Fun F1 Day

So the rain stayed away and the spectacular shunts never came, but it was still an enjoyable Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang earlier today. And oh yes, hot dog and coke still cost RM25...

As you already know, Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen emerged victorious with BMW's Kubica and McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen finishing second and third respectively.

Other highlights include me getting this pretty cool T-Shirt to commemorate the 1oth Edition of the Malaysian GP...

Me doing this to Fernando Alonso...

And seeing someone from Futurama on a beca...

JELMA on MHI

So yesterday, JELMA director Murali and cast members kak Maimon and adik Naim Daniel along with myself were on Malaysia Hari Ini to do some promo. It was a lively session hosted by Fedtri, but the real star was Naim who mesmerised with his confidence and fluency. He even did my job for me, asking the viewers to log on to http://www.gua.com.my/ to watch the show which made its debut yesterday. At the waiting lounge, we even bumped into Indonesian crooner Marcell who even shared his own ghost story with us!

Marcell is on the far left. Gals, pls stop screaming!

JELMA - GUA.COM.MY's Exclusive Horror Series

Start watching from 21st March! New episodes every Monday, Wednesday & Friday. For everything on JELMA, pls click HERE

And here's the trailer...

D'Kechewas Rock Yet Again! (with some jiwang stuff thrown in)

So the day finally came for the company to announce some very good news to the 1,400 staff. And when I say good news, I mean good new$$$… Get what I mean?

After the excellent news was delivered at the One World Hotel, everyone sauntered back to Sri Pentas for the makan-makan and of course, for “a special performance”. D’Kechewas took the stage about a quarter past 11 and really, I won’t lie, I was nervous as hell. Especially with so many Datuks and CEOs sitting in the front row. (and also because the backdrop actually said “We Are The Best”)

But as soon as we opened with U2’s “With Or Without You”, everyone started to loosen up and we basically rocked as hard as we could. And yes, Whitney Houston’s “Saving All My Love For You" was also in the set, sang by Nita of Big Tree.

And yes, I belted out “Belaian Jiwa” to fill our BM song quota! I think I did a pretty decent job lah. Chewah…

Admittedly though, the set was a tad “urban” for the majority of the audience, but hey, we did try our very best, and I even got to say: “Are you enjoys?”…

I'm all about power chords, baby...

Hafiz of Fly FM delivered Gavin De Graw's "I Don't Wanna Be"


Belting out "Belaian Jiwa"... Can you believe it?

Izham was of course the coolest of the lot, having done kazillions of shows in his lifetime

Eddie really rocked the drums... no surprises there : )
KISS makeup next time out, perhaps?

For the final song "Knockin On Heaven's Door", we got TV3's head of entertainment Azhar Borhan to jam as well! We're one big happy family over here...

JELMA Launched! (part II - pics only)

JELMA Launched!

GUA.COM.MY’s third exclusive online drama JELMA was launched this afternoon at Bora Asmara in Sungai Penchala. JELMA is a horror story (oh yes!) that tells the tale of Rosli, a restaurant owner who resorts to basically selling his soul to the devil to get ahead in his business. As a result, his son turns out to be a creepy boy with some really creepy “powers”. Scary stuff, I can assure you.

Produced by Zeel Production and directed by award-winning director Muhammad Murali, JELMA stars Norman Hakaim, Aida Aris, Fauziah Nawi, Maimun Taib, Haliza Misbun and child actor Naem Daniel.

The PC today saw a good, strong turnout by the press and also the cast and crew of JELMA. And if you’ve never been to Bora Asmara before, you should! It’s a nice makan place with a lovely Balinese setup with rather-romantic private dining areas.

Anyway, JELMA debuts on GUA.COM.MY on March 21st with new episodes coming on every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. So do check it out!

Are you scared already?

Outside the PC room
With cast and crew of JELMA

Being interviewed by TV9

With the male lead of JELMA, Norman Hakim

With the director, Muhammad Murali

With Aida Aris

With the Zeel Production posse

Norman & Aida

With Kak Maimon & Fazil of Zeel

The hardworking GUA crew

Rockin' Out (Again)!

Yes, apparently D' Kechewas (that's the official spelling I've been told) have been "hired" to play at an internal MPB show sometime next week. We had our first jamming session last week at the Akarkarya Studio in Damansara Uptown, and practised another 3 hours last night, just to smoothen things out.

The difference this time is that we'll have a couple of guest singers from the MPB fraternity. So expect us rockin' dudes to play, get ready for this... Whitney Houston! But no worries, we've not dicthed Lenny, GNR and Green Day from our repetoire.

d 'kechewas

In fact, our new version of "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" should rock the socks off of everyone in the audience. It's either that or they'll just yawn their way through. So wish us luck!

P.S.: We're even printing T-shirts and everything!

Music Matters

Earlier today I attended yet another enlightening talk/seminar, this time organised by The British Council at PNB Darby Park. The session featured music portal 7Digital co-founder Ben Drury.

So Ben basically shared with us his story and how he went from playing in crap bands in some ulu place in England to him founding 7Digital. It was an interesting story indeed despite the absence of any scandalous anecdotes.

The second session had a panel comprising Ben, moderator Jason Lo, my own partner in crime Paul Moss and Irman of Junk magazine, discussing the state of local music in light of the digital revolution.

Then it was time for lunch and we were ushered to The 39 restaurant on the, surprise, surprise, 39th floor. If you've never been there before, I can tell you at the very least you'll be impressed by the sight of KL it offers.
PNB Darby Park

Food's pretty good as well and I shamelessly piled my plate with good portions of fish, sotong, chicken and even tempe! Ironically, the presence of a couple of live music performers kind of killed the mood a little... PNB

Just Did It!

For the fourth consecutive time, I've fulfilled my duty as a responsible citizen and voted in the general elections. Yes, FOURTH time. That's way more than some people I know who complain macam nak rak about everything under the sun but have never even voted in their lives, or will be voting for the first time this year. (cue Danny Noreiga's "whatever" gesture).
elections

Anyway, where I voted today, things were really, really quiet and efficient. I showed my IC, got my "saluran" number, walked upstairs, got the ballot paper and drew a heart on the candidate I support. Kidding! Of course I did this - ©... no, of course I did this - X.

It was all so uneventful that the police had to find something to do and actually gave me this instruction: "Encik saluran 7, sebelum saluran 8..." Like, duh.

I've already stocked up on my kerepek and coke, and I simply can't wait for the results tonight. My prediction? Liverpool should easily beat Newcastle. By a 2-goal margin, at least...

All Shook Up

So yesterday I attended a rather enlightening seminar organised by our generous ad agency, Starcom at the swanky JW Marriot. With interestingpresentations by folks from google, Yellow Brick Road and Eyeblaster, I'd say the seminar was a success, especially since I did not see a single person dozing off even after the splendid lunch. Ha ha.

But since I forgot to snap some photos during the seminar itself, enjoy these pics of the lunch, which we had at Shook, Starhill...

Entertaining Politics

Apart from ‘American Idol’ and footie, the other big reason that I constantly switch on the boob tube now is politics; which is strange, ‘cos I am in fact as apolitical as a pile of cement. But this is American politics I’m talking about, and we know how the Yanks can make even watching paint dry highly entertaining.

As I’m writing this, I’m glued to my chair watching Democratic presidential nominees Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama battle it out in Texas. And what a close battle it is, with Obama taking the early lead and Clinton coming back to grab a slim advantage.

To read rest of the article, pls click here

My Idol Review - The Top 20

Once again the boys went first and frustratingly under performed. But what was more surprising this round was the fact that the gals fared even worse.

The 70s was the theme, and again, most of this season’s young brigade struggled with song choice and delivered under-whelming (and in a couple of cases, downright atrocious) performances.

So when the four eliminations were announced, no one was really surprised that Alaina Whitaker, Alexandréa “what was she wearing?” Lushington, yawn-inducer Jason Yaeger and alleged-rocker Robbie Carrico were sent-packing.

To read rest of article, pls click here