I titled my blog using an iconic quotation from a Shakespearean Play "Hamlet" because it is profoundly based on what everyone has been trying, struggling or dying to be - their true selves. I am still searching for the answer to that question myself and amidst all the faint glimpses of truth and doubts, trudging through the labyrinth of daily life, maybe my blogging will help me unravel my destiny in time to come...
Let me have...
the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
the strength to do the necessary,
the love to give to the deserving,
the wisdom to perceive such differences.
Poetry Appreciation: Beautiful Old Age by D.H. Lawrence
Recently, whilst I was talking to some of my students, I kept having the impression that they detest old age or anything that has to do with age. Perhaps they are young and thus always assumes that only the things that are young are beautiful. I found a poem that speaks otherwise and would like to share with all the readers of my blog.
It ought to be lovely to be old to be full of the peace that comes of experience and wrinkled ripe fulfillment. The wrinkled smile of completeness that follows a life lived undaunted and unsoured with accepted lies. If people lived without accepting lies the would ripen like apples, and be scented like pippins in their old age. Soothing, old people should be, like apples when one is tired of love. Fragrant like yellowing leaves, and dim with the soft stillness and satisfaction of autumn. And a girl should say: It must be wonderful to live and grow old. Look at my mother, how rich and still she is! - And a young man should think: By Jove my father has faced all weathers, but it's been a life! -
This is the second of the series of performance commentaries that I will be posting up for the reference of all singing enthusiasts and music lovers reading my blog. I will not, however, be posting everyday because I need time to listen to those performances and I have other things to blog about too but do stay tuned if you find my commentaries interesting enough. =)
As per my usual practice, I like to blog and comment on performances. This, of course, doesn't mean I am hammering the contestants/performers as if I am better than them. I am just sharing my opinions on how they have done or what else they could have improved on.
This will be a series of commentary blog posts as the abovementioned competition progresses. Whenever I can spare the time to look through the Youtube videos and comment, I would put up more of these commentaries up so do stay tuned if you are interested to read what I have to say.
It was already 12.00am and I was sitting at a famous stretch of supper stalls near Beauty World somewhere near Bukit Timah. That place boasts a number of stalls but The Changed Man, who grabbed me out for supper, wanted to eat his nasi goreng so I had a cheese and an egg prata, which was very filling.
The Changed Man actually wanted to have an late night jog but I was way too tired for exercises at that hour after more than thirteen hours of lessons. So we had supper instead and it really brings back fond memories of those schooldays where school projects were so massive that overnight stays were common occurrences and so were late night suppers.
However, both of us did not stay late because he had to work the next Monday morning. He told me that that place is usually more happening on Saturday nights. I did see some beautiful people and a couple of expensive sports cars parking nearby so I suppose it would be a nice place to hangout on Saturday nights if one wants to people-watch whilst having supper.
Leisure Lunch of Prawn Noodles:
Usually, I avoid prawn noodles because the taste is very strong but today I woke up really late and skipped my breakfast so I opted something to wake me up. Picked a noodle stall and was pleasantly surprised because it tasted quite good with big juicy prawns, cuttlefish, fish cake, pork slices, bean sprouts and a nice helping of spring onions. Yummy.
After eating, I went to look for vcds to entertain myself today because I intended it to be a stayhome offday.
VCD - Pirates of The Carribean - At World's End:
Initially, I wanted to make use of today's off time to go watch L Change The World Movie but my VIP Friend, The Changed Man, advised me against it, saying that while he was watching the movie last Sunday, he found it to be the worst movie he had ever watched in his life, and he actually wanted to leave the cinema in the middle of the show. He said even if I pay him ten dollars and watch the movie for free, he would rather do something else with his time.
After his commentary, I changed my mind and went around trying to find Death Note I and II VCDs but to my utter dismay, all the shops said they were out of stock for those two movies. Disappointed but refused to return home empty-handed, I spent an hour browsing through the shops and finally found Pirates of The Carribean - At World's End. I watched it before and I thought it was a keeper for my VCD collection so I spent about two hours at home re-enjoying the movie. Ah...a nice afternoon, munching love letters (CNY goodies) and watching the movie in the comfort of my room.
Music Commentary: on different versions of songs between Kewei Tay and Aska Yang:
I was surfing Kewei's blog and noticed her recent post about how one of her demo songs' tune was used inside one of Aska Yang's latest album.
I listened to both versions and found that Aska's version had radically changed the lyrics of the original song but ended up worse because I personally felt that the new version had such a confusing mix of emotions and feelings that I could not realistically connect to the song.
On the other hand, although some of the lyrics in Kewei's original demo version were a little too abstract and thus a little tripping, the feel was much better.
It's of course my own opinion, which I left on Kewei's blog, about which version is more connected and pleasing to my taste. Why don't all the music and singing enthusiasts reading my blog listen to both version and decide for yourselves? Feel free to comment. Speak free.
I found this very interesting video whilst blog surfing. Near the very end of the video, it seemed that something was running very quickly from the right side of the stage to the backstage. Some commentators said it was a ghost, others said it was a monkey and some others said it was just a child. What say you? Haha.. Have fun but don't freak out.
超级星光大道3 Video Clips on shortlisted contestants:
I found this Taiwan news report on The One Million Stars Season 3 Singapore auditions from Spicymac's blog. It seemed to me that the news report did not update about Zhiyang not being able to go for the competition but oh well, at least we can a glimpse of the remaining of the short-listed contestants from Singapore. May all of the five do well in the competition and make us proud!
Personal - Will I be rewarded for my efforts?:
A bombshell was dropped on me this morning over the MSN. Someone had chosen side-stepped and overlooked my years of trust and faith and announced something really terrible to my ears. I was devastated and almost died on the spot but came round to it.
Although there is still no final verdict on how the outcome of this bombshell will turn out (I don't know how long I have to wait), but I firmly believed I had done nothing wrong to this person all these years.
If the verdict is to my favour, I will appreciate it well and continue to work hard.
If the verdict is against my favour, I can only say I did all I could within my means.
Will I be rewarded for my efforts or will I be punished for them? Only time will tell. I leave this blog post with my favourite quote because it is these words that kept me going and hopefully will continue to keep me going in my darkest hours of my life:
Let me have...
the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can change, the strength to do the necessary, the love to give to the deserving, the wisdom to perceive such differences.
It's another fallen star for the entertainment scene in the region because Lydia Sum has moved on to the next world. I am not a particularly big fan of hers but I remembered watching a number of her shows and she was always the actress and comedian who put in her heart and soul in breathing life into the characters she played.
It has been a terrible year for many celebrities and celebrities-watchers so far. First the death of MC king, then the Edison Chen photo-fallout and now Lydia Sum and later on the lost opportunities for 超级星光大道 3 contestants in Singapore. Let's hope tomorrow will be better. Rest in peace, Lydia!
Wasted Opportunities at One Million Star Season 3 Competition:
Ever since the conclusion of the abovementioned singing competition auditions in Singapore, there has been much confusion about who are the shortlisted contestants who will fly to Taiwan for the full competition in a week's time.
Finally, according to yesterday's newspapers, these are the shortlisted ones:
1) 潘嗣敬 (Singapore's Project Superstars Season 1)
2) 蔡嘉航 (Singapore's Campus Superstars Season 1)
3) 陈智毅 (Malaysia's Project Superstars Season 3)
4) 黄靖伦
5) 傅英豪
Poor Zhiyang and Lingyi had to abandon their places because Zhiyang had to serve National Service and Lingyi had some visa problem to enter Taiwan due to her Chinese passport.
National policies and international politics do play a part in developing one's talents in singing and performances so now everyone knows that it doesn't mean that if one can sing and perform well, all doors will be open for one.
Report II on One Million Star Season 3 aka 超级星光大道：第三届超级星光大道 - 新加坡海選
This is the second report on the abovementioned singing competition. I had very little time on Sunday so I could only manage a few photographs. Chosen from over 500 contestants, these 100 contestants have much better calibre and are also much more confident onstage. Let's get on with what I have then and see how some of them did on Sunday afternoon.
One of the contestants whom I recalled singing quite confidently. I could not remember what he did for his special talent performance but he was doing quite alright. Then again, there were over 90 others still waiting to strut their stuff onstage. It's definitely more competitive than Saturday. This contestant did a rap for his special talent performance. Quite alright but the hat actually took away most of his facial frontage and he looked a little too shabby for a qualifying round contestant. This photo was taken just when I reached the venue of the auditions. Similar to Sat's auditions, the contestants had to bake in the hot sun as they were queuing for their registration confirmation. It was even hotter than Saturday and most of them were trying to hide under the shade of their lyrics sheets.
I like the courage and initiative of this contestant who could make the onsite decision to abandon the microphone which she deemed not appropriate for her special dance item. Confidence was there and she knew her moves by heart. Most unfortunate that there was no music accompaniment or the dance would be much hotter.
About five contestants into the auditions, came a senior-looking man with a small entourage. Most of the people onsite were concentrating on the performances and did not notice his entry but I recognized him immediately. This guy is actually one of the big-shots in the music and media industry but the organizers were not observant enough to announce the arrival of the surprise VIP onsite. He left with his retinue after watching about four contestants.
This guy would have probably been very stressed out if he realized a media mogul was watching him downstage. I believe he was the one who mimicked the playing of er-hu using his voice and it sounded quite fun and realistic indeed. I think this was the contestant who sang offkey during his attempt at a very difficult song with a crescending falsetto portion. He was too ambitious to showcase but ended up exposing his weakness instead. I definitely think he should have picked a slightly more manageable song. This is Khim Ng from Campus Superstars Season I. At the time of this post, it is confirmed that Khim did not make it through the second round. The reason - she faltered at the final part of her second song by hesitating and thus losing momentum of her second song. Aiya, a pity. I must really comment on his shirt, which looked really weird and out of place. However, his special talent performance of imitating Fei Yu Qing and even rising up to the challenge of the judges to sing a key higher than he prepared won applause and appreciation for his daring stunt.
That is all I have because I had to rush off to work again. As of the time of publishing this post, it is confirmed that Huang Zhiyang (Campus Superstars Season 1), Yvonne Chua (Campus Superstars Season 1), Sugianto (Project Superstars Season 1) have successfully made it through and are slated to go to Taiwan for the full competition! Hurray! I have not gotten the full list yet because there is still some confusion going on. Will update once there is some official confirmation of all the names of the people who made it through Sunday's auditions.
Song Recommendation For Feb 2008: Love Song By 方大同
I found this song from Kewei's blog and I listened to it twice. Hey Kewei! Saw you at the qualifying round auditions venue yesterday but was too busy taking photos to say hello.
I like it. Especially the way how the singer varies how the lines end. The jazzy feel is very comfortable to the ears. I am going to try and learn this challenging song. It will take a while though but it's worth the effort. Hope everyone enjoys the song as much as I do too! =)
I just had a long conversation with Mdm Tseng and Teresa's family at Plaza Singapura during the One Million Star qualifying auditions.
Apparently, after talking for nearly 20 minutes, I finally found out after two years, the following things:
1) Teresa's family does not wish to answer any more questions from anybody regarding Teresa's future events or participation of anything because they believed that such issues are to be internally discussed within the family circle, not with any outsiders. This automatically means that I cannot enquire any further things from Teresa's family because they have been finding these questions intrusive into family affairs.
2) Teresa's family also wishes to express that they would like to just explore Teresa's potential talents and wishes to make no further confirmation or commitment to any particular direction of advancement to any interests at the moment.
3) Teresa's family stand on the issue of the Official Teresa Fanclub - Let nature runs its course. If the fanclub is to die a natural death, so be it. Unless there is any exceptional message that Teresa wishes to announce, she would not be making any messages there like informing supporters of any particular events that she may be participating.
4) Teresa's family wishes everyone to treat Teresa as just an ordinary girl, and they would not actively seek any support from anyone even though passive support would be heartfelt and appreciated. They would like supporters to concentrate on their main work at hand and only use surplus time to support Teresa.
5) Teresa's family believe this is a free world and anyone can choose to do anything as they please and they would impose no wishes or wants from anybody nor require anything from anybody at all. They wish Teresa to desire and crave nothing, only to gain exposure to whatever interests Teresa has on hand at the moment and in the near future.
At the moment of typing this post, Teresa is still at Plaza Singapura, waiting for the results of the One Million Stars auditions. I did not watch her perform because I had to go back here to quickly finish this blog post and head off for work again. I wish her all the best!
In response to the abovementioned information that I had recently acquired, I will politely:
1) Be fully reassured that my decision to leave TFC was absolutely correct and necessary.
2) Remove all the TFC tags from the blogroll of affected bloggers because I no longer believe TFC's existence is of any further use at all.
3) Wish Teresa and her family all the best in pursuing what they believe to be right.
4) Continue to help anyone else who wants to pursuit their love of music, singing and performance.
I went to Plaza Singapura between 1pm to 3pm to take a look at the contestants for the abovementioned competition and when I reached the place at 1pm. I already saw a queue snaking around at the plaza. However, the crowd was far smaller than I expected. All in all, I counted around 300 contestants. Perhaps there was more when I left but since registration ended 2.30pm. I suppose that was the total number of contestants who turned up for today's one and only chance at stardom in this very competitive and challenging singing competition in Taiwan.
While I don't claim to know everything about singing for competitions, I would still like to express my personal take on what I had observed and listened for today. So for the following groups of people, you may want to take a closer look at my commentary for today's singing.
For those contestants who made it to the qualifying round tomorrow, if you are interested in what I had to say about today's first 100 contestants' singing, please feel free to read my commentary in this blog. For those contestants who did not make it to the qualifying round tomorrow, and want to know why you did badly, you can also read for experience and feedback. For those who are friends of contestants who made it to the qualifying round tomorrow, why not pass this blog post to your friends? You never know what they might learn from here. For those who think I am kaypoh and busybody and not qualified to criticise, you can just click the close window button and forget about what you have just read.
Here we go: This was the queue at the registration table. The poor souls were baking in the hot afternoon sun and you could see some of them desperately shielding themselves to prevent their make-up from melting in the tropical sunlight. There were more contestants sitting around the waiting area though. An estimated of 300 contestants plus 200 onlookers were there between 1pm to 3pm.
Their objective - to be on this stage for around 40 seconds. 10 seconds to introduce oneself, and the song one was to perform and 30 seconds to give their best showing to the three judges there. Only a handful managed to sing the full 30 seconds. Most of them had the judges' bell rung on them within 15 seconds the moment they started singing. It was a most daunting experience for quite a few of them.
If you think the hot sun was torturous for the contestants, this area was even worse. All the contestants had to line up according to their contestant registration number and wait in this queue and watch the previous contestants sing onstage. Many were busying holding themselves together and asking for drinks from their friends outside this area because it was such a hot day.
This queue showed contestants numbering 001 to 150. As you could see, some of them were all decked out in their best clothes whilst others were as casual as everyday's attire. See the guy in the white cap on the left hand side of the photo? That's Huang Zhiyang from Campus Superstar Season One. He did not recognize me even though he looked me in the eye but he looked very collected and calm because he had prior experience of such waiting. Did he get into the qualifying round tomorrow? Read on.
This was contestant 001 and I gave him a place on my blog because the first contestant is usually the most stressful one because he would be setting the pace as to how the rest of the contestants' heartbeats would be. He crooned the best he could but his voice was too mundane to catch the attention and appeal of the judges. Sorry, dude.
This was one of the female contestants whom I think did a pretty okay job in handling her song. At least she put in effort to emote the songs because most of the contestants today just memorized the song and sang it mechanically as if they were doing the usual KTV singing. Unfortunately, the judges did not think so - so I think this girl did not make it through. Let me say this very clearly - Stage singing is NOT EQUAL to KTV singing. I will elaborate the differences later on.
This was another guy whom I think did relatively better than the rest of the contestants. He did show some tenacity in bringing out the flavour of the song he sang without sounding too much like the original singer. Most of the contestants were MIMICKING the original singers, which is a big NO-NO for such competition. Apparently, they did not read the requirements of the competition carefully. The judges were looking for unique flair and style in singing, not looking for parrot singers. Of the 100 contestants that I had heard, only 25 sang in their own styles.
This guy was a negative example of positive stage skills. Although his singing was passable, his body presentation was very bad. He looked constipated and had a way too painful expression than necessary for the song. In fact, many other contestants looked really gloomy onstage. Come on, it's about displaying your skill and passion in singing! The stage is for performance, not for execution! Stop looking as if you are going to face the hanging noose. -________-
Khim Ng was one of the Campus Superstars Season One who participated in the preliminary auditions round today and she was the MOST impressive contestant amongst the 100. Why? Volume was good, confidence was there, technique was polished and emoting was done well. Khim, if you are reading this, keep on singing like that and I will see you on TV in Taiwan. Of course, Khim made it amongst the 32 from the first 100 contestants to the qualifying round tomorrow.
Yvonne was another Campus Superstar Season I who went onstage to compete for a place to Taiwan. She had considerable experience in the Campus Superstar competition and one could tell straightaway that she had no fear of the stage and began to dance and sing very enthusiastically, catching quite a lot of attention from the otherwise very bland and timid performances. However, Yvonne, if you are reading this, be very careful of how you project your singing when you danced because it sounded undulating and almost folded inwards when you performed today. Might be done to the extra stamina needed. Anyway, congratulations to you getting to the second round too! I could not remember the name of this Project Superstar 2 contestant who attempted the stage today. But he had a good foundation in singing and definitely knew what he was doing onstage. His voice was also fairly stable in his selection of the song and he was definitely above average in appearance too. All in all, nothing exceptionally bad about his performance and thus the judges gave him the green light to proceed to the next round too. This girl did well enough even though her physical height was a handicap amongst some of the contestants who had model heights but she was calm and collected despite the noise downstage. I could not recall all the first 32 contestants who made the mark but I believe she made it through to the next qualifying round too. Good luck! This guy seemed popular with some members of the contestants and onlookers. I believed he must be a student from some music school in Singapore because I could recognize a number of them onsite preparing for their performance items. He did not disappoint and belted out a convincing number to impress and made it through too. Yes, she is Malay and she can sing Mandarin songs very well and she made it to the qualifying round too. This girl definitely practised really hard and had a good singing voice to match too. She was very humble but proved impressive enough to win rounds of applause for her pitch-perfect rendition. She put to shame all those contestants who could not even remember 30 seconds worth of Chinese lyrics! The judges shared my sentiments - if one could not even remember 30 seconds' worth of lyrics, one can forget about the rest of the competition where there would be impromptu performances.
On the first look, this contestants resembled somewhat like Teresa Tseng of Campus Superstar Season I but she was not. Although both of them sounded quite different, this girl managed to sing her heart's content and I think she made it through too. Where is the original Teresa then and why is she not inside this famous competition? Edited: Just found out that Teresa did manage to enter the competition anyway and made it to the top 100 as well. Thanks to Spicymac for the information =) This is Zhiyang singing Zhang Hui Mei's Ji De. I was surprised by his selection because he could have easily sang David Tao's or Lee Hom's songs but he seemed to play it very safe. Technique-wise, I thought he fouled up abit by dipping too low for one of the lines in the chorus and I thought he would be knocked out for that obvious mistake but vocal wise, he was one of the more unique ones and the judges spared that error today. Yes, he made it through too. Could not remember if this girl made it through but she impressed me enough to take a photo of her performance because she could hold her notes and sang audibly enough for people to enjoy the performance. Quite a number of the female contestants were simply too shy to raise their volume, thus dwarfing their performances amidst the noisy audience and of course subsequently dwarfing their chances. Some of the softer-sounding contestants were lucky to make it through; many others did not. Presenting the shortlisted 32 contestants from the first 100 contestants at 2.50pm. Amongst the 32 of them, I could only accurately predict about 10 of them. I suppose the judges have their own reasons for picking the other 22. Perhaps I concentrated more on their vocal aspects whilst the judges could also calibrate their verdicts on appearances-wise. A closer-up shot of some of them. Visible enough were Khim (front row, 3rd from right), Yvonne (back row, right of Khim). As you can see, a number of the contestants had very marketable appearances (which was rather puzzling) because most of the competition segments were more of a test of singing skills and techniques. But oh well, as I said, the judges must have their criteria somehow. Congratulations to all those who made it to the qualifying round tomorrow! I left the place at 3pm because I had to buy something in other part of Orchard Road without delay so hope the rest of the contestants did well too.
Now, for my commentary for all those who are interested and open-minded enough to learn. If you are close-minded, then don't bother reading on.
1) KTV singing is NOT EQUAL to live stage singing
Most of the contestants made the mistake of thinking that they would sound exactly the same as they did during their KTV sessions. They forgot that KTV rooms have acoustic influences which would hide their singing flaws or gaps because of the background music. For those interested in singing live onstage but cannot afford a personal microphone, you can still practise, without the background music in KTV. You would be surprised that you sound a little different without the music accompaniment. Work from there onwards.
2) Emote the song with sincerity, not blind repetition from original renditions
A significant majority of the contestants who did not make the cut had committed the error of mimicking the original singers' renditions of the songs. They tried to sound exactly as the original singers, which is totally not what the judges wanted because they want to hear contestants' own rendition of the songs. Having good singing techniques is NOT EQUAL to mimicking original singers. Have your own style and be confident about it without worrying about whether it would rest well. As long as you are not deviating for the flavour of the song, you don't have to sound exactly like those singers in the industry at all.
3) Smile and be polite and confident onstage
Most contestants, including those who got in to the qualifying round, were way too solemn and serious onstage. For those who have observed Teresa Tseng who sang onstage, she treated each stage experience as an opportunity to showcase and share her passion of singing to everyone else, hoping that everyone would be enjoying the performance but accepting whatever that comes along afterwards. However, most of the contestants seemed to be more worried about how people would think and ended up full of unnecessary thoughts and worries, dwarfing their confidence, sounding really frail when introducing themselves, and looking really distracted when trying to emote their songs. There should be only one thing in mind for contestants - sing. What about everything else? Those should have already been resolved before one goes onstage....
4) Establish sincere eye contact and free yourself from self-induced fear
Quite a number of contestants chosed to close their eyes or look into the air above the audience during their performances. I personally think it is bad form because the song one sings is supposed to reach the real audience, not the imaginary audience in the head or the air molecules above the audience area. Eye contact is absolutely necessary for the transmission of song and most contestants would probably have the self-induced fear that everyone would wish them failure. That is incorrect - most music-lovers want, desire and crave good performances, even though it may be from their competitors because deep down inside, most people want to learn not just from oneself but from others as well. Give everyone the opportunity to learn from one another, not hide away out of fear.
Why was I there? Although I am too old to sing in such competitions and was never considered dashing or handsome, I wanted to learn too. Being there at such competitions continue to hone my listening and appraisal skills for quality singing and quality performances. Such skills do erode over time and these events continue to provide opportunities for me to practise them. What do I do with what I have? Share them with those who are open-minded to listen and learn too.
Once again, good luck to all those who will be singing for tomorrow's qualifying round! May the best contestant wins!
Alright, I don't exactly have any romantic celebrations with any beautiful girl today because I have to work. Yes, yes, Sean Ho has no life but some people have to work today so that the world will not come to a standstill just because the couples in love are celebrating.
Anyway, couples or singles, I suppose we can still celebrate L.O.V.E because it is one of the few emotions that separates us from beasts and monsters. Following the songs from my IMEEM player, I have also compiled a playlist using those songs by looking for their music videos on Youtube. For those with celebrations, maybe you can listen in while waiting for your partner to come and join you. For those without celebrations, you can still listen in and have fun looking through all the renowned love duets made throughout the past decade.
No. The shop is not mine but I am merely helping a friend to advertise it out of goodwill. The thing I see in the shop is that the items are selling for quite reasonable prices. The bad thing is that the photos taken of those items are not very clear and without multiple angles. Anyway, I believe this friend of mine is responsible enough to make sure all the items and transactions come clean and hassle-free.
2) Removal of Slideshow and Performance Playlist of Teresa Tseng:
I have removed these two items because they seem to be causing quite a lot of lag on my blog recently, resulting in very slow page loading times and even hanging computers of certain visitors. Unless I have an overwhelming number of visitors requesting me to put them back up despite the inconvenience caused, I will have to stash these two features away temporarily.
Okay, time to run. I still have my regular gym session and maybe will go eat something nice for lunch as a token to celebrate Vday ba. Take care everyone! =)
I am here again to remind all those singing enthusiasts who wish to showcase their singing and performance abilities to consider this following event taken from this website. Please read the rules and regulations carefully or risk being disqualified from the competition on this coming Saturday and Sunday at Plaza Singapura.
I will take some time off to take a look and maybe do a write-up on the contestants Singapore is fielding for this highly-challenging and demanding competition. May the best contestants do Singapore proud!
【第三屆超級星光大道-新加坡海選】活動辦法
時間— 2008年2月16日12:00pm 初選報到 2008年2月17日12:00pm 複賽報到
地點—Front Plaza, Level 1 Plaza Singapura,68 Orchard Road #03-10B Plaza Singapura
Beautiful photograph of beautiful people taken from Dasmond Koh's blog. This must have been taken immediately after the CNY Even Special 2008 at the MediaCorp studio. Familiar faces include Benjamin (CSS 2, @ top left), Zhengning (CSS 2, @ top centre), Keely (CSS 2, @ bottom second from left) and Teresa (CSS 1, @ bottom third from left) .
Home Dinner For The Changed Man:
I invited The Changed Man for home dinner because it's been quite some time since he last ate at my place and since it's Chinese Lunar New Year, it's guaranteed that there would be a lot of food and cooking happening at my place. No photographs because my family members invited their own VIPs for this home dinner session so I thought it was rude to take photos of all the food in front of them.
Anyway, thanks for my mother, we had more than enough food for everyone who attended this private gathering. On the table were fruit and almond jelly salad, potato salad with prawns, cheese, sausages, fishballs, steamed sliced fish, multi-coloured noodles, pineapple fried rice, yu sheng and soft drinks. The dinner went on for slightly more than an hour and after that, The Changed Man and I went off to Holland Village (famous for its alfresco dining and cafe culture) for some Coffee Bean tiramisu cake, drinks and people-watching.
We discussed about Chinese New Year, work, friends, life and even stock markets whilst lazing at Coffee Bean, watching all the nicely-dressed people strolling along after their CNY celebrations or dinners. It was a nice mini-outing amidst all the murmurings of various people sitting at the cafe - Caucasians, Asians, Afro-Americans, Japanese, etc. Haha...At around 10 plus, we finally left for home and hence ending the third round of CNY celebrations.
Partyworld KTV Session with The Pouting Apple:
Last Friday night while I was chatting about new songs with The Pouting Apple, she suddenly suggested going KTVing and being spontaneous, I said "Why not? Let's do it tmr."
And lo and behold, on the next day, both of us headed off to the Orchard Branch Partyworld and sang from 11am to 2pm (costing $18 nett per pax). We complained about the expensive wet towels and peanuts and The Pouting Apple made the most of her money spent by using the wet towel to wipe her sofa seat and munched away at those peanuts. Personally, I preferred Kbox Lunch Package because even though their lunch sets aren't that delicious, there is at least food but since it was The Pouting Apple who initiated, I had to sing with no lunch (broken a record of mine), sing with only one hot honey drink (broken a second record of mine) and no toilet breaks within the three hours (broken a third record of mine) because the line-up of songs was very intense and packed.
We sang many songs and exchanged thoughts and ideas about how to improve on singing certain songs. The Pouting Apple kept picking fast-tracks (which are her favourite)from singers like Jolin, F.I.R, S.H.E, Fei Lun Hai, while I kept picking R&B and ballad songs (which put the always wanting to be high Pouting Apple to sleep..hahaha) from singers such as David Tao, William Soh, Lee Hom, Liu Geng Hong, and Fang Da Tong. And my public compliments to your rendition of 如果你也听说 - it's very well-done.
Of the most significant songs during that KTV session was 一眼瞬間 by 張惠妹 & 蕭敬騰 because we repeated the song for more than four times, discussing on how to sing the harmonization parts properly, especially the chorus portions, because The Pouting Apple got her key, notes and volume confused. The song was particularly draining for poor me because my vocal range was stretched to the max to reach the song multiple times (without a drink at all..sob). Fortunately, The Pouting Apple was smart enough to pick up most of what I had taught and the final rendition was much better - smoother and more controlled than the first one in which we were just mashing along without cooperation.
The session ended at 2pm and The Pouting Apple had to go Chinese Lunar New Year home visit to a friend whilst I had to buy something before heading home to prepare for the home dinner for The Changed Man. All in all, it was quite a fun session because The Pouting Apple finally let her hair down and relaxed enough in front of me to start jumping on the sofa and sang to her heart's content. Well, not really , because I did not join her - I am too old for that sort of sofa-jumping singing. Hahaha...
Oh yes, The Pouting Apple wanted me to post my advice here on the blog for her and everyone else to see so here it goes as promised:
1) When you are singing duet songs, don't forget the key thing is about teamwork. Helping each other with the lines and harmonizing accordingly to each other's singing volume and expression. You probably can remember how much better we sounded between the first few attempts and the final rendition of the song. That was precisely because we worked together to sing the song, not merely singing our own parts of the duet song.
2) Remember to concentrate and don't lose focus of the duet's allocated keys and notes for the male and female parts respectively. You are more influenced by Jing Teng's portion so you kept singing his key and notes instead. Practise a little bit more and I believe you will be able to mentally and vocally separate their parts (especially during the harmonized chorus portions). Don't forget that the first lines of the chorus is led by Jing Teng so Amei should be harmonizing after him, not sing at the same volume and intensity. The rest of the song has already seen much improvement after our session today.
3) Gesticulation is the next step for some of your already-established fast-track songs. I know it's not the same as a full accompanying dance but gesticulation is a good start to keep the beat and express the song better. You have a very high expectation of standards to do well in those songs but remember there IS such a thing as trying too hard and tripping over yourself. If there is one thing that needs more thought over those songs, it is to use your own voice to sing rather than mimicking the original singers. Remember what I told you - techniques and accents can be separated clearly. Remember how I sang Wo Huai Nian De by Sun Yanzi? The same effect of the song is reached without utilizing any of Yanzi's signature traits so you can definitely do the same too!
I know you are absolutely serious about improving your singing but you can still do it with a smile and not a pout, right? At your current stage, which is not live singing onstage, you don't have to pre-stress yourself so much, can? Hereby enclosed the Youtube KTV version of the song because I predict you are going to practise the song the moment you finishe reading this post. Remember to have fun learning, not frown, can? Hahaha....
I am also including a very cute video of a young child mimicking Cao Ge's Bei Pan. This is exactly what I mean by singing without even understanding the lyrics or the theme of the song - no connection to the song, no singing is achieved. Personally, I think the original owner is just exploiting the poor child and of course, spoiling the song by teaching it to someone who has no inkling of what Bei Pan means at all.
As with every year, my family members would make a pilgrimage-like trip to the Riverside Angbao Festival (or whatever they named the festival). This year, the festival is held at Esplanade Park and there were actually nothing much interesting (for me) to see. Alright, it's not exactly empty because you can still see carnival fun-rides, food and beverage stalls (such as the Taiwanese Stinky Beancurd), stalls selling caligraphy, art pieces, providing onsite protrait paintings, read-ups on the twelve Chinese zodic animals for the year of the Rat.
I did not take a lot of photographs yesterday because I was busy carrying things for my parents and taking photographs of them on the family camera. They loved to take photos during such festivals and the following are the few I managed in-between those times. It's raining hard right now as I typed this post. Hope the folks going to the festival today ain't badly-drenched since there is actually very little rain-cover there.... -________-
This is new and looks kinda of fun in the middle of Esplanade Park rather than in Sentosa. Sort of miniature water-ride for the children. It was a hot day yesterday and if only the rides were for adults, I would have jumped in already. Hahaha.. Flowers! I like the way the organizers arranged a beautiful array of flowers in one part of the festival for picture-takers to get a nice backdrop. Most of the shots are inclusive of my parents which I will never show on this blog so this is the only snap shot left as I was moving away from the site. My parents are like little children again whenever they visit the festival so I had to catch up with them as they ran around...haha Most of the visitors to the festival can't really miss this. Standing at more than four storeys tall, this is the iconic God of Fortune that people would want to be touching and sometimes, the statue wil shower tiny golden-coloured paper flakes (representative of gold dust) for the waiting people below to grab. It is said that those who get the flakes will have riches and wealth for the new year ahead. However, it did not seem to shower any during my visit. Maybe it's too early in the afternoon? Who cares. My family kept moving through the festival anyway. My family actually made a longer stay at this wishing well thingy where one must throw a coin at whichever wooden tablet if they want that wish on that tablet to be fulfilled. Visible ones on the photograph includes (left to right) - health, progress, wealth, harmony, peace, having lots of children, etc. A few of my family members threw some coins and actually hit the tablets. I'd rather keep my coins for a cool drink at one of the stalls later on. Heehee.
Chinese Lunar New Year Family Movie: Ah Long Pte Ltd (2008)
Before going to the Riverside Angbao Festival, we actually went to watch a family movie together. My mother is an avid fan of local movies and even though my father wanted to watch CJ7, we decided on Ah Long Pte Ltd at Orchard Cineleisure.
The movie revolved around the unlikely marriage between a dance teacher (Mark Lee) and a loanshark gangster (Fann Wong) and how they had to cooperate in order to fight off challenges from a rival loanshark gang. The theme is not very suitable for CNY because there were a lot of fighting and swearing in the movie but it was pleasant enough to include a few themes of loyalty, trust, betrayal, love and even compassion.
All in all, not that horrible as the movie critics said but it is uncomparable to I Not Stupid. I would be looking forward to watch CJ7 when the family-related activities simmered down.
