Monday, July 11, 2005
renaissance.a
special word.
a
special memory.
a
special event.
that i followed for 6 years, from when i was sec1.. and now.. it has finally come to an end. i m gonna miss it. i definitely will. i saw 6 batches of graduating sec4s dominate each night of the concert. each with different styles and ways of holding the concert. but the one thing tat remain throughout these 6 years was their conductor. it was always mr lester lim. yesterady was his last night. he left the band. i will be sorely missing him as sjimb conductor! he was the main factor tat each renaissance was so successful and entertaining each year. his choice of pieces caters to everyone and there's a glaring big theme to the concert and tat is "fun! and be entertained!" his jokes and his witty comments abt everything is certainly refreshing in the band world. to me renaissance was the event each year that i could get to understand the amazement of the band-sjimb in their way of functioning.. how they managed to be so military disciplined and yet enjoy playing fun music at the same time. this is a band which i saw has the highest amt of energy and enthusiasim. they make being in a band look so fun!
renaissance was also the time where i could meet up with my rarely seen band friends both inside sjimb and those who attend the concert. in short renaissance was the annual gathering of band ppl who seeks fun in making music. compliments are exchanged, flowers are given, gifts are presented, and most impt of all, the ties were stronger. after every renaissance, i would wonder and wish it will never end. wish tat the magical night would stay forever. it so wonderful to see your friends giving their all and play to present the best to the audience.
the attachment to sjimb in my heart is so freakingly strong tat sometimes it scares me but i m glad for it. considering i used to hate sjimb when i was a tiny and ignorant sec1 being psycho-ed by my seniors tat when we play music we were supposed to sit still and not move our body to the music which i saw wasn't the case for sjimb. i became critical and critcised sjimb. and at tat time i thought tat mr lim was weird because of his name, lester. den the time came when my sn conductor then-mrs wong had to attend some course in dec. her good friend, mr lester lim was brought in to take over the band for a while. in the 1st prac with him. i thot tat he was crappy. and he didn't looked very professional as compared to mrs wong. i could still remember his method of telling us to go to the forum close our eyes and listen to auld lang syne(how do u spell it anyway..) and he asked us if we felt the music. i simply shrugged it off. i thot it was crap. how could anyone listen to music in their head and expect to be moved by it?!?! i was wrong, i was ignorant then. still a pesky sec1. i could well feel the music in my head and be moved by it now. music is not to be listened, it is to be moved by it. to feel it touching our souls. tat was an important lesson. and soon enough, our whole band were pro pro pro mr lim. band suddenly became more relaxed and fun! he left us ard march. and i could still remember one of my bandmates saying "wat?!?! mr lim is not coming to our band anymore?!?! i m gonna quit band already!!!" everything was back to where it was. mr lim coming to snsb was like a wonderful dream. a dream tat most of us did not want to wake up from. everything was monotoneus till by chance i found out from my friend tat mr lim has a shop! so the few of us(me, emmiline, jialin and yukching) rushed all the way down from kinokuniya to crown centre. we were complete idiots den.. we saw someone very familiar loading things into a green car. "someone" simply stared at us as if we were idiots( we were panting and catching our breaths from running from the bus stop) den he got into the car with a few other ppl and drove off.. it was ard 4 plus pm. we then went up to the second level of crown centre and found out tat the shop was closed. we lingered outside the shop for a while before someone said "tat was mr lim!!!! the guy at the car!!!" we stupidly remembered tat the guy at the green car was mr lim! no wonder he was staring at us! because he found us familiar too! he might be like saying "eh those kids over there are like from st nicks, wat they doing there." cripes, we juz barely missed him. so we went back a few days later with patricia(one of our fav seniors).. there the night of suppers, hanging out at his shop, the adventures (like going to orchid farm where he drove at 30km/h in the middle lane at the expressway while other cars sped past us in the other 2 lanes juz to shake over a bugger tailgater lorry before reaching 80km/h in 3 secs when the other cars horned behind us were funny) began.. and suddenly sjimb did not seemed so distant after all. and suddenly band wasn't simply juz a CCA.. a lot of good friends were found there inside the band and as well as other friends of sjimb. the good frens like ruth, shuyu were met through sjimb. my "bro" jacky and "son" brendan were found there. sjimb was like a second family of friends with my 1st family snsb. sjimb could well say, brought me joy, laughter and valuable frens for whom i would like to take a moment to mention.. zhezhang for being so crappy and outbursting, vignesh for being so quietly funny, rao who is so amazingly nice, paul lee for being so gay and bringing laughter, ben goh for being so helpful in hwk, ben lim for being so playful in games tat he's like a games guide, jansen the ah pek who advises ppl to study harder, linus who is so informative, jacky who is so sweet and yet irritating at the same time as my brother, james who helps ppl(monetary terms Lol!) in times of need so readily, pavin-weemin-kevin-melvin loh-bryan-sara-wenseng-jer who brings the sjimb fun into cj life now, cheukyin for fetching ppl home so readily, weiyang for being so helpful in settling stuff which i need help for, paul goh for being so on in going places(sn band prac. lol.), brendan for being so nice and cute as my son, gareth for being so helpful to every ridiculous suggestions tat i have, dom for being my late night gunbound partner and crapper, tim chua for his funny comments, ian chai for his help in html stuff and gunbound playing too, and the seniors like daniel ow, shaun tham, nick hong, who are so crappy and lame(esp dan), all these ppl who shared the same passion for bandmusic as well as beautiful music... so..
thank you st joseph institution military band and a big thank you to you, mr lester lim!.. for u brought me deeper in loving bandmusic when u made it so fun..for now.. it shall be a memory.. a lasting memory of yesterday..
reached home from band ard 4pm. quickly rushed thru the presents and got out of the house at 6.30pm. took a cab with mum who was on her way out with her frens. managed to reach sji in time. didn't really have a good seat(shuyu spent the time outside the bandroom till it was really late) though.. the second nite concert was more fun i guessed due to the absence of the noisy sec1s from the 1st night. and second nite sounded nicer.. atmosphere was good. and brendan played his solos well! during the interval gave all the flowers away and a bear to brendan. he called me up "mingfang where are u???" "i m here, where are u?" "second level(muffled)" "wat?????(louder)" "i m on second level!(louder)"it was getting really noisy in the front of the stage before i actually heard wat he said. i waved for him to come down. and he went all the way down from the second level to take the presents i got for him, a maroon soft fluffy bear and a daisy.. took a photo with him. so happy! later then took a photo with the pale white paul goh who seems taller and tim chua with his funky orange spects. interval over and the alumni went on stage. they played 2 pieces and it was really touching, i could feel the music as if it was a farewell to mr lim with the theme "wat a wonderful world" in satchmo!.. i could feel tears in my eyes as i realised it was really his last concert with sjimb.. the night ended with the presents to mr lim, a speech by bro mike to mr lim, a thunderous applause for mr lim for his years of dedications to sjimb, standing ovations by some. "ovation overture" was his. he truly deserved the applause and compliments. after the band toast, we all went off to lido to catch fantastic4 at 1215am, it was alright, not really tat fantastic though. gave a ride home to geraldson and melvin loh on my way home with mum on the cab, reached home ard 3am. slept ard 430am after talking to shuyu on the phone. tat was the ending of the day.
renaissance, a concert tat brings ppl together, memories of this, mr lim, sjimb will not disppear, it will linger long and vividly in my mind.thank you sjimb and mr lim...(the recordings of the concerts are out, both nights, quality not really tat good(recorded in a zen micro) but if anyone wants it for keepsake pls give me a msg.)
over and out 12:44 AM