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He chuckles when the perennial subject of the current state of Broadway comes up.
"Musicals have gotten so expensive to produce that young composers find it hard to get their works produced. I hope producers will take a chance on them," he says of why people lament the lack of originality in Broadway shows.
He also predicts that small, quirky shows will soon dominate the Great White Way. He cites Avenue Q, a puppet show with grown-up themes, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, a look at the world of high school spelling competitions, as examples of this trend.
He then sounds the death knell for pop songbook musicals: shows like Mamma Mia! which drew on Abba's hits; The Beach Boys musical, Good Vibrations; and the upcoming Lennon, based on John Lennon's catalogue.
As he puts it: "No matter whose music it is, it's sort of the same gimmick. I think we've had enough."
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The New Paper, Thursday, 14 July 2005, Talk
I HAVE CUT OFF MY DONATIONS
I have cancelled my monthly contribution to NKF and to Mr T.T. Durai's pay cheque.
I am a poor graphic designer earning peanuts; just $2,000 monthly, compared to his $25,000 monthly pay, excluding the 12-month bonus.
I will also stop calling the donation hotlines during NKF's charity shows. It is now clear that the more I pledge, the fatter will be Mr Durai's bonus.
Mr Durai and the NKF will last for another 30 years with its current reserves. It does not need my paltry donation.
My uncle desperately tried to get a subsidy from NKF for years and never succeeded.
My uncle has since died.
---Seneca Tey
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Another letter from someone equally pissed . . .
GOVERNMENT SHOULD LOOK INTO NKF OPERATIONS
If the NKF is a non-profit organisation, why the humongous salary of the CEO? It seems that much of the money is used for lavish benefits to NKF's senior officers.
Did Mr Durai withdraw his suit because he fears more would be revealed?
He seems to have an attitude that it is not important to inform his donors of material facts or be accurate about them.
This relates to the NKF data about the number of patients treated and the years of reserves it has.
I think this stinks because the NKF, which knows that the public has a generous heart, should treat donors with more respect.
It is time for the Government to take a closer look at NKF's operations.
---Chong Gim Huat
Where would you like to go, Beluga caviar du jour...? It's tres inflight, haute couture... haha thinking back of "Fly Stylissimo"...
Posted by Picasa ¶ 7/09/2005 12:52:00 am 0 comments
Woo-hoo! My laptop battery is dead. Now it can't even charge, and the amount of power it has remains at 0%.
Posted by Picasa ¶ 7/08/2005 11:20:00 pm 0 comments
I think I've been down with throat inflammation (and slight flu) since Tuesday, uncurable since today. A few times I've gotten the feverish feeling.
Gambatei! (is this the correct word usage and spelling?!) ¶ 7/07/2005 09:50:00 pm 0 comments
BEEKIATISM (adjective): used to describe things that do not make any sense.
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It's the second week since we first went to SAFTI for some dry runs for the SAF Day Parade. Some of us were ferried to the venue in officers' cars at the desperate last minute to role-play for the planning officers to see.
This morning, he calls us to assemble before him. PC is standing behind. He turns to PC and asks, "Sir, are they involved in SAF Day?"
PC nods.
Then he turns to us, "Do you know you all are involved in SAF Day?"
That after having gone to SAFTI on the past two occasions.
* * *
7am in the morning, and we are lazing around on our beds after breakfast. Nobody feels like doing any area-cleaning. Like, less than half of the platoon is present: would anybody feel like doing any work?
He comes up and catches us lying on the beds. He snaps angrily: "How come you are not doing your area-cleaning?"
To Zhiwei, whom he first catches lying on the bed (Zhiwei's bed is facing the door): "How do you feel if you see your son lying on the bed doing nothing?"
Nobody figures how his son (he has a 1-year-old son) can come into the picture. We must pity his kid: he'd probably drive his household like a military camp, so we must get a Maria-type of character to bring music back into the house . . . what the hell, I'm talking cock.
Wait . . . don't arrow me to do the job. His son will probably live on techno music, go look for somebody else . . .
(By the way, a little trivial: I should dedicate the arrangement of "Boom!" from Boom Baby Boom to him, because it was him who inspired me to do a techno-dance kind of arrangement. Every morning, the pulsating beat from the booster speakers on his car will serve as a warning to us that he is approaching, and that we must all get out of bed and start area-cleaning.)
* * *
Present participle of "drink": DRINKEN
Usage: "Have you drinken your water?"
* * *
"Platoon, I don't want to waste your time . . ." and he starts launching into a conversation on his adventures in Brunei before ending with "Platoon, I don't want to waste your time . . ."
Note: it's night's-out day; we're about to book-out when he comes charging into the room to give hi utterly useless speech talking about the same thing we've heard a thousand and one times before.
