March 6, 2010

Lucky

Well, I expected that my next post/update would be about The TENG Ensemble’s concert.

But before I can actually get to it (the concert was great tonight, pictures from the girlfriend soon!) – last night was really an ‘eventful’ one for me.

Yes, the car on the left is dear Blackie. Frankly speaking, I think I’m really lucky to even be alive. It all happened so fast that I didn’t even have much time to react.

Basically, the guy in the swanky Lotus on the right of the picture you see, decided to zoom out of a red-light junction, overtaking two stopped vehicles infront of him at the traffic light, and cut across this huge junction to turn right. Unlucky me was travelling straight on, green light and all.

The impact was so hard that his car (he was real lucky I missed his driver’s door by an inch only) got hit out onto the opposite direction of traffic, as you can see.

I was sitting in my car for a good 5 mins with a hurting chest before I could actually climb out of the car! Thankfully, I was not injured. Got whisked off to the hospital and all.

Frankly speaking I think it’s a bit too much drama, since I wasn’t like bleeding or anything, but I’m glad that I went for the ECG and X-ray scans anyway. My grandma passed away recently from internal bleeding being left untreated, so I’m kinda paranoid now too.

Am tired from all the usual paperwork that has to be filed, as usual. Police reports, investigations and all. I’m also very thankful that a motorcyclist and a lady travelling in the opposite direction, who saw the whole incident, have agreed to be witnesses for the case.

Really want to thank my best friends Jiwei and Sam for rushing down so quickly and settling things for me while I went to the hospital! Glad that the girlfriend, my bro and dad came by to pick me up too.

Well, I think I’m really quite blessed to come out unscathed! My dad picked up my license plate which was strewn somewhere across the junction.

Moral of the story? (as my dad said): ‘You may be a careful driver, but others are not. You have to predict the recklessness of others, and learn to avoid them too. Right (of way) is not always ‘right”

February 28, 2010

The TENG Ensemble @ NUS Arts Festival

Dear friends, the tickets for our show on 6 March at the NUS Arts Festival has completely SOLD OUT!

Thank you all for your support and see you at the show! :D

February 23, 2010

¡esta oficina es muy fría!


February 22, 2010

《乔家大院》

Was analysing this piece tonight and managed to find the video – I simply love love love Zhao Jiping!

Doesn’t it just make you want to cry?

《乔家大院》is an old TV series, and this piece of music is simply gorgeous.

He is a long time film composer collaborator with film director Zhang Yimou- tunes like those from 大红灯笼高高挂 Raise the Red Lantern, 红高梁 Red Sorghum and many many more were all written by him!

Imagine how great he is – the stuff he writes just oozes so much authentic folk material that it actually gets adopted by modern Chinese as a folk tune.

How cool is that?! Just imagine- folk tunes in countries are usually passed down through generations- but here a modern composer has written such powerful lines that even the man in the street sing it like he knew it his whole life.

So, today, my friends, let’s pay tribute to this great great composer, Zhao Ziping!

February 21, 2010

TENG is on Zaobao and Omy.sg again!

Was pleasantly surprised to wake up this morning to see that TENG was featured on the omy.sg website and on the ZBnow paper!

Keep reading →

February 15, 2010

The TENG Ensemble in Concert!

TENG Performs on 6 March 2010, 8 pm at the NUS Arts Festival!

Some of the pieces the ensemble will be playing, written by yours truly, are:

  1. Getaran Jiwa – a popular Malay song by P. Ramlee, arranged for TENG.
  2. 《但愿人长久》 Dan Yuan Ren Chang Jiu – made popular by singer Faye Wong, poetry by Su Shi set to music by the great Hong Si Zhi. Arranged for TENG.
  3. 《合》 – fast becoming our ’signature’ tune now!
  4. 《长门怨》 – one of the newly written pieces that I wrote for TENG recently, based on the poetry of Li Bai.

Apart from these songs, we will also be premiering the pieces of two other very diverse music composers,  Justin Hegburg (USA) and my old friend, Sherman Ko (Japan/Singapore).

Tickets are at $10 each, please do come and support us, my friends! I promise it will be an evening of music that will leave you breathless, or, at the very least, moved.

Click here to purchase the tickets from the NUS website!

February 12, 2010

Goodbye Ah Ma…

You’d probably be expecting some nice Chinese New Year greetings from me right about now.

Grandma passed away yesterday morning. It’ll be the second year in a row that we don’t celebrate Chinese New Year.

Have a good one, my friends…

February 3, 2010

Keppel Clipper 09-10 Send-off!

The TENG Ensemble performed for the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race! It was indeed nice to be at the Keppel Bay, with the sun rising behind us, as we bade a warm farewell to the yachts as they embarked on the next leg of their race.

The race is something like the F1 of the seas, using Yachts instead of cars! We were on this floating platform with the competition yachts behind us. They sail to Qingdao next! Imagine sailing for weeks with a crew on that tiny yacht…Hmm….

And of course there was the Guest-of-Honor, Dr Lee Boon Yang:

It was definitely worth waking up so early for, performing on the water with the sun rising behind us!

January 24, 2010

Makan Malacca!

Yes, I have returned with the kids safely in one piece! 6 days of eating, sleeping and playing with the kids are finally over :)

Who would’ve thought that fuddy-duddy Malacca would be quite endearing-though technically our photo-journey begins enroute to Malacca- at a Pineapple plantation in Johor!

I’ve never really liked pineapples. In fact, I usually avoid them. Yet, the pineapples here were soooo sweet, juicy and fresh I found myself gourging on them!(I also found out that pineapples were grown as such)


The kids also had a fun morning at the Asahan Obstacle Course area, with a beautiful mountainous landscape as a backdrop. I tried some of the obstacles myself, and I must say I think I’m getting a little old. Keep reading →

January 24, 2010

Singapore Short Film Awards

Threshold, which I scored the music for in April 2009,  has been nominated for Best Soundtrack at the 1st Singapore Short Film Awards! The film, directed by Loo Zihan, was also nominated for Best Script and Best Cinematography. Yippeeee!! :D

Click on the links to read more!