So what have I been doing...?

I'm not in New York now, some of my friends would know it.

I'm in South Park, and I'm not kidding. I AM in South Park, in Morgantown, West Virginia. OK, if you don't believe me, I will take a picture tomorrow and show you.

I came here to play with my buddy Yew Choong, who has a severe hearing problem. When he's wearing a hearing aid, he still has to look at your lips so that he could figure out what you're talking about. Which means, he could hear your voice, but couldn't hear your diction.

And yet, this chap is finishing up his DMA and piano performance here. He won my utmost respect. So I agreed to play for him right after he asked me.

We chose one of the hardest of all piano literature --- Cesar Franck's Sonata for Violin and Piano.

We've been practising many times now. And in the same time, non-stop makan (eating) with our fellow Malaysians who study here --- this place is full of Malaysians (and also Indonesians and Thais...and...not to mention, Koreans [di mana-mana pun ada]).

Morgantown is a peaceful little town where you don't really have much to do. The "downtown" here is small it's so cute. A very sleepy place --- just the place for a New York person like me to calm down and recharge my energy.

Oh, nearly forgot to mention! Yew Choong and I played badminton yesterday!

That was a short game, but we had great fun.

It's pretty easy to satisfy a Malaysian huh? Food + badminton. Haha...

To All The Hipocrites in the World...

If you wanna say "shoot"
Say "shit"
If you wanna say "gosh"
Say "God"
If you wanna say "freak"
Just say "fuck"

What is so hard?

You mean the same anyway.

Intention is the essence.

If you don't intend to curse, don't say it altogether.

"Shoot", "F", "Freak", "Gosh"...

What the fuck?

Say "Shit"... Say "Fuck"... Say "God"!

Finally...

Finally...something that I find very interesting to write about and it motivates me to move my fingers.

See, I've been working on this stupid work by this composer from the Midwest.

There's ONE particular part that's sooooo difficult and didn't sound good AT ALL. It's a whole bunch of triplets in semiquaver (16th Notes to some of you) for four fucking pages.

We're so mad that we decided to burn the motherfucking piece after we played it.

And guess what? We did it! :)

Pictures provided... See below...

"Be The Best!"

One day I was transferring from the E train to the D train at the 7th Avenue station.

As I walked down the stairs, I heard this sick drumming underneath.

A black guy was burning it below the staircase, sweating like mad, people were bobbing their heads and smiling while he plays, dollar bills kept on adding up in the tip bucket.

The B train came, the crowd went off, leaving behind waiting for my D train. The drummer finally stopped and checked his tip bucket.

"I wanna stop, but they won't let me!" he talked to me.

I said, "Cuz you bad man."

"I know!" he replied with full confidence.

So I asked him, "So where else do you play man?"

He said, "Oh, let's see... Miami Beach, South Carolina, Philadelphia..." he named a few big places. I looked at him, obviously with a ray disbelief. He then told me, "I tour around with Anita Baker man, you know her?"

I was thinking to myself, "No fuckin' way!", answering, "Yeah of course! Wow!"

Then he said, "Yeah man, I'm not those little subway musicians, this is my practice session, ah (I) been doin' this for 8 years or so now, practicing in the subway."

So I asked him if he plays around the City a lot, he said, "Nah man, I don't play no small clubs man. Payin' me 300 bucks and wantin' me to play 5 hours man? That's ridiculous! I get the same rate touring working less hours!" Then he looked at my violin on my back, "So what do you play? A trumpet?"

I said, "No, it's a violin." Right then, D train arrived at the station, so I said bye to him and walked over to the train.

He said, "Whatever it is (you play), practice! Be the best!"

I turned my head back and answered, "OK man! Will do!"

He yelled once again before the train doors closed, "BE THE BEST!"

好大的一把槍!

他拿著手提袋, 在街上又驚恐又歡喜的亂逛.

都怪自己多手! 要不然就不會這樣了?

到底是怎樣呢?

趙沙在路邊無意中看到一個被棄置的手提袋, 好奇心的驅使下把它打開, 沒想裡面裝的不是錢不是毒品不是性玩具, 竟然是好大一把手槍! 當時他還真不知道到底要大叫還是大笑, 即興奮又焦急.

一把槍, 能夠做甚麼用呢?

槍的用途本來就不廣, 不是傷人就是殺人.

有了一把槍, 能夠做甚麼呢?

傷人, 要傷誰? 殺人, 又要殺誰呢?

他就這樣子胡思亂想著, 不停在街上亂鑽.

他打算讓自己冷靜下來, 便撥了個電話給小美, 一個他心儀了很久的女孩. 對方似乎也對他挺有興趣, 常常會接受他的邀請一起出去吃飯看電影. 每當跟她在一起, 心裡總是特別的踏實. 他打算去找她聊聊天, 也決定不把槍的事情告訴她.

在小美家的客廳裡, 他邊啜著咖啡邊跟小美東聊西聊, 雖然不著邊際可是卻還是很平靜.

"今晚一起吃個晚飯嗎?" 趙沙想了很就問道.

"嗯...不了...今天蠻累的...哪兒都不想去..."

"哦..." 他也不再說甚麼.

約一個小時後, 趙沙踏出了小美的公寓門口. 這時在門外迎面來了一個洋人, 他也不以為意, 繼續往前走. 只聽見身後洋人在按某家門鈴, 然後是開門聲, 然後是女孩的聲音說道:"Hi...I've been waiting for so long...where have you been?"

是小美的聲音.

趙沙掉回頭, 看到他們手拉著手進了公寓, 關上了門. 他走近小美的門口, 依稀聽到放浪的調笑聲.

目露兇光.

他按了按門鈴.

小美大概過了一分鐘才過來開門, 非常肯定他們不是普通關係.

小美見到是趙沙, 神情呆了一下:"阿沙,有...有甚麼事嗎? 我在忙著呢..."

趙沙心裡冷笑了一下, 你們當然忙得很! 嘴上卻說:"忘了些東西要拿."

小美問:"忘了甚麼? 我來幫你找找."

"不用了, 我自己來, 你忙你的."

"嗯...還是我來找吧, 現在不大方便---"

不等小美解釋完, 趙沙已經挨身進了公寓裡.

"Mei! What is it? Who's there?" 洋人在房裡面問.

趙沙隨聲跟了進去, 小美在跟後面不知如何是好. 只見洋人光了上身只剩下內褲坐在床上.

趙沙又氣又恨又是傷心, 袋子一打開就把槍亮出了來. 沒等洋人反應過來, 子彈已經穿過他喉嚨, 想叫也叫不出來了, 只聽到喉嚨的彈孔中發出"呵...呵...呵..."的漏氣聲.

小美哪裡還趕多等? 轉了身子就跑.

砰! 又是一槍, 子彈穿過她的如雲秀髮, 正中她後腦, 當下撲倒在地, 只有手腳輕輕在抽動.

洋人痛得直在房裡跌跌撞撞, 弄得牆上,床上,地上, 全是鮮血, 雙眼圓睜, 表情可怖, 趙沙看了心裡也直發毛. 定了定神, 他往洋人私處又開了一槍. 洋人痛得想大叫卻叫不出來, 只能夠在地上舞動手腳拼命掙扎.

趙沙不想再看下去, 把槍指到他額頭上補了一槍. 洋人終於靜了下來.

開了四槍, 鄰人哪有聽不見之理? 趙沙急急忙忙的離開了公寓, 逃了個不知去向.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

日本人有一個說法, 說如果讓一個人看到鑄造極為精美的日本武士刀, 他會萌起用刀殺人的念頭.

對趙沙來說, 這個說法的並不止於日本刀. 他自認為這把槍找到了存在的意義與價值, 認為自己是這把槍的伯樂.

他發現槍後的一個月裡面, 城裡發生了快十宗的女郎被射殺案件.

當然, 這正是這把槍目前存在的意義.

這些女孩曾經都把自己給拒絕了, 而且男友都是洋人.

犯案特徵如此明顯, 自然就是警方求之不得的事情.

這一天, 他站在某公寓走廊上, 望著站在另一頭用槍指著他叫他把槍放下的警察. 他剛又殺了一個女孩.

警察說甚麼他似乎沒有聽到, 或許是不感興趣. 因為他下一秒已經把警察給解決了, 然後想爬窗往外逃.

不爬可能沒事. 當他兩手抓牢窗外的水管時, 只聽到七層樓下面有人用擴音筒對他叫到:"事情已經完了! 乖乖下來就擒吧!"

趙沙冷笑了一下, 一隻手把槍對著地面狂開. 地面的警察亂成一團.

正當他享受那陣快感的時候...只覺得頭頂像被雷電轟到一樣, 狂震了一下... 接著眼前一片模糊, 流到口裡的, 原來是血...

他抬頭一看, 原來是剛才被自己打中的警察沒死, 從窗戶裡往他頭上開了一槍.

他就這樣飄到地面上, 悶响聲中, 腦花四濺. 趙沙全身骨骼都碎了, 可是手上還緊緊握著槍. 聽說醫院的人費盡了力氣怎麼扳也扳不開他的手指, 之後只好把連人帶槍葬了.

一把槍, 能做甚麼呢?

槍的用途不廣, 不外是傷人或殺人.

你有一把槍的話你會用來幹甚麼呢?

如果對方有槍的話, 你說, 他又會用它來做甚麼呢?

俑

我一個人在街上穿梭, 大雨亂灑在人擠人的街道上.

這裡是狹窄髒亂吵鬧冷漠的紐約市, 我每天奔走在這麼一個空間裡 --- 有時候是為了看一場電影或演奏, 更常是奔跑於排練之間.

有時候覺得自己是個會行走的俑, 每日面無表情的坐在地鐵上, 雙眼呆滯的望向前方, 不管時間有多緊迫都一樣.

人與人之間的距離, 形體上很近, 心靈上卻很遠.

有人問我, 為甚麼我那麼難找到一個人在身邊. 我想, 這並不由得我, 更不是說要找一個她就會有. 被拒絕幾乎成了慣性動作, 那種被拒絕時類似被人掌了一嘴的感覺也不記得了.

於是不讓人拒絕我成了一種習慣. 方法就是先拒絕別人, 不再上前去認識人 --- 反正人家也不會主動來認識你, 何必自討沒趣? 認識的話也就打個招呼了事, 因為幾乎可以預言如果深一層認識的下場.

這樣反而少了心傷的機率, 同時心也安定了下來.

當然, 這樣不免把我開始變成一個會走路的俑. 每天穿梭在人群之間, 自走自的路, 沒有人注意你, 你也不注意別人.

當看到讓自己心動的人, 就預先告訴自己判斷錯誤, 要不就說服自己她早有對象(而每次也確實是這樣).

俑, 只有自己的世界, 別人看到的只不過是呆呆的一尊泥塑, 背後的故事沒有人會多費心思去考究. 沒用的東西, 不小心被砸爛了也不會改變甚麼.

Heavyweights...

Now I really dunno what I did to deserve this session.

I was called by Randy Brecker's wife, Ada Rovatti to do a reading session on Saturday. The call was made on Friday.

Of course, I was panicked like fuck. Why? Because the name of the players in the band freaked me out.

Janek Gwizdala on bass. George Colligan on keyboard.

OK, I have to confess that I didn't know who George was, until Chris Howes told me how much he would love to do that session (he wasn't free) because George was playing. And yeah, he's really a motherfucker. And I just googled him...fuck...I can't finish counting all them great players he's playing with! Buster Williams, Mingus Dynasty, Mingus Big Band, Miguel Zenon, Gene Jackson, Ralph Alessi, Christian McBride, Billy Hart, Don Byron.......not to mention that he's also a drummer...

Janek Gwizdala, I saw him with Mike Stern, subbing for Richard Bona, who didn't show up last minute. Janek was having Indian food when Mike called him up and asked him if he could get over to 55 Bar "now" to play. No wonder I remember seeing him eating some spicy kinda food on the way into the bar! Just, you remember too right? Hehe... Although it was last minute, he sounded like he rehearsed the shit before. Damn...

Goddamn man...today is definitely a day to remember...

New York....Mosquitoes...

Just as I thought I hardly see any mosquitoes in New York...

I WAS BADLY BITTEN BY ONE FOR THE SECOND TIME!!!!!!!!!!

I went to bed at 1.39am and thought I could get my much needed sleep for the rehearsal in New Jersey the next morning. I woke up scratching all over my arms and legs, wonder where the fuck is that little prick that stung me so bad.

I finally found that motherfucker but couldn't kill it!!

GRRR!!!!!!!

Now I'm sitting in my housemate's room, with strong cooling aircond.

The time... 5.27am...

The Magic of Richard Bona

Wow...

Wow...

Wow...

Enough is enough!

Wow... I don't think I've ever worked with such pathetic musicians and singers!!

Can't sing, can't play.

I rehearsed with the singers and thought they (especially the guy on guitar) were bad enough, shit... the BASSIST!!! Oh my fuckin' God, and I found out DURING the gig!!

Well, not exactly a gig.

They said it's a tryout, so they can't pay me anything, but I can have free beers.

Hearing all the kinda crap they were doing on the bandstand, with the bassist playing every single bass note wrong, I thought "enough is enough!!".

In the end of the set, the flutist asked me if I will play with them again, I said, "I will think about it." He replied, "Doesn't sound promising". Hell yeah, it doesn't.

And the leader guy (singer, guitarist) asked me if I wanted a beer, I said, "No I gotta go."

Damn, I don't even bother to have the fuckin' beer!! I just wanna get out of the shit hole, and so I did.

None of that shit again!!

I met a Malaysian in UC Berkeley

Audition's over, I went to play badminton with Mads, since he's from Denmark, a badminton kingdom too.

After the badminton and some racket ball, we went into the locker room to stretch out, and that was then...I saw an Asian guy walking in with the t-shirt that days "Jus Do It Lah".

It looks like a Nike shirt but it has a lot of caricatures on it and the "just" was spelled as "jus", without a T. Right then I knew what that was leading to.

I went straight up to that guy and asked him, "Excuse me, may I know where you got that t-shirt?"

He was like, "Well...I'm a Malaysian..."

JUMP START!! MANGLISH!!

So it appeared that he was from Bandar Utama and has moved here since he was 13.

Then Mads came over and I told him what's the deal. So Mads was like, "Manglish? So is it something like what the Singaporeans say 'Why you so like that?'"

We said yes, but you have to add a "lah" too. HAHA...

Then this Bandar Utama dude started to say things about Manglish, like, "We talk in a more relax way than the Americans. Like in America, people would say 'John! You screwed up!' but in Malaysia it will be, 'Eh John ah, you screwed up lah...'". AHAHAHAHAA!!!

Then he said, "The thing with us Malaysians and Singaporeans is, we know we speak like that, and yet we think it's funny too, so we make fun of ourselves all the time as well."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA....

Quite an eye-opener eh, Mads?

If I leave this world by chance...

Alright, flying off to San Francisco in 9/11 doesn't sound like such a good idea, but I AM doing it.

Thinking of it, if something happened to me if I died in this flight, I would be the luckiest corpse in the world.

Why?

Because I don't have much that I left behind to worry about.

I'm not married, I don't have kids, I have almost no money in my bank account, I have no house, no loans, no car, nothing. What I have are my parents and my sister, the 3 most important people in my life. And of course, you know some friends, like my bro Ken, my gugu brothers Nicholas and Kee Yong, my high school friends Albert and Chin Keong.

But, just in case some shit really happened to me, I wanna tell all these people that I love you guys, and don't worry about me because I'm leaving this world whole-heartedly. I have done some fun stuff with music, I have met great people, and I have met some pricks too. There's no regrets in my life.

To all you musician motherfuckers in Malaysia, please keep on fighting the good fight! Do NOT go against the system, but do NOT tolerate either!

Fuck yeah bitches! If you see me back in one piece without winning the audition, it's fine. Life goes on. But if you don't see me coming back, just tell yourselves that I'm still here, it's just that I'm too busy to call or e-mail anybody.

Washington DC

The trip to Washington DC was a quick one, but nonetheless a fun one.

We took off from Chinatown at 6pm and arrived there at 11 something. I was staying in the same room with Aaron Shragge the trumpet and shakuhachi player. He's cool, looks like a zen monk with that bald head that he shaves frequently and he does raga with his voice, trumpet, and shakuhachi whenever he has time.

Oh he's a vegan too.

We went to 7-11 after we arrived to look for some food and went to bed after we bought the stuff.

The sleep was brief as we musicians had to wake up at 7am. Aaron woke up at god-knows-when and was starting to do his raga, so naturally he was the one who woke me up.

We went to Kennedy Center that's located next to Watergate. The stage people were pretty nice to us, and since we stepped in, we had a 10-hour day. That was one of my looooooooongest day in my life. Sound check, lighting check, position check, rehearsal, all ran simultaneously. Yuki did some beautiful job on the backdrop behind us, bravo for that!

We were almost dead when we got back to the hotel, but we didn't just stop there. Aaron went out to have Ethiopian dinner with Akim (the Funk Buddha), Akiko (the Funky Geisha), Kai-Ti (road manager), Rain (the video camera guy), Kak Miranti (Balinese dancer), Peter (laptop DJ), and Myla (dancer cum Akim's lady). As for me, Hypno (aka Tommy Chan, my Chinese comrade who does body-popping) called me up to chill in his room with Baba (Israel, MC and beatboxer).

We watched some stuff on the TV and on his laptop too. Apparently his laptop is connected to his home TV cable box, so he could ACTUALLY WATCH HIS SUBSCRIBED CHANNELS in his hotel room, pretty sick ain't it? We watched some Reno 911 too, which made us laugh our asses off.

Later I went on to Peter's room (after they came back) to chill with them, had a few hits which didn't do anything to me, talked some shit, had a cultural interaction with Akiko, see Akim stressing out...etc...

The next day was the performance day, we didn't have to get to Kennedy Center until 11am. So it was quite a relieve for us (why the hell do you think we can chill so long in the previous night, hm?!).

We played two shows, which was extremely well-received. Both shows were full (well, of course, it's partly because it's free...). Akim, Aaron, Angela (aerialist) and Anasma (bellydancer and body-popper) did a short strolling session outside the hall in between shows, too.

We had this really sweet and funny girl Jacqueline to be our caretaker, bringing us food and shit, running around to make sure we're fine. Later after our conversation, I got to know that she's an Indiana U grad who studied piano performance. She said she might move over to New York, having the urge to perform chamber music. I wish her good luck, and hope to see her in the City!

After our shows, Akim and Baba did a really fun (but too short) beatboxing workshop. They taught people the fundamental idea of how to beatbox and it was fun. They even invited all the audiences to dance together, there were a couple of 2-yr-old tiny kids who joined in too, it's soooo funny and yet so cute!

I was planning to stay on for the night and leave the next day. But it seemed like nobody wanted to stay long in DC, most people wanted to leave. I figured I wouldn't have time to visit places in DC the next day anyway, since the bus leaves at 11.50am. So I gave up and followed most people to go back to NYC.

All-in-all, this was a fun experience and definitely a memorable one. This is the first time ever I get to play in such a classy place like this without playing classical music. I hope more will come! And I certainly hope they will come soon...

Mark Feldman vs. Mat Maneri

Yes, they were playing together.

Two giants ---- monsters, if you will ---- shredding on the same stage.

I was almost late because of my rehearsal in Queens. When I rushed into the door, Okkyung Lee was the door person, I couldn't believe it! Haha! Kee Yong was waiting for me right there, and he (and Nicholas) paid for me. Thanks a bunch guys!

Mark and Mat started off with some beautiful dissonants and counter melodies. You can hear them complementing each other, sometimes one would be on top doing the "solo" and the other would be the background. Weaving through waves of sonority, they would occassionally land on a steady groove and start rocking some sick lines.

They played two "tunes" for the set (I dunno how to call it, it's free improv anyway), if not including the encore. Each "tune" was 30 minutes, but you wouldn't feel bored because there are different stuff coming out every time.

Mark has the same old licks that he's been using for the past few decades, but that's Mark, you can't steal that away from him. I feel that his playing is more about the fiery tone and vibrato of his instead of new ideas. But it's cool, like I said, Mark is Mark. As long as it sounds good.

As for Mat, it's all about new ideas and the coolness of his sound. He never likes to play too loud or too much, in oppose to Mark's playing. If Mark is a ball of fire, then Mat is the iceberg. Why do I say iceberg? Because his ideas are so rich that it's like they're all sample of a big iceberg.

So for the whole hour, Mark was shredding his trademark licks, while Mat swam in between his notes with constant new ideas, creating different sounds.

For the encore, Mark started blowing his crazy fast-and-furious lines for sometime while Mat was watching. When he felt it was time, Mat entered, overlapping Mark's, and Mark slowly died down and let Mat shred. Mat blew in full force for about 5 minutes, without any other complements from Mark. It was beautiful...

One thing to complain though, The Stone was hot like hell last night, because they didn't dare to switch the aircond, so that the acoustic sounds of violin and viola would not be interrupted. Everybody was sweating like mad, not to mention the performers!

Anyway, I met Brian Lindgren there in the Stone! We knew each other in Mancini '05, and it was sooo surprising that he came to see the show. I was surprised to know that he actually just arrived the same day and we bumped into each other! I hope his freelancing life in New York will be rewarding and musically satisfying. Good luck Brian!

My noisy room...

My room has 6 windows, it's very bright, I like it... wait... that was during the cold winter. Try now --- hot days. I opened some of my windows to get the air circulating, holy shit... you hear the aircond noise from the Trade Fair supermarket right next to my house, you hear electric drill on the left from a house that is being renovated, you hear cars honking like mad on the streets (and mind you, this happens in sleeping time too), garbage truck roaring, car alarms, people shouting and laughing and yelling outside...

It's noisy!!!!

But seriously, everywhere in New York is noisy, you hardly find peace in this city.

So cursin' is the only solution I have left. At least you let out your feelings.

So if you can't bear with my swear words, I'm sorry, it's your problem. :) But don't mean no bad intention.

My Burning Desire

Ahh yes...

I started to go to see shows again... of course, I only pick those that I can afford...

My burning desire for music is rising again...

I was in QC the other day and I saw this Uzbek percussionist giving masterclass for the percussion cats. Damn, his playing is PERFECT and so moving!! I was utterly amazed by that shit, and it gave me the thrill once again ------ the kind of musical thrill that I had when I first got to New York.

It's coming back again...

I feel that I wanna do some shit... Some shit that will temporarilysatisfy my endless thirst and desire for music...

Here I come motherfuckers, I'm back!!

Devillish Angel

Such an adorable creature
Dark eyes
Silky hair
Brownish skin
Beautiful smile
A smile with blood dripping down
Down to the chin
Chin to the breast

She's gonna suck you dry
Out of your neck
Hard breathing
Soft hissing

She's gonna keep you high
Over your body
Gentle touching
Wet licking

If you see her first time
She's the most angelic
If you see her twice
She makes your heart ache
If you see her third time
Protect her you'd want to

But careful gentlemen
She's the blood sucking
Eye-deceiving
Devillish Angel

Are Chinese all gangsters in America?

Eh budak-budak Holiwud! Apa pasal kamu smua ni?

You think all the Chinese are kungfu fighters and are gangsters or triad members is it?

Blardy hell!

Tengok lah "War", oh my God!!!! Such a bad movie with such a bad message --- revenge. The starting of the movie was ALL about underground night club and naked women in a yakuza district --- yeah I know, they're Japanese, but you get what I mean. Then Jet Li started to kill his victims with every saddistic way possible.

Jet, I thought you're into Buddhism these days and like, REALLLYYY into it? You don't seem like it. You're sending out bad messages to the audiences. Revenge revenge and bloodshed, is this the message you wanna send out to your audiences? Gosh man, I dunno what the hell you're doing in Hollywood! Go back to Hong Kong!!

But it's OK, I can live without your shitty Hollywood films. I also watched Bourne Supremacy. Now THAT'S what I call a great movie!

Well of course, Hollywood is still the one to be blamed, stereotyping Chinese and other Asians. Like you white people have no gangs and triads. Shit...

Constantly misunderstood

Thinking back in my life, my friends from primary, middle, and high school, never really understood ---- or still don't ---- how my life is like. All the more, many of them misunderstood what I do.

Most people would say, "Yeah man, so nice, you study music, so 'senang', no need to study like mad like us! Just play some music and have fun every day."

Now I'm wondering if it's just me or it really is ---- they kinda sounded sarcastic.

What they meant was "you musicians suck at life".

And there was this chick whom I used to like, told me something like this, "I need a man who knows what to do when there's a trouble, for example, when my tyre is flat, he should be able to change it; when I dunno how to pay taxes, he should know how... not a musician."

Eh, hold on a sec... How the hell do you know I dunno all these things? GAWD-DAYUMMM!!

Some would be too nice to me, "You mah good loh~~ Can do what you like and earn so much money!"

Analysis: do what I like? Correct. Earn so much money? How do you know? You think every musician plays in MPO?

The business people would say, "Aiyoooo, you dun understand one lah!! For us, networking is number one! Without networking, there's no business!"

Hello? Do you think music is not a kind of business? Where did you get that idea from? And how the fuck do you know I don't network? I network EVERYDAY!!

Then the ones who went into science or maths field, they'd say, "We go by logic and theory one, not like you only go by feeling and emotion."

Understatement: You're lame, don't think things with reason.

For these kinda people, I would REALLY, I mean REALLYYYY like to ask them to come study the theory of music. See how logical we can be, and how our theory teachers can be cold-blooded assholes like theirs. And I can also say to them, "You're lame, you only have logic, no emotions."

For you who do not understand my job, stop shitting on us and be humble and ask us about it ----- though you'd probably ending up not understanding it still! And for those of you who know a bit of it, please explore more before you drop a statement.

Oh, and for those of you who don't bother to try to understand us, please fuck off. No time for you. (yes... musicians are busy and hardworking people)

Susan Sarah John's new gamelan piece...

Malaysian composer and arranger, Susan Sarah John, is working on a new piece for Hands Percussion Team, a Chinese-Malaysian percussion group that combines all sorts of percussion instruments from different cultures in the world.

This piece uses Javanese gamelan set, 3 Chinese lion dance drums, a drum set, and an electric guitar.

I had the privilege to watch the rehearsal tonight, and I thought it was a beautiful piece.

The guitarist is my friend, Gideon Aluba, a wonderful self-taught musician whom I worked with a couple of years ago. He played some beautiful sound in there, sometimes reminds me of Steve Reich's Electric Counterpoint, because he was playing over the minimalistic and rhythmic gamelan.

Sarah retuned the gamelan set to make it diatonic, it sounded just fine!

I hope to see the real performance, but of course, I won't be here...

Happy 10 years old Hands!!!