Sound bitten

Sound Bites
by Alex Kapranos (lead singer of Franz Ferdinand)

It’s the only one left in MPH and I guess I should consider myself lucky because it’s an autographed copy (!!)

You see ah, I don’t even have to meet Mr Kapranos in person to get an autograph. Too bad it’s not Nick McCarthy though!

Believe me, it’s not one of those printed signatures. It’s genuine. If you look closely, you could see the ink spread on the page. I even checked the back of the page — I noticed some variation of ink opacity and pen pressure. Never have I studied a signature/handwriting this carefully before okay..

The book was listed under “Travelogue”. Not the kind of books I read, really, but I was curious — I wanted to know what the guys consumed while touring around the world (and their eating habits haha). Alex is a foodie, after all.

[Culinary is a form of art!]

Nearly every “chapter” featured different kinds of food, so you might as well just call it a food journal. Durian and sea urchin included. To be honest, I do feel a bit of hunger pang while reading Sound Bites

A little less food and a little more sound..

Franz Ferdinand – Can’t Stop Feeling

One too many things for me to say about this video!
1. Finally, a Franz Ferdinand video which is back to what they used to be like years before– CREATIVE AND RANDOM! The presence of the jelly baffles me.
2. At the beginning, I sense that there’s a hidden message. Greeting people in Thai with that “Sawadeeka gesture”? Mosquito/fly-smacking in a certain rhythm is fun? Nyeh.
3. According to many, Nick’s wardrobe is a bizarre place. Proven @ 0:13, but I love the white cardigan (can be seen pretty often throughout the video)
4. Nevertheless, Nick is still awesome.
5. Nick is not only a guitar God, but he’s now a JUGGLING GOD as well. (I fail miserably at juggling three objects all at once)
6. Paul combing his hair, in-sync with the music = PERFECT
7. Bob has such a cherub-like face. See 0:57. Aww.
8. They’ve mentioned a lot about using the Doppler Effect in their new album. They achieved it by using a swinging microphone. Revelation @ 1:20.
9. Alex and his dancing @ 1:27 is pretty addictive to watch HAHAH. Fancy those kicks.
10. I think this is the first time I’m seeing a dancing Bob.
11. 2:16 = THE WOW FACTOR.
12. Hot iron, anybody? 2:41.

Going bananas for Monkey Island

WARNING: There be a nerdy talk about gaming ahead of ye.

Coincidence comes like a [insert whatever word you want right here]

Just yesterday, I finally got back my Escape From Monkey Island CD from my friend. Yeah, the CD’s been lying in her house for years because I thought that she’d play it ..I’ve been wanting to play it since the Mid-Year exams ended.

You see, Escape From Monkey Island is the fourth part of the Monkey Island series, and it was released back in 2000. I never got to play the previous parts of the series. The first two had no voice-overs and everything was pixelated. The third one is more of a cartoony style. The fourth one is well, 3D. A lot of people (that I don’t know) have said that the third installment is the best. The thing is, I don’t know where to get it if I can’t buy it online.

..but that’s not the point. Today, I just found out that the fifth part is going to be released soon! And not only that — The first installment is going to be re-released in Special Edition, meaning it has revamped graphics! It’s strange how coincidental stuff works, eh?

“Tales of Monkey Island is to be released in five monthly episodes on PC, with the first due July 7, then later for the Wii as a WiiWare downloadable title. Pre-orders are now open, offering a DVD release with cover art by the wonderful Steve Purcell.”

Guybrush has a beard in the fifth installment, dang it. And it looks like I can only purchase the game through the net.

Double dang it.

Butt-smacking goodness!

one My Valentine’s Day was pretty good, in a way. It has nothing to do with people at all. It’s just my purchase of that day which made my day good:

It be Franz Ferdinand’s third album. Been waiting for this since 2007 It was released on the 26th last month. Looked for it everywhere since then, but I failed to find a copy and I assumed that Malaysia was just slow. Luck was on my side on Valentine’s, so to speak.

This album is really different from the last two. I could hear plenty of synths and the drum patterns are very new (the drummer, Paul Thomson, got slightly influenced by some African beats). Most of the songs sound very different and it takes some getting used to. Ulysses is one of my favourite tracks and I somehow managed to figure out the drum pattern at the beginning (which really is a good thing). Czech it oooot!:

(Mr Nick McCarthy smirked grimly at 1:27. Yay )

two Was supposed to mention this quite some time ago: I have a dwarf hamster!

This wee rodent screams, did you know that?

three I found an old manual camera lying around the house. Played around with it for a while but it’s too bad that there’s no film or battery in it. Very old school. Nevertheless, I’d love to find out about its photo quality, someday..

I figured how to adjust the aperture size (without any reference from the net!)
Can you see the aperture hole?

four Gee, Biology! My class had the chance to poke a cow’s heart and we also got to dissect a sheep’s heart + lungs.

Warning: What you are about to see may be disturbing. Not for the faint-hearted!

Right, this is not the start of the “disturbing photos” journey, HAHAHA.
This is Mr Phuah, the smiley-faced Bio teacher
The disturbing-ness starts below.. 

A sheep’s larynx + lungs + heart
Apparently, this sheep has 3 lungs…according to my own eyes..

iProd! uProd! theyProd!

This be a cow’s heart which was already dissected by the students of 5 Delta

There’s the thump-thump..

Left ventricle..or just its wall

This is how the sheep’s lungs looked like before it is filled with carbon dioxide
(Yes, someone had to provide some CO2 through that burette attached) 

This is the after effect!
That “white-beige-pink” thing just popped out and spreaded like a plague!
Another person squeezed the lungs and the unpleasant air from the lungs went back into the CO2 provider’s mouth

Sheep’s heart
The first cut is always the deepest, is it not? 

In this case, the second cut is much deeper than the first

Heart diagram in the textbook + One in the hand

Vanessa and the sheep’s heart-shaped thump-thump

Wei Li/Snow White with the sheep’s larynx and..I don’t know what that thing on the right is

Seng Giap and Wei Li
“If I give my heart to you ♪”

And of course, I saved the best for last

Look closely!

Gamma Mia! Here we go again.

That’s likely to be our class motto this year. ‘Twas my idea
Last year, it was just “Gamma Mia”, but now we’ve returned.

It was “Back to school” for us today. I remained in the same old class with a different digit this time — 5 Gamma. In Form 4 and Form 5, everybody will remain in their classes for two years. Last year, I used to think that this class is going to be a big challenge because we have plenty of smart ones. In fact, there wasn’t much pressure at all! (at least that was what I thought)

Despite having some friends who left our class for another, I learnt to like 4 Gamma ‘08 because there was a lot of together-ness. Whenever there’s a class activity, there’s about 99% of participation. Here’s hoping that 5 Gamma ‘09 will be even better.

’sides that, I think that my first half of the day was great. I was glad to see my friends again after quite some time in solitude. Elena, Sucelia, Farisha, Chai Leng, Chen Ji, Vanessa and of course, Alan, who appears to have a new pair of glasses. Vanessa is such a good girl. She went to Australia during the holidays and she actually brought back a wee magazine with a picture of Franz Ferdinand dudes on the front cover, just for me!

There wasn’t much in the second half of the day, though. The new Biology teacher is the happiest-looking teacher I’ve ever seen. He literally looks like a smiley face

*content sigh*..and that was my last first day of school.

Maestro Carnival 2008

It’s not a parade of composers and conductors. Maestro is the name of the music centre where I take up piano classes.

Yesterday, I attended/participated/competed in the Maestro Carnival 2008 at The Summit. Before the real thing, there was a rehearsal. Children were everywhere. I was standing solitarily on a spot, trying to look for a familiar face. I ended up sitting, anyway. A girl named Sharinna sat next to me and I’ve met her before. We had a small conversation and then another girl named Jaymi joined us (who was much younger than either of us). All three of us have performed at a *datuk’s house last year. It still was the coolest house I’d ever been to (complete with an elevator, a hall specially designed for musical purposes, a disco ball, little lights on the floor, a recording studio, a cabinet of brass instruments, a bar, and a sensor-operated dustbin in the bathroom omgz)

* – Datuk is a title of a person. A little like the British “Sir”.

So anyway, Sharinna and Jaymi were my fellow competitors. We were under the Piano Solo [Senior] category. Four people in the category. There was a forth dude but he’s a quiet fellow (what to do, he’s a boy whaaaat..and the rest are girls). Chronogically, Sharinna played Over The Rainbow, I played Jay Chou’s Secret (a link to the song was given in a previous entry), Jaymi played Claudine, and the last dude named Nicholas played Sonatina in D Major.

The Piano Solo [Junior] category had their rehearsals first. We were all shivering in the waiting room (especially me, haha) Despite the number of times I have performed on stage, I cannot seem to get over nervousness. Maybe it was the air-conditioner. Maybe it was on full blast. Low temperature — It’s my weakness, heh.

I played rather fine during the rehearsal but I do have some mistakes. I forgot to clip up my fringe = My panoramic view is a bit of a mess. Unholy mess.

I left shortly after that and got my hair done, applied some light make-up, got changed and went back to The Summit. I met Sharinna again and I randomly asked,

“What bands do you like?”
“The Killers…”
“I kinda like them. I’ve listened to some of their songs.”
“I also like the Arctic Monkeys.”
I turned wide-eyed. “I like them too!”
“My favourite kind of bands are independent bands.”
I turned much more wide-eyed than before. “Ehhhh, I also like!”
“The vocalist of the Arctic Monkeys sounds so unique, right? He’s got that accent.”
“Yes, that English accent rocks, I tell ya.”

Gott, there are so few indie band lovers these days. I cannot even name five people that I know who likes indie bands. I like distinguished British music. I don’t like mainstream/radio music

All of us went to the waiting room to, well, wait for our turn to get on stage. I did not feel as cold as before because I had a jacket on. My teacher brought her heat pack/heating pad in case our hands get cold before our performance. Neat stuff, that thing. The heat pack contains sodium acetate. Initially it was a colourless liquid, but after my teacher pressed some small metal disc in the heat pack, the contents turned semi-solid and it was very, very warm. Jaymi said, “It feels like hot ice.”

When it was my turn, I got out, bowed down, let the cameraman take a snapshot and I retreated to the piano. I had to wait for the announcer to finish naming the instruments that I can play before I could start, HAHAHA. Then I started playing. Keeping in mind that I have give some body gesture. 10% of Lang Lang. I made one mistake (I think) but I managed to pull off a good ending. I got out to the centre of the stage and bowed down again, did a 360° rotation on the spot because I turned the wrong way to the exit. Heh.

After our category comes the Electone Solo category. Electones have that greater “boom” effect compared to a piano. Makes me feel like getting one in the future.

During the intermission, all of us who were waiting backstage got to sit with the audiences (roughly 370 audiences) to watch the group performers compete, or what we call an ensemble (go figure out the pronounciation). There were six groups under this category. All of them used the Electone and some included the piano. There were two groups which I really liked:

1. Masquerade – Paper faces on parade! A group that consisted of masked children dressed in the 19th century clothes. They played a Phantom of the Opera medley, which started off with “Christine” slowly walking towards the grand piano with “The Phantom” while “Christine” sang The Music of the Night. The theme song started shortly after that. They also played All I Ask of You and another song which I cannot remember. I’m telling you, their performance was so thrilling. All I Ask of You was highly heart-warming and it’s very breathtaking. (I’m listening to that song now and I am now reminded of how great the vocals of The Phantom of the Opera [2004] were. I love opera. Thank you, Mr. Andrew Lloyd Webber.)

2. Amplified – A group of teenagers. They played a mambo medley (which is pretty self-explanatory). The only song I recognized from the medley was Tequila. They had their secret weapons, which were unpitched percussions, such as vibraslap and cabasa. I myself never knew the name of those instruments (but I have definitely seen them before)

There was another group of children called the Kitaro Kids. They played a Japanese song, and to correspond to the music, the children wore yukatas (+ extremely colourful hairs). According to my mother, the boys are not supposed to have a ribbon tied on their backs, like how the girls have them tied. She wondered if there were any Japanese people that would be present in the hall that night. And whaddaya know, there was a Japanese VIP!

After all of that, there was a Guitar Ensemble. I could not get to hear them properly but I do know that they played Sway. The next item was the Teachers Ensemble. My teacher and her colleagues were part of it. I could not get to hear them playing either. Oh well. Sometimes we wonder whether our teachers get nervous before a performance.

The long-awaited prize-giving ceremony was next. There was only one prize for each category. Everybody received a certificate, though. For the Piano Solo[ Junior] category, a boy who played Bagatelle won RM500. Then came the Piano Solo [Senior]. I was one of the lucky ones that night and won RM500 as well. Hee. Glad that I’ve made my teacher proud, after all these months of serious business. Even before they announced the results, one of the teachers (who gives master classes) said that if I win, I should treat the teachers for dinner. It’s the first thing that people would ask you. Not that I’m boasting or anything, but I have experienced this before. For the Electone Solo category, a girl who played a traditional Korean song, entitled Arirang (famous, that one) won RM500. Ensemble showdown. The judges decided to have two winners for this category because everybody did so well. Amplified was announced first and they won RM1000. They nearly walked away with that giant cheque before they announced the second winning group. Saaaad. Kitaro Kids was the other group that won RM1000. Last but not least, the best dressed group for the night was Masquerade.

I don’t have any snapshots from the carnival because my mother’s plan was to buy the photos that will be availabe soon. I do have photos of me in make-up + dress (Nah, Kah Meng..haha)

Mit meinem Bruder

Make-up yeesh! I don’t even know where I’m looking..I was that tired

That was probably a night with plenty of changes. Largest sum of money I’ve ever won [not yet received, though]
That was also my first time participating in a rather serious piano competition. People paid to watch you play. Makes you think that Talentime is such a different thing, with different standards…

Here’s one thing:
I was told by my teachers and her colleague that my fingers can run (which means that I can play fast passages). When I went on stage to receive my certificate, the man who gave the certificates away said, “Your fingers were flying!”

I guess flying beats running.

Getting a comment like that is not easy. Really. It does show that you’ve got the skills

Aaand now I bid good day to you.

Talentime 2008

That was the last laugh for Steffi and I.

Hypothesis: This is the strangest talentime yet. Agree with me?

Steffi and I did “The Humans Are Dead” this year. Yeah, the one written by Flight of the Conchords. (check out the original video, if you haven’t. It’s under my “Science shows are amusing, not nerdy” post. Why should you see it? It’s because Jemaine Clement’s in it. And he sounds like Stephen Hawking/a Dalek )

It was our final chance to perform for Talentime, and we had less than a week of practice.

It’s good that the audiences laughed at us, and that means they understood us too. I don’t know how but we won the first prize, what more the vulgarity we used (Asses, heh). The overall results were highly unexpected. Judging was done rather differently this year and I guess that they were looking for creativity in performances this time. Well wells. Steffi and I were more of clowns than musicians today (I still am a serious musician, though)

Even our appearance made people laugh. All we had on our heads were boxes wrapped with aluminium foil + fork/spoon sticking out at the top + paper/plastic cups at the sides.

The second and third prize winners were dancers. Like I said, highly unexpected results. Nevermind that, but seriously, folks, everyone did their best. Great job to everyone

I had my jaw-drops when the following performed: The band that performed Bat Country (it was so amazing and yet so scary, NO DOUBT, and they should have won), the violin quartet, and of course, that brave dude named Lim Chean Leong who did an energetic pop Korean song. When I said energetic, I really mean it. Those who were there should know.

Done with Copic markers but it’s not done yet
(after a month of procrastination)

(+) On a random note, I’m just glad that the person I’ve been missing is present today A simple “Hi” with a smile and wave is enough to make my day…although I will be needing it during the holidays…well, good day I bid to you.

15+1=16

So, today’s my birthday.

16 years old. I wouldn’t like to call it my Sweet Sixteen, so be it. In fact, it’s so cliché, some people have come up with terms such as “Sweet Thirteen”, “Sweet Fifteen”, so on and so forth. Being a Malaysian, I don’t see much privelleges for turning sixteen.

Anyway, I had a wee outing with Alan, Chai Leng, Chen Ji and Alastair. Smaller than last year, and definitely not as big as the ones you see in MTV’s Sweet Sixteen (ugh). We watched the newly-released PIXAR film, Wall-E.

“What if mankind had to leave Earth, and somebody forgot to turn the last robot off?“

Without a doubt, PIXAR films are always creative and different. There was one thing which Wall-E had the urge to do.

Geddit? I want to hold your hand..?

The very same urge lives inside me. The urge was satisfied later on

I guess I must be the luckiest person alive. Believe me, I’ve been through many lucky events in my life..

On another note, I’d like to thank Sojourner, Melanie, Heng Hau, Steffi, Anna, Edward, Olivia, Diyana, Kah Meng, Sheila and Iva for wishing me.

Special mentions:
Elena, for wishing me all the way from Japan
Alan, for wishing me and giving me a handshake that I cannot forget (+ similar colours by coincidence again, like what happened last year )
Alastair, for being there although he doesn’t know the rest of my friends
Chai Leng & Chen Ji, for getting me a large file which I could use to put in all my sheet music. How’d they know?

The strangest encounter of the day: Some random blokes stopped me by saying “OI” and one of them asked me for Chai Leng’s number, while she went to the toilet.  He said that he was interested to get to know her, but I politely said that she has already got a boyfriend. That weird guy still wanted her number, though. And so, I raised my left eyebrow.

And then…nothing

A few months ago, my camera had a lot of dust on its sensor.

…and I thought that it needed professional cleaning. Seriously.

Well, well..look at it now!

Nevermind the brightness of the picture

I thought that it was a bad idea to clean it by myself, but it only takes guts, dexterity and a little bit of boredom-out-of-the-blue to actually discover the “Mirror Lock-up” function

This calls for a dance!

Can’t Stop Feeling

A once-in-a-blue-moon entry about my love life. Aye.

It’s gonna take some time to overcome shyness.

What would you do if you wanted to approach that special someone of yours and found that he’s surrounded by his friends?

“Nevermind, there will be a time when his friends aren’t around”, that’s what I always tell myself.

I may have liked the same person for almost 2 years, but I always find it difficult to start a conversation. Perhaps he’s too Chinesey and I’m too Englishey (in terms of language). Ah, what the heck. When you have feelings for someone, you wouldn’t care about their imperfections. You love the person for who he/she is, not what he/she does. As for me, things just happen like *snap fingers*…that.

I remember asking him something last year and while I tried to reply, I ended up staring at the person himself (and then somehow examined his glasses’ frames). Yes, he stared back too. Until someone far behind him was calling me. Well wells, the oh-so-long eye contact ended. Gott, times like this must be really treasured.

I noticed that we have a lot of differences. I’m mixed and he’s Chinese. I’m short but he’s tall. I don’t do sports and he plays basketball. I have the talents for art and music but he does not. We’re in different classes this year. I bet that our music tastes are different. Well, I kind of believe in the saying “Opposites attract”, but I prefer the word “differences” rather than “opposites”. Right, maybe we do have a little bit of similarities. We’re both thin and we have uh..best friends who are bigger than us

Chubs + Bones = Best friends forever
Yes, that is Charlie Chaplin, not Adolf Hitler’s apprentice

Last week, I asked him whether he has actually SEEN me playing the piano. He said “No”, but I think he might have HEARD me playing it during the Drama Competition (a few months back). Nevermind that, the songs I played were just for adding the mood into the whole play.

“In order to show how well one can play the piano, one must be able to make the audience cry.”

I still have time to perfect my nocturne and he’ll get to hear it next year. Gotta make a good first impression through sounds! Let’s just hope that…

…wherever the venue of next year’s graduation is located…

 …must have a piano.

I don’t want my plan to be ruined after carefully planning it a year beforehand.