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I thought I saw a man brought to life…
The Queen sent me an e-mail regarding a Habitat for Humanity project in Sri Lanka in March. Besides my having important exams this year, the scheduling of the project means it clashes with my NS training. I could always defer my ICT, but I’m also considering going to England in June to visit Kim so this most definitely throws a spanner in the works.
Like Natalie Imbruglia, I’m torn.
Yeah I know that song is a cover version, so sue me.
TL + RX = 2 (Thumbs Up)
So I managed to catch Ted Leo and the Pharmacists live at a free show, and they were in fact awesome. Even not knowing most of their songs (like me) it’s not humanly possible to be able to resist catching the frantic, frenetic energy coming from their frontman singing and playing guitar like his life depended on it. It’s almost disappointing to go back to listening to their studio recordings that seem so much more subdued in comparison, although you do get the opportunity to pay closer attention to Leo’s excellent songwriting abilities. (The best part? They’re all secretly protest songs.)
Oh, and they closed with an absolutely incendiary cover of Stiff Little Fingers‘ Suspect Device.
Openers Tigers and Monkeys (whom I hadn’t heard of previously) were pretty good too, reminding me a little of my beloved Sleater-Kinney.
Ted Leo + Pharmacists official site
Tigers and Monkeys official site
See some much better photos here.
5×5 Interview with Ted Leo at Gawker
Medan Photos part two
Early morning workout. It was…bizarre, let’s just say that.
We make the front page. It mentioned all of us by name too. Too bad we couldn’t get a copy of the other paper that featured us (Medan Business, I think).
Hitting the local Berastagi women up for their phone numbers.
Snow in Medan? Or just us celebrating Anwar’s birthday? You decide.
More mural painting. Notice Moiz standing around pretending to work.
Tiga Pe and Darul Hikmah
Flooding in Medan
Shouldn’t we be working?
The fruits of our labour.
The guys bathroom.
Originality: alive and well.
The Batak Karo dance
My first Dikir Barat. I still sing Cenderawasih to myself once in awhile… or at least whatever I imagine the lyrics are.
…Actually, I just like the look on Fil’s face here. We need a rematch.
Medan Photos part one (!!!)
I’m sorry if it seems a little all over the place, but I’m still sorting through all of the photos. Here are some for the time being.
Tiga Pe at Changi Airport before take off
Our refugee camp/ construction site quarters. Really, this isn’t as bad as it looks.
When mosquitoes attack!
saHIVa’s AIDs and reproductive health awareness workshop. We had our problems with saHIVa, but I think they conducted their workshops fairly well.
the football field… from hell!!! Yes, the grass is actually as long as it looks.
Morning English conversation sessions after Subuh prayers. The students command of English really isn’t that good, and to be honest I don’t think the conversation sessions help that much. I do like how this particular photo turned out though.
Me conducting what was very possibly the worst English language lesson in history. It somehow was meant to include a vocabulary lesson and the story of the swordfish attack on Singapore, but ended up horribly.
Nurse Yani conducts hand washing classes.
Mural designing with the kids.
Jamming session with the Pesantren girls. I try in vain to learn the finer points of the kompang .
Me and Aziz. Can we shave it? Yes we can!
Day break in Medan.
Me, Fil and Ain took photos with this high school choir group who was performing at this event for the various Singapore volunteer groups working in North Sumatera. Minutes later, some of the girls asked to take a camera phone shot of me. Like I said, weird, but true.
Uh… I’ll just say this is a shot of Nur doing some mural painting and leave it at that.
For the first time in her life, Yani feels tall.
Success! The mural is completed.
Of course, all the hard work we did required long, intense hours of body maintenance.
Many, many hours of body maintenance.
Ustaz Indra. Probably the funniest man in Medan.
Me surrounded by hot babes! Fil, me and Nur at Lake Toba. I’d say that Aziz is looking on in jealousy, but I know better.
Filza! And no, Aziz and I are not doing what it may look like we’re doing in this picture.
Pool antics. I really could stand to work my abs a little more.
Dira = cutest thing ever
Ali. And a chicken. Guess who’s who.
Sipisopiso falls…absolutely gorgeous.
Marlina… she talks about being my sister, but I’m pretty sure she has a crush on me.
Cruising Medan for chicks… in my beca.
menuju Medan bakti
I miss Medan already. Stepping into my room after coming home from the airport on Sunday was an unreal experience, even after having spent the past two days in hotel rooms rather than curled up on the floor in a sleeping bag.
To bring everybody up to date, I was in Medan on an SIF/YEP project at a place called Pondok Pesantren Modern Darul Hikmah. Yes, it is quite a mouthful. The group I went with was called Tiga Pe (Putra, Putri, Pesantren) and it was easily one of the best experiences in my life. What we went there to do was conduct basic hygiene and English classes, do some basic refurbishment by way of laying down a pavement to prevent stagnant water from building up(dengue is a big problem there, with one of the ustazs dying from it while we were there) and painting a mural, invite an HIV/Aids awareness group to conduct workshops, do an HIV/Aids awareness sketch and put up a performance for the Pesantren’s cultural night.
What really happened was I made friends and had probably the most fun in my life ever. I wish I’d made more of a connection with the kids there, and it was incredibly touching to see so many of them cry when we left. They were great kids. Despite all the scandal and the drama, I love the Tiga Pe group to death.
I miss being woken up at four thirty in the morning for Subuh. I miss bathing by scooping water from a tank. I miss watching the cockroaches scurry by as I did my morning business. I miss every trip taken on public transport being a death defying adventure. I miss facilitations and talking shit.
Did I mention that I was hot property in Medan? Because I was. Weird, but true.
But before I get teary eyed here(couldn’t bring myself to cry while I was there), I’ll carry on.
On the one hand, there were the great kids and teachers at the Pesantren. On the other hand, there were the pushy salesmen at the pajaks and the glue sniffers and transvestites of the streets. Medan seemed like such a different place from Singapore, but maybe they weren’t so different after all, just flip sides of a coin.
We also visited a drug rehab facility near Berastagi. It was minimum security and worked on the idea of rehabilitating the inmates, plus we got to talk to some of the inmates.
Lake Toba was incredibly beautiful, a trip everybody should take the time out to make. Even with the threat of the saleswoman with the iron grip.
Our last day was when the earthquake off the coast of North Sumatera occurred. We had just finished breakfast at a hotel in Medan when we felt the tremors and saw the entire building shaking and the water in the pool splashing out of control. Then the hookers ran out of the hotel rooms to relative safety. Fortunately the tremors ended after about fifteen minutes or so and there was very little relative damage to Medan. And if you’re wondering why so many of my stories involve hookers, it’s because they just do. Nuff said. It wasn’t even until we reached Singapore how devasting the effects of that earthquake were. I worry for the Pesantren kids, some of whom have family and friends in Aceh, which was badly affected.
So in closing, I love the teachers and the kids at Darul Hikmah. I love the Tiga Pe people. I love my time in Medan and insya-Allah I’ll be there again soon. I had so much fun, and I definitely have good memories to bring back with me to Singapore.
And honestly, I wish I’d gone to KL as well.
Photos soon enough.
Peace, people. Especially in times like these.
To the 5 Boroughs: How I spent my summer vacation
Saints and Sinners
Too much television watching
The Two Daves
Guitar Centre Spin Off Finals 2004 featuring Talib Kweli and the Roots - Hammerstein Ballroom August 11th 2004
Standing in line outside the show for half an hour while it was drizzling
One of the illest emcees on the planet…
…and another ill one.
The host for the evening, DMC…MC,MC,MC…
There were several other shows that I would’ve liked to be able to catch (Sonic Youth, Dillinger Escape Plan, Nas, Black Eyed Peas), but this is the only one I would’ve kicked myself for missing. Now, while it wasn’t actually a Kweli/The Roots show, I’m betting that not a lot of the people there came to see the finalists for the Guitar Centre DJ spin-offs.
Now while admittedly the sound was terrible, and the DJs took about 15-20 minutes each to set up between the sets, it was a hella fun show to be at. DJ Virus from San Diego had a nice set that featured a scratch up of Rage Against the Machine’s Bulls on Parade, but last year’s winner DJ I-Emerge stayed the champion for good reason.
Kweli was tight (despite aforementioned technical difficulties) performing stuff from all over his discography, and concluded his set with Get By and Lonely People, off his unofficial The Beautiful Mixtape release.
The Roots mostly performed songs off the Tipping Point album, and got all of the guest emcees onstage to do their parts(Jean Grae, Skillz, Mac… no Dave Chappelle sorry), besides performing The Next Movement,Love of My Life, a cover of Eric B and Rakim’s I Ain’t No Joke and a song off Do You Want More whose title I don’t know. Then they brought on a whole slew of guests, including Masta Ace, Kweli and Mobb Deep.
The cuts the DJ was playing between the sets was cool as well, everything from Slick Rick to Snoop Dogg, and it was fun watching Talib Kweli getting his groove on to Gin and Juice and Ain’t Nuthin but A G Thang.
And they were giving out free t-shirts and visors between sets. Much coolness.
