|| .burnynng on just lyke a matchh you stryyke to incynerate ||

personality tests

nowadays there a few variants of the '2% of the population answers another answer' kind of tests.well,i would almost be certainly be in the 2%.why is that so?it is not because i am abnormal,or superior,nor inferior,but thing is,those tests are simply not to be believed.famous one would be some preludes asking you lots of simple mathematical questions,in which the answers would all be '6'.after answering '6' profusely,you finally see anglais."write down the name of a vegetable."so i answered potato.well,my friend who did this quiz with me over msn said that 98% would have answered carrot or cabbage.so i belong to the 2%.though i was not enlisted in the 98%,my answer still contained 6 letters.that was what my friend pointed out to me.i dun believe it.why?i love potatoes.simple as that.naturally i would answer potato.but when i did this test with my sis,she got cabbage as the answer.i was astonished,but still it doesn't say anything.she likes cabbage,and cabbage is also her more oftenly encountered vegetable,that's why.there's another more wellknown one which i can find on friendster bulletins.this time,you calculate some mathematical sums which are more complex,but anyone can do it.i didn't bother to do them.so i chose to scroll all the way down,then came THE question.think of a tool and its colour.so i thought screwdriver,if not spanner.colour,just blue lor,though idiots will know it usually would be silver.so i saw that 98%(why must it always be this percentage?) would have chosen red hammer.silly.i came to the conclusion that these are not reliable at all.i have a preference for a spanner or screwdriver than a hammer.and to game freaks like me,hammers would nowadays not occur as a tool,but a lousy weapon.i like screwdrivers due to their names,and they are most commonly used by me(no pun intended).meanwhile i would also have thought of spanner,cos i have one in my pocket,a valuable addition amongst my keys.okie,while many have said "wow!that's a cool keychain(my spanner)",i'm like haha...cool cool lor,what can i do...but it does look good :D but there's a practical purpose actually.though small,the spanner is still steel after all,and hence is heavy.think of it as an anchor.the keys by themselves are so light,so the spanner would ensure the keys are still in my pocket when the sun sets.so that sums up my disbelief of these 98% tests.maybe like 80%,then i could start believing.
anyway i found this site,www.funtestiq.com which has quite a lot of jokes and other assorted modes of amusement,philosophy etc.take a look at it,it's not bad.so i just randomly took a personality test.it is entitled power failure.

You were about to take some medicine when a power failure occurred and the light went out. What would be most likely your reaction?
1. Grab the bottle on the nightstand, take the pills and be done with it.
2. Get out of your bed, lit a candle, and take the medicine by the light.
3. Go to sleep and wait till tomorrow to get your dose.

i chose 2.result?You are even-tempered, with the attitude that the world has its own way and we humans should work with it. You tend to be rational and thoughtful; you plan your action before you get started, and you are methodical in pursuing your goal. Others may find you a bit boring, but who cares? You want to do everything right. The one who laughs last laughs best, and you are the one who'd remain calm and quite till the very end--things turn out well, that's what really matters to you.

feel that it is really reflective of me.others find me boring,and i know it too,but it doesn't bug me.

anyway the other choices are listed here:
Choice 1:You are a driven person, somewhat impatient, more on the aggressive side. You are quick in action, and can take a risk or two. A happy-go-lucky kind of guy, you often operate under the philosophy "Just Do It." You benefit from your vitality, but are burdened with sloppiness in thought, planning, or execution, which could cost you dearly.
Choice 3:
There is a bit of pessimism in you. Probably you've suffered a couple of setbacks in the past and now you have assumed a "philosophical" attitude toward life: whatever you do really won't make that much of a difference; to be in control is just an illusion. So now there is the tendency to go with the flow and drift on. Not necessarily a bad thing; after all, it's just a rat-race, isn't it?

i took another test which was the river test.A river flows by your school. Knowing the kind of person you are, what do you think you would most likely do as you come to the river on your way to school?
1. Just cross river by the bridge on it. 2. Halt for a few minutes to look at the water. 3. Take off your shoes and dip your feet in.
i chose 2.let's see...
You are pensive and thoughtful. You are observant of the world, enjoy nature and quietude, and care about the quality and meaning of life. You are not afraid to be alone or stand out, and you work very well independently.
damn it!they are so accurate!if they were guns,i'd sure be in valhalla now!okie.ppl who have known me for long long periods("mdm sarifah's 'use elongated' haha) know that i am observant and enjoy quietude actually.see,i observe lots of things,but that's it.nobody knows what i observe.i actually was quite happy when some girl said i was perceiving lol...so that's due to my observation i suppose.indeed,i care about the quality of life.i always strive for perfection (in non-academic areas fortunately),without knowing it,cos it's the way i have been all these years(i sound so ancient).on the part about my independence it's true i guess.famous antisocial,who would shock strangers when he opens his mouth and starts being sociable.yea u dunno what that means,cos only i know.but no,i do not think i am antisocial now,for it has been a shadow of a lagacy.in my words,socialism is all about preference.meaning i am not social cos i dun bother,not that i can't.i read somewhere that antisocials can be very sociable-more so than 'normal' people.i enjoy being alone.but that doesn't mean i dun like friends hahaha...guess i'm being scary.will stop here.at least i know myself better now.
*grins widely*(duh,what else can he do)

"plak!";
x 11:03 pm

more than just a show

okay okay...everyone had their comments for the post exam activities.seems like i am pressurized to do it too:D
see,we watched pirates of the caribbean.as expected,i'm going to tell u that was the first time i watched that movie.can't really remember much;i don't have a photographic memory.but i know i absolutely liked it,cos it was set in the pre-Industrial Revolution era...in other words...anything is pertains to history...is nice!so i felt the movie was nice(lame.)well i particularly loved the funny slang terms they used.funny they were for they were of days of yore.and especially the numerous poetic recitations.lovely there were,just like the face of a swiss maiden.yea i felt that literary expressions are able to inject life into my lowlife life.the persona of Captain Jack Sparrow leaves much to be deciphered,even after the movie.in the movie,he is both ally and enemy to both antagonists and protagonists alike,depending on his situation,which instils a sense of deep hatred in his seeming betrayals.yet we are instantaneously gratified when we see him aiding the rash Will Turner.it left me with a deep message;that is,how many of us are,whilst seeming like friends,actually backstabbers.the prospect is definitely a gloomy one.well,not that we voluntarily do it by nature of prejudice,but just to save our skins?it is horrifying that we sometimes make decisions that will benefit us...but at the expense of others.this school has lots of them.i know plenty of them.and i fear,that i will lose my honour;to be like them.to become someone you hate.oh my,i don't want to think about it anymore.back to the movie.all in all,the movie didn't leave much of a deep impression on me,as as we are to see,another had it.on friday we watched the last samurai.i was constantly on the edge of my seat all the while,to be honest.but why?it is due to the termination of one's life-all too fast,too short,too unglorified.not to mention the movie was so gory,i felt it should have been rated nc-16.so the movie started on a sprightly note...think it was like brad pitt was more of a bounty hunter.so it did make for many mercenary kind of transactions.again,it showed the human weaknesses.get paid to kill innocents.throughout the whole movie,he is haunted by his experiences.sick they were,but it made me feel...bad.don't know why.u see,the mounted cavalrymen already had guns,so to kill anyone,one shot was enough.i could say the cavalry squadron leader did a fine job in his acting.evil face he had.a smug justified face when he was hunting defenseless children.just saw children fleeing,but how could two feet compete with steeds on horseshoes?so,the entire settlement was wiped out.don't know what stopped me from vomiting.i can't take such images haha...
when pitt was captured by the samurais,i could guess the plot already;he was to fight against the imperialist forces he was paid to train.then while he was being escorted back to their hillside camp,he saw the execution of an old man.just that scene,but no explanation immediately.so he would discover,later,that the old man was the defeated general,who requested to be beheaded by the samurai.again,it sure was sick.through the process of hara-kiri,he stabbed his abdomen,and then after that...we saw his head on the floor.the camp leader was the one who wielded the samurai sword and beheaded him.but still,no further elaborations were given.so i got home and did some research.it seems that since the general had failed to defeat the samurai rebels,he took it as a shame to himself.in nippon,when one was defeated,and failed to achieve his goal,he would take death as punishment.however,that application of hara-kiri is only practised by the samurai.therefore,the captured general died a glorious death as a matter-of-fact.however,was there a need for the beheading,some of you may inquire.well,it was done in the full welfare of the person commiting ritual suicide.hard to believe,isn't it?you see,when one stabs himself into the abdomen,he is bound to experience pain.duh.but,as it is the abdomen you are talking about,the pain would probably be amplified,for it is a soft part of the body.therefore,on the first moments after the dagger has penetrated the body,the executioner would immediately slice off the person's head,to ensure a painless death.sounds tragic,but it indeed is a painless death.hara-kiri is a foreign term.the samurai did not call ritual suicide hara-kiri,preferring to call it seppuku.hara-kiri is considered vulgar by them,as when directly translated it is a crude meaning.as samurai were the upper castes of society,seppuku was their privilege.commoners could not request this type of suicide;they could only poison or hang themselves.
i would never forget the graphic scenes in the movie.way too graphic for me.slit throats,gashed torsos,displaced heads...and tonnes of that 'my-blade-exits-through-the-other-side-of-your-body' deaths.we now come to the logical loopholes.as usual,the lead is a superhero.but when the common soldier dies with one shot,the two heroes,the rebel leader and pitt take more than one shot each,about 5 on the average,that is a conservative estimate?well,heroes are eternal,yea and pitt survived.what nonsense.the other just 'dies in time',giving himself the exalted seppuku.sometimes i wonder,whether i should cry when i saw the emperor meiji cry.the deaths of half a hundred men who died fighting for their ill-fated cause being the result of his indecisiveness.haha,it was afterall, a young man who was emperor,which came as a shock to those watching the movie for the first time.he looked like a common soldier when he went to battle with the military uniform.(okay he looked like a wuss :P) still,the movie did not fail to impress,with the magnificent military strategies that seemed impossible to execute.
imagine the shock the children of the samurai received when their fathers were all slaughtered,leaving no qualified samurai behind.how hard they practised their ways,in order to become one.it sure was hard to accept the fact that they no longer have to practise for war.same shock to the german wehrmacht feldgrau when it was announced that war would end.all this while,for the last century prior to the two world wars at least,germans had been training for war since childhood.they must have got the same shock.this shock is hard to explain.

think i've been boring you all this while.usually you all would give me a -_-" look for this.can't blame you.but if you were reading this seriously,u got anything to ask,just ask me for clarification.savvy? :)

"plak!";
x 12:23 am

ended

okay,he discovered my discovery.haha...so he sent me an apology message...
"Herrick i m very sorry tt u had to find out"
of which my reply was
"Erm man it's okay..there would be others who like you..but well,i would really like to devote my attention to this girl..so you get what i mean.."
which came back as
"Ya i am so sorry..I hate being like this but can't help it.. N i'm extremely embarrassed,so could u do me a favour and not mention it to anyone?"

not that the short text message exchange ended,but that's not important.well,since he requested that i not tell anyone...do this guy a favour too...think he should be wanting to change for the better,so it's over :)
phew i guess the phrase 'attention to this girl' helped lots :D

"plak!";
x 3:07 pm

confusion.hatred.depression.

i really can't take it anymore.i'm going to explode soon.as of now,i am running a slight fever,and i have an acute headache.but why?it is because i cannot accept the fact that a guy in the school likes me.who can?especially when i detest this bunch.can't they just go fuck among themselves?why choose straight people like me for a crush?and what about the fantasies they have?this is real gross.sorry for the vulgarities.after being rid of them,i had to use them,today.most unfortunate.i scolded the word in tuition class,loud enough for every one to hear,save mrs lee.guess i had to use it.when i told my guy classmates the situation,cos i desperately need help,they just laughed,and went on to poke fun.will never grow up.they don't know the serious implications of such matters.no matter has ever daunted me,save this.i really don't know how to explain what i am going through.i am going to need lots of emotional support from you guys.i just started using vulgarities again.my tolerance is at an all-time low.today,while doing prac,shawn chong was damn noisy,as usual.the whole year,i kept me mouth sealed.today,i just had to scold him.cos i heard him use the word fuck.i just hollered,"stop using profanities and do your work!fuck."i really am going to hate that gay so much.i ever considered punching him if he dared talk to me.haha.i mean,the first thing he would do would be to present himself as a respectable student and such,or,just come up to me and tell me something that would make my heart stop.i don't know.i will never want to have that ever happening.this is affecting me so much.guess no one can help.if you've been dumped before,you would be consoled appropriately,cos many people have experienced it.if a member of the same gender has taken a liking to you...i dunno.very depressed now,nothing can lift my moods.not to mention aggressive.but while i am still able to think,i would be apologising to you all in advance,for any inappropriate behaviour that i am not usually connected to.i have a feeling that when i can't take this mental torment anymore,i will TRULY go mad.someone help me.can't...breath...
if u still think this is a stupid joke,and find it very amusing,then i am so unfortunate to tell you that u are wrong.this is a very real trauma for me,and nothing of this magnitude has ever occured in my life.i maintain my stand.i like the opposite gender.gays can just fuck off.u can't find guns in singapore.i'll have to do it the hard way,if necessary,to maintain my stand.
-drained-

"plak!";
x 9:28 pm

what happens when...

look at this.it is a conversation between me and my choir junior of sec 3.it was totally unprecendented,and came as a total shock.

[05:33:43 PM] .: HëartHëat: do cha know that someone in school has a crush on u?
[05:33:47 PM] .: HëartHëat: hahaz..
[05:33:50 PM] someone pls : wtf
[05:33:50 PM] .: HëartHëat: true ya know..
[05:33:55 PM] someone pls : which person?
[05:34:00 PM] someone pls : it better not be a guy
[05:34:12 PM] .: HëartHëat: wad do u think..
[05:34:15 PM] .: HëartHëat: hahaz..
[05:34:19 PM] someone pls : so who?
[05:34:30 PM] .: HëartHëat: cannot tell u larz..
[05:34:34 PM] .: HëartHëat: not from choir..
[05:34:53 PM] someone pls : this is a most worrying matter for me.
[05:35:14 PM] .: HëartHëat: hahaz..
[05:35:23 PM] .: HëartHëat: i know that person lorz..
[05:35:33 PM] .: HëartHëat: did u evr know a joshua yeo?
[05:35:38 PM] someone pls : damn it
[05:35:42 PM] someone pls : i knew it had to be him
[05:35:44 PM] .: HëartHëat: not him larz..
[05:35:47 PM] someone pls : lol
[05:35:47 PM] someone pls : ok
[05:36:02 PM] someone pls : i think i know who
[05:36:02 PM] .: HëartHëat: he's currently in that person's class..
[05:36:06 PM] .: HëartHëat: who?
[05:36:08 PM] someone pls : he's been mentioning his name to me
[05:36:13 PM] someone pls : it's a retainee right?
[05:36:14 PM] .: HëartHëat: ...?
[05:36:18 PM] .: HëartHëat: yah...
[05:36:21 PM] someone pls : i knew it
[05:36:25 PM] someone pls : but i forgot his name
[05:36:37 PM] .: HëartHëat: does it start wif a a...
[05:36:44 PM] someone pls : joshua's been pressing me to go out with him (joshua) to chat [05:36:51 PM] someone pls : so that he can bring that guy along
[05:36:59 PM] .: HëartHëat: wh..what!
[05:37:03 PM] .: HëartHëat: omg..
[05:37:10 PM] someone pls : he was my good friend after all
[05:37:25 PM] .: HëartHëat: wait till u find out what that person fantasises abt u..
[05:37:28 PM] .: HëartHëat: goodness..
[05:37:35 PM] .: HëartHëat: he totalli admitted to me..
[05:37:47 PM] someone pls : erm is this a joke?
[05:37:53 PM] someone pls : i can't take this kind of joke
[05:37:53 PM] .: HëartHëat: nope..
[05:37:57 PM] .: HëartHëat: he's online now.......
[05:37:59 PM] someone pls : tell me the name
[05:38:26 PM] .: HëartHëat: he's not..
[05:38:30 PM] .: HëartHëat: andrew..
[05:38:34 PM] someone pls : lol hahaha
[05:38:39 PM] someone pls : de rozario?
[05:38:43 PM] someone pls : not him?
[05:38:43 PM] .: HëartHëat: u know..
[05:38:47 PM] .: HëartHëat: omg lorz..
[05:38:53 PM] someone pls : it's him?
[05:39:03 PM] .: HëartHëat: i'm so talli shocked..
[05:39:20 PM] .: HëartHëat: but he supposedly doesnt like u liaoz..
[05:39:23 PM] someone pls : good
[05:39:40 PM] someone pls : cos i kept rejecting joshua's invitation to chat with him[05:39:44 PM] someone pls : so maybe he has given up
[05:40:01 PM] someone pls : dun tell joshua anything that i have told u today
[05:40:06 PM] .: HëartHëat: but ya nevr know wif these kinda ppl..
[05:40:09 PM] .: HëartHëat: kkz larz..
[05:40:09 PM] someone pls : he's not going to be happy about it
[05:40:15 PM] .: HëartHëat: joshua's no better..
[05:40:25 PM] .: HëartHëat: u know rayson?
[05:40:26 PM] someone pls : joshua's 'twisted' also right?
[05:40:29 PM] someone pls : yup
[05:40:33 PM] someone pls : he sticks with rayson
[05:40:38 PM] .: HëartHëat: they.............did it..
[05:40:44 PM] someone pls : no wonder.
[05:40:45 PM] .: HëartHëat: gtg liaoz..
[05:40:49 PM] someone pls : haha
[05:40:52 PM] someone pls : thanks for telling
[05:40:58 PM] someone pls : it has made me more aware
[05:41:14 PM] .: HëartHëat: rayson put his mouth over joshua's...twice..
[05:41:26 PM] someone pls : but joshua told me he wasn't gay when i asked him last time[05:41:30 PM] someone pls : then he just went
[05:41:34 PM] .: HëartHëat: totalli not..
[05:41:37 PM] someone pls : "no la no la...where got?"
[05:41:40 PM] .: HëartHëat: i went to his house b4..
[05:41:43 PM] someone pls : that kind of denial
[05:42:11 PM] .: HëartHëat: searched his com wif kenny...onli to find...gay porn videos n pics..[05:42:26 PM] .: HëartHëat: i'm so disgusted and...YUCKS..
[05:42:33 PM] someone pls : haha
[05:42:38 PM] someone pls : u like girls right?
[05:43:10 PM] .: HëartHëat: urm..DUH..
[05:43:14 PM] someone pls : good
[05:43:28 PM] .: HëartHëat: he tried to get me drunk that day n to do...wif him..
[05:43:36 PM] .: HëartHëat: he used to like me....sexually..
[05:43:42 PM] someone pls : u mean joshua?
[05:43:42 PM] .: HëartHëat: yuckx..
[05:43:46 PM] .: HëartHëat: duhz..
[05:43:49 PM] someone pls : ok
[05:43:58 PM] .: HëartHëat: he was touching all over my leg..
[05:44:00 PM] .: HëartHëat: eww..

what the hell do i do now?is this totally gross or what?!i like girls okay!

"plak!";
x 5:56 pm

excerpt from a history text

"At Ypres the Germans used poison gas,but when the wind changed direction it was blown back towards their own lines and they suffered more casualties than the Allies,especially when the Allies released some gas of their own."

-Norman Lowe,author of Mastering Modern World History,on trench warfare tactics employed in 1915.

there are two jokes here lol...

"plak!";
x 6:36 pm

the chinese

Shanghai's population has steadily been on the decline recently,sparking controversy over the necessity of the draconian 'one-child' policy in all the states of China.Hence the government has decided to cancel all incentives related to couples having no children,in efforts to boost birth rate.how ironic that is!
saw on msnbc.com this very meaningful passage taken from the ancient "Book of Songs" (1000-700 B.C.) which describes the prejudices against the fairer sex even from infancy...

"When a son is born,
Let him sleep on the bed,
Clothe him with fine clothes,
And give him jade to play...
When a daughter is born,
Let her sleep on the ground,
Wrap her in common wrappings,
And give broken tiles to play..."

full article can be found at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5953508/

"plak!";
x 1:58 pm

geography

i've no confidence in geography.

"plak!";
x 5:31 pm

hahaha

i woke up late for today's social studies lecture...confirmed was late already,but already was contemplating the chances that i would not be apologising to him for being late,cos he's got such a reputation for being late too.so chances were that he would be late lor....and TRUE ENOUGH,he was!mwahahaha.30 minutes late.quite bad right?ok i was very suspicious of whether mr tan was a himbo for a long time already.i have since made my judgment already.ok i'll tell u of a specific incident that happened today.

He was fully conscious of the fact that there were going to be four classes attending his lecture.so to confirm whether we were all assembled in the auditorium already,he started asking,"4/1 are u here already?"then many raised their hands.same happened to 4/2,4/3 and 4/4.Four classes already right?but then he's so hopeless lah...went on to ask "4/5?Where's 4/5?"ok so my natural reaction was"did he think that 5 minus 1 was 4?".Doh!himbo sia.....so ignorant.if there is 'blonde' to describe women,then what word could be used to...

then after that,there was geography.i plugged the earphones into my ears,providing a constant supply of fluid wonderous classical music.erm yes i did this in the presence of Mdm Sarifah.she's so good right?let us listen to our discmen...but i guess she was quite annoyed :P but she isn't anyone with a short temper...so yes i still stuffed both my ears hahaha...and continued pissing her off...but she dun dare to do anything to me i guess,she let me be.anyway i've already.....hahaha.....and speaking of that,i have a new goal!yay!i want to top the class for both humanities!yes,please laugh your head off!i'm not sure,but i believe nature is fair.hence if most people can excel at their sciences,so for those who can't,humanities must be their forte!yes,or so that is what herr heryk says.a few individuals have told me that it is better for one to specialise in an area where the majority cannot do as well.but wait,in this stupid society of singapore,the disillusioned society,what place does humanities have?virtually none,if not a silent wisp...therefore,why be good in humanities?unless you want to educate the next generation in humanities again...repeat the cycle happily...i don't mind actually.dunno why,but i'm actually damn old.if u know what i mean.u see,i genuinely like history,and i also like physical geography,which is involved with our ancient earth,and i listen to classical music.so joel is right.i am still trapped in my previous incarnation.presumably it was some rich old influential man who had a flair for life,always going to la musique classique konzerts...dunno but i hope i will be able to be like that when i am old...i'm not even talking about tomorrow oh hell.i'm so tired today...my sentence structures are so flawed from within...dun think i'm not making much sense here.oh yes please try to pardon me if my english starts to sound weird.i'm so obsessed with how the French and Germans pronounce English words...like the 'th' sound will become 'zzz' and r will be rrrolled in Shgerrrrman...hahaha...crap crap crap.is that all i do?

"plak!";
x 2:48 pm

a blonde joke

Three women escaped from prison. One was a redhead, one a brunette, and one a blonde.
They ran for miles until they came upon an old barn where they decided to hide in the hayloft and rest. When they climbed up, they found three large gunnysacks and decided to climb into them for camouflage.
About an hour later the sheriff and his deputy came into the barn. The sheriff told his deputy to go up and check out the hayloft. When he got up there the sheriff asked him what he saw and the deputy yelled back, "Just three gunnysacks."
The sheriff told him to find out what was in them, so the deputy kicked the first sack, which had the redhead in it. She went, "Bow-wow", so the deputy told the sheriff there was a dog in it.
Then he kicked the sack with the brunette in it. She went, "Meow", so the deputy told the sheriff there was a cat in it.
Then he kicked the one with the blonde in it, and there was no sound at all. So he kicked it again, and finally the blonde said, "Potatoes."

"plak!";
x 5:21 am

english compre (plagiarised!)

hehe i dun care about paper 1 but i simply lurrvvvvveddd paper 2!to trust mr heng to set on germany and classical music!oh well they are both my favourite subjects!history and classical music going together...yum yum!(sorry if i'm boring:D).anyway i realised something creepy.prelim 1 compre was set on Rome.guess what this comp freak had been doing the day before-playing the severely outdated age of empires -RISE OF ROME!i thought coincidences would be only by chance when it happened again.the day before the english paper-i was playing empire earth-the german campaign oh holy.i just love mr heng!(but i'm not gay,just no way!)i so so so love the passage,that i want to read it every now and then.what better way to preserve it?type here,duh!*cackling heard in the distance*
P.S.you can choose not to read :D

The satirist Karl Kraus once described turn-of-the-20th-century Vienna as a city whose streets were paved not with asphalt but with culture.Today his description could not be better suited to Berlin,a capital brimming with creative activity.Theater companies ply their wares in hidden cobblestone courtyards,bohemian artists gather in majestically crumbling buildings,and festivals of every variety pile up on weekends like verbs at the end of a German sentence.

Certainly,when it comes to classical music,few cities are so abundantly and audaciously full of life.As an inheritance from its decades of division into East and West,unified Berlin boasts a gloriously impractical number of musical institutions:eight orchestras and three opera companies.City finances are in a shambles,and institutional squabbling abounds,but if you tuned out all the background noise this summer,you could find a thrilling array of options:fiendishly good orchestral concerts,willfully scandalous opera productions,open-air concerts on a beautifully restored square,contemporary chamber music and even music piped into a swimming pool.

New York,of course,has its own claim to sonic splendor;it is as musically vibrant as Berlin,and even more so.But music experiences in Berlin offer something qualitatively different,an intellectual energy and cohesion that have much to do with the particular niche classical music occupies in contemporary German society.In short,music is integrated into German society and taken seriously by the people.

I first glimpsed the special qualities of the scene here at a Berlin Philharmonic concert in early June.Claudio Abbado was conducting for the first time since he retired in 2002 as the esteemed music director of this premier orchestra of Berlin.As you migh expect on such an occasion,well-to-do Berliners of a certain age turned out in quantity.But strangely,young bespectacled listeners,dressed in well-worn suits and looking as if they had come straight from a heated cafe debate over Habermas,pulled up to the Philharmonie,home of the Berlin Philharmonic,on rickety old bikes.They were there because something significant was about to happen in the Berlin musical world,and for an impressively wide circle,it actually seemed to matter.Mr. Abbado did not disappoint,leading a gripping performance of Mahler's Sixth Symphony.The Berlin Philharmonic,Berlin's premier orchestra,has mighty depth to its string sound and a refined power in its brasses,and Mr. Abbado's conducting was responsive both to the music's details and to its epic sweep.The audience called him back for solo bows long after the orchestra had left the stage.

There was an intensity to the listening that night,a depth to the adoration of the crowd,that suggested a particular connection to a German musical tradition and perhaps a deeper link between classical music and German culture and identity.In the 19th and 20th centuries,Germanness in music was an ideal that German society firmly believed in,alternately propounded and exploited by prominent figues ranging from Wagner to Hitler to Thomas Mann.In practical terms,as one traverses city streets named after famous musical figures,one is reminded that today's Berlin Philharmonic embodies what is,among many other things,a fantastic local tradition.

But Germany's musical vitality also owes something to a mainstream assumption that classical music has a place at the table alongside pop culture.Anyone used to seeing classical music maginalized might have been astonished by the scene last month at the opening of the Bayreuth Festival,where celebrities and politicians,for musical edification or mere self-promotion,turned out in droves,along with the national media.With so much hoopla,it was hard to believe that the whole scene centered on,of all things,an opera festival.That level of excitement speaks not just of how Germans respect the classical tradition,but also,in a way,of how they disrespect it.The more daring of the summer's opera productions,for example,used sadistic bloodletting,pornography and repulsive stage projections of dead rodents to accompany cherished standard operatic works.On the most basic level,these trends in German opera reflect the society's fundamental confidence with the standard operatic works.This has thus resulted in a disrespectful attitude towards these standard works.Berliners,it seems,are convinced that these works must change with the times if they are to remain vital.

There is an important grain of truth here,and you have to wonder whether,for example,the opulent and ultraconservative operas at the Metropolitan Opera alienate new and younger oper-goers even as they delight faithful fans.But as the revered composer Ferruccio Busoni often warned,newness itself can also become an obsession,a force as limiting as blind conservatism.The thirst for productions with shock value can override judgments of taste and even one's ability of Mozart's opera "Abduction From the Seraglio" in a contemporary brothel,full of sex and gore,performed at then city's Komische Theatre.At the other extreme,one of the most effective productions was the simplest and least sensational:a new staging of the opera "Elegy for Young Lovers" at the Linden Staatsoper(opera theatre).Its simple and stark stage pictures worked with the hauntingly iridescent music to produce a shattering emotional impact.

Berlin's extraordinary modern history-a slab onto which memories of imperial splendor,fascist terror and failed Communist utopia have all been inscribed in the short span of some 100 years-inevitably adds resonance to the city's musical life.The Staatsoper(opera theatre) itself directly abuts the Bebelplatz,the infamous site of the Nazi book-burning in 1933,an event that the Austrian-Jewish writer Joseph Roth described unflinchingly at the time as the capitulation of the European mind.The book-burning,just like the closure of Berlin's radical Kroll Opera in the 1930's,epitomized thhe ultimately genocidal obsession with the purity of the German culture.The city's residents have of necessity perfected a dance of remembering and forgetting,commemorating the past but also tempeting its demands.One of the most moving memorials in Berlin,at the square Bebelplatz,is an underground room lined floor-to-ceiling with empty bookshelves.I tried to visit it after the Henze performance,only to discover that the entire square has been closed while the city builds a new underground garage.Public memory lies temporarily closed for reconstruction.

Certainly,signs of Berlin's more recent traumas linger closer tothe surface.A few portions of the Berlin Wall still stand,and its former path is now marked by a double row of bricks,cutting through the city like an impossibly long scar.In the music world,the unified Berlin can at times still feel remarkably divided.Former Eastern and Western institutions have retained separate and largely nonoverlapping audiences,even as they compete aggressively for common public funds.Programming,too,can carry memories of division.The Berlin Symphony Orchestra,for example,the predominant ensemble of the former Communist-controlled East Berlin,still performs a lot of Russian works,a cultural legacy that the east Berliners were apparently not ready to give up.Meanwhile,its Western counterpart the Berlin Symphoniker will probably fold after having been denied precious public subsidies for its next season.To be sure,the musical landscape will shift in the future.Politics and city finance concerns may continue creeping in on Berlin's musical dreams,but it is hard to imagine those forces completely transforming this city's allure.Berlin,it seems,thrives on a bit of uncertainty as it grapples with its complex history while tumbling sonorously into the future.

"plak!";
x 9:30 am