열아홉 순정 (Pure 19)

안녕하세요!

Who would have ever thought that I would fall susceptible to the charms of Korean drama serials. But the seemingly impossible has happened and pigs are flying.

For the past couple of weeks, my household went raving mad over the Korean drama serial 열아훕 순정 (Pure 19/十九岁的纯情). My mother, being very much beside herself, bought the entire serial on DVD and started a marathon during which late(r) nights became a given as we obsess to complete watching the 167 episodes.

It's not Shakespeare, that's for sure. But this quaint romantic comedy has charm enough. It narrates in the main a quasi-Cinderella tale about parochial 양국화 (Yang Gukhwa) who falls in love with 박윤후 (Park Yun Hu), the icy director son of a wealthy businessman.

Not surprisingly, their relationship is pumped full with trails and tribulations. Though it may get sappy at times, the serial is never short of comedic scenes, mainly provided by the loony 박윤정 (Park Yun Jeong) and her affection-beleaguered lover 홍우졍 (Hong Ugjung).

But Korean drama serials aside, my true attachment, having taken my maiden steps, is to the Korean script, which I find extremely fascinating - as is evident from my attempt at including as many words written in Korean script as I can manage.

The only known script to have been commissioned to tailor for need, the Korean script was invented in the 1440s. Although it has an alphabet (called 한굴), it does not string its letters in a line like most languages do, but arranges them into syllabic blocks. For someone who has always thought that the adorable human-like characters ideograms, this came as a pleasant surprise.

Korean drama serials, Korean movies (of which I've watched a few), Korean food! With my current Korean obsession, I'm sure I'll be tempted by more things Korean - and boy am I looking forward to them!! =)

열아훕 순정 Official Website

Into the Woods

It blows your mind away!

Nominated for and winner of multiple Tony Awards in 1987, a year dominated by Sir Andrew Lloyd Weber's Phantom of the Opera, Into the Woods has it's fair share of following, albeit a tiny one in Singapore where the name Stephen Sondheim is hardly greeted with turning heads.

Starring a brilliant cast including Bernadette Peters and Joanna Gleason, this comedy tickles from the start of once upon a time to the end of happily ever after. Farcical and hyperbolical, Into the Woods weaves well known fairy tales into a touching tale of self-exploration and family love that drives the listener to passionate tears. Though the music is not immediately attention grabbing, it eventually grows onto you and only then shows it's ensnaring brilliance.

In the words of a friend - now I cannot say "once upon a time" without breaking out in a hearty laughter!

Catch the 1991 Recorded Performance starring the Original Broadway Cast on YouTube:

• Into the Woods Act 1 Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9
• Into the Woods Act 2 Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8

The Rose of the World

Here’s presenting to you another poem by W. B. Yeats -

The Rose of the World

Who dreamed that beauty passes like a dream?
For these red lips, with all their mournful pride,
Mournful that no new wonder may betide,
Troy passed away in one high funeral gleam,
And Usna’s children died.

We and the labouring world are passing by:
Amid men’s souls, that waver and give place
Like the pale waters in their wintry race,
Under the passing stars, foam of the sky,
Lives on this lonely face.

Bow down, archangels, in your dim abode:
Before you were, or any heart to beat,
Weary and kind one lingered by His seat;
He made the world to be a grassy road
Before her wandering feet.

wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwW. B. Yeats

OCBC Singapore Theatre Festival

Visit the official website: OCBC Singapore Theatre Festival

He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

Most people have probably heard me gush about this poem by W. B. Yeats at some time or another. Well, I am not sorry. It is, in my opinion, the best love poem I've ever read - so simple yet extensive - and even now, my heart melts every time I read it. So to those whom I haven't pestered, here is the beauty:

He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

Had I the heaven's embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet.
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under you feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwW. B. Yeats

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (1927)

What a mouth full of a title! "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea", presented by 1927, however belies an hour-long multimedia production filled with a pervading sense of rustic allure which aptly suited its strange, gently warped ideas. Set against a timeless Britain of cobbled winding thoughts, two deadpan sisters (played by Esme Appleton and Suzanne Andrade) narrates ten grisly tales a third (Lillian Henley) tinkles chilling tunes at the piano.

Standing before an intricately shot and designed video (by Paul Bill Barritt), the actresses act out darkly humorous sketches ranging from the profane "The 9 Deaths of Choo Choo le Chat" to the strangely reminiscent "The Sinking City" where men and children moon in the streets, bereft of women lost for - the "clap". Each tale has it's own unique offers, keeping the audience ceaselessly giggling at the edge of their seats.

Among the more memorable tales for me is the delightful "The Tin Biscuit Revolution" in which disgruntled gingerbread men, taunted by the recalcitrant baker, haunted him down with gingerbread guns shooting icing pellets, and eventually taking over the world leaving the rivers running red with raspberry jam.

The second tale, the name of which I have forgotten, was a surrealistic recounting of a dream where the celestial bodies indulged in lesbian orgies and the moon fed her baby stars and depressingly practical brownie girls turn out to be goat demons. And in "Grandmother", two sadistic sisters found among the audience a new playmate to replace their recently escaped granny.

All too soon, the tale came to an end, leaving poor Appleton "running" in the "streets" as reluctant audience members left the recital studio...

1927 Official Website

Jan Morris Remarries

Jan Morris, a prominent travel journalist who famously recorded her sex-change operation in the autobiographical "Conundrum", entered a civil partnership with her previous wife, Elizabeth Tuckniss, nearly 60 years after their marriage and more than 30 after their divorce. Read the entire The Daily Telegraph article for more information.

Many in recent years have perhaps unconsciously felt intimidated by the ways limits of sexuality have been stretched and challenged (remember Thomas Beatie); and I shouldn't be surprised if more discontent should be elicited from Singaporeans, who have been generally considered a conservative population.

I, however, always find it encouraging to hear such news, knowing that while unprecedented divorce rates in heterosexual marriages have also been challenging conventions of love, people belonging to the sexual minorities are treading, against prevailing negative stereotypes, previously unimaginable and untrodden axes of loves.

May I just softly give my blessings to this wonderful octogenarian.