Ribboned Courts

What a woman wants: comfy fun shoes to wear on sundays or working days that don't scream work or sensibility but are still a hoot to wear and won't give me blisters after a 20 minute walk.

Found: fun pair of shoes which however did not quite pass the blister test of a 20 minute walk from buona vista MRT station to my office in Holland Village. Too bad...but I'm still hoping to break them in.

At any rate, these shoes were discovered at a sale at one of my one-time favourite shoe stores called Pretty Fit and since they only cost just under S$30 I figured they were a good buy even if they didn't pass the blister test. Needless to say, I did try to then buy some cushioning for the edges of the back of the shoe but the supermarket only had those little edge things in black. Alas, clearly supermarket stockers (undoubtedly male) have no clue that girls' shoes come in many colours other than black. What's a girl to do??

Musica Antiqua Koln

Me, various members of my extended family had to privilege of attending Musica Antiqua Koln's concert in Singapore at Victoria Concert Hall last Thursday evening. It turned out to be a superb performance of baroque period music by a quintet of 2 violins, 1 cello, 1 double bass and a harpsichord. The harpsichord was what I liked best because it is rarely heard in performance in Singapore. As a little aside, my friend who was from the organising team that brought them into Singapore, has the task of transporting this harpsichord up to Macau for the concert there this Sunday.

I have to confess, that I have a very narrow band of classical music that I like and will listen to, and an even narrower band of tolerance for live performances. I do not have a particularly sensitive ear for classical music. And I was never a very good music students particularly at composing. While doing music exams, the part I I knew I had no clue at was composing a few small bars...I would simply put notes together almost at random and hope that my music teacher would declare it music. Fortunately for me, most of the other parts of the exam were very analytical so I could get past those as a swot.

The one great classical composer that I do understand to some degree however, is JS Bach. For some reason I react to him as I do to virtually no other composer and I am very particular about intepretations of his works as a result. To me, his music has an undertone which is always there of the joy of creation. It is for me a deeply catholic work, written by a man who understood the deep stability of creation being held lovingly in God's hand. I hear it most clearly in his smaller pieces...pieces that were written not as large orchestral pieces but small groups or even just the one player. I hear it in his brandenbery concertos, in the inventions, in the concertos etc. I think it is because I tend to like smaller groups of people in general. I love Glenn Gould and yes, I can hear him humming in some of the recordings.

The musica antiqua koln's performance was technically superb as I would have expected. And I predictably reacted best to the Bach pieces. Nevertheless, I think in order for me to fully appreciate their intepretations of Bach, I might have to listen to some of their recordings. Somehow I find I'm a lot more sensitive to recorded music. Perhaps it is simply because I need more time to decide whether or not a piece will really grow on me or not. But yes, Bach has been with me since childhood listenings of Walter (now Wendy)Carlos on the Moog synthesizer on a vinyl LP. I have listened to that umpteen times and it was with regret that i realise that the new recordings on the supposedly improved moog synthesizer do not somehow have the same emotional depth of intepretation despite the new sounds.

Reactions from my family to it varied: for some, like my 7 year old nephew it was their first time ever hearing a chamber group live. Worth at least that experience and I actually rather suspect he has probably a better sensitivity to music than I do since although he looked like he slept through the second half, he came out with some intelligent comments on it the day after.

To those who are interested, this is the link to Antiqua Musica Koln's site
http://www.musica-antiqua-koeln.de/

Alice in Wonderland a la Dali

Don't dilly - dali is what I imagine dali would have said to alice in wonderland...this is his portrait of Alice. I liked the face: it was composed of leaves. It made somehow the whole thing so much more tactile. It was also just very whimsical which is my favourite kind of art. Also not really typical Dali.

One half of the Two Cows

The Catholic variant of the two cows was to have a cow and a calf reminescient of the mother and child images. But yes, to all ye doubters, there really really was a cow present at the St Francis day celebrations at St Mary's and here's the picture to prove it. The cow was set up with its little calf at a milking station and brought into the piazza for the blessing of the animals. It sure smelled of the country there!

Poor cow was a bit stressed by the time I got to see it though but it was a nice touch. And I sure hope the kids finally know that milk comes from cows as opposed to packages in the supermarket.

I have to say it's really nice to have the animals welcomed once a year in this very urban society called Singapore. We have become so very detached a lot of the time from nature with many mothers teaching their children to be afraid of animals in general so that the next generation will be completely unable to talk to the animals.

Transitus of St Francis

In honour of the Feast of St Francis on 3 October, the local franciscan community at St Mary of the Angels blessed all creatures great and small in the piazza of the church. This is the resident franciscan beagle and his franciscan friar.

Unicorn Falls

In Love. This is the Dali statue that stands before guess where: the UOB plaza. The innocent virgin and the piercing of love at the basement of a bank. Was the irony lost on the sponsors?