Disclaimer: This blog contains inane humor, nothing on it should be taken too seriously. Not recommended if you're under 3 years or possess the mentality of one.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Off off Broadway - A Christmas at Eton House
The kids at Eton House were putting on a Christmas musical. Here's a behind the scenes look during the full rehersal a couple of days before the big production opened.
Applying makeup to more than 120 young talents was no easy task for the teachers, and not a quiet one either.
Getting ready for her teenage years.
Looking quite a few years beyond his five after missing a shave.
Not missing a day of preschool while waiting for the rehersal to begin.
This little one couldn't help showing off her new pink costume whenever the camera was trained on her.
Looking like a nomadic tribe, the young shepherds prepare to take to the stage.
A sudden case of backstage jitters.
View from stage left.
The lively choir doing its thing.
An attentive audience during the second act.
All in all, an impressive production considering the young ages of the kids involved. A professional stage lighting and sound crew added to the polished touch and not one line was forgotten by any of the talents.
If you ever look at my iPod play chart at the bottom of the sidebar, you'd quite often find U2 amongst the playlist. I've been a fan for as long as I can remember and when the opportunity to catch them on their Vertigo tour Down Under came up, I jumped on it immediately. Made a short holiday out of it, Adelaide isn't a place one can spend too much time in. The crowd was surprisingly tame, perhaps due to the fact that quite a number of people around us were strung out on weed. The puff of smoke you see in the image is probably someone blowing out a cloud of happy smoke.
Kanye West was the opening act which we were fortunate enough to miss due to the rather late arrival of my cousin who was holding our tickets. Apparently we didn't miss much, guess I'm just not into the hip hop, r & b, whatever he was playing.
A RAAF P-3C Orion graced the occasion with an impromptu fly by. The aviation buff in me had to take a snap of it though the compact camera I was restricted to using did not really do it justice. I think only myself and 10 others in the crowd of 60,000 noticed when it started flashing its landing lights when directly overhead. This concert was a historic event for Adelaide, apparently it's the largest ever held in South Australia.
The cascading backdrop which dominated the stage was approximately 100 feet high and about 120 feet wide. The 12,000 individual LED spheres reproduce moving images and were a sight to behold, especially when up close, it could literally turn any venue into a city of blinding lights.
I'm not exactly a regular concert goer, my last rock concert I attended was Richard Marx (that was a strange time in my life, don't ask) at the National Stadium back in the 1980s! Was a little apprehensive about our choice of tickets but it worked out pretty good in the end. We had opted for the general admission tickets which let us stand anywhere in the field of the stadium and we ended up only about 50 feet or so from the extended stage, not bad for getting in after the concert started! Here's Bono and The Edge doing their thing.
I thought the Coexist logo was cleverly done, let's see if peace ambassador Bono gets anywhere with it. Interestingly enough, there's some controversy surrounding the use of the symbol.
Like I mentioned earlier, I could only sneak in a compact camera which I had purchased specially for the trip. I wasn't real familiar with the use of it but decided to go ahead and do some short video clips with it. I honestly didn't have any high expectations of the results but was pleasantly surprised when I reviewed the clips. Anyways, this is a short compilation of my experience at the show, please excuse the shaky hands, unlevel horizon and freaky panning, I'm no James Cameron. I spent about 2 hours editing it so the least you could do is hit the play button! Mrs Sanguine can be heard mouthing off the words to With or Without You, the last segment of the clip. I think the new beat the band played destroyed what is probably my favorite U2 song. Enjoy...
Back from vacation but still Powermacless. My eyes kept getting drawn to the follicly challenged head in front of me while on the flight back this afternoon, especially when Homer came on. Love the pause button on Krisworld.
I figured if I can't put up more of my own pics for the time being, I might as well plug some others in. I've visited Cambodia and Vietnam before, and I've always tried to look out for the incredible wares that are often loaded up onto the motorcycles. Below is a collection of shots that I wish were mine, they offer glimpse into the ingenious methods used which border on incredulous. I've taken the liberty of giving them titles.
Hoola hoops
3 dozen little piggies went to the market
(This one is my personal favorite, especially the little fella at the bottom, straightly strung out with its nose looking like another exhaust pipe!)
Stretched limo
Gate crashing
Warning: Objects in the rear view mirror are dumber than they appear
They don't make Macs the way they used to. Had to cart my Powermac off to the tech shop this morning after it started developing strange symptons about 3 weeks back and began to behave much like a PC, ie refusing to boot up, applications hanging all the time, cooling fan running full blast for no apparent reason etc... It looked so sad lying on its side in the back of the car when I brought it to the service center, much like a corpse in a hearse. Hope they are able to revive it... all this happened after I've had the machine for only 6 months.
This brings me to the point of this entry. The dearth of posts of late has been a direct consequence of my beloved Powermac dying a sudden death on me, all my image archives are contained within it and it's my main editing platform. I'm like an artist without his palatte at the moment, working on my images on the powerbook just isn't the same. Thanks to the concerned readers who emailed me about this but really, it's not for the lack of blog fodder but Mr Sanguine's Home is experiencing technical difficulties at this time. I'm off on a short vacation next week so hopefully the folks at the club21iShop will do a good job of fixing it by the time I get back.
It's seldom that I get psyched up by a new book launch but the second edition of Cityscoops really got me all excited anticipating its release. An experience guide with a difference, reviews are all 100% natural, no reviewer was paid and no animals were harmed in the production of this book. Its pages include a collection of all things eclectic in Singapore, as well as the hip and happening side, there's something for everyone. It's got a great collection of vibrant pictures shot by 5 photographers in differing styles. Available at major bookstores and also direct from the publishers (take note if you're overseas!).
