MPO Meets Wayang Kulit

Apologies for not writing, it’s been a crazy week, this week!

Our Wayang Kulit group is collaborating with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra in conjunction with Malaysia’s 50th Independence celebration. Adeline Wong, a brilliant Malaysian composer (who coincidentally used to teach me at Yamaha Academy) has been commissioned to write a work for Wayang Kulit troupe and orchestra.

The concert will be on from tomorrow till Sunday.

If you’re in town, come watch it! This is ground-breaking work. And I’m not just saying this to toot my own horn. The piece is fantastic, complete with shadow play.

Would love to be an audience but I’m sitting behind the screen giving cues. Oh well.

Why the fuck…?

I sometimes wonder why he even bothers coming back.

About a week ago my father finally gathered the courage to tell Sunny about the new baby. He tried in vain to convince him that the new addition would not change our family dynamics but really, I wonder. When you have a father with the fertility of Rod Stewart…

Let’s not go there.

I think I’ve always tried to look at my father in the best of lights. He’s generous. He has never hesitated to support us financially even after the divorce. He comes home regularly to visit. We have good conversations from time to time. He’s an incredible writer.

But yesterday when our DVD friend came over, my father bought porn from him.

In front of my brother.

I think this is a question I still can’t quite grapple with: What is it with men and porn?

If you take out all the boobs, the clits, the balls, the dickos, handcuffs, school uniforms, stilettos and all that shit, and picture a father buying porn in front of his teenage son, would you still think porn served as a great “visual stimulation”? Would you watch porn for fun?

Completely fucked up.

Something is wrong with me. Amidst fighting with the essay that I have to translate from Malay to English, endless phone calls and e mails to write, I keep thinking about ways to save the world. I fantasize about growing an organic garden. Planting my own herbs and veggies and building a compost heap. A worm farm.

Someone help me please.

(image from Amazon)

Mum and I went to watch Hula Girls yesterday.

Brilliant acting, effective use of music, simple storyline. Although it had a happy ending Mum and I still cried buckets. I think you’d be able to understand the emotions if you were a dedicated teacher and/or in the fine arts line.

Go watch it!

This month marks the 3rd year anniversary of my yoga practice!

In these 3 years I’ve noticed that I am growing to be calmer (!), more focused (!!) and patient (!!!).

Health wise, yoga has finally got me to quit smoking completely (smoke free since August 2006 although the occasional shisha is a treat!) and I have never felt better. My immunity is great and I feel more energetic and fresh.

I believe I have found a practice that truly suits me and am completely blown away by the progress I’ve made in these 3 years, thanks to my teachers (both in Australia and KL) who have challenged me to move further.

Physically my body has also seen changes. My posture has improved tremendously, I no longer suffer from backaches when at the piano. But most significantly, I have learned to develop strength in my left (previously fractured) arm. Although the elbow still juts out at funny angles (ala’ Jem from To Kill A Mockingbird), I can now do much more with my left arm and have started working on building up enough arm and forearm strength to do more challenging balancing and inverted poses.

I don’t think I’ll ever venture into yoga instruction although it is nice to dream. I’m happy enough going for classes and practicing on my own.

Yay!

Click the comic strip for a larger image.

Scanned from The Comic Art of Patrick McDonnell, 183.

Coincidentally one of my favourite poses include the frog and turtle pose =)