So What If I'm Solipsistic?!!: A Crescendo of Voices.

Without any hesitation, I immediately ticked all six boxes thereby confirming that I will be performing for all six shows in the recent Heart and Soul Charity Concert little did I know that I ticked myself into 4 days of extreme fatigue. One would think that it was easy to just stand on stage and jiggle to music while singing, but it isn't, there is the endless waiting, the rehearsals, the energy you put into each show, the whirlwind of getting ready on time, the stress of the show and stage, it literally zaps you of energy by the last show everyone was devoid of good cheer and energy and just sat about backstage waiting for our cue to go on stage.

But, but but but but, guess what?

I'd do it all over again if I have to, because there is nothing more exciting, nothing more fun than knowing you gave it your all and that this little bit of 'all' contributed to a great show, that natural high you get from performing is what makes everything worthwhile. Nothing can replace the memories of everyone in a choir working hard together to make the event a success, nothing can beat getting ready in the dressing room and the weird antics that happen there, such as camwhoring, karaoke-ing, planking, yes even planking by the younger members. It truly is memorable.

The greatest part of the show? Is knowing that your little bit of singing is actually helping various charities and NGOs, as the choir director said, "we help out by doing what we love to do which is sing. "

My first event as a new member of the choir has ended with a bang, and you can bet that in future my face will be in their upcoming events. Now that I've joined this choir, I have discovered new sides of myself, for example : I didn't know I could dance, I didn't know that I could sing soprano parts and I absolutely didn't know that I could meet such wonderful people. A big thank you to my mom for noticing that thephil was recruiting new members.

Everyone else that enjoyed the show, YOU'RE WELCOME TO JOIN THEPHIL'S EVER GROWING FAMILY!!!

Now of course for some (a lot) of pictures to end a blog post!

First few days we didn't really snap pictures cause we're still quite new to the scene, but mostly it's just pictures showing our make up, cause this is one of the rare chances we get to put on stage makeup, my mom was the make up artist at home and even I the colour queen could not match her when she does the eyeshadow, her colour combinations were even more daring than mine, can you imagine putting a near rust kind of brown colour on purple eyelids? Sounds weird to you now but it really worked on stage, my mom is amazing.

Usual trick of using the phone camera to check make up when no mirror was at hand, this eye shadow is done by me. #gleeful smile.

Couple of phone pictures which is set on vivid to bring out the colours. As we performed, our eye makeup slowly progressed from tentative blue to more vivid colours like purple and my odd rainbow mixture up there.

I especially love this look.

And this look.

Took a picture with flash to show the colours of my eyes, but ended up near squinting due to the intensity of the flash but nevertheless mission accomplished caused you can see the rust brown amongst the purple. My favourite look of all 6 nights.

This was the worst experiment I'd ever done with my hair, and that's saying something cause I once had orange streaks from the first dye job with a colour named copper red, this little experiment didn't give me cascading waves that started midway my hair, nope, NO IT DID NOT, it gave me, A BOWL SHAPED NEST LOOKING HAIRSTYLE. NEVER WILL I DO IT ONE NIGHT BEFORE ANY EVENT AGAIN! I managed to tame it at bloody 5 am in the morning and it still puffed out at the ends, but at least the rest was relatively straight. (the hair is picture number 5 from the top)

Sometimes after shows we will head off for supper nearby, this is us after the 3rd show while waiting for the rest of the gang to arrive. We normally eat pau or dim sum for supper.

In words of Papa Cheong : Presentation is nothing but taste is there.

I was shocked the first night as the bill for a few paus and dimsum amounted to 42.80, the senior members did not seem fazed, maybe they expected it as it was nearing 12 that time.

Some cute illustrations drawn for the concert, sister and I wanted to buy but I saw the price which was 270, even on closer inspection I could not see any misplaced fullstops, you know sometimes 2.70 is written at 270 with the full stop really close to the numbers.

Choir T-shirt, absolutely love this shirt and will forever stay this size so I may wear it forever and ever.

A picture with local celebrity Reza Salleh, prior to this I've mentioned that I would stalk him to get a picture and I managed, he was sitting with our choir director and the band members talking and we were hesitating to approach him, but our super nice choir director did motion for the band members to back up a bit so we could get our picture taken, yay! He sang Imagine for the concert as our guest star and during the encore he was quite sporting. For the first song of the encore selection we were just standing still and only started stepping from side to side at the last verse, from my peripheral vision I could see him gamely stepping in time with us and clapping his hands, but when we suddenly broke out into movement for the 2nd song I could or I imagined I saw a panicked look that crossed his face for a moment, in my imagination he's probably going WATAFARK as we start breaking ranks and stepping down from the risers to move to the front. Haha quite a cute moment.

Most of the pictures from now on is taken on the last day after the afternoon show, the first half of the show our costume is an all black ensemble, the second half of the show our costume is 70s inspired theme as we are singing songs from The Bee Gees and The Beatles so it is more colourful and vibrant and LIVELY during the second half.

Cam whoring with one of the soloist before the formal photo shoot was taken, kind lady at the back had offered TWICE to take our picture but we decided to do it this way, kinda guilty but this is more fun. So the story goes as thus, we were performing our third or fourth show and everything was pretty routine, we were singing 'Man in the Mirror' which Adam (the soloist here) is exceptionally good at, when suddenly he does something really different from the conventional sing-and-gesture-to-duet-partner routine he has been adopting all these while, he starts doing an imitation of Micheal Jackson's famous moonwalk dance move spontaneously, and his duet partner was going ahead with the previous shows' routine and gesturing to him while he was busting his moves, and her FACE WAS PRICELESS, mouth slightly agape and one side pulled slightly down, later on while we were backstage talking, she actually told me she had her WATAFARK face on that night when Adam did something like that, little did she now that face and that moment on stage was what kept my smile looking natural during most songs, I'm pretty certain that no one can see me giggling slightly. Also, he knelt down during a rendition of 'We Are The World' but was hereby issued with a threat of having his mic turned off if he ever did that again for the remaining shows. Ahhh the little unexpected things that make you smile.

Our 70s gear type 1

Type 2.

I abandoned the dress after a few shows, I couldn't get on the riser gracefully without either exposing to the guys opposite what colour were my undies (but seriously it's so dark it shouldn't matter) or making the slits at the sides bigger, which basically means tearing the slits more.

Dance with the boogie in town!!!

Note to self : not allowed to grow any fatter than this.

I do not know when I developed eyebags #Capital D semicolon

My preferred look but UNFORTUNATELY shades were not allowed as I would be 'the only one doing it'

This is actually the surroundings of 'pentas1' in KLPac, there was a fusion of modern and old rustic buildings in the Sentul Park, and in the middle of the part is a HUGE lake with a Koi pond further up. Everything here is developed by YTL. This picture is actually a Polaroid which was scanned and uploaded by one of our new friends in the choir. This picture is us eating dinner before the last show of the concert, I accidentally dropped some rice into the lake and suddenly saw swarms of slivery fish devour it and that started the mad rice throwing frenzy to attract more fish.

The mad rice throwing frenzy, can you see my excited face?

Our favourite spot.

Another Polaroid picture of us in the dressing room.

Super sweet smexy and smoking girl

One of the nicest pictures taken, we were generally messing about the hall before the evening shows. Yes, I was wearing a Taylors shirt, I'm proud to be a Taylorian ok.

Cam whoring with KLPac's multi coloured seats so designed this way to give the effect that there are more people in the audience.

Still taking pictures before shows.

Upper part of the area that we don't frequent, this is where the audience exit the stage. I'm here decked out in my preferred outfit sitting at the bar counter, and boy do I feel like a million bucks.

Shades worn indoors purely for photographic purposes.

Under the promotional newspaper cutting.

Taken outside the area, they have steel structures that are in shape of chairs.

And of course couldn't resist taking pictures with it.

I'm fantabulous.

Super fantabulous in fact.

Spotted some vines and leaves and did an oldies album cover style picture.

Haha, I love this picture.

During the evening, before the show started we were still outside taking pictures. This was a failed shot as we tried to used the chair as a stand to take a group picture by putting the camera on self-timer.

The girls having a bit of fun by the lake.

I'm bring sexy back(s) YEAH.

Maybe we're having too much fun. Those steel structures were hell on my elbows and this was actually a failed plank, but I'd like to think my triceps stood out.

Failed plank #2. Everyone was in a general state of pandemonium when I tried to plank this way, according to Chern Min, our screams could be heard all the way from the entrance. Oopsy.

Finally a successful one.

Apparently she tried to karate chop the plank.

Not sure what this is though.

I think my sister's way was by far the best.

Grrrrr!

The last show was for Hospis Malaysia, we raised quite a sum too.

Some dressing room humour, someone had a fake fringe and we just had to try it on, and she kindly helped us put it on too. Here's me trying the fringe.

Nope, I can never work the fringe again.

It was a whirlwind 4 days, and eventually all good things come to an end, and I'm probably suffering from a little post concert depression but am perking up again at the thought of rehearsals for the next concert during Thanksgiving. So onwards with singing in a crescendo of voices. Hurrah!

Love, hugs and kisses,

Jean.