Tuesday, July 31, 2007

My sudden KLIA trip

No, I didn't do no one-night-stand.

No, I didn't even drink.

But I went to KLIA. That's a fact.

I met Julian in Top Room and he said he was going to pick up Chee Meng and his colleagues from LCC Terminal. But then all of a sudden, he said, "Oh shit! I didn't realise that I can't fit 4 people in my little Satria!" So I thought I had a car, why not, I'll go help out!

then we 2 motherfuckers, at 11pm, went to Kajang to have a drink and met up with Ken for a short while, and went straight to KLIA!

Seldom in my life that I do such an impromptu trip --- to a place THAT far away.

I spent some money though. The bloody tolls, dammit! And I used up half a tank of petrol!

I got back home at 4am... and god damn... my mom woke up at the same time...

"Why come home so late?"

"Why spend unnecessary money?!"

"No, don't want you to buy the petrol, you've got enough spending to take care of!"

Well... but I felt happy that I did something fun though... :P

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

The Price of Having Balls

Sometimes you have to pay the price to have balls to say the truth. I truly respect this guy's balls, and if he gets into jail for this shit, man I'm tellin' you it's worth it because he caused some impact in the society.

Stupid laws about rearranging the national anthem should not stop a man's love to his own country and pointing out the real problem of the society. Furthermore, they SHOULDN'T call that an "arrangement with bad intention", because all I see in the video is the man's concern about his own society and the determination to let people see the problem ---- people who REALLY should know their own problems.

If the government tries to distract the public by focusing on the arrangement of national anthem, then they're trying to avoid the real problem and rotting direction we are heading.

A few years back, a local composer composed a beautiful piece that contains the national anthem in it for the grand opening of the Malaysian Philharmonic. His piece got banned right after the first performance. A beautiful symphonic piece with our national anthem resonating within. It's a piece that expresses the composer's love to his own country, and what's wrong with that? Do you call that "arrangement with bad intention" too? Why do you ban it?

There is NO clear guideline in this law and the authorities is simply using it as they like to stabilise their own political power. Dirty!

http://www.sinchew-i.com/article.phtml?artid=200707183196&data=scnews&spid=38359

New CDs...

One funny thing about local pirated audio CDs (local as in Malaysia) is that they like to put in some "bonus tracks" after all the "real" tracks of that particular album.

The other night I went to the pasar malam near my house all 3 for 10 ringgit.

I got Linkin Park's newest album, "Minutes to Midnight". It's a new sound for this band, no more DJ-ing and less rapping. They focus on live sound this time. The band is tight, but the overall effect isn't too exciting. Good try, can be better though.

Next is the new album by Audioslave, "Revelation". Very typical Audioslave sound, always enjoying the special guitar solo sound in the band. It's interesting to listen to this ex-Rage Against the Machine band making a whole different sound that still works at its own rights.

Finally a Chinese album from Taiwan by A-Yue (張震嶽), "OK". Yeah, very typical sound by him, but not as naughty as before. His way of writing lyrics is really unrefined, but I guess that's already become his style --- so that it sounds like improvising. Guess he's one of the few people in the Chinese scene that's really "playing" music and having "fun" with it.

Don't you hipocrites scold me for buying pirated! I just wanna test the music out before I want to buy the real shit. If it's not good, why the fuck do I need to buy the real thing?

And to you people who release the albums, if you want people to buy your shit, you better convince people to buy the real thing by making great music so that people feel worth it!

Thursday, July 12, 2007

DONE!!!!!!!!

So, yes, it's over, the show in KLPac is over...

It was a full house, plus 30 extra seats...

People applauded and yelled like crazy...

Uncle and aunty Teoh was here... :)

Aunty Teoh said she was touched by "One for Wendy, In Case a Goodbye" --- both by the title and the song.

Sherwin was moved by "A Few Words with JaC"...

All of them are my chick songs...haha...

But I'm really glad that KLPac invited me for this shit, really appreciate it!

And Justin, Joseph, both of you motherfuckers, thanks for making my show happening! You're the best!!

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

The Much Awaited Day...

July 12... today...

I remember I was first approached by Marge earlier this year, asking me to do a concerto appearance with KLPac Sinfonietta in KLPac's HSBC String Festival.

I agreed without thinking twice, as it has always been my dream to be invited back home someday and be recognised by my own people. And so the time has come.

The programme was later changed because, after knowing that I play other music too, they want more variety added into the festival. They asked me to do a jazz show.

I told them I will have Justin on the piano and Joseph on the bass --- the two most amazing musicians I've ever known in KL. And I'm very glad that both of them agreed without hesitation.

So I figured that since this is something new, we should play something new too! So Justin and me started to write some new music, preparing to play an all-original programme.

Show's tonight, let's see what damage we can do!

Monday, July 02, 2007

Ponty

I suddenly realised that I've never documented my Ponty experience, which I should.

This guy is like 60+ but he still plays so perfectly, gosh, I don't believe it!

His playing is not as explosive as when he was younger, but nevertheless, he still sounds fantastic.

Not really into the kind of music he is playing now though, too much funk stuff. I mean I'm cool with funk, but I can't stand a whole night of it. But I kinda expected that he wasn't going to play shit that I'm really into, but I felt that I should be that because he's one my heroes, and I want to see how he uses his bow --- he told me that he is still practising Sevcik and Paganini every day now.

Now THAT'S impressive.

I could totally see the influence of those exercises when he plays. He's got an almost perfect bowstroke on everything he wants to play, the left hand and right hand coordination was completely flawless. Also, when he did all the alternating bowings, he never seem to have lost his time feel ---- everything was still in the pocket.

Fuck yeah...

Tried to meet him at the end of the concert, but of course, couldn't.

I wanted to thank him in person, for accepting my e-mail interviews when I was doing my undergraduate final paper.

Just in case you're reading this Jean-Luc, thank you!