First entry for the year 2007!!! Let me see, where do I start??? Oh yes, let me first of all thank all you people out there who have taken the trouble to send your birthday / Hari Raya Haji / Happy New Year / wedding anniversary greetings to me via sms, MSN, dedications on air, MySpace, Friendster, Multiply, e-mail etc. You know who you are… Really, really do appreciate it!!! Thank you so much!!! Feels so humbling when people remember your birthday, even more so when you get them from people you don’t expect to…
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I know this particular review I’m gonna make is almost 3 weeks late and kinda stale already. I should have included it in my last entry but as you know, that last entry was already too long and I could not have simply squeezed this in as I had a 12am dateline to meet then. Due to the bandwith lag, the last entry was posted at 5am!!! So I was right not to put it in, lest I would have been too tired to get up and say my Aidiladha prayers…
On 30th December 2006, I attended the long and much-awaited launch of Imran Ajmain’s album entitled “Dengan Secara Kebetulan“. I’ve been harping and hyping about the album since last February and honestly I was beginning to sound like a broken record till finally it was released in stores on 19th December 2006. Not that I’m blaming Imran for the delay. As he had mentioned in his blog, it had been postponed about 3 times due to circumstances and disagreements which I know no further details of. I’m sure he himself felt unhappy at the delay, but all is well now that it has finally been released.
The event was held at the Glass Hall of the National Art Museum. It was organised by Beats Society, which most people know as the organisation where Imran is the Grandmaster (or is it “Pimp Daddy” in hip hop speak???) and supported by WorkHeart. The event was scheduled to start at 7pm but people were waiting outside the area since 6:30pm when I arrived. It was free admission to all but priority and seats were given to invited guests from the local entertainment industry. I felt very much out of place cos most of the crowd made up of those from the 13-25 age group. I decided not to go in first, preferring to hang around with Raudha of WorkHeart outside the hall.
One by one, the stars came. There was Ali of Anugerah fame, Nuradee, Nurul, Rima Melati and Norfasarie. A while later Suzairhe, Fauzie Laily, Hyrul Anuar, Fadhilah (Erlin Montel) and the Anugerah Skrin finalists turned up as well. It was definitely heartwarming to see so many local artistes coming down to lend support to the album launch. You always hear of the bad side of the entertainment industry where artistes stab each others’ backs or bitch about the other, but this was something which we all welcome and make us respect them. For that, I take my hat off to them for their support. However, I did not see any representatives from the radio side attending the event.
Once the Suria stars had gone in, I followed suit and got myself a seat behind Fauzie Laily, right at the corner about 3 rows from the front. I’ve gotta thank the good people of WorkHeart for letting me have a seat, even though there was a miscommunication as to the confirming of my attendance to the event. I was just glad to sit down as I did not feel comfortable standing with the crowd since most of them were much younger than me. No, it’s not a matter of me being pompous or choosy with who I mix around or stand with, but a matter of feeling old with the people around me.
The show kicked off at 7:12pm with Zee, the emcee for the event doing the introductions. Before Imran came on, this guy by the name of Hafiz recited a “pantun” which Imran had painstakingly composed. In fact before every song that Imran sang that night, there was always a “pantun” recited and they can be found before almost every song in the album. A pity this Hafiz did not recite it with enough feel that Imran had done which I felt did not give justice to the beautifully-crafted words. But to his credit, he did improve as he went on.
Imran sang almost every song in the album and he was simply excellent with his vocal range from the catchy numbers (Taurus, Sudah Tu Sudah, Kata Orang) to the soulful ones (Seribu Tahun, Ghaibmu, Apa Salah Beta). Imran took the time to introduce the artistes under his Beats Society stable by giving them a chance to accompany him in almost every song he sung. Amongst the many artistes under Beats Society, I was most impressed by Zul Mystroe’s beatboxing abilities. Not many people give credit to those who are masters of this craft and he is certainly a class act from what I observed. Others like Freaky Z could cut it as a stand-up comedian if he was to venture into acting or hosting. He had the audience in stitches with his antics and even brought the house down with a Malay song Imran had composed for him. A pity I had to leave the hall to observe my responsibilities, which in turn made me missed the last 3 songs.
It was a great event, not too posh yet elegant in its own right. Imran proved yet again what an extraordinary singer he is. He took the trouble to speak in English to introduce his songs to the non-Malay audience. It was heartwarming to read the papers the following day on why he is very particular when people take speaking in Malay for granted. It shows that the younger generation cares after all for the language. If there’s something he could improve on, is that he should try to loosen up and treat the audience in a non-business-like manner. I don’t deny the jitters and fears to impress the audience and learning to loosen up will come through more experiences performing. Most singers start that way too and his journey has only just begun. Through time, I am confident he would be an entertainer extraodinaire.
I was more impressed by the effort he took to explain his rationale behind speaking in English, the meanings to some of the songs and as to why he never allow others to download his singles whenever they email or see him online. Which was why I had been pestering him to release the album as quickly as possible as I too had been guilty of asking him for the singles just to listen on my own and not to share with others for others to download.
Speaking of the album, dare I say it’s gonna be nominated at this year’s Anugerah Planet Muzik and hopefully bag something??? Call me biased, but that’s how I feel it should be rewarded. Listening to the lyrics alone made me appreciate the effort Imran took to uphold the beauty of the Malay language in its simplicity and intricacy, the traditional idioms that have been passed down from generation to generation adding more spice to it. Yes, songs like “Kata Orang” may sound like Taufik Batisah’s “Sombong” or “Compromise” like Justin Timberlake’s “My Love“, but they’re mere coincidences as the album had been recorded when the latter hit the airwaves and Imran himself being the composer for the former. Heck even renowned composers like Melly Goeslaw, KRU and Ajai are known to do tweaks to some of their hits and give rise to more hits. He is one hell of a songwriter and how I wished I was a singer so I could sing one of his compositions.
I’d like to thank Imran for including my wedding photos as part of his video montage for “Seribu Tahun“. I totally forgot all about it till it was shown in the background to accompany him when he sang the song. Well you can view it in this clip that I’ve included. It’s on the 41st-48th second of the clip. I was even more touched by Imran’s gesture of appreciation when I met him after the event. Even though he was tired and hungry, he still received me with warmth and a look of contentment. He surprised me with a hug as he thanked me for all my words of encouragement and praises in my previous entries, which I totally did not expect and was a little slow to reciprocate as it caught me by surprise. I didn’t know he’s been reading my entries so it was an honour for me to have him as one of my readers. Cos really, I dunno who’s been reading my entries (unless you guys comment in my comment box or tag board) except that I have vague ideas of where my readers come from through my Sitemeter reports.
For all the good things that I’ve said regarding the album launch, surely there were things that might have come up short. Personally, I wasn’t too pleased with the timing of the event, firstly being the eve of Hari Raya Haji and secondly eating up the whole of Maghrib, of which the audience made up of mostly Muslim youths. However to be fair to the organisers and giving the benefit of doubt, they were working on a lot of restrictions and it was unavoidable, try as they might to avoid since the album launch had been postponed since God-knows-when for God-knows-how-long. Secondly the Bencoolen Mosque was just a street away so people should have the initiative to make their way down to observe their responsibilities. So it’s not that bad after all if you look at things as a whole. Other than that, for me the event was nothing short of excellent as not only did I enjoy the performances, I also got to know Suzairhe, Rima Melati and Nurul as well as seeing my old friends Fauzie Laily, Fadhilah and Junaidi …
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What better way to spend Hari Raya Haji, which also happened to be my 28th birthday and 1st Wedding Anniversary with family and loved ones??? My favourite cousin, Ezaad and wife Julie, held a family gathering at their place to celebrate the birthdays of the December babies in the family. My daughter (1st Dec) and I were not alone. My elder sister (18th Dec), my younger sister (7th Dec) and Ezaad’s newborn son, Eshaan (9th Dec) are all in the same club. The other member of the club, my dad (25th Dec), was missing as he was away performing Hajj.
The cousins, nephew and niece unite…
Before going over to his place, Aida had surprised me with a big coffee cream cake over at my in-laws, where we are currently based. I had slept the moment I returned from the prayers at the mosque. If you had read my last entry, I had posted it at 5am and so did not get much rest before leaving home for the mosque. So I guess the surprise was perfect as I was oblivious to what was happening outside the bedroom when Ezaad, who works at Polar Puffs & Cakes as a Marketing Executive, came over to deliver the cake. Thank you bro, Julie and Eshaan for sponsoring the cake. Love you guys…
I had said in my previous entry, I do not like to celebrate my birthday unless people took the trouble to do so, which of course I can’t avoid. The company was excellent, always full of buzz especially more so this time since it was the first meeting of the two newborn cousins. It also happened to be Aida’s first day out of her confinement period so there were a lot of celebrations all round. We had my favourite combination of rice, ayam lemak cili padi, sambal goreng and bergedil at Ezaad’s place. Heavenly I must say. A great way to end the year with your close family members…
That night, Aida and I went over to the Esplanade area to watch the fireworks display, being the suckers for fireworks that we are. I had planned to park my car at Kallang before taking a train to Raffles Place but we were given tips to park at Maxwell Road from Aida’s cousin who came over to see our daughter earlier in the day. And so we parked there and found out that there were not many cars and the traffic was also good, even though the Esplanade area was about an MRT station stop away. As we left the car, raindrops started to fall so I had to return back to retrieve the umbrella. We then walked to the bus stop at International Plaza and boarded bus service 167. It’s been awhile since I last boarded a bus ever since I got my car, so it was a nice feeling to relive the old days of taking a public transport. Missed those days really, kinda lent a nostalgic effect as we leave 2006 and usher in 2007.
We reached the Fullerton Hotel bus stop within 10 minutes and I was surprised to see the swelling crowd even though it was still a few minutes short of 11pm. Singaporeans truly are suckers for fireworks. The short rainfall had stopped. The Esplanade Drive, which saw ugly scenes of drivers parking their cars to watch the fireworks display in the past, was closed to traffic. This allowed the crowd to fill up the two sets of roads and we were amongst them. I spent the time waiting for the fireworks to appear by reading the newspapers that I had brought along. At 11pm and 11:30pm, we were treated to a mini display of fireworks, that were being shot from the roof of the newly-built NTUC building nearby.
When the clock struck midnight, the fireworks burst into the night sky in its finest glory. There were the “oohs” and “ahhs” from the children and couples just holding hands or arms round the other enjoying the 7-minute display. I managed to tease my wife and said we were having our own fireworks display at this time the previous year on our wedding night, which she replied with a cheeky grin. When the display ended, everyone applauded and some shouted “Happy New Year!!!” to one another. As we were walking back to the MRT station, we had to endure the alcoholic smell in the air as some revellers had brought drinks to usher in the New Year. The journey home was rather smooth even though the traffic was slow at the CTE. Rainfall dropped again to accompany our journey home.
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Have you guys been watching Gemilang (Culture Syiok) on Monday nights at 8:30pm??? What do you think of the show??? Though I applaud Najip Ali for creating a show to showcase the traditional aspect of Malay culture, I just feel that most of the contestants in the Kebaya segment came off as fake. I cringe every time I hear them speak. What’s up with the English slang girls??? Do you speak Malay like that at home, with your friends, your relatives, colleagues etc??? Just be true to yourselves, if you speak English with a Malay accent, then don’t pretend to speak Malay with an English accent…
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Speaking of languages, I stumbled upon a complaint in the Forum Page of Berita Harian last Saturday. The writer had complained about the mixture of English and Malay being spoken on RIA 89.7FM as well as the sms-es sent in by listeners. Obviously this person did not do her homework or have just tuned in to the radio station.
RIA 89.7FM as we all know is a station for the young and the hip. Nowadays, all of us are conversing in a mixture of English and Malay daily. So the direction of the station to reach out to the young and the hip is just natural in the way its DJs go about doing their work. Listen to Hot FM and Radio ERA, two of the most hip and popular stations in Malaysia and you’ll realise their DJs too speak in both English and Malay but is anyone complaining over there??? What about the hit series “Gol & Gincu” whereby the dialogues are a mixture of both languages??? So I really wonder if Ms Complainant speaks in perfect Malay and its grammar daily to the people around her???
Another thing that irked me was the usage of English in the sms-es which she brought up. As we all know sms-ing in English saves a lot of character spaces. For instance the Malay word “undang-undang” when translated is “rules”. We save at least 9 characters that way in a message that can only accept 160 characters. Anyway, the DJs are spontaneous enough to translate for us whenever they read the messages and they’ve never complained on air that they are doing the extra work, well until the day before that is, when Nity Baizura brought up the topic of paying them extra for doing it. So I guess the complaint was a bit uncalled for since RIA has been around for 16 years and I don’t understand why that person took this long to question the way the station is doing its job…
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I was driving along Hougang Avenue 10 last Saturday when something I saw made me whipped my phone out and snapped a picture of it. Don’t worry, I didn’t drive with no hands, just that the traffic light was red so it was safe to take this photo. Do you see anything funny???
People living in the West side always complain about coming over to the East and vice-versa as there are confusions with regards to the names of towns / residential areas. In the past, I always scoff at people who dunno their country like the back of their hand. After looking at this, I kinda sympathise with them and now I understand why they sometimes lose their way.
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Last Friday, I met up with some old acquaintances of mine. Very glamourous acquaintances may I add. It’s been a long time since I last hanged out with them, 2003 if my memory still serves me well. Back then I had gone to Larkin Stadium in Johor to watch them play football in a celebrity football tournament. And normally when they come down to Singapore, I’ll almost always hang out with them in their hotel rooms or somewhere backstage. Why I’ve not been meeting them since then was because our schedules were not that feasible for us to set aside time to meet, whether they were in Singapore or if I were to go up to Kuala Lumpur. Who am I referring to??? None other than the brothers of KRU…
And so it was a pleasant surprise to know they were coming down here again to promote “CicakMan“, Yusry’s first venture as a film director. The only downside was knowing that Edry, who I am closest to, was not coming down to Singapore. We have quite a lot of things to catch up on but I guess that has to wait another day. As I had some stuff to do on Saturday and I was expecting a special visitor at home, I went to the CicakMan Promotion at Sun Plaza on Friday night. The first thing Yusry and Norman said to me was “Hey!!! Lama tak nampak???” They asked what was I doing now so I told them that I’m now married with a daughter and we made some small talk. Norman then asked whether I’ve watched the movie or not, I said I already bought tickets to watch the next show. After taking our photo together (God knows how many photos I’ve taken with them!!!), I told them I won’t take up their time since there were many fans behind me, so I took my leave and stood one side with Aida.
You know, after so long I did not meet nor email them, they still remembered my name. I think for a fan who supports a particular artiste, nothing beats the feeling of having your name remembered by your favourite artiste, especially if they are big stars. That’s not to say I was feeling in seventh heaven, far from it. It’s just that feeling of appreciation and respect you get for them to still remember you, even after so long you’ve been away. Makes you feel as though the support you’ve been giving is all worth it. Well even if they don’t remember my name, I’m sure they at least remember my face for always being there at their shows in Singapore and Johor. I was even their bodyguard when they had a show here in 1998. Some experience that was…
Anyway back to “CicakMan“. From an unbiased view, I must say it is a major breakthrough for a Malaysian movie through its exploitation of CGI effects. People might say that it’s blatant copying of Hollywood movies like Matrix and Spiderman but without the CGI effects, there won’t be those type of movies on our screens either. I was more impressed by the cinematography than the storyline. I’ve never seen a Malay movie set in the future and having the four seasons as the backdrop. It all looked so natural as though the four seasons really exists in this part of the world. Yeah, yeah the city in the movie might have been named a fictitious “Metrofulus” but you’ll catch my drift when you watch the movie. Watch with an open mind, and not be quick to judge on how much copying of Hollywood movies it did…
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Visitors have been streaming to my in-laws’ place just to see my little princess ever since she was born. Relatives, colleagues, cousins, ex-schoolmates, friends, good friends, best friends, my fellow RIA listeners, they’ve all come to see little Syahindah. But amongst my bloggermates, I finally got a first visitor in the form of none other than sis Nura last Saturday evening. She came with her family, maid and mother-in-law. It was really nice to have them around, always feel that time is short whenever we meet up as we have so much things to share in such a short space of time. I’m more tickled and amazed by Nyla’s antics and intelligence cos my nephew and niece are not that good at conversing when they were at her age. Hope that they had enjoyed themselves at our place as much as we were delighted to have them…
