i_want_a_djembe's Xanga

Gigs Gigs Gigs

Thu, 01 May 2008 15:40:04 GMT

Natalya.

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 13:09:32 GMT

- Listened to B-Quartet's new album. It is vely good. Well produced and a fine example of a band that thinks past its live setup, a trap many of us fall in. Having said that I wonder what their live sets are like. Check them out here.

- I came back home last night, turned on the TV and stumbled upon Superman Returns. After watching it the 2nd time around (I found my first viewing a tad boring), I have to say that I liked the direction. The shots, the lines, the small things.

- Speaking of comic book heroes coming to the silver screen, I just watched an extended Iron Man trailer and I have to be honest, I can't wait. Shoot me I'm a robot/mecha fan.

- My 'How-to-get-a-girlfriend-laidis' vices (as termed by Az the Cupcake) have returned full force. I spent RM260 on pieces of plastic and paper last week. For friends of the 'how-to-get-a-girlfriend-laidis' global effort, 'plastic and paper' translates into the following:

Ultimate X-Men trade paperbacks #16 and #17 (Ben Oliver is my new favorite artist)

Revoltech Series Hot Rod

Star Wars: Legacy Book 1

4 K-T Transformers Collection Figures (I have the whole series now ho ho ho)

I've also increased my regular anime-watching palette:
Gundam 00 (newest Gundam series to hit the franchise)

Transformers: Animated (this kicks royal ass if you're a TF-fan)

- Moonshine is happening next week after having a bit of a break. There's some changes in the works in regards to series and I'll keep you posted with updates as they happen. For now check out the April edition. You can also get more info here.

- I just checked out the new Butterfingers video. Click here to watch it.

- Me and a colleague were listening to a band yesterday and we couldn't help pointing out well known Western acts everytime we heard a specific riff or arrangement. Couldn't help it:

*listens*
Irman: Very Jeff Buckley
Me: Meets Radiohead
Me: With bits of Silverchair
Irman: Really?
Me: Yea. Wait for it......there.
Irman: Oh yea. This band sounds different now. They used to be quite Dream Theater.
Me: Oh they still are here and there.
*rock kangkang part comes in*
Irman: Oh yea.
*distinctive brit rock drum fill comes in*
Irman: Suddenly very Great Spy Experiment
Me: Hahaha. Oh the vocalist does this thing sometimes where he...uh...sounds like...
Irman: What?
Me: Kermit
Irman: Huh? The frog?
Me: Yea
*waits for vocal bit*
Irman: Is that it?
Me: Yea.
*listens on*
Irman: Crap now all I can imagine is Kermit singing with his muppet face. Thanks a lot.
Me: Sorry.

- I finished watching Hostel today and have started watching Hostel: Part II. Gruesome gruesome gruesome. I read that the Slovakian government (it's set in Slavakia) actually offered Eli Roth (the director) and all-expenses paid trip to Slovakia to disapprove the negative outlook projected by the movie. On a less horror-inspired note, Barbara Nedeljakova who plays one of the girls in the movie (and who's very liberal with the idea of wearing clothes) is hot.

The end

My Sunburst Experience And Meeting DJ Killjoy.

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 12:50:41 GMT

Things started off way before the actual festival, when I was asked to play the first pre-event show at Pavilion, KL. I played alongside soul crooner Najwa and mega indie act Hujan. Playing with Hujan is always good coz that means I can tumpang their crowd :-p

The night before the festival I attended and performed at the Sunburst Cocktail Party at the Ritz Carlton. Razman (main dude for Pineapple Concerts) asked me and Najwa to sing a bit that night and he asked to recommend a third act. I said Yuna. He said ok. She was so good John Legend's manager spoke to her after. Najwa was so good she got the diaper dude from George Clinton's band rambling about how kickass she was.

The DJ from Incubus was walking around so I decided to go up and get a picture with him:

Reza: Hey Killjoy!
Killjoy: *nods in acknowledgment*
Reza: Do you mind if I get a picture with you?
Killjoy: Yea sure man.
Reza: Cool. I listened to you guys growing up man.
Killjoy: Oh that's cool man.
*snaps photo*
Reza: Yea thanks for the picture man.
Killjoy: No problem
*later*
Reza: Eh I think I wanna pass him the March issue of Junk la. It has his face on it after all.
Melina: Yea yea do it. And while you're at it, slip my CD into it (Melina fronts Tempered Mental)
Reza: Oh great idea. Ok lah I'll slip in mine too.
*waits for Killjoy to be free*
Reza: Hey man...
Killjoy: Do you mind if I go to the toilet one sec?
Reza: Oh yea sure ( - _ - )
*looks around and catches quite a number of skanky hos giving me the evil eye*
*Killjoy comes back out, nods at me*
Reza: Hey man, I work for this mag and I wanted to give you a copy, seeing that you're on it.
Killjoy: Oh yea we get these in our dressing rooms
Reza: .......oh..uh...ok, well I also have these...
*opens mag to get cds out, which decide to wonderfully drop to the floor*
Reza:..................
*bends down to get them*
Reza: Yea here just wanted to pass these to you, if you ever feel like listening to new stuff
Killjoy: Oh yea I'll take those....*looks at both cds and puts them in his back pocket*
Reza: Yea I'm playing tomorrow too.
Killjoy: Oh yea? What time?
Reza: 930 at the Hitz stage
Killjoy: Oh cool. I'll come check you out
Reza: Cool. *yea right you will*
*walks away a happy camper*
Reza: I gave 'em to him!
Melina: Yea I saw. Nice one!
Reza:..........Wait a minute...crap. I think I've been calling him Killjoy all this while.
Melina: Whaaatttt???

The DJ for Incubus is Chris Kilmore aka DJ Kilmore

( - _ - )

The day itself was a long one. I was up at 9AM and I only got home at 6AM. Nice huh. Had to set up the Junk booth which took longer than expected due to organiser delays. It started off ok, with people streaming in and checking out the early acts. I got to see a bit of Tompi's set which was awesome. He did this helium-sounding scat solo battle with his lead guitarist that just blew me away. He's played here before at Alexis but I never got a chance to see him.

It started raining and thank god I had decided to be at the Junk booth at the time. Meng and the rest of LMB's set was in the thick of it but I still saw fans with umbrellas layan-ing them. Bless their souls. Hujan was ok, I've definitely heard them play better sets. May have been the sound system.

George Clinton was nice but waaay too long. He played so long that he pushed everyone back, foiling my plans of being in between The Roots and John Legend. Damn you George. I spent my set looking at the big screen with The Roots on it while I was playing. Only managed to catch their last song.

Thanks to everyone who came to my stage. I was quite taken aback by all the people. Didn't think there would be so many who didn't who The Roots were =) Anyway I wasn't gonna risk it by saying that. Takut ppl just didn't realise haha. John Legend was awesome, but I was a bit disappointed by Incubus. Yea they played a lot of old songs which was great, but something about their set lacked punch. I think I was subconsciously feeling less of Mike's playing coz I know he just recovered from surgery. Had to adjust his playing style and all that.

I stayed till the end, packed up and waited for Hanafi (poor Estranged had to play last due to scheduling issues). A bunch of us hung out at Hartamas and somehow I ended up at home at 5.30AM.

I never slept better.

More shots from my photographer for the day, Cris, soon.

Choices choices choices

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 04:17:53 GMT

I received an add request on my MySpace today. It was from a guy (?) named 'si lelaki' and the profile pic attached shows a guy hugging a tiang.

'si lelaki' wants to be your friend it says. ( - _ - ).

I normally accept just anybody on MySpace these days, using it purely as a marketing tool rather than a social networking site and yet I hesitate. Why can't you use a regular name like Rahman or Bob. Si lelaki just sounds dodgy. Ok it doesn't la, but the hugging the tiang thing doesn't help.

Hmm. Mc'Donald's or Chinese vegetarian food for lunch? I love both but the former only requires movement in one part of my body (they deliver). So much for healthy living. This may be the reason why everytime fast food arrives at the office all my colleagues point at me without even asking. Damn them all. I eat healthy stuff you know. Sometimes. I may have had something healthy last October. That's not too bad. I'll stop now.

I had to choose easy songs to play for my slot at Mosaic this Wednesday (8.45PM, Nokia Powerhouse Stage, The Esplanade, Singapore) coz Melina (who plays bass for me) is playing a well deserved slot at the Canadian Music Week with her band Tempered Mental. Super ace bassist Ken Chong is filling but we only managed to squeeze in one practice. Scary. Should be ok la. He's super kow good.

I, like many other Malaysians, made a choice last Saturday. The results were historical. Not since 1969 has there been such a takeover (even then it was just Kelantan and Penang) by the Opposition. This time around BN lost FIVE states. Including mine. Well its about time for a wake-up call and some change.

It's going to be an interesting year.

Oh and if you're going to Sunburst at the end of the week, do drop by the Era Stage at 9.30PM. I'll be playing right. You can check out the full schedule here.

I'm chatting online with a friend about how we're both picky when it comes to going out with the opposite sex. Open, but picky. My best friend recently analysed 2 recent romantic pursuits and shook her head at the logic applied in both. I've made funny choices in the past. It seems that love (or the pursuit of it) does funny things to your brain.

I think my McDonald's just arrived.

Agrhhprapfjfpof

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 02:33:25 GMT

Things that irk me right now:

- People that speak in a foreign language in the immediate presence of someone who does not speak said language. It's rude.

- People who have no tact and tak malu. Have some dignity and grace la.

- Shady people. I can smell shady. I met someone shady yesterday and I could smell him a mile away. It didn't help that he was a self-absorbed egotestical (yes testical) idiot.

- Being ffk-ed for the 278th time.

You know you need to start exercising when this happens:

*sitting peacefully in popular music venue*

Head waiter: Eh Reja (he's foreign) how are you long time no see. Waah you fat now!
Reja: ........

*later*

Venue owner: Eh how are you! Wah you put on some weight ah...
Reja: ..........

*stops waiter later on*

Reja: Eh...am I fat ah now?
Waiter: Huh? (he's foreign too)
Reja: Fat...gemuk
Waiter: Oh ya...*thumbs up*
Reja: ...........................

Things that rock my socks:
- The Loaf's sugar raisin buns
- The way Bob Dylan sounds like Mr. Burns
- Ellen Page Ellen Page Ellen Page
- Listening to my band
- Blank CD-Rs
- Rambo 4
- Chicks who dig Rambo 4. Except cupcake coz she's not cool.
- Facebook. All other online marketing channels fade in the distance
- Yuna and Najwa. Both new singer-songwriters and extremely talented.
- 9 ball
- Chinese vegetarian food
- Photoshop

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 19:58:54 GMT

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:29:21 GMT

I find myself looking up random things in Wikipedia these days. Today it was shivs. Don't ask why. Always had a morbid fascination for these jailmade weapons.

What was interesting was that it led me to this.

Papaya

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 10:43:24 GMT

Some of these Facebook apps are getting real annoying.

Today someone sent me the "What kind of fruit are you?" application.

Who the hell cares!!!!

Samosa

Sun, 13 Jan 2008 03:28:55 GMT

I've been trying to catch up on movies these past few weeks.

Warlords was a painful experience, similar to the one outlined in my previous post. Jet Li's armor makes him look like a samosa and the only scene I liked was the one where Andy Lau punches a guy repeatedly in a coffee shop. Not sure why. If I see one more lone tear roll down a medieval general's cheek I'm gonna carbine somebody.

Flower in the Pocket was alright. I have to admit I'm not really used to watching art films. The last film I watched that would fit that category would probably be The Science of Sleep. I felt like I could've have been more affected by plight of the Father but I wasn't. Not sure if it was the super-emotionless acting by the James Lee or maybe I'm just cold-blooded.

Hmm. Maybe the that was the point, to remind me that I was cold-blooded.

I did have an issue regarding the synopsis though. My friend who got us tickets had a leaflet with the synopsis in Chinese and English. The thing is the Chinese version had text about the practice of placing a flower in your pocket if your Mother dies. The English one didn't. I think I would have appreciated that info before watching the movie, having no idea what the whole significance of the flower is up till the time when my friend translated the Chinese synopsis later. Oh well.

Check out one of the promo clips. They're hilarious =)

I watched Atonement (the site takes awhile to load) the other day, a movie based on the novel by Ian McEwan. Quite a terrer book, it got shortlisted for the 2001 Booker Prize for fiction and is listed in Time magazine's ALL-TIME 100 Greatest Novels list.

The movie itself was beautifully made. Emotionally engaging and intense, it had a seamless soundtrack woven into it and a nice lil' twist at the end. I particularly liked how they cut the whole thing, making the storrytelling very effective. Apparently it did the book justice.

Others movies on my short-term list:
The Kingdom
American Gangster

Being the mecha fan that I am I also bought Mobile Suit Gundam Z II: A New Translation

So many movies so little time...

It's coming soon.

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 03:33:07 GMT

I steel my face as I await the next flash of pain, hoping to the heavens this next one won't be as bad as the last. I don't think I can take anymore. I shift in my seat and tighten my grip, too busy to notice how white my knuckles are.

Here it comes.

Like a swarm of knives the pain is almost unbearable. I cry out in pain despite myself, shouting jumbled nothings, anything to channel it out. People start to look at me, or at least I think they do. I make out the turning in my line of sight. Not so far now.

Dammit! They're blocking my way. These demons of alloy and carbon. Built to help but in the end dictating the flow of our people. Curse them.

Just as the last scrap of hope escapes me an opening appears. With lightning speed I descend upon it with all my petrol fueled strength. Will I make it?

I say a silent prayer.

I make it through.

Like the light at the end of a tunnel, I see my salvation.

Gritting my teeth against the never-subsiding pain, I return to liberate myself.

...
...
...

God its so hard to tahan your berak while stuck in a jam.