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I have realised (sample size n=2) that when those ppl who write well in chinese as a first language, they attain a degree of proficiency in english, their english writings are nice to read. There's this sort of feeling that yes, the words flow in a unique...un-english (american/uk/whatever) sort of way. It's like some sort of sense of chinese poetry that is transferred over. Some sort of hidden spirit in the words. Very enchanting.
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Today I watched 1 hour of figure skating on tv (winter olympics). The only reason I stayed so long is because I wanted so much to see the glaring incident as reported in the Straits Times. Where this couple who led the scores in the previous round, the guy cocks up in the next round and at the end of the routine the girl supposedly glares at him for "nearly one minute". Well, that was how I read it anyway, fuck you Straits Times. Total bullshit. The glaring was obvious but it wasn't as bad as they exaggerated it to be. Total eye contact less than 15 seconds, and the longest stretch of eye contact only 5 seconds. Frustration apparent, yes, but a one-minute face off on the ice? Talk cock.

Anyway, the figure skating was applying ballroom dancing moves on ice. I heard all the terms like rumba salsa blah blah mentioned in the routines. Well, I have alot of things to say about dance, even though I've never done so. Firstly, I think that waltz is the stupidest dance ever invented. It is stiff and rigid, and I bet the guy gets arm cramps afterwards. There's no life in the dance. To me anyway. This I conclude after watching the NUS ballroom dance cca welcome tea some time ago and also seeing someone dance it on Guess ^ 3.

Secondly, I think that the route to perfection for dance, like any other performing art, consists of 3 stages. The 1st stage is when you watch other ppl do it, you imagine yourself doing it in the mind and say wow, that looks fun / great to do. I wish I could learn. And you bring all this raw passion into the art in this initial learning stage. Free form.

Stage 2 is when you realise that damn! this is harder than I thought. It's the stage where you practice the same thing over and over and over and over again. The raw passion that you brought in has to be killed off. Because free form will look like crap if you are unskilled. The raw passion and unbridled enthusiasm that you start off with is slowly suffocated and strangulated out of you. This is the stage that leads me to think, hey, piano players must be damn ke lian. To perform a song they like they practice it over and over again until they don't like the song.

Stage 3 is when everything in Stage 2 becomes second nature. And u bring in the passion again. Free form. In the hands of an expert, producing free form yet within the confines of hard-earned skills from stage 2. That the enjoyment one gets from performing actually rubs off the audience. Whatever feeling inside is translated and communicated to the audience. They get the frisson--tingling sensation down the spine. And make them jump up and enter Stage 1 themselves, too.

Watching figure skating, hearing the commentators say oh that's a difficult turn, synchronization, lifts, leg extension blah blah. That's stage 2. I don't feel it. The current leading scorers and reigning champs, the Russians, watching them move across the ice, I don't feel it. Now the Americans, I would say they are indeed dancing across the ice. Move like a dream.

I think when people talk about appreciating art, what they mean is that if you have undergone certain technical exposure to a certain art, then when u watch people perform, you will understand all their Stage 2 movements. You "appreciate". Understand the difficulty in execution. And thus you clap.

I guess for me, art shouldn't have to be that way. If you're good enough, I don't have to know the terms that describe your movement. I will feel it, you don't have to tell me. I will feel it and want to jump on the ice with you. *clink*
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(Whatever you do)
I'll be two steps behind you
(Wherever you go)
and I'll be there to remind you
that it only takes a minute of your precious time
to turn around and I'll be two steps behind.

---Def Leppard "Two Steps Behind"

Lastly...Go Barca!