Yesterday I come across a very nice song in a movie (guess?), thanks to Duncan.

[audio:dreams_on_fire.mp3]

You are my waking dream
You’re all that’s real to me
You are the magic in the world I see

You are the prayer I sing
You brought me to my knees
You are the faith that made me believe

Dreams on fire
Higher and higher
Passions burning
Right on the pyre

Once for, forever yours
In me
All your heart
Dreams on fire
Higher and higher

You are my ocean waves
You are my thought each day
You are the laughter from childhood games

You are the spark of dawn
You are where I belong
You are the ache I feel in every song

Dreams on fire
Higher and higher
Passions burning
Right on the pyre

Once for, forever yours
In me
All your heart
Dreams on fire
Higher and higher

To those of you who have heard this song before, tell me, did you enjoy the movie? I think it was simply brilliant!!

The queue wasn’t that bad. In fact, on the same concourse level, there was another booth selling A-Mei’s concert tickets as well, and it had more people lining up, haha. Interesting observation though it does not mean anything. We joked about attending A-Mei’s one as well because we also love some of her songs. But naw we were more charged up for Jason Mrax’s one instead. We braced the hot sun, packed LRTs, monorails, spoilt escalators and rubbish-filled pedestrian bridges to get to Sungai Wang to take advantage of the 15% discount off the original prices of tics.

Since we were on a roll, we decided to drop by our neighbourhood karaoke joint (again). Crazy stuff. The last time I went for karaoke, it brought me down with a bad throat and subsequently flu and all that nonsense – a flying start to a brand new year. On another note, I think Neway are doing a pretty good job at providing the best facilities and food. Best of all they’re located in neighbourhoods hehe. That makes them so conveniently accessible to bored patrons who would otherwise stay home and rot. Most other karaoke joints are in shopping complexes.

Anyway, after a day’s labour..

Have you gotten yours?

Now to add to my babilicious collection, I’ve just gotten mself the Takamine GS330S. One of the most affordable, mid-range acoustic guitar that produces a sound like guitars twice its price. It feels expensive too (well since it’s supposed to be a long-term investment… it should be!).

It comes with a hard case, which is a standard package. The case can also be locked, perfect for traveling. Inside the case were silica gels, manuals, warranty – stuff that makes it worth the petrol I burnt in getting to the store.

The matte-finish of the nato sides and back. The neck though is made of mahogany. I was trying on another model at the store, which had colours like green and red (a little glossy finish)… I didn’t like them. Greens and reds reminds me of guitars you can get off shelves in bookstores.

The bridge, nothing really fancy. The saddle is just right for ‘medium-action’, which is suitable for most/general playing. ‘Action’ here, generally speaking, refers to the distance between the strings – usually around fret 12 – and the fingerboard.

The strings. The store also bundled in a second set of new EMP strings which costs a whopping RM75 a set -_-”. The strings are packaged in a CD case (not like the conventional paper-wrappers). I’ve never owned a set of strings this expensive before!

That’s a very sexy (and expensive) capo but it does not belong to me. The one I used to have cost no more than RM20. The guy at the store accidentally left the capo on my guitar and we both forgot about it until I got home. Sigh.

I really love the sound and feel of the guitar, thanks to the solid cedar top. I’m particularly impressed with the tones in low and high ranges, which are way better than the current Fender acoustic I’m playing. The medium action also makes it very comfortable for plucking.

Shorttalk: I’ve been doing a number of things – playing my guitar included – lately, taken thousands of photos in two weeks, alot of flash photography… and I’m now actually nursing a bad throat. I watched MTV Asia Awards on TV and I thought it was damn AWESOME!

Shorttalk2: Note to self – Pls refrain from blogging at work in future.

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.

We were first greeted by a super-rock cover of Rihanna’s Umbrella, performed by Y2k. It was mind-blowing! They also goreng’ed Sean Kingston’s Beautiful Girls… It was kinda funny, but it rocked nonetheless. Pop Shuvit had their go after Indonesia’s Gigi, just before Hujan.

When it was almost Hujan‘s turn to perform, it started to pour cats and dogs. That was when everyone scrambled for shelter. Luckily, I wore a boardie and brought along a pair of beach thongs. Just in case we run into rainburst, you know. Who’d know? The words on this poster say it all…:

Despite the rain, the show went on, of course. The ironic Sunburst umbrellas (RM35 each) were selling like hot cakes. I heard that all the umbrella-ella-ella-ellas on sale were snapped up that afternoon. It would have been cool if we partied in the rain though.

As soon as the rain reduced to a drizzle, we went over to the stage for George Clinton and The Parliament Funkadelic. They were funky alright, music and fashion.. totally wicked stuff! They had everybody singing “We want the funk!” which sounded kinda wrong if you didn’t pay close attention.

Raul Midon… geez, his guitar playing skill was really fascinating. Using only an acoustic guitar, he made the song sounded like a real R&B track. As a guitarist myself, I thought it was totally amazing! I recorded a video with my phone, but I’ll put it up here later…

The party sorta intensified after nightfall… no prizes for guessing why…

The crowd just went wild! It doesn’t get any more old school than that… The Roots played around about 8-9 tracks that night (maybe more, lol, I didn’t count). Honestly I didn’t listen to them much while growing up, just heard of them before!

And guess what, during the concert there was fireworks! I quote Duncan “This is how concerts are supposed to be!!!”. Awesomeness…

During one of the intervals (no I’m not telling whose show I skipped) we went and checked out some performances elsewhere. We bought ourselves dinner too. That was when these two Tuborg girls came over…

I gotta thank Duncan, for this. Dude why didn’t you let me repay you by shooting you and them…. The other girl was actually slightly prettier and taller but she didn’t look her best in the photo so… let’s just make do with this one :p

It turned out that Dee Lern and Duncan were more interested in topless, fire-eating men instead…

John Legend was certainly one of the biggest highlights of the night. Guys cheered for him, the chicks dig him… There was just so much screaming. That’s not all… he invited one lucky fan up on stage…

… to, supposedly, do a slow dance. I dunno who was luckier, but the lady looked like she enjoyed herself very much!!! Mind you, Johnny was all soaked in sweat… I think girls find that sexy. Hmm… interesting.

Here’s an example of something you could do while waiting for the next artiste to perform. U’huh.

Incubus kinda overtook Search in the artiste-line up… I don’t know what happened, but I think everyone was happy. Incubus was simply phenomenal. The crowd was jumping mad.

My only gripe is that they did not play Pardon Me. That’s when I first heard of Incubus, many years back. I even learned to play that song acoustic style. I kinda lost touch with Incubus over the years, but I like their music style. It’s unique, and I love the sound effects that they use.

The whole event last some 12 hours, from 2pm – 2am, and I must admit I didn’t know all the artistes that performed. But music is a universal language, and that day was a celebration of great music, whatever the language and genre. Good music knows no boundaries, right? And uhm, as much as I wanted to support local artistes… I was damn sleepy after Incubus’ show. We headed home happeeee…

I’d like to thank Duncan for inviting me to the concert. I had never experienced so many hours of live music before. LOL… I came home with an annoying buzz in my ear which went like “Eeeeeeeeeeeeee…………..”

Have a great week ahead, everyone!

P/s. I know, I know… Many people had told me to update my site. Haha… well, here *is* an update. I have been really busy lately. I’ve lots to tell but I’ll only publish them when I’m ready. I’m accumulating alotta drafts now hehe.

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!

A huge crowd was already queuing up outside the concert hall when we arrived. Duncan, Dee Lern and I stood for about half an hour before Sat and Lingster came and joined us. Neither of us brought a camera. And I was kicking myself in the behind for not bringing my baby along. Apparently, still photos were allowed but video recordings were not. I saw a couple of people with bigass DSLRs, which would have dwarfed my baby had I brought it along with me.

Didn’t bump into anybody familiar, but the next morning Mademoiselle Moy told me told me that she saw someone who “looked like” me at the concert, and asked if I was there -_-”. The concert started with Dayang Nurfaizah belting out a couple of jazzy tunes, including some from her new album. Despite not knowing any of her songs, I must say that she put up a splendid performance that night. Her songs was pretty good actually. It was also the only time the drum set was used.

Rick Price was the second artiste to perform. It was almost without a doubt that everyone, including myself, was looking forward to hearing him perform one song in particular, the song that we all knew and loved. Here’s an audio clip of that song, recorded live and acoustic using my trusty phone (listen to how much the participative audience loved it):-

[audio:lnl_rp.mp3]

At least one person screamed “Heaven Knows!!” when Rick was still not done with his other songs. He played mostly songs that were close to his heart, in particular the song he wrote for his son, and the songs related to the place where he lived and grew up. Rick actually responded to that by saying “We’ll get there baby, we’ll get there”, much to the amusement of the audience!

Finally, it was James Morrison’s turn, but not before a long break where we thought there was a problem with the audio systems. The audience was already getting restless due to the delay. James started singing at about 11pm. Not that we hadn’t been warned anyway… our tickets clearly stated “8:00pm – LATE”. James was a soulful performer, in that he completely immersed himself in his music as he sang. His unique voice and style, kinda drove the women (and some men, too) crazy that night. Here’s The Pieces Don’t Fit Anymore, recorded during the concert:-

[audio:lnl_jm.mp3]

Awesome stuff, awesome stuff. You could just feel his music when he sings, totally engaging. He played most of his songs from his album Undiscovered, plus some covers. James was a funny guy with a wicked sense of humor, which was also a great delight to the audience. There was an encore too, just as everyone was readily leaving the hall! Kinda funny, but we welcomed the encore nonetheless. Most of us were already standing near the stage, about to exit. James ended the show with Last Goodbye, sung to a group of tired but otherwise appreciative crowd.

There was one thing that irked me that night – the visual coverage of the show. The cameramen did a poor job in providing live visuals to the audience. There were two big projector screens but the cameras failed to capture what mattered most. When Rick played the piano, the cameraguy had to peer through some obstructions just to capture Rick’s face. And there wasn’t even any camera placed at an angle where we could see the piano keys (WTH~)! At one point, I think the cameraguy dozed off or something because James’ face was off-focused to the bottom of the screen – for at least 10 seconds. Dee Lern said to me “How’s that for ‘camera angle’?”.

The visuals aside, thank goodness the music was good. At least the artistes did everything right, and we were well entertained. I look forward to Live and Loud KL being made an annual event!

P/s: All photos and recordings are taken using a Nokia N95. More photos can be found on Duncan’s fotopages.

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.

Jacky Cheung gave a short introduction about his musical career and guess what, he’s been singing for as long as I live – 23 years. He’s 46 now, but his voice never seemed to have aged at all. He talked about his musical journey, the tragic year of 2003 in Hong Kong showbiz, and his family. He’s married with two daughters, and he has composed and written songs for his wife and daughters, which I thought was schweeet!!

He then sang the songs he wrote for his wife, gong nei ji (讲妳知 (Cantonese) – Let You Know) and daughter, zai ni shen bian (在你身边 – By Your Side). Personally, I like his slower songs because his vocals can be better appreciated – there’s something magical about his voice that I think is what makes him the best singer among the sei dai tin wong (四大天王 – 4 Heavenly Kings).

He also made reference to us Malaysians, saying that we know Cantonese as good as Mandarin, which was received with a loud cheer from all in the stadium. Indeed, we’re very fortunate in that sense, I think. One of his best Cantonese songs was mui tin ngoi nei doh yat seh (每天爱你多一些 – Loving you more each day), and obviously, the fans loved it. The whole stadium sang along! After that, he sang another super-hit, wen bie (吻别 – Kiss goodbye), which was in Mandarin.

Many non-Chinese speakers may have heard wen bie sung in English lyrics, by Michael Learns to Rock (titled Take me to your heart) in recent years. That’s because MLTR re-made the song and changed it to English. In the concert, Jacky also threw in a small part of his hit classical musical xue lang hu (雪狼湖 – Snow, wolf and lake), as well as ru guo ai (如果爱 – Perhaps love). He danced, acted and sang during the play – no wonder his face was soaked in sweat. At one point he even wore – albeit briefly – a thick fur coat. *Tabik*

Among other songs he sang include ji siong yat sang gan nei jau (只想一生跟你走 – I will follow you), yuet bun wan (月半弯 – Half-moon), wo zhen de shou shang le (我真的受伤了 – I’m really hurt), ta lai ting wo de yan chang hui (她来听我的演唱会 – She was at my concert), lei hoi yi hau (离开以后 – After leaving), xin ru dao ge (心如刀割 – Heart pierced by a knife) and a very emotional last-song of the night, zhu fu (祝福 – Well wishes). He also sang songs belonging to other singers, like tian hei hei (天黑黑 – Dark sky), by Sun Yanzi and ai ru chao shui (爱如潮水 – Love like a tide), by Jeff Chang.

Edit@16 Sept, 0115hrs: I actually kinda like what the camera crew was doing, capturing live images of the audience, and project them onto 5 large screens (including the one as the stage’s backdrop) around the stadium. At one point, the cameras began zooming in on couples. Most of them didn’t realize they were on screen until the audience cheered. One of the couples (actually, the man appeared much older; they could well have been father-and-daughter… I couldn’t really tell. No offence to them though, whatever their relationship!) even took advantage of the limelight – the man gave the woman a peck on her cheek! Very apt!

It is worth mentioning that the concert had impressive fireworks as well. No wonder they had to hold the concert outdoors. By the way, it also rained for a while. Jacky actually said that if the rain continued, he would join the fans and get soaked in the rain himself. Well, he was already soaked in sweat, the rain wouldn’t have made much of a difference! Another thing I noticed was, renowned Malaysian violinist Joanne Yeoh was also part of Jacky’s musical band in his world tour concerts. Yeah, suddenly feel abit proud ;).

In a nutshell, I enjoyed the concert… lots and lots! It was worth every penny!

P/s: Btw many people actually walked out when he bade farewell – which was part of an act (he had already mentioned that there would be an encore). The audience started to come back in again after Jacky resumed singing. Kinda funny to see, really… they got punk’d lol.

[audio:jc1.mp3]

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!

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.

Before the concert started, the organizers threw a huge ball to the audience and asked them to try and pass the ball to those seated further behind. It was pretty fun, but it wasn’t as easy as it seemed, as the ball kept spinning at only one place. The game, unfortunately took too much time and they decided to remove the ball and get on with the concert.

Multi-talented Singaporean, Lin Jun Jie (JJ 林俊杰) was the first to perform, and he belted, among others, sha shou (杀手), much to the delight of the fans. Sha shou means ‘killer’ in Mandarin, and if you’re interested, somebody has already Youtubified that song’s music video.

Lin Yu Zhong (Rynn 林宇中), one of Malaysia’s newest and most successful artistes, was also there to sing a few songs, with the most notable one being zhuo mi cang (捉迷藏). Zhuo mi cang is Mandarin for ‘hide-and-seek’. You may also remember him from his beautiful duet with the legendary Sheila Majid, called Melodi, as well as his appearance in a number of Sony Cybershot commercials.

Malaysian Idol 2 winner, Daniel Lee (李吉汉) sang his latest single ni de sheng ri kuai le ma? (你的生日快乐吗? – ‘Are you happy on your birthday?’), which was refreshing considering I had listened to him singing fei (飞 – ‘Fly’) almost too many times already. There was also this ‘water-screen effect’ during his performance, which was pretty cool I must say. However, the audience got wet too as the ceiling was spraying water all over. I still don’t know if that was part of the act, or a case of bocor (leakage).

Sabah-boy, Chao Ge (Gary 曹格) was absolutely a crowd-favorite. You may have heard his super-voice for the first time when he remade Karyn White’s Superwoman, which instantly propelled him to stardom. He sang several songs last night, one of which was Superman, taken from his latest album of the same name. He also sang the late Frank Sinatra’s My Way, which was an incredible display of his vocal prowess. You may check out his version of My Way on Youtube, recorded during an appearance on Taiwan’s Guess Guess Guess TV show (我猜我猜我猜猜猜).

Admittedly, I was a little disappointed with the lack of female singers in this year’s concert. So when Liang Jing Ru (Fish 梁静如) finally came on, I was beyond happy. The Kuala Pilah-born singer sang a lively nuan nuan (暖暖 – ‘Warm’), as well as her latest Cantonese number, yuan lai ni ye chang guo wo de ge (原来你也唱过我的歌 – ‘You have sung my song’). It was the only non-Mandarin song performed in the concert.

Liang Jing Ru also sang a duet with Zhang Dong Liang (Nicholas 张栋梁), who had earlier sung ru guo (如果 – ‘If’) and wang zi (王子 – ‘Prince’) himself. The duet piece, which was an immensely popular track titled zai wo shen ming zhong de mei yi tian (在我生命中的每一天 – ‘Every moment in my life’), was first made popular by Su Hui Lun (Tarcy 苏慧伦) and Jackie Chan (成龙), many, many years ago. The audience erupted in applause when the two singers held hands in the middle of the song. Hmm.

Other stars who also performed were Chen Ren Feng (Quincy 陈仁丰), Cai Min You (Evan 蔡旻佑), Zeng Guo Hui (曾国辉), Chen Shi An (Andrew 陈世安) and the Astro Talent Quest’s top 3 winners. There’d be too much to write if I were to mention everyone. The concert had a ‘Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs’ theme, with their DJ, Vivian as Snow White, whereas the rest, including newcomer Jojo, had their own roles and characters.

While it was obvious that everyone put in tremendous effort in making the event a successful one, crowd management, however, was extremely poor. The fact that a group of audience was forced to stand throughout the whole show due to the negligence of the organizers had marred the otherwise an entertaining event.

[audio:audio170707.mp3]

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 :)

I remember it was not all nice and sweet. Four years of knowing each other – surely there were ups as many as there were downs. I recall the times when some of us suffered from a bad day and wouldn’t talk for the rest of the day – sometimes even a few days. But like water, we always made up and got talking again in no time. The guys from upstairs complete the big family and sometimes on certain occasions, we’d all head down to SK town and have ‘dai chow’ (dining in Chinese restaurants) together. I loved it when we’d sit around the table and discuss what dishes to order. We also made it a point to celebrate each other’s birthday every year and that’s one tradition I hope we will not stop practising.

I made a simple slideshow to highlight some of the happiest moments we used to have together throughout the past four years. I’ve produced similar video slideshows in the past but this time it’s a little different. Some of us will be working Penang, some in KL and other parts of the country. Life won’t be the same anymore for many of us, from this month onwards and God knows when we’ll have another outing together again, just like before.

All rights reserved. For the tech-savvy, kindly do not distribute the video without authorized permission!

Moon River, wider than a mile
I’m crossing you in style, someday
Old dream maker, you heartbreaker
Wherever you’re going, I’m going your way

Two drifters, off to see the world
There’s such a lot of world to see
We’re after the same rainbow’s end
Waiting round the bend
My Huckleberry friend
Moon River, and me

Only those whose faces appear in the slideshow would understand the significance of each event, trip and experience we’ve had together. I love you guys lots and lots. I wish all other graduating students (and also a special friend, Cybie, who’ll be leaving for Singapore in pursuit of greener pastures) good luck in your future endeavors. And oh, by the by, Friendster is so last-century (although my account is still active), so bookmark* my blog! Ehe…

*Footnote: I’ve added a humongous (not as big as this one though) RSS button at the top of my sidebar for your convenience.

Similar ‘graduation entries’ elsewhere (from my Blogroll):

1. Satkuru – I would be lying if…
2. Steph – Ended.
3. Phei Phei – Uni ‘s life comes to an end
4. Jynee – A new journey of friendship
5. Chiawyin – Class of 2007!
6. Jiayi – Good Bye
7. Eunice – Road to graduation…
8. Charngyee – Am gonna miss you guys…..
9. EJ – Post-graduation
10. Duncan – Bye bye MMU…Hello World :D