Category Archives: Music

Too tired to write creatively

Leave a reply

On Friday, I headed down for more cheese naan. Dipping it in condensed milk, and then fusing it with fish curry, was heavenly. On the way there, I saw this:


The Central Market Folk Quintet

Coolness! A pickup for a twelve-string that didn’t need surgery!

On Saturday I went down to Times Square for the Hoobastank Battle Of The Bands Final Auditions. The winners?


Edge Of Fire (3rd place)

Reco (2nd place, a mix of two bands)

Vespertine (1st place, will be opening alongside Disagree at Hoobastank’s concert in Malaysia)

I headed to Coffee Bean for a White Chocolate Dream but got a Dulce instead, after a dehydrating day in the sun. It was toffee-flavored. Note the name; it would be an interesting way to pick up people at coffee houses, yes? Walk over, look at the cup, and say hi.

On Monday I headed yet again to Central Market lane; this time, there was a sad-looking mime who needed a dime.

This time around, I converted Syefri into a fan; he ordered the garlic-topped cheese naan, while I tried the cheese naan without garlic.

Oh and there are new links in my About Me! page. Lovably neurotic Graceshu, Angelceres, Bloodlet (a 30-something whose blog does not revolve around politics) and Bernard.

Small World, Small World

5 Replies

I’ve met Sarah at quite a few KLue Chillout Sessions and not knew it. (She was my distraught friend’s friend.)

I found out why their friend was also so familiar, two days later, at the Sunday session. Turns out she was a girl we met at an excolleague’s party, where I was used as a scapegoat. (Let’s call him Fei, as his real name; he is shameless and this is a shameless plug!) He was asking her questions about this sweet-young-Mariah-Carey-lookalike, supposedly doing the getting-to-know-you’s for me.

Today was no different; a local rockstar celebrity tried to hit on her. Well for one he didn’t look too rockstar, and I fear revealing too much as these people are all online, and I know just as well as you do that we often find time to do our research.

To my relief, she said that Fei was better at er, flirting.

I found the post-flirt analysis/dissectomy amusing. The rockstar dude asked if she hung out at the mamak. She told him, “no”. This, she said, as we walked to Devi’s Corner where I had my tummy-disturbing cheese naan.

Hmm. She could’ve said, “The Mamak? Is that along Jalan Sultan Ismail (or high-class eatery lane) somewhere? Does it serve escargot? I love Italian food!”

Girls, remember this coverline! It will get you out of mamak dates. Guys, remember that escargot is French, and that the time you save after being rejected could be used by giving me the name and number of the chick who actually reads my blog and uses this coverline.

Now you must be thinking, hey why’d she give her number if she wasn’t interested? She did give the rockstar her number…

Oh, and by Nabila’s request, we have some nicely framed shots of Friday’s gig. Yeah I didn’t post them earlier because I was a 56Ker for a very long time, and I wanted to be considerate.


Azmyl Yunor


Duan of Seven Collar T-shirt


Nabila Nasir the distraught poet


Shelley featuring Az

P.S. Happy birthday to the lickable Jay! Ironically, Sarah’s birthday was the day before, and she recognized Jay from my digicam.

Lamerick

Leave a reply

This entry wasn’t in rhyme format before this. Laugh like you would when you read lame forwarded rhymes.

On Friday Chez picked me up from the office
To Bintang Walk for God forbid we miss
Our distraught friend reading poetry
Using the word ‘distraught‘ in glee

I was made unpivotal to the recital! Someone else was the title.

Of Seven Collar T-shirt there was Duan
He and his guitar, headcount was one
Cool jazz riffs, neat inversions galore
For once their melancholia was not a snore

Saturday I went down to KL Plaza again
For Hoobastank’s Battle Of The Bands
The band with the best playing
Would get to open in the grandstands

I was made a judge quickly
Beside Saiful of Y2K and a Universal lady
Between bands I itched to pick up an electric guitar
And jam with the great masked punk rocker from afar

Alas, to test guitars, we were timid
Much like one church band who hid
In them, the ability to rock out
Like how Linkin-Park-in-Malaysia regulations said “no jumping about”

We were then seen in Coffee Bean, me treated to a White Chocolate Dream.

Lunch was nasi lemak, dinner a chicken burger
Both at the same place at 3:30pm or later
I ran to Low Yat Plaza as the clouds fell
To collect price lists to use as scrap paper as well

Shelley And Cheese

2 Replies

No, the title is not a reference to the loveable Az. Here are more pictures and a little commentary.

I headed down to Bintang Walk on Wednesday night to see Shelley‘s album launch. On the way there, I stopped by Lot 10 to find:


Speedy Video! Who goes to Lot 10 for this anyway?


Wha…

I didn’t believe it either. The unheard-of Tower Records in Lot 10! (KL Plaza was so near!)


So this is L’Opera.


I love taking bulb-lighted pictures and overexposing the highlights.


Ditto.


Cosmic Funk Express. Alda was on bass, and they racked major coolness with a Super Mario cover song.


On the journey to the toilet, you’d pass by a picturesque construction site window.


Oh, and let’s not forget picturesque Shelley.


Thursday: Went to an Xfresh gathering. Apologies to the people who saw me stoned there. I discovered that even uncaffeinated frappucinos gave me headaches. It didn’t help that I considered two people at the pseudo-dinner table irritating. Escaped I did, for college I had to attend. I got on the bus from Midvalley to the Universiti PUTRA LRT station, comtemplating just going home. I was saved by a friend who was my sister’s classmate (and I discovered that his older sister was my classmate before!)

I was headacheless as I rushed uncertainly to a class that may or may have not been cancelled. Thank goodness it was there, and that I passed my progress test, with double the marks I expected. Yes I am still sounding stoned.


Ahameedia


Click on the picture to enlarge. I waited for the bus, contemplating eating dinner there or eating dinner near my house. I gambled the bus for cheese naan, but I would not regret it. It was the works! (Plus it wasn’t Naan Special or Naan Pizza!) It had onions, carrots, and heck, raisins! Its foundation was mozzarella, for the stretchy gooey cheesy appeal. How do you get there? Find the shortest open-air walking path between Masjid Jamek and Pasar Seni PUTRA LRT stations. It lies somewhere along that stretch.

Back to regular scheduled programming

4 Replies

My house phone line’s been dead since Friday now, and Streamyx is supposed to work despite that, but it doesn’t.

Friday: Celebrated Shaz’s birthday at Burger King Midvalley. I think we were happy. KJ came before Shaz! I didn’t get him a dirty blonde (should’ve just introduced Davina’s surprisingly black hair to mustard) but he was happy.

Saturday: Went to the office, then home, to cower like a chicken.

Sunday: Went to Midvalley, to the KLue, Starbucks presents HSBC Chillout Sessions, to bid farewell to Irma. I helped the usually distraught friend to take pictures of say:


This latte will evaporate in one hour


From the filename and picture, I wonder why I bother hiding her identity by calling her the distraught friend


Shelley and Az, waiting for their turn to perform (see, even when they’re not performing, they look artistic!)


I love Shelley. She had to run and leave me this chocolate cinnamon roll leftover


Pete Teo doing a soundcheck. Nice tuning pegs!


Thank you everybody! Come to my album launch!


Zahid of Disagree must be going, “bestnya acoustic set! Can sit down!” (The solo on Crumbs was hummed, coolness!)


Pete is joined by Zahid and Hamka of Disagree (Disagree with Pete! Or rather, Pete with Disagree!)

I like this picture.

Speak to my right ear

Leave a reply

…because the left ear was next to a Hard Rock Cafe speaker. Weird how I couldn’t hear myself when I talked after The Rasmus hit us. The speaker was so loud, the vocals distorted! (Or it hit my loudness threshold, causing natural fuzz in my ear.)

P.S. The Rasmus rock. They have proper solos, and enough 80’s rock for the soul. (First single In The Shadows didn’t catch my attention because it sounded too modern hard rock.) Pity then, in some songs they have a Metallica or Skid Row intro, and go into the softer, simpler verse part, a bit anti-climatic. The vocalist is too modern; he’s a less neurotic Brian Molko. However, take away the gothic image and nobody would call them gothic. Heck, they may become pretty boys, but I think Lauri has potential to look like Ozzy Osbourne. (Lift your hands up with your Fleetwood-Mac jackets and wave them to the intro of Snowblind!)

PALA at Mines and Ed on airlines

3 Replies

Pardon the laziness; hope pictures will suffice.

Got on the train to the Mines Exhibition Center for the PALA sound thingymajiggy. It was a total geekout session for audio/video techie people, but I came to drool at guitars.


I got this while registering with my business card.


Audio engineer pr0n (the salesman/digital-mixer-pimp got Syefri‘s attention for quite a bit)


LASER fields. I’m blind!


Sham of Kamikaze jams with Andy Timmons. I’d never seen or heard either guitarist before, but I thought Sham looked pretty Dr. Evil-like on stage (he’s the one in white). This was Andy Timmons’ session; I spotted Amil of Dragon Red doing his usual Jimi Hendrix expressions when Andy covered Little Wing. Haha!


Click to enlarge; from left: Vax 7-string guitar for RM980 at Do Re Mi, Gibson SG Angus Young model for RM6

New Skin

2 Replies

Wednesday

I got on an colorful minibus from Subang Parade to Sunway Pyramid. Sweeet! The ride costed 80 sen and took 15 minutes. Very neat. Spiderman 2 was the agenda, with Douglas, Nabila, Chez and I. I enjoyed it, and I could still take the mush (this wasn’t Pearl Harbor man.) A promising sequel was ready, with The Lizard, Doctor Octopus and Hobgoblin in tow, yes?

Thursday

Went to work then to college.

Friday

Met up with Seng Yip to Hartamas for the In The Front Row With Popcorn gig. Bumped into Mellissa there! Took quite a while to register a familiar face.

I didn’t stay till the end so I could catch a taxi without the midnight charge. The taxi driver introduced me to the different parts of Segambut. I never knew anything besides Segambut Dalam and Luar! After what seemed like an eternity of geographical revelation through the bumpy village road, we reached my place at a whopping… RM4.60. For once, I was proud I lived here.

Saturday

Slept whole day. A first for a Saturday, really. Woke up at 10pm and headed out for a Ramli burger and teh tarik dinner. Went home, checked bank balance. Was happy.

Sunday

Played Far Cry to start the day. At midnight. I intend to sleep at the time of writing, but teh tarik, it seems, works now and not in the morning. Oh and I changed the skin to Trained (it was Keyboard from like 20th August 2003!)

Self-collapsible

4 Replies

Warm Paw played Keane on repeat. Why hasn’t the mellow Britrock scene all slit their wrists and died an automatic death?

The answer is simple. They are all manufactured… robots! Remember Gorillaz? If these songs were written by humans, they wouldn’t have kept a blade away to last a whole album’s worth.

You guys should’ve seen it coming with William Hung. He’s the man. He’s the engineer. He engineers. He’s not the best engineer, especially when it comes to the biomechanical facial skeletal expressions of Chris Martin and Thom Yorke. He could very well be creating Britrocking robots, perpetuating a strong sense of low self-esteem in the oodles of self-righteous “this is real muse-ic” fans. Think MUSE. Even Coldplay hinted at their robotic true self in their videos (plus their monotonous rhythm reinforces that).

The Americans are real rebels, though. They are angry! Do upon others harm; it is better than doing upon yourself harm. Which is really what I think I should be doing.

P.S. This blog entry and its style has been greatly inspired by a fellow Trekkie. You know who you are! 😉