The Blood Diamond, Let It Shine Idol Drama, (再)与死神擦肩而过

The Blood Diamond:

After two weeks of procastination, I managed to get myself to the cinema today to watch this seemingly bland movie about a big diamond - how wrong I was. The movie turned out to be far more exciting than I could expected because other than the really intense acting, the setting of the story was very thought-provoking. A South African mercenary turned diamond smuggler + A fisherman turned diamond miner + A persistent human rights reporter + A 100 carat pink diamond + A dark and looming story about the atrocities behind the diamond wars.

Far too few people actually realized that diamonds originating from conflict zones brought sweat, blood and death to so many innocent Africans and most countries just watched it happen for so long before finally doing something about preventing the purchase of conflict diamonds. The movie was quite bloody in certain parts, especially during an invasion by the rebel forces on a city but it was quite realistic and adrenalin-pumping. I considered a good plot twist when the fisherman father tried to save his son who had been unwillingly brainwashed into a vicious rebel child soldier. This is yet another good movie that I watched and I am pretty happy about it.

Let It Shine TV Idol Drama:

I have finally got myself the new mobtv thing after one entire week of trying. There was originally some problem with the video streaming test but I finally resolved it two days ago and have happily watched the first two episodes of the highly-anticipated TV Idol Drama by a few of the Campus Superstars.

Although it may seem skeptical at first that the talented young singers from the Campus Superstar competition can act, but the viewing of the episodes so far has not been disappointing at all. The young singers were quite natural in their acting and bolstered by the presence of other experienced young and senior actors, the whole drama "Let It Shine" had, in my opinion, been entertaining and refreshing. If the drama manages to meet the expectations of the other supporters of the Campus Superstars and of the drama as a whole, I believe continued acting opportunities will be on the plate for the young singers.

Appealing enough to the cameras and having realistic-enough expressions to carry their screen personas (despite it being the first acting experience for some of them), it looks set that MediaCorp has finally succeeded in grooming a young generation of Superstars. What now remains is how well MediaCorp wants to develop them into true Superstars of Singapore so that their talents in both singing and acting will not go to waste. Way to go, Let It Shine!

（再）与死神擦肩而过：

今天早上一个不留神，差点就被死神用利器戳破喉。好像已有十次与死神擦肩而过了吧，每次都险象还生。这次，我还是不知道这次是死神又一时失手，或有天使看守着，还是是个警戒要我更把握我的生命。

无论如何，能再次闪开它的致命一击，还是值得庆幸的。可是死神的功力毕竟非同凡响，仍然能重创我的肩膀。虽然不致于断臂，但戳中了肩膀的要脉，红肿加麻痹加上瘀血，看来最快也要两三天的全力疗伤，方能康复。

生命是如此的无常，若不把握眼前人和事，更待何时？今天的空气特别清新喔...

(Image source: http://sg.movies.yahoo.com/The+Blood+Diamond/movie/13778/)

Report on the 13 Jan Let It Shine Roadshow at Hougang Mall

Below is my duplicate post from Teresa's Fanclub. Hope you have fun reading it!

Report on the 13 Jan Let It Shine Roadshow at Hougang Mall

Hi faithful supporters of Teresa!

Pre-Roadshow:

I arrived at Hougang Mall at 1230hrs and I already saw a small crowd of twenty people around the audience area waiting for the Style For Stars Roadshow by Monsoon.

I scouted the area and decided to skip lunch and book a suitable position to watch the Let It Shine Roadshow and I managed to take up a place right behind the judges’ tables in front of the stage.

Xiangrui joined me ten minutes and both of us started chatting until Jinfu arrived. I quickly made use of the opportunity to grab some burger and drinks before the Style For Stars Roadshow started and after a long and draggy show by the models, The Let It Shine Roadshow finally commenced at 3.20pm. Unfortunately, the organizing committee decided to shift some of the barriers and amidst the pushing, Jinfu, Xiangrui and I were pushed further back and instead of front row seats, we were then in the fifth row with one really gigantic guy in blue right in the front row, blocking our full view of the stage.

Start of Roadshow:

Shen Weijun, the mcee for the roadshow, started to warm up the crowd by asking who do the audience support and I was surprised to hear quite a murmur from the audience, saying “Teresa”. I was very happy when I heard that because although most of Teresa’s supporters are usually not that vocal, that murmur means a pretty strong presence of people who supports Teresa.

Appearance of Teresa:

Teresa got onto the stage with all the rest of the young actors in Let It Shine and the mcee began to ask all the young actors about their roles in the drama and what their memorable moments of the drama acting were. For those of you who were not present, you should have seen how most of the photographers began to train their cameras onto Teresa as she appeared onstage. Obviously, she was the fashion and camera favorite and she tried her best to smile at the cameras as they clicked away. Go look at the photo sections of the fanclub for a detailed photograph of Teresa’s outfit for the roadshow.

4.1) Fashion appeal and impression (4 out of 5 marks)
4.2) Suitability for song genre (Not applicable)
4.3) Suitability for stage movement (Not applicable)
4.4) Suitability for lighting effects (4 out of 5 marks)
4.5) Suitability for image of performer (4 out of 5 marks)

My grading For Teresa for her Stage Attire is 12 of out 15 marks.

Stage Activities of Teresa:

However, Teresa, in my own opinion, did not do quite well for the mcee question and answer section because she was like smiling and laughing away without giving any audible answer. A pity because I believe many people would be delighted to hear her speaking voice as they have had already been impressed by her singing voice. After a few murmurs, Teresa passed the microphone to Lirong, another female actor in the drama.

The mcee then started a game that involved the connecting of words as well as a recitation of all the connecting phrases made by the previous actors and so on and so forth. This time, Teresa did much better as she concentrated on the game and was one of the few who were not eliminated from the game. The game, however, was too long and boring and it featured very little about the young actors, other than their memory power. So part of the weak mcee interaction lies in the responsibility of the organizers. But I am penalizing Teresa heavily because I have already advised her on paying attention to questions and answers from the mcee quite some time ago.

3.1) Stage posture (4 out of 5 marks)
3.2) Stage movement (Not applicable)
3.3) Audience interaction (3 out of 5 marks)
3.4) Camera interaction (3.5 out of 5 marks)
3.5) Mcee interaction (2.5 out of 5 marks)

My grading for Teresa for her Stage Presentation is 13 out of 20 marks.

After the game, some prizes were awarded hastily and all of the young actors left the stage to make way for the senior actors in the drama. Jinfu and I decided to try to find Teresa at the backstage area because Jinfu had a gift for Teresa but the stage door was too far and the organizing staff was out of our reach to help Jinfu to pass the present to Teresa.

After the senior actors had their stage moments, Chen Fengling did a song performance of one of the songs in the Idol Drama. I was hoping for a theme song performance by the Campus Superstars but that never really happened and after Fengling did her song, all the actors, young and senior went onstage for the last time at the roadshow to appeal to the audience to watch the Idol Drama and they left for the waiting MediaCorp mini-bus outside Hougang Mall.

Teresa was walking way too quickly and Jinfu missed the chance to pass the present to her. I consoled the fellow that there would be other opportunities to pass the present to Teresa and all three of us parted company.

I would like to all the supporters who responded to my call to gather to watch the roadshow and even though some of them are too shy to turn up in person in front of the three of us, they were there alright because I was still in contact with them on the phone.
That’s all for my report. Stay tuned for more photographs and hopefully a video recording from idollic.com administrator. For those who wishes to read this report on websites other than this fanclub, I will duplicate this report on both idollic.com/teresa and on my personal blog at http://heaven-earth-human.blogspot.com/

Sean Ho
“Music clears the mind, fills the heart, moves the soul.”

(Image source courtesy from blanket of TFC)

Latest Drama Trailer From Let It Shine!

For those who have not been able to catch the trailer on Channel 8 for the Idol Drama "Let It Shine"...Enjoy!

(Video source: keriner, 07 Jan 2007, Youtube)