hyperbole alert: best. speech. ever. yarrr!

Well, I did it (transcribing the speech)! Well, almost. This is the best I could make out of Leehom's speech at Oxford Union earlier this week. Sometimes I marvel at my own dedication *coughs**gives self quick pat on the shoulder* (actually I would love a good massage on those shoulders! =)

Anyway, words or phrases that I couldn't catch are noted like this: [x]. And again, the full audio is here. If anyone could fill in those blanks for me (or wants to correct the text), I'd be more than grateful! :) 

Btw I think it was a very well written speech -- it has good flow and structure, with relevant and relatable anecdotes, key points tied nicely together.. If he didn't write this himself, kudos to his speechwriter! Enjoyed his delivery (but of course)(and it's so much better now with video -- some of his facial expressions are priceless!) -- a very commendable effort! :) But I think the main reason why the speech struck a chord with me was because it gave a deeper insight into the workings of his mind. Many of us knew for the longest time his passion for music and his desire to propagate C-pop to a wider audience, but I guess we never really know why, until now when he connected the dots for us. This went beyond just a another speech; it was truly heartfelt and personal.

So here it is. Have fun reading, as much as I did transcribing! :) You're welcome! ^_^

Update #1
Most phrases updated or corrected! Thanks to Qinglian-OH Europe and Anonymous(es) for the suggestions! ^_^

Update #2
Here's a fan-cam video (uploaded to Youtube from Weibo, courtesy of Julia-OH Europe)!

Update #3
Oxford Union has finally uploaded the high quality videos of Leehom's session. Click here for the Youtube playlist of the eight videos (the full length speech + 7 Qs&As). Yippidee yay! I've also went over the transcription and made a few more corrections (thanks to the superb audio quality). The guaranteed accuracy of the text below is now 99.5%. ^_^



Thank you, Paulina. Thank you, June. Thank you, Pei Shan, for helping to set this up. Thank you all for being here today. And the latecomers as well, thank you for coming in quietly. *teasing*

I want to start off today just to take a moment of silence for the victims of the Sichuan earthquake and also for the victims of the Boston marathon bombing. So let's just take a minute to pay our respect to them.

[minute of silence observed]

[photo credit: Leehom's FB]

I never thought I would be addressing you, the esteemed members of the Oxford Union, without a guitar or an erhu, without my crazy stage hair and costumes, but I did perform in the O2 Arena in London last week. I’m not sure if any of you were able to make that, but in many ways that is similar to what I’m talking about today, that is, introducing Chinese pop music to you. See, I’m actually an ambassador for Chinese pop, whether I like it or not, both music and movies, and today I’m here to give you the State of the Union address. It’s not the Oxford Union, it’s the union of East and West.

I want to frankly and openly and honestly talk about how we’ve done a good job, or how we’ve done a bad job, of bringing Chinese pop to the West. And I also want to impress upon all of you here today the workings of that soft power exchange and how each of us is involved in that exchange.

Soft power, a term I’m sure you’re all familiar with at this point, coined by Rhodes Scholar and Oxford alumnus Joseph Nye, is defined as the ability to attract and persuade. Shashi Tharoor called it, in a recent TEDTalk, “the ability of a culture to tell a compelling story and influence others to fall in love with them”. I like that definition.

But I want to put it in collegiate term for you students in the audience. The way I see it, East and West, are kinda like freshman roommates. You don’t know a lot about each other but suddenly you’re living together in the same room. And each one is scared the other’s gonna steal his shower time or wants to party when the other wants to study. It has the potential to be absolute hell, doesn't it? We all have horror stories of that roommate, we all heard about those stories. I know a lot of students here in Oxford have their own separate bedrooms.

But when I was a freshman at Williams College, I was not so fortunate.. [crowd interjects] You’re kidding me! Woohoo! Alright, alright, great! Well, I had a roommate. And he was that roommate. Let’s just call him Frank. So Frank was my roommate and Frank liked nothing more than to smoke weed. [laughter] And he did it every day. And Frank had a 2-foot long bong under his bed that was constantly being fired up. For those Chinese speakers in the audience, Frank would 火力全开 on that bong. So I guess I was kinda the opposite of Bill Clinton, who tried marijuana but didn’t inhale: I didn’t try marijuana but I did inhale. Every single day. Second hand. And strangely enough, every time I go into our bedroom, I'd mysteriously end up being late for class. I don't know how that happen. I was like, dude is it already like 10 o’clock?

So, how many of you have lived with a Frank, or could be a Frank? Having a roommate can be a recipe for disaster, but it also can have the potential of being the greatest friendship you’ve ever had. See, Frank, he didn’t make it to second year. And I got two new roommates in second year: Stefan and Jason, and to these days the three of us are the best of friends. So going back to my analogy, East and West, as roommates, do we want to be Frank, or do we want to be Stef and Jason, and I think in this day and age, in 2013, we should all be striving for the latter, shouldn't we? I’m assuming we all agree that this is the goal that we all strive for.

[photo credit: OH Europe]

Now, let’s look at where we are in reality, in recent headlines, in the media include, Foreign Policy magazine, China’s victim complex: Why are Chinese leaders so paranoid about the United States?; or the AFP, the Agence France-Presse: Human rights in China worsening, US finds. Bloomberg says, on the cover of this magazine, Yes, the Chinese army is spying on you [laughter] And it’s such a great one that I want to show you the cover of the magazine [laughter][Ed:check out the photo on the right!] Yes, be very afraid! [laughter]

There’s actually an extremely high amount of negativity and fear and anxiety about China, Sinophobia, that I think is not just misinformed and misleading and ultimately dangerous. Very dangerous.

And what about how Westerners are viewed by Chinese? Well, we have terms for Westerners. The most common of which are gwailo, in Cantonese which means “the old devil”, laowai, meaning “the old outsider” in Mandarin, ang moh, which means “the red-haired one” in Taiwanese, and the list goes on and on. So are these roommates heading for a best friend relationship? I think we need a little help. And as China rise to power, I think it is more important than ever for us to be more discerning about what we believe because after all, I think, that’s the purpose of higher education, and that’s why we are all here, to be able to think for ourselves and make our own decisions.

China’s not just those headlines. The burgeoning economy or the unique politics. It is not just the world’s factory or the next big superpower, it’s so much more, a billion people with rich culture, amazing stories, and as a product of both of those cultures, I want to help foster understanding between the two, and help create that incredible relationship, because knowing both sides of the coin, I really think that there is a love story waiting to be told, ready to unfold. And I’m only half joking when I said "love story" because I believe it is the stories that will save us and bring us closer together. And my thesis statement for today’s talk is that the relationship between East and West needs to be and can be fixed via pop culture. That's a big fat claim, and I’m going to try and back it up. [laughter]

Now, the UN Sec-Gen Ban Ki Moon said, “There are no languages required in the musical world.” That is the power of music. That is the power of the heart. Through this promotion of arts we can better understand the culture and civilisation of other people. And in this era of instability and intolerance, we need to promote better understanding through the power of music. The UN Sec-Gen thinks that we need more music, and I think that he is right. Music and arts have always played a key role in my life, in building relationships, replacing what once were ignorance, fear and hatred, with acceptance, friendship and even love.

So I have a strong case for promoting music between cultures because it happened to me early in my life. I was born in Rochester, New York, I barely spoke a word of Chinese. I didn't know the difference between Taiwan or Thailand. [laughter] It's true.. I was as American as apple pie, until one day on the 3rd grade playground, the inevitable finally happened: I got teased for being Chinese. Now every kid gets teased or being made fun of in the playground, but this was fundamentally different and I knew right then and there. So this kid let’s call him Brian McKilroy. He started making fun of me, saying “Chinese, Japanese, dirty knees, look at these!” [laughter] I can't believe you're laughing at that -- that hurts! [laughter] Ok, I'm just kidding :D

I could still remember how I felt, I felt ashamed, I felt embarrassed. But I laughed along with everyone. And I didn't know what else to do. It was like having an out of body experience, as if I could laugh at that Chinese kid on the playground with all the other Americans because I was one of them, right? Wrong, on many levels. And I was facing for the first and definitely not the last time the harsh reality was that I was minority in Rochester, which in those days had an Asian population of 1%. And I was confused. I wanted to punch Brian. I wanted to hurt him for putting me in that situation but he was faster than me, and he was stronger than me, and he would kick my butt and we both knew that, so I just took it in. I didn't tell anyone or share with anyone these feelings, I just held them in and I let them fester.

And those feelings would surface in a strangely therapeutic way for me through music, and it was no coincidence that around at that time I started getting good with the violin, and the guitar and the drums. And I’d soon discovered that by playing music or singing that the other kids would for a brief moment forget about my race or color and accept me and then be able to see me for who I truly am: a human being who is emotional, spiritual, curious about the world, and has a need for love just like everyone else.

a photo to break the monotony of text. :)
[photo credit: Weibo user @etherealshatter via wllh]

And by the sixth grade, guess who asked me if I would the drummer of his band? Brian McKilroy. And I said yes. And that’s when we together formed an elementary school rock band called… Nirvana. I’m not kidding, I was in a rock band called Nirvana before Kurt Cobain's Nirvana was ever known… [laughter] So when Nirvana came out, Brian and I were like, hey he’s stealing our name! But really what attracted me to music at this young age was just that, and still is what I love about music, is that it breaks down the walls between us and shows us so quickly the truth that we are much more alike than we are different.

And then in high school, I learned that music wasn’t just about connecting with others, like Brian and I were connected through music. It was a powerful tool of influence and inspiration. Sam Nguyen was my high school janitor. He was an immigrant from Vietnam who barely spoke a word of English. Sam scrubbed the floors and cleaned the bathrooms of our school for twenty years. He never talked to the kids, and the kids never talked to Sam. But one day before the opening night of our school’s annual musical, he walked up to me holding a letter, and I was taken aback and I was thinking, why is Sam the janitor approaching me? And he gave me this letter that I’ve kept it to this day, it was scrawled in shaky hand, written in all capitals and it read, in my all years working as a janitor at Sutherland, you were the first Asian boy to play the lead role. I’m going to bring my 6-year-old daughter to watch you perform tonight because I want her to see that Asians can be inspiring.

And that letter just floored me. I was 15 years old and I was absolutely stunned. That was the first time I realized how music was so important. With Brian, it helped two kids who were initially enemies to become friends, but with Sam, music went beyond the one-on-one. It was an even higher level; it influenced others I didn’t even know, in ways I could never imagine. I can’t tell you how grateful I am to Sam the janitor to this day, he really is one of the people who helped me discover my life’s purpose, and I had no idea that something I did could mean more than ever imagined to an immigrant from Vietnam who barely even spoke English. Pop culture, music, and the other methods of storytelling, movies, TV dramas, they are so key, and they do connect us, like me and Brian, and do influence us, and inspire us.

Then let’s take another look at this state of union, the East/West union, with this soft power bias. How is the soft power exchange between these two roommates? Are there songs in English that have become hits in China? Sure. How about movies? Well, there are so many that China has had to limit the number of Hollywood movies imported into the country so that local films could even have a chance at success. What about the flip side of that, well, the Chinese songs that have hit in the west? Well... [inaudible answer from an audience member], yeah, and movies, well there was Crouching Tiger [Hidden Dragon], that was 13 years ago. Well, I think there’s a bit of an imbalance here. And I think it's “soft power deficit”, let's call it that, when we look in this direction, that is to say the West influences the East more than vice versa. Forgive me for using “East” and “West” kinda loosely, it’s a lot easier to say than “the English-speaking… language” or “Asian-speaking… language/Chinese” or getting into specifics, I’m making generalisation and I hope you can go with me on this.

hello again, Prof ! :)

[photo credit: We Love Leehom]

And it’s just intrinsically a problem, this imbalance in pop culture influence. And I think so. In any healthy relationship, in friendship, or marriage, isn’t it important for both sides to make an effort to understand the other? And that this exchange needs to have a healthy balance? And how do we address this? As an ambassador for Chinese pop music and movies, I have to ask myself a question: Why does this deficit exist? Is it because Chinese music just is.. lame? Don't answer that, please? [laughter] Yeah I think I see some of you are like, stop complaining and write a hit song! Psy did it! But there’s truth in that. The argument being that, the content that we’ve created just isn’t as internationally competitive. And why shouldn’t it be?

Look at Korean pop, look at K-pop for example. Korea is an export-based economy and they are outward looking and they must be outward looking. Chinese pop on the other hand can just stay domestic, tour all over China, stick in territories and comfortably sustain. So when you’re that big and powerful, with over 160 cities in China with a million or more people, you tend to kinda turn inward and be complacent. So this certainly can be made an argument made for Chinese pop not being marketed with international sensibilities, but the other side of the argument I think is more interesting and thought provoking and even more true, is that Western ears aren’t familiar with and therefore don’t really understand how to appreciate Chinese music. Ouch!

The reason I think that the argument holds water though is because that’s exactly what I went through, so I happen to know a thing or two about learning to appreciate Chinese pop as a Westerner, 'cos I was 17 years old when I went from being an Asian kid in America to being an American kid in Asia, and the entire paradigm suddenly got flipped on its head. I grew up listening to the Beastie Boys, Led Zeppelin, Guns and Roses, and I found myself in Taiwan listening to the radio and thinking, "where’s the beat? Where are the screeching guitar solos?" Here I am as an American kid in Asia listening to Chinese music for the first time and thinking that "this stuff is lame. I don’t like it!" I thought it was cheesy, production value was low, and the singers couldn’t belt like Axl Rose or Mariah Carey.

But then one day, I went to my first Chinese pop concert, and it was 庾澄慶 Harlem Yu performing at the Taipei Music Centre, and as he performed, I looked around the audience and I saw their faces and the look in their eyes and their response to his music, and it was clear to me finally where the problem lay. It wasn’t that the music that was lacking, it was my ability to appreciate it and to hear it in the right way. The crowd, they would sing along and be totally immerse in his music, and I had this epiphany, that I was missing the point and from now on, I was going to somehow learn how to get it, I was gonna learn how to hear with both ears, and I deconstructed and analysed what it was that made Chinese audiences connect with certain types of melodies, and rhythms, and song structures, and lyrics, and that’s what I’ve been doing for the past almost twenty years, and it took me a long time and I am still learning but at some point, I not only began to be able to appreciate the music but I started being able to contribute to it and create my own fresh spins on the tried-and-true.

And I think this happens to everyone, really, who is on the outside looking in. It always looks strange if you looked at things from your perspective, you’re always going to think that these people are weirdos, what’s wrong with them, why are they listening to these stuff? And I’m saying that you can make an effort and get it, and yeah, it can be done, and I’m living proof of that. And as an ambassador of Chinese pop, I’m trying to get people to open up to a sound that they may not feel is palatable at the first listen. So what else can we do to reduce this imbalance in our popular cultures? Well, maybe give a talk at the Oxford Union :D, tour more outside of China? But seriously, actually I think the tides have already started to change, very slowly, very cautiously, almost calculatingly.

You see more cross-cultural exchange now, more interest in China, definitely a lot of joint ventures, a lot of co-productions in recent years, Iron Man 3, Transformers...53 [laughter], Resident Evil, really it’s beginning to be kinda like a world pop, and that’s what I’m looking forward to and focusing on these days. There’s J-pop, there’s K-pop, there’s C-pop, and there’s like this W-pop that’s kinda starting to emerge. It’s world pop, and I love that idea. It’s not World Music. It's not like, there used to be section in HMV called World Music, that was like Ethnomusicology class in college.. no, but world pop is more about breaking and tearing down age-old stereotypes, the artificial confines that have kept us apart for way too long.

It’s a melting pot, and it’s a mosaic, that even if we looked up close, we’d still see the colours and the flavours of each culture in detail. And where can we go to listen to world pop? I don’t think there’s a world pop station or magazine, unfortunately, there are none--there should be. There is the internet, and YouTube has proven to be a driving force for world pop. Britain’s Got Talent made Susan Boyle the hottest act in the world, and she achieved that not through the record labels or the networks, but through grassroots sharing. Gangnam Style is another great world pop, and how that just took over became huge worldwide world pop phenomenon. So world pop also suggests a worldwide pop culture is something that can be shared by all of us and gives us a lot of common ground.

Leehom and his current trademark -- the peace sign.
[photo credit: We Love Leehom]

So today, what’s my call to action? I want to help improve and promote the cultural exchange between the East and West, I think I have made that clear, but how? I think… you can all become pop singers, really, I think that’s the answer, no I'm just kidding, unless that’s what you really want to. :D

My call to action is this: build and protect that roommate relationship between the East and West. Value this relationship and take ownership of it. Don’t come to Oxford as an exchange student from Taiwan and only hang out with other Chinese students. Why would you do that? You could do that back in Wuhan or Nanjing or wherever you came from. Don’t buy into the headlines or the stereotypes or in the hyper-nationalism. Think for yourselves, and this goes for the East and the West, both. Get to know one another and think for yourselves and don’t believe the hype. For a moment, if we could just disregard the governments and what the media are saying, just for the sake of the argument, with our own tools of critical thinking, can we build relationships that actually see one another as individual human beings and not faceless members of a particular ethnicity or nationality? Of course we can do that.

And that’s the goal and dream, I think, of the romantic artists and the musicians, I think it’s always been there. And that’s what I wish for, and that's what makes music and arts so powerful and so true, that breaks down instantly and disintegrates all the artificial barriers that we've created between each other, government, nationality, black, brown, yellow, white, whatever colour you are, and shows each other our hearts, our fears, our hopes, our dreams, and it turns out in end that the East isn’t that far after all, and the West, well the West, ain’t so wild. And through understanding each other’s popular cultures, we gain insight into each other’s hearts and true selves.

And for those of you who are just beginning that journey, to the West and East, I want to invite you today on this amazing journey with me, and I, as an experienced traveller on this road, on the West to East road, I’ve prepared a mixtape for all of you today, of ten songs that I love. There, that’s a C-pop mixtape that you can check out. I was gonna burn you all CDs but my publicist reminded me lovingly that that would be illegal, and because I'm a professional recording artist, I shouldn’t do that. :D But actually the links work out nicely because you get to see the music videos as well on a lot of these songs. These ten songs are songs that I love and ten different Chinese artists to start you off on getting to know and love Chinese pop and I think these guys are awesome and I hope you do too.

I just want to wrap up by saying that being here on the Oxford campus really makes me nostalgic for my days at Williams. And when I look back on those four years, some of my fondest memories are spending time with my roommates Stefan Papaioannou and Jason Price. In fact Jason is here in the audience today, and made a special trip from London just to see me. And I suppose in the beginning we were strangers who didn’t know much about each other, and sometimes we did compete for the shower and there were times we did intrude on each other's privacy, but I’ve always loved listening to Stefan’s stories about growing up in a Greek family and his opinions about what authentic Greek food really was. Or Jason’s stories, about wanting to make violins and to live in Cremona, Italy like Antonio Stradivari and he did do that, and I will never forget many years later when I played a Jason Price handmade violin for the first time, and how that felt. They were always attentive and respectful when I told them what it was like for me growing up in a Chinese household with strict parents who made me study. So we shared stories, but the strongest bonds between us were formed just sitting around and listening to music together. And I really do see that as a model for East and West. So that's why I want to share Chinese music with you today because it’s the best way I know how to create a lasting friendship that transcends all barriers and allow us to know each other truly, authentically and just as we are. Thank you.

a quick lesson on C-pop

Leehom was invited to speak at the prestigious Oxford University yesterday by the Oxford Union and Oxford University Asia Pacific Society.

In his address, he spoke about Chinese music, and the emergence of world pop and related his own journey and experiences over the years to where he is now.

(I hope some kind soul would have recorded and then post the speech up!)(or LH, please share the transcript with us!)

He also shared with the audience a list of ten songs that introduce its listeners to Chinese pop music from the past four decades, sampling artists such as Teresa Teng, Faye Wong, A-mei, Jay Chou, David Tao, etc. You can listen to the all the songs HERE.

I think it's a very well selected and balanced mix (I bet it wasn't easy doing the shortlisting!).. This really shows his passion for Chinese music. And I'm delighted that he plugged Khalil Fong's song--that album is brilliant.

p/s: I nicked this photo from his website. Absolutely love it!

update #1
here's the link to the full speech (audio). if i find the time, i might transcribe it, but i couldn't hear everything clearly. we'll see.

update #2
i did it! check out my transcription! whee! :)

update #3
here's a link to the playlist on youtube so you don't have to keep clicking every video to listen to all the songs. :)

bittersweet.

I don't know what's going on with Relient K but first, half the band said they won't be going on this year's summer tour, and now Ethan (the drummer) has just bid us farewell. it's really hard for me to express how dejected i am. :( probably as some sort of a balm, they released this new single Don't Blink from their latest album, Collapsible Lungs. I totally enjoy this but still can't shake off the farewell. :(

反感

當聽到某些政客在談論。

掙扎

要怎么样為世界所有的悲劇祈禱。

30 minutes to...

closing time*.

the city has just been lightly bathed in rain, and now the palette outside the windows is greyish blue as office workers who have lost their motivation to work post-lunch brace themselves for rush hour traffic heading home or church or a watering hole.

have a good weekend, everyone. mine will be long, but 'sokay, i've braced myself for mine. i'll tell you about it next week. and oops, i'm reminded that i haven't told my vocal teacher that i've decided to drop the class.

* gimme a high five if you heard that semisonic song in your head when you read that =)

so much for my "unlimited" imagination.

[via Beth/OurHome Europe]

LH's said in the video that this John Lennon song is his all-time favorite, and he ended the performance remarking he wished he'd written it. well, i can't agree with half the words of the song but i can appreciate its sentiment about removing borders that divide mankind. (i know it's a hugely popular song, but it's not "up there" for me la.. well, even Lennon had admitted that "Imagine — an absolute equality created by the dissolution of governments, borders, organized religion and economic class — was "virtually the Communist Manifesto.""[via] so yeah, erm, not my favorite ideology)

perhaps there's a little envy in me that LH's not lost his idealistic outlook, because I certainly have! let's face it, the world will not get better. the Bible said that "in the last days, people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power." I don't need imagination to know that this is true.

/random rant/ anddd this just in, what do you know, the US Senate blocked gun control reform. seriously, i don't get what's wrong with these people. the Senate is a stupid (i know, what a "mature" choice of word right) joke and a failed system. "the world's greatest deliberative body" my @$$. /end rant/

so, the world's not getting better. BUT it's not all bleak. we've seen beauty in ashes. we are still at war, inside and out. for every battle lost, there'll be one won. we will celebrate every small victory. there's hope. and in the end, everything will be made right.
___
in my youth I was an optimistic idealist, now older I have become a pragmatic realist.

i wanna be a rock star!

[via]

but nothing like what nickelback sang about!

i do want to own the stage like no one has ever had it. i want to write and belt anthems that would be sung for generations---people would study even the lyrics as one would of great literature. i want go on world tours and play sell-out stadium shows. i'd bring the house down before i break a sweat. i'd top every chart and headline major music festivals. then i'd be appointed as a UN Ambassador and then be the face of a major philanthropic organisation. yeah, sounds like a plan!

oh, and brendan can be my drummer. but only if he promised not to steal my thunder. hello there, drummer boy! :D

[via]

ah, so much possibilities in the realm of my imagination!


...


oh gosh, is this... could it be... OH NO, NOT MIDLIFE CRISIS!!!! O____O NOOOOOOOOOOO...

but really, if I were a rock star (or any star for that matter), I wanna be Jon Foreman. so profound, so humble, so talented.

[via]

so me, so now.

"My soul is impatient with itself, as with a bothersome child; its restlessness keeps growing and is forever the same. Everything interests me, but nothing holds me. I attend to everything, dreaming all the while. […] I'm two, and both keep their distance — Siamese twins that aren't attached."

:: Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

click* click* click* click* click* click* click* click*

So I finished reading The Curious Incident.

It's so strange, almost surreal, to sit through it again as if for the first time but with a dash of déjà vu. I found out (again) who killed the dog, what else happened, and what the ending was like :) There's also a 1.5 page 'write-up' on Malaysia that makes me all ^_^.. (basically he saw a tourism ad for Malaysia at a train station, and proceeded to write a little bit abt the country).. here, I took a photo:

I realise this (obliteration of huge chunks of my memories) happens a lot in my life.. not just with books or music, but life.

I remember going into Form 6 and not remembering how Form 5 was like, like my life before that never happened. I remember going through a difficult encounter where my friend happened to be there, and 5 years later, when we recounted the event to another friend, I was so engrossed in my friend's re-telling of the event, as if I was never there. It scares me sometimes how my brain works. Maybe I have some form of undetected amnesia. Maybe I'm just really good at compartmentalizing. *frowns and scratches chin*

I have to say though, this makes for an excellent coping mechanism. It does make it easier to live in the now, with baggage from the past left where they should be. Old memories for most part do not haunt me much after I've gotten over them, mostly because I have little no recollection of the pain. They become like a dream, that no matter how vivid, are but remnants of the night by the time the alarm clock blares in the morning.

This is why I blog---so that when I am 70 and have nothing to do or no idea of who I am, I could go back to some of these entries and go, "Hey, I used to like that! Cool..." or "I still hate that" or "Wow I can be kinda interesting!" :D

Btw have I ever mentioned here how much I LOVE THIS SONG. Growing up in the 90s was awesome (in retrospect, of course!) and anything that points back to that era is welcome with open arms and a batch of freshly baked cookies! I lurvee this band and this song makes me happiee and spell words in a cutesy annoying wayz -- when are they ever coming up with a new album?? Anyway, how many of the references in the song did you get? Okay, balik time. Ciao bella.



That's My Jam
Relient K

[Verse 1]
Turn up the record cause the song’s just begun
I’m smashing pumpkins like it’s November 1
Wish Britney’d hit me one more time on the phone
So tired of counting crows with Mr. Jones
My sister Hazel knows that it’s all for you
Am I a Blur or do you sing my Song 2?

[Chorus]
Ooh, ooh, ooh summertime
Ooh, ooh, ooh back in ’99
Ooh, ooh, ooh, oooooh our first dance
Ooh, ooh, ooh that’s my jam

[Verse 2]
Jane’s addicted, and Alice is in chains
U2 like to move me in mysterious ways
We’re chasing waterfalls and wanderwalls
My Jewel you were meant for me,
So save my soul
Add Seven Mary Three plus 98 degrees
Eve 6 times 311
That’s you and me

[Verse 3]
This Blessid Union of Collective Souls
Is the only world we know
This heart-sha?ed candle box burns for you alone
You outta know

[Chorus - ending]
Ooh, ooh, ooh summertime
Ooh, ooh, ooh feelin’ so sublime
Ooh, ooh, ooh, oooooh Boy II Man
Ooh, ooh, ooh my Pearl Jam

Ooh, ooh, ooh summertime
Ooh, ooh, ooh back in ’99
Ooh, ooh, ooh, oooooh take my hand
Ooh, ooh, ooh baby you’re my jam

the bright side #2

• The presently weekly (Tuesdays) inter-church prayer meeting at DUMC. It was really spiritually uplifting to see so many churches coming together to pray for the nation and the imminent general election. I was deeply encouraged. The battle is bigger than what the mind perceive and eyes see, but I believe that God is on our side when our cry is one for justice and mercy.
  
  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Eph 6:12

• This explanation (by PKR Strategist Director Rafizi Ramli on the rumours surrounding his departure from Petronas).  

• This review of Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away by the late movie critic Roger Ebert. It is so beautifully written that it made me download the show and watch it again. And it was like I've never watched it before--I have practically forgotten about the entire plot line! I haven't figured out why I found it so forgettable when my friends thought the world of it. This excerpt holds a key, though:
  
  I was so fortunate to meet Miyazaki at the 2002 Toronto film festival. I told him I love the "gratuitous motion" in his films; instead of every movement being dictated by the story, sometimes people will just sit for a moment, or sigh, or gaze at a running stream, or do something extra, not to advance the story but only to give the sense of time and place and who they are.
  
  "We have a word for that in Japanese," he said. "It's called 'ma.' Emptiness. It's there intentionally." He clapped his hands three or four times. "The time in between my clapping is 'ma.' If you just have non-stop action with no breathing space at all, it's just busyness."
  
  I think that helps explain why Miyazaki's films are more absorbing than the frantic action in a lot of American animation. "The people who make the movies are scared of silence" he said, "so they want to paper and plaster it over," he said. "They're worried that the audience will get bored. But just because it's 80 percent intense all the time doesn't mean the kids are going to bless you with their concentration. What really matters is the underlying emotions--that you never let go of those.
  
  "What my friends and I have been trying to do since the 1970's is to try and quiet things down a little bit; don't just bombard them with noise and distraction. And to follow the path of children's emotions and feelings as we make a film. If you stay true to joy and astonishment and empathy you don't have to have violence and you don't have to have action. They'll follow you. This is our principle."
  
  Yes, I enjoyed it much, much more this time, thanks to the review. :)

• This Draw My Life video by Ryan Higa.
  
  
  

• Many topics on Quora. Try it. There are few things more humbling than reading messages from countless other smart people putting forth their thoughts and sharing their knowledge. 

• I've already shared my current favorite song (Mercy Mercy) from Hillsong United really awesome new album, Zion. Here's another one:
  
  

• I love how my friends now has a crush on Brendan. Here's his photo gallery--I'm usually not a huge fans of photo archives but I enjoyed going through this (of course, seeing LH in some recent pix is a bonus!) He seems like the type that would always go out exploring the city he's in, and I can very well relate to that adventurous spirit! How awesome it is to be doing something you love and getting to travel the world while at it. Sigh~ Check out his blog too.

TGIF folks. Xoxo.

a pet project

I would very much like to write a script or a screenplay based on Leehom's songs, ala We Will Rock You (a musical based on rock band Queen's songs), Mamma Mia (a musical and then a movie from ABBA's repertoire), or Across the Universe (movie/The Beatles). He has 14 full-length albums todate (and another one coming up soon :) which means more than enough material for me to attempt this. Maybe I could get him to actually star in it, if this ever crosses the finish line. Ah, to dreams that keep us alive... *winks

LH is a Nikon brand ambassador. Hehe..

Having never done anything like that before (the longest I've ever written was probably something in this blog)(or my so-called undergraduate thesis), I didn't know where to start. According to this, the first thing I gotta do pin down the main idea.

Since he has so many ballads, a love story seems the natural choice (although I honestly can't stand most of the movie offerings in this genre hahah)(which is why this story has to be something a bit unconventional, like [500] Days of Summer or Silver Linings Playbook)(I would love to come up with something like those)(who am I kidding). Mm I like psychological thrillers too, but I'd probably have to sell my soul to pull something like that off, so let's just stick to what's simple huh? (Did I just offend a buncha romance writers? Haha!)

I have a couple of ideas that are swirling in my head but I have no idea what to do with them. And that's all I'm going to (or, could) say for now. Until it's done. Like when kingdom come. Yeah, thereabout. Maybe someone else can take this and run with it. Anyone? :)

this morning

10:15AM
right, so the nation waits with bated breath as to the date of the elections - the Election Committee is convening to set the date. i think all this waiting is just a waste of everyone's time. just fix the date and be done with it! if you don't have the confidence, then don't wait until the last minute to get things right.

10:40AM
click on a David Tao video of his performance in Singapore. at 3:10, he introduces his band, which basically consists of members from Leehom's previous and current tours: Jingle on the bass and Jamie Wilson on the electric guitar, David Tan on vocals and acoustic guitar, Brendan Buckley on drums and the music director and keyboardist Kheng Long. honestly i think david's vocal chops is so-so when he sings live, esp when he hits the higher notes, but his songs more than make up for that :) i love them! oh yeah i think we spoke abt this before.

11:05AM
looping Hillsong United's Mercy Mercy. song of my season. arrest my heart from its reckless path.

12:35PM
the 5th it is! :)

Lord, you kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

the curious case of an amnesiac reader

I am reading Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time for the fifth, sixth time (I lost count)..

Except for last year, this has become my annual read -- it's the only book I've read more than once.

(And the only other book that I can imagine myself re-reading over the years is this.)

(I can't think of any similarities between them, so I can't say why just these two books and not any others.)

Thanks to my short-term memory, it's like reading a new book all over again (case in point -- I've forgotten who killed the dog, which is like, erm, the main reason why the main character, Christopher, so-called wrote this book in the first place. I know right? I'm hopeless that way!), but with the knowledge that I would enjoy it immensely. Haha!

(Also, I'm doing this because I need to get this list moving. I'm abandoning books left and right so it's a struggle to add to it. Ah well...)

something beautiful, something kind

I know I'm supposed to be sleeping, but I've just finished my work for today, and I WANT to end the day doing something I really like, like writing this :P Okay, I'm not writing much, because I don't have to. He actually beat me to this---I had wanted to blog about the person who is the subject of the post earlier, but haven't found the angle. But 'sokay, how many times could I actually say that "Leehom has done the job for me"? Hehehe.. So yeah, I'm just gonna plug the entire post here:

王力宏 Wang Leehom
I made an inspiring friend last week. Her name is Yvonne Foong, and she has neurofibromatosis, a genetic illness with no known cure, which has left her completely deaf. It's rare for a deaf person to come to one of my concerts, so I was fascinated to hear what she had to say after the show. She told me that eight years ago, when she had her hearing, she saw me perform live. Now, with no hearing at all, she could still "hear" the concert, but with all of her other senses. She excitedly described the show to me, in vivid detail. It was amazing for me to hear her go on and on, obviously moved by the music, having heard not a single note.

It made me think of Beethoven, one of the greatest musicians of all time, who wrote some of the most celebrated music in history, while completely deaf. It's incredible to think that his music, which millions know and love, was never even once heard by its composer. Yet there's no doubt Beethoven, like Yvonne, could still "hear" with all his other senses, and profoundly, at that.

When a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, does it make a sound? People have debated this cliché question for centuries. Some say no, that sound must be perceived in order to exist. Some say yes, that sound doesn't have to be heard to exist. The argument is interesting because, either way, how can you prove it when no one heard it? But can music exist when the notes are inaudible? Is there something more to music than sound waves with varying amplitudes and frequencies?

One of my favorite musicians, Leonard Bernstein, would have us think so. Toward the end of his life, he wrote:

In the beginning was the note,
And the note was with God.
And whosoever can reach that note,
Reach high and bring it back to us on earth,
To our earthly ears…
Partakes of the divine.

I don't know if anyone can prove or disprove that Yvonne heard my concert, but when I met her that night backstage in Malaysia, looked into her eyes and saw her excitement, I had my answer. And I want to thank her for reminding me that music goes beyond sound waves, and is not a tree falling in the woods. Thank you for reminding me that Bernstein was right, music comes from the divine, and what a blessing it is to reach higher and higher, reaching to bring those notes down to earth.

Read Yvonne's blogpost here.
Support her foundation here.

Her story was really inspiring and I was touched by what she's been through, and also the kind gesture of her friend and the fan club people to arrange for this. I'm happy that of all people she got to met him, and I think it was really nice of him to have spent the time with her after his exhausting 2.5 hour concert (he has done something similar before this---in another post-concert clip I've seen before, he went to say Hi to a group of cancer-stricken kids who were at his concert courtesy of Lovelife---the charity organisation founded by his best bud Blackie)... :)

And that quote attributed to Leonard Bernstein---I love it! It's so beautiful and what I imagine good art is all about---divine, a gift, to be shared, inspiring, thought-provoking, uplifting. It reminds me of this other quote I saw floating about recently, which I agree with. This is a subject somewhat close to my heart, and maybe one day I'd have enough substance to actually write about it.

For now, I'm going bed happy. Good night, folks.

The Phantom of the opera is thereeee inside my headdddd

Thanks to the little birdie who is my sis ^_^, I got to know that The Phantom of the Opera  is going to Singapore again this year. It's not on my bucket list, but still I'm keen to go. Ww gushes every time she talks about it, so I don't think I'd be disappointed. Also, I don't remember if I've posted this before, but Nicole Scherzinger's performance of that eponymous song from the musical together with four other actors who have previously played the role of Phantom just blew me away.

Anyway, I've been looping this for hours, a song I stumbled upon when stalking Brendan last evening (he's in this video too hehe). Here, hope you like it: Leonard Friend - Holograms, and here too, my favorite photo of the day to go with the song. Cheer! :)

[via]

#TeamLeehom

Hello again, Brendan! (this is for your viewing pleasure, my dearest D and J hehehe..)



The awesome Brendan B. posted this pic on his Fb with a note thanking the Malaysian audience. Well, thank YOU, Brendan! And come back to our shore soon!

Brendan obviously isn't the only musician on Leehom's team. And I'm pleased to intro them: in his current band, he also has Grecco Burrato (left below) on the electric guitar, Eric Holden (right below) on the bass, and the keyboardist and band leader is long time collaborator, Kheng Long (middle below the below :P). Interestingly, Brendan, Eric and Grecco (a trio henceforth known as BEG even if I never refer to them as such again in this post hehe)(I know it's unfair that I left KL out from the acronym but BEGKL doesn't have the same ring to it)(fine, fine, the quartet BEGKL it is then)(where am I going with this?) have all played for Shakira (BEG, not BEGKL, in case you lost me there), so I'm guessing Leehom bao kah liao the team (perhaps he got a good buy-2-free-1 deal hahah.. I jest ;).

Naturally, they are all accomplished musicians in their own rights, who have played for big names worldwide (like Eric, he was in Josh Groban's band for a good few years---the band was affectionately known as Groband---I had to chuckle! :D). As for KL, I've only seen him mostly in the Chinese/Asian scene, and my favorite video where he was featured prominently would this one (actually it was the only vid where I could see him clearly that I've come across (then again, I haven't been googling him much :P) where he played for David Tao. ^_^ Ah it's quite mind blowing to think of the amount of talent that ooze out whenever they play together! So humbling... :)

Actually, the main point of this blog post is to say hello to Brendan and I've done that so imma end now.. but wait, there's more! (cheesy informercial reference)(thousand apologies)(there really is actually other stuff below this so don't go yet! :)

That dude on the left, the backup singer, has been w LH really long too. I'm sorry I don't know your name, good sir.  

On a not-so-random note, this happened lol!

This taught me to cross check my lyrics source when something doesn't add up! Hehe..

Btw if LH is not your cuppa, what about KF, as in Khalil Fong. The MV for his song Romeo is fresh off the oven today. It's one of my favorite tracks from his latest album Back to Wonderland.

Hey girls, look who's here again (taken from his website).. come to think of it, I didn't even post this many photos of Leehom -_-"

dissolved!

the PM has just announced the dissolution of the Parliament, paving way for the 13th General Elections.

like, FINALLY. let's get this change of Government over and done with! *resolute*

legend.

Okay I've lost count of the number of times I've watched that video of Leehom singing Getaran Jiwa. I love it to bits. Sigh~

Amidst this, I naturally went wiki-ing the late Tan Sri P Ramlee. I realised that I didn't know much about him. Sure I've seen a couple of his movies when I was reeeallly young, and have heard some of his songs over the years, and who could forget Sheila Majid's Lagenda tribute? But I'd wanted to know what was it that garnered him such recognition, a national icon?

His page was surprisingly sparse, but there was a reference to a documentary commissioned by History Channel a few years back, and again, thanks to Youtube, I found the 90-minute video (embedded below) which chronicled his life, the rise and fall. Yay!

Note: Full spoiler ahead :)

It was an interesting show, there were interview footage from earlier, and they also interviewed some people who were close to him (it looks like a number of them have also passed away since), such as the sister of his wife Saloma, his son Nasir, and other people in the industry. He'd lived in tough time, but he rose to the top of his game and was his studio's (Shaw Organisation) blue-eyed boy. Everything he touched turned into gold. He was a multi-talented entertainer: he wrote and directed screenplays, and he wrote hundreds of songs which were very popular at his times. His accomplishment and international recognition were well-deserved - his movies constantly won him regional awards.

Of course this made him enemies with the other more senior directors, and they ostracized him. Also because they had media clout, P Ramlee's news were practically blacked out. Still he persisted. Now I scantly remember what was the reason he left Singapore to come back to Malaysia (too much politicking that he couldn't handle, was it?) And that was the beginning of his downfall.

For whatever reason, he was rejected, ridiculed and scorned by his very own! They called him a has-been, they mocked his work, they unfairly criticized him. I really felt terrible for him. Still he soldiered on, trying to make do with the old equipment and untrained staff, which were a far cry from his endless budget, state-of-the-art and skilled workers environment back in Singapore. Everything he did was panned by the critics, and he never got back to the level he once held.

And it continued to go downhill from there. His music company severed ties with him, there were no new jobs that came in.. eventually he had to take up odd jobs to put food on his family's table. It was heartbreaking. I don't think I could ever know why his "friends" turned his back against him. Or why they were unaware of his plight (apparently he never sought help and kept his problems to himself).

I had thought that perhaps he was not a nice person, but everyone who was interviewed said that he was also generous to a fault, and he never knew how to say No. His sis-in-law said that people would often come up to him with sob stories, and he'd give every sen he had on him, to the disbelief of his wife. If such was this man, and I can imagine how some of his so-called "friends" sucking him dry.

His last days were desolate. He died a penniless man. Shaw Organisation never released the rights to his movies, so despite the thousands (millions?) that he's made for the studio, he earned nothing from there. But just as he had the chance to shine again (another famous actress from that era who was mentored by him, Sarimah, decided to let him direct her next movie. But before he had to chance to sign the contract the next day, he died suddenly of a heart attack, at 44 (so young!)..

His death shocked the nation, "and a sense of collective guilt began to spread nationwide, as prior to his death he had been discredited and rejected by his own nation,citing that he was a "has been" and that his songs and film were no longer marketable." (wiki) Most of his national recognition and titles came post-posthumously, and I echo the narrator who said that it was, "too little, too late". Sigh.

I was rather shaken and even teared watching the last bit of the documentary. I think it was the pains of the betrayal that got to me. And all those politicking that went about had him fighting uphill battles all the time. I still can feel the dull ache in my heart thinking about what he had gone through! :'( Maybe it was a different time, when men were too proud to talk about their problems and hence NOBODY thought to ask or help.

In his illustrous career spanning 20+ years, he had acted and directed in 66 films, and written about 360 songs, and his works had come to define the golden era of Malay silver screen. I might never come to a place to fully appreciate what he has done, but I know without a doubt that he's truly a national icon.

kaulah satu satunya di antara berjuta, insan teristimewa

patah tak tumbuh lagi, hilang belum berganti, kerana kau tersendiri

kau kebanggaan kita, kau budayawan bangsa

engkau lagenda

you're one in a million, a unique individual

you're irreplacable because you are one of a kind

you're our pride, you're the nation's humanist

you are legend

sheila majid :: lagenda/legend

the thrill in my soul

So Leehom posted another video of his cover of P Ramlee's Getaran Jiwa on his official youtube channel. This was taken from a closer point to the stage (close-up yay!), and I've been listening to it the whole of today (occasionally slotting in the just-as-wonderful original recording in between).

I wish he'd do a proper recording of this timeless tune and put it up on iTunes (or for free! :)(and LH, if you every do, let me help you with the pronunciation/phrasing okay? :) cos like I've said, yours were mostly spot-on, but some minor tweaks are needed) ^___^