Season's Greetings

Happy boxing day. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! More pictures from Cameron below. Enjoy.













Stay tuned for more. Akan datang.

Hi all, I'm back from my cruise. It was fun. More about that later, I thought I'd try posting some of my Cameron pictures first.




























more coming your way.. stay tuned =)

Happy Holidays!

Ho, ho, ho, Christmas is 2 days more. And I'm going on a cruise from today (yayness) to sunday =) So MERRRY CHRISTMASSSS EVERYONE!! Take care and cya.

Cheers!
-Corcovado20

Away on Retreat

Dear friends and readers,

I'd be away from 14-16 Dec in Cameron Highlands. Meanwhile, take care and see you soon.

Cheers,
Corcovado20

listening to the silence that surrounds
an obsession of obliterating obscenity
that incenses the senses only to find
find paradise lost
in arctic winter of the mind
-corcovado20

Quote of the Day

How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable,
Seems to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on't! oh fie, fie! 'Tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature

- Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act I, Scene ii

REHABILITATION

Hi folks,

I am finalleee B-A-C-K!!!!
I have regained my freedom
I am repositioned into civilisation
I can now sleep on a nice cushioned bed
I can be contactable
I can use the internet
I can type
I can read emails
I can reply emails
I can blog
I can send sms-es
I can reply to the 10 messages left in my inbox
I can return the 21 missed calls
I can call using singtel and not malaysia's network
I can read the papers
I can see concrete ground
I can touch concrete ground
I can stand on concrete ground
I can walk on concrete ground
I can sit on a chair
I can have civilised food
I can have a proper meal with proper cutlery
I can enjoy air-con
I can hear traffic
I can see buses, trains, pesdestrians
I can see people
I can hear a conversation in proper English
I can engage in a conversation in proper English
I can understood speaking properly annunciated English
I can use words like 'parched', 'ravenous', 'insufferable'
and not have to explain their meanings
I can wear my own clothes
I can have a change of clothes daily
I can bathe
I can bathe in hot water
I can shampoo
I can soap myself
I can resoap myself
I can stay in the shower for as long as I want
I can have shelter on a rainy day
I can watch a movie
I can then catch 'Harry Potter'
I can then catch 'Chicken Little'
I can then catch 'AeonFlux'
I can then catch 'Narnia'
I can read in peace
I can practice on my piano
I can practice on my voice without being labelled 'public nuisance'
I can smile and say 'what a beautiful day'

Return from Gul

Hi, I have just been through 1 week of F-ing reservist training, another week to go. We were given the weekend off because of the siong siong exercise that awaits us come Monday. *dreads* Yes and guess what? We're going to P. Tekong for a 4-day 3-night holiday getaway. How exciting. More details about that later, but here's an update of what has happened in the past weeks.

Key Elements had our very first full-length concert staged at the victoria concert hall on the 5th november and it was a success. The turn-out turned out to be surprisingly good, we expected to make a loss but actually the hall was 85% full, so in fact we made just little bit of profit I reckon. The concert proceeded as clockwork and audience were entertained and many gave us positive feedback, save for the wrong choice of venue, some inappropriate use of 'Austin Powers' lighting and costumes. So all's well.

Key Elements' first CD-single "Better Than Anything" is NOW on sale. If you haven't got a copy, wait no more, you can place your orders through me or from the KE web. The retail price (inc. of GST) is only $6. BUY! BUY!! BUY!!!

Anywae, the last week was hell for me, I had an average of 3 schools a day and I start work as early as 830 in the morning and finish as late as 9-10ish at night, Not a single day was spent resting. It's incredible how I survived. And the thought of going to reservist right after the siong siong week just depresses me. Some say reservist is a good break from your daily routine and to relac, but for me it's a waste of my good time. We go in and learn some totally useless stuffs and we're cut off from the world. There's no tv, no internet, no papers, no magazines, no entertainment, only our bed, our handphone and the canteen. It's as good as a prison, except we have a bigger space and there are no iron bars. And the camp is in freaking Tuas! Taxi drivers also refuse to take us, then shun or they act blur saying they don't know the place, but actually they know they'll not be able to pick up any passenger after dropping us and it's way too ulu, some are afraid we are robbers. So going in-out of camp is a dreadful business. Even if they give us nights off, we have to think twice about going out.

This week felt like a month. Time c-r-a-w-l-s when you're in suffering. I am so NOT looking forward to Sunday night coz we have to book-in by 2200 hrs for the freaking exercise the next day. It's a bloody troublesome business to transport our vehicles, equipment, ammunition etc to P. Tekong where we could simply have it at Lim Chu Kang. So boliao right. DARN! and I have to manpack the freaking radio set and walk to god-knows-what hill and then feed the mosquitoes there. I wonder why they don't just switch to handphones since technology is now so advanced?! Make us carry that freaking hell of a radio to "chiong suah", the likelihood of us getting fatigue and dropping out is higher with that much load and clumsiness (imagine the antenna sticking out from your backpack) It's also very prone to lightning strike too, if anybody is to die first during war, it will be us signallers. Apart from getting electrocuted by lightning, we are also easy enemy targets, because snipers are trained to aim at the one with the antenna sticking out. Shit-ti-to! Ok let's not go there. Just hope the next week will pass soon.

I realise I have the tendency to ramble, thanks for reading, I'm off to work now, check in after a while for more updates :) till then it's adieu, take care and remember me!

-Corcovado20

Greetings to all, here's an update on the ALTERNATIVES CONCERT on
Saturday, 22nd October 2005, 4pm at Young Musician's Society Auditorium from the pianist's perspective

I was the accompanist for this 70-minute vocal recital where 4 soloists sang arias from operas, right from the baroque period to 20th century, and also some songs from musical theatre. The concept was refreshing, as there was not just singing, but some mime, a little acting, blocking, "multi-media" and "black-and-white projection" (big paper cards) and bantering. It was not the usual stiff-upper-lip sort of recital, but was done in a rather informal and light-hearted setting.

Accompanying for this recital has taken many long hours of rehearsals to just get timing and coordination right between right and left hand, pianist and singer, breathing and pedalling. The scores are so NOT easy to play. Some of them require 3 hands or 12-15 fingers (yes of course it's humanly impossible!!) because it was not written specifically for the piano per se but is actually a reduction from an orchestral score, so it was totally unsympathetic to the pianist =P But anyway, I managed all the scary songs (i.e. those with a lot of sharps, jumps bigger than an octave, countless changes in tonality and of course difficult singers.)

Things were looking up during our final rehearsal, and guess what? I had to screw up majorly on the actual performance! Fie on't! Ah, fie! 'Tis an unweeded garden. Things rank and grose in nature, possess it merely that it should come to this!
And to make it worse, I screwed up a part where the piano is completely exposed with no singing to mask my playing because I was ending the song with an unusually long piano part. I don't know what I was thinking, but I must have zoned out in the middle of it and I played all the wrong notes and went into a different tonality (it was a baroque piece, so no unconventional key changes) and it sounded like it was going to modulate and I panicked. Die, how to end the piece? I tried to think of something, but in the end I gave up and just ended on an A which was abso-f*cking-lutely uncool. The thing is, it has never happened in rehearsals and it is not one of my scary songs. It was so shitty shit shit shit shit! Anyway, the audience seemed to be forgiving because it's quite an informal thing. However, having said that, I more than redeemed myself in the following few songs, especially the Strauss, which was a beast! And I am so proud of myself.

Anyway, the concert has its brilliant moments. Some songs were really 'on' while others were just very er... wrong. Everybody had a little slip here and there but there were no colossal damage. And even if the singer makes a mistake, skipped a beat or missed an entry, it can always be covered up by the pianist who plays flexibly to suit them, and adapts to their idiosyncracies and irregular pulse, nobody gets hurt. But NOT vice versa! (-pouts)

Oh well, thus concludes this scary episode of mis-adventure. Tune in next time to the AD-VEN-TURES of the Maaan Behind the Ivories... ries... ries... ries... (echo)!

White Ribbon Campaign
Tuesday, 18 October 2005
Serangoon Garden Secondary School

The heat and humidity almost killed me. I was melting in my jacket. There was supposedly air-con but it leaked majorly, and had to be turned off. Anyhow, the choir looked sharp in their new costumes and the whole line-up (choir-pianist-conductor) looked professional. This ought to show the school what a real choir should look like and that choir is not just any CCA, it's a performing ART.

The sound system wasn't fantastic, but thanks to the boom mics which picked up the choir sufficiently, they don't sound bad. In fact the audience and principal were impressed. That's good enough for me, for now, HAHA, but I expect higher standards. They can do it. They are capable of sounding better in rehearsal, so concluded by Ms Koh and myself. However many factors work against us in the real performance, 1st it's in an unearthly early hour in the morning, voices are not at their tip-top warmed up state. 2nd, the piano is slightly out of tune, and the positioning of the mics were different from rehearsal day and the piano could hardly be heard, and that i suppose, had freaked the choir out a little. 3rdly, singing before an audience itself is nerve-wrecking and having not performed frequent enough to acquire the calmness of stage presence, the choir end up looking a bit stiff and scared. So the moral of the story is to go out and perform as much as possible coz the more you do it, the better you get.

There are few good things worth mentioning. The blend was good, phrasing has improved, intonation wasn't too bad, if not for the lok kok piano (Joel complained that keys got stuck and each song got harder and harder to play, sigh). Now, the choir needs to develop their resonance and work on dynamic display. It somehow lacked a bit of lustre and expressiveness. But the overall rating was satisfactory.

Jia You choir, I think if you continue to develop from where you are now, silver is not a problem for you in the next syf. =)

-corcovado20

KEY ELEMENTS
proudly presents
JAZZ AT THE MOVIES

It's going to be a night of movie magic come Saturday, 5 Nov 2005. That's when Key Elements, a six-member a cappella group, will present Jazz at the Movies at the Victoria Concert Hall, starting at 7.30pm.

Co-presented by YMCA of Singapore and supported by National Arts Council, the concert will see Key Elements singing songs from the movies - from mega-hits like Pretty Woman (Fallen) to more obscure comedies like Earth Girls are Easy (Route 66) - all in jazz-inflected vocal arrangements, all done a cappella, of course.

Formed in 2001, Key Elements started off doing small gigs and progressed to doing shows at the University Cultural Centre and the Esplanade. Jazz at the Movies is the group's effort to take its music one step further. The group was inspired to present a full concert after coming in second in the vocal band section of the fourth Taiwan Choral Ensemble Competition in October last year. Incidentally, Key Elements member Jason Ong won a prize for Best Arrangement at the competition for an upbeat version of 'Accentuate the Positive', which will be included in the concert. Once again, the concert details are as follows:

Saturday
5 November 2005
Victoria Concert Hall
7:30 P.M.
Tickets $35*, $25*, $15* (student concession) are available at
YMCA of Singapore
1 Orchard Road
Tel: 6430 2288
www.ymca.org.sg
You may also contact Vaughan Tan on 9338 7298 to order your tickets.
(*Please note that ticket prices are subject to 5% GST)

Featuring
original arrangements by
Jason Ong & Benedict Goh

Highlights
Do Re Mi (The Sound of Music)
Spiderman Theme (Spiderman)
Beyond The Sea (Finding Nemo)
Fly Me To The Moon (Down With Love)
Route 66 (Earth Girls Are Easy)
Fallen (Pretty Woman)

So make a date with Key Elements and come share in an evening filled with smooth grooves and electrifying entertainment for young and old. For more details, please visit the following website:
http://www.i-lurve-ke.com

Thank you and hope to see you there!

Best regards,
Benedict

EXHAUSTED

This entry will be short, as opposed to the last one. I'm dead tired. Had 3 days of retreat with KE, in preparation for our concert on 5th November. Checked in on Fri afternoon at the YWCA Fort Canning Lodge, then for the weekend it was non-stop singing and choreography work, save for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The schedule was really punishing and when i arrive at home on Sunday night, i was completed wasted. Then we had recording tonight for Do-Re-Mi, last song of the album. Finished at 11+, got home and going to crash. Tomorrow night is our regular rehearsal, this time with mics. It's amazing how I survive. I think I'm falling sick again. SIGH..Need to go, bye.

BACK HOME!

Sawadi Carp! I'm back from Bangkok. The trip was a blast. We had an absolutely smashing time - great company, great food, great laughs and great shopping :)
For your long awaited update, here are some of the highlights of the Bangkok trip:

Day 1 (Arrival at Bangkok)
'Twas raining cats and dogs at our arrival, luckily our agent has arranged for a minibus to pick us up at the airport and send us straight to Arnoma Hotel. It was 9 plus pm local time. Reached the hotel at about 10ish, rained has slowed to a drizzle and almost nothing. First thing we did after unloading was to pick up a few drinks and tid-bits from 7-eleven and after we had bathed and settled in, we all congregated at room 1020 for our midnight gossip.

Day 2
Breakfast at Buttercup (not Tiffanys' unfortunately), in the hotel, part of the package. They had a pretty large selection of food from chinese to continental style. I had servings of omelette and scrambled eggs and stewed beef and sausages and bacon and fried noodles and orange juice and tea. (You get the picture)

We did a tour of the royal palace next. First took the BTS (equivalent of our MRT)to some jetty and then a boat down the river to the royal palace. The palace was elaborately decked with gold, everywhere was littered with gold from the walls to the pillars and ceilings. And if some speck of gold dust would just come off from the roof top we would be rich. HAH...

After the royal palace tour was, you guessed it, LUNCH. We went to MBK food court. Don't think that it's only a food court, the food there is gorgeous. Some of the guys had shark fin's soup without shark fins (haha, joke of day) but tastes nice. I ordered a curry chicken rice, was not bad, J had the paht thai (fried glass noodles). And the highlight of the day was the sticky rice with mango was mmmmmmmm.... divine! And did I mention that it was also cheap? T brought back 3 servings, of which he had the lion's share of course. Lunch was more than satisfying. Having filled our stomachs to the brim, we embarked on our long awaited retail therapy. The place was just packed with shops. Think Far East, except twice the size and trice the density of tenants. That's how packed it is. And really, you need quite a lot of stamina to go through all of them. Was quite a challenge.

Anyway after an afternoon of exertion in the mall, we rewarded ourselves to swenson's ice cream, and an evening of traditional Thai massage in a Sauna. The ambience of the place was amazingly good, it's like a world of its own, a little retreat outside of the menacing city life. This is my first massage ever, it was really an eye-opener, and a very amazing experience. Well I think I would go back for more.

Dinner was at Silom complex, took a tuk tuk (think of the James Bond Ad) there. We had red and green curry, sweet and sour fish, tom yam soup and vege. And we polished off everything on the plate. The plan was to have dinner and then go for a cabaret performance but the heavy rain thwarted our plan and to end off the day, we congregated at Room 1016 of evening gossip this time.

Day 3
Breakfast at Buttercup as per the previous day. This time we had the usual omelette and scrambled eggs and chicken and fried rice. Again, ate till very full. After which we continued on our retail therapy part 2. But before that, T wanted to free birds for good luck (think of Richard Gere but less dramatic), so we made a trip to the famous four-faced buddha shrine to make the offering. Then we walked to our lunch destination, that took us a while, we had a good lunch in a local restaurant. The interior decor was humble, it looked probably like it's frozen in a timezone which is in the 70s, but the dishes were so delicious. Then we spent the rest of the time shopping. We went back to MBK centre and then J and I walked across to Discovery Centre and we saw lots of fabulous and cute stuffs for the home and gifts. The ideas people can come up with for little things like a floor mat and table lamp was amazing. Again, we rewarded ourselves to swenson's ice-cream after finishing with our shopping.

A few of us went back to our hotel to just rot while others continued to their massage parlour for more self indulgence.

We then had a fantastic dinner at Sukothai hotel, a luxurious haven which commands an exorbitant fee of about US$600 for just a one-night stay there. The restaurant is Celadon (if i remember it correctly) and again we had top-knotch Thai cuisine. The tom yam soup was clear but it's so spicy u can burn your tongue. We also ordered a red and a green curry, tofu, and fried fish. The service was remarkable and the ambience was heavenly. It makes a fantastic retreat or a honeymoon destination.

Of course we did not stop at dinner, the fun had only just begun. We made our way down to Pawan for a cabaret show. The show was really amazing, and roaringly funny, not becoz it's a comedy, but because some parts of it was so cheezy and so bad that it's actually funny. The thing looked like some primary school assembly programme thingy with very bad choreo and lousy effects and cheapo props and really wrong music. But that was not really the point. The point was not to showcase talent in the artistic way but another kind of talent. You go figure what talent it is =P

After the cabaret, the lot of us went shopping again down pat pong night market. It's like nothing you'll find in Singapore. Think of pasar malam, but only 10-20 times more elaborate and busier, which lots of tourist lots of variety of stuffs.
To end off the day, we did our midnight gossip (which has since became a ritual), this time in room 1022.

Day 4 (Last day)
We were so shacked out over the last 2 nights we totally skipped breakfast because we overslept. The day was pretty slack as we had done all the major shopping and visited the places we wanted to visit and done the stuffs we wanted to do. So we had a leisure walk to Starbucks for our coffee and did a bit of shopping at Isetan. All of which are within a 1km radius from our hotel. :) Not long after, we stopped by the food court for lunch and return to our hotels to check-out.

As our agent has arranged, the minibus came punctually at 1:30pm to pick us up for the airport. Along the way, we asked the driver to stop at Chatuchak market to pick up some fresh fruits. The market was just amazing, it is firstly humongous, and it sells anything and everything under the sun. The pomelo here is super cheap and sweet. N bought a whole stash to be brought home, the rest all bought something.
Then at the airport, we had KFC, as T was craving for it the whole time since yesterday. Delightful it was, the chicken I am referring to, and feeling satisfied, we checked in for our boarding.

Thus concludes the trip to Bangkok. So much for updating, I am completely exhausted. Goodnight and ciao.

Official Notice

Dear readers of corcovado20.blogspot,

please be informed that the writer will be away from 2-5 Oct in Bangkok and from 7-9 Oct for a retreat with Key Elements. Will be back here after. Have a good week ahead and Happy Chewrens Day!

Corcovado20

It's a good monday,
I have no school
I have no work
I just be a couch potato
and had a helluva time doing
absolutely
Nothing

Oh I did something in fact,
went to visit a student at SGH
It's not dengue,
It's just that her life was put in danger
by herself,
one fine day, she decided to mutilate herself
kids do that a lot these days huh.
some relationship problem
and next moment they try to kill themselves
details cannot be disclosed sorry,
so don't ask what school, who, what, when, where.
No comments.

Anywae, it was a lovely day, save for a traffic jam at the CTE.
'Twas a good start to a week free from the pressures of work.
Tmr got one primary school, and Key Elements practice, which reminds me that i have scores to memorise... orite, so long, farewell, adieu, till we meet again.

Bye.

Mooncake Come and Gone

It's alarming how fast time flies, before you knew it, it's already 3rd quarter of 2005. We have eaten our mooncakes, sent and received our festive greetings and now it's nearing the end of the year and time to look forward to Christmas.

It's the exam period now, and so yours truly don't have to teach. This is a good time to go away for a holiday, so that's exactly what I'm gonna do. Will be away in Bangkok from 3-6 October. (Yes!! MUAHAHAHAHAHA)

THE YOUNG PERSON'S GUIDE TO THE CHORUS
[Continued...]

Top Ten Reasons for Being a Soprano
1. The rest of the choir exists just to make you look good.
2. You can entertain your friends by breaking their wineglasses.
3. Can you name an opera where an alto got the man?
4. When sopranos want to sing in the shower, they know the tune.
5. It's not like you are ever going to sing the alto part by accident.
6. Great costumes - like the hat with the horns on it.
7. How many world famous altos can you name?
8. When the fat lady sings, she's usually singing soprano.
9. When you get tired of singing the tune, you can sing the descant.
10. You can sing along with Michael Jackson.


Top Ten Reasons for Being an Alto
1. You get really good at singing E flat.
2. You get to sing the same note for 12 consecutive measures.
3. You don't really need to warm up to sing 12 consecutive bars of E-flat.
4. If the choir really stinks, it's unlikely the altos will be blamed.
5. You have lots of time to chat during soprano solos.
6. You get to pretend that you are better than the sopranos, because everybody knows that women only sing soprano so they don't have to learn to read music.
7. You can sometimes find part time work singing tenor.
8. Altos get all the great intervals.
9. When the sopranos are holding some outrageously high note at the end of a song, the altos always get the last words.
10. When the altos miss a note, nobody gets hurt.

Top Ten Reasons for Being a Tenor
1. Tenors get high - without drugs.
2. Name a musical where the bass got the girl.
3. You can show the sopranos how it SHOULD be sung.
4. Did you ever hear of anyone paying $1000 for a ticket to see 'The three Basses?'
5. Who needs brains when you've got resonance?
6. Tenors never have to waste time looking through the self-improvement section of the bookstore.
7. You get to sing along with John Denver singing "Aye Calypso."
8. When you get really good at falsetto, you can make tons of money doing voice-overs for cartoon characters.
9. Gregorian chant was practically invented for tenors. Nobody invented a genre for basses.
10. You can entertain your friends by impersonating Julia Child.

Top Ten Reasons for Being a Bass
1. You don't have to tighten your shorts to reach your note.
2. You don't have to worry about a woman stealing your job.
3. Or a preadolescent boy stealing your job.
4. Action heroes are always basses. That is - if they ever sang, they would sing bass.
5. You get great memorable lyrics like bop, bop, bop, bop.
6.If the singing job doesn't work out, there's always broadcasting.
7. You never need to learn to read the treble clef.
8. If you get a cold, so what.
9. For fun, you can sing at the bottom of your range and fool people into thinking there's an earthquake.
10. If you belch while you're singing, the audience just thinks it is part of the score.

HAHA Wicked... Have a good laugh.

The Young Person's Guide to the Chorus

Disclaimer: I did not write this, comes from a somebody's blog, which is ripped off from some other source...

In a typical mixed chorus, there are four voice parts: soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. Sometimes these are divided into first and second within each part, prompting endless jokes about first and second basses. There are also various other parts such as baritone, countertenor, contralto, mezzo soprano, etc., but these are mostly used by people who are either soloists, or belong to some excessively hotshot classical a cappella group (this applies especially to countertenors), or are trying to make excuses for not really fitting into any of the regular voice parts, so we will ignore them for now. Each voice part sings in a different range, and each one has a very different personality. You may ask, "Why should singing different notes make people act differently?", and indeed this is a mysterious question and has not been adequately studied, especially since scientists who study musicians tend to be musicians themselves and have all the peculiar complxes that go with being tenors, french horn players, timpanists, or whatever. However,this is beside the point; the fact remains that the four voice parts can be easily distinguished, and I will now explain how...

THE SOPRANOS are the ones who sing the highest, and because of this they think they rule the world. They have longer hair, fancier jewellery, and swishier skirts than anyone else, and they consider themselves insulted if they are not allowed to go at least to a high F in every movement of any given piece. When they reach the high notes, they hold them for at least half again as long as the composer and/or conductor requires, and then complain that their throats are killing them and that the composer and conductor are sadists. Sopranos have varied attitudes toward the other sections of the chorus, though they consider all of them inferior. Altos are to sopranos rather like second violins to first violins - nice to harmonise with, but not really necessary. All sopranos have a secret feeling that the altos could drop out and the piece would sound essentially the same, and they don't understand why anybody would sing in that range in the first place - it's so boring. Tenors, on the other hand, can be very nice to have around; besides their flirtation possibilities (it is a well-known fact that sopranos never flirt with basses), sopranos like to sing duets with tenors because all the tenors are doing is working very hard to sing in a low-to-medium soprano range, while the sopranos are up there in the stratosphere showing off. To sopranos, basses are the scum of the earth - they sing too damn loud, are useless to tune because they're down in that low, low range - and there has to be something wrong with anyone who sings in the F clef, anyway.

THE ALTOS are the salt of the earth - in their opinion, at least. Altos are unassuming people, who would wear jeans to concerts if they were allowed to. Altos are in a unique position in the chorus in that they are unable to complain about having to sing either very high or very low, and they know that all the other sections think their parts are pitifully easy. But the altos know otherwise. They know that while the sopranos are screeching way on a high A, they are being forced to sing elaborate passages full of sharps and flats and tricks of rhythm, and nobody is noticing because the sopranos are singing too loud (and the basses usually are too). Altos get a deep, secret pleasure out of conspiring together to tune the sopranos flat. Altos have an innate distrust of tenors, because the tenors sing in almost the same range and think they sound better. They like the basses, and enjoy singing duets with them - the basses just sound like a rumble anyway, and it's the only time the altos can really be heard. Altos' other complaint is that there are always too many of them and so they never get to sing really loud.

THE TENORS are spoiled. That's all there is to it. For one thing, there are never enough of them, and choir directors would rather sell their souls than let a halfway decent tenor quit, while they're always ready to unload a few altos at half price. And then, for some reason, the few tenors are always really good - it's one of those annoying facts of life. So it's no wonder that tenors always get swollen heads - after all, who else can make sopranos swoon? The one thing that can make tenors insecure is the accusation (usually by the basses) that anyone singing that high couldn't possibly be a real man.. In their usual perverse fashion, the tenors never acknowledge this, but just complain louder about the composer being a sadist and making them sing so damn high. Tenors have a love-hate relationship with the conductor, too, because the conductor is always telling them to sing louder because there are so few of them. No conductor in recorded history has ever asked for less tenor in a forte passage. Tenors feel threatened in some way by all the other sections - the sopranos because they can hit those incredibly high notes; the altos because they have no trouble singing the notes the tenors kill themselves for; and the basses because, although they can't sing anything above an E, they sing it loud enough to drown the tenors out. Of course, the tenors would rather die than admit any of this. It is a little-known fact that tenors move their eyebrows more than anyone else while singing.

THE BASSES sing the lowest of anybody. This basically explains everything. They are stolid, dependable people, and have more facial hair than anybody else. The basses feel perpetually unappreciated, but they have a deep conviction that they are actually the most important part (a view endorsed by musicologists, but certainly not by sopranos or tenors), despite the fact that they have the most boring part of anybody and often sing the same note(or in endless fifths) for an entire page. They compensate for this by singing as loudly as they can get away with - most basses are tuba players at heart. Basses are the only section that can regularly complain about how low their part is, and they make horrible faces when trying to hit very low notes. Basses are charitable people, but their charity does not extend so far as tenors, whom they consider effete poseurs. Basses hate tuning the tenors more than almost anything else. Basses like altos - except when they have duets and the altos get the good part. As for the sopranos, they are simply in an alternate universe which the basses don't understand at all. They can't imagine why anybody would ever want to sing that high and sound that bad when they make mistakes. When a bass makes a mistake, the other three parts will cover him, and he can continue on his merry way, knowing that sometime, somehow, he will end.

[To be continued...]
Akan Datang

Black Monday

As if the weather is not gloomy enough,
I had to teach today.
And attendance was just unbelievable.
There were only seven (yes, no typo) people.
It was UNREAL.
We had ZERO altos.
It's like WOW.
Where did all the people go? Nobody knows.... it's a mystery.
People seem to appear / disappear in packages.
If you get one u get a bunch,
If you don't get one, u get a whole missing bunch.
Now, isn't that great.
It makes you wonder "why bother?"
If people are not gonna take responsibility,
to even let us know what has happened to them when they don't show up,
let alone attend rehearsals regularly,
they probably don't give a shit for this bloody CCA.
Why don't we close it down and save us all the trouble?
Because it's just going nowhere with this ridiculously small amount of commitment people are willing to give. No need to talk about developmental plans or long term goals when people come as they wish, go as they please. How can the choir grow together as a group where each practice we see less than half the people? We have been struggling since June and it's just getting from bad to worse. I don't think it's worth my while anymore.
I originally wanted to bring
a little surprise to choir
but thought otherwise,
now it seems I had made the right choice.

On a happier note, I went out for a movie after choir.

Happy Post

Key Elements put up a good show at the UCC today. It had never felt this good. Admittedly, Desmond our sound engineer helped to make us sound really good, but we were also in our Element tonight (HAHA pun intended). The chords were clicking, choreo was fine, nobody tripped, staging and presentation on the whole was much improved, sound (system) was fantastic, energy was high, and I remembered all my words for Jian Dan Ai (save for just one tinee-winee part, which nobody noticed I hope).

Thank you fans and friends for showing your support. My loyal supporters list has to include - Paul, Priscillia and Wei Sinn, they found their way there to the NUS (i'm so impressed) wasn't expecting them, that was a pleasant surprise.

OF course, not forgetting people from Consonance who came - Zhengchang (Rox), Edlina, SiewHwa and Charmaine, thank you all for your support. And other people who I forgot to thank. And it's good to see old time friends who's not been in touch for a while like William Morton.

Anyway, singing and performing is infectious. There's one more tmr night at a cappella fest. Tune in for more exciting news.

Mooncake

Mooncake festivals is almost here, I'm proud to annouce that I've gone up to JB and bought meself 2 boxes of SIN. Delectable they are. Anyway, it's the holiday week now. Time has flown by, I have many things to say, but I somehow think it's not very nice to say it.

I can't find the words.
Just a strong unsettled desolation and bewilderment
Like a forest fire that has gone wild
Consumes the frailing faculties
and ignites the dull incense of immorality
come winter
and be gone with spring
dead like a rex
moving like serpents in the sea of suffering
only to see the seals of regret and
heartaches seizes the spine
crinking boxes of lisping lying lonesomeness lingers on
to know the depth of the unfathomable darkness,
one has to cry in the dark for vanity to seep
then crawl like a weeping jaundice to earth's revolting core
catch a weak breath of stinging frost and
plunge into the ocean of daggers in search of destiny or doom
Burn!
fire,
Burn!

The rain had come
like hoards of angry bees
Stinging the hot earth
With vehemence
Like pestilence
the pitter patter pounded heavily
Hoping to drown the world and bury the poisonous
Sediments which brought the human race into treachery

-Corcovado20

NEWSFLASH: Exxonmobil Campus Concert Series

Featuring: Key Elements
Date: 7 Sept 2005 (Wed)
Time: 7-8pm
Venue: University Cultural Centre, NUS
Admission: FREE

Dear friends,

Key Elements will be putting another performance yet again, in promotion of our year-end full-length concert. This is chance for you catch us in action and hear some of your familiar blockbuster favourites done up in new, snazzy jazzy and electrifying arrangements. So make a date with us and be enthralled by the voices of Key Elements. It's a great way to spend the evening and get recharged for the rest of the week. See you there!

Best regards,
Benedict
For Key Elements

NEWSFLASH: A CAPPELLA ATTACK

Featuring Key Elements

A great way to spend your weekend would be to come and share the magic and excitement of a cappella music with the new a cappella sensation in town - KEY ELEMENTS! You can expect pop, jazz, R&B and even Mandarin pop favourites in a myriad of refreshing and riveting arrangements.

Where: West Coast Park
When: 20 Aug (Sat)
What time: 5-6pm
Admission: FREE

Make a date with us then =) Cya there!

this song just popped into my head -

What the werrrl nids now is la, swit la!
It's ti only ting, tat tere's juss too lider of.
What the werrrl nids now is la, swit la!
No, not juss for sum, o but jus for everyone.

Upbeat concert was good fun. I am glad I went, saw good stuffs, learn some cool choreography routines and nice blocking And heard some good ol' acappella arrangements.

Am supposed to be happy, since i've just got back from a trip to KL where we had good food, good company, good laughs, good shopping, good rirakusushite (relax).
But the haze in KL seem to have gotten into my spirits plus I am a little feverish towards the end of the trip and that brought things down a little. The thought of work tomorrow certainly did not help lift my spirits. I am so not looking forward to it. Things have been going downhill recently, unhappiness, tension, resentment, disappointment, lethargy, demotivation have been poisoning the air lately. Wonder if it's a failure of my part or a sign to move on? Questions and decisions... really bothers me. I felt i need to go away for a while, and i did. Now i feel i should go away and never return. I do not know how to do it anymore. I need an exit.

The depression sets in again.
Maybe it's because of the weather,
or just the time of the year,
or just karma.
Time to rationalise the depression,
I'll try.
Will tell you if it works out.

Education is the certification of the self
Or is it?

Whatever is the matter, the education system sucks BIG TIME.
Period.

-to be continued

Lunchbox Performance

Key Elements performed at the Esplanade concert hall at last!
Turn-out was surprisingly good, and sound system and acoustics was solid!
To read more about it click here

Photos Update

This goes out especially to Consonance: The pictures from 'Listening' and East Coast are finally up! Imagestation had been giving me a lot of problems lately, thus the long delay. Happy browsing =)

Key Elements gig at Equinox

Ogay! By popular demand, here's an update. Today was generally a cho-bo relaxing day except for Key Elements performance at night at the Equinox. The event is a celebration of the christening of a ship - LEWEK SWAN (don't ask). We thought what LEWEK? We turned to each other and smiled, "Later when you sing, don't forget your 'leweks' (lyrics) hor". Then we later found out that LEWEK is formed by assembling the initials of all the board of directors in the organisation (hmm how original) and SWAN because they are going by SW- series, they had SWIFT, SWING, and now SWAN ('SWANderful). Anywae, the dinner started late (surprise, surprise) and we only got to sing our 1st set at 10pm (that's when the Main course is actually served) !! And in between they had a several skits of drama on a murder mystery, it's bizarre, but nevermind about that, we just know we had to do 2 sets, 1st 20 mins and then 30 mins, and they overran. Great, so when it's finally time to do our 2nd set, ppl are having their desserts and time is already 11:20pm. We had to cut short our act, just sing 4 songs and ciao. And so we thought that we could go, but no, we have to do a closing act and round off the evening, and thank and guests and say goodnight. So, fine, we sang Rainbow Connection and my mic was switched off without my knowledge, and so when I opened my mouth... NO SOUND...and I happened to be singing LEAD for this song.. HOW SWAN-derful! Anywae the sound system sucked. There were no monitors and we couldn't hear ourselves properly and the sound technician (yes, I wouldn't call him an engineer) was just a flop. Our levels are screwed up and balance was off. "What balance?", u might say. But anywae, important thing is we get paid and the audience still loved us, and some came up and congratulated us. =) Quite an appreciative lot they are, we expected them to be busy eating and chatting and won't bother about us, but they actually turned around to listen to us when we sang.

Oh, I realised I have a gift for rambling, I can go on but I shall spare you. The night is young I know, but I'm le tired. So long, farewell, till then, au revoir and goodnight!

Welcome Phase 2 of RT

Today is IPPT day.
For those non-army readers out there, IPPT stands for Individual Physical Proficiency Test, and RT stands for Remedial Training (for those who didn't make it in their IPPT).

Anyway, cannot means cannot, so instead of struggling like hell and feeling shitty after the whole thing, I chose to flunk with style, and fall-out after taking the 4 static stations, as I have already flunk my chin-up station, the 2.4 will be unnecessary (u need to pass all the stations to pass your IPPT). Looking back, I used to be able to do 12 chin-ups, in the F-ing number4 uniform, complete with SAF boots (those glory days.. ahh), but I only managed X*()@#*@$@ chin-up today... So, I 'graduated' from Phase 1 of my RT into phase 2 which will last for another 4 weeks, 3 F-ing times a week. The point is, I moved on... MUAHAHA

Anywae... thank you fans and friends for tagging (or flooding) my board.
Jessica - your choir actually sounded pretty good! The soprano section had quite a full and non-airy tone, which was pleasant, and the choir on the whole had a good blend, only the balance wasn't so great, cos boys are overpowered.
Sin-neh - Welcome back to cyberspace! Yes I tend to agree with you about Ah Mahn =) and YES we did KICK ASS on 5th July! Woo-hoo! and Ok, English tutorial? and yes you're random...
Tammy - Um. No comments =P

More updates to come... Akan Datang.

Lunchbox:
Jazz from the Movies
Key Elements
Singapore
When: 26 Jul 2005 (Tue), 12.45 PM at the Esplanade Concert Hall

If you have an appetite for jazz or a cappella music and want to hear such music from your favourite movie, come fill your lunch-hour with a soulful, humorous and riveting performance by a capella group, Key Elements! They promise to satisfy you with familiar blockbuster movie tunes and standards like Fly Me To The Moon, Route-66 and even a Teresa Teng number! Each song will be given a refreshing treatment and guarantees to send you humming and swinging your way back to work.

(30mins, no intermission)

Admission is FREE

Another Esplanade Presents Programme
Key Elements is a YMCA associate for the arts 2005
For more information on Key Elements, visit http://I-Lurve-KE.com

MUSIC IN MOTION

Well, these two days had been the longest day I had in the last few months, with rehearsals starting early morning and ending late. But it's worth it, the concert was a blast. And best part of all, Le Voci Entro has done exceptionally well. It was indeed a extraordinary performance. LE VOCI ENTRO has really really made me so proud. Guys and girls, you have outdid yourself once again, you managed to prove that size does not matter. We did a compelling performance of all 3 songs in our 1st set. The energy and concentration level was high, response good, expression dynamics spot on, pitching and tuning great. I think you never sounded better. Even in the second half, despite some hiccups on various levels, and through no fault of the choir (except in opening), the choir managed to hold the fort and pull through.

Let's see what happened there, first I must admit I am partly to blame for the screw up, as I heard the opening line by the sopranos who were a demi-semitone sharp, I went "OH MY GOD" in my heart and I blacked out, and so I forgot to give Vaughan Tan the cue to gong and went straight into the refrain. Joel on the other hand was also a bit blur and he was in a world of his own for a while, not knowing what chords he was playing, and the flautist also screwed up, through no fault of the choir, and he came and aplogised to me later on. But despite all that, the choir managed to find back their pitch and move on and we ended on a good note, and audience was impressed nonetheless. That itself is to be celebrated. This only shows that the level of musicianship of the choir has gone up a knotch, enabling them to discern and to correct pitching problems on the spot and not break down. Kudos to everyone for that. I think we all deserve a pat on our shoulder.

Well, having said that, I must also thank the wonderful teachers who did all the behind-the-scene work to help the choir in one way or another - Ms Chew, Mdm Chia, Ms Abraham, thank you. And to the friends and fans and ex-choristers of Le Voci Entro who never fail to support, thank you all! And thanks also to Consonance, who gave us an added boost and especially to the senior members who, despite their O levels this year, dedicated their time and energy into making this project work. THANK YOU.

Finally, I just wanna say, Le Voci Entro ROCKS!!!

c'est un succes

Vox humana and Consonance's collaborative concert - 'Listening' was a blast! Our hardwork for the past 6 months has paid off handsomely. Thanks to all who has slogged and pulled out emotional hair to make this concert work. It has been such an awesome experience working on this project. Thanks especially to all Consonance members who's sang their hearts out.

Thanks also to all my compulsory fans - family members, friends, Le Voci Entro, Serangoon Gdn choir, and everybody who's showed up and given your support and encouragement. God bless you all!

Now one down, another one to go - 5th July at Victoria Theatre. See my earlier post. This is one mega project also, hope it will be just as great, if not better. Till then, take care and cya.

Later.

Choirs from Bishan Park Secondary,

Bedok North Secondary, Dunearn Secondary

and Peirce Secondary present

MUSIC IN MOTION

5th July 2005

7:30 P.M.

Victoria Theatre

Tickets at $12

(free seating)

Directed by

Jason Ong, Benedict Goh & Vaughan Tan

featuring choral works by

Carl Orff

Aaron Copland

Jennifer Leong

Karl Jenkins

and more

also featuring

original arrangements by

Jason Ong & Benedict Goh

Come and share the magic

in an exciting evening

that combines sound

colour and movement.

Come sway with us

to the music in motion!

bookings:

Jason Ong 97636365

Benedict Goh 98177689

Vaughan Tan 96406698

Flipside @ Esplanade

Thanks to all who has come to support Key Elements at Flipside, especially to my dahhhlings from Le Voci Entro - Sin Ne, Priscillia, Wei Sinn and Paul. Muah. The show was a success but not if you all weren't there to give us your encouragement and applause. We hope to bring more good music. Keep a lookout for us, we'll be singing at Esplanade Concert Hall on 26th July (Tue) in a lunchtime concert, and on 5th November in our own full-length concert at VCH. Meanwhile, for you music enthusiasts out there, there is a couple of concerts coming right up.

24th June (Fri)
'LISTENING'
featuring Consonance & Vox Humana
venue: victoria concert hall
time: 7:30pm
tickets: $12 (free seating)
bookings: fu deqiang (9824 7012)

5th July (Tue)
'MUSIC IN MOTION'
featuring choirs from

Bedok North Secondary,

Bishan Park Secondary,
Dunearn Secondary and
Peirce Secondary School
venue: victoria theatre
time: 7:30pm
tickets: $12 (free seating)
bookings: benedict goh (98177689)

Hope to see you there =) Till then, take care and God bless!

New Skin

Yay! I love this new skin,
Thanks a lot to Sin ne for her design.
=)

consonance & vox humana present

LISTENING

friday, 24th June 2005
7:30pm
victoria concert hall
tickets at $12 (free seating)

directed by
benedict goh &
gregory chen
featuring choral works by
chen yi
cesar franck
alberto grau
zoltan kodaly
jonathan larson
leong yoon pin
jennifer leong
anotonio lotti
wolfgang amadeus mozart
john rutter
luduvico da viadana

bookings
fu deqiang 9824 7012
benedict goh 9817 7689

Flipside @ the Esplanade
featuring Key Elements

Date : 13th & 14th June
Time: 6:30-7pm & 8:30-9pm (on both nights)
Venue: Esplanade Concourse

How do you combine Honey Pie, Opus One, Stomping At the Savoy, Five Foot Two, Blue Skies, The Best Is Yet To Come, Fascinatin' Rhythm, Rhapsody in Blue, I Got Rhythm, The Sound of Music and New York, New York all into ONE song and sing them all under 4 minutes? Come join Key Elements on this spectacular evening of vocal acrobatics and find out how they do it!

Comprising key elements from other well-known a cappella groups - In-a-Chord, BCoz and Impromptu, Key Elements have charmed audiences with their beautiful harmony and interesting and witty arrangements of Jazz, Pop and R & B numbers, often giving the songs an ingenious and surprising "face-lift".

Since the group's return from Taipei in October 2004, where the group clinched 2nd prize in the 4th National taiwan Sing, Sing Together Competition, Key Elements is hard at work preparing for their first full-length public concert in November 2005. They have already started work on their first a cappella album.

For the Flipside concert, Key Elements will perform a series of songs that showcases the wittier side of the group. From "Honey Pie", a Beatles song which includes a collage of 10 other songs woven intricately to swinging jazz riffs, to "Lean Baby", a tribute to the lead singers particularly 'thin' boyfriend, Key Elements is set to delight the audience with their humourous yet beautifully harmonized music. Enjoy!

Today is the day which I shall break the tradition of posting verbal diarrhoea of a semi-poetic kind to just plain verbal diarrhoea. So here's goes the faithful day.

'Twas another boring Monday where I had to go to school (dreads). After my 3-week long break, I am pretty much still in the holiday mood, and the thought of having to work just isn't very welcoming. Anyway, school turned out ok altho' attendance wasn't fantastic, people are just getting back into the groove after having not sung for 3 weeks, things moved a little slow but it moved at least.

Then the highlight and high point of the day came. It started out just as an aimless wandering about and thinking of where to have dinner. And mr heng our dear friend, suggested 'sushi'. So we all trotted happily down to the basement of J8 for Sakae. Little did I know, that what happened in the next 2 hours or so would be so dramatic and almost totally insane that people from the tables around us would stare occasionally astounded and stunned (althought they try very hard to pretend not to notice anything).

Here's the summary - we devoured a total of 26 coloured plates and 6 (omfg) red plates worth of sushi, highlight being the salmon sashimi (oishi neh!). And meanwhile, mr heng was on a super-extra-normal-unbelievable high. Must be the effect of raw fish i reckon or just the intensified nerve stimulating realisation of the fact that the bill will be settled by not him but by uhem, yours truly =( well, let's not go there. At the end of the session, our jaws and cheek bones are so 'sour' from the laughing fits which lasted as long as the dinner. In short, wei sinn was the source of it all, and tammy just have to make it worse by unleashing her contagious horse-neigh-hyena-wild-boar laughter.
Weisinn could stop his bastardised american twang and vicki also couldn't resist adding oil to the fire. Sinne was exceptionally reserved, except she would be among those who easily get fits and can't stop their giggle. In conclusion, the evening was so lame that even the crippled can run.

I realised I might have exceeded the word-limit set by myself for each entry. I apologize for wasting your time in reading this much of crap. But I'm lovin' it. Muahahahahahahaha. Thank you for staying with us thus far. Have a nice day and godspeed.

yours truly,
B

ps. neoprints are up peeps, check out the link and enjoy.

unheard whisper
drizzles on the pavement
like flakes of ripped tissue
thrown into the air
a little beam of light
obscure as a pin in the hay
sneaks into the lonesome bay
of untrodden earth
lay down by recessed ancestors
only to chew on the fractured minerals
of desperate immortality

Moderation
is what a nation in botheration
to aid cessation of degradation
would so in affectation
be in temptation.
The illumination to
the negation of substantiation
seeks the wanton resusitation
of a congregation of fabrication
Fornication and defecation
seems like flirtation
and obligation
to inite cremation
in a time of globalisation
to send fumes of annihilation
into obliteration
lest preoccupation
with pervasion
would be in ovation
and invasion
of regimentation
would lose its station
only relation
to institutionalisation
can breach mortification
of rationalisation

THE COMPLETE RULES
OF GOOD WRITING (I)
To help avoid any misunderstanding about the scope of this book, it would be as well to pay close attention to the following rules.

A writer should not annoy half of his readers by using gender-specific language.
Always finish what you star
Avoid overuse of ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
Always avoid annoying alliteration.
Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
Always pick on the correct idiom.
A writer must not shift your point of view.
Avoid cliches like the plague - they're so old hat.
Be more or less specific.
Consult the dictionary frequently to avoid mispeling.
Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
Contractions aren't necessary.

- Eats, Shites & Leaves

THE COMPLETE RULES
OF GOOD WRITING (II)

Do not use, unnecessary, commas.
Do not use a foreign word when there is an adequate English quid pro quo.
Do not use hyperbole; not even one in a million can do it effectively.
Don't repeat yourself and avoid being repetitive.
Don't be redundant; don't use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.
Don't indulge in sesquipedalian lexicological constructions.
Don't overuse exlamation marks!!!
Don't repeat yourself, or say again what you have said before.
'Don't use unattributed quotations'

- Eats, Shites & Leaves

Speech Day photos finally up.
Have fun!

LE VOCI ENTRO

Bishan Park Secondary School

is hereby being awarded a

BRONZE with HONOURS

for their outstanding performance

at 2005 Speech & Prize-giving day

Congratulations BPS choir!

You have indeed

outdone yourselves once more

and has made me even prouder

of you than I already am!

I really enjoyed conducting and

making music with you

and you have indeed proven the potential

in everyone of you to achieve greater heights.

Thank you all for giving me such a wonderful

experience and a sweet memory.

Let's go on and wow our audience on 5th July

and bring back more beautiful memories

of this amazing young choir.

Love you to bits!

~ Your conductor

With some strange sonority,
a surge of surreal subconsciousness
steals into the solid surrounding,
stinging like serpents of the sea
and scorches the subterranean solitude.
Only oblivion would liscence a sordid serenade
to sooth the suffering soul with a sickly silence
that only Sycoras,
flailing seductively in her sin,
would summon with slithering suffocation
to enslave the sulphur of man's senses.

Hey peeps, SYF'05 photos are up!
Have fun =)

Let the clouds of yesterday dissolve
in the sun of tomorrow's dawn
obliged to shine through the mist
in search of heaven's grain of
sand in the sea of sorrows
bowing low in rivers of reminiscence
I see the white-washed face of dream
in my own reflection
only to be tattered by the
scattered scorn of winter's prison

Hey peeps!

Camp photos are up,
check out the link in "My Galleries"
Enjoy!

And thanks for your birthday wishes and pressies,
God bless y'all! Muacks.

Heaven and hell made a wager
and the battle is on earth

paul durcan
___________________

The death by heroin of Sid Vicious

There -- but for the clutch of luck -- go I.

At daybreak -- in the arctic fog of a February
daybreak --
Shoulderlength helmets in the watchtowers of the
concentration camp
Caught me out in the intersecing arcs of the
swirling searchlights:

There were at least a zillion of us caught out there
-- Like ladybirds under a boulder --
But under the microscope each of us was unique.

Unique and we broke for cover, crazily breasting
The barbed wire and some of us made it
To the forest edge, but many of us did not

Make it, although their unborn children did --
Such as you whom the camp commandant branded
Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols. Jesus, break his fall:

There -- but for the clutch of luck -- go we all.

February 1979

The lead singer of the Sex Pistols died February 3, 1979.

alan brownjohn
___________________

The Rain Diary

For my geography project I would keep a rain diary, a record starting
on 1st January of the days that year when it rained and approximately
how much.

On 1st January there was no rain. On 2nd January there was no rain.
It did not rain on the 3rd of 4th either. Would I go back to school on 8th
January with nothing to show? Only blank pages with the dates in
blue-black italic and the expectation of punishment?

Amanda kept a sunshine diary. The sun shone all the time that New Year,
every day was like the legendary 1st January 1942. I saw long shadows
of bare trees in Amanda's garden revolving on the stiff white grass
as the sun crawled low and bright round the Warwickshire sky.
Amanda, day by day, logged her hours of sunshine in duffle coat
and mittens, putting out her tongue to warm her finger tips.

Tiny planes inched over the blue from the aerodrome leaving lacy
strips of vapour which crumbled into strung-out blurs. There was no rain
on 5th, 6th or 7th. I gained a sense of what life in general would be like.

On 8th January I stood at 8.55 a.m. on the worn stone step of the
school with my blank diary - and raindrops fell. But I had no time to
write anything down, the bell was pounding in the school campanile and
we could not be late. So I opened my rain diary and let the rain fall into it,
stain it and crinkle it, as the others fled past me into school.

To which rain I added my own joyful tears, knowing that Amanda
might have statistics but I had a concrete event.

Due to popular demand, here's a short update:

Don't ask why,
just
let the shadows of yesterday's past
be but a flicker of dust particle
in the golden tomb of imaginative revolution
and then the walls of doubt bouncing
the reverberation of sorrow's cry
fall when reason knocks
clumbering loose jocular frightful
clanging of jittery goodbye
fading away
like the moon on a wintry night
begets a lost river of misery's might
obsessive longing jams the bleak
velvet sky leaving traces of
indignant melancholy
floating and blistering the alleys
of joy and peace,
glistening clusters of existential exfoliation
bleeds the grey green ocean of blantant incompetence
clinging to the skin,
sinking every minute
closing in on the helples faculty
like a wolf,
like a bat,
like a vampire,
like a predator,
when the bluebirds cry,
the prison cells of the mind
will unlock the grim gruesome
hallucinations of hell
into the frantic caves of untamed anger
until the universe stops
turning
and the second hand of the clock stops ticking
blistening barnacles
with thundering typhoons
will crash into
the hemisphere of agony
pressed hard to homicidal possibility
incessantly unleashing fractured obscurity
leading to uncontrollable monstrosity
shutting down procreativity
propelling nervous insecurity
like an out of track boomerang
tearing tranquility
annihilating stability
and leaving nothing but cold stinging cruelty
burning relentlessly
forcefully vanquishing the
preoccupation of modesty
into streaks of indecency
only clouds of wanton extremity
could unveil the blinds of idiosyncracy
Listen, but a wail
has torn through the horizon
of bitter tomorrow
only to find a bolt of insignificant inspiration
jumping in a can of wounded mortality
breaking the dawn
like a broken sword
kissing the torso of a valiant knight
only to break the freckles of glisten in his armour
changing nothing but
freeing the dust from the earth
unlocking nothing but
freedom itself
flowing with unprecedented velocity
joining the veins of a Marsian artistry
shaking the bells of a forgotten monastery
only to loose the way
and see no road
leading to eternity