And The Journey Begins

I went to a charity concert tonight for the benefit of the Penang Adventist Hospital's Dr. J. Earl Gardner Fund. This new fund is set up to pay for the needy's treatment bills. The concert itself is called "And The Journey Begins..." and is performed by kids and adults from Crestar and Digital Music, among others. I didn't know anything about the concert prior to it as it was Dad who got the RM20 tickets. The concert was held at Dewan Sri Pinang, the only decent auditorium in Penang, although it is already very old.

The actual concert is very short - less than an hour if I might guess. It was supposed to start at 7pm but the VVIPs arrived unfashionably late around 7.45pm. Worse, it was followed by 15 minutes of excruciating speeches. I propose that to qualify for the title of Datuk (equiv. to Sir), candidates must join a local Toastmasters chapter. Reading from large A4 sheets, avoiding eye contact, and speaking in a monotonous tone are mistakes that State Assemblymen should not make. And I don't even need to name names, just randomly pick one and you'd just be about right.

Oops, I guess I got carried away. Anyway, the concert started. The children performers did their work quite well, considering that this is probably their first public performance. Some of the adults are lamer as they are supposed to be much better than the children. The interpretive dances are quite boring, as I'm not much for interpreting, but the musical pieces and choirs are quite engaging. Performances that I liked were Lift Up Your Heart (Nurses of Penang Adventist Hospital Choir), The Messiah-Hallelujah (Penang Seventh-day Adventist Church Choir), and Elan (Secret Garden of Digital Music).

My personal favourite was Elan. The group, Secret Garden, fuses Celtic and Classical music, creating a pleasing combination. I personally have an affinity with Celtic music and especially Irish culture - my favourite group is The Corrs, and my chosen English name has an Irish root (which I didn't know when I chose it).

Oops, I guess I got carried away again. In the middle of the concert, a multimedia presentation showed the life and work of Dr. J. Earl Gardner, the founder of what was to be Penang Adventist Hotel. Then a donation drive was carried out. That's right, a donation drive in the auditorium. Wedding cake boxes were passed around for people to donate. I personally gave RM10, a small contribution to a good cause. But the presentation and donation drive took up almost 30 minutes. The concert continued with the second half, and by 9.30pm the performers were closing the event with "We Are Family". So if you did the calculation, the actual singing, dancing, acting, and playing spanned less than an hour. I know you are too lazy to count, so just trust me.

Anyway, I am reminded again that I cannot attend artistic performances or even the movies with Dad. In the middle of the performance while people are concentrating on the nuances of the music or dance, he would lean over and make some inane comments about the performance. It's annoying as hell and I chose to ignore him most of the time. I don't mind talking in between the performances, but please, just pay attention to the performers while they are doing their thing!