I have been gearing up for the festival (it’ll be the first time I’m attending one) by listening to their songs. You know, get my groove going and stuff. Here below are the songs. If you’re coming, see you at Rock and Roots! If you’re not, please do enjoy the songs from these fantastic musicians!

Imogen Heap

I came to know Imogen Heap via Mac OS X Leopard demo/trailer (I can’t find the video on Youtube, sadly). It was just a simple guitar hook. Her name was on that commercial, so I Youtube-d it, found it, and loved it, and still loves it. The song was “Goodnight and Go”. Afterwards, I started to listen to more of her songs and has been mesmerized by the richness since. Listening to Imogen Heap is an experience.

Here are the songs from her latest album, Ellipse.

Ellipse by imogenheap

And this is her latest song called Lifeline. Ms Heap created this song using “crowdsourcing”. Sound bits and solos were contributed by fans, and so were the images used for the video. She plans to create her whole new album using this method, which I think is a very creative and intimate way to connect with her fans.

Lifeline by imogenheap

and this is the video clip of the song that started it all for me..

John Legend

I first heard John Legend’s Ordinary People during my high school days and found it really touching. I liked it a lot I made that song my ringtone during high school! If you have read my blog for some time and read my music entries, I suppose you’ll know that I generally like music that has a “richness” on it, a complete package of musical efforts (auto-tune is NOT effort) and emotions. I think John Legend embodies that perfectly.

Here’s the song that started it all for me..

Here are some of his songs via Grooveshark.

This widget might not work. Link to playlist on Grooveshark – John Legend.

Here is his awesome rendition of an already awesome song by Adele, Rollin’ in the Deep. Awesome square, baby.

Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue

I only came to know Trombone Shorty from Rock and Roots and boy I’m glad that I did! Troy Andrews aka Trombone Shorty calls his music Supafunkrock. Yeah, fits into my “richness” theme again. I haven’t known much about him, but from the artist write-up, it says that he’s a multi-instrumentalist (the write-up even mentioned him as a “prodigy”) that puts a lot of soul into his music. Just my kind!

Here are some stuff from grooveshark:

This widget might not work. Link to playlist on Grooveshark – Trombone Shorty.

and here’s a video of him live!

The Sets Band and 53A

To be honest I’ve never heard of these Singapore local bands, but if they’re selected to play at Rock and Roots they should be awesome! I’ve found some of their videos, and they sound really well!

Can’t wait for the festival!

PS Sorry for the inconvenience sizes of the players… My theme is not really flexible. You can always click on the video to watch it on Youtube

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Since I started writing short stories when I was 6 or 7 (this is according to my mom – citation needed), I have always wanted to publish my writing. I wrote countless poems and short stories during my school days, mostly when I’m bored at classes. Unfortunately the problem was the follow up – many of the stories were unfinished, or even lost. Goodbye published stories.

So when my friend Putu kept telling me to write a human-interest story about my name-change, I was skeptical about myself. Because 1. As I said before, I have had problems with my attention span and follow up when writing longer pieces and 2. I have never written a human-interest piece tailored for newspapers/magazines. Sure I have written some pieces on this blog, but of course the style is much more relaxed and carefree – not really of publishing standard. I actually planned to blog about the name change already, but he convinced me to just write an article about it.

The process of writing that article took about 6 months, including slacking and forgetting about it. I started with conversation bits because that’s how I like it. Call that my style or something. That was the shape of the article for months, until the time when I just moved in to a new room. Since it was a new room, I had not configured the internet connection. Staring at my computer without internet connection, I then decided to open the almost blank document and started writing… Before I knew it it was nearing 1000 words. (I sent the early draft to Putu after I configured the internet connection, the subject line: “What I did when I didn’t have internet”)

I initially wanted to talk about the process of the name change, but the funny/annoying stories about my one-name took up too much space. If I’m not wrong I ended up with almost 1500 words for only the anecdotes. So I decided to scrape the name change process story.

“Remember that papers usually ask for 1000 words”, he said. Ugh. “Help me edit it then,” I said. Score!

The final draft was +/- 1025 words. He helped me to cut it until about 990. I then sent it to The Jakarta Post and The Jakarta Globe. That was December 22 – I remember because it was “ondeh-ondeh” day, my auntie made some delicious rice balls in ginger soup. Unfortunately The Jakarta Globe’s mailbox was full and I had to resend several times until December 25 (Christmas!).

On December 30, Globe emailed me back saying that they would like to publish my story. The only catch – I would have to shorten the piece into 750-800 words as per the column requirement. Damn! From 1500, 1025, 990, now 750-800? I could hear my pretty words crying. And yet I said ok.

Then I tried, miserably, to shorten it. I couldn’t bear it. My words were all crafted carefully. My kids, my darlings!

“You gotta help me. I give up.”

And so through Google Docs on flaky internet connection (we were both in Jakarta at that time) he managed to cut it into 805 words. “I leave the last 5 to you”, he said. I finally cut it down to 790 words and sent it by January 1. Signed, sealed, delivered.

Days came and went, I took my own sweet time waiting for a response. Well, they would tell me when it was about to be published, wouldn’t they? Then I could prepare to buy a copy of the paper, and cut the part and frame it. (I was serious)

Wrong.

On January 4th, another friend of mine Joe posted a link to an article on my wall. It first seemed foreign. But they kept my conversation bits at the beginning, and then I knew. This is my stuff! After editing and changing some stuff, of course. But they published it!

Excited and confused, I emailed the news editor again, asking about payment and whatnots. I wondered whether they can transfer the payment to my sister’s account (I don’t have an Indonesian bank account anymore), or if they’re not comfortable with it, they can wire it to my Singapore account. Translation – please save me trouble and send it to my Singapore account. Then I also asked whether they can tell me how I can get a copy of past issues. Translation – give me a copy please.

I learned not to use the hinting language too much. The money finally got transferred to my sister’s account (actually I haven’t confirmed this) and I didn’t get a copy of that particular issue. Speaking of which – anyone got one? You can scan and send it to me! It was January 4 2011 edition.

My takeaway? I can only say – I feel lucky. This was my very first attempt and somehow the universe or the guy up there decided to give me a lovely chance. Did my ego some good, seriously.

All in all, an interesting experience. I think I like it. May I experience it more. Let’s write!

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I know I’ve shared about this on Twitter and Facebook, and yet here I am sharing it again. I can’t help it, I’m so happy.

While my friends play with Barbies and Polly Pockets, my parents keep buying me books books books and more books. I have so many books back home in Jakarta that one time the bookshelf broke!

So when I got the emailer from Times (my bookstore of choice in Singapore – cheaper books, same quality!) about their $2 book warehouse sale, I hyperventilated on the spot.

When I got to the warehouse sale I still saw some books being priced at $10, $6, and so on. Confused, my boyfriend asked the attendant and he said that no matter what price is slapped on the book, it’s still $2. I hyperventilated again. Rows and rows of books, from the smallest to the heaviest, all for $2. Novels, cookbooks, do-it-yourself books, biographies, etc etc etc.. For only $2 each. Needless to say, I went mad.

So here’s the listing of the books I bought.. Just to remind myself of how many books I have bought and later on remind myself of how many I haven’t read. Hehe.

Novels

My favourite kind of book, because it’s the kind of book I can read anywhere (and I mean anywhere… Ahem).

Pankaj Mishra – The Romantics

Nell Freudenberger – Lucky Girls

Yann Martel – The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios

Short Stories

I used to make a lot of short stories in Indonesian. And ever since I took the class “Creative Writing (of Short Stories)” at school, I grew more interested in reading short stories. They’re short without less punch.

Catherine Lim – Women in Bondage

Oh no! I thought this is a collection of her short stories but apparently it consists of her essays about women in bondage, interviews, and annotated bibliography. Yes I just realized this when I’m writing this blog post. I feel so bummed, I love Catherine Lim’s stories. She came once to my Creative Writing class and she was a wonderful lady.

Gopal Baratham – Of Memory and Desire

Apparently this book is the same thing as the book described above. Oh well, might be an interesting read anyway.

Travel Stories

Chronicles about travelling/living at other countries. Usually amusing.

Peter Carey – Wrong About Japan

Neil Humphreys – Notes from an Even Smaller Island

Travel Guides

I bought them because they look pretty and not wordy! Haha. Currently the possibility of really going to these places is really low. Except perhaps Thailand. I chose the one on Thailand because it was the lightest. I don’t get the point of heavy and bulky travel guides. I mean, it’s supposed to be brought while travelling!

Knopf Mapguides – Milan

Knopf Mapguides – Stockholm

Globetrotter – The Philippines

AA Essential – Thailand

My boyfriend and I collectively bought 8 travel guides. So 4 of them stay with me while the other 4 stay with him. The ones at him are guides to Miami, Munich, Malaysia, and Naples.

Others

And some other stuff…

From Harvard Business Press – Lessons Learned – Straight Talk from the World’s Top Business Leaders – Starting a Business

Ong Siow Heng and Nirmala Govindasamy-Ong – Metaphor and Public Communication: Selected speeches of Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Chok Tong

Ron and Caryl Krannich – Nail the Cover Letter!

Oh man, I haven’t even finished reading books I bought at the Carrefour sale some months back. I’m currently reading The Namesake. Normally I would ask you to give me recommendations of books to read, but I guess not today

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And I have nothing but good things to say about it! Firstly, I love how elegant it looks. Countless people (usually Indonesians) have taunted me with questions “Why didn’t you buy a Blackberry instead???”. And I said to them “Hello! Didn’t you see how mine looks much better than that brick of yours??”.

Elegant

Brick

Secondly I love its very touch-sensitive Optical Navi Key! Granted it’s not a trackpad, but it works well in navigating menu and stuff. Works great in web browsing too. Thirdly, its shortcut buttons (contacts, email, home, calendar) is fast and really saves me time.

Oh and one thing that Nokia didn’t really promote (and I think they should!) is the super-awesome QWERTY keyboard. It has the same proportion as computer’s QWERTY keyboard. What I mean is, some QWERTY phones crowd a lot of additional buttons (usually at the last row, the row with Z-M) and it messes up the proportion – some keys are a lot further to the right/to the left than it should be. I tried using my sisters’ QWERTY phones (one from LG, one from Samsung) and I had difficulties because I keep punching the wrong keys! Not with E72. My transition from the usual numeric keypad (mind you, I’ve been using it for at least 10 years!) was smooth and painless. Oh and, the QWERTY keyboard makes really really minimal sound. Typing is not noisy at all and even enjoyable with the smooth keys.

Sis’ Samsung

Nokia E72

Sis’ LG

Unfortunately I can’t yet use the most hyped Nokia Messaging feature since I don’t have a post-paid plan (yes I still use prepaid!), and thus unable to use the extra feature. I’ll sign up for the post-paid plan when I have found a job!

You can see how Nokia Messaging works in Nokia’s very own reality show though – which is entitled “The Rookie“. Basically this show is The Apprentice-style (remember Donald Trump?) reality show. Contestants fight with each other (not physically, of course!) to get internships at 4 big companies: Nokia (of course!), Standard Chartered Bank, Zouk, and Microsoft. The best-of-the-best intern of the final 4 will be crowned “The Rookie” and get a cash prize of SGD 5000!

The contestants are divided into two teams (Alpha and Bravo), and each week they have to go through different series of challenges. One member of the losing team will then be eliminated each week.

They all looked so happy and close during the photoshoot. Who knew what drama would happen.. Hur hur.

Ok I was talking in present and present future tense, but actually The Rookie has already been crowned last Saturday in Zouk! There was a contest that asked you to predict the winner and you could win a Nokia E72 yourself. Unfortunately, the contest also already ended. Nevertheless, I hope one of you reading follows my Twitter (@sylvdoanx) and entered the contest, and hopefully, will win the AWSAM Nokia E72!

You can also still catch up with the episodes of The Rookie online. Watch them go through interesting challenges such as designing a print ad, organizing a fund-raiser, and many more. A lot of drama, of course *wink wink*. And also the showcase of Nokia E72. If you’re still thinking of buying one and you don’t trust reviews, you can watch The Rookie episodes to see how it works in real life! The Rookie website also includes several behind-the-scenes videos. Oh, and, dunno if it’s relevant, but I think The Rookie’s host Bobby Tonelli is hawt! Quite an eye candy, I must say… Hehehehehehehe.

See..

(Images from Bobby Tonelli’s website)

Ok, signing out now. Hope you guys check out The Rookie, and of course try/use Nokia E72 eventually!

PS: I have a Skype iPhone cover giveaway. Enter the contest!

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CommunicAsia 2010
Skype at CommunicAsia 2010
Giveaway!

CommunicAsia2010 and BroadcastAsia2010 is Asia’s premier business event for the global infocomm technology (ICT), broadcasting and media industries. It’s held at Singapore Expo from 15 – 18 June 2010.

The exhibitions feature almost 2,000 exhibiting companies from 57 countries and regions, keen on unveiling their latest offerings.
(info from CommunicAsia’s press release)

On June 16 I had the privilege of attending the blogger’s session from Skype at CommunicAsia 2010. I have Daphne from XPR to thank for that.

I was so in love with the Skype booth. It’s so cheery, with sky blue and rainbows all around!

Isn’t that just pretty?

We were guided around the booth by Peter Parkes, social media lead of Skype, who explained to us the new features/functionalities of Skype.

Yes that’s me listening. Hehe.

Basically what Peter informed us is the availability on Skype on other platforms other than the more traditional computer (PC/Mac alike). Skype is now available for mobile devices (Symbian phones, iPhone), and even TV!

Yes, TV!

It actually supports HD video, and the camera/microphone combo has 4 microphones and is able to pick up sound from 45 metres.

Example of the video:

There was very little grain/noise. It was quite impressive.

However the Skype on TV is only available as embedded software within select TVs. Currently Panasonic Viera HDTV supports it, with the requirement of a communication camera (sold separately). Not sure whether it’s required to use Panasonic’s own communication camera or it’s possible to use other compatible cameras. Peter also mentioned Samsung and some other brand of TV to embed the Skype software. Not sure about the details.

And then of course there was Skype for iPhone and Symbian phones. Skype in the Nokia N900 is not even a separate application, it’s actually seamlessly embedded in the phone. When you scroll through your contact list, for example, you can see the option “Call using Skype” appear. Interesting! After the event, I just had to download Skype to my Nokia E72 and it’s pretty easy to use! It can also merge the Skype contacts and the phone contacts together, but it’s not yet seamless like N900′s.

Screenshot:

Peter also talked about Business usage for Skype. Basically Skype will help businesses (Peter mentioned especially small and medium businesses) save costs on communications. Makes sense, because Skype can enable people to call, chat, send files, and even do conferences/group callings at the same time! The new feature available at Skype Business is Skype Manager, which is a web application you can use to manage the usage of Skype inside your organization. For example – if you want to manage how much Skype credits to give to your employees. You may go to Skype for Business website for more details.

Oh, and I think the Skype Manager ad is so cute!

By now you might be wondering – even if it’s on mobile phones, how exactly can I call people without Skype? Understandably, Skype has traditionally been used for free Skype-to-Skype calls but apparently it can also be used to call landlines/mobiles. You can purchase Skype credits to do so, or even better, you can use Skype subscriptions for unlimited calls to countries/Europe/World. Pretty good deal I think! Sadly, the Skype subscription worldwide that I got excluded Indonesia (my home country), so I said good bye to my unlimited calls to home. Sigh.

Giveaway! (updated!!)

Yeay! Now it’s time for the giveaway!

I have 2 Skype iPhone covers to give away!

(They both have the same design, only different colours – white/black)

To enter the giveaway contest is simple!

1. Leave a comment at this post with your name and (valid!) email, stating what you use/you can use/you plan to use Skype for.

And that’s it! Yes, it’s that easy.

You can also have another chance by tweeting about this giveaway. Please see the directions at the first comment below!

Some T&Cs:

1. The last entry of the contest will be accepted at 23 June 2010 23.59 PM 25 June 2010 23.59 PM. Winners will be announced at latest by 30 June 2010.
2. This contest is open to people who reside at Singapore or have a Singapore mailing address.
3. Postage fee will be borne by me a.k.a postage is freeeeee
4. One person (with one e-mail) is allowed one entry via comment on blog post and two entries via Twitter (directions at the first comment below!).
5. There will be 2 winners. Winners will be chosen by random numbers (Random.org)
6. Colours will be determined by random too.

Looking forward for your entries!

Note:  A number of other blogs will be having the same giveaway, I’ll post links to their giveaway’s so you can have more chances of winning one!

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Really.

Cost me SGD 20 for 4 GB of storage. Good deal, I think. I mean, look at how pretty it is.
I was actually walking around Challenger Funan to look for a webcam for my siblings, but I saw this and I just could not resist.

This is a huge upgrade from my previous thumbdrive (which is my very first thumbdrive) which can only hold 128 MB of data. How long ago was that? Unfortunately I lost that thumbdrive.. A lot of important things inside, including my short stories. Ugh.

I think I’m gonna love it having this.

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You Were There by Libera.

I hope I’m not the only person that thinks the video is cheese sandwich. I mean, ugh. It’s like somebody just took their pictures and tinkered around with iMovie or the likes (Windows Movie Maker? Eeks).

But it IS a really beautiful song, kudos to Takatsugu Muramatsu. I just think that the song (at least in the mp3 I got) got too much enhancement, echo and stuff, that it lost some of its magic. Also, the strings. Ugh, the strings. The piano was fine, but the strings was downright “ordinary” for the amazing song.

By the way, this song is actually a soundtrack of a Japanese movie called “Dare mo mamotte kurenai” which seems to be a very interesting movie. This is the plot summary (from Eigapedia)

When the older brother of junior high school student Saori is arrested for murder she is separated from her family for her own protection. She ends up living with a police detective named Katsuura and his family. Katsuura has to get information from her without making her already-troubled mental state any worse.

Can’t seem to find the trailer with English subtitles, but I think the movie (trailer) is powerful enough without subtitles.

Intriguing, eh? I wonder where can I watch this movie…

Btw I found another video.. I believe this was the opening of the movie?

BTW, I totally have a crush on You Were There’s soloist. Hehe! His name is Tom Cully.

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I know it’s not a school exam or something, but let me tell you, piano exam is much much worse than school exam. Because unlike in written exam when you can try hard to access your memory, practical piano exam is a one-off, now-or-never thing. Once you slip when doing something – that’s it. That is it. From passing with distinction to passing with merit in just one slip.

A little more technical here, one thing I hated the most (because I’m no good at it – simple, right?) was the 6th apart scale. Just for you laymen, basically you have to play a scale (something like doremifasolatido-dotilasofamiredo), but your hands/fingers start on different notes (6 steps apart). And you have to play it 4 octaves up and down (simply saying, you play it 4 times continuously).

Wait, what? So difficult?

Oh, yes, apparently. Now, I understand the importance of playing scales in order to play piano well – it’s all about balancing the power and making the lines as smooth as possible (if you don’t get this, don’t worry, not important), yet I don’t understand making it compulsory to test these freaking scales on piano exam. At the end of the day, playing these scales requires more brain-teasing work instead of paying close attention to how I play my piano correctly. It’s more like they’re trying to test my brain, or muscle memory, instead of my musicality.

As per my title, it’s just like they ask you to do a spelling bee or a tongue twister and you’ll be graded for it in your English exam. It’s not how you can use English or how you can play piano anymore!

I know, I know. Maybe I’m just bitter coz I didn’t do well on my 6th apart (and my 3rd apart) scales. Whatever. I hope the examiner is nice enough not to let me repeat this hellish grade 8 exam. Ugh.

Image by myself! Press on Deviantart

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I’m pondering about this since my choir (visit SMU Chamber Choir Fan Page if you’d like to) was visited by a vocal coach from Philippines. He did technical stuff like breathing, posture, sound production that I would not go into detail else I’ll bore a lot of you out. Not that there’s a lot of you in the first place.

After all technical stuff, before he left he said that the way to improve our singing is to listen to more choral works. He then went on to recommend some people, or rather groups, to listen to. And I just couldn’t stop pondering.

You see, if you have followed my blog from the beginning, you would know that I don’t only listen to choral or classical stuff. Review my music category. I listen to some pop, some rock, some electronica, some lounge music, and every other thing as I feel like it. In fact, I think my choral music collection is like… 5% of my whole collection?

Do we really have to listen to music that defines who we are? Do they have to match?

I don’t think we should choose a music, or any interest, first then decide how we should act. If I like emo songs (I do like some), do I have to sport the over-one-eye hair cut and write sad poems? If I like rock songs, do I have to sport studs and funky hair? If I like classical songs, do I have to act all nerdy? Do I really have to fulfill all those stereotypes only because I like a type of music? And is it fair to judge a person just based on what music they listen to? (or based on their interests?)

All I’m saying – sometimes people identify a group, and then identify themselves. Isn’t this backwards? I think we should identify ourselves first and then join a group.

But then again, this is only a personal opinion. But I’ll stand true – I don’t want to listen to choral music just because I sing in a choir. I don’t want to limit my choices – there is a lot of great music of any genres out there.

What do you think? Do you think you define yourself by your music – or does your music define you?

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Check this out: Bobby McFerrin (ahem, I bet you know “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”, right?) “hacks” your brain.

He gives 2 or 3 starting notes, and then voila! Like magic, the audience sang together with him. Confused? Not clear? Just check out the video

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

Perhaps somewhere deep inside, we’re really all musicians. After all it’s one of the oldest form of entertainment isn’t it?

Thank you BoingBoing for the link. (and thank you, StumbleUpon! :P)

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