Harlem Globetrotters @ Stadium Melawati, 20th May 2009

GLOBIEEEE!......

Despite being a relative basketball fan when i was much much younger (days of Chicago Bulls of course), I had never heard of the Harlem globetrotters. I happened to see a short showcase on ESPN over a weekend and the next coming Monday, I found out that they were in here in KL performing that very Wednesday. I started asking around and though not many had heard of them either, the ones that did know said they were world famous.

I of course, tried to score free tickets but to my despair, whoever i asked didn't even know this show was going on..... seems the publicity wasn't very big and i wondered how the response was going to be. When i checked the website, they reduced the ticket pricing, so it would cost me around rm50.....for something "so-called" world famous? ok lar.....time to try something new once in awhile.

There seemed to be a relative good crowd especially since the publicity wasn't great. And after buying the ticket (which is in the cheapest range), we managed to bribe the guard RM10 for letting us into the a more expensive zone. Valuee. So we ended up with pretty good seats and i was feeling like a kid again.

Just so you know, the Harlem Globetrotters is really a basketball show that kinda mixes stunts and humor. Simply put, the story is a basketball game competition in which they play against a bogus team that always loses. Lots of juggling, dancing, music, slum dunks, fighting with the referee together with the trash-talking team coaches. Their unforgettable mascot is called GLOBIE which i found myself calling non-stop........GLOBIEEEE, GLOBIEEEE, GLOBIEEEEEEE!

Unfortunately, the sound system was horrible so the show wasn't to the full effect but there were some funny moments and some cool stunts that managed to sustain interest. Weirdly, i found the funniest moment was when a giant GLOBIE came out and they played the Chumbawamba song, the one that goes like " i get knocked down, but i get up again, you never gonna keep me down..........pissing the night away". I swear everytime the verse "I get knocked down.." was played, the giant GLOBIE would fall flat on his face. F**king funny.

In the end, they had an autographing session but surprisingly they weren't very friendly. Which i find odd especially since they are supposed to be atheletes cum comedians. Suckss. They made the autographing look like such a chore.

P/s: In the end, what i craved was to watch a real basketball game LIVE. Maybe the LA lakers? LA here i come ;)

Urbanscapes 2009 @ KL PAC

If i had a creative bone in my body, i think it would be my funny bone. The creativeness comes accidental in full force when you accidentally hit on it (which is only once in a blue moon). And its the lack of it that I'm super jealous of all the creative talented people out there - whether its in arts, music or form of expression.

The urbanscapes is the city's all day creative arts festival. And I super loved it. A whole day event showcasing artist at work - in film, photography, artwork, retail, merchandise, music etc. People young and old, all funkily dressed, some sober some high. And to make it all come together, it was held at KL pac which is just the perfect place to feel all artsy.

I arrived at 2.30pm in the blazing sun and ran to rescue to the building with aircond. Even with old age catching up on me.....i lasted till sunset, natural high before i had my first sip of poison. Walking around the market bazaar, i was smitten by all the creative handmade things, vintage clothing and self designed T-shirts.

Needles to say, i stayed the whole day till the event ended. So many things to see and so many people to talk too. Funny characters in every corner. New bands to discover. Words really can't explain the experience. You have to experience it for yourself. But if your a sun hater....please wait till evening coz no one wants to hear you whine.

Sad to say i missed the last few years. But i think never again ;)

P/s: Original idea of the day: a box of ideas to keep you occupied from smoking. Packaged just like a ciggie box. Nicee :)

60 Earth Hour - walk of hope - 28th April @ capsquare

There was a big hype this year on the 60 earth hour - which so called started in Sydney and blah blah blah (google if you need the historical background :P) - all to draw attention to climate change. One hour to switch off all non-quintessential lights. I think the message got quite a few people confused...is it just the lights or everything that uses electricity. So many rumors and people talking; this TV or radio station supposed to close their transmission and stuff (though i don't think it happened). People looking at having candlelight dinner at home but still needed the aircond on. Or .....people looking at going to capsquare for the Walk of Hope. All in the believe for the hope of a brighter and greener world to live in.

I am never one who participates in this kind of event thingy. But I had hope. Though hope for what, now that is a different matter all together ;) So I decided to go.....

It was said it was suppose to be a 30min walk. And i thought great time to get a workout for a good cause. So there i was dressed in sneakers and shorts. We were quite early....lotsa celebrities around doing the PR thing but never really sure exactly what their role was. Lots of people, some foreigners, some families and quite alot of girls wearing high heels.?? Left me to ponder how they were going to walk.......with hope they atleast look taller?

Waiting for the walk to happen itself was torture. Sure there was some entertainment but it didn't interest me and i was surely getting very restless. And this clearly reminded me why i never do these things.....

But when the walk started, it was such a buzz. A brass band in Scottish outfits led everyone and you could really feel the excitement. Suddenly it seemed that there were a million things happening at once but yet for the same purpose. People chatting noisily, live interviews going on, music from the band, footsteps running to get in line and kids laughing everywhere. Roads were cleared off for the walk and it was shown live of TV.

But after few minutes into the walk..... it dawned on me that "the walk of hope."...was a walk around the block.

Err..... it took me 10mins, tops.

P/s: ANTI-climax. But a great idea and great cause. Let's HOPE for greater things to come.

Wicked Wizards: Barry & Stuarts part-time warlocks @ KL Pac

I haven't stepped into KL Pac in ages. So when i found out about this Wicked Wizards show, i jumped to it. This supposedly creepy but funny wizards from Britain(critically acclaimed it seems), surely it was a good time to support the arts industry and buy some tickets.

Needless to say, even with own bought tickets, we were late, having lost our way to KL Pac. It seems after asking a dozen of people (around the neighbourhood where we were lost) where KL Pac is, nobody really knows. Some pretended to know and some didn't even cover that they have never heard of the place before.

Upon reaching KL Pac, and having to walk abit of distance, in we were in mid show of a dude from the audience who kept jumping out of the chair as if there were some electricity shocks. I wont go into the exact details of all the stunts, but they were all hilarious, very creatively disillusioned and unpredictable to say the least.

Sad to say, the theater was quite empty this Friday night (13th march09) . And there was alot of audience participant needed so every time the wizards came to pick to someone in the audience. I felt unnecessary STRESS of screaming in my head "Please don't pick meeee!!" and inadvertently trying very hard not to make any eye contact! Fortunately there were alot of sporting people........but the real finale was the the finale itself.

When it came to the finale, the final pick of audience participation, they picked a guy....and i whispered to my partner - "you should have volunteered so you could experience the illusion of magic and tell me about it".........only to say back about 15 minutes later "Thank god you weren't picked!"..... the last stunt saw the guy half naked and i swear the look on his face when he realised ......PRICELESS.

Worth every ringgitsss :)

p/s: Maybe the reason there wasnt much of crowd was the fact that it was Friday the 13th? OOooOOooO

Sarah Brightman Live Symphony @ KL Convention Centre 7th March 2009

Have to say although i love phantom of the opera, I'm not much a fan of Sarah Brightman. But when this chance came to see her LIVE, i thought why not.

The organizer was very disorganized and somehow with Royal Box tickets (which are suppose to be on an upper tier ), we ended up seating on the 3rd row from the stage, next to all the datuk and datins! A friend open their mouth, and we were whisked up to the proper location but after asking like 10 different people. (oh why are we so honest sometimes...)

This show just being with a LIVE symphony and no fancy musical props - made Sarah Brightman show her showmanship solely on her voice and movement of her hands( and man were there alot of movement of hands and fiddling with her skirt). So if you weren't a fan you became quite lost especially with her less famous songs and just a little fed up with the hand movements. So when her guest artiste, Alessandro Safina appeared, he certainly stole the stage and added ummph to the whole show. (i did overhear some guest saying that they came to watch him rather than her....tsk tsk) So when it came to the finale, it was " Time to say goodbye" and we were all anticipating a duet but when Sarah Brightman sang the whole song by herself, it was total anti-climax.

With that said - have to say kudos to the band and local symphony. The music was excellent.

But when all is said and done - Thank god the tickets were FREE :p

p/s: Halfway through, I took a quick loo break and since the organiser was so disorganised, tot why not get back my power seats. A minute later i was 3 rows in front of stage, scrutinizing her every pimple, wrinkle and whatever else. Hehe..wicked aren't we sometimes.

p/p/s: Went to Sultan lounge after the show and surprise surprise the whole gang was there. had a quick chat with Alessandro myself, hehe. What about Sarah you say? What about her?

Sony Cybershot Slimming-T launch - 5th March 2009 @ Luna Bar

Though it was good location - i have to salute Sony for the bravery of doing it outdoors in these times of very unpredictable weather.

Although there was a private area for the VIPs, it was more fun to be where the activities were.

Clean and simple set up, with the stage in the middle of the pool, it was nice and classy to complement the venue. They even put up Sony cybershot text stickers at the glass panels for their branding. Nice one.

Daphne Iking was the emcee for the night and looked great, post baby (this is the first time i've seen her live after the baby) but with her class i think she failed slightly to represent. Although i have to say she has improved in her emcee-ing skills (comparing from my past experience), she still was looking at her hand notes way too much, which created a less enthusiastic feel to the agenda that night.

Sony introduces its brand ambassador - Chin (as the picture attached) - a cute 19 year old boy, who is Thai and has been in the music industry since he was 12 (wow - i amaze myself sometimes on how i remember all these facts!). He is now finished production for his first Mandarin series (he doesnt speak or know Mandarin) and the show apparently will be onair (astro) very soon. He performed a song which some fancy boy band dance moves. Very cute.

After that, there's a neat concept of the fashion show in which they model in batches by the color of the sony cybershots available colors. So if its black - then the models are wearing clothes with this theme. So lets see if i can remember the colors - pink, black, yellow, silver and blue! If i got this correct - then kudos to the Sony!

But the only comment for the fashion show- they had the models ackwardly hold the camera when they came out to model. I thought that was a waste of the concept, they should have made it more lifestyle oriented, having them take pictures on stage with fancy poses while keeping the stylish appeal.

Either than that, food was not bad, drinks sucked. Its rumoured they spent RM250 per pax for the event with a target of RM150 people. If thats true, then the money spent probably wasnt worth while with the mediocre turn out and minimal publicity.

p/s: I heard someone thought that the camera was water proof and was just waiting for a gimmick with the models jumping in the pool. Great idea but for OLYMPUS camera ...not a sony.

Jason Mraz LIVE in KL - 4th March 2009 @ Stadium Negara

Don't let your mind, stop you from having a good time...

Thats what he said and its what he delivered.

When I arrived, it was late and he had already started, and i was in a shock of my life.....stadium negara was packed. I honestly cant remember the last time i saw the place so packed. But to top it off, the organisers opted for NOT renting the aircond and the place was a sauna!! Needless to say we had to find a spot where it was in front of the mist fans just so we wouldnt pass out.

With that, Jason was performing his sweet tunes, simple dressed with a very nice hat. His horn blowers, 3 of them were wearing the Malaysian football jerseys, nice malaysian touch i thought.

Through the heat, he entertained - and i have to say even though i didnt know all his songs, you just felt like you wanted to sing along or atleast sway to the music.

When he when off for the encore, he came back wearing a sleeveless I"HEART"KL .....the ones with the typical I "HEART"NY design, i wondered where the hell did he get that? After performing Lucky with the Penny chick (which was very dissapointing btw - no chemistry at all and it was the only time i actually felt bored), he took out a polaroid camera. And while introducing his band members with them doing a little jam session, he took a picture of each of them and threw the polaroid pictures into the crowd. What a real fantastic idea!

He ended with a nice rendition of Bob's "Everythings gonna be alright" and yes it certainly felt that way.

P/S: Did anyone notice his tatt on his right arm? Did it say...... "beginner".....?

P/P/S: I found out where he got his T-shirt! Its a charity move done ... http://randomalphabets.com/?p=1363 Limited T-shirts selling for RM47.