Saturday, July 24, 2004

Tanglin Alumni Band

Before I even start to say anything, read the following extracts:

"...halfway thru diggin out e scores, i happened to overheard wat wong was tokin on e phone.. obviously he's tokin to (Dorean) tan.. heard somethin like him sayin, 'ya.. i agree.. this thing i'll def tell them.. ya i understand tat u don like students not under u.. n i'll tell them nicely later tat we really appreciate their presence but they hav to leave somehow'..."

Zhihui's blog 

"...(Wong's words)My conductress and I have come to a conclusion that our Tanglin Alumni Band Membership only opens to those students who were under us before. So I would like to thank these 3 ex-stdents who came for these 2 practices. Our Alumni band is a young band as we just started off, so we might invite you back when it has taken off for some time. At the mean time, we will not inform you about the practices anymore.Young band. Isn't young band supposed to have some experienced players in there?

I'm utterly disappointed. Another way to chase out ex-members. Ex-students. Weren't ALL OF US ex-students? Why only apply to only 3 of them? Why don't they take the effort to know them more and give them a chance at least? I am really left speechless. Really..."

Peirong's blog 
 

 
"...y muz they chase away the alumnis?They are also part of the band....and they were once a band member,a tanglinian........so wad if they're not under ms tan n mr wong?Realli pissed...Damn them to hell...for goodness sake...i dunno y on earth there's such ppl...They think tat the alumnis like yong xiang,ivan and liang you can't be trusted?Juz bcuz tat they're older guys?..."

Jasmine's blog

"...Flood of different emotions (anfer, sadness, disbelieve, disappointment) flowed through me. Everything juz went blank..all I can focus was on the guy sitting infront toking. To put it simply, my batch of frenz and I were sacked from the alumni band. Did I juz said sacked? Yes we were simply, to put it crudely, sacked. From the alumni band..."

Yongxiang's blog

Yes, you got it. I'm going to blog about the Tanglin Alumni Band again. This time, I'm sparing no one. Alsolutely.

Not to say that I'm extremely pissed off or something. In fact, I've been very calm since last night till now. The only reason why I didn't blog earlier was because I reached home extremely late.

It had been quite expected all along that my batch will be filtered out. I just didn't expect the method to be so direct. I had kinda expected it to be like:

1. They keep criticizing your playing, jumping at any chance to condemn you
2. They will scrutinize your attendance very closely, questioning every single time you miss a practice.
3. They will filter you out by saying: "Oh! Sorry! We have an instrumentation plan to follow! Oh? Why so many from your batch are being rejected? It's just a coincident!"
4. They call you fat and ugly every single practice. Oh no, wait, there only happens in the Central Band. Full of bitches there. Oh well! (Before Reader gets the wrong idea, being called a bitch, ugly or fat is like very common in the Central Band. It's our own friendly way of saying "Hi!")
5. Any other despicable way(s) you can think of.

I was totally at a loss for words when he put it simply: You are not needed (welcomed) here anymore. I could only sit there and smile at other people. I totally didn't know how to question his motives when he puts it just so simply that you are not welcomed anymore. Any suggestions?

 A plain slap in the face. I don't know how I can describe it better.

There you go. We, Batch 98, all officially sacked from the Tanglin Alumni Band. This is probably the first time I've across something like this. All alumni bands I know are so eager to welcome back any old boy or girl. Not this one.

Why don't they just call it the "Exclusively Dorean Tan and James Wong Tanglin Alumni Band"?

Fine. To be fair. He did said that we might be welcomed back at a later date. But judging from Zhihui's blog, I hardly think so. It's just so plain that she doesn't like us at all. I don't like to see you here. You are not welcomed! Shoo! Go away!

I find something he said extremely contradicting. He said: "...(we are a) young band. So right now we need to iron out everything and build up something first. So you will be welcomed back in future..."

So tell me, when you are building up a young band, do you need something call experience? Yes? No? I hear a very loud "YES!"

Now tell me again, who are the people with more experience? Did I hear wrongly? US? People from our batch? Hmmm, some people certainly don't think so.

My point is: We are the one with experience! We can help the band! We might not be great players, but at least we try? People like Ivan had lost touch with their instrument for so long and yet, Ivan is still very keen to come back and play.

Ironic, isn't it? A fulltime musician like me from the "Premier band of Singapore" being chased out of the band when I thought they will try to get every help they need. I'm not even charging or asking for anything, for goodness sake! In case they don't know. I get paid to teach ok?

On the bright side, the juniors are definitely on our side. Thank you, Peirong for messaging me. Zhihui, for blogging about what you heard. And somemore whom I don't know but read their blogs. It's really good to know that you people are behind us.

One person I really feel upset and sorry for is Zalina. Seeing her slumped form on the chair last night after hearing the announcement made me felt bad along with her too. After all the arrows being shot at her by Wong, I heard from Ivan that she got a few mean SMSes from Tan as well. Something about bad attitude, so I heard. I said this in Mirc last night. I'm going to say this here again:

"No one else has the same devotion as Zalina!"

We are definitely with you! Despair not!

As this army song goes: "We shall not be moveeeeeeeeed, we shall not be moveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed!"

We will find a way somehow. Some people have better be watching their asses.