by Elaine Tan
The word of the day, he said it out loud,
Is Artsfluffing, my dear, shout it out to the crowd.
How the Arts can inspire, or shame, or collude;
For life, for fun, or just to be rude.
So I did what he said and went around town,
With sometimes a smile and sometimes a frown.
Be it a fillum, dance, expo or show,
As long as it’s local, I’ll give it a go.
But I was told sternly, that’s just not enough.
I have to write something about all that stuff.
It doesn’t matter, about what you fuss,
The thing about fluffing is to keep up the buzz.
‘Tis effortful blowing, as I huff and I puff,
Arts’ magniloquent horn and lubricious muff.
But here is the story of three little gigs,
In Kayel, in Pijay, for pussies, for pricks.
Two musicals and a movie in just the past week
About ghosts and madness, corpses and freaks.
No, not heavy, bro, I promise there will be no scaries;
Just chortles and snortles and Malaysian fairies.
At Gotham City, just down the street,
Next to Normal is a Tony-winning Rock’n’Roll treat.
I didn’t even know there is a theatre school here
For kids, for grown ups, for a week, month or year.
You must go and see it. It’s started already.
I’m tooting my trumpet for its Leading Lady.
Where did she come from? She’s new to the game,
But I’m placing my bets she’ll be a big name.
With two hours to go, a message to meet
For a movie date: Don Dukun, MidValley, the deets.
Sampah! declared a YouTube reviewer.
Up yours! I say, I’ve seen nothing newer.
A comedy-horror of food court proportions.
A Muhibbah feast with no racial distortions.
Derivative yes, and isn’t all life?
Appropriation is appreciation if done without strife.
The final event is Kult’s musical The Working Dead.
Just tonight, in fact, so it’s still in my head.
Three Boh Awards, the first production proclaimed
But can this new rendition still claim the same?
I have to say truly the songs are quite catchy.
The voices were great, and the production not patchy.
Artsfluffers support every local creation,
And talent, and effort, and all things Malaysian.
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