A.C.'s World of Pens, Shifters and Scale Rulers

Break Out In Song

2010-08-27T21:32:00.001+08:00

I was surfing Youtube and I saw this very interesting rendition of "If They Could See Me Now", a musical number from "Sweet Charity". Not that it was sung as a parody or blended into some unusual genres, but was performed by 40 over singers and dancers among unsuspecting members of the public. Call it a musical flash mob if you want! And it wasn't quite a cheesy free public performance; the quality of performance is actually quite good, complete with well-choreographed moves too.

This performance is presented by Break Out In Song, an arts project that, according to their official website, "pushes the boundaries of live theater as it dazzles unsuspecting audiences with free, spontaneous and fully staged Broadway musical numbers." Their website has not been updated for quite a while, but worth checking out, for those who likes musicals and public performances: Break Out In Song.

"Professional" Email Etiquette

2010-07-29T11:15:00.000+08:00

I'm frustrated with a certain organisation with regards to a certain application I had applied. Of course to protect MYSELF (not the organisation, I'm sorry to say), I shall not disclose the name of the organisation although I know some of my close friends and classmates/ friends would probably know which one I'm referring to.

You see, I applied for this thing, let's call it "ABC" (again to protect MYSELF) in May, and because it is almost August, I need to know the status of it so that I can do some contingency planning. Well this organisation never come back to me at all until now, although 1 of my classmate already knew her status. So I sent them an email on Monday afternoon through their general email account (I thought it might be better not to send to the personal email of the staff members for enquiries), asking if the results of "ABC" in general are out already. Note that I did not ask about MY own result. Then I waited, and that's where the agony started. Days passed and now half a working week has passed and still no news from them. Seriously, does it take a lot of time to reply "Yes, the results are out" or "I'm sorry, you still have to wait"? It's not even rocket science question or something of top confidentiality! Of course, they might be busy at their desk, but I'm sure at least with an automated "out-of-office" or "we'll-get-back-to-you-shortly" reply email might make them look more professional right? And to think they're part of a government body.

In desperation and frustration I've sent the exact same email this morning to 2 of the staff members, whom I had corresponded on this issue before, and see if they would respond. If they don't, then maybe I'll be convinced that there's no living beings in their office.

"High School Musical" Junior

2010-07-23T21:53:00.010+08:00

It was only about 2 weeks ago that "Believe" had ended its run, and immediately I jumped into "High School Musical" Junior as a set and costume designer. Yes, it's that hit musical by Disney, but since the cast now comprised mainly of local primary school kids instead of teenage or adult actors, we went for the condensed "junior" version which is tailored to suit the technical capabilities of young performers and educational institutes. Of course, I didn't do up the costumes and set in barely 2 weeks. I was roped into this production a few months back, but I was too preoccupied with "Believe" back then, hence my main focus was on that musical, and toggle back and forth as and when needed. It was only after "Believe" closes that I can spend my entire energy into "High School Musical".

Working on this production is a huge challenge. Other than clashing with "Believe", the issue of how to transform these kids into convincing teenagers (with my set and costumes, of course) and yet not becoming too "matured" for their peers and their parents to enjoy is the primary concern. And then there's also venue constraints like limited wing and rear stage space for set parking and having only 2 flybars for scenery, and a budget that is not exactly a lot. Not forgetting also that "High School Musical" is such a hit that it became a tremendous stress trying to make justice to the musical when coming up with a set design. Fortunately, my design for the set turned out rather well on stage, and I'm rather satisfied. However, I can't say the same for my costumes, but I will just leave them for my subsequent posts.

In the meanwhile, I shall just post some of the random shots taken during bump-in.

One whole lorry of set flats!

From a two-tier steps...

... and then a wall with a door frame...

... and it progressed on...

... to the final complete set!

"Believe" The Musical

2010-07-13T17:45:00.005+08:00

The youth musical I've been working on for the past 7 months finally closed last weekend after 2 performances. This musical was titled "Believe" and has a plot that centers around problems faced by youths in present-day Singapore. It revolves around the life of a 14 year-old "problem kid" who managed to turn over a new leaf and got transferred to the Express stream through the help of his probation officer.

This musical is not exactly a big-scale production, but not that easy to design. With a limited budget and having a wide number of scenes ranging from LAN game shop to police headquarters and old Chinese cemetery, I had to revise my designs over and over again until a balance between artistic, aesthetic and practicality is achieved.

For the final design, I decided not to employ realistic representations of the various scenes due to budget constraints, and focussed more on creating a symbolic inner world of these "problem kids" on stage. With that, I came up with a relatively simple set consisting of two 60cm high runways that intersected each other and spanned across the entire stage, and a 1.4m high platform flushed with the intersection point of the two runways. The crossed runways is an abstraction and visualisation of crossed paths of which these youths had to make decisions as to what they want to do and where they want to go. The raised platform, on the other hand, is to suggest blindspots and bumps in life, and at the same time create more heights on an otherwise relatively plain stage. These set pieces remained permanent throughout the musical, and addition and removal of various furniture and set pieces will give a suggestion of locality.

I managed to design the set within the budget limit, and thank goodness everything went rather smoothly for my set. If I have had bigger budget, I could have a better designed set, as like what some of my friends and colleagues had commented, the stage looked a bit too bare. However, with my available budget for this production, I can only say I've done my best, and I'm rather satisfied with the outcome, just that the cross pattern marked out by the crossed runways didn't come out prominently due to the shallow slope of the auditorium.

Finally Got My Results

2010-06-18T23:53:00.002+08:00

I went to check my letterbox after a schoolmate of mine posted the news of her going to graduate with First Class Honours. And thank goodness I managed to pass with rather satisfactory grades. In fact, as compared to last academic year, my grades improved by almost 10 percent. This is despite the fact I believe I did very poorly in one of the subjects (Production Management to be exact) in school. Luckily for me, Production Management is grouped with Stage Management into one single module, and I think I did rather good in that area, and hence I managed to salvage my grades for that module. And hence, I officially declare that I'm graduating with a Diploma in Technical Theatre! But that's not over yet; I'll still in college for another year to get my degree. So LASALLE, here I come, again!

On Resumes and CVs

2010-06-18T10:54:00.002+08:00

So I have not updated my blog for quite a while. Indeed I have been rather busy lately as I'm currently juggling between 2 major theatre design projects and several assignments tasked by my opera troupe, therefore I simply have no time to blog. Another reason for not updating is sometimes I wonder if anyone reads my blog at all even. But anyway, here I am, updating it again after a month's break!

Not too long ago a friend of mine stated in Facebook that she got a message (not sure if it's SMS or email though) asking for her professional service (theatre) and asked her to submit her CV. That's it. No mention of what production they are in, and what company/ organisation they are. A few days ago, it was my turn. I got this email from this organisation saying that they wanted me to be part of their production to make set and/ or props, and asked for my CV. Almost exactly the same scenario as my friend, except that I was given their website for me to have a brief look at what they're all about. I have not replied them, because the way they correspond with me just puts me off. To be precise, I'm bemused by their "professional" communication method. It seems strange that they don't even introduce themselves and their organisation in their initial email. Who will know who you are if you don't do that crucial introduction? If you can't even be bothered to do that, I seriously doubt the sincerity in all these acts. After all, they are the one approaching me for service, not the other way round. Therefore, why should they demand I send them a CV for them to "approve" before they disclose further about the production they require me for? This friend of mine warned me to beware of shady companies/ syndicates/ organisations that might use my CV for unauthorised purposes. Well I'm not sure how "professional" this organisation is, but the way they correspond with me is enough to just junk the mail.

Sometimes, I just don't these people. Maybe they think that theatre people are all desperate for jobs and will do anything just to secure a contract. Damn these people!

Set and Costume Design for "Peter and Blue's Forest Adventure"

2010-05-09T23:21:00.006+08:00

I have been wanting to blog this for a long time, but due to confidentiality reasons, I couldn't do so until today. So here goes...

Months back I took part in a competition by Singapore Dance Theatre to design for their upcoming ballet "Peter and Blue's Forest Adventure". As encouraged by my programme coordinator, I took part, and being "greedy", I took part not only in the set design category, I also attempted on costume as well, despite this subject is not being taught at all in school. Well, I don't know if I'm sheer lucky or not, but both my set and costume concepts were selected, and suddenly I became a set and costume designer for a professional production.

"Peter and Blue's Forest Adventure" is a new piece of ballet targeted at young children. It tells the story of Peter, a young boy, who went into the forest with his dog Blue and cat Calico to find fruits and flowers as a birthday present for his mother, and along the way he encountered numerous supernatural characters that offered their help. Hence in essence, this is a fairytale kind of ballet with a simple plot and many fanciful characters.

To cut short on all the theories of how I came up with my design concept, my design of the set is based on Art Nouveau. Of course I couldn't use a truly Art Nouveau kind of design for the stage, for it will be too intricate for small children to appreciate. Therefore, I went through several rounds of modification and simplification until what it is now. As for costumes, they generally follow the same Art Nouveau style as well, but fused with some elements of the 60s/ 70s "Flower Power" fashion and contemporary clothing, in order to give them a more brilliant and stylish look in which young children can better connect with. I'm not sure how the audience in general react to my set and costumes, but I'm glad enough that the choreographer, my programme leader and programme coordinator are very pleased with my work, especially this being my debut professional design work.

"Peter and Blue's Forest Adventure" closed yesterday afternoon after 2 previews and 6 performances. Now that the show has closed, I sort of started to miss it already. It's really a nice experience working with the company, and hopefully I have the chance to work with them in future.

Interesting Food Court Stall Titles

2010-04-10T20:47:00.003+08:00

One thing I don't like about foodcourts are that food sold in most of them are usually so standard that it doesn't quite interest me in entering them. This evening, however, I passed by this foodcourt in Punggol and it attracted my attention.

No, the food sold inside are once again the conventional ones you can find almost anywhere. What interested me was the signages for each stall. Each stall has had 3 or 4 Chinese characters for their signs, like Chinese idioms, and at least one character in the phrase would sum up what the stall is selling, like yin xiang shen ke (印象深刻), which means literally "a deep impression" for Indian (yin du) food. And guess what was used for roasted duck rice (la ya fan or 腊鸭饭)? They used la bi xiao xin (蜡笔小新), which meant "Crayon Shinchan"!

Greek Easter

2010-04-02T17:13:00.003+08:00

Yesterady morning my programme coordinator came into class with a tray of red eggs and I wondered who in our faculty was celebrating a new born baby's first month. Later on then I realised that the eggs was not celebrating that, but Easter - the Greek way (my programme coordinator is a native Greek by the way). Talk about cross culture similarities! Well this is the first time I ever came across a Greek Easter egg, and my programme coordinator took the trouble to explain all the festive practices that are related to their version of the Easter Egg, including the greeting words one has to say while giving or receiving the eggs, but I just couldn't register in my mind because, no pun intended, they're just too Greek to me! Anyway, here's the photograph I've taken of that egg, and wish all Christian readers out there Happy Easter!

Smooth E

2010-03-12T23:55:00.002+08:00

What on earth is this Smooth E? Take a look at this trailer for a glimpse of what that is:

Still have no clue? Well watch these clips below and you shall know!

So now you know what Smooth E is? Well, not intending to sound like a pro-Thai, but I just think that the Thais are just too creative to incorporate dramatic elements and pun into their TV commercials, instead just going for the "just-read-the-facts" kind of boring advertisements.

Prediction of the Present From the Past

2010-02-07T16:56:00.002+08:00

Are you able to predict what the world will be like 50 years from now? I personally can't, but I remembered when I was very young I once had to imagine what would the new millenium would be like as part of a drawing class in school. Come to think of it, many of my "predictions" back then are still not so achievable commercially as yet. Well, what do you think people in the 50s would think of how we would be living like now? Look at this video and you'll know:

So, how many things features in the video have already materialised?

Debut Performance in English

2010-01-23T23:34:00.003+08:00

Today marks my first theatrical performance in English.

Well, it isn't really a theatrical production; it is actually a dramatised reading of a new play titled "Pink Kisses" written by my classmate. But then, since there's some bit of acting involved (with our scripts on hand though) and that it was performed in a theatrical space with real basic theatrical light, it can somewhat be called a theatrical performance nevertheless.

Come to think of it, I first stepped into the world of theatre as an actor 12 years ago (that is excluding the time I performed as an owl in a fairytale poem in Primary 5 and performing in a street-side Hokkien opera when I was 15) with a Chinese drama club, but it wasn't long before I called it quits (due to some conflicts with one of their senior members), and since then I had performed solely with my Hokkien opera troupe. Hence, this is my first contemporary performance after a 12-year absence.

There are a number of first-time experiences for me too: first time performing without any projection devices or amplifiers, first time involved in dramatised reading, first time stepping into the role as a "cast member" in my school's theatre space, first time working with directors outside my opera troupe as an actor. The experience was great, although I felt that I could have done better. Somehow, being no longer confined by the strict set of bodily gestures I am so used to in my Chinese opera performances, there were times I just wasn't sure how I should compose myself. Perhaps I'm just more suited to perform in Chinese opera, but then again, I won't dismiss the fact that I might get involved in other contemporary theatrical shows again in future. That's not to say I will give up Chinese opera, just that I always feel that it's always good to try a bit of everything, for there'll always be things to learn form in every aspects of theatre. That's what I feel is the best way to upgrade oneself artistically, instead of just focusing on things that is of direct relation to oneself.

A Hokkien Song That Sounded Terribly Wrong

2010-01-01T19:10:00.005+08:00

Recently there's a Hokkien song that I constantly hear over Rediffusion that caused me to get choked on my food, for it sounded terribly wrong, as if it's a vulgar song. Of course, I know well it is not the case, for such songs will definitely get banned by MDA (or whatever relevant authorities). But the words to the song really sounded like some very common Hokkien vulgarities that even after hearing it for so many times over and over again, I still found it very wrong. So, I went to did a search on this song using part of the lyrics as keywords, and I found out that this song is "Super Sales" (超级卖 in Chinese, see what I mean now?) by Cai Qiufeng. If you're still not convinced, have a listen at it:

To be honest, despite its weird-sounding nature, I quite like the song. Not only is the melody catchy, I like how it takes a more light-hearted and nonchalant approach to all the social problems in this present day Taiwan. But then again, I wonder if any of the people involved in the production of Cai's album realised this vulgarity-soundalike issue or not?

The Modeling Cat

2009-11-15T20:49:00.003+08:00

I attended Necessary Stage's "Sofaman" this afternoon at Marine Parade Community Club, after which I walked towards a nearby multistorey carpark to retrieve my motorbike. Along my way there, I chanced upon a stray cat on a grasspatch staring at two pigeons on a tree. Feeling that it is very hard to come by a cat that is not staring blanking at nothing or giving hard glares at people approaching them, I decided to take out my handphone and take a snapshot.

Alas, my handphone does not have zoom function, hence I decided to try inch in a little to take a close-up, but I had a hunch that it might just panicked and ran away. Surprisingly, it didn't, and on the contrary it walked to a spot within a metre from me and laid down. It is very rare to have a stray cat that isn't afraid of human presence, hence I carried on snapping pictures of it.

As you can see, my camera was actually less than half a metre from the cat, and yet it isn't at very least bothered by it. This is about one of the very few moments I can actually take pictures of a stray cat at such a close distance!

My "Professional" Site

2009-10-28T13:34:00.002+08:00

So I now finally have my own "professional" site! Why the quotation marks you may ask. Well, that's because I'm still new to the technical theatre industry, and I don't dare to call myself a real professional designer yet! So basically what you can expect in my "professional" site is to showcase my lighting and scenic design works, and blog about my design concepts and other related stuffs. Currently I only have my design for "Bloodshed in the Imperial Palace" posted up, but more will come (if I manage to engage in more design works, that is!), so please give me your support!

Model Box of a One Room Flat (Finalised)

2009-10-11T18:39:00.002+08:00

So, I've finally finished my scenic design assignment of making a model box on the theme of a room with a view and here you have it:

I'm relieved that I've finished it ahead of time, but that doesn't mean I'm now totally free. I'm now involved in another school production called "The Greeks", and I'm the assistant set designer. It's going to be a very complex set, almost architectural even, and the model construction is almost killing me. Well, there's really nothing I can do much about that, but just press on..

One Room Flat Model Updated

2009-10-04T21:01:00.002+08:00

This is my updated model for my one-room flat for scenic design module in school, made to a size of 1:25.

Of course, this is not a realistic scale down of a one-room flat, afterall I'm doing scenic design, not interior or architectural design. And thankfully I'm just doing the former, for this model is just too difficult to build and paint, especially the smaller elements. It's nevertheless an interesting experience and kind of fulfilling once it is done. Having said that, it's still not yet finished and I have still to add more stuffs to make relate more to the given poem by my lecturer.

Twinkle Twinkle Indian Star

2009-10-03T20:02:00.002+08:00

I was doing random surfing again and I found this very hilarious video featuring "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" being sung in various traditional Indian musical styles. Of course, this is meant to be just for fun and not intended to make fun to either the old nursery rhyme or to the Indian musical culture. Enjoy!

It's a Messy Show...

2009-10-03T12:35:00.002+08:00

Yesterday I went to attend "The Story of Dongpo and Chaoyun" by Guangdong Cantonese Opera First Troupe at the Esplanade. To be honest I had mixed feelings about this production on the whole. The acting and stage direction is great, but there're a few big flaws which I just can't accept.

First, the lighting was horrible. Despite being designed by the famous Zhou Zhengping (he'd designed lighting for many big shows in China), but it was painful to look at. Like for the final scene where by Su Dongpo was lamenting at Chaoyun's grave, the constant changing of coloured lighting was distracting. At several other scenes too, specials were lit for no apparent reason, misleading the audience to look at areas whereby there was totally no actions taking place. Of course, that is not to say Zhou's design sucks. I believed it is the fault of the programmer and/ or assistant lighting designer. Afterall, Zhou is only a guest lighting designer who designed the whole lighting (and to be honest I feel in general the lighting mood was good), and it is actually the assistant lighting designer who followed the troupe to Singapore and executed it. Somehow I think the assistant lighting designer or the lighting programmer failed to translate Zhou's lighting plan effectively, and it was very obvious on stage.

Secondly, the script contained severe factual problems. No doubt a playwright can change historical facts a bit to suit the whole script and the message he wish to convey to the audience, but geographical facts shouldn't be compromised. For this show, the playwright actually mentioned the West Lake constantly, even though Su Dongpo was supposed to be in Huizhou, Guangdong province. Now Huizhou and Hangzhou is thousands of miles apart!

It's a dismay that a professional troupe like this can make such big blunders. Luckily, the cast and music saved the show, and I believe they should still be given the credit.

Model Box of a One Room Flat

2009-09-26T12:46:00.002+08:00

So we had to do a model box based on a given poem by our lecturer for Scenic Design module. The scenic set I came out with is a room that's derived from a one-room HDB flat. Well doing a model box is really a tedious process, because I have to admit I don't have very nimble fingers, and doing miniature models on a scale of 1:25 is really tough, and these models had to be as realistic as possible. Perhaps that's why I preferred more abstract set designs than going for realism? I had targeted to complete at least 50% of my model by Tuesday, and I believe I'm still on time, but I just feel lethargic, and I think even electrocution will not make me move much!

Unseen Shots from "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown"

2009-09-20T14:14:00.004+08:00

Earlier on I've said that we crew members parodied the cast before the show started. So here are some of them, courtesy of Caitanya who played Schroeder.

An elongated dog... Adam's (our drummer) upper body and my lower body...

Me parodying Lucy in "Lucy Opens Shop"

Me parodying as Lucy and Adam as Schroeder in "Schroeder"

Closing of "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown"

2009-09-20T10:46:00.003+08:00

"You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" is finally closed last night and it was a good performance by the Level 3 Musical Theatre students, in collaboration with our Technical Theatre faculty. Other than yesterday's matinee which was like 60% full, all other performances were close to full house if not filled up to the max. Yesterday night's turnout even overstretched the seating capacity and I believed more chairs had to be added so as not to turn away anyone (I'm not sure though if anyone had been turned away).

My props table at a dark corner of the backstage

For those who still don't know what's my role in the production, I was one of the two assistant stage managers for the show. Over the intercom, other than identifying myself as "stage left" (since I'm stationed on the stage left side), I was also known as "the man on the stage left", or "Mr Stool" or "Mr. Baseball Bat", as I need to throw stool and baseball bat to my fellow actor as required by the director. Generally speaking, stage crew like me are not supposed to be seen by audience when the show is running. Hence, to make up for the loss of exposure, I had some fun with my other crew members while the cast is not around by parodying them on stage. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone had footages of these monkeying scenes of us, so I won't be able to post them up here. But to be honest, if I'm at least taller by 10cm, I might have joined the acting or musical theatre course instead. I'm actually equally interested in the performance aspect of theatre, so seeing others perform on stage tends to make to itch for acting opportunities too. But for now, I'll just stick to technical theatre.

Queen Julia from the Queendom of BopIt, also known as Miss Dogbone for having a throw a 1m dogbone on stage to Snoopy.

The cast of "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown"

Right now, I'm relieved that the production is over, but on the other hand I'm starting to miss working on this production already, because I really like this show since ages ago. Hopefully I'll get to work with the same group of actors again, though I'm not sure if there'll be any chance till the end of this academic year...

The backstage crew, finally exposed to public...

Burning of the damned leaf that refused to listen to the SM's cue by the SM after last night's performance.

Performance at Yilan

2009-09-07T07:51:00.003+08:00

I returned from Yilan last Tuesday after a five-day performance tour with my opera troupe and it is only now that I have the time to blog about it.

Part of our troupe's suitcases... but none of which is mine..

This performance is the second of the troupe's overseas performance tour to Taiwan for the year, but it's my first time traveling with them. Of course, I do not get to act due to my busy schedule. I decided to give up my role to someone else in view that I had to juggle between doing scenic design, lighting design, scenic construction, school production and school homework all at the same time.

Rigging in progress, with Ah-Long, my light op and great assistant to me throughout our stay in theatre.

Reflecting back, this performance is very hectic, as day in day out, everyone of us was stuck in the theatre since morning till late night, and hence there's totally no time for personal leisure. For me it's even worse; due to some communication breakdown, I had to do last minute lighting and scenic changes to accomodate the change in stage configuration, and one of our major scenic elements could not be pieced up in time, even with the assistance of many other troupe members. Luckily for me, everyone went on smoothly.

The lighting console: ETC Insigh 2X (oh my god it's so antique!)

A view of my symbolic scenic design without the lights; as usual, me with my drapes

Having said so, there're things which I was very sore about. First, I wasn't given any credit in the programme booklet. I don't know if this is the usual practice for the Taiwanese that the creative team is usually not credited, or that it has been left out due to space constraints. Well, they were kind enough to include it in for me after I raised it up, but then an amended programme booklet is no longer original anymore. Another thing is I wasn't able to take pictures of my own scenic and lighting design, despite being promised that someone would do that for me. No doubt I can extract the stills from the DVD recording, but how can still images be compared to high-res photographs, when it comes to compilation of portfolio? It's all about compromising of my professionalism, although I'm still not yet a professional.

Rigging again... with a bit of lighting

Bad moments aside, I still feel this is a rather nice experience. I learnt quite a lot, like coming out with contingency plans within 5 hours, planning a technical schedule (even though it may not be a perfect one), and cueing a show entirely in Mandarin. Say, how many newbies in the industry can have the luck to do all these?

Numbers from "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" animated version

2009-08-07T18:39:00.004+08:00

I can't wait for the actual rehearsal for the musical theatre level 3's "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown". Personally I'm a fan of "Peanuts", and I'm curious how it would be staged. Not so much because it's comic-turned-musical, but I want to see how a seemingly innocent on the surface but very adult-orientated (as in the characters actually speak more like adults instead of kiddy language) cartoon is like on stage, played by real young adults.

"You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown"

"Schroeder"

"Snoopy"

"The Kite"

"Book Report"

"T-E-A-M" a.k.a. "The Red Baron"

"Glee Club Rehearsal"

"Suppertime"

"Happiness"

I know some numbers in this musical is not in list of clips above, but these are all I can find. Hopefully I can find the DVD version of this musical locally someday...

End/Start of Performance Season

2009-08-04T20:46:00.003+08:00

Amai was last saying that it was the end of her performance season for now. Well, before mine could start, I'd terminated it already.

You see, although my opera troupe is going Taiwan at the end of the month to perform and I was assigned to take on a rather big role in the production, I've decided to give it up due to my very tight schedule. The lighting and scenic design job for this production is killing me, and on top of that I'm about to start on the rehearsal for "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown", in which I'd be the assistant SM. Feeling that I would not have time to even attend rehearsals for this Taiwan performance for just once a week, I decided that I shouldn't take on the role.

If you asked if I'm disappointed not being able to perform in Taiwan, I'd say it's a "yes" and "no". Of course, it's a pity that I can't take part in a major, overseas performance. But then again, thinking that I'd be designing for a production that is to be staged out of my homeland when I'm still relatively green in the industry is nevertheless exciting.

But there's something else that's making me excited; it's my involvement in "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown"! Although I'm not going to perform in it, but then again I loved this musical (I've not watched it before, but I've heard the songs over and over again many times) and it came as a surprise to me that our Musical Theatre Level 3 students are going to stage this next month.

Excitement aside for now, it's time to get back to the stressful design work for the Taiwan performance!

Mad Mad Crafts

2009-07-25T20:54:00.003+08:00

In my previous post I was talking about doing paper mache of a giant cat for a project. Well, this is not a follow-up of it, because I was being taken away from it to be involved in another project since mid last week.

This time round, I am working with a children education and entertainment company to conceive and produce crafts based on a specific festive theme where they'll produce videos teaching children how to make them. Initially I thought it would be easy for me, but it turned out elsewise. No doubt I have interests in arts and craft, but coming out with ideas for crafts that is easily manageable for kids is not really easy. According to the creative director, they have to be simple for kids to handle on their own with little supervision, yet have to look sophisticated. Sounds very oxymoronic, but that's how kids craft are like, as I've found out. Not only that, there're many restrictions to the construction too: no potentially dangerous stuffs like hot glue and saws, and materials used must be very easily available in homes (including homes in some middle eastern countries where these videos will be aired).

Sometimes, the creative process is frustrating as ideas just don't come easily, but at times it's fun though, as it forces me to think out of the "convention". Hence, despite this project has got nothing to do with scenic design, in a sense, through engaging in this project, it makes me think more and to challenge myself in terms of creativity. At the end of the day, I still learn something, and that's more crucial.

Hey You Guys!!!

2009-07-17T21:12:00.002+08:00

Suddenly out of the blue I decided to do a search on "Electric Company" on Youtube (don't ask me why I did that; I always do strange things for no reasons) and found some videos on this old-skool children programme.

To be honest I couldn't quite remember the contents of this programme already; all I can remember clearly is a woman screaming "Hey you guysssss!!" at the start of the opening credits, and that back during my childhood, I liked this show more than Seasame Street.

Time to recollect the past!

Working Against the Forces of Nature

2009-07-07T23:38:00.003+08:00

Today I went to a quiet part of East Coast Park early in the morning.

The quiet East Coast Park on a Tuesday morning...

Rest and seclusion you may think, but it's not! I was supposed to meet up with some of my colleagues (actually school mates and lecturers) to do a scenic design project. What we were supposed to do is to build a 1.7m tall cat, which we had to first built on sand, then do papier-mache on it.

Our sand model of the Japanese doll cat; the reference cat was on there on the sand.

Our finished sand model.

Alas, the forces of nature (tidal waves) were too strong for us, and we had to abort halfway. It was a pity, but what can we do? We can only try again tomorrow, and hopefully it will be better tomorrow...

The waves were coming in and the legs of the cat were almost gone; we had to abort because the waves would just wash everything into the sea before the papier mache can even dry...

Crewing After-thoughts

2009-07-07T23:25:00.000+08:00

Finally, I have something to blog about.

I had just finished two school productions in a row, and it was real hectic. Being a stage crew and assistant stage manager respectively for both these shows, I finally had a chance to see how a school production (out of LASALLE context) works. To be honest, I don't think school productions are my cup of tea due to various reasons. First it's tough working with students and school teachers, and secondly school productions usually have an unusually large number of performers which can be a nightmare at times. However, there's one thing I do like about school productions though, and that is the finale. With the amount of performers on stage, plus the naturally-high energy level of students in general, curtain calls are always loud and fun.

At the moment, I can't say for certain if I'd ever crew for school productions again. I might if I'm in desperate need of money, but I think I can consider doing scenic design. Although school performances generally have nothing artistic for me to really take pride in, but I believe it is a challenge, to design sets based on limited budgets. Well, I'll see...

Something Random...

2009-06-18T14:08:00.002+08:00

This post comes in two parts, of which are totally not related.

First, I've just got the email from NAC asking me to go down for interview early next time with regards to my application for bursary. Hopefully I can get it!

Second, here's a parody of a Korean soap opera by MadTV (it's not quite new already, actually) which I thought is quite funny:

Heineken Spoofed

2009-06-14T20:21:00.001+08:00

I know I haven't been updating this blog for quite some time, partly because there's nothing worth updating for the time being. But for now, here's a spoof for that funny Heineken beer ad on TV now..

"The Sound of Music" Marionette Style

2009-04-11T11:21:00.002+08:00

"The Sound of Music" by Julie Andrews is such a classic. But, can anyone imagine it being performed not by flesh and blood actors, but with marionettes? Take a look at it:

This production is presented by the world-renowned Salzburg Marionette Theatre which I like very much. Hopefully I'd have the chance to watch them live one of these days.

Inspired: Edward Gordon Craig

2009-04-02T22:44:00.003+08:00

Lately I've been busy. Very busy.

First I had to render costumes for scenography project on "Romeo and Juliet". Second I have to attend rehearsal for "Three Fat Virgins Unassembled" as an ASM, at the same time help out with the bump-in of this show together with that of "Invisibility" (currently performing in school). Third, a few essays are almost due and I've yet start on any of them.

Anyway, that's not the main point for this post.

Lately I got an "offer" to do scenic and lighting design for my troupe's "Bloodshed in the Imperial Palace", which we would be performing in Taiwan this August/ September. Actually, it was me who volunteered my service, as I thought this would be a good learning experience for me, instead of just working in school context. But then, it wasn't that easy for me as I'm faced with two big challenges: my troupe leader wanted me to use as little set pieces as possible and use more of light to enhance the performance; the venue has got only 4 fly bars for flying scenic pieces.

This comes as a blow to me. No way am I going to compromise my artistic vision just because of budget constraint, as I've done in 2006 for "Courtesan Yu Tang Chun" which I felt is a failure and that I'm almost too ashamed to even put it in my CV. However, lately as I was doing research on Edward Gordon Craig for my Theatre History essay assignment, I realised that there's a lot I could learn from him. He too once had to make do with an unpromising theatre and yet he could create something out of it. What's more important is that despite having relatively simple set for his productions, they remained very effective because he was able to make his set integrate with the whole plot, instead of being a standalone element on its own.

Perhaps I can try to apply his techniques into my design. However, how well it works is yet to be known...

Wrapping up of "Emouvoir"

2009-02-21T09:52:00.003+08:00

Yesterday was the second, and the last performance of our Technical Theatre Level 1's show "Emouvoir", and I'm greatly relieved. Though there're still hiccups here and there, it was nevertheless a nice working experience. What was unexpected was the turnout for both shows, and it was even more surprising that most, if not every member of the audience stayed till the end of the show. Sad to say, I was too busy during the interval to ask our videographer to change tape before the start of Act 2, hence almost half of the show was recorded. It was a pity, as this is our first class production, and god knows when we might have the chance to do that again.

Emouvoir Emouvoir

2009-02-16T10:51:00.004+08:00

Our Technical Theatre’s show “Emouvoir” will be opening this week and our whole class is busy like hell as everyone is involved.

This “Emouvoir” thing is actually part of our theatre making module in which we have to stage a performance all by ourselves, from the initial conceptualization to design process all the way till setting up the stage. The only thing we do not do is to act and do promotion for it. Therefore, we have to direct a short piece of drama or dance, do lighting design for another, sound design for next, and then stage manager as well. It is stressful and confusing as we have to squeeze 12 groups of rehearsals together, sometimes even overlapping one another. Nevertheless it is still fun at times.

On a side note, I was involved in the poster design for this performance. It went well initially, until the Corporate Communications department told us that the poster design looked a bit ambiguous in meaning due to the image of a naked man’s torso on the poster. Luckily for me, being an ex-Visual Studies Foundation student, I was well-prepared for the justification, and the poster design was finally approved with the insertion of a short blurb on the poster to contextualise it.

“Emouvoir” will be on at LASALLE’s Flexible Performance Space on 19 and 20 February.

"Medea" Backtrack: Set Design

2009-01-09T17:51:00.004+08:00

I should have blogged about this long ago, but I supposed I had totally forgotten about it!

When our class got the copy of the script "Medea", we were supposed to first come out with the design for Cornell Box, and then from there carry on to make a set design, and subsequently the costume design. All these, of course, are just for assignment purposes and not meant to be really materialised.

As stated in my previous post, I had adapted my setting to ancient India and there is a reason why I did that. The whole concept behind my set design for “Medea” came from a single idea of Kali, the Hindu Goddess usually associated with destruction and death. In turn, Kali is a manifestation of Parvati, the benevolent Supreme Divine Mother. The multiple manifestation of the Supreme Divine Mother shared some similarities to Medea, as she has many faces to her as well; Medea is a sorceress, a vengeful wife and a seemingly loving mother (as she claimed to be in the script) all rolled into one. Medea’s ultimate destructive nature also parallel to a certain extent to Kali, but at the same time contrast with the Goddess in the sense that Kali kill demons for maintaining peace on earth, but Medea kills for revenge. Based on the above aspects, I have decided to transpose the setting from ancient Greece to ancient India.

The set consist of 4 components, flats showing distorted structures of a Hindu shrine depicting the distorted perspective of Medea’s world, enormous holy Hindu scriptures in the form of raked platforms representing Medea’s beliefs in the Gods, an inverted cut-out of a Indian landscape on a seamless translucent canvas for the projection of washes to create different dramatic moods and a turn-able rostra which shows the idol of Parvati on one side and the “throne” for Medea on the back.

At the start of the show, Medea is in the temple of Parvati pouring her heart out at the Goddess. The skyline is deep blue, echoing the melancholy of Medea. The chorus, in the form of fairies by the sides of the Goddess, appears to console and give advices to Medea. After Medea kills her children, the skyline turned red to symbolize bloodshed, and at the same time, the flats showing the distorted structures flies off and the “statue” of Parvati turns around to show Medea’s “throne”. Medea, who now appears dressed like Kali climbed onto her throne, suggesting that she is her own God. The whole rostra rolls off upstage and the black centre curtains draw in, masking out the entire upstage, leaving only Jason all alone on stage.

Below here are images of my final set design:

And here are my initial set concept, and an intermediate design before I derive at my final one:

Dollie Finale: The "Medea" Story

2009-01-09T16:35:00.005+08:00

For the past 1 month, I have been sewing, cutting, defraying and ~~hurting my fingers~~ like a costume-making machine, and finally today I have them all submitted to my lecturer. Hence here I present, the costume design for "Medea" the play! For those who are wondering how come the costumes I've shown in my last pose looked so Indian despite the fact that "Medea" was set in ancient Greece, I've actually adapted it into Indian setting, reason for that will be given in my next post on the set design (something which I had done last semester but just realised that I've not blogged about it yet!)

Costume for Medea at start of play. Her exaggerated sari has got a long end which sweep across the floor, and together with the peacock motif suggested her pride, elegance, and difference from other ordinary woman. She is dressed in South Indian style as I've set her to be of South Indian origin, as opposed to the North Indian adaptation of the play.

Costume for Medea after she killed her two sons. She seemed to have changed into another character, as she thought she is Kali by destructing whatever gets in her way, but of course she is not, hence her appearance her shows some similarity to common portrayal of the Goddess, but yet still very different.

Jason the future Princess Consort, hence dressed like a Prince.

Costume for King Creon of Gupta Empire (in original text the place is Corinth). About the same style as Jason, but more elaborate.

Costume for King Aegeus of Sassanid Empire (in original text the place is Athens). Although he's also a King, but he dressed differently from Creon, for obviously he's from Persia.

Costume for Chorus. Instead of women in the street, my Chorus is made up of fairy maidens transformed from temple statues.

Costume for the Nurse. The nurse in my adaptation is a comical role and of slightly higher importance because she knew well what is going on in the household, unlike Medea who is trapped in her own world.

Costume for Tutor. Other than King Aegeus, he's the only man in the show to wear garment for the upper body, because he's the more educated one. In my adaptation he's almost a comical role like the nurse.

Dolly Craze

2008-12-11T16:57:00.005+08:00

Lately I'm crazy over 1/6-scale dolls. You know, Barbie dolls and similar. Not in the sense that I like playing with them, but more related to my interest in costume design.

It all started years ago when I saw some OOAK (One Of A Kind) dolls in Chinese wuxia styled costumes being auctioned on Ebay and I thought they looked absolutely fabulous. At that point of time I had the thought of doing the same myself, by repainting, rerooting and creating costumes for these dolls, just that it remained only as a thought. It was only recently, when I had to do costume design for "Medea" as a school assignment that the thought came to my mind again. The difference is that this time round, I really put that into action. Here are 2 costumes I had designed for the title role of Medea.

Medea in opening of play (top) and during the finale (bottom) when she was dressed similar to that of Goddess Kali. Model is a Volks Dollfie 27cm doll.

I still have 7 roles in which I had to design costumes for, and I'm not sure if I can finish them by the start of next semester! One thing I can be sure of, is I'd certainly be blamed for "spoiling the market", because doing mock-up costumes is not part of the assignment's requirement, but I did it anyway because I felt it can better aid me convey the kind of costume I wanted to create. Having said that, I don't think I'll do that again, if there's another costume design assignment in future for class, because it's simply too time and energy consuming!

Not forgetting making Chinese opera costume for my doll as well!

Bumping out for Lucky Stiff 2

2008-12-02T12:59:00.001+08:00

Bumping out for Lucky Stiff

2008-12-02T12:56:00.001+08:00

"Adiós" to Long Hair

2008-12-01T19:58:00.004+08:00

I had not had my hair snipped for almost a year, and I finally had it cut yesterday. It was a very tough struggle for me; I always wanted to have long hair, but it is very hard to make the hair dry after washing, and the increased frequency of hair dropping made me having to constantly sweep the floor under my computer desk at home. Hence, after weighing various factors, I decided to have it snipped. Not without a big change, that is! Some of my friends will know that I visit the hair salon at least once in a few months, and everytime I leave the salon I'll usually spot a very big change in hairstyle, and this time is no exception too. Not only did I had my hair cut short, I also did a twist perm as well. However, I don't quite like the results; it wasn't as nice as what I had done before 2 years back, although it was done in the same salon. But, I think I will just have to stay with it for a few more months before I change my hairstyle again; I don't wish to visit the salon again and have all my hair shaved off!

One last look before snipping; I may not have a chance to grow hair this long again!

Intricate steps to prepare the hair for twist perm (they call it the "caterpillars"!); it is very painful!

Resulting effect

Over The Top Makeup Box

2008-11-29T00:19:00.004+08:00

It's the end of the school term and finally I can have my long deserved break. Although it's just one month, it is better than having none! I'm looking forward to it, as I can finally indulge myself in some Chinese opera, for I had totally no time to perform or even rehearse, and therefore a lot of performing opportunies had to be sacrificed for school.

Anyway, I've talked quite a fair bit about my Chinese opera craze before in my blog, but have never discussed any other related issues, so now I shall share with everyone my makeup box!

If you think this is a plumber or mechanic's tool box, then you're wrong...

It's my makeup box!

I have 2 pairs of eyelashes in my makeup box; the left pair is for younger roles while the right is for more matured/ older roles.

8 different shades of eye shadow! To be honest I seldom have the chance to use ALL, but one never know when the chance will arise to use them...

4 different shades of lipstick too! But I do use ALL of them, but of course not ALL at the same time, the most I'd do is to blend 2 tones to achieve the desired colour to suit a particular character.

Bottom compartment of the box: it's a mess and I don't know how to clean up!

Different kinds of brushes and eyeliners

I know some people might find my makeup box a bit over the top, considering the fact that I'm just an amatuer Chinese opera performer (to put it bluntly, a hobbyist), but then again this is an investment which I think one have to make if he really has got the passion in it.

Lucky Stiff Opened!

2008-11-25T23:14:00.002+08:00

"Lucky Stiff" opened at Lasalle's Creative Cube this evening, and I only realised that minutes before the show opened! Well, I guess I have had been to busy to know that, or that it has been ages since I last look at our production schedule.

Today's show was not bad, including my sound effects playback. It wasn't as smooth during the last few rehearsals, as the original laptop I had used for the sound effect playback was down, and had to switch to another laptop last minute. This new laptop, however, had got a problem of being a bit lagging, and almost all sound cues only went off about a second after I hit the spacebar. Luckily for me I somehow managed to get round the problem by anticipating the sound cues a little and play just before my stage manager asked me to go. Of course, by right that shouldn't happen, but I had no choice!

On a side note, I have got 2 complimentary tickets for this Friday's show. I guess I won't be needing them, and if anyone wants to watch the show, please contact me. If you're into comedies or shows featuring good laughs without any plot that requires a lot of brain power to analyse and comprehend, this is the show to catch!

Upcoming Musical Productions

2008-11-08T09:29:00.003+08:00

Previously I had posted that our whole class was involved in various musical productions this month, and now the tickets are available for sale at Gatecrash!

The production I am in is "Lucky Stiff", a whimsical musical about an Englishman who inherited his uncle's money after his death, with 2 other people after him trying to ruin his plan. It will be performing from 26 to 29 November, with a matinee on the last day, at Lasalle's Creative Cube.

The other 2 productions are "Nunsense" from 13 to 15 November at the Creative Cube as well, and "The Life of Galileo" from 27 to 29 November at Lasalle's Flexible Performance Space.

Do come and support if you can!

PS: For those who can't remember, I am doing sound op., not part of the cast.

Mamma Mania

2008-10-04T23:56:00.003+08:00

No you didn't see wrongly, and neither is that a typo error on my part for the title. It was actually a combination of "Mamma Mia!" and "Abba Mania", the 2 ABBA-inspired events which I had attended lately. "Mamma Mia!" is a movie adapted from the West End musical of the same name, which was in turn inspired and consists entirely of ABBA's songs, whereas "Abba Mania" is a concert by Abba Mania, a cover band of ABBA, trying to recreate the visual and acoustic atmosphere of an authentic ABBA performance.

I watched "Mamma Mia!" last Saturday, and although I was very much looking forward to its opening in Singapore, I know I shouldn't expect much, since not everyone in the movie is known for their singing. Furthermore, as I've not watched the musical itself, I'm not even sure if the songs of ABBA can really fit well into the movie, especially when the lyrics were all left untouched. Surprisingly, everything gels pretty well together and if I had not listened to ABBA's songs before, I'd have thought that the songs were all written for the musical/ movie itself. It was a rather entertaining movie with lots of laughs, and many a times it's the ensemble, in the form of hotel workers and fellow islanders, who spiced up the various song segments a lot. One major letdown was, however, the singing ability (or lack of to be honest) of Pierce Brosnan. Meryl Streep, who wasn't known to be able to sing previously, sounded much better than him on the contrary. However, I thought the acoustics for the songs in the movie (or whatever you call it) sounded rather strange; the vocals and the music doesn't quite seem to blend nicely, and sounded as if they were recorded separately and then superimposed onto one another. Or maybe they really did that, but they should have tweaked it to make it sound more "realistic".

As for "Abba Mania", I watched it this afternoon, exactly a week apart. The feel of this 2 events are totally different; the former used the songs of ABBA in totally different contexts, whereas the latter tried to make the audience feel as if they're going back in time and watching a real ABBA concert. Consisting of Mark Thomas, Philip David Hawkes, Lydia Griffiths and Carley Broom taking on the roles of Bjorn, Benny, Anni-Frid and Agnetha respectively, they churned out classic after classic. Not only did they sing, but also speak and behave as if they were their characters, making this events less like an imitation performance, but more like a concert. The audience were initially shy about doing anything else other than sitting rooted in their seats and watch actions unfold on stage, but with the catchy music and the ability of the band to create the right atmosphere, in no time many people started standing up, singing and clapping to the songs. It's a pity that the Esplanade Theatre is afterall meant for theatrical performances and not so much for such concerts, hence it is hard for the audience to really get up to dance and jive. Like I was sitting in Circle 2 on the front-most row, and I was afraid that if I were to stand up, I might be blocking the view of people sitting behind me who couldn't stand up like me due to the miserably small floor space they had. However, by the second half of Act 2, I guessed many people dismissed the venue's restrictions and started to stand up as if watching a concert by the Esplanade waterfront or at Singapore Indoor Stadium. "Abba Mania" was a big success, as I can see from the turnout and the response by the majority of the audience. Overall I find that although the band's nowhere near the original ABBA, they performed quite well. However, I just felt that Carley Broom's voice sounded a bit strained and tired at some points of the concert whereby she was supposed to sing solo. It was a small pity, but overall the concert was great, and I should really sing "Thank You For The Music" to them!

Funny Mamma Mia!

2008-10-04T20:02:00.002+08:00

So I just returned from Abbamania, but before I think of what to write about it, let me put a clip of Mamma Mia! the musical, not the "original" version, but a hilarious skit based on the original, done by the original Broadway cast. Enjoy!

3 Funny Thai Health Commercials

2008-09-30T18:02:00.003+08:00

Here are three funny Thai commercials found on Youtube. How I love Thai commercials!

It's a Wrap! End of "The Odd Couples"

2008-09-28T20:10:00.002+08:00

So yesteday was the final performance for "The Odd Couple", and how time flies! It was a really fun experience working in this production, although I did not have the chance to interact with many people, especially the cast. My next production will be in November, and I believe it would be with the same class again. Really looking forward to it!

Preview for "The Odd Couple"

2008-09-23T23:09:00.003+08:00

Today is the preview for "The Odd Couple" and I was shocked. I was shocked because I only realised that last evening. Or rather I had thought it was supposed to be a few days later. But since my job as the lighting op for this show is relatively easy, it didn't quite bother me.

The audience today was very receptive of the performance, and they were cheering and laughing loudly, and from my position on the control tower at the back of the auditorium, I thought I was watching an American sitcom. I never expected the audience's response to be so positive in the first place, and the atmosphere is entirely different then when watching even the last dress rehearsal.

One day down, and four more days to go; hopefully every other performance will be as smooth-running too, and I'm looking forward to my next production, doing sound op for a musical...

I have actually taken a few video clips of the drama during it's final dress rehearsal in the daytime, but until I know for certain I'm allowed to upload them onto any video servers, I am not in liberty to show them here. However, those who are on facebook can see one of the clips on "The Odd Couple" events page.

LASALLE's Performance Season Starting Soon

2008-09-12T12:15:00.003+08:00

Although I'm just a mere lighting operator for one of the shows in the upcoming performance season of my school, I thought why not advertise them on my blog!

So altogether, there will be 4 shows being staged from 18th September to 11th October at the Flexible Space and Creative Cube within our campus compound. The 4 shows are: "5 Women Wearing the Same Dress" (18 - 20 Sep.), "The Odd Couple" (24 - 27 Sep.), "A Dream Play" (26 - 27 Sep.) and "Fever" (9 - 11 Oct.). Tickets are on sale now at Gatecrash (just follow the respective links above).

Please come support us!

Start of Production Period: The Odd Couple

2008-09-11T21:35:00.004+08:00

So I had started attending rehearsals for "The Odd Couple", a drama production which would be held somewhere this month (I still have no idea when it would be held, although I knew my production period is from 16th to 27th this month!). I am the lighting op., and am really looking forward to it.

I have been very anxious when I first got the brief production schedule early last month, and being a bit kiasu, I actually went to get a zapped copy of the script, only to realised lately that we were producing the "female version" of the Neil Simon play and not the original male version which I had originally conveniently assumed. What a waste of money, but anyway both versions are more or less the same in terms of concept, so although I joined in the rehearsals much later than my other classmate who's doing the sound op., at least I know roughly the gist of the plot.

I thought "The Odd Couple" was really an interesting play, and I actually enjoyed sitting in for the rehearsals. I'll try to see if I can do a bit of video recording of the rehearsal next time round during rehearsal.

I was taking snapshots of the set before rehearsal commenced and I saw a shadow zoomed past; it was my SM Caleb trying to get all the props ready. I think my troupe's "SMs" should consider themselves very, very lucky and pampered to only turn up on performance day without knowing a single thing about the plot!

My LD Wang Meng with 1/3 of the cast in the background

The temporary "dressing room" for our cast; I can't imagine myself doing costume changes in such a chaotic place!

Giddiness

2008-09-11T21:19:00.002+08:00

I had been feeling giddy on and off since yesterday.

Yesterday afternoon while at Artfriend near my school, I was shopping for some stuffs when I suddenly felt my body swaying to one side as if I was intoxicated by alcohol. It was really strange why I just felt giddy all of a sudden; I had a decent lunch, I didn't have any headache, and neither did I felt any other weakness in my body. Later on in class during technical drawing I felt the giddiness again while sitting on my chair, and also in the evening while on my way walking to DBS Arts Centre (I suddenly just couldn't walk straight for a few seconds).

I thought I'd be okay today, but apparently I wasn't. At times when I walked fast or turn my head quick, I'd feel like being swept off my feet by some typhoon. Hence despite I have had a production meeting and a production rehearsal to attend in the afternoon, I had no choice but to skip all of that to rest at home.

What the hell was wrong with me? I certainly have got no idea...

Mamma Mia!

2008-09-03T19:13:00.004+08:00

I just can't wait for Mamma Mia! to hit the silverscreens, although it is said that it would be shown "in cinemas September 18". Having missed Mamma Mia! when the musical came to Singapore years ago, I'm determined not to miss the movie version again. How great it is, with two ABBA-inspired shows coming to Singapore one after another!

Respect and Professionalism

2008-08-27T07:48:00.003+08:00

Lately an incident in the arts community here has become a topic of discussion. A Straits Times reporter, having sat through only 10 minutes into a performance for the Singapore Theatre Festival, wrote a review on that performance which was filled with inaccuracies and misleading information. This sparked some unhappiness among some local theatre practitioners, and I felt equally upset. Where has the professionalism of this reporter went to? I'm sure he should have learnt at some point of his academic life that one need to have thorough research before he even write a thesis, report, review, whatever, and in this case, shouldn't he write only after he had finished the show? It is downright disrespectful of the performance and its production crew to write a review based on simply assumption of what would happen for the next 9/10 of the performance which the reporter had missed. To put it on an even simpler term, I'm sure at least he's heard of the phrase "do not judge a book by his cover", and sadly, this was what he did. The more disappointing fact was that the Straits Times weren't even a single bit apologetic towards this incident; all they did was to put a small disclaimer in the papers stating that the review was not "incomplete" as the reviewer did not finish the show. Is that all the Straits Times have to say to this incident? What about the discourse of professional ethics which was obviously left out? A lecturer of mine once told my class that sometimes she got upset when she reads the Life! section of the Straits Times because of the shallowness of the contents, and now I can understand (I haven't read the local papers for ages since I do not like the style of it). At this point of writing, I understand some theatre practitioners have started sending letters to the press to voice their unhappiness (sadly I didn't, as I know well enough my linguistic power only allows me to diss in my own blog), and I believe as usual, the management of the Straits Times will jump up from their cosy armchairs to react accordingly, as what has been done before for other similar and/ or not-so-similar happenings. Or will they not do anything? We shall see...

It's a Small World!

2008-08-26T17:58:00.003+08:00

I just got an updated production schedule for this term this morning. So here I am, going to be a lighting op. for "The Odd Couple", which will be held towards the later half of next month. I saw a familiar name in the lighting designer section, and a check with Shao Ann confirmed that this lighting designer was someone I knew; he was my lighting op. when I was doing lighting design for my troupe's performance at the Esplanade Recital Studio. Well I'm glad that I did not ill-treat him nor the rest of the lighting team the previous round, or else I'm not sure what will happen during production, when our roles are switched! Nevertheless, it still feel great to work with someone I know, although I'm not sure if he still remembers me. At the very least, I can be sure I will be able to work well with him, and that is a very big relief for me.

Beckham the Musical?

2008-08-23T07:42:00.003+08:00

So, the next new theme to be brought onto the stage of musicals is the life of David Beckham, and somemore on London's West End! It's still rather vague as to what will be featured in this musical, but it is said that David Beckham: The Theatre of Dreams, "is a modern-day fairytale of heroes, villains, love, Manchester United and what it means to lead your country" as quoted off from Mark Archer, the producer of this musical. Although I may not have interest in soccer, I'm quite interested to see how this musical is like, somemore it's based on the life story of a living, white male!

Charlie Brown Musical

2008-08-23T07:40:00.001+08:00

"Peanuts" has been my all-time favourite comic strip since young, and believe it or not, it as watching the cartoon version of "Peanuts" that make me interested in Jazz (Jazz music has been used extensively in almost all episodes, if not all).

There's also a musical version of "Peanuts" titled "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown", and if not wrong it was performed in Singapore a few years ago. It's rather interesting to have a comic strip being brought to stage, because the characters no longer look like what you used to remember; like Charlie Brown no longer is a small boy with big head and a bit of curly hair, and Snoppy now has "hair" and looks more like "human". However it's still not hard to tell who is who from some clues embedded in their costumes, which makes it even more fun. Of course, other than these elements, I thought the music and lyrics to this musical are good also. Hopefully I'll be able to catch them in action again, although I know well that it has been closed for a few years now.

"You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown"

"Happiness"

Are you able to tell who is who from the 2 clips above?

Finally Found: "William Teo: His Work in Theatre"

2008-08-19T16:00:00.002+08:00

There's this particular book on the late local theatre practitioner William Teo which I had been searching high and low for months, and I finally found it at Earshot Cafe at the Artshouse.

Actually, I've seen this book before a few years back at the Esplanade gift shop (or whatever you call it), but I didn't buy at that point of time. I did browse through the book briefly, though, and I thought his works seemed interesting to me. However, I soon forgot about the book, its contents, and even the subject matter after some time. It was only during my interview for admission into TTA that William Teo's name resurfaced again, when my programme leader Shao Ann commented that my design for my specialism project gave him the impression of how William Teo would have done in my place. Therefore, I began hunting for the book, but alas, Esplanade gift shop do not carry it already. I went to a few major bookstores too, but neither do they have it. Even Select Books, a local bookstore which carries lots of rare southeast Asian publications, no longer have it in their stocks. "Our supplier said that this book is too old and has been out-of-print already!", the lady over the counter told me after checking with their supplier. Luckily for me, I stumbled upon Earshot Cafe's website by chance and realised that they still have it, and hence decided to head down to the cafe to get it.

I'm still very excited now, at being able to get my hands on the book. I think I'm going to frame it up, or even lock it up in a metal box under layers of chains and padlocks!

Going First Aid Course 2

2008-08-17T18:31:00.002+08:00

3 more photos from my first aid course taken today. Please do note that the superimposed thought bubbles in the following pictures are purely fictional and do not represent what the involved personnel had in mind at the point of photo taking!

Going First Aid Course

2008-08-16T22:16:00.003+08:00

Today is Saturday, but I had to go for lessons too. However, it wasn't in school that I had my lesson in, but at the Red Cross Training Centre. It was part of our faculty's requirement for us newbies to be trained (and pass) in first aid, and today's the first day of the three day course.

In the past when I attend such training lessons with lots of dry "try-to-absorb-as-much-as-you-can" information, I'd simply doze off within half an hour. I thought this would be no different, but luckily it wasn't that bad. In fact it was rather interesting. However, lessons are after all lessons; when faced with a real first aid situation, I'm not sure if I can really handle it at all!

The "posey" casualty

TTA's version of the "Three Wise Monkeys"

The "Ice Hockey Casualty"

It seems like a wrong bandage; the lips are "swollen", so should put a donut over it and wrap it up!

Another "posey" casualty

1-month Anniversary of my last post

2008-08-11T21:45:00.002+08:00

It's been exactly a month (less 1 day) since I last blogged. What happened to me, you might ask. Well, a lot!

First, school term had just begun, and I was as busy as hell. Ironically, it was still "honeymoon" period of school, so why am I so busy? I don't know, but maybe when faced with subjects I like (technical theatre arts, of course!), I can just do research non-stop. Can you believe it, it was just 1 week of school and my journal is like 1/2 full!

Second reason why I went "missing" on the blogsphere was a more "tragic" one: my laptop failed on me! I didn't know what happened, but on my first day of school, my keypad and mousepad suddenly failed on me. In desperation, I had to send my Macbook Pro for servicing, and I was "handicapped" for 7 days without a laptop to use: it affected my school work, freelance design work, and ability to surf the net as and when I want!

So now I'm back, and hopefully I'll be able to update my blog more often; I hope...

Abba Mania!

2008-07-12T10:27:00.002+08:00

I was at the Esplanade last night when I saw this big standing poster promoting "ABBA Mania", a tribute concert to ABBA. I am very excited over this event; after missing "Mama Mia!" and "We Will Rock You", I swear that I'm not going to miss it this time round.

Yes you're right, I'm an ABBA fan. In fact, ABBA's my most favourite band after Beatles (all seemed beyond my time right?). I'm not being retro, but I think I just find Europop and Britrock more appealing. Having said that, I have to admit I have not listened extensively to Europop nor Britrock. It just happened that I listened to their songs more, as compared to other bands of the same genre.

The most expensive tickets for this event was priced at $95, a bit expensive for a poor student like me, but there's still quite some time away from the event, and hopefully I can save up that amount soon, before the tickets got sold out!

Photographs, Photographs and More Photographs!

2008-07-11T12:04:00.005+08:00

I was clearing out my photo albums to make way for new books when I realised that I have a lot of hard copy photographs of Zhangzhou City Xiangju Opera Troupe's performances; one big stack as shown here:

That's horribly a lot, considering that those were just for about 10-odd performances which I had watched, and this stack here only comprises of selected shots which I feel is good enough for print. Imagine how many photographs were there for Xiamen Municipality Opera Troupe, which had performed 3 times at Lorong Koo Chye Sheng Hong Temple!

My shelf of photo albums; more than half of which are Chinese opera performance shots!

It's no doubt I love photography, though not exclusively for Chinese opera performance. My passion for photography became so intense that I just bring my digital camera along whenever I go out. And it's not that slim-body type, but those bulky digital EOS kind! Basically I'd take pictures of whatever I find interesting. (Luckily, I didn't develop them into physical photographs as I was too lazy to organise them into different albums.) Of course, my notion of "interesting" may not be interesting enough for the average people; I like scenes with strong sense of lines or repeated patterns (for those who're into art or design, does that remind you of EPAD: Elements and Principles of Art and Design?), or anything that has a rich history and is hard to find in present urban Singapore. However, as my photo-taking are rather impromptu, hence many of them do not have the feel and mood like those professional or artistic photographs. I do wish, though, that one day I can have my own artistic photography portfolio, provided I have the time and energy to do so!

A shot of a stairwell at Raffles Place over a decade ago; I just find the repetition of lines in this shot interesting (though not technically nice enough)

Performance After-thoughts: "The Teacher, The Thief" at Tampines East C.C.

2008-06-27T22:56:00.004+08:00

I just returned from my troupe's performance at Tampines East Community Club, and am too tired to do anything. Today we performed "The Teacher, The Thief", our most well-loved show by our audience. It is actually quite unusual for us to perform this show today, because the last time we performed this show at this same community club was just less than 2 years ago. Previously, we were not allowed to repeat the same show in the same venue again, unless after a lapse of at least 5 years.

So, how do we fare in our performance today? Well, it depends whether if one's looking at the narrow perspective or wide perspective. If wide perspective, that is, the show on the whole, it was a success; our audience loved it, and were totally engrossed in our acting. However, from the narrow perspective view, our actors had hiccups here and there. So far we have not had so much hiccups in a single night before during all our previous runs of this same show. Why did we have so much hiccups? Did we have too little time to rehearse before the actual performance? Or that we had not prayed to our "Gods" before the show commence? Well I won't want to conclude anything for now, but I just can't help wondering...

My self-made beard; how do you find it? Our troupe has got no beard which I think is suitable for my role, so I had no choice but to make one on my own.

Is this a lady from the ancient world brought to modern time, or a lady from modern time brought back to ancient world?

Show me your hand only when you have got gold or diamonds!

My makeup today, in "pseudo Yueju" style; lately our troupe members started to shift from Taiwanese style of makeup to the more softer Yueju style, which is similar to what I had always put on for the past few years

My Current Top Must-watch Serial

2008-06-21T21:55:00.003+08:00

Lately I was very into this particular 32-episode drama serial from China, titled "旗舰" ("Qi Jian", or "The Flagship" when translated into English). What makes me intersted in this drama is due to 2 factors: it features a naval-theme which I can somewhat still relate to, and that it stars one of my favourite China actor Jia Yiping.

I know it would cause some people to raise their eyebrows when I say I like this drama, for even some of my China friends do not even watch the shows from their own country, and some simply don't support their national CCTV network of channels. Actually, I only watch selected China-produced serials too. Many serials, alas, were major disappointments.

From what I can tell, it tells the story of an ambitious university graduate who started as off as a fresh naval recruit and climbed his way up to become the captain of his own vessel. In someway, I could see similiarities between the title character and me. The only differences were that I was only a naval specialist and not an officer, and that the system of military training shown in the serial was very much different from what I had experienced before, but of course that's nothing unusual! That was so much I could say about this serial for I only managed to catch just 2 episodes of it on TV, but the first episode was still not that bad in my opinion. Hopefully it shall remain that way till I finish the last episode!

Inaccurate Portrayal of "Oriental" People

2008-05-31T16:50:00.003+08:00

I seldom watch Channel 5, but this morning I decided to switch to that channel, after getting sick of the constant recycling of kids' drama serials over at Channel 8. So there on Channel 5 was this drama serial titled "The New Adventures of Robin Hood II" which featured some Japanese people. There was one particular character, a Japanese woman to be exact, which I felt was a disaster in character appearance.

If you could not tell what was wrong with her appearance, let me shed some light. First, her makeup was not what a typical Japanese woman in that era put on. I personally felt it was more like what Peking opera actors would wear on stage. As for her kimono, I've never heard of kimonos that is fastened right centre on one's body; only the ancient Chinese wear their dress that way! So you see, the character portrayal is a total flop, with the exception of the hair. But then again, thinking on the logical side, if a woman is constantly on the travel like this character does, it doesn't seem feasible for her to comb this hard-to-maintain hairstyle and makeup.

It is very ironic that such big mistakes can take place in American productions, whereby stylistic realism plays a very important part. Perhaps the designers for this show felt that the western audiences won't be able to tell the difference anyway, but then again it just reflect how badly their research was carried out.

Backdrop for my Paper Theatre

2008-05-31T16:38:00.004+08:00

I've just made a backdrop for my paper theatre. It has been ages since I last paint, and I seemed to have deteriorated. Either that, or the material was too small for me to handle (25cm x 12.5cm using acrylic). Anyway why did I do this "backdrop", you may ask. It was actually a draft of some kind, which I intend to make into a real backdrop of size 10m by 5m for my Chinese opera troupe. However, I don't think I can handle a painting that big on my own (I don't even have such a big uninterrupted floor space to start with), and outsourcing to scenic backdrop painting companies locally could be costly too, I guess. What's more I'm doing not just one, but 3, or even up to 9 if budget allows. Maybe I'll have to look for such companies in China, but then again when the outsourcing company is far away, it is hard for one to supervise the progress. If anyone out there has got any recommendation on cheap and reliable scenic backdrop painting companies, do drop me a message!

Ineffective Workers

2008-05-28T17:53:00.003+08:00

It is not my style to whine about work, although I do sometimes comment about how tiring or stressful these works could be. Well, not unless I have to work with "undesirable" people. What I mean by undesirable people are those who spend half of their working time, or more, on self-declared breaks while leaving all unfinished work to the rest of the team who do not share their concept of loafing.

Today I went to help out in a school event, and I got a chance to work with such people. Altogether, including me, my faculty engaged 8 physical helpers to do some painting job. However, it didn't take long for this number to drop down to just 3. Where did the other 5 went to? Two of them disappeared from time to time, and another 3 just sit at a corner chit-chatting away. At least the first 2 helpers did do quite a bit of work, but the latter 3 simply laze around, and I even heard one of them commenting how tiring this job was. If such little painting job can tire them, what about the 3 of us who only stop for a sip of coffee throughout? I believe it makes sense that by chipping in effort to finish the job once and for all, all of us can leave earlier, but obviously these people don't think the same; they'd rather waste their time sitting at a corner doing nothing. The only thing they "helped" was to comment that one area was not well-painted, after we'd decided to pack up. Such people are damn annoying! On top of that, these people were the first to leave when the whole group was dismissed.

So you see the irony: people who worked less get to leave early, while people who worked more had to stay behind clearing up. Illogical right?

Chinese Opera on National TV During Peak Hours

2008-05-17T23:57:00.003+08:00

Tonight was the first episode of the 3rd season of a very popular game show sponsored by a very big supermarket. On this first episode, a few children were featured performing Teochew opera at the end of the show, and that made me very upset. Not that their performance were not good, and neither am I anti-Teochew opera. What I wasn't happy about was that they were actually performing in dialect on national TV during prime time airing slots, something our opera troupe was denied of years ago.

You see, years ago, our opera troupe was invited to take part in an episode of a local variety show (the show was to be aired on a Monday night). In this variety show, there was a singing competition, and weekly during the competition, the contestants had to go through a "test of the week", which could be anything from doing stunts or performing tasks which was out of the singing scope, depending who the "master of the week" was. So our role in this episode of the variety show was to have someone within our troupe to be the "master" and sing a segment of our Hokkien opera, and have the contestants sing like how our "master" did. We spent the whole evening recording the episode, and our involvement was even included in the TV trailer (showing one contestant singing beside our "master"). However at the last minute, all footages showing our "master" were deleted, on grounds that showing materials with dialect elements on national TV during prime time airing slots is against the higher authorities' regulations. We were all very unhappy, because we had informed everyone around us about the airing, but since that was something which could go against the regulations, we just have to accept that decision. So since the relevant authorities ruled that dialect elements should not be aired during prime time slots, why now this variety show, also on a prime time airing slot (and some more on a weekend), can feature Teochew opera performance? Not just that, many a times in charity gala shows, which are always aired on weekend prime time slots as well, there'd be guest stars singing Hokkien/ Cantonese songs or perform Teochew/ Cantonese opera. So why are these acts allowed too? On a side note, there're several occasions on weekend afternoons, segments featuring artistes singing Hokkien songs in Taiwanese variety shows were censored. Aren't weekend evenings more "prime" than weekend afternoons? Why are dialect elements in less "prime" slots censored while similar stuffs in more "prime" slots allowed to be aired?

I'm really confused with the stand of the relevant authority regarding this matter. I just don't think all these make any sense, but since my troupe leader did not pursue the matter back then, I didn't want to make a fuss too, and I was in no position to anyway. However, everytime I see Chinese opera acts during prime time slots on our national TV, I just get upset. Isn't that an irony, that a Chinese opera practitioner gets upset over Chinese opera act on TV?

Hospital Woes

2008-05-03T12:08:00.004+08:00

My father has been discharged from hospital yesterday. And he's not cured yet.

I am surprised by how inefficient the hospital is, not by their medical skills, but their administrative work. You see, my father was admitted to hospital on the 28th, after being going there for x-ray. The reason for the admission was to let the doctors do a thorough scan on my father's leg to determine where the fault is. My father was told the scan would be done the following day, but it wasn't carried out as promised, due to "too many patients on the waiting list". It was done, however, the day after, which meant 1 night was wasted away in the hospital. The report was out on 1st of May, and it was said that blood in 3 of his veins or arteries were not flowing well and need to "unblock" them. Therefore, my father was scheduled for that the following day, but when on the next day, after fasting the whole day and on drip, he was once again told that there were "too many patients on the waiting list", and that he would have to wait until Thursday. They then told my father that he could be discharged already and re-admit again on Wednesday night.

What kind of service is this? How can a big hospital like this not able to check their scheduling beforehand and make empty promises? What if on Thursday morning they "found out" that there're still "too many patients on the waiting list"? Is that how the hospital is making money, by making patients stay-in for nothing? If that's the case, I'd rather my father go seek medical treatment in a more expensive hospital that do not let their patients waste their precious money unnecessarily! It's such a shame that such a hospital can even be considered a "government hospital"!

A Painful Lesson

2008-04-29T00:36:00.005+08:00

My father had been admitted to the hospital this evening. I don't know how to say what happened to him; it's a long story, and it all started because of a numbness on his toe.

You see, my father has got a very bad habit of using his own methods to cure himself of illnesses. Many a times, these so-called "methods" are just what he think will work and had never been proven to work, like purposely taking twice the dosage of medication prescribed by the doctor, claiming that it would speed up the process of recovery. Anyway this time round, when he got a numb toe, he didn't visit any doctor, but got himself some plasters. Not only did these plasters not work, but he got a "hole" in his toe, and that made him in bad pain for a long time. It was so bad that he couldn't sleep at night. He then went to visit those regular clinics and tradition Chinese medical practitioners, and none of the medication worked for him. Instead, it only made the condition worse, and all in all he'd already spent hundreds for the past weeks on his toe. I persuaded him to go and see a specialist at the hospital, but he simply refused. "What use can an x-ray do for my numb toe?" was his reply. His stubborness is frustrating, but I can understand his situation. He has got diabetes, and he's afraid that if he were to go to the hospital, the doctors there would certainly want to amputate his toe. But then again, visiting the "wrong" doctors is not going to make his condition improve, and as proven, it only made his toe even worse, and now had to be hospitalised for further checkup. If he had gone to the hospital for checkup earlier, maybe he won't have to be hospitalised already.

Although now my father's been hospitalised, I believe his condition is still not very bad. The initial examinations at the hospital showed that his blood circulation around his toe is not good, but since he could still feel pain in his toe, it means that his toe is still not totally beyond cure yet. I just hope that after this painful lesson my father will stop trying to use his own ways to cure himself. He is no doctor, and life is not a playing matter either!

Ten Years

2008-04-25T15:24:00.003+08:00

Lately I have been taking a lot of photos, not so because I had a photography project to do, but because I had to do site recci and project documentation for my technical theatre project.

A few weeks ago I was passing by Ann Siang Hill area in the afternoon and decided to snap some pictures, and I just realised that I had taken some shots of that area as well about a decade ago. Here are 2 shots of Ann Siang Hill a decade ago, and a decade later:

Not bad as a form of visual historical documentation I supposed? Now I'm inspired to do more of such historical archiving photography works..

My Work For Exhibition

2008-04-25T15:16:00.003+08:00

I haven't been logging in into our institute's Learning Portal for quite some time, and today I went in to check for any new updates, and received a good news: my 3D head structure had been selected to be displayed at the National Library for the Singapore Arts Festival from 21st to 27th May! This was really something very unexpected, and I don't wish to repeat why. I just hope that my work won't get spat at during the exhibition!

Songkran in Singapore

2008-04-13T16:29:00.004+08:00

Just not long ago I was unhappy at not being able to make it to Thailand for Songkran festival due to time schedule, although I had booked the air tickets not long after I returned from Nakhon Nayok last year. Today, however, I had a short taste of being in the festive mood again locally.

This afternoon, after buying some art material at Bras Basah Complex, I decided to take a detour to Golden Mile Complex for a while before going back. Being the "Little Thailand" of Singapore, I thought there would be some sort of celebration going on. And indeed there is. The moment I reached the area, even before I stepped into the complex itself, I already saw many Thai people with their face powdered; a sign that there was water splashing activities going on.

The main water splashing "zone" was inside Golden Mile Complex itself. I was surprised when I see that the floors of the first and second stories totally wet due to all the water splashing going on. I don't even remember seeing people splashing water in shopping malls or commercial buildings in Bangkok! Anyway the floor of the first storey is so wet that almost half of my feet were submerged in water.

This is the first time I saw so many Thais in Golden Mile Complex and its surrounding areas, so much so that I almost thought I was in Hat Yai or Phuket. The festive spirit was strong, but relatively milder than in Thailand. For one thing, the celebration of Songkran is only restricted to the Thais and those who like Thai culture, hence the "water splashing troops" do not simply splash at anyone, but only at those who showed interest in their activity. When I initially arrive at the mall, nobody "disturbed" me even though I walked among them, but the moment I started taking pictures of these people in action, I got splashed and powdered.

Now, having had a mini Songkran celebration locally already, I felt much better. But even then, I am still not quite happy that my air ticket was wasted. Hopefully next year I'd have the chance to go again!

สวัสดีปีใหม่แด่เพื่อนทุกคน!

Photography in School

2008-04-11T21:35:00.004+08:00

I have not touched an analog camera for almost a decade, and today I finally got in touch with it again for photography lesson in school. Actually my class do not have photography lesson today, but as I was on medical leave two Mondays ago when the class was supposed to do analog photography, I had to be rescheduled to join another class to make up for it.

I had always like photography, and I used to carry my camera around so that I can snap pictures as and when I feel like it. Ironically, I had a phobia for analog photography. I remembered years ago, in an era where digital camera did not exist yet, I once loaded a roll of film wrongly, and none of my shots were captured, and since then I was too scared to even load films. Luckily with the invention of digital cameras, I was once again snapping pictures.

Doing analog photography was like traveling back in time, and much more. Other than doing the shooting, we have to develop the film ourselves in the dark room. It was really fun, but very tedious, as we have to unload the film from the film canister into the dump container in total darkness. On top of that there is a number of processing steps in order the pictures to be registered permanently on the film strip, which took about half an hour to complete. And that is just the developing of the film negative itself; developing of final print is another separate, but equally time-consuming step!

To be honest, although digital photography is much more convenient, I feel that analog photography is much more fun. Perhaps many of the processing steps has been simplified in the digital method, and therefore lessened the fun aspect as well. But still, I'm still very into digital photography; at least I won't need to worry about taking bad shots and thus wasting film!

Never Been So Unlucky!

2008-04-10T10:51:00.002+08:00

I have never been so unlucky in my lie before.

Two Thursdays ago, I was down with high fever, flu and cough. It was so bad that I was almost bed-ridden (on and off) until Tuesday, and till now I have yet to fully recover.

That's not all; just this Monday, I hurt my left wrist. It was a real freaky, as I had not bumped my wrist onto anything, and it was so painful that I couldn't even turn my wrist. It was much better now, but the pain is still there.

As if that's not bad enough, I think I had piles! My butt hurts a lot and at times I can't even sit properly. I didn't sleep well last night too as I was constantly awaken by the discomfort. I don't know how I got it; either I have been riding on my motorbike without letting the seat of my bike cool down slightly after having been baked in the sun for hours, or that my regular diarrhea lately (due to my fever) could have caused it. Now I have to even control my coughing, as even a slight cough can make my butt hurt.

Well hopefully my bad luck ill stop from here, as like what the traditional Chinese believe. Call me superstitious if you want, but I've had enough of all these ordeals!

"Chance Get-together": An Old-Skool MV

2008-03-31T15:05:00.002+08:00

I felt a bit old-skool today, and coupled with craving to listening to E-jun's old song as well as the almost coming to an end to my current academic year (implying that my current classmates and I will split into different faculties and classes soon), I decided to showcase this real old MV from E-jun's debut album titled "萍聚" ("Ping Ju", translated loosely to "Chance Get-together" in English)

Who's that square-looking, but somehow sweet girl in the MV? Well that was E-jun when she was still in her teens! Now if one were to put that image of hers back then into current context, I think most people would probably thought that she was already in her 30s!

Interesting Banner

2008-03-08T10:06:00.003+08:00

It seems like nowadays people doing small-scale businesses like to employ fun (at times nonsensical) tactics and wordings to attract customers, as in the handphone repair advertisement I had posted before.

A few days ago, I saw another banner of such nature at Albert Mall area selling towels; see for yourself!

For those who don't understand Chinese, the sentence in asterisks meant "Anyhow selling (at incredibly insane low price) due to boss not in town". I just find it very funny, and it simply caught my attention despite the banner being disastrous in terms of composition and usage of colours.

Cranky People!

2008-02-27T14:23:00.002+08:00

I'm very pissed off today, by the actions of one of my classmates. Actually this is not the first time I'm upset by her, but after various occasions since last semester, I'm finally angry over my limit.

This classmate, whom I shall just address her as Miss C to protect her identity, was actually on average terms with me when we first entered college. She and I had some common likings and since we often mix around with the same group of classmates, we did talk to each other at times. However, one fine day, things changed dramatically. On that day, she turned up with a bad haircut, and when I went up to her to talk about her hair, she got cranky and screamed at me. I was taken aback, so I just left her alone. Later on I realised that she do not react the same when some other classmates did the same to her! So from then I realised that I should keep clear of her, for I won't know when she'll become edgy again. Since then I've not talked to her till now, except on one incident where I have to inform the whole class of a message which one of my lecturers passed down.

Earlier this year, another incident angered me again. On a particular lesson, my lecturer assigned me to pair up with her and another female classmate. Her reaction to this planning was very strong and she shouted "No" very loudly and strongly. What the heck! Even if she's not comfortable with me pairing up with her, does she have to scream out loud? I was very angry for making me appear like an outcast, but I decided to just put up with her eccentricity.

As for today, she treated me like a pest again by moving away the moment I sat down beside her. You see, during drawing lesson, I was supposed to pair up with another female classmate, but as she had to leave halfway through the lesson, I was left with no partner. My friend Mister G, who was pairing up with Miss C, was just beside me, and hence I decided to join them. The moment I sat down, Miss C packed up all her things and requested the lecturer to pair up with someone else as she "don't have anyone to pair up with". For goodness sake I didn't even chase her away, and what she meant by having no one to pair up with? If she didn't like the idea of grouping up in threes, then why did she choose to group up with another 2 classmates later on? I don't know what I have done to irk her so much, and I'm certainly not happy with how she treats me like poison. Luckily I'm no longer going into the same faculty as her in the next academic year, or else I'll still have to put up with her childish cranky behaviour!

Look Who's This!

2008-02-25T18:58:00.002+08:00

I was surfing the net when I came across this photograph:

Lucky it wasn't anything unsightly, but then again the moral of the story is still the same: always be on your toes even during offstage times at performances!

"Modern" Olympia

2008-02-15T19:50:00.002+08:00

Edouard Manet had a world-famous painting called "Olympia", and today, I realised that our school has got an "Olympia" too!

Original "Olympia" by Edouard Manet

Our version of "Olympia" by Glenn!

Chinese New Year Countdown @ Chinatown

2008-02-07T10:06:00.000+08:00

Yesterday I went to the countdown for Chinese New Year at Chinatown. This is a rare move for me, for someone who is not very keen to go to crowded venues.

Although firecrackers had been unbanned in Singapore (only during Lunar New Year, and to be lit by special-trained and licensed professionals) for a few years already, it was nevertheless my first time seeing it fired up in Singapore. It was a very noisy affair and is the highlight of the entire countdown. In the spirit of Lunar New Year, I'd like to wish everyone a happy and prosperous Lunar New Year!

A Night at Tong'an City Hokkien Opera Troupe's Performance

2008-02-04T16:12:00.000+08:00

Yesterday's the debut performance for Tong'an City Hokkien Opera Troupe at Lor Koo Chye Sheng Hong Temple. This was held in conjunction with the Spring Festival, as well as the fund-raising facilities for the temple's charity funds. I think this temple is getting "well-to-do" now, as recently they've just engaged 2 Taiwanese troupes to perform in their temple, and a few months later, it was said that Xiamen Municipality Gezi Opera Troupe is coming again; it is not cheap to engage foreign troupes to perform here!

So how do I rate the performance? Well there're good and bad aspects of the troupe. The good point is that the accent used by the troupe in general belongs to Xiamen region, which sounds more "homely" for me. The bad point is that the costumes and hairdo for the troupe is not good. I'm very particular about dans who sport very ugly wigs, as if their "hair" is totally detached from their head, and some of the costumes simply screamed "cheap" into the audience's face. Other than that, I think the troupe in general is rather average. Some of the actors could sing rather okay, but some simply sound like screaming and wailing. Musically speaking, I was rather surprised that their musical style resembled that from Longhai region, which was under Zhangzhou territory; I'd have expected their music to be more biased towards Xiamen, since Tong'an is a territory of Xiamen. Well, this was only their first performance, I shall be more lenient towards them. I shall see if things will get better as they perform!

Baddie in green: You spoil my costume and you buy me a new one!

Palace maids: Help! Someone had released toxic gas! *fainted*

Royal concubine: Put out the toxic gas! Quick!

Palace maids: We'll try... we'll try to fan the fumes away!

As a reward for your hard work, I shall give all of you $1 each!

General in white: My costume's colour is nicer!

General in green: Yeah right, but my costume is newer than yours!

General in green: You tell us; who has got the nicer costume?!

Lady in white: Forget it! Mine's more beautiful!

See Day @ Lasalle

2008-02-02T18:23:00.000+08:00

Today I went to the See Day at my campus. As previously mentioned, the See Day is the open house for our institution. Although I was not required to help out, I thought it would be nice to see how the displays of other faculties, as well as supporting our own foundation studies.

See Day flyer

Our lecturers painting on a big canvas outside our studio space

Me playing with my White Head

Faculty of Media Arts displaying within our studio space as well

Faculty of Design's exhibition space

Me and my reflection; I know it doesn't quite look like me!

My "model" against my bamboo-charcoal drawing, done on the spot

Abstract artist-wannabes' favourite space!

Abstract Art - My Curse

2008-02-01T22:43:00.001+08:00

I'm never good at abstract art; or perhaps I have not learnt how to translate my emotions into abstract art pieces. Today for 2D lesson, we were supposed to make abstract drawings based on music clips being played via the sound systems and keywords on various emotions. In total, we have to do 20-odd drawings, and you could have guessed it, it was a disaster to me!

I'd laugh my head off if you think this is a pile of master artworks!

The only 2 pieces I'd consider still passable; the top being a response to a metal music clip and the bottom being a response to a xylophone-like musical sequence

A response to a chain of 11 sound clips; reflects well on my state of mind then: totally confused!

White Hat Parade @ Lasalle

2008-02-01T21:55:00.000+08:00

Today we had a White Hat Parade around the whole campus, as part of our final assessment for our White Hat/ Wearable Head Structure/ White Head Structure project. Well, almost the whole of the campus; some groups had to climb up to the second level and up, whereas for our group, we only went around the first level, as well as a portion of the basement. It was really fun seeing everyone (almost) in all sorts of hats, though I feel that some are too costume party-like and not quite according to the learning outcome of our project.

On a side note, tomorrow and Sunday is the "see day" for our institute (open house, that is), and 3 of my works (1 Chinese ink portrait, 1 bamboo-charcoal drawing and my White Hat) have been selected for exhibition. However, my last check at the exhibiting venue showed that my bamboo-charcoal drawing had been taken down. I wasn't told why was that so, but I believed my drawing could not fit into the overall composition of the displaying area. Anyway I still have 2 other works there, and I just hope that they won't be removed again at the last minute (since I don't think they're really very outstanding, in my own point of view)!

My classmates in parade

People from other classes

Some of the White Hats chosen for exhibition by my lecturer's classes; the one which looked like a toppled Esplanade roof belongs to me (I don't have any pictures of me wearing the hat. Whoever has taken photographs of me in the White Hat please email to me!)

Another view of my White Hat; my worksmanship wasn't really good, and I'm surprised that it actually got selected for exhibition

Other "prized" White Hats

That's a self-portrait of me in Chinese ink, done by observing myself from a mirror; strange that it doesn't look like me, but another course mate whom I do not know!

Thaipusam Possession @ Little India

2008-01-22T20:12:00.000+08:00

The area around my school was exceptionally crowded today, as it coincides with the Hindu festival of Thaipusam. This is a very important religious festival for the Tamils, characterized by the carrying of Kavadi by the worshippers and parading on the road. On this day, faithful Hindu devotees who had previously prayed to Lord Murugan to avert some calamities and granted will make offerings to the Lord by carrying the Kavadi, a heavy burden with many spokes, and is to be carried on the shoulders of the devotees by piercing the spokes into the skin on the chest and back.

This is my first time observing a Thaipusam possession, not deliberately, but while waiting for my bus back home. It was an eye-opener for me; the devotees on Kavadi were accompanied by an entourage of people, probably members of their family, relatives or circle of friends, cheering and singing along to ferocious percussion beats. Being already in a trance-like state, these devotees were unable to feel the pain or bleed from the piercing. The Hindus attribute to this phenomenon to the power of their Lord, but I believe too that without the determination and perseverance of the devotees themselves, it would be very difficult to finish the whole route with that massive weight on their bodies. This to me is a rather moving scene.

A.C. Paper Theatre

2008-01-20T10:11:00.000+08:00

I've just built a theatre of my own, in location of my bedroom! Actually it was model theatre, which I had done up to aid me in my scenography work which will be becoming more significantly important in my opera troupe. I'm not too sure how it will affect me as an actor (since I didn't join the troupe initially to do behind-the-scene works), but most likely I'll be busier than ever.

My paper theatre: made of mounting boards and cartridge paper.

Stage is modeled after the one at Chong Pang Community Club's multi-purpose hall (the venue which we perform the most frequent), with a scale of 1:50, including all props and model actors.

Can you see who they are? They're Amai and Yanni, two of my model actors!

My other model actors.

In case you can't tell how big/ small my paper theatre is, here's a clue to it!

A.C. The Traveller (Trip to Xiamen, Zhangzhou and Quanzhou) III

2007-12-26T22:34:00.000+08:00

Quanzhou is an ancient city also known as "Silk Road of the sea". Situated to the northeast of Xiamen, it takes slightly over an hour to get from Xiamen to Quanzhou, and about 2 hours from Zhangzhou to Quanzhou. Quanzhou is relatively more unfamiliar to me as compared to the other 2 previous cities as I don't have much friends there, and neither am I very familiar with any of the troupes there. However, being a fan of Gaojia and Liyuan opera (both based in Quanzhou), I thought I should pay a visit to this city as well.

Quanzhou still retained quite a bit of it's old-world charm with it's antique architecture everywhere.

A rather famousKwan Ti temple in Quanzhou.

Beside the Kwan Ti temple is one of the oldest mosque in China, built in AD 1009.

Quanzhou is famous for bridges, and you can expect to find bridges like this in every corner of the city.

West Street in Quanzhou city is a very old district, as one can see from the condition of the shophouses along the sides of the street.

The front gate of Quanzhou Liyuan Opera Experimental Troupe, the troupe which I had longed to pay visit to...

... but it was empty inside. Perhaps I went at the wrong time?

Shophouses at Zhongshan Road in Quanzhou; as one can see, the buildings are really quite old.

Zhongshan Road in Quanzhou don't look quite different from it's Xiamen cousin, in my opinion!

Nanyin (one of the most ancient musical forms still existing in China now) performances like this take place in various parts of the city every night.

Nanyin is still popular among the older folks of Quanzhou.

This street here is full of shops selling dog meat, mutton and goose meat steamboat; it's hard to find an empty table in these shops on a cold winter night!

Having steamboat by the side of the road on one cold, windy winter night.

The patrons here seemed to be enjoying themselves even though they were not sheltered from the cold winds by any walls or ceiling.

A.C. The Traveller (Trip to Xiamen, Zhangzhou and Quanzhou) II

2007-12-26T21:51:00.000+08:00

Zhangzhou lies to the west of Xiamen and takes about an hour of bus ride from Xiamen's bus terminal. Zhangzhou to me is a more exciting place because Zhangzhou is the breeding place for my favourite Hokkien opera (xiangju), although really good troupes are not quite easy to come by. From what I heard, Zhangzhou used to be quite well developed, but it seems like in recent years, development of this city has been rather stagnant. Still, I believe that Zhangzhou is still not that bad as compared to other cities within the province.

Side streets of Zhangzhou.

A shop selling a Zhangzhou delicacy, guo bian hu; it looks and taste like our local kueh chap, although I believe they're totally different from one another.

Trishaws are everywhere in Zhangzhou; some are even paddled by women riders.

Longhai's Zhupu Xiangju Opera Troupe performing in Zhangzhou. (video clip of the troupe in action will be posted onto my other blog)

A view from the backstage; look at the turnout despite the cold weather!

Another troupe, Huang Yamei Gezi Opera Troupe, performing in another location on the same night. The stage may look very dilapidated, but their performing standard is still not bad. (video clips of the troupe in action will be posted onto my other blog)

Zhangzhou City Opera Troupe actors rehearsing for their competition show to be held in Fuzhou.

Final full dress rehearsal on the same night in the theatre above the troupe HQ, before leaving for Fuzhou the following day. How convenient! (video clips of the troupe in action will be posted onto my other blog)

A brick structure in Zhangzhou central in the style of an ancient city tower; on the top of the wall reads "Wen Chang", and I thought Wenchang is in Hainan?

A.C. The Traveller (Trip to Xiamen, Zhangzhou and Quanzhou) I

2007-12-26T20:32:00.000+08:00

I have been missing in action for quite a while on my blog, mainly because I have been away for quite a while and had just returned from Xiamen last Friday. Actually, Xiamen is just one of the destinations I've been to, with Zhangzhou and Quanzhou among the rest. These 3 areas formed the minnan district of Fujian province, which is what we people in southeast Asia call "Hokkien". You should have guessed why I chose these 3 areas to visit: because I'm a proud member of the Hokkien diaspora!

Xiamen city is a jumble of new and old buildings; however this scenario might not last for long, as like Singapore, Xiamen is constantly tearing and constructing new buildings.

The street scene from the window of my hotel, V-Inn. This place looked secluded, but is actually very near to the city centre, and is relatively cheap as well. Plus, it is very near to Xiamen Municipality Gezi Opera Troupe and Xiamen Jin Lian Sheng Gaojia Opera Troupe.

There's quite a number of Muslim Chinese in Xiamen and Quanzhou, despite being quite far away from the northern and western borders of the country.

Looks can be deceiving; this lady might be selling popiah by the side of a small alley, but her food taste much, much better than what I had experienced in some local restaurants!

One of the small side lanes in Xiamen central district. There're quite a number of good catch in these areas, so don't simply overlook them.

One wrong turn at the main junction and you'll find yourself looking into some narrow back alleys.

Vehicles behold! A portion of Zhongshan Road (old central district) is reserved for walking pedestrians only.

Old folks relaxing in Zhongshan Park on a Sunday morning.

Zhongshan district by night.

Street hawker selling Muah Chee; slightly different from the ones we have in Singapore but tasted equally good.

Dining with some friends from Xiamen Jin Lian Sheng Gaojia Opera Troupe; this was a bad period to visit Xiamen, for not only there wasn't any opera performances in Xiamen city, Jin Lian Sheng was scheduled to leave for Macau for a performance, but I was lucky that I could still catch them around on their last day in Xiamen and had dinner with them.

Night skyline of the cenral district of Xiamen

A Night in Urinetown

2007-12-07T23:35:00.000+08:00

I just came back from "Urinetown", a musical comedy staged by the Level 2 & 3 actors from Lasalle’s BA (Hons) Musical Theatre programme. This is the first time I've ever attended a performance by Lasalle students (free lunch-hour concerts excluded), and I'm rather impressed. Not that they're very excellent, there are rooms for improvement, but I believe with that kind of standard, I think these guys can go far.

"Urinetown" is an award-winning musical by Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis which pokes fun at capitalism, socialism, bureaucracy, corporate mismanagement and petty-minded, smalltown politics. Set in a small town, it tells a story of a group of poor people revolting against the town's policy of charging people for usage of their public toilets in the midst of a draught. This show is highly energetic, with lots of dance choreography from beginning to end. Being performed in an intimate setting in the form of a thrust stage, there was quite a number of interactive opportunities between the actors and the audience, but sadly the audience generally seemed rather passive and didn't react much, except for maybe laughing out loud. The songs are catchy too, and I feel that the singing standard of the cast is rather uniform can are able to harmonise well.

The performance area

The audience

Tomorrow's the last day for this show, and although I'd very much like to watch it again, but alas I have my Chinese opera rehearsal to attend to. Hopefully this show will get staged locally again, either by the same team (very unlikely) or by other groups, whatever. But or the time being, I'll just have to rummage through Youtube to find fragmented clips of this musical!

"Run Freedom Run" from "Urinetown" by Anmoch Productions in Maverick Theater in Fullerton, CA.

"Follow Your Heart" from "Urinetown" by Anmoch Productions in Maverick Theater in Fullerton, CA.

"Tell Her I Love Her" from "Urinetown" by another uncredited team

"I See A River" from "Urinetown" by Anmoch Productions in Maverick Theater in Fullerton, CA.

EOS (End-of-Semester) Finally!

2007-11-29T15:39:00.000+08:00

Today marks the last day of my current semester in Foundation Years, Faculty of Visual Studies. I arrived in college at 11am to get my results, and was relieved that out of my 4 modules, I got 3 As and 1 B. You might have guessed it, it was 3D which I got B, because to be honest, I'm very bad at 3D stuffs. Drawing is less of a problem for me, and the other 3 subjects happened to be drawing or drawing-related. Well I did get a B too for my printmaking, but since that subject was just one out of 3 of my studio workshops (for the other 2 workshops, photoshop and photography, I got A as well), I'm not sure if the grades for the studio workshops be averaged out or graded separately. Finally, I can enjoy my 1-month vacation, and also spend some time in my Chinese opera. Hopefully next semester, and the remaining years in college will be as smooth-going as now, but I believe things will be tougher as time goes by...

Likay Likay

2007-11-28T07:56:00.000+08:00

I'm not so much of a fan of Likay (folk music drama from Thailand), mainly because I need to have subtitles when watching or else I won't understand a single thing. Nevertheless, I still find it somewhat interesting. Here are some MVs, probably from a drama serial on Likays, sung by Got Jakrapun (one of my favourite singers) and Tong Pukkaramai.

Old Coca Cola TVC

2007-11-27T20:02:00.000+08:00

I was sorting out my mp3 in my laptop when I stumbled upon the song "I Like To Teach The World To Sing", and all memories suddenly surfaced. I was instantly reminded of a Coca-Cola advertisement which I had watched on TV when I was still a small child. After rummaging through Youtube, I've found 3 versions of Coca-Cola TVCs using the same song, but done in different years (supposedly 1970, 1983 and 1984). However, the version I remembered was nowhere to be found (I'm not quite sure if it was the second clip that was shown on our local TV back then). Nevertheless, I've decided to put the 3 I''ve found up here for nostalgic purposes. Merry Christmas in advance!

Loy Krathong 2007

2007-11-24T23:51:00.002+08:00

Today is Loy Krathong festival, and since it's a Saturday as well, the celebration for the festival is held on the same day, instead of bringing it forwards or backwards to the next available weekend.<

I have been waiting for this festival for a long time, and though I don't get to float the Krathong in Thailand again, it's at least good to be able to do it at Kallang River. Of course, the atmosphere is less strong over here, since there's so fireworks or performances held in conjunction with this festival. Hopefully I'd be able to do it in Thailand next year!

Thai ladies selling Krathongs outside Golden Mile Complex; the whole stretch of the corridor was filled with Krathong stalls!

The Krathong which I'd bought.

Floating of Krathong in Kallang River

Little India – An Indian “City” Within the Garden City

2007-11-09T23:29:00.000+08:00

Preface: Deepavali has just passed, but, still in the spirit of celebration, I decided to post a somewhat related, an essay which I had done for my CCS (Contemporary and Contextual Studies) 2 months back. It's not an academic essay, although I tried to do something close to that direction. Happy Deepavali!

Frenzy traffic flow which seemed to be totally out of control at times, strong fragrance of jasmine flowers, intermingled with that of spices and incense sticks creeping up your nose from the alleys, loud Indian music blasting through the sound systems in audio CD shops, signage in Tamil scripts all over the area, and countless men and women yakking away in the streets in Tamil or other Indian languages. Sounds like a typical town in Tamil Nadu state of India, but it is not; this is Serangoon, also called “Little India” by the local residents and foreigners alike, well known for its very south-Indian atmosphere. This is very unusual for a country whereby the Indian ethnic group only accounts for 8.8% of the total Singapore population, according to Singapore Department of Statistics1, and that the Indian population in Singapore is relatively fragmented culturally2.

Shophouses with signage in Tamil script; Singapore is one of three countries in the world (other two being India and Sri Lanka) that has Tamil recognised as one of its official language.

The interesting fact about “Little India” is that this district was not part of the British colony’s plan to make it an Indian enclave as it is today, but was gradually formed due to various events that has taken place in the course of Singapore’s development. At around 1843, after the opening of the Serangoon River, many Indians started flocking to this area after realising that this area is an ideal place for cattle raising, coinciding with the growing importance of the cattle trade then. Also, the employment of Indians as horse trainers at the newly opened Race Course (present day Farrer Park) was also another big factor attracting the Indians to this new district. By1940s, this area became a predominantly Indian district , and has been as such ever since. Especially so after the establishment of the Mustafa Centre in 1995, Serangoon has become the iconic district of the Indian population here.

A antique and art shop which my friends and I affectionately called it “Indian Art Friend”; not just because it sells many beautiful Indian art works, it shares the same corporate colours with Artfriend.

The district of “Little India” is bounded by Bukit Timah/ Sungei Road, Serangoon Road, Jalan Besar and Lavender Street. Although the main roads of Serangoon Road and Jalan Besar are where the main concentration of activities takes place, the various small streets and alleys that connect these two roads are bustling with life too. Clive Street and Perak Road are the two less-minor roads that I like most in the whole of the “Little India” district3. Other than being able to shun away from the crowds of the main roads, the sights and smell of that area are more appealing to me. Over there, stalls selling various kinds of fruits and vegetable can be found; a spectacular visual treat of colours. Although I’m not particularly a fan of vegetable, I like the refreshing smell and these fresh vegetables and fruits. Other than these stalls, there is a number of restaurants selling delicious Indian food, adding to the aroma that is already floating in the air. My favourite Indian eatery outlet happens to be located in this area, and I used to patronise the shop on regular basis for dinner. Although I do not know much about Indian cuisine, but I can tell that the Indian food sold in this outlet taste authentic, quite unlike the typical roti prata sold at coffeeshops in other parts of Singapore which all tasted the same.

Typical fruits and vegetable stall in Little India: looks and smells nice.

“Little India” is indeed a very unique place in urbanised Singapore, as almost all other places look just like one another, without really much character. “Little India” might be a bit chaotic, especially during the peak periods of the weekends, this district is still an interesting place to visit once a while, to immense oneself into the culture of another ethnic group, to unwind and to relax.

1. http://www.singstat.gov.sg/pubn/reference/sif2007.pdf Singapore Department of Statistics (Singapore In Figures 2007), Jul 2007.
2. Lal, Brij V. The Encyclopedia of the Indian Diaspora. Singapore: Editions Didier Milliet and National University of Singapore, 2006
3. Fun on Foot: Little India, National Heritage Board, http://www.nhb.gov.sg/PE/downloads/funonfoot_littleindia_booklet.pdf

Vitas and Chinese Ballet

2007-11-05T22:12:00.000+08:00

Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying Vitas is doing Chinese ballet or anything close. The reason for the title is that I've bought 2 DVD this afternoon, 1 Vitas concert DVD and 1 Chinese ballet DVD. Both DVDs were bought from The Commercial Press (Shangwu) at North Bridge Centre, a place I have not been to for ages as I'm getting more and more disappointed with this place as days go by. Why do I say that? For those who do not know, The Commercial Press once have the widest variety of Chinese opera VCDs a few years back. Most of the Yueju VCDs, plus those of some other exotic and less well-known genres, were purchased from there. Now, however, you're considered lucky if you can find a Chinese opera VCD/ DVD in there (Yang Lihua/ Ye Qing's Taiwanese opera are exceptional, but they can be purchased in many places nowaays anyway).

Vitas concert DVD and Chinese ballet "The Moon Reflected in Two Spring" DVD

Back to my DVDs. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw Vitas concert DVD on sale at The Commercial Press, for I thought nobody in Singapore would know of him. Being a fan of him, I decided to buy it straight away, only to find out later that the DVD a disappointment. Not that the concert was bad, but the video quality is terrible (I suspect the video footage was obtained from some unofficial sources, therefore the quality has been compromised), typical of China-produced DVDs. The only thing I like is the packaging, but not without complaints either. The boxed set looked sturdy, but removing the tray out of the box was a complete hassle as the box was wrapping the tray too tightly. I think I'd have to keep thr tray ou of the box, and now the DVD set took up two times the space of it's original size; simply waste of storage space!

The inner tray of the Vitas concert DVD; this ribbon here is to let one pull/ yank the tray out of the box, but damned the box is too small, and no way am I going to ever put the tray back into the box!

A nicely designed booklet in the DVD set. I read in the booklet that in 2000, when Vitas had his first performance in Kremlin, his powerful voice caused a crystal star decoration on the ceiling to break into pieces!

A poster of Vitas, but damned it was folded again!

The Chinese ballet show, titled "The Moon Reflected in Two Spring" (二泉映月) was a better DVD in comparison. "The Moon Reflected in Two Spring" is performed by Liaoning Ballet Troupe, and is part of China's National Project to the Distillation of the Stage Art for 2005-2006. This performance depicts the story of 2 young lovers, Quan (not that "Quan" from Hana Kimi!) and Yue'er, who faced challenges from a wealthy rookie who had been lusting over Yue'er. The couple lost the fight; Yue'er drowned herself in Er-quan Spring while Quan became blind. I feel that the choreography of the dance was very well-done. Although it's a ballet performance, there were traces of contemporary drama in it as well (this might be normal in western ballet as well, I don't know). The ballerinas not only execute ballet moves, but also inject contemporary drama moves and emotions. I think it's a bit hard to balance all these together. Like for example in the final scene where the male lead was crying in agony after losing the female lead, I find it hard to act crying, but not make a single bit of crying sound (not quite the same like acting as a mute crying silently). The dancer taking on this lead role did it successfully, anyway.

DVD casing for "The Moon Reflected in Two Spring"; less impressive, but less hassle too!

I've finished both 2 DVDs already, within a span of a few hours. It's a sad anticlimax for me as now I have got nothing new to watch. Perhaps I should go rummage through my cupboard of DVDs and VCDs to see what's worth rewatching again. Not now, of course!

Review for 2D

2007-11-02T20:09:00.000+08:00

Today I had my review for 2D subject in school, and I got a big, big relief. For the 3 components of the review, I got 2 As and 1 A+, something which I wasn't quite prepared to get. Now don't get me mistaken that I'm trying to boast, but I was just simply overjoyed. I think my course's pretty great, for I have improved quite a lot in terms of drawing and colour rendering. Remember I once said I couldn't paint to save myself? Thank goodness I've overcame that one big obstacle, although I'm still nowhere near good. What saved me though, was that I had done quite a bit of research and self trials on various techniques and principles in my journal; those were what pulled up my grades. However, my colour pencil rendering skill is still quite bad, and I'm lucky that colour pencil rendering is not part of 2D syllabus (or maybe not yet)! Then again, this is afterall just an indicative grade and not something final. I'll still have to keep up with my work and not slack, or else who knows I might just slide off the grading scale?

Remember my "Temle Scene in Thailand" artwork? My water colour rendering technique earlier this year was very patchy and uneven

This is one of my homework done a few weeks ago with acrylic; see the big difference in the evenness of the media?

Halloween Dress-up

2007-10-31T19:50:00.000+08:00

Today is Halloween, and believe it or not, this is the first time I dress up to the occasion. Previously I have only heard or seen in magazines of people dressing up in different characters for this festival, but as I'm not so much of a party animal, I have no reason to do so. This year, however, I decided to do it for the first time, after fellow classmates decided to dress up to school.

My makeup for today; this is actually my usual Chinese opera makeup, with the absence of red blusher for the cheeks, and the trading of red eyeshadow and lipstick with their black equivalent.

Actually my decision to dress up was rather last minute, although I had already started thinking what to wear since last week. Years back while I was in polytechnic during the National Day period, the school management encouraged us to turn up in costumes belonging to us ethnic race. Like my current classmates, my classmates then were very excited over it and started talking about it. I even specially went to buy a traditional Chinese top for that event, but it turned out that I was the only one to dress up, and hence I didn't want this ordeal to repeat again this time round. It was only yesterday when some of my classmates confirmed with me that they'd be dressing up that I finally decided to follow suit.

This style of mine, is actually modelled after a Pili Puppetery character named Su Huanzhen (素还真), but due to unavailability of a white wig, I decided to make do with my personal black wig, and changed my makeup slightly to make it resemble less of the original. If you think this costume looked familiar, it's actually what Amai wore for her Carp General in "Romance of the Dragon Princess", but the inner garment is actually my own zipped-up turtleneck top.

I guess if there's ever an OTT (over-the-top) award for Halloween Lasalle 2007, I can easily clinch it, for I believe I'm the only male in school to be completely dressed up with wig, makeup, costume and boots. Just imagine this: the moment I step into our workshop area, I immediately got the attention of almost everyone (some positive, some negative), and there're even people giving applause. Well, though I'm used to such attention (since I'm a performer), I don't know how to react to them, and just walked on as if nothing happened. Anyway, throughout the day, I've had people coming up to me to ask to take picture with me; I have never been that "popular" before!

An unknown fellow coursemate posing with me (if you're reading this, sorry; I don't know your name!). Who's that black blurry figure behind us? She's actually proud; she wanted to take a picture with me too, but not knowing who I am until I hinted her a bit in Thai!

Now I'm sitting comfortably in my room with my makeup and costume totally off. It's a relieve for me at last, but I'm suffering from a bit of headache and dryness of the lips. Actually I always feel like this after every performance, and I don't know why. Anyway, there's supposed to be a Halloween party tonight as well, but as I wasn't informed until only this afternoon. I didn't have time to prepare for it, and therefore I decided to just skip it.

My classmate Kel Win posing with my wig after I removed them. He was actually dressed up to, but without makeup that is.

Halloween 2007 has come to an end, and I'm looking forward to the one next year. I can't confirm if I'll still dress up or not, I think I'll have to come up with something new and different from this year's. Time to start planning!

PS: I love walking out of campus without my costume and makeup and wig; nobody seemed to recognise me at all!