Today things were a little haywire sikit. Dahler nak abihkan year ender. Then a couple of other things, and also ada PC AIM Prelude. Nothing much, just announcing the performers tuk showcase yang biasa as a warm up to the event.
Kalau ikut senarai lama, semua da lepas zaman sebenarnya, I think apart from Dayang Nurfaizah, there weren't any current names. It appears to be more of a retro effort... tapi hey... program orang nak cakap apa kan?
Took some shots at the event kat Planet Hollywood, which also witnessed the performance of Meet Uncle Hussein. They're quite interesting, though I want to really listen to them for who they are. Right now, I don't know.. still am getting the Butterfingers vibe off them.
Still they're worth a listen. One of the better upcoming bands out there that you guys should take a listen to for their potential to be the biggest thing in commercial rock.
Tak ramai artis yang hadir, but then seeing how depressing the line-up was, I guess this is as good as it gets.
Dayang - pose ayu as always.
The boys from Meet Uncle Hussein.
And another.
Once done, hopped over to izzi for a bite, and also peace of mind. Somehow, being the only establishment with an air conditioned smoking area just makes it so appealing to work in. That, with the good food and the bottomless beverages - always the best choice for me.No noisy idiots to contend with, and within two hours, I had completed a couple of stories to hantar by email.
Lega sikit. A couple more, and I will be relaxed over the weekend to party and not have to bother with deadlines.
Abih je it was almost 8pm, so gerak ke KL Tower sebab ada Media Nite kat sana.
Arituh si Shai da mention.. biasa la. Dia da memang orang sana. Tadik la si Juan kata dia pegi, ajak skali, so against better judgement (oops!) aku pun pegi lah.
Got to test my new camera and shoot a pic of KL's finest erection (matilah aku!!!). Sampai je it was already packed. Got a little claustrophobic, but still managed to deal with it.
But, mak aih.. these people tema ala ala hutan, probably due to the vicinity of the location of KL Tower, which is surrounded by Hutan SImpan Bukit Nanas.
Er... kind of creative honestly, though I just couldn't shake off the feeling that it reminded me of my rumah hantu yang kelas aku wat time Hari Kantin kat skolah time Form Three.
It did look pretty decent though, so props to the organising team ler sebab tungkus lumus hias. Siap ada cages with iguanas and was that a fox or something I was playing with? Oh whatever.
Merasalah gi dekat dekat nak main and feed it. Kang kena cakar salahkan zoo... eh.. KL Tower lak. I think I should stay away from the front pages.
Anyway, ran about saying hi to everyone, cause bumped into a lot of colleagues from the news side of things.
Sebab aku da lama tinggalkan sejak masuk hiburan full time abut six years ago, a lot of them I had forgotten. Muka kekadang cam, tapi nama..mmm.
Typical dialogue of someone tegur me is :
Unknown Person : Eh Joe! Lama tak nampak! Ingat tak?
Me : Ah ah la (dengan senyuman plastik cover confusion)... lama tak nampak. Uwaa... naik/turun (depending on my evalution for a suitable answer) badan!
Unknown Person : Biasalah... umur.
Me : Ah ah... lama tak jumpa camtuh ler. So ko skang attach mana?
Unknown Person : Alah..tempat sana. Ko ingat kan?
Me : Still there? Wow... tahan nampaknya...
Unknown Person : Ko masih ada nombor aku kan. Kang free ko call ek.. we meet up!
Me : Sure... eh jap... nak mintak diri jap ek. Tu ada member (larikkkkk!!!)
It was a little tiring... especially since kena fake sebab nak jaga hati orang. After all, that was better than, "No I don't remember you. You are hardly significant, and what makes you think you're worth recalling? Obviously I've permanently erased you from my memory."
Erm...
Tiap meja, where you sat ont he floor (kat KL Tower nih!) ada rabbits!
It was a little boring, so scooted off nak kaco Dekna dan Zarina yang wat show for the night. Merasalah snap pic meka tengah isi masa lapang berborak... otherwise known as mengumpat.
Caught in the act gituh menganyam ketupat. Dah banyak ke adik adik oi? Cukup tuk wat stok Raya tahun depan?
Pentingnya, aku letih sangat kuar isap rokok, baru nak lelap kat armchair kat corridor tempat smoking - tetiba dengar number aku dipanggil.lucky draw katanya!
Dapat gak hamper... ok ler. So it wasn't a total waste of time.
Also to Shai, thank you for being such a good host, and thank you for the Christmas present.
Ko memang marvellous lah!
It's definitely the thought that counts, and I am flattered nok that you thought of me.
Merasalah terus smangat nak layan event agik even though it was getting draggy with a million and one things going on, but none actually capturing my fancy.
So mulled around, call Boo and gayut, and generally bored myself even more (really didn't need the help actually)
Spent the time on the phone with several people. One for the project I have in mind, but am still sitting on. Takper... azam 2008 aku, to get all my projects planned, not only off the ground, but to a flying start.
God willing, 2008 is MY year where everything will hopefully come together after years of planning and hoping for it to happen.
Too early to say anything, tapi kalau jadi (doakan lah ek) aku posting entry about it.
Whipped out my camera in between the phone calls - and started snapping just about anything sebab nak layan kebosanan.
My favourite shot of the night from the revolving restaurant atop KL Tower, would definitely have to be this simple scenic shot of the KLCC.
Angle tak cantik sangat, but somehow I like it.
Sometimes, I've become so familiar with KL, that I never marvel at the beauty we have in our own Federal Capital.
A metropolitan city like no other... but only if you give it a chance and discover the beauty of it.
The shot I took almost reminds me of a movie scene, and I wonder, how come no one ever includes nice scenes of the city skyline at night like this.
Makes you appreciate KL more, traffic jam and smog and all.
Wanted to take more shots but thought it would be a little too self indulgent, since I'm no photography expert and my angles are probably lousy... but this probably gives you an idea of what the view was like from the tower.
Simply breathtaking..
Anyhoo..rasa cam masa nak balik when they started pocor pocor. Not my thing really.
Went and had supper with Boo after and then headed home to finish a little work in my own time. Checked email before turning in and found my friend in Singapore had emailed me a copy of the story yang she_da had mentioned about in msjbox pasal Asian Idol arituh which came from the Singapore New Paper.
Did Hady win by SMS voting FLUKE?
By Jeanmarie Tan
December 19, 2007
WAS he a default winner who merely got lucky due to tactical voting?
Barely a day after Singapore's Hady Mirza sent shockwaves throughout the region by clinching the Asian Idol title, netizens are already raining on his victory parade.
Their theory?
That the 27-year-old R&B crooner only won because voters from the other five participating countries had adopted a tactical plan which eventually backfired.
Here's how: With one SMS, voters must choose two different countries to ensure fairness and minimise any potential national bias - a system that inadvertently benefitted Hady.
According to many postings on the official Asian Idol forum and MediaCorp's forum, people might have cast the first vote for their home idol, and the second vote to the one who's the least threatening, most unlikely to win and from the smallest country - to avoid improving the chances of the closest rival.
Hence, Singapore's Hady.
One netizen who went by the name of Van Helsing wrote: 'Hady was mostly selected as the second choice. It could be due to either the voters really liking him (apart from their own home idol) or he is not a threat (to their own home idol).
'Either way, the voting system has certainly worked to Hady's advantage.'
Hady took the title on Sunday night when he defeated five other Idol winners from Indonesia (Mike Mohede), Malaysia (Jaclyn Victor), the Philippines (Mau Marcelo), Vietnam (Phuong Vy) and India (Abhijeet Sawant).
The regional singing competition was televised live from Jakarta.
Despite being considered one of the weaker singers and hardly the judges' favourite, Hady managed to garner the lion's share of the almost two million SMS votes cast.
And therein lies the ongoing debate about how he pipped outstanding powerhouse singers like Jaclyn, Mike and Mau.
Did he really have the most mass appeal? Or was it all a fluke?
Hady's supporters laud his charm, good looks, X-factor and marketability, insisting he possesses the 'total package' and is 'star material'.
On the other side of the spectrum, adjectives like 'unbelievable', 'disappointing', 'anti-climactic', 'weird' and even 'funny' cropped up to describe his win.
Disgruntled netizen look4realdeal suggested that if there's ever another Asian Idol, people should 'vote for talent and not out of fear your country will lose if you cast your second vote to (someone with) real talent'.
Others were more sarcastic, like Malaysian blogger KlubbKidd who claimed Asian Idol broke 'the Ten Commandments'.
He wrote: 'There goes the 'thou shalt not worship false idols' with the win (by Hady) and 'thou shalt not steal' with the robbing of the glory of three very much more worthy talents (in Mike, Jaclyn and Mau) who so deserved the title more than the pretty boy who tried to sing.'
But Mr Anthony Ong, president of Hady's fan club, prefers to believe his idol's triumph wasn't an accident.
Together with four other members, the 26-year-old multimedia producer flew to Jakarta to support Hady, casting 'a few hundred votes' each.
Mr Ong said: 'No one can be sure which theory is true or not. I'm sure some voted strategically, but I believe the rest voted on talent, appeal and likability.
'Anyway, Asians have already chosen Hady and they have to live with it. He shone the most, compared to the rest who may have amazing voices but can't sell.
'It's a big achievement for him and for all of us in Singapore. We are overjoyed.'
Asian Idol host Soo Kui Jien added: 'At the end of the day, whether he's deserving or not, he won fair and square. And nobody can take that away from him.'
When confronted with the theory, a fatigued Hady - who only got two hours of sleep early yesterday morning - shrugged the speculation off.
He told The New Paper over the phone from Jakarta: 'People can have their own opinions and theories.
'I was the underdog in the competition... I was prepared to hug whoever was going to win.
'But I still believe that in terms of sincerity and connecting with the audience, I did pretty well.'
Ken: Hady has Malay market advantage
KEN Lim, Singapore's rep on the Asian Idol judging panel, countered the controversial theory with his own.
Said the Hype Records director, who's also Hady Mirza's boss: 'You cannot 'get lucky' with six different territories.
'I don't think voters from the region think so much into it. They are the type who are not so concerned about strategy, but vote for whom they like enough to want to spend money on.'
He felt that strong vocalists like Jaclyn Victor, Mau Marcello, Mike Mohede and Phuong Vy ended up 'fighting among themselves', which paved the way for India's Abhijeet Sawant and Hady - who are 'a different sort of artiste' - to come from behind.
'Hady had the advantage of singing in Malay and reaching out to Indonesia and Malaysia, while Abhijeet was handicapped by language barrier and wrong choice of song,' he added.
Ken revealed that after watching the first round of performances - where Hady sang Taufik Batisah's Malay song Berserah - he sensed that 'this boy has a chance'.
He said: 'I realised that he had the best balance out of all of them. I'm a commercial person, and I was looking at how the Asian Idol must appeal to audiences across Asia, beyond a voice with power and range.'
So what does being the first-ever Asian Idol mean for Hady's hitherto tepid music career?
Ken, who is working on his protege's second album, said: 'It makes our work easier, now that he's more recognised.
'But competing in the commercial market against established acts is a different ball game altogether.'
Now, that made my day. Sarcastic eh? I'm try and work it up to something in the future... still it was worth a laugh to note my observations could have been so met with opposition. Whether it's a reality TV show, or even an inter nation competitions, there are always those who will never get criticism and will always mark it as opposition. Whatever. Ignorance is bliss - and stupidity is contagious.
Sigh... facts are facts, but I suppose you only see what you want to. Que sera sera.
It's a little funny people are still ferreting that entry of mine to b****h about my disagreement with the results... whatever...funny little people.
Turning in... goodnight guys...
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