| Inspired |
[25 Dec 2008|10:38am] |
I finally got my cop of Foo Fighters Live at Wembley Stadium. Man, I am so totally inspired by Dave Ghrol. He really made drummers feel dem good about themselves. I reall want to rock like him. When he played drums during the encore set with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, and Stephen Hawkins on vocals (!!!), I was totall floored! I remembered the first time I watch Nirvana on Laser Disc and his live performance on "Aneurysm" I knew I wanted to be that kind of rock drummer.
Well on hindsight, I thought I did just that with Gloria, but at that time I think I was still new to this showmanship thingie. Watch Daren of Vertical Rush, now that is a showman. I love his style of play. Brandon Khoo too, but Daren is my man because of the kind of music he played with Sky in Euphoria. Sadly I think I have to take the drummer out of me for a while while I attempt to re-start the TOSOG project with Eve, Josh and Caleb again since the bith of Jo-En.
Jo-En, just like his kor kor - my inspiration too! 
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| Embeded |
[03 Nov 2008|08:26pm] |
Our memory is a very delicate but powerful gift for mankind. It can be considered a blessing or curse; some long to forget a terible past while others would give anything to try to remember their glorious ones; some are blessed with better ones than others. No matter what the state our memories are, there are surely things or events that are embedded in our memory like photos on paper. I'll share some with you.
What inspired this post was the song "Lover of my heart" which was playing on my iPod earlier while travelling to our first location of the day. While the song was playing I remembered the R-age Awareness weekend about 4 years ago- the one we did the R-age Rap (which is the best R-age Awareness performance to date!). We were all wearing our Yellow T-shirts and were standing/sitting in front of the stage. "Lover of my heart" was one of the worship songs of that weekend. The one at the 3rd service was the one I remembered best. The youth were choir for the day and they were led to lead the song for one verse and chorus. Dang, that singing and the look on th youths in ernest worship send chills all over me as my hair stood on it's ends followed by tears of immense joy streaming down my face. Peter was the worship leader and I'm he felt the same when he heard the youths in front of him. After hearing such passionate singing, how can u not let them take their "solo"?
So yeah, that song always reminded me of R-age. Forever embeded in my memory. Not like a photograph in this case but like a music video of the song with the boys and girls in Yellow the stars. As for the rap? It should have been our R-age anthem! I loved it!
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| In Kyoto |
[03 Nov 2008|06:04am] |
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The only thing one can do her is shop shop shop. Simon the Cameraman and I did just that. We've been here for 4 days already and since the Bic Camera shop is near our hotel, I thought it'd be great to go. I saw a Sony PCM-50 which was screaming at me to buy it, but I refrained coz I already have a digital recorder. Although mine is abit old and inferior in fuctionality and aesthetics, it's still a working machine that serve it's purpose when i needed it. It cost about 800 sing, but it's very beautiful... Ooooooh.
Back in the hotel there is nothing much to do. Most of the TV programes are in Japanese. The have Pay TV with 3 channels, one Jap movie channel, one sports channel with boring sports (no football, only the American version) and an "Adult Channel". A waste of money. Thank God for the laptop so that I could chat and surf the net. I even brought my drum pad to add some spice to the work out I am already doing at work and with the dura-band.
Fifi reading the pamphlets with the Skinny Twins.
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| The Financial Times |
[18 Oct 2008|09:06pm] |
I wrote this while the crew was out shooting some "beauty shots" of some Kimchi dishes. It got so boring that I took out my PDA and began to write. What is the hottest topic in the papers now? The crash of the stock market I guess. I don't read a lot of the financial section of the Straits Times, but I did read and tried to make sense of what the whole crash was all about. I asked my trusty Ol father to explain to me and he explained everything to me in 15 mins, enough for a layman (lehman??) to understand. As I wrote this, I didn't know how to end it. So I did something that Larry Norman did in "The Great American Novel" where he ended with the words
"Don't ask me for the answers for I've only found one:
that a man leaves his darkness when he follows the Son."
Oh, I love that wordplay with "darkness" and "son" which was suppose to be "sun". Brilliant! So here is my offering. Ok, I know my ending is not original, but I had to end somewhere with something. Rite? So until I come up with something original, this is my little tribute to Larry Norman.
The news has turned very sour
It's time to change the course we've taken
The stock market took a dive
You can read it in the papers
The banks are all crumbling down
Could it be that soon a piece of bread could buy a bag of gold?
Or a one-room flat could buy you a condo?
The next day rescue arrived
The world's governments that were shaken rewakened to a new mentality
Takeover the banks that have lost it all
Buy up all the bad debts and refinance the industry
As market confidence soars
The world heave a sigh of relief
Hoping that the worse has past
They are tricked into this facade of reprieve
The changing of season is happening to the human race
The most fruitful of times will soon give way to decomposition
I'm only a soundman
What would I know
I don't have stocks or money that I should boast
If you're looking for answers to your financial crisis
I've only found one
That man must be willing lose his possessions when he follows the Son
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| Future Drummer |
[18 Oct 2008|07:56pm] |
This is my favourite drum photo of Chia Ee on the drums. I dunno how he does it, may be from all the drum DVDs and yours truly. Nonethesless he made me proud! My Son!
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| The Right Side |
[17 Oct 2008|10:15pm] |
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I received an SMS from a friend this afternoon. She is one of those Barnabie babe kind of person who loves to e-mail or sms word of encouaragement. However today's sms was quite funny. Read it for yourself then read my comments. I'd love to know ur comments too.
Hihi :) just read an amazing testimony. A family was driving on a highway from KL to Malacca when it began to pour- visibility was bad. The Holy Spirit prompted the guy (from our church) driving to shift to the left lane. His bro in law behind him did the same. A split second later they heard a loud bang. They saw many cars smashing into each other in a row and a car spinning 360 degrees in the right lane! They realised this was caused by an accident ahead of them before they shifted lanes, which they didn't notice due to poor visibility in the downpour. They realised God had protected them as He'd promised in Psalm 91! A THOUSAND MAY FALL AT YOUR SIDE. TEN THOUSAND AT YOUR RIGHT HAND; BUT IT SHALL NOT COME NEAR YOU. Amen! :) Be greatly blessed! Listen to the HOLY SPIRIT within you and let yourself be led this weekend and the days ahead. Praise Jesus! The use of the scriture from Psalm 91 to the above testimony made this otherwise normal testimony seems dark- worse, dark humour. In the death of the Christian, though there is lose, it is always considered a great gain. For "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints". Death to a Christian is a beginning of life. But death to those not in Christ is the beginning of darkness. While we must be thankful of the life that were preserved, let us also remember to mourn for those who perished.
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| Moving on thru prayer |
[16 Oct 2008|04:59am] |
 Jeremiah 33:3 'Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.' I have been anxious lately about home and work. I find it so difficult to concentrate on what I do when my mind is swamp with that. The most I can do is to pray. The least I can do is live each day as it comes.
Prayer - it's the best resolution to problems. Not that the problems are resolved, but because God commands us to call out to Him. He promised to answer and beyound that reveal many incredible things to me. I have known peace like in times of anxiety. I have held the hands that was pierced for me. I was burdened by iniquity, but the heart that knew no sin carried them away from me. My heart overflows with God's goodness that leads me to salvation. So everytime I am reminded about my past, I take courage and remind the demons about their future. I will rejoice in my afflictions, they will past. They will not last. Only Christ and His promises last forever. I am moving on through life in prayer.
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| Name for project |
[15 Oct 2008|08:58am] |
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I don't know if I want to use the name "The Other Side of Glory" for the recording because that is so personal. Or should I incorporate some "dungeon and dragons' theme? I am stuck. It's TOSOG for now.
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| On the drums again - soon |
[14 Oct 2008|11:06pm] |
This is the last set up I did. It's the same one as the other photo I posted earlier in my other blog, but this one looks better. I've been thinking about drumming a lot recently. The TOSOG project that I want to do might be renamed coz it's not all my own songs. I will be colaborating with Eve, Josh, Glenn and Sherwin for this one with me on drums. Not the usual people from church which I am very comfortable playing with, but playing with this other group of friends creates a new buzz in me and I look forward to find out what new frontiers we can go creatively.
So far the project has two genre that I am exploring. The Indie and Progressive side. With Glenn and Sherwin, it's going to be a prog rock hat for me. It's something I always want to do besides playing indie/hardcore-metal. I am sure playing with them all will make me a better drummer. There are five songs in the songlist that I'll be working with them. Here are the songlist
1) Eve's song (Coz she wrote the riff, I came up with the words, it's in-your-face hardcore)
2) Forever (something I wrote when Chia Ee was born, no lyrics yet)
3) A Principle Within (I have no music to this song yet, but I have the lyrics and rhythm to it. It's Charles Wesley "I want a principle within" screamed out screamo/ hardcore style)
4) Flowers in the Sand (I originally wrote the riff to accompany the lyrics of" Scratch", but the amazing Glenn Fong transformed it to "Flowers")
5) One-sided Dice (Glenn wrote the song with some funny weird programmed drum grooves, he played it in the studio during the 2nd venture as Figtee and I played a Led Zep "Rock N Roll" inspired groove to make it rock the way it should. It's an instrumental)
6) (For one reason Glenn and I forgot the lyrics or how it sounded, but we all call it the "Tourniquet" inspired song. The opening groove is like Tourniquet's "Vanishing Lessons")
So here I am in Seoul updating this and thinking of the next course of action. The musicians I mentioned above have been informed. The next thing is to set a series of jamming sessions to complete the songs. I plan to record them by March next year, but Eve will only be hear for about 2 months, so the hardcore/indie ones might be priority. The Prog Rock ones need more touch up and practice on my part. For this reason I have a drum pad here with me in Korea. I arrived here on Sunday (12 Oct) and I have yet to touch it due to the early call time and the late nites chatting with SW online. Let's see how things turn out to be when I return to Singapore after this trip (which lasts for 30 days. It includes 21 days in Japan). My intention is to take it easy when i return home because SW will be giving birth in Dec. I hope I'll have time to jam, rest and work on some ad hoc shoots as I try to spend more time with the family, but I already sounded busy, don't I?
More updates will come...
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| To be trusted |
[23 Aug 2008|07:11am] |
To be trusted is to become
vulnerable,
exposed,
naked and
rolled out on the floor like a carpet.
To be read like an open book,
with bookends loosened and it's pages spread across the room.
Reading randomly,
picking up the pieces
as my heart breaks into its own little bits.
Somethings were better left unsaid
like stones left on their own unturned.
Yet to be trusted is so sweet
like honey that sticks in the mouth with sweet memories
of friendships
that once existed.
Let memories revive themselves to relive a life taken over by regrets.
Relieve yourself of your burdens.
Let Christ condemn them into hell.
Trust me but trust Christ more,
because without Him I wouldn't know how to love at all.
Amazing grace!
How sweet the sound!
May this grace in you abound.
-The Other Side of Glory-
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| Yearning for peace |
[22 Apr 2008|01:54pm] |
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Not that I am experiencing turmoil and thus needed peace, but rather I need peace in my heart for the fear that something might unexpectedly screw up. I hung out with my former cell-members Jialiang, Joshua and Shawn at West Mall on Saturday. It's good to see that they have matured and although they are at different spiritual maturity, I am thankful to God for the opportunity to speak into their life still. Thank God the guys are still meeing Victor for bible-study on a regular basis. That gives me a blessed assurrance that they are in good hands. One of them yearns for the peace that many other Christians experience. Some of these kids have given their all in their call of duty in ministry. Yet the tragic part of such ministrry is the burn out and the personal struggle these young leaders face in their own encounters that they advocate to those they are lookin after. Thus instead of finding the peace that the Lord promises (in good and bad times), they stumble after some time (it might take years to realise that). Suddenly they realised (like of my boys) that serving God is not just about being outwardly 'on fire" that a youth is expected to be. They sense something lacking and that something has to do with what Paul mentioned in Corinthians about moving from spiritual milk to meat. I am delighted that they have this struggle now. No, I am not a sadist and I would't want anyone filled with any burdens, but certain realisations are God-given. The sudden urge to want to go beyond their young faith towards maturity led them to realise that they have to move on. It doesn't mean they are incomplete in Christ. They are as complete as the jigsaw puzzle framed and hanging on the wall. But there are stages in our spiritual life that we must show if we call ourselves Christians. The work of the Holy Spirit compels us to draw close to God. It is not a mere experiece that we experience in our charismatic/ pentecostal services. It is also to be drawn like the fathers of our faith like Martin Luther was drawn to God - to the Scripture. One of the boys decided that his past experiences and fire were all a fluke, but I affirmed him that it wasn't. That was his faith as a child. Just like I don't expect Chia Ee to read my NASB bible and understand a single thing I read to him, but he delights in the pictures and colours of his toddler's bible. Do I condemn him for showing irreverence to God's word? Of course not! I ended our get-together by encouraging him to reconcile what he had, the experiential faith that he has to what he has yet to receive, namely to have faith that praises the Lord at all times and the opening of his eyes to the power of the Word of God by praying. Praying and yearning for peace that will one day flood their hearts with the blessed assurance that they are fully and assuredly in Christ and Christ in them in whatever circumstances they face.
Meeting the boys was a happy moment. To add icing on the cake, Manrong, Suhui and Joel Tay came much later to have a meeting. Then Jon, Kenneth and Jeraldine was happened to be there too. After that I went to Popular Bookstore before heading home when I receive a call from Liang in Australia. It was a good day.
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| Sex Sushi Salvation |
[27 Mar 2008|01:34am] |
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"(Through the power of the Holy Spirit), we become the fire through which God ignites the world..."
"The God who sends fire down from heaven (to consume Elijah's sacrifice in his showdown with the prophets of Baal) have sent heaven down by the fire of His holy Word. Through it we encounter the living God..."
Christian George in his inspirational book "Sex, Sushi & Salvation.
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| New song |
[16 Mar 2008|11:45pm] |
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This is more like a prose than a poetic kind of song. Wrote it while I was early for a shoot two weeks ago at ABC market, near Ikea.
I believe that there is no such thing as an easy life here in Singapore
Where we try to break out of this thought we've built since we were small
I received some subsidies when I went to shcool to learn the ABCs and 123s
I earned a diploma in film-making
While others earned degrees that don't mean anything
Today I have become an over-grown baby living with a wife and a kid
I believe I did succeed eventhough I don't have the 5 Cs
They don't matter at all to me but for one
CHRIST
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| Farewell, Larry |
[07 Mar 2008|12:35am] |
Liang sms me to inform me about Larry Norman's passing. I've been so out of touch. He died about two weeks ago. Here is a tribute to Larry Norman. Here is the lyrics to the song and the link to the video where he sang it.
I Am A Servant I am a servant, I've been listening for my name, I've been unfaithful, I've been looking at the game, That I've been playing, and I've been staying much the same, When you are lonely, you're the only one to blame.
I am a servant, I've been waiting for your call, I've been unfaithful, so I sit here in the hall, How can you use me, when I've never given all, How can you choose me, when you know I quickly fall.
Yet you feed my soul, and you make me grow, And you let me know that you love me, And I'm worthless now, but I've made a vow, I will humbly bow before thee, Oh please use me, I am lonely.
I am a servant, getting ready for my part, There's been a change, a rearrangement in my heart, At last I'm learning, there's no returning once I start, To live's a privilege, to love is such an art, But I need your help to start, Oh please purify my heart, I am your servant.
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| Loud but good |
[03 Mar 2008|03:39am] |
I knew yesterday's sunday service might be the last service that I played for before I become too busy to play, so I played my heart out. That also means being in total abandonment to the "spirit of drumming" within me and play my heart out to the Lord. I used to be so controlled playing on Sundays because I don't have the metronome in my monitors, but since setting up the mixer where I can add the metronome mix to the Aviom, I was more confidence. For once yesterday I was't conscious about drifting too far off tempo. With the click going in my ears, which I surprisingly felt at ease, I just played with my never-see-for-a-long-time flair. Yes, that "did the drums own u money" attitude. The last time I played that way was during the Gloria jam last October. But playing for service and playing for God and to God is always a different feeling. The all Sabian-set-up was so cool! Christopher told me it was loud, but sounded good. He might add the top penal for isolation booth next time. I think that should be the way. The cymbals that I use have names like "HHXplosion Crash", "Paragon" and "Extreme Crash". How can u have optimum sound if u crash without dynamics? Those cymbals sings and they sing loud! The louder the better at times, but not always. So who says loud is distracting and unedifying? When played at the right occasion, it's loud, but good.
Ok, today I have a 4 day shoot for "food old days" then one day's rest before the indie-feature starts on Saturday. That will be quite tiring I suspect because they are shooting a feature indie and drama style with just one soundman. Usually we have two soundman on set. One as mixer and the other as a boom operator. Well, I did it all before. It's a challenge but it's so satisfying when I know I have done my best to get the best sound for the sound designers. Let's GO!
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| All my days |
[27 Feb 2008|08:48am] |
I found a favourite CD from my days of youth online. It's called "All My Days" by Glen Kaiser. I bought it back in 1993 but lost it twice!! So this is actually my third copy. When I found the package in the mail box last night I felt like a kid opening up his birthday or Christmas present in the morning. Of all of Glenn Kaiser's solo albums this is my favourite!
Oh, I also bought a Sabian Hand Hammered 12" mini Chinese cymbal (not it's not a gong). Now I need one more cymbal, a 16" HH Dark Crash, to complete my Sunday Service Sabian Symbal Set-up!
All my days, it's been a roller-coster journey since CNY. Just when I thought a lull period is at hand (there was no call for work for almost 3 weeks, only had 4 days of work in that period), now my calender is almost filled from 8th March to probably end of May. What will become of me? No, the question is What has become of me? Work is quite energy sapping. Where does my strength comes from? They come from having sufficient sleep, healthy meals, exercise and quiet time with the Lord.
Let's see how all my days will turn out.
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| Scratch |
[23 Feb 2008|07:14am] |
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Scratch * is the mark of a silent kill * is the scar that's been lying still * is the bleeding beneath your skin * is the pain we live within * is unpredictable * it eats it's way to the soul * is lamenting alone * has found in you a home The sigh is loud enough Your heart screams silently into the twilight Silence screaming out Silence within and without *, reveals the pain *, the shedding of blood *, the world stood and watch *, the sound reverberates
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| Parental Guidiance |
[20 Feb 2008|10:45pm] |
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Run run run
I see you running dry
Slowly but surely like the changing tide
I hate to watch your demise
Your life, your blog
A television show
Your way of life
Parental guidiance is adviced
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