NEW FLAMINGO PINK LAPTOP!

After 7 long years the old one has finally given way,
in a dignified manner too.
it refused to power up.

That's the best way to go,
since it means my data is still intact.
i just need to pull out the hard disk.

a week before that my mp3 player gave way.
(and i thought 'whew gd thing most of my songs are on my laptop'
so imagine the initial horror when the laptop also kaboomed)

it's the season of gadget purchasing then.
i'm also eyeing a digi-cam.
one step at a time.

it's funny how it's like a self fulfilling prophecy.
i've been wanting to buy a new laptop for a long time,
but kept delaying it until i had no choice.

so in a way i may be waiting for the camera to self destruct,
just so i can go and get a new one like i've been planning to for months.

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anyway i'm quite happy with my flamingo pink laptop.
i picked the color without knowing its called flamingo pink.
i like it even more now.

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recently i've been hooked to reading again.
specifically the rich dad series.

books like these mess up your mind,
in a gd way.
you start getting inspired and think of all the possibilities out there.

i also borrowed a book on Dell,
quite interesting too.
an idea popped out while reading the Dell book,
and i excitedly sms-ed Henry about it (since he was the technical expert).

He didn't quite share my enthusiasm but might just come along for the ride.
i don't know if it'll still work out,
i still have a few other ideas sitting around waiting for me to do something about so everything's just queueing up.


for the first time i had more books i wanted to borrow than my quota allowed.
bummer.

oh well.

i'm enjoying my bus rides to and fro work,
simply cos i can spend my time reading and getting inspired.
something which i can't do if i drive.

i'll remind myself that when i next drag around my 5 kg bags of juggling equipment and a small cute bright yellow car zooms past.

"No street performer is ever normal",

Alan declared.

"People who dare perform on the streets are just weird. Normal people don't busk."

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I've been given a new lease of life recently.
The side of me that has been suppressed for so long at the office have surfaced again,
all due to the free rein world of busking.

i've been telling people my red streak of hair is for feng shui,
and maybe it really is.
When i look in the mirror, i get reminded of the part of me i use to call Momoko san.

Just as the red streaks through the sea of black,
momoko san emerges from the world of dilbert.

In plain terms i'm actually just nurturing the ah-lian-ness in me.
(Jen calls me a closet lian because my dream car is bright yellow and i intend to blast loud music and bob my head while driving.)

i've also been telling pple i only have one red streak because i ran out of cash to color the whole head but that's besides the point.

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You know what i love about busking?
the fact that anything goes.

I planned to busk last saturday and on friday night i was still completely devoid of ideas.
i spent the night brainstorming with Alan and jotting down ideas that sounded workable.

"what's your stage name?", chi min asked.
"erm....i'll think of it when the time comes."
"what are you gonna wear?"
"ERM........i'll think of that after i get a show outlined...."

"i don't think you're ready, you know, maybe you should postpone to next week."

I was quite tempted to push it back, because it really was quite ridiculous to plan in such a short time. In the end i thought i'd just whack it.

"never mind la. bomb then bomb la. if i don't start i'll never start."
"ya la, bomb then next week we go somewhere else lor. come back when the pple forget." Alan quipped.
"Ha, that's the busker's spirit!" chi min laughed.

So i spent the ENTIRE saturday afternoon coming up with a concrete show and even then by evening showtime i was only 80% ready as i didn't have time to buy the things i needed.

Again it was Alan to the rescue.

"i don't have xxx prop. how???"
"don't have then don't use lor."
"my entire finale is centered about the prop!"
"ya, but dun have then don't use lor."

His philosophy was that a performer has to be flexible at all times.
"what if you turn up at a show and realise you forgot to bring something? you have to learn to use what you have."

In any case, one reason why i was afraid to cop out was because Alan dragged his 10kg amplifer with him the entire day just so i could use it.

I was quite glad in the end, because i had to think of plan B for my finale and it is one super wu liao finale that still makes me smile when i think about it.

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It has been so long since i busked that i actually shook during the first 30 seconds.
and then adrenaline and excitement took over.

One part of the show involved me waving T-shirts on bamboo poles.
it was so delightful how i could basically do anything i wanted and the audience lapped it up.

For my finale i pulled out 2 male volunteers to fan me with the bamboo T-shirt flags while i did my stuff.

alan said the plan B finale looked good.
I have no idea how i looked, but from the performer's point of view i thought it's damn wu liao and funny.

especially since the original finale was nothing close to waving t-shirts in the air. (Plan A is a lot cooler, i think)

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I did 3 shows in the span of 2 days, and i'm getting a tad bored.
So now tweaking things here and there to spice things up.

I now have "moles" on my face that doubles up as eyes for my balloon dogs.

The first show i did, that was supposed to "bomb", bagged me my record hat collection.
It's not huge but it's not a small amount either.

my 2nd and 3rd collection dropped and might be linked to my own drop in adrenaline and energy.

Busking is so real. it's part of the thrill. You see almost instant results, in the form of money too no less. And the hat collection is almost always a fairly accurate indication of the show quality.

i'm not sure if the street is ready for the hokkein spewing half Pink Flamingo act yet (half because weips refuses to come on board - "what if someone recognises me?". "that's part of the fun!" "Noooooo......."),

but maybe one day i'll just unleash it.

bomb then bomb lor.

There have been international buskers that shoots cabbage in the air (that's his main act) and statues that sit on toilet bowls and jap buskers are even stranger.

I love the complete free rein a busker is given. Anything goes!
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On a related side note, yesterday's episode of Get Real was supposed to feature buskers.
I excitedly sat through the whole thing and basically watched half an hour of tissue sellers.

I had to email channel news asia about this gross misrepresentation.
So i did.

~~~
Hello to the Producers of Get Rea!,

I read on the TV listings yesterday that the Get Rea! topic for the night was on buskers, and being an occasional busker myself, I anticipated a good half hour of watching the talents on the streets of singapore currently.

I was very disappointed when the show featured tissue sellers instead.

According to Wikepedia, "Busking is the practice of doing live performances in public places to entertain people, usually to solicit donations and tips."

I can't imagine how selling tissues became a form of entertainment. Perhaps street hawkers might be a better term to use.

In recent years the busking scene (the real kind) in singapore has grown tremendously. Where in the past it was mainly handicap musicians on the streets, the scene evolved and saw the increase and then decrease in the number of balloon buskers/sellers and now statue buskers. There are also many portrait painters, acrobats and musicians on the streets.

The scene is now on the brink of another evolution where a few of us jugglers plan to bring live shows to the streets. We are taking on a more daring form of busking where we talk, interact and put up a good show for the audience and hold up a hat at the end of the show.

The purpose of this email is really just to clarify the meaning of "busking". For so long, busking has been associated with begging, and the image of a handicapped musician always comes to mind.

Busking is actually a very real form of entertainment where the busker presents his craft and ideas on the streets. It takes guts, passion and dedication to busk and it is very sad when the media adds on to the stigma of busking by mislabelling tissue sellers as buskers.

With kind regards,
Juggleress

PS: most of the juggling buskers i know (myself included) are graduates with well paying day jobs and it is the love of performing that drives us more than the money in the hat.

~~~

(sudden thought: if i had the figure, i might just wear the Madonna canon bra thing as my costume.)