Christmas@Esplanade

Hi folks, as you know I'm involved in a gig this Christmas at the Esplanade. We are calling it "5@play meets Disclosure" as it's a combination of 2 bands (Andrea and Reggie's jazz/funk/R&B band, and my own acoustic pop-rock band). You can expect a mix of Christmas carols, and some pop-rock/ acoustic numbers.

I must say, it's such a blessing and privilege to have this platform on CHRISTMAS!! Praise God!

Do come down and see us if you can make it!! Would really love to spend Christmas with you guys. *winkz* (and let me know if u are coming ya?) Oh yeah,and if you saw my band at the last Esplanade gig, do know that Disclosure is gonna sound way better with the help of 5@play now. haha!

So here are the details:

5@play meets Disclosure:
==========================
25 Dec (Sun)
Outdoor Theatre (Free)
Time: 7.30-8.15pm
8.45-9.30pm
10 -10.30pm

Each set will probably be slightly different....so I'll update when I get more details.

Andrea: I SO enjoyed singing "If you didn't love me" with you playing so beautifully and sensitively on the keys!! Wow, I really FELT it...was trying to hold bk the tears. You're superb!! :)
It's such a waste my MD player went nuts and erased ALL my recordings from tonite's rehearsals. Arghh!!

Here are more pics from tdy's rehearsal. Aside from the horrid MD player going nuts incident....I must say I had such a fun time! The joking around, dancing, super 'kena' music moments etc. The music making was a much needed avenue of release for me...it was all gd, despite occasionally getting spit on by Mr Kelvin Yee. Tsk tsk! haha!

Happy Sydney Memories

A sunny moment in the garden behind our Blut Mts Cottage



The NSW library...or 'heaven' for me. It's one of those old, traditional libraries...Victorian Architecture, HIGH stacks of bks, with ladders!!! *sigh*

"If You Didn't Love Me"

A beautiful song, that reminds us that love is our fuel, our true driving force. The world would indeed be a dark and dismal place if we didn't have the love of our God, and our friends/family.

(for the audio of this song, go to http://jazzymoo.multiply.com/music)

"If You Didn't Love Me"
=========================
Lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager and Carole King. Music by Corrinne May.

If every drop of water disappeared from the land
And every drop of ocean suddenly turned to sand
That would all be nothing
Compared to what I'd feel
If you didn't love me

What if I woke up and couldn't hear a sound
And all that I could see was darkness all around
That would still be nothing
Compared to what I'd feel
If you didn't love me

If I could have the world and all that money could buy
And I could travel far beyond the moon and the sky
If they gave me golden wings
well I still couldn't fly
Without you, nothing would matter

You and I walk beside each other day after day
But there's so much inside me, I never get to say
My life would be so empty
With nothing left to feel
If you didn't love me
If you didn't love me

"Cloud Nine"

That's the name of this lovely cupcake I think, from "Toast" cafe (2 branches: at Taka, and Raffles Place). Its a cream cheese and coconut cupcake. I simply adore the rainbow sprinkles!! Doesn't the precious sight of it make you smile with child-like delight? Thanks Funky Aaron for getting not one, but TWO of my favourites cupcakes to cheer me up!

Music on Multiply

Hey folks! I've posted some music on my Multiply site...including the acoustic Rick Price songs. Enjoy!!! :)

http://jazzymoo.multiply.com/music

A Million Miles...(Rick Price)

I've been listening to Rick Price's acoustic bonus cd, from his 2003 album "A Million Miles". Yeah, remember that fella? All of us went crazy over 'Heaven Knows' in secondary sch. So nostalgic sia? heh! Just bought that CD from Gramaphone tdy...cos i was searching for acoustic songs for the Esplanade Christmas gig.

It's an incredible acoustic CD...featuring the kind of music I love the most. Just beautiful, sensitive vocals and a guitar...if the song works in that stripped down format, it must be a great song! (and Sting agrees to that as well)

Some of the tracks on the CD are 'Fragile', 'Walk away Renee', 'Heaven knows' and 'If you were my baby' (probably featuring this in our gig). I know it seems a tad cheesy and dated...but these tracks are different from the studio versions. It's almost like hearing Rick Price live!! I let Bernice listen to it just now...and we both agreed that the songs sounded so PURE, and he delivers them with such heart-breaking sensitivity (better than the studio/ radio versions).

My heart went to pieces lah when I heard his songs.....was melting and about to burst into tears in front of my office PC. It's been a long time since a song did that for me! Now that's music....it should touch and move the soul. None of that crap we hear on the radio these days....(eg. Madonna's latest single. some thrashy dance track. *rolls eyes*)

I'll try and upload the Rick Price mp3s onto Multiply, so everyone can enjoy it.

Thank you for the music

I was quite wiped out by grading and lesson planning this week...falling sick AGAIN. haha! Like how many times can I fall sick rite? But anyway, the rehearsal I had tdy with my band "Disclosure" and Andrea's band "5@play" (for our Christmas day gig at Esplanade) was really refreshing and therapeutic! I had forgotten how amazing the gigging/ jamming experience cld be.

The company mattered a lot of course...it was great fun to be hanging out and laughing with my buddies. Andrea and her band are SUCH gifted musicians too, which really make them such a blast, a joy to work with!

Andrea: Our Disclosure songs "What's going on" and "Freedom'90" have turned out so amazingly cool in the hands of your band!!! :) I keep re-playing the MD recording.

Today, I also found out that there is a funky riff from a song called 'The Chicken' by Pee Wee Ellis (thanks George for the info). And I don't think it's from 'Chicken Little' soundtrack. The Disclosure vocalists were very surprised to find out there was really such a song! haha! Reggie, our bassist is using part of the bass line in the interlude for "What's going on".

Anyway, I just wanted to say to the Disclosure and 5@play guys....thank you for the brilliant music folks!! You rock!! :)

Here's a pic of Kelvin (Disclosure vocalist) and Terry (the drummer hidden behind) in our spacious studio (with our own couch, n personal ensuite toilet too) I know it doesn't exactly look like we're having a crazy time in tt pic...but I only had time for tt one photo. :p

Paying Attention

- Excerpts from "Rumours of another world" by Philip Yancey

"As a start, I aim to make daily life sacramental, which means literally to keep the sacred (sacra) in mind (mental). In other words, I seek a mindfulness- a mind full- of God's presence in the world. I have no desire to escape the natural world, the pattern of gnostics, desert monks, and fundamentalists who flee 'worldliness.' Nor do I deny the supernatural, the error of the reducers. Rather, I want to bring the two together, to reconnect life into the whole that God intended.

This world, all of it, either belongs to God, or it does not...

Blaise Pascal, who achieved renown both for his mathematics and his devotional writings, suggests an approach of seeing the natural world as a foreshadowing of the supernatural. 'He has done in the boundaries of nature what He would do in those of grace, in order that we might judge that He could make the invisible, since He made the visible excellently.' Beauty abounds in nature: a collection of seashells, the castoff excretions of lowly mollusks, is probably the most beautiful artwork in my home. And I need only read the Psalms to realize that God wants us to love and honour him through the creation, not apart from it.

Celtic spirituality speaks of 'thin places' where the natural and supernatural worlds come togeher at their narrowest, with only a thin veil between them. I have visited places where nature's works speak loudly of their Creator: bald eagles and beluga whales in Alaska, coral and tropical fish on the Great Barrier Reef off Australia, exotic birds and butterflies at Angel Falls in Venezuela, seashells on the beaches of Kenya. One day i realized with a start that God 'sees' all the wonders of the earth at all times. Not only does God see them, God is their source, and each reveals something of their Creator.

"Beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will sense them," writes Annie Dillard. "The least we can do is try to be there."

A night out at "Timbre"

Yesterday was really 'family day' for me. haha! I spent the entire day with my Aunt and cousins from Sabah. (was so fun hanging out with them, cos they're such a tight-knit family, and they're all really humourous and fun-loving as well)

We 'attacked' (or rather THEY) Orchard rd in the afternoon, then we had a big family dinner with my parents/ grandparents/ sis etc. It was also their last nite in Singapore before returning to Sabah, so I thought I should spend more time with my cousins, who seldom drop by.

So after dinner, I brought my cousins Aeron and Candy (20 and 21 yrs old respectively) to Chijmes and Timbre. It felt really nice to bring them around to these places cos they would never get to discover them otherwise....by just tagging after their parents tt is. Furthermore, in Miri, M'sia...their university town, they hardly have any nice dining/ chill-out/music places to hang out at.

I was really glad that they enjoyed Chijmes and Timbre so much, and that we had a great time just hanging out together over drinks and superb music (without the adults too!! haha!). They were taking pics, to send mms-es to their frens bk home..and recording the music on their handphones. haha! Anyway, I really loved tt 'family bonding' session. :) We discovered that we all adored acoustic music too!

"Ngak and Eric" were playing last nite, and I must say they are a very gd acoustic outfit! The lead singer has a beautiful voice, very well controlled too. Plus they do pretty funky and creative arrangements. I am so going back again on Fri nites! Hopefully my 'Disclosure' band mbers can join me too.

25

Last week I turned 25 on the 25th Nov.:) What a milestone!
I started the wee hours of 25th Nov with God....the best person to start my bday with of course. It's always special...connecting with your Maker on your birthday. Was praying and just thanking Him for watching over me, taking care of me, placing His hand over me all these yrs. Somehow, Psalm 139 always seems perfect on such an occasion...

"For You have formed my inward parts;
You have covered me in my mother's womb.
I will praise You, for I am fearfully
and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well." -Psalm 139: 13-14-

Later in the day, I had 3 separate celebrations with friends and family. And throughout the day, the phonecalls/ smses kept coming! Some even from students...I can't believe they remembered and even SANG for me. haha! So sweet and touching lah. It was truly a heart-warming day!

Thanks to everyone for making it such a special and enjoyable day....I was pleasantly surprised by the flood of birthday wishes/ songs/prayers/ pressies etc. You guys are a blessing, and your gestures, company and friendship mean so much to me!! :) I love you too...

Here are some pictures from my birthday lunch at Modesto's...with Bernice and Andrea. It was our first time there...and we had a lovely time I must say! Lovely Al Fresco dining...excellent Italian fd that we had....wood-fire pizza, pasta and a huge plate of calamari. Servings were huge and that meal pretty much ruined my appetite for the rest of the day. haha! Which was a pity, cos my family whipped up a huge, delicious meal for me.

Pammy my love, sorry you were sick and couldn't come. We WILL go there again! :)









Ok folks, start saving up...cos this is what I want for my birthday next yr! haha!

Alrite...i'm just kidding, this is Tammy...the pretty horse I rode in Blue Mountains, Sydney. Doesn't she look like a gal?



beaming away beside my horse...
Why are these Sydney shots suddenly appearing in this birthday post? Well....cos i've been missing Sydney again. heh! Plus Eunice sent me 3 CD-Roms worth of photos that we took there.



this is my 'jockey shot'...according to Eunice. haha!