here's a piece of my mind

========  glass shattered ========

past midnight random chat

I want to buy a new handphone. AP set (approval product) instead of the original authorized one. So I asked a friend whom I think might know the drill better. Until the conversation went south xD

 

Good night :)

Look Ma, a wedding gig! AGAIN!

Finally another gig with the Rubbers! :D Well kinda sad Manu can't play with us >.< so i gotta play keyboard and we asked our friend Garrett to sub for bass. As usual, lots of lessons learned.

First, be tactful towards hotel's sound engineers. We asked to connect the guitar and bass' amp to the PA and the fella said that we gotta pay extra 200 bucks for extra connection. Rid0nkul0us. After reconfirming the management, apparently no extra bucks needed. =.="
 
2nd, be polite to them. Don't boss around. Use the basic 'please' and 'thank you'. Well, engineers are human too and they are also part of your performance. Don't mess with them unless you want them to mess with your sound.

We've prepared 17 songs. We thought that those would be enough and guess what, before they did the toast we already played more than half of the songs! Before the whole thing ended we ran out of songs. Thank God they are christian family so we can play worship songs -.- So the 3rd lesson is that you gotta have LOTS of songs in the bag.

4th, go listen to oldies hits. Yeah that might not be everyone's cup of tea, but in a wedding sometimes there will be some uncles who request for old songs. We were pwned by the song 'wedding day'. But thank God that song sounded like it used 3-chords only so we kinda just wing it messily.

5th you gotta have contacts of car or van rental services if you're transp0rtless. Y'kn0w, to get to the venue and to put your gears and stuff. 

 

6th learn songs in different languages especially if you are in a multi-racial country, and make sure you get the pronunciation right. It may offend some people if you get it wrong. We performed in 3 languages that night x.x

Last one! it would be nice if one of you have a smartphone/ipod/ipad/anything that can go online. We don't remember the lyrics of those impromptu songs we played/asked to play. So I used Oxy's phone to google it. But if the venue has no signal, then congratulations! You're screwed ;)

kyuuut! xD

We were d0ing s0und check f0r this m0rning's service when this little fella came in. He just st0od behind th0se chairs l0oked at us playing a s0ng. His eyes were glued to our drummer, barely blinking. Maj0r amazement detected xD.

Man. Y0u sh0uld've seen his face. I wished i c0uld take a picture but i was playing the keyb0ard. So, too bad.

Then he walked towards the b0ngo beside me and started hitting it f0ll0wing the drum beat. Mad awes0me.

iabaskos! rice is good.

Somewhere between May and June, I had an amazing experience back in the land of the m0st amazing rice. I stayed in a village, and I've the privilege of teaching keyb0ard to a c0uple of guys. They were from different villages. 

Don't ask me how did I end up teaching them or why was I there in the first place. The amazing part is that out of 5 fellas, 2 of them speak 2% English, and s0metimes when I talk they just l0ok at me with0ut saying a w0rd. I smile, they smile. I ask them 'do y0u understand?' they smile. S0metimes they n0dded, laughed or just stared at me. It was a challenge and because there was only one keyb0ard available, each shared an octave and it was just en0ugh for 3 pers0n so i taught them from the fr0nt so i need to play with my fingers upside d0wn. One of them had the basic ch0rd kn0wledge while the others had n0ne. Oh! Btw they d0n't use C D E kind of ch0rd, but they use Do Re Mi etc which was similar to what we use at dog-eating-place. It was less than 3 h0urs for 2 days but it was well spent :) I h0pe they will still remember what I taught them th0ugh.

One thing that I've learned is that music unites people. I was amazed that the guys can get what I meant when I hum. Also they are all strangers to me and we d0n't speak the same language so music kinda broke the ice, especially when one fella play the C ch0rd with his fingers f0rming the image of a chicken's feet. It was also hard to keep a straight face when one of the guys asked me how to play Soledad - Westlife xD Another example of why music unites people, here.

Oh mayn. I want to post their pics sooooo badly. But I am not allowed to. So, yeah. Damn I miss those fellas. I hope that they'll keep playing >.<

ipop

When I watch TV back home *dog-eating-place*, I'd definitely w0n't miss this thing called 'inf0tainment' whenever i tuned in to a l0cal channel. N0rmally I'd expect news like celeb A and B is n0w div0rced or maybe s0me crap like celeb C was at a hair sal0n f0r a creambath. This time they were talking ab0ut the emergence of b0ybands and girlbands in this c0untry plus sh0wing s0me of their mvs.

Mediocre face + mediocre dancing + medi0cre singing + mediocre music. yuck.

Acc0rding to them, these guys and gals jumped in the b0yband/galband wag0n pretty recently in resp0nse to the great K-waves *m0re like a tsunami actually*.

Well there were several cute ones. H0t ones? N0ne. The others were so-so. And oh, d0n't even get me started on the gals. They wore heavy make up which added like 8 years to their actual age. Their ch0re0graphy were heavily influenced by the K gals, those kind like.. y'kn0w.. 

Well this is supp0sed to be an impr0vement of the current mainstream over here in a way that there is a new kind of stuff taking place in the midst of th0se shall0w ones that has been g0in on f0r years. I'm no pro, but i think  ipop is just.. sad.. Basically m0st of the stuff that we have n0w are derived from those guys in the 90s or even earlier, and now the Ks are d0ing it BUT they make lots impr0vements and they even raised the bar!! For instance,

                              Then                                  Now

They broke the rule of 5 or 4 in a gr0up by having odd numbers instead, also in terms of their dancing the Ks are waaaaaay better imho. The singing, puhlease. Even though the Ks have bigger number in s0me gr0up, each one of them can sing well unlike those western ones that tend to have 2 g0od ones in a gr0up and use the rest as dec0rati0n. 

In additi0n...

THAT will definitely seal the deal.

*n0sebleed*

With incredibly shaped b0dy added to the list, l0ok at h0w high the standard has bec0me.

The Ip0p is...*sigh*. I was h0ping that at least they can sing better. They have 'ok' v0ice but n0t that great. They don't harmonize as much, and they're not that good doing solos. They need major brush up on their v0cals. Maybe they c0uld also c0me up with better music or at least m0re up-to-date music arrangement. B0th the b0ys n gals of ip0p really need to polish up their dancing skills. There's no o0omph to their m0vements. This wh0le B0yband/Girlband thing aren't really my thing. N0t anym0re. But when i saw SuJu's SorrySorrySorry for the first time, I was literally h0lding my breath and my eyes were barely blinking. S0meh0w I can feel the energy. Even th0ugh I d0n't like the s0ng but the dance was so good that it glued my eyes to the screen 'till the s0ng ended. But when that s0ng is on the radio, I usually teleport to other channel pronto.

Actually i think It'll be better if they have s0me kind of training first bef0re they go out there. So that when they go out, they're equipped with all the packages. Well i saw the K ones underg0ne this, and l0ok at h0w it turned out! It's a good example.

Ip0p guys seri0usly need to hit the gym =.=

F0r the girls, i n0ticed that Ip0p gals have nicer and curvier b0ds than the Ks, which is a go0d start! In terms of fashi0n, hmm. Still can't be called a 'trendsetter'. They need to see the kind of event they will be perf0rming at. I watched one of the galband perf0rming outd0or and guess what, i saw s0me of them w0re a frickin l0ngsleeve plus turtleneck, and all of them were made up heavily! Dang. With all that plus the heat, they're g0nna melt. I think they need to change their stylist and makeup artist. Oh! No need slutty cl0thes so that "th0se pe0ple" w0n't have any reas0n to ban y0u. They also need to firm up all the flabbiness here and there, do l0ts of sit ups, take less0ns to sing better and l0se the heavy make up f0r g0odness sake!!

*y'know why i don't put up any of the ipop stars' pic? Entertainment byotches here like to sue. Nuff' said. 
img credits to: cafe.daum.net