Tallis Scholars: Mother & Child

Tallis Scholars

Mother & Child

Meridian Arts Centre, Toronto

14th December 2025 

 

Programme: 

Tallis: Missa Puer natus - Gloria

Byrd: Votive Mass of the Virgin

Matthew Martin: Salve Regina

*Interval*

Tallis : Missa Puer natus - Sanctus and Agnus

Britten: A Hymn to the Virgin

Taverner: Mater Christi

Nesbett: Magnificat

I missed Chanticleer a few years ago so I couldn't miss the Tallis Scholars this time (though Chanticleer is back in 2026...)

The opening prayer (land acknowledgement) was longer & different from usual - it mentioned that the Mississaugas of the Credit came later than other indigenous groups, and talked about protecting the environment and working together in harmony and peace in a productive spirit.

Overall I enjoyed it a lot more than A Medieval Christmas by the Toronto Consort, which I attended 2 years back. Whether due to the time period of songs (Renaissance > Medieval & Early Renaissance), performers, acoustics (old churches < modern concert halls), seating (was on ground floor and it's a small venue so I was quite close to the stage) and/or my mood. Certainly the Tallis Scholars have an incredibly tight sound. 

The Tallis mass was split up, maybe so both halves of the performance could have Tallis works. The Agnus was draggy & repetitive.

There was a modern composition (Martin) which started off promisingly with an alto soloing the whole text in a Renaissance style but that was followed by the ensemble doing the rest of the piece in a modern style. The music might be technically consonant but in the same way Neoclassical Stravinsky is - it still doesn't sound good.

The Byrd mass was interesting in that the singers for the first part were a subset of the ensemble.

It seemed to be a more casual crowd, with many clapping between movements. Maybe they were subscribers to the variety of programmes presented by TO Live.

The Britten piece was interesting, with a call from the main choir (6 members singing in English) followed by a response from 4 members in the corner of the stage in Latin. It sounded better than most Britten works too.

The encore was French, which in this period has lower voices than English works and are darker & more somber (vs the bright and high English). Jean Mouton: Salva Nos, Domine.

The director Peter Phillips has been doing this for 52 years! That's some longevity. It's their 18th concert (in Toronto?) since the 80s. Not all were in the Meridian Arts Centre; the early ones, yes, when it was under a different name.

On having any Criticisms at all of Restaurants

Related: Food Review Flame

Some people think that posting anything less than a glowing review of a restaurant is meant to be some way of getting back at them. Even generally positive reviews which mention one thing that could've been improved on can be negatively received. 

The reality is that good and bad restaurants both exist. Not everywhere is going to be a 5 or even 4 star place. If everything is awesome, nothing is awesome. And sometimes that's fine. Sometimes price/value, speed, convenience or even needing to use up gift cards can be more important than food quality. 

Restaurants, even small ones, are not entitled to our money. Many people don't eat out often, so when they do they should have access to informed opinions about where they are planning to spend their hard-earned money. 

In addition, taste is subjective. There're places and dishes which other people like which I don't, and vice versa. And sometimes, the very reason I like a dish is the exact same reason someone else hates it, and vice versa. And that's fine. As they say in Latin, de gustibus non est disputandum (In matters of taste, there can be no disputes). But how will you know if tastes differs if no one is willing to talk about that? 

Furthermore, not everyone appreciates negative feedback. I have been asked by an establishment for feedback in the past and the response has been negative. Clearly they were just asking for the sake of asking. If you look around I'm not the only one who's had this experience. If even places that actively ask for feedback aren't always sincere, imagine how unsolicited negative feedback might be received. I've even been told that when I get items for takeout I should call them and give them feedback. That's a lot of time and effort I need to go through to provide something that they may not even care about.

This is to say nothing of third party reactions. I've had dining companions chide me for offering areas for improvement when asked (even when I only mentioned one thing when I could've said multiple). I've even been told that if I tell them anything negative, they may spit in everyone's food. Once, a place asked me how my item was and I said that it tasted weird. They then offered to remake it for me and I accepted. However, the person that I was dining with got upset about this and started complaining. So clearly, there can be negativity even when giving places attempts to "let them make things right". Apparently the polite thing to do is to pretend that everything is great. 

A while back, on Quora I read an answer (which I can't find anymore) by someone working in a restaurant (either a server, cook or restaurant manager) saying that customers who give negative feedback about the food are entitled, that restaurants have their own ways that they do things that they're not going to change for a customer, and that if you don't like how they do them, that's on you - but that if it's something obviously wrong like forgetting the salt, you should tell them. And indeed, when something is that obviously and (almost-)objectively off (or when items are missing or wrong), I do let them know.

And if an establishment does ask me what I thought, I do still tell them, even if I think they don't really want to know (a little spit in food never killed anyone anyway, and if the staff are really so spiteful, it's unlikely that the food is good enough that I'll want to go back).

Salesman in China

Aside: the content warnings for plays are getting crazy

This was a new play that premiered at the Stratford Festival, about Arthur Miller's staging of Death of a Salesman in China in 1983, starring Adrian Pang as Ying Ruocheng, a Chinese actor, director, translator and later Vice Minister of Culture.

This being the Stratford Festival, the standard of the production was top notch (even Rent, which I didn't like, was well-produced, with my dislike having nothing to do with the production itself). Adrian Pang continues his winning streak - the scripts of all the plays I've seen him in are excellent, and this one was no exception. The contrast between them and Alfian Sa'at trash is very obvious.

A third of the play was in Mandarin, and they leaned fully into this: there were bilingual announcements and even the land acknowledgement was partially in Mandarin (the first time I'd seen this, naturally). Interestingly, it was also the first time I'd gotten details of the relevant treaties in a land acknowledgement. The English and Mandarin lines were almost fully translated for the audience via surtitles (excepting a few throwaway bits and the street performer [see below]).

I was impressed they found so many ethnic Chinese to act in this. Surely, they will have challenges staging it in many parts of the world, since language and ethnicity are both barriers. The Mandarin of the Chinese characters was good, except for one who sounded a bit awkward. I think this was my first time seeing Pang act in Mandarin (probably my first time seeing him speak it too).

It was a bit odd to have some of the Chinese characters often talk to each other in English. It wasn't so that other Chinese people around them would not understand. Ying Ruocheng's father Ying Qianli spoke English with a British accent, which I found a bit strange, but he studied in the UK, so that makes sense.

The play explored issues such as the Cultural Revolution, then-contemporary Chinese politics, musings about translation, adaptation and the theatre (a play about putting on play - how meta), fathers and sons (this tied into both main characters' stories too). Despite my having no familiarity with the original play, key bits were well explained and performed, so this was not a barrier to understanding and enjoying this play.

It was interesting to learn that at the time, Western characters on the Chinese stage put on makeup and prosthetics (including noses), as well as wigs: whiteface! The play talked about the intent of it, cultural practices and authenticity, which I found interesting. The play also explored cultural nuances, like the American ambassador calling Qing Ming auspicious (I didn't hear any laughs other than mine). This was called out later in the script for the non-Chinese audience.

Amusingly, Miller dissed comparative literature, with people in the field claiming his play said various things, despite his disagreement. It was interesting to learn that China at the time was still sexually conservative; I have been told that post-Cultural Revolution, China was sexually liberal due to old habits and culture being tossed out. I guess not.

Just after the intermission, an actor playing a street performer with a fan and hollow gourd (Kuaibanshu/快板书) came up onto the stage and started his route. There were no surtitles for this bit, which I suppose was fitting, given the spontaneous nature of the medium. He said something like "you don't understand me so go and watch Netflix", with the last 2 words in English, and the audience laughed. Even as someone with some level of Mandarin understanding, it was hard to understand him as he spoke very quickly. He told us to say "特棒" ("very good") but very few repeated after him.

The last line of the play, 一路平安 ("have a safe trip"), spoken by Ying to Miller, was not translated, but from the context the audience could tell what it meant.

After the curtain call, archival photos of the events portrayed in the play were flashed in the background, which was a nice touch.

Blaire White Takes America Tour: Toronto - Event Recount

I was at the Toronto leg of the Blaire White Takes America Tour. It was in turns entertaining, enlightening, shocking and touching.

Here is an account of the evening, with light redaction due to privacy reasons (some people requested not to be on camera, so I've removed identifying details where applicable - it's unsurprising yet sad and telling that a few people needed anonymity despite not saying anything that should be controversial).

There weren't any protesters despite the accessibility of the venue. The security check was more thorough than average, though.

At the start of the event, the venue was about half full. Besides the chairs on the main floor, there were couches at the sides of the room.

I've seen a few people claim that Blaire uses a lot of filters to buff her appearance, but in real life she passes well.

The evening started with images of news articles and commentary on them.

First up was Kayla Lemieux. Blaire noted Canada was 1-2 years ahead of the US. A woman who knew someone who knew Kayla Lemieux said he was a troll. Someone mentioned some saga (involving a taser? It was an old story). Blaire noted you need to go to a sex shop to find such large breasts.

Blaire then talked about the P Diddy scandal - she said more Kamala endorsements would be coming because the FBI has dirt on them. And the P Diddy scandal took a while to come out because no one cares about male victims of sexual abuse. She said rap and hip hop were CIA creations to turn black men gay, and it hard to argue the contrary: who needs so many dildos?

Next was the New York father losing his kid to train mania - she's spoken to many autistic ex trans people and parents who've lost custody of their kids as long as the other parent buys into trans mania. So we must talk about autism more, so we understand how "autistic angels categorise gender" and we can avoid some of this. She loves talking to crowds like this because it proves people care and she's not crazy. The order these things go is the UK, then Canada, then the US.

She said half of the audience that night were queer, so such people needed to speak up. They're not Nazis (the Nazis are in Chicago).

The US has cultural trauma over the treatment of gay people, so this baggage carried over to trans mania. It was also laziness & US for-profit healthcare. She asked why trans mania was bigger in Canada, and most people blamed Trudeau. Most in the crowd said they didn't like him. But he's on his way out. She wasn't sure what she could say: there's no freedom of speech in Canada. We're more vulnerable here because that's not codified in law, and we don't have so many guns.

15 minutes in, it was time for Blaire to react to Woke TikToks.

She started off with various throwaway comments (some of which were quite petty, so I didn't bother noting them).

There was a clown with green hair and a white face calling conservatives weird (Ed: The image here is of the interviewer, not the interviewee). She pointed out that he looked like a serial killer. She pointed to 3 people in the audience with coloured hair and asked them to take it back. She herself used to have purple hair: she's good with it if you're not a commie.

Addendum: I found part of this interview on iFunny, from @conservative.latino

Next was a guy who takes pride in making people uncomfortable. He had colourful eyeshadow. He's not a trans person. Blaire commented that people don't want to assimilate: they just want to look aesthetically unpleasing to annoy people.

The following video was a black man promoting racial segregation in education. He claimed only black people can teach black history because white people suppress it. Blaire quipped that in the US, race is a sickness. Half of the US is arguing for racial segregation and this is seen as a virtuous position.

The last video was of a "folx therapist". She commented that these people are always ugly. When she films these TikTok reaction videos in private it takes a long time to finish, because she's always going wtf. She asked the crowd what's a "folx" - they use the term so much. She was being petty about the term but it still annoys her. She didn't know it was a gender neutral way to say "folks". She quipped that it's funny how often these people are therapists, but you'll come out of therapy with them with more problems.

26 minutes after the session started, it was Q&A time. She felt Toronto was a safer, nicer New York or LA. But she admitted she hadn't been to the slums yet.

Q1 (some redaction has been done here): This person requested not to be on camera. He was a train and transitioned 2 decades ago as a minor. at 14. It was not ideal, but it was a different time and you had to look for it back then.  He was from Europe. He said most people here are not trans - do you ever worry you'll be rounded up?

A1: White said she was not against all youth transition. She was 31, which was 61 in trans years. She has guns in Texas she doesn't worry, not like they'd do anything. There's too much truth when you look about what trans mania is doing to kids and women's sports. So it'll lapse. People are sick of this

Q1: He works for a certain employer, so he'll be fired if he talks about it. He lives stealth. How can he help?

A1: Have on the ground conversations in real life with people, not in public. Those who can do it in the public sphere need to. There'll be real questions asked in time. How did people not speak out?

Q1: I had surgery at a young age 17. It was a good choice for me, but not others necessarily

A1: I swear you won't be on the video 

Q2: This was a woman from Buffalo. There's a post about not letting politicians you don't know ruin your friendships. I do that unless they're dicks. Do you agree? How do you handle someone who says I can't be friends with you because of politics?

A2: "Fuck off bitch". This is one of the most common Q&As she gets. She'll never advocate cutting off family but you don't need such intolerant friends. It's not a loss but a gain to be cut off. She herself can be friends with people. There's a decent part of her audience who are libs (you might be surprised). It's hard when they laugh about Trump being shot.

Q2: I've friends who'll disown me about this.

A2: Maybe it'll make them second guess their positions because they're friends and can see that they disagree with them. I wish people didn't treat others as enemies. I feel bad (only for a moment) calling Kamala supporters retarded.

Q3: Touring the US, gave you found ??? [Ed: I didn't catch this]

A3: Head size. Wig doesn't fit.

Q3: How can I support trans issues to friends in there?

A3: Understand that it's nuanced. No one side has a monopoly on the truth. There're many opinions. There're many issues that the hearts and minds of the whole community don't agree on.

At this point, idiots near me in in the queue were talking very loudly (even after I shushed them), so it was hard to hear the Q&A.

Q4: I'm a CP [Ed: child porn] survivor. I see how you defend kids. Thank you. I went to a school 15 minutes from Kayla Lemieux. I was so embarrassed.

A4: The world knows you as a survivor.

Q4: What would you tell your old self about this journey?

A4: "Buckle up bitch". It's been 8 years. It's been insane. It's not all fun and games. Get ready for FBI visits and death threats. Don't take it personally.

Q5: Where I'm from it's hard to be gay. I'm from Colombia. I realised I was gay when I came to Canada. I hated school. There was outrageous content in school. I need to teach my family about gays. How do you help education about that?

A5: In the western world, people are disconnected with other countries' treatment of gay people. I saw a video asking where people think it's illegal to be gay. They really think it's worse to be gay in Florida than Iran, and that it's illegal to be gay in Florida. The content taught in school: crazy books, in elementary schools in the US. How to go on Grindr. Or worse, scat. This is in school and public libraries. It's good to teach acceptance, and to be kind. But that's not what's happening. Nefarious groups are pushing this. The world is run by pedophiles. People don't talk about it. Go back to early 2000s education!

Q5: I had a gay teacher. No one cheered him.

A5: Don't cheer. Treat gay people like normal people.

Q6: We have the same name. My last name is your first. Blaire is someone who projects. Thanks for inspiring people. People are afraid. You speak for people who need a voice. I found you by accident. People bring hate to you. You're not a victim. I love how you bring humour to it. It's not that bad. I brought my straight friend blind to this event. He's going through a divorce. Do you have any advice for him?

A6: I'm so sorry. There's chapters in life. No matter how bad it gets, life goes on. The most beautiful things come out of bad ones. That happened to me. I hope you find a hotter wife.

Q7. I've been watching you since 2016. Don't put me in the video because of my job. We can't own guns. Me and friends face harassment and stalking. I wish we had guns. We can't even have pepper spray. We have no true means of protection. How would you protect yourself without them? I didn't know pepper spray was illegal until something happened to my friend and I looked into it.

A7: Pepper spray is illegal? That's nefarious. Jujitsu?

Q8: I messaged you on Instagram earlier today. Puberty blockers are accessible to young kids in Canada. I feel they're too accessible. I'm a detransitioner. I was abused at the ages of 5 or 6. At 12 I thought I was trans. I had mental problems but it was normalised. It was okay to identify as male at 12. It shouldn't be. 

Buck Angel said being trans should be one's last resort. What do you think should be done to make puberty blockers less accessible? Canadian studies show there're kids prescribed puberty blockers after 1 visit, without any therapy.

A8: Thanks for being open. I talk about some of this on my channel. In person it's better. I support a ban on them for minors and regulating diagnosis of gender dysphoria. The criteria should apply to adults. I don't think 26 should be the minimum age for transition. You can die for your country at 18. The age of consent for sex is 16-18. 

These therapists are lazy and abusive. It's a band aid on something deeper. It used to be reported that a common side effect of child sex abuse is wanting to not be your gender. But now because of political correctness you can't say this. It's not true of everyone but it is of many. Encourage real conversations. It's about hearts and minds and not the law. See gay marriage. Culture changed and the understanding of issues changed, which led to it. Be brave and tell these stories.

Q8: Instead of 13 year olds getting double mastectomies, we need to make therapy more accessible. I didn't need a new wardrobe, or to chop off my hair. I just needed a good therapist. Not a band aid therapist. Transgenderism is a process.

A8: I see it as a last resort. Now it's the first resort. It's a lifestyle that doesn't work for many people. I don't talk about this much because I'm trying to save kids but it's hard to be trans.

Q9: How do I help you guys? I have an interview coming up but I'm afraid of copying you.

A9: Copy me. I want that. People copy my video format and I'm flattered. In 2016-7 I was the only one talking about this. Now I'm not.

Q9: Fake trans stuff has put me back in dysphoria. Thanks for making me confident and make me feel like a woman again. You brought me back. I wore a pretty dress to see you today.

A9: Thanks. This is why I do what I do.

Q10: I'm from the US: Rochester. I drove 3 hours to see you. I love to do it. I've been watching you for 2.5 years. I love your content. Thanks for standing up to the woke mob, and standing for truth. You have so much courage and fortitude. You inspire me to come forward. I used to be on the woke left. I recently left it. I'm a multimedia artist and photographer. I'm in college studying art. It's so hard to be right leaning.

A10: I thought you said white leaning.

Q10: I'd love to make art about these issues. What would you recommend about navigating an artistic space full of liberals and tackling issues?

A10: You'd be surprised: the right would welcome you. The left is powerful because of absorbing aspects of culture. You need to dive in and be brave. Set the frequency and have authenticity. This is not the best answer. It will be scary. I can promote you. Be brave. That's what art is and is supposed to be. People are sick of regurgitated bullshit in the arts.

Q10: I hold liberal views but at my core I am conservative. I want to unify people through art. I see nuances on both sides. A lot of people on both sides tell each other horrendous things.

A10: It's ugly. I appreciate people in art like Tom MacDonald. It's more important than what many political commentators do. I look forward to seeing your art .

Q11: For self defence in Canada, me and my friends carry coyote spray. A cop I asked says it's fine. Box cutters too.

I've been transitioning for 4 years. I'm 20. I had bottom surgery in march. I had top surgery at 18. There was an option for it to be secret (not to tell my parents). What's your opinion on that? Many 15-16 year olds do that.

A11: I've nothing against you. I hope you have a beautiful life. But it's dangerous to drug kids without parental consent. It's not sustainable and is a disaster. We fight against it. I don't doubt there're some exceptional individuals who know it's the right thing (to transition) but it's a roll of the dice for everyone else. There're more people sucked in than those it works out for.

Q11: It's crazy how Canada does this.

Q12: Who's the better Canadian export: Bieber or Drake?

A12: Justin Bieber. Poor him with Diddy. It happened to me. It's unhealthy for the human psyche. Drake is an asshole. I like Degrassi.

Q13: Regarding social contagion of transgenderism online, how do you address it without erasing trans people?

A13: Parents and responsibility. Control your kid's access to phones and the Internet. It's a depraved modern culture where kids have complete access to everything. Keep pushing back on these groups. Laugh them out of existence. They're anti-science. Kids might fall into my videos and find out about them.

Q14: There're 3 trans people in my year alone. I graduated from high school 2 years ago.

A14: It's crazy. In my day, in the 90s and 00s, I was the only gay person I knew. Now there're multiple trans people. It's social contagion. Send them a video of mine. At my last stop one parent said your content gave me my kid back. Thanks. My kid detransitioned because of you.

Q15: I transitioned in the early 2010s. I was sure of it then and was sure of it for a long time. One day I woke up at 28. It was totally unexpected but I realised I'd made a mistake. I didn't tell people I was born male for years. I was so much better and happier than other. You are similar. What would you do if you woke up one day and said I'm Robbie, not Blaire?

A15: Life is like that. I'm not omniscient. I've made the best of my life so far. I'm happy. We must increase education so fewer people end up like you. Don't just show positive stories like mine. It's a crazy disservice to paint a false picture.

Q15: I was happy for so long. I said I was a success case. My family used me to defend trans mania. Thinking of happiness as a final state is bad. Aren't authenticity or truth better?

A15: Take a 360 degree view. It's not just about trans. The narrative is the problem. There's life outside that. I don't know what I'd do. It's a bridge you'd cross if it comes to it. It's about information. What do you think would've stopped you from making what you see now as mistake?

Q15: The whole trans ideology not existing. Society not saying it's possible. When I was a young man I thought no gay man would want me.

Why would I want to live a lie? It's not just about happiness. I lacked meaning, truth and authenticity. Society doesn't value these things. Would you do everything all over again knowing what you do now?

A15: I'd live my life exactly the same way. I'm not God. I can't see the future. Even if I change my mind I know what has happened. I wouldn't be on tour with an audience without this. All things lead to a certain path. Transitioning for me helps me save others from making a mistake. If that's my cross to bear I will. Ed: This was very touching.

At this point maybe 3/4 of the room was full, excluding the couches at the side.

Q16: I worked for left wing politics for 8 years. I was cancelled for liking your show. I lost 2 careers and  $7,000 a month in income. I got called a Nazi. I'm trans.

Trans medicalism: do you see this as sociopolitical or medical?

A16: I see it as a medical disorder. I'll die on this hill. Saying it's sociopolitical reduces it. I knew I didn't fit into this world. You don't need to stigmatise it. Take anxiety and depression - lots of smart people with achievements have them. The higher your IQ the more mental illness you have. So don't be too ill or in hospital. Don't stigmatise it. Don't attach a value judgment to "wrong".

Q16: I'm happy I can publicly support you now I've lost my entire career.

Ed: This was pretty touching too.

Q17: Regarding self defence, I'm 90 lbs and 5 ft nothing. It's better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6. Do what you need to do.

What's the biggest shift since you took estrogen?

A17: I love your doggy and the shoes.

It's hard to say. I've changed in ways I don't understand. My brain works differently now. I connect romantically and not sexually. It's made me more emphatic. I speak the language of emotion better. Feelings are a language too. I don't go "facts don't care about your feelings" anymore.

There're also physical changes. I understand some of what women go through even if it's not 100%. I see the world differently.

Q17: What's your favourite part of being a woman?

A17: Being perceived as a woman. I'm not a woman. I'm more comfortable with myself now.

Q18: Anti white rhetoric is so pervasive in today's society. I find it so weird. I'm many things: Native American, Nigerian, East Asian and European. You're mixed too. And I'm bi.

Today people are very mixed. We're intermingled. It's weird it's not common sense to see we're all so similar. It's a fact we're 99.9% the same. Regarding Candace and Social autopsy, would you be able to connect with Candace? You disagree on many things.

A18: We agree on a lot too. It was an ugly debate. But it was so long ago, so it's hard to be upset. A lot of what she says is crazy but I respect her bravery.

Anti white stuff is crazy. It's an over correction of racism. People don't see it happening for whatever reason. History will record this as a crazy time. You can say the craziest things about white people on TV. People can't assess what's happening in real time, only in hindsight. People email me and tell me their companies fire them for being white. It's okay to be white.

Q18: I'm half white. When I say I'm black I'm hired faster. Living in LA, I put down I was dating a trans person and I was multiracial and that's how I got a job. It's real. It's happening 

Q19 (some redaction has been done here): This person requested not to be in the video too. I came out a while back. I'm a liberal dream due to intersectionality.

Radical feminist punk bands. I find many libs I know, my friends: I don't hate them. They say very ignorant things, like one making remarks about me as a minority while being blonde haired and blue eyed. The same friend gave me wardrobe suggestions but when I rejected them, she called me a homophobe and made more ignorant remarks.

They're ignorant, and don't know what they're talking about.

They condemn Jordan Peterson. They call him anti woman, but can't say why. I listened to hours of him but couldn't find anything.

This is especially bad in the Toronto music scene. They're rich white kids. Anti capitalists living in fancy apartments their parents pay for. How do we educate them?

A19: They can never say why Jordan Peterson is a misogynist or provide a quote. That is done to me too.

They should go to therapy to work on self awareness and understanding and see another aspect. They're projecting and lack self awareness.

When you red pill people you get them to understand the lies they believe. Show black and white evidence. I show people clips that are not out of context. For example the lie about Trump saying there were very fine people on both sides. That creates a crack which only grows.

Q19: When I came out I watched LGBT content to feel better but it made me feel bad about myself. But I found you, Ariel and Red Colombo.

A19: There's a waning number of cool LGBT people but we're here.

The main session then ended (certain higher tier ticket holders had more activities, just like some did before the event), with Blaire thanking everyone for coming and being vulnerable on mike. She noted that not everyone is so honest.

Under the Rockets' Glow: Shira's Journey to Courage - A Review

Terrorism supporters are very upset over "Under the Rockets' Glow: Shira's Journey to Courage", which shot to prominence after being endorsed by Mayim Bialik.

They keep going on about "genocide", children dying under the rockets' glow and allegations that the "rockets" are missiles falling on Gaza (when it's crystal clear just from the cover that the "rockets" are the ones launched by the Palestinians to try and kill Israelis and people in Israel, as well as the Iron Dome rockets launched to intercept them) and other nonsense - it's clear they've never read the book (or even thought critically about what the title and image might be referring to, instead just recalling their anti-Semitic lines).

We even have memes like this:

"Baby's First Genocide"

Annoyed by the rampant stupidity, I decided to pay USD 8.71 to buy and read the book myself. Happily, "A portion of all proceeds will be donated to the victims of the October 7 massacre".

Frankly, I found the book disappointing, since I was really curious as to how a children's book would justify genocide. I was looking forward to seeing how the author, Roman Sandler, could package such a complex adult topic into a 26-page book targeted at kids (of which only 20 pages are actual content).

Surprise surprise, not only did the book not justify "genocide" - it didn't even mention the Palestinians (or Arabs). Much less mention Gaza or the West Bank.

As for the "rockets" mentioned in the title of the book, here is what they look like:

Compare this with the following:

"Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets launched from the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, as seen from Ashkelon, Israel, January 1, 2024" (Reuters)

So it's incontrovertible that the rockets the book refers to are indeed the ones launched by Palestinians and the ones fired by the Iron Dome to destroy them; in my research, I could not find instances of the IDF firing rockets. This is unsurprising, since rockets are not very precise and the IDF goes to exhaustive lengths to minimise civilian casualties. Here is what Israel bombing Gaza looks like:

"Flames and smoke rise during Israeli airstrikes in the southern Gaza Strip on May 11, 2021." (via the Washington Post)

Not to mention how the city over which the rockets are shooting seems to be Jerusalem, so presumably the Israelis are trying to "genocide" themselves (then again, terrorist supporters, e.g. Piers Corbyn, Jeremy Corby's brother, keep claiming that October 7th was an inside job false flag by the IDF/Mossad, so).

Here is a photo of Jerusalem by night, where you can see the Al-Aqsa Mosque (compare it with the image of the city in the book, and the characteristic shape of the Dome of the Rock):

(via Flickr user joiseyshowaa)

Further driving home the point, the girl in the book, Little Shira, cannot sleep because she is scared of the shadows cast by the rockets, and asks "Why can't they let us sleep, Abba?" Presumably "they" is not referring to the IDF:

Of course, I remember when the terrorism supporters got very upset over a study on sleep deprivation in Israelis due to Palestinian terrorists' rocket attacks (I think it was this study) so who knows how their twisted logic interprets this page.

The book even ends on a wish for peace:

Sadly, peace will never come even in Israel itself as long as the "River to the Sea" crowd demand the ethnic cleansing they've been dreaming of for 76 years.

There're certainly legitimate criticisms that can be made of this book - for example, that it uses AI-generated images (there is no illustrator credited). It's also clearly made for an American audience, with 12.5% of the content (well, all of 2.5 panels) dedicated to Chanukah/Hanukkah when it is relatively unimportant minor festival in Israel and is only big in the US because of Christmas.

I'm not sure that criticisms of it over-simplifying history are valid if one takes off any ideologically-tinted lenses one happens to be wearing - the genre of children's picture book is not known for its sophistication or nuance. I'm sure a pro-Jewish reviewer could equally criticise it on these spurious grounds if he were so retarded since, for example, it doesn't mention the Babylonian Captivity, instead doing a time and narrative jump between Nebuchadnezzar destroying the temple and Ezra rebuilding it.

On reflection, perhaps the apparent lack of comprehension skills of terrorist supporters is revealing, and is a tacit admission that the "genocide" that they are protesting is really just Israel defending itself. We can see this too by how demands for a "ceasefire" are accompanied by calls to bomb Tel Aviv - the mask has once again dropped, and terrorism supporters proclaim that the "ceasefire" they so crave means that Israel must stop defending itself and let its enemies kill as many of its people as they want.

Shen Yun 2022 - Review

I watched Shen Yun in 2022 and wanted to post my review of it, but didn't get down to doing it. Now I can't find my programme (important to scan since photography was forbidden, even for the curtain call), but have decided to post the review first. If I ever find the programme I will add scans of it:

I got the chance last year to see Shen Yun. Though it is marketed as a Chinese dance performance, I knew that there was going to be Falungong propaganda, not least thanks to this exciting New Yorker article:

Chairman Mao appeared, and the sky turned black; the city in the digital backdrop was obliterated by an earthquake, then finished off by a Communist tsunami. A red hammer and sickle glowed in the center of the wave. Dazed, I rubbed my eyes and saw a huge, bearded face disappearing in the water.

“Was that . . . ?” I said to my brother, wondering if I needed to go to the hospital.

“Karl Marx?” he said. “Yeah, I think that was a tsunami with the face of Karl Marx.”

But this was actually part of the appeal - it being Falungong propaganda and including anti-Communist elements would make the performance more entertaining than a pure Chinese dance spectacle.

Shen Yun - a telling view into the World of Falungong

The best way to summarise Shen Yun is Chinese and Chineseish dance in front of a sometimes-psychedelic video screen, with a dose of Falungong propaganda. The dancing was actually pretty well done, with seamless transitions between live action on the stage and the video screen, as characters climbed into and out of it and the music was pleasant.

They had a very strict no photo policy. So even for the curtain call, photography was not allowed. Excuses about performers' safety aside, this is almost surely to allow them to better curate their image; none of the copious marketing material I've seen so much as hints at the Falungong propaganda, or even its Falungong connections, for example - apparently their performers are so fragile that photos taken before the performance, during the intermission and during the curtain call can endanger them.

I remember Chinese dance being an exclusively female activity, but they had men in many dances, with some all-male dances even. There were also 2 minority dances - from the Yi and the Jurchen, as well as more general skits, like a Monkey King one, and the Falungong propaganda pieces (which I will get to later).

Before and after each piece, there was bilingual commentary in English and Mandarin. Yet, it was not fully translated in either direction, so if you only understand one you missed some bits. The Mandarin-only commentary was mostly decorative, though.

There was somewhat less Falungong propaganda than I'd expected. Excepting the references to traditional Chinese religion, the first of it came in the form of a tenor accompanied by piano singing a song about God, modern corruption and ancient traditions, which was vague enough. 

Then, 45 minutes in, there was talk about Falungong and persecution, introducing a skit about modern day Falungon persecution, entitled "insanity during the end of days". In it, Communists (dressed in black t-shirts with a hammer and sickle on the back) killed a girl - the daughter of military official who discovered to his horror his complicity in her death. Hilariously, at the end Buddha and dancing maidens in ancient garb appeared and resurrected her. This was so ridiculous, I laughed out loud. 

After the intermission, there was more propaganda. There was an instrumental erhu and piano piece (The Spirit of Dafa).

Then there was a soprano accompanied by piano singing a song with very blatant lyrics about Falungong's founder being the Messiah and condemning atheism and evolution, as well as modern thought and modern ways leading one to hell. [Falun] Dafa, we were told, was salvation. There're many interesting parallels with communism, including the personality cult and the condemnation of degenerate culture, and this puts paid to the lie of Falungong being a secular movement based on meditation and health practices.

The final skit was again set in modern China, and the Falungong book was treated like a sacred text. It showed the alienation of modern life, with alcohol and mobile phones and prominently featured a banner with the magic words "真善忍" (truth, benevolence, endurance); the previous propaganda skit had also used this banner, albeit less prominently).

Black clad CCP figures then came out to persecute the Falungong members again, and in the finale, a huge tsunami came to destroy the city, until a monk-like figure (he had hair) in a white robe clad monk flew in to save the day, repelling the tsunami. Then dancing maidens in Chinese garb appeared.

I was pretty surprised that all the blatant propaganda attracted so much applause, but I guess many people were being polite.

Ironically, given its marketing as showcasing "true" Chinese culture, there was a good deal of western influence in the performance. The orchestra was mainly a Western one - strings, brass, winds, harp & percussion, with the only Chinese instruments being one erhu and one pipa. 

They also mentioned that their dancers had ballet training and indeed the ballet influence was apparent, but they claimed that ballet had been influenced by Chinese dance anyway (I am unable to find non-Shen Yun sources for this claim).

From visual and programme inspection, everyone involved in the production seemed of East Asian, if not of Chinese descent, except the male host (doing the English commentary) and a trombone player (who was the only non-Chinese-instrument orchestra player - and this was called out in the program).

In 2022, their only performance in Asia was in Taiwan, and they performed in many cities with many people of Chinese descent, which led me to speculate that besides raising money and the profile of Falungong, Shen Yun was meant to influence Chinese people. In 2023, though, they've expanded their reach in Asia (probably due to covid restrictions) and are doing Japan and Korea too.

Shen Yun claims that you cannot see a performance like this in China. Well. This is not quite true. Chinese dance is not banned. Falungong and Shen Yun themselves are, so it's true from a certain point of view that you can't see a performance like this in China. Interestingly

They say they put on a new show every year, but the Falungong propaganda and anti-CCP content is not going to change, so I'm pretty much done with Shen Yun (it's not cheap either). However, if you've never seen it, it's worth going to get a peek into their world and how crazy it is.

Enlightened Low Carb Ice Cream - Review

After being disappointed that,

- Arctic Zero tastes like shit (at 8g carbs/sugar per 70g for the Brownie flavour, too)
- Halo Top low carb Ice Cream is no longer available in Singapore (I called up Little Farms and they told me it had been banned by the Singaporean government - this before I'd gotten to try it!)
- Redmart no longer stocks Popsicle/Fudsicle no sugar added pops
- Callery's dietary information is complicated (they only report total carbohydrates, dietary fibre and total sugar; they tell me that "the true net carbs can be calculated by halving dietary fiber and adding total sugar. For example, this makes it 6.3g of net carbs per serving for our Belgian Dark Chocolate flavour" - actually the number should be 6.7g according to the nutritional information but anyway since sugar alcohols are not reported separately it's hard to compare the nutritional information since there may be non-sugar non-sugar alcohol carbohydrates inside)
- Sugalight is hard to get and their normal range contains Maltitol; they have a so-called LCHF range but that only has 2 flavours and you need to order online, and hit $60 for free delivery (interesting fact: Artificial sweeteners like Aspartame, Sucralose and "Natural Intense Sweeteners" like Stevia are "disallowed under HPB Healthier Snack Programme")

I was happy to discover that Cold Storage had brought in Enlightened Ice Cream (the flavours not brought in like Cookies & Cream, French Toast, Glazed Donut, Mint Chocolate Chip and Strawberry Cheesecake sound nicer, but the grass is greener on the other side)

Flavours I've seen so far, with my reviews (if applicable):



Black cherry chocolate chip (I don't like cherry so I doubt I'll try this):
7g net carbs per 72g



Chocolate Peanut Butter:
3g net carbs per 69g

This is the lowest carb of the lot

The texture of the ice cream is a bit gummy. There's some aftertaste from the sweetener.

The flavour of the peanut butter is very convincing. That of the chocolate is a little off.

It's better than Arctic Zero, definitely



Fudge Brownie:
9g net carbs per 71g



Sea Salt Caramel (oddly it's not on the Cold Storage website):
6g net carbs per 70g



Toasted Almond:
(no picture)


The texture of the ice cream is a bit gummy like that of the Chocolate Peanut Butter. Possibly less so, but that might depend on the circumstances of eating (e.g. how melted the ice cream is). I don't seem to taste the aftertaste like with Chocolate Peanut Butter.

The sea salt caramel flavour is very convincing, though not like the other Salted Caramel ice creams I've had. But different ice creams will taste different anyway.

I prefer this to Chocolate Peanut Butter.


Addendum:

Fairprice Finest has a lot more flavours

I've tried:

Birthday Cake - Convincing cake and sprinkles taste

Banana Foster - Tastes a little off but probably that's because artificial banana flavour is based on the Gros Michel not the Cavendish which is our current banana

Ai Weiwei's Human Flow and the Global Refugee Crisis

I recently watched Ai Weiwei's Human Flow, about the global refugee crisis.

While the cinematography wasn't bad, it disappointingly (but not surprisingly) failed to take a critical look at the global refugee crisis.

Near the start of the film, it quoted the UN's 1951 Refugee Convention on a refugee being "someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion" (or words to that effect - they edited the quote a little)

However, it then uncritically applied the term (by extension) to many disparate groups, and it seems the film's definition of refugee is any migrant from a third world country who doesn't respect borders; the documentary unironically informs us that every day, more than 3,400 people flee their homes due to poverty, famine and war, not realising how there is little to no overlap with the 1951 Convention. And of course the film was sympathetic to and unquestioning of them (in other words, it more or less calls for open borders - at least for poor people from the Third World).

The film took an expansive look at voluntary human flows across the world; while a lot of time was spent on the European migrant crisis (largely in the form of Syrians, Africans and unknown others in Greece trying to make their way to richer Western European countries), we were also taken to Rohingya camps, Palestinians in Jordanian camps, Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, the US-Mexico border [presumably crime is a valid reason to seek asylum] and more, without asking what the commonalities and differences among these groups were - indeed, whether all of them were really refugees. Unfortunately the film also jumped around, returning to some locations more than once - all without the context of a strong narrative (there was no narrator and while there was some text onscreen from time to time, it was used to add additional information rather than disciplining the film's flow).

Most notably, so-called "climate change refugees" were mentioned, but the irony of their reason for leaving their countries being clearly spelt out and contradicting the UN Refugee Convention was not even hinted at.

Another notable example was Palestinians in the Gaza and the West Bank: considering that these two territories are part of the de jure state of Palestine, the only refugee angle I can think of is that Ai is suggesting that they are refugees from land that is now part of Israel (and given that 21% of the Israel population is Israeli Arab, that suggests that the fear of being persecuted wasn't well-founded). And as far as I could tell, all of the Palestine scenes were set in Gaza, giving the misleading impression that those in the West Bank have an equally hard time (though, to Ai's credit, the movie did mention that both Egypt and Israel were blockading the Gaza Strip).

More broadly, none of the interviewees mentioned any downsides of mass migrant/refugee flows, much less was critical of them. The whitewashing was especially remarkable, given that some part of the film was set in Calais and migrant crime in Calais is very well-reported.

Naturally, there was no mention of well-founded principles of international law in the forms of the "safe third country" and "country of first asylum" principles; while documentaries on the big/small screen inevitably take a more visual approach to presenting their subject material, one would imagine that at least some critical engagement should be made with the subject matter - otherwise the documentary becomes either poverty/suffering porn, a propaganda piece or both. This was especially puzzling given at least one excellent opportunity to ask these questions: they interviewed a black guy in Paris in a makeshift migrant camp under a bridge who said it was very hard crossing 3 or more countries, and one could die. He also said that he thought that Europe was the land of freedom, democracy, respect and human rights (it was unclear if he was complaining about not getting enough/any benefits since he didn't complain that he was going to be deported); given that France presumably wasn't the first European country he was in, it is strange why he wasn't asked why he didn't claim asylum in the first one rather than shopping around.

One interviewee remarked that the Post-World War II system of dealing with refugees was not suited to today's situation, but he didn't say what should be done about it - possibly his solution is that we need open borders, and that the quoted number of more than 5,000 drowning in the Mediterranean in 2016 will not increase if you welcome even more people.

The vaguest of hints that free migration might not be all good was a Syrian astronaut Muhammed Faris saying he dreamed of people living in peace and harmony. He did acknowledge that there were evil people around, but his solution was to send them into space. Then again, maybe the evil people he had in mind were Border Control officials like ICE, which liberals want to abolish.

Although there wasn't a strong narrative, it was obvious from the uncritical view the film had of alleged refugees that it was for open borders. We were told that when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 there were 11 border walls, but there're 70 today (while the reasons one might want to put them up were left unexplained - presumably it is obvious that border walls are prima facie a bad thing). Towards the end, it interviewed a Mexican activist who said immigration was a human right, and improving your lives and those of your children were also human rights. Tellingly, she didn't make any reference to refugees. Hopefully the bait and switch did not go unnoticed by all who watched the film.


Trailer:

Maltitol in Atkins Products on iHerb.com

Many Atkins products contain the sugar alcohol maltitol, which has a much high glycemic index than other sugar alcohols.

Of the selection on iHerb.com, I have divided the catalogue into those with no, some and a lot of maltitol. I also add my reviews for those that I've tried. [Ed: Some of these might no longer be available on iHerb. A few, I got from Amazon so they might not be on iHerb either]


No maltitol
I haven't tried:
Dark Chocolate Cherry & Nuts Bar
Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars
Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramel Bar
Peanut Butter Fudge Crisp

Shakes: vanilla, strawberry, milk chocolate - these taste nice, but are rather thin
Cafe caramel, dark chocolate, - I haven't tried these

Blueberry Greek yogurt
Excellent - like the real thing [Ed: Last I checked iHerb, there was maltitol, but the version that I bought doesn't have maltitol though, but glycerin. The official Atkins website matches the ingredients list of what I bought]

Chocolate Almond Caramel
Okay. A little of the characteristic heavy taste - it seems Atkins chocolate coating is the common factor here, so it might be best to avoid the chocolate-coated products (this was 3 months past best by, but it still wasn't that heavy).
Couldn't taste the caramel. Almond taste was light.

Chocolate chip granola
Excellent - like the real thing

Chocolate mint (protein wafer crisps)
Light and crisp. A little of the characteristic heavy taste.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bar
Has the characteristic heavy taste but otherwise has some resemblance to what it's supposed to be (but possibly because I had it 4 months past the best by date)

Light & Crispy Lemon Bar
Very good. Crispy, with a good lemon flavour

Vanilla Pecan Crisp Bar
This is pretty good. It has a bit of the slightly off taste that some other bars do but it has a good crispy and grainy texture. I can't really taste the pecan, while the vanilla flavoured coating is okay

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Bar
This is quite good. It has a convincing crisp and flavour


A bit of maltitol
Caramel chocolate peanut nougat
Alright. Like a lousier Snickers bar


Significant amount of maltitol:
Caramel Chocolate Nut Roll
Caramel Double Chocolate Crunch Bar
Caramel Nut Chew
Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Bar
Nutty Fudge Brownie Bar

Chocolate Caramel Mousse
Okay, like a lousier Mars bar

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bar (a bit less maltitol than the rest)
Weird. A bit chalky.

Chocolate Coconut Bar
Good coconut + chocolate taste

Chocolate Hazelnut Bar
Alright. Like a granola bar.

Cookies n' Creme Bar
Good: Convincing chocolate taste. Crispy with a layer of cream


A LOT of maltitol (it's the top ingredient)
Peanut Butter Cups
Great. Convincing.

Chocolate Candies
Good but when cold they're not so good. But if not cold they may melt.

Chocolate Peanut Candies
Dark Chocolate Almond Coconut Crunch Bar
(these 2 have less maltitol than the first 2 but still a lot - it's one of the top ingredients)

Changi Village Nasi Lemaks Compared

Motivation

I first heard of (and ate) the famous Changi Village Nasi Lemak when I was a Slave on the Island of Doom (Pulau Tekong).

Trapped as we were on that Accursed Isle, it tasted heavenly to us, fame aside.

Now, more than a decade later, there're multiple Nasi Lemak stalls (in 2002 I think there were at most 2), which can confuse the hapless visitor.

One does not trek all the way down to Changi Village only to be unsure of which Nasi Lemak to eat. And even if one knows that International Nasi Lemak is the original (and famous) stall, there might be a nagging suspicion that it might not (still) be the best.

As a public service, I mobilised a panel of 3 others to sample as many Changi Village Nasi Lemaks as we could. Because I knew that alone, or even with an assistant, by the end I would have Nasi Lemak coming out of my ears and I would no longer be able to appreciate the subtleties of each stall's product.

So did International Nasi Lemak come out tops? The answer might surprise you.

The Contenders

I did a sweep of Changi Village Hawker Centre, and found that there were 5 Nasi Lemak stalls (a couple were closed, but from the stall names and signboards they didn't seem to sell the dish):

1) International Nasi Lemak, #01-03
2) Mizzy's Corner, #01-26
3) Sri Sujana Nasi Lemak, #01-30
4) Changi Famous Nasi Lemak, #01-28
5) Traditional Nasi Lemak, #01-12

Unfortunately, Traditional Nasi Lemak had sold out by the time we arrived at about 7:20pm, so they were immediately out of the running. I do note, though, that name notwithstanding, it looked like most of their food was not actually nasi lemak. Readers can draw their own conclusions.

When we arrived, International Nasi Lemak had the longest queue, followed by Mizzy's Corner, and the last 2 had no queues.

All nasi lemaks were standardised as chicken wing sets with egg for a fair comparison, and evaluated on 5 criteria: Egg, Rice, Ikan Bilis, Chili and Chicken. Ratings were purely qualitative - no numerical scores were given. However many comparisons were made between each.

As an aside, all 4 stalls didn't mix their ikan bilis with peanuts, which a friend who was briefly in the industry told me was the traditional practice - most stalls nowadays cut the fish with peanuts to reduce costs.

1) International Nasi Lemak

This was the only stall we ordered two plates from (partly due to its fame, and partly due to its long queue - we were anticipating feasting on the other plate after we'd discharged our duty).

Oddly enough, despite it being the most famous stall it only had one award - the Green Book award.



Egg: The egg here is pan fried. One plate's egg was overcooked but another plate's was okay, and the yolk was even slightly runny.
Rice: This was particularly disappointing as it was remarkably flavourless. It was dry, hard and not very coconut-ish.
Ikan Bilis: This was not bad and was crispy enough. One person thought it was the worst of the lot, though.
Chili: This was more sour than the usual nasi lemak chili and not very nice. One panelist thought it too sweet. It was also inconsistent (on each plate it tasted different).
Chicken: This was fresh and crispy (because they fry it in small batches - it was the only stall whose chicken was warm) and had a very simple taste. The batter was on the thick side.

2) Mizzy's Corner



Egg: The egg was oil poached and over-cooked.
Rice: It wasn't bad, though it was not super. It tasted like chicken rice rice - not just coconut rice.
Ikan Bilis: This was robust.
Chili: The chili was sweeter and thicker than that of International. I personally found it had a vague fruity edge.
Chicken: The batter was even thicker than that of International's but the chicken was more flavourful than it. The meatwas a little rubbery/dry though.

3) Sri Sujana Nasi Lemak

Strangely enough this stall had quite a few awards - even more than International.



Egg: Pan fried, this was not just overcooked but rubbery.
Rice: While very coconuty (most of us felt that the other stalls' rice was not quite there, in comparison), this was a bit mushy.
Ikan Bilis: This had less body than that of the first 2 stalls. The fishes also seemed smaller than those at the first 2 stalls, but it was still crispy.
Chili: This was quite spicy. It had more character than that of other Nasi Lemak places. But then, that was to be expected as this was not Nasi Lemak chili, but rather some other concoction.
Chicken: The meat was a bit flavourless, though the batter was more spiced than that of the other 3 stalls. It was rather old though, and the crispiness of the batter didn't stand the test of time (from whenever it had been fried) well.

4) Changi Famous Nasi Lemak

Despite its name, I'd never heard of this stall before this day.



Egg: This was the best of all 4 stalls where the egg was concerned. The doneness was about right (though perhaps a little on the long side, especially if you like em runny) and the egg had the best flavour of the 4. It was like what one might imagine free range eggs would taste like compared to factory farmed ones.
Rice: I thought this was the most coconuty of the 4 stalls but 2 others disagreed. It wasn't mushy.
Ikan Bilis: It tasted like it'd been sun dried for so long, all the flavour had been bleached out of it. The crisp was good though. I thought this had the worst ikan bilis of the 4.
Chili: This had the sweetest nasi lemak chili of them all, and it was also the most typically nasi lemak-ish of the 4. Nothing particularly stood out in this paste but it was well-rounded: not too sweet, nor too spicy.
Chicken: This was soggy and quite flavourless, tasting like generic chicken would if you deep fried it without seasoning.

Overall, Changi Famous Nasi Lemak was the most like generic nasi lemak, but rather well done (certainly, better than International Nasi Lemak, which everyone thought was the worst). Though one of us found an egg shell fragment while eating.

There Can Be Only One

Each panelist was asked which of the 4 they would choose, if they could only haveo ne.

Panelist 1 declined to choose any of them and plumped for Adam Road Selera Rasa Nasi Lemak.

Panelist 2 opted for Changi Village Famous Nasi Lemak.

Panelist 3 opted for Sri Sujana Nasi Lemak.

And I chose Changi Village Famous Nasi Lemak.

So if you go down to Changi Village, it's clear that you should steer clear of International Nasi Lemak (unless they were having a bad day when we were there), and you could do worse than queue up for Changi Village Famous Nasi Lemak.

Singapore Writers Festival: Asian Feminism

"The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators." - Thomas Macaulay

***

On Sunday, on the last day of the Singapore Writers Festival, I made "Asian Feminism" my last talk:

"Are women’s rights an absolute concept or are there other considerations in Asian societies? Writers reflect on the role of women as described in their writing and the changing ethos of contemporary times."

Speakers:
Leena Manimekalai லீனா மணிமேகலை
Catherine Lim



I was wondering if this was going to be the usual feminist doublespeak, but it turned out to be a great talk (I was live tweeting this instead of writing a proper review, so the following may be a bit choppy).

The talk was well-attended, and there was a surprising amount of men in the audience. When polled, maybe 10% of the audience lifted their hands to identify themselves as feminists. But as Manimekalai noted, in India they would be classified as terrorists so this poor showing wasn't so bad after all.

Catherine Lim observed that women disavow the term 'feminist' because of bellicose feminists. She evidently had distaste for this group as well, but the audience did not protest (either when this observation was made or during the question and answer session).

Lim didn't think women in Singapore had positive liberty ("freedom to") for self actualization, but they had negative liberty ("freedom from"). She linked women having rights in Singapore to their being half of our human resources, and the economic imperative. She observed that HDB discriminates against single mums (but then, doesn't it treat single dads the same? It is strange to link this to feminism).

She then spoke about one of her novels, which was inspired by a real life story of a woman who declined to pursue an affair with the love of her life at the age of 30, because she was already married. This woman's epitaph read: "She died at 30 and was buried at 60".

Manimekalai observed that in India, "The moment you talk about genitalia, the whole society, the whole hell break loose".


1/3 into the session, it was already standing room only. This was the most crowded of the 18 Singapore Writers Festival events that I attended.

Lim said that she saw jokes about men and women as contributing to healthy inter-gender relations (THAT'S NOT FUNNY!!!), and the "aggressive", "political" and "gender" kind of feminism was what she didn't want. It made her uncomfortable, and she wanted "equity" and "humanitarian" feminism.

Manimekalai then problematised feminism's patriarchy-bad-feminism-good rhetoric:

"When we keep playing this victim role, when you are placed on this pedestal you become an oppressor... We have to be self critical... See if there is equity among these women who speak about equality... When women come to power why is there still oppression against women? That is the question we must answer"

Lim observed that sexism had not impeded her in her three roles:

"I've never felt any pressure, any discrimination..as a teacher..as a writer..as a political commentator". She did wryly observe, though, that:

"All the terms for men have gained in prestige..the reverse is true for women..bachelor/spinster..wizard/witch"

She also noted that for women of a certain age, her mother's refrain that "Don't try to be too clever or no man will want to marry you" would have been familiar. She (or Manimekalai) noted that the new generation of women weren't this way, speaking about a younger friend of hers:

"She's extremely confident... She disdain to mix with men who don't speak grammatically"

Then came the Q&A segment. Unfortunately, many in the crowd hadn't gotten the memo that the ladies on stage were not your classic feminists.

One asked a question about intersectionality, privilege and social justice, and Manimekalai replied:

"All these boxes... when I do work, it's the art that has to speak. Not my identity... I don't want to approach everything as identity politics"

Lim added that feminism was just a subset of a broader aim, and that "Feminism ought to preside over its own demise. The end goal is justice"

Another girl didn't get the memo either, and asked about casual sexism like jokes, and claimed that women got really angry but men thought they were just jokes.

Lim replied that:

"That level of exchange doesn't bother me at all" and cited "a feminist joke I would find offensive if she were a man":

"What is gross stupidity?"
"144 men in a row"

She then noted that "jokes that we women bandy at men" were "all part of the happy bantering that should go on between men and women" and that "if we know how to laugh WITH each other not AT each other, we'll all get along".


I for one hope that Catherine Lim lives a long life, for 'bellicose feminists' will likely be the next face of feminism in Singapore (you can see what AWARE has been doing since 2009 for a clue).

The Myth of Progress - Singapore Lyric Opera's Mozart's Don Giovanni

"Eternal nothingness is fine if you happen to be dressed for it." - Woody Allen

***

Many have critiqued the Myth of Progress as a delusion. As Qohelet observed (before one even conceptualised modernity):

One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever... The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.

Our case study today shall be the Singapore Lyric Opera (SLO).

Now, I haven't blogged anything about the SLO for a long time. Yet, Monday's performance almost moved me to tears, which motivated me to finally write something.

Here is a scientific study showing how the SLO has progressed over the years:


This is a relative scale which tries to partial out the relative merits of each opera, and only consider the SLO's performance
You know this study scientific because I fitted a trend line to my ratings, there's an equation for it and you can see the R-squared value. Note also the precipitous decline marked "Don Giovanni". Which coincides with Monday night's performance.

(Unfortunately the SLO website lists no operas before the 07/08 season (perhaps because they're ashamed of them). Luckily, I had written a pseudo-review of Hey Figaro!, which helped jog my memory)

Now, while I wasn't quite moved to tears, I was certainly moved to laughter: laughing AT the performance, not WITH it. This was only the second time I can remember being so affected (the other time was The Magic Flute - not coincidentally, also by the SLO - when the Queen of the Night, supposedly a specialist at the role, was less than adequate).

Let me break down the performance into several aspects to analyse just what went wrong:

Staging: I was quite impressed by this. It worked. There was nothing overly-elaborate, but then it's not a movie set. The damnation scene was particularly well-done. About the only grouse I had was the statue of the Commendatore in the graveyard: he was sitting upright with his legs stretched out in front of him. When was the last time you saw a funeral effigy posed so?!
Lighting: Usually I don't notice SLO lighting (which means it usually works: lighting is like the life support system on a spacewalk - you only notice it if something is wrong). However the spotlights were off a few times (perhaps I only noticed this because my seats were better this time)
Chorus: They were alright, having come a long way from the days when the average secondary school choir could do better. Incidentally I hear they're all expats: even the men.

Don Giovanni (Song Kee Chang): He was the strongest of the cast, with a commanding stage presence, though he unfortunately blasted with a shouting tone too often. This role suits him better than Papageno, where he wasn't naïve enough.
Leporello (Huang Rong Hai): He often channeled Rex Harrison. Not in his acting, but in speaking on pitch. For example in his opening number he spent several bars shouting (which gets across the fact that he is annoyed, but not in the proper fashion). He also didn't really come across as a snivelly servant, mostly because of his voice; with a voice too similar to Don Giovanni, the two were not immiscible.
Donna Anna (Nancy Yuen): She couldn't hit several high notes - this was evident in Non mi dir, bell'idol mio. Perhaps she is getting too old for this part?
Don Ottavio (Melvin Tan): Alright, though his acting wasn't very good.
Donna Elvira (Ee-Ping): She was on continuous vibrato. It was like singing into a fan with a chicken in her throat - she was either unable or unwilling to control it. And it was her entrance in L'ultima prova which made me laugh as it totally fizzled.
Zerlina (Cherylene Liew): She was alright (though something about her wedding dress struck me as strange as she looked like she had unnatural proportions - and the shoes didn't seem to help), but then it was the least demanding female soloist role.
Masetto (Martin Ng Hon Wai): Alright, though his voice was a little thin. But then it was the least demanding male soloist role.
Commendatore (William Lim): His singing was quite good, but he was the most underwhelming Commendatore I've heard, overpowered by Don Giovanni. His voice was just not booming enough, but you can't really blame that on him.

Orchestra: Usually SLO's brass has problems, but here it was not just the brass, but the winds and even the strings, which went all the way down the hierarchy of orchestra failure (usually the brass is the first to go wrong, followed by the bass, and the strings are usually alright). And the harpsichordist even managed to screw up the simple recitative accompaniment, with timing that was off and wrongly-played notes.

The ending was puzzling. I wouldn't tag this as a fault per se (which is why it's not under Staging above), but it was definitely ambiguous (which is not always a bad thing). Specifically, in the ending scene as the sextet sung:

Questo è il fin di chi fa mal; (This is how evildoers end)
E de’ perfidi la morte (All the wicked die)
Alla vita è sempre ugual! (as they have lived!)

We saw:


A portrait of what looked like Jesus Christ (what probably is the Crown of Thorns is visible).

Now there are two ways to interpret this:

1) Christ died as he had live, in contrast to Don Giovanni's libertine ways
2) Christ died as he had live, similar to Don Giovanni's libertine ways

I will leave the theological implications of this to another, but I am sure SLO has received and will receive complaints from those they offended (Hardwarezone has an interesting thread on it, with some seeing messages complimentary of Christianity and most people condemning trouble-making).

Probably the reason why I was especially disappointed by this production was I had read good reviews - and not all by Chang Tou Liang. Perhaps they slipped after Gala Night with the Prime Minister and President.

Going back to Qohelet, we can see that his observations ring true even after many millennia. Don't bother with this Don Giovanni - lots of better ones have been done before. Unfortunately by the time you read this the production will have finished, but I only watched it on Monday. Next time someone can buy me tickets to the gala, and I promise I'll get a review out sooner.


Aside: I am quite sure AWARE, following their tradition of the last 3 years, will make noise if Cosi Fan Tutte were staged here. They did it in the 90s, but AWARE wasn't so feminist then.

All the better, anyhow - next to Covent Garden it'll almost certainly be awful.

What they cut in 3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy (2/2)

"The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius." - Oscar Wilde

***

1) After our Hero comes back with a Donkey's Penis, he takes a woman and we see the tattoo on his back as he thrusts (complete with Jap AV moaning and her slapping him)

The Prince hits the erection of a watching soldier and asks him to call Dongmei.

As Dongmei enters a girl is trying to mount another missionary style in the background.

Dongmei tears her robe off and pulls the Hero away from the girl. She is shocked seeing the Hero's front aspect, then swallows her reservations and impales herself on him while the first girl hugs him from the side. The first girl then goes behind Dongmei, which puts me in the mind of 2 girls riding a Bactrian Camel.

Dongmei tries to stand up but is pulled back down. The first girl hugs her from behind as they bounce.

As the Prince watches on impassively, a woman behind him gets excited.

Now we see Dongmei below the first girl as our Hero attacks them from the rear. The first girl collapses in exhaustion as Dongmei continues at it. She endures for only a little longer.

Our Hero smiles at them both and emits the usual Insincere Chinese Laughter. He waves a finger at the Prince and demands ten. The Prince orders the woman who was behind him forward. Two two-girl couples break and move towards him. They all swarm him on a yellow glowing stone (there are definitely more than ten girls now).

The screen goes black, and when we return it's to various scenes of him doing the girls and tiring them out. The Prince is infuriated and his eyeballs bulge. He straightens his robe in anger and storms off.

We see exhausted women lying around, then one sucking a hand.

Our Hero, despite having serviced more than 10 women, is still walking around with a cloth covering his member. It looks like a Koteka (penis sheath).

2) When the concubine threatens to kill herself, and Yuxiang says they don't have to leave, we see Yuxiang and the scholar (who has the most wives in the land apart from the Emperor) doing it in the cowgirl position after foreplay. While the concubines watch.

One concubine asks what they should do. Yuxiang asks them to join in and they disrobe and gather around the couple, stroking the scholar. As Yuxiang collapses on him and we fade to black, we hear the Hero calling her name (this is where the cinema cut to after the foreplay).

Our Hero now looks less jealous as he wakes from his nightmare, as he was upset not over his ex-wife and the scholar indulging in foreplay, but actually engaging in nooky.

3) In the uncensored version they cut the Hero scraping his wound, and the Prince saying that if the worms hit reach his bone he'll die.

4) They cut the Prince forcing the Hermaphrodie to eat the Pill. Instead we get a scene of him doing Dongmei while grabbing her left breast hard and then pushing her chin up. This segues into his almost strangling her.

Then he slaps her, then her breasts (maybe he's pissed off that she's not big enough for paizuri). He then squeezes both hard and together like stress balls and oscillates her like a sine function.

He turns her over and slaps her butt. Then uses a whip. He throws her onto the floor and uses the whip to strangle her, then enters her again (maybe he heard about the sampan girls in Hong Kong harbour).

Dongmei throws the whip off her neck and runs from the Prince.

He flings a blanket over her and pulls her back. Despite entering her again he still is not satisfied.

She stops moving, and no matter how hard he thrusts he cannot finish. He removes the blanket and finds her dead.

His eyes glower and he enunciates her name painfully. Now we know why he's so upset with the hermaphrodite.

5) When the Prince is torturing the Hero's (ex-)wife instead of a simple flogging he has a horse brought out.

The horse has a rotating flower on its back from which springs another rotating flower (like the Pear of Anguish). The guards then strip her and force her on it, putting a ball on each foot, chaining her waist and forcing her down onto the rotating flower (incidentally this is the same rotating flower which pierces the Prince's throat later, killing him).

One guard then flogs her as another turns the horse's tail as if it were a crank (presumably operating the rotating flower). We see very fake blood oozing down her leg, looking like jelly worms.

6) The poison the Prince give the Hermaphrodite takes effect in 6, not 12 hours now.

7) When the Abbot finds nothing wrong with the woman sent to seduce him, he tries to get help but she grabs his shoulder to stop him and tells him some strange story about a congenital disease giving her stomach pain on the first and fifteenth of the month.

"Your belly and my belly stick together. I will soon eliminate the pain"

The Abbot protests that he's never heard of this, and she says it's a friendly gesture and pushes him over, positioning herself above him and starting to dry hump him. He tries to push her away but is too weak.

"Other people say Well good belly"

The Hero's friend rushing on the horse to warn/save the abbot now takes on more urgency.

8) 2 muscular men in metallic masks tear off the Wife's robe and fling her backwards with chains.

This is followed with a scene of the seducer on top of the Abbot (both are clothed). She then undresses as he asks why she is doing so. The abbot displays the typical Chinese drama obliviousness about women in men's clothing and realises she is a girl after seeing her breasts.

She then motorboats him slowly while hovering over him. As she forcibly kisses him he cries weakly for help.

She moves south, removes the sash tying his robe together then sucks his neck while he protests. She continues to catbath him. She whacks his member, then takes up a needle and jabs his stomach.

While she buries her face in his robed crotch, he chants and counts beads:

"Sex is zero, the color is empty"

9) After the knife-thrower scene, we are back in the Main Hall of the Prince's complex. Three masked men are holding the Wife aloft by her limbs. The Prince does her while she cries.

We see the abbot chanting the same line again. At this point the hermaphrodite appears outside the hut and blows a colourful smoke inside (apparently Buddhist Abbots respond to attempted rape by chanting and counting beads, and not with self-defence).

As the smoke attacks the Abbot, he stops chanting and counting and embraces the seductress. He starts acting like the other men in this movie, attacking her breasts. He then disrobes her and gets at it.

As he climaxes he has a sudden realisation and chants "Amitabha" repeatedly.

"Sex is zero, air is the color"

She asks if he is empty now and all he can do is say "Amitabha" miserably.

10) As the Hero is making his love vow to his wife after her chastity belt is fastened we see scenes of his depravities over the monologue. Of course since all of these depravities were cut in the cinematic version they weren't present in flashback either.

11) When the Prince says his guards can flee and one moves to leave, he cuts off his head. This was offscreen in the cinema and is the only cut gore I have noticed.

12) The uncensored version seems to have cut miscellaneous gore from here and there.

What they cut in 3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy (1/2)

"The best time to plant an oak tree was twenty-five years ago. The second best time is today." - James Carvillee

***

It was big news that 3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy was not cut for distribution in Singapore.

What many miss is that the international version is 33 minutes shorter than the original cut, and 27 minutes shorter than the Hong Kong version.

Though I am informed that "this "international cut" also varies when compared to other versions censored for countries outside of hong kong. in fact, every country showing this film has had different cuts. and that 'international cut' here is a meaningless term, PR fluff"

Having had the chance to watch the première tonight, I was able to see exactly what got cut. And believe you me, it does make a difference - though not enough to explain why John Lui of the Straits Times gives it One Star while CNNgo loves it.

Here're the parts that were cut (this won't make sense unless you've already watched the film):

1) At the start, the Prince fondles the breasts of the statue of Guanyin. That's why the people in the temple are so pissed off.

2) During the wedding night scene, they probably cut most of his fondling and very possibly all of his sucking of her breasts and remarking "so fun". My movie partner said he noticed a cut during this scene so I am probably right.

3) The instrument with which the Prince smashes the Red Jade Coral is first used by him to stroke the breast and face of the girl whose breast he earlier uses as a floormat

4) Before our Hero consumes the tea before entering the magic orgy chamber, there's a gold confetti-covered vision of 2 girls making out and groping each other.

Some of the scene introducing us to the orgy chamber was pobably cut also, like where we're introduced to the guy with 127 wives (he later gets a 128th) who knows our Hero. He's the Prince's friend so he has free access to the place.

5) Part where more than 2 people are humping on a rocking horse in the background seemed to have been cut - the scene where the girl who can boost your yang is being introduced. This was possibly a pan and scan cut as all of the dialogue couldn't have been squeezed into the remaining time. Either that or alternate scenes were filmed.

6) They cut the sex between the yang boosting girl and our Hero. She uses a needle in her hairpin to do acupuncture on him, so it's not [just] her private parts that are magic in boosting your yang.

They also cut an implied handjob she gave him, and where she jabs a needle into his back and he screams in pain and then realises something.

Then you see them doing cowgirl, and doggy style between the two - that's why the Prince fondles a green jade figurines of lovers in doggy style.

The two of them then fuck on top of the penis fountain. They cut that bit before where they copulate with her touching the priceless painting. The part with the priceless painting where her breasts are swinging as she's being thrusted into is cut.

7) The tattooing scene is cut because they start by tattooing a woman and she fondles her breasts during the tattooing, and she seems to be enjoying the pain.

The Hero asks the Prince how come it didn't hurt for her:

Prince: "Suffering is a certain Produce the illusion of climax is worth"
Hero: "So amazing"
Prince: "You try to know"
Hero: "I do not engage in"
*cuts to painting of a river valley*
Hero: "Royal Highness. Can I take a look at that picture"

Girl being tattooed: "Strong points" *tattoo is being finished by rubbing edges*
"Vigorously" *she grabs her crotch*

The Hero points out that the painting he asked to look at is a fake, and examines it with a magnifying glass. He says it's off by 300 years.

It's Southern Dong (?) the world's oldest painting, but "this solitary Dongshan people try to be smart. Get hold of fake printed up". Apparently it's misidentified (and so worth more than they originally thought)

Meanwhile the girl being tattooed is moaning like in a Jap AV (she's probably an AV idol). As the Hero and Prince leave the Hero looks at the girl being tattooed with a curious eye.

Then they go to the treasure chamber you cannot enter or you'll be executed for doing so, and the Prince puts the painting inside the treasure chamber (now we know why he's doing that and why it's so valuable)

8) The part when the Prince gives the girl to him after he keeps the painting was partially cut; she poses less in the cinema and I don't remember her pseudo-mounting (going on top of him while he's clothed).

(this is the girl who yawns and plays mahjong when being serviced by him)

Possibly some of his servicing her while playing mahjong is cut.

9) When the Prince makes fun of the Hero for having a small dick he throws the chain in his hand so it fastens on the penis sculpture (on the fountain?), and takes the girl up and thrusts into her while swinging in mid-air on the chain.

The mahjong girls are amused and the Hero flabbergasted.

She bites his shoulder while they're swinging until there's blood, then he lets go and they fall to the floor and they do it standing up with him behind. Then he lifts one of her legs up and he goes in front of our hero and everytime he thrusts into her, the girl's moaning face is thrust into our hero's, and she puts an arm on his shoulder for support.

Then the Prince does her doggy style and stares pointedly at our Hero, and even turns the girl so she faces the Hero directly. Then blood drips from his shoulder onto her back.

He finishes off and throws her forward with a mixture between a grunt and a cry of triumph and disdain, then he insults our hero for having a small dick (it makes much more sense now - in the cut version it's just "I have a big dick, you are small").

However in the cinema we caught a brief closeup glimpse of a tiny penis, but not here for some reason. Instead they Japanese AV pixellate his genital region (in a medium length shot - not a closeup), then we see a focus on the murals of sex in the background.

10) The divorced wife is remembering [Ed: her maids'] sapphic bathhouse pleasures while she's picking up the coins she threw onto the floor - no wonder there's female moaning when she's stringing the coins.

And the girls smile coquettishly at and clean what looks like a double sided dildo (though we only see one end).

Then we see one woman jerking the dildo while behind another, and both moan (in fact the one in front moans more). Although from the angle it's only going into the one behind.

The implication is women can't satisfy her (the wife) She's using the moaning as a backdrop to her masturbation - the rape scene later makes more sense, as does the flashback to her husband kissing her breasts.

Also when she's thrusting the string of coins into her we see the 2 women in contact front-to-front and their jiggling against each other, and more Jap AV pixellation.

11) The hermaphrodite flashes her breasts at the Hero and presses them together, and they're unnaturally squishy.

12) The rape scene was shortened in the cinema. She doesn't seem to be putting up a very hard fight and her blows are like massages.

After a while the sex becomes consensual - but then we've seen that she misses men (and previously ogled at her rapist)

When he thrusts from behind water splashes at the screen. No doubt this looks better at 3D, and is supposed to resemble something.

He even eats her out and she's long stopped hitting him. Now she's just rubbing his head, and she flings her hair around like a shampoo model before he goes reverse cowgirl on her.

After he comes she puts a hand tenderly to his neck - no wonder the villagers were trying to drown her later. It was consensual.

13) When the Hero tells the disciples he's getting a cock swap you can't hear what he says - it's only when the disciples repeat it that it becomes clear.

14) They even AV pixellate the dropping penis and the horse penis.


As you can see, the cuts do add something to the content.

I will probably do Part 2 tomorrow.