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It feels like I've come a long way in the genre of Opera. From absolute detest to absolute ADORE. And since my virgin opera experience in Singapore Lyric Opera's (SLO) Turandot (2008), there has been no turning back. It's been a crazy discovery thus far and each new opportunity to learn more about the art form has been a complete delight.

SLO kicks off 2010 with possibly Giacomo Puccini's most famous and romantic opera, La Bohème. The opera was directed by Andrew Sinclair who directed this same opera nine times in his career. The cast included Nancy Yuen (Mimi), Simon Kyung Lee (Rodolfo), Song Kee Chang (Marcello), Kristin Symes (Musetta), Martin Ng (Colline), Brent Allcock (Schaunard) and William Lim (Benoit / Alcindoro).


The story in a nutshell. Soprano, Anna Netrebko and Tenor, Rolando Villazón stars in the feature-film "La Bohème" released in UK cinemas on 19th December 2008.

The story was originally set in the 1830s, but this presentation, Andrew Sinclair fast-forwarded the opera by a century, setting it in 1930s Paris, where bohemians thrived.

It was a very important time because the world was in economic depression. But it was also an important time for the artists, dancers and film-makers who flocked to Paris, which was the centre of the free-thinking world.

La Bohème is based on a series of short stories by Henri Murger called "Scenes de la Vie de Bohème" which appeared in a journal and were so popular that they were turned into a play. A great deal of the material in these stories is autobiographical and based on characters known to Murger.

They are a vivid representation of student life in Paris at the time - A quartet of artists living in a run-down apartment in Paris, one of whom is Rodolfo, who falls in love with a neighbour, Mimi. The love story traces the passionate love affair of Mimi and Rodolfo, the breakup of their relationship and the short-lived conciliation before Mimi’s tragic death due to poor health.


What greeted us as we made our way to our stall seats

After a disappointing theatre experience late last year in Victor/Victoria, I was truly looking forward to what critics have claimed to be one of the best Italian operas of all time. The performance was playing to a full house crowd and possibly one of the most well dressed I've ever seen at the Esplanade. Gentlemen in suits and ladies in gowns and scarfs. It was truly opera attire, even I felt a little under-dressed with my knee length pink dress. Kemmy was rather embarrassed to be in three quarts!

Through out the 4 act, 2 hour 10 mins (excluding 2 intermissions) production, we were greeted with many musical high points, among them:


Love duet of Act One. This one performed by Luciano Pavarotti and Mirella Freni in Torino, Italy (1996). Of course nothing compares to the vocal extraordinaire of these two opera masters!


"Musetta's Waltz" and chorus crowd scenes of Act Two.
Performed here by Hei-Kyung Hong, Teatro Alla Scala (2003,TDK)

The curtains re-opened at the end of this act with a freeze frame of the colour and buzz of the Paris scene. Bet everyone (myself included) wish they whipped out their phone cameras to capture the pictorial moment! I love the entire performance for how real life situations of mischief, passion and heartache came into play. It made opera a reflection of life.

The music of La Bohème is very easy on the ears, but few of the melodies really cling and repeat endlessly. It leads one to appreciate the entire opera for what it is worth. SLO didn't have the best singers nor actors which were crucial for this opera, perhaps more so then any other. Having sub-titles going out of sync in high tension moments also didn't help. But for SLO to be able to mount a production of this quality on its small annual budget is itself a remarkable achievement.

Their next opera will be Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's The Magic Flute. Staged from the 23 - 28 July 2010.

Read:
"Victor/Victoria" and a Laura Fygi personalised autograph
The Tales of Hoffmann
Puccini Gala: The Virgin Opera
Turandot: Night At The Opera
Turandot 'Nessun Dorma'

And the Chicks RULE in the Social Media Gender Balance in October 2009.
Then again, I also strongly believe a good percentage are males disguised as Hot Chicks trying to pull a fast one!

Here’s the full dataset in Style Intelligence's interactive dashboard

Read:
Interesting Twitter and Blogging Statistics
Han Rosling presents amazing data
A Day in the Internet - How BIG is the WWW?
The Global Future of Technology
Social Networking: Understanding Communication Changes

On the Twitter front:

Graph illustrated in August 2009.

What we used to know of Twitter being more an adult communication tool is changing in Business Insider Chart of the Day in February 2010. The only increase came from those aged 24 and below.

On the Blogging front:
- Over 12 million American adults currently maintain a blog.
- More than 147 million Americans use the Internet.
- Over 57 million Americans read blogs.
- 1.7 million American adults list making money as one of the reasons they blog.
- 89% of companies surveyed say they think blogs will be more important in the next five years.
- 9% of internet users say they have created blogs.
- 6% of the entire US adult population has created a blog.
- Technorati is currently tracking over 70 million blogs.
- over 120 thousand blogs are created every day.
- There are over 1.4 million new blog posts every day.
- 22 of the 100 most popular websites in the world are blogs.
- 37% of blog readers began reading blogs in 2005 or 2006.
- 51% of blog readers shop online.
- Blog readers average 23 hours online each week.

With Google Wave and Google Buzz on in for the kill, it will be interesting to see the trend shift.

Read:
Gender Balance on Social Networking Sites - Chicks Rule!
Han Rosling presents amazing data
A Day in the Internet - How BIG is the WWW?
The Global Future of Technology
Social Networking: Understanding Communication Changes

Tucked away in the far end of the Esplanade's Jendela Hall is the 3rd exhibit for M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2010 Gallery. Htein Lin from Burma erected a 'prison' space with bricks and surgical gloves. The audiences were invited to take a stroll on the brick path. The effect was of an ironic zen garden with a creepy sense of prison justice. The rubber gloves sway ever so gently by the breeze of the air condition as though they are reaching and calling out!


The small squishy balloon arms are presented as fragile and tough; good and bad; guilty or not guilty; black and white; there were a lot of binary opposites in this work held together by the still golden scale in the middle


A scale hangs between a ceiling of black and a floor of white gloves

Up at the Esplanade's Jendela Hall were two other M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2010 Gallery showcases - The Institute of Critical Zoologists (ICZ)'s "A Guide to the Common Flora and Fauna of the World" and Htein Lin's "The Scale of Justice".


A Guide to the Common Flora and Fauna of the World takes its inspiration from a real-life smuggling case where 15 endangered geckos were concealed in hallowed-out books and transported out of Australia only to be intercepted by the country's customs.

The audiences were introduced to the world of wildlife trafficking through ingenious pieces of art. Firstly by a series of photographs; cockatoo and macaw eggs, golden star tortoises, a parakeet... snakes. But all you see is a t-shirt with things bulging from pockets, rolled up socks, a cardboard box, etc.


On another wall hang traces; proof of smuggling activities consiting of a bunch of postal receipts for books, various stamps from Indonesia, China, US, Malaysia, etc.

It was brilliant how the images themselves are, in a way, smuggled past the viewer and animals that are supposedly endangered slip through the fingers of the gallery viewer-as-hunter or even through the camera’s lenses.

January 2010 kicked off with M1 Singapore Fringe Festival entitled "Art & The Law". The M1 Singapore Fringe Festival is an annual festival of theatre, dance, music, visual arts and mixed media created and presented by Singaporean and international artists. Themed differently each year, the Festival aims to bring the best of contemporary, cutting-edge and socially-engaged works to the Singapore audience.

I've never been a close follower of the Fringe Fest and similarly, this year's theme and performances line up did not intrigue me. There was nothing compelling enough to make me want to part my hard earned dollar.

I however did not mind soaking in the free Fringe Galleries. There were 5 showcases scattered at Sculpture Square featuring "Border", ION Gallery featuring "America The Gift Shop" and Esplanade featuring "Last Meals", "The Scale of Justice" and "A guide to common flora and fauna of the world".

It wasn't until 24 January, the last day of the exhibit that I finally found time for a visit at the Esplanade. Soaking in art and a bottle of icy cold beer is certainly one of the more lovely ways to spend a Sunday afternoon. I did both ;P

Last Meals - Jonathon Kambouris
Lined along the tunnel path between City Link and Esplanade Mall was Jonathon Kambouris' photography exhibit where the last meals of death row inmates are superimposed onto their grim-looking mugshots.


Introduction to the exhibit. The entire exhibit can also be viewed online at http://www.lastmealsproject.com/



There is certainly something very dark in the use of actual convicts' pictures and a presentation of their choice of food before hitting the gallows. It echoed a comic feel to a tragic end. Perhaps even mockery. It is hard to imagine the effect this exhibit might have on families and friends on both the convicts and victims.

After 4 outrageous seasons of "Battlestar Galactica" and the conclusion of the "Stargate Atlantis" series last year, I fell into a Sci-Fi drought. The spin-off "Stargate Universe" series was (and still is) a great disappointment. It was clearly a time to catch up on misc series I never came around to watching. By Gary's recommendation, I caught up on 2 seasons of "The Tudors" following the life of King Henry VIII and "Pushing Daisies" which was absolute 'Pie Heaven'.

At the start of 2010, I was eager to get back to some good ole science fiction television. And I remembered "Firefly", the canned Fox Sci-Fi series that spun-off "Serenity" in 2005. The series sparked off in a conversation with Sarah when she bunked at my place last December. I had no idea she was such a Sci-Fi fan.

"Firefly" was writer and director Joss Whedon's strange blend of American Western in space - year 2517, following 9 characters in their adventures of the renegade crew of Serenity, a "Firefly-class" spaceship. According to Whedon's vision, "nothing will change in the future: technology will advance, but we will still have the same political, moral, and ethical problems as today."

It is official. I join the league of the Applites and am officially an iPhone SLAVE!
I can't say I am proud of it. Never had been an Apple fan-girl.

Considering that iPhone 3GS mobiles have dropped drastically in price since M1 and Starhub emergence into SingTel's monopoly and the fact that there isn't a more deserving phone currently in the market, it wasn't hard to make the switch. This also breaks my lifetime (till date) Nokia loyalty, way back to my 1st Nokia - 8210. Sentimental... I still own that phone. It's sad cause Nokia used to make great phones.

As much as all the cherry on the top goodness the iPhone brings, it tags along its own baggage. It was hard to give up a puny phone (Nokia XpressMusic 5310), which I love for sports, I wasn't sure about touch screen... I hated the poor battery life... but what I was sure I would love included: iPhone Apps for Twitter, Facebook and Gmail; awesome web browsing experience and the best iPod in the market!

I figured it was time to get on the iPhone bandwagon. The additional SGD$100 renewal voucher and corporate discounts provided the additional boot.


Back of box. Notice the "Assembled in China" print...


Everything in the iPhone 3GS box: Includes the iPhone, Instruction Booklet, Earphones, USB Cable, Wall Charger

Picking the ideal mattress should have been an easy task - lay, like, buy. But once the Tech Junkie in me took presidence; even mattresses became a science!

I've been sleeping on my trusty Dreamland mattress for the longest time. It's time for its complete retirement and a little pampering for overall wellness. Mattress technologies have improved leaps and bounds over the years. Considering it's an investment I'll be making for the next 10 years, I wanted to make the best sound choice I could afford.

I was quick to narrow down my choices to the big 3 in the mattress industry, namely Simmons, Sealy and Serta.

I was initially dead set on getting a bed on individual pocketed spring technology (Marshall or Encased coils), popular in Simmons' Beautyrest series; but later read that this technology is most effective with a partner for undisturbed sleep. Choices for my super-single requirement can be more varied. My second requirement was to pick a firmer or "harder" mattress. Other nice to haves would include a latex pillow top for a cooler sleep experience.

It's funny cause I actually found such a mattress in a China made brand mattress called Airland! The brand is apparently popular in mainland China and Hong Kong. Cost about $500 cheaper then the branded names. It was almost perfect, except that it was China made and I found minimum information on the mattress make online. So I decided to go for peace of mind. I eventually picked a Sealy Posturepedic High Performance! It boiled down to the best trusted SCIENCE my money could afford.

Han Rosling at TED 2009: Let my dataset change your mindset

I'm always fascinated with how data can tell a different story from what we perceive. Often a very credible story.

Han Rosling, professor of international health at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden presents solid, grounded statistics (drawn from United Nations data), illustrated by the visualization software he developed. The non-profit Flash program tool, Gapminder allows people to easily compare and contrast large volumes of data with animated charts. Google has since acquired the software in March 2007 and is free to be used online.

It's amazing how rich in knowledge the world is. From experiences to history to data. The world needs analytical tools and a great search.

Rosling's current work focuses on dispelling common myths about the so-called developing world. The world is emerging. A world that cannot be seen as divided.

Fantastic how he showed the visual statistics of Singapore against Swenden on child mortality. Singapore was used in some other presentations displaying leap frog advancements over the years.

Check out other insightful Han Rosling videos.

Read:
The Global Future of Technology
Grace of Wisdom
Applying Sun Tzu's Art of War
The Answer to Our Questions
Knowledge vs. Wisdom
Knowledge is Power. Content is King.

FINALLY! The REAL Google Phone - Nexus One.
Google is FINALLY ready to take over the world!
FINALLY a REAL competitor to the Apple iPhone.

Over a year back, Google launched the G1 with T-mobile. A nifty mobile putting Google apps in your pocket with a QWERTY keyboard. The partnership with HTC on the G1 product eventually gave birth to the Nexus One.

Undoubtedly with the iPhone's massive success, the Nexus One adopted the fully touchscreen interface without the sleek multitouch function from Apple.

Bundled with the phone:
- 1GHz Snapdragon CPU with 512MB of both RAM and ROM (that's some mighty power in a phone)
- MicroSD slot (comes loaded with a 4GB card expandable to 32GB)
- 800x480 pixel screen (compared to iPhone's 360x640)
- Video recording in D1 (720x480) resolution at 20FPS
- GPS
- 5MP camera with LED flash (beating iPhone's 3MP)
- Speech voice command enabler
- FLASH (infact every major phone platforms: Android, Symbian, Windows Mobile, webOS, and BlackBerrys... all except Apple has Flash. OMG!!!)
- Multitasking (the iPhone still don't get it!)
- Replaceable battery (Yupe... an extremely common thing that the iPhone will probably never get)
- Bluetooth to another phone (Yet another extremely common thing)

Check out BillShrink.com's comparison chart of where the Nexus One stand against the iPhone, Droid & Palm Pre.



Clips of Google Nexus One in action:

I have a fetish for 'Toy Story' and robots. So Disney made the Ultimate Buzz Lightyear last November! Controllable actions, programmable with voice activation. This toy is real yakky, with a great sense of humour. Mechanical movements are noisy with no knee bend actions. Pretty much slides across the floor!

I've added the toy to my wishlist. Haven't seen it around yet. Can't believe after all these year, Woody and Buzz still tickle my funny bone.


Program controller looks very much like U-Command Wall-E I own.

Read:
Toy Story 3D (Added new 3D Trailer clips)
3D Double Bill to be release in Jan 2010!
Watch out for Toy Story 3, to be released next year.
Toy Story Room Invasion "To Infinity and Beyond"!

IKEA's Swedish Meatballs and Fried Chicken Wings

It was one of those impromptu dinner outings that led us to IKEA's Swedish Meatballs and Fried Chicken Wings. Who could resist! We had 3 plates of meatballs, 2 plates of wings, an additional serving of fries, free flow of coffee and water! We ate till we all stared at 2 pieces of oil dripping chicken wings and forced each other to stuff it down our exploding system. Dennis had 6 pieces of wings all by himself! Kemmy and I couldn't resist ice-cream and I don't think Ja will be eating any more chicken wings any time soon.

We had to take a stroll to digest off. Then the boys have to start their IKEA enactments!


What are you watching? "Sponge Bob Square Pants!!!"


The Psychiatrist is in the house


Indian Prata Man! I'm not kidding when I say Terence has always dreamt of owning a stainless steel prata table!


Home Tour

Read:
Theatre and Performances Category
Food and Drinks Category

I am playing catch up with my posts from the holiday period. Christmas (as usual) came and gone too soon. I never get enough of Christmas. It was back to a week of hectic work schedule before ushering in a new decade for 2010. It's been a tough year for many; and thinking back there's so much to give thanks for. We deserved to party hard for a year passed and another to behold.

For now, most of my posts will be uploaded non-chronologically. With whatever content I can get my hands on or whatever inspires me to post. None of those New Year resolutions crap which I gave up some years back. But I do wanna gather some time to reflect on the year that passed, to put things back in perspective.

I know I'm a little late, but here's wishing everyone a fantastic and blessed 2010.


A great dance to the New Year with John Molina & The Krueger at Yello Jello!

Read:
Retrospective 2008
Closing up 2007
The First and the Last
New Year Aftermath...
A Blink to New Year's Eve