Currently Playing Shostakovich: Symphonies no 5 and 9 / Haitink By Dmitry Shostakovich, Bernard Haitink see related

Hi. Just got back from d'NA two days ago. I'm moving once again, this time to:

ThirtyOne

Do drop by the new blog; and if ever something unforeseen happens to Blogger, I'll be back here again.

Hoping to see you soon,

SimianD

Currently Playing How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb By U2 One Step Closer see related

The MPO International Composers Award finals last night was a wonderful experience. Kee-Yong of Malaysia won. It was fairly judged by the Australian violist and composer Brett Dean.

My personal favourite was the piece by Germany's Moritz Eggert, depicting the sinking of a German ship in Scapa Flow during World War I. It reminded me of Shostakovich, my favourite composer. Moritz won the audience award, in which everyone gets a vote.

Anyway, before the concert I managed to pick up U2's latest album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb from Tower Records. It's quite amazing actually, despite bad reviews in today's Star paper

A very personal album, it's dedicated to Bono's father, Robert Hewson, who died in 2001. Throughout the songs, there is a sense of age setting in, and it's somewhat deeper and darker than 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind. Spiritual themes in this album tend to probe the 'Father' side of God.

If you don't have it, do drop by www.u2.com and listen online to Miracle Drug, Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own, Crumbs from Your Table, Original of the Species and Yahweh.

Looking forward to d'NA... only 108 hours to go!

I wrote these during the first paper of EST (the subjective one) yesterday.

Anticipation (2:58 p.m.)

Ever throbbing, my heart

Against these walls, that echo --

Go!

Ever prancing, my hopes are

Ready in a flash, to

Leap upon this chance, for

Young I am.

Infinite seconds dripping by...

Would that it might

Arrive in a flash;

Impossible, but well so, for the wait

Teaches me to appreciate.

Halcyon (3:06 p.m.)

Open up, moment of moments

Where the spirit longs to be;

Thou fleeting second heaven-sent

That arriveth now for me.

The distant drumming of a lover's dream

With swirling colours fading fast;

Appears as speedily as light might seem

And then no more -- its light is past.

But light that travels at much speed

Doth touch a point, is then reversed;

And like a tree that grows to a seed

Brings back the dreamer to the days at first.

Halcyon moment, wait for me.

Currently Playing All That You Can't Leave Behind By U2 see related

Two Poems

Finally, Physics is over! Actually, it was somewhat easier than I'd expected, and I suppose C.S. Lewis was right when he wrote in The Screwtape Letters, that we 'die and die, and then we're beyond death', 'the tooth ached and ached and then it was out'... I worried about it quite a bit, and then, yesterday I lost the mood to study, thinking it better to rest my mind and clear it a bit.

It paid off. The Sabbath is indeed one of God's most special gifts.

The exam paper actually had some diagrams printed in colour, and it was a really pleasant surprise as our Ministry of Education isn't renowned for its generous use of colour in textbooks and the like.

Anyway, today seemed to be a day of quite a bit of inspiration, and I wrote the following poems during two of the three Physics papers -- the first and the last to be exact.

Hypothetical (9:25 a.m.)

Curtains rise;

Insecure, I worry lest

Nothing learned can be

Applied to the test --

Panic drowns me.

To fear, and gain a little

Or not to fear, and set my mind --

Neighbour of the evanescent.

Ominousity raises my spirit's pace;

Deliver me with grace.

Seven Papers (3:30 p.m.)

Forever longing, for

Release from the

Ever winding road;

Ever hoping that

Drudgery may last

Only the night --

Morning has broken.

*It was originally titled 'Six Papers' in conjunction with the number of subjects whose exams are over, but I'd forgotten Bible Knowledge. It's now rectified to 'Seven Papers'.

Dog Thoughts

Yesterday, in between the two Maths papers (there was a break of about 4 hours), Mum took me and Wei Lik to Mid Valley for lunch. I read a bit in MPH, and came across these two quotes (very true and humorous!) from a book on 'lessons we can learn from dogs':

If you think you are a person of influence, try giving a command to another person's dog.

If your dog is fat, you aren't getting enough exercise.