Sunday, January 31, 2010
O-KAY now the moment you have all been waiting for - a flurry of complaints and the unleashing of rage and disdain from Claire!
Let's get serious. Singapore's art culture totally sucks.
In the Chopin concerto, people started coughing right from the very beginning. AND there was someone using a laptop - Don't think you're safe down there in Circle 1 dude! I saw you with both my eyes, freaking idiot! D< It's like, the main reason I couldn't enjoy the concerto truly was because people kept coughing. It's just so hard to enjoy music when people keep coughing and dragging you unceremoniously out of the paradise of music. It's like the shock you get when you fall asleep in class and the teacher suddenly walks up to you and says your name in your ear. Throughout the whole performance I was like just wishing (and praying briefly to God at some point in time during the second movement) that people would stop coughing. I was getting super damn angry (pardon the language) and I was like just managing to keep my anger in check. So it's quite obvious it's hard to enjoy the music like that. Screwed lah! I was very angry. Really. AND someone near to me farted like two times. WALAO DAMN SMELLY LAH. He farted once during the second movement and once during the encore - the two pieces which were the most beautiful. Dang Thai Son played Chopin Nocturne in E-flat major - the one that everyone knows. That changed my perception of him quite drastically because I thought he was just another pianist who played well and used piano to gain fame. However him playing this song garnered some respect and admiration from me. I don't like pianists who try to impress and wow their audience with formidable techniques and mind-spinning leaping of hands. Those pianists are like chasing the ideals of the world instead of their own. So I prefer pianists who love a song because of the emotionality of the song or the harmony in the song to pianists who love a song because it showcases technique and bravura.
Anyway. YES this is the highlight of the concert! Luckily I wasn't the one to receive this misery (haha sorry Peiwei! :D) because I would almost certainly have been furious to the point of demanding that person to stop doing whatever she was doing. Peiwei was sitting next to a woman wearing a flowery ah-ma t-shirt. As if that wasn't bad enough, that aunty took off her shoes and crossed her legs and put her bare foot on the barricade in front of us (we were the first row of circle 2). I was quite bothered by it even from two seats away and you can imagine the torture poor Peiwei had to go through. The conversation during the intermission is as follows:
Me: (talking all the way from Dang Thai Son finished playing his encore and getting up from my seat in the circle) Singapore's arts culture is seriously damn suck lah! All the people kept coughing! Why can't they eat mints or lozenges or something? Then got people... (blah blah blah)
PW: Ya lor. Just now want to do standing ovation also don't dare. You see just now all those who did standing ovation were Caucasians. (and only 3 of them in total, and stood up for less then 10 seconds) I wanted to do standing ovation also don't dare!!! Then had to resort to cheering...
Me: You never tell me you want to do standing ovation! Then we can do together!!!! AHHHH
PW: You know hor, you saw this person next to me who put her foot up right?
Me: *burst out into voracious laughter and earned a few stares* Ya. HAHAHAHAHA...
PW: I realized that humans can see almost 180 degrees.
Me: ...Hahaha ...Really meh? About... 170 degrees only ma. Hahaha...
PW: Aiya around there lah. Anyway, that woman's foot was like 156 degrees in my view so I realised it was impossible not to see it. *getting very agitated* And hor, you know Dang Thai Son looks very small from up here right? So in the end the woman's foot was as big as Dang Thai Son!!!!!!
Both of us started laughing like maniacs. We couldn't speak properly for like 5 minutes.
PW: *some random crap about the woman's foot (which i cannot remember)*... And if she was wearing like a black gown or something still can forgive. But she was wearing...
Me: Flowery ah-ma t-shirt
PW: Precisely!!!!!!! You know when I remember something I will associate something with it. Like last time I watched a drama with my cousin who had stinky feet! Then whenever i think of that drama will think of the smell! So when i think of Dang Thai Son now I will think of her feet! ><
Me: *drinking mango Snapple* *trying desperately not to laugh*
Laugh laugh laugh blah blah blah
Anyway I was like SUPER sad that we couldn't get to see Dang Thai Son close up. I was prepared to sacrifice the rest of the concert to meet him during the autograph session during the intermission but Peiwei wasn't -.- so we didn't meet him. AHHHHH ><>< >< >< >
And I TELL YOU I WANT TO MIGRATE TO GERMANY. THE ARTS CULTURE THERE IS 1,000,000% BETTER THAN SINGAPORE. YOU KNOW WHAT THE AUDIENCE ACTUALLY CLAPPED BETWEEN THE CHOPIN MOVEMENTS. WALAO. IT'S LIKE BASIC CONCERT-GOING ETIQUETTE NOT TO CLAP DURING MOVEMENTS. EVEN A 6-YEAR-OLD CHILD CAN TELL YOU THAT. And after the concert we came out and Peiwei pointed out the difference in dressing between Singaporeans and Caucasians. The Caucasians wore concert-going attire or formal dinner attire (like MEEE HAHAHA). You know what the Singaporeans wore? Spaghetti stripe. Shorts. Polo t-shirt. Round-neck t-shirt. Jeans. Flowery ah-ma t-shirt. WALLAO CANNOT STAND IT SIA (haha picked it up from minqhee).
I asked my mother later "Why do these people go to concerts if they can't even appreciate the music? Don't go and waste space or ruin other people's enjoyment can or not!" My mother then told me some people go concert just for face. To seem high-class. To tell people that they've been to so-and-so's concert. Then I cried out, "Then what's the point of telling people you've been to somebody's concert if you can't critique it???" She said "Just to impress people ma. To seem rich lor." WALAO i DESPISE these people can. Sorry for despising them but I can't help it. USING music as a TOOL to gain fame or money (on the part of concert pianists) or as a tool to impress people is like an absolute appetite-upset for me. How DARE these people use music as a tool? Music is the pure and uncorrupted desire of the composer and pianist's synchronization to reach out to the audience, to bridge the gap between different souls and to touch the deepest chasms of one's soul and bring light to the darkest areas of a person's mind. It is the purest expression of a human's soul. How DARE these people do such superficial things? How can there even BE people like that? How can anyone not like music?
On that note, I kind of regret not taking up violin. Not that my parents would have allowed me to take it anyway. It's such a passionate and sexy instrument. Haha :) Piano is more elegant and reserved. On the other hand, it is also a psychotic and cold instrument. Violin's passion suits me, I think. But piano's coldness also suits me. The two extremes of my character. Anyway. I really regret not taking up violin, but I guess if God wanted me to take up violin He would have made a way. An embarrassing reason for wanting to take up violin is because i think guy pianists generally don't go for women who play piano (whether they're good or not) but rather female violinists. Or flutists for that matter. Haha ^^ Sigh.
Stupid wang laoshi =.=
