Sunday, 22 June 2008

durians
i went for the king's singers concert last night, and had a really great time. i was a bit worried that audience response wouldn't be good because it seemed to be mainly made up of chinese, and some audience members were exhibiting boorish behaviour before the concert started - but happily enough, i was wrong about that. the audience was responsive, enthusiastic and warm (even if they didn't understand english), and i was just so happy to have heard the king's singers version of danny boy live that nothing else really mattered. i felt goose-bumpy the entire time. they also did two classic chinese songs, self-arranged, as an encore, and i really liked jasmine flower. kinda reminded me of something mrs. wilson might have done to the song.

although their set tonight had a jazz selection, AND they were also going to do all i ask of you - but no matter.

when i finally set eyes on the 国家大剧院 (guo2 jia1 da4 ju4 yuan4, national centre for the performing arts) yesterday evening, my first thought was, it's got to be easier to clean than the esplanade. because while it's all steel and glass panelling, at least it doesn't have spikes protruding from all over it.

until i realised that it was totally surrounded by a moat of sorts.

whoever designed the esplanade probably really had a thing for durians - or maybe he or she had to do it durian-like, as part of the Uniquely Singapore theme. i have no idea what whoever designed the ncpa beijing had in mind. a floating orb, perhaps. or a*mei's ufo song. that was the second thing which came to my mind. but that can't be right, because they (The Chinese Government) don't like her now, right?

also, Somebody, Somewhere, has decided that it's cooler at night, so they turn down the airconditioning in the subway and subway stations.

and that, my friend, is totally not true. sure, mr sun sets by around 2030, but there's something about the insane amount of dust in the air, and the even more insane amount of people trying to get onto the trains on a saturday night which makes it terribly hot and stuffy.

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