無秩序のkrik の胃

Moo!!!

2006-05-25T03:59:00.000+01:00

無秩序のkrik の胃 HAS NOW MOVED TO GREENER PASTURES.

CLICK HERE (and don't forget to update your bookmarks!).

Unconnected

2006-05-22T16:13:00.000+01:00

eat four packets of nasi lemak. repel the powers of not one dark lord of the sith, but two. see a massive demonstration against the oppression of the people of palestine. walk by a prime minister's house. sit at the same table with the personal advisor to the president of kyrgyzstan. travel under a river on a train. eat a seven ringgit karipap (without any inti daging whatsoever) and an eighteen ringgit roti canai in the pouring rain while checking out pretty asyik dancers.

just another ordinary weekend break in london.

_______________________
pictures here, as per usual.

Hail, hail

2006-05-18T00:01:00.000+01:00

Laugh until one's head comes off

2006-05-13T23:55:00.000+01:00

i have to say one thing about the town radiohead chose to kick off their UK tour - damn. we arrived early due to a mistake on my part (it wasn't as far up the west coast as i thought). that was the longest latte i had in starbucks ever. the empress ballroom is part of the winter gardens complex. a bit on the decrepit side but, if i'm not mistaken, this is where they do international level ballroom dancing competitions.

after the disappointment that was the town, we had two more at the venue. first, was the opening act. willy mason had a lovely voice and played his gibson acoustic brilliantly. however, i didn't feel like being in the mood for a ceilidh before watching one of britain's biggest rock acts. second, the music played by the sound engineer was shite as well, reminiscent to my pre-audioslave ragga experience. in fact, they did play fcukin' ragga, fer feck's sake.

radiohead got onstage about twenty to nine with everything in its right place with thom yorke singing forlornly behind the fender rhodes. soon after, the crowd went absolutely apeshit - the national anthem and 2+2=5. i've not been heaved in a crowd since the days of watching metallica in newcastle! phil selway's drumming was tight, and i wondered what was going through his mind of late, especially with the recent sudden demise of his mother.

the roadies literally pulled the rhodes on and off stage for the various songs. what got me was when they frickin' played the pyramid song. watching them perform material from the kid A and amnesiac albums live just beggars belief. jonny greenwood's twiddling of multiple stompboxes and playing the ondes martenot went to show how meticulous this band was in executing their material - how to disappear completely was just as haunting live as it is on the record.

they played a bunch of their new material (see setlist below). i have to say some of the uptempo new songs were reminiscent of the punk-esque attitude prevalent in their pablo honey stuff. going full circle perhaps? their older material were mainly from the bends and ok computer era. karma police had the entire ballroom erupting in to one big sing-along. idioteque was my favourite, and thom didn't disappoint with his ayam sakit otak dance. and yes, jonny was with his switchboard. i wonder if the neon still harbours the desire to obtain one from eBay.

i had always thought of thom as one moody individual (if you read his interviews you'd know why), but he appeared rather affable if not funny on stage. the piano camera antic during you and whose army? was one of them moments. there there ended their main set with ed o'brien and jonny G on percussions.

they played two encores, both packed with more rocking surprises from the bends. just was just the bomb. forget creep. teach you to be a holy cow, indeed. thom came out to play another new one for the second encore. to finish the set, they rocked the house with paranoid android. this set was way better than yesterday's. as the saying goes, the second night is always the better night.

i was once informed that a radiohead live show can tapau any other rock gig on the planet. it sounded like mere exaggeration at first, but with an incendiary two-hour set like this evening's, i can die happy.

by the way, i'm sure you've noticed by now how shoddy the photos are in this gig review. after doing a few reviews on this blog, i've decided for once to forsake perfectness for an evening of pure abandonment. how often do you get to watch a band of this magnitude in a 1000-capacity venue? oh, what the hell, have one on me:

_______________________
Empress Ballroom, Blackpool 13.05.06 set: Everything In Its Right Place / The National Anthem / 2+2=5 / 15 Step / Morning Bell / Pyramid Song / Go Slowly / Bangers n Mash / Dollars And Cents / How To Disappear Completely / Nude / Karma Police / You And Whose Army? / Airbag / Spooks / Idioteque / There There / Encore 1: Just / Four Minute Warning / The Bends / Street Spirit / Encore 2: I Want None Of This / Paranoid Android

Gonna get me a gamblin' woman

2006-05-12T23:48:00.000+01:00

"... so if you're old and decrepit like me, you'll be right at home... if however, you're under forty, you might not recognise some of the songs we'll be playing,..."

-eric C, the world tour 2006/7 programme book

this was really on impulse. paid fifty squids and got myself a rather decent seat, considering i bought it (legally) 6 hours before the gig! eric clapton was in town, and what better way to enjoy a friday night, devoid of any more blimmin' revision!

clapton had himself some new faces in his backing band on tour. in fact some of the faces are actually 'new' - they've been playing with mr. slowhand on and off in the past. one chap whose playing i was looking forward to check out was none other than derek trucks. he fronts his own band (aptly called the derek trucks band) and is also the guitarist for the allman brothers band, following the footsteps of the late duane allman and warren hayes (now of government mule). what's more interesting is, this is the third ever collaboration of clapton with a member of the allman brothers band (duane in derek & the dominos, and chuck leavell during the eponymous MTV unplugged sesh).

the robert cray band opened the evening. i know of him, of his signature series strat and of his co-authorship of clapton's running on faith, but i really haven't listened to his stuff. they played five or six numbers, infused with the blues as opposed to it being full on. played a couple of songs (poor johnny and twenty) from their current album, twenty.

the crowd at the hallam FM arena was similar to that i saw a year ago at the cream reunion gig. the couple sat next to me was old enough to be my dad's younger brother and sister. the arena appeared packed with the occasional empty seats. in fact, a row of eight seats in front of me was empty. no obstructed view this time!

clapton and his band got up onstage at quarter to 9 prompt, belting out pretending from his journeyman album. doyle bramhall II and trucks took turns playing licks, and in my opinion, bramhall was easily upstaged by trucks, whose relaxed slide playing was way beyond his years. no offence to the son of SRV's collaborator, but it looks like derek trucks is the guitarist to watch in this tour! so tired was great, without the crying baby, which then segued to derek and the dominos' got to get better in a little while. guitar-wise, clapton switched between a black and an inca silver stratocaster throughout the gig. two tweed cornell 1x12"s were noted in the background.

clapton did a short acoustic segment midway through his set, kicking off with jimmy cox's nobody knows you when you're down and out. usual unplugged staples like running on faith (truck's slide playing was out of this world) were performed together with the newer back home.

where would clapton be without robert johnson? RJ material performed this evening included milk cow blues and little queen of spades. as promised, clapton did play a few of his older material, some of which were obscure like any day (another derek and the dominos number), the others being your usual crowd pleasers, wonderful tonight and layla. yes, the audience definitely lapped up those ones!

cocaine was definitely fantabulous, and as an encore, clapton did robert johnson's crossroads. no sunshine of your love but that's ok - i saw the real thing this time last year at the albert hall. muahahaha.

the set list hardly changed at all for this tour. i suppose that's what you get when you have different bandmates each time you tour. definitely for clapton aficionados, this gig. i know the neon would have loved it. and for those who only know clapton for tears in heaven and not much else, i'd say you'd better spend your hard-earned cash elsewhere.

_________________________
Sheffield Hallam FM Arena 12.05.06 set: Pretending / So Tired / Got To Get Better In A Little While / Lost And Found / I Shot The Sheriff /Anyday / Back Home (acoustic) / I Am Yours (acoustic) / Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out (acoustic) / Milkcow Blues (acoustic) / Running On Faith (acoustic) / After Midnight / Little Queen Of Spades / Everybody Oughta Make A Change / Motherless Children / Wonderful Tonight / Layla / Cocaine / Crossroads (Encore)

*oh ya, mau tengok apa lagi saya tangkap dengan kamera digital saya di gig ini? klik sini.

If I had possession...

2006-05-12T16:22:00.000+01:00

i did an impulse buy today. because i was bored.

and how could i forget that derek trucks will be in the band this tour! with robert cray opening as well? i'll tell y'all about it when i get back tonight from the sheffield hallam FM arena.

The facts

2006-05-12T00:22:00.000+01:00

life as we know it, jim.

that easy, huh?

What now?

2006-05-10T10:59:00.000+01:00

read a book
play the acoustic guitar again
make a pedal board
travel
find that woman
set up the two les pauls
lose weight
try flash photography
save to buy property
get the family over for a vacation
see the light
buy a pick at a shop on west 48th street, NYC

note: list is not in any pecking order

Why we still do this

2006-05-03T22:52:00.000+01:00

"The greater the opportunity that hospitals give us for observing rare diseases - and this applies even more to the commoner diseases - the more often am I obliged to bewail the lot of the ancient physicians, who lacked hospitals... But, if hospitals began to exist, it had been permitted to investigate diseases not only in sick persons but also in those who had died after every sickness, the advances that the medical profession would have made in the subsequent ten centuries can easily be estimated by considering the advances have been made since both kinds of examination began to be permitted, about the beginning of the 16th century."

- Morgagni, 1761

"I like to ask this question, and you might find it helpful also, 'How do you assess the quality of care given to your sickest patients, the ones who die?' Unless the A word (ie autopsy) comes out right away, they flunk."

- G.D. Lundberg, at the 29th College of American Pathologists Conference, 1996

only a few days more! then, 無秩序のkrik の胃 should be back in full swing.

The inane and the gloating, part II: The Point, Dublin - August 23rd

2006-04-25T18:25:00.000+01:00

hell, yeah! YEAH! YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

soon after, this happened:

to paraphrase ninie, "jangan jellesssssss...". hahaha. why does it matter, you may ask? this is why:

"You will receive 2 wristbands with your tickets, which will allow the Ten Club member and a guest to enter the venue 15 minutes before doors open to the public. This will allow you to secure a spot as close to the stage as possible. "

oh well. now, how much do i need to pay for air fare...

Status Symbol

2006-04-17T09:15:00.000+01:00

sebuah keluarga
sebuah banglo
di lereng bukit

seseorang sedang membuang sarang labah-labah
di lukisannya yang mahal
yang tak pernah difahaminya

seseorang memasang api rokok
dengan dunhill emas berkilau

dua orang berpelukan di atas sofa antik
sedang floyd cramer memainkan 'help me make it through the night'

farouk makan hamburger di meja mahogany
farah menyarung tee-shirt ketubuhnya tanpa baju dalam

udara menghirup max factor dengan lahap
seseorang sedang bersiap-siap untuk menemui anita sarawak di hilton
dengan BMW siri 735i nya

sebuah keluarga
di lereng kota
______________________

t. alias taib, dewan bahasa dan pustaka 1988

(The Lukewarm.)

2006-04-06T17:11:00.000+01:00

IT'S THE DEVIL'S WAY NOW
THERE IS NO WAY OUT
YOU CAN SCREAM & YOU CAN SHOUT
IT IS TOO LATE NOW
BECAUSE
YOU HAVE NOT BEEN PAYING

ATTENTION

I try to sing along
I get it all wrong
Eezeepeezeeeezeepeezee
NOT
I swat em like flies but like flies the

buggers keep coming back

NOT
Maybe not
"All hail to the thief"
"But I'm not!"
"Don't question my authority or put me

in the dock"

Cozimnot!
Go & tell the king that the sky is
falling in
When it's not
Maybe not.

(ahh diddums.)

______________________
i offer no apologies for this inane gloating. final battle on the ninth day of may.

Bitterness is an avocado sliced in half

2006-04-01T10:45:00.000+01:00

currently listening to unemployable.
______________________

early friday morning, i got a message on MSN about the online sale of pearl jam's april 20th show at the astoria. i checked ten club and ticketmaster and saw no such thing. i dismissed it as a joke and went to work.

when i got back, i re-checked ten club and to my utmost dismay found the entry about the ticket sale a lil' way down the webage. apakejadah!!! apahal entry mac 30 bawah 21? and i went to work lambat pulak tu. anak haron betul.

the point of ten club's existence, apart from news and x'mas 9" vinyls, are tickets. why didn't they sell the astoria show as they did for other ones. yeah, i know - a rant pasal tak puas hati.

anyhoo, the paper wrap has been removed. wanna make some guacamole this may 2nd?

Moh makan!: a miscellany

2006-03-26T11:15:00.000+01:00

not done one this year, have i? perhaps i had hinted on a couple of entries these recent months on new mouth-watering nosh-ups i've encountered.

taste cafe, ecclesall road, sheffield S11

a new-ish eaterie on trendy ecclesall road which i've read about in a restaurant mag in a thai take-away (which i will talk about in a bit!) in nottingham. i've driven by the place day in day out on the way to work and never had given the place a second glance. had a spot of brekkie with some friends before the gig last week, and it was okay. it had the ambience, and an air of exclusivity (this is S11 anyway) to it but for people who don't eat pork, the vegetarian option is pretty limited (unlike this place). still, the wild mushrooms and stilton on ciabatta i had was gorgeous - i guess, a posh take on the humble cheese toastie. seventudjoh and jimbo went for the english breakfast ciabatta sarnie which was unfortunately nothing to shout about and pinkfrog's mushroom potage looked alright (i really couldn't recall what she thought of it!). the waitresses here are hot, by the way, but that's by the by. hehe.

the dunkirk chippy, montpelier road, nottingham NG7

salt and vinegar, luv? bollocks to that. say hello to an actual thai take-away run by a chap called somwang and his wife. last night, we descended on robin hood's old hang-out to get some gai yang (thai grilled chicken). pretty much looked like the ayam you get with chicken rice, but on a heavenly scale i kid you not. who in the right mind would do an 80-mile return trip for chicken, you think. well, if i had once bemoaned the fact of how some people drive up to penang from KL for nasi kandar, i can now sympathise with them and eat humble pie! last night's tom yang goong was waaaay better then the previous visits. we also ordered beef (also halal, which is still pretty rare considering the burgeoning numbers of mushrooming halal oriental eateries here) - their neua pud gra pao (beef with basil, chilli and rebung) and neua pud nam man hoy (beef with veg in oyster sauce) were superb, albeit a tad same-ish. it is a chippy (they still sell the regular chippy fare), so you have to take out. they deliver for free, at the rate i order stuff. and when i do have it, the guys of 95 beeston road run the risk of converting their living room into a small cafe.

______________________

after a hearty dose of gai yang, the lot of us caught V for vendetta at a nearby multiplex. i thought it was a great adaptation (pity moore dissociated himself from the film, then again after watching LXG who could blame him?).

that aside, and also apart from the fact that this fine film has been reviewed ad nauseum in the blogosphere, i took a fancy to that egg and fried bread breakfast V concocted for evey.

apparently, it's called egg in a basket and some critics of the film (british ones, obviously) found it amusing why a north american-styled dish appeared as commonplace breakfast cuisine in an (in fact, two) english kitchen. quite sedap, by the way, if you really want a quick one. less than 3 minutes to make!

Try, try, try

2006-03-24T16:13:00.000Z

down with the lurgi again. what else is there do apart from downing aspirins but to check out harry potter's latest DVD release. i remembered the band that played at the ball, fronted by jarvis cocker (this is the second time a harry potter film had references to british rock - the third instalment had a brief glimpse of the stone roses' ian brown downing grog of some kind).

i didn't realise it until this afternoon, that the band also had two esteemed members of another britrock band, jonny greenwood and phil selway. i just couldn't believe that they would be involved in something like a harry potter film.

i also couldn't believe my (bad) luck of missing w.a.s.t.e.'s presale of radiohead's mini UK tour in may. missed it by two days, and i thought i was in their frickin' mailing list. not too late though, as i'll be joining the plebs in scrounging what's left tomorrow morning at 9 am on ticket-frickin'-master. wish me luck.

_________________________
Addendum - 25.03.06, 0906 hrs

can you see this?

yeaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wooohooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!
take that, muthatrucka!! can-you- F-E-E-L T-H-I-S!!!??

calm the feck down, as the neon would say. need to figure out who's gonna get to come with me. jimbo, fancy coming up to a sold out show in blackpool on a saturday (may 13th)? they are standing ones, so need to keep that fitness up. hahaha.

Rockin' the casbah

2006-03-19T01:42:00.000Z

sharif he don't like it.

we rocked broomhall on saturday night, together with eight other bands.

_____________________________
go here for more pics.

Alma mater* meme

2006-03-17T01:14:00.001Z

*- from the latin alma mater meaning nourishing mother (epithet of certain goddesses)

thanks, idlan, for tagging me. if you did some blog-hopping, you'd realise that this meme is doing the rounds at the mo'. big time. time for me to jump on the band wagon again!

How many schools did I go to?

THREE.

SEKOLAH SRI PETALING
section 12, petaling jaya
motto: Hidup Berjasa

thanks to my late mother's request, i got to go here instead of some school in brickfields (bangsar didn't have a school then). i think i was in the year when the school had a record of having more than a 100 pupils getting 5A's for the penilaian exams (with the current exam-oriented mindset, not a tall order in this day and age, sadly, especially at such a tender age!). didn't do too well in sports, but thoroughly enjoyed galah panjang (bizarrely, we called it taichi here), the 40 cent nasi lemak and being around some of the hottest girls in town. woo hoo.

SEKOLAH DATUK ABDUL RAZAK
lembah sikamat, seremban
motto: Ilmu Untuk Berjasa

well, it was either this or sekolah sultan abdul samad, PJ. i was right cheesed off that i didn't get into MCKK (being the grandson of the first koleq headboy didn't exactly do wonders). looking back, not being in koleq probably was a good idea. hahaha. didn't quite like it at first, but when i got a little older, it was ok. in my days, we were good at a lot of stuff, like footie and cricket, but we kept losing to STJ in the MSSNS rugby finals. me? i was an english debater (a rubbish one at that, too) during the 1987 PPM where i got to check out some of the hottest girls ~~in town~~ from STF, TKC and SSP (have to, lah - to maintain my sanity, being in an all-boys school). woo hoo. again.

PORTORA ROYAL SCHOOL
enniskillen, county fermanagh, northern ireland
motto: Omnes Honorate (Honour All Men)

this is a public school that was built in the 17th century and lists the likes of oscar wilde (i am aware of his works, but have not read any of his books!), Nobel prize in literature- winner samuel beckett and denis burkitt (for you medics out there: he described lymphoma presenting as a mass in the jaw of african kids) as its alumni. i was here for sixth form and got to be head of the (one and only) boarding house. yup, my first stint as an ~~anjing~~ prefect. it was so far away from the bright lights of london (where most of my mates got to go during half term) that all i did was study, eat and sleep. all for a good cause.

Was I the studious nerd, or the last minute hero?

i have been winning prizes all my school-going life (until i got into medical school). so, what do you think?

Was I the class ‘taiko’ or the teacher’s pet?

the teachers did like me, but i can tell you i didn't leave them a polished granny smith on the teacher's desk every single day. i guess, i was the goody two-shoes, the kid who did his homework and gets good marks. not exactly a colourful life, eh?

What was the biggest rule I broke in school?

i didn't until SPM week, when the wardens turned half a blind eye to smoking. so, i don't know if that counts. piak-ed in the school corridor for 10 seconds. my pathetic moment of glory. not exactly my proudest. oh ya, masa aku kat tingkatan enam jadi prefek, aku jual rokok marlboro yang aku beli pakai karton kat subang airport kat budak2 house aku. untung baeekk punya!

Three subjects I enjoyed

1. additional mathematics: the ever-elusive A1 grade (you need 94% and above to get that in SPM). piss-easy, if we were allowed to use calculators!
2. chemistry: KNaCaMgAlZnFeSnPbHCuHgAgAu. 'nuff said.
3. physics: the crazy ("hantu adalah gelombang elektromagnetik", "saya tak suka taugeh kerana ia menyebabkan migraine") form teacher we had in fifth form finally piqued my interest in the subject.

Three teachers that inspired me

1. GC Teo: the aforementioned physics/form teacher in SDAR with his hare-brained theories. cool as hell.
2. WM Gilfillan, PhD: my chemistry teacher at portora. has a laid-back attitude but knows his stuff really well. rides a big bike and looks like someone from hell's angels sans leathers.
3. YT Thoo: form teacher for two years at SSP. we were really scared of her (she was discipline master of sorts at school), but she was really okay. taught us maths and science, and we loved her to bits. and she still remembers me 22 years after leaving school, bless her.

now, who shall i tag? i wanna tag delirium, but his recent entry would've covered a lot of the meme questions.

oh well, here's a random list that should cover a wide age range:
1. fadh
2. jimbo
3. serih
4. adrie
5. atok

Ini tidak adil!

2006-03-15T15:14:00.000Z

screenshot from tenclub:

they called it a worldwide tour, and if they follow their usual touring patterns, they'll be touring europe with this album. depending on circumstances, i'm hoping to take annual leave and catch all of their UK dates when they come to these shores. join me?

oh how i wished i was in the 'states now.

Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love

2006-03-13T15:31:00.000Z

am i joining the ranks of lmsn's EVH phase, as per quote from the neon?

bloody 'ell. this was from my see-all, buy-all phase late last year. this lil' 27-year old non-Dunlop orange stomp box flew from new jersey to sheffield, shipped back to NJ by mistake, and back again to sheffield. can't even remember when i bought it. and... err... why i bought it. hahaha.

i will tell you when i test it tonight.
____________________________

addendum: well, what can i say. the test comprised me playing the fender tele, with its signal going through the MXR and into the fender blues deluxe. no, i didn't play any signature tunes. 'cos i don't know to play any of 'em (have to really stop listening to them kelly clarkson tunes)! to the readers who don't play guitar, what this does is to make a natural tone more metallic, or "robotic", if you wanna put it that way (refer to wikipedia's take on this).

this orange box is the bomb as it sounds so damn sweet at 50%. the only phaser i have played with is the one in my GT-3. also, i haven't heard any dunlop-made MXR's to judge the apparently inferior quality many players had claimed it to be. as phasers work by virtue of signal oscillation, 100% makes it a pretty neat tremolo (my '78 mistress can do that too!). makes me wonder why i bought lmsn's voodoo lab tremolo in the first place (kiasu - i know). after ten minutes, the everyready 9-v died-ed. damn it. oh well.

i'll add soundclips when i have time.

____________________________
check out where the chips come from!

Beautiful Disaster

2006-03-10T12:03:00.000Z

it was a good break from the monotony of rehearsals, this concert of kelly clarkson's at the sheffield hallam fm arena.

the opening act was an all-girl trio who called themselves the faders. i suppose they were the female answer to bands like mcfly and busted. they were okay-ish, performance-wise, but i didn't think much of their songs. in fact, i was struggling very hard not to look like a narcoleptic.

kelly got onstage at 9pm prompt and she rocked. actually. really. even miss independent from her debut, thankful, was a far cry from the poppish tones it exuded in the original recording. she was ably backed by a band which had a pop-rock sound was reminiscent to that of avril lavigne's. all organic, no electronics!

she did sing exceptionally well. so, nads, i have to say that was one tasty cardboard i had last night! she did a wonderful acapella version of beautiful disaster. the mariah-esque and somewhat bluesy the trouble with love is was simply superb, the high notes all there and none was missed.

she didn't sing long, much to our dismay, as the gig was just over an hour. she could've done a bit more especially with her having two albums under the proverbial belt. she sang two covers, a gorgeous rendition of annie lennox's why and a cheesy cover of cheap trick's i want you to want me (which is a cheesy number in the first place - bleurgh!).

kelly dressed in a rather simple fashion that night, saving the wardrobe theatrics for behind these hazel eyes. yeah, she wore a white wedding gown for that 'un. she played all her hits, most of which from her sophomore effort. because of you was lovely and since u been gone got some of us in a pogo-ing mood (and i got proof). after a very brief intermission, she got back onstage to sing the avril lavigne-penned breakaway as an encore.

and it really got us in the mood for the upcoming week - the already sold-out GIG@sheffield.

_________________________
some of the images above are clickable.

Kaki bangku

2006-03-03T21:29:00.000Z

"kalau kau buat team bola untuk england, siapa kau nak letak?"
"ian rush."
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"

-a conversation over dinner in newcastle 14 years ago

________________________

what is it with football?

i, for one, never found anything fascinating with a game where 20 people kick a ball around a grass pitch (i know got 22 one, but the goaliekeeper[sic] where got kick the ball around ah?). ever since i was a kid, i was of the sedentary type. i was, and still am (i have no qualms whatsoever to admit this) absolutely useless. kids are cruel, and when you're shite in games at the schoolyard, you're dead meat. so, it was back to my cartoon-drawing and kenner star wars action figures for me (didn't have an atari console until much later).

rtm regularly had footie at 3pm every saturday in the 70's. it was english at first then german a few years later. one english team stuck to mind then: stoke city. don't ask me why, but i don't think they were great even back then.

came 1982 and we had the world cup in spain. i remember that was the year i was 'interested' in football. ovaltine had a promo thingie where you collect stickers for the world cup finalists. maradona, zico, rossi - for someone who never really like football, that's not bad going if i could remember these soccer heroes. despite the world cup, i never had the itch to play the damn game (PE doesn't count). i did play subbuteo - that was okay although kinda weird (people still play it today. why? go play winning 11 or something lah).

we don't really watch footie on the telly at home. my dad loved man U (and changed his allegiance to the magpies when i was in medical school - no prizes for guessing why) and hated liverpool. in the rare occasions we did, i finally learned the offside rule (curi ayam). not from my dad, but from my late mom (ex-STF/state hockey player).

i remembered mexico 1986. friends sneaking off to the canteen after lights off (i think the wardens didn't really mind). i even had a classmate donning bandages around his wrist, on school days, like the fresh-faced gary lineker. and yes, i remembered the quarter finals vividly. only 'the hand of god' bit. even an idiot can tell maradona pakai tangan.

the next (and the last) time i actually sat down, watch matches on telly, and actually cheered with my housemates was eight years later - the 1994 world cup 'stateside (again - yes, it takes a tournament of such magnitude to pique my interest). i remembered the final game between brazil and italy: what a shitty way for a team to win the world cup. and i remembered how devastated roberto baggio looked that day.

the interest in footie pretty much waxed and waned for me. more waned, actually. it really depends on the crowd i hang out with. i am amazed with my friends who could describe, verbatim, matches from days long gone. how a goal was saved and the moves it took to score that winning goal. i also read blogs where people discuss footie as if they were reading a transcript from SKYsports.

i have been on english soil for the longest time and one of the questions i get asked when i go back to KL would be how great it would be to get to watch footie matches. i had to bow my head down in shame and say that i have not watched a single footie match live. not even when keegan was raising the magpies from its ashes in the 90's. and st. james' was literally setanak nasi away on foot from where i lived.

do i watch football today? what do you think?

"'lek 'luuu..."

2006-02-26T23:30:00.000Z

"... p'lut panggang 'luuu"
"... wat tan ho 'luuu"
"... crepe ch'clat 'luuu"
"... m'kan d'nut 'luuu"

_________________________
many happy returns to the day, hattori hanzo-wielder.

An otai's attempt at discourse

2006-02-22T17:51:00.000Z

having this unique experience of hanging out with people younger than myself ever since i left university allows me to notice the evolution of bahasa pasar among malaysian teens / twenty-somethings.

when i was in boarding school, we had our own slang words, like piak for smoking, ghanjo (as in perak-speak for ranjau) to describe misfortune, chinggay for girls, ragak for ringgit and so forth (this was brought about by a prominent kutu in school who happened to be an ipoh kid). such colloquialisms were often brought forward to university days. different boarding school kids usually would have their own slang words - taking the smoking model further: skom in MCKK and lados in ?STAR / SAS. also, whilst most of the slang words used in school had existed since time immemorial, some words varied according to the different batches.

pejoratives would undergo some form of lingual mutation, to permit open usage in front of older folk. yeah, we now had siut, babeng, tieng, cibet and many more! more innocent words like cun (great, pretty - depending on context) still exist today but as the years went by, i found that i needed to play catch up.

fast forward five years post-graduation, i learnt of the word peergh, which was the new huiyo then (peergh... tere siut!). then that was that word skema which meant nerd / lurus bendul (gila skema mamat tu - rambut belah tepi). not only you get bastardisations of the spoken word, written bahasa pasar was also modified. apparently first seen in the realms of IRC chat rooms, words were spelt pretty much phonetically. kind of. examples: cantik arr, aper khabar semua?, memang ler, gilerr. see what i mean? i'm afraid these additional R's get my goat. a bit. haha.

a lot of the current crop of university students (fast forward ten years) i know now, use ek eleh, a kind of laaa.... (ek eleh... macam tu rupanya). hampeh is another one (derived from hampas, or scum). a friend of mine once told me that the usage of these new words were most likely due to comics the likes of ujang and apo!, two popular mags akin to gila-gila (is this still in circulation?). ya, that shows how much of an otai i really am (otai is actually derived from old timer - commonly used amongst the kids in the underground music scene of the 90's, usually used to describe seasoned musicians from the 80's like search and lefthanded). then again, one could argue that the comic strips used words that were commonly used by the kids reading them in the first place! and how can i forget the ubiquitous poyo. the new 'crap', that is.

one word i still haven't got to grips with is doh / dowh. as in mahal la, doh. or besar, doh. yup, calling people bodoh is pretty acceptable in this day and age.

formal bahasa malaysia has also evolved in a big way, especially since the days when DSAI was education minister. i remembered every tom, dick and harry would use the words wawasan, canggih and anggun in their BM karangans. in the same sentence, if needs be. if you asked me if i had a choice to pick a new malay buzzword i'd like to kill off, it'll be realisasi. everyone tries to fit in merealisasikan in every sentence nowadays (if possible with the word glokal, also in the same sentence).

i just have two words to say for that.

poyo, doh.
_________________________
this entry was inspired by a blog entry in zaim al-amin's transcendentia, which was forwarded to me in an e-mail from the UKMMF.

I spy with my big eye...

2006-02-16T15:04:00.000Z

... the places where i live.

i was reading jordan's recent entry (he's back! it's just me yang ketinggalan zaman) where he was describing the joys of google earth. it's been around for a while now (i think i read about it first on idlan's some time last year) but i've never taken a butcher's. downloaded it and, like jordan, 'drove' from KL to the humble damansara housing estate i live in.

two words: gila lah!

seeing these satellite pics made me realise that it is no wonder sheffield is one of europe's greenest cities. just look at it! even the roads are a tad hijau-ish.
____________________________
click on the postcards for a slightly clearer view.

Sakit unta, chief!

2006-02-05T10:05:00.000Z

i had a feeling the lurgi was to strike again. after having one earlier this year in january, i thought this was too soon to have another one. popped an aspirin and hoped for the best.

drove to manchester with the lads for a rehearsal sesh, only to have punctuality thwarted by an automobile accident up ahead, three quarters of the way on the A57. softly swearing under our breaths for having to double back, we felt that it could've been us if we did leave for manchester a bit earlier.

met up with luc and din at the blueprint. that is one cool place - recording studio, rehearsal rooms, pool lounge, the works! worth the £11 an hour tag, i thought. one snag, though. this was a place where people actually bring their own amps (as they do in this country). so, we had to be a little creative to be able to play!

after making sure din could not speak normally ever again, we went to rizkee for an ultra-quick nosh up, pink panthers and all. it was then that i felt the lurgi was there and whilst driving in the peaks in the mild mist, i fervently hoped that tonic water does not actually react with aspirin.

why the rush back to sheffield? for this, of course:

off to bed. the lurgi won. bastard.

Is this beef?

2006-02-01T17:34:00.000Z

as i wait for the rice to tanak, i felt like typing about a subject that i was mulling over this lunch time. i am not a pedant (shut up, the neon), probably not to this extent, but when i speak / write english i try (hard) not to sound like a non-erudite half-wit.

i know, fair enough, people have to learn, but seeing cringeworthy words like enjoice (it is not a word, i frickin' checked!) makes me want to commit ritual disembowelment. i confess i don't use words like inspissated and ululate in my day-to-day dealings, especially in my conversational manglish, but come on lah! i just wonder how people the likes of nads cope.

grammatical faux pas seen in our rojak english that gets my kambing:

"...i went home to collect my stuffs."
"The staffs at the department..."
"Band tu sucks lah."
"They are sucks." (uttered almost in the same breath)
"How much? Alaa... three quids aje."
"Are you enjoice?"
"Gigs yang berlangsung di Paul's Place dianjurkan oleh..."
"Tension lah kat dia. I was so pissed." (note the unintended connotation?)

s seems the most well-loved letter of the alphabet, ain't it?

but i think the cherry on the cake is the word outcountry which i saw on an actual (malaysian, mana lagi?) website today. wanna guess what it meant? no prizes, man.

reminds me of this story of a chap who worked at the malay college dining hall in the 80's, chastising some boys who went into the hall a little early. he wasn't all that bright and said these words in earnest:

"Eh, see the clock! What the time points!"

at least his tenses were correct.

Tix? We got jack!

2006-01-29T10:51:00.000Z

being a skema gig-goer, i've always got tix to see my favourite bands really early. last night was my first ever attempt in buying gig tickets from touts / scalpers/ ulats. the fall out boy tickets were sold by nottingham rock city sometime last october. hehe. no wonder they sold out. did a quick search on online tout sites as well as eBay and found that they were selling 'em for like 40 smackers (original price 11). we even hatched a plan to show these guys that we only had 20-30 quid to spare, and hopefully try getting them like a few minutes before FOB gets onstage.

what did they want for 'em? 50 quid each. even came up with factoids like, "ooh... they're like 78 quid on eBay, you know?". like buggery. no rock city tix were available on eBay last time i checked. they advised us to chill for like an hour and come back. we headed for the nearby slug & lettuce (again, although different city) for a lil' nachos and drinks. needed a warm one as it was near-to-frickin' freezing outside.

when we got back to rock city, no one was to be seen, ulats or otherwise. nada.

oh well, it was plan B. having some thai take-away food at sapok's. if they keep up with this, i'm definitely moving here.

______________________

yesterday, i practised music apartheid / commited music genocide.

those of you who know me would have heard me wax lyrical on how one tries to be open-minded in listening to music. how listening to a variety of genres allows you to be a better musician. how the different beats and melodies could make you come up with that song you wanted to write.

well, enough is enough. everytime i hear missy higgins on my shuffled iPod / iTunes playlist, i cringe. like crazy. not good if you are driving.

padam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! fuh, lega.

Grown-ups are just children, only bigger

2006-01-23T13:23:00.000Z

- seen on my birthday card from dini and budin

i turned 36 yesterday, in manchester.

boy, that must be old. i hold on to the adage age is only a number, but then i am sure that was conjured up by old people. like the size-doesn't-matter axiom that is perpetually spouted by people with small dicks.

a lot of people i know tell me that i don't look that old (yeah, it's really difficult to have to pay these people. hehe.). my friends of my generation (i am a few days too late to be a child of the 60's) probably wouldn't know the difference. on the other hand, i have heard that some people don't think i act my age. no, i don't go around singing negaraku when prompted by the ah pek ice cream seller. not that i have, but i don't. far from it.

so, am i that old then? do i feel old? biologically, there are certain things which i have to be careful of as the point of no return was like 6 years ago. my risk of dying from the usual causes of death have now increased a wee bit, if not exponentially. then again, being young(er) doesn't necessarily equate a degree of quasi-immortality either. watch out for that bus when you cross that street, kid. otherwise, i sincerely don't feel any older one bit. i feel the same as i did ten years ago. i still listen to rawk. i still talk the same way. i am ~~still~~ single.

why is that, then? am i living in denial by hanging out with people who were born on the day i was boarding that plane in subang to LHR to do my A-levels? i guess it boils down to my life circumstances.

after most of my batch mates leave the country on graduating, i had housemates who were a few years younger than i was. when it was my turn to graduate from medical school, i started work and despite maintaining contact with my erstwhile college mates, i then had a newer circle of friends who are much younger. they then graduate, and my next circle got even younger, and so forth. to the point that there is / should be a glaring generation gap. such is the price of living my life the way i do.

is it because i am not married that i don't suscribe to the striped, tucked-in baleno polo shirt image and elba slacks, talking about golfing at saujana and comparing notes on which bukit bintang health spa that has the best hooker from beijing? then again, you could still be clad in helmut lang and prada and talk about golf and compare notes on which which health spa that has the best hooker from beijing. i simply digress.

i do sometimes wonder whether i am trapped in some sort of temporal limbo, where whilst i indulge in my love for loud music, the occasional bumming around and PSPs, i manage to play the part of the man with a job, paying exorbitant taxes and saving up for that down payment for a detached house in the suburbs. i wouldn't think many of my contemporaries who moved on to married life with the two and a half kids have this problem, if you want to see it as such. i have currently no responsibility to care for that child, who will one day go to school, wanting a sony PS6 for her 12th birthday and go to imperial college reading material sciences. and that is only daughter #1. rest assured, i will carry that burden when the time comes, when i will readily and valiantly forsake the want of owning a mint 1973 strat (until i have a mid-life crisis, that is).

after the trick birthday candles, the moistest and most luscious chocolate gateau, the logitech gizmo, tomes by plato and machiavelli, thornton chocs and cards, one thing for sure, i do know the 36 years have made me wiser.

________________________
on a lighter note, a few friends and i would be trying our luck in procuring tickets for the sold out fall out boy gig in nottingham this saturday. check out the video on the sidebar. just think oh carol, i am bloody fool. thanks to wong for the heads up.

Just as Fake prescribed

2006-01-20T23:49:00.000Z

ADDENDUM: by the way, fake, thanks to you this is what we're calling ourselves. check it out.
_________________________
going over the peaks again, for another dirgahayu weekend. have a good one, people.

A woman isn't simply an ornament hanging on to your arm

2006-01-18T20:13:00.000Z

a woman plays the bass lines to my guitar riffs... and vice versa.

why o why did you leave to play for that other bald guy?!!

_______________________
stills from judith, the best mutha of a tune from a perfect circle. currently, paz lenchantin is no longer the bassist for zwan (which doesn't exist anymore, thankfully. THANK YOU, delirium!).

Jump like an Egyptian

2006-01-16T22:45:00.000Z

yesterday saw me driving down 40-odd miles to nottingham. ikea had a sale, but that's beside the point.

i bought a rug. egyptian, for a mere four squids.

why?

because i wanna be, wanna be like jeff.

yup, just like that one.

_________________________
Pearl Jam-related addendum (1月 17)

fake told me about this. ten club emailed me about this. i finally relented this morning and downloaded the wachovia center gig in philly from march last year. the setlist was great and pretty old school (less riot act-y). they also threw in some pics and PDF files for pearl jam geeks like me to print/make CD covers! all that for ten bucks. yay!

Salam Aidiladha

2006-01-10T10:23:00.000Z

Which GIG?

2006-01-06T21:08:00.000Z

writing about the no-go gig ruckus over new year's eve made me look around at who's playing live in the next few months. it's been a while since i go to gigs on a regular basis. and it's also been a while since i followed the current metal scene. like medicine, you'd get out of touch with what's dope if you don't read / watch kerrang! for six months. one thing that made me not follow the metal scene as closely anymore is that, like most current music, the bands have a shelf-life as short as the word pisang (haven't they?). like rap / hip-hop acts. hahaha. also, most of my friends are of the milder rock / emo / punk persuasion. think my chemical romance. yup.

i usually go to gigs of bands i listen to, and rarely to check out new acts. these are the few gigs that have taken my fancy.

which one(s) should i go to? help!

i'd love to check out trivium in nottingham but i may be going to a malaysia night (it's been a while since i've been to one of those as well!) then.

at the mo', i do have tix to see this one. haha. shoot me. i don't care.

Barking up the wrong tree

2006-01-05T09:45:00.000Z

after reading about the recent furore on the raid at paul's place in KL over an alleged black metal gig, i sometimes wonder if this was a typical example of knee-jerk reaction from an ill-informed public leading to the tip-off. the raiding of a music establishment by the local authorities is not a new phenomenon. the zouk incident a year ago was one worthy of a mention.

i will not try to put forward an argument against whether music can subliminally influence one's mind. rock music and its heavier/darker ilk have always been the alleged root of all evil. a kid committing suicide listening to ozzy's suicide solution. the columbine killings committed by students, one of whom was a fan of marilyn manson. what if you had a serial killer with a complete collection of mariah carey CDs? then again, i have no problem having her branded as evil. haha.

nor will i try to defend the acts of genuine psychos, who are few and far between, which include church-burning in scandinavia and murder. psychotic antisocial behaviour is not limited to the association with black metal. some radical skinheads still hold on to nazi beliefs, and they are into punk music.

are these extreme music genres are to blame? the west memphis three is a sad example of such prejudice.

music had always been utilised as a symbol of rebellion. the shaking hips of elvis presley was perceived as being unsightly by the standards of a more conservative era of the 50's. the calmly serene guitar-infused tunes of bob dylan and joan baez were filled with anti-war angst and criticism of the american government. rap music by the likes of NWA, with their anti-police stance, was a representation of the deep-rooted frustrations with the ill-treatment of the minority african-american population.

i strongly believe that music is not to be solely blamed. ice-T didn't incite the post-rodney king LA riots. ozzy didn't tell that kid to put a bullet in his head. it may be naively simplistic, but to blame, say, punk music as a reason of racist behaviour in a skinhead is like saying his leather biker jacket or knee/ankle-high doc martens are influential just as well. music has become an unwitting accessory. an image appended to the fcuked-up psyche, if you will. can you imagine brutal thugs having a penchant for justin timberlake?

the hardcore norwegian black metal scene was rooted in anti-christian beliefs seen in a small number of youths. it was a statement to revive their norse roots. music by mayhem and emperor may contain pagan elements but it couldn't have solely be responsible for the burning of churches. ideologies like these are borne out of sinister factors deeper than those of screeching vocals and high speed guitar riffs played over blast beats.

it is interesting to see how the local media reports on this. the header read 'mereka akan memijak al-quran' in a local tabloid reporting on a raid on a seremban metal gig last december. the report did include a general write-up on the activities of a 'typical' black metal scene (as i did above), but then appending one of these activities as a header, which i must add, wasn't likely to have had occurred, was misleading. if i were to hypothetically rally a group of people to worship ol' horned uncle nick, i wouldn't book the local community hall and start black mass in the afternoon, would i?

facts need to be got right (black mental[sic] - sheesh) if the general public is to be aware. even my 71-year old dad knows of franz ferdinand (the scottish band, not the assassinated archduke of austria) but that doesn't mean he knows who count grischnakh is. just because i wear a black tee emblazoned with the name iron maiden doesn't make me a black metal psycho-fanatic. one doesn't need to be associated with any kind of music to drink and do illicit drugs.

the root of the society's problem ain't music, it's somewhere else more obvious. please leave the musicians and us decent music-loving public alone.

___________________________
for a more detailed account of the paul's place brouhaha, go to jeff ooi's screenshots.

Hari baru

2006-01-02T10:57:00.000Z

surprise, surprise. not really. was in manchester, again, for new year's eve. drove up the long way as it was pissing / there was fog in the peaks. ivan concocted the best ever spread, enough to keep us full for the next fortnight.

spent new year's day with some mates. had sushi at samsi where we actually had a japanese person who waited on us. not malaysian, not geordie, but japanese. sugoi nee!! you can tibai up to two servings of norimaki and sashimi with the ten quid sunday buffet set. apart from the great food, i'd recommend checking out the bog if you ever decide to dine here. urinal luminescence, man. far out! go in turns if you don't want people to talk. haha.

we walked a lot all afternoon, especially in the oxford road area, avoiding post-new year vom patches. the only stores opened were few and far between. got meself something to get me to start walking to the hallamshire. bloody sedap, tried it out this morning 'camera-hunting'.

how was your new year experience?

賀正！

2006-01-01T00:28:00.000Z

2005 had been a good year for me. with the hellish 2004 left far behind, things did change for the better last year and here's hoping that this year will be, at least, just as good (scary prospects are indeed looming on the horizon - but what the fcuk), if not better.

selamat tahun baru!
bonne année!
err... blwyddyn newydd dda!

My two left feet

2005-12-28T11:59:00.000Z

didn't do any hall-decking with holly boughs this festive season, but i did have a great break over the hills. manchester is only 40 miles away from where i am, but it's 40 miles over the peaks. you can have a smoother drive but it means an L-shaped 80 miles on the M1, M62 and M60. drove over the non-foggy (thank god) hills to reach rizkee cafe by 9.30pm, to surprise some people and to meet idlan and co. for a late supper. food and the company was lovely as usual, and i tried the udon this time instead of my usual taugeh-less bahn pho bo.

spent the next day chilling out at rizkee. as in all day. have you ever stayed in a cafe for almost 12 hours? i've never owned one to experience that, and this time i have. as it was x'mas eve, there weren't many customers as we thought there'd be. i spent the whole day chillin' with pinkfrog, the chef and sous chef both of whom i never had the pleasure to meet up to now. it was then that i saw how an establishment like rizkee was run and it was no mean feat. hats off to sherry and her entire crew. they work as a family, and there was no us and them attitude whatsoever. for lunch i had the deep-fried seabass which was an absolute bomb. and this was after some waffles. followed by mocktails, teh tarik and more kuehs, it wasn't any wonder that i didn't do any clothes shopping in the boxing day sales.

it was a quite evening at the cafe. spent the entire time eating, taking pics with my EOS 350D, net surfing on rizkee's free wi-fi (idlan, you'd love this!), and playing my PSP. pinkfrog also brought her PSP and the floor staff was either taking down rival race cars or slashing bare-assed baddies with scimitars, while waiting for patrons to arrive. we even had an impromptu salsa lesson by the bar area before closing the cafe up for x'mas.

x'mas afternoon saw the whole bunch of us working up our appetites for lunch at my cousin's by walking around lyme park near stockport. the cool winter air was crisp and lovely. it was also an opportunity to take the new toy out and try it out for size. all the pics seen here are taken with the rebel. the lunch we had was absolutely scrumptious. it was so good i was seen snoring in the back room. the thing was we had also been invited for dinner in a few hours' time. so, i might as well doze off (jet lag was my other excuse) while the girls (and one guy) baked chocolate cake.

dinner at fadhlin's was just as awesome. tucking in after getting a little lost on oxford road just when everyone else have had their fill. after the parents and kids left the premises, the floor was turned into a sweaty havana club. well, with the tingkap tak boleh bukak, the temperature was close to that of cuba! i definitely have two left feet on top of being kaki / tangan bangku but it was great fun (two whole hours of gyrating, oo-er!) nonetheless. thanks for being patient, guys! it reminded me of old photos of my folks when they were younger. there was no zouk or gatecrasher then, but going out dancing was good clean fun in those days. they'd be in their smart suits and dresses, dancing the night away at an ipoh nightclub (not the ticket one with the no. 26 in offbeat cha-cha).

star of the night? goes to budin, for being on the floor non-stop. i'm sure no illicit substances were added to the stuffing or the pudding!

now with the x'mas festivities (ok, new year is around the corner) and, more importantly, the exams over, it's time to get my rusty guitar-playing back into action. it'll be march 2006 soon, man.
____________________________________
click on the thumbnails to see the larger image!

The three-week vacation that was

2005-12-23T15:26:00.000Z

i usually would blog more often when i am back in KL, but with the recent family event, the chaotic tummy only had a few choice entries this time. i was online a lot anyway, to the point that anuarF was wondering if i had real things to see and do on holiday. well, when you have to wait for family members to get up for brunch (breakfast is not common occurrence in the muzaffar household), you have time to spare to the point of doing complex-ish photoshop edits for an entry.

i suppose things are pretty much same old, same old in KL since i was last there (it was only last april!). traffic on the way to low yat is always stagnant behind istana negara-cum-near DBP. drivers are still rude / psychotic as ever. double parking is still the in thing to do, even when there is ample parking.

i do the same old things out of habit when i am back home. wouldn't mind doing something different for a change (i did, it was a wedding!) but i don't actually complain if the next activity was the umpteenth visit to subang ria for char kuey teow / meehoon soup tak mau taugeh / popiah basah / chapatti.

i had the chance to meet up with some old newcastle university chums in USJ. it was like a mini-reunion and managed to catch up on some juicy goss (something i don't do unless i hang out with friends who are married - i wonder why that is). everyone (bar one) had little ones plus/minus an indonesian maid tagging along. otherwise, it really felt like old times.

despite the longest break that i had for a long time, i still missed out on:

however, thank god for:

another 3 weeks to go before my post-vacation depression ends.

Wa caya sama lu!

2005-12-14T17:28:00.000Z

mamat khalid's ROCK is no almost famous. nor is it rockstar (not that it was any good) or even nasir jani's kembara seniman jalanan. what it had was a quasi-nostalgic trip down memory lane for people like me who grew up listening to music from the 80's rock kapak phenomenon. it had the ideas. it had its moments. it also, sadly, had bits which were downright disappointing.

the film's premise was about four guys, with monikers which paid to tribute to the malay rockers from that era, from a kampung in perak. together, they formed rimba bara and had the hopes of winning a battle of the bands competition in taiping (the town was not mentioned but seeing the casual market and the hokkien assembly hall gave the game away). amy, the lead singer, played by que haidar, had the runs during the competition, leaving joe to handle vocal duties as well as bass duties. rimba bara's surprising success saw amy leaving the band only to be replaced by zul kapan (shoffi jikan), singer of a rival death/black metal band, malaikat maut, which reeks of kemiyan wherever they go.

ROCK was filled with the necessary cliches. the film tagline mentioned the coolness of wearing aliph (remember this brand?) hi-cut trainers. the loudness thunder in the east band t-shirts. the red levi's 'key' scarves tied around the knee. the music videos with the drummer playing with one snare drum and wind blowing in the singer's hair. BPR's dari sinar mata playing in the background as soon zack (the guitarist) had his sights on kathy (siti elizad), his childhood sweetheart. the tributes were loads. i swore if you could have been on the film set, you would smell the tancho.

the film managed to parody the malaysian hair-metal scene pretty well with occasional spinal tap-esque moments, like the crap gigs rimba bara had to play after their small success. the tongue-in-cheek jokes were spot on (ripping off the bus seat covers before a gig, jibes about the band called handy black). the soundtrack (the likes of lefthanded, search, wings and BPR) was great but they shouldn't have had the bands singing to the actual recorded songs (could've had someone else singing to make it sound more like a cover). in many ways i knew what mamat wanted to convey but some of the script didn't come across as well as it should. also, the script could've been made the conversations more pasar. the flow was somewhat rushed in the final bits of the film, reminiscent of that in star wars episode III. the manager was on the over side, if you catch my drift. and the CGI bird (kinda unnecessary, actually) moment could've been done better.

the four lads playing rimba bara were actually quite good. the enthusiastic and feet-always-on-the-ground jijo (khir rahman, he was tun mamat in PGL). the kutu-with-a-future-and-a-chick, zack (hasnol rahmat), who practises licks on his blue strat with an avian metronome. the not-always-with-it singer, amy, and always-quiet-but-with-a-reason drummer, black (azmi baharom). they could do with more convincing wigs, though.

ROCK could've been a good 3 or 4 out of 5 in my books, but the little disappointments peppered throughout the film brought itself down to an average 2 and a half.

Taman Tun Nasyid and Metal Fest!

2005-12-11T10:29:00.000Z

it could've been that if we had a stage, sound system and road crew in front of our house. instead, we had five tents (i was very impressed with how efficient they were in putting these up and stripping it down post-reception) and about 10 catering staff milling about.

with the groom-cum-kapla organiser being at the bride's (well, wife) house, the groom's brother inflicted with OCD was left to oversee everything that day. it wasn't that difficult to keep the ship afloat but i knew it'll also take no effort to sink it! most of the minor things were done on the fly and i was well impressed with trabye. imagine getting one of malaysia's top mastering engineer from synchrosound to handle soundboard duties (he came at the drop of a hat).

the caterers came early that morning and being the pros they are, all they needed was a site in front of the house to bertanggah and off they went. gone are the good old days of big family gotong royong (my colleague's family at mentakab still does this and i thought that was ever so cool). wave a few thousand bucks to a catering/khemah company and you get yourself a reception without lifting a pinkie. i simply don't know which is the better deal.

everything was in place. one problem was the absence of young relatives. young as in kids in the 9 to 16 age range. either they were old enough to be parents or young enough to wear pampers. you see, we had four bunga manggars. easily enough, i had one of trabye's good mate who was in the guest list to do the job. the other manggar handler? yours truly, of course. these two weeks had been the time i had tried so many untried activities.

mr. OCD had his handphone ready and on the arrival of the bride and groom, we took off with two decorated broomsticks towards the kontingen keluarga perempuan. with a click of a handphone button, mr. mastering engineer started the berarak music on cue (behringer and wharfedale are two recommended companies for the job).

guests had already arrived an hour earlier everyone had their ixus-es and coolpix-es out on the kontingen's arrival at the high table. after a doa made by uncle ismail, it was moh paruk! i have to say the food was great (many a taman tun-ite would know of this sungei pencala-based caterer. highly recommended.). we had nasi minyak, rendang tok, ayam masak merah and a whole list of other stuff that i cannot recall. most importantly, we had sirap. mangolisa would tell you a thing or two about how i can be a sirap snob (connoisseur's too strong a word as there is not that much variety of sirap out there). they had orange juice in the menu but i requested sirap instead at the caterer's the other day. a majlis kahwin without sirap? sacrilegious!

amongst the guests were a lot of people from the malaysian music industry. so, it wasn't just the catering staff that had their jaws dropping every time an artis arrives. people from both the nasyid and rock communities (hijjaz, saujana, metalasia, ali, zua xpdc) came, as well as songwriters, band managers and producers (greg henderson, helen yap, yasin). waheeda came and she even kindly signed an autograph or two. my aunts had a field day having their pictures taken with her. as for mr. OCD? well, he tried to keep his hand unwashed after meeting man kidal and yan. i still cannot sweep-pick, by the way. oh, well.

it was great to see some of my friends turning up, both from my a-level years up to the recently graduated guys from sheffield. again, like the day my folks got married in 1968, it rained like mad (hujan rahmat) but had a great time we did. i finally got to savour the food much later when the guests leave (but i managed to chug down 8 or more glasses of the red nectar during the greeting and the mingling).

what can i say? i humbly think that this was way better than a hotel ballroom do. i remember talking to some friends who had receptions grander than queen elizabeth II's coronation. reasons given included the likes of kalau tak ajak these people apa dia orang kata. well, orang will still kata even if you prostrate down licking the soles of their shoes.

it felt this do was more personal and this is how it should be, and will be when the time comes.

Putih!

2005-12-09T01:42:00.000Z

chav tak chav. gua suka.

no but yeah but yeah but yeah no but yeah no but yeah...

Bila lagi?

2005-12-04T14:09:00.000Z

the ubiquitous soalan wajib that i knew i had to endure these two days (and next saturday), especially when one's younger brother ties the knot.

these past week saw us going to parts of KL i rarely venture into. i am sure not many of you have been to stores the likes of sayang you, haniffa textiles and bunga reben. this was also my first visit to wisma yakin in 22 years (the last time was when i had to get a light blue baju melayu from omar ali which was a compulsory apparel during school dinners). there wasn't much to get as trabye had bought 90% of the stuff needed by the time i got home. not bad for a single malay male. he did it all by himself (okay, apart from the sirih junjung composition!). and he is so not gay.

being at these wedding 'supermarkets' tells me that i need two things to get hitched: a woman (who is willing to spend the rest of her life with my quirkiness) and moneymoneymoney.

piss easy, ain't it.

this was the first ever wedding that my family had to co-organise. the colour themes, the names of people for the tepung tawar, sorting out who gets to dine at the high table from our side of the family. it sounds all complicated but since the whole affair was made relatively simple, i can't (or do not want to) imagine what it'd be like if the wedding had a guest-of-honour who was a politician or a sultan. yesterday and today's affair were held at the bride's house and our family's will be this coming saturday. that will be interesting.

with military precision, everything fell into place yesterday afternoon. we were present in front of the surau on the dot before asar prayers, just like dad was when he married mom in simpang tiga, taiping, 37 years ago. the kadi was excellent, as there were no ridiculous questions in the form of a religious education viva voce exam (much to my brother's relief). everything was laid out in writing and the lafaz was done sekali deh (in perak-speak). we exchanged gifts and i was put in a spot where i had to say a few words on behalf of the groom's side of the family (our more eloquent uncle couldn't make it). i was told by my now sister-in-law that my spoken bahasa was a tad skema, yet not too bad. after a hearty chat over a little pulut and some kuehs under the marquee, we headed off to base camp in gombak.

this morning, we left as a small convoy for base camp after some mutte roti at mosin's. last minute duties were given and again, alhamdulillah, everything happened like clockwork. trabye was clad in the finest kuning raja songket. my aunt even lent him a pendant bearing the crest of the royal family of perak as the icing on the already yellow cake. accompanied by the kompang, we gently paraded into the house. this wedding reception didn't waste any time with any fancy silat or toll collection (two thumbs up! - my kind of wedding!). after the tepung tawar ceremony (my first ever!), i got to dine at the high table. we took a few shots (an old mate of mine from sheffield was the official photographer) for posterity and headed home, leaving behind a member of the family, who is now an official laki orang, to bertandang for the next few days at his new family's home.

in this day and age, i have become cynical with the marriage institution, especially among urban 21st century malays. i just cannot put it in words but that cynicism somehow faded away these past few days. without being preachy, i believe the ills we see now are due to a lack of communication. i don't believe in a lavish wedding as i believe in the marriage. you cannot expect your spouse to be spot on, because (s)he ain't a prefabricated condominium. the marriage is a journey and despite the bumps along the way, it won't be too bad of a ride if things get worked out. lidah dan gigi lagikan tergigit.

till death do us part, as they say. perhaps there is hope for us single folk just yet.

Al fatihah

2005-12-02T00:40:00.000Z

a kind person had passed on yesterday. may Allah subhana wa ta'ala rest her soul in peace.

Revenge of the Gastro-sith: Day two

2005-11-30T14:02:00.000Z

this was by day two. mau lawan?

moh makan! reviews will be back shortly.

Reminiscing

2005-11-28T23:18:00.000Z

bought kundera's the unbearable lightness of being on friday afternoon prior to the celebratory drinks sesh at the watering hole across the hospital, after reading the thumbs ups given by both mangolisa and idlan. it was selling for a mere three quid at fopps. i remembered many years ago that it was made into a movie. with bonking in it. obviously literature was not in our (late) teen minds at that time.

reading the first two short chapters whilst on the transpennine express to the airport made me feel so illiterate. until the narration about tomas and tereza got going. after a hearty, yet not really sedap (not forgetting overpriced), airport fish and chips, i bought another book. an 'easier' tome and this was the first time i bought a penguin classic. no, not anna karenina. i think i have mentioned somewhere before that the tolstoy read made me feel like following anna's steps onto the railtracks.

i bought the complete fables by aesop. unlike the (very much) abridged two-volume ladybird books i read as a kid at kindergarten, the book is an almost complete collection of his works. i didn't know he was greek (he was a slave from thrace). his life had been described and his works compiled by the likes of aristotle and his students. a book about animal stories, with a smattering of greek mythology, each tale being one paragraph long. that's the read for me, all right.

for the first time in my 17 years of travelling to kuala lumpur, i was given a window seat. window seat = not good. i prefer aisle seats for easier access to the bog, if needs be. i remembered my first trip on an SQ flight to paya lebar (changi was still known for its prison then). i loved sitting by the window. seeing taman tun from the sky was real thrill. the awe i had returned briefly on seeing the lights of greater manchester. i swear the view looked like coruscant. way better than what george lucas and his guys at ILM conjured.

it wasn't until 20 minutes later, reality set in again. i was hoping that i didn't have to wake up the sleeping couple next to me so as i can go to the restroom.

and the food sucked. again. what was i really expecting?

The English weather

2005-11-27T03:17:00.000Z

... is getting a lil' too cold for my liking.

see you in a few hours.

Yokatta!

2005-11-25T11:51:00.000Z

but kuchiki byakuya ain't dead yet. a rematch next may is in the cards.

7ujuh

2005-11-22T12:32:00.000Z

this is way overdue. i can't even remember who tagged me. idlan? rizal? lisa? anyway. here it is. by the way, as this has been floating around in the blogosphere for some time, i ain't tagging anyone. feel free to do it if you like.

7 things to do before I die

cliched as this sounds, be a well-rounded muslim
make a difference - somewhere, somehow (vague, i know)
go to new york and tokyo
have a rehearsal room at home with all my gear in it (no, you dirty person you, not bondage gear)
visit a koala sanctuary
be better at all the things i love doing (jack and master of all trades?)
last but not least, live happily with a missus (see criteria set out below) and two kids

7 things I cannot do
sing well
anything that is associated with heights, bar flying in a passenger aircraft
eat taugeh or raisins (in fact, anything from my weird i-can't-eat list)
watch a horror film
do clinical medicine again
sport a zapata moustache
play any sports that involves hand-eye-foot coordination

7 things that attract me to the opposite sex (not in any particular order)

a kind heart
beautiful eyes
loves/plays music
can hold an intelligent conversation without being too opinionated
has common sense
exquisite culinary skills
and a great ass (not of the donkey variety)

7 things I say most often
big time
wait a minute!
oh maannn!
hampeh
bastard
damn
any malay swear word

7 celebrity crushes

wan zaleha radzi*
sheila majid*
pre-like a prayer (ie. 80's) era madonna*
keira knightley / natalie portman (put together because i think they were created from the same mould)
lara croft (and i don't mean angelina jolie)
yasmin hani richardson (please don't ask)
cat deeley (who can resist the babe from brum with that girl next-door charm?)
... and by the way, please don't take this list that seriously.

[*- just goes to show how old i am]

Battle wearied

2005-11-18T04:10:00.000Z

and wasted. all i need now is orihime inoue-chan to give me a back rub.

Selamat Hari Raya

2005-11-03T00:52:00.000Z

Battle preparations

2005-10-25T13:39:00.000+01:00

this blog's been pretty quiet. well, whaddaya expect. it's been

work

buka

work

guitar practice

workworkwork

work

panic

workwork

buka

work

sakit unta

work (trying)

after november ends probably. where? hampshire and greater manchester.

Chatanooga choo choo

2005-10-05T17:13:00.000+01:00

remember the days when the afternoon of ramadhan was spent watching egyptian serials after school? the most memorable was the one about nabi musa a.s. this was way back in the early 80's, if you are old enough(!). they basically had an all-egyptian cast (obviously) but in the long shot action sequences, including the parting of the red sea, i could have sworn they nicked them sequences from cecil de mille's eponymous the ten commandments. one character that comes to mind was the priest, haman, who was sometimes covered in gold paint, held a piglet and went, "aa-muuun!!!" (in reference to the egyptian sun god, amon). that aside, rtm, for once, didn't do a ultraman-like badly dubbed version and released it in its original al lughatul 'arabiyah.

this is puasa day three, and i'm glad to say i've a telly programme that goes along with my iftar (sad, tell me about it). no, it ain't on british telly. it's a japanese TV drama called 電車男 - densha otoko (the train man) that i've muat turun-ed, thanks to the lads on burns road. it's about an otaku who inadvertently falls in love with a beautiful woman (itoh misaki - kireii nee!) he saved from an amourous drunkard on a train. he then turns to his otaku friends on an online singles-only chatroom for advice on what to do next, often with hilarious results. the series only has 11 episodes and it's based on a true story, which in turn was written as a novel of the same name.

watching densha otoko reminds me how much of a geek i can get with being on the 'net (blogging, eBaying, limewiring, bittorrenting - in fact, blooming anything!), without getting dysfunctional enough to have a messed up life (i don't need it effed up anymore, thank you very much). i know a few people who'd probably wanna watch this. hehe. you want the URL for the file?

Selamat berpuasa

2005-10-04T00:38:00.000+01:00

joking aside, semoga kita berbanyakkan ibadah kepada Allah swt sempena menyambut bulan ramadhan yang mulia ini.

First rule about Tube Club...

2005-09-28T19:57:00.000+01:00

drove a few miles up north to rotherham after work.

i was drenched, waiting by the depot. unpacked there and then.

drove home.

struggled up the staircase.

unbubblewrapped and plugged to the mains.

turned everything to 12 o'clock.

switched on. plugged in the xingxiao (yes... that one.).

the notes from the intro to corduroy.

sweetness.

_______________________________________________________

UPDATE 9月 30, 2005

this 10-yr old american amp has killer tones. to prove a point the neon once made, the first guitar that had the honour of plugging in into this 40-watter (all set at 12 o'clock - apart from the volume, of course) was my 9-yr old xingxiao strat. bloody 'ell. the tones from the neck pickups were so sweet. never have i heard that old guitar sounding so solid (the last time was on trying out the neon's 1982 deluxe reverb II).

the volume knob was only at 8 o'clock and my floor was already heaving. and that's before i got drive channel kicking in,when the master volume was barely at 7 o'clock. it was so loud that i was worried the police might come knocking on my door.

it's volume aside, the tone is luscious. sad to say, my repertoire is only covers (and rhythm parts only), so my poorly attempted licks were kinda ok lah (i actually played the first few bars of little wing that i can remember) when it comes to its execution, but i can assure you that the amp was responsive to different picking nuances.

this weekend, i will have a word with my really understanding neighbour downstairs so that i can try out the blues deluxe's full potential. i've tried the telecaster and the black beauty today, but not the gibson les paul yet. tomorrow will be the day.

now i know why people would kill for a valve amp. the total damage caused? £415. and i'd say that's cheap especially with what this amp can do!

check out the specs (albeit taken from that of the reissue ones released by fender this year).

Take me to your leader

2005-09-27T07:10:00.000+01:00

one attribute of being a blogger: jumping on bandwagons.

Your Personality Is

Guardian (SJ)

You are sensible, down to earth, and goal oriented.
Bottom line, you are good at playing by the rules.

You tend to be dominant - and you are a natural leader.
You are interested in rules and order. Morals are important to you.

A hard worker, you give your all at whatever you do.
You're very serious, and people often tell you to lighten up.

In love, you tend to take things carefully and slowly.

At work, you are suited to almost any career - but you excel in leadership positions.

With others, you tend to be polite and formal.

As far as looks go, you are traditionally attractive. You take good care of yourself.

On weekends, you tend to like to do organized activities. In fact, you often organize them!

The Three Question Personality Test

yeah. like buggery i am.

Going apeshit

2005-09-24T20:56:00.000+01:00

a long time ago in a flat in sandyford, i was watching the MTV music awards show on cable. this was one year after the time when i said, "tak pe lah... korang pegi lah. next time aje kot", after being invited to go see kurt cobain and friends thrash their gear at the newcastle mayfair.

i was probably doing my ironing then, when i got to see pearl jam performing with neil "the godfather of grunge" young do rocking in the free world.

to this very day, i still think that was my best ever pearl jam moment. even a lil' better than that summer in manchester five years ago. neil young was going berserk with his tremolo on his les paul deluxe. stone and mike wore the most horrendous seluar tidur onstage. ed looked like he was ever so dazed and couldn't care less, singing along with neil, bottle of red by the mikestand. jeff hopping like a bunny rabbit on frickin' LSD. and dave, the best PJ drummer ever, thrashing four cymbals with one hit despite his carpal tunnel syndrome. and to see a pre-steroid mike smashing his les paul black beauty on a 4 x 12".

beat that.

so, what's your best pearl jam / [*insert your fav band here*] moment?

Bola & Lipstick

2005-09-22T00:20:00.000+01:00

i have a confession.

i... err... enjoyed watching gol & gincu (don't ask me how i got to watch it). it was enjoyable and for what it is (bend it like beckham meets legally blonde, with a dollop of clueless), i thought it was a breath of fresh air for malaysian films. before you say mana ada orang malaysia macam ni, sorry beb. got... in KL belambak.

the music is great (all malaysian) and the chicks in it - huiyo just doesn't do them justice. hehe... don't get me started.

now just shoot me. quick. in the head.

___________________________________________
update: as recommended by atok, this is one of the best reviews of the flick i've read so far.

Oka san...

2005-09-20T23:49:00.000+01:00

i slept a lil' late last night because of this.

hell, yeah. it's out. go watch it.

Astrundi Kudo

2005-09-19T19:52:00.000+01:00

idlan emailed me with this:

... might turn this into a charity pledge - for every person who votes, I plan to donate 1p to charity: currently split 50-50 to Yvonne Foong's medical donation drive, and the other half to my charity of choice - Islamic Relief. Of course, if only 200 people end up voting, I'll up that to 10p per vote; and if only 10 people vote I may up that to £1 per vote or something like that.

apa laga? vote away! it's for a good cause, too!

Die, die my darling

2005-09-18T13:19:00.000+01:00

this is what i had to endure last night. got back late after helping the guys move house and treating ourselves to crispy fried noodles with king prawn, fishballs and squid. slept. alarm rang at 0245 hours. woke up and 14 minutes 27 seconds later i delivered the final and fatal blow. die muthatruckas!

it's mine. it's all mine. muahahahahaha!

Moh makan!: Rizkee

2005-09-17T11:43:00.000+01:00

another moh makan! entry. that's quite a few in a row already. i had the pleasure of attending the opening of rizkee sate and noodle cafe in manchester last night. it was a small affair yet the cafe was chock-a! i was going to write a little review but it will be a tad difficult to be impartial when the cafe is run by my cousin (i deserve a free bowl of banh pho bo every time i come over, eh sherry? kasi tambah noodle lebih sikit!). with that disclaimer, i will now go on.

it's a simple yet lovely cafe. simplicity is pretty much a recurring theme at rizkee. on entering the premises, there is a softly-lit waiting area overlooking the bar. we were immediately ushered to our table. the rizkee menu was predominantly made up of south east asian noodle dishes and sate. some of us went for the non-alcoholic aperitifs. nik and farah had pina colada and sangria mocktails whilst nadim went for the malaysia boleh!, a shaken (not stirred) concoction comprising fruit juices, a dash of grenadine and 1 egg yolk.

we had tauhu sumbat and popiah goreng to kick things off. for the main course, i went for the banh pho bo with a side serving of beef sate. i have to admit, much to my embarassment, that i've never had vietnamese beef noodles before. i thought it was absolutely gorgeous and it will definitely be the main reason for coming back to this place! for vegetarians they also had a kebab-oid comprising carrots, green peppers, fuchuk and onions, all marinaded as you would meat sate. the amount of meat, per stick, in the sate was actually quite generous. it is quite difficult to genuinely replicate sate especially if you don't make it over a charcoal fire. as much as i commend the sate they served within the limitations of acquiring charcoal pits in this country, there can be room for improvement.

between the six of us, we pretty much tried to order across the board what was available on the menu. the mee goreng mamak (but i would recommend a slice of lime as opposed to lemon on the side!) and char kuey teow was lovely and they did not stinge on the king prawns. they were kurang pedas to cater for the more sensitive western palate and nadim recommended that we should order a side of cili potong with our noodle soup! everyone found the portions to be filling, except for yours truly. hahaha. buruk lantak and makan ke daghah were two terms that immediately came to mind. as this was literally day one, i wasn't going to be too critical of any hiccups. the service was a little on the slow side but it was worth the wait and none of our orders were missed.

for dessert, we had the delightful talam of kuehs (a variety plate consisting of seri muka, lepat pisang, kueh keria and karipap). i was dismayed that the sago gula melaka (my favourite at deli-Q in KL) was not available. next time, then. all these were accompanied by teh tarik. for the more sophisticated, there are cappucinos and lattes available. sorry lah. gua makan malaysian, gua minum pun misti mau malaysian.

all in all, i had an enjoyable evening and i was well impressed with what they had (and did) on day one. despite the odd criticisms i mentioned earlier, i am sure i will see further additions and improvement the next time i come for a meal. it is a great place especially if you are NHS staff as they do regular NHS discounted deals on a monthly basis! highly recommended if you are ever in manchester.

_____________________________________
RIZKEE sate and noodle cafe
30A manchester road, chorlton-cum-hardy, manchester M21 9PH
closed sundays
0044 161 860 5353 (for reservations)
www.rizkee.com

Moh makan minum!: Rut bir

2005-09-14T23:03:00.000+01:00

root beer. only at A&W. if you want the still version, red horse or 7 rings. being in england, however, means i am deprived of one of my fav soft drinks. i am not a big fan of sarsi / sarsaparilla (root beer is also made of sarsaparilla). all my english friends who had tried root beer don't seem to share my love for this drink as they feel the taste is more akin to cough medicine as opposed to the pure bliss you get from a large icy mugful, obligatory after that coney dog.

i can get A&W in this country, but only at selfridges and it's £1.45 a can. then i discovered this at waitrose. it's called bundaberg and it's australian. bloody hell, having it chilled is just pure heaven. it's not as sweet as A&W's but it's one of the finest root beers i've ever tasted. it comes in the coolest bottle i've ever seen. you don't unscrew / bite the top off, but pull it like you would a can of coke. highly recommended!
_________________________________________________

and for all you ben's bitches fans out there (you know who you are!), they are back with a new EP! check out this new track, aku suka jolok, which is available on the i-bands site.

Moh makan! (supplementary): Ais kacang

2005-09-10T23:11:00.000+01:00

i call it ais kacang. my late mama called it ais kacang. so does my dad and the rest of the family. everyone else i know calls it air/ais batu campur or ABC for short. is it a perak thing? i don't know.

everyone has their favourite spot to get their ABC fix. i'm a meat-and-two-veg kind of chap. means that i only accept these ingredients in my ais kacang:

1. kacang (red bean, and no complains if they put actual peanuts)
2. lengkong (grass jelly)
3. agar-agar (hijau or any colour they have)
4. sirap (merah is a must, hijau is optional)
5. gula merah
6. evaporated milk (lihat bunga ni, ingat carnation, lazat rasaNIYERR...)
7. cendol is fine, but not really necessary
8. jagung

i would therefore avoid any ABC that has the word special appended to it. please lah, if i want ice cream, i'll have ice cream. not in my ais kacang. i've seen/heard of ABC's that contain:

1. buah pala
2. nangka
3. gajah
4. bicycle
5. raisins
6. banana

tonight i had ais kacang with none of the six prohibited ingredients listed above (a list which is not exhaustive). and i am not in KL.

Moh makan!: Chilli

2005-09-10T14:02:00.000+01:00

this is great to make if you run out of options, especially if you leave the local yemeni grocer-cum-butcher without a single king prawn or chicken breast fillet in hand (this entry was supposed to be on mee yoke). got this off one of my jamie oliver books. one thing i've learnt about making mat salleh versions of anything (supposedly) hot is to not follow the recipe. hahaha. all right then, follow it but it won't hurt if you double/triple (without overdoing it) certain ingredients of the recipe.

chilli is best eaten if it was cooked the night before as the meat flavours just seep into the sauce. i had no choice this time but to cook it while leaving my friends in the lounge chatting / watching telly / installing an audigy 2 ZS soundcard, sipping chilled canned cincau (yang memang bukan rasa macam lancau). also, i left them some corn chips ( aka doritos) and fresh home-made salsa, for them to munch while they wait.

blitz two large onions, a couple of garlic cloves and cabai merah (kasi dua), sautee the mixture and add the minced beef. now, beef is way better than lamb/other kambing for chilli, this i can attest. two teaspoon measures of chilli powder were recommended in the recipe. not today, man. gua kasi belasah five, i think. pandai-pandai lah. hahaha. none of this woosy schwartz type, it's cap burung something or other. season and chuck in one or two cinnamon sticks into the mix. after a few minutes or so when the meat is brown, add a can of chopped tomatoes (i don't know if it's just me, but i really think the ones from waitrose is the dog's bullocks[sic]). get some sundried tomatoes in olive oil (great with mozzarella, basil and pesto as a panini), blitz like half a cup (lebih takpe) and add that as well. cook for like an hour. after 40 minutes, chuck in a can of red kidney beans (drained).

serve with rice. you could also make tacos with it so i bought some tortillas. add some salad, sour cream and jalapeno chillis, you could pretend you are having your lunch break at the fullerton fender factory like they did in the 50's. oralle!

Tiga puluh tahun

2005-09-04T00:30:00.000+01:00

20 years ago - 1985

i was a third former in an all-boys boarding school in seremban. this was the time when you self proclaim that you are a senior among the puny juniors. this was also the year when i escaped a major thrashing by a bunch of fifth formers from a dorm in a neighbouring house. i can't for the life of me remember what the root of the problem was. and for some reason we knew that something was brewing that would possibly lead to the entire dorm being summoned by these pailangs. a mate of mine and i quickly filled in a borang balik kampung. we weren't taking any chances, even though the rest of the guys in the dorm felt nothing was gonna happen. come the following sunday evening, i got back from KL to see one of my dorm-mates with a face as large as house. what followed after that was a dismissal of the pailangs. a massive one too, i think that fifth form dorm lost like 25% of its population. permanently. preserving a code of honour among one's schoolmates, regardless? not this time.

10 years ago - 1995

hidup grunge. hidup alt-rock and anything of its ilk. vitalogy came out. got the CD but i still had no ongkos for a CD player. this was the final leg of a half-decade of not having a life, aka medical school. group revision sessions which involved buckets of KFC (*lalalala*) and apple pie. which probably explains why nothing in this year really stick out in my mind. and as luck would have it, i got that pretty piece of paper with the four letters that fitted nicely behind my name. my folks came over for like two weeks and a bit for the grand day. the latter half of the year saw me earning enough dosh to buy me my first set of hi-fi separates so that i can now play my vitalogy CD, a semi-rusty jalopy and slightly niftier clothes that were not from C&A.

5 years ago - 2000

of the girl / breakerfall / grievance / corduroy / light years / go / given to fly / evacuation / even flow / daughter / animal / wishlist / nothingman / betterman / insignificance / rearviewmirror / last exit / once / black / timeless melody / state of love and trust / fuckin' up / leatherman / footsteps / do the evolution / garden / yellow ledbetter

june 4th, manchester.

and this. may you rest in peace.

3 years ago - 2002

i co-organised a gig for the first time ever, with shahid and firr. it was on the evening of the sheffield sports meet which meant that some people just ain't too happy with that. i wasn't in the e-mailing list of the local grapevine which meant i was spared the e-mails shunning the gig, which was purportedly held near sheffield's red light district (wow. we have one, do we?). funny that. the engineering department, which is one of UK's best, is in the same vicinity. why don't you get the students to pack up their bags and study elsewhere while you're at it? the gig was aptly titled malam temasya pria mambo 2 (no wonder eyebrows were raised as high the arts tower), based on the title of a gig held in a college in perak's royal town a few years back. we had five bands playing and it was easy to get them to come down all the way to play as the newcastle malaysian soc had its gig only a month before ours. we had lots of help from the newcastle and glasgow people with the loaning of their sabian cymbals and expertise in being front-of-house sound engineers. we charged like three quid for the tix. each band played a 30-40 minute set. the cost incurred wasn't too bad as i paid for the PA and bass amp rental (the guitar amps were ours and james let us borrow his drumkit) whilst shahid coughed up the dosh for the party room which was cosy enough to fit like a hundred guests. we had like 70 people turning up in the end, and i think between the three of us we got a tenner each in profit. which was fine by us!

Last year - 2004

to quote steven tyler, i was eff-eye-ann-ee - fine*. and like idlan, 無秩序のkrik の胃 was born. 'nuff said.

*fcuked-up, insecure, neurotic, emotional

This year - 2005

i started playing in a band again. got my groove back. working my ass off (i think i am). looking forward for all of this to end so i can make a new start. and a well-deserved break at the end of it.

Next year - 2006

my new job. my new apartment. my new life.

10 years from now - 2015

sing that doris day song lah.

__________________________________

mari kita lihat siapa yang kenaaaa! i'm tagging pick yin (you belum kena lagi kan? hehe), bluescrubs, delirium, sitinesta and sharizal. don't look at me, blame him.

We didn't start the fire... or did we?

2005-08-30T17:51:00.000+01:00

a long time ago in 1871, HH sultan ali al-mukammal inayat shah, the sultan of perak died. my great-great granddad, YM raja abdullah ibni al-marhum sultan jaafar, who was then the raja muda would have been the new sultan if it wasn't for the subsequent coronation of HH sultan ismail muabbidin shah. as raja muda, great-great granddad was supposed to be sultan, and rightly so, according to the traditional system of the perak rajas. at the same time, great-great granddad wasn't too happy to argue his case with the other rajas because in order to do so, he had to pass the area of sayong, the stronghold of one raja yusuf and his sons, who also wanted to lay claim to the throne.

it was also a time of turmoil in the larut region. larut is rich in tin (legend has it that a runaway gajah that was found by long jaafar had mud all over its legs - mud which was rich in tin ore.). i'm sure you remember from your sejarah lessons in school about the ghee hin vs. hai san secret society war. to paraphrase blackadder's daft side-kick, baldrick, great-great granddad then had a cunning plan.

he wrote a letter to sir harry ord, who was then british governor of the straits settlement in singapore (later governor of western australia), asking for help. unfortunately for great-great granddad, sir harry felt that it wasn't in her majesty's empire's interest to meddle in the affairs of the orang melayu. however, when sir harry left in 1873, the new straits settlement governor, sir andrew clarke, was, should i say, more helpful in response to great-great granddad's request for intervention.

the help didn't exactly come without a price, though.

great-great granddad would be sultan with the quid pro quo agreement that the british will appoint one james wheeler woodford birch as the resident who would advise him on administrative and taxation affairs, short of hal ehwal orang-orang melayu. on top of that, great-great granddad had to also pay birch's salary. the cheek!

the agreement between great-great granddad and the british was signed on board the HMS pluto off the coast of pulau pangkor on january 20th, 1874. great-great granddad was now HH paduka seri sultan abdullah muhammad shah II, whilst sultan ismail was deposed. and as everyone knows, the people of perak, led by datuk maharaja lela, weren't exactly too chuffed with the meddlesome ways of birch. birch was assasinated in pasir salak in 1875 and great-great granddad was sent into exile to the seychelles in 1877. raja yusuf (of sayong fame) was then made sultan.

soon after, the british empire began to take interest in the other malay states and the rest is, of course, history.

would malaysia be different if great-great granddad didn't write that letter to singapore in 1871? i guess the british empire would have come into the picture anyway, later if not sooner. with them having a stronghold on penang, malacca and singapore, i say that it was inevitable that the british would come.

and who knows what would happen if raja abdullah decided to chuck the letter asking for help into the muddy waters of sungai perak? the picture that was the history of malaysia under british rule would have been painted differently, although probably no less volatile than what it already was.

selamat menyambut kemerdekaan 48 tahun, malaysia.
______________________________________________________

i read with interest an article about a hawaiian tune being similar to negaraku in today's issue of the star. negaraku was adapted from the state of perak's official anthem. the story went that when HH paduka sri sultan sir idris went to england to see queen victoria, the palace officials wanted to know if perak had a state anthem. my great granddad, raja mansur ibni sultan abdullah, who was the sultan's aide-de-camp, simply hummed the tune of terang bulan to the bandmaster, which he had listened to in the seychelles, played by bands in the gazebos. according to this site, the tune was a then popular french melody composed by pierre-jean de béranger.

this is why i got so incensed when some bright spark decided to change the anthem to a march beat a few years ago. thankfully, negaraku is back to what it was before. the original anthem was majestic (like god save the queen - okay, not the sex pistol's take lah!), and in no way lembab.

just what were these people thinking?

Lancashire Travelling Blues

2005-08-28T09:47:00.000+01:00

i've been wanting to upload this very short video and it has been just under a year until i've finally found out how! hahaha. it was one fine winter's day when i was traipsing around manchester city centre. didn't exactly shop very much. besides this was 2004. that year.

in front of zara was this big green brolly with feet-tapping blues guitar music coming out from under it, and there was this fedora-ed chap was happily singing away whilst doing some astonishing licks on his strat. i have written about this, but watching this chap show off his blues chops is way better than just reading about it.

just press PLAY.

It sells

2005-08-27T18:42:00.000+01:00

i don't really like tim wheeler's voice, although ash sounded really good live when i saw them support the darkness sometime late last year. my favourite tune by this downpatrick foursome is burn baby burn.

give me the four reasons why i like this song. anyone?

________________________________________
inspired by and dedicated to bluescrubs and faiez.

Sonic blurbs: The 1978 Electro Harmonix Electric Mistress

2005-08-27T10:14:00.000+01:00

faley commented in my previous entry that i should record some short mp3's for you guitar lovers (yes, all four of you. or is it five? hahaha. tak ramai, anyway.) so that you can check out what my newly-acquired 1978 'mistress can do. it's simply a flanger, but it does a good chorus effect as well as a mild-mannered tremolo to boot.

i used my telecaster via the GT-3 multieffects which had the fender twin amp simulation on. the 'mistress was placed after the GT-3.

this is what the 'mistress' chorus sounds like.

______________________________________________________________________
COME AS YOU ARE (kurt cobain/nirvana) ©1991 virgin songs inc. / the end of music (BMI). as heard on the DGC release, nevermind.

the tremolo effect is not too bad, either. obviously, it will be no match for an dedicated tremolo stomp-box.

______________________________________________________________________
YOU AND ME (jason wade/jude cole) ©2005 G-Chills / Songs of Dreamworks(BMI) / Warner Chappell Music (BMI). as heard on the geffen release, lifehouse.

then again, when you buy a flanger, you really wanna do this. i set the GT-3 to the 1959SL marshall head sim and kicked in the ibanez TS-9, again with the tele.

_____________________________________________________________________
JETTO BRACK (kudo) ©2005 makbearmusic. what album?!

look out for more sonic blurbs in the future!

___________________________________________
thanks to yi chun-kun for his assistance in making this entry work!

Mat rock

2005-08-24T01:09:00.000+01:00

i'm sure a lot of you remember the days when malaysian rock bands like search and wings had to have their locks shorn off, some time in the late 80's and early 90's. artistes or bands with long hair were then banned from performing their songs on national telly. their songs were also banned from radio airplay if they didn't follow the information ministry guidelines. thanks to the then information minister, the word kena gam was synonymous with diminishing popularity and poor record sales. i vividly remembered a newspaper article that showed amy, the frontman of search, having his hair royally shorn by the said minister.

yesterday afternoon, i watched this muat turun-ed segment from a variety show on RTM called zoom in: man kidal and friends. great guitar playing from malaysia's hard rock fraternity. the playing was so tight, you could squeeze a piece of coal into a de beers diamond.

it was really surreal, to finally see long flowing locks back on national telly!

and just look at whose name that has been credited as one of the music arrangers.

cayaaaa lah!

___________________________________
thanks to serih for the heads up on torrent malaya.

I am was an eBay virgin

2005-08-23T19:43:00.000+01:00

eBay is evil.

i first heard about eBay like 4 years ago when my brother was bidding on musical equipment for his recording studio. it sounded like a right faff but you do get the goods for cheap. nowadays, eBay's pretty much the best market for second hand items (i can't seem to find decent second hand gear at guitar stores nowadays).

i have bought items on eBay (not that many, just a pathetic 4 next to my eBay ID, with no star), all of which was of the buy it now variety.

why did i say eBay was evil? well, a few days ago i tried my luck bidding for an item.

it was a 1993 american (not the current reissue one that's made in a place south of california) fender blues deluxe 40-watt valve amp. there was only one bidder and it was too good to be true to see that it stayed that way till two days prior to the day bidding ends. my gut feeling was that there were lurkers like myself ready to pounce on it in the final few seconds. despite the fact i knew of that likelihood, i put my bid for the item.

the following two days was hell, i tell you.

questions like "is my maximum bid high enough?" and "will there be many lurkers sniping at the 59th second?" were buzzing around my cranium. i tried to make myself feel better by saying that i could only afford to pay what my maximum bid was. but then i also felt like, "alaah... only ten quid more, bid higher laa!". scramn it!!!

i was glued to the monitor like a someone who was betting on the dogs at walthamstow. the funny thing was i actually used one of the auction sniper sites, which would put in my ultra-fantastic bid of £xxx.xx 3 seconds before the bidding war ends - which i naively felt would blow the competition away.

10... 9... 8...

aiyaaa. cepat laaahh!!!!

yes!!! 3... 2... 1...

*and suddenly silence* (to paraphrase obi-wan kenobi)

fcukrawalaaaaaaa!!!!! cibretttttttttttt!!!!! p***tieeeennnnnnnnngggggg!!!!!

J**O LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAh!

just don't ask.

_________________________________________

on a happier note, i received my electric mistress this morning. picked it up at the royal mail depot before going to work. showed it off to my consultant colleague who was also into guitars. rushed home and on the way, bought some 9v batteries. it sounded glorious. sent feedback to puan McC of dover, new hampshire.

this is an actual 1978 mistress (just see the marks, man). i've tried the neon's mistress last year and like it, the flange was superbly natural and warm. tweaking the rate up gave me a sweet yet mild tremolo effect (can't wait to get my hands on my new voodoo labs tremolo box i bought from lmsn). bringing the range and rate down a little the mistress gave a luscious chorus. further tweaking of the chorus gave me a tone reminiscent of nirvana's come as you are (so, no need to get a small clone. for now. hahaha.). bringing the color up and appropriately changing the rate gave me the classic jet engine sound. wings' taming sari anyone? *ini kisahhh... keris taming sariii....*

_________________________________________

so, are the days which see me dealing with eBay numbered?

fat chance, especially when it comes to getting that amp (unless i find it in a shop first). to quote jimi:

here i come, baby... i'm comin' ta GITCHA!!!

Moh makan!: Leftovers

2005-08-21T11:46:00.000+01:00

when you think i could go so low. i love them!

ya encik?
roti canai rende. garing aa?
baeekk.... rende roti gareenngggg!!!
koli kari wone'.
koli kariiii wone'!!!
teh tarik kurang manis.
teh tarik kurang maneees!!!

pity that i've run out of condensed milk, otherwise i would've had all of the above sans the mamak taking the order.

next mission: learn to make fluffy chappatis like the goddess.

Born under a bad sign

2005-08-16T22:48:00.000+01:00

i brought stitch to see the doctor today.

stitch is what i call my bass guitar, after the psycho extraterrestrial quasi-koala (see sticker on the headstock). i don't give names to any of my other guitars. or amp. or car. no daisy, lake placid blue-y or joyah. why the exception here, then? no profound reasons, really. it's because of the aforementioned sticker. that's it.

the A string sounded absolutely duff. i've checked the saddle heights. checked for potential sources of buzzing. knowing me, i usually couldn't be arsed to get to the bottom of the problem (hey, a pun!). so, i left work a little early and brought it to the local store, and hope steve won't tell me it needs a set-up (stitch hasn't been for one since the day i bought it in 2001!). as i thought, the cause of the dullness in its tone was due to really basic problem.

tali mati.

i was sold a really naff string (it had only been two months) by another store just a few hundred metres up the road. i left the store with a new sparkling set of rotosounds and steve's words:

that's a shop that only sell guitars. unlike us, we are a guitar shop.

meow. pfft! pfft!

The kiasu list

2005-08-14T23:11:00.000+01:00

fancy finding this month's issue of guitarist magazine to have a dedicated feature on effects pedals, especially after just buying one on friday, whilst traipsing around the trafford centre this afternoon. in their perfect 10 article, my recent purchase made it (albeit in no particular order) into their list. for any of you gearheads, this is the list of the other 9 that made it in their search of vintage sonic nirvana:

1. boss CE1 chorus ensemble
2. mxr phase 90 phaser
3. boss DM-2 analogue delay
4. ibanez TS808 tube screamer
5. cry baby wah
6. electro harmonix zipper envelope follower
7. mxr dyna comp compressor
8. vox tone bender fuzz
9. electro harmonix big muff pi

i was happy to find that the amount of moolah splashed on my electric mistress was within the £50 - £130 range quoted for it (i bought a 1978 model). let's just hope it's in perfect working condition when it arrives from new hampshire this week (here's hoping)! what did guitarist mag had to say about the 'mistress?

"there are those who say the ADA flanger is the one to beat, but our money goes on the exotically-named electric mistress... users including andy summers and david gilmour."

walking on the moon anyone?

i do have a wah pedal, but the one that made it to the list wasn't a jim dunlop but one from jen, an italian company which was one of the first companies that made them in the late 60's / early 70's.

the list aside, this ish is a recommended read as there are further articles regarding the stomp-box - 51 great FX moments gives an account of the effects used in some of rock's well-loved tunes and perfect FX set-ups advises on ideal combinations of pedals for different genres. there's also an interview with roger mayer, the effects guru that designed effects for the likes of jimi hendrix and jimmy page, and pete cornish, the ex-ministry of defense engineer who is the UK's answer to bob bradshaw.

i think this issue is one i'd keep for future reference, rather than chucking it in the bin at the end of the month.

The search for the elusive

2005-08-12T15:34:00.000+01:00

these past few days saw me trawling through the pages of eBay UK. i can't exactly put a finger on what prompted me to do so. some time in the april of last year, i came across a guitar amplifier which had a £350 price tag on it. it was a hiwatt and i can't exactly remember whether it was a custom 50 or 100. it was a second hand head which had the wear and tear seen most likely as a result of years of gigging. lmsn rds would've killed to get the head but at that point in time, i was in the store to bag myself a fender telecaster which was going for cheap. i just shrugged the feeling off and drove home happily with the tele in a spanking new gig bag.

and for some reason, i began thinking of the hiwatt head again recently. a tinge of regret perhaps, but it wasn't financially viable for me at that time when i was in that converted barn of a store in castleford. why do i want another amp? do i really need it, or is it just a want? spending a few hundred quid on a want requires some very long thinking, or a very deep pocket.

i have, at the moment, a marshall valvestate 100R. i got it in 1998 from a store in sheffield for a mere £311 (they gave me an 11% discount). it is a hybrid amp, a single 12AX7 valve (or tube, in american-speak) in the preamp section before a solid state power stage. 3 channels, one clean and two for crunch. gigged for probably 5 times. 'blew up' once during lmsn rds' RATM cover band's performance. it took me years before realising what it could actually do. i blame myself for being not really tweaking the amp enough to get the tone i wanted. the neon once played my les paul through the marshall, and the amp actually sounded better than i thought.

nothing beats a valve amp, though. a hybrid like mine doesn't really count. then again, since i am more of a bedroom player, my friends have advised me against purchasing a high wattage valve amp as you can't get the tone you really want unless you don't mind having the cops knocking on your door. probably i long to be able to play a gig with a proper valve amp (i have once, when i played in newcastle - i used a JCM900 halfstack, but i only wished i knew how to properly tweak my then recently-acquired GT3 multieffects unit). i think i have never sat down long enough to sort out a tone with what i have. i remembered playing lmsn's american standard tele through the GT3 and my marshall. looking at the gig video now, i just wished i had put a little more thought in my GT3/amp settings. it has been a recurring problem. the shitty sound i had with my older effects unit (because i didn't know that i had to press this one button), the list goes on.

i had a long conversation with a mate recently, which centred on what we really want in our guitar sound. we agreed that it is no use kidding ourselves. why can't i sound like jimmy page / eric clapton / {*enter your guitar hero's name here*}? the simple answer to this is because we can only sound like ourselves. to the day i die, i will sound like kudo. i might argue anyone else wanting to sound like kudo would be a laughable notion, but if i wanted to, a better sounding kudo is possible with effort. no guitar pickup, pedal, and if i dare say, guitar or amp will make you sound like anyone else. you can only strive to sound better, if nothing else.

i once went to a paul gilbert guitar clinic for ibanez guitars and laney amps at ronnie scott's in birmingham. apart from a kazoo for a cover of hendrix's crosstown traffic, gilbert came up with tones by simply altering the pickups and volume/tone knobs. during the Q&A, someone asked why his PGM signature series ibanez sounded so different from the one gilbert was playing. gilbert said that the guitars he used in his recording were all stock models, off-the-rack with no extra modifications. paul gilbert would still sound like paul gilbert because he is paul gilbert. as simple as that. i am sure you have also heard a few more similar anecdotes pertaining to this aspect of guitar tone.

i now own two good guitars. i have a few others of a lesser quality, but i now don't have an excuse to do better with what i already have. i have to say, late last year, i managed to play along (in one of those rare occasions i get to do this) with my pearl jam records with my les paul plugged in straight to my marshall. no pedals whatsoever. i didn't even have to change amp channels. i finally learnt how to utilise the volume and tone knobs and the pickup selector on its own, to get what i hear on the record.

the road is still long but i was delighted i finally managed to be able to do what i saw in that clinic in birmingham that day. as uncle T used to say in his email correspondences to me - "pratice, practice, practice!".

____________________________

despite this little rant, i have, after much deliberation and reading, made a purchase of this addition to my pedal chain on eBay today:

hahaha.

The Slug and Lettuce

2005-08-09T19:42:00.000+01:00

due to overwhelming and popular request (from one reader - you know who you are), i've finally got a food entry. i was up in the north-east a couple of days ago, visiting pinkfrog and delirium for some catching up over sunday nosh-up.

pubs in britain have really strange names sometimes, like the dog and parrot, for one. the slug and lettuce wasn't your traditional english pub but more of a chic eaterie, which is part of a nationwide chain. i've seen their branches in manchester and nottingham but haven't actually tried them. the newcastle one is quite big and there weren't that many patrons. i guess it pays to arrive early for sunday lunch.

the selection available was typical of the upmarket chain restaurant. i guess if you've been to one, you've been to them all. simply variations of italian and british cuisine. i opted for the tempura battered hake fillet with chips, tartare sauce and mushy peas, aka fish 'n' chips. hahaha. the hake was delightful although it still was just as nice as the haddock they serve at the old north shields joint i used to frequent, albeit less oily and a tad more expensive. tempura or not, i couldn't tell the difference with regular batter.

pinkfrog and delirium both had the butter-baked smoked haddock which was topped with asparagus and a poached egg, served together with some spinach and new potatoes. the haddock also came with a lovely lemon/garlic butter sauce (evil but nice). i am not that much of a fan of smoked fish. pinkfrog felt that it was a tad salty on its own but having it with the 'tatoes evened the flavours out a bit.

for dessert, all three of us shared the warm cinnamon waffle and choc fudge brownie, served with vanilla ice-cream and toffee/chocolate sauces to boot. now that was simply divine, although the serving was a little sparse to share between three people.

lovely food, service and atmosphere, but nothing out of the ordinary. recommended.

アニメ

2005-08-04T15:54:00.000+01:00

as a kid, my favourite format of cartoons was anime (アニメ).

in those days, rtm's channel 1 (what is now tv1) would start at 3pm on a saturday with CHiPs (otai aje paham ni - hahaha), then at 4pm they'd show this mecha anime called broker corps machine braster. we only had a B&W toshiba in those days and i never failed to follow the exploits of tempe asuka and his team which comprised the usual chara combo of another young chap, a fat guy, a kid and a gorgeous woman (with the largest non-oriental sparkling eyes known to man). i remembered one day being told off by my late mom for watching doraemon (ni bukan untuk budak lagi, ni TADIKA!). i was twenty. go figure. hehe.

even now i still favour anime if you were to give me a choice. animation has gone through leaps and bounds with digital technology. gone are the days of handpainted cels - just take a look at matt groening's futurama and the new appleseed 2004. CG animation films of the pixar persuasion are great but when it comes to cartoons, anime really does it for me. when i was a student at medical school, anime was beginning to be a growing phenomenon in the west unlike malaysia. movies/OVAs were then available only at specialty comic shops like forbidden planet. i am sure one possible reason for the popularity of anime in those days was the availability of mild hentai titles the likes of urotsukidoji (mild on the hentai, not so on the violence. hahaha). i had to be content with the poorer quality of VHS in those days and some titles costed a bomb, as they sell them by the episodes (like bubblegum crisis which lasted for only 30 minutes per tape). i personally prefer to watch anime in japanese with subtitles, even if the story was set in the west with western characters. probably i had been scarred by watching badly dubbed versions on malaysian telly. who can't forget the teeny female voice used to dub the likes of nobita (the voice was so castrated in quality) and doraemon (this one is castrated times four). the subbed (as opposed to dubbed) titles available then were actually not many and we weren't really spoilt for choice.

manga was also quite popular with titles like ranma 1/2 and dragonball Z, but it didn't really catch on for me. not really into reading black and white drawings and you have to read it from right to left even though the text has been translated into romaji.

unlike the stories you see in western animation, japanese anime has a whole gamut of stories available. like manga, there is a multitude of anime titles aimed at different age groups ( shonen for boys, bishojo for girls, hentai for pervs - the list goes on). due to different cultural sensibilities, it would be normal to find violence, nudity and mild sexual references in animation aimed for upper primary school children and teens like naruto as an example. you would find tales revolving around issues seen in day to day life engrained in the story, may it be in mecha-type anime like macross, sci-fi like cowboy bebop or teen action like bleach (not THAT kind of teen action, dammit). so far in the few anime series i have watched, none were at the level of, say, MTV's moronic beavis and butthead.

with the advent of broadband internet connection in the recent years, current TV anime titles have been available for download via IRC and bittorrent. in a week or so after an episode of a series is being aired on the telly in japan, you get diehard fans doing the subtitles (fansubs, the anime version of scanlation) and it'd be available for the non-nihon go speaker to download and enjoy. i recently finished watching samurai 7 which was a delightful and somewhat faithful sci-fi adaptation of akira kurosawa's 七人の侍 shichinin no samurai (seven samurai). there were a few changes, obviously to suit the sci-fi nature of the series, but if any of you who had watched the original 1954 classic, many aspects of kurosawa's film remained in the anime. i thought seeing toshiro mifune's kikuchiyo as a steam-powered robot was one of the most enjoyable aspect of the story.

i think the somewhat serious aspect of these stories had maintained my interest in watching japanese animation. films made by the likes of mamoru oshii (patlabor and ghost in the shell) and hayao miyazaki (from my neighbor totoro to spirited away - can't wait for howl's moving castle) have so much more depth to them whilst maintaining the enjoyment factor that the audience would expect from a cartoon.

Like a fish needing a bicycle

2005-07-27T18:21:00.000+01:00

like a musician needing an electron microscope.

i think i may like this. just one more item to get.

right, trabye kan?

永遠に

2005-07-18T21:00:00.000+01:00

目の前にいる君が少し輝き
周りが見えない
私達はどこにいるの

ざわめき始めた背景の中に
まだ消えないでね
もうなんにも聞こえない
しかし私は呼吸するのを感じることができる

おどろく程気まぐれな展開に
少しだけ
私らしくない期待をしてる

私は永遠にここにいたいと思う
このまま見つめ合っていたい
私は私に近い感じることができる
いつまでも側にはいられない
この瞬間だけはずっと永遠に

作詞 / 作曲: 宇多田ヒカル

Scire usum medendi

2005-07-17T15:17:00.000+01:00

it was 10 years ago today that i walked through the hallowed arches of king's hall for my congregation. the faculty of medicine in those days always had its congregation on the 2nd wednesday in the month of july at 5 pm.

i remembered that it rained a little in the morning but came 4 pm, it was gloriously sunny. as it was day one of a four-day convocation, the newly-mowed grass on the quadrangle of what was king's college of the university of durham was ours to enjoy. not to makan lah. i donned my black suit together with a crisp white shirt and the faculty tie to boot. my arwah mom wore her best kebaya and songket selendang whilst my dad looked (and felt) really good for the occasion (he postponed a CABG and opted for a coronary artery stent only weeks before!). our biggest disappointment was that my brother couldn't be with us due to his classes at university. there were only four malaysian families that afternoon and we spent the entire one hour post-ceremony taking photos. one thing i liked about our university congregation attire - no frickin' mortar boards!

it was the shortest congregation ceremony i've experienced (i've not been to any other actually!). we were ushered into the hall whilst someone played a classical organ piece. the graduands each had their hood with the colours of the faculty (lavender, scarlet and white) slung over their right forearms and are called by name (it was great to hear the long malaysian names being pronounced rather accurately) after being 'hooded' by the hooding marshall. the applause we received was non-stop from A to W (we had no X, Y or Z in our year). the VC gave a real heart-warming speech about the medical profession and then there was more organ music whilst we were ushered out of the hall. all that in less than one hour.

my emotions were mixed on that day. there was relief, as i have finally finished a long 5-year haul slogging my ass off. there was joy, as i was with my family (minus one, unfortunately) to commemorate the occasion. there was also apprehension, as in about two weeks after that day i was to be let loose on the wards together with those from my year.

there was a handful of us whom i'd probably refer to as 'casualties of war', who weren't there with us to share this joyful occasion. as painful as it must be, they marched on and proved their worth, albeit six months later. ten years on today, i'm sure these guys are doing what they do best (and most likely better than the ones who survived that summer) and nobody would probably even remember whether or not they were there that sunny july afternoon.

__________________________________
Scire usum medendi [latin: To know the art of healing] was the original motto of the Durham University College of Medicine, founded in 1834.

Deja senti

2005-07-12T23:54:00.000+01:00

deja vu (fr. already seen) is one of the recognised psychic phenomena that is associated with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). patients with this neurological disease would have a sense of familiarity with something that shouldn't be familiar at all, prior to (also known as an aura) a seizure.

today i experienced an alternative form of psychic phenomenon. no, i don't suffer from TLE. as i was driving to work, the car aircon smelt just like the one in my dad's car in KL. with the scorching summer morning sun outside and 宇多田ヒカル on my iPod, i might as well be driving on jalan damansara en route to 1utama.

during coffee break, i had another one of this olfactory experience. on of my colleagues was making some coffee when i swore the room smelt like... err... my gym. no, not the changing room lah!

it's really weird as these are in fact very much like auras in epilepsy, especially if i can't find out the source of the bau. the gym was explained by the fact my colleague admitted to using deodorant (right guard + coffee aroma = gym coffee room). the best one i had was many years ago in the medical school library when i smelt airplane food. i really like airplane food! yum! if there was the hum of a rolls-royce jet engine next to the library window, i would have sworn i was on my way home for the summer break.

are these experiences trying to tell me something?

aura 1: balik malaysia lah oi.

aura 2: you have a belly like a fat bastard. go exercise before you have a coronary.

where are my gym shoes?

London disaster

2005-07-07T13:28:00.000+01:00

i got to know of this from an SMS at 1050 hrs GMT from the neon in KL, of all places. i've always had this kind of scenario played at the back of my mind every time i take the tube when i'm in the smoke. in the 70's and 80's, it was the IRA. now, this (no one has made any claims as of yet).

a few of my colleagues were shocked but probably the shock was not as bad as it was when the two jets collided with the twin towers in NY. bombs had gone off in london (like harrods, for example), brighton and manchester. and not forgetting northern ireland for the last few decades. this may explain why my british work mates appear to be 'not that phased' by what happened this morning.

this was expected. the tube is a target which all of most know is vulnerable. every time i use it, i'm sure deep down in my heart, i say a little doa. anything can happen anywhere. any time.

my prayers are with the injured and the family of the dead (the count is two at this moment). and to all in london, stay safe.

__________________________________
thank you for the kind wishes in the comments box. please go to the bbc website for further updates.

Kepah boy

2005-07-07T00:10:00.000+01:00

this book is bizarre.

i wasn't laughing out big ha-has (probably i wasn't supposed to).

puns that i got.

and there were probably more that i didn't.

from the sweetest to the grotesque/macabre, this is archetypically tim burton.

he even did the pictures.

i leave you with at least one which could be counted as my favourite:

the boy with nails in his eyes
put up his aluminum tree
it looked pretty strange
because he really couldn't see

good thing i got this for less than a fiver!

No Stairway? Denied!

2005-07-06T17:02:00.000+01:00

whilst reading the forum on i-bands, one of the guys posted some pics of this person.

jimmy sakurai.

i couldn't help but stifle a chuckle, but sakurai or not, he does look like jimmy page bar the asian features. he nailed the hair, clothes and the guitars (i am not sure whether jimmy played the strat in his heyday, though). i googled jimmy-san to find out that he is in a led zep tribute band aptly named, err... mr. jimmy. apparently he started playing some led zep covers at an american army base in japan and had been performing as a led zep tribute band ever since. he was even voted 'Best Jimmy Page Player' (pardon the japlish) and contributes to various japanese guitar mags. the english section of his site also advertises his services to anyone needing a' jimmy page' for their band. no, ladies. i don't know if he does hen nights.

the australian pink floyd is another tribute band but living up to its name. especially if you get to perform at david gilmour's 50th birthday bash and get to use the same stage production equipment as pink floyd! rumour has it that roger waters was in the crowd when the aussie floyd played at the royal albert (again, another first for a tribute band). my workmate got to see them live in sheffield arena last year and said the performance was top notch. they don't look like pink floyd but they sure as hell sound like them. the lights weren't as elaborate but they apparently have a similar disc-shaped screen at the back. another date in my gig diary. they will be coming to these shores but they'll be playing some festival in derby (uhuh). i'll wait till they play like the city hall or something.

i also hear that there are also a few more tribute bands worth watching, like bjorn again (also from australia), the bootleg beatles (the longest running and most successful tribute band ever with rave reviews to boot!) and YYZ (a UK-based rush tribute band). i have written about this a long while back, about how i loved performing tribute sets (i've done one megadeth and two pearl jams - the second pearl jam set was the best one ever, if i should say so myself). i guess i do it out of reverence and, most of all, enjoyment of playing the music i love.

being in a tribute band has its shortcomings though. it'll work better if the original band is no more. only a handful of tribute bands make it big by being able to tour the world, but you won't be able to sell records. most tribute bands would be doing the local pub circuit rather than selling out the madison square gardens or the budokans of the world. people like myself would probably like to play the odd toilet circuit and even if i get to do so, i need to remember not to leave my day job.

Simple

2005-07-06T16:15:00.000+01:00

i was given yet another meme from idlan which had these two simple questions. i have, then, two sets of simple-ish answers.

What are the things you enjoy, even when no one around you wants to go out and play?

Food.
Music.
Sleep.

What lowers your stress/blood pressure/anxiety level?

Food.
Music.
Sleep.

the thing is, apart from sleep, i will just get on and do it. if i wait for others to make their mind up to do the same with me (it's not like i don't do things with friends - i'm merely illustrating scenarios when i really wanna see/eat/do something and people can't because of whatever reason), i just won't get to do it. quite a few of the gigs i go to are on my own. it ain't sad. if i wanna go by that philosophy i wouldn't have watched the likes of audioslave and the last ever smashing pumpkins gig. oh, this meme is opened to anyone who feels like doing it. got a feeling this one has done the rounds in the blogosphere for a while!

see? told ya i'm a simple man.

Pigs have flown...

2005-07-02T23:41:00.000+01:00

...pink floyd reunited at live8.

-seen on a banner this evening at the hyde park gig

as the who was playing, my eyes were glued to the telly. the pink floyd was next, with roger waters, after 21 long years. after a little chatter by jonathan woss, the unmistakeable heart beat prceding speak to me/breathe was audible from the stage.

david gilmour has aged since the last VHS i saw him in, which was the earls court gig following the release of the division bell. gilmour started off with the pedal steel intro whilst roger waters seemed back at home with his black precision bass. nick mason looked like he just came back from a PTA meeting at a boarding school in dorset whilst richard wright quietly plays on the kurzweil. i have to say, whoever the director of videography/photography/whatever is, rick wright is a member of the band. he is not a hired hand, so you should have had more shots of him! however, kudos for panning to battersea power station and the (?)london eye (which looked like the ubiquitous disc-shaped screen seen at their live shows).

as breathe got into way, gilmour picked up a black strat similar to the one he used in the days of the dark side of the moon. the next song was an apt choice for the event, with waters' unmistakeable bassline intro to money accompanied by the ka-chings! gilmour's bluesy solo was so out of this world. he used his hiwatts. obviously lah kan?

waters then proceeded to express his happiness for being back with these "three guys", and dedicated the next tune to syd barrett - wish you were here. gilmour played a gibson acoustic whilst waters had a martin. tim renwick was on bass duty then. it was really great watching them back together. there was this poignant shot of gilmour smiling to mason whilst waters sang the second verse (gilmour sang the entire song on the album).

the last song was a tour de force with both waters and gilmour on vocals. they played comfortably numb, man. they playfully lifted their arms as they sang "my arms felt just like two balloons". again, gilmour did his magic on the strat. i remembered my friend telling me how underrated gilmour is as a guitarist. the outro solo was just soulful, ending with a "thank you and goodnight" from gilmour. the four of them went up to the front of the stage and took a bow. no tearful hugs, though.

a potential proper reunion gig at earls court? just have to wait then, haven't we?

Feed the world

2005-07-02T20:04:00.000+01:00

"feed the world! bob said that.
sign the fucking petition! now, i said that!"

-johnny borrell, razorlight

i think that was the best one i heard today.

i am watching/listening to snow petrol[sic] singing run at live8 in hyde park.

no, i'm not at hyde park. i'm watching it on telly like the other supposedly 5 billion people out there.

i wondered why there was an sms lottery. BBC1 reported a quarter of a million people in attendance (tix were won by 65,000 winners? times two.). there is a crescentic enclosure closer to the stage. i doubt that would fit 130 000 people eh? as i said before, live8 is better watched on the telly, although you have to be there to soak in the atmosphere.

missed the opening. managed to catch a bit of REM on radio 1 this afternoon. got home in time to catch the likes of snoop dogg (it was really weird to catch macca layan-ing snoop), razorlight, madonna and, at the mo', snow patrol.it's great that SKYdigital's red button came in handy, allowing me to catch the gigs in pilahdelphia[sic], rome and toronto. everyone had a 15-minute limit on their performances. kinda like a 3-song gig per band. as this is live, it was also great to see some swearing on daytime telly. hehe. madonna did an unconvincing are you fucking ready, london?!!, as fake as the posh spice's i-bet-she-she-knows-the-cameras-are-pointing-at-her pout seen at the side of the stage.

also, the fact it's 15 minutes per band makes me feel less bitter about not catching pink floyd live. it's a full 2 hour show or nothing.

oh, the killers are onstage now. later.

The revolution

2005-06-28T18:27:00.000+01:00

by lmsn rds

It started off as a poor boy’s dream.

Too much had been written about it as being the most versatile guitar ever, allegedly even more versatile than a solid-bodied Stratocaster. To possess a guitar that was that unique in its physical attributes, playability or tone was a dream. I wanted an archtop, like those jazz and bluesmen. Jazz was something that I never expected to comprehend, let alone love. No real rules to it. - play it as freely as you can. Listening to cats like Tal Farlow and Joe Pass always leaves me amazed. I may never be able to play like them but nailing the tone would be within my reach.

I originally wanted an ES335, Gibson's epitome of total versatility. Also, either a Gretsch Country Gentleman or the Epiphone Sheraton II would do nicely. The steep asking prices for the Gretsch or the ES335 meant that the Epiphone Sheraton II was the only option left standing. The late great John Lee Hooker got one. His was an American-made 1964 Sheraton, while mine is just a Korean (but still retaining the Epiphone tag) knock-off which was manufactured in 2000, bought from Peter Cook’s World of Guitars. I got for like £450, which included a Hiscox hardcase. In my opinion, the choice of wood plays a lesser role in tone department unlike proper acoustics or solidbodies. The Sheraton and other Epiphone/Gibson hollowbodies do resemble more of acoustics rather than electrics. I use her for both slide and solo work, so the action must be perfectly set up for both.

My Sheraton (or Sha as I call her) bears a gorgeous tobacco sunburst finish with gold hardware, laminated maple body and back, whilst her neck is three-piece maple. Her headstock bears the recognisable Epiphone floral motif, also seen in the Joe Pass Signature Emperor. The stock Epiphone humbucking pickups were unfortunately microphonic, so I hotrodded Sha with a Seymour Duncan ’59 at the bridge and a Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro at the neck position. I also replaced was her 3-way toggle switch with a Gibson original, in addition to the original plastic knobs with golden steel round ones. For the strings, I swear by D’Addario Flat Wound XLights.

In terms of tone, none of my other guitars could compare to Sha's. Sha emanates a somewhat instant shimmering warmth once plugged into my Marshall TSL half-stack. I may not play that much jazz (yeah, right you are –Ed.) but Sha’s tone is definitely pure smooth jazz. Tweaking of her tone knobs when played thru a TS808, her superbly responsive tone, I dare say, is reminiscent of Ian Anderson’s riffs in Jethro Tull's Aqualung. On the other hand, plugged to a good clean amp like the Fender Deluxe Reverb II, jamming to songs by John Mayall and Freddy Robinson makes you feel like you are one the boys on the record. She sounds sweet plugged and unplugged. I never played her on a live set but the neon had that privilege the last time when The Desperados played at the MASSOC annual dinner at Sheffield's Cutlers Hall.

______________________________
* click here for Sha's full specs.

update: sha's current modifications. in more ways than one.

lmsn rds is currently employed with an international medical equipment firm in kuala lumpur. when not gigging in the woods of borneo, he ventures into the rivers of deep negeri sembilan for hand-fishing. or sometimes tasik kenyir for the elusive ikan gajah.

Sugar on the asphalt

2005-06-24T08:22:00.000+01:00

there are two ways to enjoy a gig, in my opinion. one way is to see a band that you love, where you know all the songs back to front (including rareties only available on japanese imports). the other is to go to a gig blind, check out the music and hope that you come out of it a new fan of the band. i saw jimmy eat world last night, and my experience was somewhat of the latter.

i know of them as an emo band that had the video with the semi-naked sweaty chicks partying in a house (the middle, the song which was covered by my mate, huzaimi, at the newcastle gig in 2002). jimbo then gave me their current (fourth) effort, futures, as a birthday present, which was put in the backburner as i preferred their bleed american stuff (my only other JEW CD). it wasn't until last month, that i took the time to check futures out only to find that it is a superb album. so, when i found out that they were coming to sheffield, i grabbed three tix as soon as i could. no regrets, whatsoever!

the night kicked off with apartment, a band from london. they were pretty good. they would pretty much belong to the current 80's-ish dance/rock genre a la franz ferdinand. in a nutshell, i would describe them as a band that has the musical sensibilities of U2 and simple minds and a frontman that has the vocal swagger of morrissey. NME described their sound akin to the likes of joy division and new order. sama lah tu. the first thing that struck me, however, was that the bassist played the same fender jazz like i do, tortoiseshell pickguard and rosewood neck and all. minor point. hehe. pity that the guitar amp had some problems and they had to cut short their set. they coped well with that handicap in their final song of their set.

jimbo told me that JEW was gonna have their cabs faced towards the back of the stage. i have no idea what that'll do. the amps were miked up anyway, and it wouldn't really matter if they had the amps stowed away on the equipment truck. it looked cool anyway.

jim adkins came out solo singing what i think was table for glasses. nice slow tempo to get the evening going.

jim had a goldtop (for the rest of the evening, he played his customary black LP studio) while tom linton had a LP standard. backline-wise, jim had a marshall half-stack whilst tom played his SG through an orange head and an unknown 4x12. rick burch was on stage right providing the bottom end with the occasional backing vocals. zach lind had a drumming stance that looked so neil peart to me. the next song proved to be somewhat interesting.

they played bleed american, my favourite JEW track ever.

i knew they were gonna play that when i saw the roadie brought out tom's cherry SG. the thing is, i have not been in a mosh pit for quite some time. every time i go to a gig with friends, i would be assigned the wallet/drumstick/glasses holder whilst they would go slamdancing/bodysurfing. we were slap bang in the middle of the crowd last night and with the opening dropped D chords we were sucked into the mosh vortex. it was nuts.

it felt great anyway, despite me clutching on to my digicam, wallet, cellphone and souvenir tee, let alone to dear life. and all i knew was salt, sweat, sugar on the asphalt. the rest of the chorus (let alone the song) was just nananana.

they played quite a few songs from clarity (i only got the limewire copy. hehe.). when they played the opening chords to believe in what you want, the girls next to me were screaming their heads off. backstreet boys? where? they also played blister, lucky denver mint, sunday and definitely clarity (the drums were unmistakeable).

jim jokingly asked if the crowd was still into def leppard. i was half-expecting the band to play a leppard cover which, thankfully, they didn't. they also apologised for the cancellation of their performance at the upcoming leeds festival in august as they will be opening for green day on their USA tour. sod festivals. nothing beats watching a band in a small venue like the octagon, man.

the only static prevails song that i could remember they played was seventeen. the thing with emo music, as eloquently explained to me by jimbo the emo-meister, was a typical quiet-loud-quiet component in the song dynamics, with an easy nananana sing-along chorus. formulaic as it sounds, it bloody works. even i could easily join in on the o-oh o-oh o-o-ooh's on listening to the chorus in work.

the middle was another bleed american favourite that they played... err... in the middle of their main set. the simple solo pull-offs were just the bomb. futures was another great jumping and anthemic tune (by then, i could only afford to do the alternative shuffle - see audioslave gig review, -ed.). 23 brought the crowd back to calm mode.

they came back with two songs for the encore. pain from futures was just a crowd rouser. the buildup during the verse followed by the pogo-tastic chorus - takes my pain away!

like the gig that jimbo and ash went to, sweetness was played as the finale. this is emo at one of its formulaic finest.

i came out of the gig with a couple of things in my mind. one: gendut is alright! black short-sleeved collar shirt and a gibbo LP. suara aje tadak. hahaha. the other: my LP standard has been dusted and i've learnt bleed american and the middle note-for-note. sapa mau jam?

_______________________________
i did a little reference to emo in this old entry. also, for more info on emo, go here. this site is not in any way affiliated to the neon.

Brideshead Morecambe revisited

2005-06-19T23:46:00.000+01:00

"...sahya ahmat berbahngga dahpart parder hahree eeni burrchereetur sedeekit tentang purrchooteean sahya dee lancaster. minta maaf jeekurr pertuturan sahya sedikit... ahpa itu... you know, difficult to comprehend? owh yes... mengelirookahn. yes, indeed. makloomlah. saya soodah burrada dee england soodah enahm belahs tahoon ya?

"sahya beloom purrnah menjurjack kahkee sahya di bahndar lancaster dan morecambe. sahya lebih sooker burrchootee di daerah sepurrti di cotswolds dahn the lake district. kerahna dee sahna teedahk ahda oreng-oreng low class. oooh. sahya maymang teedak guhmar itu chavs, you know? seteeburrnya sahya di morecambe, kahmi terus purrgi ke windermere. hahti sahya sungguh gembeera kerana bowhlay purrgi jaooh dahree kahwasan chav itoo. purrjahlanan hahnya mengambil err... 45 minutes. cuaca hahree sabtoo itoo sungguh baik surkahlee. the sun was absolutely gorgeous! sahyang suhrkalee sahya loopa membahwa tohpi panama sahya. kahlau ada lurrbih mahsa, sahya pahtut mencadahngkahn soopahya kiturr membawa picnic basket, yes? a glass of pimm's would go down very well... err... di hahri yahng chantek sebegeeni.surlepahs mahkan ice cream, kahmi bertolahk ke lancaster for some dinner. mahkanahn india di restaurant sultan of lancaster sungguh lahzart surkalee. walaupoon surrdeekit... how do you say hot? purr-dahs. yes. walaupoon purrdahs, sahya turtahp rahsur ahyam madras mereka sungguh succulent.

"pahdurr aysohk hahrinya, kahmi ke morecambe kurahna ada flea market. owh, sahya jarang ke tempaht-tempaht sepurrti eeni. sahya rasa mahcharm shopping di oxfam, you know? sahya selalu memburrli clothes sahya di knightsbridge. walaubahguymahnapoon, sahya memburrli CD sting. sound lyrics from such a brilliant chap, i say! kahmi poon berarnsoor... is that right? berarnsoor ke morecambe town untuk mengambil ahngin laut yahng soongguh nyahman. reminds me of my public school days in brighton! kahmee bergarmbar dengan pahtung eric morecambe, seowreng pelahwak yahng soodah meninggahl doonia. di sitoo, terdahpart seboowah kedai buku-buku lahma. that chap who runs the shop is very bright indeed! dia bowleh ingart di mahna dia seemparn all the books. i'm sure he'll get into oxford tarnpa soosah-paryah. rakan-rakan sahya membeli booku. saya? owh. sahya teedark ahda marsa kerahna bahnyak booku di roomah yang beloom di bahca.

"petang itoo kahmi pun kembahli ke lancaster oontuk birthday barbecue rahkan saya. mahkanan sungguh bahnyak dan semuanya lahzat surrkali. sejam kemudian, hujan poon turoon. kahmi poon lahri burrtempiaran. ini mungkin kerana hahri isnin tennis in wimbledon ahkan bermoola. reminds me that i should call rupert for tickets. where was i? owh ya. walaupoon hoojan, kami burrteduh di tepi quadrangle dan menikmati the most scrumptious chocolate birthday cake ever. compliments to the chef, i say. rah! petang itu, surlepahs makan like itu you know... sahya poon meminta deeri untook bahlik ke sheffield. boolan durrpahn, kahmi ahkan burrjoompa di kota london. that is such a splendid idea!"

______________________
it is not known whether this account of a weekend break was made by the same malaysian man interviewed by TV3 in front of the royal albert hall before the recent siti nurhaliza concert.

My list - what's yours?

2005-06-17T19:29:00.000+01:00

i was enjoying some lovely barbecued steak one sunday afternoon when someone asked me berapa ratus gig have i been to. i've been to a few, but the number's not in the hundreds i'm sure. i used to make a record of the gigs i went to in my filofax but the list stopped in mid-2000. i also used to write little gig reviews for ROTTW and they'd give me a free copy for my trouble. now, with this blog, i prefer to write my reviews here.

so, who have i had the pleasure to see perform?

25.03.89 EUROPE/? -the brighton centre
25.11.89 AEROSMITH / balaam & the angel -king's hall, belfast
18.12.90 IRON MAIDEN / anthrax -wembley arena
04.08.91 SEARCH -stadium negara, KL
28.10.92 METALLICA -whitley bay ice rink
27.05.93 RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE / TOOL / wool -the mayfair, newcastle
25.10.93 VAI / the wild frontier -city hall, newcastle
10.12.95 JOE SATRIANI /? -wembley arena, london
07.10.96 METALLICA / corrosion of conformity -newcastle arena
23.11.96 DEF LEPPARD / terrorvision -newcastle arena
04.04.97 M NASIR -royal northern college of music, manchester
15.04.97 LIVE / catherine wheel -the civic hall, wolverhampton
24.09.97 NO DOUBT / symposium / the vandals -brixton academy, london*
15.10.97 JEWEL / simon warner -the irish centre, birmingham
17.10.97 BUSH / 3 colours red -aston villa leisure centre, birmingham*
04.12.97 BLACK SABBATH / fear factory -NEC arena, birmingham*
01.03.98 DEFTONES / will haven / dubwar -the civic hall, wolverhampton*
22.04.98 TURA SATANA / will haven / psycore -JB's, dudley
21.05.98 SOULFLY / LIMP BIZKIT / cold -the civic hall, wolverhampton*
28.11.98 SEPULTURA / psycore -rock city, nottingham*
06.04.99 SILVERCHAIR / FUEL / fungus -rock city, nottingham
18.05.99 SYSTEM OF A DOWN / spineshank / static-X -rock city, nottingham
20.05.99 SOULFLY / kill II this / medulla nocte -the foundry, sheffield
08.09.99 MEGADETH / earthtone 9 -rock city, nottingham
05.12.99 LIVE / muse -town & country club, leeds
27.04.00 PANTERA / powerman 5000 / satyricon -the apollo, manchester*
04.06.00 PEARL JAM / the vandals -MEN arena, manchester*
15.06.00 SLAYER / entombed -rock city, nottingham
17.10.00 DREAM THEATER /porcupine tree -the octagon, sheffield
31.10.00 THE SMASHING PUMPKINS / catherine wheel -the apollo, manchester*
14.08.01 U2 / kelis -NEC arena, birmingham
22.08.01 STONE TEMPLE PILOTS / boyhitscar -rock city, nottingham*
21.11.01 BUSH / vex red -rock city, nottingham
05.01.02 SHEILA MAJID -planet hollywood, KL
30.01.02 STAIND / puddle of mudd -nottingham arena*
04.03.02 TRAVIS / doves -sheffield arena*
08.05.02 BOB DYLAN -newcastle arena*
09.07.02 HOOBASTANK / ? (re-scheduled date?) -rock city, nottingham
10.07.02 OASIS / ? -newcastle arena
07.09.02 KORN / puddle of mudd / trustCO. -london arena
02.11.02 A HUNDRED REASONS / sparta / kinesis -the octagon, sheffield
06.11.02 FOO FIGHTERS / cave in -newcastle arena
03.04.03 PLACEBO / ? -the octagon, sheffield
12.04.03 LIFEHOUSE / ?(some woman!) -academy, manchester
19.12.03 METALLICA / godsmack -earls court, london
27.04.04 DURAN DURAN / scissor sisters -sheffield arena
05.05.04 BRITNEY SPEARS / jc chasez / wicked wisdom -the NIA, birmingham
06.06.04 INCUBUS / a hundred reasons -newcastle arena
29.06.04 G3 -royal concert hall, nottingham
15.09.04 RUSH -NEC arena, birmingham
12.10.04 AVRIL LAVIGNE / simple plan -sheffield arena
29.11.04 THE DARKNESS / ASH / do me bad things -newcastle arena
02.05.05 CREAM -royal albert hall, london
05.06.05 AUDIOSLAVE / and you will know from the trail of dead -the civic hall, wolverhampton
23.06.05 JIMMY EAT WORLD / apartment -the octagon, sheffield *UPDATED*

key:
? - i simply can't remember who/what band supported the headliner
* - reviewed in ROTTW

trundling through the list made me notice a few things:
- the obvious vacuum during an important era of 90's rock music, ie the grunge / alternative years. and no, i don't wanna talk about it!
- i only watched a measly total of four gigs in the UK during my university years.
- i saw one gig for every 40 days in 2002.
- a number of the support acts i saw are headliners today (limp bizkit, muse)
- two of the venues do not exist anymore. the newcastle mayfair is now the gate. the leeds town & country club has also been torn down.
- i actually went to dudley to watch a gig (i met the lead singer of will haven there!).

i don't want to turn this into a meme, but if any of you out there have a list of gigs you have seen and enjoyed, i'd love to check it out!

I'm not afraid of dying

2005-06-14T16:58:00.000+01:00

they took a fine time to decide on a reunion. as speculated previously, they've finally decided to play together putting the differences they had with roger waters (a difference "petty" enough to put behind as quoted by david gilmour). would it mean i would have joined in the foray of sending 1000 texts a minute to try win a pair of tickets?

probably not, but the prices on eBay would definitely go up further.

play earls court lah, messrs. gilmour, waters, mason and wright. i'd pay £100 per ticket if needs be. hehe.

Buku-buku ku

2005-06-13T23:21:00.000+01:00

the vitriolic nads has landed me with a book meme. it couldn't have arrived at a worse time. book-wise, i'm on a hiatus.

i don't know what it is. MRCPath exam revision? my anal retentiveness in sorting out the added info (with CD cover to boot) in the hundreds of downloaded music on my iTunes? my still spanking new desktop (which i pay more attention to then the now semi-defunct SKY decoder)? whatever it is, it took me months to finish the last book i read. anyways, no apologies if you think this is the worst meme you'd ever read in a blog. probably because it damn well is!

How many books do I own?
a pitiful 163. i actually did a count of the stuff i have on my bookshelves (and the toilet). and this count includes my pathology text, cookbooks and the odd graphic novels. they are still books in my book (hey!). magazines not included lah.

The last book I bought?
The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & other stories by Tim Burton. yes, that tim burton. this is a collection of simple poems short of a dirty limerick. twisted as the gnarled tree branches in his films, dark as the gotham city he envisaged. i wish i can say more, as i have only read like two chapters (each two pages long) last night. stick boy on fire! stick boy on fire!

oh ya. the murakami in the sidebar? also a book of shorts. residing currently in the laundry basket next to the royal bog.

The last book I read?

Life of Pi by Yann Martel. read about it here. haha.

Five books that mean a lot to me?

aiyo. i just read them lah.

1. Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road by Neil Peart. after a devastating life event that occurred last april (which coincided with the birth of this blog), i started to read this well-written post-death-of-daughter-then-wife-trauma travel memoir by the drummer of rush. it showed me that if you think you have it bad, some people are much worse off. his story had a happy ending. i don't see mine yet. this review of mine masuk book review blog ooo. hahaha.

2. Mat Som by Lat. okay, by all accounts this isn't strictly a book, but it is such a good yarn. lat wrote (and drew, obviously) very well on this semi-autobiographical story of a part-time arts columnist for a local newspaper in KL. and this was the book that sparked my interest in sastera melayu moden. i never get tired from re-reading it (i don't have the english version) to this very day. i love it because i see a lot of myself in som. part dreamer, part realist and trying his very hard to get by.

3. The Three Little Pigs by Joseph Jacobs. this grade 1 ladybird book was my first ever english read as a 5-year old. i learnt to read it with all the different voices (as per mama's instructions). no, i don't read like that anymore, if you are wondering.

4. The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. i was introduced to murakami by my mate, leQ. like the protagonist, i lead a mundane life peppered with disasters (i better stop opening myself up to you lot now. haha.). it's bad enough i get through a day in a daze, but reading the bird chronicle on top of it? forget illicit drugs, man. his other book, sputnik sweetheart, was much more sober.

5. Two Faces by Syed Husin Ali. the fastest read i have ever done on a book. this was about detention under the ISA after the student riots in the early 1970's. way better than raja petra's books on the same subject matter. scared the bejesus out of me. 'nuff said.

now i am to pass this to five others. i say, why don't any of you pembaca budiman do the meme on your blogs as i really can't think of anyone at the moment. yo, lisa o queen of books and all that is kundera :) ! pick yin? idlan? anuarF? have you guys done one? i'll be surprised if you guys haven't! satu lagi orang woi!
______________________
footnote: to the avid reader of this blog (if there's any), this list is different from that seen here. they were good reads but may not mean much to me personally.

Calon isteri

2005-06-11T02:34:00.000+01:00

to any interested women fitting this profile, send me five copies of your curriculum vitae (three referees). no time wasters, please.

note: i've got ways to make you girls think i look like brad pitt. so, don't worry.

and guys, you can keep your natalie portman. fake or otherwise.

Redemption

2005-06-06T20:41:00.000+01:00

yesterday i did two things that i've not done in a long time. one was revisiting wolverhampton, a city in the northwest tip of birmingham. the civic hall was a medium-sized venue for many bands whenever they come to play the west midlands. another was to see a band made up of 75% of rage against the machine (whom i saw in newcastle way back in '93) and the lead singer of the now defunct soundgarden (one of the two seattle bands i regretted not to watch in my student days - no prizes for guessing which other seattle band that is!).

i arrived a little late. managed to catch the last two songs of the opening band, ...and you will know us by the trail of dead, which was absolutely shite. don't get me wrong. i listen to heavy music a lot, and yesterday was absolutely rubbish. no apologies offered to any AYWKUBTTOD fans reading this. also, whilst waiting for the usual rigmarole that was stripping down the opening act's equipment and the final soundcheck of the headliner, i just wonder if the front of house engineer of some gigs just love to take the piss. they had frickin' bob marley on. i don't mind the odd ragga, but for fcuk's sake not before effin' audioslave. jay-zuss (to paraphrase the neon)!! the last time i had the pleasure to see this kind of disparity was at a megadeth gig at the rock city in nottingham and at U2 where they had "milkshake" kelis as an opening act. please. not again.

lights down. crowd erupted. the opening scales to your time has come made the crowd go apeshit. this time, the familiar cochise-oid riff is forgiven. damn, man. chris cornell's singing is simply sublime. he doesn't scream. he sings high notes loud for the next one and a half hours. he does have a larynx of the gods. and if any of you starts going, "oh, but chester bennington can sing sooo much better", you will be hearing from me.

tom morello had his soul power strat slung up high and was performing his fret and stompbox gymnastics, together with his leaps and occasionally stepping up on the monitors with his fist in the air. just superb.

no apologies offered again if i can't remember the setlist in the exact sequence. i don't carry notepads at gigs. hehe.

cornell was seen to be bonding pretty well with the crowd (apparently, he was more subdued in his soundgarden days).

"well, we're gonna do a song that some of you may have heard of. most of you were probably belted up in the child seat at the back when this came out."

and they played spoonman. geez! i could see people in the over-29 demographic going mental. i've not banged my head for donkey's years. had to do the alternative shuffle (go watch the simpson's episode where they had the smashing pumpkins as guests at homerpalooza, and you will understand) too. haha. morello had his les paul out for this one.

gasoline was another absolute bomb. that middle repetitive guitar lick, man. with brad wilk's drumming in the back. "i have found another waaaAAAAAAAYYYYYYY...." . then heads bobbed/banged. that is the only way i can describe the exhilirating feeling i had. cornell then left the stage briefly.

wowwow. wakka wowwow. wakka wakka wakka.

the remaining three being the original RATM members did the middle bit of bulls on parade. zack, wherever you are, we had to sing your parts, man. why oh why did you leave the band, dagnammit. and morello was toggling the pickup switch whilst his left hand slided up and down the fretboard (lmsn, you bastard, how the hell you learnt that trick!!!). and yes, he played his 'arm the homeless' ibanez hybrid. the same guitar i saw 12 years ago.

cornell then joined them back onstage and did an audioslave rendition of sleep now in the fire. timmy C's basslines just made my shoulder do the judderman. it was strange to see cornell 'rap' (he kinda 'talks', if you know what i mean). he did well, if i should say so myself. my voice was hoarse after that number.

like a stone. the whammy pedal-ladened solo was played with just the fretting hand (lmsn, pegi prektis, kiasu man you). 'nuff said.

one of the evening's highlight was in the second half of the performance. cornell came onstage with his acoustic guitar. i thought to myself, "thank god he's not going to do a solo rendition of like a stone like the CD...". yup, he didn't. he played black hole sun. i could have just cried. trembling with joy. and if that wasn't enough, he played call me a dog. before that he had to tune the guitar back to standard tuning. "sorry about this. it's really difficult to get this tuned perfect. just pretend you're watching the telly or somethin'", he joked. to any of you budak-budak yang baru start dengar nirvana post-cobain's death, this is a song from the temple of the dog (1991 pearl jam + cornell post-mother love bone outfit). cornell's voice was so soulful. i was almost in tears when he got to the chorus where he sang:

"...but when it's my time to throw the next stone
i'll call you beautiful
if i call at all."

i would gladly pee in my pants there and then. please note the operative word: would.

cornell then started off with i am the highway. the rest of the band joined in soon after, at the second chorus. timmy did the backing vocals on most of the tracks sung tonight. for the first time, i could make out the lower harmonies for highway, only to forget it like 1 hour later when i was in the car. dang. the stage was lit up like stars. beautiful. the second set had a few more songs from exile (which i hadn't had a chance to really revise - sekali/dua kali harung on the motorway mana cukup, bro').

further rocking ensued with show me how to live. more toggling on the soul power here, and not forgetting that ring modulation that followed soon after. i just love it when you get to see how they produce the seemingly impossible in front of your very eyes. and do you wanna know how cornell got to do that thing with his voice, at the coda of the song, live? he does mild karate chops to his throat for that desired effect. gila. #1 zero saw morello shredding on his soul power (he shredded in some of his RATM songs anyway). we were like, whoa. this man is no one-trick pony. and i think they played man or animal. i think. hehe.

cornell was thanking the audience for showing their support and paid respects to the fans that believed in their music. i do hope they will still go on. having a sophomore effort reaffirms the possibility that this amalgamation ain't just for show to make a quick buck. here's to hoping. cornell then made fun of the people seated at the balcony section. "stand the fuck UP!!!". he didn't just asked them to do that for no reason.

power chords, followed by that bassline. and the cowbells.

killing in the name was the pinnacle of the evening's performance. even the old(er) fogeys rocked. cornell pulled it off quite well. the angst that was zack de la rocha wasn't there (when i saw RATM, the people in the moshpit had bleeding noses), but we didn't care a bit. morello abusing his maple-necked tele for the solo wasn't a tiring sight to behold.

"fuck you! i won't do what you tell me!"

and the crowd obliged with the "muthafucka!" reply with much aplomb. great or what.

the palm-muted helicopter riff followed suit. cochise was just ace. cornell wasn't as garang as lmsn. great song but it didn't match the intensity of killing. then again they need to finish with an audioslave song, i suppose. hahaha. they really know how to wrap a rocking show.

hands down, the best gig i've been to this year (sorry, clapton and friends).

_____________________________
resolutions made, post-audioslave gig:

1. body macam cornell

2. increase lower limb strength to leap like morello

3. get a sunburst jazz bass with black pickguards (i heard they alter the tone. hahahaha) and a maple fingerboard

the first two is achievable~~, on top of the incentive of eyeing up the three new female personal trainers,~~ at the gym. the third one? well. i need to learn the skills of bank robbery first.

____________________________
kepada sesiapa yang berminat, sila klik noktah di bawah ini untuk satu surprise.
.

Tesco presents (?)...

2005-06-06T00:27:00.000+01:00

now i don't feel too bad missing the DEWA gig at the KL tower.

Sangap

2005-06-05T02:27:00.000+01:00

one late summer's night, outside stephenson hall.

eh, chord dia A minor kan?

"Pada semua...
Rindu... rindu serindu-rindunya
Namun engkau tak mengerti
Pilu... pilu sepilu-pilunya..."

beb, tak best. main yang ni la.

chord apa?

A minor.

"Menanti...
Di mahligai mainan
Kita bina bersama
Dari dahan yang rapuh..."

eh. bosan lah. tu kangkang punya zaman tu. baik main ni.

A minor jugak aku rasa ni.

"Engkau bagai air yang jernih
Di dalam bekas yang berdebu
Zahirnya kotoran itu terlihat
Kesucian terlinding jua..."

kangkang konon. kasi A minor lagi?

"Semasa...
berjalan-jalan..."

______________________
selamat hari jadi, bro'!

Waaah...

2005-06-04T03:31:00.000+01:00

...you banyak pandai urut aaa nancy?

_______________________________
i am not familiar with frank miller's work at all. in the times i ventured into forbidden planet, i've seen miller's batman covers and sin city. the past twenty years, after comics (or graphic novels, ahem!) have undergone a renaissance, where it's no longer simple stories of a caped crusader ka-poWW-ing raccoon-masked robbers of the city's first national bank, you need to be a fan to really keep yourself up-to-date with the titles you have out there. we went to watch the film late last night. i was going to simply watch ~~jessica alba gyrate her sweet tush~~ ~~devon aoki wield her katanas~~ ~~jaime (ex-james) king in the buff~~ what robert rodriguez and frank miller (with some help from QT!) had conjured up. three partially non-linear stories set in basin city, showed in the way as you see in the comics. it's a real-life ultra-violent comic book story that just blew my mind away. i've never felt this stoked while watching a film. machine gun-wielding prostitutes, woman-eating taxidermists (elijah wood as you've never seen before!) and better jaw prosthetics than those seen in the days of dick tracy.

i won't say anything more. seriously, go watch it (or get the durian if you're in malaysia, as i heard the film is banned).

It's not the east or the west side!

2005-06-02T00:04:00.000+01:00

if you haven't seen this, check it out, homies. just click on the darth dude.

_______________________________
addendum: i know there's a lot of star wars-related short videos out there, but this one is cute! (cheers, dzamir!).

Life of Pi

2005-05-31T18:30:00.000+01:00

i've done it. on the train to london this past weekend.

i've finished yann martel's eponymous life of pi.

i started reading it on new year's day. the story, as reviewed by many, was well written. piscine patel was one intelligent kid. the kind of kid who'd probably do a theology PhD in oxford at the age of 15. he had a discerning approach to his understanding of religion despite his apparent naivete. although i don't agree with embracing all the religions at once (it's just a story lah), the point about understanding everyone's difference was superbly made. the story as it goes on is graphically narrated. being in a boat with a friggin' bengal tiger is something you need to see to believe. i have to say as a hypocritical animal lover (ie. non-vegetarian), i find the savagery towards cute animals like turtles and meerkats objectionable. if i was on a lifeboat, i'd probably die within 7 days. i did, in fact, stop reading it for a good month or so until i started to continue on recently.

i had mixed feelings when i read this tome, from fascination to disgust, after which i became curious when he got on the algae-ladened isle, and finally, an unexpected surprise. rumour has it a film will be made (just when i was about to say don't do one - non-vegetarian animal-lover talking here) by either shyamalan (as the king of film twists, he'll do nicely) or cuaron. i'll just say that i didn't exactly feel good about what happened in the story, apart from the ending which had me grinning like a right idjit on the train. this just shows, i suppose, what a bloody good writer martel is.

click here for the promo of the book.