Living with Tze@Arts House

I attended a friend's solo piano recital today and rather enjoyed it.

He presented his (instrumental) compositions. which were mainly inspired by social issues, happenings and nature. The pieces required very good control of the fingering and rhythm and as my friend (who went with me to catch the performance) said, the pianist expressed himself better through the music.

My particular favourites were incidentally the opening and closing pieces (before the encore), the first being Beauty amid Destruction and The Last Sunset. I'm one for melancholic tunes and to me, these pieces sounded as such.
The former was about the pianist's snorkelling trip to Redang where to his horror, the corals there were mostly dying with only 1 or 2 columns surviving. When he started, you can just imagine the water ripples and the swimming in the water while as the music progresses, one can just envision the discovery of the destruction and the sadness that followed, like a mourning.

Interesting, this showcase. I'm always quite amazed (& envious) at how people can come up with contemporary classical instrumental pieces. Like modern-day concertos.

Just a side note, this friend also did the scoring of the recently released Sing to the Dawn animation film.

My first pitch

It was my first time doing a pitch for project funding and it was a "harrowing" yet strange session (strange maybe becoz it was my first!).

Anyway, I had submitted a proposal earlier for some funding and today was the day I was to do a presentation to the board of trustees to the fund (was alloted 10 min to do the pitch). The first thing was when I stepped in, there were 8 people! I nearly fainted. Fortunately, I had brought a colleague along.

Secondly, they went straight into Q&A without asking me to present (which caught me by surprise)! Well, I guess the proposal was there (they were perusing it just prior to my entrance)... It might have been a good thing since I didn't need to go through a powerpoint presentation (I'm totally nervous when it comes to such things) until they posed the question that I really didn't have the adequate answer to (which was actually the main & only question they were harping on). Fortunately, my CEO (who was also on the board) helped a little which was useful coz the question required his decision to commit the solution. In fact, in the end I didn't really get to say much. Not sure if that was a good or bad sign...or if I actually said stupid things.

Hmmm...I guess there's always a first time.

Keyboard lessons

I recently started attending a beginner's keyboard class at Believer Music and it's been getting more difficult each week. Even though I have a piano background, I've stopped playing for more than 10 years. Also, have been used to playing melody rather than chords accompaniment.

Well, for beginner's class, we're mainly learning how to play chords and simple beats to accompany worship songs. And I must admit I've forgotten all my music theory. Also, I'm not used to just reading alphabets as I'm used to reading the "beansprout" notations, which more or less has everything laid out there even when to play the notes. So I have to translate the alphabets into more alphabets (chords has 3 notes mah) and onto the keyboard directly now and try to do the inversions. Some new things I learnt are the suspended chords like C2 & D4 which was taught yesterday (if I had ever learnt it before, I have clean forgotten it, including the inversions).

Anyway, what I actually wanted to say was that yesterday, when we were learning a new song "Forever Grateful", I was suddenly very moved. It wasn't at the beginning, coz I think I was too busy trying to figure out the chords and play the song properly. But during a "break" (when the teacher called us around her to do a demo), the words of the song sudden struck me. The actual part of the verse that did that was "You did not wait for me to draw near to you, but clothed yourself in frail humanity". I was like "Woah". It was like the impact of the meaning suddenly dawned on me (not that I didn't understand what it was before) but you know, think it got "absorbed" by the spirit in me.

What's True Love?

From time to time, I would think of what true love is and what it feels like. Will I even know it when it strikes? Being rather inexperienced in this aspect, just thought I would ponder over it a bit here, and maybe some friends might share about their experiences or opinions about it.

I know that many people had tried to define it, but still, there seems to be no answer, so here are my questions (quite common ones actually)...

Is it when one feels exhilarated when he/she thinks of the person and anything he/she hears or when he/she sees the person, the heart just races?

Is it when one feels pain when he/she thinks of the person because the feeling is too overwhelming? (Hmm...maybe it's the heart beating too fast)

Is it when one can't help but keep thinking of the person even when he/she is not around (you know, not those "out-of-sight, out-of-mind" kind of feelings)?

Is it like a seed that seems to weigh upon one's heart, that had slowly crept in & lodged itself there unknowingly until one day, you discover it's there?

Is it happy or painful? It seems from shows and news that people always says "because he makes me laugh" or there is some unexplained happiness. But then, not everything is a bed of roses for those in love and we see pain too.

Is it a self-sacrificial kind of feeling?

Is it when you can see a future with the person, like building a home together, growing old together, etc.?

Maybe some of these experiences are not mutually exclusive, but what other perspectives are there? How do you differentiate true love from just a passing feeling?

Splurged!

Oh dear...I can't believe I did this. I spent about $1,200 on jewellery last Friday!

I had intended to finally buy myself a belated birthday present. The initial budget was supposed to be below $1,000 for a set of earrings cum pendant, but I ended up with this!

The earrings were from the Destinee range, hence the high price (which was like $1,000 plus already), but I'm a Lee Hwa privilege card holder so got 10% off. Also had a $100 birthday voucher. The salesgirl tried to convince me to buy the matching Destinee pendant, but that would be another $1,000. So I opted for the cheaper range, which was about $200 (after 20% discount). The design was similar, except the diamonds smaller (about half the size). But I was thinking of wearing it like an "everyday" accessory, so I feel "safer" wearing something cheaper. Only the earrings posed a problem now coz it seems too precious to wear so often. Well, think earrings can spend a bit more rather than pendant.

Another thing. At the shop, I was informed I had previously bought a purple gold ring at that outlet. I totally forgot about it and had to go home to check. And indeed I had the ring! My goodness, how could I have forgotten!

Hmm...after spending so much, maybe I should have stuck with the XBox idea instead. Well, I guess I'm contributing to boosting the economy too.

J. CO Donuts & Coffee blacklisted

I have decided not to patronise J. CO anymore. I've been to it on 2 separate occasions & different venues and all I can say is I'm very disappointed. I don't even understand why people still go? The drinks & food are not fantastic either. Ok, I haven't tried their donuts, but still...

What put me off was that the service is bad. I don't expect that much since it's self-service, but the staff should at least be friendlier. And they are really inflexible. On 2 occasions, they couldn't provide something as simple as hot lemon tea and hot chocolate...when they had the iced version!

Well, on the 1st occasion (Bugis outlet), my friend asked if she could have hot lemon tea instead of iced lemon tea. The staff just said cannot. So my friend suggested that since you have iced lemon tea, you should have hot lemon tea. Just have hot tea & put lemon slices in. The staff replied cannot. Then we said why not? the staff just said cannot. So my friend gave up & didn't order a drink. We discovered that their iced lemon tea was dispenser kind (you know, like Seasons?), hence I think that's the reason why they can't have hot lemon tea. Well, at least explain to us instead of keep saying cannot (repetitive rejection of customers is definitely bad for business!)! And it's really strange that they actually serve dispenser tea! This is a specialised joint right? I mean look at Starbucks & Coffee Bean, they make the tea!

So tonight, I gave it another chance at Raffles City. This time it was really strange. The 1st occasion at least was valid since they used dispenser tea. But this time, I wanted hot chocolate and guess what? They said don't have and in the end I got iced chocolate (my friend ordered for me lah). Is it so difficult to minus the ice and make the chocolate hot? It's really strange. Usually it's the other way round coz they would make the hot chocolate first then put the ice in. I think the staff were just plain lazy in this instance. One might argue that they had a long day, etc. But you don't see Starbucks or Coffee Bean staff like that? They should be more chirpy so that everyone will be chirpy. A better working environment. I think J.CO's staff here needs proper training...or maybe they're underpaid?

Think I shall stick to Starbucks and Coffee Bean. The staff there are more professional and their fare are any time better.

Da:ns Festival 2008 - Russian Ballet Gala

Just caught the Russian Ballet Gala at the Esplanade and I enjoyed it. It was almost fully packed and why not? When it's with the famous Bolshoi Ballet and also other stars of Russian ballet from other groups.

It featured excerpts from 12 ballets and it was really amazing. Their moves were so precise and slick yet fluid and graceful. I especially liked the Duet from the Romeo & Juliet and Pas de deux from Don Quixote performed by Marianna Ryzhkina & Dmitry Belogolovtsev, who were the prima ballerina and premier of the Bolshoi Ballet (yes, they were the main stars for the night). In Romeo & Juliet there were some parts that I felt were quite challenging with the pace they were performing certain sections and you knew that a slight discrepancy in timing or a wrong move would result in disaster & injury. But it was executed perfectly and I breathed a sigh of relief.
And there were also some really amazing parts where the the ballerina leaped and the ballerino could catch her perfectly without a "shiver", supporting her with only 1 hand under her waist/rip cage. And those times when they could stretch out perfectly controlled & straight, whether horizontally, upright and even upside down! Their sense of equilibrium was fantastic.

Some other performances I liked were Duet from Spartacus (again Ryzhkina & Belogolovtsev) and Duet from In the Night.

Unfortunately, the ballerina for Giselle didn't perform it. I believed she could have injured her foot coz when she performed Swan Lake earlier, she fumbled a little near the end. Hence, the ballerino for Giselle could only do his solo part, which wasn't very long.

I can't stand it

I can't stand it
I can't stand it
All this work you're asking me do
I can't stand it
I can't stand it
There must be something more meaningful

You & I don't get along
All you want ain't practical now
Things need to be taken step by step
Do you get the big picture?
~~~~~~
Possible lyrics to a new song? Had a bad day at work...

Artsy weekend

I was kinda soaking in all the visual arts extravaganza over the weekend with both the Singapore Biennale 2008 & ArtSingapore.

I started firstly by catching Burn After Reading on Friday afternoon with a friend. It was quite funny and Brad Pitt was convincing as a himbo and the plot rather funnily silly (in a good way) that had me & my friend laughing through the show. At the end of the show, one can't help but wonder what's the underlying moral of the show, but then again, maybe it's some form of ingenuity that everything seemed so naturally pointless.

After the movie, we proceeded to check out the Central Promontory Site (it's free!) at Marina Boulevard. The space was built by Shigeru Ban, interestingly with containers. There were some rather interesting exhibits, but I liked Location by Hans Op de Beeck. It was really interesting entering into this space to view the exhibition, which was like an igloo, and we had to walk down a white tunnel to come to an observatory to see this display.

There was another that was quite interesting - Between You and I by Anthony McCall, which uses lights to create an illusive space/wall and it moves! So the pattern of the lights changes. It was quite interesting as you put your hand through the "wall" of light. I couldn't get a good shot with my camera phone though as it was really dark inside.

After this site, we proceeded to City Hall where there were really a lot of works! We spent about 2 hours there till about the closing time. some interesting exhibits include Maggots (which were rather cute really) and a wooly installation. There was a variety of types of artwork like video installations, sculptures and photos. Some left me clueless though.

So that's my dose of art for Friday.

After which, on Saturday, I visited the ArtSingapore 2008 exhibition at Suntec. Actually, it was more of a display of works by art galleries for people to purchase/auction for art pieces. I went to the one last year too but I liked this year's range of works displayed. At the end, I felt I still preferred French artists and also Vietnamese ones. I started liking the latter after I saw a really simple, but nice piece of work at Opera Gallery.

Well, that's about I have to write.

牵引

I wrote a new song recently. Actually, I had the title of the song in mind for a few months already and when I attended the CS Music Songwriter’s showcase last Friday, I was inspired to write a Chinese worship song with this title. (Hee...I tend to have keywords inspirations).


Anyway, Here are the lyrics:

牵引
一滴滴畏惧
一点点畏缩
你叫我不要怕

不让我受伤
不让我孤单
你总在那不远方

Chorus:
伸出你的手
引着我走
别让我迷路失措
牵着我的心
步向天堂
我生命中的曙光
耶稣
© 28 Sep 2008 Ilsa Kong

A brief summary:
The 1st verse is about being a little scared or reserved, but God says do not be afraid.
The 2nd verse is about God being always near, not letting us be lonely or hurt, sheltering us.
The chorus talks of God stretching out His hand to lead & guide us, so that we will not stray or get lost, transforming our hearts to be godly.