Urbanscapes 2013, a two-day festival from the 23rd to 24th of November 2013, at Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS). Time to fulfil my yearly hipster pilgrimage! (I’ve been to all Urbanscapes events, including the satellite shows, but I won’t blog about those since I didn’t bring my camera in.)
The Commons: Urbanscapes Stage. This would be where the big acts would play.
Art on the long, winding road leading through the festival. If you took the bus, it was an even longer walk from where the bus stopped to go in.
Cool upcycling! Probably flood-proof, too!
For all that upcycling, reducing, reusing, recycling is the hype among hipsters at a hipster festival, hipsters love coffee, and a cup of coffee takes 140 liters of water to produce (remember, growing, roasting etc.) A cup of tea takes 35 liters of water to produce, a quarter of coffee’s requirement! I don’t see hipsters running to this coffee plant.
I reached the End Of The Road; the Upfront Stage.
Damn Dirty Apes!
They played a more varied set this time, compared to their chronological ones, and a reggae remix of one of their songs as well as new songs, like one titled Say Hello To My Little Friend, if I remember correctly.
They are still my favorite post-rock band, Malaysian or otherwise.
Across the road…
Woods: Deer In The Park.
A crazy climb up the hill, then more stairs.
Bass Sekolah feat. Cee, Darren Ashley & Justin!
It looks like Darren and Cee are having a QWOP faceoff.
Further up another flight of stairs was the Define area. Here’s Jenifurfurfur!
Rames (Bond) didn’t succeed in getting all the way, but he won a cup of froyo anyway. I won two, because I got through the entire electrified path.
Very cool accordion sofa!
To exit the upper area, you’d just slide down like so, wearing showercaps on your shoes, landing in a ballpit. I didn’t take this way out since it had a long queue.
I shot in burst mode and merged the pictures together.
Some who went for Urbanscapes developed rashes due to allergens, possibly centipedes that had come out due to rain, even though they were not lying on the grass. It would sound as if MAEPS was infested with centipedes!
In this picture, I just see that MAEPS was infested with hipsters.
As for me, as I had a pre-existing case of eczema, I could not tell if I developed an additional rash or not.
Also, as a slight side rant, at another event, somebody thought I derided their work like it’s only for hipsters and therefore it is dirty and I wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole. Well, I don’t use South Park phrases, and she was being terribly presumptuous; as much as I tease hipsters or accuse people of being hipsters, I know that I am one myself, for being an elitist, although I don’t look the part. I was a music elitist before hipsters came about, so I’m probably a proto-hipster. Y’know, like how proto-punk came before punk.
Unrelated visual.
Yuna, just walking by.
Funky bike.
Hipsters love triangles.
We were not allowed to bring in umbrellas for whatever stupid reasons; we had to leave it at the entrance and collect it later. (I bumped into Adrian of Freeform, the organizer of Urbanscapes, and asked him why this was so, and he said it shouldn’t be and would check into it.) So I was glad that there was air-conditioned refuge from the sun.
Everybody getting juiced up with free phone charging, using solar-powered chargers by Goal Zero.
DJs, and Cloth And Clef’s banner! The place has since gone, so it was nice to see a familiar banner.
Free ice-cream. Now if only I could find somebody my age to play this school game with.
Back to the hill!
Tiger Beer area, cordoned off with just plastic plates and wire.
I know this guy!
Plates Pavilion by Red Hong Xi x David Yeow x Cheryl Heap using 5500 plastic plates. Quite pretty!
More free ice-cream.
Free chips! I loved this booth as they had free USB charging, too.
Up on the hill, an interesting fiber-optic light installation was… installed, on a tree.
This was my Facebook profile picture for a while.
Nightfall.
Inside The Field: The Next Stage, was Tongue Tied – A Spoken Word Cabaret.
Familiar Hameer Zawawi on guitar!
Sheena could’ve beena…
Crow. Whoa.
Nearby, in a white box (with the unexpected JKKN projection) was a performance.
The audience would walk through a U-shaped path, passing the performers in the middle.
There’d also be an art installation of… shoes.
Outside, at the stalls, less abstract things were going on. I didn’t ask what this was about.
Then, to The Commons, the main stage!
Tegan & Sara!
Bass and guitar.
Drummer, too.
Tegan.
Sara.
Although I managed to get my umbrella back, I brought it again on the second day, and they again would not allow it in. So I had to part with my trusty umbrella again. Fortunately, Mercy Malaysia was selling umbrellas, with proceeds going to Typhoon Haiyan victims! So I bought my new main umbrella there. Notice that it’s silvered on the outside; the previous MyNews one I had was stupidly silvered on the inside, making it not very useful against the sun.
In The Field, Fuzz, stand-up comedian from Singapore. Awesome material dude!
Andrew Netto, good ol’ regular joker macha.
Kuah Jen Han, a busy celebrity outside.
At The Commons, Paladin!
Cello rock at its finest.
I usually see them on much smaller stages…
…so I’m glad to see them having all the space to rock out!
Bumped into Jeremy Choy, who had a medium format film camera. Just so you know where square format pictures came from.
A giant ear that would record secrets.
Outside the FZ booth was a wall to stamp your hand on.
In the FZ booth’s air-conditioned comfort, giant Jenga was being played.
Outside, Joseph Germani in a onesie!
Quickest way to the hill; Malaysian sport indeed.
Sheena, outside, explains that this was her likeness.
Airborne spy.
Screw that, so I went back into the FZ booth. More onesies!
I would be very disappointed if nobody came in a caterpillar onesie for the next Urbanscapes.
I made new friends who were also enraged when their umbrellas were denied entry. As it turns out, they also had POLITIKO, so we played that to pass time before Franz Ferdinand.
Outside the booth.
Bumped into my hipster friends! Ashleiloumou, What Y-wannn and NGEL (despite the spelling, it’s pronounced NIGEL the way Franz Ferdinand would sing Michael. Very IKEA!)
Franz Ferdinand!
Alex Kapranos, lead singer and guitarist.
Nick McCarthy, guitarist.
Paul Thomson on drums.
I’m not sure if this is Bob Hardy on bass… it doesn’t quite look like him!
They played a very full set for me, since I was only familiar with their first two albums, traversing chronology freely.
