Friday, May 15, 2009

Mplifiers & Darth Vader

Mplifiers: Bernadette Yeo, Rachel Lim, Mrs Yap Swee Lan, Belinda Foo.

It's always heartwarming to hear young people share about what they've done, especially if it's for a good cause. And we were delighted to have Rachel Lim and Bernadette Yeo from Methodist Girls School (MGS) grace our couch to talk about their CD album Mplify, which aims to raise $90,000 over 2 years for Rainbow Centre, in support of the President's Challenge '09. 

Joining them were Vice-Principal Mrs Yap Swee Lan and the co-producer of the album: ex-MGS girl, now-parent volunteer, and a well-known composer, keyboardist, arranger and producer in the local music scene, Belinda FooI totally enjoyed the ease and banter that flowed, and I could definitely detect the pride and passion of these ladies when they talked about this labour of love. 

The highlight for me was hearing 15-year-old Rachel sing The Water Is Wide (track #7). She looks every bit a teenage school girl, in her MGS uniform, but oh... her voice!

I am not an MGS girl, but having been in an all-girls mission school for 10 years, I can understand the fierce pride these ladies have for their alma mater and how their actions flow from a sense of mission. 

Support them! Head down to Lulu Australia, #03-18 Holland Road Shopping Centre to grab a copy. It's $20, and all proceeds go to Rainbow Centre. Or purchase it from MGS @ 11 Blackmore Drive. Call first at 6469-4800.
  
We also had another special guest grace our couch: He's  renowned breathing master, Dominique Lonchant. For over 30 years, Dominique has coached stage actors, musicians, corporate staff, as well as celebrities like Robert Redford, Jim Carey, Hugh Grant and Elizabeth Hurley. He's an easy-go-lucky Frenchmen, now based in KL, but jet-sets around the world to teach people proper breathing techniques. 

Breathing Guru Dominique Lonchant brings us back to basics.

He's currently in town to meet with medical doctors to share his expertise. Apparently, proper breathing helps to reverse diseases and bring back overall health and wellness to bodily functions like the cardiovascular and brain systems, autonomous nervous system etc. 

Medical doctors, it seems, are now quite fascinated with him - especially after Dr Paul Johnson, an Oxford medical doctor, whose research is in acute & chronic cardio-respiratory conditions, wired Dominique up to his monitoring system and found that the man breathes an average of TWO breaths a minute in his sleep! 

Let me tell you, when this guy breathes deeply, it's loud, long-drawn, and seems to come from the very depths of his being. All this dumbstruck DJ could do was to utter stupidly on air, "You sound like Darth Vader..."
 
To find out more about Dominique's work, click here

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