Wednesday, March 28, 2007
You know your event was a smashing success when a famous filmmaker dedicates one entire blogpost about it:
Check out Colin Goh's blog!
On another happy note, a couple of events this past week have more or less sealed the "College, not Wharton" decision:
1. Finding the perfect 1 year graduate program in LSE to spend my final college year in, with a program that I'm actually enthusiastic about, and which doesn't accept business school graduates. So hah! Nyah nyah ni poo poo.
2. Settling on economics courses to take next semester, and feeling excited at how right they felt for me. Liberated at not being forced to take classes I don't want to take.
3. Discussions with friends on post-college salaries. Really, scholars don't have it all that bad. It all works out to be pretty equal in the end.
4. Meeting with my academic advisor just now who reinforced what I knew all along: "Will I ever have the chance to study all these interesting courses again? No. Is business school mostly just about the name? Yes. Does it offer any better an education than the College? No."
5. Randomly hearing Fort Minor's "High Road" on my iPod as I was walking back: "You can say what you have to say/Cause my mind's made up anyway/ I'm taking the high road, going above you"
6. Chancing upon a "You think, not Groupthink" article in a magazine.
I love random little random signs like these. The whole world seems much more... happy with the decision made. Come to think of it, I'd gotten rejected by Wharton the first time I applied, but easily got into Penn. Maybe God's trying to tell me something?
(So even though I screwed up my econ midterm, there is still hope, still hope!)
he rocked the party at 1:04 PM |
Monday, March 26, 2007
So I will probably never be able to fully capture the emotional rollercoaster of the production of Sing City: The Musical, simply because I wasn't part of the main cast, and didnt have to turn up for rehearsals every day from 6-11. (Thank goodness I wasn't, I would have died) Visit their blog for a blow-by-blow account from the very talented Yap Brothers, directors of the play, and by far more eloquent than I am.
I did, however, have the pleasure of choreographing 2 of their songs, and lending various random dance moves to spice up other songs. Its 2 firsts for me: 1) choreographing a dance I wasnt dancing in and 2) choreographing a musical.
1) was good because I was better able to focus on the creative aspects of how everything should look like, and took away the dilemma of "oh shit, if i keep putting myself in the centre would i appear too egotistic?". It certainly worked alot better when I could move people around without worrying about where I was standing.
2) was okaaaaay given that it was my first time coming up with moves simple enough that people would be able to do WHILE singing. My repertoire of easy moves is so friggin limited. Felt so uncreative for awhile. But it was good that I got to exercise some of the comic actions that I'd always wanted to showcase.
Watching the my choreography unfold in the musical was an experience. Im not exaggerating when I say I felt like a dad watching his son in a swimming competition. It was bloody amazing to see how people switched blockings, did poses, played with props, did comic timing movements which made the audience roar in laughter... and knowing that "heck yeah, i came up with that!" Pretty amazing. And kudos to the cast who picked up everything in 2 short days.
The actual musical was mindblowingly good. It was the songs that were the real feature of the night, with clever lyrics that touched the very core of being Singaporean, going overseas, coping with love and parents and grades, etcetc. Certainly more impactful that the generic crap that some local productions have. You really have to give credit to the cast, the crew and the very talented Yap brothers. They pulled off a masterpiece in a very short timespan of 1 month. Honestly, the best student run production I have seen at Penn. Really makes me proud to be a Singaporean.
And of course, where else but at Penn can one go to mix with a hundred other Singaporeans from other colleges with a drink in hand? Moriarty's, the venue I booked for the afterparty was an excellent choice for a mixer. The spiffy closer for the night was when a certain unnamed filmmaker and a certain unnamed photographer actually took the time off to drink with us at Zhengyan's place after. Certainly, where else but Penn would one get the opportunity to get drunk with the very VIPs for our event? Haha.
I'm glad I did it, that I was part of this legendary event that brought the Singaporean community here closer, in the words of Ben Gan, "never have I seen so many people so happy doing the same thing" before. This is going to be something that future generations of Singaporeans @ Penn are going to talk about, and I was glad that I was a part of it.
This is going into the "stuff i did that I'm proud off" list, along with Open House and parachuting!
he rocked the party at 11:01 PM |
At the risk of sounding overly indulgent/excited, DiaS'pura 2007 was a runaway raging rippling success! (!!!!!!)
I feel a little displaced now, something like what one feels after a particularly big dance performance (like Rapture 2006, whoo boy), but this one felt a little more special. For one, it was an actual EVENT, like a true blue thing that people CAME for, some flying 7 hours from the West Coast, others taking a 9 hour train ride from North Carolina for. It was an EVENT that people sat down for, listened to, engaged in, gained insights from, made friends and networks through... an actual impact in the lives of 150+ people (not counting the musical), and not just a mere performance that one receives the cursory "oh you were so good!" before the flowers wither and life goes back to normal.
Differences: that I was really heavily involved in the behind-the-scenes work for once, none of that emcee/dj/dance crap I did back in jc, yet I didnt feel the need to prove anything for once. I love the Club Sg Exco. Wait lemme repeat that: I LOVE the Club Sg Exco. Grew to look forward to those weekly meetings at Chestnut 709 (my future home!) that went late into the night because we usually ended up gossiping/bitching amidst the discussions on budget, logo, topics, themes, etcetc. I must say that I truly admire everyone of them: Who else can find the time to send 10,000 emails a day to prospective sponsors, school facilities personnel, coordinate flight details for Speakers... and still have time to maintain good grades?
We had feedback that the event itself was "professional" and "well-organized", which really heartened us, given that we pulled off with 6 people something which would normally have taken 20 people to execute. (In Links 2000, 6 people handled like one committee). And honestly I think we only pulled it off because my fellow members are just. so. frickin. zai.
The event itself was enjoyable:
Lunch with the speakers at the Wharton Executive Education Centre was less formal and stiff than I had imagined it to be. It was my fortune (or misfortune) to get to sit next to Ambassador Chan, who surprisingly gave some useful nuggets of advice on education and indirectly convinced me that the College is the way to go. She mentioned that which school you're from doesnt matter at all, unless its brought up by some cursory remark when you have absolutely nothing else to talk about. She says that she evaluates people by the way they speak, the way they argue logically and think critically. Does my background mean anything if I dont perform and speak well on a job? No. Concurrently, if I can engage people I'm speaking to, or if I can come up with creative ideas, does it matter that I chose not to attend business school? No. Is there really a need to rush to get an MBA if I cant add any value to it? No. Will I ever get to learn about social psychology, network theory and art history ever in my life again? Probably not.
Anyway, I digress. (Forgive me, I am very passionate about the "Liberal arts, not Wharton" debate). After an initial scare 10 minutes into the event that the room was only half full, everything went smoothly when the room suddenly filled around 20 minutes after 2. (haiyuh, these Singaporeans ah, always late). Ambassador Chan's speech was a little scaled to sound like gah-men propaganda, but she did have some interesting perspectives. I suppose as a diplomat and a government representative she didnt have much of a choice, but her speech did serve as useful fodder for arguments later on, as shown by how many of the later speakers insisted on quoting/challenging her viewpoints. Oh I do love alternate perspectives that I'd never thought about!
2nd panel entitled "Pursuing Your Passion" was heartening, and provided concrete justification for why people do what they do, and not the usual "i dont follow the crowd" crap. Lessons learnt: People should pursue their passions not because they want to champion individualism, but because in the end, its what makes them happy. And its only when people are happy that they can have good relationships with others. And honestly, that's what we all want in life. I was especially proud to raise my hand when the question "How many of you are actually studying what you're studying because you WANT to study it?" Not many people did. Score another one for a liberal arts education!
Francis Seow's speech on Social Expression was mainly a history lesson on how the media has been manipulated for political agendas in the past. Having read his book, his ideas were not new to me: mainly about the darker side of politics in Singapore, though I could tell many in the audience had probably never heard of these concrete examples before. I truly admired his formal and crisp English when he spoke to us, as if he was addressing Parliament. His anecdotes were well received given that his stories were both juicy and thought-provoking.
One point that irritated me: a response from an audience member when we had to limit the Q&A to just 1 question, given that we had 45 mins left for 1 more panel of 3 other speakers, and given his nature to repeat himself in his stories. Yet one audience member had the audacity to suggest that we were "censoring" his speech because of its controversial nature. As Terence puts it, "Would the exco have put in all that effort to invite speakers, raise money from external sources, coordinate the logistics between hotel-school admin-sponsor-other universities, and then deliberately censor our second keynote speaker at our own event?" Obviously not. We knew about his topic from the start, and we wanted to provide a truly refreshing viewpoint from someone who tells it like it is. We don't necessarily agree with whatever he said, but it pisses me off to think that we, as progressive, concerned college students would be accused of censoring, like any cowardly old generation-er, blindly forced to follow the rules of higher authority.
The last panel about filmmaking was of a little less interest to me, since I had long decided that dance will always be my medium (i will probably never have the patience to carefully construct a scene), but it did provide some insight into the struggles of the Singapore film industry. It featured, of course, a bunch of star-studded panelists: Colin Goh (Singapore Dreaming, Talking Cock), Djinn (Perth), and a lesser-known Li-Anne Huang but with a film (Singapore Girl) that was every bit as good as her celebrity panelists. I must state that Djinn is by far one of the more enjoyable people I've spoken to recently. He doesn't look his age, and he certainly doesn't talk like it either. Sort of reminds me of some of my dad's joker friends.
Anyway, I have come to the end of the Speaker Series portion of DiaS'pura, and I realize how long this post is, and that most readers have probably given up reading this whole block of text by now. If you are still here with me, stay tuned for my next post about Sing, City: The Musical, and a few comments about our crazy afterparty :)
he rocked the party at 9:39 PM |
Friday, March 23, 2007
Me heart the pictures on Eugene's blog!!!
I miss you guys so much. You have no idea.
Can't wait to eat prata for supper and drink kopi peng and say "Merry Christmas" to Cody and poke Ervin's high hips and suan Iskandar and act gay with Nolan and play mahjong with Kuansian and take pictures of Eugene's saliva again.
Can't wait to say "EXCELLENT!" to lauren, go clubbing with fiona and jennifer, pretend yen yen is my wife and make up JLo songs with Roxanne's name again.
Siiiigh. 3 more months!
he rocked the party at 1:18 AM |
Thursday, March 22, 2007
So much random shit has been happening for the past couple of days that its put me in one of my most ambivalent moods ever.
1. Just when I thought everything was looking promising, progress with that thing has come to a screeching halt. Have decided not to care anymore. Some people just don't know how to take hints. I shall stop this drama nonsense and concentrate on real life.
2. DiaS'pura is less than 2 days away!!!!!! Crazy flurry of emails. Like 10 new ones every hour. Been busy trying to coordinate accomodation and tours and registration for all the non-Penn participants. And let me just say that it's freakin pissifying when people dont follow datelines. I mean, c'mon, when it says register by the 21st, people that email me 1 day before the event and hope to participate are just... being stupid. And causing a lot of trouble.
3. That said, am still excited for the event. Looking forward to speeches by Francis Seow, Colin Goh, Djinn and Alfian Sa'at in particular. Lunch and dinner with the speakers are added bonuses too! Not to mention having the satisfaction of sitting down and watching my own choreography for once at Sing City the Musical (which is, in my opinion, the cleverest, most entertaining, most identifiable production I have seen so far here at Penn) Plus meeting a whole bunch of Singaporeans! There's something about meeting people from your home country while overseas that gets one jumping in one's pants.
4. Am pissed off at the kind of stupid mistakes I make in tests. Let me provide the background info: you need 90% and above for Econ 101 to get an A, and the quizzes are structured such that 1 mark = 1%. So every mark counts. Today's test was supposed to be my redeeming factor from the last horrible quiz, but i frickin wrote the WRONG FIGURE in my initial calculations. Like wtf. And I checked it twice too and didnt notice it. So the A in Econ is in dire risk. Oh wait, As in math, econ, and chinese are at risk too. Now im frustrated, pissed off, and in no mood to study for my 2 midterms on monday.
5. Strictly Funk show next saturday!!! And a little bit of encouragement when I met R while walking to a meeting last week and was a little uplifted when I was told to "never stop dancing, because I didnt get in my first time either" Really, dance could just be my one pleasure that's not plagued by troubles.
6. Spring is officially here, with lovely warm weather. Ahhhhh.
7. Russell Peters show falls on the Saturday of the BIG Spring Fling weekend, where campus is likely to be filled with carnivals, concerts and alcohol, lovely alcohol! Should I give up my $50 tickets?
Am tired now, I should go sleep, but I need to finish my math like the nerd I truly am. Should I skip art history tomorrow? Hmm.
he rocked the party at 10:45 PM |
Maybe its because its turning into Spring, maybe because midterm stresses require emotional support, but it's back again. I can feel it: Couple Season is back.
No, seriously. Everyone is getting attached. Am not the only one who made the observation of this phenomenon at Penn. I can count 5 pairs who have gotten together/are about to.
So it reinforces the hypothesis formulated a couple of years back in Singapore that there's a season for romance, and it comes at a specific time of year. I believe for Singapore, that time is right before Christmas, like October or something. Can't remember. But for Philly it's definitely now. You can tell. People are either dating, hooking up, or dating and hooking up. I should do a sociology exercise on this, really. I think it'll make a great paper.
Puts that... queasy feeling back in again. Am right where I want to be, just need an excuse. For all the ideas I had, I cant think of a single good one right now. Help!
he rocked the party at 12:07 AM |
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Why bother with causes that require way too much effort when there's so much more round the corner? (Or should I say, up the stairs? -wink-)
he rocked the party at 12:08 AM |
Monday, March 19, 2007
I think that I have to accept the fact that weekends at Penn will never be real opportunities to rest. This weekend was INTENSE again, starting with:
Thursday - choreographing and rehearsal for the Club Sg musical, Club Sg meeting, and hardcore econ homework study group late into the night
Friday - Medical checkup, haircut, classes till 5, buying alcohol, Club Sg musical rehearsal, Sigma Rouge party downtown (good drinks, good music, new scandals to gossip about)
Saturday - Hardcore math in the afternoon, a post-ASB "lets have dinner and get drunk" get-together with my ASB group. Dinner was at a lovely Italian BYO downtown (ooo, Linguini covered in clams, mussells, lobster and white wine sauce!!), and polishing off 3 bottles of wine. You could tell the night was going to be fun when people started getting not sober from dinner onwards. Playing Kings at Steve's after with a carton of Guinness, shots of Southern Comfort lime and whiskey samplers was enough to slam everyone into oblivion. Followed by drunken walks to Gordon's Black and White party and random prancing around with floormates around Kings Court... ah, I do love partying with white people.
Sunday - studying. Intensely.
So maybe the 2 parties in a row thing wasn't such a good idea, considering how I have 2 midterms and 2 performances this week (ARAGH!). I've done like maybe half the work I'd set myself out to do. But heck it, I'm in college and as immature as I perceive drunk people to be, I have to let loose once in awhile, as long as I keep the standards of morality and decorum I've set for myself (ie, no puking and no having babies I don't know about. haha)
Well, since it WAS St Patty's Day yesterday, I suppose I had a legitimate reason to screw up my priorities for one weekend.
he rocked the party at 1:04 AM |
Saturday, March 17, 2007
I just read the post that this post replaced.
Eeyer. So corny/mushy.
On a more pragmatic note: Im trying to do summer school in Berkeley, California!
Whoooohooooo. Lets hope it works out.
he rocked the party at 1:22 AM |
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Oh.. and on another note: I almost DIED today.
15 mins before our plane landed, the pilot announced that we were experiencing some "technical difficulties" but that we shouldn't be worried. I felt it was a little strange that 2 police vans drove straight at us once we landed.
It was only after we entered the airport that Carla, who overhead the conversation of a flight attendant to a passenger, that the plane had developed a friggin GAS LEAK and was running out of gas as we were landing. Oh. My. Gosh. The plane could have freakin exploded in our faces.
I must have a guardian angel.
he rocked the party at 12:07 AM |
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Thoughts on Alternate Spring Break spent at Mobile, Alabama. Let's get the "I did this, I did thats" over and done with first, before we get into the really deep stuff (haha):
I did this, I did thats:
Work - Stripped an entire roof, cleaned out a house by moving furniture into storage, stripped 2 layers of old drywall (complete with nests of cockroaches and fire ants, whoohoo!), measured, sawed and replaced new drywall, cleaned out and weeded a backyard, boarded up broken windows, replaced a screen (which our group did, but I didnt get to do cause I was busy stomping out cockroaches)
New Orleans - Oyster Po-Boys (a kind of sandwich), breakdancing street comedians, heavenly au lait and beignets (sort of like French yu char kueh with HEAPS of sugar on top - pics below) at Cafe Del Mar, voodoo shops, weather-beaten and lively streets with live music piping from bars and strip joints, and the best jazz i've ever heard at Preservation Hall. Its also important not to forget: being humbled by the destruction of Lower 9th Ward by Katrina.
Blurry blurry pic of jazz performance at Preservation Hall:
Gulf Coast Beach - Windy ass cold beach, frigid seas, burying Andindya in sand and taking obscene pictures.
Downtown Mobile - SQUARE DANCING with friendly old people, who took time off training for their big square dancing meet next week to teach us square and line dancing. You should check out their intricate formations, it'll put any choreographer to shame. Plus clubbing to R&B at Club Atlantis.. in Alabama, indeed.
On the Company
So the majority of our group was white, or at least the born-and-bred-in-America types, and I was a little apprehensive on being one of the 2 FOBs (fresh off the boats) on the trip. I'm glad it worked out that way, though I was a little uncomfortable at the beginning of the trip, with one too many awkward silences after my attempted conversations and one too many "HUH?"s when they couldn't understand what I was saying. It was also hard to strike common themes in conversation when they made cultural references i wasn't used to as well.
Thankfully, the ice melted over our favourite group conversations on (guess what) SEX. Oh yes, we have to be the horniest ASB group ever. And over graphic conversations late into the night, exposing me to a whole new world of -bleep- and -bleep-, we bonded. It was fiendishly juicy to some, uncomfortable for others, and freakin hilarious to all. Honestly, sex is ever so liberal in this culture, that even the most unlikely of people have had a promiscuous romp or two in exciting places (haha). I'm amazed at how such a taboo in asian culture could be seen to be as regular as say, drinking. Loved the perspectives.
It was also refreshing to meet people with a variety of interests, instead of the usual dual-degree-with-Wharton-hope-to-go-into-i-banking crowd. Honestly, the typical overambitious, moneyminded, gpa-pinching, internship-grabbing template of the typical student from business school disgusts me now. I don't know why I ever wanted to be that. The people I've met have done research in Cameroon, majored in Biology and Chemistry, aspire to discover new breakthroughs in a lab, secured a computer science job in NY, majored in English and IR and Nursing.. and they carry out such intelligent conversations that I often find it hard to catch up with them. (that is, when they're not talking about sex) I loved it. I want to be as interesting and opinionated as they are, I want to be well traveled and discover new cultures and talk to people with different accents. There's so much more out there than boring old business school.
On the People
The people we helped were amazing. Anyone watched Big Momma's House? Well, we met the ORIGINAL big momma, complete with yummy southern cooking and hard-to-understand accent. And they are ever so friendly. One homeowner snapped 2 Polaroids of us while we were eating and proudly showed them to us as if they were pieces of art. Big Momma cooked humongous yummy lunches for us for 2 days using change that Big Poppa managed to scrimp together. A neighbor of the houses we were repairing donated 2 cartons of Gatorade. And everyone we met kept thanking us and insisting that we were a "blessing" to them that I felt a little embarrassed. Big Momma insisted on hugging everyone everytime she saw us. Southern hospitality indeed!
It wasnt hard to see that they were poor, paint was peeling off the sides of their walls and one would find the occasional cockroach around, but heck, they looked so darn happy. They were always laughing and hugging and greeting each other in the streets. Which made me think: Really, there's just so much more to life than just ambitions and money.
On New Orleans
Its humbling to see what nature can do. A sobering visit to Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans revealed houses that were smashed in, windows shattered, or were just blown right off their foundations. Which really put things into perspective. While we're all out trying to chase that dream of getting more, there are others who are struggling to get back what they had before, lost through no fault of their own.
While going through the remnants of abandoned belongings, we found a book entitled "A Guide to Buying Your First Home". Sobering indeed.
On the Activities
I loved how we delved right into the actual experience of the trip and grew as close as if we'd known each other for years. We cooked dinner together every night, ate every meal together, talked way into the night, slept on the floors together, woke up for morning runs, worked our asses off in the afternoon, and partied like there's no tomorrow at night. I finally learnt how to shoot hoops properly. We played soccer and knockout basketball. And heck, we SQUARE DANCED with smiley friendly old people who could dance better than us. We spent long car rides listening to classic rock and hip-hop. We jumped into the freezing Gulf waters together and picked up seashells.
It was a helluva eye-opening, engaging trip, possibly one of the best I've had. Sign me up for the next one, baby. :) More pictures when I manage to get them from group mates! I was kind of camera-lazy for this trip. Didn't want to seem more fobby than necessary.
he rocked the party at 10:42 PM |
Friday, March 02, 2007
So I have to get up in 4 hours time for my Alternate Spring Break trip to Mobile, Alabama (yes, I know: RANDOM), but of course I couldnt leave you, dear reader, without one last post before I take my well deserved one-week break.
To answer the flurry of questions I get when I tell people I'm going to Mobile, Alabama (WHY????), here are the answers:
What we're doing: Hurricane relief for a small coastal town that was also hit by Hurricane Katrina. They might actually be worse off than New Orleans because they have less resources to recover.
What we're specifically doing: roofing and interior work (useful skills if i ever wanna build my own house, i guess)
Why?: Because selfish ol me, who has never done an hour of truly voluntary community service in his life, (teaching kids at cssp doesnt count, i did it for the 99 hours of CIP), decided that his Lenten sacrifice this year should be one where he willingly gives back to society for a change.
Why Alabama?: Because I was so touched by the song "sweet home alabama."... haha got you there. No, its actually because the New Orleans trip got cancelled. (dammit)
Why I'm excited:
1. I'm the only Asian in my entire group of 14. Its high time I started getting to know more white people. Honestly. I'm in the frickin US and its stupid that I have more asian friends than white ones.
2. My group's kha-razy, judging from our non-sober pre-trip get-to-know-you-cum-get-drunk-on-cheap-wine-and-vodka session last night. Too bad about the no alcohol policy on the trip though. Sigh.
3. We're sleeping on sleeping bags! On the floor! And showers are a 15 minute drive away from the community centre we're staying at. Is that rustic or what, babies.
4. Day trip to New Orleans on wednesday for a break!
5. Because this trip is a combination of a dozen factors I have never experienced before: almost entirely white group, community service, olde style small town down south, pardner...etcetc.
So wish me luck, and I will bring back stories of good karma generated!
Feelings about tonight's activity: I am intrigued, to say the least. Although I find myself not caring as much as I did 2 weeks ago. Perhaps its the mere challenge that keeps me interested. I cant think of anything else.
he rocked the party at 11:29 PM |
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Finally, a video that doesnt have me in it! (ah ha, and there you were thinking I only put pictures/videos of myself on this blog. Well actually, I do. But this video really doesnt have me in it.)
Check out GCC Praise Night's intro video, featuring the emcees of the evening. Sorta like how the emcees of MTV VMA always have some hilarious video before they make a grand entrance? Well, this one's sort of like that, only better.
On the topic of videos, I heart the advantages of being in a college which places tons of resources at our fingertips, all for free! (well, technically not free, since we pay an obscene amount of school fees). One example being the iMovie workshop i attended today, teaching me how to shoot/edit my own videos and realizing how freakin easy it is to make really cool videos like the one above, if only one had the time. (alas, that music video dream..)
It's such a drag to be exposed to all these exciting new skills/interest areas (i've just discovered a weird interest in network theory - hmmm.. soci minor maybe?) but yet not have the time to fully explore them. Bah.
he rocked the party at 1:03 AM |
