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WEN-BIN
composer, cellist,
arranger, string coach,
professional night owl,
rock bassist, professor,
walking encyclopedia,
master of parody.

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Thursday, December 18, 2008

Sebastian showed me this a while ago. The guy watches the stupidest things on YouTube, I swear. However, this impressed me sufficiently for me to put it up:





Probably the most convincing drag queen I've ever seen. Also made me realize one important thing that all drag queens should learn from this guy: keep your clothes on, because the less you wear, the less convincing you become. Lip-synced? No idea. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt, because it takes razor-sharp dedication to be the impersonator he is:

'I impersonate pop princess Britney Spears.'

Straight and to the point.

......

Now, I, on the other hand, have been spending my time on far more intelligent pursuits. Ahem. Having recently finished watching the whole of Apollo Justice (Vera's cute and Trucy is just downright yummy - the ultimate lolicon, really), I discovered Super Mario World custom levels:




Amazing, huh? Definitely a lot of time and effort put into the creation of this 11-minute masterpiece. It was a bit draggy in places though. If you liked that, you'll like this, too:




This, by the way, is a cute song which is popular on Nico Nico Douga, a Japanese site. I haven't been there because I can't read Japanese, but it seems to be a bit like a Japanese YouTube of sorts.

The Prof :: 12:01 PM

Monday, December 15, 2008

I've been feeling ridiculously tired these days. Have I been doing too much? Maybe.

I returned from J.B. on Saturday morning. Causeway jammed up at 10 plus in the morning, despite Mimosa's assertion that she goes to Singapore on Saturday mornings and finds the traffic fine. Was one heck of a ride, especially because I had to walk long distances and squeeze onto buses and trains, all the while carrying my cello and luggage bag. It felt like route march all over again, only worse because the weight wasn't quite so evenly distributed.

Upon reaching Singapore, I didn't go home - instead, I went to the Delfi branch of the music school, where I taught four sessions of Holistic Music Learning. Which really means I taught for six hours, back to back.

It was almost 7 when I had finished, and that was when I discovered that I had only $5 in my wallet and that I had left my ATM card at home, which meant lugging my cello and luggage home by train and bus instead of cab. Also, an attempt at a meal for $5 and under, which is no easy feat given the skyrocketing food prices these days. I knew there was no chance of pulling this off at Orchard (damn place has nothing resembling cheap, tasty food), so I walked around the neighbourhood before I finally stopped at Bukit Timah Market...

...and couldn't find a seat.

Now I really felt like howling in frustration at this point, because I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast - hotel buffet, but I didn't stuff my face because I was afraid of gastrointestinal trouble. Stomachache on bus = not fun. Well, eventually, I shared a table with a nice elderly couple. Tom Yum soup with two servings of rice for $4.60. Bukit Timah Market has the best tom yum soup I've ever tasted, by the way. The rice was a bit lumpy though.

I watched Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney on YouTube at night, which probably means I went to sleep late. In any case, I almost couldn't wake up yesterday morning because of the cool, comfortable weather. As it turns out, my student was late because she couldn't get up as well.

As I stopped by Beauty World for lunch, I realized that I had not brought my ATM card, which was still in my desk drawer. And I had no money left. Literally not a cent. I said the F-word out loud. A nice old ang-moh guy, who happened to be sitting nearby, came up to me and said, 'You're upset, aren't you?' That was interesting. I reached the Novena branch early, whereupon Mdm Ang lent me money for lunch.

I reached home very tired. Slept in today since I had nothing in the morning... finally! Today's programme was just the composition seminar by Dr Goh, but still I felt, and am feeling, ridiculously tired.

What's wrong with me? My take is that it's a combination of overwork plus lack of food. The past two days, I haven't been eating well, not at all. The same holds true for Holistic Learning days. The back-to-back lessons just leave me with no time to grab a bite. And I've been working my ass off for the Malaysia performing trip. Speaking of the Malaysia trip, it went well: we played 4 arrangements by me, two of which were Christmas pieces. YK gave an excellently entertaining performance of the famous Czardas by Vittorio Monti, arranged for violin solo and strings by yours truly. The audience loved him. The performers loved my arrangement.

Pause. Getting myself a bowl of Kellogg's All-Bran, my second bowl today... Looks like little twigs, and tastes a bit like little twigs too. So why am I eating it? Because it provides a whopping 12 grams of fibre per serving, compared to 4 grams for most cereals. Some of the 'healthy' cereals out there don't even have 4 grams of fibre. (Your recommended daily intake of fibre is between 30-45 grams.) Getting your RDA of fibre is a perpetual problem for everyone, especially if you eat out all the time, so I sniff out fibre-rich cereals when making a purchase. Yum yum. Little twigs.

Feh. Internet's still acting up, so I'm sleeping. Recording session tomorrow, followed by cello lesson. Though I have been practising diligently all this while, I haven't been practising for the last few days. We'll see how it goes.

The Prof :: 9:56 AM

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Yes, first update in about... erm... omg 5 months. I need to be more dedicated.

Holidays haven't quite started, at least for me that is... Exams ended on 18 Nov, after which was rightfully holidays, except that there was Beethoven 9th on the 25th, and then we were in for about one and a half weeks of intensive rehearsal, culminating in the Opera Scenes concert on 2 Dec.

Feel so overworked. At least I got to be principal cellist for that concert. VH said I did a good job too. Which makes me feel happy because it shows he hasn't completely excluded me.

Talking about the principal cellist position. 이민진 was down with a wrist injury and couldn't play, so I stepped up in her place. VH forced her to play, despite her injury. I told her not to come for rehearsals but she still played. Silly, naive little girl =/ VH still let me lead, though. Yay.

With scarcely any rest from Opera Scenes, I'm already staring down my next performance - with FUSED for the weekend in Johor Bahru. Exciting. As the composer/arranger in tow, I'm doing a lot of work for this concert, namely arranging Vittorio Monti's famous 'Czardas' for strings and producing parts by cutting full scores to shreds. Which I'm going to continue doing after I finish this post.

Hopefully I'll be able to get some rest after this. So far, my schedule looks a bit like this:

- Recording session (Christine's Prologue to a Ballet) on Thursday
- FUSED concert on Friday
- Recording session (Dr Goh's church) next Tuesday
- Something on the 19th. I forget what it is. Oh yes, caroling with my alma mater, Dunman High.

So it looks like I'll be pretty frazzled when I head back to school in January, to tackle:

- Concerto competition, February
- DipABRSM, July

Sometimes I feel that I'm incapable of saying no. However, I have already expressed lack of interest in

1) playing with re:mix, because it's unpaid, is heavy on pop and I want my holidays, you know.
2) playing with Philharmonic Youth Winds, because it's unpaid and I don't buy the concept of cellos in symphonic bands. And I want my holidays, you know.

Sounds like I'm being a moneyface here. Well, money's not the reason I expressed lack of interest. It's just that it's the icing on the cake for me to put aside my lack of interest and, well, play. You know what I mean.

Am I working too hard? Well, I believe that you should have high standards in whatever you do and if you want to taste the fruits of success, you have to work hard. Plus, with no girl to prevent me from working myself to death, why should I bother?

Yes, you heard me. Loved and lost. Long story behind it. Suffice to say that I'm not quite over her, and I'm worried about the competition because I'm not finding another accompanist.

[/end rant.]

Off to complete the third movement of the Vivaldi origami now. Viola section: I'm terribly sorry about the lopsided staves and all. That being said: (this applies especially to J.) if anyone has anything bad to say about my scores, you will be the next score whore. When I apologize, I am doing it as a formality. I will accept no criticism for my scores. I did the best I could, and no one in the ensemble can do better than me. You cannot ask for more.

Ich brauch mehr Kaffee.

The Prof :: 12:10 PM

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