I can't believe this. Face transplants are now possible.

All plastic surgery fanatics must be jumping with joy now. If I just allow my imagination to wander a little further than usual... would it be possible for people to PAY for new faces - for entirely cosmetic purposes - in future?

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Had my 4th stage performance yesterday afternoon. This time it was in front of the Year 2 cohort. As usual I was nervous, and I've got to say I admire the singer's guts. It was definitely different from an ensemble performance, because when you're in a band, its just the few of you up there, and you've got different parts to play, so if you make a mistake, its obvious - almost jarring. Furthermore seated in the audience were people I knew. If it were a bunch of strangers, I could forget about it if I screwed up. If it weren't, then it'd be a different story.

It's probably the 2nd last time I'll be performing in a band - the last time will be this coming Tuesday. It's been invigorating - being able to play in a band that is. I always toyed with the idea of being in one - whether it was official or not - ever since...2 years ago?

That came about thanks to the influence of my brother. Circa 1999 I was listening to the boybands (still their heyday then). But then I always listened using a tape player - poor quality recordings if you can't remember how tapes sound like. My brother was the typical young adult - blasting Oasis at near full volume with his shiny new hi-fi. And so obviously, my tape player lost big time - my recordings were always drowned out by Liam and Noel Gallagher's trademark amazing guitar riffs and heavy drum beats. He played it all the time. And I memorized the lyrics, involuntarily. It was only around the age of 14 when my tastes started to change.

I always took special notice of the guitar parts of a song - especially the rhythm guitar. So when the opportunity of playing in a band presented itself to me, I snapped it up. There was no competition - because the audition was a simple affair judged by 2 friends. This year's audition is a whole new ball game though. At least 15 people turned up for the auditions. Tough shit - because all of them are pretty much this close to being a master at the electric guitar.

Somehow I managed to end up playing lead guitar in the band. I have my own insecurities, because I'm obviously not as good as a lot others. But I've always believed that if I don't give myself a chance, I'm not going to learn how to play it. Every performance is therefore carving another notch in my experience in playing the guitar. Band practices, after I've gotten to know my fellow members better, have been as how I have imagined them to be. Loads of bantering and just 'psycho-playing' (my term for jamming a self-made-up tune whatever way you like it), and a whole lot of nonsense. There've been many times where we switched roles with one another - I'd take the drums, drummer WX would take the lead guitar, bassist CY would go for rhythm, and rhythm guitarist SL would rush over to hit the bass. So along the way, we pick up more than just our respective instruments. This Sat is, well, another practice at a Studio. Thankfully, these people are have around the same skill level as I do - the last time I tried playing with this LEGEND of a lead guitarist, I wounded up as backup singer.

I didn't actually intend to write this much about my experience in a band - but I guess its a wish fulfilled - so it deserves more word space.

I don't know about how other people thought the performance was like - my friends said it was good; I don't know if other people perceive it to be that way. My own take on it, though, is that it's a great, great, improvement from my previous performances. Mostly because the audience were a friendly bunch, compared to those cold, cold stares we got from another batch of audiences. I was trying my best to retain my composure and keep calm during the performance, and despite having been told to 'smile' (and look like an idiot), I put on a straight face. And another friend of mine (a squadmate) pointed out that I looked like I had an attitude problem. She said I looked 'sian', as if it was too easy for me, which was basically what another person said about me as well. Then she'd said that 'attitude' image dissolved when I finally cracked a smile when it was over, and turned around to talk to my band member. She'd asked, "Eh, were you sian?"

Are you kidding? SIAN? More like scared until my facial muscles cannot move! I was concentrating so hard on keeping time that I'd forgotten to smile. And look happy. And prance around stage.

Ok, I'll stop with the sacarsm - it's just that people tend to look at me and go, "YP, are you all right? You look really sian." Or, "Hey, you ok? You look so xiong1 (fierce)." It seems like every expression other than a smile equates to anger/sadness for me, when its so not true. Sigh. Looks like I have to wear a smile EVERYWHERE I go from now on to avoid being asked those questions.

Having said that, if my squadmate is reading this - I'm not at all offended by her comments. I really appreciate your frank, constructive comments, H. Thanks.

Maybe I should really consider face transplant in the future... to correct my perpetually frowning eyebrows or something. :S

P.S.: I'm thinking of forming a band for fun. Just to get together and play some stuff, you know?

Labels: musings

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Kena 'suaned' by a few people about not updating this musty cellar of a blog, and feeling shamed, I've decided to type this one just before hitting the sack.

I promised to blog about a few events of note - namely the latest squad bbq (4th outing since passing out parade) and Fete du Soleil, my school's CNY carnival.

First up - squad bbq. As usual, it was held at Xuan Yi's place, and right smack in the same gazebo as the last time too. Mariana, Cheryl, Marilyn, the 2 XYs and me arrived earliest and - guess what - couldn't even start a fire. It wasn't even the traditional charcoal (huff puff intensive) kinds... it was a, erm, more modern device - the electric grill. Turned out we didn't even pull the handle of the gas pipe - i.e. no gas supply. Whatever happened to our knowledge of operating the bunsen burner? Anyway. Enough of the nitty gritty - overall the attendance for recent months have been dwindling - about only 20 people or so turned up as compared to the original squad size of 30 odd. Food was good - catered from this company called Ezb. And this time, the girls just turned into cam whores the whole night. Seriously. I can't really remember what I did earlier on in the morning - I only recall feeling really fatigued and sian. So I just sat there waiting to be fed. Swinging my legs up and down and singing the 'Come on! Go! Go! Go!' song. Basically acting like a retard the whole night.

CNY carnival - another tiring yet fun event. 35/05 named our food stall 'Oh! Choc Kee!' - a blatant parody of a famous eatery's name - selling diabetes-inducing food. Namely - smores (if you don't know what a smore is, imagine a plain biscuit, then a smooth, creamy swirl of melted marshmallow and fondue chocolate being drizzled on it, and topped with rainbow rice/chopped nuts), chocolate fondue (hot/cold) - with the choice of bananas, strawberries, marshmellows, and grapes to be dipped in a pot of bubbling hot chocolate sauce. The preparation was hell though.

The night before the carnival itself, a group of us trooped over to RJ's house (damn HUGE! and her Spring is so guai, I feel so ashamed of having 2 incredibly naughty dogs) to make frozen fruit fondue and smores first. Before that though, a few of us headed over to Parkway to buy those fruits and whatever we needed. We bought 55 bananas. NO KIDDING. We COUNTED! And invited shocked stares from other banana customers. The staff at the weighing station even asked Nessa and me if we were selling Banana Splits. "No," we very politely replied. "We're making it for a carnival!" cue goofy grins. The existence of a mobile phone was very much appreciated as well, for all of us were split into different groups - to - what else? Hunt down the best bargains, lah. 4 different supermarkets in the vicinity - spoilt for choice, man. We headed over to RJ's house, then got down to work - figuring out the best recipe for the chocolate fondue sauce, and discovered thick, thick sauce is the BEST formula for having nice tasting+nice looking food. Amande gave me a lift home - I reached my fave plc on earth at 12 a.m.

Yah, I'm going to say, "the next day...", the Art people completed their already almost complete shop banner and a cute little menu of sorts of what was for sale. Then chaos began at 4pm - these strings and strings and strings of people were filtering in from EVERYWHERE. I was at first leisurely stirring the choc sauce. Before I knew it I had to drag Mabel into chopping up the block for me - and frantically melted new blocks to make more sauce. Basically it was chop, throw, poke, melt, stir, drizzle/pour, rinse, repeat. Biz was slow at first, but it picked up later - probably too sweet to resist man. We sold off every thing (ALL 55 bananas! and then some.)- except the rainbow rice toppings. And those 2 - Ivan and Isaac, had to go and spray rainbow rice all over the track. Nice move. -_- We ended up throwing water on the mess to clean it up - and we suspect that if one were to attempt to lick the spot of track where the rainbow rice was spilled now, he would get a sugar high.

Dinner that night was settled by trooping off to Parkway (again!). Not without, of course, the glass-shattering singing voices of the deranged - ZH, Mab and some others. Crazy people. That night, I fell into a deep sleep real quick, for fondue goo had reduced me to a energy-less being for the rest of the day.

Labels: events

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