17 Valjeans sing "Do You Hear The People Sing?"

The encore for the 10th Anniversary of "Les Miserables". 17 Valjeans from all around the world sing, led off by the stellar Colm Wilkinson.

Fantastique!

Follow The Light - watch it!!!

Please go watch this - it's running until end of this week at PJ Live Arts. The libretto (that's posh theatre-talk for "script for musical") and music is done by a very talented fellow, whose work is truly of international standard. Here's their promo video:

Yes, written by a Malaysian. I can't say how good it is enough - have a listen and be blown away. It's saying something when the cast is struggling to raise themselves to the level of the script, rather than use their skills to make something of the script (as is often the case here).

The quality of the singers on the cast is high, the performance quality varies. A few stand out in good light. All in all, a highly enjoyable show.

GO WATCH IT DAMMIT!!!

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.