What a long wait for a new post! I have been getting involved in a lot of happenings [Chinese New Year open houses], activities [spacing out at a graveyard], normalities [exploring shophouses] and the S word. Not to worry, those will all be documented right after this post is published.
But nothing is bigger than watching Explosions In The Sky on the night of the 19th of February. They are one of the top four of the highest-rated band on my iTunes, because other than Amanset, Pinback and Thrice, nothing else matters. It's also because I started listening to them back during my Glaucon days.
I went to Ruums [the club where Explosions were to perform] with my mother, arriving at around 8 p.m. We were about to enter the club when my mother got a surprise seeing Reza Salleh. For awhile, my mind went "Er, WTF?". Then my mother told me, "This is Reza, Audi's friend! The one who used to come to our house when they were in BB Boys School". And I was like, "Oh! That Reza!" and laughed while looking away.
Harhar, funny encounter aside, my mother wanted to chill our near the bar to have some tea and grilled chicken sandwiches, while I opted the closest spot to the stage. Waiting minutes were spent staring at the DSLR youth and admiring the band's trademark Texan flag draped over an amplifier.
Then, four foreigners walked to the front of the stage. Crowd cheers and I was delighted. One of them gave a short welcome speech Malay, which was probably the greatest thing an American can say.
First song was First Breath After Coma, which I have argued with myself to be the best song they have ever made, and not The Only Moment We Were Alone back when I first heard it. Everyone was happy with the music Explosions played, and some couldn't stop shooting the band with flash [we were told not to before the show started].
Yeah, blurry stuff. I can't help but shaking to their music. But one thing I can't stand was seeing selfish spectators blowing their second-hand smoke to the band who were obviously totally into their performance. How rude! Look at how... er, this particular band member [I don't know who's who] sways about when he's not grilling his guitar.
Song after song went by, and I manage to record a video of the most intense part of Greet Death.
There was one song [I think it was Catastrophe and the Cure] when that same swaying guy went ballistic over a drum, which looked a little like this:
Right when his 'drum solo' ended, his drumsticks went flying away to hit my camera, before bouncing off to a hand belonging to the person standing next to me. Drats!
Here's a look of the drummer and the Texan flag which has a tiny print of the band's name in cursive.
The show ended at about 1.5 hours after 9 p.m., with The Only Moment We Were Alone. Now, I think this is their best song they have ever made. This was the song that have made me bounced about the most, too.
Then, it was time for them to leave the stage. The crowd obviously didn't like this, and a "We want more!" chant came as expected. I was screaming for So Long, Lonesome, but the very same Swaying Guy came out to tell us that they can't play anymore because they "had pour our hearts into our performance". He waved at us and said "Selamat Malam".
Several moments later, one of the guy from the organisers told us that the band will have an autograph session "if we lined up nicely outside", which some of us did, but nothing came up for about a half hour. When the band passed us by, some fanatic was screaming "Leave them alone!!!" because the guys couldn't stick around any longer and had to be escorted out of the place. I had my journal in my hands and hoped for luck than one of them could sign a page.
I got to shoot one of them while he was signing for some guy...
and when the rest of them passed my way, I held my February 19 page open and asked one of them, "Please sign this". The guy was ready to leave but I insisted by looking into his eyes for 2 seconds, with a face that looked like as if I was being killed and had to say my last words. He was so pleasant to write his name [which I found out later that he is Mark Smith]. In return, I said to him "Thank you very much".
I returned to my mother, who was still chilling out with her tea and a free copy of Junk magazine [handed from Reza, of course]. Apparently she has a good view of the band from her seat! She also told me about some drunken guy passing out in front of her, and how a girl thought that my mother was the organiser of the show. I finished the last half of the grilled chicken sandwich after shooting several men hanging about at ground level. The my mother and I went to Hotel Equatorial to collect our car and landed home by midnight.
Spectacular 19th of February! Now, anyone interested in checking out Explosions back in Texas to watch them play So Long, Lonesome? ARGH!!
Post-show thoughts: Something important was missing in the show. The sound of the piano! So that's why they didn't play So Long, Lonesome, along with other songs that have the usage of a piano. I guess it was too expensive to bring in their own keyboard? Well, Ruums should have let them borrowed their in-hours keyboard so that all of us can go even crazier with the show! I mean, I remember the last time I was at Ruums, when Dirty Three came to perform, and it had endless opening acts and lasted way after 11 p.m.! I still couldn't believe that the band I just saw on Tuesday night were indeed the band that has 200+ play counts on my iTunes. And due to this unbelievable amazement, I think I'll be adding another 200+ more play counts. I mean, seriously. Of all cities, why did they choose Kuala Lumpur? I am sure they didn't have time to tour the city because they are due for a show in Taipei two days after Tuesday. And also: anyone noticed the elder lady who was sitting by the escalator break with a 12-inch PowerBook after the show? Wonder what she was up to.
Apologies to those who were bugged out by my excessive movements [stepping on people's shoes, hitting people with my hair and whatnot]. I was very happy acknowledging the existence of Explosions before my eyes, which made me feel grateful for being alive.
I was invited to a Chinese New Year open house, hosted by Auntie Dorothy, an important lady in a particular cookie franchise. She's great friends with my mother. So on the seventh of February, we arrived at the lady's residence, somewhere in Taman Desa at around 5 in the afternoon. The road in front of her house was covered with red confetti, and we were informed that we missed the lion dance! But that's fine, when there are loads of food to be pigging out on.
Notice the fabric with fold marks in the background. It came from China, and it's worth about RM 100 000 [rumoured]. It was a gift from this man who had this awesome orchard in Malacca, but now works in Shanghai. Amazingly enough, he was seen wearing a Tintin t-shirt.
The buffet tables were flooded with potato salad, spaghetti, chicken wings, fried dim sum, lin chee kang, chocolate fountain with fruits and marshmallows and endless supply of Lecka-Lecka gelato. I've never had so much free food in my life.
While my mother and I were busy stuffing our guts, the kids were busy terrorising the house with cans of silly string [there was a crate full of them] and spraying on their pals, parents and the entire garden. Luckily the food remain unharmed.
So this was the food I was talking about. I also consumed two boxes of chrysanthemum tea and a glass of lemon tea. No wonder I feel bloated!
There were trays of chocolates everywhere, and not to forget, tangerines. I've had enough of them from my mother's regular trips to the market.
The rest of the time we were there, I hung around a bunch of middle-aged people who were talking about life and how serious or funny they can get. The rest were busy yelling 'Yam Seng' for as long as they can before they down a glass of champagne from the endlessly-flowing bar.
On the eighteenth was the corporate open house [before this was for the family and friends], held at Bayu Timor cafe and home furnishing store in Taman Megah [opposite Ming Tien]. I arrived at about five and got myself a glass of peach tea and sat with my mother and her friends. The buffet spread wasn't ready yet, so we were served some tasty cheese and crackers. Then, something loud happen.
Clings and clangs of cymbals and drum beats started off the lion dance. The lion crawled about the shop to give blessing [and onto Auntie Dorothy herself] and sliced up several oranges and a pomelo.
The police were there to 'monitor' the situation, and several passers-by stood about to enjoy the show.
Now, it is time for the lion to do some pole-dancing. I haven't got a clue on how those people inside the lion can jump up so high!
The lion was also dancing upon two cables and flipped about, which amazed everyone who was there.
Then it was time for the lion to eat some salad and ang pau off a clothes hanger. I overheard that there were 8 packets of ang pau, each containing RM 1 000!
Just before the lion came down to the ground, it performed a thrilling leap over the part where the cables were [it was snapped to spice things up], which brought me halfway to faint.
The show ended with a great display of exploding firecrackers, which is technically illegal, but somehow the police were just watching coolly.
Time to eat! I have been reserving my stomach for this open house, and ate the customary Yee Sang, followed by finger foods like baked cheese mushroom and pepperoni baguette.
There were loads more that are on the buffet table. Roast lamb, nachos with pineapple salsa [out for an encore], Sarawak Laksa, roti jala... all the tasty stuff. I really enjoyed these chocolate brownie / cream / soufflé thing which is really a sin not to eat, but very sinful to eat. Oh, no photographs of those because I got busy photographing the tai tais.
And as usual, what's a CNY open house without a rowdy group of adults enjoying rounds of alcoholic drinks?
At around 8 p.m., we were all called out to watch the fireworks display. It went well for the first few shoots but suddenly, it stopped.
And for about 15 minutes, we were all waiting for something to happen while the 'pyrotechnic experts' carefully re-light the explosives. Nothing worked, and in the end, they burned the entire box. Then, flowers of fire came back to bedazzle the sky.
Ah, wasn't that fun? My mother and I decided that it was time to move, so we bid goodbye to Auntie Dorothy and her guests and carted away goodie bags, including an incredible tangerine-hoarding golden wire rat with a wiggling coil tail.
A big thank you to Auntie Dorothy for being so generous with the food and ang pau.
So. On the other day I paid Jaya Supermarket one last visit before the entire complex closes down on the seventh of February. It's probably my most-visited retail complex in my life. There was a time when it had Marks & Spencer! I mostly wanted to buy several cans of these 'exotic' sodas which I have not seen anywhere else, not even at Village Grocer.
Once I got to Cold Storage, I got a little sad looking at empty shelves. It looked like the place was looted. Fresh items was no longer in stock, along with some biscuits, boxed fruit juices, instant noodles.
There were some stuff that were on sale like canned food, junk food, tea and old Christmas stock. I bought a bag of potato skins for RM 3.
Ah, no more grocery-shopping in Section 14. Of course, I can always go visit Jaya Grocer but I'd have to cross the busy Jalan Semangat to get there, using an overhead bridge, so it's a little inconvenient.
On the very same day, I visited Jaya One, a newly-opened commercial centre [the one where PJ Live Arts are going to be at]. It's not a hundred percent complete, but some cafes and restaurants are flooded with mostly students from the TAR college next door.
There are Starbucks [they just have to be all over the place, don't they?], Secret Recipe, Overseas, Jaya Noodle House and Duck King among these blocks.
How do you like its architecture so far? It's an ideal place to open some Scandinavian home accessories shop, or a niche bookstore and stationers. But what that is more likely to appear are boring boutiques that go by the name of 'Pretty Fairy Collections' and Kian furniture.
There is always something to do during weekends if you know where to go, either to happenings, or making something happen to yourself. In my case with JK, we were out to Gardens to have our first meal for the day [this was at around 6 p.m.]. We had it at this cafe / yoga shop called yogitree, which was just blah. Nothing great about this shop. It took them fifteen minutes to prepare a sandwich and a 'tagliatelle'.
Well, after that pricey meal, we almost directly went back to the car to drive up to a little bungalow up Robson Heights, where we were almost four hours late for the Bangun exhibition, an exploration in abandoned buildings. But by the time we got there, people were just on the floor, talking about the objectives, the meanings and the importance of this project.
As you can see, Mr. Teh, our former lecturer [seated to the right of the Stefan Sagmeister-looking guy (not really)], was also present. But he left right after the discussion ended, and didn't stick around to mingle. We were served orange juice, cakes, doughnuts and muruku, which were all tasty.
And before leaving, I went up to this lady known as Sharon to tell her that she sounds a lot like my old classmate, Iszie. And next to her was Zedeck, a guy who used to date Iszie. *redundant laugh* Check out Sharon's tattoo.
Well, nothing much to say about last Saturday the second. Now, to Sunday.
I woke up earlier than yesterday because I needed to pack up my old magazines to sell at Ricecooker later today. JK and I went to Bangsar to have our lunch at Country Farm Organics, where he had charcoal noodles, and chicken vegetable thingie with brown rice.
We were also at Bangsar to check out the boutiques because JK needs to buy more 'architectural' clothes for Chinese New Year. There was one new shop called RE:PLACEMENT which had a salon in it, that's just a few steps away from Bombshell.
There were clothes, too! But just for the ladies [the mens collection will appear "soon"].
Nothing was bought so far. I feel a little frustrated to be walking into seven days for the fourth time without buying anything. They've got nice 'architectural' clothes but... I first need clear out my closet [again] to make space for newer, better clothes.
So the main reason JK and I were out on Sunday the third was to check out the KRAFTGRAFIK X LAPSAP Junkyard SALE at Palate Palette.
Which had nothing to offer to us. It's disappointing. I did photograph some people and bought a DVD [or was it a VCD] containing '3 Award Winning Films' from Freedom Film Fest 2007. Fahmi Reza, director of 'Sepuluh Tahun Sebelum Merdeka' received my payment of RM 10. Mark Teh was fooling around with an iBook, sporting a funky collage in black and white.
There were too many people upstairs, so we went downstairs to people-watch.
After photographing our tent girl, we adjourned to Curiousity Shop to check out their collection of mid-century furniture and glassware.
The sales guy couldn't speak a word of English nor Malay and remained silent as we took pictures of almost everything they had. JK took a picture of me and him at the tulip chair-looking lawn furniture set, which I will include here, when I get it from him.
JK and I headed off to BB Plaza to find his perfect pair of trousers. He felt wary of buying red Cheap Mondays at that little shop that sells Fred Perry sneakers, because every trend-conscious hipster [mat rempits, even] wears their red drainpipes to death and JK didn't want to fall into that category. We got ourselves to Dolls, where I found Muz. I didn't get to interview him at Palate Palette earlier, so I began to ask him questions like "What pops up in your mind when you think of Scandinavia?". Unfortunately, he couldn't answer is [nor his friend / shop guy] because they didn't know what Scandinavia was. That brought in a little grey cloud to my mind.
Anyway, nothing did JK find wearable, so we moved back to BB Plaza to find this trendy-looking shop called Hujung.
We were entertained by a group of feet-tapping, The Bravery-listening youth with a slight British accent [but only when they speak English, of course]. JK found a pair of mustard jeans, which initially made him think that he's fat. The guy in the red tee in the picture below quickly got him a pair in XL [oh!].
JK requested no plastic bags when he bought the jeans, and we scurried back to the car to get to Central Market Annexe to transport our magazines to the Ricecooker shop.
OK. Those are just a crumb of what I have placed at Ricecooker. There are many other weird magazines, most of which I can't believe have spent up to RM 30 when I bought it at Kinokuniya. JK and I spent the rest of the night tagging and writing titles of our magazines [he is selling a Björk autobiography for... RM 15] while Joe Kidd, the 'boss' of the shop ate his chicken tandoori with the 'it' boy of last year.. We were kind of suffocating at the shop. A punk gig was going on next door and some of the attendants were hanging around and smoking at the shop. We immediately left after completing all the forms and headed home.
Right. Go to Ricecooker to buy our magazines. It's unbelievable, RM 5 for i-D, Dazed & Confused, icon [the architecture magazine] and L'ARCA; RM 3 for WIRE, SEED, SPIN and other very rare culture magazines; RM 1 for many others. The rest are by donation. Hurry up!
