it's the ironic & controversial rhapsody of an ambiguous bert

weekend

A Nation in Concert (ANIC) 2008: Wish Upon a Sea Star. That is the name of the concert I caught over the weekend at the Victoria Theatre. It's a charity extravaganza aimed at promoting more awareness of various organizations such as the "Singapore Association for the Deaf", "Singapore Association of the Visually Handicapped", "Association for Persons with Special Needs" and the "Handicaps Welfare Association" and it provides a platform for all people to showcase their talent and abilities.

Well to be honest when I first heard of ANIC, it was not the purpose behind the show that drawn me to it. Rather, I had wanted to catch the show because of the cast and I have always been one to enjoy musicals. But little did I know that towards the end of the night, not only was I extremely glad to be present for ANIC 2008, I told myself that even if they had raised the ticket prices, I would still have attended the concert. (Now I know why Huiting likes to be involved in charity work so much.)

The whole concept and show is just so (and I quote) "wonderful, beautiful, colourful and meaningful". My friends did not appeared to have enjoyed the concert as much as I did and true, to a certain extent I agree with them that it was in no manner an A-grade show and a lot of the so-called professional artistes gave a lacklustre performance but I personally felt that the best performers on stage that night were the volunteers that had disabilities. You can also see that their items were the ones that garnered the most applause from the audience. They really showed us that given the right opportunities, they can do what normal people can do too, and sometimes even better.

Perhaps one might say that being a show ran entirely by volunteers, which means that nobody is going to receive a paycheck at the end of all 3 shows, not everyone would have devoted their heart and soul into the act but I chose to believe in the better nature of people and that for such a great cause, a lot of time and effort must have went into the entire production and all performers on stage really gave a hundred percent albeit there being no monetary remuneration.

Of couse having said that, the show is not without its stars. Karen Tan playing the role of Hannah Hammerhead Shark the 'civil servant' in the story was fantastic and hilarious. Her lines packed a punch and her timing was immaculate. Terence Tay as Clarence the Clownfish was simply fabulous in being the clown. He was adorable, funny and absolutely entertaining. And he makes you want to kill him because he looks too young and good to be true.

Oh and I learnt a new term tonight. There are no disabled people, they are only differently-abled.

On a side note: throughout the show, the characters were echoing the fact that just because some of them are different does not mean they shld be treated differently. Crabs, prawns and snails should be given the same privileges and entitlements as fishes even though they have no fins. Of course I know they were referring to people with physical handicaps but with almost the entire cast being 'aj', I couldn't help but wonder were Jonathan Lim and Desmond Sim trying to put across another different underlying hidden message, if you catch my drift.

Rushed over to E's birthday party with Edwin after the concert and stayed there for about an hour before leaving to pick Eddy up and then joining the rest of the gang at the club. Nothing much to say about the party; not because there isn't anything for me to say but because my heart is too 'broken' to want to say much. Thus, I shall remain silent. (Actually I already sent my grievances out via SMS to my own 'gossip girl' network the moment I left Punggol).

Anyway, almost the entire gang was present with the exception of Jackson who went home earlier because he was too tired from work and stuff. Initially we wanted to go to Tabs but we were kept waiting and Edwin got angry at the door bitches and so we decided to proceed back to P along with Thomas, Jason Lim, Leo, Elmo and surprise surprise, they picked up Calvin aka pht along the way. Kevin joined us too even though we kept telling him not to spend the extra cab fare to rush back down. (Honey we really would not have been angry even if you had decided to stay home.)

Dancing halfway through, I commented to Eddy that we really felt like we belonged here but him and Edwin countered by saying that Fabulous is still our primary home (I think it's simply because Fab is preferred and the best) and so I said that P shall be our secondary home then. For some unknown reasons I've never really took to Tabs, except for Handbag night. It could be the music, or the crowd or both the music and the crowd. Nevermind.


Kinda miss having Jackson around; now I think I know how Vincent must have felt when I got attached 2 years ago. For most of us, if not balanced properly, the best friend usually ceased being the best friend when the partner comes along and I was so blind to the whole thing until I read Vincent's blog, not realising that I had lost one of my best friends when one day, he found himself being unable to talk to me because of all the events that had transpired.

I have no idea why did I decide to go in the end. It was last minute and the timing was bad and it was so rushed and the rest keep telling me not to go and waste my time and even your friend said he did not really have to go although he promised to host the games for you because he's really only going for my sake. (Although I suspect that in order to give you 'face', he would have still went to show face for a while, host games or no host games, my sake or no my sake.)

Because it was a paid event that clashed with your party, I said no in the first place but if it had been some other sort of stuff, people who know me would also know that for you, at the risk of angering my friends or whoever else I originally had appointments with, I'd have cancelled all my plans just to make it there for you. But when I was finally there, heart-pounding and nervous and all (your friend chided me for the heart-pounding part), sigh... ...

You had me and after being single for so long, I was ready to give you my heart and soul. You had me, but I was not treasured.

Happy Birthday. In 2 days I will message you one last time and from then onwards, your number will cease to exist in my phone. You had me, but not anymore.

posted by bert @ 8:11 PM