Brainstroming Weekend In PD

Uhuh. I spent this past weekend storming the brain at CSD'S retreat in PD. We stayed at, don't laugh, Le Paris Hotel & Resort, and overall it was a good and fun session lah...

Where's the apostrophe lah?

m.zulkifli

The hotel was nothing really to shout about, but the view from the balcony's quite cool

The sunset was simply awesome



The obligatory BBQ dinner...

Mmm, crab...

Each group had to present their great idea, and...

of course my group won!

m.zulkifli

Say GUAAAAAAA......

Kerana Karina Starts Today!

Malaysia's first ever online drama series Kerana Karina kicks off today! So far, the buzz has been good and people have been posting comments on the video page as well as the forum board on GUA.

It seems only like yesterday that I thought of and wrote the synopses for the story, and here it is now for all the world to see... the feeling is simply awesome. If you haven't watched it already, click here! New episodes come on every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Media Prima Hari Raya Open House - Meriah U Ols!

Kerana Karina was there...

Far East performed

Mee Rebus Jungle Green Khaki Brown

Roti Jala Manjalara

Senario did their schtick

With Azhar Borhan. Good looking dudes always stick together...

With Datuk K and Datuk Seri CEO

Izham and his, um, icecream

Seelan and his, um, hotdog... (is there a theme or something?)


Hosts Fara Fauzana & Ally Iskandar

Kerana Karina Trailer!

Kerana Karina Press Conference

The Kerana Karina PC was held yesterday at the Empress Cafe, The Curve. Turnout by the press was quite impressive, there were no major complications and the general mood and atmosphere of the whole event was pretty cool and "festive". Check out this first batch of pics...

Cool paperbags

Showtime!

Mmm...

The trailer was premiered

Group photo

The leads, Marsha & Zizan Nin

Marsha being grilled by Melodi

Sazzy Falak

Chelsia Ng, Michael D 'Oliveiro, Zally Hussain, M.Zul & Elaine Daly

Zally Hussain, M.Zul & Elaine Daly

Yang Mana?

Artis: Marsha Londoh
(Lagu tema drama gua.com.my Kerana Karina)

Verse:
Dilema yang melanda
Tiba tanpa ku sangka
Kini buntu ku rasa

Yang lalu muncul kembali
Mengganggu oh emosi
Memaksaku untuk memilih

Walaupun nampak mudah
Tertera di depan mata
Kata hati yang ku dengar

Pelbagai persoalan
Disulam keraguan
Cinta apa yang kucari?

Bukan hati tak pernah diluka
dirinya, tak ku lupa

Yang satu lagi pula berjanji
Kan bahagia, selamanya

Chorus:
Yang mana satu harus jadi kawan, teman
Yang mana satu harus ku cinta

Verse:
Yang lalu muncul kembali
Menggangu oh emosi
Memaksaku untuk memilih

Dilema ku mendalam
Mencari keputusan
Yang tak kukesal kemudian

Kupertimbangkan semua
Yang berulang ku tanya
Perlukah peluang kedua?

Bukan hati tak pernah diluka
dirinya, tak ku lupa

Yang satu lagi pula berjanji
Kan bahagia, selamanya

Chorus:
Yang mana satu harus jadi kawan, teman
Yang mana satu harus ku cinta

Lagu: Azmeer
Lirik: M.Zulkifli

Linkin Park TV only on GUA!

Starting today, you can watch LPTV exclusively on GUA.COM.MY. This is totally exclusive stuff with tonnes of never-before-seen footages packaged into 15 7-minute episodes. The even cooler part is that you could also win an all-expenses-paid trip to watch the band LIVE in Singapore in mid November!!! Pure awesomeness...

Linkin Park TV LPTV

Dudes, I'm Rich!

... um, well, not really. But I DID receive a royalty check for a book I co-authored sometime ago called Punched Lines: Sit Down Comedy From Southeast Asia. The magic amount? Read 'em and weep...

9.58 Brunei dollars! Awesome huh? I can now afford a couple of Mars bars. Woohoo!

m.zulkifli

All jokes aside, I was pleasantly surprised when I got the check in the mail, 'cos it means that the book is still selling, after FIVE years!!! 129 copies in the past year, ok? And the first couple of years, we did sell a few THOUSAND copies here in Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore. Can tahan one...

Published by Brunei Press, the idea for the book actually came from me and my ex-editor Helena Hon. We wanted to compile our funny short stories and when she got a job at Brunei Press, she pushed the idea to the publisher and they actually ok-ed the book! From just us, it became 10 writers from Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.

When it was released here, we even had a mini tour and everything. You can read all about it here. Meantime, I'm heading for the nearest 7-11 for some Mars bars...

Selamat Hari Raya Maaf Zahir Batin!

GUA Takes T3 Cover

Out on newsstands now

Outside My Office Window Today...

Kerana Karina Theme Song In The Bag!

On Saturday night, the same time England were recording their upset win over Australia in the Rugby World Cup quarterfinal, the theme song for Kerana Karina (KK) was recorded at the cleverly-named Eargasm Studio in Sri Hartamas. Performed by the lead actress of KK Marsha herself, the still untitled song was composed and produced by Azmeer, with lyrics by none other than, um, me.

It all began just last week when Azmeer came by the office to discuss taking on the producing gig. A couple of days later, he had 2 tracks for us to choose from. We settled on the first option, an up-tempo tune with some catchy hooks which everyone agreed would suit the overall feel of KK and Marsha’s vocals.

That same night I went back and started working on the lyrics. And since I had written KK’s storyline, it was just a matter of adapting the same for the song. It took some 3 hours to complete everything and after some minor touchups the following morning, the lyrics were then emailed to Azmeer.

At the recording session, Marsha was a bit under the weather, but the vocals still sounded good. Great, in fact. And she got everything down in just under 3 hours.

kerana karina

The song will be released together with the drama by the end of the month and will also be available for download on http://www.gua.com.my/.
kerana karina

Kerana Karina Kicks Off!

A couple of days ago, shooting began for Kerana Karina (KK). In case you’re the ignorant sort, KK’s a piece of history in the making, ‘cos when it’s launched in early November, it’ll be the first ever Malaysian made-for-web drama series. And it can only be viewed on http://www.gua.com.my/. Very cool indeed.

And how’s this for a powerhouse cast: Marsha Londoh (who plays the lead role), Zizan Nin, Elaine Daly, Razaly Hussein, Sazzy Falak, Alan Yun and first-time actor Roslan Aziz.

kerana karina

The original concept was mooted by my executive producer Michael who also came up with the title. And yours truly actually wrote the story. It took a couple of days, but once the creative juices flowed, the synopses for all 20 episodes came rather easily. And yes, this will be my first drama ever. A piece of personal history right there.

Anyway, KK’s about Karina (duh), the latest starlet in the music business who takes the industry by storm with her debut album. For Karina’s sophomore effort, the label boss (Roslan Aziz) decides to hire this hot shot producer with some overseas experience, Imran (Zizan Nin).

But turns out, Karina and Imran have some sort of “history” together and things get tricky from that point onwards…

Produced by Grand Brilliance, KK’s directed by this cool dude with a cool name, Aidil Fitri. Script's by Eenaz Mokhtar. Shooting should be done by 10th Oct and the PC has been slated for 23rd Oct.

Read more about KK here and here…

Repositioning Alert!

When I started this blog earlier this year, we were in the early stages of putting together a “secret” plan for new media dominance. And it remained hush-hush until early August when basically most of the plan was laid out at a trade launch. Then came the relaunches of 8TV, TV3 and ntv7 portals. And of course, on Sept 11, gua.com.my was revealed to the world.

Which means I can now stop being too cryptic and talk about this stuff in the open. Phew!

I’m also maintaining another blog on gua.com.my which focuses on entertainment and pop culture, featuring some regular stuff I’ve done here like The 7 Coolest thingy and Thursday Night Rant.

So what does this mean for MZ 2.0? Well, the time has come for me to get even more personal and give you peeps out there more of an insiders’ view on the stuff above, especially on gua.com.my.

So be prepared for some truly engaging stuff as I lift the proverbial veil and tell you things like why we chose to do shows like BABE BITS (isn’t it obvious?) and how many forms I need to fill to get ONE bloody thing done around here. I’m kidding!