silver strings

Saturday, July 25, 2009

it's over!

After what feels like hundreds of hours in the making, Butterfly Dreams debuted today with two shows, at 3pm and 8pm respectively.

However, with all that post-concert high, there's really no rest for the weary...

Yesterday's rehearsal started at 2. I didn't show up because of class. I eventually turned up at 7, only to learn that the musicians who turned up at 2 spent the whole afternoon doing nothing. Typical efficiency at work again... The full run eventually started at 9, and ended at 12. I kid you not.

After the rehearsal, I almost quarrelled with Mr Wu because I told him I could only turn up today afternoon (it started in the morning) because of teaching. The truth was that I had a new student whom I was seeing for the first time, and it wasn't nice to cancel. He said that I should try to find a solution to the problem. The difference is that he's the boss and I'm the employee, so I've more difficulties when it comes to cancelling. He also said something about 'it's not about the money, it's about the heart' which made me very angry. How dare he talk about 'heart' after the way we musicians have been treated, and he, as our representative, not standing up for us but instead siding with the dance people? At least, it's how he's being seen at that point.

Today, the new student pulled a no-show on me, so you can imagine how freaking angry I was. I'd penalize her by counting it as a lesson, but unfortunately she hasn't paid up. Boo. So I rushed down after teaching Dominic, and arrived at 2 o'clock on the dot, which was the supposed standby time for the afternoon performance. Whereupon I learned the morning run through ended at 1.50. Nice one. Sis also doubted the wisdom of having a full run just before two performances...

I went onstage with an empty stomach because of a lack of appetite, and the performance had scarcely started when I felt incredibly hungry. During the intermission, I quickly wolfed down the lunch that sis had saved for me, but didn't have time to finish before we were mustered onstage again for the second half. All in all, the afternoon had its fair share of hiccups, and we were all wiser for the evening.

Dinner was quite a fun event with everyone teasing Simeon for his 'fantastic' Chinese. (The guy is only capable of speaking in first and third inflections.) I ate little though. Damned appetite problems. Prior to the evening performance, I also wiped my strings and made careful preparations to sound my best.

The evening performance was definitely sleepier than the afternoon. In fact the dancers seemed to forget their lines more. Can't blame them. They've been overworked to heck this whole week. I dozed off several times when waiting for our turn to play - though given a choice between 'tired' and 'bored', I'd definitely pick the former. The music sounded better, though, and my solo during 'Hua Die' was stunning. Credit the alcohol swabs. =D

Socialized a bit and took a few photos with friends (the China guys in DES are a great bunch), then it was off to take a bus home. Had a great supper at Al-Ameen: sis had tissue prata and I had their famous chicken briyani.

I'm tired.

Tomorrow I've a trial class at 1pm. The little boy pulled a no-show on me last Sunday (why are people always disappearing on me? D:) and his class was rescheduled to this week. Same thing as today: he hadn't paid. Made me leave church waaaaay early for nothing. If he doesn't come again tomorrow, I'm freaking going to refuse him the trial altogether. Grar.

The Prof :: 10:59 AM

Monday, July 20, 2009

first day.

I realized that the Bach cello suites do, indeed, deserve their reputation as cornerstones of the solo repertory. I'd previously been no great lover of them, but my impression was based mostly off the overplayed first suite in G major. Today, however, I read through the second suite in D minor, and am actually quite surprisingly in love with it. I also attempted sawing through the fourth suite, in the rather troublesome key of Eb major, but didn't complete it - it rambles too much, especially the Courante, which in my opinion is ~~a stupid piece of garbage~~ not very interesting in the first place. I do love the Gigue from the fourth suite, though, and the Prelude too, though it kind of plays like an etude.

The first day of school was supposed to be uneventful, but still managed to end on a sour note. Right off the bat was a briefing by RA, with some important announcements, firstly that Nancy Yuen ~~has created a subdepartment for screamers and growlers~~ is the new Year 2 Level Head, instrument lockers will soon be available for us to ~~throw~~ deposit our instruments, and Momo ~~has been promoted to Deputy Head of Music~~ will be staying on until ~~Jesus returns~~ September, whereupon RA has another ~~boyfriend~~ music assistant lined up to take his place.

Orchestra audition was the next activity for the day. My slot was at 2.50pm, and I was still suffering from the aftershock of my travesty of an audition exactly seven days ago. I decided to play it safe and go with the first movement of the Shostakovich sonata, seeing as the Courante from the Bach second suite wasn't shaping up well after about an hour of dedicated sawing. So much for trying to learn a piece at such short notice.

The audition, however, was another disaster, even though I did take the necessary precautions, such as catching forty winks just before heading off for it. The panel consisted of RA, EW and VH, and each participant lasted only minutes inside the Gamelan Room before the next one was called. I had played scarcely five bars before my fingers slipped off the fingerboard suddenly, and VH stopped me. Certainly demoralizing. I know they only listen to very little of each student, but I cannot help but feel that I made a worse impression than I could, or should, have.

Am I really THAT bad?

Practised for about an hour and a half before meeting princess and heading first to National Library where she borrowed some books, before escorting her home, where her mum stayed me for a chat and a snack. Reached home a demoralized man.

The Prof :: 11:01 AM

Saturday, July 18, 2009

butterfried love.

Feel so weak. I'm actually wobbling slightly right now. Scary.

Today things are starting to go according to plan, but the whole plot is different again. What the heck? And we are supposed to go onstage in a week's time?

I think the ensemble people are really starting to get pissed because our time is really being played with. The original agreement was 4 rehearsals with DES, plus another 2 rehearsals by ourselves before we rehearsed with them. Since then, the number of rehearsals before meeting DES has grown to three, and the DES rehearsal schedule looks something like this. We have to bring our own stands some more.

4 July (Sat) 7pm-10pm (started at 6.30, ended at 11)

11 July (Sat) 7pm-10pm (started at 6.30, ended at 12 - yes, 12 midnight)

12 July (Sun) 7pm-10pm (shortened, but I couldn't make it)

18 July (Sat) 7pm-10pm (pushed forward to 4pm. Yes, that's 4pm-10pm. And it ended at 11.30)

19 July (Sun) 7pm-10pm

23 July (Thu) 7pm-10pm

24 July (Fri) 7pm-10pm (changed to full day from morning; I will not be able to make it)

25 July (Sat) Concert day, 10am-10pm

It's not that I'm a money-face or anything, it's just that from the past rehearsals, it's clear that they are wasting time, and our time at that. I strongly feel that they shouldn't be tweaking small details during general rehearsals.

I know the dancers really put in a lot for this show though. They're a great bunch, and I sometimes do feel quite sorry for them. Getting shouted at and all. The planning though, really ought to be shored up.

One more week. Cue huge sigh of relief when this is over.

The Prof :: 10:00 AM

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

review.

Spent an enjoyable evening out with princess today, and managed to stay under budget because she didn't order ~~a cocktail~~ much.

Anyway, here's a long overdue review of the recent SNYO concert. I shall make this short, but in a nutshell there was nothing good about the concert. SNYO's standard has plummeted beyond my worst nightmares, and if this keeps up much longer they will need to change their name to Singapore National Amateur Orchestra.

We missed the Phoon Yiew Tien piece, but the Wieniawski concerto suffered from balance problems... yet again. SNYO needs to learn to stop putting out its entire orchestra for concertos. Davin could scarcely be heard above the immense orchestral sound, and that probably led him to saw rather harder than he needed.

The second half saw the orchestra making a lot of noise while tuning, and thus being unable to hear for themselves that the oboes were sharp, the double basses very sharp, the clarinets a bit flat and the horns a bit off from each other. The first movement of the Brahms started off with a severe want of momentum, exacerbated by the fact that the strings couldn't seem to find a common cadence. The opening of the second movement was the most interesting I'd ever heard. The piece overall suffered from messiness, which is an unforgivable curse for Brahms's symphonic works. The orchestra only regained its footing in the second half of the last movement.

Further evidence against the orchestra was revealed during the curtain call. Mr Lim had scarcely walked off the stage when the players started turning pages (a giveaway that an encore had been prepared). The encore, however, was easily the worst piece in the evening. Brahms's Hungarian Dance no. 1 is a work I am intimately familiar with, and the orchestra's stunning performance of it undoubtedly undid whatever merit they had achieved prior to that. The different sections pulled apart once, and the whole piece looked to be in danger of collapsing. Fortunately they got back together, only for the timpanist to fumble the sudden tempo change. And what's with the piano?

The Prof :: 11:27 AM

Saturday, July 11, 2009

exhausted.

My appetite has been anything but good these few days, and today it has been downright bad. In fact, the amount of food I took in today is woefully insufficient for the amount of work I put in.

I was awoken by my sis today - 'Wake up, it's 10.30!' Huh?! My lesson is at 11!!! I grabbed breakfast along the way - a single Delifrance chocolate muffin plus a can of Boss from Cheers.

Lesson with Dominic was pretty interesting. In fact he played very little, but seemed to be enthralled by the information about the cello that I shared. It seemed almost like a history lesson today.

After lesson I went home to grab scores and music stands for tonight's rehearsal, and scarcely had time to eat. I stopped at Yio Chu Kang MRT station to use the toilet, and thus missed the bus, so I seized the opportunity to grab lunch from Cheers again - a single Golden Triangle and another can of Boss. (Boss is on offer at $1.)

I arrived at church with a stomach seizure. Princess said I looked pale. She made me go and eat. Couldn't find anything appetizing enough, so I settled for mutton soup with bread (the mutton soup at church kopitiam is good by the way), and felt better after that.

Cell group was fun today with me and Bernard firing our light bulbs away. Today, the cell people learned one thing about me - I have a great interest in apologetics. I talked at length about 'absence of evidence is not evidence of absence' - in plainspeak, it means that just because you can't see or feel God does not mean He does not exist. Elim said she was proud of me. =D

Yes, it takes even more faith to deny Christ than to accept Him. Muahahaha.

Teaching again in the evening. Wei Li cancelled, so I turned up just for Noah. Little boy pissed me off something awful. Was totally inattentive and disobedient. Grr.

After teaching, was straight back to school to pick up cello for rehearsal at DES. Nary any time for dinner. I wanted either a Subway or a kebab, but didn't have enough cash with me, and did not want to queue up to withdraw, so dinner was a measly little McDonald's double cheeseburger. And whoever grilled the beef patties better go read James 1:5... What's with all that extra salt and pepper on the beef? Ugh!

Arrived at DES somewhat early, when I really started to rue the fact that I didn't sit down for a proper dinner. And then the nightmare started to unfold... Rehearsal started at 7.30. It ended at around midnight. Yes, you read that right. I think the players are really starting to regret taking the gig, because for some reason 4 rehearsals magically increased to 10, and our time is really being spared no expense, as evidenced by today. T'was even worse than last week (when we ended at about 11). Simeon said, 'I might as well go work at McDonald's'. As long as you don't spam salt on the beef patties.

It was about 12.15am when I tottered out of the studio, barely able to walk. I was carrying my cello, sis's viola, and two music stands. I promptly hopped on a cab. The upshot is that cab allowance was given, but Mr Wu gave us our share out of his own pocket first, though he promised that there will be allowance given. On the way home, the cab driver chattered nonstop, making me unable to snooze. What's with people getting excited about musical instruments?

Stopped for supper near home... a small plate of fried nian gao. Still hungry now. The lady who served me also was very interested about my cello. But the stupid bitch lifted my cello without asking my permission... I'd have shouted at her if not for the fact that 1) I was tired and 2) she did give me very good service.

Tired. Can't wait to sleep.

I miss you too, my princess.

The Prof :: 11:00 AM

Thursday, July 9, 2009

bell peppers.

I love Elim...

...'s blog.

If you haven't read it, click here!

Anyway. I don't like bell peppers, but I have to concede that they're actually quite tasty when severely overcooked. And yes, different colour peppers really do taste different. My favourite are yellow, followed by red. I don't like the green ones at all. They have this really fresh (in a bad way) taste.

These two days have been marked by amazing progress for the finest cello-piano duo in NAFA. Yesterday, my brain nearly exploded when I read through the Elgar concerto and the Saint-Saens first concerto from start to end. Both rather irritating pieces, I have to say.

Today we plowed through the whole of the Saint-Saens concerto (princess sight-reading the piano part), and it was actually surprisingly better than it might have been. She liked the piece too. Maybe I'll do this piece next year?

The most amazing thing that happened to me today, though, was that I took a short nap (about 25 minutes) during individual practice, and when I got up to continue practising, my sound became so powerful it was unreal. Princess said she could hear my every note - and she was two studios away. I think it was because when I just woke up, my body was almost completely relaxed - something which is almost impossible to consciously control. Maybe I can incorporate meditation into my practice routine?

At night, we shared a mango ice from Ice Monster (tastes great, but ridiculously expensive). T'was my idea. A bit of fruit does the princess some good. When we reached her house, her mum brought me in and gave me a bit of green bean soup. Yum! A nice little reward for escorting our dear little one to her doorstep.

Who can take care of you, outside your home, better than I do?

And when I reached home, I found a sweet little email that princess had left inside my inbox, which brightened my day to no end.

I love you too.

I thank God for this wonderful day! =D

The Prof :: 11:37 AM

Monday, July 6, 2009

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen

Spoiler Level: Heavy

I went to watch the movie with princess, Elim, Yeekei and Val in the afternoon. Mixed reactions, really, and I know that reviews of the movie will definitely, as they say, 'swing both ways' (note: usage of term is incorrect) because it is a very polarizing movie - very strong in some aspects, and terrible in others. This blog post is spoiler-heavy so if you haven't watched it yet, skip this post. Otherwise (or if you love spoilers like Elim) read on.

First off, some honours:

FAVOURITE HUMAN Michaela (Megan Fox) - Not that I find her particular eye candy (my princess will see to that), but she's my favourite character because of her tenacity and fearlessness to take on the Decepticons - and win.

FAVOURITE AUTOBOT Bumblebee - Nary any more needs be said about this loyal autobot who pipes interesting music from his sound system. He also has the most well-developed character of all the Autobots.

runner-up Optimus - His bravery and fighting skill is unrivaled, but he gains a bit of cheese in his role as Autobot leader and protector of the Earth.

FAVOURITE DECEPTICON Pipsqueak (what's this guy's real name again?) - Annoying, but has a character, which is rare for a Decepticon. Becomes kinda cute near the end. (Leg-humping excluded.)

runner-up Jetfire - The old guy has the most interesting character amongst all the Transformers - it's a pity he has too little screen time, far too little. Oh well. The SR-71 Blackbird didn't have weapons, after all.

TEAR-JERK MOMENT Optimus's death. A true warrior's fall. Though we could smell his resurrection a mile off...

CRINGE MOMENT Sam's death. Or rather, his meeting with the Primes and his subsequent resurrection. That was deus ex machina to the max. Plus it wasn't even needed for the plot.

WRONG MOMENT 1 The starting scene in Shanghai. It's 10pm. Why is it bright?

WRONG MOMENT 2 When foxy Decepticon-girl (what's her name again?) got into Sam's car (Bumblebee, of course). How come she didn't know she was riding in an Autobot? It is an open verdict whether Bumblebee knew he was carrying a Decepticon, but he most likely ejected her because he had other matters to attend to.

REVIEW PROPER

Well, as I've said, this is a very polarizing movie because of its glaring strengths and weaknesses at the same time, so depending on which you prefer, you will find yourself taking a stance regarding this movie. Already Elim and princess have opposing views on the movie, whereas I am taking the middle road, for one rather interesting reason which most of you will not have known...

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED!
Random fact about Antonio - I am a toxophile (someone who loves guns).

Back to the review. The graphics are definitely the draw on this movie (awesome Transformerxorzzzz!!!), with huge, detailed sets (and a huge, detailed budget to boot). So too, the battles. In fact, if you take the battles away, you will be left with almost nothing.

The plot, however, will have been blasted to pieces by reviewers before me already for being weak and riddled with cliches. The character development is a bit lacking, with only a handful of characters (and almost no Decepticons, not even Megatron) having in-depth characterization. And seriously, for a bunch of guys who have no characterization, the Decepticons really stole the show, as princess mentioned. Hmm.

One other problem which presented itself was the pacing of the movie. As previously mentioned, the vast majority of the movie time was taken up with battling. In fact, it would not be too far off to say that the entire movie (all 155 minutes of it) was a gargantuan battle from start to finish. The battles, however, slowed the movie to a crawl sometimes, and definitely made it tedious to sit through, especially with the high-volume (I mean in both sound and number) guns and bombs. The desert battle, in particular, was far too long - Sam really took a heck of an eternity to get to Optimus, not to mention he died along the way (deus ex machina), whereas the final battle with The Fallen was woefully short. Definitely owes the audience a sense of fulfilment.

The soundtrack was superb, though at times overshadowed by the 'natural soundtrack' of weaponry. Full of heavy metal influences, which is perfect for a movie like Transformers. I would consider getting this one, if they release it on CD.

CONCLUSION

Definitely not the perfect movie, but reviewers are likely to fawn over it because 'OMG ITS TRANSFORMERZZZ' or something. I try to remain objective and look at its various aspect for a rather balanced review.

RATING 6.5/10

The Prof :: 9:36 AM