birthday poem
dearest yingda,
happy birthday!
well, this present may appear a bit blah,
but we assure you,
its nice to see and its fun to play!
the toy reminded us of you,
playing music that was so…beautiful.
oh your new embouchure will improve gradually,
you’re well on your way there, not to worry.
your passion makes angie wonder, but fret,
because she thinks you’re a little too mad,
staying in school till almost 7 daily,
that’s like…having no life already!
she tells you to go get one,
lest you become some musical monk.
‘musicians are oddballs,
and you’re no different!’ says amirahh.
but being weird is good,
that’s way better than being a block of wood.
oh yes, you eccentric boy,
although you got a cool new toy,
you’d better stop teasing her about dearest hafiz,
or she’d set on you some vicious bees.
-insert evil retarded laughter-
speaking of laughter,
vivienne thought of something funnier.
your hair!
so odd and spikey unlike a maiden fair.
its too long, its too weird,
but it is way cool if you wanna be a flirt.
when its too short, you look like a nerd.
if it looks like a nest, it may attract some birds!
the cuckoo clock rings,
your name rhymes with lotsa things,
jiayi thought hard about what it means,
and decided you’ll eventually be seen
as mr yingdA,
driving to YAMAHA in a TOYOTA,
wearing nothing but PYJAMAS,
and eating a BANANA for breakfast.
(she’s feeling very proud of herself now,
so happy she may even take a bow)
but omg, that’s quite exciting,
do tell us when you decide to do that thing,
we can take videos and post them on youtube,
(but before that, we’re gonna blackmail you blue!)
oh guess what, four of us are of the same age!
sexy sultry seventeen!
let’s all go buy the mag now to read,
before october comes for jiayi and angie to turn 18.
[HINT]
we’d then be as old as viv,
be able to drive around and give you guys a lift.
anyway, hope this wanna-be rhyme entertained you,
we were so amused writing it we were laughing like fools.
(you ought to feel very honoured, you know)
if this made you laugh so hard you hurt your toe,
make it known to us in dance and song,
and then jiayi can lead us in a sing-along…
“happy birthday to you,
don’t you love us so true,
cos we’re smart and so pretty,
you would be a fool not to.”
HAHA. BYE.
in the same boat
recently, many j2s have been coming up to me, or anyone who’d like to listen, and saying ‘omgomgomg im going to fail prelims’. all i can muster is a weak smile, because, hey, we’re all in the same boat. you are not the only one who burnt your june hols.
i guess i should thank God for having great friends like jiayi, dom and amirahh who make life bearable. and for the good luck smses from geri and xinyi the night before; yingda, dom, rose and amirahh on the first day of prelims.
when i fail my prelims, all i have to blame is myself, for not having studied harder. i will feel terribly guilty towards (in no particular order) ms sng, mr pat sum, mr eka tanu, mr woolhead, mr prince, mdm chia, mr ngoei, jinli, yongkiat and jx.
c’mon angie, let’s go study!
dear me,
your prelims start tomorrow.
please go and study, no matter how useless you think it will be.
goodnight.
love, me.
hymns
im afraid to be bossy or overbearing.
today, the band practiced 2 hymns for national day- ‘immortal, invisible, God only wise’ and ‘Praise to the Lord’. as always, the band sounded horrible. perhaps it was the hall, perhaps it was just me, or perhaps it was the attitudes of the band members, and im at fault too.
i totally do not understand how we can play ‘a movement for rosa’ completely in tune and then sound like a COP band for hymns. hey, we can even play chorales better than that. what’s with hymns?
perhaps im getting personal, because i know those hymns rather well. i have my own ideas about how hymns ought to be played, and my own ideas on how to make them more musical. i badly want to say it, and i have only one person to comment to, poor amirahh. but i don’t want to bore her to bits when the hymns already appear to be boring enough.
oh drats. there is absolutely no attempt at shaping the music, despite yd and mx’s urging. so disgusting, i want to just shut my ears and listen to daniel phang on the organ once again. its been donkey years since i’ve heard him play, and i miss it.
shoes
i’ve got my shoes today! cheap jazz shoes and ballet shoes. im so happy. no more dancing in frictionless socks.
but it takes a bit to get used to, i can’t quite get the hang of dancing in them. it will improve with time i suppose…
i miss dancing so much, i wish i could learn more. learning dance at jitterbugs is like taking lots of shortcuts. there is no time for perfection of a single skill. its quite sad. i want a good foundation.
national anthem
perhaps im too patriotic for my own good. i find that i get highly irritated whenever we practice the national anthem and the band just doesn’t pay attention.
the tune is rather pleasant, in fact. and the arrangement does not suck or anything. if the sso and central band can play it so pleasing to the ear, i don’t see why we cannot. after all, we do have the intonation and the tone. why is it that whenever we take out the national anthem, we just plain suck.
is there no pride at all? pride in playing your instrument well, pride as an acband member, nation pride. all these embodied in the playing of one single national anthem. i suppose i was highly embarrassed performing the NA at the opening of the IPhO, it was so disgusting i could barely call myself a singaporean.
to remain faithful to the name of an acsian band member would mean putting in effort. even if you think that the NA is monotonous, you still have to play it with some decency because it is a piece of music. no passion, fine. but where is the careful intonation, the attention to dynamics and the once-important articulation?
i love singapore. no matter how much it sucks, it is still our nation. my country. you can say, for all you want, that moe has successfully brainwashed me through social studies and hao gong ming and NE.
your identity as a singaporean could be changed, but you can never be certain that you will be accepted for who you are in that new society. language-wise.. your english ain’t good enough, neither is your mother-tongue. just look at the people in the top schools who flunk it. hopeless cases all. myself included. but i know my roots. do you?
