Cloud Age Symphony

For once a week, I have sang in a box for three weeks in a row. I have come to notice that my selection of songs is for one, rather limited and two, dated. If at all, I do not listen much to Mandarin songs. My exposure thus far has been from other karaoke sessions and exposure through songs used on television shows or advertisements. Since I have significantly cut back on my goggle box view time for quite some time now, that meant my knowledge of the Mandarin music scene is inadvertently stuck in a time frame of years past.

In short, I am going to need to keep track of the newer songs so as not to seem outdated when it comes to song selections. It’s not as though the one I choose are bad, but it just seems terribly repetitive to make the same picks over and over again.

Yes, once again it’s one of those potentially life-changing events that has suddenly taken reign of my attention, haha.

Prayer

September ended and left us, hopefully, a little wiser.

I tried to write but I hit a snag. The first snag I resolved and along came a second one, which presently has yet to be conquered. The words don’t come easy and the plot just doesn’t flow. "Writer’s block" or so it seems.

I wonder how and what my friends, whoever and wherever they are, are doing at this very moment…

19-2000

The soundtrack will never be able to reproduce the effect one experiences from watching the live musical. The acoustics, the visual impact of the production and the theatre setting all contribute in some way to the songs, enriching them for the visual and aural pleasure of the patrons. Grooves on vinyl just will not suffice. It’s akin to the common philosophy that some things in life are better experienced on a personal level that heard from the words of others.

The soundtrack produced serves as a trigger to the memories created.

Glinda:

"You can still be with the wizard
What you’ve worked and waited for
You can have all you ever wanted…"

Elphaba: "I know –"

"But I don’t want it —
No — I can’t want it
Anymore…"

"Something has changed within me
Something is not the same
I’m through with playing by the rules
of someone else’s game…"

- Defying Gravity from the musical Wicked

So, whose rules and expectations do we answer to?

* The title is a reference to the song by Gorillaz.

Superman

My recent trips to the public library saw an exact yield of two borrowed-books, both of which I have dutifully read from cover to cover some three years back. The re-read this time round has provided fresh insights that made not help but wonder whether my life had been impacted in any way through that first contact. Yet it could be that I was already this way and a clearer understanding of themes has fleshed out that aspect of me. I am referring to one book in particular: Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman: Brief Lives.

I feel like Destruction.

You know the parts in books or shows where people remark they can understand what the character portrayed is going through? That was what I meant when I made the previous statement. Such is the extent of the influence of the graphic novel, creative or otherwise, more rampant than I had imagined.

Now, I wonder what other stuff out there do I identify with?

* The title is a reference to the song by Five For Fighting.

We Can

Presently, I have been swimming once a week.

In the past, whenever I decided to head to the public swimming complex near my place, I would make sure to do so at some sunny point of the day. I have consistently kept it this way for my annual or semiannual trip to the pool. The reason was simple: There would be maximum exposure in the sun to get some sort of tan. A bit of Vitamin D intake once in a while for someone like me who sits far too often in front of the laptop.

These days, I prefer the quiet of the late evenings where there’s hardly anyone else and I can swim freely by myself. To try for the sun would mean to go at the before-work timing or mingle with the lunchtime crowd. While both are viable options, it is the hassle of having to rush and change into working attire at the end of the swim that puts me off.

Too often we hear that exercising is good for the health and I wonder just what constitutes doing something beneficial for one’s health. Does climbing up and down hills count? Does walking distances matter? Granted the back is well taken care off, can carrying boxes and boxes of canned food be a form of workout?

Keeping fit and staying healthy. Well, at least there are some efforts that we as individuals can undertake.

* The title is a reference to the song by LeAnn Rimes.

My Side Of The Story

First there was August. My recollections of it are a blur. I spent my days helping out in preparation for an event. Work is work and there is no escaping it, not unless I can be independent of my worldly and familial ties. Then perhaps I can freely pursue some different path without a worry. Yet, the highly likely possibility is "perhaps not".

August did however, end on a high note in spite of the seeming-jadedness and routines. I had a play to look forward to, a story to experience that made me think, ponder and marvel. Theatre in a different light, from the grand production of songs and flair that was Wicked to this intimate setting of familiar stories and life experiences of Recalling Mother. An artist tells a story. What do I think and what is the point to it? What does it mean to appreciate life more?

I ask you a question, albeit slightly paraphrased from its original presentation at Recalling Mother. When you were young, when or how did you come to know the woman in the same house as you was your mother?

September marks my one-year mark in "the working world". Perhaps I should look forward to the F1 race. That is going to happen in town where I work and there is bound to be a cheery atmosphere of delight and engine-revving sounds. In the meantime, it’s meeting up and catching up with friends as usual, I think. Maybe I can do something by myself, like fly to some place on a budget flight for a long weekend and just be.

The world continues and I haven’t the slightest clue to my life…

* The title is a reference to the song by Hodges.

Keep Breathing

It’s almost been a month since I returned from my trip.
It’s almost been a month since I really blogged about anything other than my trip.
It’s almost been a year since I started working.
It’s almost been a year since so many different things happened, pulling me in different directions, flooding my senses and perceptions.

There are days in your life when you wonder why the heck you are who you are, doing whatever it is that you do.
Too many days, too many times.

Some days, you have no solutions.
Some days, the solutions you do have, do not work out.
Some days, you have a solution that no one will approve or endorse.

What do I do when such a time comes?

* The title is a reference to the song by Ingrid Michaelson.

魔幻季节

One trip made to the United States of America.

My return saw my luggage piled with two new black souvenir T-shirts and a white hooded sweatshirt among other things. I am the kind of tourist who likes to buy keepsakes as a form of memory, to remind myself and jog that vast vault of experiences trapped in the confines of the cranial cavity every once in a while. Though I have not gotten down to reading it, the most interesting piece of purchase for this trip has got to be the replica of the set of rules and regulations handbook given to inmates of Alcatraz. This is the kind of physical objects that link me with where I have been and what I have experienced.

I am not sure to whom I should direct my gratitude but nevertheless, I am grateful for a safe and sound trip. An ease of mind with no threats of dangers, I find, does wonders for the experience in travelling. Soak in the atmosphere of a foreign environment without a worry. I do admit I haven’t been out for most of the nights so that might be something I missed there. However, if you are looking to take a trip to America, I will recommend you San Francisco =)

Places visited and territories explored, I must say I loved the feeling. The feeling of being on my own, by myself, travelling with no one else, venturing on my own. That is not to say it is a hassle to travel with friends. The security and companionship are both extremely appealing factors as well. Yet independence compels and sometimes I posit it should not come as a surprise if I take time out of the blue to just fly somewhere on my own. The only problem being to find some place safe enough for me to travel by myself.

Back to the realities of life in a country I call home, I dare say I have gained, infinitesimal as it may be, an appreciation for the foreign and local. Here’s looking forward to the next trip out of the country!

* The title is a reference to the song by 梁咏琪.

换一个角度 去看另一个地球

"Change my perspective and take a view of another world."

First light, last morning, so why spend the precious little amount of time sleeping it away? So I woke up early in the morn to catch some familiar sights in a different light. Unfortunately, my photos did not come out well for that morning.

Golden Gate Bridge and right under it: Fort Point

Getting around in San Francisco is pretty convenient with the buses plying most of the major roads and the Metro speeding paces up here and there. They have a nice map of the tourist attractions along with the bus lines. The one thing that stood out for me while travelling on their public transport was how it reflected a city not quite as densely populated as Singapore. I can almost always get a seat on any bus if it isn’t the peak hour, something that is getting less and less common on our sunny island.

2 similar forms of transportation that plies very different routes. You can think of them as North-South MRT Line versus Bukit Panjang LRT except on a larger scale of area-coverage.

So it came for the time to leave, leave behind a vacation, leave behind all that has entertained my senses and indulged them so for the days past. I wasn’t sad to leave the place and at the same time, I wasn’t feeling particularly glad to be heading home. I guess the transition in geography did not really matter. And for that matter, the transition from holiday to work or cold to humid never weighed on my mind either.

Combatting jet-lag begins on the long flight back though easily foiled if spoiled by the choice of in-flight entertainment. Iron Man was a horrible mess but of course that could just be me who cannot decide when I should suspend my disbelief and when I should acknowledge the gritty real-life bits the film tries so very hard to portray.

Even a life in the air must be brought to a descend at some point. 29/7/2009, Singapore bade me home.

我的注册商标是自由 再也不想做 无聊的那个我

"My trademark is freedom. I don’t wish to be, the same old boring me."

By the time I reached the seventh day of my trip, I pretty much knew what I wanted to visit. The day’s itinerary consisted of a trip to Alcatraz and Coit Tower. Ironically, in spite of the lack of proper planning beforehand, I had already booked the ferry to Alcatraz Island days before I actually departed Singapore.

For me, travelling is not just about getting to see and buy things. It is the entire experience in itself where we allow our senses to be overwhelmed. Photos and pretty compositions are but a tiny way of capturing the emotions and thoughts. There is something rich and flavourful of the cultures of our past, that can be better experienced by being if not that that specific time, then perhaps at that specific location lost in time. What makes them meaningful is that generations after remember them and tell their tales for time to come.

我喜欢孤单冒险 追踪梦的线索

"I like to venture on my own, brave the dangers, go after clues in the dream."

The slopes of San Francisco are something I have never seen in my life. I reckon the vehicles there have the perfect brakes. There are the times I even wonder just how is it vehicles navigate themselves up and down the gradients safely. So one morning, I woke up and made my way to visit Lombard Street where the "crookedest street in the world" is.

Not only does Lombard Street have the gradient, the road challenges the drivers to make their way safely down a series of winding turns. It was certainly a tourist spot for there were many armed with cameras when I was there, including me.

Crooked!

From the "crookedest street in the world" to a short walk through the San Francisco Botanical Garden and some sights surrounding it to yet another landmark area of San Francisco…

Where am I?

(我)好想失踪几秒钟

"(I) feel like disappearing for a few seconds."

Qian Hao rented a car for the day and we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge to visit Skywalker Ranch and Big Rock Ranch! Huge offices located in the open, sprawling land in the countryside, something that can never be found in land-scarce Singapore. Walking along the long and tall hallways of the mansion-like office building was surreal. Getting to see George Lucas in person as he walked by us was equally surreal =)