We Rocked It!

Woohoo! We indeed survived it! I mean, ROCKED IT!
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Our makeshift 8TV/GUA Band totally rocked the 8TV Party for clients earlier tonight at Mardi Gras, One Utama. After the 2-hour rehearsal last week, we only had another 2 hours today during the soundchek to tighten things up.

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At 8pm, the party started and honestly, I was nervous like mad at that point in time. Of course there were the obligatory speeches by Izham and his merry (wo)men, after which the band was introduced.

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We started with U2's "With Or Without You" which Eileen and myself shared the vocals. Then came an interesting medley of "Are You Gonna Go My Way" (Lenny Kravitz) and "When I Come Around" (Green Day). By this time everyone found their groove and really rocked out.

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The final number was Joan Jett's "I Hate Myself For Loving You"... But wait, people actually asked for an encore! To which we obliged and jammed "Knockin On Heaven's Door".

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Overall it was a pretty decent gig and I don't think we turned off any of 8TV's clients. Haha!

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Performance pics coming soon!

Breakfast Show & Tell

Earlier this morning, Douglas and I went on The Breakfast Show on ntv7 to plug, what else, Malaysiantalents on GUA.COM.MY. No female hosts today, so we were stuck with Naz and JP (kidding, guys!).

Anyway, it was a good session where we basically said whatever we wanted till the show ended, after which we went for brekkie at this place called eatworkshop tucked somewhere in Glenmarie.

Things got interesting-er there as we shared funny tales and anecdotes. Douglas of course led the way with 101 stories – some cringe-worthy, some dirty, but all funny…

JP mostly laughed but I’m really putting this pic for the benefit of all the gals out there...

Naz’s fiancé Sheahnee also dropped by. And if you didn’t know, the couple is currently planning their July wedding, which GUA will of course be covering : )

Naz is also the lead of an upcoming drama called Ghost on 8TV. I saw the trailer and I can tell you that this should be a cracker.

And of course, we watched the latest episode of Malaysiantalents.com

Oh What A Night!

Indeed it was. I’ve watched Anugerah Juara Lagu since its very first year and I have to say that the 22nd edition that took place last night easily ranks as one of the best ever. From the grand stage to the musicians and the finalists themselves, last night’s show was breathtaking in more ways than one.

And as I mentioned in the previous post, GUA.COM.MY streamed the event 'live' online, along with near-real time editorial and pictorial updates. Which of course meant the GUA team was hard at work all night long!

It was also a unique experience for me as I got to see the event from FOUR different perspectives; on the TV, online, backstage and finally, in the audience, a few rows from the front. Yup, a busy night indeed it was for me : )

The New Media (GUA.COM.MY & TV3.COM.MY) operations room. Not unlike a can of sardines. But it doesn't mean that it wasn't fun lah...

With my partner-in-crime Paul Moss and "Mr. Voice" Aidel Abd Ghaffar

With Nora, who eventually won for Best Etnik Kreatif song with Samudera

Totally exclusive: A reunion of sorts for ex-Fan Club members, Aishah and Paul Moss

The guest performers were also brilliant, including the Gangstarz champs, The Lima

A glorious end to a glorious night

AJL On GUA.COM.MY!

It's a big night for the music industry as 14 top songs compete in the nation's most prestigious song competition, Anugerah Juara Lagu. And if you can't be in front of the TV, you can catch all the action live on http://www.tv3.com.my/ and http://www.gua.com.my/.

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In addition to the live streaming, there's all photo galleries, backstage gossip, red carpet videos and loads more!

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I am currently here in the operations room and things are just getting even more exciting...

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To watch the crew live in action, click here

Mission: Rock Out!

The call came on Thursday from Izham (as in 8TV CEO, Izham):

"Eh, can you play guitar for our 8TV band?"

"Who, me?"

"Yeah. A couple of the guys said I should call you. Jomlah. 8TV having a clients' party next week and we need to put together a band and just rock out."

"Er... can I think about it?"

20 mins later...

"So, jomlah. Can lah... just rock out."

"Er, um, er... Haven't played in a while. But OK, I'll try and 'rock out'"

So Friday night we got together at a studio in Hartamas, and whaddyaknow, we did rock out! I even got the chords right and stuff. And by the end of the night, we kinda had 4 songs in the bag.

Of course it does help that Izham as the band leader is a world-class musician, and we also had other awesomely talented dudes; Izuan (who's my writer at GUA and is also the frontman of Indie group Auburn), Eddie (whom you'd know is a rockstar by just looking at his tattoos), Nick (sales person by day, mean bass player at night) and 8TV staff Eileen (man, she can sing!).

If everything goes to plan, we'll be rockin' it out for real next Wednesday at Mardi Gras, One Utama. To be honest, I'm still nervous as hell. Then again, if the chords suddenly escape me, I could simply turn off the volume and air-guitar the night away...

In Case You Didn't Know...

This year’s Anugerah Juara Lagu is only a couple of days away and I think this is the best time to shamelessly talk about my own AJL exploits. Yes, I have indeed competed in the final of the most prestigious song competition in the land. Twice. Not bad for a part-time lyricist huh?

The first time was in 2004 when I co-wrote the lyrics with Siti Nurhaliza for her song Ku Milikmu. And I tell ya, not many other experiences could ever rival that very first time. It’s kinda like, you know, sex.

But seriously, it was indeed a surreal experience for me, having grown up watching AJL from its very first edition. And to be there with the country’s no 1 singer, and having 15,000 people cheer for you was simply awesomeness of the highest degree. To be honest, I didn’t want that night to end. And it was cool that Siti took home the Best Performance trophy for that song.

I made it the final again the following year. This time with Akademi Fantasia’s first champion Vince Chong with the ballad Mengapa Harus Cinta. There was less people in the stadium that year, but I’ve got to admit that I was equally nervous.

What’s also interesting was that I got to parade two different looks for both finals. The first time around I had my long hair on and very much looked like one of those arty types who didn’t have to try hard to look cool. Haha!

And the following year, I had chopped off the hair and went for the good guy in suit look instead.

I’m just waiting to qualify on an Irama Malaysia ticket so I can go crazy with the tengkolok and keris look…

ntv7 In Da House!

The ntv7 corporate office is now officially located at Sri Pentas and to celebrate this feel good occasion, the feel good channel threw a, um, feel good party for us...

For the record, I did wear a purple shirt today...

Even the food's "urban"

Cake by Coffee Bean (do i get paid for saying this?)

Speech by the dashing CEO (surely I should get paid for saying THIS)
Sri Pentas is indeed a big happy family!

Youth '08 Day 2

Joe Flizzow in the house! And if you're a Too Phat fan, take note that their new single will be dropping in early May. Word!

With Malaysiantalents.com mastermind, Douglas Lim

With world-famous blogger and one of Malaysia's Coolest People, Kenny Sia (who made me feel terribly underdressed)

But no, I also don't know why I'm always pointing at stuff!

Come On Down!

Definitely YOUTH '08 is THE event for everyone to check out this weekend. The doors open at 10am and admission is absolutely free. I was truly impressed by what I saw today; from the variety of booths, the colourful people and the professionalism of the organisers. So far so good good guys!

The humble GUA booth. Open auditions begin tomorrow.

So all you fame-seekers, I mean, talented souls, do check it out : )

B-Ballers in GUA T-Shirts. I used to be them 10 years ago. Ok, ok - 20 years ago

There's also grafitti and stuff

Juwita Suwito and Dzoff of Popiah Pictures also dropped by (could have been by accident tho)

Also managed to catch some really cracking bands perform, including this one that had the coolest gendang player I had ever seen!

Be A Star With GUA at Youth08!

Peeps, starting today (Friday), there'll be this massive youth event held at PWTC called Youth 08.

The event "is a collaborative effort in bringing together youths from all walks of life to engage in trendy, healthy youth programs. With the theme ‘We Are The Trendsetters’, it is jointly organised by YouthMalaysia.com, VoiceMedia.com.my and The Youth Intelligence. Over 100 exciting youth activities have been planned throughout the three-day event including Battle of the Bands, Extreme Street Dance Challenge, 1 vs 1 Caged Futsal, Youth’08 Expression Photography Challenge, Voice of the Youth: The Voice Talent Search, Graffiti: Write It Out Loud and Trendsetting Fashion Extravaganza."

And the great news is, GUA will have a booth at the event as well! Non-members can register and get free merchandise and we'll also be selling the much sought-after GUA T-shirts as well as new stuff like this cool cap.

In addition, there'll be open auditions for those who're interested in becoming hosts.

PLUS! We'll also be having a VIDEO-MAKING CONTEST! Those interested are required to shoot a three-minute (minimum) montage of the event and submit it within a week after the event. The champion will win RM1,500 while the second and third place winners will go home with RM1,000 and RM500, respectively.

So, drop everything else this weekend and head on down to PWTC for a cracking time with GUA!

Langkawi Brainstorm Day 3

A pretty intense morning as all the groups made their presentations. And boy, did they deliver. Tons of good ideas were uncovered. So "competitors", beware! Of course the session ended with a photography session. And here's special video from the GUA team...

Posing ala-ala balak control macho (like it doesn't come natually for me)...

Overall, it was a fruitful brainstorming retreat. Although we could have done with more group activities (like scrabble - NOT!). Of course I didn't leave without having some Laksa in Kuah...

Langkawi Brainstorm Day 2

What a beautiful morning!

After a quick breakfast, it was back to work. And we had a couple of guest speakers to perk things up (those are Mr Moss's fingers by the way)

Food at the Awana is pretty ok. "Lavish" is not a word they're familliar with here, but they do serve some pretty interesting dishes

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Which the crew totally enjoyed. What a cheery lot, huh?

Langkawi Brainstorm Day 1

Finally we left for Langkawi for the 1st annual New Media Brainstorming Retreat!

From Sri Pentas, we took the bus to LCCT where the whole getting together and checking in process was surpisingly quick and painless.

The flight was on time and we even arrived in Langkawi 15mins ahead of schedule. Hurrah for AirAsia! (probably they've just received their bonus or something)

We arrived at the Awana Porto Malai Hotel a few minutes later, and their staff was so excited to see us, they even did a whole dance routine.

The view from the room's pretty spectacular.

After some fun and games in the evening and a nice dinner, it was all business for the rest of the night...

Malaysiantalents.com only on gua.com.my

Peeps, as previously plugged, GUA.COM.MY's second exclusive drama called Malaysiantalents.com will debut on Jan 15th. It's a comedy ala The Office, and I tell ya, Douglas Lim and co are simply funny in it! Read more about it here, here, here and here.

Here's the unofficial promo (sound's not that great tho'):

Announcement: It's www.mzulkifli.com!

One of my New Year resolutions was to finally own my domain name. And voila! It's done. From now on, you can access this site at www.mzulkifli.com

Hurrah for me!

When Cool Meets Cool

So today I had lunch with one of Malaysia’s Coolest People, composer and producer Audi Mok. He’s also a finalist in this year’s Juara Lagu with his composition Mahakarya Cinta sung by Faizal Tahir.

Me: So Juara Lagu 3 weeks away. How u feeling lah?
Audi: Mmm, I dunno. Were you excited when you were in the final?
Me: Well, yeah.
Audi: Hmm, maybe there’s something wrong with me then.
Me: Well, yeah.

But it was a good lunch at this Thai place in One Utama.

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The conversation was even better as we bitched and raved about the local music industry, online businesses and Pamela Anderson’s latest marital problems.

“So dude, I wanna take a picture. Do something funny!”
audi mok

Yeah, he’s cool alright.

MALAYSIANTALENTS.COM & GUA Mobile Launched!

Earlier today, GUA.COM.MY launched two new and exciting initiatives.

The first was a new drama which will be shown exclusively on GUA.COM.MY called MALAYSIANTALENTS.COM. Produced by Popiah Pictures, MALAYSIANTALENTS.COM is a mockumentary starring the multi-talented Douglas Lim and features a slew of celebrity cameos including Joanna Bessy, Chelsia Ng and Gavin Yap.

MALAYSIANTALENTS.COM will debut on 15th Jan and viewers will get to watch two new episodes a week, every Tuesday and Thursday.

At the PC, Douglas did a funny intro to the show and screened the pilot episode. I have to tell you guys, the show is indeed funny! Think “The Office”, but more Malaysian. With more hot people in it. “I want loads of HOT PEOPLE okay?” was my simple instruction to Popiah Pictures.

malaysiantalents.com

Secondly, we also launched GUA Mobile which allows everyone equipped with a 3G enabled handphone to watch the latest gua.com.my’s video content.

To access the service, one simply needs to just dial *32223, make a video call on your handphone and choose the content you want to watch using the GUA Mobile menu. The content available includes Babe Bits, Doing It Right, Senario Dan GUA, Muung and Kerana Karina.

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Currently, GUA Mobile is available to Maxis users only and each video call is charged a flat rate of 30 sen per minute.

Overall it was a short and straight to the point PC that also served one of my favourite dishes, lontong.

So peeps, don’t forget to watch MALAYSIANTALENTS.COM come Jan 15th and those with 3G mobile phones, go to GUA Mobile. Like, now!

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