On Saturday evening, P went to see Singapore Lyric Opera's (SLO) production of Turandot, which is the first time the full-length opera has ever been put on in Singapore. SLO definitely deserves kudos for that and also for attempting an opera that is notorious for the demands it makes on its leads.

P is not going to go into much detail about the plot - those requiring it can click through to the Wikipedia entry here.  In very short, Turandot is a 3 act opera by Puccini. It is set in ancient China and incorporates lots of italian ideas about what Chinese music and customs are like. These don't always work but the opera has become a mainstay of the operatic standard repertoire, not to mention the tenor aria "Nessun Dorma" which became world-famous when it was used for the 1990 Italian World Cup (Football/Soccer depending on your country).

The plot is fairly standard (aka rediculous) for opera and revolves around the 3 main characters: Turandot (dramatic soprano), Calaf (dramatic tenor) and Liu (Lyric Soprano). Turandot is the fabulously beautiful daughter of the Emperor of China and will only marry the man who can answer her three riddles. Many princes have tried and all have failed, leading to a succession of heads mounted on poles outside the palace. Enter Calaf, the son of the banished King of the Tartars. He espies Turandot presiding over the execution of yet another failed suitor and falls madly in love (as you do). His father, Timur, and Liu, the faithful slave girl, try to dissuade him as do the 3 comic courtiers, Ping, Pang and Pong, but all fail and Calaf strikes the gong announcing his suit. Turandot puts Calaf to the test and he is able to answer all 3 somewhat elliptical riddles. She is dismayed and begs the emperor to relieve her of her duty to marry Calaf, or she will die of shame. Calaf decides to offer her a way out: Turandot must gues his name by dawn or become his wife. Turandot then orders that none shall sleep (Nessun dorma) in Peking until the name of suitor is uncovered. Unfortunately, Timur and Liu are captured by guards and Liu is put to the torture by Turandot. Liu declares her secret love for Calaf and grabs a dagger, killing herself rather than revealing Calaf's name. Calaf is horrified by Turandot's cruelty but continues to love her. He grabs her and plants a kiss on her unwilling lips. The kiss thaws the ice maiden, she falls in love with Calaf who offers her his name. Enter the emperor and his courtiers to which Turandot reveals Calaf's real name - Love.

A lot can be said about the morality of this tale and it undoubtedly continues to offend legions of feminists every year - P may blog about this in another post. Coming back to the SLO production, P was impressed by the costumes and set. Those of you who have seen Zhang Yimou's period films, like House of Flying Daggers and Hero, will be able to imagine the costumes. Think colourful, sumptous and a lot more authentically oriental than many productions P has seen. The set was very simple, but worked well. P especially liked the netting screen used to good effect in Act II. The 3 courtiers were able to stand in front of it and perform their comedy, while dancers behind the screen were given lanterns and selective lighting, enacting the subtext of the scene (weddings and funerals). It then lifted out of the way to reveal the Imperial Court in all its glory.

What about the cast? When P went, Turandot was played by Korean dramatic soprano Kim Young-Ae. A commanding figure with blade-like eyebrows (one wondered what Calf saw in her as she looked positively terrifying at points) she used her steely-edged tones to good effect in the riddles especially. Her aria In Questa Reggia, was also sung affectingly - however, P found herself wishing for a bit more volume at points. Chinese tenor Tao Weilong was a good foil for her, matching her well in volume during their duets. He had all the notes and did the job, but his voice had some rough edges that left P a little cold at times, wishing for the honeyed warmth of a Luciano Pavarotti, especially when it came to the tenor's big aria, Nessun Dorma. His diction was also far less clear than Turandot or the Emperor. The star of the evening and obvious audience favourite was Philippino soprano Rachelle Gerodias's Liu. Gerodias had a lovely warm soprano with the requisite clarity in the high notes, which she used to good effect especially in the first act aria Signore, Ascolta. P loved her Messa di voce (starting a note softly, swelling it to forte and taking it down to piano) on the top B. Her final act aria Tu, che di gel sei cinta (You who are girdled with ice) was affecting but not as lovely. Nevertheless, the three main leads worked well together in the Saturday night production.

Among the minor roles, Ping, Pang and Pong (Brent Allcock, Melvin Tan and Lemuel dela Cruz) put in solid performances and were good in their comic acting. Timur (Martin Ng) and the Emperor (Lim Shieh Yih) both sang their minor arias well. P wasn't wildly happy with Claudio Girardi who played the bit-part of the Prince of Persia. Considering that it's a non-singing role, one would have thought he could have looked bit more involved than he did - he certainly didn't walk like a man going to his execution.

The most problematic parts of the evening belonged to the chorus. The first act male chorus entry was simply dreadful and P literally stopped her ears and winced. Individual voices could be clearly heard and the lines were ragged and completely out-of-sync with each other and the orchestra. Perhaps they were simply underrehearsed as subsequent mixed voiced choruses were a lot better. The women did a far better job, especially the semichorus singing about Turandot's sleep. The childrens' choir were fine musically but their words were rather mushy.

The Philharmonic Orchestra mostly did a credible job under the baton of Shanghainese conductor Yeh Tsung. There was a solo piccolo or something like it that squawked badly in Act III, but aside from that and some misaligned trumpets, they provided a solid foundation for the singers to work from.

On the whole, it was an enjoyable evening for P, but the chorus was a real weak point. P knows that the SLO chorus is not professional (she's sung with them before), but perhaps the men need a little more drilling before the performance or the SLO need to hire a few more professional stiffeners. P was sitting way up in the gods, so she's hoping for some comments from people who might have been a little closer.

Addenda:

For those interested in viewing part of the production, I finally managed to find a preview video on ChannelNewsAsia. Click through to this page and you can find the video under the heading "related videos".

P organised a group of friends and colleagues to do the Southern Ridges Walk on Saturday morning. The Southern Ridges Trail is a National Parks-designed network of paved trails and bridges that cross southwestern Singapore. Unlike eg the Dragonback Trail in Hong Kong, the Singapore version is supremely urban with paved concrete paths crossing roads and winding into the jungle and back out again. The entire route from West Coast Park to Harbourfront is about 9km, but P decided to do the 5km trail to make the walk more accessible. There are short hilly stretches that may make you breathe a little harder, but for the most part the trail rates about a 0.5 on a 1-10 scale of difficulty.

You can find a PDF map of the trail here.

The lack of difficulty of the walk was why P got very irritated when nearly half of the group that had previously agreed to come decided to drop out with excuses ranging from ill relatives to lack of sleep. P isn't very fit herself, but does try to exercise regularly, which is more than you can say for many of her female colleagues. Still, how can you improve your fitness if you can't even rouse yourself to try an easy walk?

P began the trail at Alexandra Arch at 9 in the morning. This is an 80m elevated leaf-shaped bridge across Alexandra Road.

View of Alexandra Arch from the Road Bridge Supports Alexandra Arch viewed from stairs to the Bridge
P quite likes the steel rib structure of the bridge which is meant to be modelled after the leaves of the "Mile-a-minute"plant. She wll have to return in the evening to enjoy the light show on the bridge. From Alexandra Arch, P's group went on to Hort Park, one of the more attractive new parks in Singapore. Opened in April of this year, the park comprises 20 themed gardens including a Gold and Silver Garden, a Fantasy Garden, a Roof Garden etc etc. Here is some of what P's group saw in their 40 minute romp around Hort Park. Hort Park Entrance and Water feature Closeup of Flower Landscaped Garden Trellis with Blue Pea Flowers Bamboo Labyrinth Cowardly Lion at Fantasy Garden Scarecrow at Fantasy Garden Field of Blue Flowers

Living Walls Garden

Exiting from Hort Park, P circled back to Alexandra Arch continuing on to the Forest Walk with lots of raised walkways hundreds of metres above the Forest floor. Someone uploaded a video to Youtube which gives quite a good idea what this segment was like.

Forest Walk led out into Telok Blangah Hill Park, which houses the famous Alkaff Mansion, originally built by the Alkaff family (Indonesian traders) in the mid 19th century. The Mansion had fallen into disrepair after WWII, but was restored as a restaurant (and favourite photo haunt of wedding couples) in 1986. Unfortunately the trail P followed did not lead by the Mansion and this section was a pretty boring trudge along the side of various roads, either going downhill or uphill. After the final climb, P's group reached Henderson Waves, the undulating curved steel bridge designed by a partnership between British Architects IJP Corporation and Singapore firm RSP Architects, Planners and Engineers. The decking is made from all-weather Balau wood and "fleshes" out the 274m of the bridge's length very nicely.

Henderson Waves bridge across Henderson Road

Henderson Waves led us into Mount Faber Park, right up to the highest point with the swish restaurant (Jewel Box) and the Cable Car station to Sentosa. From there, it was an easy downhill trot past a number of viewing stations, like the one below, which offered a nice view of the Southern coast.

Halfway down Mount Faber, we hit the Marang Trail, a series of steel and/or wooden bridges and stairs down the rest of Mount Faber to Telok Blangah Road. P spotted quite a few colonial black-and-white bungalows dotting the forested hillside and wondered how the inhabitants ever got to visit the rest of Singapore. P also spotted a rather nice large brown lizard with scales that looked blue and green when viewed from the right angles. P didn't bother with photos here but obviously someone did - below is a photo from singaporeshot.com and there are plenty more on the site.

Telok Blangah Road was about 100m from the Harbourfront MRT station which provided a convenient entrance into the air-conditioned comfort of the Vivocity Mall. P's group finished with a happy brunch at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, feeling really virtuous! The entire walk took about 2hr and 15minutes, with about 40minutes of that circling Hort Park, so P reckons its a good easy walk for a lazy weekend.

Pretensions attended a Science in the Cafe discussion on dinosaurs at the Singapore Science Centre on Thursday night, simply because, hey, everyone loves dinosaurs! The talk was held in Hall C of the Science Centre, so the audience was surrounded by moving animatronic dinosaurs, which added considerably to the atmosphere. However, technical difficulties with turning off the sound led to the odd crescendo of roaring during the talk - which made some parts very hard to catch, especially since the speaker, Japanese scientist Dr Makoto Manabe, was quite soft-spoken.

Makoto Manabe is currently a senior scientist and senior curator of vertebrate palaeontology at the National Museum of Tokyo. He has been in the news recently for excavating a giant ichthyosaur skeleton in British Columbia. Makoto gave a wide-ranging and interesting talk on the latest research findings on the lives of dinosaurs. P was just a little cheesed off with a plump precocious 12-year old in the audience that kept interrupting the talk with incoherent statements (not questions but statements) on his insights on dinosaur research - she spent some time wishing for a Night in the Museum segment where the reanimated T-Rex skeleton would reach down and bite his head off.

 

Various Animatronic Dinosaurs in the Science Centre exhibition hall

Run, T-Rex, Run!

Contrary to the popularly imagined ideal of T Rex romping happily around the prehistoric plains and running down a Triceratops o r two, biomechanicians now believe that T Rex was way too slow and top heavy (with its huge skull and teeth) to manage this kind of lifestyle. Models of bone structure and muscle have come up with two different answers, a maximum possible sprinting speed of 40-50 km per hour and a safe sprinting speed of only 11-12 km per hour (Jurassic Park was highly exaggerated).

What is a "safe" sprinting speed? Well, T-Rex was a 6000+ kilogram animal with most of that mass going into its massive jaws, counterbalanced by sturdy legs and a muscular tail.  T-Rex could only run if its legs were held relatively straight, keeping its center of mass stable above its knees. But if T-Rex tripped over a boulder or something, its massive heavy head would ensure that the dinosaur's chin would hit the ground with bruising force, possibly causing severe damage to its tiny brain and other soft tissue. This meant that T-Rex had to go slow to be safe.

New fossil evidence has also shown T-Rex sunk in a crouch on the ground. Models based on this show T-Rex in a crouched resting posture, levering itself forward on its legs and then pushing off with its tiny arms to finally come to an upright position. Dr. Makoto said that one new model for T-Rex behaviour might have been that the dino was an ambush predator, staying crouched and still most of the time and rousing itself for a short sprint when unwary prey came nearby. P thinks this sounds quite reasonable when compared to the behaviour of modern crocodiles and alligators. That massive head would then have been a real advantage as the dinosaur leapt in for the kill, bringing all that weight to bear on the poor victim's throat.

It could even have been a scavenger, waiting for smaller speedier dinosaurs to kill before chasing them off and securing the prey carcass for itself. Here is a link to a HowStuffWorks video on the whole T-Rex behaviour question (you have to sit through the adverts first).

It's a bird, it's a....dinosaur?

The other topic Dr Manabe covered was the dinosaur-bird relationship. Most readers will have heard that birds are the most direct descendents from dinosaurs. Relatively few DNA mutations are required to convert scales to feathers and the conversion may have happened several times in several lines of dinosaurs. The most well-known of the feathered dinosaurs is Archaeopteryx. On the left is one of the latest images of Archaeopteryx, the gliding dinosaur.

In 2000, scientists in China found what may be a related dinosaur called Microraptor, which had four wings - two large ones on its forelimbs and two shorter ones on its legs. It is thought that Microraptor might have climbed trees and jumped off high branches to glide between trees, the way flying squirrels do today. The little dinosaur was only 39 cm tall, of which 24 cm was tail.

New fossil evidence has shown that that evil star of Jurassic Park, Velociraptor, might also have been feathered. A fossil was found showing quill knobs on the forelimb bones of a Velociraptor specimen, but it is not known whether the feathers were functional or only for display.

Below find an artist's rendition of Velociraptor with feathers and with bare skin. Still not exactly cuddly.

Tonight Pretensions was supposed to attend a fun talk on the physics of paper airplanes (and more to the point a demo) put on by Mr John Collins, the Paper Airplane Guy. She decided to skip due to heavy work commitments later this week. However, she did take a look at Mr Collin's website and his planes do look really cool.

Mr Collins is in Singapore as part of the Singapore Amazing Flying Machine Competition 2009 organised by the DSO and the Singapore Science Centre. This is a competition for schoolkids to build various flying machines ranging in difficulty from paper airplanes (primary schoolchildren) to unmanned aerial robots (University/polytechnic). His workshops are intended to teach the basics of aerodynamics and also how to build cool paper planes like the batplane or the boomerang.

P can't say much more as she didn't go but here's the promo video she was sent.

Pretensions spent part of her Sunday drooling over gold, diamonds and precious stones at the International Jewellery Show at Suntec City in Singapore. Yes, she did buy something, but it was only a pair of amber earrings that cost probably 1/1000th of everything else at the show. Anyway, it was quite spectacular and some designers had obviously taken the opportunity to showcase designs for people with more money than taste - read necklaces that looked like they weighed more than the proverbial anchor and were about as charming. Still P did like some of the pieces showcased, especially the Olympics commemorative jewellery.

	Local Jeweler On Cheong took the opportunity to bring out a set of 18K gold and diamond jewellery inspired by the Olympic Torch.
Jade was present in multiple stalls, like this lovely ring from Jadeite Collections Private Limited.
Pretensions was particularly won over by Roberto Coin's display, particularly his Apassionata collection. The snakelike bangles on the right really wowwed P.
	P also loved Coin's Nemo collection, particularly this cute Nemo ring.
But the piece de resistance was Coin's wonderful US$31,000 Gold Sneakers (right). They were created especially for the Beijing Olympics and is made of 24 karat gold nappa leather coated with a film. The gold clasp on the side is 18K gold. These make the ruby slippers look positively tatty!
	For those into knuckledusters: a 9 carat flawless pink diamond ring.
For the couple who have everything, why not give them this 18 karat gold and diamond wine bottle holder? The diamonds add up to a whole 13 carats.
	Haven't spent enough money yet? Then try purchasing this Fortunia Medallion with a grand total of 2, 191 diamonds, weighing a total of 15.93 carats in white gold. This costs S$116, 838 from Goldheart Jewellery.

If diamonds are a girls' best friend, then the S'pore Int'l Jewellery Show was the equivalent of an internet dating site. Plenty to choose from, but you don't really want the ones you think you can afford.

Instead of watching the Fireworks, Pretensions spent Saturday evening at the new National Library Drama Centre watching an avant-garde play on the downfall of Singapore. Called Apocalypse: Live!, it was written by ex-Straits Times political journalist Kenneth Kwek, who had a rather unfortunate interview with the always formidable Lee Kuan Yew during the 2006 elections. P thinks that this play was his therapy session.

P first blogged about the play and the Singapore Theatre Festival in June. Back then, she already knew that the premise of the play involved Singapore being hit with "fire and brimstone from the unremitting heavens" and the chaos that ensues. To give credit to Samantha Scott-Blackhall's direction, the opening of the play did start with a bang literally, as a simulated explosion rocked the theatre, and the lights came up on a destroyed urbanscape mixed in with what looked like the aftermath of the Great Singapore Sale. Wong Chee Wai's set of towering piles of clothes strewn with the odd TV set was extremely effective in generating a surreal atmosphere and transporting the audience to a devastated city.

Almost immediately after the disaster, Brendon Fernandez takes the stage as David Fong, anchor of CMM's Newsnight. He contacts veteran reporter Lisa Takahasi (Risa Okamoto) who is on the scene in what-was-formerly Clementi town centre, but is interrupted by news of a military coup. Apparently, the Prime Minister and most of the cabinet were killed in the explosion, claims General Abdul Aziz (Gene Sha Rudyn) who now finds himself in the role of military dictator. Meanwhile, Lisa has located two key players in the rebuilding of Singapore, husband and wife team Pastor Simon Sitoh (Loon Seng Onn) and Jessie Soon (Janice Koh) and interviews them for the channel. However, the self-styled PM of Singapore is not pleased with what is admittedly a somewhat self-serving effort at rebuilding/demolishing and sends a military squad out to capture them, with instructions to gun down anyone who gets in the way. David also has to deal with his personal problems in the form of his always-on-the telephone mother who wants him to find his schoolgirl sister Amanda, who has been missing since the bomb/apocalypse. Things escalate as the General slips into his role as an Idi Amin clone and David realises that the average Singaporean's priority in disaster is him/herself.

Basically, the play suffers badly from an identity crisis; it can't decide if it wants to be a humorous satire or a serious tragedy. As a result it oscillates between the two, throwing in not-always-funny singlish jokes at awkward moments. Sometimes the humour does work and works well, but too often, it feels very strange set against the serious stuff going on on stage. Another problem is the usual Singapore playwright's tendency to want to throw in every reference and narrative strand that he or she can, resulting in a very confused mishmash of narratives for the audience. I noticed this even in veteran Alfian Sa'at's Homesick in 2006 and it is much worse in this play, 'though a mitigating factor is that it is playwright Ken Kwek's first play.

Another problem for P was Ken's tendency to tell rather than show. All his characters were very obviously mouthpieces for points he wanted to make. Some of these were very valid points about media censorship, the materialism and selfishness of the average Singaporean, the lack of rootedness etc etc. However, the result was a cast of very one-dimensional and unsympathetic characters that the audience couldn't really identify with. Obviously, the David Fong character was a representation of the playwright and his frustration with the system, however, aside from his pain over his lost sister and his defiance of a dictatorial system, we never really learned anything about David Fong's motivations and inner landscape and he remained a distant figure. Gene Sha Rudyn is obviously a very good actor and has a wonderful sense of comic timing. However, his General was even more one dimensional than the David character, and came across as a cardboard cutout meant to represent tyranny and generate laughs by his well-timed riffs on meritocracy etc. P came out feeling like she'd been lectured by a fire and brimstone preacher - "Singaporeans, repent ye now of your materialism, your spinelessness and lack of identity or be destroyed by the thunderbolts of our neighbour!"

Having said that, there were some valid points made and P did enjoy the humour at times during the evening. Unfortunately, there were just too few moments of levity in a play as cluttered as its set.

The perceptive among you might have noticed that I got the date of my first post on the Fireworks Festival wrong - it should have read August 22, not July. Also, the video is of the French team's display.

Here is the second display of the Fireworks Festival, shown on Saturday night - the Korean Fantasia. The two videos below cover the beginning and end of the Firework display. Team Korea seem to have used more firepower than Team France or maybe that's just my perception?

Pretensions really wanted to go to this but all the tickets were sold out 3 weeks ago sadly.

The Singapore Fireworks Festival began life in 2004 as an extended part of the National Day Celebrations (Nat'l Day is on the 9th of August). Teams are invited from all over the world to prepare synchronised music and fireworks performances. Up 'til 2006, country teams used to include Singapore, but last year and this year, Singapore has been conspiciously absent (which is really strange when you think about it). Anyway, the performances are always very pretty and are preceded by a fair and some fiery poi demonstrations.

This year's 2 teams are France and South Korea, with the French display being last night and the Korean one scheduled for tonight. P managed to find some videos of the French display on Youtube and thought she would share them.

P couldn't find a video for this year's fiery Poi demonstration (called Bornfire), so here's a clip from 2007. How those guys manage this without setting themselves or the stage on fire is beyond P!

Pretensions would like to introduce the TBlog community to the blog The Online Citizen (TOC) which basically aims to serve as a relatively uncensored forum for Singaporeans to air their views on issues that concern them. It actually works more like an online newspaper or current affairs magazine and has an eclectic staff list that takes in university students, members of the political opposition, lawyers, ex-newspaper people etc. It is nice to see a newsletter/forum that dares question what we all know should be questioned.

Columnist Leong Sze Hian has written a nicely pointed piece questioning some aspects of the Prime Minister's National Day Rally Speech and the press release on the forcing out of Burmese/Myanmar patriots from Singapore has sadly not seen much of an airing in the local newspapers. Of course, news of peaceful rallies was dutifully covered, but news of possible appeasement of the Burmese government? Talk about self-censorship!

To close, P would like to leave you with a satirical email that has been making the rounds after the PM's recent Rally speech. P has tried to translate dialect, malay & Singlish terms in square brackets for non-Singaporean readers, but some of the humour just can't be translated, sorry!

Dear Prem Ministar

We citizens of Singapore urge you to PLEASE MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS.

We DO NOT NEED your help.
Every time, you mention HELP, we have to run for cover!!!
Help the poor? Raise GST! [Goods and Services Tax]
Help traffic flow? Up ERP! [Electronic Road Pricing]
Help passenger service? Up Bus fare/MRT fare!
Help us get taxi? Raise taxi fare!
Help us get good government? Raise Minister and Civil servant salary!
Everytime YOU WANT TO HELP, we all PAY FOR IT!!!

THANK YOU THANK YOU...TOLONG [please]  LAH, please, we will HELP OURSELVES, no
need
your help liao.
We DARE NOT ask for help any more!!!
Sir, most honoured sir, I urge you NOT TO HELP Singapore INVEST also!
Everytime your wife invest, we all lose money! Kao liao [Enough], kum siah [Thank you]!
Just let us have a dose of bad governance, like recently the Mat
Selamat
case [he is an escaped terrorist], like dat....so far, it is ok,
your incompetence, we ACCEPT!

PLEASE DO NOT help us have better security! Wait we all kena [have to] PAY FOR
IT!!
I believe ALL SINGAPOREANS PREFER NOT TO HAVE CRUTCH MENTALITY!
I think it is ok lah, please just take your salary and enjoy life ok?
Thank you thank you,
I am very chin chai one, any how any how, no need to help oso can on



------------------------- ------------------------- ---------------------

Dear Chin Chai One

10Q you for your letter. On behalf of the Prime Minister, I am replying
to your letter as follows.

As the erected party of Singaporeans, we are here to serve.

We are demon-cratic country, you are master, we gahmen [government with local accent] servant, we
serve you. You got problems we must help. You say no need our help?
That means your not Singapore 's master. You say you run for cover?
Cannot one, our police will find you.

GST is to help the Gahmen to help yourself. The Gahmen Service Tax is
everywhere, you go America also have one, cannot run one.

Traffic very bad, so bad that we have to hold car racing at nite to
avoid traffic jam [Refers to the F1 coming to S'pore]. We believe there is no free lunch like PM's father
say before, you use, you must pay, so Every Road Pay. So you see no ERP
cannot one.

Needless to say, passenger service also must pay. The increase in bus
fare and MRT and taxi fare are very little already. We forsee world
inflation coming: oil, steel, pay of foreign talents etc, so we have to
pay for the service.

You see, many foreign talents come to Singapore . If we don't pay our
ministers well, they will go other countries to be their foreign
talents. So must raise salary to keep them. If not, Nathan, Shanmugam,
Bala [these are Indian Members of Parliament] etc will go India and work. Khaw will go Malaysia . etc etc. Must
keep them. To keep them must pay well..

You are right, any help also must pay.

To help yourself? No, it's illegal. You mean you can build your own
MRT? Run your own buses? Drive your Ba-Ong-Chia [Taxi]? Build your own roads?
Seow liao [You're crazy]!! Every one help himself then how? No social order lah! Ga
ga ask for help, we are here to serve you.

We understand some of you have temporary problem. Dont worry, it is
only short term. We must look long term. We must invest long term. Now
lose a bit dont cow beh cow boo [complain], long term! Yes, remember. 30 or 50
years later we will own Swiss banks, US banks, UK properties, maybe
even South Pole condominiums. We must tighten our seat belt and bite
our false teeth. The future very bright. As long as you continue to
support the gahmen 30 to 50 years you will see bright future. So Chiang
See Tong [Endure the pain, also sounds like an opposition MP] a bit lah. Also, investing is very complicated business, not
easy. We must pay school fee to learn from advanced countries.

On Selamat's case, we also must learn our lesson. We encourage
life-long-learning. I learn whole life time, you learn whole life, Mr
Wong Cant Sing [Refers to MP Wong Kan Seng] also whole life learning. It's actually good. Mr Wong
already apologise, dont force a dog to jump over the wall, the wall may
collapse. Old dog cannot jump high also.

Selamat's case gives us many lessons. We must be on alert, not too
complacent. Now every Singaporean know there can be a terrorist among
us any time. This is the best self defence education !! PM will give Mr
Wong another salary increment for that.

Also now we merge the prisons and detention centre, more space will be
available now. We will build it like another IR [Integrated Resort - aka Casinos], Integrated Retention -
so those dont want our service and thinking of doing illegal service
will go there. We will pass a new law too, the expenses for stay in
that IR will be deducted from your CPF [Central Provident Fund; like a pension] money.

Remember we must be grateful to people who help us -- and pay.

I hope I have explained the situation and give you the message clearly.
If you still need help, please call my handphone:  9990-6767  , it's
toll-free [999 connects you to the police].

By the way, Mr Chin Chai One, our pioneer Toh Chin Chai already toh [died; it's also a surname]
long ago. So if you choose to be Chin Chin Chai Chai! , you will also
Toh..

10Q you again,

Reguards,

Ah Beng [Local term for a hick]
Grassrude secretary

Pretensions was recently lent this book by a colleague, and read it more out of interest than anything. Left Behind is Tim LaHaye's vision of how the Rapture might be enacted in modern day society and how it leads on to the Apocalypse of the Book of Revelations. Written in the style of a Tom Clancy novel by experienced author Jerry B Jenkins (his bio says that he has written more than 170 books including adventure stories, biographies and childrens' books), the book has as its protagonist airline pilot Rayford Steele who loses his wife and son to the Rapture and must then cope in a world turned chaotic by the disappearance of key personnel. The book also portrays the appearance of an Antichrist type figure taking over the UN and eventually the world.

First published in 1995, the book chronicles the beginning of the seven years of "Tribulation", which mark the reign of the Antichrist in the end-times and the rise of a "Tribulation Force" to stand against it. Say what you will about the book, it's an entertaining read, which probably helped sell the estimated 65 million copies in circulation. Left Behind has also spawned an entire series, as well as graphic novels, childrens' books and movies.

P had never heard of the Rapture prior to this book - it was not a part of the Methodist doctrine in her church and she was never a very avid church-goer anyway. For those who are also new to it, it takes the teaching of Christ's second coming and the resurrection of the saints one step further, in that when Christ calls true Christians to him, their physical bodies literally disappear from the earth in a moment, and this event marks the start of the last days of Earth. Catholic friends tell me that this teaching is heretical and P has her own doubts, but she understands that it is a fundamentalist Christian concept at its heart. Many protestant denominations, such as the Baptists, Presbyterians and Calvinists believe that Revelations "beast" actually refers to the historical Catholic Church!

The problem with prophecy is that it's a little like statistics, interpretations can be skewed to give you the results you want. Babylon is the lair of the Antichrist in the novel, does that mean Saddam was the Antichrist? Or justify the invasion of Iraq? The novel just strikes P as propagating a skewed worldview, an extremist one, as much so as any vision of virgins in paradise. Take the book as cinematic fiction if you like, but don't use it as a guide for reality.

Pretensions finally reached the end of Reaper's Gale, the latest 1200 page installment in Steven Erikson's 10-volume Malazan Empire series. For those not familiar with Erikson's magnum opus, it's Fantasy done in the style of War and Peace. Read hundreds of characters, followed over millenia (literally) and a morally ambiguous universe with fallible heroes and redeemable villains. Erikson's universe does not lack magic or other supernatural elements, in fact magic, wizards and a whole pantheon of gods are major characters in his books, but this is no airy bubble-gum type fantasy with teenybopper wizards and lisping elves.

Canadian author Steven Erikson was an archaelogist and anthropologist before he became a writer and it shows through in his gritty renditions of life in a land of decaying empires with no running water and rubbish in the streets. His magic and many of his gods are often malevolent forces and power (sometimes literally) twists and warps those who thirst for it. A hero in Erikson's books may die horribly in a few pages - an advantage of the author's multiperspective method of telling a tale.

Reaper's Gale is the seventh volume in the series that began with Gardens of the Moon. The latter was P's entry to the series a few years ago and what an introduction! The book was a new myth in the style of the Iliad. Its ancient races (the Jaghut, Fokhrul Assail, Imass, Tiste Andii and Malazan humans) stalked forth from the pages often bearing blood-dripping flint mattocks and carrying magics in their blood. What would make a whole race swear the destruction of another and become undead to complete the destruction? How would gods react to their own death? How could men declare war on their gods and ascend to become new gods? The series encompasses all these in its sheer breathtaking scope.

Reaper's Gale continues the latest strand of the series, concentratin g on the Letherii empire and its mad immortal emperor, Rhulad Sengar, a youth who becomes the tool of the Crippled God by picking up a cursed sword. Thanks to the sword, Rhulad is unable to stay dead, though each death he undergoes wrecks his brain and spirit more and more. There are factional struggles between Rhulad's race, the shadowy Tiste Edur and the rest of the Empire of Lether. Rhulad is also surrounded by a corrupt court of power-seeking Letherii officials, who seek to ensure that the emperor is cut off from his kin. However, the empire of Lether is under threat both from within and from numerous assailants, including an invading Malazan fleet, tribal warfare, the ancient revenant of Silchas Ruin and several forgotten gods.   The only winner in the resulting chaos would seem to be Hood, the god of death, but beware the secret players in the game. Veteran readers of Erikson's work will be rewarded by the appearance of several recurring characters, including several not-quite-dead Bridgeburners (with intact sense of humour), the amnesiac Icarium who bears vast destructive power and of course the Crippled God, the main "villain" in Erikson's novels; He who manipulates the world ruthlessly to break free of his chains.

Erikson's work is hard-going (it's very difficult to keep the plot straight even with frequent references to the maps and dramatis personnae), but ultimately very rewarding for those who want a rich, meaty broth of a novel, steaming wth intrigue and laced with juicy bits of horror. Very strongly recommended especially since the paperback is now readily available!

This post is what I promised PirateGirl last week. Just a couple of photos I took of terrible Chinglish signs while in Jiangsu province, China, in 2005.

	This sign was in my Hangzhou hotel bathroom. Uuhm, maybe the management knew something I didn't?  (It actually translates to: Be careful. Floor may be slippery.)
	For when you're hungry for more than food? It's enough to make you lose your appetite!

For other hilarious Chinglish signs, visit this Daily Mail article. The Engrish site here also has many politically incorrect Chinglish signs, 'tho you will need to enlarge the jpgs to read them. Have fun!

Pretensions read today that the Material Girl has turned 50 as of last Saturday (16th August). Madonna was a fixture of P's teenage years and she remembers happily bopping to her music and moving with her through her various incarnations as bubble-gum pop songstress (Material Girl), sultry bisexual seductress (Erotica), Anti-religious dominatrix type (Like a Prayer) etc etc. P actually proudly owns a copy of her recent album Hard Candy, marking herself as one of Madge's die-hard fans who has stuck with her over the last 25 years (that is a SCARY number!).

Madonna is currently preparing for her Sticky and Sweet World Tour (beginning in the UK) and shows no signs of slowing down or relinquishing her pop throne. According to the Guiness Book of Records, Madonna is the world's most successful female solo artist, having sold 120 million albums and 40 million singles. She certainly strutted her stuff on Saturday night, choosing to party on down, while decked in multiple gold chains, at London Club Volsted, at a bash organised by hubbie Guy Ritchie. Apparently the man in Madge's life had no qualms about spending £100,000 on pink Krug champagne and vodka. Her two children Lourdes and Rocco both attended the party but were escorted home at around 11:30pm.

Guy chose to honour the occasion not only with the perfect present, a £250,000 Bulgari necklace and earring set, but also pledged his support to Madonna's efforts to adopt another child. He also named a rose after her, ignoring Shakespeare's injunctions. All together now - "'Cos We're li-ving in a Material World, and I am a Material Girl..."

A couple of hours after the party finally ended, a bleary-eyed Madonna was spotted making her way to the gym for her fitness fix. Rather her than P after a night on the tiles!

P is now going to take a page from Oldschool's book and list her personal favourite Madonna top ten tracks. Controversy and argument expected! Click on the names of the tracks to view the Youtube videos where available.

10. Rescue Me from The Immaculate Collection (2001). Just a great dance single.

9. Sorry (2005) from the album Confessions on a Dance Floor.

8. Music (2000) from the album of the same name. Madonna meets Ali G - what more could you ask for?

7. Ray of Light (1998) from the album of the same name.

6. Paradise (Not for me) (2000) from the album Music. A lovely lovely ballad and Madonna does her Geisha homage.

5. Material Girl (1985) . What can you say about this - it's iconic!

4. Express Yourself (1989) from the album Like a Prayer.

3. Frozen from the album Ray of Light. P's favourite Madonna quasi-ballad.

2. La Isla Bonita (1987) from True Blue. Chintzy, cheesy but just can't get that latin rhythm out of my head!

1. Like a Prayer (1989) from the album of the same name. P's fave rave track; she remembers dancing to it in university.

Madonna is only one of a crop of celebs turning 50 this year. Oldschool has already blogged about Prince's birthday earlier this year; Ellen Degeneres (who just got married to girlfriend Portia de Rossi) and Michelle Pfeiffer have also hit the big 5-0 this year and coming up at the end of August, is Pop's Peter Pan, Michael Jackson. Imagine MJ at 50! The mind boggles!

Pretensions attended a convention for Asia-Pacific-based media last week. The focus was primarily on traditional print media, particularly advertising-driven newspapers and magazines, but with a few stray talks on books, broadcast media and personal development (aka presentation skills, time management, mind-mapping) etc.

In part 2 of Pretension's Friday evening, we adjourned to the Shaw Lido to catch the 9:30pm showing of Mad about English. This is a comic documentary about China's mad mad efforts to master English in time for the Beijing Olympics. Directed by ex-CNN journalist and Singaporean Lian Pek (real name: Pek Siok Lian), the movie is by turns hilarious and heart-warming.

The 80+ minute movie casts the spotlight on 6 main characters:

• Li Yang, the "crazy english teacher" in the style of Anthony Robbins, whose inspirational mission is to teach english to more than a milion chinese people;
• Qi Qi; a 12 year-old girl enrolled in one of Li Yang's English Boot camps
• Meng; Beijing taxi driver who is desperately trying to master english so he can drive foreigners around during the Olympics
• Jason Yang; 73 year-old retireee who is an Olympics volunteer and founded of the Golden Years English Salon for senior citizen english learners
• Dr David Tool; the american english "grammar cop" who travels Beijing correcting signs and menus
• Liu Wenli; Beijing's "best policeman"; a cop who loves to impress tourists with his mastery of many languages and accents.

There are also numerous supporting characters, including P's favourite, elderly Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor, Mary Tu. Mary is first seen reading english medical phrases out of a book, including such gems as "Have your bowels opened today? What colour are your stools?". Now there's a conversation starter!

P was most inspired by Jason Yang's journey. He started the Golden Years English Salon at the age of 68 and persevered in his drive to learn english so he could serve as a volunteer and a guide during the Olympics, despite admitting to himself that his memory was spotty and things that were learned in the morning might be forgotten by nightfall. How many elderly retirees simply sit at home and watch TV? Not this guy - he really proves the point that you're only as old as you feel. The other person P found admirable was Qi Qi. Despite being much younger than most of the teenagers and twenty-somethings enrolled at the Boot Camp, she finds the strength to carry on; declaiming her English sentences with the best of them despite lack of sleep and starvation (students have to pass tests to eat). P's not sure about crazy Li Yang's training methods 'though; screaming out phrases like that all day seems calculated to erode your vocal cords and is downright scary when 10,000 people are doing it all at the same time.

Meng the taxi driver was just plain hilarious in his utter incomprehension of basic english phrases. Pity the tourists in his cab! Still at least he did put in the effort. Liu Wenli on the other hand seemed to have no trouble, even if his efforts were inspired by what seemed to be an unfortunate selection of New York-based movies. P was really impressed by how he had mastered basic phrases in several languages including German, Spanish and Japanese!

Of course, a major character in the film is Beijing itself and the image it presents through its buildings, signs, sights and people. Pretensions loved the bizarro menus in the film that had phrases like "outraged bullfrog" and "human flesh". P can't quite remember all the howlers but she does remember seeing a sign in a restaurant in Shanghai reading "Consummation Corner". For more Chinese menu howlers, please check out this site.

Mad about English is a fun movie, and reveals a side of Beijing very different to the glamour of the Olympic stadia and the glitter of the Opening Ceremony - do catch the movie if it comes to a cinema near you or at least borrow the DVD!

Last night, Pretensions got together with some old school friends for a meal and a movie in Orchard Road. Since we were at the Shaw Lido, we decided to go nearby to Sun with Moon Japanese Dining and Cafe at Wheelock Place, a place P had once eaten at (and liked) but not for a long time. The dining experience was made somewhat more complicated by the fact that one friend was delayed in the office and could only join us about an hour later.

Sun with Moon was packed when we got there and the front desk person urged us to take a table that would have to be vacated in an hour. We told her that was impossible and that we were prepared to wait (especially since Borders was downstairs) rather than take a limited time table. She agreed to have a table ready for us in 20 minutes and was as good as her word.

Sun with Moon is a trendy place with white plastic/pine wood decor and lots of glass; it attracts a young post-work office crowd on Friday nights. The central area has modern furniture and a video projection of bamboo forests which give it a nice relaxed feel. Sadly, we were ushered through a dark alleyway into the back room which was pretty nondescript and noise levels were quite high. Still, it was Friday night. The restaurant does offer alcohol, as well as virgin versions of cocktails and P's virgin mojito was quite tasty.

P and her friend spent some time poring through a really extensive menu (SWM's major plus point) and decided against some of the weirder sounding fusion dishes. Both of us had the Kamameshi, which was basically japanese rice with various meaty additions cooked in an iron pot. It was served with a teeny hourglass, which we had to watch run out before the dish was ready to eat. P had the Salmon version with salmon meat and roe and it was quite good, especially with addition of the Japanese chilli pepper provided. Her friend's oyster and mushroom Kamameshi was also quite decent.

We had moved onto dessert by the time P's other friend had arrived. P had the apple pie, which would have been better described as an apple danish. Still it was tasty enough, 'tho one could argue that you can't really go wrong with this. P's friend had the Papaya pudding - a half papaya with its insides scooped out and replaced with chilled cream cheese/papaya mixture. P tried a little and felt that the dish had too much cream cheese and too little papaya for her liking. Best described as interesting in flavour, or so P thinks.

Our third person decided to be bold and ordered the Taco Sushi, which looked extremely pretty, but was a rather unhappy marriage between a meatless (lettuce and salsa with fake bacon bits) taco filling in a seaweed rice roll. P's companions described it as weird and she decided to leave it alone. P's friend compensated with an interesting chestnut and sweet potato dessert, which P described as "Purple Play-Doh in a tart shell" but which was apparently quite a nice blend of sweet potato, chinese chestnut, custard and cream. Unfortunately, P forgot to take a picture of the dessert, but has stuck a photo below borrowed from small potato's food blog.

In conclusion, a little gimmicky, but there is some good food on the menu if you order wisely. Prices are also not bad for a Japanese-style place along Orchard Road. Sun with Moon has another branch at the Central, but P has yet to go there.

Pretensions read an article today about a group called Femin-ijtihad, a UK-based group of law students who have started an intiative for Muslim women's rights. Their aim is to prepare a guidebook in Dari, the native Afghan language that will interpret Islamic Law in a gender-neutral fashion. The group is headed by Singaporean Muslim Natasha Latiff, who is currently a student at Warwick University in the UK.

According to Natasha, "Firstly, the Quranic text can be interpreted to oppress. But it can also be interpreted to empower. Take for instance the Quranic phrase ‘Men are the maintainers and protectors of women’. Does this confer upon men a responsibility or a right? Secondly, a word carries no meaning without its context. For instance, the Quranic provision permitting men up to four wives was revealed after a war which left many women widowed. In the absence of a welfare State, men were permitted to marry up to four widows (not any women, but widows) to shelter and care for them. And thirdly, no one holds a monopoly over Quranic interpretations. It is very much Her religion as it His’. "

Despite the improvements in the lives of women in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion of the country in 2001 (some two million women can now attend school eg), many Afghan women still lead lives of quiet desperation. In fact the number of female suicides in the country is on the increase, with many women and girls burning themselves to death to escape forced marriages, slavery, physical, sexual or psychological abuse. For more information on the plight of Aghan women, please visit the RAWA site.

Natasha travelled to Afghanistan in 2007, initially to teach English in Kabul. During her time there, she became aware of the plight of Afghan women and visited refugee camps on internally displaced children. She also interned with the International Development Law Organisation and spoke to local lawyers about the Islamic laws on rape. At that point it occured to her, "What if I could compile all the different scholarly interpretations of women rights in Islam into an easy-to-read, conversational medium in the Afghan language which would appeal to both literate and illiterate Afghans? Could this medium conform to the Afghan literary traditions and linguistic conventions? Could this medium (book, leaflet) then be assimilated into the training and campaigning programs of existing Women and Human Rights Organisations in Afghanistan?". And that is exactly what she and her fellow Femi-ijtihad members set out to do.

P understands that the group has a UK and a more recently formed US chapter. Natasha has just set up the Singaporean chapter in June this year. P salutes Natasha as an extraordinary woman and the group for what it intends to do. Femin-ijtihad have a Youtube presence and you can view its video here.

Hands-up everyone who thought that 7-year old Lin Miaoke, who performed the "Ode to the Motherland" at the Beijing Opening Ceremony was simply too cute and talented too be true? Well, guess what, turned out she was. Today's newspapers have been full of the news that Lin pulled a Milli-Vanilli and lip-synched along to the recording of another less-cute but presumably better endowed vocally child.

The real singer was 7 year old Yang Peiyi, who was reputedly swapped out at the last minute thanks to a Politburo member who deemed her unsuited to the lead role because of her buck teeth. The thing that gets Pretensions is that Lin Miaoke was giving interviews to newspapers about her experience "singing" at the Olympics. Didn't she feel embarassed about stealing all the credit? It was only because the show's musical designer Chen Qigang felt he had to set the record straight on radio that the truth came out.

According to Chen, a shortlist of 10 kids had been put forward to sing the anthem and one, a 10-year old, had been chosen for the role, based on voice quality. Alas, she failed the dreaded "cuteness" test. Yang Peiyi was the next contender. "The main consideration was the national interest," said Chen. "The child on the screen should be flawless in image, in her internal feelings, and in her expression. In the matter of her voice, Yang Peiyi was flawless, in the unanimous opinion of all the members of the team." And she was, until someone took a dislike to her teeth.

Well, P knows there is a long tradition of this kind of lip-syncing in musical films, usually actors record the "best" version of their song and lip-sync along to it in the final cut. West End and Broadway musicals too, make use of extra singers backstage in a soundbooth, to boost the vocals of their choruses. Both Starlight Express and Cats did this when P was in London. Pop music has the infamous Milli Vanilli (who did NOT use their own voices) as well as bands like Oasis and The Who (who did).

However, P feels that the Olympics episode left a rather bad taste in her mouth. It reminds her a little of the Korean film "200 pound Beauty" where the protagonist, Ha-na, was sidelined despite a beautiful voice because of her weight. It wasn't until she went for drastic plastic surgery that things started to go her way. Is today's society truly that superficial? How sad!

Pretension's colleagues at work have been busy folding bits of paper for the traditional rituals that accompany the Hungry Ghost Month, the 7th lunar month that marks the opening of the Gates of Hell. We are now somewhere in the middle of the spectral month, with the last day falling on the 30th of August this year. P herself is Christian, but her Taoist and Buddhist friends and colleagues practice ancestor worship where departed members of the family are traditionally worshipped and "fed". However, some ghosts are never fed, traditionally suicides, those who died suddenly or by hanging. These are all condemned to hell, where they remain without food or rest.

They get a reprieve once a year during the 7th lunar month when the Gates of Hell open and it is believed that they can then roam the earth looking for unguarded souls. They can take the form of various animals and also possess people. During this month, altars are bedecked with food and drink to placate the hungry ghosts (so they leave the living alone) and the streets are filled with scent of burning. The traditional chinese belief is that paper possessions (paper money traditionally, but nowadays you can get paper cadillacs, paper credit cards, mobile phones), when burnt, materialise in hell to enrich the ghosts, so plenty of burnt offerings are also made. The angry ghosts also need to be entertained, so traditional Wayang and more modern Getai performances (the latter sometimes come complete with scantily clad babes singing and gyrating; interesting what ghosts enjoy) are put on all over the island.

P had a teeny ghostly encounter the other night while out jogging; she kept hearing the ringing of a bicycle bell from somewhere behind her and to her right. Turn around; no bicycle. She dealt with it like any modern miss; increased the volume on her Ipod and ran faster!

Of course, the Hungry Ghost Month has inspired countless movies, including a documentary called rather unimaginatively, &qu ot;A Month of Hungry Ghosts". P may get round to watching it before it leaves our theatres. View a Youtube trailer for the film here.

P also caught "881" some time ago. This is a surreal musical film about the Singapore Getai scene. As mentioned above, Getai  or song-stage refers to the Hokkien/Mandarin pop song performances that take place during the 7th moon. Performances are usually very loud, both in terms of volume and colour! Here is another Youtube video trailer for the movie 881. P understands that 881 director, Singaporean Royston Tan, is now making another Getai movie called 12 Lotus, which will have more Hokkien songs and even hip-hop!

Here are some photos Pretensions took at the Singapore Garden Festival 2008 on the 31st July. (For occasions, P takes photos in RAW format on her digital SLR, so it takes her ages to go through and optimise them). It was all held indoors at the Suntec International Covnention Center and was quite a spectacular collection of fantasy and landscape gardens and show plants, together with the Singapore Orchid Show. There were flower arrangements galore as well with this year's theme being on recycling, and there was much innovative use of recycled materials: read old tyres, shoes, fastfood containers being used as planters!

According to newspaper coverage, the 8 day show attracted 300,000 visitors, including many from overseas who were enthralled by the 18 show gardens, 40 orchid displays and 14 floral displays. The next festival is in 2010.

In the meantime, please click through and enjoy the slideshow here.

Many thanks to PirateGirl for alerting me to the Livejournal community that posts on all things Olympic (unlike Pretensions, who restricts herself to the more cultural/techie aspects of the Games). Those who missed the link on PG's blog can click here to visit the Livejournal community.

While P was at it, she thought that she'd also alert people to the technogeek aspect of the Olympics.

Did anyone notice that the weather stayed dry for the opening ceremony? Well apparently, the Beijing Muncipal Meteorological Bureau purchased an IBM supercomputer to predict rainfall during the games. They announced in Xinhua news that they would be using various techniques including cloud seeding to make sure that the sky stayed clear for the opening ceremony - well, it obviously worked. While we're on weather, Beijing famous smog has been scaring athletes away from the games, but at least one group, the English hockey team, is apparently training with red contact lenses to enhance visibility in smog conditions (bet they also scare anyone accidentally stumbling on their practices).

Aside from red contacts, athletes at the Beijing games will be getting technological aid aplenty. From Nike's super-light Flywire track shoes to the Speedo LZR Racer Suit, today's athletes would be seriously disadvantaged if they didn't make full use of modern tech. While some have been controversial (the LZR suit found itself banned for a time), P reckons its all part of progress.

Moving on (or back) to the web, the organizers have found themselves in the spotlight (and not in a good way) for censoring journalist's web access at the games, going back on their original assurance that there would be "complete freedom to report". IOC President Jacques Rogge has claimed that the IOC has not cut any deals with the China government on censorship, but has been contradicted by his own press chief. On the plus side, the games will be made available to more than 70 countries that do not have exclusive broadcast rights, like Ethopia and Vietnam, over the web. People in those countries can watch the Olympics on a special Youtube channel.

US users will be blocked based on their IP address.

In addition, olympic athletes have been supplied with free notebooks courtesy of Lenovo, to encourage blogging before and during the games. Read the resulting blogs at the Lenovo summer games site here. 

P has been getting her information from a Cnet Asia Olympic Games special. Enjoy the Games!

It was Singapore's National Day yesterday (Saturday 9th August). Pretensions is not much of a "true-blue" Singaporean, so has to admit she didn't watch most of the parade (especially after the Beijing extravaganza the night before; she went shopping instead). However, she did catch the fireworks on TV and a few videos on Youtube.

Singapore celebrated its first national day in 1966, one year after separation from Malaysia (1965). Those were very uncertain times for a very small dot of an island with no natural resources. A merger with the larger peninsula of Malaysia had not worked out, and the future then seemed very uncertain for the tiny nation-state, which was plagued with race riots, high unemployment, food & housing shortages and an economy that was still recovering from the ravages of the Japanese occupation and the colonial legacy. Fortunately, Singapore's strong leadership has completely turned the situation around in what has been labelled an "economic miracle" and today Singaporeans can be proud of having the world's fifth best business environment and fourth largest foreign exchang e trading centre, as well as only 3% unemployment and very low crime. Unfortunately, having proudly guided Singapore to its achievements, the People's Action Party, like proud doting parents, are not keen to let its offspring stand on its own. The famous chewing gum incident exposed the "Nanny state" to an international audience.

However, a National Day is a time to celebrate the formation of a Nation, so congratulations to Singapore on all that it has achieved!! P is taking the opportunity to post yet another slew of firework videos (SZ, can you hear this?) Enjoy!

Pretensions stayed up late to watch last night's Olympics opening ceremony and it was definitely a spectacle par excellence! No matter your opinion of the politics of the host country, the ceremony made me proud of my Chinese heritage and the capability of my ancestral people to put on a great show.

The ceremony was broadcast to an estimated 4 billion people worldwide, but just in case you missed the action, here are some facts and pics.

Length of ceremony:		3 1/2 hours plus (musical extravaganza part: 1 1/2 hours, parade of athletes: 1 1/2 hours; speeches + flag-raising + lighting ceremony; 1/2 hour)
Director:		Zhang Yimou (famous Chinese film director; CV includes movie "House of Flying Daggers")
Principal Singers:		Sarah Brightman & Liu Huan singing "One World, One Dream"
Number of dancers, singers, actors etc:		15,000+
Number of firework shells:		29,000
Number of international Heads of State, Royalty etc present:		80+
Number of countries in the parade of athletes		204
Number of athletes from all countries:		5000
Number of athletes from China:		600
Person who lit Olympic Flame		Li Ning, China's 44-year old "Prince of Gymnastics"
Number of audience members in Bird's Nest stadium		91,000
Number of TV viewers		4 billion worldwide
Planning & Rehearsal time:		84 months
Estimated budget:		40 billion US$

 The Shanghaist has posted a number of rather blurry home videos of the fireworks and other scenes around Tiananmen square here. They're getting a lot of traffic so be warned that the videos stutter a lot.

Pretensions has just read in the China Daily that it's finally been confirmed that West End soprano Sarah Brightman and China pop singer Liu Huan will perform the theme song of the Beijing Olympics at this Friday's opening ceremony. Authorities are keeping mum about the song itself, but apparently both lyrics and music were written by PRC artists. 

British soprano Sarah Brightman is best known for her role as Christine Daae in Andrew Lloyd Webber's long-running West End show The Phantom of the Opera. She has since produced a number of crossover classical/pop albums with repertoire ranging from opera to world music. Many readers may remember her duet with Andrea Bocelli "Time to say Goodbye", recordings of which sold over 5 million copies worldwide.

Pretensions had never heard of Liu Huan before this, but apparently he is a household name in China where he has recorded many TV theme songs. After listening to his recordings, P reckons that he has a nice clear tenor voice. Liu is apparently completely self-taught and has never received formal voice-training.

The official 2008 Games album was released in Beijing recently and has 24 tracks recorded by Chinese vocalists around the region including Singapore's Stephanie Sun, as well as Hong Kong's Coco Lee and China singers Na Ying and Liu Huan. Even martial arts star, Jackie Chan, recorded a track.

Here's one song from the album, where Liu Huan and Na Ying sing "One World, One Dream". (Ignore the "Video not available line" - I don't know why it comes up)

Continuing the Olympic theme this week, Pretensions decided to take a look at Summer Olympics mascots since the first jaguar back in 1968. Besides being a wonderful opportunity for merchandising, Mascots are supposed to highlight qualities of the host country and the Games in general.

Most people on the planet have probably seen this year's Fuwa (Fortune) dolls, which were designed by Han Meilin and released 1000 days before the opening of the Olympics. The five dolls BeiBei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yinyin and Nini are meant to sound like a phrase that means "Beijing welcomes you" (Beijing huan ying ni).

However, rumours within China have spread of a far more sinister connection between the mascots and the disasters that have beset China this year. Beibei, the blue fish is thought to be a portent of the massive floods in Shenzhen, while Jingjing the Panda represents the Sichuan earthquake that killed hundreds (Pandas are native to Sichuan). Numerous blogs have linked Huanhuan, the flame-headed doll, with the protests that dogged the progress of the olympic flame round the globe, while Yingying, the Tibetan Antelope signifies the Tibetan protests. Finally Nini, the swallow doll with a kite shaped headdress, has been linked to a train crash in Weifang, the "Kite City".

Other mascots have had less of a checkered history and P has made a list of them below. Have fun reading and remember to keep your fingers crossed for the Opening!

Year	Location	Photograph	Animal	Name	Symbolises
1968	Mexico City, Mexico		Jaguar	Paloma
1972	Munich, Germany		Dachshund	Waldi	Tenacity, Agility and Joy
1976	Montreal, Canada		Beaver	Amik	Hard Work
1980	Moscow, Russia		Bear	Misha	National Symbol
1984	Los Angeles, USA		Eagle	Sam	National Symbol
1988	Seoul, South Korea		Tiger	Hodori	Friendly, hospitable
1992	Barcelona, Spain		Catalan Sheepdog	Cobi	No idea but he inspired a TV series
1996	Atlanta, USA		???	Izzy
2000	Sydney, Australia		Platypus, Kookaburra & echidna	Syd, Olly & Millie	Vigor, Generosity & IT
2004	Athens, Greece		Greek Gods	Athena & Phevos	Wisdom, light and music

As the final countdown to the Beijing Olympics begins, security has been tightening around the capital's Bird's Nest Stadium and the estimated 10,000 performers in the spectacular opening ceremony directed by Zhang Yimou of "Curse of the Golden Flower" fame. However, at the end of last week, a video of the dress rehearsal was leaked on the web by South Korean TV broadcaster SBC Korea, eliciting loud complaints and criticism from the Chinese government.

The SBS crew were there legitimately as they share Olympic broadcasting rights in Korea with two other networks. What wasn't quite so legitimate was the 1 minute video snippet they chose to circulate on the web. SBS spokesman Park Jae-Man told Associated Press reporters that the broadcast was intended to "heighten enthusiasm" towards the Olympics. The pirate video was quickly removed from both Chinese message boards and overseas news sites for "copyright violations".

The opening ceremony has been shrouded in secrecy but there's been no hiding the massive firework displays over the stadium for the past month. According to the UK's Daily Telegraph: "The show starts with dancers performing a countdown, accompanied by a roll of drums. A huge scroll then unravels, to reveal three dancers.

At various points, trapeze artists hover above the throng, while ethereal whales and animals are projected on to interior lip of the lattice-work steel stadium. In perhaps the most impressive footage, serried ranks of performers dressed in huge boxes rise and fall in what appears to be a visualisation of the continuous building of skyscraper blocks that is China's current cultural master-achievement."

For those who can't wait until Friday night; here's a Youtube video of the dress rehearsal fireworks and some glimpses of performers (see through the triple rings of police guards surrounding the stadium).

Pretensions was attending a structural engineering event last week when she heard Prof. Fu Xueyi talk about the design and building of the Beijing Water Cube, the National Swimming Center for the Beijing Olympics. Seeing that the Olympics is due to begin next week, P felt that it was appropriate to post about the structure here.

The Beijing Water Cube is located about 200 meters west of the famous Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium in Beijing, but P frankly prefers the look of the Water Cube to the Nest; it's just a lot sleeker. The Water Cube design was selected as a result of an international competition and was conceived by a consortium of the China State Construction and Engineering Corporation, the China Construction Design Institute, PTW Architects (Sydney) and Arup Engineers. Prof. Fu is Director of China Construction Design Institute and had many insights into the project.

P isn't going to go far into technicalities but the design is essentially built around foam bubbles packed into a box. The bubble joins are made from steel rods and the entire building is clad in ETFE plastic, which is much lighter than glass and self-cleaning (due to its non-stick properties). Steel is heavy, which meant that the support beams had to be made as light as possible so they could hold up their own weight. Nevertheless, the building has passed test studies for stability in severe earthquakes. In addition, Arup claim that the cube will a model of sustainability as most of the water harvested from evaporation cachements in the building's roof and pool backwash will be recycled. The cube also acts as a transparent greenhouse, using solar energy to heat the pool's water and the interior in cool weather.

The structure will soon be in the news as the Olympic Games venue for swimming, diving and water-polo competitions.It will remain in use after the games as a water recreational center. P reckons that it's a beautiful structure - literally light as foam or soap bubbles.

Prof. Fu also showed us an extremely cool video of the 3D structure of the water cube. Sadly P can't find anything similar on the web, so you'll just have to settle for this one courtesy of National Geographic!

As it is Pretension's mom's birthday next Tuesday, she decided to take her to Imperial Treasure Cantonese Cuisine at Great World City (already blogged about here) for a pre-birthday treat. Once there, we decided to go for the OCBC set menu which had lots of favourites, including P's fave roast goose (pic here).

The goose was a starter and was followed by braised Shark's fin with Crabmeat. As you can see the serving was quite substantial for one person and soup (chicken broth) was served separately. The next course was Fish Maw with Mexican abalone and P was too busy munching to bother taking photos. The fish maw was meltingly smooth and the abalone quite delicious. After the abalone, came a course of steamed fish with some salty radish garnish. The radish was a bit overpowering for P, but the fish was steamed to perfection and the meat both sweet and smooth.

 The last savoury course was a noodle dish with mushrooms - it was OK but P was pretty full by this point, so might have missed the subtleties of the dish. Finally, the sweet course was a wonderful mango puree with sago pearls - perfect ending to a perfect meal!

Pretensions spent Tuesday evening at the Esplanade Concert Hall listening to the Chamber Choir of Stuttgart. A German chamber choir with a 40-year musical tradition, the Kammerchor performs an eclectic repertoire of Baroque, Romantic and Contemporary repertoire. The 20 or so singers that appeared in Singapore were apparently drawn from their 80-strong choral body.

Midweek and Baroque repertoire do not equate to a packed hall apparently and the stalls were fairly patchy when P sat down. P also noticed a large number of Junior College students which led her to wonder if there had been some last minute discount for students. Perhaps the lack of audience led the choir to omit the Scarlatti Stabat Mater from the performance, which was unfortunately for P, something that she had been looking forward to.

Instead, the choir began with the thoroughly contemporary Lygeti piece Lux Aeterna, which may be familiar to fans of the movie 2001. Unfortunately, it left P cold as she is not a fan of Bela Bartok, or music derived from his tradition. She did think that it must have been difficult for the choir to sound that deliberately out-of-tune. ;-) The Lygeti left P longing for some nice Baroque harmonies which the choir fulfilled in their next piece, Bach's Singet den Herrn ein neues Lied (Sing unto the Lord a new Song). The fast, slow, fast 3 motet structure of the piece allowed the choir to show off their vocal agility and lovely clear sound. This was also on show in the next piece, a contemporary setting of the Bach hymn Komm Susser Tod (Come Sweet Death). Interestingly, it required the choir to split into 4 person groups dispersed around the hall. First they sang the hymn straight and then divided into groups that sang the hymn line to different lengths resulting in some interesting harmonies. The seeming chaos then resolved, zen-like, into the order of the original Major chord.

The second half began witb 3 Brahms songs, which P enjoyed very much, particularly Vineta with its tone-poem evocation of a sunken magical city. This was followed by two choral settings of Schumann Lieder, which P found very unusual. To some extent, they also employed the overlapping chord length mechanism of the Bach setting, but it was far more subtle and worked well, especially with the deceptively simple structure of Mondnacht (Moonlit night). The choir finished with another contemporary piece, Schanderl's Traumtanze (Dreamdance). This was a wordless tone-painting with lots of vocal sound-effects including vocal percussion and string-like sounds produced by the performers; all very movie sound-track.

The choir was also a good sport and gave us 3 encores, including some more Bach. On the whole, an enjoyable evening for P with a solid performance by a technically note-perfect choir.

Inspired by RajKumarpb's comment on her original Dark Knight review, P was moved to try to find out how other countries rated the new Batman movie.

The Electric New Paper printed a whole column on the debate, with some parents claiming that the show was not any worse than a random horror pic, while others felt it was inappropriate for their children. P found it very disturbing and agrees with the USA today interviewee who described the movie as a show about "a homicidal maniac in makeup".

What do you think, Tbloggers who've seen the movie? Would you bring under 12s to see it?