Today, I upped my culture quotient a little and took a foray into the Asian Civilisations Museum to view the Journey of Faith exhibition of artifacts from the Vatican. Was slightly disappointed because it was a rather small exhibition and not really worth the one hour queueing time. For me, the most interesting piece was not even from the Vatican itself. It was this huge dresser/sideboard/altar-like piece of furniture that had shelves on two sides, drawers in the middle, a painted backboard and a row of light bulbs at the top, exactly like those light bulbs that border old dressing tables of movie stars, except this one just had one row at the top. What was interesting about this piece (it was from old Singapore) was that the shelves had sort of pillars running top down and they were adorned with dragons and taoist symbols. Not the most Catholic decor. BUT, the surprising thing was that the backboard was a huge painting of Joseph, Mary and Jesus. Turns out the Peranakan owners used to be Taoist then became Catholics and got the back board painted. How cool is that?!?

Anyway, my other disappointment with the museum came in the form of this female security guard (I won't mention her race in case I get jailed for making racist comments on my blog. Must be a responsible blogger you know... cannot anyhow anyhow say things). So anyway, this security guard was really horrid. We were in the queue for the Journey of Faith exhibition but the queue stretched across many galleries and other exhibits. There was this particular exhibit that I found really interesting and so I took a few steps (less than 3) out of the long and winding queue to read the text on the signage. This security guard promptly told me to get back in queue and didn't allow me to read or look in detail at the display. I was positively miffed. I mean, it's a museum. I'm there to look at the displays. How can you tell me I'm not allowed to and ask me to get back in line? And it's not like I was twenty feet away. I was 2 steps out of line. The display was practically next to us. I was so upset. It ruined my visit to the museum. For about 5 minutes. Then I was over it. Hahaha. But on a serious note, how can you expect Singaporeans to take a stronger interest in the arts when you're discouraging them so blatantly? Can we only appreciate art if we follow the rules? If we stay within OB markers? If we stand behind the yellow line lest a train runs us over? We seem to need so many rules to govern us that we appear incapable of making rational decisions for ourselves.

But that is not something I can or want to control. It's out of my hands so I'll simply say my piece and leave it to run its course.

On a lighter note, I was watching Oprah and for her book club, they're doing a 3-book set by William Faulker! How awesome! I badly want to get my hands on a Faulkner classic - The Sound and the Fury but I still have my book review and a Kazuo Ishiguro to get through. And I'm STILL in the middle of C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity. Ok, I'll be done with that, then my book review, then Ishiguro and then, *drum roll*, Faulker, here I come!

Eeeek. I sound like such a geek.