Current event: Always In Wonderland

This musical performance that will took around 90 minutes involved me, not as the performer, not as the organiser, but me as the people behind helping for the stage making with my two other friends. Yes, it’s only three person handling the whole sets making, lead by an architect whom is our former lecturer, in charge of stage design.

There is two sets. One set is a backdrop of forest which can be folded with two giant trees, and a jungle-like entrance attached to it. The two trees will be in look of a garden before these are raised up so that the tall trees are seen. The next set is a backdrop of castle which can be folded too, same principle applied. There are many cuttings and openings for the castle that allows play of light over the white structure. The other stuff that we made is the can-be-folded long table. All these are made of recycled materials like cardboards and newspapers, we are going on green direction.

It is organized by famous Berjaya Corporation Berhad with PAN Productions. It is a small scale production.

   

Have you ever wondered what happened to all your favourite fairy-tale characters beyond “happily ever after”?
…Well, as it turns out, happily ever after proves to be rather elusive for Snow White, The Mad Hatter, Prince Charming, The Red Queen, Little Mermaid, The White Queen, Little Red Riding Hood, Peter Pan and the Big Bad Wolf…

Life, especially married life, is no Wonderland as it turns out.

In this musical comedy, Gloria, a young girl seeks out the help and advice from her favourite fairy-tale characters for the secret of ‘happily ever-after’. How will she find her happily ever-after despite her over-bearing Fairy Godmother, a meddling Guardian Angel, and a whole host of over-the-top characters intent on giving their two cents worth? Will love triumph in the end?

Written and directed by Nell Ng, one of Malaysia’s most popular actresses after appearing in Phua Chu Kang Sdn Bhd as well as the recent Actorlympics in the PJ Laugh Fest, the production will be choreographed by Dawn Hoh with sets and design by Lisa Foo, the creative genius behind the Light Show at the Annexe Gallery. Wacky costumes by award winning designer Dominique Devorsine and lighting by most sought after designer Lim Ang Swee.

Accompanying the script will be timeless songs from everyone’s favourite shoulder-padded era – the 80’s!!! Guaranteed to get you up on your feet and bopping along!

This show combines some of the most dynamic talents from Malaysian stage, music and screen including Atilia, Chelsia Ng, Rina Omar, Elvira Arul, Alizakri Alias, Peter Ong, Tria Aziz, Janet Lee, Zalina Lee, Sabrina Hassan, Kenneth Menon, Arephyzz, Harick Ng, Alexander Amado Johnson, Amber Wong Wen Yee, Ann Tan, Darius Lim Chee Wei, Marcus Lim, Chan Pui Yi and Callista Chuah.

It promises to be a riot of colour, songs, dances, and laughs.

The production runs from July 29 – August 8 at the Black Box, MAP, Solaris Dutamas, Jalan Sri Hartamas 1, Sri Hartamas. Night shows begin at 8.30pm whilst matinees on Saturdays and Sundays begin at 3pm. The show will run for approximately 90 minutes. Tickets are available at RM55, RM65, and RM75 from http://www.ticket2u.biz or call 03-41498600 or 019-2111600.

Tickets in support of AUTORR Foundation on 5th August, set up to provide a public recreational space for senior citizens, can be bought from http://www.ticket2u.biz as well. Tomorrow will be watching it free…anticipating for it!

Registration Day, yesterday…back to campus!

Registration day means a lot of things:

1 – it marks the beginning of a whole new semester of study.

2 – it shows that you are present there, to continue your study at the university, not missing in action…haha

3 – it is the day to settle a lot of registration stuff and of course, payment, which comes first in my university…money paid, then only they let you register as a student..how obvious, greedy!

4 – it is the day when I meet back a lot of friends, that some have went back hometown during semester break, but there are still some didn’t came back.

5 – it is the day that we stepped into the university again, stepping up to another level of being senior, saw a lot of juniors in architecture science (the course I’m taking).

(At the campus plaza waiting, there is such a huge 1 Malaysia sculpture, nope, it’s a big block….)

As usual, we settled the fees which are very expensive (of course) at bursary, waited for around two hours (that’s super long, thanks to the so-called ‘efficiency’ of the staff there), so in the middle of the waiting time, we went for lunch at Old Town, long time didn’t eat the soft-boiled egg there…haha….after payment, went to registry to take course advicing form, and finally, waiting for faculty section to be opened back for final registration. Ohh, Monday need to come to class, night class….hate it!

Movie review: Salt (2010)

Another movie review, this time is ‘Salt’, just released on cinema yesterday, and yes…I watched the premiere, the first day the film is released, quite seldom for that….’Salt’ for this film does not means the salt that we eat almost everyday in our food, it’s about a girl named ‘Evelyn Salt’, whom is a spy in duty to destroy United States, trained under Russia to topple US in a mission called ‘Day X’.

          

It’s basically an action-packed film with only one main performer, Angelina Jolie, whom of course acts as Evelyn Salt, the only main character in the story. Everything revolves about her, how and why she became spy, how and why she beats and kills all the guys that interrupt her mission.

She is definitely a great actress. Cool outlook especially her face, most suitable to be portrayed as a character of assassin, which she had done it before for so much time like in movie of ‘ Mr. and Mrs. Smith’ and this one of course. This one, she herself steals the show, one and only one. She is very cool, very hot and very capable of portraying this kind of character…her face is stunning!

The story of the film is quite good, you will be surprised with some sudden twist on the plot, suddenly a good guy becomes the real bad guy, and the killing spy girl, Salt is actually a good spy, preventing the nuclear operation on Islamic world that will cause their anger towards US , and by killing all those people in mission of toppling US. She is Russian, and I don’t understand why she helped US rather than Russia. For world peace, I guess…haha…sorry for such movie spoiler….the sudden twist to the plot, unexpected storyline is rather good….better than those expected and predicted plot…overall, it’s a good movie with a lot of running (escaping) scenes and action-packed (killing, beating) scenes. Watch it, it’s very worthy and all the credits to Angelina Jolie…without her as the character in the film, this would not be a success one (to be honest), good story still needs good actors and actresses to perform…out of 10 points, I would give it 7.2. Quite a good rating…

Stage making days…

These few days have busy…nope, very busy helping one of my former university design lecturer in stage preparation for a musical show. The show is organized by a giant company, Berjaya Groups, which is famous for its successful Berjaya Times Square and the founder, Vincent Tan (same English name with me..lol)…

The show is called ‘ Always in Wonderland’ with characters from different stories like Snow White, Alice, etc…in group of three, whom are of my classmates too…first few days, we did all the stuff at a bungalow, a very old bungalow which had no one to live in except a cleaner…we mess up the whole floor of the house where we are doing all those crazy works there; sticking newspaper by starch, cutting cardboards, etc…the stage is to be made of recycled materials like newspapers and cardboards….now I hate and bored seeing those two…haha

Last few days, we did it on the spot, which is at the area near the performing stage, which is at MapKL, Solaris Dutamas. This is very new place, newly built complex of residential apartments and shoplots. First time going there, and spotted a very huge construction of new National Palace nearby, which is a waste of money definitely…and also spotted a large mosque similar to the famous Hagia Sophia at Istanbul, Turkey. That place I also can have a great view of Kuala Lumpur skyline…can always see Petronas Twin Towers switches off light at 12am midnight clearly…lol

It is really tired…already been sleeping very late, lately…for continous few days just to complete the stuff, which we do not get paid for,,,,yes…it’s charity work, very charitable…we made a mess up there also…we draw, we paint, we cut, we measure, we think, we stick, we adjust, we pull, we push, we really did a lot of stuff…insufficient of people and time seriously…everyday worked until late night…

the final product is there, let the show begins…eventhough the final outcome is not as good as predicted, but at least it is completed, and we tried our best and have put our full, no…over-limit effort on it….few things that I will remember during these few tiring days:

1 – working continously for over at least 15 hours each day, the record-breaking is over 20 hours, at the last day when we have to finish up everything before the show starts which is today…

2 – have accidentally eaten a little piece of a plastic fork while having dinner…

3 – have stapled my hand twice, stupid…but accident la….pain for a while, bleed for a while, then continue work…haiz

4 – have a drop of CA glue on my eye, luckily I get it off quickly and rinse it with water, if not…omg….I do not dare to think of the consequences…

5 – have seen a very nice guy, a management people of the building which is n related to the event at all, but he is so kind, that he paid for our expensive dinner, bought us pizza, and willing to go out at midnight to buy McD for our supper…super kind…very hard to find this kind of people already….

That’s all…very tiring and exhausted, but it’s a nice experience, at least we see something new, we learn something new…

Amazing show: Astro Star Quest 2010 Final!

Just back from the final of Astro Star Quest 2010, annual singing competition, not only aiming at young stars of talented singing, but also in variety skills like dancing, acting, speaking, etc. It’s been so fast a year. Last year ago, I remembered watching the final at 25^th July 2009 at Stadium Putra, Bukit Jalil. This year, on 24^th July 2010, same venue, the same event was held again. I watched this every year, as this is the only singing competition in Malaysia on par with other competitions around the world in Chinese regions like from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

This time we saw five finalists again, Yi Po, Joe, Fyone, Alvin and Stephanie… two females, three males…similar to previous year….I found out there are many similarities on the result between this year and the previous year…the fifth place always goes to male called ‘Alvin’, and the fourth place always goes to male with good dancing skill, and the third place always goes to female who sing softly and the top two finalists are always of one male and one female.

Went to the area much earlier than expected, because we took the roads that are less travelled by others. We took the other way to reach the National Sports Complex, which is from Astro main office… There is an existing carnival-like event in front of the Stadium Nasional Bukit Jalil, hence many parking lots are wasted. We, in four, with my dad, his friend and my relative, wondering at front of Stadium Putra, looking at many people gathering, mainly fans of the finalists…

The show started right on time, no delay because it will be aired live on Astro Wah Lai Toi (311) and HD (310). This is the first Chinese programme to be aired on HD, high definition. Very clear scenes to be captured, even the emcee, Siew Wai Man asked us not to do something not nice as it can be captured easily by hundred of cameras around. The stage is simple, yet beautiful and colourful enough to represent the theme of the event, Music Wonderland.

It is a long, two and a half hours show, very exciting and interesting indeed. Astro Star Quest always provides us with high excitement on final show. This is not regarded as competition already, indeed, it’s more like a concert, performance shows by all the finalists and invited artist, Yoga Lin. He seems to be not fully prepared for the show, as he seems uneasy on stage and even on screen, and the worst thing is that he brought small piece of paper of lyrics of his own songs, in stage 3 which he need to sing with top three finalists.

It’s so hot in the stadium, not hot in terms of temperature, but in terms of atmosphere…many are cheering, screaming, clapping, supporting the finalists whom went all out to make the final show a success…but for me, just sitting there and listening, and enjoying through heart….fans are distinguished by the colours, red for Yi Po, green for Joe, yellow for Fyone, blue for Alvin and mix of colours for Stephanie…huh….even Yoga Lin and Nicholas Teo (both are among the judges) have their supporters came too…the top three from last year, Min, Fai and Yoke did present to perform…

Stage 1 is the stage when all five finalists sing songs that are soft, slow…and basically touching. Stage 2 is the stage when all five finalists have to sing and most importantly, dance….last two will be announced, fifth place goes to Alvin Gan, known-to-be-cute boy, and fourth place goes to Joe, a cool Korean-look man, their supporters went into silence and disappointment after this is announced….Stage 3 is the stage when top three finalists sing with invited artist, Yoga Lin, after this, the third place winner is announced, which goes to Fyone, a beautiful 18-years old girl. Now, left final stage, when top two battle it out by singing a song in different version, Yi Po in jazz and Stephanie in rock version.

Finally, Yi Po emerged as the champion, the winner of Astro Star Quest 2010 final, while Stephanie goes for second placing….congratulation to the winner as well as to all finalists whom contributed to a much exciting night….congratulation to the winner of MV directing, song production and most favourite finalist, which goes to Fyone, as expected. Great prizes for all the winners, especially the champion, Yi Po, cash of RM 37 000, car worth RM 92 000 and many others, all for him…all totaling to over RM 170 000.

All finalists did very well this year. All have improved in their singing skill, especially Joe, eventhough he just managed to get fourth place. Yi Po is definitely good in singing skill, and dancing too…very cool…top three, Yi Po, Stephanie and Fyone will go for TVB8 International New Talent Singing Competition 2010 at last quarter of the year….last year, Yoke from Malaysia won it, so will one of them won this year too? High probability, because our top three here is real good, no joke…they got all the characteristics of STARS! Not only top three, all top five…Ahh, the competition is over, have to wait for season 15 next year…

Ohh, it’s such a long post written here…sorry for that…wow…one post of over 1000 words….record-breaking, but always usual in this blog here…haha…please support by reading too…had been busy lately helping my past lecturer in stage making for a performance of ‘Always in Wonderland’ by Berjaya Group at Sri Hartamas on few days beginning 29^th July 2010…very tiring, it’s a volunteering job without any pay, and we did it till like no-life, have been having sleepless nights these days, we stayed in bungalow, but that is old, and kinda horrific because it seems haunted a bit, so dark, creepy in there, and we met an artist from Astro too, famous emcee for Astro Golden Melody Singing Competition (for old people) called Ling Chung Piao, he is part of the show…God, it’s still holiday for me, and yet, no sleep…really keen on doing it with effort…good…opps, praising myself already….ok….bye….

Happy 400th Post!!!

Yeah…Yeah…

This is officially the 400th post of my blog here…so excited and grateful about it!

Nice to see that comes true, from achievement of 100 posts, to 200 posts, to 300 posts, and now till 400 posts…I have to say it’s a great achievement…hehe…proud of myself a bit here….eventhough the hits (number of views of this blog) has not reach 400 000, but it’s not too far from reality…now, it’s already a great milestone reached…

It’s been over 1 year and 10 months since I created this blog, to share with you all about myself, global stuff and architecture. I have written countless words on this blog, as every words mean something to me…looking back to what I have done on this blog, it is really a lot of effort put on it…I think I have spent uncountable hours on it too…I treat this blog as part of my life, very precious just like my home, my family…

Announcement; a new member is added to this blog here, he is Daniel, my best friend of same university, he is very good in writing, he is now an editor of this blog, whom has the chance to write on this blog too…starting from now, not only me that will be writing posts on this blog, he will be too….let’s us wait and see what he will write…anticipating for it now..haha

Million of thanks to all readers of my blog around the world…great appreciation to you all for supporting….the next target is 500 posts and over 400 000 hits (currently over 358 000)….hope this can be achieved as soon as possible with great posts that will attract more visitors to this blog…but it do takes quite a long time, probably few months later…a new header will be created in conjunction with this celebration that will lasts for ten days before July 31st, which the previous July header will reappear, then when August comes, a new header of the month will then surfaces…..this new celebration header will be released 12am tonight…

Anyway, thanks to all…Hurray!!!

Upcoming 2010 games architecture

Whenever there is a sporting games being held in a specific city, that city would be transformed in large scale. Many infrastructures like stadiums, public transportation system, hotels, amenities will be built in conjunction with the upcoming games as a full preparation to it. A more systematic urban planning would be done too, especially on the site of stadiums’ complex.

There are three upcoming international sporting games in 2010, all to be held at last quarter of the year.

First of all, is the upcoming first Youth Olympic Games to be held at Singapore from 14th to 26th August 2010. As usual, many new venues were built like the site for opening and closing ceremonies, The Float (floating stage at Marina Bay, seating capacity of over 30 000), Youth Olympic Village (at Nanyang Technological University), Main Media Centre (at Marina Bay Sands), University Town (at National University of Singapore), etc.

The second upcoming games is the Commonwealth Games to be held at New Delhi, India from 3rd to 14th October 2010. As the third largest sporting games (after Summer Olympic and Asian Games), India promises to upgrade as many things as possible in preparation to the games. The main stadium used for athletics and opening and closing ceremonies is Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, which will have seating capacity of 75 000 after renovation (new roof, new support structure, new seatings), Indira Ghandi Arena (second largest indoor sports arena in Asia). 26 new stadiums are utilized for the games.

The last, which is the world second largest sporting games, and expected to be the largest Asian Games in history, Guangzhou 2010 to be held from 12th to 27th November 2010. The city undergoes really big transformation. There is always an axis for Chinese cities, and the axis in Guangzhou is now further enhanced with completion of new Central Business District, and with new notable buildings along the axis like Guangdong Museum, Guangzhou Opera House, Guangzhou International Finance Center (tallest building in the city), Haixinsha Island (island in middle of Pearl River used for opening and closing ceremonies), and Guangzhou Sightseeing and Broadcasting Tower (tallest TV tower in the world) to join with existing CITIC Plaza and Tianhe Sports Center. There are 53 competition venues and 17 training centers, that includes Asian Games Town, consists of Athletes Village, Technical Officials Village, Media Village, Main Media Center and International Broadcast Center.

I love to see the opening and closing ceremonies of these games because on the broadcast, they will show the whole site of the sports complex, and sometimes the whole city at night, beautiful with those street lights, laser and spotlights. I love those aerial views, overlooking the whole complex, especially with addition of fireworks…and I’m looking forward to these upcoming games…hope Malaysia can win something from these three games too!

My Empire, a nice game for me NOW…

It’s a Playfish game in Facebook, there are many interesting Playfish games like Pet Society, Restaurant City, Hotel City, Gangster City, My Empire, etc on Facebook. Last time, I’m quite addicted to Restaurant City, because it is a game which we manage our own restaurant from many different aspects, like decorating, trading, etc.

Nowadays, Restaurant City often undergoes a lot of changes, there are too many new updates on the game every week, causing players to feel like they have many things to catch up. Hence, from that time onwards, I started to feel bored of it, and stopped playing. Then, time to shift to new game, by Playfish as well….My Empire.

                   

It is a new game, once Playfish introduced it on home page, I immediately clicked on it to check out what is this new game about…it’s about creating own empire on an island, with addition of buildings and wonders, trading, resources – collecting, researching, etc. Then, I started to get obsessed with it like one to two months ago….currently, I’m on quite a high level (Level 29). New update is going to be seen soon on this game, but I don’t think it will like Restaurant City…playing this game only for NOW, yes…nowadays…in near future, or few months later, or even one month later, will defnitely quit…

4 days 3 nights: my sister’s new home…

Been very boring at home last week after finished watching TVB series of ‘A Fistful of Stances’ that I had reviewed it in my previous post, so I decided for a trip.

A trip? So sudden? With who? To where? Take how many days?

Yes, so sudden, alone, to my sister’s new house, the trip took 4 days 3 nights….haha

Bored facing the four walls of my own room, I packed some stuff and head myself to my sister’s new house, where I had my own bedroom there too. Thanks to my sister for fetching me after finished working. It began on Thursday afternoon. On that night, we had dinner at a restaurant at Serdang, famous for its ‘lou shu fan’. Special thing about it is that it is served in soup-like claypot, but it tastes not very good…wondering why so many artists came here before to try this….

My sister’s new house is an apartment unit at Serdang…and my new bedroom is quite small, after being occupied with a single-sized bed, cupboard, working table and chair. The view from the window there is quite nice, overlooking some housing areas and hills.

Next day which is Friday, I followed my sister to Jusco at Equine Park for shopping, as it is favourite by all females. Lunch at Wong Kok Char Chan Teng and tried on the simple fried nissin noodle with XO sauce…ooh, spicy, good to relieve my runny nose…Then, at night, tried on a seafood restaurant at Taman Cempaka, famous for its seafood, of course…and fried rice as well….the fried rice there is simple but yet tasty and delicious….the tom yam soup served there is amazing too, very delicious and ‘hot’, drinking too much of it will definitely cause sore throat.

Saturday came, it’s the day when I went to collect the tickets to the final of Astro Star Quest 2010 to be held on next Saturday. I had won the VIP tickets with two accounts, so four tickets were given. Besides that, goodie bags were given too, that contain a note book, a pen, and a small case. The place to collect the tickets is at Westin Hotel, Grand Ballroom, the place where the Top 5 Finalists Celebration Party is held too, but we didn’t attend, since we are not interested on it.  

Super serious traffic congestion around KL, especially at Bukit Bintang area…it is usual actually as that time is the peak hours for traffic due to people leaving after work. Since we were in KL already, time for lunch at May King Restaurant at Pudu, historical and famous for its ‘Lam Mee’. Tastes good, but not as good as the last time I have tried it….Dinner at Teochew Porridge Restaurant at Pudu also, that offers a lot of dishes at night and of course, porridge (it’s just rice added with water).

Have been facing my cute nephew these few days….so adorable when he is not crying, playing with you, smiling….but turns disastrous when he is crying, and screaming like hell….baby is like this…but my nephew seems naughtier…he must have something to play with, if not, he will feel bored easily and cry to his excitement…anyway, took some lovely photos with him….so cute!

Sunday, the last day of my so-called ‘trip’…haha…woke up pretty late, lunch at around 3pm at Jusco Equine Park again, at Wong Kok Char Chan Teng again….then, dinner with my grandma as usual for every Sunday’s dinner at my home’s nearby food court….then, trip officially ended, and I’m back home…

CTBUH 9th Annual Awards (2010)

The annual awards for Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat for year 2010 were announced a month ago, and I forgot to write a post about it that time due to busy days completing my assignments. Now, I’m free during the semester break, hence this post is dedicated to it.

      

CTBUH, based at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, is an international not-for-profit organization supported by architecture, engineering, planning, development and construction professionals, designed to facilitate exchanges among those involved in all aspects of the planning, design, construction and operation of tall buildings.

Founded in 1969, the Council’s mission is to disseminate multi-disciplinary information on tall buildings and sustainable urban environments, to maximize the international interaction of professionals involved in creating the built environment, and to make the latest knowledge available to professionals in a useful form.

          

The Lynn S. Beedle Award 2010 is awarded to William Pedersen (architect), one of the three principal architects of famous firm, Kohn Pedersen Fox, who designed Shanghai World Financial Center, etc. The award recognizes an individual who has made extraordinary contributions to the advancement of tall building and the urban environment during his or her professional career. These contributions and leadership are recognized by the professional community and have significant effects, which extend beyond the professional community, to enhance cities and the lives of their inhabitants. The individual’s contributions may be well known or little known by the public and may take any form, such as completed projects, research, technology, methods, ideas, or industry leadership.

       

The Fazlur Khan Award 2010 is awarded to Ysrael A. Seinuk (engineer). The award recognizes an individual for his/her demonstrated excellence in technical design and/or research that has made a significant contribution to a discipline(s) for the design of tall buildings and the built urban environment. The contribution may be demonstrated in the form of specific technical advances, innovations, design breakthroughs, building systems integration or innovative engineering systems that resulted in a practical design solution and completion of a project(s). The consideration may be based on a single project or creative achievement through multiple projects.

        

Best Tall Building in America 2010 is awarded to Bank of America Tower, New York.

       

Best Tall Building in Asia and Australasia 2010 is awarded to Pinnacle @ Duxton, Singapore.

       

Best Tall Building in Europe 2010 is awarded to Broadcasting Place, Leeds.

       

Best Tall Building in Middle East and Africa 2010 is awarded to Burj Khalifa, Dubai.

  

 

Best Tall Building Overall for 2010 will be announced at Awards Dinner and Ceremony on 21st October 2010. One of the skyscrapers listed above will be honoured for this higher recognition. I think it would be Burj Khalifa, because this project is massive, real super skyscraper (tallest man-made structure on Earth), famous, etc.

For more information regarding the organization of CTBUH which is in-charge of evaluating building’s height, the awards, the winning people and skyscrapers, you may refer to the official website (awards page) at:

http://www.ctbuh.org/Events/Awards/2010Awards/tabid/1571/language/en-GB/Default.aspx