Music · Museum · Cafe

I have this brilliant idea...ok, not really brilliant (not sure if it's original), and it's more of a concept, but I'm getting all excited just visualizing it.

A few days ago, I was pondering over why we don't have a Singapore Music Museum. We have museums for visual arts (e.g. Singapore Art Museum), literary arts (National Library), but why not Singapore music? I had actually forgotten about it but today it came to mind again and I started developing it in my mind and the concept came while I was on my way home. Ok, here's the layout...

I'm envisioning this 2-storey space which is circular in design, with an atrium in the centre (i.e. the 2nd floor can look down into the centre space of the 1st floor). On the 2nd floor are the main exhibits about Singapore music. We can have displays on the rock-n-roll era, pioneers of Singapore music, NDP music, and the development through the years to the present day. The "through the years" display will likely be the permanent exhibit (though we will rotate the items being displayed), but we would also have a segment for special exhibits (maybe a special showcase of a personality in the Singapore music scene, etc.). I'm even contemplating using soundscaping for the "through the years" part where when someone steps into a certain zone, music from that era will play. (Hee...this was an idea I never got to use previously - the "envelop effect"). I think that's how music can be "showcased". It's not visual like the other art forms, so soundscaping is 1 of the ways.

Then downstairs, it would be like an interactive zone, or I would say activity zone.

There will be a small recording studio which people can rent to record their songs. A demo room/library, where singer-songwriters can deposit their demos and whoever's interested or talent scouts can come in to listen to these demos. Eventually, the old demos will be moved to become part of the museum's exhibition collection.

There will be a cafe selling some simple stuff. Ok, basically I'm thinking of selling some of my more successful culinary dishes like (my mum's) chicken curry, potato gratin & lasagne. And who can go wrong with toasted sandwiches? Of course with some coffee & tea, fruit juice and maybe some other drinks like soy bean milk as well. Don't need to serve too many things coz less variety sometimes means better quality.

And the best part is the centre area. It's part of the cafe (seating) but there is a stage on 1 side facing the bar/kitchen. So people can sit facing the stage & not be distracted by the kitchen. We can have open mikes, music talks, mini-concerts, etc. I think the circular design will also help with the acoustics and maybe create that "envelop effect" as well.

Feasible? Ok, if anyone wants to capitalise on this, you can, coz I myself will not have the resources to set up something like that. But if possible, leave a job vacancy for me. :)

PS: This is so much more dynamic, meaningful & cool than a book cafe, which I used to dream about. And I like the concept of creating spaces.

Do we have "Singapore Music"?

Following from a lecture a few weeks ago, where half of it was supposed to be on Singapore music, the lecturer turned around to ask us Singaporeans (he's German) if we knew what Singapore music is/was. Is there really an identity to our music, or for that matter, for any art form?

Honestly, I feel that we don't really have that much of a national identity/character in our music. As pointed out, our music is basically broken up into the 4 main cultural groups - Chinese, Malay, Indian, Western. Even if we did a fusion of these 4 types, it is still distinctly drawing from these 4 cultural groups. The lecturer also pointed out that for fusion, what we do here is on a superficial level, i.e. fusing famous music and/or instruments, and thus, in a sense, not exactly original. It is unlike other parts of Southeast Asia or Asia, e.g. Javanese gamelan & Thai music, that has some distinctive characteristic in the melodies & instruments. Thus, the search for a Singapore identity in music (or any art form for that matter) is still ongoing.

However, one might argue that that is what Singapore music is about - adaptations. We adapt all the different influences we have to blend in with our culture & society (racial harmony?). And it shows our character as a nation; that we can (creatively) adapt to situations, and don't necessary follow a pattern...we are dynamic. As also emphasized (in class) before, this exemplifies the fact that music is social, i.e. music happens in a social setting. Maybe we don't have "traditional" music like other regions, but Singapore pop music scene? I like to feel proud that our Singapore songwriters have made a mark and influenced the Chinese pop music scene and their music is exported.

However, we do have some distinct genres to speak of, although they are not widespread/cross-cultural (in a sense). An example is 新谣 (xin yao). It basically translate as Singapore folk songs which was popular in the 1980s. (some info) We have well-known songwriters (& singers) like 许环良、梁文福、黎沸挥，李伟菘、偲菘兄弟 & 巫启贤 born of that era. There is a certain flavour to the songs that is different from what we know as pop music today.
And who can dismiss the distinct character of our National Day songs? Although we see our songs evolving to be very "pop" these days, the older songs, once heard would inadvertently give us the notion "this is definitely a National Day song", even if it were heard for the first time.

A further analysis into the arts:
Do we use art to express what we "can't" normally do in regular life, like satires? Just like our theatre...in fact, if you noticed, our theatrical arts has a very unique flavour especially our satires, and you must be living in Singapore to fully appreciate the references. I would say we focus on what's in the content, the witticism in the words used.

David Marshall symposium

I attended this symposium yesterday at Raffles City Convention Centre. It was about David Marshall's life & legacy, in all areas of his influence in Singapore (and abroad). There were the legal aspects, political aspects and diplomatic aspects. Speakers were ambassadors and other academic professionals.

I was very moved by what the speakers had to say. This was one of our founding fathers. I had read about some of his trials and what struck me was that he was a man of justice, a man of compassion and someone with a very strong core within. What speakers said further affirmed this. This was a great man.

(on the side: interestingly, he married a Jean Gray...X-Men?...he indeed has gifts)

Digita Art Workshop (26 & 27 Nov)

I attended a digital art workshop these past 2 days as part of another Bear Fruit workshop programme. Besides interest, it was also partly because I had some spare leave from last year which I needed to clear (or else it would be forfeited). Why not spend it on something useful & enriching? It was interesting; something new to me.

The theme was like expressing heritage through digital art, so we went for a visit to the Children Little Museum on Kandahar Street. It's a private museum of games, toys, etc. of the olden days.

These photos were eventually used as something to work on to create some form of digital art. So this was what I got from my photos.

Of course, there was another piece we were asked to create which required us to draw something on our own. As I am quite bad at drawing, mine was one of those "abstract art" kind of pieces. Well, I guess I work as the thing comes about and takes form on its own...more conceptual stuff.

It was fun to experiment with stuff like kaleidoscope effects, layering, etc. to create my pieces.
We used Corel Painter to do our work, but unfortunately, after conversion to jpeg (from RIFF), you can't really see some of the effects, especially layering, hence some of the texture is lost. But oh well, better than nothing.

Changi Chapel & Museum

I took half-day today to have some solitude/personal sabbath time, to get away from the distractions of work. What's more quiet than being at the museum? My visit - Changi Museum. Unfortunately, this is a relocated site, not the original chapel & museum due to the expansion of Changi Prison (Complex). Regretted that I procrastinated so long before visiting it. Well, better than nothing.

Admission is free, but you had to pay $8 (adult) for the audio guide. I couldn't take photos inside the museum but I did, however get to photograph the re-created chapel. I didn't realise that the original was actually an outdoor chapel until I did some pre-tour research. Anyway, here are some shots.

The museum was a simple set-up in a U-shape.

I really didn't expect myself to spend the whole afternoon there. But it was an enriching experience. I know I couldn't feel exactly how people felt in those times (World War II) as I did not go through it but walking through made me feel for the people during those times, and I couldn't help but tear. I think we all know how horrible those times were, so I shan't elaborate more.

Well, Changi Prison, being where the POWs were interned, would of course be the museum's focus. At the museum, besides the torture, defeat and hard times, one could also see how something can be created out of "nothing". It was really an eye-opener when I saw how the POWs created works of art and creativity. How resourceful and innovative they were in improvising whatever was available around them, creating products out of scrap and whatever they could lay hands on, like brushes, beautifully handcrafted pocket knives, metal cases with etchings (like jewel boxes), musical instruments and even prosthetics! The things didn't look like they were made from scrap at all and were very well-made. They also found their own remedies for deficiencies and diseases, e.g. lalang juice. They also had ingenious hiding places for radio receivers, e.g. in a broom (inside the bristles), in matchboxes, shoe soles and even antennas woven into mosquito nets. Of course, there are the famous murals by Stanley Warren and also various art pieces.

Another touching point would be how the locals displayed courage and their kindness. They helped the POWs a lot by smuggling supplies to them, or even stationing themselves where the POWs would pass by on their way to their labour field, and offer food & drinks even though the Japs would slap them when they did so. They were really risking their lives and giving up their own supplies. 1 POW said that he felt humbled and ashamed that previously, the British had not treated the locals so well, like they were slaves, but the locals still helped them.

Though small, the museum holds some strong information and connection to our past. I hope our younger generation would not forget our past. Right now, there seems to be a sense that the younger generation do not really value the past/heritage or important morals & values of being a person. Societal influences? TV? (Lack of) discipline?

Invisible City by Tan Pin Pin

I finally caught Invisible City tonight. Good thing they extended it, or else I would have missed it altogether.

It was an interesting documentary. It's set in current times and shows people talking about the past, from the young local archaelogist to past filmmakers, photographers and curators, and even activists of the past.

It dawned on me, looking from our current modern times, how fast Singapore has changed, that such memories has been lost. Looking at the past footage or pictures, we are so far from the past. The poignant question asked by one interviewee was that if no footage was taken, does it mean it never existed...to me, it translated to possible obliteration from all memories.

Also, some of the interviewees were rather old and you could see that their memories were already fading. Would our heritage/past be lost eventually?

One of the striking part of the film was the portion where Ivan Polunin's footage was shown as a blank footage as he narrated while he was shooting his old films. Ivan was a filmmaker/photographer who captured mainly plants & flowers of Singapore & Malaysia during the late 1950s, especially for medicinal purposes. He also captured some lifestyle of tribes and people in the region. Anyway, he was trying to digitise his films by shooting & recording them onto DV tapes or HD DVDs. The blank footage was impactful as the word "invisible" came clear then (after all it's called "Invisible City" right?). As he narrates, you see nothing and what he describes seems invisible to you and you can only imagine what he was actually talking about.
He had answered earlier that he was of course worried that the films would be lost, that's why he's doing some self-digitisation, and even as his memory is fading, he himself is trying to sort out & record what they are about and archiving them, hence the narration (there was not much speech, if any at all, in the films). Even he has some trouble doing so, so how would others be able to understand if nothing is done? Can you imagine the significance of memories lost? And it also emphasizes if something is deemed non-existent if it is not recorded.

Does invisibility = non-existence? Is there a broken link between the past & present?

李大傻 Big Fool Lee

Caught the show 李大傻 at Drama Centre yesterday. I had actually expected it to be a jovial show, but it turned out to be more serious than jovial.

The play was about the legendary Cantonese story-teller Lei Dai Soh (actually I think it should be Lei Dai Sor/Sau) of Singapore broadcasted on radio/丽的呼声 (Rediffusion). His real name is Lee Fok Hong and he took his name 大傻 from some Hong Kong personality/show. Phonetically it sounds like "you big fool" and there is the famous Cantonese tune of "bin gor wa wo sor" ("Who says I'm a fool"). However, due to the reasons of politics (Speak Mandarin campaign) and the TV, he was slowly phased out as he didn't want to change from Cantonese story-telling and also due to the popularity of TV - it would have been meaningless for him and the essence of the story, spoken in a language that is not so familiar to him in terms of speech, would be lost (Note: he understood Mandarin perfectly well). He had many ups & downs in his life even though he was really a simple man.

Watching the show, the significance of how it was played came upon me - the actor playing 李大傻 only spoke Cantonese throughout the whole show as opposed to others. To me, this symbolised his steadfastness in his principles and emphasized certain issues.

Georgette: the musical

I caught the musical Georgette at Esplanade's Recital Studio, which was a small production done by the Musical Theatre Ltd. The singing was not too bad.

It was a simple "down-to-earth" kind of production, with minimal props and frills. Athough the acting was a bit "stiff" at some parts, the music & lyrics were very touching & I was moved to tears. There was live music by a pianist (Chris Nolan, I think) no less.

The musical was created as part of the Five Foot Broadway musical incubation program.

Is preserving our heritage really so tough?

Is it really so difficult to preserve our heritage?

We have people who are passionate for this cause, but yet can do little or has little support. We have those who do it for the sake of doing it as they have been tasked to do so, but are without passion.
There are also those who are passionate & have the power, but due to conflicting interests, no synergy is created, but rather rivalry. And yet, what happened to the common good, the common goal? Also, is it our society that is so, given that not every one of us value heritage or our roots? Or is the drive to do so only manifested in August?

Sometimes, we look at other countries and we're amazed at how they value their artifacts, their heritage, etc. and how they work together as a nation to do it and you see them complementing each other in collecting such valuable resources rather than competing over them.

Maybe we're too "young"?