Monday, March 22, 2004
9 days to NS and counting…
My father got a summons by the URA while parking for five minutes outside the Dunman Road Food Centre in order to buy lunch.
He hadn’t parked illegally, but when he returned, he saw a ticket on his windscreen.
He came home, and irritably complained, adding that the “government is too much”.
Yeah, the government is too much. Everything they do, they go by the book. When people try to give suggestions to the various authorities make their lives more convenient, they politely brush the idea aside and paternalistically reply that it would not be feasible to do so. A little flexibility will kill their pathetically humdrum lives. Forgive me for calling the authorities “humdrum” – they really cannot “let go a bit” and make exceptions. Because once they deviate from the rule book, chaos will ensue. It doesn’t make my day to think of that. It sucks to think that law and order equates black and white. So a person who kills another in self-defence should be given the death sentence right? Because he TOOK A LIFE. Taking a life means that one must die for his deed. Why do we need lawyers? Why do we need a justice system? Everyone who commits a crime can just fuck off and get their just desserts.
What the hell is creative thinking? Why bother implementing them in schools when you produce people who eventually think only about the book? If their superiors call them to jump the cliff I think they will say, “Yes sir” and just do it (pardon the pun).
* * *
THE STRAITS TIMES: LIFE
“ORCHESTRATING RESCUE EFFORTS”
By TAN SHZR EE
…There is also the issue of dropping attendances at SSO concerts – sometimes to half-house levels…
This is partly caused by the wearing off of the honeymoon novelty enjoyed by the orchestra after it moved to the fabulous but unforgiving acoustics of the Esplanade’s year-old Concert Hall last January.
“Generally, the SSO has never been playing better,” he says. “But to do this week after week, at every concert, putting in 101 per cent, is not easy.”
Classical music fans have also been feeding to excess on gourmet fare, with the recent visits by the London Symphony and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras.
While heavyweight programmes like Mahler get the orchestra’s dedication and spirit, regular subscription concerts, depending on the conductors, tend to suffer from sloppy and disengaged playing.
Mr Chng wants to rectify the situation, not through drastic measures, but by gently re-aligning the commitment of his musicians and staff to the institution.
He says: “Perhaps what we need is soul connection; an emotional push. And these things don’t happen overnight.”…
Finally, they have the truth to admit that, yes, the SSO hasn’t been playing very well, like the disastrous Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony last November, and the Brahms Piano First Piano Concerto in the same month. There has got to be others that they played to horrified acclaim.
But really, perhaps the phrase “But to do this week after week, at every concert, putting in 101 per cent, is not easy” does not stand in for an excuse to play poorly. How would this compare to the top orchestras in Europe and America? Or I would rather that SSO play a concert twice a week but put in a good job.
With regards to the choice of programme, I do not really see anything rather exciting… every year there has to be the “Butterfly Lovers’ Violin Concerto”, the Beethoven Piano Concertos and Symphonies… for God’s sake can’t we have something that we’ve never heard before? What about the modernists? Sure I don’t really like atonal music, but I think I would rather pierce my head with such stuff in the concert hall than bore myself programmes that are repeated year after year. Look at the “Butterfly Lovers”… it’s been played EVERY YEAR. This year there’s Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 again, despite the Beethoven Piano Cycle performed by Mikhail Pletnev at last year’s Arts Festival. Please, please, give these works a rest and bring in other fare. You may shock audiences or drive them away, but it makes them a better lot of arts appreciators, because they know what they will like and what they will not like. Undoubtedly the idea for art to live is to have debates over issues like performance and works.
* * *
I was asked to call my mother to determine a location where my father could pick her up. I picked up the phone, and hesitated… I seemed to have forgotten her cell phone number. Out of nowhere it just came back to me… I keyed into the phone and waited for her to pick it up.
For some time there was no response. Suddenly, my own cell phone, sitting at my desk, began to ring. I was in a dilemma as to continue holding the house phone, or to pick up my cell phone. I had earlier placed an SMS to Wee Sheung, who was to paint pictures alongside my music at the ARTivitiy Seminar this coming Sunday, in order to discuss with her my plans for the event, so I thought she had called me. Well, if Mother hadn’t answered the phone, I would call her back later. I put down the receiver and went to pick up the cell phone.
I said, “Hello?” Immediately there was a click and the cell phone died. I muttered irritably, “Who’s that idiot…”
Then I realised the “idiot” was I: I had dialled 9001 2808 on the phone, which is my number, having mixed it up with my mother’s number, of which I used to own before I switched SIM cards with her. ¶ 3/22/2004 11:45:00 am
My father got a summons by the URA while parking for five minutes outside the Dunman Road Food Centre in order to buy lunch.
He hadn’t parked illegally, but when he returned, he saw a ticket on his windscreen.
He came home, and irritably complained, adding that the “government is too much”.
Yeah, the government is too much. Everything they do, they go by the book. When people try to give suggestions to the various authorities make their lives more convenient, they politely brush the idea aside and paternalistically reply that it would not be feasible to do so. A little flexibility will kill their pathetically humdrum lives. Forgive me for calling the authorities “humdrum” – they really cannot “let go a bit” and make exceptions. Because once they deviate from the rule book, chaos will ensue. It doesn’t make my day to think of that. It sucks to think that law and order equates black and white. So a person who kills another in self-defence should be given the death sentence right? Because he TOOK A LIFE. Taking a life means that one must die for his deed. Why do we need lawyers? Why do we need a justice system? Everyone who commits a crime can just fuck off and get their just desserts.
What the hell is creative thinking? Why bother implementing them in schools when you produce people who eventually think only about the book? If their superiors call them to jump the cliff I think they will say, “Yes sir” and just do it (pardon the pun).
* * *
THE STRAITS TIMES: LIFE
“ORCHESTRATING RESCUE EFFORTS”
By TAN SHZR EE
…There is also the issue of dropping attendances at SSO concerts – sometimes to half-house levels…
This is partly caused by the wearing off of the honeymoon novelty enjoyed by the orchestra after it moved to the fabulous but unforgiving acoustics of the Esplanade’s year-old Concert Hall last January.
“Generally, the SSO has never been playing better,” he says. “But to do this week after week, at every concert, putting in 101 per cent, is not easy.”
Classical music fans have also been feeding to excess on gourmet fare, with the recent visits by the London Symphony and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras.
While heavyweight programmes like Mahler get the orchestra’s dedication and spirit, regular subscription concerts, depending on the conductors, tend to suffer from sloppy and disengaged playing.
Mr Chng wants to rectify the situation, not through drastic measures, but by gently re-aligning the commitment of his musicians and staff to the institution.
He says: “Perhaps what we need is soul connection; an emotional push. And these things don’t happen overnight.”…
Finally, they have the truth to admit that, yes, the SSO hasn’t been playing very well, like the disastrous Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony last November, and the Brahms Piano First Piano Concerto in the same month. There has got to be others that they played to horrified acclaim.
But really, perhaps the phrase “But to do this week after week, at every concert, putting in 101 per cent, is not easy” does not stand in for an excuse to play poorly. How would this compare to the top orchestras in Europe and America? Or I would rather that SSO play a concert twice a week but put in a good job.
With regards to the choice of programme, I do not really see anything rather exciting… every year there has to be the “Butterfly Lovers’ Violin Concerto”, the Beethoven Piano Concertos and Symphonies… for God’s sake can’t we have something that we’ve never heard before? What about the modernists? Sure I don’t really like atonal music, but I think I would rather pierce my head with such stuff in the concert hall than bore myself programmes that are repeated year after year. Look at the “Butterfly Lovers”… it’s been played EVERY YEAR. This year there’s Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 again, despite the Beethoven Piano Cycle performed by Mikhail Pletnev at last year’s Arts Festival. Please, please, give these works a rest and bring in other fare. You may shock audiences or drive them away, but it makes them a better lot of arts appreciators, because they know what they will like and what they will not like. Undoubtedly the idea for art to live is to have debates over issues like performance and works.
* * *
I was asked to call my mother to determine a location where my father could pick her up. I picked up the phone, and hesitated… I seemed to have forgotten her cell phone number. Out of nowhere it just came back to me… I keyed into the phone and waited for her to pick it up.
For some time there was no response. Suddenly, my own cell phone, sitting at my desk, began to ring. I was in a dilemma as to continue holding the house phone, or to pick up my cell phone. I had earlier placed an SMS to Wee Sheung, who was to paint pictures alongside my music at the ARTivitiy Seminar this coming Sunday, in order to discuss with her my plans for the event, so I thought she had called me. Well, if Mother hadn’t answered the phone, I would call her back later. I put down the receiver and went to pick up the cell phone.
I said, “Hello?” Immediately there was a click and the cell phone died. I muttered irritably, “Who’s that idiot…”
Then I realised the “idiot” was I: I had dialled 9001 2808 on the phone, which is my number, having mixed it up with my mother’s number, of which I used to own before I switched SIM cards with her. ¶ 3/22/2004 11:45:00 am
