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.