about FJH and the Joyful Noise

to fjh (fan jing hua)

i got this from wen hui's blog. and it says exactly how i'd like to describe him.

in remembrance of our bicycle-riding, communist shoed, strange haired, and eccentric literature tutor from china:

his trademark 'ANDER-thennn', his chinese (karen mok and who-ever) song in relation to hiroshima mon amour, to which the class was listening with unease, his bullet-fast talk (sometimes) which stumps us because we're still trying to make out the accented words until now, his strange eruptions of laughter that totally silenced the class (which is then followed by this sudden reversal of expression to his solemn cat-eyed look when he realised he was alone in his euphoria), the poem he composed while marking our scripts and then attempted to read to us in class (another silencing tactic), his weekly laments that people say he talks too much in class so he'll shut up and let us do the talking (but then goes on for another half hour by which time the class has ended), his non-conclusive endings (where he goes on and on about themes etc and suddenly freezes us with a weird eccentric smile and says 'that's it, byebye.'), leaving us to feel strangely pangseh-ed in those half-explored ideas of his. and of course it was very strategic to hand back scripts on the last day, where he kept saying he is boss and so it is to his own preference whether he likes our scripts or not. i think he kept a whole sem's worth of criticism to throw in our faces today.

and not to forget his sudden comparation of his english with us:
i know you're more well-articulated than me when we speak, i know my spoken english is not as good as yours ... BUT in writing it is not the case! IT IS A TOTALLY DIFFERENT THING ALTOGETHER! (or something to that extend. and there he was accusing me of repetition of ideas in my essay, he repeats himself a fafillion times all the time)

and he was talking about finding grammatical errors in our scripts:
it's like being in a restaurant and expecting something delicious, and when the dish comes i enjoy it and it is well-done, *flashes eccentric smiles* ITS DELICIOUS!! IT IS!! BUT! BUT i find a few pieces of HAIR IN IT!!! and i just DONT LIKE IT! I DONT LIKE IT! (and we all pause in our flipping of the scripts to collectively stare at him. he repeated the last sentence many times, i think he felt liberated by his own outburst. erm.)

i hope he never gets here. anyhow, here's to FJH: a punctured bicycle tyre on the way home.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
joyful noise tour 2005

i know i recently did a clay installment. but i just have to blog about this. it's probably one of the sweetest concerts i've seen. sort of seen. i downloaded spotlightlover's audios and videos about it. not all yet. not enough time to get all. but those that i have... oh. my. god. clay's not just a singer here. he's an artist. and he's just proven it. my favourites are the opening sequence "christmas time" and the encore piece "good news". i'm gonna try and put it here. and maybe, just maybe, the choir will be ambitious enough to try singing it (if i can get hold of the scores. i'm going to ask the CB). *hint hint*

to the uninitiated, joyful noise tour is his christmas tour. he did a normal thing last year with his carols and all, i think. (figure live MCWL cd) i didn't see that one tho. this year, he's got a sort of scripted mini skits going on. it's like a mini musical. from what i see, there's a main character, the lonely old lady. and there's the 4 angels, he, angela, quiana and jacob. (i gather from the boards) the joy is so obvious. it's not just a concert. the visual elements make it so, so...poignant. the songs sing of love, joy, family, god/religion, not just the commercialised part of christmas. and the focus is not just on clay but on the rest of the people on stage, acting out the musical. *g*

little observation i saw. clay's using those headset mics this time, not hiding behind the mic stand. and his hand expressions remind me strongly of david copperfield when david is doing his magic gestures. which brings to mind, clay's making the point of how magical christmas really is/can be. after all, his angel character is doing work of creating a magical christmas for that lonely old lady. not to say, also for all those watching.

makes me wish i wasn't so busy this december to feel the christmas CHILL. christmas time is just round the corner. or as clay says: "the christmas season starts now." :D