The marimbist and the shrew

After tuition today I went for some marimba concert called Marimbuzz at the Young Musicians Society (YMC) Auditorium with Fei Yang. The performer was Kevin Bobo, an Assistant Professor of Percussion at University of Kansas (KU). Mind you, KU is the place where James Barnes is teaching as a professor. You may ask, who is James Barnes anyway? Go ask any band member and he/she will tell you. That's it.

Bobo's technique was great. His strokes, rolls and playing was smooth and wonderful. It was a pity that I dozed off a small part of the performance in the first half. But not the END of the first half, when he played flight of the bumblebee with a piano accompaniment from Dr. Goh Toh Chai.

Fei Yang and I moved to level 2 after the intermission. Fortunately I did not sleep during the second half. Unfortunately though, the group of girls behind me were a nuisance.

For the second piece of the second half: Dreams (from Night Sketches), I saw how he played his one hand tremolos and four-handed techniques with such alacrity and smoothness. The best part was that he played it IN THE DARK!! OK he was playing in near total darkness with only a candle light to illuminate him.

We didn't shout for an encore but he gave it to us. This time it was a snare drum solo which he composed on the spot and chose to call "Jun 9 2007" to the laughter of the audience. He turned the snare drum into a disco tape among others.

In short, we were impressed and entertained. To me, the $12 was worth it. Even more worth it because Fei Yang paid for it first.

And so the concert was over. Not the night though...

On our way to the MRT we met this shrew in yellow. She was hollering vulgarities at everyone she saw. No one was spared. Here's my description of her:

BANQUO
How far is't call'd to Forres? What are these
So wither'd and so wild in their attire,
That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth,
And yet are on't? Live you? or are you aught
That man may question? You seem to understand me,
By each at once her chappy finger laying
Upon her skinny lips: you should be women,
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
That you are so

Macbeth Act 1 Scene 3.


That woman made G or the Bishan Gay look so... innocent. Meek. Weak.

That was not over. At the crossroads I was discussing about some drum beat which could match her ferocity of swearing. Maybe I could even try playing flight of the bumblebee to match her.

At the crossroads she rode in her bicycle and started swearing AT US. Apparently she heard us. That's just too bad.

This is one of the few times I will us expletives in my posts. Kids, please watch. It may happen to you one day.

She was screaming:

WAH YOU SOO HAPPY AH? KAN NI NABU CHAO CHEE BYE (KNNBCCB) LAH. NAH BAY. KNNBCCB LAH!

As we crossed the road, she spat at me. My shirt was desecrated with that shrew's saliva.

I was wearing my band polo tee shirt. Hence retaliation was not an option. Besides Her street rap was just too powerful for us to handle. Even the 2 people on the other side of the road just stared at her in shock and did nothing. The shrew went on swearing at others in that bicycle of hers.

So I lost in that swearing match. Then again it was not worth arguing with such pitiful creatures.

And I still owe Fei Yang $12 for the ticket to Marimbuzz.

still underachieving