The coffee cup...

Reza Salleh’s Realize–Selected tracks commentary

2011-07-05T21:11:00.003+08:00

A while ago, I had the chance of seeing Reza Salleh at the DFP. It was my first encounter with him. I even didn’t heard any of his song before the concert. After an hour and half, and though the sound in the hall was terrible (I couldn’t understand any lyrics sung!), I was getting really interested by his music and voice. Later that same week, I bought the album and found some really interesting tracks.

01 – Kasih
A really nice song to start the album. Though my bahasa is not perfect, I still enjoy that song. It’s a gentle ballad with a very strong melody.

02 – Stracciatella
Perhaps because the first song of the album is so strong, that this one sounds very very weak. It doesn’t showcase the full capacity of Salleh’s voice, it sounds more like a David Archuletta song (very strong influence here) and the song never really take off. This piece start the series of weak lyrics that Reza is writing, very common theme on this album, love, the words are not flying high : “better man” “I need you” “I want you”… blablabla…

03 – Soultune
Alright, don’t get deceive by the bad start of the song, you have to wait 30 seconds until the glory of the music starts ! This is the jewel of the album. You will never hear the performer's voice at his best on any other tracks on this album. The pace of the song is amazing, the guitar screams at the right tempo. A real wonderful song. High standard.

06 – A Relic is What I Live In
After two weaker songs, track 6 is close to track 3 in its perfection. An high degree of composition, with lyrics of a better quality. Great electric guitar.

Reza Salleh – Realize
Moonshine Records
Download via torrent

Kampung Boy Sebua Apa ?

2011-04-04T12:41:00.003+08:00

It’s very interesting to see how, in time of disette, some people need to get their claws onto unshakable institutions. In Malaysia, this institution is Lat, and his Kampung Boy. When POS Malaysia has its sales dropping because of the advent of the e-mail, it would launch a Kampung Boy stamp; when NSTP doesn’t know what event to create, they will publish a special edition of Lat’s work. It goes the same for Harith Iskandar and Hans Isaac, with nothing enough outstanding in their career, they decided to write a musical based on the cartoonist’s masterpiece.
Kampung Boy Sebua Muzikal opened at Istana Budaya in March and is closing on April 5th.

When I arrived in Malaysia 4 years ago, I had my first encounter with the Kampung Boy, through its animation cartoon broadcast often on Astro Ceria, after I browsed through his books in MPH and finally ended up reading the original version of the work, I was definitively becoming an admirer of Datuk Lat’s emotional yet humorous stories. When I first heard of a musical being made from it, I was reticent to watch it, and finally went (though I almost decided not to go until noon, afraid of a few reviews I read recently).

Let’s start by being frank : the show is not good, yet it’s entertaining. First the show should be titled Lat The Musical, as the show tell his story much further than during his childhood in his hometown, the musical goes thru the Kampung era, the Town era and furthermore. For most of us, the second part, not related to the original comic book, is the most interesting and it is very surprising to hear about Lat’s family problems, something we ever heard or read before. Here’s a very good point of the show, and it make us regret that the show is a musical. Being this type of show, it doesn’t allow the play’ story to be much deeper, much dramatic, and so, being more emotional.

Emotions, this is what the show lack of. During the whole play, all the scenes which are supposed to be full of sentiments are falling flat. There is no feeling between the young boy and his dad, the man and his wife. For example, at the time when Lat get his first published comic, he hand up the money he earned to his father, though we get the goal of the writers and actors, it is badly interpreted because badly written. When I read the comic books, I feel so much emotions even though the author’ story is miles away from my own, but there is so much empathy with it. That’s the reason why the book is a success and the play a failure.

When it come to the songs, we have the feeling that, during the writing, the authors left blanks saying “Song here, Les Mis type” or “Song here, Dreamgirls type” and so the composers wrote songs like Les Mis or Dreamgirls (and sometime the tunes are very close to those songs, careful with copyrights !) and as for the for the choreography, they are not “Broadway types” they are parodies of Broadway ! It’s sad that nobody even think of creating moves based on Malaysian traditional dances ! This is unbelievable, this would be the right play for it but no, the choreographer had bigger ambitions and failed.

As for the actors, they are surprisingly good, at acting as well at singing. Though kids are kids and easily interchangeable, adults are in their place. A special mention to Sandra Sodhy,delightful as Mrs Hew ! And about Awie ? Well… His acting skills are pretty well used here, he makes us believe in his character, but when he sings, mmm… he does sings well, but suddenly he’s going out of his personage, it’s not Lat singing, it’s like watching The Awie Show suddenly in the middle of Kampung Boy… We can’t believe in it.
A musical is perhaps not the best media for Lat’s work, this was a disappointing play and its length (3 hours including intermission) make it worst.

One of the good point of this show, is the exhibition settled in the hall of Istana Budaya ! Surrounded by big printout taken from the books, you can see some clippings from Lat work as a crime reporter and some original artwork. This is worth to be seen !

A stone into the pond

2011-03-13T15:53:00.001+08:00

Sunday 13th march, 2 days after the events in Japan, the Malaysian Malay newspaper Berita Minggu published the following cartoon by Zoy :

It somehow came to my attention on twitter, when it was published by @saniboey then retweeted by 2 people I follow : @steph_chai and @henrygolding. @saniboey wrote “ In Berita Minggu today! Fucking bad taste and inappropriate. Shameful.” (it was by the way retweeted by those I named previously, without any added comment, see how daring they are to add their own opinion). and of course it was shared and retweeted all over the social network during the day.

Nobody came with a constructive opinion, something that could let us (and mostly let me) know what do they find “inappropriate”, “bad taste” or “ shameful” in this drawing.

Let’s put things back in their context. This cartoon describes Ultraman (a famous Japanese super hero/kaiju) trying to escape the tsunami. This cartoon is not offensive, its not bad taste… it’s just not funny. Zoy missed his point and did not reach his goal, and that’s make a whole difference : Can we laugh of everything ? Yes we can, but not with everybody ! If Zoy made a very funny cartoon about this situation then this twitter trend wouldn’t be today.

No, this cartoon is not inappropriate. Was Roberto Benigni’s La Vita è Bella inappropriate and shameful ? No, it was brilliant and funny, because Benigni made us laugh, made us cry. He made fun of the Shoah in a very intelligent way. He told us that even during the worst times, we shall continue to live, not because we want it, but because we have to. Monday morning, after the earthquake of last Friday, people in Japan will go back to work, will keep on with their life, they will all have to do so, they cannot let the tragedy put them down. That’s what the Italian director taught us through his movie. Unfortunately, Zoy did not produced such an effect, he didn’t made us laugh.

Now when some people like Henry Golding ask that Berita Minggu “should be reprimanded by the MCMC”, it’s like asking for censorship, he then got some nerve to demand for this in a country where freedom of speech is quasi absent ! If there should be censorship for every very low quality work, then his own TV shows should have been out of the screen since a very long time !

This cartoon is not inappropriate, of bad taste or shameful, it’s just not funny.

Update (4pm) : After this post was published, an online petition has been created against the newspaper and the cartoonist. (Must have been created by people who don't have a life). Anyway. Here what some of the 719 signatories wrote :

609.

Mohd Johan Bin Mohd Yusof

I would expect nothing less from you. Whoever green lighted this deserves to be hanged.

637.

Lee-Ann

Stupid, insensitive douchebag...and how could Berita Harian EVEN THINK of approving this????!!!!!

565.

John Frusciante

You guys should run an IQ test when hiring future employees. Oh, that includes your Zoy (The Cartoonist) and the Chief Editor himself for giving Zoy the green light.

556.

alvin t

insensitive idiot

Well, this is only a small amount of insults and death threat that the newspaper and cartoonist received through this petition.So now, who is showing disrespect ?

Untitled Short Story #1

2011-01-06T18:36:00.003+08:00

The fragrance was filling the whole room. It was the smell coming from a scented candle. Simply reposing on a table, in the middle of the room, in a purple colored glass with golden imprints on it. That same candle was the only light in room. A soft light that made the atmosphere intimate. Suddenly he thought of the power of the candle, this small burning item had two purposes, diffusing perfume and bringing light into the room, both of its action was to set the mood of the place. That was a romantic thought, something that he was very surprised to see, knowing that it came from her.

He first had the thought that she was hiding something, that this sudden romantic action from her side was the disguised of a malicious act she has done. The table was set for two, the candle burning between the dishes, two plates with a meal that he was eating alone for now. She really overdid herself with this dinner, he haven't seen her cooking in ages, he thought that all this was gone years ago. Their marriage was breaking apart and the only thing good he could remember of it was patches of memories ,long time gone, happiness of the past. Even the pictures beside the telephone weren't ones of happy past moments.

So when he came back that evening and saw all the efforts she put in saving their marriage, he really regretted his actions, he thought that he shouldn't have shot her right in the face when she opened the door. Or at least not before she finished the gravy: that turkey tastes really plain without it.

From joy to disappointment : Amir Muhammad’s 120 Malay Movies.

2010-10-30T10:25:00.003+08:00

Browsing around in Times bookstore in Pavilion, not looking for anything in particular, as usual. My eyes, always attracted by book covers and shapes, I ended up picking up Amir Muhammad’s 120 Malay movies. A quick glance at the book and I was sure of spending RM60 to bring it back home. The book is a selection of movies produced from the end of the 40’s to the 70’s by Cathay-Keris, Shaw’s Malay Films Prod. and then Merdeka Films Prod., in Singapore and Malaysia. I was not surprise that a large amount of this selection contains P. Ramlee movies, who is my obsession at the moment.

Back home and happy to dig into this mini encyclopedia of Malay films, I went quickly from joy to disappointment. For each movies referenced in the book, Muhammad will first recall the synopsis then give his own interpretation (I’d like to insist on ‘his own interpretation’ as sometime I think that him and me haven’t seen the same movie !), actually the book is not very well furnish in trivia and production history. From the title itself, I was looking forward a movie book and I ended up reading a viewer film journal which doesn’t deserve publication more than the film journal of my friend or colleague.

Muhammad’s opinion and interpretation of those movies is sometime so ridiculous that you wonder whether he is serious or trying to be funny and missed his effect : On his essay about the movie “Aloha”, 1950, one of earlier P. Ramlee’s, he wrote “[P. Ramlee is] a cheerful musician by the name of Banjo (Is that his real name? Did the other kids make fun of him in school? More importantly : if that’s the name he was born with, what would have happened if he’d wanted to be an accountant instead?)”. What is he trying to tell us here ?? You don’t need a PhD to understand that Ramlee’s character wear this nickname related to the instrument that he is playing and that it’s obviously not his real name ! This is only one example of many which the book is filled with, where Muhammad tries to be witty but where it fell so flat that it makes the reading of it so heavy and annoying.

It was the first time that I read any of Amir Muhammad books, maybe I’m not use to his wittiness, and then I wouldn't know that making non-sense remarks is part of his style. The book is published by Matahari, which I read is his own publishing house, so perhaps (perhaps only) nobody edited his book before publishing which make then good sense to me.

Though I know its not suppose to be an encyclopedia of Malay movies, but only random thoughts of the author : then the point of this book is totally missed, only half of the writing is interesting, the author style is awful and makes you wonder if this books wasn’t done “à la va vite”. Nevertheless I will keep this book at my hands reach and consult it every time that I’ll watch a referenced movie, just for the sake of it.

120 Malay Movies
Amir Muhammad, Matahari Books, 2010

P.S.: One of the good point in this book, related by Muhammad in his introduction, is that a lot of the early Malay movies are now lost. The remaining movies are in poor condition. I often watch those movies on Astro Prima and I’m always shocked by the quality of the prints : scratches, cuts, light balance (this is very annoying in Laxmana Do Re Mi),… and it makes me wonder whether FINAS or the government isn't interested in saving the Malaysian film heritage and budget a restoration for those movies !? Though they are now properly saved on digital masters and will last, the original film prints won’t last forever and a bit of cleanup now would be welcome. I would love to see Ibu Mertuaku in it’s full glory, scratch-less, cut-less, and in bright black and white !

Malaysian Movements

2010-10-11T23:47:00.001+08:00

“The elegant Malaysians have a highly specialized vocabulary to describe movements, both of the right kind, as in kontal-kontil 'the swinging of long earrings or the swishing of a dress as one walks' and the wrong, as in jerangkang 'to fall over with your legs in the air'. Others include:

kengkang to walk with your legs wide apart.

tenjack to limp with your heals raised

kapai to flap your arms so as to stay afloat

gayat feeling dizzy while looking down from a high place

seluk to put your hand in your pocket

bongkeng sprawling face down with your bottom at the air “ `

Extract from I Never Knew There Was a Word for it by Adam Jacot de Boinod (2010 - Penguin Books)

I've had a merry time with you…

2010-07-19T14:03:00.001+08:00

All about “Petite Chérie”…

2010-06-24T02:20:00.001+08:00

After the publication of Noryn Aziz’ album I’m Alright,I’ve been asked a few times about the inspiration for the song Petite Chérie. So I’m going to tell where I found the inspiration for the song.

When I got the title, I asked myself : who is this Petite Cherie, or who could she be. I thought she could be anyone, a daughter, a sister, a mother or even a girlfriend.

Then I thought of a friend, who is a former student of mine, who has a little daughter. When I used to teach him as his place every week, I was spectator of a strong love bond, it was fabulous, he was giving her so much love, a really unconditional kind of love, really different from the one you would give to your boyfriend or girlfriend, husband or wife. It was pure, innocent love. His love for his little princess, as he is calling her, was the inspiration for the lyrics. The song is dedicated to her.

You only live once

2010-06-02T12:00:00.003+08:00

I’m quite happy recently, because I have found peace within myself. Well, what a way to start a post, philosophic isn’t it !

Well, I've been reading quite a lot lately and I’ve been following the teaching of Buddha, I’ve learned a lot about having a positive attitude and mostly that the world doesn’t revolve around oneself. Some would say that it has been quite a huge revelation to me. I found out that the problems we are facing each day, are not create by others, but by ourselves. So there is no way of fighting troubles, the only way is to not create them.

So here I am, like a new myself, with still a lot of the old one, not targeting to reach Nirvana, but decided to make myself better and having my surrounding feeling the same. By following some principles it’s very easy to feel peaceful inside. Behaving constantly reasonable, not being demanding, not talking bad about others no matter how bad they talk about you, helping others who are more in needs than you are… A few things like this, things that are easy to follow, not too demanding, and when you have time to do it, then there’s no excuses. Just practicing the art of gratitude.

I’m now at a stage of my life when I’m very happy with what I got, and also just plain happy.

Noryn Aziz – I’m Alright

2010-05-20T13:39:00.001+08:00

Finally, after a long recording session, here’s Noryn Aziz’s Petite Chérie, first track from her new mini album “I’m alright”.

Press launch happened at Alexis on Great Eastern Mall, where Noryn gave a great live rendition of the song, and a few more tracks from the album itself. Actually the other tracks are a better showcase of her voice range, so I recommend greatly that you buy it once it’s released, she sings two covers (The way you look tonight and Feeling Good) as well as two songs she wrote and composed (I’m Alright and Kesungguhan Cinta), and finally Malam Bulan Di Pagar Bintang in it’s original language.

I leave you with “Petite Chérie” in lo-fi mono version, for a full blast please buy the album !

“Petite Chérie”

2010-04-25T12:25:00.005+08:00

Well, it took me quite a while, but i finally finished writing the lyrics for the “Petite Chérie” song that Ken asked me to do for the “Polka-dot style” Annick Goutal’s Petite Chérie new launch. My task was to put on French words on a P. Ramlee song titled “Malam Bulan Dipagar Bintang”, but with the imposed title, Little Darling. I had to write off a new set of lyrics, completely different from the original words. The most difficult was to set French sentences over the melody, because bahasa is very straightforward while French uses a lot of connecting words and conjunctions ! So after many tries and hard work, and a lot of cups of coffee, here they are. Not perfect of course, and they may change a bit before the launch !

“Petite Chérie”

(Malam Bulan Dipagar Bintang)

Music by P. Ramlee – French lyrics by Julien Pierre – Original lyrics by S Sudarmaji

Sur les chemins qui mènent à l’amour,
Les hommes s’y promènent toujours,
Sur ces mêmes allées tu me souris,
C’est toi ma petite chérie.

Avant de te voir, je te sens,
La vanille, tel un encens,
Et quelques odeurs de pêches,
De battre, mon cœur s’en empêche.

Sans toi, ma vie serait très inerte,
Une barque à la dérive et en perte,
Je ne serais que ruines et débris,
Mais tu me portes, ma petite chérie.

Quand je t’admire ma jolie princesse,
Enjôlée sous mes caresses
Le monde me semble parfait
De toi, je veux être aimée.

and here it’s rough English translation :

On the ways that lead to love,
People always wander around
On those same alleys you smile at me,
It’s you, my little darling.

Before I see you, I feel (smell) you,
The vanilla, as incense,
And some scents of peach,
My heart skips every beat.

Without you, my life would be inert,
Like a boat adrift and lost,
I would only be ruins and remains,
But you carry me, my little darling.

When I look at you my pretty princess,
Charmed by my cuddles
The world seems perfect,
I want to be loved by you.

and finally here's the original song as sung by Saloma and P. Ramlee in the movie Pendekar Bujang Lapuk (1959)

Petite Chérie by Julien Pierre is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Malaysia License

Doctor Who : The Eleventh Hour

2010-04-05T11:26:00.003+08:00

It has been more than a year since Matt Smith has been announced as the 11th Doctor, but his first adventure was still pending while David Tennant was completing his tenure as the 10th Doctor during the 2009 specials. After tough goodbyes during the New Year Special (The End of Time) when the Tenth Doctor stipulates that he doesn't want to go, the Eleventh Doctor started his job officially thanks to his regeneration. But it's only since this Easter weekend that we've seen him in his first full adventure, "The Eleventh Hour", written by new executive producer, Steven Moffat.

After a 65 minutes opening episode, I'm finally relieved, Doctor Who is in good hands. The opener is a real good Moffat-style adventure and does play brilliantly with Who's codes of time traveling. Though Smith's Doctor doesn't shine yet, his personality is not enough shown to be reviewed, he seems like a mad/bonkers Doctor, alike the Fourth played by Tom Baker. I can't wait to see the next ones to know about him more.

The real deal though could be Amy Pond, the character played by Karen Gillan. After Rose, Martha and mostly Donna, I was wondering what type of character would be able to compete with the previous girls, and Moffat found the right one : very sassy and witty, moreover she has punch and guts, a real equal to the Doctor. She will surely do well.

I was glad to see that Moffat retains a real continuity to the show (as some announced the show to be a new format and not being considered as series 5 but series 1), with the acknowledge of all the previous Doctors (from 1st to 10th, including 8th), with 11th repeating the famous Tenth catchphrase (What ? What ? What !) and even acting kinda Tennant-style before his regeneration is completed.

On the down side, I don't like the new theme tune, it's barely recognizable as the Ron Grainer/Delia Debyshire's one, very low tune and the new credits are almost still, it's supposed to be the TARDIS traveling into the vortex, guess they want to emphasize the new series on being more about mystery than adventure.

A matter of location...

2010-03-11T11:07:00.001+08:00

For I knew it was a tough case, he is the type of criminal I always like to purchase. I’m a private detective and I’ve been on the trail of this man for a while now, no much I knew of him, but my client was very keen for me to find out as much as I could about the block.

The streets were clear at this time of the day, but I knew how to make myself invisible and be not even a shadow to himself. I have followed him for a long part of the afternoon, and so far there were nothing suspect to his attitude, a visit to the laundry, the barber shop and the convenient store but I knew that soon or later he would fell into his own trap and lead me to his secret activity spot. Suddenly he stopped a little old woman on the side of the road, I tried to get myself closer, but they were speaking Chinese, and if there’s a language I don’t speak its Chinese, actually there’s a lot I don’t but this one I can’t even pronounce a word, I'm a banana. Why did I felt suddenly that this woman was not the simple and innocent old lady she appeared to be?

That was it, I knew it, it was clear to me, when suddenly he took her violently by the arm and forced her to enter the car which swiftly parked here, just by the road side. She had no time to scream, no time to even realize what was happening to her. It was to be the chase moment, my luck make me find a cab stopped just beside me, it took me only a second to enter it and tell to the driver to follow that car!

“Wah boss, you know what time is it meh ?”, replied the cabby. “Traffic jam all over the place. Where you wanna go? I can go, but it’s going to be thirty-five ringgit, if not I don’t want to go.”

The chase was short.

I’m Felix Yoong, private detective in Kuala Lumpur.

On the subject of marketing a French fragrance brand

2010-03-10T13:59:00.000+08:00

Thanks to my friend Ken Lim, I'm now, and temporary, a brand executive for Annick Goutal, the famous french brand.

I just arrived in the company at the right time, for the launch of our new fragrance, Ninfeo Mio. A scent of Italian lemon and citron, bitter orange, galbanum extract and and mostly fig.

It has been hell, but very instructive. I'm supposed to help Ken on handling Annick Goutal marketing, but I feel like I'm bothering him, always go to his office and ask him questions on subjects that he actually hired me to avoid to have himself dealing with it. !

Anyway, I have now been working for two weeks and I have learn so much about marketing and I even find my job very interesting and give all I can to it (I'm afraid that I maybe actually enjoy it !). No matter that my office is located so far from the place that I leave, so far that I can only reach it by taxi, which make me spend 2/3 of my salary into my daily transportation fee ! Doesn't matter because I take this job as an opportunity, like a training.

I have no memories of my life before I was 12. It seems like an event of that period of my life has overshadowed what happened in my childhood, though I have a clear memory of what happen the following years

2010-02-10T10:37:00.000+08:00

I have no memories of my life before I was 12. It seems like an event
of that period of my life has overshadowed what happened in my
childhood, though I have a clear memory of what happen the following
years.

How can I be so forgetful, I don't have, until the contrary is proven,
any kind of Alzheimer disease or other brain sickness.
This told, it's not completely true, some memories come back to my
memory : the room of my kindergarten that I always found immense
which, when I came back there 10 years later, was actually quite
small, some games in the courtyard of the primary school with my
friends Katy and Delphine,...

Forgetting is easy and quite a common thing for me. though, I often
find myself repeating stories of my life to friends who heard them
millions times before, and it's only after half of the story told that
I will ask 'haven't told you that before ?' to hear them replying
'million times'. And while I have tendency to forget this, I'm now
asked to forget about him, to pretend that nothing happened and that
actually we were not meant to be together.

It was only for 2 months, but since the beginning it seemed like years
to me, we were going along so well that no words needed to be spoken
to understood each other : while you're around I don't feel lonely, I
can read a book, listen to music or just rest, I feel safe and
surrounded. We take a walk, we run, we eat and that's sufficient. Oh
but we talked sometime, actually we could speak three or four hours in
a row without a silence, I would tell you about what I know and you
would explain about what I don't. Fourteen kilometers doesn't seem
like it, we would just mind the ants, and the sound of planes taking
off would just be a background noise that I would find annoying because
it breaks our conversation.

And now I have to forget, why ? Why something that have been easy for
me to do all my life is suddenly so difficult, I cannot forget, I
cannot let it go. I'm pragmatic but I happen to have feelings now, I
don't cry but I'm sad, broken.

You may read that or not, you may care or not, and you may pretend to
forget or really do it, but I can't. I can easily pretend that I don't
care but I actually profoundly care, I can live by knowing you're far
but not by knowing you deny me, me who seems just to be a memory that
you can send to the trash like a file on your Mac Book...

Dame Shirley Bassey – Apartment

2009-11-22T12:53:00.000+08:00

When both of my favourite singers get together, a masterpiece : Rufus Wainwright composed this song for Shirley Bassey’s new album. Love it

This song was cut (!) from the BBC Electric Proms featuring Dame Bassey, what a shame, she was great that night.

Singapore’s Men Chorus – Sing Out Loud on Broadway !

2009-10-26T10:00:00.005+08:00

Yesterday night I had the chance to see the second and last performance of the Singapore’s Men Chorus at the Lee Foundation Theatre. I had no great expectations as I remembered a Christmas concert I’ve seen 3 years ago (With Every Christmas Card I Write...) and the choir wasn’t really good but I enjoyed it thou, just they had no sense of staging at the time. 3 years later and waters ran under bridge. After 11th months of rehearsing, the men are back on stage (I guess they would love to call themselves “Singapore’s gay men chorus” but within the impossibility of it they still remind you all night that they are !)

About the show, I must say it was a great selection of songs, they had to choose some famous titles like “Anything You Can Do” from Annie get your gun or “Maria” from Bernstein’s West Side Story and finally a choice of quite infamous ones (for neophytes) as they even choose a song from Jean Seberg ! (which is surely Marvin Hamlisch best score ever).

Ones after ones, songs are going quite well together, and the company has finally hired qualified choreographers and those men doesn’t have left foot only, I can tell you ! It was very enjoyable. That was the first act. Unfortunately, there was a second one…

After 20 minutes intermission, the chorus is presenting a mini-musical based on musical songs linked with a mini-drama, supposed to be talking about relationship between men : father-sons, brothers, boyfriends (yeah, you really thought you would escape from it ???). And here… C'est là que le bât blesse…. This is the worst part of the evening. The drama is full of non-sense, dialogue are common and not very deep, sorry to say so but the chorus should stick to sing and not to act. During that performance, 3 (or 4) soloists are heard, only one, Y.K. Woon (outstanding) can hold a song (and he can do it very well), the 2 others are struggling and 1 of them doesn’t even manage to articulate words correctly (must have been choose because he's tall and/or appear to be cute, which seem to be only what he got...). And when finally when that musical "mosaic" ends, you really wonder how come claps are so loud (lot of family and friends in the audience I guess)

Finally after that “mini-musical”, the chorus come back to sing a nice medley of 1960’s musical songs (starting with “Welcome to the 60’s” from Hairspray, 2002 (!)) and songs from “Grease”, “Little Shop of Horrors”, ...

And to end the show, you won’t be surprise, a song from the musical Mamma Mia. I agree, Mamma Mia is a great piece to end a show, a cheerful song, very intense with strong lyrics… but what a catastrophe ! Something I would reproach to that evening, is the translation of songs for a choir. Some are done wonderfully, where some others are so flat (like Gershwin’s I Got Rhythm sounded more like “I haven’t got rhythm and I can’t swing either”…) The interpretation of Mamma Mia was so insipid, for sure those boys have fun singing it as you could see it, but you couldn’t hear it ! If you never heard the song before you couldn’t understand the words, it was chaotic. But you know, at the end of the show, the audiences gave them a big applause, and so did I !

Please check on and support the Singapore’s Men Chorus : Official Website/Facebook

Time in Singapore : Week 1 /Part 1

2009-09-18T12:47:00.000+08:00

I must say that I was very surprised to see how my first week in Singapore started. Last Saturday I found myself on the top of the Swisshotel-Stanford, not at Equinox, but on the rooftop, at the helipad. What a great view of the city there ! I was there, invited for the launch of the “Chefs with altitude” week. Except by spending the night with ‘chic’ dressed strangers sipping Moet & Chandon, I had the chance to taste some of the food that will be served during that week at the restaurant. After starting with a tasteless pastry, I tried that piece of foie gras between a macaroon, it really taste great, a nice mix of sweet and salty. I also eat scallops in a carbonara sauce, I was quite surprised as I never eat scallops usually, but it was a really different taste, not fishy at all. Then after few more glasses of champagne, some chocolates and almond candies, we head up to a bar for some drinks, and again after 2 Singapore Slings, I was so drunk that I wasted those food i ate earlier….

A Nat King Cole Discography Review : Nat King Cole Sings ‘ My Fair Lady’

2009-08-05T10:00:00.000+08:00

Though I knew Cole’s recordings of “On The Street Where you Live”, I’ve recently discovered, while listening to it’s Complete Capitol Recordings, that Nat has covered the soundtrack of “ My Fair Lady”.

The above track plus some others like “I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face”, “ Get Me To The Church on Time” and “ I could have dance all night” being my favorites ones, it’s funny to hear other songs like “The Rain in Spain”. The latest being, in the original musical, a dialogue between three persons, become here a solo where the King sings all the lyrics, asking questions and replying to himself ! That certainly sounds weird ! It’s also interesting to hear how he is not comfortable with the songs sung by Higgins : "I'm an Ordinary Man," "You Did It," and "Hymn to Him”, the ‘ declarative’ tone used in the original makes Cole’s version awkward. Finally, the song “Show Me”, sings by Elisa on the show, here become a very slow ballad, and very lushly with his warm voice.

Maybe one of the weakest of his albums, thou quite entertaining.

My Fair Lady

Recorded 9/17,18,19,20/63

01. With A Little Bit Of Luck

02. I Could Have Danced All Night

03. The Rain In Spain

04. On The Street Where You Live

05. I'm An Ordinary Man

06. Get Me To The Church On Time

07. Show Me

08. I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face

09. You Did It

10. Wouldn't It Be Loverly

11. Hymn To Him

Recorded 9/17,18,19,20/63

Nat Cole, Vocals
Ralph Carmichael, Arranger

The Prisoner (2009) - Preview

2009-08-02T10:34:00.001+08:00

Time Archives : Over & Over the Rainbow

2009-05-12T20:06:00.001+08:00

Friday, May. 05, 1961

It is possible to arrive at a Judy Garland concert, if one is not a believer, in a state of considerable nausea. The listener knows more than he cares to know about Judy's perpetual troubles—with studios, husbands, nightclub owners, food and the British press. He knows also that Judy has sung Over the Rainbow over and over since she was 17, and that she will sing it again, sure as there is ooze in Oz. Worst of all, there will be the Garland believers who clap wildly and weep like new widows at anything Judy does onstage.

At Carnegie Hall last week, in her latest of many comebacks, all malaise seemed justified. The elegant old music box was jammed, notably with Hollywood stars, starlets, starlettes, and lesser celestial debris. When Judy strode onstage (she is probably the only woman of 5 ft. ½ in. who can stride), she got, without opening her mouth, what it takes Renata Tebaldi two and a half hours of Puccini to achieve: a standing, screaming ovation that lasted almost five minutes. As the hoarse shouts dwindled, one could hear an undertow: "She's much, much thinner," "She seems very stable."

Lungs & Pizaz. The title of the first song, When You're Smiling, made its point a little too muscularly. But this made no difference. By the first, trumpet-clear, high hard note in the first verse, the woozy feeling had disappeared. Judy swung into a bouncy Almost Like Being in Love, blared with humor in Puttin' On the Ritz, wept her words in The Man That Got Away, and brought down the first-act curtain with a ringing, roistering San Francisco. Long before this, the neutral auditor had realized again (one goes through this every time Judy Garland comes to town) that untidy life, maudlin fans and cornball repertoire did not mean much. There are not many good girl singers these days, although there are plenty of echo-chamber yowlers, and there is no one who can come within miles, or ergs, of Judy. She has, in addition to lungs, clarity, drive and rhythm, an incredible amount of nostalgic pizaz, a quality in bad repute largely because it is so unpleasant when it is faked.

Fan-Fanned Lather. Life is going relatively smoothly these days for Judy. She has toured successfully since February, with a short break to play a brief dramatic role in Stanley Kramer's film Judgment at Nuremberg. She will soon tape a television show for next season, is considering a Broadway show. Most important, Judy, at 38, is singing at her best, far above the level of two years ago, when she appeared, puffy-faced and uncertain, at Manhattan's Met.

She proved it last week by coming back for a second act even better than the first. She sang quietly, to the piano, a haunting Foggy Day, and got standing ovations—legitimate this time, not fan-fanned—for Come Rain or Come Shine and Rock-A-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody.

Eventually, of course, the ooze began to flow again. Judy wound up with Over the Rainbow, and her children were hoisted, blinking, onstage while the believers covered themselves with lather. A nonbeliever could only edge quietly out of the hall, knowing that he had heard the best belter in the business.

This is the article which was originally published in Time Magazine after Judy’s famous concert at Carnegie Hall in 1961. I have been listening to that concert on it’s entirely recently (April 23th being the date of the its recording). I can understand that it has been called “The biggest night in show business”, as it always give me chills for 2 full hours. I will never get enough of that woman, witty-funny woman, wonderful entertainer and unsurpassed singer.

And then there’s Bea Arthur…

2009-05-09T19:14:00.001+08:00

2 weeks ago, Beatrice Arthur died. I’m a huge fan of her work, from Maude to the Golden Girls, as well as her Broadway acts, could it be The Threepenny Opera, Fiddler on the Roof or Just Between Friends, her first and last one-woman show.

Maude : This was maybe the first outbreak of Bea on TV, she appeared first a Cousin Maude in the series All in the Family. When the head saw her appearance, all he could say was “Give this woman her own show !” And then there’s Maude ! The principal trait of her character, except being tall and having a deep voice, was being an outspoken feminist living in affluent Westchester County with her husband and divorced daughter. During it’s 6 years run, the show treated many controversial topics, including abortion.

The Golden Girls :

I think that, among my friends and others of my generation, Bea is mostly known for her part of Dorothy in The Golden Girls. Such a witty character she was, I remember that scene when Rose is carrying a bucket because the roof is leaking and Dorothy asking “Is there water leaking into your room too Rose ?” and Rose answering “No Dorothy, I just come back from milking the cow… Gee, you see, with little sleep I can be as bitchy as you”.

I couldn’t find any extract on YouTube of her last Broadway show that I keep playing over and over on my iPod, a wonderful one-woman show where Bea talks about her life on stage, screen and small screen and sing in between, but I could find this wonderful song she sings with her long time friend Angela Lansbury, a song from the musical Mame that she performed on stage and on screen in the Lucille Ball version.

Travelling !

2009-05-04T09:38:00.001+08:00

I’m quite excited as I will be travelling for my own again soon ! I’m going to spend two weeks in Singapore and a week in Jakarta ! Ok, I lived in Singapore and have travelled there often, but it’s still my favorite place ! And as far as Jakarta is concerned, this will be my first time in Indonesia. Yeah, I’ve heard many people telling me that I should go to Bali, that I will love it there. But, but but, the main reason I’m travelling to Jakarta is to visit my dear friend William !

William is my longest time friend here in S.E.A., the first person I ever met while I was in Singapore. I landed on a Friday evening, the following morning I was already meeting him :) We have become very good friends, but I haven’t seen him for ages as he is now back there and I’m living here…

So for the past days I have been looking for a travel book about Jakarta, well I have to understand that there is no books about Jakarta… In Indonesia, only Bali have his own travel book, for other places you have to get the full Indonesia one ! But I dun need it, I’m not travelling elsewhere !

Musical Entr’acte #1

2009-04-15T17:23:00.000+08:00

Marie Laforet sings “Tu Fais Semblant” (You are pretending)

"The day I discovered the 'shuffle' feature in iTunes"

2009-01-30T10:00:00.000+08:00

The "rules" :
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button

DON'T CHEAT!

Opening Credits:
ABBA - Voulez-vous

Waking Up:
Liza Minnelli - Mein Heir

First Day At School:
Emma Bunton - I'll be there

Puppy Love:
Pink Martini - Dosvedanya Mio Bambino

Fight Song:
Rufus Wainwright - April Fools

Breaking Up:
Liza Minnelli - Losing My Mind

Prom:
Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water

Life is Good:
Freddie Aguilar - Anak

Driving:
Christophe Willem - Sunny

Flashback:
Katy Perry - Hot N Cold

True Love:
Pink Martini - Hang on Little tomato

Wedding:
ABBA - Does your mother knows

Moment of Triumph:
Jerome Kugan - This Excellent love

Death Scene:
Rufus Wainwright - The Art Teacher

Funeral Song:
Eddy Mitchell - Rio Grande

End Credits:
Rilo Kiley - Portions for Foxes