much character development, although he played an important part in this Chinese theatre later in the show.

After Kunming we went to Dali, and as I had previously mentioned, all the rural town areas were turning out like ghost towns, with only a few scooters or motorcycles around, and the not-so-frequent cars being covered with sand, concrete and dust. Jolly, it sure did look like a war-zone, except there weren't any corpses around.

But there were roadkill though, and more often than not the bus driver (who was widely hailed as one of the best in the world) had to dodge stray dogs and carcasses that lined the road. And yes, throughout the entire trip I only managed to see 3 cats, and I reeally had to do my best to spot them - one was on top of a random roof, another one was maneuvering its way by a river bank, and another one camoflauged on the floor of a village house, by a fireplace, right in front of my feet. It took me a while to see it. Gosh, cats are sneeeeky.

We went to a dinosaur park in Dali, took wonderful wonderful pictures which I would (not) upload shortly, though I have a whole of a mind to show it to people. We also came to a stone forest.

Picture a forest of trees, but replace all the trees with huge stones, and voila! Stone forest. Keh.

Anyway it was a majestic sight, with stones lining the horizon at every turn. We finally managed to reach a pagoda built to allow people like us to take in the sights, and the results? Absolutely stunning. Managed to capture sun rays that cut through the clouds, casting a faint glow upon the random ranks of rocks.

But there was another stone of a different kind, and the tour guide mentioned to us that if we were to avoid the toilets because of the smell, certainly kidney stones would start to develop. Yeah, she told us about one woman who decided not to open her dam gates, and when finally knew could not pay enough rent to hold it any longer, took an opening ceremony at the side of the road, shielded with an umbrella.

She took a biblical time of half-an-hour, and the police had to be called. What a bizzare situation, an umbrella propped up in front of her and police surrounding her. Drop the umbrella, madam!

Yes, the toilets are notoriously fragrant, with a wall of pungent smell constructed at least 4 metres from the entrance. Anyone who was smart enough to talk would talk in short bursts, followed by a rapid intake of caustic air, with constant curses.

There was no lack of bad English, an itinary which showed the dance programme in the afternoon featured a "sheep her ding song". "Sheep her dong song" might have sounded more musically correct, but ding song takes the cake.

Ding.

We arrived at Lijiang, and I swear, the waters were so clear. That was when I had my first contact with a computer, a living room computer provided in the bungalow that was situated in a villa. Erm, picture a villa with like, 40 bungalows in a huge compound, and each bungalow has 5 rooms, a huge living room, cooking area, dining area, and a computer with Internet and MSN. Aaaand, a matron who would cook for the entire family.

The wide-screen TV featured ESPN, HBO, CNA, and all the channels you could think of, what a joy. Of course, I had to make full use of the MSN service provided. Heh heh heh heh *cough* *hack*.

The waters were not polluted, as previously thought, and when you could see movement of all the fishes, with flashes of orange, white, black and gold, in the sparkling water, you think life couldn't get any better. I took leave of MSN and decided to take a step out into the cold winter night at 11.30pm, dressed in long johns, sandals, and a bath robe. The night sky was peppered with stars of various brightness, and the icy breeze brought the robe gently off the ground, rooted by my shivering stature.

I managed to take another look into the pond that was directly outside the bungalow, with a mini bridge that was placed purposeless-ly across it. Ice drifted at the surface, and it was the first of the many icy encounters I had in China.

The road that let directly to the front of my bungalow circled around the pond and led back to the main villa, and staying opposite us were my other cousins. As kids would do what kids do, we would run over and prop ourselves up in front of the TV with a can of Pringles. Yum. Not forgetting KFC, [I think I mentioned this in my last post] double yum!

After two nights at the villa, we got ready for the 5 hour trip to Shangrila, and the latest fashion fad - oxygen cans - were all over the town/bus. But no matter. I sat at the back of the bus from the very first day, mostly by the window, with my dear cousins. The ride provided the sight that impressed me most. There were so many colours in play. As the morning sun rised over Lijiang, I took notice of a stream that stretched for miles which ran beside the road, running downstream. Silver rocks punctuated the waters, with huge ones on the banks, and sometimes in the water itself.

The water was unquestionably clear, shadowed by grey trees stripped of their leaves in the wintry weather. The stream was placed right below the hundreds of small mountains that towered over us along the way. Shades of golden, orange, green, silver and grey bathed the area, creating a view of fantasy-like picturesqueness.

Heavenly, and my small red Canon would never do justice to the sight I saw, except for the previously mentioned sun-rays-cutting-through-clouds picture.

We were reaching altitudes of 3000m above sea level, and already one boy had been completely left out from the Shangrila part of the trip, because he was suffering from high fever. Sigh, as Nigel mentioned, come to China pua-beh (Hokkien for sick), waste his parents' money. With much coincedence, this boy is the younger brother of our hyper-active-hugely-daoed friend.

The aunties were suffering from headaches and medical oil was in huge demand. I already had my share of health shit-tiness - right from the moment I touched down to Kunming on the first day, I was leaking (from the nose) so badly that it felt like a hell-hole. My eyes were constantly watering, my nose was clogged with blood (from the dryness) and mucus, and it looked as if I were on a commission to shiver as much as possible in the space of a minute. I awoke the next day with renewed vigour, and never looked back since - I sneezed only twice for the rest of my days in China, and my eyes never teared.

Back to Shangrila, it really started to look like Tibet - the stretching fields covered with golden sand and sparse patches of grass - a huge difference from what we saw leaving Lijiang. The temperature hovered at around -3 to 9 degrees. To much laughter but purely for my own health-wealthiness I wore four to five layers of clothing everytime I went out, and yes, a reason why I was healthy throughout the trip. Extremely good advice from someone to bundle up and drink loads of hot tea.

I'm good. We caught the first sights of the beautiful mountain cow, with its huge horns and long fur, and the mountain pig, also covered with fur, but less pretty in the sense.

A Chinese Christmas

It is only apt that I get to blog after 4 days in China, and another 4 more days to go, so it's sort of a blogpost in the middle of a holiday.

It's a near-freezing 3 degrees here in Lijiang, and I've been waking up constantly at 6 every morning. I brought along my manuscript books, which means that I've worked on Sonatina as per usual, but China has definitely brought in some new inspiration into my puny head.

I'm currently staying in a VILLA, where we are being served by a butler (what's a female butler called?) Altogether there are three storeys and 5 rooms, the living room is probably as wide as mine, and the TV is huge. There's HBO and ESPN and all the cable stuff you can think off. Pringle containers beside me, KFC remnants.

The rest of China other than Lijiang (which we've arrived today) as been terribly depressing, with the rural town areas basically looking like war-zones. Dirt, dust, mud, bricks, and worn paintings line the road. Road-kill, lots of stray dogs, beggars. Guess what, we haven't seen a SINGLE cat, or stray cat, throughout our entire trip in China.

And if you were to ask me to play Griffes or Mozart now, I might finish it with but a few slips. The weather's so damn cold, my fingers are rigid. Anyone drinking coke is probably looking for a cold, slow journey to sugar damnation.

I need to practise piano, I just realised. Damn.

But of course! Merry Christmas to all of you here, and let's hope next year will be a better one (although it never usually is, but I might prove myself wrong coming back next year).

Merry Christmas to you.

blahblahholidays.

Tottenham Spurs versus Manchester United probably is one of the nicest football games I've watched in recent times. The willingness to fight, the rivalry, the chivalry, hand-shaking and hugs at the end, and of course, its own share of good football makes it so pleasant to watch, amidst the cold London weather. Although the game ended up with a 0-0 draw, it was still engaging right to the end.

I'm sad that Arsenal will never play like that :(. They just don't have the...tsk, the X factor. One-touch football and things like that, but you still have to win trophies. But whatever.

Yesterday we prepared the vegetable salad, which we brought over to Miss Tan's house. Then after the potluck dinner (which consisted of mushrooms, pasta, chicken wings, vegetable salad and fruit salad - yum!) we finally got around to performing 'Heidi'.

Miss Tan has two pets - Heidi (the dog) and Twinkle (the cat) - and our Christmas present was supposed to be a two-movement work for both their pets, but unfortunately we only got around to doing the first movement.

I just realised how different the composer(s)' intepretation can be compared to the soon-to-be performer. Most of what Miss Tan mentioned after we played the piece didn't seem coherent with what I wanted it to be - the manner the motives should be played. Nonetheless we finished the piece, and also performed an earlier Tango that I wrote. Eh...we were sight-reading my messy hand-writing.

My dad brought back with him from work 9 softback books of manuscript paper, which I plan to use really effectively. So I'm probably reserving 3 of these for journal writing and studying composition techniques, and the other from solo, 4-hand, and of course, my final goal, concerto writing.

Started on the solo one already of course, and I filled in 3 pages of my Sonatina...which sounds super convulated and complex.

Mm. The Nutcracker ballet tomorrow, and then I'm off to China on Sunday 6am. I'm not looking forward to it! Have to pack...

I have a sudden fear that I've forgotten how to blog. Again.

class gathering 2. another boring blogspot. I've forgotten how to blog already.

Yes! The last few days have been great as per usual. I've been sleeping alot, to recover all the hours I've lost since September (while doing BCM), which meant that afternoon nap was 4 hours while my normal sleep hours have increased to 11 hours. I'm sleeping close to 5/8 of the entire Earth rotation.

Ok a few days back we went for another major class outing, and I realised my badminton skills were still there, had a good partnership with Surya. And then there was Risk, where Andai and I team-ed to make some people from Australlia pissed. With luck and a little tenacity, we dominated the whole of America and part of Europe and South Africa, with Yun Ching and first-time player Clarence stuck in the centre (Asia and Europe) of the map.

We...formed an alliance with Hanjing, which meant that we gave her part of Africa. And Henry camped in Australlia. Should we have played the game any longer, I'm pretty sure we would have gone on to...yes. Dominate the world. With all the yes-es, I'm starting to think I'm sounding like Jian Yang.

All this was played at Bukit Timah Shopping Centre, at some cafe. The aunty allowed us to play there, thank you aunty.

Previously was pool, I scratched fewer this time, and beat Clarence for 2 rounds. Great. I've improved. It was a good day. Followed Han Jing and Yunching to West Mall, where I met up with Kaveena! Mygosh haven't seen her in donkey ages but four of us sat down and talked at Burger King.

YunChing in...Aboriginal clothing, erm the rest in normal. Two of the girls were constantly giggling at my front tooth, which...I can understand why, unfortunately. Andai joined in later again, and then I went off. The end.

Dishing up salad tomorrow for potluck, and I finished my second piece in this December holidays! Which we're going to perform tomorrow during dinner. Ah, heavenly homecooked food coming my way again. Yum!

blogged.

When even my 6-5 class blog is more updated than me, something seriously wrong must be happening. I just realised Facebook has a 'Notes' section, which I find pretty handy. Simply because I realise, just like a blog, you can put anything you want in there and all of your friends can see it.

Which is interesting - at least to me.

Since Nigel asked me to blog, I shall blog. Here, blogged.

Looking forward to tomorrow's outing with 6-5 once again, I can smell Risk and badminton in the air, and I'll be bringing my size 3 soccer ball to play soccer with the guys. I hope it works out. Can't wait to see Andai too, especially since we all haven't seen each other since Primary 6.

Ok anyway yes I managed to complete 'Heidi' today! Need to transcribe it then. Good job :) After this would be 'Twinkle'. Nice. Maybe it constitutes one Opus.

The letter 'P' hasn't been working quite well on my computer in recent times, maybe because someone taps extremely hard on the keyboard. Wonder who would be so stupid and evil as to do such a thing. Or maybe it's an in-born thing, you know, when you start training at the piano by TAPPING the keys. Yes, tapping.

I'm hungry. I should go eat now. But I don't feel like walking to BPP again. So sian. Maybe I shall have the cookies.

Buffet dinner on Monday! Yes. And of course, potluck on Wednesday yum.

Life = piano + cooking + pool (the one with the balls in it) + going out

A short return

Yes, I don't blog that often now because I'm more interested in life. Lol, what kind of excuse is that. Anyway yes things happened and moved this week, but I'm not possibly going to write them all down here.

Managed to meet Yun Ching again today and we all went to eat Dimsum after my dad convinced me that my cousins would be there (which means I can help to introduce my cousins to some girls hehheh). But they all weren't. Stupid.

So both of us went to Meridian to go play pool, where I got semi-owned. I've improved. Great, I have to be honest though, that I keep attaching pool to gangsters and ahbengs. Why not, you can't fault me. You have people from every corner shouting/muttering "f*** this f*** that", and smokers hanging around outside. Why would it be allowed only for people above 16? Well it's probably one of the sports which doesn't need much fitness, not like tennis or badminton.

Truly, pool is one of the unhealth-improvingiest game ever invented. Just stone around, calculate the ball angle and strike, then hit the ball. Think, think, strategize your game, trap your opponent into a Chinese snooker situation, whatever.

But hey, if you grow too fat, you can't lean over and hit the ball! :O i was wrong after all.

Went to her aunt's house, where we all watched Step Up 2 with her elder cousin, who was damn cool. Apparently we're all connected, you know. Yun Ching is Cute Cheeks' cousin. And Cute Cheeks is from RI. Yeah, you can see how complicated things are.

Greek myths and legends time.

Jonathan Shin's holi Day.

The following excerpt from Hongrui's blog tells you everything about what happened today, where we performed for RJC Graduation Nite.


"Today was a complete waste of time.

Worse than the days where I just stay at home and read books in the morning, practice cello in the afternoon and watch TV at night.

Woke up at 8.Dilly-dallied until 8.30.
Went out to eat breakfast, came back at 10.
Played cello till 10.30.
Packed up, had a quick bath, lunch, and left house at 11.40.
Reached Serene’s house at 12.50.
Rehearsal until 3.
Played Bridge,etc.. and indulged in random gossiping until 5.
Reached Swiss Hotel at 5.35
Started performance at 6
Ended performance at 7.10
Dilly-dallied around until like 7.40+
Went to eat dinner, finished at like 8.30
Played bridge until 9
Reached home at 9.50

Basically me, jon shin, ben wee and 5 other people formed an octet and performed as background music during the RJC grad nite reception today. Initially the promised us “GOOD FOOD”.

So we actually thought we could join in a bite with the rest of the J2s also.Then suddenly, the “good food” disappeared, and we were told to have dinner with a “$5” budget as the payment for the day.

Right…I still owe Jon Shin $2 from dinner.

Jon Shin owes Ben Wee $50 because he bet that the girls will change their mind when they reach “The Pizza Place” and decide to have dinner at “Burger King” instead and lost the bet.

“The Pizza Place” is da ultimate scam. Lol the personal pizza is really personal man.

And Margaret doesn’t know how to use a knife properly haha.And you can be amazed by how girls can spend hours of their time away just by gossiping.

And Jinghui the imba seems to have a new girlfriend, and that girl apparently has a photo of two of them together in an interesting pose with Jinghui's arm over her shoulder.

hmm..Yeah but still the day is a waste of time, and the performance was totally humiliating and a complete flop.."


Thank you Hongrui for basically summing up the crap we did today. You save my time from an already bad trip back home dragging my cello case with everyone staring at me. What, Mumbai II return of the terrorist? Go away.

And yes, there were lots of major gossiping and bitching this whole afternoon, and I was just sitting idle at a chair shaking my leg and listening, with blackcurrent juice. Comfortable and fantastic. Otherwise at times it felt like an evening soiree in Serene's bungalow, which was just three houses away from SM Goh Chok Tong's house. Yes, Namly Avenue.

I sight-readed Bach the moment I reached there, until Xueqian finally arrived. Yes, it was Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier from Book II. I did the C major prelude and probably the B minor fugue, although I remembered doing a fugue, but I can't remember the key.

Erm, a little bit of Czerny.

When Ben Wee arrived he got me to accompany him on Bruch's Violin Concerto, which I failed utterly because yes, guess what, I was sightrea- ok, whatever.

The performance in the evening was terrible. My mood was already dampened much when I heard about the missing 'good food'. I could have watched an absolutely stunning (special eyewitness's report) concert should I have learnt earlier that the stupid performance ended at seven.

Yesterday was great though.

Bad Hair Day 3

The political situation in Bangkok is hopelessly humorous yet obviously tethering on the point of civil strife. I'm afraid, but not so, because I'm tucked away in a cosy corner of Singapore. I probably wondered how we were able to avoid such a situation like this so far, and my answer to that would be Singapore's economical and population size.

We have things to do, essential tasks to go about completing. We are simply, fortunately, too busy to occupy an airport and set up a fortress.

I have to admit, it was one of my early childhood fantasies, of what would happen and how I should defend it should I one day have an airport under my possession. I would think about all the policemen and things like that, and how I would defend my fortress. :P

Ok, now I've totally seen what happens.

The last few days were spent in a daze, taking a trip to Johor to visit my grandma again, bringing my laptop with me. I managed to finish engraving my transcribed Tango into Sibelius, which is great. Got back home the next morning, and I managed to print it out.

Not much great news, except that Arsenal won 2 -1 against Chelsea, which I accurately predicted, down to the score. "Either Arsenal wins 2-1, or Chelsea beats Arsenal 3-0." And thankfully, they did the former. Arsenal makes my day. Soccer makes my day.

I can't stand my dad. Now he's bought a new washing machine and a TV. I don't understand why he wants to buy so many things, even when one can just get by with the simplest items. I'm sure I just need one bed, one piano, one table, and one shelf for my scores, a toilet with a shower, and I can survive.

And besides, I've changed the blog music, which has turned uninteresting.

Newsflash: I cut my hair finally. Erm, buzzcut.

A short post

Yes, I know it's old news that I have PSP Lite currently in my possession. Which I'm NOT going to sell! But any of you who wants to play it can just give me a call. There's only one game inside and that's FIFA 09. Yes, I got it as a Christmas present from my dad. Thanks, dad, you rock!

I wake up to shocking and frightening news - the Mumbai attacks in erm, Mumbai. Yes, I'm afraid that this world has gone absolutely bananas, after looking at the Bangkok protests, and now the terrorist attacks in Mumbai that are seemingly parallel to the 911 attacks in America.

No, this time I'm not coming up with any conspiracy theories, it was and will be a terrorist attack forever imprinted in the history of India. I believe though, that the government's atittude towards these fanatics will change after this.

I absolutely do not have the slightest idea of what the hell the Bangkok citizens are thinking - but it's clear that all of the protesters are paid to do what they are supposed to do. And they have all the time in the world to do so - the economy is poor, and the Democratic Party is flushed with cash enough to give them out to these protesters. But sadly they don't see the bigger picture, and I'm wondering what would happen if Somchai gives up the seat to the Democratic Party. What would happen then?

As my dad says, it's simply a game of political musical chairs. I hope this would stop soon enough.

Going for LANing later with the men at RISE of the Anoneabiablah (obvious I can't spell), and then going for my second ever YO concert, featuring violist Jonathan Koh.

Here's wishing Fiona Lam a happy birthday from her zsqy friend AKA a piece of shit! (gasp) but it's alright.

And yes, I'll change the blog music.

Electronic Music - of helicopters, a little bit of love, and...library

I'm reporting back again from the Conservatory, Music Technology Lab.

Ok the thing is we're (Akkra and I) currently listening to different contemporary pieces like Stockhausen's Helicopter String Quartet and Erwin Schulhoff's erm Sonata Erotica.

It's an actual piece, which I wouldn't want to play here. Although you can find the link...here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E0H4cscGgw

As its name suggests, things get really obvious what it is about.

Anyway the Helicopter String Quartet requires 4 quartet musicians to be placed in 4 different helicopters, and the entire thing is recorded with the helicopter motor being recorded along with the sound of the instruments.



While you're reading this, I'm very sure you're hearing one of the most famous electronic music ever composed by Stockhausen, which in English would be called 'Song of the Youth'. In German, Gesang der Jungling. Some of you would definitely be uncomfortable with it, so I suggest you shut your volume, or pause the thing, or just listen to the whole thing because I find the whole piece really cool and fun.

Apparently I'm supposed to jam some electronic music with Dr Gooi and Thomas Ang the week, which is something I'll go check out.

If you're asking me on how this piece was composed, a boy's voice is recorded and then subsequently cut, pasted, reversed throughout the entire piece. Stockhausen uses the sine wave in his creation of the sounds you hear in this piece. The boy's text was taken from the Book of Daniel from the Bible, when the three Christians are pushed into the furnace created by the King Nebennazzar (if I remember correctly), although they didn't burn inside because they were protected by God.

Absolutely cool piece. There isn't any feeling of dissonance inside, just cool sounds playing everywhere, so it doesn't make me feel at all uncomfortable. And I just realised I've started developing a low tolerance towards dissonance, which makes me feel like puking everytime I hear a really disgusting dissonance.

Cool huh? :)

Not.

Anyway earlier this morning I finally managed to collect my NUS card, and I get to discard (pun intended) my old temporary card that I've been using. And I can also finally use the library after a long break since September. So I spammed and borrow 6 fourhand books to sight-read and play.

I feel super tempted to play Sonata Erotica on this blog, but it would be rather distasteful...it's entirely in German (which means I understood every single word which was 'sung' by the female soprano.) There's like "bitte" and "schnell". :X

I'm going to play this electronic piece only for a while, otherwise I'll be starving your ears for some harmony. Yum.

Tweaking the rules, the quiz.

Let's tweak the rules a bit alright?

I've been tagged by Hongrui to do a damned quiz. Here are the rules that have been going around. I know you'll have seen it and everything, but I'll go with the flow, for now.

Leave a comment here and I'll..
1. Tell you why I befriended you.
2. Associate you with a song / movie.
3.Tell a random fact about you.
4. Tell a first memory about you.
5. Associate you with an animal / fruit.
6. Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
7. In return, you must post this in your own blog. Not some erm, LJ blog. Isn't really nice to insult blogs ain't it? :)

Everything is the same, except I'm not going to tell you who YOU is. I'm going to leave it as anonymous, and I'm not going to say any names. If you think it's you I'm talking about, then do this quiz on your blog stating that you got it from me. I'm going to do as many of these as I can...


1. Because you're my relative.
2. My Way by Frank Sinatra
3. You've been taking care of me for a long time
4. I was at the back of a jeep and you were driving, and I was looking upwards. I hadn't learnt to walk yet.
5. A snake. The year of your birth. A very guailan and dominant and crazy snake.
6. Why do you like swearing and cursing when I watch a soccer match with you?


1. Cos you're good friend, and your finishing is improving faster than me
2. Haydn Cello Concerto in C major, 1st movement
3. You're taller than me
4. While outside the Varese Room. You didn't look pissed with me! Damn, RI guys are good at hiding emotions. Knew you were a nice guy when I first saw you.
5. A stick ins...don't know. What insect? What fruit? Gosh who thinks of that.
6. Have I grown taller?


1. Because I have to, or else I'm the stupidest guy in the whole world, which you once called me. Luckily I did, though we're more than that now
2. Send in the Clowns, and of course, a couple of others. Around 3?
3. Your organiser is cute
4. 3rd floor, asked you to help me jaga my bag for a while, which you did. And then you expressed surprise on how I managed to return from the toilet so fast.
5. Incomparable zomg
6. You've got A, Bb, have you tried G?

1. Because you're a good junior
2. Where the Sparrows Go
3. You're good at counselling huh
4. a good violinist at RISE rehearsal, the second prefect in RISE
5. a duck. queck.
6. Why are you like me when I was in sec 2?

1. Because we have lots of things to talk about
2. Raindrops keep falling on my head
3. I pissed you off lots of times
4. In an MSN convo, where I called you a ninny. the very first convo
5. Chilli. a) your dog's name b) some people like you and some people don't
6. You-how?

1. Because you sit beside me in class
2. The birds and the bees, are flying in the trees...
3. You smell like flower, like what everyone says
4. Sec 3, duh
5. A flower. Easy.
6. Are you taller than me? No. Oops.

1. Because we no longer talk
2. Boieldieu Concerto in C
3. You're going overseas
4. Last year NPVC 2007, sat beside you at some finals
5. Butterflies
6. Are you still afraid of them? And what did I do.

1. Because we are classmates
2. any improvised song :)
3. You're working
4. Sec 3 RI
5. Dog. Cos of one of your accessories! Was it orange in colour. Can't remember. Recently appeared on your DP
6. Why are you so insistent on some things? It's good and bad, sometimes. But nvm, stay that way.

1. Because you're my colleague and you is a caring gor-gor
2. Stand By Me. Heck you hum it almost everytime
3. You love liszt
4. At NPVC 2005, where we both competed in the same category. I didn't like you at first...:)
5. Snorlax, put in a cool hairdo and a nice personality, and a thousand-watt smile
6. Why are you so good with girls?

1. Because you're my colleague and you help whenever I ask!
2. Beethoven Piano Concerto
3. You're a cool senior man
4. At orientation, when we formed circle and I think you were standing beside me. Anyway we were good friends quickly
5. A huge caring dog with a long hair. but you cut it already
6. When do you want to jam again?



Here's 10 for all of you. Some of you obviously wouldn't read this, but it's for you!

Good night everyone. I hope none of the above has let you take offense.

I'm looking towards NS omg.

So much for typing the post when I didn't check everything properly and surely first. My apologies.

It's the second day of my two-day-one-night stay at my cousin's house, and it's going to draw to an end, in around half an hour, when my dad picks me up. We didn't do a hell lot this morning, although we spammed on CounterStrike and swimming in the afternoon and subsequently the evening.

My nose was completely irritable and itchy this morning, which meant that most of the time I was running a leaky tap and eyes that were equally as irritating. Oh, did I mention I played soccer at CCAB yesterday?

At least this time it was more fun, because I finally got to play against Adriel, Daniel and Jinghui, who were all in one team. It was a good match, and [i think] the score was equally tied at the end of the match, which means that I have improved.

No, seriously, when you're playing with people like Adriel Daniel and Jinghui scoring a goal is not a laughing matter already. Hur.

Then again there's free food to look forward to - I'm performing at the RJC Grad Nite on December the 3rd, picking up the cello once again after so many months of inactivity. I'll be playing in a string quartet, but I'm very sure this time I'll be more rehearsed and things like this. Don't want to be caught unaware again.

There isn't much to blog about, except that yesterday I had a good cup of teh tarik with the YO guys (layered with a couple of ice blocks). Absolutely heavenly, if you didn't forget the football we played earlier on.

Went back to Serangoon with Rafael on the bus. We talked about NS, and different kinds of PES levels. I'm hoping I can get into PESC2, which means flat-feet people and things like that. Apparently it's slack, and I asked Rafael whether it was possible that I bring manuscript paper along to fill up the rest of my days there.

His answer was an absolutely yes, and that there was plenty of time for that. Apparently, after the BMT, they send you back to your room, and then after that you get the rest of the day to yourself. Of course, he talked about many other detailed things about BMT training (and that it was REALLY basic. like, shoot, clear your gun, throw your grenade)

And how they get convicts, or people who are in detention barracks, to place C4s beside grenades that do not explode - aka blinds, aka duds. So that means they place the C4 beside the grenade, and you can feel the whole ground shake in a 200metres radius.

I'm absolutely looking forward to army now.

Change of Direction

It's settled, I'm joining jazz for sure.

Yesterday's rehearsal was the most boringest rehearsal I've ever been in my entire life. And I got to see with my own eyes what direct-girl-confrontation means. It's a reeeaally uncomfortable situation to be in, seriously.

Thing is this, we all sit in one circle to play the game called Werewolf (which I wouldn't bother to explain here because it would take a couple of days). So one of the girls accuses the other of being a werewolf - yes, it's part of the game - and the other denies and starts giving the most bitchy face I've ever seen in my life. :O

Especially when she starts muttering words like 'stupid'..'what's your problem', you know something's going to happen.

Anyway they didn't get into a catfight.

Soccer after that was non-existent, ever realising no one else other than me hongrui daniel and adriel could play. I did manage to prove a point or two when we played Captain's Ball though. Otherwise, rehearsal was boring. Partly because I didn't go there with an open mind, and things like that. Heck, not impressive.


It's now waiting-time for December to arrive though. Going to be a long 10 days waiting. An extremely boring blogpost, but worth it.

Facebook-crazy

It's really easy to spot which people have gone Facebook-crazy.

For example, people like Nicholas Syn! Thank you very much for recommending me to add the whole world (5 people, I'm exaggerating a lot) on a daily basis! And thanks for bugging me continuously to sit beside you during Varied Tellings when I'm super comfortable at my seat.

I've been chiding him for a super long time, but Secondary 1s will be Secondary 1s when they're still in Secondary 1, so he deserves his time. By the time he reaches Sec 4 he'll be chiding other people already.

The rehearsal today will apparently be games for an hour from 1.30-2.30, then after that the actual rehearsal, which will include sight-reading other things, and then after that a 2-hour guys game of soccer. Cross my fingers and hope it doesn't rain at all.

I'm looking to a 2-days stay at my cousin's house on Thursday and Friday.

Yesterday...where should I start.

I'll do a Nicoll Highway here.

Currently the really hip things to go to on the Internet are Facebook, Blogger, Youtube. Photobucket? Yeap. It's easy to see why - they're all about communication, communication and communication. And of course, other things but the rest are LESS IMPORTANT.

But you know, they severely lack the human touch, which just makes the whole thing look utterly deflated.

I watched the whole of Bruce Almighty on Youtube and the Simpsons on some random Chinese website called tudou. My dad's reaction rocked totally. Look ma, no hands! Just type in some website and watch any movie you want.

No stealing! I'm legally right!

I love talking nonsense to you guys.

[evil laughter as I press 'Publish Post' and re-watch the Simpsons movie]

Firsts

So I turned delusional again today. Arsenal lost 2-0 to Aston Villa, and I was hoping THIS ENTIRE MORNING that we won 3-2, 4-2, or AT LEAST 5-2 in around...

10 minutes?

I stopped watching at the 80th minute, because I knew somehow we were going to catch up. I knew it. KNEW it. Somehow we lost 2-0, which is depressing.

On another hand, I felt really disappointed with myself in Church today though, because my mind just wasn't there.

I want to fill myself up with things to do this entire holiday, like, just get my schedule running like it did during the EOYs and the days after that. I would probably also get an organiser which I will not use. Hm.

Joke of the day had me sitting in the Altis and telling my dad my combination was H2KI, H2 History...

"Wait wait, so is KI2 higher or lower?"
"huh?"
"No I mean, is KI1 or KI3 higher or lower?"

I knew I had to get a rope from the DIY store to restrain myself from laughing and/or headbutting my dad.

Anyway, I'm officially free. Officially, free from anymore assignments from RI. I've finished my last one a few minutes ago, my testimonial. It looks good, though I've heard that the teachers will make it divine, so I submitted 2 pages worth of crap to them.

I feel good, feel like I can do anything now. I don't have to practise the piano as much, but realistically speaking I know the start of the next semester is closer than I imagine. But I want to spend my next few weeks of my life not doing ONLY music. I'm sure I would still be composing, but practising...

Not that much, for now.

I honestly honestly felt terrible when Daniel and Yisin told me that most of the people in the Arts/Humanities classes would be girls. Many reasons why, but females can sometimes be the most difficult people to comprehend. Then again we've fallen short of a nuclear war between males and females, so I don't see why we cannot get along.

But...but then again...ah, forget it. Dwelling on such things in blogposts can be dangerous.

It's been in a long year. I feel a little weary, sometimes a surge of emotion here and there, most of the time calmness, close to being non-chalant, sometimes just plain lazy. Competitions, concerts, I can't believe I did this all in one year. And then 3 people I know died this year, 1 classmate figuratively died. What can I say?

Fortunately I've blessed with an inner strength due to circumstances in my life.

There were many firsts this year-

1) I renewed my faith in God.
2) I won my first international piano prize.
3) I performed in a band that had people crowd-surfing and jumping.
4) I received an award from the school.
5) Someone close I know died.
6) And of course, some other firsts but don't want to put here, lah.

I also succumbed to the evils and goodness and goods of Facebook.

The weather today is really great, just the smell of rain and the evening sun shining through the windows. There are times when you feel super, and now is one such moment. Another moment was 2 days ago, when I changed my alarm tone to the Beatles's "Here Comes The Sun"

You would never imagine the joy! When the alarm started playing there was sun in my eyes...gosh such moments are unforgettable. I'm still chuckling...

A reminder to Kwek here though, in case you're reading, I love hounding you for your lyrics.

Varied Tellings

Ok I've been invited to go and watch RJCE rehearse on Wednesday. Something to fill up my schedule, which is good.

I willed myself in front of the piano to come up with something good, and I realised I played so many things on the piano, but they all didn't seem worthy enough to be placed on paper, worthy enough to be presented.

It always feels like this. It always feels like, oh, this isn't good enough, if he/she is going to hear it, he/she wouldn't like it. But I'm very sure its otherwise, and it's only the composer who thinks like this.

I never wrote anything down though, which was terrible and disappointing. But that doesn't give me the right to go around finding high venues to set up picnics and jump down from, leaving all the food behind. That's bad!

After Theory lesson today I spammed photocopying a secret manual on IMPROVISATION by my great great great great grandmaster, Carl Czerny. Erm, those doubtful, let's track it here:

Ludwig V. Beethoven
Carl Czerny
Franz Liszt
Theodor Leschetizky
Arthur Schnabel
Leon Fleisher
Thomas Hecht
Jonathan Shin

Ok, there. So yeah, great great great great grandmaster.


Cough ok THE MAIN POINT is....
I GOT HOLD OF HIS MANUAL!!! Yes yes yes I proceeded to spam photocopy all 129 pages of it, and I'm so going to mug them. When I get to RJC next year I should be able to improvise any classical chord progression you give me, and should I reach a part where a cadenza is needed, I should be able to improvise straight on my own.

[register your shock from the musical-grandmasters tree first before reading on]

(asshole.)

After that I moved around all over YST, finding for studios, which I did. And sat inside them not doing anything. Including trying to think up of good melodies and things like that. You know, it isn't good to disappoint lah, right?

You get what I mean.

The Sonatina/Sonata I've written has reached its recapitulation, although I find some of them still messy, and some themes entirely redundant. If redundant, put it inside, we'll use them later.

Went to eat at McDonald's with Irene, Nattapol and Wasin. Once again, with Wasin inside, the atmosphere never fails to bleed with humor and sarcasm, wit and bluntness, all-in-one. And then it was time for Mr Tiu's Varied Tellings.

The first half was fantastic - Rossini brought back waves of memories on the days we spent working on the overture back in RISE. The particular nature of the Concert Hall allowed for the sound too be bright, but not too bright because of all the people in it. As in, we sort of 'absorb' the sound.

The last part of the overture was a myriad of vibrations flung-ed in every direction possible, all the brass and woodwinds providing the unique colours that would make this piece ever so famous, up till today. Once again, another scintillating performance in another day.

Next up was Mr Tiu's Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

It is in fact, a set of Variations based on the Theme itself, the wonderful theme that has been continuously worked on by Brahms, Schumann. But Rachmaninov probably did it the best - his last work for Piano and Orchestra was clearly one of the most outstanding of his wide composition repertoire.

The famous 18th Variation has the word Rachmaninov splashed all over it, the trademark RachmaniRussian sound. It's really important to study the voice, as what Rachey had done himself, look at the wonderous melodies he has written that has constantly stunned the world and left us all teary-eyed.

Not forgetting the famous Vocalise, of course.

Mr Tiu paid close attention to all the different colours that were available for show in this piece, with the Conservatory Orchestra complimenting his every bow and stroke. The precision of the strings and the brass-woodwind chorus was bordering unbelievable, with the genius of Rachmaninov making them work devilishly hard (true to Paganini's name) to coordinate with the pianist himself.

I got hold of the score on Thursday, when Chi Ling and I were just watching Mr Tiu run through the entire piece with the Orchestra. I have to admit, on that day the orchestra wasn't really at its best condition, and there were still under-rehearsed moments that popped up sporadically.

But what a change!

The first half was stunning. I was unfortunately right that the encore piece would be the 18th Variation, so Hui Ling kinda owes me 4 bucks now. I would like to point out that the sheer genius of Rachmaninov is pleasantly evident, with the shadowing of the brass under the strings melody making for a special timbre.

Other composers would have done it differently, yet Rachmaninov's was markedly different. It's unfair how genius is not part of the communist agenda in Creationism.

The second half was fantastic, with me sitting in ZAD's dad's car, making my way back home. Honestly, I would not have bothered to catch a Schubert Symphony. Long-winded, modulationfilled, and in Akkra's own words, "Boring." Hell, I would hate my own compositions to be branded as that. That would really suck.

Meanwhile, with the number of people joining us to skip the second half, I'm very sure that Schubert would have now generated enough space in his burial ground after all the turning and shifting. What would he think of people criticising his music.

Although I love his idea of Schubertiads though, although we have what we call, evening gigs nowadays. But wouldn't it be nice if we have that in today's age? I should find people who can improvise in RJC, and then invite them to my house to have a mini-concert. Of course, we'll have to get people, so yeah, check it out. It shows how bored I can be.

But hey! Imagine Singapore's teenage brand of poets, artists, musicians coming together. Mygosh. Wouldn't that be cool.

These days 2

I'm cooped up in the study room once again, with no windows opened because every weekend, I wake up with a blocked nose and a sinus to cope with.

And the weather is bloody cold. I sometimes like to imagine there's an ocean right at my doorstep, and that the sounds of birds I hear would be that of seagulls.

Unfortunately there would be lots and really lots of 'boats' around, which just spoils everything thank you very much.

We've finished recording at Snakeweed Studios, marching up the wooden creaky stairs at around 1pm everyday from Monday to Thursday, getting inside. But of course, nothing's really complete without any pictures, so here they are.

The whole band except Marcus

Daniel - Drummer [F*** you]

Yisin - Guitarist [Bottomless Pit]

Lennie - Guitarist [Ischrael]

Eugene - Bassist [Collision System]

Me - Keyboardist (newspaper in front of me contains the chords), and the famous keyboard that Bottomless Pit bought for me to play a day before the gig. [Perfect Pitch]

Marcus wearing Martin's hat [Noisy]

Post more pictures next time. Anyway we managed to record three songs in the end, one less of the targetted four songs. Never did we knew that recording could be so tough, because we were recording one layer by one layer, which facilitates mixing.

As you can see, we all unfortunately have nicknames. Yisin's called Bottomless Pit, because EVERY instrument (except the drums) that is owned by the band is owned by him. Son of CapitalMall CEO, tsk.

Daniel's called **** you, I really don't know why.

I'm Perfect Pitch, that's self-explanatory.

Marcus is Noisy, which is also self-explanatory.

Lennie is Ischrael, because of the way he pronounced Israel.

And Eugene is Collision System, I just named him that way because we talked about it once. Or maybe he doesn't have one, and I gave him one because I liked consistency. Whatever.

I would like to sincerely thank Martin from Caracal, who was our producer from Day 1 to Day 4, and he's really hilarious. I got owned by him a couple of times though, to the band's amusement. Thanks Mart.

After Thursday's session I went to the Conservatory to catch a piano recital with a girl (yeah, the girl whose results are super super super super super super super super high one). Haha, who else? We went to have dinner at Munchie Monkeys and I absent-mindedly ordered 2 plates of spaghetti and one masala. Gosh, no wonder I couldn't pay -.- In the end we got the refund. Yes.

I know I'm being kinda evil here, but were they being a little sarcastic when they wrote that the performer played with "astonishing precision"? But it was a bit loud anyway, because of the nature of the orchestral hall. It was a good concert in either case, although I hoped for more accuracy.

Friday was another busy day. I woke up to find myself rushing to Paragon to accompany BenLow for his Trinity voice exam, spammed practised Debussy Etude, and took a cab to watch Yellow River played by its ORIGINAL COMPOSER with.....guess who?

Ok this game is failing because of its predictability already sorry...

BenLow's examination was a little mussed up because of my page-turning, which meant that some of the supporting harmonies went missing, otherwise it was fine.

Surprisingly my lesson went well. I thought I would die for lesson. I practised right before the lesson mygosh, and just thought of whatever things I could to put inside and organised. It turned out well. A sure-win method, that's why it's used.

The taxi driver that got me to Esplanade was agonizingly slow, but I got there in time. Thanks Chi Ling for packing Subway! Or else I would have listened to Yellow River with an empty stomach. Yellow River Piano Concerto was absolutely fantastic, it just got me thinking back to my old NAFA days, and anyway it was the final piece I played before I left NAFA, so they were good memories.

Wish I could take a photo of everyone listening to the third movement though, tears in their eyes. And the Fourth Movement was a blast, that was the plateau of sheer pleasure and nationalistic joy when the whole orchestra played the final theme, which is also the part where they turn around to salute Chairman Mao (I'm serious).

And I can't believe I dared to ask the question at the end at Boon Lay MRT station.

Thanks :)

[collapses into a hole of embarassment]

What happened since Saturday?

I'll bring you back to Saturday, in another one of my usual blogposts that talks about all things that has passed almost everytime I blog.

It's as if, my life were a novel, you know.

After 2 hours straight of Music Technology class, where we learnt how to splice and cut and paste sections of music together. Progress was kinda slow, but it was alright, just listen to instructions can liao.

I played for Akkra my 1/4 completed composition following the class, and YES! He gave a thumbs-up for the front part but gave me really good suggestions on some things that were, too sudden or too loud.



Took a quick bus to Music Essentials to meet Chi Ling, and we finished the cake that Dr. Hecht kindly brought for the yester-evening seafood 'soiree' that was mentioned in my previous post. [Just a few minutes ago I finished the last piece, and it was still as chocolate-y. ]

We 'window-shopped' for clothes at Centrepoint, met Clarence's dad :O What a small world.

Played piano together for hours, and then off to catch the latest James Bond flick, which had a super-thin plot. Only thing worth remembering was, yes, when the French guy attacked Bond with an axe. Ooh, hear le homme scream!

Walked to Rochor Rd Beancurd, had supper there, talked lots of great stuff, then back to Boon Lay, and then I went home.

12.30am, but enjoyable, though I'm leaving out a couple of details here and there.



The next morning was going to Church. As per normal, visited my mum at columbarium, what can I say. The entire experience was in all sense, holy. As in, including Church.

Boys' Town was next, because apparently my dad wanted to go there and look at their open house and see what he could help with. Yeah, right, he finished quite a lot of food!

But the destination to the car park itself was fun. At every corner there was always a guy with long hair and putting one leg on his chair, lifting up his arm non-chalantly to show us the direction. My dad's exclamation, "I love these guys man, this is the attitude!"

Absolutely.

I was sitting glumly throughout the long-winded trip to the heart of the Town, and when we finally got out there was loud music playing in the hall. The food wasn't really bad, but I remembered the muahchee tasted bad. It was cold, and practically, erm, tasteless. Right, I forced myself to eat something that cost $1. What a thrifty bastard.

Not so though, I'll spend when there's good food :} And erm, when I owe library fines and dinner costs.

When we were done we headed back home for a change, before going for Avenue Q. The songs were fun enough, but I entirely loved the part when Trekkie Monster said, "In volatile markets, porn is stable income!" And then he donated ALL HIS MONEY to the Monstersorri School (hahaha)!

Walked to Grad Ceremony, got a change of clothes from my dad, had an ok dinner.

Performance with XD was almost entirely impromptu, because I skipped the soundcheck, and learnt some chords on the spot on stage. Kids, what's the word of the month?

IMPROMPTU!

But it was raucous enough to get everyone at a high, and I could see two people crowd-surfing. (wth, first time ever in my life have I performed for a crowd-surfing audience, thank you very much, I would love to see Ryan Kwan crowd-surfing when I play a piano solo on stage someday)

The front of the stage was practically a mosh pit, and everyone was jumping up and down to the beat, with the audience response, "EH-OH-EH-OH" so loud.

Entirely crazy, although I didn't shed a tear. I must really hate RI or something like that.

Got home thankfully in one piece, and this gig was absolutely fun!



I will tell you guys about my escapades with XD at an Outram Park recording studio (70 bucks an hour) in a separate blogpost. Dimlit, smoke-filled, sleazy, shady. Recording different layers, and of course, the haunted room above that houses the drumsets and the mikes.

According to the Ten Rules of Martin's studio, it consists of 1) Don't litter the studio floor, 2) Do not wear shoes in, 3) Do not smoke inside the studio, 4) Be nice to the ghost upstairs, she's quite friendly...

No kidding. Tell you guys more in a few days time. As of now, I'm looking forward to Thursday and Friday.

two of the longest days ever

Isn't morning the best time to do a blogpost, except now I'm here in the Conservatory Computer Technology Lab again, done with my breakfast.

I had a super long day yesterday, after waking up at 7.30 and lazing around for 1 hour, before deciding that it was the best time I leave for school and go for GRADUATION CEREMONY, the most important day of my life in Raffles Institution.

It's been in a long/short 4 years (depending on how you really see it), but it's been great and a whole lot of åwesome fun.

Let's start from Thursday, where I shall attempt to my summarise my journey around Singapore for 2 days in half an hour.

Firstly after stoning here for 1 minute I still cannot remember what happened on Thursday, but I know that I performed in 2 concerts.

Oh wait, I remember it now! I was accompanying Benjamin Low for his Trinity exam, and we went to Mr Toh's house to let him listen to B-low sing while I accompanied him. The last song wasn't that good, (Gorge Ghershwin) so Mr Toh was like, uh ok goodbye cya. What do you think, we went off after that.

After several bus confusions and things like that, I finally got to Yong Siew Toh at around 3. Rehearsed, played piano games, played the game Who-Can-Hit-Your-Buddy-First-With-A-Table-Tennis-Ball-Using-Paddles. We broke the ball in the end. Sorry Kawai.

The first concert included a six-hand piece I played with Dr Hecht and ZAD, and the second concert of the evening was a performance at YMS, where I finished the night off with Griffes's Scherzo.

The six-hand Romance was pretty alright, although I didn't stay to listen to what Dr Hecht had to say about our Polka too (both by Rachmaninov), because I had to take a taxi straight to the YMS.

I did a heck of lots of things in YST, like before performing on stage itself, I had to go backstage and print out lyrics for Hey Jude so that we could perform it later in the evening as a bye-bye song for Miss Goh, who had been in MEP for years.

Also, being the cohort's sabotaged guy/'mascot'/shortie/imba I had to give a impromptu speech that talked about our 4 years in RI and our briefy it was.

Whatever. It was a long night, and when I was finally done with everything, I settled down with the pear my dad stuffed into the bag, which was what was going to become my one and only dinner.

Obviously I slept later than usual.

The next morning, I woke up all dreary and leaky, thanks to a Benjamin Low cold from the day before. Yeap, I waited for an hour, lazing around, before finally leaving for my Graduation Ceremony, without waiting for my dad to wake up.

Anyway he came along later in the car, because he said he didn't want to miss me graduating (thanks pop). Sat around and behaved like good students in the world's most boring speeches, including an advertisement to join the Boon Lay Youth Club from the female Guest-of-Honour, exchanged punches with Lay Shide himself, got hit a couple of times, survived.

What followed next was a really stretching time, because I went for XD practice at the jamming studio.

Well, you can really feel it's different, because most people who go there don't really do anything except to laze around and fool with the drums and everything, but we were really practising for Graduation Night itself on a sunday AFTEROON. (is it?) or maybe it's evening.

Yeah, we went through repertoire, and discussed about the segues, on how to shift between songs, different riffs that we could try out, modulations and everything like that. Throughout the whole thing we were attempting to fix the amplifiers, so we got all the tools we can from the Arts Studio and start digging into the input hole, so we could get some things out. Unfortunately, the damage had already been done, and there was not really much we could do about it.

We left it to that.

Practised for 2 more hours, from 1 to 3, and then 3.40, and we were off to Yisin's house across the road. Here's the stretchy part - they decided to bring me along to play soccer at the CCAB at Dunearn Road/Evans Road, and I changed into some really lanky England shirt and a pants that would only befit a freaking kangeroo.

Cabbed to CCAB, met a J2 girl there from HCJC, and we started to play 2v2 soccer. I wasn't that rusty yet, but I have always doubted my own abilities. Heck, we actually played well yesterday.

For one, when we actually played a match against SJI people, we had only 4 people while the SJI guys had around 5.

We pawned them 6-0 in the end, (Gabriel enters the room and says that I am an egoitic bastard, and then asks me what's my typing speed, which I answer 115 a minute, and he says, "Kanninehbeh".) No really, we pwned them 6-0, maybe because they were lousy, but they had good team chemistry, and people like me who,

1) stand directly in front of the goal and not score
2) stand directly in front of the goal without a keeper who has been beaten and not be able to stop the ball and score

I later redeemed myself by tapping in a goal, and providing an assist to Daniel, who did a freaking back flick to beat those guys.

Yisin said we should let them score (like genuinely) cos they were Sec 2-3s, and if we kept scoring then it wouldn't be any kick.

Erm, after that I scored one, so that makes the score practically 6-0.

Daniel did 4.

Yeah whatever. The game ended, and we made our way to Daniel's house, thanks to a lift from the girl's mum. Showered, played FIFA there, had dinner with those guys at Burger King, and then we went back to Yisin's house at Bishan, where my dad picked me at 9.45

Not to forget we listened to Anberlin.

To think I could go home and relax, but no, we went to Miss Tan's house after that to have extra dinner with Miss Tan, ST, and Dr Hecht. Talked lots of music crap such as the key of the Nokia ringtone, which I concluded to be a huge perfect cadence that was filled with suspension. Lots of lobsters and huge prawns on the menu, but we finished them all.

We got home at 1.

I made it past the 2 days. And no, I didn't worship on Friday, it was fun, but well, tiring.

Guten Tag!

Half Hair Day

Half-productive day, that is.

I added four bars to my composition, but I feel real damn glad because at least I have the main structure in my head already and all its themes, and I'm closing following Prokofiev's sonatas. I have also been practising Ravel, although I seriously have no clue on what to practise other than just seperate hands and then combine them together again.

Sounds pathetic right? Well, it really is pathetic.

I decided to skip the last day of school, because I will be meeting them tomorrow and on Sunday anyway. So, not much of a last day of school!

Thinking about why all the boys and girls in the world are intrigued about my hair, I think I found the answer. Well, maybe not, but interesting things have happened to my hair before.

Interesting, but super-stupid, and embarassing.

Ok this happened at my cousin's house when I was around 13 (when my hair started to go mutant on me). After a tiring swim and a heck of splashing and waterpolo, I decided enough was enough, and I went up for a shower. So as per usual, I showered, and guess what I saw on the metal shelf! A twenty-one dollar hair shampoo!

Looked freaking expensive to me, and it should to you, anyway.

The liquid inside it was beautifully brown and golden, honeyed-coloured and perfectly the softest liquid I've probably ever felt. And it was encased in this heavy, semi-glass bottle that looked like it contained a thousand Calvin Kleins, Dolce Gabbanas, Guccis, Lagerfields, Hiltons that could just make you smell like heaven.

So twenty-one dollars went in my hand, and I started massaging my hair in twenty-one dollars of glory, honey and caramel.

Never realised what it was, until later.

Unless my scalp was counted as a pubic region, I wouldn't think of sueing the Body Shop for causing me to scratch my head for the next few hours like I'm a rabies-infected dog.

I never found out until 2 rounds of rinsing, because, hell, it smelled so good and it felt so gentle. I'm serious! But anyway I felt really good after that until it started itching like a dozen crap. I asked my aunt what kind of shampoo would cost so expensive, and she shouted, "Which shampoo did you use!?!"

Gulp.

Erm, the $3 dollar one. The one outside white colour with the lion face smiling on it right? The cute cute one right? Yeah, err, that one, that one!

"Better be."

So much for a white lie. Otherwise I think I would be left with no hair at all already.

[Erm, the $21 dollar one. The one...
"NNBCB! *#@$*&@*!"]

Morale of the story? Don't shower at a house that is inhibited by women. Most preferably, use the public bath, where everyone uses the same shampoo and lotion. Yeah, the one outside white colour with the lion face smiling on it...

For those of you who don't know why my hair is powderful, I don't have an answer also. All I know is that it is so malleable and strong, that when I keep it long and manufacture a unicorn's horn, it's possible for me to knock down a correction tape on a table.

I try that personally, although my classmates have managed to see me of characters like a two-pronged err, demon. Or worst, Medusa herself. At best, the character from Dragon Ball-Z called Vegeta.

Then again a few say I look like a punk rock musician when I comb my hair to the left towards my eyebrow [like the one you see in my blog photo and occasionally my MSN DP], and I've heard cries of 'gay!' or as Wasin politely placed it, 'like a guy who goes out with older women'.

I aptly pointed to him the 'one way to heaven' sign.

But we both smiled, so it isn't really that a problem actually.

Ever since my hair gone mutant on me, life has been different. Well, you can touch my hair all you want, I wouldn't go Muslim on all of you and tell you to meet me after school so we can duke it out.

(Apparently, some guy actually touched this Muslim guy's hair and the latter arranged a fight after school. )

But you have to know that you're touching special quality hair.


You know, the twenty-three dollar one, that kind. Ah, that kind. :)



P.S Apparently a COUPLE OF PEOPLE already tried to highlight the empty space at my previous post at the end of it -.- Even I did myself hahaha. Kinda gets you thinking, wth would Jonathan Shin put there?

P.S.S Then again I would be to lazy to find the colour of my blogskin. Don't bother. Ain't it irresistable?

childhood scares

Where shall I start. It is the second last day of school, and I hardly feel any sorrow or despair.

Because 4L seems to be able to last forever, anywhere, anytime. Maybe it's because I've faced a couple of losses in my life, and all I think about everyday is today, and then tomorrow. Hardly think about the past.

Like, what I ate for dinner yesterday, or further back, what utensils I used for dinner.

Was it the SIA one, or was it the SilkAir one?


Just realised my parents used to take utensils from every airline they went on.


Today I'm going to talk about my childhood scares.

Erm...my earliest one was when I was just 5, and barely starting to read. My first few books were like, The Three Little Pigs, Red Riding Hood, The Three Billy Goats, yeah those.

I entirely remember the Three Little Pigs coverpage of the Ladybird book, because it was so damned scary ok. Like, really scary, it showed a profile picture of a freaking wolf, all dark and furry.

What, some criminal mug shot to scare kids? Go screw yourself Ladybird.

Anyway these books were always kept in the storeroom, so it was dark and scary, and everytime I wanted my dad or my mum to read the books, I would like, run in and take the books out, because the distance was especially huge.

I think I could cross the entire room today in probably 3 steps. Then, it felt like some dastard farmer grew couple of weeds in the room for me just to get the books.

Anyway I could never reach the lights, and often I just ran in and then out of the room just to get those books. Argh! If only there were Internet. I could just google and then read it.


My second biggest scare (6 years old) was a newspaper article I read about a game of tug-of-war which ended in a 'broken arm'. Those two words absolutely freaked me out, because I've never seen or heard any kind of mutilation before until that fateful night. I couldn't contrive how it could be possible that an arm could be 'broken', and I remembered myself sitting there in the living room with my mum, with just one light on and the TV dimly tuned to Channel 8.

I kept asking whether the whole arm came off, and whether IT COULD COME AND FIND ITS WAY TO MY BEDROOM.

I never managed to comprehend that it was just the bone instead that was broken, and I was constantly hearing from my mum never to play tug-of-war or tie the rope around the arm in order to gain more leverage.

Now I'm thinking, which human being will tie a rope end around his arm just to get leverage? Well, many. But hell, the other team was stronger, and the sudden force just made his whole arm pop.

I didn't sleep for most of the night, kept freaking staring at the doorway for that arm.

It never came.



And now, for the top of the list, my scariest childhood moment ever.

Watching Michael Jackson's album, Thriller.

Erm, you know the part where Jackson finishes the song, and then turns his head around to show those yellow wolf-eyes of his? Go find yourself a sink and drown in it, Jackson. You entirely killed my childhood sunshine the moment I saw those.

For goodness sake, what else could I have been expecting? I thought he was just going to smile at the camera, hell, he came up with some stupid wolf-eye that made me crap in my pants. I think I didn't sleep for days after that, it was all just memorising the multiplication time table and mumbling off till I actually fell alsleep.

Then again it probably felt like hours when I was young, but nowadays, keh, put it to minutes.

I have loads more actually, like how I ran around a table when my mum tried to cane me, and kept running and running around the table, until she sort of realised that the cane was long enough to whack me from that distance. How stupid could I be.

I remembered I always kept worrying about something under my bed, and I always forced myself to sleep UNDER THE BED just for a little while to confirm there wasn't anything there.

The journey to sleep on the bed to under was long and torturous, but through willpower, I managed something that I would find utterly stupid today.

Should I attempt to sleep under my bed, I would pray so hard that I don't get any bad dreams, or that I don't feel like taking a piss in the middle of the night.

Otherwise...

I'll be pissing blood from my head.



Today's Rachmaninov rehearsal was good enough, managed to memorise everything without screwing up anything. I'll also be preparing for Ravel on Wednesday. And Griffes on Thursday.

Oh shit (sugar!) oh shit. There's still Griffes. It's a fun piece to play, but that means I have to get ready three different pieces for this week. After Thursday, I'm free!

And free never fails to mean fun.

Fun and free is good.

Fun and free is the church.

I'll go worship on Friday.

If.

Another long day from Jonathan Shin.

This morning started with church ...-.- ok just after I started typing this my dad goes,

"I'm going to sleep now!" (9.43pm)"Huh so early?"
"That's why I have no pimples! Muahahaha"


You suck, dad :)

Ok ahem this morning started with church, and I was standing up the entire session with my dad because we came late and didn't manage to find any seats, so we stood at the back for the whole time. I was thinking about how Andrew said my church was so cool, along with the cross at the top of the building that could be seen on Google Earth.



Today was All Souls' Day, where they commemorate all the departed brothers and sisters just like my mum.

Originally upon entering the collumbarium I thought it was All-Chinese-People-Stand-In-Front-Of-The-Collabarium-To-Pay-Respects-In-Chinese-Language Day, but it was not to be, for my discovery that it was All Souls' Day would come later.



Yeah. After church I went back home just to relax and nap and watch Arsenal score one goal in the recorded match yesterday. Yesterday I totally went delusional, because when Arsenal was 2-0 down against Stoke, I switched off the TV.

This morning I was so praying to myself that Arsenal came back 3-2 against Stoke for the whole of this morning without looking at the papers. Lol. Of course we lost.

Two of us piled into the car before driving down Bukit Timah lane towards Henderson Road to get me contact lenses. In the end when we came out we didn't get anything, partly because contact lenses cost so freaking expensive.

We then went to Ikea just to eat, and we wanted to get light bulbs plus a floor mat, but in the end we didn't. Just ate and ate and ate.

Got to Serangoon, lost 3-1 to Nigel (my cousin) in water rugby/soccer/waterpolo, had dinner (THAT'S THE MAIN POINT, not the game), and then back home. National Treasure, then back here.

I've been trying to imitate Neil Humphrey's writing style for a super long time, except that I keep failing because in the first place the context is different. He writes on specific articles, while I write on days of my life. I'm better than me.

Well, we can start by writing on a certain topic. What topic shall we choose today? On why we borrow books from the library and don't read them? That's only for me.

What has caught my eye recently?


Y...


Seriously seriously seriously. Oh yes, on how messy my study room is.

It certainly has become much cleaner over the recent times, because everything is now placed in drawers and shelves and everything. But my end-of-years are still hanging around, red ink over green papers, blue ink over white papers with tons of lines on it. And then there's the usual manuscript paper filled with tons of scribbles and black dots everywhere, some of my sketches.

I hardly find the need to organize everything. If I can find it, then it's organized. If I can see it, then it's organized. But then again there's a limit to what my brain can do.

Then we're back to the need to organize.

Jump topic. To the process of composition:

I first start out when I'm in the shower. It's good time to sing melodies that sound worthy. Usually there are in Db, Ab, or A major, or Gb major.

After that when my hair is still wet and not dried, I rush over to any paper I can find and then write it down.

I have learnt my lesson, this time, I write the exact harmony along with the melody, and the rhythms. When I was younger, I couldn't be bothered, and thus probably half my output disappeared.

I think it's a gift, because I don't really need a keyboard to write basic ideas, so I can figure out harmonies and melodies with a kinda ease. But when things get complicated and sometimes you need a spark of inspiration, the keyboard comes to play.

Mostly, I find the keyboard as a tool of editing, because I write all my rough sketches through mind, when I shut out my ears and open up my mind and process the entire harmony and melody.

It takes up probably 2 gigabytes just to do this, and I only can do it when I use my hands to cover my ears, look like I'm praying really hard that the ground will open up and eat me, and then use my right hand to quickly write down whatever I just thought of.

After doing this, I'll probably at most come up with one page of music that sounds ok enough but definitely definitely not performable. That's when I bring out the keyboard, and do all the minor editings and the instances of magick.

Slowly but surely, each page is carved out, but the going really gets tough, because I struggle to make connections between themes. It really takes a smartass to do that. I'm not a smartass yet.

BCM took approximately 6-8 hours to complete, most of them done at night, under the cover of the study light in my room, with my dad sleeping. I was caught sleeping out with BCM still in my hand, TV still on, and dad back from work.

Never a good situation to be in, but the BCM never got a touch of drool, which is great.

I remember two months ago being a super crazy month, because I was like spamming cup noodles and practising piano (I don't know for what, maybe cos of Ibiza and Germany), composing stuff, and doing nothing else.

No wait, composing UNDER THE TABLE! oh yes. Bryan and Ian would certainly remember that.

I'm planning to submit my composition to ABRSM. Apparently there's a composition competition going on, and the top prizewinner gets 1000 pounds. No high hopes, everyone probably has their composition teacher, and I'm doing empirical methods still. I'll probably be laughing my ass off if I get anything.

If.

last minute crap

It's bad. Really bad. It's not good.

One shouldn't be doing this. Shouldn't be doing everything last minute, before-hand without preparation, and attempting to smoke the way through. Here are the last minute things I have done in very recent times -

Ironically, Rafflesian Spotlight is counted as one last minute thing, because we did it impromptu.

PM Lee was one red-hot last minute item, because we dragged along Nigel 3 hours before, and gave Joseph the lyrics the very morning. And called him to take the shirt and pants that midnight.

My exam studying were all last-minute, all the day before. Entirely not ideal.

I know I've done so many last minute things, even down to everyday life. Not preparing what to bring before going outdoors, just changing and packing down to the very last second.

I don't do that for music. I prepare everything quite beforehand. But apparently it's starting to affect the way I do music too.

We memorised Rachmaninov last minute. Like, one hour before lesson, we just forced ourselves to memorise the entire thing. This shouldn't be the case! I should have memorised it long ago.

This really isn't a post for you guys to read, just a contemplative post from me. About how impromptu some things can be in my life.

Then again, John Yu asked me a few moments ago about my favourite Beatles songs.

Contemplative: Here Comes The Sun
Moody: Let It Be
Funeral: In My Life
Love: Here There Everywhere
Happy: Drive My Car
Revolutionary: Revolution
Hyper: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Jealous: Jealous Guy
Crazy: Get Back


"So, what, are you going to sign up for your options in RJC 10 minutes before?"

what a thoughtful line.
I must change myself.

How? How? Let's start with the testimonial.

The journey ends without the slightest regret!

And so ends our journey in Rafflesian Spotlight, and participating in the Marina Barrage thing to sing for Prime Minister Lee. I was singing for nearly half the day, and by the end I think my lungs just gave out. But there was enough time for me to still go eat supper with Fiona at McDonalds.

We then took the MRT back home, but by the time we reached Kranji, the MRT station shut down.

What's the past tense of shut down? Shat down? Heck.

Anyway so we took a taxi back but my dad had to pay for us -.- super embarassing sial. Emergency funds not in my wallet. Crap!!

Ok that's not the main point. The main point is that we didn't even get any of the top prizes in Rafflesian Spotlight! That's such a sad thing but I'm not feeling too bitter or anything. Before that we got to perform for PM Lee though, so it kinda nullified the feeling in the end.

Again the PM Lee thing was impromptu, because we didn't practise until yesterday morning! And we roped Nigel in, to harmonise with him at the very last minute, right before we took the car trip to the event at the Marina Barrage.

How amazing can RI guys get.

Adrian Pang: Let me confirm, you guys are from RI?
Me: Yeah
AP: What are your names? :)
Me: Jonathan, Joseph and Nigel
AP: Ok thanks!
Me: And what's yours?
AP: Adrian.

Nigel: Hehehe....sneaky huh? Jonshin sneaky...

Yeah but we put up a good show.

We then rushed back to RI to perform the final show of the night, and that was the Musical Comedy Impromptu thingy that probably everyone here knows. If you don't know what we're doing still? We sing anything text you give us, including melodies, harmonies, and pure entertainment.

But the other groups deserve it lah, just that apparently one of the organisers told me that the judges were the one who decided, because we tied for 2nd place in terms of votes.

I don't understand why they did that, but I know I will someday. Probably cos "you guys were geniuses", and we got penalized for that.

Yawn.

I'm super tired really. All my muscles and bones are aching, and I'm not in the best of mood currently (as in not pissed), just not upbeat and smiling. TIRED. really tired...

Although I'm sure i don't feel an inch of regret, cos we did our best, and I'm damn sure there wasn't anything we could improve on. But I'm planning in JC we could add drums and lead guitar and bass, and then it would sound awesome.

You would need 5 people with telepathy already. That would seriously be fun!

phew. the last hurdle.

It's been three long days and I have survived.

First big news: I MADE IT TO RJC!!!

If this guy didn't he would be sure to go ACJC. Then again she asked, "is ACJC good?"

Never really thought about that.

Anyway a few days back this professor called Jacques Rouvier came to Singapore/Conservatory to perform for the Sun Festival. I got to play for him Griffes and Mozart, and Mozart apparently was a style disaster. I kept playing the left hand and the right hand in disconjunction, and everytime I did that his face would twitch and he would make the weirdest sound ever possible at my physical disability.

Yeah but anyway I learned quite a little and felt good after the lesson. Amazingly, I realised all pressure was gone after I found out that there wasn't going to be a lesson after-all on Thursday, because I haven't really prepared much for it, and it will not be good should I go for one.

But it made sense though, since I already had lesson with Rouvier for that week. Is that the reason? Well another reason was that Rouvier was going to perform that Thursday evening (which is yesterday), so there wasn't any lesson.

Thursday morning was a joyous morning, when I woke up to realise that my GPA was dead-centre 2.0, without any moderation. My worst-ever. After moderation, it'll probably be pulled up, so that so much affirms more my position of going into RJC.

I know it's stupid to put my GPA here, but I kinda feel vindicated. Sortof. This inner feeling that I finally got to RJC after all the crap.

And Choong told me that I would get to have less time in school (yes!) so that totally means I can concentrate more on my music (YES!)

Rafflesian Spotlight rehearsal was next, from 2.15pm. Finally got to rehearse at 5.00, after Leon's solo.

I swear I didn't know Leon Lau could sing, until a few days ago. He chose a really nice song, smart choice.

We did our rehearsal, and we had a couple of unbelieving people, but we drew little laughter. Some, but little :( I think we didn't tell them what we were doing. Yeah, we were singing from the textbooks itself.

NIGEL, we HAVE TO TELL THEM WHAT WE'RE DOING. We can't keep them in suspense.
Heck, he'll probably see this tomorrow.

The reason why I didn't go to school today was because I woke up late. So much for trying to sleep early.



After rehearsal I took a taxi to the Conservatory to meet Chiling for dinner, and then after that went to YIH, eat, talk, laughed, realised some really funny mistakes. Can hardly stop smiling -.-

We watched Rouvier's concert, took bus and MRT back, I went to Boon Lay to bid goodbye (what with the chauvinism!), and then back to Jurong East, then blah blah blah yada yada yada.

And home.

The cookies were heavenly! Thank you for the cookies lah. It was a nice supper to compliment the end of the day.


the end.

The next morning I woke up, and then I obviously came here to type my blogpost.

What else?

Oh yeah, I MADE IT INTO RJC!!!

Please wish me luck for the Marina Barrage thing, and of course, Rafflesian Spotlight. Culmination of all my dreams. Today's a big day.

My schedule, my week, my phlame

Ok let me give you just a little bit of what is going to happen in the next few days. As usual, my schedule is cramped up like the wires behind my computer, but I'll cope.

In fact, I've coped so well that I am still here and not crying somewhere, but anyway I'm not in the mood for crying nowadays so...let's start with tomorrow.

Tomorrow I'll be playing Griffes Scherzo and Mozart Sonata for Jacques Rouvier from the Paris Conservatoire (of Music). Apparently he's super esteemed and that I was one of the 6 from Dr Hecht's studio to get selected to play for him. Tomorrow, 4-5pm.

Status: Ready, going to (continue) working on Mozart after finishing this post


Thursday, I'll be playing Ravel for Dr Hecht.

Status: Entirely not ready, no recording, no one to take notes, just going to dig out from my brains what we discussed last Thursday

Friday, we'll be playing in this Clean and Green fair at Marine somewhere, and we totally haven't rehearsed at all, haven't touched the songs, haven't got the chords, haven't informed the people, haven't lived. And also there will be Rafflesian Spotlight, the day we've been waiting for for 4 years. I've been waiting for. Nonetheless I'm not putting much effort into it yet, because impromptu is as easy-come-easy-go, just damn worried about getting team dynamics together again after a rusty one week.

Status: NA. No status at all.

Saturday I have to do my homework for Dr Hess's class, which I'll dutifully do, and I'm already 3/4 done. See, I'm so 'on' for music. Damn the necessary crap I'm doing in RI. Also think through what Dr Edwards said in our discussion about 20th century music and the social diversity, plus its impact on the music of the time.

Really amazing stuff, I've heard from him. And I'm putting effort in it to use in my pieces!!! Yes.



Next week, I've got MEP High Scorers Concert and...Piano Duels.

Nope, not on the same week, on the same day, and within an HOUR.

I'll perform for Piano Duels first, (I'm playing in the second and third spot) with Dr Hecht and ZAD, before taking a cab/daddy-fetch over to YMS, and finishing the night off with Griffes Scherzo. And then sing in the finale song, of course. Ain't going to miss that.

But I'm going to MISS THE PIZZA!

Now that's a big deal.


Ok my days before today hasn't been that free either. I performed with XD yesterday night at a wedding function which was attended by CEO/chairman? of Mediacorp, CEO of CapitaMall, and some very big person from Esplanade.

We wore suits and ties, and were formally dressed up, before belting out 6 songs consisting of dance numbers and love ballades.

Anyway we got them all jumping at the start, like they were engaged in serious-jumping, a sport which never made it to the Olympics but looked like it would in the near future, but the libido sort of died down at the end cos all the guests were kinda tired.

And we were still pumping them. Heck, I screwed up in U2's Beautiful Day and Fly me to the Moon, cos the effects...couldn't change it fast enough on Beautiful Day and instead of getting the 'High Wire' sound I got a freaking CLARINET. . . . . . It could totally have been worse. It could have been a bassoon, then I die.

Anyway it was a real success, and plus my initiation rite as a member of XD!!! Yes...after 4 freaking years of trying to find for a band in RI to join (other than being asked by other bands to join theirs, I finally got to a credited band. Great. We're going to make it even better.) What an end to my four years in RI.

This whole performance thing was on Monday evening.

Monday morning? That was a different story.

(Scene transport to the scenic YST)

So I'm there, like, 9.45am, ON TIME for the masterclass that was to take place at 10am. Alas, it was not to be. There were around 8 people there, including an old man, and a couple of people. So I decided that I wouldn't be standing there and took a seat behind the box office, the one with the sliding chairs.

Immediately I got bombarded with questions as to what time the masterclass would start (I was later told it would start at 11am, much to my disappointment, because erm...XD rehearsal starts at 10.30am? Hm. Kinda late, ain't it.)

An old man pleaded with me to let him use my phone, but that day I wasn't feeling like I needed punches to my being, so I lent him my phone. Duh. Under any circumstances I would...but anyway he was like thanking me so much, and I was bombarded with couple of smiles around from this 'helpful student assistant who isn't even dressed in black, but HE IS because he's sitting behind the box office counter'.

Small world, small world, I met Chiling there again. So we were supposed to go watch at 10am, but now it was at 11am, so we went to the 3rd storey again and followed the Rachmaninov 2nd Piano Concerto score with my mp3 blasting its guts out with the Piano Concerto score. We were successful till the 3rd movement, when my mp3 couldn't continue playing.

What a dumb mp3.

As she saw, my nokia phone is kinda screwed, because the sliding thing in front of it just came off.

Eh, Fiona, you know right, that sliding thing that changes the screen to radio mode and music mode. Yeah, that one. Yeah yeah, yeah! That one. -.- Ok same phone lah huh, that's why I put here oops.

I would gladly exchange my new phone for Chiling's old Nokia. Really. You can type faster with that, and erm, my sorta legendary speed without dictionary can be improved. But of course, with all the calls able to continue without being cut-off. Hmmm...

Went down to watch the masterclass for a while, before me having to leave after half-an-hour because of the rehearsal. Amazing! I wonder how tight my schedule can get anymore.


Another amazing thing is that I have yet to talk about my RESULTS.

Ok I did much better than expected for English, I got 31/45!!! Liyoung top in class got 36/37? I think 37. You know, the key to success, (in Choong's voice), 'is never to study anything'. Works totally, especially, ESPECIALLY if you have a concert the day before. Hm. I wonder, when can we study?

I flunked Chinese as expected, and Physics as expected, and probably Mathematics and Chemistry as expected. And then the rest all were be with flying colours. The rest meaning Social Studies and Music!!! Wait. There's still Literature. Which this time, I seriously don't think I can pass. I did really crappily.

As in, not those kind of girl crappily, where they say they die like shit and want to commit suicide and drink some obnoxious potions and then they get GPA 4.0 (98% OMG WHY CAN'T GET 100%????!!!) those kind of crappily, but like.

You know, guy-honest, "I did badly for this, I think I'll get 0.8." And then come out, REALLY 0.8.

Wait, then Byap must be a girl. And Jeffery also. Oh no!

I can't wait to see my MEP marks, I think I'll do pretty well. I'm just a little pissed with Yuchen about him complaining about the MEP papers being copied word-for-word, note-for-note from the O-level papers of yesteryears.

As in, him complaning that he wrote serialism instead of bitonality and that he got it right last year and not this year is entirely nonsense! Just plain nonsense. If you studied, then obviously you know that two chords that are disjunct and are vertically placed is obviously a sign of bitonality. There's no pick between serialism and bitonality. In fact, the argument shouldn't even be about whether it was right last year or right this year.

If you know it, you know it. If you knew it was bitonality by understanding what bitonality is, then the answer is obviously quite clear. Who the heck mugs for examinations by memorising past year papers. Anyway, I don't think Dennis did anything wrong or 'cheated' by looking at the notes. He didn't even know those would come out anyway...it's just that he's lucky that he got the right paper at the right time.

Ok just to justify the fact that I think someone's like insinuating the fact that he cheated.

YES! I just did my first little flame post after many months. Forgot how to flame already. Am I flaming? I've shown both sides of the story and was fair in my judgement. Ok, not flaming.

Phlaming should be something that doesn't discuss the opposite point of view, and declaring all of them as facts without checking. I've talked to Yuchen. Yes!

I phail in phlaming though.

kwek lyrics shin music

naice.

simple two-step process.

'can write lyrics about best friend?'

'can.'

(two days later it comes out on livejournal)

'it's about best friend not lovers'

'oh, i forgot'

1 week later

'eh, i need three words, each with one syllable, for power chords as lyrics'

'ok'

(1 hour later)

'Here they are'

'Ok thank you'

'We have a song'

'Where Sparrows Go/Where the Sparrows Go"

I rented X-Men 3 two days ago and watched it at night. Really love the ending, the part where Magneto (assumed to have lost all his powers) plays chess with himself, and then he reaches out towards a metal chess piece, it quivers a little, and then ...

[ENDING CREDITS with LOUD MUSIC]

I've been going to Yisin's house for XD practice these few days - there's a wedding gig going on Monday at Sentosa. Songs include:

The Great Escape
Love Brings Us Through
Dare You To Move
Better Man
Fly Me To The Moon

And two other songs that I have forgotten and not bothered to go to my bag to check what the other two songs are.

We were thinking about what to say while I was playing the introduction to Fly Me To The Moon before we sang, like:
"Thank you for this great night, and we would like to dedicate this song, this song is a jazzy number, and we bring you "Fly me to the Moon!" ..Fly me to the moon, and let me..."

Here were some of my suggestions:
'I know the groom is drunk, but you forgot to zip your Fly me to the moon, and let me...'
'Oh my God, is this place dirty or what? There's a houseFly me to the moon, and let me...'

Yeah, the band stopped for 5 minutes to laugh.

After the practice session from 10.30 to 2.3o (time passes by damn quickly, trust me, when you're playing in an ensemble. oh wait, not RISE, yeah. Sorry Mr Sze...), and went straight to the Conservatory again, not wanting to repeat last week's sucky lesson.

I didn't repeat it, basically because I didn't play the same piece as last week. Some quick wits from me. AND FOR THE FIRST TIME NO SCREWUPS in scales except the VERY last chromatic scale.

So I was like, play play play, YES it's the last one now. So I play play play and then SCREW up.

What do you expect. It always happens to guys. Stupid adrenaline.

Anyway Chiling (Miss Tan's student) from NYGH came to watch our lesson yesterday, the lesson where Aidi came one hour late. After she finished playing I was half-crying. Andreas was there too, hope he didn't see my tears. Suanned.

Photo-taking session later with Rafflesian Spotlight band members Nigel and Joseph in RI, for now it's back to finishing the chords for a poem/song that Kwek had written. We're a good songwriter-lyricist team. He does the lyrics, me the song-writing. Simple as that.

My pop gave Dr Hecht and Chiling a lift, and then we were done for the day. Just, half-exhausted.

This morning has been a really cold morning - temperature should be around 22 degrees. If Singapore freezes over...well I know for sure Dr Hecht would be happy, but the Government wouldn't. Wonder what they would do.

Performance for PM Lee is in 7 days time, and we haven't even rehearsed ANY songs. Die already. Confirm die. Sianz. Maybe I should start today.

Yesterday...all my (cough hack hack hack)

Yesterday was a eventful day.

Once I finished Chinese paper (which was good for my standards) I went for the MEP paper...I think I lost 4 marks already, left one Stravinsky question worth 3 marks (the one that asks what happens directly after this section) and the pipa/guzheng one. I'm pretty sure it sounded like a peepa.

Damnit.

Then after that we went to go play soccer with my yellow-purple ball, everyone was laughing so much cos we were throwing the stupidest jokes around. Really isn't good when the game was tiring. Firstly the ball was smaller than a normal size ball.

Secondly, the court was bigger than the usual MEP size court. MEP size court being 4 metres by 2 metres. This court was erm....the basketball court.

Hongrui busted his ankle (signifying half-time), and we were panting so much that we made dogs cry. Second half resumed, I think I scored one goal (no one could remember anything under the 1pm Sun). I laughed the most when Hongrui was goalkeeper, and then he pointed to one spot before kicking and shouted, "Hongrui!" and proceeded to kick.

Then the whole world broke down in peals of laughter. Man, and we were throwing 'shit' insults around. "Can't aim your shit don't shit larh..." blah blah guy jokes.

The game ended with me. Yeah, I think Samuel Koh kicked and then I ran forward and blocked the shitball with my solar plexus. Amazing.

Originally it was headed for my chest, but I jumped too high (trying to grow taller) and it went below my sternum. The feeling is totally awkward, because first you feel a cold sensation in your body, and then suddenly the solar plexus is burning. BURNING.

Btw, for your information, the solar plexus is really vulnerable. On the bright side, if I jumped 40cm more, it might hit another vulnerable spot. Yeah, juust that close. :)

After that the whole world went to McDonalds (whole world meaning Dennis, Hongrui, Me, Jinghu...Imba, Samuel, Maximillian, Eugene) Leonard and Gerald Sng left early.

KFC being at J8, where almost all of the student world except for those in Tuas and Changi (Tuas Sec, anyone?) come to sometimes. We ate at KFC before witnessing a fight that took place outside McDonald's, our idea of a fight being 30 people gathering in a circle. Then they took it outside, before two policemen came, and I think they all diffused. And then suddenly the two policemen ran up the escalators.

A few minutes later they brought down a guy in school uniform, brought him outside, and the policemen started writing down some things on their notebooks (paper one lah, you got see policemen carry electronic notebook one meh? Suddenly fight fight then spoil how? You pay ah?).

Hell, don't know what they were doing, Blue's Clues maybe.

Ok after lunch was rehearsal and a 3 hour jamming session with XD members at Yisin's 3 storey house I think.

Apparently we're playing for a wedding gig so I practised with them. It really looked like musical heaven, cos the living room floor was full of wires and plugs, pedals, amplifiers, stands and mikes, one white solid electric guitar, another gold-furnished on the sofa, one electric blue electric guitar, one black acoustic guitar, one brown classical guitar, one solid Fender bass, and in the middle of it all, the drumset. And of course, beside it all the piano. The amplifiers were really huge btw.

I switched to the Fender bass after a while, and then....then...heck. It was undescribable. Played different songs together, improvised a solo in a bossa nova piece...

Tried out drums, succeeded and managed to play two full jams with them on drums. I sang a blues rock and roll song into the mike, lyrics being "I don't like your face" I think. Lennie was there, Eugene was there. We had a rolling time.

Played a bit of FIFA 09, and then my dad fetched Lennie back home, and Eugene back home.

What a long, enjoyable, rollicking fun day.

Yesterday was an eventful day.

Mr. Taxi Driver

Taxi drivers are really amazing. They are the drivers of Singapore, literally, the eyes and ears of the people. They are constantly seeing, listening, sharing about Singapore and its progress.

Today while coming back home from University I waited half an hour in vain for a taxi driver. I was so frustrated that I kinda walked on the road frontwards and backwards as much as Imma asked me whether I was planning to end my life.

[The second time of the day someone asked me whether I was - first time was when I showed Nigel my seventh-storey SR Block photo shot, and he asked me whether I was having any funny ideas when I went up there. Ur, hurhurhur. ]

Anyway when a taxi finally came along I put on a long face and stepped into the car. I was panicking, because of MEP and Chinese (which I don't give a shit about) that was being held tomorrow. The only reason why I'm blogging now is because I finished learning already.

The taxi driver soon realises that I'm a part-time NUS student and a RI student (after questioning about the badge and the uniform, and the venue he picked me up at). Then he realises that I'm a music student and I'm a piano major. We soon engage in a lively discussion about instruments (even though I was tired, and at first I was just trying to sorta sleep).


Then the question hit while we were reaching Bukit Panjang.

"What makes a good musician?"

Never has anyone (much less a taxi driver) asked me that except on the Internet, but someone asking me right in my face about 'what makes a good musician" was serious business. I was at a lost for some time, trying to put together all my thoughts and all my guts. To give my best shot at this question that I hardly ponder about.

Was I a good musician?

Well I proceeded to tell him that a good musician must be a good communicator, to be able to communicate with everyone around him to produce good music. So basically humans are good musicians (what a stupid way to avoid the question) - and then I used a philosophically-fallacied question by saying that no animals were musicians - only humans were capable of it(which I know is false to quite a degree).

But Mr. Taxi Driver said there's no such thing as a good musician. But there's such a thing called good music - and all good music comes from Mother Nature herself.

Well for most of the conversation he was talking about Mother Nature and the Chinese instrument (which I think is non-existent) called Guqin. Is there such an instrument? Please help me check if you're free.

Ok, Mr. Taxi Driver was partly/wholly avoiding the question, but his talk about all good music coming from Mother Nature is partly/wholly true also.

I managed to counter him back by saying humans were all part of Mother Nature, but he told me that he didn't mean that. He meant the rustling of leaves when they fall, the sound of rain when it hits the ground, the insects, the birds and everything.

Well, it's true. Look at what Messien did. Look at what Beethoven did. Look at what Mozart did. All walks in the parks and collecting and researching. Mozart, talking to people around him, making joy, music.

Yadayadayadayada. Point of the day is, Mr Taxi Driver is awesome.

When the trip ended, he wished me good luck and all the success possible in life, looking deep into my jaded eyes. Freaking rhyme not intended. And I bid him good-bye after that, profusely thanking him lorh. But after that I was pretty inspired again. I'll keep in mind about what he said.

My Week. Again.

I decided to delete my fantasy blog and write it in my own free time.


Like you know, in a book form. Ok, like in a book. A novel. A novellette.


There's Mathematics, Chinese, and MEP left. And I taught Bryan yesterday! Didn't know teaching could be so fun. Basically he played his ABRSM pieces and I only touched on the List A piece and assigned him a scale. And taught him a scale method. Probably coming around again next week.


I came to his house at around 4pm yesterday, taught him till 5.30, then after that did Mathematics before giving up because I didn't know a single shit. I missed the entire chapter of 'Vectors' while I was in Ibiza, which prompted LiYoung to say,



"Yeah, did you know we went to the Moon while you were away?"
KaKiong: "Yeah yeah!!"
Baskets...


Was originally supposed to play soccer today at 5.30 but totally didn't see Adriel's sms to meet at CCAB. I'll look like a noob in front of all his soccer pals, but heck. Maybe I'll play after Tuesday. After Tuesday, there'll be MEP soccer! Who the hell can't wait for that.


With played together for 4 years, since Sec 1 in the Junior Block, and now in RJC. We've used so many different kinds of balls - actual soccer ball, bottle cap (which would be crushed so much it looked nearly like a ball), bottle, tennis ball, floor ball, bowling ball. Yeah, right. Hurhur. 5 people play 1 person come out alive.

Anyway yeah anything that could be kicked and could pass through under 2 metres of space would be played. Yeah, so we didn't touch those balls.

This Tuesday we're playing again at the basketball court, so any MEPpers who see this, please bring thy PE T-shirts and your PE shorts and come play.


To sum up my bad week:

1) I have very bad time management.

2) I am constantly tired or yawning, but I don't like to complain.

3) My dad asked whether it's cos I'm short so I have very low self-esteem.

4) I screwed up for Chemistry but did better in Physics.

5) Literature was a total blank and mess.

6) Thursday was burn-out day after having a bad lesson of piano - what's the use of lesson if you play all the same mistakes you played last week?

7) Friday after that was fast heartbeat day, with trepiditions and twitches and constant yawning.

8) Saturday was Ear-Training with Dr Makarome and Music Technology with Dr Hess. And Dr Makarome showed us a Harry Potter replica wand he bought from 100 plus dollars. We pretended to be wizards for a bit, before going on a slow jazz jam. Dr Hess's class was great, did everything quickly and Finale is starting to become easy to use.

9) After that we went for Dr Hecht's Four Hand class again, playing Rachmaninov's Polka. Played the six-hands Rachmaninov Romance with Dr Hecht and Aidi ( I was in the middle). Dr Hecht says he plans to play it with us in the concert, after which he would leave the stage to allow us to play the 4-hands Polka.

The Romance entirely inspired me to write a Romance for Violin, Viola and Piano, which I was trying to conjure up a melody for while eating lunch.

10) Went to Bryan's house to teach and be taught. Met Bryan's tutor/cousin Norman (not Musclewari) and he taught us Mathematics. For once, Math was fun as Bryan and I rushed to complete a question, which took us half an hour, and never was solved. Constantly distracted by the Romance I was thinking about.

11) Bryan's brother Ben, who was 6, gave me a punch to the back, which I never recovered from.

12) I stabbed myself at one of the desk corners literally. Note: Not scratch. There's a hole with blood in my hand now. And it hit an acupunture point linked to my fifth finger. (I'm sure of that because that was where I have been acupunctured before.)

13) Typed out MEP Notes, and then walked to taxi stand while talking about GTA 4 to Choong. Met a gangster smoker who told us to 'queue up'. Well he wasn't standing at the taxi stand in the first place, he was standing ON the road.

Basically sums up my week.

Cool, 13 points, unlucky week. Lol, definitely a coincedence and not planned. I hope next week will be a better week...

For all the confusion

Ok just to clear things up the fantasy blog I created contains a concept and an alternate reality where selfishly I wake to find only ME and ME in it.

And what I will do if there's only ME in it.

And how lonely I will feel if there's only ME in it.

And who I'll miss if there's only ME in it.

And when will everyone be back if there's only ME in it.

And why there's only ME in it.

The idea itself is pretty scary, and I'm writing EXACTLY what I would do if the world suddenly disappears and I'm the only person left in it. Well basically I'm writing it from a blogpoint of view, which means like, how it happens in real life. Something happens and I blog about it. Yeap.

I find the concept REALLY APPEALING, and I'm very sure I can hold out till next year and years to come.

Yes, if there's only ME in it. Watch me degenerate.

Anyway I'm at the Conservatory now, 4 more hours to go before my lesson. Someone took/I lost the Ravel Sonatine book, which cost $22. Anyone who took it/or picked it up please retuuurn, all my details and notes are in there.

Secondly, someone took/I lost my Gulliver's Travels book. Ok I'm pretty sure someone stole this book this time, directly after I started dog-earing and annotating the book. Tomorrow's the test, will you please return it to me? Will greatly appreciate.

You guessed it, Tuesday was the concert, and Wednesday was the Chemistry Test.
Let's do some math. Let's say I get home at around...put it to 11pm. And my Chemistry is like, GPA 0.8. If I study and get full marks for the test, I'll still get GPA 1.2.

That's a huge difference! I should have studied so that I wouldn't fail. Oh wait, GPA 1.2 is PHAIL!!!

Well I did study in the end, but I slept with my glasses on at 1.

The next day, ho-ho-ho, 5 pages blank.

Called my dad after the test.

"Hello Dad?"
"Yeah boy just finish Chem Test?"
"Yeah"
"ah...ha, HA, HA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA"
"..."
"bad right?"
"yeah 5 pages blank"


I forgot his response, but he minded little.

Physics was better than expected. Expected WASN'T 80/80, damn it. If not I would have gotten 85. I really hope my expected was 35. Maybe I'll get 40. That's a pass. My expectations are super low - what do you expect from a guy like me? You can get me to write a novel, or even better, make me practise for a full day, but get full marks for a Chemistry/Physics/Math paper? Forget it.

Ok, I'm typing quite loudly in the Computer Lab now. You should see how loud I can manage to type. But the important thing is how FAST. ahhh....

Currently in a song-writing collaboration with Kwek. I'm really hoping my mind doesn't pop up with oldie melodies again, because that's probably all I can think of. So I'm listening to more modern and contemporary music now. Check out like, 1990s radio adult music. Yeah, that kind.

He finished the lyrics already, and it's really good. Good enough for me to think whether I should compose a piano fantasy of it or just stick to lyrics. I'll stick to the latter I think.

Ok, back to practising Ravel. Cya guys later. And wish me luck for my Literature and Chinese tomorrow. I'll be back at 10.30 tonight, so if I die for them tomorrow, just blame it a little on the Conservatory.

:X

Concept Story

http://i-talk-you-listen-fantasy.blogspot.com/

Concerto Extra Avangan Za

Yes, I can't believe I didn't blog for 3 days already. The unearthly hour of 1.38am and I'm blogging here.

Tomorrow there will be the Concerto Extravaganza, which ZAD will be performing Chopin's Fantasie in and I'll be accompanying her on orchestral reduction. I would also like to mention that I will be disappointing you guys with this blog post, because there isn't much to post and I don't have anything to post.

If you are wondering what kept me up so late, it was Jackie Chan's Rob-B-Hood, which I suddenly felt the urge to catch probably because it was one of the movies that my mum and I watched TOGETHER, and we were laughing out loud. Rare moments, but treasured indeed. So I decided to watch them again.

Am I too sensitive or what? I teared when I listened to Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto 3rd Movement 2nd subject. I hope it's nothing too scary, and I hope it's normal.

It wasn't even just swooning of the head, I was TEARING!!!

1) Rachmaninov is really a genius.
2) Tarin and Clarence play it so freaking well.

To see whether you're sensitive or not, why not just come down to watch us play tomorrow man. Apparently tomorrow's works are really big and powerful, and even Dr Hecht and Mr Tiu suggested that next time they should split it into two nights, because 'the audience wouldn't be able to take it.'

It's true. With all its glory and power.

I heard this rumor - apparently if you sleep late you get pimples cos of stress and you grow in your sleep so if you sleep less you don't grow. Ah, see, one hand up to deny that already.

Oh, look, that's another one. Alright alright, I know what you guys mean, it's NOT TRUE!

To a certain extent. I'm just kinda finding an excuse for my current predicament.

Fact of the Day: I'm hungry. I want to go IKEA to eat the spaghetti and meatballs now. Right now. I am going to take a taxi to IKEA, demand they open, and eat their spaghetti. All of them. Talking about interesting things to blog, I can only blogged that I went with Akkra and his family to Clarke Quay to have dinner and sorts.

You know, the way I look at Clarence, the way he presents himself on first impression, is really great. Like, check it out, I walk into his parents' hotel room where they're resting (and his 14yo sister is there) and I'm like,

Heck, put on a sullen face and look serious. That's it, that's it, look so freaking serious and hope they smile at you.

No wonder the parents smile at me (count all the years of experience in PR) and the sister doesn't.

Scenario 2:
Clarence walks up with all his perfume and all and gelled-up hair, gives a 1000-watt smile and the whole world smiles at him :)

No wonder I have to learn from Clarence. Heck, he taught me so many things in Germany. Good guy, good guy.



I hope you guys don't mind my titanium-plastic tooth when I smile,
Or the sound of nitrogen-popping when I flex my wrist,
Blah blah blah blah blah blah -ile,
blah blah yada-yada-yada-yada piss.

How's that for a poem, eh? Never know when they might call me up to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Literature.

But then again, I should not start on the self-pitying crap and proceed to post emo messages on MSN. After all, the last time I did it was the last time I had a close-enough friend/girlfriend/fwen/gerlfwen (check Scotland, Ireland), which was in 2006.

Why not, let's go for this later in life and bother about having a stable financial income in this financial crunch NOW?

It's the best alternative plan.

Hope to see you people tomorrow!!!

tiramisu

No, in case you're thinking, there're no pictures or anything above the text. It's a scanning error. It's really a blank space.

Seriously.

Yes, this article caught my eye because of 'SOURCE OF STEM CELLS'. Do you know how helpful that can be to the human race, or even to animals? Damn, we'll be all healthy and no longer diseased!

No, we still need it. Please don't take it away from us.

Yeah, the stem cells part.

Absolutely.

And if I sound really like, sarcastic and smarting.

I'm a little drunk now (:O) because I took a huge chunk of alcoholic tiramisu while at a wine-tasting session with my dad and Dr. Hecht, of which I failed to taste any wine because I don't touch alcohol. Let's say I didn't, because I ATE SOME OF IT.

Damn. It's a sin to me you know, consuming alcohol. I feel damn dumb now because I never should have taken the tiramisu. Never...now I'm stained. Now I can't proudly say I have never consumed alcohol before to anyone.

Now, I'm a little dizzy. And nearly on the verge of letting you see what I had for dinner just a few hours ago.

Today's English and S.S were good. Near-good, near-very good. I felt good after that, which is good because I don't want to be bugged the whole of next week, when I really die. I'm the worst at Math, Physics, and Chemistry, which kinda you know, like, kinda tell you how I don't like the Sciences?

Yeah.

Dedicated to the prefects in our class

10.52pm, dirty, not showered yet, just back from piano lesson.

My dad is in the living room entertaining some guests, while I stay here and do a little blogpost before the EOYs begins. Tomorrow, we'll be having English and Social Studies! I'm pretty confident for SS, although I need some more practice on English and more familiarity with the essay sequence. I know I can do it.

Probably like how I did Ravel today.

Today started with lots of trepedition, because on the second period we were going to have our last PE lesson - and we were going to have our last organized soccer game.

We played two games, my team lost the first game 2-0, but my team won the second game 1-0, goal courteous of blogger. The first game was really a give-away, because Shang (our goalkeeper), while clearing the ball, passed it straight to Joseph, erm, the opposing striker.

If logic rules, I think the opposing striker would attempt to score straight from within 5 metres, which was what Joseph did. And he scored.

Couple of nice volleys,you know, nice moves and all that, nice things that girls will never be interested in reading. To cater to thy mixed-gender readers, I shall move on.

Well, interesting thing was that I broke my right ring toe-nail. Think I ripped it off when LiYoung used me as a pivot when he tried to tackle me. Which he succeeded. Suay.

I was feeling despaired for most of the day, because I thought I was going to die when I played Ravel later. I really feel great for the transformation that I went through - when I was young every minute at the piano felt like an hour. And every practice session (8pm-10pm) felt like years...especially when the clock was directly in front of me.

While practising at the Conservatory today I was feeling depressed how time passed by so quickly. It's not often that one gets to enjoy the sounds of the piano, and I think I took lots of time trying to listen and savour each note.

Cheers to Ravel.

Not much before that - when I read Zhongren's blog yesterday, I spotted this segment -

"out of the goodness of my heart.WARNING TO ALL. if you're not a judoka, please for your sake don't hit me unexpectedly.coz i WILL hit back and i found out i usually can't control it =(means it's already reflexive for meso take care around me =D "

I think it was for me, cos I jumped him while in class and he did some judo move on me which I tried to counter, but failed obviously. Not like professional ninjutsu student Chua Li Young (seriously. like, he goes for ninjutsu training every weekend). So basically he turned me upside down and nearly broke my ribs until I gave a shout. He stopped, luckily.

While, about the ninjutsu thing I saw it with my own eyes when Zhongren attempted to jump Li Young. Zhongren managed to bring Li Young down, but the ninjutsu guy dragged judo guy down and flipped over him, before nearly bringing down on free hand on his adam's apple/sternum. Can't remember.

All of us watching that day were really shocked, cos hell, who takes on a judoka student?

Today's last period was free for me, so I walked to the printing room with Leon and Benjamin Low, spoke to Enzhao and Theophilus for nearly an hour.

I had time to spare anyway, lesson was at 7.30.

Kwek! The heck about the meme quiz - obviously it isn't ZAD or Andrea. Yeah, just like to make it a point to all of you who have done the meme quiz and have the questions;

Question 26 DOES NOT refer to ZAD or Andrea. I'm talking about the freshmen and sophomore girls. Count third-year students in also.

For you people who are lazy, Question 26 is:
Someone you think you could seduce.

Ah-hah! Noobs. Oh no, I just revealed a question to those who haven't done the meme yet. Will I be cursed? Will I be ruined? No.



I would like to end this post by talking about our class prefects - Jun Sean and Matthias. Throughout these 2 years with them, I realised they're maybe a little different from other prefects. Like, they manage to keep discipline and enforce the rules through their working relationships with us, which is really good because they don't like, 'change face'.

As in, they don't like, be one person and be another in the next lah.

I feel great to have them as our class prefects. Taking Jun Sean for example, who allowed me to change my PE T-Shirt in class when I told him I had a broken toe nail and I couldn't walk to the toilet.

Yeah. Like he said, "The law is fair. If it's reasonable, then...(something something which I forgot)." Maybe he said then it's alright. Really understanding.

And Matthias also. For all the freaking times we eat in class. Well at least he understood we were lazy and I don't think he booked us that much. But he did book me once though. :)

Anyway the thing is that, they're nice and understanding people, ok? This post is dedicated to them, as I had promised Jun Sean earlier in the morning.



Good Luck to all people taking EOYs.

See you'll tomorrow.

Greenwave 2

I pricked myself with the RJC badge that I normally wear to school which hardly anyone notices unless they stare and scrutinize at...what! What are you staring at, man! Shoo, shoo!

I can't believe I got back to work on the first movement again. Recently I was clearing my desk when I saw the manuscript book with my drafts for my piano concerto in it, different themes and subjects. I'm currently at the third original melody, which is pretty weird because I prefer just two motives and then I keep using them.

Taking a point from Joseph Haydn, when he mention that amateurs usually look for new materials in the creation of a piece and do not make use of motives that appear in the earlier part of the piece.


I wanted to do a review of the Quintessential concert I attended yesterday night but unfortunately was too tired to do anything, just read KS Bull and some music book before sleeping. That's different from FALLING ASLEEP.

I want to do it now, but I got to continue practising my Ravel Sonatine, so no review.

But I am totally sure that it's either one of the best, or the best concert I've ever been to watched in the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory. In the first half we heard Tan Dun's Eight Colours for String Quartet, and then Mozart's Quintet in E flat major. In the second half we heard Schubert's Quintet for Cello and Strings.

No, it was really crazily nice. Although Tan Dun's Quartet was quite modern (with no sense of harmony), it really imitated Cantonese opera so well, that it looked like we were watching a dark and sombre Peking opera. The Quintet following that lived up to its expectations and Mozart's stated best composition he had ever written - the master mentioned that himself! All the best people in their respective field's of their instruments played - Head of Oboe, Head of Bassoon, Head of Horn, and Head of Clarinet - all of them principals in the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. And of course, Head of Piano! Yay...

The Quintet by Schubert was such a refreshing experience - I've never heard a Quintet for Cello and Strings before, but it was so well-coordinated and engineered. Well, that's not the point. We're not even talking about the technical parts here...we're already talking about the human spirit in the piece that was evidently present throughout. Gave me goosebumps at time. Anyway, Qin Li-Wei was playing it also, kudos to him and Leslie for making my evening experience full - I play the piano and cello too in case you'll don't know.




I got down to some revision, so much so that I'm alright already for Social Studies. I've got a 3.6 for Social Studies! (which is good.) And a 3.6 in MEP also! (which is not good. because I'm a music student and I should be better at it.)

Many big things happening: it's confirmed that I will be performing along with a band that I've set up for Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on the 31st October, which is also my Rafflesian Spotlight performance, which is also Dr. YKH's birthday!!!

Yeah, there's this Clean-and-Green thing that some big government organizers organized, and apparently they sent a formal letter to the school asking for:

Mr Jonathan Shin
Mr Yong Zhiyi
Mr Lee Jinghui
Mr Chu Benwee

to perform the Green Crotchets: Songs for the Environment. The Guest-of-Honour is Prime Minister Lee. (resonates in the head) At which point Choong exclaims, "No big deal!"

Lol. So we're singing 5 songs, all of them originally composed as a group last year.

http://i-talk-you-listen.blogspot.com/2008/01/studio-recording-pictures.html

We've got a deal to re-record the songs so that they can be distributed to all primary schools next year, but I have to settle recording Flame of Youth (our national day song that apparently the RI teachers say are even better than the current lot written by the adults. hehe.) before recording the Greenwave songs.

Cheers.

On the new list of priorities -
1. To rehearse the Greenwave songs to a purfect state. Like, how professional bands do it. People doing it are:

Jonathan Shin - voice/keyboard/backup voice
Marcus Lee - voice
Benjamin Low - voice/keyboard/backup voice
Ian Yee - backup voice
Jonathan Lim - acoustic guitar
Yong Zhi Yi - keyboard, voic...no, just keyboard.
David Ng - electric bass
Daniel Lim - drums

Hell of a superband.

2. Record Flame of Youth of EOYs
3. Finish my piano concerto by the end of JC1. So I can submit in JC2 for free composition.

I'm just again of the old and new styles that I can merge in the concerto. Thinking of traditional melodies or things that make up a traditional Singapore melody.

4. Write a song that Choong suggested - "(This Love) Is Too Easy".

Oh wait.

5. EOYs.

Relieved..

Relieved.

Made it back home at 10.35pm. I was absolutely nearly right when I told Liyoung my day was going to end at 10.30pm. Unfortunately I've decided to stay on for two more hours just to watch some stupid ninjutsu videos and revise my notebook aptly called "Notes to get me into RJC".

I'm supposed to do my comprehension. Objective word being supposed. This time, I have no excuses. The last place I went to was Bukit Timah Hawker Centre, you know the one with two stories, and the 2nd storey basically is the hawker centre itself, and the 1st storey would be the wet market, where all the morning aunties gather to buy fish for the day.

I hit the stalls there at around 9.30 with my dad, after I finished my Studio Class from 7-9.

Why am I going backwards.

Let's take the above as a flashback, and let's go straight to the start of the day.



The start of day got me crossing the same zebra crossing again, with the same security guard there who doesn't do anything at all by the road, other than staring at cars and boys in tight pants like us. Thanks, sir. Well, you never know, some of us might be terrorists carrying 2kg loads of TNT in our pants, WATCH OUT!

I walked straight to the Raffles Square, and then today being Monday we had school anthem, blah blah blah. Talking about ties.

Yeah, on Monday we have to wear ties. I thought I didn't bring mine, because I couldn't find it in my bag. I did bring mine though, I found it in the end. And poor Clinton, he was begging around for one and I along with him at the beginning. But then I realised I brought my tie, so I was laughing heartily while I placed that tie around my neck.

Sorry Clinton.

First period was Chinese. Don't ask - Chinese sucked again. What with having to stand up every lesson, like 8 of us standing up again because we didn't do stuff. For me, I didn't hand in my Chinese file, so the sentence is really really unfair because the rest didn't do more things than me. At which point I should bawl like a baby but I cannot because I'm not a baby.

The rest of school was a blur, but we did talk alot during Literature and I did write down lots of things during Literature on 'Notes to get me into RJC'. Good job Jonathan.

I never fail to address myself in third-person in my blogposts.


Yeah, rest of school was a blur until I took 156 heading for my university. Guess what? The Bishan Gay was on the bus! I realised that when ALL the RI guys all crowded to the back of the car and I was the last person to get on the bus. Everyone blinking eyes. The bus driver waited for me super long because I was running down the overhead bridge, and everyone was already sitted right at the back of the bus, like all cramped there.

No wonder. I stepped into the bus and my skin could almost feel the burns of a dozen stares. Thanks, fellow Rafflesians. Fine, so I clambered to the back also. At least I was nice to offer my seat to a RJC girl but she refused (cos she was talking to a RJC guy hehe so much for being a raspberry). Many thanks for letting me keep the seat!

There was company on the bus though - sitting behind me was Yuxin from Choir and my Literature Class, and beside him was Tuck Wai, a guy who's in Rafflesian Spotlight and who beat-boxes.

Yeah so he nearly started beat-boxing in the bus but we stopped him, although I also nearly started joining him in improvising lyrics in the bus. Wanted Yuxin to do the bass but he refused. Why cannot? Three people enough already lah.

Guess the unluckiest thing.

THE BISHAN GAY was going to get of the same bus stop as me. So I was like, fingers crossed, some RI guy come along with me please I need to prepare myself for Chopin orchestral reduction no time for distractions blah blah blah.

Even Chopin had George Sand. Although he had some guy called Titus (which reminds me of 'What is Titus without Us? Tits! Tits!' - the utterly famous line chanted by his supporters).

Thankfully, Yuxin went down at the same bus stop as me - no. Look I didn't force him to alright? He had to reach home as soon as possible and his next bus came along at that bus stop so not guilty. Not guilty.

RI guys 1 Bishan Gay 0

I hate how all of us get so freaked out by the Bishan Gay. If we exterminate him, we exterminate this vermin, this pest that goes around terrorizing our students, even from RJC and schools that are along the 156 route. Look, it wasn't even coincedental! He memorises our timetables and goes on the bus EXACTLY when we get dismissed. Why are you doing this? Why are you like, making all my fellow comrades squeeze to the back of the bus like sardines in a can or rats in a river or lemmings down the cliff?

I foresee a day though that we'll all not be afriad anymore, we can walk at Junction 8 with freedom and no fear. That however, unfortunately, wouldn't be in my Rafflesian lifetime.



Some bad news: ON 31st October, there's going to be some environmental thingy that PM Lee might come to be the GOH, but...what! Ok fine.

There's goin gto be some environmental thingy that PM Lee might come to be the Guest-of-Honour, and it's going to be held on the 31st October. The thing is that, they have invited our Greenwave group (remember last year when we had the Greenwave album?) to sing some songs from our original band album, in front of the PM.

Thing is....thing is...Rafflesian Spotlight '08 is also going to be on 31st October. What am I going to do? Both shows are going to be held in the evening - my choice? I'll be going for the PM thing, after they confirm that the PM is going to be there. Otherwise, my school's ahead. I'll go for the Rafflesian Spotlight.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that PM Lee wouldn't be there on the 31st October, so I can sing at Rafflesian Spotlight...but that means I wouldn't be able to sing for the PM anymore because 1st and 2nd November he might not be there...and we might sing then also.

Look, I know it's complicated, but it's my blog so I'm going to type whatever confusing thing I want.

:).

Sorry for the sudden outburst. Anyway the relief was that the first time ZAD and I played Chopin for the Studio Class was good, but we'll improve. Yeah - the key to success is to keep improving and never stop practising.

I realised one thing while I was on stage today - as Dr Hecht came up on stage to give comments to ZAD, I was like stoning. Basically while stonning I was thinking how enjoyable this was - to listen to really good music nearly every single day of my current life, and how disgusting school has suddenly become. All the sickening homework and everything - I would rather listen to ALL of the Mozart piano sonatas and Beethoven sonatas and memorise everything for Dr. Frank DeMeglio's keyboard literature class.

Practise solfege every single day, do a thousand BMPs. (Which reminds me of DMP. Debussy Modified Project, lol.) Anything. Just to avoid this current predicament I'm in, mired in homework muck.

Homework muck.

Homework muck.

Disgusting, disgusting, homework muck. Dragging you down, slowing your tempo, not giving you momentum. The experience at the piano while stoning was one of estacy, of pure joy, to be able to sit there and listen to the freaking Steinway beside you give some of the best music you would dream to conceive.

Relieved.

(This title will be left blank)

I nurse a painful ulcer that follows me wherever I go - it's not going to leave anytime soon, although I hope it would. I really hope so - talking while feeling spasms of pain going through my body, not good. It's located on my lower lip, so no thanks, no kissing this week, thank you.

Not good.

We're going to continue with Bach BMP next week! So that means that they didn't play my piece yesterday, they're playing it next week. In a logical sequence.

I'd like to mention today about the power of holy water - holy water is water that has been 'exorcised' or blessed by a priest, usually in the faiths of Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Old Catholic. Yeah, blah, you know them. Don't think they use it in Christianity though.

The thing is, every single Sunday, without fail, I'll wake up with a cold, and a sinus problem. So I'll be sneezing for the first few hours of the morning (which goes into church time), and my nose would be running, and at the same time, clogged up. Call it a hangover from Saturday nights which I often spend till late or what, but it happens.

And no, prayer hardly works for this case. I haven't tried it yet but I might.

This Sunday morning was a little different though - I was sleeping at the living room sofa bare-chested, with the fan on full-blast. But anyway I woke up all bleary-eyed and leaky-tapped. Dragged my feet to the showers, and then onward to morning Mass.

This Sunday morning was a little different though - there was the scooping and sprinkling of Holy Water around the entire Church, presumably because it's the first Sunday of the month, and the entire congregation was splattered with Holy Water. Now the difference starts here.

You see, usually throughout the entire Mass, I was incapacitated, unable to sing or breathe properly. But today, yeah, you guessed it, I think the Holy Water really worked wonders. I think it's coincidence, but many a-times when there's the Lord in it and things work, we call it coincidence. Might be.

Heck, it wasn't even the Placebo effect:
1) I didn't realise there was water being splattered on our books and our bodies because I was simply too knocked-out to realize anything. I was just following the notes and the words on the hymn book.
2) I didn't realise the water was holy water because I was simply too knocked-out to realize anything. I was just following the notes and the words on the hymn book.
3) I didn't realise I was still nursing the cold because I was simply too knocked-out to realize anything. I was just following the notes and the words on the hymn book.

Moments later I was feeling much better. Like much better, and that was when I realized the priest was scooping and sprinkling loads of Holy Water on us when he walked over a second time.

The Father in question was super enthusiastic because he was like, scooping a full scoop of water and whipping it on us, so much so that 10.45am Mass was nearly renamed 10.45am Water-Scooping Party Fun. It wasn't, we were Blessed, and we settled down for Mass.

Thank the Holy Water. Today's Mass was also made more interesting because the Father was using sign language together with his sermons, which made it more accessible for the deaf and for the non-deaf who wanted to use sign language to communicate. Seriously. I think I would like to be in the latter too, just that I'll have to take like, 3 Eclipses before I start speaking. Closing your mouth for an extended period of time causes major bad breath.


What happened the day before:
I'll be honest, but I was feeling a little under normal and tired too. Firstly because I didn't get to pass a present and secondly because...because...there's no secondly. Don't ask me why I was feeling down just because of not passing a present but it's just the Jonathan instinct.

Make it the human instinct. I don't want to make myself sound so special. Got home, changed, down on the sofa. No big deal. The black sofa in the living room has been my sleeping area of late - I think I'm getting too lazy to walk all the way to the bedroom.

You, however, can look at it in two ways:
1) I'm too lazy.
2) My house is damn big.

I prefer the latter. Self-criticism is bad for health, ain't no good babe.

Talking about self-criticism, do they have a phobia for talking to girls on the phone? Talkofemaleonphonophobia. I don't know. I'm pretty sure I do have a phobia. Or look, even talking to girls face-to-face, I'll get nervous. Talkofemalefacetofacophobia. Do any guys even have that problem? Don't think so. Yeah, I have low self-esteem then. Certified a piece of useless junk.

I'm not surprised if this one has the vibes around me: Please don't mate with me, I have very lousy genes that make me look short, which is bad for the human gene pool and not good for the evolution of the human race. You must follow the nature of human and not proceed to mate with me, thank you.

Meme - Interview Answers

1. Kwek
2. Hongrui
3. No one. I’m my own man.
4. Fiona
5. Jon Shin
6. Adriel
7. Marcus
8. (NA)
9. (NA) – need sleep. I’m more musically active at night.
10. Yiyang
11. Bryan Kum
12. Selina/Jiale
13. Adriel
14. Leave blank
15. Douglas
16. Liyoung
17. Shanghai
18. Shide
19. Kwek
20. Jon Shin
21. Norman
22. Bryan Choong
23. Mum
24. PM Lee
25. Can’t think of anyone. No one seems to be bothered
26. Girls at YST. Although I can’t be bothered
27. Me
28. Shanghai again
29. Laura
30. Live a life that’s full. Anything that’s worth doing is worth overdoing

I slept from 5-10. A little dazed now, but I showered cold and ate a little dinner so I'm alright now.

Started this morning with someone slamming both hands heavily on my shoulder I thought I was going to sink through the floor. Literally a huge bang - Andrew Chua, brother of Matthew Chua.

The rest of the day, RE Congress, which we hardly noticed because we simply wandered around. And had lots of fun in the classrooms on the 4th floor with Hongrui and some GEPs. Even I was a little surprised at times.

After that I followed Hongrui to help him page-turn for his higher performance. Initially I thought I signed up for higher composition but apparently Miss Goh assumed again I was taking performance, which made me kind of, yeah, get a headache because I worked pretty hard for composition.

Check this out - for an impromptu stylistic imitation test which I didn't study at all for, I got 38/50! I think I was one of the top-three, if not, topped the composition class. That's...ok because I expected just a little higher.

Well, why do you ask, we're just hungry kids.

I suspect a newspaper article on me tomorrow, so go check it out. I'm going to post my interview answers here after a reporter - Deepika - asked me some questions.







Dear Deepika,

Thanks! Well basically I've competed in 2 local competitions already (National Piano and Violin Competition 2005 - 3rd prize and National Piano and Violin Competition 2007 - 2nd prize) so I wasn't that nervous. Having said that, this Ibiza competition is my second one overseas - my first one took place in Ettlingen, Germany a few weeks before the Ibiza one. I didn't win anything then.
You could say I was disappointed but yeah I worked hard enough and voila! Anyway if you are prepared all you have to do is to worry about your own music, your own performance - and to stay true to the music.

I have had these pieces for less than a year, say, eight months, and I recovered some of them along the way. The prize did come as a little surprise, being my second overseas competition, but when you're young I guess you're just a little hungrier, so after the whole competition I was thinking, "If only I had won second...". But well I'll definitely work harder!

I played three pieces -
1) Bach's D major Prelude and Fugue from the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1
2) Mozart's Sonata in C major K.330 [all of the movements]
3) Charles Tomlimson Griffes's Scherzo from Fantasy Pieces Op. 6 No. 3 - a really exotic piece that gives lots of room for colours

I started out at Yamaha JMC when I was about 4, and then moved on to the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts at around 6, studied under three teachers, the last one being Mdm Fang Yuan, and finally was accepted in 2007 as a Young Artist in the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music under Dr Hecht. (Pardon my long sentences. This one is short.) Erm at first it was all blood and sweat on the piano, going so much as to have an abacus beside me to count the number of Hanon piano exercises I had completed.

Then in primary school it became really tough because it bordered the "freak" sector and the "ok-let's-accept-him-into-our-society" thing. Luckily it was the latter. After that it's all about integrating it into one's life and doing the balancing act. I'm pretty surprised I've been into music for more than half of my life. (redundant part)

Yes I do play another music instruments - I play the cello in my secondary school string ensemble and I used to sing in my primary school choir. Now I still sing except in the bathroom. Occasionally I play the bass guitar but I do that by tuning the bass guitar to cello tuning, which means now I can completely jam with my friends and even perform.

Question 7 is a killer, Deepika. When I was Secondary 1-3 I balanced my academics and music pretty well, but now that music has increased in terms of portion in my life, I've really concentrated on my music. Which means my studies are now basically lagging behind so much, and it's really dangerous. I know there are other kids out there who balance their time much better than me, but me being a 16-year old bordering 'immature' and 'disorganized', I can hardly concentrate on both studies and music. [Realistically speaking though, I'll still need my A-levels so I'll just walk on and on] Ans to Question 7: Badly. But I totally enjoy what I'm doing, (already I can see nearly all the parents in Singapore shaking their heads) and granted, there'll be a way through.

Someday, somehow.

I enjoy playing the bass as previously mentioned, I do composing sometimes (which definitely hasn't reached a substantial level in terms of quality yet), and also learnt a teeny-weeny bit of conducting from my string ensemble conductor. My hobbies also include writing reviews, and I'm learning lots of tips from Dr Chang from Life! too. :) Of course, life's not all about music, so I do engage in some computer gaming (come on give me a break!). Let's put it to a few hours a month. I do play soccer too, so I'm pretty much a normal guy. Oh, and I'm your Number 1 Beatles fan. Got all of their albums and songs and have memorised every single lyric of their songs. Yes, when 90.5FM plays Beatles, I'll scream!!! like a teenage girl. You know, like, Beatlemania? I'm born half a century late.

:)

Question 9 is another killer. Anything to do with academics is. No, I'm not a straight-As student, I hope I clear the stereotype that musicians are all intellectuals with straight-As. Sometimes you can't get the best of both worlds. I'm just stupid.

I love the piano because firstly it can be a solo or an ensemble instrument. You can play it with two people, three people, or make it a piano quintet, or even two pianos, even put it in an orchestra! It's a pretty social instrument. But in detail, I find it the most beautiful instrument of all instruments - it can make the sounds of a thousand tinkling bells, the roar of the flowing river into the sea, the chirps of all the birds you can find - even Messien himself proved it was possible, him being the master of birdsong. So many composers have composed pieces with the piano imitating water, rain, fountains, seas, rivers. On the other extreme, you see Liszt composing the Dante Sonata about Dante's journey into Hell itself. Just lurrve(sp?) the piano.

My training under Dr Hecht has been one of the most inspirational periods of my life - it's really hard to start somewhere about him. Well he's a teacher who really really has no problem of trying to communicate ideas and information to you...and once you can hear what he hears, voila! That's when you experience the magic of music yourself. Sometimes I truthfully regret many people around the world never get to hear these beautiful things in their years on Earth. That's why we're here! To spread good music like a disease...

And lastly my dad works at DHL and my mum a housewife, but she passed away this year in May, so it's really been a trying time for both of us. I live in Bukit Panjang so it's 40 mins on public transport and 15 mins on private car. I have no siblings, which is good because I don't have to argue with anyone over the noise level, and bad because when I'm down and my dad's working I talk to the walls. Just kidding.

My private life's on this blog - www.i-talk-you-listen.blogspot.com . Oh wait, it's not private anymore when it's a blog! :O Post it on the papers (your choice, larh) - 16-year olds never fail to be happy when their blog hits increase.

Thanks and regards to you too!
Jonathan

some sontata - MEP guys!

An atonal work I decided to work on. Maybe not entirely atonal.

Of course, not good at all yet, lots of things to think about. I based it mostly on Ravel's Sonatine, the first movement. But the style's distinctly different. Veering on Prokofiev maybe and touching a little bit on Debussy.

On the Debussy part, yeah, I haven't posted the second page.

Sorry, I didn't do the MEME. :)

My desk.

While everyone's mugging for EOY, you stay put here and start blogging. Life can sometimes be a bitch, really. I shall start with the most emo sentence you can ever ever start a blogpost with.

Today is a bad day. When has a day never been today? Tomorrow? The day after the next? They will all become todays. More bad days ahead. :) Which doesn't prove anything about my mood currently. It is become, er, sort of non-chalant.

I'm currently depending on Jean Hsieh's notes to survive in physics, still mugging those same worksheets. I can't stand it though. Why can't I be practising piano, doing music now...I need to practise my Beethoven Op. 10 No. 3, but to be honest I know I can't make it in time for tomorrow. Ravel's Sonatine is a definite though. I know I can get that done, because I've been practising that. Wonder whether Dr. Hecht will mind.





Let's do a slight description of my desk, as I had done a few months ago if you readers can still remember: On my right, a calender. At my elbow, my mugging book.

Couple of pencils. A mechanical one I accidently borrowed/took/never returned/don't-call-it-steal from Paul/JonLim. Sorry. It's white in colour.

Above me on the protruded ledge a huge speaker that weights around 10kg at most, a stack of CDs in one box cover that says: Ultimate Piano Concertos, the essential masterpieces - 5CDs. For the record, I'm listening to Tchaikovsky's First Concerto now. On the most left on the ledge, a defunct scanner which I found was defunct after attempting to scan my air tickets and stubs to Jenny, an officer at the Conservatory.

Stuck on pieces of paper at the edge of the ledge that hangs down reads - "Jonathan - practise maths, physics, and chemistry" My pop.

Directly on my left, an entire stack of pure music. Ok maybe not, on top of the stack lies by 10-years-old pencil box that's all about Tweety Bird. Yes, Tweety Bird. Got it in kindergarten. Below it, the empty jewel case of the Tchaikovsky No. 1 and Rachmaninov No. 2. (Heavyweights)

Oh, shit. Ok below it is another library book I borrowed, which isn't related to music at all. But here's a section of it that does relate to music.






"What you are about to hear, comrade, is a Mozart sonata,' Luo announced, as coolly as before.

I was dumbfounded. Had he gone mad? All music by Mozart or indeed by any other Western composer had been banned years ago. In my sodden shoes my feet turned to ice. I shivered as the cold tightened its grip on me.

'What's a sonata?' the headman asked warily.

'I don't know,' I faltered. 'It's Western.'

'Is it a song?'

'More or less,' I replied evasively.

At that instant the glint of the vigilant Communist reappeared in the headman's eyes, and his voice turned hostile.

'What's the name of this song of yours?'

'Well,it's like a song, but actually it's a sonata.'

'I'm asking you what it's called!' he snapped, fixing me with his gaze.

Again I was alarmed by the three spots of blood in his left eye.

'Mozart...' I muttered.

'Mozart what?'

'Mozart is Thinking of Chairman Mao,' Luo broke in.

The audacity! But it worked: as if he had heard something miraculous, the headman's menacing look softened. He crinkled up his eyes in a wide, beatific smile.

'Mozart thinks of Mao all the time,' he said.

'Indeed, all the time,' agreed Luo.

As soon as I had tightened my bow there was a burst of applause, but I was still nervous. However, as I ran my swollen fingers over the strings, Mozart's phrases came flooding back to me like so many faithful friends. The peasants' faces, so grim a moment before, softened under the influence of Mozart's limpid music like parched earth under a shower, and then in the dancing light of the oil lamp, they blurred into one.

I played for some time. Luo lit a cigarette and smoked quietly, like a man.

This was our first taste of re-education. Luo was eight years old, I was seventeen.




Alrighty guys. There's the section - see, something about China and music. Below is a book sent to me as a gift by billionaire Eric Lim (seriously, you heard it, billionaire - he opened a South African factory with S.R Nathan last year)

It's called The Rest is Noise, and Uncle Eric if you're reading this, I'm not done reading the book yet. But it's really great. Which has really drawn me into the world of Mahler, Prokofiev, Strauss, Bartok, Copland. Yeah, it's all about 20th Century music, and it's really cleverly written. Super witty. Isn't really about the history though. Don't know how to describe it.

By the way, I think I typed the entire passage from the story in less than 3 minutes. Or maybe even 2. I'm fast. :)

Alright below the book is the manuscript paper I got from Germany - it's really super precious to me, simply because it is engineered differently. Manuscript paper that works like foolscalp? Forget finding it in Singapore. Come on, import it to Singapore please...we already have F1...

Underneath the manuscript pile is another manuscript book that I got in 2002, and in fact all my knowledge of music can be found inside these book - what I've written there can seriously be what I've been taught in Sec 4 MEP. Yeah, check it out, transposing instruments, chords and blah blah blah, thank you.

The later pages contain my sketches for the piano concerto I was mentioning about of creating, and it's still going pretty strong, except I realised yesterday in the library that one of my passages came DIRECTLY DIRECTLY from Tchaikovsky No. 1's Second Movement - the first motive.

Akkra, if you're reading this, you'll know what I mean. I played it for him once, and he said, "Hey! That part sounds like, Rachmaninov or Tchaikovsky, it's, rreeeally familiar?"

Yeap. That's the part.

What. Stop staring! I didn't mean for it to come out this way!

I'll take out the part soon enough.

The freaking scanner can't scan a sketch I had of my sonatina, because, yeap, it's dead.

Below it is Britten's Orchestral Anthology, published by Boosey and Hawkes. I got it from the Music Teachers' library last year in order to write a transcript for simply bass and piano in order for us to practise the Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra.

Never got around to doing it. Sorry Mr Sze.

After that is the Schumann score that I accompanied Jinghui with - his Violin Sonata in A minor. Really fun, except I screwed up the last movement. I should go stick my head in some mud.

Below that is the famous yellow book that contains my Shostakovich and last year's music assignments, including the C major sonata by Mozart, Faure, Liszt, Debussy.

Below that, my original Mozart score, now torn and tattered, with freaking tonnes of detail in it. Don't touch it.

Ok underneath it is my Griffes score, yellow-covered Schirmer one. And finally, at the bottom-most of the stack, is my trusty ringed-manuscript book, which has been reduced to a couple of pages because of all the pages I've torn out of it in my entire life. Let's put it to 6 years of tearing.



In front of me on the green-painted wall sticks the EOY schedule, and the contact list of 3L'07. Oh, you asking me for the difference? The difference is that Ben Liu isn't on the 4L' 08 list. Ben, you reading this? Please do CLE poster.

On the left of the freaking stack, is a container that contains another container. Yeah, trust me on that. Nothing much in it, except a metronome, and a Sistic packet that contains 6 Sistic tickets - including this Saturday's one, and at the end of the year, an ENTIRE FEATURE OF YELLOW RIVER WITH THE ORIGINAL COMPOSER PERFORMING.

Yes, you heard that babes, the objective word being ORIGINAL COMPOSER PERFORMING. Hardly believable.


On the left of the container, a new printer me dad just bought. And on the left, the entire speaker that weighs 10kg, as mentioned. And the book about Ibiza that Dr Hecht sent me. Reading it really gives me a huge sense of nostalgia.

Wait. Nostalgia? Isn't Singapore my home? Oops.

Check it out.



My entire desk. And if you refer back to paragraph 1, I'm sorry about the 'slight description' part. Really my mistake.

Cya.

Onwards!

Here I am, half an hour before Studio Class in the Keyboard Lab watching Tarin and Clarence practise together. I've been at the Conservatory since 10am, started out at the library and then to lunch, and then finally to practise. I swear I didn't do any composition today, simply because I didn't feel like and that I was mugging at the same time.

Believe it or not, I have started mugging physics. Amazing - something that is really unheard of me. Ok right in front of me now we have two amazing pianists practising in front of me Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto.

Let's not talk about music for the time being. It has started boring out my readers. Let's talk about my visit to Bukit Panjang Plaza.

I figured out that some salespeople have started using those metal bells to get customers attention already. But I realised the pitch of those metal bells were B-flat (specifically those bells that I heard) and then I found out, quite some years ago, that G-sharp was the best frequecy to be comfortable with because it vibrates at nearly the same frequency as the liquid in our inner ears, which makes it feel pleasing. Something for the salesmen to think about - to get customers by tinkling these G-sharp bells.

Ok, I already said, nothing about music please.

Anyway on my way out of BP I saw this 2 year toddler sitting in a pram, with his legs placed exactly the Ah-beng way, one leg in the pram, and the other relaxed, feet placed near the ground. Which really made me start thinking - one more Ah-Beng in our society. Lol. Which is really kinda stupid.

Ok to be honest I'm super uncomfortable with MacBook, because of its sharp edges that make my wrist hurt. Really un-ergonomic. Sucks. No wonder I always stick to Microsoft.

The sound of Rachmaninov run thicks and thin in my ears and goes through my blood and veins and my arteries, only to strike pangs of agony and pleasure in my heart. It is powerful. Everlasting.

If only I could write music like that. I will someday. Someday I'll look back at this blogpost, and see that I've succeeded.

Get a collection, a portfolio of works, and show them to a teacher. I'm teaching myself along the way, experimenting. I'm currently into Prokofiev.

Ok thinking about end of this year, I honestly think I'll miss all my friends in RI. But let us look forward to the future. Onwards!

Alright kids here's Bach Chorale Modified (after hearing it a thousand times) on Finale. Created, edited, printed, and blogged. As in, blogged, not blogg-ed.




























































































































I'll be putting up the recording of it after next Saturday. And I think there will be a Strait Times interview in Life! next Saturday too with me in it.
Do catch it!

Bach Chorale Modified Full Score

Alright. Here's what's been going on with me for the past few days. Including all the snacking and stuff. Bach Chorale Modified has been so much fun!
The whole thing is scored for 4 violins, 1 cello, and 1 piano. If you can see clearly, there are four sections, each with a different rhythm, and probably in dance styles that stretch centuries. And if you look closely, you can see lyrics and some percussion too!