A community blog by James Yong to reconnect those at St Joseph's Secondary School, Kuching, Sarawak during the swinging 1970s, as well as their friends. It covers schoolday memories, sports, hobbies, food, history, travel, family, reunions, teachers, old flames & gossip. Please send relevant info and pictures to jslyong@hotmail.com for posting.
I learnt today that Grease star and multi-time Grammy Award winner, Olivia Newton-John, will be having a concert at the Esplanade Theatre in Singapore on 27th March 2012.
If you liked her music, you might want to check this out ...
Here are some useful details ...
When: Mar27, 8pm How much: $125.00-300.00 from booking agent SISTIC (www.sistic.com.sg) Where: Esplanade Theatre, 1 Esplanade Drive, Singapore Area: Marina Bay Nearest train station: Esplanade
Hmmm, I wonder if she'll bring along John Travolta ... :-)
Anyway, here are some of my favourite Olivia albums from over the years ...
The
The Norwegian Nobel committee decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize 2010 to Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese political activist who is currently serving a 11-year prison sentence in China for trying to push for human rights for the Chinese. There was an angry reaction from the Chinese government when this award was announced.. They went on to boycott the award presentation held on 10th Dec in Oslo and pressured some other countries to do the same. China hinted at souring diplomatic relations with Norway and even launched their own alternative prize to the Nobel. You can see some of the details in the videoclip below.
I for one think it is rather sad how this whole thing unfolded. Being of Chinese origins, I am proud of what China has achieved in the past decades in economic and social development. The rise of China clearly reflects the ascent of the East to balance the dominance of the West. Which is exactly why I think the Chinese leadership needn't have taken such an extreme position. If they had simply stated that they disagreed with the Nobel Peace Prize this year and stayed away, the whole thing would have blown over very quickly. But their reaction actually called more attention to the award.
Of course, I also believe the Norwegian Nobel Committee is fully entitled to choose whichever recipient they like. And I must say they have been rather good at picking controversial candidates ... like in 2009, they chose Barack Obama as the Peace Prize recipient - a thinly veiled rebuke of George W Bush's regime.
But let me hasten to add that this blog is not meant to be a political commentary. What I really wanted to highlight here was the musical extravaganza of the Nobel Peace Prize Concert. Cisco has been a global sponsor to this event for the past decade, and in conjunction with our Public Services Summit, we invite senior level customers to attend this.
The hosts for the 2010 Concert, held on the evening of 11th Dec at the Spektrum arena in Oslo, were Denzel Washington and Anne Hathaway. And the artistes performing included: Sivert Hoyem, Florence + the Machine, Colbie Caillat, India Arie, Jamiroquai, Robyn, A R Rahman, Herbie Hancock and Barry Manilow.
Here I was just before the concert started ...
Other shots of the audience before the concert started ...
The Norwegian royalty arrive, together with the Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
Then came the two superstar hosts, Denzel and Anne ... let the show begin !
Here are a few videoclips showing a few of the performances I liked ...
First ROBYN ...
Next came FLORENCE + THE MACHINE ...
Then we had JAMIROQUAI ...
Then A. R. RAHMAN with his "Slumdog Millionaire suite" ... I love the energy of " Jai Ho" !
. Earlier this evening, we just attended the Lobo concert in the Max Pavilion at the Singapore EXPO. A majority of the audience were in their forties and fifties, but there were also a number of younger people, including small children - obviously brought along by their parents. It was very entertaining, and the music transported us back to the 70s.
It started around 8:20pm (only twenty minutes late :-) The opening act was a local duo of brothers, Mel and Joe, who sang a combination of country and rock-and-roll. They also did a good rendition of "Imagine". Apparently these two were quite well known as child singers, having made waves when they won the (Radio Television Singapore) Talentime singing contest in the Singapore of the 70s. Later they were also part of the band Gypsy.
Then Lobo came on. He looked older and somewhat more frail this time round, but his voice was still pitch perfect, and sounded exactly like in all his recordings. His delivery seemed effortless.
He sang almost all the popular songs we knew - "A Simple Man", "Don't Expect Me To Be Your Friend", "It Sure Took A Long, Long Time":, "Universal Soldier", "Love Me for What I Am", "Rock and Roll Days", "Rings", "Who Will Stop The Rain ","Yellow River" and of course "Me and You and a Dog named Boo" (and he assured the audience there really was a dog named Boo, someone's Alsation which was fortunately passing by when Lobo was mulling over what rhymed with "you" as he was penning the song).
In one part of the show, his partner went down among the audience and cajoled members of the audience to sing the chorus of "Stoney". Here's one of them ...
"Stoney, happy all the time, Stoney, life's a summertime ..."
There was also a cute little boy who bravely sang the Stoney song - a little out of tune, which made it even more adorable - and this brought a huge smile to Lobo's face. Clearly his music can transcend generations.
Here' a view of the audience ...
Something new about Lobo that we learnt tonight was that he has been married for 34 years, and that his son (shown below) is the drummer for the band.
The show ended around 11pm, with one of his signature songs "How Can I Tell Her".
