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I stood under the hot afternoon sun, ran in the rain, had my ass (almost) baked while taking shelter right next to a BBQ pit - all for the love of music. Twelve freaking hours of live music, at that. I was at the Sunburst KL International Music Festival in Bukit Kiara, last weekend.

When we arrived, the sky was still clear and there was good sunlight. We were made to stand outside the entrance while the officials checked bags and stuff. It was also clearly stated that no recording devices were permissible but it turned out that nobody actually gave a damn.
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The 2008 Quiksilver Revolution 2.0 at the Sunway Lagoon’s surf beach saw some of the world’s best boarding actions performed on and off beach, much to the enjoyment of the appreciative Malaysian youths who mostly turned up revealing more skin than they usually do on normal days. It was a wicked beach party!

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His leading role in Brokeback Mountain earned him an Oscar nomination. One of his most recent movies was Casanova, I remember I watched that. He was also to appear as The Joker in the upcoming Batman installment, The Dark Knight. But one cannot forget his role as Patrick Verona in 10 Things I Hate About You…

What a tragic loss, indeed. Farewell, Heath Ledger.

During my recent visit to a Speedy Video outlet, I heard a very nice song being played and I fell in love with it immediately! The vocals, lyrics, and melody… simply captivating. The title of the song is “Melawan Kesepian”, which can be literally translated into English as “Overcoming Loneliness”. It is sung by none other than Malaysia’s pop darling, Datuk Siti Nurhaliza.

Below are the lyrics. I also figured out the chords for the song, just in case any musically-inclined readers would like to try playing the song on the piano or a guitar. I must stress that this is completely my own interpretation, and you’re free to take it only as a reference. I think it’s pretty accurate though, hehe.

Title: Melawan Kesepian
Performed by: Siti Nurhaliza
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I left my office slightly early and even braced the pouring rain to get to the KL Convention Center for the acoustic installment of Live and Loud KL 2007 last Thursday. Dayang Nurfaizah, Rick Price and James Morrison were to perform that night - acoustic style. There is something about me and acoustic performances. I enjoy listening to clean, undistorted sounds of the acoustic guitar and piano.

It rained so heavily that evening but thankfully the traffic wasn’t that bad. The toughest hurdle I encountered was the floods. Water levels were so high that my car could easily pass as an amphibian vehicle. I once read that in order to prevent your car from breaking down in a flood, you gotta shift to low gear, keep the revs high and steadily drive through the water. I forgot why, but that’s what I did. I couldn’t risk missing the show. Of course lah, I paid for it mah!
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In what may be his final world concert tour, Jacky Cheung put up a superb performance at the national stadium in Bukit Jalil last night. We were initially worried that he might not be able to perform because he canceled two concerts recently due to a bout of flu. As it turned out, he not only recovered in time, but also pumped in 110% into the 3-hour-plus concert.

This photo was snapped using my phone, and it’s probably the only clear photo taken during the concert as I didn’t bring along my camera. We were not supposed to bring one, anyway! One of the best features in the concert was the computer graphics displayed on the giant screen, as part of the stage’s backdrop. The picture was very clear and crisp, with occasional animations which blended very effectively with the music.
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Damn, I abandoned my blog for almost one week! Been a little busy, but surprisingly, all are non-work-related. I’ve been doing some other stuff, after my working hours. You won’t be interested to know anyway ;p Oh, I’ll be going to watch Jacky Cheung live at Bukit Jalil stadium (outdoor) tomorrow, and here’s one of his old songs which I like very much…:

It’s called the Ageless Legend. I look forward to the concert, it’s a huge relief for me as I have been having one helluva rollercoaster-week!

Update @ 2241hrs, Sept 15: Write-up of the concert is now up!

Nothing much going on during this weekend, except that I happened to have entry passes to MY FM’s 9th anniversary celebrations concert, which took place in the Arena of Stars, Genting Highlands, last night. To the uninitiated, MY FM is the most popular Chinese-language radio station in Malaysia, with listenership of more than 2 million in year 2006. You must be surprised that I actually listen to some Chinese songs as well.

Well my spectrum of musical preference is pretty broad, I’d say (much unlike what my nickname ‘Narrowband’ suggests). Remember I told you about my growing up listening to alternative rock? I later began tuning in to Chinese radio stations and like they say, the rest is history.
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I listen to all kinds of music, but acoustic, live, or instrumental tracks are my favorite. I like the ‘rawness’ of the music - purely composed of acoustic sounds without any kind of sound engineering (except maybe amplification). I guess you can call me a minimalist. Remember I mentioned about a rare track I kept in my dead harddisk? Fortunately, I have a copy of it in my phone. Some of you may have heard it before when I put it up on my old blog years ago. Let me share it here with you now, my all-time favorite instrumental piece:

I can loop the song an infinite number of times and still won’t get sick of it. I wish I could play like that :(. I don’t know who the pianist is, though. It’s actually based on an original song, sung by Utada Hikaru. It’s called Final Distance, if I’m not mistaken. The CD (from which this song was supposedly taken) had only 3 tracks, all instrumental piano pieces (including Can You Keep a Secret - but I don’t have that song anymore). It’s no use trying to search for the piano score - I’ve had people asking me where to find it (one even offered me $$!).

I can’t even find the CD online. Anyway, tell me you love it :)

Alex, JW and I drove down to Seremban on Sunday to meet up with LW, Jin and Hui. It was an unplanned trip and that made it all the more exciting. Among the places we went to was the Jusco in Seremban 2. It was damn crowded, ok. The cars caused a jam outside the mall. To make matters worse, Jusco didn’t allow anymore cars inside its carpark. Parking was hell. Didn’t know Seremban was so happening. Kinda felt like I was in Midvalley or something. Anyway, I stumbled upon something in Speedy Video.

Wow!!! This album certainly caught my attention because of its unique packaging. I thought someone left his Buku Latihan on the shelf (check out the ’school emblem’, lol)! I picked up the album and took a closer look. To my delight, I felt the album was a perfect representation of my kind of music! When I was in school, I listened to and played a lot of alternative rock music. I had a band in school - we called ourselves MILF. No, not inspired by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, but something else (hehe). We played at school functions, talent contests and the prom. When we jammed, it was always alternative rock (actually we called it ‘modern rock’ back then).

The album came in two CDs, and priced at only RM47.90. I really love the way the album was packaged, so old-school (pun intended)! The Buku Latihan-design plus the track listing quickly reminded me of my schooling days. Among the notable tracks in the CD that we used to jam were All The Small Things (Blink 182), Semi-Charmed Life (3EB), Everything You Want (Vertical Horizon), Blurry (Puddle of Mudd), Shimmer (Fuel), Push (Matchbox 20), Hanging By A Moment (Lifehouse), Wherever You Will Go (The Calling), Absolutely (Story of a Girl) (Nine Days), Til I Hear It From You (Gin Blossoms), The Freshmen (The Verve Pipe), Runaway Train (Soul Asylum), and Don’t Look Back in Anger (Oasis).

Those are my favorite songs. Well, to narrow down (hehe…), I particularly like Semi-Charmed Life, Shimmer, Push, The Freshmen, Runaway Train and Don’t Look Back in Anger. When I was in university, my housemates probably got bored with my playing the guitar while singing to some of these timeless tunes, again and again, lol (especially Freshmen and Semi-Charmed Life). Too bad they were not exactly in the same ‘wavelength’ as me.

Ok, back to the School of Rock album; other tracks worthy of a mention are Video Killed the Radio Star (Presidents of the USA), Buddy Holly (Weezer), Everything About You (Ugly Kid Joe), Walking on the Sun (Smash Mouth), Last Resort (Papa Roach), Kryptonite (3 Doors Down), Anthem of the Year 2000 (Silverchair), One Headlight (The Wallflowers) [omg this is one timeless track!], Bitch (Meredith Brooks), You Get What You Give (New Radicals), and Alright (Supergrass). So, are you familiar with these tracks? Between 1993 and 2002, were you listening to the same music as I was? If yes, then we’re in resonance!

Footnote: No I didn’t buy the CD. I have most of those songs in MP3… lol. But kudos to the team who designed the packaging, really. It instantly took me back to high school!