Sinfonia da Vita, Op. 1
Sunday, May 29, 2005
 

Five-Foot Broadway poster, from our official website: http://www.musicals.org.sg
Posted by Hello
 
Sunday, May 22, 2005
 
The first invitation to work on Chung Kuo…

Hi August,

I’ve been approached by Frankie Yeo, who did my puppet show The Magic Paintbrush.

He wants to do a musical puppet show with ballet for next year. I immediately said yes, but realize that it would be quite a mammoth task.

If you’re interested in collaboration with me on this, please let me know and I will tell you more about it,

Ken
 
 

Malcolm conducting. Photo taken by Wai Hong.
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Malcolm and the sopranos. From left, Agnetta, Daphne, May and Christina. Photo taken by Wai Hong.
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Rehearsing... of all places... in the basement of Eton House. Here, Malcolm is seen in the same picture as the altos. From left to right: Stacey, Judy and Su-May. Photo taken by Wai Hong.
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The choir. Daphne ran into a nasty accident on her way back from Malaysia... thank goodness she got away with stitches on her foot... she still came for the performance despite the difficulty in walking. Respect :)
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Singing on Vesak Day at Buddhist Fellowship, Eton House.
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Me at the keyboards. Behind me is Brian the drummer. To my right, on electric bass, is Malcolm. Holding the mike and leading the solo in "Imagine" is Alvin.
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Tuesday, May 17, 2005
 
I've got a bit of claustrophobia with gas masks. I wonder how those fellows acting as Batman can ever tolerate such costumes . . .

Everybody serving time has to go though this chemical shit. You're supposed to suit up, then walk into a room filled with some smelly and irritating gas, do funny stunts in it, then take off mask while they torture you by asking you to recite your name and identification number before they let you out gasping for air, eyes wetting uncontrollably with tears and face scarred by creepy-crawlies.

No wonder they say "We make grown men cry."

Wearing the suit is bad enough. It's damn bloody hot, made of extremely thick material that makes you sweat even if you are wearing singlet and shorts inside. The protective boots are not easy to put on or take off: the rubber will jam with your ordinary boots.

And the mask: the worst. The rubber stinks. Breathing is constrained, and I hate it every time somebody puts his hand over the covering of my canister and prevents air from going into the mask. Sure, fun, but horrifying with the thought being to breathe any air momentarily.

* * *

I put a plaster on my face to protect the wound which is still in the process of recovering. If I take off the mask and the smoke makes contact with the wound, woo-hoo! High man!

Thank goodness I am told that I am excused from taking off the mask.

We line up and go into the room. It is hazy with smoke, reminiscent of the columbarium at the temple I always go to, albeit worse because this time the smoke is all confined. Somehow I keep wishing I would have the power to turn on the ventilating system . . . I hold my breath to prevent breathing in the smoke, which I always do at the columbarium – suddenly I remember that I am behind a gas mask. For once I'm grateful for this piece of equipment.

One of the sergeants adds a few more pellets onto the burner in the centre of the room. More smoke fills the room.

Suddenly I feel a stinging sensation in my throat. I have a bit of difficulty breathing. Shit. The smoke has entered my mask! (Apparently this mask is pretty old, used by generations for the same kind of shit, so it tends to leak . . . as I find out from others later.)

We are made to do jumping jacks. I hold my breath: when doing such exercises I will definitely breathe in heavier than usual, and I do not wish to suck in all the smoke. I feel I'd die there.

I am shown out of the room – I am excused from taking off the mask. I have a piece of white tape tied to my epaulette that tells them so.

Honestly the effect on the guys is not as bad as we hear from the others: they would grab the fence like drug addicts during the early stages of rehabilitation and scream and cry like maniacs. It doesn't happen.

And boy, am I glad to get rid of the suit and mask . . . yay, I don't have to wear it again! J
 
Sunday, May 15, 2005
 

A very blurred picture of the band. From left: Malcolm on the electric bass, Leo on the saxophone and me on the keyboards.
Posted by Hello
 
 

"Imagine all the people..."
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Soracco Musical Group at Ngee Ann City. Here, Alvin is singing the solo part of "Imagine" by John Lennon.
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Rahula College Choir with Agnetta leading (between the choir and keyboard).
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Rahula Kids choir. The younger ones are more enthusiastic than the older ones... "Uncle August" is sitting at the right playing the Korg PA50 (PA=Professional Arranger) which Malcolm has nicely borrowed from the bar he jams at.
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The choir at Ngee Ann City, led by Choral Director Ai Ling.
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Monday, May 09, 2005
 
Apologies... I am trying to find time to write my entries... have experienced some pretty interesting events in the past weeks. I am very busy arranging the two musicals for the Five-Foot Broadway project, to the extent that I have to bring my work into camp... and apologies to all my friends for taking ages to reply mail and SMSes and having to turn down offers of meetings/outings. Okay, for events on weekdays I have no choice but to turn down because, what the fuck... I'm entrapped in camp for goodness... sucks...
 
DISCLAIMER: I blog on MS Word - and I frequently backlog because I don't have the time to write everything on the same day, so please ignore the TIME of post.

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Joker who spends his free time milling around NUS pretending to be a student...

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My Musical Works
sibelius_2's La Scrivere, Op. 2
sibelius_2's More Than Words, Op. 3
Gerald/Proko's Blog
Emz/Dvorak's Blog
Composer Emily Koh's Music Website