Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Arthur's Day 2011




So last Tuesday I went and pick up the exclusive invites to this year's Arthur's Day. As you know from my previous Nuffnang post, Taio Cruz alongside with our local acts will be performing and celebrating 252 years of Guinness stout =)

And I decided to have Kyle, Sam and Ian to tag along for this event. I've missed the previous 2 years of Arthur's Day, so this would be my first.

This year the venue changed to Speed City KL, nearby Astro and The Mines. Traffic was heavy after turning into Sungei Besi area, and we spotted a few cars with passengers (note : girls) dressed in black.

Traffic officers were at the roundabout nearby the entrance to Speed City, they blocked the roundabout and all the cars that were supposedly heading to Speed City had to drive further to make another U-turn.

After another 15 minutes of extra traffic jam, we were greeted with this =D

After going through the ticket counter and what not, we're in the venue. So the first thing we saw was this globe, with 4 Guinness models posing with the people, Arthur's lounge further on the left, and the tabs on the right side, with the main stage in front of us. Moots and a Hitz.fm dj was entertaining the crowd with 'Club Hitz'.



Picture taken by Guinness Malaysia official photographer.

So before the concert starts Ian and I thought of having a few pints to drink, only to be denied entry to the drinking zone because we were under 21 =/ Oh shucks.

So this was how the crowd is at 8 p.m


Now Guinness Malaysia has asked the fans to vote for 1 of the handful of local acts to perform. I thought about voting for James Baum, but then I thought about checking out Prema Yin. And wow, I'm surprised how good her voice was. Her style was a mix of jazz, a lil rock and a lil soulful. I voted for Prema Yin, and damn...she didn't disappoint one bit.

Prema Yin came in 2nd place, Dragon Red won the voting competition to be the opening act but Guinness Malaysia was very kind enough to award the top 2 to open up. Thank you!!

I do not have pictures of Dragon Red performing, and couldn't find any of them on Guinness Malaysia's photo album, but thank goodness there's a rock act to rock out the stage. They were full of energy, and did pretty well on a cover of Lady Gaga's 'Bad Romance'. The crowd around me was busy headbanging to their cover of 2010's smash hit.

Moots and DJ Skeletor

So this is the crowd around me and the gang.

Mizz Nina, our very own Queen of Hip Hop, gave another energetic performance to remember. She belted out a couple of new songs, and also with the ones we know like Takeover and What You Waiting For. She sang, rapped and danced for us.

This picture sums up Kartel's performances. It was good, but they were on stage for WAY TOO LONG. Prema Yin, Dragon Red, Soler, Mizz Nina did four to five songs (if not mistaken), but I thought Kartel did one whole album on stage with SonaOne, Dandy from Silksounds and a guest appearance by a Japanese rapper.

1) SonaOne used autotune. I was surprised because its the first time I hear a local act using Autotune to perform. And Joe Flizzow at times tried too hard to sound like Lil Wayne. I'm serious, even Ian, Samuel and Kyle managed to recognize the style he was trying to copy.

2) Close to an hour on stage, that is way too long for a local act. Look at the picture, it was posted by a fan on Guinness Malaysia's Facebook page, showing crowds with the Guinness balloon making a X sign to show their feedback towards Kartel's performance. The energy just died after their 4th song because majority of the crowd probably never heard of Kartel or even know who is Joe Flizzow. Well, only some that actually followed Too Phat 10 years ago know that Joe is one half of the hip hop duo.

At one point, the crowd chanted 'Taio Taio!!" before Kartel started playing another song. Joe Flizzow and the rest knew the crowd was getting impatient, and told the crowd to give him another 5 minutes. 10 minutes later Kartel was done on stage.

JJ, Ean from Hitz.fm, along with former Hitz.fm crew Serena C were the MCs for the night, and they did a good job entertaining the crowd. Kudos. JJ was challenged by Serena to shuffle, and failed in front of 20 thousand plus people. Nevertheless, they managed to do their job well. I do hope they come back and MC next year's Arthur's Day event.

Finally after hours headbanging and singing along with the local acts and other international artiste, the main act of the night everyone's been waiting for appears on stage in style. The crowd went nuts the second he steps on stage.

A few days before the event, I actually thought Taio Cruz would lip sync or use autotune throughout his setlist. But I was wrong. Taio sang, with a minus one track accompanying him. He even played on keyboard during his first song of the night.

Taio Cruz also is probably the last few humble recording artist to exist on planet Earth. When Taio talks to the crowd, he sounds gentle and always thanked us after a song is finished. He always ensured that we had a good night before and after the event ends.

And that's when them big white Guinness balls then appeared. While I was recording one of his songs, one of the giant balls hit me on the head XD

Taio performed : Break Your Heart, She's Like A Star, Little Bad Girl (a David Guetta song which he was featured on), Dirty Picture, a new song off his upcoming album called Troublemaker, Higher and an encore performance with Dynamite.

To end the night off, the MCs called out all of the acts to gather on stage to make a toast to Arthur. And then....

This happened.


The crowd, blessed with gold confetti and then

Fireworks for 5 minutes =D

So about after midnight, Arthur's Day Malaysia ended and Kuala Lumpur was chosen to be the finale for Arthur's Day. Singapore, you mad? XD

Took us 1 hour to get out of the car park zone, all because only one booth was opened for exit. Came back around 2 a.m, legs tired.

(some pictures were downloaded from Guinness Malaysia's Facebook page, and the rest were taken from Ian, Samuel and Kyle)

Monday, September 19, 2011

I hate Facebook's new layout, new tabs and new friends setting. Mark Zuckerberg you mofo what have you done??!!

Friday, September 9, 2011

Black is Back with Arthur’s Day 2011

So Arthur's Day just just a few weeks away, and we're making a toast to Arthur Guinness. for making the best black brew we've ever get to enjoy =)

Do you know who is this chap here? This chap's called Arthur Guinness, and you best be recognizing his face and this fine portrait of him. This guy was responsible for Guinness, one of the world's most successful beer brands in the world. Your daddy, uncle, aunt, cousin, grandfather, boss, co-workers, classmates, dorm mates, bartenders have this guy to thank for, for making their day awesome.

Now what better way to thank Arthur Guinness is to have a worldwide celebration, to celebrate his invention by making a toast with him, along with a worldwide concert event to make things even better.


So in 2009, Kuala Lumpur was rocked and pumped out by the The Black Eyed Peas for the night.

A year later, Colby O'Donis, Flo Rida and Sean Kingston along with our very own hip hop queen, Mizz Nina.

So this coming 23rd of September (Friday), I'm really excited about this one act that's definitely gonna set the stage alive.
Its none other than Taio Cruz, the English R&B singer that ruled the airwaves last year with "Break Your Heart", "Dynamite" and the one with Kylie Minogue and Travie McCoy, "Higher".

I think Taio Cruz is the best choice to be the main act for Arthur's Day. Just listen to his songs, it suits how Arthur's Day should be.

With the main act all to be excited about, one more thing that the organizer got us more involved on how the concert should start off is we get to pick which local act to open up on Arthur's Day.

We have local singer James Baum, the lovely Prema Yin, rock bands like Dragon Red, Naked Breed and Rosevelt and not to forget hip hop act Jin Hackman and CSBTEA =D

So these local acts need your votes to decide which one among them gets to fill in the opening act slot. Your votes are valuable to them and can change their career forever!!

So one lucky local act and Taio Cruz will be celebrating and kicking off Arthur's Day Malaysia celebration with the invited crowds at 17:59 p.m onwards (That's 5:59 p.m to make things easier to remember) at Speed City KL, Selangor Turf Club.


So in a few weeks from today, 3 friends of mine are excited and also hoping to be invited to his event, and be among the thousands and millions across the world to make a toast to Arthur Guinness. And I do hope whoever reads this post will be there too.

Its gonna be an awesome Friday night, gathering together to shout,"TO ARTHUR!!"

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Mr Taxi Driver, Y U NO GIVE SIGNAL?!

So I got back from a drink with a high school mate at Station One. He walked me to my car and since he parked his car at a housing area nearby Station One, I offered him a ride to his car.

So after I turned right into the residence area where he parked his car, I noticed the road was blocked with a potted plant and a water container. I asked my friend to move the plants and the water container aside to let me drive past. As he did, he then asked whether to put it back and I told him to do so after all the cars drove pass cuz there was like 2 or 3 cars behind me.

As I was slowly driving, a taxi driver then pulled over in front of me, got down and confronted me and this is how it goes...

Taxi Driver : Eh, you cannot see I am parking ah? Why you cannot wait?

Me : Excuse me, I didn't know you were parking. You didn't even give signal

Taxi Driver : You fucker ah? I put those plants and that container to tell you all that I'm gonna park. I stay around here.

Makes no sense huh?

Me : Uncle, you put on the emergency signal, how am I supposed to know you're parking? And how the heck I know that you stay in this area?

Taxi Driver : You didn't see me wanna park ah har?!

So till then another driver got down from his car and asked what's wrong. The taxi driver then told him and blamed it on me. I then HAD TO apologize before shit hits the fan real hard, even though its not my fault.

As the taxi driver was side parking, the other driver then told me its not worth arguing with an old clock. As much as I wasn't happy about how the taxi driver confronted me, I was surprised that I remained calmed and didn't sound angry. Usually these type of situation I would have told off the driver in a very rude way.

But after watching that video about 2 lady drivers arguing over a parking bay at Tesco on Facebook, I learn that its not worth making a fuss over such a small matter. Sometimes all you gotta do is keep calm, and stay patient dealing with drivers like these.

As much as my night ended with a sour note, I am grateful that it didn't turn out even worst =)

Thursday, September 1, 2011

PIZZA!!

My parents went for their first holiday in years to Thailand for a few days. So, breakfast, lunch and dinner I'll have to take care of myself.

Just on Monday afternoon dad taught me how to do tuna cheese pizza. The dough was premade, cheese was ready in the freezer and the tomato sauce too. With all already ready to be used, making the pizza and waiting for it to be done took 20 minutes.

But yesterday, it took me 30 minutes to just prepare everything. I think I put too much of cheese.


And another 20 minutes later, wah la!!! =D

Fat boy's porn.

So while I was eating I thought about like 5 years time and the only dishes that I do know how to cook is maggi, pizza, mashed potatos and erm.....spaghetti? I can't imagine what life would be like if I were to further my studies in Australia and the only food I'll eat is bread and instant noodles =0

Oh shit.