The Malay Mail Relaunch Party

Awmigawddddd!!!! It was such a blast!

Thank you to all my friends who showed up for the Malay Mail Relaunch Party!

Firstly an announcement. One of the many that will come concerning the Malay Mail in the next few months.

Step one. Beginning tomorrow.. kira today la - hari Khamis bersamaan 26 November, The Malay Mail is back in its original form (syukur!) with the tagline of The Paper That Cares and will be FREE!!!

Yes, we are the second paper to go free, but content wise akan bertambah meletop!

Circulation pon meledak gituh ke 100,000.

Dan ini baru step one. Tunggu pengumuman lain.. aku tanak jump the gun, tapi sebagai orang dalam, a media revolution is beginning, and the investors and backers are going all out to prove something we've always known... that The Malay Mail has what it takes.

For those yang berminat nak tau, my column, Hear, Say... will no longer be on Thursdays, but on Tuesdays.

Now that I'm done with the announcements, I want to thank so many people (feeling Grammy acceptance).

First to Marion Caunter and Zainal Alam Kadir - my emcees for the night, thank you so much for going crazy and making sure everyone had fun.

Secondly to Atilia and Ning Baizura. Two of the best entertainers around who got the party started, and kept it going with their fantastic voices.

Thirdly, and as importantly, a big THANK YOU to all my friends who showed up. I love you guys. So many of you, sorry kalao miss any names.

To the Celepets (nama gelaran kumpulan vogue) in Dynas, Sazzy Falak, Yasmin Hani... Vanessa Chong, Anita Sarawak and hubby abang Mahathir (siap kansel ke Singapore for job tuk be there for me... awwwwwww), Mawi dan Ekin, Audi Mok and Nikki, Datin Seri Tiara Jacquelina, Datuk Seri Farid Ridzuan, hot couple Vanidah Imran dan Rashidi Ishak, Nur Aliah aka the other Vee and her hubby to be (hensem dan baik orangnya), Rina Omar, Saerah, Fatimah Abu Bakar and hubby (anak anak, si Nani and gang tak dapat mai sebab kena conjunctivitis!), Dayang Nurfaizah (sedap lagu baru dia, Sayang, yang dia bagi dengar... I like!), Jaclyn Victor (walaopon lambat sebab rushing ada hal)... aduh ramai aku tau aku tak sempat senaraikan semua, but thank you sangat sangat to all these people who came because I so wanted them there and personally invited them.

Juga pada kengkawan dari TV3 dan gak Astro. Love you guys. Kita sambung carut mencarut pasni ek sebab Anugerah Juara Lagu dan Akademi Fantasia 8 da nak start (matilah aku... heh!)

I missed some like Fahrin (tak sempat balik flight ke), Aizat (mana ni???), Aishah Sinclair (tak sempat so tak complete kumpulan Celepets), Daphne Iking (ni sorang agik Celepets tapi MIA), Umie Aida (ada rehearsal pementasan Natrah), Sarimah Ibrahim (tak sempat balik kot pas shooting ujung ujung Biggest Loser Asia), Linda Onn (gi preview Full Moon sebab da janji) Nora Danish (shooting) and Datuk Siti Nurhaliza (walaopon kak Rozie kata try singgah tak nampak pon... sedih aku). Ada other yang tak dapat mai gak... tapi nak wat pe...

All of you who were there, thank you again for supporting the paper, and also personally, me, as a friend.

Dah dah... panjang lak. Dah lah nak tidur sebab letih plus kena bangun awal pagik ni tuk preview filem Santau.

Layan pics dulu ek.

My two rajin punya kaki Twitter - Marion and Atilia


Otai 'muda' - muda lagik ke? Matilah aku.. Erra dan Alam


Kak Vee (Alia) ngan kak Nita and abang Mahathir


Why am I posing like a dork???


Vee (Vanidah Imran) and Vee (Aliah) ngumpat ngan kak Fati (beriya ek!)


Dayang!!!!


Nur Aliah aka Vee - senyuman orang bakal naik pelamin! Aku tanak amik pic cayang dia sebab respect privacy... kang wedding CONFIRM exclusive gituh!


Atilia - gedik la uols! But I LOVE her!


Datuk Seri Farid - one of the coolest CEOs I know, kak Izan from AESB, Ekin dan Mawi (wei botak... mai gak ko ek.. tima kacih!)


Performance unik malam tadik - band gabungan CEOs beberapa company! Semua muka familiar (lead vocals editor aku Ahiruddin Atan aka Rocky Bru - blogger very the tersohor bab politik)


The message wall (tu new logo kat atas)


Erra and Engku Emran (kita bakal sebumbung kannnnn.. oops... shh!)


Mommy Fati and Tiara - gossip pasal bebudak anak-anak ayam AF7 kita ke? Heh!


Sehati berdansa... (sabar je la Sazzy orang cakap pe... especially yang pepandai mencelah tanpa tau story.. heh!)


So anyway tu je la pics aku sempat snap sebab sibuk amat! Nanti aku try upload some other pics of who else was there for you guys.

Ok la.. nak tidur... ni nak bangun 8 pagik ni. Matilah aku... tired but VERY happy! Big things coming my way soon!

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Mmmm..... seriously?

Aku malas nak ulas panjang panjang. Sebab ulas pepanjang carut to kingdom come pun tak guna kan? Not like anyone listens to me. If I could make a difference, perhaps this is worth going on about. Instead, even pengkritik pun da cam tak betol at times... yang angsa tak ditegur malah dipuji.

Letih wo! They're supposed to critic. Doesn't mean it has to be all bad, but obviouly someone forgot to tell them they're supposed to evaluate the kids. I think Afdlin saw what many people see, So what's wrong with the picture,

Tak guna angguk setuju time pengkritik jemputan mengkritik, when you should have said it during your turn, and not puji like it was an acceptable performance.

Weirdness.

Anyhoo, this is the second last concert, so takyah nak go on further nak ulas lelebih as usual. Just short comments of what I think of each performance and their rating. Rating kali nih nak pakai lain lak system.

The bad ratings bukan lagik pam jamban as usual or any of the usual stuff I use. Instead, it will be represented by how many angsa or geese they get. The good ratings represented by a butcher's knife, nak tengok tahap mana dan setakat mana meka berjaya sembelih keangsaan meka tuh.
Let's start.


STACY
Beat It
Mmm... I am trying to sa hard to say something nice but in truth, it was an ok performace saja. Aku tetap kagum Stacy mampu control pernafasan dia relatively well with the lousy dance routine and dancers yang very distracting.

But there was no kick to the show and I think the song, and the arrangement was a et down.
Good effort nonetheless, but lousy choice of tune for a show that is deciding the final outcome.



TOI
Kau Yang Bernama Seri
I hate to admit it, but dia managed to improve banyak.. finally! Tapi walaupun I give him credit for that, I disagree with pujian melambung diberikan seolah dia memberian persembahan yang sebegitu hebat jerk padahal kali pertama membuat persembahan yang sekadar boleh laaaa.....

Nothing to shout about at all... especially since after you hit rock bottom, there is no where to go but up. He had to improve sooner or later.. he sure as hell couldnt get worse.

Now this is really standard peserta pertandingan karaoke kat Plaza MPK di Klang. And the choreography... yang dia gerak hulu hilir feeling improvisational theatre tuh perhal. So RTM in the early 80s.



STANLY
Kerana
Ridiculous. Painful. And honestly, should have been out weeks ago. What took him so long to leave? Bung Ramli jangan marah! Komen aku tak penting pon! Matilah aku!!



NADIA
Lelaki Buaya Darat
Something was just wrong with the arrangement. The song dari a full on pop party anthem became a sullen piece of karaoke minus one yang tahap muzik cam musim lepas punya polyphonic standards.

And Nadia? Entahlah.. minggu ni aku inclined to admit she's on a decline slowly.

For some reason she's not delivering up to par.

Takdelah tahap sampai angsa... tapi memang namoak dia semakin ketinggalan ngan Stacy. She could have made this song her major comeback, and gunakan tuk menempah tempat lebh secure for the final... but she didn't.



RIZ
Rock Around The Clock
Again, out of his safe zone, Riz gagal nak carry a song/ I'm not a big fan of Riz (and you guys know thats an understatement) tapi aku nak tengok dia mara dari Toi or Nubhan kerana dia lebih consistent. At this rate however... its pretty sad to see him two weeks straight of substandard performance.



BEFORE PROCEEDING FURTHER, AWAS PERSEMBAHAN SETERUSNYA ADALAH LINTASAN ANGSA
NUBHAN
Tapi Bukan AKu
There are some seriously deaf people in this country kalao ada yang kata version dia sedap. Sure he's got tone... but what else can he do apart fron growl off tune. Seriously fed up. He is now officially the most overrated in the Akademi.

Sumbang terlampau banyak sangat sangat walaupun ramai merembes kata bagus... walaupun...



TOI & STANLY
Lagu Jiwa Lagu CInta
Can anyone deny this is the PERFECT pair? Siapa berani kata pasangan nih tak sesuai aku bantai! They were the musical equivalent of Cumi dan Ciki (sapa bawah umur 25 konperm tatau)

Cam karaoke kat tapak Uptown Cheras jerk aku tengok.




NADIA & RIZ
Endless Love
It wasn't as spectacular as I hoped for, but better than I expected. Sepanjang malam haus semacam takde yang betul betul besh, this was worth watching and listening. Both Nadia dan Riz worked well together vocally. Good effort.



NUBHAN & STACY
Thank goodness Nubhan tak MENYUMBANGKAN that much to the song, because Stacy opened it so beautifully. Ada chemistry antara meka, though I doubt the cinta part. At times, ramai kat dewan lebih fokus pada merpati yang kena ikat kaki dipaksa dok kat bangku tuh, but the magic of this performance was undoubted.

The best for the night!



And that's it... memang sebenarnya aku malas nak tulis lebIh pasal konsert nih, sebab walaupun audience smangat nak go into the finals da, the sho was rather lemau for the ninth concert. It wasn't as good as I harapkan it would be to build apa semangat for next week.

And the results? Ok ok je... nothing to celebrate. Stanly should have been out much earlier. Nanti jer la aku cita lebih pasal concert n the next entry. Will also post speculation and gossip on the finals mana yang mampu.

But before I forget, congratulations to the production for the tribute segment, I also have to say congratulations pada Faizal, Aizat, Velvet dan Sahri for the moving performance in their tribute to arwah Loloq... it was so touching, I was CRYING (ada gak guna tisu Premiere yang disponsor nih) And I mean literally crying sebab it was beautiful and meaningful.

Ok.. cukup meroyan. Ni some pics from last night....

Shafiq - RA paling ramai peminat... dan anti (kecian dia)


Nizam Zakaria (penulis dan pengarah Gaia) control macho sambil Tam aka Hamdan ngumpat.Cantik kan tan minah depan tu? Pose maut!


After show punya sesi ngumpat


Tu candid shot.. ni semua pose baik


Sarimah tetap nak solo shot


And another...


Siti Hajar jadik saksi sesi ngumpat Syafie dan Sarimah


Sesi ngumpat mami Fati dan umi Fauziah takde saksi.. tapi the proof is in the picture!


Haziq and his new hairdo


Kefli, Alam, Fitri and Farish.. geng Gempaq

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Two open houses and a tahlil

It was a sunny Saturday afternoon, and the wind whipped through my unnaturally red hair, as I cruised down the highway...getting to my destination with ease.

What a f**king dream!

Macam p*****k haram sangat hari ni, sebab aku budget nak ke rumah terbuka slash bowling tournament mentor aku si Alam kat Berjaya Times Square.

Hasilnya? Dok posing kat tengah highway akibat some smart ass, who thought the best way of countering demonstrations in the Federal Capital, was by freaking sealing all the access roads into the city.

Mangkuk hayun tol! While the blame went to the tunjuk perasaan kerana menyusahkan hidup orang - I think it was the idea of some freak who instructed the police for setting up a million and one road blocks everywhere, sambil dok posing cantik jer kat tepi highway tengok orang pala berasap sebab delayed by freaking hours!

In my case, aku gerak dari Klang pukul 2.30pm. Kat tol Sungai Rasa dapat this, premonition of doom gituh, when cars were crawling dah. Thought nothing but happy thoughts and drove on. Sampai tol Batu Tiga nak masuk Subang Jaya jer, MAK AIH!!!! WHAT THE F***K??!!!!

Terus berhenti! It was one giant f**king parking lot siot! You couldn't move anywhere!

Merasalah if I knew this was going to be it, lagik rela aku naik komuter camnih.

A total of an hour or so later since I began my journey, aku masuk exit Subang and masuk Jalan Tujuan nak bypass the jam by going into the LDP linked expressway.

No good. Belum sampai Sunway Pyramid pun da jam.

Damn...masuk lak KESAS after a U turn. Jalan kosong sikit. Sped through Puchong, then arrived at Technology Park Malaysia. Merasalah! F**kity f**k f**k!!!

Crawling ala Linkin Park lagik tajuk lagunya sebab bloody bumper to bumper. Almost two hours later, and a couple of kilometres dari Astro, there was a road block, like the one I saw in Klang.
The one in Klang - three lanes or so, closed into one. The police were just standing around posing cantik watching the cars go by (mesti carut dalam hati, merasalah korang bodoh sebab keluar time nih kan... mintak dok rumah tanak). At this one, four lanes and an emergency lane, tutup jadik satu!!! And the police pun posing jerk.

What a strategy!!! Which genius thought of jamming up the whole Klang Valley just to elak the tunjuk perasaan kat Dataran Merdeka tuh get bigger. Keji tau. Yang tak terlibat yang feeling pose dalam keta tak habis habis! Macam lahanat jerk aku rasa...dahler ujan pastuh. Stress sebab nak isap rokok lepas stress pun takleh mengakibatkan aku agik stress.

Kesian lak tengok anggota polis bertugas. It's always the little men (and women) who suffer the decisions of the big guns. Cuba mintak the smart ass person who decided on the road blocks to stand in the rain and kena sumpah seranah (dalam hati jerk) by road users for screwing up their plans on Saturday.

Oh well...

Aku tanak mention anything political in my blog - because that's one thing that will never make it here. I do believe however that the government has to be more open. Tuh jer - lain, no comment. Surf the net for 'alternative news' on your own. Freedom to access of information is blessed in times like this.

I remember almost ten years ago masa aku bertugas bahagian berita, aku sendiri pernah kena gassed, simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Walaupun bertugas masa tu sebagai anggota media at the height of Reformasi.

Lum agik masa aku penah kena tolak dan sepak oleh anggota polis sendiri time hari pertama perbicaraan Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim..what was it... in 1999?

Tear gas, chemical sprays and being pushed and punched is never funny - least of all when you've not done anything wrong, but...entahlah.

In our democracy - we're allowed the freedom of choice to choose, and I urge everyone at the next elections, stop b***hing and go out and vote. Every vote does count no matter what, and only you can help determine the future of Malaysia tercinta. Vote for whomever you believe in.

Your vote is yours and no one else's.

Remember, remember, the tenth of November.

Moving on - so by the time I cleared the jam, aku tak berani nak ikut the roads into the city dah, so I took the SMART tunnel. Smirked sebab bayangkan my Smart Tag dah selamatkan aku dari nak dok posing in my car any longer.

Frustrated when realised I got conned out of RM2 for the short distance sebab when I popped up kat Jalan Bukit Bintang - it was bloody EMPTY! Cipet!!!

Can I suggest that the whole road block excuse was a conspiracy by oil companies and toll concessionaires to rake in profits (that was meant as a joke ek, so don't saman lak)

So anyways... by the time aku sampai Berjaya Times Square, oblivious of any chaos or chemical rain nearby in the main part of the city, aku found out dah too late nak join anything sebab majority dah balik.

Sempat tengok Alam jerk posing tulis cek tuk expenses.

Heh... he gets me everytime. Kelakar.

Tapi bangga tengok my mentor skang jadik boss besar syarikat dia sendiri, Alamorphosis.

Salute dia wat open house, konsep meriah ber bowling beramai ramai. At least sedap hati tengok young folks have a proper avenue nak have a responsible good time.

Of course, I'm ignoring dozens of underage smokers, who looked like they robbed some old lady for money, that loitered the area - tapi tuh lah...cuba kerajaan angkut semua bebudak nih before they eventually end up being the obvious no-hopers we don't need.

While you're at that, please bloody ban motorcycles below 125cc, at least within the city limits because situations are getting damn ridiculous. Ok...that goes into my Christmas wish list.
Improve public transport - make it around the clock, 24-7 so that people can give up their reliance on their own mode of transport. Nih, Rapid KL pun takleh on time camna. For working towards a solution pun - you need to provide a feasible base of actions that will go towards making it happen mah.

Setakat nih, banyak negara takde 'nyamuk' jalan yang pollute not just the environment but also causes pencemaran bunyi, apart from the whole social ills thing. Dekat dekat kat Singapore pun takde these stupid bug-riders, and I wish the government would take thig seriously.

The whole rempit thing, crime rates, accidents, endless connected social problems... Wasting money by building them race tracks to race in is NOT going to solve anything - like du-uh, so time for a plan towards ridding everyone else of these...unwanted buzzing tin cans with wheels and the unwashed heathens who ride it.

Tension jerk... must be the imbalance of the chemical quotient in the air.

Sapa lak yang pakai pink Crocs tuh...

So after habih lepak and catch up with Alam and Amir and the rest of their gang, it was a little early, but I made way for the tahlil event.

Lepak sat - and sat through the whole thing - praying in my own way, especially for three people I knew so well - arwah Mokz, Yazid and of course, Riez.

It was sad, and almost frustrating that these people have moved on in their early age, two due to ailments dan sorang sebab accident (with a bus dipandu driver berumur 24 tahun yang ada record drug abuse yer...).

Seb baik Zaff ada sekali nak hiburkan aku - merasalah pas abih tuh it was sombre tapi sempat nak cheer each other up.

Ni si Zaff with bunny ears... nama jer rock (jangan marah ek...walaupon ko mati mati nak aku delete this pic)

Aduh..pecah perot tengok rocker jadik bunny. Made my day.
Rushed over sebab da kul 10 lebih dah masa tuh to head for Farihad's open house. Sampai jer ramai geng masih ada, so dapat a total change in mood and let loose.

By the time headed back - thankfully it was 3am or so, and I didn't have to wait for police road blocks to let me through.
I wonder who you can claim back four wasted hours of your life from in events like this.

By the way, esok sapa gi Sri Pentas 2 kat Plaza Alam Sentral - see you guys there.
Area sana takde wifi (in the studio I mean) so jangan harap live cross-over gituh.
Kalau korang nak turn on your TV sets dan layan TV3 jam 9 malam and tengok sendiri. Me? I think it's going to be a boring affair - but what to do... these are job hazards lor...deal with it jer.

Will post entry on it maybe tomorrow, very late... but don't expect too much ek, sebab aku kena hantar story and all. Maybe next week aku active sikit kot.

Am bogged down by several matters and exciting things and not so fun stuff at the moment so tak larat sebenarnya.

Remember...remember... the tenth of November.

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The origin...

Dari bebanyak buka puasa semalam, aku pilih ke buka puasa Astro, which includes AMP, iaitu Astro Radio, Maestro etc. Thanks to the skilled driving of avoiding the massively jammed areas, and 'safely' whizzing through the slight crawl, and also the help of highways, the SMART tunnel and my Smart Tag, made it to the event just on time.

Sampai je kat Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, where it was held, elok elok masuk je dewan, azan pun berkumandang, so it was just nice timing.

Ramainya orang... pening gak.Didn't really eat, but then again as usual, time berbuka aku memang takde mood nak makan sangat.

Claustrophobic gaks, but later when everyone da melantak and the crowd thinned out, it was fine. Dapat mingle gak ngan kengkawan dan borak. Here are some pics I shot. Hope you guys liked it.

My fave pics... sisters... in every way! Ella and Jojie...


... and Nikki and Yanie


Comel sangat!!! Mila...bulu mata pelese menyengat!


Ramli MS ala pak lebai...and Linda Jasmine


Anita Sarawak and hubby, and Farid Kamil.


Farish pretending nak pose casual as well as Awal Ashaari


Mentor aku... Alam (balas dendam sebab kenakan aku kat Trek Selebriti), as well as Sarimah and Ning.


Noni dan Ebi.


Heliza

Sesapa minat the pics, please ingat kalao nak amik, silakan, tapi jangan lupa kredit kan aku, with a link ok. At least kira appreciate ler usaha aku nak upload semua. Tapi besh gak la buka posa camni. Ramli MS yang paling besh aku nak layan borak, sekali ngan si Jojie dan Ella. Si Ella sibuk lahap Brands Essence of Chicken, sebab demam. Yang pentingnya, da minom tuh, minom lak kopi, pastuh sirap. Aiyo... talk about mix up. Cocktail sangat. Heh...masa tuh meka tengah panggil dia onstage. Tapi once dia on, besh sangat. SIap anak yatim semua pon terhibur. She definitely went the extra mile.

Ella, Ning, Nikki dan Yanie as well as bebudak Akademi Fantasia dan sorang dua lagik buat show... layan! By the time we were done, it was about 9.30pm. The best tuh dapat jumpa kengkawan cam kak Tweety and friend. Selama ni kat blog jerk layan.. heh.. kak... hope you didn't find me too freaky. Kecian Boo Boo cam bosan, tapi in the end, layan gak, kan sayang?
Malas nak post pepanjang, hope you guys find the pictures nice enough to make it worth your time. Nak tidur, esok nak keja awal.

Lagikpon, ada planning SECRET PROJECT (key words here) nak kena wat ala pre planning nih. Gonna be busy soon for the thing to happen in about two weeks or so.
It's going to take up some time, but it's going to be fun.

Meanwhile, hope the player is working fine, and I'll be tweaking it a little more when I have time dalam sehari dua nih. Until then...be writing for you guys tomorrow.

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