Scrapped

I'm having fun with my item for the coming Blast concert, and that's always a good sign. By fun of course Fred the Sling-bagger doesn't refer to social interaction of any form, but the enjoyment of playing with music and choreography.

Blink of an eye; I feel like the concert is almost here, that there is little time left. I hope to give away everything I can give away. I'm taking this as my last opportunity to do so, even if it isn't.

I choreographed the item after a month-plus break from taking classes, and it was a pleasant surprise for me to see which influences arose over others.

I think at this point, the concert will with zero-doubt be decent, good. The anxiety for me is for it to be very good, awesome.

My item is a collaboration with Chun, and it took a long time for us to even agree on music. Following are three cuts of ideas that were disagreed upon, and scrapped. Following these are even more, even older ideas that were also scrapped for one reason or other.


Daft Punk, Da Funk (1995). Fatboy Slim vs. Hervé, Machines Can Do The Work (2010). This is the second cut for the original Tetris idea. Drones in a Tetris machine, halfway through transport blocks to and fro. The blocks stack up in the background, culminating in the dropping of the long block; black out. Luminous lighting like Tron. Chun wanted to do light poi and silver suits.


Daft Punk, Aerodynamic, Digital Love (both 2001). The sounds of Daft Punk's Discovery are pretty brilliant, avant-garde, especially a decade later. I tried to continue the electro theme, after refusing Chun's idea to use Commander. I think this cut left her completely lost. I guess it is weird. That's the challenge of collaboration; seeing and hearing different things. I love the tolling of the bell tower. Makes me think of gargoyles at evening-time. And I think the electric guitar is quite orgasmic. Happy house finale.


Dinah Washington, Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby (Rae & Christian Remix) (2002). Gramophonedzie, Why Don't You (2010). Learning from the previous debacle, I tried to come up with something that could incorporate Chun's flair and sass, electronica, and the housey-ness we both love. This attempt however fell on deaf ears again.


Katy Perry, Teenage Dream (2010). I originally only wanted to post about the three items that our upcoming collaboration is not, but started to reminisce other items that didn't make it in the past. I wanted to do a Wei Na-centred item for Welcome Tea last year, hoping Magnus would take the choruses. As I suspected, he only found the chorus remotely danceable. But I didn't believe in the crowd-pleasing ability of the item, and so I didn't push for it. I love, love, love, love this song.


Switchfoot, Oh! Gravity (2006). I've always wanted to do an item to rockish pop (We Used to Be Friends, Gives You Hell). And I thought Oh! Gravity could be an unusual but powerful competition piece. There are many things in the music to play with. The cast of Seriously would have been perfect for this; a bunch of rascals. But I didn't have it in me to choreo the entire thing, and I knew nobody else would know what to do with the song.


Lady Gaga, LoveGame (Space Cowboy Remix) (2009), Starstruck (feat. Space Cowboy and Flo Rida), The Fame (both 2008). This was a cut done earlier in 2009 for an all-girl item. By the time rehearsals started, I wasn't feeling it anymore, and used Kill the Lights instead.

Death certificate

Darling boy, the letter said. I know that you have never yet been down the mountain since you were thirteen days old, but as soon as I die you must put on a pair of shoes and a clean shirt and walk down to the village and find the doctor. Ask the doctor to give you a death certificate to prove that I am dead. Then take this certificate to my lawyer, a man called Mr. Samuel Zuckermann, who lives in New York City and who has a copy of my will. Mr. Zuckermann will arrange everything. The cash in this envelope is to pay the doctor for the certificate and to cover the cost of your journey to New York. Mr. Zuckermann will give you more money when you get there, and it is my earnest wish that you use it to further your researches into culinary and vegetarian matters, and that you continue to work upon that great book of yours until you are satisfied that it is complete in every way. Your loving aunt—Glosspan.

Lexington, who had always done everything his aunt told him, pocketed the money, put on a pair of shoes and a clean shirt, and went down the mountain to the village where the doctor lived.

"Old Glosspan?" the doctor said. "My God, is she dead?"

"Certainly she's dead," the youth answered. "If you will come back home with me now I'll dig her up and you can see for yourself."

"How deep did you bury her?" the doctor asked.

"Six or seven feet down, I should think."

"And how long ago?"

"Oh, about eight hours."

"Then she's dead," the doctor announced. "Here's the certificate."

- Roald Dahl, "Pig", 1960.

From Cs to Bs

Ng Jing Yng, Today, 10 Feb 11, p. 12. The headline may be "Schools go the extra mile to cultivate a love for reading" (what a mouthful of cliches), but the bottom line, you eventually realize, is grades, or more specifically, the shoving of students towards better grades. Near the end of the article, a student testifies to the profit of reading, how the routine, initially forced upon her, lost its tedium once it improved her English Language grades "from Cs to Bs". If that doesn't sell it, the effectiveness of our reading programmes is indubitably proven by Singapore's number five position (out of 65 countries, mind you!) as scored by the Programme for International Student Assessment. Wait, who exactly is jostling for better grades, here?

The revealing, sinister, and mind-boggling final paragraph is worth noting. For "weaker students", reading programmes have been "tweaked" to include the completion of "additional worksheets outside curriculum time". o_O

Pictured: Morning "mass reading". In the foreground, presumably, the bespectacled B-students, reading newspapers. In the background, anguished and disheartened C-students, slumped over storybooks.

Twogger

Got a new phone today. Omnia 7. Go Microsoft!

Lady told me it has 16GB memory but turns out there's only 8GB.

My shoulders are abnormally broad for my scrawny frame. Or is my frame unnaturally scrawny for my broad shoulders?

As a result clothes fit strangely. e.g. the shoulders are size M but the torso and arms are size S.

I realized how to describe what I do in the army already: we are the wartime SingTel.

My dad actually beseeched me today to make more friends.

I think I'd rather have few to no friends and manage being alone than have many friends and pretend not to be alone.

"Maybe there's a better world somewhere. One without people." Harry's Law, S01E01.

Two amazing classes by my two favouritest - Gin and An. I was very very happy. And very grateful.

But I realize I celebrate alone. And so hm, I think - this joy is to what end...?

They made me sweat again. As I age, fewer things can make my body come alive.

Haven't experienced dehydration like this in a long time. Treating it with a diet of milk and arugula did not help.

Hamstring cramp. O yeah.