I.A.A.R {reboot error}

We speak in acronyms. A lot.

It’s our special “language” … and so one of those that is frequently typed out or articulated is “IAAR” or “I am ALWAYS right”. 

It’s not hard to be always right being the more cynical one. Being the more critical one. Being the one who has to toss an idea over and over in my head … I am Libran with a dash of OCD. 

OK, with more that a dash … definitely more than a mere dash.

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Rachmaninoff Forever was awesome.

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Conductor Stéphane Denève is the epitome of a child’s imagination of what a classical musician conductor should be; dramatic and expressive with a big hairdo of curls that lends an air of artistic genius. 

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Paired with Scottish piano virtuoso Steven Osborne who played Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, that entered center stage after the haunting beauty of Vocalise that has captured the public fancy since its premiere in 1916, June 14th was a beautiful evening for me, even when I managed to have a run in my navy blue lace dress!

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Basked by the Petronas Twin Towers’ lighting and distant sounds of laughter of couples and holiday makers taking selfies, we begun a cultural discourse where some where midway I made the mistake of verbalising my wishful thoughts of: you know what would be simply magical? If we were in Vienna or Salzburg …

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Within a week under the undue influence of others heading that direction for the summer break, weddings and of course visits to the patriarch home, dreamy plans were made about driving down the autobahn from Switzerland to Austria only to be “squashed”very quickly by practical me who for one will be in Eastern Europe (not Central) and more importantly will not be within the European Union vicinity for the next 2 weeks from the proposed trip – simply said, the dates did not jive, and yes, we do unfortunately need to work for a living and can’t be sitting idle in Europe for extended period of time to ‘catch’ the Salzburger Festpiele!

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That aside, I got talking about a British french horn musician I used to know who was attached with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra – not in very favourable terms nonetheless, due to his mismatched expectations of an employer and real abilities/ talent and actual contribution. Being passionately (and often misplaced) patriotic, I had personally thought that he should be grateful for the break in his otherwise Broadway musical career …

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But, more importantly for someone who spent two seasons playing no more than 60 minutes live, one could well said it was a very lucrative job! and he has really nothing to complain about … I mean, seriously, how pivotal is a french horn anyways? How many pieces out there actually has the french horn playing a important role, let alone as the star of the show?

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… and then, as if by curse, picking up the 2014/2015 Season brochure, I flip it open and stared at this:

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I took a photo and sent it across with the message: I.A.A.R {reboot error}

Hell yes! I got a lot of pissing for that.

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But what do I know?

I was a child who spent her youth wrecking my piano with tears, practising for the dreadful Associated Board of Royal Schools of Music … unable to play a single piece despite having a Grade 8 certificate.

 

Part 1 of Projekt Foto-Painting… making “skins”

It’s the second day of Chinese New Year … enough of food, though in defense I am lucky to be a peranakan* with grandparents that were Western educated.

*Chinese-Malay parentage that dates back 4 or 5 generations when a pretty Princess was sent to a suspect nationality King – Parameswara (surely he must be Indon!) with an entourage of people including some (Bruce Lee-Jackie Chan ‘kung fu’) warriors (that has been conveniently obliterated from our history books when DNAs existed and diversity and inclusion was still alien) to a faraway Peninsular in the interest of improving trade relationships …

Long story short, none of my descendent were on that ship – they may have died from opium or more probably peacock feathers allergies. But (legend has it?) that someone earlier on in the blood line was a pirate who eloped with  a (not all that) beautiful (judging from the sepia photos I have seen)  girl in the Indonesian royal court and landed on the rat infested shores with occasional sighting of bullish deers bullying tigers (who’s to verify and challenge back in the day where they chop your head off from treason?). The thieving  profession skipped one generation and continued with grandpa who legitimized it as a artifact collector (Western educated, remember?) … skip another boring generation (my mom) … I steal the lamest of things!

Honestly, if you are so inclined, there’s a “on NO! Family” section of our antics and what-nots there to amuse yourself.

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In any case, being a peranakan means I don’t have to consume food that puts the dining table to test on its weight bearing abilities this time of the year. We’re generally happy with a few key dishes from New Year’s Eve and by that I mean, “MUST HAVES” such as:

1. babi asam (tamarind chili pork),
2. kari kay (chicken curry),
3. itek tim (preserved salted vegetable duck soup),
4. bendi sambal belacan (blanche lady’s fingers topped with chili and shrimps paste)  …

The pong teh (chicken/ pork stewed with bean paste) has long been dropped – I don’t like it – simple as that. For my mother’s sanity itek/ ayam seuh (deep fried stewed duck/ chicken in ground coriander sauce) has been omitted a few years back due to the laborious preparation.

And for Chinese New Year – you’re going to like this – all we had was nasi ulam (boiled rice with freshly diced vegetables, herbs and some finely grounded fried salted fish and dried shrimps) for lunch – which augurs well, having spend the whole morning at Nilai Memorial Park with Mr.B.

So, anyways, I decided that I will spend my 3 days break getting ink + glue on my fingers … and well, I do need to fulfill some overdue photo selection that is meant to be published into postcards and I did promise to make mom a photo book on her quest/ journey to bake the perfect Sourdough/ Artisan Bread… plus, some dreadful work related stuff that I vow not to look at till the night before!

The project (Projekt Foto-Painting) in mind is to incorporate some tribal photos I had taken in Ethiopia with “mixed media” type techniques to create a “painting” … but the key thing is everything has to be acrylic. No photo. No paper. No other foreign matter than will disintegrate some century later … and where the entire painting can be removed from the substrate should it requires refurbishment/ restoration in future.

Ahem.

Not that my work is a Picasso, Rembrandt or what not in the making, but you know… if you’re going to be spending the time and the investments in professional art materials … do it right!

L to R Clockwise: (1) some carbon prints of the shortlisted photos – though I am thinking I should go with full-coloured carbon prints now, (2) palette knife with Golden Artist Colour Soft Gel (Matte), (3) 12″x12″ 380 gm/m square primed medium grain cotton artist canvas – will be applying a layer or two of Golden Artist Colour Gesso, (4) generic plastic sheeting – I’ve used an old clear folder for me to create the “skin” on 

L to R anti-lockwise: (1) arrrgghhh!!!! discovery that my tub of Golden Artist Colour Soft Gel (Matte) has mostly turned crusty and rubbery at the sides – thanks to Crop.Arty utilisation at Scrap-n-Crop.com over the years where when the “it’s not yours syndrome” happens – people just don’t care or value things that belongs to others or cost them nothing!, (2) I decided to experiment by adding Golden Artist Fluid Matte Medium into the work-in-progress “skin” to try to extend the Soft Gel (Matte), (3) testing the “skin” with a window pane test – the Fluid Matte Medium may have done the trick … “skin” will take another few hours to be dry, but I won’t be working on it till later – some GAC 200 would have been ideal to speed-en and stiffen it a little, but I guess some professional artist have bought the stash – can’t find any to use. 

This is Part 1 … fingers crossed the eventual end product will emerged as I have envisaged. But with art, mixed media and painting, one has to be ‘open’ to ‘accidents’. Sometimes those are really the best!

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2 minutes Comic Con moment

I’m not usually star struck. I can’t recall when was the last time I was star struck – that is to say prior to this.

Maybe it takes a lot to impress me. Maybe I just haven’t met my ** stars **

So, when I saw a bunch of cling rubber stamps and distress ink stained painting spotting comic characters, I stopped in my tracks and started admiring it and muttering out loud:

“I like these. No. I really, REALLY, REALLY like these.”

Out of the blue, a calming voice over my shoulders responded, “Thank you.”

I spun around, and there was this guy who looked vaguely familiar … I smiled and turned my head back to continue admiring the art work while saying, “Yours?”

And at about that moment my eyes caught the sign:

And that’s about when caution was thrown to the wind and I was just short of a squealing pre-teen …

OK. It was a 2 minutes Comic Con moment for both of us minus the insanity of costumes. Sure. I know the entire point of Comic Con is the costumes!

… … but hey, at least I’m one of the few who recognised that name … and who is totally dizzy looking at the art work!

And really, for him, it must be rather miserable from being the Brett Weldele in Comic Con to a shadow lurking in the background at CHA. So, I’d like to think inasmuch as he made my day, I made his day. Of course, Val is obliged to buy his merchandises, if not for anyone else, for me!

ABOUT Brett Weldele … and his works: