MTV Asia Award 2008 Commentaries

(You can watch the videos online at the Official MTV Asia Awards website.)

Instead of me just rambling on and on by myself about the awesomeness of the MTV Asia Awards, why not I compare my opinions with that of a professional (or maybe not that professional. We'll see)?

With reference to this article in Utusan Malaysia, written by Shazryn Mohd. Faizal on the 4th of August, there's plenty of issues that are arguable and debatable.

Before I go on, the above statement of me questioning his integrity as a reporter is only thanks to one statement:

Masalah besar yang dihadapi oleh pihak media tempatan adalah apabila media tempatan telah dilayan seperti kelas kedua dan seolah-olah dipinggirkan.

Right. Because media reporters need to be given special priviledges. *rolls eyes* Reporters are supposed to tell the people who did not go to the event what happened, what special moments occurred, how well it went, and their opinions on the matter. None of which, mind, requires special seats nor special passes. Heck, I'm doing a reporting on the event now myself. And we had horrible seats to boot (ugh, I hate standing on the sides of any stage... Sitting on the right side of the stage made us unable to see the podium properly).

Well anyway, YES I was unhappy that only one Malaysian act performed, I was unhappy that the event, which in my opinion was created to showcase Asian music to the world, ended up doing the opposite (showcasing foreign acts to the Asians), and I was unhappy that there was nothing new and fresh brought by the awards.

But why dwell on the bad? One can and should complain to the organizers about the lack of local performances and hope they fix that in next year's event (Jac not performing? At all? WTF?), but hey, one can and should praise the wonderful performances that the artistes gave, too.

The Pussycat Dolls were explosive, and gave an excellent opening to a wonderful evening. They wore less revealing attires too, after last year's (was it last year?) slip-up. Not that it mattered much. They're the PCD after all.

One Republic and Lewis were my personal highlights of the evening. Being lucky enough to be able to hear their (Ryan Tedder and Leona Lewis) voices live is alone well worth the efforts of getting the tickets. Not to mention Leona owes me that much, thanks to my persistent voting for her while I was living in Ireland ;)

Panic! At the Disco, I wasn't too impressed with. The recorded version was good, but when it went life, it turned sucky. Maybe because Brendon kept running off-key.

Another highlight was the performance of Project E.A.R., specifically Marabahaya. Damnit, that song is absolutely awesome. It has energy, sing-along-a-bility and dance-a-bility. Which made me even more frustrated as this song has such huge potential to be marketable outside Malaysia, and beyond just the Nusantara. I can absolutely imagine this song being played by DJs in clubs and whatnot. Damn it, it's not happening right now. Urgh. Come on people, wake up and start marketing this song!

On a personal note, thanks to our fortunate placement, we sat behind the VIP seats. Which of course led to lots and lots of flashes everytime the celebs come back from performing or receiving and award. Too bad near the end the international celebrities failed to return, so we couldn't get hold of (physical term also applies) them. But we got the local ones. Best part was I could shake hands with awesome people like Jac, Ella and Dina. They make superb music that it was an absolute honor to have been graced with their presence (and willingness to pose for a fan's camera). You guys rock!

The MTV Asia Awards

Too lazy to say anything atm. Spent a couple of hours uploading the damn photos... Will update when I have the mood...

For now, enjoy the pics!!!

http://flickr.com/photos/11981458@N07/

2nd August, Part 1

Pre-MTV Asia Awards at Genting.

The MTV Asia Awards itself deserves a post of its own.

I thought punctuality was one of my strengths, one that I can offer to my future employees to show my capabilities in the workplace.

Not today, apparently. Sorry Izad. I blame the panic on the hotel thingy.

Anyway, so I arrived late at KL Sentral, which meant we missed the bus to Genting (we didn't book any tickets), which eventually meant we'll be taking the 3 p.m. bus to Genting. Whee.

Considering we had time to kill, we decided to hop on the RapidKL and went to the PC Fair at the KL convention Centre.

Near KLCC we managed to pose with some Jedi Clones (haha, get it?). I want a lightsaber.

I had no intentions of spending much money that day... but oh well. At least (or I dearly hope) it was well worth getting the new headphones, a pendrive and a laptop vacuum (don't ask). On second thought I think they are.

3 O'Clock came, we took the bus, slept on the bus, and arrived at the skyway thingamajig. I'm not sure how long I haven't been to Genting, but I do know (or I think I know) that I haven't been on the Skyway Cable car, ever. or maybe my memory sucks. I faintly remember when I was a child (OMG THAT WAS AAAGES AGO) we usually took the Awana cable car.

Izad, on the other hand goes on an annual sabbatical to Genting, so he wasn't that impressed. Only difference this time is that he went with me instead of his family. Not that there's much difference; I nag just as much.

So we arrived and checked into the hotel (First World, and a cheap one at that. Oh well, at least we got a room), and also met up with our new (but absolutely wonderful) friend, Anas. Knew him when I sold him my spare ticket + hotel room, but I found it totally awesome that we had lots in common (we both went to MCB, for example) and we hit it off beautifully. I met him through an online friend too. So who says you can't make friends online.

And thus, ends my pre-post. Now I'm just figuring out how to stuff all the MTV Asia Awards pictures into one single post...

Daughtry Concert

Right, I have a lot to talk about this. But the average blog reader doesn’t like to read WALLS OF TEXT. So I suppose I’ll follow the trend of the internet and make a list of “What I learnt at the Daughtry Concert”. P.S. Fate was loving me lots last week. I won the tickets via Hitz.fm again (I’m turning all the radios I listen to to 92.9 fm). And FYI I went with Izad, Aiman and Shahied.

1. The Early Bird Catches the Worm. I got a free daughtry CD for being the first 10 to grab the tickets. Yay.

2. Be Prepared. We went to stand at the front of the concert and considering the awesome position we were at, it’s not something you want to move away from. So eh, no peeing (duh, of course, but mind, I haven’t been to a concert in like, years) and next time, bring water. Lots of water. This has got to be nailed into my brain or something.

3. Be patient. The concert was free, but damn it Sony Erricson, why on earth did you have to grab a bunch of boring performances (and performers) before we could enjoy the namesake of the concert?


4. The performers really need to know how to entertain a crowd. They know very well the purpose the audience was there was to watch Daughtry, so they either have to shorten their performances and make the crowd happy, or make a performance so good we forget that we want Daughtry. Dose two (Leyla? I didn’t even grab the name of the group, damn it), where one half of the member is Sayla (the one with the song “Woopsie”) was part of, and yet they played songs that no one knew about. The least that they could do was sing Woopsie, ya know (understandable the song was only performed by half of the group, but at least it’s something the crowd would totally enjoy). The last group before Daughtry, the DJs (I forgot the group name) made up for the lacklustre pre-Daughtry performances by playing songs the crowd loved.

5. Daughtry rocks. Like OMG, totally. And they knew a good order to perform songs too (unreleased single - unreleased single - hit - unreleased single - unreleased single - hit - unreleased single - hit - unreleased single - hit - hit).

6. I love concerts. And maybe clubs too. It’s the only place where I can sing loudly to a song and dance (even if don’t know how to dance) without getting strange stares. Not that I really care if people think I look silly dancing, but eh, I still have sense of shame.

7. Concerts are not for listening to the music. Concerts are purely for the music lovers to watch their favourite artistes in real life. Why? Because the closer you get to the stage, the more deaf you get. I couldn't hear anything at the front, thanks to the speakers...

8. People are paying too much for alcohol. Really. There should be a war against alcohol, not drugs (incoming flame in 3... 2...)

9. Eat cookies. Wait, what?

Facial (no, not that kind)

I bought (well, technically my mum did. Thanks Ma!) a couple of Clinique products the other day (a month ago), with the intention of grabbing some goodies, like a fancy facial treatment worth RM 80.00 at ForHim William Martins, whereby today was the day.

I was serviced by an awesome Ms. Rina, who totally pampered my face for an entire hour. Well, except for that pinching the oil out of my skin part. That was a wee bit uncomfortable. But hey, the entire experience was great, and my skin felt good. Though unfortunately it didn’t ‘look’ much better. I still had this awful, awful pimple in the middle of my cheek.

I would love to do it again, but considering the hefty price tag (I’m still a student, silly), it’s really not something I’d do at a drop of a hat.

On your right is the image post-treatment. Not sure it showed any visible upgrades, but it sure felt good.

And, I’m really not going to buy my skin products anywhere else. A shop that sells products which was previously female dominated (er, I mean the products were for hundreds of years designed only for women), needs all the support from Men Who Love Their Skin (oh boy that sounded totally gay).

Ethnic Relations

WALL OF TEXT!

I was planning to write a post about one of the subjects I’m learning in uni atm, when I realized it’s not quite public knowledge that I’m now in Universiti Malaya studying Economics, after forgoing my studies over in Ireland. So eh, if I get the spirit and motivation to write about that, I will. After all, Izad said that I should be writing about studying a first degree as an older student, so maybe I should. Not right now, though.

For now, I want to talk about GXEX1414: Hubungan Etnik, or Ethnic Relations.

I have a strong gut feeling that the entire purpose of the teaching of the subject is to prevent one of the more significant pieces of history, the 13th May 1969 incident, to repeat itself.

What I found interesting was the fact that it instead of teaching on the impacts of racism and such, it teaches facts and an expansion of our vocabulary by giving definitions of Racism, Prejudice, Stereotypes, etc. It also teaches the gradients of racial harmony/combinations (I.e. assimilation, amalgamation, etc) and just stating the facts of the economic, political and social conditions of the different races of Malaysia.

It doesn’t emphasize, for example, that stereotyping is a bad thing, or that we as Malaysians should be striving towards better racial relations. It simply states definitions. No brainwashing here.

I suppose that since we’re all university students and all, I guess the purpose of the subject is just to let us be aware of the words relevant to race and ethnicity and know the racial differences, while we as individuals make our own decisions on what kind of prejudices we want to use (in an ideal world, none, of course).

Considering I myself still have prejudices, I’m not one to talk. But the least one can do is not make these prejudices visible. It’s more polite that way. I believe as long as we’re not discriminating (big word with strong meanings), it’s totally fine.

But eh, considering the other day my roommate told me he’s wary of the Chinese on our hostel floor stealing his laptop when he’s not around, I’m not sure the subject is teaching much. For some people, at least.

MTV Asia Awards Roadshow

Greedy git, ain’t I? I had already won two tickets to the MTV Asia Awards (MAA) via Hitz.fm but the lack of physical representation of the tickets in my ownership made me feel restless (I eventually got the other tickets, mind), oh, and Aiman was whining that Izad got the priority to go to the MAA instead of he, considering I asked them both (protip: don’t ask more than one person when you only have one spare ticket). Thusly I went to the MAA roadshow at Cineleisure over at Mutiara Damansara, hoping to get the tickets. Oh, and hopefully spending quality time with VJ Utt at the same time.

Sadly, no VJ Utt.

VJ Taya was the one giving away the tickets, when I realized my black shirt is in no way capable of attracting attention, considering the goody bag (and the priceless tickets) were given away onstage - I.e. you had to grab the attention of VJ Taya and make yourself look silly on stage by pronouncing the ‘t’ in Esprit (one of the sponsors) or being forced to sing along. For the damn tickets, it’s totally worth it. I think it was my intense staring deep into Taya’s eyes, giving an impression of “I WANT THESE DAMN TICKETS BADLY!” that I garnered her respect (or actually, more likely, sympathy). So yeah, I got the tickets. Yay.

Oh, and there was Faizal Tahir performing, and there was a fashion show by Esprit (specifically EDC). But really, who goes to the roadshow to watch Faizal Tahir?

So this is what it feels like to win

So I've been really-really-really hyped about the coming MTV Asia Awards which will be held for the first time in Malaysia this second of August. With artistes like Leona Lewis, OneRepublic, Pussycat Dolls and more, well, who wouldn't be? (discount the people over 40, they've got different music tastes).

Now I've never been a contest enthusiast. Unlike my sister, I have terrible luck in winning anything based on luck (redundancy intended), so I really had misgivings over me ever going to go there. Thanks to my adrenaline-boosted enthusiasm to getting tickets to the event, however, I spent a lot of effort in entering every possible avenue in getting them much valued (and really overhyped) tickets. I even prayed. Really. Even though I don't think God would approve much of me staring at Nicole's, Melody's, Jessica's, Ashley's and Kimberley's legs for any duration of time. But then again I don't think I'll find them arousing much. Anyway...

It pulled off.

Thanks to hitz.fm (I'm not changing my radio station, ever again), I am now invited to the amazing event this coming 2nd August! And I think it was the first opportunity to win the tickets too (the contest wasn't around last week). All I had to do was listen to the radio, listen to the question and send an SMS (50 sen, mind), and voila, Adam C (which is quite hot I might add) and Mootz (not as hot. Sorry bro) gave me a call and GAVE ME TICKETS. Granted I was nervous. I could not remember what the hell I told them... Quite a blur. And the radio broke down a few minutes afterwards, so I couldn't hear myself on the radio. But eh, I got tickets, and that's all that matters. Thank the Lord.

If you're interested in the MAA (or my activities, if any such people exist), WATCH THIS SPACE! Going to events like this is an awesome opportunity, and I'll try to keep the blog up-to-date.

Till then, I'm pondering whether I should go to the MTV mosh pit auditions...

I have a pet

Well. Sorta. First off it's not my pet per se. It's my sister's. As in she's the one who bought it, bought the food for it, and took care of it for the most part of it's life.

And well, do fish count as pets? you can't really pet it. You don't cuddle it. And... well... most of the time we tend to be eating the poor creatures.

But then again, Oskar (or Oscar, whatever you want to call it/her/him) isn't like most goldfishes I've seen. You see, Oskar is actually a very adorable creature. Sure, not as adorable as a fluffy wittle bunny or a sweet lil' kitten, but Oskar is adorable in its own way.

Should there be a large presence above it that lingers for a moment (We've got sorta like a transparent bridge over the aquarium/pool/whatever you wanna call it) for instance, a human being, well, Oskar would come up below our feet and bob its head up and er... breathe? (give me some space here, I'm no aquaculturist) affectionately. One of those things that make you go "Awwww". So yea, everyday I get my daily dose of Awww of the day just by coming round to Oskar's pool and feeding him, or really just to check up on em.

It's probably coz he's the only fish there. No, don't call the RSPCA. It's not our fault the other fish died.

Oh, by the way, I'd appreciate if someone could help me to identify what type of fish Oskar is... (pardon the newbishness).

Partay

Well, today was one of those rare occasions I went outside the house, basked in whatever sun there was... and went into someone else's house.

Izad called up and get my arse over to another friend's house for... a little chit-chat and stuff. Considering i really had nothing better to do with my time (yes, really) I went ahead and GOT OUT OF THE HOUSE! THE SUN WAS BURNING (no, not really) etc. etc (insert geek going out of the house joke here).

Voila, it was a suprising easter party they organized. Not that we celebrated easter, but hey, a holiday's a holiday. The usual stuff. Free food. Games. A movie.



'Twas really nice to talk to more than just one real flesh-and-bones person after a couple of weeks homebound. So yeah, it was time well spent.

Oh, and Feardotcom Sucks. Ass. Period.

New Politics

Malaysia recently had an interesting twist in her government. The current BN government just lost its strong, firm grip on controlling the politics of Malaysia, losing its 2/3 majority and leading the country with only a simple majority.

I myself am pro-BN. It's just part of who I am; I don't like changes and if something still works I'll still be using it. Just ask my mum. But I find this slight shift of power quite amusing, and I really like this change. There's a lot of reasons why.



1) BN has been monopolizing the media too much. TV3, RTM, the newspapers, everything is just so biased that one can never know what is really going on in the opposition camp. When it comes to insulting the opposition, hey, voila, front page news. Anything wrong with the BN gets all hush-hush, and swept under the rug. Really, watching the news I'd be damned surprised if you didn't notice the pro-BN-ness. It's too GLARINGLY OBVIOUS. Geez. if you keep showing yourself off and insulting your opponents, your popularity isn't going up ya know.

2) BN is too complacent. E.g. the Penang officials were bickering on who would be the next Chief Minister. Again, they think it's not going to be a big deal to the general people. Lo and behold, BN no longer owns Penang, and all that bickering gone to waste. Not so smart. And geez, not campaigning much, and cocksure of winning 2/3rds parliamentary majority again? Overconfident much?

3) Corruption. The politicians accept bribery and stuff. Hearsay on my part of course, but I *do* know they've got not a huge enough salary to live in huge mansion, which some of them do. Makes you wonder, really. I'm not jumping on anyone's throats here, but suspicion is good enough to distrust someone you put your votes into.

I'm not 100% into the opposition camp either. The ultimate goal of each opposition party is too different for them to unite. For example PAS is purely based on strong Islamic beleifs which no way in hell will DAP agree to. PAS made a smart move this election by not even mentioning an Islamic Nation concept. Kudos to them, but really, you really know that's their ultimate agenda.

Will their coalition work? I don't know. In fact, I don't know where the results of this election for any party will lead to, at all. But 'the damage' (some might not see it as damage, but meh) has already been done. Now it's just best to wait and see.

I however have a couple of predictions. The Penang government is going to abolish the DEB, which favours the Malay. It's always been at the core of the decision making of the BN government. Which, as a malay I fully agree with ^^ Because this is our home, and if we're exiled out of our own home we have nowhere to go. The Chinese can trace their ancestry back to China, and the Indians probably still have connections in India. Malays? If we're out of Malaysia, we'll end up like the Kurds.

Having said that, let's see how it's going to affect the penang politics. Removal of DEB means everyone gets equal opportunities in government projects and such. I, being a Malay myself know my own race, and we really suck. We're not going to get those projects. The ones who are better at it are going to get it, and it's definitely not the Malays. Trust me on this. I'm predicting a revolt from the Malays in Penang about the imbalance in a couple of years time.

But as I said, I'm just going to wait and see. Who knows, they just might suprise me.

This is a good time for all of us as the people of Malaysia. The BN wants to win our hearts back, and the opposition wants to win the rest of Malaysia come next election. This obviously means we're in a win-win situation people! BN (hopefully) aren't going to be complacent anymore, and the opposition needs to prove their promises. So have a seat, peeps, and enjoy the ride. Unless both parties make stupid decisions, we're in for a nice ride to a better Malaysia.

Shade of Akama tactics

best strategy to kill a boss, ever:

http://www.wowwiki.com/Shade_of_Akama

Being a Minor Web Celebrity.

I'm sort of an addict (or for a less severe word, enthusiastic) of this awesome website, I-Am-Bored.com. It's sort of like Digg, just with a smaller audience. Ya know, links of various types to entertain the bored people all over the world. With each link, readers are allowed to comment on what they think of the link.

I've been a member for over a year, and enjoyed going there almost every day. I've posted over 1000 comments since then, so I've been quite well-known. What I truly enjoy, is of course, acknowledgement from other users of my existence, and how my comments can affect what they comment. It helps how overt I am about my sexuality, and I love to stir controversy as well. Examples such as these:


They make me feel good sometimes. Like a mini-celebrity of some sort.

The best achievement however, is when you can provoke someone to hate (or at least dislike) you. Like these gems:


Now that's the next level of fame. I wonder what the next level will be.

Brewfest is back?

When I logged on Bala this evening I noticed something strange. The brewfest banners were back, and the were people doing the barking quest. And sure enough, there it was, brewfest (a.k.a. oktoberfest) is baaack!

Strange really, but I'm not complaining. Still, I'm 400 tickets short of the ram mount...