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Twitter Updates
Tuesday, December 15, 2009 These Are The Days I like the text at 2:53 onwards! Wonder which Emily Dickinson poem was it. And at 4:12, is a poetry that I really enjoyed reading, which happens to be part of the title of the piece, These are the Days When Birds Come Back, also by Dickinson. These are the days when birds come back, Tuesday, December 8, 2009 Inspired Yes, I know I've not been writing for a long time. Possibly because I've been so busy with Les Voix 09, which is my most fulfilling concert to date over the span of the last 2 years since I started choral conducting full time (or rather, to kill time).  Photo Credits: Victoria Siew The rehearsal process was a exhausting 3 months, since September. Coming in on Mondays, discussing repertoire and practice, Kakis' practices on Tuesdays to leading sectionals on Wednesdays and then Acappuccino's practices on Saturdays. And on concert week, my unofficial duties include having to warm them up (much to my own comic relief (think Mu-oo-wa-ha-ha-ha-ha) and pleasure) and also to ease their burden by being their comic relief too. :P Sectionals was fun, I tried to make it light, yet firm - so as not to bring in too much stress, maybe until the 2 weeks prior to concert. Random jokes (sometimes not caught) was mentioned, and the occasional breakdowns that can happen to them all.  Photo Credits: Chan Yu Qin Acappuccino's taste of Latin-American pieces as a vocal ensemble was commendable, especially since we've been working hard to pull the performance through. I can't be more proud of the rest, actually, to make this homecoming performance a landmark for us as a group. Yuqin as Costume Mistress to the group and for the Kakis, Gerald busy day-in-day-out from camp to practice (he had to book in after the concert even!), Alvis as assistant director for the group for this performance while Fanella and Farhanah are busy with work. I was liaising between the main Voice Ensemble, Kakis and the group itself, and also ensuring that everything was done up for Mr Ong to come in fuss-free. At the end of the concert, the usual reception for members and friends was another affair that cemented the purpose of the concert. We're not here to just perform songs, but rather, we're here because we enjoy singing and we want to show it. All in all, at this hour, all I can say that, I really enjoyed this year's concert, if only there were more real photos by real photographers, not some unprofessional kid who cuts off groups as if playing around. I enjoyed those by the members and alumni, and am looking forward to those by the Photography Club. To end this post, I present you BETTER WORLD (compoased by Ryan Cayabyab, arranged by G Peleria) performed by the combined chorus of the Singapore Youth Choir Ensemble Singers (Singapore, Jennifer Tham director), Gaia Philharmonic Choir (Japan, Ko Matsushita* director) and the Ateneo Chamber Singers (Philippines, Jonathan Velasco director) for the THREE! concert series. Last note, I believe this song was written for the Philippines Madrigal Singers? Nice song anyway. * I think Ko Matshushita has this exuberance and charm which makes me feel envious about myself. I need to work on it even more. =) Labels: acappuccino, choirs, Les Voix 09, NYP, NYPVE, VE, Vocakakis Sunday, November 8, 2009 I Hate Guard Duties Well, it's a known fact. I will not talk about it much. Life has been pretty busy, especially with the collaboration performance with the NYPVE (check out Acappuccino's blog!), plus we're doing new materials for next year and already started planning for our concert! So anyway, I just returned from guard duty and am going straight for a photoshoot with the VocaKakis. Long day ensues, but I'm recharged. Some nagging questions in mind, but I guess I'll leave it for another day. Thursday, November 5, 2009 Long Update? It's been ages since I've updated. The colleagues from India have returned, oh well. I guess I have to live with the noise again, and all the bastardly attitudes which really put me off work. Those people who go around, openly whispering/gossiping about others. Like how an emotional creature I am. Oh well. Poo-poo to them, not that I can be bothered. I have neither passion nor drive to work in such an environment forced unto me, but what can I do anyway. So I'll just write about it and let it be. Pretty much nothing else to life, I'm in quite a plateau in my artistry and basically, I still can't share much (despite what people have been doing, rest assure that they will be dealt with) and I am definitely not looking forward to meeting some of them. Soon, I'll blog as if I'm someone desperate seeking attention by giving a lot of details, a blog post not to be missed! Friday, October 30, 2009 No more? Some people asked me why am I no longer complaining about life and about the ill-attitude people around me, like I used to. The only reason I can give at the moment is that I've too many friends who act similarly, but are not ill-in-attitude. And that some of them would tend to think I'm bitching about them, which is pretty unfair for me as these are also people who complain I do not blog enough and think that I'm talking about them whenever I do blog. So what do I do also, now that I'm running both "Of Spurts" and "Derrick Writes" at the same time? Of course I need to survey and weigh in my blogging options and what I type on the other side too, since it is strictly only for my artsy-fartsy stuff. So what do you think is the problem, my lack of blogging or me having shallow friends? Friday, October 23, 2009 Long time It's been such a long time since I've really sat down and blog because of the workload in camp that has increased two-fold (and that is actually an underestimation). So what else is new? Oh did I mention that I received Schafer's Magic Songs? Hahaha... So this is a short post to remind everybody that I'm still alive. Thanks for all your birthday greetings, and I love you all! Saturday, October 10, 2009 Busy, busy I have been rather busy these few days, with so many things in my mind, and physically handling. Of course, there are people who go, "It's your fault because you don't delegate your job, so you have no rights to complain." BAH. And I only go BAH. to losers. Childish, but whatever. Life has essentially been alright, except for a few qwerks which I realised recently because of one person's attempt to attract attention to himself. I shall mask the identity of the person by using generic male terms. Now you see, sometimes we all love our privacy. I've been through that issue with a Noose (insiders joke, but if you get it - good for you). I simply hate it when things supposed to be private between a "you and I" becomes an issue with people not related to it. And besides the fact, the person who divulged the information don't understand how things work totally and went on to assume how it goes, because he thinks it is wrong. "Fine. It is wrong then. So Derrick is wrong. No mistakes in that." And thus so, this creates fine lines between me and other friends, and breaks down whatever little cliques we all have. Isn't that wonderful, the guilty one - trying to break down friendly relationships? I hate it even more when people assume (thus the italics) that whatever I do is wrong, and weaves a tale that is even more sordid and makes it look like I killed someone. And funny how some of these people are those who make it seem like they can't live without you? I'm going to openly tackle the most personal of these issues here, on my bleeding blog. Financial Issues Here are what some of these self-righteous zealots said (of course I don't phrase it like that do): He spends his money like water, and is still so broke. I thought being in NS would actually help him save up and stuff. I see him spending on things like branded stuff, new items which he can do without. I feel angry at him la... I'm drawing an allowance of $440. That is before the freaking deductions they make, and all these delays. Thus sometimes, I loan from friends, but that usually never mean they have the right to bypass and talk about this to people, not even to other friends. Let's break down how much I spend the $440 a month: a. I spend $50 on my train concession, and another $30 for bus rides (which I top up). which leaves me with $60 to spend a month? So what "branded stuff" did I get? Oh that pair of $20 earphones?! Hasn't anyone heard of saving up for it? Besides, I bought one for Fanella too. And that doesn't happen every month. Go ahead, ask Fanella. My last purchase for myself, was a torchlight for field camp, and before that was a Giordano tee. (and of course between those was the earphones.) So what else did I splurge on besides food? Do you need food? I need food, I'm very sure of that! And note that I said "for myself". My $60 is usually spread between my brothers (to cut down on my mum's expenditure at times) and also on things I need at home. So what do you think? I went for a huge buffet dinner with $60 a month and can still go watch a movie? Which brings me to these question: Is it wrong to watch movies? Or have dim sum? Or walk along Orchard Road (people think I'm rich to be able to walk down Orchard Road - isn't that stupid?) Read: How I spend my $60 a month is my bloody business. So stop spreading stories around! Thursday, October 8, 2009 The Journey of a Thousand Miles rightfully begins when someone throws you out. I'm pretty much not in the mood for anything much, except ONLY productive things, like emotions, work status and such. So get it up, or get out. Tuesday, September 29, 2009 Hurt? I fell down earlier while getting to the bus stop because of the muddy slope. I remember falling down when I was younger, grazed myself, then I went up to my mum and went (without crying), "Ma... My hand pain." She panicked, and quickly washed it and made sure I was okay. I walked into the house and saw my mum on my brother's mattress sleeping, and all I thought to myself, "It'll be alright - I can clean it myself." Sweet nostalgia. Labels: daily noggins, family Monday, September 14, 2009 The More Uninhibited... I've decided to separate my "creative escapades", i.e. my artistic direction "speeches"/reflections and other things into another blog. Reason being, there are things I want to keep in this new blog free from the flow of my daily life. As I said - it's part of my creative cycle. I've noticed that over the past two years, I've been working on so many things but I rarely come close to fruition. Not because I don't have the relevant exposure or people to help me. But I never find enough flow with issues like idiots from a certain place, and the daily haggles and stress I can talk about (but I rarely do so because most of them are private to me). Thus the only things I work on are music-related. A Cappella, Choirs, Instrumental Accompaniments. Gone are the days I talk about writing scripts, or poetry. And it's getting really FREAKING HARD for me to archive/consolidate/sort these entries. THUS THE DEMAND FOR A CLEAN SLATE, OR AT LEAST SOMEWHERE FOR ME TO START FROM WHERE I LEFT OFF! Now to keep this simple, follow these few equations: Creative, Artistic Things + Reflective Input + Artistic Nonsense = http://derrickk.wordpress.com Life + Angst due to Idiotic People + Reflections upon Life in general + Nonsense in all sense = HERE. So, here's to me continuing on my artistic journey! *chinks glasses* NOTE: I'll still blog here, doofus! I'm not giving up both blogs. But I won't say if I'll devote more time to any of them - I'm too tied up with Acappuccino and other pressing matters everyway first and foremost. Scripting This is random, but I can't believe I just watched the part I auditioned for being played before my own eyes. "I asked God why. I asked Him (beat) to take this away from me. By the time I entered secondary school, I realised He wouldn't." The lines seem so surreal, though just minute compared to the scene. Now, if only I got the part, but hey - he did it better than me. I was too nervous during the screen test. Haha.. The script was based on the first story off Suchen Christine Lim's book, Lies That Build A Marriage - a series of shorts that speaks about "the unsung, unsaid and uncelebrated" in our island. The Morning After (the title) had a few quotes which I particularly enjoyed and find a certain attraction to. One of them as follows: There had been a seismic shift the night before. No one noticed it. Singapore the morning after was still the same. The sun rose as usual. Everything looked the same. Does such ever happen - that a huge change happens and we do not even notice it? Maybe that's why it's really out of sight - and we treat it like it is out of mind. And my favourite scene - there's something about neo-western (or untypical fusion) family scenes which I really like a lot. The communication between the characters are typical of western cultures - open and mature, but it brings about still, the innocence and typical Chinese behaviors within a conservative Chinese family. (A contradiction lies here itself, I know, but I'm really unable to express it in words. Maybe you could help me, if you think you may - that is what the comments link is for.) Imagine it with me now with the passage from the book: ‘Mum, I don’t want to live a lie. I want to live in the open. In the light. Not hiding in the dark,’ he said softly. And now for a moment - why didn't I really give my 200% at the screen test? *grins* It doesn't matter anymore. Now to be shameful - who wants to lend/get me a copy of the book? Acer being Stupid? I'm hopefully going to send in my laptop tomorrow to ACER to check for any hardware defects. It's close to a year and I feel that I should just send it in for a full check before anything dies off for good. But WTF to their infamously bad customer service. Don't they know it's bad for them that when people don't like their service - and then run off to competitors? C'mon ACER, the only reason why I got a laptop from you is because it's cheap and lasting (well, supposed to be). The first one lasted a year and a half, and I'm hoping that this will last 2 years. Then I'll see if I'm able to get something better, like an iMac or MacBook Pro. And since Fanella said you guys had some claims on your site claiming same day returns - I hope that you guys are able to return me my laptop within the same day - hopefully I can drop by collect it then go for my hospital appointment. Now, what is it that I wanted.. Hmm... I guess I'm just lamenting about that csrss.exe problem. And thinking that it might have been a hardware problem instead. Friday, September 11, 2009 Childhood Miniatures (and more...)  Went for The Singers' latest concert, Childhood Miniatures, with the group and Jiaqi.I told myself nothing should get in my way for a good concert night, even if people were irritating me the whole day, but that is an issue aside. Repertoire performed: 1. Monday's Child (from Five Childhood Lyrics, 1973) - John Rutter 2. "When I..." (5 from A Cycle of Miniatures, 2002)* - Vytautas Miskinis 3. Weather Report (2005)* - Bob Chilcott 4. I'll Follow The Sun (1986) - Arr. Grayston Ives 5. Sesame Street Theme (2009)+ - Arr. Lawrence Ng 6. Five Nonsensical Songs (1967)* - Norman Luboff 7. I Don't Want To Live On The Moon (2001) - Arr. Chan Zhuomin 8. Four Shakespeare Songs (1984) - Jaakko Mantyjarvi Come Away, Death (Twelfth Night 11:4)9. Five Hebrew Love Songs (2002) - Eric Whitacre 10. Amor De Mi Alma (2001) - Z. Randall Stroope The concert circled around a few themes, mainly three: Childhood, Shakespeare Love and Nonsense. They did a few miniatures, mainly nonsensical ones which really cracked me up. Rutter's Monday's Child was a great opening, with its vocal layers and texture which the Singers are wonderfully built for with their experience. Adorned on the projection screen was paintings dedicated for the song (correct me if I'm not wrong) by a local artist for the concert. Brilliant accompaniment of the non-musical kind. Miskinis' "When I..." cycle of miniatures was a light take of situational ethics. But of course that is how I see it. I particularly how the lyrics of the various miniatures were projected onto said screen. Weather Report was particularly interesting with the Singers opening the moment (before the song begins) with a real weather report from the UK. The song is humourous in its take of the obsession with "How's the weather?". Followed up by Ive's arrangement of I'll Follow The Sun, the Singers followed up the song... With the theme from Sesame Street! How apt and shows very good programming in my opinion. A local commissioned arrangement of the song. Luboff's set of Five Nonsensical Songs is hilarious in its take. I only remembered one of them going "Beauty if for now. Stupidity... is forever." My first personal highlight of the evening would be their arrangement of Ernie's hit song, I Dont' Want to Live on the Moon. There is nothing bad about the performance of the song, except that it brought back nostalgia of the old TV set when I was young. Dreamy and lyrical, Wilson's solo on the song was well done, with nuances of Ernie's subtleties. Mantyjarvi's Four Shakespeare Songs isn't a stranger in Singapore choral culture - with many JC choirs still doing it. The Singers added the depth of their performance further by having Susan Tordoff (actress from the UK) to do vocie acting upon the Shakespearean texts before the song, giving the impression of the Literature lessons I so look forward to during school time. Except that it was cooler with the Singers' interpretation of the song (instead of some overly dramatised stagework, which is equally good, but lacking in the oomph). Whitacre's timeless Five Hebrew Love Songs was done with pianist Shane Thio and violinist Karen Tan (from the SSO). Wilson conducted the Singers this time round. The translated texts were projected onscreen and their rendition of the piece was simply effortless. I liked it somewhat when Wilson read the Hebrewian text for Eze Sheleg. It sounded really as if I was brought to when Hila Plittman wrote the texts. The Singers closed the evening's delights with Stroope's Amor De Mi Alma, and the translation were projected onscreen once again. This time, you can literally feel the audience holding their breath as the songs climaxed in emotions and dynamics. You are The Love of my Soul, so goes the song, and so goes to the fans of the Singers for a night that couldn't be possible with the inspirations and support each singer has gotten throughout their lives to this day. Quite an inspiring concert, I say and it was worth it. I Don't Want To Live On the Moon Dedicated to readers and people who used to sit quietly before their television, as restless children even, listening to this whenever Sesame Street plays it. I love the message that impressed unto me - we all have places we like to go to, but we know that it is not where we want to be permanently. Ernie expresses his desire to visit the moon someday, but ultimately decides he doesn't want to live there. He also sings about wanting to travel under the sea and to a few other places, as long as he is able to return home to those he loves. I heard the song at the Singers' concert. Arranged for them by a late friend (who passed away recently), the song was fondly reminiscence of my childhood days. I'm definitely glad I went for the concert, which I'll talk about in a separate entry, because the Singers are just too damn good. Oh! And guess what I found on YouTube?! Those who know, Jim Henson was the original puppeteer for Ernie, and when Jim passed away in 1990, Steve Whitmire took over as Ernie's puppeteer in 1993 (God knows why the lapse in time). And voice. You might find it irrelevant, but let's hear Steve Whitmire as Ernie. Besides, a new arrangement of the song with country singer Shawn Colvin. There's another video of Ernie singing the song with Aaron Neville, that was between 1990-1993, where Henson's voice was mixed into Neville's recording to make it seem that it was Henson performing. Colvin and Ernie's duet was in 1998 for Elmopalooza, Sesame Street's 30th Anniversary music special episode. (In Elmopalooza, the irritating, self-centered and idiotically-senile Red monster locks up the producers and hosts to the Anniversary Music Special in their own dressing room and decides to host the whole show himself.) Oh, just in case, the lyrics to the song:
The line that speaks most to me: "So although I may go, I'll be coming home soon." I'm a sucker for lyrics that speak close to my heart. Now, that's a piece of Derrick you guys are really meant to be readers to know. Enjoy the videos and feeling nostalgic! P.S. With regards to the Singers' loss of a friend, Mr Chan Zhuomin; I dedicate this entry to him, for doing a great job arranging the song, with all the subtleties that really made this song what it is. And as much as the song doesn't mean to depict death in anyway, I know that sometimes in such cases, our hearts wish that the person is really coming back soon. P.P.S. The Yib-yibs at the end of the MV is damn cute. Labels: daily noggins, death, Ernie, Sesame Street, Singers, song Tuesday, September 8, 2009 Being Normal
Was reading random articles and stories when I chanced upon this - and it caught my attention; and I asked myself: Why is it that some people become famous, popular or just well-known? Is it because they're really normal people doing extraordinary things or just extraordinary people (finally) doing normal things like failing? Let's ponder a moment as I prepare to rush out. |
were here before you. Link Out acappuccino still in the midst of recovering links, please forgive me and tag me your links if you want me to place you HERE. thanks loads! 
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