Avenue Q The Musical

Backdated: 15th November 2008



“Currently one of the hottest shows in London's West End and on Broadway, Avenue Q is a fabulously furry and fun-filled romp featuring an ensemble of actors and some very adult-minded puppets. It's 'Sesame Street' with a very grown up twist!”

Avenue Q is the naughtiest puppet musical to ever grace the shores of Singapore. Uncut and uncensored scenes, childlike puppets uttering profanities, outrageous puppet nudity, racy songs… all these were made possible in our police state by the Singapore Repertory Theatre (SRT).

Let’s hope that Singapore would continue to be more liberal to the arts.

Even though the casts’ are not the original Broadway casts (it’s the Philippines production), their performance is quite commendable. It is a good thing I haven’t watched any Avenue Q videos on You Tube before I watched it at the Esplanade or it would spoil all the fun.


[picture credit: http://www.thebachelorgirl.com]


Since its runs have ended, I have no fear including spoilers in this post.

You can read the plot overview here.

Do visit Avenue Q (SRT version) official homepage. It’s really cute.

[WARNING: This site has embedded music from the various songs in Avenue Q. The tunes are simply catchy but make sure you turn down the volume before you click on the link.]

I spent hours watching Avenue Q clips on YouTube before typing this. I love so many of the songs.

The show opened with the Avenue Q theme song with bright and colourful pictures flashing on the screens. Sure did look like watching Sesame Street.

The Avenue Q Opening Theme (by the Manila cast who performed Singapore’s rendition of Avenue Q)



The main character Princeton emerged and sang the following song while looking for a unit to live in…

What Do You Do with a B.A. in English (Till 1:07)


“4 years of college
and plenty of knowledge
has earned me this useless degree…”

I laughed out loud when Princeton sang that line as I COULD IDENTIFY quite well with him. Do I really need a B.A for my current job of creating and editing Primary English materials as well as teaching primary subjects? Well at least, I’m not unemployed and can pay my bills, unlike Princeton.


More puppets appeared on stage and compared whose life sucked more.

It sucks to be me


This song is so cute. Kh and I just kept singing “It sucks to be me” and “It sucks to be you” over and over again. I was tempted to buy their tank top. However at $49.90 each, it is so not worth it.




The Internet is for Porn


“Normal people don’t sit at home and look at porn on the internet.”

Trekkie monster must be one of the cutest porn addict ever.


If You Were Gay


Nicky is annoyingly cute when he irritates Rod, just like how Ernie irritates Bert. Suspecting that his uptight roomie is a gay, Nicky tried to let him know that it’s perfectly okay.

“IF YOU WERE GAY
THAT'D BE OKAY.
I MEAN 'CAUSE, HEY,
I'D LIKE YOU ANYWAY.
BECAUSE YOU SEE,
IF IT WERE ME,
I WOULD FEEL FREE
TO SAY THAT I WAS GAY
(BUT I'M NOT GAY.)”

I love how Nicky added in the last line with his fingers wagging whenever he sang the chorus.


One more reason why Avenue Q rocks—It’s not everyday that you see puppet nudity and GASP!!!! Puppets making love on stage! You would never look at Sesame Street the same way again.

You Can Be As Loud As The Hell You Want (When You Are Making Love)


Under the influence of the Bad Idea Bears, Princeton and Kate monster decided to have a drinking game at the pub. After a drop too much, they were completely wasted and went home to dot dot dot.

In the movie “Mama Mia”, “dot dot dot” means… oh well, you know. *winks*


The Bad Idea Bears and their illogical logic


My favourite line from them:
“You’re wasting money in the long run if you don’t buy in bulk.”

They are really so illogical and cute la. I like them so much.


Schadenfreude


What the heck is "schadenfreude"?

The next two lines explain it pretty clearly.

“Look on the bright side. Think of all the joy you’ll bring to others when they find out how miserable you are.”

Wicked!


I wish I could Go Back to College


A touching song… till the very last line which got the audience roaring with its lame-ness.


There’s A Fine, Fine Line


A touching and meaningful song as well.


For Now


“For Now” is the closing song which summarises what all the characters were up to at that moment. For the SRT production, I like how Lucy the slut said she was reborn just like a virgin when she found Christianity. My cute Bad Idea Bears found Scientology… Hahaha… They also sang about how certain stuff is only for now (as in temporarily). When all the puppets yelled “GEORGE BUSH!” the whole hall clapped and cheered.


Oh do catch the interview with the puppets. Princeton is soooo cute!

All the people I know who watched the show looked at the puppeteers more than the puppets. I was the opposite. Myopia is probably the reason. Despite having contacts on, I’m still pretty shortsighted and could not really see the features on their faces too clearly. I concentrated more on the puppets as their faces were bigger and more colourful.

I kept asking kh if Princeton is handsome. He asked, “You mean the puppeteer for Princeton right?” and I shot back, “NO! Of course I meant Princeton the puppet.” In my shortsightedness, I seriously thought Princeton the puppet was handsome. He thought I was very funny to ask if a puppet was handsome. When I discussed Avenue Q with other people after that, they all thought I was damn weird too. Anyway, Felix Rivera aka Princeton’s puppeteer is good-looking and we all agree on that! You can see him in action in the Opening theme video.

I'm sure glad to be able to watch such an excellent musical in Singapore. I would really love to watch the version by the original cast. I heard that John Tartaglia (puppeteer for Princeton and Rod as well as puppeteer for many Sesame Street muppets) is really good.

Russell Peters Rocked The Rock Auditorium

Backdated: 4th November 2008



Despite the hefty price tag, I jumped at the opportunity to get my hands on a pair or Russell Peters tickets. Afterall, it’s not every day that Russell comes to Singapore.

The audience was a fun and spontaneous bunch. They clapped and cheered and screamed. They hooted and cat called and wolf whistled. What do you expect from fans of Russell Peters? It was a cosmopolitan crowd with people from all different races all over the world. As what Russell said once "It's like looking at the ad for United Colours of Benetton".

The show opened with Angelo Tsarouchas. This jolly fat Greek had lots of fat jokes and Greek gags hidden beneath his belly. He was one funny guy.

Russell was side-splittingly funny. He mocked every single race, punctuated his lines with swear words, poked fun at the “asshole who is governing America… but not for long”, Sarah Palin, how the Indians are really bad at DDR, the unthinkable act of two straight Indian men holding hands etc. There were uproars at some points of time but never could anyone get offended by him.

He promised not to recycle any old materials. He avoided the familiar crowd pleasers and jokes. However, I was secretly yearning for his familiar old jokes. All these came out during encore. Heck, does “encore” even happen in a stand up comedy?

I always love his advice on beating your kids and his hilarious “Hongkie” accent. Imagine my delight when he said he was going to do "something old". The instant he uttered that, the crowd exploded into delirious cheers.

And for those who have not heard of Russell Peters before. Here are some clips taken from You Tube:

Beating your kids.


Mocking the different races
(Mocking the Indians and Chinese + Hongkie accent in the first part of the clip)


Cultural mix in the world

Ephemeral happiness, lingering sadness

We went to Love & Co. just now to decide on a pair from our shortlisted few. We tried on all the pairs but somehow they looked and felt different from the other time.

We continued browsing and kh spotted a pair which was not on our list.

I was quite surprised that kh would like it as I thought it doesn’t fit into his “simple bands” criteria.

It is in glossy white gold with two lines of yellow gold rope design around and a small diamond encrusted. Kh thinks it resembles those exquite British tea set while I thought it looked a little Celtic with the twirls of gold. You seldom could find such rings in Singapore even though these are quite popular in the West. I often lust after such antique-like designs on overseas wedding band websites.

It looks a little similar to this…


It was the only pair which was able to catch both our eyes for once. So far, there isn’t a single pair which we both have immense affinity for. Whatever unique or bling design I like, he doesn’t like and whatever simple design he likes, I find it much too ordinary.

We immediately requested to try on that pair and wondered why we missed it the other time. It turned out that it just arrived in the shop not long ago. The sales assistant explained that it went for a “holiday” overseas.

We didn’t know what she meant but it looked fabulous on both of us. It stood out in a non bling bling way on his finger and it looked quite outstanding on my small ugly finger as well. We both loved the solid feel of it without being overly heavy.

We then decided between this pair and his original favourite pair (a two tone vertical matt rose gold with glossy white gold edges and a small diamond embedded). Finally, we determined that the yellow gold rope design one was the one for us.

We were really ecstatic at the prospect of owning that pair. The sales assistant started to measure our finger size. After she measured mine (I’m a 6), she hurriedly took out a file to refer to and told us that the design could only be resized to 8 at the minimum. We pleaded with her to check again.

She called the factory (I dunno if it is termed as a “factory”) and broke the unfortunate news to us that they could not accept a 6 for that design. It is due to the arduous workmanship of twisting the yellow gold that makes it impossible to resize it to a much smaller size.

The next bad news was that our 2nd choice band could only be resized to a minimum of 7.

Kh was dejected. He said in a laughing manner, “Oh my god, I’m going to cry liao.”

I really could not describe how I upset I felt as well. It’s all coz of my stupid small finger!

We started looking back at our next shortlisted pair. For the next half an hour we searched and tried more pairs but somehow these unique handcasted designs which I liked so much in the past don’t seem to appeal to me anymore. We simply could not get that rope design off our heads.

It is the rope that makes the ring so unique. Without it, a white gold ring with two lines of yellow gold makes it look as simple as this…



I was unable to make a decision and told kh what I felt. We spent about two hours at Love & Co. and left feeling very dejected. I really felt like crying.

His parents consoled us by saying there would probably be nicer designs next time. My mum also told me not to be so upset as she also faced the same problem in the past.

Deep down inside, I knew there would never be another pair that we would both like since our taste for wedding bands are so different.

Stupid small finger!

I don’t think I’ll be able to shop for wedding bands any time soon.

A dash of pre-wedding blues

There was one of the many nights when I simply could not sleep and I started looking at Whitelink’s website.

Kh and I signed a wedding package with Whitelink (WL) a few years back as we thought the package offered was quite good.

At that time, we had not done any bridal studio (BS) research at all as getting married wasn’t in our near-future agenda. We were approached by this friendly uncle from Whitelink and instead of giving the usual talk-to-the-hand-cos-the-face-ain’t-listening look, kh decided we should take a seat and listen to their sales pitch.

The lady who served us was very pleasant and not pushy at all. Most reps from BS give me the impression that they are very pushy and aggressive. I’m sure many couples who walk past BS roadshows can attest to that fact.

Initially, she was slightly surprised when we told her that we haven’t heard of WL before. In fact, we did not even know of how reputable WL was until we got home and found out that even his parents had heard of its good reputation. As we talked to more people, we realised that it is branded as the so-called mediacorp BS and many people thought we made a good choice.

So far, I have been happy to have settled my BS w/o even trawling through magazines and internet and making arduous walk-in enquiries.

I have been happy till that “one of the many nights” which I mentioned in my first paragraph.

After viewing Whitelink’s homepage, I became a little unsettled as the photos featured in the gallery were of mediocre standard. I felt that I could easily have taken such photos myself. I thought that they were really very typical and nothing at all like what I have in mind for my pre-wed shots.

I clicked on those photography links I saved under my wedding favourites folder and got so upset that WL photography was not even 5% of their standard.

Next, I went to do some research and was upset when I saw negative reviews of Whitelink. I then went to the forum I usually frequent and saw that one of the members who had done her research had summarised and gathered all the BS with positive and negative reviews and WL was listed under negative!

I trawled through pages and pages and there was no rave about WL at all. Majority of the forum members are from the same few BS and these had countless raves.

I got a little blue, depressed in fact. I looked at those photography websites once more and got more and more depressed when I knew I could never achieve the same effect I want for my photos with WL. I even considered hiring a separate photographer but continue using their gowns and suits or forfeiting our close to 2k deposit to change BS.

There were some sweet people who told me not to worry and that they knew of people who had pleasant experience with WL. That was pretty comforting.

When my head got the better of my heart, I told myself that I would never know if WL is negative unless I go down and experience it for myself. Making an appointment with them would be the very first step to cure my blues and calm my unnerving mind.

Practical me has been ruling idealistic me quite well for now.

I met up with Sushi just now and she told me good things about WL from her friends’ experience as well. It was good that I met up with her.

Anyway, we had fun chatting, gossiping a little and flipping through her mountain of wedding magazines over shared banana split. We like so many different styles of gowns that it would be quite tough for us to make a decision. Certainly, it got us more excited to go down and try some gowns soon.

Sushi, we should meet up again soon. You can call me along if you wanna go BS shopping. =)

Drifting in and out of sleep

Hello everyone,

I'm sick again. What's new eh?

Uh-uh... Not URI this time. It's the cold, cough, sore throat, fever kind of illness. I hated my leaking nose before I saw the doc. It was blocked yet leaking. I've to stuff tissue paper up my nose for the first time and I swear it's not a very pleasant sight for a lady to have tissue paper up her nose while she is sleeping.

I've been so lazy. I slept the whole of Monday and today away, waking up only to go to the loo, to eat, to take medicine and to watch TV. I watched more TV today than the entire month combined. Even as I was in front of the tv, I slumped on the sofa like some lazy bum and drifted off to sleep every now and then.

The only good thing about being sick is that whatever I crave for, I would get them.

I asked for home-cooked food with broccoli or dou miao as one of the dishes for dinner today. I asked for rice coz I needed solid food and not porridge all the way (as I was pissing through my ass this afternoon).

I woke up to a delicious dinner of broccoli, "snap pea", baby corn, mushrooms and capsicum, watercress soup and omelette. Since I didn't want porridge, all the porridge in the pot had to be scooped off and replaced with rice.

I felt like a spoilt brat.

After tucking into the hearty dinner, I craved for canned fruits coz I really wanted something ice cold and refreshing. I was not allowed to fulfil this craving as canned longans and lychees were heaty. The next moment, dad was slicing fuji apples for me!

Feeling like a spoilt brat and a useless bum, I decided I had to do some work today. I collected my worksheets from KT branch just now.

Time to do some marking!

I'm aware of all the tags and comments. I would reply them another day ok? =)

Oh yes, I've got loads to update so keep coming in.

On a separate note, receiving sweet sms-es from friends is one of the most delightful feeling in the world.

Cheers,
Jo the useless bum


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p/s: Please bear with me if I did not reply to your sms-es or cancelled your calls. Somehow, during these two days I received a lot more sms-es than before. 2 of them came from people I've not met for a long time arranging for a meet up. As I wasn't really thinking coherently in my sick state, I either read and ignored them or reply a nonsensical one after some time. There were 3 incoming unknown numbers too. If it's anything important, do call me again. =)
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