Sleepy Hollow
January 30, 2007

Ibanez Artcore AF75



Turtle
January 22, 2007




Rollin' and Tumblin'
January 18, 2007

Mannish Boy:



Hoochie Coochie Man:





Further On Up The Road
January 15, 2007

August 06 - Bought ticket to the Chicago show, in September.

September 06 - Flew back to KL. Reza got the Chicago show ticket. Chap bought a t-shirt for me though.

October 06 - Bought ticket to the Sydney show.

November 06 - Singapore show announced. Bought ticket.

December 06 - eBayed Sydney show ticket.

January 07


And the rest was history.


Setlist:

01. Tell The Truth
02. Key To The Highway
03. Got to Get Better in A Little While
04. Little Wing
05. Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad?

Sit Down Set
06. Driftin' Blues (EC Solo)
07. Outside Woman Blues
08. Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
09. Running On Faith

10. Motherless Children
11. Little Queen of Spades
12. Further On Up The Road
13. Wonderful Tonight
14. Layla

Encore
15. Crossroads

(110 min.)

Taken off WheresEric.com.

I'm too tired to write anything. It was indeed my best concert experience.



King of fools?
January 10, 2007

Not long ago, I watched American History X for the first time. It was indeed a great movie but there was one particular scene that I’ll never forget. In it, Ed Norton pointed his gun to the back of the ‘bad’ guy’s head and forced him to bite the roadside curb. As the guy was shaking in fear, Ed landed a heavy stomp right through his skull and I never saw that scene ever again. I reckon some of you know which scene I’m talking about here.

Anyway, some might wonder the pain and suffering of such a horrific act. I’d rather not. But if you are one of them, wonder no more.

Just tune in to Raja Lawak Astro every Saturday at 930pm and feel the wrath of Ed Norton.

Oh and if you’ve got better things to do on Saturday nights, which I doubt, there’s Awie Records at 930pm on Mondays. Their scary chops make Faces of Death look like Teletubbies the Movie. Warned, you were.

Now, back to Raja Lawak Astro.

So basically Astro would send out their Otai Lawak (AR Badol, Jamali Shadat, Jalil Hamid, Sabri Yunus) to tour the whole country and audition acts to be a part of a 14-contestant group who will then be trained and assigned tasks to be performed weekly. In other words, it’s just like AF, without people wasting their prepaid credits on terrible singers; only dreadful comedians.

And the winner will be offered his/her own show on Astro. You read it right. A whole 30 minutes of airtime weekly.

When I first heard of the show, I was actually interested in seeing what it has got to offer. I’ve met a lot of funny people throughout my life and I bet they’re many more out there yet to be discovered. We live in a country where humor is an essential part of the people’s daily life. Malaysians laugh all the time. Make a 360 twirl at any local market on a Sunday morning and you’ll see at least one makcik laughing one of the fishmonger’s antics. Heck, we arguably live in the funnier, in a good sense, part of the world.

So yeah, I thought I could give the show a chance. Astro gets the benefit of the doubt.

After sitting through one of the three audition episodes though, I realized that I was wrong. So wrong that paying RM10 to watch Nana Tanjung at the movies look right.

True there are always some bad apples in the sack. You can never get a sack full of rotten ones. Unless of course, the sack is Astro and the apples are the folks who auditioned.

They failed to even draw a fake smile on my face. On the other hand, I spent the whole hour trying really hard to grasp the funnier parts of the show, unsuccessfully.

What they managed to do though was bring me back to the mid-90s, when Sinaran was the one of the only few talent shows on TV. Before Sinaran was strictly a singing competition, TV3 made the contestants threw a skit prior to singing. And week in, week out, the same humor concept are being displayed.

Exact same people showed up at Raja Lawak…

  • The Kids – They’ll dress up and talk like kids. Pony-tailed twenty and thirty year olds sucking their thumbs with a huge bottle in their arms is not funny; it’s disturbing. And tuning your voice way up high and dragging your words while you’re at it is simply annoyance at its best.

  • Hey let’s laugh at my dialect! – These folks will just simply talk in their dialects, without any humorous content, at the very least, in their conversations. Talking in your dialect is not funny; unless you’re Syah.

  • I’m loud. Hence I’m funny. – The organizers gave you the microphone for a reason. You don’t have to shout your ‘jokes’ out loud for people to be able to hear it. In fact, why would you? If you’re that funny, just talk normally. Mr Bean mumbled less than 5 words throughout his TV years if I recall correctly.

  • One Person Playing Two Characters of Different Genders Act – Nope. Sorry mate, if you ain’t no real she-male, you ain’t funny.

  • Clowns – Some would wear all the costumes in the world with hope that it would help them out in making themselves funnier on stage. Afro wigs, colored face-paints, vampire teeth, strap-ons or whatever else you fancy yourself in are a thing of the past.

  • Impersonators – If you can’t impersonate a police siren like that Police Academy guy, just voice jokes are just as funny as Carrot Top. And please stop making fun of Sammy Vellu. Have some respect for Uncle Sammy!

Those are some of them. I guess you get the idea by now.

And no, I don’t have to be funny to make fun of people who think they’re funny. I am in no way obliged to prove myself funnier than any of the above as I wasn’t the one who auditioned. Since when do you have to be FIFA’s golden son to get pissed at football players?



Selamat Pengantin Baru Khalil & Effa
January 09, 2007


More pictures here.



Seman
January 03, 2007

Satu lagi malam kemenangan buat Seman Wheelie. Terbeliak matanya mengira wang yang dimenanginya setelah mengalahkan Awang Neo dalam perlumbaan tadi. Khusyuk mengira, tidak disedari lansung dek Seman yang Ani, antara gadis yang paling anggun di kawasan Pertama Kompleks, sudahpun membonceng motornya.

Didakapnya Seman dari belakang sambil berbisik manja ke telinga Seman,

"Bang, bawakla Ani balik malam ni. Ani sunyi la tido sorang-sorang nanti...”

Jari jemari Seman yang asyik mengira wang sejak tadi tiba-tiba berhenti. Kepalanya yang terhangguk-hangguk menunduk terus terdongak dek lambaian suara manja Ani yang menghembus ke telinganya. Seluruh badannya kaku, tergamam sejenak bagaikan dipanah petir.

Tanpa berkata apa, terus disumbatkan segala wang kertas ke dalam dompetnya lantas dipakaikan kepada Ani topi keledar lebih yang sentiasa dibawa kemana-mana untuk situasi-situasi sebegini. Dihidupkan enjin RXZnya lantas laju Seman memecut meninggalkan rakan-rakan sekumpulannya.

"Seman Seman... sen pun kau dapat... mambang pun kau dapat malam ni... memang malam kau la ni..."

Kata Raz, rakan karib Seman kepada dirinya sendiri.

Dalam perjalanan pulang, segala peluang untuk mencilok ruang dicelah-celah kereta tidak ditinggalkan oleh Seman. Apatah lagi, semakin kuat dia menekan minyak, semakin kuat jualah pelukan Ani. Segala jenis lampu isyarat dan bonggol tidak diendahkan Seman.

"Hehe... orang cakap pompuan ni kalau lu bagi dia takut-takut, nanti dia lagi ghairah..."

Fikir Seman di dalam benaknya sambil laju dia memecut ke dalam kawasan rumah flatnya.

Tanpa membuka topi keledar, terus dipimpin Ani naik ke rumahnya di tingkat sembilan. Di dalam lif, hati Seman berdebar-debar memikirkan rancangan seterusnya. Matanya tajam merenung susuk tubuh Ani yang tidak ubah seperti model jamu yang menjadi pujaanya.

Makin dekat mereka ke rumah Seman, makin kuat debaran hati Seman. Sampaikan tangannya menggigil masa membuka pintu. Sebaik masuk ke dalam rumah, lampu kalimantang yang malap dipasangnya.

"Ini macam baru romantik. Ani duduk dulu ye, bang Seman nak mandi jap..."

"Ala bang Seman, tak payah mandi la... meh la duduk sebelah Ani ni. Boring la sorang-sorang..."

Gedegang! Topi keledar yang dipegang Seman terjatuh dek pujuk rayu Ani.

Terketar-ketar dia berjalan ke arah Ani yang sudah pun terbaring di atas sofanya. Berderau darah Seman melihat Ani. Perlahan-lahan ditumbangkan badannya. Jari-jemarinya Seman mula nakal. Gelak tawa kecil Ani bagaikan menaikkan lagi nafsu Seman yang sudahpun membuak-buak. Ani akur, merelakan dirinya diexplore oleh Seman.

"Tok! Tok! Tok!”

Bunyi ketukan pintu rumahnya tiba-tiba membantutkan gerak-geri Seman.

"Jais... Jais...”

Suara seorang lelaki sedang melaung diluar pintu.

Seman terkedu. Degup jantungnya kini sepantas motornya tadi. Dipalingnya ke kanan dah ke kiri; tiada tempat untuk sembunyi. Hanya tingkap rumahnya menjadi jalan keluar. Tanpa menghiraukan ketinggian rumahnya, Seman terus terjun keluar tingkap sambil bergayut pada engsel tingkapnya.

"T...t...takpe takpe Ani. Gi tengok sapa tu, c...cakap ni rumah Ani. Dok sorang kat s...sini. Abang Seman cuba g...gayut kat sini...”

Kata Seman tergagap-gagap dalam ketakutan.

Ani terus ke pintu dan bila dibukanya, seorang lelaki dalam umur 30-an sedang berdiri sambil bertanya,

"Ni rumah encik Jais ke?”

Ani tergamam.

"Tolooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong..."

Sayup tedengar suara Seman dari luar tingkap. Ani terus bergegas dan bila dijenguknya ke luar, mayat Seman sudahpun terdampar di tengah jalan.



Take my name off...
January 01, 2007

Somebody posted this on the HCEG forum so credits to FckStick Jones...

Guitar.com: So you were listed as one of the top 100 guitarists of all-time according to Rolling Stone. That's pretty awesome - how does that feel?

Derek Trucks: It's pretty funny, you know. Looking at Rolling Stone over the last few years, looks like of like Teen Beat or something, so you don't put too much weight into it. And looking at the list there were definitely some omissions and I don't think it was a definitely list. You don't have Albert King on there but you have Jack White?

Guitar.com: Yeah and he was in the top 15.

Derek Trucks: Yeah, it was pretty amazing. There was some funny stuff on there. I wrote a letter but I don't think they ever published it. I told them to take my name off of there and put Charlie Christen or Django Reinhardt, Albert King; turn that list upside down (laughs).