KLPac Open Day: What a buzz!

As I last posted, KLPac had their Open Day today - and what a carnival it was! The closest 3 car parks were packed from the very moment I got there (12noon, admittedly) till I left (about 3.20pm). A marquee was set up at the nearest (and smallest) car park selling food and drinks, there was even a Milo truck (which apparently was drunk dry by 1pm). Events going on everywhere all the time, and there were people people people. Wow.

My first feeling of uncertainty was when I turned off Jalan Ipoh into the KLPac / Sentul Park driveway. Traffic was mostly mild, as you'd expect on a Sunday. In the driveway were already 4 cars ahead of me, winding uncertainly for KLPac. Not the norm for 12noon. Taking the final turn, it hit me: the car park was FULL.

Fine, grabbed the first empty lot, walked my way there - and saw people. Lots of people. Milling around, dragging kids around, kay-poh-ing around. Then saw the stalls outside. And the packed walkway to the entrance. By the walkway, people were standing around - chatting, meeting new people, watching the singing performance just off the walkway. Nice.

Then through the entrance (after navigating the flow of people in and out the door) and saw more people. There was a band playing at the foyer. Curtain Call (the restaurant in KLPac) was empty, they took out all the tables and chairs (don't know why, actually). Wandered my way up the stairs, through the people, and saw more people. Argh it was crazy. Outside the Indicine. Inside the Academy. Inside the studios in the Academy. Further up, people people people on the 3rd floor landing. People in all the studios (except the smallest studio), be it rehearsals or dance workshops or shows or whatnot.

It was sheer madness. But oh what a buzz - there's just something about having lots of people in one place, gathered to learn more about it. The energy. The excitement. What a thrill.

Unfortunately, I think it got to all of us in the rehearsal for Uncut Untitled Paper House - our workshops and one reading didn't go well. Ah well, good lessons to be learned there. And we had fun.

Well done to the whole KLPac team - I'd say the Open Day was a real success in creating awareness and excitement in the arts!

East vs West - a comparison through icons

I received this via e-mail (and usually the sender forwards junk, so thanks mate!) and thought it a great way of looking at how East and West differ culturally. These icons were designed by a Liu Young, who was born in China and educated in Germany. Here are some lines from the e-mail:

"Understanding of Chinese/Asian culture vs. Western..... ....interesting research .
It also applies to all Asians, including the Indians, Japanese, Thais, Koreans, Indonesian, Malays, Dayaks, etc... "

And the guide:

"Blue --> Westerner

Red --> Asian/Chinese "

Opinion

Way of life

Punctuality

Contacts

Anger (it's a frown in the thought bubbles)

Queue when waiting

Sundays on the road

Party

In a restaurant

Travelling

Handling problems

Three meals a day

Transportation

The elderly in day-to-day life

Moods and weather

The boss

What's trendy

The child

Food for thought.

KLPac Open Day

KLPac's come up with a great idea to really promote the arts in general and theatre in particular - having an Open Day! What that means is that they've gotten all current productions-in-progress to have a rehearsal on that day to have an open rehearsal so that anyone can just pop in to have a look-see. They've also gotten many people who've done something or another with KLPac to put up something or another: workshops, mini-shows, videos, photos. Check out the page on their site itself for more info!

In fact, it sounds so exciting and interesting I may end up spending the whole day there myself - Faridah's doing a reading of her upcoming play, Sybil. There are also vocal and instrumental shows going on, and dance classes of various forms. The Oral Stage will also be putting something up.

Uncut Untitled Paper House's rehearsal will be on from 1pm to 3pm, do pop in - we've decided to make it quite audience-friendly, with very open workshopping.

If you're on Facebook, check out KLPac's Facebook Group. Just noticed this - PDF file with the schedule of the day (as of 18th Jan; do check the page itself closer to the date for more accurate information) so you can plan your trip! Finally, a link to the map to the place.

See you there!

MalaysianTalents.com launches on Gua.com.my!

The first episode launched on Tuesday 15th Jan 2008, go check it out on www.gua.com.my!

It basically opens the series by setting up who Douglas' character is, and has Elaine Daly coming in to see him. If you're too lazy to click 2 links, here's the direct one to Episode 1 of MalaysianTalents.com. Sheesh.

Seeing as I'm posting this on Thursday 17th Jan 2008, Episode 2 should be up later today. Yup, twice weekly. Nice.

Shooting for MalaysianTalents.com

Code-named MTDC, by Popiah Pictures; idea by Douglas Lim, modelled on The Office and Extras; launching on gua.com.my on the 15th of January 2008 (information correct as of today).

The first full week of 2008 and I'm kept occupied with the shooting of this 20-episode series of under-5-minute shows introducing Douglas' website that he put up about 2 years ago and hadn't had time to further develop until now. Of course, this way of introducing it is typically his - he plays a pompous know-it-all who gets celebrity actors to come in to register for his site and teaches them the finer points of acting. He also takes in some students (this is where I come in) to 'make into stars'. It's dry, it's hilarious and it doesn't take itself too seriously. Great stuff.

There's also a Facebook group up, check it out here.

Some teaser pics from the set:

Eager students in Douglas' class

One of the characters I play

A shot of one of our favouritest scenes

Davina doing her thang

Douglas doing his thang

I will, of course, post the moment it goes live.

The Star: Malaysia's Health Minister admits to sex video

One day after the new year, The Star comes out with this: The Health Minister admits to being the star of a sex video making its rounds in Johor (or, more likely, the whole of Malaysia). He has since taken the route of integrity and honour and resigned from all his political posts. Good on him.

Generally, I would think that the first thoughts of most Malaysians discovering his involvement in the video would be:

• "Aiyah why he so stupid go get caught ah?"
• "I wonder who the girl is (and is she hot)?"
• "So old only want to film your own home video ah?"

But, most importantly:

• "Where can I find the video?!?"

If you scan your eyes further down the front page, you'll come across possibly the finest piece of honest information dissemination from The Star:
Wow, how kind. Thanks Star - guess I won't have to pester my pirated DVD salesman for it.

Amazon MP3 - will it work in Malaysia?

I recently read this article at Mashable.com (which is a good site on social networking and other online news): The Daily Poll: Will Amazon’s MP3 Store Topple iTunes?
A quick gander will tell you that the biggest percentage (37%) think that it will gain some popularity and is a moderate threat to iTunes, the smallest percentage (8%) think that it'd have no impact and an almost-equal percentage (29% and 26%) think that it'd rock up to #1 or it'd be only a minor threat. So it could go any way, really - but there's no doubting that it'd have SOME effect on the online music market.

As you can see in the little picture-link above, they offer over 2 million songs, and they're DRM (Digital Rights Management) free. In English, it means you can LEGALLY play them on your iPod™/Zune™/Zen™/iPhone™/RAZR™/BlackBerry™/PC/etc or even burn them onto CD™. DRM has been one of the more controversial things that the record companies have done in recent years and has been a cause for much grief for them (and consumers too), so it's a big plus-point to NOT have it.

Most songs are between $0.89 and $0.99, and most albums are between $5.99 and $9.99. However, the major advantage that Amazon MP3 has over iTunes is DRM-free tracks from three of the major record labels, versus iTunes who only offers DRM-free tracks from EMI.

Couple of other interesting points from the website:

• MP3 files are encoded using variable bit rates, averaging 256 kbps which is good. Some are at a constant 256 kbps.
• You'll need to have the Amazon MP3 Downloader application for album purchases but not required for songs purchases. It's available for Windows XP or Vista and Mac OS X 10.4 or higher.

Now here's the unfortunate part for us people in Malaysia:

"At this time music downloads are only available to customers using a credit or debit card issued by a U.S bank with a U.S. billing address."
(taken from the Amazon MP3 FAQ)

Unfortunately, I don't yet know of any easy way of getting the above 2 things so... no go. Anyway check it out and judge for yourself - they allow lots of song previewing.