Perfect Pain

This is not a movie review. I read Eileen Chang's short story "Lust, Caution" last night, and then reread parts of it again just to see where the author has set me up to be screwed. And I thought about whether it would've worked had it been longer, more padded out, and I decided probably not. It was like a magician's act; it had to over fairly quickly so that the sleight of hand will conclude the act quickly, before the audience has time to react to the unexpectedness of it all. But the magician's act is thrilling and unbelievable. Chang's story is harrowing and damnably believable. It reminded me of the time many years ago when I finished Edith Wharton's "Ethan Frome" in one sitting and couldn't sleep afterwards. The ending of Chang's story took her a few years to revise and hone, we are informed in the accompanying texts, and the story is over in a mere 45 pages. But its impact is such that its draws for us the question "why?" and the judgement "stupid!" That is the beauty of this taut story, and I can well imagine the movie will be even more painful because the beauty, she, will be given a powerfully physical form. For this reason, I'm content not to watch it. Let perfection be, and let it not spoil my imagination of it.

Chup

Aaron Kwok Concert

Believe it or not, it was my first time ever catching a singing concert. I've watched countless musicals, dance shows, some operas, instrumental concerts such as Bond and Kitaro, or even the 93.3FM Chinese Radio Award (why not, I can catch Faye Wong, Andy Law, Grasshopper etc in just 1 show!) but I have never attended a singing concert before. I've always thought they are expensive and not worth the money. As a result, eventhough Aaron Kwok has been my idol since Secondary school days, I have never watched his concert before.

On 1 Sep 2007, my 2 dear friends, Bur and Dek Poni decided to award me an early birthday present: one ticket to Aaron Kwok's Live in Singapore!! They would also grace the occasion with their generous company, although the only song they could recall by him was probably the one with the famous hand-waving dance action, Ai Pu Wan (Love you endlessly). It goes, tuei ni ai... ai... ai... pu wannnn....

So there it was. My 1st ever singing concert. And best of all, it's free! :) We bought the cheapest tickets but managed to get very decents seats at slightly off centre from the stage. The trick? Try to be later when the concert is starting. In order not to obstruct and disturb the others, the usher would rush you to a quick convenient available seats! Try it... No money-back-guarantee though.

At first I thought we would be the oldest audience in the near full-house Indoor Stadium that night. But not true! The audience ranged from the usual screaming teenage girls, to gay boys, to gay men, and even aunties and uncles. I enjoyed the concert thoroughly, although I must admit parts of the concert was rather "obiang". Meaning of this Singlish (Singapore English) word is: to be embarrassingly out of fashion (Source from here).

Aaron started the concert with a medley, starting with Ai Pu Wan. How appropriate!

There were numerous costume changes, many of which were very effeminate looking, with floral prints or butterfly embroideries. There was a body-hugging costume embedded with hundreds if not thousands of little colourful light bulbs. When the stadium lights were turned off, he glowed like a handphone! Then for the final blast, was another body hugging costume covered with silver sequins accompanied with a pair of gigantic mechanized flapping white wings spanning over 2 metres from tip to tip!

One complain was when Aaron tried to play a tune with his saxophone. A stint which he had trained for many many months. Although we could see how much he wanted to do it right, it became too painful to the ears when he played the deafening out-of-tune tune again and again and again. Spare us please! We appreciate the effort and hardwork, but thanks, but no thanks.

Great experience indeed it was for us! It was a great birthday treat :)

Here are some photos I snapped with my handphone that night. Can't see much but that's the best my handphone could do.

... the one who can't believe my 1-week leave is ending soon

T3 Visit

These are 35 of the best students I've been privileged to teach. Betty (on my left) and I taught these kids for 2 years, when they were in first year and now in their final year. Taken on 14 Nov, on a class excursion to the newly completed T3. They're having an open house at the moment. The train exits right into T3. You pay $3 for a guided tour. No need to hurry though. Lots of retail still to be opened, and the architecture is a let down. Save the money for when the whole airport is opened.

Chup

Power of Humidity

First of all, apologies to all of those who have been waiting forever for me to finally update my blog. Now that I am on 1 week leave, I promised myself that I will at least publish an article or two. So here you go... :)

I always had the intention to write on my blog, I really do, but my fingers were not cooperating... The photo that I am gonna share with you was taken back in July!!! That's about when I wrote my last blog article. The GST increase in July, remember? Well, don't fret, at least I share it with you before Christmas.



It's a photograph of the stage of my home slippers after I went for business trip for 1 week. It has transformed!!!

That's the consequence of staying in a country where humidity often exceeds 90%. Imagine we only breathe 10% air and the rest is water??

That's all I guess. The whole purpose was just to share this gross photograph and to show all that I am making an effort here to write a blog.

...the one who's enjoying a rainy breezy Wednesday morning at HOME

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Watched the musical adaption of the 1968 movie at the Esplanade on 4 Nov with Lin, Lina and Vony. It used to be that a musical was a smash on stage and then gets adapted on screen; now, with the likes of Sunset Boulevard, The Lion King, The Producers and Saturday Night Fever, it's the other way around. There's money to be made and why not? I tried to watch the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang movie on DVD before the musical, just so to see what it was about, but couldn't get beyond the first third-- it seemed, and I write as one who loves musicals-- somehow tedious, tiresome. But Lin sat through it all. And so it turned out to be a smashing success with her and the girls and all the kids in the theatre! This was the youngest and most responsive audience I've seen in the Esplanade. Many of the children have come in designer wear, courtesy of trendy parents. They clapped, cheered, booed, it was like a pantomine. And there was of course a car that levitated and glided on stage! They loved it! And the 2.5 hours there didn't seemed too bad then. And I thought I had better get used to liking what kids like...

Chup

Who is this?

This is my motivator who takes me on once or twice every week for an hour each time to whip some semblance of shape into the ageing me. He is skilled in all the fine arts of making you aware that there are more zones of muscular aches in your body than previously known. I've been getting a go at the gym with him since mid-April this year. It wasn't pleasant at first, and I would be half dead after each seesion. But now, it's something I look forward to. He can be found at www.physique360.com, a firm he started with his wife. Highly recommended.

Chup

St Ignatius

I attended the wedding of Noel and Val at St Ignatius on King's Road on 29 Sept and was struck by the beauty of the church. No disrespect to the couple, but while the service proceeded I couldn't help sketching away. Some of the best enjoyments of architecture have arisen when one stumbles upon them, without knowing who designed them, no preconceptions or foreknowledge, just the excitement of chance discovery, like an archeologist stumbling upon some priceless artifacts. I just wished the protestants could be as savvy and tasteful as the catholics when it comes to church architecture.

Chup

Birthday present

This is the sumptuos DVD set Lini bought me for my birthday. One of the best DVD packaging I've seen, and of a movie I love at that. (Thanks dear.) Yet sadly, it's probably one of the last few DVDs I'm going to be getting. The days of DVD are numbered. The Blu-Ray version of this package is selling for about $60+ I think. And while it does not have the packaging that this DVD set has, reviews of its sound and picture quality from Amazon has been glowing. Sad how fast these things changes. I remember my first DVD player, bought in Feb 1999 ( I was a late starter). I even remember my first DVDs: Robocop and Starship Troopers. When DVDs were new, they were also retailing at around $40-$60, the price of Blu-Ray and HD discs now... So it's a matter of time before the inventory of titles goes up and the price falls, and then DVDs will be history.

And in my cupboard, there are about 80 or so movies on Laser Discs (remember those?) My LD player finally died on me a couple of months ago. It's a Sony player, and has lasted me for more than 10 years I think. I wonder if I will be laughed at if I ask for new LD player at the departmental stores. What do I do with my LD collection then?

Curiously, VCD has survived, so there'll be DVD players or combo players for both DVDs and Blu-Rays for years to come... Christmas is coming, and it'll will be a good time to shop for a Blu-Ray dics player. Yummy. But what do I do with my LDs?

Chup

Wedding Emcee

There is a notion that one should try everything at least once. (Of course, I speak of non-sinful things.) I've been asked to be a wedding photographer a few times, but never as Emcee, until E & CH's wedding on 27 Oct. I obliged because they were nice and I was flattered. The trick, I told myself, was to be discreet and not steal the limelight from them. Keep it short, succinct and lively. Which we did, and things went rather smoothly the whole evening. (That evening was about them, this blog is about me!) The only glitch was when I said "senerade" instead of "serenade"... 3 times. So much for not drawing attention to yourself! From now on, I'll never forget that word! O well. There was also a wonderful co-emcee, who spoke the mandarin parts (girl on extreme right in group photo above). Did I enjoy myself? Yes, it was great fun. Will I do it again? Nope. Like taking the free-fall ride with Lini, once should be enough.

Chup