Okay, the above title is the tagline of the musical skit we're staging for tomorrow's "People's Association Youth Movement Convention 2006" event at Suntec Convention Hall...

Loretta has done a great job of pooling together a group of actors as well as performers from the PAYM voluntary members, such as a Yo-Yo group, a Clarinet group, a Dikir Barat group, a percussion group, and 3 Hip-Hop groups etc...

We had it easy as the songs are pre-recorded. Here are the singers from The Music Clinic who sang in the recording, minus Elizabeth, who'd left earlier...

Edric and the Music Clinic singers at Jason's Eastward Audio Studio

Besides getting involved in the above gig, I also took time out for the Young Artistes Club singing class this evening at Kong Meng San Monastery...

It was a smaller class today but I had each member read and sing out a verse and chorus of their favourite songs, and emphasized the importance of singing with meaning, as well as sharing some pointers on diction, pitching and rhythm etc...

Here are those who attended tonight's class...

Back Row L-R: Edric, Shuli, Clorine, Michelle, Cherie & Leah
Front Row L-R: Adwin, Sky, Yiren & Ernest

Hope next week will see a bigger turnout...

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The "PAYM Convention 2006" musical skit, entitled "It's All About You, Youths!" on Saturday went pretty well, except for some glitches regarding the video montages, but on the whole all the performers did a splendid job!

Here are the photos...

Clockwise around Gurmit: Edric, Dwayne, Weng Kee, Elizabeth, Siti & Eleine

(Click Here For More Photos...)

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Coincidentally, last Saturday (2nd December, 2006) was also our director Loretta Chen's birthday, so after the show some of us headed over to Marche and celebrated with her...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LORETTA!

(More Photos Within...)

Here's to many more good shows and blessings!!!

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Watching TV today, I finally caught a glimpse of my most recent ad to date...

Okay, some of you have guessed it already, it's the "New Moon Rice TVC" starring Stefanie Sun!!!

Now see if you can spot me smiling in there somewhere. Just don't blink!

Also, a feature film in which I played a very minor role sometime ago is finally scheduled for an official screening in Singapore on 11th January 2007!!!

It's a local and HK joint movie production called "One Last Dance"...

This is one film you don't want to enter late at the screening, for I appear at the start of the whole movie as a cop interrogating a crime suspect played by local actor Wu Kai Shen, and shared some screentime with HK veteran Ti Lung and Mediacorp actor Zzen Chang...

Here's a look back at my old blog entry on the day of shooting: http://www.tabulas.com/~Merman/589275.html

And the photos are here: http://www.tabulas.com/~Merman/gallery/36309/

And the IMDB Movie Website for "One Last Dance" is at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0445609/

Can't wait to see it!

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... VOICES THAT CARE ...



(Lyrics Within This Link...)

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I had been waiting at the bus stop near City Hall MRT Station tonight, growing more impatient by the minute after almost half an hour without sight of Service 124 (grrrr...), when an interesting bus came along...

A lady emerged from the bus entrance and invited everyone at the bus stop to hop on for a free ride. It was a specially converted Nokia Music Mobile, with a pretty cool limousine-like interior!

This bus goes "around the hottest night spots in town" and if you leave your handphone's Bluetooth connection on, you'll receive free music or wallpaper downloads!

You can see the bus route and schedule here: CLICK HERE...

Here are some pics I took on board this Nokia Music Mobile...

It was a cool ride to the tunes of James Blunt and some other pop bands. If I had the time, I might want to stay on for a few more rounds. Alas, the bus reached my destination all too soon...

But it sure beats the terribly tardy Service 124 ANYTIME!!!

Disclaimer: This is not a paid advertisement for the above bus service, just thought I'll share it with anyone interested!

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Friday was a busy day, and that evening was spent at Kong Meng San Monastery with a handful of members from the Young Artistes Club...

Most of the other members had other commitments so it was a smaller turn-out this time...

L-R: Shuli, Sky, Ernest, Adwin and Leah

We did some vocal exercises and also went through the song "Voices That Care" several times, identifying their individual singing habits and problems, and hoping it'll all come together successfully for their group item this year-end...

This marked my final class with them this year, and I'll be discussing with Jalyn, their coordinator, about conducting future classes for them next year...

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Last Friday I had dinner at  Vienthai restaurant, at Tampines Mall's basement...

Here's the food evidence...

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Now that my younger sis and her two girls have moved just across the street from my old flat, it's much easier to drop by for visits...

Couple of days ago, I brought my two nieces, Sheryl and Shermaine, out for lunch at my market food centre, together with Cousin Meiling who also lives nearby. Cousin Thomas, who is now working around the area too, happened to be there for lunch as well, so it was quite a reunion...

After my cousins have left, I took the girls home, but not before buying some drawing materials for them first...

At the foot of their block, was a playground where I used to hangout as a primary school kid. The girls wanted to play there so I gave them about half an hour's free rein of catching and slides...

After they were sufficiently exhausted and "exercised", I taught them some simple sketching methods and got them to draw some cartoon figures and birds for practice, before I drop them off at their place...

Here are some of the photos I snapped using my handphone's camera...

Shermaine & Sheryl Goh

(More Photos Within This Link...)

Hanging out with ever-energetic kids can be pretty entertaining and fun, but I was positively exhausted by the time they were done. Gotta limit my visits else I won't have any energy left for other activities! Haha!

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Last night, I met up with my sis and her two kids at Vivocity, and after an extensive shopping spree, we had our dinner at The Asian Kitchen...

The food was pretty good and the service not bad, so it was a happy meal for all of us...

Alain, Edric, Sheryl and Shermaine

(Food Photos Within This Link...)

We all agreed it was worth eating there again, but maybe not so soon...

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Thanks to David and his birthday party on Friday, I won two free tickets to watch the second Singapore Men's Chorus concert this year...

 

I brought Casper along, and we sat together with Tracy, Grace, Patrick and many many other fellow Livejournal bloggers...

This concert sounded better than the previous one, although their first few numbers were pretty rushed. It didn't help that people behind me kept making distracting noises, and many others were still streaming into the hall even after the fourth song, but I suppose that's due to the wet weather outside...

Thankfully, things picked up soon after, in parts due to the piano accompaniment, and also the singers' earnest performance...

The Emcee sounded familiar, then I realised we've met before: he was drunk and talking non-stop at his own birthday celebration! LOL Anyway he was speaking rather fast this time too, and a few of his jokes were rather erm... cold...

Almost all the tunes were familiar to me, having sung most of them in my own choral days. But my favourite songs this evening are "Nutcracker Jingles" (very clever!) and "Mary, Did You Know" (rather touching)...

And I also liked the singers' outfits: black jackets with white shirts and blue jeans in the first half, and white shirt with coloured scarves in the second half. The reindeer headband thinggy they wore during the "Rudolph" song was hilarious too!

But oh, the small groups segments really needed a lot more work, especially on the choreography, which I found messy and totally unnecessary. I would like to see them focus more on their singing technique (they are a choir after all) and their inflections, intonations and accents instead. At the moment they tend to sound rather "singlish" and generally lacked emotional punch...

All in all, they seemed to have fun on stage, and that's always a good thing!

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With Christmas and the New Year just around the corner, the alcohol level goes up together with the parties and festive cheer...

To remind vehicle drivers to stay sober while driving, the Singapore Traffic Police ad campaign against drink-driving is back again!

Just saw the ad on TV the last couple of nights. Wonder if the tragic-looking posters of Moses and I will be pasted all over town again this time... LOL

Cheers!

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For the record, since more than a few friends have asked, although 8 Days magazine said so earlier this month, I did NOT perform in the local play "Pulau - An Island Tale" this year...

However, I did last year...

And damn proud of it too! 

This tale hasn't ended, yet...

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Just watched this segment on Channel NewsAsia about this Australian lady, Priscilla Dunstan, who claimed to have deciphered the different sounds and cries of a newborn baby...

Priscilla Dunstan, founder of Dunstan Baby Language

According to her "Dunstan Baby Language", a newborn of up to 3 months would generate up to 5 key sounds to signal their needs. If these key sounds were ignored or unreciprocated, they'll then turn on their in-built loud-hailers, and emit hysterical screams...

("Goo Goo Ga Ga...")

Are there any new parents out there who might be able to try out these sounds and see if they could actually apply them to their own newborn babes?

But of course, this baby talk is mostly a one-way thing. The baby talks, you just listen and obey...

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Last night, I took my two nieces, Sheryl and Shermaine out again, and in a determined bid to avoid the crowds, we headed over to Great World City...

It was a simple and fun Christmas Eve! Here are the photos...

Season's Greetings from Sheryl & Shermaine

(More Photos Here...)

After some deliberation, we had dinner at KFC. After all, the girls claimed they hadn't had fast food for a long time. Ya ya...

With our tummies satisfied, we shopped around a bit, donated a few bucks to some arcade games, and then headed to GV Grand for our movie, "Night At The Museum"...

It was a predictable (based on a children's book that's like about ten pages long) yet very hilarious show (Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Owen Wilson, 'nuff said)... 

But from the full audience's enthusiastic response and applause at many points in the movie, it was obvious the adults and kids alike had a great time!

It was already pretty late after the show, but Shermaine and I felt like having Roti Prata, so we headed over to River Valley Road for some...

And did our non-countdown to Christmas Midnight there, among the hungry supper crowd!

Then I brought them home, to find my sister Alain already back from work and slightly worried (my phone batt's already asleep). We had the Roti Prata together, played around the computer, had some red wine, and then Alain's friend Shakira arrived with more snacks and drinks...

Still, it didn't take long before we felt hungry again, and we decided to order from the McDelivery service! More fast food! Hope there'll be more fast cash! LOL

We only managed to watch the "Hoodwinked" DVD halfway before Alain started dozing off and I had to leave. That was almost 3.30am already!

Anyway, I enjoyed my Christmas very much! Hope all of you did too!

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I popped over to Vivo City on Christmas Day evening, hoping to catch a movie or browse at the bookstore, but couldn't decide what show to watch or books to buy...

Met up with Adrian and Ryan who were shopping for some extra virgin olive oil after their movie. Ryan left soon after, and Adrian and I shopped around a bit, bought some stuff for my nieces, and then had a nice dinner at Terra Cafe...

Edric & Adrian at Terra Cafe

(More Within This Link...)

It was a simple and nice Christmas Day. Nothing fancy, just the way I like it. Hope you all had a good day too!

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Last night, my sister, her kids and I went over to Auntie Siew Gek's place and enjoyed her ever-delicious cooking...

It has been a long time since my last full-fledged home-cooked meal, so this dinner was much appreciated!

Here are the photos, for posterity's sake...

After a wonder-full dinner, we helped Auntie and Uncle Ting fold joss paper money in preparation for my Grandparents' upcoming death anniversaries, before heading home...

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Earlier this week, I met up with Cheng Guang to watch "Sketches of Frank Gehry", an inspiring documentary on one of my idols in the Architecture world...

I love this poster!

This show would have ended its run by now, and some of you might have watched/missed it already. But I was glad I caught it at The Picturehouse while it's still showing...

(Ranting here...)

Anyway, back to the documentary (see TRAILER HERE) and the architect, Frank Gehry...

I've always loved his organic creations like the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the Dancing House in Prague, and many many others. Now I could see how he got his ideas and inspirations for these amazing projects, and how he defied common aesthetics and pushed the envelopes for building designs...

He's so famous, or infamous, he's immortalised in an episode of "The Simpsons" cartoon!

Frank Gehry in front of his own residence in The Simpsons

How he got the inspiration for a new concert hall design...

And TA-DAH! The completed structure!

(Above images taken from http://blog.davidteoh.com)

Watching this documentary has reminded me of my now almost dormant love for Architecture, why I studied it in the first place, and how I would so love to build a house of my own (someday, somewhere in Australia)...

Along with my other Archi Idol Toyo Ito's Vivo City, which has probably been watered down by our local authorities, I would quite like to see a Frank Gehry building on our shores...

Too bad we lost a chance when the local powers-that-be chose yet another conventional design over Gehry's for our new Integrated Resort... :S

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Looking at the amazingly simple yet inspiring sketches of Frank Gehry (see previous post), I was reminded of my own Architectural aspirations...

Almost 10 years ago (1997), I worked my ass off, saved up everything I had, and on the blessings of my late parents, I ventured off to Australia's Queensland University of Technology to study Architecture...

It was the best time of my life! Finally I had freedom, I had lots of space on my own, and for the first time in my life, I got out of Singapore!!!

Also, I got a taste of what it's like to design a building that could actually be built!

It was tough being a financially challenged student, and what's more, school work for the final year of the degree course was no joke. I was working on my homework non-stop with little free time to spare. Worse, my house got broken into by my pot-smoking neighbours, and never got my money or stuff back... :S

But I gave it my best shot, and finally got good grades at the end of the year!

Of course, my designs were limited by my lack of experience and the regulations as well as the school project's specifications. But to me, it was enough to keep my dreams as an architect alive...

1997 was the year I did not perform in any shows at all. Instead, I had these...

... Sketches Of My Past ...

My EcologiCity project poster

(Many More Images Within This Link...)

Samples of my final year school project...

Most of my classmates were already using computers to generate their drawings, but as I couldn't afford one at that time, I had to draw and colour every line and shade by hand. But ironically, I gained extra points for my painstaking efforts!

Looking back on all these drawings, I couldn't help wishing I had continued to pursue an Architectural path. But after a few years of working in two Archi firms here, and facing what most local architects do when it comes to regulations and design selection, I gave up the idea totally...

Who knows, perhaps someday my drafting skills and designs might come in useful in stage set designs! That's yet another of my dreams, waiting to come true!!!

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I have had a great fulfilling and blessed year in 2006, with many incredible opportunities and adventures in my work, love and life in general!

And as this wonderful year comes to an end, I am so looking forward to the exciting new year!

So to all my loved ones, my friends, and all who are reading my blog, I wish you...

The above photo of New Year countdown fireworks was taken exactly ONE year ago during my solo holiday in Hobart, Tasmania, at the stroke of midnight!

And now, as the minutes tick closer to the special moment, may the exhilarating spirit of the fireworks spark off new passionate pursuits and new beginnings in the coming 2007!!!

Cheers!!!

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