PHOTOGRAPHY

Monday, November 26, 2007

The One Night Stand.

The Event: Rozhan Razman Band - ONE NIGHT STAND.The Place:
(Wonder if the name is purely a marketing tactic..or actually has good reason)The man himself, Rozhaaaannnn, who was my lecturer in ICOM a few years back.
I wish I'd taken advantage of his availability then (IN TERMS OF BASS LESSONS & LOCATION), coz now he's based in Boston and only came back for Hari Raya hols.


His trail of ridiculously talented friends with whom he collaborated included...

Mia Palencia - who makes jazz singing look so easy you'll be fooled into attempting jazz songs afterwards only to find you suck in comparison.
Pet's object of ubertalent-lust,
and Amanda's object of...well, just lust. hahahah....
John Thomas,
..whose
drumming never fails to loosen a few buttons in the audience.

and there was Wan a.k.a. Gigi

who was good too, but constantly in our view of Rozhan and John!

BUT, my fave mention of the night would have to be this Japanese chick!!!
Introducing Rie Tsuji - Beyonce's keyboardist!
She's worked with Beyonce for more than a year and just came back from her tour.Seriously, how much better could it get?! She must live a dream life.


Did I mention her boyfriend is Rozhan himself?
It completes her dream life, it's only natural.

*jealous*
.....





Ok so I still wanna post pics of her..

Here she is in Brown Sugar, my FAVOURITEst jazz bar in the real Bangkok.
She was so so good at keyboards - I can honestly say I have never seen anyone hit it like she did, using so many funky pads and NAILING that pitch bend knob!! *in awe*All in all, the gig was fantabulous - they DID blow our brains out as the Facebook flier boasted. (haha)
P.S. I went with Pet and Darren. Pet also blogged about it HERE.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Dissipated execution.

Thesis. Even the word makes me groan now. I don't feel made for this.
I see Darren going for band practices, competitions..
Tammy going for dance practices..
I watch as the Sunday team plays new versions of old songs..

and I want IN!

I'm so so sick of saying "No I can't, I have to do my thesis."

It's not even moving anywhere, I'm hardly getting in enough useful material.
My head's not here. My head's everywhere but.
The more I think about it, the more I wanna rebel and go play in the rain.
I hope this doesn't reflect on some kind of "refusal to deal with problems faced". Coz I do deal with certain issues, but studies .....let's just say it's never been my strong point.
I'm an average student.
A-V-E-R-A-G-E.
I work my way from Point A to Point B with as little effort as possible.

Unless it directly involves my music. Then I'll be the perfectionist.
But this is a thesis that I'm not really into. Coz there's way too much DEEPthinking involved.

So here I am. Blogging.
Damn you, Facebook.

And then there's the other 'issues of the heart' to ponder about now and then. Which seriously wastes deep-thinking energy needed for the thesis. I exhaust myself silly with THESE things, rather than throwing my heart and mind into my degree.
Such a waste. I know I could do better.

Sometimes I feel someone needs to sit NEXTtt to me and WATCH me do my work so I'll actually do it properly.
pimp myspace

I want a meaningful Christmas. I really really do.


Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Oh ya, I'm part-Indian aren't I - a Deepavali mention.

The two sesat sisters who stuck out in their casual baju coz no one told them it was gonna be a grander affair.The eldest female cousin in her Deepavali finery.
Her mother and mother's gorgeous sister who does NOT look like she has a college-aged kid studying medicine. So pretty ya..
One of TheMadCousins posing for a "candid candid" shot.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Rose Rose I Love'd You

Her script was alright - very Malaysian, with its funny moments. Despite 40% being in various Chinese dialects, I still understood the ideas behind most of the story. Of course, it was always funnier once I had asked for translations.

(chichimong = cobwebs)
"I'm sure your down-there got chichimong already!"
My roomies were Lainie Yeoh and Claudia Liew. Together we had some funny moments in our room albeit the non-working hard-drives, shoe stenches and smses from the toilet(hahhahahhahaha)..Let's run through the characters I enjoyed...

I loved the Lou Pan Leong - she's just a GREAT actress. Very professional, hilarious.Her "husband" character Lou Pan (Ho Soon Yoon, on left) is also quite a funnyman himself. The two of them were so natural, I loved it!KK was also natural. I admire the way he works because he knows when to joke, when to pay attention, and he always took his job seriously. He plays both a tranny and a guy in this musical - Kuk Fa....or Chrys, minus wig, cheongsam and heels. (MAC did an awesome job with makeup don't u think!)
Chrys: My name is Chrys - Chrysanthemum! Kuk Fa is my onstage name, again and again I say.
Lou Pan Leong: I don't care about your nonsense

Chrys: Hmph.You always discrimination me.



I was in charge of Carmen Soo's wardrobe changes. Her character, Xuan, is basically Rose Chan's rival. (Yes, the one on the left) Bella, or Cheong So, is such a lovable person offstage! Her carefree smile and general happiness is so contagious.
You just wanna HUGGGGGGG her.

Cheong So: WUUUUu LEII JING!!CommercialBreak: So we wardrobe people made a sign for the girls' dressing room door saying "NO MALES ALLOWED" for obvious reasons.
Upon seeing this sign, the guys decided to make their own....
hahahaha..typical.
Zalina Lee played a role (Siao Mei)that showed off her powerful voice. She's also one with a terrifyingly infectious laugh. She used to teach DarrenAshley drums a longgg time ago, and he still says "she's so cool" til this day. heh. I like her rendition of Madonna's "Take A Bow" in the musical, which she sings with Maria Yasmin.

Maria's voice is all heart and soul. I loved her in Tunku, and I loved her in RoseRose. She also turned out to be a very funloving down-to-earth person offstage.

Although, really, the mother of all down-to-earth celebs in this musical was none other than Tony Eusoff.
He played gangster Tim Kor- the one who kena whack by everyone.
He's playful to say the least, and I honestly believe that, natural charm aside, it's his deep voice that gets him all the attention. (This is a very diluted description hahahahahahah)His role was supported by The Ensemble.... sometimes.CommercialBreak: In the last show, JenHan ter-kicked Tony's down-there so he thought he'd apologize during the cast party....
It says "SORRY TONY" and "SPARE" pointing at an extra ball tomato.Tony accepting his apology..hehehehhe
The Ensemble consisted of these 9 characters. Some had double roles - I dare say everybody's favorite was Mr.Cheeeonnnngg, a.k.a. Meng Kheng.
Mr.Cheong gets a lapdance from Xuan and he's a married character. The interesting part? He's 20 in real life!=D

"Mr.Cheong, I am goood, at night I do show for your customer, daytime I do show for youuu..."
These are the Stilletos - Ah Yat, Ah Yee, Ah Sam
or Angie, Colleen, and Anrie.
They play the 'three-aunties-with-one-brain'.

hehe. Did I catch your attention here? This is Christy. She was a wardrobe assistant too, together with Deniece, ChinChin, (and Charlene who ran off before the last show).
Wardrobe Mistresses: Joni, Claudia, Deniece, Christy
Ah yes of course, our diva stylist Steven Sunny (in shades) and his assistant Tony YANnnnn
Thank goodness they helped us get a voice and insisted that we get 4more assistants, or it'd be just me and Claudia helping 30people!Tony and Steven not only provided the costumes, they also did hair and makeup - I had fun working with them actually, our nightly diva drama was entertaining hahahaahhaThey had to karipap Jenhan's hair every shownight - he became the karipap icon =D
According to his writeup, Kuah Jenhan (a.k.a. AhKuah/ Jenny/ Currypuff/ Tiffany) won the 2006 Stand Up Comedy Competition in Bond. And he well deserves it I'm sure, because he is really good at impersonations. He had us all in fits during his impersonation session at the cast party! I bet he gained more than one crush after that *ahem cough cough*
He owned a syiok camera too!! I likeeee..hehe CommercialBreak: Yknow, there were THREE Tony's in the cast/crew/musicians?!
That was especially annoying for me coz 'Tony' sounds too similar to 'Joni" so you have no idea how many times I answered to Tony those two weeks!
gah.
So what was my role, really? I was "wardrobe mistress" to Carmen Soo. Which basically means, she strips, I give her clothes, she strips, I give her clothes. And I let her know if her...assets are senget. and if she loses weight, I tighten her baju for her.Xuan: "Wo yao ni di aiiiii, ni wei sher mer pu shwuo chu laiiii"We also had to schedule out everybody's scenes to remember who changes what and when..The first week was HAVOC coz we were so shorthanded & inexperienced!Thanks to our 4new coolies the 2nd week, Claudia and I managed to pull off our jobs well, yay!
And by "well" I mean, we didn't get mentioned during the nightly briefings by director Low Ngai Yuen. Meaning she didn't notice anything out of ordinary from the wardrobe dept. which is good.

Oh and I met my olde friend MUN WAI whom I haven't seen in more than a decade!! At first I wasn't sure if it was him coz he's not "MunWai" anymore, he's "Eason" now. pfft. But yea, he was singing backup for the musical. We used to be from FGA Selayang, performed a Christmas song onstage together once.=D
This is Tiong Wooi - the ABSOLUTE CUTEST cast member! I was immediately drawn to her the first day I met her at rehearsals - she was focused on her dance steps, you could tell she was a trained dancer. And she had a really sweet face. She plays the daughter of the Kam family...(she's the one at the top).. and she was good!
After the initial cultureshock of working with this bunch I began to be more hooked on her - her natural character is just soo adorable, her expressions, her cutesy voice, gosh I sound like a stalker now huh! ahhahaahah
but seriously, SIU KAMMm I LIKE YOUUuuuU!!!I regret not taking more pictures! *roar*
Chrys: I made this shirt for him lor, got many many buttons to rip off!You like?

LouPanLeong: You look like a bad dream.

(wardrobe people doubled up as tailors by the way, we had to sew, patch, re-sew,undo, re-design at least a few costumes per day!I am responsible for making this shirt a 'bad dream'. haha)

CommercialBreak: Jenhan posing with two of our makeup artists..
These two ar..Deniece and Christy..like couple eni the way they talk to each other, share things, squabble..quite funny to watch..I enjoyed the lil warmup jamming session we had before the last show. I was musically frustrated having been backstage all the while, so I was just playing random music with the drummer Moli.

Our "rock" attracted the rest like flies, and suddenly half the main cast were with us, grabbing mics, requesting songs, and BELTING it out. hahahha literally BELTING wei.I'd like to pause here to mention that ANRIE TOO knows all the lyrics to that ZOMBIE song, good grief.



We had two sets of makeup artists..the MAC artists..and the MakeUp For Ever artists..Of course, I mustn't forget to show you our lead ROSE CHAN..played by Tin Tan (sister of Ah Niu the singer?)..I dunno why people are shocked when I say both Tin and Carmen are not that much taller than I am..
hm.
hehe.

The most kancheong quick-change backstage was for this song "Self-Control"
There was DRAMA every show for this song! We had to figure out who changed first, who put on their tights inside which outfit and during which scene, who helped who, who fixed last minute zip-malfunctions, who double-checked mic positions, phew! It was fun though! ahhaha

CommercialBreak:
This is Coffee Terrace where we spent many meals at. I forgot to take a picture of The Bakery where we loaded up on takeaways for the other meals we had to skip while working.


Altogether, I enjoyed myself thoroughly in ROSE ROSE I LOVE YOU the musical!
The cast party was full of mad laughs, tears, and CAM WHORING and went better than I expected..heh
For a quick view of the pictures at one go (including Jenhan's nice camera shots), go HERE.We celebrated the November babies' birthdays..the After-party was even better......
let's just say a lot of us left Genting with aching necks, backs, 1st time hangovers *ahemAhem* and a bootload of interesting MEMORIEsssss...

and despite the "controversy" the show apparently brought, I thought the whole thing was pretty mild in terms of raunchiness. The most censorable parts were what we got BACKSTAGE okay!! AHAHAHAHHAHAHA
maybe I'll show you videos.
maybe not.
To ROSE!
*clink*