The Singapore Female Table Tennis team made it to the finals of the Olympics, and would face China in the finals on Sunday! This would really go down in history, since the last time Singapore achieved a medal was in 1960 by weight-lifter Tan Howe Liang. I hope they would persevere on to get a Gold, instead of being comfortable with a Silver, but I think everyone wants to win.

Anyway, the last time the table tennis team was in medal contention was back in the 2004 Athen games where Li Jia Wei eventually achieved 4th placing. In the 2000 Sydney games, fellow Singaporean, Jing Jun Hong achieved 4th placing as well

I think the Singapore team has done extremely well at the Beijing Games, with Tao Li being the 5th fastest woman in the 100m Butterfly, and fellow swimmers Nicolette Teo, Lynette Lim, Quah Ting Wen, Bryan Tay, and Calvin Kang in the 100m sprint. Also, great job to the shuttlers Ronald Susilo, Hendri Saputra, Jiang Yan Mei, Li Yu Jia and Xing Ai Ying, and Shooter Lee Wung Yew!

Zhang Gui Rong would be contesting in her event tomorrow!

Go Singapore!!

Lee Hom’s Music-Man World Tour would be coming to Singapore on 1st November 2008! Tickets for the Taipei concert sold out within 2 hours, and I am sure the concert here would be a sell-out as well! Anyway, priority ticket sales for OCBC Credit Cardholders start on 19 August to 2nd September, after which it will be released to the public. It is on occasions like this that I am glad my parents have credit cards! The most expensive tickets would be $198, and the cheapest, at $28 (but very limited I guess)!

Visit the following link to get tickets:

http://www.sistic.com.sg/portal/dt?dt.isPortletRequest=true&dt.action=process&dt.provider=PortletWindowProcessChannel&dt.windowProvider.targetPortletChannel=JSPTabContainer/sEventsCalendar/Event&dt.containerName=JSPTabContainer/sEventsCalendar&dt.windowProvider.currentChannelMode=VIEW&dt.window.portletAction=RENDER&contentCode=leehon1108

This is really a year of massive concerts. Following the massive number of artistes at Singfest’08, Kanye West will be in Singapore on 19 September 2008 as part of his “Glow in the Dark Tour”. This would be the first time Kanye West will be performing in Singapore. I can’t wait to attend his concert, but I’m not sure whether I would like to listen to rap music for 2 hours non-stop. Anyway, tickets will go on sale at sistic from Wednesday, 13 August at 9 a.m. Ticket prices range from $88 to $188, excluding the $3 sistic handling fee.

Some of his music videos:

Homecoming:

Flashing Lights:

Stronger:

I can’t believe myself tuning in to the matches of the Olympic Games. Well, actually I can, since the games are broadcast at almost every other channel these days. I am not really a sports fan, but I think watching the games is really exciting. Anyway, I probably only tune in to Gymnastics and Swimming more than any other game, since these 2 are really more interesting to watch, at least for me. For the latter, it is easier to explain since Mr Phelps is gunning for a record of 8 golds, one of which was won today. And, also we have Kosuke Kitajima of Japan looking to retain his title in the breaststroke events. More importantly, our very own Singaporean Tao Li has created history by becoming the first Singaporean to qualify for a swimming final, the 100m Butterfly Final to be exact! Hope she wins one!! As for gymnastics, I think it’s just amazing to watch, especially when they do all these flips and stuff on the horizontal bars and such.

I really hope Singapore wins at least one medal this time round!!

Oh my goodness! I can’t believe that Sarah Brightman and Liu Han would actually be singing the Olympics Theme Song! Not that I do not like both of them, but all along I was under the false impression that A*mei Zhang Hui Mei and Sun Nan were going to sing the theme song, “Forever Friends”. I just found out that this song, along with 2 others are the 3 songs that made the selection. As for which song would eventually emerge as the theme song, we have to tune in to the Opening Ceremony to find out! Anyway, I still cannot believe that A*mei will not be singing the theme song…  Well I guess they really need an internationlly-known artiste for an event like the Olympics. But, who is Liu Han…

Forever Friends (Sun Nan & A*Mei):

It’s the weekend before term starts again on Monday, and there I was along Orchard Road with my family shopping. Anyway, I needed to get new clothes for the new academic year and such, and so we started from Ngee Ann CIty, then to Wisma, Forum Shopping Mall, Palais Renaissance, Isetan Scotts and finally back to Ngee Ann City where we parked our car. On our return to Ngee Ann City, we were walking in the basement shops and suddenly I saw Club Monaco advertisement boards!! I can’t wait for it to open in September, which happens to coincide with my birth month as well! It’s about time we had stores other than Zara and Topman opening.

It seems that environmental issues are becoming commonplace in today’s society, and that everyone is becoming more aware of the issues that Mother Earth is facing at the moment. Also, we have advertisements and artistes coming forward to tell people to go green and such. But, has anyone wondered why we are only doing such things now, and why we are facing so much environmental issues, at least those cause by man?

Do you remember back in primary school when your teachers reminded you to switch off the lights and fans when you leave the classroom? Or how about not littering public places? Turn off the (water) tap when not in use? Turn off the tap when you are soaping? How many actually remember these lessons/ instructions? Don’t they sound familiar? Why do we seem to be concerned about these reminders only now when people tried to emphasise the importance of these messages when we were younger? Why do we always have to wait for something to happen before we take action? What happened to the saying that prevention is better than cure? What happened to the person who coined this phrase? Has he contributed to the destruction of the world too?

It is somehow weird that while we always say prevention is better than cure, it applies to things that are applicable in our daily life to succeed and also not fall ill, but not to the natural enviroment, which we take for granted. I am guilty of this too, but I have always heeded the advice of switching off electrical appliances and stuff when they are not used etc., because I believe there is always a meaning behind doing anything, which happens to be a good thing in this case. But why do people not want to listen? Because they do not like to do things that are out of their way? Because they do not like to be told what to do?

Moving on, while most people would like to say that we should take more measures to stop the deterioration of Earth, has anyone stopped to think why such things are happening? No, I am not talking about the greenhouse effect and stuff that we hear almost every second. Has anyone thought from the point of nature? For the past few decades, human technology has advanced at such an amazing speed, but not at a speed that Earth can keep up with, in my opinion. Nature has always been there to offset any bad thing that mankind has done, for instance, we have plants that need carbon dioxide (from emissions from factories etc.) to photosynthesize, creeper plants, and weeds that grow in barren land and such because of deforestation and things like that. I think the past 3 decades of immense technological advancement have been too overwhelming for Earth to keep pace, and that probably has resulted in so much catastrophy around the whole.

How Green is Green technology? We are still making use of more resources from this world to create and eventually use it? Why can’t we take a break from all these technological stuff and make use of the most ancient materials that our great ( times infinity) forefathers have used? This may sound silly, and I think it does. But can’t we just take a break from trying to advance further?

With that said, I believe we should take a different approach to solve environmental issues, or at least, look from a different viewpoint. Ok so much for all these when I myself am typing this post on my laptop! Haha!

As I mentioned on my previous post, there hasn’t been much music releases, and even if there were, they don’t really interest me (except Disturbia and Take a Bow, both by Rihanna). Anyway, I was looking for older music when I chanced upon Michael Bolton. Now I seldom listen to male vocalists because I think pop male vocalists are usually not very good. However, I think there’s something special with Michael Bolton in my opinion. And I just found out recently he sang “Go th Distance”, the theme song for Disney’s Hercules way back in the 1990s. The soundtrack to the movie was actually my first sound track, ever, and one of the reasons was because of that song!

So I did more ‘research’ on Michael Bolton, and found out on the way that he is 2-time winner of the Best Male Vocal Performance for Pop music at the Grammys. Ok, that says a lot I think. And his hair used to be … … Familiar songs from him would be “When a Man Loves a Woman”, “Soul Provider”, “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You” and “Go the Distance”, among others. And after deciding for a few days, I finally decided to get the Essential Michael Bolton cd, as well as the Best of Michael Bolton Live DVD. For the DVD, it’s a very simple concert, not the Justin Timberlake-style, but rather, the old-school type with a band, a few vocal back-ups and a simple stage. And for the cd, I think it’s really a bargain for me to have so many songs on 2 cds, and also a glimpse into his past music. He sang an opera favourite too - “Nessun Dorma! from Turandot - which I think was ok, just that it sounded quite pop.

Ok, I shall end my post with a few MTVs or performances of/by Michael Bolton.

Go the Distance:

Nessun Dorma:

When a Man Loves a Woman:

Ok just before I finish here’s Rihanna’s Disturbia mtv. A bit creepy I must say:

There doesn’t seem to be any new music, or rather, exciting music for me these days. So, I was looking through my entire collection of CDs and found some music that I really enjoyed way back in secondary school, including artistes like The Corrs, Bardot, and even Backstreet Boys!!

Speaking of Bardot, was just searching youtube for their music videos, especially those of their second (and final) album, Play It Like That. Only 3 singles were released from that album, namely, ASAP, I Need Somebody and Love Will Find A Way. All 3 are amazing tracks I would say, and so is the album. So below are the videos:

ASAP:

I Need Somebody:

Love Will Find A Way:

Anyway, a bit more about Bardot. The 5 girls were scouted on an Australian TV Series Popstars, which documents the search for the girls and ultimately their success in the music industry. The 5 of them were Sophie Monk, Belinda Chapple, Tiffani Wood, Sally Polihronas and Katie Underwood. Katie left after the 1st album, titled Bardot, though. Their debut album spawned a number of hits like Poison, These Days and I Should’ve Never Let You Go. And here are the videos:

Poison:

These Days:

I Should’ve Never Let You Go

Sighz… Those were the days. Ok this seems like one of the longest posts I have ever made, but, I am still going on.

I really liked Sophie’s voice since her Bardot days, and it seemed that she had classical training in voice before. Anyway, I was really looking forward to her debut solo project “Calendar Girl”, and even asked my sister to send it over from Australia since she was studying over there at that point of time. I can’t really say that I was disappointed with her music (I am a great fan of ballads) but the whole album wasn’t quite for me at that point of time, but I slowly grew to like dance or rather, more uptemp music. So all in all, I did and still like the album. If I am not mistaken, 3 singles were released from this album, and they are Inside Outside, Get The Music On and One Breath Away. And my favourite had to be One Breath Away! And her music videos:

Inside Outside:

One Breath Away:

For those who still have no idea who Sophie is, she appeared on Date Movie as this hot blonde Andy! Can’t wait for her future projects, be it music or movies!

That will be all from me now…

I am extremely glad my paper for the special term has ended today! I can finally enjoy what is left of the holidays, for the next 1.5 weeks that is. It really has been a non-stop activity-packed 1st half of the year, and I am really delighted to finally have time to stone and really do nothing. Well not really… I am planning to take the ABRSM Grade 7 Exams for piano next year, hopefully, and of course I need to start practising before term starts, again… Anyway, there seems to be a new syllabus for the examinations, from what I read from the International Piano Magazine that is.

I really love my piano, althought it’s only less than 1 year old! Got it last year for my 21st Birthday! A Kawai RX-1! Of course it would have been better if it were a Steinway, but I guess a baby grand of any brand would already be a bonus for me because of my proficiency…

Ok, I shall have another goal for myself, to obtain at least a Grade 8 before I finish my undergraduate studies!

Oh yes… I didn’t manage to secure a scholarship. Guess scholarships are really that difficult to get… Sighz…