The Skeptical Optimist

I had the honour of meeting pianist Emanuel Ax for an interview last week. Ax is best known here for his extensive collaborations with the cellist Yoyo Ma, but really he’s a virtuoso player in his own right, considered to be one of the great pianists of his generation.

The one thing that struck me was how humble he was… one of the things he said was that maybe he stuck to piano because he didn’t have any other options open to him! But really, we’re lucky that he did stick it out with the piano – his playing easily ranks among the top 5 of the classical pianists that I’ve heard live. Listening to his play Chopin in the Esplanade Concert Hall was a magical and sometimes infuriating experience. Magical because of his technical skill, control, expressiveness and vivacity – and infuriating because as a lapsed pianist… I recognise how dastardly difficult Chopin can be and how much practice and innate talent you need to pull it off in a concert setting. “Manny”, as his friends call him, the down to earth New Yorker with a self-professed love of Shanghai dumplings is transformed to pianist extraordinaire Emanuel Ax when he sets his fingers down on the ivories. He made the complex runs in the piano concerto sound sublime, effortless, as if his hands were simply floating above the keys and willing them into beauty with some telekinetic power. Plus, he was generous with the encores too, playing an additional nocturne and waltz.

The feeling you get when you listen to a grand master like this is, oh, this is how Chopin is supposed to sound like – not the tinkling and banging that you suffered through during piano lessons – this almost other worldly lyricism and breathtaking momentum, this is what the composer meant when he was setting these notes down on the manuscript. It’s almost like getting a glimpse of a perfection beyond mere mortality.

Tags: classical music, emanuel ax, pianists

I am a late comer to this driving thing. I still have a lovely neon yellow and orange probation plate, warning off drivers on my front and back windscreens. It’s not that I’m a terrible newbie driver; I still signal at every lane change and turn, and check and recheck my blindspots… Still there are some things that I don’t do very well! Like gauge how much to reverse when I’m parking – hence the pretty dent on the back of my second-hand honda!

I bought my first ever car about 3 months ago and frankly I can’t quite imagine life without it anymore. I used to be a pretty hardcore non car person, even when I was studying in the United States I actually trekked back and forth to the supermarket with a hiking backpack (yes, I was young, foolish and quite fit!) Even with a kid in tow, no maid and 6-7 months pregnant I still used to take public transport and only cab it when I had a lot of groceries. Many of my friends thought I was quite mad, but I just calculated how it was totally not worth it to get a car in Singapore, what with the ERP, road tax, COE, parking, fuel prices, etc… Things obviously changed when I had my second son – there was no way I could handle both toddler and newborn by myself in a taxi, not to mention groceries or shopping. So my husband and I got our licenses and a modest, fuel-efficient honda jazz, crossing our fingers and hoping for the best.

It’s definitely more expensive yes, but there are all these intangibles that you can’t put a value on: like not waiting for public transport with a pram and crochety children, not having to be put on hold calling for a cab, not having to deal with erratic taxi drivers or those people on trains and buses who pretend to be sound asleep even when you’re 8 months pregnant with a toddler and pram and obviously need a seat on the bus/train.

I wonder whether it’s just a function of being in Singapore – when we were holidaying in Amsterdam (pregnant, with toddler and pram) – we never had a problem getting onto trams and people were always lining up to give up their seats to us. Some trams even had designated pram/bicycle bays. It’s even simple gestures, like in Tokyo when you say “Excuse me” because it’s your stop and an already packed train squeezes itself even more to open a path for you to get off the train, and the people getting on at that stop do not try to trample over you in their bid to get on the train first!

So definitely it’s a combination of infrastructural and etiquette-based factors that make a car a logical option for those who can afford it. But coming back to the question of cost – with the recent ERP hikes the debate comes back again… Is electronic road pricing a good way to control congestion or does it just unfairly penalise people who have cars who have no alternate routes to go to work or back home? Are there more efficient ways of ensuring good traffic flow like staggered working times or tele-commuting? Or even making public transport more efficient, cost-effective and comfortable and then incentivising people to take it (like with more seasonal passes) instead of just taxing car owners – some of whom may actually own cars out of necessity and not luxury.

I understand that we are a small island, and that we have to control the population of cars on the island for the sake of minimise pollution and congestion – but really – has enough been done to ensure a comfortable public transportation system that is time and cost-efficient for the commuter and not just for the service-providers? And perhaps for the disabled, pregnant and elderly – special seats could be set aside and labeled as such – quite like lots for the disabled that are now left empty on instinct by able bodied drivers. We don’t have to legislate all kinds of bad behaviour away, but surely this could be somehow enforced…

Tags: driving, ERP hikes, public transport

Tags: children, death, memory, mothers

I just came back from a 2 night holiday in Bangkok – just a chance to get away from Singapore and absconding from my parental duties just for a bit. Bangkok is such a city of contradictions; some of its obvious downsides include the infamous traffic and pollution, but really the Thais make style, elegance and hospitality seem so effortless.

I stayed at the Siam @Siam Design Hotel, a stunner of a 24 storey building done up in a contemporary Thai style with eclectic furniture, sculpture, art and wonderful wall murals in an abstract impasto style. The colour scheme was warm, rich and yet not claustrophobic, even with modern touches like bare concrete flooring and exposed pipes. The whole design theme was daring yet inviting and comfortable, really unique. And of course the service… I don’t even need to get started there.

Another place that really impressed me was the Oriental Bangkok, I honestly don’t think that any hotel in Singapore holds a candle to an establishment that definitely ranks as one of the great hotels of the world. Just such effortless (again) elegance without the stuffiness that I see at some top hotels in Singapore. My girlfriend and I just went there for the high tea and we were really impressed with the delicate pastries, impressive selection of teas and the quiet, unobtrusive service. It’s just little touches like having a warmer for your teapot so your tea never gets cold… Perhaps, I am just unable to afford such luxuries in Singapore so I can’t really compare.

Of course, it wasn’t all a bed of roses – for one, I felt that I could do without the food courts which cater to tourists and serve watered down versions of Thai classics. But still, minor quibbles.

Bangkok is of course value for money – which is why Singaporeans flock there and why my flight was packed with bargain hunters. But with rising food and fuel prices, one wonders how much longer one can go on these carefree regional jaunts without it starting to hurt the pocket as well. Just today the Thai government has announced an increase in taxi fares in Bangkok, and while a few baht might not mean much to you, it does mean a lot to Thais and does all add up in the end.

The reasons for the recent hikes in food and fuel prices are manifold and complex, having to do with international relations but also in no small part to climate change and our reckless overuse of the planet’s resources. I think for the ordinary person like me, it’s still difficult though, to really see how our every day actions trickle down into our lives and the lives of the people around us. Even jetting off to Bangkok on a fossil fuel consuming plane, or filling my tank (of my extremely fuel-efficient car I have to protest!), or just buying food that has taken an extra long plane ride to get here are all just small steps which lead to more global warming, more pollution. It’s difficult to see what can be done.

I recently finished filming my episodes for a new segment we’re running on Primetime Morning on eco-living called “The Green Wave”. I’ve done one on eco-buildings, which is airing next Wednesday (18 June) at 7.50am and 8.50am (SIN/HK time) – but the other episode I did on eco-food choices (30 June) is really very close to my heart. If you get the chance, read Michael Pollan’s book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” to get an idea of where I’m coming from. It was interesting filming these episodes, to see how architects, farmers, experts are trying to deal with the problems we’ve caused with the planet.

But that’s really all for another blog post… For now I’ll leave you with some advice I got from a geography professor when I asked him how ordinary folks who can’t afford the sometimes astronomical prices of organic food can eat more eco-friendly… and he said, “just eat less meat, it’s the thing you can do that will have the biggest impact”. Well, I’m not vegetarian, but I’ll tell you more about what I found out in the next post and how it’s changing the way I eat!

Tags: bangkok, green thoughts, saving gaia

While presenting the news we aren’t supposed to usually editorialise or take political stances – but on the blog, I figure I’ll just come out and say it, I’m fairly pro-Obama and to my knowledge, a lot of my friends and colleagues are too. In fact, I recently took a class in my master’s degree in NUS where I ended up writing a paper on Obama’s memoir and speeches and how he has crafted a certain narrative and image for himself that is truly unlike any other politician white or black.

But, my political leanings aside, it’s been really interesting (and sometimes truly frustrating) to see how the media coverage of the American election in the US has played out. With embedded reporters with mini-cams in each campaign, every gaffe, every slip of tongue has been magnified and analysed and played again and again ad nauseum. Whether it’s Bill Clinton’s faux-pas or Obama’s “elitist” comments it’s all been fed to the beast that is 24 hour cable news network. I think that has really changed the tenor of the race. The other major factor of course has been video sharing websites like Youtube …. arguably more and more people are turning to new media to get their news. The striking thing is, how all this has had the power to change the image of a politician so drastically. Watching Hillary Clinton go from the presumed front-runner in the race, to the media’s sometime portrayal of her as a power-hungry political has-been was really bizarre. As was Obama’s fall from grace as the golden boy of new politics whom no scandal or partisan politics could touch. As one New York Times article put it, his feet have been “bloodied” like a marathon runner – and it really wasn’t just Hillary Clinton’s doing but the intense scrutiny of the media as well.

Taking this in from the position of the news reader is a different experience – you watch the news unfolding, you convey it as best you can, and sometimes you wonder what role you play in all this, whether you are at all guilty of any “spin”, whether anyone at all can be innocent and free from it. Something to ponder…

Whatever it is, it’s going to be a very interesting Presidential campaign and contest – let’s just see how the Americans rise up to the occasion.

Tags: clinton, obama, US elections

One of the best things about the job is getting to meet all kinds of interesting people and having the chance to sit down and have a proper conversation with them… well for at least 10 to 15 minutes. There’s no other way to meet the writers, musicians, artists, architects, decision-makers and really sort of put them to the test with your questions. In a way it makes you immune to the effects of celebrity because you realise that hey, famous people are just people after all with their quirks and idiosyncrasies and good/bad camera sides!

But a couple of times a year you still do get all groupie-ish and weak-kneed at the prospect of interviewing someone truly great. This year it’s already happened twice for me… the first was interviewing Sophia Loren. She’s truly larger than life (in more ways than one…) and wonderfully statuesque and regal. If the Italians still had a queen, she would definitely be in contention for royalty.

But while it was really thrilling just to be in the same room as the legendary screen siren, it was Sonny Rollins who really made me feel both charmed and a little awed by his humility and his grace. Sonny is a Harlem born saxophone player who is 78 this year and has played with a list of jazz’s who’s who, including Coltrane, Davis, Monk, Hawkins, Powell… etc. I love jazz, but I’m not a real expert – still Sonny’s playing is particular – he is really innovative and yet manages to retain a warm, inviting tone at the same. Even though, his solos are often intellectual and “out there”, he still manages to communicate with the audience – something I heard and saw first hand when I went for his concert at the Esplanade last week.

What a pleasant surprise to find that Sonny is as expressive and forthright as his playing is. Evidence here. It was one of those rare interviews where you really feel that your questions are being heard and that the answers you are getting are really heartfelt and considered. Sonny talked about his instrument, his passion for his music, his relationship to his late jazz companions and what he hoped his legacy would be. He was very open about his youthful drug use and how he considered these to be mistakes that he had moved on from. And to top it off, when I thanked him for the interview and shook his hand, he kissed mine! Ah…. talk about old school! They don’t make them like they used to….

Tags: celebrity, jazz, sonny rollins