A brief summary of what happened on Saturday

I went MAAD (Market of Artists And Designer) together with a friend. Review: Feels good =). Of particular interest is a Stall of Poets. You just give them your name and a word, they will write a poem impromptu and you can come back and collect in 10-15 mins and pay any amount you like. I gave them 'Jiefeng' and 'Magic'.

 

*15 mins later*

 

I got back an envelope, type-written (yes, they used those obsolete type-writers):

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

      

 

                  it's a         kind of magic

 

                                                                  jia feng

                                                                 .............

 

 

 

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

(Yes, they spelled my name wrongly, and there is no stamp.) I paid them $5, for mine and my friend's, and left.

 

 

Then we went Raffles City, ate Roti Plata with Egg and Roti Plata with Cheese and Sausage, bought copy of Daily Bugle (the newspaper is owned by Peter Parker's boss) at $1, a Neil Gaiman story book titled Coraline at a comic shop, and saw a very interesting wine glass in another shop. The label on the glass reads:

 

 

'A MAN IS INCOMPLETE UNTIL HE IS MARRIED...

 

THEN HE IS FINISHED.'

 

 

 *Pondering...* (Should I complete myself? ) Hmmm... Haha! =P

 

Then there is still time, so we went CHIMES for a walk, admiring the architecture abit, before we went Victoria Theatre for the production, 0501.

 

 

The Front of House was dark, and there is eerie sound effect. Big glass jars lies on the floor, small lighted light bulbs in side the jars, wires all over the floor and ceilings.

 

We were greeted by a usher and were told that we still can't go into the theatre yet, later we will be shown where is the entrance, meanwhile we can take a look at the installation art... (Met Xiangbin, Jingwen and their bunch of TTP friends while we were hanging around outside the theatre.)

 

The show / experience began there and then, the moment you reach the theatre, even before you go into it, and it felt like we were going for Fright Night. You felt expectant, wondering what the show is about, and abit scared even. It is, for the lack of a better word, interesting!

 

Then it is time and the usher lead us out of the Front of House, round the side of the theatre, and entered through the back door. And we found ourselves on the stage! (Ok, strictly speaking it is the backstage, with the cyclorama rolled up, so the backstage and the stage is merged into one.) We sat on the stools provided, facing the cushioned seats. All around us are metal tins hanging on ropes from the top. Inside are our program booklets. (Ok, it is not booklets. It is just big sheets of paper rolled up.) In front and behind us are strange installations, cage, stacks of fans, platforms and a dog (real one), with the actors doing their respective stuffs. Minutes later, the dim lights went faded out, one actor abruptly pull a rope and all the metal tin buckets with their program booklets rise up. The show started.

 

(Hmmm... I did say I this entry is a brief summary, didn't I? Okok, I will keep it short.)

 

The show ended. Lights up. One actor in front gestured to us, inviting us to walk down the stage and exit by the entrance. (Only after he gestured a few time then we managed to realize he wanted us to leave...)

 

What I think of the show? It is abstract, beautiful, thought provoking, extreme immersing, dream-like, unique. An experience. Nice. I know you will like it. Too bad you didn't watch it.

 

A fulfilling Saturday. Satisfied. =)

 

 

P.S. Sorry sisters. Can’t meet up with you gals yesterday. My fault.

 

P.P.S. For those interested to know what is between 'The show started' and 'The show ended', you can look at my friend's blog entry, though I believe it is such an experience that it can never be expressed through words. (Actually is I'm lazy. Haha! =P) 

 

P.P.P.S. For those interested to know what is inside the poet's envelope, it is this:

 

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

ILLUSIONS

                              delusions

                                                 magic

 

         capture

                            mesmerize

                                            dazzle

                                                         lie  to  me

 

 

                                                 MAGIC!

 

 

i  want  to  believe  your  tricks

                                                                           when  make  yourself  disappear…

                                                                                                      it’s

 

                                                                               magic!!!!

 

 

         let  me  see  that  act

                                                where  you  cut  me  to  pieces

                                                                                        magic!!!

 

                                                          i am whole again.

 

 

         flowers  churn  from  your  hat

                                                          birds

                                                                          emerge  from  your

                                                                                                       empty

                                                                                                                 hands

 

 

                                                                              magic!!!

 

 

 

                   `                   i stand in awe

 

                                                                           you

                                                                           great

                                                                           magician

 

 

 

 

                                                                 magic!!!

 

 

 

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

Nice!

 

 

Updates

It has been a long time since I blogged (and this time yet again is under the effect of caffeine =). The reason is because there is nothing much to blog about. Just working, reading comics and novels (currently Smokes and Mirrors and Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, and Bleach), sleep. Recently feeling kinda VERY tired after wor, despite the Boss has gone Taiwan again, his remote control is still as strong and we frequently have to work overtime til 7pm. Haiz... sianz. But it more relaxing during office hours la. Have been playing a village building game on the internet. It has spread like a virus and became the craze of the office nowadays - a very fun game!  =) You can try it too if you are feeling very bored. This is the site: http://s3.travian.com

 

Anw the highlights so far...

 

Ever since I stated that I want to watch more theatre performances in my entry long long ago, I've almost watched one every weekend... namely 《暗恋桃花源》, 《黄城夜韵》, Titoudao, and last week 《我们的歌大家唱》.

 

Actually 《我们的歌大家唱》is not really a theatre performance, and I didn't watch it either. It is mass sing-along session held in the National Stadium (whose targeted audience is middle aged people), and I was selling food and drinks in the midst of the audience as a free labour mobile food seller! Why am I doing this? Because of the damned lamp post that I borrowed for hall production la! I don't know why every year hall production sure got park scene one, and I have to borrowed that lamp post for 2 consecutive years! And now I gotta repay the debt with my sweat. Argh!

 

But it is fun la! Met quite a few old friends from JC days, made quite a few new friends from The Theatre Practice (in short TTP, the show company I helped, and I borrowed lamp post from) too. Hmmm I guess next time it will be even easier for me to borrow that stupid lamp post. =P Anw I didn't exactly leave empty handed that day. At least got a free food and drinks and TTP T-Shirt. Hehe.

 

There is one peculiar incident that happened that night. We worked until around 11pm that night, it was raining hard, and my friends all went back to TTP in a lorry. I was kinda at a loss on how to get back home. In the end I just hopped on a stranger's (she is from TTP, thought she was a JC student but turns out that she is one year older than me and has been working for 4 years as a teacher! An awkward + strange + interesting experience, taking a stranger's family car...) dad's car, took a ride to Bishan, and took a train home. Then just as I reached the lift of my flat, a family of 5 also came in at the same time... the eldest daughter was wearing the same TTP shirt as me... and that family is living just one apartment from me, on the same level! It is so... qiao3! (Shit, don't know the equivalent in English.) Turns out that she was doing CIP for her sec school, NYGH. Well... made another 'friend' (if a neighbour that you just exchanged 2 sentences despite living beside each other for years can be consider as friend).... =)

 

Haha... Actually I am just rambling on things that no one will really be interested in (just like my 《暗恋桃花源》entry), so I guess I better don't go on with the summary of Titoudao and 《黄城夜韵》. Just wanted to write something, hee (damned the effect of Mocha Frappe =P). 

 

There is another thing that is of notable interest to me (most probably not to you). I finally bought HSBC Chinese Growth Fund after all these months! Felt guilty that I didn't do any in-depth research on it.  I just read the graph - after one month of down-slope (triggered by the market correction), the graph is finally continuing with its trend of up-slope for the past 5 years - then I told myself, 'Jiefeng, cannot procrastinate anymore, Just Do It!' So I just clicked the 'Buy Order' button at POEMS website, paid the lump sum using EPS at a ATM I passed by after work, and Woalaa! I got the units after 3 days, at $35.68/unit. Kinda exciting, like playing game, except it is using real money. Hopefully my instinct was right! Huat ah! =P  (Actually I'm lucky that I did procrastinate for a few months before I bought the fund. If I bought a few months earlier, I would have ganna the downslope! Heng ah! Haha!)

 

Back to my 'theatrical education' topic. Next week will be watching 0501 produced by the Finger Players. Looking forward to it. Hmmm maybe I might shun bian visit the MAAD Market before the show... heard of it from an advertisement in Arts Central (yupyup, I've been watching Arts Central since I have nothing to do most of the time during weekdays' nights), that place sounds interesting. =P And Good Friday is in next week!!! It will be a great week ahead!

 

Happy April Fools! =)

 

 

P.S. Just received a sms from my colleague telling me to bring my hard drive tmr as he already got Command and Conquer... It is going to be a very good week ahead. =)