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!

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?

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...

Greetings, and welcome to meh blog! This blog is very unique, just like every other blog out there! Why? For a variety of reasons:

1. I'm a self-confessed geek (though I shamefully scored horribly low on this video game quiz I took some time ago :( 6/24 *cry*),
2. I'm a college student somewhere in The Republic of Ireland,
3. I'm a raider on World of Warcraft, though I play a myriad of other games as well, this is my main one,
4. I'm Malaysian but I'm a crazy grammar n*zi when it comes to the English language and my native Malay tongue to some extent,
5. I'm a terribly romantic person and I'm very single! (what a waste)
6. I love listening to music and appreciating the lyrics, but the only time I'll be singing in public is probably in the 'idol rejects' part sometime in the Idol (any idol) final concert or something, which brings me to my last passion,
7. I truly madly deeply am a huge fan of reality television. I'm even willing to call it an obsession. In fact I intend to create another blog just for me to throw insults and adoration to the multitude of reality tv shows I adore watching, though if it doesn't come to fruition I'll probably just lump it all in this blog.

There ya go! Hopefully I'll update the blog everyday, though we'll see how it goes.

Oh, and here's a photo of where I spend oh, 16 hours of my daily life (except on those days I have classes), just so you know me more than you need to know on my first post.

P.S. if you're a male and you match 5/8 of the above criteria (#4 in particular) drop me a line please :P