Currently Reading (4)

1. Les Misérables Volume 1 by Victor Hugo 

'The Paris of 1862 is a city which France has for its suburbs... a maelstrom in which everything is lost; & everything disappears in this whirlpool of the world as in the whirlpool of the sea.'

500 pages of fainting women, the French Revolution & Paris' failed sewage system of the 19th century... Only took two months to read. Only. It's undoubtedly a classic of our time, of course, & I'm glad I finally trawled through the French epic novel but it's going to be a while before I pick up volume 2.

2. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

'No matter how dreary & gray our homes are, we people of flesh & blood would rather live there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful. There is no place like home.'

Delightful. A classic, albeit in a different way. Anyway, there was a sore need for children's literature after two months of reading Hugo ;)

3. The Cider House Rules by John Irving

'What is hardest to accept about the passage of time is that the people who once mattered most to us wind up in parentheses.' 

I read John Irving's A Widow for One Year sometime in 2012 & swore of his novels forever. A Widow for One Year was an absolute nightmare with its sparse story lines, tiresome characters & unbearably long-winded writing style & I swore I would never put myself through 600 pages of something like that again except that one day whilst youtube surfing, I saw the movie trailer of The Cider House Rules & with an inward groan, decided to give it a go. No regrets at all. While there isn't much of a plot in this novel, the settings are rich & powerful, the events, visceral, & the characters are strong enough to drive the story forward. Irving's writing in The Cider House Rules is also inarguably excellent, with its plot starting slow but swelling like a wave while also tackling sensitive issues without exaggeration or hyperbole, making it believable to readers. Enjoyed it immensely.

4. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

'Listen, Robert, going to another country doesn't make any difference. I've tried all that. You can't get away from yourself by moving from one place to another. There's nothing to that.'

The first novel Hemingway ever wrote, & a personal favourite. In The Sun Also Rises, the cityscape of Paris & the violent throes of Spanish bull-fighting are merely embellishments to the main attractions, which are the spirited, but lonely characters & the quick dialogue exchanged between them. There's really nobody who writes witty banter & captures the restless spirit of the Lost Generation better than early Hemingway.

5. By Grand Central Station I Sat Down & Wept by Elizabeth Smart

'Under the redwood tree my grave was laid, & I beguiled my true love to lie down. The stream of our kiss put a waterway around the world, where love like a refugee sailed in the last ship. My hair made a shroud & kept the coyotes at bay while we wrote our cyphers with anatomy. The winds boomed triumph, our spines seemed overburdened, & our bones groaned like old trees, but a smile like a cobweb was fastened across the mouth of the cave of fate.' 

I love love love this book. It's an obvious re-read: the slim volume of prose-poetry is criss-crossed with lines & heavily-marked with circles, the margins filled with ink & exclamation points, simply because this book is so full of beautiful phrases that every line stands out in its own way to me.  Prose-poetry is still a relatively new field of literature to me but even as I explore more of this genre, I am constantly pulled back to this one because of its brilliance. Lovely.

6. Tales of the Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzgerald

'...as if borne on the dreamy revolution of a slow merry-go-round.'

More literature from the Jazz age. Schizophrenic, quick & grand, & nothing short of the writings of F. Scott Fitzgerald.




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It's been kind of a slow 2013, reading wise. I've been savouring every chance I get to do some reading, but it's hardly ever enough.Need to set aside whole days for this! Besides work & late-night coffee/ice-cream sessions & random trips to IKEA, nothing much has been happening. Still, I can't help but feel that a full two weeks of sleep would do me some good. So far I'm holding it together, if only by God's grace!

Loads of exciting things are coming up but as far as tonight goes, I'm too tired to type them all out ;) I'll just have to update this space as the events unfold. For now, au revoir!





Other book lists from other times
(1)
(2)
(3)

Quotes from the Lesser-Known: Part 9

'Hi Nick.' 

'Hi. (laughs)' 

'So... what's a place you would like to visit before you die and why?' 

'I want to visit... well I want to go to the Montreal Jazz Festival. It's the biggest jazz festival in the world. I went for the Java Jazz Festival in Jakarta recently and that was one of the best experiences I've ever had. It's just so inspirational... I want to know and see the music scene outside of Singapore.' 

'Do you have a particular role model or musical artist whose style you admire?' 

'Marcus Miller. Hands down.' 

'That was quick! (laughs)Why?' 

'(Laughs) Well, I only really started to admire this guy when I watched this video of him from his biography. Sometimes you think that these guys are made out of pure talent, that they come out into the scene and they can just play everything. But what I realized was that they actually put in a lot of effort into playing and practicing... not everything is given to you for free. You have to work for it, there's a certain amount of effort you have to put into the theory.' 

'Okay. So why bass? Out of all the instruments...' 

'The groove. For me, music is all about the groove. It's the groove that attracts me to it, it's the rhythm. When I first started playing music, I didn't like piano... I tried guitar for a while and it was fine, but the bass just really attracted me. It's just such a cool instrument! There's really nothing quite like it.' 

'Talk about what inspired you to learn music. Your first experience, or pivotal moment you remember. and said 'Oh my goodness, I must learn the bass!' 

'The video that changed my life was... (laughs) Level 42 playing Mr. Pink. That video of Mark King playing that song was just... I mean, that was the point where I decided I wanted to take bass more seriously. Bass and music. And after that I started exploring a bit more... When I went to Poly and got into jazz band, that was when I started to take it even more seriously because it was there that I got introduced to Jazz. Prior to that I was just playing for fun. I mean, I liked it and all, and I was trying to get better, but I didn't take it too seriously.' 

'Can you imagine the world without music.' 

'No. (laughs)' 

'Why?' 

'Music is just so integrated into everyone's lives. It's so much a part of one's existence. It's like taking music out of a movie. The movie would just die, I think.'

Nicholas Lee, 19.

Engineering student, tres charming, & hands down the best 19-year-old bassist I know 

Some days you feel like jazz.

Stitched Up - Herbie Hancock & John Mayer
Beyond the Sea - Bobby Darin
Dream A Little Dream - Laura Fygi
Hell No - Sondre Lerche & Regina Spektor
Cheek to Cheek - Fred Astaire
Why I Am - Dave Matthews Band
The Very Thought of You - Ella Fitzgerald
Tout Deucement - Feist
Spain - Chick Corea
Crazy Little Thing Called Love - The Brian Setzer Orchestra
Pointless Nostalgic - Jamie Cullum
The Summer Wind - Frank Sinatra
Fly Me to the Moon - Julie London

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Coming home to an armful of university letters, tuition problems and a thousand responsibilities wasn't the greatest feeling. But well, sometimes, all you need are friends, a couple of movies and great music to make you feel better.

Watermelon man, anyone?

Let's be freaks!

I know I look quite like a boy here, but I like this picture cause it showcases our brilliant new drums and the lads look rather cool... not too shabby, not too shabby.

Electric Prunes, Juicebox, or Plaidtribe... I'm glad I have such band mates with absolutely wicked skills. Though we were self-taught, I feel immensely proud when ever we manage to pull off a jazz piece or do a neat jamming set.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, playing with you guys is something I enjoy and look forward to everytime. Till after As :D

A menima que vem e que passa

Tall and tan and young and lovely,
the girl from Ipanema goes walking
and when she passes,
each one she passes goes ah.

When she walks she's like a samba
That swings so cool and sways so gentle,
That when she passes,
each one she passes goes ah.

Oh but he watches so sadly,
How can he tell her he loves her?
Yes, he would give his heart so gladly.
But each day when she walks to the sea,
she looks straight ahead,
not at he.

Tall and tan and young and lovely,
the girl from Ipanema goes walking
And when she passes,
he smiles,
but she doesn't see.

Eliane Elias 'Girl from Ipanema'

50 ways to leave your lover

You make my dreams come true
do do, do do!


12: 23am: Feeling amazing (electric veins) and wide-eyed. This is more worrying than it should be, considering there are chinese A-levels in less than eight hours. Horse's patoot.

All that energy is probably from watching Joseph Gordon-Levitt get down to the 'You make my dreams come true' track by Hall&Oates six hundred times, who are by the way hella amazing. Also from having Brand New Eyes on repeat for the past week.



Jeremy is adorable here.
So is Hayles. Geeek.

It suddenly dawned on me how much CJ would suck without Brother Paul. Seriously, is our school not stuffy and boring already? As if we need some bat-hag dictator to come in and make our senior year even worse. Not looking forward to it at all.

Getting my work pay in a couple of days and there are no words to express how relieved I would feel. Time to pay back all my jazz concerts/workshop ticket debts to Luki (who has become Nick's and my personal loanshark), save up for the DSLR and buy a stack of good records. I'm thinking some Ella FitzGerald, or the newest Thelonious Monk record.

Meanwhile, its revisiting old favourites like Regina Spektor, the Smiths & Simon&Garfunkel <3 style="font-style: italic;">Ahhh.

Colour my life with the chaos of trouble.

Haven't you heard?
The sky's the limit
and we can make it or blanket,
the stars put on a show for you tonight.
Pour me a glass of that love
beneath the paris skies.

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Post-promo week was enjoyable. Ironically more tiring than EVER, but hey, I'll take it over mugging any day.

1. MOTHER TONGUE CLINICS. - one word, ewww. Well I guess I should have seen this coming, from the E grade during MYEs and the S grade for EOYs. Funny thing was that when all the chinese failures were asked to assemble at the flag pole today, 90% of SACians were there. Some things, never change.

2. IT'S A CAT JOB. - started going to my Uncle and Aunt's house to help them feed their cats while they go off to USA last week. It is not easy, at all. Considering the massive size of the bungalow alone and the uncountable places, it takes eons to find all six cats. Even then, they are too lazy to lift their stomachs off the grounds and lumber over to their bowls. Diet of grilled prawns and smoked salmon, what do you expect?

3. THE ICE-CREAM DEBACLE. - Met Clauds at Eastwood while she was walking Sparks and we stopped by Ice Cream Gallery for, well, ice-cream. Two minutes later, Sparks had knocked over both our ice-cream cones and we were laughing our butts off. Stupid but irrestibly cute Jack Russells

4. UNEXPECTEDLY AWESOME JAZZ CONCERT - Henderson Trio came to town, so Nick Luk and I got cheap, nosebleed seats just the night before. Dinner turned out to b a dismal affair, when I dropped an entire tray of food in Soupsoon, and we left the tickets on the table, only to turn back and get the staff to burrow through their trash to find it. Turned out to be really great, since they let us move up to frontrow seats!

5. FIRST OF THE HALLOWEEN CELEBRATIONS. - Well pictures of pam's party are all over fb. Highlights included the not-so-slutty-nurse-costume, trying to make 'LOVE' with our bodies (HAHAHAH you'll see why) and Nat being retarded, as per usual :D







My guitar becoming a prop for the night



HAHA CLARE!


testing our the fake-jump theory.



6. NEW HIDEAWAY. -jammed all day on Saturday & Sunday at Fontaine's. We need to get a camera, pronto (too bad none of us are all up for photos). Mom got into a hissy fit cause I came back pretty late, or early. COME ON, its post promos!

7. HARD-ROCK-IN' CAFE. - interview yesterday. Tiara picked me up from Tanah and her dad drove us to Orchard's HardRock branch (with Suat and Kieran in tow). The place is AMAZING. Guitars from Nine Inch Nails, Steve Vai and Joe Satrini... mindblowing. And the signed autographs of the Beatles on the walls. Hope everything works out :D

8. PROMOTIONAL RESULTS. - nerve-wrecking, to say the least. Got GP back today and it was pretty good... but I don't have a good feeling about tomorrow. Whatever happens, happens.

9. PW. - SHINGZ. I hate hate hate PW almost screamed during the four-hour stint of Oral presentation today and discussion. It doesn't help when half your team mates don't come up with good ideas. Sometimes feel like you're having a conversation with yourself. LAST LEG!

10. um okay out of things to say but '10' seems like a nice enough number to stop.



Catching up on GG, HIMYM and Grey's. Also watching too many Oh! Mikey vids, and laughing alone in my bedroom like a maniac. Well life's is hectic for now and the pressure can bust a pipe, but we hold it together.

Wordy post! Good luck for tomorrow, everyone :D

She lives in a fairytale, somewhere too far for us to find.

Christmas, come already!

Jazz@southbridge was a great experience, although I'm certainly getting a better drink when we go there next time. A round of musical chairs later, Joshua came and being the 'internationally-crowned-electone-player', we got some really really good tips for the band. Currently looking for a saxophonist/pianist, anyone?

Breakfast-turned-lunch with tiara pris and azriel atIkea today which I nearly couldn't wake up for, due to last night's marshmallow smoothie ventures and what not. It was fun. 'Honey, out sinks are broken!' Cause there's always something to buy from Ikea :)

Ooer, did I mention I got hired by my crazy aunty and uncle to feed their 2947429cats, whilst they fly back to USA to meet my uncle's parents for the first time in their married life of two decades? But I digress. Plus, Tiara's dad may be getting us jobs at Hard Rock Cafe! Fingers crossed! Here's to awesome free gigs and um, wiping drunk-tourists-puke-off-the-floor.


Also hit Fontaine's, somewhere near clarke quay with Cal and the girls, a final hurrah before we get back to the mundanity of PW (geewhiz) and Chinese (double geewhiz), whoopdedoo. On the bright side, I finally got a 160GB ipod classic for the trips to and fro from school :D

Four hours of sleep, here I come. See you in a bit.

See, I'm all about them words.

(over-numbered, un-emcumbered, numbered words.)

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Movies, novels and a hell lot of good music.

Spent the whole of yesterday recording one measly song at the studio (that did not even sound remotely nice), and alone, because my wonderful friends went off for a music workshop instead! Ssssh. And sharon yin got pulled over by a mean-ass traffic cop, because I called her when she was driving and she picked up. Whoops. Well so ends the closest brush with the law since post-promotionals.

Finally jammed with nick and luk yesterday and it was fun although we were all dead-tired. We signed a binding contract yesterday on the church walls in blood on my daily planner that proclaimed that we are henceforth called 'JUICEBOX'.

Legendary.

Clarke Quay jazz club later! Jen&Nick are twats cause they can't/don't want to go. Tsk, say goodbye to your 300 dollars worth of virtual moneh jen!

Hope all the post-promotional partying has been fun for everyone :D Till next time!

mandy goes to med school

He's my drug,
don't you think he'll get it by now?
Pills don't do good enough,
I'm done with all that sniffing,
Let's get that loving going,
Going strong.

________________________________________

Today i stared at something for five minutes and then realised it was my hand.

Also, i let Ellyn put a post-it in my hair, forgot all about it, and walked out of the house.


Anyway, enough about my many flaws and stupidities. Basically spent the whole day with gran and being a good grand daughter. Gran's a lot better now :D although she sometimes forgets what year it is (it goes as far back as 1949) and calls me my sister's name.

The. Cardigans. are. awesome.
And so is mike stern (lizzeh he said that i was beautiful!!!)

Tomorrow is a full day so goodnight all you suckers.

If you've got the poison, then i've got the remedy

I thought i had heard something,
Something ring,
Someone else's heartsong,
and it led me to you.

Turn off all the lights,
Because the melody,
Well its pretty infectious,
Dance with me,
Tonight we belong in harmony.

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Holidays are here! A cause for celebration? A well-deserved break from the hype of JC life perhaps (well not for odac-ers because they are climbing four mountains in three days...?!) but its just another week to catch up on studies.

We've been playing so hard (two phonecalls in a week?!) that i think i flunked CA tests. Amethyst and I got into a hell lot of trouble for the most ridiculous things too. But as Amanda would put it, 'We make better mistakes tomorrow!'. How vair funky.

I love it how during lectures when there's so much noise and then suddenly everything quietens down and a single voice is heard saying something hilarious. Like during Literature.




Sim lin looks she's about to spit at me.

Amos = class labourer. and voluntarily!!



AWWW LIZZIE FO FIZZIE SO CUTE!!



Tiara doesnt know where to look at.


Anyway.

JAZZ WEEK!!

Awesome time this week. Besides 'gigging' out with the band as ms kang would call it, the concerts were fantastic. Although on friday Nick and I had to sneak into the Mike stern & dave weckl, since they had a free bar. So plan >>> I had to pretend to uncle richard's hooker and call him 'sugar daddy' and aunt lisa made nick her toyboy! Well i was used to their usual antics, but nick was like 'OMG' in his expressionless way, if you get what i mean. So anyway i guess that ruse kinda worked because they never stopped us and we watched a wicked concert.








Yesterday i had to go get guitar strings for my ovation since dad snapped the strings while attempting to play 'House of the rising Sun', so rushed like crazy before performance to get it. I asked whether i could restring my guitar at yamaha and they said ok, so i sat on the chair and started to restring it. And about seven-eight people came up to me and asked whether i could show them the range of keyboards/if i could plug in the amps for them/how do chromatic tuners work. Thank god for the kindly yamaha guy who rescued me from the constant interruptions later on.

Dinner with ms kang was brills! We had a real blast :DDD patricia is such a gossip mama its shocking!! lol.




SKINS THIS WEEK WAS FLIPPING AWESOME.

196 people 'hearted' this picture on the photosite. Freddie you are smoking hot.




Have a happy holidays everyone! I hate being left alone in singapore when everyone's overseas. BAH. We deal with what we have!

Cheerio.