organ and voices

The concert at the DFP went ok. I thought the rehearsal was better. It sounded a little draggy yesterday. Slow.

BUT ... it was still well attended for a Monday 6pm show. I didn't think it would be since it's so close to work hours.

Earlier that day, sent out my first ever batch of nervousness mass postcard swap. My first nervousness experience. Can't wait for the other 24 postcards to come my way.

Also have a set of free postcards that I'm to swap with this other girl. Have the cards in an envelope, addressed and stamped. Just need to add a little note into it.

And my third swap would be a CD for postcard swap. I send her a postcard and she'll send me an Adam Sandler CD? Or was it Jerry Seinfeld? Which ever. I'm just curious about a comedic CD. I've never bought one before. For this swap, I'll need to go hunt for a card. Saw some promissing ones last night. I'll keep looking though.

sean ghazi


His voice is gorgeous. Very musical theatre. Very high swoon factor. *sigh*

Went to watch him sing at No Black Tie last night after Marc Rochester's rehearsal. Didn't know about it until Suzan called and asked if I was interested in going late that afternoon itself! I'm glad she called. Suz didn't think that much of the theatre circle will be there that night cause Lew told her that the whole bunch of them from Dramalab and what not were there the night before.

She was wrong.

There were a whole bunch of the dominating the table in the middle. Mostly the cast from Spilt Gravy. Oh and Fang was there and saw Gavin Yap as well. Lots of theatre people.

Now ... I wonder why I never see them in other shows done by lesser known people? ... but then, I don't go to too many shows anyway. :)

April is ... fashion month




Some pictures I took at MidValley, on Thursday, during one of the runway shows that are going on all around the city.

spend, spend, spend

new laptop.
new car.
new shelves.

More than half my savings is gone. Nevermind, I'll console myself with all the nice new things that I have.
Hmmm ... need to buy more stuff.

CD player for the new car.
A new TV for my new room. (I'm like a nomad. Just changed room a year ago and now again!)

Should I get a new PC? Managed to get parts of PC from Cris and trying to see if I'll work with my HP PC that is kaput. I'm missing my keyboard and mouse. Nobody knows what happend to them. It just vanished. Anyway, those won't do anyway. The PC I got from Cris is an old Pentium. It uses a serial mouse and a different keyboard cable (the old ones not the PS2 ones. I don't know what they're called.). Maybe I can sneak some from the office to try them out.

Righto! Need to get my ass over to Bangsar so that I can finally print those holiday pictures. There's about 140 pieces so that's gonna place a further dent in the wallet.

oh man!

Just when I thought things are beginning to go well, something has to happen.

Nevermind the detour to MidValley when I thought I couldn't catch the 7pm at Sunway Pyramid. Wanted to watch it in Pyramid cause it's closer to home and earlier as well but got out of work late so couldn't make it.
Nevermind the jam that I had to go through which cause made me do another detour in an attempt to beat it.
Nevermind the wrong turn that took me right back into the jam that I was trying to avoid.
The cinemaonline site says that the movie's suppose to start at 8pm but is actually starts at 8.30pm so I have to kill some time walking around aimlessly.

Nevermind all that cause I got to watch the movie in the end. Star Trek - Nemesis.

I won't say that I was dissappointed cause I wasn't. I quite like the show. Shinzon's ship is just so much cooler and menacing that the Enterprise with it's cloaking capabilities and the incredible weapon that causes people to turn into dust as shown in the first scene in the Romulan senate (which reminds me a lot of the Roman senate). It is a wonder though that the Federation has up till now not discovered the secrets of cloaking that the Romulans seems to have had for ages or at least a method of detecting a cloaked craft.

The movie also reminded me why I used to follow the ST:TNG when it first started and also why I stopped. Cool ships and the display of opening mechanical weapons are only interesting the first few times. After that, it's same ol', same ol'.

But, I enjoyed it cause I haven't seen all those cool things for so long. :)

Happily walking out of the cinema and into my car before I reaslised that I've lost my parking ticket.

Yessiree Bob! It's gone.

I'm so mad with myself.
Stupido! Imbecile!
Why didn't you listen to that little voice in your head that told you not to take the ticket with you when you were getting out of the car?!

As usual, whenever I second guess myself, the outcome is usually bad.

I had to pay RM20 to get out of the parking.

Nemesis is really costing me a lot of money just to watch it. First - I forgot my wallet. And now - lost my ticket! This money has costed me RM32; including movie ticket fee excluding the requisite popcorn and coke.

Pictures from the Broadway & Operetta In Concert on Saturday night




There's a review of the concert in The Star yesterday.

the merry widow

It was a short (in terms of rehearsal time - only 5 weeks?) but tiring journey. Full of last minutes changes, new songs, new movements. Changes which lasted up until the last performance on Saturday night where we had to learn a song at 8.30pm with the show beginning at about 8.45pm.

What a crazy ride it was.

But it was good.

The attendance and audience energy was much better on the second night, which was open to the general public, than the audience on the first night, the corporate and VVIP audience. Actually the first night was kinda down putting, for me anyway, cause the audience was quite stone faced (Colin would probably say that's cause we're not doing our job well). We must have done much better on the second night cause the kind audience gave us a standing ovation. Thank you. :)

*sigh*

I was exhausted after the last night's performance. My running around Bangsar prior to performance time on both days probably didn't help any, of course. I bought tickets to watch the Actors at Work shows (Sat & Sun) by Bell Shakespeare's (quite enjoyable) when I went to watch Goldfish Tale. Also went for a Beginners Argentine Tango workshop by the visiting Ms. Gladys Fernandez and Ricardo Gallo at the new dance studio - Dance Space - after the Actors at Work show on Saturday before rushing to my own show. I really enjoyed the workshop; I think I might sign up for the lessons by Marguerite.

Marguerite's a really graceful lady who I'm told is already a granny. She certainly doesn't move like one. Nor does she look like one either. She has a body that any dancer would be envious of - all long limbs and really slim. I suspect that she was a ballerina when she was younger. Anyway, still thinking about whether I'm going to take lessons from her there cause it's quite pricey - RM100 per month. *yikes*

Oh yes! I almost forgot. The people from Tosca called on Friday ... I'm in! Yay! There's gonna send the scores and contract by post. So, I should get it sometime this week. :D

That means I have about quite a few more things to do.

• Marc Rochester's program on 14 April,


• In Line dance competition 25 & 26 April,


• The Phil's show for Kiwanis 24 May,


• The Phil's charity dinner at Maju Palace (if anyone's interested, email me for tickets and information),


• Tosca in July(?)

WOW! Quite a number.

Hmmm ... there's nothing in my planner for the second half of the year yet. Dennis is still keen on getting me to dance in his show. Not sure if I want to do it cause he's stuff is so avant garde. I don't know shit about avant garde stuff. I think they're kinda weird. Will see what he has planned. If it's not too weird, I might do it. :)

one more rehearsal

Last rehearsal for The Merry Widow tomorrow. I'll be a tech run but we haven't done a full dress yet. Full dress was suppose to be tonight but it didn't happen. So, we might do that tomorrow as well.

Hopefully, we will have a run through with everyone ... and I do mean everyone. Soloist and choir; both. Haven't had that either. First we've seen of the Singaporean soloist was the tenor playing Danilou and the soprano who plays Valenciene during rehearsal tonight. The widow has yet to make her grand appearance.

I'm exhausted. It's gonna be another long rehearsal tomorrow. Thank goodness I'm taking leave on Friday. *phew*

Oh yes! My second submission to the Mirror Project has been approved! Yay!

artsy fartsy

A bit of an artsy fartsy this past few days. Went to the MPO on Friday to watch Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush with music conducted and composed by Carl Davis.

I thought it was just gonna be another orchestral performance but with a big screen in front of it. But I truly truly enjoyed it. Not just plain 'like it' but really liked it. Although, halfway through the movie I'd forgottend that it was being accompanied by a real life orchestra. Would definitely go watch it again if they're gonna do another one of this silent movie with music thing. The movie was really good. Much better even than some of the things that we see on our cinemas these days. There has been a lot of crap showing at the movies. And I don't remember Charlie Chaplin movies being so long. It was all of 96 minutes. Chaplin is a genius. I wonder where I can get my hands on more Chaplin movies. I remember they used to show it on the telly but that was pre-idiotic-make-no-sense-cencorship. They even censored 'Mind Your Language', c'mon! Thank you though for showing that series again. Hmmm ... I wonder how they'd show 'The Benny Hill Show' these days ... but I digress.

Next up, 'Spilt Gravy On Rice'. Award winning. 'nuff said.

Actually, I think I'll say something about it. It's no surprise why they won so many awards at the recent Cameronian Awards. The cast were strong, the set was brilliant and the lighting very well done. Plus, they were so funny! I laughed my head off.

Earlier today, went to watch 'The Goldfish Tale' cause Fang's in it. Thought I'd go support her on her debut performance. She was quite good in it. Not much can be said about her performance cause it was quite small but she did have a scene with another actress and she was really good in it.

NOW this show struck a chord cause I went through/am still going through what the role Seng (played by the toast of the local critics, Gavin Yap) went through. The need to runaway. To escape. To leave all the problems of family life and wanting to live your own life without the constant criticism by family members. Seng, I feel for you man!

Choong Chi-Ren, the playright, must have written this from his own experience. I guess it's a common enough experience by students returning from their overseas studies, having tasted the joys of independant living away from know-it-all and I'm-doing-what's-best-for-you parents, away from what they think is a problematic home life. He wrote about how we expect certain events will evoke sudden transformation in a person. About how this is so unrealistic. That people don't change overnight just because something happened. So true. And I know it's true as well that we shouldn't try escaping the problems but whenever something comes up again, you just can't help but rant and think about it. To get away.

To be able to think about it is my means of escape. That there is a possibility of getting away from it all. I cling to that possibility ... although I know that I'll probably never act on it. Knowing that that is no way of solving the problem.

... but I cling to it nonetheless.

It's my version of hope in Pandora's Box.

Four weddings ... and hopefully no funerals

Well, the first wedding engagement that I have been invited to has come and gone. The first and the last one that I got the invite to that is. Actually, didn't even get an invitation card. She just called all of a sudden and asked if I could go to her wedding dinner. I didn't have anything scheduled and it would be nice to see her again. I haven't seen her for a long time. Last time I think was when I bumped into her on the streets of Sydney during my one month of bumming around Australia before coming home ... which means, it has been more that 4 years!

I have some pictures from the wedding dinner but I can't put it up yet cause I haven't been able to get my hands on the single workable machine in my house. My parents went up to Genting (they didn't tell me about it, just up and went) and therefore haven't seen hide nor hair of my sister either. And she wonders why we're suspicious of her coming back to stay. Now that she's got the car and laptop. Hmmph!

Anyway, will post it up as when I can.

The rest of the weddings are at the end of the year. Two in November, with all possibility of it being on the same night, and the last one in December.

So many weddings this year all of a sudden; when previously, I've not been invited to any. Well, not any of my friends anyway. None got married; that I know of.

I suppose being of a certain age, one should expect to receive wedding invitation to their friend's weddings. Mid twenties seems to be the favoured age for marriage. To start a family. To start a new phase in life. It's the time when you've had a few years of work in your belt, feel secure about your job, feel that you have some worth. Worthy enough to share that life with the another person; with your soul mate. To make the ultimate commitement. To click on the old ball and chain. Hee hee.

Ah ... it's all good when you've found the right person. Just hope that the parental units didn't take the jibes about me being next seriously. Yes, they knew the parents of the bride, which is how I got to know the bride as well. As I was saying, hope the don't get their hopes up, I don't see that happenning anytime soon ... or anytime at all.


Update: Pictures!

moonbeam


Staging directions by Mr Phillip Chai is simply disasterous. It's all a mess but he seems to like it. Am feeling quite at a loss as to what we really are suppose to do on opening night. Hopefully the Malaysian-Singaporeans involved will do something about it this weekend.

Lew says he's gonna reject the offer for Natra - The Musical cause they only gave him an ensemble part and is only paying RM6000 for 4 months of work. Quite a low payout considering the number of hours they are requesting; 7pm-11pm weekdays and whole day weekends. I also know of one other guy who's gonna turn it down cause he got a role in Tosca and would rather do that to Natra. So two's out.

So, since his no longer doing Natra, Lew, now, has time to finally do the intermediate level of his Musical Theatre course; which he asked me to ask the rest of them from the Intro class if they were interested. Promised him that I'd send out an email but haven't done it yet. I'll go send one out now ... although, judging by what we went through in the Intro class, I would hazard a guess that a majority of them will not be interested.

just browsing

While awaiting someone else to finish their part before resuming with my work, I browsed ...

• Real life 'Face/Off'
  I'm wondering how friends and families of the deceased would react. Also, will the face look the same once it's transplanted? If you had almost different bone structure from your donor, would you still look like your donor? Or would bone structure be one of the criteria when choosing a donor?



• Indian-American Child Having Difficulty Finding Bicycle License Plate With His Name On It [The Onion - VOLUME 39 ISSUE 10]
  I don't know what he's been complaining about. I've been searching for the past 25 years for a paraphanelia bearing the exact spelling of my name to no avail. Think I'll have to manufacture my own if I badly want one. Good luck kid!

shoot the messenger

After 25 years, you'd think I'd have learnt my lesson.
And yet, it happened again yesterday.

My brother moved out a couple weeks ago. Thing is, he's moved out but hasn't cleared out.

Plans have been made, not by me, for me to move into his room so that my dad can convert my room into his office cum entertainment center. So, problem is, in my view, I can't move into his room until he has moved his things out. AND in my view, I shouldn't move his things out for him, as suggested by everyone else in the family, because it's his private personal things. ... plus, there is quite a lot of things left and I do admit that I am too lazy to do it ;)

My dad told me to give him a ring to ask him to come pack his stuff.

I did ... and got an earfull from him for asking him to come back now to do it. Somewhere along the conversation he also picked up that I asked him to do it in two hours. I did not specify a timeline. What I said was, papa wants to set up office in my room so I have to move into his room, so, could he come over and pack up his stuff or would he rather I do it for him. The come-back-and-do-it-no edit was relayed to him after my dad yell that message over my shoulder.

He came stomping back while I was in the showers. Mood blacker than any cloud I've seen and of course most of that anger directed at him for having been the 'bringer of glad tidings'.

Back in the kitchen, got another earful from my mom for calling my brother and not just clearing the room as she asked. I argued that it's not my right to clear his room full of personal things. He wouldn't like it ... I know, I've experienced this when someone cleared up my room while I was studying and came back roomless, all my worldless possessions in a tiny little box.

Of course, I get another lecture about how this is not how things work and how I'm so totally idealistic and shouldn't go by what I think is right but what everyone is actually doing instead. Maybe I should enrol in some finishing school instead just to learn how I'm suppose to act! Besides that also got the I'm just trying to teach you how you should be acting and how you should learn of my weaknesses ... mainly the raising of voice when I'm angry/piqued and not smiling enough. Plus how she's not trying to insult me; that it's all for my own good. Oh yes! Not to forget ... I absolutely have no friends to speak of!

Lemme see, when was the last time she praised me? I remember she told me I was never very good at ballet (althought I am usually among the top in the class with several Honours to my belt). How I'm always to sulky and pessimistic? How I don't know how to talk to people (this one's partially true). Right ... she told me that she envied that she can't play as well as me on the piano during my last 2 hour stuggle to play a page of Chopin. Wonder if that's what she's talking about?

After I've finished helping her in the kitchen, I hightailed to the car to escape to the movies. Wanted to watch Star Trek - Nemesis. Got to Summit and even parked my car but didn't watch the movie.

I forgot my wallet.

Thank goodness I had enough coins to get out.

Just wasn't my day was it?

Red/Green/Blue:
To you, the world is logical. Everything happens
for a reason, life is scientific. You like to
find solutions. I doubt you needed to take this
quiz in order to realize this.


What color do you see the world in?
brought to you by Quizilla

Holy! How the heck does it know? That's exactly what I think.

Lo Lo - A Grissette of Paree ...

Ah ... the first production of the year. Two weeks and a half to showtime. Tickets for the Merry Widow concert are/should be on sale at ticketcharge. However, JasonC informed us that it's not - available at ticketcharge ... yet. I'm sure they're going to get a wee bit of tongue lashing tomorrow from Phillip. For those who are interested, there's only one day to watch it - 29th March. The 27th March show is sold out.

Anyway, rehearsals been going great. Blocking is still kinda messy but I suppose that will get sorted out when we practise with the soloists. Oh yes and the choreography for the Grissette piece has yet to be done but Suz will be figuring that out. Should be fun. :)

After that, have to see if we can get a venue for the PCP. Forgot to ask Karen earlier today if we could use her place. Hmmm ... otherwise we'll have our club night sometime later and no PCP.

Right that's Merry Widow ...

saw: interesting piece on rock candy on the news. very pretty candies.
didn't see: La Femme Nikita ... thought I'd at least manage to watch the second half of the show when I got home late but it was not there. There at the time that it is suppose to be showing as stated in the TV Guide. I'm pissed. I've missed quite a number of episodes now. Urgh! Luckily, managed to watch the episode where they move out of their operational HQ. v.v. important episode. They were in gay Pareee! I'd always thought they were either somewhere in America or in London. Don't know why. Just do.
to-do tomorrow: Loreal product launch at Emporium? To go or not to go?

Birthday Colour Codes

MAROON
You are intelligent, and know what's right. You like to take things go
your way, which can sometimes cause trouble or not thinking about other
people's feelings. But you are patient when it comes to love... Once you
get a hold of the right person, it's hard for you to find a better love.

That's mine. How true it is? I haven't a clue. If you want to know yours, just email me and I'll mail you the list.

Breathe ... Breathe ... Breathe.

*sigh*

The heart is pounding. The body is jittery. The effect of lack of sleep? I hope so.

I've got way too much on my plate now. Definitely taking more that I can chew. Why did I want in on this new company? Why? Just cause I really sick of the PM and the direction the current company is going? Do I really see a potential in this company? If not, why am I pumping money into it?

Granted. It's not a huge sum of money but it is a still a sum. A sum which needs monthly input. Am I willing to give up all the frivolous spending on expensive coffee and cafe food? On those pirated DVDs and movies that I'm addicted to? But not only monetary also the time required for this effort. Less dancing (which is already in effect whether or not the company happens or not) and definitely less choir practise. Instead to spend more time in front of the PC doing everything that I do in the AMs but now in the PMs as well?

*sigh*

I sincerely hope so; although I'm not entirely certain. Please work!

Pray. Pray. Pray.

Pictures of the future from the past.

There's also going to be an online exhibition on March 7th. Check that outhere.

Taxes and Receipts

Tis the end of February which marks the time to begin gathering all that is required to do your taxes. For the first time since I began working, the Internal Revenue Department finally mailed me my tax returns form; the first year I had an exemption and the years after that I had to go to the office to get it in person. Anyway, I've been searching high and low for all the receipts I have kept for this particular purpose. Tax exemptions. Mainly receipts for books and magazines purchased. Made several purchases over last year. Subscribed to Wired as well, although that's not turning out particularly well.

Now ... I remember placing all these receipt into a nice little envelope so that I have everything in one little packet when I need them; except, I seem to have a) misplaced the envelope, or b) thrown it away during one of my mail/bill clearing sessions. *sigh* There goes a few hundred ringgit that I was hoping to minus off.

Error in template

Seems that there is something wrong with my template. Blogger can't seem to publish my site properly. If I'm not mistaken, it's a 503 error. There is a write-up on a 504 error in the 'How To/Discussion' area but no 503, or is it the other way 'round? Anyway, it most probably is a template error since this temporary template went up without a hitch. I'll try to fix it and put it up again in a few days.

Pyra's sale to Google must have really affected the search results. I received a comment from one of the auditioners from Natra and I can't believe one of them actually got to my blog! Too bad I don't know which one it was. I need to enforce that people at least leave their name when they drop in a comment. So, En. Zulkifli / Mr. Jacobs / En. Johan, thanks for dropping by and taking the time to read my whiny entry of my audition experience. Next time put down your name, alright?

It's a good thing I don't often put down my real name on this blog. Otherwise whoever it was could have just gone back to their stack of application to look over who this whiny, insecure person is and blacklist me or something.

Note to self: Modify comment template so that people have to write down their name before posting comments!