{"id":380,"date":"2005-04-08T05:15:13","date_gmt":"2005-04-08T05:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/?p=380"},"modified":"2016-09-18T18:11:21","modified_gmt":"2016-09-18T18:11:21","slug":"april-updates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/?p=380","title":{"rendered":"April Updates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Thousand and two apologies for the lack of updates; things happen, like:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glaringnotebook.com\/zimages\/slowhand.jpg\"><br \/>\nAlbert rediscovers the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mwbrooks.com\/dvorak\/\" target=\"_BLANK\">Dvorak layout<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I did that to a spare keyboard lying in the office. I noticed that my productivity decreased greatly and I was even more less (more less?) likely to load MSN or reply emails in standard Albert-ic bombastic English. Hic.<\/p>\n<p>I am somewhat glad that when I type on my home&#8217;s QWERTY keyboard, I type <b>D<\/b> instead of <b>E<\/b>. A sign that I&#8217;m getting used to Dvorak! Interestingly, I type words that start with <b>S<\/b> with <b>O<\/b> instead, and mash up <b>E<\/b> and <b>O<\/b> often. I still have not gotten used to locating the rarer keys.<\/p>\n<p>Then when I get home I&#8217;ve a project to work on so yeah, no blog updates. \ud83d\ude1b<\/p>\n<p><b>Beatallica<\/b><\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s right kids; this is the band that does Beatles songs Metallica style. They play Metallica excellently; they&#8217;ve got the guitar tone, the <i>And Justice For All<\/i> era James Hetfield growl, everything&#8230; but throw in what The Beatles do (unconventional harmonies and chord progressions) and a rock and roll beat, and you get an entertaining (and funny) result. Yes there are <a href=\"http:\/\/music.metafilter.com\/index.php?q=f&amp;f=%2FBeatallica\" target=\"_BLANK\">places<\/a> you can <a href=\"http:\/\/webfeedcentral.com\/beatallica3\/\" target=\"_BLANK\">download<\/a> the songs.<\/p>\n<p><b>Sepet<\/b><\/p>\n<p>I borrowed <a href=\"http:\/\/smashpop.lifelogger.com\" target=\"_BLANK\">Jason<\/a>&#8216;s original <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sepet.com.my\" target=\"_BLANK\">Sepet<\/a> VCD. My mom the usual tearjerker-movie-sucker&#8230; didn&#8217;t cry. Neither did I. I thought it was alright though; the sound was alright despite reading complaints about that. I know someone so much like Orked in mannerism (and she&#8217;s even cute like her) and yet, I did not know if I could place her character in Ipoh. Then again, I don&#8217;t know Ipoh. Her family is urban in thought but it seems the rest of town isn&#8217;t. Some people criticize the movie for being inconsistent in the potrayal of the community, but we forget that there are urbanite bigots.<\/p>\n<p>And now, on to time-based narration:<\/p>\n<p>On Friday I met up with <a href=\"http:\/\/scorponok.rubeus.org\" target=\"_BLANK\">YK<\/a> to buy more and more Transformers.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glaringnotebook.com\/zimages\/treadshot.jpg\"><br \/>\n<b>Treadshot<\/b> seriously has style.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glaringnotebook.com\/zimages\/biplanes.jpg\"><br \/>\nPlanes in scale. Yes, this was Photoshopped and the planes are swapped. Standing from left: <b>Skydive<\/b> (Generation 2 recolor Aerialbot), <b>Strafe<\/b> (Generation 2 Cyberjet) and Treadshot (Transformers Energon Aerialbot).<\/p>\n<p>We then headed to Bintang Walk to meet <a href=\"http:\/\/chapree.tripod.com\/blergh\" target=\"_BLANK\">Syefri<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/frus.blogdrive.com\" target=\"_BLANK\">Frus<\/a>. Frus and I headed to The Loft, Zouk <a href=\"http:\/\/www.glaringnotebook.com\/?p=378\">again<\/a> to catch Twilight Action Girl. This time, we stayed for the dance floor.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glaringnotebook.com\/zimages\/tigerbeer.jpg\"><br \/>\nIt&#8217;s a bad thing when you don&#8217;t think that beer tastes bad anymore.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps I missed the chance to ask them to play something from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.glaringnotebook.com\/?p=377\">black album<\/a> before they changed to early industrial and then something which was more techno than rock. &#8220;<i>Is it too late to play any song from the Spinal Tap album?<\/i>&#8221; &#8220;<i>Oh chill lah, we&#8217;re changing back to rock now.<\/i>&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glaringnotebook.com\/zimages\/taggedred.jpg\"><br \/>\nWhen they played <i>Gimme Some Money<\/i>, a herd of rockers left. \ud83d\ude41 How can they not know Spinal Tap?!? At least there were some who appreciated the song&#8217;s poke at The Beatles&#8217; enlightenment era. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glaringnotebook.com\/zimages\/issheiszie.jpg\"><br \/>\nI also bumped into <a href=\"http:\/\/www.livejournal.com\/~snowquene\" target=\"_BLANK\">Iszie<\/a>, who bugged me to come the gig she was emceeing the next day. Yes you will notice that I am now talking about the next day. Yes I am using present tense which is so grammatically wrong.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glaringnotebook.com\/zimages\/longdrawn1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glaringnotebook.com\/zimages\/longdrawn2.jpg\"><br \/>\n<b>Amantle The Sea<\/b>. Yes! For this blog entry I shall have a theme for all gig-related pictures; they will all be taken without flash, preferably in red, and without any levels or color correction, to celebrate the beauty of a ISO400, EV -1 manual setting.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glaringnotebook.com\/zimages\/longdrawn3.jpg\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glaringnotebook.com\/zimages\/longdrawn4.jpg\"><br \/>\n<b>Lucy In The Loo<\/b> rocked. No that&#8217;s not Lucy, and yes, I cheated by sticking on the stickers from a picture taken with flash.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glaringnotebook.com\/zimages\/longdrawn5.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glaringnotebook.com\/zimages\/longdrawn6.jpg\"><br \/>\n<b>Citizens Of Ice-cream<\/b> was cool. Heavy soundscapes and no vocals can only come from a combination of two Chinese indie bands. They even get different colored lighting for their Floyd-ish escapes! On the right was what seemed to be a tape loop.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glaringnotebook.com\/zimages\/longdrawn7.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glaringnotebook.com\/zimages\/longdrawn8.jpg\"><br \/>\n<b>The Times<\/b> brought their scene with them; Roots And Boots members were seen moshing frantically. The vocalist had this Britrock stance which was cool.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glaringnotebook.com\/zimages\/longdrawn9.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glaringnotebook.com\/zimages\/longdrawn10.jpg\"><br \/>\n<b>Telebury<\/b> finished the gig. Yes again I cheated on the right-side picture, using flash to bring out the nice blue Gibson Les Paul. I mean, have you ever seen one of those in Metallic Blue?<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glaringnotebook.com\/zimages\/longdrawncrowd.jpg\"><br \/>\n<b>Longdrawn 3<\/b> was the name of the gig, with the biggest turnout I had ever seen in The New Paul&#8217;s Place.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glaringnotebook.com\/zimages\/kfccurry.jpg\"><br \/>\nOkay I&#8217;m hungry. Let&#8217;s take a break and stare at the new KFC curry chicken. It has the zing of their Tom Yam experiment, but without the Tom Yam flavor. May this gimmick last longer.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glaringnotebook.com\/zimages\/paultheinventor.jpg\"><br \/>\nNow teleport back to Paul&#8217;s Place, this time on a Wednesday, for <b>Troubadours<\/b>, the biggest singer-songwriter bigshot gig I&#8217;d ever seen. Pictured is a floating magnetic toy; a little invention by Paul (who used to design exhibits for the National Science Center!)<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glaringnotebook.com\/zimages\/troubadours1.jpg\"><br \/>\n<b>Ronnie Khoo<\/b> was first, with some mellow-dy.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glaringnotebook.com\/zimages\/troubadours2.jpg\"><br \/>\n<b>Izzy<\/b> and guitarist Jeremy.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glaringnotebook.com\/zimages\/troubadours3.jpg\"><br \/>\n<b>Warren Chan<\/b> and Abigail. He had some interesting chords over more mellow stuff. Who from KLue <a href=\"http:\/\/www.20six.co.uk\/justin_guber\" target=\"_BLANK\">doesn&#8217;t sing in falsetto<\/a> all the time?<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glaringnotebook.com\/zimages\/troubadours4.jpg\"><br \/>\n<b>Ariff Akhir<\/b> and Shahril the bassist. Now Ariff&#8217;s got the voice and the chords, but Shahril marginally draws more attention with his extremely fluid walking (and perhaps playing a game of Twister) basslines.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glaringnotebook.com\/zimages\/troubadours5.jpg\"><br \/>\n<b>Peter Hassan Brown<\/b> and Shahril the bassist.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glaringnotebook.com\/zimages\/troubadours6.jpg\"><br \/>\n<b>Opie<\/b> from Indonesia. She had soul, yo. It manifested in her diva-like vocals. And hey, that guitar is way too familiar.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glaringnotebook.com\/zimages\/troubadours7.jpg\"><br \/>\n<b>Meor<\/b> from Central Market. His aggressively-strummed blues were fun to watch.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glaringnotebook.com\/zimages\/troubadours8.jpg\"><br \/>\n<b>Kartini<\/b> which I suspect is also from Indonesia.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glaringnotebook.com\/zimages\/troubadours9.jpg\"><br \/>\n<b>Kelvin<\/b> from Singapore. Superb stuff; he shredded the blues to the intermission music. (Other bands would play the tuning song.) He then made a song on the spot about this here country. I have never seen a guy sing with more conviction; he strains, beats and dries the words that he sings.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glaringnotebook.com\/zimages\/troubadours10.jpg\"><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.xanga.com\/i_want_a_djembe\" target=\"_BLANK\"><b>Reza Salleh<\/b><\/a> the heart-melter crooned over jazz guitar.<\/p>\n<p>Sadly, I did not get to see Ben of Ben&#8217;s B***hes or <a href=\"http:\/\/yat.ch\/yunor\" target=\"_BLANK\">Azmyl Yunor<\/a> play as I had to leave. They would have been interesting.<\/p>\n<p>In other news, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kamigoroshi.net\" target=\"_BLANK\">Ed<\/a> has lost it again; this time he has a 48-hour blogathon. So? 49 48 51 45, I say to him. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thousand and two apologies for the lack of updates; things happen, like: Albert rediscovers the Dvorak layout. I did that to a spare keyboard lying in the office. I noticed that my productivity decreased greatly and I was even more less (more less?) likely to load MSN or reply emails in standard Albert-ic bombastic English. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,18,19,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geek","category-music","category-pictures","category-toys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=380"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11649,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380\/revisions\/11649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}