The hilarious part is what's written on the side of the box though. 

" 1. This product is a new science and technology product and made with high and new science and technology. It can illuminate only placing it in rhythm.

3. Constantly using this health torch, it can benefit to your palm, arm and shoulder stretching and blood circulation, so as to let your hands relax and brain clever, hand and brain coor dinate and promote your brain memory and health composition."

No bullshit. That's what's written on the side of the box. Gotta love the PRCs....

Also, I would like to mention a the top five songs which I feel are the most overplayed in classical guitar repertoire.

5) Concierto De Aranjuez (by Joaquin Rodrigo)

The Concierto de Aranjuez is probably the most well known guitar concerto. Ask any classical  guitar player about recommendations for a guitar concierto and he'll tell you to listen to Concierto de Aranjuez. Even harp and piano players play, or quote this work. In fact, it was so popular that some of Joaquin Rodrigo's other works are underrated. I think I prefer his Fantasia Para Un Gentilhombre.

4) Asturias (Isaac Albeniz)

This song is overplayed largely because it's a good test of one's technical skill I feel. I know it's a Yamaha exam piece. But still, I've heard it enough times to be bored of it.

3) Canon  in D (Pachelbel Strauss)

This song is like, a staple in every single guitar ensemble. Some might say it's soothing, but I think it's just boring and immensely overplayed. It was really damn popular back when I was in secondary school and every other shop in every other shopping centre was playing it. I'm glad the fad's died out. The Los Angeles Guitar Quartet did a nice rendition of the canon though, called Pachelbel's Loose Canon. Lol. Gotta love the LAGQ.

2) Recuerdos Del Alhambra (Francisco Tarrega)

Kaori Muraji's rendition of this inspired me to pick up classical guitar (along with her Tango en Skai). But yeah, it's also a very immensely overplayed piece. It's probably Tarrega's most well known work. It's been used in movies, dramas, and it's the best piece to work on as a test of a guitarist's skill at tremolo. I still can't play this..... sigh.....

1) Romance de Amour (??)

Yes. It could only be this piece. The poser's classical song. The one that every void deck guitarist learns to say that, "hey, I'm more cultured than you think....", and then only learn the first half. It's like the classical equivalent of When You Say Nothing At All (cringes).... and the disgusting part is I used to play those songs too(ugh)... 

Well, the holidays have been mostly quite uneventful. I've mostly been reading Ranma comics and playing guitar. But I have taken some time off to get out of the house. Here are some of the interesting (or not) that happened over the past week.

Fiona and I went to VivoCity to watch The Sky Crawlers, which is Mamoru Oshii's latest anime film. It had much of the Mamoru Oshii flavour I feel. You wonder, "What the heck is going on exactly?" but yet, there's something about it that is still very gripping. We then took a picture of the huge Christmas Tree at Vivo.

Fiona, Hugh and I went to the Science Centre to have a look at the observatory. The telescope was larger than I thought, and was pretty impressive.

Unfortunately, the sky was cloudy and it started to drizzle slightly so the trip to the science centre was quite a wasted trip. 

Went with Fiona to the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Festival at Fort Canning Green, which was quite dumb i thought because the queue for ice cream was Singaporeanly long. PLUS it was raining. There was a band playing there which I thought was not bad but the female singer was oversinging and sounded horrible at parts. 

I think it's strange to hold such a "party" at Fort Canning Green. The venue used to be a graveyard which was unearthed except for a few graves at the far end of the green. Some of the tombstones were then set into the walls of the green. The gay and colourful Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream fest stands in such stark contrast to the venue in terms of mood. Even though I wasn't enjoying myself, for some reason, I felt a certain peace when I saw the gravestones and I was compelled to take a few pictures.

The first is a shot of a portion of wall, the first stone being in memory of a Jew. The second is that of a certain woman, the third is that of a fifteen year old, while the last is that of a 12 month old child. 

My Jazz band met up to jam. The songs we practiced were The Waltz, Sunday Morning and Don't Bother None. I think the songs are fine but not powerful enough and needs a little more fine tuning to make it perfect. Because there's no performance anytime soon, there's no pressure to make it perfect either, so much time was spent randomly jamming as well.

Along the way back to hall, Fiona, Jason and I encountered a dead Pangolin, which is quite a sight to see considering there are only 50 or so (now less one) pangolins in Singapore. I couldn't take good pictures with my phone though, as it was way too dark.

Poor pangolin......

How the heck do you get this good? I've got a feeling his performance next wednesday will be mind blowing.......

This song never fails to blow me away. Der Holle Rache from "Die Zauberflote" or "The Magic Flute" by Mozart. 

Guitar festival is next week. Really looking forward to it. Can't wait. Need to practice more guitar for my exam too. Sigh... Music exams are boring.