Ukulele music

Ever since I came across this Youtube video sometime last year of a cute little Japanese kid playing the Ukulele I have wished that one day soon I'll take up Ukulele lessons. In fact you could say I fell in love with the Ukulele when the song "Somewhere over the Rainbow" by Israel Kamakawiwo 'ole was a hit some years back. It sounded so nice. I Recently I noticed a photo of my old friend Gerard posing with a Ukulele on Facebook. This was followed by a series of events which triggered in me a greater urgency to follow this through. My friend Carl Homan from Oregon USA was in town early this year. Somehow he popped into Ukulele Movement (UM), a shop which specializes in Ukulele, while touring little India and chatted with one of the partners of the shop Ms Glyn. He is a really friendly and talkative guy. He'll strike up a l-o-n-g conversation with any stranger in the street in an instance. He came to visit me after that and told me about the Ukulele shop. I Googled on the subject of Ukulele in Singapore and found a number of people teaching this musical instrument. I thought I should seek advice from someone who have some experience so I asked Gerard. He recommended UM as their lessons are more structured. I checked UM's and other websites and found out that Ukulele courses were really popular. Most classes are fully booked and there's an average waiting time of about a month or more. Yesterday Gerard forwarded me a newsletter from Ukulele Movement about forthcoming workshops in June. There were Sunday sessions and that's perfect for me because weekdays are almost impossible. This is a 2 hours workshop. Having learned to strum the guitar when I was young I hope it won't be too difficult. I am really excited and looking forward to it.

Check out my Youtube channel music playlist https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAR-LsBt38lxQ-vKjfB7J0KXyE30TmfkF

A Gem among election candidates

By now I am sure most of us would have come to know the name Nicole Seah, a young 24 year old candidate of the National Solidarity Party standing for the election in Marine Parade GRC up against PAP team led by Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong. She is now the second most popular Singapore politician online after Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew. To date she had amassed close to 31000 fans. I am not going to compare her with PAP candidate Ting Pei Ling as many have done online. I simply think she is a Gem among all the election candidates. In my younger days I used to listen in awe the speeches made by Minister Mentor, then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. Never would I have thought being moved in the same way listening to a young girl her age. No one would think that she's just another pretty face. I am so very impressed with her sincerity, maturity and conviction in this undertaking. She handles reporter's question like a seasoned politician. Her parents are so blessed to have a daughter like her. They ought to be proud and so too Singapore.

All the best Nicole and may God bless you!

Chinese Magic

We are all familiar with Magic from the west and the form of magic from th likes of magicians (sometimes called illusionists) like Houdini, David Copperfield and many others. We often refer to magic as 'the hand is faster than the eye'. In reality the hand is not really faster than the eye. The skilled magician draws the audience attention to where he wants it at a specific instant. The success of magic lies in the ability to create illusions that have the appearance of reality.

Chinese magicians ares really a class of it's own. In this magic show performance which was part of the Lunar New Year Show 2011, you see this incredible feat of commanding gold fish in a tank to swim in formation. Later a painting of gold fish is transform to live ones. You watch before your very eyes the fishes swimming from the painting into a fish tank and come alive. This is done without the usual suspicious props. It's miraculous!