Sunday, July 15, 2012

MPs For A Day For 60s Music Heritage Bloggers

Thanks to a Singapore Heritage Festival bloggers' workshop some of us acted as though we were MPs, if only for a day. But it was at the Art House -  the former Parliament building - that we aired our views on 60s music.

Three sessions for Past Forward: A Heritage Blogging and Social Media Workshop, held in the main chamber on 14th July were moderated by Yu-Mei Balasingamchow (top left) who co-authored the book, Singapore: A Biography.

Panel speakers for Session 2, Not Just Nostalgia: Music of the 1960s,  were yours truly  and Georgiana Glass (top right), blogger at modcentric.blogspot.com  Others who were either on panel workshops or guests included Lam Chun See, (author, blogger), Victor Koo, James Seah (bloggers) , Peter Chan (archivist, photographer), Yusnor Ef (cultural medallionist, author, lyricist ) and Audie Ng (Silver Strings band leader, bassist).

The main thrust of the panel discussion was to encourage all Singaporeans to post their memories on a blog or share online about heritage.  The speakers  related stories and provided tips from their online blogging and experiences to "demystify heritage blogging" and "help people to feel that they don't have to be experts in order to blog."

In this session, I raised a question as to why local Singapore 60s songs like Shanty, My Lonely Heart and other popular ones have not been orchestrated and performed by SSO while second panel speaker Glass advised her youthful audience that they do not, "need to live in the 60s to blog about music from that period."

Ivan Chew (Singapore Memory Project), Dan Koh, Rosenah Omar, Adrianna Tan, Char Lee and Zakaria Zainal were the other session panellists during the workshop. A wonderful gathering it was with reasonable audience participation.  But the rain outside...

The above article is not an official report on the Workshop but a personal observation.

Images: Peter Chan and James Seah Collection, Copyrights Reserved.
at

17 comments:

  1. TODAY NEWS REPORT16.7.12

    Journalist CHRISTOPHER TOH writes:

    As a harbinger to the Singapore HeritageFest 2012 starting next week, a group of bloggers will be giving a talk about our heritage, and what it means to blog about our heritage...

    (Click above connection to read the rest of the report.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. SINGAPORE A BIOGRAPHY16.7.12

    “A very readable, well crafted work of popular history... should get wider attention well beyond our shores.”
    from: Wang Gungwu, University Professor, National University of Singapore and Emeritus Professor, Australian National University

    ReplyDelete
  3. LAMCHUNSEE FACEBOOK16.7.12

    Hi Andy..good that you are all stepping up more with public talks and sharing.

    Am still busy with many things ..some u know about already, music, uke, performances..sports etc.

    DICK YIP

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lam Chun See16.7.12

    Congrats Andy. Your presentation was very well done. You were calm and collected, and spoke very naturally. I think it was very wise of you to bring along your music buddies Audie and the Malay gentleman - sorry cannot recall his name.

    I thot you shd have spoken a bit about the 60's music scene in the hotel lounges etc. and since our friend Peter Chan was sitting right in front, I invited him to say something. Was sure you didn't mind; as it was an informal occasion.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thimbuktu16.7.12

    Great blog and your presentation at The Art House on Saturday, July 14. You are not just a MP at the Old Parliament House. You are the Minister of Nostalgia Blog ( a newly created Ministry in Singapore) to support the National Heritage Board and Singapore Memory Project.

    Pls keep up the good job. Well done. Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  6. ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. ©16.7.12

    Thank you Chun See for support. Actually you are the natural one.

    I like your references to "Caucasian friends and their different lifestyle..." Besides your powerpoint presentation was clear and uncluttered, each one summarising the pages of your blog.

    Thanks Guru. I am learning.

    ReplyDelete
  7. ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. ©16.7.12

    Thank you James. You are doing great as Ambassador of the Memory project. And this is not a joke because James IS the roving ambassador.

    He had a part in organising this workshop I am sure.

    ReplyDelete
  8. YU-MEI16.7.12

    Hi Andy,

    Thanks for sharing that post. It was really great to listen to you speak (and sing!), and I also really appreciate that you rallied your musician/performer friends to come and share as well.

    Some of my friends who are in their 20s and didn't know much about the 1960s music scene, including one of the other speakers Zakaria Zainal, said they learned a lot from your talk and found it really inspiring.

    See you at the next FOYers event or perhaps some other heritage get-together!

    Best,
    Yu-Mei

    ReplyDelete
  9. ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. ©16.7.12

    Thanks Yu-Mei. You moderated well. And the audience participation was informative and interesting.

    We should all meet again.

    ReplyDelete
  10. YUSNOR EF21.7.12

    Dear Mr Andy Lim,

    Thank you for the photos. Looks like we are the MP for opposition.

    ReplyDelete
  11. ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. ©21.7.12

    Hi Larry,

    What kept me busy (below). Your presence would have been great.

    Some one asked me why you didn't turn up after I mentioned your name during my talk.

    The rain was bad.

    ReplyDelete
  12. PC21.7.12

    Yusnor standing up looks like a minister making his speech dont u think so?

    Now who was the Malay minister during Lim Yew Hock's regime? Hehe.

    ReplyDelete
  13. ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. ©21.7.12

    Thank you all for the comments that came both from my email and from the posting.

    Thanks also to Peter Chan, Lam Chun See and James Seah for the contribution of photographs without which this posting would never have been a success.

    And many thanks to our supporters like Yusnor Ef, Audie Ng, Victor Koo, Mr. Mun and others who participated in our workshop.

    ReplyDelete
  14. HAPPY TEARDROP MUSIC15.9.13

    1960s Singapore music fans! "Not Just Nostalgia: Music of the 1960s" at 3pm this Saturday. I'm one of the panelists, and hopefully I don't ramble too much. But joining me is Andy Lim of the Silver Strings (local 1960s grp, with the great Shirley Nair) on the same panel, whom I'm really looking forward to meeting. http://www.facebook.com/events/243987645704984

    ReplyDelete
  15. ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. ©9.7.16

    This posting has been revived because it is four years since we met as music bloggers. I am just wondering when our next one will be?

    Thanks to all supporters who have kept on reading this blog, even up till today.

    ReplyDelete
  16. FACEBOOK9.7.16

    THANKS FOR POSTING LIKES:

    James Seah
    Philip Chew
    Yip Dick
    Ann Rowena Lim
    Eddie Foo
    Lina Koh
    Irene Yap
    Jalani Mohamed
    Toh Richard
    Randy Lee Keng
    Linda Tan
    Jon Goh
    Chen Hui Si
    Amolat Singh
    Lee Ringo
    Jeff Lee
    Helen Teo
    Troy Tyrone Gatchalian
    Nestor Caranto Macaranas Jr.
    Prince Marwin Samson Gamboa
    Nelson Bullicer Parreno
    Angie Seah
    Bambi Santos

    ReplyDelete
  17. DICK YIP11.7.16

    Great to see all this. Time to have another one.

    ReplyDelete