Blogging with photos again

OMG, can't remember the last time I've been away from blogging for so long. Though my last entry is only just Nov but seriously, my blogging frequency is all time low this second half of 2009.

I started this entry with the intention to write, but looks like I realise it is faster to tell a story with images than putting my thoughts together in words, and to do it cohesively, I need more time - and I don't have time today, it's eve of Christmas! I am going out to buy some potatoes for my smashed potatoes dish tonight!!

So here goes, my fabulous life so far in images :)

Merry Christmas and new happy year to all

:D

pic by Callista

fooling around after Curve Christmas launch gig, my first pair of wings!! Thank you Leticia (Event Wizards)!!

Singapore Tourism Board wanted us again, The Three Little Bitches caroling to editors in town early in December. Zalina (middle) arranged the medley for our outing this time :) Nicole (left) arranged for the costume (from Dominique Devorsine's magic shop of costumes)

Sometime this year, somewhere off stage at gigs, I found myself a willing subject (object?) of photography...by none other than my amazing and funny band leader, Cher Siang.

pic by Tay Cher Siang

There he is, doing the shadow-play on his keyboard, Cher Siang and his fellow FBI agent (see previous post for clue in on the FBI agents band) Vincent Ong on double bass.

I've been ZUNGed! Zung of The Photoz gave me this at this gig - the fabulous wedding of Michael & Amanda at JW Marriott in Starhill.

Now on to something new I picked up more than a year ago, dancing. I took up dancing class at Caterpillar studio because I don't want to be a singer with two left feet, also I was quitting from a gym (running on the treadmill with loud music around you is no fun really), I needed a good replacement of work out activity. Ann Tan (principal in Caterpillar) is a wonderful dance teacher, a woman, and friend. Look what she helped me do...

the 3rd routine I did at our 2nd studio concert (Groovylicious Charity Concert), Tango-ish lap dance, we named it The Sizzling Housewives (most of the classmates are hot mothers) - it's a reprise from our first concert back in June.

I passed Ann a CD of sexy cabaret numbers, Fever (Holiday), songs from Chicago, Cabaret and I included Sondheim & Madonna's Hanky Panky (Dick Tracy) on the disc...it ended up as our concert item. I was at first cursing at the tempo and having to catch up with the choreography...well you know what, practice make perfect, in my case, it was practice makes me better.

The opening number of the concert was...erm, in costumes (police woman, cow girl, nurse, school girls, devil...) :) from our Monday morning class of Sizzle & Burn. A cardio lap dance class, with who else, very hot mothers and me.

The last item was attitude & energy-filled Kill The Lights (Britney Spears), a routine we started months before in the Tuesday's jazz class. Pic by Justin. Also in the picture is Manuella from Belgium, she choreographed the Sizzling Housewives item.

Ann gave me a slot for my sing-songing. I picked New York New York. Nerve-wrecking to be on the dance floor singing by myself with no dancers...but I love it at the end.

With that...my acting workshop also took its last bow on Tuesday this week. I was given the chance to work on Stella Kon's Emily Of Emerald Hill. The verdict is that I hadn't done enough research and homework on the 4-page scene given to me. Ling and Kok Man did their best with our 14-class duration and all 15 of us walked out of the workshop with new knowledge, new ideas and reminders of the work ahead of us, if we were to continue on the tough tough path of acting and performing.

the class of 2009, Kok Man & Ling Tan in front. Karen missing from the last class, she is at down under visiting her daughter.

Ok, it's really time to get going and buy those potatoes & vege. My most current project and no less exciting, my first home, a flat named Viva :) am moving to Jalan Ipoh next month. A brand new beginning, of hopefully, more home cook meals, and less clutter (I have two ceiling-height wardrobes and a guest room at my disposal for clothes).

Home in the making...second hand chandeliers from Amcorp Mall flea market, thanks to Seeming!! Secondhand leather reclining chair (for my Mr Big, J) from Mudah.com

Happy new year!

new hair photo diary

Chopped!

I have to learn how to blow my hair at home...to avoid dead pan flat look, to get this look.

and on performance missions, I commissioned the professionals, like Sam or Adeline @ A Cut Above @ BSC.

getting into a pose with my FBI agents on a wedding dinner gig mission...

(I dunno silly old Charles looked so serious behind me, goof balls Vincent & Cher Siang discussing what silly pose to do next)

I think this new hair is a new chapter in looking ultra feminine...I have posted more pictures of newly styled short hair on my FB :)

actors training, day one @ Nov 9

Notes from acting training workshop, 1st session, Nov 9.

Reasoning with self:

before you win a debate with your director about anything to do with your character or why you do anything a certain way, you must first convince yourself why you do it that way.

Taking instruction:

fully understand an instruction inside out, no matter how complicated or simple, so that you can execute it well.

a log of activities and stuff

The second half of 2009 is a whirlwind of activities and new milestones. I am juggling with what I have on my plate and getting enough sleep and planning to do something about my non-existent schedule of a holiday, a vacation.

Finished Date With Spring's one-month-long run two weeks ago. Collected my cheque on Monday. Happy :) I am lucky to have been given the opportunity to work in the production, and I returned the favour with hard work. Dad came down to watch the musical, his first musical, my first - having my dad in the audience at the theatre.

Signed up for my first ever (FINALLY) acting training workshop (Pentas Project), had my first class on Monday. Most satisfying and enlightening.

I CUT MY HAIR SHORT THE DAY AFTER SPRING's LAST PERFORMANCE. My first bob in 5 years? Ya, thereabout.

Joined Original Bootcamp under Nell's persuasion and my own , a true mile stone for me. 4th session today. I considered quitting the one-month course after 2 sessions. Looked into the mirror on the 3rd session, I had perfectly healthy & sexy looking ab that day (the day after I decided to quit) and decided I missed the sweat and pain...I went back to the camp on Monday.

Had two dinner performances at the about-to-closed-for-business Sri Carcosa (about to become a legend I suppose) two days in a row last weekend.

Collected full set of keys to my new flat two weeks ago. Can't wait to get my act together in fixing it up.

Preparing for my second dance outing, Groovylicious. I will perform in four dance items this time (!!!!!) and a one-song slot...and maybe a duet with Caterpillar resident hot-mama Ann Tan.

Had my 2nd outdoor meditation today! LOVELY weather & breeze at TTDI park.

Performed at a corporate dinner event last night, loving it -- having back up dancers for my songs :)

Mia Palencia is launching her 2nd album, and she is moving to Australia this month!!!!!!!! Going to her farewell performance tonight at Groove Junction.

Janet learns to rock

I am Lulu :) - story below...

A new simple, and straightforward, yet sophisticated pleasure in life for me :)

oh, the joy of getting professional manicure & pedicure, and a good one that is.

Background - I had my finger nails done once, a few years ago, for fun. Have never had my toes done before by a professional. Three weeks ago I cut my toe nails too short and been walking around with ugly feet, feeling silly and the urge to look good down there :)

I went to JJ Nail (Midvalley branch) as recommended by Zal who likes having hers done nicely, and got Kai Yean - and she is FAB, gave me sexy beautiful nails that last and last.

What an instant look-lifter :) to be able to stretch out your nails (now proudly cleansed & colored) and feel about 50% more worldly and womanly.

So I have decided, Lulu this October on Pentas 1 will have beautiful nails throughout the month-long run of I Have A Date With Spring. Though might need to clear with costume department on the...allowed (?) and appropriate color on Lulu's nails.

Chris Tong (playing Fung Peng) & Sam Tseu (Tai Kai Lok) at the publicity shot last month.

A sneaky snap of what happened at the publicity shot for Date. These six guys will bring you the fantabulous live soundtrack of I Have A Date With Spring The Musical (Oct 11th - 25th @ KLPac).

Our StarMag feature on Date's costume can be viewed here...I will upload the full spread in PDF on my media page soon.

The other thing that preoccupies my mind mostly lately is the exercise, and learning to produce emotion & feeling on cues. My journey in the rehearsal room is about to end, scripts were off hand since ages ago. Stage blocking is pretty much in place, 99%. The soul-searching for Lulu's scene-to-scene emotion is still on-going.

A few literal acting notes to self:

- when you REALLY understand why your character says a line, most likely you'll know how to move, or how to emote.

- when you DO SEE the image of something/someone you are saying or describing, your audience will mostly likely to follow your character's emotion - and you will be able to feel the moment of feeling too.

- when you are able to see yourself/your character in the scene, you are most likely able to deliver a believable & natural portrayal of the story.

- relax...but focus.

At supper last night, I picked Steve Yap (playing Karl Sum)'s brain on getting into acting from zero training. He said in lieu of formal training, you learn from getting yell at shoots (he is a screen actor before Date), you learn on the job, from collecting more instincts as you go down the road of acting.

ok, back to work. Glad to find time to write. Talk soon...ending the rehearsal room journey this Sunday. Fingers crossed :)

The people who date Spring

I missed blogging, have not been able to manage my calender well enough for my blogs. Anyway, one of my most loved and treasured elements of doing theatre work is the process of putting a show together - I love rehearsals, working on the script, memorizing lines, dance steps, the pain of not quite getting something right, and come back the next day to work on it again and cracking the scene and getting it right; of working with coaches, actors, directors, pasting it all together and the exhilaration of seeing the whole thing coming together.

Anyway, about the show.

Dama Orchestra is doing it again, combining its special blend of East & West potion of music with stage drama. This time in the musical adaptation of the award-winning play of Raymond To Kwok Wai (director of Perhaps Love)'s I Have A Date With Spring.

our poster :)

Join the Face Book group to see more pics & video clips of our rehearsals & our preview concert clips

Half of the team are familiar faces while the other half are new to me, but nonetheless the same wacky, talented, funny, noisy theatre people.

And the music!!! Not being able to play musical instruments, I worship the Dama musicians and their easy-going-ness. You know? Diva without the air? They make wonderful sounds and yet are incredibly accommodating and creative.

Ok ok, suppose I just paste the whole damn production team list here then, hehe...

The I Have A Date With Spring - The Musical team: (taken straight from Dama's site)

PUN KAI LOON producer / director

KHOR SENG CHEW producer / music director
GAN BOON WE concert master / asst. music director
LOO FUNG CHIAT & LOO FUNG YING arrangers
MELISSA TEOH production stage manager / asst. director
WONG KIT YAW choreographer
DOMINIQUE DEVORSINE costume designer
LIM ANG SWEE lighting designer
LIM WAN YEE sound engineer
LEE JIN WEN dialect coach
TAN SOO SUAN vocal coach

Tan Soo Suan (Butterfly)

Janet Lee (Lulu)

Chris Tong (Fung Peng)

Chang Fang Chyi (Nancy)

Steve Yap (Karl)

Nell Ng (Yuen Pik)

Samuel Tseu (Tai Kai Lok)

Ling Tang (Poh Yee)

Ho Soon Yoon (Bobby)

Terry Siau (Danny)

Song-Fan Seah (Tony)

Jojo Wong (Ping Ping)

Teoh Sheew Yong (Fei Fei)

Beauty Teoh (Emcee)

Liow Swee Keong (Pak Long)

Rachel Tan Tan Soo Sze (Backup singer)

Anrie Too (Ensemble & u/s Nancy)

Ng Pei Pei (Backup singer)

Chong Wey Yin (Backup singer)

Tam Yee Swee (Ensemble & manager)

Cassie Wong (Ensemble & u/s Fung Peng)

Leslie Cheng (Ensemble)

Roax Tan (Ensemble)

DAMA ORCHESTRA:

Gan Boon We

Khor Seng Chew

Loo Fung Chiat

Loo Fung Ying
See Keh Fong

Tee Hsien Onn

Lai Foo Yuen

Foo Chie Haur

There's a lot to blog about, discoveries and thoughts but till I find another window of time. I better get my ass out of here...to the hair salon, I have a corp gig tonight, yay!!!

NEW ITEMS!! Auction items for The No Plastic Bag Bazaar - now open for bidding!

The No Plastic Bag Bazaar

Aug 31st, 2009 (Monday)

12pm - 6pm

Noble Banquet, 235, Jalan Bukit Bintang

The auction items

interested bidders may email your bidding price & your contact to

soul.doc.lee@gmail.com

Xandria Ooi's babydoll blue dress

Starting price - RM 40

first bidder price (Rosheen) - RM 50

second bidder (SeeMing) - RM 60

third bidder (Celine Koh) - RM 80

4th bid (Rosheen) - RM 100

Xandria Ooi's maron cling dress

Starting price - RM 40

first bidder (SeeMing) - RM 60

Xandria Ooi's floral dress

Starting price - RM 40

first bidder (SeeMing) - RM 60

Xandria Ooi's pink tube dress

Starting price - RM 40

first bidder (SeeMing) - RM 60

Hannah Lo's mosaic art piece - "Prima Donna"

starting price at RM 300

Deborah Henry's Cole Haan white hangbag

starting price at RM 60

first bidder price (Jingnee) at RM 100

second bidder (Shareen) at RM 120

Deborah Henry's green stone pendant

Starting price at RM 35

Deborah Henry's Celine gold bracelet

Starting price at RM 50

first bidder (Shareen) at RM 70

Amber Chia's Stella McCartney Adidas jacket (pink)

Starting price at RM 100

Joyce Kirsten Wong's Aldo handbag

(unused & tag intact)

Starting price at RM 60

first bidder (Jingnee) - RM 100

second bidder (Najwa) - RM 110

Eco Accessory collection by Mah Su Sim

All items price start from RM 55

5 items - Stratum earrings, Fillament earrings, Stratum bracelet, Nova pendant, Flora pendant

Stratum bracelet, starting price RM 55

Nova pendant, starting price RM 55

Fillament earrings, starting price RM 55

Stratum earrings, starting price RM 55

Flora pendant, starting price RM 55

It's BAD for you

written by my man and I, together-gether, on something we have close to our hearts

“Too much chillies bad for you”

“Durians are very heaty”

"I try not to take medicine when I’m sick, coz’ I don't like pills, they're bad for health"

"No la, I don't want medicine, I let my flu run its course. I don't want all sorts of chemicals in my body, from those pharmacies"

"No thank you - I don't want to get addicted to painkillers, it's better I just suffer now and wait it out."

Sounds familiar? Its amazing what you hear these days.

What do you believe? How do we know? How can we tell the myths from the facts? How do we extract the good advice from all these bullshit?

It used to be “Don’t cut your toenails at night, otherwise the monster will get you”. Now that we know there’s really no monsters under the bed, we’ve ended up being scared of ghost. And when we wise up and figured out that ghost don’t exist, we’re worried about aliens visiting us and adopting us for sex.

Intergalactic orgies - doesn’t get better than that, does it?

So, once we’ve sorted out in our head that aliens are just too far to visit us and haven’t gotten round to dropping by our lovely blue planet, what’s next?

Durians are just too heaty? Why are we still stuck at this one?

We as a society cannot progress until we can differentiate these two:

“I believe” and

“I know”

I’m going to state the obvious but you’ll be surprised that most folks you encounter can’t tell the difference. Hack, they didn’t know there’s a huge difference.

I believe - is a conviction that we think we know while

I know - is simply knowing a fact.

‘I believe’ is just something we’ve assumed. When somebody ‘believes in something’, they really don’t know but makes a guess or an assumption. While ‘I know’ is simply and purely stating a fact. We can end up knowing wrong (or bad) things but you either know it or don’t.

Confused yet?

If I hold up a mug and tell you that I’ve got hot milo in it, once you’ve seen some steam rising from the mug, you’ll believe me. You don’t know if there’s hot milo, or even milo or anything hot for that matter, but you believe me. Maybe because I hardly lie (yeah right! everybody lies) and you notice the steam.

So, you believe I have hot milo in my mug but you don’t know if there’s hot milo in the mug unless you’ve taken a sip. You only know that I’ve told you I’ve got hot milo in my mug. See the difference?

If you see an apple, and its red, you know its red. Maybe you’re not sure what shade of red it is but you know its a red apple. You don’t have to believe its a red apple simply because you already know.

Its only when you don’t know, that’s when the ‘believe’ comes into play. Some call it faith and there’s plenty of derivative names we give it. But when we believe, it really means, we don’t know!

But what I really want to talk about is more specifically on something that I hear very often, something we hear and maybe, say a lot.

When we hear, read or say "I try not to take medicine when I’m sick, because I don't like medicine, they are bad for health". This “bad for health” part, do we believe it or do we know?

Organic farming, believe or know?

The durians are heaty business, believe or know?

Anyway, back to me meds, very often when I offer someone in pain a painkiller, I hear that kind of response. I'm often referred to as the medicine woman by friends, some of them regard to my habit of carrying painkillers & anti-histamine pills negatively (call me the `druggie'). However, there were times when my medicine pouch in my handbag gets pretty useful to some of these friends.

Sometimes when I'm in the mood, I ask them back, "So how is it that you know that painkiller is bad for you and where did you hear that from?"

Most of the time, they don't have the answer or have ever thought of how they came to think that medicine is bad for you. Some of them just respond, "Aiya, I just know lah."

Am sure we can all track down how we started to believe in something that we know nothing of - except perhaps we hear it from someone we trust, like our mothers, friends, teachers.

Speaking of things we hear from mothers. My mom likes to tell me not to shower right after a meal, it gives bloaty stomach, when asked why, she cannot answer.

The way to bust a myth is through information, education & confrontation. It never ceases to amaze and amuse me how easy it is to get people to believe something without having to provide solid information and facts. Again, the believe vs. the know.

So I brought up the subject last night with J, "What do I do with these people? They do a lot of things & believe in many things that they have no information & answers to...like they say medicine is bad for them."

He suggested, "Tell them to stop using cars then, tell them to walk to work, it's more natural that way and safer.". Actually, he’s right, there’s more evidence that cars are bad for your health than meds. Its also a top polluter. Do the environment and your health some good - starting walk to work.

"Tell them to stop wearing shoes too, its bad for them”. I’m so amused at how many parents would deny their own children proper medical care yet make them wear shoes all the time. Did you know that children who wear too much shoes are bad? No? Its because we don’t adequately develop the middle of our foot and the arch collapses. Now, don’t believe me, go and know it yourself. By knowing, you might save your child from developing flat foot. Love you child enough to google it?

I’m not saying meds aren’t bad for you. Hack, even fruits can kill those who are allergic to them. Its just that we don’t know of all its sides effect, we really don’t know if its good or bad. There’s plenty of clinical trials done on meds and the side effects are usually published, so you know. Do they know it all? Of course not, but when new information emerges, we get to know about it, like Vioxx. Even if it only causes an increased chance of heart attacks to a small population of test subjects, they took it off the shelves.

Just like we don’t know if drinking too much barley and coconut water has any long term side effects. Do we?

Just as organic chocolate is pure poison for dogs, there's really no more harm when something is synthetic as opposed to when its organically produced. A friend of mine studying chemistry once told me that a vitamin-C molecule is a vitamin-C molecule. They won't call it that unless its has the structure of the vitamin-C molecule. As long as the molecules have the same structure, they are identical, organic or otherwise. The only probable reason why organic is far more expensive is because its probably more expensive to produce that's why there's all the unverifiable fuss about organic vitamins are better then the synthetic ones. Actually, he added that synthetic ones are safer as they are precise in the synthesis and they can produce pure vitamin-C as opposed to organic extracts that may contain other kind of biological pollutants if the extraction process if flawed. Irony? You bet.

When J was a child, his grandma and everyone elder always told him the side effects of MSG. They called it “Ajinomoto” then, not knowing the active ingredient, MSG. You’ve probably heard that taking too much Ajinomoto will lead to hair loss and all other kinds of other unimaginative nasties. J asked them where did they hear that and they would just give him a look telling him that he’s being cheeky. So J would smile back at them and say that he preferred to loose his hair and be as smart as the Japanese. That usually shut them up.

So, one day at university, J was bored out of his wits in the library, and he decided to compile all the research on MSG to understand its side effects. They had research after research which concluded that MSG caused some side effects to those who are allergic to it (like some folks are allergic to apples but we don’t think that apples are bad for us, do we?) and that if taken in huge amounts (like a kilo without food or water at a time), dehydration would set in.

That’s it?

J was actually disappointed that there was no link to cancer or hair loss, nothing! No evidence of it being bad for our health. Hah! J knew Ajinomoto’s bad name was a conspiracy made out from housewifes who were frustrated that their families were eating out more often than they fancied. That was like 15 years ago and J did some searching just before co-writing this article and found the same results today.

So why are we still hearing this till today? 15 years, ago, without the Internet, it was understandable. You needed to be in a proper science library but today? With Google and Wikipedia? What excuse do we muster up?

Why our need to believe and our reluctance to know? What happened to our curiosity? Is exploration dead?

The next time you deny your body (or the ones in your care) real medical treatment, ask yourself if this believe thing is really an excuse for me being plain lazy or do I know something the world really doesn’t.

The one thing that's really bad for us is our reluctance to find things out.