Heaven is

A beautiful 2-minute 19th century piano piece performed by one of the greatest 20th century guitarists, in all his messed up cigarette-in-mouth, sloppy and laid-back glory, on an electronic instrument the composer never lived to see.

Jimmy Page

Alternatively, there’s the 20th century Korean pianist performing the same 19th century piano piece in all its constipated western classical glory at the other end of the world, in a culture the composer may never have been exposed to.

Kun-Woo Paik

Where is the music?

To beat lethargy and shut out the world, I’ve been plugging in to old rock songs.

Raw and rude music, I like.

From the first time I heard good rock (i think it was Dream Theater’s album Scenes from a Memory), I knew there was no turning back to pop music. I was amazed, I didn’t know music could be played like this. I got addicted to music, bought into the “without music, life would be a mistake” cliche, and started feeling a need to carry a CD/MP3 player around.

Compared to rock, popular music is inadequate and commercialized. I can’t feel the passion for music in the young singers who managed to cut an album or two simply because they looked cute and were not entirely tone deaf. I can’t feel the amount of thought put into making a song with catchy, repetitive tunes set in a formula proven popular, and abstract lyrics that don’t mean anything. I can’t enjoy rhythm-less and tune-less music heavily masked by loud African drum beats.

Whatever happened to the originality and invention of music from the baby-boomers era? The best bands that can qualify for the “legend” category all came from decades past, while we have the likes of Linkin’ Park and One Republic producing pseudo-rock music that are far too formulaic and polished, a far cry from the signature honesty and rawness of rock. And let’s not even go into the overplayed likes of umbrella-ella-ella.

Maybe it’s the iPod effect. With music made available to everyone, market forces cause music to gravitate towards catering for the masses that favor catchy tunes, which are quickly replaced by new ones once people lose interest in them.

Music no longer needs to be classics that can remain popular forever. I wonder how many of these radio tunes we have now will still be performed 300 years from now, like how baroque music is enjoyed by many now.

Back to Led Zeppelin’s Since I’ve been Loving you, on loop.

(By the way, I’m pretty disappointed after revisiting Bon Jovi’s old albums. In my opinion, Bon Jovi is very good only for 7 songs: Livin’ On A Prayer, You Give Love A Bad Name, This Ain’t A Love Song, Bed Of Roses, Always, I’ll Be There For You, and Never Say Goodbye. That means the only Bon Jovi album anyone needs is Crossroads, which has 6 out of 7 of their most representative songs.)

Blindness, by José Saramago

The best book I’ve read in a very long time. (Okay, especially since I haven’t been reading a lot lately.) Despite having a mountain of half-read or untouched books, I read 3 chapters of this one in the bookshop, bought the book and devoured the rest within a day. It’s that good.

What happens if one day, you wake up blind, a blindness that cannot be explained by any expert and it quickly spreads to everyone around you until eventually, the entire city you live in is blind? What would you do?

You could expect the city to be in chaos, with no water and electricity because everyone working at the utilities companies can no longer do their job. There would be no government and no organisation, no policemen, no ambulance and no fire brigade. As the civilians panicked, many rushed to draw out all their savings in the banks, resulting in bank runs. The entire economic system collapses as there was no one capable of running it with everyone blind and terrified. Others would choose to make use of this opportunity to rob and advance their own selfish agendas. As food became scarce, grocery shops and supermarkets were pillaged. People cannot make their way back to their own homes and sleep in random abandoned houses, shops and vehicles. The list of catastrophic events continues…

What is most brilliant about this book is that it reduced the unnecessary accounts of societal disintegration to quick summaries in a few paragraphs, and instead, acutely described the issues most pertinent to a person’s survival and to humanity and morality.

When everyone is overcome by blindness but all the other bodily functions remain intact, it’s as though the same person remains except that the identity is taken away and replaced with anonymity. The author mentioned many times, that when everyone is blind, names do not matter. After all, there is no need to watch your actions when no one can see it.

What makes the book so gripping is the most basic necessities that the characters had to deal with. With no sanitation facilities and the blind unable to navigate around, people freely defecate on the streets and corridors. With limited food supplies, people gave up morality to satisfy their empty stomachs. Hoarding food even if it means others like you have to go hungry. Closing the door of the supermarket storage room to prevent others from discovering it. Standing naked on the balcony during a downpour because it’s the only way to clean yourself of the filth accumulated over the past few days. Living like complete animals and blinding the eyes of the holy images in a church so that even the gods could not see.

At some points, the brutality and suffering faced by the characters were so explicitly described that putting the book down to go to a proper toilet feels awkward. When it was dinner time, the table of fresh fish, vegetables and rice seemed too luxurious for the stomach to handle.

But it’s not a book of gore. It’s the sensitivity with which the scenes were described and the pertinence of the issues discussed that makes the book so thought provoking.

Friends

I once read a quote somewhere that says good friends are people with whom you can sit together for hours without saying a word, and then leave feeling like you’ve had the best conversation.

That sort of friendship nirvana is something I’ve yet to attain, but the closest I can imagine would be like today. Spend a day with friends, one of whom I’ve not seen for months yet feeling like we’ve just met up yesterday. Talk about everything under the sun – work, life, current affairs, random anecdotes and crazy plans. Then leave not remembering the content of the conversations, bringing back merely a sense of satisfaction for a day well spent.

Watching Sex and the City could have triggered all these warm fuzzy feelings of friendship too.

Underneath all the elaborate designer dresses, 4-inch heels, bimbotic comments and bitchy complaints is a friendship that entails standing up for each other (even if it means throwing a cliched line at the lousy boyfriend), going all out of the way on a cold winter night just so that a friend doesn’t spend New Year’s eve alone and telling a friend straight out in the face how badly she has screwed up.

This time, it happened in Vegas

(Non-disclaimer: No spoilers included. You can’t spoil a predictable movie, can you?)

Formula for a romantic comedy: Put a man and a woman together in a foreign land with a lot of partying, a lot of booze and maybe some cranky sidekicks. Let them get high, get drunk and get married. Whoalah! You’ve just skipped the entire troublesome process of flowers, chocolates, fancy restaurants and mutual deception to the happy-ending part of fairy tales. Except that, they don’t really want to get married. So you fast forward further to the divorce part, but throw in some lame excuse that makes getting a divorce twenty thousand times harder than getting married.

And there you have Laws of Attraction (2004), which was a fantastic movie where 2 equally brilliant people battled their wits in court yet admired each other so much that they intentionally take on opposing roles just to compete and win the other. It was a refreshing movie of equals who competed fiercely in their professional lives but slowly grew to understand each other through daily interaction as “husband and wife”.

Vegas though, was nothing like that. The entire marriage was a wacky adventure set to infuriate themselves and entertain their friends. And then somehow admist all the mess, they fell in love with each other and got married again. Peace be on earth.

If you rank Vegas strictly on a scale of humor and the amount of crazy plans they instigated, this movie is a 11 out of 10. But don’t ask me what the movie was about – I don’t know.

There was a bit towards the end about enjoying yourself and not being stuck in a job you don’t like. After all, if the only thing that makes you happy is to travel 30 miles to some barren beach with a lighthouse and be carefree with no worries and no responsibilities, the only way to achieve it is to stop working hard, quit your job and bum around at that beach. It doesn’t hurt if you hit the jackpot at Las Vegas and have a bum for a husband.

But what’s with the hardworking and competitive Asian girl? Why does she have to be Asian? When you have an American boss that values the ability to slice off a champagne bottle using a knife more than anything else, and an American employee (who is capable of slicing off a champagne bottle using a knife) that chooses to quit her job to enjoy life, you have what the Americans have now – living on borrowed money from the Asians.

Time for some Harold & Kumar.

Heaven is…

Def Leppard!

Hell, Heaven is such an awesome name.

Wasn’t in a good mood and since I was on the way to get a new pair of earphones, I thought I might as well drop by the CD shop to pick up some angry music screaming evil, self-destruction and impending doom to test out the new earphones.

Was trying to decide which Iron Maiden album to buy when this humble Def Leppard album on the same shelf of heavy metal music caught my eye. Having just some vague idea that they are a rather famous 80s band, I thought I’ll give them a chance. 80s hippie band stuff can’t be too bad, right? Especially one that says “Best of”.

So I came home, plugged in the new earphones, put the CD into the CD drive and gingerly set the volume to a mid-low range, just to be safe. Then came the happy, catchy pop-rock tune of “Pour some sugar on me”. After the first few songs, I sampled songs beginning with the very familiar “When Love and Hate Collide”. Wow, a classic.

And I went on to be pleasantly surprised by an entire CD of good old 80s, 90s classic rock.

Especially liked this Rock ‘n Roll number “Heaven is”, happy music that lifts the spirits immediately. Check out the retro lyrics, it’s hard not to smile listening to it. The video for those not afraid of long hair 80s band.

I’m ashamed to be in the generation of “under my umbrella ella ella eh eh…”.

Hey boys, Miss Magic is back
No Hollywood waste or tinsel trash
A street kid, she’s no stray cat
Heaven on legs she’s a feline flash
Takes a good woman to play a good man
And no one plays like heaven can

She said leave your name at the sound of the tone
Call you right back when I get home
Better watch out when we’re all alone

Heaven is a girl I know so well
She makes me feel good when I feel like hell
Heaven is a girl that I’ve got to have
And she makes me feel better when I’m feelin’ bad

Hey guys, Miss Magic is mine
No silicone smile, she’s a vintage wine
Bombshell blonde, red lipstick on
Aqualine fine, she’s a real wild one

She said leave your name at the sound of the tone
Call you right back when I get home
Better watch out when we’re all alone

Heaven is a girl I know so well
She makes me feel good when I feel like hell
Heaven is a girl that I’ve got to have
And she makes me feel better when I’m feelin’ bad
Heaven is a girl that makes dreams come true
Oh, no one does it good like heaven do, no

She got the rhythm to drive me crazy
She got the rhythm of love

Of Homophobia

Shocking to hear this from one of our country’s brightest minds.

The Alternative Vision for Singapore (and I mean Alternative!)

My response to his intolerant, homophobic rant:

“The argument of finding men “kissing, fondling and making out” in public repulsive and therefore the need for Section 377A just doesn’t quite hold out.

Indeed, though I won’t call myself homophobic, it sure isn’t comfortable watching men perform PDA (public displays of affection). But I personally find watching people eat live bugs on Fear Factor much more repulsive and morally decadent than PDA. Still, I would strongly disagree to a law that bans people from eating live bugs in public or private.

Sexual orientation, just like food and music preferences, are but personal preferences that do not necessarily harm a society or cause societal upheavals.

If you have alternative preferences for your daily protein intake, demonstrating it in public doesn’t give me an urge to follow in your footsteps. But if I were to ban you from doing so, I am imposing my preferences on you and giving myself supreme power in determining what is “natural” and “morally correct”. (Which you have arrogantly done in this blog entry.)

I believe removing such an intruding law is one step towards making Singapore a more gracious and accommodating society. If this means an influx of gays into Singapore, it only serves to show that Singapore has achieved an “Asian first” of being an understanding society.”

天下无双

The China version of 神雕侠侣 is the best I’ve watched. Absolutely beautifully made and the best casting so far. It’s obvious the amount of effort put into making the drama series, something that’s always lacking in the new Hong Kong dramas. And by this I refer to the whole series of 金庸 dramas that China made.

Even the theme song is so good.

穿越红尘的悲欢惆怅
和你贴心的流浪
刺透遍野的青山和荒凉
有你的梦伴着花香飞翔

今生因你痴狂 此爱天下无双
剑的影子 水的波光
只是过往
是过往

今生因你痴狂 此爱天下无双
如果还有贴心的流浪
枯萎了容颜难以忘
难遗忘
—《天下无双》神雕侠侣主题曲

Re: The Result of Spoon-Feeding

My comment for The Result of Spoon Feeding:

“I like the slogan “Teach less, Learn more.”

Teachers should really be there to instill interest in the subject and facilitate learning. It is not so much about knowledge transfer whether on the foundational or advanced level. Worse, it is not about preparing the students for exams. Although that may be the expectations of Singaporean parents on teachers, and the responsibility that Singaporean teachers shoulder, that is, in my opinion, not the spirit of teaching.

I’ve had teachers who inspired me into being so interested in the subject I google for information outside of the textbook on the topics I learn in class. I even pick books related to the subject for leisure reading. That’s what I call a real teacher.

Granted, such teachers are few and far between. A failed school attempt at instilling independent learning may not mean that all is lost. At least, it shows that they’re recognizing it, just like what the slogan “Teach Less, Learn More.” implies.

As much as I would love teachers who could instill interest, it is understandable that instilling interest in students is extremely difficult to do. Despite many attempts and much enthusiam in doing so, not all teachers succeed.

Teachers are also in a constant independent learning process.”

Re: On Female Mediocrity 2

My comment on a good issue brought out by NeiL in the comment thread for the same article. Maybe this ability to be independent thinking individuals is something that we have sacrificed for all that wonderful economic prosperity. It may not necessarily be bad, or rather it might well have been necessary, but how sustainable is economic prosperity if we go on doing what we do? Is training a bunch of elites to run the country and leaving the messy majority out of it the best way to do so? I don’t know, but it sure is worth thinking about.

“Actually, NeiL made a great point that wasn’t mentioned.

“I think that, politics aside (since we’ve heard so much about how as youth, we’re so apathetic), Singaporeans (again, ex pre-65er) are so used to “someone” planning the path for us, “someone” being there to cushion our falls and “someone” who will help us in our problems, that we’ve forgotten that this “someone” sometimes needs to be ourselves.”

Indeed indeed, I commented on the transition we’re facing, but this whole idea of a well-managed and well-regulated Singapore could also be a contributing factor to the mediocre people around, men or women.

At one end, the women (this issue about using ‘girls’ or ‘women’ is plain silly to me, women are grown up girls, it has nothing to do with the generation they belong to) need not do anything themselves and just depend on the men in their lives who willingly, gallantly and chauvinistically come to their rescue.

What makes women like that mediocre is their lack of ambition, lack of drive, lack of want to learn and pick up skills for themselves.

Similarly, what I personally experience with Singaporean men is their lack of ambition and drive to do something about their lives. It’s always about cramming the books in their heads for good grades at the exams and to get the most stable, well-paying job to waste their lives away. Often, this is related to societal norms about what is most profitable, or maybe what the government wishes to encourage, e.g. biotechnology, entrepreneurship.

We hear underdog stories of successful entrepreneurs and also the government provides support for entrepreneurs. So poof! We suddenly have everyone interested in setting up their own businesses. The arts is not lucrative, so few build a career in it (but many dabble in it, for a “facebook” while). It is saddening that I seldom meet people who are truly passionate about what they do and have the drive to achieve in their area of interest. We are just too economic savvy. (This may well not be Singapore specific.)

Like NeiL mentioned, perhaps all this has to do with the fantastic planning that the Singapore government has done for the country. Maybe this has made people forgot how to think for themselves.

Maybe we’re just too used to having decisions made for us and routes planned for us. But really, everyone should have the drive to make decisions for themselves. Everyone should bear responsibility for their decisions, boys and girls. Guess this is not absolutely relevant to the gender specific mediocrity. But also maybe, men are too busy feeding their egos by meeting the mediocre women’s trivial requests to spend time working on their ambition. This just makes everyone worse off, men or women.”