The Days Of Our Lives
After watching the latest Harry Potter movie:
YQ: Eek, so much sex and sexual innuendos! It’s not a children’s show! How can they put PG!
He was particularly traumatized by the scene in which Moaning Myrtle was outraging Potter’s modesty outrageously during his bath via inching closer and closer to the very naked wizard plus cooing at him.
Me, I was surprised that Harry is endowed with a rather defined and toned physique, if many shades too white. But he’s definitely more muscular than slender and has remarkable potential to be UK’s answer to Bae Yong Jun.
*
15 minutes into Rent the musical:
Me, whispering: I’m afraid I can’t make out 60% of what they are singing.
Mr Dimples: It’s okay. I can’t make out 70% leh.
The lyrics to the first three songs at least, were quite indiscernible. I don’t think the fact that we’re Chinese has anything to do with it, though Mr Dimples might have appealed to that line of thought. The sound system was rocky at the start, and there was some muffling. It didn’t help that that narrator Mark and his friend (we called him the guitar guy as we had never been able to catch his name) has a tendency to swallow their words and they were doing the lead-in. Sure, they were loud and enthusiastic but as to why they were, it was lost on Mr Dimples and I.
Things started picking up with the appearance of Maureen (impeccable diction and naturally flamboyant body language) and the full fledged gang at the bar scene with “ La Vie Boheme B” onwards. I do wish Maureen had more songs. Karen Mok as Mimi was okay, decent, but rather self-conscious in her performance. As a result, she gave the overall impression that she was stressed and trying hard instead of coming across as effortlessly sensuous. And her relationship with the guitar guy was barely brimming with sentimentality. I remained unmoved and sad to say, all that kept flashing insistently before me was how a Sarong Party Girl scenario it was visually. The Angel had better success at tugging at the non-existent heartstrings.
During intermission, we went to collect our free CDs as promised by the organizers since we bought tickets during the promotional period. It was a Karen Mok CD containing 10 of her Chinese hits. Errr…WTF? At least it’s free…and we thought it would be Rent-related.
There were no Rent programs or merchandise being sold either. Which is, frankly, a real anomaly for any musical, much less one with international status and heritage.
Mr Dimples felt he was watching Big Brother, albeit with many lovely tunes thrown in. I liked the songs too, but felt that the scenes were too disconnected and that the stage actors could do so much better. As it is, I left the place, rather disappointed.
*
What do I expect from every show and concert that I catch? Is it to glean the coping mechanics from unreal characters in realistic contexts and circumstances, to pocket and squirrel away little raw gems of inspirational in moments of lostness - when words fail me and you fail me, to escape the realities, or simply to spend time with the someone who genuinely cares about The Arts, The Music, or Me? Well, sometimes, it’s because I get invited, but mostly, all the above.
I had lunch with Mr Dimples at No Signboard before Rent. Crabs and drunken prawns on a lazy Saturday afternoon. We shifted dinner to lunch, because his Grandaunt passed away. Cancer. I spoke, just as casually while we drove along the expressway, that I went to see my mum this morning. Exactly a year has passed in terms of the Chinese calendar count. Some things should have happened differently. Then again, we will never have met if that was so.
Chicken Little (complimentary), Mayday (possibly, complimentary), Wake Up! Sleeping Beauty (paid) coming up, and maybe turtle soup in Geylang.
And running away to Hong Kong with my Best Friend.
Addendum: A sure way to impress a girl – even when it is only drizzling, even when you are parked 10 steps away from the covered walkway, dash out from your driver’s seat, umbrella in tow, open her car door and gallantly shelter her to destination. Extra brownie-without-walnut points topped with chocolate and cream.
YQ: Eek, so much sex and sexual innuendos! It’s not a children’s show! How can they put PG!
He was particularly traumatized by the scene in which Moaning Myrtle was outraging Potter’s modesty outrageously during his bath via inching closer and closer to the very naked wizard plus cooing at him.
Me, I was surprised that Harry is endowed with a rather defined and toned physique, if many shades too white. But he’s definitely more muscular than slender and has remarkable potential to be UK’s answer to Bae Yong Jun.
*
15 minutes into Rent the musical:
Me, whispering: I’m afraid I can’t make out 60% of what they are singing.
Mr Dimples: It’s okay. I can’t make out 70% leh.
The lyrics to the first three songs at least, were quite indiscernible. I don’t think the fact that we’re Chinese has anything to do with it, though Mr Dimples might have appealed to that line of thought. The sound system was rocky at the start, and there was some muffling. It didn’t help that that narrator Mark and his friend (we called him the guitar guy as we had never been able to catch his name) has a tendency to swallow their words and they were doing the lead-in. Sure, they were loud and enthusiastic but as to why they were, it was lost on Mr Dimples and I.
Things started picking up with the appearance of Maureen (impeccable diction and naturally flamboyant body language) and the full fledged gang at the bar scene with “ La Vie Boheme B” onwards. I do wish Maureen had more songs. Karen Mok as Mimi was okay, decent, but rather self-conscious in her performance. As a result, she gave the overall impression that she was stressed and trying hard instead of coming across as effortlessly sensuous. And her relationship with the guitar guy was barely brimming with sentimentality. I remained unmoved and sad to say, all that kept flashing insistently before me was how a Sarong Party Girl scenario it was visually. The Angel had better success at tugging at the non-existent heartstrings.
During intermission, we went to collect our free CDs as promised by the organizers since we bought tickets during the promotional period. It was a Karen Mok CD containing 10 of her Chinese hits. Errr…WTF? At least it’s free…and we thought it would be Rent-related.
There were no Rent programs or merchandise being sold either. Which is, frankly, a real anomaly for any musical, much less one with international status and heritage.
Mr Dimples felt he was watching Big Brother, albeit with many lovely tunes thrown in. I liked the songs too, but felt that the scenes were too disconnected and that the stage actors could do so much better. As it is, I left the place, rather disappointed.
*
What do I expect from every show and concert that I catch? Is it to glean the coping mechanics from unreal characters in realistic contexts and circumstances, to pocket and squirrel away little raw gems of inspirational in moments of lostness - when words fail me and you fail me, to escape the realities, or simply to spend time with the someone who genuinely cares about The Arts, The Music, or Me? Well, sometimes, it’s because I get invited, but mostly, all the above.
I had lunch with Mr Dimples at No Signboard before Rent. Crabs and drunken prawns on a lazy Saturday afternoon. We shifted dinner to lunch, because his Grandaunt passed away. Cancer. I spoke, just as casually while we drove along the expressway, that I went to see my mum this morning. Exactly a year has passed in terms of the Chinese calendar count. Some things should have happened differently. Then again, we will never have met if that was so.
Chicken Little (complimentary), Mayday (possibly, complimentary), Wake Up! Sleeping Beauty (paid) coming up, and maybe turtle soup in Geylang.
And running away to Hong Kong with my Best Friend.
Addendum: A sure way to impress a girl – even when it is only drizzling, even when you are parked 10 steps away from the covered walkway, dash out from your driver’s seat, umbrella in tow, open her car door and gallantly shelter her to destination. Extra brownie-without-walnut points topped with chocolate and cream.
1 Comments:
A sure way NOT to impress a girl – even when it is only drizzling, even when you are parked 10 steps away from the covered walkway, dash out from your driver’s seat, umbrella in tow, open her car door and gallantly shelter her to destination... Only to fall flat into a puddle and splash muddy water all over her Manolo Blahniks.
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