LEE LOW TAR

For the short story that MDA banned, please click here - Alex Au's posted it on Yawning Bread.

I wrote it for the "Tall Tales and Short Stories" event on Sunday. I won't be able to read it at this point, but come anyway - Ovidia Yu will be reading from her story "Pierced Years" and I'll be giving a talk, because indoor talks do not require a licence.

"Tall Tales and Short Stories"
Organised by Sayoni.com
Sunday, 5 August
7:30pm
72-13, Mohamed Sultan Road

Below is the rejection letter we received:

****************************************************************
To: JEAN CHONG
CC: Amy TSANG <Amy_TSANG@mda.gov.sg>, Liane LOO <Liane_LOO@mda.gov.sg>,
Norsabariah TUBI <Norsabariah_TUBI@mda.gov.sg>
Subject: Arts Entertainment licence - "Tall Tales and Short Stories"
From: Veronica Vivien LOOI <Veronica_Vivien_LOOI@mda.gov.sg>
Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2007 14:25:02 +0800

Dear Ms Chong

Your application for a story reading session, entitled "Tall Tales and Short Stories", has been approved on condition that the reading of Lee Low Tar is taken out

The content of Lee Low Tar has been disallowed as it had gone beyond good taste and decency in taking a disparaging and disrespectful view of public officers.

Regards,

Veronica
****************************************************************

There's a small parallel case here of Tan Tarn How's play "The Lady of Soul and the Ultimate S-Machine", which was not permitted to be staged for some time because (among various reasons) its main character was a male civil servant who was having an affair with a male Minister-of-State.

But it's a different Singapore now. The arts scene has progressed to an extent where people (including journalists) are interested in the cases of censored work, and the Internet's technologies allow banned texts to be distributed freely (go watch Royston Tan's "Cut" on blip.tv, or Martyn See's "Zahari's 17 Years" on googlevideo, or Tan Pin Pin's "Lurve Me Now" on her university's site).

And while a filmmaker or stage director will suffer large financial setbacks if his/her work is banned for screening/performance - a writer loses very little. Isn't that odd? (Authorities may now try and prove me wrong by making it difficult for me to have future works staged - maybe they'll claim "Georgette" espouses Marxist values?)

This being said, "Lee Low Tar" is an amateur piece of writing - I am not an experienced short story author, after all. And the entire setup is, on a certain level, a wanky artistic gesture, an attention-getting device (compare with the works of Lim Tzay Chuen). And it may hurt the gay movement or the socially-engaged arts community in the long run. I don't know.

But I do like how it works in testing the bureaucratic systems of censorship we have in this country - they are such strange, antiquated, self-sabotaging entities, like warthogs on Pulau Tekong, that it seems to be vital to engage with them before they go extinct (which they will, dear children, they will - someday they'll set up the artist-run system of self-appraisal based on ratings systems rather than muzzling, just like FOCAS suggested).

You see, yes, censorship is violent and stupid.

But it is possible to dance with violent and stupid people.

I gave MDA a test, and they failed it. I'm not the victim. They are.

INDIGNATION 2007!!! (already one event kena banned!) UPDATE: My story kena banned too!

Heya! I'm involved in two events for IndigNation, our Queer Pride Festival- doing a short story reading with Ovidia Yu on Sunday 5th August and organising/curating ContraDiction, a poetry/literary/music performance on Sunday 12 August, both at 7:30pm at 72-13 Mohamed Sultan Road.

MDA licences pending. And really, we can't take anything for granted - they just banned Alex Au's Kissing Project photo display, according to the calendar. Not unexpected - the point for us is to keep on pushing the limits, to keep on challenging the unjustified rules until they change.

UPDATE (31/7.07): Jean Chong of Sayoni, who's the organiser, got a call from Veronica Looi at MDA saying that my short story was not approved for licensing. (Poor Veronica, she's only an Admin Assistant but she has to deliver the dirty news with all her boss, Deputy Director Amy Tsang - and she never even gets to read the things she bans.)

July 2007 texts

Oy vey. Can't list the plays or things we watched during World Interplay - too many, and it'd be dangerous to judge my friends.

All the same, it's clear I had quite an appetite for drama and non-fic this month.

*POETRY*
Min Lim's “Mining for the Light”
Carol Ann Duffy's “Rapture”
+Christina Rosetti's “Goblin Market and Other Poems”

*FICTION*
Michel Houellebecq's “Lanzarote”
+Monique Truong's “The Book of Salt”

*DRAMA*
Edward Albee's “The Goat, or, Who is Sylvia?”
“Contemporary Australian Plays", including +Hannie Rayson's "Hotel Sorrento", David Williamson's "Dead White Males", +Ron Elisha's "Two", +Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman's "The 7 Stages of Grieving", and Keith Robinson and Tony Taylor's "The Popular Mechanicals"
+David Hare's “The Permanent Way”
+Jeff Mellemans and Bert Appermont's "Zaad van Satan"
Elangovan's "Talaq"

*NON-FICTION*
+Anne Bogart's “A Director Prepares: Seven Essays on Art in Theatre”
+Clarissa Oon's “Theatre Life: A History of English-Language Theatre in Singapore Through The Straits Times (1958-2000)"
+Kwok Kian Woon and Teo Han Wue's “Kuo Pao Kun: And Love the Wind and Rain”
+Chuck Palahniuk's “Non-Fiction”
+Iris Chang's “The Rape of Nanking”

*PERFORMANCES*
+Royal Shakespeare Company's "King Lear"
+W!ld Rice's "Happy Endings: Asian Boys Volume 3"
+Dramabox's "Trick or Threat"

*FILMS*
Nicholas Hytner and Alan Bennett's "The History Boys"
Clint Eastwood's "Letters from Iwo Jima"
Steve Anderson's "Meet the Robinsons"
+Satoshi Kon's "Paprika"
+Tan Pin Pin's "Lurve Me Now"
+Wee Li Lin's "Gone Shopping"

*EXHIBITIONS*
Perc Tucker Regional Gallery's "Ailan Currents: Contemporary Printmaking from the Torres Strait", "Soundscapes" and +"Thinkin Quinkan: The Secrets of Cape York"
Tang Mun Kit's "Hibernated Works Re-Engineered +33%"
+National Museums of Singapore and Taiwan's "A Banquet in Stone"
Zainudin bin Samsuri's "Rowing Boat"
Stephanie Cheng, Kenny Lim, Eudora Rusli,Calvin Tan, Tan Seow Wei and Tan Taitien's "Because It's Happy Chaos"
+Singapore Tyler Print Institute's "BMW Young Asian Artists Series: Diversity in Print"
+NUS Museum's "WE" and "Our Way, Contemporary Aboriginal Art from Lockhart River"

Love Slave Slam!

I'm hosting a poetry slam at Zouk tonight! Will be dressed in accordance with the theme.

Please come and join us for The Love-Slam Slam, a celebration of love and eros - poetry that stirs the passions. Who is a slave to love, who is your love-slave? Bring your special friends and meet new one in this special edition of the Singapore Poetry Slam™ this Tues, 7.30pm. Full details below.

Slam Host: Ng Yi Sheng
Features:
Singer-songwriter Anjana Vasan
The Lady and the Vamp,' A short film by Shaun Koh
Share your poems originals and covers
Chris Mooney Singh, Programme Director
Word Forward

The Love-Slave Slam
Tues 31 July 07
Velvet Underground, Zouk
7,30-10pm, Smart Casual
A Non-Smoking Event
$10, drinks 1+1
(Under 18s must register at the Slam Desk)
Slammers and open mic readers must register at the Slam Desk

QLRS Special Screening Series: The Willow Tree (PG)

There's a screening of Majid Majidi's The Willow Tree in aid of QLRS (Quarterly Literary Review of Singapore, an online literary and theatre review magazine) next Friday. If they don't get the money, then they'll never be able to upload their review of "last boy". :(

QLRS Special Screening Series: The Willow Tree (PG)

Catch the Singapore premiere of acclaimed Iranian auteur Majid Majidi's latest masterpiece The Willow Tree* at the inaugural QLRS Special Screening Series, supported by the National Museum of Singapore and Festive Films.

The Willow Tree is about a university professor who regains sight and suddenly realises that what he sees now is different from what he "saw" as a blind man. Majidi, feted for classics like Children Of Heaven and Baran, has made a spiritually redemptive and visually stunning film with scenes that stay with you long after. The film opens in Singapore on August 23.

The Quarterly Literary Review Singapore (QLRS) is an independent and volunteer-driven effort which has been covering the Singapore literary scene since 2001 in the areas of poetry, prose, drama and literary criticism.

* In Persian with English subtitles, rating PG

Date: Friday, August 3
Time: 8pm
Venue: National Museum, Stamford Road, Gallery
Theatre, Basement
Admission: Pay as you wish. Seating is on first come,
first serve basis
For more information: Please email hsienmin@qlrs.com

Gone Shopping Meme

What kind of shopper are you?

sales manager - valentine tan (played by adrian pang)www.goneshoppingthemovie.com Take this quiz!

Sorry lah, figured why not, since the director e-mailed me saying thanks for mentioning the movie on my blog (weird right? who the hell reads this site? I'm not Xiaxue or Alfian or Laozhabor lah...)

But seriously, "Gone Shopping" is worth watching. It ain't perfect (the English segments are kinda stilted), but it's visually delicious and imaginative and moving and strangely evocative of Singapore moments.

Peculiar Inspirations

Oh dear... My appearance at the Arts and Life Forum for Asian Boys Volume 3 kena clash with my SDEA play. :( I'll be speaking with a few other guests, including poet Teng Qian Xi...

Sunday 29 July 5.30pm
PECULIAR INSPIRATIONS: The Muse - Of Sirens And Tyrants
Many of our artists have been greatly influenced by other Singaporean artists. From actual mentors to literary forebears, the creative process often involves a dialogue with the past. But how do we engage with traditions without inheriting its baggage? Do we climb on the shoulders of giants, or find our dwarfed selves obscured by their long shadows?

We round up a group of artists--poets, playwrights and filmmakers, to discuss the book, the play, or the film, that first made then want to embark on their artistic careers.

Body Shots: a photographic series

While I was at World Interplay, I decided to start taking full-body photographs of people and any part of their bodies they chose. Which section of yourself would you give as a souvenir?






All pics at http://web.mac.com/ng.yisheng - click on Body Shots and Body Shots 2 to shuttle between full-body and dismembered view. The .mac link will probably die in 60 days; not sure if I want to pay for it beyond the trial period.

Japanese culture = OMG WTF???

I just read "The Rape of Nanking" and watched "Paprika" on the same day.

It's really the only reaction possible.


P.S. Oddly enough, both texts make reference to violent male sodomy.

"Invisible City" and "Gone Shopping"

Two important local films coming up!

First, there's "Invisible City" by Tan Pin Pin, a documentary on memory and forgetting in Singapore. It's showing at the Arts House from today onwards. In English, Mandarin and Japanese.



Second, and just as importantly, there's Wee Li Lin's "Gone Shopping", a commercial feature-length piece about ennui and shopping culture, starting this Thursday. In English, Mandarin and Tamil.



Reasons I'm excited about both movies:

1) They cover hidden aspects of Singapore - the erasure of the past and shopping. Yes, we talk about shopping a lot in theory (and in commerce), but we never examine it as a cultural phenomenon. Great to do this and market it to a commercial audience.

2) Both filmmakers are women. I know you may think that's trivial, but my feminist approach to art was somewhat influenced by the Guerrilla Girls, and it's a leetle bit disturbing when you consider how few of Singapore's feature-length films are directed by women - "Eating Air" and "Singapore Dreaming" were amazing, but Jasmine Ng and Woo Yen Yen are always overshadowed by Kelvin Tong and Colin Goh in the publicity. Wee Li Lin's probably the first woman to make a solo feature-length film here aimed at commercial release.

3) Both filmmakers have done really good work in the past. You've probably heard of Tan Pin Pin's "Singapore Gaga" and "Moving House", but Wee Li Lin's less well-known, mostly producing shorts and commercials. Check out her later work on her website, especially "Autograph Book".

Invisible City opens at The Arts House on 22 July-12 August 2007. Call 6332 6919 for tickets now. Tickets at $8 (Adults) and $6 (Students with ID). Pin Pin will be present to take Q&A on 22-24 July.

The three screenings are at different venues and open to public. Tickets are free by registration.

The World Premiere: Thurs, 19 July 2007, 8pm, University Cultural Centre Theatre.
To register for tickets for this screening, email your full name and mobile no. to cfaregister@nus.edu.sg or contact 6516 4229.

Friday, 20 July 2007, 8pm, Theatreworks 72-13.
To register for tickets, email tworks@singnet.com.sg or contact 6737 7213 (pay-as-you-wish, proceeds go to 72-13)

Saturday, 21 July 2007, 8pm, The Substation.
To register for tickets, email movingimages@substation.org or contact 6337 7800 (pay-as-you-wish, all proceeds go to Substation)

Thurs, 26 July, 7pm, Theatreworks 72-13.
Pin Pin will be giving a ‘making-of’ Invisible City talk. No registration required.

"Frostbite" to be performed on Sunday 29 July as part of SDEA's "Celebrate Drama"

"Frostbite", the suicidal 10-minute play I wrote in college and submitted for Short and Sweet, is going up at the Arts House next Sunday. It's directed by Andrew Lua, as part of an event organised by Singapore Drama Educators' Association - further details of the lineup here.

Sunday 29 July @ 5pm, Arts House

*ACJC - Bang Bang You're Dead by William Mastrosimone ( Produced with licensed permission from the author)

Bang Bang You're Dead is a thoughtful and provocative examination of the inner world of a young killer in the wake of a horrific school shooting. The motivations are twisted and obfuscated and the intent behind the deed remains shrouded by ego as well as despair. ACSian theatre invites the audience to unravel the mystery of teenage angst and malcontent and why it erupts into murderous rampage and soul destroying alienation. Bang Bang Your'e Dead was written in 1999 in memorial to the various teenage dead of school killings in the United States. It remains a painfully relevant piece of work in the light of the death at Virginia Tech, USA, in 2007.

*Two ten-minuters: Fat and Frostbite

Fat, written by Dew M. Chaiyanara, was first performed at Short & Sweet Festival 2007 in its Top 20 category. The play won the hearts of the audience with its honest yet funny tale of a girl’s struggle with being fat in a “perfectly thin” society. Meanwhile, Frostbite, also shown at the Short & Sweet Festival Top 20 category, takes a dark and ironic look at those seemingly unstoppable voices in our heads. What happens when these voices become too much to endure? Can we turn them off, distract them by conjuring tricks and chastise them with our screams? How do we make them stop? Frostbite is written by Ng Yi-Sheng. His plays Hungry and Serve were staged in Celebrate Drama 2005 and 2006 respectively

Seein' Sir Ian

Omigod. On Wednesday, I met Sir Ian McKellen.

(He's the one in a striped Gap-like shirt with blue jeans and pale blue quasi-Croc shoes that bring out his cornflower eyes).

Most of you will know he's in Singapore on the first leg of the Royal Shakespeare Company's tour of "King Lear" and "The Seagull" (and very lucky we are too to have him; we're the only Asian city graced with his presence and we're meeting him before Melbourne and Wellington and New York and Minneapolis and San Francisco and bloody London). It's thanks to the initiative of Gaurav Kripalani at the Singapore Repertory Theatre, and while I do think their ticket prices are a bit insane, I do believe them when they say they're doing this at a net loss.

Anyway, I get invited to the press conference via Flying Inkpot, because editor Kenneth Kwok (who is a biiiig fan) has a day job, like most people. And I'm rather jetlagged from Australia, since I only touched down from Townsville the day before. And I've been informed via e-mail that Fridae will be doing a story too, they'll just want me to write the introductory blurb, thank you very much; everything else will be handled through a clinical e-mail interview.

But lo and behold, when I raise my arm to ask a simple question ("What's your proudest achievement in gay activism?") McKellen's so intrigued and insistent on making his case known about gay rights that he says he'll see me in an unscheduled one-on-one interview after the conference.

The resulting interview (which is much less thorough than an e-mail interview would have been, because I was on a tight deadline and had no recording devices) is posted here on Fridae.

And of course I had to wait about an hour for Reuters and everyone important to get through him, and then I had to hurry up or else I'd exhaust him before his tech, and there was some unhappiness because I'd wanted my friend Julianne from AFP to be able to sit in but SRT felt it might be best to keep the gay news exclusive to the gay rags and keep their image clean in front of the mainstream media. (It must be very trying for them to have as big a star as McKellen with them; he goes on live interviews on CNA and 95 FM and he does not stick to the script... see below:)



But my greatest joy was probably getting to tell Ian (lemme pretend we're on first name basis) that "King Lear" has a history of interpretation here: he was terribly interested in my description of Theatreworks's "Lear" in 1999 while a little confused by my hurried attempt to encapsulate Ho Tzu Nyen and Fran Borgia's "King Lear: The Avoidance of Love" in two sentences. I also let him know that "Happy Endings: Asian Boys Volume 3" was playing, in case he has any time to take in other shows.

Gaurav was very, very charitable in allowing me to keep him back and talk cock about other theatre companies like that - he even let Ian know about my musical "Georgette", though he gracefully forebore from mentioning whether it was any good. Ian was also wonderfully tickled by the fact that when great British actor John Gielgud came here in 1945 to play Hamlet for the Brits, ingaporeans were only allowed to watch if they were ushers.

Anyhow, I've promised him a copy of "SQ21" to be left at reception. (Ian said he'd try and get me comps, but I doubt it's possible - those are pretty damn expensive tickets - and anyway, with my persistent cough, I'd ruin the whole performance.)

And whaddayaknow; I'm not the only fagtivist jumping on him in these parts:



I could have asked for a photograph together with him, but it felt like that would have been too, too unprofessional. After all, I'll always have the journalistic document as proof of contact.

P.S. Kudos to Hong Xinyi of The Straits Times Life! for being the first to ask him about 377A.

P.P.S. My Indonesian maid Yuli saw him in the papers yesterday, in the costume and make-up of Sorin from "The Seagull". She laughed and said he looked like Saddam Hussein. WTF???

UPDATE: Ohmigod. He actually got me those comps. Two tickets. Good ones. For King Lear on Saturday night. The bad news was that I waited at the wrong exit for him and couldn't take him to Alfian's birthday party afterwards.

Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and Weird Al Yankovic's "Bob"

It's so great to finally discover the classic sources of today's pomo pop.

For a truly psychedelic experience, try playing both simultaneously. :) (P.S. That's Allen Ginsberg as a rabbi in the background of the original!)

La Delegation Singapourienne

As prompted by Laremy, here's a shot of the Singapore playwrights at World Interplay: Cheryl Lee, Laremy Lee and myself at Changi Airport prior to arrival.


Both kids are definitely worth looking out for: Cheryl writes rhythmic stream-of-consciousness poetic drama (cf. her play "Size00") while Laremy leans toward the absurdist comedy of bureaucracy (cf. his play "Radio Silence").

More tidbits forthcoming. :) And what the hell; here's another group shot:

Exquisite Corpse

Deep within the earth's crust, half-way between Honduras and Hades, riding in a hot-rod made of leather, on a tank of gusto, eating a tangerine is a speed racing Micheal Jackson impersonator. His skin torn and melting. His ice-skates in the trunk. His copy of Boethius' “Consolation of Philosophy” in his lap. He is chewing on the thread of time. Ready to tackle the thought-provokers (movers and shakers) of the Intelligenstia underworld.

The bricklayer Sartre and baseball champion Baudrillard wait at the nearby gas station “Ixion”. A black car pulls up, belching thick clouds of smog in its wake. Sartre runs his tongue along the inside of his mouth, spitting the taste of grease onto the dirty floor. “Is that him?” Sartre asks.
Baudrillard doesn't answer, just turns around and walks towards the diner. “Is that him?” Sartre repeats. The car door opens just a crack, and a figure dressed all in black spreads out of and separates from the car, his coat the exact same shade of dark. Sartre starts, turns around, but Baudrillard has already reached the door of the diner and is disappearing inside, seemingly heedless of what is going on behind him.

Sartre feels the old rage building in his temples, and feels for the semiautomatic hidden inside his coat. He gropes the gun with lust and unbridled pleasure.

He aims the machine gun at Baudrillard.

“This is for what you did to Simone de Beauvoir!” he bellows.

The bullets spurt out out of the muzzle like sperm from a firehose.

“This is for the gentrification of Montparnasse! And the failure of the 1968 Student Riots! And the future rise of Lepenistes! This is for the divorce of Segolene fucking Royale!”

Baudrillard clutches his heart and staggers to the ground.

“But it was only a simulation...” he meekly mumbles.

“It was a simulacra, salaud. There was no original. You oughta know. You wrote the mere-foutrant book!”

And as Baudrillard breathes his last gasp, he speaks the cursed words...

“Jean-Paul... I am your father...”

-written by Ng Yi-Sheng, Sime Knezevic and Jerome Chua in a workshop by Olivia Allen.

Interplay Interstice

We're roughly halfway through the Interplay festival, and so far I've learnt a number of vital lessons:

1. I am too nice for my own good.
2. I am also, strangely, an angry young man.
3. I have an eccentric sense of the epic that is unusual in young writing.
4. I should not attempt to climb stone walls by leaping at their corners, chin-first.
5. A lot of world drama does not translate effectively into English.
6. A lot of Australia, especially Queensland, is still amazingly racist.
7. I am extremely privileged to live in a country where the theatre scene is multicultural, commercial and experimental, yet which still offers opportunities for young people.
8. I am extremely privileged to live in a country where I do not grow up with a nonchalant hatred for merchant races, such as Jews or Indians.
9. It is very easy, if you are proud of your achievements or your culture, to stop listening, to stop learning.
10. I look good in long sleeves and stubble.


Enough with the posturing. Some photos:

Me and my roommate, Richard Stratton, the only playwright from Brisbane and also the only other out gay man (as far as we know) among the delegates. No nooky though; roomcest (i.e. room-incest) is risky. But look! We're both wearing DJ-monkey T-shirts!

This is my base-group: a group of six young playwrights and three tutors. Pictured are Suzanne Heathcote of London, Ola Animashawn of London (tutor), Adam Mitchell of Perth (tutor), Martin Kordic of Hildesheim and Anna Barnes of Melbourne. Not pictured is the handsome Ivor Martinic of Splitz, Croatia. We can only see the brim of San Francisco/New Yorker Krista Knight.

Our third tutor, Assoc Prof Dr Hassan Erkek of Ankara, is also a hottie. He's met the Finger Players via videoconferencing!

James Cook canteen food leaves something to be desired.

Cultural exchange: here's Hamidah from Lambung talking to Ajtony of Budapest.

There's a volleyball court outside the canteen/dorm area though. It's also plenty warm in the afternoon so we play matches at times.

One more group shot.

Writing in Different Genres

I. Write a Naturalistic Scene.

(Y is a middle-aged woman. Z is a middle-aged man)

Y: Too much.
Z: It's worth it.
Y: How many more times?
Z: You're a very, very bad -
Y: Shut the fuck up. You don't live with her. You don't have to listen to her insult your children and your -
Z: You don't love your own mother.
Y: I feed her. I wash her.
Z: You've never loved her.
Y: I carry her body when she wants to use the toilet.
Z: You've always resented her love for me.
Y: I wipe her backside when she shits.
Z: Because I'm the son. I never asked for this love. I'll pay what I can for the operation -
Y: You couldn't pay half of the bill last month. I paid for the hospital, the wheelchair, the physiotherapy -
(Enter Doctor)
D: Family of Madam Oh Guan Chin?
Y and Z: Yes?
D: We're very sorry.
Z: What happened? Is she dead? Is she -
Y: Choi!
D: No no no no, she's still conscious. But for how long -
Y: We came too late.
D: For how long we don't know. We need to know. Will you sign these papers approving -
Z: Yes.
Y: How much?
D: Organ donation is becoming more and more important as a means of saving people's lives -
Z: Fuck no!
Y: Ziqiang! Give me the papers.
Z: Give me the papers!
Y: Our mother is dying. You don't even have the money to keep her in your own home. Now you want to keep even her organs?
Z: She wouldn't want it that way.
Y: I lived with her all these years.
Z: She wouldn't want it that way.
Y: I think I know what she would and wouldn't -
Z: Give me the papers.
D: She's still conscious.
Z: Let me see her.
Y: Let me see her. Of course. (laughs) You only visit her when she's in pain. You're her guardian angel. Her little god. You come along when she needs her son to rescue her.
D: Madam Oh has asked to see her son.
Y: Okay! You take over from here. (backing away) You tell her she's dying. You tell her she has to keep her organs.
Z: Yiling –
D: Sign here and here.
Z: My last payment hasn't come in.
Y: Ziqiang. You are too much!

II. Rewrite the Scene in a Non-Naturalistic Genre.

(Y is a middle-aged woman. Z is a middle-aged man)

Y: Fie, 'tis overmuch!
Z: Nay, but 'tis worth it.
Y: Worth what? To live another petty year,
To feel the cutlass of a different surgeon
And die a second death?
Z: I had not thought.
Thou art an evil daughter then, Ysolde.
A venom-hearted devil, spawned of Eve.
Y: You say this sir, who hath not housed this woman.
This daft besom, who crieth the abuse
Of my own lord and kin -
Z: I had not thought
That child might walk that loveth not her mother.
Y: I feed her, Zechariah, bathe her limbs,
I aid her bowels in yon garderobe -
Z: Thou hateth her but for her blessed love,
That love dispens'd on I, her son alone.
Y: What son art thou who canst not guard thy mother?
Who oft doth rob the banks to feed thy debtors,
Who oft doth make excuses for they loans?
I paid for all her ointments, pills and tinctures.
I paid my life for hers, for want of love.
(Enter Chirurgeon)
Y: What news?
Z: Quick, hence! The sum.
C: My lord and lady -
Z: Not death! Fie, sound the alarum and knell!
C: She breathes, sir, but be warn'd: death waits in distance;
She lingers on but for a last farewell.
I have a contract.
Z: Still a bill! I'll sign.
Y: How much? We are not keepers of a fortune.
C: I have a contract that will share her vitals,
Her liver, heart and spleen for ailing folk.
Z: Fie, nay!
Y: Good sir, the papers.
Z: Hand them hence,
I'll rip these rags to shreds to greet the winds!
Y: Thou miserable dog. She meets her end,
Thou wouldst begrudge the poor of their desserts?
Z: She would not wish it so. I am her son.
Y: With me she long hath dwelt!
Z: I am her son.
Y: Then see her. Tell her heaven doth approach.
You are her only son. Pay for her death.

Internet famine!!!

We've been able to access the Internet for maybe a total of one night since we started on Tuesday night - the Townsville University firewall has systematically locked us out and rejected our password.

I'm at an Internet cafe in the city with Ajtony, a beautiful Hungarian 19 year-old Buddhist in rastas. (Probably straight, but we make beautiful conversation.) Will upload photos and stories when possible.

B).

June texts

Well, I'm now at a more human 27 books a month (and really, one of those was a website archive, another was a long essay that formed a section of a book, one was a pamphlet and one was a picture book really, so that's 23 real books only).

Next month may be even fewer, since I'll be busy with World Interplay. :) Illiteracy, here I come.

Also, despite having read books from Italy, India, Ireland, Singapore, Nigeria, Japan, Egypt, Colombia and France/Cote D'Ivoire this month, it still feels like I've had an unhealthy focus on books from the USA. Have also realised I never read any books from Australia. Well, that will change.

*POETRY*
Tiruvalluvar's "The Kural"
+Mary Oliver's "The Leaf and the Cloud"
+“Selected Poems of William Carlos Williams” (ed. Robert Pinsky)
+Allen Ginsberg’s ”Kaddish and Other Poems”
Denise Levertov’s “Evening Train”

*FICTION*
Soseki Natsumi's "The 210th Day"
+Nancy Kress's "Beggars in Spain”
+Rabindranath Tagore’s “Two Sisters”
+Ursula K. Le Guin’s “Changing Planes”
+Don Delillo’s “Cosmopolis”
+Woody Allen’s “Complete Prose”

*DRAMA*
+Lenin El-Ramly's "In Plain Arabic"
Stella Kon's "Butterflies Don't Cry"
Wole Soyinka’s “The Jero Plays”
+J.M. Synge’s “The Playboy of the Western World”
+Martin Sherman's “Bent”

*NON-FICTION*
+Stanley Cavell's "The Avoidance of Love"
+Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point"
+Gabriel García Márquez's “The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor”
+Stewart Home's ”Mind Invaders: A Reader in Psychic Warfare, Cultural Sabotage and Semiotic Terrorism”

*GRAPHIC NOVELS*
Neill Strauss and Bernard Chang's "How to Make Money Like a Porn Star!"
+Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie’s “Aya”
+The online archives of the “New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest”
Inc. Cosmic Debris Etc's “Emily the Strange: Seeing is Deceiving”
Neil Gaiman and Michael Zulli's “Creatures of the the Night”
+Igort's “5 Is the Perfect Number”

*UNCLASSIFIABLE PROSE*
+Theatreworks's “The Book of Longing”

*PERFORMANCES*
+Mark Chan's "Dreaming of Kuan Yin, Meeting Madonna"
+Shaun Parker's "Blue Love"
+Tang Fu Kuen's "Forward Moves"
+Checkpoint Theatre's "Cogito"
+Sylvie Guillem and the Akram Khan Company's "Sacred Monsters"
+Musical Theatre Ltd's "Georgette"
Raffles Junior College Theatre Studies Department's "Toys R Us", +"Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" and "Behind the Curtain"
The Finger Players's "Wong Kar Wai Dreams"
Cake Theatrical Productions’s “A Thousand Little Things”
Peter Sau and +Li Xie’s “Full Frontal”
Mabou Mines’s “DollHouse”
+People’s Association’s “Gentarasa 2007: Titisan Cacamerba”
Cho-In Theatre’s “The Train”

*FILMS*
Auraeus Solito's "The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros"
Kelvin Tong's "Men in White"
David Fincher's "Zodiac"
+George Sidney's "Annie Get Your Gun"
+“Experimental Films by Maya Deren”
Matthew Barney’s +”Cremaster 3”, “Cremaster 4”, “Cremaster 5” and “Drawing Restraint 9”
+Andrew Fleming's ”Nancy Drew”
+Mamoru Hosoda’s “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time”
+Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright’s “Hot Fuzz”

*EXHIBITIONS*
+Donna Ong's "Project Eden"
Genevieve Chua's "As Brutal As"
+Craig Walsh and Shaun Gladwell's "Streetworks: Inside Outside
Yokohama"
Venice Architecture Biennale Singapore Pavilion's "Singapore: Built and Unbuilt"
Lee Sik Khoon's "Bodies and Relationships"
+Simryn Gill and Tino Djumini's "Picturing Relations"
+NUS Museum's "Highlights of Southeast Asian Collection"
+Erica Lai, Genevieve Chua and Jennifer Koh’s “extra ordinary”
PKW’s “The 9th Emerging Artists’ Show”
+John Clang's "A White Book"

Coded Language - DJ Krust feat Saul Williams

Like I was saying, Singapore needs poetry like this.

Incidentally, most music video directors will film a star lip-syncing lyrics at double-speed and then slow down the tape to create an ethereally beautiful figure moves with subtle slowness and grace, like a spacewalker, his/her charisma evading gravity itself.

Saul has been filmed at half-speed then quickened up in post-production: his body jerks and twitches preternaturally while delivering his song. I feel like that ALL THE FUCKING TIME.

World Interplay!

Just so people don't call my phone: from 3 to 17 July, I'll be at World Interplay, the world's biggest international festival /workshop for young playwrights.

I was picked by Ivan Heng as a delegate (yes they seriously call us that) to represent Singapore, together with Cheryl Lee of Buds Youth Theatre and Laremy Lee. (I got review Cheryl's play "Size00" for Straits Times before, as part of the triplebill "From Scratch"! I hope she has the clipping!)

More info about the event here. It's reserved for playwrights aged 18-26, so I *just* qualify as young enough to go.

It's also a biannual event, so hopefully there's an opportunity in the future for other young deserving writers in their early 20's to go. I mean, how come I got picked but not Zizi Abdul Majid or Jocelyn Chua, both of whom are far more immersed in the theatre world than I am? (And who've written plays *far* more polished than 251, may I add.)

I'll be workshopping "The Final Temptation of Stamford Raffles". My workshop tutors are from the UK, Australia and Turkey. Hopefully, I'll have time to blog.

New Horizons in Portraiture

...using my MacBook camera!

Dance dramaturg Tang Fu Kuen, myself and composer Yak Aik Wee.

My grumpy grandmother and her maid Yuli.

Business Times theatre reviewer Parvathi Nayar and I, at the Akram Khan concert.

"Georgette" lead actress Seong Hui Xuan and the Finger of Death.

Jabir et moi.

T. Sasi and Lee Breuer from a weird angle in the Drama Centre.

Me and Suzanne Pemberton, Canada-born poet, English teacher and soon-to-be Swedish expatriate.
And my Mestre Ousado in capoeira class. :)

Haiku Slam @ Zouk

Went to the Zouk poetry slam last night, not intending to read. Unfortunately, they needed to rustle up 16 readers for a haiku slam, so they press-ganged me into the proceedings. Fortunately, haiku are very easy to write. Cynical haiku challenging the form, even more so:

1.

Sixty years ago
they tortured, bombed and raped us.
Now, we write haiku.

2.

My cock, seventeen
syllables long! Yet partner
still not satisfied!

3.

Even MTV
has longer attention span
than haiku master.

4.

Merdeka! Next month:
Tang shi slam, pantun slam and
Hindu epic slam!

5.

This competition
is rigged: laughter outweighs depth.
Ha! Take that, Basho!

I ended up in second place (which I'm quite happy about, since I haven't come near to winning a slam since Writers' Festival 2003). I'm currently feeling a need to go back and learn more from the slam scene, which after all represents perhaps the only solid poetry community here, and has managed to breed three especially good and committed slammers - Marc Nair, Pooja Nansi and Bani Haykal, who was featured in the Arts Fest this year as a collaborator in Forward Moves, despite being only of NS age. They're getting published under Word Forward soon. :)

Savinder's pointed out to me how it's difficult for established Singapore poets to go up there and compete in the 3-minute slams, because our pride gets terribly hurt when we lose to a nursery rhymer (happened to me, happens to everyone). But the slam movement is probably the literary movement in Singapore that has the most committed penetration of schools and youth communities. And other established writers - Robert Yeo, Richard Lord, Yong Shu Hoong - are regulars at these events.

I mean hell, I just want to *know* this scene. It'd be great to become a slammer in my own right (I have written performance poems, but they're few and far between), but it feels like it's more important just to *be* there, to *know* what's happening, not to become obsolete.

I've got a terribly polyamorous approach to life. I read in different cultures and write in different genres and sleep in different beds (on occasion) and get staged by different theatre companies and attempt to eat a varied diet of all major food groups at every single fucking meal.

And I want - like the Theatreworks people - to know something of what's going on in different parts of the local arts scene. I know people in theatre and visual arts and writing and maybe film (no... not really), but what about indie music, classical music and dance? What about non-entertainment journalism, activism, fashion, design, high cuisine, architecture, science, history, philosophy, academia? It's not about the "arts" scene, for crying out loud; it's about a network of ideas; a community of people in this country who *think* and *make stuff* for a living.

I mean, we're a small country, right? We haven't developed *that* fast. Don't we know each other anymore?

Asian Pride Porn

While we're still kinda on the subject of indie movies and porn, Check out this mockumercial by Greg Pak (director of Robot Stories), starring David Henry Hwang.

The Lucky 7 Project

Can't wait for this to come out! It's a collaborative project between Singapore directors, where each one directs one seventh of the show, and then the next one shoots the next section *only* knowing what the last scene was! (It's based on the surrealist format of the Exquisite Corpse).

Better yet, it brings together the best of the new queer directors with the best of the young straight ones - Sun Koh, Boo Junfeng, Ho Tzu Nyen, Brian Gothong Tan... er, forgotten the rest of their names. A few of these people have never put together a feature-length piece before, too.

Wonder if we could write a novel like this?

Speculative friction

Remember all that brouhaha abut the US Army trying to develop a "gay bomb"? The inevitable's happened... someone's making a porn movie about it. :)

Following the controversial political parody of Gaytanamo, released to huge critical acclaim earlier this year, New York'€™s most filthy-fun gay film studio Dark Alley Media today announced plans to kick the US Government while it’s down.

Gay Bomb will take us into the future and the year 2012. George the Second has refused to step down as leader of the “free world,” and the nations of Europe have banded together to fight the new American military dictatorship. Desperate to fend off its attackers, the US launches the experimental “gay bomb,” designed to make the enemy forces drop their guns and turn fag. But the winds of fate blow in a different direction, and soon America is brought to its knees.

Recent news headlines revealed that Pentagon insiders admitted to having truly considered the gay bomb€ as an example of non-lethal chemical warfare in the Iraq War. The Air Force asked for a $7.5 million grant to develop the idea, which was proposed to the government’s highest scientific authority.

Dark Alley’s Matthias von Fistenberg said, "We’re really not making this up..."

Gay Bomb will begin filming in November 2007, after Dark Alley completes its already jam-packed production and release schedule for the year. Look out for current releases Gaytanamo and Fisting Underground, Part 3, as well as the upcoming Matthias von Fistenberg's Fist Weekend.

From Wired.

Job week

Jabir and I had lunch at Holland Vee today. And while we were walking to Buona Vista MRT, we came across two ladies trying to retrieve berries from a tree with a stick:

A fat Caucasian lady exhorted us two young lads to help the aunties. (She said she'd do it herself, but she was in a dress). Being so compelled, we ended up scouring the longkang for fallen bits of...

...I think the aunties said it was called kam yong. Good for watery eyes. Drink two decoctions, no need to see doctor.


They gave us $2 each for our trouble. I joked to Jabir that we had joined the City Harvest. (Or has the whole of Singapore turned into Orchard?)

P.S. These photos are all taken with my Macbook PhotoBooth programme! (Seriously, it's the most reliable digital camera I've got right now. Just tough to hold my laptop right for location shoots).

Cost of living

Huh? Singapore's been ranked the 15th most expensive city, alongside New York??? (Click here.)

I mean, yes, it's a cut-throat business finding a car and a home here, but it's way worse in NYC. Or perhaps they assume that New York City includes the suburbs of Little and Great Neck (retch).

And how can Beijing be more expensive than Amsterdam? Or Lagos more than Los Angeles? Or Almaty more than Barcelona? (Don't know where Almaty is? It's the capital of KAZAKHSTAN.)

There's actually something quite beautiful about this topsy-turviness, because it dares to suggest a utopian vision where cities worldwide are at some kind of economic equilibrium, regardless of dominant race, religion, or cultural influence. A completely misleading vision, but seductive nonetheless.

P.S. Last night at "Full Frontal", Tan Tarn How told me his family reads my blog. Of course I'm honoured, but honestly, don't you guys have better things to do? Sheesh! Go read Boing Boing instead; it's way cooler.

P.P.S. Honestly, inasmuch as I like attention, I also value the liberty to be brainless.

CORRECTION: Almaty is not the capital of Kazakhstan; rather, it is Astana. Almaty is, however, the biggest city, and its surrounding regions boast the world's widest variety of wild apples. Kazakhstan is, of course, the country where the apple was first domesticated - before that, they used to have fangs and hairy udders.

ContraDiction 3

Hey All,

I'm curating an event for IndigNation: a queer literary night, where we'll be reading bits of poems, plays, songs, stories and blog entries by and/or about queer people in Singapore. It'll be held on the night of Sunday, 12 August, 2007, at 72-13 home of Theatreworks.

Anyone who wants to be involved, please e-mail me entries and enquiries by next Saturday, 23 June 2007.

You don't have to be queer to read, but we are specifically hoping to give exposure to overlooked voices in the community - very interested in the writings of queer women and non-Chinese writers in Singapore, for example, as well as hoping to portray a variety of generations and genres.

A bit of background: the first year, ContraDiction was held at Utterly Art, and the second year it was held at Mox. Both events commanded a large turnout, and featured readings by mostly emerging queer poets (the only published ones have been myself, Cyril Wong and Alfian Sa'at).

There's more info on previous ContraDiction events here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IndigNation#Contra.2FDiction:_A_night_with_gay_poets
http://www.plu.sg/indignation/?p=100

Hope to hear from ya!

Maafa II

Today's Straits Times had three stories about China - the case of young people enslaved as brickworkers in Shanxi, the problem of there not being enough rural immigrants coming to the big cities for unskilled labour, and the rising interest in African students in learning Chinese.

Which suggests the future scenario that soon low-skilled African foreign workers will be imported to China, with human rights abuses comparable to those of slaves. :(

Of course, Africa's a long long way away from China, so it mightn't be economically viable. And who knows if the Chinese economy's going to break down in a decade or so. When he heard the news, my father scoffed and said a few decades ago, everyone in Africa was trying to learn Russian.

Maybe if my copywriting picks up, I'll make enough money to go for a Swahili immersion course in Nairobi. :)

Tiruvalluvar's "The Kural"

How come love poems don't age? Why can we look at a love poem by Sappho or Solomon or Chu Shuzhen and still feel struck to the quick of the heart? Whereas Hallmark love is cliched and stupid by contrast?

I've been reading a shortened version of "The Kural" by Tiruvalluvar, the greatest of the pre-modern Tamil poets, and all his couplets on manhood and statecraft sound absurd and moralistic today. But his lovesongs:

126. Farewell, Reserve!

Love the axe breaks down the bolted door
Of bashful reserve.

That pitiless thing called Love exploits even at night
Its mother, my heart.

Fain would I hide my love, but it breaks out
Like a sneeze.

I thought I had control, but my love
Breaks all bonds.

Not for the love-sick is the dignity
That will not chase the indifferent.

How wonderful is my grief
Seeking the indifferent!

What do we know of shame when the lover
Does all we long for?

Where is that fortress of feminine reserve
That can resist a host of enticing words?

I said I would hold back, but when my heart went out
I too went with it and clasped him.

Is it possible for those to freeze
Whose heart melts at a touch?

Men In White

Just watched "Men in White"... actually missed the first coupla minutes 'cos I was trying to find a copy of the Business Times for the good review of Georgette.

Yeah, I'd read the negative reviews of the show in the press. But it's written and directed by Kelvin Tong, and I loved "Eating Air", "The Maid", "Love Story"... so I figured I had to at least see this one for research purposes. And hell, it's a cool concept (the same one I used in the play "Hungry"!) and it's a fun trailer, if you understand Mandarin.

But the show...

Well, let's start off with what it did right. A lot of the film is very very funny; the 10:05pm theatre was crowded and people were laughing their way through the first half with pretty regular consistency. Kelvin's got the goofy Jack Neo-style "boiing" brand of slapstick going on here, with rapid non-sequitur jump-cuts, even to animations and hip-hop music videos in Hokkien, Cantonese and English.

A lot of the reviewers complained about the lack of focus, about the weakness of structure. But that's only a real concern if you're trying to appraise the movie by conventional standards; if you're trying to grasp at it rather than grooving to it.

But I've gotta mention what another audience member said on the way out - "I feel like I've grown stupider watching this show".

Kelvin's definitely not stupid, but he hasn't quite shown an ability to use comedy for concrete satirical purposes - you can figure out some kind of allegory on how to live a purposeful life in the actions of the ghosts, as well as hints at the undercurrent of government surveillance that's part of the Singapore psyche. But that's not quite stuff that you appreciate subliminally, the way you do in, let's say, "12 Storeys".

And in the meantime, his comedy makes caricatures out of everyone - I really am pissed at the portrayal of the new homeowner that tries to chase the ghosts out from his apartment as a flaming fat queen, whom the contractor insults as a "chao ar kwa". Sure, you can claim that any representation of queer characters in Singapore cinema is welcome. But everyone in the audience is laughing whenever someone says "chao ar kwa". Am I supposed to enjoy that? Am I supposed to enjoy the fact that we're reinforcing the idea that saying "chao ar kwa" is okay???

On reflection, Singapore cinema has a terrible tendency to make fun of Indian Singaporeans in a similar way, portraying them as clownish buffoons - it's done in this film, as well as with a security guard in "Just Follow Law", and arguably via ethnic/gender drag in "Liang Po Po: the Movie". "Army Daze" could also be said to mock Indian culture, but it's an equal opportunity offender, and Kumar and Lathi are given solid enough roles to suggest some interiority. "Unarmed Combat" is fairly unique in the way it features a Indian character as an important role among a Chinese-speaking clique - he's sarong-wearing and comic to a certain degree, but the other characters digest the cultural difference rather than othering him - they teach him mahjong and they've learnt enough Tamil to count to three (which is more Tamil than I have).

We need more Malay and Indian film creators in Singapore, and more Chinese language film directors who're willing to create significant roles for non-Chinese characters. (Come to think of it, "The Maid" was already a step forward.)

We have lots of budding queer directors, luckily. :)

Lezpats

Just had a farewell supper at Domus Cafe with Suzanne Pemberton, an English teacher/writer friend of mine who's going to Sweden soon. She's part of a very interesting community of mostly mature, professional expat queer women - and expat here includes prodigal daughters who grew up in Singapore, vowed never to return, and then came back anyway with their girlfriends in tow. Very different from the RedQueen/PPC set, the Sayoni set and the TwoQueens set.

Have more photos, but have to be careful of outing people, probably. Also have a buncha fun fotos of opening night at Georgette on my Careerblog - click here.

Women In Art

Guess I feel a little sappy 'cos Georgette is going up. Wish the animator had included some late 20th and early 21st century artists as well, though - where are the Frida Kahlos, the Cindy Shermans and the Lisa Kusavages?

I've been having a *lot* of fun with PhotoBooth.

It has EFFECTS. Like black and white...
Coloured pencil...
Sepia...
Glow...
X-ray (wtf?)...
Thermal camera (eurrrrggghhh!!! I've got SARS!)And pop art:
There is lots more I've done; not sure whether to whip it out just yet.

Feed the body, feed the soul

My depression is laughably hormonal. I've just made cookies for the cast of "Georgette" and I'm happy again. Chocolate chip and walnut with butterscotch and raisins (actually, it tastes rather boring; not sure what went wrong).

Resolution

Before I ask someone out on a date, I will ascertain that they *know* I am asking them out on a date. Granted, this will make it far more difficult for me to actually find someone to date, but I will not find myself kicking myself for giving movie and theatre comps to people who:

1) have found a boyfriend since two weeks ago when you checked if they were single;

2) think they're way out of your league ("You asked me out? You're so brave!!!")

3) cancel three hours before we're supposed to meet up because they happen to have too much homework; and despite prompting do not reschedule.

And this is leaving out all those guys who seemed okay after a first date, but then always say they're too busy for a second.

The truth is, I really am fan-fucking-tastically lonely. There are people who're attracted to me, but I'm usually not attracted to them. And thus far I have not had one single real relationship. My only ex from three years ago declared that he had only time for an open relationship and insisted that IMing was as good as actual dating.

My friends have been giving me counselling. They say I make things more difficult for myself by being strange, but of course I shouldn't be anyone other than myself. And of course there's the big problem of my being attracted mostly to younger men.

Things reached a fever pitch during the weekend. Loneliness isn't poison; it's starvation, and during fasts you experience hallucinations. Hypodermic chocolate. Origami in the mouth. White rice quicksand. This wasn't helped by the fact that Umbu and Ligerinho had just come back to capoeira class, and no matter how chill they are, it's still very difficult to interact casually with handsome men.

As the roda played and Baiana played the pandeiro, the senses inside me flooded and became one with the ax'e. I beat the atabaque. I compraed. I aued. I gingaed. Queixada. Armada. Parafuso. Meia lua de frente. Meia lua de compaso. Negativa. Role.

It stops hurting when I fight. Esquiva. Cocorinha. Encrucihada. And I don't even fight that well.

I'm actually not as depressed as I sound right now, but I do need introductions.

Doll Face

Intensely beautiful, pseudo-deep animation. Nice.

I has a Mac!

(And it have a Photo Booth programme!)

Just bought this baby yesterday at the Computer Fair. My 3 year-old Futjitsu PC laptop wouldn't start up yesterday morning (was probably jealous since it knew I was going shopping), so this MacBook comes in the nick of time (worryingly, it refused to shut down last night because of the DVD player complaining. But it really is supremely easy to set up).

The really tricky bit, however, was payment. I couldn't shell out the entire sum 'cos my venerable clients have been dawdling in sending me my cheques. (Also I've shelled out first to go for a young playwrights' conference in Queensland, but I might get some grants to help me along with that - more info later).

First, I left a $200 deposit via NETS (no credit cards or cheques accepted), and then frantically SMSed my sister for help. (This is in the middle of an insanely crowded exhibition hall where we have to use the International Signal Alphabet to say I'm at the corner of JVC and Canon).

Then, she tried to pay the remaining $2,486 by NETS. It said she'd exceeded her withdrawal limit for the day (my sis has been stocking up on a new wardrobe for her PhD).

She tried paying $2,000 by NETS. No dice.

She ended up paying $1,500 by NETS and $700 in cash (she'd been planning to go shopping for clothes later).

Then we had to call her friend and have him pay the final $285 by NETS.

Honestly, I don't have to be this broke. I have friends in university who get corporate copywriting jobs, no problem. Am I missing some valuable connections here? (More on that later; I have a big job for the end of the year),

P.S. How am I going to pay my capoeira fees and my phone bill today? O noes!1!1!

FTW!!! May texts!!!

Yes!!! Twenty-nine adult books and eight children's books (I went to the library and read to my niece) in one month, coming to a total of 37 books in 31 days!!! A new reading record!!!

In other news, I didn't see much good theatre this month.

*POETRY*
Koh Jee Leong's "Payday Loans"
+Kate Clanchy's "Samarkand"
+Billy Collins's "The Apple that Astonished Paris"
Yeow Kai Chai's "Pretend I'm Not Here"
+Anne Carson's "If Not, Winter: Fragments from Sappho"
+"Sonnets of Michelangelo"

*FICTION*
+Aubrey Beardsley's "Under the Hill"
+Gore Vidal's "Myron
+Richard Crace's "The Devil's Larder"
+Edith Wharton's "Ethan Frome"
+Gail Carson Levine's "Ella Enchanted"

*DRAMA*
+The New York Neofuturists' "Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind: Best of 2006"
+Friedrich Dürrenmatt's "The Physicists"
Caryl Churchill's "A Number"
Nilo Cruz's "Anna in the Tropics"
Kee Thuan Chye's "1984: Here and Now"
+Noel Coward's "Plays: Four", including "Blithe Spirit", "Present Laughter", "This Happy Breed", "Ways and Means", "The Astonished Heart" and "Red Peppers"
Stella Kon's "Silent Song and Other Plays", including "City of Splendour" and +"Dragon's Teeth Gate"

*NON-FICTION*
Sigmund Freud's "The Schreber Case"
+Mitch Albom's "Tuesdays with Morrie"
James Boswell's "Meeting Dr. Johnson"
+Evelyn Waugh's "The Coronation of Haile Selassie"
Al-Mas'ūdī's "From The Meadows of Gold"
+Michelle Baker and Stephen Tropiano's "Queer Facts: The Greatest Gay and Lesbian Trivia Book Ever"

*GRAPHIC NOVELS*
+Marisa Acocella Marchetto's "Cancer Vixen"
+Lat's "Town Boy"
Barnaby Legg, Jim McCarthy and Flameboy's "Death Rap: Tupac Shapur: A Life"
+Hergé's "The Seven Crystal Balls" and "The Prisoners of the Sun"

*CHILDREN'S ILLUSTRATED BOOKS*
+Sunny Warner's "The Moon Quilt"
+Tomi Ungerer's "Moon Man"
Joanna Cole and Stephanie Calmenson's "Ready, Set, Read... and Laugh!"
+Giselle Potter's "The Year I Didn't Go to School"
+Debra Frasier's "On the Day You Were Born"
Allen Say's "Allison"
Mary Virginia Fox's "Continents: South America" (Heinemann's First Library)
Charles Winter Johnson's "Internet: A Magic Mouse Guide"

*PERFORMANCES*
Singapore Repertory Theatre's "A Midsummer Night's Dream
Theatreworks's "Sandbox #1", 3rd Night, including excerpts from Leon Lim's "Shahjahanabad", Yak Aik Wee's "Happy At Eccles", Alvin Lim's "Almost Heaven" and Chew Boon Leong's "Happy Together"
"Mentah IV: Please Stand Clear of the Platform Gap", including +"Mat CD" and "Rendezvous Point"
Temasek Junior College's "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
Ray MacNiece's "An Evening of Monologues, Poems and Songs"
Musical Theatre Ltd and Word Forward's "Musical Express/Poetry Slam"

*FILMS*
+Leste Chen's "Eternal Summer"
+Gabor Csupo's "Bridge to Terabithia"
Amir Muhammad's "Village People Radio Show"
+ Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman's "Born Into Brothels"
Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean's "Mirrormask"
+Brad Anderson's "The Machinist"
Zero Chou's "Spider Lilies"
+Way too much "Iron Chef"

*EXHIBITIONS*
+Zeng Fanzhi's "Idealism"
+Voilah!'s " Engraving the World A Selection from the Chalcography Collection of the Louvre Museum"
Singapore Art Museum's "Wong Keen: A Singapore Abstract Impressionist"
Li Qingxing's "Weed Garden" at Soobin Art International
The MINT Toy Museum's Permanent Collection
The Singapore Philatelic Museum's Permanent Collection and "An Nyeong Ha Seyo Korea!"
Jessica Koh and Joanna Tan's "Travelling on Sacred Ground"
+Pablo Picasso's "Vollard Suite" at Singapore Tyler Print Institute
Bhaskar Arts Academy's Painting Gallery