On Modern Art and Modern Music

I know what I'm going to say will be embarrassing to most of my musician friends who will think I'm just an unsophisticated non-musician but you should by now know that I don't care for public opinion. I was just looking through some clarinet pieces for my own personal entertainment and I came across some modern pieces.

I sometimes find modern music (just like modern art) quite a letdown.  The music can be downright horrid and even cacophonous. Do people really appreciate such music or are they just being pretentious as many people do when they want to appear cultivated and refined?

Here's an excerpt from a modern piece of music composed no more than 50 years ago: 

Let's examine this bit and let's be rational. Do you really enjoy this music? I honestly don't and here's my reason.

Do you see in the first line the glis from D-natural to Db? Call me unsophisticated if you like but that's awful. When I first heard it without looking at the score, I really thought the musician hit the wrong note and tried to glis to the right note. It was incredibly revolting. What excuse can a composer have for writing that? He probably just wanted to stand out and be different but writing awful music is not the way to stand out.

Next, do you see the "scrawling" over the third and fourth notes (the two Ds just above middle-C) in the second line? Non-clarinet players may not know what that means but it's really nothing more than a direct instruction from the composer to play those notes so that they grate on the ear. Can you imagine that? When a clarinettist sees that notation, he is required to play the note as if he is throwing up what he's eaten into the clarinet.

I've only picked two examples out of the many ways modern composers have to ruin music for their listeners. All the great composers of different nationalities who composed beautiful music for the clarinet including Beethoven, Mozart, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Spohr, Crusell, Weber and even modern composers such as Poulenc, Saint-Saëns and Lutoslawski do not ruin the music with such horrid devices.

Perhaps I'm just lacking in that musical sophistication that people with a finer ear can appreciate and I can't. But I don't think so. My guess is modern composers try too hard to be different. There are only so many musical variations that one can have and after a while they really feel they ought to do something radically different. True, it may be outrageously and shockingly different and it may even require a great deal of virtuosic skill for a performer to get some of these notes right but musicians are not circus clowns performing tricks that are hard to accomplish but that are of negative musical value.

Anyway, this is just my rant after having gone through a stack of music scores on a Friday evening and you don't have to agree with me. The sound of fingernails scratching a blackboard has the effect of making me feel weak with revulsion but if you enjoy that kind of sound, go ahead and listen to it. You might want to comment below why you like the sound of fingernails scratching the blackboard.

Why nudity made Malaysia go berserk

In my last post which I wrote when I was still on holiday and had to be rather brief, I talked about the adverse publicity that naturism had been getting lately in the Malaysian press after a group of naturists were arrested more than two months after they went nude on a deserted beach in a remote part of Penang. A video of the event which was uploaded on vimeo.com went viral and it caught the attention of the Penang Chief Minister and that led to an unnecessarily hyped up outcry in the Muslim majority country. Incidents of people going nude on Malaysian beaches are not uncommon as the Chief Minister himself has said but there was an obvious political reason why the Penang incident was blown out of proportion. See this for other incidents of nudity in Malaysia.

People in Malaysia and presumably other parts of Asia are usually in the dark about who a naturist (or nudist) is and what it is he does at a naturist gathering. Too often, the public associates nudity with sex and the first thing that springs to mind when they are confronted with a naturist incident is to assume that some outrageously debauched orgy is going on among the participants. That was precisely the kind of reception I got when I told my friends I had been to a naturist gathering in Taiwan last year. When I told them that I took a lot of photos and my wife was quite amused by some of the photos, they thought I had gone mad. One of them asked me if my wife would consider a divorce.

It took me a long time before I understood what really went on in the minds of non-naturists. It's easy for those of us who are naturists to dismiss non-naturists as sex-crazed or having an obsession with sex to such an extent that they associated the human body with it but the fact is there are so many more non-naturists in the world and it's not helpful to begin an explanation of what naturism means by insulting those who are not naturists.

A naturist is simply a person who does not accept the ridiculous notion that there is a part of the God-created or nature-formed human body (depending on your religious persuasion or an absence of it) that is obscene, indecent and so vile and filthy that it has to be covered up. A naturist refuses to accept the worldview that the human body is so base and has such a corrupting influence that anyone looking at it uncovered might be lured to lead a life of debauchery and licentiousness. A naturist believes that the human body is wholesome and decent and worthy of our respect and full acceptance. A naturist accepts and respects the human body in all its colours, imperfections, defects and whatever shortcomings that flesh is heir to.

When someone says that he or she won't go to a nudist beach unless he has gone to the gym for months and has lost 10 kg or so, you know he's not a naturist. He's viewing the body in the light of pornographic culture and that has nothing to do with naturism. It's very hard to explain to non-naturists that a naturist does not look at the body the way viewers of porn do and even after I have explained many times to them, they still revert to thinking of nudity the pornographic way.

Some Singaporeans remind me of the A*Star scholar who walked down crowded Holland Village one evening stark naked with her Swiss boyfriend and insist that they were naturists. But they were probably not naturists. They were more likely people who wanted to shock the public into some sort of reaction. Most naturists are not extreme nudist activists who will insist on having their space in society to go naked. Most of us just have a healthy respect for the human body but we are perfectly aware of societal norms and we conform to them strictly. A naturist is usually extremely tolerant and considerate and he will not do anything offensive to the rest of society. Attention seeking people who expose their nakedness in public for its shock factor are not naturists. Neither are flashers who seek the perverted thrill of being seen by women in dark corners on lonely streets. These are by no means naturists.

Because naturism is so uncompromisingly non-sexual, true naturist gatherings are usually very strict about the conduct of naturists in the resort. Naturists do not stare at one another and any hint of sexuality is a no-no. If for some reason a person appears to be in a state of arousal, he will immediately cover himself with a towel. That's basic etiquette in naturism. Many naturists bring their entire families including young children to a nudist place and I cannot overemphasize the fact that naturism is a family-friendly lifestyle that has nothing to do with sex.

But we are all individuals and of course not all naturists are the same. We only have one thing in common - our respect for the human body (with all its defects) and because of that, we do not view the body as obscene or vile which the rest of the world does.

I knew about the Penang Nude Games but I didn't want to go for a few personal reasons. Although the Games would be held on a remote beach, I was still afraid of being pounced upon by the police and I knew I would be so anxious that even if I did go I would probably not have had a good time. The other thing is my personal taste. I don't like organised games at a nudist place. If I do go to a nudist beach or resort, I would rather be left alone to tan in the sun, swim on my own and read a book without having to participate in fixed games.

In May, at around the time the Penang Nude Games were held, I went on my own to a naturist resort (which I subsequently discovered was rated by a travel magazine to be the 8th best in the world). I was very fortunate indeed for I had, until my final night, the whole resort to myself. I had a very good time lazing under the sun, swimming and reading at the large resort with nobody in sight except for the staff of the resort. Admittedly, some people who are more gregarious may not like such a quiet holiday and like I've said, we naturists are no different from other individuals in that we have our different personal tastes.

 

Luxuriating by the pool where I had the whole resort to myself.

Notice the dove just a few feet above me? Where else can one

take a pic of such sublime serenity?

The press and more specifically the comments of individuals online have been rather scathing of the activities carried out by the participants of the Penang Nude Games which included crab walks and relay races but the one activity that many would single out with some disapproval is the game in which a person would crawl over a few people lying facing upwards on the sand. Personally, I would be very uncomfortable with such a game but that's just me. Non-naturists would immediately give a sexual interpretation to the game but it is very obvious to me that the naturists who took part in that game did not view it in that way at all. If you had seen the video, you would have noticed that they were more concerned about having to bear the weight of the person crawling on them and some of them could be seen pushing the person on top so that he or she might move over to the other side more speedily. There was not the slightest trace of impropriety, sexual or otherwise, in the entire video.

Two weeks ago, when I was tanning myself on a nudist beach in Croatia, I learnt about the uproar in Malaysia over the Penang Nude Games incident. I really believe the furore has a lot to do with a total misunderstanding by Malaysians of what naturism really means. Every online article I read had some negativity towards the concept of naturism.

The participants of the Penang Nude Games clearly had no intention of offending or insulting the modesty of anyone. They chose such a remote and inaccessible part of Penang that absolutely nobody knew about the incident until the public saw the video more than 2 months after the event.

Ironically, the participants of the Penang Nude Games were in all likelihood the only people who did not engage in any sexual activity during their stay on the beach. I know some of the participants and I really can vouch for them. It's the non-naturists who if they were to stay overnight on such a beach would probably indulge in some sex. I wonder if the more fanatical Muslims in Malaysia might have been placated if they had understood the real meaning of naturism and were satisfied that the participants did not do any sex, which presumably is what Islam forbids and what the general public was upset about.

 

Acceptance of nudism really depends on a proper understanding of it.
Near this beach which is ranked the world's 3rd best nudist beach, there
is a beautiful bay and many boats and canoes have to come close to the
beach to get to the bay.  Those who object to nudism and cannot bear the
sight of the human body will probably have to give a trip to the bay a miss.
But as it happens, Europeans are generally not uptight about nudity and
there is a healthy harmony between naturists and non-naturists as they
meet at the shoreline that divides the "FKK strand" from the clothed world.

It really boils down to the people's understanding of naturism. A society that understands naturism is usually quite accepting of it. Last year, when I was with the Taiwan Naturist Association, we rose early to go to a beach by the Pacific Ocean to view the sunrise. A beach ranger from the Police Department came on his buggy and spoke to the President of the Association. Anyone would have thought we would all be taken to the police station for being naked on a public beach if we had been in Penang. But all the policeman wanted was for us to move further up the beach because there was a family not far from us on the same beach. We moved about a hundred metres further up the beach. What happened after that really surprised me. Someone asked the policeman to help take photos of us and he readily obliged us. He even allowed us to pose on his buggy for photos. I have quite a few photos of me sitting au naturel on the policeman's beach buggy but since we naturists are considerate people who do not wish to offend the general public, I won't post the photos here. As you can see, all the photos that I post here are the sort that even the Ayatollah can have no objection.

 By the Pacific Ocean and posing with the policeman's red buggy.

The policeman was the photographer who snapped this pic.

It's sad that Malaysians lack a proper understanding of naturism and because of this misunderstanding the participants of the Penang Nude Games were treated like criminals. If only the authorities in Malaysia knew how spotlessly pure and decent their conduct and intention were on the beach, there would have been no uproar in the first place.

Nude on the beach? Two different results.

I'm currently in Croatia and am now so richly tanned by the hot summer sun as I basked on the beaches by the Adriatic Sea that most of my friends probably won't be able to recognise me when I'm home. But my tan isn't the sort you see with tan lines delineating where my swimming trunks had been.  You see, I have been tanning myself on a lovely nudist beach in Croatia that is ranked Number 3 among the top nudist beaches in the whole world.

The island on which the nudist beach is located

Entrance to the nudist beach

When I checked my Facebook wall a few days ago, I saw a huge furore in Malaysia over a group of people who went nude on a deserted beach in Penang. The Malaysian police which is generally known to do nothing when you report a real crime such as a burglary, snatch theft or even a robbery, suddenly sprang into uncharacteristic action. As my Facebook friend commented, his neighbour had his house burgled recently and the police said there was nothing they could do. But when a small group of people went naked on a deserted and inaccessible part of Penang in some remote bay, the police gathered its forensic experts and obtained fingerprints and DNA samples.

You may ask why the Malaysian police is treating such an inconsequential act as if it were a serious crime. After all, the Malaysian police is known to do next to nothing when real crimes are reported. A recent report I read online seems to suggest that people in repressive countries such as Pakistan and some Arab states are by far the largest viewers of internet pornography and they too take the cake when it comes to sexual perversion or questionable sexual practices such as bestiality. Whether it's because of the oppression that makes them have a heightened sensitivity to sex is something I am not competent to say but the countries whose people are obsessed with sex and pornography are also the countries where the strongest exception is taken to nudity and naturism.

Naturism or nudism (both terms can be used interchangeably) is often wrongly looked upon by Asians as sexual debauchery. What most Asians don't understand is naturists usually go to nudist beaches with their families. We bring our children along. That's because there is nothing sexual about nudism. As I have said elsewhere in my blog, I'm a naturist for only one reason. I find it totally unacceptable that any part of my God-created or nature-formed body (depending on your religious persuasion or the lack of it) should be looked upon as indecent, obscene or so inappropriate that it has to be covered up. But I do observe social convention and more importantly, the law of the land and will not go naked in public not just because the law prohibits it but because I don't want to offend my fellow men.

What's the difference between me and the people caught in the controversy in Penang? They were nude on a beach and so was I. I'll be going home with a lovely tan and a wonderful experience while they are in the soup. It's a small and trivial matter but the Penang authorities have politicized it. If only the Penang naturists had come to Croatia or anywhere else in Europe where people generally have a more well-adjusted view of the human body and do not treat it as a sex object which, I imagine, is what a sex-crazed, pornography addict would do.


EDITOR: I should add that in May this year (the same month that the Penang event was held and by the way, the correct name for the Penang event is the Penang International Nude Games Extravaganza 2014), I was at a naturist resort abroad which I have since discovered is the world's 8th best naturist resort. Again, I came home with a wonderful tan and lots of memorable photos which I can share with friends and relatives. Just imagine, in the space of just a few months, I've been to the 8th world's best naturist resort and the 3rd world's best nudist beach and I'm none the worse for it. I am saying all this in the hope that someone will knock some sense into the heads of the Malaysian police. There are lots of nudist beaches and resorts all over the world and what the naturists did in Penang was really nothing at all and it can in no way hurt your country. On the contrary, it's good for tourism. Instead of harassing the participants of the Nude Games, the Malaysian police should channel their energy into tackling the many major unsolved crimes that the police have been too lazy to look into. Don't go after the nudists in the hope that the public may overlook your legendary incompetence.