Echo Pathfinder
I'm feeling much better today. I guess all I needed was a good workout and run at the gym, to take that bit of frustration out of me.
I visited city music with the missus on saturday. We were just strolling around and checking out jazz electrics for fun. Lo and behold, I found a thing of beauty, at a reasonable price too. The missus told me to go for it.
The Hamer Echotone in transparent cherry red. Sweeet. Am thinking of getting the Vox pathfinder, with those nice warm clean tones. Looks like it might be maggi mee or black bean rice for the rest of the month.
I'm kidding of course.
Frustrated Incorporated
Heard the song by soul asylum? I remember that music video , with shots of workers in a silicon prefab plant, clinical clean, sterile doing repeitions of the mundane.
I've been out f sorts recently. the missus observed that I've been much more irritable than usual. I guess she's right, and I must be horrible to have around sometimes. I told her its all about settling down at work.
I just started at work, its pretty nice, not too boring, complex,a nd highly challenging all the time. My main beef - dealing with the sudden shortening of the days and nights wth having to keep a regular schedule. And feeling beat all the time when I get back home. I'll probably get used to it after a while.
So I decided to take a personality test. I wonder, what will the result be? Here they are.
| Your Personality Profile |
You are elegant, withdrawn, and brilliant.
Your mind is a weapon, able to solve any puzzle.
You are also great at poking holes in arguments and common beliefs.
For you, comfort and calm are very important.
You tend to thrive on your own and shrug off most affection.
You prefer to protect your emotions and stay strong. |
|
You are dependable, popular, and observant.
Deep and thoughtful, you are prone to moodiness.
In fact, your emotions tend to influence everything you do.
You are unique, creative, and expressive.
You don't mind waving your freak flag every once and a while.
And lucky for you, most people find your weird ways charming! |
I took them in succession. Both seem true of me. Especially the freak flag bit.
The Letter
Alex asked me to prepare a letter for Tsu ensemble. I wrote it, but it ended up being an exercise in nostalgia all over again. Here it is, warts and all. Yes yes, I know - enough with Japan already. So here it is, the last one.
Dear Yuko-san,
How are you and Namiko-san doing? I hope that the both of you are in good health and spirits. It’s been more than a month since we were last in Tsu City, but none of us can forget the wonder ful times that we shared with your ensemble and you. We may be in Singapore, but a part of our hearts will always be with all of you in Japan.
All of us are adjusting back to life in Singapore. We meet every Saturday for our practices at the CFA studios (which you visited), and have dinner after that. Often, the topic will be on the Tsu ensemble, niibori, and Japan. All of us grow nostalgic when we look at the pictures that we took together. While we may have forgotten many of your members’ names, their laughing faces stay fresh in our minds.
There is the high school boy in alto two with thick black plastic glasses – he played a duet with your concert master from alto 1. The young lady, with the pixie-like face, who prepared a wonderful breakfast for us in your home. I will always remember her for her noble occupation – a caregiver for the elderly. Also, the lovely lady with long hair who played the tamborine in Spanish Coffee; she captured the hearts of all our male members. Who can forget the tough and big man from Bass who always wore singlets? With his long hair swept back and his pose with the beer bottle in our farewell party? Not forgetting countless others who have a permanent place in our hearts.
Then, there is you and Namiko-san. You have inspired us with your love for music. With a magnificent wave of your baton, a sharp intake of air and a nod of your head you transformed the notes on the score into something much more – magic. Some of us, like myself, had thought of stopping due to our work committments. But seeing you, and your ensemble play, made us determined to continue with the same amount of dedication we saw in all of you. Namiko-san showed us how important it was to have a passion in life, be it music, sake or pachinko even if we grew older. Your late father is very fortunate to have two wonderful, strong women like yourselves in his life.
I cannot thank you enough for the warm hospitality that all of you have shown us. The late nights that Namiko san and you spent with us, looking over scores, and picking out what you thought suited us best will never be forgotten. I can only hope that if time permits, we may see all of you again. Be it in Japan, or in Singapore. Do visit us again if you have the chance – you will always be welcome in GENUS (Guitar Ensemble of NUS).
Warmest Regards,
Leonardo de Guzman / “Leo”
Team Leader, Genus goes Japan
AlumNus
I've been thinking about writing about my trip, where we went. Fortunately, I've been compelled to do so after being tasked to write one for AlumNus. Here it is.
GENUS goes Japan
I recently fulfilled a dream of mine – a cross country music tour in Japan. The cheery smiles of our hosts, the hustle of the city and the endless seas of green rice fields and farmers that cycled between them; memories best left in the heart.
I’m an alumni from the NUS guitar ensemble under the NUS Centre for the Arts management. We’re known as GENUS. For those music afficianados out there, we are an ensemble that plays with guitars with Niibori instrumentation and a whole lot of genres.
Recently, we were invited to go on tour to Japan. Needless to say, it was a milestone event for the club. We had never been overseas (save a short trip to Malacca years ago). Seeing that this was an invaluable chance, many of us jumped at the opportunity. Some like myself, relinquished the chance of attending our own commencement. Some lessons are better learnt beyond our shores.
Our official trip was from the 7th to the 17th of July, although some of us chose to extend it by four days. Within this short 11 day span, we visited Nagoya, Tsu, Kyoto, Fujinomiya, Fujisawa and Tokyo; sat on coaches for more than 30 hours and personally, got enough onsen and train tickets to form a deck of cards.
Being a music tour, it was not all fun and games. On several occasions it invovled crazed sprints from performing venue to bus, and cold-sweat inducing moment when we realised that we would have to perform in front Dr Hiroki Niibori, the creator of our Niibori-styled ensemble.
From a cultural standpont, it was an eye-opener. Few of us could speak Japanese. While we had undergone a 3 hour workshop on the culture and language, we were little prepared for the encounters that followed. These were of the interesting, and bewildering kind; given that we also participated in the homestay program. I remember that a good friend of mine who was seated next to me in the flight reciting the Japanese phrases that he learnt. This, at 5 am in the morning.
Each of the cities offered a different slice of life. Nagoya and Tsu was our first stop. This was where I learnt to throw most of the customs I learnt about out of the window. The geniality of my hosts (I stayed with the ensemble conductress and her spritely mom) extended to them offering their whole liqour cabinet to us for the local version of a “small nightcap”. We also had a chance to interact with the local university. I can recall their truncated attempts to speak English to us and our own mangled Japanese interpolated and punctuated with laughter from both sides.
Kyoto was our second stop. Its rich cultural vibrancy allowed us a chance to observe a delicate geisha performance in Gion corner. It was also where we had a good break, and a chance to do things on our own. My particular favourite was cycling around the city to see the sights on rental bikes. We even had the chance to catch the preparations for the local Gion Festival while pushing our bicycles through throngs of people on the sidewalk.
A recurring theme was our visits to the onsens. Nothing describes the searing bath water, and the shock from splashing oneself with icy cold water after. Not forgetting of course, how to deal with modesty issues, for which there was little room. I began to love this so much that I resolved to visit at least one in every city I visited. Needless to say, I lost much water retention weight, and gained in false bravado.
My favourite was our visit to the small city of Fujinomiya, which has a picture postcard setting. In the background, the imposing Mt Fuji, an impenetrable majestic sentinent keeping watch over the small city. This was where I saw the marriage of the urban landscape and nature, where strains of city sound gradually gave way to cicadas in the fields and winds whistling through the mountains. We also had the chance to interact with local city officials who deemed it a great honour to host visitors from the island republic. Most touching was our performance at the local retirement home which left many residents in tears when we left.
Finally, there was Fujisawa where the main niibori school was located. Thankfully, the Dr Niibori was more piqued than disturbed (since it was his first time hearing an overseas ensemble) and his colleagues highly enthusiastic in in their applause. They were delighted to have non-professional musicians, and students from NUS visit them. Tokyo was like any other megalopolis, a wonderful and technologically advanced place with electronic districts and countless trainlines; strangely alienating with giant LCD building-front screens in Shinjuku.
I wonder, when we can visit again.
Flowers
I've been having alot of trouble trying to put pictures in my blog. It always seems to take too long. Nonetheless, given my luck with the one yesterday, I think I shall select other pictures to post up. This time, on flowers.
Gave these flowers to the missus recently. I think they cheered her up tremendously.
Grade 1
Hows This Picture? One of my favourites, I managed to catch this little girl grabbing a drink at the Fujinomiya Temple. I wonder if shes old enough to be in Grade 1? Now, on to the story.
How 'bout this Grade 5 book sir? It might suit you better. The young Yamaha lady said.
Maybe I'll just look around. She nodded, and left me to my own devices.
I recently paid a visit the Yamaha music shop. I've got to work on my music theory lah. Don't think I have the time to go for proper classical lessons. The missus agreed, it was time I got my act together.
Indeed, I guess it must surprise many of you that I have zero experience with music theory. I can recall some earlier anecdotes of childhood of course. Watching the music teacher shade and fill up her quaver note with finess and wondering whether the stem or the shaded oval came first. Yes, quirky, even in my childhood.
But I never did get a chance to try to fill up the gaps in my music knowledge. A form of bliss perhaps, knowing that I could always rely on tabs for the guitar, and I could identify notes decently. But I realised I had to, if I wanted to continue playing.
It was getting to be too much of a pain (for me and others) to draw pencilled circles and sloppy slashes on my scores. And for Mel, JQ, Alex and countless others to keep a pencil and tired palms on their laps ready for counting time. (No Moh, I have not forgotten your efforts with Liu guang Fei wu)
So I decided to get a book on music theory. Slowly combing through the shelves, I found several. An advanced ABRSM one which was small handy and as easy to read as an engineering manual. And a more simplified one (there were several like these) for children. With a colourful cover, and a large assement book-like format. The missus thought it was cute. I thought I would be living my second childhood.
I thought otherwise. What would the counterstaff think? A grown man, picking a book where squirrels held on to crochet notes like they were having a lovely game of crochet. And where turtles were to be colour-penciled in various shades to identify the summation of the notes on their shells. What more it was a Grade 1 book. Should pragmatism win out? Should I get the manly book?
Fortunately I didn't. I bought the books and got a wry half smile from the counterstaff.
Yup, colouring turtles can be fun.
