July 2008

My old friend returns.

The odyssey is over – The titan I’ve been grappling with all this while. Goodbye World lit 2…forever. It was an epic journey involving 4 teachers and 2 topic changes over a span of 2 weeks, which finally concluded at precisely 1:40pm today when I completed my last sentence. Now the doors to IOC have been flung wide open, and I finally have a direct path, no longer affected by trivial matters such as IAs, EE or homework. Hurrah!

In other news, my msn is bleddy irritating. Bugger keeps signing out, and I have no idea why. My nerves are being tested.

As the title suggests, I’ve installed a few new plugins for the blog, most of which are photo-centric. Clickie the piccies to see what I mean. As a result, I’m just going to throw up some of my favourite pictures taken recently to see if the plugins are as cool as they claim to be. No idea how to fix this funny text thingum, but oh well. Next time I’ll stick to the default settings.

In other news, the World Lit deadline is tomorrow. Jamie Tan’s given me a boatload of comments, so that should consume me for most of today.

Huzzah! Too bad about the shitznick I needed to wade through first in order to be granted that extension. Long story short, my bag is….inaccessible. As a result, I’m unable to get to my copy of Siddhartha to ensure the integrity of my footnoting, amongst other things, and also I get to go to school without a bag or a tie, carrying merely what assignments I need to pass up in my hand. Quite a “wtf” sight for my classmates, but it makes the morning trek up the driveway that much easier.

In other news, I’ve found someone else in the level who said “yes” at hendon camp as well. Hopefully if I get in, I’ll have a buddy.

…Riverdance…..with keyboards?

First off, I find it no small coincidence that Hendon Camp is located virtually next door to Changi Prison. I suppose that’s a great incentive for the inmates to behave well, and a great deterrent to any would be escapees – after all, no one wants to get their ass handed to them by a company of commandos.

Anyway, I arrived slightly late – at 8am instead of the stipulated 7:45am, but that didn’t seem to affect anything. Neither did the fact that I had forgotten to bring my further enlistment order as well. In fact, I’m fairly certain that whoever really wants to be a commando could just waltz in and pretend to have been called up, since they were merely writing down the names of those who showed up, rather than marking attendance from a printed form (hear that wannabe commandos?). I met Anselm there, so there was at least one familiar face. After rotting in a rather dilapidated MPH for an hour, we were split into two groups and herded into a lecture theatre to do a series of tests. A 3 hour long series of tests. This involved a visual pattern based IQ test (first pubilshed in 1958), and 2 personality tests. One of which seems to be an army issued test, dated from 1992, and it was inundated with grammatical errors. None of the questions made complete sense, and every two questions or so would have some form of typo. I’m fairly certain that I’ll be branded a political dissident now though, courtesy of my expressed willingness “not to accept the current order and attempt to change the way things are currently run for the better”.

After those tests, which finished at about 11:30am, we had a short medical which basically involved a height and weight station, eyesight test (my right eye appears to be horrible now) and a declaration of medical history, and I was stamped as a “suitable candidate”. Following which we returned to the MPH for a series of physical tests to gauge our fitness level. This consisted of maximum number of push ups in 1 minute, maximum number of situps in 1 minute, standing broad jump, standing on your tip toes with your hands out and your eyes closed for 30 seconds (to gauge your balance), touching your toes for 30 seconds (I was surprised to see that I was the only one who appeared capable of doing this in my group), reverse burpies (it’s complicated) and holding the V sit for 30 seconds. Finally, we finished off with the pullup station, where again I was surprised at how many people couldn’t do any pullups at all. This all finished at 1pm and we were released for lunch. By now I was absolutely famished, having not had breakfast. And whoever it is said that the food at hendon camp was good deserves to be shot.

Finally, we finished off the day with an interview. My interviewer was a very bored looking officer who seemed just to be running through a routine checklist of questions from the form such as whether I’ve had any working experience, or if I had any medical history they should know about (enough with these damn declarations! Don’t you guys share any information at all?!) This as opposed to some of the accounts I heard of the other people who got interviewed who received odd questions like: so how well do you gel with the people in your group? I supposed this may have stemmed from the fact that I answered that I did want to be a commando (lightning bolt, thunder crack). I mean what the hey, at least I’ll have an interesting time in NS if I get selected – what’s the worst that could happen? (Besides dying and grievous bodily harm.) Although I heard that apparently those who ‘put up a fight’ tend to have a higher chance of being selected…

Officer: So son, do you want to be a commando?
Guy: What?! No way! If you make me a commando, I will fight you.
*begins beating up the officer along with other commandos who approach him*
Captain (peering through a window): Oh…he’s good.

After the interview we were unceremoniously dismissed, and I took the mrt back home where I rendezvoused with Yiwei to lend him a shirt and got a haircut.

After spending most of today in a coma, and suffering from various stages of depression, I still have to worry about World Lit. The dreaded spectre of Mr Tan looms over me and I am powerless to resist…Stop! Go away! I plead, but it only drones on…..

So the reminiscences only lasted until 1:30am. The final ever performance all of us will have as part of ACSIS was quite possibly the best performance ever from everyone. Just about everything went according to plan, and apparently some in the audience compared it to Boot Polish – quite possibly the highest accolade that we could ever be accorded. Connor dubbed friday night’s audience as the worst audience he’d ever seen in 30 years of theatre. Thankfully last night’s audience was alot better, with one notable exception. As part of my opening speech, it was planned that I would be interrupted on purpose by a phonecall while I was lecturing the audience about the importance of keeping their handphone on silent mode during the performance. The scripted phonecall went beautifully. And then came another….

Me: Anyway as I was saying, handphones on silent and if i catc-
*phone rings* – Good god. Ohnonononono
Me: …I told you to stop calling me here….heh… Like I said, if I catch you using one, then it’s DC – Detention class for-
*phone rings* – Nyeaaaaaahhhh

I then walk off stage and fling my phone into the wings where thankfully Theodore grabbed it and covered the speakers while I walked back onto stage and feebly said: “Heh…some people just don’t learn do they….”

Needless to say, Hadi, Chun Wui, Cao and Asher were going mad over the cans.
“Wtf is he doing?”
“Oh man is he getting called again?”
“Is this for real?”
“What the? I didn’t know about this addition to the script”
“He just threw his phone away?”
“Guys, it’s real.”
“Wahahahhahahahahahhaahahahahaha”

Ferd thought it was real though, and reprimanded me for overdoing the hell out of a joke – until I told him that it was real. Thank you muchly, Barry.

I suppose it’s a good experience to have to improv on stage, but still harrowing nonetheless. Either way, it’s a memorable end to my Drama experiences. A play we’ve staged a total of 7 times, and which we worked on over the course of 8 months – the saga finally comes to a close. I’d like to think that over the course of these 8 months it’s profoundly impacted all of us involved, and after the all the exhiliration, it’s going to be tough to return to the humdrum of everyday life again. Over the course of this week, we caught a glimpse into the lives of professional actors who have to stage the same play night after night after night. Exhausting as hell, but who on earth would want it any other way? Nothing quite compares to the experience of chilling out backstage during a live show while laughter reverbrates through the wings as a result of Cao’s antics on stage.

I envy the year 5s. They can still afford to take a couple of days off and celebrate, sodomize, whatever in commemoration of the end of Competition Piece, and also know that they have a few more plays to go before they leave the club and the school. For the year 6s, it’s the termination of what has been an integral part of our lives, and when we get home we are greeted by world lit and IOC – all of which had been forgotten (virtually) during that one week of escape from reality. For that one week we were punks, preppies, arties….and milfs/filfs. To anyone who’s never been involved in a production before, I cannot stress how much ordinary life pales in comparison to stagework where the credo “The Show Must go on” reigned supreme. “The Show” was almost a living thing, which we had to dedicate our all to upholding regardless of our physical condition. Your own well-being always took a backseat to the show – Even during one of the runs where Bingei fell off two tables, he just picked himself up and kept on going like nothing happened. Now that “The Show” is no more, everything else seems so trivial – nothing demands our all in the same way that “The Show” did.

I envy Connor. At the start of year 5, I, along with most of the other clubmembers thought that he was just a stiff lipped teacher with totally no sense of humor, and who would make drama a boring experience. We couldn’t be more wrong. He’s got a brilliant sense of humor, and he’s done so much in his life that he’s always got a story about every single situation. In between putting on makeup or between runs, he always has a story or some anecdote on tap for anyone who asks for it. I honestly hope that my life would be at least half as interesting as his was.

In fact, all the drama teachers are equally fun in different ways, and the relationship has evolved to such an extent that they are not so much teachers as extra clubmembers, with their fixed place in the group dynamics of the club, and able to freely take part in the various inside jokes that have been created.

Zhe Xian: Oh my God I am such a sexy man
Me: (Shouting out) Does anyone here think Zhe Xian is sexy? Anybody?
*Girls flinch, Hadi raises his hand enthusiastically while most of the rest of the club rolls their eyes*
Connor: Well, I think he looked quite alright with his hat on…I mean it covered most of his face.

Not to mention their willingness to always listen to new ideas, and this has resulted in an environment that really fosters creativity, and Competition Piece would definitely not have been what it was had it not been for the level of student participation that was allowed.

If the role of high school drama is to educate and foster interest in stage, then it has succeeded brilliantly. Not only have we all been enriched by the experience, but I am confident that when IB is all over, and we get a break from NS, we will all come back again someday in the future to do a show together. I’m sure of it. And when that day comes, it will be just like old times, and who knows? This may be the end of my time in ACSIS, but is it merely another beginning? Ask me in 10 years.

So last night was the first night of the Drama Festival of the Arts performance. The plays went beautifully – The chronicles of Jane was absolutely sublime. Didn’t catch the lower secondary play, but from what I’ve heard, it went beautifully as well. Competition piece was similarly successful.

The problem? The audience. They were pretty godawful – At the start of the show, only 60% of them were seated in the CPA, half of whom were walking around and climbing over chairs, talking, shouting, etc, which made my job rather difficult. Their rowdiness continued into the first play, and I’m fairly certain they more or less missed the first 10 minutes or so of the play until a certain transvestite walked onto stage and made the audience realise what they were missing. Not to mention the various whoops and shouts directed at the actors during the play which thankfully didn’t affect their performances. It was seriously the best run I’ve ever seen amidst the worst possible audience. Thankfully Competition Piece suited their tastes more, and Cao as always got the audience in stitches.

That being said, the audience wasn’t all bad. They were definitely a spirited bunch, and extremely supportive. It felt as though they were honestly interested in the plays, but just didn’t know how to behave during a performance. They cheered after the end of each play, and were truly very enthusiastic. In a sense it reminded me somewhat of the “old school” ACS audiences, especially during Boot Polish(Ha, Kyle). It’s always been a tradition that the Senior Admin would force the unwilling masses to buy tickets for FOA. However, back then, despite the imposition of the Senior Admin, there seemed to be a genuine enthusiasm to see the drama plays – it was the highlight of the year. I can attest to that from an audience member’s perspective since I had no pretensions of joining drama until secondary 4. And then The Birds came and destroyed the reputation of drama. Last year’s FOA didn’t help much either, and it seemed as though drama would forever be relegated to merely being a dumping ground for students being forced to buy tickets by the senior admin. And this showed, as the audience clearly looked like they didn’t want to be there. But last night, there was heart. Despite the rowdiness and the inappropriateness, it seemed as though the audience genuinely wanted to be there – just like in the past.

After the performance, Asher, Zhe Xian, William, Jeremy and myself went to Holland Village for supper and this was a topic that was being tossed around. That, and the fact that in less than 24 hours we would no longer be in Drama. For Asher and William, it would mark the end of an activity that had consumed them for the past 6 years, a third of their lives. For Zhe Xian and me 2 years (technically 4 for Zhe Xian, but he was a useless slacker in sec 3 and 4), and for Jeremey….only the beginning since he was the sole year 5. It’s odd that even though I was in hockey for 6 years, I never felt this same sense of accomplishment nor bonding with the clubmembers, yet despite being in drama for 2 years, it feels as though I’ve spent my life in drama.

Well, tonight’s going to be the final performance. Ever. Ever ever. Say hello to teary eyed reminiscences at 3am in the morning somewhere in Holland Village.

To whoever is reading this:
You are probably blinded by the pure awesomeness of my attached picture, and as a result are unable to read any further…

Probably slightly egoistical…

My achievements include being part of a Gold with Honors winning drama team, and discovering the meaning of life while sitting on the can…

Don’t think they’ll buy it….

I have done many things in life, including your mom…

Doubt they will appreciate hostility…

I am better than you.

Again with the ego…

You are a fuck.

I just need some sort of angle…..