Year of the Rabbit

Next week, millions will celebrate the Lunar New Year. It marks the end of the Year of the Tiger and the start of the Year of the Rabbit according to the Chinese Zodiac. As usual, the Lunar New Year celebrations will involve much feasting, merry-making and visiting of family and friends.

I thought it might be interesting to take a cursory look at where the RABBIT features in popular culture around the world. I have recorded whatever I can think of ... I'm certain it isn't complete. Please do jump in (no pun intended) with what you think I have missed.


The Easter Bunny

The Easter bunny has its origin in pre-Christian fertility lore. The Hare and the Rabbit were the most fertile animals known and served as symbols of the new life during the Spring season.

Studies suggest the bunny as an Easter symbol originated in Germany, where it was first mentioned in local writings from the 1500s. The first edible Easter bunnies were made in Germany in the early 1800s.The Easter bunny was introduced to American folklore by the German settlers who arrived in the Pennsylvania Dutch country during the 1700s.

In legend, the Easter Bunny brings baskets filled with colored eggs, candy and even toys to the homes of children on the night before Easter. The creature will either put the baskets in a designated place of hide them somewhere in the house or garden for the children to find when they wake up in the morning.

Lucky Rabbit's Foot

In some cultures, the foot of a rabbit, carried as an amulet, is believed to bring good luck. This belief is held by individuals in many parts of the world including Europe, China, Africa, and the Americas.
In Western Europe, prior to 600 BC, rabbits were considered to be sacred, as spirits were thought to inhabit the bodies of animals, and since rabbits spent a lot of their time in underground burrows, it was further believed that the rabbits' bodies were inhabited by numina, underground spirits with whom they communicated at very close proximity! The Celts also held the rabbit to be sacred because of their prowess in reproduction. They believed that the numina intended for rabbits should be put upon pedestals and revered as symbols of rapid procreation, health and prosperity.
Since the rabbit itself was considered lucky, it follows that any of its body parts would also be lucky. People selected the rabbit's foot to tote around for good luck, because of its capacity to dry quickly, its small size, and perhaps the fact that it makes a nice key chain!


Note: Just because this blog is reporting on the lucky rabbit's foot does NOT mean that the blogger is supportive of this practice.


Bugs Bunny

This one needs hardly any introduction. Many of us grew up reading comics or watching TV shows featuring the rascally rabbit, whose catch phrase is "Eh ... what's up doc?".


This highly popular cartoon character first appeared in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series by Leon Schlesinger Productions, which became Warner Bros Cartoons in 1944. Mel Blanc voiced the original Bugs Bunny, and continued to do so for 49 years till he passed away. Contrary to popular belief, at his death bed, Mel Blanc did not say "That's all folks!".


Other cartoon characters that Bugs Bunny is often seen with are Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig.


Watership Down
How many of you remember the book and later movie from the 70s, entitled "Watership Down" ? Written by English author Richard Adams, it was the story of a group of rabbits living in a warren, when one of the younger rabbits named Fiver, who was a seer, received a frightening vision of the imminent destruction of their precious warren. Fiver and his brother Hazel then try to persuade the chief rabbit of the danger, but are ignored. They then set out on a journey to find a new home, facing various trials and tribulations along the way. 


The movie was an impressive work of animation, and featured the beautiful theme song "Bright Eyes" sung by Art Garfunkel. Here is a videoclip so that you can enjoy the scenes and song.

"Watership Down" was one of my favourite animated movies of the 70s. I believe this seemingly simple story can be appreciated at different levels. At the most basic level, it is simply a story of a bunch of animals and their struggles. However many people have offered different shades of interpretation of this tale, which has elements of exile, survival, bravery, political responsibility and "the making of a hero and a community". Some have even compared it to the epic Greek poem "The Odyssey".


Energizer Bunny
Remember the televisions ads for Energizer? The cute pink bunny who could go on and on and on and on ...... :-)

Playboy Bunny
Finally, we have the famous Playboy Bunny , symbol of quality reading for discerning gentlemen ... LOL ....  'Nuff said.

No? This wasn't the picture you hoped to see? That's a shame, it's the the only picture I have ... ha ha ha ... ok, ok ... I'm kidding ... what about this one?

Well, look at this news snippet I found ...


London Playboy casino set for 2011
The iconic brand is due to return to London with a massive club and casino.

Playboy Enterprises Inc. announced plans to open a new Playboy branded club and casino in London in early 2011. The planned venture will sit in the exclusive Mayfair neighbourhood of the capital and feature a restaurant, lounge, table games area and high-limit private casino gaming rooms. It's not the first time Playboy have set up such a casino in the UK, having run venues in London, Manchester and Portsmouth in the 60s.

The iconic brand currently owns only one club and casino, situated in Las Vegas, and the new Mayfair premises will certainly have a touch of the Las Vegas glamour to it. With private gaming rooms and casino table games such as roulette, blackjack and poker, as well as the lounge and restaurant, the club will certainly attract high rollers and casino fans.

The Playboy casino and club in Las Vegas is situated in the Palms complex, which houses ten restaurants and six bars and nightclubs, as well as a 95,000 square foot casino. The Playboy casino itself has nine blackjack tables and one roulette table inside the club.

Certainly well timed for the Year of the Rabbit  ... LOL

Wee Ek Hock comes Home

.
Our friend and fellow Josephian, Wee Ek Hock (Form 5Arts2, 1976) is back in Kuching for a short break. He and his family have been living in New Zealand for a number of years.

These are some photos of a welcome dinner with the boys at Sea Good Restaurant.

Pic 1: Wee Ek Hock & Sim Kee How

Pic 2: Robert Chin, Norbert Liew & <to be identified>

Pic 3: Jude Jong & Robert

Pic 4: Anthony Chung and Edward Chin

Pic 5: Tan Kia Kim

Video (taken by Ben Wong) at the dinner

Pic 6: Waiting for session at Thien Jing Reflexology

Fig 7: Waiting for their turn

For a photo from a long, long time ago, showing Ek Hock and some others, click on THIS.

xxxx

Musical Interlude: Easy Listening from the 70s

.
Here's a selection of musical numbers from the 1970s. I'm quite sure most of you will remember them. Turn up the volume, sit back and enjoy ...

Yes, that was of course "Una Paloma Blanca" by the George Baker Selection.  Back in the mid 70s, it was a very popular electone organ piece that was performed a lot at concerts and shows. If my memory doesn't fail me, one Form 6 class even danced to this number at the St Joe concert.

Then there was "Feelings" which was sung by seemingly every single aspiring songbird. There was a period in1975 or 76 when we would roll our eyes and lament "not again!" whenever this was performed. The version you just heard is an instrumental version re-done by Richard Clayderman. I must admit that after not being subjected to this song for so many years, it does sound kinda relaxing ...

Awwwww so sweet ... "Save Your Kisses For Me" won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1976 for British group Brotherhood of Man.  I also love the cute footwork!

Olivia Newton-John is one of the classiest, prettiest and most talented singers in my view. This was one of her signature numbers  "I Honestly Love You". Delivered here via a collage of different performances over the years 1974-2004, this is testimony to Olicia's longevity as a musical performer.

And finally a great song by the Carpenters ...  "Please Mister Postman" ... so relevant in the "pre e-mail" era. How many of you remember waiting for your local postman to bring that letter or package from that special someone? Youngsters these days don't know what they missed - with their emails, IM, Facebook statuses and Tweets ... ha ha ha !

Hope this selection of easy listening numbers brought back some fond memories for you ...
.

K B Law in Kuching

.
This morning, the boys of Form 5 (1976) had another welcome breakfast for one of their cohort - can you guess who it was? Look at the photo below without reading the names and see if you recognise them..

Standing: Robert Chin, Bob Chew, Jude Jong

Seated: Sim Kee How, Law Kok Beng, Peter Ngiam Tie Fen, Mark Chin

I asked Bob to relate the events that led to this happy reunion. Here is his reply.

"Hi  James,

I  was  wandering  around  the  Boulevard  Shopping  Complex  trying  to buy a pair of jeans when  i  suddenly  bumped  into  surprise,  surprise , Law Kok Beng !  The  last time  I , like  most of us , saw  him  was in Form 5  Science in  1976. That was  35  years  ago.   I remember  him as  the  quiet type,  the   intellectual  sort,  whose  favourite subject was mathematics .  He could  figure out sine/cosine faster than we could say  hi.

I said, "Are you Law Kok Beng?"  He  just stared  at  me . " I  am  Chew  Pok Vun," I  added. He continued  staring  at  me .  After  a  while,  it all  flashed back.   The  short  encounter ended  with me promising to arrange   for a breakfast  meet   which  happened  today  at Fu Yu  kopitiam, Sekama. The  venue is right behind his father's  house.

Kok Beng  looks not much  different  from his  school days  except  with a few  grey hairs on the side.  He  got  baby smooth skin   making  him  look younger  than his age . He is back on holidays visiting  his  91 yr old papa  at Jln William  Tan and who is still an active traveller .

Kok  Beng  now  lives in Melbourne  with his  wife (also from Kch)  and  3  sons  aged  19, 16 and 14. He  has been  there  for  the  past 21 years residing  in the  suburb of Rowville, next to Ferntree Gully.  He works as an IT  consultant  for  an  Australian company.

Our  next  meeting  with Kok Beng will be  lunch  at 1230pm on Wed., 19 Jan  at the  S'wak Club.  Pls  call  Bob 013 8020620 if you  like to  join in.  Kok Beng's  email  is  beng.law@gmail.com  for  those  who  want to touch base  with him."

Thanks Bob. That was a great narrative. Our old English teacher, Bro Adrian would be proud of you :)

Then & Now

We haven't done a "then & now" for a while, so I thought I'd include this to give you a sense of what has changed and what has stayed the same ...

Enjoy and comment !

One more thing ... if you want to see a really, really old photo of Kok Beng and some of these guys, click on THIS.

.

NEWS - Now Everyone Can Fly ?

.
Everybody can fly yes. I guess they didn't say anything about the landing part.

On the evening of Monday 10th January, an Air Asia flight from KL skidded and veered off runway 25 at Kuching International Airport during heavy rain. The plane was an Airbus A320 with 124 passengers and 6 crew members.

After the incident, this was the result ...

Fortunately no one was seriously hurt and all the passengers were safely evacuated.

As the runway was blocked, the airport was closed for almost 24 hours, and only reopened around 9pm Tuesday 11th Jan..

Were any of our friends at the scene? Any observations and insights to share?
.

Book: Sylvia, Queen of the Headhunters

.
Here's another snippet of Sarawak history, by way of a book review. Back in school, most of us would have read the history books on the White Rajahs of Sarawak - Sir James Brooke (1803-1868), Sir Charles Brooke (1829-1917) and Sir Charles Vyner Brooke (1874-1963) - who ruled Sarawak for more than a hundred years. But some of us may not be as familiar with the Rajah's wives or Ranees as they were called. James Brooke never married, so that leaves Ranee Margaret, wife of Rajah Charles and Ranee Sylvia wife of Rajah Charles Vyner.  


We will cover Ranee Margaret in another posting. This blog entry specifically focuses on Ranee Sylvia (1885-1971).

This book "Sylvia - Queen of the Headhunters" by Philip Eade is a fascinating biography about Sylvia, the Last Ranee of Sarawak. One reviewer described her as "a outrageous self-publicist, schemer and socialite extraordinaire, Sylvia Brooke, whether one liked or loathed her, was clearly an unusual woman living in extraordinary times. Well-known in her lifetime, Brooke is a woman little written about in recent years but in Sylvia, Queen of the Headhunters Philip Eade has helped to secure her place in history and has succeeded in providing a fascinating and unbiased account of the fame and infamy of Sylvia Brooke." (Erin Britton)

Sylvia Leonora Brett was the daughter of Viscount Esher and his wife Elizabeth, The young Sylvia seemed to have a difficult childhood and even tried to kill herself even before age 12. Later she sought both fame and adventure, trying her hand at storywriting, and impressing such literary luminaries as George Bernard Shaw (of "Pygmalion" fame) and J.M. Barrie (author of "Peter Pan").

Around age 24, Sylvia joined an all-female choral orchestra established by the Ranee Margaret. It was through this and related events that she met her future husband Charles Vyner. After Vyner became Rajah in 1917, Sylvia, much to her enjoyment, became Ranee of the tiny Sarawak and its population of 500,000 Malay, Chinese and native Dayaks.

The Brookes tried to be benevolent rulers and Sylvia clearly did love Sarawak, remarking that “the magic of it all possessed me, sight, sound and sense; there was in this abundant land everything for which my heart had yearned.” 


She even styled herself as the Queen of the Headhunters even though the Dayaks had stopped cutting off heads some years earlier (although there was a brief revival of the practice during the Japanese occupation of 1941-45).

Vyner and Sylvia had three somewhat wild daughters, who married eight times between them. They were known to the press as Princess Gold, Princess Pearl and Princess Baba. One of them married a wrestler; another married a band-leader. Sylvia herself was a socialite and even once on the popular British talk show Parkinson.

Charles Vyner and Sylvia

It appears that Vyner had an eye for the ladies. There were numerous other women in his life, and the marriage between him and Sylvia was described by some observers as an "open relationship". Towards their later years, they lived almost separate lives, although according to Sylvia they were still on cordial terms.


Well, an interesting addendum to Sarawak history, isn't it? Read the book if you're interested in more details.


HOMEWORK
It would be interesting if you guys can ask the elders in your family what they remember of the White Rajahs and their rule of Sarawak. Perhaps your dad or grand-dad may even have met them in person, and may have stories to add to this. Then share what you learn on this blog.


Over to you ...
.

Primary 1 at the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2011

.
This is clearly an advertorial, as you will realise as you read further.

I'd like to draw your attention to the "M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2011" that begins today at various locations in Singapore. The theme this year is Art & Education. There is a variety of ticketed and free performances, interactive events and artistic exchanges, covering music, dance, theatre and visual arts. The Festival is from 5th January (TODAY !!!!) until 23rd January 2011.

Check out the details on the Festival website ...

You can also click HERE to access the website.

When you are exploring the various activities, do check out the installation "Primary 1" by Jemima Yong. This is at the Jendela space in the Esplanade.

Further details can be found on this posting on Jemima's blog . You should also check other parts of her blog (www.jemima-yong.blogspot.com) for related activities.

Interview with Jemima Yong, published in the New Paper on 11.1.11

Have a nice day.
.

Resolutions for 2011 ?

.

Well, the new year 2011 is here. And isn't the date today a nice one? I'm referring, of course, to 1.1.11 .  Actually in this year, we will have three more similarly nice dates. Can you figure out what they are?

Traditionally this is also the time when we should have made our resolutions for the new year. You know ... what we want to give up, or improve on, or focus more energies on doing ... Anyone wanna share any interesting resolutions they've come up with?

I'm still figuring out my resolutions actually. One of the things I'm considering for 2011 is to go vegetarian ... well partially if not fully. I'm still not sure if I can bring myself to give up my once-a-month tu kar, especially with my buddies in KL ? Well, this vegetarian idea was actually inspired by an organisation called PETA. Have you heard of it? It stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. I reckon it's their innovative and provocative ads that made me take notice of this cause.

Check it out for yourself ... can you blame me?

and there's also this one I like ...

Anyway, I'm digressing. Back to you. Please share your resolutions for 2011.
.