Rag Day 07-- now in The Padang! Yes, the Field! No, not our field, the Field!
Rag Day '07 was held today. It is the second of the Flag and Rag Day event, during which NUS students swarm the streets of Singapore on Flag Day, collecting donations for god knows how many charities (some told me 20; others told me 80,000-- I'm sensing a discrepency here). Rag Day, which is held in the same week, is supposedly NUS's way of saying thanks to the donating public, during which faculties and halls build floats and give performances (it's also a competition between Halls and Faculties, respectively, because Competition Ith Gud!).
I'm all kinds of sleepy right now (WTF? At 1AM?! I'm not friggin' fifty!), but I also know I need to talk a bit about Rag Day before I forget everything that happened (something I suspect happened last year, hence why I can't seem to find any post about Rag Day '06).
Not that much happened to ME, personally, since I was just a spectator. Much like Rag Day '06, I watched and cheered a little for my faculty when they came up, pointed out all sorts of flaws in the vitriolic manner of backseat drivers, and ate Mos Burger for dinner.
Last year's overall Rag winner was Kent Ridge Hall. There was little doubt it would rule the day in everyone's mind, what with its disgustingly amazing train mechanism. I suspect I was one of the few who cared, but the theme of their dance and their costumes were very fitting with last year's overall theme too (something about the past, present and future)-- the story was of a 19th-century couple who boarded a train that brought them to the future. It ended with the couple getting back onto said train, with all sorts of nifty souveniers from the future. Compared to other stories that spoke of demons vs. angels and something about a candyland, little wonder KR did so well last year.
Last year.
This year, they seemed to drop the ball ever-so-slightly. Maybe our expectations had risen too highly, and we irrationally hoped for these poor students to pull miracles from their enthusiastic asses. But their float this year was some un-moving, rickety warplane. I can't really remember what their dance was about either. So, sadly but not entirely unexpectedly, while they swept the awards last year, Kent Ridge Hall left Rag Day '07 as little more than a footnote.
The plane. I can't really remember the story, just that the blurb spoke of how warplanes always spelt disaster when they didn't have to.
That may be a bit harsh. They did get some certificate of bronze or whatever. (...That didn't come out as un-sarcastic as I'd hoped for.)
The finale, all dancers on stage. Note the opened hatch of the plane. Floats are marked based on the mechanisms powering them.
King Edward VII Hall came in for... another prize I can't remember now. I complained loudly about their winning earlier, but looking at the photos I managed to snap now, it really isn't THAT bad. Just... kinda schmaltzy. I mean, here's your chance to do just about any story you want in the form of gigantic mechanical floats, song and dance (with an overall theme like "Discover Our Passion, Witness Our Spirit", it's like your own do anything and get away with it badge!)... and you choose to tell one of Unity, Sports, and Family? Um, this isn't a National Day performance! The first thought that came to mind when the show started was "Wow, how safe of them." Then, "Wow, what annoying PC suck ups."
I mean-- just-- the leading male and family got MARRIED on stage! They had two KIDS! And everyone knows how desperately Singapore is trying to make babies.
A sports stadium was presented as a symbol for unity. (Come on, you can't tell me you didn't groan?)
So who were the overall winners for Rag Day '07? At least for the Halls, it was Sheares Hall. Total dark horse (haha sonotintendedpun), I believe, as the usual favourite was Eusoff Hall.
Their performance had a Cinderella theme going, if the giant mechanised pumpkin didn't already clue you in.
I might be mixing up stories by now, but Sheares' dance&song routine dealt with dreams of flying, IIRC. I hate to say "Sheares deserved the win" since it implies they did more work on their performance than the other Halls, when in reality I don't know either way; but in a Rag Day with seemingly no clear winners, Sheares' float really stood out. It might say something about their dance routine, though, that I can still remember Kent Ridge's story from last year and I can't recall Sheares' own now.
Rag was previously always held within the NUS campus, except for this year where they decided to bring it to the city. Hence, some got tickets for seats while others had to (or chose to) stand and cheer. I managed to get two tickets. The problem is that a LOT of people were standing near the bottom, and despite being almost three rows up, we still got our view blocked by the following inconsiderates:
Seriously, do you HAVE to hold your umbrella that high?! WHAT could you possibly be covering?!! You're not that tall! Neither is anyone else around you!
As for the Faculty end of things: Science and the Architecture faculties won most of the awards. From the way someone predicted so confidently that "Arts will never win", I'm starting to think it's a tradition that the Arts Faculty gets its butt handed to it during Rag Day. XD; (As a note, the USP society's presentation really stood out in my mind, for the sole reason that it used so many video game songs straight outta my Winamp. They even got in AC's Black Water for the villainy parts! If I were a judge, I would've awarded them WIN for the sheer awesome choice of using Suikoden II's OP theme.)
As an aside, another thing I hated about this year's location was how far we were kept from the performers. I'm well aware the pictures are terrible. At least, back on campus ground, I had a fighting chance of getting a bigger shot that little ants running around in tights.
Three months of work (although rumour had it that Kent Ridge had its committee selected a YEAR earlier), all for five minutes of fame. The disappointment of losing is probably why the faculties and halls keep having to recruit new blood every year. ^^;
And that was Rag Day '07.
I'm all kinds of sleepy right now (WTF? At 1AM?! I'm not friggin' fifty!), but I also know I need to talk a bit about Rag Day before I forget everything that happened (something I suspect happened last year, hence why I can't seem to find any post about Rag Day '06).
Not that much happened to ME, personally, since I was just a spectator. Much like Rag Day '06, I watched and cheered a little for my faculty when they came up, pointed out all sorts of flaws in the vitriolic manner of backseat drivers, and ate Mos Burger for dinner.
Last year's overall Rag winner was Kent Ridge Hall. There was little doubt it would rule the day in everyone's mind, what with its disgustingly amazing train mechanism. I suspect I was one of the few who cared, but the theme of their dance and their costumes were very fitting with last year's overall theme too (something about the past, present and future)-- the story was of a 19th-century couple who boarded a train that brought them to the future. It ended with the couple getting back onto said train, with all sorts of nifty souveniers from the future. Compared to other stories that spoke of demons vs. angels and something about a candyland, little wonder KR did so well last year.
Last year.
This year, they seemed to drop the ball ever-so-slightly. Maybe our expectations had risen too highly, and we irrationally hoped for these poor students to pull miracles from their enthusiastic asses. But their float this year was some un-moving, rickety warplane. I can't really remember what their dance was about either. So, sadly but not entirely unexpectedly, while they swept the awards last year, Kent Ridge Hall left Rag Day '07 as little more than a footnote.
The plane. I can't really remember the story, just that the blurb spoke of how warplanes always spelt disaster when they didn't have to.
That may be a bit harsh. They did get some certificate of bronze or whatever. (...That didn't come out as un-sarcastic as I'd hoped for.)
The finale, all dancers on stage. Note the opened hatch of the plane. Floats are marked based on the mechanisms powering them.
King Edward VII Hall came in for... another prize I can't remember now. I complained loudly about their winning earlier, but looking at the photos I managed to snap now, it really isn't THAT bad. Just... kinda schmaltzy. I mean, here's your chance to do just about any story you want in the form of gigantic mechanical floats, song and dance (with an overall theme like "Discover Our Passion, Witness Our Spirit", it's like your own do anything and get away with it badge!)... and you choose to tell one of Unity, Sports, and Family? Um, this isn't a National Day performance! The first thought that came to mind when the show started was "Wow, how safe of them." Then, "Wow, what annoying PC suck ups."
I mean-- just-- the leading male and family got MARRIED on stage! They had two KIDS! And everyone knows how desperately Singapore is trying to make babies.
A sports stadium was presented as a symbol for unity. (Come on, you can't tell me you didn't groan?)
So who were the overall winners for Rag Day '07? At least for the Halls, it was Sheares Hall. Total dark horse (haha sonotintendedpun), I believe, as the usual favourite was Eusoff Hall.
Their performance had a Cinderella theme going, if the giant mechanised pumpkin didn't already clue you in.
I might be mixing up stories by now, but Sheares' dance&song routine dealt with dreams of flying, IIRC. I hate to say "Sheares deserved the win" since it implies they did more work on their performance than the other Halls, when in reality I don't know either way; but in a Rag Day with seemingly no clear winners, Sheares' float really stood out. It might say something about their dance routine, though, that I can still remember Kent Ridge's story from last year and I can't recall Sheares' own now.
Rag was previously always held within the NUS campus, except for this year where they decided to bring it to the city. Hence, some got tickets for seats while others had to (or chose to) stand and cheer. I managed to get two tickets. The problem is that a LOT of people were standing near the bottom, and despite being almost three rows up, we still got our view blocked by the following inconsiderates:
Seriously, do you HAVE to hold your umbrella that high?! WHAT could you possibly be covering?!! You're not that tall! Neither is anyone else around you!
As for the Faculty end of things: Science and the Architecture faculties won most of the awards. From the way someone predicted so confidently that "Arts will never win", I'm starting to think it's a tradition that the Arts Faculty gets its butt handed to it during Rag Day. XD; (As a note, the USP society's presentation really stood out in my mind, for the sole reason that it used so many video game songs straight outta my Winamp. They even got in AC's Black Water for the villainy parts! If I were a judge, I would've awarded them WIN for the sheer awesome choice of using Suikoden II's OP theme.)
As an aside, another thing I hated about this year's location was how far we were kept from the performers. I'm well aware the pictures are terrible. At least, back on campus ground, I had a fighting chance of getting a bigger shot that little ants running around in tights.
Three months of work (although rumour had it that Kent Ridge had its committee selected a YEAR earlier), all for five minutes of fame. The disappointment of losing is probably why the faculties and halls keep having to recruit new blood every year. ^^;
And that was Rag Day '07.