Here I am, waiting just for you... Yesterday was David Tao's new album launch date.
Of course, after 3 long years of wait, I'm naturally disappointed that we cannot find it still in Singapore (and anywhere outside Greater China), but seeing comments on DT's twitter and blog made me feel happy about the album. The idea of a big community supporting DT, and feel of a unique and exclusive group which knows how to appreciate his music. (Who cares about the more popular Jay Chous and substanceless boy bands?)
According to all sources, this album's direction is totally different from his previous work. Yet, fans, who are so used to his 'RnB' and 'emo' kind of music, are all ready to accept this change of direction.
Suddenly it led me to think about "what's the relation between liking someone and liking someone's attributes"?
What actually leads us to like (not just the romantic kind) a person?
To me, it probably stems from liking someone's attributes (be it physical beauty, talent, character etc).
But after you really like someone, the situation is reversed. Rather than you liking someone because of his/her attributes, it becomes you liking his/her actions due to you liking him/her.
Even though other people might do the exact same things, it might not be as likeable.
Does it mean that the like for that particular action stems from liking the person, rather than liking the action itself?
Perhaps the 2 are mutually reinforcing, sustaining this 'like' cycle.
Why am I talking about this? Of course, this is from my personal observation of liking DT's music. A lot of times, some music of his seem so out of my system. But because it's him, I just like them anyway.
A recall on "Managing People" I remember last year, after I got my DPD post for Oweek, I went to buy a book called "Managing People". It contained around 50+ snippet points on managing people in the corporate world, which came in handy to me. (It reminded me actually how nervous/eager I was in leading so many newcomers, haha)
One of the points I remember roughly was "Know what each individual wants". Different people are motivated by different things, e.g. money, personal achievement, recognition etc, so as a leader, you cannot assume everyone thinks the same way as you do, and motivate them in the same method.
This taught me to observe people (and myself), on what motivates each individual to do the things they do, and accordingly, how should I motivate each person to do what I hope to achieve.
That's the thing you see. Different people, being different, will be motivated by different things. The point is not about who's right or who's wrong, but about adapting your style to the individual, in order to achieve what you hope them to achieve.
Eventually, when the work is done, people who share your motivations would become your good friends, and the rest, ex-colleagues.
The story doesn't end here I don't know why the tears flowed.
But for this year, it was especially touching perhaps.
People whom we worked so hard for last year, now working their socks off to work hard for the coming batch.
People who are so darn busy with their 'post-graduation' plans - internships, work, etc, coming back to help - any tiny bit of extra effort helps.
I know the returning people. I've also witnessed how the new ones come to sacrifice their energy, time and money.
This is the culture I would like to see, and this is the culture I've been fortunate enough to see.
Yes, the standards are perhaps lower, the technical details are perhaps not as smoothly crafted, yet the blind banging into something for the greater good has its own touching side as well.
As much as my energy is not as great as before, I'm glad to be part of this, providing extra help in a more advisory role.
This will go on, the Alumni club has to grow. I dream of the day when we defeat Business right in their own backyard, and plant the shockwaves on that field.
Some things are for us to let go, but there are some things we can keep holding on.
Life as a noble savage isn't easy, let us keep something inside us, to make life feel a little bit better.
P.S. Thank you laos laos for coming back for Rag. Thank you guys for pushing Flag through despite the unpleasantries, and despite being overworked. Thank you guys for working so hard to continue the legacy of Oweek.
I haven't been the best RFO coordinator, but I hope I have helped smoothen the learning curve in one way or another.
Next year, the burden falls on you. Please pass the fire on, to ensure that our Arts Spirit will keep burning on.
Oweek started. Seeing everything - the ocomm briefings, the preparation of programmes, the actual campers, the similiar games played, some same people etc - reminded me of this time last year, and I find it hard to recapture that level of enthusiasm and energy I had for the camps (and FOP in general), that determination to make everything work, that level of mental-alertness to pro-actively foresee and solve every possible problem. And of course, the company - our ocomm was a superbly small but determined and fun comm - and personally, I feel better when I'm empowered to change and make things good, rather more as a bystander.
Sir Bobby Robson died. It seldom occured to me that he had much of an impression on me, but when the news of his passing, you just can feel that the whole football world will get into mourning. Fans of any club, people have few bad words and lots of good words to say about him. Seriously, I didn't grow up when he is in his prime, only when he was Newcastle's manager. But it's the feeling he gives football - the gentlemanly and passionate nature of his, it was just infectious.
I watched Moonwalker today. Weirdly, some of my friends did watch it when they are young, while I have totally no memory of it. When the movie first flashed in, with his performance in concerts (it was like a cult and many girls fainted), strangely, tears began to form at my eyes. I was sighing on how that passionate (he is really really passionate when he performs, it is as if he really had something deep inside to tell people) and incredibly charismatic and talented performer was reduced to the frail weird man we see in his later years, and of course, that image of him being on life-support as he was wheeled out of the ambulance. He was really a brilliant performer, no doubt about that. And of course, in some of his songs, it was evident that there were strong 'peace' messages. The 'movie' wasn't fantastic at all - the middle part and the 'storyline' was really quite lame - but it's my own personal tribute to him, and seeing those old images on the big screen with nice speakers blasting the music makes it worthwhile for me. The more brilliant he was, the more 'sigh' i felt in my mind.
And of course, the 'small matter' that Michael Schumacher is coming back to F1. Having grown up thinking that F1 is a serious waste of petrol (and not watching anything except cars zooming pass), I have missed his brilliant career, when he ruled the tracks. This is my (and perhaps the world's) last chance to see him race, and I'm not gonna miss it.
This brought me to the conversation with Camy about the 'evilness' of time. Yeah, time indeed has brought us an inevitable tide that keeps pushing us 'forward' into a changing world, where the things we knew to be 'current' slowly become obsolete, things we know so deeply slowly becoming 'old-fashioned' and out-of-time. Of course, and time pass on, more footballing personnels' gonna die, more artistes whom we grew up with will slowly retire (and die off some day).. nostalgia nostalgia.
The arts spirit - where one generation will pass down that spirit to another, forming the undying flow. This oweek, I'm doing my part as perpetuator of that spirit, by passing on whatever experience I can. This MC had it tough, without many seniors to guide them in many things they do. Instead of blindly criticising, I'm doing my part to make things better. Too many people 'letting go', and not passing down that knowledge and spirit down. I'll do it my way, by trying my best to give a responsible handover. Once it is done, it is down to the current batch to do the same to the next.
Time passes too fast - sometimes, I just hope that things would stay the same forever, making me comfortable knowing what I always knew. The constant need to keep up with the times is tiring, and the passing on of previously-familiar things is scary. I need some more time to rest, some more time to re-organise my thoughts.
