making of the musical - part ii

ok, so the immediate aftermath of the musical madness was - wake up next day, alcohol still burbling in system, and arrange songs for pennyo. and that has been the theme for most of the week past, with the pennyo retreat and the preparation for it (arrangements!! arrangements!!) eating up most of my life, along with a sizable backload of overdue work. hence i really haven't had the time to carry out that period of reflection that often occurs after a massive life-rending production such as the musical.

a week's passed, pennyo retreat's over, the concert's next week but at least most of the songs are out, and there's a lot less admin and a lot more of an established system as opposed to the musical, so i have the time to sit down here and think, and write a bit more about what happened seven days ago.

yellow people

this song is apparently controversial though i really don't see what's the big deal. this is another of those early songs that existed as a scrap for a really, really long time and never really evolved past that for an equally really, really long time. when i first sat down to bash songs out with caleb, i just kept singing - 'yellow people sit together, black people sit together, that's what we call diversity..." and many iterations with many different colors... and then i was convinced to add in a politically correct ending to avoid getting lynched by a multicolored mob.

personal favorite line - "i'm not in the US/to feel like N-U-S..." (it was just too easy. i'm sorry all NUS people. note that i expressly tried to avoid anti-schools-other-than-penn jokes in the musical, even though it can be sooo tempting. this one slipped through the cracks.)
most hated line - "just a bit of effort and little care/take a while you'll see"..."have an open mind/be color blind"(i hate preaching by music, especially the obvious.)

university of pennsylvania

another early scrap! at least "yellow people" existed as three lines. this one.. was only three words. "u-n-i-ver-si-ty-of-penn-syl-va-ni-a". it didnt even have the catchy little pause at the end (university of pennsyl - PAUSE - vania). it was all 12 syllables of equal lengths, sung in choral warmup style... and it would just keep going up! and up! and up! with no direction, rhyme or reason! i think i was reading about modal jazz at the time. obviously i was reading wrongly.

as expected, caleb hated this song in its earliest form. after i added the pause, and corny lyrics, he grudgingly accepted it - this was after yellow people, and i think random school facility as well, and then he nagged me about writing too many 'theme' songs and not too many 'character' songs. bah. theme songs are more fun. character songs are for emo whiners like my brother. (this is a test to see if caleb actually reads this blog).

trivia - there used to be a missing extra chorus that went (hurrah (8x) - fair harvard has her crimson, and yale her colors toooo... at the university of pennsylvania). we both laughed a lot about it when we wrote it, but i think we realised that it didn't make very much sense, and i wrote it out when i fit the song into the script. one more of those calls about school-specific jokes.

personal favorite line: "you waant much more than this pro-vin-cial liife" (everyone loves disney); or.. "your country needs more graduates... to marry other graduates... and when they finally copulate... their children will be smart" (old joke, but good one. with mild personal resonance, too, having passed through jeep-land.)
most hated line: the chorus that got cut.

random school facility

at this point i must throw out a random accolade to the lovely jennifer setiawan, who stepped in one week for the musical for a special guest cameo. we had a cast member pull out a month before the show, and though it didn't seem like a big deal at the time (we had enough ensemble members to fill in), there was a minor logistical issue created - may, who took over the role of mrs heng, had to cover also as a random school girl to fall in love with martin. this was ok, but suboptimal. thankfully jen appeared to cover things, and she took it a step even further by volunteering to choreograph the whole dance! (or rather, i met her at some intoxicated gathering, told her 'eh, go choreograph it', we both laughed it off, i woke up the next day, saw her at rehearsal, and told her 'eh. i'm serious.' this was a week before the show.) weaker human beings would have told me to go do bad things to myself. jen sang, danced, choreographed, and turned up for a hell week though she only appeared for one song... my undying gratitude goes out to her.

this song (being one of the 'theme' songs that caleb so detests) was rather easy to write. looping enough boyz ii men and other generic poppy swoony love ballads in triple time made it simple - i have been sufficiently culturally schooled in the grand and august pop music tradition to well, follow the formula. add in enough random love overkill cliches (girl and boy in library, girl and boy sharing study room, girl and boy bumping and swopping notes accidentally...) and tada instant funny love song. i was actually tossing a few more tried and tested scenes around, e.g. girl in elevator, boy rushes in last minute... and then elevator spoil etc etc.

favorite line: "i was surprised/ to find/ his/her notes are much better than mine..." (musical corny fun songs are one of the few places where my over-rhyming habits are tolerable)
most hated line: the entire chorus, really. the whole "love of a lifetime" thing? and "so specially special" (oh so special)? quite a lyrical copout. i was trying to fit in something more funny but there were deadline issues. "so specially special" may be the worst phrase in any of the songs in the whole musical... i'm almost ashamed i wrote it.

hello my dear/oh no my dear/you know my dear

my brother's cameo song. about two months before the musical we were experiencing a strange reversal of roles. my brother has written probably ten times as many original songs as i have (find them on his website), and i have done probably ten times as many music arrangements as he has (due to being part of pennyo, penn's only chinese a cappella group - concert next week! shameless plug!) - albeit only for a cappella. back then, i was writing all the tunes and lyrics - and then he was exclusively doing all the arrangements. this was sort of necessary because - i was writing the book, and not really telling him very much about it, and hence had to integrate the songs into the book - and he's the music genius, so he can pick out the chords and accompany whatever tune i sing at him in <15 minutes (which happens to be the average time he appears at my room before each musical practice).

naturally, he complained about this situation - because he wanted to write some songs. i told him, ok, go write a corny mock emo love song by a long distance boyfriend. make sure to include corny mock emo tropes. i raised the example of white plastic bags swirling in the wind (a la american beauty). and this song evidently was the result - music all by him, lyrics mostly by him. (i tweaked a few lines here and there, and i added in the whole 'oh no my dear' segment (to his chagrin) for structural purposes in act ii)

favorite line: "it says that if you love someone then you must set them fweeeee"(actually, i just like the 'fweeeee'. in an earlier iteration, he was supposed to sing 'for youuu... and meeeee', with the mee in falsetto and in the sesame st ernie voice. he toned down the ernie-ness for the recordings. i was sad.)
most hated lines: i dislike most of the end bits of 'you know my dear', actually- it was supposed to be a mock emo song. and then suddenly it became the very thing it was supposed to mock - an emo song!! noooo!!! ah well. you can't always have it your way.

midnight

a lot of people like this song - it's lovingly rendered by two of our best (if not the best) singers, val and kenny, (lame trivia only comprehensible to cast- after coining 'GGV'(gingivitis), i wanted to address our two lovers as 'valkenny', which reminds me of vulcanicity, but i digress) and they hit this one out of the park. i personally like it a lot, though not as much as 'you are here' - for a few reasons.

a few flaws in construction bug it for me - the verse is not really connected to the chorus, musically (i think it has to go into double or something), and just the general feel of both parts - both of which i like separately but perhaps not that much together?; lyrically the whole 'midnight' and 'light' and 'right' think was a bit overkill in the first chorus - 'daylight' seemed a better fit in the second; the chorus is soaring when they hit it well... but also hard to sing with this bizarre jump/shift thingy in the middle; and just this general... incoherence? i was trying to achieve a feeling of tentativeness, uncertainty (could you be thinking my name/ wondering/ if i /should i feel the same); but then i had to effect this transition from midnight to daylight and the following movement towards some kind of triumphant certainty/stability (daylight! - cue lights on, kevin pang! one of my favorite moments)... all a bit iffy.

what makes it good for me still - caleb and the musicians covered my ass for this one, gliding over the long held notes in the verse and the necessary transition to the chorus with some very nice guitar/piano sequences that still lift the hair on my neck when i remember them; kevin pang and lights (already mentioned); tremendous soloists (already mentioned); a very simple rising line in the chorus ('we'll- just - wait - and -seee); and a couple of lines in the verse that i was very pleased with.

favorite lines: "children should be sleeping/lovers should be keeping time/heart to heart". ah, two feminine rhymes in a row, and with four to five word line lengths at that. it's gotta be lame. but that additional -time tagged on... saves. the. day. and then it runs on to the next sentence and then the second line gains an extra glisten... bam! (the best thing about an english major education is that it gives you the analytical resources to better blow your own trumpet.)

most hated lines: "when i wake i hear you snoring/we'll do breakfast in the morning" i was going for gritty/affectionate realism, and uh, fell very far short. caleb called me up to complain about them a couple of times - and i agreed... but i couldnt think of anything better. sometimes bad lines just stick in your head and every time you run the musical tune over to think of new, better lines - the bad ones just sit there, defying any attempt to put new words in their place.

sweet potato porridge/priorities

anybody else notice how these two songs sound a bit alike? (that's why we put them apart... in act i and act ii... and kept different singers on them... and different arrangements/moods... the scam succeeded!) even worse, i wrote them virtually back to back, without realising it, after becoming mentally stuck in a mode. caleb shouted at me after i sang 'sweet potato porridge' to him... EH! THAT SOUNDS LIKE THE LAST SONG LAH!!! he is pretty consistent about scolding me when i produce similar sounding songs (e.g. prayer for my daughter - random school).

if i had to pick a least favorite, it would be one of these two - possibly priorities. caleb likes it, and his dong-ching-dong-ching arrangement, but gosh do i find that piano raggy thing annoying. you could think of it as an exercise in super-feminine rhymes... or basically, things that rhyme with 'priorities'. the lyrics are contrived, and due to the multisyllable madness the song is nearly unsingable, but our talented singers soldiered through it anyway. i came up with it while walking home past cav's one day - i recall humming to myself "so i've got priorities/ affirmative action for minorities/ like youuu". though eventually that line got cut.

favorite line: "looks for 'whatever he can get' " (re: facebook) - potentially the only line with any subtlety in this song.
most hated line: oh, lots.

sweet potato porridge will eternally be associated with swinging hands/elbows left to right. it's a very infectious hand action. this is also the only song that i (badly) choreographed. (70% of the actions consist of swinging hands/elbows left-right in front of body). the cast may have noticed me carrying out this hand action during virtually every song with a dong-cheng-dong-cheng beat, e.g. priorities, university of pennsylvania, yellow people...

this song is also notable for being inspired by filip kor - some random joke in conversation of his from freshman year, re: parents sending him to school and hence must eat sweet potato porridge every day. caleb wrote the bridge (soy sauce, chye sim etc) and ending (no morrrre - guorui), lyrics and music both, and i wrote the rest. its a "theme" or concept song... and basically was written largely because "porridge" and "college" apparently rhyme. (yes, more feminine rhymes. sorry.)

favorite line: "doo-doo, doo-doo, doo-doo, doo-doo." (who needs lyrics!) or.. the entire ah ma chorus.
most hated lines: "work for part time at cold storage... have to take a mortgage..." just a little bit too over the top on the rhyming... i also considered "they're bringing back the knowledge.. education we encourage... " and other bad lines before deciding to keep it at two.

Sing, City: The Recording Part One

Today marks the first day of our recording sessions- I'm sitting here my laptop at my desk, planning today's arrangement and the things I need to do for the recording. It's been quite nightmarish- planning out the schedule on my little excel spreadsheet trying to map out everyone's schedule which just happens to clash with Pennyo's Spring concert and pretty much everyone else's Gettysburg trip, homework deadlines, meeting schedules etc. Nonetheless- forge ahead with great strength!

Looking at my master plan for the recording, it just struck me that we actually have 20 tracks- will it fit on the cd?

Will the recording go smoothly? Will Terence's furry mic be of sufficient quality? Will my primitive software mix and hold up well enough? Will ppl be on time and punctual so as not to mess up my schedule? Will it? Will it? More questions, and fewer answers.

Excitement nonetheless!

Sing, City! - Colin Goh's thoughts

From Colin Goh's and Woo Yen Yen's blog:
"There was also an excellent musical put up by the students titled ‘Sing City’. I’ve seen similar performances by Singapore clubs in other universities, but this one stood out for me, particularly the poppy score and witty libretto by brothers Joshua and Caleb Yap, two names to watch out for."

Take that, UK universities.

Since I'm Photowhoring/Facebook Whoring...

Symptoms of Withdrawal Symptoms

I think it's hilarious that everyone is suffering from withdrawal symptoms from our little show. That includes me too- I've been on facebook alot more than I am usually simply because ppl have been walling, and I decided to capitalise on post-production hype and energy to start a facebook group (muahahahah I feel like I'm five). It's titled- What I'd Do To Do It All Again, a quote from After All This Time (Finale) which the entire cast bellows at the end of the show.



Other upcoming events to negotiate our withdrawal highs include: Noodle Blues Night, sponsored kindly by Philip and Chestnut Hall 1028 where an instant noodle buffet has been scheduled for public enjoyment. In addition to this and massive facebook whoring and repeated whines for photos and other Sing, City! paraphernalia. Upcoming projects include (quote Terence) Sing, City: The DVD, Sing City: The Photos, and Sing, City: The Soundtrack.

And for the record- Terence is NOT a suit! =) He's been an integral part of the production process, and I hope we've credited the administrative and logistical work of Terence, Jingxian, Yexiang and the other crew members enough. We're grateful to them, and apologise for the inconveniences, and unhappy moments caused! No rancour to speak of, except in the moment!

Sing, City! superlatives

I've been pretty privileged to be one of three people who can post on this Sing, City! blog. The other two are the co-creators of the musical, Josh and Caleb Yap. My role in Sing, City! is twofold - playing acoustic guitar, and conducting overall admin sai-kang (given that Club Singapore "presented" Sing, City!). The similarity in these two elements of my role is that I got to piss off either one of the brothers. Caleb, because my eyes were glued to the score whenever I played the guitar and because I played too fast for my own good, and Josh, because I played the Suit throughout the creation of the musical - limiting the budget, procuring a smaller-than-expected performance space, melding the speaker series and musical into one event, worrying unnecessarily (in hindsight) about logistical issues paralyzing the process. There were times when I felt like Ari Gold in Entourage (minus the hot wife and sports cars), while Josh and Caleb were the Vincent and Eric of the musical. Constantly reminding Josh of what he could (not) do, getting Russell to report to me any suspicious spending activity, coming late for rehearsal because I had to get the flyers up in Harnwell, etc. How apt it was that on performance night itself, I run in an hour late for the final run-through, wearing a suit and tie while the other musicians were already spiffily decked out in their custom-painted hipster LoveSG tshirts. Then in my spiderish franticness to set up the video cameras around the room to produce a DVD of the event, I trip over the wire connecting the musicians' monitor to the mixer, spilling the amp on the floor and once again incurring Caleb's rancor. The only consolation is that while Ari Gold is the pompous and gullible suit in the show, at least he's quite memorable. Anyone wanna hug it out?

And now - Sing, City! superlatives! Vote in the comments!

Best Couple
1) Renhua and Janice
2) Kenny and Val
3) Guo Rui and May
4) Gina and Garrett
5) Yao Xiang and Emily (this one's for the musicians to have something to talk about)

Cutest Unforeseen Event
1) Philip's la-la-la through the You Are Here reprise
2) Guo Rui's powdery hair
3) The mass of people clamoring for tickets outside Rooftop Lounge

Best Guitarist (has to be settled once and for all, we all struggled to be louder than one another)
1) Wymen
2) Dennis
3) Terence

Best Bass Guitarist
1) Ben Gan

Favorite Screw-up During Rehearsals
1) Gina's "no pork, no floss"
2) Ren's "investment banking bay (Bain? Baby?) bonus"
3) The musicians. At every rehearsal.

Favorite Celebrity Who Sat Through Sing, City!
1) Alfian Sa'at
2) Colin Goh
3) Francis Seow
4) Ben Gan

Favorite Rehearsal Location
1) Caleb's room
2) Josh's room
3) Huntsman Hall
4) Bathroom

And most importantly:
Cast and Crew's Favorite Song
1) Results
2) University of Pennsyl-vania
3) Sweet Potato Porridge
4) Yellow People
5) Your Dreams Will Not Perform As Advertised (musicians' favorite, I believe)
6) Prayer For My Daughter
7) Hello My Dear / Oh No My Dear / You Know My Dear
8) Random School Facility
9) Sing Little City
10) Priorities
11) Midnight
12) You Are Here
13) Noodle Blues (appeared to be a crowd fav)
14) I Was Fine
15) After All This Time

sing city, the making of - episode one.

people have been asking - how did you guys write the whole thing? who wrote what? what were you thinking? blah blah blah. so... here's a little bit of background info on... where the songs came from.

i had a lot of musical ideas connected to certain lyrics (in cases, maybe just individual lines) that had bounced around my head for quite a while during the percolation process. so one saturday afternoon, my brother and i sat down and bashed out concepts for eight songs that would form the backbone (or so we thought) of our musical.

at this point, we had no script, or even any vague idea of where it was going - only that the musical was set at penn, and that it was about love - hence you may notice that most of the songs that actually survived this first wave ended up in act i (introductory material), and/or are pretty general. most of them began really just as tunes in my head, linked to a few words, phrases, lines. then under pressure from caleb, and occasionally with some chords from him that uh, were different from what i had in mind, i began to flesh out the rest of the tunes, and then add more lyrics.

this was the first wave of songs that made the cut -
you are here; random school facility; yellow people; university of pennsylvania; midnight; priorities; friday night lights, (waking up alone on a) saturday morning, SINGAPORE.

yes, some of these never survived to the next round, notably 'friday night lights', a frat party-themed rock song which died a horrible death (caleb hated it and i never really liked it) and was resurrected in spirit from the grave, and went heavy reconstructive surgery to become 'sing, little city' (which made much more musical and lyrical sense.) 'saturday morning' was meant to be a slow, soppy counterpart in the aftermath of 'friday night lights', and they were meant to meld into a call-and-answery layered reprise titled 'friday night/saturday morning' that... never saw the light of day.

'SINGAPORE' was this concept that we had in our head very early - an introductory song with lots of singaporeans waking up, along the lines of 'belle' from 'beauty and the beast'. i in fact wanted to begin the musical with grace singing the lines - "sing-a-pore/it's a quiet island/every day/like the one before/sing-a-pore/full of sing-a-po-o-reans/waking up/to/say...." and then i couldn't think of anything suitably singaporean and bisyllabic greeting-esque except "wah lau" to take the place of "bonjour", so that idea was tossed. much later... i ay-ay-ay-ay-ed 'results' into existence to caleb's chagrin, and the rest is history.

before i started this blog, i actually wanted to sit down and detail the work done on each individual song, both as a personal reference for myself on the songwriting process, as well as interesting anecdotal material for whoever's interested in how we actually wrote the whole damn thing in two months. so i did a rambly background on the making of 'you are here', and that took up all the energy i had. i'll write more if the mood takes me.

You Are Here - for the longest time, was just a chorus and a concept - in fact, jst the strange modulation/progression in lines 3-5 (..you are HERE (question posed)... when the WINter's done its WORST (strange chord, tension)... when the SNOW at last (progress, wistful chord, still strange).. has MELted into memory (resolution, return to comfort...). i had the tune for that ringing in my head long before i filled in the lyrics - the only lyric lines that were existent from the very beginning were 'you are here' at the beginning of each chorus line, and 'you are here, and it matters to me' at the very end. i was really planning to change that ending when i first wrote it - felt a tad cheesy? but after the wordiness of the previous choruses after i filled in more lyrics, it felt simple - clean - and by then it had settled quite definitely in my head. simple, primary school vocab - but simple, primary school concepts are also the strongest.

the chorus as we know it now - was actually going to be just a repeated verse unit, and i was stuck there with this song for a long time, but out of somewhere the lyrical/musical line 'where i'm from, things don't change..." just hit me - and then 'summer nights to summer days...' immediately followed - and after that the whole seasonal theme just piled on. other early lines that felt suddenly right were 'no one sees/ it begin/ just a changing of the wind' (personal bad inclination towards -ing-ing verbs into nouns); 'the lights go up on locust walk' (one of my favorite visual memories of penn). it came back to me then, that fall day in sophomore year, walking by vance hall, and the golden leaves suddenly all cascading down - the rest of the song wrote itself.

there are lines that i must continually apologize for/explain: 'a time to give/a time to take/where you going for spring break' - they were intended originally as an interlude of guorui (dad) and yanmin(mom) and random singaporean, to lighten the somewhat emo tone of the song. and then the following line 'when the heart begins to ache' allows a swift return to the original mood, and i was just thinking of valerie's voice soaring up that note in sweet contrast to the more farcical spring break line.but people still complain. aiyah.

the last verse is of course the one most relevant to me as a senior, and caleb actually takes the credit for assigning it to filip. early into the practices, he sold me on the idea of having filip half-speak, half-sing those lines ('here it ends/where we begun/packing boxes one by one') in his distinctive toodle-dy-doo filipian fashion. to my deep sorrow, the previous spring break lines appeared to have gained more ground in the filipian consciousness as opposed to my deeply sentimental ('i'll put my memories on rewind/looking back on better times/ now it's finally time to find/ what to take or leave behind') - because he sang the former instead! ah!!! :} i spent a lot of time cobbling those last two lines together. (though right now i feel that the last line should be 'what to keep or leave behind'). i saw those lines from the very beginning as a single character standing on stage in front of a box, two items in his hands - each invoking memories - but only one can fit. primitive foreshadowing. woohoo.

i actually thought the first take of 'you are here' would appear early in the play, and the last final reprise would be very late in the play, so i wrote the two lines 'after the world has done its worst/after the joy and tears have melded in our memories' with the extremely long 'after the' taking the place of 'when', thinking of some kind of musical dramatic pause (fermata? whatchamacallit?) (you are HERE ....pause....aaaafter the world..etc) to be injected there. i was also very smug when 'joy and tears have melded in our memories' took the place of 'snow at last has melted' in my head - ah, i love what you can do to the english language just by changing a letter. (in retrospect, the subtle difference is a little bit hard to catch while sung, though. lesson learned.)

'you are here' was the first song to be completed, and one of my personal favorites. (also the first original song i've written in, uh, 9 years.) i do somewhat regret that its eventual placement in act three somewhat downgraded its significance in the musical - and shanghai-ed its thematic focus away from seasonality/transience/permanence (the importance of time - which is what i was thinking of) and towards location (the importance of place - which is what it seems to come off as being about, both from title and the dialogue leading up to it). i was also thinking of it as a triumphant ending song, but caleb wrote his massive 'after all this time' ending over it, so, fine, bleah.

oh, and it's dedicated to jasmine tsai, for being here. the song's inspired by her, anyway. ultimately, the rest of the song is just icing - the last two primary school lines are what i mean to say. regardless of changing seasons, time and place - here and now, you are here - and it matters to me.

what you blahblahblah echoes in eternity blahblahblah or at least online

just to prove that i've been stalking my cast and crew.

msn:
jx got a craving for some noodle soup
snami8 - your dreams will not perform as advertised
Mrs Heng and her fan
kendrew(uPenn): Sing City - the musical!!!

facebook:
Gina is having the post sing-city blues.
Terence is musical-ing through the week.
Kenneth is singing in the club singapore musical!!
Janice is not fine... no more sing city!

The Suit speaks

Let's focus on Sing, City!: The Photos and Sing, City!: The Video first, before thinking about the soundtrack!

Just when you thought it was over...

Sing, City: The Soundtrack.

WILL IT HAPPEN???????

ORD loh

i believe the correct expression is

WOO HOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

multitasking

we were thrown for one big one by clearsound, when they happily arrived, dropped the equipment on the floor, and walked away. my previous experience with clearsound (from ten+ a cappella concerts working for different groups) is that they arrive, set up with whatever help we can offer, and then they run away. apparently there's a different policy for the rooftop lounge/club singapore? then again, we did get a significantly cheaper package than the one i'm used to... hm...

i haven't done significant setup since, well, grace baptist church, usually relying on the techs to connect all the wires before i go on to tinker with room eq, individual mike checks, balance, tape etc. also i haven't worked with wireless mikes before, let alone 8 of them. so when the boxes hit the floor and i unfurled the 'instruction manual' - 1 large sheet of paper - that they left behind, i realised i would have zero bandwidth to manage anything but sound in the next 2-3 hours. fun times.

thank god for kevin pang - who i was able to just point to, say "fix lights", and he got it done; filip, renhua, garrett and the rest of the cast ("assemble set" - luckily by this point some of them had gotten an idea of how the monster backdrop was supposed to be set up); caleb and the music team, who had to deal with (a) being relocated (b) moving a grand piano across and around the entire lounge (c) cables not long enough (d) a drum set that mysteriously drops out below a certain frequency unless i half-UNplug it from the mixer (e) a dead keyboard; peony and flowers; cynthia and makeup; kenny/guorui/filip/russell/janice (and rest of cast!) who helped me individually at some point or other to run rehearsal in my complete absence; my much-abused stage manager crew (yexiang, nadia, yinwei) - together with some other elite muscles (russell, wee siong) who carried my poles up 25 floors of highrise stairs because they wouldnt fit in the elevator - stripped lights/electric strips from my house - dug a missing key out of a pair of pants that i had thrown around - fiddled with powerpoint for 11 hours - got shouted at me and made to run around all over the place...

thank god for competent, responsible and intelligent singaporeans (and friends of singaporeans) with initiative. if i had a battalion of them dressed in combat fatigues and a shipload of arms and weapons - heck, screw the weapons, just give me one thousand dollars in seed money and some duct tape - i could take and hold west philly against the US army or any other comers for at least 2 weeks.

one last time!

Blood was spilled and tears were shed, but we are now ready for the big one.

God giveth us the strength to pull through until the afterparty, where we imbibeth til we are trasheth.

quote of the day:

Renhua: Results! We gotta have our results! Show me the money!!!!
Philip: OVER THE TOP- OVERACTING!!!!!!!

practice live blog - 2 days to concert!

615 - the musicians have arrived. the cast is trickling in. my brother was redirected to drexel due to his inability to read emails. for the first time we have an actual lecture room that simulates to some extent the layout of the stage. very wide and not that deep, with enough space for the musicians..

620 - the musicians have been having a five-minute discussion on how to put a keyboard on a table.

625 - its time for nee-nor-nee-nor-nee .

1024 - oh wait, practice finished and no time to blog again.

ONCE IN A LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY

as things roll on daily with a growing sense of inevitability, i've come to the eventual realization - that i'll never be able to do this again. write a script? perhaps. and a few songs? maybe. but it's unlikely that i'll have my brother around to do all the arranging for me, nor will it be easy to find anyone with similar musical talent yet willing to work under my onerous conditions (i.e. everything at the very last minute).

similarly, i doubt i have the chops to cut it at any level higher than uh, an elevated school skit, so this is probably the only time i will be given the reins to anyhow play as much as i want. not to say there's anything wrong with school skits - another part of this realization is that only in college will there be a sufficiently large pool of willing and able personnel to serve as cast, crew, musicians, saikang parties... in the real world, you have to pay for all this shit! and my library of stored up personal favors doesn't extend that far.

i mean, where else would i be able to dial up a few people, 4 days before the production, and tell them to go... steal rocks from a construction site? (in order to weigh down my set). oh, right... the singapore armed forces. maybe i'll do an SAF musical. or hasn't that been done already...

Musicians Bios - Part 1

I've seen some of the official bios about our musicians, and they don't really state who these people REALLY are. So here's my own take on the musicians in Sing, City!:

Ben Gan (Bass):
Having appeared topless in SG showbiz mag 8 Days before, Ben Gan is the sole semi-celebrity in the musical. He also claims to have been first asked for his autograph when he was 9 years old. A Swim Shady, Ben has played to NYE countdown audiences, and is recognized in most parts of Singapore. For that reason, he travels incognito to Singapore under the name "Wei Gan", and removes tags of himself on Facebook photos. He hopes to earn big bucks one day in a small hedge fund.

Wymen (lead guitar):
Wymen is Penn's best Malaysian guitarist (and bassist and pianist and singer as well). His prior performing experience on campus was as part of the seminal Southeast Asian student band, snami8, where he played John Mayer songs exclusively. Ever since he bought his Fender Stratocaster and moved to Left Bank (away from the temptation of transfering to Wharton), his guitar skills have improved by leaps and bounds, and in his free time, he plays scorching solos that set his upholstery on fire. He plans to expand his repertoire by exploring the art of guitar-smashing, but thankfully has decided to wait until the end of the Sing, City! musical to do so.

Yaoxiang (piano):
YX is the resident techie, and he has managed to fix everything that he has ever broken before. Classically trained by a fascist music instructor, YX initially had difficulty adjusting to Caleb's free-flowing style, but now, he too, plays scorching solos on the piano, often fighting with Wymen for the right to be the alpha-male in the group. Behind the veneer of chirpiness is a perfectionist. You can often hear him practicing entire piano concertos during breaks. He aspires to be a philanthropic rich dude like Bill Gates.

yet another quote

"A week ago, every email meant more things to do. Now, every email comes with news of something done. Good job!"

-Russell Li, Production Manager

quotes of the day - rehearsal

ho renhua:

"with my super duper investment banking bay ponus...."

gina heng

"no chicken, no beef, no pork, no cheeeeee-fish!"

live practice blog - three days to show

630pm - musicians all here, half the cast is here. caleb is drilling them furiously on the harmonies for the finale medley. it is... kind of working.

640pm - they are... kind of getting there. caleb is trying to demonstrate. AHH... AHH... AHH... and teach 'staggered breathing'. i see looks of confusion. and blurness.

645pm - caleb is saying something 'only one time' 'one last time'. his earring is very distracting.

657pm - caleb has moved on to "wheeerrree youuuu aaaarre". they have been singing these 3 words for the past 15 minutes. i just drew a complex stage diagram in paint. productivity is.. average.

700pm - music shit is over. where is everyone? btw our first guests have arrived... from london.

710pm - people are breaking for dinner. filip is making up lines. terence is trying to make people buy merchandise for their own show. filip has concluded making up lines. where is kevin pang? kevin pang is late.

As good as it gets

2010: I can imagine the current freshmen like Lionel, Gina and Grace (in their final semester at Penn) hanging out in Chestnut Hall 709, reminiscing about their good ol' days in freshman year ("wah seems like yesterday!"), when they spent much of their youth prancing around to Caleb's tunes, and being directed by the legendary Joshua Yap. Joshua will be a crab in the SAF, and in the domain of creative endeavors, aside from being occasionally involved in the SAF Music and Drama Company's SAF Day shows, he is advising Mediacorp on their new drama serial about some SOF officer, going through script rewrites and helping to indent artillery for special effects. Caleb will be serving his NS, writing a new song for the Guards Formation that will replace the old and silly version that I used to sing back in the army. This new song will make its debut at SAF Day, playing in the background during the showcase of the SAF's new weapons capability: Feather-weight Strike Vehicles (FSV) that the 3rd Guards Formation uses exclusively. Ren Hua will be at home, singing lullabies to his 5-month-old son who is tucked away in his little cot. The baby goes "daa-daa" when Ren whispers the opening strains of I Feel Fine - "candlelight, slow dance... candycane romance... I remember how we used to be..."

random quote - today's practice

probably comprehensible only to those in the know:
gina: "no chicken, no beef, no pork, no floss!"
filip: "...i havent cleaned my teeth for two months, and i can't take it anymore!"

Love is in the air

It's pretty ridiculous - I'm working on FNCE 205 in the Huntsman computer lab, wearing the *NEW* official Club SG "LoveSG" tshirt, and I randomly find a lonely LoveSG poster (that I designed last night at 2 am) sitting in front of one of the computer screens, waiting to be picked up.

I walk out of the computer lab after the meeting, and I hear the faint lyrics of Random School Facility: "I... never expected to be....". I never expected to be hit by the chorus of RSF in a huntsman hall group study room, but that's the way it's been for the past couple of nights - Huntsman Hall has become the de facto meeting point for all involved in the musical. This really feels like we're planning some sort of huge hostile takeover or corporate action, with nightly meetings, donuts and coffee, and take-away from the food trucks.

more random thoughts - 4 days to go

and now we have a flower girl! thanks peony!

and a last-minute dancer replacement for random school facility too! thanks jen! what malaysia took away, indonesia has replaced. thank you, ASEAN.

i realise i don't have the AIM/MSN details of a lot of younger singaporeans, so when i arrow them i end up having to go through email. this is rather inconvenient (additional clicking to compose mail, type name, subject, send and of course additional formality) but in retrospect, has the added benefit of leaving a virtual paper chain. most of my organization is visual-stimuli based, i.e. i run off an excel spreadsheet with multiple tabs and everything on it that once used to look pretty with many colors, but structurally and administratively, a lot of the organization actually takes place with gmail, with its conversations and unparalleled searchability. i personally think conversations are the number one addition to email that gmail brought when it first went beta - not highly trumpeted, nor tha-aat pioneering, but so simple and so good for organizing information flow. you don't even need labels! now if only there was some way to increase the accessibility, to improve the visual organization. some kind of tab-based system within google that allows me to manipulate my info fields with the speed and ease of excel, that directly links to email.

Do You Know What Musicians REALLY Do?

Ahhh yes, what do musicians REALLY do? Well, for one- we rehearse as much as the cast! Yes, we do! And here are some more interesting anecdotal things funny to note-

1.) They Transformer Chestnut 427
We have become experts at throwing my pillows, comforter and BED into the corner so that my little convertible living space can accommodate 3 pianos, 2 laptops and 4 guitars complete with chairs, table, and scores for each person. As of now, we clock less than 5 minutes to set up. Poor Yaoxiang has to use a mirror to look behind him to see the rest of us. Dennis is virtually IN the kitchen peering out at the rest of us. Emily is perched halfway on the sofa balancing herself as she plays her keyboard.

2.) They Carry Many Things And Route March In The Snow:
Each one of us has an instrument AND speakers to carry- some have laptops, stands, extensions chords, capos, and other miscellanous items as well to lug around. The past weekend has seen the 7 of us trudging through the snow with our instruments to Huntsman, with half the world staring at us as this travelling band makes its way Eastward. I kid you not when the elevator door opens and ppl stare at us for a moment , or when people just make way on the sidewalk peering at us, a convoy of armed Asian musicians with a mission.

3.) They Play from a Variety of Musical Influences:
During the show, ppl have to play the most interesting things- our dear Ben Gan plays solos throughout Sing Little City, and Wymen and Emily have a nice little duet mirroring the conversations in Random School Facility, Yaoxiang plays multiple scales up and down at lightspeed for effect, Terence and Dennis play a diversity of styles from U2 in Your Dreams Will Not Perform to John Mayer in Prayer for My Daughter.

The next time you see a musician- applaud- they do alot of things!

Our favourite song to play is, without a doubt: Your Dreams Will Not Perform.

five days. random thoughts

every time a random singaporean comes up to me and offers their help - JOY.

suddenly you realise that a lot more songs require dances than you actually planned for, and that people actually really do look stupid standing there and singing.

oh, wait. we only have 8 mikes, but 13 people.

the set is lying in pieces in my room right now. specifically? 10 x 10-foot lengths of 1 and 1/4 inch pvc pipe. joints. pipe cutter. pipe joiner. big orange home depot buckets. we need cloth. we need soil. go figure.

my crew are basically do-it-all experts on random projects i toss to them. before spring break it was... finding pictures of noodles. then it was... typing lyrics into powerpoint. last weekend i told them to make me a cardboard taxi. this week - find a way to suspend a projector screen from a roof thing.

fact: exhaustion leads to the downfall of my english capacities. i was writing down notes for the finale, and i realised grace needed to come out earlier from backstage before she could walk forward to say her narrator spiel. in my excel notes (which were conveniently displayed for all to see on the projector screen), i typed out "grace needs to pre-come".

act 3 was literally completed a week before the show starts. this results in.. issues with act 3 in general. yes, issues.

there is a certain scene in act 3 which is referred to as the filler scene. i literally wrote act 3 scene 5, act 3 scene 7, and realised that something needed to come in the middle. in between i left a blank page and a title that said 'filler scene' for a really long time. the title is still 'filler scene'. you'll see why. (it was meant to be a nice reprise... and now its, uhm, echoes.)

if u pick through the script with a fine-toothed comb, you can still find remnants of where planned songs used to be. there's also a certain scene in act 1 that ought to be a song... but instead has ended up as uh - spoken word crap. i was uh, trying to experiment with consonance and assonance and repetition and all that shite.

i sometimes wonder how much more awesome guorui would be than he already is if i rewrote his role entirely in chinese.

russell was born to wear an apron.

surprisingly, a lot of people in this cast do not know what (a) mamee poko (b) good morning towel is. cultural issues?

i need to make sure we do bows tomorrow.

at this point, now that the script is completed, i feel a little bit more than an engineer than an artisan - i've finally put all the moving parts together.. now i just need to add oil and hope it runs.

Lives Of Others

Yesterday, I took a break from my rather hectic week to watch the German film that won Best Foreign Film at the Oscars. There was a short quote from the film that I found particularly memorable (which I discovered to be the director's inspiration for the creation of the story):

"You know what Lenin said about Beethoven's 'Apassionata'? If I keep listening to it, I won't finish the revolution. Can anyone who has heard this music, I mean truly heard it, really be a bad person?"

As I played Your Dreams Will Not Perform As Advertised" in our first combined rehearsal today, and watched the cast - some singing, some dancing, all full of smiles - bounding around the stage that was JMHH 245, I couldn't help but think - can anyone who has heard this music, I mean truly heard it, really be an unhappy person?

Any higher and we'll be flying

My left brain wants it to be March 25th, with the musical and hangover behind us. But the other half of me wants this buzz to continue.

Singers, Check. Actors, Check. Dancers....???

Yesterday, I sat in for my first ever dance rehearsal of Sing City. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen and heard. Ever. It started off nice and formal in Huntsman F92 with Lionel standing in front introducing himself and some comments about dancing, and Josh and I were in the corner chuckling to ourselves, I holding my much-abused Baby Taylor and Josh rubbing his nose. In 10 minutes, we were rolling on the floor. THis is why: Lionel was perched on a chair demonstrating a 'mambo-slash-jc-mass-dance' hand action with waving extensions, drawing in, thrusts and huge cycles, and people were frantically trying to catch up to speed with the wrong hands, wrong timing, and flabbergasted looks upon their faces.

Dear cast- I am not making fun of you. But you have to admit, it was pretty funny!
I loved it especially when Filip said, "I've been waiting my whole life for this sh*t". We anticipate the honorable former Club Sg President to be convulsing in his chair as we 'musicalize' mambo- his academic field of specialty, and to offer a standing ovation to the choreographers and his valiant cast who are importing a truly, Uniquely Singaporean facet of our culture to a distant foreign land. Look for choreographed allusions to Village People's "YMCA", allusions to the choreography of the Sentosa Musical Fountain, Garrett's own "dancing-panther" routine, and a whole host of Zouk Mambo Night moves. Dance away! I look forward to it.

matter of life and death

What do you see before you die? A bright white beckoning light at the end of a long tunnel? A quadruple-quicktime powerpoint-like flash of the important events of your life? Or just plain darkness?

Had a near-near-death experience recently, and I am inclined to believe it's mostly darkness, though I'm not exactly sure. My mind has the strange Freudian ability to repress unpleasant memories. However, I do remember my first thought after the near-near-death experience. As I picked myself from the ground, standing slowly amidst the carnage and realizing I had only injured my hand. "Oh no! How am I going to play the guitar for Sing, City! with an injured hand???"

band of brothers (and sisters!)

i remember remarking to someone (filip? edward?) sometime in freshman year that if you put enough singaporeans together you can accomplish anything. the production of this musical is really putting that thesis to the test, and so far club singapore has done me proud in the overwhelming amount of support that has appeared from every direction.

about 15 singaporeans come to penn every year, so we're a club of less than 60 after you take away all the people who graduate after 3 years - yet we've found enough talent to constitute a cast of 13 (alright, 1 thai, 1 half-malaysian, 1 chinese-who-studied-in-singapore, 1 american who's an honorary singaporean), a full band, and a pretty darn good crew. they come from many places - freshmen to seniors, nus exchange students, australian exchange students, southeast asians, miscellaneous friends... and they make it happen, somehow.

i think the most bandied-about example of initiative and resourcefulness was when i emailed my four stage managers mentioning for them to 'uh, if possible, go source for where we can rent/borrow a projector screen'. the next day, i get a matter-of-fact email from yexiang telling me that our plucky nadia had obtained a projector screen - apparently she walked into williams hall, picked it up from an empty classroom, and walked straight out with it... and stored it in her dorm for about a month.

what else? the bureaucratic savvy and experience of fellow senior kevin pang has been much appreciated in sourcing for a set - barking down several loose ends with shitty facilities managers, digging up a key lead with the performing arts shop and the tools they have available, and finally coming to the conclusion that we could get better and cheaper backdrops from home depot. the club singapore committee has been working ceaselessly in order to ensure funding for the musical, as well as pumping up the publicity machine; our very talented choreographer lionel (freshman!) has lent his personal flair to us hand-eye-coordination-issue-kids; our homegrown musicians are putting in some heavy-duty rehearsal time, and they've come a long long way from the motley crew that was first assembled (!); my sai-kang right-hand man, russell, has been my administrative rock; shijie found us superb rehearsal locations in huntsman hall everyday (as well as contributing his half of caleb's apartment to our shifting rehearsal schedule); yexiang, yinwei, nadia, and carolyn have been soldiering through the numerous ultrashitty jobs i throw at them without complaint (ranging from subtitling - putting all the lyrics on powerpoint; to creating cardboard taxis on demand); dennis and faith 'volunteered' to do the program respectively.... caleb and me have been surrounded by the most superb service support team we could ask for.

and our cast - well, i expected them to come back from spring break not having learnt anything at all... then i could scream at them, guilt-trip them, declare extra 7-hour rehearsals and whip them into shape army-style... but they actually surprised me by memorising large amounts of what was assigned to them (well, certain people.) and they're bringing it to life, that they are! it is happening, it is happening...

709 blues

Joshua and I are roommates in Chestnut Hall 709. The little expanse between our living spaces that used to be called a living room has recently been converted into a bona fide actor's studio. Over the next couple of weeks, within the confines of that tiny space, Josh and Caleb will direct, conduct and lead the charge for Sing, City. Everytime I trudge back to my apartment after classes, there will inevitably be at least 2 people standing around inside, role-playing a tearjerking exchange of goodbyes between long-distance lovers, or dancing like puppets to Joshua's clapping hands. Curious as I am, I try to keep a distance between myself and the rehearsals, because I want to be captivated by the final performance - I want to believe that Ren and Janice are a real 4-year couple, I want to see Valerie staring up into Kenny's eyes with the fury of a woman scorned, I want to see Guo Rui actually shovelling porridge into his mouth while singing Sweet Potato Porridge. I WANT SING, CITY.

hello!

Ignore Josh's rant about not being able to write with Alfian Sa'at present. JOSH! You have to instill some confidence in your troops!

Anyway, just another update - the official *new* Club SG tshirts came in today, all 100 of them, smelling like how fresh cotton smells... mmmm...I have to say I'm mighty pleased with them, I would easily pay $30 - $40 for something like that. All thanks to Yaoxiang (Paul)'s Photoshop skills. Don't worry, you'll be able to get your hands on them shortly! All profits go toward covering the massive costs of our Broadway-esque production.

On the musical side of things, my new bronze guitar strings also arrived in the mail today, smelling like the old bronze statue that I climbed onto in Cuba to take a group photo. Can't wait to restring the acoustic and bang out a couple of good ol' John Mayer tunes.

bad things are happening

alfian sa'at is coming to the musical.

i am quivering in shame. my script is a pile of sophomoric sentimental crap. i am physically unable to write act 3. caleb will have to take over all direction from now on, and we'll just have to survive with a 2 act musical.

josh

good things are happening!

1. lights: i secured a loan of lights and extension cables(very rudimentary ones, but functional enough) from the underground shakespeare company, the more permanent denizens of the harnwell dungeon. they're two very simple small floods that should provide enough lighting for both areas of the stage. as i envision it now, there will be a stage left area + platform(room a), a stage right area + platform(room b), and a general stage center area where dancing and random events occurs. the two lights should be sufficient to cover room a and room b, and hopefully the 4 small roof mounted lights + whatever overlap my small floods can provide can cover stage center. as for more complex lighting... i'm thinking of setting up simple house lights and dimmers (from my own supplies) linked to a central control to allow me to dim and raise, but i'll see how that works out.

2. set: kevin pang (bless him) managed to hunt down the PAC shop and have a chat with peter about obtaining materials for a set. we will not, thank goodness, have to build a set. the PAC shop itself has enough flats and platforms for us to dig something out - i'll be popping down with him tomorrow to see what we can see, as it were. it will cost us $150 for the week, and i'll be needing to mobilize some singaporean manpower to lug the set down from 41st, but it's worth it.. a backdrop, some elevation, and a few levels to play with can upgrade things quite a bit. they're not a revolving stage with balconies and secret trapdoors, but at least - they're a stage.

3. funding: SIF just stepped in with a healthy injection of money! some of it will necessarily be siphoned off for the speaker series, but suffice it to say we're no longer short of a four-digit sum to pay our sound dudes. and for a while i was wondering if i would have to start liquidating stock to cover it out of my own pocket (more painful, what with feb 27 and all...). thank God, who works in mysterious ways... or well, thank haresh, terence, and the rest of the club singapore committee. it's so much easier to forge ahead now that all the nitty gritty admin details are falling into place.

4. music: i bashed through the music with caleb today - we have finished writing and recording 80% of the necessary stuff and we've more or less bashed out the last 2 new songs - 'noodle blues', 'sing, little city'; as well as borrowed one of caleb's oldies for the ending - 'after all this time'. we also organised a nice reprise of 'prayer for my daughter' at the end with 'random school facility', sorted out a finale medley of 'after all this time', 'you are here', 'midnight', 'random school/p4md' again, and hacked out another reprise of 'hello my dear/you know my dear' which of course i decided to call 'oh no my dear'. all i need to do is fix a few lyrics here and there on my part, and caleb has a few harmonies to write and songs to score... almost done with creating, now we can focus on executing!

5. script: is 66.666% done. 12 days to go. nuff said. it ain't pretty, but it'll work.

josh

Ah-hah my first post, and the second on this blog!

This entire project has been nothing short of exciting to the max, and I'm really looking forward to shownight itself.

It's funny how the project has also started to take on a life of its own- it's started to really look like real life, and at some points, I must say that art crosses over into reality, and many of the songs, emotions, characters, situations are looking like people I really know. Dealing with the shock of 'racial segregation' in Yellow People, the stress and concern of a parent in Prayer for My Daughter, the bittersweet pain and wistful longing of a breakup in I Was Fine, and even the romantic nostalgia and recollection of After All This Time- all of these are based on figments of truth and reallife experiences. I for one, cannot look at some of the characters and hear their lines without some stirring of a distant memory not too long ago in my mind.

Well, 'nuff said for now. Enjoy!

first entry - general thoughts

alright, so the story is - we're writing this musical about singaporeans at penn, entitled "Sing, City."

terence, club singapore president and my roommate, suggested that i start this blog to drum up publicity for the upcoming musical and speaker series. as there are only two weeks to said musical, i doubt that significant publicity will be generated by my writing here - i'm hoping chiefly to detail the chaotic swirl at the center of a musical production coming slowly to life, both for my future reference and for those interested.

as some of you may know, this musical has been something floating around for a long, long time. you can check the diaspura website for the original story, but suffice it to say that it's been a good year and a half in the works. the first wave of auditions began in spring 2006 when i got back from my fall study abroad in china, and i set aside the people i had in mind. i was supposed to write it over the long summer, but... that didn't happen, and so we pushed it from fall 2006 to spring 2007. i was supposed to write it over winter break, but... that didn't happen either, but this time i had a pretty concrete deadline - i graduate may 2007, and i wanted to make this happen before then.

so we did a second wave of auditions, bringing a surprising spread of freshmen and seniors into the pool of talent we already had. most productions produce a script and music first, then proceed to audition, cast, and practice. in the proud yap tradition of procrastination, we auditioned a year in advanced, and actually evolved the music and script as we went along. the music has been chugging along - 2 to 4 songs a week since february. the script... well, the concepts have been bouncing around my mind for a long time, but the actual product itself only made its first appearance the week before spring break. and right now, with two weeks to the show, the script is still in a ... evolutionary stage.

part of the difficulty in writing the actual script came from locking in the songs first. it's possible to go back and change songs to fit the script, but difficult to scrap entire songs (sunk cost fallacy, yes.), and structurally certain songs directed the way the script began to flow. also, we chose deliberately in the beginning to try and showcase as many voices in the cast as we could - i could have very easily made the whole musical a love story about two people with about 3-4 supporting characters and a faceless ensemble of 10, but instead now i have - 3 short stories with 3 groups of 2-3 people, and a faceless ensemble of <5.

the music came first, and as such - the plot isn't much to speak of. no huge surprises, no dramatic turns - just familiar scenes, familiar feelings, familiar situations, juxtaposed against each other and the music. it is primarily about the music, after all. i will write more about the structure in the days to come, and also the process of songwriting, but for now i have a script to finish.

joshua.