Walking for Life on my birthday in San Francisco, CA

Monday, January 21, 2008

Celebrating Life
Category: Life

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Celebrating Life

So, I had a beautiful birthday. I'd been
going back and forth about whether to go for the 'Walk
For Life' and I'm glad that I did it.

After all, what better way is there to celebrate
my 35th year of life than by taking part in a
pro-life walk, a walk that calls to mind the need
to cultivate a culture of life, especially during
this, the 35th anniversary of the Roe V Wade, U.S
Supreme Court decision to legalise abortion in the
US.

It is well worth reflecting/contemplating on the
fact that I was born, 35 years ago, just around
the time when the Supreme Court here chose
to allow people to legally abort the unborn
for whatever reasons, whatsoever.

The babies aborted around that time would
have been my age this year. In taking
part in the walk, I felt that it was one
way I could help to give a voice to the
voiceless, to make a stand on behalf
of those who did not have a choice to keep their
lives.

In place of a birthday dinner celebration
as usual, or a birthday cake, or birthday cards,
I broke bread and shared the feast of Christ's
body and blood with my fellow brothers
and sisters in Christ at mass at St. Patrick's
Church, I had the pleasure of enjoying the candles
lit at the Tabernacle and I had a placard to hold
'Women Deserve Better Than Abortion' during the
Walk For Life.

Yes, it took 6 hours to drive there and 6 hours to
drive back to LA, but it was a journey not made
in vain. After all, no life is lived in vain.

It was a celebration of life. The life that is
given to all of us, the life that only He
can give, or take away.

7:58 AM

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Sunday, January 20, 2008

Walking for Life on my birthday in San Francisco
Category: Life

Walking for Life on my birthday in San Francisco, CA

photo by Gerald Augustinus

Saturday 19th January 2008

Woke up at 8.50 a.m.
By the time I left my hotel room it was about 9.20 a.m and I
made my way across the street to the Ferry Building to check out
the Farmer's Market.

Lined up in a row alongside the water were blue tents where
stores and vendors had set up their wares. Vendors were
selling everything from breakfast platters to skillet potatoes
to Lavender Sugar, Oysters, stalks of Cherry Blossom and organic
fruits and vegetables.

There were also a few musician street performers, including
one dressed as a cowgirl, complete with cowboy boots and hat,
but wearing a short skirt and checkered tights as well.
She was playing the accordion, kicking her boots into the ground
as a percussive instrument and singing 'What Do You Do
With A Drunken Sailor'. She did a very spunky rendition of the song
and it sounded great. I dropped a dollar in her jar and went
on my way.

I walked around, taking in the sights and the smells. The Bay
Bridge was standing majestic against the light blue sky,
waves gently lapping away at the pier and the morning sun was gradually
turning up its intensity.

Sausages were sizzling on the grill, oysters napping on beds of ice-chips
and abundant fruits and vegetables in a sea of orange, reds and greens.
I made my way to the bakery inside the ferry building called the Frog Hollow
Farm where I coughed up $4.50 for a Ham and Gruyere Cheese Turnover,
basically a crispy pastry puff filled with ham and gruyere cheese.

I then made my way to the Peets in the building, but not before
strolling around, admiring the seductive sights of stores
specialising in cheese, and others specialising in caviar,
mushrooms and artisan bread. It was a feast for the senses.

Daintily laid out treats from the Boulettes Larder

The Peets in the Ferry Building terminal was not ideal,
ie. they had run out of ceramic mugs and were using paper
cups, but the seating was great because the unfinished wood
tables and chairs were placed next to a huge window
that overlooked the bay waters.

I got my tea, settled in to eat my turnover and browse
through the headings of the New York Times.
The front page carried a story about
how the cooking oil prices were soaring and driving up the
cost of food globally. The story mentioned something about
how a factory in Malaysia that had planned to begin a business
converting cooking oil into diesel oil lays idle now because
the owners can no longer afford the cost of the raw materials,
ie. the cooking oil, to turn a profit in the making of diesel
oil. Hmmm...I guess paying $4.50 for a small crispy puff pastry
with Ham and Gruyere cheese will soon not be considered extravagant,
but normal in the light of future spikes in the cost of food.

After my breakfast, I took another quick stroll around the stores
in the Ferry Building marketplace, making a mental note to
come back after the 'Walk for Life' to get a sandwich from
Lulu Petite. (I'd read that their sandwiches, esp. the crispy
chicken sandwich was good.)

It was about 10.25 a.m by this time.
I quickly made my way back to the hotel. I had to pack,
check-out, get my bags stored at the hotel concierge and
then make my way over to the Justin Herman Plaza lawn
for the 'Walk for Life' rally and I didn't want to miss
the beginning. From the Ferry Building, I could already
see a big group of people gathering at the rally area.

By 10.50 a.m, I was on my way, walking to the rally.
Along the way, I passed by another rally gathering,
although it was quite small and sparse, a small gathering
of people for abortion had gathered and some were shouting
some slogans that I could not make out.

Walking along to the Walk for Life rally, I was heartened
to see so many people walking along with me to gather at the lawn.

There were already many groups gathered there, people from
all walks of life, all colours and all ages, all gathered
to make a stand against abortion. Many had come via church groups,
college students groups...I saw banners for groups like the Trinity
Students, Knights of Columbus, and the Paulists priests were
on site too to take video footage of the event.
Sign boards like 'Abortion Stops A Beating Heart' and
T-Shirts sporting 'Pro-Woman, Pro-Child, Pro-Life' were
worn.

I saw a man distributing 'Women Deserve Better Than Abortion'
signboards and I asked if I could have one sign too. I wanted to
have something to hold, to show my solidarity for the cause,
to make a stand in as much of a way as possible.

The rally soon began. A welcome address was given by the founders of
the 'walk for life' two women, Eva and Dolores.

A lady called Francine led the crowd in the singing of America's
national anthem, and this was followed by a prayer by one of the bishops who was there.
Following this, Alveda King, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s niece walked
to the podium to share her witness to the truth.
She herself went through two abortions and experienced first-hand
how abortion hurts women. She gave a very moving speech.

Next up was a lady called Gianna Jessen. This woman spoke very powerfully.
She had survived a saline abortion. Her mother had tried to abort
her via a saline abortion (read more about it here) but she would
not die. In a twist of irony, she was born in the abortionist's
clinic and the abortionist had to sign her birth certificate!
I thought that was amazing. As a consequence of her near-death
experience, she suffers from cerebral palsy and walks with a limp
but she is such a spunky individual, and she spoke with such humility, yet
with such power and conviction. I was really moved by
what she said and the manner in which she conveyed it.

Jesse Romero was next. He told the story of St. Telemarcus.

St. Telemachus lived in the time of the Gladiators in Rome.
He single-handedly made a difference by witnessing to the truth.
In the arena of 80,000 people gathered to watch a gladiator
match, St. Telemachus was the lone voice that shouted
out to the Caesar to 'stop the killing in the name of Christ'.
He was run through with a sword by the gladiator, but he
repeated his plea with his dying breath, 'Stop the killing'.
and after he died there, in his own pool of blood in the middle
of the coloseum, caesar and his wife were so moved by his
convictions, that he left the arena. 80,000 filed out of the
colosseum and the game was never held. Subsequently, the
Ceasar signed a declaration banning all future gladiator
games. Truly one man can make a difference.

Rev. Clenard Childress was next and he mentioned how appropriate it was that Alveda King was there that day,
because Martin Luther King Jr. too, was a fighter for the right to life and liberty
for all.

The walk was soon to begin and the organisers told everyone
to be respectful, to keep things peaceful,
and not to engage with the hecklers along the walk.
It was great to see too, that the San Francisco police
force were out in force to help make the walk as safe
for everyone as possible. It was real nice to have them
there. There must have been about 25,000 people there
at the walk.

Before the walk started, I had made the acquaintance
of Diana Sheffield and John McRaven. They were both
from Davis,CA and we started talking and sharing about
the circumstances that had brought us there to join
in the 'Walk for Life'. Diane and John had joined
some 50 members of their parish on a bus from Davis,CA
to be there. I told them that I had driven up the evening
before from Los Angeles to be there and they were pleasantly
surprised that I made the 6 hour drive.

The walk soon began and everyone followed along the path,
along the Embarcadero. Traffic stopped whenever we
had to cross a road, thanks to the wonderful police
officers who were there to bring order to the event.

It was a good leisurely 2 and a half mile walk.
There were people singing hymns, and we could hear someone
else playing the guitar and a tambourine ringing out
to keep time.

Others were praying aloud and many others, like myself,
John and Diane, had a good time chatting.
John, Diane and I had a good talk along the way,
sharing our thoughts about everything from 'why
don't people understand that life begins at conception',
to discussing the topic of wine-making and physics,
both subjects John and Diane were studying in college,
and I shared with them my life as a singer-songwriter
in LA. [Diane also talked about Pope Benedict and John
Paul II and I shared my thoughts with them too about
how I thought John Paul II really lived as he preached,
ie. being a powerful witness to the cross of Christ
as he bore the cross in his burdened body]

Along the way, various groups of people had gathered
along the side to heckle and challenge the 'Walk
for Life' participants. Carrying signs like 'My
body is not an incubator' and other varied signs
like 'Free Kisses', and another bore a sign saying
'Stop Home Abortions - Give Us A Choice', with a pair of
clothes-hangers stuck to the sign. Yet another smaller
group was carrying huge cut-out shaped lips. Dressed
in predominantly hot pink and red colours, some
with netted black stockings and pink ribbons in their
hair and extra dark black-khol-lined eyes, they
were quite a colourful sight. Along the way,
the promise of 'Free Kisses' was seen being redeemed
by various strangers kissing the sign-holders.

We soon walked past Pier 39, and the Fisherman's Wharf.
Tourists stopped to take photos and restaurant cooks
from the restaurants in the area stood by windows
to take in the sight of the 'Walk For Life' participants
walking on by.

Some pro-choice activists had grouped together as
a small marching band contingent and were playing
a fun Brazillian rhythm, complete with a brass
section and a trio of college-age guys walking in front of me
took the opportunity to sing along to the beat,
'Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole...Pro-life, Pro-life'.

Pro-Abortion supporters along the way shout slogans as the pro-life walkers walk by.

It was a beautiful day, clear skies, a light breeze,
and the sun shone a warm golden yellow.

I looked around me at the people who walked along-side
me. There were seniors with full heads of white hair,
Asians, Caucasians, Hispanics and African-Americans,
toddlers being carried in arms, infants in strollers,
young kids walking along hand-in-hand with their
parents, and I saw two kids, a little girl playing
with her gameboy and a 3 year old boy taking a nap
in a little plastic wagon pulled along by their
dad who was taking part in the walk.

It was inspiring to see just as many men as there were women.
The myth is that abortion is a 'women's' issue'.
But here, on this Saturday morning, standing all around me,
were men of all age groups, and from all economic
walks of life, the young, the teenagers, the young
fathers, the grandfathers, making a stand, showing
that this was an issue for all peoples. When
life is being threatened, when the most vulnerable
are being threatened, all should defend it.

The walk soon made its way along the waterfront
where seagulls were scattered en-masses along
the water and I joked about how it was good
that they were not starting a seagull formation
to crap on us.

We soon walked up and along a little winding path
through a canopy of Eucalyptus trees and downhill
towards the Marina Green.

John, Diane and I were astonished to see that
a big crowd had already gathered at the Marina
Green, the end-point of the walk. We did not
realise how big the crowd was. All behind us, and up
half a mile ahead of us, stretching as far
as the eye could see, were people in the 'Walk
for Life', forming a continuous human chain.
Truly there is strength in unity and solidarity.

It felt good to reach the end of the walk.
It was the furthest that I have walked in a while
and my feet and calves were starting to ache :)

It was also great to see Fr. Frank Pavone, the national
director for 'Priests For Life' there
at the podium on the stage at the end. He told
the crowd to keep striving to make a difference
and encouraged everyone in their fight to defend
life. He has been a very passionate catalyst in
the pro-life movement here in the US, and
he was one person that I was hoping to say hi
to and to share my music with, so it was good
to go up to say hi to him.

I soon bade farewell to John and Diane,
and decided to give them a copy each of my
cd as a token of my appreciation for their
company along the walk and in hopes that we
would keep in touch.

I decided to walk back towards the starting
point of the walk where my hotel was, but I was
unsure if it was the fastest route back.
Spotting two men walking along the way back,
and overhearing them talking about the walk,
I asked them if they knew the fastest
way back to the Justin Herman Plaza.

They mentioned that they were walking back
to the Bart station which was where the Justin
Herman Plaza was, and said that I could walk along
with them. It was about 3.25 p.m by this time
How wonderful is God's providence :)
I had come alone to this walk and had found companions
along the journey both to and fro!

Brendan, Steve and I introduced ourselves
to each other and had a good chat along the way back.
Brendon and Steve gave me some tips on where to go
the next time I was back in SF (St. Peter and Paul
Church in North Beach, Telegraph Hill) and Brendan
mentioned how music could be a really powerful tool
for good or bad and I agreed with him. He started
mentioning Wagner, and how Wagner had inspired
Hitler! Oh my...must see if it's true.
It made the walk breeze by and soon, we were
back at the Ferry Building, close to the hotel
and the Bart station. It was 4.30 p.m by now
and we bade each other goodbye.

I made my way into the Ferry Building Market.
I was starving and had only had a bite of the
tonkatsu that i had picked up from the Japanese
deli earlier on that morning. I made my way
back to the Lulu Petite deli. I weighed in my
choices : Crispy Chicken Sandwich, Duck Rillette
Sandwich or the enticing Tomato and Blood Orange Braised Pork Sandwich.

I picked the pork sandwich. It was so delicious.
Moist, tasty, and it had a really good flavour to it.
I savoured every bite and chased it down with a sip of Darjeeling tea.
(yes, I'd gone back to Peets too to get another
cup of Darjeeling Kalimpong Tea.)

It was close to 5.15 p.m by then. I had planned
to visit the Notre Dame Des Victoires church for mass,
but it was a little too late now, since mass
started at 5.15 p.m there. I briefly considered
not attending mass, but I knew that if I didn't
attend mass on my birthday, if I didn't partake
of the feast that He had prepared for me in the
Eucharist, it would somehow, make my birthday
feel less complete.

Fortunately, I found out from the hotel concierge that
there was a church just about 10 blocks away,
on Mission and 4th Street. St. Patrick's church.
Hmmm.....I wondered if it was going to be as
architecturally beautiful as the Notre Dame des Victoires
church that I had read about. It was about 5.35 p.m
by this time and i worried that I would not be able
to make it on time for the Euchastic part of the mass
if I were to walk there. I hem and hawed on my
decision for about 10 minutes, before I decided
to take a cab. Just at that moment, a cab pulled up
in front of the hotel and I jumped in. It took
about 5 minutes and i was there.

The church looked small but majestic on the outside
and even more beautiful on the inside. I was pleasantly
surprised. Statues of St. Therese of Lisieux and
St. Teresa of Avila stood along the side, silently
praying.

Thankfully, the congregation were in the midst
of the prayers of the faithful, so I had arrived
just in time to catch the liturgy of the Eucharist.

It was so good to receive Him again in the Eucharist.
It was the best birthday feast I could have wished
for.

After mass, I wandered around the church, and
knelt for a while before the tabernacle.

There were many candles lighted in front of the
altar, and I imagined that this, was akin to
the birthday candles that I would have had <BR>on some birthday cake. I imagined that it
was Jesus's gift to me, the blessing of
the beauty of these candles, glowing and
swaying in the glass jars, even better
than birthday candles on a cake.

"Dear, Lord,
Thank you for this, my 35th year of life.
Thank you for all the blessings you've given me
all these days of my life, for these 'birthday candles'
lighted beautifully here by the altar.
Thank you for your providence this day and all the days
before that. I want to give you all the glory for the life
that you've given me, for the body and blood that you've
fed me with this day at the beautiful sacrifice of the mass,
your birthday feast to me. So much has transpired today
that has warmed my heart. Thank you for all the gifts
of this day, for the beautiful clear blue skies
and the comfort of warm sunshine, for the visual feast
of the farmer's market, for the seagulls by the water, for
the friends made, the moving speeches, the 'tour' of
San Francisco with the walk, for your mother, for your
providence in getting me to mass just on time for the
Eucharistic celebration, for the beauty of this church.
You've given me such a lovely birthday celebration Lord,
thank you for helping me to celebrate this life you've
given me. Amen."

I walked to the back of the church and read
a bit more about the history of the church
and browsed through the photos taken of the
church throughout its history. I was surprised
that this church, that I had almost passed over
in favour of wanting to go to the Notre Dame des Victoires
church, had a long distinguised history and was one of the
first few churches in SF's history. What a blessing
that He brought me there.

Pipes for the organ at the back of St. Patricks Church

View of the church's altar after mass

After mass, I walked back towards the Hotel Vitale.
The moon hung, almost full, overhead, like a lamp
shining over the high-rise office buildings. The
stars though only a few were visible, added the
sparkle to the indigo evening.

I drove back to LA soon after. The 5 and a half
hour journey was pretty much uneventful and went
by smoothly. The roads were not crowded, so that
was good. By the time I reached back home,
it was 1.15 a.m in the morning.

Altogether, a good birthday :)

P.S I found a nice video that
kinda summarises the 'Walk For Life' 2008
here :

Resources :

Rachel's Vineyard - for women, men and families
hurt by abortion.
Walk For Life Official Website
Silent No More Awareness Campaign

7:58 AM

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Saturday, January 19, 2008

Travelling to San Francisco for the Walk For Life
Category: Life

Friday, January 18, 2008

Travelling to San Francisco for the 'Walk For Life' 2008

18th January 2008

Finally set out at 1.45 p.m this afternoon
for San Francisco.
Stopped by Nippon Ramen for some Miso Ramen
for lunch. It tasted better than I remembered it.
Also stopped by Peets to get a Darjeeling Kalimpong
to go. It felt so good to sip it in the car, with
the sunroof open and the wind breezing through.

The 405N was pretty packed from after the 118
split, so I decided to take the surface roads
and reconnect later with the 5.

Bessie (the name I give my car)
led me through SF Mission blvd.
to Rinaldi, to the winding roads going
uphill on Woodley.
Woodley turned into Balboa Blvd, then
to Foothill Blvd. and I soon filtered
into the 5.

The ride was surprisingly smooth going
up north. I guess it was a blessing in disguise
that I left the house later than I intended.

The hills were beautiful, like the furry
paws of a labrador, or like hot cross
buns dusted with cocoa powder,
the setting, orange sun cast shadows deep
in the crevices of the hills that brought
out its terrain beautifully.

Wide open roads...

All throughout, I had my speakers
tuned in to EWTN, Catholic channel and
Symphony.

I listened to some programme on scripture
reflections on St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians,
Chp 4 verse 17-21, as the hosts were talking
about baptism and how it is a beginning,
not a graduation as some people think it is.

Also heard a programme on Patrick Madrid's
show where he talked with a listener
who was questioning Mary's role in Catholism
and whether catholics were biblical in their
doctrines concerning Mary. Quite interesting.

It inspires me to blog about Mary and what the bible

says about Mary in a future post.

Also heard him talking about distance
learning ,eg. Catholic Distance University
being one, and a website, ie. www.wdtprs.com ?
'what does the prayer really say' weblog
on latin prayer translations,.

Anyway, I reached caught the tail end of the interfaith
prayer service at the Cathedral of St. Mary's.
There were some people at a reception and as I scanned
the strange unfamiliar faces, I found myself
asking Him if there was anyone he wanted
me to meet.

All the same, I was starving,
So I made my way to Whole Foods market
on 1765 California Ave. and got white bean with
turkey chilli, garlic mashed potatoes
and a leg of rotiserrie chicken from the hot
food bar. Too bad there wasn't much of a selection
there. after all, it was already about
9.25 p.m by the time I got there.

There was a Peets there too! But it was closed. Sob.

Anyway, it's getting late, so I'm turning in.
This hotel is lovely. yeah.

7:58 AM

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Friday, October 05, 2007

Time Travel and Jet-Lag

Sunday 30th September 2007

I think Kana mentioned that it takes the soul about
2-3 days to catch up with the body after a long flight.
I have to agree.

I got up this morning at 4 a.m
We'd gotten to bed at 6.30 p.m Saturday evening after getting
into Los Angeles at 12.50 p.m

I'm still in the throes of disorientation and readjustment.
I think that travelling and being shuttled from
one world to another is great for precisely that, ie.
having to question your pre-existing notions of comfort,
of home, of space and of time.

The sun is a little lower in the sky and the weather has
gotten cooler in the 2 weeks that we've been away from
Los Angeles. People are now all decked in sweaters
after the last flashes of summer skin from two weeks back.

It's so wierd to have all these worlds within us, these
worlds that we carry around and interact with.
Memories of Japan still within me...and as I write this,
a poignant Eastern pentatonic scaled melody is being played
by the violin over Peet's speakers.

4:35 AM

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Thursday, October 04, 2007

5 Days in Tokyo

5 days in Tokyo

DAY 1
Tuesday, 25th September 2007
============================

Monday was a very long day of promotions
so thank goodness we had today off.

Mike and his wife Eva pick us up from the
hotel at 2 p.m and we head to the Asakusa area
of Tokyo,famous for it's shopping street leading to
a temple. We reach there at about 3 p.m

We walk around a bit looking for a place to have lunch
before we stumble upon a small restaurant in a shophouse
serving a 'claypot'-like traditional Japanese rice dish.

The menu

However, unlike a claypot dish,
it is served in a metal bowl encased in a wooden box.
I order the scallop rice dish and it is delicious.

For appetizers we had some salt-encrusted ginko-like
nuts and fried yam, sweet-potato-like sticks which
are all very yummy.

Kavin ordered some yakitori with rice, and an
egg dish with yam and other grilled
meats like minced meat balls and pork wrapped
around basil leaf.

Altogether, a great meal,
and good company with Mike and Eva.

Then we walked around the Asakusa area and saw
a bit of the temple there, and browsed through
some of the shops along the way. There were
quite a number of tourists in the area.
We also saw a Totoro shop featuring characters
and merchandise from the Miyazaki films like
'Kiki's delivery' and the Totoro films.

View of the temple

Posing like a bunny at a Tenugui (handpainted cotton towel) shop

After this, we headed to the Harajuku area.
It is an area filled with stores selling the latest
trends and fashions in clothing and somewhat
resembles a 'beverly hills' feel, with all the
brand name clothing stores that line the street.

We walk into Kiddy Land and I'm fascinated with
all the cute merchandise. The Japanese have
a way of making things really cute and so there
are little stuffed toys of rice mochi balls,
stuffed toys of koala biscuit characters, cute toy rabbits,
hamsters, teddy bears with kawaii (very cute)
expressions.

Eva and I go ga-ga over the miniatures that are
on display and I pick out two boxes of miniatures
and she picks out three. The miniatures are
mostly those of small tiny dishes, like teddy
bear cookies or rabbit shaped rice cakes, all
in miniaturised form. Kawaii!!

Outside Kiddyland

After this, we walk along the small shops along
the back alleyways and I spot a Chihuahua dressed
like its master, in denim pants and a bright pink
chequered shirt.

We also spot a Takoyaki (balls of savoury pancake-like
consistency filled with octupus) stall along the way
and Mike buys some for us to try.
The takoyaki is topped with Mentaiko, mayonnaise
and sprinkles of Nori seaweed and it is Oishii. (ie. delicious!)
We sit outside the Wafflish Waffle clothing store
to enjoy the Takoyaki in the cool summer/fall breeze.

We then walk around Harajuku a little bit more
before heading for Ramen noodles for dinner.

When we got back to the car, I realised that I'd
misplaced the plastic bag with the miniatures I'd
bought from Kiddy Land and I wasn't sure where
I'd left it, but thought that it might have been left
outside the Wafflish Waffle store. Anyway, Eva
said that she'd call the Wafflish Waffle store
in the morning to see if anyone found the bag outside
the store and told me not to worry about it,
mentioning that she'd left something at a bus-stop
once and when she went to look for it a week later,
it was still there. In general, she said, Japanese
usually left things where they were and did not
take what didn't belong to them.

Mike and Eva sent us back to the hotel.
About an hour later, Mike called Kavin to say that he'd found
my plastic bag with the miniatures on the floor outside
the Wafflish Waffle store. They had been so sweet to drive back
there to look for my little bag of miniatures. I was touched.
Mike mentioned that now, I did not have to worry and could have
a good night's rest. That was really considerate and sweet
of them.

==============================
DAY 2
26th September 2007, Wednesday

We travelled to the Ropponggi area,
to Tokyo FM, a radio station located within a Starbucks
Coffee Shop on the patio level of an office/mall complex.

There, we met with Sam, my interpreter for the day.
We also met Tepei another employee with S2S.
Tepei and Tochikubo helped to set up the keyboard
and microphone for the 'live' broadcast performance
I would do for the radio show.

Mike and Uchida were also there. In between
soundcheck, vocal warm-ups (I found a nice quiet
spot to do this near the B2 elevator stop) and the
programme, I found some time to chat with Sam
and learnt that she used to live in the States
but moved back to Japan when 9/11 happened.

She's married to a Japanese-Indian and together
they raise their two daughters, speaking to them
in English and Japanese and her father-in-law
tries to incorporate the Indian culture and language
to his granddaughters as well. Her mum-in-law,
Japanese herself, cooks two separate meals every
day, one Japanese meal for herself and one
Indian meal for her husband.

It truly is a global village that we are living in;
navigating the different cultures that we are a part
of, painting our identities in different colours,
trying to make a masterpiece out of the myriad of options
we have in our global setting.

Sam and I

Even as I'm writing this, a Caucasian gentleman sits
across from me at this Japanese restaurant and speaks
to the waitress in Japanese. So who is more Asian?
I, the more Asian-looking one who can't speak Japanese
or him, with his Caucasian features, but Asian leanings and Japanese fluency?
How does one define what cultural boundaries exist?
It all makes for a very interesting discussion on identity
within this increasingly global world we live in.

So, 12.25 p.m rolls along and I have my interview with DJ
Akasaka on the "All That Radio" programme where I do a 'live'
performance of 'Little Superhero Girl' and 'Shelter'
and Sam helps to translate my answers to the interview questions
into Japanese. It's nice that a small crowd gathers outside
the studio to watch as I sing and DJ Akasaka says that it's
not often that a crowd gathers, so it's a good sign :)

Singing 'Shelter' for the live radio broadcast of "All That Radio" programme

Once the interview is done, Uchida, Kavin and I walk
towards the HMV TV headquarters, buying a few sandwiches
and pastries from a deli along the way, for our lunch.
The interview is to be broadcast in all the HMV
stores in Japan.

In the studio at HMV TV

Pic with the HMV TV staff

Thanks to Mike for getting my lost miniatures back :)

Next up is an interview for the "Dave Fromm Show"
at InterFM where I perform 'Little Superhero Girl'
and 'Shelter' live on the radio programme.
It's a nice touch that Dave plays the old 60's song
'Corinna, Corinna' as we're talking about how
my mother named me after the song.
There is also a nice audio background of Carole King
playing her songs as we talk about my collaboration
with her on "If You Didn't Love Me". I like
the fact that he puts in the extra effort with
the audio snippets. Dave is also lovely to chat with.

In the studio on the "Dave Fromm Show"

With Dave Fromm

I find out that he's been in Japan for about 20 years
and spoke Japanese to his mom who is Japanese. Before
living in Japan, he lived most of his life in St. Louis, Missouri.
which explains his American accent. It's fascinating
to meet yet another person who is defining what it means
to live in our global village.

He tells me too, that he and his radio programmers liked
the 'Beautiful Seed' album and so decided to invite
me on their show. Sweet :)

[just an aside, this next picture was taken from the ladies restroom.
Notice the button that says 'Flushing Noise'? Apparently, japanese
women were so embarrased by the sound of their using the toilet
that they would be flushing the water continuously to mask their
sounds. So, in order to save water, manufacturers of bidets in Japan
added this feature, so women could have their flushing sounds and save their water and dignity in the process :) Interesting, eh?]

Following this, we went back to the Ropponggi area
where we had another radio interview in the same Starbucks
radio station, but this time, the interview was for Digital Radio 702
and the DJ Mie was lovely to talk to. Sam was also on hand
to interpret my comments and answers and she did a wonderful
job. I sang 'Little Superhero Girl' and it was heartwarming to
see that a small group of people had gathered outside the studio's
glass walls along the street outside to listen and to lend their
support and to applaud after the song was sung.
I also sang live renditions of 'Shelter' and 'Beautiful Seed'.

On the show with DJ Mie and interpreter Sam

hey we're on cyberspace

With DJ Mie Saito

Uchida, Mike, Tochikubo, Kavin and I had dinner after this
at a Japanese restaurant, Izakaya restaurant specialising in 'small dishes',
a sort of Japanese dim-sum place. We had yummy fried rice,
a sort of steam-boat soup, some mixed yakitori, mentaiko and cheese
'spring-rolls' and some egg dish with bittergourd. It was
all very yummy.

==============================
Day 3
Thursday 27th September 2007

Tochikubo meets us in the hotel lobby and drives us to
FM Osaka in the area of Tokyo called Azabu.

Sam is there waiting for us when we arrive.
The DJ Snoopy (so called because her friend
thinks she looks like snoopy and gave her the nickname)
has a host of Snoopy stuffed toys and Snoopy things in
the studio which is housed in an apartment-like
setting. DJ Snoopy mentions that I look very
Japanese and that I could easily be mistaken for being
Japanese. I tell her it's probably because of my big
eyes :)

In the studio with DJ Snoopy and Sam.

DJ Snoopy and I

Next up, we take a cab to the Ropponggi Hills area
to have an interview with J-wave radio.
It's a modern looking, big studio and radio station
with a lovely view of the surrounding Tokyo area,
including the Tokyo tower which transmits radio
signals to the whole of Tokyo.

In the studio with DJ Noa

The interview is for "Asience Spirit of Asia",
a programme hosted by DJ Noa Kaneka who conducts
a wonderful interview with an emphasis on
the perspective of Asian women in the world today.
Mike mentions that he thinks it's my best interview
so far and that DJ Noa did a great job conveying the
essence of my answers.

After this, Mike drives Tochikubo, Kavin and myself
to Yokohama for the next radio interview at FM
Yokohama. Along the way, we pass through Komazawa, an
area that seems to have a lot of pet stores.

Yokohama is an hour's drive away from Tokyo and
the radio station is within the Landmark Tower
in Yokohama.

The programme 'Radio Dock' is with DJ Yoko,
a German-Japanese lady. I suppose that the name
Radio Dock is in reference to Yokohama's port
city status and Mike points out later
that Yokohama has quote a number of old colonial,
western-architectural styled buildings because
a lot of the early Europeans who came to Japan
passed through Yokohama.

The interview goes well and I sing a 'live'
version of 'Little Superhero Girl'.

With DJ Yoko

The view outside the studio window of the dock area and a ferris wheel

After this, we head for dinner at Yokohama's
Chinatown where we eat at a famous Chinese
restaurant. Kavin helps to order mabo tofu,
crab with black bean sauce, stir-fried bok choy,
stewed pork, and the speciality, an okonomiyaki-like
egg, noodle dish which is a fusion of Japanese
and Chinese cuisine.

Yokohama's Chinatown

Speciality dish

Dinner is good and we all down ginger ales.
No beer that night for Uchida who had to drive back
to Tokyo. :)

We head back to Tokyo after dinner, passing
along the Rainbow bridge and going through Tokyo's
metropolitan expressway.

The rainbow bridge at night

============================
DAY 4
Friday, 28th September 2007

Tochikubo meets us at the hotel lobby
and we take the subway from Shinagawa
station to the office building of the
Daily Yomiuri, Japan's largest daily
with a circulation of 10 million copies.

When we get there, we meet up with Kana
my interpreter for the day.

Reporter Nishida interviews me on my music
and the album and it is a good indepth
interview about the inspirations behind
the songs and the recording process and decisions
behind the making of the album.

After this, we stop by the Tower Records
at Shinjuku to sign the cd display there

and then travel to NHK radio for an interview
for the programme 'Asian Pop Wind' with DJ Sakiya.
It is a one-hour radio programme and interview
and we talk about the albums 'Beautiful Seed',
'Safe in A Crazy World' and 'Fly Away' and
we also play some selections of music
from some Singaporean musicians. I choose
some songs to be played from Singaporean
musicians. Tanya Chua's 'MoQi', Electrico's
'Only Where I'm Going', Kit Chan's (Dick Lee
penned) 'Home, and Shirlyn Tan's 'Window'.
Kana helps to translate my answers and the
programme will also run on the inflight
entertainment channel of Japan Airlines flights.

With DJ Sakiya

We make some time after that to visit the Tower
Records head office in Shibuya and to meet with
the staff there. It's nice to meet up also
with Imaizumi-san who is a staff at Tower Records,
but who is also a fan :)

One last interview before the end of the day.
'Plug-In', a web-magazine interview is held
at the Zarigani Cafe in Shibuya with Mutsuro Yamagashi,
the article writer and Hidetoshi Hirota, the editor.

After this, we head to the shopping area to look
for a spectacle shop so that Kavin's glasses can be
fixed as the nose-pad from his glasses is broken.

As Kavin gets his glasses fixed, I have a good time
chatting with Kana. She has a great command of English
and she speaks it with a very pleasant British accent.
We talk about how it's important to pick up language
as a young kid. She herself spent some time during
her childhood in the U.K and so I'm sure that
contributed in part to the way she is able to speak
the language well.

Kana's husband is British and she mentions that she
speaks to her son in Japanese while her husband speaks
to her son in English. That way, they help to raise
the kid in a bilingual environment.

I like Kana. It's comfortable talking to her and I
see her as a friend I'd like to keep in touch with.

Kana and I

It's fascinating how, on this trip to Japan, I've met
with so many global women and men. Kana and Sam,
both Japanese, but with both Eastern and Western world views
and both married to men from a different cultural background.
The DJ's Dan, Max and Yoko, all speaking Japanese,
but having a western background and culture to draw from as well.

This exchange of cultures, languages...it's truly fascinating

A welcome party by our Japanese record label
S2S follows. We get to meet all the people
who work for S2S and it is also great to see
Ken Suzuki (who founded S2S) again.

The food was great. Good yakitori, cold tofu dishes
some sashimi and yakisoba dishes. It was
also good to get the chance to talk with the
people from S2S.

=============================
DAY 5
Friday 29th September 2007,
Tokyo time 11.55 p.m

So we've been on the plane SQ12 from Tokyo to
LA for about 5 hours now.

I can't believe that our time in Japan has come
to an end. I was quite sad to have to say 'bye'
to Mike and Uchida just now at the airport.

It's funny how one can become quite fond of another's
friendship in just a short amount of time as a week.

We started off, a week ago, shy, especially with Uchida,
starting off tentative with small talk, but as Paulo
Coehlo says, communication is all about the intention.
If one has the intent to be friends, to communicate,
then it follows that no matter how small or limited
one's common language ability is, the intention will
be conveyed. Beyond the spoken and written language,
there is the language of gestures, eye contact,
facial expressions, vibe, smiles and even music.

And as I write this, I'm thinking about those Japanese
fans I had the pleasure of meeting at the in-store
performance and autograph signing at the Tower Records
in Shibuya today.

Their eyes, their smiles, their enthusiasm, their
handshakes and bows, all conveyed their joy and
appreciation at hearing my music and I feel so blessed
that I had the opportunity to meet each and every one
of them. It was good to have Mike there as well and he
sweetly agreed to help me translate what the fans
said to me. I was moved that a lot of them, took
the effort to speak in whatever English they could
muster, to convey their hope for my return to Japan
to perform for them again some day inthe near future.

So anyway, let's recount the day.
Woke up at 9.45 a.m and stumbled out of bed.
I was rather sleepy as I'd gotten to bed around 2.40 a.m,
so I'd gotten only about 7 hours of sleep.

I got up, slapped on some make-up, did some vocal-warm-ups
and got dressed.

We met Mike and Uchida at the hotel lobby and did our
check-out from the hotel. They'd rented a car to ferry
us and our luggage to Tower Records, so that was really
sweet of them and it made more sense, rather than the
original plan to take the subway and drag our luggage
around.

We reached the Tower Records in Shibuya at about 11.30 a.m
and had some time before the actual soundcheck
for the performance at 12.30 p.m

It was nice to have some time to meet the Tower Records
staff and the AVEX staff who were there to also
see the performance. That was great that they
took the time to come :)

Avex staff and I

I also had some time to eat a delicious pork cutlet
sandwich, thanks to Uchida for picking up the sandwich
at the Family Mart convenience store :)

The performance started at 1.30 p.m and I enjoyed
it very much. I greeted the audience with a 'Hajimeimashtei'
ie. (lovely to meet you for the first time) and a
'Watashiwa Corrinne May Desu' ie. (my name is Corrinne May)
plus a couple of other greetings that Uchida had helped me
put together. That helped to break the ice with the audience
and I was thrilled that they applauded my attempts to greet
them in Japanese :)

The set began with Beautiful Seed, led into Shelter, On the Side of Me,
My Little Nephew and Little Superhero Girl and I chatted with
them about my time in Japan and the food that I'd had and shared
with them stories about my nephew in Singapore and my being
far away in Los Angeles. It was great to see that they understood
my stories as some of them nodded to acknowledge that they
got what I was trying to convey.

It was great to meet each fan during the autograph session.

It was also lovely to see that Eva and Kana and DJ Sakiya
had made the effort and time to come and see the performance.
Lovely too to meet Kana's husband Paul :)

Eva and her friend

Paul and Kana

Thanks to Mike for kindly consenting to be my interpreter for the event

There was also a couple there, the lady, Shirley is from Singapore
and her hubby is from Japan and they live in Tokyo now.

Another Japanese couple and their daughter had seen me in my
Singapore concert and had come to lend their support here in
Japan.

Another fan, Hiroshi, who I had met previously
at the Tower Records in Osaka, had taken the time to travel
the few hours from Osaka to Tokyo to catch my performance again.
That was sweet of him :)

After the autograph session, I signed the cd display at Tower
Records in Shibuya.

As we walked back to the 'Green room' after the performance,
I was moved that Mike mentioned that he was quite touched
by my performance and that it was nice that he could still be
moved even after so many years of working in A&R.

We took a picture back in the 'green room' with Ken, Mike,
Tochikubo and Uchida.

[another aside. Did you know that this cell phone (pic below)can receive tv signals,
ie. you can watch tv on your cell phone in Japan for free? Man, the Japanese
are just so technologically savvy :)]

I was a little hungry by then and it was nice that Mike and Ken
took the effort to get me another pork cutlet sandwich
from the convenience store, even though it was a little distance away.

After this, we bade goodbye to Tepei, Ken, Tochikubo
and Fukutaro. Mike and Uchida then sent us to the airport.

We took some pics together and then said goodbye.
I'm going to miss them.

Uchida and I

Mike and I

4:34 AM

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6 Kudos

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

In Osaka and Fukuoka, Japan

Monday, September 24, 2007

--> Begin .post -->

In Osaka and Fukuoka, Japan

Osaka, Japan
Saturday, 22nd September 2007
=============================
We got into Tokyo at about 6 p.m in the evening
and Uchida who is from S2S, our record label in Japan,
picked us up from the airport.

We caught the 7.15 p.m train to the Tokyo station
where we met up with Mike from S2S.
During our walk to and into the train stations, I found
it fascinating to see the myriad of people, all heading in
different directions, heading somewhere, and all the configurations
of train lines, intersecting with countless other
train lines, and food stalls selling everything from
pork cutlet sandwiches, to strawberry cream cheese cakes.

After this, we travelled via the Shinkansen (bullet train)
to Osaka. The Shinkansen is capable of exceeding speeds of
300 km/h! It was quite exciting to speed along on the train
to Osaka and watch the buildings whiz by.

By this time, I was starving as we hadn't managed to
have dinner yet, and so I was extremely grateful
that there was a food cart going around.
We got some pork cutlet and ham and cheese sandwiches
for dinner. The pork cutlet sandwich was delicious
and I washed it down with some orange juice.

Kavin posing with the food cart on the Shinkansen

Inside a Japan Railway train

It was nice to be able to talk with Mike
and find out more about him, this being the first
time we had actually met in person, beyond the email
correspondence. Kavin and Mike had a good conversation
too, exchanging news and updates about the promotions
to be done in the coming days, and sharing bits of life
stories like how we had met our respective spouses :)

I found it really nice that despite being the managing
director of S2S in Japan, Mike was essentially a very
down-to-earth, humble guy who makes it a point to lead
his employees by example. In the course of our
conversation, I was quite touched too that Mike enquired
about my heart operation and how I was doing now. He'd
read about my experience on my blog. That was sweet of him.

So, we reached Osaka after about 3 hours on the bullet train.
It was fascinating to see how all the service staff on the train,
from the rubbish collectors to the food cart servers, would do a
bow and say 'Excuse me' to the passengers before they left the train compartment.
Very polite.

We checked into the LAForet hotel in Shin-Osaka at about 11 p.m
and I got to work, signing some 80 autographed cards that Uchida had
brought along. These cards were to be used the next
day at the Tower Records in-store.

The view from our hotel room

By the time we got to bed, it was close to 2 a.m

===========================
Sunday, 23rd September 2007

We checked out of the hotel at 12 p.m and travelled
to the Tower Records in Marubiru, Osaka (leaving
our luggage at the hotel).

It was nice to see the CD display at the store
and to sign a message on the display.

After viewing the store, we had lunch at a soba
noodle shop. I ordered a soba noodle with duck.
It was yummy and came with a bowl of fried rice
as well.

Posing outside the soba noodle store

Then we headed back to the Tower Records
store. We were given a 'green room' to rest
in before the in-store performance. The room
was essentially a radio studio that Tower Records
uses for its radio programmes.

Uchida, Corrinne, Mike and Kavin looking like a band in the green room.

Leaving my mark on the green room wall.

It's interesting to see that Tower Records is flourishing in Japan
whereas the stores in the U.S are no longer around.

The sound check and the subsequent performance
in the store went well.

Poster for the in-store performance

I sang 1) Beautiful Seed
2) Shelter- Cherry Blossom Edition 3) On The Side
of Me and 4) Little Superhero Girl.

Following this, I gave each fan who had lined up, an autographed card.
It was great to meet the Japanese fans. It was the
first time I had performed in Japan too, so that
was definitely a special moment for me.

After this, we headed back to the LaForet hotel to get
our bags, then set off for the train station.
While at the train station, we had dinner at a restaurant
that served Okonomiyaki ('as-you-wish' teppanyaki).
It was fascinating to see how the cooks made the Okonomiyaki.
I also had an iced Oolong tea. Yummy food and good company :)
Mike and Uchida helped to explain how the Okonomiyaki was made.

The menu for okonomiyaki

Chefs making Okonomiyaki

Okonomiyai

Uchida and I

Kavin and Mike

After dinner, we said bye to Mike who had to head back to Tokyo.
Then, Uchida, Kavin and I took the 7.55 p.m Shinkansen train
to Fukuoka.

Some finds in the shops of the train station.

The Hanshin Tigers t-shirts and such

The Shinkansen, ie. bullet train

The trip was long. About 3 hours long. After arriving at Hakata,Fukuoka
and checking into the Hyatt Regency Fukuoka, Kavin and I went
walking around to take a look at the convenience stores that
were open. There were the sandwiches and instant noodles,
but I wanted something a bit more substantial for supper.
I remembered seeing a MOS burger near the train station,
and so we made our way there.

Unfortunately, the MOS burger store was already closed by the
time we got there at 11.15 p.m
Thankfully, there was a ramen shop there that stayed open
till 4 a.m in the morning. What's more, they had a machine
at the front of the shop with pictures of each food item and
the corresponding cost on buttons and one had only to slot
money into the machine, press the button of the food item
one wished to order, and the machine would spit out
an order ticket, a receipt and the exact change needed.
No language barrier kept us from supper that evening :)

We ordered a char siew ramen and a plate of gyoza.
The char siew ramen was delicious! Only later on did we
find out from Mike and Uchida, that Hakata Ramen is famous
for being good! Yummy. good stroke of luck.

==========================
Monday 24th September 2007

We woke up too late to take advantage
of the free continental breakfast, so it
was good that I had bought a hot dog bun
and a bottle of Kirin special milk tea
the day before and so I had that for breakfast.

Speaking of tea, I find it interesting how
I have to adapt my taste buds to take in a different type
of tea in each country I go to. In Singapore, it's
the nice hot cup of kopi-tiam style teh, which
I get from Yakun most of the time.
In the U.S, it's a cup of Darjeeling Extra Fancy
Kalimpong which I get from Peets. In Japan, it's
my bottle of special Kirin Milk Tea, brewed with
twice the amount of tea leaves so that it's a stronger
brew, and tastes almost like a sweeter, more milky
version of a Yakun tea, but cold and in a bottle.

I had a Hong Kong style milk tea once when
I was in chicago, and I was struck at the similarity
to the taste of the Singapore milk tea.

I have a theory on why it is so.
Hong Kong and Singapore are both former British colonies,
and so, black tea became a part of the culinary
landscape in both countries. But perhaps
because the whole leaf tea version of black
tea was not affordable to the local population,
they adapted the desire to have tea by
using the less expensive tea dust to make their
brew, and instead of fresh milk, which I assume
was more expensive and which spoiled faster, they
used evaporated and condensed milk instead.
Hence, the similarity in history, and evolution
of the local tea. Not sure if this version
is accurate, it's just my take on it :)

But I digress...

We meet up with Tochikubo from S2S and Yoko Yamane
my interpreter for the day. Uchida is there too.
We take two cabs into Tenjin City where we
are scheduled to have a radio interview at Love FM
with DJ Max on his morning show, appropriately titled
'Ohaiyo Gozai "Max" Ta', a play on his name 'Max'.

Being interviewed by DJ Max

Max is from France and I am fascinated by his ability
to switch seamlessly between Japanese and English.
In between interview segments, he tells me that he's
lived in Japan for the past 8 years and that his
command of Japanese is mainly from communicating with people.
I guess it really helps to be immersed in a culture
and society where one has to constantly be in touch
with the language one wishes to learn.

So the 'live' radio programme is fun to be on and I
am happy to share a little bit of singlish with
Max who asks about it. 'Let's go Makan lah!' he says
gleefully, immediately putting to use the Singlish
phrase for 'Let's go and eat!' I've shared with him.

After this, we take the subway to FM Fukuoka
and we catch lunch at a nearby restaurant beforehand.
It's a bank holiday on this Monday, and so not that many
restaurants are open, and we settle in for a set lunch
meal at a hotel restaurant.

I have the grilled mackerel which is delicious,
and I learn that Fukuoka is famous for its fresh
seafood.

After lunch we head to FM Fukuoka. It's got
a classic radio station feel to it, and the
scent of cigarette smoke wafts throughout the
premises.

I am ushered into the radio recording studio to pre-record
3 interviews for broadcast later in the month.

I record segments for 'Live Gun', a programme
hosted by DJ Lue where the questions I have to answer
include one about what type of animal I'd want to be
if I were an animal and why? Answer : A koala because
they are cute and sleep all the time and it is nice
to be able to have the luxury of relaxing and sleeping
for those long stretches of time.

I also record a segment for a programme called 'Saturday
Morning EYE!' for DJ Ai Nakajima where one of the questions
asks how I get my morning started each day.
Answer : I have to have my Darjeeling Tea with milk
and sugar every morning. That helps to make my
morning feel complete.

Next up is another pre-recorded interview for the
'Smash Wave' programme for DJ Eiji where 'On The Side of Me'
will be on heavy rotation as a 'Power Play' song. Yay :)

Yoko in the meantime, helps to translate all my answers
into Japanese.

After this, we travel to Tenjin FM to record a programme
for the 'Morning Wave' radio show broadcast on
Freewave FM.

This is followed by a live broadcast
show request called Freewave 'Park Side Cafe' where
I meet DJ Kaida and we have a segment where I pick 3 questions
for him to interview me on from his 'Park Side Cafe' interview
'menu', all in keeping with the 'cafe' theme of the programme.
I choose to talk about Travel and Food (Hainanese Chicken Rice).

I also find out that DJ Kaida and I were born one day apart
in the same year! His January 18th, mine, January 19th;

He plays 3 songs from the album, 'Shelter', 'Beautiful Seed'
and 'On The Side of Me'. and our interview is broadcast
simultaneously on 4 big TV screens outside the Solaria Mall
building. Some people also gather around outside the glass
windows of the studio to have a look and I was especially
moved to see a fan walking past, waving a copy of
my album and giving me a smile and a thumbs-up sign. :)

The view from outside the glass walls of the studio

Hey I'm on TV.

Yoko, DJ Kaida and I

Dj Kaida and I

After this, we travel backto FM Fukuoka via cab and I
have a 'live' radio interview with DJ's Buutchi and Fumi
for a programme called Super Radio Monster Raji-gon.
DJ Buutchi is welcoming and warm and also speaks
with an American-accented English. He has a super deep
voice whereas DJ Fumi has the high, girlish voice
of a young girl, reminiscent of those young teenagers
in Anime cartoons. It's an interesting contrast
and I wonder if, in general, Japanese radio listeners favour
the deep voices for their male DJs and high girlish
voices for the women DJs.

As part of the interview, I get to pick a question
from the pinball machine in a game called 'gatcha-gatcha'.
[I can't remember the question now though]

DJs Fumi and Buuchi with the gatcha machine and I

DJ Buutchi is quite complimentary on the album and
tells me that he likes it. Great :)

After this, we head to the Tower Records in Fukuoka
to give an in-store performance.

My name in Japanese! In red on the poster.

The performance
goes well and it's great to have Yoko there to help
translate between the fans and myself as I sign
autographs on the cds for the fans who are there.

I'm also joyful that the audience was attentive
and very focused during the performance. They really
listened and understood as I shared the stories of
my songs with them. It was great to see that despite
the apparent barrier of a different language,
the emotional, universal language of music spoke
through to them and they really got the meaning
of the songs.

Signing the display at the store

We had one more thing to do before the end of the day.
A radio interview at an outdoor radio station event
with DJ Toggy for a show called T.T Lounge at Cross FM.
The topic for discussion is 'marriage' and so I share
about how Kavin and I just spent our 4th wedding anniversary
on a plane, going from Singapore to Montreal, a full 36-hour
long anniversary, because of the time differences involved.
I also share about our wedding in Singapore and about how
I believed the ingredients for a good marriage include
a sense of humour and being able to argue together and
laugh together.

Yoko and I

After this, we bid Yoko the interpreter goodbye and leave
for the Hyatt to pick up our luggage from the hotel.
We then make our way to Fukuoka Airport.
We have dinner there at one of the restaurants in the
hotel and I get to try the famed Fukuoka Mentaiko (spicy
cod roe) and the Jidori (local chicken, cooked half raw)
The Mentaiko is delicious :)

Jidori

After this, we browse through the shops at the airport,
mostly selling Mentaiko and famous cakes and sweets
and I ask Uchida why the Hello Kitty toy is wrapped in some
red stuffing. He replies that the toy red stuffing is
represent Mentaiko and that the Hello Kitty character
is essentially a 'Mentaiko' Kitty. I find it very cute and amusing!

Mentaiko

Chick shaped cake

The Hawks baseball team merchandise. Can you spot the big Mentaiko Kitty?

In the meantime, Uchida and Tochikubo buy some gifts of cakes
for their colleages back in Tokyo, and they explain
that it is part of Japanese culture, that when one
goes away somewhere on holiday or vacation, one brings back a gift
for those who were not there.

Our flight to Haneda, Tokyo takes about one and a half hours
on the plane. We check into the Prince Shinagawa hotel
and as we bid goodnight to Uchida and Tochikubo,
they present us with a box of cakes from Fukuoka as
a gift and Uchida gives me a little paper bag
with the Mentaiko Kitty I had seen in Fukuoka. I am
very moved by their sweet gestures, and also touched
that Uchida had bought the Mentaiko Kitty for me.
So sweet of them :)

View from the hotel room window of the surrounding Shinagawa area

4:32 AM

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Saturday, September 15, 2007

August in Singapore - Album promotions etc.

Album promotions for 'Beautiful Seed' in Singapore

It's been a busy couple of weeks. Fruitful, but busy.

Tuesday August 14th 2007

Evelyn from Warner Music picked us up and we
headed to MediaCorp radio for a couple of interviews.

I had an interview with WeiBin
at 93.3 FM, Singapore's 1 Mandarin Radio Station
at MediaCorp Radio.

It was nice to see Wei Bin again and I was grateful
for her kindness in helping me with my Mandarin answers
to her questions.

After this, I had another live radio
interview with Melanie Oliverio at 93.8 LIVE FM
It was good to chat with Melanie again and
to talk about some of the inspiration behind
the album 'Beautiful Seed' with her.

Before we had our lunch, we headed over to Kenn's
house to borrow his acoustic guitar for the
MTV segment the next day, as I had to play
a one minute segment of my song 'Shelter' for the Pop Inc.
programme with VJ Colby.

By the time we had lunch, it was close to 3 p.m
Lunch was chicken rice packed from a store along
River Valley road and we ate the lunch
at Warner's office while waiting for the press
interviewers to arrive.

The first press interview was for Green Dot
and I was surprised to see my ex-classmate from
RGS, Karen. I hadn't seen her in close to 18 years
and she still looked pretty much the same as she did.

There were also press interviews with Inflight entertainment
and it was nice to see Shee Mun again. Interviews
also followed with Radio Pulze and SMU Radio.
By the time we were done for the afternoon, I was
pretty tired, but it was good to talk with the students
from NUS and SMU and to answer their questions with regards
to my music and career.

It was close to 5.45 p.m by this time
and Kavin and I quickly headed to church
at St. Iggies to meet Papa for the mass
to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption.

Wednesday 15th August 2007

I had an interview in the late morning
with POP Inc. at MTVAsia today with VJ Colby.
It was great to see Colby again and he was
funny as usual. I played about a minute's
worth of Shelter and Colby interviewed
me on the album 'Beautiful Seed'.

I met with Vivienne later that afternoon
to have a late lunch/tea. It was one of
the rare occasions where she could take
some time off from caring for Rowan
because her mom had agreed to babysit
that afternoon.

It was great to spend some time to have
a heart-to-heart with her and to catch
up on the various facets of our lives.

Following this, I had an interview with
the Mandarin language paper MyPaper
incorporating some food tasting at
a couple of restaurants in the Dempsey Hill area.

Bob was the photographer from My Paper and
I told him I was hopeless at posing for photographs
and asked him to guide me along the way.
He sweetly agreed and we found a couple of spots
to take photos at Culina's among the wine
bottles and wine glasses while Christine, the reporter
took some notes about the venue for her report.

Next up, we went to the Red Sea Art Gallery to have
a look at the art pieces. I was surprised to hear
the 'Beautiful Seed' album playing in the gallery
and Todd, who oversaw the gallery told me he'd
just bought the album and liked it. Awwwww....

After taking some more photos in the gallery,
we set off for Rain Restaurant, where we
had a steamboat dinner. Interesting that they
had a soup stock called 'Chicken Essence' and
they poured a bottle of essence of chicken into
the soup. That tasted pretty good.

It was quite lovely to chat with the other women
at the table, Christine, reporter for MyPaper;
Kee, PR consultant; Evelyn from Warner Music.
We chatted over relationships,
the pros and cons of studying overseas...we shared
our discoveries about love, about self and this journey of life.

It was a nice round-table dinner discussion of topics
among us, all women in our 20's and 30's and even though
it was the first time that some of us were talking to each other,
there was a real sense of our inter-connectedness.
It was truly heartwarming and gratifying.

--> -->

Class 95 FM showcase at Barfly in Singapore

Thursday 16th August 2007

I had two press interviews today before
the Class 95 FM showcase at Barfly.
One was for 8 days magazine and the other
was for Maxim magazine.

Then it was time for a soundcheck
on stage with Kenn Chua on guitars and
Reggie Pereira on percussion.

In the meantime, we were told that
there was already a line of people waiting
to get into the club and that people had
started waiting at about 6 p.m

So once we were done with soundcheck,
I went to the holding room to get changed
and the management let the people into
the club. It was about 7 p.m

The club was packed to the brim by
the time 8 p.m rolled by.

The stage with the banner for the showcase

Standing by for the show to begin

And soon it was time to start the show.

Glenn Ong and the Fly Dutchman DJs
from Class 95 FM introduced me
and we had a short chat on stage
about the 'Beautiful Seed' album.

Then we started with the show
and sang Shelter, Leaving, Green-Eyed Monster,
Beautiful Seed, City of Angels and
On The Side of Me to close the set.

However, the crowd still wanted more
so we came back for an encore
of Love Song 1, Five Loaves and Two Fishes
and My Little Nephew.

"Get back there, you've got an encore to do!"

It was great to see some familiar faces
in the crowd and after signing some cds
and taking some photographs, I spent
some time with some of my old schoolmates
from RGS who had taken the time to come
for the showcase.

Signing autographs after the showcase

Kavin, with my parents in the background. i wonder what they were laughing at :)

I was also glad that Calvin and Holly
from Warner Music took the special occasion
to fly into Singapore around the time
of my showcase so that they could catch
me performing at Barfly.

Also present from Warner Music were most of the
people from the Singapore office, James Kang, Simon
Nasser, Johnny Lim, Sammy Shirra and
Evelyn Woo. It was lovely to have their show of support
and I was grateful that the showcase went well.

Beautiful Seed 1 at HMV grin - Life's Little Joys...

I was at Thomson Plaza Shopping Centre
two weeks ago with my family.
I was carrying my nephew
Jerome in my arms as we passed by the
Sembawang Music store and he noticed
that 'Koko Corrinne's' (ie. auntie Corrinne)
picture was in the window display. It was
a promotional window display that
the store had set up to promote
the 'Beautiful Seed' album.
It was a sweet moment as Jerome
took the time to have a closer look
at the window display and to ask me what
it said.

My mum has also been telling him
that Koko Corrinne specially wrote a
song for him, and he's been really pleased
to see his photo in my cd booklet :)

Finally, I walked past the HMV CityLink
store in Singapore last week,
and was surprised and pleased to see
that my album 'Beautiful Seed' was
sitting in the 1 spot of the Rock/Pop
charts.

[Thanks to my sis-in-law for the photo :)]

Apparently, it's been 1 at HMV
for the past four weeks.
Yay :)
Thank you to all who bought
a copy of 'Beautiful Seed'.
I'm grateful for your support :)

--> -->

Novena, 881, Nokia performance, Conversations at CANA, photoshoot @ Milk , bye-bye...back to LA

==============================
Novena and singing @ St. Mary of the Angels
-Sat 25th August 2007

I hadn't been to a Novena for a while,
and so when I found out that my friend
Simon went every Saturday for the Novena
at the Novena Church, I decided to go too.

The place was packed. And according to
Simon, every service, at every hour
from 9 in the morning till the evening,
is always packed to the brim.
There is an immense spiritual hunger
in people, and it's so heartwarming
to see people from all walks of life
making the time to ask for Mary's
intercession and for her prayers.

It was even more beautiful to see
Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
So nice to see His face again. :)

Later that evening, we went to catch
the Chris De Silva concert, a benefit
concert held to raise funds for the Franciscan's
charity works. The concert was held at
St. Mary of the Angels church in
Bukit Batok. Chris De Silva
is a music director at one of the
parishes in Los Angeles and the funny
thing is that we're both from Singapore,
but live in L.A

It was great to hear the songs he
had written and even nicer to
hear the Franciscan friars singing.

Janet from the CANA centre saw me
sitting in the audience during the
intermission and asked me if I would
be willing to sing a few songs for them.

I was tickled that even though it was
a last minute request, I had unknowingly
come dressed in a dark brown blouse, the colour
of the Franciscan monks. God has a
sense of humour :)

Bro. Damian and I both dressed in Franciscan brown.

I sang 'Love Song for 1' and'Five Loaves
and Two Fishes' and felt very moved
to see some people crying during
the songs.

When I returned to my seat after singing,
the silver-haired lady sitting beside me,
told me that while I had been
singing 'Five Loaves and Two Fishes',
God had spoken 'piercingly' to her and
she felt comforted that he had
answered her prayers in some fashion.

Then she blessed me, put her hand
on my forehead, drew a cross and prayed
for me, asking God to bless my voice
and my health (I was astounded that
in her prayer, she said the same exact thing
that I'd been praying for, ie. for the Lord
to help my voice stay healthy and strong,
and for the Lord to preserve my health,
that I might sing powerfully for Him)
I could not help but cry.
It was a powerful moment for the both of us.
I was so moved that He had used me to bless
her, and in turn, used her to bless me.

==============================
Catching 881-
Monday 27th August 2007

Finally managed to catch the movie
'881' by Royston Tan. I laughed so
hard in the first part of the movie
at all the hilarious jokes.

The last part of the movie was pretty
touching too. Altogether a good movie.

After the movie, all of us, Marcia,
Stefanie, Bernard, Christine,
Clarence and Alaric had dinner
at a steamboat restaurant in Tiong
Bahru. It was nice to find out more about
each other, as it was the first time
I'd met most of them, apart from Marcia.

It was also nice to trade stories
about our lives as singers with
Stefanie, who has had a tremendous
career with her singing and music.
Kudos to her. It was good to finally
meet her. I must say she's got a lovely smile.

==============================
Fitting at Hugo Boss-
Tuesday 28th August 2007

I stopped by at the Hugo Boss store
in Ngee Ann City today to meet with Chor
Chen and Calvin. Chor Chen has kindly
offered to sponsor some clothes
for my performance, and had arranged
for Calvin, the brand manager's help
to pick some outfits for me.

Calvin, I and Michelle at Hugo Boss in Ngee Ann City

It was fun to work with Calvin
and we picked out 3 outfits. 2 for
a photoshoot I would do with Olivier
of Milk Photographie on Thursday
and one for the event on Wednesday.

==============================
Nokia Go Play event -
Wednesday 29th August 2007

I had a corporate performance today
for Nokia. The other performers
were Li Huei Min and Shirlyn Tan.

Before the performance, Marcia
had helped to set up a haircut
and styling with Michael Lim at Le Salon
and make-up with Beno from M.A.C

Michael was really sweet and
it was fascinating to see the sweep
of his hand as he snipped away at
my hair. I've noticed that every
hair stylist has their own
individual way of using the
scissors to cut hair. The way
Michael used his was akin to
a glider, gently skimming
the surface of a lake.
If ever taichi could be translated
to the way a stylist cuts hair,
this would be it. :)

Beno was great too. He came carting
a whole case of make-up and colours.
By the time he was done, my eyes
looked much bigger and brighter
and I felt more alive :)

Sam, the driver came by to pick
Marcia and I up later and I had
some time to rest at the hotel
before meeting up with the rest
of the musicians for the performance
that evening.

By the time I arrived at the venue,
the string quartet consisting of
Aloysius, Olivia Guo, Jit Min and
Wei Ming were already there dressed
smartly in black. I wore a dress
that Calvin from Hugo Boss had
helped me to pick.

Shirlyn Tan had just taken to the stage
and was playing her songs with her
band. Pretty cool stuff, especially
the catchy song 'Window'.

Soon it was time for us to play
and we sang 6 songs,

Shelter (Cherry Blossom Edition)
Five Loaves and Two Fishes
Beautiful Seed
Angel in Disguise
Save Me
On The Side of Me

It went well and it was nice
to finally get to do the cherry
blossom edition of Shelter
with the string quartet.

Olivia, Jit Min, Aloysius, Corrinne, Wei ming

Group photo with the event organisers, crew and musicians

Shirlyn Tan, Corrinne May, et al.

Later on, the string quartet,
Sammy, Cat and I went
to the Lau Pa Sat to have
supper.

==============================
Budak Pantai, Photoshoot and Conversations at CANA
-Thursday 30th August 2007

The day started off with breakfast
at the Concord Hotel's coffeehouse
with Chor Chen and Joshua Wan.
It was good to catch up with
them.

After this, I met with Marcia
Mavis and the guys from Budak Pantai
at Pregos in Raffles City.

I had met Gordon before, and
it was nice to meet the others
from Budak, K.K, Joe and Michael.
They all have a wacky, fun
sense of humour. Very cool guys.

Gordon, Marcia, K.K (top) Michael, Corrinne, Joe (below)

After lunch, Marcia, Mavis
and I went back to the Mandarin
Oriental so that I could pick
up my clothes, sponsored by Hugo Boss,
from the hotel room for the photoshoot with Olivier.

By the time we got to Milk
Photographie, it was about 1.45 p.m

It was nice to see Beno, the make-up
artiste from M.A.C again and he
started doing my make-up.
Stanley from Le Salon was there with
Alvin to assist him to style my hair.
It was nice to chat with them
and they too in turn asked questions
about my music and career. Stanley
asked about the toughest challenge in
my career and I told him that it
was challenging travelling long distances
and being far from family.
I found out that one of the toughest
challenges of being a make-up artist is
the challenge of carrying around the heavy cases
full of make-up, and that for Stanley, his
challenge is that he misses his family in Penang.
It was nice to exchange our stories as they got
my make-up and hair ready.

Olivier, the photographer was a joy
to work with. I'm usually quite
shy about being in front of a camera,
but he was very observant
in noticing my little quirks
and he put me at ease with his
sense of humour and his understanding
of my self-consciousness. As the time
went by, I got more comfortable with the
whole process and started to enjoy
the photoshoot.

So it was a good shoot and we
got quite a lot of nice shots to use.

Olivier, Beno and I checking out some of the photos taken

Marcia, Olivier, Corrinne, Beno, Stanley, Alvin

By the time we got done, it
was close to 6.20 p.m

Mavis gave me a lift back to the
Mandarin Oriental where I was staying.
I got back to the hotel at 6.45 p.m
and had a little bit of time to quickly eat
some appetizers from the club lounge
before heading for my next appointment.

Christina and Rafael came by to the
hotel at about 7.10 p.m to help bring
me and the keyboard over to the CANA
Catholic Centre on Waterloo street
where I was to give a talk that evening.

We got to CANA at about 7.40 p.m
by which time the moderator and interviewer
Augustine (who had initiated the idea
for the original Conversations at CANA)
was there livening the 100+ crowd
gathered at CANA by talking with them, telling
them jokes and asking them questions,
getting them to respond with claps.
Augustine was hilarious, witty and warm :)

Soon it was time to start the conversations
at CANA session. I don't remember all
the questions that Augustine or the
audience members asked, but I'll try to.

Augustine asked about the pro-life message
in my song 'Beautiful Seed' and I sang
'Beautiful Seed' to illustrate my point
that I hoped that the song would help
women who found themselves contemplating
abortion, an incentive to consider
other options, like adoption for instance.
I hoped that the song would give them hope
and courage to cherish the life within
them.

Answering a questions at CANA

I also shared about how I had sought
Mary's spiritual guidance in knowing more
about her son, and that during this past
year and a half, she has helped me to learn
more about Jesus and to see His hand in
my life with more clarity.

Subsequently, I sang 'Five Loaves and Two Fishes'
as well. I also met Longinus who presented me
with a bouquet and mentioned that he has
'Love Song for 1' on his ipod as he meditates
in front of the Blessed Sacrament. I feel blessed
to know that the music He's given me is being
offered back to Him.

Some asked questions about my songwriting
process and some asked about the challenges
I faced in L.A
I wish I had more time to answer all the questions
that were asked in more detail, but
9.30 p.m quickly rolled around and soon, we
had come to the end of the session.

There were lots more I wanted to share,
but I guess there will be another time for
all that.

Hear the podcast from the conversations at CANA
by clicking here :)

An audience member, Eugene had brought
his guitar along, wanting to play along
with me on 'The Birthday Song' and so
I sang the song to close the session.
It was so heartwarming to hear everyone
singing along loudly to 'The Birthday Song'
I'm amazed that many of them knew the song
by heart! I was surprised and joyful.

I was also very touched by Sister Florence's
closing prayer. There was such kindness
in this lady's eyes and face.
She presented me with a beautiful ruby red rosary bracelet
and prayed for me that I would be a powerful
witness to Him and that Mother Mary
would always watch over me and keep me close
to her Son. Her words moved me deeply.

I met some of the audience members after this
and signed autographs for them.
It was lovely to see some familiar faces
again, Rachael, who had studied in Seattle
before was there, as was Jeanette, my junior
in RGS NCC, Timothy (sean's friend), Ben
and his wife Shirley, Patrick who was there
at St. Mary of the Angels, Ling etc.

Emmeline, Corrinne and Ling

Kelly and Corrinne

Ben and Shirley

Augustine gave me a hug before he left
and I do hope we keep in touch.
I like the guy. Great sense of humour,
quick-witted, yet kind.

Augustine and I

The evening ended around 11 p.m
and I thanked Janet for having me at CANA.
The lady is amazing. She has so much energy
and passion for all she does and I do hope
that CANA flourishes, as does her vision
for how she would like CANA to be,
ie. an oasis in this city.

At CANA.

Thanks also to the lovely people
who helped with the CD sales and
to Rafael and Christina for helping
to give me a lift to CANA and back.

Thanks also to those who helped out
with the sound.

I had a lovely time at CANA.

================================================
Bye-bye...back to L.A -
Friday 31st August 2007

Kian, Cheryl, Jerome and Chiara
came by just now to Changi to send me off
They had lunch at T1 and then met Pa, Mummy
and I at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf
around 3 p.m

It was nice to see Jerome again and to
sit him on my lap. I feel that particularly
this trip, this time around,
I've bonded a bit more with Jerome,
perhaps because we've had more time
to play together. So cute, we've been
playing 'making soup', ie. pretending
to cook soup, and some of his concoctions
have included diaper soup and roti prata soup!
He even knows how to say 'Botai' (hainanese
for 'I don't know') in addition to 'Tak Tauhu'
and it's heartwarming to see how much
joy Mummy and Papa get from being around him,
carrying him, feeding him and teaching him new
things. Without the pressure and responsibilities
of careers, they can now truly enjoy the
simpler, but more beautiful joys of
being grandparents.

Jerome got a bit quiet just now at
the Departure gate. I wonder if he
was thinking about my departure.
It's so cute how he's been telling
others that Koko Corrinne wrote a
song for him and that there is a
picture of us in the 'Beautiful Seed'
album.

koko Corrinne looking very aunty-like and Jerome

It's funny how, no matter how many
times I say goodbye to everyone at the
departure gates, it never gets any
easier. I still miss them all the same
when I'm here, sitting on the plane.

The Foo Family sending me off at Changi-
(left to right) Jerome, Papa, Mummy, Cheryl, Baby Chiara sleeping in
the baby sling, James and I

4:58 AM

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Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Beautiful Seed- The Stories Behind the Album

Beautiful Seed -The Stories Behind the Album

This is the stuff that is being printed in the Japanese liner
notes when 'Beautiful Seed' is released in Japan in September 2007 by S2S/ Major Chord Records.
Just thought I'd share them with you.

[SPOILER ALERT] - For those who want to explore the songs by themselves, please don't read any further :)

As asked by Major Chord Records :Regarding the Japanese liner notes: would you make some comments on each song -- what did you try to express with those songs, what kind of feelings did you have when composing them? Is there any story behind the songs?

1) Love Song For 1
I love observing nature. I love looking up at the stars, or the clouds and trees, knowing that the God who created all this beauty also created me. This is a song of gratitude and love.

2) Shelter
Friends support and help each other through difficult times. This song is about friendship.
It is a song to a friend to tell her that I will be here for her through the difficulty she is going through. All she has to do is call me and I will help her in whatever way I can.

3) On The Side Of Me
This is a song about the power of love. No matter how unloveable I think I am, there is someone who loves me a lot. Loves me despite all my faults, my failures, despite my bad habits. I think it's wonderful to be loved for who I am, no matter what.

4) Five Loaves and Two Fishes
This song is based on my favourite bible story. The story is about how Jesus made a miracle happen by taking five loaves and two fishes offered by a little boy, and using that to feed 5000 people.
I think it's an amazing story about how, no matter how small we may think about what we have to offer, we should trust that our offerings, our gifts are never wasted. Our gifts and our talents should be treasured for they can be used in many beautiful ways.

5) Beautiful Seed
I think people often forget how the smallest, most seemingly insignificant things can have such beautiful possibilities. All it takes is one person to make a difference in this world. People like Mother Teresa, Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. testify to this fact. But often, we are so afraid to try, to speak up, or to make a difference.

I named the album and the song 'Beautiful Seed' because I think that a seed is a wonderful metaphor for our lives. We are all like seeds. Seeds grow unseen in the soil and then sprout, and some seed become the biggest, most majestic trees and others grow to eventually bear wonderful fruit, and yet others, grow to provide shade. We are like trees. When we are in our mother's womb, no one can see us growing, but we are there. And all the potential for our lives is present in that moment, small as we are at that point in our lives, we are who we are now because of what we've gone through. And just knowing that, makes me sad to read about the increasing numbers of abortions that occur. People have forgotten that all the potential for life comes from something small, seemingly insignificant, seemingly lifeless.
Recently, I read about how scientists managed to grow a date palm plant from a 2000 year old seed. How amazing.

6) Leaving
Bad habits are hard to break. But sometimes, the best thing to do is to find a new way of doing things, to leave the things that are not good for us. This song is about making the decision to start anew, to do things right, to leave the bad situations behind.

7) Scars (Stronger For Life)
Scars form whenever we hurt ourselves, if we have an injury to our bodies, our bodies respond by healing, and often, forming scar tissues over the wounds. The scar tissue is usually thicker and stronger than our normal skin. In our lives, we often encounter events, or situations with people that hurt us, for eg, a lot of us have gone through the painful feeling of a break-up with a girlfriend or boyfriend, or the loss of a loved one, or the pain of being ill. I believe that when we go through the sad and painful events in our lives, we eventually heal, and we become stronger as a result of the challenges we experience.

8) City of Angels
I've lived in Los Angeles for 8 years and it's always struck me as a very interesting city.
It is a city of contradictions, a city of opposites, a lot of glitz and glamour juxtaposed with poverty and grit. It is a city in a desert, and in many ways, the desert is often not just a physical, geographical reality. I feel that the desert, has a deeper, metaphorical meaning in this city. People are often thirsty, hungry for love. Of course, this is a reality everywhere in the world, but it feels more intense here in Los Angeles.
So I thought I'd pour my thoughts into a song.

9) My Little Nephew
The first time I held my nephew in my arms was a wonderful moment of realization that I am now an aunty to my brother's son. Children change so fast as they grow and my nephew lives in Singapore, as does the rest of my family. I on the other hand, live far away in Los Angeles and despite my wanting to be able to see him change and grow, and to be around for family gatherings such as his birthday, it's hard to only see him now and then, whenever I go back to Singapore. I sat down at the piano one day, and wrote a song for him.

10) Slow Down
It's hard to watch my grandparents getting older, and walking a little slower as the years go by. I thought about how life starts off with kids, teenagers and young adults rushing around with the exuberance of youth, and how, as we get older, we all slow down.
I also thought about how sometimes, working adults run around so much, focused on careers, on all the things in life that seem so important, that they lose sight of the really important things in life, things like time with the family, for instance.

11) Green-Eyed Monster
The term 'Green-Eyed Monster' is used to describe someone who is jealous about somebody else's success.
I think most of us have been through an occasion where we find ourselves comparing our own achievements with those of our peers. Sometimes, in comparing ourselves with others, we end up feeling bitter and resentful, and that is not the way that we should be feeling. I wanted to write a song to tell myself that there is no use in comparing myself to others. I have my own story to tell. I have my own path to walk. No one else can walk the path I am meant to walk. So I should not compare my own life with others. It is a waste of energy and time. So I decided to write a song about this.

12) On My Way
I've travelled a lot over the past few years, to Singapore, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, Maine, Philadelphia, etc. as I'm often going to various cities to perform my music. Most of the time, I'm on the road by myself, driving to various venues. Sometimes I get lost, sometimes, I get into traffic jams…
I think that life is like being on a journey. We have a final destination to get to. We're all travelers on this road of life. I think that life is like a winding road where it's hard sometimes to figure out where the road is going to go, and sometimes it's easy to get lost and confused. 'On My Way' is a song of hope and encouragement, that no matter how far the journey is, every little step that we take, brings us closer to our final destination, and as long as we keep on walking that journey, we will get where we need to be eventually.

13) 33
When I turned 33 last year, I thought to myself, that Jesus was 33 when he lived his last year on earth. I thought that it was pretty amazing that I was now the same age as him. So somehow, that made me wonder how it would have been if I had lived during the time of Jesus. Would our paths have crossed? Would we have been friends?
It also got me thinking that some lives are so short, just like Jesus' was, and some lives are much longer. But ultimately it doesn't matter how short or long someone's life was; what matters is that life is lived to the fullest, no matter how much time you are given to live.

14) Shelter (Cherry Blossom Edition)
Even though I listen to mostly English pop music, as a child I often listened to the Chinese pop melodies that my grandmother would play on the radio, and my father would teach me some Asian folk songs. I was inspired to write a Asian-styled piano arrangement to 'Shelter' after listening to Kavin's string arrangement for the song. Lately, I've been experimenting more with pentatonic keys and modes and so, I decided to try an Asian-styled arrangement on the piano. I loved it very much, so we decided to include it in the album because it adds a different, more dramatic feel to the song.

Besides the above: please see the questions below:

1. What is the major influence in your music? Would you name artists and/or songs?

Growing up, I listened to quite a lot of classical music as I studied classical piano from a young age and had to play a lot of classical piano pieces. My favourite composers were Beethoven and Mozart. As I grew older, I listened to music arranged and composed by David Foster who writes very good melodies. I also listened to the Carpenters and to Abba, and to James Taylor. I loved the musical 'My Fair Lady'. I also listened to a lot of Top 40 pop on radio. Nowadays, I've been listening more to artistes like Imogen Heap, John Mayer, Keane, Bobby McFerrin. I love Joni Mitchell's lyrics. They inspire my own.

2. If you compare the new album with the previous works, what do you think is the largest difference?

I think my songwriting has evolved. Lyrically and musically, this album is more mature and personal. Songs like 'Beautiful Seed' and 'Five Loaves and Fishes' are songs about beliefs that I cherish. I think that musically speaking, I am also trying different things in terms of writing more songs in a minor or modal key, such as the songs 'Scars (Stronger For Life) and Green-Eyed Monster, so there is more of a richness and diversity to the music. I also helped to produce this album with Kavin and so I feel that my musical, creative fingerprints are all over this album as I was more involved in this album with the way the music sounded.

3. When do you write songs? Is there any particular mood or feeling in which you like to write songs?

For this album, I wrote songs mostly in two places. One was at my piano in my room, usually in the night, when it's just me at my piano, with a candle burning in a darkened room. The other place where I wrote my songs was in the coffeehouse that I went to almost everyday, during the daytime. I would sit at the coffeehouse with a cup of my favourite Darjeeling tea and write from 10 a.m to 2 p.m for most days. I would have at the table, my rhyming dictionary, my favourite pen, and my notebook of ideas, then I would look over the lyrics for songs that I needed to finish and write them, or I would write down ideas for new songs in my journal. I would write most of my lyrics this way. I would also have the melodies in my head and when I went home after writing at the coffeehouse, I would try out my music ideas on the piano in my room.

For writing songs, I have to be in a introspective, thoughtful frame of mind.
So it helps to sit at a coffeehouse. This particular coffeehouse also had a good vibe because there would be classical music playing in the background, and the furniture was very nice dark wood, so it looked classy, but very comfortable.

4. Some songwriters, by writing songs, releases their inner feelings, thoughts or visions, or escape from real world. To you, does song writing make your real life any easier or better?

Songwriting does help me to express my innermost thoughts and to express the things and emotions that I feel strongly about. It helps me to understand myself better and to deal with my sadness, my frustrations and my joys and happiness.

5. Song writing is in a sense expression of feelings or emotions.. Which feelings or emotions (such as, anger, joy, sadness…) is the easiest to express in your music?

It's funny, but I do find that the easiest emotions to express in music are those that make me feel thoughtful, mellow or sad. I guess that when I'm sad about something, I get more emotional about it, and songs tend to flow easier that way. When I feel sad or pensive about something, it's easier to sit at the piano and comfort myself by playing a good melody.

6. Is there any particular thing you do to create a atmosphere for recording (such as, lighting candle, etc)?

I turn down the lights so that the lights are not too bright. I like to light candles too, but during the recording for this album, I didn't light candles because it got too warm in the studio.
For the songs 'Love Song For 1', '33' and 'My Little Nephew', my husband and producer Kavin, left me alone in the house for a few hours with just the piano and so, it was easier to get into the mood of recording the songs, especially since these songs were more intimate since they are just vocals and piano arrangements. I felt more comfortable just putting all my emotions into the playing and recording of the songs when I was alone, with no one else to observe me.

7. Would you name other favorite writers, film directors, films, etc? Please also name your favorite musicians and artists.

Favourite writers : Pico Iyer, Jhumpa Lahiri, St.Therese of Liseux, Shel Silverstein, Anthony Bourdain.

Favourite films : Shawshank Redemption, Star Wars (original trilogy), Back to the Future, Prospero's Books.

Favourite musicians : James Taylor, Sarah McLachlan, Bobby McFerrin, Take 6, Imogen Heap, John Mayer, U2, Dave Grusin.

9. What do you do in your spare time?
Take a drive to walk along the beach, or to walk at the farmer's market, or 3rd street promenade in Santa Monica, go out with friends for a meal, go to the coffeehouse to write my journal or read and drink a nice cup of tea.

10. Please describe your character or preference in simple phrases, such as, outdoor active or staying home, dog lover or cat lover, good at cooking, like traveling, etc etc.

Tea drinker, cat lover, musician, singer-songwriter, good driver, catholic-christian,
piano-player, curious, optimistic.

11. What do you think you will be like in ten years?

Still writing and making music, maybe helping to mentor other singer-songwriters, perhaps having a family of my own.

4:24 PM

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Monday, August 06, 2007

Time Slows in Seremban, Malaysia

Time slows in Seremban, Malaysia

We've spent the past few days after the completion
of the 'Beautiful Seed' concert, here at Kavin's
parent's house in Seremban, Malaysia.
It's been a good relaxing time...quite a
good change from the busy schedule we've had
for the past month or so.

In the quiet, slow-paced, rural-like atmosphere
where time seems to be tip-toeing along,
it feels like we can finally breathe.

We've eaten our fill of favourites like
the Liang Ji Noodle stall where we've downed
at least three servings of wanton char siew mee
and we've had a serving of the famous fish ball
noodles.

And this morning, we headed to the Ya Zhou Laksa
stall where Kavin and his parents had their favourite
laksa, whilst I had the Lo Shu Fen with a bit of
minced meat and a piece of chicken.

Kavin's Mum and Dad

Kavin

The Laksa Stall

Preparing cups of teh

It's such a change from the busy, ever-changing
pace of Singapore. Here in Seremban, the same
food stalls that Kavin grew up with are still in the
same spot, now taken over by the sons or daughters
of the original owners.

The roads have remained mainly unchanged.
There is an air of tranquility amidst it all.
Breathe...

Dragonfruit growing in Kavin's parent's garden

The Malaysian house cat

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Friday, August 03, 2007

Beautiful Seed Concert - The Day’s Events

Beautiful Seed Concert - The Day's Events.

More pics coming soon....

[Friday, 3rd August 2007]

The day of the show. Had a good breakfast
at the hotel's breakfast buffet, then
headed downstairs to Yakun where I got a cup of
teh and a cup of hot water and sat down to look
through my songlist and my song introductions for the
concert in the evening.

I then stopped by the foodcourt to buy some duck rice
to take with me to the UCC hall, so that I'd have something
to eat before the concert.

Mr. Ho the driver from NUS picked us up around
12.20 p.m and we headed over to the NUS UCC hall for
our final show run-through and rehearsal

We ran through all the songs with the band and the
strings and only got done with the rehearsal at 4.30 p.m

By that time, I was starving and glad to finally be able
to eat that duck rice I'd bought earlier.

Ernest Lim came by a little later at about 5.20 p.m and
we got started with the hair and make-up. By the time
he was done with my make-up and hair it was about 7 p.m

After getting dressed, the band, Kavin and I gathered
around to say a group prayer. Kenn led the prayer and Josh
and I added our prayers as well.

After that we all walked to the backstage and waited
for our time to go on stage.

While the rest of the band chatted while waiting to
go on stage, I found a side entrance to a stair-well where
I could have some alone time, to pray. It was good
and calmed my nerves.

The hall was almost full and by 8.10 p.m
the band walked out on stage. First, Kavin and the string
players, then the rest of the band members,
and finally I walked out on stage.

It was lovely to hear the applause from the 1700 strong
audience and whatever anxiety I had quickly evaporated as
I focused on giving the audience the best performance I could.

Set list for 1st half of concert :

Angel In Disguise
On The Side Of Me
Shelter
Scars
Everything in its Time
Fly Away
On My Way
Leaving

It was so heartwarming to look out to the audience,
and to see the individual faces, smiling along, as they
listened to each song.

Then we took a short break for the 15 minute intermission.

I toyed around with the idea of changing to my gown
for the second set, but decided against it as the temperature of the
hall was a little cold and I was sure that I would be
shivering if I changed to the gown. Besides, I didn't have
much time before the second set began.

It was soon time to go back on stage again
and I walked out and started playing Love Song for 1.
It was so nice to just sing for the audience there, just
me, the song and the piano.

Then, the rest of the band and strings joined me on stage
and we went into the rest of the songs:

Song list for 2nd set of the concert :

Love Song for 1
City of Angels
Green-Eyed Monster
My Little Nephew
Slow Down
Journey
Five Loaves and Two Fishes
Beautiful Seed

After the end of the second set, the band and I walked
off stage. Thankfully, the audience applause brought
us back for an encore :)

Encore songs

33
Little Superhero Girl
Save Me

After thanking Karen Loh, Daniel (Front of house sound),
Eugene (stage sound)and Roy (lighting) and the band,
Joshua Wan (bass), Kenn Chua (guitars),Wen Ming Soh (drums),
Reggie Pereira and Kavin (music director, string conductor)
and the lovely fans who were there,
I went backstage to have a bit of quiet, alone time
before Karen came by to usher me to the post-show reception.

I was delighted to see Papa, Mummy, Mama (my grandmother)
and also my Hoo family there and we gave each other
quick hugs and hellos. I said a quick hi to Benson and Margeret
as well before heading down to sign autographs for the fans
who had started to form a long queue.

We started the autograph session at 10.30 p.m and it was great
to meet the fans who had come.
I recognised the first one who was in line immediately.
"Angelina!" I said, "you managed to be first in line again" :)
And there together with her were her mother, her brother Paul
and her friend, Angeline.

Phebe and Raymond were there too and it was nice to see them again.
Shuling also came with her new boyfriend and it was nice
to see them both. Timothy came by and told me that Sean would
be graduating soon from his Australian university soon and asked
if I could write a little note to him.
I remembered Sean who came for the Christmas concert
and was glad to have the opportunity to write him a note.

Francia brought along her classical guitar for a signature.
Someone convinced me to sign her tummy(!) So I did a little squiggle.
Another fan Adorra came by screaming 'Corrinne May, HI!!!!',
so I shouted back, 'Hi!' and she was quite amused :)

There were students from NUS, students from JC, couples who
shyly said that they were on a date, families and kids...
it was so nice to see the diversity of people there and
I was glad to meet them all.

By the time the autograph session was over, it was close to 3 a.m
I can't believe that I was there for 4 hours.
I broke my own record for continuous signing and photo-taking
and chatting, surviving on two cups of Milo and a whole lot of adrenaline :)

Poor Mr. Ho, the driver had to wait for us to finish up to
send us back to the hotel.
By the time we left the NUS UCC hall, it was close to 3.15 a.m
and we got back to the hotel at about 3.35 a.m

There wasn't much open left in terms of food places we could get to,
so I was pretty grateful that a couple of fans had given me five pieces
of roti prata and two fishes:)
(They had heard me saying during my song intro for
'Five Loaves and Two Fishes' that if the miracle had happened
in Singapore, it would have been called
'Five Roti Prata and Two Otak-Otak'
So I was both amused and delighted to get the prata to eat :)
During the autograph session, another fan Rachael also gave me
a loaf of bread and a can of tuna :)

We also had some food packed from the post-concert reception,
so Kavin and I, ravenous at the end of a long day,
dug into all the food when we got back to the hotel.
I was exhausted after that and fell asleep on the sofa
waking up a couple of hours later, and eventually making my way to bed...

All in all, a wonderful day.
To any of my fans who came for the concert and are reading this blog,
I just want to thank you for being there. I had a wonderful time and
I hope you did too :)

Below are some of the pictures that some fans sent me after the concert.
I'll upload my own photos once I get them :)

4:22 PM

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Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Prelude to ’Beautiful Seed’ Concert Part 2

Prelude to 'Beautiful Seed' Concert Part 2

[Tuesday, 31st July 2007, 7-10 p.m]

It was great to meet the string players again.
Max and Aloysius, Jit Min, Bing Ling, Rosalind, Wei Ming,
Olivia Guo were there.

We rehearsed all the songs that had string parts in them.
And the rehearsal went well.

[Wednesday, 1st August 2007]

Thank goodness Lionel, the stylist was free this morning
to help me pick out some clothes.
We had a bit of teh, food at the kopitiam upstairs
before picking out some clothes from BCBG Max Mara at
Wisma Atria for the concert.

We ended up picking out three outfits just in case I needed
them. A pear green flouncy, strappy top, a fitted black top with
flowy sleeves and finally a black dress-like top with strappy
ribbons to tie around the back.

I then rushed back to Raffles City where we met for
lunch with Ee Ee Rosalind, Ee Ee Elizabeth, Uncle Dominic,
Ee Ee Monica and Papa at Din Tai Fung. Lunch ran from
12.30 - 1.20 p.m and it was great to catch up with my aunties
again.

Then uncle Patrick Ho, the NUS driver picked us up and
sent us to the UCC Hall at NUS where we had a band rehearsal
from 2 p.m to 6 p.m
And then the string players came to join us for a full rehearsal
from 7-10 p.m. By the end of the day, I was so tired and
just glad to get back to the hotel to rest.

[Thursday, 2nd August 2007]

Today was supposed to be a rest day, but we
ended up having a couple of interviews to do.

The first was an interview for the Front TV show from
Arts Central channel. I met with the TV crew at the Ink Bar
downstairs at Raffles the Plaza from 4 p.m - 5 p.m
where Yin conducted the interview.

The interview went well and I also had a nice time
meeting with the staff from the Ink Bar.

After this, Evelyn, (who is helping with promotions on this album)
and I left to go to Mediacorp where I would co-host from 6-8 p.m
with DJ Shan Wee of 98.7 FM.

Shan was a pleasure to work with and I was surprised to know that
he had been in Singapore for just a little over 2 years and that
he spent most of his life in Ireland. We swapped stories about
living overseas away from family and also talked about the music
we liked.

He convinced me to do a 'Corrinne May sings the classics' segment
where he got me singing to rap lyrics! We both cracked up at
how funny it sounded and I thought he was pretty creative for
coming up with the angle. It was also pretty fun to do an
acoustic version of the chorus to Metallica's 'Enter Sandman'!
Fun :)

Altogether, a good time hosting with Shan and on the programme,
we also played 'Shelter', 'Leaving' and 'On The Side of Me' from
the 'Beautiful Seed' album.

After the show ended, I headed back home, but
not before stopping by Holland Village to Da Bao a pack
of Chicken horfun for dinner.

4:20 PM

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Monday, July 30, 2007

Prelude to Beautiful Seed Concert - Part 1

Prelude to Beautiful Seed Concert - part 1

July 30th 2007, 10.30 p.m (Singapore time)

It's a beautiful night and I'm sitting at the hotel's
lounge looking out at the Singapore night sky, overlooking
the Esplanade, the gleaming water, the floating stage being
readied for the upcoming National Day celebrations.
In the distance, I can see the water pouring out from the
Merlion's mouth into the Singapore river.

We just had a production meeting in the afternoon with the NUS Centre For
the Arts production staff and laid out the song list,
fine-tuned the plans for lighting and sound, and I finalised
the choice of a grand piano. I had used the Steinway and Sons
grand piano the last time that I had played in the UCC hall,
during the February 2006 arts festival, but somehow, this time
around, the 7ft Yamaha grand seemed to be more suited to my mood.
So I'm choosing to use it for the concert instead.

The weather has been surprisingly cool in Singapore.
Not much hot sunshine. Just muted brightness and lots
of fluffy, thick clouds overhead.

I've switched over from my daily dose of Darjeeling Tea
at Peets Coffee and Tea, to my daily dose of teh at the
neighbourhood Yakun Tea shop. All in keeping with switching
my time zone 16 hours ahead.

It's funny how it's always easier for me to snap out
of jet-lag coming from Los Angeles into Singapore
rather than the other way around.

We'll be having a rehearsal with the string ensemble tomorrow.
Looking forward to it.

1:26 PM

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Monday, July 30, 2007

Update on recording of Beautiful Seed [June 6th 2007-20th July 2007]

Update on recording of Beautiful Seed [Wednesday 6th June 2007 - 20th July 2007]

[Wednesday, 6th June 2007, 12.10 p.m]

Been feeling kinda stressed these few days.
There's so much to get done. We've got the
string session which I'm looking forward to.
Got to earn my stripes as a producer.

Also got to settle the cd cover design with the pics, practice
vocals etc. It' all a good kind of busy, but it's
so easy to feel overwhelmed and I just need to remind
myself to breathe and to take it one step at a time,
to surrender it all into His arms and to focus on the real
reason for all this...

[Friday, 8th June 2007,1.45 p.m]

We had the string session at Westlake Audio yesterday
from 2-6 p.m. It was a good session and we tracked
strings for Beautiful Seed, Shelter, 5 Loaves and 2 Fishes,
Scars and On My Way.

Kavin conducting the strings

The players were great and Nicole was funny and cool
to work with as usual :)
Adrienne and Chris were there too. Afterwards,
we all hung out at Formosa Cafe to relax and to
celebrate Adrienne's 29th Birthday over Margaritas,
Ribs, Chicken Shumai, Wasabi Fries and buttermilk
battered Calamari.

Richard did a great job with the engineering on the
session too. Quick, efficient and knowledgeable.

Kavin and Richard and I at Westlake Audio

Now I'm brainstorming over CD cover design angles.
Have to make a decision soon...

[10th June Sunday 2007, 1.30 p.m]

So far we've recorded vocals for 'City of Angels'
& 'On The Side of Me'. 2 songs done,...many more to go...

taking a break for recording to smile for the camera

-------------------------------------------

Pigeons...how do they walk around with that constant clockwork
motion of their heads and still be able to spot the tiniest crumb
on the ground? Working for every crumb that they eat
and yet God clothes them in majestic plummage, and lets
them take off, glorious in flight, swooping way up
high in a way we humans can't. How amazing the gifts
given to each creature.

------------------------------------------

My soul has been feeling so restless lately.
Don't know why, but it just feels that there are
a lot of things to take care of and Time seems
to be slipping out of my grip...

------------------------------------------

[Saturday, 16th June 2007, 3.10 pm]

It's been a busy week of recording.,
Mostly piano recording, although we had Mark Punch
come into the studio on Tuesday and Wednesday
to record the guitar tracks for 'Beautiful Seed',
'Shelter', 'Green-Eyed Monster' and 'Leaving'.

Mark and Kavin working on guitar parts

It's been lovely to have this gorgeous Yamaha
C6 sitting in our living room. We rented it
to record the piano for this record and it's
been working out great. The cats are still a little
spooked by this big piano sitting in the middle
of the house. Ah...the piano sounds so warm.
I wish we could keep it beyond this recording
session.

The movers did a good job of getting the piano into
the house. It was a little scary to hear the wooden
floors creaking and cracking under the weight
of the 6 ft grand piano as they rolled it into place,
but now that it's sitting in the living room,
it looks gorgeous and sounds beautiful....sigh :)

Too bad it costs so much to buy something like this...

We've also finished recording the piano parts for the piano-vocal
songs 'Love Song For 1', 'My Little Nephew' and '33'.

Kavin left me to record the piano in solitude
while he went to the gym. It proved to be a good thing.
It's so much easier to get into the mood of the songs,
and to put in the feel of the songs when I'm just
sitting there, by myself with the piano, free to
express all the nuances of the song, with no one watching.
Just me, the piano, and the song...

It proved to be a fruitful recording session.

I've also been brainstorming over what to do for the pics
of the album cover. I've decided to work with Metaleap Design
for the design of the cd. I love what they've done with their
design for Paste Magazine and I think they'll do a good
job with the album. Hopefully, it'll all work out
for the best.

[18th June 2007, 5.20 p.m]

Took pics with the grand piano in our living room
yesterday. Turned out some nice photos from the
photoshoot; especially the ones with the dress and the pink
Timberland boots. Those are cute.

Still have my mind wrapped around the ideas, ie. what to
do with the CD cover visual. Since the music has a message,
the visuals should be thought-provoking too.
I mean, Kavin's right. Those pics of me in a black dress
with pink shoes might make good publicity shots, but what
will it say about 'Beautiful Seed'? I guess we need
something else for the cover...

[Wednesday, 20th June 2007, 2 p.m]

Can't believe it's already 3/4 of the way into June.
A cute thing happened just now. I had just finished
lunch at Nippon Ramen and was stepping back in the car.
I turned on the radio and 'Angel in Disguise' started playing
because Thom Price was playing it on Catholic Jukebox
on EWTN. It took me a moment to recognise that it was my song :)
Thank you Lord, for the little 'winks' of surprises that you send
my way.

-----------------------------------------------

So the piano got moved out of the house yesterday afternoon
after a lovely 3 weeks in our living room. Now there's a
big space there to swirl cats around the floor, but it's
a little sad not to have the piano there to play with.

It feels like we just said goodbye to a good friend.
and now we have a hole in our hearts where the piano used to be...
sigh...

So, we're going to record vocals for 'Beautiful Seed' today
and possibly 'Shelter'.

-----------------------------------------------

Pamela Springsteen just called and she's open
to doing a photoshoot for me. That's great.
I love the way she captures the essence of hands
in her opening page on her website and I love the work
she's done especially with the Randy Newman album.
It sounds like she might have some
good ideas on what to do with the piano
and she's got a Steinway baby grand in her home.
Cool...

O.k, so the photoshoot is set for Friday morning
at 11 a.m and I'm getting my hair done at 8.15 a.m
Sounds like a plan.

------------------------------------------------

Went to Helik's place, ie. market street studios
last night to check out the mix for 'On The Side of Me'.
We ended up only finishing up the mix at 11 p.m and by
the time we had dinner at Canter's Kibbitz, it was about 11.30 p.m
I was so hungry by then. Had corned beef and cabbage and potato
pancake, matzo ball soup and strawberry ice-cream.

Playing with Gibson at Market Street Studios

Kavin and Helik tweaking the mix at Market Street Studios

Anyway, we've got 3 more songs to sing vocals on.
'Slow Down', 'Love Song for 1' and 'On My Way'.
Got to sing 2 today.

I'm going to see Metaleap Design's concepts for
the album design next tuesday as well.
Let's see what they turn out. Hopefully it'll be nice.

[Friday, 29th June 2007 5.35 p.m]

I just had a photoshoot with Pamela Springsteen.
She's a sweetheart and I had a good time. She was definitely
great to work with and I think we've got some nice shots
we could use to layout the artwork for the CD.

Now I'm just winding down with a cup of First Flush
Darjeeling Tea at Peets. I'm glad that all the main vocals
are tracked. Thank God. Now we just have to track
the background vocals.

[Sunday, 1st July 2007]

Leaving tonight for Singapore. Not looking
forward to the long flight...

[Tuesday, 3rd July 2007]

Mummy and Papa picked me up from Changi airport
this morning at around 6 a.m and then
we headed to Holland Village for breakfast.
We also bumped into Vivienne, Campbell and Rowan
who were having breakfast at Crystal Jade.
What a coincidence :) The last time I was back
in Singapore, I bumped into them too on the day
that I got back into Singapore.

[Thursday, 5th July 2007]

The NUS Alumni Awards was held today at The Regent
Hotel. Guest of honour was President Nathan who was awarded
the Eminent Alumni Award.

The sound check was at 4.30 p.m. The sound check went well
and it was great to see Alan, Eugene and Daniel working the
sound board again and they did a good job.

Papa, Mummy, Mama and Popo went to the awards with me.
Seated at the same table as myself was Viswa, who worked
in the television media, Woon, an accountant at Ernst and
Young.

(continued in separate account on the NUS Alumni Awards)

[Monday, 9th July 2007]

Sitting on the plane from Singapore, heading back
to Los Angeles. Feeling tired, sleepy and actually
quite stressed over the CD cover. Should I used that
flower concept, or just a black and white photo with
pink wordings, or the hand pic with the seed?
Decisions...decisions...decisions...

After landing at LAX, we went straight to Santa Monica
to check out Helik's mix on 'Scars' at Market Street
Studios. It sounds good. Warm, organic. Hopefully
it won't lose much of its warmth come mastering time.

We got done only at 9.45 p.m by which time I was
hungry. We had a good ramen dinner at Chabuya, with
yummy miso chashu ramen and that got my spirits up
again.

[11th July 2007, Wednesday, 7.25 p.m]

Just taking a breather at Peets now.
This whole crazy scheduling, to finish up
the cd on time, mixed in with a good measure
of jet-lag, has me sleeping at 7 a.m and getting
up at 3 p.m...man, I'm stressed...at least
I'm almost done taking care of the cd project.

At the end of this, I just want to go for a swim
or something, maybe take a hike or bike and de-stress..
take a drive to Valyermo and stay for one night.

Ah...the first flush Darjeeling Tea tastes so good
today and I'm glad that Peets is having it's
extended summer hours...

Have to do vocal warm-ups afterwards. Also need
to scan lyrics for the cd artwork. Oopps...put
too much milk to the tea...but it still tastes
pretty good.

Lord, help me to remember that even in these times,
in fact more so in these times...when it feels like
I've drifted away from you, when there are so many things
to take care of, you are ever closer by my side.

Help me to lift my hands off the steering wheel
for just a little while and let you take over.
Help me remember Lord, that you, the creator and
maker of all, you are in control, that there
is a master plan, and no matter how far I stray...
I will always be in the palm of your hand.
You hold my heart in your hand.

[Thursday, 12th July 2007, 5.35 p.m]

Feeling more rested today. Thank goodness
for eye-shades and ear-plugs. I'm also
done with getting the liner notes and lyrics
to Metaleap Design.

Bob is coming over later to work on the mix
for 'Shelter' later at 6 p.m
It's all sounding good and everything is coming
together.

[ Friday, July 20th 2007, Friday, 5.35 p.m]

So we've been working really hard over the
past week. Thank God everything got done in time.
The mastered cd sounds great and I finally got the artwork
settled.

Gene Grimaldi, mastering the album at Oasis Mastering

Kavin and Gene at Oasis Mastering

Now, I just have a couple of interviews I need
to get done, then comes the preparation for our
concert on August the 3rd.

Can't believe we're flying back to Singapore
in a week.

1:24 PM

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