Of Japanese, samurais and a MC who saved her best for the last..
Dear TomHa,
Just came back from the RV/Yuhua combined alumni band cum PJC cum Yuhua Secondary concert. It was a rather rojak combination and seriously, the first half of the concert was rather unintersting. PJC conjured a repertoire which includes songs that I had played during those days and their competition piece. Loud and run here and there. Typical Ms Chan, as expected, after 4 years and more under her baton. Yuhua, being not the band of its imperial past, at least sounded better in VCH than in SCH. Their tones are more full this time. Perhaps they had eaten, I don't know. Songs are Ms Chan typical and heard from the MC that their competition piece is composed out of the composer's reaction to the Iraq War. Come on, give me a break. The composer can really do better than that to reflect his reflection towards the Iraq War. Other than the use of the whip here and there which I construed to be a parody to the American Soldier's manhandling of the Iraqi prisoner-of-wars, and the very loud music, I cannot feel anything out of it that is in any sense reflective of his feelings towards this ill-advised war that does not seem to be going to end anytime.

The alumni band fared better in my opinion, although not as well as I would like to have them to be. Well, I must say that this is a rather unfair comment, thus I really hate going to concerts having already listened to the pieces somewhere before, especially those performed by the professionals. The alumni band performed 4 movements of Riverdance, and having seen it on TV countless times, and listened to the pros performing the music countless times, my opinion on the song had become fixed and thus I judge with already a fixed template of how the song should be played and making comments on it would not be fair anymore. Afterall, 1. they are not professional players but players who gave up their recreational time for the love of what they are doing, 2. There should never be a fixed for anything concerning music and the arts. However, being the person I am, I watched them with a coloured spectacles(有涩眼镜）. My comments don't count..

Anyway, the MC only revealed her true self at the end of the concert, after all gifts were presented. Do you all want an encore?? And then it appears that the audience got a rather rude awakening or something did they realise that Oh, I haven't shout encore hor.. then they started Encore! Encore! Encore! Then the MC, seeing that the audience do want an encore, replied Oh ok, then I go and invite the band and Ms Chan for the encore piece So funny, and so is the encore piece which I think should be known as A Samurai's Seppuku (hope I get the spelling correct anyway..) The piece began with a very Japanese flavour and it transported me back to those pre-Meiji Japan which is very feudal and all the Samurais and Ninjas are all around. Somehow, I felt that there is a tinge of majestic sadness and pride in it that is very reminiscent of a seppuku. However, it is only a prolouge. Then the music changed in the middle portion, which I contrued to be that the samurai is thinking back to his happy days together with his lover. However, fate just love to make fun of them as the woman that he had fell in love with is his master's daughter and the master refused to give him his blessings for the both of them. Very Romeo and Juliet.. Then, rain and lightning, under the influence of his deep love for his master's daughter, he killed his master in a moment of folly. He had actually killed his master! Oh, what dishonour, what had he done? He had disregarded the code of a samurai and with what pride and integrity would he have left to live in this world? Fast forward to the present and rain and thunder. The samurai sipped a few mouths of hard liquor as he prepares himself for the pain that would ensued. He drew his katana from its sheath. Harusame is its name. The sword that had served him only too well in his pursuit to be the best in Japan. It had helped him slay many formidable foes but now, the last blood that it would draw from would be from himself. What irony, what sarcasm. With a deep breath and one hard piercing stroke, the Samurai had ended his life. Blood gushed out of his body and painted the walls red as the piece ended in a the band holding a note of very conflicting chords. Although a deed of dishonour, he had died at the very least,with honour, and integrity...

Like always, I think i think too much...