Category Archives: Music

Crossing Bothers

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This post is brought to you by the wonderful local-scene-supporting Xfresh. Crossborders at Laundry Bar!


Featuring Sina aka Mailer Daemon, emcee and guest rapper for funk-reggae-metal band Prana!


Then in a gust of wind… Love Me Butch took over with emo/nu-metal ferocity.


Heavy chugging riffs (and yet interestingly progressive). These guys, and Dragon Red, probably were the loudest you’d hear in Laundry Bar.


Watch out for the ill-meaning mike stand!


Syarul has a most powerful scream. I thought the sunnies killed some of his stage persona though.


Rear-sync/second-curtain slow-shutter flash.


Standard flash.


*cuts outside, to a waiter preparing what appears to be The Chinese Acrobat*


Oh, right. A Flaming Lamborghini.


Back inside, emo-core band from The Philippines, Chicosci. So intense, they had two drummers.


There’s a laptop somewhere back there and a keyboard for this guitarist to play more indie-pop-themed solos. But nothing beats the guitar.


This is for the many girls who asked if he was cute (as they sat outside watching the screen.)

It looks like we have time for a few more pictures, so here goes:


Circular fisheye! Eat that!


KL Tower, by chance, in scale to the moon.


I caught this with a tripod on a 3.2 second exposure. (Usually, shooting a bright moon uses a very fast shutter speed, making a tripod pointless.) The moving clouds provided a cool effect.


A full, unresized crop.

Bazeekers!

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Pictures! Project Bazooka at Laundry Bar, last 21st December 2006, right after I got the Minolta 50mm F1.4 lens for my Sony Alpha 100.


Haaarooon the emcee for Rock The World! (Okay, so this time he’s actually singing. But not rocking though; he’s singing soul and funk with IG Collective.)


They got some funky riffs.


…and guest stars Malaysian Idol finalist Ash, and Dragon Red‘s Adam.


Next up: Harmonica-playing blues folkster Azmyl Yunor.


His hair looked like a watered-down version of his old afro.


I love it when Keng of Furniture plays for Azmyl Yunor and the Sigarettes (or however you spell his many bands). He rips a powerful blues shred.


Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds Loo, indie pop darlings. Tried to zoom and flash at the same time but got a different result this time.


The next day, I headed to Alexis Bistro, Great Eastern Mall with some Ampangites out of boredom, and caught Noryn Aziz the hothothot songstress! (Last spotted at the Sunrise Mont Kiara Jazz & Rhythm Fest.)


Blow my horn.


We then… (well excluding me) rode the inner rail express.


Picture quality intentionally decreased to reduce possible identification.

Close To You

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“Tech and gadgets blogger Albert Ng said he was not affected by the disruption because his weblog was in a local server.”

Quoted from:
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/12/28/nation/16426304&sec=nation

Yes yes, that’s me. And yes, my site is hosted in Malaysia, so the pictures will still load quickly.

And to live up to that uh… title, I’ll share a trick I discovered recently. 😀

How to take closer macro shots with an SLR without attaching anything in front or detaching anything

People with point-and-shoot digital cameras can always brag that their cameras can go as close as 5cm (or some, 1 or even 0cm!)

Meanwhile, SLR lenses usually only focus until 45cm on average.

You can, however, have somewhat-macro. How?

– if you have a zoom lens, set it to full wideness (to get more depth-of-field)
– change to manual focus and focus as close as possible
– choose the darkest aperture (e.g. F22)
– use the flash if needed (since at F22, your shutter speeds would be much slower)

The object may look blur so press the depth-of-field button to have a closer idea what it will look like. (This is not applicable on Nikon D40 and D50 dSLRs, heh.)

If you get a shadow from the lens, just hold out your hand above the object to reflect the light onto it. 😀


The ruler was held to the front of the lens. Shot at 20mm focal length (accidentally creeped up from 18mm), with the Sony 18-70mm kit lens which can only focus till 38cm near.

And now, for something completely different.

An acoustic gig in the best acoustic gig place there is in town – No Black Tie! That beautiful, romantic, wood-panelled place.

What: NBT Acoustic Countdown
Who: Rhapsody, Zalila Lee, Shanon Shah, The Sofa Sessions, Reza Salleh, Isaac Entry, Rizal Hefni, Hishamuddin Rias
Where: No Black Tie. Jalan Mesui, Off Jalan Nagasari, KL. ( Jalan Mesui is situated behind Istana Hotel, which is situated on Jalan Raja Chulan) Call 03 214 23737 for bookings.
When: 9:30pm, 30th December 2006
How Much: RM20

Last Moonshine

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I brought the Olympus OM-2000 for Moonshine, 14th December 2006, but didn’t lock the film properly. Fortunately, I also took shots with my Canon Powershot A520 and infrared-modded Fujifilm Digital Q1 (using the Olympus 35-70mm F3.5-4.8 lens, which is best used on the Q1 to keep it in the telephoto range of 210-420mm, or 6-12x zoom of a point-and-shoot).


But first, a random muscle-looking car in my neighborhood! I wish my dad didn’t throw away the Datsun 120Y. Come to think of it, it looks like a rounded muscle car. Heck, despite being a 1.2 liter car, its engine had a roar that was unmistakeable. No other car had that sound, and you could pick out the sound amongst a jam. Being rear-wheel-drive, it is suited for drifting (though my dad did none of that. I think.)


Naked Breed, hard rockers, and hot chick photographer with hot tattoo.


“Whatchoo looking at?”


Flatline, alternative rock.


“YEAH! ROCK ON! FREEBIRD!”


Ferns, dreamy pop.


Adlin (playing guitar for Ferns) looks so cute shaven!


Ojie of Stonebay, grunge rockers.


Open mike; rock band!


Zach Tay.


These funky tattoos belong to Ziel‘s vocalist.


Raffique of Ziel. This shot was taken by Rachel (Ian‘s friend) with the Seagull 50mm F1.8 lens on the Q1. Amazing! Everybody else who tried to shoot with that 300mm-equivalent-crop camera would either take out-of-focus pictures or pictures with handshake (according to the rule of thumb, you’d need 1/300th of a second to get a steady shot.) She focused spot on, and didn’t shake at 1/60th of a second. Plus the composition and moment was captured, too!

I wasn’t quite looking forward to the lineup though; I’d seen each band a dozen times before, and Stonebay has gotta get out of their same old four chords. I came anyway because out of the blue, old friends called, asking to hang out, so I invited them all.

Rock The World 7, Part 3

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For the first time ever, film shots on my blog! I developed and scanned to CD at Leos Trading, first floor, Ampang Park, at RM10 per roll.


I love my Vivitar 24mm F2.0 lens on the Olympus OM-2000. It’s wide, it’s a prime, anything beyond 2 meters and you just focus on infinity at F2.0!


All these pictures were shot on either Kodak or Fujifilm ISO 400 film. Gotta love that film color tone. (This is the only shot in this whole series using the Olympus 35-70mm F3.5-4.8 lens.)


Long exposure on a tripod at night. I calculated 24 seconds on bulb mode, F2.0 (the slowest shutter speed the OM-2000 had was 1 second.)

I also set the 10-second timer; the mirror flips up at the beginning of the countdown, not after, so there’s no vibration from the mirror flip-up. Yay for film SLRs!


Distortion.


Anyway, on to the inaugural use of film – Rock The World 7! Ean’s looking sharp. And damn, when you view your pictures that you manually focused and see spot-on focus, you go, “I did this.” This used the Olympus 70-210mm F4.5-5.6 lens.


With the Vivitar 24mm F2.0 it was hard to get close focus. I don’t know how I managed to get the security guard to pop out with the crowd out of focus.


Jimmy of Tempered Mental! (The orange streak below is an out-of-focus sheet.)


Film. No washed out whites.


Spot the Vignes.


Jason Lo, we owe this rocking show to you, yo.


Izuan Shah of Auburn.


Birds!


Hiro of Throne Away. Crazy Japanese tapping bassist!


Emir of Throne Away, rabid frenetic dancy frontman. The way they should be, twirling and jumping about.


…maybe even climbing props.


Ian Koren: Where’d Emir go?


Broken Scar! Since I was more than 2 meters from the stage, I never had change the Vivitar 24mm F2.0’s focus. It stayed at infinity.


Jeremy of Prana. Flare! (I actually like flare being artifacts on my shots.)


I shot mostly at 1/30th of a second at night; the meter said it was underexposed, but I wanted to avoid too much motion blur. I could only choose shutter speeds in full stops on the Olympus OM-2000, so 1/15th of a second was the next option! When I saw how well the negatives responded to pulling shadows, I wish I took them at 1/60th of a second instead. Although there were bright white specks of noise, they were very easily obliterated in Photoshop (hence the clean look of all these ISO 400 shots.)


Aru of Koffin Kanser. Yep, even at 210mm I shot at 1/30. Most of the shots at such distances were more not-so-razor-sharp-focus; none had camera shake! 😀


“Whoa, since when did I have 4 fingers?”


Infectious Maggots and badass red hair.


OAG guitarist.


Sil Khannaz.

Click for Part 1 in color and Part 2 in infrared.

As it turns out, regular ISO 400 negative film is quite a viable option for low-light photography to be scanned digitally. I don’t know what the shop does when scanning but the noise is easy to get rid of.

Oh, and before I forget, some pimpage!

Second single from C.Loco, Jong Jong Inai(Yeah) and Jong Jong Inai(Ewah) has been launched online at C.Loco’s MySpace page.

Radio release coming soon!!! To those who have not seen me perform this song before, this is your first chance to hear my second single right here before anyone else or the radio hearing masses!!

Single : Jong Jong Inai(Ewah)
Artiste : C.Loco feat Suria, Encik Tech & Suarasakthy
Producer : C.Loco
Lyrics by : C.Loco, Encik Tech & Suarasakthy
Recorded in Fame Studio by Boy Radge and Studio 21:05 by JD Wong
Published by : A-Range Publishing

Single : Jong Jong Inai(Yeah)
Artiste : C.Loco feat Suria & K Town Klan
Producer : C.Loco
Lyrics by : C.Loco & K Town Klan
Recorded in Fame Studio by Boy Radge and Studio 21:05 by JD Wong
Published by : A-Range Publishing

Oh, and then there’s yet more pimpage:

What: Project Bazooka
Who: Azmyl Yunor & The Sigarettes, Lucy In The Loo, IG Collective
Where: Laundry Bar, The Curve
When: 10pm, Thursday 21st December, 2006
How Much: Free! You can buy me a drink for my birthday.

Rock The World 7, Part 2

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Thank you all for the birthday wishes. It’s obvious that you guys didn’t read that I wanted belated birthday wishes in my previous post. 😛 However, it’s still cool. 😀


Pigeons, zoomed in with the infrared-modded Fujifilm Digital Q1 and an Olympus 70-210mm F4.5-5.6 lens at the 210mm position, to give an effective 1260mm crop. 😀


“Let’s give that man down there some flavor in his soup!” The monorail then came, and the pigeons flew off the track. I then headed to…


Rock The World 7! Now in infrared! Melina of Tempered Mental.


Irotori (surprisingly, this thrash/death metal band had quite a few Chinese people in the crowd.)


This is why I don’t like taking pictures of drummers. (Alang of Men Under Zero Effort.)


Jason Lo‘s bassist goes wild.


Old beauty. Rickenbacker bass.


Brainhead.


Oh as it turns out, I did see the happy Bittersweet! That makes 84% coverage.


Soft Touch. Old and rocking. The crowd went wild!


Adlin of Lied looks so adorable in his new clean-cut look.


Guitarist for Lied.


Infectious Maggots. Check out his hair!


Another shot of Jeremy Little, CLEO Bachelor, playing for Prana.


His brother, Jeffrey Little.


John of Nervewreck.


Doll-like keyboardist for Electrico.


Guitarist for Electrico.

More shots, in film, after this! Boy oh boy I can’t wait. Part 1, in color, here.

Rock The World 7, Part 1

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I’m back from Rock The World 7, and I finished the 6 rolls I got for my birthday.

Yeah, it’s probably unceremonious to open and use your presents before your birthday. So yeah, you all only need to wish me “Happy belated birthday!” after the 19th. 😀

Heck, I might start the trend. Don’t spam me at midnight, 19th December. Spam me at midnight, 20th December. Let’s see who pays attention.

Anyway, I found that 24mm at F2.0 is an amazing focal length to be at; next to the infinity mark is 7 feet or 2 meters, which means that anything somewhat beyond there doesn’t need focusing; I’d just set it on infinity. Such convenient, deep depth of field with great handheld shutter speeds and bright exposures!

Also, since I’d seen or heard of most of the bands, I could afford to go from stage to stage since the songs were familiar (and some bands appear on a regular basis on my blog.) It just comes with… otai-ness. (Otai is slang for old-timer.) After going to a lot of gigs, you start wondering if there is anything to do other than pay close attention to the band. In a way, I occupied myself by taking pictures. And maybe, if the band was boring, I’d take more pictures and pay less attention? I might also experiment with different methods. (Though it could just be the case that the band has great stage presence and has photogenic members.)

Plus, getting pushed around a moshpit circle gets tiresome after a while, so this round, Broken Scar got me in; originally as roadie photographer, but with all access. The camera bag that housed the Olympus OM-2000 SLR was a great uh… excuse not to mosh with my friends. (Well, previous years were with friends who didn’t like moshing anyway. Boo you stim-girl! Like Jolin, who I met at Rock The World 6, and left a lasting impression when we all sat in a circle on the rubber track, far from the crowd, and said, “Let’s talk about philosophy!“)

Ambitiously, I decided to wander from stage to stage, attempting to cover every band. 51 bands over 3 stages. I missed Media Puppets, Republic Of Brickfields, Force Vomit, 2SidesToAStory, Love Me Butch, X-Cited Screamers, Couple, Bittersweet and Rosewood. 82% coverage! Yay.

There was also a band slut competition, with;
– Alda Tan, playing for Broken Scar, Soft Touch and Isaac Entry (could be maxed out to 5 bands; he once played for Estranged and Dragon Red.)
– Melina William, playing bass for Tempered Mental, Reza Salleh and Dragon Red (could be upped to 4 bands if she played for Soft Touch.)
– Alex Ang, drumming for Broken Scar, Soft Touch and Isaac Entry (he drummed for Jason Lo back when he was on the West Side, yo.)
– Hanafi, playing guitar for Estranged, Auburn and Reza Salleh (could play for Tempered Mental too, heh.)
– Izuan Shah, playing guitar for Auburn, The Deserters and Stonebay (I didn’t see The Deserters so I cannot confirm this.)
– Bakri, drumming for Gerhana Ska Cinta, Republic Of Brickfields and Koffin Kanser
– Justin and Aru, both playing for Republic Of Brickfields and Koffin Kanser
– Hana, playing guitar for Lucy In The Loo and Couple
– Edy, playing guitar for Gerhana Ska Cinta and The A.C.A.B.
– Mono, playing bass for The Times and The A.C.A.B.

Consolation prizes:
– Adam screams and sings for Dragon Red (but could play bass for Lied)
– Natalie plays bass for Lied (but played bass for Dragon Red before)

And now, for pictures from my Canon Powershot A520! (There will be more with the infrared-modded Fujifilm Digital Q1, mostly using the Olympus 35-70mm G3.5-4.8 Zuiko lens, and the Olympus OM-2000, once the film has been processed.)


The hills are alive with the sound of music! (Maharajalela monorail station is right next to Stadium Merdeka)


Tempered Mental, alt-prog-metal heavies are thunderstruck.


Hermano Grande of Y2K, punk rockers.


You’d never know it, but this is Khai, who made Ciplak the movie.


Hana of Lucy In The Loo, indie-pop darlings.


“And I play bass.”

And now, to save bandwidth, here’s a collage of shots!


Left to right, top to bottom: Emcee Haaarooon!: Are you all enjoy?; Ariff Akhir of the funky Sofa Sessions; Sarah of The Official; a man under zero effort (of M.U.Z.E.); Jerome Kugan reaches for cosmic bliss with trippy electronica; M.U.Z.E., somewhat progressive rock; Ian of Throne Away, great emo rockers with a dancy frontman (not in pictures yet). Click on the collage for a bigger view!


Left to right, top to bottom: Moots of rap-rockers Pop Shuvit; the chillout lounge (with air-conditioning!); all that is thanks to Jason Lo, who started that with the Force Of Nature concert; his bass player gets on down; every time I passed the Discovery Stage I’d see Steeltoe Solutions still waiting for the power to be restored to their stage; Din of funk-metal Estranged; “Tak Nak” Andy (spot the hidden Mickey!) Click on the collage for a bigger view!


I also bumped into Hsin, who’d seen me around the office and gigs but never said hi. I quote her:

“In fact, I pretty much saw the entire contingent of bloggers – faces which I know I’ve seen on someone’s blog, or someone linked from some other one’s blog at some point…. you know. Albert, for one, I’ve been seeing at almost every other event I was at – rock gigs, jazz fest, Laundry, my intern stint in ASTRO. =.= Wait lah one day I’ll just step up to him and block his way and go HELLO ALBERT DO YOU NOT RECOGNIZE ME FROM THE BAZILLION TIMES WE’VE BUMPED INTO EACH OTHER? AND BTW YOU TAKE DAMN NICE PHOTOS. It kinda bugs me that someone I see so often hasn’t become smile/nod/wave buddy yet – like how it took me one whole term before this leng chai in my marketing class and I started acknowledging each other. And by then it was already the end of my only class with him, pfft.”

Therefore, the rest of you should make effort to become smile/nod/wave buddies. Especially if he is a leng chai. 😀

And uh, I don’t go around telling people that they look familiar anymore, even if I’ve sat at the same table for an hour. I’ll let the conversation lead to such hints as to where I’d seen them from. I really do think people look familiar! Why must all of you think it’s a pickup line?

I hereby dedicate this blog entry to Hsin, who is of the habit of flooding her blog with pictures.


“Jangan tak rock beb!”


Left to right, top to bottom: Justin, on percussions for Republic Of Brickfields (I can see a cute smile form on someone‘s face); Aru of Koffin Republic Of Brickfields; Hanafi for Auburn (note that everyone in this row is a band slut!); Izuan Shah wonders what song his band will play next; his bassist waits; Brainhead; Reza Salleh and the Fumakillas play 90’s rock (featuring band sluts Melina and Hanafi). Click on the collage for a bigger view!


Left to right, top to bottom: Muck, old-school emo punk; Rickenbacker bass (damn old-school!); their other guitarist is also on a Fender Jaguar; Kluk Kluk Adventure calls you to ska; Silent Scream is Christian rock. Click on the collage for a bigger view!


Left to right, top to bottom: Alex Ang: “Somebody hollered for band sluts?“; Alda Tan: “Oh thank goodness you stood up instead, heh.“; Paul of Qings & Kueens couldn’t make it so they got a mad-shredder replacement; it started to rain, but the cameraman was prepared; you can tell this collage is for Broken Scar the rock band, who got me in! Click on the collage for a bigger view!

I then ran over to the main stage, but Love Me Butch had ended. 🙁


Left to right, top to bottom: Peter Hassan Brown of hippie rockers Soft Touch, going “How many band sluts you got huh?“; Alda’s one of them (Alex Ang too); Insecure, metalcore; Natalie of “angry rock” Lied; Mono plays indie-rock-bass for The Times (as well as The A.C.A.B.); Infectious Maggots is grindcore. Click on the collage for a bigger view!


Left to right, top to bottom: Isaac Entry and friends (including band sluts Alda and Alex); They Will Kill Us All; Rahul of One Buck Short (who seems to have a new life in Malay punk rock); Izal casts a funky silhoutte; Koffin Kanser; Justin again, for Koffin Kanser; Aru again, for Koffin Kanser. Click on the collage for a bigger view!


Left to right, top to bottom: The smallest member of Dragon Red waves to the crowd; the crowd waves back; Melina-band-slut and DJ Naz-T (also a major film star, Goodbye Boys anyone?); guest percussionist; Adam the screamer; Amil the expression-ful shredder; Slyde looks taller in these jeans. Click on the collage for a bigger view!


This long exposure looks lomo-esque.


Left to right, top to bottom: A cloud of smoke; Stonebay, tried-and-tested grunge; spot the Izuan lurking eeriely; Curtis Blues Review; he croons; these guys do the blues like nobody’s business; Electrico, indie from Singapore; Pete Teo, acoustic folk rock from Malaysia. Click on the collage for a bigger view!


Left to right, top to bottom: Prana, funk-metal-reggae (missing the rapper vocalist, what a pity); I don’t know who this bass player is; hot groupies; percussionist. Click on the collage for a bigger view!


However, I’m pretty sure that the groupies are here to see this masked terrorist work the turntables. I wondered how long he’d keep the disguise. He took it off after a while, to reveal:


Cleo Bachelor Jeremy Little! I told you so. Those who only read the magazine know of his aeronautical engineer tendencies, and not as long-time DJ for Prana (his brother Jeffrey plays drums and doesn’t quite look like him. Sorry girls.) This picture’s for you, Fireangel!


John of Nervewreck, a most powerful screamer (he screamed on Prana – Away From Another.)


Left to right, top to bottom: Mono for (formerly skinhead Oi!) indie-rockers The A.C.A.B.; Radhi-jadi-Statue-Of-Liberty for O.A.G.; Pedram for Damn Dirty Apes, superb instrumental post-rock/space-rock which turned reggae for a bit; feedback (dammit, I came too late, to catch their last two songs; previous Rock The World instalments had them entrancing the crowd in shoegazing bliss, like that enveloping Feedbach); I headed back into the band tent, where obviously bored people shredded paper cups; more post-rock with KL Post-Harmonic Quintet. Click on the collage for a bigger view!


The last band I caught was Sil Khannaz.


An Ibanez Iceman guitar never looked so good.


This is death metal! (He’s probably growling about how tight his leather pants are.)


By 11:50pm, the Maharajalela monorail station was closed, so we all walked to Bintang Walk and passed the Hang Tuah police station. The lower sign (in red) says “Lindungilah harta-benda anda” or “Protect your valuables“. Funny thing is, the sign’s flipped over vertically!

He’s In Fashion

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I was walking around Subang Parade once, and I bumped into April and Jaymee.

Hey Albert! We weren’t sure it was you! We were like looking from afar and wondering, ‘Is that him? I don’t remember him looking that scruffy…’

Well excuuuse me, I’m in fashion. No, literally. In fashion! In “In Fashion“!


From left to right: Nadya, me, Diane

Needless to say, I bought it. First time I was in a magazine! (Well okay, that’s not true.)

However, the rest of the magazine seemed to be a Sungei Wang catalogue. Which reminds me of this conversation:

Ahbert: Su Zhen aaa! Come to Moonshine on Thursday aaa! I dowan to look like the only Sungei Wang representative wor.
Su Zhen: But hor, Thursday hor, I’ve got plans already hor. 😛
Ahbert: Ya, lain kali je la beb. 😉
Su Zhen: Haha ewww, poyo giler! LOL ok bye. 🙂
Ahbert: Eleh sombong dah, lepak dengan Siti-Siti dan Anuar-Anuar yang femes dan sewaktu dengannya. Aku pun nak bla! Issh. Ambik kau.
Su Zhen: Oh my god laa aku ni masih ingat kampungku, bumi yang aku pijak ok. 🙂 Haha kidding la aiyo it’s not a big deal. 😛 Silly. Hey this weekend the ASTRO show is at Klang. Come come if you want? 🙂 Teehee.
Ahbert: KLANG?!? Alamak katak! Kau tau tak, kat sana mereka semua MAKAN BABI! Tak halal tu beb!!! Berdosa tau! Aku tak boleh la, aku jadi roadie Broken Scar kat Rock The World 7. Dapat crew tag tau, boleh lepak backstage. Fuwaa!
Su Zhen: FOCKER!! Oh macam tu laaa, kawan kawan dengan Brokenscar tu tak nak kawan dengan I la nih… Funkysocks pun bagus tau… ok la you pergi dengan kawan kawan you yang Berbrokenscar itu, lagi glamour. Hmph. Bye! LOL.
Ahbert: Memang pun. 😛 Jangan tak rock beb. Bai!!!
Su Zhen: Cis! Cheebye! 😛
Ahbert: You nii kan, lepak dengan budak Klang semua makan babi, tak baik tau! Baik ko bertaubat. Kalau sudah sesat jalan, baik kau tanya Mawi. Itu dia budak yang baik.
Su Zhen: Eh, kita semua lepak kat hotel ok, tak dibenarkan pergi keluar, I think so, don’t worry, takde babi kat hotel. 😛 Haha ok bye!
Ahbert: Fuhh lega aku. Orait cik manis! Gudnait!

* Su Zhen’s name has been changed to protect her privacy.

It always cracks me up when a non-Muslim says “Maaakan baaabi“. 😀 You gotta say it in a most exaggerated manner.

In the meantime, more event pimping:

What: Moonshine: a homemade acoustic show
Where: Laundry Bar, The Curve
When: 9:45pm, Thursday 14th December 2006
How Much: Free entry, but if you see a hottie buy him/her a drink and maybe, write him/her a message on tissue paper. Just remember to get the waiter/waitress to point out who you are.
Who: Ferns, Flatline, Naked Breed, Stonebay

More details here.

What: Rock The World 7
Where: Stadium Merdeka
When: 3pm, Saturday 16th December 2006
How Much: RM25 per entry; first 5000 entries get a free Rock The World 7 T-shirt
Who: 50 artists over 3 stages

The full list and timetable is at http://www.rocktheworld.com.my. If one act is not your thing, walk to another stage! If that’s not your thing either, walk to another! How great is that?

I’ve had the Rock The World 4 shirt from long time ago, and it’s still good and bright. (I didn’t get to win the 5th and 6th shirt. 🙁 )

I’m going for Moonshine and Rock The World 7.

Oh, and if rock is not your thing, but you want to see local artistes (and if you think Funky Socks are hot):

What: Gegak Gemilang Astro
Where: Padang Pandamaran, Klang, Selangor
When: 9am-11:30pm, Saturday 16th December 2006
How Much: I think it’s free. Just say you’re a fan of Funky Socks. 😀
Who: Anuar Zain, Erra Fazira, Adibah Noor, Aznil Hj. Nawawi, Mawi, Zahid, Faizal, Vince, Farhan, Farah, Marsha, Idayu, annnd Funky Socks!

Are you a musician? Part 2

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I kinda forgot this bit from the previous “Are you a musician?” blog entry. Here goes:

Shel: Are you a musician?
Albert: Yeah, I play guitar…
Shel: Do you play bass?
Albert: Yeah, I can play bass too…
Lisa: Ooh! What are your favorite bands?
Albert: Oh, uh… Red Hot Chili Peppers? Incubus, Faith No More, Black Sabbath, Metallica, Jimi Hendrix… but as of late I’ve diversified into a lot of different genres.
Lisa: What about Queen?
Albert: OH YEAH! QUEEN! How could I forget! My current favorite band! I can be walking down the street when I get a Jack Black moment and start singing a Brian May solo aloud. (I wasn’t making this up to impress her; name a Queen song and I’ll do a Jack Black for you.)
Lisa: Oooh! I think Freddie Mercury’s death date just passed! I wanted to blast Queen songs out loud in memory of him!

I silently whipped out my phone, and Googled “Freddie Mercury death“. It said November 24th 1991.

Albert: Well, I’d learn a song. I’ve been doing that with some parts of Bohemian Rhapsody and some other songs, but their songs are quite complex.
Lisa: Yeah, but I only know basic guitar…
Albert: Oh, and you’re not too late; he died on November 24th, 1991.
Lisa: Alright! I shall remember that and blast his music then.
Albert: Oh, and you know, as I was going up the lift, realizing I was in the Ritz Carlton, the lyrics, “Dining at the Ritz, we’ll meet at nine precisely” played in my head.

Brokeback Mountain did not make me cry. Jim Hutton’s story (click here and look for “Wembley”), now that was a tearjerker. I read its entirety on my phone in a minor bout of insomnia. Beautiful, beautiful story.

Come to think of it, his autobiography would make a great movie. I’d watch it even if it was 3 hours long. (They should leave out those bits, though.)

Did you know? He was born on the 5th of September, 1946 as Farrokh Bulsara, in Zanzibar! (Yes, such a place exists; it’s an African island.)

Oh, and here’s another very recent “musician” picture:

Hello peacock!

Yet Another ‘Guin Movie

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So I saw Happy Feet, yet another penguin movie, which had its musical-wannabe bits.

The moment Gloria sang the first few lines from Prince – Kiss, I knew I was going to enjoy the musical direction of the movie. Anybody got the regal connection between that, and Queen? (They did the choir bits of Somebody To Love!)

Think even further, to Hugh Jackman playing Memphis. When I think Memphis, I think of Elvis Presley… the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. As if that wasn’t enough, he also talked like Elvis and sang Heartbreak Hotel.

Think even more – these are Emperor Penguins you’re talking about!

Mumble, the main character, had a bowtie-like marking on his chest… which, I suppose, was a homage to Fred Astaire, who tap danced with a bowtie as well.

Hugo “Agent Smith” Weaving was unmistakeable; so was Robin Williams. Excellent cinematography, with landscapes so real and beautiful you’d wish you were there to take pictures.

Everything is crisp and so realistic; even the humans you’d see later are so real they spark debates. I think Animal Logic probably had motion capture humans to keep to the computer-generated theme (just like stop-motion strictly does not have any motion that is not stop-motion.) They did, after all, do the computer-generated Agent Smiths and Neos in The Matrix series, you know. :O

I find I love Queen songs much much more after they become featured in movies – Wayne’s World brought car-headbanging with Bohemian Rhapsody (though I’d been doing it before watching the movie); Flash Gordon had the tacky Flash; Highlander featured Princes Of The Universe, and Shaun Of The Dead tells you to “kill the Queen” when Don’t Stop Me Now plays (complete with cool zombie-slashing choreography) and ends with You’re My Best Friend. And now, the faux choir of Somebody To Love plays constantly in my head.