It has been long overdue that I posted some
photos of Michelle. I often promised and we even discussed doing some posed
stuff. It never happened. I even have a set of pictures from a gig on a Sentosa beach earlier this year but never got around to posting those.
I don’t know what happened. It’s nothing
personal. I like Michelle. Always good humored when I see her with a generous
smile and personality. Michelle is also one of the “oldies”. When I talk about
oldies I talk about the days that Bar Stop was still around. Like us, Michelle
and her Soft Toys were a regular. Strange that you can be nostalgic about a
time so short back. It is probably because life in this city goes so fast and
things change so rapidly.
At closure "Bar Stop the building"
was to be sacrificed to new building development. It is still there, unlike some
of the shop houses adjacent to it. Those have been replaced by a small apartment
complex. On the left side facing Bar Stop, I will call it that until it is
flat, also a new little condo. Otherwise, the old residence of a Japanese
restaurant and music bar is still standing strong on its foundation, unused.
But back to Michelle. Still surrounded by
soft toys, but maybe different ones than we used to see, she was performing at
Blu Jaz a week or so ago. Though Blu Jaz does not have the ideal lighting, I
can have three different exposures in three rapid following clicks, the good
thing is it is up close and personal and really informal.
Because of more- or less-ideal lighting you also tend to pick
your favorite subjects, in this case that allowed me to got some shots of William Gathright III in the groove.
Michelle is a teacher and mentor probably
to several students but for one she is taking mentoring very seriously. She has
been taking Sophia Joe along on many gigs to sing a few tunes. I saw the young
lady sing earlier this year on that beach. I noticed this time that she had grown leaps
and bounds in confidence and is getting to be a real good entertainer. Watch out for her.
Regretfully due to my original seating I
did not catch much of Aaron. He was stuck behind a music stand from where I was
positioned.
As far as Benson Kong is concerned, standing a bit away from the podium
he moved in and out of that low frequency spot light and was sometimes even too
close for a good angle.
Don’t get me wrong I am just describing the situation
and have no complaints what so ever. For me the priority is the vibe, which always
seems to be good at my second living room Blu Jaz. Secondly the music, which Michelle
and the band took care of very nicely, and then only comes the taking picture
part and this blogging thing.
Today I read an article by David Brooks in
the New York Times, on passion, as in, the drive to accomplish something. One
line stuck with me a bit more than the rest of the message. I am not a
particularly passionate person where activities is concerned.
“But they (passionate people) often have a
fervent curiosity about their inner natures and an unquenchable thirst to find
some activity that they can pursue wholeheartedly, without reservation.”
As noted you can drop the superlatives
in my case but otherwise it’s true. Vibe + music + photos + blog and of course the
beers quench my inner nature's thirst.
