Monday, March 15, 2004
Yes yes, I know, I'm a little late. There's been a lot going on recently in the past week or so. Incredibly eventful. Still, I apologise that all I left you with in the last post was a dry (but you have to at least admit, informative) article about how stifling Singapore can be. I'm sure you all found that out by yourself already :)
How has it been eventful you ask? "Tell us Gene, drown us with the lyrical beauty of your words!", you scream. Very well. I shall accommodate all of you, my children. T'was a couple of weekends ago, starting on the 5th of March (a Friday). Had a long weekend. Hung out with some friends, indulged in some prohibited substances, and chatted. I realised that, right here, right now? I'm okay. Really. I might be a little tired, and maybe a little bored, but for now at least, after the longest time, I feel like me.
Saturday came and went like most of my other Saturdays. Met up with some other friends, who brought their own friends, and we had a blast chilling over a few drinks. Everything seemed right that night. The music wasn't too loud, the ambience wasn't overpowering, and the group dynamic seemed about right.
Then came Sunday. Met up with my "band mates". Heh, the inverted commas are there because we're not really a band band. We're more like, a band trying to be. But hey, it's a start right? :) So okay, more prohibited substances came into play, and we wrote music. Music without inhibitions, without apprehensions. It was, to sum it up, a sense of great relief. To allow our emotions to flow freely, and to paint them out in lyric and song. And there's that feeling that a tighter bond has been formed. What made it better wasn't just getting to know my friends a little better, but getting to know myself a little better. And coming to terms with a lot of what I was feeling for a long while...
So Monday comes, and I'm on a seriously positive vibe here. One of the main influences of our band is the Counting Crows, and I had made up my mind to purchase their recent release "Films About Ghosts (The Best Of...)", which contains damn near all of their definitive tunes. I'm walking around the store checking out any other potential buys when all of a sudden, I feel a 'click' in my hand. I look down to see that the security casing the CD came in has come loose. Surprise surprise. Suddenly, I'm considering many possibilities. As I walk around some more, I think, "Why the hell not?" The oyster which is the world wasn't simply opening up for me here, it was spreading it's delicate barnacled legs and flashing a "Free Parking (for a limited time only)" sign! So, I pop the security bar code tab on the back as well, rip off the plastic wrapping, stuff the CD in my bag, and walk out. No rush, no fuss. Yes, for the first time in my life, I've stolen something. And not just any CD here. We're talking Counting Crows baby! 17 definitive tracks! After the intense weekend I had, it was fate brudda! Of all the CDs, it had to be this one. And I stuck it to those corporate pigs! Fight da power baby, fight da power! Big up to da East Side Massive! (Okay, I have no idea what relevancy that last line had, but it seemed appropriate at the time)
Soon after, sipping a cappucino, I was still brimming with much inspiration from the night before, and was transferring thoughts revolving around said night into a journal recently purchased, molding an introduction to the band that hopefully, one day, would be. And even if nothing is to come of this, I can look back at the songs we wrote and think that, "Hey, I was a part of this, and, as short as it may have lasted, it was real, it was sincere, and it was honest." And I'll always have that. At least one moment in my life that defined me.
How cool is that? :)
How has it been eventful you ask? "Tell us Gene, drown us with the lyrical beauty of your words!", you scream. Very well. I shall accommodate all of you, my children. T'was a couple of weekends ago, starting on the 5th of March (a Friday). Had a long weekend. Hung out with some friends, indulged in some prohibited substances, and chatted. I realised that, right here, right now? I'm okay. Really. I might be a little tired, and maybe a little bored, but for now at least, after the longest time, I feel like me.
Saturday came and went like most of my other Saturdays. Met up with some other friends, who brought their own friends, and we had a blast chilling over a few drinks. Everything seemed right that night. The music wasn't too loud, the ambience wasn't overpowering, and the group dynamic seemed about right.
Then came Sunday. Met up with my "band mates". Heh, the inverted commas are there because we're not really a band band. We're more like, a band trying to be. But hey, it's a start right? :) So okay, more prohibited substances came into play, and we wrote music. Music without inhibitions, without apprehensions. It was, to sum it up, a sense of great relief. To allow our emotions to flow freely, and to paint them out in lyric and song. And there's that feeling that a tighter bond has been formed. What made it better wasn't just getting to know my friends a little better, but getting to know myself a little better. And coming to terms with a lot of what I was feeling for a long while...
So Monday comes, and I'm on a seriously positive vibe here. One of the main influences of our band is the Counting Crows, and I had made up my mind to purchase their recent release "Films About Ghosts (The Best Of...)", which contains damn near all of their definitive tunes. I'm walking around the store checking out any other potential buys when all of a sudden, I feel a 'click' in my hand. I look down to see that the security casing the CD came in has come loose. Surprise surprise. Suddenly, I'm considering many possibilities. As I walk around some more, I think, "Why the hell not?" The oyster which is the world wasn't simply opening up for me here, it was spreading it's delicate barnacled legs and flashing a "Free Parking (for a limited time only)" sign! So, I pop the security bar code tab on the back as well, rip off the plastic wrapping, stuff the CD in my bag, and walk out. No rush, no fuss. Yes, for the first time in my life, I've stolen something. And not just any CD here. We're talking Counting Crows baby! 17 definitive tracks! After the intense weekend I had, it was fate brudda! Of all the CDs, it had to be this one. And I stuck it to those corporate pigs! Fight da power baby, fight da power! Big up to da East Side Massive! (Okay, I have no idea what relevancy that last line had, but it seemed appropriate at the time)
Soon after, sipping a cappucino, I was still brimming with much inspiration from the night before, and was transferring thoughts revolving around said night into a journal recently purchased, molding an introduction to the band that hopefully, one day, would be. And even if nothing is to come of this, I can look back at the songs we wrote and think that, "Hey, I was a part of this, and, as short as it may have lasted, it was real, it was sincere, and it was honest." And I'll always have that. At least one moment in my life that defined me.
How cool is that? :)
