Make Dunno

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Many years ago, 2002 to be exact, a group of friends and I were in KLCC. We felt like eating McDonalds, so we took the LRT to Masjid Jamek.

A blur girl later scolded me. “Why didn’t we just stay in KLCC? There’s a McDonalds there what.”

I later SMSed her. “Huh, there’s one in KLCC? I don’t know where it is, but my friend says it’s between the Pizza Hut and Starbucks.”

Now the joke was that then, Pizza Hut, Starbucks and McDonalds did not exist in KLCC.

Starbucks opened on December 19th, 2002.


Spot the McDonalds in the center food court.

After almost 7 years (Suria KLCC soft-launched on May 8th, 1998), KLCC is blessed with a fast food chain which is value for money and cheap. Alas, it came too late, as KLCC regulars like Shaz and myself fell in love with Burger King, their greasy triple whoppers and refillable coke. And then there’s the flexibility of mixing your drinks ala Shannon‘s 25% Sprite, 75% Coke.

Sorry Ronald, you came 4 years too late. My allegiance is now with Cosmo Restaurants, not Golden Arches.

Haven’t You KLue?

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I did not steal these glasses from the IMAX theater. My colleague did.


Behold, the new wing of Avenue K! The place has a certain educated middle-class art savant appeal about it. Some walls are unashamedly black. This isn’t Starhill.


There was an art exhibition of sorts, where one of the exhibits was this trippy fractal. In the background, spacey synth music played. I recognized it as Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here. Doesn’t saying that you know Pink Floyd make you loads cooler among your music elitist friends? Any rocker can know Jimi Hendrix, but David Gilmour and gang? And so, my MSN nickname is “So, so you think you can tell heaven from hell?” (It’s the first line of the song.) Yes I intentionally picked that line because it looks like it was inspired by Constantine.


Hairloom. No, really. A dress made of hair.


We now teleport to The Curve, a trendy upmarket shopping mall which has blue lights adorning its sanitized version of Petaling Street. Captain’s log, 17th February 2005.


The last time I had this chocolate cinnamon roll was at the previous KLue Chillout Series. This time round, it was called the KLue Starbucks Music Series.


Sei Hon was your regular folk singer in the key of G Major. For some reason, my exposure to acoustic guitar virtuosos has made my appreciation of heart-felt singing/songwriting dwindle. In less polite terms, I didn’t take any interest in his performance.


Lied was more interesting, with rock-fied guitar chords and melancholic (but angry) vocals.


Qings & Kueens were back in town. The guitarist now sported a most appetizing, wall-paint-color retro guitar. It took me a while to figure out it was an Ibanez Talman Artcore series from its logo, as ‘Ibanez’ wasn’t written anywhere.


Now that’s what I call a fruit shake.


The one-night-only guest, Reza melted hearts again. It seemed that the crowd was anticipating (as much as I was) his finale, that jazzy song with the cute little blues riff. They cheered before that. Tracy, you missed the shiznit.


Reza had a trick up his sleeve. A setlist behind his guitar!

Again, ask me if you want the videos and un-Photoshopped pictures. I have a DVD burner. I am a nice person if you are nice to me.

Free Or Not?

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Free tickets, to those who have plenty, have always been a curse.

What? Free tickets? Oh anyway Constantine was nice, confusion withstanding… cool effects, a storyline that will take a while to sink in (and perhaps, people who have watched it three times to explain it to you…)

To raZZbeRRy: Here’s an eligible cabbie (the one I met last Valentine’s Day…)

Yes, plenty of random pictures will come later.

Flying Away, Mate?

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Why is everybody who is flying off to Australia doing so on February the 14th?

I imagine the most bittersweet drama moments happening at an airport, where students decide not to fly off (yet). Either that, or they’d have Valentine’s Day celebrations at the airport, where everything is fantastically priced. 🙂

Haha screw them, I won’t be there to see anybody off.

And no, I’m not going to Australia. What’s the big deal about that place? It’s just expensive. Malaysians who go there end up hanging out with their Malaysian friends. What is the point of that then? I’d go there to experience some blitherin’ foreign culture, man. Think you’ve got dengue and saw your life flash you by? Well go there and pick locusts off you, mate. Go have some refillable coke at Hungry Jack. Go learn the Melbourne Shuffle.

But no.

I see people coming back from Australia, and they go, “Aiyee!!! S.H.E.! 5566!!! Jay Chou!!!” in their Australian accents.

P.S. To Patrick and Ed: This rant was not meant for you.

A Passing Moment

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No call in the morning can be nicer than one asking how to spell your name in your graduation letter. Yes, Albert is part of my name as it is in my identity card.

After getting my Mutlimedia diploma, I took a while to finish my Advanced Diploma, failing, failing again, taking a break, failing, and finally, passing.

Ironically, I never failed a subject till the last semester. Little did I know that that last semester would extend this far. But hey, screw you if you think I’m slow. At least in total the college was not paid more than RM3333 for er… 4 years.

Are You The One?

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Friday

After the hitz.tv Blast Off semifinals, my friends and I had dinner at Hard Rock Cafe. They played Jamiroquai – Travelling Without Moving and the cool camp cover Scissor Sisters – Comfortably Numb. On the ride home, the driver popped Jamiroquai’s Travelling Without Moving CD. How ironic.

Saturday

I headed to somebody’s farewell and her boyfriend’s birthday party. In the background, the same Jamiroquai album was spinning!

* She, for most of the blog entry, will refer to the host unless otherwise stated.

The first thing she said when she met me was:

“Wah I never knew a Chinaman could grow a beard!”

She was, of course, referring to the beard that weirdly curled to my right. Refer to my Friendster picture as it’s not there anymore.

Her (female) collegemates gave her a farewell butt grab as well.

Me: What’s so great about your butt that everybody’s grabbing it?
She: You ask my boyfriend first.
Me: I bet he’d say, “oh you try lah, then you’ll know why everybody wants to do it.” (Uh dude if you’re reading this, it’s our kinda humor, I think…)

We had two guitars and a blues jam.

As I sat explaining how to read tablature, she said, “Albert! Come come you must get drunk! Sleep over ah.”

She got me a glass. Optimists say the glass is half bacardi. Pessimists say the glass is half zappel.

I rolled like a dog wanting a scratch. “I’ll get you some more

Who’s Yer Daddy?

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So my dad is the man. I just found out today when he gave me this financial lecture.

Apparently he wrote the program that decided the currency exchange rate. (Dad; that was who I got my programming start from.) He was the one to say RM3.80 for 1 US Dollar, and the number got passed upwards. No, he did not work in Cyberjaya and drive a Mercedes. He was in a government office so unknown (but not confidential), all we see is an octagon and a circle in our Kemahiran Hidup (Living Skills) textbooks. He drove a rustmobile until it was decommisioned, and so we had to wait for my mom to fetch us from the LRT station until he retired.

Three reactions came to me:

“Really?” (Okay so my dad isn’t one to make up stuff like this.)
“Shiiit how cool is that. You have dulled every habitual shopper’s purchasing power.” (I’m not talking about grocery shopping, I’m talking about imported CDs, clothes, handphones, cars, etc… everything we deem as a cool want.)
“Why the heck did you put it so high?”

He answered the last question, saying that it was the rate then. Oh, how I’d wish it would be RM2.50 per US Dollar so I could afford to buy more stuff online. Who the heck would benefit from such a high rate anyway? Pegging sadly accelerated inflation. The pros and cons of such a number (and the pegging and unpegging) would be coffeeshop controversial and so I shall not disclose that part of the conversation. Or maybe I just didn’t understand enough to convey it here with the strength to defend my claims the way some popular Malaysian bloggers have.

Food And Nuts

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Miu Kai: 3-thumbs-up cheese-baked rice among the dishes. It’s different from Kim Gary’s though; it’s not a solid layer of baked cheese but more like condensed mushroom soup poured over the rice. Still very full-filling.


Coke with lemon. Better than the canned mix.


NOOO the guitar fell head first onto the marble floor! Thus, the most impact would be felt right at the nut (the white part as you can see doesn’t cast a shadow in the center part.) So far intonation seems alright to my untrained ear, but tuning problems might occur later…

Rock News

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Friday

I bumped into the-one-annoyingly-eager-to-leave-Malaysia at the hitz.tv Blast Off. Later, outside, I heard some Indians saying how f***ed up the sound was. Suddenly, a crusty-voiced Indian exclaimed, “it was damn f***ed up!” That distinctive voice could only be my celebrity “because-I’m-Indian” buddy, Jayaram. There, he’s finally mentioned in my blog. 🙂

Saturday

I met up Ed and YK at Bintang Walk. YK acquired 5 big Transformers that day. I acquired this:


Reduced Size Multimedia Card my a**. On the left was my new 512MB RS-MMC card; on the right, my old 128MB xD Picture card. The xD was only slightly bigger!

I then headed to The Disco for the gig I promoted earlier.


No, I was not stabbed by any protuding objects here. The Disco has a very nice setting, with a huge window light letting the sun light the stage naturally.


I met Jayaram again; this time, as usual, he was a HELP-ful emcee. Picture has been double-sized to make up for his lack of blog appearances despite the times we had bumped into each other.


Nightshift was an enjoyable old-school thrash metal band. Every old-school thrash metal band should do a Metallica cover and this was no exception, doing For Whom The Bell Tolls.


Brainhead was next with some alternative rock, and their alternative take on Incubus – Drive.


Insulyna gave us crunchy grunge, and a light growly take on Cranberries – Zombie.


Indka from Kuching featured Alex, the drummer from SingleTrackMind and Soft Touch. I wasn’t sure if it was progressive rock.


Zero Gravity threw in Deftones‘ tones, and the energy of KoRn helped with my enjoyment. I particularly the band’s showmanship, especially the bassist’s style.


Ziel played hard rock. Can someone else agree with me when I say the vocalist/guitarist would look like Brandon Boyd, with dreadlocks on?


Republic Of Brickfields played reggae, with a few Bob Marley covers. Peter Hassan Brown (if you’re as underground as you say you are, you’d know the man) was skanking to it, legs kicking the air! Never have I seen so much energy in that rocking (grand?)father. Yes, the metal-lish guitars looked misplaced; were some of them from Koffin Kanser? (I know Aru the vocalist is…)

I recorded videos for most of the bands (512MB maaan, I’m invincible) so ask me on MSN if you want them.

I stayed back to be a roadie. 🙂 We then went to Stadium Merdeka to drop off the snake cables (a giant power extension cord).


Aiyah, nothing to see. Jay Chou ciao already. (It was that night!)


Ever craved Chinese food after converting to Islam? Tupai Tupai serves the bestest lemon chicken and halal versions of Chinese food. It even has big round tables and servings done Chinese style, but with (get this) leather tablecloths. The outside of the wooden-plank-raised place was the woods, where we assume squirrels live.

Friend: Why do they call it Tupai Tupai? Do they serve squirrels here?
Me: Yeah, I’m sure that squirrels could eat the food off the table as they like.

I felt a sense of pride, knowing that Alda and I would carry on the corny humor of Az.

On the way back, a bunch of us rode in the back of a Mitsubishi Storm. *cue Jim Morrison whispering “Riders Of The Storm“* With that, I can now change my Friendster picture to something that attracts less gay guys and girls with headscarves.

Oh, and to mark, who posted a comment in Santa Was A Telekom Engineer:

The PPPoA option is available in the setup program on the CD. I’m not sure if the option is available when you Telnet your router.

Link *blink*

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I’ve added links after much justified procrastination. Here goes:

Bent Chopsticks
Thank you sir for faithfully reading my blog and reinstilling my Transformer collecting. (I’m sorry YK, you didn’t tell me to buy Arcee…) He is also gay.

Hey, I’m not ashamed to let people know I have gay friends. I could even brag that I know quite a few, trying to sound like some informed, sensitive new age guy. I even go to underground rock gigs at gay clubs. Yes, it’s that sad that noone is willing to let us rock. Unless you are Paul Meffert (Paul you rock!)

On a side tangent, why can’t lesbians be hot by guy standards? A gay guy can be well-groomed, and a girl would say, “Wow he’s hot. Too bad he’s gay.” A gay guy could also be a sissyus prancealotus (refer to above link for definition).

However, I’ve only seen lesbians of the short-haired variety. (And some say, short-fingernailed.) Tomboyish in nature. Guys don’t go, “Wow she’s hot. Too bad she’s lesbian.” I don’t know any hot lesbians. Then again, I don’t know many lesbians. I don’t even know what music lesbians listen to! (Pardon my generalization in saying Kylie Minogue is a gay icon, and that inclusion of her and similiar artistes in your playlist may indicate your leanings.)

And dammit, straight hot chicks can French kiss each other for drunken party fun and not disgust anybody.

And now, for the other links.

Xiaxue
I haven’t read such an eloquent, witty storytelling camwhore in such a long time, fresh from the land of cheaper guitars, tobacco-less air and chewing-gum-less MRTs.

Expectation
Dammit, why can’t she be a full-on camwhore as well?

Shannon
This coke mix buddy said she could solve the cube.

Chasyss
She seems more adamant to learn the cube than anyone else. 🙂

Macvaysia
Funny dude. Funny blog. From the land where metric and imperial measurements co-exist.

Andreas
Funny dude. Funny blog. From the land where uh… luxury cars come from.

Dave
Excellent guitarist. Despite having four eyes, he captures things in monoscopic vision. 😉

Eddy
He does drum solos, he sings hard rock, shirtless and tattooed, and he’s got balls-out writing.

And finally, for the music geek:
Alan W. Pollack’s musicological journey through the Beatles’ songs
I stole this link from Az. Turns out these dudes were musical geniuses hidden in pop songs with bridges. Yes, you read that right – bridges. Ever noticed how Beatles songs don’t have refrains/choruses, but have bridges instead?