Sunday, November 28, 2004

Singing

It's been a few day!

The Charity Concert's attendance could have been much better than what we had. It wasn't that ideal to see just a slightly over half-filled hall.

I think the concert was really quite successful. The end product was good, but perhaps the process and methods used to achieve that product left much to be desired.

I think a person's popularity can be judged by the cheers or jeers he or she receives. Just listen to the audible "BOO" when the producer's name was announced during the concert. "Live" on stage no less. Need I say more?

Yes, the person is my Section Leader.

Those who know me well enough knows that I have a lot of complains about her. If you are my colleague, you should know very well! I feel irritated enough to dedicate one whole entry to her but it won't be pleasant. But I shall not do it today so as not to spoil my mood for the day as I believe that there are better ways to start off this beautiful Sunday!

ANYWAY!

I went to Johor Bahru last night for dinner. I've going there on a regular basis for the last few years. Well, the food is good and cheap. Just don't go to Pasir Gudung! First of all, the journey is long and you have to travel through this long mud trail before you finally arrive at this kelong. Secondly, the food is expensive! We paid RM192 for a dinner of 5 of which the servings wasn't really that gigantic. In comparision, we paid RM210 for a party of 8 last night at Taman Sentosa. Thirdly, the quality and quantity of the food is mediocre when compared to other places in JB.

All right, to be fair, I like the ambience there. It's really quite refreshing but I guess I won't be going back anytime soon!

Do you sing?

I don't. Actually, I don't sing very well.

People tell me that as a musician, I should be a good singer. That is absolutely rubbish. Fine, I have a keen sense of pitch which doesn?t means I can sing in tune.

Singers and wind players are a different breed of musicians. I am not trained to sing in tune, so don't expect me to give a perfect rendition of "She Bangs". In fact, I think William Hung sings better than me!

Actually, another reason that I don't enjoy going to singing session is well, the bad singing.

I think it's kinda irritating to hear the song in a key, say, C major and the singer diminishing it to something like A major. Why are all the songs so highly pitched? Difficult leh!

Not to mention that they sometimes sing unmusically and the odd vibratos in all the wrong places. Well.

Like I said, I'm not a great singer and I commit all those mistakes listed above and more. Therefore, I try not to sing.

Singing classes, anyone?
fjozn at 11:22 AM

Tuesday, November 23, 2004

Lost and found

*smiles*

I'm in a wonderful mood today!

Thanks to Friendster, I've found a long-lost friend from primary school!

Oh happy day!

*dances around*

Ok, I'm really in a good mood!
fjozn at 8:23 PM

Friday, November 19, 2004

Singapore Armed Forces Charity Concert 2004

Singapore Armed Forces Charity Concert 2004

Anyone interested to go???

Yes, it's a paying concert, not free-of-charge because it's a charity concert. You can't do charity unless you pay right?

The SAF Central Band will be playing Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf ala a play and other selections set to entertain.

This concert is different from our usual In Harmony series as it would be a more family-oriented concert. Bring your little ones along! (if any)

Tickets are available for $10, $15 and $20. Call Ms Winnie Yip at 6210-2598 for bookings.

Come and be entertained by the band while helping those children who are less fortunate.


25th Nov 2004 (Thursday)
Singapore Conference Hall
1930 pm

See you!

Comtact me for me details!
fjozn at 2:52 PM

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Friends and more

It seems that quite few of my ex-poly classmates have blogs and I'm in their link!

Oh dear, I seriously wonder how many actually visit my blog? Good thing I didn't write anything bad about them! Haha! Prior to this, I thought only people like Alvin, Joo Bee and Thong Boon would actually take the trouble to surf to my page to read whatever rubbish I had written for the day. Keke, how many are here? Let's have a headcount shall we? The Shoutbox's on your right!

My entries seem to be getting quite pointless these days. I have less and lesser inspirations on what and how to blog.

See? I'm running of words! Is this writer's block or what? Or should I say blogger's block?

Ok, I watched The Incredibles on Sunday night. Some of the first reactions I got were like, "isn?t that a cartoon?"

Yeah, it's a cartoon all right but it's still really funny. Maybe the show touches everyone's inner child? I always think there's an inner child in everyone. Some people are still so childish after so many years. Ok, I admit I'm childish at times but it's for fun ya?

Anyway, the show was very good. Having seen the papers rating today and yesterday, I would reinforce their ratings by recommending that you go watch it too! It was rated 4.5 out of 5 in the both the Straits Times and New Paper by the way.

The characters were really cute (especially the baby) and the way they behaved were funny too. Like how Papa Incredible got so frustrated after a day of work that he damaged his car without thinking about it.

I thought the bad guy looked rather ugly. Haha! Then again, most bad guys ARE ugly. Think Ah Nan of Liang Popo fame. The only good looking ones are those whom we all thought are good guys initially.

And Edna the designer is very funny!

Enough said. Go watch it!
fjozn at 11:19 AM

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

My little cousins

I remembered saying that I would upload photos of my little cousins. Here they are!

I think it's more readable if Reader would kindly scroll down to the last photo and read them upwards because I uploaded in the wrong order!
fjozn at 1:40 PM

Wei Quan, me and Julie 
fjozn at 1:34 PM

Wei Quan and Wei Yang 
fjozn at 1:32 PM

Compare and contrast? 
fjozn at 12:36 PM

Compare and contrast? 
fjozn at 12:36 PM

Waltzing the night away... 
fjozn at 12:36 PM

My younger cousins 
fjozn at 12:36 PM

Sisters: Jolene (bottom) and Julie 
fjozn at 12:35 PM

Future singer? 
fjozn at 12:35 PM

Trying to act horrified! 
fjozn at 12:34 PM

Dirty socks! 
fjozn at 12:33 PM

Sunday, November 14, 2004

Blah blah blah...

Sometimes I think that cockroaches are really poor things.

It is no fault of them that they are born a cockroach and yet people despite them. Poor things eh?

The occasional cockroach that dares to venture out into the kitchen is almost always met with hostility. Not to say that I welcome them with open arms but I do think it's a bit sad for them. Imagine having the whole world running after you with parangs everytime you step into the open. Think Osama bin Laden.

I just thought about the issue of being born. If the whole world is black, wouldn't there be racists against the white? In case you are wondering, I am NOT comparing minorities to cockroaches. And yes, Osama bin Laden IS a cockroach.

If you were born into an African-American family in the last century, you would probably be a slave or something. A black influential man was almost unheard of in those days. Why? They are the minority. Thankfully the situation is very much better today with people who are more tolerant of each other, although there are still cases of racism.

I think it's very hard to find places in Singapore where people live in racial harmony. Well, almost. I do know of Chinese friends who doesn't like people of other races but perhaps there?s nothing I can do about it. At the same time, I do have friends whose best friends are from other races!

This Caucasian wrote in recently to the Straits Times Forum complaining about the usage of "ang mo". Is it very wrong? As most people know by now, ang mo simply means red-haired literally. This is not very correct as we also know that Caucasians are not only red-headed but are also blonde, brunette and so on but let's not digress. Perhaps they should address their own usage of nigger who I'm sure isn't something polite.

A certain Mr. K. Rajamanikam also wrote in lamenting the lack of greetings for Deepavali.

He wrote about how the fishmonger at the wet market remembers to greet him with a simple Happy Deepavali whereas there wasn't even a sign at supermarkets like NTUC, Shop 'n' Save where he 'spends at least $1000 every year'

He also commented on how the Prime Minister has a greeting for all Indians in the Straits Times, et cetera.

Is it really necessary to write in to a national paper and discuss the absence of greetings?

I'm not really too sure about this. It might be of an issue for me but possibly big enough for him to bring up to the whole nation. Would I complain if there are no Chinese New Year decorations at NTUC which I spend 100 odd dollars every year? Would it matter to me if PM Lee didn't have greetings for me next year?

Call me rootless but I don't really think that I have a heritage and culture. It's a bit hard to imagine the CNY of the future whereby every family only have 2-3 kids. It'd be such a far cry from our days where we gather at our grandparents' place with 7-8 aunties and uncles and possibly 2 dozens worth of cousins.

For one thing, I'm completely hopeless at dialects. I can only sit and there and smile weakly whenever someone attempts to converse with me in dialect. I think I should just change the dialect group on my IC to N/A!

Ok, I think I'm really too bored. Why am I writing all these on a holiday? I should be out on the streets enjoying myself! Damn.

I'm really losing tracks of my days. I keep having the impression that yesterday was Sunday. I think my holiday is really too long! Haha!

I will actually be happy to go back to work on Tuesday!

And yes, Selamat Hari Raya to everyone!
fjozn at 1:27 PM

Friday, November 12, 2004

A bit of this and that

Isn't it weird that we all look forward to long holidays with anticipation and yet complain of boredom during it?

It's the second day of my 5 days long holiday. I'm already feeling quite bored. Is there anything I can do?

I could have gone up to Malaysia with my friends today. Perhaps I would be sitting in a car with my friends now staring the countless trees along the North-South Highway zooming towards Malacca.

I find it hard to sleep in anything that's moving. Does anyone feel the same way?

I think I'm just going to spend my weekend away playing mahjong with my ex-poly mates. Haha!

Oh yes, Beeeeeeeeeee is coming back to Singapore tomorrow! I'm looking forward to my chocolate, nougats; whatever goodies I'm gonna get! Hehehe!

Ok, I'm really bored.

Help!
fjozn at 10:10 AM

Thursday, November 11, 2004

Sir James Galway... yet again

Ok, Galway isn't as good as I thought now.

First of all, he should just stick doing what he do best, performing on flute. Please stay away from conducting!

His conducting was simply disastrous. There was no musical idea in it and they might as well have a metronome at the conductor's podium because all he did was to wave his baton around in strict regimental style. It reminds me of the way our Senior Director of Music conducted the NDP. Conducting a parade and concert are very different!

And what was he doing? Turning around when he has nothing to play on his concerto to conduct the orchestra? It's so apparent that no one was looking at him. In fact, I thought he looked rather silly. It looks like he was following the orchestra, instead of the orchestra following him.

Even in the case of the Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings, it seems that the orchestra had a better of the music than him. The Serenade, by the way, was very good! Even if he was the one who shaped the music, which I doubt, it wasn't seen in his conducting.

His attire also reflects on his egoist and show-off nature. He was wearing a luxurious red coat over what looks like yellow or gold vest. How flamboyant is that? He's already 65 for goodness' sake!

I just found out from my teacher that he has a reputation for being arrogant and proud. Well, it really does seem so after his performance.

His playing was still good, despite the fact that it was already marred by his horrendous conducting.

I, however, have a big problem against his interpretation of Mozart. Sir James, face it, you are just not a Mozart player. Why don't you just stick to playing pieces like Poulenc? I really think you played really well for Poulenc.

Firstly, your interpretation is not classical enough. Secondly, his cadenzes are just too show-off!

Take the slow movement of the Mozart in D for example; he started off with a low tonic note which was very good. However what he played after that completely spoiled the whole cadenze. He launched himself into this frenzy of running notes to end on a trill to restart the music into the final phrase. I'm sorry but it just didn't make any musical sense at all!

Furthermore, Mozart's music is very well known and his writing style is quite homogenous in every form of his music, be it a sonata, quartet, concerto or symphony.

To top it off, the Mozart in D is something which I know very well and had heard countless soloists perform on before so I really expected something really good from him! It is, by the way, actually the Mozart Oboe Concerto in C which was transposed to D for flute and orchestra. There's a story behind perhaps on which I shall blog about some other day to prevent digression.

To be fair, the Cimarosa double concerto played with his wife, Lady Jeanne, was very good. The two of them have obviously very good rapport with each other. Ok, what am I saying? They are husband and wife, duh!

The encore performed by them was good too; they played Mozart's Turkish March rearranged for two flutes and orchestra. This time round, I didn't have much to say about his interpretation, it was fine. If you actually closed your eyes to listen to the music, you would have thought that the music was being played by the same person but it wasn't.

The melody was broken into a question and answer form played by Galway and wife in alternation. It was quite interesting. Their sound were almost identical!

It would have been a perfect concert if not for the un-Mozart-ish Mozart, his terrible conducting and the mediocre first piece.

Perhaps for most people it would have a very good concert I guess. Sheesh, I'm getting too fussy. But it's Mozart! =P

All right, it's time to enjoy my super-long weekend! I'm on holiday till Tuesday!

Woohoo!

Oh yes, happy Deepavali!
fjozn at 10:25 AM

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Sir James Galway again!

Right, to talk more about the Galway master class yesterday.

Before going to the master class, I was initially quite skeptical of this flautist who is just so famous. Is he just another Maxim the piano player? Sure, he plays pop pieces a lot, but is he going to disfigure classics like how Maxim did? (It's apparent to this point that I don't like Maxim!)

Thankfully, my fears were unfound.

Let me say this again, Sir James Galway is really a fantastic flautist!

When he might seem a bit egoistic and show-off, what can we say? He's truly qualified to be.

How many can qualify to be a show-off and play difficult passages from memory flawlessly and stylistically?

While some might go ga-ga over his extensive collection of flutes, I wasn't. While good instruments can be bought with money, good skills can't be. For Reader's info, at the start of the master class, he took out from his suitcase not one, not two, not three but five flutes! I'm not really that much into the range of flutes, but knowing his expertise and the price range of high-end flutes, there could easily been $250k+ worth of flutes laying on that table.

I'm not kidding, a 14k gold Muramatsu (the brand he uses) flute with B foot already costs something like USD 22 500, and I believe he has the top-of-the-range flute like the 24k on the table. Oh, there was a platinium flute on the table too. It was indeed quite a feast for those young flautists there to see extremely expensive flutes like his golden flutes of which he is known for.

I wish I could be like him too.

*opens cupboard*

Hmmmm, which oboe should I play today? Would it be my cocobolo Howarth XL with 24k gold key? Would it be my Marigaux altuglass model 2001? Or should I play the Laubin? What about the Dupin? Maybe the Rigoutat that was custom made for me?

My dream oboe would be something really flamboyant like the altuglass Marigaux, which is actually transparent acrylic with gold keys and/or normal grenadilla, cocobolo or violetwood with beautiful engravings on the bell and lower joint. Hmmm, that would be something new to my wish-list!

*wakes up*

I digress too much! Ok, let's get to his playing.

He has a very nice, big sound which certainly filled the whole hall. The only thing I didn't like that much was his over-extensive usage of vibrato. It was just too strong and violent at times for my liking, probably from his usage of the "HA!" syllabus. Other than that, he has a beautiful sound from his lowest B to the highest god-knows-what-note-that-is.

His techniques were simply breathless. Had I ever mention this? A few years ago, while watching a documentary on him on TV, I was very impressed at one simple thing he did.

A 3-octaves C major scale.

One might think, isn't C major the easiest to play? Let me tell those who doubt it, go try it yourself. Can you match the flawless running, even notes, musicality of the scale?

The simplest thing of all is often the hardest to do.

He demonstrated some extracts yesterday which just breath-taking. Hearing it on CD is one thing, hearing him play it "live" is another story. I might not know the piece to catch any wrong notes, but the evenness and musicality was just enough to blow you away.

Perhaps the downside of the whole master class was that it was too long! (I left after 3.5 hours) While one might not get enough of his virtuoso playing, a 4 hours master class is too much to digest! Anyway, I'll be going back for more tonight when I attend his concert at the Esplanade.

It makes me wonder eagerly in anticipation how Gordon Hunt would be like when he comes down to Singapore next year! Yes, oboists out there, Gordon Hunt is coming next year!

Conclusion: If you haven't purchase your ticket to the concert tonight, please do! It's highly recommended!



Sir James Galway, the man with the golden flute. I'm truly impressed and inspired!
fjozn at 10:52 AM

Sir James Galway

I went to his masterclass just now and I tell you, he's outstanding!

I'll update about his masterclass soon.

Anyone who is free this evening and haven't gotten any ticket to the concert, please go!
fjozn at 1:36 AM

Sunday, November 07, 2004

Tekong, US Election and Concerts

It's been nearly a week since my last post. How's everyone getting along?

The week's been so busy, particularly the later half of the week from Thursday. The band went over to Pulau Tekong to support the graduation parade of the Advanced Section Leader Course at the School of Infantry SPECialists (SISPEC).

It sucks to wake up in camp at 5.30 am, I haven't really done that since my BMT days. Well, the landscape of Tekong had changed a lot since I last went there last year. They are over-reclaiming! What used to be a "lovely seaside resort" had morphed into something with an extended beach with all the land claiming going on.

Tekong is actually quite a nice place despite being a militarized island. The amount of stars you could see on a clear is incomparable to what we get in on the mainland. The sunrise at sea was also one of my unforgettable moments from my days on the island.

Now? You can't even see much of the sea with all the reclaiming going on!

***

I'm not going to rant about dumb Americans like some of my friends. The results are final anyway; no amount of ranting can change it. Do we actually want another recount like Florida 2000?

President Bush is still President Bush. Senator Kerry stays as Senator Kerry.

It's very apparent that America is almost equally divided between the Bush and Kerry camps. Throw a rock in the street and you have a fair chance of hitting a Bush supporter and ricocheting off to hit a Kerry supporter (The writer does not assume any reliability for physical injuries to anyone sustained from flying rocks).

I can't help but wonder why so many would vote for someone who puts the national budget into debt, caused the death of thousands through a war in which the original objective wasn't achieved (finding WMDs), created negative jobs... the list goes on and on.

Let's just hope President Bush cleans up his act and really accomplish what he has started on. Things like REALLY finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and REALLY getting Osama bin Laden. He will only REALLY become a war president if he does all that and more.

Like it or not, America remains the most powerful and influential nation in the world. She's the one nation who is likely to intervene in any conflicts. Put it in another way, she?s just chao kay-po (busybody).

Let's just see what will happen in 2008. For all you know, we might witness history being made. Hint: Senator Hillary Clinton.

***

It's concert weekend!

I started off on Thursday with the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra.

The programme was pretty interesting, starting off with Dvorak's Carnival Overture and Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 1 in D. I think Ye Lin did a pretty good job on it despite her concentration lapses in the third movement. I don't really know the concerto very well to make a fair comment. Who plays Paganini frequently these days anyway? I hear Tchaikovsky and Beethoven all the time, with the odd Butterfly lovers at the SSO. Is anyone from the SSO management looking at this?

Beethoven 7th was just not good enough. There's this obvious lack of character in the music. Allegretto could have been played with more feeling. Everything was just so dead.

I think YST should really consider getting a better conductor. Chan Tze Law's conducting skills are really mediocre. The orchestra needs a better conductor to bring out the true skill and spirit in the musicians.

George Cleve is one example of a good conductor. He conducted the SSO on Saturday night with Danjulo Ishizaka on cello.

The Schumann Cello Concerto was good! Ishizaka played with total conviction, with the full character of the concerto brought out through his energetic playing.

Cleve was, in every sense, an outstanding conductor. He belongs to the minimal school of conducting, unlike Lan Shui, who is far more flamboyant. The Beethoven 1st under him was just pleasing, a welcomed change from the Beethoven 7th from just 2 days ago.

Speaking of Beethoven, why are there so many Beethoven in the SSO season next year?

I think the SSO really needs programmes which attracts more audience. The concert goer in Singapore is more attracted by popular programmes. But how many Butterfly Concertos can the SSO play in a season? They had played it at least once a year for the past few years.

I remember reading an article lamenting how William Hung can attract a full house at the Esplanade whereas SSO can only repeat the same feat by playing huge works like the Mahler 8?

Singaporeans really have no taste at times, just look at what's going on in Singapore Idol.

Although the SSO might not be very good when compared to other orchestras, it's still the best orchestra in the land. I don't have much of a choice, do I?

Next up! James Galway on Tuesday performing Mozart Flute Concerto in D (transposed from the Oboe Concerto in C)! Here's my chance to hear the Man with the Golden Flute "live" and find out exactly why he's so popular.

I'm still tired from the early mornings, see you people later!
fjozn at 1:02 PM

Monday, November 01, 2004

Joke of the Day

׺°??`?°º×(LîVë WîTh HàPpîNëSS...Or LîFë WîLL bë MëàNîNgLëSS~LîVë LîKë TîGGëR)׺°??`?°º× says:
u ar....pour wet water on mi ar?

Get the joke?

That's Jiahui by the way. Heehee!
fjozn at 9:51 PM

Huang Na and more

And so the search for Huang Na ends with the discovery of her body in a paper box.

Though the investigations are not finished yet, the questions that flashed through my mind were:

Why did the murderer kill her? To take revenge on her mother? Even so, why kill her? What wrong has she done?

The poor girl.

Ok, that's an understatement. No one her age deserves to go through what she has gone through, brutally murdered and left in the wilderness for 2 weeks.

Why do human kill each other in the first place? Surely, we have minds that are sophisticated enough to think and consider each and every of our action?

Well, saying so much now would do nothing to change what ever is done. What?s done is already done.

***

According to Jeremy's blog, the Brno Orchestra did an excellent rendition of the Dvorak 9th. Damn, I should have gone! I actually had half a mind to go but the steep prices of the tickets stopped me (He paid $90 for his ticket, my record highest, by the way, was $82 for the Mahler 8 by SSO). I'm pretty broke now!

But this is not stopping me from eyeing new phones!

I actually have quite a few phones in mind now:

Sony Ericsson S700i

Sony Ericsson K700i

Nokia N7610

O2 XDA II

Yes, I know I have expensive taste but I'm just eyeing them. The S700i looks very good and in fact, it's at the top of the list of the 4 phones. It seems to have everything that I want short of the PDA function. Then again, XDA II seems to have everything I need! What I need now is a nicer looking price tag that reads something like $500.

Oh wait! There's still the Siemens S65 with the 1.3 mega pixel camera. The downside is that I'm extremely skeptical about Siemens phones. Let's just say my impression of them isn't very good although my friend claims that Siemens phones are much more stable than Nokia phones. But that's what his friends claim. Comments on Siemens phones, anyone?

Sony Ericsson phones haven't really appeal much to me until recently, it seems that there?s been vast improvement on their design and functions.

It looks like I'm gonna settle for a phone that's cheap, maybe like $300?

I want a PDA too! (Am I outdated to want a PDA?) Damn.

I am really looking forward to the extended holiday over the Hari Raya and Deepavali holidays. Shiok! Maybe I should retreat to Malaysia... Hmmm...
fjozn at 6:56 PM