miss saigon

ok, a few people have asked me what's happened to my posting since i got back. and i've gone to see the queen and back and still nothing. unlike a lot of people who temporarily stop blogging because they don't want to just put something there for the sake of blogging while they have nothing much to write about (which i feel is a good way of doing it anyway), i in fact have lots to write about from my travels and my journeying so far, but unfortunately don't have much time and don't always have the laptop around. so, since today my husband has graciously let me have his laptop for the day, i'll fire away. well, it's not going to be about london yet. i'm still on melbourne. while i like spontaneity, there's still this side of me who strangely likes chronological order sometimes. besides, it's a nice way to recall good times in the past in the form of my time in melbourne.

i'm doing this listening to channel 111, the jazz channel of astro, and each time i do i'm trasnported back in my mind to the time i went to my first proper jazz club in melbourne, Bennet's Lane. that little place was situated literally in a small, dark lane somewhere in melbourne city. it's got 2 jazz rooms. we were a group of 5 in the smaller and more intimate room. i had southern comfort on the rocks. one of my favorite hard-liquor type drinks which i haven't had for a long long time. since i left the advertising industry actually. gosh, 10 years. it was worth the long wait when local jazz artist yvette johannsen appeared and gave us 3 hrs worth of jazz. loved her singing. strong vocals and quite a natural at performing, dancing and interacting with the audience. i had a great time. that was may 31st.

the night before, i went for my 1st of the 4 stage productions that i saw in melbourne. Miss Saigon! i had forgotten that i had seen it with pat in sydney when we visited way back in 1995, but i didn't mind watching it again. the production in sydney had a an actual life size helicopter (a mock i'm sure) in the helicopter scene, which was very impressive. this one in melbourne, had a holographic helicopter in that scene. i was a little disappointed at first when i heard of that, but it turned out impressive actually. it was a hologram but somehow when they had the soldiers enter the helicopter they sort of disappeared inside, and it looked very real.i appreciated the storyline more this time. the songs were very good. but there was a lot of loin-gyrating dancing from all the prostitutes, including 1 male prostitute. i guess what else can you expect from dancing prostitutes? but unfortunately we see a lot of that nowadays in a lot of music videos as well.

i thought the direction did a good job also in portraying the painful circumstances through which the prostitutes of the viet war turned to prostitution, and also the pain of the viet commonfolk who were caught in the middle of the war. it also shed, to me, a very bad light on all the american soldiers who immorally spilled their seeds everywhere and produced a whole lot of eligitimate children and then just abandoned them anyway when they left for home! although later, according to the story there was a move started by one of the american soldiers to bring help to the abandoned children of the war. that scene with the slide show of the children really broke my heart.

even in the central storyline, which was the love story between this american g.i. and this viet girl, pushed my justice button. basically he was her first client, then they fell in love, wed, he promised to bring her with him but due to difficult circumstances eventually she was left behind. he went back to his wife (!), she bears him a son, they travel to reconcile with daddy, he and his wife meets her halfway and he tells her she can't have him. she begs them to take care of their son and then kills herself! poor victimised girl. i know it was just a story but surely it's reflective of what would have taken place during the war.

but anyway, i did love the production, and my favorite scene was when the last helicopter had to leave saigon and they had this scene of the helicopter taking off in slo-mo and all the vietnamese commonfolk who had their visas approved to leave saigon scrambling over the gate and fencing and yelling to not be left behind, all in slo-mo! such effect, and very emotionally provoking as well. and then the scene reverts to normal speed again into a culmination of their hope and desperation crushed into devastation and fury...