Artsy Stuff – Page 22

Mix-tape.

Mon, 5 Sep 2011

2 min read

So it was Teachers’ Day last week.

I think my, er, advice worked – I received enough Ferrero Rocher to set up my own distribution centre.

Jokes aside, one present which stood out was the Teachers’ Day video done by 10A04.

Initially, when they bounded up to me to give me the DVD, I was like, “Wow! Mix-tape for me?”

I was genuinely elated; I remember thinking: Wow, these piglets have grown! They put their PW skills to use and realised that a mix-tape would be a great gift for me because:

I like music,
Mix-tapes have symbolic value, in that they hearken back to an era that I often romanticise, and
Mix-tapes have artistic value, in that the choice of songs are not arbitrary but curated in order to achieve a certain effect on/send a certain message to the listener e.g. I’ve chosen these songs that I know you like because I want you to know I care, or I’ve chosen 12 of my favourite songs because I want to share my music with you (a deeply personal gesture, IMO).

Sadly, my happiness lasted for a while, because I soon found out that:

It wasn’t a mix-tape, but a video, and
ALL THE OTHER TEACHERS THAT TAUGHT 10A04 ALSO RECEIVED THE SAME VIDEO.

Wah lao eh! Felt somewhat cheated lor. LOL… Kidding, ya.

I really like the video; in fact, I like it so much that I want to share it with all of you here:

Click on this link in case you can’t see the embedded video.

Nice right? (BTW if you want to watch more stuff by Ansen Goh and Co., check out “A Measured Distance Away” and ObscuRed.sg .)

I’m so glad they came together to do this, not only because the video shows how much they’ve grown as a class, but also because receiving the gift has made me re-evaluate my ‘preferred present list’ – I’ve just included a section called ‘Digital Art’.

So thanks, kiddos, for all the love. I’m proud of all of you.

Artsy Stuff

QLRS: Six of the Best.

Mon, 1 Aug 2011

1 min read

Add Comment

My review of Tan Tarn How’s Six Plays – the text which I was busy devouring in June while recuperating from my short stint in the Weapon X Project – is now up on the Quarterly Literary Review Singapore (QLRS).

Six of the Best
Compilation revives veteran playwright’s greatest hits

This collection brings together six of Tan Tarn How’s best works thus far, written and produced over a period of 11 years (1992 – 2003). Prior to this, The Lady of Soul and Her Ultimate ‘S’ Machine (“Soul“) was published individually in 1993, and Undercover and Home were published in play collections that featured various local playwrights. The publication of these plays in one volume are, hence, important in providing readers and scholars of Singapore literature with a holistic overview of Tan’s concerns as well as showcasing the diversity of topics he writes on, while demonstrating Tan’s dexterity as a playwright when tackling a range of subjects.

Thematically, most of Tan’s concerns, as with the majority of P65 Singaporean writers, are with the socio-political environment and machinations of the Singapore state – an ostensibly natural reflection of and response towards the environment that P65 Singaporean writers have been bred in.

(continued…)

Lucky Strikes.

Tue, 21 Jun 2011

1 min read

Add Comment

So I mentioned that day that one of my poems has been published in the latest issue of Ceriph.

Here it is:

Lucky Strikes

For all the boys from 10A04.

Fumbles one out from the box, strikes
it at a dulled edge: conversation
does not ensue. He tries again – twice,
thrice, before its head snaps off, departing
into the distance of a long, lonely night.
Leaves him standing there, limp
cigarette dangling loosely from his lips,
moisture slowly soaking filter tip.

Lighting up shouldn’t be a dismal match
grovelling wildly at the feet of blunted flints,
looking to catch the song of a spark
in a vain draw on an inflamed hope –
that determination will grow into fire.

Go get your copy of Ceriph if you haven’t already done so.

Category - Artsy Stuff