Rest In Peace: Wayne Thunder 1977-2007

The first time I met Wayne was in Melbourne, I was on tour with Theatreworks for the Melbourne Arts Festival in 2004. A friend of mine, Tim a fellow cast member told me about this band called The Suns. So he brought me to this small little bar in the suburbs and I saw The Suns setting up for their set, there were about a good 50 people in the crowd, most of them were their close friends. They ripped through their set and I requested from Sanjeev to play Zoe Tay, and they played the song last. And there was even a small brawl in between the set, such a typical ozzy bar brawl I would say.

After the show, I had a small chat with Wayne outside the bar, he didn't speak that much except that he told me its nice to see a Singaporean in the crowd...later this year, Wayne got my contact and he wanted Tiramisu to play in a gig he was organising at the Gas Haus. As we were quite busy, we didn't get a chance to play that gig. But looking back through that email, this was what he wrote:

"I don't have mega corporate or free govt money backing me, so I'm building from the ground up, and that means everything starts with the MUSIC and the bands that churn it out, the way it should be. If the bands do their part to play good music and bring their fans and friends, and get people genuinely excited about supporting local music, then the industry can be more sustainable for local bands like us and attractive to sponsors and investors. And then we won't have to eat bloody peanuts all the time."
- Wayne

Rest In Peace bro,,,, may this be love...

The Hyperbolic Schedule

01:00hrs. Rehearsal with Tiramisu at Beat Merchants for this Saturday's gig.

21:30hrs, The return of Game Boy, Not Available On Print Date, rehearsal at Theatre Studio

17:00hrs, setting up of props for rehearsal.

13:00hrs, KYTV meeting with collaborators, Norico Sunayama, Kenjiro Matsuo and Citra Pratiwi for Asian Arts Mart presentation this Friday at The Esplanade.

TIRAMISU at Th Esplanade This Weekend

Ok we have not been playing for a long time, this is pretty much a rare sight, a come-get-together show before I leave for Venice on Sunday. Rock a by Baby!


Taken last year at One Night Stand Gig, JamAsia, Kuala Lumpur.

June, 2 2007 at The Esplanade, Stage@Powerhouse
The Esplanade, Theatres By The Bay, Singapore,
Cost : Free!

Introducing the region's best-kept musical secrets! Pick up Australia-based musician Yunyu's lesson in life and pop-anime; await Tiramisu's arrival in flamboyant rock'n'roll style, and live it up like Now Playing, with their catchy blend of J-pop, ska and funk! This programme is held in conjunction with Singapore Arts Festival 2007

2 Jun, Sat 8.45 - 9.30pm & 10 - 10.45pm

The Hyperbolic Rehearsal

Presenting the HAM orchestra and the Manimale, eye of the tiger is the name of the fight.

To End the First Half of The Year with H.A.M

I conceived this idea in 2005, this will be the first time ever I am showcasing this in such a big space with collaborators. I am not sure if this is going to work, but I love jumping into a lake of fire and dwell in it for a while. I can only say its experimental and semi-autobiographical.



The Elegy of A Man and His Weapon of Choice: The Hyperbolic Alpha Male
72-13, 72-13 Mohamed Sultan Road, S239007
24.05.07 Thu 08.00pm till 25.05.07

By Rizman Putra, a Crea tive-in-Residence of 72-13 SCAN in collaboration with Zulkifle Mahmod and Robert Guth.

This multi-disciplinary presentation is an exploration of masculinity, self-identity and the political issues surrounding them; it investigates the hypothesis of a man's journey into his ego.

Working with collaborating artists, Robert Guth and Zulkifle Mahmod, Rizman 's H.A.M, consists of installation, video projection, sound exploration, voice and movement. This is a work-in-progress.

"..... in the context of the Hyperbolic Alpha Male series, the body acts as a depiction. The burlesque act of performance is not a degradation but rather serves to question the role of men in social strata. My intention is to interlace the perception of an alpha male with a range of foolishness as a form of discontent. "
- Rizman Putra, a President's Young Talent, 2005

24 & 25 May 2007, 8pm nightly at 72-13.
Ring 6737-7213 to reserve a seat.

Website: http://www.72-13.com

Rant the Bun

We have reached Day 4 of my residency at 72-13, we are almost done with the set now and we are moving into the second phase. I just realised I have been working non-stop since January, and my body is taking its toll. I have not been to gigs, though there are a couple of shows that I have peeked here and there, and I have not been updating myself with many things happening around. It is not because that I am an anti-social, maybe I am just too caught up with work. Nevertheless, I am enjoying myself working in projects after projects. However, something is missing amidst all the madness. I am not sure what it is. But I will search for it soon.

I love watching performances, I love being part of a performance. However, I do I have problems when it comes to compliment. I just can't seem to deal with it, it feels good when you feel that sense of appreciation, but when it comes to bad performances, I do cringe at times. I still remember there was a gig where I performed with Tiramisu, and the amps just blew as we started, we could not finish the set. I cried right after that...yes, it's pretty lame to think of it.

A foreign friend of mine asked me, how far can you go singing in a band? Can you survive just by singing in a band alone? I told him, well, its up to you if you want to make it. And I told him, I can't just sing in a band alone, I have to do many other things, to make it all worthwhile... experiencing various performances has helped me to widen my perspective in regards to singing in a band.

Douglas O or John Molina were never my idols, and I never wanted to spend my days singing in a Pub band, perfecting my vocals just to make them sound like Damon Albarn, Bon Jovi or even worst, Sting. No matter how hard I try, I can never be like them. But it is not right for me to make fun of them, its their bread and butter, and they are doing it because they love doing it. We can't expect Douglas O to be like Tom Wait or Lou Reed.

But what the heck, this is Singapore, where passion and fashion intermingled together to become a plastic spiritual devotion.

MDA's question about H.A.M

a) Basically, could you elaborate on what the artist Rizman Putra will be doing throughout this performance? What kind of actions/movements will his performance constitute? Is the performance similar to the one he conducted in LaSalle in Mar this year and the S'pore Biennale 2006 where he used Sonto Al Loyo as a persona?

At its simplest, the answer is "Yes" to the above. This work does fit into the development of the two mentioned pieces as well as the piece done for the Osaka Contemporary Dance Fesival earlier this year.

In detail the vocabulary of movements/actions will be similar to the previous works being drawn from the lexicon of contemporary dance and movement. Particularly from the genres of hip hop, contemporary expressive and contact improvisation. The movements/actions are inspired from bodybuilding, pro wrestling and martial arts.

H.A.M in Progress

The Preparation for H.A.M spectacle at 72-13, next week. Another step into the unknown. Are we Ready?

Sound of Hope in A Minor

Robert's Plastic Baggy Tower in the studio.

I have decided the next couple of weeks I will be in solitary confinement preparing for 2 major events of my life, first will be the assesment next week, and followed by 72-13 residency in collaboration with Robert Guth and Venice Biennale ' Art Supastar' Zul Mahmod. Editing can be a lonely fair, I have equipped myself with chips and coffee, and feeding Paula lunch and dinner at the same time. My eyes have gone bonkers...

The last couple of weeks also I witnessed students' work, being part of the team of qualified lecturers assessing works by students which can be quite a dreary affair. It was quite an experience being behind the scene and seeing all these works. I had a conversation with a lecturer recently, we had a conversation about the Fine Art faculty which have at least 40 Fine Arts Students, upon graduation, at least 5 will continue practicing. After 3 years, only 2 will continue and the rest will disappear.

The Art world is a big game of deceit, pretence and bitchiness. Some people are in it for fame and glory, some people are in it because they want to be part of it, some people are in it because they want to find a partner to screw, of course some people are honest in what they do. I am in it because I can't see myself being anything else except for expressing my ideas. Yes, I am a living cliche... and expression is on par with masturbation. Then that makes me an expressive masturbator...

We do what we do because we love what we do... just like if you love wakeboarding or nature walk... or collecting stamps...

Updating my Life

The second half of the year is coming soon, I never realised that time is passing in their rapid ways. Tiramisu won the best live band award, organised by Style-Asia last Saturday night. Strange, we did not expect to win, the fact that we were competing against Wicked Aura, the mother of all live act, but well it was a nice surprise. So its an unexpected yay!

*Nothing* by Cake went pretty alright last week, I enjoyed being part of it nevertheless. Working with a great bunch of people. Now the real test will be my residency at Theatreworks at the end of the month. I have roped in Robert Guth and Zul Mahmod for the project. I am nervous and excited at the same time. Not sure what to expect.

Films and documentaries that I have watched the last couple of weeks:

1. Kids by Larry Clark
2. Babel by Alejandro Gonzalez
3. Apocalypto by Mel Gibson
4. Shortbus by John Cameron Mitchell
5. American Hardcore (Documentary) by Paul Rachman
6. Imagine the Sound (Documentary) by Ron Mann
7. The Lost Suitcase by Richard Oh
8. Opera Jawa by Garin Nugroho
9. Basquiat by Julian Schanabel

I find pleasure in watching films in my quiet time...