Loving a Pudding Lady and a Pudding Baby

This quote was taken from Baby Centre about advices these parents got from their fathers. It's very inspiring and makes me wanna love SW more passionately (dang, I almost said professionally!). The quote below is a reminder of what I learned in Pre-Marrital Counseling. What a timely reminder

My father told me that the best way to love my children was to openly express my love for my wife. The fruits of these words are sent forth with every unselfish act, kind word, and expression of love that comes from my children.
— T.L. Brew

Hiaks! Chia Ee just woke up. I could here him making baby-noises. He is probably rolling around his cot. Wait... I try to get a photo of him and let u see what he is like at 7.30 in the morning.

Hehehe... I sat on the bed to catch his attention and took this Godzilla shot of Chia Ee. U know, how Godzilla gets out of the sea?

BTW, he lost his voice from all the wailing when we administer the "space chamber" over his mouth (to treat his broncholitis). Now he sounds like Ray Charles. What do I think? Sexy like when I lose my own voice if u ask me!

*"Hit the Road" Jenn!!!

Yupz, time to go to work anyway.

*From the Ray Charlse song "Hit the road Jack" also featured in the film "Ray". It's one of my earliest memories of Ray Charles because my father love to sing this at his NPCC camp fire sing-a-long sessions. What a cool guy he was and still is!

Powerjam 2007: Auditions

Our audition for Powerjam 2007 was yesterday. We're given 3 minutes to set up and 2 mintues to play and everything went as planned. Glenn gave me a scare when he told me that he is using my "Turbo Rat" pedal without trying them out at home. So he got to know the pedal only in that 3 minutes on stage and it sounded superb! Thank God!

When our set-up time was up we're ready. I was quite elated because I thought we showed some level of professionalism. That is also reflected in our jam sessions. No jam sessions is a waste of time although we have our fair share of fooling around in the studio. When I couldn't jam them to jam for two straight weeks (when I backed out on the night of the jam itself due to work and the retreat), they had the initiative to work on the songs as if it's an acoustic gig. Our experiences in jamming and gigging really paid off that day and our playing wasn't that bad either.

I went up to the drum riser and did my made adjustment to the height of the snare, hi-hats and ride cymbal. When the announcer annouced that our set-up time was up, I took a quick glance at my band members. They were ready. Before I counted off, I hit the button on my metronome which was set to 148 beats per minute (bpm to musicians) and gave the cue for Randy and Glenn to begin the opening verse of the song. We re-arranged the song into 2 minutes so that we will play a complete set rather than being forced to step off the stage mid way through a song. In preperation for the competion I have been listening to the recording of our jamming sessions amd made mental notes of what I should and shouldn't do.

I find playing with the metronome very daunting. But my tempo has always been a factor since I started playing and I have never discipline myself to practice with it (to even practive for that matter). All my previous bands really suffered because of me. I didn't realise how badly out of time I am until I recorded myself playing. The groove was simply not grooving at all. As some musicians call it "pocket". I wasn't in the "pocket". Pastor Meng Charm, our Churh's music director, noticed my problem and shared with me about what the drummer Jeremy shared with him. He said that Jeremy could lock in or lay back or play ahead of the beat - total mastery over the metronome (rather than letting the machine take control of you). After Figtree's first public performance in May, the band asked me to consider using the metronome all our jam sessions. I have been jamming with it eversince.

There was a sense of accomplishment after the last note was played (the crash I hit in my case); I felt that I have played and stuck to the structure I want it to be. I felt quite confident that may be we played well enough to earn our place in the semi finals. I went home feeling good about the performance we put up. There were 30 other bands that night (and may be 30 last week) and only 5 of them will qualify. I have not seen the other bands because we were the third band to play (I only heard the first and third), but I thought we stood a chance. I do not mean to sound cocky. Neither am I saying this in a disrespectful way towards the other bands in anyway.

I've been playing in bands since I was 19. Now at 31, I feel more in touch with the music I play and I am able to have a certain mastery over what I want to play in the band, but there is still lots of work to be done and many things to learn. The day I stop learning is the day I cease to exist. There are so many things I want to accomplish as a drummer. With the responsibilities as a husband and father, that drummer's dream I have has it's limits. Yet I find joy within this limitation to take my drumming to the next level abeit in a slower pace than one who has more time. I am enjoying myself today than ever before. I feel young again. This week I talked to members of my previous bands (Panickilljoy and Gloria) and every one talked about the possibility of getting together for a jam. I don't think I have the energy or time for these, but it's wonderful to talk about possibilities because we really had it going back then.

Glenn text-messaged us to informed us that we were in the next round. I received the message before I turn in for the night. I mustn't be complacent about this minor achievement. There is another baby step of practicing and doing our best to get into the final round. This is just the beginning.

What I've been reading

I've been reading Neil Peart's "Roadshow" and what an inspiring book it was. I seldom read books that are found outside the christian bookstore, but I just had to get this book to enjoy the genius of a man who happens to be a drummer. Being a drummer is always the receiver of cruel drummer jokes like "The reason he plays drums coz he failed the audition as a singer". Dang! But Neil Peart (like Tourniquet's Ted Kirkpatrick) broke all the norms by being the principle lyricist for the band Rush. His life is an inspiration itself after all the personal tragedy he faced and the way he found the joy of living and living to the full.

I am only at page 90 of the book now and already two quotes have galvanised certain principles in my mind. The first one was relating to how he and the band (they've been together for 33 years now) got along after all these years:

"Inevitable, we had our differences and disagreements - even conflicts and rivalries in the early years. But we had learned to choose our battles, to take a breath and ask ourselves, "Is that worth arguing about?" before we pressed a point that might lead to something more serious..." (emphasis is mine)

This principles applies in my work as a location sound recordist, in my discussion of Christian doctrines with others and my dealings with fellow band members.

The second is a quote that Neil quoted off Bob Dylan:

"The highest purpose of art is to inspire. What else can you do? What else can you do for anyone but to inspire them?"

The debate about Christian and the art has been going on for decades. Some Christians shudder when they're art is being labelled as "Christian Art". Do you know why? It's because of the American Christian sub-culture that has been created to cater to the need of Christians who cries out for "alternatives" from the mainstream of things. As a result some of those art became predictable to the extent of being "cheesy". It sometimes make a Christian very inward-looking. if only there is a kind of "renaissance" in Christian art (Errrrr...*cringe*shudder*) to expand on their creativity. Apart from being evangelistic there is also a call of duty for artists whether u are a Christian or not to inspire people. For a Christian the most important duty is to share our faith, but we do we do that 24/7? There is a time for everything and one of them is definitely a time to create art.

There is a great series of article in HM mag (YEAH BABY!!!) talking about what I mentioned above entitled "The Disconnect: Why Chritians make bad art" by Kemper Crabb which I would urge everyone who is into creative arts to read. I can't find it online, but if u want to read it, I would print it for u.