My favourite childhood movie, made into a musical. It's AWESOME. I laughed my head off when I saw it. Arnold, back when he was fun.
Another day, Walking in circles Haunted by memories, I push on this wheel. I pray to Crom Grant me revenge And help me to answer the riddle of steel.
A shy little boy, I couldn't protect them Helpless and timid, as weak as a girl. They butchered my people, the dogs ate my father My mother beheaded, they took my whole world.
Crom, where is the wizard who killed my mother? Still, I can recall his terrible gaze. Crom, where are the two snakes facing each other? Crom, if you're my god then show me the way.
I'm on the path, chopping up bodies Hacking and slicing, and look at me now. With loyal friends joining my party Each step I take I'm fulfilling my vow.
Crush your enemies, See them driven before you, And hear the lamentation of the women!
(Repeat)
Crom, show me the wizard who killed my mother. True I've never prayed to you before. Still, what would I give if you could help me see this through? And if you do not listen, then the hell with you!
Crom, where are the two snakes facing each other? Crom, if you're my god then show me the way. Anyaaah, gnyaaaaahyaaaayaaaaa Yaaaaa ah aaaah ahhh
I swear this wizard will fall 'cause This has begun They murdered them all, I'm the last one I issue the call, revenge for my mom, I pray to you Crom!
Crush your enemies, See them driven before you, And hear the lamentation of the women.
Omnia mutantur
11:28 PM
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
HAHA I found this on one of my adventures in Kingdom of Loathing. Very amusing. ~~~~~~~
A man on the beach appears to be protesting the spaghetti cult, although he's doing it from a distance that you would generously call "safe" and not as generously call "cowardly". He's wearing a V for Vivala mask, and holding up a sign that reads "THE SPAGHETTI CULT IS A CULT", with a smaller sign below that, which says "And it sucks!".
"Down with Spaghettitology!" he shouts, as he sees you approach.
"You're down with Spaghettitology?"
"Yes! I'm down with... wait, what? No. I'm against them! They're not a legitimate religion! They're a cult! They're evil!"
"Well, yeah," you nod slowly. "I don't think they've claimed otherwise, have they?"
"They do terrible things in that mountain temple of theirs! Horrible, evil things!"
"Right. Because they're an evil cult. They do human sacrifice and stuff, probably."
"They force their members to give them money! Like, all their money!"
"That's somehow worse than human sacrifice?" you ask, raising an eyebrow.
"Uh... well, no. I wouldn't say that. But they brainwash people!"
"Right. Because they're a cult."
"Right!"
"...And?"
The guy looks around hesitantly and shuffles his feet a bit. "And... they're bad?"
"So let me get this straight," you say, "you're here protesting an evil demon cult and the horrible things they do, despite the fact that they're quite obviously an evil demon cult, and don't seem to be making any attempt to disguise the fact that they're doing horrible things."
"...Yes."
"Why?"
"Well," he huffs indignantly, "someone has to! Someone has to tell the world!"
"And you're doing that by protesting, by yourself, on a beach on an island in the middle of the ocean."
"Yeah, well, you're here. I told you about them."
"I already knew."
"You see! That proves it! Word is getting out! My message is spreading far and wi--"
"Hold it, Chester," you interrupt. "I've never heard of you or your little movement before. I'm here because that... thing they worship is my official Nemesis, and I'm going to throw it against the wall until it sticks."
"Really? You're here to put an end to their evil schemes?" He looks around shiftily (well, with that mask on he looks pretty shifty anyway) and lowers his voice to a whisper. "Listen, maybe I can help you. I knew a guy on the inside, who managed to pass me some kind of important cult documents before he went missing. I haven't got any idea what they are -- they're all in code. He seemed to think they were pretty important, though. You look pretty smart -- maybe if you can figure out the code, they'll be of some use." He hands you a thick bundle of papers covered with squiggly glyphs.
"Huh," you say, impressed despite yourself. "Maybe you're not the useless goofball I assumed you were. Thanks!"
"No problem, man. Just let me know if you need anyone's van blown up or anything."
Omnia mutantur
7:55 PM
Monday, July 26, 2010
YAY I'll be off to the Eternal City in December!
Andrò a Firenze, a Roma, a Città del Vaticano ed a Pisa per Natale. =)
Omnia mutantur
2:39 PM
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Die Zauberflöte Singapore Lyric Opera 23 July, 8pm Esplanade Theatre
I went to watch the Singapore Lyric Opera's Die Zauberflöte on friday, and since I will have to write a report on it, I might as well start by writing a short review.
I will have to say that it's the best SLO production I've watched so far. Which might not be saying very much. But still, I enjoyed myself, and it had some very pleasant moments.
Let's start with the overall presentation.
I already had problems with the concept of the whole performance. It was going to be sung in German, spoken dialogue in English, and as you can see from the poster, the costumes are of an Indonesian theme. Or Thai, I can't tell.
I'll give them points for trying to be creative. The entire backdrop is comprised of this confused Asian mashup. The Temple of Enlightenment is shown by 3 huge boulders with the words 理.人性.智. (reason, humanity and knowledge) on them. The keeper of the Temple holds an urn with joss sticks burning in it. When the backdrop was revealed, it drew some tittering from the crowd. It looked like a scene from a wuxia hack writer. Maybe that's why the illuminati hasn't taken root in Asia.
The Queen of the Night and Tamino were dressed in costumes worn by the royalty in Indonesia. Pamina was wearing a white gown that probably had no relation to the Asian theme. The Chorus was made up of men and women dressed in sarongs (for clearer illustration, look at the thai palace slaves' costumes in the movie Anna and the King). The three genii (all played by girls, since there weren't many boys in Singapore who could sing high pitches) looked like Nezha, with large flowers sticking out from them on either side. Monostatos looked like a cross between a parrot, an aborigine witch doctor and a baboon. The guardians of the temple looked like red indians. They even had the feathers around their head. It's hard to screw Papageno and Papagena up.
It was just... confused. I don't like this orientalism shit.
Anyway that aside, I was there for the music.
The orchestra played quite neatly, with all the running notes (it's Mozart!), but it was also weak. The overture was already pretty indicative that they were unable to 'rise to the occasion'. The loud bits sounded thin and at half the volume that it should have been. But on the whole I thought it was pretty alright.
Tamino (Kota Murakami) was unremarkable, considering he was a 'foreign talent'. He sang very uninspiringly, though there were no major slipups. My brain went to sleep whenever he sang.
Pamina (Nancy Yuen) was great as usual. She's always my favourite. Her tone and colouring is always golden and mellow. Probably one of the only few things worth listening to in SLO. I particularly liked her delivery of "Ach, ich fühl's, es ist verschwunden", it was very delicately done.
Papageno (Song Kee Chang) delivered his part very well too. He has a strong voice and good acting skills. He was a very amusing Papageno! "Bei Männern" (a duet between him and Pamina) was one of the treats of the night.
The three genii were also verging on going completely off key at points. But since they're children, I wasn't holding my breath.
The rest of the cast was unmemorable.
I've reserved the last bit of the review for the Queen of the Night. This will now dissolve into a rant. I've long wondered what the hell's the point of inviting foreign talent in to perform if they can't. We're better off sticking with Singaporean talent without spending that money.
The Queen of the Night (Tai Hsiao Chun) was an utter joke, from the start to the end. Her first appearance in "O zittre nicht" was so screamingly bad (literally and figuratively), off key and unsteady. At several points it sounded like the orchestra was driving her, rather than the other way around. Whenever she sang, her body shook left and right, which made her look like she was made of putty, or like she was drunk. The transition between her being a sad, mourning mother to her jubilant 'Eureka!' moment was so badly thought out that it just all sounded contrived and mechanical. And did I mention bad singing?
She was so much of a joke that I was hunched up in my seat trying to muffle my laughter. It didn't help that Gabriel had already slumped forward burying his face in his hands next to me.
I've been listening to this ever since Friday to get over the shock of paying $58 for horrific screeching like that. I was also very embarrassed because there were many foreigners sitting in the audience, and this would be utter rubbish to them.
"O Holle Rache" was a bit better. I was actually surprised she could hit the high Fs without slipping up. But maybe she just mugged that nonstop when she was learning the aria. But on the whole, she's just not a good performer.
After the performance, I went to do some online searches on her.
"Taiwanese Tai Hsiao Chun, who also calls herself “Queen Night Tai”, recently sang a lovely Lucia and then the Queen of the Night in January 2010. The Queen of the Night seems to her most performed signature role, so do take the opportunity to catch her live."
If that standard of performance lets her think that she can get away with calling herself 'Queen Night Tai', then Dessay, Damrau, Popp must be the Supreme Empresses of the Galaxy. She must be absolute rubbish at everything else that she sings if that's her best role.
From Instant Encore: "Now we know that the SLO hasn’t had the best of luck finding coloratura sopranos (Tales of Hoffmann anyone?)". HURHUR, the memories are flooding me now. It's hard to decide if Zhao Yun Hong's Olympia or Tai Hsiao Chun's Die Konigin is worse.
The moment the curtain call began, there was an exodus of foreigners from the audience. The rows in front of me became completely empty. And who could blame them.
Moral of the story, SLO should stop importing from PRC and start looking to Japan or Korea if they really want to import some decent singers.
But aside from the Queen of the Night, the three genii, and the lacklustre orchetra, it was pretty good for SLO. Gabriel pointed out that it probably had something to do with having an angmoh director (Justin Way) rather than a Singaporean one.
G: "Directed by Justin Way and conducted by Alice Farnham, both working at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London.
there go their reputations" Just to show that it's not just opening night nerves that's plaguing the production, I've here other comments from the interwebs from the following day's (Saturday) performance:
"Queen of the Night fail. Chorus all wearing sarong wraps - clearly they had a tiny costume budget. Very confused-Asian setting, tacky!
Queen of the Night sort of redeemed herself in Act II, her high Fs were passable, but everything was underpowered, an unregal squeaking.
Obviously they couldn't find 3 boy trebles, since the 3 boys are played by 3 girls dressed as refugees from a racial harmony day float.
Orchestra played like they hadn't been fed, all limp and spineless. No surprise they sounded un-ballsy, the conductor was female.
That Gin & Tonic at intermission was not enough to help me through the second half!"
Omnia mutantur
5:51 PM
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
FINALLY NO MORE SCHOOL LIFE.
This is a real sticking point with me, so I'll just say it. I'm in GOLD, NOT PINK! WOOHOO! Additional photos received this morning from CNM department:
Omnia mutantur
11:44 PM
Monday, July 12, 2010
There're some very hysterical and sensitive people at work. What do you expect from an artsy place where most people have studied artsy stuff? These people give a bad name to the term 'artist's temperament'. I shall do all I can to avoid people like that:
They burst into tears at the slightest provocation or go into fits of anger and blame everyone but themselves.
They claim everyone is working against them, but never wonder if they're the ones being inflexible and never think of working with everyone else. They refuse to budge until their demands are satisfied.
They're regularly friendless until new blood comes in and befriend them. But they're only friends until they really get to know what that person is really like.
They carry themselves with a sense of entitlement. They will do anything to get their way. Perhaps they secretly wish that the whole world would obey their every whim and command. They like to threaten and shout to get their way. Everyone obliges out of either intimidation or they just want to avoid making a scene.
All they regularly do is to constantly push people further and further away from themselves with their pathetic actions that do nothing but earn more and more derision and scorn from others
Being well educated (uni grads) they will never admit to themselves that they are doing these despicable things, and when these actions are pointed out them them in others, they will equally revile such actions. All in all, they're gigantic hypocrites and incredibly dull people incapable of self-reflexivity.
They sulk and bear grudges over small things and are often surprised when no one goes to them to apologise or make them feel better until a hapless newbie becomes the new victim to their moaning. The obvious reason why no one bothers would be, of course, that the world goes on turning whether or not they feel bad, and no one should go out of their way to suit their petty temperaments.
The only reason why no one tells them what they really think of them is mostly out of kindness, civility and also a great wish to avoid a great deal of fuss that is usually brought on by their regular hysterics whenever something doesn't go their way.
At the end of the day, some people are so self absorbed and useless that they can do nothing but blame others instead of wondering what is wrong with themselves, and how they can improve what they're doing. These people are parasites on the goodness of others and should be despised and shunned from all society.
Omnia mutantur
11:15 PM
Sunday, July 11, 2010
I'm quite saddened and disappointed that some people close to me are fond of abusing their mothers. It's the vilest trait to have. I don't think even drug trafficking or theft come close to the same level of villainy.
Anyway I'm going to the COMPASS awards gala dinner at Swissotel later tonight as a representative. This job has interesting perks.
Omnia mutantur
12:02 AM
Thursday, July 8, 2010
I'm limping at work today because something really extraordinary happened last night.
To cut a long story short, I opened my bathroom glass door to quickly yesterday and it slid and bounced too hard against the door frame (it's a sliding door). The next thing I knew there were shards of glass flying through the air everywhere and I was getting cuts everywhere.
My sister and father were really great and bandaged up all the cuts wherever they found them. My sister even went to pick out the shards that were embedded in my skin and trapped in my hair.
It wasn't very painful.
Omnia mutantur
2:26 PM
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Today my student made me so angry when I realised that he didn't practise despite 1. it being 2 weeks from the exam itself 2. having skipped grade 4 to grade 5 (without my consent) 3. having been reminded so many times by me 4. realising that he was crap
To make him keep time properly I beat my thigh (since there wasn't any metronome around), and because I was angry (but couldn't beat him) I hit my thigh really hard while keeping time.
Now my thigh looks like a mess of bruises and ruptured capilleries.
Did I also mention that a little girl student of mine cried today because I insisted that she count aloud to keep time for her dotted rhythm? 1+2+3+ sort of thing. I wasn't asking her to get sold off to child slavery. Might I mention that she was playing really really crap 'dotted rhythm' before I stopped her. I really can't stand students who don't want to learn. I also don't want to teach. Go away.
I need to learn to cut my losses and get out of situations that take more out of me than is put in.
