singapore

Link

music & thoughts, st cecilia

This morning I attended a mass for the feast of St Cecilia, patroness of musicians, organised by the local liturgical music committee. I was surprised, I think given that the reason we were all there was because we were musicians, to find that the texts in the lectionary were not about music at all. Instead, there was one reading from the book of Isaiah, about how the LORD would bring Israel back to himself, and one from the Gospel of Matthew, the parable of the foolish virgins. I realised, then, that while all this patron saint business is lovely and good–and I’d be the last to dismiss it–St Cecilia is a saint and a model in the Christian life not because she was a musician (because… she probably wasn’t) but because she lived a life of heroic virtue and faith. Today, then, we who look to her for intercession particularly as our patroness, must remember that we are first Christians, and thus strive to live lives worthy of our universal vocation to holiness, before  we think of ourselves as musicians.

Link

news: the extraordinary form community in Singapore

The story of the Latin Mass in Singapore is the story of the mustard seed. This “seed” was watered, not by Western expatriates or foreign priests, but by the patient prayers and material contributions of a tiny group of laity, who remained faithful even when the “ground” seemed dauntingly rocky.

Read more here. I am happily surprised to see this kind of public endorsement for the EF. (:

funny meeting you here

So it seems that the latest Detective Conan full-length feature is inspired by the Singapore Flyer. I was watching it on the plane (gah, what is it, 36 more hours until I get home?) and couldn’t quite believe my eyes when the credits featured footage of the Marina Bay skyline, and Gardens by the Bay. It’s funny how the things that seem dinkiest and least impressive to someone who lives there—and especially things that are so novel and phantasmic as the features of Singaporean contemporary urban planning are—can be the most inspiring to others. It’s a strange taste I’m not sure I want to understand, but y’know, there is still something to call home.

The film, by the way, is excellent. From the opening fight sequence you can tell it’s a well-animated. No Dragonball-style fight scenes here, although the degree to which angles and shots try to do something novel drops off significantly after the first act. I have no qualms with that, and anyway, there’s something very comforting about Conan’s world, where a kid who looks 10 basically can run around with FBI agents and save the world.