Back to Esplanade Again

I think what International Economy is in I Hist is an attempt to include something vaguely social-history-like in our history syllabus. Everything else is basically political history. But economic history seems so...dodgy. No detailed facts, you end up describing the systems rather than now people responded to it, and altogether the topic seems to lack the rigour of the Russian Rev or the end of the Cold War or something like that. Heh, and it's just weird to try writing about Bretton Woods without delving into explaining how the fixed peg works in economics terms.

But tonight I am happy =) Went down to Esplanade again, and today they had a local band Rafe and another band Bad for the Boys playing. Striking thing was how much foreign talent there was...Rafe had two Indonesians, and the other was totally Filipino if I'm not wrong. And, come to think of it, it's also surprising how much local talent there was. Mmm Singapore's home-grown singers and drummers aren't too bad really.

Fantastic stuff tonight. Heh, it also demonstrated the need for the performers to enjoy themselves onstage. Took a while for the audience to warm up...a long while, so Rafe who played first was a bit short-changed by the stony response. But by the time Bad for the Boys came up the crowd was ready. And partly I think also the average age of the crowd decreased over time. At the start they couldn't even get the people to clap along, but by the end people were singing along with them, and that, I think, is quite an achievement. It did help tremendously that the performers looked at ease on stage and genuinely happy to perform for the audience. Heh, especially the female lead for Bad for the Boys, who was really really enthusiastic with that mike =P

It was really surprising. Practically everything they played are among my favourites...Evanescence's Wake Me Up, then, to my great surprise, Creed's My Sacrifice, and then they ended off with an amazing rendition of Sweet Child of Mine. That guitarist just took my breath away...such speed and precision that I've never seen live before, and what stage presence! And that was the one that really got everyone going. It was exhilarating, to hear the opening riffs for Sweet Child, like the bell of an ice-cream truck promising a visual treat to come. And everyone knew it.

And it was rather dramatic too, because as the bands played the skyscrapers downtown were lit up on this working day, and there were regular flashes of lightning tracing out the contours of the clouds in the background. Was particularly moved when, in the middle of My Sacrifice, the drums and the lightning cut in at the same time. What more special effects can you ask for? =P And Super Mario (DJ by day, singer for Bad for the Boys by night) said something interesting...that we owed it to our local bands to support them. That he wasn't even Singaporean, but he loved the Singaporean music scene. Interesting, isn't it? Most people would think that the Singaporean songwriting scene is rather barren (I'd agree) - but we do have the raw material now, the instrumental talent, the vocals. All we need is a bit of inspiration, something to sing about. And support from the public. The trouble with denigrating local art is that it tends to be a self-fulfilling prejudice, don't you think?

Mmm but it was a nice end-off to today's punishing work schedule. It really balances off nicely all the stress and frustration of the day, to break out in a bit of reveling at night. I wonder how people cope with studying non-stop all day? It's something that would throw me entirely off equilibrium.

Well, anyway, whatever the case, we're within days of the start of the last round in this schooling game. Got an ecard from our old Chinese teacher, and was surprised that I could still read the Chinese! =) But yeah...time is running low, and we'll soon be called up to the starting line. Hang in there, everyone! It's gonna be all right...

pondered by phoenican @ 4.11.05