Ah-Bing sent me this link last night, and it was certainly amusing, especially if one were to read between the lines (then again it wasn't so hard to do given his explicit gestures.) I bet this will be the next big thing to circulate about the web before our local papers pick it up and the media catches on.

NYJC 30th Anniversary Celebrations

For fellow NYJC-ians who did/did not make it back for the alumni/reunion anniversary celebrations on Saturday, here are some of stuff you missed...

Panoramic view of the quadrangle where they had a mini-carnival-like atmosphere...


From L-R: Carnival games like this, Guest-of-Honour Minister Tharman, the quadrangle at dusk...


Atrium and air-conditioned school hall (people waiting around for the speeches to be over so as to tuck in the sumptious spread of reception food, including fondue, tako pachi, etc)

Good to see tutors like Mr Leong, Mrs "Kit Chan", Mr Pun, Mrs Queenie Wong, Mr Mark Lim, Mr Bernard Lee, Ms Fernandez, Ms Neo Siew Kim, Mr and Mrs Adrian Tan (who are now pregnant with their 3rd kid!), Mdm Tan Siew Lan (my chinese tutor who refused to let me stop taking 'AO' chinese despite me getting C5 and again C6 with me as the only student in her class remaining after the 1st mid-year paper. I got a C5 eventually at the 3rd attempt, proving how I just couldn't improve. Sigh.) It was also a pleasant surprise to see ex-tutors who left NY to take on higher appointments like Mr Tay Hiang Soon (VP-Nan Chiau High), and Ms Pamela Yoong (VP-Temasek Sec), and retired principal Mdm So return.

Also saw friends like Stanley, John Lim, Duanqin, Angeline, Ford, Beat, Sheena, Priya, Clifton (+gf), David Tay, but not our alumni VP Song Kwang. Strange.

Uniquely Singaporean Beauties

As most would have guessed, Jessica Tan was to be this year’s Ms Singapore Universe pageant queen. Thanks to Carol, who got her fave friends exclusive tickets, I had the privilege of witnessing the finals live in the Mediacorp TV Theatre.

First off, let me congratulate Carol for making it to Top 10 (as I had accurately predicted). In the 4 years of I’ve come to know you, I’d agree with Joo, Jen and the rest how you’ve grown/matured to who/what you are today. You know how I’m supposedly politically correct and nice most of the time, but brutally honest and critical should you seek my subjective opinion. Thanks for putting up with my frank comments with sheer grace and outrageous guffaw - an irony if you ask me. Hah! I would have thought you might at least win the “Miss Body Beautiful” award, but well, like you said, some things are already pre-determined (which I better not mention in public cyberspace).

Having said that, I admire you for balancing this and your final semester (however little time you spent studying), and hope we’ll see each other at the Commencement ceremonies!

Anyhow, there wasn’t an overwhelming crowd who showed up at the grand finals as I had expected. With more than enough seats in the main stalls for another 100 people, we shifted from the upper level downwards to get a better view. Oh and yes, Jade Seah is pretty, and so is Andrea de Cruz. TV just doesn’t do justice.

The most exciting segment of the pageant must have been the Q&A with the Top 10 (contrary to popular belief that it was the swimwear segment or ousted Idol contestant Jon Leong’s performance). I would think audience viewers at home watched the same thing on TV, except the feeling in the audience had a lot more “oomph”. Like when Christabel replied about “getting foreign talent” to win Singapore’s “first Olympic gold”, everyone squirmed in their seats and you could literally hear everyone take in a huge breath of air through their closed teeth (yes, that whole hissing sound), and mask themselves from being identified as fellow intelligent Singaporeans. Well, at least that was how I’d interpret that sonic manifestation of huge breath.

Well, at least Peggy Chang’s answer to the Q&A for the Top 5 about the man she loves and a hypothetical in-the-path-to-true-love mother was an outstanding one.

At the post-pageant reception (which I doubt we were invited to yet crashed somehow), it was almost like the NUS Arts Canteen – the place to see and to be seen. Not that there were many celebrities/hosts like Adrian Pang, Andrea de Cruz and Jade Seah (who all look good if I haven’t yet mentioned), but most were dressed to impress. After all, this was no ordinary event. I didn’t think Carol would have won anyway (sorry girl!), else I’d have dolled myself up with a tux. It didn’t hurt if the reception food was bad; after all, everyone was busy mingling with the who’s who in the industry, if not taking photos with the MSU girls in their stunning gowns.

And I was no exception.

But not the mingling part of course.

One of the most hilarious incidents happened when the girls were taking pictures with Carol when two aunties walked by. One of them stopped the other, before asking us if that was Jessica Tan. Surprised at such a question, we didn’t have a chance to reply them before the other auntie told the first, “no lah, she’s not, she’s Carol, the last year’s winner lah!” before hurrying off to find the MSU2007 winner.

*Everyone stunned*

For crying out loud, it doesn’t hurt that you don’t recognize who the MSU2006 winner (Carol Cheong) is, could you not recognize the newly crowned MSU2007 winner Jessica Tan?

Other than my friend Carol, I only managed to win myself a shot with 1st runner-up Christabel Campbel, before she rushed to change out of her gown. I think I also gave up a huge opportunity for a photo opportunity with MSU2007 winner Jessica Tan when we left the reception area.

*slaps himself*

Oh well.

Blithe Spirit

For starters, I was blown away by the fantastic scripting and exchange of words that by the end of 120 minutes, I could only summarize Blithe Spirit as an impeccable rhetoric of sententiosity.

I know what you’re thinking. “What?!”

Well if you can’t handle that, you can still watch Wild Rice's latest production but probably without enjoying the double-paced exchange of words in perfect (minus the slip-ups) English. Even though I didn’t catch the 2001 premiere of this same play by Noel Coward, I didn’t expect anything less for the 2007 run. With a star-studded line-up of veteran actors, including Pam Oei, Neo Swee Lin, Lim Kay Siu, Gerald Chew, Celine Rosa Tan, Selena Tan, and Tan Kheng Hua (in order of appearance), I was not surprised that there was no lack of chemistry between any of them.

In fact, it wouldn’t surprise anyone how talented they are anyway.

Plot-wise, the pace was a good and gradual build-up with minimal twists and turns along the way, in which the audience may anticipate what comes next. However, the delivery of words in, again I say, near-perfect English, numerous insinuations and aphorisms peppering their roles was mind-blowing to say the least. Well, that’s provided you catch it, since the actors are not wired to the mike and thus you really have to sit quietly and pay keen attention to whatever that’s being said on stage carefully. Miss one word, one phrase, and one line, and expect yourself to be disadvantaged when a hidden joke slips by and leaves you wondering why your adjacent neighbours are either smiling quietly or laughing outrageously.

In one scene, in a heated debate over ex-wives, Mrs Koh picks out each one of her husbands’ ex-loves whom she deliberately chooses to forget or mispronounce, before Charles interjects.

Charles: “Darling if you wish to make an inventory of my sex life I think it’s only fair that I tell you that you’ve missed out several episodes”

Mrs Koh: “….It’s no use trying to impress me with your routine amorous exploits!”

In light of the play running till the end of the month, I ought not to elaborate on the plot and ending in respect of anyone intending to watch this play, but only recommend for one not to be late. This is one show that's unforgettable.

251

That number in question is characteristic of the number of times porn star Annabel Chong (a stage name she coined) performed sex acts with 70 men within a 10-hour period in the year 1995. This home-grown Singaporean was 22 then, but already soared to fame (or infamy) for breaking existing records and bagging the “World’s Biggest Gang Bang” title under her belt, literally.

Toy Factory Theatre Ensemble’s latest production at the Esplanade Theatre Studio ends its run on Sunday, and tickets had already been sold out long ago. I didn’t think much about catching it until Cass’s friend dropped out on her and she tried her luck on me. Being a huge theatre-goer, it didn’t take much convincing for me to purchase an affordable $26 student-priced ticket and be introduced to the life of the depicted character in play – Annabel Chong, whose real name is Grace Quek.

The lead actress who plays Chong, Cynthia Lee Macquarrie, was extremely brave in challenging herself to accept this huge role, not to mention the fact that wearing a set of striking red undergarments one-third throughout the 90minute-long play must have felt cold. Yet, there was no sign of struggle with the cold, nor the 3-dimensional set where the characters enter and leave the “stage” from all 4 directions. Initially, I found it awkward to sit facing another 100 audience members on the opposite side of the set, but soon embraced the unique space that director Loretta Chen must have wanted.

In one scene, audience members were treated to a toned-down studio scene of three-way sex involving Chong explaining different positions to lover-cum-film director Gough Lewis (played by Paul Lucas) compiling a documentary for his Sundance feature. The three women in lacy undergarments stopped abruptly in the heat of things when he commented that she was another “whore”. That manifestation of disappointment was parallel to his original intention of discovering who Chong’s real self – Grace Quek – really was, as opposed to what she was.

I particularly liked an earlier scene, where the cast is a frenzy of movement as they recite Singapore’s numerous record-holding feats: largest man-made waterfall, fountain, hotel, human domino chain, and even the longest popiah. Yet, the woman herself Annabel Chong, is absent, both literally and metaphorically. Just like the omnipresent Merlion, no one seemed have payed attention to this home-grown radicalist. “Porn princess or media maverick? National pride, or national shame?” were some of the questions which begged some clarification.

“The narrative re-enacts, constructs and re-constructs seminal moments in Grace/Annabel’s life with respect to her family, friends and society at large. In particular, it allows us an insight into her otherwise unknown life as a daughter, friend and lover. It also sheds light on crucial epochs of her life that were to shape her daring exploits – namely her fascination with performance art, her relationship with her family and friends and gang rape.”­­ – 251 sypnosis.

Brought up in a simple family, Chong soared academically, but opted for the skewed path towards “performance art”, rejecting her best friend’s plea and advise to turn to God for divine salvation (which, in one line of her prayer, was synonymous with the young "Grace" then).

In one of the beginning scenes, Grace’s father (played by veteran theatre actor Lee Weng Kee) was discouraging her from dancing as a career, and further added how a particular “Joseph Ng” in the streets once had to strip bare-naked and smash tofu with a stick. Fast forward to the last 10mins of the play, that anecdote was later manifested when she - now all grown up and having both parents discover the truth behind what she does in the name of art - appears on set to lay out 12 pieces of tofu arranged neatly on the floor, paints each letter of her name on each piece, removes her bathrobe (baring her breasts) and wields up the wooden cane ready to smash those tofu. Enter the mother (played by Amy Cheng) in rude shock, Chong is ashamed and covers up, before begging the question, “he’s left hasn’t he?” (which I presume referred to her father).

The mother was encouraging in her reply, robing her while saying how [Chong] had “dared” to go further, beyond anyone’s expectations, and she now had two daughters, “one, a woman, the other, a legend”.

Overall, I felt the small-scale production deserved a thumb’s up, for Lee’s unwavering air of confidence despite the controversial role. Otherwise, there was little hoo-hah that this play could ride, I mean, thrive on.

Oh yes, one more thing, before the show commenced, the friendly front-of-house volunteers gave out door gifts - a pair of Okamoto condoms to the guys, and to the girls, a pair of Vagisil bottles (which I initially and innocently thought was mouthwash since the description on the front was not indicative otherwise!)


Okay, enough talk, gotta hit the bed. Next up – Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit! That'll burn my entire weekend.

And yes, if you’ve read the March issue of NUSSU’s The Ridge magazine, look out for this April’s issue in the stands next week, where my 2nd (and last) contribution will be featured! Enjoy!

Do I have the knack too?

OH MY GOSH. I heard this from *syn and searched for it on youtube and I found it!

This has got to be the best thing I've watched/heard thus far!

Now I wonder what my life will be like after I graduate...