First

The first ones are those we remember most. I vaguely remember some TV ad which asked who was the second man on the moon, who was the second to do some spectacular feat and so on. The bottomline is that nobody much recalls. That's why the complany was proud of their topnotch product, whatever it was.

But that's according to rank. Still, according to sequence, the first ones are those that will be more firmly etched than most of the rest.

I just came back from my first ever public choir performance, together with the NUS choir. It was at Raffles City Convention Centre, which is this posh place at the top of one of those high-rise, high-end, high-price shopping centers/hotels in City Hall. The choir was clad in elegant black and reds and orange. It was the long-sleeved black shirt with a red tie for the guys, and a tight-fitting longish sleeved black shirt and orange sarong for the girls.

We performed 5 songs: Dream a Little Dream (girls only), The Lonesome Road, Ring the Banjo, Fly Me to the Moon, and Goodnight It's Time to Go (guys only). The juniors only practiced for 2 sessions, since this was a sudden invitation, the first time the Singapore Steel Society (or something) invited the NUS Choir for some function.

Sooo.. was it memorable? Well, yes, in the sense that it was the first time I got to perform outside school, and outside the Philippines for that matter! And in a posh event at that. And with the NUS choir! Who would've thought.

But was it memorable = good = exciting = the ultimate = the best? Nah. The rich people were eating when we entered. Apparently, we were supposed to be their "background music" as they ate and drank and laughed and conversed with the rest of the guests. And that's exactly what we turned out to be: background music. They didn't come to the function to hear us; we were just there for the ride. Another choir from ACJC (Anglo-Chinese Junior College) sang before us but we didn't hear them since we were rehearsing in the next room (although from the looks of their faces, I think we shared the same after-show sentiments).

Anyway, the microphones were bad as they didn't seem to be the aerial type which was intended for group singing. The sound system was bad since there was feedback speaker (or whatever it's called) and thus choir couldn't hear each other sing, unlike in rehearsals. We weren't even sure if the audience heard our voices. And more notably, the rich folk clad in formalwear were dining and talking and laughing while we sang. Background music, I tell you. In the small breaks between songs, a few claps would come form the audience, rather hesitant since only a selected scattered bunch of them seemed to want to join in the applause. There was a slightly greater applause after the third song, but even after the last song, when the clapping was loudest (relatively), the applause still seemed.. lukewarm. The audience (if you could call them that) were much too busy eating and talking.

Bad for the morale, I think, but still the choir head, Wey Ling congratulated the group for doing well. I honestly don't know how it went, since we couldn't hear ourselves much. I think the performance had very slight hiccups, and was quite nice, actually. Although I think the reaction of the crowd (or lack of it) might have affected us somewhere in the middle of the presentation.

Anyway, I went home with 3 new Malaysian friends in a taxi. Derence and Shean, who both seem warm and friendly, and this other senior choir singer whose name I didn't catch. I got to interact with the other choir members more, which is a good thing, considering that mostly the specific sections usually clump together.

Overall it was a good night. I still cannot quite believe that my bathroom voice is NUS Choir material. I who have zero choir experience aside from that small stint in Kent Ridge's Star to Burst freshman night. I still maintain that I managed to slip through the cracks bacause of lack of bass manpower, but it feels great to sing with these fellas who sing amazingly well (partly due to their choir experience before in JC and even earlier).

Too bad there weren't any photos, since we were all busy with rehearsing, and in a rush to go home afterwards. So Wayne, thanks for the digicam; I shot myself na lang in the room. Hehe.

NO class tomorrow. I swear I will do a GOOD java crash course. Goodnight.