Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Say what? It's been over a month already!

Yeah, yeah, I totally screwed up the updating bit. But that's alright because it has been pretty interesting since the last installment of "WTF's up with Zhen's life?"

But before we move on to anything, I'd like to go on a short little rant about the traffic these days. Three times in the past week, it took me a freaking hour to drive the measly 8km to Monash. From 7am to 8am... A whole entire hour! I have friends who run 10km in 50 minutes! What the hell is wrong with the traffic these days?!

And now back on topic...

18th January 2009 - KLPac Open Day
I only just discovered that I have yet to blog about this. Let's start things with an evocative image:


That's me posing during my solo bit for the song Ellingtonia (the same song I was singing when this picture was taken). However, I vehemently opposed performing Ellingtonia for gigs/public performances anymore because:
  1. It was the very second score we received for our production last year (the first was In the Mood). Seven minutes long and full of choreography, it didn't take much for it to become YKLS's most rehearsed song of 2008.
  2. After our production, we performed Ellingtonia on three other occasions (KLPac Open Day included)... and each gig required its own series of practices.
Suffice to say, I think it was about time we took a break from that song already. Good thing that performing Ellingtonia for the very last time in the foreseeable future got me that awesome picture. Seriously, I need all the help I can get to look way cooler than I actually am. Heh heh.

10th February 2009 - Christy Comes Kristy Kommes
Some time back, a silky terrier randomly walked into our house. We believed it to be a neighbour's dog, but before we could do anything about that child of a bitch, it ran away. In any case, it sparked an interest in my brother and his girlfriend to get a dog.

Felicia the brother's girlfriend and Kristy the silky terrier

Christy's about 2 years old when we got her from one of my dad's colleagues. Apparently, this aforementioned colleague had a girl who owned Christy but could no longer take care of her because of college (wow, that was almost a tongue-twister). As a result, we got Christy for free, along with a cage and some food to boot. The only unfortunate part was that she hadn't been groomed in forever and she loves biting a little bit too much. Thankfully she's a small dog, so the damage is somewhat mitigated.

Anyway, we soon discovered that Christy doesn't really respond to her name, so we thought it might be a good idea to give her a new one. For what it's worth, I suggested stuff like Zelda and Chilli, while my brother wanted to call her (of all things) Cookie. In the end, we stuck with Christy except that Felicia thinks it looks cuter with a K (you can't say it sounds cuter because seriously it sounds the same) so Christy is now Kristy.

All together now... "Awww..."

Kristy is seriously just so adorable; she does this thing where she keeps one ear up and the other ear down (will have to get a picture of that someday). My mom, who once opposed the idea of keeping pets (especially dogs) have grown to love that little ball of fur. She now gushes about how Kristy listens to her, how Kristy doesn't bark at strangers as much anymore, etc. Kristy's fitting right into the family.

Yet that bitch still bites me pretty often, even though I play with her all the time... Oh well.

23rd to 27th February - Orientation, MOlympic Games, and Monash in general
Last week I was involved in what will possibly be the final orientation I will be involved in (unless by some sick twist of fate, I end up having to return next semester... Choi!). As usual, just a bunch of pictures (stolen from several Facebook albums)...


We celebrated Desmond's birthday, too

I was the emcee for most of the orientation, including the MOlympic games. As a result, I had free reign as to what type of music to lend to the event. I opted for the old school, feel good mood... The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Bee Gees, The Monkees, The Queen, Manfred Mann as well as Don McLean among others. The idea was that all music had to be from before the year 1990. Cici, who was pretty much the head honcho for the event, liked the music. Izuan didn't, but then again he can go huck fimself. *Wink*

MOlympic photos taken by Victor Yu (who was in my team last year):

The Purple Team (Purple Puff) and their mascot, a fairy (in both senses of the word, heh heh)

Blue Team had a rather freakay looking Smurf

The Red Team had an ASSMIT Ranger (Arts, Social Sciences, Medicine and IT). Yup, it's pronounced "Ass-Mitt"

Chicks playing tug of war (not the one in blue)

Unfortunately though, on the day of the Games the emcee table was set up next to the stage, right out in the sun. Because it didn't feel too hot that day, we (including Izuan, Leanne, Desmond, and sometimes Hasif) simply chilled (har har) out in the open.

Six-eyed monster. No, not the one-eyed monster, six-eyed

Needless to say we all got sunburnt. All in all it was as fun as the MOlympic games last year.

Oh, the Purple Team won again. Go Purple!


25th to 28th February - The Actors Studio Bangsar Gala Farewell
The Actors Studio Bangsar was established at the Bangsar Shopping Centre in 2001. Eight years later, BSC is now undergoing a massive facelift - of which TAS is unfortunately not a part of. So to bid farewell to the beloved theatre space, a group of performers, the likes of which includes comedians Douglas Lim, Afdlin Shauki, Harith Iskander, Indi Nadarajah, the Comeback Kings as well as Monty and Logi, dance groups Sutra Dance Theatre and the ASWARA (Akademi Seni Budaya dan Warisan Kebangsaan) dancers, dancers Lee Swee-Keong and Mew Chang Tsing, and of course, yours truly with the Young KL Singers.

Lee Swee-Keong and his amazing contorting body (second picture stolen from by Nick Dorian)

The Sutra Dancers

The Young KL Singers... Who's that handsome guy on the left?

The comedians were hilarious. On one night, when Harith Iskander got onstage, he said, "I saw the Young KL Singers backstage. I looked at them... not so young. Some of them not even from KL! Talking Hokkien backstage... from Penang lah!" Which was quite an apt description of our motley crew, actually.

On the last night it became pretty emotional (i.e. there was crying) as a lot of our members had very fond memories performing on that stage. 9 out of the YKLS's 10 past productions were held there, and before the Young Choral Academy was established, that was where we went for rehearsals, too. I'll miss that place, but mostly because I really hate driving to KLPac.

Joe Hasham giving his final goodbye speech

Sayonara Actors Studio Bangsar!


Almost the entire cast and crew of The Actors Studio Bangsar Gala Farewell

The Zimbabwe Dollar Watch:
New updates from the land of the fuckups! On February 2, Zimbabwe decided to redenominate its currency, slashing away a whopping 12 zeroes from the Z$. Here's the new exchange rate:


Don't forget to look at things this way, though. If Zimbabwe did not redenominate its currency, the exchange rates would look like this:

20th Jan: RM1 to Z$5,172,816
3rd Mar: RM1 to Z$25,743,000,000,000

Did that blow your mind away at all? That's almost 5 million percent inflation in a month and a half! More updates as and when I update this blog...

Pointless Fact of the Day:
And we move on to the PFotD section. At the end of this month, I'll be performing (so will my girlfriend!) with the rest of the YCA Chamber Choir at a full-length concert at the end of this month. By full length I mean a 14/15 song spectacular. The concert is called Buatan Malaysia:


Here are some snippets from the blurb we were provided:
The Young Choral Academy (YCA) Chamber Choir, the result of the merger between the YCA Youth Chamber Choir and the Young KL Singers’ (YKLS) Chamber Choir, will be announcing their arrival in the Malaysian music scene with their debut production, ‘Buatan Malaysia’ featuring arrangements of Malaysian choral music.

Through this production, the YCA Chamber Choir strives to show the audience that any genre of Malaysian music, be it pop, folksongs or even – yes – patriotic songs can be a pleasure to listen to and perform. For the members, Saw states that this production is to help the performers learn and understand their own country’s music better, and through this develop a love for it.

This production features purely local arrangers, such as Geneviene Wong, Juliette Lai, Wong Shuen Da and the choir’s very own Assistant Music Director Tracy Wong. The audience will be able to enjoy original arrangements of songs that are close to the hearts of most Malaysians, even a completely different rendition of Jalur Gemilang along with some completely original compositions such as Not Alone Anymore and Tracy Wong’s Walk With Me.

Armed with a stage director, original arrangements and compositions, the YCA Chamber Choir’s debut production promises a reminiscent night for Malaysians with a twist as the audiences will hear familiar tunes to songs they probably know all the words to in a completely different light and will be introduced to the wonders of our very own Malaysian arrangers!

Venue: Pentas 2 of the KL Performing Arts Center (KLPac)
Date: 28th and 29th of March
Time: 3.00pm and 8.30pm on Saturday and a 3.00pm Sunday matinee show.

Tickets can be purchased from the KLPac Box Office (03-40479000) for a flat rate of RM25.
I already sent out Facebook invites to everybody who are unfortunate enough to be on my friends list. It's our debut performance and it's only RM25! We're working with zero sponsorship whatsoever so we really need as much support as we can. I promise that when you leave the concert, you'll be surprised at your own predilection to hum old school Malaysian tunes all the way home.

Ibu, ibu, engkaulah ratu hatiku...

Sinaran, mentari menyinari...

Getaran jiwa, melanda hatiku...

Piqued your interest yet? You can contact me at ZeroOneTwo TwoFourFour OneZeroNineFive, or drop a line in my tag box. Cheers!

The chick in the upper right corner's my girl. Am I a lucky bastard or what?

Zhen was here at 3:55 pm,