Here's your chance to proclaim your love for him...say it.

Dear Jason Teddy Chua Momo,

Thank you for taking the first step to ask me out and giving us a chance to experience the ups and downs in our life journey. Your love and efforts to make me happy can be felt and seen by myself and those around me. I know I have someone to motivate and support me and I wish to become your supportive half. I look forward to our life together as a married couple, beginning another phase and many other interesting chapters in our life from now on. I love you.

Hugs & Muacks,

Geraldine PandaKoala Lai

Children's Day Birthday

Feeling very blessed to enjoy my birthday on Children's Day. It's the first year that MOE decided to allow the 1st Friday of October to be Children's Day holiday and it falls on 7 Oct this year. I woke up much later and spent my day playing Facebook, thanking all well-wishes and completing a project report.
By evening, it was time to set out to meet Teddy Chua for my birthday dinner treat. It was pouring quite heavily and I was running late as I got carried away doing my report. Luckily, Teddy Chua was patient enough to wait for me (think i was abt 15min late). We went to Bugis, Hotel Intercontinental, where he treated me to Japanese food. We walked to Bras Brasah to check out a book store but it was already closed. The slight drizzle added a romantic feel to the after-dinner walk. We walked over to artichoke, at Sculpture Garden but it was a full-house.
We went back to the lounge area in Hotel Intercontinental where Teddy Chua insisted on getting a mini birthday cake for me. The pianist was very observant and when the cake was served with a single lit candle, he immediately played the birthday song before resuming his original piano piece. Though Teddy Chua is tired out from work, his efforts to make me happy on my birthday is much appreciated.
I got home and sis gave me a handmade letter with our photos and a red packet...Thank you all dearies...i feel very loved and blessed to have all of you in my life. =)

Tis' the season to be shopping...falalalalalalalala...

Shopaholic Lai is back...miss the exhilaration and adrenalin rush from shopping...Previously, Shopaholic Lai restrained herself and went "cold turkey" to save $$$ for her wedding.

Now, when the Xmas season is here and Chinese New Year is round the corner, she decides to furnish her wardrobe with new clothes. The festive sales also helped to attract her to the stores...have spent 3 days this week shopping and counting...=P

Sunday: Shopping in Orchard with Teddy Chua
Tuesday: Shopping in Somerset with Mum & sis, Shopping with Teddy Chua in Orchard
Wednesday: Shopping in Tampines with Yifen
Thursday: Shopping in Tampines with Beryl, Grocery shopping in Marine Parade

Don't steal my hubby...

Teddy Chua just got back from his UK work trip and his work requires him to fly off to Washington by Sunday! *sob sob* Initially, news was that they may post him to US for 1 month...when I heard it, I almost fainted...luckily, on Valentine's Day, it's confirmed that he has to go for 1 week.

Saturday: he is on duty for the Air show then he joins my family for dinner at Thai Village Restaurant (Goodwood Park Hotel) to celebrate my dad's birthday.
Sunday: he will bring me to the Air show before his late night flight to Tokyo->Chicago->Washington (as the air tickets were bought too late).

Teddy Chua's work is stealing my hubby! (X_X)*

London & Paris

Finally I have visited my dream country, London and went to the Stadium of Dreams, Manchester United Old Trafford with Teddy Chua Momo...

Happen to coincide with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Celebration so the atmosphere in London is great, with lots of celebration and happy partying Londoners...

We went to the River Parade where the Royal family was on a boat down River Thames with other boats cruising along. Waited 4 to 5 hours just to catch a glimpse. It started to drizzle after the Royal family passed us by.

Bought the London Pass but didn't get to use it at all as I was doing more shopping than sight-seeing...haha...

We had to buy another suitcase to put all the purchases along with some items our family and friends asked us to help buy.

Went to Paris but didn't buy any branded goods from there. I got my Ted Baker bag from London already and I am contented.

We went to Arc de Triumph and the elevator wasn't working!!! Had to climb the seemingly unending stairs up and down!!!

We were so tired out with all the walking that we did not even go to Eiffel Tower...

Went to Disneyland Paris too...the parade was good but not as fantastic as Disneyland Tokyo...

Sent a few postcards from London and Paris to ourselves and to my sister, my mother and to my Taiwanese friend, Nina. Hope they will receive them soon...

Took lots of photo which I put in an album on Facebook.

And I tested positive to being pregnant when I was in London...now to find a gynae to confirm our findings...=)

Altamiro Carrilho (1925-2012) & Severino Araújo (1917-2012)

This month the choro society has lost two legendary figures representing the best in choro tradition.

 On the 15th of August the well-known and worldfamous flutist Altamiro Carrilho passed away 87 years old as a result of complications from cancer. Altamiro Carrilho demonstrated a talent for flute early in life, and he began his career after winning an amateur talent competition when he was a youth. He worked in a pharmacy during the day and studied his instrument in the evenings. He replaced Benedito Lacerda as a flutist when Lacerda left his conjunto regional around 1950 and the ensemble continued under the leadership of Canhoto. After his stay with Canthoto, Carrilho formed his own ensemble - Altamiro Carrilho e seu Bandinha, which had great success with the public following a recording of Carrilho's composition 'Rio Antigo' - one of the best-selling 78 rpm discs in Brazil ever - and through his own television show on TV Tupi.Altamiro Carrilho's talent extended to classical music as well as popular including choro and mpb, and from the 1960s he was often invited to give various concerts throughout the world. Carrilho has made an extensive number of recordings and has written approximately 200 pieces for flute. A detailed career profile in English is available here. - To commemorate Altamiro Carrilho, here is a live-performance from 2010 recorded at Instrumental SESC Brasil featuring Carrilho and ensemble playing Joaquim Calado's 'Flor Amorosa'



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 On the 3rd of August clarinetist and bandleader Severino Araújo died, 95 years old. Severino Araújo was for more than 60 years the conductor, arranger, clarinetist, and leader of the Orquestra Tabajara. At four, Araujo was already taking musical lessons with his father, who was a bandleader and instrumentalist, too. Two years later, at six, he became his father's assistant in teaching his pupils. In 1928, Araújo began to take the instruments, beginning with horn and saxophone, soon taking the clarinet. At 12, he performed in public for the first time, playing clarinet with his father's band. In the 1930s Araújo worked in commerce and as a bureaucrat while playing in local bands of Pernambuco until hired by Rádio Tabajara as clarinetist and saxophonist in 1937. At that point, the Orquestra Tabajara had been created four years before, and when the leader of the band died in December 1938, Araújo was asked to be the new conductor, which he accepted. Later Araújo moved to Rio to play at various radio stations, and in 1945 he reunited with the Orchestra Tabajara in Rio. From then on Araújo and the Orquestra Tabajara performed with success in radio, TV and live-performance, many recordings were made and increased the success of the orchestra both in Brazil and abroad. The repertoire of the band included several pieces written and arranged by Araújo, among them his well-known choro 'Espinha de Bacalhau'. Araújo toured with the Orquestra Tabajara in many countries and had success everywhere. He semi-retired in 1968, but continued to conduct the band, which is now led by his son, until his eighties. - The above info is excerpted from a career profile in English by Alvaro Neder, available here


To commemorate Severino Araújo, here is the original audio of 'Espinha de Bacalhau' from YouTube



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Jo

Brazilian World Music Day, Sept. 7 2012

 The ARChive of Contemporary Music (ARC) is a not-for-profit music archive in partnership with Columbia University headed by Director B. George . The ARC has elected September 7th, 2012 - Brazil's National Day - Brazilian World Music Day, and the project director of this initiative is the New York based producer Béco Dranoff. The ARC has encouraged organisations and other stakeholders worldwide dealing with Brazilian music and culture to contribute in celebrating Brazilian World Music Day through events and written articles with the intention of exposing the diversity and richness of Brazilian music now, in the past and in future. You can read more about Brazilian World Music Day here. The choro-music.blogspot has also decided to contribute in celebrating Brazilian World Music Day, you can read our contribution below.---A Brazilian Musical Practice: The Roda de Choro  Once the world famous Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos was asked: What is the heart of Brazilian music? His answer was immediate: Choro is the heart and soul of Brazilian music. The answer of course pointed to the musical form known as choro since its initial founders in the last decades of the 19. Century Rio de Janeiro started to use this term about an instrumental, chamberish music most often performed by small ensembles consisting of a reed instrument, guitar and cavaquinho. However, there is more to it than this in Villa-Lobo's answer. Choro may be defined strictly as a musical form, a certain style or genre, but choro is also a way of interacting while performing (instrumental) music. In the Brazilian concept of the word choro implies a certain state of mind while playing in an ensemble, in short, a kind of social attitude to (inter-)acting spontaneously and musically at the same time. These aspects of choro undoubtly were reflected in Villa-Lobos' answer as well, but to be more precise on the aspect of performing choro in the Brazilian way, we could put the next question in natural line: What is the heart and soul of choro? The answer to that question is the roda de choro, and what is meant by this term, we shall try to evaluate below. One of the characteristics of the traditional choro performance is that the participating musicians usually are seated in a circle or around a table fronting eachother to create an intimate atmosphere and leaving the opportunity to watch each other while playing (see photo). This was from the start the ideal setting for a roda de choro (- which literally means a circle formated of people performing choro music), and this practise is continued to this day in small clubs, bar rooms or at private gatherings. You could say that the mentioned setting of a roda de choro is well suited for this kind of chamberish music that demands concentration, great technical skills and the presence of a common feeling to (re-)create the spirit of choro.

The roda has some - unwritten - rules to be a success for all participating in the event. First rule is that the roda is open to anyone who would like to participate, there are no restrictions as to age, skin colour, sex or ability. The roda is a truly democratic union of both amateur and trained musicians getting together to play together and having a good time in an informal setting that most often also attracts an audience of friends, family and admirers - the roda is a social event as much as a musical performance and often includes nice food and drinks as a part of the game.  Another necessary condition or rule for the success of a roda is that the participating musicians accept the role of their chosen instruments in advance. There is an unspoken concensus providing each instrument a specific voice in the ensemble to create the best obtainable sound of a multi-voiced harmony. This may be perceived as a restriction laid upon each of the musicians according to the limits of their instruments in the same way as practised in professional music performance by a symphonic orchestra or a chamber string ensemble playing classics in exact accordance with a written score in the European tradition. However, the restriction is not a restriction as to freedom of expression, it is an immediate socially accepted respect for the nature and capacity of the played instrument when played in an ensemble that strives maiximum harmony. This aspect leads to the third important rule for a succesful roda de choro. It concerns the spirit of the roda.  The spirit of the roda is a friendly cutting contest where everyone gets his or her chance to show off and develop playing skills. The art of improvisation is a crucial point to a successful roda, and everybody gets a chance to improvise by choosing well known choro tunes to inspire and challenge the improvisations skills of the participating musicians. Written music, if any at all, is only a guideline for stating the musical theme being played, not a demand. This sets the individual musician free to express him- or herself in accordance with a momentary mood supported by the ensemble, the successful result is harmony and magic moments of joy and happiness among all involved.  Playing choro in a roda evokes strong emotion - the Portuguese word 'choro' means 'the act of crying', but we misunderstand the word in the context of a roda, if you connect the implied emotion with sadness. On the contrary, choro means to make you cry of joy wishing the magic moments of harmony to last. If you are curious to learn more about the experiences of choro musicians from their participation in rodas, the shown dvd, Nas rodas do choro (Biscoito Fino), is recommended. This documentary was filmed and directed by Milena Sá between 2004 and 2008, the film was launched 2009 and the dvd-edition 2011. In about 50 minutes, the film features meetings between choro musicians mostly in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The narrative fragments are accompanied by musical examples recorded at rodas do choro with testimonials from musicians about their relationship with choro and the roda. - Testimonials on the importance of the roda like "There's no other way to learn choro. It is transmitted in this way, not much to theorize about, what counts is to sit and play together" (Luciana Rabello) underline the informal setting and point to a way of learning that dissolves a coventional hierarchy between 'teacher' and 'student' in favour of the pleasure of participating in the roda. The music unites young and old, amateurs and experienced in a mutual spirit leaving space for improvisation and experiments of the moment - a true example of 'having fun' and learning at the same time.- The documentary has subtitles in English and French.---Jo