Sunday, May 30, 2010

Sticky Note nº3, 300510

- 3rd sticky note,  130th post, on the 30th of May. Hah (right)

- When you say you're gonna be there for someone, BE THERE for that someone. I'd rather hug a tree and be there for it if I hear anyone say that they are gonna be there for me.

- Biology, what the heck...?

- I'm pretty sure most of you are just scratching your heads now.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Sticky Note nº2, 280510

- Just when I needed to jot something down yesterday, my Moleskine ran out of pages. Got a replacement today, this is book 2 of the music journalling. Why the urge? Orchestral season is coming up real soon (and I mean in a week). Ps: Moleskine is pronounced as "Mo-leh-skeen-eh" not mole-skin. Whoo!

- Why the heck am I so drowsy today...? Gosh, might be that coffee-in-the-morning-routine yesterday

- Among the kind of people I can't tolerate are those who don't get their assignments handed over in time for remedial and editing works to be done. Excuse? Exams - Hello, I'm having exams too, more important than your level. Started way earlier than yours which was when I asked you for it. Shove your "tomorrow"s up your dog's ass.

- I'm offering guitar classes, anyone interested?

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Sticky Note nº1, 120510

“The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power.” - William Shakespeare.

This is a very straight forward heads up for performers and everyone alike. Why? Cause I can’t bare the fact most people get the upper end without any work done.

Wonder how performing arts and/or events turn out to be so good? Apart from the countless hours of practice, auditions were where it all began to be. In a nutshell, auditions gets the whole event started.

I mean, who’d wanna be surprised with gimmicks or quacks of wannabes and the empty handed promises from several performers. Those horrible performances is a sure thing to get your invitees out of the hall for all those times where you’d need to pack and clean up for the night.

So to speak, power abuse. Escaping auditions are nonetheless the exact same replicated experience of the above mentioned.

From my experience, auditions are meant to judge each individual based on their progress in presenting that specific performance. Take it as a protocol to see whether you’re really prepared.

Auditions could also save you that utter embarassment on stage on performance day should you be not sufficient enough to deliver the performance that particular event is striving for. Having you be the organising party doesn’t make your performance achieve above all, let alone, pass that certain “awesome-factor-prerequisite”.

Heck was I glad to be told upon on my first audition, I never really realise I used to sing off-pitch at a higher key until heard upon - should I let that continue just because, for an example, I’m the organiser of a certain event? …man I’d suck and never realise my flaw(s).

So maybe you’re the kind that would like to show off your talents or “talents” to everyone. Why not show it off to the judges before you show it off to the world? Talents scouts are everywhere ya know.

Ahh, I could go on and on should I want to, but take it from me if you’d wanna plan a successful event -

“Hold an audition, go by the system, realise your power, act within your means, and NEVER allow someone to jump the queue, especially yourself”

Sunday, May 9, 2010

What is an orchestra?

An orchestra is where musicians play in unison to produce a bomb of a piece. Or in other words, Maestro Abreu's definition - In it’s essence, the orchestra and the choir are much more than artistic structures, they are examples and schools of social life, because to sing and to play together means to intimately coexist towards perfection and excellence, following a strict discipline of organisation and coordination in order to seek the harmonic independence of voices and instruments.

SO if you're just here for the status and the name. If you're just going to sit around waiting for me to spoon feed you with practice time and piece study - then just do everyone and ultimately yourself a favour, get the hell out of this mess you're in that you've created.

Thank You and Good Night!

Sunday, May 2, 2010

PRS Camp 2010 Recap

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50 hours of exhilarating, interesting, exciting, intensive, exhausting and care-less camp experience. Making it impossible to digest the feeling to say goodbye to it all in such short notice - that's what a recap is for of the bits and pieces that gave me the longest lasting impression of what camp really is about:-

People

Handling a camp of 110 attendees with the workforce of 14 facilitators is no easy task. What's really happening behind the scenes when you're off for your luxury bath or sumptuous meals is briefing, debriefing, planning, re-planning, run throughs and more briefing amongst all the facilitators. We still had our meals and baths in time, and that's how we worked it out so well this time. So once again, I thank every single one of the attendees for co-operating with us and facilitators, it was a pleasure working with you to manage this unforgettable final camp of our high school years.

Food

Before every camp, I always, and may I say this, always am prepared for the worse of the meals they provide; but wait, the food served throughout this whole camp tickled my tastebuds - so much so I'm craving for more. Just as I thought spaghetti won't be served, they proved me wrong. Yet again, breakfast was probably the best meal of each day. Ps: Why is it that I always get the neck of the chicken when digging through the buffet table?

I often catch something I can't throw

That's very true, I'm sinus prone but my sinus didn't go overboard for that 50 hours of camp. Non-intrusive towards my routine that I actually didn't have to use my nasal spray at all. Also, for all of you who guessed my clue right - congratulations, but none of you got it upon first try and confuse me for playing the drums instead. (pssst! I have videos of each group performing their hilarious dance)

Single Ladies

By now, you would have realised that I am addicted to that song if you ever did look for me for extra points. Videos are coming up soon. Patients.

THE Hill

Not to be compared to hiking, that's a different chapter of it's own. That hill we've climbed each day got me into a 2:3 steps breathing ratio eventhough I was just walking up. It's those kind of climbs where it doesn't drain you out upon completing it but gosh! why does the residential area and club house have to be so far apart?

The Marshmallow Challenge

I got that off TEDTalk and it does actually give you a taste of what prototyping and refinement really means. Congrats to those who managed to build up their freestanding structures for the Ta-Da! moment. For the rest, your Uh-Oh! moments probably taught you a lot too. That, I had fun watching xD. I finished the rest of the marshmallows playing Chubby Bunny in the room tho.

Flour + Water = Hilarity

Flour alone is not enough, because you'd be able to blow it off anytime to look for the sweets hidden below it. Solution? + water to make a paste out of it, so you'd really dig in. Also the whole reason we asked to "sacrifice" 3 group members before the challenge.

In-room entertainment

We fooled quite an amount of you into catching the imaginary M&Ms we were supposedly "throwing" with your mouths from the comfort of our balcony.

We also chased each and everyone of you back into your rooms by being really annoying, yet again from the comfort of our balcony.

We did push-ups at the balcony in our shorts in the evenings. Having it be ever so cooling with the breeze.

"Take off your jacket!"

and had noodles in drinking cups.

Toaster

May I remind you again, hotel or resort toasters on buffet tables are NOT automated!

Performance Night

That probably was the highlight of the camp, having each and everyone of you dance to songs that were out of your comfort zones. Hey it's all for the sportiness of being in camp. Yet, you guys managed to practice and get everyone together in less than a day.

It never fails to amaze me at the amount of amazing cheers each of your can come up with, esp. from the group who replicated and incorporated the beat for "We Will Rock You" into your cheer routines. Kudos to you guys.

The Gratitude Dance

Remember when "Where the hell is Matt?" debut on YouTube with his ever so famous dance move everyone on the planet? I had no idea it was the gratitude dance till today itself.

For all the times we had to run around to get things right

it paid off really well. Time was not our side, but of that 50 hours (excluding sleep), we squeezed so much and made it awesome at the same time.

Testimonials

Thank you, thank you and thank you again for the amount of great testimonials you left for me and each and everyone of the facilitators.

If you were to sum it up, we've all got some really really valuable list of skills and new attitude preferences to bring and apply to our everyday lives. We in a team; Prototyping and refinement; the value of smaller amounts; planning and strategizing - all of which, you won't get in such straight forward manner in other school organized camps.

It's your turn to handle camp now, good luck!

So, my question to you is...

What left the lasting impression of camp in you?