And so, the end is near---
Wait, this is not a lyric post. Anyway, I just completed yet another performance with the King's Flute Choir today, this time as a guest player on The Big Flute for a concert under the Emerging Flutists programme. And now, after everything is over, I sit in front of Eileen-III, contemplating about how I'm intending to spend my day for tomorrow's public holiday, and hitting upon a rather simple question.
Why is it that we perform music in front of a live audience?
I mean, for many (not necessarily of the King's Flute Choir), it's their livelihood as entertainers/musicians. But what about us hobbyists, the kind who spend lots of money on gear, lessons, travel, just so that we can perform in front of a live audience?
I think I might have found an answer: the addiction to the feeling of being in a flow state.
For those who are unfamiliar, the ``flow state'' is a moment where one is simultaneously hyper-focused yet hyper-relaxed, with information coming in fast and furious, yet without any form of chaos, as though one is, at that moment, literally One With The Universe, with near omnipotence, capable of handling anything and everything that is coming in, and to deliver the necessary actions/activities/outcomes that go out, all without falling into fear, uncertainty and doubt. One is ``in the moment'', yet with enough cognizance to have an objective perspective on all that is happening, and thus keeping the ability to make quick and accurate decisions even as the rest of the self continues on with the actions that are needed within the flow state itself.
``MT, you sound like you're high.''
No, I'm not; it's hard to explain without using metaphors. It is one of those things that one must experience at least once in their lives, and hopefully be able to regain that feeling in the future when the stakes are high enough, just so that the outward outcomes are not jeopardise by fear, uncertainty, or doubt.
More concretely, I find that when I am playing on my musical instrument on stage and in front of a live audience, I tend to be in the flow state, which leads to outcomes that are better than what I might expect.
And I felt that today, with some verbal confirmation from a third party too. There are a couple of pieces in the setlist that required one to do flute beatboxing, something that I had (1) never done before, and (2) found it quite hard to pull off on The Big Flute due to the need for even more breath to cover for the larger inner diameter. Throughout all the rehearsals, and even during my own practices, I just couldn't do it well enough to sound, let alone be ``correct''. It was to the point that I had to work something out with one of the other players to help with the percussive beatboxing sounds on the regular concert flute.
Yet at the actual concert, somehow I managed to scrabble through, as was the other bass flute player. That player who was helping us with the additional beatboxing support was the one who pointed out that it was the first time that he had managed to hear the beatboxing stuff from the bass-line flutes.
And I know that it was due to being the flow state because if you asked me to replicate it right now, just after the concert, I would likely fail.
Now that we have ``flow state'' defined and understood, let me explain why it is an addictive feeling.
To paraphrase from 《巨婴国》 again, all of us have an innate omnipotent narcissism that some of us eventually learn to acknowledge and tame, bringing us the kind of psychological stability that makes us appear the more matured one. Many of us don't really learn about this, and end up being the kind of self-entitled jerk that everyone loves to hate on the 'net.
But who can blame the for not wanting to acknowledge and tame this innate omnipotent narcissism? It's seductive, it makes one feel powerful. But it is also very unhealthy in the long run, since it becomes the default state of being, which can contradict what the real world may have to offer in return.
Conversely, acknowledging that omnipotent narcissism, and then correcting one's behaviour to avoid triggering that means that one is more comfortable with the world's non-determinism. But acknowledgement and taming is not the same as complete nullification---latent remnants still exist, and as something from the Id, it has a tendency to continuously lurk in the parts of the mind that we aren't paying too much attention to.
Which is why when one is in the flow state, it becomes addictive. Because it is a safe way to satisfy that latent omnipotent narcissism without the negative effects. It is a type of power that is summoned only on occasion, and is therefore considered superior in terms of reactions compared to just living out the omnipotent narcissism fantasy.
But that said, being in flow state from performing on stage and in front of a live audience is not the same as being attention-seeking---the flow state describes an internal state of being of the person, which does not deal with the externalities directly. Thus, when one is in a flow state, one might not even notice the audience, especially if they are the passive sort and are therefore irrelevant anyway. By nature, attention-seeking demands an active audience, and with that, the need to use feedback loops to control one's behaviour to control that of the audience.
And I think that's about it for now. I'm tired---playing The Big Flute ``seriously'' has a tendency of knocking me out because of the need for deep belly-level breathing, which causes too much relaxation despite the obvious efforts needed to actually perform on the music instruments.
Till the next update then.
Showing posts with label the-big-flute. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the-big-flute. Show all posts
Sunday, March 30, 2025
Monday, March 17, 2025
Mumble Mumble
So π-day came and went---Classic Pecan Pies and a Banana Almond Brittle pie was obtained from Windowsill Pies, and everyone loved it.
I'm playing with the King's Flute Choir again, and this time it is a concert that is happening at the end of the month. Rehearsals are happening, and I've discovered that given the gruelling work week, my body simply refuses to handle the non-stop flute/dizi action that starts from 1800hrs on a Saturday and ending at around 1600hrs on the Sunday following as it physically needs rest/activities that are less... cranial in nature.
And I think that's about that on ``updates from the life of MT''.
------
As I was sitting in a taxi moving from church to the rehearsal space with The Big Flute, I realised with a new level of clarity and appreciation on just how each of us are a part of the society that we live in, no matter how isolated we may feel at times. All the rules and laws are arbitrary, and we all contribute our part to society because it is only through the actions of the individuals who do something (hopefully productive/useful) that allows the society to exist in the first place.
There aren't any ``universal'' rules that are set down in stone for the average person---when we are first introduced into the society, we do so from our parents, be they the birth ones, or the foster-equivalent. We accept tacitly the roles that need to be played to keep things working well enough for everyone, and then as time evolves, we develop our own sense of what is right, what is wrong, what should be banished, and what should be preserved. And at the end of our [working] lives, our job as direct contributors to the running of society is done, and society thanks us through the retirement process, where the burdens and responsibilities are lessened for us to allow some time and space to cherish the moments made possible through the effort we expended for the forty to fifty years of [working] life that we put in.
That is, until greed kicks in, and some people realise that with everyone conforming to the rules of society (both written and unwritten), they can be non-conformant to extract some benefit. Some might even realise that the more preposterous their actions taken to be non-conforming, the more likely they are to get away with it, for the simple reason that society as a whole has no idea how to correct for deviations beyond the small, where regular censure and perhaps incarceration (i.e. adult time-out) are sufficient for the vast majority of people.
And that is the problem we are facing worldwide.
The US might just be a more... recent and highly visible version of it, but throughout history, we see these behaviours popping out here and there. Society is seemingly tolerant of the aberrant behaviour... until it suddenly doesn't, leading to an uprising from the masses, either in the form of large amounts of disruptive civil disobedience (i.e. the intentional stoppage of playing their roles in society), or even violent confrontation like revolutions/guerilla attacks/assassinations.
The old me would be more pro-establishment and think that all these people who went on strikes, or demonstrated civil disobedience in general, or even go for armed uprising are just not seeing the big picture---in terms of utilitarianism, they are causing vast negative expected values due to grinding the machinery of society to a halt. The old me would say that the establishment may have its faults, but really it is all that stands between the the chaos of anarchy, and the order of society that allows it to function properly.
Present-MT thinks otherwise---the establishment is no better nor worse than the people that they are meant to help instil order. The establishment is yet another role that is being played by people who want to help society set up order, to make the rules of society a little more explicit to better integrate the much larger population sizes we see now than in the past, all without degrading into a bureacratic navel-gazing exercise.
In other words, the establishment exists because the population wills it into existence, and not the other way around. This is what it means when sayings like ``the government serves the people'' and ``servant-leader'' comes into play.
``MT, what about feudal systems where the feudal lords rule over the people?''
The feudal lords only ruled over the people because the latter allowed them to do so, either implicitly by allowing matters of state (i.e. wrangling territorial boundaries, defense) to be handled by the lords, or explicitly by joining the lords' establishment to contribute labour of any sort (like clerical duties, soldiering, diplomats). If and when the feudal lords fail in their primary role of establishing safety and stability of the territories, the people under them do eventually overthrow said lords, sometimes with drastic outcomes.
But that's deviating a little from what I was grokking on that taxi ride.
The thing is, society is. What it is is largely dependent on what the people want it to be. Our more recent versions of democracy (and democratic processes) are attempts to capture this concept of ``what the people want it to be'' in a way that scales out to the millions of people that make up that society that caters to both the lizard brain (via simplicity), and the human brain (via a reasoning about the sense of fairness).
So when the outcome is different from what ``you'' want from these processes, it does not mean that the other people have ``made a mistake''. It is perhaps that they want something else, and perhaps they value that more than you value that.
``But MT, in the long run---''
In the long run, we're all dead, and believers join God. What is this ``long run'' that everyone likes to appeal to? Five years? Ten? Twenty? One hundred?
Who the hell thinks that far? Who the hell can think that far? Any plans that one can make are bound to require a revisit ever so often, especially at that time scale, since needs and wants always change.
But this is not fatalism. While the society's general direction and wants are guided heavily by those who live/contribute to it, there is still the individual choices that can be made. One does not abdicate one's exercise of free will just because ``the other side made a mistake''. Decide what you want, and then take the necessary action. Live your life the way you want to live it, and bear the consequences of such choices.
Just don't go around doing personal attacks for the different things that others may want.
I'm playing with the King's Flute Choir again, and this time it is a concert that is happening at the end of the month. Rehearsals are happening, and I've discovered that given the gruelling work week, my body simply refuses to handle the non-stop flute/dizi action that starts from 1800hrs on a Saturday and ending at around 1600hrs on the Sunday following as it physically needs rest/activities that are less... cranial in nature.
And I think that's about that on ``updates from the life of MT''.
------
As I was sitting in a taxi moving from church to the rehearsal space with The Big Flute, I realised with a new level of clarity and appreciation on just how each of us are a part of the society that we live in, no matter how isolated we may feel at times. All the rules and laws are arbitrary, and we all contribute our part to society because it is only through the actions of the individuals who do something (hopefully productive/useful) that allows the society to exist in the first place.
There aren't any ``universal'' rules that are set down in stone for the average person---when we are first introduced into the society, we do so from our parents, be they the birth ones, or the foster-equivalent. We accept tacitly the roles that need to be played to keep things working well enough for everyone, and then as time evolves, we develop our own sense of what is right, what is wrong, what should be banished, and what should be preserved. And at the end of our [working] lives, our job as direct contributors to the running of society is done, and society thanks us through the retirement process, where the burdens and responsibilities are lessened for us to allow some time and space to cherish the moments made possible through the effort we expended for the forty to fifty years of [working] life that we put in.
That is, until greed kicks in, and some people realise that with everyone conforming to the rules of society (both written and unwritten), they can be non-conformant to extract some benefit. Some might even realise that the more preposterous their actions taken to be non-conforming, the more likely they are to get away with it, for the simple reason that society as a whole has no idea how to correct for deviations beyond the small, where regular censure and perhaps incarceration (i.e. adult time-out) are sufficient for the vast majority of people.
And that is the problem we are facing worldwide.
The US might just be a more... recent and highly visible version of it, but throughout history, we see these behaviours popping out here and there. Society is seemingly tolerant of the aberrant behaviour... until it suddenly doesn't, leading to an uprising from the masses, either in the form of large amounts of disruptive civil disobedience (i.e. the intentional stoppage of playing their roles in society), or even violent confrontation like revolutions/guerilla attacks/assassinations.
The old me would be more pro-establishment and think that all these people who went on strikes, or demonstrated civil disobedience in general, or even go for armed uprising are just not seeing the big picture---in terms of utilitarianism, they are causing vast negative expected values due to grinding the machinery of society to a halt. The old me would say that the establishment may have its faults, but really it is all that stands between the the chaos of anarchy, and the order of society that allows it to function properly.
Present-MT thinks otherwise---the establishment is no better nor worse than the people that they are meant to help instil order. The establishment is yet another role that is being played by people who want to help society set up order, to make the rules of society a little more explicit to better integrate the much larger population sizes we see now than in the past, all without degrading into a bureacratic navel-gazing exercise.
In other words, the establishment exists because the population wills it into existence, and not the other way around. This is what it means when sayings like ``the government serves the people'' and ``servant-leader'' comes into play.
``MT, what about feudal systems where the feudal lords rule over the people?''
The feudal lords only ruled over the people because the latter allowed them to do so, either implicitly by allowing matters of state (i.e. wrangling territorial boundaries, defense) to be handled by the lords, or explicitly by joining the lords' establishment to contribute labour of any sort (like clerical duties, soldiering, diplomats). If and when the feudal lords fail in their primary role of establishing safety and stability of the territories, the people under them do eventually overthrow said lords, sometimes with drastic outcomes.
But that's deviating a little from what I was grokking on that taxi ride.
The thing is, society is. What it is is largely dependent on what the people want it to be. Our more recent versions of democracy (and democratic processes) are attempts to capture this concept of ``what the people want it to be'' in a way that scales out to the millions of people that make up that society that caters to both the lizard brain (via simplicity), and the human brain (via a reasoning about the sense of fairness).
So when the outcome is different from what ``you'' want from these processes, it does not mean that the other people have ``made a mistake''. It is perhaps that they want something else, and perhaps they value that more than you value that.
``But MT, in the long run---''
In the long run, we're all dead, and believers join God. What is this ``long run'' that everyone likes to appeal to? Five years? Ten? Twenty? One hundred?
Who the hell thinks that far? Who the hell can think that far? Any plans that one can make are bound to require a revisit ever so often, especially at that time scale, since needs and wants always change.
But this is not fatalism. While the society's general direction and wants are guided heavily by those who live/contribute to it, there is still the individual choices that can be made. One does not abdicate one's exercise of free will just because ``the other side made a mistake''. Decide what you want, and then take the necessary action. Live your life the way you want to live it, and bear the consequences of such choices.
Just don't go around doing personal attacks for the different things that others may want.
Wednesday, March 05, 2025
Marching On
Ah... here we go.
It's March now. Life goes on, work goes on, everything marches according to the metronome, even if it is 66 bpm on the minim with semiquavers floating about on The Big Flute.
Aaaanyway, just felt like mouthing off a bit. Because frankly, the ``interesting times'' we are living in are a tad too interesting. I don't wade into geopolitics because it is messy, but I will say that the time of ``gentlemen's agreements'' is effectively over at this point, no matter what the EU and friends intend to do.
Trust is a very fragile thing---the moment it is broken, it can never really be recovered to a form close to its original, even if all the people who were involved in its breakage in the first place are literally no longer in the picture (i.e. everyone's dead). SIN city and other non-superpowers are always at the mercy of the mighty, and it was with the UN that there was some semblence of mutual respect of sovereignty for each self-declared independent nation-state. Before it all, the one with the greater might could declare suzerainty over some puny city/state, and there was little else that can be done---even if allies were to exist, realpolitik dictated that everyone was always looking out for number one.
If you have eyes to see for yourself, ears to hear for your own, and a brain to come to some conclusion based on information from as objective a source as you can get, you might understand what I am driving at.
------
I find my general predilection towards active entertainment to be dwindling as time goes on. Apart from the Nether-rail project in Minecraft, and some random short games here and there, I have hardly thrown myself back into actively playing video games.
And yes, I still remember that I have Persona 5 Royal, The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, Pillars of Eternity, and Sixty Four to clear.
I just prefer reading for now. No idea why.
In other news, I'm just going to force myself to take time to go back to cycling. I need something physical to help burn off the anxiety that comes from the many different roles that I play, just to ensure that I can keep my cool---I have found that I had been increasingly unhinged, and am running the real risk of going amok. I restarted it today after the false start in January, and thoroughly enjoyed the Northeast Riverine Loop, now that one of the major diversions that required an unnecessary hill climb has gone away.
I think that's really all I want to talk about for now. I'm exhausted in spirit, and am going to go curl up in a ball for a bit, after I shower.
Till the next update or something. Who cares?
It's March now. Life goes on, work goes on, everything marches according to the metronome, even if it is 66 bpm on the minim with semiquavers floating about on The Big Flute.
Aaaanyway, just felt like mouthing off a bit. Because frankly, the ``interesting times'' we are living in are a tad too interesting. I don't wade into geopolitics because it is messy, but I will say that the time of ``gentlemen's agreements'' is effectively over at this point, no matter what the EU and friends intend to do.
Trust is a very fragile thing---the moment it is broken, it can never really be recovered to a form close to its original, even if all the people who were involved in its breakage in the first place are literally no longer in the picture (i.e. everyone's dead). SIN city and other non-superpowers are always at the mercy of the mighty, and it was with the UN that there was some semblence of mutual respect of sovereignty for each self-declared independent nation-state. Before it all, the one with the greater might could declare suzerainty over some puny city/state, and there was little else that can be done---even if allies were to exist, realpolitik dictated that everyone was always looking out for number one.
If you have eyes to see for yourself, ears to hear for your own, and a brain to come to some conclusion based on information from as objective a source as you can get, you might understand what I am driving at.
------
I find my general predilection towards active entertainment to be dwindling as time goes on. Apart from the Nether-rail project in Minecraft, and some random short games here and there, I have hardly thrown myself back into actively playing video games.
And yes, I still remember that I have Persona 5 Royal, The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, Pillars of Eternity, and Sixty Four to clear.
I just prefer reading for now. No idea why.
In other news, I'm just going to force myself to take time to go back to cycling. I need something physical to help burn off the anxiety that comes from the many different roles that I play, just to ensure that I can keep my cool---I have found that I had been increasingly unhinged, and am running the real risk of going amok. I restarted it today after the false start in January, and thoroughly enjoyed the Northeast Riverine Loop, now that one of the major diversions that required an unnecessary hill climb has gone away.
I think that's really all I want to talk about for now. I'm exhausted in spirit, and am going to go curl up in a ball for a bit, after I shower.
Till the next update or something. Who cares?
Saturday, December 07, 2024
See? This is Why You Should Save Your Work, No Matter How Temporary
See, the one time I didn't save an intermediate copy of my blog entry on Q10, was the one time Q10 decided to crash and take away the five hundred words.
Well anyway, I'll just speedrun the contents and skip the nuance.
I am/was down in the dumps; week's been long with having to deal with too many people; I hate myself but seeing that past-me gave present-me a chance to thrive, I will extend the good deed to future-me and not do anything utterly stupid; I think I'm a problem-solver type, and suspect that am not ``lovable'' since there isn't anything seemingly emotionally/relationally related to being a problem-solver; Love Hina is sad and isn't some taboo erotica that ought to be banned back when it was still in circulation.
Okay, and now on to something that wasn't wiped out in the crash.
I just got a carbon fibre instrument stand for The Big Flute. The difference was... it was 0.6 kg for the new stand versus 3.2 kg for the old one, all without feeling unstable as fuck even as the 4.6 kg mass of The Big Flute was resting on it. And that does not take into account the more compact for factor as well (tubes with some seemingly 3D-printed joint-blocks and neodymium magnets for holding things in place).
I had also sprung for a carbon fibre case for The Big Flute to replace the current wooden one. The mass difference there should be about 2.3 kg versus 5.7 kg. This means that the total mass of things that I need to lug around is now just 6.9 kg, versus 13.5 kg that I am currently doing for instrument + case + stand. It doesn't sound like much, especially considering that the new carbon fibre case + stand costs nearly a quarter of the MSRP of The Big Flute, but when the volume is taken into account, it is just that much more compact that it makes it worth the while.
Because with this new set up, I can move more easily, without ever feeling nor looking clunky. And this can open up new avenues, especially if something else pans out.
But the case isn't coming in till 2025-02 or so, and we'll just have to wait till then.
Meanwhile, I don't really have much else to talk about, so till the next update.
Well anyway, I'll just speedrun the contents and skip the nuance.
I am/was down in the dumps; week's been long with having to deal with too many people; I hate myself but seeing that past-me gave present-me a chance to thrive, I will extend the good deed to future-me and not do anything utterly stupid; I think I'm a problem-solver type, and suspect that am not ``lovable'' since there isn't anything seemingly emotionally/relationally related to being a problem-solver; Love Hina is sad and isn't some taboo erotica that ought to be banned back when it was still in circulation.
Okay, and now on to something that wasn't wiped out in the crash.
I just got a carbon fibre instrument stand for The Big Flute. The difference was... it was 0.6 kg for the new stand versus 3.2 kg for the old one, all without feeling unstable as fuck even as the 4.6 kg mass of The Big Flute was resting on it. And that does not take into account the more compact for factor as well (tubes with some seemingly 3D-printed joint-blocks and neodymium magnets for holding things in place).
I had also sprung for a carbon fibre case for The Big Flute to replace the current wooden one. The mass difference there should be about 2.3 kg versus 5.7 kg. This means that the total mass of things that I need to lug around is now just 6.9 kg, versus 13.5 kg that I am currently doing for instrument + case + stand. It doesn't sound like much, especially considering that the new carbon fibre case + stand costs nearly a quarter of the MSRP of The Big Flute, but when the volume is taken into account, it is just that much more compact that it makes it worth the while.
Because with this new set up, I can move more easily, without ever feeling nor looking clunky. And this can open up new avenues, especially if something else pans out.
But the case isn't coming in till 2025-02 or so, and we'll just have to wait till then.
Meanwhile, I don't really have much else to talk about, so till the next update.
Sunday, December 01, 2024
A Little Bit More on the Flute Fair
Ah... stupid o'clock---the time of day where I sometimes grab an alcoholic drink, and start writing semi-readable nonsense.
So less than a week ago, I was a participant at this year's edition of the Autumn Flute Fair. I was normally just a passive participant, in the sense that I would spend time mostly at the trade floor, hanging out with the dealers, trying out flutes/piccolos, confusing people with music that they aren't used to (i.e. Chinese orchestral stuff), and the such. This time though, due to my affiliation with the King's Flute Choir, I was involved in quite a few of the other concert-like events. In the face of bonafide flute players [who do it Very Seriously], I stuck with going with The Big Flute instead.
Hardly anyone wants to play the contrabass flute for three big reasons:
So, why'd I play it?
Well, mostly because of reasons #1 and #2---I like low flutes after three decades of going high. And on that note, I get all the flashy stuff out of my system through ample dizi playing, and thus have no real wish to spend up to four times more time to master the Flute 1 parts. Most flute choirs are top-heavy anyway, and thus having more bass is always a good thing, making the role that The Big Flute play somewhat more interesting than might otherwise noted.
The flute Jamboree on Saturday afternoon was a fun one, and the closest to the largest combined flute choir-like entity that could be summoned during the Festival. The sonority of having a full-range flute choir when playing out chords was something to behold, especially when coupled with the good acoustics of the SOTA concert hall. While there were a total of three contrabass flutes lurking throughout all the performers, only two were available during the Jamboree proper (the Taiwan contingent came in late enough that they didn't manage/want to unpack their contrabass flute).
It was also interesting to note that of all the eight or so flute choirs that turned up for the Festival, there were only three contrabass flutes to go around. I knew that the contrabass flute wasn't that common, but I didn't realise just how uncommon it truly was.
For additional reference, The Big Flute is probably only the second contrabass flute to be in SIN city as at now, with the first one spending most of its time located in Johor Bahru due to the player [based in Singapore] finding it annoying to lug the heavy flute to and fro the Causeway for rehearsals with the flute choir that is based in Johor Bahru.
But I digress.
I won't write about the concerts, other than they were full of different harmonies due to their different composers.
I think I am likely done with writing anything else about the Festival for a while, even as I slowly find myself becoming a part of the flute fraternity of Singapore (and possibly SEA), possibly due to The Big Flute.
------
In other news, the upcoming month or two is going to be a mixed bag. On the one hand, things have finally tapered off somewhat due to the end of the year, with many of my team taking turns to go on long leave. On the other hand, I'm still stuck holding the fort, and having a couple of new mini-projects that I need to work on, as well as supervising an intern for a special project.
I know that I have no plans to travel out of SIN city, but damn I feel tired. We'll see how it goes.
I wasn't expecting it, but Brotato is a damn fun game. It's like a less claustrophobic version of The Binding of Isaac crossed with the ``be the bullet hell'' progression of Vampire Survivors, and it is addictively fun. I have been playing it at bursts, and have been enjoying it. It also has some quality of life options, like allowing the re-attempt of a failed wave to make it less annoying (I naturally took it---I'm an older man now with little time to spend on grinding unnecessarily).
100 Bullets is a very gritty story that is worth a read.
I think that's about it. The Anchor Strong beer isn't particularly strong (6.8%), but it is getting late. The last thing I would say is my bemusement at realising that an Applebot crawler is actively crawling this blog, possibly when its operators realise that a real-ish human is still writing new entries on it, as opposed to some AI-generated slop.
To the Applebot crawler: don't be a dick.
To everyone else; till next time.
So less than a week ago, I was a participant at this year's edition of the Autumn Flute Fair. I was normally just a passive participant, in the sense that I would spend time mostly at the trade floor, hanging out with the dealers, trying out flutes/piccolos, confusing people with music that they aren't used to (i.e. Chinese orchestral stuff), and the such. This time though, due to my affiliation with the King's Flute Choir, I was involved in quite a few of the other concert-like events. In the face of bonafide flute players [who do it Very Seriously], I stuck with going with The Big Flute instead.
Hardly anyone wants to play the contrabass flute for three big reasons:
- Shit's big, long, & heavy;
- Shit's not flashy; and
- Shit's expensive.
So, why'd I play it?
Well, mostly because of reasons #1 and #2---I like low flutes after three decades of going high. And on that note, I get all the flashy stuff out of my system through ample dizi playing, and thus have no real wish to spend up to four times more time to master the Flute 1 parts. Most flute choirs are top-heavy anyway, and thus having more bass is always a good thing, making the role that The Big Flute play somewhat more interesting than might otherwise noted.
The flute Jamboree on Saturday afternoon was a fun one, and the closest to the largest combined flute choir-like entity that could be summoned during the Festival. The sonority of having a full-range flute choir when playing out chords was something to behold, especially when coupled with the good acoustics of the SOTA concert hall. While there were a total of three contrabass flutes lurking throughout all the performers, only two were available during the Jamboree proper (the Taiwan contingent came in late enough that they didn't manage/want to unpack their contrabass flute).
It was also interesting to note that of all the eight or so flute choirs that turned up for the Festival, there were only three contrabass flutes to go around. I knew that the contrabass flute wasn't that common, but I didn't realise just how uncommon it truly was.
For additional reference, The Big Flute is probably only the second contrabass flute to be in SIN city as at now, with the first one spending most of its time located in Johor Bahru due to the player [based in Singapore] finding it annoying to lug the heavy flute to and fro the Causeway for rehearsals with the flute choir that is based in Johor Bahru.
But I digress.
I won't write about the concerts, other than they were full of different harmonies due to their different composers.
I think I am likely done with writing anything else about the Festival for a while, even as I slowly find myself becoming a part of the flute fraternity of Singapore (and possibly SEA), possibly due to The Big Flute.
------
In other news, the upcoming month or two is going to be a mixed bag. On the one hand, things have finally tapered off somewhat due to the end of the year, with many of my team taking turns to go on long leave. On the other hand, I'm still stuck holding the fort, and having a couple of new mini-projects that I need to work on, as well as supervising an intern for a special project.
I know that I have no plans to travel out of SIN city, but damn I feel tired. We'll see how it goes.
I wasn't expecting it, but Brotato is a damn fun game. It's like a less claustrophobic version of The Binding of Isaac crossed with the ``be the bullet hell'' progression of Vampire Survivors, and it is addictively fun. I have been playing it at bursts, and have been enjoying it. It also has some quality of life options, like allowing the re-attempt of a failed wave to make it less annoying (I naturally took it---I'm an older man now with little time to spend on grinding unnecessarily).
100 Bullets is a very gritty story that is worth a read.
I think that's about it. The Anchor Strong beer isn't particularly strong (6.8%), but it is getting late. The last thing I would say is my bemusement at realising that an Applebot crawler is actively crawling this blog, possibly when its operators realise that a real-ish human is still writing new entries on it, as opposed to some AI-generated slop.
To the Applebot crawler: don't be a dick.
To everyone else; till next time.
Monday, November 25, 2024
The Big Flute and the Autumn Flute Fair
What a weekend!
But first, I'll need to say this: I am going to make this as brief as possible as primo sleep time is fading away.
I took leave from last Thursday to today inclusive just so that I could take part in this year's edition of the Autumn Flute Fair. I got to be a part of a concert with the King's Flute Choir, playing The Big Flute, instead of being just my usual bug-every-dealer-in-the-Fair mode.
I met Chara; it wasn't awkward. It was just like as though the five years didn't happen, and really, did it? Everyone's different post COVID-19, me included. At least we spoke on friendlier terms and shared a little about our lives thus far, just like it all was before we decided to go serious.
SOTA as a venue was alright, though the behaviour of their assigned support staff/ushers/security folk was... odious. I can understand about them needing to do their jobs, but man, when they are front-of-house, their attitude kinda stinks. For instance, on day one of the Flute Fair, me and a bunch of people who have repair appointments at the earliest time slot were just sitting on the public seats outside the Gallery (where the repair technicians and the dealers' floor of the Fair were), knowing full well that we weren't supposed to go in because it just wasn't time. An officious woman from SOTA stepped out of the Gallery thought it proper to walk up to each of us and tell us ``Exhibition not open yet---it opens at one o'clock ah!'' Internally, I was just thinking, `no shit, that's why we're sitting here!', but externally I just frowned.
At the concert that I was not playing, another equally officious woman from SOTA was policing the seating with the rigour that would make the drill sergeant blush.
``No pockets! Move in!''
That was the command that was barked about. Now, there was nothing wrong about asking folks to move in to fill in the spaces; after all no one likes gaps in a concert call audience that prevents others from filling in easier. But there has got to be a better way of doing so.
And that woman barked that command at the dude who rented the concert hall from them to run the concert in the first place, when he was doing his usual I'll-move-around-to-oversee-things. He's a chill dude, and that was one of the few times I saw him get upset enough to stop explaining things, and just get up to walk out; the kind of action that often took these days when I realised that the situation was something that I just didn't have to put up with.
The level of power tripping from these front-of-house staff was just appalling.
That said, back-of-house staff was chill and helpful. They got shit done, smoothing things out, and were a joy to interact with.
But back-of-house was not the thing that the audience sees; the entitled attitude of the front-of-house staff was offputting. Maybe it's their way of showing that they were ``classy'', but I wouldn't be surprised if it was this attitude that made the SOTA venues less enticing for rental for events.
Or maybe that was the intention all along.
Anyway, there was naturally more that happened over the past few days, and I could write about them, but it is getting way past stupid o'clock, and if I do not crash out now, my sleep schedule is going to be utterly fucked by the time I need to start heading back into office.
Till the next update then.
But first, I'll need to say this: I am going to make this as brief as possible as primo sleep time is fading away.
I took leave from last Thursday to today inclusive just so that I could take part in this year's edition of the Autumn Flute Fair. I got to be a part of a concert with the King's Flute Choir, playing The Big Flute, instead of being just my usual bug-every-dealer-in-the-Fair mode.
I met Chara; it wasn't awkward. It was just like as though the five years didn't happen, and really, did it? Everyone's different post COVID-19, me included. At least we spoke on friendlier terms and shared a little about our lives thus far, just like it all was before we decided to go serious.
SOTA as a venue was alright, though the behaviour of their assigned support staff/ushers/security folk was... odious. I can understand about them needing to do their jobs, but man, when they are front-of-house, their attitude kinda stinks. For instance, on day one of the Flute Fair, me and a bunch of people who have repair appointments at the earliest time slot were just sitting on the public seats outside the Gallery (where the repair technicians and the dealers' floor of the Fair were), knowing full well that we weren't supposed to go in because it just wasn't time. An officious woman from SOTA stepped out of the Gallery thought it proper to walk up to each of us and tell us ``Exhibition not open yet---it opens at one o'clock ah!'' Internally, I was just thinking, `no shit, that's why we're sitting here!', but externally I just frowned.
At the concert that I was not playing, another equally officious woman from SOTA was policing the seating with the rigour that would make the drill sergeant blush.
``No pockets! Move in!''
That was the command that was barked about. Now, there was nothing wrong about asking folks to move in to fill in the spaces; after all no one likes gaps in a concert call audience that prevents others from filling in easier. But there has got to be a better way of doing so.
And that woman barked that command at the dude who rented the concert hall from them to run the concert in the first place, when he was doing his usual I'll-move-around-to-oversee-things. He's a chill dude, and that was one of the few times I saw him get upset enough to stop explaining things, and just get up to walk out; the kind of action that often took these days when I realised that the situation was something that I just didn't have to put up with.
The level of power tripping from these front-of-house staff was just appalling.
That said, back-of-house staff was chill and helpful. They got shit done, smoothing things out, and were a joy to interact with.
But back-of-house was not the thing that the audience sees; the entitled attitude of the front-of-house staff was offputting. Maybe it's their way of showing that they were ``classy'', but I wouldn't be surprised if it was this attitude that made the SOTA venues less enticing for rental for events.
Or maybe that was the intention all along.
Anyway, there was naturally more that happened over the past few days, and I could write about them, but it is getting way past stupid o'clock, and if I do not crash out now, my sleep schedule is going to be utterly fucked by the time I need to start heading back into office.
Till the next update then.
Friday, November 01, 2024
No-vem-ber?
It is now November. The astute among yinz would ask me what is this year's NaNoWriMo entry title/topic.
And my answer is simply: I'm not taking part in NaNoWriMo this year.
I mean, check it out: 15 NaNoWriMo entries says something. I'm not burnt out on writing, but rather, a couple of things come to mind as to why I am not participating this year.
Firstly, I just have too many other things to do this time round. I'm playing with the King's Flute Choir again, this time for the flute choir concert at the Autumn Flute Fair 2024. I'm playing on my recently acquired contrabass flute in C called ``The Big Flute'' (yeah yeah... imaginative name). The Big Flute is unlike any other flutes that I have played so far---it is by far, the largest flute with a total length of about 2.73 m shaped like a 4, with an inner diameter that tapers off from 49.62 mm. In short, I needed time to both rehearse the contrabass flute parts, as well as to get used to the different embouchure, breathing, and fingering positions over the large vertically oriented flute.
Secondly, the organisation running NaNoWriMo itself was getting too damn weird and offputting. NaNoWrio's AI policy was controversial, and the next most recent not-so-nothingburger was the aftermath of some serious child grooming scandal. Something of an older vintage was the messed up web design update that happened a few years ago that broke many things, among which was the loss of almost all of one's writing buddies.
It also probably did not help that the municipal liaisons for SIN city have stepped down for their own reasons.
I say that NaNoWriMo was getting too damn weird due to the slow and steady evolution of what was a very clear [but dumb] idea of ``here's thirty days of November, here's a word count goal of fifty thousand words---go!'' into some general writing programme for young writers in the US while still maintaining some kind of international presence, with some rather vocal self-declared leftists turfing out their own fiefdoms of safe-spaces within the forums themselves. I'm all for being inclusive, but I do not necessarily subscribe to the metaphorical carving of feudal lands in what was essentially an open agora in the first place. I resent the hypocrisy of alleged inclusion through the use of identity politics---if you want some safe space for your kind of people, maybe do it elsewhere, and not carve up the public space and practise the hypocrisy of accusing others of being discriminative while practising discrimination on their own.
Thankfully I was never in a position in NaNoWriMo where I had to worry about that---I stick primarily to the regional forum and stay far, far away from the places where the hypocrites lurk---but I cannot help but notice that their sheer vocal loudness was definitely shifting the overall tone of NaNoWriMo itself.
NaNoWriMo was always about reaching the fifty thousand words within the month of November---it was never about what was written. Even the word count tool, when it was still around, did nothing about reading the contents except to count the literal number of words through counting the number of whitespace segments in between the words. So why would anyone care if someone's NaNoWriMo story was some racist diatribe, or if someone wanted a white male as their protagonist with nary a female in sight, or if their writing of the behaviour of the woman in the story was close to some messed up erotica than what a ``real and normal woman'' is?
So yeah, NaNoWriMo was getting weird and offputting.
Will I get back to it next year? Who knows---let me survive my upcoming birthday first, then we talk.
------
In other news, Cookie Clicker. This has been running almost continuously in the background of Eileen-III for the past two or three weeks. Big numbers with big names for big numbers are always fun.
And then, there's Persona 5 Royal that I have been playing after work. It... reminds me too much of the time when I was still studying. Cleared three Palaces, and there are more to go.
I'd keep writing more, but then I realised we're past stupid o'clock. I'm on leave tomorrow (or rather, today), so it's not that big a deal, even though I really want to catch up on sleep.
And thus, adieu.
And my answer is simply: I'm not taking part in NaNoWriMo this year.
I mean, check it out: 15 NaNoWriMo entries says something. I'm not burnt out on writing, but rather, a couple of things come to mind as to why I am not participating this year.
Firstly, I just have too many other things to do this time round. I'm playing with the King's Flute Choir again, this time for the flute choir concert at the Autumn Flute Fair 2024. I'm playing on my recently acquired contrabass flute in C called ``The Big Flute'' (yeah yeah... imaginative name). The Big Flute is unlike any other flutes that I have played so far---it is by far, the largest flute with a total length of about 2.73 m shaped like a 4, with an inner diameter that tapers off from 49.62 mm. In short, I needed time to both rehearse the contrabass flute parts, as well as to get used to the different embouchure, breathing, and fingering positions over the large vertically oriented flute.
Secondly, the organisation running NaNoWriMo itself was getting too damn weird and offputting. NaNoWrio's AI policy was controversial, and the next most recent not-so-nothingburger was the aftermath of some serious child grooming scandal. Something of an older vintage was the messed up web design update that happened a few years ago that broke many things, among which was the loss of almost all of one's writing buddies.
It also probably did not help that the municipal liaisons for SIN city have stepped down for their own reasons.
I say that NaNoWriMo was getting too damn weird due to the slow and steady evolution of what was a very clear [but dumb] idea of ``here's thirty days of November, here's a word count goal of fifty thousand words---go!'' into some general writing programme for young writers in the US while still maintaining some kind of international presence, with some rather vocal self-declared leftists turfing out their own fiefdoms of safe-spaces within the forums themselves. I'm all for being inclusive, but I do not necessarily subscribe to the metaphorical carving of feudal lands in what was essentially an open agora in the first place. I resent the hypocrisy of alleged inclusion through the use of identity politics---if you want some safe space for your kind of people, maybe do it elsewhere, and not carve up the public space and practise the hypocrisy of accusing others of being discriminative while practising discrimination on their own.
Thankfully I was never in a position in NaNoWriMo where I had to worry about that---I stick primarily to the regional forum and stay far, far away from the places where the hypocrites lurk---but I cannot help but notice that their sheer vocal loudness was definitely shifting the overall tone of NaNoWriMo itself.
NaNoWriMo was always about reaching the fifty thousand words within the month of November---it was never about what was written. Even the word count tool, when it was still around, did nothing about reading the contents except to count the literal number of words through counting the number of whitespace segments in between the words. So why would anyone care if someone's NaNoWriMo story was some racist diatribe, or if someone wanted a white male as their protagonist with nary a female in sight, or if their writing of the behaviour of the woman in the story was close to some messed up erotica than what a ``real and normal woman'' is?
So yeah, NaNoWriMo was getting weird and offputting.
Will I get back to it next year? Who knows---let me survive my upcoming birthday first, then we talk.
------
In other news, Cookie Clicker. This has been running almost continuously in the background of Eileen-III for the past two or three weeks. Big numbers with big names for big numbers are always fun.
And then, there's Persona 5 Royal that I have been playing after work. It... reminds me too much of the time when I was still studying. Cleared three Palaces, and there are more to go.
I'd keep writing more, but then I realised we're past stupid o'clock. I'm on leave tomorrow (or rather, today), so it's not that big a deal, even though I really want to catch up on sleep.
And thus, adieu.
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