Ketupat, Lemang and Rendang, Oh My.

I guess that it’s a no-brainer to assume that the upcoming Hari Raya Aidil Fitri (Eid Mubarak for those unfamiliar with the local term) is definitely on the minds of everyone who will be celebrating it. Seeing that it comes closely after Deepavali this year, I’ve decided to take the whole week off next week instead of the usual few days I took in previous years. So instead of just spending about 3-4 days with the family, I will be spending a grand total of 10 days at the ole homestead in the boondocks of Selayang this year.

I’m not really looking forward trying to figure out what to pack for a stay that long. I don’t keep any of my clothes at my parents’ house since I move out so I definitely need to bring some from my apartment. Since it would be a long haul stay this time around, relative to my usual blink-and-miss-it drop-ins, I’m afraid that I may end up having to pack up half of my wardrobe just to make sure I have enough clothes to wear. Of course that doesn’t include the Baju Melayu and/or the batik shirts that I need to bring along to wear in the event that they want me to look half-way presentable when we go visiting relatives. Looks like I have to break out my carry-on luggage to pack all this stuff in instead of my customary backpack.

I have to say that I’m looking forward for Hari Raya Aidil Fitri this year because I get to try my hand at making dodol from scratch for the first time in my life. My late grandfather used to make it every year but he stopped about 10 years ago when his health declined and no one in the family took up the tradition. I don’t know why I suddenly feel the urge to want to revive the family tradition and revive my grandfather’s old dodol recipe. At first I was the only one wanting to do this since dodol-making is a back breaking work to say the least but eventually I managed to rope in my other brothers and brother-in-law to chip in. Hopefully they would actually deliver on the promise but even if they don’t, I probably would still soldier though it. My father jokingly told me that my late grandfather’s spirit must have put the idea in my head while I was sleeping and now I have no choice but to see it through. It’s creepy to think that there might be some truth to that since I’ve never been keen about the idea before.

Just in case that I get bored, I’m definitely lugging back my PS2 and my laptop along for the trip. I don’t think that I will be posting any entries during the holidays since I don’t have a broadband connection at my parents’ house but I guess I could still do an offline write up on how the dodol-making venture turns out. I could always upload that when I come back to my apartment. Other than some last minute instructions for my staff who will be working next week, I guess that I’m all set for the holidays.

For those celebrating Hari Raya I would like to wish you and yours a Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri and a safe celebration. Also not forgetting those who will be celebrating Deepavali a few days before Hari Raya, well wishes for them and their family. For the rest who would still be able to celebrate with us during the holidays, I would like to wish the a safe and enjoyable holiday.

See you guys on the flip side.

My Love Affair With Food

(image curtesy of Ben & Jerry's.com)

I recently found out that the local 7-11 store near my place carries Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and ever since then I’ve been getting a pint a week from them. Unfortunately, they don’t come cheap. A 1-pint tub of Ben & Jerry’s cost about RM 24 compared to a local brand costing under RM 10. However, I gladly pay the premium just to get my hands on what I always believed to be the best ice cream on the face of the planet. B&J’s ice cream are so much more flavorful than the local ice creams that each bite is just an orgasm of taste that’s hard to resist. They also have much more imaginative flavors than your average local ice cream.

B&J’s were the only ice cream that I used to eat during my stay in the States. When I came back, I tried to find a place that carries them but for the longest time, I could only find them very rarely. Even when I did find them, it would be just a few tubs of plain flavored tubs of chocolate or vanilla which didn’t seem worth buying since there were tons of cheaper chocolate or vanilla ice cream. The 7-11 store that I’m buying them from now carries “Cherry Garcia”, “Chubby Hubby”, “Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough” & “Chocolate Fudge Brownie” flavors that I don’t remember having before. I have to say that my current favorite flavor is “Chubby Hubby” but unfortunately for me they really just fly off the ice cream section every time fresh stocks come in. I think I have a rival in my quest to get a tub of “Chubby Hubby”

Finding a supply of B&J’s ice cream again reminded me of all the foods that I missed from the time I was living in the States. I guess that I could try to recreate some of them locally but I wonder if they would be the same. I thought that for today’s entry, since I don’t really have anything more interesting to write about, I’ll list some of my favorite foods that I missed.

BTW ... I’m not telling which 7-11 store carries B&J just in case mine is the only one who carries them. Don’t need more competition for the ice creams.

Toasted Garlic Bagels

Of all the food I had in Madison, this is the one that I missed the most. I used to go to this bagel shop just across from Randall Stadium at the corner of Regent St and Monroe St every chance I get and buy them by the dozen. I never had one before I came to the US and I instantly fell in love with it the first time I had one. I remembered that the shop carried a wide variety of types but my favorite was garlic with garlic flavored cream cheese. Having garlic breath for the rest of the day was worth each warm toasted slice although I guess that it didn’t really endear me to non-garlic eaters. Unfortunately for me, bagels are almost unknown here and I’ve only found them again once a few years back in a local sandwich food chain that have since stopped operating. Someone told me that I could get frozen bagels flown in from US from a shop in Ampang that specializes in food for the expatriate population on Ambassador’s Row there but I have not been able to track down the place till today.

Jelly Filled Doughnuts

For some strange reason, I never liked jelly filled doughnuts before I went to the States. I guess it was because they get too messy to eat compared to powders or glazed doughnuts. My first Wisconsin winter quickly change that for me. There was a doughnuts shop about 2 blocks away from where I stayed and they would have freshly baked jelly filled doughnuts and something they call “bear claws” at the start of almost every hour of the day. They usually use either apple, blueberries or strawberries as fillings but sometimes they would go wild and have something like apricot or peach instead. I remember that the smell of freshly baked doughnuts would waft into my room at the middle of a cold winter’s night and immediately get my stomach juices flowing. To this day, I would always remember biting into a freshly baked peach bear claw as one of the best things about winters in Madison.

Cajun Seafood Gumbo

I’m a big fan of spicy food and the closest that I got to real American spicy food was either Cajun or Tex-Mex cooking. While I had both types of restaurants close to where I lived, I found myself attracted more to Cajun cooking than Tex-Mex and more to seafood gumbo than other Cajun dishes. There was this deli about 2 blocks from my apartment that served the best seafood gumbo I ever head. The owners were very friendly to me and even walked me through all the different types of Cajun dishes when I first came to their shop. Needless to say that I became fast friends with them to the point that I could ask them to cook up a special extra spicy batch of seafood gumbo on the days that I would go there for dinner. For the 3 years I was in Madison, their seafood gumbo was one of my favorite comfort food. I remember begging them for their gumbo recipe before I left to come back to Malaysia but they laughingly told me that they don’t need the competition if they decide to expand to this side of the world.

Chicago-style deep dish pizza

I have yet to find any place in Malaysia that has this style of pizza. The one that I remember most fondly was the spinach – garlic – cheese deep dish pizza that they used to sell at a small Italian family owned restaurant a few blocks away from where I used to stay in Madison. They made the pizza about the size of a dinner plate and was at least 3 inches deep. A whole pie would usually last me about a day if I don’t go crazy and finish it in one sitting. The thing was that it actually tasted better served cold the day after an overnight in the refrigerator. My favorite college breakfast was a cold slice of deep dish pizza bought the day before with black coffee which also explains the ever increasing waistline while I was there.

I don’t know if I will ever get to sample these foods again short of actually making a trip back to Wisconsin but one can never know. I never thought that I would find B&J’s in KL and now I have so stranger things have happened.

Or I could always try to find the recipes on the Net and try them out when I have a proper kitchen.

DVD Review - The Outsiders - The Complete Novel

(image curtesy of American Zoetrope)

I first watched “The Outsiders” when I was 12 years old and living in an Army camp in Kota Bahru, Kelantan. I don’t remember who’s idea it was but we rented the movie from the local video store one day and I instantly identified with the story at first sitting. I first saw the movie during a time in my life that I was running around in a group of friends not unlike the “Greasers” in the movie. My old gang were the children of the lower ranking officers in the camp and we had our own version of the “Socs” which consisted of the children of the higher ranking officers in the camp. Of course we didn’t really have fights or rumbles between the 2 groups but at 12 years old, the animosity between the groups were felt like it was a matter of life or death. Of all the characters that I saw in that movie, I identify the most with Ponyboy as like him I was the youngest one in our group and the one who was just acting tough because the others expected me to.

Looking back, it was amazing how similar the story was to the experiences that I was going through at the time despite the fact that the original story was set in Tulsa, Oklahoma in the early 60’s. This was one of the strengths of “The Outsiders” as written by S.E. Hinton in which the story was universal enough that the themes applied to most teenage experiences wherever they may be and in any time period they happen to live in. When I figured out the movie that I watched over and over was originally from a book, I went out to see if I can find a copy to read. I remembered looking for the book in my school library and the disappointment of not finding it. Somewhat obsessed with the story, I even asked my English teacher about it and she was the one who told me to try the State Library where I finally found a copy. This was the exact moment when I started to fall in love with S.E. Hinton’s books especially her earlier works that still have a special place in my heart.

For years I often wondered how the movie would be like if they followed closely to the original book. I’ve always been more partial to the story of the Curtis brothers as presented in the book than the Dally story that they focus on more in the movie. The movie in of itself was a wonderful favorite of mine but I always wished that we had more of the family interaction in it especially those between Sodapop and Ponyboy. I always thought that of the 3 brothers, Sodapop was the glue that held them together and this role was conspicuously missing in the movie. I also remembered the thing that bugged me the most all those years was how the opening and closing of the movie was totally different from the book. The movie always felt like an incomplete adaptation of the book and for the longest time it was the only version that we had to watch.

When I heard that they were planning to re-release a recut version of “The Outsiders” on DVD, I was a bit apprehensive about what would be changed in my favorite movie. As more details came out about the 22 minutes of previously unseen footage incorporated into the pervious version start to surface on the Net, I realize that I had to break my own rule about double-dipping and purchase a copy of this DVD even though I already had a copy that I purchased much earlier. Needless to say that I was very excited when I finally got my copy in the mail from Amazon.com. It went straight into my DVD player the first opportunity I got to watch it that evening and immediately I knew that this was a great buy.

To start off, the picture and audio quality is much better in “The Outsiders – The Complete Novel” DVD than it was in the original release DVD. The print was fairly clean and the same visual flaws that was in the original release appeared here suggesting that the problem might have been in the master copy they used. The quality of the visuals were also shared in the new scenes that was added to the original release so visually they look like they had always been part of the movie. The audio sounded much better to me than the original print of the previous version. There is not much use of heavy bass for explosions and such but the ranges that they do use came out crisp and clear. The remastered audio and visuals on this DVD makes it easy to highly recommend it as the version of the film that fans would want to have in their collection although there is a caveat to that recommendation that I will be expanding more on later in this write-up.

In this re-release, Coppola went through his historical archives and reintegrated scenes that he had to cut out from the original release. Much of the cuts were made after receiving feedback from audience previews prior to the films original release. Unfortunately for fans of the book, these cuts were scenes that dealt mostly with the relationships between the Curtis brothers which many felt was the core of what the book was about. To see them reintegrated into the movie was nothing less that a resounding victory for the fans who have long clamored for a more complete version of the adaptation to their favorite story. In this new cut, we have a new opening and ending to the film that follows closer to how the original book opened and closed. We also see more of interaction between Ponyboy, Sodapop and Darry as well as more emotional scenes that were missing from the original cut. I have to say that the most poignant addition for me in this version was the night time scene between Ponyboy and Sodapop in which Soda comforted Pony after being yelled at by the older brother. It was a favorite of mine from the book and I was happy to see that it got included into the recut version.

Coppola also replaced much of the soundtrack in this new version of the movie with songs reflective of the times and the Greaser sub-culture. In his commentary, he stated that he always thought that the original soundtrack was a bit heavy and operatic compared to what he envisioned it to be. While some of the soundtrack changes in this case worked with the new cut, others were woefully out of place if not completely jarring. The song that he had playing in the scene in the park where Ponyboy and Johnny got attacked by the Socs was totally wrong for the intend of the scene and I personally thing that replacing the original soundtrack with the beach-surfer song here is nothing less than criminal. The same could be said in the Curtis brothers reunion scene at the hospital after the fire at the abandoned church which previously was evocative of the emotional content of the scene but now was conspicuously missing. I have to admit that the epic sounding Dally’s theme that used to play in the background in the scenes of his flight from the hospital after Johnny’s demise was sorely missed in this version. Although the soundtrack to the original version of the movie was at times may sound overblown and corny, it was one that resounded well with the fans and fondly remembered all these years. It made this film stand out from the other teen movies that was released around and about the same time “The Outsiders” was released. It was unfortunate that Coppola felt like he had to change that essential mix that made this movie unique.

There are 2 commentary tracks on “The Outsider’s – The Complete Novel” DVD set. The first one was by Coppola himself in which he gives wonderful insights about the characters and the process of making the movie. Halfway through the commentary, he seemed to repeat himself on more than one occasion especially on the subject to the music that he replaced in this new release. I wonder if this was to justify the reasons of doing something that he knew would be a sore point for the fans watching this version of the movie. All in all it was not the best commentary that I’ve heard from him. Fortunately the second commentary by some of the original cast members was much more exciting to listen to. The cast commentary included thoughts from C. Thomas Howell (Ponyboy), Diane Lane (Cherry), Patrick Swayze (Darry) & Ralph Macchio (Johnny) who recorded it in a cast reunion previewing the re-cut version of the film. There were also comments from Rob Lowe (Sodapop) and Matt Dillon (Dallas) which were recorded separately but so seamlessly spliced together that one could image they were all in the same room. Notable absence on the commentary track were Tom Cruise (Steve) and Emilio Estevez (Two-Bit) but I guess it was because they were minor characters in the movie comparatively to the others. Those on the cast commentary track gave wonderful personal anecdotes of making the film and occasionally ribbed each other at how young they were when they made this movie. Their joy at watching this movie again after all this time was apparent in their commentary track and it made watching the movie with them enjoyable.

Disk 2 of this set holds a few notable bonus extras for this new release. At the heart of it was a new making of documentary entitled “Staying Gold: A Look Back at the Outsiders” that tells the story of how the movie came about and the process of making the movie. Fans would learn that Coppola actually filmed the whole movie on video once as part of the rehearsals before shooting the first frames on film which for most filmmakers at the time was simply unheard of. We are also treated to wonderful behind the scenes footage as they were filming that must have long languished in the archives and unseen before now. In another DVD extra, viewer’s get to visit the locations where the film was originally shot in and around Tulsa, Oklahoma with S.E. Hinton who wrote the original book as a teenager. It was wonderful to see how much of the original locations and buildings was still around and looked relatively unchanged to the way they were shown in the movie. The other bonus extra worth highlighting is the “Casting The Outsiders” documentary which documented the unique casting method that Coppola used to cast for this movie. It was interesting to see how many young actors who have now become big stars themselves trying out for the various parts in the movie.

All in all, “The Outsiders – The Complete Novel” DVD set is an easy recommendation to make. Fans of the original movie will find that this new cut with the additional 22 minutes of footage reinserted further expands the story and provides richer details of the relationship between the characters than in the first movie. Fans of the original book would like this version much better than the original as it follows the book much closer this time around. The extra bonus features on Disk 2 adds another layer to the appreciation of the movie which would be a welcome addition to any fan’s collection. If there was a flaw in this release that would have made it truly exceptional then it has to be the unfortunate replacement of the original soundtrack with songs that clearly undercut the what was happening on screen. This flaw was something that would be enough to convince people to hold on to their original copy of the DVD instead of replacing it totally with this set. Flaws aside, this will be the version of this beloved story that the next generation of fans will come to discover and love.

Stay Gold, Ponyboy

Got my copy of “The Outsiders – the Complete Novel” DVD from Amzon.com in the mail yesterday. Immediately pop the DVD in the player to watch the extended version of one of my all time favorite movies to see what Francis Ford Coppola added to this newly recut version. What I saw absolutely floored me ! The movie was good before but this version elevated it to at least an “Excellent” level with the new additions. I can’t say that I’m liking the musical score change that much but I’ve only had a chance to watch it twice last night.

I’m watching it again tonight to listen to Coppola’s director’s commentary track on Disk 1. The cast commentary track that I listened to last night was insightful and fun to listen to. Since I have both version of this movie in my DVD collection, I’m thinking of writing up a compare and contrast review of the two version over the weekend for one of the entries next week.

Watch out for it in this space.

Movie Review - Sky High

(image curtesy of Disney Pictures)

My mother used to tell me that they only way to stop me from crying when I was a baby was to put me in front of the old black and white television and turn it to whatever show they were showing at the time. Growing up, watching TV was a big part of my daily life and I remember watching old shows like “Space: 1999”, “Battlestar Galactica” and the original “Mickey Mouse Club”. The MMC features that they used to show was either one of 2 types. One was the live action animals with voice over show that I absolutely adored as a child and the other type was the normal stories of American teens growing up. One in particular that I remember fondly to this day was “The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes” starring a young Kurt Russell. The nerdy geeky side of me wanted to be like his character and have a whole computer downloaded into my head in a freak accident and end up being a super genius. Watching “Sky High” at the local cinema last weekend brought back the feelings and memories of watching those old MMC features again.

“Sky High” tells the story of Will Stronghold (Michael Angarano) who is the son of the greatest superheroes in the world, The Commander (Kurt Russell) and Jetstream (Kelly Preston), as he starts his first day at the titular high school. This elite high school, set high up in the clouds and reachable by a flying school bus, is the training ground for the offspring of the many super powered individuals that populate the world of “Sky High”. An amalgamation of Hogwarts and Xavier’s Institute for the Gifted, “Sky High” operates on a class system where the student body is divided into either the “Heroes”, those with flashy super powers, or the “Hero Support” aka sidekicks for those who have less than stellar talents. Being the rare product of two super powered parents, Will was expected to easily get into the “Heroes” track.

Instead of the Sorting Hat, the students at “Sky High” had the sonic boom powered Coach Boomer (Bruce Campbell) to determine which track they will go to. It was during the trials that they found out that Will Stronghold, long thought as the next big thing in their superhero world, had not actually developed any superpowers during the past summer and was regulated to the “Sidekick” track faster than a speeding bullet. He was joined in “Hero Support” track by an assorted group of archetypal misfits easily found in your typical John Hughes teen movie including the flora controlling Layla (Danielle Panabaker) who was Will’s best friend since grade school and harbored a secret crush on him.

Life in the “Sidekick” track was difficult for Will and his group of friends. Not only does he had to deal with the taunts of the “Heroes” at school, he also had to tell his father about his lack of superpowers. In a scene not unlike Iceman’s “coming out” scene in X2, Will finally tells his father who was quite disappointed by the lack of development to the point that he briefly considered dumping his son into a vat of radioactive waste to jumpstart his powers in a funny scene with Will’s mother a little later. Things would later change when Will’s super strength finally manifested in a cafeteria battle against the pyrokinetic Warren Peace (Steven Strait) who held a grudge against him as Will’s father was responsible for his father, a super villain, being incarcerated and away from the family. Things immediately changed for Will after the cafeteria incident as he gets bumped up to the “Hero” track and becomes the object of desire of the school’s IT girl, Gwen (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) who happens to be the school resident techopath.

What follows could be classified as formulaic of teen dramas where the main character suddenly finds fame and began to believe the hype around himself to the point of alienating his true friends. The only difference is that in “Sky High” some of the teens have super powers to make life just a little more complicated than your average teenager. Added to the mix was a super villain working in the background seeking revenge at Will’s parents for defeating him in their last encounter. To say more about what happens next would spoil the ending but suffice to say that in the end Will and his “Sidekick” friends come back to save the day in a feel good ending that ties up all storylines.

I have to say that I thought that it was a bit of casting genius to cast Michael Angarano as Will Stronghold. Not only does he bears a striking resemblance to a young Kurt Russell but he imbues that character with awkwardness and confidence that the character needed. In a movie where the teens command most of the screen time, these young actors led the movie with much more presence than most teen actors much more well known. As for the older actors, Kurt Russell and Kelly Preston’s portrayal of Will’s parents was just on the right level of being over the top to be enjoyable to watch. Honorable mention also should be given to Dave Foley whose portrayal of Mr. Boy, The Commander’s old sidekick and the current teacher for the “Hero Support” track, wonderfully reminds the audience why he continue to be one of the funnier comedians in the business.

One particular flaw of this movie was the seemingly low production value of the CGI special effects compared to the recent movies. However, it actually fits into the simplistic atmosphere that this film has going for it. Instead of dazzling the audience with slick special effects shots, they decided to keep it simple which fortunately for them worked in this case.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the Lynda Carter (TV’s “Wonder Woman”) cameo as “Principle Powers” in this movie. Her line saying “I'm not Wonder Woman, you know” was one of the comic fanboy’s moment in the movie. The exciting feeling I got when hearing her say that was not unlike the one I felt when I first heard Johnny Storm shout “Flame On!” in the “Fantastic Four” movie. I wished that they would have her twirl like she did on her old TV show when she transforms into a comet in “Sky High” but I guess that would be too obvious. The film was a good enough afternoon distraction and easy to recommend as it is.

Movie Review - The Skeleton Key

(image curtesy of Universal Studios)

One could say that East Asian horror genre has now gain sufficient prominence that not only is Hollywood remaking more than it’s share of films of this nature but new horror films coming out of Tinsletown now seem to have embraced the same sensibilities. Films like “The Sixth Sense”, “The Others” and “Stirs of Echoes” all share more than a few points of reference with their East Asian brethren than the blood and gore fest that have long been associated with Hollywood horror movies. In the latest addition to the list of “thinking” horror/thriller movies, “Skeleton Key” continues the Hollywood experiment of the assimilation of East Asian horror structures into popular film making.

In “Skeleton Key”, Kate Hudson plays the role of Caroline Ellis, a New Jersey transplant to New Orleans, who worked in a hospice facility in order to get enough credit for her towards her nursing degree. We also find out later that she takes on this responsibility as penance for her guilt of letting her own father die alone a year prior. Sicken by the way the facilities threats their patients, Caroline decided to answer a classified ad looking for a live-in caregiver where she hopes that she would be able to help in her own terms. Little does she know that her decision to take the job offer would set off a chain of events that would quickly run out of her control.

As part of her new assignment, Caroline was expected to take care of Ben Devereaux, played by John Hurt, in a huge decrepit plantation mansion surrounded by the dark and foreboding Louisiana swamps. Ben had suffered a debilitating stroke that left him paralyzed and was under the care of his wife Violet Devereaux, played by Gena Rowlands, before circumstances forced her to seek outside help to care for her husband. From the very first moment they met, Violet resented Caroline’s presence and their antagonistic relationship made for most of the conflict throughout this movie. Being that she was far out of the way in this gothic manor, Caroline’s single link to the outside world was the Devereaux’s lawyer Luke, played by Peter Sarsgaard, who would later be her confidant as things became increasingly strange around the house.

From the very beginning, things seemed to be a little off for Caroline in the Devereaux’s residence. The exact cause of Ben’s stroke was left very vague as Violet explained to her except for the fact that it happened while Ben was in the attic where a locked room that she forbade Caroline to enter. The whole house was stripped of all reflective surfaces and mirrors for no apparent reason. Caroline was given the titular skeleton key that could unlock all doors in the house except, apparently, the door in the attic when Ben had his stroke. The mixture of curiosity and possibly boredom led Caroline to explore the attic and discover that her key does open the door in the attic where she found a secret room filled with items associated with the Hoodoo belief practiced by the former black house servants of the previous occupants.

Although initially the skeptic, Caroline began to find evidence that Violet knew more about “Hoodoo”, a mixture of voodoo, Christianity and Native American practices, than she lets on. Along the way she begins to question the story of how Ben had his stroke and became convinced that a darker hand was manipulating the events that happened in the house. The character arc for Caroline from being a skeptic to becoming a believer in Hoodoo anchors the remaining story as it hurtles along to an exciting climax that would definitely blindside most audience who could be looking for something more conventional. The surprising twist at the end of the movie more than made up for the slower moments in the first half and would leave the audience with a memorable dénouement to leave the cinema with.

At it’s core, “Skeleton Key” is more of a thriller than it is a horror movie. The focus is more on how Caroline piece together the puzzle of what actually happened in the house rather than the ghosts that may or may not be haunting the attic. Nevertheless there were more than a few atmospheric scenes that would surely slowly creep under the audience’s skin to provide the chills running down the spine of those watching this movie in the darken theater. There were points in the movie that could be singled out as really pushing the limits of believability as well as predictability but thankfully they were far in between. The original twist at the end sells the whole movie and the discerning audience would find themselves retracing Caroline’s investigations to see if there were portends and foreshadowing of the unraveling of the mysteries in the climax.

Casting-wise, it was refreshing to see a different side of the effervescent Kate Hudson acting against type in this movie. This role was something that she has not had a chance to do much before and it was handled capably. Gena Rowlands and John Hurt deliver solid but unremarkable performances. Hurt, especially, was reduce to acting with mostly just his eyes and brows making panicky expressions as his character’s stroke had rendered him speechless. For most of the movie, Peter Sarsgaard’s character doesn’t have a lot of things to do but rest assure that would change in the last 15 minutes of the show.

If there was anything criminal about this movie then it would be the dismal attempt to really engage the wonderful background of Louisiana swamp and New Orleans more into the movie. Instead of being a whole other character that would contribute greatly to the atmosphere of the movie, the wonderful landscape was wasted as just mere colorful backdrops to the action on screen. Had the director made better use of the already dark and creepy environment, the movie would be able to deliver more spine tingling chills than what it meagerly doled out in a watered down homage to the East Asian horror genre.

The Day After

So ... Daniel won Malaysian Idol 2.

Nita lost.

I’m buying Nita’s album when it comes out instead.

Msg to Nita : Look at Clay Aiken’s success post AI 2. It’s possible when you’re using the opportunity the show has given you smartly.

Msg to Daniel : You do not exist.

Malaysian Idol 02-31, Airdate: 23/09/2005 – Grand Finale : And Then There Were 2

(Image courtesy of malaysianidol.bluehyppo.com)

I tuned into the 8TV telecast of the Malaysian Idol finale to catch a bit of the “Red Carpet Show” before they started the show proper. Somehow it felt more draggy than it was last year. I guess that people were more jaded about the second finale compared to the first one last year. I wished that they could have coordinated with the people organizing the celebrity arrivals better so that the could have interviewed more interesting people that the ones Adam & Marion did. They both did a better red carpet show last year.

I missed most of Daniel’s backstage interview since I joined the show in progress 5 minutes after it started. I did however managed to catch Nita’s interview and it was mostly about how nervous she was and really exited to be there. Jee, who had her hair in cornrows giving a flashback of Faizull in the same hairdo some weeks ago, had high hopes for the night and hoped that both contestants make it a night to remember. In his backstage interview, Paul pointed out that in order for Nita to win the title she really need to sing extremely well to overcome Daniel’s crowd support. As to the importance of the order of the contestant, Paul firmly believes that being the second person to sing would have the upper hand in this competition as that person would be the one who would have the opportunity to leave the night on a memorable note performing the last song if they played their cards right.

The show started with all the contestants on this year’s show coming on stage to sing “Pop Yeh Yeh” by VE. I notice that the stage looked bigger tonight than it was last year but somehow also looked a lot more emptier as well. I guess that the contestant really need to work their stage presence to fill up all that empty space. It was nice to hear the group back coming back to performed as a group as they have always sounded well as a group. A few notable mentions here – it was nice to hear Trish and Atilia again when the girls launched into “Shut Up” by Simple Plan. I kind of missed them in this competition. Xerra ditched the bubblegum pink hair and went for a smurf blue one instead (I think. It could be Kermit green. I couldn’t tell with the dark stage). She looked better with the old hair color. Last but not least, Ash had his shades on indoors like the tool that he continues to be.

When we came back after the commercial break, the judges were asked about their thoughts on the season. Roslan, who didn’t get a backstage interview before the show like the other judges did, felt that the season was more interesting as they had contestants of the same level of caliber performance wise and that those who went on in the show this year was more mentally prepared for it. Jee agreed and said that it was a really unpredictable season this year. Paul went further to say that some of the better contestants were cut out earlier than expected in the show and now it was wide open as to who might win it this season.

Daniel – “Mimpi”

For the moment that I heard the opening strains of the winner’s single, I knew that Daniel would be in trouble. The song was not in the style that would work best for his limited vocal range and it was painfully clear that this was the case. He stuck with the narrow band that his voice was capable of and never moved from that point. There was virtually no projection in his voice and at times he sounded overwhelmed by the loud live band. Good thing was that he wasn’t mumbling his words too much tonight but I was wondering how much longer I would have to endure his butchering of this song. It was not only a pitchy and boring delivery of the song but it was not a something that the fans would want to see at this stage of the game. Utterly terrible performance that might be the one to haunt him tomorrow.

Nick’s verdict : 5/10

Nita – “Berhenti Mengharap” by Sheila on 7 (Judges’ choice)

I initially thought in my pre finale analysis that she would be doing “Hati Ini Telah Dilukai” by Kris Dayanti for her Malay song tonight. After reviewing her performances in the Malaysian Idol Diary show last Thursday, I came to conclusion that this song would be a better one for her to do instead. And what a performance it was. She was belting out the chorus as good or better than the time she first performed it and her emotions just showed up in her delivery. It was a wonderful performance on a song that was perfect for her. Truth be said that I nearly had a tear in my eye when she sang this song especially considering how much the lyrics could be true to how she felt being on the weeks that she was in the bottom 3. I wasn’t expecting that the judges would pick this instead of “Big Spender” as I predicted but this was still a good choice on their part. It was an opening performance that she needed to build up her confidence for the next 2 performances.

Nick’s verdict : 8/10

Daniel – “Heaven Knows” by Rick Price (Contestant’s choice)

I was right on the button on my prediction of this song for his choice. It was a simple song that had a simple melody for Daniel to deliver confidently. It fitted well with his style of intimate venues and/or lounge singing that he does well. It was miles better than his first performance and he really needed this performance to make people forget his disasterous mangling of the winner’s single. It was a polished delivery and his voice had better projection for this song. It was clear that this was the one song that he was really comfortable with as he has performed it on the show several times.

Nick’s verdict : 7/10

Nita – “Big Spender” by Shirley Bessey (Contestant’s choice)

This has to be the song that everyone was expecting Nita to do again after the reception that she got when she performed it the first time. I predicted it to be the judges choice but it seemed that I got my song predictions for Nita in reverse. Still it was wonderful to see the sass and attitude that she brings in this song. She made use of the full stage like a seasoned pro with her larger than life stage presence. If there was a time that Nita really broke out all the stops, this performance would surely be it. It was a clear fan favorite that was presented wonderfully.

Nick’s verdict : 8/10

Daniel – “Angin Malam” by Broery Marantika (Judges’ choice)

Daniel closed his performance tonight with the song that I predicted would be the judge’s choice for him. Out of all the songs that he has performed thorough out the show this was the one that was even remotely appealing to me to listen to. It had a simple melody and flow that fitted well with his style of singing which made it a serviceable delivery for tonight. It was also the only song in the competition this year that the contestant adapted the original to suit their personal style. Since it worked so well for him the first time around, Daniel decided to play it safe and performed it as he did the last time instead of putting more embellishments to the arrangement.

Nick’s verdict : 8/10

Nita – “Mimpi”

Nita’s vocal range and projection gave her a big upper hand over Daniel in her version of the winner’s single. This was how the song should be performed. The were some pitch problems and she sounded like she was fast running out of steam after the previous two performance but she hit her stride somewhere around the middle of the song and it really took off. Her energy and raw emotions were apparently clear to all watching her perform this song. She give it her all and for once didn’t hold anything behind. This performance was the cherry to top all the other perfectly delivered and wonderful performances she did tonight. I predicted that in order for Nita to snatch a win from Daniel tonight, she needed to have all three of her song close to perfect in it’s delivery and I have to say that she managed to do just that. The only thing that I had a problem with this last song of the night was how unremarkable this last performance relative to Jac’s bring the house down performance of the winner’s single last year.

Nick’s verdict : 7/10

On the subject of the winner’s single, I have to truthfully say that I was a bit disappointed with it. While it was a serviceable Indonesian Pop style song that should be well received by the CD buying public, it was pale in comparison to the soaring beauty that was “Gemilang” from last year’s show. “Mimpi” didn’t really have the same intensity and wow factor that “Gemilang” had and personally I missed that in the winner’s single. I guess that they had to be fair and not written a song that favors one contestant more than the other but it was just another of the things that highlightened how different this year’s season was compared to last season.

After the commercial break, the Top 2 closed the show tonight with their rendition of “Kau Di Hati Ku” by Zainal Abidin which was the local version of “You’ll Be In My Heart” by Phil Collins that they also sang. Truth be said that I didn’t really like this song. It was messy and sounded uneven after the wonderful performances we’ve heard tonight. It was a good thing that this song was not part of the competition.

After tonight’s show and performances, it was clear that the winner of Malaysian Idol Season 2 should be Nita. She came into the finale as the underdog as she does not have the hordes of fans that Daniel had to vote for him. She needed to give 3 perfect performance to really show that she was better vocally than Daniel and at the end of the show, it can’t be denied that she did just that. Hopefully it was enough to convince those who are not keen to vote for Daniel to vote for her instead.

Tonight’s show will also be the last one on Malaysian Idol that I would be recapping until the next season. I have to attend a old boy’s reunion dinner on Saturday night so unless someone could burn the show into a CD or DVD, I would have to miss the result shows tomorrow to see who would win the title for this season. It has been fun to be recapping this show these past months because partly it was something that I’ve never did before. I would like to thank those who have been following my Malaysian Idol entries and special mention to Sultanmuzaffar for linking my blog to his and sending his readers to my blog.

Till the next season of Malaysian Idol, I’m signing off the weekly recaps of MI. It’s been fun.

Nick’s prediction :

Malaysian Idol Season 2 Winner : Nita

Malaysian Idol 02 – Extra : Pre Finale Analysis

(Image courtesy of malaysianidol.bluehyppo.com)

After about 4 months of competition, the finale of Malaysian Idol Season 2 is now finally just a few days away. While it is not really the finale that I really wanted, I’m still excited and looking forward to watch it at least for one of the remaining contestants. Frequent readers of my MI recaps would definitely know who I am referring to so I just wanted to lay it out there so that I can try to be as objective as possible for this analysis.

Assuming that the finale format will follow the finale show last season, both contestants will have 3 songs to perform on Friday’s finale are the Arena of Stars, Genting Highlands. The 3 songs would be picked from the list songs that the finalist have sung before in the previous rounds of competition. One will be picked by the judges as their choice of the best song performed so far by each contestant. Another will be picked by the contestants themselves as their best song for the competition. The final song for each contestant would be a new original song selected as the winner’s first single that has been written specifically for the finale.

One other assumption that I’m making in this analysis is that there would be an English and Bahasa Malaysia song each for each contestants excluding the winner’s single which I’m fairly certain will be in Bahasa Malaysia. As such, I will try to pick the probably songs with that supposition in mind.

Daniel

Song list :

"Special Kind Of Something" by Kavana (5/10)
"True" by Ryan Cabera (5/10)
"Over The Rainbow" by Judy Garland (7/10)
"Obsession" by Frankie J (5/10)
"Kini Bebas" by Camellia & Anuar Zain (7/10)
"In The Shadows" by Rasmus (6/10)
"Save The Last Dance" by Drifters (5/10)
"Angin Malam" by Broery Marantika (7/10)
"Heaven Knows" by Rick Price (7/10)
"Mungkin Nanti" by Peter Pan (6/10)
"Ooh! La! La!" by KRU (5/10)
"Can You Feel The Love Tonight" by Elton John (5/10)

Looking at Daniel’s list, it is fairly apparent that he favors one style of song more than others. Given his restricted vocal range, the song that he would need to pick would need to be simple melodically and fairly straight forward in terms of delivery demands. I don’t think that he will be risking the big glory notes as he simply does not have the solid vocal backing to power and build towards them properly.

For the judges pick, I would expect that the judges would pick “Angin Malam” by Broery Marantika for him. Out of the songs that he performed in the competition, this was the one song that was uniquely adapted from the original to suit his vocal style. We saw a little spark of brilliance in the arrangement of this song when it was last performed in the 6th Spectaculars show. The judges were very receptive of this song and I would venture to say that this is surely their favorite of all of Daniel’s performances.

As for the contestant’s choice, I would assume that Daniel would have to pick an English for the competition. While he may run into problems with his diction singing an English song, I would say that his best bet would be to pick “Heaven Knows” by Rick Price. His performance of this song in Spectacular show #7 was definitely one of his better English song performances. He was confident and comfortable singing it and it came through in his performance of that song then. It was also the type of songs that his fan would able to rally behind of regardless how it sounded.

One of the problems that Daniel might find himself in for the finale is how to differentiate these 2 performances. All of the songs that he has performed in this competition basically sounds very similar to each other and he might not have sufficient variety on his song list to make them interesting. Sadly this might not have that much impact to his fanatic hordes of voters how would vote for him even if he was standing on stage doing a spoken word rendition of “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds”.

Nick’s song picks predictions :

Judges pick : “Angin Malam” by Broery Marantika
Contestant’s pick : “Heaven Knows” by Rick Price


Nita

Song list :

"Get Here" by Oleta Adams (8/10)
"Left Outside Alone" by Anastascia (7/10)
"Tenda Biru" by Dessy Ratnasari (6/10)
"Snow On The Sahara" by Anggun (6/10)
"Hati Ini Telah Dilukai" by Kris Dayanti (7/10)
"Bring Me To Life" by Evanescence (5/10)
"Engkau Laksana Bulan" by P Ramlee (6/10)
"Big Spender" by Shirley Bessey (8/10)
"Berhenti Mengharap" by Sheila on 7 (8/10)
"Hand In My Pocket" by Alanis Morissette (7/10)
"Love Is A Crime" by Anastascia (8/10)
"Asmaradana" by Tiara Jacquelina (7/10)

Nita has a wider and more interesting selection to choose from for the two songs thanks to her versatile vocal range. She could easily select to polish 2 of the songs that she already performed and make them individually memorable when she performs them. Unlike Daniel, she needs to select song that would allow her vocals to soar in the higher registers where her vocal strengths are. She must at all cost avoid safe songs that she doesn’t need to challenge herself to sing.

For Nita, I see the judges pick "Big Spender" by Shirley Bessey from Spectacular 6 as the song they choose for her. Out of all her performances, this must be the most memorable one and the one that she looked the most confident delivering. It was a clear fan favorite when it was first performed and it would really let Nita strut her stuff on stage to the fullest. A cabaret style performance of this song would be fun to listen to and would sure be something that her fans would love to see her perform again.

For her second pick, I would say that she should pick "Berhenti Mengharap" by Sheila on 7 that she performed in the 7th Spectacular. This song would be different enough from the other song that we would be able to see her vocal abilities and performance versatility. What was more, this song has the soaring chorus and power notes that favors Nita well. If she manages to stay focus and really give her all to this performance, it might return a big pay-off in the end.

Nita needs to have all 3 of her performances as perfect as she can to really show how much better vocally she is in the finale. She has to watch out for the pitching problems that has been plaguing her through out the competition. If she manage to keep her focus and commit fully to the song that she will be singing, she could no doubt sing rings around Daniel given her superior vocal range. She would need to cross all T’s and dot all I’s in her performances to get the sway and anti-Daniel voters to send votes her way after the finale.

Nick’s song picks predictions :

Judges pick : "Big Spender" by Shirley Bessey
Contestant’s pick : "Berhenti Mengharap" by Sheila on 7

Winner’s Single

The title of this year’s winner’s single is “Mimpi” (Dream) written by Pot Amir of the local R&B group, Innuendo. For the moment, I do not have any clear indication of how this song will sound like but I do hope that it would sound as grand as the winner’s single from last year’s finale, “Gemilang” sounded. I’m really looking forward to hear it this Friday.

Nita might have an upper hand in the performance of the winner’s single as her vocal range could potentially help her if the song falls into the type that would require soaring vocals and power notes. Daniel on the other hand would have to really hope that the song fits into his narrower vocal stylings.

Both contestants coming into the finale have their own strengths. Nita comes in with powerful vocals and versatility while Daniel comes in with his horde of fanatical power voters and the cutesy factor that kept them voting for him. In the end there will only be one person with the bragging rights as the second Malaysian Idol. I hope that the person chosen on Saturday as the Malaysian Idol would be the one most deserving after his/her performances in the finale on Friday.

(updated 22/9 after the MI Diary show when I realised the better Bahasa Malaysia song choice for Nita)

Another Milestone To Celebrate

I’m actually having a little celebration at home tonight to celebrate my second year anniversary of me quitting smoking. Yay me !!!! I’m actually not doing that much to celebrate the occasion other than curling up on the sofa with a half a tub of my favorite ice cream watching a marathon session of “Will & Grace” on DVD. Seriously folks ... I rather do this rather than going out to splurge and celebrate.

Two years is now officially the longest that I have not been smoking. The last time that I tried to quit only lasted 6 months before I had my relapse so this milestone is a really big thing for me. It wasn’t easy for me to stop since I was already been smoking for close to 12 years and averaging about 2 packs of 20’s per day when I decided to quit. Somehow I found the strength and will power to make this attempt stick this time.

People who knew me from back in my smoke stack years and now realized that I’ve stopped smoking would always ask me what made me want to quit. Aside from the health related problems from the smoking and the constant shortness of breath thing that was happening to me, I promised myself that if the price of a pack of my favorite cigarette brand went over RM 5 then that was a signal for me to stop. I chose the limit of RM 5 back then because it was the amount that I would pay for a filling dinner at my favorite warung. If I had to choose between cigarettes and a actual food, a full stomach would win every time.

I believe that it was around that time when the government raised the sin tax on tobacco products which led to the price increase of cigarettes back in 2003. The price for a pack of 20’s went over RM 5 and it was time for me to make good on the promise that I made to myself. I also had the added encouragement to quit around the same time they increased the price because they stopped making my favorite brand of cigarettes. So instead of paying more for a brand of cigarettes that I’m not used to, I chose to stop smoking all together as I promised myself.

Quitting smoking cold turkey was hard and there were times that I was convinced that I would never make it. I was bound and determined to go through it alone without any support or medical assistance partly because I wanted to find out how determined I really was to quit the habit. It had been a while since I really challenged myself to something and the experience of quitting smoking has taught me that I still have a few strengths within me that I never knew I had. Celebrating this achievement tonight reinforces my belief in myself that I really could do anything if I put my mind and determination to do it.

I won’t kid myself and say that there hasn’t been any changes that I not so thrilled about since I stopped smoking. Most notably is the weight that I’ve gained after quitting, a total of 15kgs, that I have yet to shed. Most probably I’ll have to make it my next milestone to start working out again and lose the weight. I’ve also missed the sense of camaraderie that was there when fellow smokers congregate to have their nicotine fix. There was a time in my life that I really believe that I could never trust anyone who didn’t smoke and that the easiest way to get to know a person was to offer them a cigarette. Nowadays, while I can still chat with them while they are smoking, it doesn’t really feel the same when I don’t join them. Still, my lungs and my wallet thank me for deciding to quit smoking.

To those who might be thinking of trying to stop smoking, my advice would be to first figure out why you want to stop and set a tangible goal to achieve or avoid depending on the actual goal. Tangible goals are important because without which no progress could be measured to see how far we’ve gone through the process. Set up small milestones along the way and don’t forget to reward yourself responsibly when those milestones are met. Be mindful that for some having outside support is essential for their success while others might feel that going at it alone is a more exciting challenge. Figure out which one fits best for you and act accordingly. Don’t get too discouraged if things seem to move at a miniscule pace or sometimes not at because what is more important is to continue the forward momentum towards the goal you set. This above advise doesn’t only apply to quitting smoking but also to life in general. Sometimes I have to remind myself about them and by writing them down today, I’m again reminded and hopefully it will also help someone out there.

Today I have one more milestone to add to things that I have accomplished in my less than ordinary life. I’m now been nicotine-free for 2 years, stone-cold sober for 6 years, mind altering substance-free for 9 years and celibate for 12 years.

Hmm ... maybe that last one is not so good.

Malaysian Idol 02-31, Airdate: 18/09/2005 – Spectaculars #8 Result Show : The Unkindest Cut

(Image courtesy of malaysianidol.bluehyppo.com)

Nick’s prediction :

Out this week : Daniel

For a change tonight, the remaining three contestants did not have to go through the awkward opening dance introductions. Instead, the Idols were lined up on centerstage as they were introduced not unlike the more dignified pre-credit opening on AI. It made for a more snappy opening than the pointy poses that I’m grateful to miss out this week.

When asked about the performances in the last Spectacular show, Roslan commented that he was disappointed with Daniel’s performance whom he felt have been on a downward slide vocally in the past weeks. Both Farah & Nita had their own problems but he felt that Nita had the best performance out of the three last Friday. Jee was proud of all three contestants and asked them to learn from all the comments and mistakes made on Friday. She also asked that whoever will be going to the finale make it a show to remember. Paul commented on the inconsistency of quality and performance in all of the remaining contestants.

I was worried that the producers would pull a ranking preview before the first commercial break like they did in the last result show. That move obviously alienated more than the lion’s share of the show’s fan and thankfully they didn’t repeat it on tonight’s result show. They did mentioned that the votes apparently were too close to call at that point.

Judges prediction for the finals:

Roslan – Farah & Nita finale.
Jee – Farah & Nita finale.
Paul – Daniel & Nita finale.

When we came back from the first commercial break, the judges comments from last Friday’s show was read out one by one for the contestants. It was then announced that Daniel would be the first contestants who will be moving on into the final round next week. To say that I was disappointed at this result was an understatement especially after the dismal performances the past 2 weeks. His continuing presence on the show was a testament to the power of fans who fanatically voted for him week after week irregardless of the quality of his performance.

The remaining ladies had to wait until after the next commercial break before they found out who would be competing against Daniel at the finals in the Arena of Stars in Genting Highlands next Friday. When we came back it was a relieved Nita who will be going to the finals and the fan favorite Farah who will be leaving the show tonight. She was thankful for the opportunity and the support of the fans who have been with her on this life affirming journey. At this point there were more than a few of her fans in the crowd who were openly sobbing and looked distraught by the result. It was with more than a little irony that the Farah’s exit song was “All By Myself” which was undoubtedly her best performance on the show last Friday.

Was I happy with the result? Definitely not. I was looking forward to an all female showdown in the finale and not have to listen to Daniel again after tonight’s show. I have never been a fan of his and despite some bright performances through out the show, it was only relatively better by comparison instead of actual quality. He does not have the vocal range to make his performances remotely interesting to listen to and has actually ended up worse performance wise then when he first started on the show. He has never been in the bottom 3 for any of the Spectacular shows as his fans have been consistent voting juggernauts overcoming all the other voters. Although that it was the nature of the show, the cult of personality surrounding Daniel was scary to watch developed as the show progressed.

Nita has always been one of my favorite contestants on the show but she has been shaky at times. She doesn’t seem to have the extra stuff that Jac had in last season’s show to really make her performances outright outstanding week after week. Fortunate for her, when she did do well, her performances would leave really lasting impressions long after the show. She does still problems pitch-wise that she really need to watch out for if she intends to claim the title of the next Malaysian Idol. She would also really need to make sure that she stayed focus in her finale performances and be more consistent with them.

I guess it was definitely clear to all who I’ll be rooting for next week.

Out this week: Farah
Nick’s prediction success to date : 10/20

Malaysian Idol 02 – Extra : My Afternoon With The Idols

(Image courtesy of malaysianidol.bluehyppo.com)

I’ve never once had the chance to watch the contestants on Malaysian Idol performing live even after almost 2 seasons of the show. I’ve never been to the live tapings, result shows or any of the public appearances until today when they came to Sunway Pyramid. Since it was just a stone’s throw away from where I lived, I decided to just go to see just how different they are outside of the competition. As far as people from the show go, I’ve only met personally with Jien once when he was doing the 8TV Quickie at Starbucks Sunway way back when and walked up to say hello to Paul Moss once when he was having coffee at Coffee Bean also at Sunway. I’ve never met any of the contestants from the 2 seasons of the show so the prospect to be able to meet the Top 3 for this year was something I was looking forward to.

I reached Sunway Pyramid at about 15 minutes before the Idols were suppose to make their appearance. They had set up a small stage at the entrance to the mall and people were already milling around waiting for 3pm. It was a mixed crowd of fans, shoppers and curious onlookers. From where I was standing, I would say that there were about 300 people there. Some brought signs with pictures of their favorite Idols and some were even familiar as I’ve seen them before in the live audience on the show every week. In particular I recognized a fairly frequent poster from the official Malaysian Idol forums who was canvassing the crowd by passing mini flyers to gather support to vote for Farah for the finale. Regardless of what people thought of him, this was one dedicated fan.

Before the Idols came on stage, the organizers warmed up the crowd by giving away free passes to the finale to people who they pulled on stage to answer questions about the show. I was tempted to try out and the questions were fairly simple but since I already made other plans for that weekend, those passes would just go to waste if I got them so I decide against it. Good thing as well as the next group of people they pulled on stage had to sing and be judged by the crowd to win the free passes. I definitely would be too embarrassed to do that since my vocal stylings has always been confined in my bathroom when I take my shower and to the occasional karaoke session where I torture my friends with my singing.

After a few minutes of the warm-up show, they finally call up the Idols to stage. At that point I wasn’t really sure what to expect since I’ve never been to one of these public appearances before. It turned out that for today’s appearance the Idols would come out on stage, sing the songs that they did on the show yesterday and stay to sign autographs for the fans. They were also following the order that they appeared on the show yesterday so I got a chance to compare their live performances with the ones that I saw on TV last night.

First up was Daniel singing “Oh! La! La!” who managed to make his performance even worse than it was last night. The good thing was that he used the corrected lyrics this time so it wasn’t as hilarious as it was last night. The bad thing was there were really some jarring bum notes when he tried to punch up the song more than what he did yesterday. It sounded as if it was just an afterthought that was put in at the last minute without proper preparation. It was also scary to see his horde of fans who were there fawning over this guy.

Nita came up next and from the first moment it seemed that she was totally in her element. She was interacting with the crowd like an old pro at the game and got the crowd going as she launched into her performance of “Love Is A Crime”. The performance itself as good as it was yesterday and it was clear that the crowd was loving it. I could hardly stop myself from tapping my feet to the tune as her performance was so enjoyable to listen and watch. She had her own group of fans on the right side of the stage who were busy taking her pictures as she performed. This was the performance of the night on the last Spectacular show and to be able to experience it first hand was worth the effort to come to the appearance.

“Wajah Rahsia Hati” was Farah’s first offering. She seemed more confident with the song compared to how she was on last night’s show. She was all types of saucy and teasing the crowd who really responded well to her performance. She was also good with the crowd although it was not on the same level as Nita. It was good to see that she did fall into her habit of prancing around the stage and it made the performance much better than the one she did yesterday.

Daniel came back on stage next with “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” and again it was worse that it was last night. There was a point in his performance when his voice croaked at a high note and that left me physically cringing when I heard it. He was pushing it after seeing how much better the two performances preceding him and overextended his ability. Fortunate for him, he recovered from it but I will forever be reminded to that awful note whenever I see him on TV from this day on. His fans still loved it and from all appearances they seemed to ignore that failing and focused instead on how cute he looked on stage.

For “Asmaradana”, Nita called one of her fans up to dance with her as she sang after the judges comments that she wasn’t really making full use of the song to showcase her showmanship. While any occasion involving a random person picked from the crowd to dance on stage was always been a cringe-worthy idea for me, they were picking up cues from each other as to how to synchronize their movements to the song. The unrehearsed choreography aside, it was a solid performance on par with yesterday’s showing. One thing that really set Nita apart from the other two contestants was how she interacted with the live audience which must have come from her experience as a pub singer.

Last up was the wonderful rendition of “All By Myself” by Farah. This was an opportunity for me to determine if her wonderful performance of this song yesterday was not a fluke. True to form, she knocked this song out of the ball park and even duplicated the focus to sustain the high note that anchored her performance. It was clear that the performance came from inside her and not something that came out of sheer luck. It was as memorable as it was yesterday and the second reason why waiting for them to show up for the public appearance in Sunway Pyramid was time well spent.

They had a meet and greet session after the performances and the fans were queuing up for at least about 5 meters from the stage where they were. They were giving out posters of the show for the Idols to sign and the fans in line got one as they went up to meet the Idols. The first few people in line got to take a picture with their Idols as well as their autographs but the organizers quickly put a stop to that since it was taking too much time. I was standing there debating if I wanted to get in line because of the long line and that I wasn’t sure that I was that keen to get their autograph but considering that this was the closest that I would get to be able to meet with them I finally walked to the end of the queue. Just a few minutes after I decided to join the queue, the organizers decided to cut the line off just a scant six people ahead of me. Good thing that I was not in line longer or else I would really get upset.

So instead of meeting the Idols and getting their autograph, I asked one of the crew on stage to pass one of my business cards to Nita who was really the Idol that I wanted to meet this afternoon. I think she got it as she stood up shortly after looking for me in the crowd to acknowledge it and I managed to give her a thumbs up for the good work she’s done to date. I didn’t give her my card to ask her to call me as I’m well aware that it would never happen in a million years but I just wanted her to have a name to put on the face of a person who have been a fan of hers in this competition. Having said that, I am not above turning into a giggly school girl if she does actually contact me.

Hey ... a boy can dream, can’t he?

Malaysian Idol 02-30, Airdate: 16/09/2005 – Spectaculars #8 : And Then There Were 3

(Image courtesy of malaysianidol.bluehyppo.com)

With 3 remaining contestants on the show, the show opened with a mix of the theme from James Bond in line with tonight’s theme of “Songs From The Movies”. From what I saw from the opening number, it seemed to me that the producers decided to avoid the weekly dose of ugly dancing and go straight to the stupid pointy poses. All three contestants looked more like they were working the runway on a bad episode of “America’s Next Top Model” minus the sassy Ms. Jay than working the stage on “Malaysian Idol”. What’s worse was that with just the pointy poses, the 3 contestants looked like they were pulling “Charlie’s Angel” poses rather than James Bond’s and the Bondbettes despite the soundtrack that was playing in the background. The whole opening affair in itself was unimaginative and pathetic.

After the disastrous opening number, I was distracted by Jien’s impression of Mr. Crotchety McCrotch with his tight jeans and Cheryl’s extra long necklace. Dude ... it was tight enough to show the world your religion and honey ... the chain on your neck wasn’t meant to be worn that long. I wonder is the wardrobe people thought that if Jien didn’t poke someone’s eyes out then Cheryl could easily strangle someone with her killer necklace. Regardless of my comments, I wasn’t really complaining about how the hosts looked tonight (especially Jien) but I missed when they really dressed up to their nines last season when they had this theme in the competition.

The filler segment for tonight’s show was their flying lessons with a local aviation club. Obviously they had to open the segment with the theme from “Top Gun” because it was the most obvious choice that people would be able to immediately recognize. Other than a few shots of them going through the training and in the air, there wasn’t all that much to the segment. I guess I should be thankful that they we not doing some commercial for the club instead like their do for Ford on AI year after year.

The guest judge for tonight was Fauziah Ahmad Daud (Ogy) who was a popular actress/singer back in the day. She is still fondly remembered for her frank comments when she was the host of a local entertainment show on TV a few years back so her comments tonight were interesting to hear.

Daniel – “Ooh! La! La!” by KRU from Cinta Metropolitan

For the life of me, I have no idea what possessed Daniel to choose this song out of the hundreds of Malay songs from movies for tonight’s performance. It was a boring song from a third rate movie and it doesn’t do anything to endear him to anyone other than his diehard voters. He sounded more nasal than usual and apparently singing out of his nose the whole time. It was a wheezy performance complete with his trademark orgasmic chipmunk faces that should go well with his clueless fans but would alienate everyone else. He continued mumbling his words and messing the words to the song. It was hilarious to hear him sing “Ku wanita” (I’m a woman) when it was suppose to be “Kau wanita” (You’re a woman) because it brought back flashbacks of “Britney Boy” from the audition show.

Nick’s verdict : 5/10

Nita – “Love Is A Crime” by Anastascia from Chicago

She opened her performance tonight with a fairly good number that allowed her to somewhat showcase her vocal talent. She came in with the right attitude and sufficient sass in her voice to carry the performance. She looked quite focused in her first performance tonight and it showed through her confident delivery of the song. The energy level and intensity was consistent and she looked like she was having fun with the song. There were some weak spots here and there but she managed to cover it well and the genre really seemed to suit her vocals well. This was a confidence building performance that she really needed going into the second round.

Nick’s verdict : 8/10

Farah – “Wajah Rahsia Hati” by Ogy from Ali Setan

Farah was all cheeky and teasing in her performance tonight. Singing a song originally done by the guest judge was always a ballsy thing to do on this show and she really came out to gamble tonight. Vocally it was a centered and solid performance but it was diluted by her prancing around excessively on stage. From past shows, we knew that she tends to lose focus and start roaming the stage when she got nervous and it seemed that was what exactly happened in her first performance tonight. Much like a tease, she built the song up to climax but lacked the punch at the last minute to finish it off strongly. This was not the first time she has done this and I had hoped that she learnt her lesson from the last time and stayed more committed to her performance.

Nick’s verdict : 7/10

At the end of round one, I felt that Nita had the best performance and was followed closely quality-wise by Farah’s performance. Daniel’s was obvious to everyone other than the people who still insist to vote for him to be a distant third place.

Daniel – “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” by Elton John from Lion King

Holy flashback, Batman! Another song from the “Lion King” on songs from movies night done by the last remaining male contestants in the exact same stage of the competition. Did someone on MI sign a contract with Disney to make sure someone sang a song from this movie every year? At this rate I guess that we can hope for a good performance of “Circle of Life” next year.

Daniel sounded better this time around compared to his first performance but it was still a really boring performance. His vocal range was limited to the narrow band between low and mid registers that made the performance sound lethargic and plain. In both performances, it seemed that Daniel was playing it safe and performed mainly to cater to his fanatic fans who would continue to vote for him no matter what. The lack of commitment on his part to deliver well in both performances tonight really irritated me considering that he was picked over much more talented contestants to advance to this stage. On the show a week before the finale, showing such blatant disregard to the expectation of a worthy Top 3 performance would only be taken as an overconfident contestant screaming to be taken down a notch ft not totally taken out of the running.

Nick’s verdict : 5/10

Nita – “Asmaradana” by Tiara Jacquelina from Puteri Gunung Ledang

The audio at the start of the performance drifted in and out on my TV but I think that it was fine in the auditorium for the live audience. Nita delivered the song fairly competently but she missed the opportunity to really made the sing her own. Instead of finding a way to really push the song more towards her style, she chose the easy and safe way by performing it straight from the original playbook. She looked stunning in her dress but she didn’t make full use of it to catch the audience’s attention. She was vocally strong in the song but it didn’t really challenged her in that aspect. She would have been better off doing something that would allowed her to stretch her vocal cords more than this safe song. It was clear that her first song was much better than this one and she really needed to have two outstanding performances on the show tonight to really cement her hold on the finale. By playing it safe with this song, she lost 50% of that certainty and that was 50% too much to lose at this stage.

Nick’s verdict : 7/10

Farah – “All By Myself” by Celine Dion from Bridget Jones’s Diary

One of my favorite morning after breakup songs so I’m reverted to my top down approach to my ranking for the last performance tonight. Farah took a really big risk by doing this Celine Dion cover of such a familiar tune. Doing a Celine Dion on a show such as this really required focus and commitment and Farah has shown before that she could waver and fall apart at the most inopportune moments in her previous performances. Fortunately for her, this was not one of those occasions. She remained solid and committed to her performance and really belted out the song even during the chorus with the long sustained note that should could easily have messed up horrible had she not stay on course with her delivery. It wasn’t the best performance of the song but I really felt that it was sufficient to really show that she would be worthy for a place in the finale. In this instance I felt that her gamble paid off handsomely in this memorable performance.

Nick’s verdict : 8/10

With the last performance, it was clear to me that Farah took this round away from Nita who was still very much ahead quality-wise tonight from Daniel. Overall, I felt that Nita and Farah clearly performed much better than Daniel tonight and both ladies would be more deserving to be in the finale instead of Daniel. However, that would only be a reality if the votes that would be coming in over the weekend managed to shatter Daniel’s horde of tone-deaf supporters determined to worship on the altar that is Daniel. This madness must stop and it would only be stop when people finally realize what a talentless hack he has been and stop sending votes his way. It was painfully apparent in both of his performances tonight that he was not giving the show a finale worthy performance and it was time for him to leave the competition.

Nick’s prediction :

Out this week : Daniel

Property Problems - Part III

It turned out that when I agreed to change the apartment that I had purchased back in 2003, I wasn’t fully advised of what I really needed to do. When I first bought the unit, I selected one on the 21st floor in the middle block of a 22 floor condominium complex. A year into the purchase, I was told that the developers had sold units on floors that they have yet to get approval from the local council. It seemed that there was a floor limit for buildings in the area in that all buildings should not exceed 19 floors excluding underground facilities. Since the unit I bought was on the 21st floor it basically meant that I was screwed.

The developer decided to change the plans and add more units to the approved 19 floors and offer them to unit buyers on the 21st and 22nd floors as replacement. All of the affected unit owners were given the choice to either get back our initial deposit or select a replacement unit in the new floor layout. The unit size and price remained the same but the physical location of the unit was different from the original layout. I decided to take the replacement unit offered instead of getting my deposit refunded like almost 50% of the other buyers of the affected units. So instead of owning a unit on 21st floor of a 22 floor complex, I was now an owner of a unit of the top most floor of a 19 floor complex.

What they didn’t tell me was that a new sales and purchased agreement would have to prepared and provided to the back to replace the original that they held for my housing loan. I never thought to check until two weeks ago when the notice for payment of the first building phase came in the mail and showed that I didn’t have a bank loan amount listed to pay for it. The letter stated that if I failed to pay within 14 days of the date of the letter, I would have to pay 10% p.a. of the stated amount as late charges until the total was paid in full.

I’ve been chasing after the developers, lawyers and bank officers since the notice and it has just been a run around of blame avoidance. It seemed that my new S&P document has been with the lawyers for a year and no one from their offices tried to contact me to collect them. The lawyers were telling me that it was not their fault that no one from their office even bothered to check if the document was signed and collected. The developers told me that it was not their fault that their lawyers were not doing their job. The bank said that their can’t release payment without the new S&P documents. The bank’s lawyers said that it was not their fault that they didn’t follow-up on the new S&P after receiving the letter from the developers advising them of the change to the sales documents. Not only was I screwed but I also had to pay extra to the developers until the bank released payment to the developer.

So this is where things stand now. I’ve sorted out all the paperwork, submitted it to the bank and would have the payment released to the developers within 1 month’s time. For those planning to buy a residence, take heed of what happened to me. No matter what the developers tell you, double check with you lawyers. They just want to make the sale and would say anything to close the deal. I guess I can take solace in the thought that it could be worse if I had to wait much longer and accumulate more late charges before the bank released the payment. It would definitely be better if it never happened at all but then I would have never learnt this life lesson.

Malaysian Idol 02-29, Airdate: 11/09/2005 – Spectaculars #7 Results Show: And He’ll Keep on Rockin’

(Image courtesy of malaysianidol.bluehyppo.com)

Nick’s prediction :

Bottom three: Farah, Faizull & Daniel
Out this week : Faizull

The show opened tonight with the usual dance introductions but what made it more memorable for me tonight was the song that they used for the introduction. It was a really strange mix of Shakira’s “Whenever Wherever” track laid over Bee Gee’s “Saturday Night Fever”. Strangely enough I thought that the mix worked and it was something quite different and nice to listen to distract from the awful dancing on stage.

Different from all the other results show, they decided to bypass the usual judges comment about the last Spectacular shows and called out the contestant to centerstage earlier than usual. The remaining 4 contestants had their comments from last Friday’s show read one by one by the hosts. Immediately after the comments were read, the 4 contestants were split up into 2 groups. Farah and Daniel was in the first group while Nita and Faizull was in the other group. The audience were then told that Nita and Faizull were both in the bottom half of the voting ranks at that point and that the lines were still opened for voters to change the possible outcome of results.

This was definitely very much different than what we were used to on this show. They might as well show us the current percentages to get more people to start voting because this was clear what they expected to happened. I felt that this ploy to get more votes in the last minutes was a little bit too much and blatant for me. They should rethink how something like this would look to the fans of the show the next time they want to do something different on the result show.

Daniel and Farah were then announced as continuing into the next round after the commercial break as they received the most number of votes from the show last Friday. As before the commercial, Faizull and Nita was still in the bottom 2 tonight despite the earlier plea to get more votes for them. The judges were finally acknowledged tonight as they were asked to comment about the bottom two tonight. Roslan felt that it was time that Faizull leave the contest after not being able to adapt to the competition. Jee highlighted the need for the eventual Malaysian Idol to be more versatile. Paul was confused by the bottom two as it seemed to him that the voting trend was that voters were only mobilized to vote to save their favorites only when they perform badly in the spectaculars instead of voting when they performed well.

At the end of the night, they announced that Nita was safe into the Top 3 and Faizull was out after tonight’s show. I’ve already elaborated why I don’t think that Faizull would be continuing onwards in my last entry and I still stand by my assessment. It was a good run for someone who nobody would think could last this long on the show.

Out this week: Faizull
Nick’s prediction success to date : 10/19

Malaysian Idol 02-28, Airdate: 09/09/2005 – Spectaculars #7 : And Then There Were 4

(Image courtesy of malaysianidol.bluehyppo.com)

In line with the “Unplugged” theme on the show tonight, the band was brought out to the centerstage instead of the usual spot in the dark and rightly so because they had really deserve the spotlight after they hard work. One other advantage of having the band on stage was that there would not be any ugly dance number to start off the show tonight but instead the audience would get a nice little group sing off. True enough that the contestants came out singing “Ikhlas Tapi Jauh” on of the better songs that I remembered from Roslan’s RAP production company. I noticed that the ladies were really outshining the men in terms of intensity with the song and this practically was true for the rest of the night.

Jien had his hair down again tonight and even worse had on a really ugly brown jacket that I think he wore before this season. Fortunate for us, Cheryl looked much better tonight so at least we have one half of the hosting team looking fairly decent. They introduced the judges who were joined tonight by a local rock group frontman, Awie from Wings. As in the last Spectaculars, the 4 remaining contestants would have to perform 1 song each in Bahasa Malaysia and English. They would have 2 chances to really give a memorable performance to get their quota of votes this week.

Before the contestants sang their song, the audience were shown clips of their homecoming and their childhood memories. It was kind of cute to see them in their home environments and some of the pictures that got shown were so gush darn cute to see. As filler segments went, I think that this was the really honest one of the group produced in this season.

Daniel – “Heaven Knows” by Rick Price

Singing a song that would easily go well with the legion of fanatics who keep voting for him week after week, I noticed that his diction was better in an English song for once. The song didn’t really challenged his limited vocal range and it hid his weakness well. His problems of swallowing his words as he sang and the mouth breathing came back full force on the stage tonight after being absent in the past few performance. To me it felt like it was a step back for Daniel. He was confident in his performance but it came out as just a boring presentation.

Nick’s verdict : 7/10

Farah – “Dengan Mu” by Neri Per Caso

I have to say that I have never heard of this song before but she started it with real promise by letting loose her brassy voice that have been missed in the competition. Unfortunately as the song progressed, it was apparent that she made a terrible choice choosing this song as it did not allowed her to really exercise her vocals to the fullest potential. There were still some pitching problems here and there but she looked like she was having fun performing the song. She had a good voice but was really let down by a bad song choice.

Nick’s verdict : 6/10

Faizull – “Dalam Kehadiran Sophiah” by Awie

With the off-putting shrieking coming right out of the gate, the old Faizull was back on stage after weeks of trying on different genres. I was looking forward to hearing which English song that he would try this week and was a bit surprised that he chose a Malay song. I had expected that he would sing an English song since Daniel started off the first round with an English song and Farah started the girls off with a Malay song. It was definitely clear that he was back to his comfort zone singing old-school local rock songs but it sounded boring to me. Performance wise he was good but he was fast becoming too much of a novelty act that has run it’s course and now was fast becoming a joke.

Nick’s verdict : 6/10

Nita – “Berhenti Mengharap” by Sheila on 7

After last week’s wonderful performance of “Big Spender”, I was really looking forward to see if she can top her own performance this week. She definitely listened to the judges comments last week and let her vocals soar much more than she has done in a fairly long time on the show. There were still some pitching problems but she could be forgiven for it after a really good performance. The only one problem that I had was that she tended to scrunch up her face like she was doing an impression of Popeye when she tried to hit the hard notes. While it may not be much of a factor when singing in a dark pub, the facial contortions do not favor her on TV. She really does need to be mindful of that particular habit of hers. Other than the funny faces, it was a great song for her and she performed it well.

Nick’s verdict : 8/10

After the first round, I felt that only Nita really delivered a good performance relative to the other 3. There was some promise in Daniel’s performance but his word swallowing tendencies killed his delivery of it. Farah chose the wrong song to start off while Faizull chose the right one for him but it was something that we have seen the derivative of time and time again from him.

Daniel – “Mungkin Nanti” by Peter Pan

Another song definitely targeted squarely to his voting demographics, this song will after tonight’s show be singled out as his worse Malay song performance. After weeks of very commendable performances in Malay, Daniel really dropped the ball with this performance. It was pitchy, mumbly and messy. It did sounded like he tried to change the style of the song to suit his style towards the end but it played more like a bad half-hearted attempt. He was playing it too safe with this song and it came through as a slipshod performance.

Nick’s verdict : 6/10

Farah – “I’ll Be There” by Mariah Carey

It has always been a big gamble to take on a Mariah Carey song on this show and I wished that Farah had kept that lesson in mind when she was choosing which songs to sing. It started well with fairly serviceable mid and lower registers but somewhere about in the middle of the song she lost her focus and the song just fell apart from that point on. She over extended herself at the portion where Mariah would start shrieking up to the rafters in the original version. There was a point in the song that she built up the momentum to hit a really wonderful note but suddenly swerved 180° and gave us another much inferior note instead. In an instant, what could have been a saving performance for her folded like a bad hand of poker.

Nick’s verdict : 6/10


Faizull – “Srikandi Cinta Ku” by Bloodshed

Instead of doing an English song after his Malay performance like the rest of the contestants, Faizull inexplicably chose to do another Malay song. To me this signaled that he was done with even trying to fit into the format of the show. The performance itself might go well for his current fan but I think will leave a bitter taste in others who were voting for his talent. At this point it was clear that he had totally given up on singing in English on the show. The failure on his part to even try to sing an English song tonight would not bode well for him continuing on the show. Faizull has adapted poorly on the show and it was further highlighted in his performances tonight.

Nick’s verdict : 6/10

Nita – “Hand In My Pocket” by Alanis Morissette

As a rule of thumb, if any of the contestants came on stage and sang any of my favorite songs then I would start their rating from top down instead of the usual bottom up scheme that I use with other songs. This song was one of the latter in this case. Alanis Morissette’s album “Jagged Little Pill” was practically the soundtrack to my college years and I have to say that Nita’s performance of this song was passable. She lacked the edge and subtle awareness for the song but she was having fun with the performance and the joy she had while performing it was infectious enough to make watching it enjoyable. I wished that she had chosen a song that would have let her voice soar again to close out the show with a memorable performance but I guess this was all we got instead for this week.

Nick’s verdict : 7/10

Nita still held the clear advantage in the competition to secure a spot in the Top 3 after the second round while the other contestants didn’t really do that well to distinguish themselves in this round.

Looking at the performances tonight, I have to say that my bottom 3 picks would have to be Farah, Daniel & Faizull. The “Unplugged” night was a mixed bag for both Farah & Daniel but really laid bare all of Faizull’s weaknesses on the show. I have to admit that it was getting more painful to see him struggle and fail week after week despite the votes that still kept him in the competition. He was no where near like Bo Bice who despite his musical roots still manage to figure out which songs from each week’s theme that he could take and modify to suit his own unique style. Faizull have never shown the awareness that he understood that this was something that he might have to do on the show.

While the voters this year are not choosing an Idol to compete at the World Idols level, we need to pick one from the remaining contestants who would not let us down if and when they decide to hold the Asian Idol. Although I salute Faizull for being brave to go for his dream, I don’t think that he would be the best person left to be the next Malaysian Idol.

Nick’s prediction :

Bottom three: Farah, Faizull & Daniel
Out this week : Faizull