on the 30th of august, i was handed a photographer's pass which read JOEY THE PHOTOGRAPHER. gerald informed me over the phone while i was on my way to esplanade and found it weird. i mean, from all the past photographer's passes that i've been awarded (EH LIKE GOT ALOT, EH LIKE GOT MANY, EH LIKE I SUPER PROFESSIONAL), none of structuring of the status read something as blatant and clear cut as this one. most of the time, the passes that i've been handed would bear my name in bold and accompanied with a smoothed 'PHOTOGRAPHER' just below it. this one got my attention, and it should get yours too. you can check my facebook out for a picture of it because the internet connection here is horrible and it will take years for me to upload just one picture. yes, please do check out the photos i took of DAY 3 OF BABYBEATS, featuring anberlin and lunarnode at the esplanade outdoor theatre if you haven't done so. that'll make me a happier man.

anberlin was... the word 'good' sounds so mainstreamish use of vocabularly but seriously, they were quite everything-that's-related-to-good gooooood. they definitely can do a live show. that lead vocalist, whatever his name is, with that premature wrinkles on his soon-to-be mature face, ah whatever that fucking means - i'll just use the noun that old guy in future. that old guy, though old, looked surprisingly vibrantly young. okay, i can't do this. just... you know how slightly older man with very evident wrinkles and detailings on their faces can sometimes be sooooo alluring and still good looking, if not more good looking than when they were younger.? i dno, i think i'm doing a good job confusing you guys here. they had for themselves and the crowd an awesome acoustic set and if there was one man in the stands who thought they were a-okay only that night, he must have been a heavily turbanised terrorist with 16 grenades as his gucci belt. for sure. for a motive. for an ulterior motive. for an ulterior motive to bomb singapore. 

i went to the back of the stage (not gna use backstage because it sounds so damn exclusive huh but no, it wasn't. everything was quite open and was cordoned off only by a not-so-threatening hanging metal chain which can be manually unlocked by anyone) and tried to enter into the Area with the capital 'A', thinking on that very day, anyone who owns the pass will own you and your family. somebody stopped me, so i had to settle for shots outside the Area. i took a spot right at the front of the stage and was standing beside this madman who screamed and screamed and was way off pitch (definitely tone-deaf) and i dno - did he forget that they were playing an acoustic set.? that old guy was serenading our asses real goooood even when he sang Feel Good Drag but that screaming maniac went YOUR LIPS! YOUR LIES!!!!! YOUR LUST!!!!!! LIKE THE DEVIL'S IN YOUR HANDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

again, check my facebook for photos.!

do you know that i had 2 super heavy lowepro bags across my shoulders for one band and one band only.? lunarnode disappointed me, in all honesty. but hey, they got their asses up on that very stage through rounds of auditions. i dno how many bands went up for it but it's definitely a friggin big deal to be able to stand there and play your self-designed music, and sell your cds in the mini flea, your merchandise, your everything. i was wearing a lunarnode tee shirt that very day with my head up in the air. enough of this. so gerlet can you please send me fugu right now.? please.?

the last part was. WOW laaaaa. i was standing behind people who were taller than me and let me say that i've been caught in this situation a couple of times thankyouverymuch. you know, my friends frequent clubs, and they love persuading me to go to one. "JOEY 18 YEARS OLD ALR.!!! MUST TRY.! CONFIRM MUST TRY ONCE IN YOUR LIFE ONE.!" so i remembered the very first time i actually went to a club. oh and mind you, it was an underage party event so -.- singapore poly organised this one for the freshmen. *dictates mysteriously and thus, very slowly* i walked into this club and it was very, very, very dark in it. there were many people in it. many people... they started this party with an emcee leading games and stuff. then suddenly, "let's hit the dance floor," and a sitting joey suddenly gets buried in handbags, specifically eileen's, sulin's, and huichin's. nice. back to the point - yes, standing behind very tall people. i couldn't see a single shit. i thought to myself, "i can't waste this chance. i'll probably only get to see them just this once in my entire life." i haven't yet paid for a single concert in my entire life. then i remembered the very day where ma girls back in da club threw their handbags at me, and we are still friends right now. so, i practically threw my camera bags into ben's care, and walked right straight into the middle of the crowd, just right behind the moshing people, as shahridan followed suit, leaving my GIRLFRIEND HAHAHA GIRLFRIEND WOOO THIS WORD FUCK NICE TO USE GIRLFRIEND behind. the last time shahridan and i was at ignite (FIRST DAY ONLY, FIRST DAY IGNITE JOEY X SHAHRIDAN. SECOND DAY I DNO WHAT HAPPENED LO), one moshing person (ha sounds like loose lego pieces) banged into us. both of us stood there like immovable rocks. yes, we did try a couple of head bangs but thought we looked quiiiiiite weird. i clapped when the crowd started clapping. they jumped but i didn't, and my best defense was that it was for the better of everyone present, lest i influence the first richter reading in the lion city. so we stood there and really listened quite intently. this time, when we settled down at a spot right behind the moshing people, we started head banging, we started moving, i disregarded whatever the richter scale would read and started jumping like mad. anberlin was freaking kick ass to the max. they were really great live, really super. the people behind me had to lift up their hands in defense because i think i was moving too much (wouldn't put it pass them if they blogged that they were standing behind 'moshing people' and i was one of them hurhur). do you see the progression.? from immovable rocks to rocky rocks (sounds very flinstonesque). i told shahridan, the next time we go for a mega gig like this one, we'd officially be part of the moshing people alr. 

that day ended with a very boring ben, a very unimpressed nigel (who told ben that all their songs sounded the same with the same chords blaring through the amps with the same tone), but hundreds or thousands of very very satisfied fans, i assure you. especially the last part where everyone shouted for an encore, and as a group of malays taunted as they walked away from the crowd after the last song, "encore cannot get you home, go catch last bus ah", THAT OLD GUY and his band took the stage once again and played FINNNNNNNNNNNNN. that one i went crazy when the song matured and the drums came in with an extremely out-of-the-norm stinging crasssssh ah.!!!!! maaaaaad night.

that was my baybeats adventure. 

let me tell you something, and i won't describe this 'something' as surprising, or shocking, but just... something. my family, once again and as usual, had encountered with another maid problem during this holiday. this time, adeline took the iniative, knocked on my mom's door a few times before entering to see a snoring 50-odd year old lady sleeping soundly on the queen-sized bed. she called out, "mam.. mam..." the sleeping beauty didn't respond, still deep in her sleep. adeline called out once again, "mam... mam..." finally, the sleeping beauty awaken-the-dreamer and gave an extremely confused look, because it is rude and uncommon for an employee to wake his/her employer up when he/she is having a glorious afternoon nap. adeline dropped the bomb. no she really did, because after dropping this bomb, the sleeping beauty immediately shot up from the bed and made several phone calls, before deciding to send her to the agent's place and away for good. my mom didn't even bother to shout at her, to scold her, to reprimand her. she simply instructed her to pack her bags and be gone for good. 

The Bomb: adeline, almost in a whisper, said, "mam, my cousin buy air ticket for me, i tonight 8 pm go home." okay just wait right this very moment. let's give this maid a round of applause because frankly, i genuinely think we should applaud her for her proactiveness with a tinge of courage. okay not a tinge, with a full bucket of courage.! an air ticket. her action definitely spoke louder than words. and very loudly. so wait. now, who's the LOUDSPEAKER.?!

and then i counted 11 days after the first of september - i purchased 2 very beautiful bloody red pair of vans at warped. one for myself, and another for my GIRLFRIEND GIRLFRIEND GIRLFRIEND I LOVE THIS WORD GIRLFRIEND to commemorate our 2nd month of... love, happiness, and bliss.................... AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW LYNETTE DON'T YOU JUST LOOOOOVE ME.

k soli, veli disgusting.

what else... .... i got myself hooked onto this hong kong drama and it's not very likely of me to watch a hk drama because it's all in cantonese but this one really did got my attention. wait, just listen to this - the viscious step mother did something really bad to try and break the family apart while the matriarch, the big mother, was away from home. when she returned from london, she wanted to sort things out, and asked for the step mom to pack her bags and leave this home for good. the step mom pleaded innocent, and asked for evidence, and the big mom gave a super duper reply which sometimes make me wonder where these script writers get their inspiration from. so fluently influential. and then i realised, they got it from me. YEAH. the big mom said, "this house is not a court. i don't need evidence. my eyes are the judge. LEAVE." wah kena own. i remembered changing my facebook status in admiration of her, that one day, when i become a father, i want to be as influential as her. 

to reach the extent of watching a hk drama during the holidays (and still not mentioning the countless and aimless facebook comments i made on almost everything on almost everyone's profile) really shows how lonely this boy got. because of the absence of a helper, the fact that i'm on a long holiday and had never intended to find a holiday job, plus the nearing exams for both my elder brothers, i was made to do the housework. do you know how disgusting is it to use your bare fingers to scrape off the remaining rice, drenched in thick curry gravy, with long and sharp fish bones, and threatening prawn heads and shells down the dustbin.? and then when you finally finish washing the dishes, you look up and your hand smells of a bad combination of dish washing liquid plus all the dinner crap, and yes, they become soggy little fingers. and it's not helping at all when i have a bad habit of biting my finger nails, which make them look ridiculously short. 

okay i'm done for a month's of update. i don't have godlike memory. that's all that i can recall. anything that happened during this month but wasn't mentioned here will only tell you that i haven't put in any consideration or you haven't left me a deep enough impression to be riverbelow-worthy. just like huichin's birthday. so ya, goodnight, as i disappear from the 26th of september to the 30th of september.